[Location: Academy Basement - Sub-Level 5]
[Status: Restricted Area.]
Most students think the Academy has four basements.
Storage.
The Vault.
The boiler room.
The torture chamber (Detention).
They are wrong.
There is a Level 5.
I stood in front of a rusted iron hatch in the floor of the boiler room. It was welded shut and covered in "WARNING: BIOHAZARD" signs.
Sylvia and Seraphina stood behind me. Sylvia held a lantern. Seraphina held her nose.
"It smells like... old soup," Seraphina gagged.
"That's mana rot," I explained. "The Academy was built here 200 years ago to cap a Mana Well. But Wells don't stay empty. They breed."
I traced the weld lines with my finger.
"The bombing run shook the foundations. The cap is cracked."
"Is that bad?" Sylvia asked.
"Imagine a septic tank," I said. "But instead of poop, it's filled with Level 40 slime monsters."
I drew the Soul-Eater's Fang.
"Open sesame."
SLASH.
I cut the weld. I kicked the hatch.
CLANG.
It fell into the darkness.
SQUELCH.
A sound echoed up. Wet. Hungry.
"Ladies first," I gestured.
"You're not a gentleman," Sylvia muttered, gathering her courage.
"Gentlemen die in Chapter 1," I replied. "After you."
We dropped down.
[Dungeon: The Festering Well]
[Type: Slime / Bio-Organic]
[Level Range: 35-45]
We landed in knee-deep water.
Except it wasn't water. It was viscous, glowing green sludge.
"Don't let it touch your skin," I warned. "It digests organic matter."
Sylvia shrieked and cast [Ice Floe], freezing a path under her feet.
"Nice reflex," I complimented.
We walked deeper. The walls breathed. Pulsing veins of purple mana ran through the concrete.
"Boss," Seraphina whispered. "My detection spells... they are screaming. There's something massive down here."
"The Broodmother," I said.
"The what?"
"The Queen Slime. She eats mana and births minions. The Headmaster thinks she's dormant. He's an idiot."
GURGLE.
From the pipes above us, something dripped.
A Acid Slime (Level 38) dropped directly onto Sylvia's shield.
HISS.
The ice shield melted instantly.
"Contact!" I shouted.
The slime lunged for her face.
[Skill: Napalm Web.]
I shot a web. It wrapped around the slime mid-air.
FWOOSH.
The slime ignited. It popped like a bubble of hot grease.
[Kill: Acid Slime.]
[Loot: Corrosive Gel.]
"Keep moving," I ordered. "The noise attracted them."
From the shadows of the tunnels, hundreds of glowing eyes appeared.
Slimes. Blobs. Gelatinous Cubes.
They oozed toward us, a wall of hungry jello.
"AoE Formation!" I barked.
"Sylvia! [Blizzard]! Slow them down!"
"Seraphina! [Holy Burn]! Melt them!"
"Yes, Master!"
Sylvia unleashed a storm of ice shards. The slimes froze, turning into brittle sculptures.
Seraphina raised her staff. Golden light seared the frozen slimes, shattering them into dust.
It was efficient.
[Combo: Freeze + Shatter.]
[Damage Multiplier: x200%.]
I walked behind them, acting as the clean-up crew. Any slime that got through the barrage met my dagger.
[Experience Gained.]
We carved a path through the slime horde.
After twenty minutes of walking (and killing), we reached the Central Chamber.
It was a cavern the size of a stadium.
And in the center, suspended over a glowing pit of mana...
[Boss: The Gluttonous Matriarch]
[Level: 50]
It was disgusting.
A massive, translucent blob the size of a building. Inside its body, you could see the undigested remains of previous adventurers; skeletons, armor, swords.
And... wait.
I squinted.
Floating in the center of the Boss's core was a glowing blue engine part.
[Item Detected: Aether Converter (Ancient Grade).]
My eyes widened.
"Bingo."
"That's the part I need," I said, pointing at the slime. "That engine part? That fixes my ship."
"It's... inside the monster," Sylvia noted, pale.
"Yes. It must have fallen down a drainpipe 50 years ago and the Slime ate it."
The Boss noticed us.
It didn't roar. It rippled.
Tentacles of green slime shot out from its body.
"Scatter!" I yelled.
SMASH.
A tentacle crushed the spot where we were standing. The stone pulverized.
"This Boss has Physical Immunity!" I shouted over the noise. "Blades pass right through it!"
"Then how do we kill it?" Seraphina screamed, dodging another tentacle.
I looked at the environment.
The cavern was filled with Mana Pipes. High-pressure conduits that fed the Academy above.
"We don't kill it," I grinned. "We overfeed it."
"Sylvia! Freeze the tentacles!"
"Seraphina! Shield me!"
I sprinted toward the Boss.
A tentacle lashed out.
[Skill: Combat Step.]
I dodged.
Another one came from the left.
[Skill: Shadow Servant.]
I summoned a shadow clone to take the hit. SPLAT. The clone dissolved.
I reached the massive pipe running along the wall behind the Boss.
It was marked: "CAUTION: RAW MANA - DO NOT PUNCTURE."
"Sorry, janitor," I muttered.
I drove the Soul-Eater's Fang into the pipe.
HISSSSSS.
Pure, unstable blue mana sprayed out like a fire hose.
"Hey, ugly!" I shouted at the Boss.
The Slime Queen turned her massive bulk toward me.
"Open wide!"
I grabbed the ruptured pipe and aimed the spray directly at the Boss.
The Slime Queen didn't dodge. She was a glutton. She felt the pure mana and opened her "mouth" to eat it.
She started sucking it in.
[Boss State: Feeding.]
[Boss HP: Recovering...]
"Master! You're healing her!" Sylvia screamed.
"Am I?"
I held the ring of the Void Monarch against the pipe stream.
[Skill: System Override.]
[Target: Mana Stream.]
[Property Edit: 'Nutrient' -> 'Poison'.]
I corrupted the mana. I turned it into Void Waste.
The Slime Queen drank it greedily.
Then... she stopped.
She turned purple.
She started to vibrate.
[Boss Status: Indigestion.]
[Boss Status: Critical Failure.]
Her membrane began to crack. She had eaten too much corrupted energy. She was expanding like a balloon.
"Run!" I yelled to the girls. "She's gonna pop!"
I dove behind a rock.
KA-BOOM.
The explosion was wet and spectacular.
Slime rained down like a monsoon. The entire cavern was coated in green goo.
[Boss Slain.]
[Level Up: 21 -> 23.]
I stood up, wiping slime off my face.
"Disgusting," I muttered.
In the center of the crater where the Boss used to be, the Aether Converter lay steaming on the ground.
It was pristine.
I walked over and picked it up.
[Item: Star-Core Converter]
[Condition: Perfect.]
[Usage: Repairs Aether Drives.]
"Got it."
I looked at the girls. They were covered in slime. Sylvia was crying silently.
"My hair..." she sobbed. "It's ruined."
"You look like a true adventurer," I said. "Now let's go."
"We have a ship to fix."
"And after that?" Seraphina asked, wringing out her robes.
I looked at the Converter.
"After that," I said. "We go shopping."
"Shopping?"
"Yes."
I checked my map. The route to the Northern Empire passed through the Merchant Republic of Zimara.
"We need supplies for the war," I said.
"And by supplies, I mean guns."
"Lots of guns."
[Chapter 12 End]
[Quest Complete: The Dungeon Beneath.]
[Reward: Ship Repair Part.]
[Next Destination: The City of Gold (Zimara).]
[Current Status:]
Cain: Level 23 (Overpowered but broke on Mana).
Ship: 50% Functional.
Mood: Capitalistic.