Return to Jorgaldur Volume II: the druid archer

Secret garden (I)

They spent the morning reducing the numbers of those slugs, although they would reappear after some time. It could be seen that the brilliance of the mana stone had intensified, and it was evident that they could wipe out those beings much faster. In total, about ten of them.

Goldmi had tested Twister against one, and although slashing damage wasn't very effective against them, by doing it continuously she had managed to kill it, although mana consumption had been higher than by using Ethereal Arrows.

"There is a very strong presence. Almost 200 meters forward. Maybe it's the floor boss," Goldmi announced.

"Let's take a look," suggested the lynx.

"Maybe it would be better to leave it for later," the elf was reluctant.

"Just a quick look and I'll come back"

And with that said, the lynx stepped forward, without letting her sister convince her.

"Be careful! There are two on the way!" The elf exclaimed, running after the feline.

When she reached her sister, the lynx was already jumping between the two slugs, fearlessly, arguably even recklessly. Goldmi feared that she could be hit by the Spittle from the one which was the furthest away, the one that wasn't being directly attacked. But the throwing was easily dodged, as the lynx had been waiting for it.

Soon, several arrows pierced the gelatinous body of the first one, so there was only the second one left for the feline, who deftly weakened it, while dodging it. It wasn't long before they have killed both.

"Hmmph. You scared me. Don't be so reckless," the elf complained.

"There were only two!" protested the big cat. "Thank you sis."

The last sentence the lynx said was from the bottom of her heart. There was no trace of mockery. She really appreciated her help and her concern.

She didn't stay still, but moved quickly towards the end of the tunnel, which opened into a huge cavern, as dark as the rest of the tunnels, since the light from the floating lamp hadn't yet arrived. However, Night Vision allowed her to see what was inside, and also the elf through Visual Link. They both felt chills.

As they had feared, there was a floor boss, a slug five meters high and more than twenty meters long. And it wasn't alone. Several hundred of the little ones seemed to be resting there, but they all started to move as the huge gelatinous body jumped on itself, landing in the same spot, and emitting a wave that spread across the ground of the entire dungeon floor.

They were both frozen for a moment. Soon, the lynx backed from the entrance, since that was the place where the hundreds of slugs were heading to, very little by little. It wasn't long before she turned completely and reached her sister, aware that it was impossible for her to face this horde at melee. By only firing a few of their Spittle, she would have no room to dodge, and Cyclonic Barrier's protection is reduced with each impact.

They moved away from the entrance, lighting the way and stopping at a distance that kept them out of the reach of their enemies, but not them from the arrows. She managed to take down the first four that appeared, but it was evident that her mana reserves weren't enough to face that gelatinous horde. So they chose to back off. But, halfway there, they had to change their minds.

"There're more coming everywhere! They're surrounding us!" the archer suddenly exclaimed, after using Life Detection.

"Let's break through," said her sister, much more serious than she had been lately.

"There're too many on the way back, let's go to the left"

Almost twenty of them were gathering the way they had come, and surely more would appear, arriving from different side tunnels. They had no choice but to go through one of those tunnels, where there were only three of them. They did it without knowing if there would be a way out, but it was the best of their options.

The feline pounced on the first of the slugs that was blocking their path, then jumped on the second and avoided it Spittle, while Goldmi was taking care of the first, and the third went into action.

Those were killed fairly quickly, only minor burns to the lynx's feet that were soon healed. But Life Detection showed that the others were slowly going after their trail.

They followed the tunnel, but found that there was no exit and retraced their steps to follow a lateral one, an operation they had to repeat several times. The lynx, who was faster, went ahead to check the route to follow, and had found until now fourteen dead ends. And while exploring that network of tunnels, they had killed four others, and leveled up to 19.

Finally, they arrived at a huge cavern, larger even than the floor boss's residence, and surprisingly lit. Thousands of lichens on the ceiling were glowing, continually turning mana into light, and allowing vegetation that shouldn't be able to grow there to do so.

There was grass and small bushes, which had evolved to be immune to the corrosion of slugs, and which were even able to absorb them very slowly. In fact, they continuously absorbed the mana of the dungeon as a nutrient, and the slugs were beings created from it. Although the newcomers didn't know it at all.

Therefore, there were no slugs there, just a strange and mysterious garden with which the elf could communicate in part. She could feel the bond that linked her to those plants, which was a relief, as it meant that they weren't dangerous for them. The bad part was that there was no way out, that they were trapped there, and that the path they had come from was being taken little by little by a horde of gelatinous beings that were approaching their position.

They walked the entire cavern, looking for a hidden exit that they hadn't seen before, and that the map didn't show, but there was nothing there. Apparently, their only option was to face hundreds of slugs in that place, so they approached the entrance, to attack them as soon as they appeared, to try to reduce their numbers, although they were aware that their options were rather small. They were at a dead end.