After the Slime turned to dust, it wasn’t done with transforming. Each particle of dust shimmered with soft light then floated away in the air. Lani moved to the area of her defeated opponent slowly. She continued to watch out for any sign of trickery. However, she did recall that there were accounts of monsters within the rooms of the Monolith that dissipated as this one had.

From everything Lani had read or heard, each time monsters in the Monolith were manifested then defeated, a number of different reactions could occur. Some accounts stated that the monsters melted into the ground. while others said that nothing happened with the corpses of the defeated creatures. There were a few other examples, but none popped up in Lani’s mind worthy of mention.

In the area of the slain slime, the only thing that remained was Lani’s makeshift club. She reached down, picked it up and rested it on her shoulder. She had proved that her intuition was correct that the flash of light she observed in the slime was indeed a weak spot. What she didn’t know was how she detected it in that particular slime, nor how she would find it in other slimes. The light was not something she had seen before while slinking though the cavern, so it was quite the mystery to her.

Lani was jubilant that she managed to kill one of the slimes, but there were still many more in the next cavern that blocked her way. She would need to find out how to deal with them as well. The only course of action left was to investigate and to find more examples of the slimes weak spot.

Lani started in the area she was in since there was still enough space to move around without alerting any more slimes to her presence. It was close at times, but she really didn’t have the energy to go back to an earlier area. While looking for the best slime pool to investigate closer, she didn’t manage to see light flashes, probably because she was too far away.

After a few minutes of searching, she found a suitable slime pool. She was able to walk all the way around it without alerting other slimes. The slime pool was also filled with the fire affiliated slime too, that lessened the variables in her experiment to see the glint of a weak spot. Lani observed it intensely, barely blinking as she slowly circled the slime pool while trying to glimpse the light. It was no use.

I’m going to have to take a bigger risk if I want to get out of here.

Lani rushed forward to the pool of slime, peered into it and rushed back to get out of the attack and aggro zones. Then she moved a little bit to her left and rushed in and out of the area, once more risking aggro to see it. Still, it was no use. Lani went around the entire pool of slime two more times trying to get a glimpse of the light, but she didn’t see anything.

Lani’s frustration rose.

Damn it! I need to go over what I know. The slimes have a weak spot. It shined in the light of the slime that attacked me. Why could I see that one? I couldn’t see it from every angle. Ok, so while I did see it, they are hard to see inside the slimes body. What was different about the one I saw? It was out of a pool. It was also spread out along the cavern floor and walls. Well that thought doesn’t help because none of these are outside of their pools. What am I missing? Where was the glint of light when I saw it?

Lani realized that the light she saw on the slime was roughly in the middle of it no matter where it moved.

Lani steeled her will and prepared her club. She wasn’t prone to rash decisions but it was time for a little action or she would never make it out of the Monolith.

She sprang forward into the aggro range of the slime pool and continued past the attack range. Lani raised the club overhead and smashed it down into the pool as quick as she could before the slime attacked.

Just like a stone plopped in water, the slime splashes up from the displacement of her club. Her club thudded into the bottom of the slime’s pool and her hands were splashed with the fiery goo.

Lani managed to turn her head as the slime rose further up and in so doing, it only hit her neck and hair. It burns worse than any other slime attack so far, but they had been manageable so far. Lani was hoping that her attack would have killed the slime before she was exposed to the effects of it unnatural body, but the results were even worse.

Her attack didn’t kill the slime and a tendril lashed out on her exposed stomach between the pants and top of her uniform. Lani screamed in rage and pain. She shut her eyes tightly for a moment as she gritted her teeth, and she suddenly saw what she needed. She didn’t actually see, more like she felt it.

Lani sensed the location of the weak spot. It was to the left side of where she struck with the club. Without retreating out of the way or even opening her eyes, she picked up the club and smashed it down again where she could clearly sense the slime’s weak point. Her club stuck true and just as the previous slime had, it turned to dust and then motes of light.

That was so stupid! I can’t go into a fight without an actual plan like that. I need to calm down and make rational decisions. My life is at stake here.

Lani took a few more moments thinking about what happened and lambasting herself for her poor judgement.

Her attack missed the weak spot and she paid the price. If the slime had been faster or decided to just cover her instead of whipping her, she could be suffering and on her way to deaths door. However, something else happened when she closed her eyes that made her giddy with excitement.

Just as the light flashed on the slime that attacked her, this one flashed too, but had been when she closed her eyes. For some reason she could sense it.

I wonder if it was radiating some type of power that I was able to sense? But more than that, how did I sense it? If only I had access to more information on the Monolith and what happens inside. What if it didn’t have anything to do with the Monolith?

Lani’s knowledge was vast when compared to the population of her city, but it was still very lacking in the grand scheme of things. The lessons she had already learned from traveling to the Monolith and being stuck in it had already taught her more than she had ever read or been told.

Lani didn’t let that concern her, she knew that the only way to learn more was to keep experimenting.

So, with that thought she sought out the next pool of slime.

Lani decided not to change anything about what she did with the last slime. She first set about trying to find the best pool, which was also away from others so she wouldn’t have to worry about getting close to any other slime pools. Once she found it, she slowly inspected the pool.

The first thing that she noticed was that it wasn’t a fire elemental slime. The slime resting in the pool was a light purple. That meant it was either a water or ice. She didn’t let that fact change her actions though.

She walked in a large circle around it to see if she could see any glints of light. Once she was confident that it was not visible from any angle, she took to moving back and forth as quick as possible to see deeper into the pool and then be far enough away from it when it inevitably attacked. Still, she didn’t see any sign of the weakness.

Lani moved on to the new stage of her experimentation. Without moving from her position, she closed her eyes. She tried to focus on the area where she knew the slime was. All her time in the caverns and surrounded by the slimes didn’t stop her guts from twisting at the danger all around her. It was something else inside her that she was starting to think was not normal. Also, all her experimenting with trying to find the weak points of the of the slimes didn’t change her feeling of danger either. In fact it still increased every time that she got close to the pools of slime.

Observing the slime to try and feel out the position of the slimes weak spot didn’t have any results from the distance she was at. She stepped a little closer and still didn’t feel or sense anything. Her steps were small; just minor incremental changes. Lani wanted to know exactly when she could sense it, if what she had experienced wasn’t a fluke.

Every time she moved forward, she opened her eyes, too. She didn’t have a good feel of when the danger she felt from the slimes was past the point of aggro or attack, so she didn’t want to move too far. So that made her current experiment a two-parter that would help answer more than one question that Lani had. Additionally, both experiments would help her get through this floor of the Monolith alive.

Lani kept moving forward, bit by bit until she was in the aggro range of the slime. It still wasn’t close enough. She could see the slime pulsing and small tendrils sticking up and little antennae. They were searching for the disturbance that they sensed.

How do they know I’m here though? I bet it is the same way that I can apparently sense them.

Lani thought about trying from another direction, too much further forward and the slime would sense her direction and attack.

Moving might be a good idea. If the point is at the edge of the pool and I can sense it, then I will be able to identify it earlier than I can now.

Lani decided that was the most sensible solution. If she couldn’t sense the weak point from any of the angles she tried, it wouldn’t change what she did afterward.

Lani moved back to her original distance away and took a step to her left. The process was boring and slow, and it took a lot of persistence to do correctly, but she wanted to make sure she wasn’t skipping anything that could help her survive. Slowly, she moved forward and then with her eyes closed so she could try to sense the slime’s weak point. Just as she did while looking with her eyes, she moved around in a circle, trying to get to every point.

When she reached the opposite end of the slime pool, Lani’s perseverance paid off. As she took a step closer and she reached a point where she was only one more step before gaining the aggro of the slime, she could feel the point even before she closed her eyes. When she closed her eyes, however, the weak point was like a beacon of fire in the mountains to warn of danger. She opened and closed her eyes repeatedly to get a sense of where in the pool the point was. Is seemed to her that it was resting toward the inside edge of the slime pool. If she had continued from the other end of it, she would have been in the slime’s attack range before being able to sense it.

Lani took a step closer to see if her sensing ability would let her get a better visualization if she was closer. When she moved, she entered the aggro range of the slime. To her astonishment, with her eyes open she could feel the weak spot moving directly away from her and with her eyes closed, it was even clearer that it was moving away.

When I enter the range of the slime, it moves the weak point away from my position. It isn’t very fast though. If I run in now, I could still hit it.

Lani thought about for a moment longer, then took another step back. She had one more quick test to do, then it would be time to destroy the slime. She walked backed to the other side of the slime pool, taking extra care to stay out of the slime’s aggro range. The she repeated her process. Sure enough, when she was a step or two away from the aggro range, she could once again sense the point.

Lani smiled wickedly and raised the club above her head. She closed and opened her eyes a couple times to get and accurate idea of where the point was. Feeling confident that she could hit it, she rushed forward to end the slime’s gooey existence.