Gloria was caught off guard when the object hit her on the back. She lost her balance and cried out "Ah" as she fell to the ground.
The impact was sudden, but fortunately, she was wearing armor and only felt a dull pain in her back. She knelt on the ground, trying to get up by pushing against the ground with her hands, but as soon as she exerted force, her hands slipped on the ground. Looking down, she saw that her gloves were covered with blue liquid. The other parts of her armor and her hair were also smeared with the same liquid. Or rather, she was actually kneeling in a puddle of this liquid.
"What is this stuff? It's so disgusting!" She frowned in displeasure. She shook her hands and found that the blue liquid was extremely viscous. She shook them even harder a few more times and then spat a few times - she felt as if she had also gotten this mucus in her mouth.
She couldn't wait to get out of this puddle of liquid, but her several attempts were all in vain. The puddle of mucus was so slippery that she couldn't get any leverage at all. Aurelio stepped forward and gave her a pull, and she managed to get up. When she got up, she stepped on a smooth object and almost fell back again. Aurelio grabbed her arm tightly while coughing, and only then did she manage to stabilize herself.
"It's disgusting!" Gloria took out a handkerchief and wiped her hair. She threw the soaked handkerchief aside, rinsed her mouth with the water from her water bag, and then poured the remaining water over her head. Only then did she feel a bit better. "What is this stuff?" She turned to Elvin and asked.
"I don't know." Elvin shook his head and replied, "I've never seen this stuff before. I've walked through this cave dozens of times, and this is the first time I've seen it."
"Slime Monster, a demon." Aurelio interjected his answer during a coughing fit.
"Demons? Quick, help me shine some light!" With that, she had already assumed a defensive stance to face the enemy.
Aurelio took two more steps forward and brought the light sphere hovering by his ear to the female knight. Gloria advanced cautiously, observing the gelatinous substance on the ground by the blue-white light.
"Why is it just a puddle of water? I thought demons were more human-like... But it's really disgusting!" She complained, grabbed a handful of mucus from her hair, and then threw it on the ground.
Aurelio took a careful breath and shook his head, saying, "No, this is the lowest class of demons. They have no intelligence and are even lower in status than the lowest of the low. This one is already dead. The living ones should gather into a mass and wrap around a core. The core is a bit like an eyeball."
Gloria pointed to the flat, round white object on the ground and asked, "Is it this one?"
"Yes. It was originally a perfect sphere. You lost your balance just now because you must have stepped on it."
"One can step on it to death. It's too weak."
"It becomes vulnerable when its core is damaged."
"I see. So this isn't much to be feared. Quick, let's keep going!" Gloria said, taking off her iron gloves and rubbing her face with her hand. The mucus on her face had gradually started to solidify and become even more viscous. It clung to her face, making the female knight very uncomfortable. She just wanted to find a water source quickly and clean herself up properly.
"Don't walk so fast. I'll relight the torch first. Be careful... Cough! They never appear alone. Cough cough cough! They..."
Seeing that he was coughing painfully, Gloria stopped him, saying, "Don't talk! Leave it to me!"
Aurelio nodded helplessly. He had wanted to tell the female knight that these lower-class demons weren't easy to deal with, but she had interrupted him directly. He had to turn to Elvin and took the torch from the old man. Then he cast a spell silently to relight the torch.
They didn't actually need the torch for illumination, but musketeers were always used to keeping some open flames, so that if the slow match went out again, they could relight it immediately.
The air here was extremely humid, and ordinary flames could hardly maintain combustion. But Aurelio inserted a "steady combustion" module into the ignition spell. When lighting a fire with a spell inserted with this module, the combustion state of the flame was hardly affected by humidity and strong winds for dozens of minutes.
Elvin took the torch that the other handed back with a smile and then used it to relight the slow match on his gun. He didn't seem surprised because his friend had shown him this ability thirty years ago. At that time, de Leto's lit torch had fallen into the sea. Then Elvin watched in amazement as the torch burned for nearly ten seconds in the seawater before going out.
Gloria drew the sword from her waist with her right hand and held the shield in her left hand. She walked in the front, keeping an eye on her surroundings and the situation above her head. Aurelio followed behind her, using the light sphere to illuminate for her. He recast the spell every minute or two, replacing the light sphere with a new one before it was about to go out.
Sure enough, as Aurelio had expected, these monsters didn't appear alone. After the three of them advanced for nearly another ten minutes, another blue object fell from the top of the cave.
But this time the female knight was prepared. She raised her shield to block. With a "boom", the Slime Monster hit the shield and then fell to the ground. The gelatinous body and the eyeball-like core separated during the collision. The mucus spilled on the ground, and the core rolled a few steps away.
Although Gloria had been prepared, the impact of the hit was so great that she was pushed back two steps. She pushed off slightly with her left foot to stabilize herself and then immediately stepped forward. She stood next to the core, raised her sword and was about to strike again, but the puddle of gelatinous substance on the ground started to shake violently.
They quickly gathered towards the core. In a fraction of a second, the Slime Monster regained its original form. Gloria swung her sword down, but it was as if the sword had hit a stone wall and was easily deflected.
The gel-like body looked extremely soft, far from being comparable to a sword. Gloria couldn't understand at all why her sword couldn't cut through it and split the monster in half.
Just as she was wondering, the Slime Monster wriggled like a slug and spat a jet of water towards the female knight's face. Gloria instinctively raised her shield to protect her face and easily deflected the jet of water.
"Be careful. If you get hit in the face by that mucus, you might 'drown'." Aurelio reminded from the side.
"I know!! I won't be hit by such a stupid move!" Gloria's tone was already a bit impatient. She was covered in mucus again and was full of anger waiting to be vented. She thrust her sword forward again, and the result was similar to before. When the tip of the sword touched the mucus of the Slime Monster, it deviated to the side along the curvature of its surface - it was almost like stabbing a metal shield.
"Damn it!" Gloria cursed, "What kind of dark magic does it have? Why can't my sword thrusts and swings... get through?!"
"You can't be so impatient. Move a little slower." Aurelio said.
"Don't force yourself to talk if you're not feeling well!" Gloria responded impatiently, "Why! Why!" She swung her sword quickly two more times, but both times the sword was deflected. The Slime Monster continued to wriggle and spat mucus to counterattack.
"I can't cut through it at all! Can't cut through it!" Gloria shouted as she swung her sword. She was already very impatient, and the sword in her hand was swinging faster and faster. Neither Elvin nor Aurelio dared to dissuade her again. However, the Slime Monster was struck by her again and again but remained intact.
She blocked the line of the spell attack, so Aurelio could only abandon the idea of casting a spell to assist and just watched from the side as she launched these futile attacks.
After swinging her sword dozens of times, Gloria was already out of breath. But she didn't take a step back. Knowing that swinging her sword again wouldn't work, she still brandished the sharp sword. She was extremely angry, and all the veins near her forehead were bulging, and her whole face was red.
Aurelio thought, "She can block shooting attacks, but not close combat." He silently recited a spell and cast "Ice Spike Spell". Instead of shooting the ice spikes out, he held them in his hand. He passed by the right side of the female knight and came to the front of the Slime Monster. He slowly thrust the ice pick in his hand forward. This time, the ice pick wasn't deflected but easily pierced through the mass of mucus. "I see." Aurelio thought, "It should be done more gently."
As soon as the ice pick pierced into the body of the Slime Monster, the cold air quickly froze the semi-liquid body. Gloria swung her sword down again. With a "splash", the frozen part of the Slime Monster was smashed to pieces by her sword. She aimed at the exposed core and thrust her sword again. As soon as the tip of the sword hit the core, the remaining mucus of the Slime Monster scattered on the ground. It was undoubtedly dead. Gloria was already exhausted, standing there bent over, gasping for breath.
"Do you want to take a break?" Elvin asked.
"No!" Gloria replied, "Keep going!" With that, she forced herself to straighten up and then walked forward without looking back. They were already close to the other end of the cave, and it only took them three minutes to get outside the cave.
Aurelio walked behind, looking at Gloria's back. Although the female knight was trying her best to hold her chest high, her disappointment was clearly visible to him.