Cool Caverns

After some preparations, I got some basic gear made. Wooden armor studded with stones, a stone shield, and some healing herbs I got from Platina.

At the entrance of the mine Zelezo, Árgyros, Chrysós, and Sidiros were waiting with gear ready along with the first three’s Stahl-Soldats. “Kid, you look a bit under-equipped.” Zelezo pointed at my wooden chest plate that looked like a cheap cosplay. I shrugged it off, “That’s why I’m coming to get some metal of my own. The others just laughed. The Stahl-Soldats were left right by the entrance.

The maw of the cave was pretty menacing, but the structures were well kept. We each grabbed pickaxes from a crate. I stopped at some loose rocks to take for myself, doubt anyone else had a use for decently sized boulders. We all make a game of whoever touches an ore first gets to keep it.

The cave started to show more natural formations, likely signaling that we have gone into the untouched areas. We lit up some torches which brought a bit of light, but not much. There were a few monsters like small slimes, but nothing that attacked us. I was getting a little nervous, this area has a feeling that it’s for higher level adventurers.

I eventually got the courage to speak up, “Do you guys think there’s any high-level monsters hiding all the way down here? Like, some sort of boss that’s at the furthest point down?” I started sweating.

Sidiros made a creepy face, “Well some decades ago people encountered a Melted Ore Slime that shook off all magic attacks and never dented with any hit.” Great, just perfect. Zelezo gave a big chuckle, “But they never had a Stahl-Soldat like we do, if we see it, we just lead it back to the entrance and punch it into submission.”

I didn’t feel much better, but I’m too far in to quit now.

“Woah,” the brothers ran ahead at the sight of some small glimmers. The rest of us ran up behind as we all entered an opening filled with ore. Iron, silver, copper, there was so much gathered in one spot. Sidiros jumped forward landing on a spot of copper laughing, “Ha ha, we’re all going to be rich!” Of course, he had to jinx it.

As we started mining away at the ores the ground started shaking and breaking away. Rocks broke away with an ooze flowing out. Pieces of rock were absorbed into the slime; it was definitely the melted ore slime.

Sidiros almost fell in, but the brothers caught him in time. Zelezo prepared a spell to distract it, “I’ll follow you guys, I can slow it down a little! Magma Masher!” Magma shot out of his hands landing onto the slime causing it to emit some sort of steam. Zelezo then ran up casting a spell to buff our speed, “Quicken!”

We gained a lot of distance, but it was following us to the outside. The Halberds we used to defeat the mechanical bug were just in our sight. Although, the red one I used was gone, “Hey where’s the one I was supposed to use!?”

The brothers and Zelezo jump up onto theirs, leaving me and Sidiros left to support them from the back. “Heh, I’ve been waiting to use these,” Sidiros grabbed some special looking arrows, “These babies are magic.” I didn’t really have much other than my Fireball and I don’t think my spear, knife, or ax will do much.

The three Halberds charged forward with giant swords, slashing simultaneously to no avail. The slime caught hold of Árgyros’s sword, making him jump back. The slime slowly crawled out of the cave. The Halberd trio tried many spells, but it hardly slowed it down.

“Come on already, try harder!” A shouting voice came from above the entrance, it was the red-colored Halberd with someone I haven’t met yet. The Halberd came down with its fist forward, “Electric Impale!” A bright blinding flash of sparks and bolts of electricity lit up the area, even being reflected by the shiny metal membrane of the slime. “Attack now!”

We followed his order, Zelezo shot a blast of magic magma, the brothers shot magic missiles, Sidiros shot a few magic arrows, while I just shot a fireball. Our attacks connected, felling the monster. If I knew anything about RPGs, metallic enemies (especially slimes) give a ton of experience. I looked at my status menu to look at my level. Level 13! And not even too far away from level 14 either.

The red Halberd took a prone stance, letting its pilot climb off its back. Off of it was a young man with brown hair and ragged clothes. I was a bit intimidated by his mean, looks like the main rival of an anime kind of demeanor. “Hey, I’m new here, my name’s Akio. I don’t think I’ve met you yet.” I tried to stand my ground to not look too weak, though my pitiful fireball and cheap wooden armor didn’t help.

He gave an annoyed sigh, “I’m Ferro, and now I know you’re the one who was using my Halberd while I was away, though I doubt you could even manage to be a fraction as helpful in it as I would be.” This guy is getting on my nerves.

“Hey, we can get a buttload of metal off this slime!” The silver haired brother Chrysós was playing around in the murky, viscous, corpse of the slime. He pulled an assortment of different chunks of metal out.

This was my chance to tell them my plan!