39. A Super Mysterious Key Appears! I Hope It Does Something Coooooool.

Back again on Floor 1, Thwain and I took a small break to talk it over again.

“I’ve only got enough juice for another run or so,” I said, gesturing to my necklace. I was slowly filling it back up with mana, but I was starting to feel the added strain to my mana system. I shook out my arms, trying to shake off the fatigue, but it wasn’t precisely physical.

“Ok. One more, then. This time, I draw their attention first. Then, you crash in from behind. See how well Slimey does when you’re on a full offensive.”

I nodded reluctantly, trying to figure out the best way to achieve such a result. On one hand, the lower to the ground we were, the less of a target we were for hurled spears. On the other hand, the more we spread out, the more spears and swords would be able to slash and stab at us. I wasn’t super worried about my own safety while within golem Slimey, now that we had tested out Slimey’s body on Floor 2. He could spread out wide enough that the spears couldn’t penetrate far enough to reach me, and I still had my shield for defense in an emergency. I was mostly worried about Slimey being able to keep up with all of the damage coming in. If he was forced to despawn mid fight, I’d be as good as dead. However, if I caught enough goblins by surprise, I should be able to increase Slimey’s soul strength bit by bit, then dip out once I was noticed.

Resolved, we set out to try the new plan. As planned, Thwain took off into the air and aggroed all of the goblins, turning them away from me. He made an extra effort to gun down a few goblins nearer to the portal, hoping that the proximity of their deaths would add to the frenzy. Indeed, the nearby goblins pushed, shovend and struck out with their spears to reach Thwain.

I chose my target: a particularly feisty goblin who threw the spear in his hand, then reached back, drew a second spear from his back and threw it as well. As he reached back for the third and final spear, I knew it was my time to move.

I took a shuddering breath, then dove forwards. Slimey crashed into my target as well as the backs of the several adjacent goblins, rolling over them and keeping on going. We spread out, tagging as many turned goblins as we could, sucking them into Slimey and spitting them back out to hurt as many as possible before the crowd turned back towards us. Goblins writhed on the ground, screaming in pain. We were going too fast to kill any of them, but none of the spearmen that we injured got back up, either. They bled, rolled and screamed, waiting for death to claim them.

Not all of the downed goblins stayed down, but not necessarily because they rose to fight. As soon as we passed over some goblins, others that were already charging forwards used their downed kin as springboards to launch themselves closer to Thwain and towards me and Slimey. The crazy bastards were actually killing more goblins than we were, smashing each other into motes of multicolored lights in their primal frenzied rush for blood.

After surging forwards about twenty feet, we swept back again, mopping up our mess as we headed back towards the portal, devouring goblins as we went. Goblins threw themselves at us as we made our second pass, no doubt angered at the many deaths and aggroed by them as well. Thwain swooped in low a few more times, killing a couple more goblins around us with well placed shots to the dome, redirecting most of their fury back to him and his midnight black wings. As we approached the portal, I snagged what I had kept my eyes peeled for the entire time: a white loot orb. I shunted it into Slimey’s storage space before circling the portal once and then beelined it into the portal and back to relative safety, excited to see what goblins dropped for loot.

As soon as I popped into Floor 1, I made Slimey deposit the loot orb onto the stone floor and made him farm slimes as I checked his Bestiary entry.

[https://i.imgur.com/lOtTQcK.png]

Bestiary entry: Devourer slime of hoarding selected.

Soul strength: 803.2%. Collect more essence to increase soul strength.

Stats : Physical resistance prioritized.

Size: D

Magic power: E+

Magic resistance: E

Physical resistance: F+

Speed: E-

Shrinkage: F-

I let out a relieved breath as I saw that Slimey’s soul strength rose a few percentage points above 800. I let him keep decimating slimes as I reached over and poked the white loot orb that the goblin had dropped. With a flash, it coalesced into… A candle. A single, white candle. I frowned, inspecting it for special properties or any secrets it might hold. It was a stick of white wax with a small bit of rope sticking out of the top. After a moment of intense scrutiny, I was forced to admit that it was nothing but a nice candle. A flash of the portal behind me announced Thwain’s arrival.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I held up the candle with a grin. “Precious loot!” I announced.

“What does it do?” Thwain asked, looking at the candle skeptically.

“I think it stays lit for a while when you light it.”

Thwain just blinked at me a few times before responding. “White loot orb, I hope?”

I nodded, standing up and stretching my back. “Yeah, a white one. We should do this again tomorrow, see what we can get. I’m beat, though.”

“Can you make it back?”

“Yeah,” I responded, “I’ll just wait until this thing recharges by itself.” I raised my necklace, showing off its half-filled reservoir.

“Alright, I’m going to scout to the north for a bit before heading back,” Thwain said. Wings sprouted from his back, stretching out to either side. I admired their sharpness, the sense of danger emanating from the leathery black wings and their sharp bone points. Then, he took off in an explosion of strong wing beats.

I sat with my back against the portal archway while my necklace recharged naturally. I could jumpstart it with my own mana, but I didn’t want to strain my already taxed body. I figured it was best to hold off on my last few spurts of mana for an emergency. While I waited, I reflected on the sun that had suddenly started setting on Floor 1. Thinking about it, Floor 2 also seemed darker than the first time I had entered. I couldn’t be sure, though, as the snarling goblins had captivated most of my attention.

I was alone with my thoughts for far too long by the time my necklace was fully recharged. I decided to try and recharge my necklace passively on Floor 2 in the future, to see if there was a difference in recharge time due to a difference in ambient mana or if it was constant across floors. With a groan, I got up and called Slimey over, ready to get back home. I hurriedly dove into my monster’s warm embrace and zoomed off towards the comfort of my room.

I couldn’t help but feel my spirits lift as we carved a line of doom on our way to the base. There was just something so cathartic about being overpowered on a floor. It helped that the enormous amount of slimes we slew resulted in loot orbs. It might not have been much when compared to how many slimes had to die, but I excitedly watched as Slimey shunted white and green orbs into his storage space. Once home was in view, I checked my necklace. Still quite a bit of juice left. I decided to let Slimey whisk me around, circling our compound while I closed my eyes. Soon, the constant movement made me feel queasy instead of the lulling rocking I was hoping for.

As we turned and approached the base, a beam of green light shot into the sky from around where I’d assume most of our slime traps were located. I urged Slimey to rush towards the nearest tower, not seeing anyone atop any of the defenses. Right when we were about to crash into the wall of spikes, Slimey screeched to a halt, using the momentum to fling me like a catapult the twenty feet needed to land me atop the earthen tower. I clenched as it seemed as if I was going to overshoot my target, but I tumbled to a halt, slamming hard against the railing at the edge of the tower, stopping me from tumbling back down to the slimes below.

Everything spun, but I didn’t have time for that. Groaning, I stumbled down the stairs and lurched towards the slime traps. I burst into the room, nearly avoiding careening into Jeb. The dark-skinned man stepped neatly to the side, letting me vent my momentum with a few awkward stomps. I looked around frantically.

“Beam?” I asked, my breath coming out quickly.

“Loot!” Burt and Jeb said in unison. Burt was clutching something green in his hands. As I walked closer, Josh and Jean came running into the room.

“What was that?”

“Da hell was da light?”

“Ok, Burt. Spill,” I said, pointing at what he was holding.

Burt smiled nervously. “There was a bright green flash and this tumbled out from above.” He held up a green object. As I approached, I realized what it was. It was a key!

“A key?” I asked excitedly. “Has anyone seen anything that’s locked?” Everyone else shook their heads.

“Maybe there’s a secret boss room and this is the secret boss key,” Josh offered.

“Mah, maybe dere’s a chest room and da chest is locked and dis is da key!” Jean said, hopping from foot to foot.

Jeb shook his head slowly. “I’ve never heard of a boss room on the first floor. Isn’t that only on Floor 4?”

“I’ve never heard of a key dropping, but it isn’t impossible. The Tower is always changing things up,” Burt said, gripping the large key tightly.

“Look at how big it is,” Josh exclaimed. “Burt basically needs two hands to grip it. It’s huge!”

Burt rolled his eyes, loosening his grip on the key. “Yes, Josh, it’s most definitely above average,” he deadpanned.

“If it is for a chest, it must be a very large chest!”

“How large of a chest, Josh?” Burt asked in an exaggerated monotone.

“Oh, at least…” Josh raised his tanned hands up, palms facing each other. He slowly separated his hands until his arms were spread as wide as possible. “Pfffft, give or take this big?”

Burt just rolled his eyes and threw the key onto a nearby table, next to a pile of other loot. He flipped open a notebook that was also on the table and wrote down the particulars of the recent loot before turning to face us again. “No sense in speculating. We’ll figure it out through testing, not guesswork.”

Possibly foolishly, I reached over and tentatively touched the key, sending a trickle of mana into it. Nothing happened. It was probably for the best, though, considering we had no idea what kind of chaos a key could cause. Especially a key that had sent up a beam of light that was no doubt visible from halfway across the floor.

“Maybe the academy knows more,” Jeb suggested. “They’ve got quite a bit of knowledge that they don’t share with the public. Maybe someone there would know. And if not, maybe they have ways of running tests that we don’t.”

Burt made a sour face. It was as if he’d bought tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese and an onion to make a nice salad, only to have taken a bite out of the onion and noticed too late that it happened to be a bit too soft. Like, rotten soft.

“Oh, come on, Burt!” Josh said teasingly. “They’re pompous dicks, but you know Jebby-Boo is right. If we can’t figure it out, asking the stuffy professors is worth a shot.”

“Only if we can’t figure it out,” Burt agreed through grinding teeth.

“Please never call me that again,” Jeb said seriously.

“Jebbly bean?”

“No.”

“Jebberoni and cheese?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Jebiscuit?”

“No.”

“Jebroni?”

“I’m going to hurt you,” Jeb deadpanned, reaching for a club hooked to his belt.