Rain spent a few more minutes practicing against the dummies, trying to get a feel for how extend aura interacted with refrigerate. He was glad to learn that he could choose not to extend the range, should he wish to conserve mana. He experinted by temporarily putting a few points in focus, keeping his skills nu open to watch as the damage on his refrigerate aura increased. It seed like the scaling on the damage was really bad, so he backed the points out and closed the window. I’ll put them in sothing if I need it. I know I can kill a sli with a spear, so if I get in trouble I can run away and dump them into strength. Slis are slow and not that bright.
Moving back out to the main guild hall, Rain noticed that there were considerably more people milling about, so waiting in lines at the counters, others examining the board, and so just standing around and talking. Surveying the room, he saw many bronze plates and the odd silver one here or there, as well as many people with no plate showing. So of these were clearly guild mbers, just not displaying their plates, but others seed to be just regular people. He was a little disappointed that there weren't any elves or dwarves mixed in with the group.
Quickly, Rain walked back to the bunkroom and retrieved his spear from under the bunk he had been using. Thankfully it was still there. He was less worried that soone would have stolen it and more worried that soone would have thrown it out. It was hardly an impressive weapon.
Walking back into the guild foyer, Rain saw that Gus didn't have anyone at his counter at the mont, so he walked over to him and nodded.
“Sli?” he asked.
Gus nodded, walking out from behind his desk and motioning for Rain to follow, giving his spear a dubious look. One of the other clerks shouted at Gus as he left the desk, but Gus just waved him off and led Rain out and into the square. He walked for a short way, trying to keep up a brisk pace while looking around the city, now in daylight. The buildings were predominantly wooden with tile roofs, though there was the odd stone building, such as the guild hall.
Luckily, Gus didn't take many turns as he led him through the city, alleviating Rain's worries about getting lost. He did know the word for the adventurers guild and could probably ask for directions from soone on the street, but he was glad to not have to worry about it. There weren't that many people out, but there was so traffic. Gus had stopped at the entrance to an alley which seed to end in a flight of stairs, heading down. As Rain looked at the stairs, he saw a man coming up, carrying an empty, stained bucket.
The man passed them as they stood in the entrance of the alley, and Rain caught a whiff of whatever had been in the bucket as the man passed.
Auggggh, damn it. Idiot, where did you think slis would be living? Of course it is a fucking sewer. That guy was emptying a chamber pot. What have I signed myself up for?
Gus pointed at the stairs, then, giving Rain's bare feet and makeshift spear another look, sighed, shook his head with an expression that clearly said ‘not my problem’. He turned to walk back to the guild.
“Wait!” Rain cried out, causing Gus to turn and look at him impatiently. “Sli… dangerous?”
Gus laughed and shook his head. “No, sli not dangerous. Sli ” he said, putting on an exaggerated face of disgust. He gave Rain’s bare feet another look, laughed, and turned away.
Rain almost put a point in purify right then and there, but he stopped himself in case he needed it for an offensive spell like firebolt. This is going to suuuuuuuck. Maybe it will be a nice sewer... yeah, who am I kidding. Still, do I really want to go down there alone? Looks pretty dark. I’m not too worried about slis, Gus just said they aren’t dangerous and I know that they are really slow, so even if there are a bunch of them I could get away. What I am really worried about is sothing like that wolf…
Rain shook his head to clear his nerves. No, there wouldn’t be one of those down there. Rain told himself, watching as another man passed him to descend the stairs, carrying another bucket. That guy doesn’t have a weapon. I’m sure I’ll be fine. Damn it, famous last words, why did I even think that?
Rain’s stomach growled, reminding him that he hadn’t had breakfast. Fishing out his ration bar, he bit off a chunk with so effort and tucked the rest back into his pocket. I don’t really have the luxury of waiting. It is this, or starve. I don’t think dieval societies were big on social welfare. I wonder if I could get soone to co with ?
Rain recognized that he was stalling, and forced himself to move. Cautiously, he walked to the top of the stairs and looked down. Thankfully, there were torches burning on the walls for light and the sll wasn't too bad...yet.
Slowly, he made his way down the stairs, trying not to pay attention to the feeling of cold stone on the bottoms of his very bare feet. The sll was growing stronger, but it still wasn't worse than the familiar scent of a construction site porta-potty. By the ti he reached the bottom, the light from the street was no longer reaching the floor of the stone tunnel. He waited as his eyes adjusted to the torchlight and his nose adjusted to the sll before continuing out into what appeared to be a waterway.
It wasn't nearly as bad as he expected. The water looked a little bit discolored, but it wasn't the literal river of shit he had been expecting. There was moss and fungus growing from the floor near the water, and there was a noticeable brown stain on the edge near the bottom of the stairs. So careless individual must have dumped their disgusting burden a bit too close to the edge.
The floor of the tunnel was stone, but proximity to the water and the moss made it feel a bit slick and slimy on the soles of Rain's feet.
Exploring sewer barefoot, 2/10. Would not recomnd. Fuck , what am I doing down here?
Not seeing any slis or hearing the distinctive splortch, Rain looked up and down the waterway. He could see torches off in the darkness every so often, casting soft pools of light and revealing one or two additional tunnels branching off in the distance.
Slis are probably at the nastiest part. Shit flows downstream and all that. Fuck .
Turning, Rain started walking slowly, watching his step until the torchlight faded so much that he could only make out general shapes. He slowed down even further until his eyes adapted fully. He found that he could see well enough to avoid stepping into anything... unfortunate, so he decided to continue.
As he traveled down the dark waterway, Rain reflected on his life choices up to this point. He had clearly ssed up sowhere along the line and this was his punishnt. He shuddered as his foot touched sothing that went squish.
“Just moss, it was just moss,” Rain told himself, trying to believe it, but failing pathetically. Soon, he ca to an intersection with a torch and a tunnel leading off to the side. The tunnel sloped slightly upward but was otherwise nondescript. The tunnel was dry, with no channel for water in the middle. Rain was about to pass it by when he heard an echoing noise coming from the tunnel.
Yup. I recognize that sound. Going towards the sound. Fuck .
Rain crept up the hallway, the torchlight fading. Before it dropped off completely, he saw the distinctive blobby form of a sli oozing towards him. He backed up slowly, leading it into the light and being careful to maintain at least two ters of distance. As he got a better look at the thing, he noted that this one was colored green and brown, different from those in the forest. Thankfully, it still had the sa [Sli] Level 1 floating over it, so it wasn't so sort of horrible murder-king death-sli or anything.
Looking behind himself, Rain eyed the distance to the water. He had plenty of space to work with. He thought he should be able to kill the sli before he ran out of tunnel. That was good, as he didn't want to try edging around it. Stopping, he waited for the sli to approach. At two-ters, it leapt as expected. Rain dodged back and stabbed forward, trusting to his spear to keep the sli at bay. He saw the sli's health bar decrease by around ten percent, giving him a baseline.
Ok, let's see how well this works.
Rain waited for the sli to leap again. He dodged, and this ti instead of stabbing with his spear he stabbed at the barrier in his mind, releasing a freezing pulse of his refrigeration aura. As he had practiced in the guild, he pushed more mana into the skill to extend the range. The wave of cold brushed against the sli, which quickly started crystallizing. Rain pulled the mana back, being very careful with his limited supply. He saw with satisfaction that the sli's health had dropped by about a third while his mana had only dropped by a small sliver.
“Yeah, take that you nasty-ass ball of shit!” Rain shouted, backpedaling as the sli oozed towards him. It seed to be moving a bit slowly, so Rain, feeling bold, stepped in without waiting for it to leap, stabbing at it with his spear. The sli bunched up as if to jump, but the spear hit first, puncturing it and causing it to twitch away. Pressing the attack, Rain swept his spear left and right, drawing deep furrows in the sli's mbrane. The sli died without a chance to counter-attack, the cold apparently having severely reduced its speed.
You have defeated [Sli], Level 1
25 Experience Earned
The sli slowly spread out across the floor of the tunnel, flowing down the slope towards him. Rain walked up to the edge of the growing puddle of filth and poked around with his spear, looking for the Tel. He cursed. There was nothing there, either it hadn't had one, or he wasn't able to see it in the dark.
I'm not giving up that easy. Skills.
Pulling up the skills nu, Rain flipped to the utility page and added a point to purify.
I am NOT walking through that, and I need that damn crystal. Purify!
The icon in his vision changed from a snowflake to a diffuse white light. Focusing on it, Rain activated the skill. Pulses of white light gathered on his skin, much fainter than the light that Aliah had used. Slowly but surely the light spread out in the tunnel. As it ca into contact with the sli, it started to dry and evaporate, but it was slow, and the radius was uncomfortably close to Rain's feet. Gritting his teeth, he walked forward, right into the puddle, shuddering at the squelching feeling of the sli smooshing between his toes.
It will all go away, the skill will clean it all away. I will be clean, this is only temporary. Oh fuck, why does it have pulp?
It felt like it took around five minutes for the puddle to completely evaporate. Rain checked his skill panel to confirm the mana cost of the skill before committing to drying out the whole thing. He didn't want to run out of mana down here, but the modest cost of 10MP/min wasn't that bad. He even used extend to widen the radius so it included more of the puddle at once.
By the ti he was done, Rain was standing in the center of an incongruously clean section of the tunnel. Getting down on his hands and knees didn't bother him, as the stone was free from sli, dust, and dirt. It looked as if it had been freshly scrubbed. He moved around the circle, then swore, not seeing any sign of a crystal. He was sure that he would have seen it if it was there; the torchlight was bright enough for that.
Dejectedly, he got to his feet and started moving deeper along the tunnel, wincing at the feeling of the slimy stone as he stepped out of the purified circle. There are more torches down here, so soone must use this tunnel for sothing.
He continued down the tunnel for another ten minutes or so before he heard the sa characteristic noise indicating that a sli was near. He edged closer, his eyes searching the darkness. As the sounds grew louder, he managed to make out not one, but three forms inching their way towards him.
I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. Refrigerate.
Rain switched back to his offensive spell, berating himself for not doing so earlier, then edged towards the slis. He tried to get them bunched up against one wall but had little success. Gritting his teeth, he stopped, waiting for the lead sli to make its leap. It did, and he dodged back, activating his aura and leaping back in, striking with his spear. He left the aura on as waves of cold rolled over the lead sli, extending it to maximum range and dodging back as the other two slis leapt. The first sli was shaking and large chunks were starting to form near its surface. Darting back in, Rain maintained his channel and stabbed at one of the other slis, letting his aura do its work.
The slis were significantly slowed. He was able to dart in and out quickly enough to keep all three of them at bay until the first sli died, lting into disgusting chunky slush. Moving forward so the others would be fully in his aura, he stabbed at them until the last health bar winked out. It was only a few seconds but to Rain it felt like hours.
Panting, Rain deactivated his aura and stepped back away from the three growing puddles of greenish brown fluid. His knuckles were white from how tightly he had been gripping his spear.
You have defeated [Sli x3], Level 1
75 Experience Earned
[Level Up]
Glancing at his mana bar, he saw that his prolonged use of the aura had dropped it down to a little over a third remaining. He felt a headache starting to build behind his eyes from the ntal exertion combined with the sll of the thawing sli slushie coating the floor of the tunnel. He noticed that his stamina had also dropped to around half from all the walking combined with frantic combat.
Another level up, nice. First things first though.
Determinedly, Rain waded into the ss, switching to purify and trying to catch his breath as the sli started to evaporate. The aura seed to work much faster on the sll, the fus from the sli not being able to reach all the way to his nose before being purified into nothingness. Rain idly wondered about conservation of mass as he waited for the spell to do its work.
He got to his hands and knees once the area was reasonably sli free and hunted around for crystals. Rain slumped back after searching for a few minutes, losing hope that these sewer slis would drop any Tel. Either the forest slis differed in more than just color, or he had gotten lucky before. Getting to his feet, Rain dusted off a bit of sli from his knees and canceled his aura.
No point getting 100 percent clean until I've taken care of the last one. Refrigerate.
Rembering to switch back to his offensive aura this ti, Rain resud his slow plod down the tunnel. It had started to slope downward again, and Rain was being cautious as the stones were slightly slick after the passage of the slis. Just one more. If I see a group, I’ll run.
He ca to an intersection after a little while and cautiously inched out into it, looking both ways. He couldn't see anything in either direction, no torches being lit in either branch. Rain stood, listening and searching the darkness, but seeing and hearing nothing save for the drip of water in the distance.
I guess this is it. I'm not going any further without a torch. I suppose I'll go back and grab one off the wall. I don't suppose anyone will miss it. Soone has to be bringing fresh ones down here, otherwise I wouldn't be able to see at all. I didn't think torches lasted this long.
Rain's musing was interrupted by a disgusting sucking noise, as if a gigantic suction cup had been pulled from a mildewed tile wall. He wasn't able to react or even determine the direction of the sound before a heavy, wet, sothing dropped down from the darkness overhead, landing directly on his head.
Rain twitched in fright and tried to scream, the only result of which was the exquisite taste of chunky, warm, unspeakable vileness forcing its way into his mouth. The sli pulled itself laboriously over Rain's body, attempting to engulf him completely, but not quite having the mass to manage it. Rain thrashed about with his spear, choking on sli as his skin started to burn from whatever juices the sli was secreting in its efforts to digest him.
Panicking, Rain fell to the floor and thrashed wildly, his spear forgotten. His hands clawed at the sli as he tried frantically to clear his airway. In so small corner of his panicked mind, Rain suddenly recalled that he had a way out of this situation. Concentrating, he activated his refrigeration aura at full strength, not even realizing that he was wasting mana by extending the range needlessly.
He felt the temperature of the sli on his skin rapidly drop, rough chunks of ice forming and growing larger. He didn't relent, clawing at the sli blocking his mouth. The sli died from the cold and started to lose cohesion, falling away as a slushy, chunky mass. Rain vomited out the contents of his stomach, then curled into a shivering ball. His aura flickered and died, his mana fully depleted.
You have defeated [Sli], Level 1
25 Experience Earned
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