The tunnel widened, swallowing their footsteps in thickening gloom. The air was colder now, damp settling on Ethan’s arms and neck. It grew so dark that the far end of the corridor seemed to vanish.

  Ethan slowed, peering into the black. “Hang on,” he said quietly, and dug in his bag of holding until his fingers closed around a smooth, familiar stone. He pulled it free and breathed a little mana into it. The light stone flared softly, pale blue and steady, chasing the worst of the shadows up the walls.

  The fresh glow revealed more than just stone and mold. Strange marks—like scars—ran along the right-hand wall. At first, Ethan thought it was just old graffiti, but the lines twisted and branched out, pulsing faint red. Some shapes looked almost like letters, but none he could read.

  Lyra’s ears flattened. “Those aren’t from any language I know.”

  “They look… sick,” Pixie whispered, sticking close to Buster. “Like they’re moving.”

  Gwenna moved closer, her voice uneasy. “This is the kind of thing I’ve been tracking. Corruption, maybe. Or the start of it. I haven’t seen it up close before.”

  Ethan stared at the runes, feeling the hairs on his neck prickle. “They’re… wrong. Like they’re trying to crawl off the wall.”

  Moose sniffed at the edge of the red light, then stepped quickly away. “It doesn’t smell right. Don’t touch it.”

  Buster snorted. “We came all this way to look at glowing, creepy scribbles?”

  Ethan shook his head. “We came to figure out what’s doing this.”

  Nobody tried to touch the wall. They just watched the markings for a moment, the blue light from Ethan’s stone painting their faces in pale shadows. Somewhere behind them, water dripped steadily, each drop echoing off stone and the unknown.

  Ethan swallowed and tightened his grip on the light stone. “Let’s keep moving.”

  They pressed deeper, the light stone in Ethan’s palm making the shadows dance ahead of them. The air was thick, sticky, and hard to breathe. Every footstep seemed to echo off walls that pressed in closer than before.

  Without warning, something wet slapped the stones ahead—a gelatinous mass dropped from the ceiling, splattering across the tunnel. At first, it looked like a puddle catching their light, but then it surged forward, a quivering body threaded with streaks of sickly green and oily black. A faint red glow pulsed from within, thin red lines running through its body like veins—a clear sign of corruption. Buried deep inside, a faintly glowing orb drifted, pulsing like a heart.

  Pixie darted to one side. “That’s not a normal slime!”

  Moose dropped into a crouch, putting himself between the group and the thing. “Watch out. I can smell acid.”

  Buster bared his teeth and lunged, barking, “Body check!” He slammed into the slime with his full weight. A sizzling sound filled the air, and Buster yelped, stumbling back. His fur was smoking, paws burned and raw.

  Pixie tried a quick snap at its side but immediately recoiled, spitting and shaking her head. “Ew, ew! That tasted like poison and feet!”

  Ethan drew his short sword and slashed at the thing’s side. The blade met little resistance, slicing in deep. For a moment, he thought he’d done it—as the metal glanced off the orb, he instinctively pushed mana through the blade. Where the blade nicked the core, the red veins flickered and the slime recoiled as if shocked. But then the sword began to hiss and smoke in his grip, the blade turning pitted and dark, edges visibly weakened and slightly corroded. He pulled back, still holding the sword, but it looked one bad swing away from breaking.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said, staring at what was left of his weapon.

  Gwenna drew an arrow and whispered under her breath, water swirling around the shaft and forming a rippling blue arrowhead. She fired; the water arrow burst across the slime, making it draw back, but the orb inside still glowed.

  Gwenna raised her voice, urgent. “Magic! Use magic—physical attacks barely hurt it! If you’ve got an element, hit it now!”

  Lyra stepped forward, her hand sparking blue-white. “Fox fire—stand back!” She sent a swirl of cold flame into the slime’s body. It recoiled, the core pulsing brighter, but it wasn’t enough.

  Gwenna nocked another arrow, water magic forming the shaft entirely from swirling mana. “Water shot!” She fired; the arrow burst as it hit, dousing the slime’s surface, but the core still glowed.

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  “It’s the core!” Ethan said, pointing. “That’s where it’s weakest!”

  Lyra and Gwenna glanced at each other. Lyra sent another burst of fox fire just as Gwenna fired another water shot. The flames and water hit the core together, and the orb inside flickered, its surface cracking but not shattering.

  Ethan saw his opening. He lunged, driving what was left of his battered, mana-infused sword straight into the heart of the core. The metal vibrated under his grip as he forced his mana through it, light flaring from the cracks. The red veins pulsed, then burst, and the core finally shattered. The entire slime convulsed and collapsed in a rush of steam and a sound like tearing silk, melting into a pool of harmless liquid that stank of chemicals and mold.

  For a moment, no one moved. The tunnel was filled with the smell of burned fur and sour acid.

  Pixie was licking her paw, ears flat. “I hate slimes. They taste worse than socks.”

  Buster shook out his scorched paw, grumbling. “Next time, let’s just run.”

  Moose’s voice was low but steady. “Everyone in one piece?”

  Lyra flexed her fingers, fox fire dying away. “All good. But that was too close.”

  Ethan looked at his weakened sword, then at the puddle. He let the system alert flicker at the edge of his mind for a moment, then focused on it, bracing for more corrupted static.

  System notices jittered and glitched, lines of corrupted text flashing before resolving into something readable:

  [Corruption Detected: Unknown Slime Variant]

  [Elemental Attacks: Effective]

  [Mana Infusion: Counteracted Corruption]

  [Skill Learned: Mana Weapon Reinforcement]

  [Warning: Corruption Interference Detected – System Stability Compromised]

  [XP gained]

  [System restoring…]

  A new prompt lingered in his vision:

  [Mana Weapon Reinforcement: Imbue mana into physical weapons to strengthen attacks, improve durability, and enable effects against magical or corrupted targets.]

  Ethan let out a slow breath. “The system’s still freaking out about corruption. Looks like it’s adding it to my skills now—Mana Weapon Reinforcement. I guess pushing mana through my sword did more than just look flashy.”

  Gwenna was still watching the puddle steam away. “That’s why they drill us on elemental basics at the Academy and the Guild. Most monsters have a weak spot—sometimes fire, sometimes water, sometimes something else. Physical attacks aren’t really effective against slimes.”

  Ethan nodded, feeling suddenly behind. “Looks like I’ve got a lot to learn.”

  Lyra looked from the sword to Ethan’s hand and managed a small, wry smile. “You’re not supposed to melt your weapon just to show off, you know.”

  They regrouped, checking wounds and wiping slime from fur and boots. The light stone trembled in Ethan’s grip, but its glow never flickered.

  Ethan dug into his bag of holding and pulled out a health potion. He uncorked it, then knelt beside Buster and Pixie. “Hold still,” he said, and gently splashed a little of the potion onto their burned paws. The cuts and burns faded, raw skin knitting closed as the potion worked. He let Moose sniff the vial too, just in case, and offered Pixie a reassuring scratch behind the ear. It stung at first, but the pain faded fast.

  He nudged the potion toward Pixie. “Drink a little, just in case.” Pixie lapped up a few mouthfuls, her ears drooping. Ethan shared a small surge of mana with her through the bond, boosting the healing. She tried to say thanks, but her tongue was still sore from the acid. “I just got a mouth full of slime,” she grumbled. “Acid everywhere.” Ethan checked her mouth carefully, relieved that most of the damage was already fading.

  He looked from Pixie to his pitted sword, then back at the puddle. From the way the blade had corroded, it seemed the slime was most dangerous to metal. At least the Pack hadn’t taken the worst of it. With a sigh, Ethan left the old, pitted sword on the tunnel floor, then drew his last short sword out of storage and checked the edge.

  When they moved on, everyone gave the puddle a wide berth.

  As the others gathered themselves and packed up, Ethan paused, eyeing the runes where the red glow still crawled along the stone. He remembered the way his mana had reacted with the slime’s core—how the corruption had burned away the moment he pushed his energy through.

  He edged closer to the wall, hesitating. The thought of actually touching the runes made his skin crawl, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t push mana into the stone from a distance. Finally, jaw clenched, Ethan reached out and pressed his palm lightly against a patch where the veins ran brightest.

  The sensation was sharp and cold, like plunging his hand into ice water. He pushed, forcing mana through his palm and into the corrupted wall.

  At first, nothing happened. Then, slowly, the red veins began to fade, as if being drained from within. The stone beneath his hand vibrated and a small patch crumbled slightly at the edges, flaking away to dull gray. The sickly glow was gone.

  He stepped back, flexing his fingers, a chill running up his arm. The rune was still visible, but lifeless now—no more red, no more crawling light.

  Moose watched from nearby, ears perked. “Did you just… clear that?”

  Ethan nodded, staring at the spot in wonder. “Yeah. It’s like the slime—I can push my mana into it and burn out the corruption. But I have to touch it.”

  Gwenna came over, examining the spot. “That could be useful, if you don’t mind risking your hand. Just don’t overdo it.”

  Ethan nodded again, shaking out his fingers, then turned to follow the Pack as they moved away from the drained patch of wall.