Chapter 31: Not the Slimes

Zion kept his attention on the new party as they continued deeper into Floor 2.

They had already handled the first slime ambush better than Gareth’s group, and once they understood that some of the slimes were hiding overhead, their progress became noticeably smoother.

The tank started checking the ceiling before leading everyone through narrow passages, while the mage stayed farther back and kept his staff raised whenever they moved beneath low stone.

The black-haired woman seemed to need even less adjustment.

She watched the walls, ceiling, and sulfur vents as she moved, her eyes rarely staying in one place for long. Whenever a slime dropped into their path, she either pinned it down with those strange black chains or stepped close enough to burn through it with the same ghostly fire Zion had seen earlier.

Zion continued watching her much more closely than the others.

The party only made one wrong turn on their way through the floor.

They followed one of the wider passages near the center until it ended inside a small chamber surrounded by yellow mineral formations, and Zion immediately recognized it as one of the possible locations for his Hidden Cache.

Even better, the cache had spawned there.

It sat behind a cluster of sulfur-stained rocks near the back wall, hidden well enough that anyone entering the room would have to actually search instead of simply glancing around.

The tank stepped inside first and swept his eyes over the dead end.

"Nothing here."

The swordsman let out an annoyed breath and turned back toward the hallway. "Waste of time."

The others followed.

Zion watched them leave with growing satisfaction. The cache was supposed to reward people who explored carefully, so wandering into the correct hallway by accident shouldn’t be enough to find it.

The black-haired woman was the last to leave.

She paused near the entrance and glanced back over one shoulder.

Zion followed her with interest.

Her eyes traveled slowly across the mineral formations near the rear wall, lingering just long enough that he wondered if she had noticed something the others missed.

One of her hands lifted slightly from her side.

Did she see it?

Just before she looked like she was about to say something the tank called from farther down the passage.

"Are you coming?"

Her hand paused, then lowered again. She turned away.

Zion followed them out of the chamber.

That was close.

Apparently, she wasn’t only pretty. She paid attention too, at least it seemed like she did. He didn’t know for certain if she had spotted it or not, but the way she acted suggested that she may have seen something worth investigating.

Still, the party corrected their route and eventually found the passage leading toward the boss room. By the time they reached the large stone doors at the end of the sulfur field, however, the mage looked considerably worse than he had when they entered.

His shoulders had lowered, and the glow inside the crystal mounted near the top of his staff had weakened enough that even Zion could see the difference.

He stopped in front of the doors and rolled one shoulder before looking down at his free hand.

"I used too much mana."

The healer turned toward him. "Already?"

"I shouldn’t have. I know my limits." His brows pulled together as he looked back down the hallway. "Those slimes barely take anything to burn."

The black-haired woman stood several steps away with part of her sleeve still covering her nose.

She lowered it slightly before speaking.

"It wasn’t the slimes."

The mage looked toward her.

She nodded toward one of the crystals embedded in the wall beside him. "You stood too close to those almost the entire way here."

His eyes followed her gaze. For a few seconds, he simply stared at the yellow crystal.

"They drain mana?"

"Yes."

His grip tightened around his staff. "You knew?"

She simply looked back at him.

His face darkened. "You knew they were draining my mana and didn’t say anything?"

The tank turned toward her now, and the swordsman shifted his weight as his expression hardened.

"Lilith," the mage snapped. "You could have warned me."

Zion looked at the black-haired woman.

Lilith.

So that was her name. He liked it...a lot.

Lilith lowered her sleeve completely and folded her arms. "You told me to keep my mouth shut when we entered the dungeon."

The mage stared at her, his jaw tightening.

She lifted one shoulder. "So I did."

Zion almost laughed.

"That’s different."

"You were very clear."

"I meant stop making comments about everything you see."

"And I stopped."

The swordsman frowned. "You could have at least mentioned the mana traps."

Lilith turned her head toward him and raised one eyebrow.

"Yeah, I could have."

Zion liked her even more.

He shifted his attention back through the route they had taken and realized she had been avoiding the crystals for most of the floor.

She hadn’t managed to stay outside their range completely, especially in the narrower passages, but she consistently walked closer to the center than the others and moved quickly whenever the walls forced her nearer to them.

She noticed the traps.

That was not good.

The mana crystals were supposed to punish casters who moved slowly through the floor, especially once the slimes encouraged them to keep spending mana on fire. If someone could identify the drain early and simply stay farther from the walls, a large part of that pressure disappeared.

Zion should have been annoyed. Instead, he found himself impressed. She had figured out his trap without needing to lose most of her mana first.

The mage continued complaining under his breath while Lilith held his stare for another second. Her mouth remained set in the same flat line, but when she finally looked away, her fingers curled around the edge of one sleeve.

The irritation in her eyes disappeared with it. For only a moment, they looked empty. Then she lowered her hand and turned toward the boss doors.

For an unknown reason, Zion no longer found the argument amusing. Something felt wrong.