In the evening they arrive at the temple ruins. It is a large temple, but part of its buildings have collapsed. A temple to the god of earth, Terra. A dragon statue, resembling Terra, sits at the center of the complex, but it has partly been destroyed. Nevertheless it is huge.

  Several weaker earth slimes attack them suddenly. They look cute, like little brown blobs with small green bushes sprouting out of the top of their heads. Their big eyes stare at them as they aggressively bump into them. Their only attack, it is largely ineffective.

  Hiero pushes the slimes away with one spear smack.

  They walk a bit further into the complex.

  Look at this, Amaru points at an opening in the ground.

  This must be the cellars.

  They head inside. Achran lights up a nearby torch. The place is dusty and there's several broken statues and furniture scattered around.

  They continue to walk through the cellars, looking for the adult earth slime, but there's no trace of it.

  The place has been thoroughly looted, there's no valuables here left, Amaru notes.

  Then they see it, at the end, is terra slime. There's a sword stuck in it's face.

  Do you guys think..? Achran says.

  Yes, it might have eaten him, Amaru continues.

  Hiero strikes the slime with his spear and Achran fires a musket shot at him.

  They quickly dispose of the terra slime with little effort. It pops and explodes into chunks of slime.

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  But to their surprise, there's no skeleton inside, and no traces of it having eaten any humanoids recently.

  He must be somewhere else. They take the sword and bring it with them as they head back to the inn.

  They start asking around if anyone's seen Rossum. To their surprise the same guy from earlier is still there, his arm now wrapped with a bandage.

  Alright I don't know about that kid you're looking for, but those saurians from earlier, they are known to kidnap people. If I were you, I'd check with them. They have a hideout east of here.

  The man scribbles a location on their map.

  We're going in circles, Achran says. We've wasted our time. I say we just cut our losses and give up.

  I have a good feeling he's alive, Hiero replies. We can still make it.

  They decide to cook dinner before heading back.

  It isn't much, using some dried meat and beans they make a stew, Achran contributes some fresh herbs he picked along the way.

  Let's see if this is any good, Amaru says.

  He takes a spoonful.

  It's alright, he says.

  I don't care, sustenance is sustenance, Achran replies.

  Everyone cares about good food, Hiero replies. It heals the soul.

  Not me, Achran says. I eat because I have to, I don't care much for taste, as long as it doesn't taste awful. I can go for months on nothing but bread and water, believe me, I've had to.

  You've been in jail? Amaru asks him.

  Yes, of course. Before I decided to better myself.

  What did you do?

  I don't want to talk about it.

  Come on Achran, we're going to be traveling together for a long time, we might as well get to know each other, Amaru follows up.

  Alright. I'm not proud of it. I stole from a bunch of nobles. Got caught selling the merchandise and they put me in jail for a long time. I was young and stupid.

  At least it was just a bunch of nobles, they have plenty anyway, Amaru says.

  Theft is always wrong, Hiero responds. If we were to condone theft it would turn into a free for all, you disgrace yourself when you steal.

  I know I know Achran says, before taking another spoonful himself.