The Prep

Thus, we entered the cave of beginnings. Since people have traveled in it before it was lit with luminous rocks on the sides of the wall. I can tell that there used to be torches that light the way as the holders for them were still inside the walls of the cave. I'm if sure goblins and the like lived here, they would have taken the torches down themselves anyway. So instead, it was illuminated by glowing rock which is arguably harder to rip out of a wall. That said, Conlan and Natalia have been giggling to each other for quite a while now.... and I'll be honest, something about that hurts. Even I don't know if it's because my best friend is drifting away from me or... something else. But I'm probably overthinking it. With that said, we decided to walk in a position where I am in the back and Conlan is in the front. Natalia was properly between us. Eventually we made it to a split path. I thought this cave was supposed to be a straight shot… Each path had a worn down sign next to it. One said slimes and the other said imps. Both I've heard are relatively harmless if dealt with properly. Slimes are weak to magic and we have a single magic user while the Imps would normally be hard to hit. Although I of course would have no problems with the Imp's and Conlan should also be useful knowing how fast he is. "I think we should do I-" "Slimes" I was cut off by Conlan. Looking at him we had a mental conversation.

"What? Why Slimes?"

"I don't want Natalia to feel left out."

"But we wanted someone on our team to support anyway, right?"

"Yeah, but I think she has more to offer than that and I want to see!"

"Uhm guys?" Natalia suddenly said. "What are you doing?" Realizing Natalia didn't understand our pseudo-psychic connection I sigh and say. "Nothing... let's go to the slimes." "Right" So we maneuvered down the slime path... and we found slimes. So just a refresher. Slimes are resistant to physical attacks, especially piercing ones. It's like stabbing jelly. So, when you take me, who has a lot of sharp weapons, into a slime fight... I will be useless. Anyway, we encounter our first slime and Conlan says our game plan. "This will be a good test, I will distract the enemy, Natalia, prepare a spell and Rose, make sure no slimes try to get us from our blind spots." I just nod already knowing how slimes operate. If there is a stronger smarter slime controlling the others, it's possible they'll try to launch sneak attacks especially in caves. Slimes can stick to ceilings for extended periods of time and drop down on people unsuspectingly. So accordingly, my eyes watch the dungeon walls and ceiling as we continue.

Natalia's Sage mark is nothing to scoff at. The speed she chants a spell is crazy. It was like she was talking in fast forwards then suddenly a fire blast would erupt in front of her. The slimes didn't stand a chance and most unsuspecting opponents wouldn't either. With Conlan's magic and sword skill. I'm really not- oh there's a slime over Conlan. I aim and my bow and see a target appear on the small slime that was about to drop on Conlan and ruin his day. I could barely hurt the slimes but if it was in midair, my attack should at least push the slime out of the way since it was so small. Once my shot lined up, as if in slow motion I fired my arrow. It surprised both Conlan and Natalia. It knocked the slime away from Conlan's head and it landed right next to him. He'd finish it off with a blazing blade. Well, we got to see what Natalia was capable of and Conlan wasted no time complimenting her. "Wow, I've never seen a spell getting let off so fast!" Natalia would laugh a little as she would add "I would normally do a bigger spell but since we're in a cave, I decided to do something smaller." "Well, it worked out well." I added.

We decided to move on after that, the slimes didn't pose much of a threat however their movements were a bit too intelligent. If we weren't keeping a watchful eye, they'd spring a surprise attack on us. It made my role in our group a little more involved until we reached the end of the cave. The last bit of the cave had a door. "Must be the boss room." I mentioned. Both the other two nodded in agreement and so we decided to step through it. When we made it through it was as suspected? There was a much larger slime here. With the limited lighting, it looked like a giant orb. Although it was actually only human sized, it was still much larger than your average slime. The room was bigger so Conlan turned back to look at Natalia. "You said you had a bigger spell, right? Can you use them now without caving us in?" The question made Natalia look around for a couple of seconds and the slime patiently waited for us to approach it seemed. Natalia gave us an approving nod which allowed Conlan make this simple plan. "Rose, I'll enchant a couple of your arrows so you can gain it's attention. Your armor is lighter so you can avoid it best. I'll back you up if things look bad and Natalia, you take it out with your larger spells." We both nodded. Much like his sword, Conlan could set ablaze certain martials with a fiery finish that would do magical damage on contact with another surface.... he could enchant things. The problem with that is he could only do it one at a time. Which was why he didn't enchant my bolts when fighting the lesser slimes. This was Natalia's big chance so we should support her. Even though this was just a beginner cave, it wasn't like we weren't in any danger. Therefore, we had to give it all we got.