When the five of them stepped through the dungeon exit the forest floor of number twelve opened up into an expansive grassland and hills for the novices to traverse on floor thirteen. Off in the distance slimes of a few different sizes and colors drifted across the plains.

“Any suggestions for this floor?” Derek asked James.

“Not this time. All I will say is try not to get overwhelmed and surrounded. This area does have a few traps but usually, just pitfalls. I can explain some more once you’ve experienced a bit more of this floor, but I have been helping you guys out more often than usual.”

“I’ve already dealt with these creatures before in other dungeons and in the wild. They burn very easily. Just avoid getting hit. Wes, you are with me on this floor. I need your shield.”

“And what happens when you run out of mana? How much do you have left after burning down the forest? Half? A quarter?”

“What does it matter to you? Just find the traps and make sure we don’t get near them. It is not like your arrows will do much to these slimes anyway. And if you do attack them they will just split and become more difficult to deal with.”

“If it doesn’t matter then I’ll just let you handle it.”

Naomi turned and searched for the least populated slime area before using her moving skills to get away from their current hill.

The other three gathered up with Wes at their front and Derek watching the back. Ian directed them and pushed Wes ahead as they walked up and down the grassy hills in a similar direction as Naomi.

When the first group of slimes attacked them, and for the other groups that would come later, Ian kept himself behind Wes as he occasionally fired attacks. Derek was responsible for making sure they weren’t overwhelmed from the sides. In a set of moves that weren’t conducive to improving his skill, Derek found that using the side of his blade instead of the blade directly allowed him to more easily smash and therefore kill the slimes faster. While this was happening, Wes was occasionally pulled by the collar to protect Ian as the slimes tried to push their way ineffectively past the shield. At a few points, he was lucky however, and got the slime under his shield and smashed it to goo.

James breathed heavily as he chased Naomi. The other novices were far behind him and had recently left his perception. She had run around the slimes almost as easy as he. Because of her speed, they could never group up on her, so she made it around the floor without much issue.

‘The others should be fine on their own as long as they stay together. While it’s a valid tactic to split up if something happens to her I’m pulling the plug.’

Naomi darted around the floor in a zig-zag fashion as she searched around. It became pretty clear to James that she would camp out at the boss slime and wait for the others to arrive. Naomi slowed as she saw the floor boss.

In the distance was a giant slime that stood three people tall. Out of what could be described as a mouth it occasionally released regular-sized slimes. Behind the boss were the floor gates. One for an exit to the outside world was active and on but the one next to it led nowhere. It could only be powered on once the boss was killed.

Since Naomi had stopped and waited for slimes nearest the boss and those that had drifted from it started to notice her, but the boss did not approach her. As they got close she was forced to move around occasionally and ultimately pull out her weapon.

The arrows consistently hit the slow-moving slimes causing them to split and shrink in size. This resulted in a swarm of small but numerous slimes following her around. After a minute all of the slimes were split into their smallest possible form. Now as she shot her arrows they passed through the slimes. The arrows formed single holes that the slimes undid shortly after. Only in a few cases did she fire off enough arrows to dissolve the slime completely but that meant allowing other slimes to swarm her. Naomi was so busy with the slimes that she didn’t realize that James had gotten so close.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Blunt force or magic is the best for dealing with them, but we obviously can’t do much of that as an archer.”

“What?” said Naomi. She spun around just now realizing that James had been watching her.

“They are one of the more tricky monsters for us to deal with, but they are not invincible. Watch your left by the way.”

Naomi looked over and jumped to the right to avoid the slimes.”

“Thanks.”

James nodded and continued his lecture.

“Stronger archers have access to more magic allowing them to do more than summoning arrows but that is not the case for you or me. Instead, you have to take a different approach and be patient. Watch.”

James jumped back and reached for his quiver. After a few seconds, there were three in his hand instead of one. Pulling back his bow string he knocked the three and fired it at the nearest slime. It exploded into multiple pieces but did not reform. A glint of realization appeared in Naomi’s eyes. She quickly followed the same steps and killed a few slimes allowing her some more room to more around.

“Thanks, you for the advice,” she murmured.

“I’m just doing my job. Be careful around here and don’t go more than a quarter of the way down the hill or else the boss will enter its state of alertness. And in the future do not rush over to the boss area no matter how mad or confident you are in getting there. Sticking with your team and helping them out is an important part of dungeon delving. With some luck, the others should be here soon, but I should check on them.”

James fired a few arrows clearing himself a path in the process. From there he activated his own movement skills and ran off in the direction of burning grass.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the floor, the others were exhausting their power killing slimes.

“Take over for me. I am drained and need to rest naturally. I already burned through a mana potion and can’t let myself go through another one.”

Ian took a step back and found a spot with no slimes. This group they were clearing was their fourth so far. In response to Ian’s comments, Derek continued his slaughter of slimes but moved up to get closer to Wes. Their group continued onward with Ian trailing behind to not be attacked when he noticed something was off.

A moment later the ground shifted beneath him, and he fell into one of the dungeon’s pits. He let out a scream and the others heard him. They turned around to see some of the slimes dragging themselves towards the pit intent on drowning him in their slime.

“Help! My leg and arm got fucked up in the fall a bit. You need to get me out of here.”

“Give us a minute,” Derek responded.

With Wes slowing the slimes following them to the pit Derek cleared a safe path to the pit and inspected the situation. The dirt walls were completely smooth preventing easy climbing and the walls were wide enough apart that you could not touch opposite sides at once.

“Wes get in there. You are lighter and can lift Ian up. The two of us will clear the area and pull you up when it is safe. Ok?”

“Wha-“

Wes barely had time to respond before he was pushed into the pit to join Ian. Derek turned away from the pit and prepared to clean up the rest of the slimes.

“Help me up will you?”

It took Wes another minute to get Ian out of the hole. It involved a few attempts of getting Ian on Wes’s back and then shoulders before Ian could grab a good hand hold and crawl his way out.

As soon as he was out Ian downed half a health potion before checking on Derek. Derek was almost done killing all of the nearby slimes but with Ian’s help clobbering them with his staff, it went by quicker.

To pull Wes out of the hole the first thing they did was take his shield before grabbing hold of Wes. Derek was the only one putting any weight into the pull. Ian was just there for moral support. As Wes was brushing off and adjusting his armor James crested over the nearby hill.

“Have a little adventure did we?” James asked.

“Maybe?” Derek said.

The others just shrugged.

“The portal and boss are this way if you want to follow me.”

James led the four of them around groups of slimes in order to avoid conflict. While he knew he should do this often he felt this floor had dragged on for too long and that they needed to kill the boss monster. After a roundabout trip almost twice as long as it should have been they saw Naomi waiting for them on the top of a hill.

“Hey, Naomi! Why did you run off like a coward back there? You left us to wade through the slimes to catch up and we had to deal with the pitfall traps alone.”

“Fall in did you?” Naomi responded. It only took one glance to see that his nice mage robes had patches of new grass stains on them.

“Then how many slimes did you kill with that bow of yours.”

“More than you. How many potions did he waste this time?”

“Only one,” Derek responded.

“I would have thought he would have done another one and a half like the last floor. Still waiting to polish off that bottle later then?”

“Can you finish your bickering on the next floor? We’ve got a boss to kill, and I don’t like to keep my sword or James waiting.”

“I think my mana is recharged enough by now. Let’s have a go at it shall we.”