Return to Jorgaldur Volume I: the battle mage

Dungeon first floor

He walked a long time without finding anything but walls of stone and darkness. And some fungi that provided light, were poisonous or that absorbed mana, all of them suitable for potions and that were properly collected.

Suddenly, his hand touched something wet and he withdrew it immediately, fearing that it could be another poisonous fungi. But not only did the moisture not recede but it advanced to his arm, causing him a strong pain in the open areas of his clothes.

A kind of gelatin moved over his clothes, coming closer and closer to the rest of the body, attacking the uncovered parts with an acid capable of digesting the flesh. It was a slime, a being difficult to overcome with physical attacks but vulnerable to fire. Or at least, that was the knowledge during the game.

He applied fire to his hand and arm, and also to the sword he had taken out, since it was easier to use a smaller weapon against an enemy he had on him. Regenerate was also applied, although he didn't cast Basic Healing by now.

The slime was level 20, and the cuts of the sword hardly affected it, although the fire that was burning it did. Also, the fire inside was hurting it enough to interrupt its progress, plus it was burning the acid and protecting Eldi. It was very vulnerable to that element despite the difference in level, so the attacks from inside and outside killed it in not too long.

Although it had caused much pain, just being in the arm meant that the damage wasn't threatening to his life, although the look of the uncovered areas was terrible. However, the healing spell was taking effect, and he preferred to hold on and wait, in order to not spend more mana. He had used many Burning Touch and didn't know if he would find more of them soon.

He saved the axe that was on the ground and continued carefully, watching the walls and ceiling now that he knew what he was facing. In the dungeons, at least in the upper levels, there used to be only one type of monsters.

The best news is that, being level 20, and with the blessing, it was enough with one kill to level up, and now he was 16, which had unlocked the healing passive, doubling its effectiveness. Likewise, he had unlocked the Mill skill, which consists in quickly rotate the spear on its axis to repel projectiles. Is it more effective than Projectiles against me? if you know when and where the projectiles come from, and you have a spear by hand, while the spell is better against surprise attacks. His compatibility was 7.

Two slimes were enough to raise to 17, although this time he didn't have to take them off. Waiting on the roof to ambush their prey, for perhaps several years, they were discovered and attacked with spear and fire, making their skills useless. Neither Dissolve nor Adhere nor Detect Flesh could do anything against someone who attacked them from afar. They would have been more dangerous if they had higher levels, and developed the movement skills that make slimes very hard opponents, especially if there are many of them.

Nonetheless, he was somewhat surprised that there were so few. He had barely found three, much less than he remembered from the game, or from what came out of the Oracle's words.

On the other hand, at 17 he had unlocked Burning Wall, whose effect can be deduced by the name. The created wall lasts up to five minutes at level 10, and it was at 8. It isn't a spell that he had used often, but in situations with many enemies, reason why it had raised a lot.

And he also had at his disposal Earthquake, which allows jumping forward with the hammer up to five meters at level 10, damaging and knocking down all enemies within a radius of one meter of the impact area. He had raised it to 10, because it was a skill that he liked to use, even if it was only for the aesthetic effect, a memory that made him feel a bit embarrassed. In spite of this, he promised himself to try it when he wouldn't have a ceiling only two meters above his head.

Shortly after the fight with the third slime, the tunnel lead to an immense cavern, whose enormous stalactites fell from a height that the light of the floating lamp couldn't reach.

He took a couple of steps forward, watching the walls and admiring the place, while an intermittent drip told him that there was water somewhere nearby. That was the only sound there, beyond his own breathing.

From his position, he followed the movements of the lamp, which was illuminating the floor of the cavern as it went, discovering little more than stalagmites that emerged from the ground as if they wanted to rise up to the sky. Until he discovered something else.

He ordered the lamp to go near the remains of weapons scattered on the ground, discovering other nearby weapons. Then fragments of armors, clothes or backpacks. And bones, human bones.

He was paralyzed, wondering if he should approach those remains or flee from that place. But first of all, the question was how they had died.

They may have been at least five, and the weapons were level 20 to 25. It didn't make sense that the few slimes he had encountered could face them, and in that cavern he had found no trace of those monsters, nor of any another. And the lamp had already lighted almost every corner.

Besides, it was strange that they had died in the middle of the cavern. If they had had to fight against many enemies, the most logical thing would be that they had looked for the protection of a wall or returned to the tunnel And the appearance of a powerful enemy on that floor of the dungeon was unthinkable.

They could also have been betrayed, but it didn't seem like the right answer. If so, they would have taken the weapons and belongings.

But, then, what had attacked them? How? And where was that enemy now? And as he thought about it, the unfathomable darkness of the roof gave him goosebumps. It was just an idea, it was just a possibility, but he stepped back and sent the lamp up.

There, glued to the ceiling, the light discovered hundreds of slimes waiting patiently for their prey, waiting to fall on those imprudent who dared to venture into a dungeon that hadn't been explored for too long.

Eldi swallowed at the evidence that, if he hadn't discovered those bones, if those adventurers hadn't died there, he would be the one who would take their place in that death trap.