Passing through the door was easy. Zortex by now felt as comfortable in a slime body as in his human body. He could not move as fast, but much faster than normal slimes. To his surprise, the slime warrior could not outran his slime pet. For months he and Pravin had been competing sliming around the room, but he didn’t win even once. His agility stat gave him an edge physically speaking, but the talent and experience of Pravin regarding slime movement were still the winning factors.

Zortex squished through the bars and in a few seconds he was on the other side. He then reverted back to his human form with a thought. Returning solid was a trick which cost him a lot of practicing, and he was able to master it not that long before learning his tentacle skill.

Right now he could exactly control the amount of mana necessary to fully become a slime, and afterwards he just needed to fuel the transformation with a tiny bit of mana to not revert back. The moment he stopped the flow he would return to a solid body. The amount of mana flow necessary to fuel it was more than his mana recovery value, so he could not go on indefinitely, but leveling up in the future would solve the problem.

Zortex started slowly walking along the only available direction while keeping an hand to the wall. His night vision stat attribute would help him see better in the dark, but in total absence of light it was useless. His Sonar skill would have been a blessing in this situation, but he could do nothing with it at the moment.

He tried to keep his pace as silent as possible, not knowing what was ahead. In the past he didn’t see anything more than rats and slimes in the sewers , but who knew what else could be in here. Maybe he will find goblins or zombies or monsters he couldn’t even imagine. AoL followed a few of the oldest stereotypes, but there was also much more lurking around in this World.

“Go on ahead. If you feel anything dangerous just pat me on the leg with a tentacle” Zortex told Pravin. Somehow slimes could orient themselves in total darkness. He was sure they used a strong sense of smell to follow blood trails, but there must be something more. Maybe it was hearing, but he suspected that it was a skill similar to Sonar. Pravin and other slimes buzzed every once in a while, as if they were vibrating.

He continued moving forward for a couple of minutes and then Pravin stopped in front of him. Zortex waited. He was expecting to hear some sound or anything, but Pravin had just stopped without patting his owner on the leg as he was told to do in case of danger. Zortex moved to Pravin side extending his arms and he touched something solid. Was this the end of the corridor? Did he miss a lateral intersection?

He tested the surface going left and right and then coming back to the middle he touched up and down.

There was a door. It was not wooden, but it felt like as if it was made of stone. A stone door was a problem. Passing through metal bars was easy, but squishing through a little slit required some preparations, at least for him. Pravin should have no trouble, so he told it to move under the little slit at the bottom and check the other side.

Pravin made it look easy…five seconds and it was gone from his sight, or at least he could not see his stats bars anymore. In moments like these he felt proud of his pet. Sometimes attack power was not everything. Having many tricks was the secrets to solve most situations. Of course against dragons little tricks would not help. Or maybe yes, Zortex hadn’t met a dragon yet.

One minute later Pravin reappered on his side. He started bumping and buzzing and squishing. That meant he was excited. Whatever was on the other side would be good.

Zortex prepared himself for an hard level of slimification. He poured all his mana into transforming and became a full slime. He could not afford to focus on fueling the transformation, so he just poured everything and hoped he would be on the other side by the time he reverted back.

“If a simple slime can do it, there is no way an awesome Shadow Slime Warrior would fail! Sorry Pravin, but now it is my time to shine” Zortex said. Pravin squished.

He started flattening his body as much as he could and moved in the small slit at the bottom of the door. Or so he hoped. He was still too big. For the next ten minutes he pushed with all his willpower to flatten to a level he could fit. After five minutes he succeeded to become that slim, but the problem was that he had no idea how to move without increasing the size. At the end of the ten minutes he turned back because he didn’t want to find himself partially under the door when he would solidify.

Once he was human again he sat down and started to analyze the situation. Pravin on his side squished in a way that sounded like laughter. Was his pet making fun of him? Zortex could not fail again, his pride would not allow him.

Now he had a clear idea of the problem. He could become flat enough, but he could not move when he was so slim. He imagined himself during the attempt and came up with the solution. Only the part of his body directly under the door needed to be that flat while the rest could stay in a bigger dimension to propel himself through.

His mana had refilled so he tested his idea, but without approaching the door for now. He had to master the technique before attempting for real, otherwise it would be death.

Twice he exercised before feeling confident enough. Zortex approached the rock door and breathed three times to focus and release the tension. He sneezed…it was quite dusty in here, so big breaths were risky.

“See you on the other side” he told Pravin. Like that he became a slime and flattened himself fast, but with rigorous precision. He followed the trail left by Pravin when he first passed by, because the dust had been removed and it was easier to move unimpeded. The door was not very deep, just five centimeters of solid marble, still he had to struggle a lot. A couple of times he felt like he was stuck and started to panic, but Pravin arrived and started pushing his back part allowing him enough momentum to arrive to the other side.

“Told you I would make it!” Zortex said. Then he looked in the direction of his pet. He should stop doing like this, always competing with the ones he kept close to him. That was what had ruined his friendship with Matthew and he didn’t want to ruin the bond he had with Pravin.

“Thank you Pravin. You are awesome.” He told his pet and was rewarded by an happy squishy sound. His slimese was improving, now he could understand the emotion of slimes! Why wasn’t this shown on his skills list? It would be nice to check his proficiency.

Looking around, his vision was rewarded with something he was used to….once again there was complete darkness. He could take out his eyes for all he cared. He put his right hand on the wall and started moving following the direction. This time he didn’t find something straight, but a curved wall. After a minute he came back to the original position close to the door and swore out loud.

“What the fuck can I do to get out of this place? And why were you so excited Pravin?”

As answer his pet moved to the center of the room and stopped there waiting for him. Puzzled Zortex followed him and when he reached Pravin’s position he stuck something in front him. He felt a bit of pain but it was more the excitement for the unexpected thing in front of him. He started circling it, touching the surface. Pravin just climbed on top of it and waited.

After some consideration Zortex came to the conclusion that he was standing in front of a coffin. It was a rectangular structure of around 2x1 meters dimensions and 1 meter high.

“So this a tomb” Zortex told Pravin. Probably a wealthy guy was buried in here if he could afford all of this. Everything around here feels like marble and that doesn’t come cheap, but why here in the sewers? He tried testing for the cover of the coffin and found that it wasn’t very thick. Maybe he could open it. He put all his strength into pushing it aside and he was rewarded by a slight movement.

“Yes, I can do it!” Zortex told Pravin and then he went completely still. He slowly moved back to the door and put his hand on it. He pushed with all his strength again and after some resistance the marble started moving and the entrance opened in front of him. Zortex wanted to cry….he had spent so much time with the iron door that it didn’t even occur to him that doors sometimes are not locked and can open without special skills.

“At least I got some training with slimification” he mumbled. Zortex went back to the coffin and resumed the process of pushing. It was hard work. Even if thin, it was still rock he was trying to move, so after a couple of minutes he asked also for Pravin’s strenght. That helped a lot and 10 minutes afterwards the cover slipped down to the floor with a loud crash.

Zortex was about to start rummaging inside when something happened that he would have never expected. Light poured in the chamber from inside the coffin. Scared, Zortex jumped away confused by what just happened, Pravin following him as a dutiful pet should do.

Some creaking noises were coming from the center of the room and a few second later a skeletal hand got hold of one of the edges. A skeleton face appeared soon after, the neck twisted and his eyes locked on Zortex. The source of brilliant light which illuminated the room was the inside of the empty sockets in the skull.

Zortex didn’t know at the time, but the light from the skeleton’s eyes was almost invisible to a normal person, even after adjusting the eyes to the dark. Skeletons liked to assault their victims while waiting in the dark, so they didn’t want to be seen. His eight months of absolute darkness had made him so sensitive to the light that he was able to see around the whole room with just that little illumination.

“Wow. A skeleton moving. I didn’t think I would meet an undead so soon.”

Is it time for a fight? Maybe it has no evil intentions. I should wait before making the first move.

The skeleton stood up completely, a short sword in his right hand. It jumped down from the coffin and raised his sword ready to attack. Over his head there was written 'Skeleton Warrior LvL ??'

“I think that clearly means that you are not here to chat with me” Zortex said. Time to test his fighting potential against a real enemy. Slimes meant nothing anymore. Hopefully the skeleton level was not too high. This was still the center of a spawning city, one of the safest zones. In the underground there are small monsters like slimes and rats (rats are not monsters technically speaking), so there shouldn’t be a lvl 100 monster. Still even a lvl 20 monster could easily be his death.

Nothing to do but find out through combat.

“Pravin. Move to my left. When it will come to attack me you will try to tackle his legs with your tentacles.” The slime pet followed the order.

The skeleton rushed at Zortex in a small run. Even though the Slime Warrior was looking at it and ready for the fight, he was still unprepared for such speed. The undead was slower than a normal person would be, but after getting used to slimes, the skeleton appeared fast by comparison.

Zortex picked a rock sitting just beside his foot and he threw it at the enemy. One of the ribs was hit by the shot and cracked, the skeleton lost balance for a moment, but started anew right away.

“Time to check my ability” Zortex said to himself. He raised his right arm and flowed mana through it. The arm became a sickly green color and shot forward elongating to four meter length.

Zortex opted for a straight hit. He had aimed for the chest of the skeleton that by now was within range. Before the attack connected, he hardened the surface of the tentacle to power the impact.

The attack was aimed correctly, but the skeleton was able to shift a bit to the left, so instead of the chest it was the shoulder that got the impact. The undead rotated with the hit without falling to the ground and raised his sword to strike down at the tentacle. Zortex tried to withdraw the appendage, but he was too slow and 40 centimeters of it were cut away.

There was no pain for the loss of flesh (ooze), but his HP went down by one fifth. He would have to be careful to not lose any part of his body. Now the skeleton was two meters away and it raised its sword for a slash at Zortex head. Before it could do that it fell to the ground.

Both ankles of the undead warrior were blocked by tentacles from Pravin. Zortex’s companion was pulling with all its strength to keep the skeleton away from its master. To not waste the opportunity Zortex formed again a tentacle to his right side and smashed it on the back of the enemy as if he was using a whip. He smashed a second time but at the third one he hit only the ground.

The enemy, instead of pushing against the pull of Pravin, decided to follow the slime in that direction. He left Zortex and threw itself at the poor pet. He first slashed horizontally cutting almost halfway through the head of the slime, then he made another slash from top to bottom and a big slice of Pravin slipped to the ground. The skeleton kicked what was left of the body against the wall and Zortex’s pet deflated, killed by the enemy.

Zortex was furious. Pravin was his best friend, his only friend. He could rely on him and Zortex had failed to protect him. Zortex was running towards his enemy with his arm extended behind him and rotating his body smashed the skeleton once on the side and completing the rotation he hit a second time with even more momentum. The undead had protected his main body by raising his left arm, but that was now completely shattered and the fragments fell to the ground.

Zortex checked his mana and noticed that he still had half of it. He could still attack a few times. Now the skeleton was on the defensive, waiting to use his sword whenever the tentacle would try to hit it.

They started circling each other until Zortex made a dash to get behind the coffin where the cover had crashed. The skeleton tried to follow but he found himself hit by a big rock. He stumbled and when he resumed the walk another rock hit him in the chest. Zortex heard something breaking.

The undead monster had approached and made a slash at Zortex’s neck with the short sword. He ducked to the ground and kicked the knee of the monster who fell on top of him. While falling the skeleton was able to stab him in the left leg. There was some pain, but Zortex was too busy thinking how to win this fight. It was evident that the enemy was at a higher level than him. After all the hits it suffered it was still able to fight. Now it was on top of him and ready to stab with its remaining arm. It was aiming at his heart, so the only thing he could do was to slimify himself. Physical attacks in general were less effective on slimes. Blunt weapons are meant to destroy bones, but slimes have no bones. Stabbing is useful to pierce vital organs, but slimes have none. Slashing is more efficient since it can slice away portions of the body.

When the stab connected with Zortex body at full force it took away 25% of his HP, but he survived and in the meantime he had prepared a tentacle which he wrapped around the skeleton neck and he pushed its head against the side of the coffin. The skeleton raised the sword again and stabbed a second time, while Zortex pushed again its head against the coffin. The sword stab connected, but in the collusion the skeleton lost the grip. Zortex took advantage of this and he kept smashing its head again and again against the edge. The skull broke and the room fell again into darkness.

Zortex had won but he had been really lucky. The enemy was skilled with the sword and it had for sure higher stats than him. He was still in his slime body, since right now there was a sword stabbed in the center of him and his HP was slowly depleting. He used the tentacle to extract the sword and then solidified into his human body. He spent five minutes laying on his back resting and thinking about his achievement. He checked his Status.

Name: Zortex Enark

Class: Shadow Slime Warrior

Level: 8

Stats:

Strength

16

Health

54(214) + 2/min

Endurance

19

Stamina

212(401) + 40/min

Agility

13

Mana

77(504) + 25/min

Spirit

27

Skill proficiency

Knife mastery

Level 4

Throwing mastery

Level 2

Slimification

Level 9

Slime summoning

-

Sonar

Level 3

Slime eating

Level 9

Mana control

Level 12

Tentacle

Level 3

Zortex had gained two levels in one go. What level was the monster?

He would never know, but now was coming the best part…the looting.