I leaped through a portal, coming out in any area where I couldn’t be certain what I was found on the other end. I had Alysia at the ready. It could be anything. Celeste could be in mortal danger at that moment. I should have known that something was delaying Celeste from returning. I should have spoken to her earlier. Now, I just hoped that I arrived on time.

{You have entered Matty’s Maze of Mysteries. Destroy the lore to break the curse, or complete the lore for extra dungeon points and a blessing!}

“Celeste!” I looked around worriedly.

I had all of my blessings, so portaling directly to Celeste’s location wasn’t difficult. That location turned out to be in a dungeon. However, I was a bit confused. If she was in a dungeon, she shouldn’t have been able to use Slave Communication. Also, Celeste should have been tracking down Miki, and Miki had gone to the dungeon that had an undead type. Was this a maze filled with the undead? I looked around, and couldn’t see anything that looked to be dangerous in our immediate area. Then, my eyes landed on Celeste and they opened as wide as pinpricks.

Celeste was on the ground, and she was covered from head to toe with milky white stuff. It soaked her body, making her clothing wet and partially see-through. Gobs of white dripped down her chest and body. It looked like… well, it didn’t look good.

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“Master, you came!” Celeste cried hysterically. “This dungeon… this dungeon… it violated me.”

“What… who did this?” I snapped, feeling extremely angry.

“T-that!” She pointed down the hallway.

There was a long hallway in front of her and a stairway coming up from the side.

“I’ll show them!” I lunged forward down the hallway, expecting to see an enemy.

“W-wait!”

As I touched the first light, the ground suddenly gave out. It was a trap I hadn’t noticed! I used Create Step, planning to jump back. However, when the ground gave out, the ceiling opened up. Something large and slimy fell on my head. I let out a shout as I was dragged down, collapsing into the hole. Before I could react, I fell into a pit of white, immobilized.

It was dark, cold, and I couldn’t get a single breath. It was liquid, but it had a gelatin-like quality that completely immobilized me. I couldn’t even swing my sword. Just as my lungs started to burn, I felt someone grab me and pull. I was yanked out of the suspension where I landed on a nearby concrete platform. I let out a breath, gasping. A moment later, I lifted my hand and created a light spell.

I could better see the pit I had fallen into. It was as long as the hallway, and it was filled with wriggling white. It took me a few moments to realize what these things were.

“It’s… slimes?” I asked in wonder before doing a Monster Identify. “Ghost slimes?”

Celeste nodded tearfully. “They’re so wiggly and gross. They wiggled in all kinds of places! If I couldn’t change my form at will I definitely would have died the first time I fell in!”

“So, this is a dungeon filled with traps,” I muttered. “Did Miki succumb to one of these traps? Ah, what do you mean, first time? How many times have you fallen?” I asked.

“M-master…” She turned teary-eyed. “Fifteen times… this is the 1st level!”