Chapter 3 Part 3: Learning About Experience
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Chapter 3 Part 3: Learning About Experience
The double doors remained open when they stepped through them again.
Ethan let his light travel down the main corridor as they walked. The scattered birdshot from the orange slime fight still scattered across the stone floor of the passage.
“Still there,” Abigail said, angling her light across the pellets.
“Yeah,” Ethan replied. “So whatever repaired yesterday’s damage hasn’t cycled again.”
“Well, it has only been about thirty minutes,” Abigail said.
With the left-hand passage visible ahead, they slowed as they approached the intersection. “Decision one,” Ethan said.
Looking down the passage to the left and seeing something about a hundred yards down, near the end of her light, Abigail said, “Left-hand rule says we take this passage."
He glanced down the main corridor beyond the opening, then back to her as he took out sidewalk chalk from his waist pouch. “Not seeing any slimes or other passages here. Number them as we go.”
“I’ll keep a rough map,” she said, pulling her notebook out of her pocket. “Just in case something erases the markings.”
They had gone perhaps sixty yards when movement resolved ahead in their overlapping beams. A translucent purple mass slid along the floor, its darker core suspended slightly above its midpoint.
“Purple,” Abigail said immediately. “Poison?”
Ethan did not comment on the classification. He raised his shotgun and waited until the slime advanced to his usual distance before firing. The blast punched through the outer mass, shredding it, but the darker core remained intact. The slime compressed inward and pushed forward again.
“Missed the core. Maybe we should shorten the range a bit so the spread stays a little tighter.” Abigail said over the radio.
Ethan adjusted and fired a second time. The pattern struck through the darker center, and the slime collapsed into drifting blue motes. The glow of a small sphere remained on the stone where it had been.
“Four for four on the manacite,” Abigail said. “If it is not a hundred percent drop rate, it is certainly a super high drop rate.”
Nodding as he collected the manacite, Ethan replied, “Yeah, four is not enough to make any kind of statistic, but it sure seems like it. So back to the obelisk?”
Ethan shifted his shotgun back into a ready carry and turned down the corridor the way they had come. They passed the chalk mark Ethan had drawn at the intersection—a simple “1” beside the left opening—and reentered the obelisk chamber through the open double doors. Abigail slipped her notebook back into her pocket as they crossed the stone floor toward the obelisk.
Ethan reached a facet first and placed his palm against it. His eyes tracked the display.
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Ethan Walker │ │ │ │ Human │ │ │ │ CLASS: Not chosen │ │ EXP: 7 │ │ │ │ HEALTH: 21 MANA: 20 │ │ │ │ STR: 12 CON: 11 INT: 10 │ │ MNT: 10 NMB: 10 CHM: 10 LUC: 10 │ │ │ │ SKILLS: │ │ - Archery │ │ - Marksmanship │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘“I have seven experience now, so I gained three from that,” he said.
Abigail stepped to another facet and touched it. She leaned slightly closer, reading carefully before straightening.
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Abigail Carter │ │ Huntress │ │ Human │ │ │ │ CLASS: Not chosen │ │ EXP: 11 │ │ │ │ HEALTH: 19 MANA: 22 │ │ │ │ STR: 10 CON: 9 INT: 11 │ │ MNT: 11 NMB: 10 CHM: 12 LUC: 10 │ │ │ │ SKILLS: │ │ - Archery │ │ - Marksmanship │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘“I’m up to eleven now, so that means two for me. Exactly five split proportionally,” she replied. “So, if slimes are always five, what happened to the half a point from our first two kills? We got two each time, not two the first time and three the second time.”
She pulled her phone from her pocket again and opened the calculator. Her thumb moved quickly.
“Eighty–twenty,” she said. “Five times point eight is four. Five times point two is one, still whole numbers. Let’s confirm that next.”
Ethan nodded and she adjusted the party distribution on the obelisk interface, shifting the weighting to eighty–twenty with Ethan as the heavier share. The display pulsed faintly as the setting locked in.
They turned and walked back toward the doors, then down to the left passage. The chalk “1” was still clear on the wall. They moved left again, following the branch they had committed to.
As they passed where they just killed the purple slime, they could clearly see the passage coming to a T intersection ahead. A translucent green slime slid along the floor, its darker core resting low and slightly forward within the mass.
“Green again,” Abigail said. “Looks the same green as the one from yesterday.”
Ethan raised the shotgun and held until the creature closed to roughly fifteen feet, then fired. The blast tore through the upper half of the slime, shredding its body. A pellet must have hit the core because the slime ruptured and dissolved into drifting blue motes, leaving another small glowing sphere on the stone.
Abigail crouched to retrieve it. “Five for five,” she said, flicking it into a ziplock bag with her belt knife.
Ethan glanced down both directions of the intersection turning back. “I don’t see any slimes either direction, so let’s go back and confirm and then make this left number two.”
Inside the chamber, Ethan touched his facet.
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Ethan Walker │ │ │ │ Human │ │ │ │ CLASS: Not chosen │ │ EXP: 11 │ │ │ │ HEALTH: 21 MANA: 20 │ │ │ │ STR: 12 CON: 11 INT: 10 │ │ MNT: 10 NMB: 10 CHM: 10 LUC: 10 │ │ │ │ SKILLS: │ │ - Archery │ │ - Marksmanship │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘“Eleven now, so I got four from that one,” he said.
Abigail checked hers.
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Abigail Carter │ │ Huntress │ │ Human │ │ │ │ CLASS: Not chosen │ │ EXP: 12 │ │ │ │ HEALTH: 19 MANA: 22 │ │ │ │ STR: 10 CON: 9 INT: 11 │ │ MNT: 11 NMB: 10 CHM: 12 LUC: 10 │ │ │ │ SKILLS: │ │ - Archery │ │ - Marksmanship │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘She gave a small nod. “I got one more. I am at twelve, so eighty–twenty confirmed.”
Ethan leaned back slightly, thinking through it. “Push it.”
“Ninety–ten,” she said immediately.
She reopened her calculator. “Ninety percent of five is four and a half, leaving just half a point for ten percent. If it really ignores experience less than one, that’s four and zero.”
“So we lose one experience,” Ethan said.
“Looks like it.” She adjusted the distribution accordingly.
They returned to the corridor once more.
They moved back down the left branch, past the chalk “1,” and returned to the T intersection. Ethan drew a “2” beside the left branch with the chalk before stepping into it.
About sixty yards ahead of them, their light just reached the end of the straight stretch and revealed another T intersection. As they advanced, Ethan’s beam caught movement off to the side rather than ahead.
“Hold,” he said quietly.
The slime wasn’t on the floor. It clung to the right wall about five feet up, its body pressed flat against the vertical stone. The darker core was visible within the mass.
“Orange,” Abigail said, tilting her light upward. “Fire again.”
“Maybe,” Ethan replied with a sigh. “We haven’t seen anything that even hints at attributes. Not everything is anime.”
The slime peeled away from the wall once the lights hit it. It just seemed to let itself drop to the ground in a puddle before gathering itself and pushing toward them.
Abigail stepped forward. “Let me get this one to see if that affects the experience at all since we are set to ninety percent.” Then she waited until it was about fifteen feet away before firing.
The tighter spread tore through most of its body. The darker core shuddered but remained intact.
“Guess there is still some luck to it, birdshot pellets are pretty small,” Abigail said and fired again. This time the darker center shattered, and the slime burst into blue motes that faded in the air between them.
Ethan stepped forward and crouched, flicking the manacite into the same ziplock bag with the tip of his knife.
“Six for six,” Abigail said. “If this isn’t a guaranteed drop, we’re statistically blessed.”
Ethan gave a small shrug. “Still a small sample. Let’s check the intersection before we turn back to check the experience.”
Reaching the T intersection, Ethan swept his light down both directions. The passage to the right ran for only fifteen yards before turning to the right. The passage to the left was even shorter, opening to the left 5 yards ahead and then turning to the right 5 yards after that.
“Damn this is really turning into a maze,” Abigail said.
“Yeah, but no movement either direction,” Ethan replied after panning around the entirety of the passages, floor to ceiling, on both sides.
“Let’s go back and confirm our experience first,” Abigail replied. “Mark this left number three, and we’ll go that way when we come back.”
Ethan marked the wall as Abigail sketched the map in her notebook and they retraced their steps to the obelisk chamber.
Ethan touched his facet.
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Ethan Walker │ │ │ │ Human │ │ │ │ CLASS: Not chosen │ │ EXP: 15 │ │ │ │ HEALTH: 21 MANA: 20 │ │ │ │ STR: 12 CON: 11 INT: 10 │ │ MNT: 10 NMB: 10 CHM: 10 LUC: 10 │ │ │ │ SKILLS: │ │ - Archery │ │ - Marksmanship │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘“Fifteen,” he said. “So four from that one.”
Abigail stepped forward and checked hers.
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Abigail Carter │ │ Huntress │ │ Human │ │ │ │ CLASS: Not chosen │ │ EXP: 12 │ │ │ │ HEALTH: 19 MANA: 22 │ │ │ │ STR: 10 CON: 9 INT: 11 │ │ MNT: 11 NMB: 10 CHM: 12 LUC: 10 │ │ │ │ SKILLS: │ │ - Archery │ │ - Marksmanship │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘“Still twelve,” she said.
Ethan looked over. “Zero.”
“Zero.” She leaned back slightly, thinking. “So it really seems to be ignoring anything less than a full point, and I did not get bonus or anything for making the kill shot.”
She pulled her phone back out and tapped the calculator again.
“Seventy five and twenty five,” she said. “Seventy five percent of five is three and three quarter. You make the kill this time just in case the kill does give some benefit that the half point was not enough to show.”
“So three and one, make yourself the seventy five,” Ethan said.
“If it keeps behaving the same way.” She nodded and adjusted the split.
They returned to the corridor and moved back to the T intersection with the three.
Since the passage only went five yards before branching left, they marked this one as 4 and looked down the passage.
About twenty-five yards in, it turned right and there was a translucent blue slime sitting right at the turn. It immediately began its strange stretch and roll movement heading toward them.
“Blue,” Abigail said. “Water, I bet.”
“Since it is heading for us, I’ll just wait for it,” Ethan said as he raised his shotgun.
Its surface drew inward as it closed the distance, tension building across its translucent body. Suddenly, a thin lance of blue formed in front of it and shot quickly toward Ethan.
With a completely instinctive reaction, Ethan managed to shift to the side a bit and the projectile hit the wall behind him with a splash.
“What the hell!” Ethan exclaimed in surprise as he tried to refocus his attention on the incoming slime.
Abigail laughed, sharp and startled. “Okay—so they can do that. Umm, I guess this proves elemental effects?”
Gathering himself, Ethan brought his shotgun back up and then closed the distance with the slime. “I’m going to kill it before it does that again.”
Shooting as soon as he was within twenty feet, a pellet must have hit the core as the slime quickly turned into blue motes and vanished.
Checking for more slimes, and not seeing any, Abigail quickly pulled a blue litmus paper out of her backpack and touches it to the wet splash area on the wall.
Ethan collected the manacite and quickly walked back next to Abigail, “Well? Did it shoot acid at me?” Ethan asked.
Abigail lifted up the litmus paper, “Doesn’t look like it was acid as it is still blue.”
“I bet it was water! So it was a water slime! And it used magic! It shot a water arrow at you!”
Ethan looked at the wet mark on the wall. “It hit stone and splashed.”
Abigail was still grinning. “Exactly. It splashed.”
“Which means it’s liquid,” he said. “That’s all we know.”
She hesitated.
“It wasn’t acid,” he added. “That’s good. Beyond that, we need to test it before we name it.”
Her shoulders lowered a fraction as she looked at the wall and floor. “But there is not enough to collect.”
“Well, now we know they can do something,” he said. “We can be ready for it to happen again and maybe get something to collect and test.”
“Alright, there is nothing more we can do about this anyway,” she eventually replied.
After making sure there was nothing else around, they walked back to the obelisk.
Ethan checked first.
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Ethan Walker │ │ │ │ Human │ │ │ │ CLASS: Not chosen │ │ EXP: 16 │ │ │ │ HEALTH: 21 MANA: 20 │ │ │ │ STR: 12 CON: 11 INT: 10 │ │ MNT: 10 NMB: 10 CHM: 10 LUC: 10 │ │ │ │ SKILLS: │ │ - Archery │ │ - Marksmanship │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘“Sixteen,” he said. “So one that time.”
Abigail checked hers.
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Abigail Carter │ │ Huntress │ │ Human │ │ │ │ CLASS: Not chosen │ │ EXP: 15 │ │ │ │ HEALTH: 19 MANA: 22 │ │ │ │ STR: 10 CON: 9 INT: 11 │ │ MNT: 11 NMB: 10 CHM: 12 LUC: 10 │ │ │ │ SKILLS: │ │ - Archery │ │ - Marksmanship │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘“Three for me,” she said.
She looked at him, then at the obelisk again.
“It’s consistent across every configuration we’ve tried,” she said. “It takes the percentage, cuts off anything under a full point, and throws the rest away. It doesn’t round up and it doesn’t save the leftover.”
“So for slimes,” Ethan said, “sixty–forty wastes nothing.”
She locked her phone and slipped it back into her pocket. “I think we can stop with the back and forth, and just keep track of kill numbers. It will keep getting farther and farther to come and go.”
Ethan nodded, “Yeah, this place is definitely feeling maze-like or something. We have not seen any doors, wider passages, rooms, or anything except straight passages and ninety-degree turns.”
“I wish we could just shout status and see our status,” she grumbled. “It is close to noon, so let’s take a break, then do an hour or so with the party set at sixty–forty with you heavy,” she said. “Then we come back, check everything, flip it, take a break, and run another hour-ish. That will put us at late afternoon.”
Ethan nodded and Abigail reset the distribution to sixty–forty.
Then they stepped back out of the portal to eat lunch.
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Chapter 3 part 3, significantly changed.