The basement of the Old Foundry wasn't on the official blueprints.
Elian stood at the top of a spiral metal staircase that descended into the dark. The air rising from below was cold and smelled of sulfur and stagnant water.
"Flashlights," Elian ordered.
Click. Click. Click.
Three beams of light cut through the gloom.
"I hate this," Silas muttered, clutching his heavy backpack. "Basements are where horror movies start. And end."
"You're the Quartermaster," Elian said, starting the descent. If we find ancient tech down here, I need you to appraise it. If we find monsters, Goran hits them. Kara watches our backs. Move.
They spiraled down. The metal steps groaned under Goran's weight.
Down here, the [Blueprint Sight] was glitchy. The interference from the Leyline was strong, turning the wireframe overlay into a static-filled mess.
Depth: -20 meters.
They reached the bottom.
It was a labyrinth of pipes. Massive, rusted conduits the size of subway cars ran along the walls and ceiling, converging toward a central chamber. The floor was wet, covered in a thin layer of oily condensation.
This is the cardiovascular system of the Foundry, Elian whispered, running his hand along a cold pipe. These feed the furnace. Or they used to.
It's quiet, Kara whispered. Too quiet. Even the rats don't come down here.
That's because rats are smart, Silas whimpered.
Elian stopped at a junction. A large valve wheel, rusted solid, blocked the path to the main Leyline Chamber.
Goran, Elian pointed. Open it.
Goran stepped up. He gripped the wheel with his massive hands. His biceps bulged as he activated [Iron Strength].
GROAN.
The metal screeched, resisting him.
"It's stuck," Goran grunted.
"Let me help." Elian placed his hand on the valve stem.
[Class Skill: Edit Mode][Action: Lubricate/Loosen]
He pushed a microscopic layer of mana between the rusted gears, dissolving the friction points.
Try now.
Goran turned it effortlessly. The valve spun, and the heavy blast door hissed open.
The chamber beyond was flooded.
Dark, murky water covered the floor up to their ankles. In the center of the room, a glowing blue fissure in the ground pulsed with raw power—the Leyline.
But something was wrong.
Elian frowned. The water wasn't clear. It was streaked with green and purple swirls. And the smell... it wasn't just sulfur anymore. It smelled like chemical burns.
Warning, Kaelen's voice spiked in Elian's mind. Toxin detected. Airborne particulate rising.
"Masks up!" Elian shouted, pulling his collar over his nose. "Don't breathe the mist!"
Suddenly, the pipes overhead began to shudder. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. It sounded like a massive heart beating inside the walls.
What is that? Kara backed away, looking up.
Elian looked at the pipes with [Blueprint Sight]. The lines turned red.
[Pressure Critical][Foreign Substance Detected: Industrial Mana-Waste (Grade C)][Source: Municipal Drainage, Sector 1]
Sector 1? Elian's eyes widened. Someone rerouted the city's sewage into our intake pipes.
CRACK.
A bolt popped off the main overhead pipe. A jet of pressurized green sludge shot out, sizzling as it hit the concrete wall.
"It's going to blow!" Goran yelled.
"Seal the door!" Silas screamed, turning to run.
"No!" Elian grabbed him. "If we seal the door, the pressure builds up and blows the foundation! The whole factory collapses! We have to divert it!"
BOOM.
The main pipe burst.
It wasn't a leak. It was a waterfall. Tons of toxic green sludge poured into the room, raising the water level instantly.
"High ground!" Elian commanded.
They scrambled onto a raised metal catwalk that circled the Leyline. The sludge rose beneath them, bubbling and hissing.
"It's acid!" Kara pointed. "Look at the floor!"
The concrete was smoking where the sludge touched it.
But the sludge wasn't just liquid. As it pooled around the glowing Leyline fissure, the raw mana reacted with the toxic waste.
Bubbling. Churning.
The sludge began to rise up. It formed shapes. Blobs of green goo coalesced, forming pseudo-limbs and gaping maws.
[Enemy: Toxic Slime (Mutated)][Level: 12][Abilities: Acid Touch, Division, Suffocation]
"We have company!" Goran drew his axe.
Three massive Slimes pulled themselves onto the catwalk, blocking the exit. They made wet, sucking sounds as they moved.
"Goran, hold them back!" Elian ordered. "I need time to fix the pipe!"
"I can't hit water!" Goran yelled, but he charged anyway. He swung his axe at the lead Slime.
SPLAT.
The axe cleaved the Slime in two. But the Slime didn't die. The two halves wiggled, grew new mouths, and became two smaller Slimes.
"Don't cut them!" Elian shouted, his eyes scanning the pipe rupture above. "They divide! Crush them!"
"With what?!" Goran roared, kicking a Slime away. His boot sizzled from the acid. "Argh! It burns!"
Kara threw a dagger. It sank into a Slime and dissolved instantly. "My knife! That cost 20 credits!"
Silas was cowering behind Elian. "We're going to die in a sewer! I knew it!"
Elian ignored them. He focused on the burst pipe. The sludge was pouring out at 500 PSI. He couldn't just patch it; the pressure would blow the patch.
He had to give the sludge somewhere to go.
He looked at the Leyline fissure in the center of the room below. Then he looked at the Intake Valve for the Blast Furnace on the far wall.
"The furnace burns mana," Elian realized. "This sludge is mana-waste. It's fuel. Dirty fuel, but fuel."
He needed to connect the burst pipe to the Furnace Intake. But the gap was ten meters.
"Goran! Buy me thirty seconds!"
"I'm trying!" Goran was wrestling a Slime, holding it back with the flat of his axe. "They're eating my armor!"
Elian raised his hands.
[Class Skill: Edit Mode][Target: The Catwalk Railing]
He ripped the steel railing from the walkway.
[Action: Reshape]
He bent the steel into a long, U-shaped gutter.
"Kara! Silas! Grab the end!"
Elian shoved the makeshift gutter into their hands. "Guide this to the Furnace Intake! I'll catch the flow!"
"Are you crazy?!" Silas yelled. "If we miss, we melt!"
"Do it!"
Elian jumped.
He didn't jump to safety. He jumped toward the burst pipe. He activated [Mana Thread], shooting a line to the ceiling to swing himself directly under the torrent of toxic sludge.
He held up the other end of the steel gutter.
HISSSSSS.
The sludge slammed into the metal trough, inches from Elian's face. The heat was intense. The fumes made his eyes water.
"Angle it down!" Elian screamed, struggling to hold the weight of the rushing liquid.
Kara and Silas, seeing Elian dangling from the ceiling by a thread, scrambled to jam the other end of the gutter into the Furnace Intake vent.
"It's too short!" Kara yelled. "It doesn't reach!"
They were a foot short. The sludge would spill onto the floor.
Silas looked at the gap. He looked at his heavy backpack—filled with spare metal plates he had scavenged earlier.
"Oh, screw it!" Silas grabbed a sheet of copper plating from his bag. He burned his hands holding it against the hot vent, bridging the gap.
"Now!"
Elian tilted the gutter.
The green sludge roared down the metal slide, over Silas's copper plate, and poured into the Furnace Intake.
Upstairs, in the main factory floor.
The Blast Furnace roared. The flames turned from blue to a violent, blinding green. The factory shook as the high-octane waste hit the core.
[Furnace Output: 300% (Critical)][Energy Surplus Detected.]
Back in the basement.
The sludge level on the floor stopped rising. The flow was contained in the gutter.
But the Slimes were still there. And now they were angry.
Five of them cornered Goran at the end of the catwalk. His axe was smoking, half-dissolved. He was backed against the wall.
"Elian!" Goran shouted. "Little help?!"
Elian was stuck holding the gutter under the pipe. He couldn't move.
"I can't move!" Elian yelled. "Silas! Kara! The Furnace is overclocked! Use the steam vents!"
"The what?!" Kara looked around.
"The red wheel on the wall! Spin it!"
Kara jumped over a puddle of acid and grabbed the red wheel. She spun it hard.
HISSSSS-THOOM.
Jets of superheated steam—now green and toxic—shot out from the pressure release valves lining the walls.
The steam hit the Slimes. Slimes were mostly water. Superheated steam boiled them instantly.
POP. POP. POP.
The Slimes exploded into harmless dried crusts.
Goran fell to his knees, coughing. The air was thick with green fog.
"Is it... over?" Goran wheezed.
Elian watched the last of the sludge drain from the pipe into the gutter. The flow was slowing down. The pressure from Sector 1 had been relieved.
"Yeah," Elian dropped from the ceiling, landing on the catwalk. He wiped green slime from his cheek. "It's over."
An hour later.
They sat on the factory floor upstairs. The furnace was still burning green, but it had stabilized. The entire factory was warm—almost hot.
Goran was applying a healing salve to his acid burns. His armor was ruined (again). "I need a raise," Goran said flatly.
Silas was mourning his melted copper plate. "That was pure copper. Do you know the scrap value of copper?"
Kara was just staring at the furnace. "That wasn't an accident, was it?" she asked quietly. "Pipes don't just burst like that."
Elian stood by the furnace console. He was reading the diagnostic log.
[Source Trace: Fenrir Guild Disposal Hub 4.]
"No," Elian said, his voice cold. "It wasn't an accident."
He turned to his team. They were battered. They were tired. But they had held. Silas had sacrificed his loot to bridge the gap. Kara had turned the valve. Goran had tanked a dozen monsters to protect them.
"It was a test," Elian told them. "Someone wanted to see if we would drown."
"Who?" Goran stood up, forgetting his pain. He gripped the handle of his ruined axe. "Point me at them."
"Not yet," Elian said. "We aren't strong enough to march on Sector 1. If we fight them now, we lose."
He looked at the green fire in the furnace.
"But they made a mistake," Elian smiled. "They sent us toxic waste to kill us. But look at the power readings."
He pointed to the gauge. [Mana Storage: Full.][Battery Charge: 100%.]
"They just gave us enough fuel to run this base for a year," Elian said. "And they gave me the raw materials to upgrade your gear."
He picked up a piece of dried Slime crust. It was hard as diamond. [Material: Hardened Resin.]
"Goran, give me your axe. Kara, your daggers."
"Why?"
"Because," Elian's eyes glowed with the reflection of the green fire. "If they want to play with acid... let's show them what we can build with it."