It was a balanced party consisted of five people. Leia, the A-Rank, no, the retired A-Rank Adventurer led the party well. It only took them half an hour to conquer each floor, and after five hours, they reached the tenth floor. They stopped in front of the door to the tenth floor. There was a warning that shouldn’t be there, written on the door.

[Beware, the monster here is different than the ones you defeated before. Proceed with caution.]

“What is this? Is this the message from the previous party?” The Scout of the party, a B-Rank Adventurer named Lina asked curiously. She was proficient with both knife and bow, however, in a Dungeon, bow was not as useful, so she didn’t bring her bow at the moment.

To her question, Leia shook her head. “No, you can’t damage the door of a Dungeon.”

As proof, she swung her sword at the door, but there was no scratch at all. The other understood immediately that it was impossible for the other Adventurers to write this warning on the door.

“So… it is the warning from the Dungeon Master? Should we continue?” The Mage, Julia, who wore oversized cloak asked timidly. She seemed to have a bad feeling about it, but she didn’t want to make the morale of the party down, so she didn’t say anything.

“Yes, like usual, we have to proceed with caution. Let’s ignore this warning.” Leia said and pushed the heavy door open.

The five of them entered the room cautiously. There was no surprise attack, however, their attention immediately attracted by a huge monster in the middle of the room. It was brown, and its size was bigger than any of them.

“Oy, oy, that’s a Slime, right? An Earth Slime, right?” The Warrior asked, or rather, wishing that was not what it seemed.

“…that is an Earth Slime, but it is the first time I see one as big as this one,” Leia replied as she raised her sword.

“Earth Slime has high resistance against swords and bows, you know? Don’t you think it’s better if I use my Fire Magic at it?” The Mage, Julia asked.

“Yeah, you are right, but before that, we have to pull its hate to us first, don’t you think so?” Morgana the Warrior said while swinging her arms.

“Well, I would be useless in this fight, so I’ll protect little Meia.” Lina giggled as she stepped back. It had been decided. The two Warriors would engage the monster and pulled its hate toward them while the Mage would give damages to the Earth Slime. The Healer and the Scout wouldn’t be able to do much, so they would only act as supports in this fight.

As for the Earth Slime, it didn’t immediately attack the Adventurers. It waited patiently. The Dungeon Master of this Dungeon had imparted some battle knowledge to it, so it started planning when it saw the Adventurers. It already knew that the two Vanguards would be the first to attack it. It knew, yet, it didn’t start attacking first.

Just as the two Warriors rushed forward to attack the Earth Slime, it abruptly shrank and extended instantly, jumping at high speed towards the two girls at the back, the Healer and the Scout. No, its target was not them, but rather, the door behind them.

The Earth Slime slammed the door closed. I wouldn’t be opened while they were fighting. The Earth Slime had closed their retreat route, so they could only fight.

“Be careful! This monster is different than the normal Earth Slime!” Lina the Scout exclaimed as she pulled Meia the Healer away from the Slime.

“That’s what the warning about, huh?” Morgana said as she ran to the Earth Slime again. However, the Earth Slime shrank once again, and before Morgana could react, the Earth Slime had leaped and hit her stomach hard. Unlike the other Slimes, the Earth Slime had hard body like rock. Although it could shrink and extend its body, it was still as hard as a rock. And when its giant body hit the stomach of the Warrior, the Warrior flew backward at high speed while coughing blood incessantly.

“Morgana!” The others shouted her name, but that instant was enough for the Slime to attack them. It leaped to the Mage who didn’t have the protection. No, Leia, the other Warrior, could react to the Slime’s speed and blocked the Slime with her sword.

However, just like the previous Warrior, she flew back at high speed too. She didn’t cough blood, however, as she blocked the Slime properly. However, behind her, the Mage was stunned and frozen as she saw the Slime attacked her. She couldn’t react at all when Leia hit her and both of them fell to the ground.

“Be careful! This monster is too strong!” Leia warned the others as she stood up once again. The Earth Slime attacked the Healer this time, but the Scout managed to pull the Healer and avoided the Slime’s attack.

“How can you beat a Slime that can move this fast!?” Morgana stood up and wiped the blood from her mouth. She drank the Orange Potion that fortunately didn’t break after she was hit by the Slime.

“[Fireball]!” The Mage insta-cast her Spell, but the Slime already moved from its previous position, dodging the Fireball completely. The Slime jumped from one point to another point at high speed, avoiding every attack the party tried to inflict at it.

However, after the first surprise attack, the Adventurers began adapting to the Slime’s battle style. Both Morgana and Leia protected the others every time the Slime attacked them. Meia gave the [Blessing of the Giants] at both Morgana and Leia, increasing their strength by quite a lot. They were able to block the Slime’s attacks because of it, but they were not able to inflict any damage at the Slime’s body as every Magic was avoided by it.

As for Lina, she tried her hardest to open the door while being protected by her comrades. The door was not unopenable, however, in a battle like this, trying to open that door was almost similar to a suicide.

“Can’t you stop its movement!?” Julia yelled in frustration. Her Magic was always dodged by the Slime, so she was frustrated. Also, after using a lot of Mana, she was sweating too. And it made her even more irritated.

“It’s almost impossible, you know it too, don’t you?” Morgana replied while blocking the Earth Slime again. Her hands were numb from blocking its incessant attack. However, she knew that if she didn’t block it, the others behind her wouldn’t be able to take even one attack of the Earth Slime. Even she wouldn’t be able to take another one of its attacks.

Seeing the attack was useless, the Earth Slime started its next plan of attack. While jumping and attacked the Adventurers with its body, it started constructing Magic at high speed. Even though its Intelligence Points was not as high as Slimerin’s, but it was better than the Dungeon Master’s INT points. It could use Magic in a high-speed battle like this, even though the Magic it used was just the low-level Magic.

Leia and Morgana didn’t seem to notice it, however, Julia who was a Mage, was sensitive to the change of Mana around the Slime. In an instant, before the Slime shot its Magic, Julia raised her voice to warn her party members.

“Be careful! It’s going to use...!!”

She was, however, a bit too late. Before she could finish her words, countless pebbles had been shot towards Leia while the Earth Slime attacked Morgana with its body.

“[Mana Shield]!” Julia shouted in desperation. She knew it was not enough to block all the pebbles and the Slime, however, she wished that it would be enough to mitigate some of the damages they would otherwise receive. The Slime ignored such a barrier and instead, it cast another Magic. It cast an [Earth Prison], creating a dome to trap the target. And the target was the Scout and the Healer who tried to open the door with all their might.

“Lina! Meia!” The Mage tried to warn them, but again, it was too late, as the Slime insta-cast those Magic. The speed it moved its Mana was unbelievable for a human being. Well, the reason for that was the Slime’s body was too simple, unlike human or other creatures. That was why using Mana that spread in all of its body was easy, and it didn’t have to move the Mana in complex patterns. In addition to that, it was a creature created by the Dungeon. So, as long as it was inside the Dungeon, it could use the Mana around it effectively. And so, it could instantly cast Magic, though it was limited to the low-level Magic.

It was enough, however. The trapped Scout and the Healer wouldn’t be able to help their comrades and without the Scout, it would be impossible for them to open the door. Cornered, the Warriors, and the Mage thought that it would be a battle to death.

The Slime, however, didn’t think similarly. After pushing Morgana back, it jumped and cast another [Earth Prison] on Morgana, completely trapped her while she was still stumbling back.

“Julia! Try to open the [Earth Prison]! I’ll hold it for a few moments!” Leia shouted, but even she knew that it was almost impossible for them to win this battle. They couldn’t even win with the five of them combined, now, they wouldn’t be able to win with only the two of them. Not to mention the Slime became even trickier as time passed. For example, just when the Mage tried to cast her Magic, the Slime instantly made a tiny pitfall beneath her feet, causing her to fall and stop her casting. As for Leia, the Slime could ignore her attack as its body was solid hard… was not something that happened.

“[Slash of Severing Soul]!” Leia shouted the name of her Skill. The Slime instinctively knew that this slash was dangerous even for it, so it used [Earth Prison] to protect it from that attack. It covered its body with the [Earth Prison], protecting it from the attack. When the [Slash of Severing Soul] connected with the [Earth Prison], the Slime could feel the Mana inside the [Earth Prison] dissipated rapidly, and that caused the Earth Prison to be disintegrated.

It was an attack that damaged the Soul, or in the common word, Mana, rather than the physical being. No, since a sword was used for this Skill, it also damaged the physical being as well. It was really a troublesome attack, the Slime thought as it leaped back after causing the Mage to fall into a pitfall once again. This time, the pitfall was large enough that she wouldn’t be able to get out. Not to mention, the Slime also summoned a big rock to cover the pitfall, completely trapped the Mage beneath the rock.

Now then, the Mage wouldn’t be able to get out of the pitfall using her Fire Magic. As for Earth Magic, the Slime was confident it would sense the Mage the instant it tried to use Earth Magic and it would disrupt her Magic.

There was only a Warrior left. An A-Rank Adventurer, Leia. The Slime didn’t try to defeat her from the beginning as it knew, this Adventurer was the strongest amongst the Adventurers. That was why it only slowed her down at beginning and it defeated the others first. Now, it was the time to fight with the strongest of them, the Slime became even more cautious. It didn’t want its first fight to end with it losing after all.

Leia panted heavily as she brandished her sword once again. With a strong yell, she rushed forward, planning to attack the Slime with another [Slash of Severing Soul]. However, the Slime had learned. Using [Earth Prison] just to protect it from that [Slash of Severing Soul] consumed too much Mana. Rather than covering its whole body, it used an [Earth Wall] to protect only the front. And as expected, the sword hit the wall, and the wall disintegrated just like the [Earth Prison]. It was stopped too. And the Slime started its counterattack.