Chapter 9

Cavern Mines Part 1

The entrance to the dungeon looked like your typical entrance to some dark and creepy cave you stumbled upon on some deserted hiking trail. When we accepted the quest, it teleported us straight to the entrance, which was convenient.

“So, this is the first dungeon we're going to take on,” Carl said, grabbing his staff tightly.

“You’re not scared are you,” I said, smirking at him.

“O-Of course not,” he said, as we stood in front of the cavernous entrance to the Cavern Mines, the first dungeon for beginners in this game.

“Well, shall we?” I said, ready to take on whatever was waiting for us in that abyss that was ready to swallow us at any moment.

“Cavern Mines.”

The title popped up in front of us as if on cue, a floating transparent window appeared as we decided to march closer toward the entrance.

“Beware those who enter its cavernous chambers for danger looms at every corner, and to those brave enough to choose to enter its dark abyss, the king awaits them at the end.”

“The King,” I thought, every dungeon needed a boss, and since this was a dungeon of course a raid boss was usually waiting for us at the end of the cave.

“I do have to give it to the developers, they sure know how to write an entrance,” Carl said, swallowing his breath.

“Not bad for a first dungeon,” I said, as I chose the “Yes” option that floated in front of us.

“Ready Carl,” I said, eagerly, waiting to tackle the first dungeon that this game had for us, ready to take on whatever kind of enemies and treasures were waiting for us to claim.

“Let’s do this,” Carl said, as the window in front of us shattered like a glass window as we made our way inside the Cavern Mines.

As we entered the cave, we were transported into its dark body. You could hear the slow dripping of water trickling down its empty walls, and to the side were many dark holes that no doubt led to other rooms and chambers in this cavernous cave that was the Cavern Mines.

“Shall we pick our first path,” I said, eager to venture further into the cave. I walked to the closest entrance to me. But to my surprise, an invisible wall of sorts stopped me from going any further, and a floating window appeared in front of me.

“Entrance cannot be permitted beyond this point, player does not meet the level requirement.”

It read.

“Carl we can’t go this way it seems,” I said,

“Neither can we go this way,” Carl said, as well, no doubt meeting the same gate-keeping mechanic on the other side.

“It looks like the only way is forward,” I said, pointing toward the only path that was available to us.

“It sure does look like that,” Carl said, as we both walked toward the only way we could, and as we made our way deeper into the cave, we met our first enemy.

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A small green goblin.

“Lv 3 Goblin,” its name bar read. It had on leather clothes and a small knife, and it hissed at us as it noticed us.

“Lv 3, this shouldn’t be too difficult,” Carl said, as he brought his staff close to his face, ready to cast a spell.

“Save your mana,” I said, as I took out my sword. This was only the beginning of the dungeon, so I needed to make sure that Carl only used his mana on enemies that mattered, and not on some low-level goblin.

“I’ll deal with it.”

I dashed toward the Goblin enemy,

“AARG!” the goblin said, as it ran toward me, but it was futile for I was stronger, slashing it in half and killing him.

“EXP Gain +3 “ I saw small green letters around me and Carl.

“Look, it dropped equipment,” Carl said,

“Level 3 knife, Level 3 leather boots,”

“Is not that strong but we can probably sell it off or use it to craft stuff.”

“For sure, let’s keep going,” I said, putting my sword back in its sheath.

As we descended further into the cave, most of the enemies we came across were low-level Goblins and giant rats, except, for the first new enemy we had come across, it was a slime which Carl had to help with, since they were quite tricky to battle due to their body unique skill.

“Ice freeze,” Carl said, making a wind of ice come out of his staff and freezing the slimes that had appeared before us,

“My turn,” I said, dashing toward them and slashing them in half, and destroying their core.

“EXP + 3” the small green letters coming just as soon as the enemies were killed. And since Carl and I were on a team, we shared the experience points as well as the loot.

“That’s the first slime we’ve come across,” I said,

“That means they’re probably more around,” Carl said, and just as he said that more slimes appeared in front of us.

"Time for a real battle,” I said, taking my sword out,

“Shall we partner,” Carl said, ready for battle as well.

“Ice Tundra,” he said, freezing them, which made slashing them much easier.

They were tricky sometimes since they could shoot acid, but luckily their projectiles were slow, so it wasn’t that hard to dodge.

“They sure do keep coming,” I said, slashing another one, and just as I killed one after another more began to appear.

“You don’t think,” I said, remembering how in games if you came across a new enemy in a dungeon and more kept coming, that meant.

“ALERT! ALERT!”

Big red letters appeared in front of us.

“That’s new,” we both said, as we saw it appear from the darkness of the cave.

“Giant Slime! “

“A raid boss!”

“Now we're talking, “ I said,

“Ready partner?”

“Of course.”

Our first battle was about to begin, our first real test as a team.

***

The slime was big, almost touching the ceiling of the cave. Its body had a green transparent color to it, and you could see what it had for dinner as it was dissolving inside its body.

“That’s a big boy,” Carl said, sarcastically,

“We have to be careful, we don’t want to be the next ones floating inside its body,” I said, stepping back and gripping my sword tightly, this was a raid boss. Our first raid boss since we began grinding in this VRMMORPG world.

“Lvl 19 - Large Acidic Slime -”

The name tag that was floating above its head read.

“Acidic slime?" I said, repeating its name. So its element is acid, a tricky element to deal with since it had a slow add-on damage effect if you got hit by it.

“Ready Carl?” I said, eager to engage the large acidic slime in battle and finally start to see what the bosses in this game had to offer. All my knowledge from every RPG game I had played rushed toward me, preparing me for just exactly this moment.

“Yes,” Carl said, bringing his staff to his face, ready to cast a spell.

“Let go!” I said rushing toward the large Acidic Slime,

“ICE SHOT!” Carl said, and an ice bullet shot past me, hitting the acidic slime monster, and freezing the area it had landed on.

“Perfect! That’s my cue,” I said, running toward the area, and striking it down with my sword.

CLANK!

I felt the force of my hit vibrate in my hands as the steel hit the ice, yet for some reason, the area didn’t break as I had expected it.

WATCH OUT !” Carl yelled, I looked up and saw a green projectile coming my way,

“Acid Spit!” I said, dodging it to the side before it hit me.

I looked at the ground the attack had landed and saw the floor begin to melt.

“That was close,” I said, I had to be careful

“Are you alright Max?” Carl said,

I nodded at him, giving him a thumbs up. He was right, I did not want to get hit by one of those, I did not want to lose against such a low-level dungeon boss, just thinking about it made me feel embarrassed by it.

Imagine being killed by a low-level raid boss. Then again there was no permanent death in this game, if you got killed you lost your equipment and had to start from zero, which was worse.

“What’s the plan? “Carl said,

I looked at the giant green slime monster, it was slow, much slower than the other smaller slime creatures, it barely had moved an inch. It was standing in front of us as a giant garbage dispensary, sucking in everything it came upon. I noticed the area on its lower body where Carl’s attack had landed was beginning to melt now, the freeze effect of Carl's attack wearing off.

“Keep shooting ice attacks at him and try to freeze more of its body, it's slow and it can’t evade them,”

“Got it,” Carl said. He brought his staff forward himself and began gathering mana.

“ICE BARRAGE!”

A large wave of ice bullets came my way, each bullet hitting the slime monster, and freezing its body.

“Perfect,” I said, as I began to hit each part that was frozen, yet my attacks weren't futile, I could see that its health bar was being chipped away, slowly but we were doing some damage.

“Carl, how much mana do you have left?” I said, stepping back from the half-frozen slime monster.

“I brought some mana potions, but I still have half of my mana left.”

“We don’t want to waste all of the potions on this boss, we don’t know what kind of other monsters will come up against in this dungeon.

“What’s the highest ice spell you can do?”

“Ice Tundra, but it would take a cast time of 30 seconds.”

“Ok, I’ll handle him while you charge the spell.

“READY!”

“Y-Yes,” Carl said, as he brought his staff close to his face, I could see his body glowing, which meant he was beginning to start the cast on the spell.

“Your opponent is me for the time being,” I said, as I dashed toward the slime creature, I looked at my stats and items windows, I had a hidden weapon that I was going to use when Carl’s spell was ready.

image [https://i.imgur.com/NrOHRgN.png]