Chapter 6: 6. Contacting the Unknown

I didn’t see anything but darkness. It took me some moments before I was able to see my new surroundings.

I was in a small room. It had a roughly cubic shape, with bumpy surfaces. As If someone made it hurriedly.

I looked around the room, only one thing could be seen. It was an uneven blob, made from a blue viscous substance. There was a small white sphere inside it, shaped like a marble.

The mana core, I thought. It’s the only physically vulnerable part of the slime.

I tried to examine the creature.

[Slime] (Common)

Level: 1

 

The details I knew about this creature were sufficient, it was a relatively harmless creature, unless provoked. Common [Slimes] didn’t engage in combat, unlike the mutated variants that could give status ailments.

This was just the first room out of five, I thought. I knew already that this dungeon was made of two floors. I was on the upper floor, which was composed of five rooms. Each containing different regular mobs. The difficulty of beating each room increased with progress.

The deeper floor was just a single room. It was reserved for the [Dungeon Boss] battle.

This is my chance to try my fire skills, I thought. My first test would be setting myself on fire using [Flame-n-Go], as I didn’t have enough mana to freely test the two offensive skills.

If I remember correctly, the description of that skill said that I could sustain the fire with ambient mana, only if the target is myself, I thought.

First, I took all my clothes off in order to preserve them. Saving resources is graceful, okay? I thought.

“[Flame-n-Go]!” I shouted. Stupid class condition, having to shout the names of skills like some protagonists.

Suddenly, I felt a great amount of mana surge towards me, and a bright red fire covered my whole body. Every single part of my body burned brightly; the fire blurred some of the critical details.

I can’t go running around visibly naked, I thought.

The pain was too sharp for me to expect, so I cancelled the skill instantly. It had the basic temperature of 600° Kelvin, which was enough to melt Lead.

I went closer to the slime, which had reflective properties. I was elated to find that my hair and eyebrows didn’t disappear.

I took a deep breath and tried to burn myself again, I tried to open my Status Screen to see how it affected my stats when it was active.

 

I noticed that the active skills were in bold, and the extra stats were between brackets. The current temperature of the fire was also shown.

The extra stats could rival what people with common classes accumulated at a level of 46, since they got four stat points per level. The regeneration rate increased a lot too.

Impressive, I thought.

This time I could endure it for ten seconds. Mostly due to my sheer willpower, and constantly reminding myself that I was immune to fire damage despite the pain.

I tried to raise the temperature, but I couldn’t endure the pain from 700° K for more than 3 seconds.

Satisfied with my tests, I decided to start dealing with the dungeon.

I approached the slime, and touched it for a moment. “[Flame-N-Go]” I shouted, smirking in the process.

The damage to my finger from the acid was minimal, but the slime caught fire instantly. It was draining the creature’s mana and causing it to move haphazardly around the room.

The skill allowed me to choose a source of mana for the flames. I naturally chose the slime, as that was my plan all along.

It didn’t take long for the monster to stop moving, the fire got instantly extinguished.

So, it completely exhausted its mana, I thought.

[Slime] (Common) (Level: 1) defeated! Host earned 500 EXP.

 

The slime’s core visibly disintegrated, and the viscous substance dispersed on the floor. Slimes could drop their essence as loot, but the chances of that happening were very low.

A black door with a golden frame appeared on the wall facing me, it opened automatically when I approached it.

Now that my plans seemed to work out, this dungeon would be much easier. I took my clothes with me and went to the next room, which was completely the same as the first in its shape, but it had two purple slimes this time.

[Toxic Slime] (Common)

Level: 2

 

[Toxic Slime] (Common)

Level: 2

 

They were obviously hostile, but their pace was too slow. I applied the same strategy against them, but I ended up with a status ailment after touching the first one.

Host is suffering from a status ailment: [Poison]! Warning: HP decreases by 6 points per minute until the Host gets cured.

 

It was rather concerning, as it could lead to my death within twenty minutes if I didn’t do something about it. However, I knew that each level I gain in my class should regenerate both my HP and Mana fully, and cure me of poison and most similar things.

[Toxic Slime] (Common) (Level: 2) defeated x2! Host earned 2000 EXP.

 

-Host levelled up x1!

 

-Host reached Level 2! 4 MAG, 4 END and 8 free stat points acquired.

 

I didn’t care about the level up yet; my priority was to finish the dungeon quickly.

I took my clothes with me and entered the next room, which had four black slimes. They were [Rotten Slimes] of the common grade, each of them had a level of four.

It felt like déja-vu. Suddenly, I had a flashback.

*

‘Hold on, Taylor!’ said a brown-haired guy ‘Just keep your distance using the longsword! Make sure they’re huddled together, Leon would use [Fireball] on them’

The taller black-haired guy was clearly suffering, the slimes were too many for him to hold, and his sword started deteriorating.

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‘I am out of Mana, I can only cast the spell twice with a full mana bar’ said the blonde-haired person ‘We should have bought potions ’.

Suddenly, the sword wielding person backed off from his position. He looked around, his eyes settled on someone with an average height and body build. Nothing about him stood out, except the enormous backpack he held.

Taylor grabbed the unsuspecting porter, throwing him towards the four remaining slimes.

‘Finn!’ screamed Taylor ‘Use [Awe] on him! This will give us the opening we need!’

Finn grinned, and casted the skill on the innocent guy. The latter became as static as a rock, grabbing the attention of the slimes near him. The trio succeeded in clearing the room, and the dungeon too later.

The poor guy was left to die, his body disintegrated when his HP dropped to zero.

*

I laughed so hard at the faces they made when they came back to safety, only to find me already there, I thought. We didn’t know that people could respawn in the safe room.

As I entered the room, the creatures started creeping slowly towards me. I just touched each of them, setting them on fire.

The interaction gave me the [Rot] ailment, which caused the hand that touched them to age rapidly and rot.

The flames drained them out of Mana in a couple of seconds, they survived just a bit longer than their earlier counterparts.

[Rotten Slime] (Common) (Level: 4) defeated x4! Host earned 12000 EXP.

 

-Host levelled up x2!

 

-Host reached Level 4! 8 MAG, 8 END and 16 free stat points acquired.

 

The level up brought me back to pristine condition, curing the [Rot] and restoring my damaged hand.

The amount of EXP earned was exponentially higher, yet it only allowed me to level up twice. I was curious to see how much EXP I needed to level up further, so I opened the status menu.

 

Sigh, it’ll take some time before I graduate from being a Rank F host, I thought.

I allocated eighteen points to MAG, which brought my total mana capacity to five hundred. The mana didn’t automatically regenerate though, so the available mana was still three hundred.

After the last slime died, A door appeared once again. I brought my clothes and went through, to reach the next room.

There were eight green slimes this time. They were level 8, and the system called them [Radioactive Slimes].

It was my first time seeing them, but I knew that they could cause mutations from what I’ve heard. I decided that I didn’t want to risk touching them, so I moved nimbly towards the center of the room and used my multi-target Class Skill. I chose the diameter to be twenty meters, as that was enough for the blast to cover the room completely.

“[Kill Them Before They Spread!]” I shouted. A heat wave instantly spread from me to hit everything in the room. I opted to increase the temperature of the blast to 700° K, as I had enough mana to do so.

[Radioactive Slime] (Common) (Level: 5) defeated x8! Host earned 40000 EXP.

 

-Host levelled up x2!

 

-Host reached Level 4! 8 MAG, 8 END and 16 free stat points acquired.

 

I felt good. My mana was at its full capacity of 500, and the next group slimes should be the last before I face the boss.

From what the adventurers told me in the old days, next up should be a group of [Corrupted Slimes]. They could give the hosts a certain ailment called [Corruption].

I didn’t know much about this ailment, except the fact that it causes hallucinations. Rumors said that it made the users face their worst experiences, nightmares, and memories.

It could devastate some people, while it was harmless to others. It all depended on the person.

I took my clothes and entered the next room; it was at least thrice as big as the first couple of rooms. I could see sixteen crimson slimes roaming around the room, randomly.

As I lacked information on these slimes, I bought it from the system shop. It was very cheap, costing me five points.

[Corrupted Slime] (Common)

One of the most formidable common slimes, exposure to corrupted mana made them able to use basic illusions and mind spells. Beginners aren’t advised to face this creature, unless the party contains a [Healer], [Priest], […]. Just remember, It’s all inside your head. All inside your head. . .

 

The description gave me an eerie feeling, but I brushed it off. Having ways to control fire and siphon mana meant that all kinds of slimes would be nothing more than easy challenges.

I started running around the room, setting every single slime on fire. The fire burned fiercely, and they started disintegrating one after the other.

I didn’t know which one gave me the [Corruption] ailment, but I started seeing and hearing things the moment I got it.

Shadows were moving all around the room, which didn’t have a light source to begin with. Weird.

I started seeing the silhouettes of many people, partners that helped me, colleagues that I respected and enemies that despised me.

I didn’t know why, but the hallucinations mostly showed me people who died. Most of their deaths had nothing to do with me anyway.

Then, she showed up. Natalie, I thought. She was shorter than me and her clothes had dust all over them. She had short black hair that reached her shoulders. Her eyes were bloody.

‘Useless’ she said ‘I shouldn’t have trusted you’. No, she didn’t die yet, not in this timeline, I thought.

I tried to reach out with my hands to her, to say something.

Suddenly, all the ‘illusions’ disappeared including her, except a single three-dimensional silhouette.

It was constantly shifting in height and proportions; the only consistent thing was that it had no features.

It was black. Completely.

Out of nowhere, it started laughing audibly. It clapped for a bit and then disappeared.

-Host is cured of a status ailment: [Corruption]!

 

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