It did not take long to decide that camping in the cold was not a great situation.
They had been able to construct a roaring fire to warm them, but the tents could only be so close without lighting on fire. Finding a spot that wasn’t completely buried in snow, and that was still close enough to the mine, had also been difficult. Natalie had graciously cleared a spot using the Flame-tongued Song, but it had still left plenty of damp in the place at first. The chill wind and the clouds that threatened snow weren’t exactly comforting, either.
Fortunately, they had still had more than enough strength to set about taking care of the camp. Tents were set up, bedrolls and heavy blankets spread out, and firewood was gathered. Only a few small ironslimes poked their heads out at a handful of points, earning themselves a brutal eradication, but aside from that, the rest of the day had been filled with simple, straightforward chores.
By the end of it, Clay had been mostly exhausted, though he’d done his best to help prepare the meal they made from the rations they’d brought from Rodcliff. The town hadn’t had the most appetizing of food, but it still made a decent soup and bread to go along with it. At the very least, the heat of it chased away some of the cold.
He’d poked at the fire a little while the others finished their food—he had wolfed down his portion with all the table manners and grace of a hungry boar, in a way that his mother would have lectured him about later—and thought about the plan for their start the next day.
When the others had finished, he looked around at them. “Well done today. We’ve accomplished at least half of our mission here, and we only have one more Lair to go. It’s going to be harder going forward, though. I’m assuming that the giant ironslimes are far more dangerous than the horrors were, and we’ll need to be ready for that.”
Jack nodded, using his own stick to tease the fire a little. “So some of us will need to stay close to the mine entrance and the camp, while the others assault the mine itself. Like we did with the ridge, right?”
Xavien shifted slightly on the log he was using for a seat. “A good enough plan. This time it might be even simpler, since we don’t need to spend much time hunting down the smaller monsters.”
“They were getting pretty thin on the ground—and now they can only come from one place.” Anne grinned. “So. Who wants to go into the mine with Clay first? I don’t mind the early shift.”
Natalie rolled her eyes. “Of course, the [Burglar] wants to be up before the sun. I can take the midday shift if you like.”
Lawrence grunted. “Dice for it? I always like to eat an early lunch and get my work in after.”
“Wait, wait.” Clay held up a hand. “What are you talking about?”
They all looked at him with various amounts of surprise. Then Natalie answered him. “Well, we want to hit as many of the slimes as we can, right? As quickly as possible, to keep them from trying to rush our camp or the town.”
“Especially if they are about to make a bunch of new ones.” Jack poked the fire again, and a half-burnt log collapsed in a shower of embers. “The last thing we need is to get delayed by a couple hundred of small slimes.”
The [Alchemist] continued as if she hadn’t been interrupted. “So that means you’re going to need to spend even more time fighting than you did the last time you went into the mines. It also means you’ll need to kill more quickly than you could last time.”
“Which means there is no way we’re going to let you do it alone.” Lawrence smiled. “One of us will go with you at a time, either to act as backup or as a decoy. We’ll help you for a couple of hours at a time and make sure you get back to camp for a brief rest before you go again.”
Anne leaned forward, her expression oddly serious. “We can even start a little earlier, since we aren’t exactly going to be relying on light, anyway. By the end of tomorrow, we might be able to kill all ten that we need to get your [Achievement] reinforced. Maybe even more than that, if they are grouped up together somewhere.” Then she laughed. “It’ll be fun!”
“It will be effective.” Natalie gave the [Burglar] a stern look, though she softened it a moment later with a grin. “We are all level six now, even if we haven’t had the chance to develop our [Stats] completely. The extra [Charms] and [Feats] could easily make the difference, especially since your [Experiences] will empower both of us during the journey.”
“The rest of us will stay at the entrance each time, ready to come help you should you need it, or to keep the slimes contained.” Xavien looked around, and they all nodded. “Do you have any objections, Sir Clay?”
Clay opened his mouth, ready to protest. He’d need to look after them in the mines, after all, and he wasn’t entirely sure that he’d get as much out of it as they were thinking. Even with their help, the giant ironslimes were supposed to be something like a rank eight or so. He was two levels above that now; did they really think he needed their help?
Then his muscles twinged, and his exhaustion dragged at him. Clay sighed. He let his shoulders slump. “No. You’re right. I’ll need all the help I can get.” Then he looked up. “But if we run into something, and I tell you to run, you run. Don’t look back, don’t wait for me. You get to the others, and you hold out against whatever comes. Understand?”
They all nodded. He could tell they were all lying, but at least they weren’t being open about their defiance. Clay sighed inwardly and wondered if he hadn’t done too good of a job convincing them to make their own choices.
Still, if he hadn’t, they’d all have probably been long dead by now. Hopefully, they’d all survive this time as well.
The air was crisp as he and Jack set out for the cave that morning.
At first, he’d thought that Anne would be the one to start the assault with him, but the [Knave] had persuaded the others that he would be a more observant partner for the initial run. Eventually, even Anne had agreed, and Jack had settled back onto his log with a satisfied smirk.
Now, however, Jack was simply following after him, his eyes alert for any signs of danger. The [Knave] had agreed to be the one with the torch—at least for the first part of their time together—and he was peering ahead with a slightly worried expression as they made their way further in.
Clay stretched out with his ethereal senses, hoping to find signs of their enemies. Nothing returned to him—at least not yet. He sighed. “So, are you regretting the early morning yet, Sir Jack?”
Jack snorted. “I’ve had earlier mornings, Sir Clay. You poor farmers aren’t the only ones with business before the sun rises.” Something dripped from an overhead beam, and he winced. “Though I’ll admit the cold was unpleasant.”
He gave the [Knave] a skeptical look. “Do you want to tell me why you’re down here first, then? Not just to report back to the others first, because I think Lawrence or Natalie might have been just as good a choice.”
To his surprise, Jack nodded quietly. “Yeah, they might be. They’d probably agree with you.” Then he paused, looking around for a moment. “Those past two levels were the first time we all got different [Experiences]. Did you know that?”
Clay paused. He shook his head. “No. What did you end up getting?”
“[Ambusher] and [Smallmage].” He cracked a brief smile. “I guess I put a bit too much effort into using those fool [Chants] you gave us. Now, even without much [Memory], I might have to put even more effort into using them.”
He winced. It must have been frustrating. “Sorry about that.”
“Oh, don’t be. I doubt many of my opponents will be expecting much magic from me. It’ll make the looks on their faces that much sweeter.” Jack looked over the closest mine cart, as if expecting a slime to emerge from it. “Besides, it wasn’t just [Experiences]. I got [Sudden Strike] and [Vanguard Stance] as well, so I’ll be even better leaping into trouble.”
Clay grunted, picturing the man flinging himself even more eagerly into danger. “Great.”
Jack laughed. “Oh, come on, I try to be smart about it. As smart as you can expect from me, at least.”
He tried to ignore the implications there. “So why come with me now?”
“If they break off our little group to send us on our own missions, we’re going to need someone who can act as a scout. Someone who can do what you’ve been doing.” Jack shrugged. “That means I’m going to need to learn how to move to stay quiet. How to look at things the way you do.”
“Oh.” It made sense, unfortunately. He looked back along the tunnel, where his senses had just started to warn him that something was headed their way. “The problem with that is I’m using some other abilities to help me. Something you’re not going to be able to develop until well after level thirteen.”
Jack blinked. “Well, at the very least I can try to practice a little, right?”
“Yeah.” The danger from his ethereal senses was climbing rapidly. “First, though, get ready. I think we might have our first monster of the day.”
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The [Knave] nodded and fell back, the light from the torch still flickering. Clay carefully stepped out of the direct line of sight to Jack, trying to keep his own shadow from interfering with things. He searched the rock ahead of them, looking for signs of movement. As he did so, he began to recite the Orison, hoping it would give him some idea of what they’d be fighting.
For a long moment, he didn’t see anything. Then he realized that there was a glimmering bulk of wet flesh clustered on the ceiling. His heart caught in his throat as he recognized the sheer size of the thing; it could easily have swallowed a large ironslime whole without trying too hard. A single person would vanish without a problem.
The Orison completed a moment later, and confirmed that he had found what they were looking for.
[Giant Ironslime]
[Rank: 8, Type: Slime, Status: Vassal of Second Lost Mine Lair]
[Type Kills: 0, Deaths Caused: 7]
[Instincts: Patroller, Poisoner, Converter]
Clay frowned and backed up a step. He wasn’t entirely sure what a Converter was, but it didn’t sound good. “This thing’s got poison too. It wasn’t waiting in ambush, so it probably came looking for us.”
“Which means it will chase us if we run.” Jack raised his torch a little higher, and the slime retreated a little. “It also means we might be able to set an ambush for the next one.”
“Yeah. That’s important to know.” Clay watched as the surface of the slime seemed to flex and bend. “It’s important to watch how it moves for that to work. Also, how it responds to attacks, and almost as important as anything else, how it—”
As if to prove Clay’s point, the slime flexed and clenched, and a sudden burst of projectiles sprayed out of it. Clay jumped backwards in alarm as a rain of stone daggers pelted the tunnel. He felt three of them bounce off of the plates in his armor; another rang off of his helmet. The impacts stung a little, but at least Orn had done a good job of convincing him of the benefits of having protection.
Fortunately, Jack had not been the focus of the slime’s attack. He’d retreated, though not as quickly, and was watching the slime far more warily. “Let me guess. How it attacks?”
“You got it.” Clay felt a flicker of grim humor as he stepped forward again. He watched the shape of the thing warily, anticipating another attack.
The slime had advanced a little, though it stayed at the edge of the light cast by the torch. He frowned at it for a moment. “Doesn’t seem to like the light, does it?”
“Nope.” Jack had started to move from side to side, still watching the thing just as carefully. He clearly didn’t want to be hit by the next spray.
Clay grinned. “What does that mean to you?”
The [Knave] chuckled. “That it’s just as ugly as I expected it to be?”
He was about to respond when the slime abruptly contracted again, this time in a different way. Clay tensed, anticipating a new threat, and was rewarded exactly as he’d expected. Instead of a broad spray of rock daggers, this time three long spears of stone shot towards him, sharp enough to cut through metal and moving so fast it would have been hard to track.
Clay had been waiting for them, though. He stepped to one side to let one pass. Another he used his spear to deflect off course and then smashed the third into a nearby wall with the already battered bracer for his off hand. The projectiles clattered to the ground, and Clay let his grin grow a little wider. “Those were pretty good shots. Now, what has all that told you, Jack?”
The [Knave] swallowed a little. He clearly wasn’t as confident he could have blocked or dodged the attack if it had been aimed his way. “It changes attacks if its first try doesn’t work.”
“True. Which means it’s coming up with something new as we speak.” Clay nodded to himself as the blob shifted slightly. “What else?”
Jack grimaced. “You have to watch it for incoming attacks, or you’re going to get hit? It doesn’t just attack blindly.”
Clay nodded again. “Yeah. There’s a key word there. Remember how the big slimes relied on smell?”
“Yeah?”
“How does this one aim? And how does it know how to stay out of the light?” Clay waited until the [Knave] grunted in realization. “If we’d been using some kind of scent to conceal ourselves, or had stopped using Soul’s Shadow because it seemed useless, we wouldn’t be as effective against these enemies. It can see us as well as smell us.”
“And if it can see, it can be blinded or tricked.” Jack nodded slowly. “That’s… actually really important. Might be why it hasn’t tried to douse the light, too.”
“I agree.” The slime started to hunch up on itself again, and Clay felt a sudden certainty about something. “Though you shouldn’t rely on that. Get behind me.”
Jack obeyed without question, just in time. Another spray of stone tracked the [Knave] as he moved, as the slime apparently gave up on the harder prey for the moment. Clay’s spear blurred in his hands as he knocked stone daggers and spears aside. He took a handful more hits on his armor, but none of them pierced. One did stick in the fabric over his heart, but it failed to squeeze between two plates.
At that point, Clay decided that the time for the lesson was over.
He shifted his grip on the spear. “All right. We aren’t getting anywhere standing here, so we need to advance. Stay close to me. It’ll probably change what it does once we get in close. Especially once it is in the light.”
Jack murmured his agreement, and Clay charged. The slime began to recoil as the firelight washed over its bulk, but it didn’t move fast enough. As light washed across it, Clay saw bits of the ceiling being torn from the rock above, dissolving and reforming inside of it. He immediately abandoned any plan he might have had to use Canticle of Ice on the thing; what if it simply absorbed and redirected the spears?
Instead, he started the [Chant] of the Flame-tongued Song. If it was just as flammable as the lower ironslimes, then he’d risk the chance of a vicious explosion to end the fight. He could afford to be a bit more experimental once he was the one laying an ambush.
It was bigger than he’d expected, even with the name. The slime was coiled along the roof for nearly the length of a house, and it was ripping off chunks of stone all along the surface it touched. What attack was it planning next?
He sprinted forward, leaving Jack behind as he prepared to jump and strike. A quick slash would open it up and give the Flame-tongued Song something to set alight. All he needed to do was avoid some tendrils like what the big slimes used, and he’d be fine.
Clay leaped, his spear drawn back over his head. He had just started to bring it forward in a single sweeping arc when he saw the slime begin to flex and clench again.
It was at that point that he realized the thing maybe didn’t need to shoot its creations at him.
A gigantic blade of sharpened stone shot out of the slime, something he barely avoided by turning his swing into a desperate block. The blow knocked him out of the air, sending him tumbling back towards the tunnel floor. His [Chant] fell away too; the hit had been hard enough to break his concentration.
Clay pivoted and struck the floor with the weighted end of his spear, using it to change his trajectory slightly. His reward was for the next blade—slightly longer and thinner, like a giant’s rapier—to scrape along his armor instead of impaling him. He knocked the third narrow blade aside with the haft of his spear and snarled up at the enemy.
It hadn’t just been the blade. Plates of stone had formed over the slime’s skin like armor, though they were now flaking away as the slime continued to flex and move. Chips of stone rained down on him as he stared up at the thing; the blades it had pushed out at him wavered and started to withdraw back into the slime itself; the stone began to dissolve at the base.
He made a quick decision. “Sometimes you have to be able to think on your feet. Things almost never go how you’d expect.”
Clay rushed forward, trying not to feel proud of how calm and even his voice still was. His spear lashed out in three sharp blows, shattering the stone blades and dropping the fragments to the ground. He didn’t know how quickly the ironslime could replenish its reserves, but he wasn’t going to let it have anything for free.
“So whatever expectations the monster has, don’t give it the chance to force you into doing what it wants. If it wants a running target, find a way to stay still. If it expects you to hide, attack. If it wants you to be paralyzed, move.” Clay looked up at the monster and smiled at it. “Because at the end of the day, if we want the others to be safe, it needs to die, and you need to go home. Got it?”
The slime clenched again, and Clay felt his smile grow. He dodged another thin blade and broke it. A second lashed out, and he snapped it like a stick. “So watch what you can, learn every one of its tricks, and use them against it. Nothing else matters.”
“I hear you, Sir Clay.” The [Knave]’s voice sounded somewhat subdued, but Clay couldn’t spare him a glance now. The blades were coming faster and faster now, even as he kept snapping them. He fell into a kind of rhythm as he smashed them, his eyes fixed on his target. If he could keep the thing focused on him, it wouldn’t go after Jack. All he needed was an opening, and maybe he could finish it.
Then, almost on a whim, he started the [Chant] for the Drums of the Earth. It was probably a risky spell to use so far underground, but he wasn’t planning on making any craters today. He just wanted to shake a bit of the ironslime loose, and see how that affected it.
The [Chant] seemed to come together easily, a fact that he attributed to the comparison between speaking it and the effort to break the slime’s weapons. When it activated, Clay used it to shake the ceiling of the tunnel where the slime was clinging, cracking the roof slightly where it clung to the rock.
To his surprise, the reaction was immediate. The back half of the slime dropped away from the roof, tumbling away as if it had just lost traction. It clenched in apparent panic, shooting out a series of stone stilts to support itself before it could hit the ground. For a heartbeat, the onslaught of spears and blades came to a pause.
Clay launched himself at the slime, aiming for the section that stretched between the part attached to the ceiling and the part on its improvised stilts. Rocklike armor started to form, but his speartip smashed straight through it and carved a thick cut in the rubbery flesh beneath. A noxious gush of fluid spilled out in a way, soaking his legs. Fumes filled the air, and Clay forced himself to hold his breath instead of sucking in a lungful of poison.
Stepping forward, Clay swung the spear again, cutting deeper into the wound. Another slice slashed deeper, another deeper still. He could see the slime fighting to heal itself, but the continued attacks were cutting deeper than it could heal. The tension between the two separate parts made each slash that much more devastating, as the thing’s own weight forced the gashes wider. More and more fluid washed out onto the stone below, and Clay smirked a little as he continued the assault. Deeper and deeper he cut, until he abruptly saw a glimpse of something familiar, the slime’s core. With one final lunge, he put the tip of his spear straight through that wobbling orb.
It cracked and a new dark fluid flooded the innards of the beast. Clay felt his eyes widen as it started to spark and fizz. The monster had one last surprise for him, it seemed.
He turned and ran, heading as fast as he could for the spot where Jack waited, the torch still flickering in his hands. Clay nearly made the mistake of opening his mouth to yell; it would have given him the unenviable chance to breathe the poison soaked into his clothes. Fortunately, Jack seemed to read the panic on Clay’s face, and he backpedaled back down the tunnel, even as the creature collapsed into itself.
Then it exploded in a shower of poison.
The force of it knocked him into Jack, tumbling them both to the ground. He heard Jack choking out the words for Pure Touch, despite the harsh air he’d brought with him. Clay felt a brief moment of gratitude before the [Chant] purged the coating of poison that had splashed over them. Finally able to breathe, he sucked in a lungful of the stale, mine air, and coughed a little. There were still far too many fumes in the air, though he was able to force himself back up without being driven to his knees.
In the meantime, the [Gift] had displayed several notifications.
{Giant Ironslime slain! Soul increases by 80.}
{Might increases by 1! Fortitude increases by 1!}
When they had finished coughing, Clay looked at Jack and grinned. “Well, that was one. Should we try to figure out how to do that a bit easier?”
Jack gave him an incredulous look and then started to laugh. “Sure. Why not? Might even try for one myself if we get the chance.”
Clay let himself laugh along with the [Knave], and a few moments later, they set off down the tunnel again. They left the fragments of the exploded monster behind and forged their way deeper into the dark.