Chapter 13: Side Trip

The second leg of the dungeon had twenty rooms. Disappointingly, despite searching each chamber diligently, I failed to find any useable items in them.

Gnat’s prediction proved correct too. As evidenced by the corpses in the many rooms, the dungeon’s encounters had grown more difficult. In this section, the candidate parties had faced off against goblin squads sized between three and six.

It caused me to worry afresh. Would the size of the goblin parties keep growing? And if that happened, would I be vastly under-levelled when I fought my first skirmish? I was growing increasingly certain that that would be the case, and in hindsight, I regretted my decision not to join the first rush of candidates into the dungeon.

Still there was little I could do about my decision to lag behind the others. All I could do now was try not to fall too much further back.

But despite the new urgency that gripped me, I did not let myself grow incautious and rush my investigations. Using my sneaking skill, I concealed myself each and every time before entering an unexplored room. I did not want to fall victim to a trap due to carelessness, nor did I want to miss any potential loot.

Still, I was none the richer when I reached the crossroads I had spied earlier. Standing in the intersection of the four passages, I studied the three unmapped corridors.

The first passage continued straight ahead and was seemingly unchanged from the corridor I had just explored. The passages to my right and left were both smaller and darker. No torches lit their depths, and where the corridor ahead was nearly four yards across, the ones to the right and left were barely two yards wide.

Briefly, I debated whether I should explore the darkened passages, but in the end didn’t see as to how I had any choice. If I wanted to be better prepared to face the threats that undoubtedly still lurked in the dungeon, I had to gain more levels, even if it meant taking dangerous risks.

Dropping into a crouch, I ventured into the right corridor.

You and your familiar are hidden.

~~~

To my surprise, it was not pitch black in the side passage. Ten yards in, as I waited for my sight to adjust to the darkness, I noticed the ceiling was glowing.

At first, I had thought my eyes were mistaken, but after long minutes when the ceiling retained its shining cast, I realized that I was not imagining things and that there really was a light source on the roof.

Luminous crystals, I thought, finally identifying what I was seeing. They provided enough light to see by, but not enough to beat back the darkness. Turning my gaze forward, I studied the side passage again. The shadows concealing its depths had assumed enough definition for me to make out that the darkened holes to my left and right were open doorways.

So, despite its lack of light, the passage’s configuration is much the same as the main corridor. Cautiously, I advanced further in. I paused on the threshold of the first room and listened, but nothing jumped out at me, nor did I hear anything. I slipped inside.

Even in the darkness, I could make out that the chamber was empty. Really empty. The room didn’t contain so much as a looted chest. There weren’t even any dead bodies on the floor. I frowned. As empty as the chamber was, I couldn’t figure out its purpose.

I spent a few fruitless minutes searching the room, but didn’t uncover any clue as to what it had contained. The next room was just as empty. As was the next, and the next.

It was baffling.

What possible purpose can the empty rooms serve? I wondered. I was no closer to figuring out the mystery when I reached the end of the side passage—an abrupt cul-de-sac. Scratching my head in confusion, I studied the blank-faced wall in front of me. “Right, this was a complete waste of time,” I muttered.

My back and knees were killing me from the sustained half-crouch I had maintained while exploring the side passage. I hadn’t dared leave hiding the entire time, but now having confirmed the emptiness of the passage, I began to rise to my full height.

Your sneaking has increased to level 2.

Mid-motion, I froze.

What the—? My thoughts raced as I studied the Game message in my mind.

Your sneaking has increased to level 3.

There was only one explanation, I realized. Something was in the passage with me. Something hostile. I dropped fully back into my crouch. The agony in my overstrained limbs was forgotten, banished by a sudden surge of adrenaline. Maintaining my still posture, I strained my ears, and listened intently.

Nothing.

A hostile entity has failed to detect you! Your sneaking has increased to level 4.

Cautiously, I set my hand to the hilt of my sword and ever-so-slowly began to draw it. What is out there? I wondered. The creature—whatever it was—was nearby, although it had obviously not been this close all along.

My gaze slid to the last room I had just exited. Had the creature been hiding in there? But no, that couldn’t be, otherwise my skill gains would have triggered when I had entered the room, not after I left it.

A hostile entity has failed to detect you! Your sneaking has increased to level 5.

The creature was clearly hunting me now. I imagined it drawing closer and pictured it striking unseen, concealed by the darkness. Like an assassin. A bead of sweat dripped down my forehead and my grip tightened around the hilt of my blade. What had I done to attract the creature’s attention?

My voice, I realized. The careless words I had spoken. I was suddenly sure that they were what had drawn the creature to me. It must hunt by sound.

I was assailed by sudden fear and had to bite back the urge to run and flee for the safety of the main corridor. No! That’s what it's waiting for. Cautiously, I backpedaled and placed my back against the wall.

However, even that slight movement nearly proved my undoing.

A hostile entity has detected you! You are no longer hidden.

I don’t know if it was the whisper of my cloak’s fabric or something else that the creature sensed, but somehow my motion gave it a fix on my location.

I held my sword before me and with wild eyes scanned the darkness. A clot of blackness, darker than the rest drew my gaze. My foe. It was ten yards away, and between me and the crossroads. In an odd sort of swaying gait, the creature crept along the floor towards me.

If I had to hazard a guess, I would have said the approaching menace was oval-shaped and no more than knee-high in height. But despite how much I strained my eyes, I couldn’t make much more of the creature.

As I watched with mounting fear, the creature continued its unhurried approach. Did it not know I had spotted it? I was gripped by sudden indecision. Should I try to cut past the monster? Or duck into one of the side rooms? Or wait for it close the distance?

Before I could resolve how to act, the decision was taken out of my hands. A smaller blotch of darkness separated from my foe and hurtled towards me.

More by instinct than conscious thought, I ducked. The mass of darkness sailed overhead and with an audible splat collided with the wall. With rising dread, I eyed the still-hissing trails of darkness slide down the wall behind me. Bloody hell! What was that thing?

I had no choice but to close the distance myself, I realized. I couldn’t give the creature a chance to launch another projectile at me. But my limbs were locked in place, frozen motionless by the debilitating fear coursing through me.

I was going to die here.

I knew it with bone-deep certainty.

Whatever horror threatened me, I just knew it was a damned sight worse than any goblin. I’m not ready, I stuttered. I can’t face—

“God damnit, Michael!” I screamed, breaking free of my downward spiraling thoughts. “Stop thinking and move!”

Surprisingly the yelling worked. The sudden sound—shockingly loud in the silence—unlocked my frozen limbs. Screwing up my courage, I howled. Then charged.

I weaved an erratic path, with the vague notion of making it harder for my foe to hit me with a second projectile as I closed the distance to it.

One step. Two. Three. Then I was in range. My sword whipped downwards.

The blob rose off the floor and surged upwards.

Sword and darkness met, and blade sliced through with barely a hitch. The creature’s body offered little resistance. It was like cutting through jelly.

But jelly doesn’t strike back.

Despite being nearly sliced in two, the twin halves of the creature flowed around my blade and wrapped themselves around me.

A level 5 young black slime has critically injured you!

I screamed, and not for courage this time. Everywhere the slime’s body made contact with my naked skin, cold suffused me. Cold so deep, it burned. My legs trembled then gave way under me, and I collapsed to my knees.

A young black slime has injured you!

I howled again and felt the grip on my sword slacken. No! I protested. I will not die like this. With an effort of will, I tightened my hold on my blade and raised it to slash down. This time, I hacked off whole bits from the slime. It didn’t stop the rest of the creature from continuing its attacks though.

Gritting my teeth, I ignored the burning cold spreading throughout my body and kept hacking. It was kill or be killed. And I was grimly determined that I would prevail.

My sword rose and fell, even as black globs of the creature continued to spread over me in a seeming attempt to encase me within itself. But I did not give up. Yanking off bits of slime with hands grown numb, I slashed onwards and sliced my foe into smaller and smaller pieces.

Eventually, nearly at the end of my tether, the message I had been hoping for, and that I had begun to believe would never come, arrived.

You have killed a young black slime.

I collapsed to the floor in an exhausted heap. It was over. I had won.

Warning! Your health is dangerously low at 5%. Death imminent.

Too tired to care, I let unconsciousness claim me.