“Well, we are alive,” I remarked. “That means we have won.”

“Unless the roper is hiding somewhere along the way to ambush and eat us,” pointed out Beldrak.

“And this is why we brought along you and your spider,” answered Jim. “Now get to work.”

We have not met the roper. As far as we could tell, the beast pulled itself back to the river, and either crossed it, or jumped into it, and swam away. Nevertheless, we have not seen it, nor any conspicuous rocks, radiating danger. We arrived back to the waterfall and the storages which we wanted to enter from some other direction.

“Leave it be,” advised Beldrak. “I have a horrible feeling about this.”

“We have just triumphed over a monster with at least hundred tentacles, and an army of palm-sized teeth,” I argued. “Surely, nothing as bad as that would hide here.”

“Yeah, we just kicked a roper’s ass,” agreed Jim. “And these are just abandoned storages. You are way too paranoid.”

“It’s not paranoia when they are out there to get you,” murmured Beldrak. Then sighed. “I know I will regret this.”

Nevertheless, we started our usual precautions for entering a room that we suspected to be well-defended. Trueanvil cast a spell to determine whether we faced any magic. I examined the doorways for mundane traps, then he sent in his spider. After a quarter-hour or so, the small animal came back to us.

“I have not seen anything particularly threatening,” admitted Beldrak reluctantly. “Maybe the place is harmless.”

I went in cautiously, avoiding the one mechanical trap I have discovered and looked around. The storages were conspicuously untouched, but there was no sign as to what protected them from the looters. There was certainly nothing that saved them from time though: some of the sacks and crates started rotting, and their contents spilt out.

Then I saw the puddle. It looked like some grey liquid spilt on the floor, but how was that possible? Any liquid should have evaporated in two hundred years.

“There is your mysterious guardian,” I said to Beldrak, gesturing towards the small pond. “I don’t know what it is, but something is off with that little pond.” I grabbed one of my javelins and took aim.

“No, wait,” Trueanvil cried – but too late. I have hurled the projectile into the puddle, and the grey liquid set in motion with sudden alacrity. Then I slashed and trampled it, until it stopped moving, and fell apart into multiple little ponds, that quickly evaporated. I didn’t even pant after it. Rather anticlimactic after all the fuss Beldrak was raising.

“I wonder how this little thing ever stopped the troglodytes.”

Trueanvil was fretful as ever.

“Because you are a bloody idiot as usual, and don’t listen, just go ahead, straight into your doom. Oozes like that are dangerous! You were just lucky as usual, and it was starved to death. They are usually much bigger. I would say it killed some orks, and some troglodytes as well, then they left these storages alone. It must have been bound by some magic to these rooms, so it could not hunt. It was probably also forbidden to consume the storages.”

“If the thing was bound by magic, how did you not detect it?” Jim asked.

“Because, as you could have observed, if you used your eyes and ears, I can only determine magic in a certain range,” huffed the wizard. “The bloody ooze was thirty paces away from the door when I cast my spell, well outside my range.”

“I can see the ugly little puddle being bigger, but I still don’t understand how it would be dangerous,” I observed smugly. “What would it do? Tiptoe its way to my face, and try to suffocate me by covering my nose?”

“No, it would simply digest you. That grey liquid could easily eat through even your fancy armour, given time.”

I flinched and looked intently at Shatterpike’s blade. I saw no sign of corruption, but…

“Most magical weapons have protection against that sort of thing. Your boots, on the other hand…”

I followed Beldrak’s gaze and saw smoke rising from the sole of my boots. Damn, I just bought them two months ago!

In the end, losing my boots was a small price for all the silver we found in the storages. But the incident did drive home Trueanvil’s point – these puddle-looking oozes were actually dangerous. I should probably treat them with more respect next time.