After the cube was gone, it left behind two things. A small gold bar worth 10 thousand gold and a mana crystal that could store up to 10 million points of mana, but when using the mana inside it, there was a 2% chance that the remaining mana inside would dissipate. Still, since it would happen after using the mana, the party could make some good use of that item.

"Is everyone ok? Hera, do you need some time?" Helena asked.

"No. I'm ok. It didn't hurt that much. I just lost a lot of mana. Even after getting hit, I still kept burning mana away, but that was it, at least."

"How much do you currently have?" Shane turned to the Empress.

"A bit less than half, which is around half a million points."

"That's so stupid. Less than half of your mana is almost double my maximum," Blue shook her head.

"Well… to be fair, I did get some items that help increase the mana growth. Not to mention the title, and I always try to increase my mana when I'm doing other stuff," Hera smiled.

"I can't do that. Meditating is too boring," Blue rolled her eyes.

"You don't have to meditate. Just keep circling your mana. You can do that anywhere. I usually cycle it when we are watching shows or something," Hera explained.

Blue closed her eyes and thought for a moment before replying. "I think you told me that before, but I don't remember. I have to try that soon."

"Shall we get going then? Hera, I think you can call your court again," Shane suggested.

"Yeah. I think everything is fine now," Hera nodded and raised one hand. She had set up a couple of lines to call her blades, and it was the first time she was going to use one of them, "I am never alone."

As she finished the sentence, all her blades appeared to come flying out of her back. Frost and Core came up from her shoulders, Ooze and Edge came from under her arms. A mist crown and a pair of earrings appeared before taking the shape of Scythe and Armory. Dao flew up in the sky as if it shot out from the top of her head. However, Nimbus, Lurize, and Daskka broke apart from the whole presentation, jumping on Hera to make sure she was ok.

"I'm fine, guys," Hera chuckled.

"Never do that again!" Daskka shoved her head on the Empress' chest.

"I can't promise that. I will protect you when I can" Hera looked to her titled blades, "All of you."

"But…" Lurize tried to speak up, but Hera cut him off.

"We can talk about this later. We still have a dungeon to complete."

With a nod, the blades stopped arguing, and the party soon followed the path that was just opened. In the end, they went back to the circular room as everyone expected, and the last door was finally open. During the walk, Daskka used her healing mist to fix any wounds people might have gotten, but her mist wasn't enough to fix the hole in Lurize's gauntlet. The party pulled their weapons and walked slowly forward.

"Actually, I have an idea," Hera shook her wrist, and the 30 snakes dropped to the floor. With a simple command, she told them to make a perimeter around the group. Her initial thought was to send them ahead, but since there seemed to be something that triggered the doors, she changed her plans. If she sent the snakes too far ahead, there was a chance that the party would be split when facing the next enemy, and that wasn't something anyone wanted to happen.

They moved through the next corridor, and after turning a corner, the entire place changed. It was no longer a plain corridor with white walls and ceiling but a hallway filled with wave and coral patterns on the sides. There were some multicolored lights on the ceiling that made this place look like an aquarium, but with no fish anywhere around.

Everyone was tense, thinking that this could be the lair of yet another creature, but after five minutes of careful walking, they noticed how, on the opposite end of this hallway, there was yet another room. Something very wide and with water inside. Getting closer, they realized what it was. The room was one of the pools, like the one they thought to be a nuclear generator outside the dungeon. Everyone knew this would be a fight, so everyone walked inside the room. After getting a few steps inside, a door behind them slammed shut, destroying a few of the snakes and keeping others locked outside. About 13 of them were still in this room, and Hera quickly told all of them to spread out. If something was going to come, she wanted to know where it would be.

While the small vipers were still moving, a bipedal creature started to emerge from the water, or that's what everyone thought at first. It didn't take long for them all to realize that whatever this was, wasn't coming out of the pool. It was the water in the pool itself. It had two massive arms without hands, a long worm-like head, and a pair of legs that looked more like tree trunks. The being was almost reaching the ceiling, which should be around 5 meters tall, and it was just as wide. The water was somewhat murky, and the lights didn't help. It was hard to tell if it was green, brown, or just dirty, but everyone could see a shape in the middle of it. It looked like a large egg, but Hera could see a somewhat humanoid shape in a fetal position, almost like a baby. It wasn't like she could actually see them, but as if she could see a shadow blocking the mana that was coming from behind the creature. Trying to see if she could confirm her suspicions, Hera triggered her [Observe] only to realize something even worse.

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Proto Slime - Level 36

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"That's a slime! And it has shape mana, like the ones we saw in the raft!" Hera called. By the name, this could very well be the first slime that ever appeared in the room. Maybe in the entire MAZE, but that was a bit of a stretch.

"Please don't let it turn into one of us. That's not a nightmare I wanted to be real," Blue joked.

"You dream about a giant version of us attacking you?" Shane asked.

"Yeah, it's not actually a recurring nightmare, but one that happened more than once, which is weird," Blue continued.

"Get down!" Hera yelled and jumped on top of Shane while Nimbus tackled Blue. Just as they managed to get both women to the ground, the right arm of the Proto Slime swung above their heads in a sweep attack, "We can talk about Blue's nightmares later. That thing is level 36!"

When she tackled Shane, Hera sent her snakes to spread around the room while a single one of them dove into the pool. She wanted to know if the remaining water was dangerous or not. Having to fight completely at a range would be a problem. Luckily, the snake could barely sense any water in the area. By the looks of it, all the liquid in the pool was just the slime pretending to be something else.

Hera and Blue quickly got up while Shane loaded an empty case in her launcher. Before getting up, she fired it at the Proto Slime, aiming at the shoulder. Her idea was to enchant the air inside the projectile to send some of the creature's body flying to the sides. If this monster was following the pattern that a regular slime had, that could reduce its size, even if by a small amount. After all, regular slimes could only move the parts of their body that were directly connected to the Core. Unfortunately, for the party. This wasn't a normal slime. Shane's plan did work and sent pieces of the gooey liquid flying everywhere, but even detached from the main body, those pieces could still move and took the shape of small versions of the Proto Slime that charged at the party.

Mylo, who had just created a large rose on top of his staff and was about to use a spell, changed the target to the incoming small creatures still marked as being the same gigantic slime. With a thrust, the rose bloomed, each petal becoming a blade of energy that flew toward the creatures, cutting through them and pushing them back at the same time. Some of the smaller versions became even smaller versions of the Proto Slime, but a few were hit by more than one petal, and the liquid ended up splattering on the ground without moving anymore. A fact that bodes well for the group. This meant that even if the monster could multiply, it wouldn't be forever. Eventually, the small bodies would collapse after being attacked.

Only Mylo, Armory, and Shane noticed that. Everyone else was dealing with the big version of the Proto Slime. After it missed the first strike and got hit in response, it followed it up by raising its left arm, the same one that Shane hit, and brought it down on the group. It was easy to evade a blow like that, but as the jelly-like liquid got closer to the ground, several tendrils stretched, replicating the appearance of a dead tree. Hera was stabbed in the leg. Nimbus tried to help her, but the attack came too fast, and he only was able to shove the Empress enough out of the way so it wouldn't hit her bone. Lurize also wanted to help, but he was much bulkier than anyone else, and moving away from the branch-like tendrils proved to be too difficult. He was hit on the shoulder, stomach, legs, and on the exposed piece of his gauntlet. None of the attacks was enough to pierce his armor, but Hera could tell that the Royal Tutor wouldn't be able to take too much more damage, or he would end up losing his form. Blue and Helena were also unable to completely evade the attack. They got some small cuts by dodging the branches by a hair, and Shane, who was distracted by the smaller Proto Slimes, received a full blow on her back. Luckily, it wasn't one of the sharp tendrils, but the impact still made her crash on the ground, breaking her nose and making it bleed.

"Everyone spread out!" Hera yelled while gritting her teeth. Staying close to each other was a very bad idea. Daskka was already pumping some healing on her leg. The snake knew her job was to help everyone, but her Mum would come first, always. At the same time, Hera started casting spells through the snakes, trying to distract the big slime.

'Nimbus, Lurize, go to your blade form. Everyone, start attacking the big guy. We need to stack Scythe's skill,' the Empress commanded through her mind. She didn't even have to think of the words. Her intention was enough to tell her court what she needed.

Mylo quickly went to help Shane and help her up, pulling her away from that position. But one of the smaller versions of the Proto Slime jumped on his back and started to strangle the fighter while trying to get inside his nose at the same time. Shane enchanted Mylo so that his body would burn anything that touched him as Blue managed to reach her and pull the explorer away from that position while creating a cloud on top of the slime's head. Hoping that it would hinder its sight. Helena was also doing something similar, using every spell in her book to remove the senses of the Proto Slime. Unfortunately, it seemed that this creature used something else to locate the party that wasn't a part of the five senses. Even trying to cover it with a condensed layer of mana to interfere with the being's perception ended up doing nothing. Most of Hera's court was also attacking, slashing the monster in different places, but when a large enough piece of its body was cut, it would only create more smaller Proto Slimes that started moving toward them.

Everyone was painfully aware that this fight wasn't looking good. So far, they were unable to deal any significant damage to the monster, and most of them were too busy helping others instead of being able to attack it. They would eventually lose the war of attrition if things kept going like that.

But their disposition changed when Dao dove inside the Proto Slime's body and activated the Chain Lightning spell. A blue arc of electricity came out of the creature, hitting 10 of the 15 smaller versions of it that were walking around the area. The attack destroyed most of the split monsters and paralyzed those who survived. Even the giant slime ended up getting shocked and now would spasm out of control as it tried to move.

"Electricity!" Hera gasped with a smile. Since this was like a nuclear reactor, the idea that lightning could help never crossed her mind, but that was clearly a mistake.

The Proto Slime trembled and changed its shape. Now becoming a web-like structure that covered half of the room. Despite that, the party had a second wind. They just discovered the monster's weakness, and they would be sure to exploit it.