It was like bungee jumping, but I let go at the lowest point.

“Alright, let’s check out what the hell is going on here,” I muttered.

Just as I had expected, the cave down here was pretty big but nowhere near as large as the cavern above.

But, I did notice one strange thing… there were vines, and some moss was growing along the walls like parasites sucking out the blood of its host.

The moss had a strange black color mixed into its green, and the smell it wafted was absolutely horrendous.

“Oh my god… That smells worse than the public restrooms on a Friday night,” I muttered, holding back the urge to puke.

After suppressing a seemingly endless wave of nausea, I made my way down the same direction that the slimes had pushed the leader down.

But, I didn’t need to walk far as in the distance were two massive stone doors that looked very familiar.

Oh, wait… This is the spot before the boss room. Did I take a shortcut somehow? I thought there was no other way to get down here besides taking the winding corridors… Well, I’m not complaining.

As soon as I arrived right in front of the stone doors, I noticed something that caused me to breathe a sigh of relief.

The toxic slime suddenly took a U-turn down the opposite direction of the cave, from where I came from, but it also suddenly stopped.

This meant that the slime definitely changed directions as I didn’t feel like entering the boss room just yet.

As my eyes trailed the path, I was a bit confused until I saw a small crack in the ground that I quickly backed away from before tossing a small pebble onto it.

Crack

Instantly, the small crack enlarged into a massive hole in the ground, revealing an extensive green acid lake that looked as if it could kill me with just its gaseous fumes.

I smiled instantly before shifting my eyes all over the place, searching for anything useful.

“They must’ve gone down here, right?” I muttered as this was the only lead I had and nothing around me provided another tip…

Squish

All of a sudden, a frightening sound came from behind me, and before I could turn around, green and black tendrils wrapped around my torso, yanking me back.

Immediately, I was inside a blob of slimes, and I tried to swim out, but the slime felt as if it was squeezing its abs, keeping me inside of it.

Thankfully, my spear dropped out of my hand, so at least that was saved… but now I just needed to survive.

My breath was already running out as I didn’t get time to take a breath in, so I was forced to reach for the cores and slowly crush them one by one.

CRASH CRASH CRASH

Each one that shattered made an ear scratching sound that almost made my eardrums bleed.

CRASH CRASH CRASH

“*gasp*… HUFF HUFF HUFF,”

There were only a few cores in this slime blob, which was probably just twice my size.

That may seem like a big slime blob, but that one was nothing more than an ant compared to the others that I had encountered.

Where the hell did that thing come from? There are no shadows here as everything is lit by tons of these glowing green glowing orbs… so where did this thing come from?

As I carefully watched around me while regaining my breath, I slowly picked up my spear and then slashed backward.

A red aura coated my spear as it tore through four cores, killing the slime blob instantly.

“I thought so,” I muttered before glancing at the cracks in the walls, which began to leak green ooze.

I instantly made a break for the vine that I previously used as the gaping hole in the floor was coated with a thin film of black slime.

This allowed the slime to fill the cave rather than let it drip down into the acid pool.

No articles said anything about this, but after seeing that crack in the ground, it was obvious to tell that all the cracks in the cave could do the same… and I was right.

There was no panic within my movements, even as I fought back the green and black tentacles which tried to drag me down.

My legs ran through the slime, which was slowly rising, and just as I arrived at the rope, it was only up to my ankles, so I was able to maneuver up it quickly.

I had barely any upper-body strength, but I knew the right technique to inch my way up… but it seems I forgot to take into account… that the slimes can manipulate their bodies in any way they want… and that includes blades.

Before, I researched a bit on these toxic slimes, and all the articles told me that they use tendrils as their primary form of attack and that they had no sub-attack… but that was stupid because right now I was tumbling back down to the slimes as they had cut my rope.

Plus, I didn’t need to assume anything else as these slimes were quote on quote… “stupid and incapable,” but throughout this entire trip, they have been proving me wrong with every encounter.

As soon as my back landed on them, I could feel their slimy tentacles wrap around my body, but I immediately stood up, tearing myself away from them before they could get a good hold on me.

I ran in the opposite direction of the stone doors, towards a spiraling staircase that went up.

This was the entrance you were supposed to really take, and as I was somewhat familiar with this section of the dungeon, I was confident I could recover from this slip-up.

Squish Squish

The slime below me was now up to my shins, and it felt as if I was wading through the thickest water ever, which was also trying to attack me.

With each tendril that I cut, I could feel even more continue to wrap around my legs, trying to pull me down.

“DAMMIT!” I shouted as I poured all my energy into one last sprint.