But for a Slime

Chapter Forty

Joe wandered through a long tunnel as the three youngsters jabbered excitedly about Joe’s victory over the green goblin… the Goblin King. The siblings exclaimed with excitement while Garnedell seemed to mostly gloat about how great Joe, his master, was. Joe listened with a bit of amusement but didn’t really join in with the conversation. He tried to take a look at his new titles but found walking and staring at his status just as dangerous as it was back at home walking and staring at a cellphone screen.

The conversation continued through their walk, although Joe brought it to an end when he heard a crowd of voices that were in the second level. He calmed them all down and called for their attention.

“Alright, alright! I’m glad I made you so excited about what happened but I really don’t want anyone to know, so can we keep it quiet? I want to try to blend in on the second floor so let’s try to make sure we’re just some more adventurers. Nobody special, got it?”

Garnedell nodded quickly to Joe’s request but Zilnek protested a bit, “Why do you want to hide what you did! It was amazing! You should go and tell everyone abou…”

“Zilnek? Please! I’m serious about this.”

“But why?”

“If people know about this, how many people will bother me or seek me out. How many people will start paying attention to me when I… Look. I really don’t have time for that. Just, trust me. If you want me to focus on helping you, then we need to not be bothered, alright?”

Zilnek seemed a bit grumpy about accepting it, but a light touch from his sister calmed him and he nodded in grudging acceptance, “OK.”

“Good. So, in the next floor, let’s mingle in and disappear amongst the crowd. I’m pretty sure a bunch of people are going to start showing up and wanting to find me, so let’s just… blend in, alright?”

The three nodded their heads and they came into sight to find another large cavern almost identical to the first, with a glowing safety zone protecting the entrance. Joe blinked when he realized that their move to another floor of the dungeon wasn’t a floor at all. It was just another room. The entire corridor was flat without any stairs. He looked back with some confusion but focused. Ask later. Blend now! He got the group off to the side and mingled against the back wall in the corner, looking like any other group who’d just come back from fighting in the floor’s monster zone. He hoped it would look like they’d been on this floor for some time, amongst the crowd of others who’d also been fighting the floor.

After all four were seated, looking exhausted, which Joe had to coach the others to fake, he turned to the three and brought up what had been bothering him, “There were no stairs.”

Garnedell looked back with some confusion, “What do you mean, Joe?”

“There were no stairs to the second floor. I thought dungeons had floors. Why didn’t we walk down any stairs?”

The three kids looked at each other before stifling some giggles. The two boys proved to be too overwhelmed by the laughter and Kilniara was the one that had to respond, “Well, not all dungeons separate vertically. There are lots of strange dungeons. The dungeons here in Coushar are actually pretty average underground dungeons, but dungeons can expand vertically down or up, or horizontally underground.”

“Vertically up? How does that happen? And there are dungeons that aren’t underground?”

“Of course. There are many different kind of dungeons. Ocean and sky dungeons. Elemental dungeons are in another space; they’re often but not always the most dangerous. There are even dungeons that seem to create their own space. Those are the most dangerous of all; dungeons that can teleport and change your space at will.”

“OK… that sounds… cool and scary at the same time. I’ll have to check them out if I can. Wait, you didn’t tell me about dungeons that go up. Are those sky dungeons?”

“Yes. But some underground dungeons, too,” Garnedell added, his laughter now under control.

“How?”

“They’re usually in mountains and the entrance starts at the bottom of the mountain. Those dungeons are often focused on strength and require strong bodies and high physical skills to climb up the dungeons.”

“Huh. Pretty cool,” Joe said before meandering into his own musing with a quiet voice, “Parkour based or maybe just plain mountain climbing? Hmm...” Joe quickly thought of something though and looked up, confusion plain on his face. “But, then, what about monsters? How do you climb a mountain and fight at the same time?”

“That’s why they are so dangerous. Climbing while fighting monsters, usually flying monsters or wall climbing monsters, is very dangerous.”

“Wow. I can see that! There must be some kind of mountain climbing job then,” Joe once again began chasing the idea as it formed, “but seeing as how you can only have one job at a time, you would need to grind the climbing job’s skills or combat job’s skills… wow! That would be…” Joe looked back to the kids, “Not many people go into those dungeons, I guess. Huh?”

Garnedell nodded quickly, along with the other two, although added, “Yes, Mas… Joe. Except Powers such as yourself. They can leap up some of the smaller climbing locations, but the greater climbing locations… few can explore those dungeons except those who can fly.”

“Right, that would… OOH! Flying!” Joe exclaimed as his mind wandered through the idea of being able to fly, a wide smile on his face.

“Which jobs can fly?”

“Many of the mage classes relating to wind, Ma… Joe.”

Joe nodded, his mind dominated by the idea of flying as the conversation petered out although the three kids started a new one, excitedly getting to know one another and laughing at each other’s antics. After a bit, Joe brought his focus back to the here and now, keeping an eye on the first floor entrance, making sure to be aware of anyone coming down. He had changed cloaks in the corridor between the first and second stage of the dungeon, putting on something much brighter and obvious as his previous cloak had been dark. He wished it was opposite but realized but there was little he could do now. Just as Joe felt his nerves settle, a wave a people came through the entrance, excited babbling coming from the new crowd.

The second floor people began turning to the incoming crowd and a wave of excitement percolated through the crowd as people began exclaiming in surprise and awe. Joe saw the corner they were in emptying as more people stood to hear the news and Joe quickly realized he needed to join the crowd in their excitement.

He hissed to the kids, “Get up and pretend to be excited to hear the news. Act like it’s the first time you heard it and be surprised and excited, OK? We are hearing about someone else who did this and we’re hearing it for the first time. Got it!?”

The three kids looked at him with some confusion before quickly jumping up and nodding, the three stepping forward with Joe sliding around to the side, keeping the hood up and standing so a torch was directly behind him. There was enough of a space that he was separated from the kids and no longer looked to be a part of their group. He could only hope it was enough, and feigned excited awe and interest as he listened to the story.

Soon, the conversation shifted from the story to who the person was and people began wondering where this person was. The newcomers from the first floor all said they’d seen the group head for the second floor, but most of those in the second floor had been focused on the cavern where the monsters roamed rather than the entrance from the first floor. As the furor to find the goblin king killer rose, Joe decided to take the risk to redirect, especially as he had seen a couple soldiers coming in now.

“How many people were in the group,” Joe asked?

“I think there were four,” one young man shouted.

“No, only three,” another called.

“Idiot! The three where the apprentices. The master was the goblin king killer. There were four.”

“The master had three apprentices?! I wish I could be his apprentice!” a young woman cried out.

“You couldn’t be his apprentice even if you spread your legs, Turnal,” rebuked another girl, the cattiness in her voice readily apparent.

Joe tuned out the fight forming between the two girls and clamped down on his nervousness as the soldiers got closer, “Four you say?”

“Yeah, four. A master and three apprentices,” several voices in the crowd called out.

“Huh! I think I saw a group of four heading to the third stage of the dungeon! If he can kill the goblin king, then he must be training his apprentices or conquering the dungeon for them!” Joe offered.

“Conquering the dungeon for his apprentices? Wow!”

“That would… yeah, that would make sense!”

“You saw them head to the third floor,” the girl, Turnal, who’d hoped to be an apprentice, asked? She quickly turned and headed for the third floor without even asking, winding carefully through the crowd of monsters.

Joe glanced to Garnedell and eyed him, noticing that all three of the kids were staring at him, both surprised and curious. Joe grimaced and tilted his head towards the third floor, trying to hint to them to back up Joe’s story. He was worried but Garnedell seemed to have a sixth sense by now of what Joe wanted, having long struggled with Joe’s poor language skills prior to gaining the polyglot job.

Garnedell’s eyebrows rose and he quickly turned to the crowd, shouting, “Yeah! I think I saw them go to the third floor!”

Garnedell elbowed Zilnek and the kid responded quickly, “Oh! Yeah! Me, too! I saw them going to the third floor.”

Joe grimaced, a bit worried that Zilnek’s claim of actually seeing them would gain the attention of the soldiers but by then, the crowd was streaming off towards the third floor and the soldiers seemed to have gathered their intel from the crowd. Joe kept his face looking in the general direction of the crowd while faking some uncertainty in his expression. However, his eyes darted around those staying behind and watching carefully. When he saw that everyone was simply staring after the crowd, Joe slipped back to the corner as subtly as possible and settled into a crouch. The kids, caught up in the excitement, stayed standing with the crowd while trying to keep their excitement hidden.

After a few moments, Garnedell noticed Joe was missing and glanced around with a bit of worry until he saw him sitting in the corner. Garnedell seemed hesitant, almost coming towards Joe, but Joe shook his head slightly and pointed off to the side, holding up three fingers then pointing at Garnedell and the siblings then off to the side. He then held up one finger and pointed to himself and then to his location. He repeated the three fingers and then pointing to another location and Garnedell quickly understood, turning back around to look after the crowd emptying into the third stage. After the excitement died down, Garnedell spoke quietly to the siblings then guided them to another location along the wall distinctly separate from Joe. All three looked towards him as they walked to their spot on the wall, so he offered a slightly smile and a very shallow nod before looking away.