“What the actual fuck?” said Dakota in shock.

“Identify says it’s a ooze.”

This drew a rumbling growl from Sage as she stood. Dakota pulled his pickaxe out again.

“I don’t think that’s going to help,” cautioned Wendell. “Magic would be best. Outside of that, bludgeoning I guess. Stabbing and slicing won’t have much effect.”

“Well, that means Sage and I are going to be useless. Good luck with your fight.”

Wendell looked over to Dakota who was still staring at the monster but now had a smirk on his face. “Okay. I’ll give it shot. But be ready to heal me,” he said as he started walking toward the creature. When he was about fifty feet from it, Wendell cast [Hallucinate]. The ooze started to spasm. Pseudopods of slime reached out from it and slammed into the ground as it tried to attack non-existent enemies. Soon the creature was beating itself, which sounded rather gross but didn’t seem to be hurting it any.

Next Wendell started working his way through his bolt spells. Mana bolt, fire bolt, water bolt, ice bolt. He just continued to cast one after the other. “It looks like the fire and psionic inflicted the most pain,” he announced.

“You do realize that it’s moving toward you now, right?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. I think I’m about to kill it,” Wendell replied as he cast [Pierce the Mind].

The creature’s entire mass seemed to quiver for a moment and then it lost all cohesion and spilled out on the ground.

[Congratulations! You’ve slain a level 4 Ooze.]

“What the hell?” Dakota asked as he watched the remains of the slime spread across the cavern floor.

“It was only a level 4. I bet higher levels would have more resistances to my abilities.”

“How big are they when they’re born?”

“That’d be a question for your ranger trainer, not me.”

Dakota got a blank look on his face for a moment which was replaced with a look realization.

Wendell chuckled, “What did you just remember?”

“A couple things. They divide, like cells. So it was probably twice that size and level at some point. And I bet it found us because of the fire.”

Wendell looked back at the fire and then at how big the cavern was, “How? That little camp fire could stay lit for a year and not raise the temperature in this cavern a single degree.”

“They follow heat. It’s how they hunt. How sensitive do you think they would need to be to detect a warm body a mile away in one of these tunnels?”

“Damn. That’s crazy. And instead of sleeping here I’m thinking we should put out the fire and start moving.”

“No.”

“What do you mean no?”

“We have to sleep somewhere. This area gives us three paths of escape should we need it. No, I’m going to do what I should have thought of earlier. I’m going to set some traps around each of the entrances to alert us to anything coming. Then we can get some sleep.”

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Wendell thought about their options for a moment before nodding, “Alright. You set the traps and I’m going to work on a spell to cool things off. I’m betting more than just oozes can detect heat down here.”

Dakota was woke the next morning by a huge tongue across his face. “Dang it Sage,” he fussed as he used his tunic to dry his face. Through their bond he felt her sense of amusement. He stood to find that Wendell appeared to be juggling colored magic orbs. “Sorry brother, how long did I sleep?”

Wendell shrugged, “Who knows. I haven’t seen the sun since I got here, I’ve lost all track of time. I slept long enough that I was hungry again when I woke up.”

Dakota chuckled, “Yeah, I could do for some grub as well. Let me see if these stakes I stored in my pack last night stayed warm.” Dakota grabbed his backpack the gods had gifted each of them with upon arriving the world of Traum. A moment later he had two steaks in his hand. “Hell yeah, they’re still warm! So we can store things in our pack to keep it fresh. That means the rest of that meat will stay good, too!”

“That’s really cool. Now toss me a steak.”

Dakota tossed one to Wendell and started to unwrap the other when he felt the thought “Hungry” crash into him from Sage. Turning he found her looming over him. “You know, you could just ask. No need to shout.” Dakota went back to his pack and pulled out a hunk of raw meat and tossed it to his companion who caught it in the air. Going back to his own steak, just picked it up and took a bite. As he swallowed he said, “You know, silverware is nice and all, but on a certain level eating this way just feels right.”

Wendell was about to say something sarcastic but he thought about it for a moment and nodded his head, “Yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t do it if we were in a town. But when we’re camping in the middle of nowhere… it just seems to fit.”

After they finished eating they cleaned up their area and packed all their gear. Dakota pointed toward the ice walls blocking the exits, “Good job coming up with those last night. Can you take them back down without having to generate a bunch of heat?”

“Thanks. Yeah, I can dispel them without issue. What about the traps you set on the other side?”

“Just a few seconds to disarm each one.”

Wendell lifted his pack and started walking, “Which of these exits did you want to take?”

“No idea. Was thinking perhaps we could walk a mile or so down one and if there wasn’t anything exciting we could come back and walk a mile down the other?”

“Surely there has to be a better way than that?”

Dakota shrugged, “Maybe. Let’s examine the two tunnels. Maybe there’s an arrow carved in one.”

After removing the ice walls and the traps from all of the entrances they got to work looking at each of the tunnels. They spent about ten minutes examining each of them for any tracks, sounds of life ahead, and even lying on the ground and trying to see if the either of the tunnels sloped upwards. Finally, in a flippant tone Wendell looked over at Sage, “Got any suggestions.” Without hesitation Sage pointed to one of the tunnels.

“Works for me,” Dakota said and started walking toward that tunnel.

“Seriously? Did she even say why?”

“She said the air was better.”

Wendell thought about it and nodded, “Yeah, that works for me as well.”

The trio set off in the tunnel walking. And walking. And walking some more. At times it seemed the tunnel was taking them further into the depths of the planet and at others they seemed to be climbing. Eventually growing bored enough that they took turns laying on Sage’s back and taking a nap. But still they walked. Eventually they ran out of the meat from the last monsters. And the only things they’d seen for days had been a couple small slimes and some sort of borer worms, neither of which looked eatable. If it wasn’t for Dakota’s [Daily Bread] spell that conjured a loaf of bread where each slice would sate their appetite for a whole day they would have starved.

An unexpected positive of depending on Dakota’s spell was that they were able to finally start tracking days again since they always got hungry exactly 25 hours after they had ate the previous slice of bread.

“I wonder if we’re going to find the other half of that ooze?” asked Dakota one day while they were walking.

“We have to be super far from it by now, right?”

“We’re walking down the tunnel it came from. And there’s been virtually nothing here, so something has to be killing everything. I bet we’re following it.”

“Seriously?”