Delving Deeper

“Be careful.” Beryl quietly cautions. “The ground isn’t all tha’ stable.”

Krvavy holds back her response as she slowly makes her way down the uneven rocky slope. Nearly every step dislodges small pebbles, scattering them into the darkness below. The faint noises echo through the descending tunnel, sounding far too loud in Krvavy’s ears. She hasn’t forgotten that there might be a monster in here with them.

The stone walls are rough and coarse, the uneven edges casting shadows that dance all around them. It is making it difficult to see their surroundings. Is that pool of darkness another small tunnel, or is it simply another shadow cast by Krvavy’s crimson flame?

They continue downwards for an uncomfortable amount of time, but eventually the light shines onto something different: a room. It would appear that this collapsed tunnel has reconnected with the ruins.

Stepping through the broken wall, Krvavy’s red light spills out all around them, illuminating the tiled floor and the smooth stone bricks. Large piles of rocks and debris cast long shadows throughout the otherwise empty room.

“Ah think this might be a separate ruin, my dearest love.” Beryl whispers out. “The stonework looks... different.”

Krvavy tilts her head and considers that thought, turning to look more closely at the wall. The bricks are definitely much larger and thicker, but that doesn’t mean much on its own. Still, Krvavy has to admit that this place does feel older, so maybe her Elf has a point...

“My dearest love, Ah found some more swords.”

The barbarian raises an eyebrow as she turns towards her Elf. Beryl is bent over a pile of rubble piled up against the wall, right at the edge of Krvavy’s light. Her tight pants stretch over her firm rear as she looks down at her find.

“Ach,” the Elf unhappily clicks her tongue as she prods the rubble with her dagger, “they’re not much better than the last one.”

Half buried in the pile is a line of rusted swords, five of them all held together in what must have once been a stone rack but is now just another chunk of rubble. Their blades are in various states of decay, with some having only just barely retained their original shape, for the most part. But not a single one looks usable or even salvageable, with the rust bleeding out into the rubble.

This isn’t a completely worthless find though, as the hilt of each sword seems to be mostly intact. They are tarnished and very worn, but they don’t look like they will be disintegrating anytime soon. At least not completely.

Krvavy leans her axe against the wall and reaches out her hand, carefully grabbing onto the hilt of the sword that looks most intact. Rust flakes off the grip as her fingers wrap around it, and with the faintest bit of **** she lifts the sword up. Kind of. The majority of the rusted blade remains where it was, half fused to the stone, having long since snapped free from the hilt.

The barbarian just lightly shakes her head as she takes a closer look at the tarnished hilt in her hand. “Is this gold...?” She idly wonders.

“Ah can’t tell.” The Elf quietly replies. “Yer light makes it hard ta see the colour.”

“Mmm...” Krvavy hums in annoyance, as even Inspect doesn’t help answer her question. “I don’t know much about metal, but I’m pretty sure gold doesn’t rust. Or was that silver? Maybe both...? Those probably aren’t the only metals that don’t though...”

“Yer Dwarf would know, Ah’m sure, and it doesn’t hurt ta bring these back wit’ us.”

The barbarian nods and kneels down, taking the backpack off as she does so. After a moments consideration, she decides to place the hilt in one of the pouches. All five should fit in there, and hopefully they’ll be held together close enough that they won’t make much noise as she walks.

With the hilt stored, Krvavy reaches out and grabs the others one at a time, breaking them all free as easily as the first. Hopefully these are worth it, as it’ll be a pain to clean all the rust out of that pouch...

“Ah wonder wha’ this place once was...” Beryl idly wonders in a hushed voice, looking off into the darkness.

Krvavy wipes her hand on the backpack before rising to her feet and sliding her arms through its straps. “You see anything else in here?” She asks as her fingers wrap back around the haft of her axe.

“Not without yer light.”

The barbarian nods her head and begins to slowly move throughout the room, looking for anything else of interest. And, after a few minutes of searching, the only thing they find is the doorway out of this room.

But two things stands out about that doorway, with its worn stone frame. For one, Krvavy has to look up a bit to see its top. The previous doorways were all at least a head shorter, and a bit narrower as well. Is this door simply meant to be larger and more grand, or is this actually a completely separate ruin?

That isn’t what stands out the most though, as this doorway still has a door attached to it, at least for the most part. That door is quite thick but visibly bent and warped, its hinges just barely clinging on near the bottom of the frame as it leans off to the side. It appears to be coated in a thick layer of rust, making the already rather hefty door look even heavier.

Krvavy reaches her Soulbound weapon out and pokes its spearhead into the warped door, scratching off a bit of rust. The fact that it seems to be made entirely out of metal unnerves her a bit, as despite how thick this door was in its prime, something was still able to bend it out of the way like this...

Beryl is clearly not as concerned by the rusted door as she simply slips on past it, forcing Krvavy to quickly follow after her. Luckily there is more than enough room for the barbarian to fit by, so she doesn’t have to worry about trying to move the thing.

“Wow...” The Elf mumbles out as Krvavy steps up beside her.

They appear to on some sort of walkway that extends into the darkness to both their right and their left. But that isn’t what has caught Beryl’s attention, as she is staring ahead, past a stone railing and out into a dark void directly ahead of them.

“That’s a big pit.” Krvavy points out the obvious.

“Aye. It is not wha’ Ah expected ta find down ‘ere.”

The barbarian tentatively steps towards the railing, not trusting this ruin with her weight. It doesn’t look like her light reaches the bottom, and Krvavy isn’t going to get any closer to see if that makes a difference. So she can only guess how deep this pit is...

Looking up, the part of the ceiling that Krvavy can see appears to arch upwards into the darkness, making a dome above the hole. It looks too smooth to be natural. Was this whole place dug out of the rock? Or was it simply a cave that was expanded and sculpted into this shape?

They won’t find any answers just standing around here though.

“So... Which way do you want to go?”

Beryl looks to Krvavy, glancing at the weapon in the barbarians hand. “Left.” She gestures for Krvavy to go ahead.

The pathway is empty and bare, with hardly even a pebble loose on the ground. If it wasn’t for the stone being worn and scarred by cracks, then it would almost look like they are simply walking in place along the gentle curve. But that feeling doesn’t last for long.

In less than a minute of walking, Krvavy’s flickering flame illuminates something set into the wall. Behind some rusted metal poles lies a rather nondescript room. It isn’t particularly deep nor wide, and there doesn’t seem to be anything in it either. Beside the room is another that looks much the same, and then another one after that, continuing beyond the edge of the light.

“Oh.” The Elf lightly gasps out. “This was a prison o’ some sort, wasn’t it?”

“Looks like it.” Krvavy replies, peeking past the rusted bars into the empty cell. There isn’t anything in there beyond what looks like a cot carved into the wall and a circular hole in the ground across from it.

Beryl carefully taps her dagger against one of the bars, scraping some rust off of it. “Ya could probably take these home...”

The barbarian raises an eyebrow and skeptically stares at the rusted cell. The bars are rather thick, so there’s bound to be some usable metal left inside of them... But they are also rather tall, with most of them far too large to fit inside her backpack. Luckily, there are a few broken and weak segments that she could just snap free and take.

The silence of the ruin is broken as Krvavy snaps a few bars free, dropping them into her bag. Beryl winces slightly at each loud noise, cautiously staring off into the darkness looking for any signs of movement, but the barbarian isn’t anywhere near as wary. They’ve made it this far without even the slightest sign of anything living in these ruins, so while this place is a little creepy, Krvavy doesn’t exactly feel the need to be so careful. That said, she is trying to do this as quietly as she can.

With all of the easily broken bars in her backpack, Krvavy steps back and moves onto the next cell. But as soon as her light shines through the bars, she immediately pauses. Laying atop the carved bed is a mass of glittering crystals, seemingly growing out of the very stone.

“My dearest love...” Beryl cautions with newfound worry in her voice.

“What?” The barbarian asks as she begins to snap apart the bars, trying to create a gap large enough for her to fit through. “It’s quartz. Inspect says as much.”

“Aye, but... Look at how it is forming, at the shape it is in.” The Elf hesitantly states.

Krvavy squeezes into the cell and looks at the crystal mass. She doesn’t get what is worrying Beryl so much. The quartz seems to be mostly clumped together on one half of the cot, though there are a few lines of crystals that leave that mass. One trails down off the side and onto the floor, while the other two stay on the stone bed but reach out towards the bars.

The way that it has grown is probably unnatural, sure, but that isn’t really saying much when magic is involved.

“Do... do ya not see it?” Beryl warily wonders. “The body? The arm danglin’ off the edge? The legs spread out?”

“Huh...” Now that her Elf mentioned it, the mass of quartz does kind of look like a body. Or, more accurately, it kind of looks like it is growing out of a body.

Leaning forwards, Krvavy closely inspects the quartz. She has no idea what colour any of these crystals are, as they all look red in the light of her flame. Some are clear and transparent, shining beautifully in her light, but others are foggy and difficult to see through, if not outright opaque. No matter where she looks, Krvavy cannot see a body or skeleton beneath the quartz crystals.

Moving her Soulbound weapon in, the barbarian carefully brings the hammer head down onto the mass, breaking a few crystals free with a tap.

“Well, it’s not alive.” Krvavy dryly states as she crouches down, placing her axe aside so she can begin to collect some crystals.

“And ya are alright wit’ harvestin’ those from a corpse...?”

“Yes?” The barbarian replies, kind of confused by why Beryl is so concerned. “This quartz is more useful than the rusted pieces of metal we’ve found so far. Besides, this place has been a ruin for who knows how many thousands of years. So if this was a body, then it has been dead for a very, very long time.”

“It’s just a bit grim...” The Wood Elf states with some distaste in her voice.

Krvavy simply shrugs. “Eh. If it makes you feel better, I’m not going to take all that much. This bag only has so many pouches, and I don’t want to put these crystals in with the rusted metal bars. That feels like a good way to get quartz dust. We can always come back for more later.”

Beryl clearly isn’t particularly happy with that response, but she doesn’t argue. The tanned Elf simply stands by and waits for Krvavy to finish.

Luckily for her, that doesn’t take very long.

“Why are you so... on edge anyway?” The barbarian asks as she squeezes back out of the cell. “You were fine before we saw the cells.”

That earns a slight glare from Beryl. “Ah don’t like how this ruin feels. Its grim. Ah can only imagine the misery tha’ filled this ancient place... Not to mention the monster tha’ assuredly lurks in the shadows...”

“You really think there is a monster in here?”

“Aye. The signs were there at the entrance.” The Wood Elf replies, glancing into the next cell along their path.

“Yeah, but we’ve gone pretty deep without seeing a single thing. Maybe your monster just lives nearby? In a less obvious cave?”

“Perhaps...” Beryl doesn’t sound convinced at all.

Krvavy steps in a very small and shallow puddle, making a slight splash sound. “Look, I...” She begins and immediately trails off, glancing down at the ground. The puddle clings to her foot, holding it in place like a thick mud.

With a bit of effort she is able to lift her foot up, though thick gooey strings of what looks like viscous water still cling to her, trying to drag her foot back down with elastic ****. And so, without really thinking about it, Krvavy stomps down onto the puddle with a loud splash.

50 Damage dealt to [Puddle...?]

[Puddle...?] has been slain!
+20 Experience

“My dearest love...?” Beryl glances back from a few paces ahead of the barbarian, confusion clear in her voice.

“Uh... I just killed a puddle...?”

The Elf’s eyes briefly widen in surprise before a serious look fills her face. Quickly stepping towards Krvavy, Beryl drops to one knee and gently prods the remnants of the puddle with her dagger. “Ah think tha’ was a slime.”

“Okay. Guess you can say ‘I told you so’...”

“This is serious, my dearest love.” Beryl dryly replies as she rises back to her feet. “Slimes are outside o’ our ability ta deal wit’ right now. We need ta leave.”

Krvavy opens her mouth to respond, but immediately gets shushed before she can say a word.

“Ah don’t know much o’ the finer details and specifics o’ slimes, and even if Ah did now would not be the time to explain them.” The Wood Elf states in an incredibly serious tone. “Just know tha’ they are magic given form, not livin’ creatures. The only way to truly ‘kill’ a slime is ta spread it out thin enough tha’ it can’t hold its shape and begins ta dissolve. Otherwise a ‘wound’ would simply be healed as the parts re-merge, or another slime comes along to absorb the remnants. So stompin’ a puddle too small ta even hold a form is not the same as actually fightin’ a slime.”

The barbarian slowly sighs out, slightly disappointed at hearing that. Krvavy’s hopes got raised and then dashed in just a couple of seconds. But if her Elf doesn’t think that they can fight slimes, then she will trust Beryl’s judgment. “Alright, guess we should leav–”

Krvavy abruptly cuts herself off as she feels a drop of liquid splash down on the top of her tail. Driven more by instinct than anything, Krvavy twists her body to the side and swings her axe through the air above her head.

150 Damage dealt to [Slime]

The glob of gooey liquid, roughly the size of a rather large dog, is chopped into two uneven pieces. The chunks of slime splat down onto the ground on either side of her with loud wet slaps, seemingly unperturbed by being chopped in half.

Pursing her lips, the barbarian immediately brings her Soulbound weapon down onto the closest one.

95 Damage dealt to [Slime, Right]

Her axe cuts through to the ground, sending a slight shock up through its shaft. The strike was deliberately off center, letting Krvavy fling the smaller portion of the slime away over the railing and down into the pit by just jerking her weapon to the side and twisting it.

-3.63 Health

The other part of the slime lunges at the barbarian, clinging to her leg and immediately making both her skin and scales tingle unpleasantly.

-2.15 Health
-1.81 Health
-4.26 Health

Kicking her leg does nothing to dislodge it, as the slime simply continues to crawl up over her knee and onto her thigh. **** to change tactics, Krvavy brings her axe down, scraping its blade over her skin and scales to slough the slime off in large chunks.

Now surrounded by various new significantly smaller slimes, Krvavy begins to angrily stomp down on them one after the other.

45 Damage dealt to [Slime, Right, One]

67.5 Damage dealt to [Slime, Right, Two]

[Slime, Right, Two] has been slain!
+60 Experience

55.5 Damage dealt to [Slime, Right, Three]

33.3 Damage dealt to [Slime, Right, Four]

76.16 Damage dealt to [Slime, Right, Five]

[Slime, Right, Five] has been slain!
+75 Experience

61.24 Damage dealt to [Slime, Right, Six]

[Slime, Right, Six] has been slain!
+55 Experience

38.75 Damage dealt to [Slime, Right, Seven]

Her stomping appears to have been mostly in vain, as the slimes that Krvavy wasn’t able to splatter into a thin enough paste immediately begin collecting the globs scattered around and merging back together.

Annoyed by the relative ineffectiveness of her attacks, Krvavy decides to just start whacking the things with her Soulbound weapon, using the side of the axehead to squish the reforming slime as best she can.

82.34 Damage dealt to [Slime, Right, Remains]
54.15 Damage dealt to [Slime, Right, Remains]
65.41 Damage dealt to [Slime, Right, Remains]
48.55 Damage dealt to [Slime, Right, Remains]

The slime is flattened for a brief moment after each hit, but is able to mostly recover its shape by the time Krvavy’s Soulbound weapon comes at it again.

44.68 Damage dealt to [Slime, Right, Remains]
56.45 Damage dealt to [Slime, Right, Remains]
81.65 Damage dealt to [Slime, Right, Remains]
73.49 Damage dealt to [Slime, Right, Remains]
63.86 Damage dealt to [Slime, Right, Remains]

Each hit squishes the slime more than the last, gradually flattening it into a gooey pancake. But that isn’t enough to kill it, so the barbarian begins to chop away at the edges, flicking slivers of slime away and slowly whittling it down.

After what felt like forever yet couldn’t have been more than a minute, the slime stops moving and new notifications pop up into Krvavy’s vision.

[Slime, Right, Remains] has been slain!
+250 Experience

Level Up! You have reached Level 15. As a Drakling blessed by a divine power, you have 5 attribute points to allocate and have gained +2 to Might & Toughness. If not allocated by the time you fall asleep it will be done automatically.

+1 Divine Favour, for growing in strength.

“M-my dearest love!” Beryl’s worried voice calls out, immediately pulling Krvavy’s attention over to her.

The Elf is at the edge of Krvavy’s light, holding a long rusted bar as she backs away from another slime. She seems to be mostly trying to keep the amorphous blob at bay as she desperately swings the metal pole at it, though the slime is not deterred. It seems to be the larger half of the slime that Krvavy initially cut in two, reaching past Beryl’s knee in height.

Before the barbarian can even react, the rusted bar gets stuck inside of the slime as it launches tendrils out towards Beryl, wrapping itself around her ankle. The Wood Elf’s eyes go wide in shock as she falls backwards onto the ground, pulled off balance by the slime tugging on her leg.

“H-help! Help! Ah can’t get it off!”

Beryl’s struggling seems to only make it easier for the slime to drag her in, slowly engulfing the Elf’s legs.

Krvavy freezes at the sight, thoughts racing through her mind. Her axe is pretty much useless here, as she risks chopping Beryl’s legs off if she tries cutting through the slime. So what can she do?

Her eyes flick to her flickering flame as an idea pops into her head.

Once again letting her instincts take the lead, the barbarian steps towards the slime and takes a deep breath. The flame in her palm dims as she pulls mana from her core, and her lungs begin to burn as she refuses to exhale. Krvavy’s throat glows a crimson colour and her eyes begin to water from the pain. Her jaw suddenly snaps open, an eruption of frenzied flames bursting free from her mouth.

1,546.54 Damage dealt to [Slime, Left]
872.16 Damage dealt to [Slime, Left]
684.65 Damage dealt to [Slime, Left]

[Slime, Left] has been slain!
+975 Experience

What remains of the slime collapses into shallow puddles, letting Beryl kick her legs free and jump to her feet.

Wisps of smoke trail out of Krvavy’s nose, clouding her vision as it stings her eyes, and the faintest taste of burnt flesh fills her mouth.

Beryl’s body suddenly collides with Krvavy, the Elf launching herself into a hug with the barbarian. Her legs wrap around Krvavy’s hips as she layers kiss after kiss on Krvavy’s face. “Oh, my dearest love~! Tha’ was ah-maze-in’~!”

Krvavy’s axe flashes and returns to its place in her soul, letting her hold onto Beryl. “Yh–” The barbarian chokes on her words, needing to cough a few times to clear her throat. “I’m almost out of mana.” Her hoarse voice scratches out.

The tomboyish Wood Elf’s eyes go wide in realization, quickly dropping herself back onto the ground. “Let’s get out o’ here then. Ah don’t want ta be left in the dark wit’ those things.”