“Ask the Gods, kid, not me!” A tall Adventurer on duty outside the slime dungeon said after Karsten had asked how the monsters respawn so quickly after each raid.
Dressed in dark gray hazmat suits, the Overkill party stood next in line outside the B3 slime dungeon outside the city, Hemistos’ Bath.
Compared to the two previous dungeons Karsten had been in, the entrance of Hemistos’ Bath was more what Karsten imagined a dungeon entrance to be like. It was a hole in the ground, large enough for five Maleks to be lowered in at the same time, and covering the sides was a light blue mucus that smelled like a mix of chemical warfare if it had a smell, and what Karsten imagined dead people smelled like. The vertical entrance reached down farther than the eye could see, and the Adventurers had prepared ropes to lower them with.
Karsten had proposed a different idea to the group, though.
To jump.
Karsten had had the Feather Fall Spell since the beginning, but he had never had the opportunity to use it. This saddened the Isekai enthusiast, as he’d always wanted to jump from mountains and from the tops of buildings and land dramatically without taking any damage.
Now, however, he has been blessed with a long, vertical shaft - one perfect for jumping down.
The rest of the party had agreed that it was the most efficient method, and readily agreed.
Karsten was truly grateful that he was now living in a world where things like this was normal. He even felt a bit moved.
When the party had arrived here at the crack of dawn, there had been a team of Adventurers already inside. They had currently been standing in line for half the day, and more and more people started crowding around the entrance, waiting outside the dungeon as the day went on.
At first, Karsten had thought they were standing in line to enter, but when he noticed the amount of people not in any type of Adventuring gear, the realization dawned on him.
These people were watching the Adventurers that entered and exited as if they were watching a show. Many even brought chairs, and many held huge mugs of ale and mead. Karsten even saw many carrying extra mugs, yet weren’t drinking from them when the mug they were holding was emptied.
‘Wonder what those are for.’
They didn’t seem to find it frustrating that the team currently inside was taking so long, either.
As the hours trickled by, Karsten wondered if the party was even going to return at all.
Finally, after waiting until early evening, they heard some distant echoes coming from the shaft.
The sound was muffled, and barely audible, yet it reverberated through the dungeon down below.
As the sources of the noise grew closer, the words - no, screams became more and more legible.
“-inky!”
‘...inky?’
The people that were closest to the hole leaned in closer, perking their ears to hear what the Adventurers were yelling.
“-inky! PINKY!! PINKY!!!”
Every seated person shot to the air as the screams of the Adventurers echoed from the dungeon below.
“Pinky!?”
“Ballux’ grave, run!”
The expressions of the Adventurers on guard duty turned grave.
The tall man Karsten had talked to earlier in the day yelled at the people present.
“Everyone evacuate! Get out- Otis!! That includes you! What do you mean it doesn’t?! Otis, you’re level 2! You think you can survive a Pinky? You do? Well, good bloody luck not melting to death!!”
As the tall Adventurer ushered everyone except Barry and Karstens party out of the premises, the other three Adventurers on duty hurriedly lowered ropes into the shaft to pull up the delving party.
As the party was in the process of being lifted to the surface, Karsten and his party looked on worriedly.
“Do you think we should help?” Haressy asked.
Karsten nodded. “Absolutely.”
“Do you even know what a Pinky is?” Henry asked.
“Well… No? But if I know my Terraria lore. It's a small, pink slime, right?”
“It is… How the hell did you know that? Do they have them in your- where you’re from?”
“Oh, no, of course not. It’s from a popular scripture where I’m from. Anyway, I think we should-”
“Hey!” Before Karsten could finish his sentence, the tall Adventurer approached him and his party.
“What’re you guys’ levels?”
“I’m a Fighter, level 4, same with the Bard, the Druid and Monk are both at level 5.” Henry answered, not wasting any of the guards time.
“Great! Does anyone of you know the Feather Fall spell?”
“I do.”
“Great! Then GO!” Saying so, the Adventurer guard started herding the party hurriedly towards the dungeon entrance. “You’re all higher leveled than us guards, so you’d better play your part! You wanted to enter the dungeon, right? Now’s your chance!”
“Ah, are you sure we’re the right-”
“Go!”
“Uh…” Haressy looked at her fellow party members. “So, jump on three?”
Henry sighed, Karsten shrugged and Malek tightened his fists, looking at the Adventurers that had just reached the top of the shaft.
The rest of Overkill followed his gaze, and all tensed.
The first bloody Adventurer grabbed at the edge of the tunnel, his arm a bloody mess. His other arm was gone, the stump was only a mix of melted muscle, blood and bone. His Hazmat suit was in tatters, every place there was an opening there oozed out blood.
He was crying, pleading with the guards to help his friends that were behind him.
As it turned out, he was in the best condition out of everyone in the party.
The next person to exit the hole wasn’t crying, or making any sound - she wasn’t moving at all.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
The last two to exit were perhaps the worse for ware ones, however. As one of them sobbed, the only proof that she’d ever had legs being the bare bones that protruded from her hips, she supported the headless corpse of her friend as they were hoisted up the final stretch.
“...”
Kartens party watched as the guards healed the still-alive members of the unfortunate party without humor on their faces.
“...Let’s go.” Karten said calmly, the usual cheer in his voice swapped out with a rarely-seen gravity.
The rest of the party nodded, and without hesitation, they leaped off the edge into the unknown.
As Karsten cast Feather Fall on himself and his team members, he felt something grab onto his back his back. He snapped his head back, and was met with the grinning face of a black-haired Dwarf.
Simultaneously, he heard the guard from the surface yelling:
“OTIS! YOU UNBELIEVABLE SON OF A BELLDRAKE!! GET BACK HERE!”
“Ho, ho! Sorry, Travis, but I’m gonna kill that damned slime even if it’s the last of me!”
As the party fell slowly towards the ground, Karsten questioned existence.
“Who- Who’re you?!”
“Otis! And thanks for helpin’ me conquer this slime! I never knew when it would pop up again, so I’ve been waiting a long while! Pleasure workin’ with ya,” The Dwarf’s voice boomed directly into Karstens ear, his accent just as southern as the first Dwarf he’d met.
“...”
The party looked at Karsten and the Dwarf incredulously, but they had no time to think before their feet sank into the oozing and bubbling sea of mud that filled the ground of the slime dungeon.
Immediately, everyone turned their attention to their surroundings, where there was something audibly whooshing through the air. It was moving incredibly quickly, shooting through the air like a bullet, not even leaving an afterimage to Karsten’s eyes. He cast Prestidigitation, and a glowing detached eye sprang forth, illuminating the endless sea.
The Dwarf, still perched on Karstens back, carefully observed the air around them.
“The pink slime doesn't have ears, so we don’t have to whisper”, Otis said, whispering, “Just beware of making too abrupt movements, it’ll sense it it the water. If you think you see something in front of you, duck.”
Henry and Karsten were slightly apprehensive towards their new temporary party member - Karsten mostly because he felt like his back was giving out - but the Goliaths slowly nodded in affirmation.
“Can it see?” Malek asked the Dwarf.
“No, the only sense it has is the sense of touch.”
Malek nodded, and wreathed his hands in a brilliant, golden flame that emitted pale-gold light that illuminated the space further.
Haressy raised her hands, palms out, and recited an incantation. From her hands, green Magica spewed out to create the shape of a malevolent looking, obsidian black bird that took to the air soundlessly.
Karsten spoke softly, knees trembling slightly in the water out of exertion.
“We should focus on area of effect Spells. It’s probably too fast to hit normally- !!”
Karsten had just barely caught a glimpse of pink before he felt a searing pain explode in his right foot like it had been chopped off with a rusted knife.
Karsten didn’t hesitate. He cast Dimension Door and waited for the five agonizing seconds the Spell needed to activate to pass as all Hell broke loose.
After the five seconds were up, he teleported himself and Otis away, landing a full 200 meters away from the group.
He hadn’t had any time to specify how far away he wanted to move, and it was a miracle the teleportation even worked as he had no visibility, and couldn’t see if the space he was teleporting to was visible or not.
He was about to teleport back to be within range to help his party when another whooshing sound sounded from his right.
Snapping his head to the right, he saw the slightest afterimage of something flying through the air, unsettlingly close to himself.
"...!”
With only a split second to think, Karsten cast Thunderwave.
Like an explosion, lightning shot out from Karsten’s body, and just in time.
As the wave of force hit the small, pink slime, it was stopped dead in its tracks and finally became visible in the air, hovering in the air a centimeter away from Karsten’s face, before being pushed away along with a huge amount of mud.
Chills creeping up his back, Karsten immediately cast Vicious Mockery at the creature, stringing insult after insult to keep it stunned. After multiple castings, the pink slime, having already fallen to the bottom of the shallow lake, went completely still.
Karsten panted, his eyes tearing up as the slightly acidic water infiltrated his suit from the hole in his right pant-leg and started eating away at his open wound.
Luckily, the slime monster hadn’t blasted off his whole foot, but the sensation in his three outer toes was gone.
“Are you alright?” Otis asked concernedly.
Gritting his teeth, Karsten didn’t answer, only nodded and teleported them both back within range of his companions.
He had never felt pain like this before. The acidic water was eating away at his exposed wound, and it was difficult to think.
Biting down on the inside of his cheek to keep the pain from clouding his vision, Karsten took in what was happening with the rest of the party.
Malek was covered in acidic mud from head to toe, and there were gaping holes in his hazmat suit. Still, Karsten heaved a sigh of relief when he saw there was only a small amount of blood mixed in with the muddy water. It seemed what Malek had said about his skin being enough for lower-level dungeons was true.
The giant had been drawing the fire, moving around in the water in a fierce fight against what seemed to be two pink slimes. Haressy’s eagle-like summon was darting after the slimes with impressive speed.
“How many of these things are there?”
“I-I don’t know,” Otis murmured, confusion evident in his voice, “They’re not supposed to form packs…”
“Karsten! Backup!” Henry yelled as he tried to keep up with the insane speed of the slime he was facing. Karsten figured he must be using a movement Skill, because, for some short moments, he was almost catching up to the slime’s speed with his spear.
Karstens voice filled the open air, infusing it with psychic poison that hit one of the Pinkies, slowing its descent towards Henry.
“Go back to the rotten Hell you came from!”
Henry didn’t let up as Karsten talked, having taken a stance to prepare a large, vertical slash through the air. The very moment the slime slowed a little, he cleft his spear through the slime entirely, leaving it in two equal halves. He didn’t celebrate his success, however, immediately turning to help Malek.
His help luckily proved to be unneeded, though, as the same moment he looked over to the big guy, he had already smashed his flaming fist into the jelly-like monster, making it burst like a balloon, pink mist spraying all over the surrounding area.
“Is anyone hurt?” Karsten asked the group as he approached them.
“I’m not,” Malek answered, shaking his hand to get the goo off.
Haressy answered a beat later, “No, I’m okay. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help… the larger Druid Spells aren’t available to me before the 7th level.”
Karsten shook his head, saying, “There’s no need to apologize. It’s impossible to be prepared for every situation.”
“What Karsten said is true.” Henry interjected.” Especially as you chose a highly specialized Subclass, it would be ignorant to expect your power-set to be applicable to every situation. Anyway, I’m not very hurt, just a nick on my arm. How about you?”
“...A little, maybe. It feels like my foot is gone, haha,” Karsten said breathily, trying to keep the pain out of his voice.
“... Do you have enough Magica for a healing Spell?”
Karsten nodded and cast a Mass Healing Word on himself and his allies. He then cast an additional Healing Word on himself.
“Phew…” Karsten felt pure relief when the pain subsided somewhat. “What should we do now? I don’t know if it would be a good idea to press on, unless you can raise the dead and make them fight off the rest,” Karsten asked the party Druid.
Haressy shook her head regretfully. “I can only animate humanoids at the moment.”
They all thought in silence for a moment, when Otis cleared his throat.
“Erm… So, I want to give you all my apologies for meddling so much. Though, I must admit I don’t feel particularly guilty…”
Henrys brows furrowed.
“Why’d you even follow us in the first place when you knew you’d only be a burden?”
Otis sighed heavily, “Well, kid, there was something I had to do. These monsters killed my wife. There is nothing else for me to say. When you’re grown, you’ll understand.”
Henry looked unimpressed, but let the matter go. “I think we should return. You don’t have much Magica left, right Karsten?”
Karsten took a moment to open his Status to check. He noticed it was a lot more difficult because of the ache from his foot, but he managed to summon after in a few breaths.
“I have 7 points left…”
“Yeah. No healer, no raiding. Let’s go.”
The party all agreed, and called out for the guards to lower the ropes.
Soon after, they were back at the surface after a short, yet intense raid.