*'Hiiro'*

  Illuminated under full daylight, a large wooden door stood before me. I started to doubt my ability to open it, it was that big.

  Managing to reach halfway up the monstrous cliff it was placed on, it's width was equal to that of barns. Glimmering expectation filled me as my gaze darted to the cliff wall to the side. A normal sized name tag read 'Grimer the Slime King'.

  I nodded with satisfaction before removed the large bolt that held the door shut, and entered.

  A tall narrow corridor was on the other side, it's walls comprised of stone with a couple wooden beams. As the door closed behind me, the level of light plummeted. Although there was the occasional torch here and there, they were very sparsely located. I proceeded, occasionally tapping the ground to check for pits.

  -

  'Slime king... well I wonder what the main mobs here will be. Hopefully, they won't be too weak,' I thought as I reached an intersection.

  There were three ways to go, forward, left or right. I saw similar bland passages every way, each cut into pitch black before showing me anything distinctive.

  Looking at the situation, only one conclusion came to mind, 'Oh god, this is a maze, isn't it?'

  I picked to go left, with no reason behind my choice.

  -

  Soon the straight path opened out into a larger room of equal dimness, the outlines of a few circular figures could be seen.

  The figures suddenly became bigger, accompanied by splashing and thud. I rushed back towards the corridor and picked up a torch, realizing the vast numbers that hid in the shadows.

  "Eh?" I said, focusing on one of the slimes.

  "Y... NO!" I said, soon remembering that tens of these things were slowly gaining towards my direction.

  Instead of looking into their intricate nature and stats, I assumed that most of their stats but speed were greater than I and brandished my staff in my free hand.

  "Bolt, bolt, bolt, bolt!" I said, targeting as many slimes as I could with my bind.

  When all of the fearsome balls were trapped, I watched as they struggled to be free.

  For minutes I laughed with cockiness at their fruitless attempts, that is until I heard some cracking from their direction.

  Curious to the source, I soon noticed that some of the tentacles holding them had been snapped in two, as the slime's attack seemed too much for the tentacles to hold off. My HP was 2339/2339, and with twenty of them bound, that meant about a tenth of their health went down with that one attack.

  'Huh, my AP's full again, so why not repeat it? It clearly works...' I thought, quickly saying, "Bolt," in rapid succession as I repeated my previous attack.

  This time, as the tentacles broke they were replaced by another use of Bolt. My AP regeneration was high enough to maintain it. So I just stood there and waited for their inevitable deaths.

  -

  When they kindly chose to die, I was bombarded by six different pings, each time adding another pop-up to say I leveled up. I considered myself pretty safe right now, but still chose to leave stat management for later, and explored the rest of the room. My mini-map, which was originally blank, filled up with every section I went to. So I knew I wouldn't get lost.

  'Wow, talk about lucky...' I told myself, seeing the entrance to a staircase jutting out of one of the nearby walls.

  With the label of 'Floor exit', I felt relieved that I dodged a maze. Without a need to explore more, I rushed down the steps to face my next challenge.

  -

  The room at the bottom initially blinded me since the light was so much brighter than before.

  My eyes eventually adjusted to a point where I could make out some details. I was facing a large, circular room which had lots of light sources attached to its walls. In the center was a shallow podium on which stood two chests neatly spaced apart. A red carpet revealed steps, which I used to walk up to the chests.

  "How cute..." I said whilst looking at the chest on the left. I had gathered I'd at least use my skill to see if I could tell what was inside it.

  I was speechless at this games bluntness. But I still examined the second one for Completionist's sake.

  "How cute..."

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  'Huh...'

  "How cute?" Confused by the error message, I tried it again.

  "Again? The... Eh?" I cut myself off, realizing the elephant in the room.

  "Yes!" I yelled, slightly annoyed that even a mimic had more base HP than I did.

  'What is up with that ridiculous Damage!?' I thought, as I saw how minuscule it's other stats were in comparison...

  "Oh beloved brothers of mine, please forgive my murderous hand," I preached with a massive dose of sarcasm, kneeling down before it. I replaced my torch with a sword and threw it at the mimic. The last thing I wanted was for it to bite me since that would be embarrassing...

  Surprisingly the sword flew across the room at a ludicrous speed. Upon hitting the mimic, it created a miniature explosion, instantly killing my poor brethren.

  With no distractions left alive, I then opened the real chest.

  Inside was a standard wooden staff, with some kind of chest on top of it.

  "How cute," I mumbled as a started towards the other exit.

  I tilted my head, not really sure what to make of it. I looked at the chest above the staff in more detail and did resemble a mimic, although only with two small fangs from the opening. Thinking about the stats, I soon questioned whether or not I should use it. My style didn't favor my immense speed, so maybe using it all in damage would be more beneficial...

  "How cute... Saying that this much is really awkward," I said, this time looking at my equipped staff's stats.

  'Hm... With my insane AP, my current staff doesn't really have a downside. But is the speed worth the lower attack?' I thought, juggling both staves pros and cons in my head.

  I decided to stuff the mimic staff in my inventory and descended to the next level.

  -

  As I got to the next level, the darkness of the first floor came back. I soon brought the torch back out, so I could actually see things.

  The walls had a similar pattern to the first, but the difference soon made itself apparent. At an intersection, I saw a stream of yellow gloop down the right path. The forward path had some of the same viscous liquid dripping down one of its walls and the left path was clean.

  I assumed the liquid was bad, so chose the left path. It was straight and soon opened up into a larger room, mirroring the first. And like the first, this room had numerous slimes. They looked different to the ones earlier. Some were smaller, and some were larger and misshapen like blobs rather than balls.

  "Eh?" I asked, aiming at one of the larger yellow slimes.

  "No," I said, knowing just from the name what was in store.

  The smaller ones were very fast, almost twenty had surrounded me before I could close the table.

  "Bind!" I yelled, cutting off larger slimes so I could focus on the smaller ones. I switched my staff for a sword and started to take swipes at them.

  Their speed made me miss most of my swings, but my speed allowed me to dodge theirs. The numerous thuds from outside my walls got louder the longer I took. Creating a window in which I had to kill these infernal slimes. The hits I got seemed to instantly kill them, but by the time my tentacles finally died, most of the small slimes still lived.

  I panicked, relying on making more walls to give myself enough time, and focused on each of my attacks. A group of ten small slimes was attacking from the same direction, so I waited for them to jump at me before slicing at them. I hit three, getting hit by four of the attacks I simply couldn't dodge.

  The sudden pain made me scream out loud, which made my sword glow. I swung my sword relentlessly, my hotheadedness taking over. I hit a lot, but took some hits I should've easily dodged...

  "Shit!" I screeched as I tried to control myself. If I kept like this I would probably let myself die, so tried to refocus. It was hard, but I gradually regained control of myself. My brain almost fried from a game of all things...

  I eventually succeeded and started to play defensively. But with all that time wasted, my walls crashed open again, revealing fifty more slimes.

  "Intimidate!" I yelled, in hopes that it would at least do something. It did, resulting in most of the smaller ones madly hopping away in random directions. Though, the larger slimes didn't and started their attacks.

  A large, green slime splashed green liquid towards me causing my to jump back.

  "Bind!" I created another wall, leaving that slime, and two others, to be the only ones fighting me.

  "Bolt, Bolt, Bolt," I repeated, soon binding all three slimes in tentacles.

  Their attacks temporarily stopped, leaving mine with an opportunity. I ran up to one of them, and continually slashed them. It quickly died. I did the same with the other but didn't get the kill before it freed itself. It's brethren finally broke my wall seconds later, revealing ten more large slimes. A series of smaller slimes started to race towards me too.

  "Intimidate. Bind," I said, fabricating a new wall.

  Now there were ten large slimes with me, and before I could bolt them, they all splashed and coated the entire area in slime.

  I somehow dodged all of the yellow gloop. But as a bit of the green hit my leg, I got an annoying popup.

  The pain caused me to grunt, and I lost control of my actions again. The same glow coated my sword, and I unconsciously charged in.