Raid: Toxic Slime Cavern (11)

Bum Bum Bum

I repeatedly knocked my head with my fist over and over as I wasn't going to make the same mistake… never again.

After continuously blaming myself for the position I was in, I got up and then stretched a bit before swinging my spear around.

My sore muscles made the spear seem ten times heavier than what it really is, so I lost a bit more motivation.

"One more hour on the outside," I muttered after checking how much time I had left on the quest.

I was so done with this raid, but now I had to recollect everything, find the leader, and then clear this damn dungeon.

"But first, I should check on the others," I muttered before exiting the cave and scouting the area.

I was very close to the toxic green lake, and thankfully nothing came out of it, so I made my way up the hill and found our first break site.

Surprisingly, everything was left untouched, but that didn't really matter as we had brought everything with us.

The only thing in sight was the extinguished campfires which still gave off a bit of heat.

My main priority right now was water and food as I brought nothing with me when I went to go kill the leader…

After finding our second campsite, which we almost died by due to the slimes surrounding us, I noticed even the campfires had been swallowed.

A drop of sweat ran down my cheek as I cautiously walked in the direction of the cave, noticing large trails of melted dirt and trees.

"Foooooo..."

Soon, I arrived back at the cave but what I saw caused me to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Phew… I'm so glad I left," I muttered after noticing the melted corpses of what used to be my allies.

What really threw me off was how the flesh and gear of every adventurer here were gone, but the bones seemed to have been spat out.

Though, thankfully, there were a few canteens of water and shreds of rations that I immediately consumed like a rabid beast.

It was satisfying, but I didn't stuff myself as I still needed to move around, so after finishing my meal, I scavenged the area for anything I could use as a bag… but there was nothing, so I just stuffed a few of the rations into my pockets.

I then hopped over to a stone beside me and began to carefully sharpen my spear against it as the rock was pretty bumpy.

Normally, you would use a flat stone which wouldn't create a chance of breaking, but I didn't have that luxury right now, so I widened my eyes and nimbly moved my hands.

The sound of the blade scratching against the rock was ear bleedingly painful, but my concentration was too much for me to hear it.

Screeeeee… Screeee… Screeeee

And after a few minutes, I touched the end of the blade, and it felt a bit sharper than before.

Not by much, but it was sufficient.

After jumping a few times to warm my body up, I walked out of the cave, but just as I was about to walk in the direction of the boss room… I turned around and looked at the piles of bones.

"Προσευχές για τους πεσόντες,"

…

"Okay… Let's do this," I mutter, cracking my neck and then stepping through the blank rocky wall which was in front of me.

It felt as if I had not even stepped through anything as I landed on the other side of the wall, which had a large spiraling staircase.

As I was now aware of the dangers down there, I cautiously crept my way down, holding my spear in front of me just in case.

My heart practically pounded out of my chest, and it felt as if I could hear my blood flowing a million miles per hour through my body.

I was so nervous that sweat dripped into my eyes, causing them to sting, but despite the pain, I couldn't close them.

Squish

A familiar squishing sound came from below me, and it caused me to jump a bit in fright as I slowly backed away, but…

"Dammit," I muttered before stopping my retreat and beginning to press forward while swallowing my fear.

My legs shook, but my spear was steady… it was a familiar feeling that I thought I had escaped.

I'm on a battlefield.

Despite there being no battle or field… the atmosphere was exactly like it.

I could see it.

An all-out, fully head-on war with nothing to hold back.

Waves of soldiers charged towards me, raising their weapons into the air, their bloodlust practically tangling itself with the atmosphere.

No blood had been drawn yet, but the stench was already there.

"HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF…"

I glanced back at my hand, which was shaking uncontrollably, but I just tightened my grip around my spear to counter it.

"What am I? A pussy?"

Soon, I arrived at the bottom of the stairs and noticed there was no slime anywhere… not even a single drop.

A bit suspicious, I slowed my already tortoise-like pace, but it was for the best as I didn't feel like dying right now.

After a bit of fighting with myself, I managed to make my way over to the rope which I had used to initially travel down and also noticed that the hole in the ceiling was now gone.

It was the same hole I used to take a shortcut.

I knew it…

I picked up the rope and then quickly brought it over to the large hole in the ground, right next to the boss room.

Nothing was around me, but now that I had made a significant move, anything could happen, so I quickly tied the rope around a rock and let the other end droop down towards the toxic pool.

And after a bit of jumping up and down to psych me up, I then slowly descended down towards the toxic lake to try and get a better view of it… and what I saw completely shocked me.