Dawn

Labyrinth

Thoth seemed to calm down after a few seconds, though she continued sniffling to herself for some time even after Alexander's apology. "...i-it's really okay? Y-You're not mad anymore?" She croaked out shakily, wiping her eyes. "W-Well, um, i-it's okay. I'm sorry, I-I'm not really good in tense environments. Handling things like that was Sh-Shiva's job, so I'm still k-kind of adjusting." She mumbled. "...y-you can stand up, i-it's fine."

At Alexander's later question though, the God's face reddened sharply as she clamped her hands over her mouth, letting out a muffled yelp. A few moments later, she dropped her hands back to her sides, uneasily glancing off to the side. "...w-well, I'm not sure, but from what I saw, the Labyrinth's exerting less magical energy than H-Heka had estimated." She explained, faltering slightly when mentioning the Magic God's name. Evidently those two didn't have the most favorable relationship. "I-I haven't gotten a chance to talk with the others about it yet, s-so I might be wrong. Um...i-if you could not tell anyone I told you that, I'd really appreciate it. W-We're not supposed to share sensitive information with people who aren't at a blessing quota."

Labyrinth

Thoth shrank back at Alexander's reprimand and Vincent's...groan, the God quivering slightly in place. "...w-well, you know, l-last time if you didn't get a-at least some treatment from that poison, you'd die r-really quickly." She mumbled weakly, facing the floor as she pivoted her right foot around uneasily. "S-So, if someone has the potion, th-they can drink half of it so they don't die immediately, th-then run outside because they won't be fully paralyzed...and...and then they'll be back here, so they can drink the rest to get rid of the poison completely, a-and they don't have to worry about being paralyzed because there aren't monsters here. I...I thought it made sense."

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't want to make anyone upset, I-I'll take them off the shelf. B-But that means I won't be able to sell anything, s-since I used up all my non-base materials making this. I'm such a dummy! I-I was just really excited people would be using my potions again, s-so I tried to make them in time for the opening, b-but I rushed it a-and Heka was right and I am just a dummy half-rate and...I-I'm sooooorryyyyyy!"

Her hands reaching up to her face, Thoth softly began to cry under the brutal verbal assault of Alexander, the wings on her head drooping down limply.

Good job, champ. You sure showed her.

---

Senna actually had to walk around for an unusually long stretch of time before she would finally feel a familiar breath on the back of her neck, her patron God revealing herself as was her nature.

"Aaa, sorry about leaving you waiting like that, Senna." Cernunnos remarked, lazily walking around from behind Senna to in front of her. The God seemed a little bit perturbed, off-edge from her usual, teasing self. "I know you've been here for a while. Loki's just been...she's been kind of out-of-it, so I've been trying to cheer her up. I just couldn't leave her alone like that, you know? Loki moping...it's just not right."

Shaking her head slightly as though to clear it, Cernunnos abruptly sloughed off her prior demeanor and took on something more alike her usual state.

"Sooooo, how was the Labyrinth~? Find anything neat? I saw a guy carrying another guy down the street, you know 'em? Ahaha, who am I kidding? I saw everything through your eyes, I know you know them. But neat job out there, you keep it up, you little go-getter~"

"So, what can I do for you? Status update, advice, or...maybe it's me you want~?"

Fuck's sake, Cern. She's eleven.

Labyrinth

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.

Labyrinth

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..."

Labyrinth

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..."

Labyrinth

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?"

Labyrinth

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.

Labyrinth

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.

Labyrinth

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.

[Vincent has discovered Monster Species "Poison Slime"!]

A-At least the second floor looks clear?

Labyrinth

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.