I put the bracelet in my bag and went out the portal. It was high time I went to sleep, but first I needed to get enough mana to put up a proper barrier. I half meditated, half slept for the next almost hour until I had a full mana pool.
I pulled out two shirts from my storage and rolled them up to be my pillow. I had planned on changing before I went to sleep, but my eyes had other plans for me. I laid out a third shirt on the ground so I wasn't lying directly on the dirt and out the roll under my head. It wasn’t the most comfortable bed, but it was better than nothing. I put a shield around me and even made sure to put part of it under me too. That last fight with the slime boss taught me not to trust that the ground would always stay level.
My final step before bed was pouring every last drop of mana I had into the shield. A full 380 points of pure power surrounded me. It would take a lot to get through that barrier, and since I had yet to see any stray monsters around here, I figured I should be fine.
I slept until almost sunset. The first thing I did when I woke up was check on the barrier. It looked to have taken no damage, and I couldn't see any signs of a monster approaching me. I heaved a sigh of relief and closed my eyes for a few minutes.
I finally got it! 15 freaking runs, and I finally got it!
I pulled the bracelet out to get a better look at it. Upon my second examination, it looked rather unimpressive. It appeared to be a small slime pendant that would be tightened around my wrist with a thin leather strap after I put it on.
I probed it with my mana and got the sense that it would increase size. The only reason I know it would increase my mana pool size is because of what I read in the book. All i had to do was wear the bracelet and concentrate on the idea of the bracelet absorbing the slime cores. And luckily for it, I had 2393 cores to feed it.
I slipped my right hand through the loop, making sure the pendant portion was by my wrist, and the leather magically resized itself to my wrist. It was a lot tighter than I was expecting, but not uncomfortably so. After it tightened, I felt a small rush of power as the bracelet’s effect took action.
I pulled a single slime core out of my storage and pulled up my resources so I can watch the effect grow stronger in real time. I could see my mana capacity has already increased by 10 points from just putting the thing on.
Health 240/240
Stamina 195/240
Mana 390/390
I fed the core to my bracelet and watched as it disappeared. I waited and watched with bated breath.
Nothing happened.
Okay, that seems fair. A one to one increase ratio could be absolutely monstrous.
Instead of going one by one, I walked a few minutes south of the dungeon portal and used an arcane explosion to dig a little hole. By little, I mean a circular divot about 4 feet in diameter.
I dismissed my resource UI and poured out as many cores as I could. I stuck my arm in the middle of the pile of cores and focused on the idea of the bracelet absorbing all of them. It took over 4 refills to get all 2393 cores absorbed.
The rush I felt every time the bracelet ate the pool of cores was intense, and almost addicting.
I nervously looked at my resource pools again and was shocked.
Health 240/240
Stamina 195/240
Mana 393/525
135. All that effort for 135 extra mana points.
I feel cheated. It’s still an awesome increase in power, but still. That’s less than a tenth of what I originally thought.
“Whatever. I’ll still run it more tonight and tomorrow. Any increase in power is still an awesome increase in power.”
I cringed at my attempt to have a cool saying.
I dismissed the barrier, sat up and put away the shirts I was using as a pillow and place mat. I walked into the portal, ready to do another run.
NOW ENTERING SLIME DUNGEON. PREPARE YOURSELF.
Hagrid, I hate slimes.
I demolished the first room in no time. I paid extra attention to the crevices behind any stone pillars and made sure to kill the hidden slimes. I got lucky so far with getting them by accident, but I refuse to leave anything up to chance when I don't have to. I gathered the cores into the bowl and did a lap around to make sure I didn't miss any.
When I was confident that that was all of them, I put my right hand in the pile and had the bracelet feast. I checked my pools and saw no increase in size.
What the hell? I should've gotten at least ONE point from that.
I swept the second room in a similar fashion. I gathered the cores into a pile and had the bracelet eat them. Still, I got nothing.
Seriously, what the actual fuck!
I was getting pissed, and the boss was going to know it.
As soon as I got enough mana.
I put up a smaller barrier this time, and killed it in one Arcane Explosion. 14 mana cores were the drops, and I dishearteningly had the bracelet eat it, not expecting anything to happen. Yet my pool increased by 14 points.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? It’s only the boss’s cores that increase the mana capacity? So I just wasted all those cores for nothing?
I was pissed.
That was almost 80 silver that I wasted on the stupid, glorious thing. For fuck sake.
“Alright, now the real grind begins. I still have all of tonight and most of tomorrow to get as many cores as I can. I can probably skip gathering the non-boss cores, and just rush the boss. If I power nap in between runs, I should be able to get at least 16 more runs in before I leave tomorrow.”
That’s exactly what I did. I started blasting my way through the slimy mess as soon as I got into the dungeon. I didn’t bother doing a full wipe of the place, and instead focused on clearing a path forward. It was a lot more dangerous, but I was a man on a mission.
I did 3 Arcane Explosions in rapid fire in a line from where I stood towards the direction of the hall to pass. I ran through the slime cores that rained down and slipped right past a slime that was blocking the path.
I did the same thing in the next room too, except this one took 5 explosions. I wasn’t focused on saving mana right now, only speed blitzing through the damn dungeon.
I got to the boss, popped a shield as i rounded the corner and once i knew he was secure,
“ARCANE EXPLOSION!”
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I didn’t have to yell it, but damn it felt good.
I ran right up to the barrier and only waited for the slime mass to fully disappear before sticking my hand in there to absorb the 13 cores.
“Sweet, so I was right! Now I just need to do this 15 more times and I can go get some proper sleep at Half Moon.”
I exited the dungeon through the portal and got a notification.
Congratulations! You have earned your first achievement: Slime Slayer! For defeating the Slime Dungeon in less than 3 minutes by yourself, you will be granted one reward of your choice! Choose carefully, as you won’t be able to change your mind once it has been awarded to you! Please select your choice from the list below.
* Slimes fear you! Slimes of all kinds are now afraid of you and will run away if they get too close.
* Critical slime! After slaughtering so many slimes, you know just the right way to hurt them. Deal bonus damage to any slime you fight.
* Slime defense! Slimes now deal half damage to you.
* Slime body! Become one with the way of the slime. Your body can now become slightly elastic at will.
* Slime drops! Receive bonus loot from slimes you kill. Rare slime drops happen more often for you.
I immediately wanted to choose the first option, but forced myself to consider them all before I chose.
Option two had some serious potential. If I didn't already one shot the boss, I would genuinely have considered picking it.
Option three seemed useful, except I never let any slimes get close enough to hurt me. They all died by that point. Maybe if I had chosen a more tanky build, that would be a good choice. But not as I am now.
Option four just sounded stupid. I saw no way that I could benefit from becoming “slightly elastic”. In fact, I didn't see how anyone could benefit from it.
Option five was the biggest contender to option one. If I had this before, would I have gotten the bracelet faster than I already had? That being said though, I don't see any other loot drops that I would need this for.
Option one was the biggest desire for me since it would allow me to run this dungeon even faster. I could potentially run past all the trash spawns and go straight for the boss. It would save me some headache at least. And I can always come back here to grind some more boss drops too.
That decided it for me. Future potential of option one was just too good. I made my choice.
You now have the effect: Slimes fear you! From now on, any slime within a 10 foot radius will flee for their lives. Happy hunting!
I was happy with my choice. Now I needed a power nap.
I woke up 40 minutes later and entered the dungeon. I dismissed the usual entrance message and walked towards the first room. I was skeptical about the effects of the achievement, but the slimes really kept a 100 foot radius from me. It was great. I picked up my pace and jogged to the second room. I decided to try jogging through the room, and slimes scurried out of my way. When I reached the boss chamber, I did my usual barrier then one shot. I waited for the loot to drop and absorbed the 12 new cores.
Because of my ability to run straight through the dungeon now, I was able to run it 13 more times after that before it started getting dark on my third day. I honestly wanted to keep going, but I promised Luke that I would be back today. My efforts here earned me a total resource pool of 669. I felt unstoppable.
I downed my second to last stamina potion and started to jog back. I had a stupid grin on my face the whole way there. It took me 3 hours again to get back. I could've been faster, but I hadn't gotten much sleep the last few nights and really needed to rest. Stamina potions can only help me stay awake for so long. Fortunately, I did gain a level on my way back to Silface. I earned it just as the city came into view. And what a beautiful view it was.
The stars in the night sky illuminated the walls to a perfect degree. I almost wish I had a camera so I could capture this image forever.
I slowed my jog down to a walk. When I saw the city guards, I had to show them my guild tag explaining that I was training in the Slime Dungeon to the north. They accepted my answer and let me pass.
Odd, I've never been stopped by the guards before. Maybe because it’s late at night? Whatever. I’M BACK! I get to sleep in an actual bed tonight! OH how I've missed warm food as well.
I got to the guild hall, half expecting it to be empty, but Luke was still there behind his counter looking like an angry mom about to scold their child for missing curfew.
“I’m back, baby!”
“You’re late.”
“But i’m alive.”
“I was worried about you.”
“BUT! I’m alive.”
“You couldn’t have been here sooner?”
“Did I mention I'm alive?”
“I GET IT! But that doesn’t mean I didn't worry about you the entire time. I barely slept last night. You only said you ‘might’ stay three days. I did NOT expect you to stay until damn near midnight.”
“Luke, take a breather. Everything is fine. I even got an achievement for my efforts!”
He looked stunned at that. “D-d-did you just say… Achievement? How on earth did you get one of those! You already met one of the requirements to be a gold plate and you’ve only been adventuring for less than a month!”
“Yeah, I got it for speed running the Slime dungeon. The requirement seems to be to solo the boss and defeat it in under 3 minutes of entering the dungeon. It was pretty awesome and a total accident.”
“You ‘accidentally’ got an achievement? What in the 7 hells am I to do with you young man! Well, did you at least get a reward for earning it?”
“Yeah, that’s the cool part. I got an effect that makes any slime within 10 feet of me run away for their lives. Now whenever I go back to farm it some more, it’ll be 10 times easier to get to the boss room. It’s amazing!”
“That’s pretty interesting. I’ll make a note of it in the system. I don’t think i’ve heard of that dungeon giving out achievements before. Though people rarely go in there, let alone solo, and yet again speed run the damn thing solo. You truly are a mad man, you know that right?”
“Yeah yeah, whatever. I’m too tired to argue. I’m heading back to Half Moon for the night. I’m taking tomorrow off too. I’ll be back after that to get back to work. I think I'm done with slimes and goblins for a while though, so cook something juicy up for me when I get back, yeah?”
Luke agreed and shooed me off.
I made it back to Half moon with no issues. Thaggerd was running the desk for now and was happy to see me in one piece.
“You’re back! Wonderful! Should I grab a couple of glasses of Theromear’s Fire to celebrate?” He had a humorous twinkle in his eye.
“Oh hell no. Keep the evil drink away from me. If I never see it again, it’ll still be too soon!”
He laughed at me and sent me up to my room, though he asked if I changed at least before plopping into bed.
I agreed and ran up the stairs, ready for the warm embrace of sleep. As I entered my room, I skipped stripping my clothes and just threw them into storage mid jump. It was a nifty trick I thought up on my way back that I was glad actually worked. I doubt it would work the opposite direction, but that’s an experiment for another time.
Before I shut my eyes for good, I pulled up the expanded version of my status sheet to see what all happened the last few days. I knew I had a few spells to learn, but that would have to wait for tomorrow at the earliest.
User: Claff:
Health 260/260
Stamina 235/260
Mana 662/669
Achievements
Slime Slayer!
Quests [2]
Kill Goblins 0/∞
Kill Slimes 0/∞
Party [0]
Equipment
Ring of Mana Regeneration (+20%)
Slime Bracelet (+289 )
SKILLS
PASSIVE
Enhanced Body Lv 8 [23%]
Increased Mental Capacity Lv14 [35%]
Regeneration Lv15 [42%]
ACTIVE
Arcane Magic Lv 11 [5%]
Barrier Magic Lv 11 [19%]
Game-like Storage Lv10 [55%]
Storage (9/22)
0 g 66s 43 c
1. Bowie knife
2. 25 shirts (varied colors, cloth)
3. 10 pants (cloth)
4. 10 underwear (5 boxers, 5 sock pairs )
5. 5 rations (varied flavors)
6. 1 minor stamina potion
7. 2 leather armor sets
8. 5 books
9. Water skin
I did some quick math. My base mana regeneration was 10 mana per hour. Multiplied by 3.8 for my Increased Mental Capacity regeneration. Multiplied by 9 for my actual Regeneration skill. Multiplied AGAIN by 1.2 for my ring bonus. All that gave me…. 410 mana per hour.
I was unstoppable. When I upgrade this bracelet even further, I'll be on top of the whole damn world.