But for a Slime

It wasn’t until the last two bugbears that Joe realized the bears really were keying in on rapid movement, but he was simply not moving slow enough. He tried to cautiously take aim on one of the last bugbears but the tension of the moment made Joe fiddle too much with his bow and the beast quickly turned to charge him. Joe easily put it down with another couple of arrows, but felt hopeful. With the next bugbear, Joe was extra cautious in his movement and was able to come fully into the hallway with the bugbear, aim, and shoot before it even reacted. The shot was perfect, even if he didn’t get that ‘perfect’ feeling, and it sank into the bugbear’s eye and directly into the brain, instantly killing it. Joe smiled and Garnedell looked up at him with some awe. Well, didn’t mean to impress him, but…

This time, Garnedell searched the chest cavity with seemingly a bit more excitement and found what he was looking for. He turned with excitement and waved it to Joe. “Zhoe! Zhoe! Is core! Good core!”

Joe smiled and held out his hand, “Let me see… Um… Me see?”

Garnedell nodded happily and Joe took the core, looking at it. Huh! Seems like a single core? Right? The core looked similar to all the other cores he’d found, although now he was wondering if there were differences in core formation. He did seem to remember that all the slime cores seemed virtually identical in formation. There were not like snowflakes, each unique. Joe wondered if it was also the same for double and triple cores, as well as for cores of different color. He remembered the bear core he’d killed in the woods was a brownish color, while the slimes were bluish. He didn’t remember seeing a ratfox core, although they didn’t really stop to skin and take the ratfoxes. Huh! That was probably stupid? The spark cores were a bright whitesh purple, which seemed to make sense to him. He played with the bugbear core, a single core that was an odd brilliant white that surprised Joe, before dropping it into his pouch. Well, at least we know how to kill them easier.

Although he didn’t get any more perfect kills, he had almost gotten his skill growth to one hundred percent when Joe and Garnedell came upon a room similar to the first floor. However, there were only six bugbears in the room. Huh… double the experience but less than half the numbers. But I kill them faster. Joe had been keeping track of the experience and found that despite the differences, he really wasn’t gaining much by way of his growth despite the extra experience he gained from the bugbears. If his numbers were adding up correctly, his growth was about the same. Why is it still the same? What’s the point of having ‘levels’ of a dungeon when there’s no point between killing on easier floors versus harder floors?

The two stood at the entrance of the room carefully, and surveyed the area. Despite the bugbears excellent eyesight, none had seen them peaking around the corner yet as Joe had learned to lean out very slowly. Quick movement seemed to be what the bugbears picked up on and Joe had taught Garnedell to keep his movement glacial. The first time had almost worked except for Garnedell’s tense and loud breathing had warned the bugbear and Joe had to quickly kill the bug bear. It wasn’t that difficult, but certainly did add to his stress. Now, however, Garnedell had seen how effective it was, and easily copied Joe’s slow movements.

As Joe looked over the room, he slowing brought an arrow to the string before bringing the bow up and string to his cheek. He brought his bow up first before drawing back the string so as to minimize any lateral movement, but drawing slowing really taxed Joe’s biceps. He then sighted in on the closest bugbear and was able to sink a shaft into one of its bug eyes, burying the arrow into the brain. The bugbear gave out a strangled cry before collapsing, and alerted all the other bugbears in the room. Joe had frozen as soon as he released the arrow and simply held position while the bears shuffled around the room, approaching the dead bugbear corpse and sniffing it before turning away and wandering the room before they resettled in their original positions. Weird? Why are they going back to start positions? This… doesn’t make sense? The more I see this, the more I see some kind of programming in affect. Why? Is the dungeon trying to control the bugbears?

As they turned to wander back, Joe lowered his bow while pulling out another arrow and loosing another, killing another bear. Joe itched to stretch his tense shoulders, but forced himself to stay still and attempted to relax as much as possible as the tension of the moment drove muscles to exertion. The bugbears reiterated their earlier movement and Joe did as well, drawing another arrow after they had calmed and begun returning to their positions. Another bugbear dead, and Joe was looking at the last three. Maybe I could take them out? I think I could get two at least? Joe’s caution drove him and he decided to snipe another before trying to do something stupid and dangerous. I don’t have plot armor! Gotta stay alive!

After the fourth bear died and the last two wandered before returning, Joe pulled out two arrows this time, handing one very slowly and carefully to Gardenell. The boy seemed to understand well enough, and Joe sighted on the closest bear before losing. This time, he once again felt the sense of ‘perfection’ flow over him and almost wanted to just sit and watch the arrow slip through the air and skewer the bugbear. Man! I gotta be careful! Can’t fall for that awesome feeling. I got another bear to kill! Joe forcibly interrupted the feeling and swiped the last arrow from Garnedell’s hand even as he whipped it up and brought it to bear on the last bugbear. He kept his eyes on it, even as it whipped around in surprise at Joe’s rapid movement, although he flickered his eyes to the left for a moment to make sure the first bugbear had died when he heard it’s warbling death cry. The bear staggered a few seconds, then fell. He’s gotta be dead!

“Garnedell. Watch … Watch!” Joe cursed as he realized he didn’t know the word for monster and quickly brought his eyes back to the last monster. It quickly latched its focus on Joe and Garnedell before erupting towards them, and Joe’s eyes widened in shock as he realized it had leapt towards him at insane speed, covering almost ten meters in a single explosive movement of its body. I can’t wait! The next leap will take it right into us! Joe quickly focused, bringing his arrow to target but felt no comfort for any of his strikes before he cursed. I can’t get a shot fast enough! He gave up on trying to kill the bear and dropped the arrow down and to the left, aiming at the bugbears front right foot. It was leading the left, and would likely be the first foot to strike the ground. If I can wound that foot, the bear will likely collapse, not able to bring its rear legs up for another leap.

His arrow swished through the air followed by an echoing twang of the bow string. The arrow sank deep, high on its right front foot and just as Joe planned, the bear collapsed as the foot was unable to bear the weight, its body tumbling to the bear’s right, slamming into the wall just to Joe’s left. Joe already had another arrow nocked even as it slammed into the wall and he was able to lose it directly into the torso of the bear, but not enough to cause immediate collapse and it struggled to bring itself back up.

In the time that the bugbear took to prepare itself, Joe was able to sheath the bow and pulled out his spear quickly before driving heavily into the bear, pushing down and into its torso as Joe tried to punch through the bugbear’s formidable ribs. Joe just couldn’t get the spear to sink into the bugbear’s ribs, the spear head somehow catching on the ribs. Joe spent some effort rotating the spear, hoping that it would be thin enough to slip between the ribs, but nothing seemed to work. It was about that time that Garnedell began screaming at Joe and he looked up to see the previous bugbear he’d shot scrabbling its way across the floor. It’s injuries were severe, but it was enraged and forced itself to fumble across the brick dungeon floor.

Joe cursed and kept the pressure on his spear but shifted its control to his left arm before carefully placing the pole under his armpit and using his body weight to try to keep the bear pinned. He then ripped out his rapier as quickly as possible and began thrusting quickly into the bugbear pinned under his spear. He took out both eyes and began stabbing the throat quickly and rapidly, aiming for the throat or arteries, hoping for a rapid collapse. After a good twenty thrusts, the bugbear seemed to begin loosing energy, its legs scrabbling poorly and without control. Maybe I can… Joe took the chance and glanced up to see the last bugbear approaching quite close and Garnedell had stepped out in front of the bugbear, hoping to distract it and give Joe time to attack. Joe felt both grateful and appalled as he saw what Garnedell was doing.

“Garnedell! Come! Now!”

Garnedell glanced back and Joe frantically waved him back with his sword hand, still keeping pressure on the downed bugbear. Garnedell quickly leapt back and skittered to Joe’s side, nervous energy shining through his movements. When Garnedell came to his side, Joe felt a measure of calm and quickly considered a plan.

“Garnedell. Go behind! Go.”

Garnedell quickly nodded and stepped behind him.

“Garnedell. Say attack. Garnedell say attack me! OK?”

Garnedell quickly nodded and then replied as he realized Joe’s entire vision was on the downed bears, “Yes, Zhoe!”

Joe nodded in appreciation and turned his attention back to the first bear, where it still heaved rather forcibly, if not as often. The force of its movements were enough to leave Joe quite unhappy with the idea of letting it unpin itself and Joe decided to go for the eye again with his rapier. The arrow took it out quite fast! He slammed the rapier down into the eye, attempting to angle it so that it could pass through the narrow ocular wall and into the brain. I hope? If there not like animals on Earth… but that other bear! Joe kept his hopes up and felt the rapier sink in much deeper than normal, and the bear collapsed. He felt its struggles almost immediately cease and Joe smiled. Yes! Even as Joe began to work his rapier back out again, he heard Garnedell scream out in warning.

“Zhoe! Attack now! Now!”

Joe dropped his rapier almost immediately and whipped his spear around even as the bugbear struggled on its last breaths to bite at Joe’s legs. He swapped stances, whipping his front leg back to his rear to pull it away from the bugbear’s jaws, then firmed his grip even as he brought the spear down in a strong heavy strike into the bug bear. The strike proved unnecessary. The bear collapsed after its desperate struggle for one last bite and Joe blinked in a bit of surprise. If it was that injured, why didn’t it run? It makes… no sense? Joe kept the spear in place, just in case, but the bear never moved and Joe finally stepped back carefully.

“Well. These guys are way too dangerous to attack more than one at a time! We need to go back to the first floor! And luckily! We can! Yeah! I got my bow up!”

Garnedell looked at Joe attentively but said nothing, obviously oblivious, but careful to pay proper respect. Joe flipped open his log book and quickly scanned through his recent entries and saw six dead bugbears. Well, good. No need to worry about them playing dead then! Joe turned to Garnedell and tried to ask a question, but wasn’t sure how to ask how they should skin or prepare the bodies. Hey! I’ll just swap my char skill to the language skill now! Hah! Wait… how?