"How bad is our luck?!" Elis bemoaned our fate. To start with she was captured, we lost all our belongings, we're being chased by the enforcers on account of destruction of private property (the clothing shop), assault ( Of Ignall) and who knows what else. Not to mention the current predicament. Being trapped in a hidden dungeon. Well for me the last one was actually a opportunity of sorts to experience something most people never get to do.
Dungeon are usually naturally formed and contain resources and creatures, although some people make dungeons to protect and hide (treasures or themselves). Dungeons besides hidden dungeons and another few types that have rarely appeared throughout history never close and have doors that lead in. Dungeons with doors that lead in and never close are called tews. While they never close, the resources are only replenished every year at a fixed time. Due to this fact and the rarity of dungeons, they are all highly sought after due to the amazing rewards inside them. Legend has it that if one can find the mothercore of the dungeon where the resources and creatures are produced, they can gain control of the dungeon and seize all the resources for themselves infinitely, meaning the dungeon won't allow anyone else inside if the master does not give permission. As expected though, very few people people, even at the peak of history, have managed to claim dungeons due to the challenge of finding the mothercore and making it acknowledge you. This is especially terrifying taking into account the fact 10th realm dwellers find it complicated to seize even 1st realm dungeons. However, hidden dungeons like the kind we were trapped in only opened once and they randomly spawned and pulled people in. Unlike tews that had the level of the dungeon carved on the door, hidden dungeons had a variety of monsters and had monsters from multiple realms in it, making people regard it the same a a death trap. Only 17 people have ever made it out alive in recorded history. Though 13 of them died within the year, (rumors say from curses in the dungeon and their souls being crushed under the unpredictable spiritual pressure from the dungeon) all who came out became rich and powerful. Enough so to build a kingdom in any Krealm the wanted. This made hidden dungeons extremely sought after thing despite the dangers.
Elis however, wasn't the kind of person who would bet on a dungeon with her life in hopes of surviving and gaining power. Knowing there was no way to escape she could only hope that the dungeon wouldn't be too hard so she could make it out alive. She got only her knees and prostrated herself while muttering the name of all the gods in the world, orcan or otherwise, to offer them everything she had for their blessings to survive. To be fair, someone at her level didn't have the ability to survive a dungeon that had killed even level 1,500s! The pinnacle of life forms in their history.
"It'll be fine." I said and proceeded forward. She had a incredulous expression on her face shocked at my overconfidence and what she perceived as as stupidity. I pushed open the door to enter the first room. It was pitch dark so I summoned a blindingly bright light at the ceiling of the cave to illuminate my surroundings.
*Gasp* Elis sharply inhaled.
"What's wrong?"
"I-t's a sl-slime!"
In this world, slimes where regarded as the strongest species. Their acidic bodies and their complete control over said acid, not to mention their speed/bounciness, flexible forms, unfeeling bodies, regeneration abilities, the ability to resist spiritual pressure and long life spans made them practically invulnerable to physical and magic attacks. Since they had a strong resistance to (changes in) spiritual pressure, they were able to live on the 5th realm since birth. Most species had to have newborn stay on the first realm so they don't die from spiritual oppression at young (as you could guess, nurseries and the like made a huge profit off of those powerful figures in higher realm who didn't have time to stay with their kids in lower realms). Since they slime could stay in the 5th realm since birth and were surrounded by much more spiritual energy around them then others, their development was far quicker and there bodies stronger. If it wasn't for the fact that they weren't the smartest race and that they only reproduced once every 5 years, they would have become the rulers of the world. They were undoubtedly though, the strongest race of all.
Why was one here? Well, hidden dungeons usually raise the slimes that they find around the world (Yes, it is kidnapping) and raise them to fight in the dungeon. Due to the nature of stealing creatures from all over, scary stories of children being stolen away by them if they didn't listen to their parents added fuel to the hate and fear of the hidden dungeons. Tews were much nicer compared to them. They usually had elemental spirits and golems as obstacles by contracting or creating them (only strong dungeons can create them).
"Oh? A challenge?" I walked up and kicked it.
Elis turned away hoping to not see my flesh melting off and got into a corner of the cave facing the wall.
The slime slammed against the wall melting it. While it is true that my pants, socks and shoes melted off into a puddle, my divine flesh was still okay. Sensing danger, the slime transformed into a arrow and shot towards me. Normally slimes might cast spells, but the dungeon never thought it any, so it could only go by instincts and whatever trains the tower gave it. I grabbed the arrow and used the water spell I had used previously. The slime swerved his shaft to wrap around my neck, dodging the water and started chocking me. With not a moment of hesitation, I lit myself up with a column of fire. It's not that I couldn't hurt myself with my own spells, it was just that the energy in the dungeon wasn't enough to fuel a spell that could hurt me even though it was linked to the world. By my estimates even if I took all the energy in the 7 realms and shot myself with it, I wouldn't be injured in the least. The slime however did take damage from my attack and was letting off lots of steam. Seeing as how the cave wasn't very large, the flames went out very fast with no fuel. Me and the slime didn't need to breath so we were fine, but Elis passed out from oxygen deprivation. I filled the cave up with oxygen and other elements for Elis (first power use of the day) and vowed to not waste more power usages on this kind of stuff by not using fire magic in closed spaces. The slime skid on the floor to get far away from me and shot acid at me while darting around. I teleported (not that there are not air quotes meaning it is not a power usage, just space magic) behind (?) it and drop kicked it. The floor shattered like glass and the slime broke apart under the pressure.
"Is that it?" I asked the dungeon.
The pieces of the slime started to reform slowly but surely. I backed off to let it do so. The slime was way more cautious now. It split into two and they revolved around me trying to find a weak spot. Spears of dirt formed around me numbering in the hundreds. I forced the spears to rotate at incredible speeds stirring the air up. Inch by inch they extended outwards until they had extended outwards a few feet. I then used space magic to teleport Elis into my arms and then shot the spears out.
*Boom* *Boom* *Boom*
The spears struck the cave making it shake violently. The slime was ripped into pieces again and had to reform. But before it could do anything after reforming, I cast ice magic on it and froze it solid in a cube of ice. It was pretty good exercise to fight a slime and it was great fun. However, the slime wasn't able to use spells nor did it have experience. I stored the slime in my storage ring and planned to train it later so it would pose more of a challenge. The cave started collapsing so I walked into the next room with a smile.
'This is more fun then I imagined.'