4. First Taste of Loot

For the rest of the day and early in the next, we talked over strategies and prepared. Thwain conjured pistols at every opportunity, stocking up on as many as possible. We doubled back from the lake, not having seen anyone follow us, and headed back to the shack. None of us wanted to rope our families into our plans, either, so we didn’t visit anyone remotely close, nor left any messages through any intermediaries. Whether things went well or horribly, they’d hear about it.

At around noon, we headed out. Thwain found out that the maximum number of guns he could conjure at once was ten, as after ten, the first gun would despawn. As such, we each grabbed a few to have on hand while walking to the portal, just in case. Our rations had dwindled enough that we were running low, so today had to be profitable. Otherwise, things would get desperate. I hadn’t spent any time fishing for metal because I was training and testing, so I hadn’t made any money at all since spending it all on our last rations. Of course, I’d love nothing more than to eat something other than mystery jerky, dried fruit, stale bread and nuts, but it couldn’t be helped. Anything remotely tasty was expensive in the Slums.

The last day hadn’t netted me any money, but it had been profitable, in a way. I discovered that my slime didn’t lose any soul strength if I recalled it into my Bestiary voluntarily. If it was killed in combat, the percentage seemed to be cut in half and the monster’s memories seemed to wipe. However, if I unsummoned and then resummoned my slime, it retained all of its memories and strength, including the strength gained from eating.

Pyro had also improved his skills. His earth shaping ability could be increased if he absorbed different types of earth. He had spent the day absorbing rocks, mud and dirt from across the Slums, increasing his manipulation skill bit by bit.

It might have been my imagination, but I thought I noticed more people hanging out when we arrived at the Ascension portal. Shady types and curious onlookers gathered, some leaning against the fountain or buildings, others sitting on benches, chatting amiably. I thought I even saw a couple slink off down alleyways when they saw us approach. Probably to report to whatever gang had tasked them with watching the portal. Either way, we soldiered on as if nothing were amiss, portaling to Floor 1 like we had done the day before.

This time, we were more prepared. No stumbling, no fumbling. We got to work. Pyro tried creating walls of earth from the stone circle beneath the teleporter, but it was no use. He couldn’t manipulate it, nor could he absorb anything from it. Next, he tried to raise the earth around the back half of the stone circle by squeezing his hand under a slime. He went slowly in order to not provoke the monster, but his tactic ultimately failed. As soon as his armored hand brushed up against the slime, it attacked, slamming into his chest.

I lunged forward to help, but Pyro only chuckled. “These things tickle. Heheh.” Taking the slime in both hands, he pulled, trying to rip it in half. It didn’t work. What did happen, though, was that the slime’s caustic ooze slowly wore at his earthen armor, eroding it bit by bit. He reared back to throw it off into the distance, but I stopped him.

“Wait!” I called out. “If you hit another slime, which you will, it’ll probably aggro. And who knows if it’ll aggro everything else on its way back here.”

“Then do something,” Pyro said angrily. “It’s starting to burn, damn it.”

I raised one of the pistols. “Hold it up,” I said, gesturing with the gun.

“Don’t you fuckin' shoot me,” Pyro warned.

“Just hold it up, dude.”

He did as I asked. I ducked down and angled the gun straight up, then I pulled the trigger. The bullet ripped straight through the slime, causing it to shatter into motes of light. I held my breath, finger still on the trigger, waiting for an avalanche. When none came, I sighed out a breath of relief. If slimes didn’t aggro as easily as I thought, this might be doable…

Pyro tried again. Yet again, the slime attacked him, jumping onto him with little initial effect. He did, however, manage to raise half a foot of dirt before backing away. He held the slime out with both arms for me and I finished it off with a single shot aimed directly at the sky. A new slime hopped onto the tiny hill of dirt that had been recently created. I reached over and shot it at an upwards angle like the last two, careful not to hit anything else. As it despawned, Pyro placed his hand on the hill and raised it into a five-foot tall pillar with an effort of will and a relatively large expenditure of mana. He couldn’t manipulate dirt all day long, but he could keep it up as long as his mana reserves let him. Slimes jumped to try and land atop it, but failed repeatedly.

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They weren’t necessarily attacking the pillar, but they looked like they were jostling to sit atop it. I didn’t blame them. They were so tightly packed together that a bit of free space away from the rest would be priceless. Every so often, a slime would manage to make it on top by jumping onto other slimes. A simple bullet to the jelly took care of those easily enough.

We repeated the process until Pyro ran low on mana, repeatedly raising five-foot pillars a few inches apart. They were tall enough to stop most slimes from jumping over, and close enough together to stop them from squeezing through. In total, Pyro managed to raise four and a half pillars before his mana ran dry. It was almost enough to cover a quarter of the circumference of the stone circle surrounding the portal archway. It had also cost us three pistols to kill the slimes that were in the way, but we had gained much more from the endeavor.

Since Thwain was down to seven pistols, he summoned his eighth, his cooldown having run out before we had entered the floor. In addition, we encountered a new opportunity for wealth. One of the slimes that we defeated left behind a tiny green orb. Thwain approached and poked it. The orb folded in on itself, disappearing and leaving behind eleven copper coins, enough to feed the three of us for a week if we were careful.

“What now?” Pyro asked, breathing heavily.

“We wait,” I said. “If we need to flee into the portal, which we will need to do, we can’t run out dry. You need more mana before we move and we need to keep a gun in reserve.” With that, we all sat down and ate the rest of our rations. We discussed our next strategy as we watched the slimes play leapfrog against the pillars. Thwain was tempted to wait until his hourly cooldown was up, but we decided against it. The longer we stayed on Floor 1, the more attention that we would gather. Even the time that we already spent on the floor would arouse suspicion. Plus, with my slight limp, I was sure that I was looking like a juicy target. We would just have to keep one of the already conjured pistols for later.

After a few more minutes of rest, we lined up at the pillars. Pyro stood behind me and Thwain, ready to intercept any stray slimes. After a moment of consideration, Thwain laid all of the pistols but two at my feet and stepped back as well.

“You’re the closest to a power spike,” he explained. "I’ll keep these just in case.” He motioned to his two pistols. Really, it was only a pistol and a third since one of them only had two shots left.

I looked down at my six pistols, frowning. I took one and passed it to Pyro.

“Here, take this one,” I told him. “They’ll probably get by, so use it if you can, to save mana.”

Pyro nodded in agreement. Once we started, there was probably no stopping. As soon as we started aggroing everything, it was going to get ugly.

I took aim with two pistols, lining up my shots. I unloaded ten shots in quick succession into the horde and waited to see the results before shooting any more. Bullets tore through slimes, smashing at least four monsters apiece to pieces before losing momentum and smacking ineffectively against those at the back of the line of fire, aggroing them. I reached forward and poked a single white loot orb that had spawned within reach, catching four copper coins before they fell and shoving them into my pocket.

Like we had theorized from last time, the aggroed slimes bumped and slammed into other slimes, mobilizing them as well, causing a tsunami of slimes to rush forwards. I fired the last shot of each pistol before they poofed into smoke.

I picked up two more guns and spammed the triggers. Within moments, twelve shots rang out and the guns vanished yet again. I grabbed my last pistol as the wave broke against our barrier of pillars. Our defenses proved wanting as slimes jumped onto each other and easily over the pillars. The slimes, usually so docile, were whipped up into a frenzy. They stomped and jumped, colliding with each other and pushing to be the first to attack the humans.

I unloaded my last pistol into the swarm, reducing the height of the wave, but not stopping it. The number of slimes jumping the barrier reduced drastically, however. I saved a single shot, just in case. I turned around and carefully ran past my two friends as they shot at slimes that were jumping over and around our earthen barrier. As soon as I confirmed that they were backing up and closing in on the portal, I stepped through.