Otherwise, the two rooms looked about the same. I had a feeling there was something about the puddles that would have allowed the boss to empower itself somehow, but we’d beaten it so fast, it hadn’t mattered.
The bosses were almost the same as well, except the Giant Nature Slime was a deep green instead of light blue. I did remember the strategy that we should have used against the Giant Water Elemental this time, not that we’d needed it. I pointed my hand at the monster.
“FREEZE!”
The two tentacles began to frost over, making it easy for Rix and Fray to smash them. I kept the freezing area active, even though it was one of my most mana hungry spells. Combined with the already slow speed of the boss, I was able to keep it basically stationary. I was also able to keep the tentacles from regrowing, which allowed Fray and Rix to each chip out the base of the tentacles and crack the secondary cores that controlled the appendages.
“Done!” Fray backed away about the same time as my head began to feel light from using most of my mana. I released the freezing spell, but I’d managed to freeze over half of the boss by that point. I could tell that it was trying to warm itself up, but it wasn’t going to have enough time.
“Can I shoot it now?” Aelin was fidgeting with her bow.
“You could have been shooting it the whole time.” I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand. It was a little chilly in the room, yet I was sweating. Casting
“MAGIC ARROWS!!!”
The pink arrows punched holes in the boss, driving the core higher within the slimy mass. There wasn’t much room for the core to move around since almost half of it was frozen. The rapidly shot arrows managed to drive the core away from the center, and this time it was Aelin who snagged the kill.
“IN YOUR FACE!” Aelin did a little dance as she celebrated.
The first time that we’d fought a Giant Slime, Aelin had managed to hit the elusive core with an arrow, but it had only cracked, not shattered. Using elemental attacks as well as having a higher Magic stat had helped her snag the win this time.
“Is it just me, or are these things easier?” Ether slipped her shield on her back.
“I think it’s because we’re a lot better prepared.” I nodded at our Buffer. “Aelin and I are using Elemental attacks this time. Not to mention, we know how to deal with the tentacles a lot easier.”
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“What did we get?” Aelin put her bow into her CB as she skipped over. “Anything good?”
“Rubber boots.” Fray held up the green boots. “Two Defense.”
“That looks…” Aelin shook her head. “Bluh. Nope, I’m not sticking my feet in those.”
Miel was clapping as she walked in. “Very nice, but it doesn’t seem like much of a challenge for you.”
“Slimes move too slow to be dangerous.” I started to regret the words as soon as I said them.
“You want more of a challenge?” The older woman smiled. “I can do that.”
“We didn’t say we wanted a challenge.” Ether took the boots from Fray and put them in her CB. “After the last few weeks, it’s nice not to have to worry so much about what we’re fighting.”
“Right…” Miel shrugged. “I still think you should try an Elite version.” She tapped on her cheek as she thought. “Let’s see how fast you can clear the next one.”
“It’s Acid?” I looked over at Rix.
The redhead nodded.
“Freeze and smash?” It wasn’t the flashiest way to win, but it was pretty safe.
“It poisons.” Rix looked at Justia. “You’ll have to detoxify us.”
“I can do that.” Justia looked bored.
Honestly, we’d been overpowering things so much that we didn’t really need a healer, but I knew that was going to change once we got out of the early levels. I felt a little bad for her though, because at the moment, there wasn’t much for her to do. Rix was also looking bored. At her level and with her speed, she could probably solo these bosses.
“What would be the point in trying an elite version?” I turned towards our teacher.
Miel’s face split into a huge smile. “It’s got fifty percent more stats, plus it gives out more experience, which doesn’t really matter to you, and a larger crystal, which again doesn’t do much for you.” She glanced around at us. “Mainly, besides providing more of a challenge, it has a better loot table.”
“Better loot!” Aelin pumped her fist in the air. “What kind of loot does it drop?”
“You don’t have a loot table?” Miel turned towards Rix.
“The odds of getting what we want are so low that by the time we got it to drop, we’d have outleveled how useful it would be for us.” The golden woman shrugged. “So I didn’t download those tables.”
I remembered the lesson that Gesai had given us. At this stage, we’d be past level ten by the time we were able to statistically farm enough gear for everyone to have what they were looking for.
“True…” Miel shrugged. “If you want to keep taking it easy, it’s up to you.”
I could see that Aelin wanted to try the harder version, but that probably had something to do with her obsession with drops. The rest of the group didn’t look that enthused.
“Tell you what, let’s try it the regular way first, then we can do the elite version after if you still want to try it.”
“Okay!” Aelin took off for the exit.
I chuckled as I followed after her. It was nice to see her having fun after the last few weeks. I looked at everyone else. Getting out seemed to have lifted everyone’s spirits. I just hoped it lasted.
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