The Systemic Lands

Chapter 24: Day 35 – Descent Into Darkness

“So how is it?” I asked. Carl took off his glasses.

“Everything is so crisp and clear. Also, the pain is gone. You weren’t wrong, that is probably the best thing in the store.”

“Good, let’s go and see who Tyrese has dug up.” We left the plaza. I had tipped the guards there again and they were all smiles. We made our way over to Carlos’ building.

Tyrese was waiting there with three other people. Someone else was sitting in the chair. “Michael, good to see you.” I noted the red armband he was wearing.

“Tyrese, you coming with these men?” I asked.

“Yep, my crew. This is Hans, Greg, and Laura.” Well, if he had a woman on his team, it wasn’t my place to interfere. Still the potential for drama was an almost physical pain for me. I noted he had a sword and Laura had a bow. Greg and Hans both had clubs. There were no shields which was a mistake in my opinion, but points were probably tight.

“Alright, pay up front. There is a 20 crystal bonus each if there is serious combat.” I paid out the 40 crystals. “Your job is to stand outside a hole and make sure nothing goes in. If anything comes out, check to make sure it isn’t Carl or me first. Questions?” I asked.

“This is taking a day, right?” Tyrese asked.

“Yes. We have three torches. Each gives half an hour. I will be keeping one as a reserve, so half an hour of exploration and half an hour to get out, at least that is the plan. Anything else?” There was nothing else, so we set off.

“So, a promotion?” I asked Tyrese.

“Yeah, since I was the only one to volunteer for this. Get eight crystals a day instead of four. Captain’s pay and all that.”

“Carlos has the crystals for that?”

“Pay is going out but restoring people and getting gear has been a struggle.” So, no chance of another store upgrade any time soon, which was unfortunate.

“Well thanks for volunteering. If this goes well, I will think of you and your crew in the future for stuff like this.”

“That would be good. Let me know if things are going to get spicy, you feel me?”

“I will. But there is a lot I don’t know.” I didn’t say anymore, I needed to get my head in the right place for this. Tyrese respected that and he was quiet as we reached the gate.

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It was early morning and other groups were leaving at the same time. I noticed we got several looks, but everyone stayed out of our way. I took the lead through the forest. I took the time to show Tyrese how to kill a slime in the best way and what to watch out for, similar for what I had done with Carl.

I let them take on the slimes as we made our way to the dungeon to get experience and to leave Carl and I rested. There was no one there when we arrived, not that I was expecting anyone. I left my pack behind, and Carl left his. He would only be bringing the wood and torch pack with him.

“Stay behind me a couple of feet so I have room to back up. Keep the torch up high. Watch for side passages and the ceiling. Anything I am forgetting?”

“Should I pick up crystals?” Carl asked.

“Only when the fighting is over. Keep your club ready to defend. If you are attacked call out and we will retreat, nothing should get by me. Any of you interested in coming down?”

“Couldn’t pay me a 1,000 crystals to do that,” Tyrese said and his teammates also refused. I just gave them my crazy smile.

“Get your timer ready. Let me know five minutes before we hit half an hour.”

“Got it,” Carl said and lit a torch. I quickly entered the dungeon, so no time was wasted. The torch provided quite a bit of light. It was honestly quite impressive how well it lit everything up.

The main issue were the shadows and uneven ground. I advanced over the root-stricken ground with my club and shield in hand. I made sure to check the crevices for any side passages as we made our way down into the hole.

The tunnel turned slightly, and the entrance was quickly out of sight. The roots stuck around. “Hold,” I said quietly. We had come to an intersection. There was a tunnel that was angled back and to the left and another tunnel that led forward.

I smelled the air from both tunnels and listened. No difference that I could tell. “We take this one, stay to the side and watch the back,” I told Carl. We went into the angled side tunnel.

That was when I spotted the first monster. Multiple brown slimes that looked like roots, if it wasn’t for their fluidic appearance. “Contact, brown slimes, hold there.”

I stepped forward and swung my club at an angle like I did the blue slimes in the forest. My attack bounced off and the slime began to advance on me. I struck it much harder in a direct swing to its side. A small bit of liquid leaked out that turned into thorny roots.

Nature slimes then. My club had roots growing out of it. I struck the slime twice more and it finally died. The others hadn’t moved. I began working my way through the slimes one by one. I noted the roots died and turned to dust after a minute and half or close enough.

A number of crystals littered the floor, and I didn’t see any more enemies. “Clear, crystals.”

“Clear, gathering,” Carl replied and began picking them up and putting them in his pack while I kept watch.

“Time spent?” I asked when he was done.

“Twelve minutes.”

“Previous formation. Advance.” We moved down the tunnel, Carl keeping it lit up with the torch. I ran into a second group of brown slimes and killed them off. We then found a large chamber with a pool of water.

It looked like water and not a super slime. It was also very shallow. The pool let off a light glow which lit up the chamber. It was about the size of a very large house with a porch. The pool was like a tiny kiddy pool in a backyard.

I counted a number of blue, brown, and green slimes in the chamber. “Clear behind?” I asked Carl.

“No activity. Six minutes left.” There were no exits from this chamber. I needed to give it some more thought since I counted at least thirty slimes. It would be too easy to get overwhelmed or an event to happen, like slimes combining or swarming.

“Then let's head back to check the other path.” I made the decision. We left the pool room and made our way back through the tunnel where the brown slimes had been previously. They hadn’t regenerated and we easily reached the intersection without incident.

Carl switched out to the second torch, and I advanced down the other hallway. The tunnel went on for a ways with no monsters. Just when I was about to call for us to turn back, I noted the end of the tunnel and it was a shimmering wall.

It was quite sparkly and pretty. I hadn’t seen anything pretty since I arrived. It would be nice to just stay here. Carl was slowly walking past me. He shouldn’t be doing that. “Carl,” I hissed at him.

“Just need to get a closer look.” Alarm went through my head, but it felt muted. It was just a pretty wall. No! This was bad.

“Mind attack!” I whacked his head with the flat of my blade and he stumbled to the side. He turned to look at me and the shimmering translucent wall began to advance.

“Back! NOW!” I yelled at him and he quickly retreated. “Logs and other torch now!” I called out.

“Uh, yeah! Logs and torch!” He called back. The shimmering wall was- I shook my head and grit my teeth.

“Logs and torch, don’t look up. Repeat that!”

“Logs and torch, don’t look up!” he called back. The dried logs from the Store quickly caught fire, illuminating the tunnel even more. The translucent wall was only a couple of meters in front of me now. I backed up, careful not to take my eyes off the monster. Soon there fire and Carl was there next to me.

I dropped my club and grabbed the torch that had been stuck into the wood to light it up. I then hurled the torch at the monster. The translucent wall jerked back and appeared to become more solid like a milky color.

If I had to name it, I would call it a white tunnel mind slime. “Urg, my head,” Carl groaned. My head was pounding also.

“Steel balls,” I hissed out and drew my sword. I stepped forward and slashed out down low. The tip of my blade cut into the slime and liquid poured out. The liquid began to turn into blue slimes. One of the blue slimes burst and put out the burning torch that I had thrown earlier.

The blue slimes rapidly advanced up the tunnel towards me. I cut out with my sword, easily cutting the blue slimes, but ruining the copper metal. The white slime was holding in place and the wound had slowly stopped leaking.

I cut into it again after I had finished off the blue slimes. Less blue slimes poured out the second time, but my sword collapsed as I finished off the last of them. I retreated back and picked up my club.

I moved forward again and landed a low blow on the white slime. I landed a number of more blows and finished off the couple of blue slimes that appeared.

“Ten minutes on the last torch!” Carl called out. This fight was dragging out and I was exhausted. I retreated back and picked up the unburnt edge of a log. I then rushed forward and tossed it on the deflated white slime. There was a lot of steam as the log was extinguished. I whacked the slime a couple of more times.

It finally collapsed to dust. I picked up its crystal myself and tucked it in my shirt. “You good?” I asked Carl.

“Don’t have much light left,” he said sounding shaken.

“No crystals from the spawned blue slimes. Annoying. Alright let’s go.” We quickly retreated out of the dungeon.

“That you down there?” I heard Tyrese call out.

“Yeah, it is me,” I said back.

“You were down there for quite a while. Find anything?” I looked at Carl.

“Screw that shit. That was a nightmare.” He tossed the torch away and knelt on the ground, his entire body shaking from the near-death experience. Tyrese and his team looked at me.

“It is a deathtrap for sure. New types of slimes. There was a mental attack that I had trouble fighting off. If I hadn’t, we both would have died.”

“It was horrible. Why would I want to go to that thing…why?” Carl said while covering his face. “I…I can’t do this. I am sorry. I will pay you back, just…this is too much.”

“Alright. You rest up,” I said. Tyrese looked at me. “Honestly it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Still a white tunnel mind slime was not a joke, but it wasn’t a boss level monster.”

“You have to be joking?” Carl said.

“It was strong, don’t get me wrong. At best it would be called a high-end monster for this biome, probably common in others and a sub-boss if anything. The boss is never the first monster you can possibly meet.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Carl said. Tyrese looked at me.

“We done?” he asked.

“Yep,” I replied. I could hunt more slimes, but I was curious about the crystals we managed to get.

We made our way back to the plaza. Tyrese and his group left, and I want to an empty building with Carl. He handed over the crystals that had been collected from the brown slimes. I also took the reinforced pack with the Firestarter.

“180 crystals,” I said. Carl looked up at me. “That is how much you owe me. How long do you need?” I asked.

“I…might need some time.” I could see his hands shaking badly.

“I will give you nine days. Five days after the next arrival you better be in the plaza, first thing in the morning, with the crystals you owe me.”

“Yeah,” he said and left. Well, that was a big disappointment unfortunately. Dammit, why did he have to become a coward. We had won!