Chapter Twenty Three: Danger, found but at what cost?

Smaller with a step

Encasing each dent.

The passage which started as a large hollow coffin slowly began to shrink in size.

Before Vaud, who was 5'10 had another foot or two before his arm even touched the ceiling now, he was hunched slightly lower than Kresley's height.

Considering their team composition, everyone was affected, except Kresley who instead of celebrating was tense despite being told not to worry.

"She should worry," Shadow whispered, directed at Kresley.

"The group is limited; our greatest asset is speed."

"If we lose our speed we take hits, we lose our wits, we are no longer a human blitz," Stepping over a large stone, Waynev was slowly moving ahead of the party.

Despite the already large berth between Waynev and the group.

"If this ends with a death-end." Waynev drew her lips inwards.

Her height, a bit higher than Kresley but much shorter than Pill left her better off than the men; however, her lower back still had complaints.

"If it does then it will mean a run backwards, perhaps a blink. Sacrifice energy for time or power for both time and energy?" Shadow ruminated as Waynev finally saw a gap in the wall, the small stream flowing to in and in to a large surface of water.

"Oh." Her lacklustre response wasn't uncalled for.

The torch had already been extinguished once by Waynev, crawling through a lake or pool of water would definitely cause her to lose it again.

Already creeping forward she noticed a weird-looking bubble near the entrance to the lake-cave, getting closer she was given a view to remember.

Sprawling over the tavern were thousands of small bubbles, the majority were sitting still while some were moving towards the wall to her right.

"Waynev wait, those aren't weird looking bubbles,"

"They're slimes." Looking back at the colossal size of the nest Waynev wasn't surprised at the size but instead the location.

The water was crystal clear and yet near the bottom small bubbles periodically rose to the surface from seemingly nowhere, the whole area felt unreal.

Taking a step back she left her torch away from the gap in the wall, in an attempt to alleviate the slimes attention but looking back at the hole she noticed one of the occupants began coming towards her.

"Waynev drop the torch and lure it inside if we kill it without making any noise we can sneak back to the party and tell them what we saw."

"I'm going to gauge it's speed and reflexes as well. So we know what to expect" Waynev added.

Seeing a plan form, she began backing away further from the gap and waiting for some gelatinous form to follow through.

Like an alien being, it moved with its flesh sticking to the ground below it, rolling over the gap despite it being in the middle of the stone.

"Hmm. It's slow, doesn't have any eyes and rolls everywhere. How does it survi-" Mid-contemplation the slime which was still slowly coming from the wall suddenly leapt off and towards Waynev.

Bang

"F-" Holding in the verbal lashing, Waynev moved back and rubbed her head with her off-hand still backing away.

The slime was still approaching Waynev and leapt again, this time however Waynev moved to the side and encircled it, back to the hole which now was a small distance away.

"Let's test how you fight it hmm? Remember to block." Shadow whispered as Waynev locked onto the slimes form.

Dashing forward she threw her right fist at the slime, but instead of flesh, she met air.

Trying to back away Waynev found herself tripping, catching herself she saw the slime encased the bottom of her pants while the sturdy shoes were almost wholly ignored.

Kicking wildly, it stuck to her until she tried to grab it.

That's when she realised it wasn't water inside the slime.

Instead.

Acid.

"SH-" Already throwing the monster back she began rubbing almost scrubbing her hands on her pants, only to find the slime launch itself at her face.

Trying to dodge Waynev succeeded in moving her legs but not fast enough, the slime catapulting itself inches away from what would be a blinding time for Waynev.

Pulling her hands, she caught the monster, already felt the burning but brought it down onto her foot.

Stomping the creature over and over again she saw it try and reform itself, but Waynev was relentless, the acid still burning her arms she kept stomping until all she saw was a puddle of unmoving liquid.

Quickly getting her waterskin out, she poured the liquid over the burn and tried to limit the damage.

"Ouchh." Bending over almost into a ball Waynev was still rubbing the water on her burns before the torchlight began getting low, crouching over to the torch she added fuel and began making her way back.

"Well, that didn't go too horribly wrong," Shadow whispered in a sing-song tone.

"Also are you going to use a health potion or just going to suffer through it?"

Shit, that's right.

Dropping her torch on the ground, she immediately began searching through her bags for the familiar glass feel.

Brushing past the flask, she fished it out and immediately chugged half of it down.

Coughing and spluttering into her hand she began rubbing the remains onto her burn, already the constant stinging turned into a mild warm heat that encased her forearms.

In seconds, moments her arms were free of their earlier undeserved perils and pain.

"I know you don't want me interrupting you're fighting, but there were better wa-" Shadow hinted at the possibility.

"Not now Shadow, after this I'll talk to the group about it, but for now I'm happy avoiding fighting. Besides," Waynev looked over at the slimes corpse.

"With some luck, we won't have to fight these things." As the words left her mouth, she could see a familiar orange flame in the distance, picking up her own, she made her way over to the group.

"-fit through the hole!" Waynev almost shouted at Vaud.

It had been more than half an hour of arguing before they finally worked out their plan.

"Vaud and Pill are waiting as support near the crossroads while Kresley and we get the smile. We can use our empty potion bottle and Vaud's spare waterskin to carry the stuff." Shadow recited the plan while trying to work out any weak points, specifically getting back to Vaud and Pill.

"Right now it should be-"

"It should be finished? How about the part of us getting back to the hole without the slimes massacring us?" Waynev whispered to Shadow, unhappy at being left responsible for their team's masco- their friend.

"You know we'll work something out." Her words didn't help, but they did ring true, Waynev was a survivor.

But was Kresley?

Working their way through the tunnel Shadow was impressed at Kresley's nimble figure, before remembering that she was the party's original scout.

"Elusive and reclusive. I like her." Shadow's repeated comments about Kresley started as heartfelt, but Waynev felt like it was getting slightly obsessive, in the same way, she talked about Elise.

"Hmm." Stopping for a second, she shook the image of her beautiful sister from her head, ignoring the pangs she continued her stalk towards the hive.

Side by side the torch-lit the passage well, the figures couldn't hide from it, however, and another problem arose.

"We're going to need to lose the torch." Waynev

"Waynev. We could ditch the torch, I have good vision in the dark but are you going to be okay?"

"I-"

"You could be."

Waiting for Shadow to finish, she never did which lead to an awkward staring match between Waynev and Kresley.

"Yeah, I can." Swallowing Waynev's annoyance at Shadow, she put her torch on the ground and stomped the light away.

Which turns out only takes three well-placed stomps.

As the pitch-black began to overtake her vision, Waynev closed her eyes.

"..."

"Are you going to ask?"

But Waynev stayed silent.

She had the power.

If she left without the royal slime, it would push them back, and with no time-limit, neither Shadow nor Waynev knew how long until the inevitable happened, but waiting around with her eyes closed in a cave was a waste of time.

To someone as calculating as Shadow, she knew the consequences well.

Pushing her power into Waynev's eyes, even with the lids of her eyes closed, she could see a dark red outline next to her.

Crouching low to the ground and facing her direction.

Waynev turned to the red outline "Alright, I'm ready."

Eyes open, she could still see the outline but nothing else.

"Kresley why don't you take the lead? I can barely see if I'm honest." Waynev sheepishly claimed as Kresley nodded and took the lead.

Minutes of walking Waynev noticed Kresley begin to head to the centre of the room before putting her head through something.

Close behind Waynev peeked through and gasped.

All around her were thousands of red outlines, nearly blinding her with the number of slimes she looked away for a moment before taking another look.

This was perfect.

On every surface, there were dots, guiding the way.

Turning to the red outline next to her, she whispered, "Kres, it outlined in the book that slimes have their burrow in the wall. The queen slime should be in there and so will the royal jelly."

Still looking at her Kresley noticed her shaking slightly, though not through the outline.

Rather from proximity.

"Kresley…" Bringing her close, she held the young woman.

"S-sorry Wayne." Her voice muffled into her shoulder.

"I'm just... It's a lot of them."

"When we were younger and went to our first 'dungeon' the slimes combined scared me and nearly killed all of us." Her voice began quivering as she tried to suppress the croaks and tears.

"Hey, it's going to be alright. Shh." Waynev pulled her closed but scanned the area around her in-case any slimes took advantage of Kresley's weakness.

"Listen Kres." Waynev waited for her to calm slightly before continuing.

"I'm confident I can make it to the hive and get the royal honey, but I need you to-" She looked at Kresley.

"Stay strong. Don't feel bad, I can do this, but it would help if you watched from the opening." Waynev continued to reassure Kresley and waited for Shadow's teasing and verbal assault, but it never came.

"If anything happens run back to the passage for Vaud and Pill. I should make it out if I don't just run. Can you do that?" Waynev waited for her to stop shivering before she felt a small nod from her breast.

"Perfect. Kresley, I'm going. Are you feeling up to it?" Waynev whispered softly, treating her like she used to Elise whenever she had nightmares or was scared of the dark.

"Y-yes, I think I'm okay now." Kresley separated from Waynev, her chest felt slightly damp and looking at the red outline rubbing her eyes it didn't take a genius to guess why.

"Good. Wish me luck." Putting on a strong front Waynev snuck through the hole in the wall and began her descent into the hive.

"G-good luck Waynev." A whisper came through along with a tug of her lips.

"Let's be fast." Her Shadow intoned.

"She doesn't deserve to be kept waiting."

“...and the time-limit?”

Quest:

Find or create a Magic Catalyst.

Find an object that can be used as a Catalyst. OR Create an object that can be used as a Catalyst. Merge with the Catalyst.

Consequence:

You lose your innate ability.

Time Limit:

Three days, Three hours, 32 minutes remaining.

"Hmm..."