With 61-3 having updated the Climber Menu twice, James could not only pull up an observer from each group with ease, he could keep track of which groups lost a member, and when. There was just one problem.

I have no idea where everyone is, other than 'near the village' and 'outside of the village'. I could really use a map telling me where each group is... But considering I can't even look at a map of the floor right now, I doubt 61-3 could implement such a thing until after I unlock the Floor Editor skill.

James asked 61-3 about it just in case, but his assumption proved to be correct. Just another reason to pick the Floor Editor skill once I level up. Until then, I'll just have to guess where everyone is based on their surroundings.

James watched the 26 screens, noting that many of them had already entered combat since leaving the village. Doesn't look like anyone's having trouble yet. Is it because their aggression fields aren't expanding as fast now that they've spread out, or the levels and combat experience gained throughout the past few days? James began moving the screens around as he tried to organize them. The screen showing the group staying near the village can be in the middle, the screens showing groups consisting of a new party and a veteran party can go on the right, and the ones showing only a single party can go on the left. I'll watch how the new parties are trained first.

I didn't hear everything they discussed before leaving the village, I only set up the editing menu to make clips of it, but it doesn't look like they came up with any uniform training method. One group has the stronger party surrounding the weaker party, with the weaker party deciding where they go and some of the stronger climbers offering hints while looking out for ambushes. Another group is trying to have the stronger party only nearly kill the monsters they fight, and have the weaker party deliver the finishing blow. It looks like all experience is divided between party members evenly so long as one person from each party has affected the monster or another climber who did. So even if you don't hit the monster, if you use a spell to buff whoever did hit the monster, it counts. Doesn't work for things like pulling the other person out of the way though, or blocking an attack. A third group has the weaker members each individually working with a stronger member of the same class, with the stronger members having the weaker ones try and copy what they do, or otherwise telling them when and where to use their skills. One group just has the newbies following them and telling them they can watch them fight and join whenever.

A screen on the left drew James's attention, when the screen briefly flashed red to show the observed party was in combat, and James glanced to see the stone walls of a cave instead of the usual view of trees and sky so many other screens displayed. James watched as a warrior pulled back their spear, the tip still embedded into a slime core even as the slime that housed it spilled onto the cave floor. The warrior tapped the core once the tip of their spear was close enough, and the core disappeared as the warrior stored it within their inventory.

"Good job." A man wearing the leather armor and cloak of a rogue said as he walked up to stand beside the warrior. The man stared into the cave for a moment, before continuing. "There's two slimes on the ceiling three feet ahead, one is crawling closer to us, but the other looks like it's staying still." The rogue explained. "My skill stopped right behind them, so there could be more further back. I can get closer and cast it again?" The rogue clenched his hands as he asked, but relaxed when the warrior shook their head.

"No, we don't know if Angeline's barrier can last more than a single attack, if another slime is able to leap at you from further away, it could be dangerous. Do you think you can hit the closest slime with a rock? If we can get it to jump early or knock it down, I can stab it like I did this one." The warrior offered, and the rogue searched the cave floor for a rock to throw.

The rogue picked up a rock, and stared at the ceiling. Between the stalactites and the angle of sunlight coming from outside the cave, James couldn't see any slimes on the ceiling from the observer's screen until the rock flew upwards. Movement like ripples in water made the slime easier to see as it reacted to the rock hitting its body and was swallowed up by the slime. With the rock still floating within the slime's acidic liquid, it detached from the ceiling and fell at an angle, attempting to fall onto its attacker but landing a foot short.

James, the warrior, and the rogue, all watched the slime with intensity. The slime isn't bouncing or leaping off the ground. James noted, as its body splayed on the ground, nearly flat with the two exceptions of the slime's core and the rock it was still digesting. Maybe it hit the ground too hard and couldn't maintain its form? James wondered, as the warrior capitalized on the slime's weakness and pierced its core with their spear, this time holding the tip of the spear out to the rogue, who deposited the core into their inventory with a tap.

"Good work," The warrior said, but anything else was interrupted as the rogue grabbed the warrior by the shoulder and moved himself and their ally back a step, pointing up by way of explanation.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

A few feet ahead, on the tip of a stalactite, a comically large teardrop formed, a slime oozing from the ceiling with what James felt had to be deliberate slowness. It's body looks different. James thought, More... Syrupy? Gooey? The warrior and rogue both took another step back before the slime finally detached from the ceiling and fell straight down. This time, instead of crashing into the ground like a popped water balloon, the spherical slime body merely compressed slightly before it bounced off the ground like a rubber ball, flying towards the rogue's face.

James heard the rogue shout an expletive as they ducked under the slime. The slime hit the ground and didn't bounce back up, but neither did it splash against the ground, instead it looked like a basketball that had gone flat on one side, and was already beginning to balloon back up as if it was filling with air. The rogue and warrior turned to face it, but a sound like something slapping the surface of a puddle rang out from deeper in the cave as another slime hit the ground. The slime didn't bounce, in a state between the puddle and spherical shapes of the two earlier slimes, and above it, two other slimes were beginning to form the teardrop shape the second slime had formed before bouncing along the ground.

"Regroup!" The warrior shouted, before the rogue and warrior turned yet again to the slime between them and the entrance, and began running. The warrior attempted a stab at the slime between them, piercing the slime's shell but missing the core. Instead of causing the slime to deflate however, the warrior pulled back the spear to find it heavier than expected, as the slime remained stuck to it as the warrior pulled it off the ground.

"Drop it!" The rogue said when they noticed their ally struggling to shake off the slime, and the warrior took his advice as they dropped the spear and joined up with a mage and priest that were waiting at the entrance.

The mage held a wand, the tip glowing with mana as they prepared a spell, and as their party cleared the way, a swing of their arm launched a fireball from the wand heading to the closest slime, the one stuck to the spear. The fireball struck the slime…

And vanished.

"What?" James asked, a similar question coming from most of the party members and the mage himself, as they looked at where the slime had been, revealing it continuing to stick to the spear, with it's slime body only half as big as before.

"They're resistant to magic?" The mage asked aloud.

"At least the slime didn't get bigger." The rogue said. "Smaller means they can't hurt us as much, right? Weaken them, then I'll go in and finish the job." The mage nodded, and the tip of the wand began to glow once more.

"I picked up this skill last night, it should hit all of them at once." The mage explained, before swinging their arm again, and the wand's glow turned into ten barely visible crescents of wind that swept through the cave.

Individually, the wind blades drained only half as much mass as the fireball, and four of them missed completely as they crashed into the walls or ceiling of the cave, but two blades hit the slime up front, the second cutting into the slime's core before the slime's body could dispel it, and a notification popped up declaring the slime had died.

The rogue ran in on the heels of the wind blades, only stopping to grab the spear and throw it to the warrior who then joined the charge. Three slimes remained, one only half the size it had been before, and two only marginally reduced in mass. The rogue stabbed into the smaller one as the warrior stabbed the one on the left, using the spear to slam the slime into the cave wall after noticing they had missed the core once more. The result allowed the warrior to remove their spear from the slime's body and stab again, this time piercing the center of the core and killing it. With only one slime remaining, it leapt at the rogue, only to fall short mere inches away, a flicker of light from around the rogue the only sign that the defensive spell the priest had given him had been broken.

The rogue stabbed down into the slime, and the core danced away from the blade, but the rogue shoved his free hand into the slime as well, gritting his teeth as the slime body burned his skin before he grabbed the core and forced it into the blade of his dagger, the liquid quickly falling off of him with the slime's death.

The rogue shook his hand as he waited for the pain to fade. "Feels like dipping my hand into boiling water." The rogue said as they stared deeper into the cave. "Detect isn't telling me there's any close by, but if we're going further in we need to use a torch."

"Let's head back for now, they give the same amount of experience as goblins do, so I want to see how much these slime cores sell for before making our decision." The warrior said, and the others gave noises of agreement before they began leaving the cave.

I should make a clip of their battle with the slimes. If I watch it a few times I might figure out how the slimes work. What determines if they hit the ground like a ball or like a puddle... At the very least it would be wise to broadcast how all of the monsters on the first floor fight, not just the goblins. James was midway through creating the clip, having returned to the editing menu, when 61-3 spoke up with a familiar message.

[Mandatory quest generated. Quest auto-confirmed as James lacks the Admin Tier required to edit this quest.]