We started following the trails left behind by the spirits, which were sparkling quite notoriously. The more we advanced forward, the more this darker energy became stronger, until we finally sensed some life forms lurking a bit farther away.
"I can sense something ahead, be careful. Get ready for any fight." I told my friends, as we hid behind a wall until Mark decided to step forwards.
"Let me stay in the front, I'm the tankiest of the group." He said.
"Well, I would be the tankiest if I transform- but yeah." Lily nodded.
"Alright, let's stay behind him then." I agreed, as Mark slowly started moving forwards, all the rest of us staying behind.
The path was very narrow, so if we fight too aggressively, we might end up falling into the nasty sewer water down below, and that's the least we would ever wish for!
Slowly, Mark made his way to the other side, but found nothing there…
Yet the life signals kept drawing closer.
Until…
"H-Hey, what's that?"
Jenny pointed into the ceiling right above us, several patches of black mold started… moving.
"That's not just mold!" Lily cried.
"GRAAAH!"
The several masses of mold slowly extended their bodies, taking the form of aberrant creatures, resembling slimes, but made completely out of black mud and trash, with several creepy eyes on them!
Ding!
[You have been detected by several [Miasmic Mud Slimes: Lv 140]!]
"They're coming! Watch out!" Mark said, as he quickly punched one of those Slimes that dared to jump straight into his face, making half its body blow up from his flames!
BOOOOMM!!
"Gryyaargh!"
"Gruoohh!"
The other four Miasmic Mud Slimes quickly targeted us. Two of them gathering their slime into their bodies and firing projectiles towards us.
The other two jumped into the floor, expanding their bodies into tentacles to drag us down into the water!
"[Blazing Sunlight Beam]!"
By calling forth the might of Sunlight Spirits, I combined their power into my staff, unleashing several small yet powerful beams composed of blazing sunlight!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The beams pierced through the bodies of two, one of them was hit into their core, instantly splattering into the floor, and dying on the spot.
However, the other one jumped towards Rita, trying to drag her legs down!
"You disgusting thing!" Rita cried. "[Shadow Dragon Claws]!"
Her claws themselves suddenly grew black scales and larger claws than before. Dark Elves by themselves had the power to fight using their nails, which they could grow into large knife-like structures.
Now that she became a Draconian Dark Elf Sorceress, she easily imbued magic power into her hands, growing sharp claws and slashing apart the monster, shattering its core after a few swipes!
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
"We'll take care of these!"
"Yeah!"
Meanwhile, Lily and Jenny already clashed against the two Miasmic Mud Slimes resting on the ceiling. Lily quickly conjuring several spears of sharp crystals, while Jenny shoot her acidic poison at them.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The two Miasmic Mud Slimes were tough, evading attacks and leaping away to survive while shooting their own bullets, but were eventually overpowered not long after their initial dodges.
"Phew, well, that wasn't so hard!" I said with a nod.
"It was only five?" Wondered Mark. "Hmm, still strange. Just what are these things?" He began examining their dropped items, a bottle filled with miasmic mud and a shattered black crystal core.
"Miasmic Mud Slimes…" Jenny said. "I guess they are what their name indicates! What else?"
"Probably something the cultists made." Rita said. "But they were much weaker and dumber than the other creatures we fought back then, the Miasmic Aberrations."
"Yeah, that's for sure!" Lily agreed. "I think they might be something like… offshoots. I bet those things are created somewhere, and these Mud Slimes might be what's left behind from their creation, or failures of them?"
"If that's the case, it is a bit dangerous. If they happen to infest any freshwater areas that people drink every day…" Mark muttered.
"It might as well mean the death of many, or… something even worse." I said, beginning to realize how important was to clear this place from these critters.
"Could these monsters be part of their plan?" Rita asked.
"We don't know about that yet, but we should investigate further." I said. "Let's keep going, we're not even at the origin of this miasma…"
We kept moving forward, but not even a couple of minutes later and we ended confronting another three Miasmic Mud Slimes, which went down quite easily.
However, they kept appearing on intervals of a couple of minutes, as if they've been on standby somewhere else, and once they found us, they immediately rushed towards us.
After around fifteen minutes of exploring, we've hunted roughly twenty-five of these guys…
The unsettling thing about this is that we haven't even found any Cultists yet. This Dungeon was either abandoned or they're hiding somewhere else where they had either not detected us or are simply waiting for us to die against their monsters.
"They sure are slow, I'm getting bored by just hunting small groups like this!" Rita complained.
"You shouldn't be saying that it's better this way than having to fight a whole swarm of them…" Mark sighed. "Look, there's- Eh? Actually, there's something over there!"
Mark suddenly noticed a dark purple glow at the distance, emerging from what seemed to be a room in the sewers.
Ding!
[The Mysterious Dark Energy is beginning to grow stronger as you move closer…]
[Its dark purple glow is beginning to alter those that have secreted from within its core…]
[Their wounds are bleeding miasma… Their monstrous children begin to awake.]
What…?
SPLAAAAASSSH!
Suddenly, after I read those unsettling messages, the surrounding sewer water started splashing everywhere, from within its depths, dozens- no hundreds of Miasmic Mud Slimes emerged, one after another!
"Graaahhh!"
"Gruoohhh!"
"Shaaaggh!"
With their aberrant shrieks, they started rushing towards us, surrounding us as the sewer waters kept moving everywhere chaotically, something else was emerging from them, something much bigger!
RUMBLE!
"GRUOOOHHHH…!"
