Into The Dungeon

"We've been here for ages, and your protégé still hasn't shown up! We should go in ourselves and split the treasure without her. It's not like she needs it." 

Liana propped herself up on her oak staff, standing from the rock she was sitting on. She cleaned the back of her oversized robe and walked towards the entrance of the broken-down castle, beckoning her elven companion to follow. 

Celeria scoffed, not bothering to move from the toppled tree trunk acting as her chair. 

"It's only been half an hour at most." The blonde elf shrugged. "However, If you want to go ahead so badly, I'm not going to stop you. But, I'm pretty sure you won't last two rooms before running back for help." 

Celeria glared at the short mage. Liana brushed a strand of red hair away from her eyes and returned the frown. The staring contest lasted only a couple of seconds before the mage sat down again. 

"Fiiineeee. I'll wait for our meat shield before embarking on our heroic quest to save a bunch of cows. But if she is not here befor-"

"Shsh, hear that?" Celeria glared at the rustling bushes next to her. She pulled an arrow from her quiver and silently readied her bow. 

"Isn´t that our meat shield?"

"Don´t think so, I hear two sets of footsteps…"

"Sorry for the delay…" Celeria lowered her bow. She recognized the brunette walking into the glade. It was Peonie, the friend she had been waiting for. "..But I found someone who could help us on the way here. We stopped to buy her some equipment for the job. Remember Nem?"

"It's Min," the eponymous adventurer clarified, walking next to Peonie. "Hi Celeria, long time no see! I´m glad to- what is she doing here?!" Min unsheathed her dagger and aimed it at Liana.

"Huh, do we know each other? Don´t tell me I mugged before?" The mage rubbed her chin as she tried to remember. "Wait, yeah. You are the girl I accidentally teleported!"

"You also teleported my stuff away from me! You left me naked in the middle of a random inn!"

"Well, tough luck. It was a bad day for all of us."

"Give me back my stuff!"

"I don´t know where it is!"

"Celeria, why are you even working with this outlaw?" Min turned towards the blonde elf.

"Well, I figure we could use a mage in our little excursion and didn´t know anyone else around these parts that fit the bill. Besides, she served her sentence in the stocks. As far as the law is concerned, she has paid her dues to society."

"But as far as I´m concerned, she still owes me one…" Min mumbled. "Fine, I´m not going to let this criminal ruin my first-ever dungeon expedition." 

That´s right, Min didn´t have to lose sight of what was important. She had just finished her first solo quest and it was time to live the most important part of the fantasy adventurer experience. Dungeon crawling! 

Min was positively giddy with excitement. Who knew what sort of magical treasure or fantastic creature waited for her inside? It was enough to make her forget the nonsense the fairies said about her supposed curse.

"First ever?" Liana said. "Excuse me, but what exactly do you contribute to this expedition? By the Sisters´s Heavenly Ass, despite delaying the adventure to buy gear, you are barely equipped to face an angry dog, much less a dungeon!"

Min´s eyebrow twitched, but she couldn´t say that Liana was wrong. Celeria had her bow, Liana had her magic, Peonie was clad in a battle skirt with a steel breastplate, and she had a massive sword, but what did Min have?

The reward for defeating the fairies was not a substantial one. She only had enough coin to buy herself a pair of plain shoes, a dagger, and a long gambeson that almost reached her knees. She didn´t even have enough to buy underwear, for crying out loud!

At least Touly´s cape made her seem more professional than she was. But, Min didn´t need any fancy gear to fulfill her role in the party. She already had a plan. "I´m going to be the thief, of course!"

All three adventurers looked at each other with some worry. "Did you just admit you will try to steal from us?"

"No, I meant that I´m going to be the rogue!"

"That´s another word for thief."

"No. As in, rogue is my class!"

"We are not in a university, and I don´t think any of us are interested in learning how to steal. Especially from someone like you."

"Argh!" Min slapped the palm of her hand into her face. "Look, I´ll make it simple for you. I sneak around and stab monsters in the back, like a rogue, while they are distracted fighting you. Capiche?"

"You are wearing an orange gambeson. The only thing you can sneak across is a fruit basket."

"Listen," Celeria placed her hand on Liana´s shoulder. "I´m sure you can tell that Min is a seasoned adventurer. So what if there aren´t any dungeons where she came from? She will come in handy one way or another. Let´s not waste any more time, shall we?"

Liana rolled her eyes. "Ok, she can stay. I guess we could use another meat shield. But, I´m not going to go out of my way to help her if this dumbass "sneaks" into a bed of spikes, understand?"

"OK, now that everything´s settled, let´s finally start the quest." Celeria declared. The party entered a giant crack inside the massive walls that once protected a dilapidated fortress in the middle of the forest. 

The cramped hallways inside were completely dark. There weren't any torches or windows to be seen. The only light that intruded into the gloomy castle came from the occasional collapsed hole in the ceiling. 

Liana conjured a floating orb of light to illuminate their way. Overgrown vines lined the floors and walls. Any decorations that would once have embellished the halls of the place had long withered away with time.

Peonie led the way, followed by an enthusiastic Min, an alert Celeria, and a somewhat impatient Liana. An eerie silence permeated the building. The only thing that the adventurers could hear were their footsteps. 

"Soooo, I know it´s kind of late to ask about this," Min said, breaking the silence. "But what exactly is our mission here? Peonie didn´t have time to fill me in… Are we just plundering the ruins like land pirates or do we have a quest here?" 

"How did she not have time?" Celeria scoffed. "You girls went shopping!"

  "Well, we talked about other topics!" Peonie replied, somewhat defensively. "I filled Min into what happened to us after we chased the alchemist, and she told me a hilarious story she heard about a friend of hers who had to help a knight undergoing a naked pilgrimage…" 

"Y-yeah, can you believe my friend´s bad luck? It´s almost like she is cursed… Anyway, then we started swapping recipes, didn't we? I never finished telling you about my grandma Gelatin-"

  "Ehem." Celeria coughed. "Recently, all nearby animals, including the livestock and pets of the townspeople, have been flocking to this ruined fort. The animals move in a trance and can't be dissuaded from their march without resorting to violence."

"So, are we supposed to investigate what´s going on?"

"Yes. The guard was sent to investigate before us, but since the kingdom of Turial is such a peaceful land, they don't have experience dealing with these kinds of issues. They took one look at this place and returned home, deeming the job to be above their pay grade."

"That's where we come in," Liana said. "We enter the dungeon, find the missing animals, and eliminate whatever attracts them to this place. Oh, and we grab everything that isn´t nailed down, of course. Can´t forget the ever-important finders-keepers clause on the contract."

  Peonie glared back at her mage companion. How dare she suggest that they should astray from their noble goal?

"Huh, that it? Sounds simple. Are you sure there isn´t anything more we have to do? Something a tad more heroic than herding back a bunch of goats?"

"Look, I know you want to slay a big scary dragon or something like that since this is your first official dungeon experience and all, but I would bet my robe that this is happening because of a group of mischievous fairies, or a talisman going awry, or something small like that. This kingdom is famous for its lack of real monsters."

"With luck, there won´t even be any traps here either," the elf said. "The perfect place for your first dungeon expedition too, Peonie."

Liana stopped walking "What?! You are telling me half of our party is composed of newbies? If this was a proper dungeon I would quit right here!"

"And are you one to talk, huh, Liana? Tell me, how many dungeons have you cleared while playing the bandit?"

"Tsk… let´s just keep going. If this place is as safe as you say, I want to be back before nightfall-"

"Wait," Celeria interrupted. "Look, in front of us." Being absorbed in their little chat, the party had unwittingly entered a very thin chamber. The walls were so narrow that Peonie barely had enough space to swing her sword around, which was a problem considering the giant yellow slime blocking their way and menacingly slithering toward the party. 

"Should we go back and look for another way around?" Liana asked.

"I didn´t see any other path. This is the only way forward," Celeria replied.

"There isn´t enough space to sneak past the monster either," Min commented.

"Damn. Liana, do you know any ice spell-"

"Don't tell me you girls are scared of a slime?" Peonie unsheathed her sword, twisting her elbow to have enough space to pull it out of its scabbard. "I´ll make quick work of it!"

  "Wait-"

Before Celeria or Min could retort, Peonie charged forward and cleaved the yellow blob with a mighty swing. Pieces of the monster's body flew over the floor and walls, the blob reduced to half its size, although it was still big enough to block the exit.

Peonie readied her sword for another attack when Min grabbed her arm and stopped her. "Wait! Don´t cut the slime!"

"Why? I know for a fact they are harmless. My sisters used to put slimes on my shoes and undergarments all the time. They are annoying, but not dangerous. Leave this one to me."

The pieces of slime on the walls slid down to join their "sisters" on the floor. Together, they formed a formless mass of yellow goo that flooded the room. 

Peonie felt something sticky and cold envelop her feet. The mass latched onto the adventurers and endeavored to move up their legs.

"You idiot! I don't know what kind of slimes your sisters used, but yellow slimes are corrosive! They eat inorganic material!" Liana yelled as she attempted to swipe away the slime crawling on her legs using her staff. 

"And now, instead of dealing with one big slime, we have to deal with a hundred small ones," Min said, stabbing at the blob near her legs to no avail. "Huh, just like the question I asked Touly…"

  "T-then what do I do?"

  "Keep going! Now we have no choice but to cut the big one down and escape before they overwhelm us!" replied Celeria, who was also swiping away at the formless yellow mass climbing her legs.

Peonie could feel the slime creeping up over her now bare skin, climbing her athletic legs as they reduced her boots to nothing. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. The sensation was every bit unpleasant as she remembered, yet she needed to concentrate.

If she could (mostly) stop herself from squirming when she had one of those detestable intruders moving about her unmentionables at her father's birthday party, maintaining her attack should be a piece of cake.

Peonie used all her strength to slice the mother blob as if she were cutting a cake. The once tall slime was reduced to the size of a person, then a wardrobe, and finally a small dog.  The doorway was open. "Let's go!" she shouted. The party ran out of the room as fast as they could.

Once in the hallway outside, each adventurer patted away and kicked away the remaining goo clinging to their legs and feet until their bodies were devoid of the monsters.

The slime had managed to devour all of their footwear, most of Celeria's pants and the edge of her cloak, the bottom of Peonie's battle skirt, and a good chunk of Liana's robe. After the attack, no one was wearing anything below their knees.

But the slime wasn´t done. The bits and pieces slithered together to reform into a giant blob once more.

"Liana! Fire!" Celeria yelled and the mage nodded. The tip of her staff shot a jet of fire toward the monster. As if it was made out of kindling, the slime lit aflame in a fiery whirlwind that evaporated all its remains.

With the danger gone, an annoyed Celeria approached Peonie. 

"Next time, always do what I say, even if you think you know what you are doing. Understand?" 

Peonie meekly bobbed her head up and down. "S-sorry. It won´t happen again."

Celeria sighed. "It´s ok, we all make mistakes… although you owe me a pair of boots and pants now. Alright, the way back is on fire. Our only option is to keep moving forward."