Chapter 11

Darkening Prospects

It was horrifying, the creature crept at a slow pace toward him, but Jay's fear made him feel stiff and sluggish. He could barely keep ahead of the Black Ooze and after a minute of slowly running, he closed in on a Green Slime; things were getting dangerous quickly, and extremely so. What was he going to do? He had to run as if his life depended on it, because it did.

Hah, at least I found the source of the black liquid, Jay thought, laughing to himself, crying to himself. There was nothing else he could do. He fled.

When he came close to the Green Slime, Jay saw that it was quivering and sluggish, as if it too felt fear from being near the Black Ooze; this most likely saved his life. Putting up two Magic Walls to block the Green Slime's attacks, Jay went by, dodging another tendril and kept going, still barely keeping ahead of the Black Ooze. There really wasn't anything else he could do, he had to get some time to think. He ran, looking over his shoulder. To Jay's astonishment, the Black Ooze roiled over the Green Slime, merging with it, ingesting it in a few seconds.

Ah! It even kills its own kind, Jay thought. That's a relief at least, I just have to dodge and run by the Green Slimes I come across and the Black Ooze will kill it. The Green Slimes were slower than the Black Ooze and Jay, it was a small relief, but only for the moment.

Jay thought while running, doing some crude acrobatics when he met another Green Slime. He didn't know where he was going, but right now, buying time was all he could do. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that the Black Ooze was slowly coming closer.

He slowed down for a moment, tossed a metal pin into the air, catching it with his Mana Manipulation and charged it with 200 Mana, then shot the pin into the Black Ooze. A red number 1 floated where his pin had hit, then a green 1 quickly flashed below the red number.

What?! Jay thought. I did 1 damage? And I even overcharged the pin to try and make some real damage... What was that green number? It healed itself?

Yes, Jay, Claudine said. It seems to have regenerative abilities.

Damn, how am I supposed to kill it? I don't even know how much Health it has and I can't do any damage to it with my greatest weapon...

How should I know? Claudine said, sounding displeased.

A black tendril shot out from the Ooze, barely missing Jay; the tendril crashed onto the floor, disintegrating, sending out black dense smoke that sloshed around, closing in on Jay's feet. He jumped, kicking off the wall, and barely escaped. This was growing deadly. A slight distraction had almost gotten him killed. Jay felt cold.

Focusing on running again, he sped up, looking back frequently. He had hoped the Black Ooze would stop giving chase after a while, but that didn't happen; the Black Ooze didn't stop, it had Jay's scent and was determined to kill him. What could he do?

Minutes passed. Jay's fear was rising, his Stamina draining, and he could do nothing about it. Was this it? Would he really die here? It didn't look good. He had to think of something to survive.

A moment of insight suddenly flashed in his mind. He knew what he could do. All those attribute points he had not used yet could help him increase his speed. Opening his Status Window, he quickly increased his Dexterity by 15, doubling it, hoping it would make it possible for him to escape at the very least. And to his relief, he now began outpacing the Black Ooze.

The noise from the Black Ooze slowly quieted down behind him and Jay could finally relax slightly. He turned around, jogging backwards, drinking some water, eating some food, looking at the darkness where the Black Ooze had been. If only his torchlight could reach farther. Moments later all the noise from the Black Ooze disappeared. Had he escaped? Believing that the Black Ooze had gone back to its lair, he felt relief, he had escaped.

That was easy, he thought to himself. At least I can escape that thing if I want to. Now the question is, how do I kill it?

Suddenly, that all too familiar chill ran down his spine again. He spun about in a circle, looking to see what made him feel a sense of danger. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. Within the light of his torch there was nothing but the stony corridor, but something seemed weird. Was his torch running out of fuel? The darkness seemed to be closing in.

He checked his torch, seeing it flare with its usual brilliance. Nothing wrong there, he thought, waving his torch around to help him discern any shadows at the edge of its light. He saw nothing, but once again that strange chill ran down his spine. There was something wrong with the light, it felt like his surroundings was growing darker.

Looking behind him, then back to where the Black Ooze had been, he saw that there was a large difference in how far the light reached. The illuminated area differed by several meters. Now he understood why he was feeling in danger: the darkness seemed to be slowly closing in on him.

What's this? He thought, looking at the darkness that shouldn't be there. Observe.

???

There was obviously something there, but now his Observe had broken completely. He couldn't even get any information. What was this about? The only thing he could think about was that black miasma the Black Ooze had been in when he first saw it. Could it be that it turned into smoke? He thought absentmindedly, backing away at a quicker pace.

Yes, Jay, Claudine said. Many creatures have more than one shape.

That answer made him believe his thoughts were true. He still hadn't escaped, and the Black Ooze was still hunting him, only with another form. Jay felt helpless. Increasing his running speed until he couldn't run faster, he once again tried to outrun the Ooze, only to realize when he looked back that the darkness was now several meters closer than before. The black smoke was faster than him. Not good!

Panic began setting in. He had run for a few minutes, hoping the darkness would not come any closer, but to no avail. The smoke was now only five meters away from him, and his running wasn't doing anything. What could he do? He couldn't think of anything.

Four meters. Three meters. Two. Jay felt horror, panic, dejection. Was this really where he would die? He lit his last torch, throwing his other into the darkness, hoping to make the darkness slow down slightly. The darkness quivered, and in an instant a flash of fire spread out, exploding through the corridor. Jay fell forward from the blast.

Quickly getting back up on his feet, Jay ran again, looking back when he had gotten some speed, only to see a wall of fire rapidly flowing away from him. He slowed down, looking back at the spectacle behind him. Had he just killed the Black Ooze? How could it have been that easy? And, of course, it wasn't. As Jay thought he was in the clear, the black smoke coalesced back into the Black Ooze; hissing, it roiled, sloshing around the torch, extinguishing the fire. A stream of red numbers between 20 and 30 flowed out from all over the Black Ooze.

Jay didn't slow down, taking advantage of the Black Ooze being in a state of reforming, he distanced himself more and more. The noise from the Black Ooze grew lower again, but this time it didn't disappear as it had when it became smoke, and the light around him didn't shrink again. He had finally, truly, begun to escape from danger.

Thinking about the Black Ooze, and remembering its lair, Jay got an idea. If he couldn't kill the Black Ooze it was a good idea to at least try and find something out from its lair. Maybe he could find a way to finish the Quest or get some items from where the Boss had been? He didn't know, but was curious enough to give it a look.

Slowing down his pace, Jay ran away from the Black Ooze, keeping it at hearing distance. He took out his make-shift map and looked at it to figure out where he might be, and before long he came to a corridor-crossing that was unique to the floor. Knowing where he was, he started plotting out how to lure the Black Ooze away long enough to explore its lair.

The Black Ooze seemed to react to sound and scent, or maybe taste, but not sight. So, Jay ran close to the wall, brushing his hand against it, smearing his scent on it to lure the Black Ooze; then he increased his speed, running fast enough to leave the Ooze behind. He knew that if he could lure the Black Ooze far enough away, he would be able to spend a little while looking in its lair before it came back.

He spent twenty minutes with his hand against the wall. And after he felt certain that he had a lead of a couple of minutes on the Ooze he ran back toward the lair, crossing his path, changing his scent-trail to make it confusing for the Black Ooze. When he felt he was far away from the Black Ooze he stopped brushing against the wall and ran toward its lair, going by the quickest route.

It was a good thing he had cleared out the Green Slimes earlier; he only met one on the way to the lair, and he blocked it, dodging past it, ignoring it, and continued. The large crack in the wall where he first found the Black Ooze was close.

Going up to the crack with less fear than before, Jay was still cautious and looked into the room with care, peaking in, only showing his face. The black miasma had shrunk down into the pit in the middle of the room, leaving about a meter of smoke-free floor on the sides of the wall. In the middle of the room was a metal rod sticking out of the miasma, looking like it had melted from the top, like a thin stalagmite or a melted candle. There was nothing on the top of the pillar, but Jay could feel it had some importance; why else would the Black Ooze lie there, covering the rod with its body?

He couldn't do anything to investigate that pillar though, the black miasma was truly not something Jay felt comfortable touching. But on the other side of the cavern was something interesting. Where wall met ceiling was a square hole shining with a dull green light, illuminating what looked like a large stone table sticking out from the wall; on it lay a couple of melted metallic things, some broken pieces of glass and a stone tablet. That could be something important, Jay thought.

Maybe, Claudine chimed in. I can't tell.

Jay walked into the room, scraping his back against the rough wall until he arrived at the stone table. He quickly looked at it, Observing the metallic pieces and glass, but those were useless. The tablet on the other hand just gave him lots of ??? when he looked at it with Observe. He really needed to get some better way of exploring his surroundings.

Picking up the stone tablet, Jay was about to leave, when he heard a noise that could give him nightmares: that turbulent watery noise of the Black Ooze. It had come back. And he was... Shit! I have to get out.

Jay silently ran against the wall, going back toward the crack in hopes of getting out of the room before the Black Ooze would block his way out. And then an all too familiar black tendril of sticky liquid slid out at the side of the crack. The Black Ooze was back. Jay was doomed.

Looking around frantically, all Jay could do was feel despair. But then he saw that hole above the stone table. He ran back, only caring about not touching the black miasma, jumped on top of the stone table and stretched his arms up at the hole in the wall. Enduring Willpower.

He needed to be as strong as he could be, and he didn't care about wasting all his Mana if only he could escape. His last hope was to escape through the hole in the wall. He pulled himself up with all his might, scrambling to get in before the Black Ooze got back and noticed him. Soon he was inside the hole—it seemed to be some sort of ventilation shaft—and he turned around to look back into the room he had left. The Black Ooze slid into its pool of miasma. Jay was safe.

The Black Ooze moved, shuddering, and shot out innumerable tendrils, touching the wall all around the cave; it seemed to have noticed something.

Not good, Jay thought. I have to do something, quick. He remembered that the black smoke was extremely flammable. Without hesitation he lobbed his last torch toward his feet. Barely able to move as it was, he singed his clothes in the process. The torch lay beneath his feet, but stopped rolling. He kicked it. The torch rolled closer to the hole's opening. Jay crawled with all possible speed up further into the ventilation shaft, knowing there would soon be an explosion.

He was ten meters into the stone shaft when he looked back; the torch had stopped very close to the opening. Figuring he could use some more distance away from the blast that would come when the torch touched the smoke, he scurried another five meters and took out a metal pin, charging it with some Mana, and then shot it at the torch, pushing the torch out through the hole.

As the torch fell, a black tendril crept into the ventilation shaft. Jay had just barely succeeded in his plan. Right after he saw the black tendril, a deafening explosion rang out, flames flowing into the ventilation shaft. The flaming shock-wave hit Jay, scorching his feet and legs; he barely had time to cover his face before he was engulfed. All around him was so hot that he couldn't stand it.

You have been Burned on both legs and feet. You lose 163 Health You receive Burn damage for 30 Health every minute for 10 minutes

Ping!

Vitality has increased by 1. By surviving a very dangerous amount of damage your Vitality surged, increasing it by 1.

Jay looked down at his shredded pants and burnt legs. At least I survived, he thought, hoping for all he was worth that the Black Ooze wasn't intelligent enough to actually search for Jay even after Jay's scent was gone. And that it couldn't find his scent after that inferno swept through the ventilation shaft.

He gulped down a Healing Potion, ate some food and drank some water. Without making a noise or movement Jay Meditated, waiting. Ten minutes passed, twenty. Half an hour later, with Meditation and food, he had recovered all his Health and knew the Black Ooze had lost his track.

All he could do now was to continue crawling through the narrow ventilation shaft; it sloped upward, and Jay had a feeling that he could probably go to an upper floor this way. With no real choice, he followed the slanting path leading through solid rock in hope that he would find a way out of this place. He had to get some more Levels or better Spells before he tried killing that Black Ooze.

After crawling for about fifty meters Jay found a sliver of a crack in the stone wall inside the ventilation shaft; from it shone a bright green light. It was the light he had seen earlier.

Curious, he looked into the small crack. Through almost a meter of rocky wall, Jay barely saw what looked like a humongous snake coiled around an ornately carved green pillar; it was the source of light. The carving looked like a snake's neck and head, its maw wide-spread, holding up a black box with a red cushion inside. On the cushion was a small round object: an azure green colored ring.

The large snake, from what Jay could see, had to be at least a hundred meters long. And although it wasn't proportionally wide, it was still wider than a person; it was a terrifying sight. Observe.

??? Level ??? (???/???HP) ???

Wow, Jay thought. That's the least information I've ever gotten from any creature. That thing must be dangerous beyond belief.

Jay looked for a little while longer, feeling dread, hoping the snake wouldn't wake up and attack him through the wall, or something. Soon though, he found that the snake didn't move at all, and ease slowly crept back through his body. His focus went back on the ring.

The ring looked like it was guarded by the snake, which meant that it had to be some sort of treasure. It couldn't have been left in such an important place and with such a dangerous looking guardian if it wasn't a treasure. Jay couldn't help himself; he sent out a slight strand of Mana with his Mana Manipulation, coiling his Mana around the ring, trying to get a grasp on it.

As he touched the ring with his Mana Manipulation, the snake rustled, but Jay had already forgotten about the snake. He had been mentally trapped by the extremely rare opportunity to get such an expensive looking ring. He lifted the ring and expended his Mana with the greatest possible speed, making the ring fly back through the crack in the wall so fast that he almost hit himself with it. He reaching out and grabbed the ring, his eyes shining with a light of anticipation. Had he struck it rich?

At the same time as the ring flew into Jay's hand, the snake woke, thrashing about and slamming its body into the wall where Jay was. The shock-wave reverberated through the wall and Jay spat up a mouthful of blood.

You have received a great shock to your entire body. You lose 239 Health You are Stunned for 10 seconds Decrease Movement Speed by 20% Decrease Flexibility by 20% Decrease Attack Speed by 40%

Ping!

Vitality has increased by 1. By surviving a very dangerous amount of damage your Vitality surged, increasing it by 1.

Shit! Jay thought. This was it. He would die here. He had less than 15% Health left and he was Stunned. He quickly grabbed his last health potion and swallowed it, crawling at the highest speed possible away from where he was, hoping with all his heart that he wouldn't be struck by another shock-wave.

Knowing he had to flee once more, Jay scrambled with all his might, almost flying up the stony shaft. And he got away, barely. A second after he had gone a couple of meters away from the small crack another large boom sounded and the rock shivered. Jay didn't take any damage this time, however.

Somehow, he felt like he had gone beyond being fortunate. He had not only almost died once, but twice; and still survived. A feeling beyond elation surged through him, he felt truly alive. And he had gotten something precious from his slightly impulsive action. He looked at the ring in his hand. Observe.

??? (??? Ring) (32g) ??? ??? Requires 240 Wisdom to use Requires 120 Intelligence to use

Jay didn't know how great the ring was, but from the requirements he could only guess that it was better than anything he could buy in any store. It seemed the ring was something he couldn't even slightly identify with his Observe Skill, which meant that it wasn't something normal. Wondering where he could find a way to identify the ring, Jay kept crawling, always upward, hoping he would find a way out of the ventilation shaft and back into the sewers. All he wanted to do now was to leave and figure out a way to kill that Black Ooze the next time he went to meet it.

After ten minutes of crawling he came to a dead-end; the shaft suddenly went from slightly sloping to vertical. He looked up and finally felt some relief, he could see the blue sky above. The only problem was, it was at least five meters to the surface. He tried climbing up by pushing his arms and legs at the walls, but quickly found himself unable to proceed; the walls were too far apart and his strength too low. He was truly at a dead-end; he couldn't go back, and he couldn't go up... and there was no other options.

Jay sat down to think about what to do now.

Previous Chapter - Next Chapter