by Jeff Sproul
“Got its attention!” Todd called back to the others.
One by one, the rest of the group ran from the tunnel’s entrance and into the cave. Riley shifted to the side, next to a large rock just inside the chamber. He leaned above it, just enough to have his head poking out so he could watch the fight. These players weren’t on par with what he’d used to be, but he was still curious to watch how well they could fight and coordinate their attacks.
Erica was the next to attack. She moved nearby and started making upper-cut punches into the air in the direction of the slime. For a brief moment, Riley wasn’t sure what she was doing. Then, a series of vines broke from the ground beneath the slime. Narrow vines shot up into the cube-blob of orange. He could see the vines striking into its body, but was any damage being done?
Todd’s arms moved as he tore more sections of stone from the nearby ground, walls, and ceiling. He hurled them into the slime, but the slime didn’t seem as though it was being affected.
A bright red bolt shot through the air. It sunk into the slime’s gelatinous body and exploded several feet in. The micro-explosion created a pocket of air, which the slime gradually filled back up with more slime.
Another bolt shot through the air, this time Riley followed it back to where Brenda was crouched behind another rock. She would create the bolt with one hand, and then load it and fire it off at the monster.
A bright light source drew Riley’s attention to Seth. He held his hands close together and created intense burning balls of white light. He’d push them away, and they floated over towards the slime. Upon contact with the orange goo, the heated orbs would burn into the slime, but as they did, they slowly diminished in size and intensity, but it wasn’t long before Seth sent another to take its place until he had several moving through the air at once.
None of them relented in their attacks. Each one assailed the slime in their own unique way.
Upon taking initial damage from the stone column falling upon it, the orange slime’s health bar had appeared. After five minutes of attacks, it had only dropped about ten percent.
“This this is really absorbing the damage!” Todd called, as he created columns of stone to help direct the slow-moving slime towards himself, even when it got distracted and began moving to others in the party.
“Keep it up, we knew it’d be a slow fight going in. Just don’t get careless,” said Erica as she stabbed into it repeatedly with vines.
As far as Riley could tell, it seemed as though Seth and Brenda were the ones dealing the most damage to it. Physical damage seemed to be highly reduced, but Brenda was actually a support-powered class. It just so happened that her powers allowed her to also play offensively.
Time passed slowly as Riley watched the next fifteen minutes play out. The slime continued to move at a snail’s pace around the room while the four tier-one players wailed on it with all their powers. As the slime’s health neared the halfway point, Riley found himself leaning down and out of the way. He’d never seen an amber slime before, and had no idea if it had a phase change at fifty percent health.
“Almost at half!” Seth called. “Watch out for anything unusual!”
Brenda fired another explosive bolt into the slime. The moment it detonated, the entire slime seemed to lose its cube-like cohesion. Its mass dropped to the cave floor and spread around. Brenda was far enough away for the slime not to reach her, but Erica and Todd got caught by the quick-rushing slime pool.
“I’m stuck!” Erica called, trying to pry her leg free, but unable to do so. “Taking damage!”
“Me too!” Todd yelled, then swept his arms to cause the ground beneath his feet to rise up. It shot about five feet into the air, easily pulling his trapped feet out of the orange slime and causing it to fall away. He then reached out and pulled Erica up on her own pillar.
“Thanks!” said Erica, as she was now five feet up and away from the slime. “My HP took a bit of a hit there.”
“Mine too,” called Todd.
“I got you!” Brenda shouted. A green bolt darted out across the room and hit Todd. Upon impact, a small green vapor was created that conformed to his body. His hit points slowly inched upwards. It looked like her healing abilities were over-time effects and not instantaneous.
“Me next!” Erica shouted.
“Gimme a minute!” Brenda called back, needing a small amount of time between bolt-creations. After several seconds, she shot another green bolt, but this one detonated against Erica.
“Thanks!” said Erica across the distance.
Seth had placed himself at a longer distance away from the slime than Erica and Todd had been at. He had crawled up onto a large rock, just as the slime reached the base of it. He created another ball of white-hot energy. “So we just attack the sludge now? It’s not doing any—”
A thick orange tendril formed at the center of the orange mass, right above where the small black core resided. A tall stalk formed with a bulb at the end, almost like an eye. The cube traveled up the tentacle and ended up at the center of the eye-like globe.
“What’s it doing?” Todd called out.
A moment later, they all found out as the black cube within the eye began to glow a bright orange.
“It’s going to fire!” Seth shouted, just as a flurry of orange bolts shot from the eye.
It had been looking at Todd, but the bolts themselves weren’t hugely accurate. Todd punched towards the ground and a segment of stone shot from the ceiling and collapsed down in front of him, but not before a dozen orange bolts had gotten through, some of which had smacked into him and cut out small amounts of his hit points.
“I can’t heal you again for another minute!” Brenda called.
The healing effect of the first bolt had just ended on Todd, and there was a cooldown icon in his vision, showing that the same effect couldn’t heal him until the duration was over.
“I know! I’ll keep out of its sight!” Todd called back, over the sound of a barrage of impacts against the wall protecting him. The smell of sulfur in the air only increased as dust and debris kicked up from the orange bolts slamming into the stone outcropping protecting Todd.
“Aim for the eye!” Seth called as he sent several more white orbs on their way. Several connected and burned into the thick tendril that held the eye aloft.
Brenda aimed carefully at the tall stalk with the eye. She loosed a bolt and missed. She had to wait to reload and the next one she fired hit its mark, but the stalk was a more narrow target than the giant cube had been. Her bolt tore a small hole in the tentacle, only to explore a second later on the other side of it, causing less damage than she was doing before.
“Damnit!” she grumbled as she loaded another bolt. This time, she took her time and aimed at the eye that was still shooting at Todd. She fired another bolt, this one streaked across the chamber and slammed into the eye, hitting the core at the center as it exploded.
The eye spasmed and wobbled, the bombardment of its attack had ceased as it then looked over to where Brenda was shooting from. More gel oozed up to fill in the goo that had been lost, and the cube glowed again, only to launch another torrent of bolts. This time, they were aimed at Brenda.
Her eyes widened. “Crap!” she ducked behind the rock she’d been taking cover behind. The orange energy blasts smacked into the rock, slowly chipping away at it and wearing it down. Bit by bit, the rock was being torn away.
“Help!” she called out. “This rock isn’t that big!”
Numerous vines grew out of the ground at dozens of angles. The vines wove around to create a makeshift barrier to give Brenda a brief respite.
“Thanks!”
“No problem!” Erica called back as she kept low on her pillar. She looked over to Todd. “I have an idea, get ready to slam its core with some rock, alright?”
“Good to go,” Todd replied as he held his arms out, waiting for Erica’s signal.
Erica’s arms stretched out as well, her hands slowly sp
un in a small circle. Vines stretched and grew beneath the ground. She gathered them together as the amber slime tore through the viney protection she’d created for Brenda.
“It’s starting to break through again!” Brenda called.
“Now!” Erica shouted as she threw her arms up. Dozens of vines shot up from the ground and went for the eyeball at the end of the slime-stalk. The slime burned and quickly dissolved many of the vines that came into contact with it, but there were so many that it overpowered the slime’s ability to deteriorate them all.
The slime tugged back with its tentacle, but the core was stuck between the many grasping vines. More slime left the giant pool and grew up to reinforce the core.
Two large cylinders of stone rushed out from the nearby walls. With a heavy crunch the cylinders smashed together, the slime’s core between them.
The amber slime’s health took a serious hit. While this happened, several white orbs seared their way into the tendril of amber goo, causing it to burn through and eat into the slime, making it more difficult for it to draw reinforcing slime up to the eye.
A red bolt smacked into the center of the goo-pool, right beneath the stalk. It exploded a second later, causing more liquid tremors. Brenda slotted in another bolt and kept up her attack.
Erica drew more vines to keep the core where it was in the air, as Todd forced the columns back, only to smash them together again with just as much force as the initial impact. This continued for several more minutes. Each slam of the cylinders cut deep into the amber slime’s health until finally the health bar for the slime ran empty. The cube-shaped core cracked and shattered into pieces as the slime itself deteriorated.
Todd drew the cylinders back as something orange fell through the vines and landed on the ground.
The stone outcroppings were drawn back into the walls at Todd’s command and the vines withered away to dust.
Brenda aimed her crossbow at Todd, hitting him again with a green bolt to top off his health, before she rested the crossbow back on her shoulder.
“Nice work! What did we get?” Seth called as he crawled his way down off the large rock he’d taken shelter upon.
At this point, Riley slowly left the safety of the rock he’d been hiding behind near the tunnel’s entrance. He’d been so caught up in watching the fight that he hadn’t even thought to toss a rock at the slime. Though he had his doubts on how much experience it would’ve actually given him, since he was sure a single stone wouldn’t have even taken more than a hitpoint from the amber slime.
While the group moved in on the single item that had fallen, he took his time and began inspecting every corner of the chamber. Since a boss had been inside the room, that meant this room might have hidden loot somewhere.
Todd was the first to reach the fallen item. He stooped down and picked it up. It was an ovoid piece of amber, connected to a silver pin. It looked like the amber was moving inside. The moment his fingers touched it, he saw the details behind the item.
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Amber Slime Pin
Increased acid resistance by 25%
Increased physical resistance by 10%
On-use effect: (Tap Twice)
The player can summon a single amber slime tendril from the ground (controlled with their mind.) The tendril causes acid damage and will last for one minute. (One-hour cooldown.)
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Todd read through the item’s effects with raised eyebrows. “Wow, this was a nice drop!” he said. Brenda was the next to reach him. He handed it over to her for her to take a look at it. After he did, he turned to look to Seth who was still walking over to join them.
“Twenty-five percent acid res, ten percent physical res, and you can summon a damn tentacle for a minute!” Todd called over to Seth, letting him in on the details of the item they’d gotten.
“Twenty-five acid resistance?” Seth called back. “Damn, that’s pretty high. You think you’ll want that as our tank?”
Todd looked over to Brenda, then to Erica. “I don’t really think I need it, to be honest. Acid is pretty nasty and I can usually prevent it. I was thinking Brenda could use it. Me and Erica have pretty intensive abilities. So do you. But if Brenda’s stuck, I bet she’d benefit the most from it.”
“It sounds sweet,” said Seth as he finally neared the others. “But yeah, not a great fit for me either. You wanna take it, Brenda?”
Brenda accepted it from Erica and looked at the stats. She smiled a bit. “It is pretty awesome,” she said. “Not sure how much I’m gonna use the special effect, but it’d be a nice ‘oh crap’ button I could press if I found myself in a bad situation.”
“Absolutely,” said Erica. “Go ahead and take it, you haven’t gotten anything new in a while. It’s hard finding good stuff for your healing. So you might as well take what you can get, right?”
“Definitely,” said Brenda as she brought it to her black blouse and pinned it just above her heart. “Sweet,” she said. “Love orange.”
“That fight wasn’t too bad,” said Seth. “I think we’re all still good to keep going?” he asked.
Everyone seemed to nod. He then turned his head and looked around. “Riley?” he called out, then spotted the brown-jacketed young man crouched down in the dirt.
“I’m over here! One second!” Riley said as his fingers and nails scraped at the dirt. There was a section of semi-shiny dirt over at the wall. He’d walked over and started digging with his hands, but he was about five inches deep into the ground and was still digging.
“You got something over there?” Seth called out. “You need some help?”
“I got it! Just one more second,” he said, his hands still digging. It took another twenty seconds or so before his fingers brushed against something hard. He cleared the dirt away and saw a glinting black object. He dug his fingers down and wrapped them around the item as best he could and managed to pry it out. Once it came loose, he held it up as a description appeared. It looked like a black monster tooth, with a piece of thin wire around it, like a necklace of some sort.
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Grit Grit Tooth Necklace
Reduce hit points by 40%
Reduce max speed 25%
Reduce max stamina 30%
Increase Scavenger Vision 200%
(Effects persist as long as Scavenger Vision, or the debilitating after-effect is active.)
-
“What’d you find over there?” Seth called out, having noticed that Riley picked something up.
Riley stood up and walked over to the others, still holding and reading the stats. Once he reached Seth, he handed it over. “Here you go,” he said.
Seth took it and looked at the stats. “Wow, negative forty percent hit points...twenty-five on speed and thirty on stam? Ouch that’s—” he cut himself short as he noticed the last stat change. “Interesting,” he murmured.
“What is?” asked Brenda.
“After all the debuffs, it gives a two-hundred percent increase on scav vision,” Seth answered.
“Wow, that’s a lot,” said Todd.
“Yeah it is,” said Seth. “I’ve seen up to one-fifty, but two hundred is a lot. But it also looks like the debuffs are a lot bigger too.”
“I’ve never seen an item like this before,” said Riley.
“Well, I think you can only get these when you’re using scav vision,” said Seth. “I’m not sure how much it’s worth. I’ll have to ask around. None of us use scav vision. But I’ll tell you what,” he tossed the necklace back to Riley. “If you feel like taking the risk and increasing your chance to get more loot, you’re free to use it until we find a buyer. Just be real careful. That thing could get you killed.”
Riley caught the necklace and looked at the stats again. He rolled the black glinting tooth between his fingers. He swallowed and let out a soft sigh. “Just what I needed,” he whispered. “Less stats.”
Chapter 6: Resurgence
Riley stared into a cup of coffee. Bags had formed unde
r his eyes. The warmth of the mug radiated out and seeped into his fingertips.
“Riley?” came the voice from across the table.
He looked over to his friend, Aaron. “What?” he asked.
Aaron rolled his eyes. “I asked how things were going with that group you mentioned.”
“Oh, right,” Riley murmured. He lifted the mug up to his lips and blew across the surface. He tested the temperature by taking a meager sip, before he set it down and relaxed back in his seat. He wore a gray hoodie and a pair of black denim pants. “It’s going well, I guess,” he said. “I’m not sure what would be good progress, you know? Most of them are in the same situation as me. They’re not making as much as I used to as Radiance, but it sounds like they’re getting by. They’re nice. Sometimes their pace is a bit slow, other times it’s hasty. It’s really hard for me to keep quiet during some of the fights. But they tend to know what they’re doing. Good cohesion and all.”
“Yeah?” asked Aaron, who was taking small forkfuls of a thin pile of blueberry crepes. The blueberry drizzle was running down the sides of the light and fluffy rolled pancakes. “Well, you’ve been with them for...almost a month? How’s your equipment loadout?”
Riley sighed. “I usually find an item in the monster rooms. Occasionally I’ll spot something in the tunnels. I swear, I’ve almost been killed by a roaming monster a couple of dozen times, and when I’m using that damned Grit Tooth, I can’t do anything. Lucky for me, the group keeps a close eye on me.”
“Well that’s nice of them, looking out for you and everything,” said Aaron. “Are you gonna stick with them once you find some powers? You’d probably find something in the...you said amber caves?”
Riley nodded. “I was actually really hopeful a couple of times. I found an isolated pool of orange goo. Stuck my hand into it, thinking I might get some powers. I took acid damage instead, and then triggered a slime monster from the ceiling. Almost died in there. Then, I found a purple glowing crystal. I picked it right up, thinking it might bestow powers on me. Next thing I know, I’m being swatted across the room, losing almost all my hit points as a cave-angler appears out of the wall. It was camouflaged right in front of me, but with my low stats I couldn’t see it.”