[IC] Labyrinth

[Fish of Oblivion]

The state of his coat wasn't much of a concern to Vincent- the slime wasn't even the worst thing that had been splattered on there in the time he'd had it, and whilst the way he'd killed the slime had creased it, the fabric itself held strong.

On the other hand, the stinging sensation in his hand was.

Gritting his teeth in order to avoid a sharp hiss, he quickly moved his glove off his hand to take a look at the slime that was in contact with his skin. A moment later, a voice in his head provided some much needed exposition, telling him all he needed to know about the 'Poison Slime'.

As bad as the idea of the 'moderate poison attribute' sounded, he recalled his visit to the guild earlier- and Thoth's gift of the 'Intermediate Antitoxin☆'. Didn't seem like the situation was unsalvageable. Might make cleaning the coat a bit of a pain in the ass, though. Maybe if he laid it out properly he could scrape the slime off with one of his knives? There'd still be residue, but it was better than nothing.

He took a quick look around- and saw Alexander cleaning his weapon after killing his own slime. Perhaps this meant that all the ones they were aware of were dead. Maybe he could get this done quickly? In any case, the young man quickly moved on to inquiring about his well-being.

"It's a pain in the ass, but I should be fine," Vincent replied- "Haven't got anyone but myself to blame for it, really, so I might as well get on with it." As he finished, he crouched down to withdraw the Antitoxin from the case, showing it to Alexander as he closed it back up. A moment later, he popped the top of the flask and took a short swig of the liquid- perhaps a fifth of the volume- before closing it back up, setting it down and continuing.

"Well, in any case, I did manage to get the flasks." He continued, turning around to the crumpled form of his coat and reaching in with a gloved hand to withdraw two glass vials from the pockets- as fortune would have it, they'd both avoided being broken by his attack on the slime. Taking them in hand, he rose back up and showed them to Alexander, and anyone else who wanted to come closer. "How are we going to divide these?"

[Dawn]

Upon drinking some of the antitoxin given to him by Thoth, Vincent felt a decent amount of the burning sensation subside, but it largely seemed to still be present. Namely, with each passing second, it seemed to permeate his body more. From what he could tell, it didn't seem to be deadly, or at least not yet, but it did certainly hurt like hell. Maybe he should drink more?

It's also worth noting that a slight sort of paralysis was beginning to spread throughout his body. Nothing crippling, but his movements would feel slightly...heavier, as though they were under intense gravity.

---

Heka
Office of the Esteemed Headmistress Heka, Academy for the Advanced Manipulation of the World

Heka pursed her lips slightly in thought, watching through the eyes of Lynn as the group polished off the monsters on the second floor. Pale fingers drummed along the surface of her desk, the God seeming to be troubled about some matter. However, she was jarred from her ruminations by the door to her office swinging open, and someone stepping inside.

"Heka, the fuck is going on?"

Heka leveled a dry glare at the individual who had entered, loosing a sigh. "Please make an appointment next time, before you show up unannounced. And what exactly are you referring to, I-"

"Do I need to spell it out for you? You're probably thinking about it already." The intruder scoffed, drawing out each syllable. "The Lab-yr-inth mon-sters are weak-er than they were be-fore. Got it?"

Heka shook her head in disdain, letting out another sigh. "Yes, I've noticed. The magical energy they're created with is less than last time, but our earlier estimations on the Core's power reserves should have been perfect, which means-"

"-What the fuck is it planning? Keh, I'm this close to just waltzing in there myself and trashing the place till I get answers, but nooooooo, I'd die before I got the chance. Fucking existence. Can't stand it."

"I assure you, I'm trying to perform some analysis on the matter. As we can hardly access the Core directly though, that's proving to be...difficult."

"Oh, poor you. Y'know, I bet if Vaak was still around that she'd be able to read the Core's info from here, no proble-"

"Shut up."

Heka's expression, previously neutral with perhaps a trace of annoyance, had shifted. It now displayed blatant anger, her jaw clenched tightly as she glared in the direction of the other party. Her right hand gripped the edge of her desk, knuckles turning white.

In reaction, the other party smirked at Heka, lazily strolling forwards before coming to a stop by her desk, sitting atop it, and leaning over it. "Oh~? Did bringing her up make you all upset, He~ka~?" They chimed, face contorted into a vicious sneer as they laughed raucously. "Ha! Now that's what I like to see! Miss 'Prim and Proper' showing that look, that look of delicious hate!"

Heka visibly seethed, her eyes narrowing. "I don't hate you, I'm just-"

"No, no, you hate me. Not in general, no, of course not. You're too soft for that, I know. I just mean now. In this one fleeting moment, you take off that damned refined posture and curt little smile and you show me pure, visceral emotion. That wonderful contradiction as you try to reconcile between what you feel and what you want to feel...ah, it makes me excited just narrating it~!"

Chuckling slightly under their breath, the other party hefted themselves up off of Heka's desk, arms crossed behind their head as they moved to exit the office. "Well, anyway, I've got stuff to attend to. Only reason I came in was to see if you had any results yet, but as usual, you're useless. You keep doing your shit investigation, or whatever. Bye~"

And with that, they took their leave.

[Yuri]

Senna smiles briefly at her direct hit, knowing that her father would have been made proud by it, but quickly gathers herself and trains her elf little girl eyes on the room's perimeter. She searches the walls, and then the ceiling, attempting to catch a glimpse of anything out of place. If she saw something, like perhaps a trap or something similar, she would point it out to the others while keeping her distance.

At the same time, she has already circled around the entirety of the central slime mass, and was now the closest to the other side of the room out of the party. She takes this time to take a closer look at the stairs to the next floor, and perhaps try to glean some sort of information from them through the usage of her sharp ears and nose. Regardless, she checks the area once again for obvious traps, before calling back to the others.

"The way looks clear," she yells just loudly enough to hear from the other side of the room. She turns and jogs lightly back to the party, taking note of the flasks and coatings of slime on them and their surroundings, avoiding the slime where possible. She wasn't sure what kind of poison these creatures were composed of, but she assumed she probably couldn't cure it easily. Not without some Antidote Grass™.

"I don't need one," the ranger declares, eyeing the flasks in Vincent's hands. Unknown to them, she already had two of the same item, so she didn't really need to have another one just yet. Especially since they didn't even know what they did. "You should be careful with those, though. If the flasks were covered in the poison slime, it's possible that some of the poison somehow got into the contents. We should have an expert examine them before we attempt to drink them, I think."

Then, eyeing the slime everywhere, Senna adds something in a tone that was both lighthearted and deathly serious.

"You know, maybe we should head back up and buy some towels."

[KarinRobo]

And in ten blinks of the eye, the battle was over. Lynn lowered her staff and slowly stepped forward to join the others, having not moved an inch from where she was when it began. She took care to avoid the slime bits as well, though mostly because it'd be gross and sticky.

"Are you sure you're okay? You shouldn't push yourself..." she inquired towards Vincent, almost as if she were speaking to an elderly man. (Which he was, sort of, but.)

"Also. if there's anything . can do to help next time, just tell me..." Lynn added. Currently, there was an overwhelming feeling that she was dead weight, and used to it as she was, she didn't like it.

"Ah! Towels. That's a good idea, Senna," Lynn chipped in, cautiously testing out the other girl's name for the first time. It was reassuring to have another female with them, but she certainly wasn't expecting someone who looked much younger than her. Yet for some reason, Lynn sensed that this little girl was at least fifty times more dangerous than she was.

Still, leaving the Labyrinth a page of posts after they got here... Wasn't it a bit early? Lynn had no complaints, though.

[Zombehs]

He didn’t really have any idea what the flask Vincent showed him contained, but it was a safe bet to say it was likely some sort of medicine for the poison. Alexander wiped down his blade one last time and tossed the rag just as the other male downed a portion of the potion. He glanced towards Senna as she finished her survey of the floor, and was happy that it would be an easy split of the loot. “Apparently evenly,” he remarked as he stepped forward to take one of the vials.

As Alexander slipped the unknown “potion” into an empty pouch on his waist, he shrugged at Lynn. “Best thing if you don’t know how to fight is to stay outta the way for now,” he pointed out rather bluntly, “no need to try and be on the front lines if you’ve got no training or experience.” With that matter sorted out, in his eyes at the least, Alexander glanced at his weapon once more as he considered Senna’s suggestion; not the towels part mind you. It would dangerous to continue deeper with a weapon that was damaged and liable to break at a most inconvenient time. Not like there was a particular need for the four to push further immediately either. “Hey, Vincent, you fine with heading back into town?”

[Fish of Oblivion]

"Don't worry about it for now" Vincent replied to Lynn as she voiced her will to help in some way- "Your abilities have to emerge at some point, and it's not like you're completely useless without them. Just do like Alexander says and try and keep out of the way of danger for now." The words sounded a little dubious in terms of reassurance, though it seemed he didn't mean any harm by them.

In any case, he just shook his head before addressing her other concern. "And I'm fine, really-" Though a moment later, the words became a little hollow as he felt pain and weight begin to spread through his body. Still, he remained quiet and just took another quick swig from the flask of Antitoxin, this time draining the small flask. After a few moments, he felt the pain and weight lift- just how much that was worth, he didn't know, but it seemed the Antitoxin worked, at least.

So, he just nodded to Senna as she declined one of the flasks, and nodded again as Alexander took his. For a moment, he mentally debated asking about Lynn, but he decided against it. There would be more loot further down, she'd have plenty of chances to recoup her losses.

In any case, those thoughts were put off to the side when Alexander asked him about his opinion on exiting the Labyrinth for now.

"... Sounds fairly wise," He admitted, nodding to the other three, before leaning over to pick up his crumpled, slime-drenched coat from the floor. "Besides checking the flasks, I could do with getting this cleaned off. Might even be able to put the poison to use, all things considered."

It seemed his first outing into the Labyrinth had been a bit of a mixed bag; but on the whole, he supposed it could have been far worse.

[Dawn]

For Vincent, that mixed bag was evidently about to get worse. This is because, as he finished downing the potion he had been given by Thoth earlier in the day, two things would happen.

The first of these would be that he would feel the effects of the poison wash out of his body almost immediately, as if the potion had fully diffused into his body and granted an immediate counteraction to the poison. No burning, no pain, no worries.

The second would be that, when he went down to get his coat, he would find that his body didn't move.

This was because his body couldn't move.

He couldn't move his body.

He was paralyzed.

Yeah.

[Yuri]

Noting that for the most part, the party seemed to be in agreement about heading back to town, Senna decides to preempt them and begin her ascent herself. She nods at Alexander, treading lightly towards the stairways heading up and calling back to him in an accompanying cheerful chirp. "I'll head up ahead of you, then. See you."

Senna would attempt to make her way out of the Labyrinth with a quick, but not hurried pace. Examining anything she found on the way, she would hopefully soon make it to the surface, where she would attempt to find Cernunnos and report her findings.

She also briefly considered visiting the Goddess, Thoth, in order to get her to examine her potions. After deliberating for a second, Senna decides that the latter option was more pressing, and quickly makes her way to Thoth's lab, or whatever.

If she arrived with no problems, she would knock politely on the door to Thoth's place, before ushering herself in with a peek of the head.

"Hello?", she called out into the strange place. "I'm here to see Thoth..?"

[Dawn]

When Senna entered Thoth's alchemical lab, she would find the God busy poring over a small cauldron. Were Senna able to get a glance at the cauldron, she would see that it contained a thin, watery liquid that had the appearance of molten silver, soft wisps of steam rising off of it. Thoth herself seemed to be humming a cheery tune to herself, swaying her weight from one foot to the other as she stirred the cauldron's contents.

"Okay, let's see how it's coming..." She murmured to herself quietly, stepping away from the cauldron to get a small spoon, which she dipped into the cauldron's contents and then raised to her lips, swishing the liquid around in her mouth whilst nodding contemplatively...

-Then she dropped the spoon to the ground and let out a sharp yelp, the wings on her head flapping erratically as she spat the liquid out. "Bitter, bitter bitter bitter! Fwah, where's my sugar, I need my sugar..." She whined, scrambling over to a small jar set on a nearby shelf, opening it, and spooning sugar into her mouth like a woman possessed.

On her fourth spoonful, she finally realized that she had company, swallowed the sugar in her mouth, and hastily turned to face Senna while hiding the jar of sugar behind her back.

"...h-hi." She mumbled, blushing furiously and staring at the ground. "Y-You're in Cernunnos's Guild, right? How can I h-help you?"

[Zombehs]

“Yeah, see you. Was nice,” he called out to Senna as the young girl quickly ascended and disappeared out of sight. Alexander was about to make preparations to do the same when he noticed that Vincent had frozen in the middle of retrieving his coat. “Well, shit…” he murmured as he stepped over to the man and poked him, feeling the paralyzed muscles of his body.

“Fantastic…” he grumbled as he set his pack down, opened the top, and dug through its contents for a length of rope. “Lynn, grab my pack for me please, I need my back to carry Vincent.” Even if she couldn’t fight, her deity’s blessing should have still made such a task trivial with her enhanced strength. He looped the length of rope around Vincent’s chest and under his arms numerous times before it went over his shoulder, under the armpit, and around his own chest. It certainly wasn’t comfortable for him, it sucked for Vincent, but better than being left behind Alexander supposed. “Sorry, but unless Lynn wants to try and grab your poison slime soaked coat, it’s getting left behind.”

Now hopefully the monsters hadn’t regenerated already, though he supposed Senna would have taken care of it since she went ahead. Making sure Lynn had done as he requested and was ready to go, he stood with Vincent tied to his back, weapon and shield in both hands, and headed up back to the first floor and then hopefully out of the Labyrinth without trouble.

Assuming the trio managed to make it out without trouble and Vincent was still paralyzed, Alexander didn’t really have a choice but to head towards Thoth’s lab. Vincent was apparently one of her guild members, and she was the best person to deal with the problem at hand.

[Yuri]

Senna glances curiously at the cauldron, watching events unfold in silence until addressed, a ghost of a smile present on her lips. It feels like she had just walked into an embarrassing situation or something, so she shows some restraint and stops herself from openly laughing at the poor girl. She seemed rather shy.

"I'll get right to business then, I'm sorry for interrupting your... work." Senna smiles lightly, reaching back and pulling out the two flasks she had found on the first floor. "I found these in the Labyrinth," she explains. "Since I hear you're some sort of potion Goddess, I thought there might be a chance you would be able to identify them for me, or something. Is that possible?"

Hopefully, the girl would respond well to her simple, friendly mannerisms. She was a Goddess, so Senna expected she was at least a little tougher than she was letting on. And, if not, the reassuring expression now on Senna's face might offer her some comfort.

It should probably be said at this point that Senna was not used to dealing with nerds. There were no academic types in the village she was from, and her father had never really been booky, either. Cernunnos was... probably as far from a nerd as you could get, from what Senna knew. So this could be called the girl's first-ever encounter with this character archetype.

Surely this couldn't mean she might make an embarrassing mistake.

That would be silly.

[Fish of Oblivion]

Vincent didn't have much of a visible reaction to his state of paralysis.

Well, of course he didn't. He was paralyzed, after all.

That didn't stop his mind from rushing into a volley of torrid mental curses at his sheer bad luck. At the very least, it seemed he could still breathe- that much kept him from outright panicking, along with the sensation of the poison being washed out of his body by the Antitoxin, and he just grunted as Alexander stepped over, poked him to see how severe the state of paralysis was, and began to rummage through his pack for a rope.

It seemed his tongue had been paralyzed, so grunting and low groans were the most he could manage in this state; so he just offered Alexander a second grunt of assent as he began to secure the rope around him and mentioned leaving the coat behind. It was a pain, but he couldn't debate the point- he'd ended up in this state even after downing that Antitoxin, Gods knew what would happen to Lynn if she got some on her. After that, Alexander finished securing him and lifted his paralyzed body onto his back.

It wasn't exactly the most dignified way to leave the Labyrinth, but it was better than getting dragged out, he supposed. He just hoped that Lynn would remember to grab his case as well as Alexander's pack- that at least had avoided getting covered in any of the poisonous slime.

[Dawn]

As Senna took out the flasks, Thoth's eyes lit up slightly and her face cleared up, the God walking forwards somewhat meekly to inspect them further. "...huh, it looks pretty low-level, but the craftsmanship behind it is beyond first rate. Hmph, I guess I still have a ways to go before it..." She mumbled under her breath contemplatively before straightening back up and nodding slightly.

"Those look like...well, I guess you could call them 'Basic Health Potions'." She explained, much of her earlier unease apparently absent while she was immersed in her subject of expertise, though not completely. "U-Um, so basically, they generate and propogate a magic formula through your body, but since the formula's embedded in the entire flask's contents, you'll need to drink the whole thing for it to have a proper effect. Only drinking half will make the effect of it be far less than half, because the magic formula doesn't show its full ability until it's completed...I-I can explain that better once one of you gets magic, because then Heka's allowed to tell you about magic."

"But...um...anyway, these two will basically heal wounds and things like that. It's not regeneration, but more like accelerated natural healing with a few downsides, like aging, taken out of the equation. These ones are what I like to call Basic-class, so they'll only really fix up minor wounds fully...er, but if you have any life-threatening ones, drinking one or two of these won't heal it fully, but it'll buy you more time. Does, um, does that make sense?"

Around that time, Thoth noticed she had more visitors, one of whom was a Guild member of hers who seemed to be incapable of moving.

"A-Ah! Wh-What happened! Why are you carrying him?! D-Did he get hit by a soul attack?! O-Oh, but I don't have the materials for a spiritual restoration potion, oh no, oh no, oh no..."

[Zombehs]

Thankfully their path was clear and Alexander was able to put his sword away in short order as they exited the Labyrinth without further encounters. It was cumbersome, but he had also managed to bring both their pack and case up without Lynn’s assistance. Sure it had involved a bit more rope behind Vincent to secure the pack to Vincent’s chest, but at least they had all their belongings.

Besides, it’s not like Alexander particularly cared how ridiculous they looked. He wasn’t sure if Ares would appreciate one of her members returning in such an inglorious fashion, but he could deal with the fallout afterwards. So with plenty of eyes on him and his paralyzed teammate, Alexander made the trek up North.

Evidently he wasn’t the first person to show up at Thoth’s lab and he blinked in surprise at Senna’s presence, not having thought the little archer would have any business at the alchemy God’s lab. His eyes narrowed slightly at the vial in the God’s hand, looking between it and his teammate, but Alexander ultimately didn’t say anything on the matter.

He raised a hand to try and stop Thoth’s panicked guesses, before he explained. “Nothing that serious. Just some paralyzation from the Poison Slime we encountered. Also, mind appraising this? It was covered by one of the Poison Slimes, not sure if it might have been contaminated.” He held the flask out to Thoth for examination, and upon it being taken would begin to untie Vincent from himself.

[Dawn]

Thoth blinked twice before taking a slight step towards Alexander to get a better look at the flasks he was holding. "...um, those look like Basic Health Potions, the same as the ones she found." The God explained, weakly pointing over at Senna. "I-I can't really tell if they're contaminated off the bat, but if you leave them with me for a bit, um, I can always take a look at them o-once I finish up making this base." She mumbled, indicating the cauldron filled with silver liquid that she had sampled mere seconds earlier.

A couple of seconds passed before Thoth paused again, turning back to face Alexander with a confused expression. "...w-wait, did you say he was paralyzed by a Poison Slime?" She asked, eyes wide. "Th-That's not possible. I watched through his eyes for a bit when all of you walked in the second floor...b-but I did have to look away to get back to working on my base. Those slimes you were fighting were just normal Poison Slimes though...th-they didn't have any difference in abilities from the last time, so they should have just put a poison attribute on. They, um, they couldn't have caused paralysis..."

[Zombehs]

“Right,” Alexander muttered as he left the vial with Thoth for the appraisal, “please do just that.” He remembered Vincent’s quickly afterwards and fished the other man’s potion from a pocket and passed it over to Thoth as well. “This one too please.”

He took her words into consideration and figured that as a Goddess her knowledge of the Labyrinth would be better than their own. Especially given she was supposed to be somewhat of a bookworm and intellectual if the rumors were correct. Thus Alexander didn’t doubt her words and thought back to what had happened in the Labyrinth. “Well… I don’t think there was anything on the vials since he grabbed them with his gloves on. Beyond that, he drank a bit of some antidote for the poison at first…”

His eyes narrowed in thought as he tried to recall the exact details of that moment, and after a moment he felt more certain. “Yeah, that’s when his movements got a bit sluggish. The antidote wasn’t fully effective or something since he downed the rest of it only a few moments later, and right after that was when he got fully immobilized.” From the details he remembered it seemed to point at the antidote as the most likely culprit for Vincent’s poisoning which was frankly a shitty trade-off.

While he waited for a response from the Goddess he also began to untie the pack and suit from Vincent, keeping the paralyzed adventurer propped up with a leg. “Reason aside, got anything to fix him up or will it pass with time?”

[Dawn]

At Alexander's words, Thoth's expression abruptly changed, her confused state replaced as if she had an epiphany. "U-Um, I...I'll be right back!" She blurted out abruptly before running in the opposite direction of the adventurers, towards the back room of her lab. From where Alexander and friends stood, they'd be able to hear a few crashing noises, the sound of something heavy being knocked over, and a strange sizzling sound all emanate from the back room, until Thoth emerged about a minute and a half later.

Shuffling forwards and facing the ground, the God was quiet for several seconds before she managed to speak up. "...um, s-so, the antitoxin I made...might have accidentally gotten mixed with a paralytic I was working on by accident." She mumbled. "A-And...er...well, I don't have enough materials to make a new batch, so i-it's all I have for now. I-I'll be selling it at a discount though, since...um...since it paralyzes you. I don't have the supplies to make an antidote either, but it should wear off on its own in...a-a couple of hours."

As expected of potion master.

[Yuri]

Senna blinks silently through most of Thoth's explanation, but upon hearing "heals wounds", she smiles and nods sagely.

"I understand."

When a whole lot of others come in and start talking about all sorts of things, like soul attacks, and paralysis, Senna decides it would be the best time to slip out. So, nodding and smiling at Thoth and the others, she heads out the door and goes to search for Cernunnos. The flasks are replaced into her bag, and she treads lightly into the district that was home to the two trickier Goddesses.

Once there, she waits around a little to see if Cern would show herself. Because looking for her was hard.

[Fish of Oblivion]

Vincent had been pretty quiet as they made their way up through the Labyrinth- he didn't have much choice but to be quiet, really, given he was still fully paralyzed. Alexander had been strong enough to carry him without much trouble, and it had been a quick journey. He'd also stayed quiet as they reached Thoth's Guild and confirmed the nature of the potions.

"...um, s-so, the antitoxin I made...might have accidentally gotten mixed with a paralytic I was working on by accident."

That silence was broken as a violent, angry groan escaped the man's body. As the Goddess continued, the groan became even more aggressive.

In a small way, Vincent was glad he was paralyzed at that moment. Gods knew what he might have tried to do to Thoth if he wasn't.

[Zombehs]

Alexander waited with a concerned expression as he heard the commotion Thoth had somehow managed to drum up. It seemed like a wild monster was loose in the backroom rather than the bookworm Goddess. Nonetheless she came out a minute, or so, later looking somewhat embarrassed to his confusion.

“Ah…” Alexander’s reaction was surprisingly tame, even to himself, considering disbelief warred with anger at the Goddess’ carelessness. “What?” he asked, not quite believing what he was hearing. She wanted to sell these faulty products that had almost gotten one of her Guild Members killed? He was surprised at the anger he felt towards the dainty looking deity, but her negligence and thoughtlessness was certainly pushing the right buttons. “You want to sell faulty potions that might very well get other adventurers killed? If Vincent didn’t have someone drag him out, he would be monster food.” He didn’t even care about Senna not sharing some of the loot she had come across, such a minor concern in comparison.

Vincent certainly also seemed to share his feelings, even if the paralyzation prevented him from expressing anything. “Wanna meet Ares?” he asked, not sure if the man wanted to stay around Thoth from the vicious sounds he made.