It wasn’t like the other slime dungeon.

  The Harror Temple Dungeon was an underground tunnel system. There were large caves with large rocks for things to hide behind. The spawn points were also close enough that we were able to stay within range of each other to share experience. We’d leveled up too fast and been forced to take some time off because of it.

  The second floor of the Klix Dispatcher’s Dungeon was a forest. Not one with twenty-foot trees of various types and lots of underbrush like the Cathedral dungeon. This one was tall pine trees with patches of short grass here and there. There was a path that headed off to the north and wove through the forest.

  “Alright.” Miel nodded as the gate came back to life. “Ready when you are.”

  I turned to Justia. “Bring up the rear and light it up when you’re ready.”

  Boss rooms started off dark with a countdown until the boss spawned. By casting an area spell that could affect the boss, you could bypass the timer and start the fight immediately. Light was a useful spell to have in our repertoire, and by having the last one to enter cast it, then we could be assured that everyone was inside.

  “I’ll go in first…”

  Aelin snickered.

  “What?” I turned to the blonde.

  “Rix and Ether are already in there.” Aelin pointed at the gate that Fray was partway through.

  The green swordswoman grimaced. “I thought we were going.”

  I shook my head. “It’s fine; let’s go.”

  She finished walking through the gate. Ahead of me.

  I wasn’t standing in the darkness long before I heard Justia activate her spell.

  “Light!”

  The first thing I noticed was that the large room that we were in wasn’t a cave like most boss rooms we’d been in so far. This one was a field of very short grass with a lot of large, ankle-deep puddles of water, most of which were at least ten feet in diameter. The bounds of the room were black, like a void, exactly like all the other Dungeon Walls that I’d seen.

  The transparent blue blob reared up ten feet in the air. Two long, slimy tentacles unfurled and began wriggling in the air towards us.

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  “LOOK AT ME!”

  The Giant Water Slime turned towards Ether. She was the only one of us that wasn’t wearing leather. We’d found enough bone armor that she was wearing an entire set, which made her look almost like a walking skeleton. She fended off the first tentacle slam with her bone shield, then activated the ability of her barrier sword to shield her from the follow-up.

  The main body of the Giant Slime was slow, which gave us plenty of maneuverability to get into place. I looked over at Fray. “Ready to try one of these with us?”

  There was no trace of fear as she gripped her white katana and focused on her foe. Without a word, she charged forward and sliced off the right tentacle. It would grow back pretty fast, but she’d have no trouble keeping it contained.

  Rix was casually slicing off the left tentacle, which was forcing the main body to try to chase down Ether, who only had to walk to stay away from the Giant Slime.

  I pulled out my magical pistol and started to aim it at the boss. Most of my spells were shot-type, so having a magazine that I could preload shots into before the fight was very helpful. I had to use half the mana the spell cost to load the shots into a magazine, and it cost half of the spell’s cost to fire them, so I didn’t actually save any mana. Except that I could load the magazines when I was in the vehicle on the way to the Dungeon or even right before the boss fight, then take a break for a while and wait for my mana to regenerate. This way, I’d be able to shoot twice as many spells. The pistol also fired each shot faster than I could cast it, so the end result wound up being that using it this way allowed me to use more spells faster, which was a good thing.

  The monster’s core was swimming around inside the transparent goo. Last time we’d fought one of these, we’d had to whittle it down until there wasn’t enough space for the core to be able to dodge our attacks.

  I didn’t see that happening this time.

  “MAGIC ARROWS!!!”

  Aelin began firing her pink arrows in rapid succession, punching holes straight through the monster. She must have used some earth elemental powder, because she shouldn’t have been that much stronger than it.

  The core tried to dodge low. It must have been able to tell that Rix was the stronger of the two, because it moved closer to Fray, who carved three large gashes into the side of the boss, then stabbed her sword through the core, shattering it.

  The monster vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a crystal and a pair of green rubber gloves.

  Fray knelt down and picked up the loot.

  “Slime gloves.” She held them out towards Justia. “One Defense, one Recovery. You want them?”

  Justia looked at the item and shook her head. “We can use them for crafting material.”

  Fray nodded and handed the items over to Ether. The ivory woman had become the person in our group who cashed in our crystals. It was usually easier for one person to hold all of the loot and then distribute it to all the members at the end of the day. Dedicated farming groups would usually have a Mundane that picked up the dropped crystals so the group wouldn’t have to stop. It didn’t hurt that monsters respawned faster when there was a Mundane around. That was what my job had been before I’d gotten my mantle, though I hadn’t known that groups had been using me as a monster magnet.

  Miel walked into the room through the open door. “Who’s ready for the next one?”

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