Asher grunted as he stepped over a Sewer Slime and plunged his warm blade into its body, cracking its core.
He pulled its core out of the corpse and made a motion to slip it in his pocket, only to notice they were full.
With nowhere obvious to put his loot, Asher resigned to stuffing them into his boots. There was still a bit of space to spare.
How many have I killed now? he thought as he wiped his blade clean. It had been a full fifty minutes since he encountered the first Sewer Slime, and since then, it had pretty much been non-stop combat, if you could even call it that. He must have killed more than a handful of dozens.
He huffed. Truth be told, this was hardly a workout for a farm boy like Asher, even if he wasn't all that well fed. He had plenty of energy to keep on pushing, and maintaining his Blessing at such a low level didn't drain him much either.
Alright then, on we go.
As he continued trudging, he came across an increasing number of solid walls of sewage. Trace amounts of liquid were flowing between the gaps, but there was no way to get past them. All he could do was backtrack and forge on.
"Fuck!" he shouted as he turned the corner to find another blockage. He raised his arm, ready to throw his sword to the ground in anger, but decided against it.
Sewer Slimes weren't the only things lurking about.
That proved to be a smart move on his part. A brick came tumbling out of the grimy walls, and a rat the size of a dog barrelled out from its hole. It sniffed the air, and its eyes quickly landed on the glowing sword and its wielder.
Asher used Inspect, and this time, it actually showed him something useful.
<[Noxious Rat]>
[A rat bloated with waste. Its blood and breath have become poison.]
"Well, how do I kill the motherfucker, then?" he muttered under his breath and hefted his sword. Could he even let it scratch him?
The rat squeaked in hunger, and pounced.
Asher jumped back, pouring as much energy as he could into his Blessing. His dirty sword erupted with light all at once, and the rat squealed as it backed off, blinded.
He took the opportunity to run forward and kick it in the stomach with all its might, sending it flying a metre back.
Having put too much power into the kick, Asher slipped and landed in the disgusting layer of biomass.
Oh, for f— he had just planted a hand on the slippery floor when the rat charged at him, knocking the wind right out of him.
With the giant rat on top of him, every path of escape had been cut off.
Asher frantically twisted his body as it dove for his neck, shaking it off balance enough to fall forward over his head. But, before he could even recover, the rat was back on top of him.
"Fuck... you!" he screamed as he raised his arm.
Again, his sword erupted with light, and this time he could feel a searing heat coming off the steel blade.
Asher nicked the Noxious Rat in the side with his blade, but he could already hear its flesh sizzling as smoke billowed out of its small wound.
The rat squealed as it backed off, and when the boy finally recovered and brandished his glowing sword forward, it ran.
"Yeah! Go crying to your whore of a mother, cunt! Scram!" he shouted after it.
Once he was sure the monster was gone, Asher took a breather. Gods... This adventuring stuff is...exhausting.
He looked at the cracked slime cores he had accumulated in his pockets and boots. He wasn't sure how much these things would sell for, but surely it would be enough to earn him a meal better than bread and watered-down stew, right?
<[Cracked Slime Core]>
[It has lost much of its malleability.]
What's malleability? he wondered. Well, at least it says it lost "much of" and not "all of", so whatever's left in there must be worth something.
With that in mind, Asher settled for tonight's gains. That one tussle with the Noxious Rat had left him drained, and with the fatigue of pushing his Blessing a bit too much, he was exhausted.
This dungeon wasn't going anywhere. He would take his time.
Asher retraced his steps through the maze of putrid tunnels, whispering "left... left... right..." to himself as he did. If there was one thing he was confident in, it was his memory.
So why is it, he thought, that this pile of scum seems to have moved?!
In front of him, where there was supposed to be a path back toward the well leading up to the ground floor of the sewers, was a soggy heap of waste.
The walls move? No, wait... He used Inspect on the barrier, and sure enough...
<[Sewer Slime]>
[A slime formed in the sludge of an overwhelmed sewer. It's heavier than it seems.]
"Ohhh..."
He broke into a sprint. The massive Sewer Slime wasn't even moving, but already Asher could feel the walls closing in around him. He was trapped.
He ran full tilt through the labyrinth, taking any path that he could, but it seemed the slimes were already taking action. Although they weren't coordinated, their sheer number made it almost impossible to avoid being cornered.
Why are they only moving now?! he thought as he nearly crashed into another wall of sludge.
Asher could feel his heart pumping out of his chest, completely out of sync with the squelch of his panicked footsteps. The curved arch of the tunnel seemed to narrow as he imagined himself getting cornered by two of those Sewer Slimes. Forget about cutting through their sludgy membrane, did he even have the strength to wade through their gelatinous bodies?
As much as he told himself to focus, he couldn't keep his fear in check. He could hear it behind him: the slow squish of a Sewer Slime rolling after him. It wasn't fast at all, but it didn't have to be. This sewer was its domain.
He glanced to his side, where the clogged-up aqueduct carrying water throughout the dungeon. A small part of him considered swimming through there if he really did get trapped, but...
Fuck.
Asher turned the corner, and found himself face to face with another wall of living sludge. He looked behind him, and another was in hot pursuit.
He could feel his lungs become heavier as the realisation set in.
"Fuck this. This is an F-ranked dungeon? I-if I had known..." If he had known the Sewers of Molanda would be this dangerous, he would've gotten a party, and... and...
If only I had listened to theguard.
He looked at the muck flowing past below him, then back at the quickly approaching walls of Sewer Slime.
For a brief moment, he considered carving his way past one of the slimes using his Blessing, but anything more than a torch would leave him powerless. There would be nothing he could do afterward but collapse and wait to die.
Asher sheathed his sword and held it and the scabbard in his hand.
He forced a gulp of air into his lungs and pushed against the edge of the raised platform with his ankles, but the moment he did, his legs gave out in hesitation. He flailed his arms as he tried to regain his balance, but it was no use.
He plunged into the murky waters of the aqueduct.