Chapter 49: Slime Caverns

The Slime Caverns were exactly what the name suggested.

A network of tunnels carved through ancient rock. The walls glistened with moisture. The floor was slick with a thin layer of slime—not enough to slip, but enough to feel wrong beneath his boots. The air was damp and cool, carrying a faint, acrid smell.

Emeric moved carefully, his cloak muffling his footsteps. His daggers were in his hands, loose and ready.

The first chamber was small, housing a single blue slime sat in the corner. As soon as he entered, it spotted him or sensed him. However they did that.

It was the size of a large melon. Its body was a gelatinous, semi-transparent blob. It jumped in what felt like a starting move, making a dash for him.

Emeric didn’t wait to see what came next. He crossed the distance in three quick strides, his dagger enhancing his speed by +7%.

The slime launched a jet of water. A pressurized burst of water, sharp enough to cut whatever it came in contact with. He sidestepped. The jet splashed against the wall behind him, carving a thin groove in the stone.

He drove his dagger into the slime’s core.

Okay, so an elemental slime from the start was terrible enough.

The blade sank deep and the slime bubbled in his hands. Its body liquefied, seeping into the ground. A small, glowing sphere remained.

He picked it up and stored it in his inventory. The space for storage had grown in the last week. He didn’t recall the last time he saw a limit on the amount of things he could store.

One down.

He moved on.

The second chamber held three slimes.

Two blue and a green one.

The blue ones attacked first—twin jets of water arcing toward him from different angles. Emeric ducked under the first, rolled past the second, and came up between them.

His daggers flashed to his hands and in two quick strikes, he took them both down.

The green one—a wind type—launched a crescent of compressed air. Emeric twisted. The blade grazed his shoulder, tearing fabric but not flesh.

He threw one dagger. It spun through the air and embedded itself in the slime’s core.

The creature dissolved.

He retrieved his dagger and stored the cores. The guild paid in cores and remains of creatures. He was definitely not getting any remains from the slimes.

Four down.

The third chamber was larger than the other ones. A swarm of slimes were scattered all across the cave.

He could see a mixture of different types. Brown. Blue. Red. Green. Another brown and several normal slime scattered around the chamber.

They attacked together.

Earth spikes erupted from the floor. Emeric leaped. A fireball exploded where he’d been standing. He twisted mid-air, using Wind to push himself sideways. A water jet sliced past his ear, on his way down, a wind blade nicked his calf.

He landed into a roll, bouncing right up with a swing.

The first brown slime was down. The next one raised a small wall of stone equivalent to its size. Emeric didn’t slow down. He channeled Lightning into his legs and moved.

The world blurred. He appeared behind the slime. His dagger found its core.

It dissolved.

The others fell the same way, one by one. The red one launched a volley of small fireballs. Emeric dodged left, right, left. He closed the distance. Drove his blade into its center.

They were more weary of him now.

He was getting closed in but this was not beyond his abilities.

Emeric didn’t give them time.

He threw both daggers. They spun through the air—one finding a blue core, the other finding the green. Both slimes dissolved. He recalled the dagger and did the same thing, treating it like a boomerang.

The last blue slime panicked. It launched a wild jet of water. Emeric sidestepped. Grabbed his daggers. Finished it.

He was breathing hard. His calf stung. His shoulder ached.

But he was alive.

He pressed on.

The fourth chamber.

The fifth.

The sixth.

Each one was harder than the last. The slimes grew larger. Faster. Smarter. They coordinated and became more intelligent as he went on. They learned his patterns and adapted.

By the tenth chamber, Emeric had killed somewhere between sixty or sixty five slimes. Some were elemental slime and others were just normal slime.

He collected the core into the inventory.

His body was battered. Cuts across his arms. A deep bruise on his ribs. His mana was running low.

His regen skill was active but it wasn’t healing as fast as he was getting injured. But he kept going.

He had to.

The eleventh chamber was different.

It was a massive cavern with high ceilings and walls of glittering crystal. The floor was a pool of shimmering liquid—not water, but something thicker. Slime. It rippled as he stepped inside.

In the center of the pool, something was there.

A slime in the liquid. But it wasn’t like the others.

It was huge. Twice his height. Its gelatinous body shifted between colors—brown, blue, red, green—rotating in a hypnotic pattern. Dozens of smaller slimes surrounded it. A court of elemental guards.

The Slime King was asleep.

Emeric materialized his daggers, ready to take this monster on when he heard a loud noise behind him.

It started as a low deep rumbling that came from the area he had just come from.

Then rocks began to fall at the entrance of the chamber.

His blood went cold.

He looked up. The ceiling was collapsing. Rocks and debris raining down. Within a few seconds, he was closed off from the outside world. The entrance had been sealed, making the chamber a tomb.

He heard laughter, echoing through the walls of the cave.

This was no accident. Someone had done this on purpose. What was their end game?

He couldn’t see them. But he knew it had to do with the feeling he had gotten before setting out for the rift.

He was so stupid. He should have been more careful.