Saren watched the strangely charismatic undead whirl its weapon around like a gleeful child as his spell carried it out across the chasm and then down the hole. The paladin ruffled his wings, the gesture akin to shaking his head, and wondered if the deals he had made today would truly be to the benefit of them all as Gel had claimed. He turned from the scene, and walked swiftly back to the waiting wagon. They had not a moment to delay.
That there was a powerful necromancer behind the abomination who had slain his friends was not, by itself, much of a surprise. Saren was able to detect the minions of others with his ability to discern some of another’s status just by looking at them and spending a bit of mana. He had known the creature was under someone’s control. But the problem was, it wasn’t just someone controlling it.
The Morian family. Saren thought grimly, remembering Gel’s words. Despite the heat of the desert, the paladin had to suppress a sudden chill at the thought. Have they come seeking resources this far east? To what end? Do they mean to take our city for themselves?
The idea didn’t make any sense to him. The Morian Family was both powerful and influential in many lands. Vaunted death mages and necromancers made up most of their ranks if Saren remembered his studies right. They were almost always at odds with the goals of his own order, but Gold Spire didn’t have a large enough presence in the Sohl desert to make starting such a conflict worthwhile. No one did.
Factional divides mattered little out here. It was why Saren and the others had been willing to work with Gel in the first place. Survival was the way of the wilds, and Dervash barely got by as it was. The city didn’t have any artifacts or mana fonts worth warring over.
Or do we? Saren didn’t know. If it did, then someone was hiding enough power to endanger the citizenry. The owlen felt a bolt of anger at the notion. If Wain and Bacchus had died just to keep some paranoid merchant’s secret, then he would see justice done. I will speak to the elders and guild heads about this when I return.
Troubled thoughts of loyalty, loss, and what the future held marked the paladin’s mood as the wagon got underway. Maxwell was struggling to move it at all, so their pace was slow, and Saren’s thoughts eventually turned towards his promise of future aid given to the intelligent monster that had just rescued them.
This ‘Gel’ was a puzzle. Saren’s ability had marked the creature as a discarded minion, which meant it should have withered away already. But it clearly hadn’t, and appeared to have learned to sustain itself off of the meat of other monsters. Which was disturbing enough before you mixed in the sentience the creature clearly possessed.
And enough self-awareness to turn on its former master. Saren mused. Mixed with enough foresight to rescue potential allies instead of just eating them, and dashed in with enough cleverness to use rescue as leverage during negotiations.
“Negotiations”.
Saren still couldn’t believe he had spent so much time bargaining with an undead monster. Gel had haggled with him like a seasoned merchant, and the creature had even seemed to enjoy itself – though that impression had come more from its words and tone than anything else. Its facial expressions were a grim mystery to the owlen. As near as Saren had been able to tell, Gel’s skeletal frame hadn’t seemed to care no matter what was being discussed. The paladin knew of course that slime warriors were hybrid creatures of some variety, but the Spire’s records were sparse on what that actually meant.
Saren was so lost in his own musings, that he almost didn’t hear danger approaching. The sound was so distant that if it weren’t for his ‘Passive Awareness’ ability, he would have missed it entirely. The telltale rhythmic crunching of sand underfoot. That slow, stomping cadence the owlen heard every time he closed his eyes. A cadence still had irrevocably tied itself in his mind to his comrade’s dying screams. To those horrible, recent moments. To his greatest shame.
The abomination. Dread settled deep inside his feathered frame as Saren’s head whipped around a full 180 degrees to stare unerringly at the source of the sound. At the creature whose mere outline caused his pulse to quicken. At the creature staring directly back at him.
The foul creature looked unharmed as it trudged unhurriedly across the sands on the other side of the pit. Saren was about to order his group to scatter in different directions – anything to not be hunted down one by one – when he saw the dark abomination pause. Its gaze shifted from him as it peered down into the pit and sniffed like a hound might. As if chasing after a scent. Then it gripped the hilt of its blade and simply… hopped in. Gone. No longer any kind of concern or threat to them. No battle, and no chase.
Simply… gone. Just like that.
A puzzle piece clicked into place for the paladin, and he felt as though inspiration had just struck him like a lightning bolt. The realization blasted away several mysteries that had been troubling him for some time now.
It’s not after us? No… It never was. Saren realized, as the only explanation that made sense to him forced its way to the forefront of his mind. He remembered the undead Wain had shot a beam at and missed, just before the abomination had arrived. We were just in its way. This necromancer doesn’t want to fight the Spire here, and neither does his family. Why would they? No…
They’re after Gel!
—------------------------
“Sorry, sorry. You’re right. That name is horrible.” Gel admitted as their speed reduced and they continued to float downward. “This is definitely a glory ho—”
“Do not call it the glory hole!” Sean snapped with laughter in his voice as he kept an eye out for any more of those ‘shooter’ variants who might want to take aim at them. “This is not that kind of hole!”
“Then what kind of hole is it, Mr. Hole Expert?” Gel asked, sounding a little off-put. “And what’s so funny about that name? It’s a good name! Our meals will be glorious down here, and it’s a hole. So you just smash the two together and–”
“Nope, no you do not.” Sean corrected quickly. “We’re not calling it that. Find something else.”
“Fine.” Gel grumbled, though the slime didn’t stay upset for long. “Did you pick your new nodes on the manasphere yet?”
“Actually, I think I’m going to hold off on those.” Sean replied, calming down from both his laughter and his caution. There were still hundreds of ants down in the depths, but none of them seemed to notice their intrusion. At least not yet. “When I went to go look at my map of it, there were a few branching off that looked like they were trembling for some reason. The nodes on the other side weren’t visible yet either. I’m no expert on nodes, but I’d bet my pan those are waiting for me to pick an evolution before I can see them.”
“Right on the meat you are, my friend.” Gel confirmed readily. “I’m saving mine, too. Hopefully there are some really delectable options once we evolve into the weighty version of me.”
“The ‘weighty’ version?”
“Yeah. Gelaton? Do you know how much we’re going to weigh?” Gel gushed. “We’re going to be huge.”
“Wait, how do you know how much a ‘ton’ weighs?” Sean asked. There was no way that term translated to the same meaning on two different worlds. Was there? “Is that a form of measurement here, too?”
“No, I just–” Gel paused, and sounded momentarily uncertain. “Hu-uh. How do I know that? Hmm.”
The pair floated silently down for another moment, passing an increasingly large number of clearly agitated ants. Sean was relieved to see that there didn’t seem to be any of the misshapen humanoid sensor variants running around. Though he was starting to wonder when they were going to land. This hole was way deeper than I thought it was. We’ve gotta be at least three or four stories down by now.
“I think your memories are starting to sink in a bit.” Gel said, interrupting Sean’s depth guesstimation. “I know what a ton is. It’s two thousand pounds. Which is a lot. Or at least, I feel like it is. Is it? Two thousand sounds like a lot to weigh but I can’t seem to recall how much a pound actually is. So is it the same as a wagon? A shack? I don’t know.”
The slime sounded fascinated with himself. For his part, Sean was glad this was finally happening - he had been curious as to what exactly Gel would end up getting from his memories ever since he had learned it was going to happen - but this revelation could be happening at a better time. They were about to be in combat. A lot of combat if their increasingly crowded surroundings were any indication. Interesting as this subject was – it could wait.
“It’s about as much as a loaf of bread.” Sean answered, hefting his shield back into place and trying to brace his feet as they floated down towards a series of tunnels. “Now look sharp, we’re about to land and this is definitely going to be a hot entry.”
“Hot?” Gel sounded even more confused now. “What do you mean hot? It’s cold down here.”
“I mean there’s ants everywhere down here, and we’ve got a fungus to tear apart before it sends all of them after us. Now, which way are we going?”
Gel pointed at the tunnel closest to their right, and Sean nodded as they landed almost without a sound.
“Alright.” The slime warrior mentally told his friend as he crouched down. “Let’s do this.”
He could feel his instincts already telling him how and when to move. Heeding their instructions, Sean began dodging around the worker and soldier ants that were clearly still blind to his presence. That didn’t prevent them from being threats, however. As Sean had learned in battle with them before, the ants could and would still react once he got too close. Which meant that if he wanted to end a fight here, amidst the entire half-frenzied horde, then he would have to do so with the first blow.
Sean looked around, and noticed that this tunnel had been rather shaken by the blast earlier. There were large pits and divots throughout the ‘floor’ of the passageway. There were also a large number of roots running through the ceiling of it that made Sean wonder what tree could possibly have roots this far down. Regardless, their new environment gave the slime warrior an idea.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Do you think you could latch onto those with that slime whip ability?” Sean asked, pointing up at the roots above the fifteen or twenty-foot pit before them. “If we could swing on them over the pits, or maybe if you can latch onto the head of one of those soldier ants, then we could get a good first strike in.”
“Ooh, now that sounds like a good time!” Gel cheered, reabsorbing his battle axe and activating the ability. “Here, let’s give it a try!”
Sean’s right arm extended upwards and a whip of clear liquid shot forward to the ceiling. It latched onto the root and on pure Indiana Bones-instinct, Sean swung across the pit.
“Daa-d-da-dahhhh. Daa d-daaahh~~” Sean sang as they easily cleared the gap to the other side. Gel released at exactly the right moment. They landed on a very surprised worker ant, and Sean slew it even as he kept singing. Idly, he wondered if his childhood hero had ever considered a career as an exterminator.
“That’s catchy.” The slime noted. “Did you make that up?”
“Nope. But I’m probably the first to sing it here. Now uh, what are you doing?”
Sean had been about to reveal the heroic tales behind earth’s most popular male tomb raider to his friend, but the slime was doing something strange. Gel had his whip pressed up against a decent-sized hole in the worker ant’s carapace. An instant later, the whip shot forward and the ant’s body bulged at the seams of its own armor. Blood sprayed in thin lines across the tunnel walls, and there was a muted sizzling sound. After only a moment, the body sagged back down to the ground, Gel’s whip retreating back into Sean’s arm as it did.
“Woah.” Sean said, not really sure what else to say. “Did you just… eat all that thing’s guts? In one go?”
Gel’s entire body shivered in satisfaction, causing Sean’s bones to rattle.
“Oh-ho-ho yeah.” Gel confirmed happily. “I got sick of not having time to eat and leaving all those bodies behind, so when I realized I could shoot my arm forward like that, and I saw this one just sitting there…”
“You did the same thing to it.” Sean finished.
“You bet your ribs I did!” Gel shouted in excitement. “Isn’t this great!? Now we’ll never miss another meal again! I didn’t get everything of course, but I got the important parts. All of its organs, most of its veins… missed a fair bit of blood though.”
That last statement was made as the slime looked at the spray patterns covering the dirt wall.
“Well, that’s okay. Still, pretty good right?”
“Yeah, pretty good.” Sean agreed readily. He was impressed at the slime’s ingenuity. Especially considering they had still earned mana consuming the corpse this way. Now they could speed up their pace and still build up mass. Sean wasn’t about to complain about Gel taking the fast food option. “Think we could do that in battle?”
“Hmm…” Gel considered the question for a moment as they dashed down the tunnel and away from their kill just as others of its kind came up close to investigate. “Maybe. You would have to keep them still, though. I was only able to push through this one because of how many we’ve eaten. I knew exactly where to go. With something else, I’d just be guessing.”
“That’s fine.” Sean responded, dipping into a nearby divot in the wall to avoid a soldier ant charging past. “Even if you’re just guessing, I doubt anyone is getting back up if you shoot through their body and dissolve it like that.”
“Unless they’re full of acid.” Gel pointed out. “But if they are then I vote we just cut those parts out and eat them anyway.”
“Deal.”
Now that they had a quick way to regenerate mana in enemy territory, Sean felt comfortable experimenting with his own abilities. As they moved down the next turn in the tunnels, Sean had Gel use knowledge swap to trade their abilities again, and then he activated spider climb.
At first, Sean wasn’t sure if anything had happened. Then he felt the cool air of the tunnel rush past his fingers and toes, the sensation amplified a thousand-fold over what he normally felt. Looking down, Sean saw thousands of nearly-invisible hairs had sprouted from his left hand. He could feel them on his feet, too.
Curious to see what would happen, the slime warrior palmed the cavern wall with his left hand and pulled as if the sheer surface had a ledge. To his surprise, it felt like it did. Soundlessly, Sean lifted himself off the ground. He hung there for a second, before the dirt wall gave way and he slid back down.
Hu-uh. Sean thought, before trying again. Can’t stay still with only one point of contact. Makes sense.
Placing his hand a few feet further down the tunnel, Sean tried climbing up again. It took a little adjusting to get his feet right. He had place the soles firmly against the wall instead of using his toes, bending in ways he never would have been able to do as a human. But the ability seemed to come with an innate understanding of its function. Sean found he could ‘grip’ and let go of the wall at will with any of his working limbs. The broken one didn’t change of course, but he hadn’t expected it to.
“Oohh, look at how high up we are! No wonder all those squirrels were climbing trees, this is great!.” Gel said excitedly, his eyeballs whirling around to take in the scene from their new, elevated vantage point. “It’s going to make hunting much easier, too. One question, though. How long can you move around like this? It doesn’t take mana to do, does it? I don’t mind falling on something, but I’d like it to be on purpose.”
“It’s a duration based on mana spent.” Sean said, pulling up and reading through the ability’s description. “One point gets us an hour, two points two hours, etc.”
Gel whistled low in Sean’s mind, though the slime warrior still had no idea how his friend managed to do that.
“How fast can you go like this?” The slime asked. “And what happens if–”
Sean’s left hand suddenly fell free of the ceiling. Not because he had lost his grip on what he was holding, but because the flat stone he had grabbed had simply fell out the second he’d grabbed it. Despite that, Sean was still able to stay attached to the wall by bracing both of his feet. The motion felt oddly like a core workout, though the tension was in his ribs rather than his non-existent abs.
Weird, but I’ll take it. Sean thought, grabbing a different section of the ceiling this time.
“That answer your question?” Sean asked his suddenly silent friend, a little amused and a little relieved they hadn’t fallen. There was nothing underneath them at the moment, but there was a soldier ant coming their way now. Must have heard the rock.
“It did.” Gel responded.
“Care to swap to your axe so we can drop onto that thing’s head when it gets close enough?” Sean asked his friend.
“Actually, I’d like to try using my whip to go through its eyes. See if I can take out its brain in one go.”
Sean would have blinked if he still had eyelids. Instead he considered the notion, nodded, and then said. “Yeah, alright. Works for me.”
Several moments and one very startled then consumed soldier ant later, Sean was feeling much more confident about their journey down here. Without the fungus actively leading them, and with no sensor-symbiotes around, the enslaved ants weren’t much of a threat one on one. If they could keep it up with their ambush tactics, then this wasn’t just a great place to build up Gel’s mass. With the soldiers still being worth a solid 15 experience each after leveling up, these tunnels were also a great place for them to farm more experience.
For the next hour, Sean and Gel systematically worked their way towards the fungus’s lair. Thanks to Gel’s mental map, they knew exactly where to go. Even the post-blast renovations hadn’t changed the path too much. Whenever Sean’s instincts tipped him off to an opportunity, or they managed to catch an ant on patrol alone, the pair ambushed it and feasted. Sean got much more comfortable climbing walls, and all the while, Gel’s mass continued to grow.
Though their progress on all fronts was swift, their next evolution continued to remain locked.
Hopefully, not for long. Sean thought, as they turned a corner and found themselves face-to-face with the cavern entrance Gel had assured him was one they were looking for. For a tunnel that had been dug out by ant-power alone, it was absolutely massive. Sean estimated he could drive an eighteen wheeler through it and not so much as scrape the sides. Or the top.
What the hell do they need it that big for? He wondered, though the slime warrior had a sinking feeling they were about to find out.
The tunnel entrance was, perhaps unsurprisingly, absolutely covered in guards. But instead of soldier or shooter ants, it was a small horde of those sensor shroom-people, with the odd ant or three here and there that looked like it was on its way to becoming one of them. There were even some of those pure fungaloid-looking variants that they had seen riding the soldier ants. The floors, walls, and ceiling leading in were completely covered in purple spores. Giant sunflower-sized mushrooms sprouted from every direction. There would be no sneaking their way in.
“Looks like it’s got its defenses up.” Sean noted. “That or it doesn’t trust its slaves to protect it.”
“Nothing is going to protect it.” Gel declared, swinging his clear battle-axe up into a ready position. “Let’s do this!”
“Let’s do this from a bit higher up.” Sean countered, glad he had re-activated spider climb only minutes ago. He hopped up onto the wall and began climbing towards the ceiling.
The instant his left hand touched the first spores leading into the cave however, the entire horde of shroom-people turned upwards as one to face him. It was hands-down the creepiest horror-movie-brought-to-life moment Sean had ever seen.
“Okay, maybe not.” Sean acceded, dropping to the ground and rushing straight at his opponents. “Plan B it is!”
With a mighty cry, Gel cut the first one nearly in half with a mighty downward swing of his axe. The slime was about to swing again, Sean already raising his shield to defend, when the entire horde of shroom-people rumbled. Then, they all launched from the ground, pouncing on top of them in a huge, disgusting dog pile.
Sean had only a fraction of a second to think: okay, no – this is the creepiest thing I have ever – aghh!, before they were on him. Hundreds of pounds of spongy and decaying humanoid shroom-flesh latched onto them and bore the pair to the ground. Sean struggled with all his strength, but there were simply too many to brush off, much less attack.
Combat prompts filled his vision.
You have been tackled by Human Sensor-Symbiote (Enslaved) for 0 damage. (5 base, minus 5 due to toughness).
You have been tackled by Owlen Sensor-Symbiote (Enslaved) for–
You have been tackled by–
For a moment, Sean wondered what the symbiotes’ goal was. They weren’t hurting him. Surely they had to realize that by now, the shrooms weren’t stupi–
– the memory of an explosion rocking down the tunnel, taking Baerlin’s leg with it, shot a cold shiver of realization down Sean’s spine. He remembered seeing at least three of those fungaloid boomsticks on their way in.
“Impact Shell!” Sean called out quickly, even as he struggled to even move his own arm and legs. “Right now! Right on top of us!”
“Coming right up!”
A crimson dome of energy extended forth from the slime, covering their body and pushing the creatures piled atop them back barely an inch before it sagged back down – but that was enough. Sean couldn’t close his eyes, so instead he watched, and waited for what he knew was coming.
An instant later, the pile atop them was ripped apart by four simultaneous explosions. The concussive force shredding the festering creatures apart into a giant cloud of slowly falling purple spores. Sean watched the mistlike spores descend onto their faltering crimson shield with relief, entranced by how the scene looked almost serene after the sudden absence of all those wriggling bodies squirming over him. Before he could get too lost in it however, a frustrated voice in his mind broke through the deafening silence of the room.
“Cowards! They knew we were going to eat them all and now they’ve taken that chance from us.” Gel grumbled. “How are we supposed to get bigger if our enemies keep getting blown up?”
Sean chuckled and stood up, only to find himself in the dead center of four half-spheres of missing dirt. The center ‘platform’ he was on already starting to crumble. He hopped down before it could topple with them on it and began to climb his way back up the far side.
“If it makes you feel better, they died for a good cause.” Sean said as he pulled himself up to the rest of the floor and headed deeper into the cavern.
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Now we get to eat their boss.”
“Ohhh, that is a good point. That does make me feel better.” Gel said cheerfully. “What do you think it tastes like?”
“Victory.”