As Lani walked deeper into the cavern of the Monolith, her method of avoidance became less doable. She stood at the edge of the most recent cavern thinking about what to do. After passing each new opening of the cavern, she would pass into a small passageway. Each passageway she entered, she hoped that it would be the last. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Each new area that opened up came with at least one new addition. Each new addition came in the form of a new slime pool. Now, at the entrance to the seventh or eighth cavern, the pools of slime were so dense that making it through without drawing the aggro of one or more of them seemed impossible.

Each different slime pool she saw gave her the same feeling of dread. What was even worse, in the last cavern there was a slime that wasn’t in a pool. It had just been waiting for an unsuspecting person to happen by so it could drop from the ceiling. Luckily, Lani had looked up just in time to be able to jump and roll out of the way before it landed on her and she would have met a fate similar to the two outside the Monolith.

The slime's position had been right at the exit of the cavern. It had been a fire elemental slime so its color blended in with all the surroundings. She had seen numerous different types of slimes since traveling through the caves, she couldn’t be sure of their elemental affiliation as the only way to find out would have been to be injured and she wasn’t about to do that. She knew that the ones that blended in to the red light were fire affiliated, so she assumed that if they were purple, they were water affiliated. There were some that looked light purple and she thought that they might have been ice, and she thought that the slimes that looked pink might have been air, but of course it was all speculation.

As the fire slime dropped from the cavern and she narrowly jumped and rolled out of the way, She though that she had noticed something new. The slime blended in so well that she truly couldn’t see it, but as she glanced up, still cautious because her feeling of dread hadn’t abated, she could have sworn that she saw a glint of red light flash. The flash alerted her to the slime and then she saw the pulse of its jelly like body just before it moved to attack her.

After jumping and rolling out of the way, Lani was filled with such a large amount of anger at the apparent helplessness of her situation, she had a nearly unavoidable urge to run up the slime and stomp her way through it. She managed to tamp down the urge and continue to the next area, after all, the cavern couldn’t last forever…hopefully.

Now as she stood at the entrance to the next area, she realized that the cavern didn’t have to go on forever, it just had to progress until she was in the situation where she currently stood. She looked around the cavern. Her eyesight still wasn’t perfect in the red light, but her eyes had adjusted enough to see what she needed. Unfortunately, she could see what she needed, which was a way out. She decided to take another moment to think about her situation.

This is wrong. I must be doing something wrong. From all accounts, there has to be a way to get through this. Sure, most people die on their first floor, especially those in my position, but I know there has to be a way out. If I can’t avoid the slimes, then my only choice is to not avoid the slimes. The Ascendant said the only way to kill a slime is to crush the entire thing at once. Even if I could find a giant rock or something else to use, I probably wouldn’t be able to lift it. What if I split them in two? How would I do that while they are in a pool, I need one that isn’t in a pool to experiment.

Lani turned away from the cavern she was looking into and made her way back the previous one. She slowed as she got close to the previous cavern and to the spot where she had left the slime undulating on the ground. It was no longer in the same position. She paused to look closer and she saw it. The slime was at the edge of the opening and was beginning to make its way back to the wall, probably to get back in position just in case it had another chance at attacking someone.

But how does that work? Are these areas inside the Monolith held in suspended animation, or do they somehow continue living in their own ecosystem? But then how would the slimes survive down here? So many damn questions, why didn’t I think of these before I came in here?

Lani shook her head to clear her thoughts. The questions were indeed important, but in the situation she was in, they were useless musings. After moving through so many of the caverns and ensuring that she kept her distance from the slimes, Lani had become fairly adept in a short amount of time in how close to the creatures she could be before they became aware of her presence.

Lani knew that she would have to try and find the largest rock she could get before doing anything to the slime, but she decided to take a few moments to study it too. As she walked in a wide circle around the slime at a slow and steady pace, she noticed something. Almost in the center of the slime she saw a flash of light, the same that she had seen before. The flash was there one second, then gone another. She stopped and continued to stare for another minute hoping to see the flash but nothing happened. She took a step back and that is when she saw it again.

Lani moved back and forth a few times to make sure she wasn’t fooling herself. She saw the glint continue to shine even when she tried from multiple angles. Not every position worked but she found three areas where she could see the glint in the slime.

There is definitely something in the slime. I just need to find out if it is a weak spot or if it’s just an anomaly.

Lani looked around for rocks to be able to lob over to the slime and at least crush that area of the slime. If nothing happened then she could continue with her old plan and try to separate it into different parts. But she felt like the glint was something important. Unluckily, she couldn’t find any rocks that would be large enough to easily crush it.

There were plenty of rocks that Lani had access to, but the largest ones were about double the size of her fist. If she where to use those, she would have to attempt to throw them and get lucky enough to hit the spot that she needed. Her aim wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t something that she had practiced regularly. One other thing she wasn’t sure of was if throwing the rocks would aggro the slimes.

Throwing one to test if I aggro won’t be too bad. I can toss it just to see if it notices me. If it doesn’t then I can just continue to throw rocks until I get lucky. If I don’t I will have to look for another method.

Lani grabbed a rock and moved to an advantageous position for throwing, one where she could almost continuously see the glint of whatever it was inside the slime. Just in case, she did another sweep in the area around her to make sure that she was free of threats. Sure that she was, she reared her arm back and let loose a rock. The rock sailed in an arc toward the slime an missed the glint by a large margin, but at least she hit the slime.

She moved a little further away for safety in case the thrown projectile caused the slime to notice her and attack. Nothing happened. There were no flailing tendrils reaching around or change in the slime's current movement pattern. It was just slowly moving its way back up the wall.

Confident that throwing rocks wouldn’t aggro the slime, Lani grabbed as many rocks as she could find in a short amount of time and put them in a little pile at the same advantageous position for her to throw them.

A few hours of throwing rocks later and Lani still had no luck hitting the glinting point of the slime. The creature was fully on the wall now, and it wasn’t slowed in the slightest to her continuous attacks. Both of Lani’s shoulders were sore from throwing so many rocks at the stupid mocking slime.

Keep mocking me you bloody bastard. I will have my revenge.

Lani had zero throwing skill with her left arm but after probably the first hour and with so many piles was of rocks that she lost count, Lani gave it a go. That method only lasted about ten throws before she knew that her aim was so bad it would be better to kiss the slime to death. After that she started using both of her arms to hurl the rocks overhead. She had actually gotten fairly close a few times with that method, but she was at her limit.

After taking a short break to rest her arms, she looked around for another solution. Perusing the area Lani saw the plethora of Stalagmites scattered throughout the room. She had an idea, she just need to find the right one. Carefully moving around, she eventually found the one that looked like good for her use.

As always she ensured that the area was clear, then started to push kick and side kick the rock formation at the lowest point her foot could handle. Slowly a crack began to form where she kicked and after a few stops to catch her breath and to rub her now aching foot to go along with her aching shoulders, the stone broke off. Lani picked it up and smiled as she now had a stone club.

She made her way back to the ambushing slime. The creature made it up another couple feet but it was a good position for her. She moved to see the glint and it was just above her head level. Lani raised the club over her head, keeping her hands spaced apart. She wasn’t going to swing it like a bat, but more like a spear. The top of her club was flat and it would be perfect for crushing.

The slimes outside didn’t affect the clothes of the Ascendant Recruits outside the Monolith. If I rush it and crush that spot, and then drop the club and spring back, my shoes should protect me. I just can’t get caught in the slime.

With arms raised and holding the makeshift club, Lani rushed forward. She kept her eyes on the glint as she moved. When she entered the slime’s range, a ripple spread from the glint. A tendril began to form on the slime but it was too late. Lani was already in striking range and she slammed the club down where she knew the glint was, even though it had disappeared.

The slime’s tendril raked across her neck in searing pain. Lani worried that she missed her target but she didn’t have time to ponder it fully. She dropped the club and simultaneously jumped back to flee from the range of the slime. Her neck burned and she kept her arms up to protect from another slash. Nothing struck her though and when she was clear of its range, she could see why.

The slime was drying up and crumbling to dust.