Vincent raised an eyebrow as Alexander mentioned receiving assistance, but his curiosity was short-lived as a small girl suddenly stepped out of the shadows and headed down through the tunnel to the second floor with only a nod and a three-word-sentence to the lot of them. That answered the question of why he'd felt someone besides the boy, at least. And also why Alexander was in such good shape after being 'swarmed' by so many Goblins.

After that, the boy fell quiet for a little while as he began to work on igniting a rag for his makeshift torch. Looking between that and the armour, Vincent realized he'd need to make some preparations of his own. So, setting his case down on the stone floor of the labyrinth, he popped it open and began to rummage through.

About a minute later, the man had withdrawn two strange trident-like daggers from his case, and after a brief check of their condition, quickly deposited them in his coat pockets. Closing his case back up, it was at that point that Alexander finished up his own preparations and headed off down after his companion, bidding Vincent and Lynn to follow.

"Here's hoping you have better luck with your powers down here," Vincent remarked to Lynn, as a quick aside before he turned his attention back to Alexander as he went through the tunnel ahead of them.

"Very well, but shouldn't we introduce ourselves?" He began, before he followed up the rhetorical question with- "I'm Vincent Lapifac, a member of Thoth's Guild. The girl who p- I mean, the young lady behind me is Lynn, from Heka's Guild. I'm guessing your partner is from Cernunnos' Guild, but what about you?"

"Sure, let's go." Senna's response is simple, and her expression unreadable. With another brief nod in the direction of the newcomers, Senna follows closely behind Alexander, heading deeper into the Labyrinth. She knew that, judging by their greeting upon entering the first floor, that they would likely be jumped the moment they entered the second. For this reason, she kept her bow ready at all times, and was prepared to take a step back if necessary.

Her senses were strained, trying to get a read on what they were walking into. If she could figure anything out about their environment beforehand, she would take note of it. If not, she would ready herself for anything. Given the enemies of sentient fluid and strange, green men they had faced so far, anything would be possible in these depths.

Meanwhile, she was beginning to hope that the environments would be a bit more varied than the one they had just cleared. She could only be so useful without cover, after all.

The second floor was...different from the first. While the stone "decor" was no different, rather than a tunnel, upon descending the steps the group would be met with a singular, open, circular room. The room was notable in size; while the staircase that led to the third floor was visible, directly on the opposite side of the room, it would probably take a couple of minutes of walking before one could reach it, if not longer.

Strangely enough, the second floor looked, at first glance, to be empty. The only obvious exception was the presence of two glass flasks in the dead center of the room. Senna alone would notice that the flasks and their contents seemed identical to the ones she had personally found mere moments earlier. However, the flasks seemed to be covered with a vibrant green, gelatinous substance.

Weird.

“Alexander Roma, Ares Guild Nice to meet ya,” he replied in turn to Vincent’s introduction as the older man caught up to him and Senna. “Anyways we’re planning to head down. Stick close, probably going to be a bit dangerous.” With the archer behind him, Alexander shifted the shield in his grip slightly before he began to make his way down the stairs cautiously. One step, pause, listen and repeat.

As the second floor opened before the group, Alexander felt his hackles rise at the seemingly danger free room. He noticed the way down, but his eyes were naturally drawn to the only real object of note. “Ok that has to be bait,” he said to the others as he pointed at the slime covered flasks. The fluid reminded him of what had happened on that last encounter, so he quickly looked upwards, legs already tensed to move.

...

...

...

Nothing seemed to happen. The stillness of the second floor remained, unbroken. Was it possible that this was a trap, and that already, on the mere second floor, the monsters had gained a capacity for "patience"? If so, then-

Oh, no, wait, something's happening. Never mind.

From the center of the room where the vials stood, the gelantinous substance covering them seemed to melt outwards, expanding from the center to coat the floor. It seemed to be of the same green hue as the one that covered the vials, but...thinner, more diluted. Judging from the currently-expanding volume, it was reasonable to assume that there were multiple slimes present in this sprawl, but their cores weren't immediately visible.

And the sprawl marched on. Efficient. Deadly. Really fucking slow.

"... Yeah, 'dangerous'," Vincent remarked as he was met with the sight of the advancing slime a few moments after reaching the bottom of the steps and finishing his greeting to Alexander. When he'd seen the vials placed neatly in the middle of the room, his eyes had almost bugged out of their sockets, but he'd come to the same conclusion as Alexander; that the vials were too conveniently-placed to be anything but part of a trap.

That conclusion had been proved correct, of course, but as the slime crawled towards them as slow as it seemed capable of moving, Vincent wondered if there had been anything worth worrying about to begin with.

Oh well. It was only the second floor, he might as well play things safe. A moment later, the same annoying voice in his head from before popped back up, filling him in on information about the creatures- apparently the blob was multiple overlapping entities approaching them. Another moment later, he had a rough plan of action.

"You encountered more of these on the first floor, correct?" He asked Alexander and the archer girl near him, as he produced the trident-like daggers that he had deposited in his coat pockets. "Do you suppose these would work well enough to destroy their cores?" He hadn't been given any information about whether the bodies of the slimes were corrosive in any fashion, but it was a concern with the short range of his tools.

“Ugh…” It was safe to say, but Alexander rather disliked Slimes by now and the sight of a particularly massive one didn’t sit well with him. It didn’t help that the cores weren’t readily visible this time around… though maybe the vials it had surrounded at first were in fact the creature’s core? Well, he didn’t necessarily want to destroy the floor’s treasure thanks to a mistaken guess.

He glanced over in Vincent’s direction at the man’s weapon and shook his head. “The cores seem fairly fragile, but also at the center. Not sure how well plunging your hand into one that’s still alive is going to work out for you.” With that said, Alexander dashed forward to hopefully attract the slime’s attention though he was careful to keep a bit of distance in case it proved faster than expected. “Grab the flasks!” Hopefully he could draw it away so one of the other three could dart in and grab the flasks, or its cores would be revealed as it pursued him.

"Figured as much," Vincent replied, before pocketing the daggers. He did have his gloves in his case, for however much good they could turn out to do, so he considered mentioning that-

“Grab the flasks!” Before Alexander bought up a far more appealing alternative.

Given full rein to act on his natural instincts, Vincent nodded before crouching down to open up his case with a greedy twinkle in his eyes. Quickly slapping his gloves on, he closed and hoisted it back up before darting around the approaching slime, ending up just adjacent of the flasks in about a minute as the mass kept crawling forwards.

Tentatively reaching into his right pocket to ready the dagger inside, he began to carefully approach the flasks and the remaining mass of slime gathered around them. He couldn't see any cores to hit right away, but their protection would be better than nothing if he came under attack.

The mass of pale green Slime amalgam had expanded to roughly two meters in radius by the time Vincent had made it to the center of the room, with the slime-coated flasks in the center of the "puddle". It seemed to stop after that point, deciding that going any further was stretching itself too thin, for some reason or another. Given the newfound proximity of the adventurers, they would be able to make out four cores embedded in the slime puddle, from where they stood.

When Alexander and Vincent neared it though, the puddle became alight. Around two of the cores, the puddle seemed to "recede", leaving the cores with only the slime that they personally controlled. Two dark green gelatinous masses formed on the ground almost immediately; considering their speed, this could actually be considered impressive.

And then, they leapt. Tactlessly, mindlessly, the two blobs flew at the heads of their foes, while the remaining slimes in the puddle filled the gap left by their departing friends.

“Nevermind!” He called out to Vincent now that the cores were visible since he was close enough. It was a good thing he didn’t ask for Senna to shoot the flasks he supposed. Course it was a bit annoying for the Slime to simply linger in the same place after it had expanded to its max size, so he naturally grinned when two of the cores drew collected fluid around themselves to become mobile entities.

Having already seen and dealt with their method of attack, Alexander was prepared to receive the Slime’s leap. A careful eye watched the core’s position within the gelatinous mass as he stepped to the side, used both hands to swing his sword through the creature’s body, stepping past the midair Slime as his slash completed.

If he was successful, Alexander didn’t hesitate to press the advantage. While yes, the speed at which the Slimes had formed from the puddle was impressive, there had been a brief moment before the blobs had managed to tense and leap. It would be child’s play to bury his blade into one of the remaining two before they could do just that.

Lynn looked between the rest of them, and the slime blobs, and the staff in her hand. Back and forth. Again and again. The rest of them were discussing battle plans. Wow, kakkoii~ The slimes were being gross freaky piles of mush. Not so kakkoii. She raised her staff into a defensive position, slowly backing away. Real fighting was scary, unlike what she'd read in books.

The slime blob became two blobs. The rest of them were engaged in combat. Shatter the cores, they said.
With this long stick of wood? Not happening.

Nothing to do but stand there and be useless.

This would probably continue for the next few floors.

Needless to say, there wasn't much at first for Senna to do. Following closely behind Alexander, she stayed back as he went forward to challenge the gelatinous mass, and circled the entity from a distance as the rest of the party went about implementing their battle strategy. She couldn't tell at this phase whether it was failing or succeeding, but whatever was going on, it seemed a little intense.

Her eyes were always on the Mass. Whatever it did, she would notice, and be able to react far before she could be threatened lethally. She hoped, at least. These labyrinth monsters seemed quite strong, for how weak they may have been compared to Blessed Humans. She was certain that, had she faced a Goblin prior to receiving her blessing, she would have certainly been killed.

Eyeing the suddenly departing slimes from a distance, she raises her bow and, seeing Alexander move to strike down one of them, whistles in the direction of Vincent before loosing an arrow in his direction. She was quick on the target, and had aimed for the three-quarter point of the slime's mid-air trajectory in order to hit it just before it landed. Naturally, she accounted for her improved strength and what she had judged of her bow's draw strength. Hopefully, given her warning and the fact that he was aware of her existence, Vincent would infer that he was to not get hit by the arrow flying towards him.

While her concentration was momentarily centered on the act of firing the arrow, Senna would quickly return to a state of alertness, preparing to protect herself from any attacks aimed at her while she was vulnerable. At the same time, she continues circling the slime mass at the centre of the room, attempting to get around it and examine what could be found on the opposite end of the room. If not possible, she would simply keep her distance, bow raised and ready to provide support to her allies.

Evidently, Vincent had nerves of steel. This is because, as a green slime and arrow both cut through the air in his direction, he managed to inexplicably stay completely still. Truly, this is a talent that will help him in the future. Do your best, Vincent.

At any rate, the turn of combat against the slimes went...predictably. For these meager existences that had precisely one wholly inefficient, telegraphed, and non-nuanced method of attack, even an eleven year old would be capable of designing a means of countering them in little time. It was almost like the Labyrinth was mocking these adventurers, giving them fodder such as this.

Alexander's blade cut through the Slime aimed at himself, before managing to pierce one on the nearby ground. With its lack of control over its body, the Slime was unable to move its core in time with Alexander's attack. Like that, the Ares Guild member managed to fell two slimes.

Senna's arrow naturally hit its mark. While a moving target, a Slime was not particularly difficult to hit for a trained ranger; its trajectory was obvious, after all.

The mass of slime shrunk back, now only a single core visible in it as it wobbled about almost uncertainly. It seemed to have managed to gain authority of some of the slime that composed its fallen brethren, which was at least somewhat interesting. It, however, did not make any moves to attack. It just sort of laid there on the floor, panicking.

“Wow…” Alexander muttered quietly as the tip of his weapon cut the core in half and then pierced the stone floor with little trouble. A splash told him that the split halves had just splattered to the ground lifelessly behind him and he glanced as the Slime that had aimed for Vincent became target practice for Senna. Again the arrow bore through its gelatinous body without much trouble and shattered the core within. Really, it was sad, but then again it was better than a desperate fight for survival he supposed. He gave the archer another thumbs up as he refocused his attention on the remaining creature.

As the final core seemed to shiver at its impending doom, Alexander tugged his weapon free and flicked the slime off it with several quick swings. He approached the final monster carefully, several slashes scattering any slime that the core tried to draw towards it. With how thin its body currently was, he didn’t have much trouble plunging his weapon into the Slime. Yet he did so just shy of the core and with a flick of his wrist, tried to dislodge the “organ” from the body that encapsulated it.

Evidently, Vincent had nerves of steel. This is because, as a green slime and arrow both cut through the air in his direction, he managed to inexplicably stay completely still. Truly, this is a talent that will help him in the future. Do your best, Vincent.

Feeling an annoying voice nagging at him in his head as the blob lunged at him, Vincent strafed to the side of the attack as he heard the sound of something careening through the air towards him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the arrow strike through the slime's core with ease, and he took the opportunity to shoot forwards towards the vials.

For a moment, he prepared to change course and try an attack on the remaining core as he saw the mass begin to shrink back, seemingly from fear. That changed, however, when Alexander took the initiative and moved forwards himself, entering one last drawn-out conflict with the mass.

So instead, Vincent just resumed his original plans and kept on course to the vials, snatching them up from the floor and wiping them clean of the gelatinous film that covered them. Turning, he pocketed the two glass containers before turning once more and darting to-

"Need any help with that?" He asked Alexander, as he watched him do... whatever it was that he was trying to do with the slime's core. It looked like he was trying to push the struggling structure out from it's body, but he couldn't be wholly sure. Instead, he just readied his sai, ready to make the stab that punched through the slimy mass and into its core if need be.

Alexander's efforts were commendable for innovation. Whatever he wanted to do with the slime core, at least he was attempting to isolate it from the rest of the slime's body. However, the method was not perfect. It was such that, when he pushed his sword into the slime to try and flick its core out, the core did in fact move, but not in the way Alexander had intended. Manipulating its body to the best of its ability, it propelled its core to motion.

As Alexander's sword stopped just a sliver away from the core, the core flowed upwards through the slime, flowed onto the flat edge of his blade. And the slime followed.

While complex maneuvering and body control was impossible, the slime's ability to propel itself in a straight line was admirable. It had to be, to achieve their feat of jumping at enemies. That speed was being used at this moment in time, as the core and a more than considerable mass of green slime shot up Alexander's blade, coating it as it traveled along the blade's edge, towards the hilt.

Meanwhile, with Vincent...

Oh, Vincent.

Vincent naturally managed to make it to the vials. However, as the slime-coated floor was still very much a thing around the vials, even with most of the slimes dead, stepping close enough to grab them did mean that the bottoms of his shoes got a decent amount of slime on them in the process.

The trouble started when he picked the vials up, though. Because, when he would lean over to pick the vials up, he would discover something hiding beneath and between the vials in the carpet of gelatinous mass. A small black sphere.

Oh.

As such, when his hand went to pick up the vials, the final slime of the floor acted appropriately. In a matter similar to its brother who was locked in mortal combat with Alexander, the Slime flowed entirely off the vials and onto Vincent's gloved hand, before quickly moving to crawl along his arm in an attempt to reach his face, while a small amount of slime stayed on his hand and tried to slip in under his glove. A distraction, maybe?

One adventurer with slime crawling up his weapon, one with slime crawling up his arm.

Don't mess this up.

“Don’t th- Tch.” Annoyed click of the tongue aside, Alexander gave a slight tug on his sword to draw the slime that clung to it taut. Most of the blade was already trapped within its gelatinous body and he had no intention of cleaning out his gauntlets again. He flicked his other hand to grip the shield properly, took careful aim, and brought its edge down at the slime’s core. Had it been a blob he would have probably failed to reach the weak spot, but it was still spread fairly thin and Alexander figured it wouldn’t be too hard to crush it.

At the same time he pulled sharply on the sword again; this way even if the core dodged, he could probably rip its body apart and render the encroaching slime inert. The weapon would then be flicked out behind him at max extension and ideally send the gunk flying off its oiled surface.

Perhaps too occupied with recovering from the initial shock of the slime's movements, Vincent hadn't noticed the concealed slime hitch a ride on his hand right away. Rather, he noticed a few seconds after he prepared his sai, noticing a trail of slime leading up from his hand onto his forearm.

At first, he froze, shocked at how he'd picked up a dangerous cling-on without realizing- but he quickly bit down on his tongue and began to think.

The trail of slime was too long and distinct to be just from handling the vial, so the resemblance to the trail left by the slimes wasn't a coincidence; there was definitely a slime travelling up his body, he just couldn't see it.
However, it seemed that the slime hadn't made it very far- the core wasn't in the slime on his hand or forearm- and whilst he couldn't see it at the moment, he couldn't feel it on an exposed part of his body or forcing its way through his clothes.

He had an idea, and it might just work if he was quick enough.

Without a single further word, he shucked his already-unbuttoned coat, letting it drop to the ground before he flicked his gloved hand to remove the bulk of the remaining slime.
And then he brought his foot down hard on the outline of the slime visible beneath the fabric of the coat beneath him.

Given the reaction time of a Blessed Human, let alone one of Ares Guild, it should actually be relatively surprising that Alexander was only just able to land his mark with the shield strike on the slime core. Nonetheless, he did manage to strike the core, the slime's sole organ shattering apart under the strain. At the same time, the motion was hardly healthy for his sword; while somehow the weapon didn't seem too damaged, considering Alexander's strength relative to the sword's integrity, a noticeable scratch had formed on the blade. The subsequent flicking motion knocked off a decent amount of the lifeless slime, but a fair amount still remained spread out along its edge.

Vincent also managed to kill his slime. By removing his coat, the slime core's adventure up his body was halted, and a moment later it was crushed. Regrettably though, the coat was quite a bit worse for wear, as a result. The trouble for Vincent, though, came when he flicked his hand. At that time, the slime on the outside of his glove had most of its mass flicked away, but the now-lifeless slime that had previously been trying to worm its way inside of Vincent's glove, positioned at the mouth of the glove, was only pushed inside of his glove by the motion.

The moment the green slime contacted the skin of his hand, he would feel a slight...burning sensation at the point of contact.

Wait...

...oh.

Oh, that's how it was.



A-At least the second floor looks clear?

The core’s destruction rendered the viscous liquid inert, but Alexander could hardly be satisfied at the result given he had damaged his weapon by accident. He spared a glance for Vincent at first, but, seeing there wasn’t a problem, brought his sword up to eye level to inspect it. “Damn it,” he muttered under his breath as he ran a finger over the chip that had formed on the blade. ‘Hope that weapon is still available,' he thought as he looked around the apparently empty floor. “You see anything Senna?”

Question aside, given he didn’t see any danger in the immediate vicinity around and above him, Alexander pulled out a rag to give his weapon another quick wipe down and get rid of the slime that hadn’t slid off. Given the update that popped up in his mind moments ago, he was careful to not touch any of the slime. A shudder ran up his spine as he imagined trying to clean his gauntlet out if the Slime had managed to climb that high. With his weapon clean, if damaged, he turned to look at Vincent and asked, “You gonna be alright, or have anything to deal with that?”