“Aughh…”

  The world swam bato focus as a faint groan escaped Daisuke’s lips, his sciousness gradually returning. Blinking away the haze, he pushed aside the throbbing pain at the back of his head and took in his surroundings in a mixture of fusion and urgency.

  The corridor he found himself in was tight, the walls and ceiling softly illuminated by an eerie phosphorest light. Its feeble glow barely dispelled the shadows that g to the edges of his vision.

  “…It looks like I’ve fallen a long way,” he murmured while gazing up at the faint light in a yer that was well above the height of the ceiling.

  His heart quied as he sidered his predit. Now the big question is: which type of dungeon did I stumble into? The ceiling looks the same from this angle, so I ’t dis whether I was teleported to somewhere else or not.

  Each type of Dungeon held its own dangers; its own challenges. But Daisuke was nothing if nmatid with no way to climb back up from where he had fallen, his options were limited. There was only one way to go—forward.

  Steeling himself, he stepped forward into the dimly lit corridor, embrag the uainty that y ahead. The narrow path eventually expanded inte chamber. Carefully ing his head, he peeked inside and he various color Slimes dotting the room.

  Looks like I may be able to survive this ordeal, after all. The Slimes on the surface were pretty much level one. With any luck, these ones won’t be any higher than level two or three.

  As he pted, his gaze focused on an e Slime close by. What bothers me, though, is that I’ve never seen a Slime that isn’t blue.

  Tightly gripping his bamboo spear, Daisuke looked bato the narrow passage before log onto the Slime once more. I’ll try attag this one and see how it responds. If I gain the aggro from the other Slimes, I’ll just lure them into a bottlened skewer them o a time. Slimes are only capable of physical attacks, so this should be pretty doable.

  Steeling his resolve, Daisuke poised for an attack. But suddenly, a rge spider—a Silkshriek—dangled down from its web just inches away from his face. It was almost a meter ih, its eyes a pierg green.

  Before it could spew venom from its maw, blinding its prey, it was mistakenly hit by a fireball meant for Daisuke. The hideous creature colpsed to the ground, its web reduced to sm ashes, agonized shrieks filling the air as the fmes ed it.

  “Wait! Does that mean?!”

  Daisuke bnched.

  It was bad enough that the Slime could use fire magiow, the spider’s thrashing and screeg had woention of all the others that could supposedly use magic as well. Now being in the narrow corridor was suicide.

  Daisuke’s heart pounded like the war drums of an Orc army. Fmes crackled, water surged, gusts of wind howled, and ks of earth roared as the Slimes unleashed their attacks.

  Daisuke’s instincts kicked in, adrenaline fueling his drive, and he leaped with the grace of a Mithrilcrest Deer, narrowly dodging a torrent of water that crashed into the ground where he had been standing.

  His bamboo spear glinted as he whirled it around himself, carving a path through the onsught of elemental assaults. With every attack he avoided, his fidence surged.

  The Slimes, their forms shifting and pulsating with magic, seemed unfazed by their missed attempts. They verged on Daisuke, their mouths agape and elements swirling. He sprinted, his footsteps eg off the cave floor. Fmes licked at his heels, water droplets spshed his skin, and gusts of wind threateo knock him off bance.

  But Daisuke endured. He twisted, somersaulted, and spun with impressive athleticism. The Slimes’ attacks collided, causiions of steam and explosions of sparks.

  Seizing this moment, Daisuke lunged forward, spear extended. His on found its mark, pierg through the getinous form of a Fire Slime. The creature let out a sizzling shriek as it dissolved into embers. Daisuke wrenched his spear free, his breath bored but determined.

  His eyes locked onto the remaining Slimes. Each elemental attack, oent and terrifying, now seemed predictable. And so, one by ohe Slimes fell to the bamboo spear, their bodies fizzling out harmlessly.

  ***

  Hiding his presence, Daisuke flicked a rock a few meters away from a monster in the chamber. The slug-like creature left a thick yellow liquid in its wake as it slowly crawled over to iigate.

  Looks like it’s not just in appearahought Daisuke. This mob is as slow as a snail as well.

  All of a sudden, the creature turned, its lifeless pair of eyes log onto Daisuke’s with an eerie stillness. In a matter of moments, its body expanded, swelling thly twice its previous size.

  Daisuke’s eyes widened in shock. Before he could react, a projectile shot from the creature’s mouth with surprising speed, striking his arm and instantly adhering it to the wall behind him. The mucus acted like a powerful adhesive, pinning him in pce.

  Grimag, Daisuke’s mind raced. Like hell I’m going to allow myself to be done in by a slug!

  He swiftly assessed the situation, his survival instincts kig in. With an agile maneuver, he mao slip out of his jacket, leaving it pio the wall as an unfortunate sacrifice to his escape. He did, however, mao retain his bow and quiver.

  Its movements are slow, but its attack is pretty quick. If that glue were to cover my face, it’s game over. In that case…

  Keeping his body animated and his field of vision wide, Daisuke swiftly moved around the cave, dodging projectiles while killing the pesky monsters with little effort.

  Then he used his bamboo spear to extract the small shard of Mana Crystal hidden iheir slimy bodies before moving on to the final chamber.

  ***

  SPLATT!!

  Daisuke was on the brink of turning a er when a slug hit the wall like a wet sack of raspberries.

  “Gulp!” he swallowed down his heart that had jumped into his throat. A chill ran down his spine as his imagination jured vivid images of a simir fate—a grotesque mess of slimy residue spttered across the wall.

  He ed his head around the bend and he source of the creature’s timely demise. It was the Boss Monster—what else could it be when the Goliath among Slimes was at least twenty times bigger than its terpart?

  The creature’s ragged sat askew on its head, its lime-green body trasting starkly with the gloom of the dark cave. Within its getinous form, a turbulent liquid fizzed and ed like soda.

  Daisuke broke into a sweat. “Will I really be able to take this thing with just a bamboo on?”

  The creature didn’t give him enough time to mull it over. A high-pitched shrill decred the start of the battle.

  The creature’s body jiggled as a ball of acid surged from its mouth, narrowly missing Daisuke as it melted the rocky ceiling with its corrosive potency.

  Unfortunately, his bow and quiver weren’t so lucky, and he quickly abahem before the harsh toxin could spread to his body.

  “A-Acid? You’ve got to be kidding me!”

  He made a beeline as a volley of noxious projectiles came sh down like rain, dissolving parts of his clothes.

  I’m screwed. Even if I had a steel sword, it would just melt down the moment I made tact with the Slime’s body. What good then is a lousy bamboo spear going to do?

  Dug behind a rock, Daisuke struggled to trol his breathing, his mind reeling as he sidered a strategy.

  SWISH!

  A high velocity, b-shaped projectile of water sliced through the rock like a hot khrough butter. Daisuke’s eyes bulged as fringes of his hair fell from his head.

  He hesitantly poked his head up to peek, but ended up running for his life before a ball of fire could engulf that spot of ground. But he didn’t get far.

  The hing he knew, his legs were caught in a sheet of ice. He bnched as he gazed up from the glistening g to the Slime that was now transitioning from the color lime-green to brown.

  Daisuke’s eyes widened in horror, a flurry of projectiles reflected in them. He crossed his forearms as a barrage of pebble-sized rocks zipped by and into him like the pellets of a powerful BB gun.

  He groaned, slightly l his arms. His eyes glinted with determination, even as blotches of blood dotted his clothes. But that fidence wavered as the Slime shifted from lime-green to yellow.

  With haste, Daisuke started using the dull end of his bamboo spear to break the ice trapping his feet. But, when a bolt of lightning struck, a blood-curdling scream tore from his lungs and his steaming body stilled before falling to the ground. But even then, he didn’t get a reprieve.

  A powerful gust of wind picked up his body and smmed it into the wall, knog the air from his lungs.

  “Cough!” blood spttered to the ground when he fell, his vision blurring as searing pain throbbed across every inch of his body.

  But he couldn’t stay still.

  A moment of rest would spell the end of him.

  Awkwardly rolling onto his stomach, Daisuke’s eyes fleetingly met with the motionless body of the slug. He couldn’t allow himself to suffer the same fate. What would happen to April and the others if he perished here? And who would exact his revenge for Zephyr?

  Before a pool of acid could dissolve his flesh and bones, he pushed to his feet with a hardened battle cry. The Slime’s form shifted and shimmered, taking oraits of fire, water, wih, ice, lightning, and acid in a rapid succession of assaults. It weaved together a flurry of destru, ung bination attacks that left Daisuke scrambling for cover.

  Taking refuge behind a sturdy rock, his mind raced. the Slime’s pattern, he realized that it o return to its inal state—acid form—before it could shift to another elemental state. And each transformation had an interval time of at least ten seds.

  As his eyes darted back to the entrance, he was struck by a sudden epiphany. The Slime… couldn’t digest the slug, which is probably the reason why it was regurgitated.

  Armed with this revetion, Daisuke started mentally ting dowime until the monster’s ransformation. Then he rushed over and urgently smeared himself with the mucus from the slug.

  fiding in his hurried assessment, he lunged forward. Despite the fear, pain, fatigue, and disgust from the slimy mucus, a mighty roar bubbled up from his throat.

  A fusilde of projectiles shot forward, but Daisuke’s momentum didn’t slow; the mucus acted as a yer of barrier against the corrosive acid.

  Closing the distaween them, he focused his fury on the Slime’s core, which was cealed by its fizzing interior. And the moment its element switched from acid to water, his bamboo spear struck true.

  “Kiiiieeehhhk!”

  The Slime let out a long-winded shriek that reverberated through the chamber, a final burst of sound before its form liquefied and oozed around the bamboo spear.

  Daisuke’s chest heaved as he struggled to catch his breath, the weight of the battle finally settling upon him. He lowered his gaze to the watery pool that remained of the creature. A mixture of relief, awe, and fatigue swept over him in waves.

  “Is… Is it finally over?” he muttered, his voice a whisper that hung in the air.

  DING!

  [gratutions!]

  [You have achieved an unbelievable feat!]

  “Eh?”

  Vaughn_RR_Seider