Construction Mage - Chapter 46: Viscous

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As much as Clay regretted not listening to his foreman friend enough, he still held on to the belief that he wasn’t entirely wrong, either. Garrick’s suggestions were sound, and there was merit in listening to his years of experience, but that would entail exorbitantly higher costs and construction time. 

Thinking back on the three months of homeless hell, he wouldn’t want to go back to that for even a day. It reminded him of the old saying: ‘Fast, cheap, or good—pick two.’ Now that he had some leeway due to his newly gained strength, he could do things differently this time, if it came time to rebuild his house.

With his mana fully recovered, Clay no longer had to stay still. He strode back into the main hall, alert for any signs of oozes from all the entry points they could come from. As he expected, the monster didn’t leave him alone for long. One ooze had somehow climbed out of the gaping hole to his left, just behind the sanctuary, while another showed up through the same corridor across from him. 

Two at a time, huh?

Clay swiftly retreated back into the corridor behind him and once again summoned his guardian and helper. He then started meditating right away, seeing how starting early would not only increase his summon’s uptime, but also net him valuable levels from using the skill in combat against higher-level foes.

“By Lestionora’s name, heed my call,

Let your power take shape for me.

By sacred vow and binding light,

Rise from the void and lend me your might.”

The summoned earth elemental charged straight at the one across the main hall first, tanking the spray of acid from its target while the one from the left missed. The ooze’s helpless display was recreated as the golem ran over it without a care.

[Ding—Level 18 Ooze Spawn slain.]

[Ding—You have leveled up!]

[Ding—Skill: Summon Elemental(I) has leveled up!]

[Ding—Skill: Meditate(I) has leveled up!]

The elemental instantly turned around as another stream of dark green liquid splashed against its back. This time, however, it made it lurch forward, and the smoke rising off its shoulders was more apparent than before.

What?

Leaning out to get a closer look, the approaching ooze made Clay open his eyes wide in astonishment. The lack of light leaking through from the cloudy skies made it difficult to notice at first, but upon closer inspection, this ooze was of a darker shade than the other ones.

A more advanced variant? Damn it, these oozes all look too similar! It’s so hard to notice.

Stumbling a few steps forward, the summon swiftly recovered and turned around at its master’s command. Clay made it side-step away from the next attack before getting it to charge. Just from the few seconds it took to do so, the previous acid had already eaten halfway through its back.

There was no room for error anymore. The elemental didn’t have the agility to dodge another attack while charging forward in the first place. If he commanded it to slow down, it likely wouldn’t remain standing by the time it closed the distance with the dark green ooze.

Thoughts of retreat always started to dangle in Clay’s mind.

His golem continued to rush forward, clashing against another stream of acid. This time, with the momentum in its favor, it barely slowed it down. However, it did accelerate the rate at which it was being corroded.

Clay gawked at the scene, unblinking, as the elemental’s movements grew more janky from having parts of its body dissolved. Just as it was about to reach the ooze, it attacked once again. Realizing a very real possibility of the summon being pushed back by it, Clay commanded it to pounce at it with its remaining strength.

The stream of acid shot up, holding the summon in the air for a split second—only to fail against its impressive heft. The pile of hardened earth came crashing down as it crumpled into dust, kicking up a thick cloud. 

Thankfully, Clay knew the resolution.

[Ding—Level 19 Mature Ooze Spawn slain.]

[Ding—You have leveled up!]

[Ding—Skill: Summon Elemental(I) has leveled up!]

[Ding—Skill: Summon Elemental(I) has leveled up!]

[Ding—Skill: Summon Elemental(I) has leveled up!]

[Ding—Possible upgrade available for the skill, Summon Elemental(I)!]

[Ding—Skill: Meditate(I) has leveled up!]

[Ding—Skill: Meditate(I) has leveled up!]

[Ding—Skill: Spell Manipulation(I) has leveled up!]

The barrage of notifications jolted him out of his meditative state as it sent a surge of dopamine coursing through his brain. He couldn’t help but bring up his new status screen to examine his new gains and investigate the curious message about possible upgrades.

Status:

Name: Clayton Stratton

Age: 30

Class: Earth Mage [Apprentice] - Level 7 -> 9

Profession: Staffmaker, Alchemist

Resources:

Health - 100%

Stamina - 107/112 [1.6/min]

Mana - 72/100 [4.6/min]

Stats [Mage]:

Stat Points: 10 -> 20

Strength: 15 

Endurance: 16

Agility: 17

Dexterity: 11

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 23

Skills:

Spell Manipulation(I): 5 -> 6

Earth Blast(I): 4

Meditate(I): 3 -> 8

Summon Elemental(I): 6 -> 10 (Max)

Max? I guess level ten is the max for tier-one skills? I can’t do anything to upgrade it right now, though. I guess I’ll have to be in the white gazebo to do so.

Still, I can’t believe how easy it is to level up, facing off against these oozes compared to all the kobolds on the first layer. My rate of leveling up was already fast, but it’s nothing compared to this!

I suppose it isn’t viable long-term to have other Delvers fight monsters over ten layers above them, and alone. I got lucky with the earth elemental countering these oozes. I suppose these oozes don’t usually come alone either, seeing how they dropped down from the wyverns. There’s no way I can recreate a situation with all these conditions being met.

Distracted by all the new thoughts spinning in his head and by his impressive gains, by the time Clay noticed the next ooze to have intruded onto the church, it had already reached the entrance to his corridor. It just so happened to be another dark green ooze!

In a panic, he grabbed the maul at his side and raised it, ready to bring it down on the monster, but the sound of the acid burning away at the ground made him hesitate. It was too close to summon another elemental in time, and all he could do was press against the corner of the doorway to hide himself from sight.

Shit. Move legs, move!

Just as he mustered the resolve to retreat, a jittery voice abruptly called out, almost making him jump.

“Um, if you could please just stay still, I—um, will take care of it.”

Clay turned back to find a scrawny young man awkwardly hugging a spear. He had short, curly brown hair and a face full of freckles. Even without having heard him speak, anyone could tell how nervous the young man was from his body language. His body faced the wall of the corridor, with only his face turned Clay’s way, but even then, he was looking at the ground.

Before Clay could respond, the young man suddenly lifted his head, and a gust of wind blew through the corridor. A soft plop-plop sound sounded out from nearby, as he could feel himself splattered with some viscous liquid.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Clay cried.

He immediately knew what he was splattered with. Having witnessed how deadly the acid from the ooze was, he rolled onto the ground, trying to scrape every bit of it off him.

“What was that? You should’ve told me to run if you were going to do that! You’re going to get me killed!” he cursed at the timid man down the corridor.

“Um, ahhh, but—”

“Hurry up and help me! Do you have a change of clothes?” Clay yelled as he began scrambling to take off everything on him.

The timid man was troubled by all the yelling. He tried several times to form some words, only to swallow them down as he hesitated. After the third failed attempt, he seemed to have given up and approached Clay instead. He grabbed onto his hand and tightly squeezed it.

“What are you doing? I can’t take off my clothes like this!”

“Um—calm down. You’re, um, okay.”

“What do you mean, okay? If that acid eats through my clothes, my skin is next!”

The man took in several deep breaths before shouting at the top of his lungs.

“That!” The man pointed at the pool left behind by the ooze.

It finally managed to calm Clay down, but it didn’t stop him from struggling out of the timid spearman’s grasp, desperately trying to undress.

“The remains of oozes,” he muttered, needing to take another deep breath to continue. “They’re not harmful. Only their acid spray is.”

Hearing this, Clay abruptly came to a halt. He blinked blankly as he finally realized there was none of the characteristic sound of sizzling from the acid, nor did he feel any pain.

“Ooh—Well, you should’ve started with that!” Clay retorted. “You can let go of me now.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, the timid man relinquished Clay’s hand and scooted over to the remains of the ooze to guard the main hall instead.

Behind him, Clay could only awkwardly fix his clothes as he tried to calm himself from the embarrassing display just now.

What is with this guy? He’s obviously a high-level Delver, but why is he so timid? And shouldn’t seasoned Delvers know how to communicate effectively? I can’t believe I was writhing and squirming around on the ground for so long before he told me!

After a minute of internally cursing the newcomer, Clay finally settled down and raised his head. Despite the earlier accident, he knew he still had to thank the man for the help. Besides, making a connection with a Delver was never a bad thing.

“Sorry about that earlier. I’m Clay, by the way. Thanks for your assistance,” Clay greeted the Delver as he offered a handshake.

The timid man shot up from his crouched position and swiftly took it.

 “Um, I’m Eban.”

“Nice to meet—”

Before Clay could continue, he felt something slimy. He glanced down to find that the handshake had left a smear of viscous ooze on his hand.

What the hell? What is with this guy?

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