They waited for what felt like an eternity. From time to time, Ben would check up on the apparition and see it going insane with rage. It stared at him and tried draining his mana a few more times, but there was nothing left to take.

When the time was up, a bunch of characters appeared on top of Ben’s head in his reflection on the mirror, spelling strange words. He’d no idea of what they meant. It was the first time his ring had failed to translate something.

“Do you have any idea what Nal Hapur Nakala¹ means?” he asked.

Before anyone could reply, a loud rumbling filled the room. Surprised, everyone turned to look at the back wall. A cloud of dust filled the air as a large section of the wall slowly slid into the ground. When the dust settled, another passage had been formed. A stone staircase led even deeper into the earth. The opening was so well made that it blended seamlessly with the ground, making it look like it was there from the beginning.

“I was right! There is another room!” said Liza.

“Cool! The wall went brbrbrbr and then clank! Can the others do that too?”

“There’s no indication a wall stood here before at all! No wonder we couldn’t find this passage even after going through the entire room with a fine comb,” said Fang Chu.

After days feeling the helplessness of being stuck, the group was immediately instilled with energy now that they’d a way forward. They spent a few minutes calming down before moving on in the same cautious manner. Even Eliot was much more restrained this time.

They spent a good while walking down the stairs until they found themselves in a strange corridor made entirely from black stones. It was two meters wide and very tall. So much so, that the light from the torch couldn’t reach the ceiling.

“What now? Left or right?” asked Ben.

“Doesn’t matter, we’ll check out both directions in the end anyway,” replied Liza while shrugging.

They turned right and proceeded cautiously. After walking for a bit, the path branched again. They picked a new direction and moved onwards. A few minutes later, the same thing happened once more. A suspicion began crawling inside their minds. They soon confirmed it to be true when they reached a dead end.

“This is a maze!” exclaimed Ben.

“Cool! A maze! What’s a maze?” asked Eliot.

“Great! Nothing better than trying to figure out your way through a maze while slowly looking out for traps,” said Liza sarcastically.

“We better return to the entrance and figure out a way for us to not get lost, otherwise this is going to be a headache,” said Fang Chu.

The group retraced their steps while Ben explained to Eliot how a maze worked. Fortunately, they hadn’t moved that deep inside the labyrinth and managed to get back to the entrance with no problems. Liza approached one of the walls and slashed at it with her dagger. A thin, barely noticeable scratch could be seen, but only when she positioned the light from her torch just right.

“This won’t do. Try scratching the wall with your sword Eliot.”

Eliot drew his broken sword and placed it against the wall. He then moved it around while applying pressure to it. The grating sound of stone scraping stone reverberated on the corridor. A large line now marred the previously smooth wall.

“All right, you’re responsible for marking the way for us. Let’s follow the right-hand rule and get this done,” said Liza.

The group made slow, steady progress. The rasping sound of Eliot’s blade against the wall was constantly ringing throughout the labyrinth. Eventually, they came across a section that they’d previously marked.

“What? How can this be?” asked Liza.

“Damn, this isn’t a continuous maze. There are probably islands in it. We’ll have to use Tremaux’s algorithm to get out of this one,” said Ben.

“Uh, Treuma what? Wait, so you’re saying you know a way to get through it without blindly guessing?”

“Yup, I do.”

“Awesome! How does it work?”

“We just need to make some markings and follow some easy to remember rules. We choose a way at random and mark it. When we reach a dead end or a path that leads back to one we’d marked before, we mark them again. We never go in a path we marked twice. By doing this, we’ll find the right way. We can also easily go back by following the path with only one marking.”

“I think I get it… but at the same time it’s kind of confusing. It’s better you take the lead.”

Following Ben’s instructions, they started moving again. Their pace was slower at first, but as the number of paths with two markings increased, they could feel they were making decent progress forward. Since slowly traversing the labyrinth was boring, at some point Ben had turned picking the paths into a game. They would take turns choosing which way to go and get points based on the result. Picking a way that led you to unexplored paths gave varying points, while choosing one that they’d have to backtrack later gave none.

“Another intersection. Should we go right, left or straight ahead? It’s your turn to pick Eliot,” said Ben.

“Right ahead!” said Eliot.

They followed the path for a while and reached a dead end. Eliot was beyond disappointed and cursed out loud. He’d have to be content with his five points for now. When they backtracked to the intersection, Ben turned to Liza this time.

“Your turn Liza. Two possible ways, you can earn two points. Maybe you can finally catch up to Eliot now!”

The half-elf rolled her eyes and chuckled. She was putting an act because of the preposterousness of the situation, but she’d to admit that this was kind of fun. It sure helped ease their tension somewhat. Without saying anything, she pointed towards the left.

“Left it is then!”

Ben walked ahead while tapping the spear on the floor. He was feeling rather relaxed because after hours of exploring, they hadn’t come across a single monster or trap. That was the only reason he managed to come up with such a game for them to play. However, he soon regretted his carelessness. When he shifted his weight forward, the floor tile he was stepping on sunk with a clank.

[Shit!] he cursed inwardly.

Everything happened too fast. In a panic, Ben dropped the spear he was holding and tried to retreat. Eliot also dropped his weapon onto the ground, but he did that so he could grab Ben’s arm and drag him further back from the trap’s trigger. Liza and Fang Chu jumped backwards and readied themselves for whatever was coming.

A large, gelatinous cube-like creature fell from the ceiling right on top of where Ben was previously standing. Others smaller in size and not uniformly shaped monsters also rained down in different parts of the corridor. The group dodged them the best they could and, without realizing it, ended up isolating themselves from each other.

“What are those things? They look so flimsy!” said Eliot.

“They’re slimes! Don’t let them touch you, they’re corrosive. Try to destroy their core with long weapons! They’re pretty slow, but can pounce quickly at times, so watch out,” Liza instructed.

Eliot, who was about to punch the large gelatinous cube, retreated and grabbed his sword. Fang Chu materialized a naginata from her ring and Liza readied her bow. Once the slimes recovered from their fall, they began edging towards the party.

Now armed, Eliot slashed at the gelatinous cube with his sword, cutting part of its membrane and spilling some of its corrosive liquid on the floor. The cut healed almost instantly, and the cube edged forward, reabsorbing all the gooey it had spilled out. Eliot was frustrated to find out that he could do no damage towards the large monster, as his sword couldn’t reach the small round nucleus that swum around freely inside.

Liza backed herself against a wall and shot arrows nonstop. Whenever one of her shots pierced the core of a slime, the creature would lose its cohesion and turn into a puddle of that sticky, corrosive liquid, only to be absorbed by the other slimes surrounding it.

Fang Chu was also fighting vigorously, swinging her naginata in wide arches and cleaving through the nucleus of many slimes with a single strike. They were surprised attacked by a large number of monsters, but at this rate there would soon be none left.

Ben was the one better off. While the others were surrounded by dozens of slimes, he only had to deal with three. Taking advantage of the slimes’ slow speed, Ben kept his distance and drew his throwing knives.

He let out a large breath to steady himself and began his attack. His first throw went straight at the ground, it was an embarrassing miss. Thankfully, the others were rather busy right now and couldn’t keep tabs on him all the time. The second throw hit the slime, but there wasn’t much force to it. He could only watch as the throwing knife broke the slime’s external membrane and stopped inside the creature, floating slowly in that corrosive liquid. Finally, he managed to hit the core spot on with his third attack, making it rupture. The monster deflated in a puddle of liquid and was absorbed by the others.

[Wait, they can absorb each other? I don’t like that! Look, they’re bigger now!]

Desperate to finish them off before anything unexpected happened, Ben increased his pace and attacked another slime with his throwing knives. It too died and was absorbed by the last one. The final slime was now at least two times larger than before. Sweat dripping from his face, Ben tossed more knives at the monster in hopes to kill it, but no matter how much force he put on the throw, the knives lost their momentum before reaching the core.

[Oh no, it’s too big now! I’m not strong enough to kill it!]

Ben looked around to ask for help but clamped his mouth when he saw that everyone was dealing with their own thing right now. The incisive questions Fang Chu asked him before were ringing on his head at this moment. You do realise that your mere presence increases the danger factor for everyone involved in your party, right? Aren’t you tired of being unable to protect yourself?

[If only there was a way to reduce it back to its original size. Then I could finish it off like the others… wait, there is!]

Retreating to a safe distance, Ben started to rummage through his bag. The slime was faster now that it was bigger, but it would still need a couple seconds to reach him. He grabbed a large jar from his bag and smiled. He needed to borrow money from Liza to buy this, but it was worth it as it was something he sorely needed. Inside the container was a white, crystalline powder that made any food taste better. Salt.

Grabbing a handful of salt from the jar, Ben skirted around the slime and tossed it at the creature. The salt was readily absorbed, and the slime let out some of its liquid. Ben couldn’t contain himself and laughed. He dodged one of the monster’s awkward pounces and tossed handful after handful of salt on it.

“You’ll be defeated by the power of osmosis!”

His laughter and behaviour were so strange that it attracted the attention of the others. They could see Ben running around the slime in circles and tossing a white powder at it while shouting.

“What the hell is he doing?”

-

¹ This is supposed to be nonsensical magical words. If they do exist in any language, it’s purely coincidental.