Watcher's Question: A LitRPG Saga (Life in Exile Book 2)

by Sean Oswald

  Dave pulled the small stone slab up from the floor with his fingers and then used Lesser Repulsion to slam it into the damaged blob, flattening it but not dealing any damage. The rest of the party continued to back up the tunnel all the way to the fork in the tunnel as the hell slime moved forward. Fortunately, it only moved at the pace of a slow walk, but they were already running out of room.

  Mira cast her flame fan spell since the other spells were still on cool-down and while the flames danced along its surface there was no indication of any damage. The scariest part was that more slime was still oozing down from further in the mine and reinforcing two blobs. The more mass it gained the faster it seemed to move. Cold deduction informed her that only the ice and holy powers were able to damage the creature while a stone weapon could push it back but not kill it. She came to a quick decision as she realized that even if Jaselm could cast more of those holy spells, they would not be able to cycle the spells fast enough with the cool downs to be able to kill the creature before it reached them.

  “Mom, you have to stop healing. We need you to cast that consecration spell you have.”

  Emily looked up from her patient. She was trying to blot away the acid bits still eating into Kraden without injuring herself. The look on her face said that she couldn’t imagine stopping her treatment, but the others called out their agreement with Mira’s assessment of the situation.

  Reluctantly, Emily stood up and started casting the spell. Knowing that it took a minute to cast, Dave rallied everyone. Cast any spells you have that will affect it or throw rocks. Do whatever you have to do, we have to hold it back so that she can finish her spell. Daichi used his Dragon Wing skill again, Dave cast back to back repulsion spells with as wide a spread as he could manage and Mira cast her Ice Dagger spell which was the first one off of cool down.

  It wasn’t going to be enough. Mira did the math in her head and the creature was going to reach them before her mom’s spell was finished. The cool down on her best spell would only be a few seconds before the consecration was finished. Then Jaselm stepped in front of all of them. His shield was on his arm while his sword stayed in its sheath. He activated his Holy Wall skill and a golden aura burst into life in front of his shield. It spread out to cover three feet to his right and three feet to his left, but wasn’t quite wide enough to block the entire tunnel.

  The strain on the paladin was obvious as the slime hit his wall. As the seconds passed, a greater and greater amount of its total body mass pooled together against the barrier causing it to buckle inward. Jaselm groaned out like a man lifting an impossibly heavy weight, yet his spell held. The creature, brainless although it might be, was relentless; pushing and squeezing against every edge and then trying to swell around the sides of the wall.

  Dave jumped in and cast Lesser Repulsions as fast as he could, even downing one of his precious mana regeneration potions in an attempt to be able to cast a few more. Daichi and Mira alternated on the other side of the shield casting spells and using skills as their cool downs came off. Anything to try to hold it back for a few more precious seconds.

  It is the supreme irony of battle that in one sense, time seems to slow to a crawl as your heightened senses and adrenaline filled body seek to respond, and yet in another sense, time can drag interminably as you try to hold on for one more second, swing that sword one more time, hold the shield steady for just one more blow. Mira’s mind was active enough to note the odd way that time seemed to behave during this battle. At first when she had leapt up to cast, everything was crawling around her. Now hearing the droning sound of her mother’s spell being cast, it was time that was crawling by, almost as if she was speaking in slow motion. The cool downs on her spells would come around quickly enough. The hell slimes persistence made it never stop as second by second time dragged on.

  At one point between her and Daichi an opening was left open and two tentacles of slime shot out. It was a new attack they hadn’t seen from the creature before and so Mira was completely caught off guard. No matter how good her Agility was, standing there flat footed, she had no choice but to take the blow. It felt odd as it struck her square in the shoulder. It was forceful and yet squishy at the same time. The blow pushed her back and caused minimal damage (3), but the real significance of the attack was some that she didn’t feel for two seconds till the acid ate through the leather of her elven wrap. It felt much like what she imagined a hot metal poker would feel but worse. She reflexively swatted at her shoulder trying to brush it off and then felt that same burning bite in her hand.

  As the scream started to erupt from her mouth, she saw that Daichi who had been the target of the other slime tentacle maintaining a fighting stance. He had not been caught off guard. Instead, with almost blinding speed he had reacted and blocked the tentacle, flattening it against the stone wall. Her mind worked faster even though the pain sensors wondered how he had not hurt himself when blocking acid with his bare hand. Then she saw the red blisters forming along the outer edge of his hand and knew that he hadn’t escaped injury free. He was simply controlling the pain instead of letting it control him. Something about that image stuck with her and the same will which had allowed her to push through and shape the mana which coursed through her veins now allowed her to grit her teeth. Instead of a high pitched scream, she let out a low rumbling “grrr” of pain.

  Then just as she wondered how much more they could take, the sixty second cast time on Emily’s spell was finally concluded. That same soothing mist of pure white light flooded over everything around her. The slime on her faded in blackness and shriveled up like dry leaves before a fire.

  The consecration field protected them by preventing the hell slime from entering its area of effect. The twenty foot radius was static and couldn’t kill the monster but was able to keep it at bay, and the duration was long enough to allow their mana to fully regenerate. Had the monster been intelligent it would have likely fled at this point, but instead it kept mindlessly throwing itself against the edge of the consecrated ground with a sizzling sound each time. In the end, it was only a matter of time before the XP notification.

  You have defeated: Hell Slime Level 35. XP: 210 xTier Bonus of 180% x Numerical Penalty 50% x 2 (killing blow bonus)/6 x racial bonus +25%= 78 XP

  The aftermath of the fight took much longer. Kraden was seriously injured despite all the healing he had received. It was another example of a full health bar not equaling the same as being injury free. The miner’s left foot and right hand were gone. Both had been burned off unevenly and had resulted in bone sticking out of the raw flesh, just past his wrist and ankle, respectively. Emily was trying her best to seal up the wounds. While Dave and Mira ran around following Emily’s instructions to heat some water or find the cleanest cloth that they could for bandages. The big concern was infection.

  Everyone tried to stay busy during this process. Kraden was conscious throughout the entire process. It was a mixed blessing that the acid seared the wounds while causing them so that there had not been the otherwise massive blood loss which might have been expected. His screaming stopped shortly after the consecration field was created. Both Daichi and Jaselm kept him busy talking through the process of gathering ore. It took most of the day, and when they added the ore samples they had collected, the entire group got another notification.

  Quest Update: Clear Unnamed Mine 714

  26% of the mine mapped

  Achieved gather gold, silver, iron ore requirements

  0 out of 2 lbs. of mithril ore gathered.

  So apparently the easy part of the quest was completed. Now they would have to finish mapping the mine and figure out where to find the mithril. Mira had never heard of mithril, but the way that her dad and the other men talked about it was like they were discussing the holy grail. They explained to her that it was a super light metal which could be used for weapons and armor as it was more durable than almost any other metal. The part that caught her attention was that mithril was especially rec
eptive to enchantments during the forging process.

  Everyone was tired, even those who had slept for several hours. The stress of fighting in the close quarters of the tunnels combined with the way that Kraden’s screaming had gotten on everyone’s nerves left them ragged. Adding to that the realization that a monster like that could have swept over them while they were sleeping and instead of just one serious injury they could all be dead. It was sobering and terrifying all at the same time. Mira found it affected her in ways that the other dangers they had faced Eloria hadn’t. The other fights she had seen coming. The thought that she could have been killed, no, eaten alive, in horrible agony without a chance to defend herself left her unnerved. She put on a brave face and tried to talk about the best options moving forward with anyone who had time to talk to her, but it wasn’t long before her mom came over to heal the acid burns that she hadn’t been able to heal on herself. Hugs and tears ensued. It wasn’t logical, but there was still something comforting about her mother’s touch.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “The value in life is measured in the challenges overcome, the enemies put down, and power accumulated.” — quote from the unauthorized biography of Alucien the Heretic

  The Hell Slime was in many ways the toughest enemy that Dave had fought, but it was also exhilarating. Only the death knight had the overwhelming potential for destruction that this beast had possessed. Yet, as bad as Kraden’s injuries were, the fight had gone very smoothly. The team had gelled together and their skills worked well in tandem. He could tell how scared Mira was and had given her a hug, but surprisingly, Emily seemed to be holding it together very well. It was probably the nurse in her.

  Either way though, even if they were scared, stopping wasn’t an option. It wasn’t really brave to do what you have to do, it was a matter of duty. If there was anything Dave excelled at, it was doing his duty. Now it was a simple matter of trying to map more of the dungeon. He took the parchment that Mira had been using. Dave asked her and Daichi to stay with Emily and look after the patient, maybe try to get some more rest.

  He felt that his family was relatively safe with Daichi there, so he and Jaselm took a pair of torches and started carefully working their way down the tunnel. Whereas early on much of the walls had been covered by the luminescent fungus which Mira had burned off, the tunnel walls further down were bare. The rock was untouched but there was a sort of stain where it appeared that the fungus had been eaten away, presumably by the hell slime. Dave couldn’t help but wonder if the fungus was natural to the mine and the slime had been an aberration which threw off the ecosystem. The one thing that was clearly missing from the walls further down was the obvious veins of ore. The slime must have consumed those as well.

  The two men moved slowly, being careful to examine the walls as well as the ceiling above for any more slimes. After traveling down a continual low grade slope for what Dave estimated to be half a mile, they came to a spot where the rock looked like it had been liquefied in the shape of a circle. Around the liquid rock was a wider circle of runes drawn upon the floor. The circle of runes though was incomplete. Part of it was smudged out and coated with what appeared to be blood. It was very dark, but they were able to find a set of burnt out torches on posts which had been driven into the ground.

  As they lit them it appeared that the posts had been driven in by brute force. He shuddered to think how strong you would have to be to force wooden posts into the rock floor of the tunnel. With more light came a better awareness of their surroundings. They had hit the end of this tunnel, and it opened into a wider area about one hundred feet in diameter and roughly circular, although definitely a natural chamber rather than a carved room. That awareness brought a sense of horror to Dave. The liquefied rock and broken circle of magical runes told a tale to the gamer in him about a failed summoning. What was behind that though spoke to something much darker.

  There was a stone wall that was crudely built up with a channel to funnel blood down into a pool. At least he assumed it was blood from the way the stone was stained. Multiple people must have been killed upon that wall from the patterns. It made Dave sick to his stomach to see, but Jaselm’s reaction was even more emphatic.

  “By the grace of the Holy Mother of Redemption, what sort of foul magic was this? I can feel the remnants of dark summoning magic. It makes my hackles stand up and screams for this place to be cleansed.”

  “Do you have any idea about what they were trying to do here? Or who ‘they’ are for that matter?”

  “It is clear that they were attempting to summon some sort of fiend and that their art or skill was not up to the task. You can see the smudging which destroyed the summoning circle. Whatever creature or energy they were trying to call forth from the lower hells broke free and must have killed the summoner.”

  “So why aren’t there any bodies?” Dave asked even as the answer came to him. “Oh the hell slime, that must be it, right?”

  “All paladins of Shanelle receive training in recognizing and combating creatures from the lower planes, but to be honest, I’ve had no real experience with it. This is an exceedingly rare occurrence, although supposedly it was more common back in the old world.”

  “What do you mean old world?” Dave asked curiously.

  “Ummm …” Jaselm actually looked embarrassed, “Look forget that I said anything, it’s not something I can talk about with you. Perhaps Emily will be cleared to learn more, since she is a Chosen and what she decides to tell you is up to her.”

  The enigmatic answer had Dave’s mind racing. Was it possible that there were more people or even all the people who had come from Earth at some point in the distant past? Or maybe a world other than earth? Then again, the old world could just mean a different part of Eloria. The colonists in America had called Europe the old world after all. Changing the subject back to the one at hand Dave said, “So basically this looks like someone came down here and tried to summon a demon or whatever you call it, and everything went to hell in a handbasket.”

  “Well actually Dave, it didn’t go to hell, it came from hell?”

  Dave burst out laughing. When he got himself under control despite starting to laugh several more times at the clear consternation on the paladin’s face he said, “Sorry Jaselm. It’s an expression from home. It simply means that everything went just about as badly as it could have.”

  “Oh … that seems fairly accurate, but I still don’t understand the expression.”

  “Never mind, I’m sorry for laughing. It’s been tense for weeks now and a good laugh is just what I needed. You know what they say about laughter being the best medicine and all,” Dave spoke in a conciliatory tone.

  “Another expression from your homeland I imagine?” Jaselm asked until he received a nod of affirmation from Dave.

  “Yeah. So maybe the hell slime was an accident and we were just the lucky ones to stumble upon it,” Dave spoke absentmindedly as he walked around the room. Towards the back of the wall he found some patches of violent fungus growing on the wall, deep in crevices. As soon as he saw them he jumped back not wanting to trigger the spores. “We better finish drawing the map of this tunnel and head back to tell everyone about what we found.”

  Sara was having fun once again. The woods somehow felt more like home than the new house they had in Eris’ Rise. She didn’t really like being around all of the people. They looked at her funny, or maybe it wasn’t her they were looking at but Krinnk or Balayria. It was the same thing though. She could feel Krinnk’s fear every time a human or elven warrior came running up. His sense of shame and humiliation at the names he was called resonated in her heart too. No one, not even momma, who was always a good listener, could understand what Krinnk meant to her. The way that they often knew what the other was thinking before they even said anything. He was her monster friend. Her dad tried to call him a pet, but that word just made Sara angry. She knew her dad wasn’t being mean, and he tried to explain that it wasn’t like their
dog back home, but a more special kind of pet. Yet that word didn’t capture what there was between her and Krinnk.

  Balayria was a different kind of friend. When Sara had been scared and lost with just Krinnk, who truthfully was little better at taking care of himself than she was, Balayria had shown up. The half-orc was like that favorite aunt she had never had on earth. The kind of person she could talk to when her parents chastised her for ‘childish behavior’ or didn’t seem to understand. The kind who would always nod along and be supportive. Just as importantly, Balayria had so much to teach her about drawing. Making pretty pictures had always been a way that Sara expressed herself. As the youngest in the house, her ideas and opinions never counted for anything, but when she drew, people would always pay attention to it. Her mom would hang her artwork on the refrigerator, and her dad would pin it to the bulletin board on his office wall at work. It was something she had always had that set her apart from beautiful Mira and exciting Jackson. Her parents might never trust her as much as they trusted her older siblings, but at least she had her drawings.

  Now those drawings had a life of their own. They would flow out of her like never before and Balayria would tell her that those pictures could change the world. It made Sara feel so important. It was even more of something that only she had. It was for that reason that they had gone into the woods, so that she could learn about various plants and berries which could be used to make the paints she would use. Somewhere along the way though, much to the half-orc’s chagrin, Sara and Krinnk had started to play hide and seek. The squad of guards assigned to protect them grew more and more worried every time that Sara would hide and would only breathe a sigh of relief when Krinnk would find her. The goblin at least seemed to be very good at that.