The Mad Rat’s Lab

Not long after saving my little sister from the second invisible slime, we reach a weird room. Until now, the dungeon had lots of colored puddles on the floor, some of those being Slimeholes, but this one also has puddles in the walls, and even in the ceiling.

How the heck do you make a liquid defy gravity like this!?

Also, the room is full of rubble everywhere. It doesn’t difficult the movement, but it does provide cover and also stops our line of sight. There is slime sticking to the rubble too.

“Ok… this is clearly suspicious.” Says Laura. “Maybe they are slimes sticking to the walls and ceiling?”

“It could be, but it’s too crude. From what we’ve seen so far, the enemies were cleverly placed. It doesn’t matter how you want to put it, but those ones aren’t hidden at all. You can try and cast a Hellfire and see what happens, but I’m almost sure they are only decorations.”

“Ok, here it goes! Hellfire!”

Under Ricard’s suggestion, Laura casts Hellfire, trying to hit as many puddles as possible. But nothing happens. No HP bars appear, nothing jumps to attack us, and the liquids stay exactly the same, sticking to the walls and ceiling.

“I told you. They must be decorations. And as decorations, we can’t do anything to them at all.”

“But they are still very suspicious… Why are they now on the walls and ceiling too when they were only on the ground before?”

“Hey, hey! They are safe to touch too, and they feel the same as the others!”

“Lemon! What did I tell you!? Stop poking random things in the dungeons!”

While Laura and Ricard keep discussing between themselves, Clara puts her hand inside the closest one.

“But look! Nothing happens at all!”

*Sigh* As much as I like to dote on my little sister, sometimes she is too much for me to handle.

“We must learn to act upon unexpected things, and we won’t have lots of time to think when we are in the tournament matches, so let’s move on! Whatever happens, we will solve it later!”

On my instructions, we return to our previous formation and resume our exploration.

We don’t move too fast to be able to react on time. So when, from an orange puddle, part of the slime starts to rise, I immediately see it and cast Cold Blast. As the spell hits, we hear a *Pop!* sound, and orange slime drops to the ground.

“W-what was that!?”

“I don’t know yet, but I saw something suspicious and attacked it.”

Surprised by my sudden attack, Clara exclaims from my back. I answer her while moving to inspect the corpse.... well, the remaining slime.

I inspect the slime’s remains. The first thing I see is the slime’s name: Spitter Slime. Oh, so it was trying to attack us while camouflaged inside the orange puddle. But why didn’t it die when Laura hit it with the Hellfire attack?

Curious about how it all works, I put my hand inside the puddle and find a hole that connects to a tunnel. So this is how it works… it comes from the tunnel, and then spits at us… and the Hellfire didn’t deal any damage to the slime because it was in another place.

“...Agh! We’re under attack!”

Distracted by my discovery, I don’t notice other protrusions appearing in nearby puddles until Ricard warns us. Just as I turn around, something hits my face, leaving me covered in yellow goo.

I then look around before starting to laugh maniacally.

“Fufufu! Hahaha! An ambusher that can attack at distance and also stick to the ceilings! It’s a perfect opportunity for a new type of unit! Cyam, it’s your time to shine! Go and capture them all! Chain Lightning! Hahaha!”

The Chain Lightning strikes the target and then jumps to the closest two slimes. They are weak, so they get stunned. Though it’s a shame they are spread out, coming from several puddles… it would have been nice to stun them all with a single cast. What a shame.

Cyam quickly rushes to capture one of the stunned slimes. Meanwhile, Ricard, Laura, and Clara are attacking the other slimes, using the rubble as cover against the slimes that are further away.

“Guys, we can’t dawdle here! Remember we are training for the tournament and we will have a time limit in the first phase, so we need to move without stopping! Also, this area might be one of those where enemies don’t stop spawning, it’s best if we leave as soon as possible.”

“Can’t we stay here a little longer to farm souls and cp? It’s really easy when they come at you like this! Pretty please?”

Ricard complains at my urging, asking to farm slimes some more time. What’s more, he is making a puppy face, trying to force me to change my mind. It’s hard to see it because the champion faces (those that have one, unlike Clara’s champion) aren’t as expressive as in real life, but you can still understand the intention of the player. By the way, the ones that are easier to recognize are smiling and angry faces.

You know, Ricard? With your ugly and disgusting undead face, the only thing you achieve is making me want to punch your face. I won’t because we are friends, but, I really have to hold myself back...

“We won’t. Now, let’s go in that direction.”

“B-but… This situation also works as practice for ambushes!”

Ahaha! Now he’s trying to give a lame excuse…

“Are you really that worried about obtaining cp and souls!? Weren’t you the one who wanted to win the tournament!?”

“...this and that are different things…”

“Come on, Baldy! Stop complaining and start walking! This is why you aren’t our party leader: you get distracted by irrelevant things!”

“Yeah, my brother is better than you when making decisions for the team, so stop complaining!”

Owww… Thank you Clara. You are so cute… Ugh… Well… thinking about it again… I’m sorry but no, you aren’t.

While they continue to argue between themselves, our party continues the dungeon exploration.

“...Come on! I just like to use every chance I get to level up and obtain more faction resources!”

“But now isn’t the time for this, you know!?”

Me? No, I’m fine. There’s no need to join their ‘conversation’.

 

---

 

Right now, in front of us, there’s something extremely suspicious. What is it, you ask? Well, it’s a perfectly smooth and shiny dungeon wall section. You might be asking how a dungeon wall can be suspicious, right?

Usually, the last thing you suspect in a dungeon is a wall. And it would be the same for this wall section… if not for the fact that it’s a perfect square, with no cracks or brick joints, and it shines because it’s wet.

Oh, and the wall is green. Yeah, this is the most suspicious part, right?

“Oooh, I know about this one! Quick, Mad Rat, hit it with a spell!”

Excitedly, Ricard asks me to attack the wall. I imagine what he’s thinking, so I immediately hit it with a Cold Blast. But nothing happens, nothing at all.

“How weird… I could swear this was a slime posing as part of the wall, but it’s only a decoration...” I was thinking the same. As he talks, Ricard puts his hand inside the green wall. “There’s nothing here, only slime. It’s about 10 cm deep, so we can cross it. What do you say?”

We all turn around, looking at Laura. I’ll be the one to make the decision, but she’s the one that thinks about the dangers.

“I was sure this was a trap, the same as Baldy. But it doesn’t look like one, so I say to continue through here and see what happens.”

I agree with her, so without thinking any more about it, I decide we’ll cross it.

“Then let’s cross the slime wall.”

“Now everyone will be covered in slime! Hehehe!”

Yes, Clara. Now you won’t be the only one covered in slime from head to toe. Ugh, disgusting. Though not as much as hugging a Stitched. That’s the worst.

Don’t ask how I know it.

 

About five minutes after crossing the slime wall, I can confidently say that this dungeon is a slime hell. Literally. And also, the dungeon’s name is incredibly appropriate.

First of all, the number of slime puddles covering the ground, walls, and ceiling has increased. And from any of them, spitting slimes can appear at any moment, so we can’t lower our guard.

There are, too, Slimeholes in the mix, so we must be very careful where we step. You must know that the further we walk into the dungeon, the more part of it is covered in slime of different colors. Up to the point that it’s impossible to walk while avoiding all the puddles and Slimeholes.

We are forced to either attack each puddle in the way or risk falling into a Slimehole. Of course, we followed the first option - and ignored Clara’s argument that the second option would be funnier.

But the worst isn’t this. Now, on top of the puddles, Slimeholes, and spitting slimes, we are assaulted by several other types of Slimes.

The first new slime hazard is the Slimeball. It’s kind of difficult to describe because of how absurd it is, but I’ll do my best…

Imagine a batting cage, where the machine throws balls at you at regular intervals. Now, put the machine inside a slime puddle so you can’t see it. Then, make it shot at irregular intervals and random positions. And finally, replace the balls with Slimeballs, which are small slimes that stick to you if they hit you.

Even if they don’t hit one of us, once they hit a solid surface, they start to roll in our direction until they are in contact with one of us. And it’s a pain in the ass because they deal acid damage by contact. The worst part is that since it doesn’t count as an attack, both my Lightning Shield and Ricard’s Frost Shield don’t work at all.

Then there are bigger slimes that camouflage themselves as rubble covered by slime. We call them Hunter Slimes, and there’s a reason why we call them like this: if you get close enough, they suddenly jump at you, engulfing you whole, and then start to run away. Well, run as fast as a slime can run.

We managed to avoid the worst for now, but a single mishap can make one of us disappear at any moment due to being dragged away and digested by a Hunter Slime.

And the last one is the scariest one for our team. Though it’s also the funniest one in my opinion. I don’t care about the lame name the dungeon owner gave it, I gave it my own custom name. Because, in any way you look at it, that’s a fucking Matrioshka Slime.

It’s a gigantic slime at three meters tall, and a huge HP pool. By itself, it isn’t very dangerous because it’s slow. But if you add the Slimepools, Slimeballs, and Hunter Slimes to the mix, it turns into a dangerous one because you can’t really ignore any of them.

Now for the fun part. When we kill the Matrioshka Slime, it makes a *Pop!* sound as its surface explodes and, from inside it, a smaller Matrioshka Slime appears and continues to attack us. This repeats three times more.

And for you to understand why it’s the scariest enemy for us… You just need to know that it’s impossible to kill it very fast because of its high HP, so we take quite a lot of damage from it. But the worst comes from its Matrioshka nature. While inside the bigger slime, all the smaller slimes are immune to damage. This means both my Chain Lightning and Shared Voltage skills are completely useless! And the same with Laura’s Hellfire or Ricard’s Whirlwind.

By the way, the original names for the Matrioshka Slime were Giant Slime, Big Slime, Medium Slime, etc. Laaaaaame, right!?

The last thing about the dungeon after the slime wall is that there are colors everywhere. EVERYWHERE! A mix of all the existing colors is covering most of the whole dungeon now, up to the point that it’s difficult to see any of the original gray and brown ruins.

There’s so much color that it hurts my eyes! As I said, the name ‘Rainbow Gunk’ really fits the dungeon! Both for how it’s filled with slime (aka. gunk) and for how it’s filled with random colors that make your eyes bleed (aka. color gunk). I’m sure almost everybody who enters the dungeon will call it ‘Rainbow Gunk’!

 

“Aaaagh! Die, already!” Angry because the Matrioshka Slime keeps spawning smaller units, Ricard continues to swing his sword. “Stop making ‘pop’ noises and die!”

“Leave it to me, Baldy! I’m the best suited against high HP enemies!” Clara extends her tentacles and grabs the Matrioshka Slime. Soon, the slime’s HP bar starts to reduce at an accelerating speed.

“Hey, Baldy, go and save Lily! She has been eaten by another Hunter Slime!”

A little far away, there’s a succubus inside a slime, slowly getting dragged away while struggling the best she can. I suspect Hunter Slimes target her first because she’s the one providing healing to the team.

“I’m on my way!” He runs to Laura, but… “Aaaagh!” …he falls into a Slimehole. Shit! Now there are two who need saving!

“Lemon, help Baldy while I save Lily! Ignore the Matrioshka Slime for now!”

“Yes, sir! Baldy, I’ll save you!”

Meanwhile, our support units are doing their best to fend off the continuous assault from the multiple slimes. By now, more than half our support units have already died, and only Ricard’s Specters are still doing fine. Oh, and Cyam is fine too. Since it doesn’t attack at all, most slimes target the other support mobs or us four instead of Cyam.

Continuously casting Cold Blast (I really need some high-damage single target spell, don’t I?), I follow the Hunter Slime when I hear the sound of something flying in my direction.

*Fwoosh! Fwoosh!* “Shit! Not now!” *Fwoosh!*

Ignoring the barrage of Slimeballs, I finally kill the Hunter Slime that was dragging Laura away. She was also attacking it from the inside.

But by then, my whole body is covered in Slimeballs. My worst enemy. I can only kill them with Cold Blasts or staff attacks, so it takes forever to kill them all, and I take a huge amount of damage meanwhile. And Lightning Shield doesn’t work against them because the damage comes from a special effect, not an attack.

Not even Chain Lightning can save me from them, because they don’t die; they stay at 1 HP, attached to me and continuing to deal damage.

“Lily, hit me with Hellfire while I kill the trap that shoots them!”

She looks at me with a surprised and worried face, before saying. “WHAT!? But the damage…”

“Just heal me after, don’t worry!”

She’s worried about the damage, how considerate. But I’m going to take more damage from the Slimeballs’ acid corrosion than from a single Hellfire. So hit me, just not too hard, hahaha!

Black fire engulfs me and my surroundings, completely killing all the Slimeballs attached to me as well as those in my surroundings. And at the same time as she casts Hellfire, I cast Chain Lightning against the trap that spits Slimeballs, destroying it. It doesn’t count as an enemy unit, but as a trap, so Shared Voltage doesn’t activate and I can destroy them with Chain Lightning.

“Nice! Now let’s reunite with the others and move on.”

“Sure. Just let me heal you first, ok? Revitalize!” Green light surrounds my body as my HP starts to rise.

“Hey! I think this is the exit!”

Further ahead, Clara shouts in our direction, pointing at another green wall. Running side by side, Laura says. “I think it might actually be the exit to this place!”

“Then we’ll cross it! Baldy, Lemon! Wait for us before crossing the slime wall!”

Laura extends her hand and touches my arm, catching my attention. “Thanks for saving me, Mad Rat. Do you want me to reward you tonight? Fufufu!”

I open my eyes wide at her words. I decide to ignore her, but… Do you think now is an appropriate time to roleplay!? Couldn’t you wait until we were in a less dangerous situation? What would you do if I lost myself and got killed because of your provocation?

Still harassed by several Spitter Slimes, we run until we reach the green wall. And then, we all cross it at the same time.

Calm suddenly returns, as if all the chaos created by the slimes in the previous room was a lie. In this room, we can’t see any sign of danger. Not yet, at least.

We are in a giant room, completely covered in slime of different colors. It’s the first time we can’t see anything about the original ruins. Until now, there were spots not covered by slime here and there, but not in this room.

And in the middle of the room, covering almost a quarter of the whole space, there is what seems to be a lake of a color we haven’t seen yet: black. Yep, it’s the first time in the whole dungeon there was something black, so our eyes are naturally drawn to it. It also looks kind of ominous.

My eyes can finally relax after so many colors everywhere!

Just as I’m thinking we can relax from both the slimes and the colors, ripples appear in the black pool. First small, and then growing in intensity until the surface rises, as if something huge is about to come out of it.

“Is that… the Boss?”

Nobody answers my words. Everyone is absorbed by what’s happening in front of us.

 

“Too much of anything can make other players get tired of your dungeon. Too many zombies make your dungeon a slog, too many arrow traps make your dungeon uninteresting, and too many dragons make your dungeon impossible to clear.

This also applies to decorations. If the players only see or fight the same all the time, they can get bored easily.”

- Second point from ‘10 things to do to improve your dungeon’.