“Ok, Mavis. The best thing about cooking is that it can be as simple, or as complicated, as you want it to be.”

A featureless blob of slime stared at Theo. It lengthened slightly and then bobbed up and down. Mavis was nodding.

“Things are naturally more difficult when you’re raiding, but the principle is the same. It’s best to start out simple.”

Theo picked up a spherical sea-blue crystal. Lighter shades of blue shifted within it like flowing waves. He held the crystal above an iron pot. As Theo filled it with mana, water began to pour out of the palm-sized ball. When the pot was mostly full, Theo put it back down.

The outlaw stared at Mavis, his expression taut.

“Today you’re going to learn how to boil water.”

The blob shuddered with excitement.

While Theo taught Mavis about water crystals and flame crystals, Vivian was kneeling several meters away. Her eyes were bloodshot as she stared at the green cloak and mask in front of her. Placing her hands on the cloak, Vivian’s fingers began to glow as she worked.

By the time Mavis had brought a pot of water to boil, Vivian was hanging her head in defeat for the umpteenth time.

The mage’s frustration began four days ago, on the morning after she’d threatened Marco. As they prepared to leave the lindworm’s cave, Mavis had a complaint.

“Cloak…broken. Uncomfortable.”

Uncomfortable was putting it mildly. After taking an axe to the shoulder, the slime’s green cloak had a massive hole in it. The woven fabric continued to tear as they travelled, exacerbating the problem. By this point, part of the cloak was constantly slipping off—forcing Mavis to hold its shoulder like a stripper preparing to undress.

“You have a normal shirt underneath.” Vivian pointed out. “It hides less, but your disguise should still hold up.”

“Like…cloak.”

“Why do you wear that thing, anyway?” Theo asked. “Same with that mask. They look…intimidating. But is that what you want?”

“Mask…and…cloak…both…good.”

The slime paused for a moment, its hair waved slightly.

“Good…like…pendant.”

“This?”

Vivian pointed at her cat’s eye pendant.

“And…Theo…cloak.”

Theo looked at his tan cloak quizzically.

“Raiders…happy…when…find…good…gear. Keep…because…that.”

Theo and Vivian stopped walking. They stared at Mavis and the slime cocked its head. Swallowing his disbelief, Theo stepped forward.

“Your cloak and mask are enchanted? I mean, you found them in Naraka, so of course they are—but they’re on par with Vivian’s pendant?”

Mavis nodded.

“There’s something weird about that.” Vivian said, her features twisting in a concerned expression. “Mavis, did you ever actually appraise my pendant?”

“…No. Don’t know…how.”

“Then how do you know they’re on the same level?”

“Pendant…feel…strong.”

Theo and Vivian blinked in unison.

Many raiders disliked fighting other humans because their enemy’s strength was difficult to gauge. Enchantments could be evaluated through appraisal, but that required physical contact and concentration. Even minor appraisals were impossible to perform during a fight. This was why Vivian’s cat’s eye was so valuable. Very few pieces of equipment could give a raider information on their enemy.

“So, a slime’s magical sight can ‘sense’ enchantments.” Vivian reasoned. “You can even differentiate between strong and weak ones. There’s less information than a minor appraisal, but it’s an incredible ability.”

“More importantly, that means your cloak and mask have gold-tier enchantments.” Theo added.

“Gold? Like…coins?”

“No, that’s a different kind of gold. Enchantments have four levels of strength: bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Bronze is weak, like my daggers. Silver is decent, but simple—like my vambraces. Gold enchantments are very powerful. Everyone dreams of having a full set of gold gear. Platinum is too rare to even dream about.”

Mavis’s hair twitched as it felt a light go off in its head. The slime had heard raiders throw those terms around in the first layer. However, it had never been able to understand them. Obviously, raiders wouldn’t explain these metrics to each other.

While the slime had its epiphany, Theo sighed inwardly. Platinum gear could only be found in the fourth and fifth layers of Naraka. Going there would be difficult, but it was a necessary step if he wanted freedom. Theo couldn’t offer anything less for his crimes.

“Mavis, let Vivian appraise your clothes.”

The slime dutifully handed its cloak over to Vivian, but it hesitated to take off its mask.

“No…show…face.”

“What?” The mage exclaimed. “Why?”

“Not…good…mimic…bad.”

After some arguing, Mavis returned to its blob form and gave Vivian the mask. Vivian placed her hands on the cloak first. Frowning, she moved her hands over to the mask. Her brow furrowed.

“Disgusting.”

“What?” Theo and Mavis asked together.

“These things are beyond defective. Activating them is impossible. I can’t even guess what their enchantments do.”

“That’s…odd.” Theo muttered.

“No, I’d say it’s completely expected. The first layer mostly produces bronze-tier enchantments. When high-quality gear drops in a low-quality area, the dungeon frequently messes with the enchantment to compensate. For gold-tier treasures found in the first layer…I’m only surprised they haven’t ripped themselves apart or exploded.”

“That…happen?”

Mavis’s blob form shook like water in an earthquake.

“If you try to channel mana into them, it might.”

The slime began to back away and Vivian hastily added.

“-But you’ll be fine if you wear them normally.”

Mavis continued to hesitate, but when Vivian held the items out, it took them.

“I can work on them in our spare time. Fixing them completely would be tough, but I might be able to make them useable.”

“You can do that?” Theo asked.

“Objects enchanted by a dungeon are fundamentally the same as objects enchanted by a mage. Though, they’re usually much more complex. Fixing defective enchantments is like untying a mess of knots.”

“I can’t tell if that’s easy or hard.”

“If it were easy, then mages would buy every piece of defective gear and sell them back at a profit.”

“…Fair enough.”

“Also, those boots you’re wearing are defective, right? I noticed when we were fighting Nico. My first priority should probably be to make Mavis’s gear usable, but I can tune your boots if you’d like. They’ll become more consistent at the cost of some speed.”

“That’s a win-win. Thanks.”

“Thank you…Vivi.”

Vivian smiled as she was praised. Enchanting had been her favorite subject in the academy. Under different circumstances, Vivian would have likely become a mage that specialized in enchantments. The cushy life of a researcher was something she daydreamed about frequently. Therefore, Vivian was very excited to study a pair of extremely rare defective enchantments.

Four days later, that excitement had extinguished. Academic curiosity retreated while frenzied stubbornness took its place. Untangling knots had been a bad metaphor. These two enchantments were like handling a cluster of temperamental snakes, each of which would hiss and spit when moved. So far, Vivian couldn’t tell what the enchantments did, let alone fix them.

At the very least, she had been able to sew up the gash on Mavis’s cloak. Most raiders didn’t carry those kinds of tools, but being a human storage crystal had its advantages.

“Water…boiling!” Mavis cried out.

“Great job.”

After flashing a thumbs up, Theo turned to look at Vivian.

“I’ll prepare breakfast myself, so why don’t you practice grammar with Vivian?”

“Eh? Can…help…cook.”

“I-It’s best to take things one step at a time…”

“Lying.”

“Fine. To be brutally honest, today is very important and we can’t risk another food-poisoning incident.”

Theo knew that Mavis’s intelligence was on par with a human’s. However, its lack of common sense made certain tasks difficult. While they hunted like predators, all slimes were omnivores. Their cores secreted a digestive fluid that allowed them to absorb almost any food without waste. Even though Mavis could taste, it didn’t have a sense of what was edible and what wasn’t. For a species that was sometimes called ‘the dungeon’s janitor’, this was to be expected.

Despite its efforts during the past four days, Mavis still hadn’t surpassed the first ‘meal’ that it had made for Theo back in the first layer.

The slime crawled over to Vivian and they began to sulk together. Meanwhile, Theo sighed and started cooking. He knew they would need a lot of energy to tackle the third layer.

Once they ate and packed up, the jungle would only be a few hours away.

Theo glanced at the mist pouring out of a ravine near their campsite and frowned. He would have preferred to stay in the second layer for a couple more weeks. Ultimately, their goal in the second and third layers was to gather as much gold-tier equipment as possible before moving into the fourth. Right now, though, even silver gear would be useful. The problem was their reputation.

All of the raiders that had witnessed Vivian’s ‘kidnapping’ were bound to remember the trio’s faces. In fact, the legend of the phantom had already spread significantly over the past four days. Walking on trails was now thoroughly impossible. Even hunting in the forests and mountains risked starting another manhunt. Theo, Mavis and Vivian had been forced to quickly and quietly rush into the third layer.

“Ok, let’s go.” Theo announced as they broke camp.

“I still can’t believe I’m going to the third layer.” Vivian muttered. Her lips rose in a nervous smile.

“Disguise…good.” Mavis said.

The slime copied Theo’s earlier thumbs up in its new and improved human form. With Theo and Vivian’s help, Mavis’s mimicry had reached a new level of competency. It could create a complete human form in under twenty minutes, which was a major improvement from its hour-long transformations in the first layer.

Theo hadn’t missed that the slime’s new form was noticeably more feminine. Mavis’s voice and long black hair were the main reasons why he’d always called it a ‘she’. Now, despite technically being genderless, there was no question that the its body was a woman’s. The slime’s skin was paler than Vivian’s, but it had a certain luster that gave the impression of an otherworldly beauty. A simple black shirt and a pair of trousers showed a glimpse its lithe frame from beneath its trademark cloak. While the slime’s new form was certainly curvier, it hadn’t grown to match Vivian’s proportions. Just like when it had used Theo’s limbs as a reference, Mavis seemed to be passing that information into some unknown template.

Their journey to the third layer’s threshold was uneventful, mainly because there was barely any distance to travel. When they were several dozen meters away, mist began to snake along the ground. The milky vapor grew thicker and thicker as they continued. Soon, Theo could just barely make out the silhouetted mouth of a massive cave. Its wideness didn’t lose out to the one-way portal. Rows of human-sized stalagmites and stalactites lined the entrance to the cave. They created the unmistakable impression of a gargantuan maw waiting within the haze.

“If this mist is everywhere in the third layer, then visibility will be worse than the first.” Theo muttered.

“Apparently, it stays above the trees.” Vivian answered. “We’ll be blind inside this tunnel, but then it will clear up.”

“Good thing Mavis is here.”

“Leave…to…me.”

They walked between the massive stalagmites and entered the path known as ‘the devil’s maw’. As far as raiders were concerned, this cave was a part of the third layer. Historically, many raiders had tried to enter the valley jungle through other avenues. These people disappeared into the mist and were never heard from again. The only safe entrance was through this sloped tunnel.

It was a world of silhouettes within the mist. Theo kept his hands near his daggers and glanced around warily, but the first leg of their journey went smoothly. The trio continued for a while until they heard the sounds of combat. Another party had encountered a monster.

While he was distracted, Theo nearly tripped as the ground beneath his feet vanished. He saved himself by taking an elongated step. When the outlaw’s boots touched the floor, he realized that the tunnel’s slope had become significantly steeper. They could likely slide all the way down to the third layer—if they had a death wish.

“The ground slopes hard up ahead, so watch yourself.” Theo ordered. “There are monsters too, and they probably don’t rely on sight.”

“What are we doing about those other raiders?” Vivian asked.

“Ignore them. Fortunately, they can’t see our faces.”

The trio continued at a much slower pace with Mavis leading the way. When they approached the embattled party, Theo made sure to give them a wide berth. Everything was going smoothly until Theo heard their voices.

“Nasser! Tarq! Box it in from the sides!”

“Ollie, light it up!”

“Yes, ma’am.”

A blazing fireball suddenly appeared above one figure’s head. It shot through the mist, igniting a massive black spider several meters away. The two-and-a-half-meter tall monstrosity flailed around, but that didn’t prevent an enchanted arrow from piercing its brain.

The spider fell, but the four raiders didn’t celebrate. Just from their silhouettes, Theo could tell that they were on guard. A woman approached the outlaw with raised hands and open palms—a sign of peaceful intent.

“Hey there, I don’t blame you for not helping. I mean, that fight was our business. But stalking around us without saying a word rubs me the wrong way.”

Theo stared at the silhouette in shock.

“My name is Kaiya, what’s yours?”