The lynx kept dodging again and again, and each time it was becoming easier, since she was more and more accustomed to repeating the same patterns. She was even standing at the right distance for it to try to crush her. In fact, she was starting to get bored.

“How much longer…?” she asked her sister for the umpteenth time.

“A little less than the last time you asked,” the elf replied, trying to stay focused and not laugh.

She had finished with a couple of the small ones that had appeared while facing the big one. She had also lowered the floor boss’ vitality to 75%, so they would need a lot more time. At least, for the moment, their enemy was keeping the same behavior.

They had thought about trying Light Pillar, but she needed to get closer and take more risks, so they had preferred to continue with a slower but safer method. It was then that the elf realized that she hadn’t tried Void, mostly because it didn’t seem like it could be useful. It was impossible to destabilize that enormous mass of gelatin with its effect.

Perhaps out of boredom, she decided to use it once, to see what would happen. And, as she had anticipated, the suction force upon impacting the arrow had little effect on the huge body, or so she believed at first. But she soon realized that it had done quite a bit more damage than an Ethereal Arrow.

“How…?” she was surprised.

So, she decided to attempt it again, while trying to find out what had happened, and asking for her sister’s help.

“Something happens when I use Void. I’m going to try again. Pay attention, tell me if you see anything.”

She shot another arrow, using Hawkeye to try to see more clearly what the effect was. What she saw surprised both her and the lynx.

“A piece of its body is absorbed!” exclaimed the latter.

And so Goldmi had seen it too. The slug’s soft, gelatinous body, so efficient against most physical attacks, could be sucked in by the suction force, ripping off part of it, and damaging it more severely than by being pierced by an arrow of mana.

“It seems that it’ll be shorter than we’d thought,” Goldmi smiled.

“Now you’re talking,” her sister agreed happily, still dodging.

From that moment on, the floor boss’ vitality began to drop much faster. Even a normal slug, which had passed through the slime covering the entrance, dropped dead with the help of the spell.

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At 50%, the floor boss began to roll on itself, but the lynx managed to avoid it and keep it close to the access to the next floor, away from her sister. Furthermore, not only was it being defeated, but its size was decreasing, as its body was gradually being sucked away. And, once separated, the mana faded away, so it wasn’t able to reincorporate it.

Thus, little by little, it became less intimidating and dangerous, and it didn’t take long for it to completely succumb.

They rested to regain mana and energy, paying no attention to mushrooms and veins of magical material that others would have rushed to collect, and while their assistant was retrieving the arrows scattered on the ground, many of them broken and corroded.

As soon as they reached the second floor, Goldmi invoked Life Detection, as she wanted no surprises.

“One in that direction, about fifty yards. Another in that, almost two hundred,” reported the elf.

“Let’s go. Let’s see what they’re like,” the lynx moved forward lively.

But, when she arrived, she saw nothing. She was surprised, since her sister’s spell had never failed, so she watched around suspiciously, while trying to find an enemy which may be able to camouflage among the rock walls. However, she found nothing.

Suddenly, a slight vibration on the ground made her jump away, which helped her to dodge a kind of worm that seemed to be made of the rock itself, only a meter long, and that had appeared below her. It had tried to Ram her from below, and now it was trying to hide again.

The lynx pounced at it, to keep it from fleeing, but she barely scratched lightly its hard skin. In fact, she damaged it harder with the force of the blow when falling on it than with her claws.

Her sister, after seeing what had happened, followed her instincts and shot a Rough Arrow, which hit the rock worm hard, and uncovered that it was vulnerable to bludgeoning damage.

After seeing it, the feline began to hit it, even at the cost of suffering some damage herself, and soon they killed the level 21 being that inhabited that floor in the dungeon.

“They aren’t very strong, but quite annoying,” said the lynx. “Let’s eat something, I’m hungry. That looks like the rest area.”

“Here we go again…” the elf complained, and followed her, without acknowledging that she too was hungry.

They entered the room and Goldmi invoked the kitchen, with the intention of trying to make level 20 food. Until now, they had eaten dishes of a higher level than theirs, without getting any food bonus. She wasn’t sure if that was because it was different from the game, or that they didn’t work if the level was higher than theirs.

For this reason, and after having collected some ingredients in that lost garden on the previous floor of the dungeon, she decided to prepare a barbecue of vegetables, in addition to other dishes to alleviate hunger, or to enjoy a delicious early supper.

As expected, the battered kraken rings did nothing to them, except for their flavor and crisp texture. And the chocolate and Emerald Forest’s fruit pudding only sweetened her palates and soul. But, as soon as they tasted the vegetables, which crunched and melted in their mouths, they noticed their power increased slightly, by 2% in strength and agility. Maybe it wasn’t much, but all help was more than welcome.

“Let’s try it,” the feline got ahead once again.

The elf followed her without resistance. She also wanted to know what a small bonus meant, how it could affect them. So they headed in the direction of another one of those worms, while hoping that it would either come out of the rock by itself, or that they could find a way to get it out.