Chương 20: The Tunnels

LANCE didn't like tunnels. He never had; his father hated water, but he could stand water if given the choice between that and tunnels. It was the confined space he didn't like; his head was always hitting against some jagged surface or root or some worm or spider was running amok. In all, a tiresome place. This tunnel in particular, was on the crappy side. Why was because of Slimes. Slimes, usually, were not the deadliest of enemies.

They could wither away and opponent's armor, sure, but tended to stay in one place, like spiders, as they absorbed all the nutrients they could from a place. Slimes were not known for their aggression. These slimes, though? They were aggressive and interested more in flesh than in rock salt or root matter. For someone like Lance, who had such elevated stats as to kill even baby krakens, a slime would not be an issue.

Or it wouldn't be if the slimes didn't come by the half-dozen and litter the whole tunnel, thus preventing him from moving forward. To remove the slimes, they had to be killed. Which was the thing — Slimes were not easily killed by physical weapons; if a Slime was your enemy, it would only be removed if its elemental weakness was struck. So, he did the only thing he could do: change his weapon into a spear and imbue it with elementalized mana curtesy of his 'Absolute' Boon.

Doing so was easy, once he understood the type of slimes he was dealing with, that is, which required some experimentation. Squishy slimes were weak to wind magic, hard-shelled slimes were weak to earth magic; but no matter the type, he, through the boon of his... Boon, channeled said mana into his weapon and poked the slimes. All it took was a single stab and the slime died. [You Have Killed Minor Slime: You Have Gained XP] was a notification he received many, many times as he scouted the tunnel.

The deeper he went, the more slimes he encountered. That was a problem. Why was because as a Paladin, so he only had so much mana to draw upon for elementalizing. And since he hadn't any Boon Points in reserve, he lacked such a backup strategy should things get tough, he couldn't simply dump points into a Stat Line and find himself suddenly stronger than his enemies. He had one packet of fairy dust to restore his mana, but that was it.

If he encountered significant trouble, and his history so far on the island told him he would, he would need more than what he had now. He checked his mana levels and saw he was about halfway depleted. Not bad, but not good, either. But Lance kept his charge up and hummed a cheery tune as he fought through the dozens of slimes. Becoming depressed would help no one, him especially. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

When his mana had reached its final quarter, he stopped to rest and pray. Praying to one's patron God was never a bad thing to do. Provided, it did little in the way of direct aid, but it often gave one a psychological refresh. In addition to helping one center oneself, it was a useful endeavor, then. Back at his academy, a few of his instructors had even told him tales of Champions and Gods connecting as buddies, if not even friends, due in part to constant prayer. A mortal and a god being friends...

maybe it was possible, maybe it was not. He thought it was possible. Prayer had many uses in a world where Gods often made themselves and their impacts known the world over. If a mortal was lucky enough to ascend to godhood, well, no one could tell him that prayer didn't play a major role in that! As Lance prayed, he remembered the many times as a child where he asked his father what it meant to ascend. The idea of a mortal becoming an immortal was simply too left field for his young mind to comprehend.

His father had said, dismissively, that 'ascension' was just another way of saying 'new shit, old smell.' It was at that point when his curiosity turned away from the Gods and toward the natural world, to things which had a more logical explanation or one that his youthful self-had an easier time in comprehending, anyway. When his praying ended, he no longer cared if a mortal and a god could be friends. He as he had all those years ago, deadset on the natural world before him. He was ready to tackle the tunnel.

Ignoring his rumbling stomach, he pressed forward. He sliced, he diced, he stabbed and slashed. Deeper in the caves, he found less slimes and more parasitical slugs hanging to the cave's walls. If he wasn't careful, those slugs could attach themselves to him without him even knowing and suck him of his blood in minutes. He took them out from a distance... He stopped for a second when the earth rumbled. An earthquake? He would do well to finish his business down here as soon as he could.

Lance came to the end of the tunnel, only to be surprised when the tunnel's conclusion ended with a ladder descending even further underground. He wasted no time and went down, wondering if bandits had really taken the trouble to carve out such an extensive underground series. The ladder descended for much longer than he would've figured. For someone with his kind of stamina, though, it remained an easy trifle When the ladder let off, he saw himself on a balcony overlooking a large chamber.

The chamber had torches lit at odd intervals and a vast number of bandits patrolling the ground. Why was evident when he saw, in the center of the room, a gigantic slime, easily fifty times the size of any other slime. The creature's heft took his breath away. The bandits had the creature encased within a transparent cube.

At the cube's top, he saw a hatch which a bandit had removed, briefly, to dump a screaming prisoner inside of; the prisoner, weak and malnourished, fell into the slime to begin his slow, agonizing death from acid gloop. At the cube's edges, he saw cages full of prisoners, all of whom were the next victims to be fed to the monstrous King Slime. He couldn't allow this to happen. He willed his weapon to transform into a crossbow, took aim, and got to work.