The armor that Samson gave to me was incredibly uncomfortable, but it could most probably be due to the fact I was not use to something like this. The armor was not made of metal like I expected, on the contrary it was made of some sort of thick or hardened cloth, like Kevlar.
To my hands the texture was incredibly soft, it was a little uneven as if below the clothes that made up its surface, there was wood beneath it. The armor however itched and dug into my neck, not to mention the boots Samson also gave me were digging into my toes, it felt really painful to walk.
But apart from that I had both my revolvers loaded, six bullets each to make a total of twelve, Samson did not give any more stating that this was my most important resource and I needed to be frugal with its use.
Then there were two daggers hanging by the side of my boots, and the two meter double headed spear hanging on his back. I felt like a piece of decoration with everything I've been forced to put on, but since this was my life on the line, I would take any protection offered.
"The first floor below us used to be a library. It has two floors that used to cater to the passing of knowledge to all first to sixth circle mages, so it's a little bit bigger than this floor, also since the power to that part of the floor has been cut off, that floor is completely dark, the castle itself is on lockdown mode which is why it's exterior is completely metallic and no windows could be noticed. But you would not have much of a problem...….slimes glow. Since there are only common slimes on this floor defeating them should be relatively easy as long as you use your head and keep to at least thirty percent of all the strategies you've made.
Remember you must make the slime overextend itself so that it could expose its crystal, it would only start manipulating its cells when it feels like its truly in danger, so you have to hit fast, hit hard and hit smart. At the end of the library there should be a brand or crest, its Incredibly hard to miss it, since it would be glowing all eerie like and would have a bigger if not a completely different variation of the common slime guarding it.
That brand is what the dungeon uses to transport its created monsters to the floors it has taken over, you need to destroy it. Also the slime that ends being the guardian would most probably be the strongest on the floor and should be bigger and stronger. Slimes have zero to no intelligence completely relying on instinct to attack and move, this one would be a little smarter as such it would be the floor boss.
You can use the same normal strategy to kill it, even if it's a different variation. But if it turns out to be a metal slime, my best advice would be to turn tail and return to me so that we can come up with a proper plan of attack. Metal slimes are the most troublesome to deal with along with acid slimes. And do remember don't let any of them touch you, Godspeed and good luck JT boy."
I stepped into the darkened elevator and turned to stare at Samson as its doors slowly began to close. It was at that point however that I realized that as far as fighting goes, Samson never taught me how to attack, the only thing he taught me how to do was defend and how to evade. I felt my heart skip a beat, but there was nothing I could do about it right now.
The elevator was dark, and much like the Mana chamber the only source of illumination was a floating ball of light, however this orb of light was a lot dimmer than the one in the chamber.
Its light was not much, but it was enough for me to take notice of all the runes and symbols carved on the surface of the elevator.
They were uneven and inelegant, it was like the scribbles of a child or someone who was in too much of a hurry to calm down and inscribe the symbols properly.
Apart from the runes, there was a whole plethora of bizarre scratches on the wall, it was as if a dangerous beast was once trapped in the elevator and the scratches were its futile attempt to get out.
I imagined how strong such a beast would have been, the elevator was made of metallic alloys and I knew for a fact that this castle would not have been built with ordinary materials. I mean come on, it's a magic school with advanced technology.
I felt the elevator come to a stop with a jarring thud. And with its sudden stop my heart also skipped a beat(again). I held the spear in my hand a little bit tighter as my breathing became deeper, no matter what image I portrayed, right now I felt a little scared.
The door of the elevator opened with a ding, but all that was beyond the open doors was an endless gloom of darkness. The entire floor was extremely dark as there was no form or existence of any sort of light source.
I muttered a curse, without proper illumination of my surroundings there was not much I could do here. I contemplated going back up to the top floor to get proper lighting seeing it as the best course of action. Samson had said slimes glowed, but so far I've not come across any glowing monsters, but it was to early to tell anyway.
But before I could implement my decision into action, my already heightened hearing picked up the sound of something rapidly heading my way. I ducked down and felt something solid hit the back of the elevator behind me.
BANG!
There was a bang as little vestibules of liquid splattered on top of my body. Almost immediately another projectile was heading for me, but this time as I was crouched down I swung my spear with considerable force deflecting the incoming strike. I still felt a little bit surprised because of the liquid splattered on my face.
This thick make up of the liquid was rather annoying, This past month has seemed to have done nothing but only introduce me to various forms of rather unsavory liquids.
Whatever was attacking me was catching me off guard and moving fast enough that I was not able to get a good look at it. I knew that this floor was supposed to be infested with slimes, but Samson told me to be prepared for the unexpected and I felt that it was a very sound advice.
I felt at a disadvantage staying in the elevator, there was not enough room to maneuver, but it was the only place with a source of light. Going into the dark gloom of this floor was nothing short of stupid and insane. But in the end I might not have a choice.
There was a whoosh as my assailant prepared to attack again, however this time I was ready.
The elongated blue limb that came straight for my head could be seen clear as day, of course I did not have much time to dodge, but between moving my head to the right and watching the limb made completely of liquid retract, helped confirm most of my theories. I was being attacked by a slime(obviously), a slime that I couldn't see.
The slime kept sending it's limbs after me. The monster was very predictable and there was not much force behind its strikes, so I could dodge and deflect its attacks with relative ease. But no matter how I saw it, we were both in a stalemate.
I could not see the slime so attacking it was useless and I was much too skilled to be caught up in the slimes repetitive and non lethal attacks.
Safe to say I was bored out of his mind, but the down side about all this was that I was now covered with a significant amount of slime juice making it somewhat hard to keep a grip on my spear much less the floor as any step I took could very well end up landing me on my face...or my ass.
The next attack however showed me a hint of light beyond the protection of my dim elevator.
I remembered Samson had said something about making the slimes over extend themselves so that their core could be visible. Then from there it was nothing short of smashing it to pieces to kill it.
Separating the core from its body would not work, the core was its brain, and it was an entity that could survive on its own and given enough time, which is about five minutes, the core could completely reconstruct its body, sometimes with little additions that could spell doom for the attacker.
I moved closer to the entrance of the elevator and waited for its next attack. I had no idea how close the slime was so I was mainly relying on luck. I might be getting desperate and tired of this lethargic and completely boring fight with a monster that soaked me in syrup, but I was not foolish enough to walk right into this strange darkness.
The next attack came, but this time it was not exactly where I was expecting, the attack went straight for the mark below my waist line, its speed was a little bit faster than before and the change in tactics somewhat surprised me. But it was due to that, that I was unable to defend on time.
When the slime's attack landed, I saw a myriad of stars and had the image of broken eggs flash through my mind at a million miles per second before I fell to my knees with my hand clutching my groin.
I couldn't scream and the Intense feeling of something pulling at my insides made me decide that this was the worst pain I have ever had the pleasure of feeling. Not even Samson's battering, bruising, and breaking of my body could compare. I just wanted to die, but above all I wanted that stupid slime dead even more.
I heard a chi, chi, sound, it was almost like the damn monster was laughing at me. I seethed in rage and silence as I had already lost the capability to even speak.
Another tentacle headed straight for my head, and I could not dodge it, due to the precarious position I now found myself in. But as the tentacle approached I was able to see that glow in the darkness again.
And just before the tentacle hit me, with the fastest speed I could muster, and my left hand still clutching my precious jewels. I whipped out my revolver with my right hand and squeezed the trigger.
BANG!!
There was bang, but I was not sure whether it came about from the impact my body and head made after they hit the elevator wall, or whether it was from the gun I fired. Either way with my ringing ears and dizzy head I was not able to find out, at least not for a few moments.
When my head was stable enough I shot my gaze towards the darkness, there were multiple pieces of crystals shinning from within the gloom. It was not enough to offer any kind of illumination, but it was enough proof that my nemesis was dead. However I lamented the fact that I could not find a way to make the damn slime feel more pain.
I holstered my gun and picked the spear up, my left hand was occupied still cupping testicles, and I was walking quite funny, but it was to be expected, that slime gave me a low blow.
I analyzed the fight all over again as I made a startling discovery that Samson failed to mention. If you do it long enough, with persistence even a slime can learn from its mistakes and act accordingly. They were not very smart, but they could still be considered quite Intelligent.
So in the future it would do me a lot of good to not underestimate anything or anyone that ends up being my opponent and that I should never completely trust whatever Information Samson gave me. If I wanted to live longer, it would be wise for me to expect the unexpected and 'that' was sound advice.
I stood at the threshold of the elevator, those glittering crystals were the only thing I could see beyond this square metal box of mine. It was do or die with this and whether I liked it or not, I still had to move forward.
I took a step forward Into this darkness, however as soon as I stepped out of the elevator, it slammed shut behind me, leaving me in complete and perpetual darkness.
But the darkness only lasted for a while as my environment became suffused with a blue glow. This glow came from the countless number of slimes that were all over the walls, chairs, cubicles and bookshelves that littered this floor.
If I should hazard a guess, this floor really was a library, or what was left of it anyway. It was a rather large one considering there was a second floor and it was Infested with more slimes than I would have cared to admit.
"Fuck me."
"Chi?"
"Fuck you too."
And with that said I drove my spear right Into the center of the slime that was crawling just two feet away from him. Its crystal shattered and its liquid form splattered to the ground as if someone poked a hole in a water balloon.
The liquid that made up its body began in to evaporate rapidly, turning Into wisps of blue vapor. Some of which went straight Into his body completely freaking me out while the others seeped Into the floor going down to the next floor, or hell.
Getting the slimes to overextend their selves in other to expose their crystals would have been a splendid idea if you were fighting them in broad daylight. But somewhere that's completely dark, will render their skin translucent, and the crystals as the only source of light.
It was like walking around with a huge target and inviting anybody that wants to take a shot. Who needed to make your enemy overextend their self when you know exactly where to hit, that would take them down. This was not going to be a fight, this was going to be a massacre.
Unlike when they attack, the slimes were all quite slow, they crawled around this floor with a slow and steady pace. To be quite frank it was a far cry from what they moved like when they attacked, almost like they were bipolar or something. I shifted my gaze through the floor with my eyes falling on the cubicles and moving past the bookcases.
Most of the books were already decayed and destroyed beyond saving, and as for the others which were relatively intact, they somehow had a cluster of slimes either guarding them or trying to destroy it.
It was strange, but it looked like the slimes were here solely for the destruction of the library. Their behavior was really unexplainable as they were doing nothing else but hanging around the books and any other thing that looked like paper.
Of course it could be that I was reading this whole situation the wrong way and the reason the slimes were around so much paper and destroying it was because they all tasted like chicken wings.
Come to think of it, I myself was not sure what chicken wings tasted like, chickens were already a rare commodity back on earth, and not everybody could have it. It made all these books look really appealing.
The entire floor was huge, almost the size or a soccer field and divided into two halves with a walkway that led to a spiral staircase to the top floor as the division line.
On the left were cubicles arrange in a spiral, while the right contained the book cases arranged line by line with each of them being three meters long and wide.
Technically all I had to do was clear the entire floor of monsters, it might seem simple but there was a lot more to it than that.
For every floor that falls to the dungeon core, it would leave a crest, or a brand of sorts to claim ownership of the floor. That way it could directly send any new monsters it had created to that floor and constantly monitor the activity on that floor too.
As soon as all the slimes were dead, I had to destroy the brand to prevent the core from sending any monster back to that floor and completely wrestling control from it.
This would take a while but…..it should be quite the experience. And with that said I jumped into the fray and clusters of slimes that littered the entire floor.
If not for the fact that I was so busy ending the lives of these monsters, I would have taken the time to look around and admire the beauty and splendor that was cast on this floor by those light being emitted from the bodies of the slimes. But I did not have time for that, I was otherwise preoccupied with snuffing it out.
Attacking the slimes were relatively easy, it seemed I did not really need a lesson in attacking to be able to do so. With the light provided by their bioluminescent core, it was rather easy to locate and Pierce it to pieces.
Not to mention with my increased strength, I met absolutely none of the expected resistance when I sank my spear into the bodies of the slimes. I did not want to jinx myself, but this was way easier than expected, but beggers can't be choosers and there's something else about not looking a gift horse in the mouth.
I took my time, systematically ridding this floor of one slime after another, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't avoid getting covered in the 'slime' of the slimes.
It was hard enough keeping a grip on my spear, but I had to struggle to keep my feet planted on the ground as I killed the slimes. But regardless this whole expedition had turned Into a comical show due to my erratic movements and attempts to keep my balance.
So it was by extreme luck and quite equal misfortune that I tripped and fell with my right elbow punching a hole on the polished marble floor. I knew I was strong, but I doubted I was even strong enough to cause a crack on the floor.
So when I looked at it, I discovered it was only a false floor, it was covered in runes whose functions I had no idea about. But with the lines marring them I was sure they lost their ability to function years ago.
And in the hole I saw something peculiar, something I did not expect. It was a book with a cover made with silver metal. On its surface were three jewels, a green one, a bluish purple one, and a white one. Written in huge brailed letters and in a language I quite understood were the words THE SUPREME CODEX OF WIND & SPIRIT MAGIC.