Chapter 451: Party Up

Now that he wasn't suffering from alcohol withdrawal, Urist was a much friendlier fellow and shared several stories with us as we "waited" for our companions.

Because of this, I learned a few things about what was going on in Dhoggurum. The "elf alcohol," for example, had come from Kaldrour Flintheart and Darmod, which had apparently rocked the entire city when it was first revealed. However, shortly after it flooded the market, it was practically taken off the shelves, with supplies very limited and the price having skyrocketed.

"I think they thought he would have a consistent supply chain, and then when he found out it wasn't, he had to turn his remaining supplies into rare luxury goods," Urist explained. "I was out of Dhoggurum during this whole ordeal, doing business for the Adventurers Guild. I only came back because I always told myself this would be the first labyrinth I beat."

Urist lamented that he wasn't here for the kobold invasion, as he would have loved to join the hunt for the lesser dragon and send those lizards packing with his trusty greataxe. He was especially mad at the alchemical attack the kobolds had done, which was apparently what my exploding [Core Storage] had been called.

"The elven diplomats said it was orchestrated by the Outeatus Kingdom, but they vehemently denied it. It's true that ground zero was the elven embassy, and that the Outeatus people refused to speak in the presence of a Truthseer, so the whole situation got very muddied. You know, typical political bullshit. It's why I'm glad I took to adventuring and not politicking."

I was surprised they refused to speak with a Truthseer present, especially since they weren't responsible for the "attack", but I quickly realized their other forms of involvement might have been brought up. If the angle the elves were taking was that the Outeatus Kingdom riled up the kobolds, and even armed them, while not naming the explosion of slime directly, it could be insinuated. I shuddered at the thought of all the political webs being woven and was glad that I too refused to participate directly in that.

Sylthaeryn was the next of our party to arrive, which left Urist quite confused. He clearly wasn't expecting to see two elves today, but he seemed to be having another issue with the matter.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but please tell me you two are somehow related?" Urist asked. "I always joke that I can never tell you elves apart, but now it's like I'm looking at twins."

"Syl here is my body double," Sylthaeryn explained, with a small smirk that I managed to catch. "With assassins after me, I needed someone to draw the attention away from me. With Keld now aiding me, I hope the matter will be resolved soon."

"Assassins? Bloody hell, what's going on in the world these days? Why can't everyone just stick to killing monsters?" Urist grumbled.

Of course, with Keld now mentioned, Urist began to ramble about golems. He found them fascinating and wondered if he could get one to clean his house. This was Sylvester's time to shine, and he spoke quite enthusiastically about golems and his eccentric teacher.

Urist was dumbfounded. "Wait, you're a golemancer? This party of yours seems quite crazy."

"You didn't use [Identify] on us?" Sylvester asked back.

"None of you used it on me, so I thought we were being polite."

Unfortunately, that wasn't why I hadn't used it. I only had my spell version of [Identify], and I wasn't sure about its legality. Well, legality probably wasn't the right word, but I couldn't think of anything better. It clearly used "system magic," and judging by how everyone who saw it treated it like some kind of taboo, I was very concerned about showing it off to anyone not on Team Syl.

As for it being "polite," Urist thankfully explained that most high-level people or creatures could detect when skills are being used on them, almost like a sixth sense, and [Identify] was one of the worst offenders. Hating that feeling of something crawling under your skin, most chose not to use it in polite company or when given permission.

"Well, bloody hell if we got a golemancer on our side, I think this final boss is going to be considerably easier," Urist said confidently. "When I tell my friends about this, they're going to think I'm the luckiest dwarf alive."

"If you think golemancer is rare, you should use [Identify] on my body double," Sylthaeryn suggested.

Urist raised a curious eyebrow, then must have used the skill, as I felt a tiny tingle. However, I quickly forgot about it as the dwarf began sputtering and coughing, as if he'd seen a ghost.

"Riftmancer!? Gods, you elves are crazy… Why are you letting her run around? And she's your body double? I can't believe I've heard something so ludicrous in my life."

Urist kept ranting and raving before taking out the potent drink and taking a big swig. Clearly, he needed some liquid courage to cope with the situation. Meanwhile, I had a quick telepathic conversation with Sylthaeryn and asked why she had done that.

"It's in the best interest of the elves," Sylthaeryn replied telepathically. "The dwarves clearly still aren't willing to cut off contact with Outeatus just yet, and this Urist fellow is probably going to be important, or maybe he knows important people. Diamond-rank adventurers have a lot of weight, and if he mentions that the elves have access to a powerful Riftmancer, they might not want to risk getting on our bad side."

I sighed and accepted the explanation. It was sort of my fault anyway, as I wasn't going around with my usual Elementalist label, since I wasn't even casting any elemental spells at the moment. It was also my fault for the Sylthaeryn personality genuinely caring about the elves and their politics, since I had done that to better fit the role she needed to perform.

I can probably bet that Keldenar wants to announce my Riftmancer class as further proof that I need to be promoted to diamond-rank. Not to mention that it would boost the attraction to his kingdom, since that means they might get gateways or teleportation pads across the world.

Honestly, I wasn't mad. Sure, my old self had been poisoned for my dimensional affinity, but they'd need to try way harder to do that to me now. Besides, being a slime was way worse than a Riftmancer, so as long as that stayed under wraps, my class was fine. I'd laugh in the face of anyone who tried to feed my poisoned cake now.

And then I don't need to hide my ability to teleport, or my beloved [Personal Rift]. Which is probably better in the long run.

Finally, Sylvain arrived, completing our party. Urist clearly wondered why two humans, two elves, and a dwarf were together, but he laughed instead.

"Well damn, we have a party for the ages here. If you include me in your group, we have two of every civilized race; the labyrinth boss will be quaking in her scales."

"Do you know what the boss is?" I asked.

"You mean you don't?" Urist asked in surprise.

We all shook our heads.

"Huh… I guess it's good for you that I was waiting here then. The boss is a legendary medusa. A giant snake that can turn you into a lawn ornament by just looking into her eyes. It's why I've been waiting here and not going to fight her myself, as you need at least two people to fight her. One to draw and block her gaze, while the other deals damage. Then you switch roles when she changes focus."

"Ah… That's actually not too much of an issue," Sylthaeryn replied. "Thanks to the Carren elves, we have plenty of petrification remedies."

Urist whistled. "And I thought having a Golemancer was good enough, but wow, you've really come prepared."

I was happy with Sylthaeryn's explanation for two reasons. The first was, obviously, telling the dwarf again that the elves were better allies than those pesky Outeatus humans. The second was that this helped explain why none of us might be petrified.

I'd already proven to be immune to the Medusa Vinewraith and while I wasn't sure if that applied to a magical gaze attack, I was pretty confident I was just outright immune to petrification. As a slime, I was already immune to most ailments, and that was before all the other slime types got added to the mix.

I could probably make a cure with [Heal Slime] and [Poison Slime] together as well.

Of course, there was a bigger issue to deal with, and unfortunately, Urist was the problem. I wanted to eat this "legendary medusa" for its profile and to add it to my ever-growing collection. Plus, having a petrifying gaze sounded cool, even if most of my other abilities were way better.

I couldn't just eat the corpse, and there was a good chance that the labyrinth master might teleport us out or take away the body before I got a good chance, adding to my predicament. I racked my brain for a solution without blowing my disguise, and thankfully I found one.

I secretly opened a small aperture and put Nu inside, since we no longer needed the separate network now that the maze navigation was over. I also used [Identity Fabrication] on Nu for extra measure, and a hilarious surprise if Urist decided to use [Identify] during the fight.

"Okay. So before we head in, we should discuss a bit of strategy," Urist said. "Normally I prefer to just go in swinging with my greataxe, but even with cures I think we should treat the petrification with caution. Of course, that is assuming you're okay with me joining your group?"

"I don't see why not," I replied.

"It would leave a bitter taste in my mouth to leave you here stranded," Sylthaeryn added.

"Or risk you coming into the battle halfway," Sylvain pointed out.

"I wouldn't do something as crazy as that, but yes, that is a good point," Urist said and pointed to the other side of the room we were in. "Anyone who crosses that threshold goes into the boss arena, and if a battle is already underway, you can only imagine the potential chaos."

Other than the intricate marble archway Urist had pointed at, this room was pretty much barren. I honestly had to give the dwarf credit for staying here for so long without going crazy, and wondered what he had done to pass the time.

But that was neither here nor now, and we had an upcoming battle to get ready for. I wasn't scared of some crazy snake lady turning us to stone, but Urist wanted to coordinate, so we humored him. My personas and I suggested our roles, and Urist added his input too.

Urist and Sylbera would be engaged in melee, hopefully trading the focus of the medusa while Sylthaeryn and Sylvain were our ranged damage dealers. Sylvester would be sending in golems to add to the melee squad and to potentially provide cover for the other two melee combatants to hide behind.

As for me, I was on support duties again, except this time I had my [Coordicore] to help, and no compressed-space shenanigans complicating the matter. I was fine with a less active role, but then Sylthaeryn decided to throw in one last word.

"If things get really bad, then Syl here is our secret weapon. You wouldn't believe the things she keeps in her dimensional storage spaces."

Urist's eyes widened, and I couldn't shake the feeling that that was exactly what he wanted to see happen, as it wasn't every day you got to witness [Dimension Magic]. I thought she had maybe said a bit too much, but I had been planning some things with Nu anyway, and this provided us a good excuse if we needed to pull out some slime shenanigans against this legendary medusa.

There was also the very, very slim chance that I could end the fight by just casting [Rift Rend], but I had the feeling that the boss of a labyrinth would have defenses against that.

"Alright. Shall we head in?" Urist asked.

Our group readied up, and we added Urist to the party, which finally revealed his class: Axelord Paragon. I'd never really seen a pure melee class at this level before, so I hoped I was in for a good show.

We stepped through the archway together and were moved to another section of the labyrinth. This was the third location now, with no physical connection to either place, although I had my [Coordicore] generate and save coordinates for them just in case.

Our new location appeared to be a massive coliseum, once again made entirely of intricate, adorned marble. However, what was quite alarming was that the stands of the coliseum were entirely occupied, not by people, but by lifelike statues. That was when we heard the slithering and what sounded like dozens of snakes hissing together.

"Who daresss enter my domain?"