But for a Slime

Garnedell fearfully sprinted past the incarnations of Zeus, lightning thundering off the sparks central cores and grounding into the nearby wall, floor, and ceiling. Joe grabbed Garnedell’s two spoon spears, leaving them still tied together and pulling out another wooden spear to add to the spoon spears, making another tripod. It was a bit unwieldy to use since he could only hold a single leg of the tripod, so he pulled out another wood spear and used it to keep one of the metal legs separated. He charged forward quickly, hoping to get in close enough and drop another grounding set of metal weapons before the sparks had finished merging into whatever they were going to merge into. He got close enough and buried the metal weapons into the core of the merging sparks, quickly getting the tripod setup. He pushed it as close to center as he could, and actually bumped into the original tripod he’d setup, the metal of his two spoon spears clanging with the original spoon spear he had placed there before. He steadied it carefully before quickly backing away and leading Garnedell out of the room. Not sure how far the thing can throw lightning bolts!

Joe made it back to the hallway leading back to the entrance, not wishing to have that thing behind them in case it got free and started chasing after them. It was pinned down about the middle of the room, and Joe kept his head angled out the side of the hallway to keep an eye on the thing, but not wanting his whole body out where it could easily see him. Does the thing have eyes? Can it… see me?

Joe grew bored, but when a thunderous bolt of lightning struck the wall across the hallway from his head, Joe quickly ducked his head back around the corner of the hallway and breathed a sigh of relief. Not going to keep my head out there! But Joe still stayed at the corner and stuck his head out randomly, making sure that it was still stuck in the middle of the room. Close to an hour passed and Joe was quickly found it difficult to fight his boredom, although he still stuck his head out to make sure the spark was not freed from its grounded prison.

After another thirty or so minutes, the spark that they’d killed on the way to the first room popped back into existence. That was… cool but weird? Did it pop out of a fourth dimension or something? The effect was kind of strange; a warping of the very space itself in the middle of the hallway as if a hole was being pulled into existence, somehow. The center of the hole was being pulled away from Joe, that much he could tell, but its movement wasn’t in any of the three dimensions that Joe recognized easily. It was not pulled away from him vertically, horizontally, or in depth. It was away, but it didn’t move away in any of the accepted three dimensional directions. Joe found the whole event disconcerting enough that he was frozen with surprise and left trying to understand what he’d just seen, but Garnedell jumped up immediately with a piece of wood to kill it. Joe joined in a few moments later as he overcame his shock, and they found killing it was quite a bit more challenging without any way to ground it. Garnedell actually came close to dying a few times, but Joe found the exercise simple if tedious.

Garnedell hadn’t been able to use the wooden spears, as Joe had expected by now, so he spent some time trying to figure out a way to modify them so that Garnedell could. The spoon spears somehow don’t register as weapons, so Garnedell can hold them without problem. I wonder if... Joe had taken one of the spears and broken it in half before giving it to Garnedell, who’d been able to hold them quite easily. Using them in a fight proved to be just as effective as well, but their much shorter reach got the boy in trouble a few times. As time went by, Joe decided to relieve boredom by having Garnedell run out and grab more of the sparks that had popped back behind them, although Joe made sure that Garnedell was to stay away from any other adventurers.

They spent their day inefficiently killing sparks with Joe popping his head around the corner to make sure the massive problem he’d left behind him was still stuck. After hours and hours of killing, Joe still hadn’t been able to get a level, and Joe was feeling quite frustrated and being stuck in their current location. It would be much better if they just went to the other dead end maze on the other side and farm through the sparks there, but they’d lost what useful metal tools they had to ground the sparks and Joe couldn’t, in good conscience, leave the massive problem behind for someone to accidentally walk into. Joe was stuck.

By late afternoon, Joe was able to hit level nineteen, which offered a modicum of satisfaction but ultimately left him frustrated because he should have been able to make two levels today. However, it looked like he was stuck trying to deal with the massive spark problem behind him. Time continued, and the spark still hadn’t died. It even felt like their day had ended and it was about the time Joe and Garnedell would usually head back home. Joe called an end to Garnedell’s fishing services and he didn’t go out looking for any more sparks as the two settled in for a long night. But finally, about three or four hours after Joe was used to going home, he heard the spark in the other room give off a startlingly deep screeching groan in two voices, followed by a hollow boom, then silence. Joe quickly came alert, looking towards Garnedell before popping his head to look out around the corner. Hah! It’s dead. YES!

Joe suddenly felt the wash of power flush through him, much greater than he was used to and he blinked in a bit of surprise. What was that? That’s not a normal level up! Joe decided to leave his much more important but much less dangerous status for later and slipped carefully in the room. The entire room was devastated. Blackened char coated the entire room although the center where the original sparks had been was thick deep char of soot without a single glimpse of the dungeon material visible. Despite the obvious and surprising amount damage in the room, Joe was surprise to find that there wasn’t a single bit of damage to the walls. With this kind of scouring… there should be… Joe looked carefully and found the room almost completely empty, although there were spark gems littered around the room, and two absolutely gorgeous ten part gems sitting on top of a pile a slag that Joe quickly realized were what was left of his three spoon spears. The three had melted together in a strange asterisk like formation, welded at the juncture of all three. The top of the spears was noticeably thinner as the spears had melted and the molten iron had slid down towards the floor. Except for where the three spears were welded together, the shaft of the spears which had been embedded in the core of the sparks were about half their original diameter, while the part of the spear resting on the floor was now basically an irregular ball of iron mass. Well… there go my spoon spears! They're worthless now… what can I use… wait! Huh… not so useless… I got a tripod now. Just throw at a spark and it’ll die! That’ll be nice! Joe considered the new shape and actually liked it. The angling arms outward would allow for some mistakes in aiming as it would only require one of the shafts to contact the spark core and begin draining it. Guess I’ll be making new weapons!

However, there was nothing left of Joe’s parachute cord or the wooden spears. The spears were no loss, but Joe actually felt a bit pained by the loss of the parachute cord. He still had a significant amount of it left in his pack, but was a bit more wary of using it for combat anymore. Joe looked around the room and found the scattered single spark gems on the floor a bit strange, but then realized that these sparks must have reformed after just like the one in the hallway had, but they died under the explosive death of the spark just now. Joe considered carefully, then decided that he would really want to keep the two ten-spark gems but crushed all the other single spark gems. It’s time for bed!

Joe touched the iron asterisk carefully and found it still hot to the touch, but didn’t really want to leave evidence behind. He searched around and found that some of the enemy archer’s leather shirt was still lying on the ground, so took it and used it as a form of oven mitts, carrying the object carefully. He was able to move it for a bit, but it’s heat was still quite overwhelming so he dropped it back down and decided to let it have some time to cool while he considered his status and options. Really don’t want to be here too long! So… well… we’re leaving anyway, right? Don’t need the water anymore?

“Garnedell! Water, please,” Joe asked without looking, mind devoted to the task.

Garnedell nodded quickly and handed Joe a water flask, although Joe shook his head and replied, “All water, please!”

Garnedell nodded although a quizzical look came over him and Joe took each flask as Joe was handed him. He opened the flask and dumped it down asterisk spoon spear remains, careful that the water flowed down the shafts and not dripped to the floor. His first flask all steamed off the central juncture where the three shafts were welded together but by the end, it was sticking around long enough to drip down the shaft a bit before vaporizing away as it flowed down one of the three shafts. Joe took a second flask and dripped it carefully down one of the top spokes, cooling it enough for the water to slide down the shaft till the juncture. He finished off the second flask cooling the second spoke off and needed the third flask to clear the second and third spoke. He used about half the fourth flask to make sure the spokes and juncture was cooled below boiling but Garnedell’s frantic looks had him save the last portion of the fourth flask. The kid seems worried we’ll run out of water, but seriously… the entrance is only a minute walk away? Is it really that scary? Maybe the kid knows something I don’t?

Joe packed away the last flask of water carefully before hefting the asterisk spoon spear up on his shoulders and resting it across his shoulders on another pad of leather while holding it with a leather grip in his left hand. Gotta keep the right clear to fight, I guess. Have to change my perception of preparation and danger.

As the two wound through the dungeon heading back towards the entrance, Joe found his mind wandering and even stopped, looking at his new asterisk weapon. Huh… Easy kills. I could do more! So easy. Just go to another room. So easy! Joe even found himself turning to another one of the dead end string of hallways and rooms. Joe turned into it but then stopped when he saw the spark in front of him and blinked, surprised. He shook his head, a bit confused. That would be stupid. Tired and need rest. Tomorrow is another day. Joe took a deep breath and turned away from the spark, once again heading towards the exit. As he headed out, he glanced longingly at the couple of side-paths but held true to return to the inn for a rest. On the way out while walking up the spiral staircase, Joe decided to warn Garnedell to keep silent.

“Garnedell. Joe kill monster. Shhh!”

Garnedell looked towards Joe and bobbed his head but, nodding quickly, “Yes, Zhoe.”

Joe glanced at Garnedell, a hint of confusion flickering through his heart as he tried to understand Garnedell’s subtle change of attitude. Joe surreptitiously watched him out of the corner of his eye and noticed that Garnedell was now throwing furtive glances back, a look of awe, even worship, plastering his face. Joe turned full on Garnedell and smiled, bobbing his head before rubbing Garnedell’s head with a hand.

“Hey, kid. Don’t think too much about it. It’s just simple physics. Ha!”

Garnedell bobbed his head in return, obviously unable to understand Joe’s statement.

“Don’t worry about it, kid.”

This time, Garnedell seemed to understand, “OK, Zhoe!”

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