Valentius was blind, but he didn't care! The branch had hit something! That something had splattered on the ground!
The nucleus was undoubtedly there!
He just needed to kill all the slimes! Even if it meant he would be throwing branches at random, even to catch one.
But what did it matter, the boy asked himself, his limbs and face safe from the acid?
"I found it! The way around slimes!" He thought to himself as he began to crawl on the slimy ground. Searching for another branch. "Come on! Even a pebble will do!"
His fingers managed to find something sharp. He gave out a whoop of joy! There were many of those sharp things there! He didn't even need to move!
Throw!
Splat!
Another throw!
Another splat, with the wobbling coming closer and closer!
Valentius couldn't believe his luck! The slimes were coming to him! He didn't need to move from his spot!
There was a saying that if one invested in a bottomless quiver and placed one bundle of arrows inside during off days, he couldn't help but think, as he threw another goo-covered sharp thing over his head, becoming bathed in more of the goo, which didn't really seem to do anything to him, then that person would have unlimited ammo!
Whatever that was true or not, Valentius mused, as the wobbling became quieter and quieter, so, as if there weren't all that many slimes left, was up for debate.
After all, the peaceful days usually didn't last more than a week, or so the Hag had told them all.
What with them all being taxed to death and all…
Valentius worried his bottom lip—a single word swimming in his mind.
Taxes…
He would need to be Valentius to pay his taxes… Or he could live in this cave for the rest of his life.
This cave was close to Wendel.
It was only a matter of time, he reasoned with himself, even as the temptation for a roof over his head with treasure and food from the forest grew too big, before the guards gave up and the adventurers came for him.
And those were worse than hunting hounds!
Just the thought that Bartolomeo, mountain of muscle Bartolomeo, who had been no older than him but still passed the physical with top honors, would be sent after him gave him the chills.
If those meaty hands closed around Valentius' equally meaty neck, they wouldn't bother to choke him!
No!
Bartolomeo was going to snap his neck! Ring it so, as if Valentius were a chicken meant for the night's meal!
He shook his head.
No, as safe as the cave was now, he couldn't stay. He threw one of the sharp pebble-like things up in the air!
A splat sounded above his head. But no wobbling followed.
Valentius waited. Slimes are mindless, he told himself. But dungeon cores are not, he reminded himself sternly.
If he were bright and liked to believe that, despite his meager math skills, he wasn't a complete airhead, he would collect what there was to collect there, on the first floor of the dungeon, and then try to find the exit.
The Hag had told him that conquered levels always gave you a way out. She had claimed that most dungeon cores are lazy with a huff before taking another cigar from her pocket.
Making them all stifle groans and coughs, as she smoked. Valentius never understood why she did it.
Why did she poison herself so?
He didn't want to understand. He didn't want to end up like her!
The hero's path was before him, he thought with a smile! An entire slime nest vanquished, he patted himself on the goo-covered shoulder, ready to loot!
His fingers tugged at his protective head covering.
At first, his eyes couldn't adjust. The cave wasn't completely dark, but it was a near thing.
Glowing bugs flew around, touching the goo-covered ground occasionally, and then taking off.
Their lights were flickering.
Meant to disorient, Valentius told himself. He knew it now if he had not known that this was a dungeon at the start, not some wild cave with mobs.
His eyes darted to the walls. The exit was here, somewhere! All dungeon cores were lazy! That was what the Hag had said!
His fingers had been by the pile from where he had been taking the sharp things, which had slipped.
He fell, managing to catch himself only by sheer luck!
Valentius blinked.
Why were the pebbles this white? Something was wrong! That one over there was hollow! That other one over there had something red coming out of it…
Oh…
As soon as he put the word bones to his mystery weapon, he shot to his feet!
This wasn't some rock formation! This was the feeding hole of the slimes! Where they came to finish off their victims!
"I need to get out of here," he stumbled out of that pit of horrors. His eyes began to dart wildly.
Something snapped under his foot. He shuddered, imagining a skull.
Only to see a slime nucleus.
"Huh?" He mumbled, feeling like he would empty his stomach and curl up here. Never to wake up.
Loot…
That one word made him jolt. His breathing quickened.
Loot! This was loot! He had cleared the floor, and now he could get the loot!
If he didn't, then he was just some person who had wandered in and then run out!
He bent over, his fingers reaching for the broken thing. Even if he turned it into dust, he could still get some money for it!
And…
"Help!" It was a scream—the scream of someone fighting for their life, carried through the cave's echo.
Valentius told himself that the person could be anywhere on the lower floors! They had wandered in, not managed to rein in their greed, and ended up in danger!
But… why was he saying they and person when he knew who was screaming?
Why was Albert crying, begging, and praying?
Albert's voice made him forget about the nucleus. Even as Albert had been at his worst, a bully who called him Valentine for the sport of it, he had still healed his wounds when Valentius had asked.
Valentius ran down the corridors!
The loot forgotten…