[h3]Ash’s Party[/h3] As Ash sank her venom soaked claws into the rat trying to attack Colchain, it squealed in pain and the familiar sizzling sound of acid upon flesh was music to Ash's earholes. It quickly abandoned its tussle with the other Lizard, and as it turned it snapped at Ash's foreleg, breaking through her scales and drawing blood. This allowed it to break the scuffle and get some distance between them just before Ash's Venom Shot--but it wasn't enough, and the poisonous pellet hit the Dire Rat square in the snout. It fell with piteous cries and began thrashing about...but a final convulsion left it limp upon the rocky ground. Colchain looked up at the other lizard with a chunk of furry hide in his mouth, chewing contemplatively with one claw still on top of his own slain adversary. Meanwhile, Ardur grabbed the first rat they had killed and somehow--probably because of his newfound buff-ness--managed to haul it into the air with jerky starts and flaps of his wings. But this struggle paid off in more ways than one. He successfully managed to toss the corpse down right in the path of the oncoming slime, which was now close enough for everyone to see...and then-- [quote=System:Ardur] Rank Up: Lesser Flight II > Lesser Flight III Stamina consumption decreased. Flight speed increased. Carrying capacity increased. [/quote] The Big Slime, its three colors swirling inside it, stopped for a moment to observe the food that had fallen out of the sky. Then it promptly enveloped this meal without even a wobble of thanks, and began digesting it. Just then, however, three other multicolored beings fluttered around it and began grabbing big handfuls of its rubbery membrane. It made a gulping sound that might have been surprise. However, such a large creature was no lightweight. The three pixies struggled, even with one of them being buffer than your usual fairy and having just become capable of carrying larger weights while flying. They were able to get the creature off the ground, but then it began to struggle, its mass surging back and forth. They still managed to carry it a short distance...then, a meaty pseudopod emerged and took aim at Naji! With an angry squelch, the big slime swung--and missed, as the three flyers let go. It was only a couple of feet, however the sharp stone spikes still managed to pierce the Big Slime's membrane. It gave some kind of creen that likely indicated pain, but after a few moments it didn't seem all that worse for wear. It was still digesting the rat--chewing its cud in thought, so to speak--as its mass shifted around the stalagmites. But even though they hadn't killed it, Naji, Scott, and Ardur had certainly impeded it. It was stuck between these tightly wedged spikes, and stuck [i]on[/i] them, even though it soon began trying to pull itself off. Who knew how long that would take, though...? [hr] [h3]Bonfire Party[/h3] [quote=LOOT] 36 Mana Crystals remain. 3 Flame Touched Crystals remain. [/quote] [quote=System:Jason] Rank Up: Telepathy I > Telepathy II MP consumption slightly increased. More complex thoughts and stronger emotions can be sent. One-way messages can be sent to a creature you have made contact with before as long as they are within 5 feet. When making physical contact with a creature, if they are willing they can send you a single return message. Skill Gain: Mental Resistance I Take less damage from Psychic-type spells or skills, and have a better chance of resisting mind-altering effects such as Confusion or Hypnosis. This counts as an Elemental resistance for the purposes of Magic Resistance. [/quote] [quote=System:Mourningstar] Skill Gaink: Focus I By spending at least 30 seconds focusing before using an offensive Skill or Spell, you can increase its damage. At this rank it is comparable to increasing the power by one rank (eg Mana Orb I to Mana Orb II) while also increasing the MP cost by half again (spend 1.5x Mana Orb I's cost). [/quote] [quote=System:Asura] Skill Gain: Faster I Your base physical speed is increased! By gaining the skills Harder, Better, and Stronger, Skill Synergy will occur and you will gain one rank of Physical Conditioning. [/quote] [quote=System:Ed] Your HP is still draining. You are still out of Stamina. [/quote] [quote=System:Asteria] Skill Gain: Poison Resistance I Take less damage from Poisonous spells or skills, and have a better chance to resist this particular status infliction. By gaining at least one rank of all other status resistances, Skill Synergy will occur and grant you one rank of Status Resistance. By gaining further ranks in this specific skill, you will gain a choice of Branch Skills related to it. [/quote] Asteria would notice that the next time she took damage from the poison--it seemed to occur roughly every minute or so--that it didn't seem quite so bad as before. It was almost negligible, even, thanks to Oberon topping her off before. Ed didn't say anything to Jason, but it seemed like he was, so far, the only one who wanted to protect the evolving slime. But would he be able to do that with his body in this exhausted and battered condition? Jason, meanwhile, had distributed all of his points and gained a few new skills...but just a few moments after he asked the others to help protect him-- [quote=System:Jason] Skill Gain: Charisma I Your force of personality is almost magical unto itself. You have a better chance of convincing others during negotiations, unless their Will is sufficiently strong. [/quote] Momma Slime, having almost finally managed to squeeze into the tunnel, now let out something akin to a bubbly sigh and started to reverse herself. With a pop she rolled free of the tunnels and let Asura and Digbie out. As Asura rolled by, a big blue pseudopod patted him on the head. "Blrblrblayay." Though the Red Slime seemed to be able to shove more matter into himself and hold it more easily than before (perhaps something to do with that "base strength increase" he'd gotten notice of) he couldn't make the items "stack" they way they would in a videogame. Whatever physical space they seemed to take up, that was what he was stuck with. As Mourningstar gathered up her tiny makeshift satchel with Lesser Force, she would notice that carrying it while it had items in it seemed to burn through her MP faster than normal. Since Lesser Force had ranked up recently it didn't seem quite so bad as it might have been, but she still wouldn't be able to carry this little pack indefinitely, and doing so for too long might encumber her other spells. She had, however, gained an interesting new skill in Focus. As she began to float away from the group, she would probably notice that once more the cave seemed to be growing darker, and the shafts of sunlight coming through the cracks in the earth were getting dimmer... [hr] [h3]Orchid[/h3] [quote=System:Orchid] You made an item! Fiber Cord (Average) Your Crafting IV skill keeps this item from degrading despite a lack of materials. You created: Plant Fiber Sling! This item will allow you to attack from range with Small projectiles. It isn't very durable. It's very vulnerable to fire. [/quote] As Orchid let an acorn fly, it whistled through the air as her sling snapped like a whip...and went right past the female goblin's head. It cracked against the tree she was in, causing her to yelp in surprise and almost fall off her branch, but the acorn had already ricocheted into the bushes...and it apparently struck something else, as evidenced by a soft thump not too far away. Followed by a growl. "What you do dat for!? You tryin' ta hit me, you dum!?" yelled the other goblin, before she too heard the threatening noise and clung tighter to her branch. Mere seconds later, something burst through the undergrowth. It looked like a badger. A rather [i]large[/i] badger--probably 80 pounds if it was an ounce and at least a foot and a half tall even though it was on all fours--with foreclaws that looked like they should have belonged to a velociraptor. And it also had some kind of shell on its back, like that of an armadillo, made of grayish-pink, scaly hide. There was a scuff mark on its forehead where Orchid's acorn had struck it. But the Armor Badger didn't care. Armor Badger was PISSED. [hr] [h3]Rain[/h3] While Rain was covering herself with dirt and hiding the blue gleam of her scales, the goblin that had run to Rattleskull managed to get his attention. The boss listened to its excited gibbering but then turned towards the two lookouts. "Oi! Whaddya see!?" he barked, and the two of them jumped at his shout. And like the fools they were, they both turned away from actually looking to tell the boss what they were looking at. Rain managed to dart towards her rock, and now she had a much better angle from which to escape, or to observe. However, if any of the goblins approached the corpses, she could be in big trouble. Should she continue to press her luck like this...?