The next hour was a monotonous, grim cycle of sloshing through ankle-deep sewer water, the steady drip-drip from the ceiling, and the wet splat of dispatched slimes. Kael played his part perfectly, illuminating the tunnels and allowing Joko and Siti to work. He watched them, studying their methods.
Joko was a machine. His movements were brutally simple, honed by experience. A quick step, a powerful kick, and a dead slime. He never wasted a motion. Siti, on the other hand, was learning. After her first few hesitant pokes with the spear, she started to get the rhythm. She learned to use the weapon's length to her advantage, bracing it against the floor and letting the slimes impale themselves on the rebar tip before kicking them into a wall.
"Better," Joko grunted after she dispatched one without his help. Coming from him, it was high praise, and Siti beamed.
Kael, meanwhile, was going mad with frustration. With every kill, he would see the shimmer of an available loot drop, only for it to fade as the party moved on. The EXP was trickling in, but he needed the cores. His Stamina was still pitifully low, and his other stats were barely human. He couldn't get stronger on EXP alone. He needed an opportunity.
It came when they reached a three-way junction. The main tunnel continued straight, but two smaller maintenance passages branched off to the left and right.
Joko paused, listening to the echoing drips. "Alright, we'll be faster if we check the sides quickly. Siti, you're with Kael. Take the left passage. Go in fifty feet, see if it's a dead end or if it loops back. Shout if you see more than a couple. I'll check the right. We meet back here in five minutes."
It was the chance Kael had been waiting for.
He followed Siti down the narrow, cylindrical tunnel. The air was even more stagnant here. They found two slimes clinging to the curved walls.
"I'll take the one on the right," Siti said, her voice now steady with a newfound, if fragile, confidence.
As she focused on her target, Kael approached his. He couldn't kick it; he lacked Joko's power. Stabbing it felt wrong; his Code Perception had told him high impact force was the key. He looked at the rusty blade in his hand. Not the edge, but the pommel. The heavy, weighted end of the hilt.
He moved in close, sidestepping the slime's slow lunge. He swung the weapon like a hammer, smashing the pommel into the creature's gelatinous mass. The impact wasn't as dramatic as Joko's kicks, but it had the same effect. The slime's cohesion broke, and it splattered against the wall.
[You have defeated a Corrosive Slime. EXP +5]
A solo kill. More EXP. More importantly, Siti was still occupied, carefully maneuvering her own slime into position. Kael's hand shot out, plunging into the rapidly dissolving puddle. His fingers brushed against something small and hard. It was cool to the touch and tingled slightly against his glove. He snatched it and the one from Siti's kill, pocketing the two [Lesser Monster Cores] just as she delivered her final blow.
[Lesser Monster Core absorbed. Stamina +0.1] [Lesser Monster Core absorbed. Stamina +0.1]
He absorbed them instantly, not wanting them in his pocket for fear of discovery. A tiny wave of energy washed through him. His Stamina was now 5.5. It was a small victory, but it felt monumental. He had found his method.
"All clear here," Siti said proudly.
"Good work," Kael replied, his voice calm. "Let's head back."
They met Joko at the junction. "Right side is a dead end," the veteran reported. "Main tunnel is all that's left. The junction should be just ahead. Let's finish this."
He led the way down the main tunnel, which was wider here. The smell was getting worse. Up ahead, they could see what was causing the blockage. It wasn't a handful of slimes. It was one, single entity.
The creature was massive, easily ten feet across, filling the tunnel from floor to ceiling. It was a deeper, angrier shade of green, and bubbles of noxious gas periodically burst from its surface. It wasn't just sitting there; it was pulsing, like a grotesque heart.
Kael's perception flared with a warning.
// Entity: Mature Corrosive Slime // Int: Level=4 // HP: 250/250 // Special_Attribute: Acidic_Touch, Reinforced_Membrane // Ability: [Acid Spit]
"Behind me," Joko ordered, his cynical demeanor replaced by sharp-edged focus. He had seen it too. This was not like the others.
As if sensing them, the massive slime shuddered, and a 'mouth' opened in its gelatinous form. With a sickening "glug-glug" sound, it spat a glob of green acid that sizzled as it hit the wall just feet from them, eating into the brickwork.
Joko cursed under his breath. "Well, crap. That's new."