《Syl》
Chapter 1: Meeting Gramps
Chapter 1: Meeting Gramps
I died. At least, that was all that I could remember. I was unsure how it happened or even who I was, but I was positive that was the oue.
While trying to make sense of the situation, despite myck of memories, a thought came to me intuitively: I should open up my status menu. I focused my mind as if I''d done this many times, and a window appeared within my subconscious.
Name: ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Race: ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
ss: ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Status: Dead
Unfortunately, it provided no help other than confirming I was dead.
Thank you, Captain Obvious...
I continued floating in the endless void for what felt like an eternity until a simple wooden stool appeared. I stared at it briefly and then suddenly found myself sitting in it.Well, I was getting tired of floating...
"Ah! You''ve finally arrived. Greetings, a loud but cheerful voice suddenly entered my mind.
"I can''t believe you died in such a ridiculous way. I don''t think I''ve ever seen such a waste of 5 Reincarnation Points." As he continued talking, I got the mental image of a grandfather.
I looked around but could not find its source. I would have opened my mouth to speak, but it seemed like I didn''t have one. I was unsure how I was even sitting since I couldn''t see my body.
Reincarnation Points? That sounds familiar, I thought to myself.
"Indeed it should! In your previous life, you had many aplishments and died a spectacr death, earning a boon for the world and a feast for us." The voice answered as if reading my mind.
What!? I tried to interrupt with my thoughts screaming, but the voice continued.
"Because of this, we rewarded you 5 Reincarnation Points for your next life to get a head start. You spent your first point to be born a noble, your second point to be a prodigy, and your final 3 points to unlock Dimension Magic. Honestly, you were practically built for greatness, and we thought your previous feast would pale inparison. It should have been a banquet!"
I''m sorry? I don''t even know how I died.
I felt a crushing disappointment, like the grandfather who once was proud of me was giving me a scolding.
"You were poisoned on your birthday by your older brother."
On my birthday, seriously!?
"I suppose he felt his inheritance as the firstborn was severely under threat by a walking prodigy showing off a legacy magic. Honestly, this is one of the reasons we should get rid of noble being a reincarnation option."
How was I poisoned? Surely they tried to save me if I was a noble?
"You dug into your favorite cake like it was about to sprout legs and run away. You were going at it so fast that people thought you were merely choking, which unfortunately gave the poison enough time to do its job."
I felt so ashamed even though I didn''t remember any of this. I stared into the void, wishing to disappear. I couldn''t believe that my past self was such an idiot.
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"Anyway, it''s time for your next life. Unfortunately, you earned no Reincarnation Points because you didn''t aplish anything noteworthy this time."
Guilt. Shame. I closed my eyes, hoping for the mental lecture to be over.
"However, your soul has a pretty good track record, and I feel you did not get your fair chance. Not to mention being poisoned on your birthday..."
A second chance? A do-over? I felt a small bubble of hope blossoming.
"Not quite. We can''t just give points away."
Bummer, I guess there''s no such thing as a free meal.
"However, we do run experiments on new reincarnation options to see if they have any future potential. Instead of having a default life, could I put you in one of these experiments?"
Although he was giving me a choice in the matter, I felt an otherworldly pressure telling me that I needed to ept, or he would be disappointed in me. I wasn¡¯t sure why I wanted to impress this disembodied Grandpa, but I was sure I could do it this time. I just needed to stay away from any poisoned cake.
It sounds like an upgrade over starting with nothing, so sign me up!
"Excellent! I''ll get the paperwork in order."
Wait, I have some questions...
The sound of a book being mmed shut echoed in my head, and the stool I was sitting on disappeared beneath me. Suddenly, I felt myself begin to fall into the void below.
Is he rushing this so I can''t change my mind? What sort of experiment is this?
"Enjoy your next life. I expect big things from you!"
That was thest thing I heard before the void below ripped open into a blinding light, and my consciousness faded.
The blinding light slowly began to fade as I started to hear life around me. Around me, I heard birds chirping, the rustling wind, water trickling, and something... sloshing?
I tried to blink but couldn¡¯t seem to. Eventually, I started making out shapes, which slowly came into focus. I saw the sky above me, the ground below me, a nearby stream, a forest in the distance, and what appeared to be a city with very high walls. Many round blue shapes around me seemed to be bouncing around.
Wait, why can I see so much all at once? I didn''t even turn my head?
I tried to move my body but seemed to fall over and roll forward. However, my vision didn''t change with my body''s orientation and continued toe into focus.
Do I have a full 360-degree vision? That seems very good, is this Grandpa''s blessing?
My vision focused more, and I saw that the blue ball shapes had a rather liquid-like texture and had a colored jewel in their center. My mind was tickled with the answer.
Why am I surrounded by slimes? I asked myself before I screamed out in horror. Status!
Name: -
Race: Slime (Blue) LV 1
ss: -
Status: Healthy
Grandpa... why did you turn me into a slime? This feels more like a punishment than an experiment. Is this because I wasted your Reincarnation Points?
Unfortunately, my thoughts went unanswered as I watched the slimes around me going about their business. A few seemed to be ¡°eating¡± some nts by slowly dissolving them, which they did by engulfing them inside their slime body. Other slimes were sittingzily by the stream, others seemed to be trying to jump or bounce, and tworger ones were even chasing after a rabbit.
Deciding to see what my new slime body looked like, I attempted to head toward the stream. Thankfully, moving my new body came to me without too much difficulty, almost instinctually. Upon reaching the stream, I got close enough so that my reflection was within range, where I saw a blue slime with a crimson-red core. I moved erratically to confirm the owner of the reflection.
Damn... I really am a slime.
I looked at the closest slime nearby, whose core was also a reddish color, although,pared to my own, it seemed much more dull.
At least my core is a rather vivid color.
My self-reflection was interrupted by the arrival of humans carrying baskets full of jars while some of the scruffier-looking ones were carrying buckets.
Humans from that nearby city, I''m guessing. I hope they don''t mean any harm. My fellow slimes don''t seem to be panicking.
The humans spread among the slimes, and I watched one of the first pick up a slime with one hand. After cing their basket carefully, they held the slime over one of their many jars, and he unsheathed a belt knife. Horror filled my mind as I watched the human cut into the slime, and the jelly was amputated from the slime and deposited into the jar below.
Or are they just too stupid to know any better!? I screamed as I watched the humans, one after another, follow the same steps.
I immediately started trying to run away, thinking I could get to the forest away from this ughter. My 360-degree vision gave me the perfect horror show as I watched a child run to catch up to me.
Nooooooooo!
The boy grabbed me and threw me into his bucket as I tried to squirm and get away throughout the process, but it was futile. His childlike strength was Herculean inparison to my jelly muscles.
"Xxxxxx xxxxx xxx''x xxxxxxxx xx xxxx..." The boy said something, but I couldn''t understand the words that came out. He pulled out his own knife, which looked well-used and looked after.
Please let me go! I don''t want to die again!
The boy couldn''t hear my screams as he brought the knife down.
I''m sorry, Gramps... Looks like I''ll be seeing you again shortly.
Chapter 2: Gooey Harvest
Chapter 2: Gooey Harvest
Strangely, I did not die or even feel pain as the boy''s knife pierced into me. I kept waiting and waiting to see the void again and hear grandpa again, but it did not happen.
The boy used his non-dominant hand to lift me while his other sliced away parts of my blue slime, which fell into the bucket below. There was no pain, but it was a bizarre feeling to watch my slime be disconnected from my ''body'' like the child was peeling a potato.
''I''m thankful this isn''t killing me, but this feels very viting... Being manhandled by a small child.''
When the slime disconnected from me, it would suddenly lose its semifluid consistency and immediately plummet to the bottom of the bucket, which exined why the boy was lifting me to stop me from reabsorbing the slime below.
After a few minutes, the boy lifted me from the bucket, ced me on the ground, and even petted my ''head''. I''ve easily lost over half my size and mass from the pruning.
"Xxx xxxx xxxx''x xx xxx, xxxxxx xxxxx." He again said something I could not understand and gave me a toothy smile.
He reached into his pocket, producing a moldy bread loaf, and dropped it on me. I wanted to screech in disgust as it entered me and then slowly began to dissolve.
''Thank goodness I don''t have taste buds... Although it feels weirdly pleasant to absorb things like this.''
I sat unmoving as the hard bread dissolved, watching my fellow slimes also be cut away and stored into jars or buckets.''I do wonder why this didn''t hurt or kill me; is this not the equivalent of being amputated or disemboweled?''
While observing the slime harvest I unfortunately got the answer to my question, as an older child was busy cutting away when his de struck against the pale red core of the slime. There was a cracking sound, and immediately the entire slime lost form and all of the liquid plummeted into the bucket. The core hit the bottom of the bucket with a dull nk sound, and I felt my entire being shudder in horror.
''I have to protect my crimson core at all costs.''
An adult runs over to the kid and smacks him over the head, shouting something at him. The kid rubs his head in pain while bowing frantically to the adult. They converse for a moment, and the man points towards the city with a scowl. The boy starts frantically running back towards the city while holding his bucket carefully.
''I guess it was an ident, and they aren''t intentionally killing us slimes? But to be able to lose my life at the mistake of a child is a terrifying conclusion.''
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Each human sticks around until their containers reach capacity, and then they start heading back towards the city. As thest of the humans disperse, the slimes start heading towards any nearby foliage to eat again. I notice that the bread is now fully dissolved, and I have regained some of my previous mass.
''Eat, regenerate slime, get harvested, and repeat... Sounds like an awful existence, no thank you. I should try to recover my size and get out of here.''
I head towards a nearby flower and engulf it as it slowly dissolves. I can feel my mass slowly recovering, but it feels vastly inferior to that moldy bread.
I notice the slimes all congregating towards a location, and I cautiously follow them to find a woman wearing a bloody apron and holding tworge sacks has arrived. She reaches into the sack to pull out its contents and then tosses chunks of meat and bone towards us. The slimes frantically head towards the meals, and I even manage to get a piece of fuzzy meat for myself, which I frantically engulf.
Once her first sack is empty, she lifts her other bag and turns it inside out, dumping arge amount of rotten garbage. She coughs and scrunches her face, clearly upset with the smell, and walks off. Much to my dismay, I watch the smaller slimes who didn''t manage to snag some meat start eating the garbage.
''Our blue slime is valuable enough for them to keep us fed. Or perhaps we are garbage disposal, and they trim us down so we don''t grow too big and be a threat?''
One of the slimes who didn''t get a piece of meat starts heading towards a smaller slime who did. I figure they will fight over the food, but it bes even more horrific as I watch the slime engulf the smaller one, meat and all!
The smaller slime tries to struggle, but I watch it shrink inside therger slime. There''s a quiver in the centre, and eventually, the core of the smaller slime itself suddenly dissolves!
''My human brother poisoned me, and now I just watched my slime brethren eat each other... I wonder if my soul peaked before myst reincarnation because this feels truly cursed.''
While I was focusing on the battle, another slime snuck up on me and started to try to engulf me.
''No! Let me live! You can have the stupid piece of meat!'' I scream mentally and try to back away from the slime. There''s a weird suction between us, and I feel it stealing my slime mass from me.
My frantic struggle gets nowhere, so I try to think of a solution.
''If only I could get to its core before it reaches my own then maybe I could absorb or break it, but I don''t think I could engulf it, and I can''t think of a way to grab it directly.''
Something appears in my mind that feels very simr to my Status Menu.
''What? If it will help me, then yes!''
I feel a rush of knowledge enter my core, and I feel a greater control over my slime. I picture a tentacle bursting forward into the enemy slime and grabbing its core. My slime jiggles in anticipation and seems to harden to create this fake limb, which jets out to pierce the slime and envelop its'' rose-red core.
Crunch.
''Huh...''
Chapter 3: Slime-Eat-Slime
Chapter 3: Slime-Eat-Slime
As the hostile slime core shattered, it relinquished its hold on the surrounding slime, which drew in and surrounded me, increasing my size and mass appropriately. It felt amazing, and neither the bread or meat I had previously absorbed could evenpare to merging all that slime into my being.
I waved my new appendage around to give it a feel, retracted it, and then produced it again from my opposite side. I tried to form another one, but no matter what I tried, I couldn''t have more than a single tendril arm.
''I think it was called pseudopod...''
Can create and control numerous tendrils equal to trait level from avable slime mass.
The degree of maniption increases per level.
Quantity and size distribution are limited to avable slime mass.
Compatible with other slime traits.>
''Gramps, is that you? Are you answering my questions?'' I ask mentally but get no response. ''So if I can raise the level of pseudopod, I can have more tendrils. Hopefully, I can figure out how to raise the level because this literally saved my life.''At the edge of my focus, I noticed therger slime that engulfed the other slime was approaching me. I wondered why but noticed I was still on top of the fuzzy meat, which was dissolving much too slowly for my liking.
''How hungry can you be? You stole a piece of meat and ate another slime, yet you still want more?''
I produced my pseudopod and waved it threateningly at the approaching slime, but it showed no sign of stopping. Anxiously, I waited until it got within range and thrust my pseudopod like a spear into the slime to reach for its core. However, as my tendril went deeper and deeper into the slime, I could feel my control over it gradually fading until I only had a thin sliver of a tendril left.
''Damnit, this bugger is a lot more acidic than the previous slime, and it just ate my arm!''
I refocus my effort, picturing a much thicker spear of slime, and I can feel my unused mass shrinking to amodate my image. With a burst, the slime spear shoots forward and prates the hostile slime. Again, I can feel the control of the edges of my limb shaving away, but this time, it''s thick enough to reach and grab the core.
Crunch.
''So it was level 2... Must have had a habit of eating other slimes.''
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Once again, as the core is gone, my body automatically ims the slime mass. It''s a euphoric feeling, like I''m bing something more. Looking around, I notice that there is still some leftover meat, and slimes continue fighting over it.
''Well, it looks like it''s a slime-eat-slime world. I might as well help myself!''
While heading towards two slimes trying to engulf each other, I imagine my slime spear again, and as soon as they are within range, I fire it forward. Crunch. I ignore the popups in my head while I immediately retract and then fire it out again to the other slime. Crunch. My slime mass rapidly increases from iming the goop from both the dead slimes in front of me, and the euphoric feeling rushes over me while I look at the prompts in my head.
x2
x2
''Mana Slime seems to increase every time I eat another slime core, whereas I didn''t gain a level up despite eating two this time.''
I form a tendril to grab the piece of meat that the slimes were fighting over and bring it inside my form. Then, I create a much thinner tendril, which I extend as far as possible to grab an unupied bone and deposit it inside.
''Now that I have more slime mass to work with, my pseudopod seems better than ever. I wonder if Gramps will exin Mana Slime to me?''
This slime contains a rich and dense concentration of pure mana based on its trait level.
Mana Slime is a highly sought-after resource used mainly as an alchemical reagent, and its price can vary based on its purity level.
Can also be ingested raw for emergency mana recovery.>
''Thanks Gramps! I wonder why you answered this but not my other questions?'' Despite my optimism, my question goes unanswered again, so I digest the info I got given about Mana Slime.
''So that exins what the humans were doing this morning... Wait, aren''t I just making myself a big juicy target? Does this even help me at all?''
I''m by far thergest slime around now, but despite that, the other slimes show no sense of danger and are still openly attacking one another over food. I wondered if I shouldn''t feel guilty about absorbing my brethren, but it looked like they were absolutely mindless, as one even rammed into me attempting to reach my food.
I form arge tendril and lift the slime. While I''ve grasped it, I attempt to push more slime mass into my limb, which swells and engulfs the smaller slime.
''Amazing, so by practicing or trying new things with my tendrils, I can improve it.''
I form a second tendril and wave it around with glee.
''If I had a face, I bet I''d be grinning like an idiot.''
The slime I had held and engulfed in my pseudopod seems to have perished, although I barely gained any mass due to its small size.
''I should probably hide in the forest, as I don''t feel like being the prize pig at the harvest festival. Once I''ve found a nice hiding spot, I can do some thinking about how I should proceed. Do I keep eating and growing? I was the size of a tiny dog, and now I''m the size of a child. Would my slime not just be unwieldy? I''d certainly just be making myself arger target.''
''Slime Density? I want to say yes, but could you please exin?''
Allowspression of slime mass, which reduces size and increases density.
Maximum Density, Efficiency, and Control scale with trait level.
Compatible with other slime traits.>
''Another amazing suggestion, Gramps, sign me up!''
Chapter 4: Compression Testing
Chapter 4: Compression Testing
Once I gained [Slime Density LV 1] I could feel theyout of my slime body a lot more clearly, such as the currentpression level of various areas of my slime mass and even down to the individual pseudopods. At the moment, I could onlypress my entire body or each pseudopod, but I can imagine that as I level up the trait, I could potentially have far greater control over what areas I raise the density of.
Using the knowledge of my new trait, Ipress my body back down to just a little bitrger than my original size. I tried topress more slime mass, but this was the limit at my current level. Despite my smaller size, I felt safer and more solid with this higher-density slime.
I was curious to see the effects of higher-density slime, so Ipressed one pseudopod while leaving the other upressed, and then I mmed both tendrils into each other with as much force as I could muster. St! It was like throwing a water balloon at a brick wall, and the upressed pseudopod exploded on contact.
''Very impressive! If I keep increasing the density of my slime mass, then I can hopefully prevent something from entering my body and reaching my core.''
I had another idea I wanted to test as I recreated my destroyed pseudopod, leaving it upressed, and moved toward two nearby slimes. I ced my two tendrils in two different slimes and then waited while staring intently. My theory was that the higher-density one would be much harder to dissolve, and sure enough, I could feel my control being peeled awayyer byyer in only one pseudopod.
Before I lost my pseudopod, I tried sending more slime mass to it while also trying topress it. I could feel my slime mass drain from my main body to reinforce the density, and the peeling sensation eventually stopped. Satisfied with the results, I surround the core of each slime with my tendrils. Crunch! Crunch!
x2
x2
''I haven''t leveled up yet; do I need to defeat a level 3 monster, or have I just not defeated enough? Also, I wonder if [Mana Slime] has a maximum level?''Looking around, I can see that the slime buffet has ended, and the slimes are returning to their earlier activities. I''m surprised how many are still alive, as I was not the only one who ate a few cores.
''Well, I have two more things I want to try out before I head into the forest, and I don''t wish to destroy all of my mindless brethren... If only a small number of slime are left, the humans might be suspicious.''
I head towards thergest slime I can see, hoping it might be a higher level, and start pumping more slime mass into one of my pseudopods. The tip of my pseudopod starts to form into a ball, and I startpressing while this happens. As its size swells, I feel the limb isn''t strong enough to hold on to its own.
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''Maybe if I had a higher level of [Slime Density], the limb would be strong enough? Something to work towards. Let''s use two hands.''
I use my free tendril to support the weight of the dense ball and stop increasing the size. It''s a bizarre sight, like a big-slimy mace, and my main body has diminished in size to distribute slime mass towards this experiment. I then bring down the impromptu weapon on therge slime, which explodes like an overripe fruit. St! Crunch!
I finally gained another level, which felt great! However, I didn''t think about what would happen to the slime mass as it explosively flew out into the vicinity. Thankfully, quite a lot of the slime mass got stuck to my mace, and a portion of it sttered in my ''face'', but the rest either fell on other slimes or soaked into the soil.
''Maybe I can try to think of it as distributing the wealth to my poorer brethren if I pretend slime mass is our currency.''
While mentally sighing over the loss of blue goo, I prepare for my next experiment by recollecting my slimy mace. I want to try to form a needle out of denselypressed slime, an improvement of my slime spear that saved my life.
I keeppressing one of my pseudopods, but I can''t get it to match up with my mental image, which means I need a higher-level trait. I keep trying to brute force it, and I actually feel a dull sort of pain tremble in my core and quickly stop.
''Is this the slime equivalent of a headache or just too much mental strain? Maybe I should try a quantity practice approach.''
I hold out my two pseudopods andpress one to thefortable limit. Then, Ipress the remaining pseudopod while simultaneously trying to dpress the first one. Compress, dpress,press, dpress... I keep repeating this process while hoping that this counts as training. Whates to mind is that I''m flexing my ''muscles'', or doing bicep curls, and as I keep repeating the process, I feel myself flow into a rhythm.
I''d scream with glee if I had a mouth so both my tendrils do a happy wiggle instead. I can instinctively feel a better understanding of my slime mass and its current density. I once again put my body''s density to the newfortable maximum and shrink considerably, and then I begin forming my needle.
Ipress a long and thin tip of my pseudopod as much as possible, a much higher density than my main body, and I only stop once I feel my core begin to strain. I''m satisfied even though it looks more like a rapier than a needle. I thrust it into a nearby slime; the pointed edge pierces both slime and core like a knife through hot butter.
I raise my rapier above my head and give it a happy wiggle.
''So [Mana Slime] stops at 10. I wonder if that''s the limit for everything. Although now that my slime has maximum richness I don''t feel like sticking around to be harvested.''
With a swish of my rapier tendril, I point it to the forest.
''Let''s go!''
Chapter 5: Trees and Information
Chapter 5: Trees and Information
On the way to the forest edge, I saw a rabbit nearby and attempted to grab it with a tendril, but sensing danger, the rabbit evaded and fled. I was only mildly curious since I remembered the slimes earlier chasing a rabbit, so I didn''t bother pursuing it. My ability to move with haste wascking; I could do short bounces or ''ripple'' forward, and attempts to use my pseudopods didn''t have noticeable improvements.
Trying to make the best use of the slow travel and not waste time, I continued practicing my pseudopodpression. I wondered if I could also work on getting my third pseudopod by adding some steps to my ''slime flex'', so I added plenty of wiggles and would also periodically absorb and recreate the tendrils.
The forest was quite a sight and had plenty of vegetation and critters, and I made sure to grab a few nts as I progressed deeper in but noticed that they continued to give almost no slime mass.
''I guess the world doesn''t want any vegetarian slimes.''
Eventually, I came across a dirt path cutting straight into the forest but decided to avoid the path while trying to get deeper as I didn''t want to risk being spotted by humans. It was getting noticeably darker, and I wanted to find a safe spot to rest.
''I could try to find a hole to hide in... Or maybe I should try hiding up a tree?''
Looking up at a tree with a thick trunk, I decided to see if I could climb. I pressed up against the trunk with a wet squish, then wrapped my two pseudopods around it and tried to see if I could lift myself. My slime was slightly adhesive, so my slime climb was far easier than I expected, and eventually, I found myself drooping over arge branch.
''Okay... I think I''m pretty safe up here. Status!''
Name: -Race: Slime (Blue) LV 3
ss: -
Status: Healthy
''This isn''t enough. I want to see more... Details?''
Emblems:
[Experiment]
Traits:
[Mana Slime LV MAX]
[Pseudopod LV 2]
[Slime Density LV 2]
[??? LV 0]
Trait Points remaining 1
Skills: -
Skill Points remaining 0
''Okay, I can see all my traits, and apparently I have no skills, but what are Emblems and Experiment?''
<>
This book''s true home is on another tform. Check it out there for the real experience.This soul is currently trialing a potential new Reincarnation Point option.
Sess will lead to a permanent addition to the Reincarnation options and a reward for the individual soul.
This emblem serves as a mark to prevent test contamination from direct interference from -??????????d??????m???????-???????n??????????i?????????-?????????????????r??????????-?????????????????????o????????r????????s??????.
Due to the experiment involving a non-sapient race, basic instincts, and trait guidance will be provided until the first evolution.
This emblem is immune to identification. This emblem cannot be equipped.>
''So this is Gramps both marking me and providing me some early assistance. I wish the guidance function didn''t have a time limit, but I guess it''s only intended to make up for myck of parents to raise me.''
I stare at Emblems heading in the mental window and even try to ''poke'' it with my mind, but nothing happens.
''If only could get an exnation of Emblems, which can apparently be equipped? Also, what the heck is evolution? So many questions.''
Sadly, Gramps doesn''t respond. I then bring my focus on [??? LV 0] and ''poke'' it.
A trait partially learned through trial and error.
Transforms into a full trait by demonstrating basic mastery or through manual purchase.>
''Okay, that sounds amazing. So I don''t need to buy everything. Considering I don''t have skill points to spend, I wonder if this is how I get skills.''
I try mentally poking things in my menu hoping to find some other features.
''No!''
The prompt vanishes, and I sigh in relief.
''So I can spend points to upgrade, but I''d rather get brand new traits. If the trait was difficult or impossible to practice, maybe this would be a good option. Is there a list of traits?''
''The hell is an orb of enlightenment? Gramps, this seems very unfair. I want to look for a trait to protect my core.''
''... Exin, please.''
The Core is the most vital part of a Slime,bining the functions of the Heart and Mind while also containing the Soul.
This trait enhances all basic Core functions and moderately improves durability scaling with level.>
''Ugh, my head... err... core hurts from all of this information, so maybe improving my mind will help. I definitely want more durability, even if it''s only moderate. Thanks, Gramps, I will buy core refinement.''
My mind screams in pain as my entire core is overwhelmed with a burning sensation, and I lose all vision. I can feel it growing. My pseudopod tendrils il wildly, and I nearly fall from my branch before I restrain myself to the branch and squeeze it as tightly as possible. Eventually, the burning subsides, my vision returns, and I feel exhausted.
''Shit! Why!?'' I scream mentally to the silence.
I want to copse into a puddle and sleep, but I''m worried my branch isn''t secure enough after nearly falling.
''Onest task for the day... Ugh...''
I maneuver over to the tree trunk and form my rapier, which manifests in record time, and I repeatedly stab at the trunk. Plik. Plik. Plik. St. Despite using my maximum density, the results are not what I expected after how it performed against the target dummy slime.
''I guess I vastly overestimated mypressed slime... I might be in trouble against anything harder than wood. Maybe I can eat my way through it? I only need a hole big enough to fit my core.''
I use my other pseudopod to envelop the side of the trunk and press against it, hoping to start dissolving it. Then I stabbed through my slime with my rapier. Plik. Plik. Plik. Combining dissolving and stabbing seems to be progressing nicely, and eventually, the hole isrge enough to enter.
Going partially inside, I focus my dissolving downwards, form two rapiers inside my slime mass, and stab away at the floor.
''I just need to make it deep enough to hold all my slime.''
The outside is alreadypletely dark when my tree hole finally feelsrge and secure enough to contain me. My slime gushes in, and I start to settle in for torpor. My core drifts slowly down to the bottom of my slime mass.
''What a day... Goodnight, Gramps...''
Chapter 6: Jellyfish Slime
Chapter 6: Jellyfish Slime
Waking up to light and the sounds of the forest was a refreshing experience; I half expected to wake up floating in the void, and I''m d I safely survived the night. My core felt pristine, and I really wish I could see what it looked like after obtaining [Core Refinement]. However, my slime mass felt... odd. I exited the safety of my tree and sat perched on the branch to examine my slime mass, forming my two pseudopods and giving them a look over as well.
By the way, I figured out a pretty good way to sit securely on my branch; I enveloped myself over the branch and then raised the density around the branch to form a grip. I was initially worried I''d eventually eat into the branch, but ever since I got [Core Refinement], I can selectively turn off my dissolving.
Crystal-clear gaps were floating in my blue slime, and as I stared at them, I was nearly overwhelmed with an instinctual desire to purge it as soon as possible.
''I''m not sure what this is, but it''s ruining my perfect blueplexion. It''s not mixing with my slime mass, so let''s try just pushing it out.''
I could feel the effects of [Core Refinement] in my control and movement of my slime, and I effortlessly isted the fluid and pushed it outwards from my slime to expel it. I could feel my size deting from this, but my instincts were praising me and filling my core with endorphins, so I just watched in silence as it trickled down to the forest floor. By the end, arge puddle had formed, and even some birds had arrived and were sshing and drinking from it.
''I think that might have been water, probably very pure with how crystal-clear it was. Us slimes must be pretty damn useful to those humans if we can turn garbage into mana slime, and even our waste bes water.''
The birds eventually get scared off from their bath time by a small pig-like creature with very tiny tusks, which then greedily starts drinking the water. I suddenly felt ravenous, my instincts demanding me to replenish my slime mass, and I begin to lower both my pseudopods cautiously behind the pig.
''I probably look like a stupid jellyfish with my blob up top and tendrils dangling below.'' I chuckle to myself.
I start sending slime mass to my pseudopods; one is bing my trusty slime rapier while the other is expanding enough to engulf the pig thing. With coordinated precision, I begin my sneak attack, my rapier going for the neck while my other pseudopod envelops it''s behind to lift its rear legs and prevent escape. The pig squeals in horror and tries to bolt, but I am strong enough to lift its legs as nned. My trusty slime rapier, unfortunately, fails to meet my lofty goals for it and only gets a few inches deep into the pig''s neck, and I have to attempt a ''death by a thousand pinpricks'' approach instead. I keep lifting and stabbing until, eventually, the thrashing pig stops.Uwfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
''It had no level... Does that mean it was a baby? Well, I wanted food and not experience anyway.''
I plop the lifeless body inside my slime mass, eager for my meal, but it''s dissolving very slowly. [Core Refinement] should have improved my dissolving, but this was slower than the meat the humans gave me. Thinking about it, I probably should cut the meat up, exposing it to more slime and improving the dissolving process. I form mypressed pseudopods and reach into myself even though it''s a bit bizarre, but I don''t want to lose any boar by doing this outside.
I grab a leg with a tendril, form my rapier with the other, and try topress around the boar with my body to hold it in ce. While pulling the leg, I stab at the joint repeatedly, and eventually, it rips off. I repeat this process with the remaining legs. While the idea disturbs me at first, I also flood slime through its mouth and start eating away at the boar from the inside simultaneously. I can sense the process has sped up, and my slime mass is steadily increasing.
Examining the boar, I can see its small tusks are almost unblemished, and I get the idea to keep and use them. I set two dissolving orders to my slime: avoid the tusk and focus on the flesh and cartge. A warm feeling spreads through my core from the strain, and I hoped to get [Core Refinement LV2] soon to ease my burden.
''When I get trait points, maybe I should dump them into [Core Refinement]? It definitely seems to have improved all aspects of me. Anyway, let''s try to extract those tusks with a new idea for my pseudopods.''
I focus on my pseudopod and try to make a w, which proves to be quite a mental struggle as my pseudopod seems reluctant to split. Hoping to ease my mental burden, I retract one of my pseudopods and give the remaining one my full focus. Once again, I can feel my core straining, but I keep focusing.
A wave of cool relief floods my core, and I want to celebrate, but I feel so close to making my w. The extra mental processing immediately proves its worth as I split the tip of my pseudopod and immediately start to raise the density to strengthen the form of my w.
Once my w is sufficiently condensed, I give it a few snaps to try it out. There''s sadly no satisfying cking noise when the w tips meet, but I still feel absolutely giddy at my sess and find myself wiggling my wed tendril in joy.
''Hehe... My pseudopod has be a pseudow.''
With nobody tough at my bad joke, I bring the w to the base of the tusk, which has be quite tender from all the dissolving. I snap the w shut with as much force as I can muster and begin to tug.
Snap, tug, tug, release, snap, tug, tug, release.
I keep repeating this process until, after much time and effort, the tusk is finally extracted. Before I can even mentally celebrate, I''m interrupted by a mental notification.
''Exnation, please!''
Improves and assists in shaping slime mass into various shapes, objects, or tools to mimic their use.
Complexity and creation speed scales with level.
Sessful creations can be mentally stored for automatic creation.
Compatible with other slime traits.>
''Yesssssss!''
Chapter 7: Tree Traversal
Chapter 7: Tree Traversal
Old Tom looked at the grassy ins with a frown, his tanned and wrinkled face showing immense displeasure. There were far fewer slimes than they expected this morning, and this would be normal after a slime feeding as they would sometimes dissolve one another by ident as they fought over the food scraps. But if that had happened, there would be a few muchrger slimes from the results, which always produced a higher quality mana slime for an unexined reason and were quite sought after.
Some of these recurringrger slimes even had nicknames from their more notable colored cores; his granddaughter was in tears this morning when she couldn''t find the slime ''Rosey'' who was named after its rose-red core and would always produce very high-quality mana slime.
Tom''s thoughts were interrupted by the friendly voice of Bertha,
"Do you think it was goblins?"
"Gods, I hope not. If they are trying to raise a shaman, we''ll need to mobilize the guild with an emergency quest." Tom replied while spitting in disgust.
Monsters were bad enough as is, but sapient monsters with ss levels have the potential to be a nightmare. Ordinarily, goblins only had ess to the basic sses they were born with, such as Fighter or Scout, but on rare asions, one could even get a magic ss if they met the right conditions. There was an infamous goblin tribe whose matriarch discovered that if she ingested copious amounts of blue slime, she would keep birthing goblin shamans. Her tribe raided countless viges and smaller settlements and even attempted to attack a walled city directly as she went mad with the power of her magical spawn. When they finally ended the vile creature''s life and studied her corpse, they found her mana levels were abnormally high, which in turn was causing her spawn to be born with the mana capacity required for a shaman.
"Hopefully, it was just a few starving wolves since they have a history of eating slime out of desperation." Bertha tried to reassure Tom, wiping the meat blood off her hands onto her apron.
"Could be, but I think I''m going to ask the guild to put up an extra goblin extermination quest just to be sure."
They continued to chat for a while longer, then headed home. Many of the poorer townsfolk were extremely unhappy with the poor harvest today. After my sessful first extraction, I moved on to the remaining tusk to repeat the process, and eventually, I had my second reward. Now that I had secured both tusks, I wanted to see the benefit of my new trait, so I dismissed the w that took so much prior effort to make to start fresh. Honestly, [Shape Slime] was absolutely amazing as it almost effortlessly recreated my w, as if following a blueprint and instructions. I made a second w and snapped both repeatedly like a threatening crab.
After ying around with my ws, I looked at the remains of my food; most of the meat was gone by now, and its internals thoroughly dissolved. Its leathery skin was ruined, with multiple holes where my slime attempted to eat it, the bones were picked clean and looking somewhat decayed.
''Maybe I should only eat meat and organs, and I could collect hide and bones for something useful.''
I left the hide and bone to continue dissolving since they were already partially ruined, and I did not want to waste the food. I formed my slime rapier, which took on a much more refined form thanks to my new trait, and then floated one of the tusks to its tip. Initial tests weren''t sessful, as the tusk would shoot deeper inside of me upon stabbing, and I had to lower the density of my rapier somewhat so that I could put a reinforced density around the tusk to hold its position better. Managing multiple densities in a single area was tough, and I prayed for my trait''s level up to arrive swiftly. I stabbed a few times and was happy with the noticeable improvement, and I made sure to test a slime rapier without a tusk since I wanted aparison from before I got [Shape Slime].
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Now, I wanted to try it on something living, but I wanted to stay amongst the tree branches to retain my element of surprise - the slime jellyfish strategy worked disgustingly well. I needed to improve my traversal speed, and I was sure I could use my pseudopods more efficiently.
I flung a tendril out and grabbed a higher branch of a nearby tree, then released my body grip on the branch I was sitting on and tried to swing... It went horribly, and I stted against a tree and then the ground with a disturbing squelching sound. I tried two tendrils and then lifting myself upwards, and it somewhat worked but was frustratingly slow. The back of my mind kept tickling me like I was missing something obvious. I crawled back up and attempted another swing, only to embarrass myself further.
St. St. St.
Eventually, I had a brilliant idea of shifting my mass along my destination tendril to relocate myself. But, much to my disappointment, my body refused to reallocate all of my mass for some reason and would always stop at a certain threshold.
''What am I missing? Why can''t I move all my slime?''
I focused on the orange sky above; it waste afternoon, and I would soon need to return to my tree hole. I stared at the glowing orb in the sky and sighed.
''I''m sure this tingling feeling in my mind is Grampsughing at me. Ugh, my head hurts.''
Head. Mind. Core?
''Right... My actual self is my core, which keeps a minimum amount of slime around me. Could I move my core?''
I felt desperation as I was on the verge of an epiphany and quickly flung out a pseudopod andtched onto a higher tree branch. I focused mentally on my core. Move. Push. Travel. Go! My perspective abruptly changed as I flew towards the branch like a missile. My slime mass rapidly followed after me like it was maically attracted to my core. My core tapped against the branch, and pain assailed me so much that I immediately let go of the branch and fell to the ground below with a massive ssh.
I screamed in pain and rolled on the ground with my tendrils iling wildly. I was shocked at how much it hurt, and I could only hope I didn''t do any real damage to my core. Eventually, I got myself under control, but I felt miserable.
''Shit! That was so stupid. I desperately need to raise my core''s defense if a simple branch felt that bad. But at least I proved I can move my core, so let''s try that again, safely this time...''
Again, I sent up a pseudopod totch onto a branch, although this time, I confirmed there was a lot more slime mass at the destination to act as a cushion to catch my core. On the bright side, this time, I required much less effort to move my core and soon found my vision flying through the air again until I reached my slimy cushion.
''Sess!''
I wanted to do a happy wiggle but stopped myself, frustrated at the pain that still throbbed in my core. I flung a tendril to another branch and promptly sent my core again. It was getting slightly quicker and easier with each sess. I continued to practice as I headed towards my tree hole, feeling very satisfied with my new traversal method. Before the final jump back home, I created two tendrils,tched one to my current branch, and sent the other to my tree. I then sent slime mass along the tendril and focused it on the halfway point between the branches. Then, I flung my core to the middle and was very happy when I stopped safely, suspended and hanging between two branches.
I grinned happily at that surprise message and produced my long-awaited third tendril from my center position. Bad mood be damned, as this was a moment deserving of a happy wiggle, and my freshly-produced pseudopod was more than up for the task, which itpleted with gusto.
After an appropriate amount of wiggle time, I headed to my tree hole and entered inside. It felt a little cramped from the extra slime mass I had gained from the boar, which had finished dissolving at some point. I worriedly checked for my tusks, and thankfully, I still had them in a pocket of dense slime.
I formed three trusty slime rapiers without the added tusk and poked away inside my tree hole, doing somest-minute expansion. Oncepleted, I decided to get an early night sleep. Tomorrow, I have some ideas to try out.
''Goodnight, Gramps...''
Chapter 8: Core Processing
Chapter 8: Core Processing
I woke up feeling fresh and ready for the day, and best of all, no more pain in my core. I exited my tree hole and spread out on the branch, noticing that once again, I had water mingling amongst my precious bright azure slime. I created a bowl with my [Shape Slime] at the end of a pseudopod and filled it with ejected water. When all the water was gone, I examined the reflection of my core in the water; it was definitely rounder than I remembered, and the intensity of crimson seemed even more vivid.
''My core isn''t fat, is it?'' I joked to myself.
I wanted to see if I could use this water to catch birds, so I lowered the slime-shaped bowl to the ground, then extended the arm portion of the attached pseudopod to run along the ground and against the tree. I hoped to have the slime arm appear less conspicuous by having it not dangle from the tree branch directly to the ground and bowl.
Now, I just needed to wait and keep myself upied by continuing to practice my skills. I needed [Slime Density] to catch up now that [Pseudopod] ranked up, as both were acquired almost back-to-back, so I assumed it wasn''t far behind. From how I ranked up [Core Refinement] it was from putting mental pressure on my core by doing strenuous tasks or too many tasks at once. I assumed from the trait description I could also rank it up by testing its defenses, although I had no immediate ns to throw my precious core against branches or rocks - I was not a masochist.
Yesterday, I had somewhat figured out that I could almost program my core to do a routine task, which it would do to the best of its abilities seemingly forever unless I changed the order or perhaps overloaded my mind. Grip the branch with slimepression, avoid dissolving certain body parts, or even carry my tusks in a pocket of slime; my core did all these tasks for me withoutint. I could imagine any human being green with envy over my core''s mental processing power.
Using this function, I wanted my core to train two skills at once automatically throughout the day by having the slime around my corepress and dpress around my core repeatedly. My goal was that by squeezing my core I''d be training [Core Refinement] with the mental strain of the automatic task and testing its defense from thepression, and [Slime Density] would also get a workout for free as a bonus.
At first, I did the task manually, and I could feel the pressure building around my core. It was not pleasant, as if my head was trapped in a vice, and I sighed with relief when I dpressed. I repeated this manually a few times and then handed the task over to my core. I monitored that it was doing the job correctly and did a celebratory wiggle after it repeated the tenth repeat. If I had to estimate, I''d say this alone utilized perhaps sixty percent of my core''s mental function capacity, while my little tusk pocket only took five percent.
''I guess as I level up [Core Refinement] I''ll get more capacity, or maybe there''s a trait to add more directly?''
''Gee Gramps, I''m sorry for cking on the level-ups. Can you please exin?''<>
Adds a small independent core that can act as a substitute core.
Theplexity and quantity of task assignments scale with trait level.
Primary senses can be projected through the sub-core temporarily.
Requires 8 hours of rest and slime mass to regenerate if destroyed.
This trait can be selected multiple times, each purchase producing an additional sub-core with an independent trait level.>
''Okay, that sounds impressive. I especially like the part about projecting my senses through it. Couldn''t I put my sub-core into a tendril to look around corners or peak through a hole without risking my real core? Definitely going on my shopping list.''
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Coming out of my little world, I finally pay attention to my surroundings and notice that birds are sshing in the water already. The birdbath bowl suddenly snaps like a beartrap, and all the birds within are caught. They il in the water while slime mass floods in and reces it, and then their struggles slow down and eventually stop. I surprisingly get no notifications of their deaths, but it does at least feed me. I eject the water at the roots of my tree, extend a tendril towards a nearby tree, and start moving. It''s time to do some experiencehunting and level up so Gramps doesn''t shout at me for being insufficient.
Once I get into the rhythm, I''m shocked at how quickly I can move from branch to branch. I try to only go in one direction so I can hopefully find my tree again without too much difficulty. After some scouting, I locate a boar, although this one has no tusks, and I position myself on a branch above it as it forages herbs. I lower my three pseudopods, one to grab the hind legs and two to form rapiers tipped with a tusk. The boar squeals in panic as I rob it of movement, and then two rapiers pierce its throat.
The corpse is rapidly lifted with my three tendrils and tossed inside. I insert slime into its mouth to eat at the inside and eventually the flesh, but I try to give the order to avoid dissolving the hide. I watch as the hair and dirt on the skin melt away and happily nod when I don''t see it eating beyond that. Below, arger boar with two massive tusks burst into the scene, looking rather frantic, and squeals in anger.
''I might have just killed his mate, and I might need two tendrils to pick up this big boy.''
I startpressing two tendrils to the limit, preparing each one to grab a leg.
''Looks like this job and my autopression finally paid off.''
I give both tendrils some extra reinforcement, and thankfully, I''ve got a meal fueling the extra slime mass required for this density. Waiting for the right moment when the pig is sniffing thest spot where his missus was previously foraging, my two tendrilssh out and wrap around his hind legs. He lets out a rage-filled squeal and tries to turn around but is unable to as soon his legs get lifted, and his chin ms against the ground.
Once he''s off the ground, the poor pig can only seem to squirm and squeal helplessly. I form my rapier with added tusk and try stabbing it in his neck repeatedly, causing superficial wounds, but nothing like what happened with the smaller and presumably female boar.
''If I had enough slime mass, I could probably just engulf him, stop him moving, and eat him, but I don''t think I have enough to cover his entire body in dense slime.''
I stare at his squealing mouth, then look towards my third tendril and grin at the nasty idea I''ve thought of. I lower my remaining tendril to his head, but he is still iling wildly, and one of his tusks nicks it. I watch the portion of slime fall to the floor, feeling miffed at the waste. I attach the third tendril to his back this time, and then snake my way towards his mouth and violently inject my slime inside. He tried to bite the slime, but I made sure topress it, and I didn''t think boars had sharp enough teeth to rip through. Eventually, I reach his throat and start distributing slime mass to the tip and expanding to fill up the cavity, which causes the boar to il even wilder and more frantically until it jerks and goes dead still.
I feel both happy and a little bit disappointed at the notification. That was pretty easypared to my other fights that had desperation or frantic moments. I slide closer to the tree trunk for a wider perch, then bring up the boar and deposit it inside. Its corpse floats in the expanding slime next to the other, which is barely a husk now.
I temporarily stop my automatic corepression to free up some mental capacity and focus on eating these boars, but I set orders to ignore the tusks and the hide. My slime eagerly gets to work. Meanwhile, I form my rapier and stare at it for a moment.
''Once I stopped trying to stab him, I''d argue it was maybe even easier than any of my previous fights. I just thrust slime in his throat and choked him.''
I form and bring another tendril next to my rapier, and shift its form erratically into strange shapes.
''Perhaps... I should stop trying to fight as a human would and fight more like a monster?''
Chapter 9: Treetop Assassin
Chapter 9: Treetop Assassin
I focused on eating the remains of the two boars, spitting out bone after bone without a scrap of meat or sinew remaining. A small pile was growing on the forest floor, and I wondered if some creature would find them appealing. I carefully extracted the tworge tusks and ced them with my smaller ones, although I still felt I needed to retire my rapier until I got better traits. After much time, my work was finallyplete, and I stared at the perfect hide floating inside me and my tusks.
''Wait, what? Dissection?'' I questioned and waited for Gramps, but there was silence.
''Does he seriously only help me if I ask about traits?'' I grumbled as I opened up my Status Menu.
Name: -
Race: Slime (Blue) LV 4
ss: -
Status: Healthy
Emblems:
[Experiment]Traits:
[Mana Slime LV MAX]
[Pseudopod LV 3]
[Slime Density LV 3]
[Core Refinement LV 2]
[Shape Slime LV 1]
Trait Points remaining 1
Skills:
[Dissection LV 1]
[??? LV 0]
[??? LV 0]
Skill Points remaining 0
''Wait, not only do I finally have my first skill, but I''m close to getting two more?'' I''m shocked by this information, as I clearly need to pay more attention to my Status Menu. I gave [Dissection] a mental poke.
This skill helps with Butchering, Skinning, Harvesting, and Dismantling beasts and monsters.
uracy and speed scale with skill level.
Intuition on valuable parts for rarer creatures requires a higher skill level.>
It sounded useful, although I would not have spent a skill point on it if I had any. But I got it for free, so noints. I was eager to discover my other two potential skills, but another matter was bing rapidly apparent. I looked at my slime with a heavy sigh.
''I''ve gotten fat.''
After eating the two boars, I was absolutely massive, as my slime was practically overflowing from the tree, and when I tried topress myself down, the tree would creak a bit from the weight.
''Looks like raising my slime density andpressing my size doesn''t just magically reduce the weight. I wonder if I could store my excess slime?''
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''That [Experiment] emblem really does only helps me when I ask questions about traits. I might be in trouble when the helper feature of it goes away. Anyway, Gramps, please exin [Core Storage]''
Allows the core to act as a dimensional storage unit.
Initially only able to store slime mass, extra storage options are unlocked from trait levels.
Storage volume scales with trait level.
Storage does not degrade over time.>
''Ugh... That is exactly what I needed, but I wanted to get [Sub-Core]. But I suppose my actual core still has mental capacity remaining, and moving around the trees with all this excess slime would make it hard to remain stealthy. Please, buy [Core Storage].''
I felt a mental cavity open up in the mind of my core and thought of putting slime mass in it. I felt myself shrink as the slime stored away rapidly, and then I tried to retrieve it and felt myself balloon out again. Ipressed some slime to the maximum density and attempted to store it away, curious if it would be allowed and if it would retain the density level. The answer to both questions was yes, which made me ecstatic - a discovery deserving of a happiness wiggle.
I deposited arge portion of dense slime until I felt nimble enough again to move and then moved back to my temporary home. My sense of direction was a little bad, but I eventually found therge tree again. I deposited my tusks in the hole and left the boar hides to hang on the branch, which would act as a unique marker for my trip home. I didn''t think animals would try to eat such clean hides if I left them here, although I guess a wandering human could steal them.
I took a moment to activate my automatic corepression to resume training my traits and then flung myself from tree to tree. It was time to hunt.
Grappling from branch to branch, I searched for any potential prey and came across anotherrge boar. I snuck over it and repeated my earlier method: two tendrils to lift the legs and prevent escape, and then suffocate it with slime down the throat.
Disappointingly easy. This time [Dissection] tickled my mind and confirmed that tusks, hide, and meat were the only things of value. I tried to move around with the boar, but it was a bit toorge and cumbersome, so I focused on digestion and harvesting, spat out the bones, stored the slime mass, and moved on.
The only other animal worth eating I found after that was a sizable horned rabbit, which I found very bizarre, and the edge of its horns had dried blood stains. I waited for my opportunity, withdrew some slime mass, and engulfed the entire rabbit. It barely had a chance to struggle and soon died.
The only thing of value was its horns, so I ate the rest and then went home. I hung the new pelt and went inside my tree hole, ready for sleep.
Eventually, I found myself in a routine - wake up, eject water, hunt one or two creatures, drop my goods off at home, hunt again, return home, and sleep.
After sneaking up on thatst boar, I finally unlocked my second hidden skill.
Helps the user hide their presence, scaling with skill level.>
It made perfect sense I was heavily relying on my treetop ambush tactics.
The deer were nothing special, and I was honestly surprised they even gave a notification. I didn''t even bother to skin them, at least they gave a good amount of slime mass. When I returned home, I received my third skill.
The user gains a mental sense of direction, allowing one to retrace their steps or explore new areas.
Higher skill levels provide more function and lead towards a mental map.>
At my current skill level, [Mapping] only gave me the four cardinal directions. However, with this, I felt more confident in exploring further away, which was needed as the nearby wildlife was bing scarce. I really wanted to eat more to store more slime and eventually increase [Core Storage], and gain more experience to reach level 5 for another trait point.
When I woke up the next day, I decided to head straight East from my tree, as I had the vague insight that going West would lead to the human city. I kept heading East and noticed that the trees were bing a little sparser and eventually opened into a clearing with a shimmering pond.
''Time to add some fish to my diet.''
Chapter 10: The Pond
Chapter 10: The Pond
A feeling of excitement bubbled up inside me as I stared at the pond, wondering what creatures I might find nearby. The slime instincts the strange [Experiment] emblem sometimes fed me were tickling the corners of my mind, causing me to gaze longingly at the water. Blue slimes must enjoy being near water, for whatever reason, as I remembered my brethren hanging around the stream when I first woke up.
My only concern was that I would be leaving the safety of the treetops to approach the pond, but thinking back to how easily I killed multiple boars, I felt strangely confident. With a wet st, I hit the ground and did a few hops and a slime crawl - both felt terribly slow after I had gotten used to moving around with my pseudopod.
My previous confidence sputtered with worry, and I decided to see if I could adapt my tendril grappling movement to a ground-based option. I flung a tendril forward, which did not travel far since the ground wasn''t t or clear enough. I then threw another tendril out, but at an upward arch, it flew a much better distance. When the tip of my tendril hit the ground, I raced into action and flung my core while also spreading the exit point of my tendril out to cushion mynding. As my core moved, the slime rapidly followed afterward, and soon I found myself at the destination tendril, the entire process making me look and move like a strange slimy slinky.
I practiced a few times until I could do it speedily enough and even tried throwing out a secondary tendril ahead while in mid-flight to chain together these movements.
''Looks like the days of autopression training andplex slime maniption have finally paid off.'' I thought with a happy jiggle.
Satisfied, I traversed to the pond edge, taking in my surroundings as I approached. A few wildlife were drinking from the opposite end of the pond, and I noticed dog-sized flying bugs darting back and forth along the water''s surface. The pond was rtively clean, only having a few patches of algae. When I reached the water''s edge, I leaned my slime mass and raised my core to peak into the depths. The pond wasn''t that deep except in the center, where I could not see the murky depths, and I could see plenty of fish-like creatures swimming.
I produced a tendril and poked the water, finding it hard to break the surface unless I used apressed tendril. I tried an upressed and limp tendril and found it floated on the surface.
''As stupid as it sounds, I guess blue slimes having an affinity with water makes sense.'' My thoughts are interrupted as a few fishe to see if my floating tendril is food.
The fish cautiously poke at the slime and take a few nibbles, and due to the low density, they even steal a few chunks. Mildly annoyed, I want to catch and eat those fish myself. I form my second tendril above my head and create a spear, then wonder if I could create a fishing and struggle for a few moments and make that. Withdrawing some slime mass from [Core Storage], I then use it to extend out my tendril and another to help hold it. Once sufficiently far away to hopefully not spook the nibbling fish, I deposit the into the pond as smoothly as possible and trawl it through the water.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I catch quite a few fish that aren''t smart enough to flee and lift my out of the water happily. I dump more slime into the while enclosing it, and soon, there''s a bubble of slime filled with fish - which I promptly eat.
I assumed the fish would not give any experience points, so the sudden prompt really surprised me. Honestly, I had sort of forgotten all about [Shape Slime] since I did most of its functions without its help before I got it. I''m surprised it took this long to increase since I assumed it was passively helping me anytime I create a rapier or w.
''Perhaps it gets more experience when I try to create new shapes? Extra reward for experimentation? I wonder what else affects trait and skill gain.''
I try other ways of catching fish and feeding myself more slime mass, such as the spear, my trusty rapier, a w, and even a smaller. [Dissection] doesn''t tell me they have anything worth harvesting, but they dissolve fast,cking strong bones or tough hide, so I eat them whole.
All my fishing has seemingly disturbed one of the residents of the pond. I notice arge shadow approaching from the water, so I fire a tendril backward and slinky away to a safer position. I''ve turned off autopression, raised my slime mass to maximum density, and even withdrew some extra slime to increase my size. A massive frog-like creature emerges from the pond with a sickly green-tinted skin covered in ckish-purple splotches.
''This damn thing is bigger than four boars put together!''
It lets out a belching croak and stares directly at me.
''I wonder what level this thing is, or if I cou-'' my thought is interrupted, as without warning, its tongue fires at lightning speed towards me and smacks into my slimy exterior.
The tongue fails to prate too deeply into my slime, and I sigh with relief until I realize the tongue istched onto my slime and is actually trying to pull me into its maw. In a panic, I construct a rapier and stab at the tongue - it bounces off. I create two ws and try to w and tear away at the tongue - the frog merely gives a hearty croak as if mocking me.
I''m trying to think of some shape or weapon I could use to cut this tongue, and I can feel it trying to pull me towards it, but I''m gripping the ground tightly with myrge surface area. The frog, to my horror, decides if it can''t win this tug-of-war, then it will simply approach me.
My mind goes frantic as the monster frog trundles forward, and the only solution I can think of is to sacrifice the slime mass and flee. Mentally, I partition off the slime around the tongue and drop control of it; the frog''s tongue snaps back into its mouth, and I see it happily ingest my slime. It even licks its lips!
I''ve thrown out a tendril to run away, but I''m not fast enough, and the frog tongue has alreadytched on me again. I quickly partition off the slime, which rips off without negatively affecting my escape momentum. Its tongue rapidly retracts, and I watch it smugly eating more of my slime.
I keep repeating my slinky movement over and over again until I can reach the forest edge. In my escape, I managed to dodge the tongue twice, possibly just by fluke, as it managed to steal a third portion of slime from me before I was finally out of its range.
Considering the density of the slime stolen, I had lost more than I gained during my fishing trip. I felt humiliated as I tried to find weaker prey to stock up on slime mass before I went home.
All my harvesting paid off, but I''m not in the mood to celebrate. I throw the pelt on the branch, head into my tree hole and spit out the tusks.
I need to get stronger.
Chapter 11: Hunting Patrol
Chapter 11: Hunting Patrol
I woke up feeling pretty miserable after having a string of easy sesses, but against a real monster like that giant frog, I couldn''t do anything but be its meal. Grabbing two of the mightiest-looking tusks, I decided to head towards the pond again and patrol the perimeter amongst the trees, picking off any wildlife heading for a drink so that I could replenish my reserve slime mass.
For the first day, I used my usual tree ambush, which proved its recurring sess by effortlessly taking out multiple deer. I left their bones in a pile with a few bits of meat in the hopes of possibly attracting animals with levels.
x3
While safely amongst the trees, I tried to scout the pond but could not spot the frog monster. For my final task, I created a second tree hole, an appropriate distance from the bone pile and not directly at the pond border. I constructed my second home shockingly fast, thanks to all the trait levels I had gained since the original - not to mention having full-sized tusks.
With the extra time before sleep, I decided to try practicing my [Shape Slime] by focusing on creating new constructs for that bonus experience. At first, I tried to copy things from my memory, starting easy with creating the shape of a tusk, then I moved on to theplex antler horns the jackalope had. I stared intensely at a neighboring tree, hoping to sculpt it, starting at the base of the trunk and working my way up. I molded the trunk first and then worked on the branches, which was tricky as I had never split a single pseudopod into so many mini-tendrils - it was like rapidly growing a small slime tree on my pseudopod. For leaves, I could only add childish blobs at the ends of the branches, as my current [Shape Slime] level could not make fine details like that yet.
The next day, after cleaning my slime of impurities by watering my new tree home, I headed towards the bone pile. No animals yet, but it had attracted plenty of ants, so I resumed patrolling the perimeter. Today was looking to be a bust on the hunting front until the bulkiest boar I had ever seen started to meander toward the pond.
I followed cautiously, hiding my presence as I grappled from branch to branch. I was directly above the mighty boar, and it appeared none the wiser. The boar had a nearly ck hide instead of the various shades of brown I was used to, and its two massive tusks were jaw-droppingly impressive.
Gramps even told me what a good job I was doing being a sneaky slime, but I had a terrible premonition the more I looked at the sheer girth of this boar.
''I don''t think I can lift this thing...'' I felt horrible as I desperately wanted to defeat this thing and grow stronger - strong enough to beat that damn frog.
''But if I jumped onto its back, I don''t think it could hit me, and then I could suffocate it.''
Feelingmitted to the risk, I shot a grappling tendril toward the back of the boar, and moments before it made contact, I flung my core to follow. A terrifying squeal of pure fury and rage flooded the quiet forest. The boar went ballistic when my heavy, wet slime smacked across its back, and it started to charge around in circles in an attempt to dislodge me - but I had grappled on tight with a tendril under its belly and spreading out my surface area along it''s back. Feeling secure, I snaked my remaining two tendrils towards its head as the boar rammed into a tree and nearly uprooted it.
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''Holy shit! This thing is strong!''
Initial attempts to get into its throat were unsessful, as it had enough strength to bite through my tendrils. I focused one tendril on protecting the other by flooding it with maximum-density slime from my [Core Storage] and wedged it between the teeth. With the created gap, my second tendril dived into the mouth and down the throat, where I promptly expanded the tip into a seal by sending it a generous dosage of slime mass.
The boar became even wilder as it thrashed frantically and mmed into tree after tree. It tried to let out its wail but couldn''t because of its blocked throat - I swear I could feel bubbles in my slime from the attempted scream. I could feel its jaw trying, with all its might, to crunch through my wedge, and I desperately focused my effort on sending slime and density to reinforce it.
I watched as the life in this fearsome beast was draining and its movements bing slower. As if in defiance, I felt it try to roar again while its skin started to take on a red tint, and in a burst of sudden speed, it gave onest mighty charge. It mmed against a tree, uprooting it entirely, copsing under its own weight, and a few momentster - I got my notification.
''Rage Boar!? And it was only level 1, but I still leveled up? I really wish Gramps would exin non-trait things to me.''
I was shocked but was eager to dig into my meal as I prepared my usual harvest procedure. I felt my [Dissection] skill screaming at me to take those tusks, so I focused my efforts on grabbing those ASAP. I extracted the first tusk sessfully and was about to proceed with the next, but was interrupted when I saw a green shape approaching.
I took a defensive position on top of the boar, which was still toorge to carry even though I had managed to dissolve some of its insides. I ensured the tusk was safe inside a slime pocket and produced my three pseudopods in anticipation. As it approached, I recognized what it was.
''It''s a green slime! I wonder if it''s like a cousin or distant rtive?''
The slime was a lime-green, and its core was honey-yellow. I was surprised to see a slime out here and not on the human farm, but even stranger was the path of dirt devoid of any grass trailing behind where the slime moved. I waved a tendril, but the green slime ignored me, and I knew it wanted to steal my food just like my blue brethren.
I extended a tendril to p the slime away, but as my tendril came into contact with the green slime, it dissolvedpletely. I stared in horror, as I had never seen any of the blue slimes so effortlessly melt something. I grabbed a branch and a rock and threw both at the green slime - they instantly melted away. I didn''t know what to do, as I couldn''t stop this green menace, and I grappled to a tree branch when it reached the boar.
''That''s my food, you bastard! I worked hard to defeat that thing!'' I mentally shouted as I shook a tentacle at it.
Then I witnessed the most absurd sight ever; the green slime simply ''walked'' through the boar as if wading through water. With each movement forward, green slime swelled in size, and the boar was disappearing rapidly. I thought of stabbing its core with my prized tusk to stop it, then watched as it ate the remaining tusk without any trouble.
No boar left, not even a single bone, gone in mere moments, and an oversized green slime was the only thing remaining. I could swear it was staring at me next.
''What the hell. How is that fair?''
Chapter 12: Green vs. Blue
Chapter 12: Green vs. Blue
I red at the green thief, still shaking a tendril. I couldn''t think of a way to deal with this creature with the tools I had avable; this green slime felt like the apex of our species. I let my thoughts wander in an attempt to figure out a solution while the green blob continued our staring contest.
The green slime had a small ripple in its body, and a tiny glob of green slime shot out of it and toward me. I panicked when I failed to dodge in time, but the glob missed me and instead hit the branch, which melted away rapidly and sent both it and me plummeting to the forest floor.
''What the hell, it can shoot slime? As if its super dissolving power wasn''t bad enough, now it can fire projectiles as well - why don''t I have that?'' Iined mentally.
I wanted to read the trait description but was worried about my situation. I prepared to dodge, but the green slime baffled me and advanced toward me rather than firing another projectile. I leaped backward a considerable distance using my slime slinky twice consecutively. The green slime continued chasing me and fired another slime glob at me, and I had to dodge to the side, but my slow reaction caused it to go straight through a portion of my slime - melting along it as it traveled until the exit wound.
Once again, I readied for another dodge, but the green slime again didn''t fire a second projectile. I was slightly faster than the green slime, even without using my slinky movement, so it made keeping it away from me simple. I kept careful watch, anticipating another deadly shot, but it seemed happy to chase me.
''Does it only shoot at prey if they are too far away? Despite its notably better ability, its mind is equal to my blue brethren.'' I pondered while the green slime still showed no sign of shooting again, so I decided to take a risk, ''Show me that slime shot trait, please.''
Allows the firing of slime mass as an expendable projectile.
Objects and contents within slime mass may also be used as a substitute.Projectile size, maximum distance, and velocity all scale with trait level.
Compatible with other slime traits.>
I was grateful that the green slime didn''t shoot at me while I read, proving my theory. [Slime Shot] sounded full of potential, and I could even fire my tusks like arrows. I instantly bought it.
Once again, the immediate knowledge and understanding of my new trait filled my core - a wondrously pleasant feeling. I fired a tiny amount of slime mass at the green slime, which hit it and dissolved instantly. The green slime didn''t even react to my provocation and just mindlessly resumed its chase. This time, I fired a tiny blob of maximum-density slime, which hit the green slime and prated an inch before vanishing.
I picked up a few nearby rocks with my pseudopod, depositing them inside myself, and then fired them uselessly one after another into the green blob of acid. While my new ability was impressive, it wouldn''t save me from this strange situation. I looked around in thought, and when my focus drifted toward the pond - I spied the frog bully who stole my lunch.
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''The enemy of my enemy is my friend?'' I thought with a chuckle as I started to move towards the pond, making sure not to increase the distance between me and the trigger-happy green blob.
As we approached the pond, I noticed the frog was not fully awake and lyingzily in the sun. I consciously lowered my body, trying to stealth, as thest thing I wanted was for them to make a green monster alliance and both target me. Thankfully, my fears were soon unfounded as when the green slime spotted the more sizable meal, it directly shot acid at the frog and started heading towards it.
The oversized frog let out a terrifying croak of rage that rippled through the air - if I had eardrums, I think they would have burst. The frog monster searched for its attacker and spotted the green slime, which fired another projectile that sizzled as it hit the frog''s skin. I was surprised the acid wasn''t as effective as I had witnessed earlier; the frog must have an incredible hide that would make my [Dissection] skill drool.
Not wanting to be outdone, the frogunched its oversized tongue towards the green slime, but upon making contact, there was a loud sizzling noise. The frog let out a wail while it rapidly retracted its tongue and actually vomited when the tongue returned - it then did small hops to turn around to face the pond. While the frog was turning to retreat, the green slime fired two more shots off, sizzling on the back of the frog before it did a massive physics-defying leap and sshed into the center of the pond.
''What the hell, you frog bastard!? You can''t eat it, so you run away! You gave me such hell, and then you just disappear into the pond!'' I scream in anger, but myints will have to be on hold as the green slime is now moving towards me again as the only remaining meal.
Remembering that I could float, I start dpressing slime, except around my core, and moving towards the water. When I made contact with the water''s edge, I poked it a few times cautiously before doing a short hop in - thankfully, I did float. I slowly drifted away from the bank, the green slime still chasing me, and I wondered if it could also float.
I stared in anticipation as the green slime showed no sign of stopping as it mindlessly chased me. When it made contact with the water, it didn''t sink, but something was clearly wrong as it started to lose its'' shape. The green slime immediately stopped chasing me and backed up a little, reforming into a more solid shape once it wasn''t directly in the water.
''Ha! It can''t handle water!'' I mocked, d to finally have an advantage over the green menace. Although my mocking was short, my mind went into overdrive to think of how to utilize this because I knew it would start shooting me when it realized I was out of reach.
I thought of buckets and flinging water, or perhaps I could make a spade and hurl the green slime itself into the pond. Then my mind clicked into ce as I remembered my new trait [Slime Shot] would allow me to fire contents instead of slime, and my morning routine fully proved that I could contain water.
I thrust all three of my tendrils into theke, trying to suck up as much water as I could, then immediately activated my trait. Arge burst of water fired at the green slime, which washed away a portion of its slime. The green slime slowly started reforming its shape, but I couldn''t let it recover, so I kept activating [Slime Shot] continuously, expelling a deluge of pond water.
The green slime struggled helplessly as its mass washed away until all that remained on the pond bank was a copious amount of mud and a single honey-yellow core shining in the sun. I flung a tendril of slime towards the core to finish the job - there was no melting slime to save it now. My tendril engulfed it greedily, and I heard a familiar crunch as I ate the core.
''Yes!'' I answered immediately.
Chapter 13: Substantial Improvements
Chapter 13: Substantial Improvements
I was astonished when I received a brand new trait [Acid Slime], and my newly acquired [Slime Shot] even gained a level. I wanted desperately to examine the trait, but I wanted to escape the pond before that froggy bastard showed up for round three. I grabbed the bank with some tendrils and pulled myself to shore.
I was about to journey to my tree home when I noticed my tusks lying in the dirt, which startled me since I nearly lost my prize from that monstrosity of a boar. I assumed when I rapidly dpressed to jump into the water, I had forgotten about them in my dense pockets of slime, and they fell out.
''Hopefully, I can unlock the non-slime option for [Core Storage] soon. Maybe I can try forcing it just storing and withdrawing over and over?'' I mused to myself while I grabbed my tusks and headed to my pond tree home. Upon arriving, I threw my tusks into the hole and pulled up the trait details.
This slime contains a powerful acid that helps it defend itself and consume prey.
The base potency of the acid scales with trait level but can also be affected by outside factors such as dilution or concentration.
This trait also adds acid resistance to the slime core and slime mass, which scales with trait level until eventual immunity at max level.
This trait enhances the normal dissolving ability inherent to all slime and maintains the same degree of control.
Compatible with other slime traits.> ''Wow, this is just a pure upgrade in every way... My own [Mana Slime] feels like a joke inparison. I''m also d I won''t suddenly be uncontrobly melting everything.'' I thought to myself, aplicated feeling of happiness and jealousy.
''Could I get other traits from different color slime? If so, how many other slimes are there? So many questions, but I guess that can be my first real goal in this world other than surviving.''
After the crazy day, I didn''t feel like venturing from my tree and opted to continue my trait training. But before that, I had toplete my shopping list.
Arge quantity of slime mass suddenly began to swirl andpress down, far beyond my capabilities, until a small crimson-red orb was left floating in the slime. It was a fraction of the size of my original core, but I was d it didn''t diverge into a different color. Speaking of color, I had immense relief that [Acid Slime] did not change the color of my magnificent bright-azure blue goop.
The sub-core followed my mentalmands, able to move it around freely, and I watched it zip around in my slime mass. I headed into my tree hole, sent a pseudopod outside, and then moved the sub-core to the tip. I then mentally focused and felt my perspective shift to the sub-core. It was a strangely exhrating experience, and I raised my tendril higher like a periscope until it eventually breached the tree canopy. I took in the sights of thete afternoon sun glimmering across the endless horizon of leaves - all while my actual core was safe in my tree hole.
I returned my perspective, exited the tree, and recalled the tendril and sub-core. Needless to say, I was very satisfied with this purchase. I then gave my sub-core its first function to repeat - deposit and withdraw slime mass. From my perspective, I saw the tiny core suck in slime, then expel it momentster. I wondered if it would continue while I slept, something my primary core could not do. Up until bedtime, I continued my [Shape Slime] practice drills. Which finally paid off.
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I went to bed a very happy slime, and when I awoke, I had another surprise as it looked like my [Sub-Core] worked hard throughout the night.
Giddy to try out the improved version, I immediately tried to store my tusks, which all magically vanished except for the rage boar tusk. I was a little sour that my greatest treasure was toorge, but it soon faded as I saw how I could rapidly withdraw my stored items. I also tried storing my morning water, which rapidly vanished into the magical item space. I decided to keep the water since it proved useful as ammunition for [Slime Shot], although I was curious as to why I could store the water, which was greater in total quantity than my single rage boar tusk. I left the giant tusk in the tree, preparing to travel, but quickly pulled up my status menu beforehand.
Name: -
Race: Slime (Blue) LV 6
ss: -
Status: Healthy
Emblems:
[Experiment]
Traits:
[Mana Slime LV MAX]
[Acid Slime LV 2]
[Pseudopod LV 3]
[Slime Density LV 3]
[Shape Slime LV 3]
[Slime Shot LV 2]
[Core Refinement LV 3]
[Core Storage LV 2]
[Sub-Core LV 1]
Trait Points remaining 0
Skills:
[Dissection LV 2]
[Stealth LV 2]
[Mapping LV 1]
[??? LV 0]
[??? LV 0]
Skill Points remaining 0
I felt a sense of pride in what I had achieved so far, and I was apparently nearing two more skills through my actions. Those would surely be a pleasant surprise. My next goal was getting revenge on that oversized frog, which I felt I could get by leveraging [Acid Slime]. But first, I wanted to get my remaining tusks from my first home and stock up on some extra slime mass - I''d need a lot of it for my n.
On the trip home, I kept a lookout for potential breakfast and spotted a deer grazing. I went for my old reliable pseudopod hunting trick of grabbing the rear legs and hoisting it up, then I engulfed its head to suffocate it and turned on the dissolve. It was not a pretty sight.
Before the deer could even suffocate, its flesh melted away and left only a skull - which was rapidly following. I didn''t expect my [Acid Slime] to be that effective since it was only level 2pared to the green slime''s level 5, but then I recalled the description mentioning dilution and concentration.
''I usually keep my pseudopods very dense by default, especially when grabbing things... Which is powering up [Acid Slime]... Good to know, if a little horrific.''
I quickly ate my meal and continued, d to know I no longer had to sit around for long periods of dissolving. Weirdly, I was struggling to find my tree home, even though I knew I was heading in the right direction thanks to my skill. After over an hour of circling around, I still hadn''t found it but did a grayish-ck wolf snacking on a jackalope. I wanted to test my [Slime Shot], so Ipressed a blob and aimed for the wolf''s head. Pew. The slime shot missed the head and hit the throat, which it clung to and rapidly ate away. The wolf tried to howl in pain, but with the partially missing throat, it just let out a gurgle before it copsed.
I dropped down on the wolf''s corpse and was about to eat away when [Dissection] told me to save the fangs and front ws. I directed my slime to avoid those and eat the rest, which it did with shocking precision - I didn''t even need to pull to remove things anymore, as my slime just ate anything unnecessary. I also harvested the jackalope antlers and ate the wolf''s leftovers. My [Core Storage] easily epted the fangs, ws and tiny antlers.
Honestly, I felt a little shell-shocked at this new trait; it felt far more powerful than anything I had gained previously. I continued searching for my tree, and after approximately another hour, I finally found it.
And the reason it took so long to find my tree? All of my pelts were missing.
Chapter 14: Investigator Slime
Chapter 14: Investigator Slime
''Thieves! Scoundrels! How dare they?'' I raged mentally at the indignation.
I couldn''t believe someone had stolen my pelt collection, which had grown daily and showed my progression in the forest. I extended a tendril into the tree hole, worried that my tusks were gone too, but thankfully, they were still there. I looked around the tree for any signs pointing to the culprit. I imagined if I had tracking or investigation skills, the system would help me, although I still had not received a single skill point. After several dozen minutes of poking around the tree like an amateur detective, I discovered two boot prints imprinted into the soil, possibly from someone jumping down from the branch.
''Human, male, approximately 20 years of age, has a slight limp and favors his left leg...'' I remarked internally, while I prodded the boot prints with a tendril, ''Haha, who am I kidding? All I can tell is these are some pretty big boots. Although, I bet I could do stuff like that if I did get an investigation skill. But at least I know it wasn''t an animal.''
I thought of possibly going and stealing some blue slimes as revenge for the humans taking my pelts, but honestly, I didn''t need the pelts.
''Perhaps I should just consider the stolen pelts as payment for the slimes I ate before I left. Sure, let''s go with that. I want to deal with the frog first anyway.''
I gave the tree some water from my storage and said farewell, as I would likely not return now that it waspromised, and I took the scenic route back towards the pond. My new rank of [Mapping], which I assume I got for finding my home despite losing the visible markings, was quite handy - it was almost like a vague voice in the back of your mind telling you, "Try going left at the next bush.".
I came across two wolves stalking a grazing deer in a pincer formation and entered stealth mode. I wondered why wolves were suddenly appearing in the area, as I had only seen boars and the asional deer or jackalope for days now. Ignoring my curiosity, I moved from branch to branch until I was above one of the wolves, then dropped and withdrew slime to expand myself - Inded directly on the wolf with a soft st and engulfed it. The poor wolf did not see iting and could not howl for aid as it drowned in slime, at least until I turned on the acid.
I cheered mentally but then noticed growling and snarling as the remaining wolf spotted me, and the deer was bolting away. The wolf was cautiously approaching, but I didn''t feel fear, as it would seal its fate if it lunged at my deadly acid slime. I withdrew some tusks and used [Slime Shot] to fire them at the legs; the first two missed, but the third found its target, and the wolf let out a yelp. I wanted to practice shooting some more, but the wolf was now enraged and let out a howl before it jumped directly at me with its snarling maw.
I retreated my core to my rear end just to be safe and weed the wolf with wide-open tendrils. As the wolf made contact with my slime, my tendrils wrapped around it, and with a wet plop, I engulfed the wolf. It tried to struggle and free itself, but as Ipressed the slime surrounding it, it simply melted away faster.This book''s true home is on another tform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Happy with the free slime mass, I noticed my core still held my previous instructions to avoid melting the fangs or ws, which were easily harvested and came out pristine.
''Okay, [Dissection] seems to be leveling up far faster than my other skills or traits... The other night, I had the theory that trying new things gave more experience than mindless repetition, so I assume I got a bonus for the very first wolf I harvested... Or perhaps it''s even per new part?''
I really wanted to figure this out because if I could puzzle together faster ways to get skills and traits, I could target those methods and work towards powering myself up more directly. I twirled the wolf fangs and ws in my slime as I stared at them in thought.
''I feel like that still wouldn''t justify it leveling this fast... I wonder if I''m getting bonus experience for perfect extractions? Considering my nature as a slime, it''s almost like cheating. Although, I am also not even using half the skill... Since I''m ignoring the whole uracy and speed boost part and only using the valuable part identification.''
It felt like a sound theory, although I couldn''t think of how to use a perfection bonus with any of my traits or skills except maybe [Slime Shape], perhaps if I ever got a crafting skill. I deposited my goods, stored away my excess slime mass, and grappled up to the branches to resume my trip to the pond.
''The tusks were pretty good as ammunition and easily recoverable. I want to practice shooting more - my uracy is not great. Perhaps I could use trees as target practice? Anyway, let''s look at that new skill... Status menu... No new surprises... Skills... [Sneak Attack].''
Adds bonus damage to attacks on unaware or defenseless targets, scaling with skill level.
This bonus damage partially ignores most forms of mitigation and resistance if executed from stealth.>
''What the heck? Am I bing some sort of assassin? Although I have avoided direct confrontation with almost everything I''ve bumped into - so it''s not entirely inurate.''
I reached my tree near the pond without any issue and was relieved when I noticed my few remaining pelts still hanging on this tree. I had gained a considerable amount of slime mass from the unexpected encounters today, so I nned to spend the rest of my afternoon and evening trying to get some trait and skill experience.
I withdrew all my tusks and began firing them at a nearby tree, trying to aim for particr knots and blemishes in the wood. My sess rate left much to be desired, but it was plenty of fun. When I ran out of tusks, I recollected them by pping a pseudopod against the tree and melting away the bark. I repeated this process just under a dozen times, and the remains of the tree near the end of my training looking dreadful - so I decided to try eating it.
It took a while to dissolve the entire tree, and despite eating a literal tree''s worth of material, it provided less slime mass than even a single jackalope. I ignored the horrible exchange rate because my true hope was that I was gaining valuable experience towards [Acid Slime]. I melted a few other things entirely: a few rocks, a bush or two, and then headed to my tree to spend the evening practicing [Slime Shape] as was tradition.
My slime tree model was beginning to look great, with my leaves no longer simple blobs and instead looking like fuzz sprouting from the branches. I went to bed, a very happy slime.
Tomorrow, I wanted to deal with that pesky frog.
Chapter 15: Croaked
Chapter 15: Croaked
I woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the day when I''d finally get my revenge on that menacing frog. I stored away my morning water and replenished the diminished slime mass from my surplus savings. I exited my home and perched on a branch, rxing while I settled my thoughts. I had a n to deal with the frog, although it was slightly risky, and I wish I had more options avable, but Icked the physical strength to deal with something so massive.
''I really want a strength trait...''
That wasn''t the message I wanted to hear, even though it made sense since Icked muscle, bone, or anything solid. I assumed humans couldn''t buy traits like [Pseudopods], so I swallowed the bitter truth pill and started moving to the pond.
When I arrived at the pond, there was no sign of the giant frog, so I proceeded with some fishing to pass the time. Despite gaining [Acid Slime], I could still touch and drop tendrils into the water without detriment. While snacking on a few fish, I saw the familiar shadow from the pond depths approaching, and I hastily retreated from the shoreline.
The repulsive frog emerged and belched a croak, looking around to see what was disturbing the water, and when its eyes fell upon me, I could swear it chuckled with glee. My slime waspressed and spread out for maximum traction, and I mentally turned off all dissolving - I was ready.
The toad wasted no time, and its massive tongue wasunched towards me,tching itself to my slime once more. The frog pulled and tugged at its tongue, trying to rip off some of my tasty blue goop, but I held firm this time. It must have recalled our previous tug of war and changed strategy to start moving towards me, hoping to scare me like our past encounter, so I''ll release my slime to escape. I held my ground, not budging as I wanted the frog away from the pond in case it tried to escape.
''This frog thinks it''s got me, but it can''t see the noose tightening around its throat.'' I chuckled to myself, trying to cover the small doubt growing inside me as its hulking form got closer and closer. ''This thing is just way too big.''
Eventually, the frog was right next to me, with what I could only describe as a big goofy grin as its tongue tightly held onto me. I knew from the green slime that its hide was too resistant for the acid to melt, but that didn''t apply to its internals judging by how fast it retreated its tongue and even quickly vomited up the tiny amount of green slime.
So when the frog widened its mouth in an attempt to start taking bites out of me, I released my grip on the ground and dove straight into its maw. The tension from the tight grip on its tongue helped propel me towards my target. The entire time, I was madly trying topress the slime around my core beyond its maximum in case something went wrong.The frog seemed shocked at the slime flying towards its mouth, but even if it had the reaction time to close it, I doubted it would, probably thinking it was getting an express meal delivery. Once inside the greedy monster''s gut, I could tell its own digestive juices were trying to eat away at my slime, and I thanked the resistance portion of my trait.
Now, to spring my trap. I did two things simultaneously that I was sure would im me victory; I started to rapidly expel all my stored slime mass, which kept its density, and also turned on my [Acid Slime].
''I got you now, you bastard. You tried to eat me, and now I''ll eat you from the inside out!''
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The frog''s gut suddenly swelled in size, and the slime started pushing out of its throat and even leaking out of its mouth - I had been storing a ton of slime! Its eyes bulged in horror, not knowing what to do, and when the acid kicked in, it wanted to wail in pain. It frantically hopped around and tried to start heading towards the pond, maybe hoping to flush the slime out of its stomach with pond water, but it was far toote.
If that tree had a negative exchange rate for slime mass, then frog meat was far into the positive, as new slime umted rapidly. I felt the frog struggling and trying desperately to move around - I wanted tough at how well this was going. I wondered if this counted as a [Sneak Attack].
The metaphorical floodgates opened on that notification, and suddenly, slime was melting through thest resistances of the frog with ease. I quickly set an order on my core to not melt through the skin, just in case; I didn''t want to upset my [Dissection] skill, which screamed at how valuable that skin was. All struggling soon stopped after that, and I felt a surge of power throughout my core when the notification appeared.
''Wow, two whole levels! Even though its level was lower than mine, I really don''t understand that. And now I have two trait points to spend... Hey Gramps, I''ll trade you two trait points for [Enhanced Strength]?''
''That''s not fair, Gramps. Am I going to be a wimp my entire life? I get the feeling that even if I raised [Slime Density] to the max - it would not be enough for me to actually lift things properly.''
''There has to be some way for me to gain strength... I know I don''t have muscles... If I raised my [Slime Density] and [Shape Slime] high enough, I could maybe make some fake muscles. But that seems needlesslyplicated...''
. . .
''Where''s the trait guidance [Experiment] promised me? There has to be something else, right?''
I stared at the message with both surprise and some concern. I know I was jokingly calling the system Gramps, but was he actually hearing my internal monolog? The thought did worry me, but I was losing this feature when I evolved - whatever and whenever that was.
This trait allows control over the raw mana flowing throughout your being.
Mana Regeneration is increased scaling with trait level.
Unlocks Mana and further Mana-rted Traits and Skills.>
Harness the raw mana flowing throughout your being to enhance yourself.
Reinforcing body parts with mana raises your physical durability and strength at the cost of mana.
Maximum reinforcement and mana efficiency scale with trait level.
Having control over the flow of your raw mana is a prerequisite to acquiring this trait.
Unlocks further Traits and Skills rted to Mana Reinforcement.>
I felt a headache pulse through my core at the information overload rapidly flooding my mind. I wondered if Gramps was upset at me for pestering him repeatedly about [Enhanced Strength]. When the pain subsided, I took a moment to sift through the information and puzzle together the solution Gramps gave me.
''Okay, so [Mana Reinforcement] was the real goal to get something like [Enhanced Strength], but I have to spend mana to do so. I can''t enhance myself without being able to control my mana, which needs [Mana Cirction]. Both hint at unlocking more things down the line as well, so I don''t see why not. Please purchase both, and thanks for the help, Gramps.''
Chapter 16: Mana is Fun
Chapter 16: Mana is Fun
Leveling up, gaining new traits and skills, or progressing their levels was always apanied by a pleasant feeling or new knowledge filling my mind, and it was honestly a rather addictive sensation. Well, except for the first time I got [Core Refinement], but let''s ignore that. Gaining these two mana traits felt significantly different than the rest; I suddenly felt a mystical force flowing throughout my entire being, except it had always been there and was patiently waiting with an extended hand for me to reach out and grab it, and only now I grabbed it and embraced itsforting presence.
I desperately wanted to try it out, but before I got further lost in my thoughts, I finally realized that I was still sitting inside the corpse of the gigatoad. I pushed through the mouth and exited the creature, which was almost entirely hollow now as my slime had done a thorough job. I double-checked the corpse for anything else worth keeping, but [Dissection] only pointed to its hide, so I ate the rest while Ipressed and stored away my excess slime.
While expelling my entire reserve of slime mass was a valuable trump card for my arsenal, I would need to be careful with its usage as I noticed that my control over the slime diminished atrge enough quantities. This abundance penalty made the slime react slower to my thoughts, and I could not give itplex instructions, and against the frog, I could only tell it to burst outwards and eat. I would probably gain superior control through levels of [Core Refinement] or possibly even higher levels of my Slime race, or perhaps I could get more [Sub-Core] traits and allocate them each to a portion of the slime. Regardless, for now, it would be my unrefined and brutish emergency solution to problems.
The gigatoad was like a buffet, and I gained so much slime mass from this that I actually reached a point where I couldn''t store anymore, reaching my apparent maximum. I started ejecting water and recing it with slime, and near the end of thest bits of frog, I received a notification.
''Maybe now I can finally store that tusk and possibly this gigatoad hide - I don''t want either stolen. I wonder why the frog turned into so much slime mass, though. It might have been because of its level, and I haven''t eaten anything higher than level 4 yet, so that could exin it. [Mana Cirction] hints at all of us having mana flowing throughout, so maybe the gigatoad has lots of mana, which gave me more slime?''
It was scarily easy for me to get lost in thought while my slime did the tasks I assigned, but thankfully, the job wasplete, and there was no more frog. I tried to store the hide, and despite my gut instincts telling me it could, my [Core Storage] refused. Puzzled, I folded the hide once each, vertically and horizontally, then tried again, and this time it magically vanished inside. I decided not to question it and went home.
Upon reaching home, I immediately tried to store the tusk, and it magically vanished, joining my collection. I moved to a nearby tree because I didn''t want to vandalize my home and amputated its branches with some creative use of [Acid Slime]. Finally, it was time to y with my mana.
I created a tendril and started by lifting the smallest branch, then moved on to bigger and bigger branches until I couldn''t lift it. I mentally reached out to the flow of mana coursing through me and started to guide it towards my tendril. As the mana pooled in the limb, I could feel its strength begin to swell, and when I tried lifting the branch - it was an effortless attempt. Further wrapping around the branch and constricting caused it to crack and splinter into pieces.
''What the hell, mana is crazy good! Where have you been all my life?'' I cheered and gave my mana-infused tendril a happy wiggle.Inspiration struck me, and I recreated one of my oldestpanions - the slime rapier. It looked magnificent, having never experienced the higher levels of [Slime Shape], and I made sure its tip was of the highest density slime avable. First, doing a quick mental double-check that mana was still flowing to my tendril and the rapier, I then promptly thrust it into a branch - it glided through.
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I definitely squealed with joy as my rapier pierced through the branch, and I started to go on a bit of a stabbing spree with my new toy. At some point in my branch murder, I had the idea of adding [Acid Slime], and then, not only was I piercing the helpless branches with greater ease, but their insides were also being melted. The poor trees were not ready for what came next.
I recreated the slime mace and mmed it into a trunk with a loud crack, then added spikes to the ball and swung again, leading to a much more devastating impact, which sent splintered wood flying. Then, I created a slime greatsword and swung at the tree - it definitely couldn''t cut, so it was more like mming arge, thin, and blunt object of pure mass. I continued this for far too long, but it was so much fun trying out different slime weapons and creations each time. When I eventually stopped, I had toppled at least half a dozen trees, which I cleaned up by dissolving them entirely.
Having had fun creating numerous weapons, I decided to spend the rest of the afternoon practicing [Slime Shot], and then I''d finish with a quiet evening working on [Shape Slime]. Before using my tusk ammo, I tried shooting a bit of slime imbued with mana, and the result was quite devastating, prating pretty deep into the trunk.
It was good to know it was effective, but I wasn''t fond of spending two of my limited resources. If there were real danger, I''d not be frugal, but for now, I''d stick to tusks and rocks. I tried seeing if I could put mana into a tusk, and it seemed to work a little bit, but as soon as I stopped trying to force it, the mana instantly leaked out. I assumed putting mana in things other than my body was a trait or skill I could maybe getter, and I was probably cheating by creating weapons out of my body, so I resumed my regr shooting practice.
Before settling down for a calm evening of [Shape Slime] practice, I decided to pull up my status menu to see if there were any hidden surprises.
Name: -
Race: Slime (Blue) LV 8
ss: -
Status: Healthy
Mana: Ebbing
Emblems:
[Experiment]
Traits:
[Mana Slime LV MAX]
[Acid Slime LV 3]
[Pseudopod LV 3]
[Slime Density LV 3]
[Shape Slime LV 3]
[Slime Shot LV 2]
[Core Refinement LV 3]
[Core Storage LV 3]
[Sub-Core LV 1]
[Mana Cirction LV 1]
[Mana Reinforcement LV 1]
Trait Points remaining 0
Skills:
[Dissection LV 3]
[Mapping LV 2]
[Stealth LV 2]
[Sneak Attack LV 1]
[??? LV 0]
Skill Points remaining 0
ncing over my skills and traits, I couldn''t spot anything new, only the one unknown skill still in progress.
''I should probably get my [Sub-Core] to start training another trait. I can''t see me needing a higher level of [Core Storage] anytime soon. Maybe I could get it to cycle through [Pseudopod] creation?''
Deciding that was a good idea, I set my [Sub-Core] on to that task, reusing the bicep curls idea I had for its routine. I was about to close the status menu when I spotted something new in the portion I usually skip over.
Name: -
Race: Slime (Blue) LV 8
ss: -
Status: Healthy
Mana: Ebbing
''I now have a mana section in my status... What does ebbing mean?'' Obviously, I didn''t get any answers, as Gramps only helped when it involved traits.
I decided to periodically pull up my status menu while I did my evening practice to see if there were any changes. My practice was going very well, and I felt I was on the verge of a breakthrough with my little slime tree model. I also tried seeing if I could make something like a hand, but splitting my tendrils like that was still a challenge, and at my current trait levels, I only managed to upgrade my slime w from bi-pincers to tri-pincers. Finally, there was a change in my status menu.
Mana: Flooding
''Is that good or bad? My mana must be regenerating from the description on [Mana Cirction], so it went from ebbing to flooding... A flood is normally bad, but my mana did feel like a flowing stream, so in that case, more liquid is better, I think? Ugh, so many more questions! I wish I had someone to talk to.''
It didn''t change again throughout the rest of the night, so I''d look in the morning. Settling down in my tree hole, I listened to the pleasant sounds of the forest and the asional howls in the distance. Torpor soon took me.
Chapter 17: Target Practice
Chapter 17: Target Practice
Waking up, the first thing on my mind was my mana condition, so I pulled up my status menu.
Name: -
Race: Slime (Blue) LV 8
ss: -
Status: Healthy
Mana: Overflowing
''So now it''s overflowing? I wish I had looked at my status when I first unlocked mana, but after a full night''s rest, I want to assume this is the highest it''ll go...'' I mumbled to myself as I did my usual morning routine.
Having conquered the guardian of the pond, I didn''t have any immediate goals, so I just wanted to do some fishing and continue my training practice. My first n was to use [Mana Reinforcement] until my status changed, and then I''d go fishing and see if it changed back. Also, my [Sub-Core] was still going at it, making a tendril, flexing it, then reabsorbing it and repeating. It must have looked bizarre and was reserving one of my precious few tendrils, but I felt it was worth it.
Heading towards the previous day''s training area, I began swinging slime weapons infused with mana at trees again. Smack. Crash. m. Crack. I kept checking, but it didn''t seem to be changing. I then dual-wielded rapiers and infused both, then went on my stabbing frenzy again. Finally, aftermitting far too much tree genocide, my status finally changed. Mana: Flooding
''Great, let''s go fishing now and see if this changes back.'' I then looked around at the tree carnage surrounding me, ''Well... Let''s clean this up first...'' and started dissolving the fallen trees one by one.
The pond was pretty quiet today, with only a few deer drinking water and the giant bugs dipping into the water. I wanted to start trying to shoot at the bugs for target practice, and I was curious if they gave good experience and slime mass. However, I was worried about losing concentration on checking my mana status, so I''d fish for now and maybe [Slime Shot] some bugster.
Fishing was quite soothing, and it was nice to have easy mealsing towards me rather than needing to chase after things myself. It was also entertaining to use various slime shapes, each with its own quirks and benefits when trying to catch fish. It was, however, a little concerning how everything seemed to find my slime tasty: humans, frogs, wolves, and even fish.
Thinking back to that wolf I killed by just pulling it inside my slime, I had an idea to create my greatest fishing tool yet, but I would need to borrow my [Sub-Core]. I dangled arge tendril deep into the pond, then sent my [Sub-Core] into it and transferred vision, and suddenly I was experiencing being underwater. Now, with vision, I would send out tiny slime spears to hook into the fish and drag them inside whenever they took a nibble.
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I even finally pushed my [Sub-Core] to the next level. The only issue was this was maybe too effective, and I''d soon depopte the entire pond. I recalled my [Sub-Core] and [Pseudopod] and checked my status.
Mana: Overflowing
I was happy with the results and set my [Sub-Core] to operate and maintain [Mana Reinforcement] on my core. This way, I could see if the cost outweighed my regeneration while keeping my core reinforced for more defense, and if [Mana Cirction] gained experience by expending and regaining mana, then I''d be training three traits at once!
Now, I wanted to try shooting the bugs. At first, I tried shooting some pond water, but it couldn''t reach a reasonable distance. I didn''t want to risk losing my tusks, so I spent some time gathering rocks. My first few shots were terrible; the bugs were fast, my uracy was pathetic, and the worst part was they weren''t even actively trying to dodge my shots.
After much trial and error, I eventually hit one, which buzzed loudly and flew towards the direction the rock came from - towards me. It spotted me when it got close enough and proceeded to divebomb with its proboscis forward like ance. I withdrew some slime mass, retreated my core to my rear, and actively turned on my [Acid Slime]. I tried firing my remaining rocks at it, but now it was actively dodging, and when my rock ammo ran out, I switched to water. The bug prated my slime with a wet plopping noise and promptly melted headfirst.
''Well... Not quite what I expected. I guess I can continue shooting at the rest without worry.''
I spent time gathering more rocks, and my mana status remained the same, which gave me the theory that reinforcing for defense used less mana. When I started shooting at the second bug, it caused a bad case of d¨¦j¨¤ vu by being a near-perfect replication of the previous scene.
But the third bug I hit first try, and while it was flying at me, Inded another rock, which didn''t do much to stop its charge, and it died like the rest by melting in the slime. But when that second rock hit it, I received a surprise notification moments before the death notification.
I hurried through my status menu to pull up the new skill.
This skill adds minor uracy corrections to attacks scaling with level.
This skill also assists in attempting to ovee the [Evasion] skill.>
''I like that. My shooting is pathetically bad, so I appreciate any assistance. Also good to know there''s a skill for dodging... I really could use that too...'' I thought to myself while memories of trying and failing to dodge the green slime''s shots and the frog''s tongue mocked me.
Before I called it a day, I decided to shoot at one more bug, and it was a noticeable improvement as I hit it first try and then two more times while it was charging to its doom.
They were good shooting practice but mediocre in the slime mass department, falling somewhere between a jackalope and a deer. While heading home, my mana status still hadn''t changed, and I considered leaving it on while I slept.
I continued my evening practice with [Slime Shape] while checking my mana status, and eventually, it finally changed again.
Mana: Flooding
I decided it was worth the risk to leave it on overnight. I eventually stopped my practice and went to bed, disappointed it didn''t reach the breakthrough I felt was so close. I settled down again for a peaceful sleep, listening to the rustling wind and distant howls.
Chapter 17.5: Boar Hides and Goblins
Chapter 17.5: Boar Hides and Goblins
The twilight hours of the Adventurers Guild were usually pretty quiet, as most people had already turned in their quests or monster spoils and gone out to spend their earnings at a restaurant, pub, or inn. But there were always exceptions, especially if adventurers were traveling far to and from their objective, so the guild usually kept a small roster of night staff.
Tabitha was unfortunately stuck on the graveyard shift tonight and desperately wished she could head home to take a hot bath and copse into her bed. There was a bonus quest recently posted to y goblins that had everyone in a fever, hoping to get the extra payout rate, but it seemed people were struggling to find the nasty creatures, and there had been fighting over the spawns.
Tabitha was struggling to stay awake until the entryway suddenly mmed open, revealing Kurt, who had the smuggest grin on his face. She cursed under her breath and straightened up, attempting to don her professional persona. There was a side bet going on with the guild staff on whether anyone would be able toplete the goblin bonus quest within a week, and Tabitha had bet two silver against it - fully believing there just weren''t enough goblins in the forest. Kurt''s expression really made her worry that he''dpleted the quest and she''d lost her silver.
"Wee back to the Adventurers Guild, Kurt. Don''t tell me you actually found the goblins?" Tabitha asked, failing slightly to remain professional.
"Nope, even better than goblins," Kurt responded. Tabitha desperately wanted to celebrate her bet being safe but managed to restrain herself. He reached into his storage pouch and started pulling out rolled-up hides and cing them on the table.
"Hey! Don''t drop raw materials on the reception desk - you''ll get blood everywhere!" Tabitha screamed in protest, but that only made Kurt''s face upgrade to a shit-eating grin.
"No blood here. These boar hides have been expertly prepared." Kurt responded, patting one proudly.
Tabitha blinked in confusion, then examined the hide, and true to his word, there was no blood or any excess as if prepared by a master tanner. Kurt''s current ss was abo of Fighter and Scout, and he had hopes of getting an advanced job with dual-wield skills, so Tabitha knew this wasn''t his work.
"I know you don''t even have the [Dissection] skill, Kurt. Did you hire someone?""Something like that... I got quite a few of them, and man, I am so d the guild convinced me to buy a storage pouch. I thought you were trying to scam me." He chuckled and started pulling a few more from the small storage pouch.
It was the cheapest option, but it held a small extradimensional pocket, and it was a staple of any aspiring adventurer to prevent being weighed down by equipment, treasure, or monster parts.
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Tabitha frowned as Kurt kept pulling out masterpiece after masterpiece; even the guild staff that could be hired to dismantle monsters couldn''t match this level of quality - at least in a small city like this one.
''What level of [Dissection] would be needed for this quality? Something crazy like seven or higher?'' Tabitha wondered to herself.
What bugged her the most was while boar hide had its uses, and this would most likely make some exquisite beginner light armor, boars were barely even considered monsters and only used by beginners attempting to unlock [Dissection] without spending valuable skill points. Why would a master waste their time and effort on boars when they could earn a fortune to dismantle something like a dragon?
"Did you go and rob the Crafters Guild or something?" Tabitha questioned.
"Nope, I got these in the forest," Kurt replied.
Kurt wasn''t lying, but Tabitha felt he was hiding something. Sighing, Tabitha reached for the enchanted lockbox that only registered staff could ess.
"We will buy them at double the normal rate, but remember you will be ountable if someonees looking for them," Tabitha warned.
Kurt whistled with satisfaction, "Wow, double rate. I knew they were good quality, but I didn''t expect that much, and I didn''t have to pay that stupid guild fee to harvest the corpse... Maybe I should finally get [Dissection]."
Tabitha frowned but held her tongue. If Kurt was serious about trying to unlock the skill, he would learn a harsh lesson and soon be begging the guild staff - it was messy, time-consuming, and generally unpleasant.
"We will pay you half now, and you can collect the other half tomorrow after we confirm with the Crafters Guild."
"Sure, no problem. Gonna have a big celebration with drinks tonight! Why don''t youe with Tabby?"
Tabitha frowned and shook her head- she hated that nickname the adventurers gave her. Even if she wanted to go, she couldn''t leave the guild unattended, not to mention her bed was still calling her.
"Sorry, I can''t, I have to finish my shift." She responded and handed Kurt his payment, "Besides, what if someonees inte from goblin hunting?"
"I don''t know why they put out that bonus quest. I didn''t spot a single goblin out there, just lots of wolves. I''d almost say it was some scam to make newbies waste their time." Kurt responded with a slight scowl, which disappeared the second he started pocketing his payment.
"To be honest, I''m not sure either. You''d need to go deep to where the forest meets the mountain to find any goblins since they like to hide in caves."
"That''s like over two days travel... Even with the bonus quest payout, that''s not worth it. I''d rather head into the dungeon, grind levels, and hope for a lucky rare drop."
Tabitha snapped her fingers and pointed to Kurt, "Exactly. Even if our dungeon has the reputation of being super stingy."
"True that. A basic undead dungeon is terrible for loot, although it''s great for grinding skills and levels."
"Sometimes I think the slime farm is the only thing keeping the economy afloat here. As stupid as that sounds..."
"Hey, don''t mock slime farming; that''s how I saved money to buy my first real sword."
"Sorry, sorry. I just can''t stand the things ever since I found out they roam our sewer system..."
Kurtughed and said goodbye, wanting to get to the pub before thest call. Right at the exit, he turned around with another stupid grin erupting on his face.
"Next time you drink a potion, you better hope it''s from the farm and not the sewer!" He shouted with augh and promptly exited.
"You bastard! I did not need that image in my mind!" Tabitha screamed at the closed door. She was definitely going to have horrible dreams tonight... Stupid slimes and stupid Kurt.
Chapter 18: Interrogating Gramps
Chapter 18: Interrogating Gramps
A notification had urred while I slept; my [Sub-Core] had been diligently working throughout the night. I noticed I felt a little less refreshed this morning and a bit sluggish. I rushed to pull up my status menu.
Mana: Draining
''Okay, that definitely doesn''t sound good... Let''s stop the reinforcement for now and let my mana regenerate.''
I set my [Sub-Core] back to doing tendril curls, stored away my newly created water, and left my home - ready for a new day. Despite the ominous-sounding status, I could still use my mana, so it wasn''tpletely empty yet, although I''d refrain from touching it until it regenerated.
The pond was very tranquil today, and all I did was do a little fishing and then some more target practice at the bugs for the entire morning. I kept checking my status, but it wasn''t until early afternoon that it finally changed.
Mana: Ebbing
I was relieved that it didn''t take too long to recover and that it was only a degree worse than when I went overboard with my training the first time I unlocked mana.
''[Mana Cirction] increases my regeneration, but I wonder if there is another trait to further increase it or maybe one to work on my capacity.''
Obviously, I asked for an exnation of the trait.
Mana Reserve is increased scaling with trait level.
In addition, a minor mana regeneration effect is added based on total mana capacity.>
Once again, any trait Gramps rmended to me always sounded amazing. The small bonus to mana regeneration on top only sweetened the deal, as it would grow for free with my mana capacity. I had to add this to my shopping list, which I now realized was empty.
''I really should explore this helper function more, make a list of traits I want, and stop grabbing traits in the heat ofbat. My gut feeling tells me I won''t have this help for much longer...''
I moved away from the pond, then positioned myself to sit safely on a tree branch and set my primary core to join in doing tendril curls with my two remaining [Pseudopods]. I then started asking leading questions, hoping to get some juicy traits to target.
I crossed off quite a few easy traits, asking questions about general improvements such as [Enhanced Strength] and found out about the following: [Enhanced Willpower], [Enhanced Intellect], [Enhanced Vitality], [Enhanced Dexterity], [Enhanced Stamina], [Enhanced Charisma]. Dexterity and Stamina were ipatible with my race, requiring a body or some nonsense like Strength, but Vitality was allowed - which I assumed would make my core harder to kill.
Willpower and Intellect sounded useful; the former increased my resistance to mental effects, while thetter increased memory and mental performance. Charisma sounded useless - why would I need to increase my social presence?
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I then moved on to trying to ask questions about a trait to reduce or ovee my biggest weakness, which Gramps seemed very reluctant to answer - possibly because I didn''t know what my weakness was. After much poking and prodding, I did eventually get a trait shown to me.
Adds a minor amount of passive magic resistance to offensive spells and spell effects, scaling with trait level.
Resistance can be temporarily disabled to allow effects to pass.
Beneficial spells from oneself automatically ovee resistance.>
Apparently, I was weak against spells, but isn''t that true for everyone? That was like saying my greatest weakness was being stabbed in the heart. Or maybe it was because any spellcaster would find me absolutely delicious with my tasty mana slime, and they would be my greatest foes. It was promptly added to the shopping list as I shuddered with thoughts of being harvested again. My tasty mana slime got me curious enough to ask about tasting food myself, and surprisingly, there was a trait for that.
Artificially adds both a sense of taste and smell.
This trait can be voluntarily disabled and has no trait levels.
Unlocks traits and skills that require these senses.>
I wouldn''t mind being able to taste or smell things, and being able to turn off the effect sounded useful. The no trait levels part also somewhat answered an old question of mine - it seemed not all traits reached level ten. I added it to the list and started asking for ways to improve my slime, which took a while, but I eventually got an answer.
Allows increasing or reducing the adhesion of slime mass.
This trait has no levels.
Compatible with other slime traits.>
It sounded useful but not something I''d grab urgently, although I could probably imitate the frog''s tongue by making a super sticky tendril. I could also probably use this to climb any surface by increasing my adhesion or slide around by reducing it - thatst one sounded like a fun way to travel. Interestingly, this trait also did not have multiple trait levels, giving me the full effect upfront.
While pondering my next line of questioning, I noticed a wolf approaching the pond. Since I had seen nothing but deertely, I was eager to try using my [Mana Reinforcement]. I dropped to the ground and started to sneak towards the wolf.
My mana flowed into a tendril and then grabbed it from behind while it drank from the pond, lifting it high up into the air. I was surprised by how light it felt, and it tried to squirm and struggle out of my grasp, but the dense mana-strengthened slime was far beyond it. It let out a howl moments before my slimy rapier mana edition, which I had just created, stabbed into its neck.
''Again, I''m shocked at how good mana is... Seriously, I wish I had this ages ago.''
I devoured the wolf except for the fangs and ws, which I stored away, and then trekked to my home. Reaching my familiar tree, I perched up on its branch and resumed trying to find more traits. Midway through my random questioning, trying to dig out a trait, I was interrupted by a notification.
I was very happy about the improvement of this vital resource, and perhaps I could even leave on reinforcement now without it draining so fast, which reminded me to check my status.
Mana: Flooding
Near the end, I was struggling to think of questions to justify Gramps giving me an answer, and the final one I got before bed came from the stray thought of seeing better at night.
Enhances vision to perceive in conditions with either little or no light.
Vision distance is 20% per trait level.>
This could be useful if I decided to be nocturnal or move underground. Also, the description made it sound like it would only have five trait levels, further answering my old question.
Before sleep, I set my [Sub-Core] to use [Mana Reinforcement]; I had big hopes to ovee its consumption with passive regeneration.
''Goodnight Gramps, thanks for all the answers.''
Chapter 19: Slimy Stalker
Chapter 19: Slimy Stalker
When I woke up and checked my status, my mana only dropped to Ebbing this time instead of Draining. I was d that my idea of oveing the mana drain was feasible, possibly even as soon as the next trait level. I swapped my [Sub-Core] back to doing tendril curls to give my mana a chance to regenerate unimpeded, stored away my morning water, and headed to the pond.
The pond had a strange amount of activity, with two wolves sniffing around as if searching for something. Therge amount of wolves suddenly appearing struck me as odd, and I wondered what happened to all the boars. My curiosity faded away, reced by a hunger to rece the slime I had lost overnight - odd that no matter how much slime I had stored away, my instincts asked me to feed regrly.
The wolves were distant enough from one another that I felt confident in doing a little cloak-and-dagger. I ttened myself out and slowly lurched towards one of the wolves. When I got close enough, I formed my rapier, and instead of going for the neck, I went for the back of the skull. I wanted to test out [Sneak Attack] since it mentioned ignoring defense from stealth. When my rapier made contact, there was a minuscule ck sh on the de tip before it pierced straight through.
I wondered if that was the skill activating while I pulled the corpse in to be consumed. I was sneaking towards the other wolf when it started sniffing wildly, seemingly catching a scent and turned around.
''Did it really smell such a small amount of blood? I don''t even have a nose, and I''m a little jealous.''
The wolf snarled and howled with spittle flying, and I expected it to lunge toward me in mere moments, but then it turned and began to flee. Not wanting to lose experience and a good meal, I started shooting tusks and wolf fangs at it with [Slime Shot]. Twonded before it realized it needed to try dodging while it fled. I told my [Sub-Core] to join me andmence firing, and soon, there was double the amount of tusks and fangs flying towards the wolf.
The wolf looked like a pincushion when I collected it, and the nearby ground was no pretty sight either, with tusks, fangs, and blood scattered about. While digesting the wolves and recollecting my projectiles, I had a question burning in my mind - why did I gain traits from eating slimes but nothing from other monsters?
Gain insight and understanding from anything consumed.Information is gained partially and supplemented by additional consumption.
Trait level determines the starting point of the consumed information and the amount gained from each supplementary consumption.>
I wondered if Gramps was tired of the back and forth, as he just shoved an answer to my question into my mind, which I appreciated as it sounded delicious. Now, I just needed to level up and get some trait points. My mana level was back to Flooding, so I set my [Sub-Core] back to reinforcing, and then it was time to head out.
Feeling confident in my [Mapping] skill, I decided to explore an unknown portion of the forest, heading out for what felt like a very long time since I discovered this pond. With how quickly I could create a new tree home thanks to [Acid Slime], I could even sleep somewhere else tonight.
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I grappled from branch to branch, rapidly traversing through the forest. I caught a few small critters during my trip, but nothing that gave me experience, so I eventually started to ignore them. Eventually, I heard voices and slowed my travel to stealthily approach. I saw two humans walking and talking: a woman with a stupidlyrge axe and a man with a big fancy hat and a stick. I made a mental note to try making a giant slime axe in the future.
This being my first time seeing humans in the forest made me curious about their objectives and intentions, so I cautiously observed. I felt safe in the trees, and they showed no sign of noticing my presence. They talked to each other a lot, with the woman asionally pulling out a piece of paper, pointing, and then they would adjust their direction.
I wish I could understand them, but there didn''t seem to be a trait fornguage no matter how I tried to phrase my questions, or at least Gramps was dead silent. They suddenly stopped, with the woman grabbing her axe, and I was worried they had noticed me when arge wolf leaped out from the bushes.
She swung her axe in response and effortlessly decapitated the wolf in a single blow - I couldn''t believe it. The man pulled out a small knife and cut off the right ear of the wolf, then held the head out to her. She reached into its mouth and, with some effort, brutally ripped out some fangs, then tossed the head aside. She then walked over to the headless body and, with two swift swings of her axe, removed the front paws and somehow put them and the fangs into a tiny pouch on her waist.
''Is that pouch like my [Core Storage]? I don''t see how else they would have fit.'' I wondered to myself while the humans resumed their trip, ''Are they just leaving the rest of the corpse? So wasteful.'' I waited until they were a safe distance away and then slowly lowered a tendril to grab the head and body.
Being a sneaky slime was paying off, so I quickly ate the wolf and resumed following. I continued stalking them for what felt like hours until it finally appeared. I stared in shock as what appeared to block their path was one of the apex predators of the forest - a green slime!
These foolish humans were about to die, but perhaps I could take out the slime afterward with my stored water. I desperately wanted its core, which could enhance my traits even further.
I watched in anticipation and curiosity. The woman pointed to the slime, possibly cursing her fate. The man stood forward; was he going to sacrifice himself for her? He raised his stick; utterly futile, that stick would melt away in nanoseconds.
The green slime was creeping towards them, hungry for its next meal. The stick glowed with a greyish light, and he swung it downwards. A de of greyish wind emanated from the stick and flew towards the slime. The wind de pierced effortlessly through the green slime mass and hit the core, instantly splitting it in half. Once the core split, there was a popping noise, and the green slime mass copsed to the ground harmlessly. The manughed, and both started to walk around the green puddle seeping into the soil.
''Was that magic? And is heughing at it? What the hell!?''
I couldn''t believe it - what I thought was the apex of slimes was so effortlessly killed. Humans were scary. Magic was scary. I felt my core shudder in fear. I was frozen as I watched the humans continue their journey, no longer wanting to follow them. When they were long gone, I dropped to the floor and picked up the two pieces of the broken green slime core.
The fractured core part was new, but I was still too much in shock to really think about it, and instead, I started heading home. I ignored everything else until I was back to my tree, and it was veryte and dark when I finally reached it. I practically jumped into my hole and then finally sighed, feeling safe. The silver lining was that I gained a level in both [Stealth] and [Acid Slime], thetter being one of my best traits.
''So I think I need that magic resistance trait...'' I thought to myself before drifting to sleep.
Chapter 20: The Howling
Chapter 20: The Howling
This morning, I felt miserable, as yesterday''s events had left their mark. I was sluggish to exit the tree and finally realized my error - I had left my [Mana Reinforcement] on all night. I immediately told my [Sub-Core] to stop and pulled up my status.
Mana: Draining
I expected worse when I realized I had left my [Sub-Core] to work on it since the wolves I fought, so I felt relieved it was at least a familiar status and not something potentially worse. I headed to the pond to do some fishing and get breakfast.
The pond was eerily quiet, with no deer or wolves, but I was moody, so I ignored it and plopped down next to the water and started to fish. My thoughts were a mess, recalling how easily that slime had died.
''Would I have survived that de of wind?'' It was a good question; I had traits that other slimes did not, from what I could tell, like [Slime Density], [Core Refinement], and [Mana Reinforcement]. I could hope that my slime would be too dense to prate or that the defense of my mana enhancement and upgraded core would be able to tank the hit.
I was so deep in thought and idly fishing that I didn''t notice anything until I heard a growling noise that surrounded me. Snapping back to reality, I took in my surroundings and noticed four wolves bigger than the ones I killed yesterday ring at me with hunger and hatred.
I probably should have felt some level of concern, but after what I had witnessed yesterday, these wolves just felt pathetic - could they even hurt me without melting themselves? I swelled in size by withdrawing slime mass and formed a slime greatsword overhead.
My threatening disy seemed to have the opposite effect as three wolves lunged toward me while the fourth let out an ear-piercing howl like a feral battle cry. I swung the greatsword down on the fourth wolf to stop the unpleasant sound that showed no sign of stopping. During the downswing, I added mana to the de to enhance its strength, and it collided with the beast, which had severely underestimated my reach or myck of care for its attackingpanions.
The wolf died near-instantly as the densebination of acid and mana proved far beyond its simple animal fur protection and bisected it. At the same time, the other wolves took bites at my slimy mass, only for their toothy maws to get a mouth full of burning and melting acid.The three wolves leaped backward in pain, but only one managed to withdraw as two tendrils emerged from where their mouths had previously bitten and engulfed their heads in return. Dumping acidic slime forcefully down their gullets, they didn''t even have the time to suffocate.
I felt that exhrating rush of leveling up and wanted to spend the trait point, but there was onest wolf to clean up. I could have let it go, but these creatures had tried to ambush me and take my life. The wolf was mid-pivot to retreat when it caught the backswing of the greatsword.
I was about to harvest and eat when I remembered the trait yesterday. I considered taking [Magic Resistance], the fear of that wind de spell still present, but logic won in the end - I could continue to avoid humans and get itter. I made my purchase.
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As I devoured the four wolves, minus their fangs and ws, I received a notification when I ate enough of each corpse.
It was fascinating as I gained jumbled bits and pieces of information at random, but the puzzle pieces were falling together with fewer gaps each time I finished consuming a wolf. It was like I had a detailed model of a wolf in my mind; I had information on their vital points (heart and brain), any resistances they might have had (minor cold resistance), some of their traits ([Enhanced ws], [Enhanced Fangs], [Enhanced Nose]), and even some of their skills ([Tracking], [Pack Tactics], [Evasion], [Stealth]).
I could use this information to discover traits and skills without needing that orb-thingy. I only needed to consume another wolf toplete the profile. I felt like I could probably build an exact replica of a wolf, even with the small information gaps. My overthinking was interrupted by an even louder ear-piercing howl when it appeared.
A massive ck wolf with silverish fur tips, despite its body surpassing the size of any wolf I had seen previously, it seemed trimmed down, rtively speaking, and refined. Its tail was likely longer than its actual body, entirely covered in that silvery fur, and most strange of all, was t like a de and jagged in shape like a lightning bolt.
It wasn''t alone as another six wolves followed after it - thankfully, they were ordinary and smaller than the ones who had ambushed me. One of the wolves suddenly charged at me, snarling with savage and burning hatred. When it leaped, I reflexively grabbed it out of the air with all my tendrils, engulfing and killing it in seconds. Its corpse rapidly dissolving away - [Acid Slime LV 4]bined with [Slime Density LV 3] was no joke.
The giant wolf let out a massive howl that even shamed the gigatoad''s mighty croak - the other wolves immediately cowered before it. I expected it to charge at me, but instead, it slowly approached and looked back at the other wolves as if telling them not to get involved before looking at me again. It swished its tail twice, and I swear I could hear it cutting through the air.
''Is this wolf challenging me to a duel or something? Not like I expected we could talk things out...''
I checked my mana level, which was back up to Ebbing, so I quickly used [Mana Reinforcement] on my core while turning off the cycling autopression around it and ensuring nothing but maximum-density slime surrounded it. Doing these both with my primary core used less than half its mental processing and thoroughly freed up my [Sub-Core] to support me. While I wasn''t afraid of this wolf, I didn''t want to take any chances.
For my [Pseudopods], I created a greatsword, rapier, and tri-w. Uponpleting my three weapons, the wolf leaned down as if ready to pounce. It barked as if to signal the start of the duel and then blurred.
I struggled to keep track of the fast-moving creature as it was darting around with blinding speed, and I swung at it with my greatsword. The wolf somersaulted mid-air, bringing its bizarre tail to the front, and parried my slime greatsword! It then flung itself into the air into another spin and sliced through the tendril, which dropped arge portion of slime mass, including the greatsword, to stter against the ground.
Abination of shock and anger ran through me from the strange fighting style and losing so much slime mass. I immediately started withdrawing tusks and fangs and set my [Sub-Core] to handle supporting fire as we rapidly utilized [Slime Shot] at the wolf. The wolf dodged to and fro - I couldn''tnd a single shot. When I tried to bring the rapier in to stab at the wolf while it dodged, its tail seemed to shine momentarily before slicing through my rapier and causing the entire [Pseudopod] to fall with a wet st to the floor. The slight dy in its dodging to attack caused a few shots to hit it but only caused superficial damage at best.
I tried to chase after it with the w tendril to grab hold of it, but it did a backflip, and that ursed tail once again sliced through and destroyed my precious slime mass. I started withdrawing reserve slime mass to replenish my stock when suddenly the wolf blurred again and was suddenly directly in front of me while spinning violently.
''Shit!'' I cursed and retreated my core deeper, ''If I put enough slime mass between me and it, it won''t be able to prate to my core unless its tail were longer.''
While the wolf spun towards me, I hoped to envelop it in a tidal wave of slime when it failed to prate deep enough to hit my core, but the wolf had other ns. Its tail flickered wildly with bright light, and when it reached its maximum spin, it performed a massive overhead strike that sliced cleanly through my body and sent a projected force of shing energy toward my core! I screamed when the ghostly sh approached rapidly and struck my core. There was a cracking sound, and unimaginable pain assaulted me. My vision began to waver and cken.
Pain. It hurts! Pain. Don''t want! Pain. To die! Pain. Save me! Pain. Pain. Pain. Must kill! Pain. Kill! Pain. Pain. Pain...
Chapter 21: Blade Wolf
Chapter 21: de Wolf
Between the two-legs to the west, the boar king to the south, and the short-green two-legs to the east, territory in the forest had always been a struggle for survival. He had always been smaller than his fellow wolves but far faster, which allowed him to escape with his life and slowly strengthen. He battled the swine to the south and defended the previous alpha from the short-green two-legs - he could feel his might growing with each foe in.
But his true power was revealed when the previous alpha was attacked by a two-leg using fire. The alpha was brutally burned and lost his battle, while the pack was trapped in a vortex of fire, unable to assist. He snuck up on the cocky two-leg wielding the power of fire, who was blind in his arrogance, and struck a fatal blow to his neck, the death of this two-leg caused his power to burst, and he was reborn.
The old alpha sadly could not be saved, so it was his duty to lead the pack and be the new alpha. They spent many seasons recovering, fighting their foes, and replenishing the pack with his mates. Recently, one of his scouts reported that there were fewer of the boar king minions roaming the southern forest. Another scout mentioned that the two-legs and short-green two-legs were waging war. He knew it was finally time to get vengeance and rule the forest.
Conquering the boar king''s territory was proving very simple, with their numbers shockingly dwindling, and the boar king was nowhere to be seen - had he abandoned his territory? What a fool! They spread out and imed this section of the forest, feasting on the boar king''s brides and children as well as the numerous deer and rabbits that this lush section provided.
But that was when trouble had arrived; some of his pack had mysteriously vanished without a trace. More scouts were dispatched to find the perpetrator or at least locate the bodies, but there was nothing - not even a scent! During scouting, they found arge amount of water that would sustain them for generations and act as a suitable ambush point for prey - this forest was truly blessed.
But the disappearances kept happening, and anyone sent to the water never returned. Sending two of his best trackers, he hoped to get to the bottom of this, but they also failed to return. Outraged, his firstborn sons volunteered to ambush whatever foe was causing this.
However, he was worried this foe might be too powerful for his firstborn sons; despite their growths, they had not reached the rebirth like himself. He waited with the rest of the pack''s fighters and gave his wisest son strict orders to howl when they engaged the creature and again when they had achieved victory. If the wait between signals was too long, he would rush in to assist, even though it would damage their honor.
His son''s magnificent howl filled him with pride, and he waited with bated breath for the victory, but it never came. He rushed to the water with the rest of the pack, but when they arrived, there was no sign of any of his sons and only a singr blue blob of tremendous size.
He announced his presence with a mighty howl and approached with his pack - the creature stood its ground and didn''t flee. Perhaps this water was its domain, and it would stand its ground to defend it. Despite being foes, he liked this reasoning as it was better than the pig king, who fled like a coward.One of the younger warriors was too quick to temper and rushed at the blue creature with a thirst for vengeance. He didn''t stop the youngster as he currently failed to see how this unassuming creature could have killed his sons, and this could provide valuable battle knowledge - he could always rush in to save the child.
The creature made no movements until the young warrior was already leaping at it, and then abruptly, it revealed its hostility as three limbs burst from its rounded form and grabbed the warrior. Before he could even react, the young warrior''s life was snuffed out. He couldn''t understand how this creature hid its weapons, but then the horror started as he watched the body disappear before his very eyes. This creature was the one who had killed his scouts, his trackers, and his firstborn sons.
He howled his challenge to the creature directly, ordering the pack to stand down as they could not assist against this mighty foe, and he didn''t want to lose more of his family. Once again, the creature didn''t react and was willing to stand its ground and defend its territory.
The creature then started crafting the weapons of the two-legs out of its own flesh as if mocking him and then waited. He took his stance and barked for the battle to begin.
This foe was very strange; despite holding the weapons of the two-legs, it was inexperienced in wielding them, and his mighty tail could easily counter the weapons. When he cut into the blue flesh of the creature, it fell apart and crashed to the floor like water - it seemed he would need to cut apart this foe until it stained the ground blue.
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The creature, seemingly frustrated at how he effortlessly destroyed its weapon, began throwing things at him, but he was far too fast to be hit. He noticed that the things thrown at him were the numerous tusks of the boar king''s minions and the teeth of his pack. Was this creature the reason for the boar king''s forces being so weakened? Did this creature kill the boar king? It would exin why the king had vanished, just like his pack.
The fight continued, but he felt under very little threat, even when a few fangs struck him, as they only gave some scratches. But the blue flesh of the creature wasn''t running out and seemed to regrow from nowhere. He activated his [Hunters Eyes], and it marked the red orb floating in the blue flesh.
He prepared his ultimate strike, which could cut foes beyond his reach that he had honed to perfection. He used [Wind Step] first to build up speed and then again to appear right before the creature. He was spinning rapidly to build up momentum while he focused hard on his tail that shone with its majestic power that came with his rebirth, and then, at the highest point of his rotation, he swung his tail, and the skill [Sever Strike] activated.
It ripped through the blue creature and struck the red orb; it cracked but still held form, and he used another [Wind Step] to reach safe ground. It looked like the creature was heavily wounded, and if he couldnd another [Sever Strike], he would win. He just needed to be careful, as using too many [Wind Steps] would cause him to copse with exhaustion or be unable to activate another [Sever Strike].
But the creature''s behavior was odd, not like any wounded foe he had faced before, and was growing in size!? Blue flesh was erupting from the creature and swelling it to a massive size, towering over him. Giant limbs burst out from the creature and were swinging wildly for him. He cut into one but misjudged the thicker size, not putting enough effort into the cut, which only went halfway through.
The half-cut limb snapped back together with a sickening sound and then started shooting at him. At first, he was more focused on dodging the other limbs, so he ignored most of the shots, but then he felt his fur burning and noticed the creature was shooting its flesh at him!
Putting his focus on dodging the onught was rough, with three tentacles trying to grab him and projectiles trying to burn into his fur. With his attention on dodging, he noticed far toote that his feet were having a light tingling-burning sensation and that almost the entire ground was shaded blue.
The creature had been spreading a thinyer of its'' blue flesh over the ground. Fear bubbled up inside with the thought of disappearing like the young warrior in this burning blue flesh, but the effect was so mild that he barely felt it - maybe it was too thin to melt him? Regardless, he needed to kill this creature quickly.
He cut into anotherrge tendril that tried to grab him, this time with more effort to slice through, and it fell to the ground. He avoided another and was about to cleave through it but suddenly had to use [Wind Step] as an emergency dodge, as a tentacle had tried to attack him from behind!
Where had ite from? He shed another tentacle that approached his new position and backed up, and then he saw what had happened - the tentacle he had just cut through had fallen, but when it touched the blue-stained ground, it rapidly revived on the spot. The creature had spread itself out to recollect its fallen flesh.
The battle continued; he had lost count of how many times he had sliced through a tentacle, only for it toe back from the dead when it touched the ground. But the towering form of the creature had started to shrink; was he finally wearing it down? Then his [Hunters Eyes] spotted a tiny red orb rocketing through the surface slime. He remembered the red orb being farrger - had it shrunk to heal the crack?
He chased after it, wondering if it had given up, and then he spotted his five remaining warriors snarling at the blue ground. Fear struck as he howled a warning to them, and then his back felt immense pain as a blue projectile had struck him and burnt into his back. The red orb had reached the pack, and suddenly, blue slime burst from nowhere, utterly surrounding the tiny ball of death.
One of the braver warriors confronted it to allow the others to escape - a brave sacrifice. But the creature had abandoned its previous honor of only striking those who attacked it, with four limbs bursting out to grab and kill the retreating wolves. Both the warrior and he howled in rage, the warrior foolishly jumping at the slime, and simultaneously, he performed [Wind Step] into [Sever Strike]. His ded tail struck true, and the orb shattered.
The warrior was unfortunately already dead, its head missing where it had sunk into the creature. Unimaginable fatigue assailed his body, and guilt gued his mind, but the deed was done. They would recover like they had previously; his mates were still alive, he was the alpha, it was his duty.
Abruptly, his back legs were struck from behind, and horrific burning filled his mind. He howled in pain and confusion. The creature''s corpse, which had been slowly losing shape, suddenly had new life and took solid form, producing four limbs that immediately tried to grab him. He tried to dodge even with his back legs in abhorrent pain, dodging the first sessfully when the three others collided with him.
He was swallowed into a world of nothing but blue and burning.
Chapter 22: First Evolution
Chapter 22: First Evolution
After having my core struck by that blow, it was like a part of my mind turned off. I felt pure desperation and fear and then a strange bloodlust to kill, no, devour the cause of my suffering. My logic and reasoning seemed to dull into a quiet voice while rage and primal instinct took over.
My body and actions became pure instinct, no longer overthinking and methodical, and my instinct told me to throw everything at the problem: all my slime mass, overpower the enemy through sheer quantity and spread my slime to cover the terrain to recollect fallen slime mass.
The battle raged on, and despite recollecting the fallen slime mass, it wasn''t a perfect process, and there was still a loss. The urge to devour and replenish my slime overwhelmed me, and while I couldn''t catch this prey - there were five easy ones nearby. I deposited some slime mass, like reserve army troops, and sent my [Sub-Core] out like a general to y the foes.
The threat chased after my [Sub-Core], which led tonding a [Slime Shot] against it while it was distracted. Devouring the prey was sessful, but the threat used its ultimate move to destroy my [Sub-Core].
My [Sub-Core] shattering shocked me so hard it seemed to give my reasoning its voice back. The weird autopilot on my body abruptly stopped. I noticed the silvery wolf lowering its guard, thinking himself victorious. I started to "y dead" with the slime mass over there, and then I began lining up two perfect shots of dense slime mass at his back legs to lower his mobility.
Once I hit his legs, I reformed the "dead" slime mass to grapple him with all my tendrils. The wolf dodged the first, but the three others grabbed him, and it was finally over. My mind finally started to clear, that primal voice dimming into obscurity.
''Wait... Since when did I have four tendrils?'' I suddenly wondered to myself.
I looked through my mental notifications, which had been ignored till now while starting to bring my slime back to my core - which was currently everywhere!
x4
Emblem Achieved: [Apex Hunter].>
''That... Is a lot to take in. My traits improved, which is good, but now I have three new things to worry about... An evolution, an emblem, and a skill point.''
I wanted to get away from here because, with how this day had gone so far, I was almost expecting another even bigger wolf to show up. I looked at the corpse of the de Wolf, and [Dissection] was suddenly frothing in the mouth, screaming at me to im that deadly tail.
Feasting on this corpse gave an absurd amount of slime mass, and the rarity of the monsterbined with the perfect harvesting must have skyrocketed my [Dissection] experience. It was interesting that de Wolf updated my existing information, but I was d I wouldn''t need to hunt down more of those. When I had collected everything and deposited it into my storage, I headed home.
As soon as I arrived, I opened my status menu, and a new glowing prompt appeared, fighting for immediate attention.
I mentally selected it, which brought up a new menu that took up my entire vision.
Species Evolutions Avable:
Slime (Green)
Slime (Purple)
Mutation Evolutions Avable:
Gluttonous Slime (Blue)
Parasitic Slime (Blue)
Aquatic Slime (Blue)
Mimic Slime (Blue)
Predation Slime (Blue)
Special Evolution Avable:
Queen Slime (Blue)
This was a lot to take in, but thankfully, I could select the options to get an exnation.
A weak member of the slime species, it is considered more of a pest than a monster.
Its iconic green slime contains a powerful acid that it uses to melt its prey or attackers.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.This species used to be quitemon, but due to its indiscriminate destruction of the environment and its fragile nature, it was hunted into scarcity.>
I felt my perception of the world shatter a bit when I read that. A pest! I quickly moved on before I spiraled into negativity.
A moderately powerful member of the slime species, often found in caves, swamps, or intermediate dungeons.
Its purple slime is a concoction of various poisons and toxins like a living alchemyb.
To the unprepared this slime is deadly, but any resistance, immunities, or ess to detoxification can leave it helpless to defend itself.>
Discovering a brand-new slime color excited me, and I quickly wondered how many others were out there. But couldn''t I go and find a purple slime and integrate its core like I did the green one?
A mutation of an existing slime species, this slime has an endless hunger it constantly seeks to end.
This mutation can efficiently turn anything into slime mass and grow to tremendous sizes; nts, animals, even rocks, this slime devours all.
Due to their ability to devour an entire ecosystem into a wastnd andck of subtlety, they are often quickly exterminated.>
Being endlessly hungry didn''t sound appealing, but being able to eat rocks and nts for slime mass sounded impressive. Although, thatst sentence paints a giant target on me, which I could definitely do without.
A mutation of an existing slime species, this slime finds itself a host body to consume and rece from the inside.
Lacking in its own capability, it uses its host traits and skills topensate for its own.
Rare cases exist where this mutation has lived symbiotically with its host, but the majority involve a hostile takeover.>
This one sounded like what I did to the gigatoad, except I''d be piloting its corpse. I liked the idea, and being able to use the traits and skills was tempting. The only thing I didn''t like about this one was it sounded like I''d be abandoning my own growth and power, although I''m assuming I could rece my host and upgrade to a newer model. If I ever lost my host body - I''d lose a bulk of my power.
''Couldn''t I use this and just take over a human? Certainly tempting...''
A mutation of an existing slime species, this slime gains the ability tomand bodies of water that its slime core is submerged within.
This mutation can freely traverse water and gain greater control over water as it grows.
Extremely destructive when angered, but fragile as watercks the defensive properties of its own slime.
Thergest recorded species took over ake, and many fear what would happen if one found the ocean depths.>
This one would take iming ownership of the pond to the next level; I could literally make it part of me. It sounded incredible, but water was not slime, and I doubted it would bepatible with all the traits I had umted so far. Honestly, it sounded almost like a shortcut to the same goal Gluttonous Slime would achieve, but I think I''d lean towards my tidal wave containing slime instead of water.
A mutation of an existing slime species, this slime usually disguises itself by shapeshifting its slime into another creature or nt and then devours unsuspecting prey.
Initially, its mimicry is only enough to fool simplistic animals or monsters, but if they survive long enough, they can fool even veteran adventurers.
Advanced cases of this species have been known to utilize traits from their borrowed forms, normally unavable to the slime species.>
Now, this spoke to me on a personal level. Isn''t this a massive upgrade to my [Shape Slime]? I already enjoyed making weapons and working on my little miniature tree, and now I could turn into a tree or a wolf. In a way, it was simr to Parasite Slime, although without the skill portion and still using my slime body. Assuming I don''t lose my core, I could recreate my mimicked body, so it''s got that benefit over Parasite.
''I think this one sounds the best... Could I turn into a human and fool them? I''d need to learn theirnguage, though...''
A mutation of an existing slime species, this slime targets and hunts prey like a veteran assassin.
This mutation gains unique traits to blend into the environment and eliminate its own sounds and smells, inbination to make it nearly undetectable.
Advanced cases of this species are said to be able to detect lifeforce and conceal their lifeforce and mana signature.>
It was like fate decided to immediately prove me wrong in my opinion that Mimic Slime was the best on offer. If Ipare my kills made from stealth or with the element of surprise, they were my victory almost instantly. Being an assassin slime and concealed from life itself sounded very appealing.
The apex of a particr slime species, this evolution is the final destination for any slime species as it turns away from self-growth to progeny.
The Queen Slime loses the detriment of decaying slime mass and instead produces new slime mass over time, which fuels its new goal and ability to create entirely new slime cores.
Slime cores birthed by the Queen that be independent slimes be the base slime species and sometimes inherit traits from the Queen.
For this final evolution, the Queen Slime gains a boost to all its attributes and traits.>
''Holy shit!'' was my immediate response, followed by some confusion, ''Wait, am I a girl slime? Or would this turn me into a girl slime?''
''Come to think of it, what was I in my previous life?'' I suddenly questioned and tried to dig into my memories, but all I could recall was Gramps mentioning nobles and cake.
''Whatever, I''m a slime now, so who cares? I''ll live my best slime life now. Besides, this option mentions final a lot. I''d rather grow a lot more before considering something like this, as tempting as such a massive boost all at once would be.''
I looked over the options and pondered my choice. The species evolutions were out despite the purple slime sounding particrly deadly; I''d prefer trying to find one and integrate its core. Perhaps if the species evolution were some ultra-obscure slime type, I''d consider it, but purples were in three locations.
The mutation evolutions boiled down to two choices: Mimic and Predation. Mimic felt like the fun and experimental option, whereas Predation sounded like the kill-everything option.
I really liked sneaking around and ambushing, as it often leads to an easy victory, but if I worked on perfecting my disguises, I could achieve simr results from Mimic - like when I deceived that frog who thought I was only a tasty blue slime before I turned on the acid.
Also, if I mimicked something with a mouth - maybe I could learn to talk. I didn''t want to live my entire life in silence, and finding even one person or monster to talk to would be nice. Maybe I could get Predation for my next evolution, assuming I could get another since there was no mention of final or an even more appealing option didn''t appear.
Warning: Evolution will cause the body to torpor untilplete.>
Grateful for the warning, I moved into my tree hole before confirming.
I felt an intense power surge through my core, and my mind slipped into unconsciousness.
Chapter 23: Tutorial Complete
Chapter 23: Tutorial Complete
I once again found myself floating in the infinite void of darkness, except this time, instead of being a disembodied nothing, I was my slime-self.
''Shit... Did I die during evolution or something? After surviving that crazy monster wolf, only to die in my sleep.''
With a wet squelch, I found myself in a familiar chair. Fear and dread filled my core while I worried that Gramps was about to scold me.
"Wee, wee! I''m d my little experiment is going so well. You''ve certainly been a busy little slime, haven''t you?" The voice of Gramps suddenly echoed everywhere. He sounded very pleased, which made me dete visibly as the tension drained.
''So I''m not dead, I''m still alive? I was really worried I''d let you down.''
"Heavens no. You''re unconscious while having your first evolution, so I thought I''d pop in for a little pep talk. After this evolution, it will be a long time before I can visit again." I could hear Gramps chuckling in his response, which had me tremendously relieved, until he went eerily quiet, "Unless you die, of course."
''Nope! No dying for me! Going to live my best slime life and do you proud.'' I quickly thought and tried to reassure him while holding back internal tears. When he had spoken thatst line, it had made my soul shudder with unnatural pressure.
"Yes, good. Although you cut it close with that wolf, you had the potential to take it out yourself without the [Experiment] emblem''s assistance, but you seemed to freeze up after he hit you once."
''Is that why my body just seemed to move automatically?''"Yes. Basically, it flooded your mind with unfiltered survival instincts. You have a habit of overthinking things too much. It was a bit of a failsafe protocol to help you get past the tutorial."
''Tutorial?''
"Yes, up until your first evolution was what we consider the tutorial. You had a surprising amount to choose from, but you''ve been very busy trying out so many things you rapidly unlocked them."
''Sorry, can you exin a bit?''
"For monsters, evolutions are achieved by anybination of their environment, actions taken, or the skills and traits they''ve acquired. You unlocked Predation, which is quite rare, by gaining [Stealth] and [Sneak Attack] and then also by hunting higher level monsters."
''And I earned Aquatic just by hanging around the pond too much?''
"A bit more than that, but yes."
''Thanks for the information. I''m d that I can somewhat influence my future paths. Back to what you said previously, what did you mean about tutorial?''
"Now, the training gloves are off, and you''re all on your own. There was supposed to be a reward if you didn''t trigger the failsafe - regretful that it happened right at the finish line."
''Wait... All on my own, that means no more help with traits?''
"Of course, I don''t think any other candidate tried to brute force the help as much as you. Although, you are the only slime one."
I wasn''t paying too much attention after he confirmed I''d be receiving no more help, and a horrible feeling dawned on me; I''dpletely forgotten to look at more traits before evolving. Dread and a tinge of loneliness clouded my mood, and Gramps seemed to have sensed it.
"Tell you what, I''ll show you one more for the road. Think of it as a constion prize for almost making it without the failsafe. I''m honestly surprised you didn''t identally earn it from all your experiments."
Violently explode slime mass in a pressurized burst that can coat arge area in slime.
The area affected, maximum volume detonated, and burst dy reduction scale with trait level.
Compatible with other slime traits.>
''This would have really been useful against that wolf.'' I thought, immediately recognizing that this was a good trait and one I could feasibly get without spending a point.
"Exactly. Hard to dodge a bursting balloon full of slime."
''Thanks, Gramps. I''ll miss our talks if you can call them that.''
"Don''t worry; we can chat again on your next evolution, and I''m sure you''ll find someone else to poke eventually with so many questions."
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I was about to ask more questions, like about my nonexistent ss and emblems, and as if sensing my intention, the chair suddenly disappeared below me.
"We''ve run out of time for today. Good luck, little slime. I''m rooting for you."
The blinding light below swallowed me up before I could protest.
I woke up to a barrage of notifications.
My curiosity was bubbling; I had received two new traits and even a skill. I quickly looked at my two new traits.
Enhances an existing trait that allows bodily transformation or maniption and allows shapeshifting into a close facsimile of any creature or object.
This trait level, knowledge of the target, and practice all affect the uracy and capabilities of the form in an additive or substitutive manner.
Thebined level of both traits reduces any physical discrepancies between your natural form and shapeshifted form.
While shapeshifted, traits the target possessed can be mimicked, provided there is sufficient knowledge about them.
Quantity and Maximum Level of mimicked traits scale based on this trait level.
Enhanced trait: [Shape Slime LV 3].>
If I had to guess, this was the defining reason to pick my evolution, going far beyond any traits I had gained previously and truly showing the power behind evolution.
Mentally picturing transforming into a wolf, for example, I could see that my thorough knowledge of them from the profile created by [Consuming Osmosis] would give me a perfect transformation. I held off turning into a wolf, as I had another trait to read and still wanted to look at the emblem.
Allows the slime to shift its coloring to better blend into its environment or to match its shapeshifted form.
Level 1: Change the color of slime mass.
Level 2: Change the opacity of slime mass.
Level 3: Change the slime core.>
I was surprised to see a trait description so clearlyid out, with a specific benefit for each level. I guess [Shapeshifting Mimicry] didn''t include changing color for some reason, but with only three levels, this was nothing toin about.
Next, I looked at the skill; this was the first skill given directly, so it must be rted to my evolution.
Blocks identification skills and items of a lower level from inspecting your profile.
Ifbined with transformation, shapeshifting, illusion, or other forms of deception, then a false profile can be shown instead of blocking, leading to a higher sess chance.>
I didn''t know what identification skills were, but hiding the fact I was a slime could definitely be beneficial. That gigatoad learned the hard way when I was pretending to be an ordinary blue slime.
Finally, I looked at the emblem, still being one of the biggest mysteries ever since I first looked at my status menu.
Achieved by defeating multiple apex beasts or monsters.
Receive a Skill Point whenever defeating another apex creature, provided it is of equal or greater level.
Equipping this emblem will alert the owner when encountering a valid target, and any experience earned will receive a boost from confronting the target.>
''So if I understand this correctly, if I do something Gramps thinks is noteworthy, then I can earn an emblem. This one seems unbelievable, and I can finally get skill points!'' I thought to myself happily, ''Equip [Apex Hunter]!''
It was good to learn that you can only equip a single emblem per day, but my answer was immediate, ''Yes.''
Curious, I pulled up my profile
Name: - [Apex Hunter]
Race: Mimic Slime (Blue) LV 1
ss: -
Status: Healthy
Mana: Overflowing
''Oh... It puts it next to my nonexistent name. That''s interesting, although I''m not sure what the purpose is.'' I thought curiously, then wondered if I could give myself a name, ''My name is Blue.''
Warning: This cannot be modified again without system privileges.>
''No! Abort!'' I quickly screamed, worried about that warning. I''d have to think hard for a name I''d like eventually. I pulled up the rest of my status for thoroughness.
Emblems:
[Experiment]
[Apex Hunter]
Traits:
[Mana Slime LV MAX]
[Acid Slime LV 4]
[Pseudopod LV 4]
[Slime Density LV 3]
[Slime Shot LV 3]
[Shape Slime LV 3]
[Shapeshifting Mimicry LV 1]
[Chroma Shift LV 1]
[Consuming Osmosis LV 1]
[Core Refinement LV 4]
[Core Storage LV 3]
[Sub-Core LV 2]
[Mana Cirction LV 2]
[Mana Reinforcement LV 2]
Trait Points remaining 1
Skills:
[Dissection LV 4]
[Mapping LV 2]
[Stealth LV 3]
[Sneak Attack LV 1]
[Improved uracy (Lesser) LV 2]
[Identity Block LV 1]
Skill Points remaining 1
I had a trait and skill point to spend still, and no new surprises yet. But I wanted to try out my evolution, so those could wait. I exited my tree feeling like a new slime, and today felt like it was going to be a great day.
Chapter 24: Wolfing Around
Chapter 24: Wolfing Around
It was finally time to try out my evolution; I wish I could have witnessed the transformation myself, but my [Sub-Core] did not regenerate while evolving, much to my disappointment. I pictured the wolf, which was crystal clear thanks to thepleted profile, and I felt my main slime body rapidly shift to match the form. Four legs, ears, snout, fangs, tail, everything grew out of my slime ball, and then the ball molded itself into the wolf''s torso.
''I guess my gut feeling was right. I really was on the verge of raising that trait. I bet I canplete my tree model now.''
It felt strange to have legs again, so I sat down to lift a front paw to examine it closely. Physically, it matched perfectly, but it looked alien by being bright blue and transparent. I focused on my [Chroma Shift] skill and tried to apply the coloration. The color of the slime shifted before my gaze and would likely be a perfect match if not for the transparency.
''A transparent grayish wolf is better than being blue, I guess... I hope I can raise that trait soon. Looking at previous traits, they didn''t take too long to reach level two.''
I sat up and did some light walking, something I never thought I''d be doing since bing a slime. I was surprised at how well everything worked, and I fully expected I''d have to test and experiment, but that wasn''t the case. The strangest thing was the nose working, and when I selected the trait [Enhanced Nose] to mimic, I was bombarded with an overwhelming amount of scents and frantically swapped to [Enhanced Fangs].
A surprising feature I didn''t expect with my shapeshifted form was that my legs were not taking up any [Pseudopod] capacity. When I had originally thought of trying to give myself slime legs, I thought I''d need to sacrifice some tendrils to be makeshift legs. I made my four tendrils emerge from the back of the wolf and wiggled them happily.
I continued to sprint throughout the forest to get used to the form some more, jumped around, and even tried jumping and then swinging from a branch with a back tendril - it was exhrating. I eventually settled down and decided I needed to spend my points.
Many of the traits I had looked at seemed very good, and I had nned to get [Slime Burst] manually. However, the one I thought would be effective immediately would be [Mana Well], which I hoped would push me above the mana regeneration threshold to upkeep [Mana Reinforcement] perpetually. Speaking of which, I needed to enhance my slime core since I didn''t have my [Sub-Core] to do it for me, which I did and then made my trait purchase.
Mana Reserve is increased scaling with trait level.
In addition, a minor mana regeneration effect is added based on total mana capacity.>
For my skill purchase, I only knew a few from the wolf profile, and I wanted to collect more profiles to find more purchases now that I could potentially earn skill points through my emblem. It may have been a simple-sounding skill, but I definitely wanted to get the [Evasion] skill to dodge better.
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<>
This skill helps sense and predict iing attacks.
When sessfully predicting a threat, the body automatically enters a heightened state of readiness to dodge.
Sess chance and reaction speed increase with skill level.>
That de Wolf must have had a high level of this skill to dodge so many of my attacks. It wasn''t a guaranteed solution since overwhelming him stillnded a few blows, and he fell for my sneak attack at the end, but I was hopeful this would save my core eventually.
It was early afternoon when I finally had my fill of wolfing around. My next immediate goal would be working towardspleting as many profiles as possible with [Consuming Osmosis]. It was time to try eating anything and everything.
Interestingly, I could get profiles from almost anything. The things I consumed seemed to generalize into a broad category, and then if I found a new species or type, it would update the original profile. I had found at least three different species of trees interestingly.
Tomorrow, I was nning on trying to use my wolf form''s nose to find some animals, but before nightfall, I wanted to head to the pond and see if I could eat some of those bugs. I approached the pond cautiously, and it reeked of death, even without using [Enhanced Nose].
Plenty of bugs were hanging around the pond, far more than usual, likely due to not having anything to kill them now that the frog was dead. I rapidly fired [Slime Shot] at them, repeating my target practice approach and letting them die when they flew into me. I could frequently hit them now mid-flight with the uracy skill.
Along the way, my trait leveled up, which boosted the degree of analysis and, by extension, reduced the amount I''d need to consume toplete a profile. The profile of the blood bug wasn''t that interesting; its only trait was [Enhanced Probiscis], and its only skill was [Flight].
I wondered if I could fly if I turned into it and shifted into the bug from my wolf form. I had to deposit a lot of my slime mass away toplete the transformation, as its body was tiny inparison, barely able to hold my slime core, which seemed to have grown significantly since my evolution.
After numerous failed attempts at getting off the ground, I gave up. I''d likely need a bigger flying creature or possibly get the [Flight] skill. I shifted back to myfortable slime form and headed home.
When I arrived home, the first thing I did was work onpleting my model tree, and it came out perfect, although I was probably cheating now with the profile I had learned. I used my [Chroma Shift] to "paint" my tree model and was frankly shocked at how decent it turned out despite the transparency.
I spent my evening shifting into rocks, trees, and bushes and coloring myself. Even though I really wanted to work on getting [Slime Burst], I nned to bump both my evolution traits to at least level two first.
Before sleep, I checked my mana level, which remained Overflowing. I was ecstatic about my choice to get [Mana Well] and wished I had my [Sub-Core] to work throughout the night. I nned to do a lot of hunting as a slime wolf to work onpleting more profiles.
Chapter 25: Eating for Knowledge
Chapter 25: Eating for Knowledge
Upon waking, I noticed that my slime had significantly diminished in size, and at first, I was greatly concerned that my new evolution made my slime deteriorate at an increased rate. When I deposited my wastewater, I confirmed it was only an insignificant amount extra. Thankfully, before I went into a neurotic panic, I noticed a little orb floating inside me - my [Sub-Core] had regenerated.
The cost paid was significant to regenerate it, and in the future, if I need to regenerate it, I should sleep on the heavier side with excess slime mass to be safe. I withdrew some slime from my savings, set my [Sub-Core] to reinforce, then finally exited the tree and shapeshifted into a wolf. I borrowed the [Enhanced Nose] trait and couldn''t believe the significant difference, even though it was only level one due to being restricted to the same level as [Shapeshifting Mimicry].
I spent most of the morning running around trying to sniff out anything, going into sections of the forest I had left previously unexplored. Having the wolf''s smelling power made me wonder how astronomical the Predation slime would have been being able to detect lifeforce itself.
Some deer and jackalope were all that I found, which I could effortlessly absorb, neither of which had any worthwhile traits, but I did learn about the [Sprint] and [Leap] skills. I''d practice transformationter and continued to hunt. While heading further south, towards a dense odor, I ran into something I hadn''t seen in a long time.
I almost missed the smelly pig creatures, although they now felt so beneath me that I didn''t even need to use my tree jellyfish strategy. Instead, I just leaped at it while in wolf form, partially undid the transformation, and glomped the boar into my acidic goo. I hoped I could find more and started to run around frantically to sniff one out.
Deciding this was taking longer than I had hoped, and I wanted to increase my search speed - I tried using [Mana Reinforcement] on my legs, which took some effort, but the result was my legs feeling sturdier. The effect was noticeable, and I was definitely running faster, trying to catch a whiff of that dense odor again.
My expanded search radius eventually bore fruit, and following a trail, I found another boar that even had visible battle scars that had healed up over time. Unfortunately, for the veteran boar, it also fell to the slimy glomp of death.
I had finally reached level two after evolving. I had almost missed the fact that my level had reset after evolution, which answered another of my past questions of why the Rage Boar and Gigatoad gave me so much experience despite being lower level - they were both evolved creatures.
Spending my newly acquired trait point was a little tricky initially. I had thought I''d be grabbing [Olfactory Sense], but since I found out I could smell as a wolf, that felt like a waste at this stage. I was enticed by the safety of [Magic Resistance (Lesser)]offered, but my gut told me I could dy it. Instead, I settled on grabbing [Adhesive Slime], as it sounded intriguing and had applications I could think of to use it. Not to mention traits that mentioned "slimepatibility" in the description appealed greatly to me.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Allows increasing or reducing the adhesion of slime mass.
This trait has no levels.
Compatible with other slime traits.>
The knowledge poured into my core, and once again, I felt a new magical understanding of how to manipte and control my slime. I ced my wolf paw on a rock and increased the adhesion, and when I lifted my paw, the rock was firmly stuck.
I did a few other little experiments, such as removing all adhesion and running in ce, which looked hrious, and my crowning aplishment was running up a tree, which took multiple attempts to coordinate on adding or removing the adhesive effect when the paw would be ced or raised.
I finally continued searching for another boar, but my luck might have run out for the day. I was heading home while doing a loose search for peculiar smells when my super-sensitive nose caught five approaching, three of which had the stench of death. I undid my wolf form rapidly and promptly grappled up into the safety of the leaves. I tried to mimic a branch and silently waited, hoping mybination of transformation and stealth was good enough.
The figures that walked by were three human men, a ck cat-like creature, and a woman withrge and pointed ears, which my broken memory informed me was an elf. I wondered which of the three had that stench, but that wasn''t possible without my wolf shape.
It was very odd to have the knowledge of something without the attached memories of where it came from, which only made me question what Gramps had done to me. I did wonder why he took my memories of my past life away, and I could only assume it was so that I couldn''t go and seek revenge for being poisoned. My first conversation with Gramps made it sound like reincarnation was a frequent urrence, and if it was gued by the deading back to seek revenge, the world might devolve into chaos.
The loud voices of the men snapped me back to reality as I watched them pass by. One of the men had a fancy cloak with matching armor and was holding a piece of paper and pointing; at his waist was an ornate-looking rapier, and I mentally approved of his weapon choice. The other two men had a sort of vagabond look going to them, and they had unkempt des and dirty leather armor. The elf wore strange armor that looked crafted out of leaves, and at her back was a bow and quiver that screamed loaded with money, the bow especially looking like a work of art. Finally, the cat-like creature was by her side; it was slender, and I got the impression it might have been faster than the de Wolf.
The fancy man was talking obnoxiously loud while they walked, and the cat-like creature was ncing around while its ears were perking, which caused me to tense up with worry. I was frozen as I watched them leave, and thest thing I saw was the elf scratching behind the ears of the cat.
When the tension faded, I turned back into a wolf, hoping its nose would inform me if anyone approached while making haste back home. Nothing eventful happened, and I wasn''t lucky enough to find thest boar I needed before I spotted my familiar tree.
I checked my mana level, curious how much the drain from enhancing my legs would be while continuously maintaining the reinforcement on my core. My mana showed Surging, which meant it only dropped one level - not bad. Now, I''d test out the new creatures I could transform into; the deer and jackalope came easily.
I assumed I was getting bonus experience for the quality and also for a new form. I likely umted only regr amounts of experience throughout the day while shapeshifted and using mimicked traits. I hoped [Chroma Shift] wasn''t far behind.
Lastly, I tried turning into a boar; the transformation was a partial sess, but some of the parts were either droopy or the incorrect size. I spent the rest of the night trying to be a boar, hoping to leverage practice and my trait level to fill in the profile gaps. Before I finally decided to call it a night, I was very close to finishing the boar shape; it was certainly serviceable, and I could run around looking like one - if you ignored the transparency.
Tomorrow, I had ns to visit some old friends and get a necessary profile that may hint at some traits and skills specifically for me. It hinged on me ranking up my [Chroma Shift], but I was confident I could get it either in the morning or during the trip.
Chapter 26: Wolf-Eat-Slime
Chapter 26: Wolf-Eat-Slime
Mana: Overflowing
Waking up to the highest level of mana despite my dutiful [Sub-Core] working throughout the night was a glorious way to start the day, proving that I could fully maintain reinforcing my core without draining mana.
Before heading out, I shapeshifted between the four creatures I had mastered before finally shifting into the boar. It was good practice but made me realize that the other forms were taking up less of my mental capacity to hold, and the wolf, which I had spent almost the entire day as was slightly more efficient than even the other three with theirpleted profiles.
Knowledge, trait rank, and practice all yed a critical role in not only the form''s transformation uracy and shifting speed but also its upkeep cost - I needed to keep a nose out for another boar. Interestingly, I also tried shifting into the de Wolf, but my body refused to take the shape. It perplexed me because I had full knowledge of the evolved wolf as it amended itself to my existing profile rather than adding its own entry. I could only assume Icked a minimum trait level in either [Shapeshifting Mimicry] or [Shape Slime], abination of the two, or maybe even a minimum race level.
With [Shapeshifting Mimicry] reaching level two, I now had ess to a higher trait version of [Enhanced Nose], so I hoped I could find that final boar andplete the profile. I could also add another trait to the mimicked form, but from some experimenting, I discovered that each trait had a mental upkeep depending on its copied rank. I''d need to expand my mind, refine my core, or add cores because if I ever reached max for [Shapeshifting Mimicry] upkeeping ten skills, all at rank ten sounded mindblowing in the literal sense.
The asional foraging was mandatory, as I loved the rush of information whenever Ipleted a profile, and I got a bunch of facts stuffed into my core about healing herbs and poisonous mushrooms.
I started heading west wearing my wolf form while looping between different colors, and my nose working as I traveled, so I wasn''t too worried about any humans seeing a rainbow wolf. During the downtime of travel, I also experimented a bit with my shapeshifting, which led to me discovering that I could not mix and match mimicked transformations for reasons beyond my understanding. I could swap between slime and wolf and a seemingly endless amount of partials between the two forms, but I could not give my wolf form antlers or tusks. My mad scientist''s idea of picking the best parts from every creature would have to wait until I discovered what prevented me.
Another sad conclusion was while I could naturally erge my slime form, I could not just make a "bigger wolf" without spending considerable effort and mental upkeep. My only assumption was that [Shapeshifting Mimicry] truly wanted me to copy the form exactly, being quite a snobby perfectionist of a trait, and wasn''t happy about me making any modifications.
After fooling around with transformations, I reinforced my legs and sprinted slightly south while maintaining my westerly approach. I detoured a good portion of the morning, and it was turning to the afternoon when my effort finally paid off.I confirmed my earlier theory by transforming it into a boar and found much less mental tax for the form. My innerpletionist satisfied, I continued heading west in wolf form again and decided to put my mental processing to mixing up the colors of different body parts.
It finally increased, and thankfully, before I reached my destination. Filled with excitement, I rushed to change the opacity of my slime, and my vision abruptly went dark.
''Wha-!?''
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''Maybe I should have seen thating... Pun intended. I see through my core and not my slime. Interestingly, or worryingly, my false profile shows my title, and isn''t being above level ten suspicious for a normal wolf?''
Turning my slime transparent brought back my sight, but now I had a predicament to solve. At first, I created a tendril and ced my [Sub-Core] inside it, then swapped vision and admired the finally non-transparent wolf proudly. While this fixed my vision, wolves didn''t have tendrils, so I needed another solution.
I tried making some transparent holes throughout my wolf body, and while that solved the vision issue, I could tell it was hampering my disguise.
''Even Gramps hates it.'' I sulked, then continued trying to think of a solution, ''What I really need is eyes... Could I get an eye trait or something? Wait...?''
I moved my [Sub-Core] to the head of the wolf and then started experimenting with lowering the transparency of the eyeballs. It was a lot of trial and error, but eventually, I could finally see and meet the conditioning.
The head being amon weak point for basically everything, I decided it would be safer to use my [Sub-Core] and keep my actual core hidden within the body. Finally, I continued my journey, which gave me time to get used to my narrower field of vision.
As I broke the forest edge, I saw a tall wall in the distance, then as I got closer, I saw a familiar stream, andstly, I saw plenty of bouncing blue slimes. My wolf nose couldn''t detect anything nearby, so I strolled over.
''I can''t believe I willingly came back here, but I''m hoping to learn some more about myself bypleting a slime profile.''
Then, the feasting began.
''Did thatst slime have thepression trait, which gave my own trait some experience? Not that I''mining... Despite being my second trait, it somehow fell behind some of my newer traits in levels.''
I did not expect it to level up already and could only assume that fullypleting a profile gave me a lot of trait experience.
''I have been eating a lot of thingstely purely for the profile, even stuff I can''t transform into - no wonder I earned the Gluttonous evolution...''
The slime profile was disappointing, but I didn''t expect much from ordinary blue slimes. I did hope that with the profileplete, I could get a lot more information from any evolved or subspecies consumed in the future. The two new traits I did learn about were intriguing, and I could imagine applications for both.
Allows increasing or reducing the sticity of slime mass.
This trait has no levels.
Compatible with other slime traits.>
Another trait with slimepatibility was always wee. I couldn''t think of anything offhand on the reducing sticity portion and bing rigid. However, by increasing sticity, I could avoid gravity sttering me across the ground and instead bounce.
Spend mana to generate slime mass.
There is a daily conversion limit, scaling with trait level.>
Meanwhile, with this trait, I could avoid inevitably turning into a puddle of water if I ever ran out of things to eat. Apparently, this was a very rare trait that blue slimes would develop. Although it sounded almost too good to be true, it didn''t offer me any immediate benefit, as I had plenty of slime mass saved away and was likely close to hitting my storage limit. I wondered how low the daily limit was per level.
Now that I had so manypleted profiles, I also puzzled together a bit of an understanding of how ordinary monsters develop. There was no way a dumb wolf carefully selects its traits when it levels.
Most monsters are born with an innate trait, and the majority of points will be allocated randomly amongst them. There is a chance a new trait is picked randomly out of a pool instead of improving an existing one. When no more traits have avable levels, then the probability is guaranteed.
The traits are divided into pools,mon and rare. Using a blue slime, for example, itsmon traits are [stic Slime], [Adhesive Slime], and [Slime Density], while its rare traits are [Slime Conversion] and [Pseudopod]. I could assume a green slime has [Slime Shot] in its trait pool. It did make me wonder how intelligent monsters developed; would they tell their children to "make sure to get [Enhanced Strength]"?
Satisfied with having two more traits on my shopping list, I started to head back into the forest.
Chapter 27: Syl
Chapter 27: Syl
It certainly was tempting to devour all the slimes and hope for one that had developed a new trait, but I was hoping to make periodic trips here and grab a few. I didn''t feel guilty per se about the forest boars driven to near extinction, but if I did the same to the blue slimes, I''d be trading potential long-term gains for a quick short-term one.
What I desperately wanted, however, was a green slime or, even better yet, a new color. This led to the decision that I would not return to my tree home and instead explore uncharted sections of the forest. My wolf form was perfect for fast travel, especially if I used [Mana Reinforcement] on the legs, and its exquisite nose would guide me to points of interest.
A whiff of fresh blood caught my attention, and I started cautiously heading toward it. As I got closer, I noticed two smells mingled amongst the blood; one smelt wild and animalistic, while the other had a rich and earthy forest scent. Hoping that my stealth skills were being put to good use, I cautiously approached until I finally spotted them.
Lying in arge pool of blood was the ck cat-like creature, covered in gashing wounds - unmoving and dead. Leaning against the cat creature was the elf, also covered in wounds, the worst of which looked like something had gouged through her stomach. That fancy bow was not on her person, and she was stroking the cat with a forlorn expression.
''She looks like she''s been through hell and back. Whoever or whatever did that to her didn''t want to give her the chance to escape alive...''
I couldn''t smell anything else nearby, so I cautiously approached, not sensing any instinctual threat from the dying and unarmed elf. When the elf detected my presence, she jerked violently from her position before huddling over in pain and clutching the wound. She shouted in a threatening tone, but I couldn''t understand it and just stopped and stared at her. She looked confused and eventually started talking more, her tone bing less hostile with each repetition. Her hand reached out, and a green light softly emerged and enveloped me. I was about to panic and retreat when a notification popped up.
Do you ept?>
Confused, I stared at the message. It didn''t seem hostile, and the thought of finally having someone to talk to gave me some unfounded hope. The elf Sylthaeryn, I assumed, had an almost pleading look on her face, and regardless of my choice, it looked like she had not much time left in this world.''Yes.''
''What the hell just happ-''
"Thank you for epting my request, noble wolf." The elf spoke softly with an expression of relief.
My mental protest was abruptly cut short by sheer confusion at her words. Words that I could finally understand.
This tale has been uwfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
''Can you hear my thoughts?'' I tried, but the elf showed no sign of reacting, ''So not a Gramps situation...'' I thought sadly, then tried to speak aloud, but my wolf form only made barking noises.
"Unfortunately, our time together will be short as I''m not long for this world, and soon my essence will give this forest life." She continued, then reached for a small pouch that looked intricately crafted from all sorts of nt matter and finally wrapped in golden vines.
She beckoned me closer. I would normally be hesitant to approach an unknown, but our bond informed me that she held no hostile intent toward me, so I approached. When I got closer, I finally took more notice of her appearance, something I had disregarded from the other humanoids; she had long silvery-white hair, and her eyes were a deep emerald green. She stroked my wolf head with a terribly weak hand and then ced the pouch strap around my neck.
"I know this is a selfish request, but please could you protect this pouch, and should you ever discover another elf, present it to them."
''Sure, might as well as thanks for teaching me thenguage.'' I thought, then realized she couldn''t hear my mind and quickly nodded.
"Thank you, noble wolf." Her smile was faint, but her eyes held some embers of determination.
I nced at the creature she was still partially leaning against. She noticed my gaze, with tears rolling down her eyes.
"This was Shna, my firstpanion. She died soon after we escaped..." She spoke softly and shook her head in disbelief, "Her sacrifice was in vain... My wounds are far too great, and the bastard even used poison to ensure my eventual demise."
It was a dreadful situation, and perhaps if I had chosen Parasite Slime I could have saved her, but my current evolution, traits, and skills provided me no way to deal with hemorrhaging wounds or poison.
"Unfortunately, there is onest thing. I do not wish for my killer to gain from my essence or ancestral emblem, and instead, I wish to pass both of them to you."
I wasn''t sure what she was talking about, but the embers had rekindled like she had made a final resolution.
"I shall grant you a name so that adventurers will see you once had a bond, and perhaps if you deliver my pouch, a more suitable elf will rebond with you... Syl."
''Wait-''
Profile Updated>
''She can just force a name on me? I mean... At least it sounds better than Blue.''
"Sorry if it was a bit of a rush name... I thought I''d leave behind another part of me with you. I wanted to make my own mark on the world, but fate had other ns for me." She spoke full of regret and nced at the gaping wound, her hands trembling, "Forgive me, this is the greatest taboo for a bondedpanion..."
"Syl." The resolution in her voice caused my wolf ears to perk, and her following words shocked me to my core, "I order you to kill me."
My mind shuddered, my vision took on a red tint, and I felt myself lose control over my body. It felt vaguely simr to what happened to me when fighting the de Wolf, and my body moved to follow the order to maximum efficiency. My wolf form melted away as tendrils burst out, and my entire slime form rapidly moved to engulf her whole.
"A slime!?" These were thest words spoken by Sylthaeryn.
Emblem Usurped: [Elven Legacy].>
When I finally regained control over my body, both Sylthaeryn and Shna were gone, the panther''s body taken with her in the overflowing amount of slime. Being at the mercy of Sylthaeryn''s order, my slime had not preserved anything. Her body was gone, herpanion gone, her bow presumably lost. Other than memories, the only thing that remained of Sylthaeryn was the small pouch she gave me and the mark she had left on my profile.
Name: Syl
Chapter 28: Does Gramps Have a Thing for Elves?
Chapter 28: Does Gramps Have a Thing for Elves?
''What the hell just happened?'' I ask with utter confusion.
The situation was absurd; I became some monsterpanion, got an emblem forced on me, and then subsequently removed, entrusted with a fancy nt bag, mercy-killed an elf underpulsion, usurped an emblem, and I''ve gone up three levels. I tried to calm my neurotic tendency by reading the new emblem.
This emblem was a reward chosen by the progenitor of the Elf race for triumphs worthy of the Gods and inherited by all descendants.
The progenitor elf was a master magus and wished his descendants to follow in his footsteps in mastering the arcane.
Magic and Mana rted Traits and Skills are easier to acquire and receive a bonus to earned experience.
All mana costs, including upkeep, are reduced by 25%.
Mana regeneration receives a minor increase.
This emblem cannot be equipped.This emblem will be usurped through death.>
''What bullshit is this? I was born being bullied by a child armed with a bucket and a knife. Meanwhile, all elves are born destined to be master magicians?''
''I can understand why someone tried to kill her if something as amazing as this is transferred through death. That''s a crazy thought... I wonder if someoneined to Gramps about how overpowered elves were, and thatst line was added as a concession.''
''I mean, now I have this absurd emblem. Although, doesn''t this paint a huge target on my back? Now, not only am I a monster slime, but I also have some legendary elf emblem. I need to level up [Identity Block]... And get out of this forest.''
My immediate n was to head east and get far away, but I wanted to try both my new forms before departure. The elf form was a mess; I could tell it was trying to copy Sylthaeryn, as she was my only point of reference, but it looked like she had crawled out of a vat of acid and missing a leg.
I would need to give this form significant attention and practice and level up my transformation traits before it is anywhere near usable. Another concern worth mentioning was that the formcked any clothes, as my [Shapeshifting Mimicry] only copied the physical form, so I''d need to find some solution.
''I do own a lot of boar hides in my storage... But without a tailoring skill or something, I think I''d do more harm than good.''
The panther form was better but proportionally wrong in many ways, and it felt like my knowledge of quadrupeds contributed a bit to understanding this form. I moved towards the bag and got another surprise when I deposited it.
I shifted to myfortable wolf form and started my trip while keeping a nose out for trouble. I had three trait points to spend and decided to peruse through the new profiles before I bought anything, just in case there was a hidden gem. The panther profile was a bunch of traits unavable to me as a slime,cking legs, muscles, stamina, or even organs.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
When I looked at the elf profile, I felt my core boiling with rage at the unreasonable bias. Firstly, the elf profile was very different from any profile I had seen before, and there was no trait pool and no separation betweenmon and rare. Instead, there was a list of traits they started with and a list of unique traits only avable to elves, and I imagined other intelligent races would share thisyout.
Now, onto the source of my feelings of unjust inequality; elves had far too many starting traits! [Mana Cirction], [Mana Well], [Mana Sight], [Lowlight Vision], [Ageless], [Elven Reflexes], [Elven mour], [Nature Commune], and that was just the ones I could see with an iplete profile.
''Gramps, don''t you just love elves too much? Or is this bias against monsters? I guess I''ll find out if I get a chance to eat a human or a smart monster. Either way, I''m going to lodge aint during our evolution meeting.''
I couldn''t believe they were born with eight traits, two of which I had to purchase. Out of their starting traits, the only one that I could actually get myself was [Mana Sight], and I wasn''t sure if I wanted to buy it for myself until I tested it with mimic.
See the flow of mana throughout the world.
Mana sight can see through obstructions based on trait level.
Trait level also determines the minimum level of mana able to be detected, and detection range.>
''Actually, couldn''t I learn the trait from using it through mimic?'' It was a thought worth exploring, as soon as I could sessfully make the elf form usable - it couldn''t even walk!
After going back and forth through ideas and traits, I decided to buy [Enhanced Intellect] and [Enhanced Vitality] and then keep my final point for an emergency like buying [Magic Resistance (Lesser)] or possibly [Dark Vision]. They weren''t the most exciting choices, but I wanted durability and mental capacity if I was heading into unknown territory.
Increases mental processing and memory capacity per trait level.>
Increases your lifeforce per trait level.>
The vitality increase was hard to judge, but the intellect was noticeable as it reduced the maintenance on [Shapeshifting Mimicry].
Speeding along as my wolf with reinforced limbs was my best way to travel by far, and I just reached the pond, but I wanted to go past the pond and into the unknown. However, the sun wasn''t cooperating, and it was about the time I''d usually settle down and practice before bed.
''Actually, I changed my mind. I want to keep traveling during the night, so let''s grab [Dark Vision].''
Enhances vision to perceive in conditions with either little or no light.
Vision distance is 20% per trait level.>
My surroundings immediately lit up with near-perfect rity, and I could see the clear dividing line where my [Dark Vision] expired and my normal vision continued. Journeying through the night was a new experience, and after what seemed like hours of uninterrupted travel, I spotted what looked like a cliffside in the distance through the breaks in the treetops. During my nighttime run, two more surprises popped up.
''I have been using my mana constantly since I got it, especially reinforcing my wolf legs, but I can''t help but think this is because of the elf bullshit... Seriously, Gramps, do you have an elf fetish or something?''
Now that I had a newndmark spotted, I decided to make a temporary tree home and get some rest. While I didn''t feel bodily fatigue due to my nature as a slime, I was concerned about what mental fatigue would do and decided to err on the side of caution.
Chapter 29: Mental Housekeeping
Chapter 29: Mental Housekeeping
My sleep was unpleasant, filled with dark thoughts that clouded my mind. Imagining having my body forcibly seized against my will was a terrifying thought, and I suddenly regretted not purchasing [Enhanced Willpower]. The death of Sylthaeryn clearly affected me despite our very brief encounter, and I wondered if it was from our impromptu bond being torn apart. I didn''t mind killing to survive, and if someone tried to kill me, I wouldn''t hesitate to end them - I was a monster now, and I needed to endure. But giving her the benefit of the doubt, I assumed Sylthaeryn was innocent, up until she forced me to execute her before the poison or wounds could - it was a mercy kill, but it still left a bitter taste in my mouth.
I tried opening the bag I received, but it was locked or some magical equivalent. I recalled her dominating my mind, causing a moment of anger where I tried to melt the bag to see its contents, but it could fully resist even my most potent [Acid Slime]. I equipped my [Apex Hunter] emblem and looked at mytest status menu.
I felt a nagging in the back of my mind as I saw how my trait list had ballooned out of control. I started trying to rearrange and reorder my traits, and to my surprise, they did. I wondered if I could categorize them. Gazing at all my slime-rted traits, I mentally grouped them as "Slime", and they popped together into a category. I repeated this process a few times until I was satisfied.
Name: Syl [Apex Hunter]
Race: Mimic Slime (Blue) LV 5
ss: -
Status: Healthy
Mana: Overflowing
Emblems:[Experiment]
[Apex Hunter]*
[Elven Legacy]
Traits:
Slime:
[Mana Slime LV MAX]
[Acid Slime LV 4]
[Adhesive Slime]
[Pseudopod LV 4]
[Slime Density LV 4]
[Slime Shot LV 3]
[Shape Slime LV 4]
Core:
[Core Refinement LV 4]
[Core Storage LV 4]
[Sub-Core LV 2]
[Consuming Osmosis LV 3]
Mimic:
[Shapeshifting Mimicry LV 2]
[Chroma Shift LV 2]
Mana:
[Mana Cirction LV 3]
[Mana Well LV 1]
[Mana Reinforcement LV 3]
Attributes:
[Enhanced Intellect LV 1]
[Enhanced Vitality LV 1]
[Dark Vision LV 1]
Trait Points remaining 0
Skills:
[Dissection LV 4]
[Mapping LV 2]
[Stealth LV 3]
[Sneak Attack LV 1]
[Improved uracy (Lesser) LV 2]
[Identity Block LV 1]
[Evasion LV 1]
[Universal Language]
[??? LV 0]
Skill Points remaining 0
It was interesting that I retained [Universal Language] despite losing [Bonded Companion], and I didn''t even get the chance to read the description of that emblem before having it torn from me.
Grants aplete understanding of the universalnguage, allowingmunication between others who share the same skill.
While each race or species may have its ownnguage or another form ofmunication, this is amonnguage shared amongst all sapient life.>
''So everyone can speak universal, but universal doesn''t let you understand everything... I wonder why I didn''t start off with this skill. I am sapient, so perhaps an oversight?''
I wasn''t sure what the unknown skill could be and hoped it was advantageous, which reminded me that I needed to unlock [Slime Burst].
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the vition.
Violently explode slime mass in a pressurized burst that can coat arge area in slime.
The area affected, maximum volume detonated, and burst dy reduction scale with trait level.
Compatible with other slime traits.>
Recalling the trait description, which seemed easier now, the first thing that came to mind wasbining [Slime Density] and [Slime Shot]. I erged a pseudopod and positioned it at a distance from me, then fired a fewpressed slime bullets at it, which hit the target and promptly reabsorbed. I tried using [Slime Shot] without anypression, but it was like a weak water hose and did not have much distance.
Then, I triedpressing, firing the bullet, and finally initiating a dpression before it emerged. It took some trial and error, especially in the timing of the dpression, but eventually, a discharge of slime erupted from my form. I tried it a few more times, getting better at the timing, and then checked my status menu.
Happy to confirm I was on the right track, I finally shifted into my wolf form and continued my journey toward the cliff. If I could sessfully use my partial trait inbat, I figured that would push it over the edge to unlock.
Eventually, I caught a feral scent mixed with some blood and headed in that direction, making sure to stealth as I approached. What I discovered was a bear monster fighting three wolves. I maneuvered to pincer the bear between myself and the wolves, and that is when I lunged for the bear''s neck. I had equipped [Enhanced Fangs] and reinforced them with mana when I decided to enterbat, wanting to give it a test.
My wolf form''s jaw ripped out a good chunk of flesh, thanks to my double-empowered fangs and further boosted by [Sneak Attack]. The bear roared in pain and tried to reach behind its neck for me, but I was warned by [Evasion] and kicked off to leap away while firing my partial slime burst. Underbat pressure, it didn''te out spectacrly, but arge amount of acidic slime still managed to coat the bear, causing it to let out a guttural roar as its flesh began to melt.
The wolves noticed my presence and let out what felt like happy barks as if directing me to assist them with taking down the bear.
''Wait, because the wolves think I''m a wolf, it earned me experience towards [Identity Block]? My false profile must be pretty decent. I guess it did also fool Sylthaeryn...''
The bear had itself in a pain-induced rage and was swinging wildly, one of its ws gutted through a wolf. The remaining two wolves attempted to go for its hind legs, but their fangscked the potency. I created a tendril from my back, sending it right near the bear''s head, and fired a point-nk burst of slime into its face, hoping to blind it. Its thrashing took out the other two wolves and even a nearby tree in coteral damage. Meanwhile, I had created another tendril and fired a double burst directly at its head.
With my trait finally unlocked, it was time to end this fight. The bear was blinded and just iling now, so I sneaked low and dove at its leg with my fangs ready to rip and tear. I tore through its leg, then dodged an iing blow thanks to [Evasion] again. I snuck around and went for its remaining hind leg from a different angle,nding a solid blow that sent the bear tumbling to the ground.
Seeing my skill increase made me realize that perhaps all my attacks met the criteria while it was blinded and unaware. I decided to finish off the bear by shaping four rapiers enhanced with mana, and not to be outdone, even copied the exact form of a fancy de I had seen previously. The four des pierced through the bear, two of whichnded devastating blows to its jugr.
When I approached the corpse, I received a brutal scolding from [Dissection], as the pelt was highly valuable, and I had melted a lot of it with my indiscriminate bursts of slime. I imed its fang and ws and whatever was salvageable of the pelt and ate the rest - including the wolves.
I wanted to find another bear toplete the profile, perhaps one that would satisfy [Apex Hunter], so I could gain another skill point. I started sniffing the air and ground, hoping to find traces of the bear''s smell and began following what I assumed was the bear''s trail.
''I was wondering what the skill would be. I guess I have been using this super nose a lottely.''
Aids directly in discovering and following tracks or trails while using an enhanced sense.
uracy, prediction, and tracking period scale with skill level.>
''Sounds good, alright. Let''s try to find some more bears.'' I thought feeling determined.
Chapter 30: Overcrowded Cave
Chapter 30: Overcrowded Cave
While following the bear''s scent trail, I realized how much potential the [Tracking] skill had. I had always just traveled blindly in a direction hoping to bump into something and thenter tried heading towards any strong smell. Being able to follow trails that were fresh enough would help lead me to either the prey directly or to theirir and significantly improve my hunting capabilities.
The trail eventually led me to a small cave opening, and the dense odor inside made me feel quite ufortable. I shifted back to my natural slime form and grappled up to the ceiling, making full use of [Adhesive Slime], and then stealthily crawled along. The cave looked empty and made me think of setting up an ambush for when the other upants returned.
Crawling along the cave roof and changing my color to match the shade likely made me almost undetectable, but I had to keep some transparent gaps for my sight. Much to my disappointment [Dark Vision] did not let me see through my opacity-induced blindness, but it did allow me to see clearly within this cave. There were plenty of bones and scraps, and far at the back of the cave was a den upied by two cubs and guarded by a bear smaller than the one I fought.
Deciding whether I should drop down on the bears when I heard amotion echoing into the cave.
"Matriarch is hunting. We go in and take babies to train." The rather squeaky voice said.
"Yes. Best chance. Then we get strong and get revenge on humans." Another voice responded.
I was curious to see the source of the voices and footsteps approaching. The bear was letting out a light rumbling growl as it prepared to take on the intruders. Five small green figures reached the depths of the cave, three armed with spears and two with bows. Their heads wereicallyrge for their body size, not to mention their ears - goblins.
"Two to train. Only one to kill. Our lucky day." One of the goblins spoke, causing the others to nod and enter abat-ready stance.
The bear''s growl advanced to a roar, trying to intimidate the goblins, but the archer answered by loosing an arrow. The goblins had decent coordination; the spears endeavored to keep the bear at a safe distance while the archers released arrow after arrow.''I wonder if I should defeat the goblins, the bears, or both? The goblins can talk, so I could maybemunicate with them. But I want their profile, and I''d need it to talk since I can''t correctly use my elf form.''
The bearnded a solid blow that splintered one of the goblin''s spears and sent him flying into the cave wall.
"Zizz!" one of the archers shouted and rushed to his side.
I slinked over to the remaining archer and started lowering tendrils. She was far too distracted with the fight to notice the encroaching doom as four tendrils grabbed her, one gagging her mouth, and the others pulled her to the ceiling and into the slime blob.
The goblins didn''t notice my assassination and only reacted when they noticed no more arrows wereing.
"Tarz! Why aren''t you shooting!?" One of the spear goblins shrieked as an unluckypanion had his head bitten off by the bear.
The bear was heavily wounded at this point but fighting through the pain. I was maneuvering over the bear to im it for myself, and hopefully, the goblin corpse wouldplete my profile.
"Tarz, you bitch! You abandon us!?" The spear goblin continued to shout.
"Forget Tarz! Bear is almost dead. We kill it." The remaining archer shouted, drawing his bow.
That was when I appeared, four tendrils bursting out with mana-infused rapiers all piercing through the bear''s head.
The remaining two goblins shrieked in surprise while I dropped down on both corpses, withdrawing plenty of slime mass to engulf both and put significant distance between my core and the goblins. I was d that [Dissection] did not tell me any part of the goblin was valuable, but I mentally excluded his equipment. I could im a much more intact bear pelt this time, minus the spear and arrow wounds.
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"What is that creature? It is eating bear and Korgz!" The archer screamed.
"We kill it! While it feeds it''s vulnerable!" The other goblin replied while gripping his spear tightly.
Arrows were fired at me while the other goblin made a thrusting charge. Maybe it was overconfidence, but I ensured my acid would not eat into their equipment. A few arrows barely managed to sink into the membrane of my slime and then floated harmlessly. When the spear prated my slime, I gripped it tightly, causing the goblin to fall on his backside when he tried and failed to pull the spear back.
''I could show mercy to you, but you were the one who wanted to kill me. So thanks for the free meal and experience.'' I quipped mentally, fired out tendrils, and dragged the goblin kicking and screaming into my slime mass.
"Gods no. What is this monstrosity?" The archer said in horror, dropping his bow and then trying to grab and drag his friend.
I mostly ignored the archer until I finished my meals, and he was no longer shooting at me, simply trying to escape with the injured goblin. After eating and harvesting, I promptly deposited everything and triggered my [Shapeshifting Mimicry] to try out my new goblin form. The archer shrieked again, his eyes trying to escape from his skull.
"Tarz? Is that you?" The goblin asked, his voice quivering in fear.
I looked over my new form and repeatedly clenched my newfound hands. The hands wererger than I expected for such short limbs, and I thought maybe I had screwed up the proportions again, but [Shapeshifting Mimicry] told me it was correct. I wiggled my toes and flexed my limbs a little, exploring this strange and small body - this was my firstplete humanoid form.
"Tarz, why don''t you speak? Please speak." The archer whimpered.
I assumed Tarz was the name of the other archer I had quietly eaten. I opened my mouth to respond and out came a gurgling noise. I closed it with a frown and tried again. Each attempt felt like it was getting closer to speech.
"I''m..." I finally got out, "My..." I kept trying.
"Yes?" The archer responded with a trembling voice and looked paralyzed with anxiety.
I gargled my throat and coughed out arge chunk of slime into my hands, which then dissolved into my skin. I focused some mana on the throat, hoping to reinforce it, then tried to speak again.
"I''m not Tarz," I finally replied, feeling some pride in my first spoken sentence.
"Who are you? Why do you look like her?" The goblin questioned as if not believing his eyes.
"Syl was the name given to me. I look like Tarz because she was the first goblin I... ate."
The goblin shrieked. I tried gesturing for him to calm down, but he started sobbing.
"Look, I''m sorry, but I was in this cave first and unsure if you were friend or foe. You are the first creature I could talk to." I tried to sound reassuring, and the goblins sniveling softened a little.
"Will you eat me and Zizz now?"
It was a valid question. I could effortlessly kill him for experience and slime mass, but I was finally talking to someone, and I still had so many questions.
"No. If you don''t attack me, then I''ll let you live. The other goblin charged at me with a spear." I responded.
"No, no, no. I won''t attack." His head shook so much that I thought it might pop off his neck.
"Good. You can even take those bear cubs. An apology for Tarz..." I said with a smile and pointed to the two cubs at the back of the cave.
"Really, Merciful Great One? My tribe thanks you." He said and stood up and gave a bow, "We hope to use against the humans."
"I can understand... I''m not exactly a fan of humans myself." I shuddered, thinking of the mage who killed the green slime and the boy with his bucket, meanwhile he seemed almost relieved about my opinion on humans, "Also, please don''t call me that. I''m not some great one, I have a name."
"Sorry if I offend." He frantically apologized while bowing his head. He seemed to notice something when observing me, then coughed and looked around awkwardly, "Merc... Gr... Tarz, do you have clothes?" he asked, averting his gaze.
I was upset he forgot my name again, but confused by his reaction until I looked at myself again - I was a naked female goblin. I reached inside myself and pulled out the three sets of equipment I had taken from the goblins. I searched through the pile for the ones Tarz had worn and slowly started to don them. Once I was clothed, he looked more at ease.
"Sorry, I''ve never had to wear clothes before. Also, my name is Syl, not Tarz, and I still need your name."
"Ah! Yes. Syl. Sorry." He was fearfully apologetic again, "My name Garz."
"Well, Garz, I think we should grab those cubs and get out of here before the matriarch returns."
Garz frantically nodded his head and then looked towards hispanion.
"Mer... Ta.. Syl, I must carry Zizz. Can you carry cubs?"
I gave a nod and produced two tendrils from my back, causing Garz to flinch, and then each tendril engulfed a cub while leaving only the head exposed. The cubs were growling and mewling, but they couldn''t resist.
I would need to use [Mana Reinforcement] on my goblin legs to walk like this. I quickly browsed through my goblin profile for any quick solutions to mimic and spotted an old friend: [Enhanced Strength]. I had a stupid grin stered on my goblin face when I activated it through [Shapeshifting Mimicry], which caused Garz to give me a blended look of worry and confusion.
"Lead the way, Garz."
Chapter 31: Goblin Chief
Chapter 31: Goblin Chief
Since Garz was carrying the unconscious Zizz on his back, we were traveling at a casual pace. I had offered to carry Zizz, but despite our defused hostile situation, Garz had his doubts, which was pretty dumb from my point of view as he was an even more vulnerable and easy target with them slow and together.
I started scrolling through the goblin profile to see how itpared to other monsters and the favored elves. The profile was a thought-provoking blend of what I had known from monsters and the elf profile. All goblins were born with [Dark Vision], [Robust Stomach], and then up to two random traits from a pool - this pool was where I had spied my old friend [Enhanced Strength]. Unlike elves, goblins didn''t seem to have any unique traits tailored for them, and [Robust Stomach] was just a generic trait with no levels that let you eat almost anything, rotten or raw, without consequences.
"Garz," I spoke up, causing him to flinch, "How do you spend your traits."
"Traits are weak. Worthless. We get one or two to help our ss, then try to ignore."
His response honestly shocked me. Traits were practically my entire repertoire, even with the few skills I had picked up.
"I know the enhanced attributes aren''t that exciting, but what about something like [Mana Cirction]?"
"Useless. Not shaman ss, so mana not important."
"How did you get your ss?"
"Born." Garz was now giving me a questioning look."Wait. You were born with your ss?"
"Yes..?" Garz now looked beyond disbelief.
"Sorry if it sounds like a stupid question, but I wasn''t born with a ss, and I still don''t have one."
Garz''s eyes went wide with shock, "How? So strong with no ss. No skill points. Wasting experience on race and not ss."
"I evolved." I blurted out, probably giving too much information, but I felt the need to defend my ssless self, "Don''t goblins evolve?"
Garz nodded, "Yes, but ss more important. Focus on ss. Get evolution eventually. Hobgoblin not much stronger than goblin," he paused to think a bit, "Maybe Chief can help you get ss."
I nodded and gave my thanks for his exnation. Assuming their evolution worked simrly, I wondered if the goblins didn''t know about the possibility of unlocking other evolution options. I decided to keep this to myself and focus on spending my trait point. Nothing caught my eye, so I purchased [Enhanced Willpower] and hoped it would stop the nightmares of having my body puppeted.
Bolsters mental fortitude to resist mental afflictions and willingly suppress emotions, scaling with trait level.>
Not having much to do, I ended up using my freshly acquired hands to y around with the various tools and weapons I had obtained. Garz seemed curious but held his tongue. Eventually, we reached anotherrger cave entrance that had a crudely crafted wooden palisade. Garz stopped and turned to face me.
"I go in and call Chief to talk. Tell him you have bears to give us," He started to exin, "I tell them you won''t attack unless attacked. Also, drop off Zizz."
I nodded and watched him run off and enter through the palisade gate. Trying to pass the time, I practiced utilizing my mana as I had a copious amount due to [Elven Legacy]. It was probably stupid, but I was literally punching rocks and doing a pretty good job, thanks tobining [Enhanced Strength], [Mana Reinforcement], and [Slime Density].
I finally stopped my rock punches when I saw two goblins and Garz approaching. One of the goblins looked like a bodyguard, holding a spear and donned in a rough patchwork of metal bits and leather. The other goblin was wrinkled, slightlyrger than both Garz and the bodyguard, and wearing arge fur cloak. The older goblin stepped forward, and the word ''worthy'' tickled in the back of my mind.
"Garz speaks the truth. You do look exactly like Tarz." He spoke while scratching his chin, "I am Chieftain Krutz. I understand you wish for peace between us and even deliver us two bears."
"Nice to meet you, Krutz. I was given the name Syl, and yes, I''d prefer peace and perhaps some information."
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I manipted my two tendrils to lower the cubs and present them, which caused the bodyguard to tense immediately, and he might have stabbed at them if Garz hadn''t grabbed his arm.
"Don''t," Garz told the bodyguard with an undertone of fear.
"Sorry..." I responded sheepishly, "Anyway, here are the cubs."
The Chief examined the cubs and then moved on to looking at my pseudopod. I heard him mutter "Slime?" to himself as if in question. He then gestured to the gate, and two other unarmed goblins approached and held out their hands to ept the cubs. They nervously took them, and I retracted my pseudopods.
"Thank you, Syl," Krutz said with a polite bow and then gestured to the entrance, "Shall we go inside and have a discussion?".
I nodded and then was escorted to the palisade gate. The lookouts closed the gate again once we were all safely inside. It was a short tunnel, and then the cave abruptly opened to a makeshift town of mud huts and wooden shacks. There were so many goblins, and as I followed the Chief, I kept seeing them point at us and heard curious murmurs of "Tarz" over and over.
Apparently, fooling an entire vige had given me a massive chunk of experience. We entered thergest hut together and sat on the floor around a makeshift table. The unnamed bodyguard stood directly behind the Chief while Garz went deeper into the hut.
"So, Syl, what do you wish to know?" Krutz asked.
"I wanted to know if there was a way to get a ss and any information on how you discover traits and skills."
"So you do truly not have a ss. I was curious because your profile says you are Apex Hunter Tarz, a level 16 goblin."
"You can see my profile?"
"Yes. I have the [Identification] skill. A rarity amongst goblins."
I frowned in thought. It was good to know that there was an identification skill and my false profile was working, but I wasn''t too happy about being called Tarz.
"Oh. It changed. It says you have no name. Fascinating." Krutz suddenly interrupted my thoughts.
''My name is Syl. My name is Syl. My name is Syl. My name is Syl.'' I chanted mentally.
"And again. Apex Hunter Syl, a level 16 goblin," Krutz sounded genuinely curious, "I know there''s a way to block identification, but I''ve never seen a profile like this before."
Garz returned with three bowls, cing one in front of each of us, and sat down with his own. It appeared to have a warm liquid inside, and the Chief gave thanks before taking a deep sip. I tried to copy him and embarrassed myself by struggling to swallow and spilling some from the overflow.
''Who needs a mouth and throat anyway... Absorbing things is so much more efficient.'' I thought grumpily.
"Us goblins are born with our ss. But there is a way for Chiefs to guide our people and help them advance their sses." Chief Krutz spoke up, scratching his chin again, "Perhaps this could give you one?"
"I''m willing to try almost anything. I feel like I''m missing out on a lot by not earning skill points." I responded positively.
"Yes, skill points are preferred to trait points. One of my main duties as Chief is changing the experience distribution of my people to focus on their sses." He paused to take another sip. I waited with bated breath, eager to hear the rest, "And my other duty is to guide them with skill and trait choices, which might satisfy your other question."
He held an open hand, and magical words materialized above his open palm: [Enhanced Strength].
Increases physical strength per trait level.>
"By showing someone else a trait or skill makes them eligible to purchase it." He continued, "As the oldest goblin in our tribe, I must collect the knowledge and ensure it gets passed down to the next generation."
"Can anyone do this? Can I do this?" I asked curiously.
"Yes and yes," He responded with a nod and smile, "Simply open your status menu, focus on the trait or skill, and think of disying it."
I opened my status menu and looked for something inconspicuous to show. I copied his hand gesture, although it probably wasn''t required, and stared at [Dark Vision]. Disy. The magical script formed above my palm, projecting the trait [Dark Vision].
"This is how we spread knowledge amongst our tribe. Sometimes, by chance, a new one is obtained, then we share it so that others may either purchase it directly or try unlocking it themselves."
I was curious and opened the goblin profile and looked at [Robust Stomach]. I didn''t own this trait and was curious if profiles worked the same way. I focused on it and thought of disying it and the magical text formed in the middle of the table.
"Ah yes, you don''t need to use your hand. It just helps you choose the disy location." Krutz added, seeming unaware I was disying from a profile.
We continued to chat, and I was informed that his Chieftain ss gave him minor system control. This allowed him to change the experience distribution of a willing person. Normally, this would be an even split between race and ss, but they usually adjusted it to 90% ss, which was the maximum, and exined why the goblins I defeated had such strange levels.
He also exined that simr to evolutions, sses could be advanced, and he could advance sses when they reached the maximum level. He proposed that this process could possibly give me a ss finally. But, there was a catch; he required a higher Chieftain level to get more advanced functions.
This led to me learning more about how to earn experience. Ordinarily, only the person who imed the kill received experience, which exined why Sylthaeryn had me kill her. However, there was a system anyone could use called parties that allowed the experience to be shared equally amongst all participants.
My immediate concern was dividing up the experience too much would severely hamper personal growth. Krutz exined that bonus experience is granted based on party size, and then that pool of experience was distributed. He wasn''t sure about the exact bonus, but an example was two goblins getting roughly 60% of the experience rather than the expected 50%.
Krutz suggested cooperating with the goblins to defeat invading humans and also to consider forming arge party to take down the bear matriarch. Both options appealed to me, and we came to an agreement. I was even offered a home to stay in, which I suspected had belonged to Tarz.
Our meeting finally ended with Garz offering to give me a tour.
Chapter 32: Goblin Tribe
Chapter 32: Goblin Tribe
The goblin camp was more than I expected, considering it was inside a cave. There seemed to be a constant team of goblins who worked towards expansion and digging deeper. There were goblin cooks, farmers, and crafters. They really had a wholemunity in here, onlycking smiths to make better arms and armor, and any metal bits they owned came from dead humans.
I was apparently the talk of the town, as goblins came to approach me or stared from a distance, often calling me Tarz. I could have changed to one of the other two absorbed goblins, but that might lead to more questions, and I''d still be another stolen identity. Turning back into my slime form would likely cause a panic, and I''d be unable tomunicate.
I asked one of the crafters if they were able and willing to make me a better outfit if given the materials. There was hesitation until I pulled out some of my boar hide and the mostly ruined bear pelt. I also sweetened the deal by offering a few tusks to use as spear points. If I liked her work, I nned to ask her to make something for my elf form, assuming I could get it working. The goblins were shocked that I had a ''storage power'' as the Chief had the only storage bag in the entire tribe, looted from a dead adventurer ages ago.
Lastly, Garz brought me to the lodging they offered me, which wasn''t much, and it seemed devoid of any furnishings and belongings. I was used to living inside a tree, so upgrading to four walls and a door was an upgrade as far as I was concerned. Garz''s tour might have been so they could im the contents before bringing me. I thanked him, and he said he would fetch me in the morning.
With privacy obtained, I started to strip until I got the idea to use my storage directly. The clothes vanished inside and saved me a lot of fumbling around if only I could do it in reverse. I confirmed my earlier theory by shifting into the other two goblins I had consumed, and then I moved on to my brand-new bear form. My core automatically pulled from my slime reserve to fulfill the volume requirement, and I felt myself growing into the bear form.
''Yes! I thought I was close to a mimicry level, but I''m not going toin about both going up. The perfection and first-time bonuses are so damn good. I should ask the goblins if they know of any other bonuses.''
Wanting to test my sess, I cycled through every form I had perfected. The shifting between forms was smoother than ever, with only a minor dy. If I could solve the clothing situation, I could lose a pursuer by walking around the corner and rapidly shifting.
I spent the rest of my evening trying to turn into Sylthaeryn. There was a noticeable improvement from my improved traits alone, and I could walk, but it was far too goopy still. It was finallyplete enough for me to test [Mana Sight], which created glowing auras of anything containing mana. Looking around, I saw that almost every aura had an almost unique coloring and was distinctly goblin-shaped. When I casually raised my hand in front of my face, I let out a gurgled scream when I was suddenly almost blinded by the bright light and canceled [Mana Sight].
''Okay. That felt dumb, like staring directly at the sun. I maybe should have expected that with [Mana Slime] being maxed out...''It was time for sleep, but I wasn''t going to do so out in the open. I focused on making a tiny hole using [Acid Slime], barelyrger than my core, and ensured my tunnel wasn''t just straight down by including a few curves. It was surprisingly entertaining drilling through the rock like this, and if I didn''t want to keep my cards hidden for now, I''d likely even volunteer to join the miners. I finished off my hiding spot by using my [Sub-Core] to plug the hole by turning it into a rock, connected back to my body with a trail of minimal-density slime.
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Waking up to a surprise notification was great, and my sleep was peaceful without any nightmares. My [Sub-Core] had once again been a diligent worker throughout the night. I should definitely consider giving it some subordinates eventually. I transferred vision to check for threats, and when I confirmed it was safe, I exited my hole, which I plugged with a real rock that I still had in my inventory.
I turned back into a goblin and then tried withdrawing my clothes directly, which sadly didn''t work out, so I fumbled my way through putting them back on. Deciding to wait for my escort, I started to experiment now that I finally had hands.
I withdrew slime into my palm, forming arge ball, which I then shifted into shapes of various armaments. A sword, a spear, a mace, a greatsword, a shield, a dagger, and obviously a rapier. I tried making a bow, but it was pretty bad and unlikely to work, so I withdrew the bow that belonged to Tarz and consumed it. With [Consuming Osmosis] giving me information, I tried again. This attempt was better, and if I bought the trait [stic Slime], I could probably create one of the best bowstrings ever.
I thrust a slime spear at the ground as hard as possible and noted the impact. I then absorbed both spears I had imed,pleted the profile, and created another spear to repeat the process.
The impact point was much more noticeable, and examining the spear closely, it had a sense of actually being the weapon. My theory was that the first spear only used [Shape Slime], while the second spear was also being enhanced by [Shapeshifting Mimicry].
"I''m going to be eating one of everything at this rate... Gluttonous really was appropriate," I muttered, then pped my hand to my mouth, "I''m so used to talking to myself, and now I can actually talk to others..."
Garz finally arrived while I was in the middle of swinging a sword around. He was surprised at first and then actuallyughed at me.
"Tarz, you swing that around like a goblin child." He dered, then realizing his mistake, corrected himself, "Syl, I mean. Sorry."
"Well. I don''t have any skills for weapons. Or many skills at all, to be honest." I responded dejectedly, "It took me forever to get [Evasion]..."
"Maybe you can train with warriors. Need good dodging, or humans kill us easy."
"That sounds like a good idea." I replied while putting away my sword, hoping to disguise it as my ''storage power'' they knew about, "Also, I was wondering if I could trade more fangs and tusks for some weapons. I need one more bow. Not sure if you have two swords? Any weapons, I think even broken, would work."
Garz agreed and took me to a different crafter than the one I met yesterday. I ended up trading arge number of wolf fangs for a bow, which evidently was very hard for the goblins to make. I traded all my remaining boar tusks and a few wolf ws for two rusted swords, two broken shields, and a greatsword with a cracked de near the cross-guard. Without a doubt, I kept my rage boar tusk and wouldn''t even show it to the goblins unless they had something amazing for trade.
After sneakily consuming my acquisitions, we headed towards the training grounds, but not before another surprise notification, and I suddenly could see much further in the cave.
"Garz, what level is your [Dark Vision]?"
"Five. Maxed. Like most goblin."
I nodded and thanked him. It made sense if they lived in a cave, the trait would be constantly in use. Speaking of traits, I decided to use [Enhanced Strength], [Enhanced Dexterity], and [Enhanced Agility] for my mimicry. I wanted to keep the maximum mimicked traits active to put pressure on my core, which was much harder to do since improving [Core Refinement] and purchasing [Enhanced Intellect].
I was eager to see and join the goblins in their training.
Chapter 33: Goblin Sparring
Chapter 33: Goblin Sparring
The goblin training ground was sparse, mostly open space except for a few archery targets. The sparring was done armed with sticks and trying to dodge each other''s blows. I questioned why they only focused on dodging and not blocking with shields or parrying. Garz pointed out that raw strength was a rarity amongst goblins, and instead, they prioritized their small size to focus on evading.
When I asked if I could join the practice, the goblins were surprisingly epting, and I soon found myself locked into a duel with sticks. My non-existent sword skills made me unable tond a blow on my opponent, but likewise, he couldn''tnd a blow on me. After a lot of back and forth, eventually, his stamina must have run out, and I managed tond a swing on his head, causing him to admit defeat. I kept getting called Tarz by the other goblins, which irked me and made me wonder if the Chief had kept my real identity a secret.
One of the more experienced warriors then decided to challenge me, and he baited my dodges into a direct thrust to my chest. He had a smirk on his face until he realized that I hadn''t flinched or even reacted at all to his blow, and then he had to dodge my clumsy counterattack. Not feeling any pain through my slime was an unfair advantage, and then the outeryerbination of [Slime Density] and [Mana Reinforcement] likely made me invulnerable to sticks.
"Shit! Why Tarz so tough?" He cursed and then charged at me again.
The spectators were baffled at the disy. Blow after blownded on me, but I didn''t show any reaction beyond simply trying to hit him back. This strange fight progressed much longer than my first, and even though I was finding more sess evading, I realized it was likely due to his building fatigue. I was so desperate tond a blow that when one finally connected, my stick shattered into splinters, sending him tumbling across the field.
"Shit..." I muttered softly, "I might have put too much force into that. Maybe I shouldn''t be using [Enhanced Strength]."
I was expecting panic, but the audience actually cheered, "Tarz! Tarz! Tarz!"
The goblin was unconscious but only had superficial wounds, so he was carried home without much fuss. Garz approached, congratted me on my win, and apologized for the goblins misunderstanding my identity.
"It''s not a big deal. If they knew the truth, it could cause too much panic." I responded, "Although, won''t they ask questions about my abilities?""Chief is saying Tarz got a rare ss from killing bear," Garz answered.
"I guess that works..." I reluctantly agreed.
The rest of the day was some more dodging practice and a small break where Garz had me try to use a bow, which I was embarrassingly bad at. I even got some raw meat and mushrooms for lunch and dinner, and attempting to fake eating them was likely my greatest challenge of the day. I spent the evening trying to improve my elf transformation while using [Mana Sight].
Once again, I spent my morning trying out weapon shapes until Garz picked me up. We went straight to the training ground, and I participated in back-to-back sparring, and shortly after lunch, my effort was rewarded.
During dinner, the Chief and the crafter both came to visit.
"Greetings Syl, I hope you''ve been enjoying your stay." Chief Krutz began, "I''ve heard you''ve been giving quite the workout for the warriors."
"It''s been fun. I''m finally actually evading rather than just being a training dummy." I replied.
"Yuzz here has been working with the leather you gave her. Your outfit should be ready tomorrow, but she had some questions-"
"Why is this hide so good? I''ve never gained a skill level so fast before." Yuzz blurted out, interrupting the Chief.
Krutz cleared his throat before speaking, "Yes. I had a look myself, and it''s exceptional."
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"I harvested it myself with my [Dissection] skill," I started to exin, causing Krutz to nod in agreement, "As for your skill... I''m guessing you''re getting bonus experience either from perfection or, perhaps, a quality bonus? I''m not sure how it works for crafting skills."
Yuzz''s eyes were wide with astonishment while Krutz scratched his chin in deep thought. Maybe I was giving too much away at this point, but I felt like they earned it since myst few days had been rewarding.
"I''m one of our best crafters, but I don''t think I''d call my work perfect," Yuzz responded.
"I didn''t even know there was such an experience bonus," Krutz added, "The only bonuses I''m aware of are tutoring and risk."
"Oh, it''s risk and not just abat bonus?" I asked, hoping to dig out some valuable info nuggets.
"Sincebat is inherently risky, I can see why you came to that conclusion," Krutz said with a chuckle, "But no. The greater the risk, the richer the rewards."
"Maybe I should get the warriors to use real weapons against me, or maybe even the archers to shoot arrows at me..." I murmured in thought, "And tutoring?"
"If you get direct guidance from someone with a higher skill level than you, you get a bonus. The greater the level difference, the bigger the bonus. Since I have some of the highest crafting skills, I often help tutor the others." Yuzz exined matter-of-factly.
"Indeed. You should seek someone to tutor you in [Evasion] if you wish to focus on it, although your actual weapon n would also work, especially ifbined with tutoring... I only ask that you keep using sticks since our warriors don''t share your endurance."
"So what''s the perfection bonus?" Yuzz excitedly asked.
"I don''t think it''s only for perfection, but when you work with or produce something, you get a bonus based on the job done. I''ve gained massive amounts in [Dissection] by doing wless extractions and harvests."
"Like I said, my work is good, but I don''t think it''s that good... Not enough for me to gain a skill level so easily like that."
"You mentioned quality, Syl? So your theory is that better materials give a bonus?" Krutz questioned.
"I don''t have a crafting skill, so I can''t guarantee it, but it makes the most sense."
"I get extra experience and better products. You should do all our harvesting." Yuzz proposed.
"That wouldn''t be a bad idea. Maybe I could arrange a tutor for you in exchange?"
"I don''t mind as long as you remove any meat you want to keep beforehand and consider anything beyond ws, bones, hide, and fangs lost once you give me the carcass."
There was a pregnant pause before the Chief agreed to my terms. I now had a source of extra slime mass on the side for minimal effort. We exchanged a few more pleasantries before they departed, Yuzz telling me to fetch my outfit tomorrow.
My evening and the following morning were both a repeat, but when Garz arrived, he told me he would be out hunting today. He offered for me to join them, but I wanted to visit Yuzz and do some more training.
Yuzz was vibrating with excitement to see me when I arrived. I found out the reason when she took me not to my new outfit but to the carcass of a strange creature I had never seen before. Roughly midway between a wolf and a bear in size. It had ck and white fur that was thick and coarse and two massive front ws that I''d hate to be on the receiving end of.
"I was wondering if you could harvest this for me. Miners ran into it, so I made sure no amateur took it apart." Yuzz requested.
[Dissection] was already frantic to start work on a new creature and highlighted the ws and fur.
"Alright. My skill tells me its fur and ws are the only things valuable, but I assume you want the bones as well?"
"Yes, we use the bones for tools or reinforcement. This creature has a sturdy skeleton, so those should be very handy."
I nodded, cing my hands on the carcass and extracting slime mass till I had enveloped the creature. I thought this method might be more subtle than having pseudopods erupt from my goblin body. Yuzz stared in fascination, with plenty of ''oohs'' and ''ahhs'' thrown in. Then, it was a simple matter of mentally excluding the fur, bones, and ws and turning on [Acid Slime]. Rapidly, all the unneeded bits melted away.
''Only 30%? Maybe because I didn''t eat enough of it?'' I thought to myself.
I withdrew my slime, leaving behind the monster parts, and Yuzz started pping frantically with joy.
"That was amazing! Although, with how quickly you did it, it felt like cheating!" She said while picking up a bone, then a w, and finally touching the fur, "No, this is undoubtedly cheating. What the heck? I''ve never seen such a clean harvest."
I smiled nervously, not expecting so much genuine praise, and mentioned I''d be d to harvest more of those creatures. Yuzz said that they live throughout the mountain and tunnel wherever they please, sometimes popping up in the cave identally, and other times, air of theirs is discovered when the miners expand.
She finally gave me my new outfit and helped me put it on. It was visually appealing over the random bits and mismatched pieces I was wearing previously. The armor was light andfortable, emphasizing mobility and stealth, and decorated with little patches of bear fur on the wrists and ankles. She also included a cloak made of bear fur; I was genuinely surprised she managed to get so much usable material out of that partially melted monstrosity.
Depositing my old outfit, I started heading towards the training area after saying farewell to Yuzz, who was already all over the badger parts.
Chapter 34: Goblin Skill Tutoring
Chapter 34: Goblin Skill Tutoring
I wanted the goblins to use real weapons against me to see if the risk bonus the Chief mentioned was real. The downside I shortly realized was this would ruin my brand new outfit. I could''ve regressed to wearing my old rags but felt oddly vain about showing off. After some internal debate and looking through my traits, I found a solution using a forgotten aspect of [Chroma Shift].
I had been so focused on using it to perfect my mimicked forms that I forgot the trait also worked in reverse. I covered my entire goblin body and outfit in a slimeyer and reduced the opacity to the absolute minimum, which sadly did not turn itpletely invisible. I was ying around with getting theyer to match the color beneath, but this was taking up far too much mental capacity for my liking before even fortifying it with [Slime Density] and [Mana Reinforcement].
I eventually resigned and set it all to a transparent white. If anyone asked, I''d say I have a mana barrier, which was technically almost true and would likely be more believable to the uninformed goblins on why Tarz was suddenly surviving real weapons. If I perfected this, I could likely add it to any future disguises without much fuss.
The goblins were a bit reluctant to use real weapons on me, as they had seen how bad I was at dodging and questioned my toughness. I pointed out my mana barrier, which caused a reluctant agreement. The first trainee was very soft with her spear thrusts, and I intentionally ate a hit to prove my point. After the initial gasps and proving my point, she finally started to put real effort into it.
After getting in some dodges and taking some weapon blows from the warriors, I headed to the archery range and asked the scouts if they''d like some live shooting practice. They agreed much more readily than the warriors, likely due to how hard it was to level up shooting skills safely.
When the rain of arrows came down upon me, I almost regretted my decision as I took arrow after arrow. That de wolf made dodging multiple projectiles look simple, but the coordination between the scouts was baffling. They would bait me into dodging one arrow, only to get hit by three. After a full afternoon of tanking more hits than dodging, I didn''t gain a level in [Evasion] but an old friend instead.
Garz came to fetch me with a few other goblins dragging carcasses and, to my shock, tworge bears.
"Wait, weren''t those cubs a few days ago?" I asked in disbelief.
"Baby monsters grow when they level up," Garz answered."Talk about a growth spurt... amazing what levels can do. I''m also surprised at their obedience."
"Scouts can sometimes be tamer. Bond with baby monster."
I froze when I heard those words, remembering what happened with Sylthaeryn. I thankfully recovered before anyone seemed to notice my slight panic.
They led me to their butcher''s hut, and we got to work. The goblins couldn''t believe my speed since I was harvesting quicker than their butcher could simply remove the meat. Their spoils were a wolf, two deer, and one badger. I really wanted more of those badgers.
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Once again, I spent the evening practicing my transformations and using [Mana Sight]. The closer I got topleting the form, the more memories of that day leaked into my mind. I hoped those bear cubs wouldn''t experience the feeling of their bond being severed.
The next day, I finally received my tutor. It was the bodyguard who refused to give his name. He gave me some pointers, which mostly involved signs to look out for when predicting an attack and the optimal dodging directions for a thrust versus swing. After some practical application and a bit of a beat down, I got my improvement.
Eager to put it to use, I engaged in spars with the warriors, and once again, I could see the improvements firsthand. While I likely could tank almost anything the goblins threw at me, it was nice to know that dodging was now an option, and I was getting into a rhythm of dodging into a counterattack. After I won a few spars, I gained an unexpected notification beforending a clean blow against my current opponent.
He blinked a few times in confusion while rubbing his side where my stick hadnded. I walked over and lent him a hand to get back up. I told him I had gained a skill for melee weapons, and he nodded in understanding and confirmed my suspicion there was a ranged weapon equivalent. I asked one of the archers if they''d mind showing me how to use a bow, which caused a lot of confusion.
"Tarz, weren''t you scout? Don''t you have bow skill already?" One of the archers asked.
"My rare ss changed my skills." I lied, and the goblins actually nodded in agreement.
"Worth it. Your mana barrier so strong!" Another archer replied.
"Yes, but I''ve had to start from scratch now. Please help me."
The scouts agreed, and I got a few pointers and fired a few arrows until it was time to go home. When I got home, I finally checked my status menu and noticed that I had three [??? LV 0] skills in my list and a single unknown in my trait list. One I guessed might have been for ranged weapons, but I wondered what the other two were. The unknown trait I had suspected was [Mana Sight]. I also looked at the description for my new skill.
Imparts a basic understanding of melee weapons and their utilization, scaling with skill level.
In addition, gain a minor uracy and damage adjustment for melee attacks.>
While the skill wasn''t anything shy, I liked that it would allow me to pick up a weapon and at least know if I was supposed to stab with the pointy end, sh things to pieces, or simply bash them over the head. During my evening elf practice, I did gain the trait I had suspected.
See the flow of mana throughout the world.
Mana sight can see through obstructions based on trait level.
Trait level also determines the minimum level of mana able to be detected and detection range.>
Disabling the mimicked version of the trait allowed me topare the difference between trait levels, which was startling. Distant mana auras became snuffed out when I swapped to my inferior version, but I was d to have it avable in all forms now.
I spent the next morning and afternoon with the scouts, getting tutoring on the bow. Tarz had be quite popr amongst the goblins since I had reced her, and I had multiple scouts offering me pointers.
Imparts a basic understanding of ranged weapons and their utilization, scaling with skill level.
In addition, gain a minor uracy and damage adjustment for ranged attacks.>
''I wonder if this would apply to [Slime Shot]?''
While preupied with my new skill, a horn blew and echoed throughout the cave. All of the goblins began to scramble, and while I looked around sheepishly, Garz came running up to me.
"Humans have been spotted."
Chapter 35: Goblins Versus Humans
Chapter 35: Goblins Versus Humans
"How many?" I asked while following after Garz.
"Four. Two warriors. Archer. Magic." Garz replied, "Already killed ten goblins."
I couldn''t believe that many had died already. How powerful and dangerous were humans? When we got to the cave entrance, the group was roughly twenty goblins and myself. That was when I received a notification.
''Yes''
Garz, Zizz, Roz, Kwez, Vulz, Syl.>
Immediately upon joining the party, I could sense the other members of my party like a faint tickle in the back of my mind. Even if they were amongst hundreds of goblins, I could point towards all of them individually.
"How did you do that?" I asked Garz.
"You ask in head for person to join party. Tell in head that you want to leave party." Garz answered me, "Must use word party. Important."
I nodded and looked around at our group, wondering why we weren''t sending more or using the bears."Are only us going?" I asked.
"Yes. Send too many then humans run. Tell other humans. Armyes and kill all." Garz informed, "Chiefes from old tribe killed by humans. They smart. We must also."
Even though I was thankful Garz would share information with me, I wish he spoke as clearly as Krutz or Yuzz. I looked at the other party members; all four had spears, and I recognized the one who survived the bear attack.
Our groups left the cave and spread out into our separate parties, but all headed in the same general direction. I didn''t want to stand out amongst the goblins, so I formed a short spear since that seemed to be the generic goblin weapon. I nned to hide amongst the crowd and pull off an assassination.
We were not the first to arrive on the scene as I spotted the four humans already fighting goblins. Of the two warriors, one was a heavily armored blonde woman with a sword and shield, while the other was a red-haired boy wielding two axes and wearing animal pelts. The archer wore ckened leather and a cloak, a belt lined with small knives, and his features obscured. Finally, the caster was an older gentleman who wore a greyish-white robe and had a staff with a golden tip. The goblins were being ughtered.
"Wow, there''s a lot of the bastards." The axe boymented.
"Focus, Samuel." The armored woman ordered.
"It''s Sam. Only my mom calls me Samuel." He retorted while cleaving a goblin into chunks, "It''s just goblins. Don''t get so worked up."
An arrow struck his shoulder, and he quickly ripped it out. The older gentleman chanted something, and a golden-hued white light enveloped him, causing the wound to close rapidly.
"Healing magic?" I whispered questioningly.
"That''s bad," Garz replied, gritting his teeth in a nasty snarl.
"I''m confident in my [Stealth] skill. I can sneak around and take out the healer." I suggested.
Garz nodded and then startedmunicating with the rest of the team while I disengaged. I made sure to give a wide berth and loop around to approach from a blind spot. Between the two warriors blocking any approach, the archer sniping from the backline, and the healer mending any wounds, it was looking dire for Team Green.
Thankfully for me, they didn''t spot me approaching the healer from behind, and I thrust my spear at the back of his skull with all my might. My spear hit a strange barrier, deflecting my blow, while a loud shattering noise erupted. Seeing my spear fail, I released my left-hand grip on the shaft and open-palmed fired [Slime Burst] point nk at the man.
"Wha-!?" He shouted in surprise before being coated in burning acid. Then he started screaming.
"Fuck! Toby, I thought you had [Perception]?" Sam shouted.
"Only level two! The goblin must have a higher [Stealth] skill." Toby, the archer, replied while effortlessly nocking two arrows and firing them at me.
That golden-hued white light enveloped the healer, but I didn''t want to risk getting hit. I attempted to dodge, but one of the arrows still met its mark. Surprising everyone present, however, the arrow failed to prate my barrier. I leaped at the healer and started stabbing him repeatedly.
The man was iling and trying to heal himself, but he was progressively looking worse, unable to heal through the umting burns and stabs. More arrows rapidly hit me, but they still failed to prate my barrier.
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"I can''t hurt it, Sam!" Toby screamed.
Sam started to rush towards me, his axes glistening with blood, when two goblins ran to intercept him. As if by instinct, he swung around and bisected one of them.
He was about to swing at the other goblin when two arrows were fired at him, one sinking into his arm. He grunted in annoyance but pushed through the pain to cleave through the spear and the goblin.
"You fucking bitch! I''ll kill you!" Screamed Sam as he charged at me, blindly ignoring everything else as two arrows punctured into his back.
I refused to sit and wait for him to reach me and switched to using [Slime Shot], pulling on my vast reserves of alreadypressed acidic slime. Either he wasn''t good at dodging, or my skills were better, as he failed to dodge any of the shots and had taken three acidic globules directly to the chest before finally reaching me.
"Acid magic or something!" Sam bellowed while swinging at me, but I dodged the blow.
"So Old Tom was right," Toby muttered, his focus now on shooting at the goblins he could kill.
"We have to warn the guild." Thedy responded as she blocked an arrow.
I was d the rest of the goblins were keeping the others busy so I could focus on axe boy. I fired another explosion of slime from my left hand while trying to stab with my spear, but he endured the burst despite the burning and swung his axe through my right arm. He grinned triumphantly as my arm and spear fell to the ground. The shock and horror on his face, when in mere moments it regrew, was priceless.
"Regeneration!?" He shouted before receiving two exploding bursts of acid directly to his face.
He screamed and started iling wildly. I grinned as I ran towards the archer, easily dodging his blind axe swings.
"Sam? Shit! Kathryn, I need help." Toby shouted, but not before knocking and firing two arrows that killed the goblins distracting her.
Not good. I did not want to deal with her right now. I raised an arm and fired my greatest [Slime Burst] to date, drawing deep on my reserves andbining it with [Adhesive Slime] and opting out [Acid Slime]. I hoped the sticky terrain would dy her until I dealt with the archer.
"What spell was that?" Kathryn asked in shock.
"No idea, but it missed," Toby replied.
Instead of running, he started drawing on his bow, the tension on the frame and string so tight that you could hear the wood creaking. It looked bad, but I had no choice but to approach him. I tried firing a few bullets of slime as I charged, but he sidestepped them. Then he released his bowstring. I couldn''t even see the arrow''s trajectory as it suddenly ruptured through the entirety of my left torso.
"Ha! Bullseye! Can''t deflect [Power Shot], you bitch!" He celebrated prematurely.
''I''m so d I''m not stupid enough to keep my core in my chest region.'' I thought to myself, but not before putting some extra effort into reinforcing my pelvic region, where my core actually was.
I faked a death stagger and fired a transparent-white [Slime Shot] aimed at his ankle from one of my fingers. It struck without him noticing, causing him to curse in pain and nearly topple over. When my chest cavity stitched back together and I continued my charge, he shrieked.
"Kathryn, help! This thing is a monster! It regenerated even its heart!" He screamed.
"Toby! I''m stuck! It''s like trying to walk through a swamp!" She shouted in response.
I looked towards her and noticed she was advancing at a snail''s pace, each step cially slow, as she had to yank her foot from the ground sludge. I nced at the axe guy and saw he was actually copsed on the ground and riddled with arrows, like a human-sized porcupine. Garz had been busy.
Toby had started to panic and tried to retreat despite Kathryn screaming at him, but as soon as he turned his back on me, I started firing [Slime Shot] again. When I got within range, he hastily flung daggers at me. But, like his arrows, they couldn''t get through my barrier. As hisst stand, he pulled a short sword from his waist, ready to fight.
''What? How?'' I was startled at the notification.
"Fuck! Sam! Shit!" Toby screamed in rage and thrust his de into my chest.
I erupted two tendrils from each arm and engulfed his head. He started to thrash and stab repeatedly as I tried to force the acid down his throat. The iling slowed down until he copsed.
I engulfed the entire body and deposited his equipment as he was rapidly absorbed. Despite his size, he gave a surprising amount of slime, once again making me question the conversion ratio. I''d regain all my spent slime with just one, maybe two more of the humans.
Kathryn was near the edge of the sticky slime trap I had created, ring at me with tears in her eyes.
"How could you? You monster!" She screamed at me, pointing her sword, "Those were my friends!"
"Did you expect us to roll over and die for you?" I interjected.
"What!?" She shouted, bbergasted.
"You attacked us, and we defended. You killed four of my party." I replied with a shrug and gestured to all the dead goblins, "Not to mention all the others."
She seemed to hesitate for only a moment before she spat out, "Fuck you, monster! Even if I die, the guild will know and kill you all!" She screamed, swinging her de.
I sighed and started to swell in size, withdrawing my outfit as I abandoned my goblin form - with Garz as the only survivor, there was no need for disguises. She continued to hack away at an endlessly growing mass of slime. But her screams of rage were soon reced with screams of terror. Large and thick slime tendrils burst out of my form to grab her limbs, restraining her. She continued to scream until I silenced her, covering her entire body in slime. She struggled till the very end, even trying to swim through the slime mass to the edge, but it was over.
Chapter 36: Essence
Chapter 36: Essence
Garz only approached me once I started to shift back into my goblin form. He no doubt hadplex emotions about this oue; the humans were dead, but the loss of goblins was over sixfold. I felt oddly calm about being surrounded by death, and I thought my first time killing a human would have affected me. But if anything, I felt more upset about the dead goblins, which still couldn''t evenpare to Sylthaeryn. I decided to break the silence.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes. No." He was looking at all the corpses with a resentful expression.
"What happened to Zizz? I thought all the humans were dead or incapacitated."
"He... Wanted to stab axe human. Kill him. Get glory. When he stabbed human. Suddenly humane to life," Garz said bitterly, "Human killed Zizz. Then human die."
That was a horrible oue. He was on the verge of death and still managed to im another life. It reminded me of thest burst of life from the Rage Boar, and looking at the notification, maybe the Barbarian ss was the reason.
"Sorry Garz. At least we protected the rest of the tribe."
He nodded but didn''t say anything. I walked over to where the cleric and barbarian corpses were and started dissolving them through tendrils, depositing what remained of their equipment in my storage. Everything went inside except for a backpack belonging to the barbarian - it absolutely refused to be stored. I opened the backpack to look inside, but it was empty.
"Storage bag," Garz suddenly told me.He had walked over while I was looting. I handed it over to him, and he turned it inside out. Suddenly, various contents spilled out from nowhere: bottles, food, sleeping bags, and a few copper and silver coins. However, what startled me was when a bunch of goblin ears fell to the floor.
"Chief says they collect ears. Proof to other humans." Garz exined after seeing my confusion.
"You take the bag, I don''t need it."
Garz nodded and started to collect the goblin equipment. I took the copper and silver coins, leaving everything else from the pouch to him, and then started to help collect all the goblins together. I was tempted to absorb them, but Garz mentioned something about essence and nts and requested that I don''t eat any goblins. Iplied, half out of respecting his wishes and the other half wanting an excuse not to be called a glutton.
Garz left the party while we worked. While doing the monotonous task, I could spend time thinking; I had two trait points to spend after all. I had previously peeked at the partiallyplete badger profile and surprisingly found one trait that ignored myck of organs.
Survive lethal damage a number of times equal to trait level.
Refreshed daily.>
It sounded perfect, although the method of potentially leveling up the trait was a terrifying thought. Putting myself in an actual death scenario was not on my to-do list, but perhaps through willpower and a serving of masochism, I could inflict lethal damage on myself before sleep.
The human profile was strangely more simr to the goblin profile than the elf profile. They had a chance to be born with a random amount of random traits and only a single exclusive trait, which they were born with.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.Greatly increase the speed and ease of learning new traits and skills.
This trait has no levels.>
Getting that first level could be painfully long, and by my estimation, it was easier to get a skill to level two and most of the way to three than it was to learn a fresh skill. While browsing, I found something familiar in the list of random traits.
<>
Receive extra experience towards improving traits and skills.
This trait has no levels.>
It sounded amazing. No wonder my past self bought it, and now my present self was going to.
''What...?'' I thought and tried again.
"What?!" I questioned and tried again.
I was frowning now, and Garz had approached from my outburst.
"What''s wrong?"
"I''m trying to purchase a trait, and it won''t let me."
"I''ve never heard that before."
"Neither have I. When I tried to purchase something ipatible previously, I received an entirely different message." I exined and tried to purchase [Untapped Potential] to confirm.
I tried to purchase [Prodigy] again.
"Dammit Gramps..." I muttered, causing Garz to raise an eyebrow in confusion.
I moved to another trait I had eyed out earlier and tried to purchase it.
Allows increasing or reducing the sticity of slime mass.
This trait has no levels.
Compatible with other slime traits.>
"Ugh... Don''t worry, Garz." I sighed in frustration.
After waiting around, a group of goblins arrived to collect the dead. I still wasn''t sure what they were doing, but I held my questions until I saw the Chief. The goblins were a strange mix of mournful but celebratory, and by asking around, puzzled together that the death toll versus humans were usually far worse.
Back in the cave, I finally met up with Krutz. He thanked me for my contribution, and we exchanged some pleasantries before I asked about the dead.
"When a being dies, we receive only some of its essence for the deed. The remaining goes to the Gods, with a leftover portion feeding thend itself."
"But what is essence?"
"Our levels, traits, and skills. Everything that makes up our being and that we''ve earned."
"So you bury the dead near the crops for the essence to leak into?"
"Yes. In the humannds, they have beings they call Heroes. When a Hero dies, it is almost a worldly celebration, and they entomb the Hero surrounded by crops and far away from spawns."
"That''s rather grim... What are spawns?"
"Areas where monsters can emerge. When an area is overly saturated in enough essence, then monsters can magically spawn. My original tribe was from a spawn. If we left the dead out in the forest, chances are wolves and boars would spawn."
Krutz was happy for the tribe to have another storage bag and agreed with Garz keeping it. After saying farewell to Garz and Krutz, I was about to leave for my abode when I remembered thest adventurer.
"One more thing... Thest adventurer screamed something about a guild knowing of their death."
Krutz looked deeply troubled after I told him that. He started muttering to himself and then sighed and shook his head.
"We will need to prepare. We will need to kill the matriarch as soon as possible. We need to gain more strength."
I nodded and went home when it looked like the discussions had ended. I tried out my human form, and thanks to theplete profile and my high trait levels, it was a first-try sess. When shifting over to my elf form, the knowledge of a simr humanoid form was quitepatible, and after only a little more effort, I had finallypleted my form.
I then started looking over the loot I had taken from the adventurers, consuming the weapons to add to my existing profiles and adding a brand new profile.
I found bottles containing pinkish-red and blue liquid that glowed from my [Mana Sight] and decided to devour some of them.
"Health and Mana potions... Interesting." I mumbled to myself while looking over the details, "Wait... aren''t Mana potions made from blue slime?"
I frowned at the remaining mana potion and deposited it along with the remaining health potion. The only other things that glowed with mana were four nes with an attached crystal. When I tried to absorb one, I felt immense pain in my mind and spat it out. I gave up on trying to eat one, so I tried wearing one instead, and strangely got a notification.
Identification attempt blocked.
Please return this ID to the nearest Adventurers Guild.>
"Well... That''s something."
Chapter 37: Breach
Chapter 37: Breach
"Okay, this is a really stupid idea..." I muttered to myself.
I was currently holding a slime sword with all the bells and whistles directly in front of my exposed core. Logically, it made sense, as the only way to improve the trait was to use it, but my emotional side was not happy even if I was trying to shut it up with [Enhanced Willpower]. I had be very unustomed to pain due to my unique biology, and to say I was terrified would be an understatement.
"On the positive side, I think this will also help [Core Refinement]..." I said with a sigh.
I swung the sword at my core, almost immediately regretting my decision while it was in motion, and then the pain came. It hurt like hell, and that was an understatement. My [Shapeshifting Mimicry] actually struggled to maintain my form, causing me to half-revert to a puddle of inert slime. The worst part... One swing wasn''t enough. It took two more swings before it finally happened.
I copsed into a lifeless puddle at the relief of it finally being over, as the self-inflicted torture had taken a great mental toll. I considered using a healing potion to end my suffering, but I found my core already injecting and consuming slime to fill its cracks. I crawled into my hole and went to bed.
The first thing I did when I woke up was inspect my core, and to my relief, the scarlet red orb was back to its wlessly smooth perfection. Although this recovery was significantly costly in slime mass, eating into most of what I had earned yesterday.
"Perhaps I should consider [Slime Conversion] soon, or I''m going to run into a daily deficit."
When it looked like Garz wasn''ting this morning, I decided to head out myself. I used my bear cloak to cover the gap in the armor to retain some modesty before leaving. My destination was Yuzz''s home, and during the trip, I received a lot of praise for dealing with the humans from the goblins going about their work. I still wasn''t happy that everyone thought I was Tarz, and I was grateful that at least Yuzz was one of the few who did.
"Morning Yuzz.""Morning Syl, what can I-" She stopped and stared at the gaping hole in my armor, "Dammit, your new armor! Wait, how the hell did you survive something like this?"
"I was lucky." I lied because even if we were friendly, I would never reveal that any damage not to my core was superficial at best.
I managed to hide my shock of suddenly gaining a new skill, helped by Yuzz being too busy examining the damage.
"I can fix it, but it''ll be patchy, unfortunately."
"Thanks. I was also hoping you''d make a new outfit for me."
"Oh? More rare materials?" Yuzz said with sparkles in her eyes.
I pulled out the intact bear pelt along with my remaining boar hide. Yuzz was practically drooling already.
"Do you mean multiple outfits?"
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"No, just one, for a bigger body."
Yuzz was curious, and I asked if she had somewhere more private for me. She opened a door and led me to her bedroom, afforded thanks to her station as one of the best crafters. I removed the broken armor, set it aside, and deposited the rest. Finally, I shifted into my elf form. I stretched my new limbs a bit before heading towards the door.
"Don''t freak out Yuzz," I warned.
"Syl? Your voice is different." She questioned.
"Yes, it''s me. Again, don''t freak out..."
I slowly opened the door. Yuzz''s eyes widened so much I thought they''d rupture.
"Human? No... Something else?" Yuzz questioned. I was just d she didn''t start screaming or trying to stab me.
"An elf. This one was the one who gave me my name." I exined, gesturing to the body for emphasis.
"I don''t think I''ve heard of an elf before. Was she your creator?"
"Not exactly... Anyway, I''d like clothes for this form, and I know you''re the best." I finally made my request.
Yuzz''s eyes began to sparkle again as she looked at the elven body and all the materials. Her love of crafting and working with rare materials made it an easy sell.
She promptly agreed and started measuring me. When I mentioned she could keep the leftovers, she was so excited she was visibly vibrating. With the measuringplete, I borrowed her bedroom to transform back into a goblin, wearing the old clothesbined with the cloak.
We chatted until she shooed me out of the house, eager to start working without me distracting her. I was heading towards the training ground when I saw amotion of goblins all heading towards the farm and curiously followed the crowd. Amongst the din of the crowd, I heard the mutterings of "breach" and hastened my steps.
When I got closer, I heard the echoes of battle and goblins shouting. The farm was being invaded. Those badger monsters were emerging from arge hole in the cavern wall, and the goblins were scrambling to hold them back. Cursing, I formed a spear and charged into the fray.
I joined a group of goblins in a pincer maneuver against one of the creatures. My spear stabbed through its defense with an audible fizzing noise. It roared in anger as it ignored the goblins and directed its fury on me. I was thankful for all the training as I dodged its threatening ws and entered a flow of counterattacks.
I thought it had finally died when it copsed, only for it to suddenly burst with renewed vigor, thrashing wildly and, unfortunately, taking out one of the goblins. I thrust my spear deep within the creature and activated [Slime Burst] on the tip of my spear; the spearhead swelled with slime and then exploded deep within the monster.
"[Defy Death]..." I muttered to myself, remembering they were the source of my recent purchase.
I left behind the corpse to join another battle, as I knew it would be my job to harvest themter. This one went down without too much trouble, and unfortunately, I wasn''t the one tond the killing blow after it triggered [Defy Death]. I kept hopping from battle to battle, getting a full workout of mybat skills.
It was far too effective using [Slime Burst] to detonate my spear point inside a creature, easily worth the slime mass expenditure. The bigger problem was it ruined the meat the goblins needed for food, and while I would be fine eating melted innards, I assumed even [Robust Stomach] wasn''t good enough to eat acid.
During the encounters, I imed two more kills myself, and eventually, the farm finally became free of any badgers. I joined a group of warriors for what looked like a debriefing. I was thanked for my swift participation and praised for my effective fighting style. Although internally, I knew I only looked untouched thanks tocking flesh and blood.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Cave breach. Too much dead. Too much essence. Monsters attracted." One of them exined and pointed to the hole.
"We should go in. Find nest. Kill all!" Another enthused goblin suggested.
"I don''t mind going to explore the hole. I''m good at sneaking." I offered. If I went in alone, I could stop holding back and earn valuable experience for my neglected traits like [Pseudopod].
"Tarz strong. Killed even humans. Good idea." One of the goblins agreed.
There was a bit of back and forth, but eventually, I got the go-ahead from the warriors. I got told to scout and retreat if things became too dangerous. I wasn''t sure where the usual leadership of Garz and Krutz was during all of this, but it could wait since there was a cave to explore.
I approached the breach and looked down the long, roughly dug-out tunnel.
"Time to explore," I said with an excited grin.
Chapter 38: Spelunking
Chapter 38: Spelunking
Once I was deep enough in the hole, I deposited my equipment and reverted to myfortable blob form. It was far easier to travel like this without the need to worry about legs or cramped conditions. During the monotony of travel, I looked at the new skill I earned.
Deceive others with your presence, actions, and words.
Take on false roles and blur the lines of truth.
The effectiveness of your deception is based on skill level and circumstantial evidence.>
''Is it just me, or do some of these descriptions feel like they''ve been written by different people?'' I wondered, ''I''m assuming I got this because I''ve not been entirely truthful to the goblins. Not to mention, the majority still think I''m Tarz.''
My vision received a much-needed improvement as the dark cave suddenly lit up, and I could see further along. The first point of trouble that came in my spelunking was when I reached a fork in the tunnel, both leading far into the dark. I shifted into my wolf form and started sniffing each direction for the fresher trail.
''Time to put this nose to work.''
Both forks had scent trails, but thanks to my skill and mimicked traits, it was simple to find the fresher one and head in that direction. I ran into my first straggler when the badgers retreated, which was upied with eating the remains of a goblin. It snarled and growled at me, probably thinking I was a wolf after its meal.Rather than fight as a wolf, I rapidly dropped the form while withdrawing slime mass, enough to plug the tunnel. Cramped and tight spaces were definitely to my advantage, and it was a simple matter of flooding forward until I engulfed the badger monster. It did try to w at the wall of slime and tried to retreat when it saw it was ineffective, which was when I sent the tendrils to grab it.
I continued to travel along the tunnel until I came across what looked like another cavern breach. Before sticking my head out, I gave it a quick sniff in my wolf form and caught multiple scents.
''I think I found their nest.''
I could have gone in guns zing ande out fine, but I had a new form and skill to give a workout. Shapeshifting into a badger, I picked out the following traits to copy: [Enhanced ws], [Enhanced Strength], [Thick Skin]. I could have mimicked a higher level of [Defy Death], but I didn''t want to risk using more than my own single use, and then when I turn back into a slime, I just suddenly explode and die.
I cautiously entered through the breach and into a cave expanse. It was muchrger than I expected, possibly a natural cave that the monsters spawned directly in, and then they branched out or perhaps another entrance from elsewhere. Surprisingly, it wasn''tpletely dark, and a few bioluminescent mushrooms were growing along the walls.
The badgers were either sleeping or eating, and I mentally held my breath when I neared one, but it barely nced at me. Grateful for my sessful disguise, I continued to scout the cavern, and that was when I spotted the nest and thergest monster I had ever seen, easily twice the size of a bear.
Its front ws wereically big and seemed to leak a dark liquid. Its ck and white fur had spiked protrusions emerging from its back that were also slowly leaking. The image that came to mind was if a badger ate a porcupine, and then the porcupine tried to burst out of its back. As if it wasn''t happy with its overall spikiness, its tail was also fully covered in bristles.
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Worthy.
Looking at it with [Mana Sight], it didn''t have much of an aura, but then I caught sight of a small orb of mana between its paws. I approached cautiously and discovered it was currently chowing down on a slime! Its slime was purple, and it contained an apple-green core. I wanted that core.
''I recall purple being a poison slime type. So this monstrosity is literally eating poison?''
Suppressing my urge to jump in and grab it, I wondered if I could convince the creature to share its food. I was currently one of its kind, so let''s test my [Acting] skill. I sat near the creature and started to make mewling noises to get its attention while staring at the slime. The profile hinted that these monstersmunicated with a pheromone nd in the posterior, so I just hoped my [Shapeshifting Mimicry] and [Acting] would cooperate. Unexpectedly, it made a hissing noise at me, but not out of anger and instead what felt like a warning.
''Is it warning me that it''s poison? What a good parent or... boss? I''m still not sure about the whole monster society thing going on.''
I kept insisting that I wanted to eat it. The monster seemed to be thinking for a moment, and I was waiting for the rejection but then started digging in the nest. Plucked out with its stupidlyrge ws, it dropped an even smaller slime in front of me.
''What the hell, is it keeping a nest full of snacks for itself?'' I thought and stared at the smaller purple slime with a notably weaker aura, ''So it''s letting me have a trial taste with the weaker one?''
Resisting the deep urge to just gobble it down, I kept up my act by taking a small nervous first nibble. When nothing bad happened, I ate a bit more. The giant monster actually had a nervous smell at first, but as I kept eating and showing no ill signs, the smell was slowly reced with something simr to pride. However, my patience had run its course, and in a single big bite, I chomped down on the core.
''Yes! Yes! Yes!'' I answered impatiently.
My celebrations were interrupted by a growl and getting smacked by the badger. I thought it might have turned hostile, but I just smelt hints of anger and disappointment. I faked a yelp noise while scurrying away. It didn''t follow, thankfully, and resumed snacking.
This slime contains harmful poisons and toxins, producing an assortment of harmful or deadly effects on its victims.
Different effects can be mixed at a reduced potency for eachbination and limited to trait level.
The potency of any malignant condition scales with trait level but can also be affected by outside factors such as dilution, concentration, or delivery method.
Additional effect types must be acquired through sampling poisons, toxins, or venoms.
Avable effects: [Paralysis].
Compatible with other slime traits.>
''And I thought [Acid Slime] was crazy... Not only does the trait have levels, but it has its own included catalog that I can expand by sampling. It alwayses back to eating things. Maybe I need to consider gluttonous at this point...''
I looked at the updated slime profile from the new species. Common traits were [Slime Shot] and [Slime Burst], which made sense because how else would it deliver its poison? The rare trait made me scared when I read its name alone, thinking it was a self-destruct button, but the description disarmed my paranoia.
Allows slime mass to be vaporized into a gaseous form, dispersing into the air.
This conversion process is irreversible, and the expended slime mass is unrecoverable.
This trait has no levels.
Compatible with other slime traits.>
''So themon purple slimes would spit their goop at foes to poison them, while the rare ones can emit noxious gases. Sounds utterly horrendous, and I''m so d that I''m immune to poison.''
I wanted this trait, and I happened to be surrounded by tons of free experience. Who knew that cave spelunking could be so rewarding?
Chapter 39: Badger Badger Badger
Chapter 39: Badger Badger Badger
I nned to target any badgers on the outskirts of the den. If not for their [Defy Death], I could have used [Sneak Attack], so the n was instead to surprise engulf andbo [Acid Slime] and [Poison Slime]. I snuck up on my first target, happily eating the remains of one of the goblins. I jumped and expanded to engulf, hoping my slime would muffle any sounds from the creature. It iled wildly but wasn''t strong enough to escape such dense slime. The paralysis poison was sadly too weakpared to my acid, and the creature died before it took hold.
Then, I transformed back into my disguise and walked to my next target. It was a simple and effective method and easy to replicate.
''Yuzz is going to be so happy with all this fur.'' I thought with a mental chuckle, picturing the overeager crafter vibrating with excitement.
After reducing the monster badger poption, I found one far away enough from anything else noticing, even if I was slower. I wanted to see the effects of [Poison Slime], so I disabled my acid before engulfing it. Like the others, it frantically tried to escape and slowly began losing its motor control.
It must have suffocated shortly after the poison stopped it squirming. I was a little disappointed in the poison, but it was only level one, so it was all up from here. I reread the description of the trait.
''Affected by outside factors such as delivery method, huh...'' I mentally mumbled, ''Skin contact is probably the worst delivery method, so ingestion or maybe direct ess to the blood?''
I gazed at the big monster badger and found itzily sleeping,pletely unaware of the danger. I moved on to my next target, although I was running low on badgers now. This time, after engulfing it, I stabbed it with a replicated dagger on a [Pseudopod]. The results were noticeable, and it stopped moving long before suffocating.
I immediately bought the new trait. Unfortunately, testing my new attack method would have to wait, as I did not want to wake up the sleeping beast, and I could hazard a guess that the badgers would make a noise when inhaling poisonous fumes.
I turned back on [Acid Slime], but I only wanted it to melt enough to create exposing wounds for the poison. I caught the unsuspecting monster and proceeded as nned, and the conclusion was a far quicker application of the paralysis poison.Satisfied with lowering the numbers, it was finally time to deal with the big boss. The remaining badgers felt a little too risky to take out without alerting others, and ultimately, the big one. I wanted the element of surprise, my fight with the de Wolf still fresh in my mind. I crawled up the cavern wall sneakily until I was above the monster, and then I started to grow. I silently praised [Adhesive Slime], which made clinging to the roof effortless.
Using all four [Pseudopods], I created replicas of the mightiest weapon I had avable, greatswords. A culmination of multiple traits all working together: [Slime Shape], [Shapeshifting Mimicry], [Slime Density], [Acid Slime], and [Mana Reinforcement] to empower these four des. I allocated plenty of slime mass to my general size for safety and to get a helping hand from gravity.
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I couldn''t think of any further preparations, and so I dropped. I allocated two greatswords to cleave the creature''s neck like scissors while the other two would prate the torso and then promptly detonate from the inside.
Multiple notifications zed through my head, but I ignored them. Despite all the advantages, my two des were not strong enough to decapitate the monster in one go. But the wounds were excessive, and the threat of having its head sheared off was real. The two des that pierced the torso sunk deep, and then their entire des erupted into acidic shrapnel thanks to [Slime Burst].
The creature howled a raw and guttural scream of pain and rage. I wondered how it was even still alive. I knew it would have [Defy Death], but surely it would simply die after a few extra hits. I was clinging to its back and took another swing at its neck, only for my greatswords to meet with newly and rapidly regrown flesh. I kept hacking away at the neck when suddenly its bristled tail crushed me against its back. The force was enough to reach my core, and I felt crushing pain.
I endured the pain, but it wasn''t enough to trigger my [Defy Death]. I wrapped a tendril around its chest, and when it raised its tail for a follow-up swing, I retreated my core from its back to its front. It could keep smacking its back all it wanted now, and I couldn''t care less now that my core was safe.
I stabbed my remaining two greatswords into the previous wounds, which were struggling to close up thanks to all the acidic slime, and detonated them both. This was costing a lot of slime mass, but this is what my savings were for, and I would reap plenty from its corpse. With no more greatswords, I went for the simpler spear approach, using all four unupied tendrils to stab and then detonate.
I recalled one of my spear tendrils and wrapped it around its neck where the slime was like a noose, tightening as much as possible and melting away at the fresh flesh.
Its entire torso was engulfed by my entire ''body'' at this point, and its frantic tail smacks had been joined by its ws digging into whatever slime it could reach. It must have asked for help because even the other badgers hade and started trying to w and bite at me.
If it was going to have its minions attack me, then I''d use my own. I told my [Sub-Core] to deal with them and armed it with [Slime Shot], [Adhesive Slime], [Acid Slime], and [Poison Slime]. It immediately got to work and started firing shot after shot at each target, the sticky slime clinging to them to deliver the poison payload.
''I swear my head is ringing with so many notifications...'' I groaned, ''Why won''t it just die already...''
To my surprise, it gave up on trying to attack me and then started to dig, its ws practically gliding through the rocks. I moved my cores to a safe spot and clung tightly to its body with my slime mass. As I lost vision of the cave, I saw numerous badgers had copsed to the ground, having sumbed to the paralysis.
The giant badger kept digging while I kept leaking slime into its wounds. Suddenly, the digging stopped, and like the flip of a switch, it became dead still. Then it jerked and dug some more and stopped. Then again, and stopped.
''What the hell?'' I questioned before finally the notification arrived.
''Oh... I forgot about my emblem. I guess that exins all the traits and skills. It wasn''t kidding around with the experience bonus.''
I stared at the giant corpse, and [Dissection] frantically pointed out the valuable parts. ws, fangs, spikes, fur, this thing was a buffet of treasure. I started to chow down, and now that it was dead, I seemed to have little to no trouble digesting it. It was quite horrific how little of the monster remained inside, with its insides thoroughly melted away. Once again I questioned how it had continued to fight for so long.
''I don''t think I''m going to break even with my slime mass spending, but the rewards were certainly worth it.''
Looking at the new poison type, it would dangerously hamper natural regeneration or healing and literally cause your blood to rot into a runny ck sludge. It sounded like a hemotoxin on steroids.
''So that monster would cut you with its massive ws, and assuming you didn''t die outright, then you''d uncontrobly bleed to death from the Bloodrot.'' I puzzled together with the profile and sample, ''I guess it''s a good thing I fought it alone, or there would be so many dead goblins.''
Chapter 40: Poison
Chapter 40: Poison
Searching the updated profile with the evolved badger, I found the source of its partial immortality.
Through your rage, you will persevere.
Rapidly convert mana into health, efficiency scaling with trait level.
Upon activation, the regeneration will not stop until health is full or mana depleted.>
I wanted it.
''Damn it!''
I crawled out of the escape tunnel to the sight of so many paralyzed badgers. My [Sub-Core] suddenly started firing at their bodies, which made me realize it still had its standing order, which I canceled to stop wasting slime.
''That gives me an interesting idea. Maybe I could give it self-defense orders? It would always be waiting to jump in to help. I''ve definitely not been utilizing it properly except for nightshift work.''I''d deal with the badgerster. My first priority was to check the nest. Using [Mana Sight], I found the spot and melted a path to it, revealing a very emaciated-looking purple slime.
''Huh... Was this the badgers bedtime snack?''
Now, I had to deal with the badgers, seven of them at my mercy. From an outside perspective, it might have seemed cruel, but these things showed no sympathy when they invaded the goblin cave.
I first tested out Bloodrot by making a small dagger and cutting two of the badgers. The effect was not at all pleasant to witness, as the ckened blood seemed to spread throughout the creature and leak rapidly from the open wound as if the body were trying to eject it. They both eventually died, and when I dissolved them, I noted they gave less slime mass than I was used to.
Next, I got to finally test out my [Vaporize Slime] trait. I felt a bit unsettled seeing my slime turn into a gas, and the unfortunate monster who breathed it in started coughing up ckened blood. I had to give it another dose of Bloodrot gas before it eventually died. Less effective than the open wound application, but very nasty.
I tried out an acidic gas next, and the results were horrific and ruined almost every bit of harvestable material. [Dissection] scolded me for being so wasteful. I would have vomited if I had a stomach, which was saying something since I literally melted things to eat. I''d probably need to lock this away as ast resort or invest more in [Enhanced Willpower].
Next was trying out the sleep poison on the three remainingb rats. I tried three different delivery methods: ingestion, inhtion, and injection. Inhtion seemed to work best, and I watched the creature gradually fall asleep. Next was injection, andstly, ingestion. I delivered three swift [Sneak Attacks] to execute the badgers.
''How much experience did that damn apex badger give me?'' I wondered when I saw the notification, ''If the bear matriarch is also an apex, I will get another two levels at this rate.''
After harvesting all the badgers, I had a small positive in slime. Although, tonight''s [Defy Death] training would make that a loss, which made me consider getting the rare blue slime trait [Slime Conversion].
Spend mana to generate slime mass.
There is a daily conversion limit, scaling with trait level.>
I had three trait points and a skill point. I immediately tried to purchase [Prodigy] again.
''Annoying...''
There was a skill I saw the de Wolf use that I could see from its profile, [Wind Step].
Move a short distance with near-impossible speed, even in mid-air.
Skill level determines mana efficiency and maximum chained usage.>
It sounded like a must-buy to me, and having aerial mobility couldn''t be understated.
''No! Gramps, why!?'' I mmed a pseudopod against the cavern floor, ''What the hell is Air Affinity now?''
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Obviously, I got no answers, so I''d need to ask one of the goblins. Before leaving, I did snack on some of the glowing mushrooms, adding to my [Mushroom] profile. I kept thinking about my traits purchases during the return trip to the goblin cave. I was feeling good, and powerful, but Gramps had still pointed out that magic was my greatest weakness. My first purchase went towards the much-dyed magic resistance.
Adds a minor amount of passive magic resistance to offensive spells and spell effects, scaling with trait level.
Resistance can be temporarily disabled to allow effects to pass.
Beneficial spells from oneself automatically ovee resistance.>
Next, I didn''t want to be bleeding slime mass every day, and with [Vaporize Slime] being added to my arsenal, I needed to be able to replenish my resources. Speaking of resources, ever since I got [Elven Legacy], I don''t think I''ve ever seen my mana level drop below Overflowing. So if elf bullshit is going to give me more mana than I know what to do with, I better spend it.
I immediately activated it and felt my mana trickling away and slime mass generating, which I routinelypressed and stored away. I spent a lot of time thinking about my next purchase. I was tempted to save it, but I knew we were fighting the bear matriarch soon, and I''d likely gain two if not more, trait points from that.
After much internal debate, I settled on purchasing a second [Sub-Core]. It felt like they had so much untapped potential, especially if I started leaving them with standby orders.
''A new [Sub-Core].'' I mentally responded, and arge quantity of slime mass immediately began topress to an impossible level until forming another small red core.
This was certainly unexpected. My cores could have their own little party amongst themselves. I was concerned that my second would never catch up to the first unless I deliberately hampered the first''s growth, not to mention if I wanted to add a third and beyond.
''Yes.''
[Sub-Core Beta] will receive donated experience from [Sub-Core Alpha] until level equilibrium.>
''This trait clearly had a lot of thought put into it. I want to assume Gramps made it. Krutz did mention Gods, plural. If I assume Gods made this whole system, that might exin why some traits and skills descriptions are so wildly different. Well, whoever made it, thanks, and sorry for neglecting it for so long!''
For now, I set Beta to withdraw slime mass and Alpha to deposit it, a small loop for some passive experience gain. I also had Alpha use [Mana Reinforcement], with its spare capacity, on Beta and itself.
I made sure to turn back to my goblin form as I drew nearer. When I emerged from the tunnel, an impressive defensive perimeter had formed. I waved friendly to the goblins and got some cheers from the warriors. Apparently, I had been gone for a lot longer than I thought, and the goblins were growing worried that I had perished.
I informed them that I found the nest and cleared it out, downying the exact number of creatures and not mentioning the apex. I warned them that there was an unexplored fork in the tunnel, so there could be some surviving stragglers.
When I was walking home, Krutz approached and seemed a bit surprised. Before he greeted me, I thought I overheard him mutter "four more levels" to himself. I pretended not to hear, and we exchanged pleasantries.
"Do you know what Air Affinity is?" I asked.
"A-Air Affinity?" He choked, before clearing his throat and continuing, "I believe that''s one of the types of mana. Why do you ask?"
"I tried to buy a skill, but it told me Icked Air Affinity. I had never seen that before."
"S-skill? I see. That''s... unfortunate for you. Some do have prerequisites to purchase."
The poor guy seemed under the weather. I had not seen him act this way before. The stress of the human attack, badgers invasion, and impending adventurers guild must be getting to him. And he was still nning our attack on the bear matriarch.
"Do you have a skill you''d rmend purchasing? I had my heart set on that one, but that seems unlikely unless I can get Air Affinity somehow."
There was a pregnant pause before he responded, "As far as I''m aware, your affinity is determined at birth. As for skill rmendations..." He paused again, "Could you give me some time to think on this? Then I can give you more optimal advice."
"That works for me. No rush." I replied with a nod, "I know a lot has been happeningtely. We still need to deal with the bear matriarch."
We said our farewells, and I headed home. I rxed and checked my updated status menu, which needed some organizing.
Name: Syl [Apex Hunter]
Race: Mimic Slime (Blue) LV 12
ss: -
Status: Healthy
Mana: Overflowing
Emblems:
[Experiment]
[Apex Hunter]*
[Elven Legacy]
Traits:
Slime:
[Mana Slime LV MAX]
[Acid Slime LV 5]
[Poison Slime LV 3]
[Adhesive Slime]
[stic Slime]
[Pseudopod LV 5]
[Slime Density LV 5]
[Slime Shot LV 4]
[Shape Slime LV 5]
[Slime Burst LV 3]
[Vaporize Slime]
Core:
[Core Refinement LV 4]
[Core Storage LV 4]
[Sub-Core Alpha LV 3]
[Sub-Core Beta LV 1]
[Consuming Osmosis LV 3]
Mimic:
[Shapeshifting Mimicry LV 3]
[Chroma Shift LV 2]
Mana:
[Mana Cirction LV 3]
[Mana Well LV 1]
[Mana Reinforcement LV 4]
[Mana Sight LV 1]
[Slime Conversion LV 1]
Attributes/Other:
[Enhanced Intellect LV 2]
[Enhanced Vitality LV 2]
[Enhanced Willpower LV 2]
[Magic Resistance (Lesser) LV 1]
[Dark Vision LV 3]
[Defy Death LV 1]
Trait Points remaining 0
Skills:
General:
[Universal Language]
[Dissection LV 5]
[Mapping LV 2]
[Tracking LV 1]
Combat:
[Evasion LV 3]
[Melee Weapon Proficiency (Lesser) LV 2]
[Ranged Weapon Proficiency (Lesser) LV 1]
[Improved uracy (Lesser) LV 2]
Sneaky Stuff:
[Stealth LV 4]
[Sneak Attack LV 3]
[Identity Block LV 3]
[Acting LV 1]
Skill Points remaining 1
Chapter 41: Tests and Preparations
Chapter 41: Tests and Preparations
As I sat in my abode, I began thinking of ways to test the [Sub-Core]. I was currently in my elf form to train my mimicry skills and [Mana Sight]. Since Beta was at capacity, continuously withdrawing slime mass, I''d only be using Alpha for these experiments. I pulled a rock from my storage and held it in my hand.
"Okay, Alpha. If something is going to hit me, I want you to catch it with a [Pseudopod]."
I threw the rock upwards and let gravity do its job. Before the rock could hit my head, a small tendril emerged from the back of my head to catch it.
"Perfect. Override that order, and now, if a threat is going to hit me, then use a [Pseudopod] to catch or deflect it."
I repeated the rock toss and this time, there was no tendril to catch it, and the rock harmlessly bounced off my head. To test the boundaries of the order, I formed a dagger in one hand and used it to stab my other hand. There was no defensive reaction, so I upgraded the dagger to a sword and aimed it at my core. This time, a tendril emerged and grabbed my wrist.
"Good job, Alpha. So you''re smart enough to know what a real threat is."
I''d definitely be setting an order to defend from any real threats. But first, I had to spend my [Defy Death] before bed. Either I was growing used to harming myself, or the extra level of [Enhanced Willpower] was helping me go against my emotions.
Still not enough for level up, unfortunately, I dragged myself to bed feeling the pain in my core.
I woke up to an unexpected amount of notifications. I had figured [Mana Cirction] would level up soon since it came with [Mana Reinforcement], but it seemed to have slowed down recently since I was struggling to expendrge amounts of mana. [Mana Well] took forever to level up, and I was unsure what method would improve its experience gain. Most surprising was Beta gaining a level already, truly showing the power of receiving donated experience from Alpha. ''Good job getting your junior up to scratch, Alpha.''
I used my entire allocation of [Slime Conversion] immediately, which was enough to offset my daily slime loss but not enough for the repairs on my core. Hopefully, that will be resolved in the next level or two. I visited Yuzz to fetch my repaired goblin outfit. Sadly, my secret request wasn''t ready yet, and as I predicted, they had the badger carcasses from the farm waiting for me to harvest. At least it was extra food.
I wasn''t sure what to do with my badger parts yet. I''d likely trade them for something useful, but at the moment, it seemed like they had more parts than crafters. I was going to head to the training ground when I ran into Garz. It looked like it was time to hunt the bear matriarch.
We assembled outside Krutz''s hut, where already the goblins were discussing the ns. We would form an elite party to take on the matriarch, while other smaller parties would avoid her and deal with any other bears. We would be setting up an ambush outside of herir and luring her out or waiting for her to return.
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''Yes''
Krutz, Borz, Nez, Caz, Garz, Syl.>
I finally discovered the name of the bodyguard, Borz. Nez was one of the goblins I frequently sparred with, and he was one of the few goblins who knew how to use a shield. Caz was one of my bow tutors, and she would be joining Garz as our ranged support. I wasn''t sure what Krutz would be fighting with, but he returned from his hut holding a small scepter topped with a skull. I gave it a peek with [Mana Sight], and it had a ck aura of mana.
Even a few builders wereing with us, and they would set up some traps for us to trigger if we got the opportunity and run away when the fighting started. The battle n seemed for Nez and Borz to keep the matriarch upied while Caz and Garz peppered it with arrows. Garz mentioned my stealth skills, and when I brought up my [Sneak Attack], they rapidly agreed for me to attack from behind and then behave somewhat as a free agent. When I asked what Krutz would be doing, he mentioned being able to weaken enemies, and his best ability would be to slow everything about the bear. I wasn''t sure what that meant, but it filled the other goblins with a lot of confidence, so it must have been good.
Unfortunately, Krutz had been too busy to have given much thought on my skill choices, so I was browsing through my profiles to see if I could find anything. The profiles were great, but they only showed me naturally urring skills without outside influence. This meant that the human, goblin, and elf profiles were horriblepared to monster profiles in terms of skills, as monsters would gain skills from their evolution, which was considered natural.
The de Wolf still held another interesting skill, [Sever Strike], which was an active use skill allowing me to focus intense cutting energy into a single powerful blow and even project that cut outwards at higher levels. The skill sounded useful, but at first level, it would only add some extra cutting power, so it felt more like a long-term investment.
The Venom Barbed Badger had an active skill called [Rage], which would let me ignore all pain and gain strength at the cost of losing thought and reason. It sounded too risky for me.
I decided to hold back on my skill points. Nothing screamed at me like [Evasion] had, and I was confident I could unlock skills like [Burrowing] myself. Hriously, the only skill from the blue slime profile was [Jumping]. Perhaps the bear would have some interesting skills, or Krutz would give me a suggestion.
As the default sneaking expert, it was my job to check the cave out. I snuck in carefully and spotted one cub currently sleeping. I exited the cave and informed the goblins. They quickly got to work setting up some spikes made from wood and other various traps. Crafting traps wasn''t my thing, so I just chatted with Caz and Nez.
One of the scout groups came running in a panic. The matriarch had been spotted and was returning. I wondered what an evolved bear would look like, as the wolf and badger were quite distinct, whereas the boar had seemed simple byparison.
The goblins positioned behind the various spikes and traps on the ground, bows drawn and ready. I snuck off to the side, readying my ambush once the conflict had begun, hopefullynding a good [Sneak Attack].
"Too bad I can''t drop down with four greatswords this time," I muttered.
I nned on using a spear with paralysis and a dagger with Bloodrot. I hoped detonating a few spearheads inside of the bear would distribute the paralysis poison, while I knew the Bloodrot worked better with cuts and open wounds.
As if announcing her arrival, I could feel tremors in the ground. How big was this damn bear? The goblins tensed. The bear that emerged seemed to want to mock my previous assessment of the badger as the biggest creature I''d seen. She was perhaps three or even four timesrger than the bears I had fought in the cave. Unlike other evolved monsters, there wasn''t a unique tail, oversized fangs, or poisonous ws. Instead, she had what looked like rocky protrusions growing amongst her fur and forming almost a shell of rock over her limbs.
"She''s evolved again!" I heard Krutz shout.
The announcement shook through the goblins, but with their Chief to guide them, they seemed to have a determined resolve.
''So this will be my first double-evolved monster. I can''t wait to taste the profile.''
As if answering my thoughts, my mind tickled.
Worthy.
Chapter 42: Earthshaker
Chapter 42: Earthshaker
When the bear roared, the ground shook as if answering her rage. Nez raised his shield, which shed with light and immediately drew the attention of the matriarch. The goblins on the outskirts fired arrows at the two bears trailing behind to draw them away from the fight. Krutz raised his skull scepter, which swelled in dark glowing mist.
"[Condemnation of Sloth]!" He shouted, and the dark mist flung itself at the bear and clung to it like a miasma. The effects were immediately noticeable, as she was in midstride towards Nez and suddenly was moving in slow motion.
Caz and Garz, rather than firing a hail of arrows, both were firing single powerful shots that caused their bows to creak from the strain. They had to aim carefully, as any arrows hitting the rocky carapace seemed to bounce off harmlessly.
Despite moving at a slower pace, she barreled through the spikes and traps. Before joining the melee fight, I decided to do some sniping of my own from stealth. Thebo of sticky acid and paralysis was my ammo of choice, and while I didn''t think my shots could prate her defense, I hoped the slime would seep into the cracks and deliver the poison. I kept firing until her entire back was coated in bright purple slime, and I hoped the extra visibility would warn the goblins not to touch it.
I could already tell my [Apex Hunter] emblem was doing good work. By this point, the bear had engaged with Nez and Borz. Nez, to my disbelief, did not dodge the bear''s w attacks and instead parried the blow by mming his shield against the ws, causing the shield to sh when they collided. Not to be outdone, Borz twirled his spear like a baton and thrust it deep into the bear, blood sttering to the ground when he yanked it out.
When I arrived at the back of the bear, I could hear the acid fizzing away as it tried to melt through the flesh. I lunged with my spear to pierce deep into the rear of the bear, finding a small spot of flesh not covered in the rocky carapace. Then I detonated the spearhead, reformed it, and stabbed again. The matriarch roared in pain, and once again, I could feel the ground tremoring. I started shing at any gaps I could find with my dagger, recing her normal blood with ckened rot.
I wondered if it was possible to paralyze such arge monster. I wasn''t sure if it had poison resistance like the badger or just a natural resistance from evolution, levels, or something like vitality. I was internally debating swapping to only using Bloodrot since I could visibly see it having an effect when the matriarch had enough of our onesided attacks and decided to up the ante.
The earth rumbled, and when she roared, it erupted. The ground around her exploded into a shrapnel of rocks and dirt. Other than slightly losing my bnce, I was unaffected, and it didn''t even trigger Alpha''s defense protocol, so I kept up my attack. The goblins were not so lucky, and Nez took a blow from a bear paw that sent him tumbling across the ground. Thankfully, there was no death notification, and he seemed to be slowly standing back up.
"Was that earth magic!?" Krutz shouted, then pointed his skull scepter at the bear, "[Agony]!"ck sparks arced across the bear''s body, and it roared in difort. I activated [Mana Sight] and could see the bear glowing in a brown aura while Krutz''s was ck. The bear''s aura shed a deeper brown while it mmed its paw to the ground. A stgmite erupted from the earth towards Borz, and he tried to dodge to the side but took a grievous wound to his torso.
It looked like the slow debuff did not affect the earth powers wielded by the matriarch, and she was using less w and more rock now. Luckily for me, she had no direct line of sight to me, so when she turned, I just followed along and kept backstabbing. She roared and fired another batch of rocky shrapnel, which I ignored and countered by firing arge [Slime Burst] to recoat her entire back.
Nez had rejoined the fight and was trying to catch the bear''s attention to stop her spinning around to get to me. I must have poked the bear too many times, and it wanted me gone. Its aura grew to a massive size, and I sensed imminent danger. I formed two pseudopods, grappled to the bear, and slingshotted myself onto its back.
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"Something big ising!" I shouted a warning.
Nez seemed to take my warning seriously and backed off with his shield raised. Borz decided he knew better; rather than retreating, he started to stab rapidly at the bear, which had now begun to roar and stand on her hind legs. I was thankful goblins didn''t use footwear and simply activated [Adhesive Slime] to keep my grip on its back, trying to find gaps in the rocky shell to stab at. The ground resonated with its roar, and multiple spires of earth erupted in a ring.
One of the rocky spikes had emerged directly under Borz, skewering him. Nez looked horrified and was probably very grateful he retreated. The matriarch, however, was not done. She mmed both paws to the ground, and the rocky spires shattered into multiple shards and flew directly forward from her.
While my normal vision couldn''t see through the back of my fake head, [Mana Sight] could, and each shard was visible thanks to the contained earth mana. Either the bear didn''t care if it hit itself, or it knew I was on its back and wanted to include me in its spray of shards. Alpha reacted before even I was aware, already triggering a defensive reaction. Two tendrils formed and mimicked two shields, and I heard the shards shattering against them.
While I was d [Chroma Shift] got that final level, I couldn''t believe that [Shapeshifting Mimicry] was such a perfectionist that it even took the effort to color an emergency defense correctly. I didn''t have the luxury to think of a new trait to mimic in the fight, so I quickly upgraded my existingbo of enhanced strength, dexterity, and agility to four.
I kept stabbing and detonating spears in any gaps I spotted on the bear. I really hoped the paralysis would take hold. The bear thrashed wildly, desperately trying to get me off its back. The goblins did not look good after taking the brunt of the rock shards, and Krutz was now firing ck energy bolts at the bear from his skull scepter.
Caz scored a critical hit andnded a direct shot into one of the bear''s eyes. Meanwhile, Garz had stopped shooting, and it looked like he was trying to extract Nez from the fight, whose legs were shredded by rock shards. With another roar, the bear flung a boulder created from the earth towards Nez and Garz, then another at Krutz. Krutz easily dodged and countered with another ck energy bolt, but Nez could not move, and Garz had to abandon him and dodge to the side.
After detonating one more spear, I abandoned it for another Bloodrot dagger and started running along the back of the bear and cutting wherever possible. I ran up to the back of its head and made cut upon cut, ckened blood leaking out of the creature.
I could see it powering up with another surge of earth mana, and I worried for Garz, who was now the only member on the frontline. I was about to abandon my disguise and go full tentacle slime monstrosity when the bear suddenly stopped moving. It copsed to the ground, but there was no notification, so it was still alive. The buildup of earth mana released another burst of dust and gravel all around, Garz taking the brunt of it but not taking any life-threatening injuries.
Krutz was panting heavily, barely holding onto his skull scepter, and his ck aura looked like a sputtering candle. Garz looked like he had been to hell and back, covered in dirt, cuts and bruises, and the blood of Nez. Caz looked surprisingly fine, only taking some minor cuts and bruises. The goblins all stared at the unmoving bear with relief and confusion. I hopped off its back and approached its head.
"I''m going to finish it off from the inside." I dered and thrust a fist inside the bear''s mouth before anyone could respond.
The bear tried to growl at me, but all that came out was a gurgle, and I could see the hatred in its remaining eye. I poured slime mass down its throat and told both Alpha and Beta to go wild. Both sub-cores immediately took control over portions of slime inside the creature, and I could sense them making all sorts of tools to cut, puncture, and spread the Bloodrot acidic slime.
I was hoping for Beta to get another level, but the matriarch didn''t have enough life left in it to hold out that long. The goblins looked like they wanted answers from me, but most were too tired toin. Krutz''s mana was dangerously low, from my visual estimation.
All of the goblin''s eyes suddenly went wide. They likely had all received their own notifications as well. There wasn''t much left of the bear between the Bloodrot and acid, but [Dissection] wanted the rocky carapace. I put it in the back of my mind and frowned at the notifications I had received. Why did I only gain a single level despite my [Apex Hunter] emblem? I would have expected two or even three levels from this fight. Something smelled wrong, and it wasn''t the rotting bear.
Chapter 43: Choices
Chapter 43: Choices
The bear profile told me that the matriarch was originally a Greater Bear and then further evolved into a Greater Earthshaker Bear. I could assume that if I picked another mutation evolution, I''d get something extra appended to my race. The ''Greater'' evolution seemed awful if Ipared it to the options I had avable for my first evolution, and if I had to summarize it, it just made her ''more bear'' like adding two bears together. I wondered if that was what happened if you failed to meet any other evolution conditions.
I didn''t see any poison resistance trait or skill in her profile, but she had [Enhanced Vitality 6], so either that or her race levels were the source of her resistance to my paralysis. She had [Digging LV 5] and lived in a cave, so maybe that was enough to trigger the evolution condition. Speaking of evolutions, I assumed the Badger received its evolution from its habit of eating poisonous slime. I wondered what new evolution options I''d have.
Earthshaker gave her the traits [Mana Cirction], [Earthen Carapace], and the skill [Earth Magic]. I now had two skill points, and magic sounded like a good choice with my currently stupid amount of mana.
"Bullshit... First Wind and now Earth. Do I even have an affinity?" I mumbled to myself.
I was brought back to reality when Caz approached me and patted me on the back.
"Good job." She said with a grin, "Don''t know what you did. But that bear is super dead."
I nodded and looked around. Arge group of goblins were carrying back the two other bear carcasses to the vige while another pair were transporting the remaining cub. It also seemed like Krutz and Garz had already left. Nobody was approaching the bear''s corpse, which was still leaking ck blood.
"Did you get a lot of experience from that fight?" I asked.
"I got two ss levels. I don''t think anyone expected the matriarch to have evolved again." Caz answered, and I had to hide my frustration."So, what are you nning on spending your skill points on?"
"I have enough to increase [Power Shot] now."
We chatted a bit, and I even got Caz to share the skill description. It felt like the ranged equivalent of [Sever Strike], and I wasn''t sure if I wanted to buy it, but at least I had another option avable. I hoped it would bepatible with [Slime Shot], but I wasn''t willing to risk it until I had a more stable source of skill points. I told Caz I was going to harvest the bear and I''d returnter. She nodded and left with a wave.
Engulfing it in slime resulted in a quick harvest. Other than the rocky carapace that [Dissection] ranted about, the ws were the only other thing worthwhile that wasn''t ruined.
I slowly walked back to the cave, giving myself some time to think. Garz had been distant since the battle with the humans, and it felt like Krutz was intentionally hiding something. He seemed almost reluctant to show me any skills and left without saying anything. Only gaining a single level from a double-evolved monster while meeting the condition for [Apex Hunter], however, was my greatest source of distrust.
I had not thought of a trait to purchase by the time I got home, and I quietly went through my practice routine. Nobody came to visit, so I proceeded with my horrible before-bed routine.
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I was relieved to finally get a level in it, which meant I had another extra safety. Although I didn''t dare risk trying it out now, what if the added use wasn''t immediate and I died right now? That would be a difficult conversation to have with Gramps. I crawled into my hole and went to bed.
I spent my early morning examining my gains from the fight. I still wasn''t sure what to spend my points on, and part of me wanted to grab another [Sub-Core]. I experimented with the final level of [Chroma Shift] by changing my core color, and while I felt an immense attachment to my crimson-red, I did understand this had benefits. By changing my core transparency and color to match my slime, I could effectively hide my core from the naked eye. I was sure some skills or traits could get around it, but it was a nice safety.
I could also change the color of both Alpha and Beta. I tried to think of a unique core color to apply to them both and settled for giving Alpha the honey-yellow color of the green slime I first encountered and gave Beta the apple-green of the purple slime. Maybe not the most original idea, but I was a mimic slime.
''Actually, if I change my slime and core color to match the green and purple slime, would that count for mimicry?'' I thought, and explored the idea by changing my own core color and slime to match both other slimes. I didn''t get any notifications, so I could only hope it gave me some experience.
I headed to see Yuzz, and as expected, she was hyper-excited to see me. The first order of business was her showing my brand-new outfit. I went into the other room and shifted into an elf. Yuzz wasughing at my clothing struggles. I had only recently gotten used to clothing my stubby goblin form, so the elongated elf form with its long limbs made things difficult.
"If you struggle with clothes so much, you should consider getting the [Equipment Swap] skill." She mentioned.
"The what skill?" I asked with surprise.
"[Equipment Swap], I got it for free with my Tailor ss, but it''s worthless unless you have a dimension storage." She exined and held out her palm to disy the skill for me.
Create a link between a designated dimensional storage, allowing equipment to be stored directly and withdrawn.
You can save an equipment loadout and rapidly swap between them.
Never be caught with your pants down again.
This skill has no levels.>
I wanted this skill. I immediately tried to purchase it.
"Yes! Bloody hell, I was almost expecting a Tailoring Affinity required or some nonsense." I cheered and gave Yuzz a big hug. She seemed confused being hugged by a half-naked elf but was soon smiling along with me.
I deposited all my clothes into my storage and then activated the skill. A strange-looking screen popped up in front of me, asking me to fill various ''equipment slots'', I started selecting clothes, and it even prevented me from selecting my goblin clothes.
"I see you''re making an outfit." Yuzzughed at me poking at the air, "That''s the only part of the skill I can use without a storage bag."
I nodded while finishing my selections and selected the ''equip'' button. It asked me if I wanted to save the outfit, and I selected ''yes'', then there was a brief sh of light, and suddenly I was in my new outfit. Yuzz was pping excitedly.
"I always wondered what actually using it would do. I need to get myself a storage bag."
"If I find one, I''ll be sure to give it to you."
The outfit was simr to my goblin outfit but withrge amounts of bear pelt rather than the scarce patches. The iconic part was the cloak included a hood this time, although Yuzz needed to make holes in it for the elf ears to poke through.
I used her room to change back to a goblin and set up a new outfit. Then I swapped to an elf and back to a goblin, with full outfit swaps between each transformation.
"I think I love this skill," I told Yuzz and gave her another hug, this time goblin-sized.
I thanked her and gave her three of the harvested badgers as thanks for her work and for giving me her skill. Shortly after I left, I ran into Garz, who told me Krutz was looking for me. I nodded and followed along. Garz did not look well and ignored all my attempts at small talk.
When I saw Krutz, however, he greeted me with a friendly smile and weed me into his hut. Worthy. At this point, it was clear that was the equipped effect of [Apex Hunter].
''Wait... When I spoke with him after the badgers, I don''t think he triggered my emblem.'' I thought, ''Which means after one fight, he''s now above or equal to me... That does not feel right.''
"So Syl, are you ready to finally get your ss?" Krutz responded with a smile.
"You unlocked the ability?" I questioned, hiding my suspicion with a winning smile.
"Yes, I have. I''m sure you''re very excited. It will only take a moment. You will receive a notification like a party request. When you ept it, it will allow me to guide you into selecting a ss." He exined and held out his hand.
I wanted to believe him. Everything had been friendly before now. I took his hand, which initiated a ck glow between our grasp, and Krutz gave a reassuring smile.
"Make sure you ept it. Otherwise, you won''t get a ss." He repeated, and then a prompt appeared.
Do you ept?>
My memory immediately shes back to Sylthaeryn. This felt simr, yet different. With her, it felt like a partnership between us, while this felt entirely one-sided. I had only one answer.
''NO!''
Chapter 44: Duplicity
Chapter 44: Duplicity
I pull my hand away and re at him. I did not sense any immediate open hostility, and Krutz gave me a sad, almost apologetic smile.
I mentally tell Alpha to defend against anything and Beta to counterattack any hostilities. Meanwhile, I start secretly withdrawing slime mass and releasing a transparent-white vapor of sleep poison. If my doubts were wrong, I could potentially dodge questions about them getting sleepy, but Bloodrot or paralysis poison was likely a point of no return.
"I want to give you the benefit of the doubt, Krutz, but you just tried to enve me. I''ve had that tried before."
Krutz sighed and shook his head, "If you were my subordinate, I could give you a ss."
"No." My response was immediate. I refused to risk being a mind puppet.
"The humans areing. My scout spotted them this morning. Over twenty of them." He continued.
"I don''t see why that means I must be your ve."
"I n to leave. The tribe is doomed, like my previous one." He continued and mmed a fist against his table, "But I will survive. Continue to grow until I can exterminate them all."
"And you thought you''d take me along?""Yes, and a small party of the highest levels. The humans will think they killed us all with the sacrifice of the tribe here. Then we wait for the world to spawn new goblins and take over the tribe, just like I did before."
His words felt... Oddly convincing? He had nned this out, and there was some logic behind it.
''Wait, what?'' I questioned as suddenly a fog lifted from my mind.
I activated [Mana Sight] and saw that Krutz was emitting his dark mana, and a small portion was floating toward me.
''Has Krutz been influencing my mind? Is this the first time, or has he done it before?'' The thought horrified me, and I had no idea such subtle influence was possible.
"If you wanted me to join you, why didn''t you say so rather than try to enve me?"
"You''re very powerful, Syl. I''m not entirely sure what type of monster you really are, but we''ve all witnessed your strength. I wanted reassurance that I wouldn''t be your next meal like the badgers, bears, humans, or Tarz."
I had to admit I had been on an eating spree. Perhaps it was my slime instincts, or my intense desire to survive that gave me the goal to seek strength. Out of everything Krutz mentioned, the only one that really struck me was the mention of Tarz. I had killed her out of pure greed to get a new profile. I could have eaten a corpse for the profile, but I didn''t. I saw her just as another monster to eat. I had to push back, this wasn''t the time to have an existential crisis.
"Is that why you stole experience from me?" I asked, and the question seemed to surprise him.
"I did no such thing. Who told you that?"
"I''ve defeated a simr monster. It was slightly weaker than the Earthshaker and gave me vastly more levels."
This seemed to shock him greatly. Perhaps he had underestimated me and didn''t think I had taken on evolved monsters already. I saw him trying to think and stifled a yawn with his hand. I felt my mind clearing up more, his influence further fading.
I wanted tough, as my emblem considered this a battle against an apex monster and was giving me bonus experience. I activated [Slime Conversion] to take advantage of the free experience offered.
"If you want me to trust you, why don''t you show me a useful skill to purchase? You said you''d give me advice. What about how to use magic?" I asked.
Krutz actually scowled at my suggestion. His finger began nervously tapping against the table. Suddenly, I picked up an aura of mana from behind me, and Alpha reacted by forming two shields. There was a burst as an arrow pierced through the shields, and my head exploded. Alpha and Beta had retreated themselves into my torso. When my head rapidly reformed, Krutz looked stunned. I turned to see the source of the [Power Shot] arrow - Garz had his bow drawn.
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"I guess negotiations have failed," I uttered sadly.
"If you refuse to submit as my pet, then I have no use for you. I''ll add your essence to my own." Krutz spat, "Guards, kill it!"
The sudden personality flip was startling. Where was the goblin chief who seemed willing to talk and trade ideas, or was that all fake to lead to this moment where he could try to dominate my mind? Krutz was looking towards the backroom door, waiting for his guards, but they wouldn''te. [Mana Sight] could see behind the door and showed me their bodies copsed to the floor.
"Why join him, Garz? He wants to abandon the goblins and run off. I thought we were friends." I questioned the goblin, staring at me with hatred.
"Friends?!" Garz spat, "You kill Tarz. Kill Woz. Then you wear Tarz skin. Other goblins all say Tarze back strong. Better. Everyone praise new Tarz. But that not truth. You, not Tarz!"
I wasn''t sure who Woz was, but his words hurt. I hadn''t thought much about how I had stolen Tarz''s identity, and it had eaten at Garz''s mind. I could guess that Krutz had influenced Garz''s mind at least a little, maybe pushed him off the fence, but there were raw feelings behind his words.
''Alpha, Beta... Please, don''t kill Garz. Sleep poison only for him.'' Imanded mentally.
At this point, Krutz was getting a bit frantic and had pulled out his skull scepter and kicked open the door, revealing all the unconscious guards.
"You! What did you do?" He shrieked while waving his scepter around, ck mana gathering, "Fine, I don''t need these weaklings to kill you myself. [Condemnation of Sloth]!"
"Huh..." I responded aloud, genuinely surprised.
Meanwhile, Beta wasn''t going to let an attack against me go unpunished, forming and controlling two tendril spears aimed at stabbing Krutz. He raised his scepter and formed a ck disc which deflected one of the spears, but the other scraped across his torso.
Garz was firing arrows, which were easily blocked or appropriately ignored by Alpha, who had also taken control of two pseudopods to do the task. He''d need time to fire another [Power Shot], but this was a difficult task without support to give him the uninterrupted charge time. Alpha stuck to defense as ordered but would try to m a tendril into Garz to force him to dodge and abandon his shot.
I kept dispersing sleep gas and hoped Garz would fall asleep soon. Levels must have determined resistance, and Garz and Krutz were the two highest-leveled goblins. I fired a burst of sticky sleep slime at Garz, which he failed to dodge, coating him in the goo. I could hopefully put him out of my mind to deal with Krutz, and I trusted in Alpha to stop Garz if he tried anything before sumbing to sleep.
Krutz was struggling to dodge Beta''s tendrils. Clearly, he was not a frontline fighter and had neglected his [Evasion] training. He fired a ck bolt of energy at me, but I dodged to the side. Being able to see the mana building up helped my predictions. Krutz was not pleased with my dodging and changed strategy. I could see the immense amount of ckened mana building up.
"[Agony]!" He shrieked.
Unimaginable pain suddenly wracked through my body, putting even my [Defy Death] training to shame. ck sparks danced across my skin and through my core. While I was distracted by the pain, he fired a ck bolt at me, exploding arge portion of my goblin body. The destroyed slime ked away into ck specks.
With that amount of explosive damage, I couldn''t risk such a small form. I was initially worried his magic might be able to pierce through me like that green slime, but it seemed his spells had differing rules and properties.
I deposited what remained of my outfit thanks to [Equipment Swap] and swiftly abandoned my goblin form, swelling to a size that dominated almost the entire room. Thanks to my translucency, I could now see my entire surroundings. Garz was finally unconscious, so I mentally told Beta to avoid drowning him in slime. I had made sure all three of us were transparent and matching the color of my slime, gotta make it hard to spot our glowing weak points.
"A slime? A bloody slime!? What mockery is this?" Krutz had lost it and was cackling as he spammed ck bolts against my swelling size, "[Condemnation of Sloth]!"
I felt the movement and maniption of my slime slow down to a crawl, which made me unable to simply overwhelm him. Each time I attempted to grab him with tendrils, he would hit me with another [Agony] spell and halt me in my tracks, then he''d continue sting away at me. He was sting slime while backed up against the wall with rapidly depleting mana, and I knew he''d run dry or sumb to the sleep poison.
At least I was gaining experience from this. While on thest dregs of his mana and on the verge of passing out, he reached out with a ckened hand.
"Submit! Submit! Submit!" He screamed frantically till hisst breath when he copsed to the ground.
I picked up his unconscious body, and I had a brief thought of sparing him before pulling him into my slime. I could forgive Garz, or at least leave him alive and go our separate ways, but I would not forgive someone trying to take over my mind. I made sure to exclude all of his equipment before I turned on the acid.
''And he said Chieftain was a ss, but it was an emblem... Was anything he told me even true?''
Chapter 45: Farewell
Chapter 45: Farewell
''Now what.'' I asked myself.
I wasn''t sure what to do or what I could even do. The goblins had lost their Chief even before I killed him since he nned to abandon them. I wanted to help them, but Garz''s words still cut deep. Perhaps I could help them escape and then leave. If I left, then I''m sure Garz could step up and be the new Chief since he was now the strongest remaining goblin.
I was surprised nobody hade to investigate themotion, or did Krutz maybe order the goblins not to be around? It''d probably be bad for his image if they witnessed him killing Tarz, who had be a hero amongst the goblins who didn''t know the truth. I felt sick, and thoughts of forever banning my Tarz form came to mind.
I needed to talk to Garz. I turned into my elf form and equipped my gear, then walked over to the sleeping guards and gave them another dosing of sleep gas.
Skill will be revealed and obtained with [Identify].>
''Well, gee, thanks... But none of my profiles have [Identify], and Krutz took his secrets to the grave.''
I took away Garz''s weapons and bound him with a tendril, making sure to gag him since I figured he might scream when he woke up. I withdrew some water from my storage to ssh his face, but he was out cold. While waiting for him to wake up, I started investigating the items I took from Krutz. I found his storage bag and turned it inside out, as Garz had shown me before, and out popped a mindboggling amount of food and a few bits of jewelry.
I deposited the food back in the bag and added the rest of my badger pelts and ws. I disarmed the sleeping guards and threw their weapons into the bags as well. I nned to give this to Yuzz with the intention that the supplies would help the escapees. I wasn''t sure what the jewelry was, but I refused to blindly put it on after thest one caused a notification.I tried swinging Krutz''s creepy skull scepter, but it didn''t do anything, and I couldn''t make it emit the ck mana. I started to deposit everything until I reached the storage bag, which refused to go in.
"I guess if this was possible, you could have infinite space if you just kept putting storage bags in storage bags."
I looked over the hobgoblin profile and could see why they preferred focusing on sses, as they only gained [Thick Skin] and [Enhanced ws]. I had four trait points to spend now, and while I was worrying about how I''d negotiate with Garz, I recalled a trait I hadpletely disregarded.
Increases your charisma and social presence per trait level.>
I hoped this would help me convince him, and it likely would synergize with my [Acting].
I was getting a bit worried that Garz was still unconscious, so I kept poking him and dousing him with water. Finally, he started to stir. He tried to groan, and I could feel him trying to move in his restraints. The fear in his eyes when they flickered open, and he saw his situation was rather haunting.
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"Garz... I''m sorry." I started, his eyes widened with confusion, "I''m Syl... I forgot you''ve never seen this form, but I don''t want to be Tarz anymore."
He tried to struggle, and I could see the anger adding to the fear.
"Look. I''m sorry. I''ll leave you and the goblins, but Krutz is dead, and the goblins need a leader. I don''t know if he was telling the truth or not about the humansing, but if they are, then you need to escape."
Garz was still frowning but gave a reluctant nod. I ungagged him but kept him restrained; trust was in short supply.
"Humansing was true." He responded.
"Then you need to escape, maybe go into the badger tunnels? I killed the evolved badger, so it should be safe. Or at least safer than taking on the humans."
"The humans will search. Until they find goblins." He responded, "If... Some stay. Fight. Maybe humans think they killed?"
"Would they be willing to sacrifice themselves?"
"If Chief asked. They would." He responded with determination, which then seemed to fade when he recalled that the Chief was dead.
I knew the solution, but part of me hated it.
"I could turn into Krutz."
"Might work. But..." He agreed but was looking very disturbed. Maybe he was concerned that if I turned into Krutz, I''d follow them and stick around.
"What if Krutz, me, stays behind with some of the warriors? I could fight the humans and pretend to die." I suggested, and I took out his skull scepter, "If I left this behind, the humans might think they got him."
Garz seemed lost in thought until he finally broke the silence with a simple question, "Why do this for us?"
"It''s probably a stupid reason, but you were the first to talk to me. Even if you secretly hated me, I don''t want you to die. Also, I don''t want Yuzz to die."
Garz gave a smallugh, "You right. Very stupid reason. But okay."
We hashed out a bit more details, and then I finally let him go. We would make an emergency announcement, and I''d ask for volunteers while designating Garz as the new leader. Garz said to expect a lot of goblins to volunteer as they all deeply respected Krutz. Honestly, I felt bitter about that, as he was willing to abandon all of them, and now I was turning him into a hero.
Garz was going to assemble the meeting, but that gave me some time to say goodbye to Yuzz. Which unfortunately meant I needed to turn back into Tarz. I waited for Garz to leave so he wouldn''t see and then headed to her hut.
I gave her an abridged version of the situation and told her I was volunteering to stay behind. I left out the part that I was turning into Krutz. I also gave her the storage bag and gave her the instructions.
"You don''t have to volunteer. You coulde with us. Don''t waste your talent."
Iughed, hoping to give her some reassurance, "I said I''m staying, but I have no intention of dying. Maybe we will meet again, and you''ll be a master crafter."
We parted with a hug, and I left, but not before witnessing her start stuffing her new bag. I entered my little home for the final time, shifting to Krutz and equipping his outfit. I also unequipped my [Apex Hunter] emblem and mentally focused on [Identity Block] to block everything.
Everyone gathered, and we exined the n, telling the goblins to grab what equipment and food they could and immediately start retreating to the tunnel. A small squad formed with Garz and Caz to head into the badger tunnel first to ensure it was still safe. Then, we called for volunteers to dy the humans. Garz was right. We had far too many volunteers and were forced to turn down enough to protect the civilians.
I couldn''t believe that my conversation with Garz and this little speech was enough to gain a level. Then again, there were probably over two hundred goblins listening to my every word. What did Krutz do to gain this degree of loyalty? My parting with Garz was just a simple nod, he wanted nothing further to do with me.
I had a lot of points I could have spent, but I was unsure on what to buy. I was tempted to grab another [Sub-Core], but held back when I remembered the slime mass it expended to create it.
Once everyone was inside the tunnel, I used my "Chieftain Magic" to copse the entrance with a burst of acid. Our scout, who was supposed to return already, had missed the deadline and was most likely dead. Which meant the humans were close. We all took our positions.
''I better make it out of this alive, or Gramps will kill me.''
Chapter 46: Acting
Chapter 46: Acting
The air was tense, but the goblins were talking about how many humans they were going to take down. Remembering how the sniper could kill a goblin with a single arrow made me wonder if any of them had ever fought anything stronger than a bear. At least they had courage, even if it was foolish.
''Although I guess I''m also a fool for sticking around.''
I looked over my mimicked traits avable from the hobgoblin profile. I needed to focus on survival, so I picked out [Thick Skin], [Enhanced Agility], and [Enhanced Vitality] since they would be two levels higher than my own trait. I still had a spare slot but was struggling to find an all-around defensive option. I did find two defensive traits, [Fire Resistance] and [Earth Resistance], avable to the hobgoblin. Did that mean they had a natural inclination to those elements or something else? I decided I''d keep the mimic slot open, and if I saw rocks or mes thrown about, I''d grab it.
My decision came sooner than I expected, as the archers on the palisade screamed an rm before the entire wall became ruined in multiple fiery explosions.
''Why did it have to be magic...'' I cried mentally, as my [Mana Sight] could see the vivid red aura, ''Alpha, Beta, focus entirely on keeping us alive, please.'' I felt them coordinating together using [Slime Density] and [Mana Reinforcement] to the absolute maximum.
As they entered the cave, I knew it was time to put on a show.
Moments earlier...
"We''ve found theirir. Looks like they''ve imed a cave and dug in. They even have a crude wall." Whitney exined. She was a rogue ss who specialized in scouting and disarming traps.
"Nothing a good fireball can''t solve," Dewi replied with a smirk. He was one of the few mages in the raid and focused on his love of pyromancy."I wish you''d take this seriously. They''ve already killed four adventurers." Whitney sighed, shaking her head.
"I still think Old Tom is paranoid. Sam was cocky and probably fell into an ambush or something." Dewi answered stubbornly.
"Kathryn had a good head on her shoulders. She''d keep him in check." Whitney pointed out.
Their conversation was interrupted when the raid leader approached. Roderick was a hulk of a man with a massive tower shield strapped to his back and an enchanted il at his waist. He was one of the highest leveled and highest ranked in a small guild like this and would likely retire and be the Guild Master eventually.
"Right, everyone. We are going to start our assault. We suspect there might be a high-level goblin shaman or even multiple magic goblins. Make sure no monsters get out of this cave alive." Roderick spoke with authority
"Should we look for any hostages or prisoners?" One of the random adventurers asked.
"Yes, but their guild tags went dead, so any survivors are highly unlikely," Roderick replied.
The group nodded and drew their weapons. As they approached, the goblins on the wall started shooting arrows that failed to make the distance.
The two mages opened up with two fireball spells. The balls of burning mana crashed into the palisade with explosive force, and the crude defense burst into fiery splinters. Once the wall and its upants were confirmed destroyed, the mages snuffed the mes out, and the heavily armored adventurers led the charge into the cave, shields raised.
They entered the cave, and what met them was a small army of goblins ready to fight. Standing behind them was a hobgoblin holding a skull scepter with a menacing aura.
"Foolish humans! You dare to invade our home?" The hobgoblin dered, but the adventurers chuckled at the audacity of such a creature.
"It blocked my [Identify]!" Whitney shouted.
"Mine too!" Another joined in.
"Can anyone read it?" Roderick demanded.
"I sense a ton of mana! He''s covered in the stuff!" Dewi shouted, not entirely believing his [Mana Sight].
Shocked murmurs ran through all the adventurers present. The hobgoblin seemed to take delight in their fear and started to cackle.
"Yes! Have you foolish humans realized your mistake? Leave now or suffer my wrath!" It threatened and raised its hand, forming arge dark purple sphere in the palm of its hand while it waved the skull scepter around as if trying to conduct an orchestra.
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The casters seemed aghast. None of them had seen whatever spell this was, and it looked horrifying, especially the density of the mana contained in therge sphere. So much mana, so quickly and without any incantation - it was unheard of.
"Ha! As if any true adventurer would back down from a challenge!" Roderick bellowed with a hearty chuckle.
"I''ve been bored of grinding undead. Time to finally get a real workout!" Kurt chuckled while flourishing his two shortswords.
"Think of how much experience we will get!" Dewi shouted.
Roars suddenly erupted from the adventurers, filled with newfound courage and determination. The hobgoblin seemed surprised at their sudden tenacity for a brief moment before an arrow struck it and bounced harmlessly off its head. The surprise became anger before the adventurers could even react to the absurdity of the arrow failing to wound the hobgoblin.
"So be it. [Rain of Corruption]!" It shouted, and the purple sphere burst and rained down on the entire entrance of the cave.
Shields raised, bubbles of protective magic formed, cloaks drawn to cover faces, and the adventurers charged forward to crush the opposition. When the purple goop rained on the adventurers, it melted into any exposed flesh, and the wounds festered into a horrific ck sludge. The adventurers less ustomed to pain screamed in agony, and healers immediately began to nket everyone in holy auras.
"What the hell is this? It''s like it''s fighting against healing." Evan, one of the healers, questioned.
"Sounds like Bloodrot..." Another answered
"Abominable..." Evan muttered.
Meanwhile, the battle began, and another fireball detonated amongst the goblins while arrows started flying from both sides. Other than the hobgoblin, the rest were not putting up much of a fight and were going down just like any regr goblin.
One of the front liners broke through the goblin wall to fight the hobgoblin directly, hoping to disrupt any spell casts with the potential to earn some personal glory.
"Face me!" He screamed with flying spittle and swung a two-handed maul at the hobgoblin. The hobgoblin calmly sidestepped the blow and thrust an open palm forward.
"[Lance of Decay]!" The hobgoblin shouted its dreadful spell and a purple spear suddenly burst out of his palm.
The warrior tried to smash the spell-formed weapon with his hammer, but defying belief, it somehow dodged his strike and pierced into his side. After gouging into his side, the spell detonated and covered him. He dropped his maul in pain and struggled to grab a healing potion from his pouch. The hobgoblin picked up the hammer and seemed to deposit it inside his cloak while muttering something about a collection.
The strategy soon changed to mop up the remaining stragglers so a group effort could focus on the hobgoblin, as it was too strong individually but would fall to a coordinated group effort.
"Enough! You shall all perish!" It shouted and started to form another ball of purple while twirling its skull scepter again.
"Focus fire!"
"Kill it!"
"Don''t let it cast that!"
And various other shouts were screamed by the adventurers. The healers would be unable to get through another outbreak of that Bloodrot spell. Both mages drew deep on their mana wells, and eachunched a massive fireball. Thebined detonation quaked the cave, and everyone felt the heat, and some adventurers took coteral damage.
"You''ll never im my essence! Never!" It shrieked from within the fiery inferno, followed by other hellish screams, and the remaining goblins cried out in horror.
There seemed to be no further attacks from the hobgoblin, and the adventurers systematically began culling the goblins. The healers cast spells until they were drained of mana and potions, but unfortunately some casualties were imed by the fiendish poison. When the mes finally died, what remained in the crater were burnt scraps and an almost cremated skull scepter. The ground bubbled with the purple sludge that slowly ate into the ground. Nobody dared approach it, as they could see bones melting into the purple sludge and knew it somehow contained the insidious Bloodrot.
"Is it dead?" Someone asked.
"I don''t think I got a notification," Dewi answered.
"Did it kill itself to deny us the experience?" Eliza asked. She was the other mage who contributed to the fiery explosions.
"That''s a level of hatred I didn''t think possible," Dewi replied with a whistle.
"I mean, just ying demon''s advocate, we did invade their cave. It even told us to leave before attacking." Whitney retorted.
"Yeah, but imagine letting that thing live and get stronger." Eliza pointed out.
"Bloodrot... If it got stronger and cast that spell over a vige or city." Evan replied, his voice shaking.
"How many casualties?" Whitney asked, seeing the horror in Evan''s eyes.
"Five..." Evan replied dejectedly, "Four were too low level and could barely resist the poison. Alek died challenging the hobgoblin directly."
"Shit... Didn''t he just get his first advanced job? What a waste." Dewi replied shaking his head.
"Spellbreaker. He probably thought he was invincible against a mage." Whitney answered.
"Spread out and search," Roderick suddenlymanded, "Healers and Mages rest, and recover your mana."
They ransacked the cavern as they searched. There were a few ambushes from surviving goblins who screamed bloody murder for the death of their Chieftain, but nothing that couldn''t be dealt with. There was no sign of the hobgoblin, other than the remnants of its scepter. It looked like it was truly dead.
"Roderick!" Whitney shouted and came running up.
"What is it?"
"Kurt found a prisoner."
"One of the four?" He asked, feeling a bit hopeful.
"No, that''s the strange thing... It''s an elf girl."
"An elf?" Roderick asked, scratching his chin.
"Didn''t I hear about an elfing to the city a week or two ago? Then she recently disappeared." Dewi asked.
"You''re right. I recall the Guild Master freaking out and wondering if she was going to join the guild." Roderickmented.
"Well, you better go save her before she drowns in Kurt''s drool." Whitney responded, "Poor girl looks like hell. Evan, we might need a healer."
Evan stood up with a firm nod, "I''ve recovered enough mana, show me."
Roderick sighed and followed. Dewi also tagged along after chugging a mana potion.
"I''ve never met an elf before. This should be exciting." Dewi chuckled.
"If you behave like Kurt when you see her, I''ll personally stab you," Whitney warned.
Roderick just sighed and hoped this elf wasn''t going to cause trouble.
Chapter 47: Improv
Chapter 47: Improv
''Ugh! Why couldn''t they just run away? Did I ham up the act too much?'' I screamed internally as the adventurers seemed tough at my threats.
I was so relieved when they failed to identify me, and I thought it would add to the threat, especially when they screamed about my mana levels. They rallied together even when I created my fake spell and hoped to intimidate them with the raw mana level. Either [Acting] was working overtime, or maybe the mages weren''t so knowledgeable as they seemed to think it was a spell, despite just being a slimeballbo.
They even fired at me while I was doing my evil speech, the nerve! I panicked at that, but neither Alpha nor Beta reacted, and I had to hold back my relief when it harmlessly bounced off my "mana barrier". Did they think I wasn''t even worthy of using [Power Shot] on? I used [Slime Burst] and gave it some scary-sounding name, taking inspiration from the rather evil-sounding spell names that Krutz himself had.
One of the humans rushed up to challenge me. I thought this might have been the end for me, but perhaps he was overestimating his own capabilities as he was easy to dodge with [Evasion] and [Enhanced Agility]. Keeping up my act, I disguised an acidic poison slime spear as another spell and gave it another cringe-inducing name. It did far more damage than I expected, and he fell. I yoinked his weapon and deposited it. If I survived this, I''d dly eat it and add it to my profile collection.
''Wow. Shit. Maybe I shouldn''t have used Bloodrot. After how much the bear resisted Bloodrot, I didn''t expect it to be this effective.''
''A new skill? No time to read it, unfortunately.''
''Looks like the potion wasn''t enough to save him... Quite an intimidating ss name. I guess he thought he''d stop my spells directly?''
I sensed them starting to ignore me and ughter the goblins, as they likely wanted to deal with mest as a group effort. I couldn''t allow this, as I needed them at least partially still upied to make my escape. I threatened them with another ball of slime, and it caused absolute panic among the adventurers.
''I guess the aftermath of my fake spell has unnerved them.'' They all screamed for someone to stop me, and that was when I saw two zing red mana auras erupting across the battlefield. Having seen the explosions of fire and smoke from previous fireballs, I quickly decided that this might make the perfect opportunity for "Krutz" to fall.
I braced for the impact and just prayed to Gramps that I had stacked my defenses high enough to survive. They collided with me, and I felt Alpha and Beta immediately withdrawing slime mass from my reserves to regenerate my defenses as they burnt away in the intense heat. I dropped the skull scepter and ripped off the burning remains of Krutz''s outfit.
''Shit. Won''t they realize I''m still alive if they don''t get a kill notification?'' I suddenly thought and then hastily gave myst performance, screaming profanities mixed with death cries and ranting about essence. I hoped it was dramatic enough. I even screamed while morphing my throat to give a horrific melting gurgling death rattle.
I dropped a portion of my acid poison sphere on the ground to make it a little more believable. Maybe they''d see the bones melting of the other dead goblins caught in the st. I reimed the rest, as I desperately needed slime mass, and kicked off [Slime Conversion].
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Despite covering myself inyers andyers of defensive slime, I could feel my core taking damage from the intense heat.
''Shit. Shit. Shit. I thought I''d be fine as long as I kept regenerating my outeryer!''
I cycled my waste water from my storage to try to cool down, but it almost instantly turned to steam. Even when I escaped the raging inferno and sneaked away, my core still took persistent damage. I began to deposit the superheated slime in storage while withdrawing from my reserves. Despite being away from the inferno, using all my water, swapping out my slime, and everything else I could think of, I still received a notification that terrified me.
I dreaded the second notification and myst line of emergency defense, but thankfully, it never came. I felt awful, and I never expected my core boiling alive in my own slime to be one of my near-death experiences. Everything hurt. I crawled into one of the huts and had to decide what to do.
''I could just melt down and hopefully find a cave or something... Or perhaps I could use this situation to get into the city. The goblins had some information, but clearly, the humans had more. If I don''t get more knowledge, I worry about what will be used against me in the future. Maybe I can even get a ss?''
''My immediate thought is to turn into a simple blue slime. Perhaps the humans would take me back to the field? But I don''t know what my profile would say. I don''t think I can fake my levels, and if they see a high-level blue slime, then who knows what they will think. Worst case scenario, they see my evolution, and then the jig is up.''
I considered turning into one of the four humans, but what if they knew them and asked questions? I''d be unable to answer or replicate their knowledge. I had to act quickly. I turned into Syl and habitually auto-equipped my clothes.
''No, these are too good. I need to look like a prisoner.''
I deposited my clothes again and then threw myself to the ground, covering myself in the dirt. With my usual outer defenses disabled, I hoped to add some scratches and bruises. This n did not work until I dedicated some mental processing to allow injuries to be mimicked. Thankfully, [Shapeshifting Mimicry] seemed up to the task and perfectly replicated some nasty looking injuries. I rapidly searched my inventory for something to wear. I pulled out my goblin cloak, tore it a bit, and put it on. It barely covered me, which was likely suitable for a prisoner, and I was d Icked the shame of nudity.
I used some tendrils to bind my limbs with some cloth and rope that I found inside the hut, and finally, I gagged myself. I hoped my [Acting] skill would be up to the task as I could hear the adventurers roaming around. I quickly scrambled through the profile for traits to mimic, hoping to help my situation. I first looked at the starting traits avable to me.
As a mystical race with a unique history and enshrouded in mystery non-elves are affected by a minor charm condition when interacting with an elf.
The charm sess rate scales with trait level but is always restricted to minor effects, such as making the elf seem more presentable, their words more enticing, and their appearance more attractive.>
''Gramps... Ugh...''
Elves are deeply in tune with their body and naturally highly agile and dexterous.
Improves reaction speed, agility, and dexterity scaling with trait level.
Prohibits the traits [Enhanced Vitality] or [Enhanced Strength].>
''A better version of [Enhanced Agility]? Do they stack? I''m sure my [Evasion] skill will be happy. It''s my first time seeing a trait forbidding another trait, but I can still mimic the trait despite owning [Enhanced Vitality]. Seems like a loophole, although once again, I''m denied my [Enhanced Strength].''
As the guardians of nature and to represent their heritage, all elves canmunicate with nts and non-magical animals.
The level of understanding and the willingness to offer aid is based on trait level.>
''Hey, nts, can you save me? No thanks.''
[Ageless] and [Lowlight Vision] could be easily ignored, as I had the superior [Dark Vision], and I wasn''t sure if slimes even could die of old age. I wished my elf profile wasplete, and I looked at one of the only unique traits I could see.
One of the chosen paths, the elven archer is to be feared, and their talent with a bow is unparalleled.
Bows will receive a proficiency bonus to uracy and damage based on trait level.
This trait can be activated to mark any visible weak points, and ranged attacks against them will inflict bonus damage based on trait level.>
''Oh! This is simr to that thing the de Wolf could do, except with added bow stuff. I have a spare slot, so why not?''
I wondered what other unique and starting traits I was missing out on. My final trait selection was [Elven mour], [Elven Reflexes], [Elven Marksmanship], and [Mana Well]. My own [Mana Well] was still struggling to gain any levels, so maybe I could give it an artificial boost like I did with [Mana Sight].
I debated grabbing another [Sub-Core], but I dared not risk the slime mass that I needed to repair my suffering core and defend myself. I wasn''t even sure if I could safely withdraw the boiling slime mass stored away during my frantic attempts to stay alive.
My thoughts were interrupted when I heard amotion outside, and with what sounded like a kick, the door splintered, and a man and woman entered. The man held two swords at the ready while the woman held a knife edge between her fingers. I put on my best look of fear, which was actually pretty urate at this stage - I was taking a massive risk. I quickly warned Alpha and Beta against any attack and to focus purely on internal defense.
''Time for an encore performance, I hope you''re up to the task [Acting].''
Chapter 48: An Elf
Chapter 48: An Elf
"Holy shit, is that an elf?" He asked and almost immediately dropped his guard.
"How the hell did goblins capture an elf?" She questioned and lowered her arm but still kept the weapon ready.
"That hobgoblin, most likely. That thing was unnaturally strong."
I made a muffled noise and wriggled in my bonds.
"Easy now..." The woman responded and gave me an investigative look, "Her name''s Syl... No ss... Odd? Race, Elf, Level... 27!?"
"Fuck... That''s almost three ascensions!" The man cursed, "Is that how elves raise themselves? All trait points? I can''t even imagine surviving without my ss levels. Maybe that''s why she got captured?"
''What the hell is an ascension?'' I wondered to myself.
"Maybe... I''m going to get Roderick. Don''t untie her till we get back." The girl continued and reached into her pouch and pulled out a nket, which she draped over me to cover up the almost-nudity, "And you better not touch her either... I can see you drooling."
"Hey! I''m an asshole, not a rapist!""Good. Keep it that way."
She gave him a p over the head before exiting. He shook his head, sighing, and sheathed his des before sitting on the ground.
"Sorry about that. Hopefully, we can untie you soon, maybe even get you a heal spell or potion."
''Ugh! Potions! I had a healing potion! Why didn''t I drink it? Instead of sitting here with my seared core.''
"I''m Kurt. She said your name was Syl, right?"
I nodded.
"You really have no ss?"
Nod.
"Man, that must suck."
Nod.
"Was it by choice?"
Shake.
"That''s fucked up. Maybe you could join one of the guilds and get one."
My eyes widened in shock, and he seemed to notice my interest.
"Oh yeah, the Adventurer''s Guild is pretty great," Kurt said with a big grin, "If you do join, make sure you get Tabitha to register you. She''s great, and I owe her one."
"I''m hoping to make it big and leave this town one day. Soon, everyone will know the name Dual de Kurt!"
''Oh Gods.''
"Although I said Tabby''s great, don''t bet with her. She''s a nasty gambler."
''Right...''
"So I was on a goblin hunt weeks ago, and I was exploring the forest the other day and found..."
''This guy doesn''t stop talking.'' I thought to myself as his voice started to turn into white noise.
In an effort to keep my sanity, I looked over my new skill.
Negative status effects are easier to apply, have a longer duration, and are harder to cleanse, scaling with skill level.>
''Wow, now that is a massive upgrade. I did gain this mid-battle. I wonder if it applied retroactively, and that was why those adventurers fell.''
"So I grew up here, a real gutter rat, earned my first sword doing the old mana farm..."
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"Kurt, are you telling her your entire life story?" The girl suddenly interjected and grabbed my rapidly fading focus.
"Whitney, don''t be a bitch. Syl here is a great listener. I think she wants to be an adventurer."
"An elf adventurer, now that''s a rarity." Another voice suddenly interrupted. I looked to the entrance to see a burly man with a massive shield that my profile collection coveted. "They rarely leave their des. Hell, some of the rural backwaters think they''re a myth, no offense, missy."
Another smaller man pushed through with a frown, "Are you seriously talking around a bound and injured person?" He forced his way to my side and knelt with an apologetic and reassuring smile. A golden aura appeared around his person that I could recognize as healing magic.
"Gods... What did they do to you? How are you even alive? Your life force is so low you''re on the verge of death." He muttered in horror and enshrouded me in the mana, and I felt my core rapidly healing.
That gave me a scare, he could apparently sense my life, but it only told him my condition and still hid my true form. I mentally praised my evolution trait for such a thorough disguise. Also he confirmed my condition was really bad, I did trigger [Defy Death] after all, but apparently I had barely recovered at all since that fiasco.
''Wait. Shit! [Shapeshifting Mimicry] heal my fake wounds! Slowly!'' I panicked mentally. I''d likely need to dedicate a [Sub-Core] to handling fake injuries in the future, so I don''t forget.
"Whitney, untie her and get her some clothes... I understand caution, but this is beyond cruelty. She could have very well died while you all casually talked."
I felt a bit shell-shocked by the current situation, as I didn''t expect this level of treatment. While in my goblin form, I met immediate hatred. But now they were even healing me, and thanks to [Mana Sight], I could tell this Evan person was literally using thest dregs of his mana.
"Right... Sorry, Evan." Whitney said and walked over to remove my bonds.
I made no movement at all, still very cautious that I''d end up skewered by one of these adventurers. When Evan''s healing ended, he pulled out an old robe from a pouch and handed it to Whitney. "It won''t fit nicely, but it''s better than the alternatives." He said and then ushered everyone else out of the room.
The giant manughed as he left, "Kurt when you join a permanent group, remember not to anger the healer."
"Sorry... I didn''t know." Whitney said while undoing my bindings and helping me put on the robe, "On the outside, it didn''t look so bad at the time... Sorry."
"...thank you..." I responded, hoping it was the best meek and fearful impression I could do. The robe was ill-fitting, toorge, and yet too short, leaving arge portion of my legs bare. Which made me realize how much taller elves were than the other races I''d encountered so far.
Whitney handed me a canteen, "Water... I have some jerky too if you''d like." she pulled out another small wrapping of cured meat.
I chugged the water greedily, hopefully giving a good act, "...thank you... Food too, please..."
She handed me the package with a soft and sad smile. I ate the meat and was pleased with the small amount of slime mass it generated. I was d I practiced fake eating with the goblins. Eventually, the rest of the group reentered, and another new face was in the group, although I recognized him as one of the fire mages. My core felt ufortably warm.
"Holy shit, it really is an elf." He said, looking up at me, "Wow, you''re tall."
"Dewi, keep it in your pants." Therge man interrupted.
"Sorry, Roderick. I''m just fascinated. This is one of the legacy races." Dewi said apologetically before his jaw hit the floor, and he started babbling incoherently while covering his eyes.
"What''s wrong with you?" Kurt said, pping him on the back.
"Mana..." Dewi spluttered out.
"I don''t have a potion if you''re dry," Kurt responded.
"No! Her mana is off the charts!" Dewi corrected, "I know history says elves are masters of the arcane, but this is ridiculous."
I instinctively backed away a little, which caused Dewi to eat a backhand from Whitney.
Roderick cleared his throat, which caused the others to hush up, "So Syl, I''d rather not leave an unarmedss out here. Would you be willing toe back to town with us?"
"...yes... I don''t want to stay here."
"And unless Kurt was talking crap, he said you expressed interest in joining the guild?"
I nodded, maybe a little too excitedly. Would I finally be getting a ss? Was it that simple? The previous wounds of betrayal were still fresh, and I almost didn''t want to hope.
"See, I told you. Tabby is gonna be so excited." Kurt chuckled.
Roderick cleared his throat again, trying to remain professional, "Well, if Dewi wasn''t overreacting, I''m sure the guild would be happy to have a promising recruit such as yourself. Now, let''s get out of this dreaded cave."
I nodded and followed the group. Evan checked up on me again and seemed relieved I was no longer at death''s door. I thanked him profusely, but he acted like it was nothing. If only he knew how much slime mass he had saved me, I could easily buy two [Sub-Cores] with the savings.
They formed an almost protective perimeter around me as they escorted me out of the cave. I gave ast nce at the destroyed remains of the tribe, I hoped the rest were safe in the deeper caves. There were a lot of curious whispers and chatter amongst the other adventurers, and the exotess of an elf was the undeniable cause. There were even some suggestivements and leers from some of them until Whitney flourished a knife.
''Maybe I shouldn''t have picked [Elven mour]...'' I thought bitterly, but the damage was already done.
"We''ll assemble camp nearby, spend the night here, then head home in the morning." Roderick dered, and the rest of the group nodded, "Missy, I hope you don''t mind if I ask you some questions?"
''Oh no, get ready for round three [Acting]!''
Chapter 49: Camp Stew
Chapter 49: Camp Stew
The adventurers gathered around arge backpack and started pulling out camping supplies. I was surprised to see storage bags were somon, considering the entire goblin tribe had only two, and I wondered how therge backpackpared to my own [Core Storage].
Roderick pulled out arge pot and ced it on a stand, then Dewi ced some wood under it and ignited it with a small burst of fire mana. Evan did a small incantation, and water slowly trickled into the pot. Roderick started pulling ingredients out of a much smaller, higher-quality bag and cing them in the pot.
"Hope you don''t mind me cooking while we chat. I like to keep my hands busy." Roderick questioned, to which I gave a simple nod.
"So, missy, my first question is, why did the goblins keep you alive? Capturing prisoners alive is a rarity for them, and if they do take prisoners, they usually give in to the temptation of a meal and essence, as they call it."
I was d it was a simple question, and I had already thought of a usible half-truth, "Yes... I have a rare [Dissection] ability and used it to negotiate."
"Oh? Would you mind showing me?"
"It''s a secret of my race, but I don''t mind offering you my services as thanks for the rescue. Just without any prying eyes."
"Ah. I can understand wanting to keep secrecy. The guild does respect our privacy rights, after all. Once the tents are up, perhaps you can use one."
"dly. Although I must warn you, it doesn''t leave much meat behind, only the valuable parts."Roderick gave a heartyugh before replying, "Well, that shouldn''t be a problem, missy. Not many people eat monster meat in the first ce unless they are absolutely desperate."
Roderick continued to stir the contents of his pot while adding a few extra ingredients and then breaking out some powders. It was a surreal sight, a giant man joyfully hunched over a cooking pot. After doing a taste test, he finally resumed his questioning.
"You gained a lot of levels without a ss. Was that intentional?"
"I was never given the opportunity for a ss."
"Bugger me, you elves are weird, no offense. How did you even kill anything?"
"A lot of racial traits, and I have proficiency with a bow."
"Racial traits, hey? Us humans aren''t so lucky in that regard." He scratched his beard in thought, "I''m sure we can wrangle you up a bow for the journey tomorrow. I''d love to see what a ssless archer can do."
I nodded. I was d things seemed to be going smoothly. I avoided any lies, and everything I said was technically the truth. Eventually, everyone gathered around, as the campsite was ready, and it was time to eat. It seemed the humans separated into groups of up to six individuals, which I guessed was due to the party size limit.
Roderick portioned out a serving for Dewi, Whitney, Evan, Kurt, himself, and me. It seemed his group was taking custody of me for now. I dly ate the meal, as I''d take any opportunity to replenish even a minuscule amount of slime mass. I was d I had be quite good at fake eating through my interactions with the goblins, although I hated the monotony of pretending to chew.
The meal discussion was about the goblins and the sess of their emergency quest. It sounded like they were terrified of my Krutz performance and disgusted by his use of Bloodrot. I made a mental note to keep that poison hidden. I had to hide my surprise when I overheard this quest started due to blue slimes going missing.
''Is this whole thing my fault? I mean, they tried to eat me first. I''ll never forget that blue slime with the rose-red core...''
When it seemed like their discussion about the goblins was nearing its end, I asked a question burning in my mind, "Um... Has anyone ever tried making peace with the goblins? Since they also have [Universal Language]..."
The silence was deafening, immediately making me regret my question and wondering if I had broached a sensitive subject. Had I given myself away, was this the end?
Evan finally broke the silence, "It has been tried before, not just with goblins, but with the other monstrous races too. But..."
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"It''s always ended in disaster." Roderick bluntly answered.
"Monsters evolve, and the theory is it''s an addictive feeling, better than the best drugs, mind magic, or brothel money can buy. Because of this, they have an instinct to seek their next evolution." Dewi exined, "There''s been some repeatable sess with trying to civilize them, but problems start creeping in once they reach their first evolution, and they start showing far too much ambition or aggression. After the second evolution, if they survive that long, it basically devolves into a survival of the fittest mentality."
''...is that going to happen to me?'' The thought terrified me, and I needed to ask Gramps about it. I assumed I was only three levels away from my next evolution, and I had been eagerly looking forward to it, but now I had a newfound dread. I must have been partially wearing my feelings as Evan gave me a reassuring pat on my shoulder.
"I''m guessing you met one or two friendly goblins despite being a prisoner. I''m sorry, but it''s been tried countless times and always ends in tragedy."
It seems they were worried about me because none of them pointed out that even if I made goblin friends, they were likely dead from their perspective. I did secretly hope that Yuzz wouldn''t evolve. Roderick took a social cue to change the subject and distract me from the somber mood. It seems my potential adventurer''s guild application was the subject.
When Roderick ryed some of the information I told him earlier, some of his party suggested I look into an archery-rted ss if I had enough bow skills to reach my current level ssless. Dewi nearly spat out his food at the suggestion.
"No, no, no. I don''t care if you''ve got some innate archery skills. With your mana, if you don''t pick a mage ss, I think I''d cry."
"Or if you have the talent of healing, think of all the lives you could save." Evan pointed out.
I already wanted to use magic but was rejected from Earth and presumably Air already, "Can I even use magic? What if I don''t have the affinity?"
"Nonsense. Everyone has at least one affinity, and the guild will be able to check for you during your assessment. Although it''ll only show the basic affinities, you''d need to go to a capital city to get a more thorough evaluation." Evan replied, "Even if for some reason you didn''t, you could use your third ascension to pick out an affinity."
''Ascension?'' There was that word again. I wanted to ask about it, but held back my curiosity for now.
"Bah. You mages and your spells. All you need is a good sword or two." Kurt replied, pointing to the des on his back.
"Well, first things first, I want to see her [Dissection] skills Roderick mentioned," Whitney replied.
"Ugh... Don''t mention that skill, and please do the work far away from me..." Kurt replied, looking like he was about to lose his stew.
We finished dinner, and Roderick pulled out a folding table from therge backpack and handed it to Kurt, who took it to one of the tents. Meanwhile, Roderick pulled out two mangled-looking wolf corpses wrapped together in a strange sheet.
Whitney frowned at the stench, "We''ve gotta invest in a harvest bag next."
"Yeah, but they cost a fortune to freeze the contents." Roderick sighed, cing them on the table while Kurt fled from the scene.
''Huh... Is my [Core Storage] secretly worth a fortune?'' I had never dealt with rot and decay at all, usually eating things immediately on the spot.
"ws, fangs, what''s left of the fur... Do you want anything else? Bones?" I asked, inspecting the wolves.
"No, we don''t need the bones. I''m surprised you''re offering to have a go at the fur."
They left me some tools, various-sized knives, and strange-looking des and wished me good luck before closing the tent behind them. I had to resist the urge to eat the tools and add to my profile collection.
I waited a bit, ensuring that nobody was secretly peeking at me, and then formed a ball of slime in my palm, giving it a transparent white appearance. I enveloped the carcasses with it and quickly harvested it. I was relieved that despite the unfresh state, they still gave me slime mass, albeit reduced. I ced the various parts in separate piles and then waited.
''If I leave too early, it might bepletely unbelievable, although I have no idea what an appropriate time for [Dissection] usually takes...''
I sighed deeply and tried to consolidate my thoughts and feelings.
''It''s strange, they seem genuinely friendly... I don''t know if that''s just because I''m an elf or if that is their nature. This adventurers guild thing sounds interesting, and I''d finally get a ss. Am I being naive and stupid?''
''I just hope I''m not walking into another trap... I don''t think my sanity could handle it. If that happens, I might willingly give in to that evolution craving they mentioned. Assuming I even have a choice in that matter... It can''t be as simple as evolving and suddenly losing my mind immediately, right? The worst part is I''d need to evolve in the first ce to get an answer from Gramps.''
I sighed, thinking enough time had passed, and left the tent. Whitney was the first to notice me and came over.
"You can''t be done already, surely?"
''Shit.'' I cursed mentally and gave a nod.
Whitney took a peak into the tent and saw all the pristine materials disyed on the table. Her jaw practically hit the floor.
"Am I being pranked?" She questioned while looking over the materials.
The rest of the group noticed themotion and came to investigate.
"Lass, I can see why you wanted to keep this a secret..." Roderick muttered while closely examining the fur, "I thought you were joking about harvesting the fur..."
Evan whistled, very impressed with the results.
"If this is an elf thing and not a you thing, I can understand why nobody wants to mess with the Elven Kingdom." Dewi stated, "Imagine how much materials you''d get from something like a dragon."
Kurt had gone pale as he stared at the materials. He did seem squeamish around the corpse earlier too.
"Have you ever harvested boars before?" He asked, stammering a little.
"Yes, I''ve harvested many boars, even some in this forest," I replied honestly.
"Fuck."
Chapter 50: Back to the Beginning
Chapter 50: Back to the Beginning
Dewi immediately pointed an usatory finger at Kurt, "Your mysterious benefactor!"
"What''s this now?" Whitney asked.
"No-" Kurt tried to stop Dewi, but it was toote.
"Kurt here found a bunch of boar hides mysteriously left behind in the forest, all perfectly harvested."
"Oh. I wondered what happened to those." Imented, remembering my first tree home. It felt like ages ago, before even my first evolution.
"I waited around! I didn''t see anyone or anything for hours, so I figured it was abandoned. There were no tracks either." Kurt tried to defend himself.
"I don''t mind. I only did it for the skill training. Plus, you rescued me." I replied earnestly, as I didn''t care about a few boar leathers. Back then, I might have been a little peeved, butpared to the stuff in my storage now, it felt like a pittance.
Kurt looked relieved until Whitney spoke up, "Syl. You''re terrible with money, aren''t you?"
''Am I? I know what money is, but I was a noble in my past life, likely with a silver spoon in my mouth... Is that influencing me? Or is it because I''m a monster? I care more about slime mass and experience than money...''When I didn''t respond and seemed far too lost in thought for a simple question, Whitney groaned, "Talk about a culture sh... If those were monster boars and harvested even half as good as these wolves you did, those were worth a good amount of coin."
Kurt turned pale again until Dewi threw him a lifeline, "How about Kurt pays her inn fees for a week while she settles in as an adventurer?"
"That sounds reasonable. Don''t you agree, Kurt?" Roderick added, giving Kurt a hefty pat on the back. Kurt nodded frantically.
With that resolved, we started getting ready for bed, and they organized a sentry rotation, excluding me. I found out my sleeping arrangement would be sharing Whitney''s tent.
I panicked, as I''d be leaving myself horribly vulnerable by not sleeping in a hole, not to mention that when I slept, my form would melt. I gave Alpha and Beta orders to work together to upkeep my form and to wake me up if anything threatened me or if the form failed. I hoped that would be enough, and found myself experiencing my first case of insomnia. Too bad I couldn''t use sleep poison on myself like that giant badger.
Despite all my worries, I woke up unattacked, and my form was stable. I hated that my first thought was wondering if they didn''t attack me to lure me into a false sense of security. At least Alpha and Beta showed the fruits of theirbor, and after activating [Slime Conversion], I felt like I had enough slime mass to add a third [Sub-Core].
''New.''
''Yes.''
[Sub-Core Gamma] will receive donated experience from [Sub-Core Alpha] and [Sub-Core Beta] until level equilibrium.>
''Wee to the team, Gamma. Start withdrawing slime mass, and Beta will store it. Just avoid the superheated slime at all costs.''
Perhaps I could turn it into a weapon somehow because it would certainly add an extra punch to my [Slime Burst]. I also set Alpha the task of reacting and creating injuries. Hopefully it would be enough, but at least this way I wouldn''t risk forgetting about it in the heat of the moment.
I was alone in the tent, and I could overhear Dewi and Evan chatting in the camp. They were discussing the battle yesterday and the hobgoblin. One part in particr got my attention.
"Mana siphoning?" Evan asked.
"It''d exin his strength and also her terrible condition," Dewi replied.
"As if I needed another reason to hate that hobgoblin..."
When I exited the tent, I noticed Dewi and Evan sitting casually around the campfire. They seemed to be enjoying some drinks while chatting. Dewi was the one to spot me and beckoned me over.
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"Syl, just the person we were looking for." Dewi said cheerfully, "Maybe you can help us with a mystery. Elves are born with [Mana Sight], right?"
I nodded, unsure where this questioning was going.
"Great. Did you ever see ck manaing from the hobgoblin, and was any used on you?"
Krutz had ck mana and definitely used it on me, so I had no trouble answering truthfully, "Yes. He did."
"Warlock..." Evan muttered.
"Or Necromancer, just to be pedantic, but considering there were no undead, yes."
"Thanks, Syl. I''m really sorry for what you went through..." Evan said, looking quite disturbed. Looks like Krutz''s reputation was bing even more infamous.
They again showed me unexpected kindness and gave me some of their breakfast - crackers and dried fruits. The benefit for me was sadly so miniscule that the act of fake eating felt like a detriment - but it''s the thought that counts, right?
Before we left, I was handed a bow and quiver from Roderick, "Just in case, plus we''d love to see what else you can do."
I thanked him and hoped I wouldn''t disappoint, as I''d be leaning heavily on [Elven Marksmanship]. It looked like we were one of thest groups leaving, and some had even traveled through the night. While traveling, we did encounter some wolves, to which Roderick pulled out his massive tower shield and immediately drew their attention.
"I got their attention. Feel free to shoot them." Roderick said casually.
I drew the bow and activated [Elven Marksmanship], which marked their eyes and throats. I pulled back on the bow and fired an arrow, scoring a direct hit to the throat. The wolf went limp and copsed.
"Nice shot!" Kurt eximed.
"Mind taking care of the rest? Cleaning this shield is a pain when Kurt does it." Roderick said, easily blocking the wolves. They were still entirely focused on him as I fired another arrow, going for the neck again. It was another clean kill. For my final shot, I felt like showing off and went for a bullseye into the wolf''s eye. It hit the mark and promptly fell.
"[Sneak Attack]?" Whitney asked me, and when I nodded, she grinned, "Makes sense. Combines very well with a bow."
"No! Don''t you tempt her away from the path of a mage!" Dewi scowled, "Also, doesn''t [Sneak Attack] work with magic too?"
Whitney twirled her hair while thinking, probably reading the skill description, "Maybe... It just says attacks." she said and disyed the skill.
Adds bonus damage to attacks on unaware or defenseless targets, scaling with skill level.
This bonus damage partially ignores most forms of mitigation and resistance if executed from stealth.>
"Sneak attack fireball..." Dewi mumbled, "Ugh, I don''t want to risk the skill point. Syl, when you be a mage, please confirm this for me."
I nodded while Roderick had finished wrapping the three corpses into the sheet and dropping them into the bag.
After putting his shield away, he gave me a thumbs up and asked, "What level were they?"
"Highest was three."
"Fresh spawns then. Likely going to be a lot of activity in the forest with all the deaths."
''So Krutz wasn''t lying all the time...''
We continued our journey, and Whitney demonstrated her own [Sneak Attack] with a throwing knife directly between the eyes. It almost turned into a littlepetition among the adventurers. Kurt did a shy cross-sh with his two swords. Dewi burnt one to an absolute crisp. Even Roderick killed one by smashing it with his shield, crushing its entire head. It was strangely fun, and their cheerful camaraderie was infectious.
"So, Syl, what ns do you have for your next ascension?" Evan asked.
"Ascension?" I questioned.
"It''s not a human-only thing, right?" Kurt asked.
"Maybe elves call it something else." Dewi pointed out.
"Every ten race levels, you get ess to a one-time special purchase, usually something like an affinity." Evan exined, "Supposedly, the Gods gave us this topete with monster evolutions, but..."
"They''re kinda shit." Kurt interrupted, "That''s why we put all our experience towards our ss."
"Unless you''re a mage. Then you might want an ascension or two to fill out your elemental repertoire." Dewi pointed out.
''None of this was in the human or elf profiles... Shit...''
"I''d want another elemental affinity," I replied, hoping it was the safe answer.
"As to be expected for our future master of the arcane. I hope you''ll tell the Mages Guild in the capital that Dewi started you on your journey of magical mastery."
"I can''t tell if you''re serious, or you just want to butter her up and hope to get into her pants..." Whitney said, running her finger across a knife threateningly.
"Probably both," Kurt said with a smirk, causing the group tough, except for Whitney who gave both a backhand.
We eventually reached the forest clearing, and I could see the walls in the distance. Everyone visibly rxed when they saw the familiar walls. I felt very conflicted when I walked past the blue slimes. I was back again, and this time, entering the town.
"Crazy that this all started because of missing slimes," Whitney remarked.
"That''s our main economy you''re talking about," Kurt said, to which she scoffed.
"And our main source of mana potions," Dewi added.
"d I''m not a mage then. You won''t catch me drinking sewer potions," Whitney said, shaking her head.
"You do know active skills use mana. Right?" Roderick pointed out.
"Then I guess it''s a pure passive loadout for me." She countered.
"Tabby had nearly the same response. Is it a girl thing to hate slimes?" Kurt asked, then turned to me, "Syl?"
I wanted tough at the absurdity of the question. "No, I don''t hate slimes. Except maybe green ones."
"Once you''re a mage, you''ll love them. They are free experience! One little spell, and they go pop!" Dewi said with a smile. Although, to me, it looked rather sinister. I internally shuddered.
We reached the gate to which the guards greeted the returning group. Roderick exined my situation and paid my entry fee for me. I stuck closely to the group when we entered, not wanting to get lost.
"First, we will head to the guild to hand in our report. And get Syl registered, assuming you were serious about joining? Seriously, no pressure. You could easily get a job as a dissector." Roderick said.
"I''d like to join and finally get a ss. And even without Dewi''s insistence, I''ve been interested in magic."
"Great answer!" Dewi and Kurt said together.
"Once you''re registered, we''ll show you to one of the best inns in town, where Kurt will pay for your first week''s stay." Roderick continued, "I''ll add a second week if you butcher these wolves for us, and a portion of the money from selling them."
"I''ll help you get some clothes with that since you have no money sense," Whitney added.
I thanked them all and genuinely smiled. I was dumbfounded at how friendly they were being.
Maybe Roderick sensed my true feelings because he added, "When you''re part of the adventurers guild, we''re all like family, and we look out for our own."
Chapter 51: The Adventurers Guild
Chapter 51: The Adventurer''s Guild
I received plenty of attention as we walked the streets to our destination. People pointed and stared, and I felt quite ufortable with the attention. I regretted that my only human forms were of the four dead adventurers, but that would have likely led to much worse attention. An elf was a mystery, but a dead person suddenlying back to life was a miracle. I was fortunate that this town was so small and unconnected they didn''t seem to have much information on elves, which could only help me.
I still had the goal given to me by Sylthaeryn to deliver her pouch to another elf, but judging by their istedmunity, that might prove to be troublesome. However, that istion seemed to be a stroke of fortune for me since I could hopefully y up myck of worldly knowledge as a culture sh.
The building we reached was massive and looked out of ce with the rest of the rather rustic and rural town. Noticing my curiosity, Roderick exined that the Adventurers Guild was a global entity and received funding from outside. All nations participated at least somewhat with the guild, except for the elves. This was one of the reasons why elven adventurers were so few and far between, and sessfully recruiting one could be seen as a mark of pride.
Entering the building, I was shocked at the amount of people inside. There was a small section for food and drink, where people seemed to be getting quite rowdy and celebrating the victory and embellishing the tale of the battle. One adventurer imed I had bound a demon to my soul and achieved an evolution beyond hobgoblin. Hrious. There were many counters with staff and a massive noticeboard filled with pieces of parchment.
Rather than going to one of the open counters, we seemed to be waiting for a particr staff member. I shifted a little ufortably at the stares I was getting and could easily overhear the lewd remarks from the drunks.
''I guess these pointy ears aren''t just for show...'' I thought bitterly, and I''d almost bet one of the traits I was missing from the profile was a hearing enhancement.
One of the groups came over and handed drinks to our entire group, a celebratory drink, they imed. It looked like Roderick and Evan wanted to decline, but Whitney, Dewi, and Kurt had already partaken in the revelry, and somehow, even I found myself with a drink in hand. Roderick told me numerous times that I didn''t need to drink, but I wanted to try fitting in, and I didn''t see any risks - even if they were stupid enough to try to poison me in public, I was immune.
''Wait... They actually tried to poison me?'' I thought curiously and read the descriptions.
I felt relief when I realized that the first was just alcohol, which had an inebriating effect and was indeed the point of the drink. The second, however, was insidious, and it seems the drunk humans had a rather lustful nature, or perhaps this was intended as a prank, and they hoped to make a fool of the elf. There were someughs and chuckles from theirpatriots back at their tables as they saw me drinking.Roderick seemed to be reading the mood and whispered, "Everything alright?"
"Yes. Although it seems someone slipped an aphrodisiac into my drink." I nonchntly responded.
Roderick was aghast and struggled to hide his anger, "What? Are you sure?"
"I received a notification," I exined, "But you''re wee to take the drink and sample it yourself. Although unless you have a trait to resist poisons, I''d suggest against it."
"No. But thank you for not causing a scene. I''ll personally make sure their actions are reported." Roderick said. He took my drink from me and secretly siphoned some of it into a sk.
"I was wondering what you spent all your trait points on. I can definitely approve of getting poison resistance." Roderick added with a light chuckle.
Eventually, we headed to an empty counter staffed by a friendly-looking girl. She seemed very pleased to see the party returning and even gave Kurt a friendly shoulder p.
"Tabby, we''ve gotta celebrate tonight!" Kurt shouted.
"Yeah, sure, if you''re buying." She responded with an impish grin.
When she noticed me, her eyes went wide, "The early returners had mentioned an elf, I thought they were bullshitting..."
"Nope, Syl here is real." Kurt replied, "And best of all, she wants to join the guild."
"Really!?" She eximed loudly, causing quite a few people to stare at her outburst.
"Yes, really. I''ll be giving the guild master a full report, but you can proceed with her assessment and registration." Roderick replied.
"Fuck. I guess I''m buying drinks tonight. Assuming I''m registering her."
"Damn right!" Kurt cheered.
"Kurt''s got money troubles again, so he needs the charity," Dewi said smugly.
"I''m not surprised. Kurt''s wallet is like a leaky bucket. I''ll go get the crystals!" Tabitha said and headed into a backroom.
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"I''m going to go report to the guild master." Roderick said and handed Whitney a small pouch, "Here is the registration fee. I''ll see you allter." Roderick gave me a knowing nod as he tapped the sk at his side, then left with a friendly wave.
"I''m heading home for a bath and then to the temple. See you allter for dinner. Good luck, Syl." Evan said with a wave.
When Tabitha returned, she had a rather ornate box in her grip. She ced it on the counter and opened it, revealing three intricate crystals with glyphs and sigils carved into them.
"Right. Do you want to rush this or get the full new recruit experience?"
"Rush, I''m sure," Kurt said, looking a bit bored.
"No, I''d like the full experience," I responded, hoping to get more information.
"Kurt here didn''t even get his attributes or affinities checked. Just grabbed the ss crystal and picked." Whitney exined.
"That seems reckless..." I muttered, trying to be polite.
"Yes and no. You can always change your sster, but blindly picking leaves hidden potential unexplored." Dewi exined, "Although I''m not going to hold my breath on Kurt suddenly awakening to magic."
"Cool it, boys, if you want to fight, you can use the training grounds. Or go run the dungeon." Tabitha interjected before continuing, "Right, first we will check your attributes. These are some of the things hidden from our status menus that are still being researched. Currently, we can only get a vague good or bad with them."
Tabitha handed me a crystal, and when I grasped it, it projected a menu in front of me.
Vitality: Bad
Mana: Very Good
Strength: Bad
Dexterity: Good
Agility: Good
Intellect: Good
Willpower: Good
Charisma: Average
There were some surprised murmurs from the group, and it seemed they could see this projection. I wished I had been warned, as this seemed like the information I''d like to have kept private.
"Wow. I don''t think I''ve seen a ''Very Good'' before." Tabithamented.
"Told you she has potential." Dewi chuckled.
''Even with three levels in [Enhanced Vitality], it still shows bad?'' I thought negatively. I also couldn''t help but feel like the bad strength was a personal stab.
"Right, you''ve got a lot of potential to be a Scout or Mage. I''d highly advise against picking Warrior." Tabitha said professionally.
"Yeah, no offense, but if you were our tank, you''d go down like a wet noodle," Kurt said, shaking his head.
"Next up is affinities. Personally, I''m hoping you''ll join me on the path of pyromancy." Dewi said excitedly.
I was handed another crystal and told to inject my mana into it. I followed the instructions, and the crystal shone a near-blinding solid blue light. Tabitha took the crystal from me quickly, and when the light faded, everyone was rubbing their eyes.
"Water..." Dewi said sadly, "I mean... It''s probably the highest purity I''ve ever seen, but I really wanted another fire mage to share spells with."
"Tell me about it." Tabitha said while rubbing her eyes, "For reference, this is a normal reaction." The crystal shone and cycled between a brown and grey color.
"Earth and Air." She exined.
"Don''t look so sad Tabby. You could always level both up and get Dust."
"Yes, cause I totally want to be a Dust Mage... No thanks, I''ll stick to being a receptionist with free time and hobbies."
"When you aren''t stuck working the graveyard shift." Kurtughed.
"Low blow... I''ll remember that tonight when you''re buying drinks."
"Ignoring spellcasting, those are two amazing affinities to have for skill requirements, especially for closebat," Whitneymented.
"[Wind Step]..." I muttered idently.
Whitney overheard me and nodded, "Exactly. I''d never have picked Rogue if I didn''t have Air."
"Don''t worry, Syl. In three more levels, you can hopefully get Fire."
"I''d rmend Earth and have the potential to get Nature. Elves supposedly have a high affinity with that. I''m honestly surprised you don''t already have Earth." Tabithamented, resuming her professional attitude.
"I already have Whitney trying to convince her to be an archer instead of a mage. I don''t need you tempting her away from the path of pyromancy." Dewi said with exaggerated outrage, "Do you girls have a grudge against me?"
Both girlsughed at Dewi''s expense before Tabitha spoke again, "Also, bear in mind that this is only a basic affinity crystal. You''d need to go to arger branch or perhaps the Mage''s Guild in the capital for a more thorough examination and check for a rare affinity."
I nodded, and she returned the crystal to the box before producing thest crystal, "Lastly is your ss selection. Remember, you cane to the guild and change it for a small fee if you are dissatisfied."
Was this it? This simple? I grab a crystal, and I get my ss. No maniption, no mind magic, no servitude? It honestly felt unreal at this point. I grabbed the crystal, and like with my attributes, a window appeared before me.
Warrior
Scout
Mage
Hunter
Rogue
Assassin
Crafter
Alchemist
"Woah! I only had three." Kurt eximed in surprise.
"Damn, Syl, what were you doing in that forest," Whitneymented.
"Mage!" Dewi said excitedly.
Tabitha cleared her throat loudly and red at her friends. They apologized, and she began her exnation.
"Warrior, Scout, and Mage are basic sses. Everyone has the first two, but Mage requires you to have the trait [Mana Cirction]. Crafter is simrly the basic nonbat ss."
"Hunter and Rogue are intermediary sses, and both usuallye from advancing through Scout ss. Likewise, Alchemist is one of the advancements of Crafter."
"Assassin is an advanced ss, usually unlocked through advancing Rogue. Don''t answer, as the guild respects Trait and Skill privacy, but I''m assuming you have a decently leveled [Stealth] and [Sneak Attack] at a minimum since you already qualify for the ss."
"It''s one of the sses I''m interested in... Hopefully soon." Whitney said, "I''m surprised you have Hunter but not Sniper."
"sses are still being explored and experimented with every day. There''s a reason some of the temples say it''s purely up to the Gods. Who knows what truly gives some people ess to certain sses earlier orter than others? While we have repeatable evidence, certain aspects still feel entirely random or up to fate." Dewi exined, like a seasoned schr.
We were all staring at him dumbfounded when he chuckled, "Just because I like having fun and acting the fool doesn''t mean I am one."
"So I can change ss for a fee?" I asked and broke the silence.
"Yes."
"Can I lose an option? If I don''t pick Assassin now, do I risk losing it?"
"No, once you qualify for a ss, it is always avable."
"While I am tempted by the thought of starting with an advanced ss. Like I said earlier, I want to try magic."
I needed some outlet for all this mana, and [Elven Legacy] would boost me towards magic. Dewi was grinning while frantically nodding his head.
Chapter 52: Classes and Spells
Chapter 52: sses and Spells
"Oh, I got given a skill point," I blurted out.
"The first one is always free. That''s how they get you." Whitney joked.
"You should have also received a skill revtion, possibly more," Tabitha pointed out.
I nodded, "Just [Water Magic]."
"Definitely grab that, as leveling up a magic skill will unlock other magic-rted skills for you in the future." Tabitha further exined, "As you level up your ss, you will potentially have more skills revealed to you. You could also receive a revtion from defeating an insanely strong monster,pleting a dungeon, finding a rare item, or meeting some other strange requirement-"
"Honestly, it can be frustratingly random at times." Kurt interrupted.
Tabitha cleared her throat, frowning at being interrupted before finally continuing, "It''s just how the Gods decided it. Anyway... You could also receive a ss advancement as a revtion, which, if epted, will immediately change your ss. If you don''t ept it, you can swap to itter, so think before blindly epting, especially if it''s a different ss type."
"There''s plenty of stories in the guild of a Cleric receiving a revtion and suddenly bing a Pdin, only to find out their healing spells are either not as effective or efficient, or they have lowered mana capacity," Dewi added, to which everyone nodded in agreement.
"Your ss affects your attributes?" I asked curiously."Yes, although it''s also one of those hidden things not fully understood. But you can apply somemon-sense and basic patterns to them. High levels in a magic-rted ss will buff spells and mana, whereas a warrior will receive a boost to strength or fortitude." Tabitha answered.
"Does that mean if I swap to a different ss, I''d lose all my progress?"
"Not... Exactly. Ugh... I wish the Gods would just exin this to us." Tabitha groaned. Clearly, I wasn''t the only new adventurer who asked this question.
"From research and observations, even if you swap to apletely unrted ss, your previous ss history does have some minor effect on your attributes in the long run." Dewi tagged in to exin, "And higher tier jobs of the same type fully inherit from their predecessor. So all bonuses gained from a Scout would automatically be applied to a Rogue."
"Shouldn''t everyone just level up all the sses avable? Even if it''s minor bonuses."
Everyone except Dewi looked horrified at my suggestion, and heughed, "Of course, the girl who doesn''t need to worry about dying of old age would suggest that. But us normal humans unfortunately don''t have that luxury and try to get as much as possible before time takes its toll."
"... I think that''s mostly everything." Tabitha said wearily, "I''d suggest bugging Dewi for magic questions. Anything else you''d like to ask me?"
"Could I ask for any skill suggestions?"
"Ah! Of course, but don''t you dare spend your first skill point on anything but [Water Magic]." Tabitha stated with a finger wag.
"[Identify] is a ssic, and it''ll let you see the level of monsters and help you judge whether to fight or flee. [Mapping] is great, especially if you want to explore dungeons. [Cooking] is another a lot of adventurers pick up if they do a lot of extended duration quests or a lot of traveling. [Dissection] is useful if you want to harvest monster parts out in the field."
She disyed each skill for me, although I already had two of them. I didn''t think I''d need [Cooking] unless I wanted to further my disguise, but I wanted [Identify].
<>
Provides basic profile information about the target.
Skill level increases the likelihood of sessful identification.
Functionality can be improved through other skills.>
Adds affliction statuses to the [Identify] menu, providing information on the contamination percent and remaining duration.>
''The mystery skill revealed itself! Now I''ll be able to see when my poisons are applied and when they will expire.'' I was a very happy slime.
My celebration was interrupted by Dewi and Whitney chuckling, "I don''t think you need to tell Syl here to get [Dissection]."
"Don''t-" Kurt pleaded, trying to stop Dewi.
"Syl here is a master of the skill, such perfect harvests you''d never believe your eyes."
Tabitha seemed intrigued, and Dewi pulled out a portion of the wolf fur, showing it to her. Tabitha carefully examined it, then seemed toe to a realization as she pointed at Kurt. There was a back and forth between them when Whitney exined the situation and oue, to which Tabitha agreed that Kurt paying my inn fees was a fitting punishment if I was going to im it was thanks for being saved. While they chatted, I wanted to grab my first magic skill.
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I felt the knowledge and information pour into me and received my first-ever spell. I immediately knew how to cast it and its potential uses. Which, sadly, were not much. It was a small ball of water that could do a minor amount of concussive damage at best, as it would pop on contact.
I held out an open palm and cast the spell, and a small ball of water formed that hovered slightly above my hand. Thanks to [Mana Sight], I could see the blue aura of water mana contained in it. Dewi was the first to notice and gave me a sad smile.
"Your first spell, I''d congratte you, but sadly, water magic is rather dull at the low levels." He said and held out his palm, forming a swirling vortex of me.
"Hey! No spells in the guild hall!" Tabitha scolded.
"One thing I need to tell you about magic is that you are not limited to the default spell you learned. Instead, that spell shows you the limit of the current level of your magic, and creating custom spells is where a good mage shines, and a mediocre mage falls into obscurity."
Dewi shaped his vortex of me into various shapes and patterns before it vanished. I tried to do the same, and by pulling on my knowledge of using [Shape Slime], I managed to morph my in orb of water into some simple geometric shapes before it popped and sshed over all of us.
"Hey! Not bad at all for your first try. Probably pushed in too much mana for a first-level spell, but you''ll get there."
"This is why I said no magic in the guild hall..." Tabitha looked furious.
Dewi chuckled and seemed to be gathering both Air and Fire mana, which then swirled around and dried all of us rapidly. I could only assume this was what he meant by a custom spell, as I doubted such abat-focused system would give something as ordinary as clothes-drying magic.
"I hope you''ll ept my apology for my apprentice''s mistake," Dewi said,ced with sarcasm and including an overly dramatic bow.
Tabitha rolled her eyes, "Let''s just finish registration so she can get settled at the inn and get some real clothes."
She pulled out another crystal and then a ne that I recognized. She handed me the ne and instructed me to put it on. I did, but there was no prompt, unlike thest time. I was worried that this was how my secret would exposed, but then she held out the crystal, which gave a soft glow and resonated with my ne.
I blinked in surprise at the notification. The group was all smiles and wee. I was feeling very shell-shocked. Everything had been so simple, which made me question everything I had been through beforehand.
"Don''t lose that ne, as it''s your identification with the guild, and recing it is costly. This one is the basic version and has minimal extra functions, and if you want to upgrade, you''ll need to either pay upfront or get promoted." Tabitha began exining.
"Functions?" I asked curiously.
"It will help you keep track of your quests and let you store and withdraw money between guild branches, and due to bad actors in the past, all basic IDs now allow basic party settings. It also lets us know if you''ve died... Adventuring always has risks, but at least this way, your loved ones can be properly informed. It''s why we ask if you ever find another adventurer''s ID, please return it to make handling their wills easier."
"I see... Sorry, could you please exin what you meant about party settings?"
Tabby was about to speak, but Dewi interrupted, "Party settings can be changed, usually with a ss or a skill. Some bastards used this to modify experience distribution unfairly. It''s why we didn''t invite you to the Party despite having an open slot, because the guild now frowns upon forming a Party with anyone who can''t personally see it''s fair."
''So that''s what Krutz must have done... He must have set my distribution to the lowest possible.'' I thought, still very bitter about the deception and betrayal.
"I see... Thank you. I''m d there are rules to stop this type of abuse."
"I''ll exin quests and ranks to you when youe back, but for now, I''d suggest getting cleaned up, getting some clothes that don''t give all the boys a gander at your legs, and getting a real good meal." Tabitha said, extending a hand with a friendly smile, "Wee to the guild, Syl. I hope you''ll have a prosperous career."
I took her hand and shook it, "Thanks for all the exnations, Tabitha, and sorry for all the questions. I''m d to have joined."
"Now, let''s get you cleaned up and some proper clothes," Whitney said with a smile.
"Yup. Gotta get a big hat. All mages have big hats." Kurt said, nodding as if he had dropped sagely wisdom upon us.
"No, they don''t," Dewi said with a frown.
I noticed he did not have a hat, but the other mage in the cave did, and so did the mage who killed that green slime.
"Sorry, I meant all the cool mages have big hats." Kurt corrected, to which Dewi audibly groaned.
Before leaving, I tested out my new [Identify] skill. The results were quite a shock.
I then took a peek at my new status menu, I had finally gotten a ss!
Name: Syl
Race: Mimic Slime (Blue) LV 17
ss: Mage LV 1
Status: Healthy
Mana: Overflowing
Emblems:
[Experiment]
[Apex Hunter]
[Elven Legacy]
Traits:
Slime:
[Mana Slime LV MAX]
[Acid Slime LV 5]
[Poison Slime LV 4]
[Adhesive Slime]
[stic Slime]
[Pseudopod LV 5]
[Slime Density LV 5]
[Slime Shot LV 4]
[Shape Slime LV 5]
[Slime Burst LV 4]
[Vaporize Slime]
Core:
[Core Refinement LV 5]
[Core Storage LV 5]
[Sub-Core Alpha LV 4]
[Sub-Core Beta LV 4]
[Sub-Core Gamma LV 1]
[Consuming Osmosis LV 4]
Mimic:
[Shapeshifting Mimicry LV 4]
[Chroma Shift LV MAX]
Mana:
[Mana Cirction LV 5]
[Mana Well LV 2]
[Mana Reinforcement LV 5]
[Mana Sight LV 3]
[Slime Conversion LV 2]
Attributes/Other:
[Enhanced Intellect LV 2]
[Enhanced Vitality LV 3]
[Enhanced Willpower LV 3]
[Enhanced Charisma LV 2]
[Magic Resistance (Lesser) LV 3]
[Dark Vision LV 3]
[Defy Death LV 2]
Trait Points remaining: 3
Skills:
General:
[Universal Language]
[Equipment Swap]
[Dissection LV 5]
[Mapping LV 2]
[Tracking LV 1]
[Identify LV 1]
Combat:
[Evasion LV 3]
[Melee Weapon Proficiency (Lesser) LV 2]
[Ranged Weapon Proficiency (Lesser) LV 2]
[Improved uracy (Lesser) LV 3]
[Affliction Master LV 1]
Magic:
[Water Magic LV 1]
Sneaky:
[Stealth LV 4]
[Sneak Attack LV 4]
[Identity Block LV 4]
[Acting LV 4]
Skill Points remaining: 1
Chapter 53: Multitasking Multicasting
Chapter 53: Multitasking Multicasting
While following the group, I decided to ask Dewi a question. If he was going to im I was his apprentice, then I wanted some magic advice.
"So Dewi, do you have any skill or trait suggestions for me?"
"Hmm... Traits I''m assuming you already have [Mana Cirction], [Mana Well], [Mana Sight]. Perhaps [Mana Reinforcement]?"
"... I have that one too..."
"Then I''m afraid I can''t help you there." Dewi replied with a shrug, "For skills, I''d rather not interfere with what your ss will suggest to you, but there is one exception because it''s a prerequisite that most fail to get."
<>
Performing simultaneous activities is easier and less mentally taxing.>
I frowned at the skill. Didn''t I already do this? Why had I not gotten it? Or does delegating tasks to [Sub-Cores] not count?
"Judging by your expression, you''re either wondering why you don''t have it already or are very underwhelmed. The skill description is a little misleading, and it also lets you maintain multiple threads of thought as well. It''s far beyond just doing two things at once." Dewi said with augh, "But more importantly, you need this to get [Multicasting], which lets you cast more than one spell at once."Sadly, Dewi would not show me the [Multicasting] skill and said I would be better off earning it for free, or if Ipletely sucked at it, my ss would eventually show it to me. I nodded and secretly purchased [Multitasking], spending myst remaining skill point.
I wasn''t sure what effect I was supposed to notice or feel, and I wanted to try magic, but I figured it might cause amotion, so I tried browsing through some profiles and going over my status menu while continuing to walk and follow. It seemed rtively doable, and I had the vague feeling it lowered the upkeep of my mimicry by a small amount. The real test would be with magic, and I wanted desperately to see if my cores could cast magic. After an agonizingly long walk, we finally reached the inn, arge multistory building with eye-catching colorful shingles.
"Whitney, Dewi, Kurt! d to see you made it back in one piece." Arge and friendly man greeted us. He gave all of them a hearty p on the back that caused them to lurch forward.
"Trevor! I hope today''s lunch will be spectacr to impress your newest guest." Dewi replied, trying to give his own p butcking the impact.
Trevor finally noticed me and gave a big smile, "Nice to meet you, miss. The first time we''ll be servicing an elf. The wife will be bragging for days."
"Nice to meet you, Trevor. I''m Syl."
"Kurt will be footing the bill, so make sure to give her your best room." Whitney chuckled.
Kurt sighed but nodded his reluctant confirmation.
Trevor chuckled and reached behind his desk for a key, "dly! This way, Syl."
I got taken to the second floor and led to a room, and Whitney followed. It was a pleasant room with arge bed and a lockable cab to put clothes in. Asfortable as the bed looked, I think I would''ve preferred arge tub to float in. I got handed the two keys and told dinner and a basic breakfast were included. I thanked him, and he said he needed to get lunch ready. My curiosity got the better of me, and I gave a sneaky peek with [Identify].
I couldn''t believe it; this man had more levels in Chef than my entire existence. Whitney showed me to the female washroom, where we both proceeded to clean ourselves. I had a mild panic attack before I submerged myself in the water, as I had not tested if my mimicked forms were waterproof, but it thankfully held. I guess being a blue slime exined my affinity for water, which meant I didn''t get washed away like that green slime, and likely why I was offered the Aquatic evolution.
''If I had picked it, would I have been given water magic straight away?'' I wondered.
The bath was needlessly pointless, as I could keep myself constantly clean if I wanted to, but I had to admit that the warm water did feel pleasant. Whitney left me in my room and said she''d get me some proper emergency clothes, and then we could go shopping. She left me in my room with only a towel, as she refused to let me wear the dirty and small robe again. I waved her off, and finally, I was alone.
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''I could probably instantly clean clothes with my slime... I wonder if I could disguise it as custom water magic.''
I formed a [Water Orb] and held it, then tried forming a second [Water Orb], but as I did, I could see my first one beginning to unravel. When the second orb was about halfway formed, both violently shuddered and dropped to the floor. It seemed [Multicasting] was out of my grasp for now. I cast [Water Orb] again, then told Alpha to cast it, and another perfect ball formed. I had Beta cast the spell and then had Gamma try it as well. I did notice that Gamma formed the spell at a much slower ratepared to the first two. I now had four perfectly formed spells, despite not officially [Multicasting].
''Huh... So I can cheat Multicast already. Although, if I get the actual skill, does that mean both me and my [Sub-Cores] would all be able to Multicast? Eight spells at once sounds pretty impressive...''
''Don''t worry, Gamma, with Alpha and Beta funneling experience to you, you''ll catch up in no time.''
I wanted to use tendrils to create targets to fire at, but it''d be too risky, so I decided to see if I could loop between casting the spell and depositing away the water. I''d need to empty my storage at some point, as it was just wasting space if I could use mana to create water. I could deposit the [Water Orb], so I began my experiment. I was intrigued to see if I could finally lower my mana level before Whitney returned, as I''d never seen it budge from Overflowing for a long time.
It was a wonderful mental workout, and unlike my slime, it was apletely renewable resource. If Sylthaeryn and Gramps gave me what felt like infinite mana, I would dly exploit it. If I wasn''t concerned about making a mess, I''d dedicate all my cores to trying to each do their own Multicast, but I filed that under an outside activity. I lost track of time, simply cycling through spell after spell until I got a notification.
Excitedly, I stopped my orb production and tried out the new spell, closely watching the changed pattern form until a glowing blue whip manifested in my palm. It honestly reminded me of an inferior version of my own [Pseudopod], and I was already thinking of how I could likely exploit this fact.
"Holy shit..." A voice uttered.
I turned to the door in surprise and saw Whitney standing there. I was so absorbed in my own little world trying out magic that I didn''t even notice her. I felt a rush of relief that I didn''t risk using a slime creation for target practice.
"Sorry... I didn''t notice you there. How long have you been there?"
"I lost count at around fifty balls... And that was a while ago. I hope you haven''t drained all your mana."
I quickly opened my status menu and saw I had dropped to Flooding, so I shook my head in answer, "My mana level is still great."
"You better not show that to Dewi." Whitney pointed to the [Water Whip], "At least for a day or two. Otherwise, you might shatter the already fragile master-apprentice illusion he''s built up."
Whitney handed me a much longer robe; it was a much more pleasant fit than the one borrowed from Evan. She also handed me a pair of sandals that were a bit toorge for me.
"Just temporary until we can get you a good solid pair of boots. Can''t have you traveling in dungeons, caves, or swamps with poor footgear."
Due to my extended practice session, we werete for lunch, but Trevor had set aside a te for both Whitney and myself, and we ate alone where she told me her ns to get me measured today, and tomorrow, I''d be geared up. She also said that Roderick would be bringing the wolves tonight for harvest.
When I took my first bite of food, I was speechless. Whitneyughed and exined that Trevor was a retired adventurer who hung up his sword to be a Chef and that his [Cooking] skill was so high that you''d be granted minor status buffs just from eating it. Apparently, Roderick was so inspired by Trevor''s story that he immediately purchased the skill himself and took charge of their group''s camp meals ever since.
While I wasn''t inspired enough to grab the skill myself, not that I had the points anymore, I did want to purchase a trait.
Artificially adds both a sense of taste and smell.
This trait can be voluntarily disabled and has no trait levels.
Unlocks traits and skills that require these senses.>
Now, I could further enjoy the meal as it slowly dissolved. For once, I didn''t mind that this meal was inefficient in the mysterious slime mass exchange rate.
The rest of the day, Whitney took me to various shops to get measured and sized up for proper clothing. I tried to protest, but she was having far too much fun ying dress-up.
After a long afternoon of being dragged around, we finally settled down for drinks and dinner. I excused myself after the dinner to fulfill Roderick''s harvest request, as I gained no benefit from the ale and had to turn off my taste to swallow my first mug.
I did try tasting the wolves, curious to see if I''d need to turn off my taste frequently, but maybe due to my slime nature, I found it quite edible. Although, I still ended up turning it off, as I didn''t want it to ruin the lingering taste of that amazing meal.
When I returned, the group was extremely inebriated. Much to my horror, I was offered a "cocktail" by Tabitha, Kurt and Dewi that was on fire. A special celebration drink they called it. I politely refused, I did not want to drink fire and relive the experience of my core melting. At least I found out that alcohol was apparently mmable, perhaps I could throw a burst of ethanol transformed slime at a fire mage and make them selfbust?
After a rowdy night with the group, I finallyy on my bed, instructed my [Sub-Cores] to keep watch while maintaining my form, and slept.
Chapter 54: Shopping Spree
Chapter 54: Shopping Spree
"I can''t believe our mysterious elf was captured by goblins..." Harris muttered after receiving the report.
Roderick had just returned from the goblin extermination quest and filled him in on the details. They were both seated in his humbly small office and sharing a stiff drink.
"Evan was horrified by her condition. Whatever they did to her, it was not pleasant." Roderick replied, "She might be deeply traumatized by the experience, and I''m unsure if it''s affected her memory or if she''s a young elf truly ignorant of the outside world."
"She didn''t mention the Stanton boy at all?"
"Nothing."
"He intercepted her as soon as she stepped into this town, then she went missing, and he didn''t even report it to the guild or anyone. It smells fishy to me."
"Well, my group is sticking around her for now. If he tries to cause any shit, we''ll be the first to know."
"You thinking of offering her a position in your party?"
"Maybe... She''s very talented and has all the markings of a potential adventurer with a bright future, but I wonder if she''s not too much trouble for us. Hell. I think Evan and myself are the only ones who can resist her passive charm.""You think she''s a noble? I know all elves are born with that trait, but usually, only the nobles invest in it. Gods... Has the fucking Stanton brat caused a diplomatic incident?"
"She''s only got one name on her profile. But, if she is one, she''d have no trouble finding someone to overwrite her name temporarily."
"Yeah, plenty of them like gallivanting around incognito and amusing themselves amongst themon folk. Ugh..."
"We''ll keep an eye on her, don''t worry."
"Thanks, Roderick. I''ll try to poke around the Stantons and deal with our pranksters..."
I woke up fresh and ready for the day ahead. I wasn''t surprised my mimicry had gained a level, as this was now the longest I had ever remained shapeshifted into a singr form. I yearned to let loose and blob out.
If all went well, I''d get some equipment with Whitney, and thenter, Kurt would show me the local dungeon. When I had asked where I could safely practice magic, it was Dewi''s first rmendation, and Kurt seemed eager to progress in his Dualde ss.
Being immune to alcohol had its perks, as now I had plenty of time before the others roused from their slumber to practice magic. My first goal was to make a [Pseudopod] mimic [Water Whip]. I cast the spell and closely examined it. I then formed a tendril and started shifting its colors to match. Without [Mana Reinforcement], it looked nearly identical at a nce, and only under extremely close scrutiny could you notice even a minor defect. With [Mana Reinforcement], its mana aura seemed far beyond the second level [Water Whip] could produce.
When Whitney arrived, my mana level had not dropped yet, so I activated [Slime Conversion] to not waste the regeneration. After a good meal, she seemed much happier and promptly dragged me back into town. When I asked if they''d havepleted outfits by now, Whitney said they would likely alter already-made stock to fit me, although I should never underestimate a high-level crafter.
The outfits she had arranged for me were two robes, one in a light shade of green and the other a pale sky blue, and three pairs of boots. I was also introduced to the horrors of underwear; did I really need all this extra clothing? I guessed it wouldn''t matter once I assigned it all to an equipment profile. I got recement arrows for my quiver, and Whitney suggested I keep the bow as a backup in case I ran out of mana. I internallyughed at the thought; it was still bottomless from my perspective.
Another suggestion was to save up for a storage bag first and foremost and then consider getting a staff, scepter, or tool with a magic catalyst. Getting a bag felt like a waste, and the magic catalyst sounded much more interesting, but I couldn''t reveal my [Core Storage].
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''Maybe I could use Sylthaeryn''s bag as a decoy? Although I''d need a reason why the goblins didn''t take it from me... Should I say I left it in the forest? Maybe I could use Kurt to my advantage.''
"I actually had a storage bag... I wonder if Kurt found it when he found my boar hides?" I said, dialing up the [Acting] to the max.
Whitney looked mortified, and to save Kurt from castration, I quickly added, "I did hide it very well, and he wouldn''t have been able to open it if he did find it, as it''s magically sealed."
"You should ask him immediately after this, and if he didn''t find it, then I''d strongly rmend fetching it before heading into the dungeon."
I agreed and asked to see the magic catalysts. I was taken to a small section in one of the shops and a very scarce selection of equipment. One staff in particr caught my eye with a burnt-orange sphere attached to the top. When I touched it, I nearly freaked out when a notification appeared.
I had to deeply resist the urge to eat it right then and there.
"I want this..." I immediately muttered.
"Oh Gods, has Dewi already influenced you? I''m pretty sure that''s a fire catalyst."
"Do they do trades? For monster parts?" I asked.
"It''d have to be a lot of parts or from a rare monster..."
"We should go fetch my bag," I responded with a smile.
I begged the shopkeeper to keep the staff for me, to which he agreed. Having two resident fire mages, he didn''t expect to have so much trouble selling it. I frantically left the shop, and Whitney had to chase after me.
We found Kurt eating lunch at the inn, and Whitney questioned him on my bag. It was all a pointless waste of time, but the charade needed to be maintained. Kurt was found innocent of bag theft, and all three of us promptly left the town to visit my first home.
During the journey, I decided to try practicing morphing [Water Whip] since I felt the simrities between it and [Pseudopod] were worth exploring and might aid me. I lost count of how many times my whip exploded into a burst of water, but I was making progress. Kurt and Whitney stood a safe distance away to avoid the ssh zone.
We did run into a boar on the way there, and a sense of nostalgia washed over me before I promptly fired multiple magical balls of water at it. I didn''t expect water to pack such a punch, but it was magical water.
"Didn''t you only get your ss yesterday?" Kurt asked.
"She''s been practicing magic nonstop. I think Dewi has underestimated her." Whitney responded, storing away the boar for us.
Thanks to [Mapping], we easily found my tree, and I quickly climbed up to the branch and reached my arm inside the hole.
"I''m surprised you didn''t notice this," I said, remembering that he had not discovered my tusks stored inside.
"That hole is tiny. Anyone would think a squirrel or something was living in there." Kurt responded, "And I was distracted by all the boar hides draped over the branch."
With Gamma maneuvered to my hand, I withdrew the bag inside the hole and pulled it out. I jumped down and showed it to both of them.
"That''s certainly a fancy-looking bag. Those fake leaves are even gilded... Wait, are those even fake? They look so real." Whitney began muttering as she stared at the bag.
"I can''t believe you left that in a tree." Kurt shook his head, "You really are terrible with money."
"The bag is safe. It''s magic, after all." I handed it to Whitney, "Try opening it."
She tried and failed, and I was almost hopeful that she would manage to open it. Whatever was sealing that bag was a mystery that would only be solved when I found another elf.
I fastened the bag securely and smiled, then withdrew the Gigatoad skin and presented it to Whitney. With [Mana Sight], I could see a faint aura within the skin, which might have exined why its outside was resistant to the green slime.
"Think I could trade this for that staff?"
Both stared at the skin I held with disbelief.
"I can see why you didn''t care about the boars..." Whitney responded.
"Can I take back my inn fees?"
"No, even if Syl is secretly an elven princess with riches beyond our imagination, you are paying off your punishment."
Kurt sighed but nodded his head reluctantly.
"As for if this is worth it or not... Maybe, once again, your harvesting is wless, which means there are basically no lost materials. However, Gigatoads aren''t exactly rare. My monster knowledge isn''t the best, but I think their materials are for water and minor acid resistance." Whitney exined.
I pulled out the rage tusk and showed it off.
"Imagine the kind of spear you could make with that..." Kurt mumbled, looking envious, "I don''t suppose you have sword materials in there."
"Or daggers," Whitney added.
I mentally examined my storage, going through all my various battle spoils. I figured the bear and badger materials would need to stay hidden for now, the badger having Bloodrot and the bear being a double-evolved monster. Since they had no risk of deteriorating, I could present them once I had established myself as an adventurer or perhaps in another town. That only left the de Wolf. I pulled out the materials one by one, causing both of them to start to shift ufortably.
"Is that the forest king?" Whitney asked.
"More like was the forest king..." Kurt corrected.
"I think I understand why you had Hunter and Assassin in your starting sses and why your level is so high."
"Man... I wish I was an elf," Kurt mumbled.
Both of them were staring at its tail, "That would make an excellent sword."
"Funny, I was thinking it would make an excellent matching pair of daggers."
"No way!" Kurt protested, then turned to me with pleading eyes, "Syl, you gotta sell it to me! This will start the legend of Dualde Kurt!"
"Well... Mister Dualde, who can afford the staff Syl wants?" Whitney responded, cheekily sticking out her tongue.
"Oh...You dirty bitch..." Kurt red.
As they bickered and fought, I wondered what I would get from that new core. I hoped it was delicious.
Chapter 55: Burning Desire
Chapter 55: Burning Desire
While we traveled back to town, I was discussing my trade with Whitney. Since my purchase was an alreadypleted object, she was taking some loss on the trade as she would need to pay a crafter toplete the item. I offered her the other de Wolf parts so she could sell or use them. She tried to refuse until Kurt pointed out how "cool" it would be to have more matching gear. Whitney promised to pay me back the difference, but my mind only cared about eating that core.
When we reached town, Whitney said she would meet us at the store as she had to withdraw money from the guild and ran ahead. Kurt tried begging a bit more now that Whitney was gone, but he wanted me to wait weeks for him to earn enough to buy the staff. I told him that I could always harvest other parts for him in the future and that I wanted to collect other catalysts like that. That at least cheered him up a little bit.
Whitney finally arrived, paid the store owner, and proudly handed me my new staff. I thanked her and handed her all the de Wolf parts, and she ced them in her storage bag. Kurt and I were going to quickly grab our stuff from the inn, as I needed to deposit my equipment in my "storage bag". Whitney said she needed tomission a magical smith and crafter, then perhaps meet us in the dungeon afterward orter tonight.
While walking to the inn, I faked cing the staff in my storage and quickly ate the slime core.
''Yes''.
Trait [ze Slime] gained.
Trait [Slime Shot] gained.
Trait [Slime Burst] gained.> ''Fused Core? That''s new. Does that mean theybined multiple slime cores together to make that catalyst? It would exin the plethora of traits I just gained. Truly a delicacy.''
I examined the notification and spotted that [Core Refinement] had improved despite not being in the slime profile or the absorption message. Was this because of it being a fused core? Maybe Dewi would have some knowledge of the slime cores as catalysts. I looked over my brand-new trait eagerly.
This slime has the ability to survive and thrive within extreme heat and can rapidly control the temperature of its slime to generate equivalent outputs that it uses offensively.
Maximum temperature levels and modification speed scale with trait level, and also affected by outside factors such aspression.
This trait adds fire resistance to the slime core and slime mass, which scales with trait level until eventual immunity at max level, but also prevents taking damage from extreme heat.
Compatible with other slime traits.>
''Where were you when I took two exploding fireballs to the face?'' I grumbled mentally.
I gained no experience, so they were already dead, but it still counted for my [Consuming Osmosis]. I nced at the updated profile, which painted the picture that these slimes either shot their superheated slime at people or exploded with it - nasty. There was also another trait they sometimes developed [Thermal Vision], which let them detect heat signatures and locate living beings. It was a tempting purchase, but I already had [Mana Sight]. Maybe I could eventually unlock it by mimicking a red slime and borrowing its traits.
When we got to the inn, I quickly threw all my stuff in storage, and while I waited downstairs for Kurt, I started assigning it to equipment profiles. I also gave Gamma the burnt-orange coloring to match the core I had just eaten. My new trait also meant that I had reimed all my hazardous superheated slime, and I tested this by withdrawing a tiny amount and even maneuvered it inside to poke against my core - no pain!
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"Well, let''s go to the dungeon!" Kurt announced as he finally arrived, eager to vent his frustration out on some monsters.
I followed him, and we went to a gate on the opposite side of the town, away from the slimes and the forest. We approached a heavily guarded structure that resembled a mausoleum. We had to show our nes to enter and prove that we were with the guild.
"Wee to our backwater dungeon, popted entirely by undead," Kurt said bitterly.
"Is there something wrong with that?"
"It''s terrible for ie. You have to get lucky with random treasure because you aren''t going to harvest anything from a skeleton or a zombie. Any injuries or resources lost is nothing but a money sink."
"Well, I''ll store them and harvest themter. Maybe I''ll find something hidden."
"It''s your storage space. I''d rather keep the dead smell away from my bag. The one upside is it''s good for grinding."
"Grinding?"
"Sorry, adventurer term, I forgot you''re a new recruit considering everything that''s happened. It basically means focusing on earning experience and levels for your ss and skills."
Kurt, Syl.>
''Oh? d to see this guild ne thing works. I wonder how they interact with this stuff. Add it to my constantly growing list of questions for Gramps.''
"Let''s go beat up some skeletons!" Kurt shouted.
We headed inside the structure, which only had a singr descending staircase. The inside had dim lighting emanating from glowing rocks embedded into the walls. Kurt unsheathed his des and descended first, acting as our impromptu tank, as he called it.
The first room after descending was barren, and the only points of interest were two opposite passages heading deeper in. Kurt led us to the right-side passage and warned that from this point on, we would see the undead, although not to be too scared from only the first floor.
We halted when the passage was blocked by a naked and unarmed skeleton. I fired two water spells before Kurt reached it and cleaved its head off. The bones abruptly fell to the ground like a puppet having its strings cut.
"The unarmed ones are a piece of cake, but the ones with weapons usually have ss levels and can be a little tricky."
''Even skeletons can have sses...'' I grumbled and threw the skeleton into my storage. I''d have to try eating itter.
Our passage ended in another room filled with debris and grim furnishings like open caskets and tombstones, certainly fitting the theme. There were three skeletons this time, one of which had a sword.
"I''ll handle the swordsman. I want to get some parry practice in," Kurt announced and abruptly rushed forward as if assuming I agreed to his decision.
I had Alpha and Beta each cast [Water Whip] to try binding the skeletons, and the spells materialized on either side of me,shing forward to grab the skeletons. I was d that hands weren''t a requirement to cast spells, and I admired the magical effects floating around my person. I then kept casting [Water Orb] at each of them until they died.
Since Kurt was taking his time with his skeleton, I rapidly enveloped them in a pseudopod and set acid to the max. [Dissection] practically scoffed at me for even daring to question if there were any valuable parts on such a worthless monster. The slime mass generated was barely more than a tree, and I could see why Kurt had called this ce a money sink.
Wow. Their profile was also terrible! They had one trait [Undead Fortitude] that let them continue to fight at full strength until they ran out of lifeforce and did not require limbs or organs to function. I could already do all of that fresh from the slime field. I patiently waited for Kurt to finish, which was when his parry finally broke the rusty sword of the skeleton.
''What!?''
I immediately tried to purchase it.
''How? I got assessed. I only had Water, and now I suddenly have Fire?'' I questioned, thinking rapidly, ''It must have been the red slime core. That''s the only exnation unless Gramps is suddenly ying a prank on me.''
"I wish their weapons wouldst longer, barely get any practice in..." Kurt mumbled and turned to me, "Why do you look so shocked?"
"Oh... I gained a level up. I didn''t expect it so soon."
"Yeah... I miss those early level-ups. This Dualde ss takes forever since it''s intermediate."
''Damn it! I wish Kurt wasn''t here. I want to try out this new spell!'' I cried mentally.
He continued to lead the way, and I did sneak a small spell, producing a tiny me at the tip of my finger. I could see the Fire mana for myself before quickly snuffing it out. The spell let me target a nearby location and create a me there, which would continue to be fueled by my mana. Although, I assumed if it naturally spread to anybustibles, then I wouldn''t need to supply mana. Getting my tendrils on more slime cores suddenly skyrocketed in value.
"Oh, right! Tabby suggested getting [Identify]. If you do, make sure to always use it on a new monster at least once. Apparently you get a bonus or something?" Kurt suddenlymented.
''Oh... I had I thought to myself before thanking him on the suggestion.
Chapter 56: Dead Easy
Chapter 56: Dead Easy
The next room we entered had rotting corpses rather than skeletons, slowly lurching around mindlessly and even wandering into walls. Their senses must have been really bad as they hadn''t detected us yet. I used [Identify] on the group, as suggested.
"Ugh, Zombies..." Kurt mumbled, sheathing his swords and pulling out two small clubs from his storage bag.
"They don''t seem too bad? The highest is only level 8."
"Their body parts keep moving until you kill them, knock the undeath out of them or something. Means I can''t use my swords, or I''ll be making more enemies."
"They seem slow. Instead of engaging directly, want me to start sting them from here, then if any reach us, you can deal with them?"
"Sounds like a good n. We could probably even back up and kite them. Assuming you have the mana?"
I grinned, "Mana is one of the few things I don''t need to worry about."
I cast my spell four times with the aid of my three [Sub-Cores] and fired them simultaneously, one at each zombie. I hoped [Sneak Attack] did apply to spells, and this seemed like the perfect test condition. The spheres of water exploded on contact, and the zombies finally reacted, turning to face us and shuffling forward.Kurt whistled, impressed with the disy, as I continued my barrage of water spells. The weaker zombies even halted a little with each st, and I was impressed with the amount of concussive force inside these magical water balls. Eventually, the weaker zombies stopped moving, and when only the strongest remained, Kurt stepped in and dealt two crunchy blows to its head and torso, copsing it.
"I thought Dewi said Water magic was boring? Cause that seemed pretty cool to me." Kurt said, and gave me a thumbs up, "You good on mana?"
"Thanks. I''m all good. The low-level spells don''t seem to use much." I replied and started storing away the zombies.
"I guess I better pick up the ck on the next group of skeletons. You''re definitely on zombie duty after that disy. Also I gained a level, we''re making good progress!"
We continued exploring the first floor, and the next pack of enemies we found was a mixed group of skeleton archers and zombies. I lured the zombies away from Kurt with a barrage of water spells, and he began to engage the skeleton archers. His dodging skills were impressive, and he even deflected an arrow with his sword. His confidence or skill levels must have been pretty high to showboat like that. I also took a quick peek with [Identify] to grab the first-time bonus on the skeletons.
I tried to restrain the zombie duo with [Water Whip], but despitecking in speedpared to the skeletons, they far exceeded them in strength, and the magical density of the water was not enough to hold. I swapped to using a disguised [Pseudopod] to grab one of the Zombies and hold it in ce, then pelted the remaining with repeated casts of [Water Orb].
Since Kurt continued to y with his foes, I sneakily ate both zombies. I was surprised how much he trusted me to keep them off his back; were all adventurer parties like this? The restrained one died rapidly once engulfed in acid slime, and then I ate the remains of thest one.
Again, they were extremely disappointing in terms of slime mass, which seemed to be a recurring theme of the undead. While I waited for Kurt to finish killing thest one, I looked over the profile and spotted [Undead Fortitude] and a new one [Undead Resilience], which was what let them keep fighting even when chopped into bits. Resilient was a bit of an understatement, in my opinion. When Kurt finished off thest archer, I had gained another level.
''Hmm... No skill revtion this time. Although, if I suddenly got offered another previously missing element, I would''ve been utterly confused. Actually, I have a skill point, and I''ve seen [Earth Magic], so let''s give it a try...''
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''Damn...''
Kurt asked to take a short break, and after I deposited the corpses, he drank water and ate some dried meat. I pulled out some leftovers from the inn and found a new appreciation for my storage as it was as fresh as when it was prepared and still warm. I ignored Kurt''s envious stares, as Whitney had told me repeatedly that every adventurer was responsible for their own supplies.
"We could probably go to floor two."
"Is it much harder? How many floors does this dungeon have?"
"Four floors, although thest one is upied by the dungeon boss. The second floor is a lot more ssed skeletons and some undead animals. I''ve never been to the third floor, so I''m unsure what''s there, but I was warned never to go without a mage for some reason."
"That makes me think it''s a monster weak to magic."
"Maybe. We could ask Whitney if shees."
"Will she be able to find us? Especially if we go to the next floor."
"Finding things is kinda her specialty. I''d bet she could probably sneak to the boss without getting caught by a single undead." He got up, dusted his hands against his pants, and gripped his des, "There''s one more room before the next staircase."
The room was a horde of seven zombies, so I once again barraged them from a distance. When they finally reached us, there were still three active, so I grabbed one with a disguised tendril while Kurt bashed and engaged the remaining two with his clubs. I didn''t need to try weaving spells to hit them, as he promptly dispatched them.
"Maybe fighting zombies isn''t so bad if you soften them up like that." Kurt said as he walked into the room, he spotted a small chest and ran towards it, "Loot! Let''s hope it''s not crap."
While he was upied and fumbling with the chest, I looked over my gains from that encounter.
I cast the new spell, which created a dome of water surrounding myself. From my understanding, this was a defensive spell and a utility spell. I fired a [Water Orb], and it passed through the barrier, hitting the dungeon wall.
"Woah!" Kurt eximed, reacting to my sudden attack, and he calmed down when he saw it was just me, "Oh, you''re trying out a new spell."
"Yes. Although, I''m not sure how useful it is. Supposedly, it''s a protection spell, but I have my doubts."
Kurt picked up a small piece of debris and threw it at me. It bounced off the bubble before I could shout at him.
"Seems okay to me." He shrugged and held out a ring for me to see, "The loot is a ring, but I don''t have [Appraisal], so I can''t tell what it does."
"Appraisal?"
"It''s an addon for [Identify], specifically for items and stuff."
"I''m adding that to my list."
"Ask Whitney or Tabby to show you. Anyway, want me to try swinging at your bubble?"
"Sure. Just don''t hit me."
Kurtughed and swung his de halfheartedly, causing it to bounce off when he connected. He then redoubled his effort, and the bubble burst on contact, sshing outwards and soaking him. I, however, was bone dry, so I gave him a smug grin in response.
"Looks like it can only block light attacks unless I can work on improving it. If I''m correctly understanding the utility part of the spell, I could also use it to move easier underwater."
Kurt''s eyes widened at that, "Can you cast it on other people?"
"I think so..." I replied and tried casting the spell on Kurt. When the bubble of water formed around him, he started smiling happily.
"We could explore the pond!" He shouted excitedly, "Ever since I was a kid, we wanted to search the pond for treasure."
"I think there''s just frogs down there."
"No, no, no. You need to work on your sense of adventure, Syl. Plus, monsters sometimes hoard treasure."
I unfortunately couldn''t deny that. I was a monster, and I certainly had a hoard of treasure. I shrugged and started heading towards the staircase, which prompted a surprise notification for me.
If I focused my mind, I could mentally picture the path we had traveled in the dungeon. What a wonderful upgrade!
Our first encounter on the second floor proved one application of my bubble, as it had numerous skeleton archers that all shot at Kurt. Their arrows bounced off harmlessly, and I formed my own bubble when they started to shoot at me as well. We both stood there curiously until the archers ran out of arrows and then charged at us to strike with their bows, which also harmlessly bounced off the bubble.
"I kind of feel bad for them." Kurtughed.
"If they had [Power Shot], we might have been at risk of getting hit. And the zombies could possibly break the bubble outright."
I had already tried [Water Orb], which could go through my bubble, so I tried casting [Water Whip] andshed out at one of the poor skeletons. After a few good smacks and cracks, it crumpled to the floor. It was nice to see that my spells could synergize, and it reminded me ofbining my slime traits for some amazingbinations.
Curiously, I formed a [Pseudopod] and tried to pass it through the bubble, and it also passed through unimpeded and with no visible damage to my bubble. After easily destroying the skeleton, my slime tendrils demonstrating their superiority over their watery duplicate, I decided to see if the bubble allowed anything to pass outwards and drew my bow.
I activated [Elven Marksmanship] and saw no markings appear. I could only assume that the undead had no weak points, which meant that my mental scolding for forgetting to use it earlier could be reduced. I fired an arrow and it passed through, then fired a few more until the skeleton died. Kurt pped excitedly.
"Do you think you could make my bubble smaller? Then maybe I could swing my sword through."
I couldn''t seem to modify the spell once cast, so I tried casting it again on him in a smaller radius, which thankfully seemed like a simple customization. Once formed, I ended the original casting, and it detonated outwards, sshing the remaining two skeletons. Kurt wasted no time and swung his des, which could now pass through the barrier, and he bullied the two skeletons until they perished.
"This bubble spell is awesome!" Kurt shouted excitedly and I could only nod happily in agreement. Also, it appeared all my spellcasting had rewarded my efforts.
Chapter 57: Undead Critters
Chapter 57: Undead Critters
Now that Kurt had a renewable defense, we started progressing much faster through the dungeon. It seemed our slow pace was to avoid injury and the dreaded "money sink" of this dungeon. Although it was still too slow for my liking, I already imagined doing some solo hunting myself, unrestrained by my disguise.
We breezed through till we reached the next room, which had the gimmick of keeping us upied by a swarm of zombie rats while skeleton archers would pelt us from a distance.
"Weird, they are seen as single entities despite being hundreds of rats..." Imented.
"Dungeon monsters are strange like that. Or maybe it''s the Gods? Imagine throwing a fireball at a thousand zombie rats, and even if they were only level 1, you''d get so much experience."
"Perhaps they were a single Zombie Rat, and each took the Swarm mutation?"
Kurtughed, "You''re asking the wrong person if you want to talk about monster ecology."
While we were having our casual conversation, the little rats were trying their hardest to prate the bubbles. Kurt had simply strode up to the archers and dispatched them with ease. Together with my [Sub-Cores], we started sting into the swarms of rats with [Water Orb]. The kill notifications only appeared when enough of the swarm entity was considered dead. Once the swarm was more manageable, I used a disguised tendril to smash into them and get some sneaky devours. I had some notifications to go through.
Looking over the profile while Kurt searched for loot, I discovered that rats were not monsters, much like the level zero animals I had killed in the forest ages ago. By bing a zombie, it had turned into a monster, and then Swarm was a special type of mutation. Very strange.It had nobat applications, with a long incubation time, and unless I felt like punishing an entire town or vige with long-term consequences, I didn''t see why I would need this. It was also a disease, so why it was considered applicable to my clearlybeled poison trait was very confusing.
Since it was safe to do so, I curiously looked through my two ss revtions.
Allows your raw mana to operate outside of your being without dissipating.
Also allows greater control over mana, which can aid in creating custom spells.
Skill level determines; maximum maniption, mana efficiency, and the time before dissipating.
Unlocks further Mana-rted Traits and Skills.>
''Yes! Instant purchase!'' I mentally celebrated. I had so long ago wanted to try using something like [Mana Reinforcement] on other things only to be denied. Back then I wanted to use it on tusks or fangs, back when I needed to actually worry about conserving my slime mass and dared not use the regr [Slime Shot].
I then looked at the second skill. It improved uracy and damage with attack spells. It immediately reminded me of my two existing weapon skills.
"Oh no... Not another one." I grumbled at the second skill, to which Kurt looked at me confused until I exined, "My ss revealed the magic version of weapon proficiency, and my profile is feeling quite bloated..."
Kurt chuckled, "I know that feeling. You should consider Fusing them then. It costs a point, but it''s well worth it, especially if you find anotherpatible skillter on that joins it."
"Fusing?" I questioned.
"Uhh... How do I exin this? You open your menu, and you kinda group your stuff together."
I nodded.
"Then you grab all the ones that you think are simr at once. Then, if they arepatible, you get a prompt."
I nodded and looked at [Melee Weapon Proficiency], [RangedWeapon Proficiency], and [Improved uracy (Lesser)] and tried selecting them all together.
Bes Skill: [Attack Mastery (Lesser) LV 4].
This will cost 1 Skill Point.>
''No.''
"Interesting..."
"Yeah, it''s really strong. Tabby told me to try to get as many to at least level three before Fusing for an ''additive bonus''. Or so she said."
"Why only level three and not higher?"
"Oh. I know this. Tabby mentioned it before. Think Kurt. Think..."
Kurt paused, scratched his head, then his chin, and then started visibly straining while mumbling and muttering. It''s like he was digging through his memory for the right words, "Diminishing returns."
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"Thanks... So if I got this Attack Mastery skill, then got Magical Attack, it would get added to it?"
"Yes, but it will cost you a skill point to add it. But think of all the free levels you''d be gaining. Your new skill would be boosted to the level of your fused skill."
"Or... I could get the Magical Attack skill and then fuse it and save a skill point."
"If you can wait that long."
"I wonder if it works on traits too..."
"I think so. Tabby keeps telling me to get the dexterity trait toplete the body collection, but I have no idea when I''ll get my next trait point. It''s extremely low on my list."
I triedbining all my enhanced attributes but received no prompt. I reluctantly removed vitality from the grouping and then received a prompt.
Bes Trait: [Soul Mastery LV 4].
This will cost 1 Trait Point.>
''No. There were eight attributes during my assessment... But I''ve never seen [Enhanced Mana] in any profile. Surely the human or elf would''ve had it? It could be one of my unknown elf traits, but if humans have the other seven, then why miss only one? The only trait I have that increases mana directly is [Mana Well]...''
Bes Trait: [Soul Mastery LV 5].
This will cost 1 Trait Point.>
''No. Shit. I can''t believe it has a different name, surely it should be called [Enhanced Mana]? Talk about inconsistency! Gramps, what the hell!?''
Suddenly, its slow progression made a lot of sense, but the naming inconsistency really bugged me. I wanted to do the fusion immediately, but charisma only needed one more level up. I had a spare mimic slot, so I grabbed [Enhanced Charisma LV 5] and hoped to level it up promptly.
"Thanks, Kurt. I appreciate the help you''ve given me."
"No problem. Let''s get back to rekilling the undead."
Moments before reaching the next room, my bubble suddenly shuddered and popped. I looked around frantically to see what caused it to burst, but there were no enemies.
"Damn, I guess the duration ran out. Good thing we weren''t inbat. Still, that was a pretty long buff spell. Could you recast it on me as well, just in case?"
I nodded and recast the spell on myself and Kurt once I popped his bubble. I guess that exined why it wasn''t constantly draining my mana, and now that I think about it, how I could cast it more than once without [Multicasting] or using a [Sub-Core]. I made a mental note to ask Dewi for more details about these buff spells.
The next room contained a mixture of zombified and skeletal wolves. The skeletons were fast but unable to break our bubbles, while the zombies were slightly slower than a regr wolf. Our impromptu strategy was to avoid the zombies while whittling down the skeletons.
My goal was to earn the magical attack skill for free, so I wanted as much contribution as possible. I told all my cores to go wild with the [Water Orb] spell, while I focused on using [Water Whip] and trying to manipte it as if it were slime. Taking a page from Kurt and his clubs, I tried just adding a ball of dense water at the end of my whip and swinging it around like a il, bashing into the wolves.
"You''re supposed to be a Mage, and now you look like a Fighter!" Kurt said with augh.
"Well, I did mention I have weapon proficiency, evasion too."
The fight was clearly in our favor, so much so that Kurt was willing to crack jokes while fighting. My own bubble burst eventually, but I recast it quickly. I had to assume that there was a damage threshold in addition to its duration limit, as I was making sure to avoid the zombie wolves. When Kurt''s broke, he barely missed a beat before swapping to blocking and dodging with his weapons until I could recast it. Eventually, it was only the zombies left to slog through. Just as before, I managed to eat one of each wolf with a disguised tendril during the heat ofbat.
While the rats became monsters from their undead transformation, the wolves didn''t evolve and seemed to be considered the same tier or grade as a regr wolf, just undead. I didn''t know what to call this, as it wasn''t a mutation and most certainly not an evolution. When Kurt killed thest zombie wolf, he cheered.
"I leveled up from that!"
I congratted him before looking at my notification.
''Two levels to go...''
Unfortunately, despite our great defensive situation, there was one thing I hadn''t considered - stamina. The next room we cleared was sloppy, meaning I had to recast Kurt''s bubble multiple times, and his kill count was falling behind. When we finally finished mopping up the zombie warriors, I could see that Kurt could no longer continue.
"Perhaps you should head back? I don''t think Whitney will be joining us."
"No..." He said between a long drink of water, "I can''t leave you alone in the dungeon."
"I''m sure I can keep going for a bit longer, especially if I cast while retreating backward."
"No doubt, but guild policy is we went in together, so we leave together."
I frowned but eventually relented. Now that I knew where the dungeon was, I could sneak out tonight and do some solo training. I looked over my gains from thatst fight, another level, but sadly, I still didn''t earn enough for the magic attack skill.
Our trip back to the first floor was uneventful, but when we reached the first floor, some of our path back was blocked by a few freshly risen undead. If any reached Kurt, he defended himself, butpared to the second floor, their lower quantity and levels meant I dispatched almost all of them. With only two rooms before reaching the entrance, I finally got it.
''It makes me wonder, did my ss show me the skill because I was close to earning it myself? Or was it purely random? I had been casting [Water Orb] for almost two days straight, so I was likely close even before it showed it to me. It would suck to purchase a new skill when I was so close to earning it for free. Gramps should offer a refund system or something...''
When we exited the dungeon, it looked like it waste evening. We had clearly lost track of time down there. I wondered if there was a skill, trait, or item that could help keep track of time. When we finally reached the inn, Kurt practically copsed onto the table and ordered his meal. Whitney approached from the bar and chuckled at the sight of Kurt.
"I thought you might be ending your dungeon run soon. Sorry, I couldn''t make it back in time."
"You could make it up to us by showing me the appraisal skill," I asked, trying to give her my best imitation of her cheeky smile. I still had another level to get in charisma, after all.
"Oh, you found loot and leveled up! You''re practically a veteran adventurer already." She said, returning the grin and showing me [Appraisal].
It simply allowed me use [Identify] on magic items. I still had some stuff stored away from Krutz and the four adventurers, so being able to check them and any future items seemed like a good idea. I bought it and asked Kurt to pull out the ring we found.
"A poison resistance ring..." I muttered.
"Common but useful," Whitneymented.
"You can have it, Kurt. As thanks for the dungeon trip."
Kurt gave a tired thumbs up from his copsed state.
"You sure? Poison resistance is handy for a fresh adventurer. You never know what monsters have poison or venoms." Whitney asked curiously.
"I don''t think that ring can beat my traits," I said confidently, getting a goodugh out of Whitney.
Chapter 58: Grinding the Dead
Chapter 58: Grinding the Dead
When everyone retired to their rooms, I decided to take my stroll back to the dungeon. I had so many new tools I wanted to try unimpeded by my disguise. The streets were mostly empty except for the few pub crawlers or thete returning adventurers heading to the guild.
I was fully prepared to sneak in if I was denied entry, but the guards let me enter the dungeon again and only cautioned me not to push myself too hard and try to avoid going beyond the first level if I was going solo. I''d nned on sticking to my disguise until I reached the second floor.
It was a pity that the undead were immune to poison, as I wanted to try mixing water magic with my poison slime. The first room was only two skeletons, and I wondered how long it took the dungeon to spawn new enemies as I quickly took them down with some water magic. The next room had some zombies, so I grabbed them with two disguised pseudopods and turned up the heat with [ze Slime]. There was an extremely unpleasant smell as the corpses began to boil, and I was forced to turn off my sense of smell.
In thest room of the first floor, I restrained a zombie and a skeleton and tried using [Kindle] to defeat them. The me was more effective on the zombie than the skeleton, and it eventually ceased its monstrous movement. Compared to [Water Orb], it was not as easy to use, as I couldn''t just rapidly fire it without a fuel source. As I climbed down the stairs to the second floor, I recalled the ming drinks and had a brilliant theory to test.
The first room of the second floor had skeleton archers that I quickly dispatched with two precision slime shots empowered with sticky, heated acid. The acidic part of my slime didn''t seem to be improved with thebination, but the monsters appeared to die quicker by taking damage from two sources.
The next room had what I was looking for - a horde of zombie rats. I fired a burst of sticky slime containing only ethanol. The small zombie rats struggled from the adhesive coating, and that was when I cast [Kindle]. mes erupted and spread across the entire floor rapidly, and I worried about my equipment being damaged, so I cast [Bubble] and watched as the rats squealed in rage while burning to smoldering cinders. With two quick actions, I had cleared the entire room with startling efficiency.
''Holy shit... I didn''t expect it to be that good. I can see why Dewi likes burning things.''
I held out a tendril and contained the ethanol to only the tip, then cast [Kindle] on it. The tip continued to burn as long as I kept providing it with ethanol-infused slime, and my regr slime was unaffected and undamaged. I was d to see the natural fire resistance and heat immunity already working. For a brief moment, I transformed the tendril into a ming sword before cutting off the supply. It looked impressive, but I doubted it would be as efficient as sending out a burst of sticky mmable slime.
These low levels in a basic ss were shockingly quick, especially since I was no longer splitting experience with Kurt. I had gained two levels by clearing the first floor and two rooms in the second floor, but no further revtions from my ss. I swapped to an empty equipment profile and then transformed into all the new forms I had acquired - zombie, skeleton, both undead wolves, a red slime, and the zombie rat. The rat was a horrible disguise, as my core was sticking out.One of my favorite traits gained a much-deserved level up, all the perfected first-time transformations earning it a bundle of experience. I settled on transforming into a red slime and mimicked [Thermal Vision], hoping to earn the trait for free.
''I bet there''s an amazing vision trait if Ibine [Dark Vision], [Mana Sight] and [Thermal Vision]. Thinking about that, maybe I should try mimicking [Lowlight Vision] just to improve the Fusion.''
The thermal vision was interesting, and I could effortlessly locate the burning residue and where my fire had spread. The undead had no heat at all, but I''d resolve that with a healthy application of fire. Now that I was a slime again, I didn''t need to worry about keeping my clothing safe, so I just swelled in size a bit before entering the next room. The undead tried their hardest to damage me, but their rusty and brittle weapons were no match for my [Slime Density] and [Mana Reinforcement].
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I released a burst of sticky mmable slime and ignited it, watching the undead continue to try to damage me while they burned to death. Their mindless tenacity was impressive. The obvious downside of this strategy was that it ruined corpses and would reduce the slime mass harvest, but since all these undead had neither, I couldn''t care less.
In the next room, I sat in the middle and had my [Sub-Cores] go wild, spamming individual casts of [Kindle] at the undead swarm. It was a slow process, and the inefficiency bugged me, but I wasn''t sure if my fierybo was earning experience towards [Poison Slime], [Fire Magic], or possibly neither.
''So it takes two levels in fire magic to do what water magic could do from the very start.''
I had my [Sub-Cores] swap over to the new spell and watched each of them manifest a burning arrow, which soared toward the undead. Unlike [Kindle], [Fire Arrow] had duration before fizzling out once it struck the target, even without a mmable source. Now, this felt like an attack spell, and while my [Sub-Cores] hastily dealt with the remaining undead for me, I was ying with my own arrow by flooding it with more mana thanks to [Mana Maniption]. I kept flooding it with more mana, increasing its size until it was more like a ballista bolt than an arrow. I eagerly looked for a target, only to find nothing but smoldering remains.
It felt anticlimactic, but I refused to let this go to waste as I moved towards the next room while my ming ballista bolt floated behind me. When I entered the next room I immediately spotted the perfect target, a hulking zombie armed with a massive war hammer.
I was a little disappointed that its profile did not live up to its visual presence. I mentally flung the burning bolt at it, causing a fiery burst as it pierced into the chest. The result was impressive, but the creature still stood. I immediately started forming another one, instructing Gamma to join me in molding the upgraded spell, and tasked Alpha and Beta to copy our efforts. Our bolt finished first as weunched it into the zombie, joining the original in piercing and burning into the chest cavity, followed shortly by the second one, which exploded its head. Notifications flooded my mind, but I ignored them for now while we repeated our experiment on the few remaining undead.
''It still bugs me that the first level in a skill or trait is harder to get than the second. Anyway, let''s look at my revtion.''
Coordinate with other spellcasters to form Grand Spells.
Each participant with this skill adds to the ease of the spell''s formation in a reduction in time orplexity.
This trait has no levels.>
''Interesting... Are you revealing this to me because I was coordinating with my [Sub-Core] to form a single spell? I''ll keep trying that and see if I unlock the skill. If I don''t, I''ll just ask Dewi about it.''
As much as I wanted to continue ying around with my spells, I needed to work on getting my proficiency skills to level three before fusing them. I could likely get Ranged and Magic while working together in a party, but I was concerned about Melee. Also Kurt mentioned the next floor requiring a mage, so I''d likely get my chance then.
That reminded me I had a big hammer in my storage to eat and all the undead sitting in my storage. I threw them out and started to devour them, along with any rusted weapons I had, hoping toplete any outstanding profiles. The zombie barbarian''s war hammer reminded me of the fancy hammer I took from that adventurer, which also needed to be eaten.
''Okay, I have three [Sub-Cores] and five [Pseudopod]. Each of you take one tendril and form a hammer or maul since it seems effective against the undead, and I''ll take two and channel my inner Kurt.''
I entered the next room that contained a mixed batch of zombie wolves and skeleton warriors. Rather than precision dual-wielding, it was more like a murder ball of tentacles and hammers iling around and pulverizing any of the mindless undead that approached. It felt pretty great to be on the top of the food chain so far in this dungeon, and unlike the adventurers who had to worry about injuries or expending resources, for me, this was free experience.
Chapter 59: Apparitions
Chapter 59: Apparitions
My tentacle murder ball strategy was very effective, and I proceeded to explore after quickly eating. Also, I looked over my notifications to see what I had gained.
.
Restrict your mana aura to a reasonable level unless within close and observable contact.
It is considered rude to re your mana aura like a beacon constantly.
This trait has no levels.>
''I can''t help but feel insulted by this skill...''
I activated the skill, and when I nced at myself with [Mana Sight], I could see that my mana was subdued, but close examination broke the illusion rather quickly. While being ''polite'' sounded nice, I was much happier about not being easily noticeable at a distance.
The next room contained the stairway down to the next floor, but there was another pathway, which I presumed led to another path here. I decided to explore another room on this floor before heading down, hoping to gain the proficiency level. After defeating the room full of zombie warriors and skeleton archers, I reached my goal.''Time to head down!''
The next floor had an eerie atmosphere and lower lighting conditions. I wondered what I''d run into down here. The first room contained three spectral entities that floated around, and a quick [Identify] told me what they were.
When they spotted me, the objects in the room began to levitate before being flung at me. I was unamused with junk being thrown at me and turned on my acid to melt anything that got stuck in my slime. I swung a tendril at one of the entities, and it soared right through it. They all began to giggle at me in an ominously whispery tone.
I joined in a spell construction with my [Sub-Cores] and fired arge fiery bolt at one of the apparitions, striking the creature, and it wailed in pain before dissolving into nothing. I didn''t expect to one-shot the apparition, so I toned down and fired a regr [Fire Arrow], but after taking two, it also dissolved into nothing.
''No! I want to eat them for the profile!''
I swapped to firing [Water Orb] at it, but after taking three, it joined the first two by dissolving into nothing. I stared at the puddle where it used to be. I even tried to eat the puddle, but it was just water.
''Well... I can see why they said to bring a mage. I can''t believe there''s nothing for me to eat. Imagine the interesting traits I could have gotten!''
Frustrated, I moved on to the next room. Inside was a singr creature that resembled a ck cloak blowing in the breeze.
''If that''s an evolved level, this thing is likely the strongest creature I''vee across in this entire dungeon.''
It let out an echoey shriek before I could cast my spell and seemed to almost teleport towards me. It draped its cloak forward like it contained a disembodied hand and raked it through my entire being. It glided through my slime like nothing was there, and when it touched my core there was a ck sh of energy.
Pain unexpectedly went through me, and I frantically ordered all my [Sub-Cores] to kill it with fire. Three ming arrows struck it, and it shrieked again before teleporting backward. It kept flickering left, then right, on repeat, as if dodging with its strange movement. I grabbed Gamma to assist me with another empowered [Fire Arrow] while Alpha and Beta kept it distracted with their bombardment.
When it teleported in front of me again, I unleashed my spell, burning a hole straight through the creature as it began extending its cloak toward me again. It let out its echoing shriek as it faded from existence.
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''Okay... That was unexpected. I''m d it was fragile, at least.'' I thought, relieved it was over and taking a look at the notifications I had received.
''One level to go... Once I get it, I can im I got my ascension and picked fire affinity. Assuming my evolution doesn''tpletely ruin my disguise. Now that I think about it, I need to find a safe spot to evolve. I don''t think my [Sub-Cores] can keep up my disguise while evolving.''
''Perhaps I could melt a hole in the bottom of the dungeon? Although people mighte looking for me. Maybe I could say I want to do some solo hunting in the forest. If I didn''t want more information, especially skill advice, I''d consider just leaving.''
Now that I knew these apparitions could potentially harm me, I decided to change my approach. They were fragile, so perfect to take out with [Stealth] and [Sneak Attack]. I wondered what level I''d get that Fireball spell that Dewi had wanted tobine with [Sneak Attack], but I''d have to settle with [Fire Arrow] or whatever name I''d give to my empowered version. Sneaking towards the next room, I spotted another three floating entities.
Coordinating our spells, we formed another two improved [Fire Arrows] andunched them at the two stronger ghosts, and while they were in mid-flight, I had each of us form a basic version andunch them at the lower level. When the empowered spells struck, the two ghosts immediately vaporized, and the arrow continued until it struck the dungeon wall. The lower-level ghost frantically looked around before taking two ming arrows and also dispersing.
''Okay... So perhaps that was overkill.''
When I snuck towards the next room, I saw two interesting ghosts armed with ghostly weapons.
''Interesting... So I shouldn''t getcent even if it''s an old monster. I wonder if I could delegate this. Gamma, I want you to identify monsters for me.''
''Gamma, stop!'' I screamed mentally, and the flood of notifications ceased.
''I think that would have driven me insane. I wonder how specific I can be, or could I have Gamma filter these for me? Worth a shot.''
I tried a few experiments, and I could indeed have Gamma filter the identification for me and only show it to me if it met my criteria. The best discovery was that Gamma could use my knowledge, and if I knew, for example, that ss was an intermediate (like sniper), I could filter for it.
My final order became for Gamma to use [Identify] once on any monsters I encountered and then only disy it to me if it met any of these conditions: it was a new monster, the race was above level 10, it had an unknown ss, a ss above basic, or if it had a ss above 10. I''d likely revisit this as I grew, perhaps adding other conditions or raising the filters. Once again, I was blown away by how versatile this trait was and made a mental note to praise Gramps, assuming he made it.
With my testingplete, I had to deal with these two unaware ghosts. I formed my two empowered spells andunched them at the two ghosts, and once again, the spell proved too powerful for them to handle. Or perhaps it was the added [Sneak Attack] if it was applying, but I''d likely only find out if it was applying on a proficiency notification.
I hated this floor of the dungeon despite it being ideal with my style of magical assassination, as I felt these monsters were taunting me with their unobtainable profiles. The next room only contained poltergeists, which I knew couldn''t harm me, but I still dispatched them from stealth.
''New spell! Still no fireball yet...''
This new spell created a small explosion emanating from myself as the focal point. I cast it once in the empty room, and a fiery explosion burst around me. The size of the st was a little disappointing, not even half the size I witnessed from one of Dewi''s fireballs. Still, it seemed useful if I ever was surrounded.
Once again, I resumed my sneaking around. I was curious that I''d yet to see any of those loot chests. The next room had a massive staircase downwards and was guarded by another one of those floating ck cloaks.
I was pleased that Gamma proved one of my orders was correct, and I started forming two empowered [Fire Arrows]. Perhaps because of my new level in [Fire Magic], these two seemed far more impressive than before and could hold a decent amount more mana beyond their previous limit. Once I felt the spells trembling with mana and threatening to unravel, Iunched them at the creature. Both struck simultaneously, causing it to let out that horrific wail before dispersing into me. I cheered as I received a flood of notifications.
Would you like to swap sses?>.
Chapter 60: Shadowcaster
Chapter 60: Shadowcaster
''What the hell is a Shadow... Caster?''
Would you like to swap sses?>.
Shit. I needed to make a decision. Tabitha had warned me that I should be careful of blindly deciding, especially if it was a different type of ss. But the name of this ss hinted at casting spells, so I could safely assume it was still magic-rted. Also, aside from fighting ghosts, my slime abilities were still vastly superior to my ss.
''If it''s bad, I can swap back. If it''s good, I can get a headstart on skill revtions... Yes, swap ss.''
.
''Uh. Yes?''
Helps the user hide their presence, greatly scaling with skill level.Obscures the user''s Lifeforce and Mana while the skill is active.>
''Oh, now it greatly scales? Well worth the point. I had no idea skills could upgrade like that. Obscuring my Lifeforce reminds me of one of my prior evolution options. Now let''s grab the new magic.''
''Acid magic! No doubt it''s weaker than my [Acid Slime], but now I could use it while in my disguise.''
I fired the spell, and a luminescent green magical dart shot out at high speed, sizzling into the wall. I copied its size and coloring and fired an acidic slime shot, giving my mimic skill the praise it deserved for replicating it with one nce. Ipared the damage between the two, and I''d say the spell was easily less than half as effective as my slime.
I excitedly descended the stairs, eager to see what the next floor held. Eventually, the steps ended, and I stood in front of a massive archway with glowing sigils decorating it. It certainly gave the impression of the final challenge of the dungeon. When I approached it, a notification appeared.
As a beginner dungeon, retreat is allowed.>
''Oh. So, some dungeons lock you in? Good to know...''
Since retreat was an option, I felt obligated to enter and at least see the final challenge. I entered the room, which opened up into arge circr arena fully decorated with the graveyard motif and surrounded by marble pirs with ominously glowing runes carved into them. At the center was a massive four-armed skeleton equipped with a spear, sword, mace, and shield. It had a few bits of fragmented and corroded te mail scarcely covering it that was unlikely to protect it but certainly added to its threatening presence. It stood there silently, waiting for its challenger to approach and duel it in honorablebat.
''Wait... Is this thing lower level than me?''
I equipped [Apex Hunter] and felt no tug of worthiness from this monster. Some quick and rough head math made me estimate I had around five morebined levels than it, give or take. It felt extremely disappointing, as I would have loved the boosted experience and the free skill point. I hoped it would at least give me enough for my evolution.
Before I engaged with the creature, I needed to prepare myself. I withdrew slime mass and engorged myself to an impressively girthy blob. I felt like I wouldn''t be able to dodge it physically, so instead, I wanted to take a page from my [Sub-Cores], which had demonstrated a much more efficient dodging method in the past by purely maneuvering their cores out of the attack''s trajectory.
Since it still refused to move, I would exploit its arrogance. Even if I was at a higherbined level than it, I would dly take this free opportunity. After all, I had proven that levels weren''t everything by defeating foes above my own.
I prepared a massive burst of maximum density sticky-mmable-acidic slime and held it ready tounch at a moment''s notice. Then, I coordinated with my cores to prepare two fully empowered [Fire Arrows]. This finally caused the creature to stir, but it still would let me make the first attack.
With a burst, the slimebination covered the creature, and then both ming bolts rocketed into it, one smashing into its skull while the other entered its chest cavity. The entire skeleton ignited in rapidly spreading mes. Its bones rattled in anger, and it charged forward with weapons pulled back, ready to swing.
I ordered Alpha and Beta to continue coordinating more empowered [Fire Arrow] spells and had Gamma spam [Acid Dart]. Meanwhile, I took control of my slime mass, forming all my tendrils and shaping four of them into replicas of the two-handed maul I had devoured and one of them into a shield. I regretted not trading for a tower shield like Roderick to add to my profile collection.
Before it reached me, I gave it another thorough coating of my slimebo, which ignited promptly upon touching the monstrosity. Its spear was the first weapon it lunged forward with, and I tried casting [Bubble] to block, but it instantly popped upon contact with the spear. Luckily I was prepared, and with the help of [Evasion], I maneuvered my core out of the way.
I swung my weapons at the creature while trying to block its sword with my shield. I did manage the block, but even with all my traits working together, it wasn''t enough, and it sliced through the fake shield and cut partially into my slime, thanks to the reduced velocity. When the mace came down upon me, I shifted the impact area with [stic Slime] in addition to my regr defenses and watched as the blunt weapon bounced off my slimy hide.
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''Ha! d to finally have a use for that trait. Also, I''ll be eating this spear, thank you.''
The effects of my weapons were decent, although it did parry one of my pseudo-mauls, which sttered against the shield. I looked forward to eating all these weapons. I clung to its spear and started eating it immediately. The sword, unfortunately, wasn''t deep enough for me to keep my hold on it, and the monster reimed it before I could eat it.
I was having quite a lot of fun battling this monster, using a fullbination of all my traits and skills. Sadly, it was not durable enough to keep up against the onught, and its form was falling apart as it melted in my acid or burned to cinders. I grabbed its four limbs with my tendrils and started to pull, I could hear its bones creaking up until the point I ripped them from its sockets. Shortly after that, its entire form went limp, and I had won. While I devoured the skeleton, I looked over all the notifications I had been ignoring.
''Now that is some big upgrades, long overdue for the acid.''
''Great! I can fuse that after a bit of bow practice.''
.
''Only one level is a little disappointing, but hopefully, I''m close to the next. What''s with this Rogue skill, though? I guess that means my ss is somewhere between Rogue and Mage.''
Receive knowledge on Pickpocketing, Lockpicking, Trap Detecting, Trap Disarming, and Sleight of Hand, all scaling with skill level.
All the tools of the trade you''ll need for an aspiring Rogue.>
''Uh... I guess I''ll need to speak to Whitney about this.''
''I made it. Without nearly dying this time. Looks like there''s still another notification.''
Emblem Achieved: [Dungeoneer].>
''Oh? A new emblem! I hope it''s an equipable one.''
<>
With extraordinary effort and luck, you havepleted a dungeon solo. Or perhaps you over-leveled and stomped a low-level dungeon? Either way, congrats!
Dungeon loot earned has a higher chance of being enchanted.
Equipping this emblem will slightly increase the chance of dungeon loot dropping and allow the user to detect nearby undefeated dungeons.>
''Seems decent? Although, with that poison resistance ring as my only reference - I''m not exactly impressed. Now, let''s take a peek at-''
"Monster!You dare vite my dungeon?"
''What?''
Suddenly appearing in a swirl of darkness was a robed skeleton. Its empty sockets flickered with an ethereal violet me, and it held an ornate staff gilded with multiple small golden skulls along the shaft and topped off with a ck orb swirling with magical energy. It floated in midair, still surrounded by the floating mass of dark energy. My emblem immediately proimed this being as worthy. But all I saw was...
Death.
"Is this some prank by the humans letting loose a red slime in my dungeon? Be gone!" It shouted and waved its staff.
Vast ck magical energy erupted and immediately surrounded me. It prated all my defenses,yers of slime, and reinforcements, ignored my other cores, and honed in on the real me as if guided to my life or soul.
I didn''t even feel pain. I just felt the life ripped from my being. The skeleton looked curious as to why I was still alive. It raised its staff as if about to finish the job. I wanted to cry out and beg for my life when it shuddered and fell to the floor like a ragdoll. I stared in horror for seconds before rushing to the exit when the archway was sealed shut.
''No!'' I mmed my slime against the archway, using every trait I had to try damage it and melt a way through, but it didn''t even have so much as a scratch. I fired a barrage of every spell I had, but it was imprable. Behind me, I could see the Dreadlich beginning to stand up.
"Great One... Why do you stop me?" It questioned into the void. It seemed to be listening to something before it seemed to examine me with excruciating detail - it felt like my soul was being vited.
"I... I had no idea this was one of yours. I thought it was a simple monster. I humbly beg for forgiveness." It stated and started pleading to the void.
"Of course, I''ll offer itpensation for killing it."
"We don''t normally reward monsters that stray into our territories. How was I supposed to know?"
"You... Forgot to tell us?" It shook its head, dejected.
"Yes, I''ll give it the dungeon loot it was supposed to earn."
"What!? For an entire day?"
"I see... You wish for it to safely evolve. Yes, that would be hard to do outside. Very well."
I didn''t dare move as I heard this one-sided conversation, but it appeared I had been saved. The Dreadlich cleared its nonexistent throat and looked towards me.
"Syl, I would like to apologize for disrespecting your dungeon challenge. Please forgive me."
I shifted into my elven form to converse, automatically equipping my outfit. It stared at me with intrigue.
"Interesting... A mimic slime? Such a rare species, you must have some highly trained skills and traits to fool even me and to think you were actually that elf from yesterday."
"I... Yes. So you''re going to let me live?"
"Yes. The Great One wants you to evolve and speak with him. I''ve locked the entrance to the dungeon so nobody will be able to disturb you."
Was he talking about Gramps? That was the only one I could think of who knew about me and wanted me to evolve.
"The adventurers might question why I''m missing for an entire day."
"Just say you were trapped when the dungeon closed. It is partially the truth since I''ve been told not to let you out until you evolve. I''d suggest doing it soon, as testing his patience is not wise."
"I see. Thank you. I just want to get my traits and skills in order first."
"Ha! I can imagine, although if you''vee this far, I don''t think any brand new ones would affect your evolutions."
I nodded at its advice. I''d look now and then see if gaining any new traits or skills changed my options. Perhaps I could even ask the Dreadlich for advice?
I opened up my evolution list and gasped at the amount of options.
Species Evolutions Avable:
Mimic Slime (Red)
Mimic Slime (White)
Mimic Slime (Yellow)
Mimic Slime (Pink)
Mimic Slime (Silver)
Mutation Evolutions Avable:
Gluttonous Mimic Slime (Blue)
Aquatic Mimic Slime (Blue)
Doppelganger Slime (Blue)
Alchemic Mimic Slime (Blue)
Predation Mimic Slime (Blue)
Chimeric Mimic Slime (Blue)
Magma Mimic Slime (Blue)
Cloud Mimic Slime (Blue)
Special Evolution Avable:
Queen Mimic Slime (Blue)
Chapter 61: Evolution Consultation
Chapter 61: Evolution Consultation
''Interesting... So Green and Purple are no longer options, and the Parasite mutation.''
A dangerous member of the slime species, often found near sources of magma or high-rank dungeons.
Its red slime can generate temperatures equivalent to the magma it often inhabits, and even approaching one can be deadly.
Battles with this species are oftenpared to fighting against a Fire Mage and should be countered with Water or Ice magic.
Their cores are highly desired and sought after for their usage as Fire Mana Catalysts or inside Dwarven Forges.>
''Well, that exins my staff. I''ve already integrated one, so this is a skip.''
A deadly member of the slime species, often found in frosty mountains, icy tundras, frozenkes, or high-rank dungeons.Its white slime contains vast amounts of cryo-energy and can cause rapid freezing and damage living tissue on contact.
Battles with this species are oftenpared to fighting against an Ice Mage and should be countered with Fire or Lava magic.
Their cores are highly desired and sought after for their usage as Ice Mana Catalysts or for creating frozen storage for alchemical reagents, monster parts, and food.>
''Is deadly better or worse than dangerous? I imagine this would give me Ice affinity and likely cold immunity. I wonder if I could purchase or trade for a catalyst. Or travel to an ice region? I wonder how rare they are.''
A deadly member of the slime species found almost exclusively in dungeons and rarely on floating inds.
Its yellow slime can generate sparks between its core and outer membrane and even discharge bolts of lightning.
Earth and Nature magic is rmended to counter this slime, and Lightning magic should never be used against it, as it only empowers it.
Avoid using metal or water near this slime, or you will be targeted by it.
Their Cores are highly desired and sought after for their usage as Lightning Mana Catalysts and experimental Mana-Tech.>
''Floating inds? As in unconnectedndmass, or do they mean literally floating, like in the sky? If it''s thetter, then that sounds like an amazing ce to explore, and what amazing profiles would I be able to find there? Lightning sounds interesting, although I wonder if it wouldn''t directly counter me due to my nature as a blue slime. I''d need to use my stealth skills to ambush one or, if possible, trade for a catalyst.''
An extremely rare form of slime species coveted by the world as its iconic slime is the primaryponent in superior healing potions.
They do not spawn naturally and are only scarcely found, sometimes upying Healing Fountains inside of thergest dungeons.
Their Cores can be utilized as Healing Catalysts or ground down into a vitalponent in Regeneration Elixirs.
The prize for selling such a slime is untold riches from some of the most powerful nations. Some even consider it a crime to kill such a creature.>
''Nope! Never. I don''t need more reasons to be harvested. What would this even give me personally? Healing magic like Evan, I suspect. I can''t regenerate mana with my blue slime, so the signs point to pink slime being unable to heal me personally. However, perhaps it would increase my vitality if my assumptions that [Mana Slime] is partially responsible for my absurd mana capacity. It seems slimes and dungeons go hand in hand, so seeking them out has great potential for me.''
A somewhat dangerous and very sturdy slime, a strange characteristic amongst slime, it is often found deep underground near ore deposits or within dungeons.
This slime has the ability to harden its silvery slime into metals simr to the ores it''s devoured and forms dangerous des and spikes to attack and defend itself.
Its sturdy nature means that mundane weapons arepletely ineffective, and even enchanted weapons can struggle to damage one.
Like most slimes, it retains its weakness to magic and is one of the only known ways of defeating it. Fire can weaken its form, Ice can slow it down, and Lightning is usually deadly.
Their cores can be utilized as Earth Mana Catalysts, but attempting to pry the liquid metal from the Dwarven Empire is daunting.>
''I think this is the first time I''m considering a species evolution... The benefits sound amazing, and it sounds like it has something simr to [Poison Slime], where I can sample metals. Not to mention Earth affinity, which could mean even more magic. Although exploring the Dwarven empire soundspelling, and once again, I could go dungeon hunting instead.''
''Well. That''s the end of the species evolutions. The winner is most definitely silver in my eyes, but I wonder what my mutations have to offer.''
A mutation of an existing slime species, this slime has an endless hunger it constantly seeks to end.
This mutation can efficiently turn anything into slime mass and grow to tremendous sizes; nts, animals, even rocks, this slime devours all.
Due to their ability to devour an entire ecosystem into a wastnd andck of subtlety, they are often quickly exterminated.>
''This feels more like ament on my eating habits than being actually worthwhile anymore. I can generate slime with mana now, so being able to get slime mass from rocks isn''t appealing. The only remaining benefit would be better slime control at a tremendous size, but that''s me making assumptions.''
A mutation of an existing slime species, this slime gains the ability tomand bodies of water that its slime core is submerged within.
This mutation can freely traverse water and gain greater control over water as it grows.
Extremely destructive when angered, but fragile as watercks the defensive properties of its own slime.
Thergest recorded species took over ake, and many fear what would happen if one found the ocean depths.>
''If Ipare this to the bear matriarch, then I''m assuming this would have given me [Water Magic]. I already have magic now, and with so much synergy between my slime traits, I don''t see regr water cutting it. I can''t say I regret skipping it the first time.''
A direct evolution of a mutation is a rarity beyond measure, answering a long-standing question: if the primary species can evolve, why not the mutation itself?
The Doppelganger Slime has gone beyond simple mimicry and now steals the lives it has imed entirely.
Levels, ss, Race, Emblems, Traits, and Skills - all are copied at the time of the prey''s death and form a perfect transformation.
Doppelganger forms, however, cannot be improved beyond their originals, but who needs to grow when you can take more?
Almost no information is avable for this species and rumored to be only a theoretical possibility.>
''Fuck!'' I stared at the description with conflicted feelings, as it sounded immeasurably powerful and was a direct upgrade of my mimic mutation. It felt like my instincts were screaming at me to take this option immediately, others be damned, but something about it irked me.
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''Did I earn this because I stole Tarz''s life? Walked around pretending to be her, fooling all her friends?'' I questioned, and a dark thought bubbled in my mind.
Or because you''re stealing Sylthaeryn''s currently?
''No! She gave it to me!'' I screamed my denial, ''She even marked me with part of her name...'' I countered and continued to look through the options, praying for something more promising.
An extremely rare and highly sought-after mutation of slime that is the envy of alchemists worldwide.
Its slime can substitute for almost any alchemical ingredients, and high-level monsters of this species are said to be able to generateplex potions from scratch.
While many alchemists have tried to obtain this slime as a bonded familiar andb assistant, its mutation condition is not entirely confirmed, and controlling non-intelligent monster evolutions is another challenge in itself - this has led many alchemists to early bankruptcy.>
''Why do so many slime options always talk about the value of us? Mana potions, health potions, liquid metal, and now alchemical reagents! I''m sure there are all sorts of crazy things I could do with this, but the risk of serving myself up on a silver tter for some mad alchemist to capture me and bond me. No thanks.''
A mutation of an existing slime species, this slime targets and hunts prey like a veteran assassin.
This mutation gains unique traits to blend into the environment and eliminate its own sounds and smells, inbination to make it nearly undetectable.
Advanced cases of this species are said to be able to detect lifeforce and conceal their own lifeforce and mana.>
''I really liked this option, and I nearly picked it before. Although now, if I wanted to be an assassin, I could simply pick the ss, so I''m not sure if it''s still as valuable. If I use mimicry, I can blend in, and [Vanish] at least partially hides my life and mana. I can''t detect lifeforce, but perhaps there''s a skill for that? It''s like this was a good first evolution option, but it''s now sorta outssed by my other second evolution options.''
A mutation of an existing slime species, this slime gains the ability tomand magma andva that its slime core is submerged within.
This mutation can freely traverse the molten rock and gain greater control over it as it grows.
Extremely destructive and hard to kill due to being protected by the molten rock, the only saving grace is that they are generally small due to the inherent difficulty of controlling such a powerful element.
Commonly mutated from red slimes, they share the weakness of water and ice magic, which can trap their core in a rocky obsidian prison.>
''Another elemental branch mutation, I assume. Just like Aquatic and Earthshaker. Most likelying from the red slime core. The question thates to mind is, where would I even get molten rock from? Would I need to find a volcano? Could I make it myself by just sting rocks with Fire magic? Like Aquatic, I''d be losing out on slime synergy, so I''m reluctant despite it having added protection.''
A mutation of a mutation is an infrequent but not unheard of urrence.
The Chimeric Mimic Slime has broken the constraints of its mimicry and learned that one form does not have the adaptability required to survive.
If you are unable to find the ideal form, why not create it yourself?
Almost no information is avable for this species and rumored to be only a theoretical possibility.>
''Another path from my original mimic choice, although it sounds weaker than Doppelganger. The option of making my own forms is appealing and was what I had tried to do early on. I could likely mix and match parts, and possibly even traits too.''
Unlike Doppelganger, I didn''t feel the urge to pick this. But emotionally, at least, I liked the sound of this more.
''But isn''t that stupid? Picking a likely inferior option over emotions. I want to survive, after all.''
I moved on to look at my final choices.
A mutation of slime that is said to only be found on floating inds.
This slime has the ability to transform and control its slime into a cloud-like substance and slowly fly around.
Its primary form of attack, suffocation, is extremely deadly and feared amongst careless adventurers.
However, due to its inability to reasonably protect its core, it often dies swiftly.>
''Floating inds again? Now I assume they do mean they actually float in the sky with all the mentions of clouds. While flying sounds tempting, swiftly dying is a no-go. I''m guessing my early kill strategy of suffocating boars and [Vaporize Slime] led to this.''
The apex of a particr slime species, this evolution is the final destination for any slime species as it turns away from self-growth to progeny.
The Queen Slime loses the detriment of decaying slime mass and instead produces new slime mass over time, which is a necessity for its new goal and ability to create entirely new slime cores.
Slime cores birthed by the Queen that be independent slimes be the base slime species, but on rare asions, can also be born with any of her other mutations.
For this final evolution, the Queen Slime gains a boost to all its attributes and traits.>
''As tempting as it sounds, this would be my final evolution choice. I''m unsure when that is, but I''ll consider it then.''
My thoughts muddled over my options, so I decided to ask the Dreadlich some questions.
"Hey... So... Would you be willing to give me your thoughts on my evolution options?"
"Oh? Slime evolutions. Fascinating. Yes, I''d dly like to hear what has been presented to you. Your kind don''t often live long out in the wild."
I went over all my options, and when we reached Alchemic, the light red inside its skull. Instantly, I was being coerced into taking Alchemic and even threatened to choose it until the Dreadlich copsed to the floor lifelessly again. It picked itself up again, dusting off its robe.
"Well... I''ve been thoroughly informed to ignore my personal interests."
We continued through the list, and then it started to scratch its chin in contemtion.
"If we ignore Alchemic, then Doppelganger and Chimeric are the winners. Doppelganger reminds me of my early necromancy days when I started with weak undead and kept finding more powerful corpses to raise. I''d take that, eat the biggest adventurer in this town, move to the next city, and repeat the process."
"Now Chimeric, on the other hand, reminds me of myter days, when I grew bored of simply resurrecting corpses as is. I started to experiment, mix parts, and create whatever I fancied. I fondly remember my first Bone Hydra with a different monster skull for each head! I think you could have a lot of potential in the future, assuming you survive that long."
"There is one obvious w in my thinking. I''m approaching this with reference to my aplishments andparing it to necromancy. Doppelganger does something my necromancy could never do - copy everything. Even if I killed and raised a legendary swordsman, there''s some inherent loss, and not all the traits or skills remain, and certainly not the emblems."
"I would like to say that it is a case of guaranteed power versus potentially greater power, but there are too many unknown factors, especially if you throw creativity into the mix. Anyway. Those are my thoughts. Good luck, little slime."
I gave my thanks and looked at the notification that had appeared at some point during our conversation.
I mentally cheered at [Apex Hunter] getting thest level I wanted in Charisma.
Bes Trait: [Soul Mastery LV 6].
This will cost 1 Trait Point.>
''Yes.''
I was tempted to fuse [Attack Mastery], but I stillcked a level in ranged weapons. The Dreadlich had said any new traits and skills obtained this recently shouldn''t affect my evolutions, and I couldn''t see any new options since gaining [Soul Mastery].
I also tried fusing my slime traits, but none of them in anybination led to anything. Perhaps Gramps hasn''t thought of any yet? Maybe I can ask him to work on them?
"Thanks for your consultation. I guess I''ll evolve now."
"Not a problem. It was a fascinating discussion, and I''m considering raising my own slime pet for research. We can speak a bit more afterward."
I nodded and opened up my menu. I hoped I was making the right choice.
Chapter 62: A Long Overdue Discussion
Chapter 62: A Long Overdue Discussion
Warning: Evolution will cause the body to torpor untilplete.>
''Not like I have much choice. I''m locked in here with a magical skeleton who can kill me instantly with a wave of a staff... Yes.''
"Fascinating as always. I wish I still had evolutions left in me..."
I felt my core burning, swelling with power, and the world began to fade.
"... I should have offered a bucket or something... My dungeon floor..." Thest words I heard before the void consumed me.
I found myself once again in the familiar infinite void and ced on a chair. While I knew Gramps could hear my thoughts, I had a neurotic concern that one day, I''d identally mess up talking to myself in my head and talk out loud, revealing something slime-rted while disguised. So I shifted form, sitting in the chair for real this time.
"Syl, so good to see you again!" The loud and cheerful voice of Gramps erupted.
I opened my mouth to reply but was immediately interrupted, "Before we start, I need to rify that I am not responsible for creating the elves. I even voted on putting severe poption restrictions on the race and for their racial emblem to be usurpable."Gramps was evidently displeased about all the badmouthing I had been doing ever since I read their profile.
"Why is their profile so ridiculous? Compared to everything else I''ve seen so far?"
"It''s a long story... But the gist is we adopted a soul from another world as a test to see if bringing otherworldly essence would be profitable. That soul bargained to start as an elf, which used to be a simple race back then. He went on to achieve immeasurable sess; he freed the elves from envement, stopped a demon incursion, brokered peace amongst the racial nations, and achieved absolute mastery in the arcane. When we approached him to reward him at the end of it all, he instead turned us down and asked if he could leave behind his legacy to the elves. He spent every Reincarnation Point, every bit of goodwill, every achievement and aplishment, and the current elf is the result."
"Why don''t elves rule the world then? If they used to be enved at one point, I''m assuming that not all of them could let bygones be bygones."
"Yes. We had to step in after the fact and set severe restrictions on them. Their race is practically infertile, and the usurping of their emblem allowed a lot of powerfulpetition. This did lead to some unfortunate culling of their race, but eventually, another peace treaty was brokered, and the world reached an equilibrium. But enough of a history lesson, I''m sure you have much better things to ask."
"Thanks." I replied, pausing with a big sigh and dropping myrgest concern first, "Am I going to lose my mind from evolving?"
"Ha! No, not at all. In fact, that is one of the things this experiment is testing: if we should remove that evolutionary impulse from intelligent monsters."
"That''s a relief. So why did I start without a ss? It seems intelligent monsters are supposed to start with one."
"That was intentional! I specifically requested it." Gramps casually dropped the bombshell.
I restrained myself from facepalming, "... Why?"
"Tell me, Syl, what do you think of Traitspared to Skills?"
"I''ve only recently begun to experiment with Skills, but so far, my Traits feel superior."
"And the rest of the world? The goblins and humans you encountered?"
"They all seemed to think Traits are worthless. The goblins even thought evolutions were pointless."
"Exactly! I worked so hard on so many of those Traits, and the majority of the world thinks it''s useless! I wanted to prove them wrong, show that they are all idiots for changing their experience distribution."
"Huh... I honestly forgot I could change the distribution."
"Well... You can''t. I disabled that and nearly set your ss distribution to the minimum when you went out of your way to unlock a ss. However, I was overruled and told I was interfering with the test results. Bah!"
I silently thanked whoever stopped Gramps.
"Can you me me? You were so close to your next evolution. You were going to be the first. At first, I questioned why you were protecting those goblins, but then it paid dividends. I thought it was a stroke of genius, then you went and joined the adventurers, made no progress to evolving, and then went and got a ss which only further dyed it."
"Sorry... I just felt lost and confused. I had so many unanswered questions; everything was a mystery, and everyone and anything seemed to have a ss except me. I didn''t even have [Universal Language] till I got bonded."
"That''s my fault. I forgot it gets applied to intelligent monsters via their ss. And look on the bright side; you may not have been first to reach their second evolution, but you still won a bet for me."
"A bet?"
"You picked the evolution option I created. They used me of ying favorites again, and someone else created Doppelganger to tempt you."
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences.
"It felt like my instincts were screaming at me to pick it. I very nearly did."
"They certainly did their research. They knew you were desperate for a ss and to obtain skills." Gramps said, then paused as I heard him mumbling before he continued, "Honestly, maybe the adventurer thing wasn''t a bad idea... If you evolved before getting a ss, then Chimeric might not have even stood a chance."
"That''s... Huh... Yeah... I probably would have thought now''s finally my chance."
"And you were also the first to enter and conquer a dungeon. Gave me a real scare when Simon killed you,"
"...Is Simon the Dreadlich?"
"Yes, make sure you milk something good from him because if you didn''t have [Defy Death], he would havepletely ruined our test results. Just further proof how useful Traits are."
"Speaking of Traits, why can I not purchase [Prodigy]? Every time I try, it says error."
"What!?" Gramps eximed and then went silent. I awkwardly shifted in my chair as he began to mumble to himself. I caught a few of his words: cleaned, mistake, soul, and leftover. Unexpectedly, a notification suddenly appeared.
"There we go, I fixed it for you." He announced. It sounded not entirely true, but at least I had it now.
"Any other questions? It will be a long time till our next meeting, so I will give you a few more."
I had a few questions I wanted to ask out of my own curiosity, but if I was going to be limited, I''d shelve them for now. I''d much prefer to ask questions concerning myself than an exnation of why the adventurers could utilize notifications.
"Are there any slime trait fusions, and if not, would you consider making me some?"
"Good question. Currently, there are two, but both require specific conditions that I''m sure you''ll stumble upon." He replied. An image of an old man smirking shed in my mind, "I''m always considering new Traits, so I''d say the future is bright."
"Thanks. I hope you''re right. Speaking of Traits, are you responsible for the [Sub-Core]?"
"Yes! I''m d you are finally starting to use its real potential. While using them as independent casters or creating joint spells with them seems obvious, or your defensive orders, what impressed me the most was using one to filter information and another to handle mimicking wounds." There was so much enthusiasm in his voice. If he wasn''t a disembodied voice, I bet he would be enthusiastically pping me on the shoulder.
I honestly felt a bit proud to be receiving his praise, and I easily imagined a doting Grandparent.
"I would like to know if you have any goals for me. When does this experiment end? You keep mentioning others andpetition, but I''m stumbling in the dark here."
"Hmm... You''re quite the paranoid individual. But very well. The experiment officially ends when you either reach your final evolution or perish. I''m unable to disclose information about the others or the various side bets going on, but you may stumble upon other monsters in a simr position as yourself."
"As for goals..." He paused. An image of an old man giving a sympathetic and reassuring smile shed in my mind, "Just live a fun life, Syl. Your previous one ended tragically, but you seem to be having quite an adventure already. There''s a huge world out there! Raid abyrinth dungeon, investigate a floating ind, and climb a mountain! Meet new races, meet new monsters, and collect slime cores! There''s so many possibilities."
I nodded, "Thanks, Gramps."
He gave a friendly chuckle before responding, "Watching your antics has been riveting, and I can''t wait to see what you do next."
I was about to open my mouth when the chair disappeared from under me.
"Looks like we are out of time... Good luck, Syl, I''m rooting for you!"
"Wait! When''s my next evolution? How many evolutions do I have left? Can I gain-"
I heard Gramps chuckling as I fell into the void.
"Always so many questions..."
I woke up to a barrage of notifications. I felt amazing.
"Nice joke, Gramps. You could have told me it was going tobine some traits."
Freely manipte and change your slime mass into whatever shapes and forms you desire, limited only by your creativity, knowledge, and avable slime mass.
Furthermore, the characteristics of slime mass are configurable on the fly to change density, adhesion, sticity, or even texture.
Morphing speed and maximum density greatly scale with trait level.
Compatible with other slime traits.>
''Wow. Talk about an upgrade. Although, this makes me wonder what the purpose of [Pseudopod] is now. Not only did it notbine into this trait, but my evolution also gave it a level up. I guess Gramps must have further ns for it.''
Enhances an existing trait that allows bodily transformation or maniption and greatly bolsters shapeshifting into any creatures, or objects.
This trait level, knowledge of the targets, and practice all affect the uracy and capabilities of the forms in an additive or substitutive manner.
Forms can be freely modified, such as changing size or making other adjustments, and can also bebined, including limitless partial transformations.
Thebined level of both traits reduces any physical discrepancies between your natural form and shapeshifted forms.
While transformed, traits the targets possessed can be mimicked, provided sufficient knowledge about them and any required bodily parts are currently manifested.
The maximum level of mimicked traits are capped to [Chimeric Mimicry], but quantity restrictions have been removed and limited with a trait budget.
Trait budget: 25.
Enhanced trait: [Morph Slime LV 7].>
I had to reread this one a few times, and each subsequentpletion left me dumbfounded by the improvements and possibilities. I couldbine forms and cherry-pick the best traits from my forms, limited only by a budget that I assumed would grow with the trait level.
I looked around and noticed the floor around me had been elevated to form an impromptu bowl. I noticed my clothing folded into a neat pile outside the bowl. I probably should have deposited that before evolving, and was d it had survived the process. I grabbed and deposited my outfit with a tendril.
I shifted into my elven form and sighed with relief when it perfectly matched my original form. I had some bubbling anxiety that my changed traits might have impacted my form. I tried something simple by changing my teeth to the wolves'' and sessfully mimicked [Enhanced Fangs]. I admired the intimidating set of pearly whites that added a rather horrific quality to my previously elegant elven form.
Since I set [Enhanced Fangs] to the maximum, it took up five points of my budget. I was curious about traits without levels, so I shifted my fake innards and mimicked [Robust Stomach] from the goblins. I was very pleased when I saw it only cost a single point from my trait budget.
While I was shifting hobgoblin ws to one hand and bear ws to the other, the room began to darken, and a familiar swirl of ck shadowy energy erupted, revealing the Dreadlich.
Gamma remembered my order and I smiled when I recalled Gramps telling me to milk some rpense.
Chapter 63: Recompense
Chapter 63: Rpense
Whitney, Kurt, Roderick, and Dewi sat around a small table in the Adventurers Guild. There was quite a lot of activity in the building, with people trying to make sense of the situation, rumors and gossip buzzing in the air, and some even making bets.
"It''s almost been two days," Whitney said while impatiently tapping her foot.
"Her guild tag says she''s still alive. Don''t worry so much." Kurt replied, "You should have seen her sting through the dungeon. I doubt a few undead could stop her."
"Are we sure she''s even in the dungeon?" Whitney snapped back.
"The guards said that she entered, and they warned her to stick to the first floor," Roderick answered.
"To think she''d trigger a Dungeon Trial. I didn''t even think that was possible in a beginner dungeon." Dewi murmured, scratching his chin, "Clearly, I have an eye for talent if the Gods even agree with me."
"I can''t believe you''re joking about this. She could be dying right now. Why did she go to the dungeon by herself? It''s so stupid. Ugh!" Whitney raged and threw her empty mug at the wall, causing some of the other upants to curse at her.
"Look. Tabby says she''s still alive, so have some faith in her. When we were partied up, we didn''t even take a single injury. She''s got a water shield spell, and she can st those undead to pieces without breaking a sweat." Kurt said, trying to reassure her.
"The guards will report to the guild as soon as the dungeon reopens," Roderick added."My theory is that she hit thirty, and it triggered the Trial. And if she followed my advice with her ascension, she could burn her way through the undead." Dewi postted.
"That reminds me, you said Water was shit. I think all the undead she killed would beg to differ." Kurt said, pointing at Dewi.
"I mean, can you me me? The only caster with Water Affinity is Evan, and he uses it to fill canteens. Besides, nothing beats a good old Fireball."
"I dunno... Those water ils looked really cool."
"Greetings, Syl. Congrattions on evolving. I hope your talk with the Great One was riveting."
"Thanks, Simon," I replied, and he visibly shuddered.
"Please... Don''t call me that." He interrupted, and when I stared at him in confusion, he exined, "Fear the mighty Dreadlich Simon. It just doesn''t invoke fear. The Great One refuses to allow me to change my profile, says it''s too amusing."
"Sorry, I didn''t know. I guess that''s why you only block your name, which I had no idea was even possible. I can only disguise my profile or block it entirely."
"Oh, that''s rather simple. You merely identify yourself and focus on the part you wish to obscure. Since you no doubt have a mimicry-rted trait, you can probably manipte it more than simply blocking it."
I identified myself, which I had no idea I could do.
Then I focused on my name, thinking block.
"Thanks," I replied, then returned my profile to normal.
"You''ve been unconscious for just over two days. I''d advise you to keep this in mind for your next evolution and ensure you can find somewhere to seal yourself."
"Two days... Shit. How am I going to exin this to them."
"If I were in your position, I''d just kill them all. But, the Great One says you could im you received a Dungeon Trial, which is when one of the Gods orders us to trap an individual or group inside as either a test or a culling."
''Culling!? Gramps is more ruthless than I thought...''
"If you don''t mind me asking, what is your role?"
"I''m the caretaker of this dungeon. I managed the ambient flow of essence in this region and utilize the excess into monsters and treasures, which the adventurers try to im."
"But why? I think you could singlehandedly destroy the entire town."
"Indeed, but as a caretaker, I''m prohibited from attacking them directly. I am getting something out of this ordeal that makes the effort worthwhile."
"I see..."
"Yes. Now, about your reward for beating the dungeon and yourpensation for... Killing you."
A chest appeared in the room, which I opened and found a bow.
"Huh."
"Yes... I wasn''t sure what to give a slime, but considering you carried a bow, I figured this might be useful. For an insignificant amount of mana, this bow can generate a nocked arrow when drawn."
"Thanks," I replied, pulling back on the string, and an arrow appeared.
"Unfortunately, I''m limited to what I can spawn. As for yourpensation... The Great One suggested I spawn a monster to consume and offer you some skill training. The former, I''m again limited, and thetter, I''m unsure of what I could train you on as I do not sense Necrotic Mana within you."
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
"Can you spawn any slimes?" I asked enthusiastically.
"I''m limited to nothing above Blue and Green."
"I''ll dly take a Green slime. As for skill training, I have an idea."
"Let''s hear your idea then."
"Can I shoot arrows at you to raise my proficiency? I have an emblem that gives me bonus experience when fighting higher-level monsters, and you meet the criteria."
"I see... Unorthodox, but I suppose I can ept that. Those arrows can''t harm me."
I spent the next while firing arrows at Simon. He was correct in that they couldn''t harm him. I triggered [Slime Conversion] to get some bonus experience and had [Mana Sight], [Lowlight Vision], and [Thermal Vision] all active. I certainly took Gramp''s advice to heart and made some considerable gains before Simon lost his patience and ended our training session. I had hoped he would have let me cast [Acid Dart] at him. I looked over my gains.
''Time to finally fuse them! Having one skill for all my attacks together is much preferred, and since the new trait doesn''t differentiate between attacks, I can feel confident it would apply to my slime attacks as well.''
Bes Skill: [Attack Mastery (Lesser) LV 6].
This will cost 1 Skill Point.>
''Yes''
Sadly, there wasn''t enough time to unlock [Low-Light Vision], and I didn''t gain a level for [Chimeric Mimicry]. I hoped I didn''t lose my previous progress in the trait from before it upgraded. Finally, Simon summoned a green slime for me.
I quickly ate it and received my updated profile.
I mentally chuckled at effectively gaining an entirely free level in one of my strongest traits. I tried asking if he''d be willing to spawn another, but he said it went against his dungeon''s theme and had already greatly bent the rules for me.
"I believe that more than makes up for my mistake," Simon said.
"This will sound extremely weird, but do you think you could cast that spell on me again? The one that nearly killed me. While I can mimic injuries, they could sense my lifeforce, and I think beingpletely unharmed would be unbelievable."
Simon sighed deeply, "Very well. But this is the veryst thing I will do. Having the dungeon sealed for two days has diminished my essence gathering."
I was about to thank him when, abruptly, the ck mana burst from him and prated deep into my core. I felt the life inside me suddenly drain away rapidly.
''Ha! Totally worth it, and the best part was no pain, so much better than bludgeoning my own core.''
Alpha had already created plenty of fake injuries to match my current health level, it was great to have such dedicated workers. I ripped, burned, and dirtied my outfit by staining it with some blood-red slime in patches. I hated to ruin the outfit that Whitney gave me, but it had to be done.
"You should consider finding some enchanted armor, if you have something with self-repair then you wouldn''t need to do this activity. I''d also rmend the size-modification enchantment as well, it would help keep your equipment intact despite your transformations."
"Thanks! That certainly sounds useful."
"I suggest you promptly leave. I reopened the dungeon when you awoke, and five humans have since entered. I''ve removed the monsters from the third floor so you can make haste to the second floor, which they are close to reaching."
"Five? That sounds like Roderick''s party."
"I do not know. But please... Don''t return to my dungeon. This is supposed to be for beginners."
I chuckled, "Sorry... And thanks for all the help."
Simon waved his hand as if to shoo me away before fading into his cloud of darkness. I swapped to my new [Dungeoneer] emblem since it would corroborate my story. I could feel slime slowly being drained to heal my slime core.
The third floor was indeed empty, and with [Mapping], I quickly ascended to the second floor. The green slime profile was boring with only [Slime Shot], and unlike blue slimes, which had the hidden gem of [Slime Conversion], they had no special secrets. But looking at how my evolutions had removed it from the list, I could assume it was a much lower tier of slime. I hoped the other slimes I read about during evolution would have much more to offer me.
Before I headed into the next room, I looked over my new status menu.
Name: Syl [Dungeoneer]
Race: Chimeric Mimic Slime (Blue) LV 1
ss: Shadowcaster LV 2
Status: Dying
Mana: Overflowing
Emblems:
[Experiment]
[Apex Hunter]
[Elven Legacy]
[Dungeoneer]*
Traits:
Slime:
[Mana Slime LV MAX]
[Acid Slime LV 7]
[Poison Slime LV 5]
[ze Slime LV 4]
[Morph Slime LV 7]
[Pseudopod LV 6]
[Slime Shot LV 5]
[Slime Burst LV 5]
[Vaporize Slime]
Core:
[Core Refinement LV 6]
[Core Storage LV 5]
[Sub-Core Alpha LV 4]
[Sub-Core Beta LV 4]
[Sub-Core Gamma LV 4]
[Consuming Osmosis LV MAX]
Mimic:
[Chimeric Mimicry LV 5]
[Chroma Shift LV MAX]
Mana:
[Mana Cirction LV 5]
[Mana Reinforcement LV 5]
[Slime Conversion LV 3]
Attributes/Other:
[Soul Mastery LV 6]
[Enhanced Vitality LV 4]
[Magic Resistance (Lesser) LV 4]
[Defy Death LV 3]
[Prodigy]
Senses:
[Olfactory Sense]
[Dark Vision LV 3]
[Mana Sight LV 4]
[Thermal Vision LV 1]
Trait Points remaining: 4
Skills:
General:
[Universal Language]
[Equipment Swap]
[Dissection LV 5]
[Mapping LV 3]
[Tracking LV 1]
[Identify LV 3]
[Multitasking LV 1]
Combat:
[Evasion LV 3]
[Attack Mastery (Lesser) LV 6]
[Affliction Master LV 1]
Magic:
[Water Magic LV 3]
[Fire Magic LV 3]
[Corrosion Magic LV 1]
[Mana Maniption LV 3]
[Mana Suppression]
Sneaky:
[Vanish LV 5]
[Sneak Attack LV 5]
[Identity Block LV 5]
[Acting LV 4]
Skill Points remaining: 4
Chapter 64: Mistaken Identity
Chapter 64: Mistaken Identity
Simon must have been tired of me killing his undead, as the room I entered had only two regr skeletons. We coordinated to empower two [Acid Dart] spells, which immediately destroyed their skulls, causing them to copse into a pile of inanimate bones.
''Surely I should have unlocked [Ritual Casting] by now? The worst part is I don''t even see the unknown skill on my profile. Can some things just not be earned at all?''
The next room had two zombies, which also went down in one spell each. I was hoping to reach level two in [Corrosion Magic], but if Simon was being frugal, then it wasn''t likely. I could hear the sound of some fighting up ahead, so it looked like I was going to meet up with the group.
I hoped [Acting] was up to the task as I immediately started to fake fatigue and injury, even giving myself a slight limp. When I entered the room, I saw five figures busy finishing off a small group of skeletons.
One wore a fancy cloak with pristine leather armor and held an ornate-looking rapier, while another was arge man wearing te armor armed with an equally impressive longsword and buckler. The remaining three were practically wearing ragspared to the first two.
''Who the hell are these people? Actually, the one guy with the fancy cloak looks a little familiar. I like his choice of weapon.''
When they finished killing thest undead, they turned to face me with weapons still drawn. Mister fancy cloak grinned triumphantly.
"You are an idiot thinking you could get away from me. Did you really think changing your name and ss was enough to fool me? I''d recognize you anywhere, Sylthaeryn."
''Oh, shit. They know her.''"Master, you should deal with her quickly so we can get out before the guild notices the dungeon has reopened." The knight replied while the other three began to try to nk me as if to prevent my escape.
"Yes, yes, you''re right, Edmund." He agreed and flourished his weapon, "I don''t know how you survived, but your luck has run out."
"Well boss, since she shacked up with the adventurers, ya know they have a saying... What happens in the dungeons, stays in the dungeons!" One of the thugs mentioned, cackling at his own joke.
I began tough, causing all five of them to look a bit startled. I remembered now, this was the guy who was traveling with Sylthaeryn, and now he''s just admitted that he was the one who had tried to kill her.
"Looks like the reality of her situation has made her go mad." Keaton chuckled,posing himself.
"No. I''mughing because of how weak you all are."
"Fucking elf, think you are superior to us, I put you in your ce before, and I''ll do it again. Grab her!"
Two of the thugs moved in to grab me, and I could only chuckle as it was time to try out what my new evolution could do. Two tendrils burst out from either side towards the approaching men, and at the end of each one was a set of ws from the Venom Barbed Badger, enhanced with the appropriate traits. Their shock and surprise were short-lived as both tendrils disemboweled them before retracting back inside of me. Their lifeless bodies copsed to the floor.
"What!? Has she sold her soul to be a demon? What was that!?" Keaton screamed, his eyes filled with abject terror.
"Sir, get behind me!" The knight interceded.
"Your first mistake was trying to kill her. Your second mistake was trying to kill me. And your final mistake was assuming I''m an elf." I chuckled, "At least now I can avenge her. So thank you."
Five tendrils emerged from my back, each with a different end, as I decided to maximize my new trait. There were five heads: a wolf, a boar, a bear, a badger, and a panther. Probably not as cool as Simon''s Bone Hydra, but I had limited animal profiles to work with. I figured I''d feed Keaton to the panther tendril as it was her originalpanion.
The remaining thug screamed and tried to flee, only for me to gore him to death with the boar''s tusks. The knight swung at me, and his de at first deflected off of my defenses, then he seemed to utilize a skill as it shone and passed through me on the second blow. When his de swung through me, I could see the visible relief appear on his face when blood oozed out of the cut.
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''You''re so dramatic, Alpha.''
I smirked when the wolf and badger snaked around to bite at his arms. Unfortunately, even with all my boosts, it appeared his armor was no joke, and I couldn''t prate it, but I could quite easily restrain him, which I did.
While this was going on I had the panther tendril "sparring" with Keaton. It was hrious how he thought he could damage the head by stabbing it. I was a little surprised when he cast a rather feeble-looking [me Arrow], and even if I didn''t have [ze Slime], I didn''t think it would be enough to prate my defenses.
"You call that a spell? This is a spell."
I formed an empowered [Acid Dart] and fired it at him, aiming for his leg. When it struck, there was a horrible sizzling noise, and he copsed to the ground, screaming in pain.
"Sir!" The knight screamed and struggled from his slimy bonds.
"Fuck! No! I can''t die here! I''m a Stanton!" He screamed.
I watched him trying to crawl away. It was honestly pathetic, as I had expected more from Sylthaeryn''s killer. The adventurers I fought as a goblin put up more of a fight; they had struggled with their everyst breath, yet Keaton had presumably more levels than them and went down from one spell.
"If you let me live, I can give you gold. You''ll be rich!"
"I''d rather get experience than gold. Plus, with what you''ve seen, I can''t let you live."
"No! No! No! You can''t do this to me, Sylthaeryn! My family will find out!"
I gave soft chuckle, "What happens in the dungeons, stays in the dungeons."
I maneuvered the panther''s head towards him and erged it, and then, with a satisfying chomp, bit his torso in half. The knight was screaming profanities, all semnce of reason gone, and trying to escape. I started to dissolve his armor away, then began casting [Acid Dart] repeatedly at him. Unlike Keaton, he didn''t wail in pain and just cursed me, my family, and the entire elf race until he perished.
I started grabbing all the evidence and consuming them. Meanwhile, I looked through the notifications I had been ignoring.
''That confirms it kept my previous experience when upgrading. Really d about that. Looks like my new trait budget is 36.''
''Wait, poison!? I thought this was acid magic?''
I immediately cast the spell, and it released a purply cloud that rapidly drifted away from me. I cast it again and captured the mist in my slime but received no notification from [Poison Slime] about a new sample.
''Very strange...''
.
''So I gained two ss levels and one race level. Not much, if I''m honest. I''ll check this skill afterward.''
''At least I got a rapier out of this exchange. I''m happy for the profile.''
''Oh? Wait... Have I never considered eating armor? It feels stupid in hindsight. Although, I''d just be faking the appearance. But if I can get enchanted armor like Simon mentioned, that would surely be extra protection that my slime can''t replicate. Although... If I can get a silver slime core, perhaps that''s irrelevant.''
I had cleaned up all traces of our scuffle and retaken my injured appearance. I started walking back, and it seemed Simon had no intention of throwing me any more monsters as the walk back waspletely undisturbed.
<>
Sense hidden foes or threats around you.
Sess chance and maximum radius scale with skill level.
Sensory traits can increase this skill''s sess chance.>
''Unlike my previous revtion, I think this is an instant purchase. Hopefully, I can ask Whitney about the other one, assuming I''m not emerging from here as public enemy number one.''
When I reached the dungeon entrance, I saw it waste afternoon. Shockingly, there were no guards by the entrance and no signs of a confrontation. Keaton must have bribed the guards or thoroughly hid the evidence if he disposed of them.
I made my way to the inn cautiously, but everything seemed normal beyond a few stares and points from some townsfolk. I arrived at the inn unosted, and when I entered, Trevor seemed relieved to see me.
"Gods, I''m d you''re back, Syl!"
"It''s certainly been quite an ordeal," I replied, giving my best impression of a fatigued smile.
"I swear, Whitney was about to burn down the dungeon to get to you. Speaking of, why are they not with you? They were waiting for the guards to report the dungeon unsealing."
"There were no guards in sight when I left the dungeon," I replied honestly.
"That''s not right... They were under strict order to immediately report to the guild, and even so, someone is supposed to guard the entrance at all times." Trevor frowned deeply.
He sent off one of his staff to call the group and tell them I had arrived at the inn an absolute mess but safe. Trevor even handed me a healing potion, practically shoving it down my throat. My core filled with a soothing sensation, and I could tell my unseen wounds were healing.
"Go wash up, you look like shit. I''ll leave a huge te of food for you."
"Thanks, Trevor."
"And congrats on beating your first Dungeon Trial! You earned that emblem!" He said proudly. He looked like he wanted to p me on the back but was restraining himself due to my injuries.
''I don''t think Simon would agree with you.'' I chuckled internally.
Chapter 65: Reunion
Chapter 65: Reunion
I went upstairs and cleaned myself off, swapping into a fresh robe. When I returned to my room, there was arge te of food, water, and what looked like a bottle of wine. I threw my ruined clothes into a corner of the room and quietly ate my food.
I wasn''t sure what my next goal was. Gramps had told me to live my life and explore the world. The only thing that came to mind was consuming more slime cores and monster profiles, as my evolution had removed my restrictions. My new emblem also encouraged me to hunt for more dungeons. There was also my ss and progressing through the adventurers guild. I certainly wasn''t starved for options.
''I think I''ll ask if it''s possible to get ice or lightning catalysts here and if there are any other dungeons. I wonder how far away the Dwarven Empire is and if traveling to it is an option. Getting my tendrils on a silver slime would be my first choice.''
A knock on the door brought me back to reality.
"Come in," I replied, and the door opened to reveal the whole group.
I was surprised at the sudden prompts until I quickly remembered Gamma''s orders. I was honestly shocked at Roderick''s level and a little afraid. That was a lot of levels in what I could only assume was an advanced ss.
Whitney immediately rushed to my side, followed shortly by Evan. I hadn''t seen him since the trip back, so I was a bit surprised.
"You''re alive! Thank the Gods!" Whitney squeezed me tightly.
"At least you''re not as bad asst time," Evan noted and began to cast a healing spell on me."Thanks, Evan. Trevor gave me a healing potion, which helped a lot. I also had a bath and change of clothes."
"Locked in a dungeon for over two days. Lass, the trouble really seems to like you." Roderick said.
"It wasn''t so bad. I earned a lot of experience."
"I told you she''d manage. I had full confidence in you, Syl." Kurt said proudly.
"A new ss, an ascension, and an emblem. You surely proved yourself." Roderick nodded.
"Wait, new ss?" Dewi suddenly asked before looking at me and frowning, "A hybrid ss? Did you not get an intermediate pure caster ss?"
"This was the first and only ss offered to me so far. I thought it might help and figured I could always swap back if it wasn''t ideal. It''s been good so far, although it''s been offering me some Rogue skills now."
Dewi scratched his chin before asking, "If you don''t mind me asking, what''s your highest magic level?"
I didn''t see the harm in answering, "Three."
"You likely overqualified on the one half and underqualified on the other, which is why you were offered a hybrid ss," Dewi exined.
"She did qualify for Rogue and Assassin right out of the gate." Whitney replied, "Honestly, I think it''s a good thing. You''d be wasting all your previously built-up experience on a pure ss."
"Did you at least pick Fire Affinity?" Dewi asked, looking hopeful.
I raised an arm and produced a small me in my palm, and Dewi looked ecstatic.
"I also can confirm that [Sneak Attack] works with spells. It''s likely why I got this ss and was pivotal against all the ghosts on the third floor."
Kurt snapped his fingers, "Ghosts! Now I remember."
"Yeah, I had a nasty encounter with a Wraith."
Everyone except Kurt shuddered, who seemed oblivious.
"I got two skills I wasn''t sure about, [Ritual Casting] and [Rogue Expertise].
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Dewi groaned, but Whitney seemed happy.
"Grab thest one, especially if you n on doing any future dungeons, as they can be full of traps."
I nodded and turned to Dewi.
"It''s a good skill... But extremely limited, and worst of all, you can''t earn it for free. Like most no-level skills or traits."
"Wait, are you sure? I think I''ve gotten one before..." I tried to remember.
"Likely an integration skill, you can technically earn [Appraisal] for free, but it''s such a hassle it''s easier to just buy it." Dewi answered, "Anyway, [Ritual Casting] is good, but you need multiple people who all took the skill. Most groups only have one or two spellcasters, and ovepping affinities can be seen as a downside in group versatility. Not to mention, there''s also no guarantee your group will stay together. They''d rather spend the point and further advance their own magic."
I nodded along with his exnation. I disagreed with the frugality over a single skill point, but I supposed if you''re constantly risking your life as an adventurer, then maybe every point counts. But unlike them, I always had my [Sub-Cores] and eagerly wanted to buy the skill.
"You''re healed up physically, but mentally, I think you need to rest and recover. You can talk more in the morning." Evan eventually said, hinting to save our discussions for tomorrow.
Everyone nodded and started saying their farewells and congrattions on surviving the Dungeon Trial. Roderick stopped at the door before closing.
"I just want to confirm with you. There were absolutely no guards outside of the dungeon when you left?"
"None at all. I left the dungeon and came straight back to the inn."
"Thanks,ss. Something reeks. They were under strict orders to immediately inform the guild when the dungeon reopened. Rest well. I''ll handle this."
I thanked him and sighed as I sat on my bed.
''Keaton must have done something.''
I bought my two new skills.
After the flood of information washed through my mind, I sighed in relief. While I didn''t have that evolution addiction, I certainly was addicted to gaining new skills and traits. It was bizarre to suddenly have a bunch of thievery information inside my head, but I wasn''t going toin if I got to avoid and disarm traps in the future.
I cast [Water Orb], then had Gamma join me in the spell. The ease of our coordination made our previous attempts look like an absolute joke. A regr version of the spell was about the size of an apple, and when I solo enhanced it, it was about the size of a watermelon. Together now with this trait, I wasn''t sure if we would even reach a limit as now it was nearing bear size.
I stopped the size increase and then started topress the water. I was happy to see that I could apply my slime knowledge in such a fashion, and I imagined this version of the spell would have a particrly violent explosion when it hit. When I started noticing the spell construction threatening to unravel, I had Beta join us, and immediately, the spell reinforced itself and was perfectly stable.
''I cannot believe they disregard this skill, even if your partner died or left you. Or perhaps it''s not as effective between two different individuals? I guess they wouldn''t be able to instantlymunicate full intent mentally and expect their partners to obey without question or hesitation.''
I had Alpha join in, then tried to hand over the spell to my [Sub-Cores] entirely. The spell immediately threatened to copse, and I had to quickly rejoin to prevent damaging my room. I didn''t realize how much my own mental capacity contributed to the spell. I stared at my remaining trait points. I wanted to keep a small reserve in case I discovered something in a profile.
''I can definitely afford to buy one more. Is two too greedy?''
After humming and hawing for far too long, I decided to buy two more. Gramps had personally made this trait and vouched for its effectiveness, and [Ritual Casting] now further proved its usefulness.
I integrated both into the experience link and had them immediately join our spell. I then eased off my contribution to the spell. They struggled to hold it at first, but I held off on rejoining unless it started to dangerously unravel. My intervention was thankfully not needed, and the five [Sub-Cores] worked together to hold it.
While I left them to maintain the spell, I wanted to see what I could do with [Chimeric Mimicry]. I changed one of my hands to the badger ws - sized down appropriately. I had previously failed to mimic evolved monsters and assumed I just couldn''t for some reason. Was this an upgrade from my evolution or due to a higher level in my mimicry trait? I suddenly regretted not trying them again before evolving in hindsight.
I formed the rocky carapace from the Earthshaker Bear along my arms and stared at the tangled mix of thick ck fur and rocky protrusions. It was definitely the trait, despite me not having the prerequisite Earth affinity, but it felt considerably weaker.
''It''s still better than nothing. If I get Earth affinity, will the copied trait have its full power? The Dwarven Empire is sounding more enticing.''
I wanted to try mimicking some of the undead traits I had taken from the dungeon, [Undead Resilience] in particr, so I could potentially maneuver amputated body parts. The trait finally applied when I created a fully undead arm. I chopped it off, and it remained under my control, which was fascinating. The unfortunate part was that as soon as I tried to change the arm into anything but an undead arm, the trait immediately ceased, and the limb fell into a puddle of lifeless slime.
I kept experimenting and eventually, with inspiration from the undead wolves, crafted a zombified bear arm, which I could still control once severed. After my sess, I felt like I should get some sleep. I looked at the notifications I had ignored while my [Sub-Cores] were hard at work.
''Great job. I wonder if that''s [Prodigy] at work, although it is five cores working together and three donating all their experience.''
After setting up some slime depositing and withdrawing loops between them, I finallyy down to sleep. Despite being unconscious for two days while evolving, I knew it hadn''t counted as real rest.
''Tomorrow, I hope to get some information about my goals.''
Chapter 66: Hybrids and Ranks
Chapter 66: Hybrids and Ranks
I woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the day, but it still felt too early to head downstairs, so I decided to experiment a little. Now that I had so many [Sub-Cores], I realized I''ve never tried to remove one or have one in slime separated from my body. Stupid, in hindsight, but I had been distracted with everything going ontely. I maneuvered Epsilon towards my hand and plucked it out.
I examined it carefully, then put some of my slime mass inside a mug and dropped Epsilon inside of the slime. Nothing happened. I then ced my finger inside the slime.
''Interesting. Epsilon, I want you to continuously wiggle the slime mass inside of this mug.''
The slime mass started to wiggle and writhe in the mug. When I removed my finger, immediately, the slime mass stopped moving.
''Well, shit. I thought perhaps it would retain orders even when separated.''
I recovered the slime mass into my one arm, which I shifted into a zombie arm. I severed the arm and retained control over it with [Undead Resilience] but lost my link to Epsilon even though I could still control the arm. It was infuriatingly baffling.
''Maybe an evolution or trait will solve this in the future.'' I thought before reattaching the arm and allowing Epsilon to rejoin again permanently.
Thest thing I wanted to do was test how free I was with morphing. I created a pseudopod and then added bristles to it, stolen from the Venom Barbed Badger.
''I''d hate to be hit by that.'' I chuckled.I then morphed it into the de Wolf''s tail, and when I swished it around. With the high level in both my traits, it felt near perfect. My thoughts immediately turned to trying to get a silver slime so that I could add metal to the tail de, which likely would even improve it further than the original.
''Enough ying around. Let''s head down.''
It was just Dewi, Whitney, and Kurt at breakfast. Evan had temple duties, and Roderick was assisting the guild master. The reason for Evan''s devout inclination was it could be difficult and tedious to level up Healing magic, as you''d actually need to heal injuries or ailments and couldn''t just cast at targets or monsters. His encounter with Bloodrot had ignited a fire under him to improve his magic. I mentally apologized, as it sounded like the infamy of Krutz would live long in this town.
After a spectacr breakfast, we headed to the Adventurers Guild. Tabitha was giddy as she congratted and thanked me repeatedly for passing my Dungeon Trial. I was confused as to why I was getting thanked until Kurt pointed out that since Tabitha "recruited" me, my achievements would earn her a bonus.
''At least that exins why she''s filled her head with so much ss and skill knowledge despite using none of it herself.''
Tabitha led us to a small office for our discussion, as apparently, the information would be a bit sensitive and might "piss off" some of the regrs.
"With Syl''s levels, ss options, and now solo dungeon achievement, the guild wants to promote her to Silver Rank," Tabitha exined.
"I can see why you wanted to keep this private. That would certainly anger the locals. Some neeres around and suddenly outranks people that have been struggling along." Dewi replied.
"Yeah, I still need to scrape off my rust," Kurt added, "If I hadn''t seen Syl in action, I''d be grabbing a pitchfork myself."
"Sorry... Rust? Silver?" I asked, feeling very confused.
"Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, tinum, Diamond. Those are the ranks of adventurers." Tabitha exined.
"Scraping off the rust is a bit derogatory... But basically, anyone below Silver is not seen as a real adventurer yet." Whitney added, "You''re very limited in what quests you can ept, and non-adventurers tend to look down upon you."
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I nodded.
"The only issue is that you''ve done no quests officially. We could give you credit on some of the extermination quests with your harvested goods. The bounty on the Forest King is certainly enough on its own; the issue is there''s nothing post-joining. The guild wants you to do a quest as a test." Tabitha continued.
"I believe it will be decided soon with the Guild Master, and Roderick will be the evaluator since he wants to join the staff. So it will be for both of your benefits. But that''s for you to discuss with themter. Let''s talk about your Dungeon Trial and your new ss."
I gave a summarized version of what happened, glossing over some of the slimy details. When I exined the dungeon boss I encountered, they all looked relieved, as sometimes the boss could be very dangerous if you were unlucky. I chuckled at the thought of Simon swapping bosses on a whim. I mentioned picking up Fire Affinity and showed off my [Kindle] spell. I also showed my reward for defeating the boss, to which Dewiined that even the dungeon was against him.
"So your new ss is a hybrid between Mage and Rogue, as you''ve assuredly discovered. The downside of a hybrid ss is your revtions get narrowed down a little. As a Mage, you could have gotten practically any magic revtion. As a Shadowcaster, your revtions will be more limited in scope until a higher level. For example, let''s say you could get [Lightning Magic] before level ten as a Sorcerer. As a Shadowcaster, you''d need to be at least thirty." Tabitha exined.
"However, since it''s an intermediate job, you''ve unlocked intermediate skills. You''d never get [Lightning Magic] as a Mage no matter how high your level." Dewi added, "Soter is better than never."
"Why is itter, though?" Kurt asked.
"Lightning doesn''t fit the ss theme of Shadowcaster. It''s like asking why you don''t use a greatsword as a Dualde." Dewi answered.
"So what is its theme?" Whitney asked, "I''m curious how magic would help my ss."
"Umbral, Corrosion, and Curse from intermediate and everything from basic." Tabitha answered, "That is how the ss hierarchy works. If you got an advanced hybrid ss, you''d also qualify for every intermediate magic you had the affinity for."
"Please tell me you got at least one. I have to assume you did, or you wouldn''t have had the ss offered." Dewi asked.
I feltfortable sharing this, as I wanted to use my magic to hide my slime abilities if I was in public, "Yes. I got [Corrosion Magic]."
Dewi whistled loudly, impressed. "That''s a good one. Acid and Poison spells. I think it has a few debuffs as well, basically anything that corrodes away. Fitting for a magical assassin."
The three begged me to show off the spell despite Tabitha''s protests. Eventually, she relented, and I ended up casting [Acid Dart] on an old book of Dewi''s. He was impressed as it melted away.
"Huh... That might exin yourck of Nature Affinity now that I think about it." Tabitha murmured.
"What do you mean?" I asked. Obviously, I knew the truth, but I''d dly take any extra ammunition for my disguise.
"While Affinities are usuallypletely separate, there''s a theory that it''s impossible to be born with opposites. Corrosion is said to be one of the opposites of Nature."
We chatted a bit longer before Tabitha asked the others to leave, mentioning that the guild master and Roderick were due shortly to arrive to discuss my quest. When they left, Tabitha turned to me.
"Those three are some of the good ones, so no need to worry, but in the future, I''d be a bit more reserved with your personal information. Knowledge can be valuable, and some even trade it. You never know when you find a rare skill or trait, and then you could potentially sell it."
"Thanks for the warning."
"Are there any questions you have for me? I''m technically your handler, so I can offer advice or guidance since it''s in my best interest."
After thinking a bit about how I''d broach the subject, I finally spoke, "I want to get a lightning and ice catalyst, preferably one from a slime core. Is that possible here?"
"Wow, Whitney wasn''t kidding when she said you had expensive taste. Unfortunately, you won''t find them in a small town like this. The only reason there was a fire catalyst here was the merchant specifically imported it to try to make a fortune from our two resident fire mages. Unfortunately for him, one is broke, and the other hates catalysts."
"I see... How rare are the two slimes? What if I wanted to collect the cores myself?"
"White slimes are prettymon, and the main issue is reaching their location, while yellow slimes are on the rare side, but you''ll asionally run into one in a dungeon."
"What about on floating inds?"
"Okay. Seriously, Syl, are you a spoilt rich princess or something?" Tabitha looked at me enviously before she sighed, "Floating inds aren''t too hard to find since their locations are monitored since the monsters they spawn can sometimes make problems for us ground folk. And yes, you''d find yellow slimes on them quite easily. The biggest issue is trying to pay for the travel. You could probably buy five catalysts for the price of one trip."
"That much, huh..." I replied, trying to think of a solution, "Are there any other nearby dungeons?"
"Sadly not. And ours isn''t ideal. I''m sure you''ve heard the joke before, but if not for the blue slime farm, our town would likely copse. It''s great that the dungeon is regting the flow of essence so that we have a radius of safety from monster spawns, but if it had a more profitable theme, our little town could have be a city by now."
I must have looked disappointed while I was lost in my own thoughts as Tabitha tried to encourage me.
"Don''t look so down, Syl. On the positive side, if you''re looking for bigger and better things, you might really like your evaluation quest."
I was about to ask what she meant when there was a knock at the door, followed shortly by Roderick entering the room, followed by a muscr and slightly elderly-looking man I''d not seen before.
Chapter 67: Guild Master
Chapter 67: Guild Master
"Well, well. Seeing is believing." Harris said, "Not that I doubted you, but seeing the actual emblem on your profile certainly adds to the ir."
I could only assume he was referring to my [Dungeoneer] emblem. I spoke up, "Nice to meet you?"
"Yes, sorry, where are my manners." The man said with a friendly smile, "I''m Harris and leader of this branch until Roderick here finally takes over and lets me retire."
"You''ll be bored out of your mind as soon as you retire, unless you n on taking up cooking like Trevor?" Roderick said with a grin.
"Cooking? Nah. Maybe smithing or farming. Put my strength to good use."
Tabitha cleared her throat, and the two men stopped their rambling back and forth.
"Right. So. Let''s get this out of the way first." Harris said, raising his right hand. A soft light enveloped him, but [Mana Sight] didn''t reveal even a hint of magic. "By my authority as Guild Master of Stantondale, the contents of this discussion are not to be revealed to any other party outside and remain strictly confidential."
I grimaced at the name of the town, which I had just found out. As he finished speaking, I noticed my ne and Roderick''s shone brightly. Tabitha also had a hint of a glow around her while Harris spoke.
"I agree," Roderick said, and his ne dimmed."I agree," Tabitha said, the faint aura around her receding.
I looked around confusedly.
"One of the perks of being Guild Master,es with the emblem." Harris said with a grin before exining, "If any of us vite this after agreeing, that individual will be immediately expelled from the adventurers guild and our profile cklisted and published to all branches."
"By making it official, we hope you''ll trust us, Syl," Tabitha said.
I nodded, "I agree."
"How...?" I murmured at the notification.
"Long ago, a great hero saved the world, and her request from the Gods was to make an organization to unite the world, which then became the Adventurers Guild." Harris exined, "The Gods epted her request and gave us the emblems and tools needed. Every now and then, another great hero makes a final request, which gets added to the growing list of benefits."
"This seems oddly specific, though," I questioned.
Harrisughed, "If my memory is still good, I believe there was a dark time in the guild wherewlessness and thuggery were prevalent. Adventurers threatening towns or only offering to help if paid exorbitantly, backroom deals, absolutely disgusting behavior happening behind the scenes. So the request was some way to enforce guildw, so to speak, which led to things such as this."
"Thanks for the exnation."
"No problem. Anyway, let''s get down to business." Harris said, taking a seat. "I did some investigating. The guards were bribed and, supposedly, threatened. Although I have my doubts on thetter, we found them piss drunk."
"Bribed to leave their post?" Tabitha asked.
"And inform the Stanton boy when it opened up," Roderick added.
"But why?" Tabitha asked.
"Well. I have my suspicions, but I assume he was after the elven legacy emblem." Harris replied.
''I knew this emblem would be trouble.'' I thought bitterly.
Tabitha gasped in shock, staring at me in horror. "But... Oh, Gods."
"So, Syl, did Keaton Stanton attack you in the dungeon? I swear, on my honor, as a Guild Master, nothing will happen to you."
I paused before answering, "Yes."
"And you dealt with him and his aplices?" Harris followed up.
"...Yes."
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"Good riddance." Roderick spat.
I looked at them, confused by their attitude to the situation. I was half expecting to have to fight my way out of here, despite Harris'' promise.
Seeing my disturbance, Harris spoke up and exined how they''d been investigating Keaton after I returned. Sylthaeryn had originally entered the town beforehand and interacted with Keaton, only to disappearpletely. Worse, he made zero effort to report what had happened, and they suspected foul y. Considering I found her bleeding out and poisoned, that was obvious.
"So what now?" I asked.
"Well, the guild won''t hold you responsible, in fact, we want to protect you. We take self-defense very seriously, our members are out there risking their lives fighting monsters every day, and you''re expected to protect yourself. However, we can''t say the rest of the Stantons won''t cause something, as this is their town. They are already asking what happened to their precious boy." Harris exined.
"As much as I hate to say it, I''d rmend you leave Stantondale," Roderick said, looking apologetic.
"Sorry, Syl, I know you just made friends here," Tabitha said, looking downtrodden.
"Which is where your questes in." Harris continued, "You''ll be doing a merchant escort to Kaerlin. Which will get you promoted to Silver and get you away from that horrible family."
"Of course, this is just a suggestion. You''re free to do whatever you want." Roderick pointed out.
"No. I think it''s a good idea. I''d rather not need to worry about constantly watching my back if his family decides toe after me."
"Kaerlin is also a city, not a town, so you might find some of the items you were looking for." Tabitha pointed out.
I nodded. All things considered, this worked out well for me. In a bigger city, I''d have ess to more resources and hopefully stand out less.
"We''re also paying out the bounty for the de Wolf, AKA the Forest King. It''s been deposited into your guild ount. Should you need the funds, you can withdraw it from any guild branch." Harris said.
"That bastard killed many fresh adventurers," Roderick said, looking very grateful.
Tabitha informed me there was a caravan going out tomorrow or next week, and I could choose either. I agreed to tomorrow since I couldn''t see much reason for staying in this town anymore. Even the dungeon hardly held anything worth killing for experience, and I didn''t want to test Simon''s patience.
"Why do all this for me?" I asked before getting ready to leave.
"I said before, us adventurers look out for each other. One of the reasons for having a worldwide organization is to prevent nobles from pushing their weight around." Roderick responded.
"Besides, if the Gods are giving you Dungeon Trials already, clearly there are big ns for you. I''d rather not face divine judgment so close to retirement." Harris added.
Tabitha just gave a thumbs-up and a friendly smile. I thanked them and headed to the inn, Tabitha joining me to grab ate lunch. During lunch, I was given the details of my quest. A shipment of potions and reagents was being transported to Kaerlin, and I''d need to protect the caravan from bandits or wandering monsters. It wouldn''t be just me, but I''d be assigned to the lead caravan. Roderick would help in an emergency, but his duty was to assess me.
After lunch, Tabitha took me shopping for supplies. When I mentioned I didn''t have money on me sheughed and said I''d better make sure I get my Silver promotion. When I reached Silver rank, I''d receive one of the upgraded guild tags, which could make purchase orders with almost all city vendors. Tabitha demonstrated by swiping her own employee tag on a small crystal the shop owner had.
"Your tag keeps your bnce. It''ll stop if you try to exceed your bnce. The shop owner thenes to the guild and can withdraw the payment, although we do vet purchases to ensure you aren''t being scammed."
"Does that happen a lot?"
"Some adventurers are... Special. You try teachingmerce and bartering to a Barbarian or Berserker."
"I''m just d I don''t need to worry about keeping track of money."
"Whitney really wasn''t kidding. You are hopeless." Tabitha expressed, dumbfounded.
"Was this another request to the Gods?"
"Yes. A dwarf king wanted a better way to facilitate trade of wealth between nations without needing obscene amounts of security. The Adventurers Guild recently adopted it, so the enchantment required is a bit rare and thus only limited to Silver and above members."
''I wonder if I get to make a request if I pass this experiment.'' I thought to myself while being dragged from shop to shop.
After Syl and Tabitha left, Roderick and Harris were alone in the office. Harris visibly sighed and seemed to dete in his chair.
"Do you think she bought it?" Roderick asked.
"Gods, I hope so. Thest thing we need is a war between the elves caused by our shitty little town." Harris responded while rubbing his temples.
"You still think she''s a noble?"
"With that presence, I''d almost guarantee it. Regardless, someone has their eye on her. Who''s ever heard of a Dungeon Trial in a beginner dungeon? I almost think it was a warning for us not to fuck up."
"What I don''t understand is why she came back when she knew he''d try to kill her. Or why she didn''t tell any of us."
"Maybe she''s testing us, seeing if we humans are keeping up the peace treaty? Maybe she''s giving us a chance to prove that one bad apple doesn''t spoil the bunch. Maybe she wanted revenge on Keaton and knew he''de after her. Maybe she lost her memory and had no idea who Keaton was until he attacked her in the dungeon. I could make a hundred spections."
"Maybe I should reconsider trying to be Guild Master of this branch if I have to worry about all this crap. Travel the world, get to Gold rank, kill a dragon. Sounds much more fun." Roderick said with a cheeky grin.
"Ha! I''d rmend it, although your fianc¨¦e might leave you if you don''t settle down." Harris countered.
"Is there a reason for all your concern, though?"
"My Grandfather survived the war, and he''d always tell me the horrors they faced, entire battalions wiped out with a single spell. The forest itself turned against them. All because of greed. I''ll be damned if some greedy lesser noble dooms our entire race."
"Heavy..."
"Sorry, Roderick. Forgive a slightly paranoid old man." Harris said, then smiled, "It''s not all doom and gloom. If she bes a sessful adventurer, perhaps we can get a foot in the door on getting the elves to sign on with the adventurers guild."
"That''s quite an ambition for someone who said he was looking forward to retirement."
They bothughed at that.
Chapter 68: Leaving Town
Chapter 68: Leaving Town
After grabbing all our supplies, we headed back to the inn for a farewell party, although I found out that the rest of Roderick''s team would also being to defend the rear caravans, so it wasn''t really goodbye yet. There was plenty of drinking, and they convinced me to partake in the fiery beverage. I only relented since I had my partial fire immunity.
After the party, I fooled around with my mimicry. I wasn''t going to be able to use it much while on this caravan, unfortunately, as I needed to keep up my disguise for a bit longer. I enjoyed thepany, and they were fun to be around helpful, and genuinely kind individuals, but I craved being unrestrained.
For my adventurer disguise, I was happy being basically a pure elf, as it had the most benefits, but there was one trait I wanted from the human profile.
Greatly increase the speed and ease of learning new traits and skills.
This trait has no levels.>
It took a bit of trial and error, and I had to identify myself a few times till I had enough human parts, but my profile still showed my race as an elf. I had high hopes for [Untapped Potential], especially if it worked together with [Prodigy].
<>
Receive extra experience towards improving traits and skills.This trait has no levels.>
My final adventurer loadout was the following:
Elves are deeply in tune with their body and naturally highly agile and dexterous.
Improves reaction speed, agility, and dexterity scaling with trait level.
Prohibits the traits [Enhanced Vitality] or [Enhanced Strength].
One of the chosen paths, the elven archer is to be feared, and their talent with a bow is unparalleled.
Bows will receive a proficiency bonus to uracy and damage based on trait level.
This trait can be activated to mark any visible weak points, and ranged attacks against them will inflict bonus damage based on trait level.
As a mystical race with a unique history and enshrouded in mystery non-elves are affected by a minor charm condition when interacting with an elf.
The charm sess rate scales with trait level but is always restricted to minor effects, such as making the elf seem more presentable, their words more enticing, and their appearance more attractive.
As the guardians of nature and to represent their heritage, all elves canmunicate with nts and non-magical animals.
The level of understanding and the willingness to offer aid is based on trait level.
[Mana Sight LV 6]
[Enhanced Agility LV 6]
[Lowlight Vision]
[Untapped Potential]
I had tried to copy [Mana Well] or [Enhanced Intellect], but both were unavable. It looks like the fused trait [Soul Mastery] prevented me from doing so. Strangely, I could copy [Enhanced Agility] despite it being somewhat baked into [Elven Reflexes]. I thought I''d keep it for now and see if I noticed any difference.
[Lowlight Vision] was unranked, so potentially, I would be unable to earn it from what Dewi had said, but I thought I''d still try. I threw my leftover trait budget into [Nature Commune] just in case someone asked me to speak to a nt or something to prove I''m an elf. I would have liked to have grabbed [Thick Skin] from hobgoblins, but it was highly noticeable and would ruin my built-up disguise.
''Once I''ve gotten some more practice with custom spells, I''ll probably keep some points in reserve for things like [Enhanced Fangs], then channel it through a [Psuedopod] and pretend it is [Water Magic].''
Before I went to bed, I made sure to spend [Slime Conversion] and deposit away the slime. My storage felt rather full when I realized I still had an absurd amount of water stored away from my magic practice.
''I guess I can''t me Gramps for being forgetful, as I''m guilty myself.''
I woke up to my two newest [Sub-Cores] leveling up together. I was eager for them to catch up and then finally all progress together.
''As great as it is to have more of them, I think I might have gone a little overboard. I probably should hold back on more and focus on quality. I''m sure Alpha is dying to reach level five.''
I went downstairs and received a bear hug from Trevor when saying my farewells and thanking him for my room and food. His strength was frightening, and if not for [Mana Reinforcement], I think he might have sttered me. He even gave me a bunch of extra food for the trip, as Kurt had told him I had a storage bag with preservation, andmented how I had turned our dungeon trip into a pic.
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I decided to head to the guild as that was our meeting spot, and besides Tabitha, there was nobody else there yet. We chatted a bit, and she offered some advice for once I get my Silver rank, as it seemed she had full confidence in me.
"Since you have stealth and plenty of hunting experience, I''d suggest extermination quests. They give you a target with a general location, and you head out and kill them. If youbine that with your harvesting potential, you can double dip on ie since you''ll be paid for the job done and your resources."
"How does the guild keep track of my kills?"
"If it''s a quest you''ve officially epted, your ne will keep a tally. If it''s something you''ve killed without a quest, then you can bring back a body part from the monster. Most adventurers don''t bother harvesting from weak monsters, so they usually cut off an ear as proof."
"That''s certainly convenient."
"Yeah, we really need to thank our predecessors who keep requesting more features. I shudder to think of having to investigate false quest ims."
Tabitha demonstrated by giving me my escort quest.
"Once you reach Kaerlin, you ask the merchant to confirm the questpletion, and your ne will register it."
"What if he refuses to?"
"It very rarely happens, but if it does go straight to the guild and report it. We take contract breaches very seriously, and a merchant would be stupid to get cklisted from posting quests."
I thanked Tabitha for all the advice as we waited for the others to slowly arrive. Roderick was next, and the three of us casually chatted. I learned that Roderick was engaged, and his fianc¨¦e wanted him to stop risking his life. Which was why he wanted to take over as Guild Master as one of the highest leveled adventurers in the entire town. I got a few pointers for the escort quest as well.
"Wandering monsters are unlikely, as they tend to avoidrge groups. Our main threat will be bandits, which you are to kill on sight." Roderick exined.
"I''m a bit surprised you didn''t mention capturing them."
"No. Thews are very strict with banditry. If you did capture any, then they would be executed immediately. Bandits won''t hesitate to kill you, so you shouldn''t hold back."
"There are sometimes nobles who post quests to capture a bandit leader or deserter so they can make a public execution. But I''d advise against taking those quests with your set of skills." Tabitha added.
Once everyone arrived, we needed to head towards the northern gate to meet with the caravan. Before that, I was approached by Kurt and Tabitha.
"Guess this is goodbye for now. Good luck, Syl. If you need to contact me for advice or questions feel free to reach out through a guild branch. Although any guild staff should be willing to answer your questions, especially once you''re officially Silver rank." Tabitha said and gave me a big hug.
"Thanks for the help, Tabitha. I''m d you put up with all my questions."
"Hey, it''s the least I can do. I''m going to get a big raise once you reach Silver."
Kurt looked at me and gave a cheesy grin and thumbs up, "I''ll catch up and meet you out in the world, Syl! Once I''m Silver, I''m heading out. Try to leave some monsters for me to kill."
Iughed and gave him a hearty pat on the shoulder, "I''ll tell them to look out for Dualde Kurt."
"Damn right!"
The groupughed and also said their farewells. It was a three-day trip, and the group would likely stay in Kaerlin for a bit before returning. When I enquired what we were protecting, I could only groan at the response - slime and mana potions.
The merchant was a portly-looking man named Darius. He was well-mannered and seemed excited by having his caravan protected by Roderick and a rare elven adventurer. If I had my chimeric evolution before joining the guild, I could have created an amalgam disguise for myself and avoided a lot of attention.
''Well, I can always do that when interacting outside the guild.''
"Are bandits really going to want to steal slime?" I asked Roderick, who was seated next to me on one of the wagons.
There were four carriages, with ours at the front. Whitney and Dewi upied the rear carriage. Evan, being a healer, shared one with one of the merchants in the center. Roderick was handling the horse since I had no experience handling animals.
"You''d be surprised,ss. Mana potions can get pricey if they are high quality. More mana means more healing, more spells, more everything. Nobles have their kids chug the things like water so that they can raise their magic skills."
I nodded at the exnation and made sure to keep watch. Perhaps I''d gain some experience with [Perception]?
"Keep your eye out, but I don''t think we will see anything till tomorrow. Too close to town. So you can rx a bit." Roderick said.
It was boring, so I had plenty of time to practice [Mana Maniption] while looking around. The asional conversation with Roderick was wee, and I was looking forward to camp tonight when I could discuss some magic with Dewi.
"So why are you out and about, if you don''t mind me asking?"
I couldn''t be honest here, but Gramps'' suggestion did resonate with me, "I want to explore the world and fight a ton of interesting monsters. Learning more about magic seems interesting, so I might visit the guild that Dewi keeps going on about. I also want to go see the Dwarven Empire."
"That''s quite the bucket list you''ve got there. Sounds like being an adventurer is the ticket to all of that. If you do visit the dwarves, a quick way to get into their good books is to offer them a good drink. The stronger, the better."
"Thanks. I appreciate all the advice you and your group have given me."
"I can''t speak for the others, but I like raising new adventurers. It''s why when I got asked to dial back on the adventuring, I knew raising the next generation would be my new goal."
"Like Kurt and myself?"
"Yeah, Kurt''s getting there. Lad''s certainly got the determination. I''d have him join our team officially if we weren''t disbanding. Feels like a disservice to have him join only for a few months."
"That''s a shame. Your group works well together."
"Yeah, but when we got together, we knew we all had greater ambitions than being adventurers in a small town. Dewi wants to join the Mages Guild as if that wasn''t obvious. Evan''s being recruited by one of therger temples and wants to spread the healing around. Whitney''s n is private, so you''ll have to ask her."
The rest of the day was uneventful, as Roderick had expected. We stopped to make camp. After showing me the supplies Tabitha had purchased for me, Roderick taught me the basics of setting up the small tent. I then had the group exin how they usually did watch rotations during the night to avoid ambushes.
''Well, when I''m solo, I''ll just melt a hole to hide in. Much safer than all this.''
Chapter 69: Caravanning
Chapter 69: Caravanning
During the evening, I had some magic tutoring with Dewi. I showed him my empowered [Fire Arrow] and [Acid Dart] as well as the modifications I had managed with [Water Whip]. He seemed reluctant to critique my customization of the water spell and was upset that I hadn''t given the same love to my fire spell.
"Empowering a spell is a rather basic customization, and the sheer quantity you are maintaining without causing the spell to unravel is impressive. I''m just upset you haven''t tried to tinker with it in other ways." Dewi bemoaned.
"She only recently got fire magic, though." Evan countered.
"I know..."
"I''m open to suggestions. When I saw the whip spell, it was rtively simple toe up with the idea of adding a ball ofpressed water on the end. I''m basically just adding a [Water Ball] at the tip." I exined.
"Who the hell thinks topress water?" Dewi asked.
"It''s what happened when I empowered the [Water Ball] spell," I answered. Obviously, the real inspiration hade from treating the water like slime and my talents there, but I couldn''t admit that.
"Sure, okay. But then, why haven''t you tried to make a fire whip?"
"That sounds like a good idea to burn your hands." Evanmented, "Oh... I''m suddenly realizing what happened to your hair and eyebrows when you first gained magic.""With riskes rewards." Dewi said with a smirk, "Anyway, you could manifest the spell away from your hands. Or perhaps use that bubble spell to make a me shield?"
"Oh sure, surround yourself in the magically fueled fire. What could possibly go wrong?" Evan said, dripping with sarcasm.
I pondered a bit, as it wasn''t a bad idea. Thanks to the red slime core I had eaten, I was practically immune to fire now. Although, it would be a more offensive shield than defensive, as I couldn''t foresee it blocking any attacks.
"I didn''t think I could use a spell from another affinity to construct a new spell. I thought creating a magical whip was something inherently special to water magic."
Dewi chuckled before answering, "Sorry, sometimes you''re such a prodigy and do things so naturally that it''s always surprising when you don''t know the basics."
"I''d hardly call custom spells basic..." Evan shook his head.
"Anyway, think of the spells you''ve learned as patterns. Now, you just need to apply that same pattern to another element. Simple!"
Evan was about to say something before Dewi gagged him by pping his hand across his mouth. His exnation made sense, and I was willing to try, although not in the way he wanted. I took the "pattern" for [Fire Arrow] in my mind and started to build it with water mana. After some trial and error and tweaking, eventually, I had a water arrow floating in my palm.
"See, I told you!" Dewi eximed triumphantly, "Although I was hoping you''d have made a fire whip."
"I''m not. I''d rather keep my hair." Evan said dryly, "Regardless of what insane expectations this hothead has, that is not a simple thing to do."
"Don''t be so dramatic. I was trying to do it the second I got my first Air spell." Dewi scoffed, "Besides, it looks like Syl has a decent level in [Mana Maniption], so I had zero doubt."
Despite Dewi''s begging, I didn''t attempt the fire whip. If the spell went wrong, I didn''t want to exin why I was unharmed by a backfired spell.
I ended up agreeing to take the midnight watch with Whitney, which proved extremely valuable as she gave me some tutoring in [Perception]. However, it brought up some bitter memories of the brief tutoring I received from the goblins. Whitney''s skill must have been extremely high, as, by the end of the shift, I had gained a level up in the skill and two of my traits.
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When I asked her about [Dark Vision] working together with [Perception] she seemed somewhat bitter.
"The final level was a bitch to get, but was totally worth it." Whitney had said.
"You should also be on the lookout for a trait called [Eagle Vision]. From what I heard, it lets you see further, and if you''ve reached max level in a trait like [Dark Vision], then they work in conjunction."
"Did nobody at the guild have it?"
"Nope, not in a small town like ours. If you find it before me, then you gotta show it to me."
Sadly, none of my profiles had the trait; otherwise, I would have shown it to her and purchased it myself. However, I hadn''t eaten any birds since I did the water bath trap back in my early days.
Which also had me wonder if I ate a bird, could I fly now? I had wings from those pond bugs I could try erging, although it sadly would need to wait till I was alone.
"Sure, I don''t mind. Although I hope you''ll reciprocate."
"dly. To be frank, as much as I love the guild, I don''t like how some members hoard knowledge of rare traits and skills."
"Does it happen often?"
"Mostly just thepanies. asionally, there''s a Gold ranker who stumbled upon something amazing and flew through the ranks, but I can at least somewhat understand why they''d be reluctant to share their sess."
"Companies?"
"They are almost like small guilds, or perhapsrge parties would be more appropriate. They form groups amongst their own, provide private training, some even have their own contracted crafters."
During our watch, I did manage to spot some wolves lurking in the dark, thanks to [Thermal Vision], and easily dispatched them by sniping them with some long-range [Acid Dart] spells. They were low-level and hardly worth the experience, but with them skulking around our camp, it was clear they had ill intent.
''Wow. Things have changed if I''m considering leaving behind low-level monsters. Past me wouldn''t ignore any source of experience or slime mass.''
I deposited them and harvested them when I had the privacy of my tent. I had taken each wolf out with a single spell aimed at the head, which ruined most of their fangs.
"Note to self: acid magic is bad if you want to keep harvestable materials."
During breakfast, we all debriefed our watches. Other than the few wolves I had spotted, there was nothing noteworthy.
"With all the death recently, I can imagine the forest is starting to swarm with new life." Roderick had mentioned.
"Should keep the rust ranks busy. Maybe our town will finally have more than ten silvers." Dewi chuckled.
It was about midday when I noticed something up ahead blocking the road. I climbed up to the top of the wagon to get a better vantage point and noticed what appeared to be a makeshift barricade. I reported it to Roderick.
"That''s rather brazen of them," Roderickmented, looking a little surprised.
"Should I go ahead of the caravan and destroy the barricade?"
"You could. But it might be a trap to leave the caravan defenseless."
"I guess the other option is to proceed as a group, and I take out anyone that approaches."
"More reasonable than leaving the caravan alone. Remember that is your quest goal. Lots of adventurers tend to get hotheaded and rush after glory."
"Actually, I have an idea too. Dewi did say I should practice some custom spells."
During one of our conversations, Dewi mentioned that elemental magic had a benefit over others in that you utilize existing materials to cast your spells. Normally, this was used to save mana, as it was far cheaper than creating water from scratch.
"Fire and Water is lucky in that it is rather cheap to cast, even if you create it. Although, Air is the ultimate in efficiency as it''s everywhere. Casting Earth magic from scratch, however, is extremely expensive." Dewi had said.
I nned to create a custom version of the [Bubble] spell on each caravan. Being ssified as a buff spell, it would maintain itself until sufficiently damaged or its duration expired. I also still had a stupid quantity of water in my storage, which I now could put to good use. I went to the rear caravan for my first cast, which the rest of the group watched curiously.
I didn''t care about the mana savings and wanted to get rid of the excess water, but it would simplify the spell a little if I could skip the creation portion. As I withdrew the water, I immediately started casting the spell, grabbing my [Sub-Cores] to help with the assistance. The formation flowed effortlessly with the backing of my five helpers, and I even added extra density to the water and some mana reinforcement since I had so much leeway with the spell. I likely could have made it even more impressive, but I worried about going too far.
The spell snapped into ce and formed a clear bubble focused on the caravan,rge enough to epass the entire entity and include the horses. I was honestly very happy with the results. I exined that it would follow the focus point and that projectiles could easily pass outwards. I also exined that in the dungeon, it could easily block skeletons but not zombies, although I wasn''tpletely sure about the strength of this modification.
"Damn... I was worried about her being corrupted, but I forgot about myself." I overheard Dewi mumbling.
"What do you mean?" Whitney asked.
"Kurt was right. These water spells are pretty awesome."
"Guess you should swap your experience distribution and get Water affinity next." Whitney chuckled.
I cast the spell on the remaining two caravans, each now protected by a bubble, before finally going to my caravan and casting it. I didn''t want to test whether I could modify the spell to allow entry after casting it, so I just saved ours forst.
"Very impressive spellwork there," Roderickmented when I returned, "and good thinking."
"I think I might have identally converted Dewi to Water magic," I said with a chuckle.
"Now that is bloody hrious."
I took position on top, on the lookout for any approaching danger. Roderick had warned me not to hesitate if anyone approached, and I said I''d melt the barricade once we got close enough.
"I''m just d you didn''t say you''d immediately explode it with a fireball. Dodging burning debris raining down is not fun."
Chapter 70: Bandits
Chapter 70: Bandits
The caravan continued down the road as the crude blockade approached. Syl stood atop warily, looking around for any approaching hostiles. Roderick almost felt sorry for whatever brigands decided to ambush the merchants, as they likely had no idea what they were dealing with. Roderick had seen an impressive magic cast like this before, so he was no stranger to the wonders possible through enough mana and dedication, but never had he witnessed it used so casually. When they were within shouting range of the barricade, a lone man stood atop it and shouted at the group.
"Surrender your goods, and we''ll let you live!" He demanded.
"Do I offer them surrender?" Syl whispered.
"You can, but they are dead either way. Banditry receives the death penalty, and they know that." Roderick answered.
She seemed to think for a brief moment before nodding and raising her hand. Multiple luminescent green magic darts formed and fired rapidly at the barrier.
"Shit! Fire at will, men!" The man screamed before one of the projectiles struck him.
From behind the barricade, arrows began to rain down, but all the projectiles harmlessly bounced off the bubble spell. Tarps began to lift off, with men hiding in the holes. Roderick overheard Syl muttering aint about her [Perception] skill not being high enough. Roderick was ready to intervene but halted when he saw a ball of water flying toward one of the holes. Despite its small size, when it collided, it erupted into a massive torrent of water, flinging the bandits across the ground, and one body even bounced off the bubble.
"Gods. So much water in such a tiny ball. No wonder she''s tempting Dewi." Roderick chuckled.
Syl cast her spells with brutal efficiency, and Roderick was rapidly beginning to understand why Harris was so concerned. This was one elf who had seemingly never touched magic before. Imagine what a Grand Magus or Archwizard could do.''I''m d she''s on our side.''
A few bandits reached one of the bubbles, but their attacks couldn''t prate the magic defense. Roderick noted that they were barely above level five. Syl took out the ones near the bubbles with arrows from her enchanted bow. Roderick thought the dungeon must have sensed her former archery skills and rewarded her appropriately as the deadly bow took life after life with ease.
''I bet those archery skills took out the Forest King. I''d almost say it''s scarier than her magic, with how she hasn''t missed a vital point.'' Roderick thought to himself.
"Come on, Syl, where''s the fire magic?" Dewi shouted nonchntly.
"I''m worried it might damage the bubbles!" Syl responded, finishing off thest meleebatant.
The remaining bandits were cowering behind the rapidly melting remains of their barricade.
"We surrender!" one of the men screamed, dropping to his knees.
Syl turned towards Roderick with a questioning look, but he shook his head.
''I''m d she has a conscience, even if it is bandit scum. I hope nobody takes advantage of her goodwill.'' Roderick thought.
He was also relieved that she took the quickest method to execute them, an arrow to a critical vital. Some adventurers liked to drag it out, which was unfortunately understandable when you''d witnessed some of their more gruesome crimes, and Syl could easily do that with her corrosion magic.
Once thest of the bandits were dealt with, Syl melted down thest of the barricade and then washed away any remaining acid from the path. Roderick was about to question why she was doing that when he realized it might have harmed the animals or even damaged the caravan.
''Well, she''s certainly getting full marks.'' He thought with a chuckle.
"I think that''s all of them. I can''t sense any others." Syl said, looking around.
"You got all of them. I''m a little sad you didn''t notice the tarps covered in dirt. If you didn''t set up the barriers beforehand, I might have had to intervene." Whitney answered.
Everyone helped loot the bandits and gathered the remains together for a pyre. Syl''s fire kept going out unless she maintained it with mana, so Dewi stepped in and cast a higher-level fire spell, which scorched the remains into ash.
"If you leave too many corpses, there''s a chance they will rise as undead if there''s too much essence in an area," Roderick exined when Syl questioned why they were burning the bodies.
The rest of the day''s journey was uneventful. Darius and his staff had thanked Syl profusely for the protection and watched in awe when she dispelled all four bubbles in a burst of water upwards that left a small rainbow.
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When the coast was looking clear, Dewi even walked alongside the caravan to hound Syl for an exnation of her water explosion spell. The exnation ofpressing water went over Roderick''s head, but Dewi seemed entranced by the exnation. Dewi proposed that maybe she actually was raising the concentration of water mana, but Syl just shrugged and said it felt likepression to her.
''Thank the Gods I''m not a mage.'' Roderick chuckled to himself.
In return, Dewi gave an exnation on manipting Fire mana and what he''d managed to do so far. Again, the conversation went over his head, but both seemed pleased with the knowledge transfer.
''To think she''s cooling down our resident hothead when he was trying to convert her to a pyromaniac.'' Roderick chuckled to himself.
Syl dly volunteered for thete watch with Whitney again to get some more [Perception] tutoring. Her diligence was outstanding, and Roderick could only hope that when he joined the guild staff, he''d get such enthused future adventurers.
It was just his party around the campfire, he wanted to hear their opinions on the attack. Syl might be able to overhear them, as it was rumored that those pointy ears could hear a pin drop, but he wasn''t concerned if she did.
"So. What did everyone think of her job?" Roderick asked, breaking the ice.
"Perfect marks from me. Any fight without a single injury is a blessing." Evan responded honestly.
"The only thing I could knock her on was not spotting the hidden bandits or the scouts that spotted us beforehand. But considering her precaution with the shields, it was irrelevant, and as soon as she gets some more levels in [Perception], it''ll be a non-issue." Whitney responded.
"Overwhelming magical superiority." Dewi dered, "Theck of fire was disheartening, but as Syl herself said, it might have disturbed the shielding since they are opposite elements. I''d have no problem dealing with that many bandits, but not so cleanly or quietly."
"I liked that she swapped to a bow when they got too close to the bubble. She didn''t want to risk her magic breaking it." Evan added.
"Her bow work was amazing. When we were gathering the dead, I noticed every single hit was a vital shot." Whitney added.
Dewi was about to open his mouth, but she beat him to the punch, " , don''t tempt her away from magic." Whitney said with a cheeky smirk, "Her magic shield protected everyone. Nobody is going to try to sway her, but this helps exin how she dealt with so many forest monsters."
"Indeed. This was beyond her demonstration when we were against the wolves." Roderickmented.
"Well. We gave her a junk bow, and she was recently a prisoner. Can''t exactly me her for not being her best." Evan pointed out.
"Kurt said she was looking into skill fusions like Attack Mastery." Whitney answered, "If they fused for a higher rank, it might exin the better performance."
"Ranged, uracy, Magic..." Dewi started counting off with his fingers, "Melee?"
"With how much Kurt was bragging about those water ils, no doubt," Whitney answered.
Dewi whistled, "Must be some nice bonuses all added together."
"So you''ve heard our thoughts. What about you, Roderick?" Evan asked.
Roderick sighed. He wasn''t happy because hisint sounded like nitpicking or attacking her character, but it was a truth in the harsh world, "My only concern is that she''s too naive. When the bandits surrendered, she wanted to give them mercy. I worry that attitude will lead to her being taken advantage of, or worse, a knife to the back."
There was silence from the group while they pondered Roderick''s words. The first to break the silence was Evan, "I agree. She''s probably better off working solo jobs or auxiliary roles in bigger operations than joining a dedicated group."
"Yeah, I can imagine some asshole not sharing the loot with her, and she''d think it was normal. The guild automatically splits quest rewards, but any bonus loot or treasure is unmoderated." Whitney added with a hint of frustration, "Running solo would certainly let her put her stealth skills to use as well."
"And then she doesn''t have to worry about coteral damage." Dewi said nonchntly, "As much as I love you guys, not needing to worry about st radiuses is so much fun."
That earned him a p from Whitney, although mostly in jest. They continued to chat throughout the night. About their ns in Kaerlin and teasing Roderick about his uing wedding. Until Whitney excused herself to take a nap before her watch was due.
I woke up eager for my watch duty with Whitney. The day had felt like a bust, and I gained almost nothing from that encounter, so I hoped to salvage something with some [Perception] tutoring. All the bandits put together gave me one ss level, and even my customized bubble spell hadn''t leveled up my water magic. My single ss level didn''t even give me a revtion.
''Well, at least I proved it was possible to improve the spell. And at least the chat with Dewi was fruitful.''
Dewi had pointed out that another way to modify a spell was to split it into multiple projectiles. So far, my spell modifications have only conformed to the principle "bigger is better.". I would have thought multiple projectiles would have fallen under multicasting and Dewi admitted he also had the same thought until he reached [Fire Magic LV 6] and received the spell [Fireflies], which created hundreds of tiny little mes with a single casting.
"When I first got the spell, I had thought I got scammed." Dewi had admitted, "I mean, the previous level was [Fireball]! I was expecting something with more oomph, but then I realized I was being taught the building blocks of splitting a single spell into multiple projectiles."
He demonstrated this by forming five fire arrows in a single casting. I had tried to replicate it by forming two water orbs, but it was tricky even with me observing it firsthand. Dewi had hoped that by showing it to me early, I''d find some sess before one of my learned spells installed the knowledge directly.
Likewise, he couldn''t wrap his head aroundpression, as it baffled him, and even when I demonstrated it to him multiple times, he couldn''t replicate it. He also said what I was doing seemed physically impossible, but it was happening right in front of him - so he couldn''t deny it. He also theorized that, in reality, I waspressing the water mana and not the physical water.
''It''s too bad I couldn''t just tell him that I had gotten the inspiration from my old [Slime Density] trait.'' I thought bitterly.
I did wonder if I''d ever feelfortable enough revealing my actual race to someone. Would they believe me if I said I won''t go evolution crazy? Maybe I could build up a positive reputation in the guild. Or the alternative is to get strong enough that revealing myself wouldn''t put me at risk.
''Well, that''s for future me to worry about.''
Chapter 71: Silver Rank
Chapter 71: Silver Rank
This time, our evening watch went uninterrupted by wolves, and the night seemed peacefully calm. I graciously received more advice and tutoring from Whitney on my [Perception] skill, and she also said tomorrow, since an attack was unlikely, she would give me some locks and tools to practice [Rogue Expertise] on.
During thest leg of the journey, Roderick agreed to swap seats with Whitney, and I got to work on trying to pick the locks. After seeding a few times, she handed me a strange metal object and instructed me to dismantle it and then put it back together. It took a lot of trial and error, but eventually, I was sessful and instantly rewarded.
The tutoring bonus was no joke, and after discussing it with Whitney a bit, she also said she was exploiting the first-time bonus.
"Whenever I meet a new smith, I ask them to make a lock and ask if they have any cksmith puzzles. No matter their skill level, it''s triggering the first-time bonus."
I thanked Whitney for the valuable nugget of information, but she brushed it off, saying it was the least she could do after I supplied her with such fine daggers.
Eventually, Kaerlin came into sight, and it was massive. I stared in awe at the city, which seemed circr in design and surrounded by an outer and inner wall. Whitney exined that since Kaerlin didn''t have a dungeon to regte essence flow, there was a lot more monster activity, so the city required much sturdier fortification.
We had to show our guild tags at the gate to gain entry, and unfortunately, I was attracting a lot of unwanted attention. I seriously needed to consider creating a human disguise. Before we left for the guild, Darius and Roderick approached me.
Darius thanked me profusely for protecting his shipment and wondered if I''d be willing to be hired for the return journey in a week. Roderick politely refused for me and said that his group would dly take the quest. Darius seemed a bit disappointed but eventually marked my job done.
I was surprised that I didn''t even need to return to the guild to be paid, although we were still going there to report in and for me to receive my Silver promotion. During the trip, Roderick exined that one of the reasons for the quest system behaving like this was to reward any final heroic deeds. Since your guild savings could be left behind in a will to your next of kin, it could encourage someone to give ast-ditch effort to defeat a disastrous monster."Doesn''t that encourage people to be suicidal?" I questioned.
"Possibly for some truly desperate. But the intent was that if you were going to die anyway, rather go out in a ze of glory than a quiet whimper." Roderick said proudly.
Kaerlin was cram-packed with people - it actually made me feel ufortable. I followed the group closely to avoid losing them in the crowd. The adventurers guild was located against the inner wall, supposedly for the convenience of the city''s inner circle inhabitants. The building was massive, easily dwarfing the town''s branch. The group chuckled at my surprise.
"This isn''t even one of the biggest guilds." Dewi pointed out.
We entered and officially reported our arrival, which was the polite and rmended thing to do when first arriving. Then, the others went to find an inn, leaving only me and Roderick behind. Roderick took me to the second floor, where we sat inside a well-decorated room and waited for a guild staff member to arrive.
Thankfully, we didn''t wait too long before a tall woman with short raven ck hair entered the door. I estimated she was older than Roderick but younger than Harris. Although her armor looked light, it brimmed with mana, and sheathed at her waist was a long and thin de. I could see it crackling with a thick and yellow mana.
''Wow, the guild doesn''t joke around if it can crank out high levels like this.''
Both she and Roderick immediately cracked smiles at seeing one another and embraced in a friendly hug.
"Roderick, you bastard, good to see you still kicking around!"
"I''ve still got a few quests left in me before I settle down for my desk job."
"I still think you should at least get to Gold, but I guess slime town doesn''t mind."
"Hey, you won''t be mocking slime town soon when our Silvers go loose on the world."
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
"Well, that''s certainly one way to increase your guild master''s sry."
She then turned to me and gave me a lookover.
"And fate dropped an elf on your doorstep. I swear the other guilds are going to be livid at your luck for getting her to register."
Roderick must have been channeling Kurt and Whitneybined as he gave the smuggest grin before replying, "Oh, you have no idea."
"I''m Lisa. Nice to meet you." She said, offering a handshake.
I got up to shake her hand, "Syl. Nice to meet you, Lisa."
We all reseated ourselves, and Roderick handed over some documentation to Lisa. She took a moment to read it.
"Very nice. You more than qualify for Silver rank, and both Harris and Roderick are backing you." She said, "Also, it''s nice to see another hybrid ss, as I got a lot of ck for picking one myself. It''s always nice to prove others wrong."
"I''m assuming Warrior and Mage rather than Rogue like my own," I questioned.
"Yeah. My parents wanted me to be a Mage since I had Lightning Affinity. But I couldn''t meet the expectations of the Mage''s Guild, so I became an adventurer. I was always strong and liked swords, so I decided to be a warrior, and my party was grooming me to be their tank. One thing led to another, and I ended up unlocking Spellde. I took it and was kicked out of the party, did some solo adventuring, built a name for myself, thennded up running this joint."
"Are hybrid sses that hated that you''d be kicked out just for picking one?"
"No, but I was the sixth member and specifically recruited because they expected me to eventually fulfill the tank role. I''ve never had my ss offer me a [Taunt] skill, and even though I could get someone to show it to me, I wouldn''t be able to fit the role anymore. I honestly can''t me them for kicking me."
"Yeah, the healer and tank role is crucial in long-term groups. There can be plenty of politics, drama, and poaching." Roderick added, "You''re lucky in that regardss, although unfortunately, I can imagine many parties trying to recruit you just for the wow factor of having an elf on their team."
"I can see why Whitney rmended I stay solo for a while," I muttered. Roderick nodded in agreement.
"It worked for me. Considering you also soloed a dungeon, I can easily see it working for you." Lisa said, "Plus, most Rogues hate when they can''t sneak past things due to their noisy party."
Roderick gave a brief rundown of what happened during our trip. Lisa nodded along and then smiled as she reached into her pouch and pulled out a silver chain attached to an ornate-looking crystal.
"Well, I''ve heard enough. Wee to Silver rank, Syl. Here''s your new tag." She said happily and mmed it down on the table, "Now pull out your old tag so we can transfer it over."
I pulled out my tag and ced it next to the new one. The cheap coppery chain was easily noticeablepared to the silver, and the crystal was noticeably smaller andcked any engravings or sigils. With a casual wave of her hand, both crystals shone bright. The old crystal was the first to go dark, followed shortly by the new one.
"And you''re officially promoted to Silver," Lisa said, gesturing for me to im the new tag.
I picked it up and promptly wore it. I also made sure to update my equipment profiles to use the new ne. Lisa briefly went over the benefits of my new tag. It could hold up to three quests, be used to make transactions, and most shockingly of all, interact with the [Mapping] skill. If my quest had a location or area in particr, I could filter that info into [Mapping]. At my current level, it would only give a sense of direction, but Lisa saidter levels of the skill gave a visual map. Likewise, if I were in a party with other Silver-ranked or above members, they would appear on my [Mapping] skill.
"If this is what I get for Silver, I can''t imagine what Gold or tinum get."
"I won''t spoil the surprise," Lisa said with a wink.
Silver also came with other benefits. I would have a higher selection of quests avable and be granted entry to any guild-managed higher-level dungeons. I could also ess the guild''s knowledge library, although some of it was restricted to higher ranks, and could make requests of the guild''s craftsman, information brokers, and so forth. The rates were usually cheaper than third parties, but sometimes, you simply had to go elsewhere if you wanted truly unique or specialized services.
"I''m assigning Luke to be your handler while you are here. He''s a little on the young side, but he grew up here, and is a polite hard worker. When youe in tomorrow, ask one of the receptionists for him." Lisa said, "Any quests in particr you''re interested or specialized in?"
"I''d say monster extermination, especially any with rare or harvestable parts," Roderick informed.
"Oh? Someone actually bothered to learn the [Dissection] skill?" Lisa asked with intrigue.
Roderick let out a heartyugh, "Lass, you gotta show her. I bet you''ll blow her mind."
I shrugged and pulled out a few of the harvested wolf parts, and the Gigatoad hide. I wanted to sell my parts anyway so I could potentially buy a slime core. Lisa looked frantically between the materials and stared at me.
"Good prank, Roderick," Lisa said with a chuckle.
"It''s no prank. I gave her a carcass, and a few momentster, she popped out with it harvested. She even somehow salvaged the fur."
"A looting skill?" Lisa mumbled to herself.
"Looting skill?" I questioned.
"An extremely rare skill given by the Gods. Usually at birth or by doing some major aplishment." Lisa answered, "It turns monster corpses into treasure, but can only be done shortly after their death before their essence leaks out."
I shook my head before answering, "That sounds amazing, but I don''t have anything like that. I can''t give the details, but it involves [Dissection]." I answered.
"I can confirm that, as the corpse I gave her was already starting to rot," Roderick added.
"Why the hell are you even bothering with adventuring?" Lisa answered with utter honesty.
"I want to explore the world. Not to mention the experience." I answered.
"Spoken like a true adventurer." Roderickughed.
I ended up dumping all my materials onto the table, as Lisa said the guild would pay for it all. I still kept the evolved badger and bear parts as I''d nned to hand those in after doing some questing, so other than the Gigatoad, it was just a few bear, boar, and wolf parts. Lisa said I could expect it to all be deposited into my ount promptly.
We finally left the guild and started walking to the nearby inn where we would be staying. Roderick had said it was a little pricier but worth it for the safety and convenient proximity to the guild. Also, much to my disappointment, he admitted that the food was not as good as Trevor''s.
''Damn...''
Chapter 72: Books
Chapter 72: Books
We had a bit of a celebratory dinner at the inn for my promotion. Roderick''s retelling of Lisa''s reaction was full of amusement, and the rest of his partyughed along.
Whitney asked if we would be questing together while they were in the city, but Roderick had advised against it. He said that regardless of my actual contributions, it would be seen as their party babysitting me and would be bad for his and Lisa''s reputation for approving my promotion.
Iy down in my bed and sighed. Everything since the goblins had felt like a rushtely, although part of that was my fault for rushing into the dungeon. Part of me wondered if I should try to tell them the truth, Whitney might ept it, as she seemed closer to me than the others for some reason. Dewi was another candidate, as his fascination with magic and knowledge might be enough to sway him. I could even try to bribe him with mana potions.
Using [Identify] on my tag revealed my name and rank, likely to avoid people faking it by swapping the chain. Progressing through the guild seemed to hold a lot of benefits, and their interactions with the system and skills were fascinating. Could I make myself so reputable that my true origins wouldn''t even matter? The counter to that would be that I''d be so valuable I couldn''t be allowed to roam free.
When I woke up, I skipped breakfast, as this inn didn''t include it with the room. The others hadn''t woken up yet, so I headed to the guild to see if I could meet Luke and find an interesting monster to eat. I asked the receptionist to meet him, but apparently, his shift wouldn''t start for another hour. I instead asked if I could see the library, and after confirming my Silver rank, they led me to arge room filled with books.
I was introduced to the librarian and stared in shock at the shortest man I''d ever seen. He had a wispy ck beard that nearly touched the floor and was stout and built like a rock.
''A dwarf!'' I thought to myself.
"Gods, an actual elf left the bloody forest!" The dwarf interrupted my thoughts, "I thought I had drank too much when I heard the rumors yesterday."
He pped himself as if to check that he wasn''t still drunk, then blinked a few times, examining me closely."Nope. You''re real, or I''m dead drunk."
"I''m Syl. Nice to meet you."
"Fuck, and you''re polite? Aren''t all you tree huggers hoity toity with a twig up your arse?" He pped himself again.
I could only stare in confusion as the dwarf continued to p himself. I wasn''t sure if beating yourself up could sober you up. I recalled Roderick telling me that dwarves loved alcohol, so I withdrew one of my canteens inside myself and added a hefty amount of ethanol to the contents, then faked withdrawing it from my pouch. I offered the canteen to the dwarf.
"What''s this pigwash you''re offering me?" He asked, taking a big sniff, and his eyes widened in surprise, "And you know dwarf custom as well? I must be dreaming."
He took a swig and stumbled. I immediately cursed mentally. Did I screw up? I mean, it wasing from a traitbeled [Poison Slime]. While my mind was frantically going through escape ns and disposing of the evidence, the dwarf corrected himself and looked at me with a big grin stered on his face.
"Gods, that''s a powerful drink, no vor, and pure kick." He said with a hearty chuckle and took another swig, followed by pping his desk repeatedly.
"I feel like a mule just kicked me in the head!" He said, although, despite his words, he seemed pleased.
''Who the hell wants a mule to kick them in the head?''
"If you''re drinking this stuff, I swear you must be a reincarnated dwarf trapped in an elf body." He said, giving a hearty chuckle, "At first I didn''t like how it sticks to the back of the throat, but I think its growing on me. Honestly its extremely thick like trying to drink custard. I guess maybe that''s why its so potent."
''Oh... I forgot to lower the density of it, I''m so used topressing my slime automatically now I assume its my default.''
"d you liked it."
"Like it? I love it. I think you give this to any dwarf, and as long as they aren''t a sissy, they''d love it." He pped his belly and gave another heartyugh, "Names Thern. Sorry for being rude earlier. I''d never met an elf before, but my pa did and said it was truly unpleasant."
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
I felt shell-shocked at how quickly his attitude flipped. One minute, he was cursing at me, and after just a few sips, he was still cursing, but now I was like his best friend. I''d need to thank Roderick for his advice.
"Nice to meet you, Thern. You''re the first dwarf I''ve ever met, so I didn''t know what to expect. But an adventurer friend advised me to break the ice with alcohol."
"Ha! I''d kiss your friend if I ever met him. Damn good advice. So, what can I do for you?"
"I''m looking for information on slimes. Locations, preferably nearby, so I can hunt them. Also, information on any that can be used as mana catalysts."
"Slimes, hey? Interesting... They do make good catalysts since they are usually very pure, although killing one while keeping the core intact is tough."
He pulled out a ledger and started going through it. He confirmed my rank and then started marking down books. In the end, he gave me three books. Two seemed to be sort of a bestiary of monsters, and the final book was a rudimentary introduction to mana catalysts.
"There are more, but sadly you''re limited by your Silver rank."
"Speaking of silver, I heard the slimes can be used to make earth catalysts."
"Ha! As if anyone would be dumb enough to use them for that." Thern chuckled, then noticed I wasn''t joining in on theughter, "You''re serious?"
"Yes. I''d really like to get a silver core."
Thern scratched his beard, "I mean... If it''s just a core and not a live slime..." He started murmuring and pulling more and more at his beard, "Maybe if you had barrels and barrels of this alcohol."
"How many barrels." I immediately answered, "I can make it happen."
Thern seemed a bit shocked at my sudden answer. He scratched his beard deep in thought, "At least ten, possibly twenty..."
"Done."
"Calm down, girl! Bloody hells." He shook his head and took another swig, "Look... I''m not exactly high up in the dwarvenmunity, but my pa has some connections. I was nning on going home for a vacation in two months, but I could push it back to three months and take you along."
"I''d love to visit the Dwarven Empire." I replied excitedly, "Why push it back, though?"
"Well, if you can make Gold rank in two months, I won''t have to."
"Why would I need to be Gold rank, though?"
"The empire doesn''t let non-dwarf adventurers enter unless they are at a minimum Gold rank or a nonbat ss. Dems the rules. You''ll also need to grease a few palms, and being Gold would go a long way to help that."
"I guess I''ll have to speak to Luke about that."
"Good n. Luke''s a good kid."
I spent the next while rapidly paging through the books, using all my cores to search for any mention of the word slime. The catalyst book sadly didn''t go beyond the basic elements, and slime catalysts were absent beyond water and fire. Us blue slimes could be used as a water catalyst, but the authormbasted it as extremely wasteful and would harm the mana potion industry.
The first bestiary dealt with Iron to Bronze rank monsters, and it only mentioned blue, green, and purple slimes. The blue entry included a detailed description of how to capture one and transport it safely. I had to resist the urge to destroy the page. For the other book, it mentioned red, white, and yellow. I found it a bit odd it didn''t mention silver and pink. I was getting a little disappointed until, near the end, there was a page on orange slime. I eagerly read it.
Orange slimes are exclusively found in Silver-rank and above dungeons and are currently rated an upper Silver-rank threat. Orange slimes do not engage directly and insteady traps by coating areas of the dungeon in their slime mass, which they can remotely detonate at will. The slime is usually a dull orange when inert and glows brightly when detonation is imminent.
DO NOT walk over orange slime patches, even if you feel the slime is far away, as they have an innate tremor sense and can feel your steps throughout the dungeon. It is rmended to take another path than walk down a trapped hallway. If you must pass through its territory, then sufficient quantities of water can wash away the slime in an emergency. The ideal solution is using Ice spells, which will render it permanently inert by freezing it.
Initially, they were considered a Gold-rank threat but were reduced as they don''t actively hunt outside their territory and can be entirely avoided with a littlemon sense. Praise the Gods that they do not spawn naturally in the outside world. Currently, there is no known use for their slime or cores.
Another slime I had to add to the list, although perhaps only once I had obtained a white slime and presumably ice magic. Although, if I did encounter one, then I could wash it away. I ced the three books back on the desk with Thern.
"I''m surprised there doesn''t seem to be a slime catalyst for air."
"Perhaps from one of the mutations? Maybe one of the slimes on a floating ind." Thern replied.
"Are there any floating inds nearby?"
"There is one that can float within a few day''s travel of the city. Thankfully, its usual path doesn''t float over the city, or we''d have to worry about monsters raining down on us."
He consulted his ledger, then went for a stack of scrolls and started looking through one, then looked at a calendar. "Should be within range in a week or two. It floats to the West of the city. Good luck chartering a flight."
"How does one usually get to one?"
"The magical route is making good friends with an advanced air mage. Otherwise, a monster tamer who''s tamed arge enough flying beastie."
''Well, I can hopefully just fly myself.''
"Assuming I could find a method, are there any restrictions?"
"No, just getting onto one is trouble enough. They are almost like mini-dungeon ecosystems with all the unregted essence and can be quite dangerous."
"Well. I guess I better start working on getting to Gold. Thanks for the help, Thern."
"Always happy to help someone who shares booze as good as this! I can''t wait to tell my pa we might be having an elf visiting. He''s gonna lose his shit."
I thanked him and let him keep the canteen. I said I''d bring him a refill when I came next to visit, and the pure joy on his face was quite a sight. I left the library and hoped that Luke was finally in.
Chapter 73: Quests
Chapter 73: Quests
I had lost track of time in the library as Luke had arrived for at least an hour or two. I decided I''d ask Luke if there was a skill for keeping track of time, and it would certainly help if I decided to live in a dungeon or cave for a while and eventually return to civilized society. Luke was a short boy, probably no older than fifteen. As if showing the wealth difference between branches, this branch had individual booths engraved with sigils that dampened sounds to prevent eavesdropping. Luke also offered to take me to a private room if I felt the sigils weren''t good enough, although he personally vouched for them.
"So Miss Syl, Master Lisa tells me to emphasize jobs with harvestable monsters, but do you have any preferences or a particr fighting style?" Luke asked, "You can be vague if you want, but it helps to prevent sending a Nature Mage against any monsters with fire abilities or warriors against ghosts, for example. I''m sworn to secrecy, on my honor and Master Lisa''s."
I blinked slowly at the endless wordsing from the boy''s mouth, "No problem, Luke. Offensively, I''ve got Water and Fire magic. I''m also good with sneaking and can use a bow in a pinch."
I decided to keep my Corrosion magic a secret for now. Mostly just to see if the other branch had shared that knowledge with this one. Luke took in my words and nodded as he shuffled through some parchment.
"I think I got one that''s perfect for your Water magic... There''s a small silver mine nearby, which was invaded by a smander." Luke began, "Their scales are worth a lot, although they can be tricky to harvest. The only issue is they breathe fire and can be exceptionally deadly. How good are you at dealing with fire?"
''I mean, I''m practically immune.'' I chuckled to myself.
"Not an issue. I can handle some fire."
"Noted, just be careful. I''d even rmend buying a Fire resistance potion if you don''t have one already." Luke warned, "But thankfully, they are rather weak in vitality, and if you can bypass its defensive scales, they go down rather easy. Drowning it with Water magic is another option."
"Since you are heading in the area, you might as well take a general extermination quest for rock elementals. If you can harvest their mana crystals, they are worth a lot, and the miners will be thankful." Luke also said, pulling out another piece of parchment, "They are slow so easy to deal with by any good mage. Their cores can be a bit fragile, so be careful when you''re harvesting."I couldn''t see any reason not to, so I also epted it. I''d likely kill any monsters whether I had a quest or not, so it was nice to be paid for the effort.
After a moment of looking through his documents, he found a final quest for me, "You''re not scared of spiders, are you?" He asked, and when I shook my head, he smiled, "Since you have Fire magic, these should be easy for you. You can burn their nests and get quite a few easy kills."
"Twenty seems like a big jump in numberspared to the elementals?" I queried.
"Ah yes, this quest is a bit variable; Silver rank spiders will count as five, Bronze will count as two, and Iron will count as one. Your guild tag will allocate them all automatically, so you don''t need to worry about that."
"That''s certainly convenient. Thanks a lot for the quest advice, Luke."
He blushed and gave a cheery smile, "No problem at all, Miss Syl, just doing my job. Do you have any other questions or requests?"
I nodded and asked if there was a skill or trait that helped with keeping track of the time. Luke nodded and fetched an older staff member to show it to me, as since he was so young, he didn''t have the points to spare on a utility skill. The skill was simple; it was called [Time Keeper] and was unranked and thus likely only avable through purchase. The trait felt a little barebone as it told you the current time, and you could also use it to set a timer. I didn''t purchase it, but was d to have the option now.
For my request, I asked if the guild could find me any slime magic catalysts and noted I was looking for Ice and Lightning in particr, although I''d dly take any that wasn''t water. I''d dly take some free levels in any of my other slime traits. Luke nodded and said he''d check in with the supplies and local stores for me, and it would only cost a minor finders fee. I made sure to mention that I''d dly take even a raw slime core, as maybe it would be easier to find than a finished product.
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I thanked Luke for his time and hoped he''d be sessful. I told him to let Lisa and Roderick know I was heading out if they asked for me. When I was leaving the guild, a few adventurers approached me to ask if I wanted to join them on their quests or if I needed any help on mine. Roderick had warned me that this was very likely, not only due to being an elf but also due to my high levels and unique ss.
"Sorry, I''m running solo for a bit until I can establish myself. Thanks for the offers, though. Maybe next time?" I responded, and thankfully, they all seemed to ept that response. I made a mental note to thank Roderick for his advice once again. At least I got two skills out of it, although I had started to ignore Gamma''s constant notifications and promptly raised the levels on the filters to above twenty.
When I activated my [Mapping] skill, I could feel three tugs pulling me northward. Navigating through the city was easier than expected as I continuously walked towards one of therge gates I could see in the distance.
To avoid attention, I used [Vanish] while walking. Whitney had rmended it to me during one of our watchtime conversations as a good way to avoid unwanted attention, as the presence obscuring would work even if I wasn''t actively trying to stealth away.
"It makes the average person sort of overlook you - it''s very convenient. Although anyone with even a smidgeon of [Perception] will see right through you."
I was just d to stop having people staring and pointing at me. When I reached the gate I dropped [Vanish], startling some of themonfolk, and presented my tag to the guards. My silver tag seemed to cause some recognition amongst the guards, and they hastened my exit approval. I found myself wondering what their reaction would be if I was Gold rank.
Once I was beyond the wall, I proceeded at a light jog before eventually sprinting towards my quest marker as if it were a glowing beacon in the distance. If Ipared this to hunting in the forest and randomly looking for prey, it felt like a joke due to the convenience.
''And then they will pay me for doing the job. Not to mention the reward for harvesting it, which I''d do anyway.''
Much to my frustration, people were on the road, so I couldn''t just drop my disguise. I received some waves and cheers as I ran past, clearly showing the poprity of adventurers. Luke had told me I would be traveling north along the road, which then forked towards the mine, and the total travel distance was about half a day''s journey if I walked.
I had the benefit of infinite stamina, but I still hoped I''d eventually get Wind affinity for even speedier travel. Although with [Mana Reinforcement] on my legsbined with my mimicked agility traits, I was already zooming.
Along the path, I saw a group of travelers assaulted byrge greyish creatures. They had snouts andrge tusks on their heads but were fat and humanoid-looking. My immediate thought was they were some strange evolution of boars.
''So those are orcs? Strange and hideous creatures.''
The two guards seemed to be struggling, so I pulled out my bow to aid them. I would have cast a spell, but I was worried about casting into melee. I quickly nocked an arrow and fired it at the eye of one of the orcs. My shotnded perfectly, although the orc barely shrugged at the wound.
"Oi! Some bastard shot my eye!"
"Shut up, Gurk, you still have one more!"
"Get back! I''ll deal with them!" I shouted to the two guards, who seemed relieved at my appearance.
"Look, Bork, it''s a prettydy."
"I can see that, Flurk."
"I can''t."
"Use your other eye, you idiot!"
"...Right, sorry."
I tried firing more arrows, but now that they were looking at me, they blocked their vitals with their arms. The arrows still struck, and I could see the blood, but they just seemed to shrug it off.
"She''s a feisty one, ain''t she?"
"Would make a good wife."
"She''s too small for you two, I call dibs."
"You the smallest. You can''t call dibs."
The humans had thankfully backed away from the orcs during my distraction. I was feeling quite repulsed by these creatures. It was no wonder the humans didn''t trust us monsters if this was what the other intelligent monsters had to offer. The level of intelligence here was highly questionable, though.
The shaman waved his hands andunched a rock at me, which I dodged with a quick sidestep. I then rapidly channeled an empowered [Fire Arrow], aided by my [Sub-Cores], andunched it at the shaman.
"Oi, she''s magic too!" The shaman shouted before the fiery bolt pierced into his chest cavity. He staggered backward and was trying to rip the ming bolt out of his chest. I quickly fired two more and he went down.
"Ha! Can''t call dibs if you dead!" One of the orcs shouted and kicked the smoldering corpse.
"Big talk for such a little guy! Then he goes and dies! Stupid, Flurk!"
"The first one to grab her gets her!" The other orc shouted, hispanion grunted in acknowledgment, and they both charged at me.
I broke out of my momentary stunned confusion and ordered all my cores to form [Fire Arrows] in tandem and fire at will. Magical projectiles continued to barrage the orcs, and they didn''t even bother trying to dodge or anything. Their mindlessck of self-preservation shocked me, and I could only assume it was due to theirck of feeling pain.
The weaker orc died before reaching me, and the other swung his axe, although with such a slow and easily telegraphed attack, it was simple for me to dodge. I continued to dodge his blows, causing him to scream in anger before he finally fell to a few more ming arrows.
''Honestly, I think that was one of the strangest fights I''ve ever had...''
I doused the ming corpse before stuffing it into my storage, then proceeded to repeat the process with the remaining two. I''d eat them once I was off the road and away from witnesses.
The humans tried to thank me for the rescue, but I waved them off and continued towards my quests. I''d wasted enough time with this short distraction, and I didn''t feel like repeating the same song and dance of them being fascinated by an elf.
Chapter 74: Into the Mine
Chapter 74: Into the Mine
I was so eager to get away that I forgot to look at my gains from that fight. I peered over the notifications.
I was very pleased with [Evasion] finally gaining a level, and both Delta and Epsilon closed the gap. Only gaining a single level in ss felt a little disappointing, especially since it had no new revtions. I was feeling the newfound difficulty of raising my race levels now.
Thankfully, there were no further distractions by the time I reached the mining camp, which looked mostly deserted except for a few rather jumpy-looking guards. I introduced myself and said I was with the guild here to exterminate some monsters. After they got over their initial shock, they looked thankful and relieved that someone was finally going to deal with the monsters.
"Usually, the spiders and elementals get cleaned out pretty regrly, but ever since the smander moved in, they''ve been growing in numbers." One of the guards exined.
"No worries. I''ll be dealing with it." I said, shing my Silver tag, which caused them to look very happy, "Please don''t let anyone elsee down. I don''t want them identally getting caught in my magic."
"Of course, Miss Syl, thank you for the warning." They saluted, and after awkwardly copying the gesture, I entered the mine.
My [Dark Vision] immediately kicked in, and I also traded [Nature Commune] for [Thermal Vision]. Once I got a bit deeper, I''d throw away my disguise. I also nked my name and ss, as it felt like as long as I didn''t nk everything on my profile, I''d be gaining at least some benefit from my mimicry levels. If my ss was more generic, it might have been fine to leave it alone. When I got a bit deeper, I withdrew the orcs and devoured them. Like the other humanoid monsters, [Dissection] was silent in valuable parts, and I only kept a single right ear from each orc to show the adventurers guild.
The orc profile suggested they were on par with a hobgoblin, indicating that they spawned naturally as a higher monster tier. I could only assume that was simr to how yellow slime could spawn without originating from the lowest blue slime. I noticed they could not take [Enhanced Intellect] and chuckled to myself a little, as it felt like a severe understatement. The reason for their indifferent attitude to my attacks was they had a racial trait [Pain Suppression], which I had no desire to purchase, but I may borrow it when I decided to work on leveling [Defy Death].
When I entered arger chamber, I felt like I could finally test out wings. I grabbed the wings from the Blood Bugs, erged them, and reinforced them with mana. When I didn''t achieve liftoff, I added an extra pair of wings and reduced my size somewhat. After some trial and error, I managed to get a half-decent hover going. While I was d to finally have some sess with the idea I had so long ago, my gut told me I should seek out stronger wings if I wanted to go higher.Now that I had satisfied my curiosity with the wings, I turned into the Venom Barbed Badger. I was tempted to use the bear matriarch as the base form, but I felt like I might struggle to fit in the mineshafts, and the badger also opened up digging options. I swapped out the badger nose for a wolf one and added some rocky hide for defense, then spawned two tendrils and formed them into the de Wolf tail. I identified myself, curious about what it would even show.
''Simon had said that I should be able to manipte it more since I have a mimicry-rted trait... He didn''t and could already block his name, so I should be able to do more.''
I experimented a little while wandering down one of the passages with a scent. My goal was to remove my name, as monsters normally didn''t have one, so if I was mimicking one, I should be able to remove it rather than block it. I kept mentally poking and prodding my name while trying to mentally prompt it by thinking thoughts of hiding or removing it. I felt like I was on the verge of something, but maybe I needed a bit more levels. One thing I did manage while experimenting with my ss was changing its disy.
''Okay, that''s not my mage level. Is it adding my spellcaster levels together or something? Well, it''s at least better than showing something obscure like Shadowcaster.''
I made a mental note to revisit my name at another point. Meanwhile, in the caves, it appeared I was following a trail for the spiders as I started to find plenty of webbing. The first spider I came across was big and hissed at me as I approached it.
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Iunched a [Fire Arrow] at it, causing it and its surrounding web to light up in a ze. It screeched and iled as it burnt to death. I pulled out my ne from my storage with a tendril and checked my quest progress.
''Okay, so that''s an iron-rank monster.'' I thought and redeposited my ne. I was d it seemed to keep track of my quests despite being in my [Core Storage]. I ate the smoldering remains of the spider, and [Dissection] seemed very disappointed in ack of harvestable parts.
Regrettably, this spider didn''t have a new poison or venom for me to sample, despite its profile hinting at it, but I looked forward to whatever the Bronze or Silver-ranked spiders would have. [Wallcrawling] didn''t seem all that useful, considering I could already do that by manipting my slime adhesion, but at least I gained [Web Spinning]. I killed two more spiders before discovering a new one, which looked slightly smaller and more streamlined.
''Well, that''s quite a mouthful of a name.''
It was remarkably jittery and bounced between the wall, roof, and floor. I imagined it must have a decent [Evasion] skill. During one of its micro-jumps, itunched a globule of venom at me, whichnded directly on my face. I had to give it points for uracy, but it was for nothing as I consumed it with slime.
''Another one for the collection.''
It kept jumping and spitting at me. I tried firing ming arrows at it, but my prediction of it having invested in [Evasion] was proving true. Eventually, it seemed to think I must have been affected by its ailment as it moved in closer and started hopping at me, then jumping away. I noticed that it had little micro legs at the front that unfurled into tiny scythe-like arms that it was slicing at me with.
I thought of overwhelming it with an oppressive number of ming arrows but opted to gather mana and cast [Nova] for its first real offensive use. The spider must have sensed that the attack wasing, as when Ipleted the spell, it retreated with a jump but was still caught in the st radius of the empowered spell. It shrieked and iled on the floor, and I finished it off by grabbing it with tendrils and dragging it into consumption range.
The profile updated, and looking at my quest counter, this counted as a Bronze-rank monster. [Dissection] finally had some work to do and harvested the small little scythe des from its frontward legs. The evolution path was interesting, as it came from a different branch than the giant spider and then further evolved. I also read through the poison''s description, which was a nasty piece of work. The simplest way to describe it was a lethal version of my paralysis poison. I would have thought paralyzing an opponent was enough already to leave someone helpless, but apparently, this spider had other ns.
I kept exploring the tunnel when my mana sight caught something in one of the walls. I finally got to put my digging ws to work and put them to good use, revealing a fist-sized nugget of silver. I gave it a quick identification and appraisal to answer my question.
I had to resist my desire to absorb it, as I was concerned that it wouldn''t retroactively apply to the silver slime trait if I got itter. I reluctantly deposited it and continued my journey through the webbing, asionally burning it away with [Kindle].
I could hear the sounds ofbat echoing through the tunnel. I wondered if the different spider species were fighting one another or if it was another monster. The wolves worked together, but I wasn''t sure if spiders held that same camaraderie, especially between different species branches.
I shrunk my form to a smaller, stealthier size and let [Vanish] do its work. The first monster that I noticed was another jumping spider, lobbing its blobs at something. I also saw the unevolved form of the jumping spider, and instead of lobbing poison, it fired webs in a simr manner. I slowed my pace and sneaked forward more to notice what they were fighting - a pile of rocks.
''So that''s a rock elemental. Guess the spiders aren''t happy with its presence.''
Luke wasn''t joking when he said they were slow. By the time itpleted swinging its rocky limb, the spiders were nowhere near the point of impact. The strength behind the blow was terrifying, shattering the rocky floor with ease. A few giant spiders were hanging from the ceiling and shooting webs at the elemental, seemingly answering my question about them working together.
While they were all distracted, I decided to try an experiment. I lowered tendrils of slime and snaked my way into the room, and while they progressed further in, I started using [Vaporize Slime] and leaking ethanol gas throughout the room. I was tempted to use one of my other poisons, but it would only affect the spiders since the elemental seemed to be shrugging off whatever poisons the spiders were lobbing at it without any care. I kept my tendrils the same color as the floor, and that,bined with [Vanish], seemed to prevent the spiders or the elemental from noticing me.
I continued to watch the fight with amusement while Iid my trap, only asionally moving a tendril out of the way of a spider''snding zone. When I felt like the room was primed I rapidly formed an empowered [Fire Arrow] using all my [Sub-Cores] and flung it at the golem as quickly as possible.
Before I could even think that this might have been a bad idea, the room erupted into an explosion of me that would''ve made Dewi drool with envy. If my ears were real, I think they would have burst. The mineshaft trembled, rocks fell to the floor, and I had a moment of panic where I thought I might be burying myself alive, but then I remembered I could dig myself free with [Acid Slime].
Notifications flooded my mind as I weathered the st. I was extremely thankful I wasn''t stupid enough to enter the room, as my tendrils directly in the room had been scattered to the winds from the shockwave.
Chapter 75: Afflictions
Chapter 75: Afflictions
''Okay, note to self, no explosions underground.'' I grumbled as I looked at the partially caved-in room.
I turned on my acid and,bined with my ws, quickly freed myself from the slight rubble that had fallen on top of me. Theck of a death notification confirmed that the rock elemental was still alive, and I saw the rubble consolidating and forming into its vaguely humanoid figure again.
''Damn, does it look bigger than before?'' I wondered to myself.
Fire magic was clearly not the way to go against the rock, which left water and acid, or I could try to eat it with slime. Dewi had said my magic skills were falling behind my rogue skills, so I was leaning towards getting some more magic practice. While it was slowly freeing its limbs and consolidating the nearby rubble into itself, with my [Sub-Cores], we formed three groups of two and targeted the rocky legs of the elemental with [Acid Dart].
As if sensing my building mana, it turned to face me as the first barrage of spells sted against its rocky hide. With [Mana Vision], I noticed that it was trying to reinforce its body by infusing the rock with more mana that shone brightly from its rock-crystal core. It felt like I was fighting an alternate version of myself in some ways, as it had a fragile core (ording to Luke) protected by rock and even used [Mana Reinforcement].
As fast as I could melt its legs, it was reforming them, and I wondered if we would be trapped in a perpetual stalemate. I regretted not asking Luke for more information and wondered if I should ignore trying to preserve the valuable core. Since the creature did not threaten me, I kept this up longer. It took a while, but I noticed it was getting smaller each time it reformed, and some excess rock was sacrificed to reform its legs. [Mana Sight] also revealed that its aura of mana grew considerably weaker through each reformation.
''So I could destroy its resources or wait until it runs out of mana. Likely, that''s how adventurers defeat slimes without damaging their cores. Well, unless they have crazy death magic like Simon.''
I cheered as I finally got a new spell. I read over the description while my [Sub-Cores] weakened the rock elemental. The spell was a debuff, and it lowered physical defense. While I wish it had lowered magical defense, I was d to get a spell under the debuff temte finally.
I ordered them to stop attacking the elemental, which was now only the size of a small dog. It had lost almost all avable material, and its mana aura was sputtering out. I cast my new [Erode] spell on it, and much to my surprise, Gamma showed me its [Identify] profile.
[Erode] 30%: 4min remaining.>
''[Affliction Tracker]!'' I shouted mentally. I hadpletely forgotten the skill since it was baked into [Identify]. It didn''t help that shortly after getting it, I fought the undead, who were immune to all my afflictions at the time.
When the rock elemental approached me, I grabbed it with a tendril. It tried to squirm, but in its reduced state and with so little mana, it couldn''t resist. I tried eating some of its rock, but it didn''t count towards unlocking its profile. Like slimes, it appeared I needed to eat the crystal core. However, I would not eat this one, as I still hadn''t solved my issue of killing it without damaging the core. I nned to absorb the next rock elemental I found right from the start, so I wanted to use this one to meet my harvesting goals.
I kept dissolving away at its rock, although the first to give out was its mana, and the rock encasing it crumbled away into loose debris. With the help of [Dissection], I isted the valuable crystal core and cleaned off all traces of rock until only a beautiful crystal remained. It looked like a clustered star and was colored like brown-stained ss.
I deposited the crystal and then harvested what I could from the smoldering remains of the numerous spiders taken out in the explosion. While there was little on offer from the spiders beyond a few fangs and tiny scythe des, I did gain another skill level.
I was surprised it took this long, and I could only me the undead for theirck of resources, which prevented it from being the first skill to reach six. I checked my quest progress and only had a quarter of the way to go with the spiders, although, at the rate I was killing them, I was sure I''d go above my quota.
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''Especially because I want to try out some afflictions.''
I had to dig through some rubble to find the tunnel onwards, which had partially copsed. Despite numerous webs, I struggled to find more spiders and concluded they must have retreated further from the explosion. I did find another rock elemental, smaller than the one I initially found before I fed it extra rock. The first thing I did was cast [Erode] on it.
[Erode] 30%: 4min remaining.>
I cast the spell again on it, each time increasing the duration, but the effect remained at thirty percent. By now, the golem was attacking me, but I gave it a blob of slime so it could harmlessly attack devoid of any cores. With my [Sub-Cores], I cast an empowered [Erode], trying to maximize the spell as much as possible to see if there were any changes.
[Erode] 45%: 4min remaining.>
The result was surprising, as it overwrote my original debuff with the new one, but it had a more substantial effect. Repeated castings of this new empowered version boosted the duration like normal, but the percentage remained the same.
Curious to see the effect of its reduced defense, I smacked it with a tendril and was quite shocked to see its rocky form buckle and crack from what I considered a rtively subdued attack. I used one of my de tails to slice into the Rock Elemental, avoiding its crystal, and bisected it effortlessly. Using both ded tendrils, I rapidly cut it apart like gutting a fish, separating its crystal housing from the rest of its materials. Then, I immediately grabbed it with arge pseudopod and devoured it.
I read through the profile. Their crystal was their being, just like us slimes, but they infused their mana into a material using the trait [Mana Infusion]. Then, they had a racial trait [Elemental Amalgamation], which let them create their bodies out of a material that matched their affinity as long as it was infused with their mana.
Infuse your mana directly into an object, material, or substance.
Infused mana dissipates at a greatly reduced rate, preventing others from infusing unless they first remove your mana or greatly ovee it.
Unlocks further Traits and Skills rted to Mana Infusion.
This trait has no levels.>
''It sounds cool, but what does it do?'' I questioned the profile, but sadly, I did not receive an answer.
I tried shifting into the elemental and borrowed both traits. Still, unfortunately, Icked the required affinity, so when I infused the rocks with my mana with [Mana Infusion], I couldn''t use them with [Elemental Amalgamation]. If I wanted to disguise myself as a rock elemental, I had to create fake rocks out of slime instead. I dumped some water and infused it with mana, and then I could finally use [Elemental Amalgamation]. I created a watery body, but it felt rathercklusterpared to my slime. Hriously, [Identify] even called me a water elemental now.
''I would have probably gotten [Elemental Amalgamation] if I chose the Aquatic mutation.''
I decided to buy the trait. I had quite a few points remaining, and since it had no levels, I''d likely be unable to earn it for free. Another reason I wanted the trait immediately was in case my next ss level gave me a revtion now that I had the trait unlocking new skill options.
While winding through caverns, I identally returned where I had started before encountering my first spider. I shook my head and consulted my [Mapping] skill to retrace my steps. There must have been a tunnel I missed somewhere. When I finally found an opening that had partially copsed and dug through, I suddenly received an update.
When I activated the skill again, a minimap appeared within my vision that showed my immediate surroundings. I could see the tunnel passages, revealing another tunnel that had also partially copsed.
''Tabitha wasn''t joking about this being a critical skill for adventurers. While Simon''s dungeon was pretty small, navigating arger one without something like this would be a nightmare.''
I finally found another spider; it was low-level but enough to test my afflictions. The first one I wanted to try was [Poison Mist]. While the spider tried and failed to bite and poison me, I cast my spell, surrounding it in the strange purple mist.
[Poison Mist] 20%.>
''That description isn''t exactly helpful...'' Iined.
The longer the spider remained in the poison mist, the higher the percentage ticked up. When it reached one hundred, a duration finally appeared.
When the purple mist started to fade, I recast the spell. As long as the spider was within the mist, the duration did not begin to count down. However, I still wasn''t sure what the mist was doing besides that it had vaguely poisoned the spider.
I formed a tendril into a rapier, perfectly copying the one I had eaten from Keaton, and with two quick stabs, injected [Poison Slime] into the spider using paralysis. I watched as the first stab applied seventy percent to the spider, the second reached the maximum, and the spider immediately copsed and froze.
[Poison Mist] 100%: 4min remaining.
[Paralysis] 100%: 7min remaining.>
In an effort to experiment, I used [Vaporize Slime] on some more paralytic poison slime. It slowly added to the duration that was ticking down. While thinking about what to try next, I was interrupted by a sudden notification.
I was frustrated that it had died, and I assumed [Poison Mist] was the culprit, as I had kept the two wounds to inject paralytic slime minimal. I could only conclude that [Poison Mist] did damage over time, although when I dissected the spider, I couldn''t exactly see traces of the poison, unlike my paralysis poison. Its organs looked fine, and other than the two stab wounds, it had no visible damage or harm to it.
''I mean, it is a magic spell. I guess it just does magical poison damage or something.''
Chapter 76: Debuffs
Chapter 76: Debuffs
While hunting for more spiders, I found a passageway with a highly sulfurous scent, which I figured was the pathway to the smander. I decided to avoid it for now, as I wanted to experiment with more spiders and still needed to kill three more earth elementals. With some backtracking and alternate tunnels, I finally found another giant spider.
I trapped it within slime and force-fed it sleep gas until it eventually fell unconscious. What was interesting about itpared to my other afflictions so far was that it had a midway point that inflicted the [Fatigued] condition. I''d have to ask Luke if the guild had a lexicon of status conditions.
Now that I had a valuable test subject, I wanted to experiment with the Debuff spell construct. I picked Water Magic for my tests, as I worried both Fire and Corrosion would kill the spider if something went wrong. I didn''t want to sound ungrateful, as the defense Debuff sounded extremely valuable, but I wanted to reduce magic resistance or perhaps even affliction resistance. Working with my cores, I started dismantling the spell construct for [Erode].
I spent hours trying tobine the Debuff construct with water mana, and I had to reapply sleep poison to the spider to refresh the dwindling duration multiple times. One thing Dewi had not told me about this was that magical bacsh sucked big time. When the spell failed to form, it would not only waste the mana expended entirely but cause it to explode within my core violently. The damage was primarily superficial, likely due to the bacsh not being too significant, but the mental strain was taking its toll. I borrowed the orc trait temporarily, but mental damage, or whatever this was, seemed to ignore their pain nullification.
During my hours of spell modification, two more giant spiders came to investigate one by one. The hours of silence andck of explosions must have made them feel safe to escape whatever hole they crawled into. At least it wasn''t much effort to capture them, and now I had a backup in case my first spider met an untimely demise.
Between my tinkering of the spell, I would also cast [Erode] unmodified to examine the spell a little closer and hope to find some hidden insight. Finally, all my trial and error paid off, and I had a new Water Debuff. I held the formed spell in ce and examined its construct proudly, and all the corrosion patterns were sessfully rewritten with water mana. I thoroughly memorized the spell pattern before casting it on one of the spiders, and a new Debuff appeared.
''Yes!'' I cheered before I was flooded with notifications.
Before I looked over my new spell, I cast [Permeable] again on another spider and cheered at my sess. I''d go as far as to say this was my very first official custom spell and not just an enhancement or customization of an existing spell. I was absolutely giddy as I looked over [Torrent]; it seemed simple in execution and was arge burst of concussive Water. I cast the spell against one of my [Permeable] spiders and watched its bodyunch against the cavern wall, where it stted into its untimely demise. With the spell affecting such arge area, its intended use was likely to get enemies away rather than deal damage.
''Perhaps I could focus it down and concentrate it into a more offensive use.'' I pondered, ''Although I want to finish experimenting with my debuffs before I get sidetracked with customizing another spell.''I cleaned up the remains of the sttered spider before I started my next batch of spell tinkering. I was recing it with Fire this time, and my tinkering took less than half the time as my first spell. The reason was that, in my first approach, I discovered that I couldn''t just rece the entire pattern with Water, as parts of the pattern were the Debuff portion. But now I could start tinkering with [Permeable] instead of [Erode] and focus on recing the Water with Fire.
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Once again, I examined thepleted spell carefully before I cast it. Compared to the Water one, its formation had some very minor adjustments. It was moreplex than simple find-and-rece, much to my disappointment. The ease of making the required minor corrections was likely thanks to mytest level in [Mana Maniption]. I cast the spell and grinned with glee at the new Debuff.
I noticed the Debuff time was different, perhaps due to the extra level I had gained in [Affliction Mastery]. I cast [Permeable] to see its time.
I momentarily stared at the Debuff in confusion when I realized I had also gained a level in [Water Magic]. I concluded that the duration was mybined level of [Water Magic] plus [Afflicton Mastery], while the strength of the Debuff was entirely on the magic portion unless I boosted it. With that out of the way, I cast [Fire Arrow] at the Debuffed spider and watched it rapidly burn up far faster than any of the previous spiders.
Thest thing I wanted to Debuff was resistance to ailments, which was considerably more difficult than expected as I needed to somehow identify the poison part of the Corrosion Mana in the [Poison Mist] spell. Even assisted by my [Sub-Cores], it feltplicated for some reason, but now I was trying to tinker with intermediate magic. The magical bacsh was immense, and after three failed attempts with no further progress, I decided to shelve it for now. Perhaps a higher level of [Mana Sight], [Mana Maniption], or both would let me more easily identify the individualponents of the Corrosion Mana.
Working with Fire or Water mana was much simpler inparison, which was exined by their basic affinity types. As if proving a point, I had sessfully recreated a fire whip spell in only three attempts. I cast [mmable] on the spider andshed it with the burning whip; with a fiery crack, the spider perished, its body also rapidly burning up. Double dipping on their weakness by applying [mmable] certainly felt like cheating.
Your afflictions can be affected by [Sneak Attack], bypassing resistances based on the skill level.
If the resistance is significantly ovee, a greater contagion will be inflicted.
Your afflictions have a chance to not notify their target based on your highest stealth-rted trait or skill.
This skill has no levels.>
''Oh... Right. That also exins why the spiders died so easily. I forgot about [Sneak Attack]. This skill sounds great, fitting with the whole magical assassin image.''
''I''m wondering if I''m using my skill points correctly. Perhaps I should consider asking Luke or maybe Whitney. I''ve never tried using points to level up a skill.''
''No! Damn, that''s expensive...''
I tried a few different skills, and the cost scaled directly, which was horrifying. I definitely would need to ask someone about this. Interestingly, when I tried to upgrade [Attack Mastery (Lesser) LV 6], I got an error message.
''I guess I don''t have to worry about that with traits since I have [Mana Slime] at ten. Not that I think I''d ever want to use trait points on buying upgrades.''
There were things I still wanted to experiment with, but I was not feeling great mentally from all the magical bacsh. I actually considered hiding in a hole and taking a nap. I was concerned that I could be med if someone came looking for me or the smander left the mines. I continued through the remains of the spider tunnel, casting [mmable] into [Fire Arrow] to swiftly deal with any arachnids I came across.
The effects of [Subtle Afflictions] were remarkably noticeable, as none of the spiders noticed when I debuffed them. The [Sneak Attack] bonus seemed to be applying a fifty percent bonus to my affliction.
If I empowered the spell, which also boosted it by half, andbined it with [Sneak Attack], I could effectively double it.
Stacking multiple effects together seemed incredible, and I wondered if it could go beyond one hundred percent. Perhaps doing so would allow things to go through immunities? It was definitely a thought worth exploring once I had more levels.
Much to my disappointment, I couldn''t find any more Bronze-ranked spiders, so I didn''t gain a level when I ran out of the multi-legged nuisance to eradicate. I hadpleted my spider quota a while ago, but I was beginning to worry because I still needed to kill three more rock elementals, and I couldn''t find any. I consulted my map, but the only pathway left was towards the smell of sulfur and likely the smander.
''Well, hopefully, they are down there. They could also be above ground; the quest just says they are in the area.''
Chapter 77: Salamander
Chapter 77: Smander
While continuing down the tunnel toward the scent and my ultimate goal, I did manage toe across a single rock elemental. It didn''t notice me, and I managed tond a fully boosted [Permeable] on it. Now that it was primed and ready for my assault, I cast and held [Torrent] with Alpha while the rest paired up and held two empowered [Water Orbs].
We coordinated our attack, but the [Torrent] was far faster than anticipated and sted through the rocky hide of the elemental. Chunks of rock were sted under the high-velocity water, rapidly eroded into crumbled rock and mud when they struck against the walls. When the orbs hit, what little remained of its body was thoroughly soaked, and the orb''s detonation from opposite ends rapidly crumbled what remained of its rocky hide into a muddy slurry.
I could see the elemental trying to reconstitute its form with [Mana Sight] as it desperately tried to flood the earthen slurry with its own mana. I could see the water interfering with its attempts; it was a rock elemental, not a mud elemental, after all. Combining [Sneak Attack] with a Debuff and another attack spell was a deadlybination. It was great to see my skills interacting, bringing back fond memories of when Ibined multiple of my slime traits.
Speaking of my slime traits, I regretted hardly using them in this excursion. I had evolved and gained new strengths, but with my low skill levels, I had prioritized them. I could have simply engulfed the rock elemental and assaulted it with [Acid Slime], but then I''d gain experience, further advancing my ss without allowing my skills to catch up.
I approached the elemental, rapidly burning through its mana, grabbed it with a pseudopod, and began to work on the [Dissection]. Any more spells risked shattering its valuable crystal, and if I wanted to purchase slime cores for myself, I needed all the money I could get.
''Still, I wonder what the smander is even doing in a silver mine?''
Sneaking through, I eventually found a giant red lizard monsterzing on a pile of unrefined silver ore. It was currently snacking on the charred remains of a spider. ckened bones and a few random weapons and tools surrounded the pile. I noticed four significantly melted remains of an elemental crystal.
''What, do you think you''re a dragon or something sleeping on a treasure hoard?'' I questioned.
The smander was mainly red except coated in an outeryer of ckened scales that seemed to pulse a deep orange in tune with its breathing. It was about the size of an overgrown horse, definitely one of the most diminutive evolved monsters I''d ever encountered. I assumed it must be on par with the Earthshaker bear and myself regarding monster tier, although I also had almost twenty ss levels to rely on. ''Not to mention, I''m basically immune to fire. I think I''m this thing''s worst nightmare.''
I''d be taking full advantage of my skills here by starting the fight byying down all the avable debuffs andnding a major [Sneak Attack]. I started off with [Permeable], then [Erode], and finally [mmable] just for the extra experience.
Shocked, I cast the spell three more times before itnded sessfully. Being such a fire-based creature, I could only assume the world wasn''t happy with me trying to lower its fire resistance - not that I nned on actually trying to damage it with [Fire Magic]. Thankfully, despite the smander resisting the spell, my level in [Vanish] was too high for it to even notice what was going on.
My groundwork prepared, we coordinated three empowered [Water Orb] spells pushed to their maximum. I wanted all three tond simultaneously to ensure [Sneak Attack], and I was a little worried about [Torrent] potentially damaging its scales. With silent precision, weunched our spells at the smander; it let out a horrendous shriek before it was silenced as its living space was flooded by three massive quantities of water. We immediately started creating another set of spells when I noticed a blinding heat source at the center of the flooded room.
I had to disable the trait as the white-hot coloring emanating was bing blinding. The water in the room was rapidly transformed into steam as a fiery inferno burst outwards. We fired our three orbs again at the creature, briefly extinguishing the expanding me before it reignited and evaporated the water. With all the steam and me, the room must have felt like a sauna, and I was grateful that I wouldn''t have to relive the experience of being boiled alive again.
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The smander, now free from all the water, red at its assant, me. Its ckened scales no longer pulsed with an orange glow and instead zed in a blueish white with hints of the previous orange. It let out a hissing screech full of reptilian rage as it unleashed a torrent of me at me. The mes nketed my body, and I could only smirk as they washed over me with no impact at all.
The creature must not have been able to sense what was transpiring under its nket of mes, as when I snaked a pseudopod from behind to st it with more water, it was caughtpletely unawares. I watched its eyes frantically dart towards where the attack came from. It expected a new foe, but my tendril had already snapped back into my form. I fired another water st while it was distracted and could visibly see the shock on its face when I waspletely unharmed.
Outraged at the transgression, the mes between its scales shone even brighter as it inhaled deeply. I tried firing some water into its mouth directly while presenting such an exploitable opening, but the water turned to vapor when it neared the vicinity of its toothy maw. It was frustrating to see how its me had defeated my meager level of water magic, I had wanted to beat it with magic, but it appeared I''d need to overpower it with slime instead.
Before I could switch to attacking with slime, itpleted what it attempted and unleashed another column of me from its gullet, matching its scales in a gradient of blue-white-orange. The mes crashed into me. I felt no damage to my core, but this time, I could feel it was destroying my slime mass. I rapidly reced the burnt-away slime with fresh slime from the storage and triggered [Slime Conversion] simultaneously.
I was about to flee from the me when I had an epiphany. Instead, I changed my chimeric monstrosity skin into that of the greyish green of a hobgoblin and grabbed the [Fire Resistance] trait. The change was immediately noticeable, and the depleting slime mass halted;bining my newly borrowed trait and [ze Slime] gave me the fire immunity required to ovee this blue me.
I could have attacked again, but I decided to instead wait as [Mana Sight] told me this creature was rapidly using up its natural supply to fuel its me organ. I could see the mana flow from its extremities and focus down into a specialized organ inside its chest cavity. This attack was powerful but would cost it significantly, and then I''d strike while it was fatigued. My desire to watch how the creature''s mana flowed gave me insight and led to another skill upgrade.
When the mes started dying, I could see the creature almost copsing to the ground. It had expended far too much energy, but it must have wanted to ensure I was vaporized in its me and wasn''t willing to risk not giving its utmost effort. The molten rock around me had turned to a sort ofva, and the few present ores had turned into g. Was this really a Silver-rank monster? Or had it evolved recently? I wouldn''t have survived the encounter if I wasn''t a slime, even if I was actively dodging. I certainly couldn''t imagine anyone in Roderick''s party surviving such an encounter, although admittedly, I''d never seen them fight seriously.
When I emerged unharmed from the me, I could see the despair in the creature''s eyes. Its ckened scales were no longer ented by the fiery glow but instead looked like thest coal embers. It tried to retreat, but I was far too fast for it as I promptly blocked off its retreat paths with tendrils. It triedshing out with its front ws and even biting with its maw, which probably still held some threat to ordinary creatures; I''d give it a personal rating of more potent than the wolves but weaker than badgers.
It was straightforward for me to grab the creature by its limbs and lift it up so it was helpless. It iled and triedunching some weakened mes, but nothing I couldn''t handle. I engulfed the entire creature in slime; its natural body temperature was very high, and in desperation, I could feel it briefly ring to some extreme temperatures. Compared to its hide, internally, it was fragile, and it died shortly after I invaded and turned up the acid. [Dissection] happily pointed out all the valuable parts.
I was a little disappointed I didn''t gain a ss level, too, but that was short-lived when I looked over the new profile of the creature. It had two traits that were both juicy targets for mimicry: [Inferno Sac], which was the improved version of [Fire Sac], and [Draconic Scales (Lesser)]. Being able to breathe fire was very impressive, and I couldn''t wait to try it out, but the scales were fascinating.
Provides high defense and minor resistance to most elements, scaling with trait level.
Unlike true dragon scales, however, it does not provide magical resistance as your draconic lineage is far too distant and inadequate.>
I applied the scales to myself and admired them. Most surprising was that I could apply the trait to myself even when in a human or elven form, hinting that both races could have a bloodline with a dragon. I was just happy I had another trait I could use while adventuring without creating some elf-smander hybrid form.
As for harvested goods, its me organ, scales, ws, and fangs were all identified as valuable. I could feel [Dissection] proudly showing off the work of the preserved me organ, which was by far the most valuable part. Despite being extracted, the organ still pulsed with a dangerous level of heat, definitely not for unprotected hands.
After depositing it all, I formed my own organ, filled it with mana, and let out a small belch of blue me. While an immediate thought was creating a hydra of smander heads, all belching fire, my freedom of form meant I could also, in theory, just ce the organ in my arm and create my own channels to let it erupt from my hands.
I let my mind wander happily while scavenging what remained of the smander''s small treasure hoard.
Chapter 78: Quest Complete
Chapter 78: Quest Complete
Thanks to [Mapping], I thoroughly searched the rest of the tunnels and pathways and regretfully concluded that I couldn''t find the final rock elemental. I was prepared to start heading back to the mine entrance, but first, I wanted to try each of my new forms to im the first-time and perfection bonuses.
The orc form felt solid and robust. I liked the raw strength it held over a regr human and, in particr, against my frail, byparison, elven form. Still, I couldn''t see myself using it over a bear or some other chimeric monstrosity form. In theory, I could potentially infiltrate the orcs, but I certainly didn''t want to rehash my goblin experience.
I had already tried the elemental forms, so I skipped them and tried out the spiders I could ess. Much to my embarrassment, coordinating eight legs took a few attempts, but I was easily skittering up the tunnel walls shortly after. The web creation traits were intriguing because I was only imitating the organ, so it felt strange that I could produce a web. Examining it closely, I discovered that the trait substituted the likeliest avable resource to create the phenomenon, which, in my situation, was a pittance of mana. Unfortunately, the trait alone wasn''t enough to give me the instincts and creativity needed to make a proper web, and my best effort was a crude star shape that might trip someone at best. If I ever used this trait, I''d have to stick to spraying it out, although again, I could aplish so much more if I just used slime with maximum adhesion.
I found the smander formcking overall, and if not for the two traits I stole, I''d likely never use it. It was frail,cked strength, and wasn''t that nimble. The only things it had going for it were its impressive scales and extreme firepower, both of which I could borrow without significantly applying its form. It was almost a one-trick pony, which likely brought it far until it met something that directly countered its one trick.
I shifted back into my disguise and practiced adding scales under my robe and experimenting with trying to use the [Inferno Sac]. I discovered that without borrowing [Fire Resistance], I couldn''t handle the maximum output of the trait without burning away my slime. I''d need a higher level of [ze Slime] to handle it without fusing some Hobgoblin or Smander into my form, which could take the trait.
''I should be thankful that recreating the organ itself is enough for me to borrow the trait; if I had to add even more smander parts to take it, I''d ruin my disguise.''
Speaking of disguise, I thankfully remembered that I needed to remove the [Identity Block] on my profile. I was d my warning was adhered to, and nobody ventured into the mines that I was aware of. Dealing with the consequences of being discovered was a bridge I hoped I wouldn''t be forced to cross any time soon.
I exited the cavern to ate afternoon sun and a few terrified-looking guards, whose expressions were relieved when they saw it was me.
"Thank the Gods you survived, ma''am. We all feared the worst when we felt that terrible explosion," one of the guards said. ''...Sorry, that was me.'' I mentally apologized before responding.
"Thanks for the concern. Do you know how long it''s been since I entered?"
"Well over a day." He answered, "I pray you were sessful?"
''That exins my mental fatigue. I worked through an entire night without realizing it.''
"The smander, spiders, and elementals are dealt with. I thoroughly searched the entire mine and couldn''t find any more."
The guard''s expressions brightened, and the few miners still in the vicinity cheered at the news. It sounded like the miners didn''t get paid unless they worked, which didn''t sound fair to me - it wasn''t their fault that a monster invaded because it wanted to imitate a dragon badly. I took out the raw ore in my storage, leaving only a single piece and the mana-enriched piece I had discovered for future sampling.
"The smander was collecting the ore and nesting on it. This was all I managed to recover. Unfortunately, quite a lot of it melted with the rock."
Shocked, the miners looked at me and began shaking their heads, "We couldn''t possibly take this from you. It''s your loot from dealing with the monster."
"Don''t worry about it. I earned more than enough from the quest payout and the smander harvesting. If you want to earn it, you could help me find thest rock elemental I need toplete my quest."
After some thought, the miners nodded, and the guards also volunteered to help. My decision to give the ore to the miners was half guilt over taking longer than I should have to deal with the quest due to my experimentation and halfziness with needing to somehow deal with selling the ores after the fact.
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ording to one of the miners, they could form on the surface because of the overabundance of essence in the area, but they are usually quite docile unless you enter their domain. This would obviously be a problem in the mines if one decided to reside in a critical tunnel path. It didn''t take too long for one of the miners to find one for me; it had taken up residence in the rock dumping area and looked to have only been formed recently, as it was only level one and minuscule.
I cast all my debuffs on it, just for practice, before I began turning its body into mud with some creative [Water Whip] usage. I wrapped it up in the whip and could rapidly erode away at its body by applying some pressure. It wasn''t long before I received the notification of its death, and my quest wasplete.
I thanked them for their assistance in finding it and said our farewells. They tried convincing me to stay the night at their camp, where they said there would be some minor celebrations. One of the miners even said he was breaking out his emergency alcohol rations to celebrate. Unfortunately, the mental fatigue caught up, and I was worried I''d slip up somewhere. I wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole somewhere and turn into a formless blob.
I started to wander back towards the city but then took a detour and veered off course until I found a rtively isted area with a few sparse trees and foliage. I jumped and climbed up thergest tree and extended a tendril from the palm of my hand to burrow away with [Acid Slime]. Once the hole was deep enough, and I made sure my surroundings were clear of any witnesses, I deposited all my items, liquefied my form while I rapidly entered the hole, and continued to dig downwards till I was well beyond the tree''s roots. When I felt sufficiently deep and safe, I ordered my [Sub-Cores] to keep a lookout before sumbing to the oblivion of sleep.
When I woke up, I felt great, and my mind was cleared of any mental fog. I hadn''t realized how important sleep was for my mind until now, I was surprised I could keep going for so long, and I could only assume it was due to my mental stats being off the chart thanks to [Soul Mastery] and [Core Refinement].
While using [Vanish], I exited the tree, and after confirming I was safe with all my avable senses, I transformed back into my disguise. Looking at the sun, I judged it was early to mid-morning, which meant I had slept far longer than ever before - not counting evolution time.
I rejoined the road and casually strolled towards the city, revisiting the spell tinkering that had befuddled my fatigued mind. I got some odd stares as I was tinkering with a spell while walking, but nobody stopped me or vocally mentioned it, so I figured I wasn''t breaking anyw or anything.
It still frustrated me greatly as I couldn''t visually see the individualponents of the corrosion mana. I even borrowed [Mana Sight LV 6] from the elf profile, but the extra level didn''t make a difference, and it felt like I was fundamentally missing something. I''d have to pick Dewi''s brain to see if he knew a solution to my predicament, as I was sure he''d be more than thrilled I was tinkering with a custom fire spell.
Thanks to my more casual pace, it waste afternoon by the time I reached the city. My slow, methodical recement of the spell construct was maybe thirty percentplete at best, and that was with five perfect helpers. Another benefit of getting my [Sub-Cores] to help was that I could get one of them to save mytest modification before the spell unraveled, quickly backing up my process. If I had to start from scratch every single time, I would''ve given up long ago. That made me wonder how a normal human was supposed to aplish this; I could only assume they would try to obtain a trait or skill to enhance memory - something like eidetic memory, perhaps? Or I was approaching the method incorrectly, but it was the best I coulde up with from Dewi''s vaguery.
I entered the city without issue and used [Vanish] till I approached the adventurers guild. I deactivated the skill upon entering and politely requested the receptionist to let Luke know I had returned at his earliest convenience. I didn''t have to wait long and was soon ushered to a booth.
"Good to see you again, Miss Syl."
"Hey Luke, all my quests were sessful; it was a pretty fun experience."
"There was some concern that something went wrong. We expected you to return sooner; the time betweenpleting your spider extermination and the smander was quite significant."
"I may have gone overboard on the spider extermination; I cleared out the entire mine. I was also searching for rock elementals, which proved difficult because the smander had killed quite a few."
"Huh... That''s slightly odd behavior. What level was it?"
"Five. I think it recently evolved."
Luke mmed the table, causing me to flinch in surprise, "Wait, it had evolved?!"
"I believe so. It was an Inferno Smander, if that helps?"
Rather than helping, Luke seemed to go slightly pale. He began frantically shuffling through papers and muttering to himself; when he found what he was looking for, he read it carefully and then shook his head before finally speaking.
"I double-checked the original request. They definitely said it was a normal smander. The request wasn''t that old; I don''t know how it evolved so soon..." He bowed his head, "I''m so sorry, Miss Syl. I put you in danger by rmending this quest."
Confused by the disy, I quickly tried to calm him down, "It wasn''t that much of an issue. Your advice helped a lot as its insides were extremely weak, and I got a lot of experience and practice with my [Water Magic]."
"No. You don''t understand, Miss Syl. This is an upper Silver-rank threat; if it was a higher level, this would have been a low Gold-rank. Sending a lone, freshly promoted Silver-rank adventurer against something like this is a suicide mission."
"Well, it''s good I''m trying to get promoted to Gold as soon as possible," I said with a smirk, hoping to ease his concern.
He sighed at my utter refusal to ept the gravity of the situation, "We might have to if it truly was as easy as you are appearing to make it."
"Anyway, let''s get down to business. I got plenty of materials to show you."
Chapter 79: Loot Dealing
Chapter 79: Loot Dealing
"Ah! Miss Syl, please don''t dump them on my desk; we have a room for this!" Luke frantically said when I piled a few parts on the desk.
I nodded and deposited them away, causing him to look relieved. He led me to another room with plenty of tables and minor shelving. Interestingly, almost no two tables were made from the same material. Some were wood, while others were stone, and even a few were made of metal.
Seeing my curiosity at the various tables, Luke spoke up, "Depending on the monster, their materials can be hazardous; we''ve had some monsters burn a room down or melt straight through the floor!"
"Oh... Right, if I took out the inferno sac, it''d probably burn your desk, maybe the whole room?" I replied, scratching my chin.
Luke had aplex expression of paled horror and genuine excitement, "Y-you actually managed to harvest its me nd?" he stammered out.
"Yeah, it''s in great condition. Want to see?"
"No! Miss Syl, please wait! I''m going to get Mister Thern. Please wait right here, and please do not take out the organ, no matter what!" Luke shouted frantically and darted off.
I shrugged and started pulling out the various other materials I had harvested. For the most part, I put them on one of the wooden tables, but Iid out the scaled hide on one of the stone tables in case it had any residual heat. By the time Luke arrived with Thern in tow, I hadid out all the spider fangs, spider sickles, earth crystals, and orc ears.
"Blimey! Someone''s been busy. Good to see you again, Syl." Thern said with a cheerful expression."Good to see you again, Thern. Yeah, I had a quest to clear out the silver mine."
"Master Lisa wasn''t joking when she said you were a harvesting fiend," Luke said before he pped his mouth shut.
"Ha! That she is, and this is some mighty fine work except for the few melted earth crystals."
"That was the smander''s work, not me. I recovered them from its nest and wasn''t sure if they were still valuable."
"Ha! It sounds like its tiny bit of dragon blood overwhelmed it." Thern chuckled, then ran his hands over the scales, "This is mighty good. You should get some armor from this and rece that cheap robe you''re wearing."
"I was considering just selling it, but..."
"Nope! No buts, you''re trying to make Gold rank, so you need to start looking like a Gold-rank adventurer! Your pointy ears can only do so much for your appearance; you must look the part, or people will doubt you."
"Mister Thern is right. Image can y an important part in your adventuring career and is how you can be requested for special quest assignments or receive favors from higher-ups if you''re famous enough."
I couldn''t argue with any of his points, and fame was one of my ideas of reassurance if I was ever discovered or wanted to reveal myself. Plus, having some extra defense beyond my slime and mana couldn''t hurt.
"Also, if you get itmissioned here, I can do the enchanting. Then I can waive the fee in return for some more of that alcohol." Thern said, followed by a hearty chuckle.
"Enchanted gear... That sounds very useful. I had someone rmend self-repair and size-modification to me."
"Those are some universally good options. Size modification is great if you ever want to sell itter for an upgrade." Thern replied.
"I didn''t know you were an enchanter. Your ss sounds like abat one?"
"Ha! Now that''s a story. Aye, I used to be an enchanter. Then, one day, I got this ss as a revtion and took it! My ma beat me ck and blue, demanding I change back. She was so furious. Luckily, my pa pointed out that I could still use my enchanter skills even if my ss changed." Thern said, chuckling as if it was a fond childhood memory.
"That''s why I requested Mister Thern''s presence. He will temporarily enchant a container to safely hold the organ and prevent it from hurting anyone or damaging anything."
Luke brought out arge metal box, to which Thern held out his finger and started tracing a pattern into the lid. As his finger glided across the surface, he left behind dense lines of golden mana, which began merging into aplex pattern and into the structure. He then repeated this process on each side of the box, double-checked his work, and nodded approvingly.
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"Aye, that should hold it good. I also added some preservation enchantment to it; we don''t want to lose something so valuable." Thern said with a nod, then turned to Luke. "You may want to leave the room temporarily, just in case you take damage from the heat before it''s contained."
Luke nodded and promptly left, closing the door behind him. Thern opened the box and gestured for me to withdraw the item. My n to withdraw the inferno sac was to surround it in transparent slime that I had infused with water mana, making it look like water magic and allowing me to avoid touching it directly. I proceeded with my n, and Thern seemed very impressed when I withdrew the organ held in a tendril of slime water. I carefully ced it in the chest and returned my slime to my palm, which immediately revealed the heat still generated by the organ.
"Blimey, that''s impressive," Thern said, stroking his beard, "I''d swear the organ was fake. It''s so pristine, and your control over water is most impressive; I can imagine this beastie wasn''t happy fighting you."
"Definitely not. I swear it looked outraged." I said with a chuckle, and Thern joined in with a heartyugh.
Thern drew another magic circle around the box, which seemed to contain the heat, then let Lukee in and see it. Both were fascinated by the organ, and Thern gave Luke a short exnation of how it would absorb raw mana and turn it into fire.
"So what would they use this for?" I asked.
"Well, it could be transformed into a magic tool, a furnace heart, or a catalyst."
"You should get it turned into a catalyst for yourself, Miss Syl," Luke replied.
"No. I''d rather sell this and buy some slime catalysts."
Thernughed so hard he snorted, "Well, I can''t even say that''s the weirdest adventurer hobby. One of my old buddies collects monster skulls to make into beer mugs."
"Speaking of which, did you find any for me, Luke?"
"I found a red slime catalyst. I also extended our search since you said you didn''t mind if it wasn''t a catalyst, and we found a source for a white slime core that''s been crafted into a freeze tool."
I immediately cheered, "I''ll dly take both. Assuming I have enough money?"
Thern let out another bellyugh before gesturing around the room, "I think you have the cost covered."
"There''s just one issue... The owner of the freeze tool is only willing to sell it under one condition."
"Unless the request ispletely unreasonable, I''d still be interested. What is it?"
Luke sighed, "It belongs to one of the nobles here, and he wants you to have dinner with him publicly at Moonsong."
"Oh! Moonsong is the best restaurant in Kaerlin." Thern replied, "Although getting involved with nobles is nasty business, I bet he just wants to raise his own public profile by being seen with an exotic elf."
"Yes... Master Lisa agrees. He''s harmless, ording to her, but he just wants to use you for social standing."
"I don''t really mind. I''m technically using him too, and if I can get my core, I''d consider it a win."
"Aye. Not to mention free food. Although looking at your harvests, you''re probably notcking for coin."
"Very well, Miss Syl. I''ll inform Master Lisa to confirm the details. As for your fire catalyst, I just need you to swipe your tag at the reception here, and then I can give it to you." Luke said, then gestured to all the materials, "So what are your ns with these harvests? Do you want to keep any or have a request for our crafters?"
"Sell them all, but I''ll take up the offer for the enchanted armor."
"Ha! Excellent!" Thern said, giving me a hefty pat on the back. "You can drop off my alcohol in the library when you''ve got it. It''s a pleasure doing business with you!"
Luke took me to a different section of the guild building, which appeared to be where their crafters resided; it was like a mini marketce with all sorts of trinkets, potions, and items being disyed. The first thing was going to one of the armor crafters, who used a skill to immediately get my measurements and then suggested what type of armor to make once we told him the materials he''d be working with. Ultimately, he rmended a ck leather armor design to match the scales and fit more with the rogue theme. He vehemently refused to use Draconic Scales, even lesser ones, to make a robe, and Luke agreed it fit the Shadowcaster theme more to wear something more Rogueish.
With a quick swipe of my guild tag, the deposit was made, and then we made our way to the vendor, which had my catalyst. Different from the staff I had previously acquired, this one looked less impressive and was a small scepter with a much smaller core. I promptly paid for it and stared at the slime core happily, eager to consume it.
"Would you like to try it out at the training ground, Miss Syl?" Luke asked.
It sounded like a good idea; I had never used a catalyst before, and if I needed to fake one, it would be nice to know the effects. I would even consider getting myself a non-slime core if it turned out to be useful.
"dly. Thanks for the suggestion, Luke. I didn''t know the guild had one."
"Most city guilds do. Ours even managed to get a golem from Keld to use for training practice."
"Keld?"
"Oh, I''m surprised you''ve never heard of it. It''s an independent city formed by a former adventurer, Keldenar the Golemancer. He retired from adventuring and formed an entire city staffed entirely by golems. The residents who live there have all manualbor taken care of by the golems, so they are free to do research, crafting, or even just livefortably."
"He just retired and formed his own city? I''m surprised the nobles allowed him to do that."
Luke chuckled, "A lot of them certainly tried to stop him. He took unupiednd with no dungeon, which was infested with monsters, conquered it himself, and set up shop. He practically built the entire city in an instant with hundreds of golems. Plenty tried to force him into one of the kingdoms but soon realized their folly in confronting a Diamond-rank adventurer who can create infinite soldiers."
"What did the guild think?"
"Oh, they love it and gave Keld their full backing. Nothing better than having someone who can stand up to even Kings or Queens and help protect the guild''s values."
''That''s very useful to know... It certainly makes my n to rank up in the guild to protect myself more viable.''
Chapter 80: Damage Test
Chapter 80: Damage Test
Luke led me to an open courtyard at the back of the building, arge open area only cut off when it reached the inner city wall. There were circles lined with glyphs and people inside dueling, a small archery range, and a few wooden training dummies. Up against the wall was a singr humanoid construct. It was a littlerger than an orc and had no face; instead, it looked uniformly made from an unknown material.
"It''s level forty and only used for training?" I said to Luke, looking somewhat shell-shocked.
"Therger branches have even higher-level ones, multiples, or ones for specific training regiments. This one is mostly generic except for being more durable and providing an excellent damage target."
That was another bombshell. What did he use for himself if these were the ones he would give away? Were other Diamond ranks this strong, or was he an exception? A startling power level made me realize I still had a long way to go.
"Damage test!" A voice shouted.
I looked over to see a swordsman had approached the golem. The golem pulsed, and I watched its body light up with mana as it rapidly reinforced itself. The swordsman, not to be outdone, also began to emit mana, which rapidly focused into his falchion. There was a momentary blur as the man leaped forward and swung his de, which let out a piercing howl as it sliced through the air before crashing against the golem. The golem made no effort to move or block, taking the blow fully. The de itself shattered, but not before leaving a clean slice about the size of a hand.
Cheers erupted from the few onlookers, but the swordsman was silent. The golem tilted its head as if staring at the swordsman before its mana shed, and the small cut seemed to disappear. Then it went dormant again. The swordsman looked upset, and a few other members walked up to reassure him.
"Hey, it''s better thanst time!"
"Yeah! Don''t give up, plus you used a disposable weapon."I watched them walk off before turning a questioning look to Luke. Before I had the chance to ask, he answered.
"If you can impress the golem, then you get a reward. Usually, it''s a small magic item like a ring or something that would provide a minor boost to an up-anding adventurer." Luke answered, "You should definitely consider trying it, Miss Syl.''
I paused to consider it. I didn''t see the harm in trying it, although a problem came to mind. "Most of my damagees from [Sneak Attack], though..."
"That''s not a problem, Miss Syl, as you can ask the golem to turn around and face the wall. Otherwise, none of our Rogue sses would stand a chance."
"Alright then, although I want to test the catalyst first to see which element I should use."
"Magic Practice," Luke uttered to the golem, and it took a different stance before shing with a different mana barrier. He then backed off and eagerly waited for me to demonstrate my magic.
I held the small scepter, channeled fire mana into it, and formed a simple [Fire Arrow] spell. The simplest way to describe the mana catalyst was that it was like my [Sub-Cores], except... Really stupid. It needed to be handheld through the formation like a lost child before it finally boosted the spell. I cast the empowered spell at the golem and felt rather dismissive of the effort required, once again giving me a vast new appreciation for my [Sub-Cores]. After several more attempts at using the catalyst, I decided against using it, and I also suspected the golem was resistant to fire.
"I think I''m going to go with Water magic. The catalyst was interesting, thanks Luke."
"Of course, anytime Miss Syl."
"Any rules in particr I should know about with this test?"
"You''re only allowed one damaging attack, but any amount of buffs or debuffs beforeunching the attack."
"Thanks, and how do I get it to turn around?"
"Just mention [Sneak Attack] after dering the damage test," Luke replied, retaking a safe distance.
"Damage test with [Sneak Attack]!" I dered to the golem.
The golem immediately responded and turned to face the wall before glowing brightly with mana. Now that I was closer, I saw tiny glyphs and sigils lighting up along its body. Soon, the training ground was filled with murmurs and whispers as onlookers were eager to witness another participant.
I activated [Vanish] and proceeded to cast both [Erode] and [Permeable] with maximum empowerment. I mentally cheered when bothnded sessfully, and it further confirmed my theory that [mmable] likely failed on the smander due to its extreme fire resistance, if not outright immunity. I cast [mmable] for the free experience, which triggered a notification for me.
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Since I was only allowed one attack, I''d go with [Torrent] since it was likely my most powerful individual spell. I formed the spell construct, and almost immediately, there were somements and snickers from the onlookers disparaging the use of [Water Magic]. I shrugged and grabbed all of my [Sub-Cores] and began rapidly empowering and enhancing the spell while also making a minor modification to lower the area on the spell for a more concentrated burst. Unmodified, the spell construct where the water would emerge had a diameter of about four meters, but I had squashed it down to one, the water mana highly dense in the tight space. If I pushed more, I could reduce it further, but I was probably already going overboard, as the crowd seemed conflicted on my disy; there were some cheers and impressed remarks, but equally, there was disparagement and usations of wasting time or showboating.
I finalized the spell and cast it; a burst of water surged forward out of the floating magic circle at a dangerous velocity and crashed into the back of the golem. At first, it didn''t do much other than spraying water everywhere, and another helpful mage actually erected some form of barrier around the area to prevent the audience from being caught in the ssh zone. While I wondered if I had to respect a time limit for my attempt because I could keep fueling this spell, the golem seemed to lose its footing and was sent plummeting face forward into the wall. There were some shocked shouts and a few cheers, but I quickly halted the spell as I was concerned I may have damaged the wall by sending the golem into it.
I was relieved when the wall was primarily unharmed and saw the golem slowly standing to its feet. The silence was palpable as everyone waited with bated breath for the golem''s evaluation. The back of the golem had some erosion damage that was slowly repairing itself. A line appeared on the golem''s chest and parted, revealing a chest cavity; it reached inside to retrieve something and approached me. At this point, the onlookers were cheering, although there was still the asional disgruntlementining about special treatment, damned elves, or damned mages.
The golem handed me a small ring and an engraved square token. [Identify] told me the ring was one of lesser mana regeneration, which I felt was wasted on me, but I ced it on one of my fingers, not wanting to seem ungrateful. A typical mage would have coveted such an item, so I could see why it was the standard reward. The token, however, was a mystery, and most strange of all was the notification.
While I was staring at the token, the golem had returned to its original spot and went dormant again. Meanwhile, Luke had approached me.
"Congrattions, Miss Syl, I knew you could do it! I''m betting that was the spell you used to defeat the smander." He said enthusiastically, then spotted the token I was staring at, "What''s that?"
"I''m not sure. The golem handed it to me along with my ring. I have both [Identify] and [Appraisal], but it says they failed."
"Well, the engraving is Keld''s coat of arms. But as for its purpose, I''m not sure. Perhaps Master Lisa would know."
"Nobody else has received such a token?"
"If they have, they kept it a secret. Or it''s above my pay grade."
I nodded and ced the token in a pouch, as I was concerned about putting the strange object inside my [Core Storage]. Eventually, one of the staff members asked if I could clean up the water, which had partially flooded the area. I agreed and gathered it in one spot using [Water Orb] before depositing it in my storage. My sess reinvigorated many other adventurers, and soon, there was a line to challenge the golem.
Since I had nothing more I wanted to do in the training area, Luke suggested we see if Lisa could inform her that I''d ept the noble''s request and ask about the token. While on the way there, I withdrew the catalyst inside myself and promptly devoured it.
Trait [ze Slime] gained.
Trait [Slime Burst] gained.
Trait [Thermal Vision] gained.>
It wasn''t a fused core this time, but I still gained quite a lot from it. Surprisingly, this slime must not have earned [Slime Shot], although I was d to get a boost to thermal vision, which now only needed one more level to reach the maximum. I hoped my new levels in [ze Slime] would mean I could use [Inferno Sac] without burning away slime.
Lisa''s secretary told us she could see us in half an hour, so Luke and I chatted briefly. He asked me basic questions about magic, which I answered as best as possible, mainly stealing from my conversations with Dewi. Most of my dealings with magic were based on feeling and experimentation rather than studying, so I had to fall back on his exnations. Luke was mainly undecided about the ss he wanted to pursue and was currently level three in Mage, Scout, and Warrior.
"Is there anything in particr you''d like me to look for as potential for your next quest?" Luke asked since it would be at least a day or two before I would head out again.
"I''m looking for somethingrge and flying. I''m unsure if the area has anyrge bird monsters or the equivalent."
"I hope you''re not nning on upgrading from smander to wyvern or drake next," Luke chuckled, "There are flying monsters, although mostly only when the floating ind is nearer, then they like to pluck horses from merchants traveling the road."
"If you can''t find a flying monster, try something unique or new. Avoid any monsters from my previous quests, and preferably no orcs."
"Why no orcs?"
"I already dealt with a few on my way to the mine. I did leave their ears in the room with my materials."
"Oh, so that was you? One of the merchants said they were saved from orcs by a random adventurer, but they ran off after killing the orcs. I''ll ensure you get the general bounty for dealing with them."
"Thanks, Luke. So I''ve already fought orcs, so I''d prefer a new monster I haven''t encountered if there are no flying ones."
"No problem. I''ll keep that in mind."
It wasn''t long before the secretary finally let us into Lisa''s office.
Chapter 81: Moonsong
Chapter 81: Moonsong
Lisa''s office was well-furnished but cluttered. Loose parchment and paper were scattered on every avable surface. I looked around in shock and horror and wondered how she could find anything in this shamble. Seeing my reaction, she chuckled.
"Word of advice, Syl. Never be a Guild Master."
"I wonder if I should warn Roderick," I replied, earning a goodugh from Lisa.
"So what can I do for you two? I''d heard you cleared out the silver mine. Thanks for that."
"No problem. I gained a lot of experience and apparently earned a fortune, ording to Thern."
"Oh?" Lisa asked inquisitively.
Luke cleared his throat before responding, looking somewhat embarrassed and unsure of how to breech the subject, "The smander evolved into an inferno smander, and Syl dealt with it and harvested its me organ perfectly intact, as well as its lesser draconic scales."
"It evolved, and you still took it on? I didn''t expect you to be so reckless."
"I thought the quest description was generic, like my other quest, which just said to kill spiders. I didn''t know the original quest was for a regr smander."Lisa and Luke groaned in unison before Lisa said, "You''re not exactly wrong. That generally applies to mass kill quests, but the quest description is supposed to be precise if it''s for a solo monster."
"I''ll keep that in mind in the future, but I dealt with it, I''m unharmed, and the miners get to continue their work. I don''t see a problem."
"For you, maybe, but this is going to be a paperwork nightmare when we tell the city their quest was severely out of date or they lied about the submission," Lisa answered, rubbing her temples.
"Not to throw more on your te, but Syl epts the noble''s dining request," Luke added.
Lisa shrugged, "That''s actually not too bad. Johnathan is decent as far as nobles go. I''ll let him know, as I expect he will want to take you to dinner tomorrow evening."
She looked me over and paused before asking, "Please tell me that''s not your only outfit."
"I had another robe, but it was destroyed in the dungeon, and then I have leather armor."
"Nope! No way! I''m lending you an outfit. You will not be representing the guild dressed like that," Lisa said, gesturing at me.
Luke also seemed bbergasted at my answer but lightly defended me, "Not that it would be appropriate for dinner, but she is getting a set of armor made from the draconic scales."
"Good! If you approached me looking like that, I''d refuse your promotion even if you yed a dragon. You look like a fresh Iron-ranker when you''re a Silver shooting for Gold." Lisa said, exasperated, before continuing, "Where''s your femininity, Syl? I know you''re friends with Whitney, who''s quite the tomboy, but even she likes a good outfit."
I could only shrug at the usations. Maybe I was doing Sylthaeryn''s elven form a disservice, but I was a slime and felt very indifferent about it. At least the armor would potentially protect me, so it had a purpose.
"I''ll send a dress to your room at the inn tomorrow morning; I have a few enchanted with size-altering, so it won''t matter. I would have invited you to pick one, but I think it would be better left in my hands..." Lisa said, to which I hastily agreed.
"Also, I did the golems damage test."
"I was wondering what themotion downstairs was; that exins it. I''m assuming you passed?"
"I did. But it also handed me this." I replied, pulling out the square token and cing it on her desk.
"Oh, looks like you''ve been invited to the Keld Kingdom. That''s a rare opportunity. You must have really impressed his golem."
"I can''t even [Identify] it. How is anyone supposed to know it''s an invitation?"
"I don''t think anyone but Keldenar himself can. It''s a sound system against forgeries, as everyone wants to make a connection with the man who is capable of running an entire city single-handedly. You better keep that very safe."
"I will, although I''m not going to rush over. I had other ns."
"From what I heard, it''s an open invitation, so there''s no expiration date. You''re certainly not the first to be invited, and many promising adventurers have received such a token. Although I''m surprised our golem even had one, considering we bought the cheapest avable."
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I nodded and deposited the token in my storage this time since there was likely no safer ce. We chatted briefly, during which I shared some details of my quest before Lisa had to excuse herself and get back to work. I thanked them for their time and returned to the inn since I had nothing else on my agenda.
With a swipe of my guild tag, I paid for my room and holed up until dinner, continuing to tinker with my spell. I was half expecting to run into someone from Roderick''s party, but when I asked one of the inn staff, she said they were still in Kaerlin. They must have been out on a quest, so I hastily ate and returned to my room.
When I woke up, I spent the morning idly tinkering away at my spell until there was a knock at my door. One of the staff members handed me a package from Lisa. Inside was a dark blue dress made out of a high-quality fabric. I could see it was faintly glowing with magic, and [Identify] told me it had size-altering and self-repair. I threw the entire outfit into storage, assigned it an equipment profile, and swapped to it briefly to confirm everything was in ce before swapping back to my regr attire.
"This skill is probably one of my favorites from a utility perspective. Messing with clothes is such a bother. Thanks again, Yuzz..." I murmured. I hoped she had survived.
I continued tinkering the rest of the day since I had nothing else to do until the evening. I had hoped to run into Whitney or Dewi, but they had yet to return from their quest. When dusk approached, I left my room and waited for my escort to arrive at the inn''smon area. A guard eventually arrived, wearing armor significantly different from the gate guards in both embellishments and giving off a weak magic aura. He looked at me questioningly, and I could feel his disapproval of my casual outfit. Before he couldin, I triggered [Equipment Swap] and, in a sh of light, was instantly in the outfit prepared for me.
He nodded approvingly at my attire and escorted me to the inner city gate. I tried conversing, but he was strictly all business and stoically silent. Before entering the gate, he warned me that I would be held ountable if I caused a scene, elf, adventurer, or otherwise. We entered without issue other than a lot of attention from onlookers, and I could immediately see the difference in quality between the inner city and the outer city. The road wasn''t just paved but tiled, and the buildings were all of much higher quality, each having more resources also put towards aesthetics rather than just their function. The outer city wasn''t necessarily dirty, andpared to Stantondale, it was spotless, but you could effortlessly tell the differencepared to the inner city.
People gawked and stared at me as I was escorted along, openly gossiping and showing no shame or effort to hide it. I could only mentally grumble at Lisa for not picking a more subtle attire. I ensured I had [Elven mour] equipped, as I knew I''d be talking this evening and needed all the tools avable.
Moonsong was a smaller building than I expected, considering its location in the inner city. I thanked my guard escort and walked to the entrance, and before I could even reach for the door, a friendly-looking staff member opened it.
"Greetings, Miss Syl, we''ve been expecting you. I shall escort you to your table."
The upants were startled at my appearance and also made no attempts to hide their whispering. Johnathan was certainly getting his money''s worth if he wanted the attention of inviting me here, and the dress Lisa loaned me only added fuel to the fire. I just kept thinking of the slime core I''d be getting and the possibilities it would unlock for me.
The ambiance of Moonsong was a sight to behold, as the entire establishment was darkened and illuminated by artificial starlight and a sizeable ornamental moon in the center of the building. Unfortunately, [Mana Sight] broke the illusion set up by the establishment, revealing it all as objects with minor enchantments inscribed. I thanked the staff and was led to a table where a well-dressed man was seated. Seeing me, he stood up and gave a short half-bow to greet me.
"Miss Syl, thank you ever so much for epting my request. I must say, the rumors do not do your appearance justice at all."
"Thank you, Mister Green. I''m d to have the opportunity to see the inner city and make your acquaintance." I replied, leaning heavily on [Acting] and [Elven mour].
"Please, please. Call me Johnathan; the only Mister Green is my father, and until I seed him, I''m not worthy of it."
"Very well, Johnathan, but please just call me Syl."
"dly." He said with a charming smile.
He offered me a seat, and the waiter brought some water before Johnathan ordered proper drinks, which I left up to him since my knowledge of food and drink was limited to consumption only.
"If you don''t mind me asking, what brings you out of the forest? We very rarely see elves."
"Adventure, mostly. I want to travel the world, and my current goal is to reach Gold rank."
"Ah yes, the wanderlust and fame of adventure. Sometimes, I regret choosing the merchant life."
"It seems to be doing well for you. You''re the highest nonbat job I''ve ever seen."
"Thank you for thepliment. I can return it by saying you''re both the first elf and Shadowcaster I''ve ever seen, and judging by your purchasing power, you must be extremely sessful."
"Purchasing power?"
"Ah, do forgive me. One of my merchant skills gives me an impression of the wealth someone owns and another of how much their potential to earn is, and you are quite frankly off the charts. I''m truly grateful that my instincts told me to part with our magical tool and meet you."
"That''s very interesting. I''ve heard very little about nonbat sses and only met a Chef and Crafter. How do you even level up?"
"Quite amon question, actually. I definitely can''t attack monsters with my bank ount, not directly anyway." Johnathan replied with a light chuckle, "Depending on the job, we earn experience by partaking in its natural activities. So, as a merchant, I gain experience by earning money, buying or selling goods, establishing trade deals, and even providing customer satisfaction."
"That actually sounds fascinating. If I didn''t have to give up my current ss, I''d want to try it."
"Well, you could always swap back and forth, but..." In a hushed voice, he leaned forward and said, "Now, you didn''t hear this from me, but I''ve heard it is possible to get a second job, although the details of which seem to be a closely guarded secret."
"That''s... Wow," I replied, baffled, as I couldn''t sense that he was lying, at least not directly. This was going to be a fascinating evening.
Chapter 82: Cryo Slime
Chapter 82: Cryo Slime
"I''m d that caught your attention. I wish I had more information to tease you with. Still, the most I managed to suss out myself was that everyone with one of these additional sses is either a Diamond-rank adventurer or closely rted to one."
"So adventurers on par with Keldenar?"
"Well... I''d say it''s hard to be on par with him, but yes. The rumors say he has an enchanting ss with the powerful magical artifacts he exports, not to mention theyers of enchantments on his golems."
''I guess I can ask him or Gramps, whicheveres first.'' I decided.
We continued to chat for a bit while we drank and ate. Johnathan mostly asked me for some stories of my adventures and what monsters I had fought. He was highly pleased to hear that I was responsible for the silver mine being back in operation, as apparently, his family did business with the owners. In return, I was told about some of his most sessful trade deals or the famous people he had done business with. Thankfully, Johnathan remained mostly humble, but most of his stories went utterly over my head. The food was a delight and at least on par with Trevor''s work, although the portions left a bit to be desired.
"So originally, I was going to sell you our spare freeze tool, but my merchant instincts tell me I should sell you our best one instead." Johnathan said while we were settling down to a light after-dinner drink, "And after such a pleasant evening, I most certainly want to agree with them."
He ced two objects on the table: golden metallic cages with intricate engravings. Housed in the center were two pale turquoise cores. One was notablyrger, reminding me of the difference between the two fire catalysts. Without a doubt, I wanted therger one, as it was likely another fused core.
"I don''t suppose you''d be willing to part with both?" I asked, trying to hide my desire.
"Sadly, I must keep one myself; otherwise, I won''t be able to transportrge amounts of perishable goods. However, I''d dly try to source another one for you.""Please do. And yes, I''d dly take your best one off your hands if you''re willing."
He gestured for me to take therger one and pulled out a crystal ne simr to my guild tag. We tapped crystals toplete the purchase. The guild would vet the purchase for me, but I doubted he was willing to scam me at this point. He suddenly went wide-eyed and looked at me in shock.
"Wow. You must have really wanted that. This singr transaction just gave me two merchant levels," Johnathan said, rubbing his chin. He was clearly debating whether to sell me the other one and even when I prodded, he reluctantly held firm.
"I''m surprised you didn''t gain any racial levels, even if you''ve changed your distribution."
"Ah no, that is amon misconception. The vocation experience is only for the ss itself. If I want to earn any racial experience, I''m forced to hire adventurers or mercenaries to y some monsters with me in a party." Johnathan exined, "It''s quitemon in the noble circles, although I just got a few levels to make my daily life easier. But others sometimes pay their way all the way to some absurd levels. Some adventurers earn a fortune being partied with a noble family."
"Can''t say that interests me, I wouldn''t want to share my experience with anyone not pulling their weight."
"I don''t me you, and my merchant skills tell me that you''re earning way more than them anyway." Johnathan chuckled, "I think we should do business in the future, Syl. It will be immensely profitable for both of us. Tell me, what else are you looking for?"
"Originally, I was looking for magical slime catalysts, but I''d be willing to ept even raw slime cores. I''m currently looking for any cores other than blue slime, although my current preference would be a yellow or orange slime core."
Johnathan went silent for a moment, deep in thought, although I could overhear his slight mutterings thanks to [Perception]. "Magecraft? Alchemy? Enchanting? Or something else...?" He shook his head and smiled, "Sorry for my ramblings. It''s a bad habit I''ve failed to break. Regardless of your intention, I will keep my feelers out for you."
At the end of the evening, Johnathan escorted me back to the gate. It was a surprisingly entertaining evening, and I''d potentially made valuable contact and finally got my tendrils on a new core, with the prospect for more in the future.
"Thank you for a most amazing evening, Syl. Please do send Guild Master Lisa my regards."
"Thank you as well, Johnathan. I''m d I didn''t turn down your request."
We said our farewells, and I headed back to the outer city. Excited about the new core, I made a beeline to the inn. When I got to my room, I withdrew the object and hastily ate the core out of its golden housing, leaving behind a still rather impressive, if empty, frame.
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''Yes''.
Trait [Cryo Slime] gained.
Trait [Slime Shot] gained.
Trait [Slime Density] gained.
Trait [Thermal Vision] gained.>
''Now, that was a haul of traits. It''s interesting that [Slime Density] got automatically integrated into [Morph Slime], although more was needed to level it up. Now, let''s look at this new trait.''
This slime has the ability to survive and thrive within extreme cold and can rapidly control the temperature of its slime to generate equivalent outputs that it uses offensively.
Minimum temperature levels and modification speed scale with trait level, as well as by outside factors such aspression.
This trait adds ice resistance, which scales with the trait level until eventual immunity at the max level. It also prevents damage from extreme cold, and thwarts slime mass from being frozen solid.
Compatible with other slime traits.>
I hadn''t even considered someone freezing my slime, which sounded absolutely horrific, and I was suddenly quite thankful I hadn''t decided to try to go to some frosty region to hunt a white slime myself. I held out a hand and activated [Cryo Slime] and, with [Thermal Vision], watched my arm progress from its red thermal coloring down to a deep dark blue.
I conjured up a [Water Orb] and ced my palm on it. Rapidly, the magical ball of water froze, and when it did, I lost control of the spell, and it fell to the floor, shattering. I had not expected that, and when I repeated the process, this time holding the orb from below and watching with [Mana Vision], I saw my water mana rapidly transforming into something else, which I could only assume was ice.
''It''s like when I turned the rock elemental into mud, and it couldn''t control it anymore. Perhaps that will change if I get [Ice Magic]?''
In theory, I had an Ice Affinity now, and to prove it, I borrowed [Elemental Amalgamation] again and seized control of the shards on the floor and the orb in my hand. Since I had created both with my own mana, I could skip the step of needing to use [Mana Infusion]. With free control over the ice, I formed it into a small ice tree, like my previous slime sculptures.
''Now, the question is, how do I get [Ice Magic]? I recall Dewi mentioning needing to be level thirty, which just isn''t feasible in a short time span. The real solution would be to unlock a pure caster ss. I''ll ask Luke or Lisa tomorrow if Dewi is still not back yet.''
I looked over the white slime profile while Iy in bed. Sadly, there were no new or hidden traits for me to learn. Unlike red slimes, they came with [Thermal Vision] naturally, which made sense for them to find prey in sub-zero climates. [Slime Density] and [Slime Shot] were itsmon traits, while [Pseudopod] and [Slime Burst] were its rare traits. I would have loved to have gotten a free level in [Pseudopod], but sadly, this slime hadn''t acquired it.
The following day, I withdrew the outfit borrowed from Lisa and cleaned it thoroughly by engulfing it entirely in slime and instantly dissolving anything that wasn''t the dress. When I removed it, it looked cleaner than I initially got it, and I carefully returned it to its packaging.
Before heading to the guild, however, I asked around for somewhere to purchase barrels, which is how I eventually ended up at a carpenter''s, requesting thirty barrels. The owner was baffled at my requested quantity but only had ten in stock. I paid upfront and said I''d collect the rest when he was done, throwing the ten into storage. It was a good thing he didn''t have the stock on hand, as it looked like I''d need to level up my storage skill again if I wanted to fit the total amount I requested.
Using [Vanish] and finding a quiet alleyway, I withdrew a barrel and filled it with alcohol slime by cing a hand inside it before resealing it and depositing it again. Then, I finally headed to the guild; before dealing with Luke, I visited Thern and dropped off his barrel for the enchanting work he''d be doing. We exchanged greetings before I dropped the barrel in front of him.
"What''s that you got there?"
"Your barrel of alcohol you requested."
"Wait, that''s full of the booze you gave mest time?"
"Yes. I''m getting more barrels made as well."
Thern groaned, "I know I said barrel... But what I actually meant was a keg... I didn''t expect you to actually get a literal barrel."
"Oh... I didn''t know there was a difference." I replied with a shrug.
"Well, the damage is done. I''ll just have to put even more effort into my enchanting to be worthy of such a prize!" Thern replied with a hearty chuckle, "What do you want? Elemental resist? Protection? I probably have enough for something like poison immunity... Maybe a little attribute boosting?"
"That''s... Wow, I didn''t expect enchanting to have so many options."
"Aye, although you''re limited by the materials avable and the piece of equipment. Being made of draconic scale, yours should be able to handle quite a load, and I have a good supply of materials avable from my old job."
"What about magic resistance in general? Or mental protection?"
"Mental protection would work on an essory or headpiece, not armor. I can do general magic resistance, but it''s far less effective than just getting something like fire resistance."
"I''d rather have the broad resistance. I already have traits for individual resistances and immunities."
"Ah! Right, you do have a ton of racial levels; it makes sense you''d grab a lot of defensive traits. I keep thinking of my old human customers who didn''t bother with traits... Well, a general magic resistance and protection enchantment sounds ideal for you, on top of the size-altering and self-repair I already nned on doing."
"Thanks, Thern, I can''t wait to get it."
"If the crafting isn''t done already, it should be today. Then I''ll need a day or so for enchanting, so you''ll get it soon and finally look like a proper adventurer."
"That''s some fast work..."
"You''d be surprised how fast someone with a dedicated crafting ss can churn out equipment with all the skill bonuses they have avable."
"Thanks, Thern. I''m going to look for my next quest. Try not to drink the entire barrel in one sitting!"
"Ha! I think even a dwarf would struggle to survive that much!"
Chapter 83: Charity Quest
Chapter 83: Charity Quest
"Good morning, Miss Syl. I hope you had a pleasant evening?"
"Morning, Luke. It was certainly worth my time. I got my prize, and it sounds like Johnathan will try to hunt down some more for me."
"I''m d it worked out then. Master Lisa did mention that it''s very beneficial to have a merchant connection." Luke replied, "So, what can I do for you today?"
"I''m ready for my next quest. However, I''d also like information on an intermediate caster ss. I want to potentially get some skill revtions that I believe my hybrid ss won''t have ess to for some time."
"I see. It can be beneficial to round out your build with a dip in another ss, and plenty do so. You''re lucky that you''re dipping into a ss you''re already part of, so it shouldn''t set back your progression at all - if you were asking to dip into something like Warrior, I would have strongly advised against it."
"It''s good to know I''m not doing something stupid or taboo. My only issue is that I still need to receive a ss revtion for an intermediate caster role. Tabitha mentioned that there were requirements, some of which are known while others are hidden."
"If you''re willing to wait a bit, I''ll check with one of my coworkers on what knowledge can be shared. Regrettably, I''m not too familiar with many intermediate sses yet."
"Thanks, Luke. Also, I have Lisa''s dress to return. I''ve already cleaned it."
Luke''s cheeks reddened slightly before he nodded, "Ah, yes. I''ll see that it''s given back to her."I didn''t have to wait too long for Luke to return, which I was grateful for, as I had a few others trying to recruit me to join them on their quest. While I was open to the idea eventually, I still had many things I wanted to try out as a slime.
"Sorry for keeping you waiting. The natural progression from Mage would be Sorcerer. Of course, this ignores obscure or specialized sses focusing on a particr element."
"That sounds like what I want; I''m not nning on specializing in an element. Not yet, anyway."
"Right. The mostmon way to unlock it is to get one of your elements to level five, but others have unlocked it by getting two elements to level four. There are other reported cases of someone unlocking it by getting a magical-rted skill to level five rather than an element. More importantly, there''s a minimum mana requirement, although I believe you far exceed that."
I nced over my status profile. It had been a while since I bothered looking at it, and perhaps I had neglected ittely.
Name: Syl [Dungeoneer]
Race: Chimeric Mimic Slime (Blue) LV 4
ss: Shadowcaster LV 9
Status: Healthy
Mana: Overflowing
Emblems:
[Experiment]
[Apex Hunter]
[Elven Legacy]
[Dungeoneer]*
Traits:
Slime:
[Mana Slime LV MAX]
[Acid Slime LV 7]
[Poison Slime LV 5]
[ze Slime LV 6]
[Cryo Slime LV 4]
[Morph Slime LV 7]
[Pseudopod LV 6]
[Slime Shot LV 6]
[Slime Burst LV 6]
[Vaporize Slime]
Core:
[Core Refinement LV 6]
[Core Storage LV 5]
[Sub-Core Alpha LV 4]
[Sub-Core Beta LV 4]
[Sub-Core Gamma LV 4]
[Sub-Core Delta LV 4]
[Sub-Core Epsilon LV 4]
[Consuming Osmosis LV MAX]
Mimic:
[Chimeric Mimicry LV 6]
[Chroma Shift LV MAX]
Mana:
[Mana Cirction LV 6]
[Mana Reinforcement LV 6].
[Mana Infusion]
[Slime Conversion LV 3]
Attributes/Other:
[Soul Mastery LV 6]
[Enhanced Vitality LV 4]
[Magic Resistance (Lesser) LV 4]
[Defy Death LV 3]
[Prodigy]
Senses:
[Olfactory Sense]
[Dark Vision LV 4]
[Mana Sight LV 5]
[Thermal Vision LV MAX]
Trait Points remaining: 5
Skills:
General:
[Universal Language]
[Equipment Swap]
[Dissection LV 6]
[Mapping LV 4]
[Tracking LV 1]
[Identify LV 4]
[Multitasking LV 1]
[Perception LV 2]
Combat:
[Evasion LV 4]
[Attack Mastery (Lesser) LV 6]
[Affliction Mastery LV 3]
Magic:
[Water Magic LV 4]
[Fire Magic LV 3]
[Corrosion Magic LV 3]
[Mana Maniption LV 4]
[Mana Suppression]
[Ritual Casting]
Sneaky:
[Vanish LV 5]
[Sneak Attack LV 5]
[Identity Block LV 5]
[Acting LV 4]
[Rogue Expertise LV 2]
[Subtle Afflictions]
Skill Points remaining: 6
The most straightforward solution would be to get [Fire Magic] to level four or [Mana Maniption] to level five, as I had been rapidly gaining levels through all the spell tinkering I was doing. [Water Magic] leveled shortly before I fought the smander, so it was unlikely to reach five before my next ss level.
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"Thanks, Luke. I must redouble my effort before I gain my next ss level."
"Not a problem, Miss Syl. I''m happy to be of use." Luke replied with a beaming smile, "As for your next quest, I couldn''t find any flying monsters, but they should starting in within a week as the ind approaches."
"That should be fine. Anything else interesting or unique in the meantime?"
"Well... Currently, the biggest request is to deal with the uptick in orc activity. It seems the three you dealt with were not an isted case, and they''ve been raiding the roads to the north."
"I''d rather not fight more orcs unless there''s nothing else?"
"Some adventurers who witnessed or heard about your disy against the training golem have made a personal request about whether you''re willing to sell any magical knowledge. The guild doesn''t mind whether you ept or deny such requests, and it can certainly be profitable."
"I''m not struggling for coin at the moment. Maybe if it was a slime catalyst."
"Yes... I can quitefortably say that you will not struggle for coins anytime soon. There''s a bidding war going on over the inferno sac you acquired..."
"Really? I knew it was valuable but didn''t expect that much."
"You can thank Mister Thern for that. He mentioned it to his father, and now the dwarves are fighting the local noble over purchasing it. The dwarves want to turn it into a furnace heart, while the noble wants to turn it into a magical catalyst."
"If I get any choice in the matter, I''d rather it go to the dwarves. I n on visiting them, and it sounds like a good way to earn some favor."
''I wonder if I couldn''t just trade it for a silver core...''
"Sorry, Miss Syl. Once you handed it over to the guild, it became our responsibility. Especially now that it''s gone further than the expected sale value due to its rarity. As you may or may not know, the guild takes a small portion of the sale as a handling fee, although since your items came in already harvested, it''s much smaller in your case."
"Oh..." I said, disappointed.
"It''s not just the guild wanting the ie. It''s also for the protection of the adventurers. Sometimes, especially if things go to auction, unscrupulous individuals try to bribe or even threaten the adventurer into relinquishing their find to them." Luke exined reassuringly, "On the positive side, I think it will end up with the dwarves in the end. Mister Thern always tells me never to underestimate the stubbornness of a dwarf."
"Alright, I guess that makes sense," I reluctantly replied. I already had a n in ce to get my silver core, so it may be better this way, or I''d be throwing any ns Thern made upside down. The boisterous dwarf had seemed quite eager for me to visit them.
"So... As for unique monsters, there is one that came to mind that I think you''d be great for, but..."
"But?"
"The pay is terrible; the farmer can''t afford much, and it''s been overlooked. A nt monster has taken root in his field and killed all his crops, and if it''s left for much longer, the soil will be barren soon. It''s a charity case, which makes many adventurers reluctant, but it would be good for your progress to Gold rank."
"Sounds good to me. I''m sure it''s harvestable regardless if the pay is bad."
"It could be. The monster is known as a nt Horror. They start out small and graft any nt, including trees, into their form to grow in size and strength." Luke exined, "Anything they''ve grafted is basically a super version of what it was normally. Medicinal herbs are now double as potent, fruit is twice as sweet, but you''re just as likely to find one that has only grafted weeds or poisonous nts."
"So potentially, it could be extremely valuable or hazardous and worthless."
"Exactly. Not many are willing to risk the luck of the draw, especially for such a low payout."
"Sounds fun, and if it''s worthless, I can easily deal with it using [Fire Magic]."
"Great. The farm is also to the north, so I will give you the orc extermination quest just in case you run into any. There''s no set limit or penalty if youe back without killing any, but at least this way, you''ll get properlypensated."
"Can''t I just bring back the ear?"
"You could, but because orcs have ss levels, they could be anywhere between a Bronze and Silver rank threat. We can''t tell that from an ear alone, so you''d bepensated the same if you killed a level two warrior or a level twenty barbarian."
"Then I can''t see any reason not to. I certainly won''tin about the experience."
I thanked Luke for his assistance and headed out. Once I broke into the streets, I utilized [Vanish] to head towards the gate. When I arrived at the gate, the guards seemed to recognize me. This time, they saluted me and wished me good luck on my quest. I wondered where the new politeness came from as I walked again down the familiar road.
I immediately broke out my spell construct and started to work on the tinkering. I kept Alpha to assist me while I had the remaining four work on rapidly cycling through casts of [Kindle]. My hope was that either I''d get [Mana Maniption] to five or my [Sub Cores] would get [Fire Magic] to four before we encountered a monster.
Walking down the road with four mes flickering around me was quite a sight, causing some fellow pedestrians to mutterints about adventurers while others just looked on with curiosity. At least this proved I wasn''t the first to focus so heavily on training skills if this was a regr enough urrence toin about.
While traveling, I headed towards the quest marker, which eventually led me off the road and into the wilderness. I didn''t mind too much since this was leading directly to my destination, and once I was further away from the road, I could settle my curiosity with [Cryo Slime].
I saved my progress with my still iplete spell tinkering and let Alpha join the others with casting [Kindle]. I cast an unmodified [Torrent] spell toward the wilderness, the water bursting from the magical circle. With [Cryo Slime] at the absolute minimum temperature I could utilize, I thrusted my icy hand into the magical circle. Soon, what was just a column of endless water was quickly filled with long shards of ice and the asional more hefty chunk. Ice fragments were scattered everywhere, and being propelled by the water, the level of destruction was far beyond what I initially imagined.
Whilebining water with ice seemed obvious, I had yet to consider the potential of using [Torrent] as a delivery mechanism. What if I added [Poison Slime] or [Acid Slime]? Or what if I tried tobine [Torrent] and [Acid Dart]? I felt absolutely giddy with excitement at the possibilities.
I also tried the opposite, utilizing [ze Slime] and thrusting my hand again into the circle. Immediately, there was a loud hissing sound, and the water became violently bubbly, with some steam bursting forward.
Overall, I preferred the results from adding ice to the water, but I couldn''t imagine anyone or anything being happy being on the receiving end of either. While thinking over my results, a sudden notification halted me in my tracks.
Chapter 84: Plant Horror
Chapter 84: nt Horror
I cheered at the rush of new knowledge filling my mind once again. This time, it looked like [Fire Magic] was teaching me something unexpected - it could not only create destructive fire but also generate heat and warmth. I was immediately reminded of the custom spell Dewi had demonstrated and was shocked that he used a fourth-level spell to do something as simple as drying clothes.
I picked up a rock, cast the spell on it, and watched it slowly heat up. The heating process would speed up if I increased the mana flow. However, I couldn''t think of any immediate practical applications, and it was vastly inferior to [ze Slime]. To confirm this, I picked up another rock. I activated the trait to the maximum, causing the small rock to heat up rapidly, far beyond the spell''s capacity, even though this was transmitted through contact while the spell directly affected it.
"I guess they can''t all be winners. The next level is [Fireball], so at least I have that to look forward to."
"What?" I questioned and looked around.
Nothing.
I checked my profile; everything had stayed the same. I continued looking around frantically and couldn''t spot anything. As far as I knew, I had just randomly gained a skill point from... nothing? It couldn''t have been from [Apex Hunter] as that gave a prior notification.
''Are you screwing with me, Gramps?'' I questioned, but it remained unanswered.
I even checked my quests; both still needed to bepleted, and as great as the guild was, I doubted they had enough privilege to award skill points. By the time I reached the farnd, I still had no clear answer and could only assume Gramps had something to do with it. The farmer and his family were extremely grateful for my presence.
"Thank the Gods you''re here... We thought no one would take up our quest until ournd was sucked dry." The farmer said, leading me to the field in question. In the center of the field, I could see arge mass of vines, flowers, and corn nts. The field looked almost barren, and the remaining nts were withered and dying. As if whispers on the breeze, I heard quiet sobbing and pleading for the pain to stop. I looked around questioningly and realized it wasing from the field. I had forgotten entirely about the trait [Nature Commune], but the nts must have been truly desperate to reach out like this - not even the tree I had dug into had said a word of protest.
Despite its size and level, it left less of an impression on me than the smander I had just fought. My gut told me this creature was rtively weak.
''Does this creature not evolve?'' I wondered.
Luke had said they grafted nts to themselves and grew in size and ability, which sounded far different from any monster I had fought previously.
"Don''t worry, I''ll deal with it," I told the farmer and nts.
"Be careful, ma''am. It killed one of my farmhands with a strange spore." The farmer warned, and I nodded, watching him retreat back to his home.
One by one, I cast my debuffs on the creature, who hadn''t noticed my presence yet. The obvious solution would be to kill it with fire, but I was vaguely concerned about the coteral damage to the nearby nts, now whispering with hope.
''This trait is a little off-putting... I should stop using it unless I need to.''
Since [Fire Magic] was out, and [Water Magic] seemed stupid against a nt that left only slime or acid. I directed each core to form the [Acid Dart] spell andunched an opening salvo, hopefully, boosted by [Sneak Attack]. The spells struck sessfully, causing the nt mass to tremble and rapidly break off any nt segments before rapidly regrowing them.
Vines started thrashing around, revealing a singr trunk in the center as it opened up to attack its surroundings. Not wanting to lead the monster towards the farmer''s house or the few surviving nts, I rushed towards it while still keeping up a consistent barrage of spells.
Fighting a monster that couldn''t scream or yell at me was odd. I could only feel its outrage through its violent thrashing of vines. The flowers and fungus growing along its trunk started to twitch, and with the aid of its vines, a strange substance was distributed in a rtivelyrge area.
Iughed at its attempt to poison me and kept casting spells. Multiple vines approached me, and my [Sub Cores] started to fire at them to intercept them. The ones that made it through, I managed to nimbly dodge thanks to thebination of [Elven Reflexes] and [Evasion]. Things were going well until suddenly, a root burst out of the ground and wrapped itself around me in a tight squeeze.
''Again, I''ve failed to sense something underground. Whitney is going to be furious.'' I reprimanded myself before activating [Cryo Slime], ''Fire is a no-go, but let''s see if you can handle the cold.''
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Almost immediately, I felt the roots reluctantly trying to let go of me, and they were starting to take on a darkened coloration. But it was toote for the nt, and with a flex of my mana-reinforced body followed by a horrific cracking sound, I freed myself from the constriction.
"Seems you really don''t like the cold. Here, have some more." I taunted the silent creature before firing [Slime Burst] from my palm.
The sticky solution clung to the nt, and with [Thermal Vision], I could see it rapidly stealing away its life-giving warmth. The nt monster knew the source of its pain and quickly was discarding its graftings - only for me to unleash another burst of slime on it.
It still made a few attempts to assault me with vines, but they seemed sluggish, and its main focus was trying to preserve itself. I nced it over with [Dissection] to see if there was anything worth saving, but the results were on par with basic tusks and fangs from my approximation. The nt that would have had value was the funguses grown on its bark, but they were the first to die from the cold slime.
As I approached it against expectations, I watched it uproot itself and poorly attempt to writhe away while it abandoned most of its body. What remained of the monster was a cluster of living roots and vines wriggling over itself like a colony of worms. I raised a palm and fired a [Slime Shot] that engulfed the nt parasite, and it died shortly after, curling in on itself and darkening.
Would you like to swap sses?>.
I celebrated my goal of finally meeting the minimum requirements to unlock the ss but held off on immediately swapping until I had disposed of the creature''s corpse. I enveloped it in slime from my palm and dissolved everything, not wanting to leave anything behind in case it could somehow recover or form a new one. Then, I quickly devoured the frozen ball of root tendrils.
I cleaned up whatever acid or cold slime remained where I could, even casting [Heat] on the patches of soil where cold slime had dripped. I could hear the nt whispers celebrating the end of their cmity. On a whim, I decided to help the nts in the area. I withdrew all the water from my consecutive morning deteriorations, which held a form of purity over even water generated from magic and used [Mana Infusion] to enrich it further. Then, casting [Torrent], I fired the water straight up into the air into arge burst to rain down upon thend.
"Life..."
"So good..."
"Healing..."
"Thank you..."
I heard the whispers of the nt life and then immediately removed the trait from my mimicked profile. While I felt good to do a small good deed, if I was going to constantly hear their voices, I would go insane. I turned to my previous notification
Would you like to swap sses?>.
''Yes''
.
.
''Wait, you can get trait revtions from your ss? I mean, yes!''
See the flow of mana and its underlyingplexity throughout the world.
Mana conception can see through obstructions based on trait level.
Trait level also determines the minimum level of mana to be detected and the detection range andplexity of mana formation.>
''Does this mean what I think it means?'' I questioned and immediately formed and held [Poison Mist]. Looking closely, I could identify the individualponents of the corrosion mana and see the concepts it held, such as poison, duration, and damage. Looking at [Erode], it held the concepts of weaken, duration, and debuff. When Ipared it to [mmable] and saw all the parts I had dug out and reced with Fire mana, I could only be shocked at how I had blindly brute-forced myself through what should have been a delicate and careful operation.
''Well. I can thank my cores for that. Now let''s get that new magic.''
Like all first-level spells, it was basic in its function. Casting it, it created a long, pointed shard of ice that I could fire. Staring at the spell and its mana, I recognized it as simr to what contaminated my [Water Orb] when I touched it with [Cryo Slime], which held the concepts of freeze and cold.
The door erupted when I approached the farmhouse, and the farmer and his family looked ecstatic. The harder I tried to brush off their thanks as no big deal, the harder they pressed to thank me. When one of his daughters questioned why it had rained, I exined that I had cast a spell to help the fields recover. The farmer and his wife almost choked up in gratitude, and I had to practically flee the scene before a newfound barrage of praise overwhelmed me.
Looking over the profile of the nt monster proved my earlier theory correct; it did not seem to evolve and instead just existed. Like my slime, it had a bunch of interconnected traits that started with it grafting nts to itself, which led to another trait allowing it to empower grafted nts, mutate grafts, fuse grafts, and eventually procreate grafts. The one I fought must not have gotten further than empowering or mutating its grafts, judging by itsck of avable arsenal.
While I could mimic the chain of five traits, I didn''t feel the need or want to, as I''d need to keep natural nts and nurture and care for them to see any benefit. I found one trait worth the asional mimicking, [Sr Rejuvenation], which would increase vitality and mana regeneration in direct sunlight. Since elves had their connection to nature, I hoped it would bepatible with my elf form, but sadly it was not. The minimal amount I could get away with was adding vines around my arms and shoulders, like some strange scarf.
''Well. It''s not like I''m desperate for another form of mana regeneration.''
Chapter 85: Orcs
Chapter 85: Orcs
While my first thought was to create an ice debuff, I was too excited to finish tinkering with the [Poison Mist] spell and rece it with fire. [Mana Conception] made my previous efforts feel childish, a sess only earned through sheer stubbornness. I was nearingpletion of the spell when I overheard voices nearby.
"I''m telling you, I saw lots and lots of mana go into the sky!"
"Don''t think you smart now just because Big Bro taught you a few tricks."
"Smarter than you, at least!"
I looked towards the source and saw two orcs bickering amongst themselves, heading towards the farm. I cursed under my breath; obviously, what I did would have potentially attracted anyone with [Mana Sight]. I was so distracted by my spellwork that by the time I noticed them, it was far toote to try to use [Vanish], not to mention that I currently held a significant amount of mana between my palms.
"Look, a prettydy! Lots of mana. Told you I was right."
"You didn''t do anything! It was all thanks to big bros help."
While I usually overlooked their levels as no big deal, I noticed the shaman was increasing his racial levels, unlike the humans and the goblins. I understood they felt no pain, but blindly attacking humans just seemed suicidal. Now, they had incurred the wrath of the guild and had an unlimited kill quest assigned to them; what were they thinking?
"Honestly, do you orcs want to die? You all seem suicidal..." I asked, my curiosity burning, "You attack the humans relentlessly.""Prettydy asking the same question as Big Bro." The shamanmented.
"Answer is simple! Humans give the most levels." The barbarian stated proudly.
It was a surprising answer, but I agreed a little. Monsters didn''t usually have sses; an equivalent amount of experience would lead them to evolve, while humans would just progress in their sses. Evolutions seemed like a far more substantial power jump than I had seen from ss levels.
"Yes. But humans coordinate together, and you''ve attacked too many, and now they''ve set out on a quest to kill you all."
The shaman seemed worried at my response, but the barbarian only gave a guttural and mockingugh, "Girl, like you try to scare Murk, but Murk is one of the strongest. You are only level one! Weak!"
I knew where this was going; I had three subcores cast [Erode], [mmable], and [Permeable] while the rest joined me inpleting the spell. The debuffsnded on the charging barbarian without any issue, and he didn''t even notice.
"So many spells..." The shaman muttered although he made no effort to assist.
I dodged blows from the barbarian''srge club while we finalized the spell, and after confirming itspletion, I cast the unknown spell at the orc. A red powder erupted from my palms and coated the orc before his body rapidly burst into a congration.
''Strange. I''ve cast fire spells before, and they''ve certainly set things on fire, but they''ve never left an affliction like this.''
The duration started to tick down when the powder dissipated, like [Poison Mist]. I tried casting other fire spells, like [Fire Arrow] and even [Nova], but neither seemed to affect the affliction. I was surprised the shaman was not assisting, especially as I kept dodging in circles around the barbarian. Without much fanfare, the orc eventually sumbed and copsed unceremoniously to the ground.
"Murk never listens to anyone... So stupid." The shaman said, shaking his head.
"You''re not going to attack me? Isn''t he like family or a friend?" I asked curiously.
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"Orcs believe strong survive. If you want something, you prove you are stronger and take it. You proved you''re stronger than Murk, and he was weak."
"I see..."
"You use magic so good. Like big bro." Hemented, "Also, you say the same about humans wiping out us orcs for revenge."
"If someone else is saying the same thing, why aren''t you listening to him?"
"Big Bro is smart but not strong. Nobody listens to him because he loses fights." The shaman answered, "You should meet Big Bro."
Now, that was undoubtedly an unexpected suggestion. Even if it was a trap, I felt confident I could likely deal with whatever they threw at me. If I used something like the [Inferno Sac], I could wipe all of them out, solving the problem and rewarding myself.
"Sure. I''ll meet your big bro." I replied.
"Great! Follow Zook." The shaman said and started leading the way.
I wondered how the orcs hid from the adventurers, as the goblin cave was found rather effortlessly when the extermination quest was issued. But judging by theck of a location in the quest and its broad nature, the adventurers needed to figure out where the orcs originated.
"Zook never seen an elf before. You look like humans, but you don''t attack right away. Did you evolve from a human?"
"No... I didn''t."
"I thought maybe you are like Big Bro since you think simr. He is also strange and evolves weirdly."
It took a while, but when his statement sunk in, I thought, ''Is this possibly someone like me?''
When Zook led me to a rtively open location and stopped, I wondered if he was lost until, with a wave of his hand and some minor amount of earth mana, an underground tunnel was revealed.
''They''re living underground... No wonder nobody could find them.''
"If anyone asks, I will tell them I imed you. Then we can get to Big Bro."
"Alright..." I agreed skeptically.
I followed closely down the tunnel. It kept heading quite deep until it opened into arge opening and a collection of earthen structures. In the distance, I could see awork of tunnels branching out into other areas.
''They''ve made an entirework down here. Assuming they survive their raids, they can quickly retreat to one of the tunnels. It seems far too organized and unexpected from the orcs I encountered. No wonder the guild can''t find them; they were expecting regr orcs.''
"Zook made a im!"
"I can''t believe it!"
"Maybe we should start listening to Big Bro more..."
"Yes! It''s all thanks to Big Bro." Zook replied, sticking out his chest.
I kept silent but made sure to coat my body and limbs under the robe with draconic scales, forming an [Inferno Sac] hidden within my torso. Of the orcs I identified, all their ss levels stayed within level twenty, and I didn''t see anything I could assume was an advanced ss. The vast majority were barbarians or the asional shaman, and I spotted one hunter. Even the other shamans had low race levels, unlike Zook.
"Zook too weak to im something this good." One of the barbarians dered and started to approach me. I had already begun to fuel the [Inferno Sac] with mana when Zook stopped him.
"That would be a bad move, Terk. I''m giving this im to Big Bro."
There were murmurings from the orcs that overheard that, and the barbarian seemed to ease up.
"Yes... Big Bro deserves something good. Fine, as long as weak Zook isn''t keeping the im."
I had to hold back on my killing intent until we arrived at a stone structure notably taller than the others.
"Big Bro! It''s Zook!"
I followed after him and seated on the floor was a tall andnky-looking creature. It also had the greyish skin of the orcs, but its limbs looked almost artificially elongated. It was gaunt, and its tusks were notablyrger. It held a spell construct of crimson-red mana I did not recognize between its hands. It looked up with a smile to greet Zook until it spotted me, and its face turned into one of confusion.
"A human? No wait... An elf?" The creature questioned, "How Zook? She''s far higher level than you..."
"You misunderstand Big Bro. This one talks like you, also warned us that humans will work together to kill us."
A great look of concern overcame the strange creature.
"I told them to stop... They won''t listen."
"If you can''t stop them, the Adventurer''s Guild will hunt you down until there''s none left. I''ve seen them do the same to an entire goblin tribe."
"Ha! Goblins are weak," Zook swiftly replied.
"Who are you? Why have youe here?" Odark questioned, giving me a questioning re.
"Does the term [Experiment] mean anything to you?"
Odark was so shocked by the question that the spell he held immediately copsed, his eyes wide as dinner tes.
"Zook. Can you let me speak to her privately?"
"Sure, Big Bro," Zook replied and left us.
Odark stared at me long and hard before finally speaking. "I knew I wasn''t the only one, but how is this fair? Look at me and look at you. How is an elf a monster?"
I couldn''t help butugh at his first question, although I''d probably alsoin if I didn''t have all the facts.
"I''m not actually an elf if that''s what you think. Although I won''t reveal the truth for my own safety." I stated, "But if you started as an orc and were surrounded by other orcs, then I think you had a far more forgiving start than I did."
"Being attacked for stepping out of line or beaten for questioning dumb decisions. You''re sadly mistaken if you think this is a happymunity." He retorted.
"From the very moment I was reborn, I had to fight for myself¡ªalone. I couldn''t even speak to anyone. It was kill or be killed." I said, shaking my head, remembering my early days of fighting wolves and boars, "Besides, you''re the highest level amongst the orcs I''ve seen, not to mention you''ve evolved. I''m sure you could win and take leadership."
His face contorted into a pained expression, "I could. I did. It wasn''t for me. When you''re at the top, everyone challenges you to take your ce; I had to kill so many, too many, who refused to surrender or back down. I just stepped down and hope they asionally take my advice."
"I''m guessing this underground tunnelwork was your idea?"
"Yes... I knew the humans woulde for us; the orcs refused to stop attacking, so I thought at least I could hide us away."
"I don''t think hiding away will solve the issue. The adventurers will find you eventually. I''d suggest convincing them to leave or leaving by yourself."
"I can''t just leave them... They''re basically my family... A really shitty dysfunctional family, but still. There''s good ones like Zook."
"Well, anyway. More important for us is discussing Gramps and this experiment."
Chapter 86: Claims
Chapter 86: ims
"Your stupid slime killed my smander." A disgruntled youthful boy said scornfully.
"It ate him and harvested him for parts, too. Quite pathetic," a womanly voice, filled with amusement, said with a chuckle.
"Now, now. There were no rules against the experiments killing each other; the only thing was preventing any of us or our staff from directly interfering." An elderly voice replied, trying to defuse the situation.
"It feels unfair that your slime has ss levels." The boyined.
"My demon has ss levels." A voice countered.
"My subject does as well." Another added.
"Even my moping sack of shit has one. Who cares?"
"You''re all so lucky... Mine still hasn''t even left the ocean... Just keeps hiding in its shell." A dismayed voice replied.
"Well... Still, you gave it too many traits!" The boy swapped his form of attack."Bah! All of those traits existed before it was even born. The only trait I''ve created since is a simple fusion trait."
"Indeed. I''ve confirmed as well. There is no foul y." The womanly voice responded.
"Also, with how lost he was to his instincts, adventurers would have dealt with him anyway. At least this way, he got to grow another experiment." The elder pointed out.
"You bastard..." The boy muttered in outrage through gritted teeth.
"Besides, I''d soonerin about the literal dragon than a little slime." Another voice added.
"Don''t mock my slime. You should see how much it''s got stored away. I''d hardly call it little."
"Yes, yes... I''m sure it''s quite the glutton."
"Remind me why we agreed to allow a dragon?" A voice interrupted.
"I believe the argument was that it''s starting as a baby, which should be enough of a handicap."
"Really? In adventurer terms, even a baby dragon is a Silver-rank threat. That hardly sounds like a handicap."
There was an awkward silence before someone cleared their throat and finally responded, "In our defense, when we epted the condition, none of us had worked on dragons before or in a very long time."
"You know... There was a saying in my old world: ignorance of thew excuses not."
After that statement, there was a loud kerfuffle and plenty of shouting and curses before a loud whistle broke the chaos.
"Look. What''s done is done." The elderly voice said, "If you want to prevent the likelihood of our experiments killing each other, I believe I have a solution. I believe the mistake was not giving them [Universal Language] at the start. My own subject was extremely upset about that."
"You have a point. We originally excluded it to prevent contamination, but the experiment has been going on long enough that giving it now shouldn''t interfere."
"I mean, they could just work to get a ss. It doesn''t feel right to give the ckers a free skill."
"Do you honestly expect his crab to ever get a ss?"
"Hey... I''m sure he will eventually stop collecting shells."
"Look at it this way; it might prevent your subject from bing dragon food in the future."
"You raise a point... But I still don''t think it should be free."
"What if we give the ones who earned it beforehand a skill point?"
"I guess that''s fine."
"Agreed."
"Same."
"Likewise."
"Approved."
"I bet my slime will freak out at randomly gaining a skill point."
"Is it really that neurotic?"
"You have no idea..."
"Gramps?" Odark asked.
"Yeah, Gramps. The voice that speaks to us when we evolve? Probably asked you to join this experiment?" I asked, curious about his unique experience.
"I didn''t know his name was Gramps..."
"Well, I don''t know if that''s actually his name, but he sounds like a Grandfather, so that''s what I call him," I stated, my voice filled with a mix of uncertainty and conviction. "He''s never corrected it, so I assumed he was happy with it."
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"Wait. My voice doesn''t sound like a Grandfather at all." Odark objected, "If anything, mine sounds like a raging drunk. He''s always whining that I''m losing him bets."
"I guess you got a different God. I usuallyin about Gramps being cryptic, but judging by your situation, I suppose it could have been worse," I mused, acknowledging the stark contrast in our experiences.
"I''m surprised you can even converse with yours. I just get shouted at." Odark said dejectedly, his subtle demeanor betraying his monstrous appearance.
"Did you get given any instructions or goals? I got told to explore the world."
"It''s been a long time since I spoke with him, but he only said I needed to level up quicker."
"Well, if you want to do that, you should try to find a dungeon. That''s where I gained the most levels in rapid session other than finding and fighting a big evolved monster."
"Is that why your race level is so high?" He asked.
"Partially... I was born without a ss, and it took ages for me to acquire one."
The shock and surprise on his face were palpable. "That''s... Wow..." He struggled to find the words, "I''m honestly surprised you even survived. That''s like missing half of yourself."
Maybe he was more trusting than me because he opened up after I told him that. He told me how he was born an orc shaman, which was vital in keeping him alive from the other newly spawned orcs trying to prove their worth. Unlike the others, the chieftain couldn''t change his experience distribution, so he was forced to gain more race levels than ss levels and always felt like he was falling behind the others.
I told him it was due to the experiment and that I couldn''t change my distribution either. His reaction to this information was like being forced to swallow horrendous medicine. Since he was forced to gain more race levels than his brethren, he had no choice but to try to train his skills as much as possible manually, as he didn''t have the excess skill points from ss levels to excessively spend. However, things changed for him when he reached twenty and evolved. He had a few orc mutation options but picked the troll evolution, which, from the description, was a higher-tier species.
His evolution gave him new strength, and when he seized leadership, he entered the period of his most explosive growth. He was constantly challenged and forced to kill, which led to him gaining many levels until he grew tired of it all and forfeited his position. It sounded absolutely barbaric, and he would even be attacked in his sleep by the more conniving orcs. I was staggered by how much he poured out on me; he seemed desperate for someone to vent his frustrations.
"I''m surprised you''ve stayed with them."
"Where else would I go, looking like this?"
I tried to answer him, but I couldn''t think of anything. The best he could maybe do was hope for an evolution or mutation that would allow him to change form, but I didn''t know how feasible that was, and I didn''t want to give him false hope. Regardless, if he stayed with the orcs or couldn''t convince them to leave, the adventurers would ughter him with them when they were eventually discovered.
The awkward silence was interrupted by screams and wails echoing through the underground tunnelplex. Odark''s mood plummeted, and he stared at the ground.
"Oh no... Not more..." He muttered under his breath.
"More what?" I asked.
"ims..."
I remembered what the orcs said about me and how the ones on the road had tried to capture me. A horrid feeling welled inside me, and I sprinted out the door to the source of the cries.
"Hey! You can''t!" Odark tried to protest.
I ran unimpeded through the crowd by either dodging or simply sliding through the gaps with my malleable form. I hoped my gut was wrong, but I couldn''t help but feel dread as I got closer and heard sobs and pleading amongst the cries.
A group of women and children were tied up and looking beaten. [Identify] showed them as merchants or crafters, none of their levels above single digits. A guttural feeling of hatred swelled inside of me. Maybe it was hypocritical since I had killed humans before, but those were adventurers seeking battle. I didn''t mind the orcs fighting adventurers, as they would naturally conflict, but these were defenseless nobatants.
"Hey, it looks like one of the ims escaped!" An orc said and grabbed my shoulder from behind.
I spun around and reflexively transformed my arm into a de armed with [Acid Slime], [ze Slime], [Mana Reinforcement], and the highestpression avable. The orc had no time to react as the de cleaved straight through his neck, sending his head careening through the air. There were gasps, shocks, and even chuckles from the orcs. Some mocked the orc for dying so pathetically.
One of the captured women spotted me and, with tears in her eyes, pleaded, "Please save my children!" before one of the orc capturers backhanded her, and her body crumpled into unconsciousness.
Some of the orcsughed at her final cry, but I was already churning mana through the [Inferno Sac]. One of the orcs ordered me captured, although the nearby crowd was already approaching me before the order even arrived, each one with a glint of desire in their bestial eyes. With the roiling mes built up in the organ from my rapidly avable mana, I opened pathways along my torso and limbs and vented the blue me around me.
The orcs immediately around me were vaporized in the intense me, while the others nearby were charred lumps. While the orcs didn''t have high levels, the startling ease at which they fell to the blue me made me realize why Luke and Lisa were so worried about me fighting the smander. Unfortunately, my robe was lost to the attack, revealing the draconic scales that coated my form, which, now that they were shown, I spread to cover the rest of any exposed skin.
"Release them, and I''ll let the rest of you live!" I demanded, pointing towards the orcs that held the prisoners.
"That''s no im!"
"It''s some lizard thing!"
"Kill it!"
The orcs started shouting,pletely ignoring my demands. Some threw weapons at me while the shamans cast spells thatunched rocks at me. While keeping them distracted with spells and weapons forming in my hands with help from Epsilon, I dedicated Alpha to control tendrils and snake them along the ground to attack the orcs holding the prisoners. Meanwhile, I had Beta, Gamma, and Delta coordinating to empower a [Bubble] spell on the prisoners once the orcs were removed from their vicinity.
When Alpha sent the signal, we all coordinated together. Tendrils grabbed the orcs by the legs and dragged them toward me and away from the prisoners. Ropes and bindings were cut with tiny and well-ced shots of acid slime to prevent the captives from being dragged with them. Then, the water barrier was cast and rapidly formed, the speed andplexity easily overshadowing my work on the caravans. I hoped it would be enough to protect them from any coteral damage, but I dared not go too overboard with the [Inferno Sac] or pull off the explosion I did in the mineshaft. Releasing poison gas through [Vaporize Slime] was another option I considered, but the threat to myself didn''t warrant it right now, and I didn''t want to gamble [Bubble] being able to stop it or not - even though I was confident it would.
"Stop!" A voice shouted and pleaded throughout the din of battle, "Stop fighting!"
But the orcs just continued attacking. Despite the deaths and the grievous wounds, they all seemed ted and reveled in the thrill of battle. If their weapon broke on my mana-reinforced scales, they instead used their fists. If their dominant arm was limp and broken, they''d effortlessly swap to the other and continue. If their legs were crippled or severed, they would crawl towards me. Their shamansunched rocks at me, often hitting an orc if I dodged or causing minorcerations on them from the shrapnel burst from the rock rupturing on contact.
''What a terrifying race. Sadly, I don''t think this will end no matter how much you shout and beg, Odark.''
Chapter 87: Blood
Chapter 87: Blood
As one of the more giant orcs charged at me, I instinctively raised my scaled arm to block. The axe, infused with mana, shed with deadly intent. With ferocious speed, the axede hurtled down and sliced through my arm. The orcs, sensing victory, cheered out. But I wasn''t done yet. I swiftly grabbed the falling arm, temporarily reconnecting to it before triggering [Slime Burst]. The limb burst and spread adhesive acid slime on the nearby orcs. Despite the orcs'' resilience to pain, the flesh-melting acid was a testament to my determination, often incapacitating weaker opponents immediately.
With a quick mental calction, I reformed the arm, now equipped with a mimicked shield. I used it to block an iing blow, anticipating the orc''s move. Then, I countered with acidced spikes that emerged from the shield in retaliation. My [Sub-Cores], always at work, filled the air with multiple magic circles, firing multitudes of [Acid Dart] spells. This was my most effective magic against the orcs since any blocked spell would damage or destroy their equipment, further weakening them.
Like a beating heart, a building pulse of mana began to fill the air. It washed over the entire area, its power palpable. The magic rippled over me, but I seemed unaffected. However, the orcs seemed to freeze in ce, their movements halted by an unseen force. Looking towards the epicenter of the spell, I saw Odark leaking a vast quantity of that strange red mana.
"I said stop!" He screamed.
Odark didn''t have an absurd quantity of mana like myself; in fact, he had less mana than Dewi or Evan, by my estimation, but when his mana dimmed, it seemed to pulse back to life abruptly with the rhythm of a beating heart.
"You traitor!" One of the orcs shouted.
"You should be working with us! Kill our enemy!"
What started as a few individualints soon took over the collective. Odark seemed shaken but recollected himself.
"I haven''t betrayed anyone! I stopped her, too!" he dered, and then, looking at me, he witnessed that I was moving unimpeded. He looked startled, "How did you resist my spell?"I could only shrug, as I had no idea what he was talking about. One of the most giant orcs I had ever seen seemed to be forcing his way through the crowd, his muscles straining against whatever magical spell Odark had cast.
"Odark! Cease this foolishness at once! You will be banished forever if you don''t destroy this foe right now!" He screamed with guttural fury.
"The chief has spoken!"
"Big Bro must fight!"
"Kill our enemy!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
The orcs seemed ovee by the deration of the orc chief. Odark was frantically rubbernecking at all of them before his gazended on me and he uttered a breathless apology. Whatever spell held the orcs had vanished, and the orcs erupted in tion.
"Big Bro is going to kill you!"
"You''re done for!"
"Let the blood flow!"
They all chanted. I readied myself, prepping all my debuff spells. The unknown mana swirled around Odark, and he thrust his hand forward with a crushing motion and shouted, "[Blood Boil]!"
At the same time, I cast [Erode], [mmable] and [Permeable]. All three debuffs were sessfully applied. His mana coalesced around me and focused down, I braced for whatever the spell would do, but nothing happened, and the spell suddenly fizzled out. Odark and all the orcs seemed shocked at this predicament.
"How do you keep resisting my spells!?" Odark demanded as he drew a de across his arm, spilling purplish blood that erupted from his arm and formed into threences. They momentarily hovered before he thrust his palm forward and thenunched at me.
''He controls blood!'' I realized. This exins why his earlier two spells did not affect me¡ªI don''t have any! But if he can control the blood in monsters and people, that''s terrifying.''
His bloodnces actually prated me; their purpose must have been to invade my body from the inside, but the blood was rapidly dissolved away by my digestive acid slime. This only further unhinged Odark, who kept muttering how repeatedly to himself.
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Even if he was currently ineffective, I wouldn''t sit around and take it. Odark had picked his side, so I had a job to do. I rushed forward to him and cast my [Burning] affliction spell at him.
''Not now, Gramps!'' I shouted mentally.
Odark tried to swat the red dust away with his elongated arm, but that only applied the affliction to himself. "[Burning]?" Odark questioned and jumped backward, "That''s inconvenient. It''s not going away... But it doesn''t outdo my [Regeneration]."
Iunched [Fire Arrow] spells at him now that he had a weakness to fire from the debuff. He blocked them with his body, and I witnessed how the burnt flesh rapidly reconstructed itself in front of my very eyes. Despite how unfazed he was from taking the spell directly, he seemed to have a new caution in his eyes. Perhaps he hadn''t expected to take as much damage as he did, as [mmable] likely was applied through [Subtle Afflictions].
"Brothers! Bleed for me!" He suddenly shouted, and the orcs cheered. They all thrust their arms up into the air and sliced their own flesh. With barely a chant, the blood seemed to pool towards Odark and floated around him like a sentient cloud.
More spells wereunched, but now, instead of using his body to block, the floating blood shifted and shaped into a barrier. I could only chuckle as it vaguely reminded me of how I could fight with my slime. Now armed with his arsenal of blood, Odark actually charged toward me and, with a sweeping motion, directed the blood to form a massive scythe-like de. I tried to jump over it, but I was not fast enough, and it cut through my legs surprisingly easily.
Again, the orcs whooped and hollered like Odark''s personal cheering squad. But when Inded on newly formed legs, their jubtions abruptly ended.
"It looks like I''m not the only one with [Regeneration]..." Odark muttered. "You must be some kind of lizard monster pretending to be an elf, and those scales are your true form. Judging by your regeneration and camouge, you''re some lizard mix between an axolotl and chameleon."
''Should I feel insulted that he thinks I''m a lizard... Is that more believable than being a slime? Well, I could just lean into it; if he attacks anything that isn''t my core, it''s to my benefit..''
"Close!" I said mockingly, building up a collection of blue mes in my chest, "You''re forgetting smander!" and blue me erupted from my mouth.
Odark shielded himself by forming a wedge of the blood, redirecting most of the mes, and removing some surrounding orcs. Odark''s pool of blood was significantly diminished, and he couldn''t block all of the fire; his one arm was utterly burnt into a charred husk. With a quick mentalmand, he sliced his own arm off with a de of blood, and a new, fresh arm erupted from the stump shortly after.
''If that''s his level of regeneration, it''s no wonder he thinks I have something simr.''
"Smander? More like a dragon. How is this fair..." Odark said in disbelief.
"Big Bro you can do it!"
"Take more of our blood!"
"Kill it!"
Again, the orcs sacrificed their blood to replenish Odark''s supply. He also cut his own arm again, as well as his torso, to add fresh new blood of his own to the mixture.
''If he can keep regenerating his own blood, he''s formed quite an exploitative loop with his ss and race. My slime is self-synergizing, but my exploitative synergy is that emblembined with [Mana Slime].''
Unfortunately, once again, my spells seemed insufficient. I had endless mana, but myck of skill levels against an opponent who was also built to endure meant that I needed to resort to using my slime.
One thing bugged me: where was Odark getting the mana from? His aura would diminish and then suddenly flood with more life; surely his regeneration didn''t include mana, too? Theck of his mana aura being replenished while his wounds were closing finally gave me a clue. Did he have a way to convert blood into mana? I could convert mana into slime, so why couldn''t he convert blood into mana? Or perhaps health into mana? That would exin why he wasn''t continuously replenishing his blood weapon pool with his own blood; he needed it primarily to replenish his mana.
While we traded blows, I considered how to deal with the situation. My immediate thought was to build up enough blue me to obliterate him in one go. I formed three [Inferno Sacs] inside my chest and started to fuel them with mana, ensuring my attacks kept him distracted while I built up for my finishing move. Abruptly, I received a prompt that I could not ignore.
''What? Gramps? Since when can you give me quests? Why should I risk sparing him? I know he''s a fellow experiment, but he''s trying to kill me.''
Reward: Skill revtion.>
''Sure... Twist my arm, why don''t you? I''m assuming I only need to spare him, not the orcs. This had better be useful.''
Reward: Skill revtion (useful).>
''Fine!'' I relented, wondering why Gramps was suddenly interfering. I know he prevented Simon from killing me, but that was partially Gramps''s fault. This seemed different, and I was surprised he would deny me so much experience and, no doubt, a decent profile, too.
I mimicked [Elemental Amalgamation] and confirmed I could control the blue me, which was drenched in my mana. I erupted the blue me from multiple newly formed exits and formed a ring encircling Odark and myself. The orcs surrounding us were likely quickly dispatched by the intense me, and any survivors were surely not long for the world. I couldn''t imagine many things surviving that. Odark stared at me, a mixture of rage and horror at what I had done.
''I need to beat him but not kill him. But he can regenerate like crazy... Don''t I have something to stop regeneration?'' I thought rapidly, then recalled something I had previously forbidden myself from using, ''Bloodrot!''
Chapter 88: Anger
Chapter 88: Anger
"There! I can''t believe I agreed to this. He should have just be slime food and expedited the next evolution," a disgruntled elderly voiceined.
"The others would haveined if your subject had ended not one but two others in such a short time, even if it was unguided." A motherly voice replied.
"They left their starting regions; don''t me my slime for their actions," the elderly voice retorted, the disagreement clear in his tone.
"Yes, that''s why I''ve allowed you topensate it. It''s a stroke of luck that it''s registered in the adventurer system. Otherwise, we would not have been able tomunicate with it without major interference."
"Yes. Masquerading as an adventurer has definitely been an unforeseen boon."
"Besides. I''m curious if this will positively affect the orc subject''s growth now that he will be forced out of hiding behind his brethren. If it does, I''m sure you could use the fact to gain a favor or boon."
"Yes, yes. I know. I also know he''s one of the very few remaining monstrous humanoid subjects, so his data is valuable. That is the real reason I listened to your request. Certainly not to keep the drunk from throwing another tantrum."
"It is strange that most of them died." She said, trying to change the topic of conversation, "The goblin subject, for example, did much worse than an ordinary goblin spawn. The wild goblins your slime lived with were much more impressive in terms of aplishments."
"Perhaps it''s our fault for not cleaning them enough?" He postted, "Most of those deaths could have been avoided if they weren''t so deadset on trying to reintegrate with humanity.""Too much, and they might as well be wild spawns. Too little, and they get themselves killed by stupidly approaching humans or be mentally unstable with their situation and fail to adapt to their new body. It''s a good thing we tried differing amounts amongst the subjects."
"Indeed. Funny how I''d say the smander was cleaned too much while the orc was cleaned too little."
"I''d be most interested in seeing what parameters you set on your slime subject."
"Perhaps after the experiment ispleted, we can share notes." The elderly voice responded, the tiniest sliver of worry in his voice, "More importantly, I have a new trait I''ve been working on that I''d love to show you."
"Y-you killed them all!" Odark shouted, frantically looking around in the burning circle.
"I''m sure they''ve done much worse, what with their ims." I spat.
Odark was taken aback at that response, staring at the ground in denial, "That may be true... But they didn''t deserve this!"
I felt anger building up inside of me that I struggled to suppress. The orcs believed in being strong, and enough strength justified any action. Odark obviously holds some fairytale morals from his previous life, where the strong can resolve problems without any loss of life. I couldn''t even call it hypocritical; it was in stupid. Moments ago, he had decided to kill me to satisfy the orcs so he wouldn''t be exiled. Why was my life less than theirs? Less than his? What about the human captives? If I had died, they would have died or worse.
"Didn''t deserve this? I can only imagine how many humans the orcs had killed or captured before this, especially to have an unlimited extermination quest against them. I didn''t see or hear any captives since my arrival, so I can only imagine why they didn''t survive."
"I know that! But still! They were like my family!" He protested.
For some reason, that just angered me more, "So your brother is a murderer, and you let him get away with it because he''s family."
Odark was trying to make some responses and excuses, but I wasn''t hearing any of it. Blue mes roared inside me; my mana roiled angrily, fueling the still-formed organs.
Reward: Skill revtion (useful).>
"Yes! I know!"I screamed at the forced notification, causing Odark to flinch and surround himself with a wall of blood.
I sted at his floating blood pool rather than him directly; he immediately reacted by shielding himself, thinking it was aimed at him. When the blue mes ran out, I dismissed the organs as it was too tempting to tap into them and turn him into nothing but a scorch mark.
I formed slime bullets armed with Bloodrot and started to fire them rapidly at him. He shifted his diminished blood shield to block them, and what happened was fascinating. I saw the blood mana corrupted with ckened coloring, simr to how freezing corrupted my water mana. As the segments of his blood shield ckened, they would droop and fall to the ground, no longer in his control.
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"What?" He tried to question and then started trying to counterattack.
He already knew his bloodnces were ineffective and stuck only to des and scythes of blood, trying to dismember me. It was frustrating that despite all my efforts to raise my defense, some things could still get through, so I had my [Sub Cores] handle dodging and maneuvering themselves and my own core out of any attack''s trajectory. At least I knew with each swing of his blood des, they would be partially eaten away by the acid as they passed through.
When I finallynded some shots into his arm, he quickly noticed the spreading infection, severed his own arm, and threw it at me before casting a spell that exploded the arm into a shower of blood. He now seemed extra cautious in ensuring I didn''tnd any shots on him.
When his blood pool was sufficiently diminished, I thought he''d give up, but instead, a spire of rock erupted from the ground, attempting to pierce through my torso. [Mana Conception] thankfully gave me enough early warning for the gathering earth mana, and I managed to dodge out of the way.
''That makes sense... He did say he started as a shaman, and this tunnel system was his idea.''
Despite his impressive earth magic, it was a significant downgrade in power from the blood. He was in for a rude awakening if he hoped to go into a battle of attrition against me. When he raised walls of rock to block my shots, I maneuvered tentacles along the ground, camouged as rock, and fired at him from impossible angles, but as soon as he noticed the Bloodrot, he would rip the contaminated flesh from his body. I tried briefly to use paralysis or sleep poison on him, but with [Affliction Tracker], I saw the percentage of infection rapidly tick down before my very eyes.
''His regeneration is insane. If he refuses to give up, I need to overtax it with continual damage so he will either run out of mana or sumb to poison.''
I swapped to a mixture of Bloodrot and Paralysis, hoping it would counteract his regeneration. With hidden tendrils spread out across the field, I started rapidly firing at him from any direction. Unable to protect himself entirely with walls of earth, he chose to cover himself in a dome of earth, but that only trapped him in a confined space, and with a tendril invading inside by drilling through with acid, I could release my poison inside with [Vaporize Slime].
When the dome exploded violently, and I saw him in a coughing fit, I could only smile, especially since the paralysis was no longer rapidly ticking down. When his mana started to dim, for the first time ever, he didn''t immediately replenish it. His face was twisted, the horror of his mistake dwelling on him.
He no longer tried tounch rocks at me, trying purely to deflect my hidden poisonous attacks from seemingly nowhere. He was frantically looking around, trying to find the source, but the tendrils were far too well-hidden thanks to abination of [Vanish], [Morph Slime], and [Chroma Shift]. When one of his arms took a series of shots, he ripped it off again as per usual when the infection was too much, only this time - the arm was far too slowly regenerating. Seeing his situation, he copsed to his knees.
"Stop toying with me... Just kill me already!" He demanded.
"Part of me really wants to. But Gramps, or maybe one of the others, has asked me to spare you."
"Why?"
"How should I know? Evolve again and ask your one. It''s probably all part of this experiment."
"What am I supposed to do now?" He asked.
"How should I know? But if you continue attacking and capturing humans, expect adventurers to show up and exterminate you."
"I di-"
"Yes, you did! Maybe not directly, but you could have led these orcs, tried to change them, or at least not cooperated with them. You made this entire undergroundwork for them to raid and pige from. Don''t act like your hands are clean."
"...I just wanted them to be safe."
"And they used this safety to attack civilians. You run into an adventurer who tries to kill you? Defend yourself. I don''t care. But attacking nobatants is another whole story."
"I won''t attack civilians..." He muttered.
"Good. I suggest heading north and away from civilization. The adventurers will continue searching for orcs, and I will tell them about this undergroundwork, just in case stragglers return."
"I under..." He started and then copsed. His eyes were wide in confusion as his body refused to move.
"It looks like the paralysis finally took hold. I finally overcame your regeneration," I said, walking over to him. I could feel the fear in his unblinking eyes.
"Stop panicking. I already said I wasn''t going to kill you, but I got civilians to get out of here. I will put you to sleep, and when you wake up, I''ll be gone. I suggest you immediately leave before the adventurerse. Nothing will stop me if I see you or any orcs here again." I warned.
He tried grunting, but other than his erratic breathing, it was like he was dead. I closed his eyes and covered his mouth and nose with a slime mask emitting the sleep gas. There was evident reluctance from him trying to hold his breath, but he was helpless, and eventually, he was forced to breathe it in. I watched as it overcame his resistance, and eventually, he was unconscious. I covered him in some light dirt and walked away.
"Right... I''ll look at thatter... Along with all the other notifications I''ve been ignoring." I muttered to myself.
I looked at my state and sighed, equipping my leather outfit. I needed to, at some point, just buy a bunch of clothes to devour for backup outfits. I approached [Bubble] and, momentarily grateful that it held, dismissed it with a light pop. The humans inside were shocked at the sudden dismissal and stared at me with shock. The woman who got struck was still unconscious, but the other was holding the three children tightly. I withdrew one of the health potions I still had and handed it over to thedy.
"It''s over. You''re safe now..." I said, trying to sound reassuring.
The woman broke down into tears as she epted the potion; she took a small sip herself before portioning it out to the children and then giving the remainder to the unconscious woman.
The two girls looked terrified, but the boy seemed to have ovee his fear and now had a spark of life in his eyes.
"The Dragon Knight has saved us!" He shouted proudly, smiling through his previously tear-stained face.
''Dragon, what now?''
Chapter 89: Dragon Knight
Chapter 89: Dragon Knight
"Honey... Calm down." The woman tried to calm her son down, but now he was practically bouncing.
"But it''s the Dragon Knight!" He protested.
"Dragon Knight?" I asked.
"It''s the hero in his favorite story..." She answered, looking apologetically.
"Oh? Could you tell me more about this Dragon Knight? I''m curious."
"Because you have the power of the dragon!" he said dramatically. He gestured wildly with his arms and ran his hands down them, making sound effects with his hands before finalizing his performance by pretending to breathe fire.
I was silent. I didn''t know how to respond. I had hoped that the barrier and all the orcs would have been enough to block most of what I did from view, but this child saw me using draconic scales and erupting in me.
"Sorry miss... My son is too excitable." The mother apologized, sensing my difort.
"No... It''s fine." I said, trying to dismiss my difort while searching for a solution. As if being thrown a lifeline, I felt my [Acting] skill was prodding me to lean into the Dragon Knight facade."I just need you to keep my secret," I said, holding a finger over my mouth. "I need to keep my power as the Dragon Knight hidden from my enemies." I winked and transformed scales over my single finger.
The boy''s face lit up with unbridled enthusiasm. "Of course! Otherwise, dragons wille for you if we don''t keep your secret." He said as if it weremon knowledge, "We will keep your secret just like Squire Clyde and Princess Leanne."
"That''s right, Hayden. You girls agree, right?" The mother said. The girls quickly agreed with her, while Hayden went on a little tirade about keeping secrets for the greater good to defeat the evil dragons. Internally, I sighed in relief that the boy was so impressionable.
I carried the unconscious woman on my back while the others followed closely behind me. Thankfully, we escaped the tunnels without any trouble. However, seeing howte it was in the day, I realized we couldn''t reach the city before twilight approached.
"I don''t think we can make it back in time. While I have some minor camping supplies, I don''t know how safe it would be."
"There are some farms nearby. Perhaps one of them would be willing to help us," the mother suggested.
I brightened up at the suggestion, "Excellent idea. I know just the ce."
Before heading towards the farm I had helped earlier, I distributed water to all of them. The minor disy of magic seemed to brighten up the children a little from their unfortunate situation. About halfway to the destination, the unconscious woman finally awoke and was startled until the other woman settled her down. We took a short pause for water and for her to regain her bearings before we continued the journey. The girls were quiet, but the boy was still enthused and asked many questions about adventuring and some of the monsters I had fought.
While it was a bit tedious, it seemed like a good distraction for the victims, as even the silently crying girls were listening to the tales. I obviously avoided mentioning any orcs when retelling my escapades. By the time we reached the farm, it was well past sundown, and everyone was highly exhausted. One of the farmhands must have spotted us approaching as a group came to investigate, armed with farming tools; when they recognized me, they had a bright smile.
"Good to see you so soon again, ma''am." The farmer replied cheerily before ncing at the rest of my group.
"Orcs captured this group," I exined. "I freed them, but getting them to Kaerlin in their condition wasn''t feasible. They had some minor injuries, which a healing potion fixed up, but they were tired and quite traumatized. I had hoped we could stay for the night so I could return them in the morning."
"Of course, ma''am! You can stay for a whole month if you like! You saved my farm." He replied and bellowed for his wife to help.
When his wife arrived on the scene and was brought up to speed, she immediately got to work organizing food, clean clothes, and sleeping arrangements for everyone. I turned down the offer of a bath, as I said I could clean myself with magic, but I partook in the humble dinner to not trample over their goodwill.
I was given a cot to sleep in, but I excused myself and went outside to clear my head. [Perception] was making it exceedingly awkward for me, as I could hear the quiet sobs of the two widows and children as the reality of their situation was sinking in. I mbered up to the barn''s roof, and while lying on my back staring at the stars, I finally opened up the notifications I had been ignoring until now.
...
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...
I scrolled endlessly through the notifications until I finally reached the end and summarized my final gains. I had killed well over thirty orcs, although many were basic sses and rtively low-level. I had gained four race levels and six sorcerer levels.
I had three new skills revealed to me from my ss, and the skill revealed to me for sparing Odark. I''d read their descriptions afterward. Speaking of skills and traits, I gained quite a few proficiency increases.
Between me and my [Sub-Cores], we flung endless [Acid Dart] spells, so this was an obvious increase. The new spell was mesmerizing. It would remove all afflictions on a target and deal necrotic damage per afflictions removed. The damage inflicted seemed to scale with abination of remaining duration and infection level.
My hardworking [Sub-Cores] finally progressed. I mentally apologized to Alpha, who had been stuck at level four for far too long. Speaking of which, I had forgotten to give Delta the new core coloring courtesy of the white slime core, so I gave it the pale turquoise color. Now, I just needed a new color for Epsilon, who was still sporting my glorious crimson coloring. I looked over my final two proficiency gains.
Mixing poisons proved more effective than I thought, making me wonder if I put too much concern in the skill description, mentioning mixing reducing overall potency. Also, my [Dark Vision] was finally maxed out thanks to all the undergroundbat, benefitting my full maximum vision.
Spellcasting speed increases by 5% per level.
Mana usage is reduced by 2.5% per level.>
''Wow... Since when are skill descriptions so specific? Whoever created this must have been bored or tired of writing long-winded descriptions.''
<>
Enter a trance to increase your natural mana flow and mana regeneration.
Meditation can be used to stave off the effects of sleep deprivation, but it is not a true substitute.
Beneficial effects scale exponentially the longer the trance is maintained. This skill has no levels.>
''Well... I would have ignored this because I don''t need mana regeneration, but the sleep part is interesting. Could I meditate and have my [Sub-Cores] continue my activities? They already can do work while I sleep.''
<>
Cast and maintain an additional spell per [Multitask] level.
Thoroughlyplex spells may require more than one level per spell.>
''Ugh... I totally forgot about this skill. I don''t even try to cast multiple spells alone when all my helpers can easily assist or cast independently. I wonder what counts as aplex spell to take up more than one multicast slot.''
Allows detailed creation of fake profiles that can greatly obfuscate attempts at identification.
The more believable the profile through physical features or closer to reality, the harder it is to pierce, and it is directly aided by traits or skills that provide shapeshifting or illusion.
Disying a mismatching race, an unearned emblem, or a locked ss will lower the sess chance of obfuscation.
Adjusting levels to higher than earned will also lower obfuscation.
Can still be used as the basic [Identity Block].>
I had to reread the description a few times before it finally sank in. Gramps wasn''t kidding when he said it would be a useful skill revtion. This was a massive upgrade to [Identity Block], perhaps an upgrade I would have received if I had taken the Doppelganger mutation or possibly earned through an advanced rogue ss. Finally, I had a solution to a problem: my name.
A typical monster would be unnamed, so a mimic pretending to be something else would go undetected. However, despite my near-perfect disguise, my name would still be shown whenever I transformed. I could block my name, as Simon had shown me, but that still added a level of suspicion in myself that I didn''t want. Also, if I tried to pretend to be anyone other than my Syl persona, I would be forced to block my name, which, if someone had a higher level of identification, would immediately rat me out. Of course, I could be wrong; I didn''t know how often people blocked their profiles in public, as Simon was the first one I hade across, but asking the adventurers guild that question wasn''t a path I''d like to tread.
The other immediate benefit I could think of was if I manually set my race to elf in my profile, then I could risk being a little more generous with my transformations if I mixed parts. While I didn''t expect anyone to constantly have me under [Identify] surveince, this way, if I slipped up, my race wouldn''t suddenly change without my knowledge. Syl the elf suddenly changing into Syl the chimeric monstrosity because I reflexively borrowed a trait in an emergency would have been horrible.
I decided to buy everything except [Multicast], which I was determined to earn eventually. This still left me with many skill points, making me very tempted to purchase a skill upgrade.
''Should I try brute force [Water Magic] to level five and immediately upgrade it? Or Should I do the same with [Ice Magic] and bring it to the same levels as my other elements?'' I pondered. My reluctance to do anything with my points was bing a rather recurring anxiety about making the right choice.
''I''ll ask someone at the guild tomorrow. Lisa might be a good option since she''s the highest level I''ve seen. Then there''s Thern, who is knowledgeable, and there''s Dewi if they are finally back from their quest. Well, let''s look at [Identity Fabrication].''
Chapter 90: Fabrication
Chapter 90: Fabrication
When I opened my basic profile, I was introduced to a very different interface from the one I was familiar with. I could mentally select a portion of the profile and had the option to edit it directly. I removed my name.
I changed my name.
I created an entirely different identity.
The most fascinating part was that I could instinctively tell when a particr section of my profile aided or hindered the disguise. Changing my name seemed neutral unless I removed it, and then it was a hindrance, but if I morphed into a monster, it was seen as a boon. ording to the system, hiding my currently equipped emblem was seen as neutral, but I knew socially it would be strange for me not to have it equipped¡ªso many people had seen my [Dungeoneer] emblem.
Driven by a sense of curiosity, I embarked on a journey of experimentation with different emblems. I tried my hand at faking some, such as [Chieftain], [Guild Master], and [Guild Staff], all of which were ssified as massive detriments. The only other emblem I knew of was [Bonded Companion], which was a penalty until I transformed into a monster, and then it became a benefit.
''I could pretend to be apanion. That''s interesting. If I was roaming around in a dungeon, it would prevent me from being attacked if I was spotted by another adventurer.''
''I should try to find more aboutpanions. Sylthaeryn''s ss was Tamer, if I recall correctly... I''ve not run into any in the guilds yet.'' I continued to ponder before having a small epiphany, ''Could I pretend to be my ownpanion?''
I reverted my profile to normal but manually set my race to elf. Then, I formed a ball of green slime in my palm and had Alpha maneuver into the blob. Visually, it now looked like I was holding a small green slime. I tried to apply the profile multiple times, but it kept just overwriting my own.
''Come on, if it''s possible to [Multitask] spells, then surely it''s possible to fabricate two profiles...'' Iined. In hindsight, I should have thought of it sooner, but in a moment of frustration, I shouted at Alpha to use [Identity Fabrication].''Well done, Alpha! Although I think you''re being a little too humble by saying you''re only level five!'' Iughed with glee at the sess, ''Actually, can you add [Bonded Companion] too?''
Despite it being technically Alpha''s profile, I could feel a penalty on the level because it was my skill. Green slimes would evolve at ten, so it made sense why it wasining about it. I repeated the experiment with my other cores one by one. Beta, disguised as a purple slime, and Gamma, disguised as a red slime, could go up to level twenty without penalty, while Epsilon, as a white slime, could only go up to level nine. At first, I thought something was wrong, but then I recalled that white slimes were technically the same tier monster as myself, which meant that Epsilon was being limited by my own level limits.
Speaking of level limits, I could freely swap between Warrior and Scout up to level eleven without any detriment, which meant that my ss qualification was enough to satisfy the system, and it was using my Mage level as the reasonable limit. As if that wasn''t enough, whoever created this skill must have also worked on [Equipment Swap] as I could save ready-made profiles for quick application. All my experimentation even increased my skill level, much to my satisfaction.
I was feeling rather shitty about the situation after Odark, but this definitely brightened my mood. Everyone was asleep when I silently returned to my cot and quickly joined them in slumber.
The following day, it was decided that the owner and some farmhands would travel to the city proper to get tools and hire additional hands for the renting of the fields. This meant the two widows and children could be carried in a cart pulled by a donkey, and I offered to escort them just in case.
To keep myself upied, I worked on creating a new debuff spell with my newly acquired [Ice Magic]. Due to [Mana Conception], this was far simpler than ever before despite the much moreplex mana. I was a little hands-off on the spell creation and left it primarily to my [Sub-Cores], which allowed them to flex their new level and processing power. This allowed me to instead entertain the children with [Kindle] and [Water Orb] by shaping both into various patterns or shapes.
While the childrenughed and giggled at the silly shapes, they had no idea about the intense mental battle I was having to try to actively hold more than a single spell. Regrettably, by the time we reached the city gate, I still hadn''t received the [Multicasting] upgrade and instead gained a different prompt that caused me significant emotional damage.
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The worst part was that this new skill level gave me no benefit or ease in holding my two individual spells. I had to fight my inner demons to not just buy the upgrade then and there out of spite, and I wondered if Dewi had pranked me about telling me not to buy it. After a quick exnation to the guards, I parted ways with the group to head toward the adventurers'' guild and report on the situation. Before I left, there was a tug on my clothing, and I saw the boy giving a friendly smile.
"Thank you for saving us. You''re a hero! When I grow up, I also want to be an adventurer." He said, trying to give his best dazzling smile. He then ced his finger over his lips and winked. It seemed like he was more than happy to keep my secret.
I returned his smile, giving him a quick ruffle on his head. "If you do, I''d rmend the Stantondale branch, ask to speak to Tabitha. That''s where I started my adventuring career."
The boy nodded excitedly, and after some thanks from the mothers, I finally left them. I hastened to the guild and requested to speak to Luke upon entering. I noticed more odd looks and nces than usual, and only when I overheard some murmurings did I realize why.
"What the hell is she wearing? Is she going to swap to a barbarian or hunter ss?"
"She''s a Sorcerer now."
"That''s a lot of levels. What quest did she go on?"
I ignored the rumor-mongering and patiently waited, although I felt a tinge of anger at the disparaging remarks made against the armor Yuzz had made for me. Although I had to admit it starkly contrasted my simple robe. The wait wasn''t long before I sat at our familiar booth.
"Good to see you again, Miss Syl." He replied, then scratched his cheek nervously, "I hate to ask, but what exactly are you wearing?"
"Hey, Luke. It''s my backup armor. My robe, unfortunately, was burnt to cinders while I was fighting orcs."
"So you did run into orcs..."
"A lot of orcs. I found their undergroundir, killed a bunch, and took down their warlord chieftain." I answered. Luke''s eyes were as wide as saucers, and when I noticed he wasn''t going to interject, I continued, "I also rescued two women and three children from capture; they are currently with the gate guards. Oh, and I did kill the nt Horror, but unfortunately, it didn''t have anything harvestable."
"I..." Luke stammered.
"Sorry, it must be disappointing that I didn''t bring back any materials."
"I-I need to contact Master Lisa!" Luke blurted out and left me sitting speechless at the table.
After awkwardly waiting, Lisa''s secretary eventually came to fetch me, and I was ushered to her office. I wondered if I would get scolded again, like with the Smander quest, but they had explicitly said mass extermination quests were generic. To my surprise, Lisa had a big smile on her face instead.
"Thank the Gods you didn''t wear that to your dinner!" Lisa said, almost bursting out inughter. She eventually calmed down from herughter and continued speaking.
"Well done, Syl. We just confirmed over thirty dead orcs from the quest tracker. The majority were low-level but confirmed that a warlord was among them."
"No problem. The undergroundir was to their detriment; if it had been an open area and they had been spread out, I wouldn''t have been so lucky."
"Speaking of which." Lisa said, pulling out a map of the local area, "Can you point to the entrance you discovered? Then we can confirm it''s cleared out and destroyed; perhaps deal with any stragglers."
I nodded and, using my own mental map as reference, pointed to the entrance I had used. I also encircled the area where the mainplex was situated.
"Sneaky bastards, no wonder we couldn''t find them. I''d expect this level of cunning from goblins or kobolds, but not orcs."
"Kobolds?"
"They are little lizard monsters, like a goblin mixed with a dragon. They mostly live underground; if you do go with Thern, you''ll see plenty." Lisa replied, rolling up the map and handing it to her secretary, "Send a team of scouts to confirm."
Once her secretary left, she continued, "I must say your sesses are remarkable. I know all adventurers hide a trick or two, but you keep overachieving. You''ve also gained many levels rapidly, exploiting the risk bonus factor to the maximum."
"Yes, although the downside is that my skills are falling behind my ss levels, or at least that''s what it feels like. I''m tempted to change my experience distribution."
Lisa frowned, "I would say don''t do that, although I know we humans are biased because we don''t have many good traits to choose from. I know dwarves have some enviable traits, and I can only imagine what elves get."
"I hope you don''t mind the frankness of my question, but how do you spend your skill points? I''ve saved arge amount in case I want to purchase a lot of skills, and I''ve never touched upgrading."
"Never?" Astonished, Lisa replied, "I know some diehards do that and try to earn every skill proficiency, but the Gods gave us these points to spend; it feels foolish not to."
"My concern was buying the wrong thing, especially if I knew I could upgrade it with some effort."
"That''s a good mentality, but what if having an extra level is the difference between life and death? Especially, as a spellcaster, getting another new level opens many doors to new spells orponents."
"That''s a really good point. Then do you rmend prioritizing my highest skill or bringing up my lower skills to match?"
Lisa sighed with great exaggeration and rubbed her temples, "Now that is the question everyone asks, and nobody knows the right answer. Raising your minimums gives you more flexibility and could unexpectedly save your life while raising your maximums gives you trump cards that could solve a situation effortlessly."
"Now you understand why I didn''t want to spend any," I replied, frustrated.
Lisaughed, giving a knowing smile, "Fine, fine. I''ll tell you what I did, maybe that will give you some ideas. I focused on my highest skill where possible unless I unlocked a vastly more powerful skill. For a rtable example to you as a spellcaster, I focused a lot on my [Air Magic], but I immediately swapped my focus when I unlocked [Lightning Magic]. It was a higher tier of magic, and I felt it had more opportunity."
"That sounds like a very reasonable approach."
"It worked out pretty well for me," Lisa said with a smirk, "However, you''ll need to tailor it to your specific situation. Undoubtedly, you have at least one form of experience boosting, and some skills are easier to level than others if you can easily exploit bonuses like risk or first time."
I nodded, "I''m also reluctant to upgrade a skill unless it had just leveled up manually or was brand new. Although... Even with new skills, I''d feel reluctant to do it; it seems like level two is so simple for almost all of them."
"I think you''d struggle to find anyone who wants to buy an upgrade midway unless you were sure you hadn''t progressed it in some way. There are no refunds, and if you were more than halfway to gaining the level manually, you''d be basically losing a skill point!"
"d to hear I''m not the only one a bit panicky about spending my points."
"If you''re just starting out, it can be terrifying. Also, while yours is a little extreme, it''s not even the worst I''ve seen; Luke can''t even decide on a ss and keeps flip-flopping between the three starters."
Her secretary returned with refreshments, and Lisa invited me to settle down. It seemed like we still had much to talk about.
Chapter 91: Goals and Armor
Chapter 91: Goals and Armor
"So what made you swap to Sorcerer?" Lisa asked, sipping at her tea.
"I wanted to see what magic skills I might miss out on. I had Tabitha drill into me about the theme of my ss and how it would potentially limit me." I responded.
"And? Get anything good?" Lisa asked eagerly. I responded with a mischievous grin and cast [Icicle] floating above my palm.
"[Ice Magic]... Very impressive." With a pleased grin, Lisa said, "And I''m assuming you didn''t spend an ascension on that?"
"Nope. I got it as soon as I swapped to Sorcerer. If not for running into the orcs, I would have practiced it a bit more."
"Honestly, I wish I could promote you to Gold already." Lisa said with a sigh, "You''re punching far above your weight ss. Hell, you''re one level from another ascension. I can only imagine you''ll pick another element."
"I was actually thinking of picking Lightning if it''s avable."
"Ha! Trying to butter me up?"
"Only if it gets you to show me [Lightning Magic]."Lisa paused momentarily before nodding, "Sure, I don''t mind. But why not wait for your revtion?"
"I want to swap back to Shadowcaster, which means I won''t get the revtion until thirty. Also, it would be a sneak peek to see if I don''t have it already."
Lisa nodded and showed me the skill, but I got the same missing affinity prompt when I tried to buy it. But now I didn''t have to stay locked to the Sorcerer ss and had the flexibility to return to Shadowcaster, which I hoped would lead to more exciting traits like [Subtle Afflictions].
"Nope. Missing affinity." I said, shaking my head.
"That''s a shame. Well, hopefully, it''ll be amongst your selections at forty. Otherwise, you can try again at fifty. I''m d you aren''t abandoning your hybrid ss; I''m eager to see what you unlock once you get an advanced ss."
"Speaking of sses, howe I''ve not seen any humans with the Tamer ss?"
"That''s a pretty sour spot," Lisa chuckled, "The main reason is that the time investment isn''t worth it, especially if your bonded monster dies; you''re immediately set back massively. It''s also hard to unlock unless you''re willing to pay money to buy a raised wolf or something to meet the requirement."
"Why would you buy a wolf? There''s plenty in the forest."
Lisaughed out of nowhere, almost spilling her drink. "Convincing a wild monster to assist you without the bonding skill is not easy. I have no idea how you elves do it."
"Oh, I can actually answer that," I replied, showing the [Nature Commune] trait.
As the guardians of nature and to represent their heritage, all elves canmunicate with nts and non-magical animals.
The level of understanding and the willingness to offer aid is based on trait level.>
"Shit. That''s not fair." Lisa immediately replied, obviously reading the trait, "I guess this is why you''re still dumping so much experience into racial levels rather than focusing on your ss."
"Some are more practical than others. While this one can be useful, you didn''t have a field of corn thanking you for fighting a nt Horror."
"Oh Gods, the corn spoke to you?" Lisa replied,ughing hysterically.
"I guess that exins how you can easily unlock Monster Tamer. You just go find a wolf or something and overpower it with your trait to help you." Lisa stated after recovering from herughter, "Wait. Is that why you''re asking Luke to look for flying monsters? And Thern, about the floating ind? Are you trying to hitch a ride on a tamed monster?"
"I guess the cat is out of the bag," I said with a shrug.
"If you''re sessful and you get up there, make sure to bring proof of kills. While I don''t think we can give you an official quest, none that would be tracked sessfully anyway, it would go a long way to speeding up your promotion."
"And earn a lot of money, I suppose."
"Oh yes. Although after that smander, you could retire for life."
"Retire? Sounds horribly boring."
"Yeah, it''s hard to give up the adventurer life." Lisa nodded along.
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"What do I need to do to qualify for Gold-rank?" I asked between snacks.
After a pregnant pause, Lisa answered, "Well. If you are sessful on your ind escapade, the only outstanding requirement would be to prove you can work in a team and follow orders. I know you''re mostly a solo adventurer, but unfortunately, it''s a requirement for Gold and up."
"I don''t mind doing some teamwork. Would I just join a group doing quests or what?"
"You could, although you''d need to do quite a few. The quickest way would be to join a group andplete a dungeon¡ªa real one that groups recruit for."
"I figured the one in Stantondale wouldn''t count."
"Nope. No beginner dungeons; it has to be the real thing. You even benefit from being recruited as a mage or rogue¡ªassuming you can pick locks and disable traps."
"I have the skill up to two, but I could probably get it to three if I do some shopping."
"Good. Do that. The nearest real dungeon is a week''s travel away, but assuming you can hitch a ride with your flying monster n, you could probably get there in two days. It doesn''t have a city, but there is an outpost and a small guild branch. If you''re up for it, I''ll write you a letter exining the situation and vouching for you."
"Thanks, Lisa, I''d appreciate it."
"No problem. It is my job, and I must one-up Harris and Roderick somehow. If I can say I got you your Gold rank, then they can''t im all the credit for recruiting you."
When our small talk ended and I was getting ready to leave, Lisa turned to me with a rather serious expression.
"Keep doing good work, Syl. You''ve helped and saved lives."
I wasn''t prepared for that and awkwardly stammered my farewell before leaving. I ran into Luke on my way downstairs; he must have been waiting for me to finish speaking with Lisa.
"Miss Syl, your armor is finished beingmissioned. Would you like to go get it?"
"Yes, please. I feel like I need to buy a bunch of backup clothes."
Luke nodded, and we headed toward the crafting section of the guild. Luke was very upfront with his praise of me saving the woman and children from the orcs, and he seemed to be enthralled with the idea of heroic adventurers saving the day.
"Luke, have you ever heard of the Dragon Knight?" I asked.
"Of course!" Luke looked at me with such joy I could swear his eyes startled to sparkle. He must have soon realized his reaction as he seemed to choke on nothing and blushed wildly. "I mean... Yes, I have. I''m surprised you''ve heard of him, Miss Syl."
"The child I saved mentioned him. His mother said it was his favorite story."
"It''s not just a story." Luke interrupted, "The Dragon Knight was a true hero from before the Adventurers Guild was a worldwide organization. The records prove it, and he practically saved an entire kingdom."
"Sounds like you''re a fan. Did he really have the power of a dragon?"
"He had draconic ancestry. Dragon blood is powerful and can have longsting impacts on an entire lineage." Luke exined, "Although not everyone rted awakens to the draconic bloodline, those who do gain scales, sometimes wings, and me breath."
"Sounds like a guarantee for sess and fame."
"Yes and no. Ever since the Dragon Knight, anyone with the bloodline has been viciously hunted by dragons¡ªthey refuse to allow a lesser race to steal their power. Or so they im."
"Steal their power? Really?" I questioned; it sounded absurd.
"Yes. The kingdom used to have two dragon rulers, but the Dragon Knight grew mighty enough to y them both and free everyone. This caused a scare amongst the other dragons, and they started ughtering anyone holding their blood." Luke said, looking rather sad, "It''s why the children''s story tells people to keep it a secret; it''s a warning to stem a ughter. You never know when someone will awaken it, and if they do and the dragons find out, then an entire vige could be torched from the sky."
"That''s terrifying..."
"Yes. It''s why the general consensus is never to get involved with dragons. Even some of the Diamond-ranks still avoid them."
''Well. At least this gives me some more reassurance the kid will keep my secret.'' I thought happily.
Surprisingly, we didn''t head to the armor crafter but to a small locked room filled with boxes. When we reached our destination, Luke pulled out arge locked box.
"Yourpleted product is sealed in this box; you just need to ce your guild tag on it toplete the purchase and im it," he said.
I nodded and ced the ne against the box. Both objects shone briefly, and the chest unlocked with a clicking noise.
"Impressive."
"Another innovation from the Merchants Guild that we''re copying," Luke exined.
I opened the chest, and inside was the ckened leather armor crafted from the smander''s hide and scales. I lifted it and couldn''t help but be beyond impressed, and despite being lightweight, I could tell it was far sturdier than its appearance suggested. When I used [Mana Conception], I could only gasp as I saw the intricate runes and sigils housed within the armor. It was like a tapestry of epic proportion, far beyond my knowledge, and I couldn''t even dream of how Thern hadyered this into the armor.
Protection, Magic Resist, Silent, Self-Repairing, Size-Modification.>
"I think Thern went a little overboard," I murmured, beyond impressed.
"I sat in on some of his work. He said he was brimming with energy, so he kept going." Lukemented, then walked towards the door, "I''ll give you some privacy to change. I''m sure you''re dying to wear it."
I ced the full set of equipment in my storage and started allocating it to a new equipment profile, then swapped to it. Upon equipping it, I could immediately feel its enchantments magically reinforcing me. I moved around in it and noted that the armor didn''t make any noise, which exined the Silent enchantment, and even my bodily sounds were minorly subdued. I erged one of my arms and noticed the armor effortlessly adapted, always fitting perfectly.
''If I ever run into Simon again, I must thank him for rmending that enchantment. This armor is amazing; the only downside I can see is that it''s limiting easy ess to slime; I''m now limited to my hands and head.'' I thought while admiring it, ''Perhaps I should forgo boots or create fake boots from slime.''
I removed the boots and noted that they didn''t affect the enchantment at all. The primary source of the enchantment seemed to be incorporated within the torso portion of the armor. Seeing that the boots weren''t required, I decided to devour them on the spot. [Dissection] seemed to be screaming at my decision to destroy such precious resources, and it took far longer than I thought it would¡ªshowing the strength of the scales, craftsmanship, and enchantments. Then, I perfectly replicated the boots and smiled in satisfaction.
Chapter 92: Aftermath
Chapter 92: Aftermath
Slowly, Odark regained consciousness. He mbered to his feet, dirt falling from his torso, and looked to see that his arm had regrown. Their underground cavern was eerily quiet, and he looked around at the massacre. Despite being healed, his body felt sluggish, a clear sign of low mana, so he activated [Blood Conversion] to burn vitality into mana and then nearly copsed.
"Shit... I''m still infected by whatever she did to me."
He didn''t understand what power she had used against him, but it drastically interfered with his [Regenerate] trait. He had dumped almost all of his trait points into improving the skill when he got it and then relentlessly trained it whenever possible, and it was currently sitting at level eight. But despite that, the poison stopped him. He cut a small gash into his arm and noticed his normal purplish blood was oozing a ckish substance.
He had thought himself invincible, [Blood Magic]bined with [Regenerate] created what he thought was an exploit to infinite mana, and never in his wildest ruminations did he ever consider something could directly stop his regeneration trait.
"I even confirmed that fire and cauterizing the wound wouldn''t majorly interfere with my regeneration. What the hell did she do to me?" He asked himself. It was one of the first things he checked to ensure he didn''t end up like the famous Hydra story he could vaguely recall.
He started walking towards his hut to grab his few possessions and scarce food supply. He threw all of it into the storage bag he was given, looted from a dead adventurer. He considered going to the butcher room and iming what was there, but he knew the source of that meat - humans. It was a line he still had yet to cross due to the brief shes of memory he still had of his past dull and ordinary life and his family that he couldn''t even recall the faces of anymore.
"What the hell was she? [Identify] said she was an elf, but surely elves don''t have scales, regeneration, and fire breathing. Even if this is a fantasy world, that''s far too unbelievable. She even admitted to not really being an elf, so it must be some counter to [Identify], just like she countered my [Regenerate]." He started to question and ponder out loud. He always had better luck piecing things together when he used rubberducking.
He continued to throw whatever he could salvage into the bag, then started to head towards the exit. He looked back at the home he had helped create with feelings of regret and guilt. He wanted to vomit but managed to hold it back. Thoughts of revenge briefly entered his mind, but he dismissed it when he recalled Syl''s genuine threat.
"Sounds like an excellent way to be charcoal. Smander, huh? I''m guessing that''s the fantasy version, not the amphibian. She''s like an amalgamation of multiple things; I said chameleon because she hid her scales, and axolotl would exin regeneration, smander for fire, and then she had poison, too. Something like a Komodo dragon or G monster?"He sighed and started heading north. While he was upset at losing his family, if you could even call it that, at the moment, all he cared about was surviving another day. He knew south would lead to the city, and she had warned him that the adventurers were out for blood. He deeply regretted his decision, and ever since being reborn into this world, he felt like he had made one mistake after another. He had chosen the orcs because he knew they would have had his back and continued to look up to him, even if they disagreed with his morality. Syl was an unknown factor, and he had no assurances that she wouldn''t just leave him to live or die by himself, so he had thought the orcs a safer option, but he had severely underestimated her.
"Hindsight is a bitch... I lost a possible ally because I was worried about being isted, and now I''m truly alone."
"So? What do you think?" I asked Luke as I exited the room and showed off my newly donned armor.
"Amazing!" Luke eximed, eyes wide. "The best armor I''ve ever seen was made of Mythril, and this is my first time seeing Draconic armor."
"Lesser Draconic." I corrected.
"Even lesser Draconic is superior, in my opinion," Luke said, frowning slightly at my nitpick. "Mythril is probably slightly more durable, and they are both rtively equal in weight, but you''d lose out on the flexibility, and being from a monster, it has much higher natural mana retention."
"Mana retention... Right. I got a skill for that."
"Yes, that is one of the main benefits of getting enchanted equipment. You can strengthen the enchantment by reinforcing it with your mana, and it should prevent hostile mana from affecting it until it overpowers your own."
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I trickled my mana into the armor itself, and after oveing a small barrier, it suddenly drank in my mana like parched earth. I had to assume the barrier was either Thern''s mana or the crafters, who were likely testing the armor before finalizing the product. Finally, I had found a use for [Mana Infusion] other than when I pretended to be an elemental.
"I have got to thank Thern for this," I said proudly.
"You''ll have toe tomorrow. Today''s his day off."
"Huh... I wonder what he does on his days off."
"Mister Thern usually goes on some small quests. He says fighting monsters gets his blood pumping after sitting still for so long reading and enchanting."
"That exins why he quit his enchanting job and joined the guild." I chuckled.
Luke returned to his duties after confirming that I no longer needed his help. I decided to head towards the crafting section and start buying one of everything for mimicry purposes. The crafters were confused but wouldn''tin about a paying customer. I purchased various sets of adventuring equipment, from robes to leathers to even some te armor. I also asked every smith and metalworker if they had any puzzles or locks and bought one from each of them. A few were curious, while the higher-level ones gave a knowing smile.
After that and avoiding recruiting adventuring parties, I finally headed toward the inn. Upon entering, I noticed a loud group of familiar faces seated at a table.
"Never again! That was the most boring experience of my life." Dewi said, taking a long swig of his drink.
"Boring, but the pay was good, at least." Whitney chuckled.
I approached the table and smiled, "Good to see you''re finally back."
"There''s our wandering elf!" Whitney said happily.
"You''ve certainly been busy. Is that enchanted armor you''re wearing?" Roderick asked curiously.
"Yeah, I had a quest to kill a smander, and Thern and Luke convinced me to have it made into a set of armor."
"Ah! I wanted to do that quest..." Dewiined, "It would have been an epic battle of fire versus fire!"
"Sorry, Dewi, but I think that thing was outright immune to fire." I chuckled, "I had a tough time even fighting it with [Water Magic], which I was told was its weakness."
"Well, not with that attitude. I''m sure I could have found a way," Dewi grumbled.
"I''m sorry. He''s annoyed that he hasn''t gotten to explode anything for days." Roderick apologized.
I chuckled and joined the group for theirte lunch.
"So, what have you been up to?" Whitney asked curiously, "I can see you''ve progressed rapidly as usual."
"While you were gone, I cleaned out a mine of spiders, elementals, and the smander. After that, I took on a quest to kill a nt horror, which led to me finding an underground orc burrow and killing their chieftain."
My brief exnation clearly was insufficient, and soon after, I was pressed to give more details. I entertained the group by providing a more detailed retelling of the events and what happened. Obviously, I glossed over anything slime-rted and avoided mentioning Odark.
"Now that is the adventurer''s life," Roderick said enviously.
"Regretting your future desk job before it''s even started?" I teased.
"You''ve been hanging around Lisa too much," Roderick said with a chuckle.
"So, where have you been?" I asked.
"Destroying an entire smuggling ring," Whitney said with a grin. "Remember those bandits that attacked us on the way here?"
I nodded, and Whitney continued the story.
"Well, it turns out there''s been a substantial uptick in banditry, but only in the south as if they are targeting only this one trade route."
"But, not only was it this one route, but only specific merchants as well," Roderick added.
"That''s suspicious," Imented.
"Indeed. Which is why we investigated and uncovered arge smuggling operation for mana potions," Whitney continued.
"It was so boring!" Dewi interrupted, "The single moment of fun I had was burning down their hideout..."
"Other than the battle against the leader and his goons, it was probably something Whitney should have done alone, to be fair..." Evan pointed out.
"So? What happened?" I asked.
"Well, a particr family from our hometown wanted to monopolize the trade. If you weren''t distributing through them, you''d find your goods stolen and sold on the ck market." Roderick continued.
"It was a long job, but we managed to find their hideout, im a lot of incriminating evidence, and destroy their operation." Whitney grinned. "These guys will be returning home, but I''ll be sticking around to finalize some more details and eventually heading towards the capital to investigate further under an official request from the Merchants Guild."
"Yeah, Whitney has entered the big leagues with this request," Evan said, and Roderick nodded along.
"Congrattions! I hope you''ll let me buy a round of drinks to celebrate?"
"dly!" Whitney beamed, and Roderick ced the order.
"Wait, when did you be a Sorcerer?" Dewi suddenly blurted out.
"Ha! I was waiting for you to notice, but you kept sulking." Whitney mocked.
"I wanted to see if I was missing out on anything from a pure caster ss, but I n to swap back."
"No," Dewi said, frowning. "Well, you can, but at least get Sorcerer to ten before you do. Trust me on this."
"Alright. I''m guessing you''re going to be cryptic again about it."
"Of course. Why ruin the surprise?" He grinned, "So, did you get anything cool from Sorcerer?"
"So far, the best thing I got was [Mana Conception]."
"So early? You must really be tinkering with your spells a lot." Dewi said, rubbing his chin.
"I also got this," I said, casting [Icicle] above my open palm.
"Now that is cool!" Dewi said with a grin, "Pun, fully intended!"
Everyone at the table groaned.
Chapter 93: Catching Up
Chapter 93: Catching Up
"Okay, okay. Jokes aside, [Ice Magic] is impressive, and you''re close to your next ascension point." Dewi said, faking an apology over his terrible pun.
"Yes. If I''m lucky, I hope to get [Lightning Magic] next."
Dewi whistled through his teeth, "You and me both... Probably one of the few ones that matches my fiery personality. Although I''ll probably pick up [Water Magic] if [Lightning Magic] isn''t on my list and hope it''s there if I ever get to thirty."
I nodded along. I had already pieced this together from prior conversations without asking it directly, and this confirmed my theory that you couldn''t control your choice of ascension perks. On one hand, it made sense; otherwise, you''d have everyone picking something crazy like Lightning affinity as soon as they reached level ten. While I could understand the Gods wanting to add an element of randomness to it, it only further dissuaded humans from picking race levels as they weren''t even sure if they''d get what they wanted reaching those ascension milestones.
''I wonder if I should take notes of my thoughts to give to Gramp next time, although perhaps he''s already reading them.''
"Please, no magic talk at the table," Whitney grumbled.
We continued to catch up and conversed about my promotion to Gold.
"It sucks we are seen as your sponsors. Otherwise, we could have done a dungeon together." Whitneymented.
"Yeah, that would have been fun. Although no reason we can''t do one together afterward." Roderick added, "But the guild needs proof that you can work on an impromptu team. There are huge expectations for Golds, such as getting recruited to repel nation-level threats.""Makes sense, and I''d dly do some dungeons with you guys," I replied.
"Are you going as a caster or a rogue?" Whitney asked.
"Caster, surely. You''d greatly impress your evaluators if you can get your [Ice Magic] up to a decent level beforehand." Dewi said.
"Lisa suggested I go as both, truly flexing my hybrid role."
"That''s good advice, although I think you''re leaning more heavily on magic right now, right?" Roderick asked.
"I bought some locks and puzzles to level up [Rogue Expertise], and I''ve also banked quite a lot of skill points."
"Good girl." Whitney grinned, "Perhaps we could do some [Perception] training. Hell, if your [Stealth] skill is high enough, you could even help me get some valuable experience."
"We''ve got to do some magic practice as well. I want to see what you''ve been tinkering with to have earned [Mana Conception] already."
"You''re making me feel left out. The best I could offer is some first-aid training since you don''t have a Holy affinity." The usually quiet Evan said with a chuckle.
"You can join me in feeling left out." Roderickughed, "The best I could offer is some basic cooking or party leadership, and thetter could get her in trouble with whichever party she joins if she questions the party leader''s judgment with my sensibilities."
"And the former could lead to her giving them food poisoning if she doesn''t invest the points in it." Dewi joked.
"Yeah, I prefer eating rather than cooking. Also, I''m already potentially fulfilling two roles; adding more to my te would make me stand out even more than I already am."
"Why wouldn''t you want to stand out?" Dewi asked.
"All the attention can be a little grating... Especially all the stares."
"Right..." Evan nodded, "Elves are basically a mystery to most of us; I can''t even imagine all the unwanted attention."
"And it''s not like you can just hide your ears, that''s gotta suck," Whitney said.
"Well, assuming you ever go to the capital, it should tone down a lot."
"I''ll add it to my list of ces to visit. Right after visiting the Dwarves and then Keld."
"That''s quite the list of holiday destinations. It sounds like the adventurer life suits you well," Roderick said.
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"Definitely!" I cheered, raising my mug.
After finally retiring to my room, I wasn''t ready for bed yet, so I pulled out all the puzzles and locks I had purchased and worked through them. I put the ones I couldn''t solve aside and marked them while I devoured the ones I solved without issue. I''d nned to keep the hardest ones for repeated practice. Creating mimicked tools worked out spectacrly for lockpicking, as I could feel the sensation of the lock, and it gave an unforeseen bonus that real tools wouldn''t.
When I woke up and finished my standard routine, I traveled downstairs and sat at a table, continuing my practice while waiting for Whitney to rise. The first-time bonus was no joke; I had even gained a level when Whitney finally came down. I theorized I was likely even getting some perfection bonuses thanks to the advantage of my unique tools.
Whitney nodded in approval of my technique after slowly recovering from her hangover with some food. The rest of the gang eventually came down, and Dewi grumbled about my choice of roguery over wizardry. I promised him some of my time tomorrow, which caused him to relent.
Before we started our training, Whitney took me to a few of the smiths outside the guild, where I could purchase a few extra locks and puzzles. Then she exined how we would be training, which sounded like a more intense game of hide and seek. We would be using rooftops and alleyways to sneak up on one another and try to steal a small bell tied to the back of our belts. As a handicap, Whitney had to steal two bells from me. The goal was to train [Perception], [Vanish], and [Rogue Expertise] all at once.
While Whitney wouldn''t gain much experience in [Stealth] due to my low level in [Perception], my high levels in [Vanish] would help her with [Perception], which was her real goal. It was bing challenging for her to train it reliably in this region, as she would need to seek out more dangerous monsters.
Our rogue battle was undoubtedly interesting, and I had to admit I was finding it fun. Although Whitney had a mischievous streak that was making itself apparent in her unting skills, she would often poke my side or give me small pinches before absolutely vanishing. When I finally caught her unaware, I returned this cheeky endeavor by giving her a poke with a cold but not dangerous level of [Cryo Slime]. She yelped in surprise, causing a bunch of unaware civilians to stare at her outburst, and her face flushed red. My prank had clearly gone too far as she chased me with a malevolent re.
"That armor is very nice. It''s actually making me have to work to notice you." During our lunch break, Whitneymented, "I might need to consider getting myself something with the enchantment."
"With how hard it already is for me to detect you, I can''t say I think you need the extra help," I replied honestly.
"Yeah, but some monsters have some weird, extraordinary senses. It never hurts to be extra careful; I actually have a skill to minimize my smell, as it''s one of the mostmon ways for monsters to detect you."
"Let me guess, air affinity?"
"Yeah. Otherwise, I would have rmended it to you, although, to be honest, if not for your armor, I would swear you have no scent at all, and even that''s extremely hard for me to pick out unless I''m right up against you."
''We slimes are probably the cleanest things ever, and since I can spotlessly clean my armor by giving it a dissolving slime bath, I bet nothing could be cleaner,'' I thought to myself.
We continued our training game untilte into the evening when I suddenly failed to spot Whitney a single time. Even trying to use [Thermal Vision] gave me nothing; it was like she didn''t exist at all. After numerous defeats, she finally revealed that she had been hiding her cards a little and that, like me, she also had an upgraded version of [Stealth] called [Shadow Stealth].
"It''s a bit more conditional than yours. As long as I''m in shadows or the cover of darkness, I get massive boosts to stealth, and it practically eliminates my presence."
"Eliminating your presence is certainly a good way to describe it."
"Unfortunately, I can''t turn it off now, so let''s finish this with some traps," Whitney suggested, and I nodded.
This was where I learned that Whitney had some trapmaking skills. She set up some rtively harmless traps for me to train with in disarming and spotting. Once she was satisfied with my progress, she led me to her room, where she pulled out arge storage bag and an ornate gilded chest.
"This is the reason most dungeon groups fail," Whitney said while gesturing to the chest.
"Is this a metaphor for greed or something?" I asked.
"Ha! That''s a good one. Why don''t you examine this one closely? But do not open it."
I carefully examined it, and after some intense concentration, I finally noticed some oddities along the chest opening and hinges.
"I think it''s trapped?" I asked expectantly, pointing out my two observations.
"Correct, and this is how we Rogues earn our keep in dungeons." Whitney said with a smile, "The dungeons will prey on our natural greed and expectation of riches and often trap chests; it''s your duty to identify them and either disarm them or determine if it is safe to bring the chest along with if it''s too difficult to disarm yourself."
"Rather nasty and insidious," Imented.
"They really can be, so it pays to be safe rather than sorry. This one used to release poison gas, but I''ve removed the canister, so it''s good for practice since it rearms itself upon closing." She exined, giving a pat on the chest lid, "I''ve unfortunately long outgrown it, so I''m probably going to donate it to the guild so Tabitha can have any aspiring rogues train with it."
Whitney was a great person, willing to share knowledge and help her fellow adventurers. I hoped I''d be able to find a monster with the [Eagle Vision] trait she wanted on the floating ind, then show it to her and hopefully repay some of her generosity. I at least offered to buy her dinner and drinks for now; it was the least I could do for such a kind person.
She spent thest moments of the evening giving me a thorough rundown on spotting and disarming the traps for the chest. While I didn''t gain any skill levels despite her tutoring bonus, I felt I was on the verge of achieving another in both very shortly.
Today was a great day.
Chapter 94: Combust
Chapter 94: Combust
"You created a spell that makes things easier to burn?" Dewi eximed in shock.
We were seated at the inn enjoying brunch after he had demanded some of my time to talk magic. I had been discussing with him some of my progress since west spoke and all my spell tinkering. The rest of his party had vacated long ago.
"I think it can even ovee fire resistance with enough level and effort," I answered.
"Prove it," Dewi''s voice was firm, his demand clear.
"On what?"
"On me."
I stared at him dumbfounded, "You want me to cast a debuff on you?"
He simply nodded and stared at me, unblinking. I sighed and reluctantly started casting the spell. As the spell was constructed, I saw him trying his utmost to glean as much knowledge as possible. His eyes were focused with deadly intensity as if he was trying to get the spell to break under the pressure and reveal its secrets. I even held it for a while to give him some more time with it before finally unleashing it upon him.
"mmable! I''m mmable, Syl! This is amazing!" he cried joyfully, causing the other patrons to look at him with concern or annoyance.He immediately cast [Kindle], thrust his other hand into it, and retreated it shortly after.
"That burnt me! I can''t believe it." He replied, chuckling like a lunatic.
"Yes... Fire burns." I replied deadpan.
"Of course, my beautiful protegee, but I have [Fire Resistance] after numerous cases of self-immtion." He exined, "Now, with enough power, you can ovee resistances, but this... this is elegant, something I didn''t even know was possible."
"So far, only one thing has resisted it initially: the smander. But after some trial and error, it eventually took the debuff."
Dewi pondered momentarily before responding, "The smander probably had [Fire Immunity]... That''s brilliant. I swear I could kiss you right now."
"No thanks." I immediately rejected his offer. "I also created a sort of poison... fire... It keeps telling me to name it when I cast it."
"That means your spell was truly unique!" Dewi smiled, then frowned, "You haven''t named it yet... Then how do you keep casting it?"
"What do you mean? I just replicate the same constructed form."
Dewi facepalmed and groaned, "I don''t know whether to call you brilliant or stupid. You''re casting your spellpletely unaided by the system. If you name the spell, it will be like any other you''ve learned through levels, and you should be able to call upon it through its name effortlessly."
"So that''s why sometimes people call out their spells. I had wondered what the reason was. Originally, I had thought it was a requirement to cast a spell, but I''ve never had to shout [Water Orb] or anything like that."
Dewi looked distraught and sat in silence while he mentally recovered. "Okay." After taking a deep breath, he continued, "Firstly, saying your spell aloud can help your mental recollection of the spell, and call upon the system to aid you. This is especially useful for custom spells."
He paused, staring at me expectantly, and only continued when I nodded.
"Saying it mentally works as well, but if you haven''t been doing even that, I can only assume you have amazing processing power between those pointy ears of yours.." He took a deep drink before continuing, "The second reason is for party dynamics, which I can understand you not knowing due to being solo. Kurt was rather lucky you didn''t have any devastating spells when you partied up with him. Now imagine Roderick is in a group of enemies, and I just fling a [Fireball] out of nowhere. He''s likely to get caught in the st, but if I call out my spell, he knows it''sing and can raise his shield to protect his handsome mug."
"That makes sense." I nodded, "Although it would ruin my [Sneak Attack] and [Subtle Afflictions], not to mention likely break my [Vanish]."
Dewi paused to scratch his head, "Well, that would definitely suck. But it should be fine if you aren''t casting giant spells that explode. Just let your party know that you cast silently so they don''t panic when magic arrows of fire and acid are flung around."
"Well, I''m unlikely to cast [Nova]. I guess [Torrent] is my only real concern until I gain another level and unlock [Fireball]."
"Once you get it, you''ll wonder how you got by without it. Your previous spells will feel like wet paper." Dewi said, grinning, "You''ll likely unlock Pyromancer with it, which is a great option to swap if you want to specialize more."
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"What''s the benefit of it over Sorcerer or Shadowcaster? I already have [Fire Magic], so it''s not like I''d be receiving a new revtion."
"Now that is a good question. I''m surprised you didn''t notice a difference when you swapped Sorcerer, but perhaps it''s a little harder to notice with rogue skills."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, when you are not the preferred ss, your other skills are slightly less effective. The most notable difference is if you pick a specialized ss like Pyromancer - you receive massive boosts to all Fire spells; they are faster, cheaper, and stronger. However, anything unrted receives small penalties, so my Air spells are slightly downgraded. I ovee this bybining Air and Fire, which makes the system treat it as if it were still my preferred spell type."
"I didn''t know this... I certainly didn''t notice any difference in my rogue skills. Although, I can''t say I was paying particr attention. Are there any other things I should know about with sses?"
"Swapping away from a caster role entirely can negatively impact your mana capacity and regeneration, and you''d be losing some of the spell potency bonuses. Let''s say a spell does ten damage; as a Mage, it would deal twelve damage; as a Sorcerer, it would deal fifteen. So it''s not really a penalty, but losing a bonus." Dewi paused briefly before continuing. "It''s hard to confirm, but it feels like skills are easier to upgrade and earn if you are in the correct ss. However, the benefit is so small that most people don''t believe it''s more than a gut feeling."
I was about to thank him for exining before he continued, "There is one other benefit, which you''ve already taken advantage of. It can lead to unlocking a ss progression early. Since I specialize in [Fire Magic], I will likely unlock Arch Pyromancer earlier than normal."
"I see... Thanks, Dewi. After I get Sorcerer to ten, I''ll likely stick to Shadowcaster and whatever it progresses. I don''t think I''d want to specialize in one element when I can ess multiple."
"That''s unfortunately true. While I would have loved for you to have followed the path of Pyromancy, you''ll have to spread your mes in other ways." He abruptly stood up. "Now, let''s go outside so you can cast your Fire spell on me. I want to experience it now that this mmable debuff has expired."
"What? The debuff is one thing, but I''m not casting a damage spell on you!"
"Pff. I''ve got so much [Fire Resistance] that it won''t be much of a tickle. I''ve even got multiple health potions in case of emergencies."
"No way. Everyone will kill me if something happens to you, and it''s my fault."
"I''ll even detonate a [Fireball] in my face to prove it. How else do you think I trained my [Fire Resistance] so high?"
"You seriously cast spells on yourself to raise your resistance? That sounds-"
"Brilliant? Ingenious? Innovative?" Dewi interrupted.
"Insane."
"Bah! I''m hardly the only one who does it. Otherwise, you have to spend so many trait points." Dewi said, shaking his head, "Come now, let''s go to the training ground so I can [Fireball] myself, and then you can show me your unique spell, and then you need to name it!"
I was dragged straight to the training ground, where we ended up in one of the unupied shielded areas. Dewi told me to stand back, and then he cast [Fireball], which was point nk, right at the ground where he stood. I could only stare in shock and awe as the area erupted into a fiery explosion. When the smoke cleared, there was a grinning Dewi with slightly singed hair and slight smoldering.
"See! I''m basically fireproof at this point. Hell, my clothes are actually fireproof. It was the best investment I ever made," Dewi said,ughing maniacally.
"You''ve got to be joking..." I said, shaking my head.
"No jokes. The public indecency fines were getting out of hand." Dewiughed again, "Now cast your custom spell on me."
I cast the spell with extreme reluctance, ensuring it waspletely unempowered.
"Are you absolutely sure?" I asked again.
"Yes!" Dewi shouted.
I sighed, finalized the casting, and saw the burning affliction appear on Dewi''s profile.
"Combust."
"That''s a good name!" Dewi said, grinning despite being visibly on fire. "This is a very interesting spell. It''s a bit of a slow burn, but this duration would be amazing for boss fights."
"Aren''t you in pain?" I asked, concerned.
"It''s notfortable, but I wouldn''t say pain exactly. It''s sort of like rubbingtles against your skin." Dewi uncorked a potion bottle and took a small sip. "Now, I just feel ufortably warm, like being trapped in a sauna."
I could only sigh. I was starting to question all the previous advice he had given me. I knew he was a pyromaniac, but this was surely beyond reason. The worst part is that some of me wondered if I could do something simr to level up my [Magic Resistance (Lesser)] trait, and unlike him, I could borrow [Pain Suppression].
We then spent arge portion of the day going over the spells. Unfortunately for Dewi, none of his affinities gave him the concepts required to create the effect. From his knowledge, he would need to get ess to Corrosion or Dark Affinity himself if he wanted to replicate the spell.
For all my effort, he gave me some personal tutoring in [Fire Magic]. He gave some pointers on increasing the efficiency of my empowered spells and suggested adding the [Heat] spell to all my existing fire spells to increase their damage.
"Raising the temperature of your Fire spells is a quick and dirty way to give them more bang." He exined, "I''m sure the opposite will be true when you get deeper into [Ice Magic]."
I didn''t gain any direct skill-ups, but I was sure I had made a good chunk towards them. While the day didn''t feel as fruitful as my activities with Whitney, it was still an interesting experience.
Before I left the guild, I asked if I could withdraw some money to keep on hand. I still wasn''t entirely sure about the currency. Beyond that, it went from copper to silver to gold. To keep it simple, I just asked to withdraw a hundred gold. It sounded like a good round number to me.
"Are you sure, Miss?" The receptionist asked. She seemed a bit confused, and unfortunately, Luke wasn''t avable.
"Yes. Do I not have enough?" I asked, presenting my guild tag.
She seemed to be looking at something visible only to her when her eyes went wide. "Ah! No, you have more than enough. I''m terribly sorry, Miss Syl. Please tap right here, and I''ll get your gold immediately!"
When she returned, I thanked her and deposited it promptly. Her expression visibly rxed when she saw I was securely storing it.
''I guess she was worried about me walking around with cash on hand.'' I thought curiously.
I thanked her for her help and wished her well before leaving.
Chapter 95: Forest Stampede
Chapter 95: Forest Stampede
The next few days felt like a blur as my time was split between Whitney and Dewi. The downside was that I wasn''t gaining experience towards my next level up, a fact that nagged at me. But on the other hand, my skills were receiving much-needed attention, and I couldn''t deny the value of that.
Thanks to Whitney''s direct tutge, I made leaps and bounds of progress with my Rogue skills. I also felt like my [Vanish] was so close to a breakthrough that I could taste it.
In my time with Dewi, I finally unlocked the elusive [Multicast], which was an integrated upgrade into the [Multitasking] skill as I predicted. I was frustrated at how long it took for me to get this, and I still wondered if I''d even use it, as my [Sub Cores] could do the job for me with far greater efficiency.
I was also on the verge of a breakthrough with [Fire Magic], and Dewi was practically bouncing with anticipation for the day he could witness me casting my first [Fireball] spell. I had always thought [Water Magic] would get to five first, but Dewi had other ns with tutoring boosts.
While I didn''t get as much numeric evidence of progress while training [Fire Magic], I did, however, get experience with adding the [Heat] property to all my current fire spells, raising their temperature and thus their damage significantly. I knew I could add it to my future spells with a little effort and without Dewi''s guidance. In private, I tested out fully empowering one of my newly modified spells with the aid of my [Sub-Cores] and was startled when the mes started to turn blue!
And, in my own time, I managed to unlock the next level of [Ice Magic] andplete my Ice weakness debuff, called [Frigid]. The new spell seemed simple in that it would create a patch of clear frozen ice, a deceptive trap to cause an enemy to slip up, but it also revealed to me a brand new spellponent of cing a sustained magical effect on the terrain. I immediately wonder about applications such as creating a patch of fire or acid.
''Or maybe frozen acid? Would that work? Would you slip, make more contact with the acid, and then melt? I have no idea, but it''s worth exploring eventually!''I had also decided to see if Dewi''s crazy training method had any merit in an effort to raise my [Magic Resistance (Lesser)] trait. Unfortunately, the magic I had ess to I had gained from consuming other types of slimes, meaning that I was inherently resistant to my own spells. While I could pick and choose between turning on [Acid Slime] or raising and lowering my temperature through [ze Slime] and [Cryo Slime], respectively, the resistances those traits gave my core weren''t optional. The most effective and restrained method I found was exposing my core and then keeping a sustained [Kindle] spell directly under it.
''I mean... It makes sense. Why would you want to suddenly be weaker to fire? Even without [Pain Suppression], it feels more like a slightly ufortable tickle, and it takes ages before my health drops at all. Gone are the days where I nearly boiled to death.''
While the slower change of pace felt a little odd to me, I knew that from their perspective, there was a good chance that we wouldn''t meet again for a long time since their group was disbanding and going their separate ways. Whitney was staying for another month or two before moving to the capital, and Roderick would be settling down, eager to spend quieter days with his future wife. Meanwhile, Evan and Dewi would return home, grab their things, leave for the capital together, and go to the church and Mage''s Guild, respectively, marking the end of their shared adventures.
Also, I received word from Lisa through Luke that they had found the underground tunnelplex built by the orcs and killed the few stragglers who tried returning to it before ultimately destroying the entire thing with the help of a Geomancer.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Close to their day of departure, Roderick burst into the room with a grin on his face. "There''s a monster stampede in the forest, and I snagged us the quest to dispatch the cause."
Whitney and Dewi cheered while I looked at him questioningly. "Monster stampede?"
"Monsters are fleeing the southern forest; remember we encountered a lot of fresh spawns? All the recent deaths in there must have caused a bottleneck in the essence, which coted into spawning a higher-tier monster," Roderick exined.
"So all the low-rank and low-leveled monsters start fleeing. Multiple adventurer groups usually get dispatched to control the stampede until the source is killed." Whitney continued.
"And Roderick snagged us the position! So we get to blow up some big nasty, a perfect final adventure." Dewi cheered with a grin.
"And I''d like to invite you to join us, Syl," Roderick said, "Think of it as a trial run for your future dungeon run, not to mention a fun farewell before you disappear into the world and get up to all sorts of crazy adventures I can only imagine."
"You had me at the big nasty monster," I chuckled.
It was a short rush to grab supplies and head out as soon as possible, as the quicker we dealt with the monster, the sooner the stampede of monsters would end. It would potentially be a multiday expedition as we needed to travel south and then into the forest, retreading our previous steps. However, this time, at a much faster pace since we didn''t need to protect a trade caravan.
The road south was highly trafficked by all manner of adventuring teams, although none surpassed our group in levels. These teams would be culling the monsters that emerged from the forest, an important duty to prevent civilian casualties. While Roderick was the party leader, Whitney was in charge of directions and scouting, and it wasn''t long before she directed us into the forest.
I thought we would need to fight monsters to travel deeper, but most monsters seemed more interested in fleeing than confronting us. That certainly didn''t stop us from taking potshots at them, and the level difference between us and them meant that we did end up killing a few of the beasts. Any we took out meant the adventurers guarding the forest edge had an easier job. It felt oddly nostalgic, killing forest monsters again.
"It''s a pain when they flee because when they finally decide to stop, they could be deep within civilized territory," Roderick muttered.
"It''s strange how many are leaving the forest entirely. Usually, they''d flee towards a leader of their species. I can understand the wolves fleeing since Syl killed the de Wolf, so they likely don''t have a new leader yet."
"Oh..." I murmured, "That... Might be my fault."
"Ah. You did mention hunting throughout the forest." Whitneymented.
"Don''t worry; nobody will ever fault you for reducing the monster poption," Roderick said with a reassuring grin.
We continued trudging through the forest, although the source of the stampede was still not found despite Whitney doing her best. I tried to help with my [Tracking] skill, but it was pretty much useless at level one without shifting a wolf nose to track scents.
''Well, I can''t expect a skill I''ve neglected and forgotten for so long to be suddenly useful.''
"It''s too bad we can''t just ask the monsters for directions," Evanmented offhand while we sat around the fire for our first night in the forest.
While everyone chuckled at thement, I raised my hand, "Actually... That might be possible."
"I didn''t know you suddenly added Monster Tamer to your repertoire. You were really busy while we were after the smugglers," Roderickughed.
"I haven''t." I corrected him, "It''s an elf trait. Although I can''t guarantee sess."
"Works for me. It''s better than running around the forest for days and hoping we find whatever the cause is. No offense, Whitney," Dewi said.
"I''m sorry. I don''t see your beloved fireball finding the monster for us." Whitney said sarcastically.
"Well..." Dewi said, scratching his head, "I could set the forest on fire, and if it burns down, we should be able to find the monster easier, assuming it survives."
Evan pped Dewi on the head, "No. Stop trying to solve everything with fire."
"Five gold, he tries to solve his application to the Mage''s Guild by setting the paper on fire," Whitney said with a cheeky grin.
"Ha! You''d be robbing me with such an unfair bet like that." Roderick responded with a bellow of augh.
The next day, we attempted our n. Although Whitney had an idea, the hardest part was capturing a low-level beast without killing it. When we encountered a small pack of wolves fleeing, Whitney disappeared in a blur, appearing behind the wolf and striking it with the pommel of her dagger. The monster''s body practically crumpled to the ground, and the others scampered away, yelping in terror.
"Shit, Whitney, did you kill it in one blow," Dewi said in shock.
"I''m pretty sure it''s still alive; now we can tie up its limbs and have Evan heal it." She replied.
"Great. Now I''m healing monsters, what''s next?" Evan said with a sigh. I chuckled mentally as, unbeknownst to him, he''d already healed one twice.
Once the wolf was secured, Evan cast his healing spell, and when it finally awoke, I attempted tomunicate with it. I had mimicked the trait at its maximum level, hoping to overpower the monster through sheer trait levels. When I tried to mentally reach out to the wolf, it shockingly didn''t respond with a voice but with vague images and feelings. I could feel its terror and question why I had captured it.
''Why can ntsmunicate with words, but this wolf can onlymunicate in pictures and feelings? Is this wolf dumber than corn, or is this the trait just being stupid?'' I grumbled. This was not at all what I expected.
Chapter 96: Follow the Wolf
Chapter 96: Follow the Wolf
I triedmunicating with the wolf verbally, and while it seemed to understand me somewhat, it wasn''t until I attempted thinking in images and feelings that it fullyprehended me. I gave it the picture of it helping us track the monster, to which it responded with horror, and I saw shes of massive tusks and trees. It seemed the wolf doubted I could beat the monster, to which I responded by mentally giving it images of the monsters I had killed - starting with the smander, which was easily my most impressive kill.
I could feel the wolf''s uncaring for the smander; it didn''t understand its power, so I continued showing it images of foes. It seemed a little impressed with my killing the bear and badger. Even my mental image of Krutz and Oday wasn''t enough for this stubborn canine. I was getting frustrated at how the wolf seemed uncaring; it was too stupid to realize the threats I had faced.
I had thought showing it the wolf I killed would be detrimental, but now I was pissed off. I showed it the de Wolf and proudly expressed my feeling of victory over defeating it. I was expecting the wolf to be outraged over me, killing one of its own kind, but surprisingly, it instead sent back feelings of shock and awe. Suddenly, the wolf was sending me images of it dering me its new alpha, and it was thoroughly impressed. Finally, I requested its aid to find the monster so that I could kill it, and it frantically agreed, and I could feel its sense of pride through the strangemunication bond formed from the trait.
When I finally looked up from my intense, silent stare-match with the wolf, the others stared at me with unbridled anticipation. "Well?" Dewi asked.
"It''s agreed to help lead us to the monster. Also, I got brief shes of what I think was the monster; I saw trees and tusks."
"That''s half helpful. Tusks probably means a boar-type monster. As for trees... I mean, we are surrounded by them," Roderick replied.
"Well, I''m certainly not afraid of any trees. Trees fear me." Dewi cackled.
Despite their trust in me and the trait, everyone was cautious before we released the wolf. If it so much as snapped at someone aggressively, Whitney was prepared to end it with an instant [Sneak Attack]. Behind the scenes, I had convinced the wolf that the others were part of my pack, and it seemed eager for us to kill the threat in the forest. As the tension mounted, I could see the relief wash over their faces when the wolf flopped onto its legs and shook itself like a wet dog.
"I can''t believe this is working," Evan said, shaking his head.The wolf sent me images of running and following, and I told the group. Then we started running after it deeper into the forest. I felt bad for Roderick, whose armor was nking with every step, but despite it all, he had a cheesy grin stered on his face.
"Wait till Harris hears about this." I overheard him chuckling to himself.
''Those extra levels in [Perception] have certainly made a difference.''
We were moving well until the wolf abruptly stopped and started growling. Images of danger and enemies flooded my mind, and I quickly warned the group.
"The wolf senses danger; I''m unsure if it''s our target."
Everyone drew their weapons, and Whitney and I activated our respective stealth skills. Meanwhile, Roderick stood in front, directing attention towards himself as he rattled his mace against his shield. Then we spotted what the wolf was snarling at¡ªa giant walking tree!
"Oh, it''s a treant!" Dewi cheered. "Syl, debuff it with [mmable], please!"
I followed through with his request,nding a solid sixty percent fire weakness debuff on the target thanks to [Subtle Afflictions]. If I had empowered it, it would have been almost one hundred!
''I wonder if it goes above one hundred. I hope so; otherwise, I''ll have reached the limit at the next level of [Fire Magic].''
"[Fireball]!" Dewi cast, and an explosion of me erupted from where the walking tree was.
"One shot!" Dewi eximed, cackling with delight.
"Talk about overkill..." Whitney muttered, emerging from the shadows.
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"I told you trees fear me! But man, that [mmable] debuff sure is something else," Dewi said, basking in the smoldering remains of the treant.
"There''s a reason some parties have a dedicated support role outside of a healer. The right buffs or debuffs can mean that your five other party membersbined far outweigh the potential lost slot," Roderick said.
"Yes, but unfortunately, it can sometimes be a tough sell." Evan pointed out, "Some of the people I''ve partied up with in the past tried to refuse to split loot with me because I wasn''t killing monsters. Killing a monster with a spell has tangible proof, whereas trying to measure the benefit of a buff can be a bit more vague."
"Good thing Syl can do both then!" Dewi said, chuckling, "Although it''s a good thing you won''t run into that type of shit unless you''re partying up with the rust ranks."
"Indeed. Before I joined the guild, a party member refused to pay me because he didn''t get injured. He truly believed I would follow him around unpaid until he took a wound."
"Let me guess. You stopped casting shield spells." Whitney said with a giggle.
"You bet. Earned a lot of money healing all his injuries then."
"Never piss off the healer. I wish more people would learn that lesson." Roderick said with a hearty chuckle.
"I certainly will make an effort not to, although I''m d I got to skip the beginner ranks if it''s as bad as you all make it out to be," I replied.
"So, is that questplete?" Dewi asked.
"Surely one treant didn''t cause a stampede," Whitney said, looking around.
I turned to the wolf and questioned it, but it replied that these were part of the monster''s pack.
"Nope. The wolf says the treants are part of the true monster''s pack."
"Well, that''s ominous. Did a dryad spawn? I can''t think of much else that could create treants." Evan asked.
"No way. This area has way too little essence flow, even if there was a bottleneck spawn." Dewi pointed out.
"Well, no use wondering; let''s follow Syl''s pet to the true enemy," Whitney said.
I nodded and gave the order to the wolf, and we resumed heading deeper into the forest. Whitney was the first to notice it and point out that the vegetation was growing more... Untamed. While it was a forest, this level of wilderness was more akin to an ancient forest leftpletely alone for centuries. Poor Roderick kept getting his armor stuck in branches and vines and nearly tripped over protruding roots.
Shortly after, the wolf warned me of danger, and I could feel its fear. Our target was ahead. I gave it mental feelings of thanks and reassured it that we would be dealing with the monster. It howled and darted off into the forest, and I held out my hand to stop myrades from following.
"The monster is ahead. I sent the wolf away."
"Thank the Gods, thisst leg of the journey hasn''t been fun." Roderick sighed before drinking from his canteen.
"It wasn''t that bad." Whitney shrugged, looking no worse for wear.
"So. What''s the n?" Evan asked.
"I''m fine with anything, butbining my spells and Syl''s debuff seems like a recipe for sess." Dewi grinned.
"Right. We ran into one treant, so we can assume more. Dewi and Syl, your first priority will be to take out any treants while I grab the target''s attention." Roderick started exining. "Whitney will deal damage safely from behind while I hold aggro; as soon as you two are done clearing out the minions, you can join us in hopefully finishing the monster."
"I''ll give us all a general buff and then focus on avoiding attacks and preventing or healing damage from the target. I''m assuming you two won''t need any help with treants," Evan said.
"Nope. We should be able to make short work of them." Dewi said confidently.
"Agreed. Focus on the true threat. I''ll also be sure tond at least one debuff on the target; it should help." I said.
"Excellent!" Roderick said with a toothy smile.
Roderick took the front position while Whitney and I faded into the background with our stealth skills. Dewi took the rear, with Evan ced in between. Much to Roderick''s relief, the forest suddenly opened up into a spare clearing without a single rooted tree, and the reason became apparent when we gazed in and spotted a toon of treants guarding an extremelyrge boar monster.
The boar monster had bark for skin and was a fearsome sight to behold. Its rough, brown exterior resembled an age-worn tree, making it blend in seamlessly with the forest surroundings. Its razor-sharp tusks protruded from its snout, glinting dangerously in the sunlight. The creature was massive, on par with the Bear Matriarch I had fought with the goblins. The boar''s bark-like skin looked surprisingly resilient, offering protection against most mundane attacks. Its size, strength, and bizarre appearance made it an intimidating opponent.
"A unique monster," Roderick said in a hushed breath.
"Unique?" I whispered softly.
"It''s a pretty rare phenomenon outside of dungeons," Dewi answered. "The buildup of essence has spawned a fully formed monster of a higher tier than normally possible. Usually, monsters follow evolution paths or gain a mutation, but in cases like this, they''ve crafted a unique being from scratch."
"We''re lucky it spawned in such a low-level area; it''s had no chance to gain any additional levels since spawning." Evan pointed out.
"True. But just because it''s level one, don''t underestimate it. It''s spawned in with skills and traits at a certain level." Dewi cautioned. "Although another benefit is that it won''t have had much time to practice and understand its abilities, it will likely be fueled entirely by instinct, which obviously has its own unpredictability, but at least we won''t need to worry about a scheming monster that can plot and deceive."
"Everyone''s going to be so jealous," Whitney said happily.
"Aye. This will be a lovely feather in my cap before bing a Guild Master. I can''t wait to rub it in Harris'' face." Roderick chuckled.
I was also very excited, and [Dissection] quivered in anticipation; a unique monster meant lots of unique and rare resources, and I couldn''t wait to harvest them. The profile would also be tantalizing, although I suspected Nature Affinity would be required judging by the creature''s pronounced name.
Chapter 97: Fireball
Chapter 97: Fireball
"Give me a few minutes'' headstart to cast my debuffs. Everything goes undetected, and I get a bonus if I do it from stealth." I requested.
"Sounds like a good idea," Roderick said, turning towards Whitney.
Whitney nodded, "I agree, and I vouch for her stealth skills; no way that monster is detecting her."
"Start with the treants, then I''ll open with a [Fireball] to drag them away," Dewi said.
"And I''ll taunt the boar," Roderick added, gesturing to his massive tower shield.
"Before you go, let me cast my buff," Evan said, and we gathered in a tight circle around him. We were all enveloped in a brief light, and I saw a new condition added to my profile.
"It''s a luck bonus; it helps with uracy and evasion." He exined.
"Thanks. It won''t take long. Then we can get this fight started." I said and stealthily maneuvered into position.
When I had a good line of sight of all the monsters, I started weaving my spells,nding [mmable] one by one on each treant. Then I started casting an empowered [Erode] on the boar, hoping to debuff its physical defense for Whitney and Roderick.''It should be an exciting thing to see. I hope they appreciate it.''
It allnded sessfully, and our foes were none the wiser. I was in the middle of empowering [mmable] to cast on the boar when the group erupted from the clearing, and I heard Dewi and Roderick shout out in tandem.
"[Fireball]!"
"[Taunt]!"
''Shit. I should have cast [mmable] on the boar first.''
The fireball crashed against the boar''s head and erupted in an explosion of me; it was a notablyrger explosion, but from how I witnessed the mana flowing, Dewi must have sacrificed some damage for a wider area of effect. Both immediately darted in the opposite direction, and then I sessfully cast my spell.
''Of course, now you have decided to level up. Well, not like an extra minute duration would matter in the grand scheme of things.''
As expected, the treants rushed towards Dewi, unhappy about being partially on fire. The boar let out a guttural roar as it charged towards Roderick. It shed against his giant shield, and his feet dug into the ground, being slightly pushed backward. Appearing from nowhere, Whitney abruptly appeared above the boar''s head, dual-wielding her two daggers and plummeting down, stabbing them into the back of its head before retracting them and disappearing again with a skill I recognized.
''[Wind Step]. I''m so jealous.''
I changed position to chase after the treants, shambling towards Dewi, leaving the other three to deal with the boar while we cleaned up the angry trees.
Dewi raised his palm andunched another spell, "[Fireball]!" which again detonated in arger explosion.
The tree directly hit seemed to falter after being caught in two explosions, but Dewi must have continued to prioritize the area of effect over direct damage as it wasn''t dead yet.
''Or perhaps he''s conserving mana to deal with the boar since these are only minions.''
I joined the fray and cast two of my improved [Fire Arrow] spells from behind at two treants in the rear, both only slightly empowered to prevent going into blue me territory. [Sneak Attack], [mmability], and being weakened by two [Fireball] spells meant two dead treants.
x2
Dewi grinned and gave me a thumbs-up before responding with three of his own [Fire Arrow] spells. One targeted the severely weakened treant and killed it, while the other two converged on a single treant and also killed it.
x2
"Dewi!" I eximed excitedly.
"What?" He shouted back.
I raised my hand and grinned, "[Fireball]!"
I didn''t have the time to tinker with it beyond giving it a quick empowerment with my [Sub-Cores]. I would have loved to have added the extra heat and, thus, damage, but I didn''t have the time to tinker mid-battle with a spell I had only just installed into my core. The spell formed quickly, and Iunched it at the group, a blossoming burst of me erupting amongst the lumbering trees.
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x3
He seemed confused at first, but then it rapidly turned into joy. "Yes! That''s the stuff!"
"Oh Gods... Now there''s two of them." I heard Evan mutter, clearly half in jest, as he was chuckling shortly after.
I wanted to celebrate, but I had more notifications that I couldn''t ignore.
Would you like to swap sses?>.
''No.''
Would you like to swap sses?>.
''No.''
While I was happy that I unlocked new things, I wasn''t pleased that the prompts were not dismissible. The ss change prompts wanted you to decide right then and there or constantly have a mental box in your vision throughout a fight.
"Let''s finish these guys off, Syl!" Dewi said, extending his hands outwards and forming two balls of me above his palms.
I mirrored his gesture and formed two of my own, and I swear I could hear him squealing in delight. I had to admit, this spell seemed damn fun.
Right before Iunched my spells, Dewi shouted, "Be sure to spread them out! We''ll kill these guys in one giant explosion!"
With an unspoken agreement and coordination, we let our spells fly, causing a cascade of fiery explosions upon the remaining treants.
x6
"Jeez! Talk about overkill, you two." Evan shouted, "You trying to burn down the entire forest?"
"We had to get the spell out of our system; can''t exactly use it against the boar!" Dewi chuckled.
"You''re a terrible influence, Dewi!" Evan argued, "Now hurry up and help with the boar."
The boar was covered in various stab and cut wounds as Whitney danced around it. Every time she cut or stabbed at it, the boar tried to retaliate, and Whitney would evade and disappear into the wind. I thought Whitney would have had a good chance to kill the monster by herself, but then I noticed that a vine would grow from the bark skin and patch up any wounds with an impromptu herbal salve.
She appeared next to Dewi and me, a little out of breath. "I don''t know what you did to it, but my des are sharper than ever. However, it keeps closing up the wounds, and unfortunately, I don''t think we can win with a death by a thousand cuts. Roderick and I will be out of stamina before it dies."
"Physical defense debuff." I exined in a hurry, not wanting to leave Roderick to fight it alone, "I''ll give it a few more debuffs and start attacking. I already gave it [mmable], Dewi."
"Great. I''ll stick to [Fire Arrow] for now, then."
While I doubted I''d use any ice or water spells against a monster so clearly weak to fire, I still wanted the debuffs present when I tried out the [Decay] spell. I was quick to apply both [Permeable] and [Frigid] to the monster, and then I rushed in close to cast [Combust].
In retaliation, a series of roots burst from the ground and tried to impale me, but I effortlessly dodged them. Afterward, the roots kept trying to grab at me, and I got a sense of reverse d¨¦j¨¤ vu as it reminded me of when I tried to kill the de Wolf with my tendrils.
"How the hell is it targetting me so well with these roots while clearly focusing on Roderick?" I asked aloud.
"It''s a root monster!" Roderick answered before blocking another blow and smashing his mace against the boar with a resounding ng.
"Well, that''s annoying," I said, waving my hand and casting both [Fire Arrow] and [Combust]. The roots writhed in pain as they burnt, but I was happy to keep dodging while they burnt to death.
Whitney had swapped her strategy to go for the boar''s limbs to reduce movement, cutting huge gashes against its tendons. Root monsters also spawned to try to grab her, but she was gone before they even emerged. Her hit-and-run tactics were remarkable, although very energy-intensive.
I tried casting [Poison Mist] a few times for another affliction, but it seemed that unless I targeted its face, it wouldn''t apply. An open wound might have also worked, but it patched those up so abruptly I didn''t have a chance. With five empowered afflictions on it, I decided to finally cast [Decay]. I tried empowering the spell, but it refused any additional mana in a way I had never seen before.
''I guess that makes sense? It does a set amount of damage by purging all afflictions on the target, '' I thought before casting the spell. From my perspective, a swirl of purple mana surrounded the monster before vanishing. The boar suddenly screamed in pain and partially copsed from the unexpected damage it took.
"Holy shit! It just lost a crapton of life out of nowhere!" Evan eximed suddenly.
"It must have been a lot to cause you to swear. What happened?" Roderick chuckled, releasing another solid blow that let out a resounding crunch. "The hell, did it just get tougher? I used a skill but did less damage."
"Ah! I''m sorry I purged its debuffs. I''ll cast them again!" I apologized and immediately worked on casting [Erode] again.
"What? Why?" Whitney shouted, looking disgruntled as her de didn''t prate as deep.
"The spell deals damage based on the number of afflictions on the target. I''d never cast it before, but it seemed appropriate." I exined, casting my spell, "[Erode] is up again! [mmable] ising up next!"
"Good to know!" Roderick shouted, repeating his previous action and grinning in satisfaction.
"That''s probably a spell you should call out," Dewi suggested, forming multiple [Fire Arrow] spells and holding them back until [mmable] was applied again.
The boar was struggling to stand up, so I handed over the [mmable] spell to my [Sub-Cores] toplete while I rapidly cast [Ice Patch] under it. The ground beneath it was coated in a slickyer of ice, and it fell over itself again. Roderickughed joyously and began rapidly pounding at the boar with his mace.
"[mmable] is back up! Also, I froze the ground under its feet; It should stop it from moving around for a bit." I eximed after my [Sub Cores] finished casting the debuff.
Dewi wasted no time and flung all his ming arrows at the boar, each causing wails of pain and rage.
"Good job,ss, you''re learning on the job!" Roderick said proudly.
"It''s close to death. If you can repeat that spell from earlier, I think it will finish it off!" Evan shouted.
"I will do that. But how can you tell it''s close to death?" I asked while preparing to cast the debuffs again after quickly casting another [Combust] and setting the oversized pig on fire again.
"I have a trait that lets me see lifeforce. It''s meant to be used for healing, but it can also be used like this."
"Please show me that trait!" I begged.
"Sure? It''s your trait point to waste." Evan replied, confused at the sudden request. "But please focus on the giant boar trying to kill us first!"
"Ha! And you were upset that you were the only one not teaching her anything. Looks like you got your wish." Dewi teased.
Chapter 98: Frosty
Chapter 98: Frosty
The pig was not happy about being assaulted while slipping and sliding, all thanks to the icy ground below it. It thrashed around and tried to gore whoever possible with its elongated tusks, but Roderick ensured his shield was in ce every time to block it. Despite the absolute beating that shield was taking, it looked only minorly dented; likely, it was enchanted and undoubtedly boosted by a skill or two from Roderick.
Whitney''s voice rang out with excitement, "This creature is so helpless; I''ve triggered [Sneak Attack] enough times to even gain a skill level!"
Likely sensing that its own efforts weren''t helping, it seemed to call out to the forest again, a burst of green mana flowing throughout, and then a heavy creaking of wood could be heard. Trees were freshly animated as treants and uprooting themselves to aid their creator.
"If we kill the pig, the treants should return to normal," Dewi suggested, not entirely confidently.
We would find out shortly, as the final two debuffsnded upon the boar, and then I began casting [Decay] again as fast as possible. When the spell waspleted, the scene repeated, and suddenly, the boar shuddered as it took the unseen magical blow internally. Evan was the first to cheer, obviously having seen its lifeforce plummet firsthand. We joined in with the celebration, but the boar let out a guttural squeal that chilled me to the core.
"It must have [Defy Death]; get back!" I shouted in warning.
The boar seemed to grow in size and, in its increasing thrashing, nearly gored Roderick, but with his good instincts and perhaps my warning, he managed to block it with his shield in time. There was a horrific metal rending sound, and Roderick was sent tumbling backward, his beloved shield nearly folded in half where the boar had struck.
"Shit. Roderick, you okay?" Whitney asked, appearing by his side.
"Just got the shit kicked out of me, but I''ll live." He responded.Now that everyone was out of melee range with the boar, I rapidly increased the area of the frozen ground. Worse, I could see it building Nature mana below the ground, obviously trying to use roots to free itself from its slippery situation.
"What''s the n, Syl?" Dewi asked, seeming unsure of the trait I mentioned.
"From my perspective, it should be dead," Evan shouted while running towards Roderick, a healing spell primed and ready.
"We need to expire its extra lives. I think it''sbining [Defy Death] with a [Rage] skill or something to give an immensest stand." I exined while putting extra effort into reinforcing the frozen ground, as now roots were trying to break through. "It''s trying to free itself with roots, I''m reinforcing the ice to stop it."
I had one of my [Sub-Cores] cast [Poison Mist] by its head, and the affliction applied after some time. I could also see the boar''s mana aura plummeting at a rather rapid pace.
"Shit. [Rage] skills usually scale based on low health." Dewi muttered, ncing at the damage Roderick''s shield had taken. "We can''t fight it directly; you keeping it trapped until it finally dies is the best option."
"We''ll need to deal with the treants then," Whitney said, appearing next to us. "They were heading towards the boar, but now it seems like they are targetting Syl. We''ll need to protect her from the angry trees."
"Great, I get to burn some more trees!" Dewi chuckled.
Roderick had equipped a smaller backup shield, and the party had reformed and started assaulting the approaching trees. I could only be grateful that the trees weren''t built for speed, as this gave them plenty of opportunity to hopefully be dealt with.
Dewi was throwing caution to the wind now and was prepared to run out of mana; he chugged a blue potion and started flinging [Fireball] spells rapidly at his own group of trees. Roderick must have used a group taunt as he managed to pull four treants to himself and began parrying and smashing with his mace.
Whitney took a low stance before dashing forward. Her daggers seemed to have an elongated coating that I recognized as Air mana. Each swing of her des as she twisted and parkoured through the treants rippedrge chunks of bark out of them. Most surprising of all was Evan. Never once had I seen the healer do anything besides support, but he pulled out a small golden dagger and made a shing motion through the air.
"[Smite]!" He eximed, and the dagger shone with a brilliant light before a golden de of energy appeared above one of the treants and cut down into it. He repeated the process; the golden immaterial de would form and cut deep into the trees each time.
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"I hate this spell. It costs far too much mana for what it does!" Evanined.
"Desperate times, my friend," Roderick replied.
Meanwhile, I still needed to keep the boar trapped. The [Ice Patch] had now been far extended, as the boar iling had led to it sliding towards the perimeter, and I could not let it gain traction. The roots from below kept trying to chip away at the solid ice and breakthrough. I really wished I had more ice spells. I was tempted to use some skill points, but I was still extremely reluctant to do so, and the spells might not even help me keep the boar contained.
I wanted to freeze it in ce, and then I could keep coating it inyers of reinforcing ice until it finally epted death. While I mentally cursed myck of foresight in putting more effort into training [Ice Magic], I had a rather obvious epiphany¡ªI could create water, and I had [Cryo Slime]!
Step one was to restrain the boar, so I opened my water storage and flooded the ground before plunging my hands into it and setting [Cryo Slime] to the extreme. Theyer of water froze rapidly emanating from my position, and the boar''s iling body was lightly restrained as all the water it was in contact with froze. Next, I cast a reversed [Bubble] targeting the boar while preparing a [Torrent] spell to be my water source. When the [Bubble] spell snapped into ce, I cast my other spell inside it and started flooding the sphere.
Ever since my battle with Odark, when I saw the effectiveness of [Vaporize Slime] in an enclosed area, I wanted to be able to reproduce the effect myself. After all, I doubted I''d be so lucky that my opponents would be encasing themselves again anytime soon. This led to me experimenting with my [Bubble] spell and finding out it wasn''t too hard to reverse its effect of allowing things to pass outward. Alone, the spell wouldn''t trap anyone as it would follow its target, but with this icybo, I''d repurposed it to suit my needs.
The boar was starting to break free from its icy restraints, so I cast another [Torrent] to help fill the sphere of water with added haste. As soon as the boar''s body was fully engulfed in water, I thrust my hands into the sphere of water and watched as it rapidly became a frozen hell. Momentster, the thrashing boar was entirely still and encased in a solid sphere of ice. I smiled appreciatively at my work before falling backward onto my rear with relief after all the building mental fatigue.
"So, our elf friend can get mana fatigue." Dewi teased.
I turned around to see Dewi grinning smugly, and only a few smoldering remains of the treants were left.
"Ugh. Don''t you have trees to kill? I did my job."
"All gone. I''m grateful, too; I finished just in time to see this masterpiece." He replied, tapping his knuckle against the icy ball. "Oof, that''s cold."
"So..." Roderick exhaled, "Do we just wait for it to finally die now?"
"It should die once it runs out of mana, which is prolonging it. Then I think it''s about 10 seconds per [Defy Death] if I had to take a guess." I answered.
"What the hell did you fight that had that trait?" Evan asked, looking slightly horrified.
"Badgers. Lots of badgers."
"Ah!" Roderick eximed, "That suddenly solves a mystery I had always wondered about those bastards."
"Yeah, monster traits are hard to discover, especially passive ones like that. Thanks for the info." Dewi said.
"If we can verify it, we could possibly lower their rank. They were raised because they got a notorious rep for being rookie killers. I''m wondering how many of those deaths were actually people thinking it was dead..." Roderick said.
Suddenly, notifications appeared, and everyone went silent. The boar had died.
''Shit!'' I cursed mentally and quickly reduced my race level by one on my profile with [Identity Fabrication]. I needed to keep my elf level away from forty until I got another element.
''Oh? A new magic type?''
Emblem Achieved: [Nature''s Bane].>
''Huh. That''s unexpected.''
Roderick was the first to break the silence, "Did we all just get an Emblem?"
"I believe so. That''s an unexpected surprise." Evan said.
"Everyone''s going to be so jealous!" Dewi chuckled, "We gotta all equip it before we return to the guild, then walk in together."
"Forget the Emblem. I finally unlocked Assassin!" Whitney said, positively beaming.
"Congrats!" "Well done!" "About time!" Everyone cheered respectively.
"Anyone else get anything good?" Roderick asked curiously.
"I got a revtion for [Arcane Magic]," I answered, "I''m assuming this is why you told me to stick to Sorcerer until ten?"
Dewi replied by giving a thumbs-up to my answer.
"Well... Now we just need to defrost our prize. I''m assuming you''ll harvest it for us, Syl?"
"dly," I replied.
"I''m sure Dewi won''t mind melting the ice for us," Evan said.
"Guys, have you read the Emblem?" Dewi asked, a grin starting to appear on his face.
There was a moment of silence as we all took a moment to read it.
Achieved by defeating a Nature-based Unique Monster, or over 200 nt Monsters.
Deal 20% bonus damage to nt Monsters or Nature Constructs.
Equipping this emblem will cause Fear (Lesser) to all nt Monsters.>
"Do you know what that means?" Dewi asked.
"It''s a pretty good bonus," Whitney answered.
"No," Dewi replied, still grinning wildly.
Suddenly, Evan''s eyes widened, and he shook his head, "Oh Gods no..."
Dewi, now having a victim to his joke, suddenlyughed loudly, "Now, the trees really will fear me!"
Evan groaned, but Whitney and I couldn''t help but chuckle, and even Roderick struggled to hold back a smile.
Chapter 99: Triumphant Return
Chapter 99: Triumphant Return
Once Dewi had replenished his mana, he set to work on melting the ice. The rest of us, in the meantime, rummaged through the treants'' remains, hoping to find any salvageable pieces of wood. Dewi, our resident expert, enlightened us about the unique properties of treant wood. He revealed that the wood underwent a permanent transfiguration during the transformation into a treant, making it an invaluable material for crafting staves and bows. I managed to gather enough broken bits to consume. With great care, I initiated the consumption process within myself, feeling the power of the treant profile unlock.
''Lots of ovep with this profile and the [nt Horror],'' I grumbled mentally, ''I hope that boar has something nice.''
The best trait was [Ironbark], which made its bark as hard as reinforced iron, which clearly was why we were harvesting them. Strangely enough, despite being as hard as iron, it kept its vulnerability to fire.
I took a moment toprehend the new form of magic I had just learned. It seemed that this magic was based on the fundamentals of pure mana rather than an element. This first spell would let me manipte objects by surrounding them with my raw mana; however, the efficiency was greatly improved if the object contained my mana. It sounded like I finally had a good use for [Mana Infusion] other than pretending to be an elemental.
When Dewi noticed me sifting through the treant remains using my new spell, he beamed, "I told you it was something good, and if you get it to two or three, it gives you a defensive spell."
"You don''t know? Surely you''d have it already." I asked curiously.
Dewi chuckled nervously as he scratched his cheek, "I don''t actually have the skill... It says my mana isn''t pure enough."
"I would have thought you''d have enough... I mean, with all the spells you fling around." I questioned again.
"True, but you''ve failed to notice that I only fling around fire spells with reckless abandon." He chuckled, but I could sense it was self-deprecating. "Fire is all I''ve got. Even when I took Air affinity for my ascension, it was extremely impure, and I have to only assume I''ll have the same luck with my level twenty ascension.""I''m sorry..." I said nervously; I hadn''t seen anything besides his fiery confidence, which was extremely jarring. "If you get enough levels in [Mana Well] or fuse it into [Soul Mastery], would that not help?"
Dewi smiled, much more reminiscent of his usual self. "That''s the n; leveling them up is just an absolute pain. I''ve been using trait points to speed up the process, but it''s still taking forever. It''s also why I want to join the Mage''s Guild and see their avable resources."
My [Mana Slime] trait clearly did much more for me than I realized. I knew it was the main source of my ludicrous capacity. Still, if it was also raising the purity of my mana and thus all my other affinities, then perhaps that exined why I''d gain a new affinity just from absorbing another slime core. If all red slimes could use [Fire Magic], it would surely have said so in their evolution profile or the adventurer''s book I read.
''Is this why Gramps had me start as a blue slime rather than a green slime?'' I wondered. ''I know he picked a slime because he wanted traits to get more attention, but I''d always considered [Acid Slime] a vastly superior trait. Heck, look at [Poison Slime] and being able to build a sample list; no other trait evenes close to theplexity of that one.''
Eventually, we finished scavenging through the remains, and Dewi defrosted our boar. I was honestly surprised by how resilient the ice was and could only presume it had something to do with the ice being created from [Cryo Slime].
"Do we carve it into chunks to take apart at the guild, or can you do it here?" Roderick questioned me.
"I can harvest it here; it would certainly be easier than lugging the whole thing back," I responded. "Just..."
"Your secret technique. Hopefully, you''ll show us how you do it someday." Whitney said with a gentle smile.
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I felt a surprising amount of guilt, especially after that conversation with Dewi, but I just couldn''t risk it, "Sorry..."
"It''s alright, Syl. We should be thankful we''re getting to split such a good harvest," Roderick said reassuringly.
The boar was toorge for a tent to be set up to give me privacy, so instead, the others left me in the clearing and formed a perimeter to guard me from any wandering beasts. While I trusted them not to try to sneak a peek, I still took extra precautions and decided to handle this matter through Alpha. I had Alpha disguise as a green slime again with the [Bonded Companion] emblem, then got to work with [Dissection].
From the boar, what [Dissection] pointed out was the tusks, hide, and a golden sap, which, upon sampling a little, I discovered had some potent healing quality. I took out a waterskin and, after dumping the contents, poured the golden liquid into it.
As for the profile, it had a lot of what I was expecting; [Raging Regeneration]bined with [Defy Death]. Obviously, due to how it spawned, its profile revealed some skills, much to my delight; [Nature Magic] and [Wrath]. The former was self-exnatory; unfortunately, Icked the affinity as expected. At the same time, [Wrath] was an upgraded version of [Rage], which massively boosted stats at the cost of all mental faculties and was boosted further by how close it was to death.
Two traits were prime for copying, though; [Barkskin] and [nt Control]. Due to what I could describe as system bullshit, [Barkskin] was like [Earthen Carapace] from the Bear Matriarch, and while I could mimic it, it was maybe half as effective without the prerequisite Nature affinity. This led to a strange situation where [Barkskin] was technically a higher-tier trait than [Ironbark], but now [Ironbark] was functionally more effective. [nt Control] was simr to [Nature Commune] except it worked on magical nts as well, and unlike thetter, it was not a request; the trait would force the nt to obey. I had mixed feelings about using such a trait, but I''d likely cross that line if my life was at risk.
Eventually, the group returned, and I showed off the goods; everyone was quite happy, especially Evan when he saw the golden sap, which I exined had some healing properties. This led to Roderick exining how loot distributionmonly worked in a group, where if someone wanted a piece of loot, it would be taken out of their portion of the earnings. Nobody else wanted anything from the boar, so we started our journey back once everything was deposited.
The journey back was rather pleasant, and it was rapidly apparent that the forest had returned to its normal atmosphere. I spent most of my time trying out [Arcane Hand] while also trying to repurpose my [Combust] spell into an ice spell. I felt that freezing damage over time had great potential and would be another damage source for [Decay].
Unfortunately, we were too far out to return without camping for another night. Dewi convinced me to swap to the new emblem so we could all brag about it on our return. During our evening watch, Dewi also requested that I keep casting [mmable] on him. When I asked for a good reason, he exined that by lowering his resistance, he would earn more experience towards his next level of [Fire Resistance], as without it, he was too close to immunity that he was earning nothing. I agreed and made a mental note to do the same to improve my [Magic Resistance (Lesser)].
When we exited the forest the next day, we confirmed with any groups we saw that the job wasplete. Roderick was the liaison, while Dewi proudly showed off his new emblem. There were hints of jealousy from some of the groups, but any ill-will was quickly squashed when the source of the threat was exined. In reality, what was originally advertised as a mid-level silver threat had clearly been an upper-silver or lower-gold.
''Sorry Lisa, I bet that''s more paperwork for you.''
Eventually, Evan pleaded for me to keep Dewi upied, as his bragging had rapidly be obnoxious and was liable to cause a feud. Luckily, my choice of distraction was beneficial to me, as I had him help me add [Heat] to [Fireball] and [Combust], thetter of which was exceptionally tricky due to its dual nature, and it kept him fully distracted until we finally reached Kaerlin.
I tried to give the quest hand in a skip, as it was Roderick''s duty as the party leader and quest-taker, but I was dragged along to show off our group''s sess. The final straw for me giving in was realizing that this might be Roderick''sst big quest as a full party. He''d probably do the odd quest or two that required his rank, especially if that forest spawned something nasty again, but everyone else was moving on while he was settling down.
We entered the guild hall like returning champions, and I instinctively felt myself reaching out to [Vanish] and trying to slink into the shadows before Whitney grabbed my arm. My fellow rogue didn''t seem to share my love of working from the shadows, and she also relished in the attention. I could only be grateful that Dewi''s antics and Rodericks''s general loudness kept the eyes mostly off of me. Evan and I exchanged helpless nces; at least I wasn''t alone in my suffering.
I graciously let Roderick handle all the exnations; my only contribution to this social encounter was withdrawing the harvested monster materials. During the cheers and shouts, Luke approached me and pulled me aside.
"First, well done, Miss Syl." He said politely.
"Thanks, Luke. I don''t know how they do that." I replied, gesturing to the showboating between the trio. I spotted Evan sitting quietly in a corner, nursing a drink.
"A lot of adventurers are in it for the glory." Luke said with an apologetic smile, "But anyway, what I called you for is I have some good news for you."
"Oh? Did you manage to find another slime core for me?" I asked, hopeful.
Luke winced at the question, "Sorry, no... But I''ve met your other request; there''s a bounty out to kill a pair of griffins spotted raiding the western roads."
I couldn''t help but immediately smile, "Sign me up, Luke."
Chapter 100: Next Steps
Chapter 100: Next Steps
Luke gave me the details of where the griffins werest spotted; the direction I had in my head from the quest was further west than I expected. He also gave me a short briefing on what to expect; it sounded like it was just a big lion bird to me. He said I could hopefully lure it in with some fresh meat and even suggested I consider buying a small animal to act as bait.
As much as I would have liked to rush off and try to find them immediately, I wanted to recuperate a little and say goodbye to the others. There was a good chance I wouldn''t see Dewi and Evan again until I visited this so-called capital, as I wanted to try heading towards the floating ind as soon as I got a proper form of flight. I then headed to sit with Evan, opting out of the retelling of the battle and copious amounts of drinking.
"I noticed you in conversation with Luke. Are you already nning your next adventure?" Evan inquired, his first drink still mostly untouched.
"Pretty much. I had asked him to keep an eye out for anyrge flying monster quests, and he reserved one for me that came in while we were out." I answered.
Evan grimaced, "I hate flying monsters... Some intelligent ones know to target healers, but you can''t exactly body-block something that flies."
"It''s a pair of griffins. They didn''t sound too bad from the briefing."
"Nope. Griffins aren''t too bad, just territorial, and tend to flee when wounded."
"What flying monster did you deal with?"
"Harpies..." He said and finally took a drink."Can''t say I''ve heard of them."
"Think bird woman; an aptparison would be flying female orcs."
"Oh..." I murmured.
"Yes. I nearly got captured if not for Whitney having a good aim with her knives." Evan chuckled, "Although thending was not fun. First time I had to heal my own broken legs."
"A perfectly valid reason to want to avoid flying monsters."
"I''m d you haven''t lost all yourmonsense to Dewi," Evan chuckled.
We chatted a bit more before I remembered to ask him to show me that lifeforce talent. Evan seemed genuinely surprised I would want such a talent.
"Seriously, while it has its rare moments of usefulness against monsters, it''s primarily used for healing." Evan tried to warn me. "Until you reach level three, the range is abysmal, and you must be face-to-face with a monster. And until higher levels, you basically can only differentiate between alive or dead."
"Even so... I''m sure I''ll eventually find a use for it. And it''s only one trait point, hardly worth having buyer remorse."
"Only one trait point, she says..." Evan sighed, facepalming, "Then again, I suppose you do have more race levels than most adventurers well into their advanced sses."
See the flow of life in other beings.
Trait level determines the applicable range and the ability to determine variations in lifeforce.
A sufficient trait level can allow prating through the lifeless.>
I didn''t hesitate to purchase the trait; I still hoped to gather a bunch of sense-rted traits andbine them into some super omni-sense. Also, detecting life was an advantage of one of my mutation options, and now I was getting it for free.
"Thanks, Evan," I replied with a smile.
"It''s your point to waste." He sighed, "Activate the trait, and you''ll see why."
I nodded and activated the trait, seeing a reddish aura around only Evan. I examined him up and down and tried ncing at other people at a distance but couldn''t see anything.
"As I said, it''s really bad at low levels. Because you can see my lifeforce aura, that means I''m alive, and that''s all you can detect at this level. Eventually, you''ll be able to see when the aura diminishes as someone who''s injured."
"I see... Well, it''s something to work towards. How much can you determine?"
"I can determine if someone is at full health, below half, or on the verge of death. Next level should give me another in between full and half."
I thanked him for the exnation and decided to just leave the skill on permanently for now. I had plenty of mental processing to spare and always had the option to delegate it to a [Sub-Core]. I was correct in predicting that the drinks at the guild wouldn''t be the end, and we went to a restaurant situated along the inner wall for a celebratory feast.
It was an enjoyable evening. The party retold some of their time adventuring together and discussed their futures. Out of all the parties who could have found me in the goblin camp, I was d it was them.
The next morning, I woke early and headed to the adventurers guild. I was happy treating thest evening as my farewell to the group, and I was sure I''d run into them again. I took the first avable staff member and requested a ss change, and after paying the small fee, I swapped back to [Shadowcaster].
Once I left the city, I started practicing my magic again. I had a lot to work on, so I appropriately distributed the tasks amongst all my [Sub-Cores].
I honestly didn''t expect a flying monster so soon, but a lot had happened since I started making my initial ns. I thought I''d have more time but couldn''t risk losing this opportunity, so getting it out of the way now would be better. I could always spend as much time as I wanted on the ind and just fly back.
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''I could just live on the ind for a while; there was no time limit on that dungeon Lisa wanted me to do.'' I thought happily, as it would be refreshing just being a simple slime again.
I noted the gold coins I never used in my storage; I had wanted to experiment with creating a different persona and figured I''d need funds outside my adventurer tag.
''I even thought of the perfect name for my disguise, Sylvester.'' I chuckled to myself.
Sylvester would be an older gentleman, borrowing a lot from that cleric I had fought as a goblin and stealing some mannerisms from Gramps. I had nned on having a big old wizard beard and would have pretended to be a sorcerer. I had thought joining the adventurer''s guild for a second time would be too risky, so I could join the merchants guild instead and maybe try out one of the crafting sses. Moonlighting as an old sorcerer looking to get into alchemy or enchanting sounded like a reasonable excuse.
''Well, nothing is stopping me from doing that after the floating ind. I could rejoin the city as Sylvester rather than Syl. As long as my guild tag says I''m alive, I think they shouldn''t worry too much.''
The travelers I saw along the road gave me a wide berth, wary of someone openly practicing magic, although the ones with children pointed and stared in amazement, and I would always give them an extra flourish to show off. Between [Arcane Hand] floating objects and making shapes with [Kindle] or [Water Orb], I was quite the impromptu performer.
Speaking of magic, I had decided to set aside [Fire Magic] for now. It was by far my most advanced thanks to Dewi''s aid, and the rest now desperately needed to catch up. If Ibined [mmable] with [Combust] and a [Fireball], I don''t think there is much that would survive.
At the moment, [Water Magic] felt like I had hit a bit of a dead-end. I had tried repurposing [Combust] into a water spell, but something about the concept of water didn''t mesh well with the damage over time aspect of the spell. I''d need to find another concept or something to merge with it, and I figured that progressing further in [Ice Magic] would likely be the solution as the interactions I saw between water and [Cryo Slime] showed a lot of promise.
[Corrosion Magic] still felt like one of my strongest options, and creating a new debuff and affliction was always my immediate priority. While I was using it in a more supportive role for my other affinities, I had two ideas I was experimenting with; creating an acidic affliction and a poisonous debuff. Both were possible, but portioning out the specifics for the individualponents of Corrosion was the tricky part, and I hoped I''d gain a level in [Mana Maniption] soon to help me progress.
This difficulty was inherent to working with one mana type; when Ibine Fire and Corrosion, it''s like working with oil and water, and they don''t try to inherently mix. However, working with the individualponents that make up Corrosion is likebining different colors of water and preventing them from just blending together. I needed to work with the separate red and blue colors; letting them mix to create purple was not an option.
''And that''s not even taking into ount Necrotic damage...'' I mentally grumbled.
I had tried to tap into that aspect of Corrosion a few times, but anything that made up the [Decay] spell was far beyond my currentprehension. It made me wonder if it should have been a higher-level spell or if this was just something inherent to all forms of intermediate magic.
''And what about advanced magic? I can''t even imagine.''
[Ice Magic] was making good progress, and I hoped it would level up soon to see what else it had to offer. My ice affliction spell would be finished before bedtime, and since I assumed it would also be unique, I had been thinking of what to name it. I had toyed around with a few names like [Chilling] or [Iceburn], but eventually had an epiphany and decided that it would be called [Frostbite].
That left [Arcane Magic], my newest acquisition and possibly the strangest mana type I now had ess to. I immediately tried itspatibility with both an affliction and a debuff, and while both were applicable, the pure mana was promptly corrupted by the Corrosion mana. Ignoring the obvious Dewi pun, this corruption applied to all my other spells, and introducing it to any other elements saw it rapidly corrupted and transformed into that element.
Returning to my previous water analogy, the Arcane mana was mineral water, and my other manas were salt water. I had to somehow prevent the mineral water from bing salt despite their constant contact and begging to be mixed together. That was the real struggle; it didn''t want to remain pure and wanted to transform into another mana.
Being alone meant I didn''t need to worry about nightwatch rotation and could dig a hole and return to slime. But before calling it a night, I went through my usual trait and skill rotations and came to the horrifying conclusion that storage was full. I started dumping out anything that wasn''t slime to not let my [Slime Conversion] go to waste and suddenly regretted all the barrels I had purchased.
Eventually, I had enough room to store the rest of my slime away. I immediately decided that all my [Sub-Cores] would be on perpetual deposit and withdrawal rotation overnight. I needed more storage space. Before sleeping, I looked over my progress throughout the day.
Leaving [Life Sight] on permanently was worthwhile. I was a tad bitter that none of my magic skills had leveled up, especially [Arcane Magic], which I had obtained before [Life Sight]. I had to wonder if intermediate magic required more experience. Which reminded me I needed to cast my new spell. I cast it once on a rock, watched it freeze over, and then cast it again on what looked like a small bat, which promptly dropped out of the sky.
"[Frostbite]."
Finally, I looked over my full profile. I had certainlye a long way, and I felt like this next leg of my journey had the potential for some explosive growth.
Name: Syl [Nature''s Bane]
Race: Chimeric Mimic Slime (Blue) LV 10
ss: Shadowcaster LV 10
Status: Healthy
Mana: Overflowing
Emblems:
[Experiment]
[Apex Hunter]
[Elven Legacy]
[Dungeoneer]
[Nature''s Bane]*
Traits:
Slime:
[Mana Slime LV MAX]
[Acid Slime LV 7]
[Poison Slime LV 6]
[ze Slime LV 6]
[Cryo Slime LV 4]
[Morph Slime LV 7]
[Pseudopod LV 6]
[Slime Shot LV 6]
[Slime Burst LV 6]
[Vaporize Slime]
Core:
[Core Refinement LV 6]
[Core Storage LV 5]
[Sub-Core Alpha LV 5]
[Sub-Core Beta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Gamma LV 5]
[Sub-Core Delta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Epsilon LV 5]
[Consuming Osmosis LV MAX]
Mimic:
[Chimeric Mimicry LV 6]
[Chroma Shift LV MAX]
Mana:
[Mana Cirction LV 6]
[Mana Reinforcement LV 6]
[Mana Infusion]
[Slime Conversion LV 4]
Attributes/Other:
[Soul Mastery LV 6]
[Enhanced Vitality LV 4]
[Magic Resistance (Lesser) LV 4]
[Defy Death LV 3]
[Prodigy]
Senses:
[Olfactory Sense]
[Dark Vision LV MAX]
[Mana Conception LV 5]
[Life Sight LV 2]
[Thermal Vision LV MAX]
Trait Points remaining: 9
Skills:
General:
[Universal Language]
[Equipment Swap]
[Dissection LV 6]
[Mapping LV 4]
[Tracking LV 1]
[Identify LV 4]
[Multitasking LV 2]
[Perception LV 4]
Combat:
[Evasion LV 4]
[Attack Mastery (Lesser) LV 6]
[Affliction Mastery LV 4]
Magic:
[Water Magic LV 4]
[Fire Magic LV 5]
[Corrosion Magic LV 4]
[Ice Magic LV 2]
[Arcane Magic LV 1]
[Mana Maniption LV 4]
[Mana Suppression]
[Magic Efficiency LV 3]
[Meditate]
[Ritual Casting]
Sneaky:
[Vanish LV 5]
[Sneak Attack LV 5]
[Identity Fabrication LV 6]
[Acting LV 4]
[Rogue Expertise LV 4]
[Subtle Afflictions]
Skill Points remaining: 12
Chapter 101: Bait
Chapter 101: Bait
"I can''t believe she left without saying goodbye. I swear she''s like a cat." Whitneyined.
"Ha! Perhaps we should put a bell on her then." Roderick chuckled.
"I tried that. Unfortunately, her new armor would probably stop us from hearing it," Whitney moaned, her voice tinged with disappointment.
"Perhaps she just doesn''t like saying goodbye," Evan suggested. "And it''s not like this is final. You''ll see her again when she gets back."
"Yeah, think of poor Evan and me. We won''t see her again until she decides to visit us in the capital." Dewi pointed out. "Hopefully, by then, I''ll be a respected member of the Mage''s Guild. I can put in a good word and officially recruit her myself, earning me some bonus points."
"Assuming there''s a guild left after you join them. I''m predicting smoldering ruins in a month." Whitney joked.
"No, no. I''m pretty sure the building is reinforced against magic." Dewi replied, scratching his chin in thought.
"Maybe I shouldn''t travel with you." Evan muttered, "Wouldn''t want to risk being thrown into prison as an aplice to arson."
I woke up the next morning feeling amazingly refreshed, which is hrious, considering I was in a hole in the ground. Despite the minimal mental tax of holding a form, returning to slime for a good night''s rest just couldn''t be beat. ''Maybe I should buy myself a big, fancy bathtub, the ultimate slime bed.'' I pondered the idea, ''Although I''ll need to work more on getting my [Core Storage] to the next level. I can''t believe I''ve run out of space...''
I peeked into my storage, almost entirely upied by an ocean of slime. While debating what to do, I came to a realization.
''Wait. Is this even my maximumpression anymore? [Slime Density] was integrated into [Morph Slime] and gained an extra level or two...''
I started withdrawing portions of my slime and triedpressing it again. Some of it was already at the new maximum, clearly generated after the trait fusion, while arge amount was still at the old maximum. I had automated the process of dumping excess slime into storage so long ago that I hadpletely forgotten about needing to do any maintenance.
''Alright, let''s set my [Sub-Cores] to sift through all the slime and rpress it. Goodluck!'' I mentally cheered at being able to delegate the work. This had the added benefit of working towards my next [Core Storage] and [Morph Slime] level, as they would need to withdraw it topress it further.
''It''s too bad I can''t interact with my internal inventory. That would be certainly handy, or maybe that''s a feature at a higher level?''
I continued walking along the path toward my mental quest marker. It was extremely early in the morning, so I had the road to myself. I asionally observed the progress my [Sub-Cores] made with the task, and I wondered if perhaps I had given them a potentially endless task - how would they differentiate between the slime confirmed at maximum density and not?
The answer became apparent as I watched them proceed with their ruthless efficiency: They had somehow segregated my slime into different portions within my internal storage. It was like an invisible wall between my slime and the one side rapidly filled after being withdrawn and rpressed.
''Is that a feature I unlocked at some point and never knew about?'' I questioned.
I tried adding another dividing line between the slime and another territory being cleanly created in the inventory space.
''Huh... Okay, new orders, everyone. Afterpressing everything, let''s divide it into four portions: half will be maximum density slime, twenty percent will be [ze Slime] at maximum density and temperature, twenty will be [Cryo Slime] at maximum density and minimum temperature, and the remaining portion will be regr slime.''
This would be quite the task for the [Sub-Cores], but I thought calling upon different types of slime at a moment''s notice would be worthwhile and handy. [Poison Slime] and [Acid Slime] could be activated like a toggle, whereas the two temperature-based traits did have some dy in reaching their limit. I also set up an order to replenish the stocks, as I felt like I''d be using both as ammunition to deal with flying monsters.
''Previously, I had to mentally be aware of where it was in my storage; this feels much more convenient.''
While my [Sub-Cores] worked hard, I got to continue ying around with magic. I was making decent progress until I spotted something immenselyrge on the horizon; my spell fizzled out as my concentration broke, and I stared in awe at the massive floating chunk ofndmass. It was still extremely far away, but to be able to see it from this distance, it had to be enormous.
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"They said it was a floating ind, but that feels like an understatement..." I murmured, a bubbling excitement building up. I couldn''t wait to explore it.
It waste afternoon when I reached the quest area, where the floating ind was now much closer and in range. Best of all, my [Sub-Cores] had finished their task and even improved the trait level.
"Now the question is... How do I find the griffins?" I said, sighing as I tried to examine the skyline. "I can''t see them. They''d probably look like tiny specks of nothing to me."
I decided to attempt Luke''s bait strategy. When no onlookers were on the road, I formed a tendril disguised as a leash and had Alpha turn into a deer. When I was happy with the disguise, I sat on a nearby rock and waited. And waited. And waited...
The number of stares I got from travelers was grating, the strange sight of an elf sitting on the side of the road decked out in high-quality armor and magically stacking rocks with a pet deer. At least Alpha seemed to be having a good time, clearly utilizing [Acting] and even pretending to graze. I tried to just focus on my [Arcane Hand] practice while passing the time.
A few did question why I was sitting on the side of the road, and the simple exnation of griffin bait was enough to satisfy their curiosity. I wasted the rest of the entire day sitting there with nothing to show for it. I eventually decided to retire for the evening and blobbed out.
The next morning, I stared up at the floating ind, and its gradual drifting approach was much more apparent after an entire night of not examining it. I attempted the bait strategy again, except this time, I had Beta also pretend to be a deer, and rather than sitting around, I decided to walk toward the floating ind.
I was getting annoyed when early afternoon approached, and I still hadn''t been attacked by the so-called griffins. I wondered if someone else had killed them. Would my quest get updated if that was the case? Could the guild remotely cancel something?
"In the worst case, I could try to use the bug wings and hope it''s enough. Maybe if I just create like ten of them?"
I was busy thinking of contingency ns when it finally happened. I was contemting if I could build a slime pir towards the ind when there was a sudden loud screech, snapping me back to reality. Arge shape had swooped down and plucked Beta from the ground; the slime leash rapidly thinned out when it stretched to its maximum before snapping when I didn''t think to expand it quickly enough.
"Beta!" I shouted in horror as I saw it falling from the sky like a lifeless blob and sttering on the ground in the distance.
Unbeknownst to the griffin, what it thought was a meal had lost its form as soon as it lost connection to me. I hoped Beta survived the fall; otherwise, I''d have to wait until tomorrow to regenerate it. The griffin was climbing high up into the air, preparing for another divebomb.
This time, I reinforced the tendril to Alpha and nned on being dragged up with them. Unlike before, I wasn''t going to be caught by surprise as I waited for its inevitable attack.
As it appeared again, with a high-pitched screech, I saw it grabbing Alpha. When the griffin started ascending, I retracted the tendril leash and pulled myself towards it. The griffin seemed to notice something was amiss and tried releasing its grip on Alpha. This monster was intelligent enough to attempt to use gravity as its weapon, but Imanded Alpha to grab on.
In what I could only assume were panicked screeches as it realized its prey was a predator, Alpha inverted and burst out like a maw mping shut over its wed front legs. I had already swapped over to a different profile, deposited my armor, and discarded my disguise, all while the wind rushed past me. Now, as pure slime, I fired all my cores through the tendrils connected to Alpha and watched the slime mass rapidly follow after.
''It''s been a long time since I used the slime grapple. I''m d it still works.'' I thought happily.
The griffin was not happy; it had stopped ascending and instead pped in ce while it tried to rip and tear with its razor-sharp beak. I had Alpha defend with [Acid Slime], and when its attempts to bite were countered by burning pain, it frantically stopped. It immediately did a nosedive and tried aerial maneuvers to shake me off. But with all my cores safe and sound close to its body, I had already begun the process of enveloping its entire body tightly with slime except for its wings.
In what must have been a panickedst-ditch effort of barrel rolls, it lost control of its flight and violently crashed to the ground. Its body and my slime scraped across the surface, causing a trail of blood, slime, and feathers. I had wrapped my cores in a pocket of dense slime and set the sticity to the maximum, hoping it would protect them. Somewhere, through the violent, uncontrolled tumbling across the surface, I received a notification.
''I mean... It kind of killed itself, not that I''mining about free experience.''
I gathered my bearings and checked that all my [Sub-Cores] were ounted for. I had lost a lot of slime mass across the ground, but honestly, it felt like a drop in the bucket at this point. I looked at the mangled corpse of the griffin and sighed as [Dissection] berated me for ruining arge portion of its valuable parts. I was surprised that its feathers were considered valuable, but very few were intact after that terriblending. I let [Dissection] salvage what it could and happily ate the rest.
I was excited to review the new profile, but I had a more pressing concern. I needed to check where Beta had fallen. I shifted into a wolf to run faster, and thankfully, [Mapping] made it easy to find my previous location. After a brief search, I saw a blue puddle and a slightly scuffed and cracked apple-green core. I immediately grabbed the core with a tentacle and plunged it into my slimy depths.
''That''s a relief... Sorry about that, Beta.''
I could feel slime mass being used to repair the tiny fractures in the [Sub-Core], but I was just grateful it wasn''t destroyed.
''Now let''s have a look at what that griffin had to offer.''
Chapter 102: First Flight
Chapter 102: First Flight
The first thing I noticed about the griffin was that it had the trait Whitney had told me about.
Increases eyesight by 80% per trait level.
In addition, your vision will be protected while moving at high speeds.>
I wasted no time purchasing it, immediately trying it out and getting a sort of binocr effect and greater rity at a distance. I could see why Whitney had coveted the trait and couldn''t wait to show it to her.
The other traits were as expected, enhancing its ws or hide. It had a few weird ones to help it survive at high altitudes or protect it from the cold. None of that applied to me as a slime, so I skipped over it. Then, I spotted a single skill and eagerly read its description.
Adds systematic corrections to maneuvering while airborne, scaling with skill level.
Including but not limited to personal flight, mounted, or acrobatic.> ''This sounds a little insane, doesn''t it? It makes it sound like it kicks in as soon as I''m no longer touching the ground. Maybe even potentially improving my maneuvering with my slime grapple.''
I was about to immediately purchase it but hesitated for a brief moment. A pessimistic thought bubbled up inside.
''I swear, Gramps, if it tells me I need Air affinity for this, we''re no longer friends.''
I felt immediate relief when the error didn''t pop up. Once the information was finished being written to my core, I felt I had a good introductory understanding of how I''d attempt to fly. I wasted no more time and shifted into a copy of the griffin, deciding to start with a working form before I started creating some chimeric form.
''Could I just p big giant bird wings on the back of my elf form and fly? Although I get the feeling that if I get enough levels in [Aerial Finesse], even if I can''t now, I will eventually be able to do so.''
I started off slow, but eventually, I was mildly airborne, and immediately, I could feel the skill kicking in. Even at level one, I was surprised at the amount of aid it offered. I started off low before gaining some confidence and increasing my ascent. When I heard some screaming below me from a group of travelers.
''Oh shit... I''m showing up as a high-level griffin, aren''t I?'' I thought in dread and started to fly away from the road.
Inded briefly, ensuring I was alone, adjusted my profile to level ten, and then took flight again. However, I would avoid the road this time, even with my precautions.
I enjoyed exploring the skies, slowly building up my confidence, and learning the ropes while slowly approaching the floating ind. Even from below, it was a beautiful sight, with clouds clinging to the underside of thendmass like bubbles. I wondered what caused it to stay afloat while practicing hovering in ce when I heard a familiar screech and saw another form rapidly divebombing towards me.
''Oh... Evan did mention they are territorial.''
I was preparing for it to crash into me, but surprisingly, it stopped a short distance away and began squawking at me threateningly.
''Oh? Do you think you''re big stuff since you''re four levels higher than my disguise?'' I retorted to myself because, obviously, the bird couldn''t hear me.
I rapidly cast an empowered [mmable] on it and giggled with delight when I saw the debuff. The griffin clearly didn''t expect a spell from a fellow birdbrain, and [Subtle Afflictions] took advantage of the opportunity.
It kept squawking at me like an overgrown parrot, and I decided to answer it in a Dewi-like fashion. Grabbing all my [Sub-Cores] to aid in rapid spell construction and throwing in some empowerment, I internally smirked when I mentally shouted, ''[Fireball]!''
The ball of me, tinged with blue, rapidly formed before flying forward, crashing into the griffin and erupting into a fiery inferno. I saw the griffin plummet rapidly out of the cloud of smoke, and gravity took the final hit.
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''Wait. Shit, I said I was going to practice my other spells; I really let my inner Dewi takeover.'' I mentally scolded myself as I started to descend rapidly.
''Actually... If I had fought it in aerialbat, I bet I would have gotten a good chunk of experience towards [Aerial Finesse]... Ugh.''
When I examined the corpse of the griffin, I felt [Dissection] unleash its fury as I had burnt away every single precious feather with that disy. Ignoring theints, however, it smelt pretty good, and partway through devouring it, I turned on [Olfactory Sense] and enjoyed a surprisingly decent meal from the bird half of the griffin.
With a full belly and apleted quest, I felt confident in approaching the floating ind. Despite having decided to finally embark, it was still a good distance away, only aided by now that I had a superior form of travel. Although I was hardly bored and took delight in the thrill of the skies, I tried a few aerial maneuvers like a barrel roll or flying in a loop, hoping for some juicy extra experience. I wanted to explore the underside of the ind at some point, but my first priority was the top, so I started to ascend.
Bursting through the clouds was a surreal experience, and I was ovee with a sense of freedom and exhration. The sunlight inside the clouds gave the fluffy white masses a warm glow while the moisture clung to my body. I kept climbing and climbing; eventually, I could see the surface of thendmass, and I could''vended, but I kept going.
The higher I climbed, the more I could see the ind. It really was like a self-contained ecosystem; it had a forest of strangely colored leaves and what I could only describe as a miniature mountain with a stream flowing down into ake. On thekeside, I could see ruined ancient stonework structurespletely overtaken by nature. Nearby, the ruined stonework looked like what used to be a cleared plot ofnd that perhaps once had fields but was nowpletely overrun with wild vegetation.
Perhaps most strange of all were a few scattered bits ofnd floating above the primary mass. Most were tiny in size, barelyrge enough to stand upon. I quickly spotted one that was different and held a singr, massive tree, its roots deep enough to prate entirely through and dangling far down enough to nearly reach the primary ind below it.
I found myself pping in ce in a hover, staring at the scenery. It was spectacr. Should I go to the big tree first? What about those ruins? They might have treasure! The mountain could hold its own secrets; I could spot a cave or two. And who knows what monsters could be hiding inside the forest of rainbow leaves? My daydreaming was rudely interrupted by two identifications pinging in my mind
I looked around frantically, worried that they had snuck up upon me, but I realized they were still at a safe distance and not apparently hostile. The two elemental forms floated amongst each other, twisting, twirling, and intertwining like some strange mating dance. The cloud elemental was rtively easy to spot, but the air elemental would have been nearly impossible to see without [Mana Conception]; both housed a glowing vortex of what I assumed was Air mana in the center of their being. That vortex was their true form, like how the rock elementals had a crystal core.
''I get the unfortunate feeling that I won''t be able to eat these two for a profile... This is like those ghosts all over again.'' I grumbled.
Judging by the amount of mana contained in their vortexes, I predicted that the cloud elemental was the evolution of the air elemental. I had the feeling I''d probably need to kill them with magic, but I decided to approach in a vain attempt that I might be able to devour them. When I approached the two elementals, they immediately became hostile, much like the rock elementals.
The air elemental sent out a buffet of wind against me that ruffled my feathers and threatened to send me in a tumble. Meanwhile, the cloud elemental rapidly approached me, and as I was recovering from my nearly failed flight, it started to surround my head with a dense cloud. I formed a [Pseudopod] andshed out at it, but as I predicted, it just soared through the cloudy substance.
Despite its hostile action, the cloud elemental didn''t appear to be doing anything. I was very confused until I realized it was probably trying to suffocate me. I chuckled as I ordered my cores to fire a basic spell of each affinity at the elemental to see what would harm it, but not before casting all my debuffs first, as I needed all the magic experience I could get.
[Water Orb] disced the cloud, [Acid Dart] soared right through it, [Icicle] didn''t appear to do anything that I could see, and finally, [Fire Arrow] seemed to remove any cloud it flew through, briefly ring up a little brighter than normal. The elemental made a visible effort to dodge and get as far away from it as possible.
''Looks like they don''t like Fire... Now that I think about it, Dewi did mention that Air feeds Fire, which was why he picked it.''
I quickly cast [Nova] and managed to burn away arge portion of the cloud elemental. It was now rapidly retreating away from me, and I ordered my [Sub-Cores] to aim for its glowing vortex with [Fire Arrows]. Meanwhile, I was buffeted by a burst of wind again by a very angry little Air elemental. I managed to recover from a tailspin and decided to focus on trying to dodge in the air.
I nced briefly at where the cloud elemental was and noticed the vortex of air mana hadpletely exploded; not a single bit remained of the elemental.
''I hate fighting enemies I can''t eat... Since the air elemental is smaller, let me see if I can''t engulf it.''
I started flying towards the air elemental, which decided to change tactics of attacking me directly rather than attempting to drop me out of the sky. I saw mana gathering into a disc of rotating wind, and it fired it at me. Despite the forewarning and adequate [Evasion] skill, I still didn''tpletely dodge the fast-moving disc that tore through my wing. I felt myself plummeting out of control as I regenerated the wing rapidly.
''It''s too bad I don''t have dragon wings. These bird wings are very fragile...''
I recovered from my failing flight just in time to dodge another iing disc. It was oddly humiliating that I had defeated the evolved monster easily, but now the little air elemental was causing me such grief. I gave up on my ns to swallow it and ordered my [Sub-Cores] to barrage it with [Fire Arrows]. It was aggressively chasing after me now, so I retreated backward while dodging another iing disc; it was a lot easier to dodge while retreating rather than approaching, and the pesky elemental soon learned that the hard way when a [Fire Arrow] connected with its vortex and it popped in a sh of me.
Chapter 103: Up and Down
Chapter 103: Up and Down
''Well, that was annoying. As much as I want to fly to my next destination, let''snd on the edge and slowly progress inward for now. There''s a good chance other flying monsters will attack me if I make myself so visible.''
I pped down slowly to the ind''s edge, my wings beating against the wind. Finally, Inded on the solid ground, a wave of relief washing over me. Just as I was about to appreciate being on solid ground again, two notifications suddenly popped up.
''Landmark?'' I questioned and activated my newly upgraded [Mapping] skill.
Looking at my mental map, I could see some ces, most notably Stantondale, Kaerlin, and Glimmerock, were now named and marked. Weirdly, the forest, the mine, the farm, or even the goblin cave did not have any names or markings, despite me mentally knowing that was their location.
''Perhaps they aren''t notable enough? Or not specifically named. Hmm...''
I canceled my griffin shape and was partway into transforming into an elf when I stopped it abruptly. Instead, I just reverted to my default slime form, feeling the familiar fluidity of my gtinous body. I stretched out, loose and free, forming all my [Pseudopods] and giving them a much-needed wiggle.
''How long has it been since I was just a regr slime?'' I asked myself, ''Well, I can''t exactly call myself regr anymore.''
I peeked over the edge briefly before retreating when I felt a mild sense of vertigo; it was a long way down. I chuckled to myself and questioned why I felt such a fear. I bet I could survive the fall; even if I didn''t, [Defy Death] would kick in. Hell, I could likely recover if I transformed into a griffin quickly enough.
''Okay, so let''s set some goals. The main priority is to find a yellow slime, above all else. The secondary goal would be to find interesting monsters to eat and explore the ind. Tertiary would be to work on my skills and traits.'' ''I should probably set up a base of operations, a home away from home. Having a known safe area to return to is preferable. Although in an emergency, I could just dig down.''
After thinking for a moment and recalling the ind''s topology from my prior observation, I made a decision.
''Theke and that overgrown ruin would probably be ideal; they''re central to the ind, and having ess to all that water could be useful for offense or defense.''
As usual, magic practice was my go-to activity when traveling. I was very curious about what the next level of [Arcane Magic] and [Ice Magic] would provide. The slowness of Arcane, however, really bugged me. I was sure I should have reached level two by now.
''Is it the spell that''s at fault? Does [Arcane Hand] just give crap experience?'' I wondered, trying to think of the difference between it and my other forms of magic.
''Not being able to use it inbat is definitely a downside; I know that gives more experience than usual... If only there were an arcane arrow spell or something...'' I mused.
''Wait. I could just make an arcane arrow spell. I have theponents for a projectile spell; I''ve been so focused on making afflictions and debuffs that I''ve neglected my basic building blocks!''
I immediately tossed aside all my spells in progress and formed a [Fire Arrow], then immediately started removing all traces of Fire mana and recing it with Arcane. I had to ensure the spell waspletely clean; otherwise, the frustratingly malleable Arcane mana would be Fire before I knew it.
The basicponents were easy to work with, and soon, I had a solid and easy spell structure. I promptly cast it, aiming at a sizeable rock, and a colorless bolt of mana emerged and sted it, sending it flying with surprising force. I immediately cast it again, expecting a notification.
''Huh. Not what I would have called it, but sure.'' I grumbled, ''I guess I shouldn''t be too surprised with such a basicbination already existing; it wasn''t exactly some great innovation.''
''Wait... Does discovering spells give a massive amount of experience? It''s probably the first-time bonus, at least. Have I been ignoring a small goldmine in experience?''
My curiosity was interrupted by a random identification. Returning to reality, I spotted a winged horse drinking from theke with seemingly no care in the world. I immediately thought of blowing it up with a good [Fireball] spell, but then I realized I could sneak up on it and give it the old slime hug since it was alone. I did, however, cast my debuffs, wanting the free experience, before I ttened myself against the ground, changed my coloring, and started to slither towards it.
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There was a bright sh, and the horse''s head went up. I had thought it might have spotted me when suddenly there was the sound of cracking thunder. Its nose red with a disgusting snort moments before I leaped forward, slime extended outwards like a giant, and tendrilstching onto the winged horse.
As soon as I grabbed on, it frantically whinnied and started bucking, but Itched on tight and enveloped it. Mana seemed to coalesce into its wings before it shot up into the sky at gravity-defying speeds, but that wouldn''t be enough to remove me. I had already started to invade its body and turned on the acid. Its wings were an obvious point I should have attacked, but I knew [Dissection] wanted them badly, and I didn''t want to ruin another harvest.
I realized it was trying to call for help moments before smothering its mouth. I also made sure to use [Life Sense] to see if I could finally notice a difference in the trait.
Two more horses seemed to answer its call, their wings also glowing bright with mana, and the wind itself began answering its call. I wondered how they would deal with me without harming their ally. They cast a few shallow des of wind, not wanting to cut deep enough to damage their rapidly melting friend, which I could ignore.
''Are they hoping that they can cause me pain so I''ll release? I mean, it''s a sound strategy if I could feel pain in my slime.''
Suddenly, I saw the life plummet on my captured pegasus, and then it promptly died, giving way to all my acid and dissolving almost instantly, except the wings, which I stored away for proper harvestter. There were lots of furious horse noises, followed by the sound of intense wind that began to cut away at me.
I was more than happy to plummet back down to the safety of the floating ind, so rather than turn into a griffin or pegasus, I partially transformed some smander hide and utilized [Draconic Scales (Lesser)] to block the des of wind.
Armed with [Arcane Bolt] and five willing fighters, we rapidly returned fire. The pegasus seemed startled at the sudden barrage and began to float through the sky with unparalleled grace as they dodged the magical projectiles. Against my expectations, they cooperated and created arge buffet of wind that sent me flying back up high into the sky.
''Looks like they want to keep me up in their domain. That''s rather frustrating.''
While I didn''t feel at risk, I didn''t enjoy being manhandled and thrown into the sky like a ragdoll repeatedly. If they could dodge six [Arcane Bolts], then I''d need to redouble my effort.
''I''ve never had my [Sub-Cores] try this before, but it should work!''
I would have all of us use [Multicast]bined with [Arcane Bolt]. I gave the order and physically felt the mana in my body strain; what was normally a continuous, rapid flow of mana suddenly became a violent deluge. I felt a strange... Pain? Something wasn''t happy with what I was attempting to do. Did I not have enough flow to output the mana I was trying to use at once?
''Come on! I''m a bloody walking mana potion! I should be able to do this!'' I screamed in protest.
Something deep in my core popped, forck of a better word. Then, it felt like it was going to split in two. Suddenly, garbled notifications appeared, temporarily blocking my vision. I had an immense sense of dread.
?????
?????
Then, against my expectations, my [Sub-Cores]plied and began each firing two [Arcane Bolt] spells simultaneously. I wanted to cheer mentally, but I was struggling to focus. I wanted to join them, but I had to keep us together at this point. Whatever I had done, the mental impairment had been beyond expectations, and if I were human, I think I would have cked out.
Relegating myself to the cheerleader of this situation, I watched the cores work together in tandem to provide a bullet hell pattern of magical bolts that caused one pegasus to dodge into another. Once one slipped up, they all focused fire and barraged it endlessly. It was not a pretty sight, and soon, a rather mangled pegasus was plummeting.
I thought I was finally out of trouble and would bending shortly when, again, I was lifted up into the air. Three more stupid horses had appeared. I was mentally cursing when a sh of light blitzed toward the group of pegasus, followed by the rumble of thunder. Energy crackled between the horses, and they seemed temporarily stunned before another bolt struck them, and soon, three charred corpses were plummeting.
I called off my cores and was hoping to focus on defense. I searched for the cause of the lightning, and then I spotted it.
The yellow slime was farrger than any other slime I had seen, bordering between boar and horse size. It had arge violet core that crackled with energy. Most strange of all, the slime undted rhythmically, almost like a bellows or a coil being wound up and released. It even had two [Pseudopods] on top, spread out in a v-shape, lightning arcing between them.
I only had a moment to admire it before it fired another bolt from the v-shape that fried the remaining pegasus; I hadn''t even noticed it was rapidly retreating away. I felt threatened by this slime but also awed by its power. Its base slime species was technically on par with my two mutations, and if I didn''t have my ss levels, it would technically be higher level than me.
My admiration was abruptly interrupted when I mmed into the ground with a squelch.
Chapter 104: Thunderstruck
Chapter 104: Thunderstruck
Despite being a victim of gravity, my slime cushioned thending, so I didn''t appear to suffer much damage from the impact. I reformed my shape while I regained my bearings. I opened up my status to check my condition, as I was a little concerned since I felt odd.
Name: Syl [Dungeoneer]
Race: Chimeric Mimic Slime (Blue) LV 10
ss: Shadowcaster LV 11
Status: Injury (Minor)
Mana: O???????????????????v????????????????e?????????????????????????r?????????????????f??????????????????l????????????????????????????o?????????????????????w????????????????????i????????????????????n???????????????????g????????????????
''Oh no... What''s happened to my mana? That doesn''t look good.'' I groaned.
I had also gained a ss level at some point during that scuffle, but my notifications were a mess. There was the pegasus profile, which wasbeled [Equine] for some reason. I had also gained a new spell level, and... Something happened to my traits. I decided to put that all aside for now; I wanted that yellow slime more than anything else. I quickly confirmed that I could still use mana, firing an [Arcane Bolt] at the ground.
''Hopefully, it''s just a visual problem... I''m sure Gramps will notice it and fix it.''If that yellow slime was anything like me, I knew it would be heading towards the meal it secured. If I was lucky, I could ambush it while it ate and secure that delicious core for myself. I started heading in that direction while quickly examining my new spell.
The new spell [Arcane Armor] sounded great; it would create a mana barrier on myself, shimmering and protective, like a second skin. It brought back memories of the transparent slime coating I used as a goblin, which hriously gave my previous deception a little validity. Unlike other forms of defense, however, it seemed to prevent a fixed amount of damage before expiring based on the amount of mana expended and seemingly limited by my [Arcane Magic] level.
I hesitated to experiment with it too much, but I figured a good defense would benefit me. However, when I tried to cast an empowered version, it refused the extra enhancement. I cast an enhanced [Arcane Bolt] and sted the ground, relieved that I hadn''t somehow lost that functionality with all the mana strangeness.
''I guess it''s like [Decay] in that it has its own internal scaling. I''ll have to see if I can take it apart or apply it in other wayster.''
When I approached the spot, I was being as stealthy as possible. I hadn''t heard any further sounds of thunder, so I knew the yellow slime wasn''t attacking anything. Thankfully, my intuition paid off, and consuming the dead pegasus was a yellow blob growing in size. I noted how slowly it ate and could only be very grateful I had acquired a green slime early on in my journey.
I hid behind a tree and started to extend two tendrils toward the slime, hoping I could grab its core and rip it out for a quick victory. Thatrge violet core looked so tantalizing. Slowly. Patiently. Like two camouged snakes approaching their prey.
It happened so suddenly that I didn''t know how to react. When my tendrils got within striking range, and I was about to make my attack, a massive jolt of energy sparked from the violet core outwards to its slimy exterior and arced towards my two tendrils. The shocking energy flowed straight up my tendrils, destroying them along the way with startling efficiency right back to the source; me.
''Shit!'' I screamed, but it was toote.
I had let my guard down and was so startled that I couldn''t think of discarding the tendrils before the current reached me. The attack surged within me, arcing between my core and all my [Sub-Cores] and filling me with a numbing pain. The worst part was that it bypassed the [Arcane Armor] entirely since it just traveled directly through me.
I was given no opportunity to recollect myself, and suddenly, a bolt was flung at my location, followed by the loud cracking of thunder. It splintered through the tree and struck directly against my [Arcane Armor], nearly shattering it in a single strike. Unfortunately for me, [Arcane Armor] was not infallible. Even though it had enough capacity to absorb the blow without shattering, there were still sparks of lightning arcing through and directly into me, once again surging throughout my being.
The pain was terrible. I quickly shifted into the smander, once again donning the protective scales and hoping it would protect me. Using bare tendrils wasn''t an option if it could repeatedly use that retaliatory attack, so instead, I used my extremely malleable form to erge and extend a scaled w toward the yellow slime.
''If I could use magic, this would be simple... But I don''t want to destroy the core.''
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The yellow slime made no attempt to dodge or retreat and simply kept up its rhythmic coiling. I could see the sparks rapidly discharging from the violet core and building up, then in a burst, itunched another bolt directly at my w. The bolt of lightning struck against the [Arcane Armor]. Apparently, the w counted as part of my body, so it was protected by the spell, unlike my [Pseudopod]. Still, the remaining capacity was insufficient, and the bolt shattered through it and struck against my elongated w. When I saw the scales offer no added protection, I immediately abandoned the entire limb, but not before some of the discharge reached me and caused internal havoc.
''Shit! No, no, no, no!''
I recast [Arcane Armor] and cast [Bubble]; I needed to retreat and return when better prepared. I had greatly underestimated the yellow slime, which seemed to almost be my natural counter. I ransacked my memories of what I could recall about the yellow slime and vaguely remembered a warning about not using water against it. This became rapidly apparent when another bolt struck against my watery barrier, energizing the entire barrier before all the energy discharged into the center and converged on the most conductive target within; me.
This must have been an extreme threat to my life, as Alpha took control of tendrils and formed shields of what looked like parts of the Earthshaker''s rocky carapace in a near instant and tried to enshroud me. Again, it wasn''t enough, and the tendrils were annihted; my fresh [Arcane Armor] instantly shattered, and the depths within my slime were ravaged as the pure energy arced between me and my remaining [Sub-Cores].
I heard what sounded like an explosion going off in the distance near the yellow slime, different from the thunder cracks, but I couldn''t pay attention. I needed to escape. I had a momentary realization when Alpha tried to use the Earthshaker that the description of yellow slimes mentioned using earth or nature magic against them.
I had to assume rock and wood had some protection against the ruthlessness of lightning, but without the affinities, I could only give inferior imitations. Still, it was better than nothing; even the draconic scales proved useless. I had no time for aesthetics and merged whatever was possible with the nature boar and rock bear, creating some chimeric monstrosity out of necessity and grabbing both [Barkskin] and [Earthen Carapace].
I recast my armor spell again as I scrambled away, just in time for another bolt tosh out against me. I tried to evade, but the speed was far beyond me, and I heard the familiar shattering sound again before what remained of the lightning reached me. It struck, and the pain was immense. Once again, it prated through me, but I noticed considerably less lightning had reached my delicate innards. The bark and rock seemed to partially inste me against the lightning.
As I tumbled across the ground, the sound of another explosion went off. I was filled with regret at my overconfidence and myck of preparation. I had ess to the guild''s library; why didn''t I do research on what yellow slimes or lightning could do? Or asked Lisa about it, as it was her element. I had read the warning about using water against it, which seemed to be my primary affinity as a blue slime, and even if it was some time ago, it was stupid for me not to consider it.
I had two more [Defy Death] triggers left, so I had to make sure I got away before they expired. I heard another violent explosion going off, and I finally nced toward the source while refreshing another [Arcane Armor]. The yellow slime was surrounded by fire, and less than half of its original slime mass remained. Something had attacked it, but I had no idea what. I saw it building up another bolt of energy, and as I turned to retreat, I noticed arge [Fireball] forming next to me.
I was confused. In this strange state of seemingly broken mana, I hadn''t even noticed the spell pulling on it. I hadn''t ordered an attack; why was the spell being formed? My stunned thoughts weren''t fast enough, as when the bolt of lightning shot towards me, the [Fireball]unched as if counterattacking. That sparked my memory.
''Beta! No!'' I screamed, unable to stop the attack.
I had remembered toote. I had given Beta a counterattack order and never dismissed or reced it, just like how Alpha had moved to defend my life automatically under another order given at the same time back when I was confronting Krutz.
Perhaps because the attack was visible, [Evasion] had tried to give me an early warning. I dodged as fast as possible, my body practically surging out of the way with alien movement only possible as a gtinous slime. I wanted to cheer when I saw the bolt wouldn''t strike me directly when I noticed it curved partway and redirected into me.
I wanted to scream at the unfairness of the situation, but pain overwhelmed me after I heard the familiar shattering sound. By now, I had lost count of how many times [Arcane Armor] had been destroyed.
I had lost all my [Sub-Cores], and I likely only had one [Defy Death] trigger left. Then I heard the explosion. If I had a heart, I was sure it would have stopped when I saw the flood of notifications.
.
Chapter 105: Plan B
Chapter 105: n B
''Ah...''
I stared in stunned silence, then frantically ran to where the yellow slime once stood as fast as I could. Using as many tendrils as possible, I desperately searched for remnants of the violet core.
''No!'' I screamed in desperation.
I felt like crying if that were even physically possible. This felt like my biggest setback ever; this was something I had truly wished for, and blinded by my desires, I shot myself in the foot. I found what looked like melted tiny shards of the once beautiful violet core and desperately absorbed them, but nothing happened. There was no updated profile, and there was certainly no core integration.
''All that effort, all that pain, and nothing to show for it!'' I mmed tendrils against the ground; their form fluctuated wildly in my anger.
''Five [Sub-Cores] gone!'' I keptshing out until I eventually calmed down a little. Then I began to think. I needed to find some solution; I couldn''t ept wasting this opportunity.
''Okay... First, there might be another yellow slime on this ind.'' I pointed out the obvious solution. ''But I need toe up with a better n. I didn''t fully understand how great of a weakness I have to lightning... I need to defeat it without destroying the core.''
''The second option would be to force one to spawn. If I keep killing everything on this ind, surely, eventually, a new one will spawn. Assuming what I know about monsters spawning, it will likely be low-level, and I could probably take it out even now. Its core won''t offer me as many traits, but I could, in theory, repeat the process and get another.''
''While working on the second solution, I could train for the chance at the first solution. I need something to defeat it without damaging the core. Poisons immediatelye to mind, but us slime are immune to those. If I were Simon, I could just attack its lifeforce directly.''I started reading through my traits and looking over my magic; I needed to find some slime weakness that would be effective without damaging the core. Fire, Acid, and Arcane all had to be immediately discarded. I pondered Water as a solution momentarily, remembering how I defeated the green slime in the past by washing it, but I was far too afraid to use Water anywhere near a yellow slime again.
''That leaves Ice... I don''t think [Icicle] or [Frostbite] will leave the core undamaged.'' I mused, then vaguely recalling something, I looked over [Cryo Slime]. ''Thwarts slime mass from being frozen solid... Huh.''
The thought had frightened me at the time, but perhaps now it was my solution to this problem. If I froze the yellow slime, I could pluck the core out. No slime, no generating lightning between the core and membrane, right?
''If I find one before I work up a real n, I can attempt using [Slime Shot] and [Cryo Slime]. However, I''d prefer to train [Ice Magic] and take advantage of our natural weakness to magic. There has to be a freeze spell or something.''
I nodded in satisfaction. After my outburst, settling down and assessing the situation had given me some catharsis. Now, in a better frame of mind, I needed to solve my health issue first.
Name: Syl [Dungeoneer]
Race: Chimeric Mimic Slime (Blue) LV 12
ss: Shadowcaster LV 13
Status: Dying (Critical)
Mana: O???????????????????v????????????????e?????????????????????????r?????????????????f??????????????????l????????????????????????????o?????????????????????w????????????????????i????????????????????n???????????????????g????????????????
It did not look good, and I only had one remaining [Defy Death] since I still dared not risk the new trait level being retroactive in giving me another trigger. I still had no idea what was happening with my mana, but it didn''t seem harmful. Deciding I needed to heal up, I transformed into the badger borrowing [Raging Regeneration] and promptly activating it.
I could feel my core healing, but a bubbling anger grew inside, threatening to undo my catharsis. Clearly, the trait did a little more than it said it did, but it did have raging in its name. Thankfully, I managed to keep it forcefully contained to a mild simmer thanks to the remnants of my willpower trait that hadbined into [Soul Mastery]. When my health was finally full, the effect stopped, and I sighed in relief. Although the status menu still showed the exact same garbled mess for my mana.
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I had the pegasus profile to review and my new skill. I chose thetter because it likely had a more direct upgrade for my path.
''Yes.''
Entrust yourself to the flow.
When activated, it greatly enhances evasion capability by allowing one to be maneuvered with the flows unconsciously.
While activated, mental interference is greatly reduced; however, sufficient opposing emotions can temporarily break the state, and you cannot enter it again until it is sufficiently corrected.
Drains mana over time and umtes mental fatigue while activated.
Only one state can be active at a time.>
''This sounds really, really good.'' Was my immediate reaction. I also had another tickling thought, ''Is this a skill rted to my Water Affinity? All the talk of flowing reminds me of water, like a leaf on a stream. If so, it''s about time! Compared to Air and Earth, I''ve been feeling very neglected. A movement skill would be great; I wantpensation for not having [Wind Step].''
''Not being able to passively use it like [Evasion] doesn''t sound like too much of a burden; once I get my [Sub-Cores] back, I could probably set up a routine for them to activate it as a reaction.''
What was once a faint sense in the back of my mind, subtly on the lookout for threats, went silent. Honestly, it freaked me out a little at first, I hadn''t even noticed the sense growing all this time, and its sudden absence felt awkward and ufortable. I mentally triggered [Tranquil Flow], and my mind immediately calmed, a sense of peace warmly flowing through me. It brought about a sense of calm readiness for anything, but I couldn''t see the full extent of this new skill and state since there were no present threats.
I thought of keeping the skill active. The mental fatigue felt easily manageable, likely due to thebined benefits of [Core Refinement] and [Soul Mastery], and normally, I''d be unconcerned about mana expenditure if not for its current garbled condition. I deactivated the skill for now and almost immediately missed the calm state.
''Well, I''ll try it again as soon as I encounter something. My biggest concern is that I can''t even feel my mana usage right now.''
I looked over the [Equine] profile that the pegasus had granted me, which I now realized was because it was a monster branch from a normal horse.
''Why not just call it a horse profile, then? Was someone feeling strangely inspired when they created this one?'' I questioned.
Gramps was the only one I had met, but he mentioned others, and the wildly differing skill and trait descriptions made it apparent that they had differing creators.
The pegasus had both [Wind Magic] and [Aerial Finesse] as starting skills. I immediately checked if I could grab the magic and was unsurprised to be denied. It still felt right to just confirm it, especially with the oddities currently guing my profile. As for traits, they had a few attribute enhancers like strength and even could empower their hooves, but what caught my eye was a trait called [Enchanted Wings].
I couldn''t buy [Enchanted Wings], but it was a prime target for mimicry. It enhanced any formed wings with natural mana and allowed near unhindered flight capabilities, exining why they were so unnaturally graceful. It also increased flight speed and maneuvering with every level; I could only imagine whatbining it with a decently leveled [Aerial Finesse] would aplish.
''Hell,pared to the griffins, they barely even pped their wings. It''s almost like they had a freeform movement. Despite me literally eating one alive, it had no trouble controlling itself in the sky; meanwhile, that griffin took a tumble.''
Wanting to test it out, I transformed into my elf form and then created pegasus wings, immediately copying the [Enchanted Wings] trait. With barely a p, I lifted off the ground.
"Okay... If the griffins were considered flying, this feels like cheating." Imented, easily maintaining a stable elevation barely off the ground.
I flew up a little higher and tried shapeshifting around, transforming into some of my other monsters and even recreating the chimeric form I used to explore the mines. Perhaps it was an aid from my trait because each transformation had the wings rapidly shift to an appropriate matching size without any additional input from me. This led to me staying airborne with barely even a drop. All the transforming midair clearly impressed the system, as I was rewarded with a level-up.
I tried replicating the same midair transformations without [Enchanted Wings], and while it was possible, it was a much clumsier affair, and I hit the ground more than a few times.
''I think the benefits greatly outweigh the loss of my mimicked trait budget.'' I finally concluded, making a mental note to always pick this trait if I ever wanted to do anything wing-rted.
I ended up settling on a vaguely humanoid form with wingsing from the back. I was tempted to use an elven form but settled on using a smaller size for easier mobility. I used Hobgoblin as the base, taking [Thick Skin] and throwing in enough elf features to qualify for [Elven Reflexes]. [Draconic Scales (Lesser)] was surprisingly applicable for goblins, giving me the impression that dragons could breed with almost anything.
I tried to take [Ironbark], but it seemed there was some interference between it and thebination of [Thick Skin] and [Draconic Scales (Lesser)], so I settled on taking [Earthen Carapace] and [Barkskin]. Even at their diminished efficiency, I hoped they would reduce another electrifying encounter.
Finally, I kept the form partially transparent to allow a wide view range; I didn''t dare limit my visibility in this situation, and I hid my core by changing it to the same transparent blue. Ready and eager to move on, I gave another p to return to a semi-hovering position and cast [Arcane Armor] to finish my preparations.
''Here''s hoping this trains [Aerial Finesse] and both my slime traits as well.''
After a quick consultation with [Mapping], I regained my bearings and headed towards theke ruins again. I began my mental ordering out of habit, only to sadly realize that none of my [Sub-Cores] had survived that encounter. I felt a strange loneliness I hadn''t felt for a long time; even though they couldn''t talk or think for themselves, I had a peculiarpanionship for my eager helpers.
Chapter 106: Icy Innovation
Chapter 106: Icy Innovation
The convenience of flight, even when merely hovering slightly above the ground, couldn''t be overstated, and I found it strangely pleasant. Good thing I was nning on staying up here for an extended period, as I felt reluctant to be permanently grounded when returning to Kaerlin. Hopefully, I could have enough fun with wings to get it out of my system.
''Reaching Gold-rank, retrieving my core from the dwarves, and then... perhaps, just perhaps, I could risk revealing my true self to someone I trust?'' I mused uncertainly.
If it didn''t work out, I could abandon Syl, the adventuring elf persona, but I didn''t want to risk burning that bridge until I extracted the benefits I had already lined up for myself.
''If I make monster friends, they risk getting hunted down. Not to mention, they supposedly go crazy if they evolve too much. Ideally, I''d find another experiment, like Odark, just more likeminded.''
While I pondered, I kept myself busy by working on my [Ice Magic]; it felt extremely weird to be solo casting after growing so used to always having my [Sub-Cores] to always give a little bit of help. Rather than spam casting [Icicle] repeatedly, my approach was to try to convert as many of my other spells into their icy counterpart and confirm if discovering a spell gave bonus experience.
I started with [Water Magic] since I knew there was somepatibility between the two elements. It was easy enough to begin recing [Water Whip], and I soon found myself with an icy version. Giving it a swing and realizing how impractical it was, the whip''s flexibility was the point, and having a frozen rigid version was stupid. Perhaps modifying it to create a different weapon would lead to something, but I was a spellcaster, and even if an ice greatsword sounded cool, why would I do that?
I started working on [Bubble] next; this made more sense as I was sure an icy version would offer a more defensive solution from the reinforced solidity. It would be much more disposable than the original spell, as I knew it would lose the ability to allow outward passage. While working on this customization, I paused with a thought, rather than recing the Water mana, couldn''t I corrupt it with Ice?
I started to trickle some Ice mana into the spell, and slowly, like dyeing cloth, the Ice mana began to bleed into the Water, corrupting and transfiguring it to match. I smiled with satisfaction and wondered if any other elements would have such a convenience.
''Who knew my little fun with freezing water back then would result in this.''I promptly cast the spell, targeting a flower for the first cast. The way it materialized was visually appealing; a floating icy point apparated and then permeated outwards, encapsting into a fully formed dome.
Satisfied, I stopped moving and cast it upon myself.
''Guess I wasn''t the first to think of this idea either.''
That reminded me I hadn''t cast the rather useless ice whip twice to get the discovery. So I cast the spell again, even though I''d likely never use it again.
''Wow... I don''t like that. Why bother adding create to the name? Feels really redundant.'' I grumbled and smashed the ice whip against the dome, causing the whip to shatter.
''I bet whoever did this imed all the weapons for consistency...'' I paused and smirked, ''What if I can find one they didn''t get, then give it a different name convention, ha!''
While it was a little petty, going through all the ice weapon spells would probably give decent experience. But first, I needed to get out of the frozen dome.
When I moved inside it, the unmistakable difference to [Bubble] was that it didn''t move around with me. Forming a reinforced tendril, I mmed it against the ice and was quite impressed with its robustness. Activating [Acid Slime], I melted an impromptu doorway and inspected therger dome from the outside. I liked what I saw, although I''d likely make some minor modifications and turn it into a half-dome to prevent trapping myself inside.
Since I was getting distracted by spells, I decided to stop advancing towards theke to settle my curiosity. I immediately began to work on creating the other ice weapons, starting with the easily malleable original water spell before converting it to ice. I had to start with the rapier; I had expected it to be an easy win over spell names but was sadly let down when I saw the notification.
''Ugh. I bet all swords will fall under this.'' I thought bitterly and confirmed it by creating a dagger, shortsword, and even greatsword out of ice with no further notifications.
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As I continued to go through the weapon catalog, I was extremely excited to get a soft confirmation that discovering spells likely gave bonus experience.
''[Chill], huh... So, theplete opposite of [Heat]. I''ll have to learn to modify my spells with this on my own.''
''Damn, whoever created these spells was far too thorough... Why would you even make a bow? It doesn''t even function.'' I grumbled. Pulling on the string caused it to snap immediately.
''I guess I should stopining; experience is experience, and I guess it would be a neat campfire trick.''
With my curiosity settled and calling a partial ceasefire on the spell name war, I continued traveling. I hadn''t even noticed I was still partially floating off the ground this entire time, and I hoped it was passively earning me further experience.
This time, theke had no pegasus drinking from it, and I got to take a closer look at it. Unlike the frog pond, the water was crystal clear, reminding me almost of the water generated from spells or my daily slime wastage. Trying to see through the watery blur, I thought I spotted something settled at the bottom of theke, but I decided the ruins looked much more appealing to explore for now.
Despite being lost to the passage of time, the stonework still seemed in decent condition, albeit absolutely covered in moss. I would have expected more weather damage, but [Mana Conception] revealed tiny traces of mana within the stonework. Whoever had built this had clearly spent a lot of effort trying to make itst as long as possible.
None of my various senses could detect anything nearby, so I was mostly at ease while I searched through the rubble. Myck of architectural knowledge meant I was mostly just going from thergest structure to the next, as their vague shapes meant nothing to me.
More frustratingly, there wasn''t really anything to discover. The most notable thing I found, aside from more rock and vines, was that the entire area had a lot of feathers, and quite a few of the stones had what looked like scratch marks. I hadpared the feathers to the pegasus and griffin, but it matched neither, and [Dissection] ssified them as worthless.
While exploring the remains of what I assumed was a toppled tower, I noted that the staircase abruptly ended. I removed some of the rubble by shifting it with [Arcane Hand] and tossing it into a pile. What I uncovered was a partially copsed stairwell heading downwards.
"Well, if any treasure or secrets are left, I bet it''d be down there,"I said with a grin.
I started heading down, easily oveing the tight squeezes with a little bit of acid. It went further down than expected but eventually opened into an absolutely decrepit room. Some furniture hadpletely rotted away, the tables spilling their contents, and the only intact table was one made of stone with many empty vials and bottles. I saw another room ahead but decided to pocket what I could recover.
"Definitely gives some underground secretboratory vibe," Imented, picking through the table scraps to see if anything remained.
Approaching the next room, I peeked inside and saw what could only be described as a torture room. It had stone bs with metal restraints, various sharp tools covered in grime, and what looked likerge stone basins, their insides stained in a dark reddish brown.
"Okay, so add evil mad scientist to the mix." I chuckled nervously.
I approached what looked like arge steel box with a small window and started to take a peek inside when a gnarled hand reached out and tried to w my face off. I hadn''t seen iting, so it did make contact but failed to prate my [Arcane Armor], the magical second skin briefly bing visible at the point of contact.
"Ha! Nice try, creep!" I mocked, feeling a little happy about all my preparations paying off.
Whatever was in the box made a long, hollow moan and started banging against its prison.
"Sounds like a zombie... But worse?" I questioned aloud.
When the greyish-ck arm reached out again through the bars, I quickly threw out an [Identify], realizing I''d need to do it manually for now. The result confused and shocked me.
"Since when do monsters have names and sses?" I wondered, "Are you an experiment?"
The only response I got back was more moaning and banging against its prison.
"No, you can''t be, Gramps made it sound like the experiment thing was recent...ish?" I pointed out, more to myself than the screaming undead, "So I guess that can only mean you used to be a human before turning into... This."
Unfortunately, the wailing monster gave me no answers, and the only way I was going to find out more was to let it out and devour it. Pointing a finger toward the locks on the metal box, I fired a little [Acid Slime] at each of them and waited for the creature to escape. Since I had the time to prepare while it broke free, I cast two [Icicle] spells and held them both, slowly empowering them.
"I feel like my [Sub-Cores] deserve a raise... Doing this by myself really sucks." I chuckled.
"Well, after the barrage of [Arcane Bolt] spells, I''m surprised that didn''t happen earlier," Imented and was about to start working towards a third [Icicle] when the metal box burst open.
The starved ghoul was a haunting sight, its emaciated frame barely held together by tattered, soiled farmer''s clothes. Its sunken eyes burned with an insatiable hunger, and its bony fingers twitched as it reached out, seeking sustenance. The ghoul''s pallid skin clung tightly to its skeletal form, entuating every protruding rib and joint. Its gaunt face bore a perpetual grimace, with lips drawn back to reveal yellowed, jagged teeth.
"Shit! That''s hideous!" I cursed in surprise andunched both [Icicle] spells at it; one pierced directly into its chest while it barely dodged the other.
It then let out an ear-piercing shriek echoing throughout the underground. Before it lowered itself into a pouncing position, I heard the distant sound of more metal banging.
Chapter 107: Ghoulish
Chapter 107: Ghoulish
At the sight of the battle-ready ghoul, I immediately triggered [Tranquil Flow], and a serene warmth washed over my mind and emotions. The ghoul leaped forward, its ws and fangs hungering for flesh. Moving with a calm and fluid grace, my body effortlessly evaded its attack. It lunged again, its hostility a mere force to be diverted, and my body seamlessly glided out of harm''s way.
''The attacks are like currents... And I''m just following the flow.''
Itsck of sess seemed to fuel its hungered desire even further, and somehow, it stepped up its savage assault to another level. Curling its hands together as if trying to disembowel me, it pierced forward. Having entrusted myself fully to the state of mind, my body opened up, and its piercing strike sailed through the gap in my torso. The creature leaped backward, a new hesitancy on its face.
''Shit, I didn''t mean to do that!''
I started to panic a little; I hadn''t expected to lose myself in the state that much; it conformed with my gtinous and fluidic form so much that the action had felt perfectly natural to me.
''Shit. Wait, what if I use this and go all jelly while in disguise? There''s no way I could exin that away. Shit. Have I made a mistake by picking this skill up?''
Abruptly, the state ended; my little neurotic episode was too opposing for it to remain active. The ghoul''s ws struck against [Arcane Armor] again before I realized what had happened. Then, its fangs sank down, and I heard the familiar sound of the barrier shattering. In a panicked response, I erupted with all my tendrils at once, all of them aimed at the ghoul in an attempt to push it away from me. The abrupt change in form waspletely unexpected, and the six tendrils mmed it against the wall so hard that settled dust was disturbed.
Realizing my mistake, I immediately began working on killing the ghoul, triggering [Acid Slime] and rapidly melting away at it. I was horrified at its strength; it took nearly all six tendrils to restrain it. It screamed endlessly until it died, and I could hear the banging in the distance getting louder and what sounded like hinges being broken.
I briefly nced over its profile, confirming it was undead and seeing traits rted to blood-feeding and unholy strength. What startled me was that I could see a clear link from human to ghoul among my profiles. I''d look into it in more detailter; I had what sounded like a hordeing for me.I worked to quickly form a half [Ice Dome] spell and cast it at the other doorway, hoping it would give me a little more time before the other enemies arrived. Since I wasn''t flying, I swapped out [Enchanted Wings] for [Inferno Sac], and it would be my emergency backup if things got too out of hand since past experience told me the undead didn''t like fire.
''It alwayses back to fire; no wonder Dewi likes it so much.''
I tried to calm myself down and reactivate [Tranquil Flow], but I was not in the right frame of mind, and it rebuffed me. I''d have to get in more practiceter and see if I could somehow keep with the flow without it morphing my body if I was in disguise. I''d hate to lose such a powerful skill by limiting its avability to only slime time. Maybe another [Sub-Core] order?
I could hear bashing against the ice, so I began casting [Ice Patch] to freeze the entire floor. Then, I lifted myself up to the ceiling with some adhesive tendrils. Transforming my core to match the stonework, I hoped to remain undetected as I withdrew slime and started to spread out, iming the entire ceiling as my domain. I maneuvered the formed [me Sac] into a corner, hoping to keep it safe and secure as my emergency backup n.
''Well, if they attack and rupture the organ, that works too.'' I chuckled to myself.
I tried to use [Life Sight] to try to get a prediction on their numbers, but either they were out of range, or the undead were excluded. [Thermal Vision] wasn''t a help either; "as cold as a corpse" came to mind. With [Mana Conception], I could see tiny ck dots, probably some form of death-rted mana that fueled these creatures.
Thest of my preparations involved casting [Arcane Armor] on my core. Having the protection on my slime as a whole was a waste, and I was pleased when that was a viable target. I saw my camouged core gain the magical extra coating that vanished after settling in ce. I made a mental note to test having all my [Sub-Cores] cast the spell on themselves.
The icy barrier cracked and shattered as the small horde of ghouls rushed into the room, almost immediately losing their footing as they stepped onto the ice. Any tension I had deted like a balloon as I couldn''t help butugh at the sight of these undead monsters falling and slipping over one another. They snarled and hissed, even swiping at each other. I gave them all a quick [Identify]; none had abat ss, and the highest ghoul level was only three. It really seemed like a bunch of civilians were captured and transformed into these abominations.
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Having seen enough, I made my move. I immediately grabbed three ghouls using two tendrils each and flung them intorge pockets of slime. These pockets wererge enough to hold them in ce while dissolving them, and by turning up the density to the max after submerging them, I doubted that they could escape.
Meanwhile, I started to cycle casts between two [Icicle] spells. Despite my additional rank in [Multitasking], I couldn''t handle a third spell while also keeping my attention on my tendrils. Unfortunately, I dropped [Icicle] in favor of [Acid Dart] after confirming the spellcked the punching power to reliably deal with the ghouls. For now, I avoided any fire spells to prevent the makeshift icerink from melting.
The ghouls fought back by wing at the ice with one hand to stabilize and then swiping at my tendrils as they approached. I just had to keep them upied until the digestion pockets finished their job, and then I could throw another ghoul to rece them. If I had my helpers, I could have probably created more than three of my slime pockets. Still, alone, even my refined and high-spec core struggled to handle all of this slime with varying densities, multiple [Pseudopods], and not to mention magic.
The n wasn''t wless, however, as some of the ghouls managed to slide towards some of the bs, where, upon reaching, they used their more stable footing to leap upwards and take shes at me. Their effort rewarded them with a handful of [Acid Slime], and they screeched in pain.
When a few of them decided this fight wasn''t worth continuing and started heading towards the door that led to the exit, I was forced to cast another [Ice Dome] to block their attempts. They started bashing against the ice, and I knew I needed to finish them off before they escaped; if some of them managed and survived falling to the surface, there could be dire consequences.
I extracted the [Inferno Sac] and dangled the organ into the center of the room. One of the ghouls immediately saw it as a tantalizing target and leaped for it,nding a vicious bite against the rather fragile organ. As I suspected, it ruptured and exploded in a fiery detonation, washing through the entire room in a me coating.
''Not as effective as using the mes directly, so not really a useful attack option.'' I deliberated. I had wondered about using them as a sort of bomb, trap, or even a pseudo fireball, but I was better off pulling continuous mes into a breath attack. Frankly, I was more impressed by the explosion I pulled off in the mineshaft.
Any surviving stragglers got thrown straight into the slime pockets as I quickly worked to finish up. While these monsters weren''t exactly a direct threat to me, especially if they didn''t know to target my core, it was nice to see a good ne to fruition.
I scrolled through the numerous notifications and summarized my final earnings.
''Really? All those ghouls and I barely gained a level?'' Iined. Their racial level was low, but they had decent ss levels, so I had expected much bigger gains. ''Do nobat sses give reduced experience? It''s the only thing I can assume with these results.''
I shrugged and reformed into my weird little chimeric goblin again to continue my exploration of thisb. The next room contained more prisons, now mostly broken free. There was the asional one still trapped inside, which I finished off with acid. I collected some of the metals from the various boxes as [Appraisal] told me they were either iron or lead. I noted that all the broken boxes were lead, while the iron ones still had a few ghoulish prisoners.
"More metal samples for my future silver slime," I said with a grin.
However, I still hadn''t found any real valuables, and my inner treasure hunter was feeling rather disappointed as I walked from room to room. Eventually, I stumbled across a locked reinforced door and hoped I''d finally get something. The door was described as mana-treated wood, and the reinforcing was mana-enriched iron. I saved a decent quantity of both in my storage before devouring the rest.
Beyond the door looked like a small study, although the bookshelves contained nothing but rotting or crumbling tomes. On the desk, however, was a book that somehow seemed to survive the test of time. I immediately approached it and melted the tiny lock that kept it securely closed.
I immediately started skimming through the book, and almost unsurprisingly, it sounded mostly like the ravings of a mad lunatic.
Why have the Gods forsaken us humans?
Why are the dwarves and elves favored over us?
Why can we not evolve?
There must be a solution; I refuse to ept that we are forced to be shackled to this mortal fleshbag. I''ve seen a simple wolf evolve into a hybrid between wolf and man, so surely there is another path for us? I will find it!
The author seemed to me the Gods a lot and seemed exceedingly bitter. He tried all sorts of things, even performing operations on test subjects, recing their organs, limbs, and even brains with those of monsters. It mentioned him dabbling in necromancy, monster taming, and even failing at demon summoning.
Through my advancements in the necromantic arts, I have found a new type of monster that transforms what it feeds on into an entirely new race! I feel like this is the answer I''ve been searching for!
The only variable to ovee is that they are automatically enved after transitioning, and they be seemingly mindless, hungry beasts. But I think the solution is actually rather simple; I just need to kill the creature before the envement isplete. Yes, finally, I will transcend!
That was thest entry, and I closed the book with a frown.
"Man, this is some creepy shit," I muttered, shaking my head.
"Tell me about it." A soft yet high-pitched voice replied.
Chapter 108: Trixie
Chapter 108: Trixie
Upon hearing the voice, I immediately swiveled in the direction, taking an offensive stance, tendrils out and a [Fireball] spell rapidly forming within my palm. Tucked into the corner of the room as if forgotten was a silver birdcage, and inside it, sitting in a cross-legged position, was a tiny winged girl looking at me.
She had extremely long, disheveled golden hair syed along the cage''s bottom. Sprouting out of her back were what looked like butterfly wings, except translucent and dull. The clothes she wore looked like nothing but tiny brown rags, more suited for wiping a table than being worn. The word that immediately came to mind was slovenly, and as if to answer my thoughts, she started scratching her stomach with a bored and tired expression.
I immediately threw out an [Identify], hoping to find out what the strange creature was.
"What the hell are you?" She asked before I could ask the same question. "Have I been asleep so long that goblins are now blue and have grown wings?"
"I''m not a goblin, at least not in the conventional sense," I replied, my words hanging in the air, pregnant with unspoken truths.
"Oooh, are you one of Mister Gloomies experiments?" She asked.
I immediatelytched on to the word. "Experiment? Are you also one? Do you know which God?"
She chuckled, pping her thigh, "Hell no, I''m not one of his littleb rats." Then her expression turned a little serious, "And if you''re mentioning the Gods, I don''t think you are one of them either."
"Oh..." I responded, feeling a little deted. It made sense, unfortunately, as thisb felt far too old for Gramps'' experiment."So, do you mind doing me a favor and letting me out?" She asked, now cleaning the inside of her right ear with a pinkie.
I was immediately cautious. I had no idea if Trixie was a friend or foe, and in my partially vulnerable state, I didn''t feel like taking the risk.
"Perhaps..." I replied, trying to size her up. "What are you, and why are you captured?"
"I asked you first..." she said, puffing her cheeks. "But fine, I can show some deference to my potential rescuer. I''m a pixie who was captured and being used for ingredients by Mister Gloomy."
"A pixie? Trixie the pixie?" I replied, frowning at what felt a little contrived.
"Yup. Chose the name myself, d you like it." She said, retrieving her finger and examining it before flicking whatever filth she had umted on the tip.
"And Mister Gloomy was using you for ingredients? How?"
"Wow, you really know nothing huh. Pixie dust, of course." She said and, as if to answer my question further, stood up and started shaking herself like a wet dog. A gold dust emanated from her like mushroom spores and lightly settled along the silver cage floor.
She seemed friendly enough, but I wasn''t totally convinced. I decided to swap to my [Apex Hunter] emblem to see if she triggered a reaction. Trixie seemed to trigger a response from the emblem, but it wasn''t the one I was familiar with, as if the emblem itself was confused about whether she was worthy or not.
''Well, shit. That just makes me even more worried.''
"So? Gonna let me out, blue goblin? Blueblin?" She asked, giving a toothy smile, "Judging by how this ce has gone to hell and back, I''m assuming Mister Gloomy is gone or dead, and I''d very much appreciate being free again."
"Maybe... Tomorrow, though, I need to rest first." I replied. If I was going to let her out, I wanted all my [Sub-Cores] and [Defy Death] triggers back, so I was prepared for the possible betrayal.
"What? Tomorrow?" She shouted, puffing out her cheeks again and looking extremely pouty.
"Rather tomorrow than possibly years from now. I''m sure you can wait one more day?" I asked.
She let out a huge, overexaggerated, and reluctant sigh, "Fine..."
She plopped down on her backside and then started making shooing gestures as if telling me to leave. It seemed like she was done conversing with me entirely until I was willing to consider letting her out.
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I slowly walked out of the room, and the tiny pixie was already closing her eyes and entering what looked like a trance. I assumed that was how she passed the time without going crazy being trapped here for who knows how many years.
I entered one of the rooms, far away from the private study, and melted into another hideaway hole. I covered the entry with a broken cage and then had to ensure it was sufficientlyrge for me to withdraw enough slime mass, as it would cost a lot to replenish all my cores. I felt a little bad leaving Trixie like that, and I wanted to trust her, but I just wasn''t willing to take that risk without my assurances.
When I woke up the next day, I was filled with immense relief to see my cores floating happily inside of me again. As predicted, it had cost a fortune of slime, a week''s worth of [Slime Conversion] at minimum, assuming I didn''t supplement my diet with some monster meat.
''Do they cost more to replenish now that they are at a higher level? I don''t recall Alpha costing nearly this much to regenerate.''
Regardless of the cost, I was d to have the full team back together and felt whole again. I ordered each of them to cast [Arcane Armor] on themselves and wiggled with glee when I watched the magical protection sessfully form. I also had Epsilon don the Violet core coloring; I hadn''t yet obtained one, but I wanted a visual motivator.
Before approaching the study with Trixie, I formed three [Inferno Sac] and started preparations by filling them to the brim with mana. I still evaluated this as my most powerful attack to date, at least in terms of instant destructive power. [Decay] with enough debuffs was likely stronger but required more prep time. I also transformed back into my previous form, except this time, I wore my armor, which readjusted to fit me thanks to the enchantment. I had Epsilon take position in my head for visibility and finally tested that I could have Alpha activate [Tranquil Flow].
When I entered the room, I noticed Trixie was in the exact same position I had left her in and didn''t react to my presence. Only when I approached the cage did she finally react.
"Oh! Blueblin, you''re back." She responded, stretching and letting out an overexaggerated yawn. "I hope it really is the next day and not years... You weren''t wearing armorst time."
"Nope, it''s the next day," I answered honestly, still trying to examine the so-called pixie.
"Great. So you going to let me out now?"
"Well... Not to be rude, but what happens if I let you out?"
"I''d be most grateful!" Trixie replied, giving a wide, toothy grin. When I didn''t immediately respond, she sighed and continued talking. "Well, I could offer you a bunch of pixie dust. Maybe you could convince me to be your magical familiar, or perhaps... Friends?"
"What''s pixie dust used for?" I asked, genuinely curious about the strange golden powder.
"Potions... Enchanting... You know, magic stuff."
"Right. Alright, I guess."
"Thanks! Man, I can''t wait to stretch the old wings..." Trixie said, standing up and doing some light stretches.
I sighed and looked at the cage; from what my senses told me, it was mildly enchanted but didn''t seem enough to keep someone captured. I did an [Appraisal] to understand what this was before I attempted to eat it, and it was revealed to be Lead Silver. I could only assume it was some form of alloy; perhaps that was why she was contained.
I ced a hand on the cage and started digesting it, I almost expected some form of resistance, but it dissolved away at remarkable speed, making me wonder how it even kept her contained if it was so fragile. As soon as the roof of the cage melted away, Trixie fluttered up; her dull wings were now bright and vivid, shimmering like a rainbow. I cautiously stepped back while she stretched and took a deep breath, her entire body bing more striking in color, like a fresh coat of paint.
I was about to breathe a sigh of relief when Trixie suddenly smirked. ck horns suddenly appeared on her head, a ck tail, and her rainbow butterfly wings were reced with bat wings.
"You fool!" She cackled right before I unloaded all three [Inferno Sacs].
The room erupted in blue mes, and the bookcase, desk, cage, and everything else were vaporized in a scorching inferno. Then I activated [Slime Burst], exploding tworge salvos, one armed with [Cryo Slime] and the other [ze Slime] and both with [Acid Slime]. The two contrasting slime types violently reacted to each other, and the entire room sounded like it was about to copse; I rushed out of the room and prepared to see if anything emerged.
"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" A shrill voice screeched from the slowly dying mes.
I paused in confusion, but not before holding a variety of offensive spells each between me and my [Sub-Cores].
An extremely wide-eyed Trixie appeared before me; the ck tail, wings, and horns were gone. I tensed, ready to unload my barrage of spells on her.
"What is wrong with you!?" She shouted at me, but before I could say anything, she kept up her verbal assault. "Holy shit, how high-strung are you that you can''t even take a joke!?"
I tried to open my mouth, but she interjected.
"I''m a bloody pixie; everyone knows we y pranks! What the hell have you been through to be tenser than a violin string? That can''t be healthy; you must learn to chill out!"
"And what the hell was that? Are you secretly a moured dragon? No, you can''t be because I''ve met dragons who are not nearly as trigger-happy as you; what the hell is wrong with you!?" She was panting heavily, having not stopped once to breathe during that entire tirade.
I didn''t know how to react, so I stared at her in stunned silence, my offensive spells still ready to fire.
"Damn it, Blueblin, say something!" She screeched at me.
"S-sorry?" I stuttered out.
She sighed and groaned while pulling at her hair before finally responding, "Look, I''m sorry, too. I had no idea I''d be staring death in the face over a prank. I guess I should have gotten to know you more first."
After finally gathering myself back up from the initial shock, I responded, "Yes, you should have. I don''t think anyone would trust a random monster to be ying a joke or prank."
"What?" Trixie looked at me dumbfounded, "I''m not a monster. Honestly, that''s a little insulting."
"Sorry... Does that mean you''re a race like the elves or dwarves?" I asked curiously, slowly easing up on my tension.
"Ew. No way." Trixie responded with a look of disgust.
I couldn''t help but sigh, full of emotional exhaustion. This was going to be a long day...
Chapter 109: Spirit
Chapter 109: Spirit
"Well... I''ve freed you, so I guess we can part ways now." I said, my voiceced with a hint of impatience, not wanting to deal with the pixie anymore.
"Don''t be like that, Blueblin. We might have gotten off on the wrong foot, but I''m sure we can resolve our differences." Trixie responded, patting herself and causing aical amount of soot to fall from her person, the bright, vivid coloring returning to her once more.
"Stop calling me Blueblin... My name is Syl."
"Well, Syl, not all of us have [Identify] or go around rudely identifying everyone we run into."
"You''ve clearly never been around humans for very long; I feel like everyone has it."
"Yes, well, that''s just one of the reasons we try to avoid them," Trixie said, then vanished from sight.
I frantically scanned my surroundings when I felt something appear atop my head and tried to grab it with an impromptu maw of slime. The source of the disturbance was the pixie.
"Woah!" Trixie said as my slime passed through her, and she fluttered upwards.
I tried to grab her with a tendril, but it also seemed to just go right through her as if she were intangible, like a ghost."So, I''m guessing you''re a mimic, huh?" Trixie asked, looking far too rxed despite my attempts to engulf her. "Did you lose your chest, and that''s why you''re so grumpy?"
"What? No?" I replied, disgruntled and confused.
If she was like a ghost, then that means magic would work, and I subtly cast my debuff spells on her from my [Sub-Cores]. I watched as my debuffs stacked up on her, and then, in a blink, they all vanished from her.
"Oh. I didn''t expect such a rich meal of mana." Trixie replied, patting her exposed stomach, which she had pushed out exaggeratedly.
"Y-you eat mana?" I asked, a bubbling worry of what that meant for me as a slime made of mana.
"Us pixies are one of the spirit races; we are essentially beings of mana," Trixie exined, "We normally passively eat any ambient essence, which is how I survived being trapped for who knows how long, but direct mana makes a great snack."
She approached me, and I tried to swat her in retaliation, but once again, my tendrils passed through her. I didn''t like this situation at all; it felt like I had no control over it. I cast [Frostbite] and [Combust], but both cleared away, with Trixie looking at me smugly and patting her belly. I tried casting more direct spells, but they either passed through her or vanished inside her. I fled, trying to think of a solution as I tried to make my escape to the outside.
''I can fly away if it gets risky; I doubt she can keep up with the pegasus wings.'' I thought to myself, she hadn''t attacked me yet, but that didn''t stop my mind from imagining her treating me like a delicious meal.
When I burst free to the outside world, I traded the [Inferno Sac] trait for [Enchanted Wings] and soared into the sky¡ªcarefully watching the hidden stairwell with the help of [Eagle Vision].
"A little dramatic, don''t you think?" Trixie''s voice rang out, and I found her seated atop my head again.
I wanted to scream; I had no idea how she kept up with me, let alone suddenly appeared from nowhere. I tried to think of solutions, perhaps poison gas. Or I could prepare [Decay] and cast it before she ate my debuff spells.
"I have no idea what''s going through that crazy head of yours, but I don''t mean you any harm. Seriously, Blueblin, I mean Syl. Calm down." She said, patting my head with her tiny hand. "Besides, if I harmed my rescuer, I''d be an outcast. You have my word."
I groaned, letting out an extremely reluctant sigh.
"Good. By the way, your mana is delicious, but I don''t want to get fat." She replied calmly, totally unbeknownst that was my exact worry.
"Water... Fire... Corrosion... Ice... All very, very pure." She listed off her fingers one by one, pausing on her fifth finger. "Very interesting..."
"What?" I asked hesitantly.
"No. Nothing." She replied with a giggle. "Honestly, I''m still unsure what you are; I''d swear you were a spirit, too, with this much mana."
"Well, I''m not."
"Don''t you dare tell me the answer; I want to figure it out myself." She said with another giggle. "But what have you done to yourself? Your mana channels feel... Broken?"
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"Broken...." I shuddered, remembering what happened to my [Mana Cirction] trait.
"Indeed. Normal monsters and humans have mana channels that circte throughout their bodies. The greater the channel, the greater the flow, the more they can output, regenerate, and so forth." She exined. Her total personality flip was jarring, and I wondered if this was another prank being built up.
"Us spirits don''t have that. We basically are mana. We can output everything in one go if we want. If the mana in humans is a river, then we are the ocean." She paused for emphasis, fluttered off my head, and pointed at me.
"That leaves you. You have channels or rivers, but you also have an ocean. No... More like ake?" She continued, now tapping a finger against her temple.
"What does that mean exactly?" I asked.
"I have no idea." She answered and giggled. "You''re like some in-between, which is why you feel broken. Your channels are constantly maxed out, trying to output and exist as if you were a spirit, but they weren''t designed for that."
"Great... That''s just great..." I replied, but the iplete answer left me with more questions.
I tried to puzzle it out in my head. Trixie said it felt like I had both. When she described her mana as an ocean, what came to mind was my reservoir of slime and my [Mana Slime] trait. But while my slime was me, technically, it also wasn''t me. My real being was my core, which I had to assume contained my mana channels. I had tried to go beyond what my channels could output; I had thought it was as simple as having my [Sub-Cores] cast the spells, but if they didn''t have channels themselves, then that meant I determined their entire mana output. But I had forced it, trying to use beyond my channel capacity and instead use the readily avable ocean that was my slime.
''That sounds... usible?'' I thought to myself, feeling a little more reassured.
I then noticed that Trixie was floating amongst multiple tendrils that were trying to grab her; she must have done something while I was lost in thought that Alpha or Beta had decided to defend me.
Noticing my attention, she grinned. "You were lost in thought for such a long time, and I was growing bored. I tried to poke you out of it, and imagine my surprise when you started unconsciously defending yourself."
I retracted my tendrils, not that they had any hope of actually containing her. Then I thought back to the Lead-Silver alloy and wondered if that was the trick to containing her. I had both in storage and could probably try melting them together and making my own alloy. If I had a silver core, I could do it to my tendrils, and then she''d have no escape.
"I swear I just have more questions after that disy. My current theory is you''re a mutated elemental or a mimic that mutated into an elemental." Trixie said, still trying to solve the puzzle that was my existence. "But we can put that mystery aside. Do you care to share your thoughts on your mana situation with the rest of the ss?"
Somehow, Trixie was now wearing sses, which she pushed up the bridge of her nose with a single finger. Her brown rags were reced with a ck two-piece suit, and her once frayed and disheveled hair was now in a neat ponytail. She gave a mischievous grin when my confused and shocked reaction met her satisfaction.
"Maybe... But it rtes to what I am, and I still don''t feelfortable sharing that." I answered honestly.
"Ugh. If I swore an oath, would that make you stop being so paranoid?" Trixie asked, looking fed up.
"I don''t know. Maybe? Look, my situation isplicated, and I''ve built up a lot of things I don''t want to risk crumbling down right now."
"Such. A. Control. Freak." Trixie said, shaking her head disappointedly. Then she started to talk aloud in anothernguage I couldn''t understand or recognize even partially. I tried to say something, but when I opened my mouth, she held out a finger and wagged it as if warning me to wait.
Trixie has sworn a Spirit''s Oath to keep your secrets and not use them against you. Do you ept?>
''Well. Shit. Can''t get more real than that.'' I thought to myself. Even just reading the words before me gave me a sense of their binding power and the feeling that if Trixie betrayed them, there would be dire consequences for her.
"I ept," I said aloud.
Golden chains glowing in a rainbow luminescent light abruptly appeared and began to drape over Trixie, then bound tight across her torso and limbs. A golden lock appeared between the two chain ends and clicked shut, causing the chains to glow and then vanish in a starry sparkle.
"Whew. That was overly dramatic. So, feel like talking now?" Trixie asked, looking at me expectantly.
The strange thing was that I did feel like my secret was now safe with her. This was far beyond whatever the Adventurers Guild did, which was a poor, barebones imitation inparison.
"Okay... So... I''m a slime." I said slowly and almost immediately regretting it.
I expected some shock or surprise, but instead, Trixie looked angry. "Syl, seriously. I swore a Spirit Oath. Do you have any idea how bad that would be for me if I broke that? Surely you can trust me now."
I blinked in confusion, trying to exin, "No, really, I-"
"No buts!" Trixie interrupted, shaking her head with a look of betrayal, "Seriously, this is far, far worse than you trying to kill me for the prank. You''re honestly making me doubt my judge of character."
I kept trying to exin, but Trixie kept interrupting me, and I grew increasingly frustrated. After one interruption too many, I screamed at her to listen, causing her to flinch in response and gasp when I thrust my hand into my head, grabbing Epsilon, who was housed there, and ripping the [Sub-Core] out, holding it out in front of me.
"Trixie! I really am a slime!" I said, frustrated out of my mind, showing her the core and waving it around as proof.
Trixie stared at the core, almost as if she couldn''t believe her own eyes, before she startedughing almost uncontrobly. She eventually calmed down, wiping tiny tears from her eyes,
"Okay, Syl, that was an amazing prank. It was way better than mine," she said, still giggling.
"What? No, this is real; I am a slime." I responded, freely morphing my limbs and even stretching out my face.
It looked like Trixie was about to try to deny it again, but she eventually seemed to ept that I wasn''t joking. "Wait... You''re actually serious?"
I nodded, causing Trixie to stare at me rather sheepishly. I couldn''t understand why it was so unbelievable that I was a slime; she even considered me potentially being a mutated elemental, so why was a slime so unbelievable? The absurdity of it made me almost want to know the reason why before my mana situation.
Chapter 110: Chains
Chapter 110: Chains
"This is crazy. I trust you, but the reality of this situation is just too absurd," Trixie eximed, her head shaking in disbelief.
"Is it really that absurd? I know Gramps said I was an [Experiment], but I didn''t think I''d be that different from the others." I questioned.
"Ha! Did you give one of them a nickname? That''s cute." Trixie giggled, "So what''s this experiment?"
"Well, I got told I died before aplishing anything and got offered a chance, which led to me waking up as a slime. I''ve also encountered another [Experiment] who was born an orc and evolved into a troll." I exined briefly.
"Eww... They seriously put someone in an orc?" Trixie started fake gagging, "I''m guessing you must be an old soul then?"
When I stared at her nkly, she continued talking.
"You die, get your life judged, get rewarded or punished, then get thrown back into your next life once your soul gets cleaned."
"Yes... That sounds about right from what I''ve pieced together."
"So they''re sticking old souls in monsters... Very interesting. I wonder if it''s from boredom or if they are trying something new." Trixie murmured, cing her finger on her lips in thought. "The orc, as disgusting as that is, makes sense at least. Even something like an animal monster would make sense, or an elemental, maybe a demon.""But not a slime?"
"No. How do I exin this.... Uhh..." Trixie started grumbling and scratching her head. "Have you ever interacted with a monster or monstrous humanoid other than this orc troll?"
"I lived with goblins for a brief time," I answered.
"Okay, good. So, they technically don''t have souls. Or at least not a soul like the humans, elves, dwarves, and so on. But they are still alive and think and feel; I''m sure you''ve experienced that."
"Yes, they had their own tribe, loose organization, and understanding of skills and traits."
"Exactly. Now, to drop it down a level, even animal monsters have feelings and instincts. They''ll breed, form packs, nests, and so forth." Trixie continued, and I nodded along, "Dropping it another level, even elementals, which are like semi-sentient bundles of mana, have bare minimum instincts and feelings. They usually guard an area rich in their element and feed their desire to grow and eventually be something more."
"Okay. Then what about slimes?" I asked, hoping to get to the point.
"Slimes have none of that. They don''t think. They don''t feel. Their only instinct, if you can even call it that, is to eat." Trixie exined. "The world treats them either as pests or as a resource. Even livestock gets treated better; slimes just... Are."
I frowned. What she said did corroborate with some of what I experienced, especially with how dumb some of my brethren acted. I recalled the orange slime entry in the book, which sounded anything but stupid.
"But I''ve read about some slimes setting traps and doing things that suggest intelligence. Like an orange slime." I replied, hoping for an exnation.
"Yes. And you''ll note that all of those are dungeon-based slimes. They are mindless drones directed by the Dungeon Master; consider them movable traps or a controlled dungeon hazard." Trixie disputed, "Even a Queen Slime doesn''t have the pack or maternal instincts; they will literally eat over ny percent of their offspring."
I must have been showing a grim expression as Trixie smiled at me softly, "Hey. Don''t worry; none of that matters to you. You''re basically an entirely new species at this point. Very cool."
"Right... Thanks." I replied.
While I didn''t care too much about never running into another slime like me, I was now concerned about how my situation would be handled should it be revealed. How would I be handled if I was considered a new species? Would I be captured for study and preservation or perhaps executed outright to prevent a new race from forming?
''Queen Slime was one of my evolution options...''
"You really get lost in your little world a lot, huh?" Trixie asked loudly to get my attention.
"Sorry. I''m just concerned about how I''d be treated if I truly am as unique as you say."
"I think it''s amazing, but what''s on your mind?"
"Well... What happens if I pick the Queen evolution. Would my offspring be mindless?"
Trixie''s jaw dropped, perhaps now understanding my concern, and I felt relieved that she was under a magical oath. She snapped out of her shock and surprise and raised her finger as if telling me to hush.
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"Do not tell anyone you can evolve into a Queen." She warned in a harsh tone, unbefitting of the clown persona or the cheeky know-it-all. "As for what would happen... I think there are two likely possibilities, the first being that they be like other monsters and have some minor intelligence."
"And the other?" I asked with bated breath.
"That they are bornpletely under your control. Drones for you tomand, a dungeon master not limited to a dungeon." Trixie said grimly.
I understood the ramifications but recalled Keldenar with his golem city and army. "It doesn''t sound that different from the Golemancer who controls thousands of golems and his own city."
"Oh, there''s a Golemancer city now? I''ll have to go visit." Trixie said enthusiastically, "But I''m assuming even with his power, he''s still one person. What if you control your children, get them to evolve into Queens, and then also control the children''s children? You could exponentially grow at a rate that could literally cover the world. You slimes can basically eat anything and convert it to slime mass. Heck, I vaguely recall a slime that could even turn mana... into... slime..."
Trixie suddenly paused as if expanding on an errant thought. Suddenly, chains apparated around her and jerked violently tight. She seemed startled initially, then shook her head and frowned at the sky. "I wasn''t actually going to do it!" she shouted, and then the chains slowly vanished.
"What happened?" I questioned, feeling defensive again suddenly.
"I think I figured out that you are, in fact, that type of slime, and I might have briefly believed that you were a future risk to the world. My oath seemed to not like that line of thinking." Trixie shrugged. "Sorry about that. At least you now know how powerful the oath I took was. And seriously, never mention that evolution to anyone."
"Thanks for the honesty... Weirdly, that makes it feel better?" I replied, feeling a little more at ease again. "Besides, even if I did take that evolution, I certainly don''t n on doing anything on that grand scale."
"Yeah... Like I said, I feel like I''m a good judge of character, and I don''t think the current you would do anything like that. But time will tell, and when you are as old as dirt like me, who knows if you''ll still be the same?"
"Wait, really? How old are you?" I asked.
"Rude! Never ask ady her age." Trixie giggled, already having flipped back to the bubbly personality. "Anyway, since I''ve already made an oath, I might as well score some bonus points for the future. So, would you care to exin your mana situation in more detail?"
I nodded and started by exining my theory about [Mana Slime] and [Mana Cirction]. I also exined in detail what had caused the situation, although I didn''t mention my [Sub-Cores] being the reason I had overtaxed my mana output, cing the me fully on [Multicast] alone. Thankfully, it seemed more than probable, and Trixie seemed very impressed with my magical repertoire. This also led to me admitting that I started as a simple blue slime. As our conversation continued, I noticed that the magical oath chain would keep partially appearing, and another link would be added to it before vanishing again.
''Is more being added to her oath?'' I wondered, trying to recall the exact wording of the notification.
"You''vee a long way from a little blue slime... I guess that exins your mana and why it tastes so good; you''re like a monster half a step into bing a spirit." Trixiemented, "Although, why did youe to this floating ind?"
"I''ll tell you now, but I just have a question. Does your oath involve all my secrets?" I asked curiously.
Trixie paused, then started thinking. The chain briefly appeared again in its entirety, and after she examined it a bit more closely, she shuddered. "Shit."
"I came looking for a yellow slime to absorb and gain its trait," I said promptly. Multiple extra links got added to the chain, and Trixie stared wide-eyed.
"Wait, absorb it?" She asked, her voice a little panicky before the full force of the chains wrapped around her. I chuckled nervously as her future fear must have reared its head again.
"Well, shit. You got me there..." Trixie sighed deeply as the chains disappeared again, "I guess this is my own fault; I had no idea what a big little secret the blue goblin could be hiding... It was just too much of a tantalizing puzzle. Guess I''m fully on team Syl now."
Despite what she said, she candidly didn''t seem too concerned beyond those brief restraining moments. Quite frankly, I felt like this worked out well for me, at least emotionally, as I could vent some secrets and frustrations to someone now. Although mentally, I still felt like I wanted to get away from this meddlesome pixie and whatever future pranks she would cook up.
"Well. Getting back to your mana situation... I''m a little stumped, to be honest." She said, sitting on my head again. She likely wanted to examine my mana closer or have another treat, which I allowed for now. "Beyond your mana being turned up to eleven and stuck there, I can''t sense anything wrong with it. Maybe you''re using more mana than normal when you cast, but it seems to regenerate so fast that it doesn''t matter?"
"Ha... I wonder if I''m stuck like this till I can speak to Gramps; hopefully, he will notice it before then."
"Don''t worry about it so much, let''s focus on the now." Trixie said patting my head, "So you wanted a yellow slime? Surely, they aren''t too hard to find up here."
"I did find one, but I identally killed it... My n was to either find another or force one to spawn."
"That''s a shame, but your idea is pretty sound, especially if you kill or get rid of the two creatures hogging all the essence."
"Wait, two things are stealing the essence? I know you said you passively feed on it."
"Yeah, I take a tiny amount, although, after your spells, I probably won''t need a refill for days. Longer if I keep sitting on your head." Trixie replied, then licked her lips, "Seriously, your mana is delicious. I think I''d want to keep you around even without the oath."
I was slightly startled by the random skill increase, but then I realized we were still in the sky during this entire conversation. With how perfectly I was floating in ce, I don''t even know if I could call it flying at this point. I guessed that [Enchanted Wings] was likely pushing my skill to improve rapidly.
"Something wrong?" Trixie asked, noting my silence again.
"I just realized we were flying this entire time. I''m surprised nothing came to attack or investigate." I replied.
"Oh, they certainly came to investigate. I''ve just been hiding them and us." Trixie said with a giggle and waved her hand.
The air shimmered and abruptly changed, revealing apletely different scene. A herd of pegasi circled us as if searching. They seemed to notice the change and started to whine and snort aggressively. I turned to Trixie as if expecting an answer, but she had vanished.
"Damn, pixie..."
Chapter 111: Pegasi
Chapter 111: Pegasi
The air surrounding all the pegasi rippled as they all startedmanding it to follow their whims. Part of me was d this would be an interesting challenge against so many [Wind Magic] users, but on the flip side, it would have been so much simpler to handle all these flying horses if they tried to fight with their hooves.
With a burst of speed they clearly didn''t expect, I charged directly toward the nearest pegasus, throwing my armor into storage and turning into a gtinous flying maw as I engulfed it midflight before it could escape. Chaos erupted from the rest of the pegasi, startled by what had happened. They all became much more flighty and panicky as they formed their magic. I regretted not trying to grab multiple in that first charge, as I doubted they''d let me get within close range again.
The captured horse was already dissolved, so I could try evading any wind desing at me as I shrunk down from a giant blob with random wings back to a more refined form. I felt [Tranquil Flow] trigger as per my previous order and found myself again in the strange trance as I freely started eluding the iing wind des.
It was a shame I hadn''t yet acquired lightning magic, a skill I had seen prove effective against swift foes. However, as indicated by their profile, theirck of enhanced ice resistance presented a prime opportunity for me to hone my [Ice Magic]. Imanded my [Sub-Cores] to pair up and cast [Frigid] on each pegasus while Alpha remained at my side, ready to assist. Together, we unleashed a relentless barrage of [Icicle] spells in retaliation.
As I watched the pegasi deftly dodge my spells, a wave of discouragement washed over me. I couldn''t help but wish I had more offensive spell constructs at my disposal, a feeling of frustration and determination mingling within me.
''I currently have various projectile shapes, but they don''t differ too greatly in the grand scheme. I have a close-range damage burst, a dust that applies ailments, an explosive projectile, and... Whatever I can ssify [Torrent] as.''
''There''s someponent in my debuff spells that lets me apply them from visual range, as long as I ovee their resistance. Sort of like a perception-based attack? Although it must be a very high-level concept if I can''t even determine what or where it is in the spell construct, let alone try to understand it or utilize it. Then, I could apply afflictions the same way or maybe even make a fireball explosion spontaneously appear in a spot. Now that would be awesome.''
Aside from the [Frigid] debuff being applied rapidly to each and every damn flying horse, the fight was feeling a bit like a stalemate. I couldn''t hit them, and they couldn''t hit me.
I tried to see if I could cast [Ice Dome] on one of the pegasi, but the spell fizzled. I knew it was likely because the spell was technically still ssified as a buff, which the system self-managed to only apply if it was determined to be beneficial or, at the minimum, non-harmful, which clearly was not the case here as I imagined it would have surrounded a pegasus and cause both to be forced subjects to the whims of gravity.I had only the briefest of chats with Evan over the exnation of buffs, as I didn''t find myself that interested in them at the time as there were so many weird rules around them, like if the target person determined you as hostile, then they could automatically deny a buff being cast by you. At the time, it made me wonder why the inverse [Bubble] worked on the nature boar, and I could only guess it was because the system didn''t determine it as harmful, and the boar was too stupid to deny a so-called buff. Although to be fair, it was raging at the time and likely wasn''t thinking anything other than kill kill kill.
I noticed the pegasi were doing something to break the stalemate, seeing arge vortex of mana swirling around me controlled by a group of four working together far out of range. I tried flying further, but they shifted the vortex along with me. I could swear the stupid horsesughed at me as they made various noises and even curled their upper lip at me mockingly. But it didn''t seem to be doing anything, and eventually, the other horses even stopped firing des of wind at me, and all just joined in on the mockery.
"Oooh. Looks like they got you good. You''re totally caught in their ultimate trap." Trixie said,ced with sarcasm and bored mockery, as she appeared by my side from who knows where.
I shifted enough to speak but failed to; only a strange sound came out, which became softer and softer with each attempt.
"Use your head. I''m talking to you telepathically." She answered.
"Oh," I replied mentally, not expecting it. "What''s this trap? Other than not allowing me to talk."
"They''ve stolen almost all the air around you. You''d probably have noticed it sooner if you didn''t have what looks like [Enchanted Wings]." Trixie answered, "They think they will suffocate you, which is absolutely hrious, by the way."
"Oh... Yeah, us slimes don''t breathe."
Thest of the [Frigid] spells had been cast now, and now it was time for a barrage of [Icicle] spells sorge it couldn''t be avoided. It started out with six tiny magic circles being formed, which then split into twelve.
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Trixie somehow whistled in our mental conversation, "Very nice usage of spell splitting..."
Then twelve became eighteen, and I could hear the audible gasp echo in my mind from the pixie. Then, the hailstorm was unleashed as I magically fired the barrage of spells. The look of utter panic from the pegasi was a sight to behold, and they frantically began taking action, some even hiding behind their allies.
"Hey... This isn''t spell splitting; the mana in each spell isn''t reduced..." Trixie questioned me, "No way. Are these all [Multicast]?"
I didn''t reply; I was too focused on maintaining the barrage, and now, even mixing [Cryo Slime] empowered [Slime Shot] into the mix,
I wasn''t feeling the popping sensation this time, and I wondered if my [Sub-Cores] were now drawing mana from my slime now. It made me wonder what would happen to my slime if it had been fully depleted of mana.
"Hey, I think you''re starting to shrink a little," Trixie warned.
"Thanks, Trixie. I didn''t expect that answer so soon." I replied and set up a replenishing trickle of slime from my storage to refill my stocks.
The pixie had be deathly silent as she stared at me with fascination until she broke the silence with an odd question, "Syl, are you uncapped?"
"What?" I asked, not really understanding the question.
"Nevermind. Shit. Why are you such a walking mystery." She replied, now chewing on her thumbnail.
I''d reduced the number of pegasi to about half when theirrgebined spell copsed. Their expulsion effect was soon reced with air rapidly returning and filling the space. It only disrupted my casting for a brief moment and allowed a few of the cowards to sessfully flee.
"I really need a better way to deal with flying enemies; I probably wasted more than half of my spells," Iined.
"Was it really a waste? When I look at you, I''m unsure if you even expended anything, as far as I can tell." Trixie asked, raising her eyebrow inquisitively.
I took some mental stock before replying, "I did expend, but depending on how many dead pegasi are down there to harvest, I might make it back."
"If I wasn''t a spirit, I think I''din about you slimes being very unfair." Trixie giggled and cheekily stuck out her tongue.
I flew down and started to gather my prizes, a tendril grabbing one and triggering a rapid dissolve each time. Trixie still followed, staring at me like she was trying to solve her puzzle. While I happily ate and let [Dissection] do its work on iming the feathers, I looked over my gains for the fight. Much to my disappointment, I didn''t gain a level in [Ice Magic].
.
I happily looked at the new skill, which I undoubtedly unlocked due to my Ice Affinity, and wondered what amazing effects it could have.
Allows control over one''s body temperature to negate or hamper thermal sensing and allows one to shrug off most negative environmental effects rted to cold.
Control scales with level as well as a minor intimidation effect while active.
Drains a minuscule amount of mana while in use.>
"Wait. This is shit. I can already do almost all of this." Iined, causing Trixie to look at me in confusion.
As if she could read my mind, she responded, "Not all skills will be winners, and I bet any human would love whatever you are mocking."
I groaned while feeling a little concerned that she read me so easily. I tried thinking about whether she could read minds, but she didn''t say anything, so my suspicion received no confirmation or denial.
"I''m surprised there are so many of these damn horses. Surely the ind doesn''t spawn this many naturally?" I asked Trixie while cleaning up some of thest remaining ones.
"If you go to the giant tree, you''ll get your answer," Trixie answered cryptically. "And you''ll need to if you hope to spawn your yellow slime."
"Let me guess, I''m going to have to deal with a lot more of these damn horses?" I said, sighing.
"Yes, and the sooner, the better," Trixie said, sitting on my head again. I wanted to protest, but I still found myself unable to deal with the pixie.
"Ugh... I wonder if I could get my next level in [Ice Magic] before then. I need something to deal with them better."
Trixie smiled, "Well... If you do me a favor, I''ll help you."
"Help me how?" I questioned, then quickly added, "And it depends on the favor."
"I could hide your projectiles from their vision, but only against the pegasi since they are annoying and disgusting. The rest you need to handle yourself." Trixie stated.
I remained silent for a while, hoping she would exin who or what the others were, but she instead started humming while waiting for my answer.
"And the favor?" I eventually asked.
"It''s nothing big, and if you want your yellow slime, you''d need to deal with her anyway. The other one messing with the essence on this ind is a real bitch, and I want you to kill her for me." Trixie said with an attitude that was as if asking to borrow a cup of sugar.
"Really? Who and why?" I probed for more information.
"I won''t spoil the surprise, but she is another type of spirit. From what I can tell, you''re directly suited to counter herpletely." Trixie answered, giving an evil smirk that looked a little misced on the bubbly pixie, "As for why... Well, she''s been here for a long time and no way she didn''t know I was trapped here, too. So she left me to suffer for years without help, so she deserves to die."
"A little harsh, don''t you think?"
"I think when you meet her, you''ll agree with me. She''s a real bitch." Trixie giggled, "Anyway, I can promise you as long as she is here, you won''t get your yellow slime to spawn."
"Can''t I just ask her to leave?" I asked.
"Ha! That''s a good one. She''ll attack you for even suggesting it." Trixie giggled. "Tell you what. You can try telling her to leave, but the deal is that once the fighting starts, you don''t show her any mercy."
"Alright then... I''ll agree to that," I answered, to which Trixie happily started petting my head and humming a whimsical tune. You''d swear she hadn''t just asked me to kill someone for her.
Chapter 112: Up the Tree
Chapter 112: Up the Tree
While flight was an option, I decided to stick to the ground as we approached the giant tree to dy getting there and avoid making myself a flying target. Once I was close to or under it, I hoped to stealthily make my entrance to avoid being thrown around in the wind again.
I was determined to level up [Ice Magic], so I resumed my previous cycle through weapons, hoping to reach the next stage. Meanwhile, Trixie was still sitting on my head, sometimes watching me, other times humming with her eyes closed as if my head was her personal rxation couch. She had asked me why I was practicing [Ice Magic] so hard, and I exined my n to freeze a yellow slime for capture. I had expected ament or remark, but instead, she hummed to herself and continued lounging about.
''Damn, looks like they got this one too.'' I cursed.
I tried making variations between shields or weapons, but they all fell under minor modifications in the main spell category. [Create: Ice Hammer], for example, was the catchall for maces, hammers, mauls, and even clubs.
I had started to work on modifying [Torrent] when Trixie suddenly interrupted me, "Wait till your next level of [Ice Magic] before you work on that. Trust me."
I reluctantly stopped my work and debated whether to take the explosion part of [Fireball] and make an ice shard explosion or modify [Arcane Armor]. Recalling how arcane mana seemed to just soak other elements up like a dry sponge, I decided it might be an easy win, and any extra defense options were a wee addition.
"So what do you get if you absorb a yellow slime?" Trixie asked while I was in the middle of tinkering. "You mentioned its trait, which I assume is its lightning. Anything else?"
I paused to consider whether to tell her, but considering it would add to her oath, I shrugged and said, "If it''s like the previous slimes I ate, I will gain Lightning Affinity."
Trixie squeed with glee and patted my head excitedly, "Really? Is that why you have so many affinities? That''s amazing; your mana would be even more delicious!""Please don''t eat me." I chuckled with only a hint of fear.
"I think I could say the same thing to you after what you did to all those pegasi." Trixie giggled, "So you''d just be missing Earth and Air from the basic elements then..."
"I have a n to get Earth, probably. Air... I don''t think I''ll ever get it; it''s continued to elude and taunt me with traits and skills I can''t acquire," I grumbled.
"True... I''ve certainly not heard of an Air slime..." Trixie muttered, deep in thought, while twirling her hair.
Leaving her to her schemes, I dly continued to work with [Arcane Armor]. I was certainly right that it greedily drank up the Ice mana and rapidly shifted and changed; all I needed to do was maintain its shape and not let it deform from the new mana type, which, with all five of my helpers, was a greatly simplified task.
''If the future Arcane spells are like this too, then I can rather simply add a new spell for each element. It''s too bad that the reverse isn''t true.''
"If you can get three elements to level five, or five to level three, you might get a solution to your problem..." Trixie muttered, seemingly having thought long and hard.
"I have four above three already, so I just need to get Arcane to three?" I questioned.
"No. Elements, not affinities. Corrosion and Arcane are out of this equation."
"Right... Anything else?"
"Probably at least level twenty in your ss. More wouldn''t hurt, but I think that''s the minimum."
"Thanks, Trixie. Guess I''ll have to wait and see the surprise."
"Yup. No more hints for you, or you will ruin the surprise." She teased and returned to herzy nap.
I wondered what this solution could be, although part of me was concerned that Trixie was fattening me up so she could eat meter. I was still greatly unsure about how to treat the pixie. One moment, she''s helpful; the next, she''s letting a bunch of pegasi attack me. Her amount of knowledge was both useful and a worry; if she truly was old as dirt as she joked, then that might put her above even Simon the Lich.
As I neared the floating tree, I saw pegasi circling the base as if performing patrols, so I made sure [Vanish] was active to deter them from noticing me. I paused briefly to confirm my spell wasplete and then, hiding out of the line of sight, cast the now-formed spell.
A translucentyer of shimmering ice rapidly formed and started to encase me, providing what I hoped would be a formidable defense. The outeryer was jagged, although not enough to cause more than a slight deterrence to an unarmed attacker. I expected the armor to be solid and unmoving, but surprisingly, it shifted along with my limbs, making a creaking, cracking noise as the joints of ice rubbed against each other.
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"I hope you aren''t going to sneak in wearing that." Trixie teased, and unfortunately, I had to agree with her assessment.
I canceled the spell, and the chunks of ice cracked and fell off my body, rapidly crumbling away. I had Delta cast the spell on itself and watched the pale-turquoise core surround itself in protective ice armor.
''At least it''s not [Create: Ice Armor].''
"So you''re going to hide my spells from the pegasi?" I asked, looking for some solid confirmation.
"Yes, but only them. The rest you''ll need to deal with," Trixie said, fluttering off my head; she gave me a mock salute and then vanished. "Good luck!"
"I wish I knew how she did that..." I muttered, cycling through every sensory trait I had avable and still unable to see her.
Shifting my transparency and flying as slowly as possible with [Vanish] active, I flew towards the dangling roots, hoping to use them to ascend safely without notice. I held my nonexistent breath while I floated up to the roots, and when I made contact, I immediately shifted my coloring to match them and started to slither along them rather than fly. I felt invisible and immensely proud of my sneaking skills,pletely undisturbed climbing up.
When I ran out of protruding roots to climb, I squashed myself against the soil and started to slither up again. I couldn''t remember using [Adhesive Slime] that much when I bought it originally, beyond a few tree-running tricks, so I was d it still had some functionality even though now I was flight-capable.
Reaching the lip of thendmass, I peeked over the top with great caution. Seeing the giant tree up close was even more impressive. It utterly dwarfed even the highest buildings I had seen in Kaerlin. Shockingly small structures seemed to be either carved directly into the tree or loosely attached on the sides, with a massive opening where the trunk met the ground. Pegasi flew to and from small openings, almost like bees returning to a hive, and on the ground near the entrance were other horse creatures I had not seen before. Unlike the Pegasi, they didn''t have wings; instead, a majestic horn glimmered in the sunlight atop their head, and their coat coloring was various shades of pearlescent white.
I contemted sting them from range, but I remembered how well my badger disguise had worked previously. If I could get up close, I could easily expand and devour some of them before they knew what hit them. Lowering myself below the lip again, I examined my surroundings until I was sure there was no pegasus patrol. I shifted myself into one, changing my profile to match the disguise. I went for a decently high level to hopefully garner some respect.
''[Identity Fabrication] honestly might be my best skill. I''m pretty d I didn''t eat that troll.''
I pped over the edge,nded on the ground, and started trotting towards the entrance. I mentally cheered when the unicorns didn''t attack me, and the flying pegasi continued their patrol undisturbed. When I approached the unicorns, they snorted and trotted their hooves. Perhaps it was my imagination, but they felt sort of... Outraged? I wasn''t sure what their problem was, and I tried to ignore them until one swatted its tail against my rear and another spat at me.
"Oh man, this is hrious." Trixie''s voice rang through my mind, "Your mental resistance is too high for them to talk to you; they think you''re insulting them. Let me handle the connection..."
"Filthy peasant! You dare!" A voice red through my mind.
"Sorry...?" I tried to reply mentally.
"Oh, now you respond, only after realizing you are in the presence of your betters. Such arrogance." The unicorn replied.
"We should put her in her ce; his majesty shouldn''t be trifled with such a pompous servant." Another replied.
"Indeed."
"Agreed."
I couldn''t believe what I was hearing; it was insane.
"So I''ve been listening to their private conversations. They think you''re trying to proposition their ruler, and they seem to be quite intimidated by your mana." Trixie suddenly exined while the unicorns began to circle me.
Their horns began to glow, and I knew it was time to fight. I leaped towards the nearest unicorn and prepared to devour it with acid. I gave my [Sub-Cores] themand to debuff all of them.
"The nerve!"
"The audacity!"
The unicorns shouted in disbelief that I would willingly defend myself. I formed two tendrils of opposite densities and flung them toward the unicorn before it could do anything; whatever spell was forming on its horn fizzled as one tendril clobbered it while the other engulfed it.
"Guards! To arms! This peasant is revolting!" One of the unicorns red aloud, and I noticed some pegasi immediately reacting and approaching.
The other unicorns began firing beams of light from their horns. The spell buildup was long, but the projectile speed was terrifying. The fired beam of light prated straight through my head, and I wondered what type of magic or trait it was.
"[Light Magic], fast and high pration but rtively low damage." Trixie suddenly exined unprompted. "Or at least that spell is, be thankful these mares are absolute amateurs."
Witnessing therge amount of pegasi rapidly approaching, I ordered four of my [Sub-Cores] to start firing, hoping that Trixie would uphold her promise. Meanwhile, Alpha and I would deal with the unicorns, who were now all debuffed with [Frigid].
I cast [Frost Armor] and was rapidly enveloped in protective ice before another light beam struck against it. When it hit the ice, it seemed greatly hindered, and the single powerful beam split into a multitude of minuscule ones that couldn''t even prate my slime.
"Ooh! Refraction!" Trixie cheered.
I wanted toin about hermentary, but I shut my mouth when I noticed a pegasus getting absolutely skewered by multiple icicles.
[Frostbite] easily applied to one of the nearby unicorns, ice rapidly forming and piercing into her as it spread.
"Huh... I thought you didn''t have freeze?" Trixie curiously asked, "Oh... Is it just ice damage? How the heck did you figure that one out."
"I dunno... It''s poison ice..? I''ll exinter." I replied mentally while focusing on trying and failing to dodge unicornsers.
I was extremely impressed with [Frost Armor] reducing the impact of their spell. I felt very confident until one of the unicorns charged me from behind, stabbing into the armor with her horn before firing a point-nkser. Unfortunately, the beam directly hit one of my many [Sub-Cores], but thankfully, was unable to deal enough damage to break through the previously cast [Arcane Armor] on it.
"Oh, don''t mind me. I''m just thinking aloud." Trixie chuckled as I reverse-engulfed the unicorn that had charged at me.
Chapter 113: Horsing Around
Chapter 113: Horsing Around
Unlike the pegasi, the unicorns felt far less threatening as they struggled to dodge any of my attacks. Their beams of light, while initially scary due to their speed and pration, were not as deadly for me. With their wind, coordinated teamwork, and evasive speed, the pegasi would have been my primary concern if not for whatever Trixie did to hide my spells. With my spells hidden, I no longer needed to unleash an improbable barrage and hope to hit them, and their effectiveness was greatly enhanced. The pegasi were like delicate ss cannons that relied entirely on their speed and aerial maneuvering to survive. They only required a good hit or two to take down, and often, gravity would finish the job.
I barely paid attention as my [Sub-Cores] continued their task of dealing with them; it honestly felt great to have the team back together. The unicorns were either screaming in panic or bloody murder as they tried to deal with me, using me of treason, regicide, and even homewrecking. I tried my best to tune out their words and wished Trixie hadn''t maintained the connection.
Some of the more advanced unicorns attempted to counter my attacks with blinding shes rather than their offensive beams of light. Yet, their efforts were in vain. Even when my normal vision was impaired, I could still rely on [Mana Conception] or [Life Sight] to maintain my advantage.
Without warning, a thunderous sound, followed by a resounding neigh, reverberated from the hollowed tree. Emerging from the shadows was a majestic creature, a horse-like being with both pegasus wings and a unicorn horn. Its pearlescent coat, more radiant than any unicorn''s, shimmered in the light. Its mane, a vibrant kaleidoscope of colors, was a testament to its regal nature.
"Wow, how many names does someone need?" I questioned.
There was a cacophony ofughter from Trixie before she struggled out her next words, "You... You gotta listen to this guy."
"I''d rather you not-" I tried to reject the offer, but Trixie did her own thing, and suddenly, I had another voice ring in my head.
"Loyal subjects, why do you fight?" The alicorn spoke; even mentally, his voice was flowery and pompous.
One of the surviving unicorns spoke up, "Your majesty! This pegasus monster has been sent to assassinate you! Clearly, an agent of chaos! Her form twists and turns like the monster she truly is!"The alicorn examined me and... smiled? His upper lip curled and showed his pearly whites. "Good heavens, what a fantastic mare. Your potential is outstanding."
"Your majesty!" The unicorn protested, "She killed many of your concubines!"
"We can spawn more as long as I hold this essence nexus, but an enchanting specimen like this doesn''te along so often... She''d make an excellent broodmare." He replied and fluttered his eyshes as he gazed at me. I wanted to vomit, but Trixie just keptughing.
"Your majesty! You can''t; she is but a peasant!" The unicorn begged, and against my expectations, the alicorn snarled and, with a swipe of his horn, formed a de of light that decapitated the unicorn.
"Good. Her voice was droning on." He chortled to himself and began to pompously trot towards me, "Good concubines for the harem are so hard to find, but you, my dear, could be my number one broodmare. Our children would be legendary; we could overthrow my brothers and im the kingdom!"
"Uh... No thanks," I replied instinctually.
"Now, now, my dear. I do like a bit of feistiness, but I''m not opposed to breaking in a new mare."
I had enough of this and was about to go full slime chimera on him when Trixie spoke up, briefly holding back herughter. "Please keep pretending to be a pegasus. Then,ter on, shapeshift into something male; the uglier, the better, please!"
When I didn''t immediately agree to her request, Trixie quickly added, "I''ll give you a reward or something! Please, I haven''tughed so hard in years!"
I still had no idea where Trixie even was, and it seemed she could quite easily control the direction of these mental conversations. Her strength and abilities were still a great unknown, so I reluctantly grumbled an agreement. Meanwhile, the pompous alicorn kept regaling me with his glory.
Since he was so full of himself, I decided toyer out all my debuffs beforehand by keeping the conversation going. "Your... Majesty..." I forced out, "Why are you controlling this essence nexus?"
"Well, my dear, one as great as myself can never have too big of a harem. I was hoping to eventually find myself an excellent broodmare, and it seems my prayers have finally been answered with your arrival."
The debuffs were applied one by one, and I tried to think of something to keep the conversation going until they finished. "I see... But what of the other males? Surely they''d object?"
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"Ha! That is why I kill them as soon as they spawn. There''s only room for one stud on this ind. I''d not even let another male unicorn, pegasus, or alicorn dare to breathe the same air as me and my harem." He snarled.
Trixie continued tough, clearly eavesdropping on the conversation. My preparations were finally in ce, so I cut off his conversation byunching a rapidly formed [Icicle] spell directly at him. Despite my sudden attack, he surprisingly reacted in time and formed a floating shield of light that blocked the icicle spell long enough for him to dodge before it prated through.
He gave another horsey grin, "Yes... Much potential, I''m d you want to put up a fight, my dear. Forcing you to submit beneath me is far more exciting than if you were just willing."
I cast both [Combust] and [Frostbite], the two different powders blowing towards him before another thin light barrier appeared to block the dust as heunched himself into the air. I followed after him, bemoaning that this was going to be another aerial opponent and a nightmare to hit.
"I''ve hidden you and the royal twat from the remaining pegasus, so enjoy your battle uninterrupted!" Trixie giggled.
I chased after the alicorn while firing multiple spells at him, which he dodged and proceeded to mock. If snark was a skill, he''d have it maxed out. When his horn shone brightly, I expected more of thesers, but instead, a floating golden sword of brilliant light appeared nearby and shed at me. Someone triggered [Tranquil Flow], and I glided out of its slicing arc.
"Spectacr! Such grace!" He swooned.
Shuddering under his lustful gaze, I swapped to a barrage of twelve spells in retaliation; his eyes went wide as he suddenly had to try to dodge a hail of ice. Another shield of light formed, blocking some of the ice shards, but I finally managed to deal some damage to him. He seemed shocked at his own frailty, as the ncing blow should not have inflicted such a wound.
I expected him to be angry, but he swooned even harder, "Masterful! Looks like my eyes were right to see such a hidden gem."
A soft glowing light enveloped him, and I saw his wounds slowly closing up.
"Shit. He has healing magic..." I grumbled.
Another sword of light appeared from behind and shed at me, but thankfully, I could sense the mana forming and knew it wasing.
"Feels unfair that his light sword is so much better than my ice sword..."
"What are you talking about?" Trixie replied, "You could do the exact same thing with your ice weapons... Don''t tell me you thought you had to actually swing them with hands?"
"...Yes?" I answered, firing more spells at the alicorn while continuing to avoid his light de.
"It''s not even hard. I bet you could do it right now if this royal idiot can do it." Trixie pressed.
That really got under my skin; while I didn''t consider myself a master of magic, this prancing, stuck-up alicorn being able to outdo me just wasn''t eptable.
Perhaps sensing my bubbling anger, Trixie gave an exnation. "Just form the spell and hold it; you should be able to mentally swing it. If it helps, picture using [Arcane Hand] without actually using it."
I followed her advice, and when the sword came down at me, I cast [Create: Ice Shield] and sessfully blocked it. The alicorn prince once again swooned like a horny teenager.
"Marvelous. Breathtaking. Spectacr! I simply must have you!"
I cringed and quickly dodged a second golden sword, which apparated from the opposite side of the original, forcing me to block one while avoiding the other.
"Okay, so I can do that, but mine have a limited rangepared to his."
"Yes? Just move the anchor point or recast the spell if that''s too hard for you? " Trixie answered, sounding dumbfounded.
"Anchor point?"
"Okay. Who was your magic teacher? I''m going to have to seriously give them a piece of my mind." Trixie huffed. "You''re creating custom spells, are on the verge of having two affinities of magic at level five, and yet you don''t know what an anchor point is!?"
"Look. I''m mostly self-taught, and the one teacher I had believed everything could be resolved with a good [Fireball] spell." I answered while forced to form a second ice shield to block the now faster-moving swords.
"Of course, it was a bloody Pyromancer!" Trixie eximed. "This exins so much..."
I tried to approach the alicorn, but he was more than happy to keep fleeing while shing at me with his swords. asionally throwing out a blinding sh of light in hopes of tripping me up, but [Mana Conception] was more than enough to still see the magical de trajectories. I caught him with another spell barrage, but he smirked and healed himself again.
"Well, there''s no way I can exin anchor points to you mid-battle." Trixie sighed, "How about you submit, then give him a show." Trixie''s gleeful delight bled through the telepathic link.
Mentally, I sighed in resignation, but outwardly, I pressed hard on my [Acting] skill. I briefly considered if adding elven ears to my pegasus would be enough for me to borrow [Elven mour], but I decided to not risk it. When his des shed against my ice shields, I let go of the spellspletely so they shattered and allowed the des to cut into my nk. Alpha, still following my prior orders, made the wounds look realistic despite not causing any genuine damage.
"Your majesty! I''m no match for you... I submit." I dered, hoping my performance was enough. I worried I was hamming it up too much, but [Acting] seemed to feel like this was the right choice.
"Yes!" The alicorn responded, his voice dripping in arrogance and glee. The hunger in his eyes made me want no part of this, but Trixie kept egging me on to continue.
The alicorn smugly approached, and I showed no outward hostility or movement. His lip curled up as he showed his teeth and dramatically flicked his mane in the wind.
"Let me heal you, my broodmare, then get you cleaned up, and we can proceed to our castle." He replied and nuzzled against my neck. Holding back the urge to vomit, he cast a healing spell, and Alpha faked the wounds closing up.
"Do it!" Trixie ordered.
I positioned myself closer to him, cing my head on his torso, which seemed to delight him. Then, I triggered my shapeshifting. The ugliest creature I could imagine was the orc, so I made thergest and nastiest orc I could recall. My head was shifted into an arm, which grabbed onto the prince, not allowing him to leave.
"Wh-what!?" He stammered out in confusion.
My body rapidly rippled and transfigured; I ensured the orcish face was right up close and personal. Perhaps I still had [Acting] on, as I instinctually gave a nasty grin of rotten tusks.
"Hey, handsome," I replied out loud, trying to do my best orcish guttural imitation.
The alicorn prince screamed in shrill and pure terror, yet that was still outdone by the sheer volume ofughter that erupted from the pixie.
Chapter 114: Old Tactics
Chapter 114: Old Tactics
After the scream came the panicked attempts at escape from the alicorn prince, but I had ensured I was tightly wrapped around his barrel with my arm and an apanying tendril.
"No! Unhand me, foul beast!" He demanded as he mmed a golden sword deep into the orcish face.
The orc head had no core inside, so there was no real risk to me, and once again, I felt obligated to put on a bit of a performance. Either [Acting] wanted an encore, or Trixie was seriously rubbing off on me as a bad influence. I had the head grin maniacally despite having a sword embedded in it and licking its lips.
The prince, in a state of panic, continued to cast spells and make frantic attempts to dislodge me. But I had already enveloped his entire body in slime, firmly establishing my hold. In the past, when I had covered monsters, they had been more than willing to harm themselves in an attempt to kill or remove me. But the alicorn prince was different. His golden weapons of light swiped at me with extreme hesitancy, his fear of self-inflicted injury palpable.
Just as I was about to unleash the full force of my [Acid Slime], a stern reminder from [Dissection] halted me. This prince was a treasure trove to be harvested, not a mere enemy to be dissolved. Reluctantly, I had to resort to the old suffocating invasion, a method my low-level self would have been proud of.
My tendrils and slime sought any and all avable entry inside the alicorn; once again, he screamed in mental outrage and panic. He begged and pleaded, offering me riches, mares, if I only spared him. He cast multiple healing spells on himself as [Life Sight] showed me how much he bounced between death and life.
I had introduced some Bloodrot poison to hinder his healing, which caused even more panic from the prince. There were usations of being a pestilence demon, and he seemed to swap to another form of magic that didn''t seem to do anything. I was trying my hardest to just block him out, and at some point, Trixie cut off the connection, which I was grateful for, as I didn''t want to hear him mentally screaming until the very end.
Unsurprisingly, he began to plummet, unable to maintain airborne through the pain and near-death state even with his magical flight, which was when I fully enveloped his wings to protect them for [Dissection] and withdrew a mass amount of slime to provide enough cushioning to protect the resources; I didn''t dare risk the ire of [Dissection] after failing twice with the griffins.
My [Life Sight] must have leveled up, but I ignored the notifications for now, as I could see the alicorn''s in much more detail. As each second went by, arge chunk would suddenly vanish until nothing was left. Ournding was much bouncier than I expected, and I partially reduced my outer density between each bounce in the hope of slowing us down.''A much better crashnding than the griffin, at least!''
Fate must have hated my positive attitude as I noticed our current trajectory heading off the floating ind. Seeing the inevitable oue, I quickly made ns, withdrawing more and more slime mass. Once we crossed the edge, I''d form as many wings as possible. I''d be a giant fat blob of slime with wings! It would be very stupid-looking, but hopefully enough to keep myself and my prize from plummeting to the ground below.
Bouncing off the side, I put my n into action, and with a little bit of strain and perhaps a few wings too many, I stabilized and pped myself back towards the ind like a massively overweight bird. When Inded, I let out a sigh of relief and let [Dissection] get to work by assigning it to my [Sub-Cores]. I sighed deeply.
"Wow, Syl, you''re pretty scary, you know," Trixie said, finally reappearing before me. "Remind me not to get on your bad side."
"Sure... I hope it was worth it." I responded. I wasn''t tired or hurt per se, more just emotionally and mentally drained or perhapsing down from abat high.
"Oh, definitely. That orc bit you did was outstanding! I thought I would die ofughter," Trixie responded, giving me a standing ovation.
"Are all royals and nobles like that?" I asked. Admittedly, I didn''t have the greatest sample size.
Trixie shrugged, "Ehh... I think it differs from race to race and person to person. The fairy queen is a real pleasure. The dwarf king is cheery as long as he isn''t sober. All the elves are pretty friendly to my kind. I''ve always avoided humans and got captured the one time I didn''t, so I can''t help you there. This assumes none of the thrones have changed while I''ve been stuck here."
Trixie knew a surprising lot, and I wanted to poke for more information, but I could almost feel the mental glee oozing from her as if she was just waiting to deny me. The way my emblem behaved around her also made me suspicious that she was more than what she appeared to be. Or maybe she was just really old and had lots of random tidbits rattling around in her head.
Deciding to ignore the pixie for now, I turned to the vast wall of text from all the notifications. The first thing I did was look at my proficiency increases. I was eager to see if I had finally reached the next level of [Ice Magic].
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These gains were weed; getting a direct line of sight to the alicorn flip-flopping between life and death must have been great for experience. Multitasking going up was not surprising after so many spell barrages.
Magic LV 4].>
Finally, I reached the next level of [Ice Magic], which contained the powerful concept of ice that I had been looking for¡ªthe ability to freeze things directly. I immediately knew I could increase its power by adding [Chill] to it, which would increase the speed, but I was more concerned with adding it to another spell form to get around its current melee form.
I partially shifted a torso, leaving arge blob of attached slime to continue dissecting the alicorn and cast the spell. As the spell settled in ce, almost my entire arm was coated in an extreme amount of ice mana. I grasped a nearby rock and watched the whole thing freeze solid. When I had cast [Frostbite] on a rock previously, it coated it in ice and did not actually freeze it, but now, this rock was frozen to its core.
Trixie looked at me and sighed, "I know the spell has Grasp in its name, but you don''t have to cast it on your arm as the medium."
I stared at her, letting her words settle in. From the spell name and the bare minimum knowledge of casting it installed into me, I automatically assumed I had to use it on a hand. I tried casting it again a few times until an icy, ethereal hand eventually formed near me and metaphorically grasped another rock, rapidly freezing it.
"Adequately sufficient!" Trixie said sternly, "I already think my reward for your ster acting performance will be a magic boot camp. Even if you are her natural counter, I cannot throw you at her like this. It would be disgraceful."
I blinked, surprised by the suggestion, "Thanks, Trixie. I''d appreciate that."
She smiled friendly and sat on my head again, clearly waiting for me to finish what I had started. When I started going through the kill notifications, I was genuinely shocked at the quantity, I knew I wasn''t paying attention to the pegasi, but the sheer amount that my [Sub-Cores] had dealt with was startling.
...
...
...
''Ugh... Really? That''s all you''re going to offer me, ss?'' I grumbled.
I knew that the ss wasn''t specifically tailored for me and that any normal person would be happy about either of these, but it left a bitter taste in my mouth. I was also sitting on many skill points, and now I was very close to level twenty, which Trixie said would offer me a solution if I had three elements at five.
''At this rate, there''s no way I''ll get [Ice Magic] to five before I hit twenty. Should I just buy it?''
"Hmm, you could. But I think we could do it." Trixie suddenly said.
"Okay, seriously, can you read my mind?" I demanded an answer.
"No, you just have a habit of reading things aloud in your head, not to mention frequently talking to yourself," Trixie giggled. "You have to be a little mindful when using telepathy."
"Well, that''s one mystery solved."
I looked over the two new profiles I had gained. Both the unicorn and alicorn updated the [Equine] profile. It was the natural evolution path of either unicorns or pegasi, which made me wonder why the unicorns were put above them. Not wanting to dive into horse politics, I looked for any traits or skills I would want.
Anything the unicorn had was in the alicorn profile, so I promptly ignored it and looked over the alicorn in more detail. It had quite a few traits I had never seen before; [Enchanted Horn], [Curse Resistance], [Divine-Touched], [Telepathy (Lesser)], and a familiar friend [Magic Resistance (Lesser)]. Over in skills, it had [Light Magic], [Recovery Magic], and [Holy Magic], and I failed to meet the prerequisite for any of them.
[Divine-Touched] raised the efficacy of [Light Magic], [Recovery Magic], and [Holy Magic] and raised resistance against [Dark Magic]. None of that applied to me, so I could ignore it unless I needed a half-effective dark resistance.
[Curse Resistance] seemed interesting. I prodded Trixie for an answer, to which she frowned and replied, "Basically, everything you are doing with [Corrosion Magic] and more. It''s good to have if ever fighting warlocks or demons."
Remembering warlock and Krutz and his attempted envement, I hastily bought it.
[Enchanted Horn] was amazing, and I wish I could have bought it, so it would have to be a prime candidate for borrowing instead.
Raises spell power by 5% per trait rank.
Spells focused through the horn be more real.>
"What the hell does more real even mean?" I questioned Trixie.
"Oh, that''s pretty easy to exin. So, anything created by magic would be more substantial. Like his swords of light, they had a sort of weight to them despite being made entirely of light mana." Trixie exined. "Now, it''s not going to make it actually a sword, but you can surely understand the benefit. You''re using ice, which is already pretty substantial, so you probably never realized it, but if you tried to do the same with fire, it''d go right through."
"Huh... Thanks, that actually weirdly makes sense. At the time, I thought, ''Well, that''s magic,'' but I didn''t think further about it."
"Yeah... No need to think too hard on it." Trixie chuckled.
Mentallymunicate to 1 target per trait rank within visual range.
If the mind is unwilling, mental resistance must be ovee to establish a connection.>
"Well, that''s pretty simple. Although I''ll probably stick to borrowing it, I don''t know if I trust myself to talk to people mentally."
"Yeah... You''re kind of an open book in that regard." She patted my head before fluttering off, "Now, let''s go im our new tree fort before someone else steals it!"
Chapter 115: Cleanup
Chapter 115: Cleanup
A sense of victory washed over me as I confirmed the sessful harvest of alicorn horn, mane, hide, and feathers. Trixie and I leisurely flew back towards the tree, observing the lost and uncoordinated pegasi still in the air. Trixie, with her enigmatic demeanor, seemed to be concealing our presence, ensuring we remainedpletely undisturbed. Her actions, shrouded in a veil of mystery, were a puzzle, evading even my most rigorous attempts to sense or identify them. Any attempts to question her about it were met with a smug smile and giggles as if I were a child asking why water was wet.
As we returned to the tree, the scene was a chaotic mess, the aftermath of the battle starkly evident. The once serene surroundings were now marred, the ground littered with fallen pegasi and unicorns, their lifeless bodies a stark contrast to the vibrant atmosphere that had filled the air moments ago. Despite their equal monster tier, the unicorn horns were much more valuable, and I felt a sense of duty to start harvesting them.
"Right... You take care of all this mess, and I''ll handle the inside of the tree. I bet it''s like a barn in there." Trixie dered, her voice filled with a mix of determination and anticipation, and fluttered off inside, her wings a blur of motion.
I wasn''t going toin about being told to eat and harvest, so I started gathering the carcasses with pseudopods and bringing them to a giant blob of slime, which I was designating the [Dissection] zone. To facilitate this, I let my [Sub-Cores] control portions of slime while I got to sit down and rx. asionally, one of the pegasi would fly past as if searching for the tree, but it would fly past and not even react to me.
''Seriously, how incredibly powerful is she?'' I wondered, my awe and concern for her growing with each passing moment.
While I delegated the boring work, I yed around with [Frost Grasp], as I desperately wanted to add its freezing property to other spells. The [Icicle] spell currently felt more like it did more piercing or stabbing than anything ice-rted. Still, I had hope that if I added the freezing property to it, then any icy shards stabbed into an enemy would slowly emanate and freeze them. Then, the next step would be to add [Chill] to the spell, further improving it. From there, I might have a working temte for future ice spells.
I was still moderately upset by the difference between intermediate and beginner spells. Nothing shown so far was impressive in an isted use case, and instead, it provided a veryplex building block for you to work with. Although I probably skipped quite a few steps, I could only assume that, normally, a mage would have quite an impressive repertoire before reaching my point. Spells like [Fireball] and [Torrent] were immediately useful; meanwhile, [Chill], [Ice Patch], and even now, [Frost Grasp] seemed niche in usage.
''Calm down, Syl, one step at a time...''
It was already quite dark when I came out of my tinkering trance. I must have felt very safe to have gotten so absorbed in my work. ncing over to the tree, I noticed a trailing line of rabbit-sized stick creatures carrying all sorts of garbage and bits before heading towards the tree''s tform edge and dumping it over. I could sense the small amount of Nature mana contained in these creatures.''Are these Trixie''s?'' I wondered, watching the strange creatures work.
"Don''t you dare eat them!" A warning shot through my mind.
Not wanting to tempt fate, I ignored them and continued my work until, muchter, Trixie approached me and gestured toward the tree with a big grin stered on her face.
"Our home away from home is cleaned and ready!" She announced excitedly. "Come on in, I''ll show you around."
I followed her, a little excited to see what was inside. Despite the giant hole, there was actually still arge portion of the tree undisturbed, likely to prevent killing it entirely. I was surprised at the edges'' smoothness; some of it looked almost like it was naturally formed rather than cut out or crafted. There was a table that looked grown out of roots, two matching chairs, and on the outer wall, some wooden benches grown out of them directly.
The walls were covered with freshly grown vines and ivy and decorated with floral arrangements, creating a very pleasant and peaceful atmosphere.
"I''m surprised they managed to do all this...." I muttered.
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"Oh no, they didn''t; it was all very crude; the tree was practically crying; it was so abused. I used a sprinkling of Nature magic to regrow and tidy things up." Trixie exined.
I followed Trixie as she flew upwards into an upper chamber, what was previously giant open holes that the pegasus flew to and from now looked like it had window frames, minus the ss. Hanging from the ceiling was a very flowery hammock made out of perfectly smooth vines and decorated with arge variety of blooming flowers. Then, in the corner was what looked like an unnaturally smooth and pristine wooden bathtub.
"I wasn''t sure what you''d sleep in, so I figured a bath might work?" Trixie asked and waited as if seeking approval.
I couldn''t help butugh. "Thank you, Trixie. I''ve always thought of getting myself a bathtub or a bucket or something. I can hold a form while I sleep, but oozing out is the ultimate sleeping experience."
Perhaps Trixie didn''t expect such a genuine reaction from me as she blushed momentarily before promptly hiding it behind her usual teasing demeanor, "Well, I figured this way you won''t make a mess; after all, I had to clean up so much horse crap."
I smiled before approaching the tub and sinking deep into it. Trixie fluttered to her hammock andy backfortably while swaying. I hadn''t seen any of her branch sprites inside and wondered if she had dismissed them or sent them away on another task.
"How did the alicorn even control what spawned?" I asked, the convenience of our telepathic conversation meaning I didn''t need any shapeshifting.
"Likely from his [Prince] emblem. Anything strange or very unusual usuallyes from an emblem, especially if anything interacts with the world''s functions."
"Does that mean a yellow slime now has a chance to spawn?"
"If you get lucky, one might spawn now that we got rid of the horse harem. Although much of the free-flowing essence is still being captured, you might need to wait quite some time."
"Captured by the one you want me to get rid of?"
"Bingo!" Trixie giggled, "Yellow slimes are quite aplex monster, so they require a lot of essence to spawn; right now, it''s possible but very unlikely; we are much more likely to spawn some griffins or air elementals, maybe even a harpy?"
"Yeah... I had the option to evolve into one but opted for a mutation instead. So they are technically the same tier as me."
"Evolving is fascinating. It''s probably the one thing I''m jealous of with you monsters; I always wondered what it would feel like."
"Well... I''m an odd case, but for me, I pass out and then have a conversation with Gramps. Then, I wake up and find out two days have passed."
"Ha! Losing two days is nothing." Trixie scoffed, "Try being left in a cage, entering a meditation trance, and losing years."
"Sorry... I can''t even imagine what that''s like."
"No need to apologize; you freed me after all. I just wish I could find that corpse bastard and stick it to him." Trixie sighed, "Seriously, Syl, never trust a human."
"Uh..." I muttered, not sure how to respond to such a statement.
"Don''t tell me you have human friends?"
"Well... Something like that. I''m technically part of the Adventurers Guild and have built up an entire persona. I''ve gone on quests, saved farmers, defeated monsters, and they even want to give me a promotion."
Trixie paused momentarily before responding; I wondered if I had upset her, "That''s pretty impressive for a slime. Although you involve yourself in risky business, humans are smart and scheming... I''d hate to see you captured and experimented on."
I shuddered. It was like Trixie had specifically targeted one of my greatest worries; "Not all of them are so bad... At first, I was very scared of them. They harvested me when I first appeared, and then I watched one obliterate a green slime. Then I fought some while protecting some goblins, and they seemed... Weak? Then I somehow ended up being rescued by them, became an Adventurer, had one try to kill me, survived, and got promoted. Honestly, it''s been kind of chaotic. But I''ve made a few I''d likely consider friends..."
"I still think it''s far too risky; I just hope you''re strong enough that you''re prepared for it the day it inevitably happens." Trixie warned, then added, "You''ll have to show me your disguise in the morning; I want to see how you fooled them."
"Sure, it''s been pretty good so far. Although it draws far more attention than I''d like, I''m considering creating another persona."
"Interesting... Well, the more tricks, the better, in my opinion."
We continued to make some more small talkte into the evening; being so open for a change was honestly rather pleasant.
"Are we safe being out here? There was still quite a lot of pegasi flying around."
"Don''t worry, nothing will find us while I''m around," Trixie replied with unshaken confidence. "Anyway, it''s been a long day, and I''m sleeping. Toodles."
And just like that, she seemed to immediately fall asleep, the telepathic connection dropping. While I had faith in her capabilities, I still set up some orders to wake me up in an emergency and reced my [Arcane Armor] on myself with orders to be refreshed if it expired.
I opened [Mapping], the newndmark feature showing me how close we had now drifted towards Kaerlin, although Thern had said that it didn''t get close enough to actually pass over the city.
''I hope surviving pegasi don''t cause any problems below. Although, perhaps there was a good chance the alicorn might have ordered them to do so. He definitely seemed like the type to do that.'' I wondered. ''Well, I''m sure there are plenty of other capable adventurers; they can handle a few stragglers. Hell, I''m sure Lisa could st them with lightning. Now that is a scary thought.''
Sleep came rtively easily despite my concerns as I sank deeper into my tub. I made a mental note to im this tub for myself when departing this ind.
Chapter 116: Pixie Lessons
Chapter 116: Pixie Lessons
I awoke the next morning bright and early; Trixie was still asleep, snoring loudly and contorted in her hammock in a precarious position. I decided to sneak outside and continue working with my spells until she woke up and supposedly would help train me. Regardless of whatever help she offered me, I wanted a proper, usable offensive ice spell and immediately brought all my [Sub-Cores] to help with the task.
My concentration finally broke when the tiny pixie floated over, grumbling almost as if she had a hangover. Her appearance was once again slovenly, like when I had first met her. She nonchntly floated over and copsed against my slime, her arms out wide like she was trying to hug a pillow and rubbing her face against my outeryer.
"Ahh... You''re refreshingly cool." She sounded very pleased.
I was so stunned by the action that I nearly let my spell copse if not for my helpers holding it together. Either she had a newfound trust in me, or she had the utmost confidence in her own abilities. I certainly couldn''t imagine anyone allowing a known acid slime so close to themselves. Regardless, I didn''t want to tempt fate by attempting anything against her, and as much as I didn''t want to admit it, she was slowly growing on me.
"What are you doing?" I eventually asked when she had still not moved or done anything beyond trying to press herself against arger surface area of slime.
"Breakfast... Well... Brunch..." she murmured; even telepathically, I could feel the tired tone in her voice.
As if to soothe my worry, she promptly added, "It''s just the mana you''re leaking; you''re passively generating more than you''re actively spending..."
I kept my concern silent and continued to tinker away. asionally, she would watch my work, but she didn''t add anymentary or correction, so I had to assume I was at least heading in the right direction.
I lost track of time again, and eventually, she fluttered off me and stretched herself. "Okay, I''m up. Can you continue thatter, please?" she asked, pointing toward my in-progress spell."Sure," I agreed, letting the spell dissipate after ensuring the progress was saved amongst my cores.
She nodded, then held her hand out, a skill or trait hovering above her palm.
Redacted.>
"Can you purchase this trait?" She asked curiously.
I was slightly concerned about the trait''s description being unavable, but I tried.
"Nope. Requirements partially met, it says." I answered.
"Damn. Well, that would have potentially solved your strange manabination. Guess you will have to evolve further or try something else." She shrugged, shaking her head, "Well, you promised to show me your disguise, so let''s see how you fooled those humans."
Seeing no reason not to, I shifted into my elven form while auto-equipping my armor that appropriately resized itself. It was previously resized to fit my hobgoblin form, and I couldn''t help but be so grateful once again for the enchantment. Once fully formed, I did a little twirl and smiled at Trixie.
"Well? What do you think?" I asked.
Trixie stared at me long and hard. "I did not expect an elf. I''d swear you look familiar, too, like someone I know, their sister or daughter perhaps..."
"Her name was Sylthaeryn... That''s about all I can remember. She did have another name, but my memory of that is a bit fuzzy..."
"Sylthaeryn. Syl. That''s cute. You stealing her identity?" Trixie asked.
"No." I immediately answered, maybe a little too forcefully, "Well... Actually, maybe a little? She gave me the name; it was sort of her dying wish."
Upon further questioning from Trixie, I exined the situation and what had happened. She frowned deeply when I mentioned the human noble that had tried to kill her for the [Elven Legacy] emblem.
"See. Like I said, humans can''t be trusted. Far too greedy."
"Are you honestly saying you aren''t tempted to grab the emblem yourself?" I asked. If mana was as important to her kind as she made it out to be, then something like this would only be a great boon.
"I can promise you. I have no such interest in that emblem." Trixie uttered, I could swear there was almost a hint of fear in her eyes.
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As much as I tried to continue the conversation and get more details, Trixiepletely shut down any attempts. She didn''t tease or joke about it andpletely stonewalled me. I wonder if perhaps this might be rted to another oath she had taken, as it was notably uncharacteristic of her.
"Right so. I like that look; you''re very cute and pleasing to the eyes. I demand you stay like that while training; afterward, you can return to looking like a blob or goblin or whatever." Trixie demanded.
I nodded in agreement; I didn''t really see any reason not to.
She eased up a little and smiled, "Also, I can see how you fooled those humans. As far as I can tell, you are an elf right now. It''s actually a little scary how good your disguise is, and I don''t rely on something as fickle as [Identify]."
"Thanks. d to know I can at least rely on it."
"Enough of that! Now let''s start." Trixie eximed, held out her hand again, and started gesturing to it, "So this is an anchor point."
I cycled through every sense avable, then looked at her. "I... Don''t see anything?"
"Oh, sorry, force of habit." She giggled and waved her hand, revealing a magical spell formtion. I could see it was made up of what I now recognized as Nature mana, but I couldn''t discern its purpose.
"Wait... That''s the anchor point?" I asked, holding out but not fully casting [Water Orb].
"Yes. It''s where the spell originates from. They are formed within your mana aura by default, so they can''t be tampered with. Then it will do its intended effect as once cast, it''s not at risk of tampering by normal means."
"Wait, but..." I held [Ice Dome] and showed it to Trixie, "But this spell clearly originates at a different location?" I questioned and cast the spell, forming a tiny ice dome over a flower at range.
"Ah... I see your misunderstanding." Trixie smiled, "Think of the anchor point as the instructions; if they are within your mana aura, they are safe from being easily tampered with. Now, that spell is instructed to create that dome at a fixed point, which is aponent of the spell''s makeup. In theory, you could greatly simplify the spell by making it just create the dome at its anchor point without theponent that gives it a location target."
"I see..." I murmured, slowly putting the pieces together.
"That water spell only has the instruction to shoot forward from its anchor point," Trixie said and also cast a tiny [Water Orb] spell, which sshed harmlessly against me.
"Now, you need to learn to move the anchor point. Obviously, there are now risks involved in casting it away from outside the safety of your aura, but we will go into those details when you''ve actually aplished it." Trixie further exined, and then I saw the [Water Orb] forming above me and firing directly downwards, again sshing me with harmless water.
While I was basking in the newfound revtion, another ball of water hit me from behind, and then two dropped on top of me. I frowned at Trixie, who was now giggling after proving her point.
"Okay. I get it and can probably think of hundreds of good uses for it. It would probably trigger my [Sneak Attack] if I cast spells from behind monsters."
"Yes!" Trixie eximed joyously, pping her hands like a proud parent.
She held another spell construct in her hand, and then I watched the construct start to orbit around her before flying up into the sky and firing another water ball at me. I could have dodged, but getting a little wet meant nothing to me.
"Now, what I just did there is more advanced. It''s easier and safer to cast it at a point and be done with it, but in the case of your ice weapons, you could learn to keep up the casting and have it follow after your target."
I nodded, thinking of the potential possibilities and applications. It certainly was like a whole new world of magic was being opened to me.
"But! First things first, we need you to actually form your anchor point outside of your aura. It''s going to suck, big time, and if you''re anything like me, then your instincts will be screaming at you not to do it."
I smiled; this genuinely sounded amazing, and I was more than willing to put up with some inconvenience to learn something this useful. Hell, I brute-forced so much mental bacsh trying to create my first custom spell; this sounded far less strenuous.
"Thanks, Trixie. I can''t wait." I said happily.
"No problem. We''ll make you a magical force to be reckoned with!" Trixie beamed; she seemed genuinely thrilled. "Now, let''s start with the mental exercises."
Trixie kept me busyte into the night with her training course when she abruptly announced that she was too tired to continue and fluttered back into the tree for sleep. I wouldn''t say she was a bad teacher, but she and I might have had more inmon than I realized, and suddenly, I wondered if this was how I made Dewi feel.
Many of her exnations were based on feelings and emotions, and when I struggled to produce any results or understand her exnation after numerous failed attempts, only then did she offer a slightly more typical exnation. The gist of it was that I needed to ovee a mental block that is ingrained as soon as someone learns their very first spell, and I needed to project my will outside of the safety of my so-called mana aura.
Trixie''s original exnation was to meditate and think of projecting myself outside of my body, which then became an attempt to visualize my perception point changing. Herst attempt at trying to aid me in understanding the concept was to try to have me personify myself as a target.
"This rock is you, Syl. Now, because you are this rock, you should have no problem projecting a spell from it. You are the rock. The rock is you." Trixie had said sternly, wagging her finger. "Be the rock, Syl."
Shockingly, that exnation had helped me the most, and through great mental strain, I had formed a partial start at a spell construct next to the rock. My mind reeled at the attempt, and like Trixie had pointed out, a deep-seated instinct screamed out to me that what I was doing was very dangerous and that I should stop.
After that, I failed to form another partial construct for the rest of the evening. She was so excited when I had made that initial partial sess, and now I felt like I had let us both down. I had tried to ask Trixie why this was such a massive hurdle to ovee, but she only frowned.
"I wish I could tell you, Syl. But I worry that if I tell you, it''ll only reinforce the mental block," Trixie exined. She must have sensed my oing protest and reassured me to stop me. "I promise I''ll give you a proper exnation as to why, the risks involved, and how best to ovee them. But please trust me on this."
Feeling low on resolve, I returned to work on my ice spell before eventually also turning in for the night. I hoped a good night''s rest would help me recover enough to ovee this block.
Chapter 117: Safety Override
Chapter 117: Safety Override
The next day was a continuation of the same, a relentless cycle of almost seeding, only to be plunged back into the depths of failure. I turned to Trixie, hoping for a glimmer of advice, but her response was a genuine, regrettable denial.
"I certainly hope I don''t have to ovee this each and every time..." I said with a hint of anxiety.
"Thankfully, it stays broken once you''ve ovee the mental block," Trixie replied.
"That''s a relief... I think I''d give up if you said otherwise." I admitted, my voice tinged with gratitude.
"Is there a skill or trait for this?" I asked, hoping there was perhaps a purchasable solution.
After a pause to think, Trixie replied, "No... But it''s very good training for [Mana Maniption]. Also, once you''ve achieved it, I believe it might open up some skills for you in the future."
"That''s a shame... I''ve had things I wanted to do in the past, but until I got the right skill or trait, it seemed utterly impossible. Like I was blocked on a reality level."
"Think of it like agreeing to terms and conditions. Or a safety waiver."
"What?" I asked, puzzled."Are you sure you want to do this? Are you really sure?" Trixie giggled, but the joke went over my head.
I also tried ordering my [Sub-Cores] to attempt it, but they ignored the order. Whatever this was, I had to ovee it myself, and I just hoped once I had broken through, it would apply to them as well.
It waste afternoon when it finally happened. An invisible barrier in my mind shattered, and far outside of my so-called "mana aura," I formed the basic spell construct for [Water Orb]. There was an immediate re of dread, and I wondered if I was about to be punished, but then it entirely faded away.
I let the spell cast, and it fired off into the distance. Then I immediately attempted it again, and like Trixie had said, there was no resistance at all. I ordered my [Sub-Cores] to cast, and they followed through. I couldn''t help but cheer. I was extremely worried that they wouldn''t be able to after they tantly ignored my earlier order, which I didn''t think was even possible.
"Excellent! Well done, Syl. I knew you could do it." Trixie said with a bright and cheery smile as she petted my head. "Now, I can exin the risks and consequences without potentially scaring you off entirely or reinforcing the block."
"Right," I replied, eagerly nodding.
"Okay, construct another [Water Orb]," Trixie requested, and I did so.
"The first risk is an obvious one; someone else can seize your spell," Trixie said and held out her hand toward my spell. It shimmered slightly, and I felt it ripped from my control. A feeling of raw and pure vition washed over me, and then the spell was aimed at and hit me.
"That is the weakest threat; only amateurs will do something like this, as most casters are usually heavily resistant or immune to their own affinities." Trixie exined, then chuckled before adding, "And if they aren''t, they are idiots. Of course, if you have allies, they might turn your spell against them, which could be tragic..."
I nodded in agreement, remembering how Dewi had ensured he was fireproof. Since I mostly acted alone, the idea of my spells being turned against allies didn''t seem that likely, and I was mostly immune to all of them as far as I knew.
"Cast something a little bigger for the next demonstration, please. Preferably something, not water."
I cast [Fireball] this time, holding it in the air. Trixie reached out and seized the spell. Again, I felt vited, and the spell exploded as the construct dangerously unraveled. I felt something inside of me burn away.
"The second risk is someone disrupting your spell and causing you a bacsh, which will burn your mana. Against lesser foes, you can ovee this, and there''s an entire skill for this, which I''ll give you afterward." Trixie exined.
"So that was the... Burning feeling?" I asked.
"Yes. You have so much mana that you probably barely felt it, but for lessers, it can be deadly, especially if the enemy caster is highly proficient." Trixie answered, "I probably burnt away double the mana in that spell, but I''ve heard masters burn away up to five times the mana."
"That''s a horrifying thought. And that''s not even including the spell going haywire."
"Yes, depending on the type of spell or the mana types involved, it could be especially deadly when it breaks apart. Advanced spells in particr..." Trixie gave a little shudder; I could only imagine what an advanced spell breaking apart would do.
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"Right. Another [Water Orb] for the final demonstration." She requested, and Iplied. She seized the spell but held it, saying, "Right now, this spell is fully mine to control, but you are the designated fuel source."
It didn''t take long for her words to sink in, and my mind flickered through the potential ramifications of what she said. "Oh no..."
"Yes. This is the biggest risk, especially if you aren''t strong enough to regain control. In theory, I could drain you dry right now." Trixie said, and I watched her morph the spell form from [Water Orb] into [Torrent].
My mind reeled in disgust and outrage; it was like she had somehow vited my soul. I struggled to evenprehend how sinister and wrong this felt, and suddenly, all the prior warnings made sense.
"Sorry. An old friend of mine once described this as watching your child get mutted right in front of your eyes." Trixie said with a grimace and finally cast the spell. The feeling lessened drastically, but now I could feel the connection to my mana, and there was no way to stop it.
"In theory, I could just leave this until you drained, although remarkably, you seem to be almost keeping up," Trixie said, unable to hide her surprise in her voice.
"I could increase it too." I pointed out, allowing vines to grow out and borrowing [Sr Rejuvenation].
Trixie was startled for a moment, then watched with a strange look of admiration. "Well, aren''t you just full of surprises?" She chuckled and finally let the spell end.
"So those are all the risks?" I asked, feeling the relief of my spell no longer held hostage.
"Technically, there''s one more, but I''m nowhere near good enough to do it. It''s sort of an advanced version of what I just did. Theoretically, one could seize your spell and transform it into an entirely different spell with an entirely different affinity far beyond your capabilities. It could instantly drain and kill you."
I stared at Trixie in horror, "What?"
"Oh yes. It''s quite scary. The consequences for casting a spell you shouldn''t be able to is severe. Imagine I took your little first-level water spell and modified it on the fly into an eighth-level nature spell?"
"I-I didn''t even know that was possible..." I stammered, struggling to evenprehend how someone would do something like that. It made all my spell modifications look like child''s y.
"Like I said, far beyond what I''m capable of. If you run into someone like that, they could kill you a million other ways, so I''d hardly worry about them manipting your spell; that would just be them showing off." Trixie pointed out. I was immediately reminded of Simon the Lich and how he casually killed me with the wave of his hand.
"What''s stopping you from manipting a spell within my mana aura?" I asked. "Or manipting it once it''s actually cast?"
"It''s just how the world works," Trixie answered before pausing to ponder. "To give you an analogy, let''s say your spell was a recipe on a piece of parchment. Your mana aura is your house, and I can''t steal your recipe from within your house or mess with it. But if you leave your recipe on the street, I can do whatever I want with it."
I paused to consider her words; they sort of made sense. "Right... But then what about when it''s cast?"
Trixie sighed, perhaps disappointed I didn''t appreciate her analogy. "Well, your recipe was for a cake. You''ve baked your cake, and now I can''t mess with the recipe. I could blow up your cake or stomp on it, but once it''s baked, I can''t mess with it internally anymore."
"That... Kinda makes sense. Okay..."
"Look, I never said I was the master of analogies, but I thought it might help?" Trixie puffed out her cheeks, looking a little sulky.
"Right. Sorry, Trixie. Thanks for trying." I said, giving an apologetic bow of my head. "So, I suppose the more important question is, how do I stop this?"
"Well, you have a few options. Let''s start with the simplest: cast your spell fast enough that it can''t be manipted." Trixie said, nearly instantly casting a [Water Orb] before me that sshed against me. "That requires practice. I think a few skills might help, but nothing beats good old practice."
I nodded along, "Makes sense."
"The second method, and my favorite, is hiding your spell. If they can''t see it, they can''t seize it." Trixie said, another ball of water forming before casually beingunched at me. This time, I couldn''t see her spell workings; the water just appeared from nowhere.
"Unfortunately, you aren''tpatible with my method, so you might need to discover your own."
"Is it an affinity requirement?" I questioned.
"Yes."
My mood immediately plummeted, and I sank my face deep into my palms and let out a frustrated groan. Trixie seemed surprised by my sudden outburst.
"Bad experience with affinities or something?" She questioned.
"It feels like whenever I want a trait or skill, I''m blocked by a missing affinity..." I moaned.
"Yeah... Well, look on the bright side; not many can gain a new one by eating a slime?" Trixie replied with a shrug.
"Yeah. You''re right. Still disappointing, though."
Trixie cleared her throat loudly. "Anyway. While you can''t use my method, you can still hide your spells. Form them behind an opponent, above or below them, and so forth. Just try not to form them too close; if they are within someone else''s aura, they are easier to detect."
"You say that, but I can''t detect yours at all, and I''m pretty sure you''ve made them within mine." I pointed out.
"Easier, not guaranteed," Trixie replied with a cheeky smile. "There''s a decent chance once you''ve used it a bit, your ss might give you a solution. You mentioned [Sneak Attack], so I assume it''s some sort of roguey-spellcaster isn''t it?"
"Yes. It''s a hybrid ss, from what I''ve been told."
"Good. There''s even a chance you''ve met some prerequisite just by breaking through the restriction. Look forward to your next level up." Trixie said with a wink.
I tried casting a few times; if I pulled in all my cores to help and avoided empowering, I could cast excessively fast. Even Trixie was greatly impressed by that spellcasting speed. I knew [Magic Efficiency] also reduced spellcasting time, but I couldn''t exactly focus on training that skill in particr unless I spent some skill points to directly upgrade it. I questioned Trixie about it, but she said I should just cast lots of spells outside of my aura, which would be a risk bonus.
I was practicing with [Icicle], determined to get my [Ice Magic] to five while working towards my modified version. Trixie agreed with my approach to add [Frost Grasp] and [Chill] to it, although she pointed out that spell modifications weren''t exactly her thing.
"As fun as it is to watch you trying to turn this ind into a cier, I''m going to bed. Tomorrow, I''ll show you a new skill, and we can practice defending your spells for when stealth or haste fails you."
"I can''t wait!" I said with a beaming smile, "Thanks again, Trixie."
Chapter 118: Final Lesson
Chapter 118: Final Lesson
While I waited for Trixie to wake up, I again continued my work on enhancing my spell. To better understand [Frost Grasp] and practice speed casting, I had my [Sub-Cores] rotate through the castings of the spell at a distance. Icy, ethereal hands formed briefly to freeze a nearby rock or flower in the distance before disappearing.
I hadn''t noticed it at first with spells like [Icicle] or [Water Orb] due to their minimal cost; it seemed that forming the spell outside of my aura incurred an additional fee, a percentage of the original spell''s cost factored over the distance. In the heat ofbat, I didn''t anticipate this to be a significant issue; it felt more like a safeguard to prevent long-distance spellcasting.
''Or at least limiting them to one or two while waiting for mana to regenerate.'' I noted.
While the idea of spell sniping didn''t interest me much at present, I did see good use in it for rapidly expending my mana so that I could work on my mana-rted traits, which had be an issue since I was, in theory, always capped out. The only problem was that while I could sense mana leaving me and a rough approximation of the quantity, my actual capacity levels werepletely unavable. Trixie could somehow feel my mana levels due to her nature, but I didn''t feelfortable leaving it in her hands; it would be like relying on someone to tell you when to eat or breathe.
I was on the verge of what felt like a breakthrough when the pixie abruptly appeared and seized the spell out of my grasp. I tried to struggle and fight to hold it, but it was beyond me and broke apart. The frustration was overwhelming, and I wanted to scream in anger. Still, I managed to hold back since, with my [Sub-Cores], I could recover the point of progress rtively easily, and Trixie probably wanted to prove the point that I needed to work on my defense.
"I don''t know whether to apud your insight of working on a spell outside your aura to train multiple skills at once or p you for putting yourself at so much risk," Trixie said with an exaggerated sigh.
"I figured it would be worthwhile if I knew I was in a safe area." I defended myself.
"True enough, I suppose. We are safe up here, thanks to me, but I hope you''ll remember you won''t always have me around."
I nodded in agreement. I nned to be very aware of my surroundings if I tried something like this again."It''s frustrating that I can''t just drop the spell once you''ve imed it. I would have thought that would be a reliable defense."
"Technically, you''re right; that''s the best to do if you''re desperate and don''t feel confident in wrestling back control. You justck the capability to even do that right now." Trixie said and presented a skill.
This skill allows spell constructs to be seized or reinforced.
Skill level determines your base attack and defense but can be further enhanced through knowledge, mental attributes, or other magic-rted skills and traits.
Defend your spells or dominate your opponents!>
I hastily bought the skill; I was sick of feeling like a toddler trying to stand up to an adult. I was d that the skill level wasn''t the only determining factor, and I wondered what other skills or traits would aid. The obvious two were [Mana Maniption] and [Mana Conception], but I nced through my others to see if anything stood out while reading through the description.
''Reinforce... Huh...'' I thought.
"Trying to think of what works with the skill?" Trixie asked despite giving me a knowing smile.
"Yeah... I have the [Mana Reinforcement] trait and thought it might work. But the description mentions the body specifically, so now I have my doubts."
"Maybe? You might need to find a different teacher, though. I certainly don''t focus on reinforcing my spells; I prefer trickery and deception." Trixie replied. "Now, let''s try out your new skill!"
We started off with me trying to defend my spell. Now, instead of feeling like a toddler, I felt like maybe a child or teen trying to protect myself, and [Mana Maniption] was my knife. Trixie exined that the quickest way to defend myself if I was willing to take some mana burn was to rapidly disrupt my own spell; we practiced back and forth doing that. Trixie would seize my spell, and I''d defend it by quickly throwing it into a tangled mess.
Trixie was gentle with me, but I felt like I was making progress and was eager to try attackingter on. During our practice, I had the errant thought of wondering if [Ritual Casting] would apply to this and had my [Sub-Cores] join in with destroying my own spell.
"Yes! Excellent use of [Multitasking] to destroy the spell from multiple points," She smiled happily, and I felt a little guilty. "If you can do the same when attacking, you''ll be a tough opponent."
We continued for a bit longer, and I felt quite confident in rapidly destroying my own spell. Then Trixie suggested we swap to trying to maintain the spell.
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"As I said, this isn''t really my specialty. But from what I know, the stronger the recollection of your spell, the better. If you can maintain a strong image of the spell and fix the mistakes." Trixie exined.
I had to suppress augh; if spell recollection was a benefit, then my cores would be an extreme handicap in my favor. This time, Trixie suggested we use [Icicle] as if I was continuously fixing the spell, then I''d probably gain some experience toward [Ice Magic].
We started off slow. Trixie only used one point of attack, where she tried to unravel my spell, forcing me to fix it. Despite not having my [Sub-Cores] to help, I found this quite manageable as I found my recollection of this spell structure perfect. Trixie started picking up the pace to put me under some pressure, and after some time passed, she eventually began to increase the number of attacks she made.
I tried my hardest to defend alone, but after a few losses, I decided I was being stupidly stubborn and brought in the full team. At first, Trixie was smiling, but then her face started to contort, and a look of confusion was noticeably present. Trixie could maintain about seven attacks at once, a shocking number alone, but I could mount six defenses before even getting [Multitask] involved.
"Okay... You are shockingly good at defending your spell. Did your skill level up already?" She asked, clearly getting a little frustrated.
I blinked in confusion, then looked at the two notifications I had somehow ignored.
"Oh! I got a level in [Mana Maniption] and [Counter Magic]!" I said excitedly.
"Even with tutoring, that feels too fast for [Counter Magic]..." Trixie said, scratching her chin in thought.
"Well, I do have [Prodigy]." I pointed out, causing Trixie to raise her eye in surprise. "Also, there''s a chance you''re triggering my emblem. Although I have no idea if that''s true or not."
"You have a trait and an emblem for bonus experience? Talk about lucky." Trixie said with a hint of jealousy.
"I mean... I could share [Prodigy] with you?" I offered. Trixie had more than earned it, in my opinion.
"Aww... That''s sweet, Syl. But unfortunately, I believe that''s a birth trait, so I''d be blocked."
I tried anyway, but Trixie frowned. "Wow. I can''t even read the trait; it''spletely garbled."
I apologized, and we went back to our practice battle. But it wasn''t long until Trixie stopped us and shrugged. "I think you have the gist of it by now. Let''s do a little bit of attack practice."
Trixie held out a [Water Orb] construct, and now I got to see what it was like on the other side. Surprisingly, it came rather naturally to me, as it was almost like an alternative version of when I was trying to create a custom spell. However, despite Trixie saying it wasn''t her specialty, I had to admit her defense felt rock solid, and she showed off a little trick where she would actually cause her spell to squirm out of my mental grasp like an oiled-up snake.
Our practice went on far longer than I expected. Trixie seemed to be having a lot of fun, as she would add a lot of colorfulmentary as we fought over the spell. Unfortunately, I only managed to break her spell once when I threw all my cores at her and told them all to utilize [Multitasking]. It was a massive coordinated assault, all at once, and rather than tangling up her spell, it was like I had torn at it from multiple different points.
Trixie groaned, clutching her head as if recovering from a migraine before she chuckled. "Damn, you got me good. I think we can bring this boot camp to a close."
I smiled and politely bowed to Trixie, "Thank you so much for the help; this honestly feels like a new door has been opened."
"You''re wee. I''m d I could give you a better reward than just some pixie dust for helping me out of there. Honestly, I might have been stuck there for eternity if you didn''t show up." Trixie said with a giant smile stered on her face. "The only thing that sucks is I don''t know how useful this will be for you. Breaking through your aura is a definite, but you might be hard-pressed to even get a chance to use [Counter Magic]."
"True... Against non-spellcasters, I''m perfectly safe, and then against another caster, what are the chances they have [Counter Magic]?"I pondered aloud, "Actually, do they need to have broken through their own aura to use it?"
"No, but learning the one without the other is rather strange. But I''ve certainly seen stranger things." She gave me a big wink. "If you can''t find someone you trust to practice with, I suggest you do what you were doing earlier by modifying spells outside of your aura. Also, you should practice changing a spell; that would be a good tool in your arsenal, but it''s another way to practice."
"So cast [Water Orb] and upgrade it directly into [Torrent]."
"Yeah. Or, if you want to really get creative, change it into an ice spell." Trixie nodded as if agreeing with herself.
"Great. Sounds like a fun change of pace. Now I just need toplete my spell modification, and then we can deal with the other essence thief, right?"
Trixie fluttered over to take a seat on my head. She sat cross-legged and started humming to herself as she arced her back backward and had her eyes shut tight. She rocked back and forth, trying to make up her mind.
"You could probably take her now... But it might be worth getting some genuinebat practice before."
"Sounds good to me. There''s probably a few pegasi still, although I didn''t notice them flying past."
"No, I think they fled the ind; maybe there are a few stragglers, but without a leader, they be rather dumb." Trixie replied, "But new monsters have been spawning, and I''m sure you haven''t explored the entire ind."
"Yeah, I wanted to explore theke."
Trixie shook her head, "No. Not there. That''s where she is."
"Ah... Okay, well, there are plenty of other smaller floating inds. Not to mention a rainbow-colored forest I didn''t explore and some caves."
"Good. Plenty of options for tomorrow!"
"Now, if only I could solve my messed-up mana."
"From what I can tell, other than messing with your status and asionally draining the mana from your slime, it doesn''t seem to be doing much?" Trixie said, shrugging.
"Wait, it''s draining mana from my slime?" I asked in a panic, Trixie nodded, "Shit, I didn''t even notice. I don''t even know what the repercussions of that would be."
"I dunno... Normal slime?" Trixie responded, unsure.
"Mana slime is my normal, though..."
I tried looking at my slime reserves, but I wasn''t entirely sure if it had diminished at all or not. I had gained a lot from the pegasi and unicorns.
''Well, I can always just make more too.'' I told myself and activated [Slime Conversion].
"Well... That''s not good."
Chapter 119: Feathers
Chapter 119: Feathers
"What''s not good?" Trixie asked, peeking down from my head to stare at my face.
"I have a trait that lets me convert mana into slime," Trixie looked at me horrified, so I quickly rified. "My own mana."
Trixie visibly rxed, her tiny form shifting on my head. I could understand her fear-if she was a being of pure mana, as she imed, the thought of being converted into slime was surely horrific. "It was useful when I couldn''t find a food source or just wanted extra slime for a situation," I continued, "but now it''s causing issues. I even received an error message."
Trixie pondered for a moment, then spoke up, her voice tinged with concern. "It seems you''ve unwittingly created a paradox. You''ve identified your slime body as a mana source, but you also possess a skill that creates slime from your mana. It''s like trying to create slime from slime, and that''s been deemed prohibited."
"Okay... I can somewhat understand that. My only issue is that I had effectively infinite mana before this, so I certainly felt like I was creating slime from nothing before this." I questioned.
"This is a bit of a history lesson, "Trixie began, her tone serious. "In the past, the Gods have been rather lenient with creatively using exploitative loopholes, which your ability probably fell under. However, they have a strong aversion to duplication glitches."
I sighed, but there really wasn''t anything I could do right now, so I just had to ept it. "I''ll have to defer to your wisdom..."
Trixie chuckled, and we both went to our respective beds. Despite myfortable bath, sleeping that night was a bit harder.
As usual, I had the morning to myself, and I was determined to finish my first modification to [Icicle] before Trixie awoke. Considering she had been effectively asleep for years if not decades, I would have almost expected her to have a surplus of energy.Maybe it was due to [Mana Maniption] reaching a new level, but I found my task far easier this time, and I finished adding the freezing property to my spell. I immediately cast it, and the ground where the frozen shard prated started slowly freezing in a growing radius.
The way [Frozen Grasp] worked was I could keep the ethereal hand apparated, and it would keep repeatedly applying the effect at the cost of additional mana sustaining the spell, so I wondered how it would work now that I had transferred the effect over to a one-time projectile. After a few repeated casts and trying out different levels of spell empowerment, I concluded that there was a time limit per spell based on how much mana I crammed into it.
"This would make a great affliction... And debuff... I should modify [Frigid] and [Frostbite] next before trying to add [Chill]. More tools in the toolbox rather than just one big one."
"Talking to yourself again?" Trixie asked, I hadn''t even noticed her arrival.
"It''s probably a bad habit, but I find it helps."
"True. By the way, I have no idea what [Frigid] and [Frostbite] are, but I can throw in a rmendation of trying to swap out the fire in your [Fireball] spell."
My eyes widened at that suggestion. When I originally thought of that, I had pictured it just being an explosion of icy shrapnel, but if I could make it an explosion that froze those caught in the st, that had potential.
"You don''t have fire or ice, right?" I asked curiously, having only witnessed water and nature.
"Nope, but I have a friend who does. Hopefully, he hasn''t kicked the bucket yet..."
"Oh..." I felt a bit awkward, "Well... I mean... Don''t let me stop you."
"Ha! You can''t get rid of me that easy, Syl." Trixie said with a wink, "But when you go back to your human city, I might go pop in and visit some people."
"Oh. Surely you could just go invisible or whatever you do, though?" I asked.
"I could, but I''d rather not risk it. I''d offer the same to you, though. Wouldn''t you rathere with me after this ind business?"
I hesitated; while personally, I''d consider Dewi or Whitney closer friends, the rtionship wasn''t built on honesty, and Trixie knew the real me. "Maybe if I didn''t already have some ns arranged. There''s a good chance I''m going to the dwarven empire in a month or two, and I''ll get a silver slime core from them."
"Oh! If you''re visiting the dwarves, perhaps that''s where we can meet up." Trixie responded positively, "Unless I find you before then. But if there are too many humans, don''t expect me to show myself."
I agreed wholeheartedly.
"But that''s for the future! We got an ind to conquer first!" Trixie eximed, thrusting a fist into the air with cheer.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences elsewhere.
I was going to walk, but Trixie said she''d hide our flight. We debated between going to the forest or the cave first and eventually settled on the cave because it was likely quicker to explore fully. I was again using my winged-hobgoblin hybrid form for the multitude of defensive traits and to minimize my profile. Trixieined about no longer having a "pretty elf" to admire but eventually stopped whinging when she got me to agree to show her some of my other transformation options when we returned to our tree base.
"You''re honestly fascinating. Most mimics have one, maybe two forms, not including their real form, so for you to have such a plethora is unheard of. They are ambush monsters; they definitely don''t go around seeking prey like yourself." Trixie hadmented during our travel time.
As we approached the cave, I could see winged creatures nearby, and using [Eagle Vision], I spotted two bird-like women guarding the entrance. Rather than arms, they hadrge wings, their plume of featherspletely different from each other. They had little in the way of clothing; one had what looked like knives strapped to her long bird legs, while the other was perched on one leg while leaning on a spear under her armpit.
"Harpies..." I informed Trixie, who I assumed didn''t have the same enhanced vision as me.
"Oh great..." Trixie grumbled and started tearing away at her dress, which briefly fluttered back to the brown rag she was previously wearing. I wondered what she was doing and saw her begin stuffing her ears with balled-up bits of cloth.
"You might want to get rid of your big goblin ears," she suggested, now talking telepathically. "Seriously, you do not want to hear a harpy scream unprotected."
I removed them, but I could still hear my surroundings. "I don''t think I actually need ears to hear things. I am a slime, after all."
I almostughed at the dumbfounded expression on her face as she struggled toprehend what I just said. "What? How? Do you hear things through the vibrations in your slime or something?"
"I have no idea; how does a rock elemental hear things?" I retorted.
"Uh..." Trixie paused, utterly speechless momentarily, "Good question, actually..."
"So either I''ll bepletely immune orpletely helpless. Wonderful."
We approached closer to get a better vantage point, then watched and waited to see if more would leave or approach. Trixie was, in theory, hiding us, but I was making sure to keep up [Vanish] myself in case another prank was brewing.
"You could probably kill them both with a good [Sneak Attack]." Trixie pointed out.
"I''ve never encountered harpies before, so I don''t know what to expect. A friend described them as female orcs."
"That''s a decentparison for their behavior, but in terms of their physique, they are fast and frail and prefer to evade or ambush."
"A cave doesn''t normally allow for much evasion, though."
"Yes, but it would certainly give a boost to their scream."
"Oh... I wonder if they''d be willing to talk."
"They''re monsters, Syl. If you aren''t one of them, then you are just a bag of walking experience points."
I didn''t respond. I knew she was mostly right, but it still bugged me. We continued observing, and two more harpies arrived in tandem, carrying a dead pegasus between their ws. They arrived looking mostly unharmed but very fatigued. Then, they dragged the corpse inside the cave.
"I wonder why they didn''t cut it up into more manageable chunks; it looked mostly whole."
"Beats me. It''s a little strange." Trixie replied; I could almost feel her shrugging through the mental bond.
A short whileter, another harpy left the cave with what looked like limbs clutched in her ws. She left, flying higher up the small mountain to what I could only assume was another cave.
"The plot thickens... Those looked like humanish legs and arms," Trixie mumbled.
"So it wasn''t my eyes ying tricks on me."
"Like I said. Monsters. Beyond all your slime nonsense, because honestly, that''s another entire can of worms, I don''t think you truly understand how unique you actually are."
"Right. Well, I think we''ve observed enough. I guess I''ll take out the guards, and we can sneak in."
I effortlessly stacked [Erode] and [Frigid] on the two guards, then started to cast four [Icicle] spells distantly above and behind them, aiming for their heads.
"Showoff." Trixie teased.
With the spellspleted, I coordinated their firing so the pair would be hit simultaneously. The frozen shards pierced directly into the harpy pair and dropped them both nearly instantly. Their bodies then began to freeze over rapidly.
"Okay... I didn''t expect that." I said, a little shocked.
"I told you they are frail... You debuffed them twice, hit them with [Sneak Attack] and a status ailment. Not to mention two empowered spells each. Talk about overkill." Trixie shook her head. "What next, [Meteor] on a goblin? Maybe throw in [Assassinate]?"
"Stop. Stop. I get it..." I grumbled.
We sneaked over to the two frozen corpses, and I quickly ate both. [Dissection] was telling me they were worthless, so I only saved an ear each for proof. I was surprised that their feathers weren''t worth anything, but then I realized that despite the different colorings, they matched up with the ones I found in the ruins before I discovered the undergroundb.
Disappointingly, the harpy profile was full of traits that I already had or better, the only exception being [Screech]. It was described as a sonic-based attack whose primary focus was stunning and disorientating but was apparently lethal to lesser foes at high levels and close range. I briefly shifted into one to try it out, causing Trixie to stare at me.
"So now you can instantly turn into one of them? That hardly seems fair," Trixie said with a frown.
"Yeah... Something like that, it''s a mix of two evolutions and a rare trait." I halfheartedly exined.
"You!" Abruptly, she went wide-eyed and pointed an usatory finger at me, gasping, "You were trying to eat me!"
I shifted into a rather wed mimicry of demon Trixie; after all, I had only seen her using it once and had no benefit from [Consuming Osmosis]. The form was also obviously goblin-sized rather than pixie-sized since my cores wouldn''t allow me to go too small. Obviously, I had no traits or anything, only pure visual mimicry.
"You fool!" I replied, cackling in her mind.
Trixie went from outrage to astonishment to joining in on the cacklingughter in record time. Only my orc transformation against the prince got more of a reaction out of her.
"Okay. Okay. I forgive you for trying to eat me, Syl. I guess I did kinda deserve it at the time." Trixie said, recovering from her wheezingughter. I wondered how she was so emotive during these telepathic conversations, as faking being out of breath was a bit extreme.
"I forgive you too. Now, let''s see what''s in the cave of horrors." I replied.
Chapter 120: Harpy Cave
Chapter 120: Harpy Cave
The entrance to the cave loomed before me, a vast maw that seemed to have been carved out to amodate the harpies'' frequentings and goings. I morphed into a more amorphous form, clinging to the ceiling and blending in with the roughly worked stone, my colors mirroring the cave''s dark tones.
"Wow. Way to make me feel useless in this expedition." Trixie teased before giving a yful wink and disappearing from my sight.
As I approached the opening, I was taken aback by theck of additional security. It was either a sign of the harpies'' arrogance or their underestimation of potential threats. The air was filled with a cacophony of echoing sounds, a bizarre mix of squawks and throatyughter.
Inside were the two harpies I had seen earlier, along with the pegasus strung up and bled over a crudely shaped stone tub that must have seen much use as it looked permanently stained and caked with leftover blood.
There was also a strung-up body, looking very simr to the ghouls I had fought except hardly emaciated; it was in the process of what looked like regrowing its legs while one of the harpies was busy butchering off his arm. What once might have been a decent robe was now nothing more than a crude toga at best, crusted andyered with long-aged dirt and blood. His eyes seemed hollow and lifeless like he had lost the spark of consciousness. One of the harpies grabbed a filthy stone mug in her talons with unnatural dexterity and, in a practiced motion, fetched some of the unicorn blood and force-fed it to the ghoul.
"Oh shit. It''s Mister Gloomy. I wondered what happened to him." Trixie''s voice rang in my head.
"They''re... Feeding and harvesting him." I replied.
"Trade in some blood for some regrown meat. It''s quite clever, although I can''t say that looks appetizing; even regrown, it looks half-rotted already."
"He''s a ghoul. They''re some form of undead. His book mentioned an undead monster that could turn humans."Trixie snorted augh, "Serves the bastard right for locking me up. I was going toin that I can''t get my revenge on him, but it looks like he''s spent years being nothing but bird chow."
"I''m surprised he doesn''t just kill them. He''s a much higher level than them, and I can tell he''s notcking in mana."
"Yeah... That is odd; it''s like he''s under apulsion spell, but I can''t sense any foreign mana on him at all."
I shuddered at the mere mention ofpulsion, and Trixie seemed to pick up on it. Her voice unexpectedly softened, and I could feel almost like a mental hug. "Guess I don''t need to exin to you how vilepulsion can be."
Having seen far too many limbs being harvested, I began debuffing the two harpies and the ghoul after they were done. This coincided with them swapping positions, and the other one cut into the ghoul, bing extremely surprised at how quickly she lobbed off the limb.
"Have you been holding back on the hunts?" The one harpy questioned the other, surprised at the apparent disy of strength.
"N-no? The de just sunk straight through. It''s never been like this."
"Really? Strange..." The other responded and grabbed another cleaver before hacking into another limb; it went flying off.
They both squawked in confusion but soon began cackling in delight.
"This will make our job so much easier!"
"Yes!"
Using the unexpected distraction to its full extent, I rapidly formed my spells behind the two as they examined the ghoul and fired the razor-sharp shards of ice again. It seemed Trixie was right about my overkill, as a single spell for each was enough as it pierced their fragile skulls and began to freeze over their bodies. I lowered tendrils and started dragging the bodies upwards.
"Couldn''t you have just done that from the start?" Trixie asked.
"Yes, but I wanted the magic practice."
"Ah. Yes, very good, I was testing you. The easy path isn''t always the right path."
I would have rolled my eyes if I had any at the poor attempt to sound like a wisened sage. Meanwhile, Trixie appeared visibly and waved a hand directly in front of the ghoul''s face, trying to force a reaction, but it simply stared listlessly. She touched him, and I watched her siphon off a tiny amount of his mana before she made a retching sound.
"Well, nothing''s wrong with his mana except it reeking of death." She fluttered back to me and siphoned a little from me.
"Cleansing your pte?" I asked.
"Yes. He''s truly rotten on the inside and outside, spiritually and physically. On the other hand, yours is pure and has a bounty of vors... I honestly might be a little addicted to your mana."
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"So... What are we going to do with him?" I asked, trying to change the subject away from snacking on my mana.
"Killing him would be a mercy at this point. You might as well take the experience and put it to good use."
While I would dly ept the offer, I was slightly confused by her not wanting it. "Do you not want to do it? Settle your revenge? Or even party up and share the experience?"
Trixie shook her head, "No... I honestly don''t need the experience, and it''ll be more useful to you. I won''t even gain a single level."
"Well, thanks, I''ll dly take it."
I fired my [Icicle] spell at it, piercing into its head, but unlike the harpies, this wasn''t enough to kill it. It still didn''t react, merely letting out a long groan as the pierced ice shard began to emanate its freezing ability. The embedded mana in the spell ran out before it even froze its head; clearly, it was resistant to the magical ailment.
I was about to fire more at it, but then I recalled the unicorn horn I still hadn''t tried. I dropped to the ground with a wet plop and started to shift my form again, back into my winged hobgoblin form, but this time, I grew a unicorn horn from my forehead. Trixie immediately startedughing.
"You''ve upgraded from blueblin to blueblicorn." Trixie chuckled over her own bad joke.
"I have to create the part to use it..." I grumbled.
"Could you not just hide it inside yourself? I''m assuming you don''t actually have organs and guts and whatnot." Trixie asked.
"Maybe?" I replied curiously. I removed the horn and tried to form it inside myself. However, despite having the horn formed inside, it wouldn''t let me borrow the [Enchanted Horn] trait.
"I can make it inside myself, but it''s be inert now," I informed her.
"Weird. Does it have to be on your head?"
I easily agreed with the idea, so I formed the horn in my hand and tried borrowing the trait. It worked.
"This works!" I said excitedly and waved the horn around.
"Here''s a fun idea, you could pretend it''s a wand!" Trixie giggled. "It''s still a bit silly, but way better thaning out of your forehead."
I liked that idea. It would give me a good excuse if I wanted to use the trait in disguise. I could also put it on the ends of tendrils if I ever wanted to stab something. Armed with my new trait and boosted spells, I cast a few more [Icicle] spells. I noted that the horn seemed to glow with each spell, and I wondered if that was why I couldn''t just keep it hidden inside of me.
I kept casting spells at him, hoping this would be enough to push ice magic over the edge. I had a [Frozen Grasp] going as well. Eventually, his entire form was frozen, and with a final spell, his body shattered into pieces. A stream of notifications flooded through, so I quicklytched up to the ceiling again to read through them safely.
"I just got a flood of notifications... Going to go through them." I exined, then quickly grabbed the ghoul ice chunks with tendrils.
"Hopefully, something good!" Trixie said with a thumbs-up before also disappearing again.
"I got ice magic level five!" I told Trixie happily.
"Great! Now you just need to get yourst one!"
I quickly went through the spell to familiarize myself with it. The spell modified my mana aura to physically slow enemies within it and also contained a minor freezing ailment.
"Looks like it''s a slow and freezing aura," I informed her.
"That''s useful; if you cast that spell, you''ll better understand what''s within or outside your normal mana aura." Trixie said happily, "You should be able to power up the spell to increase its range, but beware that extended range does not include protecting your spells."
"Thanks for the heads up. I didn''t realize ice magic would teach me slowing; I thought that was more of a warlock thing?" I questioned.
"There is ovep with some of the spell concepts. Although I believe yours is limited to physical slowing, like making it harder for something to move its joints as if they were slowly freezing up." Trixie exined. "There''s a much more powerful slow effect that affects everything; magic, projectiles, or even thoughts!"
"That''s... Terrifying."
"Yeah. But don''t worry about that; you shouldn''t run into advanced magic for a long time."
I smiled at the levels I had gained; I was now over halfway to my next evolution. It was a little disheartening how slowly I was umting race levels. I had to hope the dungeon I was doing for my gold promotion would have some decent experience despite being split amongst the party. I quickly looked at the new skill.
Beguile your magical opponents by concealing your spell constructs from their sight or manipting them to distort their true intent.
This skill and its levels can be used to achieve these effects alone but to truly utilize either option, it must be paired up with apatible skill.
Stealth Bonus: [Vanish] (Excellent Efficiency)
Deception Bonus: [Acting] (Poor Efficiency).>
"Holy shit! This skill is amazing!" I eximed happily.
"Oh?" Trixie asked curiously.
I extended out a tentacle and disyed the skill to her, as it would take me too long to describe it. I also purchased it immediately.
"Very nice. I suspected you''d get something as soon as we broke through your wall. I used to have this skill, and it''s a game-changer." Trixie said with a hint of what I assumed was pride bleeding through the telepathy. "I hope you have skills that arepatible with it to get the bonuses."
"I have both; my stealth says excellent, but my deception says poor," I answered.
"Then lean on the stealth aspect until you find the missing piece; either way, you''ll level up the skill."
"Will do."
Emblem Achieved: [Manhunter].>
"Oh wow. An emblem too, today just keeps on giving."
<>
Achieved by killing over fifty humanoids or someone with the [yer] emblem.
Deal 20% bonus damage to humanoids and gain arge circumstance bonus in tracking them down.
Equipping this emblem will cause Fear (Lesser) to all humanoids.
The hunter has be the hunted.>
"Well, shit," I muttered.
"What''s wrong?"
"It sounds like I''ve identally be an enemy of humanity."
"What?" Trixie asked, sounding genuinely baffled.
Chapter 121: Harpy Nest
Chapter 121: Harpy Nest
I promptly showed Trixie the [Manhunter] emblem; she stared at it momentarily before chuckling. "That hardly makes you an enemy of humanity, Syl; stop being so dramatic."
"Even if I''m being a little paranoid, surely this isn''t a good thing? I''d certainly distrust someone if they had this emblem." I retorted, my voice betraying a touch of anxiety.
"Just don''t equip it then unless it''s your only emblem?"
"Aren''t there ways to detect emblems? I have one that specifically says it''s immune from identification."
Trixie''s nose scrunched up as she pondered. "There are... But it would require a really powerful artifact, ss, or emblem. Reading someone else''s profile isn''t just something anyone can do. Maybe royalty?"
I gave a dark, halfhearted chuckle, "If they could read my profile, I think I''d have more to worry about than just my emblem."
"Exactly! You''re much more likely to encounter someone with either a lie detector skill or a truth spell. They''d probably just ask you if you had any illegal emblems or something, but even that is a bit of a stretch even for your endless paranoia."
"What makes you say that?"
"Well, I mean, the races aren''t exactly peaceful; if you were in the military, a bounty hunter, or even a bandit yer, you''d inevitably earn that emblem, so I doubt it''s actually illegal. As long as you aren''t secretly dabbling in something like Necromancy, I think you''re fine regarding their morals."I thanked Trixie for her exnation and looked around the room to see if there was anything else noteworthy. Embedded slightly below the floor was something that gave off the soft glow of mana, so I quickly melted a path to it with some tendrils. I found a transparent geode of glowing grey crystal, so I threw out a quick [Appraisal].
"Floatstone?"
"How else do you think this ind is up here?" Trixie answered. "Drop it from high up."
I lifted the strange rock with a tendril and let go, but it just sat in ce instead of falling. Trixie poked the rock, and I saw her siphon some of its mana. The rock started to drift slowly downwards.
"See. The entire base of the ind is absolutely jampacked of the stuff. It can grow if you stick it in the ground and overfeed it mana. It''s pretty valuable, but you need a ton of it to do anything useful."
"Great, maybe I''ll harvest some when it''s time to leave."
"Just don''t take too much, or you''ll drop the ind."
I looked at her in horror, but she only giggled. I couldn''t find anything else of value or note, so we left the cave sneakily. We slowly flew up higher while I tried to spot another one of the harpy caves.
I also tried out [cial Aura] to pass the time while searching, and just like Trixie had informed me, I could now visibly see the range of my mana aura, which was a pretty impressive radius around me. I noted it seemed to be centered around my core, which made me wonder if I could cast it from a [Sub-Core] and then position it in a tendril to artificially move the aura.
"I''d suggest you finish your other spells before you start trying to tinker with a custom aura; the difficulty for those is an entirely new level," Trixie said.
"How hard are we talking? I''ve brute forced a custom spell before I even had [Mana Conception], and while it was painful, it was worth it."
"I''ve never sessfully modified one," Trixie replied honestly, a tiny amount of what felt like shame bleeding through, "But... I''ll give you the advice I was given. Rather than modify the spell directly, take it apart until you only have the auraponent remaining."
"Thanks for the tip. Honestly, this is very impressive, and other than [Fireball] and mass casting, I felt like I''vecked a good area of effect option."
"Just be warned that you must actively select targets to be considered an ally. Otherwise, the aura will affect them unless they are in your party, then the system automatically assists you."
"Wait... Shit, does that mean I''m hurting you?" I quickly realized, but Trixie giggled before I could turn off the spell.
"Yup. Although you''re just feeding me rather than hurting me. But feel free to mentally target me as an ally as practice. Remember, you need to do this each time outside of a party, and there is a limit based on your mental aptitude and [Multitasking] skill."
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It hardly took any effort and could be summed up as simply thinking aloud that she was my ally. Trixie did say I could even generalize and say things like, "That group over there is my ally," but it was risky if I wasn''t entirely sure of my mental capability.
"Although as fun as this is, I need to focus on my [Water Magic] now if I want to get it to five before I reach level twenty."
"Yeah, but that''s a basic magic; it should hardly be any effort. Spam some spells, and you''ll be done in no time."
After searching and searching, I finally found what looked like some rocks with noticeable w marks; getting closer, I discovered some broken and stray feathers, which led to finding a cave entrance hidden behind some false foliage.
"I think I found their home," I informed Trixie, and I received a notification as if in agreement.
Before entering, I cast [Permeable] a few times on Trixie, which caused her to raise a confused eye. "Thanks for the snack?"
"Just trying to sneak in some extra experience."
Trixie giggled, spreading her arms wide. "Feel free!"
I repeated the process a dozen times before finally entering the cave. I was half expecting a guard, but none of my senses detected anything living behind the curtain of foliage. I pushed it aside to enter, unleashing a jingling noise echoing into the cave.
"Oh, that''s rather clever." Trixie pointed out, and I saw bits of bone and metal behind and attached to the curtain arranged like a makeshift windchime rm.
Since sneaking was out, assuming they heard the racket, I shifted into a harpy and had all my cores cast [Arcane Armor] as added protection. I also confirmed that the dragon scales werepatible with harpies, adding another to the growing dragon breeding list. I briefly wondered if I should be offended or grateful that there weren''t any dragon slimes. Although I could change that if I managed to find one to eat.
Trixie kept giggling in my head as we approached, although she was invisible again. I could overhear voices talking ahead, so they must have assumed it was more likely to be one of their own if they weren''t on high alert.
"What is that idiot prince thinking. His idiot subjects havepletely ruined our breeding cycle."
"I do not know, Mother, we can''t even find the great tree."
"And his subjects continue to fly around, attacking wildly."
"At least that will bring us more food. But we are at risk if I don''t have more daughters."
"We''ve tried, Mother... But the humans are far too wary; the skies are riddled with arrows and magic when we approach."
"Even our usual distractions like the griffins seem to be missing. Something strange is going on."
"So frustrating... I have gone far too long without a good husband; they break far too easily."
The chatter was wild, and Trixie just keptughing andughing, although she had somehow lowered her mental voice so that there was more ambiance to their conversation. Inside the cave, it could only be described as a giant nest. It honestly looked like one massive fire hazard, and I had to restrain my inner Dewi so that I did not just toss a fireball into the group.
I saw three other harpies of simr low levels and one muchrger harpy. I had to do a doubletake when I spotted her, as she was massivepared to the others, and I wondered how she even fit inside the cave. While the other harpies seemed to vaguely represent different birds like eagles, hawks, or even ravens, when I saw this one, all I could think of was a fat turkey.
Shaman seemed to be the monster equivalent of Mage, so she wasn''t that advanced and likely was missing a prerequisite to get her intermediate caster ss, but regardless, she had evolved. I knew I had been burned by overconfidence before, but it felt a little hard to be threatened by her.
"Daughter, why have you left your post?" Therge harpy demanded.
I quickly ordered [Permeable] to be cast on everyone. Meanwhile, I tried my best [Acting]. "Mother, I spotted many horses approaching; I came for help."
"That royal bastard! I''ll pluck his feathers and remove his horn!" She screeched. "Go, daughters, kill them, and then we will deal with the prince."
I followed the three after copying their little bow to the queen. Once we burst out of the cave, I began my preparations. Flying without my [Enchanted Wings] trait felt terrible, and I was ready to slot it in as soon as the battle started. I called them to wait, and they paused mid-flight, staring at me in anticipation.
"What is it, sister?"
"I just wanted to discuss strategy before we fight the horses."
"Who are you pretending to be the smart one? Ha!"
"Yeah, you weren''t even smart enough to bring your spear. Stupid Skree."
I rapidly ordered a [Torrent] spell cast above each of them, aimed downwards, as I didn''t feel that [Water Orb] would be enough. I wanted to empower andpress the spells, but the harpies were getting antsy, so I prematurely fired them off. None of them sensed the impending spells, and when the violent flood of water struck each of them, they were rapidly sent plunging into the ground. I also fired six [Water Orbs], two each, after them. I wasn''t sure if my spells or gravity finished the job, but there were three kill notifications almost immediately.
"Sheesh. That was pretty brutal." Trixiemented. "You seem to keep forgetting that they are fragile and going for overkill."
"I thought [Water Orb] wouldn''t be enough, and I was also worried that my water spells wouldn''t have enough killing power."
"I mean... Kinda? I''ve certainly seen some very powerful water spells throughout my day. Although, in your case, unless you are fighting something inherently fire-based, you''d likely be better off using water to boost ice and lightning spells."
"Soak them and then freeze them?"
"Exactly! But obviously, stick to water for now. I don''t think Miss Fatty Bird will cause you much trouble. I''m surprised you even bothered luring the other three out of here."
"Seemed right in the heat of the moment," I replied with a shrug.
I collected my spoils, not wanting to waste the potential slime mass, and then started heading back towards the cave to deal with the queen. Trixie revealed herself so I could cast [Permeable] on her a few times, as we both seemed hopeful that I''d hit both milestones together.
"What does this spell even do? I''ve never seen it before." She asked.
"It gives Water weakness debuff. I''ve got one for each of my elements."
Trixie smiled brightly, "I think you will love the surprise at level twenty."
Chapter 122: The Surprise
Chapter 122: The Surprise
It didn''t take long to return to the cave. The familiar jingle announced my presence, and I transformed into a harpy, hoping to catch the queen off guard with a [Sneak Attack]. But to my surprise, despite her earlier promise to prepare, the harpy queen was simply lounging and feasting, her regal demeanor contrasting with herzy actions.
"Daughter, you''ve returned so soon?" The harpy queen''s voice, a mix of curiosity and concern, filled the cave.
"Mother, the winged horses have retreated. The others are in hot pursuit," I hurriedly reported, my mind already strategizing for the impending battle. I began cycling through all my debuffs, preparing for the fight that was about to unfold.
She gave off a hearty, cacklingugh with the food still present in her mouth. Honestly, I wondered where her unfound confidence came from, as I would have put her far below the alicorn prince''s threat level. I quickly started casting an empowered [Torrent] behind her, the spell forming and beginning to empower.
"No! Too close!" Trixie tried to warn me telepathically before the harpy queen swiveled backward to stare at the forming spell.
"What? Magic?" Her voice was filled with confusion, and her eyes widened in disbelief as she stared at the forming spell.
While the harpy stared at the spell, I hastilypleted it with full focus and fired it off. Then I rapidly formed more [Water Orbs] to fire from behind.
The burst of water from the [Torrent] spell met a stgmite of rock that abruptly burst from the cavern floor to intercept it, causing the stream of water to bisect. The harpy cackled another throatyugh before the balls of water struck her, and herughter turned into a shrill screech.
The cavern violently shook as her unending wail continued, echoing and reverberating throughout. I was immediately grateful that my slime senses didn''t explode from the relentless sound barrage. The sonic-based attack seemed to prate my slimy form, losing some of its ferocity as it went through my highly dense slime to finally be halted against the [Arcane Armor]. The magical defense was not infallible; however, a steady trickle of damage infiltrated through, causing recurring dull pain in my core."Gods, shut her up!" Trixie pleaded.
I wasted no time forming as many [Torrent] spells as possible, firing rapid bursts of water at her from all directions. I also shifted form, ballooning out into a fat smander to hopefully put more distance between my outer membrane and my cores. With plenty of defensive traits and a sparkling unicorn horn, I looked ridiculous but felt powerful.
When the spells hit the harpy, she finally ended her brutal cacophony but retaliated, forming arge de of wind that struck against my reinforced hide.
"Shapeshifting monster! You dare defile my nest and pretend to be my daughters! I''ll feast on your supple flesh and feed you to my chicks!" The harpy taunted.
I fired a small barrage of [Water Orb] spells, but she raised her hand and formed a wind wall that caused the light projectiles to be blown off course. I immediately swapped back to two [Torrent] spells, one clearly visible in front of me as a distraction while the other was hidden in the corner of the cave,pressing and empowering.
I sensed arge buildup of mana below and above me, and one of my cores triggered [Tranquil Flow], but only my cores moved out of the way as a rocky maw formed from the cave to bite through my slime. The harpy had formed multiple stgmites and stctites to create a brutalbination, like being devoured by giant rocky fangs.
"Foolish creature attacking a shaman surrounded by rock and earth!" The harpy mocked, thinking herself the victor as fake blood oozed from the rocky prations.
I would haveughed if not for the strange sense of calm provided by the state. The rocky protrusions did not hit any of my cores, so I waspletely unharmed despite visually looking terrible. I fired off the front [Torrent], which the harpy blocked with another impromptu rocky barrier.
"And now I''ve stopped yourst desperate attempt at salvation. Grovel before-" She prematurely mocked as my secondary spell, with far greaterpression and empowerment, went off, ripping straight through her side and taking out one of her wings entirely.
She snarled in pain, and if looks could kill, I''d be obliterated on the spot. [Life Sight] showed her at least half-life after that exchange, although without more levels in the skill, I had no idea if she had barely crossed the threshold or was near death.
She formed a makeshiftpress out of rock and earth while simultaneously sending out an intense gust of wind at me to try to buy herself time. The wind was inconvenient but not nearly enough to stop me as I oozed out of the confines of the rocky fangs. The look of shock and horror on her face caused Trixie to burst outughing, and I found myself chuckling along and identally prematurely ending [Tranquil Flow].
''Shit, I really need to work on that.'' I scorned myself.
I cast two [Water Whip] spells behind the harpy, and I must have gotten the range right outside of her aura as she didn''t immediately detect it. At the same time, I kept her distracted with some halfhearted water projectiles shot at her but were no real threat due to the ongoing gust of wind.
Either she was really a birdbrain, or my performance was beyond adequate because I could see her once grim expression slowly twisting into hope with a tinge of arrogance again. I coordinated my attack at the same time she swapped from her makeshift first-aid to fire a shrapnel shower of rocks at me, further propelled by the still ongoing gust. Despite the increased velocity, the rocky shrapnel wasn''t sufficient to even scratch my stolen dragon scales.
Aided by my [Sub-Cores], I flexed my will, causing the two watery whips to burst from their magical constructs and wrap around the harpy. She squawked in sudden surprise before the watery whips surrounded her like live tentacles, the control of which was effortless on my part from a solid mental image of using my own slimy pseudopods. Before she could shriek, her mouth was bound shut, and the two whips began constricting tightly on her entire form.
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The gust ceased, and she was squirming in her tight restraints; rocky protrusions burst around her to stab at the watery bindings but, other than prating them, did nothing to hamper the ongoing spells. I was shocked at the effectiveness of the spells, even though I had hardly ever empowered them, and only then did I recall that part of the unicorn horn made spells more real.
Completely at my mercy, I began finishing her off with a battery of water spells. I even made an impromptu water sword twice to stab at her, which was enough to finally push my [Water Magic] to the next level.
I was really d that the water weapon spells weren''t contaminated with "Create," but I was a little disappointed in my brief nce at my new spell. It created a cloud... That rained. I couldn''t see a use for it on its own unless I wanted to help some nts or farmers or perhaps prevent a Dewi situation, but it likely had some good modification prospects.
The harpy didn''tst much longer. She eventually gave up on trying to free herself and swapped to trying to kill me or disrupt me, but the situation was far too much in my favor now. I had already secured my [Water Magic], so I wasted no time speeding up the process by utilizing some [Icicle] spells to finish the job.
Your attacks have a chance to apply [Vulnerability] to the target, increasing all damage sources by 5% per stack. Maximum [Vulnerability] stacks are limited to this skill''s level.
The base chance to apply [Vulnerability] is 10%+1% per skill level. Each debuff or affliction on the target increases the chance of sess by 5%. Targeting a weakness or a triggering [Sneak Attack] doubles the application chance.
Exploit any advantage to secure your victory.>
"Oh, is this your surprise?" I asked Trixie, as I figured she could likely hear me reading the skill in my head. "Cause this sounds fantastic."
"Nope, but that sounds like a milestone skill. Most sses give at least one skill every five levels and a big skill every ten levels. Assuming you meet their requirements, of course. Keep reading."
Seeing more notifications meant that Trixie''s surprise probably meant a new ss, which, admittedly, I had expected since she was being rather precise in the requirements I had to meet. Regardless, I was happy that Shadowcaster was giving me onest skill that sounded amazing.
I bought it and continued reading.
Would you like to swap sses?>
"I''m assuming Hydromancer isn''t your special surprise?" I asked Trixie.
"Not at all." She replied, appearing again and taking her usual spot seated on my head.
''No.''
Would you like to swap sses?>
"Cryomancer?"
"Better, but nope."
''No.''
Would you like to swap sses?>
"Oh. This sounds good. Elementalist?"
"Bingo!" Trixie said excitedly, giving a big thumbs-up.
''Yes.''
.
Shift your elemental alignment to gain bonuses for your chosen element to the detriment of your others.
The chosen element receives the following benefits per skill level: 10% spell power, 5% reduced mana usage, 10% spellcasting speed, and 5% resistance pration.
Other elements lose the equivalent gains while opposing elements lose double. Derived elements receive halved bonuses when aligned.
Unaligning or shifting to a different element triggers a 5-minute cooldown, which can be circumvented once per skill level and refreshed with a 10-minute rest.>
"Trixie, what is this skill?" I asked, bewildered by how much better it was than anything I had seen before.
"Wee to the advanced sses, Syl," Trixie said with a grin. "And yeah... Some of the advanced skills are just giant walls of text."
I wasted no time purchasing the skill, but then I read the description a few more times, trying to wrap my head around it. Most of it was self-exnatory, and I could assume that if I aligned to Water, I''d get a penalty to Ice and double deficit for Fire. I was only unsure what a derived element was and what this meant for my non-elemental affinities like Arcane and Corrosion. I asked Trixie in hopes of an exnation.
"Your Arcane and Corrosion spells willpletely ignore anything to do with this; they are not elements. As for derived elements, well... You''ll find out soon enough; I''d hate to ruin the surprise." Trixie said with a cheeky wink. "Also, I think you''re wrong about Water giving a penalty to Ice, but that''s for you to figure out."
I thanked her for the rification and was d to know if I could still fall back on Arcane and Corrosion if I found myself in the wrong elemental alignment for a foe. Also, while some part of me screamed not to, I bought one upgrade level for [Elemental Shift], as I was concerned about only having a single cooldown-free shift.
''Yes.''
I felt a little safer having two emergency shifts perbat. Also, I still had another skill to look over, so I brought it up.
Adds elemental affinity to the [Identify] menu, providing information on what to avoid and exploit.
Information might be unavable if [Identify] level is insufficient, but it can be unlocked through practical application.>
This skill was a perfectplement to my new ss''s identity. With it, I could determine a monster''s element, try to directly oppose it with bonuses from [Elemental Shift], and then pile on even further with my weakness debuffs. Purchasing it was a no-brainer.
I tried it out on Trixie, but there was no change, so I tried it on the dead harpy queen and saw both wind and earth.
"Well, eat up, and then let''s go home for now. I''m sure you have new toys to y with, and you still promised to show me all your transformations." Trixie said with a pleased nod, slowly taking out her makeshift earplugs.
I nodded happily in agreement.
Chapter 123: Egg
Chapter 123: Egg
"Come on, show me, Syl! You can''t hide it forever," Trixie urged, her eyes gleaming with anticipation.
"I really don''t want to... Look, I''ve got much more interesting monsters." I replied, my body shifting and contorting into the massive form of the earthshaker bear. "See, I fought this one with the help of a tribe of goblins."
"That''s cool, but I want to see youy an egg." Trixie pouted.
Trixie had been going on and on since we left the harpy cave. I had hoped she would tire of asking when we reached the giant tree, but unfortunately, her determination was unwavering.
The harpy queen''s profile was a major disappointment, mostly removing restrictions from the default harpy profile for vitality and strength. It likely came with some stat boosts, like my own queen evolution had offered. There was a singr new trait, [Egg Laying].
Regrettably, Trixie had overheard me reading the trait and made it her new goal for me to try it out. The trait mentioned that the eggs would be unfertilized and nearly demanded the user seek donations from other races to correct this. I shuddered just at the thought and wished I could forget the whole thing.
"Come on, I want to see how it works. Will your egg be a slime, a harpy, or both? How would you even make an egg? Can the egg be eaten? I have so many questions." Trixie droaned on endlessly.
A part of me knew my willpower would eventually fail me, and I''d give in, and once I realized that I couldn''t help but sigh deeply and wish to get it over and done with.
"Fine! Once! Then, we never speak of this again. Promise?" I relented."Promise. Yay! This is so exciting!" Trixie said, pping her tiny hands.
With deep reluctance, I shifted into the harpy queen and borrowed the trait. I activated the trait, which took some mana from me to artificially simte the trait, and suddenly, I felt an egg inside me. Rather than eject it naturally, I simply reverted to slime and slinked away, leaving a fresh,rge, harpy egg. I even threw an [Appraisal] at it.
Trixie frowned slightly. "With how simple that was, I think you just made an enemy of all mothers worldwide."
"I don''t want to talk about it," I grumbled.
"I honestly expected it to just be slime, but that looks like a genuine egg."
"It seems when I borrow a trait, it uses mana to create it, rather than whatever the creature''s natural method would be."
"Oh, so you''ve tried this before?" Trixie asked as she somehow removed the top portion of the egg and revealed its yolky insides. It honestly looked like an overgrown chicken egg to me.
"Yeah, I can turn into a few spiders with [Web Spinning]. I originally thought it would just use my slime to imitate it, so it was quite surprising at the time."
"Show me?" Trixie requested before sticking her finger into the yolk and licking it.
Unlike the harpy, I had no reservations against this and quickly turned into the highest-tier spider I had ess to and created some web.
Trixie poked and prodded it a bit, then shook her head before turning to ask me a question. "Can you make the non-sticky kind?"
I didn''t even know spiders had other kinds of web, but I realized she was right when I looked deeper into their profiles. Once I had the knowledge, the trait was more than happy to produce the required result. Trixie poked and prodded it a few more times, then rubbed her face against it happily.
"Well. I was going to suggest you open an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet, but if you can create infinite spider-silk, that would be an even more awesome idea." She said with a mischievous grin before the silk vanished. "Maybe I should go pick up the Tailor ss; that could be fun..."
I produced some more silk for Trixie to y with since it cost me nothing, and then I moved on with my ns. I used [Identify] on myself, revealing Water, Fire, and Ice. I noted that Water was brighter than the other two, perhaps indicating it was my main element? Or maybe it was bodily rted, hinting that I should attack with whatever Water''s weakness was. As Trixie had pointed out, Arcane and Corrosion were not elements and didn''t appear.
''I wonder if the guild''s crystal uses a bastardization of [Element Tracker] to determine affinities. If so, then there possibly a further upgrade to [Identify] that gives all affinities.''
I activated [Elemental Shift] and was mentally presented with my three options; I chose Ice. I felt something ripple through my mana, but otherwise, I felt the same. [Identify] now showed Ice in a much more prominent position, whereas Fire was subdued and barely legible, and Water looked pretty much the same as before.
I began casting a few of my Ice spells, noting the noticeable difference between them before I changed my elemental alignment. I then moved to Water, and strangely, they seemed stronger than before. Then I swapped to Fire, and the difference was drastic. Previously, if I empowered them enough, they were on the verge of turning blue, but now they almost felt cold, like dying embers more than roaring me. If Dewi ever saw the [Fireball] I cast, it would have brought me utter shame.
I swapped to Water and repeated the experiments a little hastier; Ice still felt stronger than normal but nowhere near its aligned state, whereas Water had received a massive buff, and Fire was still greatly diminished. Before I swapped to Fire, I wanted my element unaligned. This time, I hadn''t reached the cooldown, so nothing happened, and instinctually, I knew I had the option to bypass this, which I did. Then, I cycled through all three elements and noticed that all three were stronger than before.
"What the hell''s going on?" I asked but noted Trixie was either not around or not paying attention. "Maybe I''ve been relying on Trixie too much, I should figure this out myself... Let''s see..."
First, I tested out Arcane and Corrosion, and both seemed slightly stronger than I recalled, but they were nowhere near my elements. This led me to try to remember my previous conversations regarding magic and elements. I could quite easily assume that an advanced ss increased all my stats higher than an intermediate or beginner, and now that I wasn''t a hybrid ss, my magic stats were getting the full attention. I also recalled Dewi exining that Pyromancer massively boosted his Fire spells, but everything else received small penalties.
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"I guess that means as an Elementalist, I receive a boost to all Elemental spells and likely slight penalties to everything else?" I pondered, "And perhaps I''m not noticing those penalties due to the bonuses from a pure caster ss and also going from intermediate to advanced."
Happy with my theory, I''d run it by Trixie before bedtime. I finally shifted to Fire and teased myself by trying Water and Ice first. As expected, both were severely diminished, which made me very concerned about the flexibility I''d be losing as I''d be giving up two of my elements to empower one, unlike when I aligned to Water or Ice. Finally, I cast a [Fireball], and my doubts began burning away. The fiery explosion was already majorly transitioned into the more powerful blue me, and I couldn''t help but cheer excitedly. I quickly cast another [Fireball] but began to empower it, watching the ball be entirely engulfed in burning blue.
"So my spells have only just caught up to the strength of that smander... And to think that people honestly think traits are useless. What a joke." I chuckled to myself.
I yed around with my newly acquired blue me spells for a bit. It was honestly far too much fun, and once again, I felt the temptation of the Dewi path casually trying to sway me. When I finally got it out of my system, I turned to address the big elephant in the room.
[Corrosion Magic LV 4]
It was arguably my most promising magic, as I had improved everything else through it. Nevertheless, I felt like I had neglected to focus on it directly, and I knew as soon as I got [Lightning Magic] that it would effortlessly steal away my attention. I had two unfinished projects, a debuff for afflictions and an acid affliction, and after giving it some thought, I decided thetter was likely easier to aplish.
"And if I create an acid affliction, I could probably take that as a temte and add it to [Acid Dart], which sounds like a terrific idea."
I immediately got to work, throwing all my attention and cores to the task. I had forgotten I had gained a level in [Mana Maniption] since Ist worked on it, which meant that in only an hour or so, I had already surpassed my previous work on the spell. Although, admittedly, that wasn''t exactly hard to do with how little progress I had actually given to it, and I felt a little ashamed when I first saw it after I had one of my [Sub-Cores] conjure up the saved partial project.
...
"Damn, I guess I can''t expect all my ideas to be unique, especially if I''m limiting it to only one type of magic," Iined to myself; I had sort of expected to be naming the spell, and I had already nned on calling it Melt. "Well, I guess Dissolve is more fitting..."
I had thoroughly lost track of time, entering an almost trance as I poked away at the spell with my full attention. It had taken less time than I had thought, and I nearly wondered if I was also gaining a boost due to my ss. It still wasn''t nightfall yet, so I decided to jump straight into trying to apply [Dissolve] to [Acid Dart].
"Well, let''s get to it."
...
I felt a poke against my core; I abruptly screamed in horror and flung out tendrils and acid in retaliation. I frantically looked around and saw a rather pouty-looking pixie tapping her foot expectantly.
"Finally, I got your attention," Trixie said with a sulky pout. "Look, you need to get some sleep before tomorrow; you need to be in tip-top condition for your uing fight."
I looked around in confusion and noticed it was well into the twilight hours. I felt a bit sheepish at how I had somehowpletely neglected my surroundings this entire time, but when I saw the amazing progress I had made, I understood why. The spell was on the verge ofpletion, and I knew I could finish it off when I inevitably awoke before the lethargic pixie.
"Right, thanks Trixie. Sorry about ignoring you." I said and started to follow her inside.
She exaggeratedly sighed before smiling, "I''m not that upset. I just want you to do your best for tomorrow. I think you''re ready to finally conquer this ind for real."
I nodded, still curious about this still unknown foe. I tried questioning Trixie as I rxed in my wooden tub, but she said she didn''t want to spoil the surprise. I also asked her about my theories regarding my Elemantalist ss and was immensely pleased when she confirmed my suspicions.
"I can''t believe I already reached an advanced ss; everyone else made it sound like it''s the end of the road."
Trixie snorted augh, "It''s your first advanced ss, more like the start of your journey. Please don''t tell me you actually thought there was nothing after this."
My silent reluctance to answer must have been evidence enough as Trixie giggled and refused to borate further. I finally looked over my new full profile and noticed an unknown trait I had nearly unlocked. I made a mental note to keep the human''s [Untapped Potential] active until I unlocked the new trait, whatever it was.
''I hope it''s something good.''
Name: Syl [Apex Hunter]
Race: Chimeric Mimic Slime (Blue) LV 17
ss: Elementalist LV 1
Status: Healthy
Mana: O????v???????e??????r???????????f????????????l???????o????????????w????????i????????n??????????g?????
Emblems:
[Experiment]
[Apex Hunter]*
[Elven Legacy]
[Dungeoneer]
[Nature''s Bane]
[Manhunter]
Traits:
Slime:
[Mana Slime LV MAX]
[Acid Slime LV 7]
[Poison Slime LV 6]
[ze Slime LV 6]
[Cryo Slime LV 4]
[Morph Slime LV 7]
[Pseudopod LV 6]
[Slime Shot LV 6]
[Slime Burst LV 6]
[Vaporize Slime]
Core:
[Core Refinement LV 6]
[Core Storage LV 6]
[Sub-Core Alpha LV 5]
[Sub-Core Beta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Gamma LV 5]
[Sub-Core Delta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Epsilon LV 5]
[Consuming Osmosis LV MAX]
Mimic:
[Chimeric Mimicry LV 6]
[Chroma Shift LV MAX]
Mana:
[Mana Circ???????????????????t???????????i???o?????????????????n????????????????????? ???????????????????L????????????V???????????????????? ??????????????????7????????]
[Mana Reinforcement LV 6]
[Mana Infusion]
[Slime Conversion LV 4]
Attributes/Other:
[Soul Mastery LV 7]
[Enhanced Vitality LV 5]
[Magic Resistance (Lesser) LV 4]
[Curse Resistance LV 1]
[Defy Death LV 4]
[Prodigy]
[??? LV 0]
Senses:
[Olfactory Sense]
[Dark Vision LV MAX]
[Mana Conception LV 5]
[Life Sight LV 3]
[Thermal Vision LV MAX]
[Eagle Vision LV 2]
Trait Points remaining: 13
Skills:
General:
[Universal Language]
[Equipment Swap]
[Dissection LV 6]
[Mapping LV 5]
[Tracking LV 2]
[Identify LV 5]
[Multitasking LV 4]
[Perception LV 4]
[Aerial Finesse LV 3]
Combat:
[Tranquil Flow LV 5]
[Attack Mastery (Lesser) LV 6]
[Affliction Mastery LV 4]
Magic:
[Water Magic LV 5]
[Fire Magic LV 5]
[Corrosion Magic LV 4]
[Ice Magic LV 5]
[Arcane Magic LV 2]
[Mana Maniption LV 5]
[Magic Efficiency LV 3]
[Counter Magic LV 2]
[Elemental Shift LV 2]
[Ritual Casting]
[Mana Suppression]
[Meditate]
Sneaky:
[Vanish LV 5]
[Sneak Attack LV 5]
[Identity Fabrication LV 6]
[Acting LV 4]
[Rogue Expertise LV 4]
[Magical Subterfuge LV 1]
[Exploit Weakness LV 1]
[Subtle Afflictions]
Skill Points remaining: 13
Chapter 124: The Final Source
Chapter 124: The Final Source
As expected, I awoke before Trixie, who had somehow managed to entangle herself even more in her hammock. I stealthily made my way out of our expansive tree fort and resumed my practice. I was bing increasingly adept at merging a basic projectile spell with an additional effect, a skill I was eager to master as it would enhance all my basic attack spells.
''I''m a little surprised I haven''t earned an emblem, skill, or something for all my work. Maybe I can ask the guild about that; surely there''s a glossary ofmon emblems and how to go about achieving them. Although Whitney did mention that people like to hoard their power.''
As predicted, I finished my spell in roughly two hours and was testing it out quite happily. After the initial acid struck and did its melting damage, it would linger around and keep going. It was reminiscent of my adhesive acid slime shotbo, and once again, I couldn''t help but feel a mix of excitement and confusion, a familiar feeling in my magical journey.
''Seriously. I discovered a custom spell, then merged it into another spell to mimic something I could do two evolutions ago... I''m starting to understand why Gramps was so upset.''
After only a few more casts of my newly renovated [Acid Dart], I finally got the level up.
As the spell''s information was written to my mind, I couldn''t help but chuckle. The spell would take all afflictions and debuffs from a target, halve their current duration, and spread them in a cloud released from the target. Anyone caught in the released cloud would have one chance to resist or receive all the spread afflictions and debuffs at the newly halved duration.
I immediately thought of a scenario where I could cast [Contagion], then [Decay] on every target but one, then cast [Contagion] again and repeat the process; that was until I continued going through the spell and realized that it somehow marked what it spread and prevented them from being further spread. ''That''s a letdown. My own fault for jumping to conclusions before finishing reading.''
Even if I couldn''t keep spreading the same conditions repeatedly, it was still an amazing spell, and, in the right situations, it could save me a lot of time and effort. From what I understood, there was no friend or foeponent to this, and it would only exclude me from the targeting.
I didn''t have a target to try it out on right now, but I cast the spell and held it to scrutinize it. Like [Decay], it was a doozy toprehend, and vast sections of the spell construct were like staring at a foreignnguage. The only section I feltfortable modifying was the one I recognized as the cloud shape it would take when cast.
''Or maybe spores would be more appropriate than a cloud in this case? Either way, I think I''d want to convert this to a projectile. For both safety''s sake and for a range of options. How often can I expect enemies to be conveniently grouped up?''
Unlike [Decay], I could pump more mana into it, but judging by the increased mana going straight to the cloud portion of the spell, I figured it would only increase the emerging cloud size. Definitely not a spell to use amongst friends in its current state.
Happy with the current state of my spells, I went back to trialing [Elemental Shift]. Sleeping on it overnight, I thought I should see if my [Sub-Cores] could align themselves. I ordered one of them to use the skill and, with bated breath, watched them do it. My celebration was again premature as I saw the triggered skill apply to me rather than my [Sub-Core].
''Is it because they don''t have mana channels?'' I wondered, recalling Trixie''s exnation. ''Does that mean, in theory, I could shift the mana in my slime?''
I was extremely tempted to try it out, but I had a fighting up and didn''t want to risk breaking my mana, traits, or profile any further. As if preordained, Trixie emerged right when I contemted trying it out ''just a little.''
"Morning..." Trixie said, mid yawn. "I don''t know how you get up so early."
"Morning. Technically, I can go for a day or two without even sleeping, based on previous experience."
"There''s a trait for that... The higher you get it, the less sleep you need until you eventually stop entirely." Trixie said, her distaste clearly visible. "I don''t know why you''d want to rid yourself of one of the few pleasures of immortality."
I shrugged and decided to change the subject, "So, anything you can tell me about this foe?"
Trixie sighed, "I wish I could, but if I interfered, we would be severely punished." She paused, scratched her head, and then shrugged. "Correction... I''d be punished, but you''d be caught in the coteral crossfire."
While I would have preferred some more information, it wasn''t like I had a choice if I was to believe Trixie, and so far, her track record was pretty spotless other than the asional prank thrown in.
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"So, where to?" I asked.
"Theke. You sure you ready?"
"I can''t think of any skills or traits I could easily gain a level. Unless we wait around longer?"
Trixie shook her head, "No, you''re right. Leaving her alone any longer might actually be to your detriment, and it sounds like you''ve grabbed all the low-hanging fruit."
I wasn''t sure what to expect, so I took my "Blueblin" form as I stacked all my defensive traits again and had everyone recast [Arcane Armor]. Since Trixie said it was at theke, I could assume it was an aquatic foe, and likely Ice or Fire would be my weapon of choice, but I left myself elementally unaligned for now.
It didn''t take us long tond at the edge of theke, and once again, I was amazed at how crystal clear the water was, but I couldn''t spot anything living inside it. I cycled through all my senses, and the best I got was a high concentration of water mana near the center.
"Come, let''s go make ourselves known," Trixie said and started fluttering toward the center area of theke.
I followed cautiously, scanning the water below, still unable to spot anything living or otherwise. I expected to find something when we reached the center, but it was still just the two of us. Trixie frowned and impatiently tapped her foot against nothing while she fluttered about.
"Is she ignoring us? Surely, she should have felt us arrive." Trixieined.
"...Do we just wait around?" I asked, unsure how to proceed.
"No... How about we knock? A good [Fireball] straight down should do the trick." Trixie said with a wink.
"Are you serious? Is that why you said she''d attack me on sight because you wanted me to provoke her?" I said, frowning.
Trixie halfheartedly chuckled and shook her head. "Fine. I''ll just steal some of her essence flow; that should wake her up."
Trixie closed her eyes briefly, and I almost instantly felt therge source of mana below rapidly approaching us. Bursting from theke was a girlish figure with greyish-blue skin and what looked like fish scales along her limbs and partially running up her neck to reach her face. A webbing was between her fingers and toes, simr to a frog, although her fingernails were ck and elongated. Rather than hair, she had what looked like constantly dripping water pouring down her scalp, and her eyes looked like giant sapphires. I had initially assumed she was naked but then noticed that rather than clothes, she seemed to be wearing almost a toga made entirely of running water. Rather than flying, she seemed to be standing atop a solid water tform, which defied gravity.
The second I saw her, my emblem immediately reacted. Worthy!
I shuddered. Was Trixie serious about putting me up against her, or was the pixie finally showing her true colors, and this was her plot to eliminate me.
No. That was my paranoia talking. I had to give her the benefit of the doubt; she''d taught me a new form of magic, helped me train my magic skills, and gave me information on how to directly unlock an advanced ss.
The undine seemed angry initially, but she was startled when she noticed us. "Trixie, wh-what are you doing here?"
"Oh, you know... Just visiting. It''s been so long, after all," Trixie replied, dripping with sarcastic venom. "I''ve been cooped up for far too long."
"I-I see... d to hear you''re out and about and doing... Well."
"No thanks to you." Trixie snapped back, and the undine visibly gulped.
"I don''t know what you mean."
"Really?" Trixie responded with a re that gave me chills, even though I wasn''t the target. "You didn''t notice a fellow spirit on the ind you just happened to be squatting on? The same spirit who was trapped and likely reported missing?"
"Yes?" The undine responded as if she really believed that would be enough.
Trixie burst into uncontrolledughter, causing the undine to shift nervously.
"Look, even if you''re upset, you aren''t allowed to act against a candidate unless you want to be banished." The undine responded after gathering some false courage.
Trixie smirked. "Yes. I certainly can''t attack you directly. Or even help someone against you."
Despite the open hostility in Trixie''s words, the undine seemed to grow more confident in herself. Was she an idiot? Trixie nced at me and gave me a cheerful smile. The undine finally seemed to notice my presence.
"Who''s this blue goblin?" She demanded.
"This is my good friend, Syl," Trixie replied, and I gave an awkward wave in response.
The undine seemed to examine me closely and then shuddered. "Y-you''ve brought another water spirit to challenge me? I know you''re upset, Trixie, but be reasonable."
"I don''t know what you''re talking about..." Trixie said, giggling to herself.
The undine turned to me, "Look, I don''t know what she told you, but you should give up. I''m far stronger than you, and I''ve been gathering essence here for decades. I''m one of the furthest along water spirits."
I sighed, not really understanding the situation fully. "Look. I just want the ind essence to return to normal to get a yellow slime to spawn."
I thought my exnation was reasonable, but the undine red at me and shook her head. "I am not leaving the ind; I imed this essence nexus. Even if I left temporarily, reiming it would take me forever."
"Can''t I just give you mana like I''ve given Trixie? I don''t see why you need the essence specifically."
The undine looked shocked at me, but Trixie justughed.
"She''s not eating, she''s leveling up. As spirits, we can channel great quantities of essence into direct experience; it takes longer than killing monsters, but it''s far safer and easier."
"You can just sit on your backside all day and gain free levels!?" I eximed, horrified.
"Well, only thezy or the cowards do it. I only did it briefly when I was first born." Trixie answered.
"Is that why she''s only an intermediate ss?" I asked.
"Yeah, she''s probably neglected to train her skills, so shecks the requirements. She''s probably trying to just brute force her way through." Trixie answered.
"Oh, big talk from little Miss Prodigy!" The undine said, shaking her head. "Not everyone is as barbaric and lucky as you; it''s no wonder you got yourself locked up."
I couldn''t believe my ears. The human nobles'' leeching experience from adventurers was bad enough, but this was beyond that. While I could hardly call myself weak and pathetic right now, I definitely didn''t start that way; I had to struggle just to survive my first day, almost eaten by my brethren. Meanwhile, this undine just sleeps in herke all day and just levels up for free, with no risk, no struggle, just pure privilege.
I refused to back down. Especially because she was standing in the way of my yellow slime.
"Last chance, Aquillia! Leave, or I''ll take you out." I warned.
Aquillia snorted, "Big talk for a little one. Trixie can''t help you; you''re all alone, and this is my domain."
She raised her arms outwards, and the entire surface of theke shook.
Chapter 125: Undine
Chapter 125: Undine
I knew I''d lose in a battle of Water versus Water, so I shifted my alignment to Fire as I figured it was the directly opposed element. I hesitantly ordered a [mmable] cast; my concern was that she could pull a Trixie and eat my debuffs. Simultaneously, I prepared two [Fireball] spells that promptly promoted to the superior blue me.
Theke quivered, erupting with multiple water geysers, a testament to her power. However, unlike the [Torrent] spell, thesecked velocity, and despite their superior numbers, I deftly maneuvered through them. Thebination of [Enchanted Wings] and [Aerial Finesse] proved to be a game-changer, enabling me to dodge and weave with precision.
''Finally, I can use the pegasi tactics for my benefit!''
With my two spells ready and no sign of my debuff being countered, Iunched them in opposite trajectory arcs, anticipating a collision and explosion if the undine dodged. To my surprise, she raised her hand and conjured arge water barrier instead of evading, a likely modification of the [Bubble] spell.
''I suppose I can''t assume that she only slept and passively leveled. That would be far too convenient.''
When my spells collided with the barrier, the fiery blue explosion was massive,pletely obscuring our vision of each other. I hastily cast another two spells, this time from above and well outside her aura range, then fired them downward, hoping for a good [Sneak Attack].
The duo of explosions boomed through the surroundings, me erupting again. I mentally grouped my [Sub-Cores] into two groups while keeping Alpha as my dedicated helper. I ordered one group to cycle through all my debuffs while the other group''s task was to repeatedly form and hold a [Fireball] at the ready. At the same time, I borrowed [Inferno Sac], formed three organs in myself, and began channeling mana into them while I performed an aerial charge.
My mind raced. It had been a long time since I had tried so many simultaneous actions at once, even with delegating to my helpers. Whether by instinct or dumb luck, I sensed therge buildup of mana just in time to dodge to the side as a tiny beam of water jetted out and parted the smoke cloud. It was aimed at my center of mass, but thanks to my dodge, it struck against one of my arms, eviscerating it nearly entirely.
''Since when could water do something like this?''The parted smoke revealed a very angry and upset undine, her facial features contorted into a nasty snarl. Her body was simmering, with vast amounts of steam leaking. Before I reached her, I witnessed her spell this time, the tiniest ball of water forming at the tip of her finger before firing another tiny beam of water aimed directly at my head. [Tranquil Flow] triggered, and my head retracted inside of myself, allowing the dangerous spell to pass by me.
The shock on her face was priceless, and that was when I reached her. I erupted with me and also, point-nk, fired the prepared spell. Her water tform rapidly shifted with unparalleled speed, covering her entirely with almost a secondyer of skin and making me think of slime.
Trying to seal the deal, I tried to cut into them as tendrils burst from my form, each armed with a different weapon or w, and I tried to slice into her. Unfortunately, my tentacle armaments passed straight through the undine, her body taking on a watery constitution simr to my slime as she plummeted toward theke.
I knew she was still alive; there was no notification yet, and I tried to st her with as many fire spells as I could, even swapping over to [Fire Arrow] for speed and precision. Countless blue me arrows struck against her form, each taking out a chunk of her visible mana, but not enough to seal the deal before she fell into theke.
"Shit. So close," Trixie cursed.
Theke trembled again, the level diminishing rapidly and the water losing some of its crystal rity. Then, arge sphere of water began to emerge from theke, with Aquillia in the center. I wasted no time sting it with a few [Fireballs], causing massive clouds of steam to burst from it, but it replenished itself directly from theke faster than I could boil it.
"I must say I''m almost impressed. Who knew you were actually a Fire spirit in disguise? You would have easily defeated me if I wasn''t in my domain." Aquillia said in a taunting manner via telepathy. Any wounds or burns she had previously seemed entirely gone.
Trixie looked like she wanted to say something but seemed forced into silence.
"Your mana levels are certainly something else, but Water is supreme in a battle of attrition. Even the mightiest mountain can be carved away with the power of Water!" Aquillia continued her mocking ramble. "Poor Trixie, if only you could have found a Lightning spirit instead, maybe you''d have a chance; now you''ll just have to watch as I make your champion submit."
She was building up a vast quantity of mana, and I recognized the spell as [Rain Cloud]. I lobbed a few more [Fireball] spells at her sphere, but it seemed the Dewi method wasn''t enough. Her spell went off, and the sky darkened as the floating ind became nketed in dark rain clouds. After a pregnant pause, the heavens broke, and rain began to pour down.
It was certainly impressive, truly showing her pinnacle of [Water Magic], but I couldn''t puzzle together why she did it. I knew she could likely use it as another Water source to save on mana, pulling it directly rather than apparating it, but she had an entireke at her disposal. When I tossed my next [Fireball] at it and saw its result looked slightly weakened, I was giving a possible answer. I flicked through to [Mana Conception] and saw the entire area was now rich in Water mana.
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"Well. I guess I shouldn''t use Fire anymore..." I chuckled.
"Quite. I thought it would be prudent to snuff your me of hope. I offer you a chance of surrender if you renounce your support of Trixie." Aquillia said with the utmost confidence.
I chuckled and triggered [Decay] on her. She had every debuff I had avable except for [Permeable]. Just like the smander, I was shocked that I could, in fact, apply her own elemental debuff to her, but it vanished almost instantly. It seemed simr to Trixie; Aquillia could also eat mana but was limited to Water. She visibly staggered as the spell went off, a look of abject hatred and horror for a mere moment before she seemed to promptly regain herself.
"Well. Shit. That didn''t work." I muttered.
Trixie gave me a questioning look, and Aquillia justughed.
"Good try. I assume that was your final trump card?" Aquillia said as if expecting me to give up now.
"I wouldn''t say final..." I responded and triggered [Elemental Shift] to Ice and sneakily recasting [Frigid]. My other debuffs seemed redundant, and I would fully embrace Ice now, even activating [Cryo Slime].
Aquillia''sughter stopped, and she stared at me in absolute shock. Trixie was now smiling but still remaining uncharacteristically silent.
"What the hell are you?" She demanded. "First Water, then Fire, now Ice?"
Instead of responding with words, I responded with magic. Abruptly forming five of my newly minted [Icicle] spells and firing them at her. They struck against her giant sphere in detached locations, and the water began freezing.
There was a brief sh of unease across her face before, with a wave of her hand, her sphere violently ejected the foreign magic. She red with a new burning hatred in her eyes.
"You dare contaminate my water with your filth? I retract my offer. You''ll die here and now." She snarled.
There was an intense, sudden fluctuation of mana when three of those tiny beams of water burst from the sphere, targeting different portions of my body. I managed to dodge two, but the final beam bisected my lower torso almost entirely and sent it plummeting below. I hastily withdrew slime, regenerated the lost portion, and cast [Ice Armor], hoping for anotheryer of defense.
I kept trading blows with her by firing [Icicle] spells, but she would eject it as soon as it began freezing over. Returning to [Tranquil Flow], I hoped to aid my dodging of her deadly watersers, but the speed and quantity she was outputting quickly became too much even for me. I kept losing limbs, watching them plummet below, and an extremely unlucky beam struck Gamma, tore through its [Arcane Armor], and shattered it in a near instant.
I had a brief sh of anger but managed to narrowly suppress it. Instead of trying to dodge with my body, I put extra emphasis on my cores dodging out of the way, as my slime was far more expendable than a core.
I spread out my six tendrils from my back like spider limbs. I ordered a consistent barrage of [Slime Shot], in addition to my [Icicle] spells, hoping to overwhelm her ability to eject the frozen projectiles. My n was working! Suddenly, Aquillia stopped firing her deadly beams and focused on defending herself. As if to dissuade me from celebrating early, her sphere began violently churning like a whirlpool. Suddenly, my attempts to freeze her sphere seemed greatly diminished, and any ice chunks became ground up into a slurry.
"Ha! Nice try, but as long as I do this, I''m safe from your freezing." She taunted with her regained momentum.
I nced at Trixie, who seemed to be gazing downward instead of looking at us. I curiously followed her gaze and sawrge chunks of ice in theke below me. It took no time for me to puzzle out the answer; anytime my slime body was obliterated, it fell below and was still made up of [Cryo Slime]. I immediately knew what I needed to do.
I ordered all my cores to extract, pulling from my vast stockpile of slime, starting with my segmented reserve of [Cryo Slime]. My body began to swell rapidly, losing shape and form, and even forming multiple copies of wings was not enough to keep me airborne.
"What? What are you doing!?" Aquillia shouted. What she witnessed greatly disturbed her, and it seeped through the telepathic conversation.
Trying my best not to plummet into theke, I began sectioning off segments of slime, dropping the payload below. With varying built-up pressure, I also triggered [Slime Burst] to scatter my slime both near and far.
Aquillia began tough nervously, "Trixie, I think your champion is self-destructing. It''s truly a patheticst resort."
Trixie said nothing, still staring below, and instead gave a rather sadistic smirk; Aquillia instantly became unsettled and then also followed the pixie''s gaze.
Aquillia screeched, almost on par with a harpy. "Stop! Stop defiling myke! You vile monstrosity!"
I expected her to start attacking me, but instead, she began trying to churn the entireke she did her sphere. However, I could see she was losing the battle this time as my slime seemed to swirl amongst the water without easily losing its cold temperature. The cost was great, but I was determined to win this battle.
With her distracted, I stopped vomiting copious amounts of slime and instead cast [cial Aura] from all my cores and charged at her. I swelled more in size and thrust all my tendrils into her sphere. She finally noticed me and screamed.
The watersers were rapidly fired, and she even attempted another new spell I had never seen before; she sliced as if wielding a de with a continuous beam that cut through me like butter, but as long as it didn''t hit a core, it would just be distributing more of my frosty slime.
Through thebined effort of my [cial Aura] and [Cryo Slime], with the asional [Frost Grasp], her sphere finally began icing over. She was shrieking in hysterical rage as the frost crept toward her like an unstoppable assassin.
She started begging and pleading, but I ignored her. I presumably couldn''t stop the assault now, even if I wanted to. When the ice reached her, I saw in real time as her mana began to deplete at a rapid pace. [Life Sight] showed nothing, but I expected as much for a spirit as a being of mana. When her mana reached a dangerously low level, the pure water mana began to be corrupted with ice, as if it no longer held the strength to prevent the taint from spreading.
With ast dying gasp, she froze entirely and abruptly burst into a sparkle of impossibly bright mana.
Chapter 126: Levels Galore
Chapter 126: Levels Galore
"I did it," I said with relief.
Although I red briefly at the sparkly rainbow cloud, that was all that remained undine, which denied me a new meal full of traits. If all spirits behaved like this, then I was putting them on the shitlist just like those damn ghosts. I made a mental note to lodge aint with Gramps; too many things were immune to being eaten.
I had half expected the undine to suddenly pull out another trick and instantly thaw my ice or perhaps reveal another spell I had never seen before. That water beam spell was something else; the weirdest part was that I could tell it was based on the [Torrent] spell. All my cores and I had seen her cast it enough times, and I was sure if we joined forces, we could puzzle out replicating it.
But first... I had far too many notifications waiting to be read. I shifted to a morefortable form and plopped down on the frozenke. It had been far too long since [Apex Hunter] was triggered; it made me wish there was a feasible way to replicate its effects for training sessions. There was a chance Trixie was somewhat triggering it, but if so, the effects were greatly diminished, as if it knew there weren''t any real stakes at risk.
These were all traits and skills that had been long outstanding in gaining a level up. At first, I wondered why [Vanish] was included, but then I recalled it was now applied to spells via [Magical Subterfuge].
This was a major milestone, which meant I went from a trait budget of thirty-six to a whopping forty-nine, and all my mimicked traits could now go up to level seven! With how much I stay permanently transformed and mimic traits as if they were my own, I expected it sooner, but it seemed like as soon as any of my skills or traits hit level five, they slowed to a crawl. Definitely, something to question.
I was a little disappointed that this only gained a single level, but I had hardly used it since gaining it, and if I was desperate to level it up, I could just eat some more cores. Hopefully, Johnathan was doing merchant things to get me some more.
Another useful bunch of skills that managed to make some gains. Stacking [Prodigy] with [Apex Hunter] for boosted experience was so satisfying.
In hindsight, I should have tried to do some more sneaky spells to power-level this skill. Also, it was upsetting that Aquillia either couldn''t or wouldn''t cast her spells outside of her safety zone; I would have loved to have worked on [Counter Magic]. Although I was leaning towards wouldn''t; if she was a being of mana, risking herself like that would have allowed me to potentially drain her dry if I seized her magic.I was shocked that [Exploit Weakness] gained two levels. I would have thought it would only gain experience when it applied [Vulnerability] and would have been hard to level up. I could only theorize that whenever I triggered an application, whether it was already applied or not, then it was gaining experience. Perhaps my barrage of [Fire Arrows] caused multiple triggers and boosted the skill greatly; she did have a ton of debuffs at the time, so the chance of sess was likely near guaranteed.
I was pleasantly surprised to see this gained a level. I was upset that I didn''t flip between elemental alignments to grind away at the skill, lost in the heat of battle. However, since it did gain a level, this potentially meant that just being in an elemental alignment was enough to gain some experience. Or perhaps casting spells that get boosted by the alignment? Regardless, I was happy.
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I gasped. Gaining four race levels was huge. I only needed another nine levels, and I could evolve again and gain another sneak peek at what other slimes were out there. Perhaps, more importantly, I could get Gramps to wake up and fix whatever was happening with this half-spirit mana thing. I was also once again extremely grateful for [Identity Fabrication], as otherwise, I would be showing an absolutely ridiculous elf level when disguised.
Only two ss levels. My reaction was harshly the opposite of my race levels; I was astounded that it was so low. Were advanced sses this hard to level up? Is this why Tabitha had said she would have warned me against choosing Assassin as my first ss?
''Actually... I should probably dip into Assassin and then go back to Elementalist; I could probably get a skill or two that way. I assume there would be no downside now that I''ve already invested in an advanced ss.''
Finally, I looked at my new skill.
While elementally aligned, you can imbue your [Mana Reinforcement] directly with the element, gaining defensive properties and other enhanced effects based on the chosen element.
This skill has no levels, and its effects scale off abination of [Elemental Shift] and [Mana Reinforcement].>
Okay, this sounded fantastic, but I would have loved some details on the so-called ''other enhanced effects.'' The defensive properties were likely not as valuable for me, assuming they would give me fire resistance while aligned with fire. Regardless, it was only a single skill point, and I loved experimenting, so I grabbed it.
There were still a few notifications still waiting for me.
Emblem Achieved: [S???????p?????i????????????r???????i?????????t?????????? Candidate].>
Error.
Redacted.>
"Okay, this is getting ridiculous," I muttered.
"Are you done leveling up?" Trixie asked, fluttering nearby and looking absolutely delighted. "Also, congrats! I knew you could do it."
"Thanks. I certainly gained a lot. I probably could have ended it quicker if I had tried to freeze her first; I thought the fire would be the go-to counter since [Elemental Shift] puts it as the opposing element to water."
"True. Freezing her was what I originally had in mind. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to tell you that directly." Trixie shrugged. "Not that it seems to have mattered; you got there in the end and even robbed her of her domain. Truly excellent! I actually had no idea you could freeze an entireke! I joked about you turning this ind into a cier, but you basically did it anyway! Where the heck did you even keep all that slime? Dimensional storage?"
I could only stare at the nonstop verbal barrage from the excited pixie. Examining my storage was a grim sight; I had blown through over half of my reserves. In the long run, it was worth it as I had secured a victory and made considerable gains, but without [Slime Conversion], my anxiety was growing.
"That can wait. More importantly, what''s a spirit candidate?" I said.
"Don''t worry about-" Trixie tried to brush it off, but I pressed.
"I gained the emblem."
"What? Impossible." Trixie looked me over and shook her head. "A rather poor prank, Syl."
I couldn''t help but frown. I wondered if I could project the emblem to her like a trait or skill. With hardly any effort, I soon had the broken emblem projected before me. It seemed possible to share nearly anything in your profile if you wanted.
Trixie stared at the broken emblem and frowned deeply.
"Well. That''s not good. What did you do to it?" Trixie asked with a hint of usation. "Actually, no. Why do you even have that? You''re not a spirit."
"That''s what I want to know." I fired back.
Trixie gave a reluctant sigh. "Okay... I''ll exin... Some of it."
"I''m all ears."
"A [Spirit Candidate] is someone with the potential to be a Grand Spirit and oversee a major magical aspect. Think of it almost like nobility, except actually important. In Aqu''s case, she was one of the candidates trying to preside over Water."
"She would literally rule over Water?" I questioned.
"Eh... Kinda? She would be tied to it and responsible for rainfall and water-rted disasters, ensuring a bnce of Water Mana throughout the world... Lots of admin. And work... Lots of boring work."
It was on the tip of my tongue. I had to ask. "Are you a Grand Spirit?"
"Bah! You''d never catch me doing such boring work. I don''t need some fancy title to boost my ego." Trixie guffawed. "Maybe if they made a Grand Spirit of Pranks, I''d consider it."
"Right... So what should I do about this?"
"Honestly? Nothing. You''re not wearing the emblem, so you''re automatically disqualified. You''re supposed to proudly wear it so other candidates can attempt to remove thepetition. The most qualified candidate would be promoted if the current Grand Spirit of Water kicks the bucket or retires."
"And she would have gotten that by just sitting around here?"
"Yeah... It''s certainly not the best qualification. I doubt she was really in the runnings, but being a high level is usually seen as worthy enough."
"Yeah... I can''t say that appeals to me," I admitted. "I''m not going to get in trouble for killing a candidate, right?"
Trixie giggled, "I''m d we agree. And no, candidates are expected to be able to survive against monsters. If I had taken her out directly, there might have been some trouble."
"So... I can get my yellow slime now?" I asked, trying to look on the bright side and avoid the things outside my control.
Trixie paused and breathed in deeply, her eyes shut tight. "The essence flow is returning to normal for the ind, so regr spawn rules should be resuming very soon."
"How long does it take for monsters to spawn?"
"Depends on the area, but since floating inds are self-regting, there''s likely a daily batch of spawns. There''s currently a lot of built-up essence; Aquillia going pop has flooded the ce." Trixie began exining, tapping her finger against her lip. "If you''re lucky, I''d say as soon as tomorrow; otherwise, maybe a week at most? Assuming you do some daily monster culling."
"Great! I can''t wait!" I said with newfound optimism.
"Just try to avoid breaking something else." Trixie giggled.
Leaving the frozenke behind, we started heading towards our tree fort. I shifted to a water alignment and started toying around with replicating that impressive water beam spell. I couldn''t help but giggle at the thought of Dewiining aboutpression again when I eventually showed him this spell.
I was feeling absolutely giddy. Finally, the yellow slime core was potentially in my grasp again, and I was armed to the teeth to get it.
Chapter 127: Cascading Events
Chapter 127: Cascading Events
Things had been going well for ''Gramps.'' While there were minor hups and asional disappointment from one of the experiments, it was a resounding sess in the grand scheme of things. After all, you must break a few eggs to make an omelet. Finally, some proper recognition was shown of the countless traits he poured his blood, sweat, and tears into. He had been in such a positive mood that he even took some time to design a new monster species or two; it had been ages since hest felt so inspired.
He turned his attention to one of his favorite subjectstely, the slime. It had been some time since hest checked in on Syl, as it was now called, and while he enjoyed watching live, being able to binge through the logs and skip or fast-forward through boring parts had its own merits. Thest time he was watching, Syl had just killed a mutated nature boar spawned by the system''s overflow catcher. At the time, Gramps couldn''t help but chuckle at the irony of it, as Syl had inadvertently caused the buildup through a cascading series of events and now had directly disposed of it.
He thoroughly enjoyed what he saw and strongly approved the idea of seeking out a floating ind; the only thing better for growth would be heading toward another dungeon. He enjoyed watching Syl take out the griffins and elementals and was currently fighting arge group of pegasi. When it happened, Gramps couldn''t help but do a spit-take of his coffee as he witnessed the slime cause a system error.
"What the hell have you done now..." He muttered, his voice carrying the weight of his disappointment and concern.
Checking the logs, the [Sub-Core] trait seemed to behave above its intended parameters. When he originally designed it, he found the idea full of fun potential with its almost barebone AI functionality and the ability to set nearly pseudo procedures and subroutines programmed to them. Syl demonstrated minor proficiency in using them almostpletely unaided. Gramps had hoped the process would have been faster, but rather than exploring them further, Syl kept getting distracted by silly things like magic.
The problem was Syl''s core was the only mana source, and the subs drew from it directly. Syl had made the mental argument that [Mana Slime] was a source of mana; technically, this was true, and the [Sub-Cores] agreed and took Syl''s demand as an order and, rather than pulling mana from the core, pulled the raw liquid mana flowing throughout the slime. It was a gross vition of the system, but rather than anger, Gramps couldn''t help but chuckle at the absurdity of it.
Syl was the only slime with the trait at the moment, as none of the wild slimes had randomized it yet, and some of the [Dungeon Masters] were strangely hesitant to try out a beta trait on their directed monsters.
"It''s amazing how one dungeon master dies while testing out a new alpha feature, and suddenly, everyone is scared to be a tester. No courage. Bah!" Gramps barked with bitter dismay. "I''ll have to fix the trait now and then fix Syl''s during the next evolution."
He continued to watch and shared Syl''s grief over losing the valuable yellow slime core. That would have been an amazing acquisition, as the yellow slime was shockingly old for one of its kind; obtaining [Voltaic Slime LV 7] in the wild was rare. He continued to watch the events unfold.He wasn''t too fond of Syl getting involved with a spirit but couldn''t help butugh as the spirit swore to an oath farrger than it could have imagined. He had no doubt if the spirit truly wanted; it could have wiggled itself around it, but it seemed genuinely grateful for being rescued and enjoyed Syl''spany. This was fortunate, as even if the spirit wasn''t shrewd enough to nefariously wiggle out of an oath, it would gradually be freed from it if Syl ever shared the secrets with others. A secret between two individuals is robust, but a secret amongst arge group might as well have no meaning.
He skipped overrge portions of the magic segments, although he saved it as a potential bargaining chip with her. While Gramps was known for his love of traits, she was known as the Mother of Magic. He was already on rather friendly terms with her, and if he showed her that his subject was showing great fondness for her domain, he might have a favor or two lined up in his back pocket.
While Gramps wasn''t that fond of pranks, he found himself in a light chuckle at the downfall of the alicorn. The rest was mostly business as usual; again, arge magic portion was skipped and set aside for potential bargaining. Then, Syl was confronting a [Spirit Candidate].
"This should be very interesting..." Gramps said, on the edge of his seat.
When Syl struck the final blow, a victory sealed not through Syl''s admittedly powerful magic but due to thebination of multiple slime traits together, Gramps suddenly found himself off his chair and cheering.
"Ha! Who cares about magic? Just stack all your traits together and dominate thepetition! That''s what it''s all about!" He celebrated.
Then, the errors started appearing.
"Shit! What now?" He eximed, his jubnt mood now soured.
He read over the logs and frowned deeply. This was not good. The system somehow thought Syl was a spirit, and the one error assumed minor at the time was now spiraling into somethingrger. His immediate thought was to delete the issue, Syl. That would be the normal, appropriate response. But Gramps found himself chewing on his thumb with concern, trying to puzzle out another solution.
There were multiple other experiments, and Syl was only one of them. But Syl had numerous traits that he had lovingly designed and even picked the evolution he had custom-made. To say Syl was an ideal experiment for his purposes wouldn''t be an understatement. Not to mention, Gramps had quite a few bets ced on the damned slime ball.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the vition.
He hid the error logs and started to leave. He needed at least two others to approve of an emergency solution because, at the rate this slime was causing system errors, it wouldn''t survive until its next evolution without intervention.
"I can probably get her on my side. I probably just need to mention Elementalist and tell her Syl created those new debuff spells... No doubt she knows of them but likely hasn''t investigated who made them yet."
"Who else could I easily get on my side... Even though Syl spared the troll, I doubt he would help me." He scratched his head vigorously as he tried to think of potential allies.
He mentally went through some of the other less promising experiments; offering some help was likely his best chance. Gramps was well known for his trait-creation wizardry, often pushing the system''s limits, and nearly any of the others would be grateful for one of his more inspired works. With a sh of enlightenment, he had his idea.
"The crab!" He eximed, mming a fist into his palm. "Yes. He was desperate; I could offer a custom trait, maybe even a custom evolution tailored for it."
With a wave, multiple floating screens appeared before him, and he pulled out some of his summarized logs. They were quite a mess, and Gramps couldn''t help but snort at the disorganized mess. The crab was rather cowardly and far too focused on defense; it seemed far too interested in collecting shells, and it evolved into a hermit crab as a result. Why it didn''t pick a mutation or stronger species evolution was beyond Gramps'' understanding, but he could work with this!
"A trait based on shells collected, or perhaps a trait that lets one build a custom shell... Yes! I can work with this!" Gramps said triumphantly, his creative juices flowing, and he stormed in that direction. It was time to collect his potential allies.
***
To my surprise, Trixie was even more helpful and cheery than normal. She looked like the cat that got the cream. I didn''t even ask; she gave generous information and tidbits freely and openly while I tried to recreate the water beam spell. Apparently, it was a rathermon, if advanced, spell that most water affinity mages would be taught when apprenticing, as it could be rather easily upgraded as one progressed.
The basic concept was to focus the power of [Torrent] down to a much smaller area, creating a dangerously destructive effect. This would train a mage''s control as they manipted a rather basic spell. Then, once mastered, a mage would be expected to add additional [Torrent] constructs to the existing spell, as ifyering it. The increased power would cause the spell to be much harder to focus, and this repeatable process was, in theory, a constant form of growth until you reached a point where the exponentially increasing difficulty became far too much for even an Archmage.
Aquillia hadyered the spell three times, whereas Trixie could only do it twice. While Trixie had [Water Magic], she preferred to focus on her other talents. The initial step was promptlypleted, and with a little bit of pixie guidance, I added the secondyering without much trouble and immediately got to work on focusing down the spell back to its pinpoint. The powerful pressurized water beam was immensely satisfying, even if I could immediately tell itcked the oomph the undine''s version had shown.
Trixie exined that the other forms of magic usually have simr practices, but unless I obtained Nature affinity, I''d need to improvise it myself or seek another teacher willing to share their knowledge, as that was all she could show. The Mage''s Guild would likely be my best bet, but I was a little unhappy that Dewi''s teachings were being rapidly reced. Then again, Dewi had seemingly made his discoveries with little outside help, perhaps just some of the Adventurer''s Guild knowledge they were willing to share with him.
After applying the concept, I knew I could eventually do the rest myself, so Trixie and I chatted about my previous escapades instead of continuing since it was alreadyte. Trixie said that while my effort to train nonstop was admirable, I should set aside some time to "smell the roses."
Before sleep, I made sure to withdraw enough slime to restore Gamma. My tub was nearly overflowing, but I didn''t want to be caught unaware. We nned to fly around the ind tomorrow, searching for the new spawns and clearing them out until, eventually, my yellow slime would spawn. I''d also gratefully eat any new and interesting monsters, as I''d never say no to some new profiles or to refilling my slime reserve.
My mind felt like it was going in overdrive as I thought of all the possibilities, and like I had predicted, I found myself struggling to eventually fall asleep. I took a brief nce at my profile, noticing that my Emblem had been removed. I''d need to remember to equip a new one in the morning.
Name: Syl
Race: Chimeric Mimic Slime (Blue) LV 21
ss: Elementalist LV 3
Status: Healthy
Mana: O????v???????e??????r???????????f????????????l???????o????????????w????????i????????n??????????g?????
Emblems:
[Experiment]
[Apex Hunter]
[Elven Legacy]
[Dungeoneer]
[Nature''s Bane]
[Manhunter]
[S???????p?????i????????????r???????i?????????t?????????? Candidate]
Traits:
Slime:
[Mana Slime LV MAX]
[Acid Slime LV 7]
[Poison Slime LV 6]
[ze Slime LV 6]
[Cryo Slime LV 5]
[Morph Slime LV 7]
[Pseudopod LV 6]
[Slime Shot LV 7]
[Slime Burst LV 6]
[Vaporize Slime]
Core:
[Core Refinement LV 7]
[Core Storage LV 6]
[Sub-Core Alpha LV 5]
[Sub-Core Beta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Gamma LV 5]
[Sub-Core Delta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Epsilon LV 5]
[Consuming Osmosis LV MAX]
Mimic:
[Chimeric Mimicry LV 7]
[Chroma Shift LV MAX]
Mana:
[Mana Circ???????????????????t???????????i???o?????????????????n????????????????????? ???????????????????L????????????V???????????????????? ??????????????????7????????]
[Mana Reinforcement LV 6]
[Mana Infusion]
[Slime Conversion LV 4]
Attributes/Other:
[Soul Mastery LV 7]
[Enhanced Vitality LV 5]
[Magic Resistance (Lesser) LV 5]
[Curse Resistance LV 1]
[Defy Death LV 4]
[Prodigy]
[??? LV 0]
Senses:
[Olfactory Sense]
[Dark Vision LV MAX]
[Mana Conception LV 6]
[Life Sight LV 3]
[Thermal Vision LV MAX]
[Eagle Vision LV 2]
Trait Points remaining: 17
Skills:
General:
[Universal Language]
[Equipment Swap]
[Dissection LV 6]
[Mapping LV 5]
[Tracking LV 2]
[Identify LV 5]
[Multitasking LV 5]
[Perception LV 4]
[Aerial Finesse LV 4]
Combat:
[Tranquil Flow LV 5]
[Attack Mastery (Lesser) LV 7]
[Affliction Mastery LV 5]
[Exploit Weakness LV 3]
Magic:
[Water Magic LV 5]
[Fire Magic LV 5]
[Corrosion Magic LV 5]
[Ice Magic LV 5]
[Arcane Magic LV 2]
[Mana Maniption LV 5]
[Magic Efficiency LV 4]
[Counter Magic LV 2]
[Elemental Shift LV 3]
[Elemental Adaptation]
[Ritual Casting]
[Mana Suppression]
[Meditate]
Sneaky:
[Vanish LV 6]
[Sneak Attack LV 6]
[Identity Fabrication LV 6]
[Acting LV 4]
[Rogue Expertise LV 4]
[Magical Subterfuge LV 2]
[Subtle Afflictions]
Skill Points remaining: 15
Chapter 128: Hot-Spring
Chapter 128: Hot-Spring
In a truly astonishing turn of events, Trixie had awoken before me. It was a surprise I couldn''t quite fathom. Before leaving my bathtub bed, I confirmed that Gamma was sessfully restored and appropriately filled myself out with a bit of reserve slime.
Outside, I found Trixie, a sight to behold, trimming branches from the giant tree with an almost assembly line of Branch Sprites. The way she orchestrated the process was nothing short of ingenious. The sprites would bring her a stick, she would cast a spell, and a new sprite would be formed. Then, equipped with what I could only describe as a tiny leaf glider, they would wander to the edge of our tree ind and jump off.
"Morning, sleepy head," Trixie greeted me with a mischievous grin, her eyes twinkling with amusement.
"Morning... Dare I ask what is with all the sprites?" I asked.
"I figured this would make our task easier, rather than flying around aimlessly for days on end," Trixie exined. "The sprites will send me a mental note when they encounter a monster, or if they are killed, I''ll know where, and then we burst onto the scene."
"I mean... Not toin about [Ice Magic] because, honestly, it''s pretty cool." I started. Trixie rolled her eyes at the terrible pun I had stolen, but I caught a hint of a giggle. "But that seems vastly more useful than the majority of spells I''ve unlocked. Aren''t Ice and Nature supposed to be on the same tier?"
"They are, and I guess it depends on what you''d define as useful. One of the primary concepts in [Nature Magic] is ''giving life,'' while it undoubtedly has somebat uses, I find it better suited to more utility roles like this." Trixie exined while she continued to work. "The ''freeze'' concept of [Ice Magic] is downright deadly; it''s likely one of the scariest in all elemental magic. I can''t think of a single nature construct I could craft to stand up against it, so while you get little to no utility, you''ve got a stacked deck in the killing department."
"Thanks. Sorry for whinging." I said sheepishly.
"Hey, no worries. If you get your hands on Earth, you may also get yourself Nature. Then you''ll see my point more clearly when you''re wondering why you get a spell that creates brambles while others can shoot bolts of lightning or freeze something to death."We chatted for a bit longer, and eventually, Trixie stopped creating more Branch Sprites. She sat atop my head to top herself up with mana, as it was much preferable to her eating some of the essence on the ind, and she was only skimming the top off my passive regeneration.
True to her words, she started getting information about the ind from her minions andmunicated with me that thergest buildup was near theke. We rushed over to the still-frozen wastnd.
"Shit. I should have expected this." Trixie sighed as we saw what had spawned by theke¡ªice elementals.
Seeing the various forms of the elemental was interesting, even though I knew at the heart they were technically the same being with the same traits. I could probably harvest the elemental core from the solid variants, but I could almost imagine the slurry or snow poofing into nothing when they died.
I shifted my elemental alignment to fire and was ready to start killing; then, I recalled my newest spell [Contagion]. While the situation wasn''t ideal since I didn''t need anything other than [mmable] at the end of the day, I was still curious about my new spell and its effectiveness.
The elementals were meandering about, having not noticed our presence. I picked one of the most central ones as my target and began my barrage of debuffs. I was about to cast [Contagion] but was suddenly inspired.
"I can cast my afflictions at range now!" I realized.
[Combust] and [Frostbite] were still both limited to their close-range magical powder form of distribution, as I had only applied [Dissolve] to [Acid Arrow]. While I still wanted to free them from such an unideal limitation, it didn''t matter right now. I wanted to cast [Combust] on my target, then [Contagion], spreading everything. I held an empowered [Contagion] at the ready, boosting the spore radius to its current maximum, and then, with perfect timing, cast my spells.
[Combust] applied to the elemental and started to take burning damage, but before it could react, [Contagion] went off. A transparent ckish cloud of mana burst from the elemental, spreading out in a wave around it. I saw all its ailment durations get halved, and that was when I saw them all get applied to the nearby elementals.
"Damn, Syl, you''re like a walking bio-hazard," Trixiemented. "And youined about my little twigs, honestly..."
I winced at the harshment. "I guess it''s easy to get blinded by what we don''t have..."
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Trixie nodded in agreement. The weaker elementals were already dying, and I decided to clean up using a point-nk [Fireball] spell. It was another theory I wanted to test; I cast the [Fireball] in the center of the pack, and it rapidly swelled in size and swirling blue me. Then I destabilized the spell as if I were in a [Counter Magic] battle, and it detonated in ce. It was very effective, and the remaining elementals were dispatched in one fiery swoop.
"Good idea, in theory, but destabilizing your spell like that cost you a lot of mana," Trixie said, wagging her finger.
"Damn it... I forgot about that. I can''t gauge or measure spells right now." I groaned. The stupid broken mana thing was seriously inconvenient; I might have drained myself without knowing.
"Yeah, you''d be better off removing the projectile portion of [Fireball] if you wanted it to detonate without colliding into something or perhaps aiming it downward," Trixie suggested.
Trixie''s words tickled my memory; then I recalled the long-forgotten third-level fire spell¡ª[Nova]. I groaned at my stupidity in hindsight.
"I already have an explosion spell... [Nova]..." I reluctantly informed Trixie.
She cackled withughter at my expense. "If that isn''t the damnedest proof, a Pyromancer originally trained you. Of course, you think [Fireball] solves everything."
I groaned while mentally cursing Dewi and flew down to examine the icy remains. Surprisingly, I managed to recover two ice elemental crystals. I ate one just in case, but it fell under my original [Elemental] profile, as I had predicted. I stored the other one away for selling.
"I''d suggest you toss some fire spells around and melt the ice as much as possible; otherwise, this area will keep spawning more ice elementals," Trixie suggested. "Whatever you did here is so rich in ice mana it''s actually ridiculous."
I took her advice to heart and started to spam some fire spells around. I also got to try out casting [Nova] at range, and it worked perfectly without me needing to destabilize it. It was frankly a lot of fun just casually tossing spells around, like fulfilling any child''s power fantasy.
With my inner pyromaniac thoroughly fulfilled and most of theke no longer solid, I decided to speed up the process by triggering [ze Slime] to the maximum and plunging into the icyke. Once submerged, I started withdrawing more slime to expand myself and then elongated exploratory [Pseudopods] to increase my surface area further.
"What are you doing?" Trixie eventually asked, giving me a telepathic poke.
"Doing my best jellyfish impression," I replied cheekily.
Trixie snorted, "Good one."
"I try. But in all seriousness, I''m trying to raise the temperature enough to deal with any remaining [Cryo Slime], hopefully..."
"Huh... Neat." Trixie responded, and I watched her dip a toe in the water above me. Eventually, she gained the courage and fully submerged herself; a deep and refreshing sigh echoed in my head.
"You''re like a portable hot-spring generator; just add water." She chuckled. "Who knew you slimes were so useful."
While I was stuck here, I tried out [Elemental Adaptation]. I had asked Trixie if she knew anything about it, but she admitted that she''d never heard of it. Her friend who had this ss either didn''t mention it or hadn''t qualified for it.
The most immediate difference was entirely visual, my normal [Mana Reinforcement] now glowing with Fire-attuned mana rather than raw. Weirdly, I felt... Stronger? It almost felt like I was borrowing [Enhanced Strength]. I shifted to Water and felt the strength fade, and when I reapplied the reinforcement with the new element, it was reced with... Something.
"Hey Trixie, if Fire is Strength, then what would Water be?" I asked.
"Uhh... Flexibility? Fluidity?" She answered, a little unsure.
I epted that answer; it made sense since my Water Affinity gave me an improved version of [Evasion]. I shifted to Ice, and another strange sensation filled me when I reinforced again. I tried to puzzle out what this gave me but couldn''t think of anything, and Trixie''s answer was ''Cold.''
Eventually, we exited the water. Trixie had warned me that if I stayed too long, we might end up with the opposite problem and find Steam or Hot-spring Elementals in the morning. Chunks of frost still floated near the edges, but Trixie said it would likely even out eventually.
We returned to our tree for a rather pleasant evening. I was hopeful for better results the next day.
***
"Hey, how''s your crab doing?" Gramps asked, approaching his target.
"H-hey... He''s doing okay... He still refuses to leave, though; I don''t know what to do."
"Well, I was just thinking that we have a unique opportunity to explore shell-based evolutions and traits!" Gramps began, making sure toy it on thick with attempted pizzazz. "I was even thinking of designing a trait myself; I think your crab would love it. It might even give him some newfound confidence."
"R-really!?" He replied, startled. "You''d do that for me? I mean... Him?"
Gramps chuckled. "Of course, my friend, we wouldn''t want to lose such valuable test data. Would we?"
"N-no. Of course not." He replied almost immediately.
"I''m d we see eye to eye on the importance of keeping the experiments going," Gramps said, giving him a good pat on the shoulders. "There''s another subject that''s fallen into very unfortunate circumstances." Gramps swapped his tactics, taking a more regretful approach.
"Oh no... Is there not something you can do?"
Gramps tried not to smirk; he felt he hadnded his hook. "Not alone. But... Perhaps with some help?"
"I-I''ll help. It''s good to stick together. Though... Depending on the severity, we might need someone else."
Gramps gave himself a mental high-five. "Don''t worry, my friend, you can leave that to me. Now, let''s see what we can do about your crab. I was thinking of possibly a trait that lets him build a custom shell; the scbility would give him some confidence, and if we make some of the materials required forter upgrades only acquirable outside the ocean..."
"He''d be forced to leave! That''s brilliant!" He cheered. Then, as quickly as the joy came, it vanished. "But how... Would we give it to him? He''s already lost his trait helper, and his next evolution is far away."
"I can just give him a [??? LV 0] trait the next time he picks up a shell, then let it unlock after he''s collected a few more. Since he''s not my subject, it wouldn''t be against the rules."
"Huh... Why didn''t I think of that?" He paused. "Won''t the othersin?"
Gramps chuckled. "Who do you think I stole the idea from? I''m certainly not the first to throw some zest into this event."
They continued to walk off and throw some ideas around, although, in the end, it would be wholly Gramps''s design that was implemented. But that was no excuse not to let him feel like he helped contribute, even if the truth showed otherwise.
''Well, that''s the easy part done. Now I just need to convince her...''
Chapter 129: Yellow Hunt
Chapter 129: Yellow Hunt
The next day, Trixie''s minions found two more sources for us to investigate. I was hopeful for our n, but when the first monsters we encountered were a bunch of fresh harpies, I couldn''t hide my disappointment. Dispatching them was a simple experience; I just had to align myself to Fire and detonate a sneaky [Nova] amongst their group, thanks to [Magical Subterfuge]. I couldn''t help butpare myself to the adventurer I had seen at the start of my journey who obliterated that green slime. Only Trixie''s repeated reassurance that spawned monsters weren''t "living" kept me levelheaded. If I got a wish from Gramps, that would definitely be high on my list of changes. Assuming I survived long enough to be a Queen Slime, I''d feel a little reluctant that my own children were nothing but mindless slimes to be ughtered wholesale.
The other monster we investigated was a freshly spawned griffin. It was currently hunting some of the regr animals that would also be spawned on the floating ind, not brave or strong enough yet to risk descending to the surface. I had asked Trixie if I should be culling the normal animals too, but she had said it would be rather pointless as they took up almost no essence at all, and I risked leaving any monsters after we were gone with potentially no food to hunt.
Rather than exploding it out of the sky, I wanted to try a more preserving approach using [Ice Magic]. I shifted my alignment to ice and began debuffing the griffin before casting multiple [Icy Grasp] spells at range. Seeing a griffin flying around suddenly frozen solid and starting to plummet out of the sky was unbelievable. The rm bells from [Dissection] red, and I flew with the utmost haste to itsnding spot. Then, I swelled into a giant slime cushion to catch my prey.
"That''s worth a gold star," Trixie replied happily. The pixie seemed to take great pride in my magical aplishments after she trained me to use it better.
Before returning to our home, Trixie started recing some of her Branch Sprites that hadn''t survived and spreading them out more around the ind in hopes of finding my yellow slime. Despite wanting to be more proactive, I was now forced to wait, so I just passed the time by modifying my already existing spells; in particr, I wanted to upgrade [Frigid] my ice debuff to include freezing. I had thought about creating an entirely new debuff to handle that aspect. Still, it felt much more natural to incorporate freeze into an existing spell, and [Decay], my big debuff and affliction nuke, promised that damage was based not only on the number of ailments but also their rtive strength.
I was in a routine loop of waking up early, doing some magic practice until Trixie woke up, and then running around the ind using her like a monster sensor. After a lot of searching, we finally found the day spawn¡ªAir Elementals. My mood soured, and I wasted no time detonating multiple [Nova] spells midair before promptly leaving.
Overall, it was another day of dismay. I kept psyching myself up with bubbling anticipation, only to be disappointed. Trying to find some silver lining, I at least sessfully modified [Frigid] near the end of the day.
The next day, we awoke to the familiar sound of cracking thunder. My hopes were immediately reignited at their peak. Both Trixie and I raced towards the source.
"Looks like luck is finally on our side," Trixie said. "I''m also sensing quite a bunch of Lightning mana.""I''m honestly so excited. I can''t wait to see what [Lightning Magic] has, not to mention my new trait!"
"And you''ll be one step closer to getting Air, too." Trixie pointed out, although she still withheld exactly how I was supposed to make that happen.
We arrived on the scene, and my mood plummeted harder than that frozen griffin.
I cursed. Trixie sighed in disappointment and was about to try to say something before I unleashed on the elemental. The lightning elemental hadn''t spotted us yet and seemed preupied with darting in and out of a cloud formation. With practiced precision, all my debuffs were fully unloaded before finally [Decay] was cast. With an almost pop, one moment, the elemental was darting around and sparking into the cloud; the next, it burst like a static discharge followed by a small thunderp.
I barely nced at my level up, and there was no point in searching for something to eat from the elemental, so I headed home.
"Come on, Syl. Cheer up." Trixie pleaded. "It''ll happen eventually. I don''t want to give you false hope, but the chances are higher now that there''s been some lightning mana discharged into the environment."
"... Sorry. I''m still bitter about how close I was originally. Part of me expected it to just naturally line up after we dealt with the alicorn and undine."
"Look. I''m also disappointed, but don''t let that dampen your mood. Just think of it as extra time to get all your ducks in a row before you get utterly lost in ying with lightning."
I knew she was right, and I was just being impatient, but it was still a bitter pill to swallow. I decided to continue plucking some low-hanging fruit still on my to-do list, like adding [Combust] to some of my fire spells. In an effort to cheer me up in the evening, Trixie changed the subject to the other disguise I had briefly mentioned to her. Sylvester.
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Trixie loved the name; I had originally thought she was simply trying to sweeten me up, but the way she kept going on and on about the delicious irony, I discovered that she was being genuine. Originally, my n was for an old wise man, but Trixie said it would make me look rather ipetent if I was so old and only a sub-level twenty sorcerer. Going along with her advisement, I lowered the age to around thete thirties, and my magnificent wizard beard was reduced to a goatee. Trixie looked at me with envy when I shifted around some slime into some of the various robes I had eaten and settled on a dark navy blue coloring.
"You can just make clothes... I swear you''re cheating at life here." Trixie stated.
Confused, I frowned, "But I''ve seen you make clothes too?"
The pixie coughed and looked away sheepishly. "Right... But yours seem nicer."
I wanted to challenge that, but I recognized the tone in her voice would just lead to me arguing with a brick wall.
"You know... If you shifted to an element, you could probably pretend to be a Cryomancer or Hydromancer." Trixie suggested.
"Would there be any benefit to doing that though?"
"Other than the name sounding more impressive?" Trixie smirked. "In all seriousness, hiding your other elemental affinities would be the main benefit. Not that just anyone can pick those up, but it can''t hurt to be extra cautious, right?"
I nodded in agreement; the extra security alone was a big plus. And while it was my obvious paranoia talking, I liked that there would be a clear differentiator between Syl and Sylvester''s affinities. Two people, both sharing the exact same affinities, two of which are rare elements, sounded far too incriminating.
We continued adjusting the disguise farter into the night than I expected. Trixie was having far too much fun, and when she finally gave a double thumbs up, I made sure to lock down the disguise as a permanently re-creatable form.
I hated putting my race level so low, but it would raise far too many red gs. And, while I could have put Cryomancer all the way up to thirty, I decided on a sort of midway point, which left Sylvester some room to grow.
Trixie''s distraction the previous evening was clearly what the doctor ordered, as I woke up feeling much better and calmer the next day. I mindlessly poked away at adding [Combust] to [Fire Arrow]. I thought about adding it to [Fireball] but knew I could use [Contagion] to spread the effect if needed.
Then we were off, once again following the Trixie sensor. Unfortunately, her minions couldn''t actually speak to her, merely sending her a signal when they spotted something. I would have much preferred to have known beforehand if this would be a monster cleanup or if we were actually getting our prize. I was absentmindedly thinking about my next goals, I still had yet to experiment with Arcane that much, and it held both a potential affliction and debuff. I had no clue what the affliction would do, perhaps some form of pure damage regardless of element? I hoped the debuff would be a general magic defense debuff, simr to [Erode] and physical defense.
"Syl!" Trixie shouted loudly through my mind, abruptly returning me to reality.
"What?" I asked, a little dumbfounded.
"Isn''t that what you were after?" She asked, pointing towards the ground.
It was tinypared to the one I had seen previously, but it was yellow slime! I couldn''t help but shout triumphantly and thank Trixie profusely.
"I mean... You''re wee, but how about you thank me after you get it?" Trixie pointed out. "Do you want me to hide you so you can get close?"
"No. I don''t think that will work; thest time I tried to sneak up on one, it shocked me as soon as I got close enough. I''m almost positive it didn''t know I was there, so it must have just been triggered by proximity."
"And judging by yourst attempt, you can''t solve this with a [Fireball]?"
"No..." I admitted bitterly. "I''m going to freeze it, then eat it."
Trixie nodded. "Sounds good to me. Good luck!"
I was about to cast [Frigid] but held back at thest second. I was so afraid of doing too much damage and breaking the core. Instead, I cast a single [Frost Grasp] spell, alone, unempowered, and as basic as possible, and gently poked the yellow slime with the phantasmal hand. Within mere moments, the slime waspletely frozen over and... dead?
With all my speed avable, I rushed down and swallowed up the frozen slime, my emotions racing with anticipation.
''Yes!'' I screamed.
While I immediately wanted to look at the new trait, I rushed to confirm my other goal. I tried to purchase [Lightning Magic].
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" I shouted triumphantly.
The spell installed into my core was somewhat underwhelmingpared to my struggles to get here, but I couldn''t care less. I finally had it! At its base, the spell would create a spark of lightning to strike a very nearby target, but I knew I could simply cast the spell at range, thanks to my training. Having the very first lightning spell be essentially melee only, I somewhat understood why Lisa became a warrior hybrid.
Finally, the moment of truth, I looked over my new trait. Even though it was only level two, I was still immensely satisfied.
This slime can store and generate lightning sparks; the maximum generation, storage, and output are all scaled with trait level. The maximum storage is a guideline and not a true limit; however, exceeding the limit will cause violent, uncontroble discharges within its proximity.
To facilitate gathering and storing electrical energy, the slime can toggle into being an active lightning rod, causing nearby bolts to redirect towards it.
This trait adds lightning resistance, which scales with the trait level until immunity is reached at the maximum level. Furthermore, the slime core is insted from its own lightning or electrical shocks, preventing the slime from killing itself.
Compatible with other slime traits.>
My mind was overwhelmed with excitement, and I felt the urge to give a long overdue happy tendril wiggle. However, one big question was on my mind: What the hell was electrical energy?
Chapter 130: Sparks
Chapter 130: Sparks
"Judging by your reaction, I''m guessing that was a sess?" Trixie asked, fluttering over.
I shifted to my familiar elven form and rolled my fingers while casting my new spell, causing sparks to surge between my fingers. "You tell me," I said with a cheesy grin.
Trixie took no time taking her usual seat atop my head and breathed deeply. "Wow, you have practically pure lightning affinity just like that."
I nodded and discharged the spell towards the ground. There was no booming thunder, more like a light crackling noise as it erratically surged vaguely in the general direction I had aimed it.
"This might be a good opportunity to tell you that one in three lightning mages end up killing themselves directly or indirectly," Trixie said unexpectedly, her voice carrying a note of concern. "I hope you''ve got some lightning resistance or a way to prevent shocking yourself."
"That''s concerning..." I replied, unsure if she was joking or not.
"Hey, fire mages are one in five. It''s not that bad!" Trixie giggled, herughter echoing in the air.
"Well. Luckily, I don''t need to worry about fire at this point. As for lightning... I''ve got some resistance now, and apparently, I can store it. Although, I''m not entirely sure how that works."
"Only one way to find out!" Trixie said, leaving her spot and flying to a safe watching distance.I shifted back to a regr slime form, wanting to witness what happened with full transparency. After ensuring that [Voltaic Slime] was active, I cast [Spark] at myself. The spell honed in on me with the utmost precision, and once it hit my slime, it started to arc around within. I now had a vague sense of my capacity and was beyond the limit. Trixie stared in fascination, her eyes twinkling as they followed the sparks inside me.
Due to the trait, the profile, or witnessing the yellow slime at work, I knew I would need to perform a simr undting action to generate more. Although copying that while disguised would be terrible, I wondered if I could use cycling between slime dpression andpression within myself to generate the same effect. I created small pockets in myself to perform the action, and after a bit of trial and error, I managed to start generating tiny sparks within the pockets. By increasing the cycling frequency, I could induce them faster.
"Okay, that''s very pretty," Trixie admitted.
At that stage, I reached my capacity rather quickly, and the arcs were no longer contained within my slimy center and instead started to surge across my outer membrane. It would make a great offense or defense from anyone in melee with me, although admittedly, that was already the case with plenty of my other slime traits. I let it build up some more, and then, instead of just surging across, it violently discharged towards anything nearby.
Happy with the results, I tried to control the surging energy into a bolt and wanted to direct it toward a distant tree. The power surged to a singr point inside me, then bursting with unparalleled speed, erupted from my slimy form toward my intended direction. The bolt struck the tree, followed by a rather unimpressive thunderp. The bark was blown off at the point of contact, and the energy seemed to travel through it, leaving scarred pathways.
I found myself both equally impressed and unimpressed. The effectiveness of the overloaded lightning bolt was inspiring, but the diminutive size of my bolt and its effective destruction paled inparison to what I saw that yellow slime pull off. I knew it was an unfairparison, likeparing a [Fire Arrow] to a [Fireball] spell; it likely had far more levels in the trait than me, but I still couldn''t help but feel a small wound in my personal pride.
Trixie, on the other hand, was pping excitedly. "That was very impressive. I don''t know what you did, as that clearly wasn''t a spell, but it was very shy."
"It''s my new trait. I can store, generate, and discharge lightning." I exined, a familiar oath chain briefly appearing on Trixie.
"Well, I''m certainly d I''m not a lightning mage. You''d literally just grow stronger anytime I cast a spell."
"That''s the hope at least. However, if I don''t increase the trait and, by extension, my capacity, I think I could still be in trouble. I only get lightning immunity at max level."
"You could also shift your alignment to lightning. I''m like ny-nine percent positive, which would increase your resistance."
"True! I haven''t tried that yet." I said excitedly and activated [Elemental Shift].
It went off without any issue, and I immediately cast a new [Spark] spell to notice the improvements. Likewise, I discovered that Water and Ice were now crippled, while Fire seemed neutral. Lastly, I tried out [Elemental Adaptation] and found myself with quicker speed and reaction. I shifted to a humanoid form and started running with some rather impressive speed.
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"Let me guess. You''re fast as lightning now?" Trixie chuckled.
"Seems like it. Maybe a little stronger as well? It''s hard to tell; I wish I had an instruction manual."
Speaking of which, I still needed to look over the yellow slime profile. It had [Pseudopod] and [Slime Density] asmon traits, and I found it a little strange to see a slime that didn''t naturally gain [Slime Shot] or [Slime Burst]. It also had a rare trait I had never seen before, [EM Field].
This trait allows the user to sense electrical fields, conductive materials, and bioelectricity within a 5m per trait rank radius.
Higher trait levels also increase visual rity when observing within the field.
Note_1: This trait name and description desperately need a rework; it is not fantasy-sounding enough.
Note_2: Electrovision? A little uninspired. I''lle back to thister.>
''Note... One and two?'' I stared at the description dumbfounded.
I didn''t know whether tough or be concerned that Gramps had presumably left notes about this trait. Did he not care at the time because he thought nobody would read a monster trait? Maybe if I remind him, he''ll reward me? Regardless, the trait sounded good, and I wondered if this was the reason the yellow slime spotted me when I tried to ambush it. My slime was highly conductive, so I must have been seen like a giant signal re when I entered its radius.
After obtaining it, I toggled the trait on, and the entire world around me within the small radius took on a strange greyscale coloring. It was very odd, and I wasn''t entirely sure how to decipher this new information. The radius seemed to start away from my form, so I formed a tendril to examine it and was met with a bright yellow representation of it. I assumed this meant it was highly conductive, and I toggled off the lightning rod aspect of my [Voltaic Slime] and watched the yellow coloring dim to a much more subdued shade. I turned off the trait, finding the vision a little distracting, and delegated it to Epsilon to use it and train its levels. I would explore it in more detailter because I had more exciting ns.
I was eager to test out my new spell against a monster, so we headed to what we assumed was another spawn point to find a pair of pegasi resting atop one of the smaller floating ind segments. I didn''t have a lightning debuff yet, so I would likely be fighting with [Spark] alone. I was about to begin casting the spell multiple times, originating around the winged horses, but a thought urred to me¡ªcouldn''t I just cast [Spark] inside them and have it ravage them from inside like I had suffered?
I knew I had to have a clear visual perception to cast a spell at a distance, but with all my various senses, I felt I had enough to see inside the horses. I tried casting my spell, but it immediately failed. I tried again with a much clearer image, using abination of [Thermal Vision] and [Mana Conception]¡ªit also failed immediately.
"What are you doing?" Trixie asked curiously.
"I tried seeing if I could cast a spell inside one of the horses," I answered.
"What. Obviously, you can''t do that." Trixie looked at me with utter disbelief.
"I have multiple different forms of vision; I thought it would be enough if I could see clearly inside it. Even a tiny spell inside the stomach or somewhere with arge enough open space." I exined.
"Well. I''m d you understand that you need a clear image to cast; that would''ve been the first hurdle. However, casting inside someone else''s mana aura greatly pushes against what the world deems permissible." Trixie exined. "The world and the system just do not allow it; imagine how easily you could kill someone by just forming a fireball inside of them. Likely, it was once possible until the Gods put a stop to it."
"Yeah... I guess. I''ll ask Gramps next time I speak to him. I just thought it would be a neat idea."
Trixie shrugged. I instead decided to cast three [Spark] spells per pegasi. The spell constructs rapidly formed around them before discharging the basic lightning spell. Unlike earlier, when I cast the spell, it seemed far more precise this time, and I directly targeted the closest pegasi each. They each let out pained wails before dropping.
"You sure you don''t have [Assassinate]?" Trixie asked, pointing at the two charred horses.
I shook my head and started heading to im the spoils. I was met with shrieking rage from [Dissection] when I noticed the damage done. Yeah... There was no way the precious feathers were surviving that experience. Whoops.
Satisfied with the results, we started to head back to our home again. My number one priority now would be to create a debuff, which would hopefully be enough to level up my magic and see what else it had in store for me.
When we arrived, Trixie turned to me, looking a little sad. "So. Is that it? Are you nning on heading to the humans now?"
I shook my head. "No... I''m not exactly in a rush, and I''d like to get another yellow slime or two, if possible."
A brief look of relief shed over Trixie before she gave a cheeky grin, "Well, aren''t you a glutton. Eating one slime isn''t good enough for you?"
"I did qualify for a gluttonous evolution at one point," I couldn''t help but chuckle. "But getting another yellow slime will let me easily level up the trait. It''s horribly low level due to a first-time penalty and the slime not having the trait very high."
"Sure. Sounds fun. In the meantime, could I get some more silk?" Trixie asked, putting her hands forward and making a gimme motion.
I gave in and produced some more spider silk, then immediately started on the lightning debuff.
Trixie thanked me and was about to leave before she gave me a warning, wagging her finger sternly. "No lightning bolts towards our tree home. I don''t want lightning-scarred wood."
"Sure. It''s not like I make a habit of destroying trees..." I replied with a shrug. I briefly recalled some of my earlier experiments back when I lived in the forest and chuckled nervously.
''Well, I don''t go destroying and eating trees now.'' I mentally corrected myself.
"I heard that!" Trixie''s voice rang in my head.
"Damn, telepathy!"
Chapter 131: Routine Island Life
Chapter 131: Routine Ind Life
By now, crafting debuffs had be a well-practiced routine. I executed the familiar motions, swiftly recing them with Lightning Mana. With [Mana Conception LV 6] and [Mana Maniption LV 5], I felt akin to a surgeon wielding a scalpel instead of a blunt knife. The longing for the next level of [Mana Maniption] was palpable, and the prospect of tinkering with Arcane Mana without corruption was tantalizing.
In a remarkably short time, mytest spell was born, and I reveled in the gratification of a well-executed job. I also theorized that aligning to Lightning with [Elemental Shift] facilitated the ease of working with it. The new debuff was called [Conductive], which made me realize that none of my new debuff spells had ever informed me that I had discovered a new spell or unlocked an existing one.
''Onto my never-ending list of questions for Gramps, it goes. Seriously, I could write a book at this stage.''
And it went without saying that manipting and creating a custom spell was amazing for experience, or maybe that was just me abusing [Prodigy] and [Elven Legacy]. And just like [Ice Magic], it seemed like I wouldn''t get offensive spells right out of the gate; I honestly expected level two to give me something like [Lightning Bolt] or some form of ranged spell, but instead, I got a concept.
''I shouldn''tin too much; it is a really good one, after all.''
As its name implied, the [Lightning Rod] spell caused nearby Lightning, both natural and magical, to try redirecting into the target. Seeing a spell recreate my newest trait was a little funny. What was very interesting was that this was clearly a debuff spell, but if I didn''t have and understand them already from [Corrosion Magic], I might not have realized it.
''It would have been strange if only one form of magic monopolized all debuffs. I wonder what other spell forms I may miss by merely not understanding them enough.''Before heading off to bed, thest thing I checked was casting [Lightning Rod] and then observing it with [EM Field]. I targeted a stone and watched it unnaturally light up to a glowing yellow. I cast [Spark] nearby and watched the crackling lightning energy go straight for the rock.
''I''ll want tobine this with [Conductive]; I can''t even think of a scenario where if I''m making something weak to Lightning where I wouldn''t want it to also attract it. But only after I make a ranged spell, I can''t have my only attack spell be limited to melee or moving the origin point.''
***
Unfortunately, I didn''t finish creating a projectile spell before Trixie woke up. If I had to describe it, Lightning Mana didn''t like being contained and struggled like an unruly child. But, with my current capabilities, I could certainly force it; I just needed more time.
The spawns for the day were more harpies and, weirdly, a singr water elemental in theke. This ind really liked spawning harpies; Evan would hate it. Lightning spells were devastating against the harpies, and the poor water elemental basically went pop with a single spell. I shuddered, thinking that I had almost the same fate.
"I can''t imagine you''re getting much experience from this ind anymore." Trixie pointed out.
"No... Definitely not; risk ys a big factor in experience gains, and this almost feels like bullying. I''ve basically conquered this ind. If not for really wanting another yellow slime, I''d leave."
"Well, enjoy it while itsts. Once you move to a high essence zone, you''ll look fondly back to these rxing times."
"I wonder if that''s why high-level adventurers retire and be Guild Masters in these areas. I''m assuming they haven''t leveled in a long time."
"That or pickup a nonbat job. No need to constantly seek out bigger and tougher monsters to fight. I''m definitely swapping to [Weaver] or [Tailor] when I visit home."
"Are you sure I can''t convince you toe with me?"
"I''d say the same to you. I still think you should abandon the adventurer shtick ande with me."
"...Maybe after I deal with the dwarves. I don''t know how easily I''d ever get ess to another silver slime."
"Well then, when you''re done hunting slimes here, we''ll part ways and meet up again there. I hope you can handle your booze." Trixie said cheekily.
"Ha! I''m immune to it."
"Boo! That''s no fun."
***
Our routine continued like this for another few days. In that time, I sessfully created a ranged spell and chuckled that I had predicted its obvious name¡ª[Lightning Bolt]. It was honestly a lot of fun because,bined with [Lightning Rod], I could toss the spell and watch it curve toward the target with unnatural precision. No more would I worry about pesky pegasi dodging my spells and taunting me from a distance!
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Despite killing quite a few monsters, I had gained no level-ups. I likely only gained thest level in Elementalist as leftovers from my massively boosted gains from the undine. That''s not to say my skills and traits didn''t progress.
I kept experimenting with [EM Field], not to mention leaving Epsilon to use it, so it leveled up rtively fast. [Eagle Vision] I used to scout out our spawned targets, which was getting thorough usage.
Trixie agreed to do some [Counter Magic] training. Although if I ever brought my [Sub-Cores] to help, she would storm off and refuse to y anymore, iming I was cheating.
I also kept practicing storing and generating Lightning with [Voltaic Slime] before finally discharging it into the sky when it finally reached its limit. I also hoped that by doing this and spamming my spells, I would influence the area with more Lightning. Trixie had originallyughed at my optimistic view, iming I''d need to do much more than that to affect the elemental influence of an area. As if fate decided to mock her, a yellow slime spawned the next day after I had generated and cast a bunch of Lightning around the ind.
"It''s a pure coincidence!" Trixie fumed.
Chuckling at her outrage, I approached the slime. I didn''t even need to freeze this one; I grabbed it with tendrils, and any discharges it tried against me merely filled my own capacity.
While some part of me wanted to stay around farming forever, I had other goals and objectives. I still wanted to use my other persona before I went to deal with my gold-promotion dungeon. Trixie and I agreed that the next yellow slime would be thest one.
***
In hindsight, I could have easily made an affliction spell, but I was deadset onbining [Conductive] and [Lightning Rod]. I had thought it would be a simple process like adding the freeze concept to [Frigid], but instead, it was more likeyering two individual spells together. My upgraded [Frigid] was a single debuff with two effects, but this was bing a single spell with two debuffs instead. In the grand scheme of things, I wasn''t sure why the system was making such a strange differentiation, but apparently, it mattered. I didn''t care for such magical nuances as long as I got my desired spell effect. I even tried to ask Trixie about it, and she described it as "Magical snobbery."
During our routine ind cullings, I noticed there was one area we always avoided¡ªthe rainbow forest. I asked Trixie if we shouldn''t explore it, and she sighed as if she had expected me to eventually ask.
"There''s no slimes in there... I''ve been having us avoid it because I didn''t want you fighting or killing them."
"Oh. Friends of yours?" I asked curiously.
"Kind of... That forest has a dryad and some gnomes." Trixie began exining, and I listened in quiet anticipation. "The gnomes would likely take offense and attack, and the dryad would join in to defend them. I don''t really care for the gnomes; they are basically the goblins of the spirit world, but I don''t want a dryad to die."
"I mean. You''ve helped me so much already; it''s honestly the least I can do."
Trixie chuckled at that. "I kinda feel the opposite; you helped me out of a pickle with that cage. If you really wanted to, I''d feel obligated to allow you."
"Well, then, just call it a favor between friends. I haven''t gone evolution crazy yet," I said with an exaggerated wink.
"And the world lets out a collective sigh of relief," Trixie giggled. "I don''t think we could handle an evolution-crazed slime that can mimic and eat anything."
***
One afternoon, while tinkering, I had an errant thought regarding [Elemental Shift]. Previously, I had tried to cast it via my [Sub-Cores] and failed, as theycked any individual mana, which made me wonder if I could theoretically activate it on my slime. If I could have even one more active element at a time, that would greatly benefit me. The biggest example I could think of would be having active Water and Lightning, as while they weakened each other when I changed alignment, they worked well together in practice. Soaking a foe with Water magic before sting them with Lightning was a deadly one-twobo, but I had a limited number of shifts during a fight.
When exploring what caused my slime to be used as a mana source, I narrowed it down to my [Sub-Cores] when they were trying to pull more than my natural mana output would allow. So, while I couldn''t ess my slime mana, they could. Following that train of thought, I ordered Alpha to activate [Elemental Shift] on my slime. I anxiously watched my slime with [Mana Conception], hoping and waiting for it to change element. Alpha was certainly trying to do something, so I ordered Beta to join in. Perhaps we simply needed more mental power.
I was currently Lightning-aligned, and slowly but surely, I watched as the slime around my two cores gradually shifted to Water. I ordered the others to join in, and then, in a sh, my slime was now of a different elemental alignment. Transferring vision rapidly to Alpha, I checked on my own core and mentally cheered when I saw it was still clearly Lightning.
"Oh no..."
"Shit, shit, shit! What have I done."
I screamed and shifted wings before flying as fast as possible to the tree. I found Trixie casually trying to weave with the spider silk.
"Syl?" She asked, looking confused as to why I had burst in.
"I''ve done something. Gramps is sending me messages."
"Wait. Directly?!" Trixie eximed, her eyes wide.
"Yes. I''m going unconscious in less than 10 minutes. Can you protect me?"
"Uh... Sure. Do you know how long?"
"I have no idea. To be honest, I''m terrified. I think I just royally screwed up. Shit." I was panicking.
"Of course, Syl. Just go sit in your tub before you pass out and scatter across the floor. I promise I''ll look after you." Trixie said, trying to reassure me.
I nodded frantically and rushed out; I had no idea how much time I had left. I hurriedly threw myself into the tub, and Trixie gave me her best smile and a thumbs-up.
"Don''t worry, Syl. You''re safe with me." She said a gentle smile on her face. "And I''ll be here when you wake up. No matter how long it takes."
I was about to thank her when the world abruptly went ck. It was time to face the music.
Chapter 132: Tribunal
Chapter 132: Tribunal
Things were once again under control from Gramps'' perspective. He had secured a solid conspirator bypleting a few new traits, which, in all likelihood, he would have created anyway, as once he got a new idea, he seldom would let it sit and rot.
At the same time, he devised a solution that not only solved the cascading errors caused by the slime but also allowed him to explore his domain further. Furthermore, Syl had acquired a yellow slime and was already well underway with customizing the new magic, which would be excellent bargaining potential. Yes, things were lining up perfectly like a chain of perfectly stacked dominos. Armed with a plethora of documentation and footage, he approached her.
"My my. It is an odd asion where you''re initiating a conversation." The motherly voice said, brimming with curiosity.
"Well. Since this is your domain, I thought I''d bring this to your attention. One of my subjects has made remarkable progress that I thought would delight you." Gramps responded diplomatically.
"Really? You allowed one of your subjects ess to magic? I thought you scoffed at the idea and were going to purely limit them to nothing but traits." She asked, her suspicion immediately evident.
"I nearly did," Gramps admitted. "But this one has shown remarkable creativity, so I let it slide. It''s achieved four elements, two of which are advanced, Arcane, and Corrosion magic."
She seemed genuinely surprised by this statement. "How? Show me."
Gramps held back from showing his glee at baiting the hook and started showing some of the documentation he''d gathered, revised, and thoroughly purged of errors.
"A slime did all this. Surely you jest?" She immediately objected, but Gramps remained silent to allow her to continue to read."Yes... I see... Core integration, I forgot we even gave them that ability. I knew about the same species reinforcing one another but had no idea they could cross-integrate like that."
Gramps remained silent, allowing her to solve the puzzle pieces he''d carefully arranged.
"And slimes have extreme mana purity. Fascinating..." She mumbled as she read.
"Started with Water... Gained Fire... Shadowcaster? Not what I would have picked... Oh yes, obviously for Corrosion. I see..."
Suddenly, she jerked upward and mmed her hand on the document. "[Permeable]!? [mmable]!? Why does this slime have ess to those? Aren''t they restricted to boss monsters or magic items?"
Gramps raised both of his hands up, trying to calm her down. "It figured them out by brute force editing the [Erode] spell."
When her face showed no sign of believing him, he presented the relevant footage. Finally, she rxed, although she winced every time the magical bacsh triggered.
"As for how or why? Well, that''s more your domain than mine. I don''t investigate magical matters." Gramps added.
As if to satisfy her own curiosity at this point, she started pulling out some of her own logs, rapidly scanning them far beyond the capabilities of mortals.
"It appears they created the effects by simply hijacking portions of the magic system." She said with a frown. "Lazy... Although I wish they''d simply told me this instead of hiding it, I would have officially registered it."
"It''s also already replicated the effects of [Frigid] and [Conductive]." Gramps pointed out.
"Spoilers..." She grumbled as she returned to reading the documentation Gramps had provided.
Then she came across the custom spells. "I''ve been wondering who was responsible for creating [Combust] and [Frostbite]... To think you were the one blocking the information." She grumbled, chewing her thumbnail.
Finally, she had read and seen enough. She leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes, and massaged her temples.
"Alright... You have my interest and attention. What is it you want?"
"Well, this lovable little slimeball has caused some minor system errors. I''ve gained lots of valuable data from it and don''t want to lose such a promising subject. I thought you''d sympathize after seeing its dedication to magic."
She sighed deeply; he was going straight for her weak point. "I''m assuming you''ve already got another aplice."
"Of course. I wouldn''t waste your time otherwise."
She gave a dry chuckle. "Of course. And I''m assuming you''ve already thought of a solution to solve and prevent future errors?"
"Naturally."
She paused to think. Tapping her finger against her chin. "I want full unrestricted ess to observe anything magic-rted."
Gramps hated giving others ess to his personal assets, but it was a reasonable request. "That can be arranged."
Without warning, two red screens appeared before Gramps. Errors, countless errors. Everything was going so well, so why could the little slime not just sit still? He immediately started to suppress the errors, but they were escting.
"What have you done now, Syl!?" Gramps demanded as he frantically scanned the logs.
"The slime has be a half-spirit? Very, very interesting... You were holding out on me." The motherly voice murmured, now tinged with curiosity and desire. She had rapidly essed the error logs Gramps had tried to keep hidden by cross-referencing against the slime.
"Give me a good reason why I shouldn''t g this slime for immediate deletion. This is far beyond the eptable amount of errors for a single individual." She demanded.
"Yes, but my solution will solve present and future errors. I just need your approval, and we can pull it into an emergency state." Gramps first defended his actions; now he just needed to try to sweeten the pot again. "As for reasons why. I admit I held back some aplishments. Syl has also procured the Elementalist ss, and if you look over here, you can see the upgraded version of the [Frigid] debuff integrating both Ice and Freeze."
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
She paused and diligently looked over the extra documentation and noted that the slime had already broken through the magical safety restrictions via unexpected tutge from a spirit.
"Very well... However, the negotiations have changed. There''s new cards upon the table."
Gramps tsked, almost ring at her. "What do you want?"
"I want to make the slime an offer as another solution. The slime picks between mine and yours. You aren''t allowed to tell it what your solution will do."
"That hardly seems fair. At least let me say something to make my case."
"Very well. But you''ll need to run it by me beforehand. Clocks ticking. How long until the slime is deleted? Tick-tock." She mocked with a predatory smile.
Gramps grumbled, "Fine."
***
Once again, I found myself floating in the empty void. I had an overwhelming sense of dread. Perhaps I was actually a cat in my past life because it seems my curiosity is about to get me killed. I found myself seated on a familiar chair once again, and I took my elven form for conversing.
"Syl. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances. You''ve certainly been... Busy." Gramps''s voice echoed, imbued with crushing disappointment.
"I''m sorry, Gramps! I had no idea!" I pleaded.
"Gramps? You let the slime nickname you; that''s oddly cute." A new womanly voice replied. While Gramps'' voice invoked a sense of a grandfather who believed in you and you didn''t want to disappoint, this other voice gave the image of a mother who knows best.
"It seemed harmless at the time. And I find it oddly amusing." Gramps responded.
"I want one too. You''ll give me one, won''t you, Syl?" She asked.
"S-sure! Since we''ve got Gramps already, what about Grandm-" I halted midsentence. An overwhelming sense of existential dread filled the entire void. "I mean... Sorry, how about Mom? Mother? Mommy? I''m assuming you wouldn''t want to be called Aunt-"
"Mother is fine. Thank you, Syl." Mother interrupted.
Gramps was giving a hearty chortle.
"H-hey... I want a nickname..." A third voice mumbled. It sounded far younger than Gramps andcked the confidence of the other two.
"You''re supposed to be merely observing." Mother retorted.
"I-if you get one. I want one."
"How''s Uncle? Or Unc?" I suggested.
"I like Unc! It''s more casual sounding." Unc replied, sounding joyously happy.
Gramps cleared his throat loudly, causing silence to return to the void. "Anyway, back to business. You''ve caused numerous system errors, Syl. Now, I''m partially to me since I created the [Sub-Core] trait, but you kept pulling on the loose thread."
"Sorry... I just wanted to cast more spells at once, and it broke... I was fulfilling a promise on the second one, and I had no idea I''d get [Spirit Candidate]... The third was entirely my fault, though..." I admitted, hoping my honesty would perhaps lighten the punishment.
"Sp-spirit?!" Unc questioned.
Gramps cleared his throat again and proceeded as if ignoring Unc. "Yes. So, we will present you two options to resolve the issue. You have to pick one of them; the only other option is deletion."
"Deletion?" I asked.
"Death." Mother rified.
I shuddered.
"So. My option is to evolve you now; it will be a forced evolution and entirely of my creation. No options or choices on your end." Gramps said.
"S-since you haven''t reached level thirty yet, there will be an experience p-penalty on you," Unc added. "Until you pay off those levels, you will be s-stuck at level one."
"That''s their option." Mother began, sliding in with perfect timing. "However, my proposal is for you to be a spirit."
I heard a spitting noise, followed by loud coughing. "What?" Gramps uttered between coughs.
"Yes. Syl, you''re already almost there, and I think you''d be a wonderful spirit. You''re already friends with one, defeated another candidate in battle, and have very pure mana. You''d fit right in." Mother continued.
"What would Syl even qualify for? There''s not a slime spirit." Gramps asked, now recovered.
"No, no. No slime. You''ve already got Ice, Water, and Lightning - you''d make a wonderful Storm Spirit. Or perhaps something more esoteric, like a Mana Spirit? That could work, too." Mother answered.
"But what about the experiment?" Gramps demanded.
"Call it a sess? Follow one of the other candidates? Or consider this part two as a spirit?" Mother replied.
They continued to bicker back and forth, but I started to focus on what was offered. Did I want to be a spirit? I didn''t even think that was possible, but now it was on the table. No more pretending to be an elf, no more risk of being found out as a monster. I could join Trixie; I was pretty sure she would be delighted to show me the ropes as a spirit. It sounded exceedingly positive if I looked at it in istion.
But what would I be giving up? No more being a slime. Did I hate being a slime? Maybe at first, but I''d long since grown into andfortable with my slimy form. No more collecting slime cores, adventurer shenanigans, or collecting traits. I could live without the adventuring, but I''d be saying permanently goodbye to the people I knew. Although Thern was still an option, Trixie had said spirits got along with elves and dwarves. I''d also potentially lose out on Earth affinity and magic, assuming I was correct about the silver slime having that. Unless spirits could gain affinities?
"Can spirits gain affinities?" I asked.
"N-no," Unc responded. The other two were still arguing, although the contents of their argument were drowned out by a low humming noise.
"That''s not great... I was close to gaining Earth."
"That''s p-pretty good. But being a spirit is p-probably better? Although, getting a custom evolution from G-gramps is very tempting."
"I just wish I knew what it was. I somewhat know what''s on offer as a spirit, but an unknown evolution is risky. Also, the spirit option doesn''te with the level penalty, I''m assuming?"
"N-no. Spirits don''t evolve. M-mother would probably take your currentbined levels."
"Right... No further evolutions either." I muttered.
"B-but you could be a Grand Spirit! You''re already a candidate. That''s worth like two normal evolutions." Unc pointed out before quickly adding something as an afterthought, "By the way. If you evere across a crab, p-please be nice to him."
"Sure?" I agreed, not understanding the purpose of the request but not wanting to offend the disembodied voice.
Unfortunately, as helpful as Unc was trying to be, he was just making my decision even more difficult. Eventually, the other two finally stopped and rejoined us.
"So, Syl, what do you think?" Mother asked.
"Is there nothing you can tell me about the evolution option?" I asked.
"Yes. I can say one thing about it. It will let you do what you tried to do originally." Gramps answered in a very careful manner. Despite not seeing any of them, I could swear I felt the re in Mother''s eyes as she judged his words.
As good as Gramps words were, they made me question everything. I had tried and failed at countless different things. Was he talking about recently, in the past? Was it a beneficial thing I was trying or something bad?
Gramps has had my best in mind in the past; I vaguely recalled him mentioning that he had given me the Chimeric evolution, and Doppelganger was offered by one of the others. Surely, I could expect it to be at least on par with Chimeric, right? And at the core of everything, I still wanted to be a slime.
"Okay. I think I want to go with the evolution option."
"Are you sure?" Mother questioned. "Spirits are immortal, you know. You could live forever with your friend... Trixie."
I could''ve sworn I heard paper shuffling before she gave Trixie''s name.
"Aren''t s-slimes already immortal?" Unc asked, and the feeling of dread filled the void. Although I couldn''t see it, I could swear some dangerous res were being directed towards Unc.
"Yes... I suppose that is true," Mother reluctantly agreed. "But as a spirit, you could directly interact with essence. Truly, you may never get this offer again."
Now, that was something I hadn''t considered. However, when thinking of interacting and using essence, the first thing that came to my mind was Aquillia sleeping and passively gaining experience. The offer almost felt like honeyed poison.
"Yes. I''m sure." I responded a little more confidently.
At the heart of it, I still wanted to be a slime. Perhaps I was giving up the opportunity of a lifetime, but I''d be abandoning all my goals and slimy ambitions. I wanted to eat one of every slime core at a minimum!
There was a very loud sigh. "Very well. I still expect full ess to the magic-rted logs and feeds.
"Of course," Gramps responded. I swear I could feel great pride and joy radiating in his words.
Finally, the sense of dread left the void. Now, I just needed to hopefully get some answers before being ejected again, like Gramps seemed to love to do.
Chapter 133: Forced Evolution
Chapter 133: Forced Evolution
"So does this mean I''m the first [Experiment] evolving?" I asked. I wondered if this technically meant I was eligible for a reward if Gramps won a bet.
"No. You''re not even in the top five, even with this early evolution." Mother immediately responded.
"Your ss is stealing a lot of your experience..." Gramps exined, and I could tell he was a little frustrated.
I swiftly changed the subject before he set my ss to minimum distribution or something else equally drastic.
"Now that I''ve already agreed to evolve, is there anything you can tell me about it?" I asked, my anticipation palpable.
"Nope. This is being kept very hush-hush, and I wouldn''t want to spoil the surprise." Gramps answered. "There won''t be any notifications, so don''t be paranoid about it. Just check your profile afterward."
"Does this mean I won''t get a sneak peek at the other slime species?" I asked, feeling a little down. "I used them from my previous evolutions to understand which slimes I should hunt down."
"Hmm... Perhaps I can arrange for them to be shown to you when you officially achieve level thirty." Gramps replied and waited as if expecting approval or disapproval from the others.
"S-sounds fine," Unc responded."I don''t mind," Mother added.
"Excellent," Gramps replied. "Just giving you another heads-up, but expect quite a few traits to be merged. Your new trait made quite a few of them redundant. Honestly, your profile is a bit of a mess; you should do more of that."
"Yes... I was hoping to get more visions and merge them into a super vision." I replied honestly.
Gramps chuckled. "Good. Good. Also, your old evolution got a renaming. It''s now just Chimeric since it upgraded your previous Mimic evolution. Apparently, calling it Chimeric Mimic felt redundant to some of the others."
"It is a mouthful, especially if further mutations are picked." Mother pointed out. "Rather keep it short and sweet."
"B-but longer names are cool!" Unc argued.
I didn''t mind either way; I hardly ever showed my true race. Arguably, if anyone could get through my [Identity Fabrication], not having the word Mimic visible in my profile might mislead someone.
"Oh. Speaking of names, Gramps, you left some notes in the trait [EM Field]." I pointed out. There was a pregnant pause followed by some intense, rapid-fire conversation among the three. Once again, the contents of the talk were obscured heavily by the low humming noise.
"Well. That''s embarrassing. Thanks, Syl. I''ll get that cleaned up immediately."
"And fix the name." Mother added sternly.
"Yes..." Gramps grumbled. "Also, this goes without saying, but we will be removing the [Spirit Candidate] emblem."
"Makes sense. I don''t really want random spirits attacking me either." I nodded along. "Which, by the way, are totally unfair. Why can''t I eat any of them? First the ghosts and now these."
Mother was the first to respond, "Well... You''ve certainly created a little monster, haven''t you?"
"I-I thought we disabled the evolution contingency?" Unc questioned.
"No. That''s just Syl being Syl." Gramps defended me. "[Consuming Osmosis] promotes eating other monsters, not to mention coupled together with [Chimeric Mimicry], and then just general slime growth."
"Fascinating... Perhaps I should get you to review my most promising subject, too." Mother said with some suggestive allure.
"Very well. Anything else before we go?" Gramps asked.
"I have a few more questions..." I meekly pointed out.
"Good! Now get going, you little slime ball, stop breaking things, and calm down a little."
"Of course..." I muttered, half-expecting it.
I could have given Gramps the excuse that he didn''t want to reveal too much while surrounded by his peers, but my gut told me otherwise. He had far too much fun dropping me into the void with outstanding questions.
***
Instead of waking up to a blinding light, I awoke to a grim and dark room. The tree fort, which had been our home for almost my entire ind journey, now looked withered and decayed. Cobwebs littered the room, and it looked thoroughly abandoned. Even my beloved bedtub looked like it had stood against the test of time.
"What the hell happened here? How long was I out for? Where''s Trixie?" I wondered.
I plopped out of my bedtub and headed downstairs, which looked simrly disastrous. I looked around, trying to find any hints or clues, until I spotted a hagged and heavily aged Trixie nodding off on a chair.
"Trixie?" I questioned.
"Syl...? Is that you...?" Trixie asked, coughing between words. "You''ve finally returned."
"H-how long was I out for?" I questioned.
"Seven..." Trixie paused. "Thousand years..."
"What? No... That can''t be..." I said, dumbstruck.
"I''m afraid so..." Trixie said, giving a sad yet soft smile. "But I kept my promise and waited and waited..."
I shook my head in confusion at the unexpected notification. Then the entire room felt a little... Wrong. I turned to the decrepit pixie and hidden beneath her sullen features, I could see what looked like the biggest shit-eating grin I had ever seen.
"Oh! You bitch!" I shouted.
Suddenly, the room... Popped. It was just like I had left it, the wrongness instantly gone. I had plenty of questions for her about illusions and whatnot, but it finally felt like I had found a missing puzzle piece to all of Trixie''s shenanigans.
Trixie was hosing herself withughter, so much so that she fell off her chair and was now rolling on the ground. My re soon became a slight chuckle; she had gotten me good.
"Alright. Good one, Trixie... Now, really, how long was I out for?"
"Seven... Days." Trixie said, sticking her tongue out.
"Yikes... It took an entire week... I didn''t expect that. Sorry, Trixie."
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
"No problem. I hope it was worth it and resolved your... Issues?" Trixie asked and fluttered over. "Interesting... Very interesting... You''re no longer making me think you''re a spirit, and your manake seems to be gone... Wait, you now have SIX rivers?"
"I''m actually not sure what happened yet. I haven''t looked at my profile."
"Well! Get on with it; I want some answers because this is bizarre!" Trixie dered. "Oh, wait. One more thing, before I forget."
She fluttered over to what looked like a rough, small wooden chest, opened it, reached in, pulled something out, and casually tossed it toward me. "Catch!"
I frantically grabbed at the small object, nearly fumbling it before catching it with a quickly formed tendril. Getting a closer look at it, I saw a familiar-looking violet sphere.
"You got me a slime core?!" I said excitedly.
"Yup. The bugger spawned two days ago. I hope it''s all good for your eating thing?" Trixie questioned.
I wasted no time devouring the core and mentally cheered when I saw it was sessful.
"It worked fantastically. Thanks Trixie! Now, I don''t need to get revenge for your prank." I said half-jokingly.
"That''s a relief. I wouldn''t want you exploding this poor tree." Trixie giggled.
I looked over my new profile. It was time to get some answers.
Name: Syl
Race: Chimeric Cluster Slime(Blue) LV 1 (-8)
ss: Elementalist LV 4
Status: Healthy
Mana: Overflowing
Emblems:
[Experiment]
[Apex Hunter]
[Elven Legacy]
[Dungeoneer]
[Nature''s Bane]
[Manhunter]
Traits:
Slime:
[Mana Slime LV 11]
[Acid Slime LV 7]
[Poison Slime LV 6]
[ze Slime LV 6]
[Cryo Slime LV 5]
[Voltaic Slime LV 6]
[Morph Slime LV 7]
[Pseudopod LV 7]
[Slime Shot LV 7]
[Slime Burst LV 6]
[Vaporize Slime]
Core:
[Core Collective LV 8]
[Core Storage LV 6]
[Sub-Core Alpha LV 5]
[Sub-Core Beta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Gamma LV 5]
[Sub-Core Delta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Epsilon LV 5]
Mimic:
[Chimeric Mimicry LV 7]
[Chroma Shift LV MAX]
[Consuming Osmosis LV MAX]
Mana:
[Mana Cirction LV 7
[Mana Reinforcement LV 7]
[Mana Infusion]
Attributes/Other:
[Soul Mastery LV 7]
[Enhanced Vitality LV 5]
[Magic Resistance (Lesser) LV 5]
[Curse Resistance LV 1]
[Illusion Resistance LV 1]
[Prodigy]
Senses:
[Olfactory Sense]
[Dark Vision LV MAX]
[Mana Conception LV 6]
[Life Sight LV 3]
[Thermal Vision LV MAX]
[Eagle Vision LV 3]
[EM Field LV 2]
Trait Points remaining: 7
Skills:
General:
[Universal Language]
[Equipment Swap]
[Dissection LV 6]
[Mapping LV 5]
[Tracking LV 2]
[Identify LV 5]
[Multitasking LV 5]
[Perception LV 4]
[Aerial Finesse LV 4]
Combat:
[Tranquil Flow LV 5]
[Attack Mastery (Lesser) LV 7]
[Affliction Mastery LV 5]
[Exploit Weakness LV 3]
Magic:
[Water Magic LV 5]
[Fire Magic LV 5]
[Corrosion Magic LV 5]
[Ice Magic LV 5]
[Arcane Magic LV 2]
[Lightning Magic LV 2]
[Mana Maniption LV 5]
[Magic Efficiency LV 4]
[Counter Magic LV 3]
[Elemental Shift LV 4]
[Elemental Adaptation]
[Ritual Casting]
[Mana Suppression]
[Meditate]
Sneaky:
[Vanish LV 6]
[Sneak Attack LV 6]
[Identity Fabrication LV 6]
[Acting LV 4]
[Rogue Expertise LV 4]
[Magical Subterfuge LV 3]
[Subtle Afflictions]
Skill Points remaining: 15
Chimeric Cluster Slime... It was an interesting name choice. I wasn''t entirely sure if I was sold on it, but considering I never showed myself, it wouldn''t matter. It was also interesting to see that I could see the levels that I still needed to pay off for this early evolution. Next, I looked over my new trait, which was easily identifiable.
When determining if a Trait or Skill is usable or in effect, all [Sub-Cores] now function as if the primary slime core. In addition, should the primary core be destroyed, a [Sub-Core] will immediately be subsumed and be the new primary core.
All [Sub-Cores] now contain their own cirction of mana, taken directly from the Soul rather than being distributed from the primary core.
This trait enhances every core''s basic functionality and teamwork capabilities and moderately improves durability, scaling with level.
Core creation time and cost are reduced by 10% and 5%, respectively, per trait level. However, core creation cannot be initiated while inbat.
All cores receive a renewable shield that will prevent one instance of immediate destruction. The shield is renewed by expending 10% of the core''s base slime cost while out ofbat.>
I spent so much time repeatedly reading the trait that Trixie left me to start knitting in the corner. This new trait was a doozy, and I finally understood Gramps'' cryptic hint. I frantically started searching for what was missing from my profile. I found out I was missing [Core Refinement], [Defy Death], and [Slime Conversion].
I could understand missing [Core Refinement] as it was now baked into [Core Collective], and I could, with great reluctance, understand why they took [Defy Death] from me. If my [Sub-Cores] were now considered equals, then would they each get their own death shields, or would we share a pool? The former would greatly benefit me, excessively so, while thetter would honestly be a huge downgrade for me. I could only assume this was apromise for Gramps and me. In theory, I have more lives now than before.
But why did he take away my [Slime Conversion]? Was it to prevent further errors? Was it because he was unhappy with how much slime I could generate for free? I got given a new valuable way to expend slime and then robbed of one of my sources of ie. I frantically looked at the blue slime profile, I would instantly rebuy it, and the trait was... Gone?
Unfortunately, myints fell on deaf ears, and I could not overrule Gramps or possibly one of the others. I gave some orders to my [Sub-Cores] and noted they seemed far more responsive than normal. My next test would determine if Gramps'' had screwed me over or not.
I ordered Gamma to use [Elemental Shift] and align to Fire. And Gamma did it. Not fully believing it, I ordered Delta to shift to Ice and Epsilon to shift to Lightning. Both did it.
''Well... This certainly changes things. My immediate thought is to keep one to each element and have them focus exclusively on that element. I''ll have to test how [Ritual Casting] works now; I can only assume that a Water-aligned core won''t be much help if assisting with a Fire spell. Obviously, if I''m fighting like a Fire demon or something, I''d swap everyone to Ice.''
I immediately thought of having one focused core and one helper core aligned per element. Since my new evolution and trait wanted me to get more cores, I instantly purchased four more, one for each of my current elements.
"What happened to my trait points!?" I cried.
Trixie jumped out of her seat in a panic. "What? Syl?" She questioned in confusion.
I pulled on my memories and was sure I was sitting on seventeen trait points before I evolved. They had just disappeared for no reason. I was fuming. First, they took away [Slime Conversion] and now robbed me of ten trait points!
"I''m missing ten trait points!" I informed the pixie while frantically searching my profile for any hint or indication.
"Did you make a few upgrades or something you forgot about?"
"No. I''d been saving my points up... I''ve only bought one upgrade, which only cost a single skill point." I immediately replied.
"Hmm... What about Tiering or Uncapping?" Trixie asked.
"I have no idea what either of those are..." I replied, then vaguely recalled a thought. "Actually, didn''t you once ask me if I was uncapped?"
"I did. It was the only way I could exin you casting over ten spells at once. Wait. So your [Multitasking] isn''t above ten?"
"What? No, it''s only level five." I replied.
"It''s only level five!?" Trixie shrieked.
"Yes? And isn''t ten the upper limit anyway?" I asked.
Trixie shook her head in disbelief. "Okay... I will need an exnation on how you cast so many spells at once after this, but no, ten is not the limit. You can pay points to uncap a trait or skill above. Not every trait or skill ispatible, and to do so, you need to pay ten points. Are you sure none of your traits are above level ten?"
I searched through my traits again and found a trait I had often skipped over as it was so far in the back of my mind. My first-ever trait maxed out so quickly I had almost forgotten about it.
[Mana Slime LV 11]
Chapter 134: Goodbye Glimmerock
Chapter 134: Goodbye Glimmerock
"One of my traits is eleven now... But I definitely didn''t buy the upgrade... Did Gramps buy it for me? That hardly seems fair; I want a refund." I moaned.
"I don''t know whether to say congrats or sorry..." Trixie said with an odd frown. "Getting anything above ten is a huge aplishment. Not many people have that many points, especially considering how hard it is to even reach level ten."
"Well, I feel robbed. What even is the point of going above ten?"
"Well, I can''t confirm or deny since I haven''t reached that point myself yet. But supposedly, the uncapped levels are worth more. I''ve heard rumors of anywhere between two and three regr levels."
"So a trait gives me a sense in a ten-meter radius per level; the extra levels might give me twenty?"
"Or maybe fifteen or thirty? I honestly don''t know." Trixie replied with a shrug.
I looked over the trait in question...
This slime contains a rich and dense concentration of pure mana based on its trait level.Mana Slime is a highly sought-after resource used mainly as an alchemical reagent, and its price can vary based on its purity level.
It can also be ingested raw for emergency mana recovery.>
"Of all the traits to pick... It had to be this one... If it was [Acid Slime], I could probably melt through anything and everything! I don''t even really understand this one." I continued my tirade.
Trixie sat on my head and gave her answer after a brief moment of concentration. "Your mana is more pure, as unbelievable as that sounds. I... I don''t think I''ve tasted something so delicious before."
"Great. I made myself even tastier and more valuable... The humans will be lining up to take me to the slime ranch for harvesting."
Trixie winced. I had told her after all about my brief experience as a farmed slime. Never again... I had even fantasized about destroying the farm and getting some form of revenge in my darker moments.
"Not to rm you... But, you''ve shrunk a lot..." Trixie pointed out with a look of mild panic.
"Huh? Oh, right, I bought four cores..." I mumbled and started pulling from my reserves to reinvigorate my form.
"So. What did you do to fix yourself, and how do you cast so many spells? I want some answers after all this waiting." Trixie said with a slight pout.
I gave an abridged version of my new trait and my experience with the Gods, skipping over most of their conversations and not telling Trixie I could have be a spirit. I also exined my [Sub-Cores], how I used them to cast spells, and how they now had their own mana channels. While I trusted Trixie''s oath and friendship at this stage, I held back telling her that the [Sub-Cores] were now my extra lives.
"Well... Youpletely destroyed my theory. I had thought you were using the cores like some strange magical catalyst to get ess to the other elements, and that''s why they were floating inside of you." Trixie replied, scratching her head while pondering. "Now you''re telling me they are your functional personal spellcasters. And that they just got upgraded from apprentices to full-blown mages... That at least exins all the extra mana flow I''m sensing from you."
"And solves me overloading myself and using my slime as a mana source. I will probably set up some form of hierarchy for my cores and have a dedicated leader and their support."
"Hriously, you''ve stumbled upon setting up your cores like the elven military," Trixie said with a smirk.
"Oh?"
"Yeah. It''s why the humans fear them so much. Almost every elf has identical affinities, so they are perfect matches for [Ritual Casting]. You''re a one-slime army."
"I know you said you''re old as dirt, but how do you know this?"
"I think everyone knows this. After all, plenty of others have tried to copy it, and the dwarves were at least partially sessful. Although, who knows nowadays, I really need to catch up on current events."
"Before I forget. What did you mean by tiering?" I asked.
"Oh. That''s when you upgrade a trait from Lesser to Greater." Trixie replied, once again, like it wasmon knowledge. "It automatically happens when a trait or skill reaches its maximum level. You also have the option to manually upgrade it early once it reaches The Wall for one point per level difference."
"The Wall?"
"Level five. I''m sure you noticed how much harder it is to level up from five to six? Everyone calls it The Wall. It''s also the primary reason why most individualsck the ten points to uncap."
"That''s like choosing to have one skill at eleven or have two at ten..."
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"Exactly!" Trixie said with a snap of her fingers.
"I have a Lesser skill and trait. What happens if I tier them up?"
"You''d pay the difference between their level and ten in points. Then they get upgraded to Greater and reset back to level one."
"Back to one? That sounds horrible..." I replied with shock.
"Yes. But two things: a level one Greater skill is the equivalent of a level ten Lesser skill." Trixie exined; I nodded along. "And Greater skills start at The Wall from the very start. To make matters worse, they cost double the points to upgrade manually."
"Yikes... Not really selling me on it, to be honest."
"Some skills or traits get an upgrade. Although that''s few and far between. [Telepathy (Greater)], for example, lets memunicate without visual sight and is scaled by the group rather than individuals."
"I have [Magic Resistance (Lesser)] and [Attack Mastery (Lesser)]... Although I don''t even have the points to upgrade the trait anymore." I grumbled bitterly.
"My teacher rmended upgrading a Lesser to Greater as soon as possible to start grinding away at the real wall. But it''s up to you. If you''ve been saving your points until now, it''s likely a drop in the bucket."
I wasn''t willing to make the decision now. I''d probably ask Lisa or someone at the guild about it to get a second opinion, although Lisa had previously told me to spend my points on upgrades and did not mention Tiering or Uncapping. Did the humans not know, or was this restricted knowledge like Whitney had bemoaned?
We chatted a bit longer, and Trixie told me how she spent her time knitting and asionally removing the monster spawns. She also visited the dryad for tea, who was apparently delightfulpany and extremely grateful that I wouldn''t be invading her rainbow forest. When it came time for bed, Trixie looked at me seriously.
"So... I think I''m going to head home tomorrow. I want to see if my friends and family are still around."
I nodded. "Honestly, thank you so much for all your help. I can''t even think of the value of the magic training and ss rmendation."
"The magic training was the basics, at least for spirits. The ss was probably the most valuable; I''d appreciate it if you kept its requirements to yourself."
"Of course." I easily agreed.
"You''re... Still wee toe with me, you know?" Trixie offered.
"Part of me really wants to... But I want to finish my ns in motion, and I''m eager to beat another dungeon and visit the dwarves."
Trixie chuckled. "No problem. Just thought I''d try to tempt you. Just please be safe around all those humans."
"Of course. Same to you, don''t end up trapped in another cage for years."
Trixie shivered. "Never again..."
Before bed, I shifted Alpha to a Water alignment, as I didn''t have a dedicated [Sub-Core] donning the blue slime guise yet. One of the new recruits would have to take up that mantle once they caught up in levels. I then assigned each new core an element and paired them with their leader. I wanted to keep myself mostly unaligned and then shift where appropriate, joining one of the dedicated elemental teams or acting as a versatile elite. I also set up the new cores with some minor repetitive tasks to continuously work on, mostly internally withdrawing and depositing slime mass.
I also tested if my new trait allowed my [Sub-Cores] to act outside my slime or in separate slime, but that was still impossible. Another evolution, perhaps? Or maybe it was a rare slime trait? Perhaps controlling disconnected slime was treading too close to elemental territory? Hopefully, I''d find a solution at some point, although keeping thin tendril connections between us allowed me to entertain the idea of multiple bodies.
The next morning was a surprise. I had thought of potentially leaving in the early morning. Perhaps Trixie knew I didn''t like saying goodbye and was prepared. She had a grin of smug victory stered on her face.
"Thanks again, Syl. For the rescue and the fun time." The pixie said, giving me a small hug against my head.
"You''re wee. Thanks again for everything. Regardless of the ups and downs, it ended up being a huge positive in the end."
"Do you have any gold?" Trixie asked. "Perhaps a coin?"
I pulled out one of my gold coins and presented it to her. She briefly glowed with magic and touched the coin; it glimmered with a persistent rainbow-colored hue.
"There. That''s my mark; I''ll try to find you with the dwarves." Trixie exined.
I nodded.
Trixie gave a bright smile and started to frantically wave. "Farewell for now! See you around Syl! Stay out of trouble!"
"See you."
Then, without warning, she just vanished. Part of me hoped she was still there, just invisible like always, but with my new [Illusion Resistance] trait, I could vaguely feel that this time it was different. I still had many questions about the strange pixie, but I couldn''t deny her help and the fun I eventually started having with her.
"Well. I have to get the dwarves now." I said, looking at my new rainbow gold coin.
I consulted [Mapping] and saw that Glimmerock was now quite far away from Kaerlin; however, with my new flight, it would be rtively simple to get within walking distance. I had lost track of time, but I knew I still had at least another two months to meet Thern''s deadline. I doubted the dungeon would take a month, which meant I still had some time for myself.
I briefly considered staying on the ind a bit longer, but I felt like I''d be beating a dead horse at this point. I still had a lot of [Lightning Magic] to work on, but I could do that anywhere.
However, there was one thing I still needed to do, so I went back to the room to grab my bathtub. I was filled with relief when I saw that it had been stored sessfully.
"I should consider getting it enchanted. Self-repair, at least, maybe a mild heating?"
I took onest look at the ind, flying around at top speed in my now iconic "Blueblin" form. With a smile and a wave, I started flying towards Kaerlin. Flying was so convenient that I knew I would miss it being grounded once I was back in the city, so I took the scenic route, spending plenty of time flying around amongst the birds and clouds.
When I got close enough to the city, I stealthilynded in an area I was sure was clear by using [Eagle Vision] from up above. Then, I shifted forms, taking on my new appearance and persona, which I''d worked on with Trixie. Sylvester. I started aligning all but two of my cores to Ice to fit in well with my fake Cryomancer ss. I left Alpha and Zeta aligned to Water.
My goals were threefold. First, to see the sess and likelihood of creating a new identity. Second, to investigate another guild and see what crafting sses had to offer. Third, I wanted to experience not being the elf in the room.
"Now... Am I more interested in learning Alchemy or Enchanting?" I wondered while walking towards the road, stroking my now goateed chin.
Chapter 135: Sylvesters First Day
Chapter 135: Sylvester''s First Day
It waste afternoon when I finally reached the city gates; thankfully, I had shaved off an entire day''s travel time by flying most of the way. There wasn''t any foot traffic leaving the city, and I was forced to join the line to await entry. When it was finally my turn, I approached the gate confidently.
"Do you have identification?" The guard on duty said as I approached.
"I do not. I hope to join the merchants guild." I replied.
The guard seemed to be waiting. "Sir? Do you have identification?" He asked again.
My confusion seemed to only fuel the guard''s impatience. He was clearly losing his temper, and I could feel the tension in the air.
"Sir, if you''re going to waste my time just staring at me, I''ll kick you to the back of the line," he said, looking extremely unsatisfied.
I blinked in confusion a few times. The gears finally turned, and I suddenly realized my screwup. I was trying to talk to him telepathically! I had clearly spent far too much time with Trixie.
I faked clearing my throat. "Apologies. No, I do not have identification; I hoped to get one when I joined the Guild."
The guard frowned, shaking his head before grumbling. "Of course... No identification. Great..."The guard fetched a clipboard and started writing down on it.
"Sylvester. Level twenty-five... Cryomancer?" He frowned. "Are you not with the Mages or Adventurers Guild?"
"No. I didn''t feel the call to adventure, and I''ve never been to the capital to register with the Mages." I answered.
He nodded along, then stared at me intently; I had the vague sense he was using a skill on me. "Any known criminal record?"
"None."
After getting his confirmation, the guard visibly eased up and looked much more friendly. He finished writing something down and then held out his hand. "It''s five silver for entry with no official identification. If you obtain one within two days, you can reim three from the guard post."
I pulled out a gold coin and handed it to him. He frowned, looking at the coin before letting out a sigh. "Let me guess, you don''t have anything smaller?"
"Afraid not. I have some coppers and one silver." I replied, taking note of the coins I had taken from the adventurers. "But, how about this, you can keep the remainder if you''d be willing to escort me to the merchants guild? As both a thank you and an apology for taking up your time."
The guard looked shocked before giving an absolutely cheerful grin. "dly, sir. Are you willing to wait a bit for me to swap shifts?"
"Of course. Thank you for your valuable time." I said, giving a small, polite head bow. Sylvester was a refined gentleman after all, so said [Acting].
True to his word, it didn''t take long for the guard to fetch me from waiting beyond the gate. He looked positively cheery, and it was shocking how one gold coin could change someone''s personality so quickly.
While the Adventurer''s Guild was built against the inner wall, the Merchant''s was actually built into the wall. It was a massive building with ornate and colorful tilework on its rooftop. I had the vague sense that the building existed on both sides of the wall, likely a dedicatedmoner and noble entrance.
I thanked the guard again, and he responded with a thump to his chest and a toothy smile. "No. Thank you, sir. If any guards give you trouble, tell them to call Aaron."
''So far so good.''
I entered the building and was shocked at the number of people inside and the wall of booths with employees lined up. Where the Adventurer''s Guild entrance was arge open floor n, this was a strictly organized waiting area. I watched as people waited in line for a booth with a staff member or pulled out a tag and entered through another doorway into an inner part of the building.
I patiently waited in line until I was finally beckoned towards an empty booth. The man looked to be in histe twenties and was dressed sharply; he would easily fit in as a wait staff member in an upper-ss eatery.
"Evening, sir. My name is James; how may I assist you?" He asked routinely and politely.
"Pleasure to meet you, James. My name is Sylvester, and I was looking into mayhaps joining the Guild." I answered.
"As a crafter, reseller, or distributor?" He asked, and after brief nce continued, "If you''re looking for mercenary work, this isn''t the ce."
"Crafter. I was also hoping to seek lessons in either Alchemy or Enchanting."
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"Yes, we do offer those services here. Crafter registration is ten silver. Alchemy lessons are one gold per week, reagents included, whereas Enchanting lessons are seventy silver." James began exining. "However, those are the basic group lessons. If you wish to apprentice directly, the costs range from anywhere between ten and fifty times that amount depending on the level and avability of the master."
"Fascinating. Do you perhaps offer suggestions or advice? Both interest me, but I''m a little undecided between the two."
"We do, and we also offer aptitude tests. Can you tell me a bit about yourself, Sylvester? Your affinities and sses would be ideal in narrowing it down."
"Water and Ice are my affinities, with a higher purity on Ice. As for sses, I went from Mage to Sorcerer to Cryomancer." I answered.
"A rather typical progression into specialization, I see. Having Fire and Water would be the perfectbination for alchemists, especially if you have very good mana control. That''s not to say the option is closed off for you; theck can be readily ovee with magic tool use, and some actually prefer to use a tool than their own mes." James began exining. "As for enchanting, purity is everything. Do you also have [Arcane Magic]?"
I paused for a moment before responding, "I do."
"Excellent. One could say that is the minimum barrier to entry. Now, Ice is a rather rare affinity, and Water is always in demand. Water is life, as they say." James chuckled at his own joke. Then he paused as if remembering something. "Actually... I think I saw a request a few weeks ago mentioning Ice. Would you be willing to wait one moment?"
"Not at all. You''ve been most helpful, James."
He politely bowed and left the booth, heading towards an employee door in the back. I mentally sighed at myck of foresight in doing some prior research. If I had known, I could have included Fire in my affinities to be perfect for Alchemy. Although then I''d be treading dangerously close to the same affinities as Syl. I could always learn with a tool and then, in private, use my own Fire. Or I could just learn Enchanting now and learn Alchemyter. I could even "level up" Sylvester and say I picked Fire for my twentieth-level ascension.
Eventually, James returned with a sheet of parchment and an excited smile on his face. "Thank you for waiting. A request was posted a few weeks ago from a prominent noble looking for the services of an enchanter specialized in Ice. When none met the criteria, the request was changed to include any promising apprentices with the required affinity. I believe the request is still unfulfilled, but it is old and could just be a clerical error. But if I''m correct, this could be an amazing opportunity for you. Would you be willing to wait until tomorrow after lunch toe back?"
I paused to think. I didn''t need to rush to a decision; it wouldn''t mean much, even if I wasted a day waiting. "Very well. I don''t mind waiting till tomorrow, but do you mind giving some more detail?"
"Of course. I just didn''t want to get your hopes up in case I was wrong." James said. "What was being offered was a fully paid apprenticeship under a master enchanter, with the only payment being the creation of two specific enchanted items upon reaching sufficient level."
"Quite frankly, that sounds amazing."
"Indeed. I''m unsure if you''re aware, but a true master can assign you the [Apprentice] emblem, which boosts all learning rates under their direct tutge. Depending on the master, the boosts can be unbelievably potent, and with how desperate and high profile this request was, I believe they might be pulling on the best of the best." James said excitedly.
"I honestly had no idea. Now you really have me hoping the clerks didn''t mess up." I chuckled.
James scratched his cheek sheepishly. "I apologize; I probably said too much. If it makes you feel any better, I''d lose a huge signing bonus, so I''d share some of your pain."
"Well, that would certainly lighten the sting to know I''m not alone in cursing theck of proper paperwork." I joked. "Can I at least register in the meantime, or should that wait until tomorrow?"
"We can proceed with the base registration for so long. Would you like to pay a gold to upgrade your guild tag for transactions?"
"Please do. And I''m assuming I can deposit my coin here?"
"Of course."
We proceeded with the required paperwork. Compared to the Adventurer''s Guild, it was quite the process; after I paid my fee, I was given my new tag registered under Sylvester and my unique signature. I was a little worried about my previous registration, as Syl might have backfired at this point, but thankfully, nothing came up. I deposited eighty gold coins and kept the remainder for emergencies, including the ny silver coins I received as change.
"Thank you very much for joining the Merchant''s Guild, Sylvester. I hope tomorrow brings both of us good fortune."
"Thank you, James, you''ve been most helpful. Onest thing, is there an inn you could rmend to me?"
"Of course, the one right across the street is affiliated with us, and you''ll receive discounted rates. They are one of the few inns who regrly import and store frozen seafood, so you''d be in for a rare treat."
I thanked him again, wished him a pleasant evening, and looked forward to our meeting tomorrow.
Heading toward the inn, I was greeted by the friendly staff and swiped my new tag for payment. I mentally cheered at once again, not needing to worry about fiddling with coins and learning the price of things. The meal was indeed seafood, and I had the choice between fish or crab... Recalling Unc, I decided to try the former. Just in case thetter caused some divine punishment.
It was certainly tasty, a step up from the Adventurer''s Inn, but still a downgradepared to Moonsong or Trevor. I briefly considered if I should learn the cooking skill, but then realized I could probably just buy some tasty food and keep it in storage. Besides, as a slime, nothing was truly sweeter than eating a fresh new profile and earning vast quantities of slime mass. No, wait, correction. Nothing was truly sweeter than a fresh new slime core!
Within the privacy of my own room, I shifted myself and some cores over to Lightning. It took no effort to resume my progress towardbining [Conductive] and [Lightning Rod]. I had only briefly resumed the spellbination when I realized that I hadn''t touched this since evolving, and now I would potentially see the benefit of my newly upgraded cores. Curious about their improvements, I gave them a direct order to help mebine the spells and found their unseen hands far more helpful and productive than normal.
''Was [Core Refinement] giving me that much of a boost? Or is this the teamwork capability mentioned in [Core Collective]?'' I wondered.
Before my usual bedtime, I had apletedbined spell. I was exceptionally surprised; I had left it nearpletion before my forced evolution, but I thought I''d need at least another day or two before finalizing it. Unfortunately, I had nowhere to safely test the spell, so I''d have to keep it in my back pocket for now.
Satisfied with a well-done job, I returned everyone to an Ice alignment and called it a night. I was eager to see what tomorrow would bring.
Chapter 136: An Irrefutable Offer
Chapter 136: An Irrefutable Offer
The next day, I awoke with a surplus of time; my guild visit was scheduled for after lunch, allowing me to explore the city from a fresh perspective. I donned a new set of simple robes and left the inn. The transformation was remarkable; I no longer felt the weight of countless eyes on me, and people didn''t shy away. I blended in with the crowd, spending hours wandering, visiting open markets, and sampling various foods and snacks.
''It''s a pity [Consuming Osmosis] doesn''t work with food, for whatever reason. Although, perhaps that''s what stops me from eating a dragon steak and getting a free profile?''
An unexpected encounter during my exploration was with pickpockets. It seems I didn''t venture into the city much as Syl, always heading straight to my destination. But now, either my elf guise was too intimidating, or my current appearance was seen as an easy target. The reactions of the would-be thieves were quite amusing, as they delved into my pockets, which were purely for show, only to find nothing. I couldn''t help but miss the giggles of my now-absent tinypanion.
''This could be a decent way to level up [Perception]...''
It felt like the perfect moment to head to the guild, so I set off. Upon entering the building, I joined the line, prepared to wait. To my surprise, I didn''t have to wait long before James approached me directly, looking equal parts frantic and grateful.
"Sylvester, I''m so d you came. If you would please follow me, the client wishes to speak to you." James said.
"Well, it certainly beats waiting in line." I chuckled and followed him.
Heading through the door, James led me deeper into the guild. Using my mental map, I figured we had crossed the wall and were now technically within the inner wall. It was subtle initially, but everything from the floors to the furniture seemed suddenly nicer. We eventually reached what looked like a private meeting room with leather couches arranged circrly around a very ornate table. A golden egg-shaped device in the center of the table was engraved with what looked like enchanted runes. James told me to get a seat and that the client would arrive shortly.
While I waited, I stared at the strange egg, the most interesting thing in the room. The intricate carvings into its structure tickled the back of my mind, looking overly familiar to something but different enough to perplex me. Eventually, the door opened to two well-dressed individuals. I immediately recognized one, and my mind went into a brief frantic panic.I immediately wanted to leave the room, only holding it together with some heavy reliance on [Acting]. I didn''t feel up to interacting directly with someone I knew as Syl.
Johnathan looked dressed downpared to when I met him as Syl, and it looked like he had advanced his ss. His racial levels, however, were a shocking disappointment, only gaining a single one since Ist saw him.
Gregory, on the other hand, was old and had a magnificent long and grey wizard beard. Instead of an apanying robe, he wore a trim-fitted two-piece suit in a brown shade.
My extra senses also picked up another individual entering the room stealthily. If not for [Thermal Vision], I might have missed her, as her strange, full-bodied armor seemed to greatly blend her into the background.
''A warrior tank hybrid with a rogue? I can only assume she''s his bodyguard. If I were a nobatant, I''d probably also feel hesitant entering a room with a potentially unknown person with abat ss.''
They both sat without saying anything, and the bodyguard took a corner position out of my direct line of sight. Well, for my human eyes, at least. Finally, James entered and closed the door behind him.
"Mister Green. Thank you so much for your valuable time. This is Sylvester, who I mentioned in my report."
"Thank you, James," Gregory spoke while Johnathan ufortably stared at me. "Before we potentially waste Mister Green''s time, would you kindly inject the device in front of you with Ice Mana?"
"Very well," I responded politely, extremely thankful I was immune to nervous sweats.
I ced my hand on the golden egg and focused on filling it. Almost immediately, as I began, Gregory made an unexpectedment: "Oh, good. He already has [Mana Infusion]."
The engraved lines on the device drank in the mana and soon shone brightly in a pale, almost white blue. I could sense the device would take no more, and I removed my hand.
"Good. At least he actually managed to fill it, unlike thest one." Gregory muttered, pulling out a small handheld device that looked like a stick encrusted with five identical gems lined up in fixed intervals.
"Now, the real test..." He touched the tool against the egg, and all five gems immediately lit up. He stared at the tool with astonishment, stashing it in his pouch and pulling out a nearly identical one except with a different wooden finish. He touched it, and again, all five lit up. He frowned deeply before pulling out another one, this time with eight gems, and when it touched the egg, all eight shone.
"Well. Either all three of my tools are defective, or we have found our man, Sir. It appears he wasn''t a braggart when he informed James of his Ice mana purity."
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"And you''re sure, Greg?" Johnathan asked, the first words since he entered.
"Positive. He has the highest purity Ice mana I''ve seen in quite some time. I''d almost suspect he''s someone''s bastard son."
I felt extremely ufortable with them talking around me, even though I was sitting before them. It was a stark contrast to my previous interaction with Johnathan.
"Hmm... I thought of that possibility too, but my merchant skills are behaving oddly." Johnathan replied before finally turning to me. "Tell me, Sylvester, are you married?"
I blinked in confusion at the odd question. "No?"
"So bastard son is likely then," Johnathan said, returning to Greg. "[Merchant''s Eye] is telling me he''s linked to a great fortune, but it''s unavable or restricted. The only time I had previously encountered that was when a wife kept a separate bank ount from her husband."
I wanted toment, or leave, or do something, and the only reason I wasn''t staring wide-eyed, ckjawed, and bbergasted was my [Acting] skill begging me to just sit there in silence.
"I see. He would be entitled to it if he knew about it. What a fascinating skill interaction."
"Fascinating for me. Can''t say the same for the now widower," Johnathan smirked. "So. Is he worth your time, Greg?"
"He meets all the minimum requirements. I''ve certainly worked with worse on other projects."
"Excellent. You can start immediately tomorrow; I''d appreciate a progress report at least every two days."
"Of course, Sir."
"Wait," I finally said, holding up my hand.
"Is there a problem, Sylvester?" James asked, looking at me like I had just kicked a baby.
"I never agreed to ept this. I was even still contemting whether I wanted to pursue alchemy instead."
James was now visibly sweating; now, I had just eaten the metaphorical baby in front of him. Gregory raised a curious eyebrow while Johnathan looked furious.
"Do you have any idea how important this deal is?" Johnathan demanded.
"No. Quite frankly, I have no idea why you even want me. Nothing has been exined, and you''ve assumed I''ll merely agree without question." I replied.
"Amoner with some backbone." Gregory chuckled.
"epting this deal is in everyone''s best interest. You''d be a fool not to take it."
"Why does it have to be me? Surely you can get someone else?"
"You think I haven''t tried? I even paid for Greg to level up to his next ascension. But the Gods decided Ice wasn''t on the menu." Johnathan replied angrily.
"Look, I''m sorry, but I refuse to blindly agree to something. Picking up Enchanting or Alchemy was a fun idea I had at the time."
Gregory looked bemused, James looked like he was having a panic attack, and Johnathan looked outraged. "Your life will be exceptionally difficult should you turn down this offer."
"Is that a threat?" I asked.
"No. Merely a suggestion. Trust me, you''d know when I make a threat." Johnathan said darkly.
"I''m assuming real threats involve Mari in the corner there," I asked, pointing toward her location with my thumb.
Johnathan''s eye twitched. He opened his mouth to reply or perhaps give an order, but he was interrupted by Gregory''s hearty chuckle.
"Pardon me, Sir. But you''ve tried the stick; perhaps let''s try the carrot? It seems Sylvester here likes to see the cardsid out on the table."
Johnathan looked like he swallowed a lemon but gave a curt nod.
"This is our goal," Gregory said, pointing towards the golden egg. "A magical tool that will create a cold freezing aura that preserves perishables."
I looked at the egg in a new light. Were those intricately carved sigils some modification or alternative version of my Ice spell constructs? I was more interested after hearing that tidbit, and Gregory smiled eagerly, perhaps noticing my interest.
"But if you have one or made one, why do you need me?"
"Well, I made this one, but it was carved using Arcane mana. It''s perfectly functional, so long as you always have someone on hand to fill it up with decent quality Ice mana." Gregory exined. "Now, should you ept and are capable enough to learn, I will have you create two of these carved out with Ice-mana. The end result will be that anyone can fill up the tool with raw mana to get the desired result."
"And I''m assuming that if the mana in the carving isn''t pure enough, it won''t function?" I asked.
"Precisely. Or it will function but be so inefficient that it would need a near-constant mana supply to even work. The purer it is, the more easily it corrupts Arcane mana."
''Well. That''s an unexpected revtion. Who knew I was my own worst enemy when working with Arcane mana? It nearly instantly corrupts into other mana.''
"Couldn''t you get around that by using a material aligned to Ice?" I asked curiously.
Greg smiled; perhaps he liked inquisitive minds? "Yes, but-"
"That''s what I''m trying to get around!" Johnathan interrupted. "I''m trying to rece two ice core tools with these so that I can sell them to a very important client."
Suddenly, the situation clicked. Johnathan was trying to free up the slime cores to sell to me! I felt stupid for not connecting the dots sooner, perhaps put off by not wanting to interact with someone I knew and by his very different behavior. Did he treat allmoners like this? Was it because I was currently a man? Or was it purely because he was desperate to impress an Elf? Maybe it was even simpler than that, and he was just desperate for more merchant levels since ourst transaction apparently gave him two.
''Shit. I guess I''m in now...''
While I would have loved to have left him to stew, now it was in my best interest. I''d effectively get free training and two slime cores! I obviously could be wrong about Syl being his important client, but who else wanted slime cores other than me?
"Okay. I''m interested, but are you training me only to make these and then abandoning me? Or am I actually getting properly trained?" I asked curiously.
Gregory actually looked offended by my insinuation. "I''m obligated to train you to the best of my abilities when I assign you the [Apprentice] emblem. I am not leaving someone linked to me directly no better than some back-alley enchanter."
Having taken enough time to ponder, I nodded. "Very well. Then I''ll ept your offer."
The tension in the room suddenly deted. James immediately looked relieved, and Gregory gave me an enthusiastic nod.
"Excellent. I leave the rest to you, Greg." Johnathan said and promptly left the room.
Mari actually approached me, I would have suspected something, but I sensed no hostility from her. She put her hand on my shoulder and leaned in to whisper. "I''m impressed you could detect me. Also... Just between us, while your backbone could be seen perhaps as courageous or admirable... You might be executed on the spot if you behave like that before any noble other than Mister Green."
Then, she promptly left. She practically rushed out the door before I could respond or say anything.
"I won''t keep you any longer. Meet me tomorrow bright and early. I hope your desire to learn is as much as your inquisitiveness." Gregory chuckled. "James, make sure you revise his admission so he can enter the enchanting rooms."
"Thanks, Gregory. I look forward to it." I smiled. "Can I call you Greg?"
Gregory snorted augh. "Sure. But tomorrow, it will be Master Greg, and I won''t tolerate any tomfoolery."
I nodded, and he left. James turned to me and gave me an awkward smile. "I don''t know whether you''re brilliant or insane. Maybe both."
I couldn''t help butugh at that, giving him a pat on the shoulder and thanking him for everything. Having nothing else to do, I decided to head back to the inn, where I had a pleasantte afternoon and evening before retiring early to my bedroom and finishing the day off with my regrly scheduled magic practice.
Chapter 137: Circles and Spheres
Chapter 137: Circles and Spheres
After shifting into a new wardrobe and eating breakfast, I headed towards the Merchant''s Guild. While part of me thought it could be fun to rock the boat, I didn''t necessarily want to antagonize the man who was going to be teaching me. After all, if our rtionship soured, he might still only teach me the bare minimum despite his im of not wanting his name attached to a failure of an apprentice.
I had thought I was early, but James was already at the Guild and ushered me deeper into the building. Once again, I found myself crossing the imaginary line into the noble section of the building. The room I was led to looked almost like a personal studybined with a tinyboratory. Multiplerge workbenches were loaded with various metal objects forged into strange shapes, while another contained multiple ss spheres. There were all manner of little tools that I couldn''t name, ranging from pliers to strange-looking writing implements. There was also a sizable bookcase and a moderately sized chalkboard hung against the wall.
I sat on one of the couches while James offered me some tea as a refreshment; he returned with arge pot and two cups and was soon followed by Gregory.
"Excellent. I''m d to see you arrived early, Sylvester." Gregory said, taking a seat and pouring himself a cup of tea. He added precise amounts of milk and sugar to his drink before taking a deep sip.
"I thought it prudent to be amicable to my teacher. I found Enchanting fascinating when I came across it, and I''m eager to see what I can learn."
"Of course. To gauge your knowledge, tell me what you know about Enchanting and nobat sses in general." He requested.
"Very well. Nobat sses earn experience by fulfilling the ss''s identity, and a chef levels up by cooking, for example. However, you earn nothing towards Racial levels. I''m also assuming that experience amount is determined by the finished quality or its impact."
"Correct. You can also earn experience by raising your linked ss skills. In fact, if you practice and raise your skill while assigned to a different ss, when you swap back, you might be apanied by some surprise level-ups as your ss catches up to your new skill level."
"Fascinating. That exins why an acquaintance of mine was working on tailoring and weaving despite not having the ss at the time..." I murmured, scratching my chin. "Regarding Enchanting, I know there are two types - permanent and temporary. I''ve seen someone draw a temporary enchantment with their finger for a quick solution. Still, the primary purpose I know is to permanently enchant equipment, which uses its wielder''s natural mana to fuel it.""A little barebone, but I''m d you didn''t lie or try to pull anything out of your arse," Gregory said, nodding thoughtfully. "You''re correct that the general purpose of Enchanting is for equipment; this is why having ess to Arcane mana is a minimum requirement, as it needs to be pure to be usable by any client. Imagine buying armor with a protection enchantment that required you to have Fire mana; we''d have a lot of dead guards and adventurers, I can tell you that much."
"Now, the higher tier of Enchanting would be specific enchantments fit for purpose. A device that creates a me, produces water on demand, or keeps a chest of food frozen and preserved. Even without the user being naturally capable of doing this. For example, in the Adventurer''s Guild, a few of their enchanters can create battle items, such as a wand that can shoot out a lightning bolt."
"Now. Before you get all excited, most of those inscriptions are patented, and you''d need to pay a fee to ess them. They can be quite... Pricey, but they often end up paying for themselves in the long run. For example, the simple storage enchantment costs fifty gold to procure, but that investment is a nearly endless source of revenue as everyone needs or wants dimensional storage. If you buy ess to the patent, I can include it in your curriculum."
"Wow..." I said, barely hiding my excitement. "Do I need to buy a lot of patents, or are those included in this apprenticeship?"
Gregory gave a knowing smirk, "Do not fret. Your gold is safe; mostmon inscriptions are freely distributed, and my own will be given to you freely. The only exception is the Ice inscription, which Mister Green has already paid the required patent fee on your behalf."
He paused, cleared his throat, and tried to speak as clearly and slowly as possible. "The refrigerator inscription."
"Re..frige..rator?" I asked, stumbling horribly across the unfamiliar words.
"Horrible name, I know," Gregory said with a brief chuckle and a shake of his head. "Some upstart adventurer created it. Wonderful principle, a truly profound design, and absolutely revolutionary in its usage. But, Gods, what an awful naming sense."
"I have to agree..." I said with a nod, still trying to pronounce the unfamiliar word subconsciously.
"So. Any other questions?" Gregory asked.
"When can we begin?" I said with a smile.
Gregory gave a friendly chortle and stroked down his massive beard. "Good. I''m d you''re eager. I just need to give you my Emblem, and you need to swap your ss." He then raised his hand and pointed a finger at me. "I nominate you, Sylvester, as my next apprentice."
I was slightly worried about that deration; how strict was the name requirement? But thankfully, two notifications appeared before me.
Do you ept?>
<>
While under the direct tutge of your master, you will receive bonus experience towards your ss and skill progression.
Bonus experience is limited to the ss for which your master has earned the [Apprenticeship] skill.
Upon reaching satisfactorypletion of the [Apprentice] emblem, your gains will be finalized, and your master will be rewarded with ss experience and a level in [Apprenticeship].
Should the [Apprentice] emblem be revoked by either party, the [Apprentice] will receive an experience penalty to earned levels, and the master will lose a level in [Apprenticeship] and forfeit the projected ss experience.>
"Wow... That''s quite the Emblem..." I muttered, reading the description.
"Indeed, it''s why those of us with the skill are quite picky with who we choose. You could ept it, reject it immediately after, and I''d lose an extremely valuable level in my [Apprenticeship] skill."
"I have to assume it''s more than just pride that stops someone from grabbing a bunch of apprentices and graduating them in a day?"
"Quite right. Firstly, [Apprentice] only works on one individual; there is an upgrade that removes that restriction, but it requires one to also take up a teaching profession first. Secondly, the system is cognizant of the individual''s standards and will not allow me to graduate you verbatim unless you''ve met my standards."
This content has been uwfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I opened my mouth to ask a question, but Gregory held out his index finger to pause me. "I bet you''re thinking, what if you have a master with low standards? Well, if their standards are too low, they will not qualify to get the [Apprenticeship] skill. Furthermore, the value and effectiveness of their [Apprentice] emblem will also be lowered. My standards are high; therefore, my requirements are strict but of exceptional value."
"Thank you," I said, giving a polite nod, and then I epted the [Apprentice] emblem.
Swap now?>
''Yes.''
I frowned deeply. "First ss? Also, did I just lose all my saved points!?"
"Heavens, no." Gregory immediately replied. "While you can only have one ss equipped at a time, the two are almost entirely separate. Otherwise, we would have retired adventurers immediately bing master artisans or a tailor suddenly bing a master swordsman."
"Well... That''s a relief. Things might have gone ugly if I''d just lost my savings." I said, shaking my head. At the same time, I confirmed that my profile was showing my new ss and Emblem correctly, which would have been a horrible oversight.
Gregory chuckled. "I can imagine, although I don''t know why you''d save your points. Anyway, spend your first point on [Rune Reading]. We can get you some easy levels through some simple lecture rather than you attempting to level up by making chicken scratchings."
I nodded and bought the skill.
"Excellent." Gregory moved towards the ckboard and produced a thin piece of chalk. He proceeded to draw a perfect circle with efficient and well-practiced ease. "Now, this is the most important and basis of all enchanting." He poked the board with his piece of chalk for added emphasis.
"A circle?" I asked, tilting my head.
"Circles and Spheres. The shapes of infinite and uniformed perfection." He proceeded to draw another one, this time adding simple glyphs inside of it. "The basis of every enchantment or inscription starts here."
"Now. The mostmon question on this reveal is, ''But what about an enchanted sword or armor that isn''t in a circle?''" He paused and drew a simple sword, then started filling the inside with a detailed structure, almost like a tree with circr fruit hanging from it.
"The answer to that is frameworks. Which links multiple circles together, but that is an advanced topic we will cover in actual detailter and is a rather crude solution." He ced his chalk down, pulled out what looked like a pen, and started drawing on the air.
He started drawing sigils and glyphs in a very strict pattern, and it looked impressive how it all interlinked into one grand pattern. Then, off to the side, he drew a simple armor shape and oveyed it with his drawing, which matched up almost perfectly. Finally, he drew a sphere and also oveyed it, now revealing that the entire grand pattern was contained within it.
"This is where we find perfection, creating our sphere where no one thought possible." He said proudly. "Of course, there are other ways; some inscriptions are malleable enough to allow creatively oveying your circle or sphere. If you recall the device from yesterday, it was egg-shaped, and the..."
He paused. "Refrigerator inscription is two separate but interlocking circles oveyed over the bottom and top hemispheres."
"So a good enchanter must find where they can make a circle or sphere or otherwise resort to the framework solution?" I asked.
"Precisely. Now, let''s go over reading some of the basic inscriptions." He said, grabbing arge book and cing it before me. "This is yours to keep unless you flunk out. It should make some good bedtime reading in your evenings."
When I opened the book to the first page, I was weed to a simple circle with one glyph inside. Despite the page titlebeling it a "Rank 1 Strengthening Inscription," I could actually read and understand the glyph.
"Now. Assuming you didn''t lie about following my instructions, can you tell me what this does?" Gregory asked in a stern tone.
"It''s called a strengthening inscription, but it actually reinforces the overall durability," I answered.
"Excellent. Yes. Anything with this would receive an extremely minor durability reinforcement. Good formon tools, and it''s simple enough that you can easily miniaturize it to ce at the bottom of a handle, for example."
He flipped through the book until he stopped at the pagebeled "Rank 2 Strengthening Inscription," which contained the previous rune I recognized and an additional new one. "The number of runes, sigils, or glyphs within an inscription determine its rank, but you can''t just p a bunch together. They must be carefully selected frompatibility or offset enough to enter an equilibrium."
"Now, if you look here..."
***
"I think that is enough for one day." Gregory finally announced, sitting down with a satisfied look on his face.
It had been a blur of going from page to page, with him first having me try to exin the rune myself before he would help or exin its concept. It was almost like learning an entirely newnguage or alphabet, except greatly enhanced via [Rune Reading] and [Apprentice].
I hope you gained at least one level in reading?" Gregory asked.
I looked over my notifications eagerly.
"Level three in [Rune Reading] and level four in my ss," I eagerly answered.
Gregory looked slightly taken aback. He blinked and stared at me several times, possibly using [Identify].
"I know my skill ranked up after myst [Apprentice], but this seems a little excessive..." Gregory muttered in confusion.
I knew the likely source and decided I better be open about it, "Oh. I have the [Prodigy] trait. It gives me a-"
"[Prodigy]!? Yes, yes, I know what it does." Gregory interrupted and started tugging at his beard. "I think you''ve all but confirmed that you''re someone''s bastard son at this point... This is an unexpected surprise. I''ll need to readjust my lesson n to consider that; this is remarkable and truly wonderful. I wonder if I''ll get any bonus from [Apprenticeship], there was that one rumor... What luck! Ha!"
I let Greg go on with his ramblings as I awkwardly ran my fingers along the spine of my new book. My memory was really good thanks to [Soul Mastery], but I wondered if I could have my [Sub-Cores] also read and memorize them. I was sure a big part of my education would require me to memorize the contents of this book and possibly others. Could I even order my [Sub-Cores] to read while I slept? Now, that was an idea worth exploring.
"Ah. I got carried away; please forgive me, Sylvester. I suggest you grab [Rune Etching]; perhaps tomorrow, we can try having you draw your first circle. Please do review what we covered today in your book." Gregory said, now looking almost as eager as I did this morning. "I apologize, but I need to run off and redraft... Almost everything. If I''m a littlete tomorrow, please forgive me."
We shared a very brief goodbye before he practically stormed off. I left the Guild after storing my book and waved farewell to James. It was already evening, so I rushed to the inn, ate my meal, and went straight to my room.
"Alright... Let''s see what we can do." I said eagerly, plopping the book on my bed and bringing my [Sub-Cores] to attention. "Oh, right, I should buy that new skill..."
"Wait..." I said, frowning deeply while looking at the notification in more detail. "I was distracted at the time, but Profession Points? Also, shouldn''t I have two remaining? I''m level four?"
While slightly distraught about the missing points, I knew I could question Gregory about it tomorrow, and rather than worrying about it, put it in the back of my mind while perusing through my book.
Chapter 138: Rune Etching
Chapter 138: Rune Etching
The next day, when I arrived in the lesson room, there was a note written on the chalkboard informing me that Gregory would be a littlete and that I should take the time to practice drawing circles of differing sizes.
''I mean... How hard can it be?'' I thought, intrigued by the unexpected challenge of the task.
I picked up a piece of chalk and began drawing my first circle on the board in almost no time. I then drew another one, slightly smaller, and nodded in satisfaction at the result.
''Am I being weird again? This doesn''t seem hard... Maybe I''m just a circle-drawing genius,'' I joked to myself.
I wracked my mind, trying to think of a reason why I was finding such easy sess in a task that Gregory clearly thought I might have a little trouble with. The only thing that came to mind was perhaps the steadiness of your arm and hands, while I had practically unparalleled and perfect control over my slime as long as it was close to one of my cores. I also tried ordering one of my [Sub-Cores] to control my arm and draw the circle, which they also did with the utmost precision.
''Just another reason to be d I''m a slime. And to think Mother wanted me to be a spirit. Ha!''
Thankfully, Gregory arrived before I ran out of chalkboard space; he entered the door looking slightly flustered.
"Apologies for beingte, Sylvester." He said upon entry. "I hope you haven''t had too much trouble with drawing circles-"
He stopped as he saw the board covered in them.I gave a grin. "It''s been going pretty well."
"I can see that." He said, blinking a few times. "And here I was going to rmend you the [Steady Hand] skill or perhaps [Body Control] trait if you were struggling. Or do you already have one of those?"
"I don''t have either of those, but perhaps I have something simr?" I asked.
"Well, I would have only been able to offer you [Steady Hand], which is amon skill picked up amongst crafters. With [Body Control], you might need to pay someone from the Adventurer''s Guild to show you; it gives you more precise control over your muscles and such. Some people swear by it, but the idea of potentially needing to relearn something as simple as walking sounded far too high of an entry requirement."
"Sounds a little extreme," I said with a chuckle.
"Indeed! But anyway, since your circles are looking spectacr, we can move on to working on your [Rune Etching] skill."
I gave an enthusiastic nod, and Gregory gestured for me to join him at one of the work benches. From his storage pouch, he pulled out dozens of square-shaped pieces of wood of varying sizes before finally pulling out a small tool that looked a little like a metal toothpick.
"So, [Rune Etching]. It''s the starting point for all Enchanters, and you''ll likely find it extremely limiting and frustrating to work with. Enchantments made with it will eventually burn out; from the moment they are activated, they are on borrowed time. Once you move past it, its only purpose is for trial and error or rush jobs until you unlock [Rune Tracing]."
Gregory held out the long metal toothpick for me to grab, "Essentially, you''ll be using this tool to scrape into the wood while letting your mana flow into the tool. It''s made of a metal that is conductive of mana, although it''s one of the cheaper options. Too much conductivity and you''ll overload what''s possible for [Rune Etching]. Furthermore, circles created with [Rune Etching] cannot exceed rank three inscriptions. If you wish to practice them, you''ll need me to make the circle for you until you get [Rune Carving]."
I nodded along as he kept exining. The normal progression was [Rune Etching] into [Rune Carving] into [Rune Engraving], limited by inscription ranks three, seven, and ten, respectively. On the other hand, [Rune Tracing] was what I had witnessed Thern do when he traced a temporary enchantment with his finger, and in theory, it had no rank limit as long as you could imbue enough mana into the temporary circle.
Gregory also gave me some practical application examples. A [Rune Etching] would be used for a quick fixsting no longer than a handful of days, assuming perfect construction. Otherwise, it would barelyst a day. Gregory reminisced about when he was still just starting out and how he would sell his services to prevent water damage, in particr bad storms. A [Rune Carving] was expected tost at least half a year, while perfected jobs couldst just over a year and was perfect for insting a house for winter. Finally, [Rune Engraving] was the pinnacle and was expected tost a lifetime unless destroyed. The most obvious application was in constructing magic items and tools. However, Gregory admitted that in emergencies, weapons and armor would sometimes be given [Rune Carving] enchantments, although when the enchantment expired, the weapon would usually be destroyed as a result.
Honestly, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Gregory, and he was undoubtedly very passionate about his line of work. Finally, I was instructed to try using [Rune Etching] on one of the pieces of wood after Gregory demonstrated using it himself and cing a simple strengthening inscription on it. Thanks to [Mana Conception], I could watch as he let out a consistent trickle of mana pour into the tool, focusing on the tip and drawing into the wood efficiently and effectively.
Gregory gave a knowing smile, watching my gaze, "Good to see you have at least a decent level of [Mana Sight], and I hope a decent level of [Mana Maniption] to go with it. It''s been often proven that there is a lot of cross-ss skill application for Mages and Enchanters."
I was thoroughly excited when I was handed back the tool and told to copy his inscription. I felt like I was armed to the teeth with all my skills and traits, precise control over my body, and, of course, my direct tutge. With the tool in hand, I began my work, starting with the circle and proceeding with the rtively simple rune in the center. There was a pregnant pause when Ipleted the final stroke of the rune, and the entire thing gleamed brightly before the piece of wood began to rapidly grow cold before cracking in half. I was thoroughly disappointed, almost expecting guaranteed sess, but Gregory gave a happy chuckle.
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"Well, as far as first attempts go, that was marvelous. I must admit I had to hold my breath there at the end; I thought you had it." Gregory said proudly. "From what I saw and the end result, I''d say you just need to tone down your mana level. You tried to copy my own, but you only have level one [Rune Etching]. Also, you must ensure that your mana is pure; your high ice affinity must have leaked through."
I took the suggestions in stride and began my second attempt. This time, I achieved remarkable sess by ensuring I was pulling pure mana and drastically lowering the output. Gregory actually cheered when it seeded this time, and I found myself caught up in the positivity.
"I''ll be damned if I don''t get at least two [Apprenticeship] levels when I''m done with you." He said happily.
The rest of the day involved repeating the process. After three sessful attempts at the normal size, Gregory showed me an example of erging it on a much bigger piece of wood. Once I had demonstrated that three times in a row, he asked me to try reversing that principle and try it out on a much smaller piece of wood. In my mind''s eye, I was trying to imagine how it would look shrunk down. I was struggling a little to get a good mental grasp until I thought of trying to copy how my mimicry traits copied parts and applied shrinkage or ergement. Once I started thinking about slime shaping, I found a much clearer mental image and got to work replicating the miniaturized inscription.
When Ipleted the final stroke, I overheard Gregory letting out his held breath. He had a big grin stered on his face right up until the small piece of wood cracked in half.
"So, so close," Gregory said with a slight chuckle. "You got the idea down to shocking perfection; I really thought you had it there. The only thing you forgot to do was appropriately lower the amount of mana. When you copied my erged inscription, you also directed more mana into it, so I thought you had understood the theory."
"Ah..." I said, realizing the seemingly obvious mistake. Of course, arger inscription would need more mana, and a smaller one required less. Once again, I had overloaded the poor etching.
"You seem to have very good visualization. If you can apply the same concept when we move away from t surfaces, I think you''ll breeze through the basics." Gregory said.
He pulled out a piece of parchment with an inscription drawn on it and, after looking around the room for something appropriate, walked over to one of the higher tables and gestured for me to follow him. He crouched down and pointed towards one of the rounded table legs.
"Where would you put the inscription if I asked you to strengthen this table leg?" He asked.
"On the underside of the foot seems the most appropriate," I answered.
"Correct. But for argument''s sake, let''s assume that the foot was unavable. It''s been bolted to the floor."
I paused to think a bit before answering, "I could maybe fit a really small one if shrunk enough..."
"True. That would be possible, although you''d likely need to create quite a few tiny ones to achieve the desired strength. However, this is one of the moremon options."
Gregory then proceeded to wrap the piece of parchment around the table leg; I could see how the inscription was still whole despite being distributed over an uneven surface.
Seeing the realization on my face, he smiled, "Hopefully, this illustrates the importance of having a good mental image."
"Couldn''t you apply a marking or ink to get the correct distribution and then enchant it?"
Gregory chuckled at that. "I''m d you asked so I could p that foolish idea from your mind. Lesser Enchanters sometimes use stencils to assist them, but the quality is degraded when finalizing the enchantment. The excuse given is that the ink or paper or whatever they use between the enchantment target causes interference, but I say the system knows a cheat when it sees one and applies appropriate judgment."
It was an interesting idea and seemed usible from what I had seen of Gramps and Mother. After all, they had robbed me of precious [Slime Conversion] and ten trait points! Although part of me wanted to test the limits of this cheating theory, could I do the engraving with my slime? What if I formed the rune shape in slime, filled it with mana, and melted the full inscription in one go? Would that work?
"I can see you''ve got ideas running around in your head. But learn to walk before you try running!" Gregory said with a chuckle.
We continued with another set of strengthening enchantments and then tried a few of the other basic ones. The one that intrigued me the most out of the basics was one that reduced the weight of the enchanted object; I had no idea such a thing was possible through enchanting. The other interesting interaction was when I added the fire resistance enchantment, requiring me to give a lot more mana for the enchantment to actually stick. It was an interesting thing to witness, and Gregory said there was another entire area of study where people researched the optimal material for each enchantment. Still, in theory, you could simply ovee it with enough mana and grit.
"I think that''s enough for the day. Tell me what you''ve managed to achieve." Gregory said after examining myst piece of wood with a very satisfied nod.
I pulled up my notifications and began reading them to him.
"Excellent. You''re clearly getting the perfection bonus. Honestly, I almost wish we could set up shop in a dungeon or something and stack even more bonuses!" Gregory said with a smug, toothy grin.
"Perfection, [Prodigy] and [Apprentice]... Even so, it seems I gained even more levels than yesterday, numerically, and that''s without considering the higher experience requirement per level?" I questioned.
"Rightly so! Today, you''re actually doing what your ss wants you to do! Yesterday''s levels were purely from raising your ss skills, but now you were doing the job!" Gregory said, giving me a pat on the back.
"Ah! Thatpletely slipped my mind..."
"Don''t worry about it. It''s your first ss where you don''t need to kill things to level up; I expect a lot of confusion in theing weeks."
"Speaking of which... I have a question. I seem to be missing a lot of skill or profession points?"
"Oh. Silly me." Gregory said, tugging at his beard. "You only get a profession point every three levels. Try not to be wasteful with them; I''ve got an optimal path for you to follow, so please do not take anything until I tell you to."
"Not a problem, Master Greg. I''m quite a point hoarder." I said, grinning.
We talked a bit more before finally departing. Greg said he might soon ask me to do some actual enchanting jobs as it would be a good way to earn experience and some coin. While enchanting random bits of wood was certainly a way to progress, if the enchantments were actually going towards a useful purpose, I''d earn some more experience. I was instantly reminded that I had given Johnathan two levels just for being a "satisfied customer."
''I wonder if that''s why Yuzz was always so happy to work on stuff for me... These profession sses are really something else.''
Chapter 139: Progress
Chapter 139: Progress
Before I knew it, I had spent over a week with Gregory, learning the ins and outs of being a basic Enchanter. Once Gregory saw how well I took in his lessons,bined with my gains from [Prodigy] and [Apprentice], it became a relentless pace of nonstop learning. I''d swear he was more excited than I was to learn new things and eager to get me out of [Rune Etching] as quickly as possible.
Despite all that, and even with the multiple stacking bonuses, once we hit level five, it was like we had hit a brick wall, and the push to level six was grueling. Practically every scrap of wood Gregory coulde across was eventuallyid before me to etch into. The reason for our mad rush was for me to purchase [Rune Carving], which, from the exnation I got, was a tiered skill like Trixie had mentioned to me, meaning I would need to pay upwards of five points to tier up [Rune Etching] into it!
Gregory was simr-minded to me in that he hated to waste points, but after a long discussion, we decided to stop at level six. The benefits were far too great to have early ess to [Rune Carving], which would open up many new ways for me to work and learn simultaneously. Not to mention, Gregory had said there were other ways to make up for the pointster. When I finally got the notification, both of us cheered so loud that we had some of the guild workers check up on us to ensure that everything was still okay.
''Yes!'' I had never agreed to a prompt so quickly before.
And with my remaining point, I was instructed to finally purchase [Rune Framework].
It was nice to finally get a new skill, as I had been sitting on only [Rune Reading] and [Rune Etching] for so long. [Rune Reading] had reached level five in this time, although since I couldn''t enchant anything above rank three, it was a little meaningless. [Rune Framework] would allow me to design theplexyouts required to link multiple circles together and would be necessary for our next learning steps as I sold my services to inste housing for Winter.
My other skills offered by the ss were either a little disappointing or something I''d purchaseter. [Rune Inspection] would let me judge the quality of individual runes or an inscription as a whole, which might have been useful if I was self-taught. But I had an expert as my master, and I''d grown a little attached to hearing him say "perfect" when judging my work. At level ten, I was offered [Bartering], which was likely when basic enchanters probably started to try earning an ie. Level fifteen had offered me [Rune Carving], which felt deliberately taunting.
I also still had [Rune Design] from [Apprentice], which was all about designing custom runes and likely far above my level. Gregory was initially surprised I had been offered that, and one evening, while discussing it, we boiled down the likelihood of iting from the fact that I had worked on customizing spells. Supposedly, the two were very simr, and judging by how I could almost recognize some of the patterns from my spell constructs and concepts, I could see why. While Gregory apuded my gumption, he rmended holding off until I get [Rune Tracing] as it would be the safest option when experimenting with unknown runes.
One reason we hoarded these early points was the potential to upgrade to [Rune Engraving] early. Ultimately, the decision would be mine to make, but Gregory had said it would speed up my growth tremendously, and he was authorized to throw many more resources my way if I had ess to it. I figured this was potentially Johnathan trying to get an earlier return on investment, but I was honestly tempted to do it earlier myself.While I was enjoying my time as Sylvester, I still had amitment I refused to abandon as Syl. Realistically, I could throw another month and a half into this before Syl needed to return and head out toward the dungeon. Getting to gold rank, visiting the dwarves, and getting my silver slime core was infinitely more important than potentially getting another white slime core. Realistically, I''d likely abandon Sylvester to the wind if I needed to, and I could slowly piece together the ss myself. However, what paused me about that was I''d bepletely screwing over Gregory, with whom I''d formed a very amicable master-apprentice rtionship. If Sylvester disappeared mid-training, then Gregory would end up in hot water with Johnathan, and there would be skill and level penalties for breaking [Apprentice] as well. I still had plenty of time to consider and reassess it, so I left it alone for now.
My biggest reason for wanting to get [Rune Engraving] as soon as possible was brought about by an errant thought: Could I engrave my own cores? From everything I understood about Enchanting, it seemed likely. In theory, I could try it already with [Rune Carving], but I was a little worried about my cores exploding when the carving reached its lifetime.
"Hey, Gramps! I exploded myself by enchanting my core! Whoops?" Was not a conversation I wanted to have. It was likely an irrational fear; enchantments were rtively safe, but something about it bugged me. I''d maybe test on one of my [Sub-Cores] once I received the basic training on spherical enchantments.
I also tried out my theory of using slime to etch, and it worked! Sorta... The etching worked perfectly for about two seconds before the piece of wood violently exploded. My theory was that it had far too much mana for [Rune Etching] to handle, which was why I was super excited to try out [Rune Carving] and eventually [Rune Engraving] with slime! The issue was clearly [Mana Slime], and even when I dropped it down to the minimum density, it was just too much. Perhaps if I evolved away from a blue slime, I''d be able to toggle the trait instead of being all mana slime all the time.
That''s not to say my entire life was nothing but enchanting. I still spent my evenings and sometimes mornings working on my magic. I spent a lot of much-needed time consolidating all my spells for each element to each have a basic applicable temte.
For Ice, I sessfully added the freeze concept to everything and thenbined [Chill] into all the spells, greatly enhancing their effects. I also further upgraded [Icicle] to include [Frostbite], and while it was a bit of a mana hog tobine so much into one spell, it is now exceptionally deadly. With one spell, it would deal both Ice and Piercing damage from the initial hit, and then it would permeate both a freezing effect and ice damage over time. I tried to work a little with [cial Aura], but Trixie was not joking about its difficulty. I solidly put it on the back burner for now.
For Fire, I replicated what I did with Ice and worked on adding [Combust] to all my damage-rted spells, as they already had [Heat] from when I was training with Dewi. Fire was a lot easier to work with, and I wasn''t also trying to juggle an advanced ailment concept, so it was almost no effort at all.
Water... Was in an odd ce. I didn''t have an affliction or ailment for it. Instead, I just kept working on applying morepressed [Torrent] spells together. I had nearly matched the output I had seen from the undine. Since I didn''t have any spellbinations to make, I instead investigated my unused [Rain Cloud] spell. Honestly, I almost felt like it was on par with [cial Aura] in terms ofplexity, which,ing from a basic element, was certainly saying something! My immediate thought was to try to make a fire or acid rain, but without a lot of trial and error in a big open area, I was reluctant to proceed further in case I burnt or melted down the inn!
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Lightning was shockingly fun, pun intended! And my enchanting practice actually helped me out a bit with this one. I would bring some of my pieces of wood enchanted with durability or magic resistance back home with me, and thanks to [Lightning Rod], it became a rtively safe way to test my spells! Well, that was after I learned how to soundproof my room by creating multiple dampening enchantments and covering the floor, walls, and ceiling with them. Before soundproofing my room, I had caused a minor panic when I first cast [Lightningbolt], which I thankfully exined away as an enchanting ident.
Speaking of [Conductive], I finally tested mybination of it and [Lightning Rod] and was most satisfied with the result. However, I received a strange series of notifications once I cast it.
It was strange; I had definitely cast [Conductive] before but had no prompt to name it or discovery notification. Searching my memories, I noticed this oddity with all of my debuff spells; the debuff had a predetermined name, and I had just copied it for the spell. When I cast my other debuffs once, I received bizarre prompts for all of them.
I hoped this meant I gained bonus experience for discovering or creating these spells because I felt I needed any edge to reach level six sooner. The level five wall was no joke.
With debuff and attack spell covered, I naturally started working on an affliction. Lightning was simr to Fire in that it seemed naturally highlypatible with the "damage over time" aspect, which I had previously kept calling poison. It barely took up an evening and a morning to create it before I cast it on one of my pieces of enchanted wood.
I was honestly struggling to think up a name for this one as I stared at the piece of wood sparkle with tiny zaps of lightning coursing through it. The strange behavior was due to [Lightning Rod], which made my lightning affliction stick to something it probably shouldn''t be able to.
''I dunno... Call it [Zap]?'' I thought with a shrug.
''Unregistered!?'' I screamed in protest.
''... Does this mean Mother hated my name? What''s wrong with [Zap]? [Create: Ice Stupid] is fine, but you have issues with [Zap]?'' I mentally shouted to the void.
I went silent at the new notifications as the new spell was injected into my mind. Like the name implied, it would make a lightning ball, which would drift in the direction it was cast in until colliding or disappearing. Anything too close to the ball would be shocked by arcs that discharged from the ball. Casting the spell but not releasing it, I could see that empowering it would increase the ball''s size and likely the arcs'' range.
''Come to think of it, it''s kind of like my [Voltaic Slime] when it''s overloaded. I bet this would go well with [Lightning Rod].''
Even with [Lightning Rod] and soundproofing, I dared not cast even a tiny version of this spell inside.
[Corrosion Magic] and [Arcane Magic] had unfortunately taken a backseat during this time, even if I wasn''t currently an Elementalist [Elemental Shift] made it so much easier to work with elemental mana in general. I still wanted to create a poison debuff, but other than that, I felt like I was in a rtively good spot with [Corrosion Magic] as I had already added damage over time to [Acid Dart].
I didn''t have a good excuse with [Arcane Magic]. It certainly wasn''t as exciting as my other magic when I first got it. When I initially ran into the hurdle of trying to create an affliction or debuff, I abandoned it for easier solutions. However, with Enchanting and all my gains on my other forms of magic, I felt like I was on the edge for my next level in [Mana Maniption]. I promised myself I''d give it some much-needed attention as soon as I got that long-awaited and glorious notification.
Speaking of gains, the newly formed cores had almost caught up, having reached level four and likely soon to hit that horrible wall that was level five. I was tempted to grab one more [Sub-Core] for an even ten, but after my stolen trait points and my level debt, I decided to save those precious few points.
The evening I got [Rune Carving], Gregory even took me out to Moonsong for dinner to celebrate. It was an unexpected surprise and made me even more determined to impress him tomorrow. Regrettably, I was forced to wear a suit, which made me feel strangely ufortable after wearing mimicked slime clothes for so long. If the suit wasn''t a rental, I would have eaten and copied it on the spot.
Oh well. At least the food was amazing.
Name: Sylvester [Apprentice]
Race: Chimeric Cluster Slime (Blue) LV 1 (-8)
ss: Enchanter LV 20
Status: Healthy
Mana: Overflowing
Emblems:
[Experiment]
[Apex Hunter]
[Elven Legacy]
[Dungeoneer]
[Nature''s Bane]
[Manhunter]
[Apprentice]*
Traits:
Slime:
[Mana Slime LV 11]
[Acid Slime LV 7]
[Poison Slime LV 6]
[ze Slime LV 6]
[Cryo Slime LV 5]
[Voltaic Slime LV 6]
[Morph Slime LV 7]
[Pseudopod LV 7]
[Slime Shot LV 7]
[Slime Burst LV 6]
[Vaporize Slime]
Core:
[Core Collective LV 8]
[Core Storage LV 6]
[Sub-Core Alpha LV 5] [Sub-Core Zeta LV 4]
[Sub-Core Beta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Gamma LV 5] [Sub-Core Eta LV 4]
[Sub-Core Delta LV 5] [Sub-Core Theta LV 4]
[Sub-Core Epsilon LV 5] [Sub-Core Iota LV 4]
Mimic:
[Chimeric Mimicry LV 7]
[Chroma Shift LV MAX]
[Consuming Osmosis LV MAX]
Mana:
[Mana Cirction LV 7]
[Mana Reinforcement LV 7]
[Mana Infusion]
Attributes/Other:
[Soul Mastery LV 7]
[Enhanced Vitality LV 5]
[Magic Resistance (Lesser) LV 5]
[Curse Resistance LV 1]
[Illusion Resistance LV 1]
[Prodigy]
Senses:
[Olfactory Sense]
[Dark Vision LV MAX]
[Mana Conception LV 6]
[Life Sight LV 3]
[Thermal Vision LV MAX]
[Eagle Vision LV 3]
[EM Field LV 2]
Trait Points remaining: 3
Skills:
General:
[Universal Language]
[Equipment Swap]
[Dissection LV 6]
[Mapping LV 5]
[Tracking LV 2]
[Identify LV 5]
[Multitasking LV 5]
[Perception LV 4]
[Aerial Finesse LV 4]
Combat:
[Tranquil Flow LV 5]
[Attack Mastery (Lesser) LV 7]
[Affliction Mastery LV 5]
[Exploit Weakness LV 3]
Magic:
[Water Magic LV 5]
[Fire Magic LV 5]
[Corrosion Magic LV 5]
[Ice Magic LV 5]
[Arcane Magic LV 2]
[Lightning Magic LV 3]
[Mana Maniption LV 5]
[Magic Efficiency LV 4]
[Counter Magic LV 3]
[Elemental Shift LV 4]
[Elemental Adaptation]
[Ritual Casting]
[Mana Suppression]
[Meditate]
Sneaky:
[Vanish LV 6]
[Sneak Attack LV 6]
[Identity Fabrication LV 6]
[Acting LV 4]
[Rogue Expertise LV 4]
[Magical Subterfuge LV 3]
[Subtle Afflictions]
Skill Points remaining: 14
Profession:
Enchanting:
[Rune Reading LV 5]
[Rune Carving LV 1]
[Rune Framework LV 1]
Profession Points Remaining: 0
Chapter 140: Rune Carving
Chapter 140: Rune Carving
"Now, this is where the real fun begins!" Gregory said excitedly.
Some tools, ranging from farming implements to cksmithing, were ced on the workbench, and over a dozen more were sitting in a barrel. Two barrels full of weapons, separated into swords and spears, were also on disy. [Appraisal] showed me everything was iron or bronze, nothing too fancy.
"I''d love to have you working on spherical enchantments, but first, we need to get you used to your new skill and your new tool," Gregory said with a cheery smile as he produced what looked like a well-maintained tool.
If the previous one I used for etching looked like a toothpick, this was a scalpel. I gingerly held it and gave it a trickle of my mana to see how it flowed, and wow, this tool was a greedy boy as it slurped up my mana. I could see there was clearly an enchantment to aid the flow of mana and produce a sharpening effect on the tiny de.
"Carving requires a lot more mana; after all, you''ll need to be able to mark even metal! Also, I hope this goes without saying, but be careful not to lose any fingers!" Gregory said, giving a bearded grin.
"Is this a silver-steel alloy?" I asked curiously.
"Indeed, good eye! Silver, like other precious metals, is a good mana conduit, and the steel is for durability."
"Why not gold or monster parts?"
"Cost and waste mostly. At least for a [Rune Carving] tool, it would be frivolous. For [Rune Engraving], I''ve seen plenty of tools made from all sorts of things. Somehow, befriend and outdrink a dwarf; perhaps you can get your hands on some Orichalcum or Adamantine. I''ve even seen some nobles brag about one made from Mithril, a relic reforged from the Elven war. Then you get the real exotics; one of my old teachers had one made from dragon bone! sted thing could make the most ravishing Fire enchantments I''d ever seen but was utterly useless for everything else."''That silver slime is sounding better and better...''
Gregory started me off by enchanting the tools with only durability. It was my first time doing the rank four version, but it came out almost perfectly. I was so used to being frugal with my mana to avoid destroying an etching that I had subconsciously held back a bit too much. My second attempt was far better, and Gregory happily imed it was perfect. My goal was to enchant all the tools with durability. When I was halfway through the barrel, Gregory told me to swap to rank five durability.
"Remarkable..." Gregory muttered as I ced thest tool aside.
"Something wrong, Master Greg?"
"I''m shocked at how you''re still standing. Bloody hell, you have easily doubled my mana capacity. I expected us to take a lunch break ages ago, but you just kept going, and I didn''t want to disturb you..."
"I have a really high level in [Mana Cirction] and [Mana Well]," I exined. Holding back the truth that I had already fused [Mana Well], just in case.
"And at least twenty-five levels in an intermediatebat ss..." Gregory said, tugging at his beard.
"Ten levels in Sorcerer, too," I added, as it was already part of my backstory. "Do you not have abat ss?"
"I believe almost twenty levels in Mage when I wanted to be an adventurer like every child does when they are young. Then I learned I could earn double my weekly adventurer sry in a day with enchanting! Never looked back." Gregory chuckled. "Although I''m extremely jealous of the attributes yours is clearly giving you. Maybe I should see if Mister Green will pay for me to get some Sorcerer levels."
"I didn''t realize professions get fewer attributes..." I murmured, trying to recall what Tabitha had told me.
"Just how the world works, I''m afraid. It makes logical sense, though; I run out of mana and simply have to take a short break, maybe have some tea. An adventurer runs out of mana, and they might end up as monster food."
"Now, before we go and have lunch, let me quickly show you something..."
I must have frowned because Gregory chuckled in response. "Even if you can go, I''m starving, and it''s not like the weapons will run away."
He pulled out one of the swords and began his exnation. My task for the swords was to add durability and sharpness to them. I could simply make two enchantments, but this was the perfect opportunity to use [Rune Framework]. Gregory exined that having one solidified enchantment was more efficient and effective than multiple individual ones, and by creating a framework, you could ensure the enchantments are applied to the correct areas to avoid wastage.
"No point in your sword handle being sharp, after all," Gregory said with a chuckle at his own joke.
He easily demonstrated the process and then withheld, presenting me the finished de.
"Now, let''s go get lunch, and then you can try to replicate this!"
***
I spent a week doing nothing but swords and spears. I swear I could see theyouts in my dreams as I was now intimately familiar with the durability and sharpness of inscriptions, both of which I could easily replicate up to rank six. I was effectively cheating to get up there, using my overwhelming mana to far exceed what [Rune Carving] was trying to limit me to, but even with my attempt at cheating, I couldn''t achieve rank seven yet.
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Gregory wasn''t kidding about the difference between [Rune Etching] and [Rune Carving]. Originally, I had been worried the pace would slow down, but now that I was producing usable and meaningful goods, the system was optimally rewarding me.
I must have been doing quite a good job as when I reached level twenty-five, I was offered two skills: [Brand] and [Rune Filigree]. The former would let me leave my unique signature to be recognized by fellow crafters and merchants, which was vital to bing a big shot. Thetter skill would let me add flourishes to my work, which did nothing but look pretty. Gregory demonstrated it to me and showed that you could even control what color your inscriptions would glow at the higher levels. The higher the level, the more frivolous extras you could add to an inscription without directly affecting the final product.
"Between you and me..." Gregory had said in a hushed whisper. "The nobles gobble this shit up. They absolutely love it if you can make something in their family crest''s colors or somehow sneak their insignia into an inscription."
Unfortunately, it wouldn''t really help me until I got [Rune Engraving]. While we predicted I''d have excess profession points before reaching [Rune Carving LV 5], I was more interested in spending two of them for [Rune Tracing], which I should unlock at thirty, and [Rune Design].
***
With sufficient levels of [Rune Carving] and [Rune Framework], Gregory finally let me out into the city to work on Winter instion and waterproofing. These big jobs would me a lot of experience, and they heavily relied on [Rune Framework] to cover arge area.
I had wondered why we didn''t just create multiple inscriptions, and after Gregory had a long chuckle, he finally answered me. "Not everyone has your boundless mana; expanding a framework costs a fraction of the mana. Also, remember these aren''t [Rune Engravings], so they will run out. Would you rather check one inscription to see if it''s still functioning per house or twenty?"
Walking around the city in effectively an official uniform of the Merchant''s Guild was interesting... Slowly but surely, people began to recognize me, and it nearly freaked me out a few times when someone I''d never seen before greeted me by name. This was especially apparent with the city guard, who would even bring me refreshments while I enchanted their guard stations, barracks, and gatehouse.
While I probably couldn''t say any of them were directly my friend, per se, it was a stark contrast to my time as Syl. Sylvester''s only real friend was likely Gregory, but he had many positive acquaintances. Syl had quite a few close friends, but outside of those didn''t really interact with anyone else.
I was quite scared when Johnathan arranged for me to do a job at the Adventurer''s Guild when I was nearing the end of another two weeks. I felt like my worlds were colliding, and I almost wanted to refuse on the spot, but as Gregory had pointed out ¡ª this was an amazing opportunity. [Acting] unfortunately agreed with them, so I graciously epted with eager falsehood.
''Betrayed by my own skill...''
I knew it was my own paranoia, and I''d be seen as just another face in the crowd, and for the most part, that was true. I just silently tried to work efficiently and silently. I had wondered why Thern wasn''t doing this or the Guild''s own staff, even if Johnathan was pulling strings.
I was minding my own business when my horrors came to life. Thern approached me.
"So you''re the brat Greg has been bragging about..." He said as he ran his thick fingers through his beard.
''Gregory... Why?''
"Good day, Sir Dwarf. I am Gregory''s [Apprentice], Sylvester." I said as politely as possible.
"Hmm... Well, aren''t you polite? Keep working; don''t stop on my ount,d." Thern said as he started inspecting my work extremely closely.
I felt extremely ufortable and even asked Alpha to stop me if I was about to make a mistake. Although, at this point, I had done so many of these, it was almost routine, even with the added pressure of another Enchanter critiquing my work other than my own teacher.
Abruptly, Thern chuckled, and I could see a sort of goofy smile beneath his bushy beard. "Well damn. Looks like I owe Greg some coin and a drink. Name''s Thern; sorry for giving you the stink eye."
"Not at all. It''s a pleasure to meet someone else who knows Master Greg."
"I dunno who''s luckier, you or him," Thern said.
"Beg your pardon?" I asked.
"You got one of the few Enchanters I still respect in this city," Thern said, producing a small sk and taking a swig, then pointing towards my work. "Half the bastards in this ce wouldn''t be teaching you efficient work like this; you''d be drawing fancy squiggles that look pretty and either fade in half the time or are barely effective."
''Wow... Greg said his standards were high, but I had no idea.'' I thought.
"But then hends a fucking [Prodigy] on his doorstep. It''s mind-blowing!" Thern shouted and chuckled. "Even I''d be tempted to try to get back into the trade to teach, just for the bragging rights!"
"You left?" I asked. Syl knew, but Sylvester didn''t.
"Aye. Got offered a strangebat enchanter ss and took it. It''s a he lot of fun, but nearly caused my parents to disown me." Thern said with a hearty grin.
I frowned. "Not that I''m not grateful for the work, but... Couldn''t you do this and a better job?"
Thernughed so loudly I thought I had said something wrong; he was practically wiping tears from his eyes. "Aye. I could do this; hell, I could Engrave it and make it permanent. But then, how would the youngins ever learn anything? Or earn their coin?"
Obviously, I didn''t put the puzzle together quickly enough, so Thern promptly continued. "You definitely had abat ss before this; you don''t have the crafter money mindset yet." Thern chuckled.
"It''s like an unspoken agreement so the next generation has a chance. Imagine everything was permanently enchanted unless it broke. You''d struggle to find work. In this same hypothetical, imagine all the great enchanters kicking the bucket; what now? We have to start from scratch."
I nodded along, continuing to work.
"It''s also great for repeat customers," Thern said, giving an exaggerated wink. "Of course, if one day you want to permanently enchant your own house or even a friend or family member, nobody is gonnae kicking down your door or anything. But... If you enchant an entire town, city, or even a district, there might be some... Consequences." He gave a toothy smirk before bellowing withughter.
He watched me for a few more moments, then shook his head and chuckled before walking away. "Keep well,d."
"Thank you, Mister Thern."
I was most grateful I didn''t run into anyone else until I finally finished for the day.
Chapter 141: Time Crunch
Chapter 141: Time Crunch
I felt like I had almost enchanted half the city and wondered what favors or deals were pulled to allow me such exclusivity. However, I did note that I didn''t step a single foot into the actual inner city, so either they had arranged permanent enchantments, or my work wasn''t fancy enough for their tastes.
After just over two weeks, I made considerable gains, and despite spending almost every waking hour enchanting what felt like everything, I only reached level four. This was with two guaranteed experience boosts and potentially a third if [Elven Legacy] was getting involved. Did Enchanting qualify? It was Mana and arguably Magic-rted.
I was extremely worried I wouldn''t hit my self-imposed deadline. I''d also need to focus more on enchanting in the evenings instead of magic. Which made buying [Rune Tracing] and [Rune Design] a no-brainer.
Now, while neither of these would directly increase my [Rune Carving] experience, I had hoped that if I made a discovery and carved it, I''d get some sort of new bonus. Something akin to my presumed spell discovery bonus. It was a long shot, but I was starting to feel desperate. I didn''t want to let Greg down.
However, I also nned to try doing some more [Rune Carving] in the evenings; for that, I would need a test subject.
A small part of me cringed at spending another precious trait point, but this was the only way I could achieve this without sacrificing a lot of slime mass. My other cores were too high level at this point and would cost me a fortune of slime to constantly remake them, which is why I rejected the [Sub-Core] experiencework for the first time ever. I''d add Kappa officially to the team once this enchanting journey was over for some well-earned power leveling.
I wanted to try [Rune Carving] my own slime cores. Originally, I wanted to hold off until I got [Rune Engraving], but in hindsight, perhaps that was foolish. I hadn''t even confirmed if I could Enchant a "living" core, so waiting until I had the best resources and skills before trying could have ended with immense disappointment. If it worked, I could practice on Kappa, destroy the core, and reform it. Thanks to [Core Collective] reducing the time by 80%, what would have taken 8 hours would be just under 2, and by using low-level [Sub-Core] and reducing the cost by 40%, I would hopefully not hurt my slime bank too much.
Plucking the core from my body, I first gave an incrementally tighter squeeze until a small crack appeared. Mentally recording the force required to start damaging it, I allowed it to heal before beginning the next part. I slowly and cautiously brought the tool to its surface. A small part of me shuddered from remembering how close a knife was to my core when I was at my weakest, but thanks to [Core Collective], even freshly spawned, Kappa was far more durable than I was back then. I hadn''t learned spherical enchantments yet, so I''d start with a simple circle oveyed to take up a hemisphere, and the obvious choice was a simple strengthening rune. It was a nerve-wracking experience, but when I carved the final stroke, the entire inscription briefly shimmered and settled on the core.
"Sess?" I asked myself.From everything I could tell, it worked, so I applied the previous amount of force to the core. No cracks appeared, but with my excitement bubbling, I kept applying force until one did.
"This potentially changes everything... The question is, will it healing destroy the enchantment? Also, will the enchantment remain, or will it be freshly smooth if I restore it from destruction? Honestly, I hope it''s thetter; otherwise, I''ll be stuck with a lower-rank rune forever..."
I waited for the crack to restore, but the enchantment stayed. It was strange, as arguably, the core had a chunk carved out and missing, but somehow, it could differentiate between a wound and a benefit. That left one more thing to confirm, and with a heavy heart, I crushed the core and dissolved its shards. I was immediately surprised that eating the remains of the core gave me nothing, but perhaps that would have been seen as an exploit? If it gave me no slime mass, maybe I could keep the shards in case it had another use or value?
"There was one slime type whose shards were used in potions or something... I think it was the pink one?" I tried recalling to myself.
With nothing to do but wait the requisite amount of time, I started practicing [Rune Tracing] and immediately found an unexpected hup; I could not make any runes above first rank with it.
"Well, shit. I guess that means no tracing rank sevens for a long time..." I muttered as I returned to the basic runes.
Greg had praised my memory as "eidetic," but honestly, I could cheat by asking one of my [Sub-Cores] to show it to me. They seemed to have no issue recalling anything I had shown them or asked them to do, frighteningly so. Greg had been most grateful that we could skip a lot of time that would''ve been set aside for simple memorization exercises.
I''d never watched a [Sub-Core] be formed outside of a new trait, where it would instantlypress down into the perfect orb with aid from the system, and I previously had to always be asleep for them to regrow normally. It was like watching a constant whirlpool of ever-increasing slime slowly build into a tiny piece of solid crystal. Once that initial crystal center was formed, it would uniformly swell in size until, eventually, Kappa was reborn.
"Perfectly smooth! No enchantment!" I cheered happily.
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This was the best oue, in my opinion, and I eagerly began the next set of carvings. It was time to cram in some extra effort!
***
The morning after I finished up at the Adventurer''s Guild, what awaited me was a disheveled Greg slumped over the desk, nursing his head and a mug of dark brown liquid.
"Good morning, Master Greg?" I asked curiously.
He winced and nced at me entering. "Sorry, Sylvester... I had... Quite a night."
"Should we postpone today?"
"No... I''ll recover eventually. I don''t know what demonic ne that dwarven bastard got something like that from. I swear it should be ouwed; it''s practically poison!"
After putting the pieces together, I smiled softly. "Someone once told me never try to outdrink a dwarf..."
"Sounds like someone far wiser than me..." Greg said with a self-deprecating chuckle.
While we waited for him to recover from his dwarven-tiered hangover, I consulted him over [Rune Tracing], hoping it would be enough to qualify for the [Apprentice] experience bonus. That was one unfortunate aspect of my solo endeavors.
By the time I reached my level, Greg had thankfully recovered enough to actually begin teaching me for real. Spherical inscriptions! He reached for one of the ss balls and began doing a rather simple light inscription.
The trick with spherical inscriptions was to bnce them out. While a rank one inscription was simple and could be pped into the center of a circle, a sphere had to be broken up "three-dimensionally." So, even a simple rune was quite a drastic difference when transitioning from circles to spheres. However, this was not without merit, as the possibilities were much greater, and you couldbine either breaking up an individual rune into more parts or adding another rune to the circle and using it to bnce it out.
When not following predetermined inscriptions orbinations, it was a lot of trial and error, and even if I graduated from Greg''s teachings, I would likely hold off on spherical enchantments on my own core until I was more familiar with the concept. I would be perfectly happy with two circle hemisphere enchantments per core and working on greater heightster. In the future, I foresaw plenty of [Rune Tracing] to spare Kappa the explosive results of a bad spherical enchantment.
***
Somehow, another week had passed. While I had seeded in following the blueprints and instructions for spherical inscriptions, I was starting to feel the pressure of time and that I was still far away from [Rune Carving LV 5]. I''d even stopped my magic practice, instead trying to squeeze any bit of experience possible towards enchanting.
That''s not to say my non-crafting skills and traits didn''t improve after all this time.
I''d been aligned to Ice for so long that it passively leveled up. I wondered if I was getting any bonus experience for aligning multiple cores.
[Mana Maniption] was a given at this point. I''d almost expected it sooner, and while some part of me was looking forward to finally working on [Arcane Magic], I wasn''t feeling up to it at present. I was surprised that enchanting was counted for [Magic Efficiency], but I wouldn''tin.
My [Sub-Cores] were clearly still working on my traits, as ordered, in the background. [EM Field] being renamed when it leveled up had confused me until I realized Gramps had said he would fix it. Speaking of my cores...
The gang had finally reached five. That horrible level that haunted me so. Kappa was still at level one, as I had given it strictly no orders and sometimes wouldn''t even regenerate it until I was heading home. Part of me was terrified it would reach level two through recovery alone. I needed to save all the slime I could and get as much extra enchanting as possible...
Perhaps my anxiety was bleeding through as one day, Greg approached me with a rather concerned look on his face.
"Is everything alright, Sylvester?" He asked.
"What do you mean, Master Greg?" I asked curiously. "Is there something wrong with my work?"
"No. Your work remains astounding. But... You feel like someone about to go to war." Greg said, shaking his head.
"I''m not sure I understand?"
"Your pace is remarkable. Not once have you asked for a break. Not once have youined about a workload; in fact, you''ve asked for more." Greg began answering, then sighed. "It reminds me of... People who were trying to get their affairs in order. Or... Someone being threatened."
He turned to me with an extremely serious expression on his face. "Is Johnathan or anyone from the Green estate threatening you?"
I blinked in confusion, his tone and expression demanding utter honesty. "No. I''m not being threatened. What makes you think I was?"
Greg let out a long sigh as if relieved. "I was worried he was pressuring you. It seems he''s expecting his client to return in less than a month, and he asked me if there were other ways to speed up your progress. I was worried he perhaps thought my reports were inurate and trying to push you..."
I chuckled at the hrity of the situation. "No. I guess that''s my fault, in a way... I''ve got amitmenting up, and I can''t refuse it. I was trying to reach our goal before I had to leave."
Greg seemed pleased with my honesty but also confused. "We can continue your training when you return. That''s certainly no reason to work yourself to death."
"I... I''m unsure how long it will take, a few months at minimum, perhaps even a year?"
"Well... I certainly wouldn''t mind waiting. Johnathan, on the other hand... Might be a bit upset." Greg chuckled as he tugged at his beard. "But it''s not like you''re tied to his estate. I''d take a bit of heat, but nothing I couldn''t handle."
"I don''t want to put you through that." I immediately rejected the idea. "Is there no way we can speed things up?"
Greg let out a genuineugh at the absurdity of my statementing off the previous tension. "Without being wasteful with money... It would be hard. Getting you to do moreplex inscriptions would be ideal."
I snapped my fingers. "What about if I buy some patents?"
Greg was tugging his beard more, his usual indicator of being deep in thought and running through the idea. "Yes... If you buy the patent for the storage inscription, we could enchant some crates and chests. Even if they will fade in half a year, plenty of merchants would jump at the chance for extra capacity!"
I pulled out my guild tag and smiled. "So, where do I pay?"
Greg chuckled and opened the door, gesturing for me to go first. "Let''s go get you licensed. Then we can start the lesson immediately and have James bring some chests or crates from the warehouse."
"Sounds great. The storage bags adventurers carry around have always fascinated me."
"As it should. An adventurer created that one, ording to the history books. Dimensional magic is an absolute rarity, so the ingenuity of transcribing it into an inscription that works regardless of affinity was a truly world-shattering aplishment." Greg paused and chuckled. "I''ll also request a catalog of avable patents for you to borrow; you can look through it for anything that tickles your fancy."
"I''d love that. Thank you."
"No problem at all. We even have one with the adventurer patents; after all, every boy dreams of crafting and holding a magic sword!" Greg said with a happy chuckle.
Chapter 142: Final Stretch
Chapter 142: Final Stretch
After paying the fee, my guild tag was apparently appropriately marked to show that I was authorized. I also received a piece of parchment as a receipt that I could use in case someone asked for proof that I could ess the inscription. I was a little shocked at how much security was around it until Greg mentioned that half of it was due to this particr enchantment''s potentially dangerous nature, and even qualifying to teach someone else was apparently extremely strenuous. Obviously, I didn''t foresee myself teaching anyone enchanting, so it was a bit of a moot point.
With other less dangerous patents, you''d be given a parchment copy of the design, or with the reallyplex ones, even a small booklet with detailed instructions. Spherical ones were extremely hard as attempts to replicate them on pages had been difficult, and simply having someone paid to teach was far less costly than trying to create a magical tool to disy the three-dimensional inscription.
True to his word, Greg gave me two small books to borrow, each a catalog of the various patents for sale. It was a simple name, short description, and associated price, with sometimes an additional fee listed if tutoring was required or avable. Then, we returned to our workroom, which had already received a few small crates.
"Right. Unlike our previous lessons, I''ll demonstrate, and then you''ll need to first replicate it on the chalkboard or parchment." Greg said as he pulled out his own tool. "While I have confidence in your ability to replicate this, it is better to be safe than sorry, and wrongly drawing this enchantment can result in injury."
"No problem." I agreed.
He opened one of the crates and inspected for a solid area where he could carve the enchantment. You wanted it to be safe and secure because if it became too damaged, you could lose whatever contents were stored inside. The inscription was like a true work of art, and I struggled to recognize a single portion. Where other inscriptions and runes had seemed quite simr to some spells I''d known, these werepletely foreign. My [Rune Reading] was trying to decipher it but failing miserably, I got some vague interpretations about converting and expanding, but it was actually starting to hurt my head. When Greg finished the final stroke of the pattern, an ominous hum permeated the room before it settled down.
"I swear I hold my breath every time I finish that final stroke. That sound is the thing of nightmares." Greg said with a chuckle.
"I''m just d this is a circle enchantment, not a sphere."
"There is an upgraded version of this that is a sphere, but it''s costly and difficult. You must pay for and take an exam before you''re even considered. The exam is a thousand gold, and the patent is another two thousand."I gave an impressed whistle. "Considering this one was only fifty, that''s pretty crazy."
"Seriously, Sylvester, dimension magic is no joke. I know you''re inquisitive, but don''t mess with this. That hum terrifies me because I''ve seen many enchanters lose their hands in it, if not worse." Greg warned. "As for the upgraded version, it causes objects ced inside of it to be paused in time, forck of a better word. Food won''t spoil, ice won''t melt, and drinks stay warm. Even a yearter, whatever goes ines out as if it were the very same second."
''My [Core Storage] does that...''
"Anyway. That''s neither here nor now." Greg interrupted my wandering mind. "I suggest you study this as intensely as possible, then start practicing it on the chalkboard."
I studied the inscription while ordering my [Sub-Cores] to save the design. Other than the extremelyplex circle, which was the entire linchpin of the enchantment, the rest were a lot of [Rune Framework] lines designating the interior volume of the crate as the source, with plenty of redundant lines drawn in. I asked Greg about it, and he confirmed it was so that the contents wouldn''t be lost or damaged if one line was damaged.
Then, I started replicating it on the chalkboard. Even though it was correct the first time, Greg made me repeat it a few more times and pointed out some small irregrities to fix up. It was admittedly nitpicky, but Greg warned me he had high standards before he took me on.
Finally, after filling the chalkboard multiple times with the exact same inscription, Greg was satisfied for me to attempt it. I wasn''t willing to lose a hand to a failed dimensional storage, so I ensured my [Sub-Cores] would correct me. It was an intense experience, far worse than when Thern was staring at my work. It felt like Greg was preparing to potentially jump in to warn me at a moment''s notice. With bated breath, Ipleted the final stroke, and the hum filled the room as I quickly retreated my hands from inside the crate.
"Excellent. Truly excellent. I wish I had your memorization." Greg chuckled. "Now, before you undoubtedly start enchanting endless amounts of crates, let''s have lunch."
***
There were boxes and crates¡ªso many boxes and crates. Thank the gods that I didn''t get muscle cramps because repeating thatplex circle for hours upon hours every day was gruesome even for me. Some days, I would even just order some [Sub-Cores] to pilot my body for me because even I was starting to take mental strain. I''d started losing track of time and hoped I still had leeway to work with. Maybe Syl could bribe Thern to dy his trip? I honestly wasn''t sure anymore.
Greg and Thern had apparently tested one of my carvings, and I could reliably recreate the inscription with a year-long lifetime. This was one of the uses of a high-level [Rune Inspection] skill to verify an inscription''s integrity and remaining life. Word had gotten around, and soon, almost every merchant had requested one. Mass-producing temporary crates wasn''t that rare of an idea, although other enchanters usually used it as a source of emergency fundraising.
The peculiarity was that [Rune Carvings] of the dimensional storage inscription would have an average lifetime of around six months. There was a lot of variance between enchanters; Greg could make themst seven months, and Thern''ssted ten easily. But mine were peaking at a year and reliably. Greg and Thern had theorized it was due to my extreme consistency when enchanting, but I had a very odd feeling that perhaps my [Core Storage] trait somehow influenced it. So, with reliable and cheap storage avable¡ªeveryone wanted one. The price was undoubtedly raised due to the year guarantee, but it was still a mere fraction of a permanent storage cost of this size.
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I was happy that Sylvester was now earning some ie, as I wanted to buy the patent for many inscriptions. Most notably and highest on my priority list was one for mental resistance, which I wanted to carve directly into my own core as soon as possible.
Speaking of cores, I had been experimenting a lot with Kappa. I could easily fit two high-rank runes on it without resorting to spherical enchantments, and I''d been trying variousbinations. My favoritebination at the moment was self-repair and durability, as both were highlypatible, so I could put the highest rank for both without anypromise.
My other options were self-repair and magic resistance or durability and magic resistance, although those were slightly lesspatible. Sure, there were otherpelling things like mana gathering, stealth, and blur, but none really appealed to me as simply increasing survivability, at least for now.
Also... Against better judgment, there was an ident. I had tried inscribing the dimensional storage rune on Kappa. I was driven by an errant thought that it would increase my storage or give Kappa individual storage separate from the linked storage we could all pull from. Instead, it had been... Disastrous. I would have thought Kappa would simply explode or something simr. Instead, Kappa had been sucked into a tiny pinprick of a void of nothingness... At least, that is the only way I could describe it. It was haunting, and what scared me the most was that I didn''t get a destroyed or lost connection notification. There was nothing. Kappa was just gone as if removed from existence beyond the understanding of my notifications. My only relief was that I could reform the [Sub-Core], and I vowed never to attempt that again.
As for progress, I had reached level forty in almost no time when we switched over to the new training method, and I''d been offered something that Greg was looking forward to¡ªa ss upgrade. Forty was when most professions got to select a new ss, described as a specialization. Enchanters got quite a few, and I was surprised that I was being offered ones frompletely unrted fields, but Greg said that was perfectly normal.
Runesmith, Runeweaver, Runescribe, Rinkerer, Runecrafter. Greg had said that I could pick any that tickled my fancy, and he only discouraged Runescribe, which was extremely costly.
Runesmith would let me inscribe runes while forging a weapon or armor. Runeweaver would let me use thread to inscribe runes into cloth or leather. Runescribe would let me use specially crafted magical paper and magic ink to draw a full inscription, which I could apply to almost anything for an instant temporary enchantment. Rinkerer was all about creating magical items,bining inventing and runes, and was what Greg had chosen. Finally, Runecrafter was more of a generalist and encouraged experimentation and new ideas. It wasn''t the shiest of the five, but it spoke to me, and I wanted to create my own runes eventually.
Would you like to swap sses?>.
''Yes.''
...
...
...
...
I blinked in confusion. I had just gained two levels instantly. What happened? I read through thetest notification in shock as I dropped my tool.
"Sylvester? What''s wrong?" Greg asked, concerned; he frantically inspected the work I had justpleted. "It looks fine to me?"
"I hit level five..." I mumbled as I quickly tried to upgrade it.
''Yes! Gods, yes!''
"Truly!? That''s fantastic!" Greg shouted loudly as he grabbed my shoulders in a half-hug, the excitement getting to him.
"I just upgraded it... I got two entire levels from it, reaching five. That''s... Insane."
"Bah! I''m surprised it wasn''t more with all of us dedicated to you reaching it!" Greg said, pping my back.
"I still got a point... Should I get [Rune Repair]?" I asked.
"Normally, I''d say yes. But... I think you should get [Brand]." Greg said, grinning proudly.
"Really? Isn''t it pretty useless?" I questioned.
"How else will you permanently mark the tool you will make? I want to point to the name Sylvester on it and say, ''He was one of mine!''" Greg said beforeughing. I found myself joining in the merriment and purchasing the skill.
Having a skill in my profession list without "Rune" in the name was a little funny, but this was a universal skill amongst the professions. You could activate it whenever youpleted a craft, and it would mark the target. One time, Greg even showed me a Baker with the skill, and [Appraisal] showed me that every one of her muffins was branded. They were also the damn best muffins I had ever tasted.
After we cleaned up the room, I was almost immediately dragged to Moonsong for a celebratory dinner that Greg had fully paid for. I dared not think of connections he pulled to somehow get a booking on the same day. While we were settling down after dinner, he pulled out a small box and softly slid it across the table.
"Really Master Greg? You''re spoiling me." I said with a chuckle.
"Open it first before you give me any lip. I''m still your Master for a few more days yet!" He guffawed.
I shook my head and slowly opened the box; inside was an immacte, enchanting tool with receable heads of varying sizes, from a toothpick to a scalpel, thergest looking like a letter opener. [Appraisal] told me it was made out of Electrum, and unlike my previous tools, it looked brand new. [Mana Conception] and [Rune Inspection] together showed me intricate designs perfectly flowing throughout the tool with matching [Rune Framework] that would link up between each of the different heads to the handle. I couldn''t believe the detail and beauty of the device. Seeing my speechlessness, Greg pped me on the shoulder.
"I can''t let my [Apprentice] just use any old piece of junk. I''d beughed out of the guild!"
I could only smile in stunned silence. I finally looked at the [Brand] and nearly choked when I saw Gregory and Thern.
Greg gave a massive grin, clearly realizing what I had seen. "You impressed a dwarf; that''s good work. He did the forging, and I did the enchanting. Make sure you buy him a bottle of the strongest alcohol you can before you see him again."
"And what about you?" I asked.
"Oh? You want to give your old Master something... Well... Let me think..." He said before breaking out into a smug grin and chuckling. "That damned refrigerator egg better be bloody perfect; I want to be able to brag for years!"
Chapter 143: Rune Engraving
Chapter 143: Rune Engraving
Having finally achieved [Rune Engraving], we could move on to some of our final lessons. That''s not to say my Enchanter journey was over; far from it, I still had much to uncover in my own time, and I had barely touched spherical enchantments beyond the fundamentals. Greg had even described it as having reached the starting line, and I''d be registered as a fully licensed Enchanter within the Merchant''s Guild with Greg''s name backing my credentials.
I wondered if I was perhaps setting a record for graduating from [Apprentice], but Greg had heartilyughed at that thought. While I was by far his fastest graduate, I wasn''t even close to some of the training Royals got. He exined that they would receive tutge from someone with an absurd level in [Apprenticeship] while likely also having [Prodigy] andbined with legendary artifacts that could either boost experience or understanding and an ocean of elixirs and potions.
"So we''ve finally reached [Rune Engraving], and thus, I need to exin what we mean by permanent enchantments." Greg began his lecture as I eagerly waited to absorb the knowledge.
"Generally, we break down permanent enchantments into two broad ssifications. The first and mostmon by far is unpowered enchantments, and I''d say these easily make up more than seventy percent of all engravings. The inscription is unpowered, and you must channel mana through it to activate it. Think of a tool that you only activate when needed, and our refrigerator egg also falls under this category, except it has beenbined with a storageponent. This includes most adventurer equipment, which passively siphons off mana from their wielder or wearer to power the enchantments. It need not be said, but most [Rune Carving] enchantments do this as well, but the difference is that the Carving will fade as mana flows through it, but the Engraving will not. Unless the Enchanter is grossly ipetent, using the wrong tool, or the object itself is of poor quality, of course."
"The second is passively powered enchantments. The enchantment is always on through umting mana or mana generated from the object itself. The first option usually leads to an extremelyrge enchantment, as mana-gathering arrays are inefficient unless youbine your engraving with high-quality materials designed to entice the mana into the enchantment. The second option is the moremon method of the two, and this is where monster parts usuallye into y."
"For example, instead of using our refrigerator inscription, we could enchant a white slime core, which is practically pure ice mana. The slime core being aligned to Ice means we wouldn''t need someone with Ice-mana to do the inscription, and it would be permanently on. We usually add another inscription to act as a switch, temporarily breaking the enchantment so it can be turned off if required. The downside of this, aside from potential resource scarcity, is that the quality of the material will significantly affect the quality of the result. A poor quality core could lead to an enchantment barely cooling a room, while a high-quality one could potentially even freeze its owner."
I asked a few questions, such as how I added material to an engraving, and Greg demonstrated. He showed a specific head for the engraving tool that could absorb resources, usually in liquid form, and distribute them along with the enchanting mana flow. Greg did a rtively small enchantment to not waste resources, which in this case was a tiny coin of mana-enriched silver. The coin easily melted in a small sk he rapidly heated. He then dipped the head of his tool in the faintly glowing silvery liquid, and it sucked it up to thest drop. Greg then proceeded to enchant as normal, and soon, there was a beautiful ss ball of permanent light. He also exined there was a skill I''d unlockter on now that I had [Rune Engraving], which allowed you to designate a source as your material and incorporate it without needing a tool, presuming very precise mana control.
Now that we had reached this point, I had finally been given ess to the refrigerator inscription. I was immediately grateful it wasn''t a spherical enchantment as I had expected, but instead, it was two highly interwoven circle enchantments. The bottom enchantment was entirely rted to storing and distributing mana, acting as a battery. The top enchantment was the cooling and freezing effect, and while originally it had felt oddly familiar, now armed with [Rune Reading] and quite a bit of experience and theory crammed into my core, I now could recognize parts of it as a modification of [cial Aura]. Unfortunately, tranting spell constructs into runes or inscriptions wasn''t a simple process, and it was one of the things I wanted to study in my own time once I was free from the obligations I had set myself. But still, it was nice to see a visible sign of my progress.
Greg had me practice both circles individually before we worked on the interlinking mesh formation. The bottom one was simple, I had worked with storage functions before, and this was just a more advanced one. I was happy to have it added to my rune collection for free. The top part was the tricky part and involved manyplex runes I''d never drawn before, but with the aid of all my helpers, I was soon drawing it without error.Happy with my results, we moved on to enchanting one or two fake eggs made from iron or copper. Our actual end product was to be made from electrum, a gold and silver alloy that practically went hand in hand with magical tools due to its natural tendency to contain and distribute mana. It was the gold standard. Heh.
The copper and iron eggs wouldn''tst long, and the metal would warp after one or two uses, but it was a great way to check my work. I was extremely grateful we didn''t immediately move to the end product because I had made a careless mistake on the mesh of the copper egg, which meant its storage would drain into the freeze effect quicker than intended. I was a little distracted during the engraving as I needed to ensure I was pulling only Ice mana, and I had be far too familiar with pulling only Arcane for all of my previous work.
With a deep engraving of ice mana, any raw mana injected into the finished product would be rapidly transformed into Ice. Hence, the storageponent was vital for this egg, not just for prolonged usage, but to give an appropriate amount of time to buffer the raw mana bing Ice. High-purity Ice mana was needed to ovee any leaked affinities from the user, as not everyone could produce pure Arcane mana on demand, and even raw mana would contain small traces of their affinity.
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Thankfully, my second attempt at using the iron egg was a resounding sess once I told my helpers to double-check my work. It honestly started to feel like I could do anything if we all put our cores together, and I was eager to see what else I could aplish with [Core Collective]. One amusing thing about enchanting with Ice Mana was that it made the room absolutely nippy, and Greg would be forced to wear arge fluffy coat and gloves if he wanted to closely observe. I luckily got to handwave any such necessity by iming [Ice Resistance] from my Cryomancer ss.
Once Greg and Thern tested the trial refrigerator eggs and gave them a thumbs-up, we proceeded with the first real attempts. I was surprised by the dwarfing to observe, but apparently, Greg had been bragging, and there was a small bet going on about how sessful my first real attempt would be. It was likely the most intense enchanting session of my life, with two sets of eyes closely observing and critiquing my every stroke. Thankfully, I had nine hidden helpers to protect me from potential screwups.
"Bloody hell! I feel like a dwarf runt being drunk under the table." Thern eximed when I finished the final stroke.
"I told you my [Apprentice] is precise!" Greg said smugly, stroking his beard.
"Scarily so," Thern said, wasting no time to examine the finished product. "I''d swear you were one of those fancy enchanting golems if I didn''t just watch you do this before my eyes..."
"Oh. I heard about those. Supposedly going to revolutionize the business." Greg answered before I could question. "I heard they can only do one enchantment, though?"
"Aye. One was shown before my Pa, made the most perfect lines I''d ever seen but could only do one enchantment and nothing else."
"Good for mass production, but..." Greg said, stroking his own beard now.
"Yep. Terrible for any creativity or unorthodox solution. Supposedly, they can''t go above rank four yet either." Thern finished Greg''s thought.
"Sounds like our jobs are safe now, old friend." Greg chuckled.
"Or maybe we send your [Apprentice] to take them on!" Thern said, giving a big heartyugh and pping me roughly on the back. "After all those bloody storage crates you''ve enchanted, I''d swear you were one of them!"
I couldn''t help but chuckle, maybe a little nervously. "Enough about golems! I want to know how good the egg is; my [Rune Inspection] isn''t high enough yet."
"Has bloody [Rune Engraving] yet can''t even inspect one!" Thern gave a friendly jab.
"Hey... It''s level five." I tried to defend myself.
"If it weren''t for your results, I''d lock you in a vault filled with magic tools and not let you out until you could properly evaluate every single one!" Thern countered.
Greg cleared his throat, giving a friendly smile. "Well. Good thing he''s my [Apprentice]. I can''t say most approve of the dwarven course."
"Bah! It puts hair on a youngin''s chest."
"The egg?" I interrupted. "Or should I just fill it up with Ice mana right now and see how good your coats are?"
Both of themughed at that. "At least he''s got some teeth!"
"Aye!"
Finally, they both got to work, and after some intense back-and-forth, they finally injected it with some mana, made some more evaluations, and turned to me.
"So, we''ve evaluated it and..." Greg began.
"It''s bloody perfect!" Thern interrupted, giving another hard p on my back. "Also, bloody hell, do you have frozen blood running through your veins? The purity is off the scale. I swear I could inject Fire Mana, and it''d still be Ice in that thing."
"I bet he can do it again." Greg said with a sly grin.
"I''m not taking that bet! Ma didn''t raise no fool." Thern chuckled.
After a short break, I made the final egg. Unlike the first, I didn''t have the unexpected pressure, and it was easily replicable. Thern had once againmented that I was like an enchanting golem. Meanwhile, Greg was simply just happy. He''d seen me make countless storage crates, after all.
Before we closed up for the evening, I wanted to thank both of them. I withdrew the gifts I had secretly obtained, smiling friendly and gratefully. For Thern, I had requested James buy me an impressive bottle of alcohol "fit for a dwarf." Not one to take half measures, I had secretly added a few drops of [Poison Slime] to the mix after ensuring it would still mix. Thern wasted no time popping the bottle and taking a swig, giving arge grin only outdone by the one I had seen as Syl.
"This is some really good stuff! Thanks,d!" He said cheerily.
For Greg... I had initially struggled to think of an idea. I had considered buying something, but it felt a little impersonal. I had then thought of trying to enchant something, but I worried it wouldn''t be impressive enough at my level without guidance. Over the long time we spent together, I had be quite familiar with Greg, and one thing he had always grumbled about was his master''s dragon bone tool.
I thought it would even the ying field if I could give him something simr. Thankfully, it wasn''t that hard to find out what affinities Greg had by just querying his enchantment specialties. He was born with Fire and Light, then added Water, Earth, andstly, Wind in his attempt to get Ice. It was a long shot, and after some secret research by looking into some of the Merchant''s Guilds catalogs, I had the perfect idea. I handed him the long, thin wooden box and smiled teasingly.
"Really, Sylvester? You didn''t have to get me anything." Greg said although he couldn''t hide his smile.
"It''s nothing, Master Greg. Just something I picked up in my travels before I arrived here."
"Bloody, open it! The suspense is killing me!" Thern shouted, causing Greg and me tough unexpectedly.
Greg gingerly opened the box, and his eyes widened.
"Is that what I think it is?" Thern asked.
"I believe so..." Greg said as he gingerly touched the immacte white horn in the box.
"Shit! Lad, do you want to be my [Apprentice] next?" Thern asked unabashedly.
"I don''t know if I can spit out another unicorn horn..." I chuckled. "Do you even have Light affinity?"
"I don''t, but bloody hell. Where''d you even find the thing?" Thern asked.
"I passed by Glimmerock on my way here," I answered.
"I had heard there was an incident with the adventurers getting attacked by pegasi..." Greg muttered.
"Aye! The things were out for blood. Never seen them go that crazy before; an emergency quest was even put out. Probably ruined plenty of young gals'' imagination of the ''majestic creature.''"
"I can imagine... My niece loves to draw them and unicorns." Greg said with a slight frown.
"Well. I can''t say I see the appeal after being attacked by them. At least I got a fancy horn from a dead one." I shrugged.
"Fell from the ind? I wonder what caused such a ruckus up there." Greg asked.
"I have an idea..." Thern said, giving a chuckle apanied by a cryptic smile.
"Not going to share?" I asked, and Greg nodded in agreement.
"I''ll hopefully get my confirmation in a week or two. But, see! You should go pick up yourbat ss again. You never know what you''ll find outside of the city walls." Thern teased.
"Why bother when I have such a generous [Apprentice]?" Greg countered, causing Thern to sputter. "Honestly, Sylvester. Thank you."
"You''re very wee. Master Greg."
Chapter 144: Sylvesters Last Day
Chapter 144: Sylvester''s Last Day
With the pressure gone, Greg and I spent some more rxing time polishing up thest few skills and lessons. I also ensured ess to a few other good inscriptions, like resizing, stealth, and, of course, mental resistance. I paid what felt like an arm and a leg for the entire set of mental resistance runes all the way up to rank ten. Sylvester''s pockets were practically empty, but I could always do some work or make a donation as Syl if I was truly desperate.
Greg also bragged nonstop about the unicorn horn and his ns for it. I was a little surprised at how happy it made him, and I hoped that if I returned as Sylvester, I could see the final result in the future.
I also finally took the plunge to fully enchant my cores; after much trial and error on Kappa, I came up with the final results. For my [Sub-Cores], I engraved them with durability and self-repair. The synergy between the two couldn''t be overstated, and I hoped that it would save me a lot of slime mass in the future from repairs. However, I went with mental and magic resistance for my own core, which also had a synergy bonus. Being mentally controlled again was still one of my biggest fears, and while the slow regeneration of self-repair was tempting for my own core, I''d rather have the extra safety.
Using the tool on my own core was... An experience. I was extremely grateful I could borrow [Pain Suppression] from the orcs. Otherwise, I don''t think I could havepleted it. I guess I could have ordered my [Sub-Cores] to do it, but even though I trusted and relied on them, I feltpelled to do this myself. It had the added benefit of seeing more of what [Core Collective] offered me; I could freely and instantly switch my vision between all my cores, far greater than before, and even have multiple perspectives simultaneously.
I still couldn''t separate my [Sub-Cores] from myself, goingpletely inert when losing a direct slime connection to myself, so I wasn''t entirely sure how useful having numerous perspectives at once was. Perhaps that restriction would go away if I uncapped [Core Collective]? Or maybe another slime or trait held that ability?
''Maybe my next evolution will be the Chimeric Range Cluster Slime... Heh.''
I also finally let Kappa join the [Sub-Core] experiencework. The time for rapid trial and error was gone, and now I could hopefully practice with [Rune Tracing] alone. Hopefully, Kappa would be power-leveled to five in no time.
Now that I didn''t need to spend every waking moment breathing enchanting, I finally returned to [Arcane Magic]. I was now armed with a higher level in both [Mana Maniption] and [Mana Conception], and I wanted to finish that debuff. It took two evenings to wrestle the mana into cooperating until I finalized the spell, and after casting it, I was rewarded.
The debuff [Hexed] inflicted magic weakness; I had my suspicions and was beyond speechless when they were confirmed. How deadly would a [Fireball] be if they were double debuffed? Or a [Lightning Bolt]? If I had to take a guess, assuming both debuffs were at an equal level, [Hexed] would be less effective than [mmable] or any other specifically targeted debuff. When I asked Thern for magic resistance on my armor, he mentioned that the more effective option was focusing on a specific defense rather than having broad, generalized protection. So, I could only assume the same applied offensively.Now for my new spell, [Aegis] instantly created a small shield that, from what I understood, was highly effective against spells. It could also block physical attacks, but it seemed more of a side benefit and wasn''t nearly as effective as its primary purpose. Interestingly, the spell didn''t cost a lot of mana to cast unless you maintained it where it had an almost exponentially increasing cost. Block an attack and let it go as soon as possible was the clear impression I got. Once the [Aegis] was in ce, it couldn''t be moved, and interestingly enough, it could even support my weight. If I didn''t already have wings, I could make "steps" by cycling between two [Aegis] spells.
My goals were aplished, and my time likelypletely ran out. It was time to say goodbye to Sylvester for now, anyway. I looked over my profile at my final results and smiled happily. The only thing that shocked me was the fact that despite all the Engraving I did, it was still level one!
Name: Sylvester [Apprentice]
Race: Chimeric Cluster Slime (Blue) LV 1 (-8)
ss: Runecrafter LV 18
Status: Healthy
Mana: Overflowing
Emblems:
[Experiment]
[Apex Hunter]
[Elven Legacy]
[Dungeoneer]
[Nature''s Bane]
[Manhunter]
[Apprentice]*
Traits:
Slime:
[Mana Slime LV 11]
[Acid Slime LV 7]
[Poison Slime LV 6]
[ze Slime LV 6]
[Cryo Slime LV 5]
[Voltaic Slime LV 6]
[Morph Slime LV 7]
[Pseudopod LV 7]
[Slime Shot LV 7]
[Slime Burst LV 6]
[Vaporize Slime]
Core:
[Core Collective LV 8]
[Core Storage LV 6]
[Sub-Core Alpha LV 5] [Sub-Core Zeta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Beta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Gamma LV 5] [Sub-Core Eta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Delta LV 5] [Sub-Core Theta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Epsilon LV 5] [Sub-Core Iota LV 5]
[Sub-Core Kappa LV 1]
Mimic:
[Chimeric Mimicry LV 7]
[Chroma Shift LV MAX]
[Consuming Osmosis LV MAX]
Mana:
[Mana Cirction LV 7]
[Mana Reinforcement LV 7]
[Mana Infusion]
Attributes/Other:
[Soul Mastery LV 7]
[Enhanced Vitality LV 5]
[Magic Resistance (Lesser) LV 5]
[Curse Resistance LV 1]
[Illusion Resistance LV 1]
[Prodigy]
Senses:
[Olfactory Sense]
[Dark Vision LV MAX]
[Mana Conception LV 6]
[Life Sight LV 4]
[Thermal Vision LV MAX]
[Eagle Vision LV 3]
[Electro-Maic Sense LV 3]
Trait Points remaining: 2
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Skills:
General:
[Universal Language]
[Equipment Swap]
[Dissection LV 6]
[Mapping LV 5]
[Tracking LV 2]
[Identify LV 5]
[Multitasking LV 5]
[Perception LV 4]
[Aerial Finesse LV 4]
Combat:
[Tranquil Flow LV 5]
[Attack Mastery (Lesser) LV 7]
[Affliction Mastery LV 5]
[Exploit Weakness LV 3]
Magic:
[Water Magic LV 5]
[Fire Magic LV 5]
[Corrosion Magic LV 5]
[Ice Magic LV 5]
[Arcane Magic LV 3]
[Lightning Magic LV 3]
[Mana Maniption LV 6]
[Magic Efficiency LV 5]
[Counter Magic LV 3]
[Elemental Shift LV 5]
[Elemental Adaptation]
[Ritual Casting]
[Mana Suppression]
[Meditate]
Sneaky:
[Vanish LV 6]
[Sneak Attack LV 6]
[Identity Fabrication LV 6]
[Acting LV 5]
[Rogue Expertise LV 4]
[Magical Subterfuge LV 3]
[Subtle Afflictions]
Skill Points remaining: 15
Profession:
Enchanting:
[Rune Reading LV 6]
[Rune Engraving LV 1]
[Rune Framework LV 7]
[Rune Tracing LV 5]
[Rune Design LV 3]
[Runecrafting LV 2]
[Rune Inspection LV 5]
[Rune Filigree LV 3]
[Rune Repair LV 2]
[Brand]
Profession Points Remaining: 0
Since I was leaving and traveling, I had a good excuse to swap back to mybat ss. I was a little worried about changing my ss, but when I asked if I could do so privately, James nodded as if it was the mostmon request in the world. Without fanfare orplications, I switched to Elementalist and changed Sylvester''s profile to show Cryomancer.
I had almost expected Johnathan to make an appearance, but instead, I just got a nicely written letter thanking me for my services and to not hesitate if I wished to sell my services to the Green estate in the future.
On the other hand, Greg looked proud and handed me a card that showed me as a licensed enchanter, authorized by the Kaerlin Merchant''s Guild and directly apprenticed under Gregory. My guild tag was also updated with these credentials, but the physical object was useful when dealing with someone who couldn''t ess it.
"And with that. I believe you''ve graduated from your [Apprenticeship]." Greg said, giving a nod.
''Well, that''s a relief. I would have hated to lose some of my levels after all that effort...''
Greg took in a deep breath. He looked like he was about to pass out.
"I gained three levels..." Greg murmured as if not believing it himself.
Thern woke him from shock with a signature p on the back. "You lucky bastard!"
From what I understood, the skill levels gained by his [Apprenticeship] were based on multiple factors: speed, efficiency, lesson quality, satisfaction from the target, and final results. Greg had heard [Prodigy] would likely give him an extra level by default, and Thern had confirmed that rumor. Either Greg truly went above and beyond, or another factor was at y. I had two theories, but I obviously couldn''t voice them. One was that he had effectively trained me and all of my [Sub-Cores], so he was identally rewarded for "extra" students. The other theory was that he had taught a monster; how many people could honestly say that aplishment?
''Well... Not that Greg could brag about that, unfortunately.''
I said goodbye to Thern and James at the guild, but Greg walked me to the gate. Thern told me to visit the dwarves sometime, which I couldn''t help but find hriously ironic. James simply thanked me and hoped to do business together in the future. I probably should have interacted with him more, but it seemed this guild''s handlers were a bit more hands-off than the Adventurer''s Guild. Or perhaps Sylvester just wasn''t as high-profile as to warrant additional attention.
"Send letters if you can. And pleasee visit again." Greg said.
"Thanks for everything, Mas-"
"No! Just Greg now." He interrupted with a chuckle.
"Thanks, Greg. I''ll try to stop by if I get an opportunity, or at least send a letter or two through the guild branches," I said.
We exchanged a solid handshake and said our final farewell. Then Sylvester left the gate. Unfortunately, I had to keep up appearances, so I walked quite a distance before finding an appropriate opportunity to head off the road and shift. I took some time to blob out for a bit before finally assuming my Syl persona. I also equipped my [Dungeoneer] emblem and ensured my profile reflected everything correctly.
Then, I casually strolled back to the city while openly practicing my magic again as I began shifting all my cores into different elements. I was returning to my two of each type, except I would keep Alpha and Beta unaligned and on [Corrosion Magic] or [Arcane Magic] duty. I had Kappa join Zeta to fill the missing gap for Water.
When I reached the gate, I was immediately set upon by one of the guards. At first, I was cautious, but then he bowed before me.
"Miss Syl, it''s so good to see you back! Can you please report to the Adventurer''s Guild directly?" He asked politely.
"Sure? Is there a problem?" I asked curiously.
"Quite a few people have asked if you''ve returned." He said with a chuckle.
I nodded, and after shing my adventurer tag, I headed in. I had grown used to walking about the city as Sylvester and being just another head in the crowd, but unfortunately, that time had ended. Assuming I hadn''t lost my chances with Thern, I hoped the dwarves would be less unabashed about staring and talking about the elf.
I hadn''t even reached the guild yet when I saw a familiar figure rapidly approaching me. Clearly, someone had already told the guild I was back. I braced myself for impact as she flung herself at me.
"Syl! You''re back!" Whitney eximed as she practically hung from my neck.
"H-hey..." I struggled out. "Good to see you again."
"I can''t believe you were gone for so long! We knew you were still alive but thought you''d be back long ago."
"Well..."
"Some said you got lost in a dungeon!"
"Actually-"
"Others said you went back to the elves!"
"..."
"People were worried you might have been kidnapped. Or the orcs came to take revenge on you. Or-"
"Stop!" I said, cing a hand over her mouth. "I''m fine. I was on Glimmerock for longer than I expected..."
"So you actually got up there?" Whitney said as if not believing me.
"I got countless griffon and pegasus feathers, beaks and ws, and even unicorn horns to prove it," I said with a hesitant chuckle.
"You really don''t hold back, huh..."
"I guess not. I learned a bunch, killed a bunch, leveled up a bunch, and now I''m back."
Whitney looked at me up and down, likely with [Identify] too. "What ss even is that? I don''t think I''ve ever heard of an Elementalist before."
"It''s pretty rare. Think Dewi''s Pyromancer ss specialized except for Water, Fire, Ice, and Lightning." I answered. "For now, anyway."
"You actually got Lightning? Holy shit, Syl!" Whitney gasped.
"I got something else, too," I said with a wink and tried to subtly show her the [Eagle Vision] trait.
Whitney''s eyes went wide; there was a brief pause followed by another impromptu hug. If she wasn''t trying to strangle me before, now she was clearly trying to finish the job.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She said excitedly. You''d think I just gave her a pink slime core or something with how excited she was.
"I''m d you like it," I eventually said when she started to calm down. "I hope this makes up for my absence."
"Well, you''ve certainly bought me off. I''ll put in a good word with the others." Whitney said with a giggle.
"Hmm... I didn''t realize my absence would be taken so badly." I replied, scratching my cheek.
"Thern was quite upset. Apparently, you''ve dyed something or other. Buttely, he''s stoppedining and has been pretty cheery. Lisa thought you were the reason pegasi went wild. Luke has just been in worried."
"Hmm... The pegasi might be my fault." I answered honestly.
"Well... I hope it was worth it because you know how much Lisa hates paperwork!" Whitney said teasingly.
I rolled my fingers in a small flourish, letting a little bit of Lightning Mana crackle and spark between them.
"Definitely worth it," I said with a grin.
Chapter 145: Friendly Interrogation
Chapter 145: Friendly Interrogation
Entering the Adventurer''s Guild while chatting with Whitney, I noticed a few cheers and jeers as people who clearly recognized me saw that I had returned. There were some murmurings about my "strange new ss" and people pointing out my high level. I noticed Luke rushing to meet us.
"Luke!" I said cheerily.
"It''s good to see you back, Miss Syl. Master Lisa wants you to report to her office immediately, please." Luke replied with a bizarre blend of concern and relief.
Others must have overheard it, and immediately, the rumor mill got to work. Was she in trouble? Did she aplish something? Is it an interrogation about her strange ss? And all other whispers flooded the hall. I tried to ignore all of it as best as possible.
Whitney said she''d talk to me afterward after making me promise I wouldn''t suddenly run off again and left with Luke, so I was alone heading towards Lisa''s office. While climbing up the staircase, I saw Thern peek his head out of the library.
"Well, look who finally decided to show up!" He sounded gruff and upset but soon cracked a wide grin and gave a full bellyugh.
"Sorry for missing our arrangement, Thern... I spent a lot longer on Glimmerock than I expected." I exined. It was half-true.
"I can''t wait to see all the bits and bobs you''ve undoubtedly brought back," Thern said, nodding. "You''re lucky that I''ve made some arrangements; assuming you don''t spend a month in the dungeon, you''re supposed to go clear!"
"So the offer still stands?" I asked hopefully."Aye. I argued it wasn''t safe to transport the new furnace heart by regr means and got authorization for something... Special." Thern said, giving a big wink. "It''s too bad you didn''te back sooner; I would have loved to have shown some of your materials to a friend. No doubt you''ve brought some ripe for enchanting."
"And here I thought your only friend was at the bottom of a mug." Lisa suddenly replied, causing us all to flinch. You could almost feel the crackling of thunder in her eyes.
Thernughed. "Better not keep her waiting; she''s got a shocking temper."
"Good thing I''ve got a sparkly personality." I countered, giving my own sparkling demonstration of Lightning Mana.
Thern backed up, howling withughter. "Bloody hell, keep that away from my beard!"
I couldn''t help but grin, and Lisa even chuckled at that.
"You''ve certainly opened up a lot more," Lisamented.
"Aye. You''ve definitelye out of your shell since Ist saw you. A lot less stiff. Nothing like the thrill of adventure, ey?"
I paused. Had I? I spent a lot of time with Trixie and regrly joined in with her antics. Had she opened me up? Was I that easily influenced by the people around me? I also spent a long time interacting with people as Sylvester...
"Absolutely," I replied.
"Well, let''s head to my office to get your official report," Lisa said, and I followed after telling Thern we could chatter.
As I sat down, I wondered if this would be an interrogation or a pleasant conversation. But her secretary brought some drinks and snacks immediately to set the mood.
"So. Wee back; I take it you did manage to get onto the floating ind?"
"I did," I replied and began retelling my ount.
From griffons to elementals to eventually fighting pegasi. I decided against any mention of Trixie; the pixie was my friend, and she was utterly terrified of being captured by humans again. I didn''t mention the ghouls either, as I had no proof of killing them. I mentioned fighting pegasi and unicorns and eventually discovering the prince. When I mentioned finding an alicorn, Lisa was actually startled; they must have been extremely rare.
I mentioned that once I dealt with the unicorns and the alicorn, the pegasi seemed lost and distracted, and I took out the ones I could. I had thought she might question me, but it seemed like she would hold back questions until the end. I finally mentioned dealing with the harpies, as I had kept proof of them. I mentioned the other monsters I had fought and ultimately came across and harvested a yellow slime. I secretly withdrew Epsilon as proof of my yellow slime core, ensuring it was wrapped in a thin slimeyer to hide my engravings. Obviously, I had to keep Epsilon touching my hands at all costs.
Lisa was tapping away at her desk in thought. "So it seems you were identally responsible for the wild pegasi attack."
"I''m sorry... I had no idea. Was it bad?" I asked.
"No casualties, thankfully, quite a few injured, but nothing career-ending. It also brought some unexpected resources to the city. That''s not to say it was a good thing, but from what you described, it could have been much worse."
"I''m not sure I follow. Worse, how?"
"Well, this alicorn was clearly their leader; imagine if it decided to make a coordinated attack. The pegasi were all wild and uncontrolled. Small blessings."
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I nodded.
"So while we can''t really reward you for it, at least you won''t be punished. Assuming you have proof?"
I pulled out the alicorn horn and ced it on the table, withdrawing a unicorn horn as well forparison.
"Well. Proof doesn''t get more real than that." Lisa chuckled.
"I''ve got quite a lot of others, harpy ears too, but I''m sure you wouldn''t like those on your desk."
Lisa breathed in deeply before nodding. "Yes. Please don''t ruin my desk. If your harvests are as plentiful and high-quality as usual, you might put our branch in debt..."
I chuckled before taking back my two horns. "Well. I''m open to negotiations; everything is up for grabs except the alicorn horn. I have its hide and wings, too."
"Bloody hell. I can''t even imagine what a robe or armor made out of alicorn hide would do for a cleric." Lisa shook her head in disbelief. "I do have some questions."
"I''ll answer freely as long as it''s not too invasive."
Lisa nodded. "How did you get up on the ind? I recall your original n was to tame a griffin, but considering you didn''te back with one, I assume that n didn''t work... Or it met a tragic end?"
I knew this question wasing up, and thankfully, I had put together a usible and demonstrable excuse. My original n was to say the griffin died, and I returned to the surface by sshing down in a bubble spell or something simr. But, thanks to [Arcane Magic], I now had a slightly less insane-sounding excuse.
"No griffin taming, unfortunately, and I can even do a quick demonstration," I replied.
Lisa nodded, and I stood up, quickly casting [Aegis] lying horizontally, stepping on it before casting another, and continuing myrge strides while the original disappeared. I kept making new ones as I strolled around her room off the ground; I was grateful she had a tall ceiling. Finally, I started stepping towards the floor again and smiled.
"Okay. I don''t know whether to call you a genius or insane. One wrong step, and we''d be cleaning you off the ground. Or what if you run out of mana?"
"I hate to brag, but running out of mana is quite a rarity for me nowadays, and as long as I don''t try to keep [Aegis] apparated for too long, it costs almost nothing."
Lisa chuckled but nodded in eptance. "Thern is going to be slightly upset about yourck of flight; he was expecting you to just pop over to the dungeon and back."
I winced. Obviously, I could fly and literally pop over and back, but now I have contradicted that excuse. Lisa was tapping her desk in thought.
"Well, perhaps we will find another way to get you there quickly. I''ll sleep on it. Worse case, you hire a really expensive horse, feed it some potions, and tell Thern to wait a bit."
"If I had [Wind Step], I''d just use that to get there," I said with a self-deprecating chuckle.
"No Air affinity, but you were lucky enough to get Ice and now Lightning." Lisa pointed out.
"Yup. I''ve got [Lightning Magic] and everything." I replied positively, showing a small casting of [Ball Lightning] in the palm of my hand.
Lisa chuckled. "Just be careful not to wear too much metal when practicing, or you might shock yourself."
I nodded in agreement, letting the spell fade without casting.
"So. Your new ss, what are you willing to share about it?" Lisa asked. "You''re wee to refuse, but as Guild Master, if I don''t at least formally ask, I could get in some hot water. I''ve never heard of it before, so I assume it''s quite rare."
"I can''t tell what conditions I met to acquire it... But I''m willing to give a little info."
"Honestly, anything at all to give the pencil pushers." Lisa sighed.
"It''s an advanced mage ss focusing on elemental magic in particr. Think Pyromancer, Hydromancer, and Cryomancer all wrapped into one."
"What about Geomancer, Aeromancer, and Electromancer?" Lisa asked curiously.
"It''s called Electromancer... Seriously?" I questioned, and Lisa nodded, suppressing a light giggle. "Alright, well, to answer your question, yes, it includes those, but I don''t have Air or Earth affinity."
"Yet. I''m assuming?"
"Fingers crossed."
"It sounds remarkable. I''m a bit sad you''ve abandoned a hybrid ss, but it sounds almost like you''ve found something beyond that." She paused, then shrugged. "A hexa ss?"
"No idea. But I''m enjoying it so far; I''ve never felt stronger."
"I''ll bet. It''s your first advanced ss, so you''ll gain amazing attributes."
"Speaking of which... I previously qualified for Assassin, and I was thinking of dipping in to see if I could get a useful skill or two before immediately swapping back. Any reason not to?"
"Now that you''ve already stepped into advanced sses, not really... How much do you know about cumtive levels?" Lisa asked.
"First I''m hearing of it, to be honest."
Lisa nodded as if expecting that response. "It''s a bit hard to quantify, but your ss levels per rank add up together. All your beginner sses add up to a number, your intermediate add up to another, and your advanced another."
''Sounds kind of like how my monster evolution levels used to add up to my elf level.'' I thought to myself before giving a nod of understanding.
"Your cumtive levels make it harder to level up. Dip your toes into too many sses, and you might find yourself struggling harder than your peers to progress further."
"How bad is it?"
"Honestly, no idea. It''s not like people have worked it out to a science. Supposedly, it differs from person to person, too. The more spiritual people even call it, the weight your soul can carry." Lisa paused for a dramatic effect on that bombshell before chuckling. "I just usemon sense and don''t invest a bunch of levels in a ss I''m not interested in."
"So... Good idea or bad idea to dip into Assassin?"
"I''d say go for it. It''s one level, and you were already a Rogue Mage hybrid. Maybe it will make the upgrade of Shadowcaster appear sooner to you, or maybe some Elementalist Assassin, who knows? At a minimum, you''ll get an upgrade to [Sneak Attack]." Lisa said with a wink.
I nodded. Trixie had already hinted that there was a skill called [Assassinate], so it made perfect sense. I also wanted to dip into Monster Tamer; knowing what skills it had might give me more opportunities for reasonable excuses.
We chatted for a bit more before Lisa said I should go to one of the harvest rooms and dump my goods. Then, she would join me with Thern and Luke to catalog it.
I started dumping my goods on various tables, ensuring the alicorn parts were away from the unicorn or pegasi. I stacked the harpy ears in one corner, then ced all the griffin bits in another. I only had a few ice elemental cores, most of which didn''t survive my explosive detonations. At least they weren''t melting, oddly enough. Sadly, I had no proof of the wind elementals, cloud, or even my victory over the undine. Not that I was going to tell anyone about that fight.
When the gang arrived and entered the room, I noticed Whitney had joined them. Their astonishment at my newest collection was priceless.
"Bloody hell! This is even crazier than your smander hunt!" Thern shouted as he stared around the room.
Lisa was more reserved in her astonishment, "I almost feel like she killed more pegasi solo than the adventurers and guards..."
Whitney was silent, her mouth wide as if trying to catch flies.
Luke gave a tired chuckle. "She was gone for so long... I honestly expected more."
"There would have been more... Sadly, they couldn''t be harvested... Damned elementals." I said bitterly.
Chapter 146: Forced Vacation
Chapter 146: Forced Vacation
Everyone was eagerly examining the materials. Luke was trying to catalog everything, Thern was inspecting the quality, Whitney was testing the sharpness of some of the ws, and Lisa looked like she was trying to ponder something.
"Any materials you nning on keeping or having crafted?" Luke asked.
"Hmm... Not really. The only thing I want to keep is the alicorn horn." I pointed out. "So everything else is up for grabs."
Thern looked like he had sucked on a lemon as he red at the unicorn horns. "I wish I had bloody Light affinity..."
"You could always hire her to hunt something for you. I''m sure there are many appropriate monsters when you go home." Lisa mentioned.
"Aye... That''s a good idea." Thern agreed.
It took a while, and there were some questions about the monsters and how it was to fight them. Luke and Lisa looked almost relieved that some of the parts weren''t in absolutely pristine and perfect condition. I felt the need to defend myself and pointed out how they would''ve been without the griffon''s horrendous crashnding. Lisa was especially happy that I had killed a Harpy Queen.
"As impressive as all of this is, that might be your greatest long-term aplishment. The roads and routes wherever Glimmerock is currently floating will be much safer without a Harpy Queen capturing men." Lisa said. "We might need to set up some sort of annual quest to encourage people to try to reach and explore Glimmerock. Letting monsters spawn in suchrge quantities unpruned is especially dangerous..."
"Maybe encourage the nobles to invest in a small airship?" Whitney suggested. "I''m sure they''d be greatly tempted by the monsters it spawns. I mean... Did anyone know it spawned unicorns?""Not from the records I''ve read..." Thern said, scratching his beard. "Harpies and griffins were a known and the usual stuff you''d find on a floating ind. But it seems this one has be rather Fae-ish, for whatever reason."
"Well, maybe a certain elf can tell one of them about her recent adventures," Lisa said with a suggestive wink.
"Johnathan?" I asked with a frown.
"He''s asked when you''re returning nonstop. I don''t know what you did to him on your dinner date." Lisa chuckled.
"I didn''t know you were dating someone..." Whitney said, looking slightly offended. I wasn''t sure why.
"It was one dinner. He made it a request. Otherwise, he wouldn''t sell me a white slime core." I pointed out.
Lisa chuckled, joining in. "I can vouch for that; sorry for teasing. Johnathan was looking to gain more influence and thought being seen in thepany of an elf would help his business."
Whitney looked slightly relieved at that and nodded her head. Weird.
We finished up and left the room. Luke and Lisa said they might have to auction most of the stuff off unless they could devise another solution. I made sure to tell them I was in no rush. I headed off with Whitney, and we shared a pleasant evening at the inn, where I was coerced into retelling my story again over food and drink.
I would''ve thought I should rush to the dungeon, but instead, I was told to spend a few days unwinding and rxing. I spent a day shopping and chatting with Whitney, buying far too many clothes as usual.
We also stopped by the guild, where I requested a chance to swap my sses privately.
"Could I not just buy one of these crystals?" I wondered aloud.
"You could... But if it''s not linked to a city, it won''t work. They are quite expensive and heavily regted. Not to mention, as soon as you left the city walls, it would cease to function unless you returned." Luke exined.
It sounded like there was more there, but frankly, I didn''t care at the time. As soon as I heard I couldn''t just carry the crystal around with me as I adventured, I lost interest. Whitney wished me luck, and I was given a crystal to make my choices.
I hadn''t expected it, and nobody warned me, but when I swapped sses like that, I felt my Mana plummet. Yet, on the flip side, I felt like my mind had sped up abruptly, and my perception of the world slightly slowed down. Was this the effect of having an absurdly high agility? Just an absolutely immense amount of speed and reaction time. I pulled out my alicorn horn and flourished it with unnatural speed and precision.
''Weird how swapping to Enchanter didn''t affect me this much... This is certainly interesting.'' I wondered before looking over my new skills.
While I usually epted any upgrade immediately, I was slightly concerned after [Evasion] became [Tranquil Flow] and lost some more generic usability. So, I made sure to look over the two skills first.
Adds bonus damage to attacks on unaware or defenseless targets, scaling with skill level.
This bonus damage partially ignores most forms of mitigation and resistance if executed from stealth.>
<>
Adds bonus damage to attacks on unaware or defenseless targets, greatly scaling with skill level.
This bonus damage moderately ignores most forms of mitigation and resistance if executed from stealth.
Once per day per skill level, you can trigger an [Assassination] attack that deals 2x+0.1x per level. If the target is aware of you, the bonus damage is reduced by half.
If you defeat an enemy in a single attack while they arepletely unaware, bonus experience will be awarded.>
''Yeah... That''s a no-brainer upgrade.'' I chuckled and immediately epted it.
I was happy to see the usual "greatly scaling" and pleasantly surprised to see "partially ignores" upgrade to "moderately ignores". That wasn''t even considering the special [Assassination] attacks, which would deal almost triple damage and bonus experience for one-shot kills.
And there was another prompt waiting for me.
''Exchange? Not upgrade?'' I wondered at the different wording and examined the two skills before deciding.
Helps the user hide their presence, greatly scaling with skill level.
Obscures the user''s Lifeforce and Mana while the skill is active.>
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Helps the user hide their presence, greatly scaling with skill level.
When the user is within a shadow, darkness, or twilight, their presence is extremely reduced, and Lifeforce, Heat, and Mana are obscured.>
[Shadow Stealth] had the potential to be better, but [Vanish] was more aligned with me, and I didn''t want to lose the ability to obscure my Mana. I had to hope that if I discovered the advancement of Shadowcaster, I''d eventually get a suitable upgrade for [Vanish]. I also worried that [Shadow Stealth] wouldn''t work well with [Magical Subterfuge].
Happy with my decisions, I made another swap. The world returned to its usual pace, and I lost the extreme grace, dexterity, and speed I had just gained.
I shuddered when I saw the skill. I knew it wasing, and even though I mentally prepared myself, it still gave me a feeling of dread.
Form a bond with a willing monster. epting the bond cannot be forced by any means.
The monster will receive the [Bonded Companion] emblem, a requirement for futurepanion-rted skills to function.
Your [Bonded Companion] is always treated as a Party member to you. You may only have one [Bonded Companion].
If the monstercks basic intelligence andnguage capabilities, it will receive an initial mental improvement and the [Universal Language] skill to facilitatemunication between the two individuals.
The bond lets both individuals know one another''s health status and allows greater cooperation as their bond grows. As the bond grows, further bonuses will be given.
A [Bonded Companion] still has free will; however, [Order]mands can be given to give temporary situational bonuses in extreme circumstances. The [Bonded Companion] only gains these circumstantial bonuses if it agrees with the [Order]; otherwise, it can attempt to resist with its Willpower against your own, and depending on the severity, a permanent bond penalty will be applied.
This skill has no levels.>
Your [Bonded Companion] receives additional skill experience when you are training them and minor additional experience for kills earned together.
Bonuses experience scales with skill level and bond level.>
I felt a little sad reading both of these skills... If the circumstances had been different, I would have had an extremely fruitful and prosperous rtionship with Sylthaeryn. [Order] must have been what she had done to me, and even the skill description hinted at not using them lightly. A permanent bond penalty certainly sounded bad.
I bought the skill. I wanted to know if I could tame another slime or something else. It was only a single point, and I certainly had them to spare. After that, I promptly swapped back to my original ss and felt my magical might return.
Afterward, Whitney and I chatted about my brief moments as an Assassin, and she agreed with my choice to keep [Vanish]. We both chatted at length about how big of an upgrade [Assassinate] waspared to [Sneak Attack].
Two letters and a familiar-looking box awaited me when I returned to my room. The first letter was from Johnathan soliciting my presence for dinner the next day, and the second letter was from Lisa telling me about the request and offering a borrowed dress and outfit. She also hinted at me mentioning unicorns and the ind in great detail and requested me to meet her the day after. It sounded like it was time to get my two white slime cores, and I was most eager.
Whitney was upset about me going to dinner with some noble but cheered when she saw me in Lisa''s dress. Shemented not having a self-repair and size-altering fancy dress of her own, and I found myself regretting not being able to just do it for her. I could probably buy one and enchant it secretly, but I worried about what sort of paper trail that might leave.
Dinner with Johnathan was... Interesting. His attitude waspletely different as I had expected. It was strange being able to see two sides of the same person due to my shape-shifting nature. As per Lisa''s request, I made sure to embellish my time on Glimmerock as much as possible, and at times, I swear I could see Johnathan''s eyes filling with gold coins. Finally, it came time for him to offer me my cores. I was so excited, even though it wouldn''t be anything new.
"It took a while, but I managed to procure another white slime core," Johnathan said proudly. "I had to summon the might of the Merchant''s Guild to have a wonderful magical tool enchanted to rece this one."
''Only one?'' I thought curiously. I had made two of those refrigerator eggs.
"I''m most grateful, although if you have more, I''d be willing to purchase them too?"
Johnathan looked like he was about to say something but instead gave a toothy smile before making a script change. "Don''t worry, Syl, I''m sure I''lle across another one sooner orter, and then we can share each other''spany again."
''Bastard is holding out on me to secure another dinner date...'' I thought grumpily.
Sadly, I couldn''t act on my Sylvester knowledge and just had to purchase the one white slime core graciously. The rest of the dinner wasn''t worth mentioning, and when I got back to my room, I ate the delicious core.
Trait [Cryo Slime] gained.
Trait [Slime Density] gained.>
''Now that is a big level jump!'' I thought happily.
[Morph Slime] had been stuck at seven since my Chimeric evolution, and mytest meal had finally pushed it over the edge. Being abined skill, it must progress much slower since it was [Shape Slime] and [Slime Density] wrapped into one skill. At least, that was the only reason I could think of. I practiced a bit of [Rune Tracing] in the evening, which was now part of my evening before-bed rituals, and wondered what Lisa wanted to chat about...
I cleaned Lisa''s dress with the power of slime! Some part of me wondered if Lisa gave me a different one this time because she wanted to borrow my cleaning services again. After having a casual breakfast with Whitney, we headed towards the guild. Luke strangely told me to head towards a small enclosed training room rather than Lisa''s office, and Whitney was unfortunately not allowed to follow.
"Syl, I hope the evening was pleasant?" Lisa asked, wearing a lot more casual clothes than I had ever seen her in before.
"It was alright... I think he''s sold on trying to get ess to unicorns, so at least that was positive." I handed her the box. "Here''s the dress back; thanks for letting me borrow it."
Lisa opened it up, and I caught a very satisfied smile on her face before she closed it. "No problem at all, any time."
"So what''s the meeting about? And why not in your office?" I asked.
"I have a proposition for you. I had to get permission first, which took longer than expected... But I finally got approval yesterday. If you ept it, the guild wins, I win, and you win. It also has the added bonus of potentially solving your transportation issue, assuming you weren''t just bragging about your near-endless Mana." Lisa said.
"I''m listening..." I said, unable to hide my curiosity.
"In exchange for some of the materials you brought, I have been authorized to show you one of my skills. It''s one I think you''ll really like." Lisa said, waggling her eyebrows.
"You needed permission to show me one of your skills?" I asked, extremely confused.
"Yes. In addition, you''ll need to swear to the guild that you won''t share it with anyone else unless you request authorization."
"Why...?" I said, feeling very confused. "Whitney mentioned people hoarding skills and traits... Honestly, I don''t really like the idea."
Lisa smiled sadly. "I understand your frustration. But it''s in the interest of safety as well. Imagine giving a young adventurer a powerful skill he or she didn''t really earn or wasn''t ready for. They might feel invincible and head to an early grave. Or worse, use it for shameful purposes."
I sighed reluctantly. "I suppose."
"The skill I want to give you is from my advanced ss... So I needed permission to share it. I could easily give you [Lightning Magic] because... Well, if I''m honest, I didn''t believe you''d get Lightning Affinity." Lisa chuckled. "But you could easily swap to Sorcerer or something and get the skill; I just saved you some time and effort once you were qualified."
Seeing my interest raised, Lisa continued. "Some concerns were raised, but after your aplishments and when I mentioned the significant contributions you could offer us, I convinced the pencil pushers. So, what do you say?"
I nodded and smiled. "I swear to the Adventurer''s Guild not to share your skill without receiving authorization."
I half expected some notification or something or for Lisa to make me repeat it while she used some [Guild Master] emblem ability, but instead, she just nodded and smiled.
"Good! I''m trusting you, so have a look at this bad boy!" She said excitedly.
I held my breath in anticipation as she held out her hand, revealing the skill.
Move a distance with lightning-fast speed, even in midair. However, the final destination must be on the ground, or the user will suffer significant internal lightning damage.
A thunderous discharge is released at each point of arrival, scaling with skill level, and can be willingly reduced but not entirely negated.
Skill level determines Mana efficiency, maximum chained usage, and distance traveled.>
Chapter 147: Ride the Lightning
Chapter 147: Ride the Lightning
Staring at the skill, I was filled with anticipation. Could I really buy this? A small part of me was nervous, but I pushed past it and proceeded to try.
I felt so much relief, and it must have been clearly visible as Lisa gave a cheery smile.
"Great. Now, before you start zipping and zapping around, I need to give you some demonstrations and warnings," Lisa began her lecture. "First, amon-sense warning; do not use it inside any city. You''ll spook everyone with the thunderp at your arrival points and likely shatter some windows or send a nobatant flying."
I nodded.
"Secondly, do not go airborne with it until at least level two. Trust me, you do not want to be on the receiving end if you cannot ground yourself."
I nodded. It was easily understandable from a human perspective, although I was tempted to see how it would interact with my [Voltaic Slime].
"Thirdly, if you haven''t already, invest in the [Lightning Resistance] trait or get some gear. You can certainly afford thetter." Lisa said with a chuckle.
"I''ll now give a quick demonstration and just a sample of one of my ideas. You''ll undoubtedly find your own ideas and potential; I cannot even imagine what a full spellcaster can do with it."
Then Lisa''s body began to crackle as she bolted up into the air. I now understood why this room was on the ground floor yet took up both the first and second floors in vertical size. When she arrived, there was a small shockwave and crackle of Lightning. Her body was now coursing with jolts of lightning."You have." She started speaking before bolting a short distance and regaining any lost height.
"Seconds," She said, reappearing with more surging energy.
She bolted again and reappeared. "Between jumps"
"Otherwise"
"You break." At this point, the amount of energy surging around her was quite frightening. She disappeared again in a sh of Lightning.
Shended on the ground, and all the built-up energy surged violently downwards. "The chain."
She gave a small bow, and I reflexively pped at the demonstration. Lisa must have liked that as she gave a big toothy grin.
"So it builds up until discharged through the ground..." I started questioning my observations.
"Or yourself. Seriously, always keep one jump in reserve for the touchdown," Lisa interrupted. "I was also restraining the bursts between each jump; you''ll want to work on that as soon as possible if you want to use it safely among party members."
I nodded and wondered if I could use the lightning attraction aspect of [Voltaic Slime] to further mitigate that.
"Okay. Last thing. I want to show off a bit." Lisa said, giving a cheeky wink as she walked over to a corner of a room where I noticed what looked like a storage bag and started pulling out an extremely impressive-looking sword. [Rune Reading] was immediately triggered, and I could see several inscriptions purely for gathering and holding mana.
"This was my first idea for working with and around the skill. It works as long as you have enough [Lightning Resistance] and can handle some pain." Lisa exined.
Her body began to crackle as she bolted upwards. This time, however, she didn''t repeat the process, and she must have broken the chain. A bright sh of Lightning surged through her body for moments. I saw her eye twitch before the energy in her body rapidly directed itself toward her sword. The sword began to spark with dangerous power, and all the runes along its de were alight.
Shended gracefully and flourished her sword, which gave off a deadly crackle through the air before she made a forceful swing. A bolt of lightning burst midswing and scattered against the wall, and an immense inscription of multiple reinforcements briefly shed as it absorbed the attack.
"Impressive, right?" Lisa asked with smug satisfaction.
"Very," I answered honestly.
Lisa nodded as she sheathed the sword. "So yeah. My idea was you could [Thunder Step] your way across the countryside towards the dungeon. Gets you there fast, gives you time to practice the skill, and is much more exciting than filling some poor horse with potions."
"And get''s me a skill I''ve desperately wanted," I added.
"Well... I''d probably hope you eventually get [Wind Step] unless you want to abandon your Rogue side. Obviously, [Thunder Step] utterly ruins any attempts at stealth."
I couldn''t help but groan at the validity of that statement.
Finally, Lisa had me try out the skill and again emphasized that I should only use it to traverse the ground. She even suggested I buy level two immediately if I was worried enough. As I activated the skill, I felt it take some of my mana, and immediately, my body burst with lightning energy. I bolted to the edge of the room, arriving with quite a loud p of thunder, and watched as the built-up energy immediately disappeared toward the ground. It felt exhrating, and Lisa gave me a knowing smile.
"Fun, right?" Lisa asked.
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"As long as you forget the potentially deadly aspect." I chuckled.
Lisa nodded. "I''d suggest avoiding wearing conductive metal while you practice it."
We chatted a bit more, and I tried out the skill several times before we called it. Before leaving, we headed to her office, and she showed me a map showing the dungeon''s location. To my surprise, it seemed to have updated my [Mapping] skill, and now I had a pretty solid idea of its location.
Armed with my transport method and location set, I just needed to make my final preparations and say my farewells. I spent another day getting some food supplies that I threw into storage and spending more time with Whitney. She expressed some desire toe with me, but she had her next job lined up in the capital and probably should have left a few weeks ago. She had imed some "vacation time" while waiting for my return and also said both Dewi and Evan wouldn''t forgive her if she didn''t find out the results of my ind adventure.
I spent a little time with Thern and smoothed things over by giving him a refill on his now favorite beverage. I''d discovered this as Sylvester, but the dwarf found it hrious to see how a non-dwarf would react when they attempted the drink.
I''d asked if I should take any quests on the trip there, but that idea was shot down in mes. It sounded like Thern''s solution now had an extremely strict time requirement, and I wasn''t to waste any more time.
Finally, it was time for me to say my goodbyes. Whitney had almost ambushed me as I left my room, perhaps not trusting me to just leave like I didst time despite my numerous apologies and promises not to do that again. I promised to send her a message through the guild about how the dungeon went and another when I arrived in the dwarven empire. She also told me I muste to the capital after my dwarfy business was done. Finally, Whitney gave me a long hug and well wishes. Thern simply told me to hurry up and beat the dungeon already. Luke wished me good luck, and Lisa just gave me a thumbs up.
Leaving the city, I felt refreshed and free; I gave the guards a friendly wave as I winked, disappeared, and appeared in the distance to the sound of booming thunder. I chuckled to myself at their shock and surprise and triggered the skill again. It was time to ride the Lightning.
Lisa was right; this was an extremely fast way to travel, albeit very mana-intensive. I had bragged about my mana, but even my reserves started to drop at the skill''s current inefficient levels.
When it reached level two, I immediately tried to chain an airbornebination, moving diagonally upward and downward. I was pleased with the results; chained usage seemed noticeably cheaper than separate skill activations. This greatly reduced my travel time as I needed far fewer breaks to replenish my mana reserves.
My nighttime camp was my good old burrow-into-a-hole trick, and I even dug out arge enough area to pull out my bathtub! I spent the evening doing some much-needed [Rune Engraving] on my precious tub; it desperately needed some self-repair enchantment at a minimum, which Ibined with a small storage inscription, which I filled up with mana. This way, it would have a reserve of mana to pull from if it needed to repair itself and wouldn''t be subject to any degradation. Then, I sank into the tub for a very pleasant night''s sleep.
On my second day of travel, I decided to experiment with [Voltaic Slime]. I was correct that its attraction function could greatly reduce the bursts at each arrival point, making it much safer for bystanders. Sadly, I couldn''t do anything about the sound, but that was better than shocking someone identally who happened to be wearing too much metal. As for the redirected Lightning, [Voltaic Slime] was enough to contain it, and I could discharge it normally in directed bolts of my own. Feeling confident and knowing I had plenty of backup protections, I decided to see if [Voltaic Slime] was enough to handle the bacsh from not grounding myself.
I had every core cast [Arcane Armor] and aligned everyone to Lightning for the presumed increased resistance. Then I bolted into the air and waited... The energy surrounding me began to surge and arc internally. I now understood what "internal lightning damage" meant, as the built-up energy discharged directly inside my own core. My [Arcane Armor] meant nothing, but thankfully, it didn''t seem to be too much damage, likely due to my high resistance from both [Voltaic Slime] and [Elemental Adaptation]. It stung a lot but was siphoned off rather quickly into my slime and partially filled the capacity of [Voltaic Slime], and I fired another bolt upwards to free up my capacity. Then, I triggered the skill once into the furthest horizontal distance and another back diagonally downward to safely discharge.
''Okay... So I can already survive and use the negative side effect of [Thunder Step]. The pain sucks... I could always turn it off through the orc trait. But the damage, at least from one jump, doesn''t seem that much. I''m unsure how much energy is stored per jump chain, but I''d rather not risk it right now.''
I hoped it would be a good way for me to train [Voltaic Slime] without casting [Lightning Magic] at myself. The skill hit level threete into the early evening, drastically increasing my travel speed. Referring to [Mapping], I could have reached my destination tonight, but I instead decided to call in the early evening and arrive first thing in the morning. This way, I also got to spend another underground evening in thefort of my bathtub. There was no chance of blobbing out in the dungeon with the party I ended up with.
''If I had known I''d get [Thunder Step], I might have considered engraving lightning resistance into my core. I could destroy my core, but that seems... Shortsighted.'' I shuddered, even thinking about it. I was extremely reluctant to test out my new lifesaving method.
On thest leg of my journey, I wondered what the poor travelers might have thought about hearing the booms of thunder across the distance. Would they believe some monster was doing something, or would they shrug it off as an adventurer thing? I had to assume thetter, as otherwise, why would Lisa have suggested that I use this as my travel method? Or perhaps she''d thought I''d get the thunderps under control quickly. I gave a small mental apology to any travelers I might have spooked before proceeding with my next three consecutive jumps.
It didn''t take long before my [Eagle Vision],bined with my significant elevation, spotted the huge amount of tents in all varying sizes and colors surrounding what looked like a giant hole in the ground. It all lined up with the destination [Mapping] pointed me towards, so Inded nearby before casually strolling the final distance. I figured arriving in a bolt of thunder in the middle of the tents would not earn me any friends. And if [Mapping] andmon sense weren''t enough, my [Dungeoneer] emblem also tickled the back of my mind, informing me there was a dungeon nearby.
<>
With extraordinary effort and luck, you havepleted a dungeon solo. Or perhaps you over-leveled and stomped a low-level dungeon? Either way, congrats!
Dungeon loot earned has a higher chance of being enchanted.
Equipping this emblem will slightly increase the chance of dungeon loot dropping and allow the user to detect nearby undefeated dungeons.>
I had slightly forgotten that the emblem would point me toward dungeons I hadn''t beaten yet. I wondered if the loot bonuses would make me a sought-after party member.
Despite my precautions, when I arrived, I could hear some groggy adventurersining about "bloody lightning mages." I had clearly awoken some of them earlier than they liked.
It was a little surprising seeing the variety of setups; there were food tents, vendors, and even a sort of pawn shop where you could sell your dungeon loot. Unfortunately, despite the general grogginess of the early morning, quite a few people noticed the clearly visible elf approaching.
I headed toward the absolutely massive tent, which looked like something a circus might set up. Thankfully, as I approached it, I saw the clearlybeled sign dering it the Adventurer''s Guild.
Chapter 148: Recruitment Woes
Chapter 148: Recruitment Woes
Entering the tent, I was met with the sight of many tables and benches upied by various colorful individuals wearing assorted gear and weapons. I had to block out my notifications as Beta nearly blinded me by trying to [Identify] everyone in the room. Thankfully, only the most perceptive of the adventurers noticed my entrance, causing quite the look of confusion and startlement at their tables.
I did my best to ignore the unwanted attention and strolled to what I had to assume was the reception desk; behind it sat a man who looked more bear than human.
"Shit. I just lost ten gold." He grunted as he saw me.
"I''m sorry?" I replied.
"It''s my own fault. Lisa said you would arrive a month or two ago, and when you were a no-show, I started calling you her imaginary elf friend," he said as he scratched at his arm.
"There seems to be a lot of bets around me..." I mumbled ufortably.
"Don''t take it personally. Us guild staff get bored sometimes after living a life of constant danger. Name''s Bert. Nice to meet ya."
"Syl, nice to meet you too. As Lisa said, I''m here for my Gold promotion test."
"You and half the lot here," Bert grunted, pointing towards arge wooden board. "Those are the people recruiting party members. If they aren''tcking your role, or you don''t find one you like the vibe of, you can sit around here until one does.""Thanks, Bert."
"Just be careful, don''t just ept the first party youe across. You need to trust these people to have your back in the dungeon down there."
I nodded and thanked him again before heading to the board and reading through the various recruitment attempts. There were certainly a lot of them, and it quickly became apparent that most partiescked a healer. I doubted I''d ever fulfill that role unless I lucked across a pink slime core.
Originally, Lisa had said I could''ve fulfilled a caster or rogue role. That changed aftering back with my new advanced caster ss, and she said I should advertise myself as a dedicated caster or a debuffer and caster. However, she said I could still advertise myself for the rogue role if I was desperate.
Either I had bad luck, or most teams already had a dedicated caster, as I couldn''t find anyone actively seeking one out. Two parties were looking for a rogue, so I figured I''d at least talk to them. The bottom of the poster had a tent number to seek out the parties, so I memorized them and left the main tent.
That... Did not go well. After they got over their initial shock of "holy shit, it''s an elf!" when I exined my position, they began trying to find the most polite way of letting me down. The party leader was at least courteous, but he said he didn''t feel like trusting his team''s lives with someone who had only touched a hybrid rogue ss and then promptly abandoned it. I supposed it was understandable, so I left them after thanking them for their time.
The second party... Well. I got practically chased out of the tent. The woman seemed absolutely furious, and I had no idea why. Her other team members had seemed eager for me to join, but then she suddenly turned sour and rejected me outright. Lisa had mentioned that hybrid sses had a sort of stigma against them, but I had no idea it was this bad.
So, without more direct leads, I was forced to wait in the main tent. Since I had time to kill, I started working on my arcane affliction, only briefly pausing when someone inquired about my purpose here or tried to ask me some questions about elves, which I politely refused.
There were one or two recruitment attempts, but they all had the caveat that I''d join their Company uponpletion, which Whitney had warned me against. I wanted to remain a frencer, able to explore where I wanted when I wanted. Honestly, I wished I could''ve just gone and done the dungeon myself, but the point was to prove I was capable of teamwork.
The entire first day was a bust, I was offered to rent a tent, but I politely turned it down and said I''d camp in the forest. Once I was sure I was safe and far away, I melted myself down into a hole and spent the night infy sleep.
I was anticipating another quiet day, but fate must have decided to mess with my expectations. I was suddenly osted by a rather rude young man. He and his group decided to strike while Bert was on break. I reflexively thought this might have been some noble arrogant bullshit again, but when [Identify] told me otherwise, I figured I might have developed a bias.
"So this is the elf whore who''s trying to sleep her way to Gold?" He said with a nasty smirk.
''What?'' I thought to myself. It was such an outrageous im I didn''t even know how to respond.
"And she''s only level four in her ss; she must have been spoon-fed and carried her entire life." His friend imed.
"Hey, maybe if you show us a good time, we''ll carry you through the dungeon," Colin said, pointing towards him and his buddy.
"No," I responded.
"Think about it real carefully, girl. Nobody is going to want to party with such an infamous elf. We might even let you follow our party around if you''re good enough," Ted said with a wink.
"Like a mascot! Brilliant idea." Colinughed with a snort.
"No," I said in a sterner voice. "I''d sooner solo the dungeon than trust myself with your lot."
This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
That seemed to greatly offend Colin, who reached for his sword sheath. "You bitch. Think you''re hot stuff? Better than us humans, huh?"
It took the full might of [Acting] for me not to stare at him in bewildered, bbergasted confusion. Instead, I had a stern, expressionless face.
"I challenge you to a duel!" He shouted loudly for everyone else to hear.
"Unless you''re a coward," Ted added on.
A duel? Honestly, if it got rid of them, I wouldn''t mind, but how would I beat him without killing him? I didn''t really have non-lethal options in my magical arsenal.
''Actually, I could beat him, and that would probably prove my worth to all the adventurers. Then I''ll find a party, no problem,'' I reasoned to myself.
At this point, Bert had returned from his break to see what all the fuss was about. "I wouldn''t do that if I were you." He warned.
"Don''t worry, Bert. I can handle it." I replied.
Bert sighed and gave a shrug. "Make sure it''s official."
"Of course. I want the whole guild to know I beat this elf." Colin said smugly.
"How do duels work?" I asked. "If I hold back my spells, I might take a wound I shouldn''t have."
In reality, I didn''t want to risk an arming off and returning to slime or something simr. Colin was smirking, perhaps thinking this would be even easier for him since I admitted to having no dueling experience.
Bert pointed a meaty finger toward Ted, who flinched. "You have [Deathward], right?"
Ted nodded frantically. "Of course. I''d be a shame of an Archpriest without it."
"Good. [Deathward] them before the duel starts." Bert said with a grunt.
"Hope you won''te up with some excuse when I beat you into the ground." Colin chuckled.
I sighed reluctantly. I''d be ending this as soon as possible. We headed outside and away from the tents. Either they nned this out, or Ted ran wingman to this operation as arge crowd followed to see the spectacle. Soon, arge ring of people surrounded me and Colin.
Bert ordered people to stand back, and there was some slight shuffling, but not much distance was put between them. I immediately wondered if this was some sort of foul y; if the audience got caught up in one of my spells, I''d likely get into trouble. Perhaps they had discovered I was the source of the lightning? Or maybe I was being overly paranoid again, and the audience was merely excited to see two adventurers dueling.
We stood a good distance apart, supposedly to give spellcasters a chance to react in time against a martial opponent. I went through my options while Ted began casting this supposed [Deathward] spell, which he seemed to be dying as much as possible so that more of an audience could gather.
Lightning and Fire were most likely a no-go in terms of coteral damage. Ice and Corrosion left lingering effects, and I wasn''t entirely sure how they would work with a [Deathward]. I could throw a bunch of debuffs and hope [Decay] would take him out, although that''d certainly be unimpressive, and he seemed like the opponent toin about being beaten by such an obscure attack. Which left Arcane and Water. Arcane I only had [Arcane Bolt], and I''d have no benefit from Elementalist or [Elemental Shift].
So, ultimately, I was left with Water. I shifted over some additional cores to water alignment, and my n was to rapid-fire cast the waterser spell, hopefully taking Colin out instantly or forcing him to surrender. Then I spotted it, Ted was casting far more than just [Deathward] on his aplice. I thought I would call foul, but instead, I held my tongue and began my own preparations. [Hex], [Permeable], and [Erode] were stacked up on the unsuspecting Colin, and judging by theck of anyment from spectators or perpetrators, nobody had noticed at all.
Ted tried to pretend he was taking the same length of time to cast [Deathward] on me, but he couldn''t fool my [Mana Conception]. At least he wasn''t stupid enough to not give me a [Deathward], which I had thought was a possibility.
"Right. I officially sanction this duel between Syl and Colin. Till surrender, incapacitation, or whoever has their [Deathward] trigger first." Bert said, sounding very reluctant.
Bert began counting down. Colin unsheathed his de. I gave orders to my cores, all hands on deck; this would need to be the fastest spell construction and firing I''d ever done as soon as Bert shouted go. I was grateful Colin didn''t have Air affinity and [Wind Step]; otherwise, he''d instantly be in my face.
When Bert finished the countdown, it all happened at once. The deluge of Water Mana swirled above my head. The spectators gasped. Colin actually flinched. Three ovepping magical circles formed and instantly shrunk to their minuscule size. Colin burst forward at a surprisingly fast speed. The spell waspleted, and the air screeched as the waterser tore through the air at a downward angle to ensure no audience injury and aimed directly at his chest.
It happened in a blink. Colin had a gaping wound through his entire torso. His eyes were wild in horror and shock. He vomited blood. Someone in the audience screamed. Then, there was a bright sh of magic, and suddenly, the gaping wound was gone as if it never happened. The only evidence it had urred was the clean circle where his armor and underclothing once upied, his vomited blood, and the deep and precise hole where the deadly spell had continued its trajectory.
I wondered if he would cry foul, but instead, he copsed to the ground as if entirely spent. Rather than rushing to his friend''s aid, Ted began screaming and running away. Every witness was eerily silent. While I didn''t expect a standing ovation for my victory, I hadn''t foreseen this awkward and stunned silence at all.
"The winner is Syl," Bert said, breaking the stunned silence. Bert then pointed toward Colin. "Somebody please grab the brat since his friend left him."
There were murmurs; one of therger adventurers hefted Colln up, and everyone began awkwardly leaving. I walked back, unsure of how to handle this oue.
"Told ya it was a bad idea," Bert said as we shuffled back to the tent.
I didn''t respond. I kept trying and failing to understand why my victory had achieved this result. Nobody approached me for the rest of the day.
The next day was more of the same, and I began feeling extremely frustrated with this situation. I was the one challenged; why was it my fault I had won? I didn''t ask Colin to insult me or spout his petty insults and drivel for his crony to try to stack the deck against me. Whispers, terrified nces, and rumors continued to spread around me. I wanted tosh out, but I knew it would make it worse.
I began frantically thinking of solutions. I could likely solo the dungeon, but that wouldn''t meet the so-called requirement. It was a stupid requirement, in my opinion. I also thought maybe I could instead get to the dwarves as Sylvester and abandon going as Syl? Perhaps I could say I wanted to get a silver core for enchanting?
Bert approached my table and sat down, giving a deep sigh. "You scared the shit out of ''em."
"I was the one challenged," I said angrily.
"I know."
"I just wanted to be left alone."
"I know."
"He called me a whore who didn''t earn her rank."
Bert grimaced as he shook his head. "You''repletely in the right. You''d likely be praised if you were anything other than an elf."
"Why?"
Bert sighed deeply before finally responding, "There are a lot of stories about elves from the war. Most people shrug them off when they grow older, knowing it was overblown propaganda or stuff to scare kids into line."
Seeing my confusion, Bert chuckled. "If you don''t go to bed early, the elves wille get you! Stupid shit like that."
"... I see..."
"Yep. And, unfortunately, you kinda brought that irrational fear into reality yesterday. I don''t know much about Water mages, but I''ve never seen one blow a hole through a person before."
"I wanted to end it quickly. I thought if I proved capable, it''d prove I could carry my own weight, that I''d earned my rank," I admitted.
Bert nodded. "Yeah. You can''t afford to take chances as a spellcaster; you''re not a frontline fighter. I understand why you did what you did perfectly, and most people probably agree as well."
"But I''m an elf."
"But you''re an elf."
I sighed. Once again, things couldn''t be simple. I just hoped it would turn around soon, or my ns would be ruined.
Chapter 149: Misfits
Chapter 149: Misfits
There was one silver lining about all this mess, I had plenty of time to kill and continue to practice magic. Kappa had joined my other [Sub-Cores] at reaching the dreaded level five, and I hadpleted my Arcane affliction.
As I delved into the intricacies of the spell, a chilling realization dawned on me. This spell, [Mana Burn], had the potential to harm Trixie. While I prayed I would never have to use it against her, the thought of having it as a weapon against another pixie was a relief.
Just when I thought the day was a lost cause, a figure caught my eye. She was a sight to behold, with a wild mane of fiery red hair and an outfit that could only be described as a loincloth and tunic. But what truly caught my attention were the cat ears perched on her head and therge, bushy wolf tail that swayed behind her.
''Human?'' I questioned immediately.
She looked nervous, her tail swishing, and she ced a bright red apple on the table before me as if it were an offering.
"Please don''t eat me, Miss Elf. I just want a moment of your time," she said nervously, gesturing towards the apple.
"What the hell kind of rumors are being spread about me? I''m not going to eat you." I said with a hint of frustration; her ears twitched.
"Oh, thank goodness. I''d make an awful meal. I''m all stringy and no vor." She said with a nervous chuckle.
I frowned. "Moving on... What did you want to talk about?""Wow, just like that? I didn''t even need to bribe you with more apples?" Pelopi said curiously. Seeing myck of a response, she added a second apple to the table before continuing. "My party needs another member to get through the dungeon. We''ve gotten to the first mini-boss but haven''t beaten it to get to floor two!"
I felt a sense of relief. "I''m looking for a party to conquer the dungeon. I''d dly consider joining yours. Could I meet the rest of your team before making a decision?"
"Of course!" She said, her tail wagging energetically. "Our party is called the Misfits! You''ll fit right in!"
"Misfits?"
"Because we''re a bit of an entric bunch. You''ll see when you meet the other two," Pelopi said.
I grabbed my apples and followed her out of the main tent. She started leading me towards a rather shabby-looking tent near the outskirts of the encampment, which had what looked like a few burn holes in it. Before we entered, she handed me another apple.
"You can give this to Eliza to break the ice. She''s a bit of a weirdo, but I''m sure you''ll love her."
''She is calling someone else a weirdo? Kettle meet pot.''
Pelopi dashed into the tent before I could ask her any further questions. "I''m back, and I''ve brought us a potential party member!"
"Someone actually wants to join us?" A man''s voice came from inside.
"Don''t say that! You''ll scare her off!" Pelopi shouted.
I slowly entered with my guard slightly up.
Inside was a ratherrge man, without even a single hair follicle on his body andpletely bald despite looking only in his early twenties. His skin was littered in scars, and he was wearing some sort of armor that reminded me of the smander I fought, except that it was made out of the skin rather than the scales.
Another girl with long blonde hair and pale skin was lying on a bedroll with a book in her hands. She was wearing a light blue robe that I could see held some minor defense enchantments at a nce.
Upon seeing me, both of them reacted in startlement. Eliza dropped her book on her face, and Ian jumped back a few feet before tripping and stumbling over what looked like arge axe lying on the ground.
"Wow, guys. Way to ruin your first impression!" Pelopi said with a giggle.
"Are you crazy!?" Ian shouted, trying to recover from his stumble. "I don''t want to get eaten in the dungeon or have my organs sttered across the ground! I like them inside of me; that''s where they belong!"
"She already agreed not to eat us," Pelopi said.
"I''m not going to eat anyone!" I shouted with frustration.
"That''s not what the rumors say!" Eliza said.
"Yeah. We heard you sted some young swordsman to pieces." Ian added.
Pelopi was trying to secretly gesture toward the apple in my hand. I sighed and lobbed it toward Eliza, who initially tried to cover her head with her arms. The apple bounced off her head andnded on herp. She gasped when she noticed what it was.
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"Ian. I think we can trust her." Eliza suddenly said.
Ian groaned, and Pelopi giggled.
"I think I''m starting to understand why you''re called the Misfits," I said, shaking my head. I was desperate, but was I this desperate?
"Oh, wait until you hear how weird our partyposition is," Pelopi said, waggling her eyebrows.
"Don''t scare her off already!" Eliza pleaded. Her tone and attitude had literally flipped over a single apple.
"What''s wrong with your party? As far as I can tell, you''re just missing a tank?" I asked.
"No. I''m the tank." Ian said.
I was about to ask how a berserker was the party tank when Pelopi shouted. "Misfits!"
"Exin...?" I asked curiously with a shrug.
"I have taunt skills. I gather everything together and then set myself on fire." Ian said defensively.
"You sound like my Pyromancer friend..." I replied. "You''re just missing a [Fireball]."
"Normally, people scream about me setting myself on fire." Ian chuckled.
"I can''t say it''s the weirdest thing I''ve heard of... But don''t tanks try to not take damage?"
Eliza raised her hand. "That''s because of me. I need him to have damage so I can transfer it to the monsters."
I blinked in confusion. "What? That sounds amazing."
Eliza gave a toothy grin. "I know, right? That''s the power of a Dark Healer! I siphon and transfer damage around!"
"The biggest issue is that she needs a target to take the damage. Her normal healing is kind of atrocious." Ian admitted.
"So Ian takes steady damage from self-immtion in case the monsters can''t hurt him?"
"Yup." Eliza nodded.
"Please tell me you have some form of pain mitigation," I said, almost pleading with Ian.
"One of the first things I got. I''m not a masochist," Ian said as if it were obvious.
"It''s really cool!" Pelopi said. "Eliza fills up her healing buffer with the damage she inflicts; that way, she can heal the real big injuries!"
"Honestly, it sounds pretty amazing. I thought my own ss was impressive, but I''ve never heard of having a healing buffer or healing via damage or even transferring injuries." I admitted.
"Our general strategy is to kill things before they kill us. It usually works well." Ian nodded.
"Except for the dungeon mini-boss. We keep running away because we don''t have enough damage." Eliza said, now crunching away at her apple.
"Well. I can certainly help in the damage department. I can debuff monsters to lower their defenses and resistances, and then I''ve got six different kinds of magic to work with."
"Six? Damn, I thought Pelopi''s four was impressive." Ian replied. "Can you make things weak to Fire?"
"Fire, Ice, Water, Lightning, and then both general defense and magic," I answered.
"If the monsters were weak to fire and my axe, that would be amazing!" Ian said excitedly.
"Wait. I can understand making something weak to like Fire, but how the hell do you just make something weak to magic overall? Or defense?" Eliza asked.
I shrugged. "It''s what the spell does. Think of your general protection enchantment on your robe, except in reverse."
"So if you lowered my defense, and I stubbed my toe, I might break my foot?" Ian asked.
"Maybe not that bad?" I answered, scratching my head; it was a little hard to judge how much of an effect it really was. "In general, it seems to work very well. I usuallybine that with [Sneak Attack] and finish most fights before they start."
"Super elf magical assassin!" Pelopi said with a gasp.
"So you really did blow that guy''s guts out," Ian said a little nervously.
"Does that mean you did seduce a married party?" Eliza asked, her eyebrows waggling suggestively.
"Yes, I beat some guy harassing me in a duel. No, I didn''t seduce anyone." I answered.
"Damn." Ian and Eliza both said at the same time.
"Don''t forget me!" Pelopi said, iling her arms wildly. "So I''m a druid, except magic is hard, so I can only really make nts grow. Instead, I like to w things to death."
"She has four affinities, and she barely uses one..." Ian said, shaking his head. "At least she can make these seedpods that explode when there''s fire. It works well with me."
"And infinite apples." Eliza pointed out, handing Pelopi some apple seeds from her fruity remains.
As weird as their party was, it seemed to be working out for them. I could definitely fill a magical damage dealer role in their group and perhaps a rogue on the side since it''s clear they currently have no method of dealing with traps.
"Well. Looks like I wasted a trip." Another voice said, raising the tent p.
"Whatever it is, we didn''t do it!" Pelopi shouted before leaping backward like a startled cat.
Jet looked extremely confused. "Right... Well, Lisa asked me toe as a favor when she heard from Bert you were having some difficulty finding a party."
"How did you get here so fast?" I asked.
"[Shadow Step]. I can move between any connected shadows." Jet answered.
"I''m starting to feel like there''s a step for everything," I chuckled. Unfortunately, my joke fell t with the others.
"Anyway... It looks like you''ve managed to find a decent party, if a little unorthodox." Jet said with a firm nod.
"Damn. Did you try to recruit a bigshot or something, Pelopi?" Ian asked.
"I mean, she is an elf." Eliza pointed out. "How many elf adventurers do you know?"
"One," Pelopi answered cheerfully.
I cleared my throat, trying to get back on topic. "So what was Lisa''s n? If you don''t mind me asking."
"I was going to throw together a random party and join as an examiner. Any group would jump at the opportunity to have their dungeon run officially examined, and it would stop any further... Incidents."
"Yes! Please examine our run!" Ian shouted frantically.
"Why do we want someone to examine us?" Pelopi asked before I could.
"Assuming we don''t screw up, we''d be basically assured to get promoted if our run was officially signed off," Ian answered.
"Oh! That sounds good. Yes, please!" Pelopi said, giving a short, frantic bow that caused her cat ears to flop forward.
"Huh... I didn''t know it wasn''t a guarantee. I thought you just had to clear the dungeon." I said, scratching my head.
"Heavens no. The only time that happens is if someone behaves exceptionally well above their rank," Jet said, and the way he stared at me gave a hint of what he meant. "Usually, you need to meet a minimum number of quest turn-ins, rmendations from guild staff, well-respected third parties, and so forth."
"Then why are so many people here?" I asked.
"I can answer that," Ian replied. "The dungeon clear is the minimum and often seen as the stepping stone; most people try to get it done first so the guild starts paying attention to them."
"Correct." Jet said.
"Sounds like I really did things out of order." I chuckled.
"From what Lisa has told me. Yes. Yes indeed." Jet answered.
"So, will you join our party?" Pelopi asked, trying to give her best puppy dog eyes.
Jet examined each of us and then shrugged with a smile. "Sure. I''d hate to waste the trip, plus it''ll be fun to see what this party of misfits can do."
"Hey, that''s our group''s name!" Eliza said with a toothy grin.
"Just don''t expect me to carry you. I won''t use my enchanted weapon and will appropriately scale myself down to your level." Jet replied with a chuckle as he ominously sunk into his own shadow. "We leave tomorrow!"
"Damn, that''s creepy." Ian chuckled.
"Damn, that''s creepy cool, you mean." Eliza corrected.
Chapter 150: Fitting in with Misfits
Chapter 150: Fitting in with Misfits
"Okay! Proper introduction time!" Pelopi dered and began pointing one by one at everyone.
"Eliza."
"Ian."
"Syl."
Finally, she pointed to herself. "Pelopi."
I had no doubt they had probably immediately used [Identify] on me, but formally introducing ourselves still felt nice. Which was likely the point Pelopi was trying to make.
"So what can you tell us about yourself, Syl?" Ian asked.
I started briefly exining some of my spells when Eliza held out her hand to stop me. "No, no. This is about you, not what you can do."
Perhaps they noticed my aversion and thus started with themselves to break the ice."So we grew up together in a small vige," Ian said, pointing to himself and Eliza.
"Childhood friends and now a couple," Pelopi added, to which Eliza and Ian groaned.
"Dawnwood. Name aside, it was a real shithole. It pretty much only exists to send lumber and wood to the capital." Ian continued.
"That''s where I''m from," Pelopi said.
I held out my hand to pause the story, an unresolved curiosity now on the tip of my tongue. "Why does everyone call it ''the capital''?"
"It''s cause the name keeps changing!" Pelopi answered.
"Changing? That sounds terribly inconvenient for everyone." I replied with confusion.
"Right... Only our kingdom really does that." Eliza said, scratching her head. "Whoever is the current ruling noble family names it after themselves. It''s sort of a tradition."
"It''s currently the Keaburgs," Pelopi chipped in.
"Suddenly, Stantondale makes a lot more sense..." I muttered.
"Minor nobles who don''t participate in the fight for the capital usually just settle down in a small town or city and rename it," Eliza exined.
"It''s not so bad. At least we aren''t ruled by a never-ending royal family like the Outeatus Kingdom." Ian pointed out.
I had to hide my surprise. I had no idea there even was another human kingdom.
"I used to be from a noble family," Pelopi said.
"You don''t need to be that honest with me..." I said cautiously, mostly because I didn''t want to be that open.
"Don''t worry; she tells everyone about it," Eliza said, shaking her head. "We found her living in the forest like a feral child. We basically raised her ourselves and were forced to take her with us when we left to be adventurers."
"You act like this stray wouldn''t have willingly followed us wherever we went," Ian chuckled.
"Yup!" Pelopi agreed. "So I ran away, lived in a forest, and was found by these two. They seemed nice, so I followed them, and the rest is history!"
"That''s... Extremely abridged." Ian frowned, pinching his brow.
"Your turn." Pelopi dered, pointing to me.
I sighed before beginning. "I basically left the forest to explore the world."
"Where''d you start out?" Eliza asked curiously.
"Stantondale... There was an incident with goblins, and I was found by another adventuring team. I hung out with them, and they exined the guild to me and recruited me. I already enjoyed hunting monsters and getting stronger, so it seemed like the best idea."
"I can''t say I recognize the name. Do you know what its main trade was?" Ian asked.
"Blue slime farming," I answered.
"Ah... One of the mana potion farms." Ian nodded.
"I feel sorry for the poor slimes..." Pelopi said softly.
My opinion of her instantly increased tenfold.
"Then I moved to Kaerlin and got promoted to Silver. I''m trying to get to Gold so I can visit the Dwarven Empire."
"So, kind of like a world tour?" Eliza asked.
"Well... We will see after the Dwarves. I''ve already explored a floating ind." I answered.
All three of them were very impressed with that, and I was barraged by some minor questions about what I had seen and done on the ind. Eliza and Pelopi were extremely excited to hear about unicorns until I described how murderous they were.
"I''d almost say anything after exploring a floating ind would be a downgrade. I don''t want to say you''ve peaked, but..." Ianmented.
"Some friends left for the capital, so maybe I''ll go there," I answered.
"There''s much more exciting ces than that!" Pelopi scoffed.
"So you''ve already beaten the first floor of the dungeon. Do you have any advice? What can we expect?" I asked, trying to change the subject.
"Oh... you mean you don''t know the dungeon''s theme?" Eliza responded, genuinely surprised.
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"No. It seems most people in my life tell me they don''t want to ''ruin the surprise.''" I answered.
"I''m all for surprises, but this doesn''t seem like an appropriate one," Eliza said curiously. "Imagine if the dungeon''s theme was winter or ice, and you didn''t prepare warm clothes and appropriate supplies."
"There is a chance I forgot to ask... I do tend to get... Distracted." I answered, being a little honest.
Pelopi giggled and nodded as if perfectly understanding my exnation. I wondered if I should be worried about our budding kindred spirit.
"Well, you''re either lucky or unlucky, depending on how you look at it since this dungeon''s theme is Mutation," Eliza answered.
"Mutation? Like monster evolutions?" I asked.
"Yes, exactly. Each floor has a different Mutation, and every monster on the floor will have that Mutation."
"So there''s a big luck factor involved. Our first time, we thought we were very lucky; the first floor was nothing but Swarms," Ian exined with a big grin. "I basically got to set myself on fire and watch as they all died around me; it was pretty awesome!"
"Then we reached the mini-boss, who guards the second floor andbines the first and second-floor Mutation," Eliza said, looking quite upset. "And that was where our luck ran out... One nce at the guardian, and we ran."
"Really? That bad?" I asked curiously. I couldn''t really think of anything I''d run away from unless maybe I saw Simon guarding the floor.
"Vtile... Meaning they explode when they die." Eliza answered.
"Oh... Oh!" I eximed as I realized what that meant. "Combined with Swarm, that feels like the worst possiblebo."
"I don''t know if you can get a more horriblebination. Well, at least for our party." Ian admitted.
"Quite different to the undead dungeon I did." I pointed out.
"That''s why the guild likes it as a test. You don''t know what you''ll be up against since it changes daily. We could have picked a different dungeon, but beating this one not only ticks the box but also gives you a gold star," Eliza exined.
"I wonder if that''s why Lisa sent me here. If I had this one on my record, it would have made my early promotion more eptable."
"So. To answer your original question, unfortunately, we won''t know what to expect until we enter tomorrow. So be prepared for anything," Ian shrugged.
"And with me on the team, you don''t have to worry about food, at least!" Pelopi said cheerfully, producing more apples.
"Yeah. If you can stomach apples, we have food sorted. So just water."
"If you don''t like apples, it might be a deal breaker for us working together," Eliza said sternly.
"I''m perfectly fine with apples," I answered under Eliza''s intense gaze. "And I can provide fresh water since it is one of my affinities. I''m surprised Pelopi can''t?"
As if to answer my question, Pelopi cast [Water Orb]. Instead of the pure and fresh appearance I was used to, it looked like brownish-greenish swamp water.
"Magic is hard..." Pelopi said with dismay.
"Do not drink that... You''ll be in the toilet for days." Ian said with a look of horror.
"Somehow, even boiling it doesn''t fix it... It''s truly cursed." Eliza added with a shudder.
I cast the spell myself and held it for them to see. They stared at it with strange astonishment.
"I don''t think I''ve seen water that clean-looking before." Ian pointed out.
"Supposedly, I have extremely high purity mana; at least, that''s what the guild said."
"So Pelopi''s is either impure or something else?" Eliza asked.
"Honestly, I have no idea... I thought purity only mattered for enchanting." I replied, then scratched my head as I tried to puzzle together something even remotely usible. "If I had to hazard a guess, I''d say it''s like her Earth and Nature mana are bleeding in?"
"I hope that doesn''t mean Lightning is bleeding into your Water." Ian chuckled.
"Screw Lightning. She said one of her affinities was Corrosion." Eliza replied although I could tell she meant it as a joke with the tone and apanying grin.
"See. This is why I ran away. The magic stuff is way too hard. I had four magic tutors, three of which would shout at me for getting it wrong." Pelopi said, swishing her tail. "Being a noble sucked. Who cares about some fancy extra name."
"Forgive me for asking, but aren''t your parents worried about you?" I asked.
"No. They found me when I registered for the Adventurers Guild and promptly disowned me. Apparently, I brought shame into the family tradition. Good riddance," Pelopi growled.
"Oh. I''m sorry." I replied a little awkwardly.
"Anything you can tell us about elves?" Eliza asked curiously.
I hid my flinch behind a pondering scratch. I could make some educated guesses based on the emblem and traits I had read and some of the little bits about the elf war I had picked up on from others. I could''ve said nothing, but it might turn around and bite me if I kept dodging this question.
"I don''t know howmon knowledge this is, so forgive me if I''m repeating myself." I started, and now I had their undivided attention, which was a little ufortable. "But Elves generally follow a chosen path, such as mastery of the bow, magic, nature, and so forth."
Unfortunately, with my iplete profile, I could only be vague. I''d only seen the [Elven Marksmanship] trait after all.
"The biggest being magic since our progenitor was a Master Magus, which is the path I''m also following. I have dabbled in archery and monster taming, though."
This was an extremely minor dabble, especially with thetter. I''d only grabbed the ss and one skill. Nobody interrupted me, so I must have been doing well so far.
"Elves are also seen as guardians of nature and almost universally have an affinity with Nature magic. We''re also deeply in tune with our bodies, and while a little on the frail side, we are highly dexterous and agile." I said, pulling inspiration from the [Nature Commune] and [Elven Reflexes] descriptions.
"I want to be a guardian of nature!" Pelopi said, causing Eliza to giggle.
"That was great. I only heard from my great uncle, who said the elves turned an entire forest into a living weapon. He used to joke that he became a lumberjack to take revenge against the trees." Ian said with a chuckle.
I nodded. "I''ve seen extremely impressive nature magic bringing trees and anything nt to life. Unfortunately, I don''t have a Nature affinity." I said regretfully.
"I''d give you mine if I could. Other than growing apples, it''s very uncooperative." Pelopi said with a frown.
"If you didn''t have Nature affinity, you wouldn''t be able to be a Druid, though." Eliza pointed out.
"Crap, I forgot about that! Sorry, Syl, I''ll have to rescind my offer." Pelopi said, sticking out her tongue teasingly.
I couldn''t help but chuckle. "Don''t worry, maybe I''ll pick it up with my next ascension."
"Yeah, you seem to be on a roll with that. I don''t think I''ve ever seen someone with such a high race level." Ian pointed out.
"It''s all of you I don''t understand," I replied. "Everyone I talk to seems to hate their race levels. But I suppose that maybe elves are blessed in that regardpared to humans?"
"Yeah... Other than some attribute boosters or resistances, I can''t say I''ve ever seen anything worthwhile." Ian admitted.
"Speaking of levels, your ss is advanced, right?" Eliza asked.
"Yes, and from what I''ve been told, it''s extremely rare," I answered. "Judging by your levels, I''m assuming you''re still intermediate?"
"Yes, although we''ve all qualified for a generic advanced ss, we''re waiting for a more specific or rarer one before we take the plunge into advanced sses," Eliza answered.
"I received simr advice," I replied with a nod. "I had the Assassin ss unlocked for a long time but only took a level in it after I had alreadypleted a few levels in Elementalist."
"So you are a super elf magical assassin!" Pelopi gasped.
"Maybe without the super unless I manage to get an Umbral affinity," I teased with a wink.
Eliza joined in with the teasing. "Yeah... I''d have to agree after seeing that Jet fellow disappear into his shadow."
''I wonder if there''s a shadow or umbral slime? Maybe ck? Unless that''s Death affinity... Assuming there even is a ck slime. I''m sure there''s at least one for every color, right?''
We chatted for a bit longer, mostly while I followed them around as they restocked some supplies from the various vendors. Honestly, the whole dungeon business seemed extremely lucrative here, considering therge setup, despite being nowhere near a city or town. Perhaps it was due to the variety of an ever-changing dungeon? I wondered if there was any chance for me to get a new slime in the dungeon, and if so, I just hoped it didn''t have some strange mutation that would make it unharvestable.
We eventually said our farewells in the early evening, even though I was offered a spot in their tent. I would enjoy myst night in myfy bedtub before I was stuck in the dungeon for who knows how long.
Chapter 151: Into the Dungeon
Chapter 151: Into the Dungeon
After waking up and preparing myself, I headed towards the party''s tent. I had expected them to still be sleeping, but when I arrived, they were busy folding it away and packing it into a rather poor-looking storage bag. [Rune Inspection] told me it was close to the end of its life, maybe a month or two at best.
"Might want to get that reced soon." I pointed out.
"Yeah... I wish they weren''t so expensive. Hopefully, we''ll have a good haul of loot in the dungeon." Ian grumbled.
"No promises, but I might be able to help with that. I''ve got a high level in [Dissection] if there are any valuable monsters, and my [Dungeoneer] emblem increases the chance of enchanted loot." I exined.
"Wow, you actually leveled up [Dissection]," Eliza said, gnawing on an apple like a squirrel.
"I tried. I thought it would be easy if I used animal ws." Pelopi said, then shuddered. "I was wrong."
"Blood and guts everywhere..." Eliza shuddered as well.
"That''s a pretty cool-sounding emblem," Ian said, ignoring the other two. "I''ve heard of simr things, although apparently, they can sometimes upset the dungeon."
"Correct," a disembodied voice said before Jet slinked out of the shadows. "The [Dungeoneer] emblem basically strongarms the dungeon into expending more energy on loot, which it is sometimes not too happy about. Although it''s not nearly as bad as someone with a looting skill, they really hate those.""Lisa mentioned a looting skill as well. Isn''t it just like an instant [Dissection]?" I asked.
"Yes and no. It does have that function, but it also turns the monster''s dead essence into a drop." Jet answered,
"And considering dungeons feed on essence, that''s like stealing its meal?" Ian asked.
"Correct again," Jet said with a smile. "Has everyone got everything? Is there no need forst-minute supplies? Remember, we will likely be camping after each boss."
"As ready as I''ll ever be," I responded.
"All good on our end," Ian said, tying the bag closed.
Before we left, we had a small debate about who should be the party leader. It was eventually settled on Ian. I didn''t want to be evaluated as a leader, and I confirmed that I was trying to be a solo operative and fit in where needed rather than leading my own group.
Ian, Eliza, Pelopi, Jet, Syl.>
We had briefly discussed whether we should find a final party member, but Jet rmended against it.
"The Misfits are an officially registered party; to im proper credit, they need over half of the party members to be from their group." Jet exined.
If they were a proven registered party, then they would find it easier to get group quests assigned to them or attract prospective members or even temporary members. Name or party recognition was apparently super important for adventurers.
We headed to the giant hole in the ground, where I saw a spiral walkway dug into the ground. There were also ropes if you wanted to skip walking and rappel down, but we took the safer option. When we reached the bottom, there were seven doorways, five of which were shut tight.
"Looks like lots of parties are still in the dungeon." Jet noted.
"Who''s going to pick the door?" Eliza asked.
"Flip a coin?" Ian suggested, and the rest of us all nodded, except for one.
"Boo. That''s not fun." Pelopi whined.
"Why are there seven different doors?" I asked curiously.
"This dungeon is big enough to have seven different groups andyouts. Since its theme is Mutation, each door and its respective floors are cycled to a different one daily." Jet answered.
"That way, you can''t easily buy info as well," Ian grumbled.
"Nope. That''s why it''s such a respected dungeon for tests," Jet pointed out. "It''s almost like the dungeon is cooperating with us."
"Isn''t it trying to make itself as deadly as reasonably possible to im the unprepared?"
"Well... Sure... That''s the real answer, but it''s nice to think the dungeon is on our side, weeding out the unworthy." Jet chuckled.
I thought back to Simon. He made it seem more like a chore, but perhaps this dungeon master was different? Did the guild even know about dungeon masters? Maybe it was a high-rank or staff-only secret?
We flipped a coin and entered one of the doors; it closed behind us when Jet pulled a lever near the door. He exined it as preventing outside interference, which this dungeon apparently hated. Very different to how Simon behaved.
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Weapons were drawn, and we established a walking formation for the party. I was quite surprised when Pelopi''s arms grew fur and giant bear ws, but nobody else even nced at them. Jet pulled out a handheld crossbow made of many interlocking mechanisms and a simple durability enchantment. Eliza held a staff, and finally, Ian wielded his giant two-handed axe.
The entrance to this dungeon was like a cave with glowing fungus on the roof, far different from the crypt and undead theme of Simon''s dungeon. We trodded carefully along the passageway, heading slightly downwards until we entered arge room. I was nearly blinded by the [Identify] notifications, so I quickly ordered Beta not to show them.
Inside were a multitude of what looked like... Goblins? No, they weren''t just goblins; they looked like goblins mashed with another random monster. There was a goblin wolf, a goblin bear, and even a goblin with an octopus for a head! Its tentacles were wrapped around tiny little rusty shanks. Hell, one goblin was literally made out of fire.
"I... Don''t think I''ve ever seen this Mutation before?" Eliza questioned.
"Talk after the fight," Ian said as he rushed into the room. His taunt skills were clearly triggered, and every eye suddenly fixated on him. Then he let out a roar and suddenly self-immted.
Jet slinked into the shadows and began taking half-hearted potshots with his crossbow. I was reminded he did say he wouldn''t carry us. Eliza cast a spell that seemed to be slowly siphoning a dark aura of mana directly off Ian. Pelopi growled and leaped toward the octopus goblin.
In hindsight, we should have talked battle tactics, I could have spread a debuff around before engaging, but perhaps that was too much for the first encounter on the first floor. I started pinpointing the threats that would be difficult for the others to fight, starting with the fire goblin.
I cycle cast [Permeable] into [Torrent], firing a deadly water beam directly downward from the ceiling like an orbital strike. The fire goblin shrieked before it was pierced straight through by the waterser and then rapidly dissolved like a dying elemental.
''Is that what it was? Half goblin, half fire elemental?''
That was when I noticed spider goblins crawling on the roof. Some were spitting webs, while others were lobbing green blobs of poison. Ian didn''t even bother dodging the webs, as they burnt on contact with his burning body. However, he was forced to dodge the green blobs, and most annoyingly, some of them seemed to be ignoring his taunt, going for sneak attacks against Pelopi and Eliza.
"Syl, Jet, handle the ranged enemies!" Ian shouted.
"On it!" I shouted.
I had [Conductive] cast on any of the poison spitters and then lobbed an empowered [Ball Lightning] starting on the roof and gliding forward as if sweeping across the roof. The shocking arcs it generated went straight toward the intended targets, but the orb rapidly shrank as it spent its energy, so I worked on a second and third orb. Soon, lightning-charred spider goblins were dropping from the roof.
Meanwhile, Pelopi had torn apart the octopus goblin and was now dueling the bear goblin. She had already torn its one arm off in a savage disy of power. Eliza threw a ck mana projectile against a wolf goblin, trying to sneak around to ambush Pelopi. It struck, and a hint of golden mana aura tricked off of the wound toward Pelopi. I made a note to ask about that cause it seemed really cool.
Ian kept tanking with his body. I couldn''t help but think Roderick would be mightily upset at how, instead of mitigating with a shield or armor, he bodyblocked everything with his raw flesh. Admittedly, he must have been extremely tough, as even some of the goblins'' fangs or rusted weapons hardly affected the man. Instead, getting that close would actively burn them or meet their end on his giant axe.
Any wounds he did suffer were closed up with dark energy; it was a rather unpleasant form of healing, very different from Evan''s. Rather than a golden glow of soft, warming light, instead tiny ck tendrils would form and almost actively stitch the wound closed in a rather fleshy and gruesome disy.
That only left Jet, who was still only halfheartedly shooting at a monster. I was quite curious; whenever he fired a bolt, the monster seemed to be hit twice. Delegating mybat to some [Sub-Cores] so I could investigate further, I eventually discovered, thanks to [Mana Conception], that there was a faint trickle of umbral mana in the shadow of his crossbow bolts. Whenever that umbral-enchanted shadow bolt hit the monster''s shadow, the monster would react as if struck by a real bolt.
''I hit your shadow, so you take damage. That''s insane!'' I mentally shouted at the absurdity.
I obviously recalled Trixie''s words about not being too envious of others, especially when I had so much going on myself, but whatever was going on with his Umbral affinity seemed extraordinarily fascinating.
It didn''t take much longer for us to finish off the rest of the strange goblin monsters. Then, we regrouped and had a small post-battle celebration.
"That went really well!" Pelopi said, her bloody bear arms turning back into her dainty human ones.
"Despite their oddity, it wasn''t that much risk," Eliza said. "I didn''t even need to spend my holy pool."
"Yeah, this first floor seems quite good so far," Ian said with a big grin. I just hope the second floor doesn''t have some nasty surprises. Do you have any idea what this floor even is?"
"It''s the Merged mutation." Jet exined after he reappeared from collecting any undamaged crossbow bolts. "It just takes two or more monsters and mashes them together. Usually, each room will have a primary monster; in this case, it was goblins, and then every goblin will be Merged with a random other monster."
"I would have called it the Chaos Mutation," Pelopi said.
Jet shrugged.
"We should hurry. If we''re fast enough between battles, I can keep my holy pool from leaking, and we can hit the boss with a full tank." Eliza said.
"What about looting?" Ian asked.
"Cut off any ws or fangs and throw them to me, I''ll properly harvest them tonight. My storage doesn''t let things rot." I said.
Ian let out an impressed whistle, and everyone quickly got to work, hacking off limbs as quickly as possible and bringing them to me. Pelopi handed me the entire octopus head of the goblin.
"Can you store this for me?" Pelopi asked. "If I''m lucky, I can use a tentacle or two to add it to my beast transformations."
"Sure," I replied, hoping to keep any leftovers. I hadn''t gotten an octopus profile yet, and I was curious if these Merged monsters would even give me one. Their unknown [Identify] profile caused me to have some doubts.
"How does that even work?" I asked curiously as a follow-up.
"I have to do a ritual where I meditate on the beast, ingest some of it raw, and then, if I''m lucky, I can awaken it within me," Pelopi exined. "It has to be a non-magical monster, so no unicorns or dragons for me..."
"Why do you even want tentacles?" Ian asked, scratching his bald head.
Pelopi wiggled her fingers. "Tentacles! Imagine what I can do with them."
Eliza nodded sagely. "I understand."
I also found myself nodding; my [Pseudopods] were sometimes wonderfully useful. I wouldn''t be alive here today without them.
"What?" Ian asked, looking bbergasted.
Our rapid advance into the dungeon brushed over his confusion.
This would be fun.
Chapter 152: First Floor
Chapter 152: First Floor
"So what''s this holy pool you mentioned?" I asked as we continued to move forward. "If you don''t mind me asking, that is."
"I don''t mind. It''s a bit weird, and as the group healer, I want you to believe you''re in good hands," Eliza responded. "So, imagine I have two buckets. When I use Dark healing on someone, I fill up the one bucket with Dark Energy. Then I can use that Dark energy to cast offensive spells; you might have seen me casting [Dark Bolt]."
I nodded.
"Right. So when I damage something with Dark energy, it gets ''Purified'' into Holy energy, which fills up my other bucket. I can use that energy for big or quick heals." Eliza exined.
"That sounds incredibly useful," I responded. "What''s stopping you from just keeping them both full?"
"Well... Both buckets have holes; if I don''t use them quickly enough, they start to leak into me. When the Holy bucket leaks, it heals me like a soft regen. Which is pretty great, in all honesty. However, when the Dark bucket leaks, I take the injuries stored in it. You had your stomach cut open? My stomach starts to rupture."
"Holy shit. That sounds dreadful." I replied in honest shock. Talk about a brutal healing method.
Eliza nodded. "That''s why I try to spend the Dark pool as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, I can''t heal normally without spending my Holy pool, so I''m incentivized to generate it as quickly as possible."
"And let me guess, you need Mana to ess the buckets?" I asked, after puzzling together how I felt like her ss worked."Yeah. If I''m ever without Mana, I can be in for some trouble if my Dark pool isn''t empty." Eliza admitted.
I pulled off my Mana Regeneration ring and handed it to her, "You can borrow this for the dungeon."
She looked surprised, then shocked. "Are you sure? What about your own Mana?"
I chuckled. "Not to brag, but Mana is one of the things I seldom have to worry about."
"Is that an elf thing?" Pelopi asked, her ears perked up.
"You could say that," I said with a wink.
"Damn. I want to be an elf." Pelopi said, her tail swishing frantically.
"Heads up! Next room ahead." Jet interrupted our conversation.
Surprisingly, there were only two monsters this time, but they were both huge. They looked like giant bullmen, except one looked like he was made out of bark. The other had the lower half of a horse; it looked absolutely ridiculous.
"Minotaurs?" Ian asked.
"I think so," Eliza replied.
"That one looks like a treant," I said, pointing to the wood one.
"And the other one looks like a Centaur. Which is kind of funny considering Minotaurs are half bull and half man, so we have half bullman and half horseman."
"So half man, quarter bull, quarter horse?" I asked.
The group muffled theirughter. Even Jet smirked.
"Tanking both might be a problem; those giant weapons look dangerous," Ian admitted.
"Let''s focus on the half-tree one. I''ll debuff it, and it should go down quickly. I''ll also try freezing the other one to maybe give us more chance, but no promises how effective that will be."
"I can also help try to restrain the horse one." Jet admitted.
"Sounds good, like a good damage race to me," Pelopi said excitedly.
"Our specialty." Eliza winked.
I started casting all my debuffs from outside of the room before we entered. [Hex] and [Erode] for both monsters and then [mmable] and [Frigid] respectively. Then I gave a thumbs up, and Ian rushed into the room and charged towards the treetaur. He ignited midcharge and tried to m his axe into it, but the monster blocked with its own weapon.
Pelopi joined the fray and started trying to hack into its rear with her ws. Meanwhile, Jet and I had to tie up the other one quickly. I began casting [Ice Patch] to hopefully ruin its traction and then began firing [Icicle] spells from behind. It bellowed in rage as the ice slowly crawled over it from the piercing icy projectiles stabbed into its body and galloped forward with fury. [Ice Patch] weirdly didn''t seem to be affecting it much, and that was when its own shadow seemed to reach out and trip it.
"Damn, it''s a lot sturdier than it looks." Jet grunted as I saw him looking like he had just run two entire marathons.
''Yay for cool Umbral skills,'' I thought before firing a few [Water Orb] spells to soak the horsebullman and then firing more [Icicle] spells at its four legs. When I saw how well thebination of water and ice worked, I mentally thanked Trixie.
I nced at the other group and saw Ian''s arm knitting back together, but thankfully, the treetaur looked even worse. Looking more charcoal than wood at this point, Pelopi was ripping it apart limb by limb, and Ian kept hacking at it with his axe held in one hand.
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Eliza brought down a ck spell that looked almost like a scythe on the enemy, nearly hacking off its head entirely before dissipating and gushing out arge burst of that golden holy energy. I briefly wondered if the type of damage she absorbed affected the form and appearance of her offensive spells.
Ian let out a roar, and with clearly practiced maneuvering, both Pelopi and Eliza backed off before he literally exploded. As the mes died down, there were only a few smoldering remains of the treetaur, and Ian was immediately wrapped in a golden light as his numerous and severe burn wounds began to vanish. The three turned and began to rush over to join us before pausing and staring at the almost entirely frozen other monster.
"Well, shit. That''s terrifying." Eliza chuckled. "Remind me to never get on the bad side of a Cryomancer."
"Super elf magical assassin," Pelopi murmured.
"Yes and no." Jet said. "I''ve worked with a Cryomancer before, and I''ve definitely seen them do simr things, although I admit it usually takes longer than this."
"It''s my debuff; it makes them weaker to both ice damage and freezing," I answered.
"Yes! That was amazing!" Pelopi cheered. "I''ve never seen my ws do so much damage before."
"My axe and mes, too; that monster might as well have been made of paper and coated in mmable oil." Ian nodded.
"I''m d to see you are learning the power of having a good support ss. Combining debuffs and buffs can make or break a party." Jet started exining before a notification interrupted him.
"You''re honestly calling that support work." Eliza pointed at the now-dead monster and giggled.
"Well... She''s a bit special." Jet admitted.
"A bit," Ian said with emphasis, staring nkly at Jet.
"Jet tripped and restrained the monster for me with his shadows. It basically ignored my [Ice Patch] spell." I pointed out. "Also, my advanced ss has been a massive power jump for me."
Jet cleared his throat. "Indeed. Thank you for pointing that out. And yes, you''re all still in your intermediate sses."
"So what can we harvest from them?" Pelopi asked; I was grateful for the subject change.
"Probably just their weapons. Maybe their horns?" Ian suggested.
I gave a lookover with [Dissection] and nodded in confirmation. It was a little grim decapitating and throwing in a frozen minotaur head into storage, as well as the charred remains of the other head. At the same time, I managed to throw in a few other frozen chunks while the others were coordinating the giant weapons into their storage bags. I was really hopeful for a new profile.
Also, I gained a level from the first minotaur the others killed. I looked over and frowned at my notification.
On the one hand, I was happy that it looked like I''d gain trait points for those owed levels. On the other hand, I was slightly concerned that I didn''t gain a level in my ss. I knew it was an advanced ss and needed more experience, not to mention sharing with the party, but surely it would have gained one level by now?
''Is Gramps stealing all my experience towards my owed race levels? Is he upset I spent all that time enchanting?'' I wondered to myself. I hoped I would be proven wrong after the next fight.
"Hey, we got a chest drop!" Pelopi shouted excitedly.
"The first floor rarely drops loot, though?" Ian asked curiously.
"Looks like Syl''s emblem is already strongarming the dungeon." Eliza joked.
"I''ll check it for traps," Jet said. "Syl,e help me double-check since you used to be a rogue hybrid."
"Sure." I agreed and joined him at the chest. I watched him pull out his set of thieves'' tools and inspect the box.
"Looks like the others don''t even realize the real surprise." Jet said in a hushed voice.
"What do you mean?" I whispered back.
"I had my suspicions when you cast those [Ball Lightning] spells in the first room, but all your [Icicle] spells from behind the minotaur really sealed the deal." Jet exined.
I tried to puzzle out what he meant, then realized he was perhaps talking about my changing the origin point of my spells. "Do you mean moving the anchor point for my spells?"
"Is that what you call it?" Jet asked with genuine curiosity. "Well. It definitely wasn''t on your guild file. Admittedly, I don''t know too much about spellcasting, but I''ve definitely seen Lisa cast [Ball Lightning] and my share of [Icicle] spells, but they''ve always originated from the Mage."
I opened my mouth to respond, but Jet held out a finger to pause me. "You aren''t in trouble. I''m just letting you know that only elite members of the Mage''s Guild usually do something like that. Hell, it''s one of the things they brag about against the Adventurer''s Guild. I assume you haven''t joined their guild in your floating ind absence?"
"No. I didn''t join the Mage''s Guild." I replied.
"Which means you figured it out without being legally bound by them," Jet replied, releasing a soft chuckle as he shook his head. "You could earn a lot of clout if you shared that within the Adventurer''s Guild."
"I... I''m not sure if I can." I said hesitantly. I probably could share it; Trixie hadn''t said to share that, only my ss. However, I didn''t want the knowledge and learning methodology of it to somehow link back to the pixie. I owed her that much, at least.
Jet nodded. "I understand. I just thought I''d put it out there, especially if you might have shared it for free. Rather, at least earn your worth, ya know?"
"Thanks for the suggestion and the advice."
"No problem. Lisa is a good friend who told me to look out for you. I can sort of see why now." Jet chuckled. "Anyway, let''s pop this bad boy open. There are no traps, but it is locked."
He twisted his tool with a single fluid motion, and there was a multitude of satisfying clicks as the chest opened.
"I can cheat with my shadow." Jet said with a wink as he walked away from the box. Inside was a singr bracer.
I picked it up and chuckled as I tossed it towards Ian. "I know you have the whole take damage thing going on, but I think this might stop you from losing your arm next time."
He clumsily caught the bracer, not expecting the toss, and looked it over. Eliza looked it over and then nodded in agreement.
"Please do. I don''t want to see your arm lopped off." Eliza admitted.
Ian nodded and put it on, and with a flex of his arm, a transparent tiny buckler of a shield appeared floating near his arm.
"Woah! Ghost shield!" Pelopi said before throwing a rock at it.
"Hey! Watch it!" Ianined just as the rock struck the shield and harmlessly bounced off.
"It kind of reminds me of the [Aegis] spell," I said, demonstrating it. "However, it doesn''t look like it costs incrementally more mana the longer you hold it."
"It doesn''t look nearly as strong as that spell either." Eliza pointed out.
"Still better than nothing. If it saves your arm even once, it''s worth it." Jet said.
"You guys sure I should have this?" Ian asked.
"I''m not the one on the frontline," I admitted.
"Don''t look at me. My arms turn into bear ws. I can''t wear something like that." Pelopi said.
"Guess it''s settled then," Eliza said, patting Ian on his bald head.
"I just hope it doesn''t burn and break," Ian muttered.
"It shouldn''t... It''s enchanted for defense and durability." I said.
"Plus, it''s dungeon loot, which makes it extra special." Jet added. "They usually have extra effects even our best enchanters can''t replicate yet."
"Huh... Cool." Ian said, looking at the bracer with some newfound awe in his eyes.
"Less talking, more killing! We gotta kill the boss before Eliza empties herself." Pelopi shouted and started heading towards the exit.
"Oh shit. Right." Ian said and started hurrying after her.
We rushed after the crazy druid.
Chapter 153: First Roadblock
Chapter 153: First Roadblock
We managed to catch up with Pelopi before we reached the next room. Ian was a little upset by her tomfoolery but soon forgave her.
"Aren''t you worried about traps?" I asked.
"The first floor doesn''t have traps," Jet exined. "Although it is better to be safe than sorry."
"Is that a universal dungeon rule or just for this one?" I asked.
"This dungeon specifically, although it''s quitemon for most multi-floor dungeons. Obviously, the bigbyrinth maze dungeons are only a single floor, so the traps are there from the beginning."
"Also... You didn''t have a rogue in your party." I said, pointing to Ian. "How exactly did you expect to get past the second floor?"
"Well, originally, we nned on mostly farming the first-floor mini-boss," Ian exined. "Although we did consider me being a human trap detector."
"Please never do that in the future. I say as both guild staff and a loyal member of the rogue ss," Jet said authoritatively.
"Yes, sir..." Ian grumbled, causing Pelopi and Eliza to giggle together.The next room we had to deal with was a small group of ogres. They were smaller than the minotaurs but arger pack, and they had several random monsters smashed together with them. The most troublesome had clearly been merged with a smander and seemed to almost copy Ian in setting itself on fire. Both were at a stalemate in dealing damage, so we mostly left them to wail at each other while we cleaned up the rest of the room.
The most unfortunate of the random monsters was an ogre merged with possibly a harpy, griffon, or another feathered monster. Despite having massive wing arms, it couldn''t fly at all and just pped desperately in an attempt to soar towards us. It promptly died while pping like an idiot.
Once again, ice yed a big role in our victory, and I got to show off my versatility in targeting the monsters'' weaknesses. We chopped off what parts we could before rushing to the next room. I had assuredly sneaked a piece or two extra into my storage for slime food. Much to my regret, I had gained no levels, so I was beginning to suspect my built-up experience debt.
The next room made me wonder if I had already upset the dungeon. We faced yetis as the group theme; giant white wooly monsters entirely immune to ice. The pack was smaller again, clearly a much bigger threat individually than the ogres, but still not at the minotaur level again. This time, I got to bring out the [Fire Magic] and gleefully joined Ian in setting them on fire.
Other than a single iconic enemy per room, most of them seemed entirely random in their monster distribution. That led to one of the yetis having giant, meaty crab ws instead of hands, so it immediately snapped its own weapon in half before charging at us. The truly unfortunate yeti, however, was one joined with some form of vine nt monster, and it burnt spectacrly when it made contact with Ian. The troublesome enemy for the room was a yeti made partially out of granite, clearly merged with either an elemental or a golem and covering for its weakness to Fire.
We spent quite a long time wailing on it until it eventually died. Arguably, I should have used [Water Magic] and sted it with the deadly water beams, but at the time, I couldn''t think of a way to safely use them in coordination with two party members fighting and dodging in meleebat with it. So, taking the simpler option, I swapped to using [Acid Dart] despite not having any of my elemental advantages.
''Seriously, Gramps? I''m going to tell Mother you''re stealing my Elementalist experience!'' I mentally threatened the void.
"The mini-boss is likelying up next," Ian announced while we were looting what we could.
"What can we expect?" I asked curiously.
"It''ll mostly be focused on this floor''s theme but have a minor effect from the next floor," Ian answered.
"How would that apply to this Mutation?" Eliza wondered aloud.
"It''ll be three or four monsters pped together at a minimum." Jet answered.
"So, another horsebullman?" I joked.
"That would be great! That rock yeti was not fun..." Pelopi mumbled, chewing on one of her horribly misshapen bear ws.
"That certainly would be the least dangerous option." Jet agreed.
"Which means we definitely should expect something much worse." Eliza pointed out.
"Boo..." Pelopi grumbled.
"Well, I''m almost full on Holy energy, so I got plenty of room for big heals," Eliza said, causing everyone to ready their weapons and nce towards the passageway.
We cautiously ran through the passage until we reached a fancily engraved archway with glowing sigils.
"Boss time!" Ian said excitedly.
Unfortunately, we couldn''t take a sneak peek at what we would encounter, as they would spawn once we all entered the room. I could see a massive locked door in the distance, which would only open once we defeated the boss and led us to the second floor.
"Remember, retreat is an option," Jet pointed out. We all nodded to his wee advice.
Even the final boss of this dungeon apparently wasn''t a lock-in fight, but we were all warned that in future dungeons, that did be a normal condition, and very rarely would a high-level dungeon spare you if you couldn''t handle its final challenge.
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We entered the room, fully battle-ready, when our foe dropped from the ceiling out of nowhere. It appeared to be a giant scorpion made of both molten rock and ice. Despite being the boss of the floor, it was about the size of the minotaur-centaurbo and only slightly bigger than the earthshaker bear.
Something about it seemed odd, but I couldn''t put my finger on it. Ultimately, we just needed to kill it, so I discarded that nagging feeling in the back of my mind.
"Wow. The dungeon really hates you, Syl." Eliza joked.
"Scorpion! I want its ws and tail!" Pelopi shouted cheerfully.
"Focus!" Ian shouted as he taunted the boss and charged forward to grab its attention.
I started my debuff cycle; I was going to throw absolutely everything at this monster just in case. Perhaps I could even seal the deal with a well-timed [Decay]. Obviously, I started with [Erode] into [Hex] to immediately begin benefiting the others, as I doubted they cared if I made a likely ice-resistant monster marginally weak to it.
Pelopi shifted into a more feral form, her legs bing wolf-like and digitigrade with dark grey fur to match. Even her teeth elongated into fangs, although I doubted she would be taking a bite out of either side of the elemental scorpion.
Jet slinked to the room''s edges and began providing ranged support with his double-hitting crossbow bolts, aiming for the tail whenever possible. Since I was going through my routine at this point, I thought about what hitting twice with one attack could potentially imply. Assuming he had [Sneak Attack] or better, did that mean he received the bonus damage twice?
Ian set himself on fire as usual; even if it did little damage to the monster, he would still provide a constant supply of Dark energy for Eliza to siphon and use offensively. However, atter levels, if his resistance bes too high, they might need to figure out a new trick.
All my debuffs were in ce just as I watched Ian use his new ghost shield to block an iing strike from that menacing-looking tail. I wondered if it was poisonous, possibly a new sample for me to grab after the battle?
Pelopi was pouncing around, trying to strike at its legs to reduce its mobility, so I chose to join Jet in trying to target the tail. I shifted my primary core to Lightning, and after a quick [Thunder Step] to reposition myself, I fired a [Lightning Bolt] directly at the tail.
"Bloody hells!" Pelopi shrieked, her furry bits standing on end.
"Of course, Lisa sold you her skill! Ha!" Jetughed.
The scorpion, however, was not happy about being shocked, and surprisingly, when it flicked its tail, an icy shard of purple ice targeted me. Rather than dodge, I threw up a quick [Aegis] to block it and watched it shatter against the magical shield and scatter some sizzling ice shards.
"Is that poison ice?" I questioned aloud.
"Could be! Be careful of that tail," Eliza warned. "I''ll keep some Holy in reserve for detoxification."
I kept peppering it with [Lightning Bolt] spells whenever possible, which it clearly didn''t like as it kept trying to sway toward my direction before Ian controlled it to stay focused on him. I would have thought he might blindly take some pincer wounds from the monster to fuel Eliza, but instead, he was thoughtful about it and would either deflect a pincer with his axe or dodge to the side and only take a grazing blow.
There was a brief scary moment where it unhinged its mandibles wide and breathed a frosty breath on Ian, but he roared in response and exploded in me to counter it.
I kept feeling something was wrong with the monster; weirdly, it had yet to do any fire attacks against us. I could understand it sticking to ice in an attempt to counter Ian, but the rest of us would''ve surely been prime targets for some molten rock and fire.
Things were going well; we were almost in a battle rhythm, and with its tail looking extremely weakened, I decided to try to remove it from the equation.
"Heads up, Pelopi! Stay clear of its rear!" I shouted before triggering [Thunder Step] and appearing near its side rather than its rear.
I shifted myself and some extra cores to Water alignment and began trying to recreate the thin de of water I had seen in the final moments against the undine. With all the debuffs stacked together, I was pretty sure I could entirely remove the tail now that it looked thoroughly mangled from all the damage Jet and I had caused it.
I began casting the spell; four perfectly oveyed [Torrent] spells,pressed together in an absolutely tiny spell form. With so many of my cores now aligned to water and my new skill levels, it looked perfect and perhaps even better than what I had seen Aquillia use. With an upward sweeping motion, I cast the spell and targetted the scorpion tail; the water screeched through the air and scored the dungeon floor and wall in the path it traveled. In the path, it impacted with the tail and, with a gruesome sound, sliced through the tail and sent it into a spinning loop into the air.
The scorpion screeched in rage as its tail stump leaked its purple fluid, which likely still posed a slight threat if it got into someone''s face. Still, I''d rather have some purple goop to the face than a giant stinger stabbing through it.
"Thanks for making my job easier!" Ian cheered.
"Thanks for the warning!" Pelopi said, looking slightly startled.
It was looking great. Now we just needed to finish off thest dregs of its health, and we''d be done with the first floor. That was when something seemed to shimmer above the scorpion''s main torso.
I blinked rapidly and started swapping through all my different visions and senses, finallynding on [Electro-maic Sense]. I had marked the monster with [Conductive] so it shone brightly ording to this vision, and that''s where I saw the faint, blurry outline of what looked like another torso from just above and behind the scorpion''s head. I could see the faint traces of something long ending with three-prongs in the blurry torso''s hands.
The blurry image suddenly lurched, and I could see a vaguely feminine form holding a trident. It was already mid-thrust before I could shout my warning, the hidden trident stabbing deeply into Ian''s shoulder before being ripped backward and tearing flesh with it.
"Ian!" Eliza screamed before a golden light enveloped him and rapidly closed the wound.
Ian immediately backed off, holding his axe in a defensive stance in front of his body. "What the fuck hit me!?" He screamed.
"I don''t know? I didn''t see anything!" Eliza answered.
Pelopi was frantically scanning the room as if looking for hidden enemies. I realized nobody else had resisted the illusion, although ncing at Jet and hisck of surprise made me rethink that.
"It''s hiding its other body behind an illusion!" I shouted my answer to the others.
"About time!" Jet shouted with a chuckle. "You kids forgot all about the second mutation!"
The scorpion woman thing was now behaving more defensively; it looked like we still had round two to win before we could move to the next floor. It was as if knowing it was an illusion,bined with my resistance trait and my senses, that more and more of its hidden features were being perforated. Suddenly, the odd feeling I had regarding the monster made more sense, and even its molten rock body was aplete lie! It had no fire and was almost entirely ice with a few bits of rocky carapace.
Everyone was taking defensive positions, staring at the wounded scorpion with newfound caution and worry. Other than some bloodstains, Ian looked healthy and ready for round two.
"Still... If the dungeon is already throwing illusions at us on the second floor, I hate to know what the third floor will have." I overheard Jet mutter to himself.
I readily agreed, and I wondered what cruel fate chose these particr mutations for the dungeon run I was on. Either the dungeon was out to get us, or was Gramps a lot angrier at me than I thought?
I shook myself out of my negative thoughts; it was time to finish this fight.
Chapter 154: First Rest
Chapter 154: First Rest
"There''s another torso above the scorpion head, armed with a trident!" I shouted to the others. "Also, the molten rock is aplete lie; the thing is almost entirely ice!"
"Good to know fires back on the menu," Ian said, squinting above the scorpion''s head. "I don''t know how to block or fight an invisible second body."
"Can you mark it somehow?" Eliza suggested.
"I''ll try!" I shouted.
I shifted my alignment to Lightning and used myst swaps to change a few cores to Fire. Then I coordinated casting [Electrocute] with some helpers and had a second team work on casting [Combust]. Both spells went off directly near the humanoid portion of the monster. I knew it was risky, but since it had shown no apparent casting of spells, I felt rtively safe going against Trixie''s teachings.
Both spells went off without a hitch while Ian was fighting off the advancing pincers; the scorpion screeched as its squishy humanoid portion was wreathed in me, and lightning surged over its body.
"Hey! I can kinda see it a little bit now!" Pelopi cheered.
"Yeah, a little... Shit, the second floor is gonna suck if everything is like this." Ian said with extreme displeasure.
At this point, I had broken through the illusion entirely, so I had no idea what they were seeing. I could only imagine it was floating mes and sparks in a roughly humanoid shape. A bolt of ck energy mmed into the monster''s humanoid torso."Less talking, more killing!" Eliza dered.
We continued fighting against the monster, mostly trying tond blows against its extra torso, which seemed far less protected than the rest of it. That didn''t stop me fromunching a few well-ced fireballs and lightning bolts at its rear, which was now almost entirely unupied by the rest of my party.
The monster was definitely slowing down and looking close to death when Pelopi leaped onto its back and started going absolutely feral against the defenseless torso. Tearing through with savage fury.
"I should have jumped up here as soon as the tail was gone!" Pelopi cackled a little maniacally as she became increasingly coated in blood.
The monster had tried to turn to defend itself with its trident, but it could not fully swivel the secondary torso. It eventually dropped its trident, nging to the floor unceremoniously, and held its hands over its head as if trying to defensively crouch as Pelopi kept up the absolutely one-sided and brutal assault.
I didn''t even get a chance to cast [Decay] when the monster suddenly copsed into a twitching heap on the ground. Its illusion must have dropped entirely as the rest of the party gasped.
"Hell yeah!" Pelopi screamed, throwing both arms into the air.
Ian meanwhile copsed onto his rear, letting his weapon tter to the ground. He seemed far too tired to celebrate at the moment.
"We did it!" Eliza cheered, although also a little halfheartedly. She must have blown through a lot more mana than intended when she threw that emergency heal on Ian.
"Good job, everyone," Jet said, giving a simple nod.
"I''m d it''s dead. I still can''t believe its illusion was so hard to pierce..." I sighed.
"It can be tricky unless you have [Illusion Resistance] or other special senses," Jet exined reassuringly. "For me, I knew about the torso because I saw its full shadow even through the illusion, but I had no idea it was faking the fiery appearance."
"I do have [Illusion Resistance] and other senses, though..." I grumbled.
"Please share that with us!" Pelopi begged. "I want to see what I''m hitting on the next floor."
"It''s not restricted, is it?" I asked Jet.
"Ah, of course. Lisa told you about that," Jet replied. "No, resistance traits are freely shareable, and since they help prevent death, their price is regted if you n on selling."
"Regted?" I questioned.
"If you try to sell it for an unduly amount, the guild will either take it from your savings or undercut you on all future sale attempts. We want as many adventurers toe back home alive as possible." Jet answered. "Not to mention traits in general aren''t worth as much."
''I hope Gramps didn''t hear that.''
"Hmm... Well, I don''t mind sharing, especially if it makes the next floor easier for the party. Anyone got any other resistances to share?" I replied.
"[Fire Resistance], if that wasn''t obvious already," Ian answered. "Oh, I also have [Fear Resistance]."
"[Poison Resistance] from my noble days..." Pelopi murmured as if looking through her profile; she must have sensed our gazes upon her as she followed up. "What? It''s totally normal; any self-respecting noble family trains their child to survive poisons. I was fed small doses until I got the trait."
''Should Iugh or cry?'' I thought bitterly.
"d I''m not a bloody noble..." Jet whispered.
"I got [Dark Resistance] and [Bleeding Resistance]," Eliza answered, swiftly changing the subject.
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"[Blind Resistance]." Jet nonchntly. We all looked at him curiously. "What? I don''t have [Illusion Resistance]."
"No, I''m wondering why you have [Blind Resistance]," Ian muttered.
"Because everyone tries to sh the shadow guy with a blinding light!" Jet chuckled. "Also, protecting my eyes is important as a sniper, even if I didn''t have the whole umbral shadow thing going on."
"I bet there''s a fusion with all the resistances." Imented.
"Two, from what I heard: one for damage types and one for ailments," Jet replied.
''Definitely something to consider. However, if I fused a useless [Poison Resistance], would I even gain a single additional level in the resulting fused trait? It seems like a waste of a trait point...''
I ended up showing the group [Illusion Resistance] and got to see [Blind Resistance], [Fear Resistance], and [Dark Resistance]. I already had [Poison Resistance] from the badger profiles, so I was going to give it to Pelopi for free, but Eliza showed me [Bleed Resistance] as well. I was tempted to buy [Blind Resistance] but held off on all purchases for now.
"We were so upied with the illusions we didn''t even see our two loot chests for beating the boss." Jet chuckled as he pointed to two chests that had appeared in the room.
"Treasure!" Pelopi cheered.
Jet nced over both chests, and I assisted where possible; both were unlocked and untrapped.
"I know we joked about the dungeon hating you, but trapping boss-reward chests would be a step too far." Jet exined.
A cloak was inside one chest, while the other held a belt.
"Ooh. Pretty good." Jet said with a grin.
The belt ended up going to Pelopi; boosting her strength was one of the few ways to increase her damage since she couldn''t rely on conventional means such as weapons. The only other candidate was Ian, who had already received his bracer.
The cloak was interesting but not really useful for anyone. The Misfits had suggested I use it in conjunction with [Thunder Step] to glide around until Jet shot that idea down immediately.
"I''ve spent enough time around Lisa to know if you stay airborne after a [Thunder Step], you might kill yourself," Jet warned, and I nodded in agreement.
We agreed to likely sell it, although Pelopi asked to borrow it for the dungeon just in case. She demonstrated some running long jumps while beasted out and glided across the room, giggling happily while she did so.
"So, where are we setting up camp?" I asked.
"Right here. It''s the safest spot in the entire dungeon now." Ian answered.
"Correct. Some extremely big dungeons have safe zones on each floor, like midway points, but the boss room is the safest spot for dungeons like this. There''s no chance of something spawning on our head," Jet added.
"Although we must still keep a watch rotation," Eliza quickly said. " Just in case something wanders in from below."
Jet nodded in agreement as he gestured towards the door that was now open.
"So it was a scorpion and some ice elemental or equivalent. What''s thedy part?" Pelopi asked.
"I think it''s a nymph," Jet said, scratching his head. "At least that''s the only thing I can think of that boosted its illusions so well."
"Ugh... Fey..." Eliza shuddered.
"Well... In all likelihood, there might be more Fey on the second floor if the mutation is indeed illusion." Jet admitted.
"Wonderful. I''m setting the room on fire if there''s even a hint of fairies or pixies." Ian said with a frown.
I had to keep my mouth shut, even though I badly wanted to defend Trixie''s honor.
"I guess I''ll set up my tent and begin harvesting then," I said, and I started pulling out my severely underused tent.
Everyone nodded and began setting up their own tents.
"What makes you think there will be more Fey?" Pelopi asked Jet, who was in the middle of setting up his tent.
"Well, they are the type that would benefit the most from an illusion mutation, so I expect at least a few." Jet answered. "That''s not to say there won''t just be a random spider or something with illusions; there definitely will be some of those. But, if the second-floor boss isn''t some type of Fey, I''ll eat my hat."
"But you don''t have a hat?" Pelopi questioned, tilting her head.
"Exactly my point." Jet smirked.
That caused all of us to chuckle, except for Pelopi, who the attempted humor was lost on. So, instead, she came to me and requested the octopus. I handed it to her, and she cut off some tentacles before returning it to me. Then she sat cross-legged and started pulling out all sorts of knickknacks and cing them in a circle around her, even lighting a candle. It was a bizarre sight, and while I wondered if any of that was even required, my question was answered when Eliza whispered to me that most of that was just for good luck and superstition on Pelopi''s part.
Leaving the rest of the group to do their own things, I headed inside my tent to start my [Dissection] after requesting Ian to see if he could remove the pincers from the scorpion. I started pulling out all the various monster bits, and after pulling out Alpha as a disguised green slime, I proceeded to work.
That was when I noticed something was wrong. I was gaining slime mass, [Dissection] was happily identifying the rare parts to keep, and Alpha was doing an amazing impression of bonded slime, but [Consuming Osmosis] was not triggering.
"Shit!" I heard Pelopi curse from outside before hearing something cluttering across the ground.
"What''s wrong?" Eliza asked.
"My ritual isn''t working..." Pelopi said before something else ttered.
"Surely there''s enough parts to try again?" Eliza suggested. Clearly, this was a known problem with her druid thing.
"No. It''s not working at all. I''m not even reaching that part." Pelopi exined in a huff.
"Maybe the next floors will have something for you?" Ian asked. "What about trying the scorpion?"
"But I wanted tentacles!" Pelopi moaned.
"Hey... We can go to a coastal city next, or maybe try to find an Aquatic dungeon?" Eliza negotiated.
''So it''s not just me... Is it because they''re merged monsters? [Identify] couldn''t even give them a name. If the monsters on the next two floors don''t give something, I will be extremely annoyed.''
"I suppose..." Pelopi grumbled.
I emerged shortly after and disyed the results of my [Dissection].
"Bloody hells, Lisa showed me some of your work, but seeing it right after the fact is something else." Jetughed. "You any good at extracting venoms? I''d love to get a vial of whatever''s in that tail."
"Yeah, if you have a container, I can do it. I just need to drag the parts to my tent," I answered.
"dly!" Jet said, and I watched the shadows under the severed tail writhe and swirl as if alive. Slowly, the tail was dragged toward my tent.
"Did you expect me to touch it with my hands?" Jet said with a cheeky wink before handing me a few empty corked vials.
I was thankfully left alone to do my work while I could overhear Pelopi dry-heaving. She must have tried to eat some of the scorpions.
Even the boss gave me no profiles. Much to my disappointment, however, it did trigger [Poison Slime], so it was the merged monsters, not the dungeon, that prevented me from adding to my collection. The sad part, however, was that the scorpion''s venom was [Neurotoxin], which I had already sampled.
''At least I got a bunch of slime mass... And money, I guess?'' I grumbled as I watched my slime carefully, extracting the stabby part of the tail and the inner part of the pincers while dissolving the rest.
''And an especially well-earned skill level! These random merged monsters must have triggered a first-time bonus for every single harvest.''
I obviously got to cheat at extracting the venom; I could just exclude it and watch as it became a fluid floating harmlessly inside of me, which I carefully ejected into the vials. After I handed the vials to Jet, he whistled happily. I also showed off the harvested pincer and tail.
"I swear you could quit being an adventurer and be a professional harvester," Ianmented.
"Yeah, but where''s the fun in that?" I replied.
"I just hope it''s nothing illegal, or I''ll have to dispose of such good work." Jet said as he started into the vial.
"It''s [Neurotoxin]," I answered.
"Oh? Nice, that''s only restricted and not entirely illegal. Wonderful!" Jet said happily.
Everyone else began settling down as we started pulling out meals and starting a campfire. We had cleared the first hurdle, and our spirits were at an all-time high.
Chapter 155: Second Floor Brawl
Chapter 155: Second Floor Brawl
We split the watch schedule between Pelopi, Ian, and myself. Eliza also offered to take a shift, but we rejected it so the healer could have a full night''s rest. We excluded Jet since he was technically here as an evaluator. We didn''t expect the dungeon to attack us during the night, so it felt a little moot.
During my shift, I spent most of my time poking around with [Lightning Magic], although I had to keep it quite subdued or risk waking up the others. Since I knew all my other elements were now at the dreaded level five, I wanted to focus on catching up rather than individual progression. The biggest issue I was having was trying to find something that would be useful for this dungeon. I initially thought about creating a lightning explosion using [Fireball] or [Nova]. I reined in my desire for wanton destruction when I realized catching my party members in the coteral would be far too easy.
With my other avable concepts and pieces, I wasn''t entirely sure where else to go. Perhaps I could just do something simr to [Torrent] and create a tiny thin [Lightning Bolt]? Would that work?
''Wait... Have I even added [Electrocute] to my other spells yet?''
I mentally cursed myself. In my head, I hadpletely written off adding my afflictions to everything already, forgetting that I had just created a new one. I still needed to add [Mana Burn] to [Arcane Bolt] as well, but that could wait. I immediately beganbining [Electrocute] and [Lightning Bolt]. I decided to ignore [Spark] for now, and trying to mess with [Ball Lightning] at this stage seemed unwise.
I tinkered into thete evening until I was positive that everyone else was asleep. I walked far from the other tents and ran my hand along the dungeon wall.
"Hello? Are you friends with Simon the Lich?" I whispered.
I had no idea if the dungeon could hear me, but since it seemed to be paying attention to my [Dungeoneer] emblem at least, I figured it was reasonable to assume it could.
"So... I understand my emblem is causing you an issue. How about a trade?" I asked to the dead silence."Well... I''ll assume you are listening and can''t talk to me. It''s probably rules about us [Experiments], or maybe you''re forbidden to talk to adventurers? I have no idea what the rule is for Dungeon Masters."
"Anyway... I want a slime. I know you can probably spawn them. I need either a Pink or Orange slime." I continued.
I wished I had more information about what other colors were avable. I didn''t want to just throw random colors out and hope for the best; rather, I would stick to the ones I knew existed.
"If you can spawn one of those slimes for us to fight. I''ll unequip my [Dungeoneer] emblem." I offered. Unfortunately, there was still no response or even a minor indication I wasn''t just talking to a literal wall.
"I have no idea how it works on your end. But I can falsify my emblem, so I''ll disy the fake for my party, and then I''m sure you''ll not be pressured to give any more extra loot."
"So as soon as I see one of those two slimes, I''ll swap emblems. And it must be a real slime. I know the next floor is going to be full of illusions. If you taunt me with a fake slime, I will return and solo this dungeon." I threatened the wall.
"It was great chatting with you. I hope you''ll consider my offer," I said. I gave my best friendly smile and stroked the wall, partially transforming my arm into a swarming mass of tendrils as I winked.
I then returned to the camp and continued my uneventful watch. No monsters appeared, and there was no indication that my message had been received. At some point, I also dissolved more of the scorpion carcass for slime mass, not wanting to sacrifice such a vital resource.
***
"Alright, everyone, ready to conquer another floor?" Ian shouted cheerfully in the morning.
There were some vague murmurs of agreement from his other twopanions. Clearly, he was the sole morning person of the misfit trio.
"Yeah, I''m excited to see what monsters we will encounter now that they won''t be randomly pped together," I responded.
"If you ignore the fact, we might think we are fighting an orc, and then it''s a goblin who stabs us in the shins." Jet pointed out.
"Well, with [Illusion Resistance], I hope that won''t be the case," Ian said.
"Syl had the trait and still was fooled. I didn''t, and I was partially fooled." Jet countered. "If you have any extra senses, I''d suggest focusing on them; they can help pierce the veil. Like the wrongness of its shadow helped me see reality."
"I have good hearing and smell," Pelopi suggested.
"Smell is probably good. I don''t know of many illusions that could hide their smell." Jet replied.
"I''ll hopefully keep things burning or electrified. Hopefully, that will help." I offered.
"Electrified?" Pelopi asked.
"It''s the affliction my [Electrocute] spell causes. The little lightning sparks cause damage over time."
Pelopi nodded energetically before handing me an apple. Honestly, the number of apples she was producing was bing a little insane; we had apples for dinner and breakfast, and I often spotted her or Eliza gnawing on one between fights.
"Hey... Whatever happened to the trident that stabbed me?" Ian suddenly asked as he looked around the room.
"And the monster''s corpse." Eliza also pointed out.
"Ah, shit." Jet grumbled. "The dungeon probably imed the weapon when we weren''t looking. Probably going to reuse it for some other encounter."
"Boo. That''s no fair," Pelopiined. "Did it eat the scorpion too?"
"Yeah, they clean up corpses left alone for too long." Jet answered. "I bet the entire first floor is spotless by now."
Everyone nodded at that exnation. I was happy it left the corpse long enough for me to get a meal but miffed that it had stolen the trident from us before we even noticed. With preparations made, we all started heading towards the opened doorway and the staircase downwards.
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The dungeon was still very much cave-themed, but now there was some actual stonework along the floors and walls, albeit quite shoddy and rough in quality. The dungeon was still illuminated by the eery sourceless glow, and I was very grateful I had maxed out my [Dark Vision] so long ago.
The tunnel opened into an extremelyrge cavern with seemingly no enemies but countless little holes in the ceiling, floor, and walls. The only sign of life was a soft, skittering sound. We all looked around frantically; Pelopi''s ears were twitching.
"Get ready, everyone," Ian said as he ran to the center of the room.
Bursting from the holes was a swarm of wolf-sized ant monsters, clearly visible.
I caught three different types from [Identity] before I silenced the prompts so I could focus on battle. Iunched a [Fireball] at one of therger groupings.
"Syl!?" Ian shouted in confusion.
"Did you spot an enemy?" Jet asked.
"What? They''re everywhere!" I shouted right as one of the soldiers collided with Ian, sending him toppling backward.
"What the hell!?" Ian shouted before abruptly self-immting.
"I can hear them, but I can''t see them!" Pelopi shouted, trying to swipe blindly around herself.
"Why''s [Illusion Resistance] not working!?" Eliza demanded as she frantically looked around.
Iunched multiple [Fireballs] at our perimeter, hopefully deterring them
"It''s ants! Pheromone ants!" I shouted.
"Everyone, hold your breath as much as possible!" Jet ordered, his jovial tone gone as he swiftly withdrew a ck mask he hastily wore. "Eliza, try [Detox] if you can!"
She nodded as she began to draw Dark energy from Ian, who was still trying to blindly fight his foes and wracking up some injuries. Thankfully, the ants didn''t seem terribly strong, and he was identally killing them just through his self-immtion. When she had enough energy, she fired blindly at one of the holes and struck one of the ants still pouring out, then swiftly began casting the Holy spell on Ian.
Unfortunately, the ants'' rearguard emerged after the vanguard fully overtook the room. The shapers began flinging rocks at us while the sprayersunched streams of a mystery fluid from their abdomens. The humans were not pleased with whatever the ants were firing as they began coughing through teary eyes and the asional painful cry.
Poor Pelopi was rolling on the ground, covering her mouth and face desperately. I cast [Bubble] on her via my water-aligned [Sub-Cores] and hoped it would help as Iunched more [Fireballs] at the approaching tide of soldiers.
"I can sort of see them now!" Ian shouted.
Jet had reced his crossbow with a much fancier one. I could practically see the enchantments flowing off of it. His shadow warbled aggressively, as if alive and angry, before he fired bolt after bolt in rapid and seemingly endless session. Every single bolt was a wless headshot aimed at one of the sprayers.
''Wow. He''s certainly not messing around.'' I thought as I nced at his crossbow with fascination.
''Damn, his crossbow even has a name. Fitting.''
I had tried to give him a [Bubble], but he kept repositioning himself by melding into a shadow, and my spell couldn''t follow after him. I also threw one on Eliza to keep her rtively safe.
''It''s a pity [Arcane Armor] is personal. I wonder what I''d need to modify to cast it on others.''
Ian had recovered mostly and was burning himself and the soldier ants. Eliza focused on keeping Ian hale and hearty while asionally throwing another dark projectile to exchange her dark and holy pools.
Wanting to do my part, I had an idea. I could see the shapers forming rudimentary earthen walls to protect the sprayers. I triggered [Thunder Step] and arrived on the scene behind their fortifications and casting [Nova] before immediately triggering another [Thunder Step] towards the next makeshift fort. The double sounds of thunder and fiery explosions went off as I zipped from position to position, causing a direct disruption amongst the ants they couldn''t ignore and often didn''t survive.
Without shapers, the sprayers were defenseless against Jet''s continued onught. By disrupting the rearguard, the ants lost the majority of their edge, as the soldiers focused mostly on dying and tanking rather than directly damaging.
Since everything was so chaotic, I slipped some cheeky nibbles on some ant corpses with a well-timed tendril or two sneakily grabbing from my feet. The ant''s formic acid was nothingpared to my concoction as I brought on the full digestive might of [Acid Slime LV 7]!
''Good! If this dungeon was going to deny me profiles for this entire trip, I was going to be pissed!'' I thought happily.
Once Jet and I ran out of shapers and sprayers, we joined in on the swarm of remaining soldiers. Not wanting to hurt Ian, I swapped to a volley of [Fire Arrow] spells while slowly working on getting [mmable] up on the healthier-looking ones.
Ian, understandably, took out his anger rather brutally on thest few stragglers, mashing them into an unrecognizable pulp. Even after finishing the fight, poor Pelopi did not look great even after a holy cleansing from Eliza.
"Can you wash her?" Eliza asked me.
"Sure. Hold your breath." I said.
Pelopi nodded through teary red eyes and closed her mouth shut. I cast the reversed [Bubble] spell and rapidly filled it with water. Ian and Jet politely looked away. To ensure she was cleansed enough, I grabbed [Elemental Amalgamation] and took direct control over the water already infused with my mana, which began to swirl and scrub her down as best I could. I even threw in a [Heat] spell just to show off a bit. Then, with a flick of my wrist, I pulled all the water off and flung it against the dungeon wall.
Pelopi blinked rapidly a few times in confusion. "That might have been the quickest and best bath I''ve ever had."
She abruptly ran towards me and squeezed me tightly in an abrupt hug, her tail swishing frantically. "Thank you so much, Syl! Absolutely everything was burning!"
"I''m guessing because of your sensitive nose?" I said as I prodded her with a [Heat] spell to help remove any residual dampness.
"Yeah, what was with that? I thought this floor was supposed to be illusions?" Ian asked.
"Pheromone induced hallucinations." Jet answered with a frown. "You could conceivably say it''s an illusion adjacent, but certainly not what I would have expected."
"Do you think the dungeon is upset that we all bought [Illusion Resistance] yesterday?" Pelopi asked as she vigorously rubbed her nose.
"Maybe..." Jet muttered.
"So what''s next, heat-based monsters using mirages?" Ian asked.
"Shit, I hope not. One hot head is enough for me." Eliza chuckled.
"Hallucinogenic spores, maybe?" I offered.
"Bloody hell, that''s a thing?" Ian asked.
I nodded. "I fought a nt Horror that could do it."
"Well, if it spores, at least that should be resistible with [Poison Resistance]..." Jet said with a heavy sigh. "I''m not really sure how to counter pheromones or fricken mirages."
"If it''s based on the heat, I have [cial Aura]. Hopefully, enough [Ice Magic] thrown about will oppose it." I suggested.
"Hopefully." Jet agreed.
"I wonder why the dungeon is so mad?" Pelopi asked.
"Surely Syl''s emblem isn''t enough to cause this?" Eliza asked.
''Is it because of what I said to the dungeonst night? Shit...'' I worried.
"Maybe Syl could turn it off?" Ian suggested.
"No way!" Pelopi immediately refused.
"It''s a decent suggestion," Jet said, scratching his head. "Why not, though, Pelopi?"
"Because. Look!" Pelopi pointed to the end of the room, where another chest was visible. "We already got more loot!"
"Well. That''s a pretty good reason to keep it going." Ian said with a chuckle and a nod.
"Certainly hard not to agree with more loot." Jet agreed.
"And now we know the dungeon is out to get us, we can be more prepared for illusionadjacent bullcrap," Eliza said with a smirk.
"Agreed," I said happily.
I was d to keep the emblem going, hoping the dungeon would cooperate in giving me a slime. If it really was targeting us, the fact we survived this rather unfair trap would certainly make it rethink its position. I hoped anyway... For now, we had ants to gather and loot to grab.
''What an exciting start to the second floor.''
Chapter 156: Shocking Illusions
Chapter 156: Shocking Illusions
Jet and I began looking over the loot chest while the others cut off ant parts into smaller chunks for me to harvestter. Other than a few pieces of chitin and mandibles, it didn''t seem like the ants were that valuable when I nced briefly over them.
"d to see you''ve settled in nicely with [Thunder Step]," Jetmented while he worked. "You definitely remind me of Lisa back when she was active; she also used to zip zap around like that, although without the fiery explosions... And a lot more thunder and lightning."
"It was the most disruptive move I could think of at the time," I replied. "If I had thought about bursting into enemy lines, I probably would have worked a little more on using the built-up energy or perhapsplementing it with a lightning spell."
"Oh? You''ve already started figuring out how to use the side effects. I''m assuming Lisa showed off her sword?" Jet asked.
"Yeah, and I have some decent resistance to lightning, but not enough to ignore the damage."
"I could siphon the damage off of you!" Eliza interrupted.
"Hmm... Not a bad idea," Jet mumbled. "I had thought you were maybe still very fresh with the skill and didn''t want you to kill yourself, but with this partyposition, it might be a good idea."
"Yes! I''ve never siphoned lightning damage before." Eliza said, pumping her fists in celebration. "Ian''s also built up so much resistance; it''ll be nice to be on a full tank for a bit."
"Cheating on me already..." Ian said, shaking his head. "And to think I gave up all my hair for you.""As if you could afford the oils to keep it from burning." Eliza teased.
Pelopi rubbed her nose in irritation. "Burnt hair smell... Bleh..."
The chest clicked and opened up, revealing an amulet amongst a stash of gold coins.
"Oh. Interesting..." Jet said as he eyed it.
Despite never seeing the enchantments before, they must have been low rank enough as [Rune Reading] fullyprehended it almost instantly.
"[Water Resistance]bined with... [Water Breathing]?" I said, a little unsure after puzzling it together.
"Oh, your [Identify] is better than mine." Jet chuckled. "With a name like Oceans, I could only tell it was water-rted."
"Being able to breathe underwater would be amazing!" Pelopi said cheerfully.
"We''d need two more, though." Ian pointed out.
"So... Sell and split it?" Eliza said.
"Boo!" Pelopi said, puffing out her cheeks and her ears drooping.
"You can always buy it from the party if you want it that badly," I said, the others nodding in agreement. "Speaking of which... If wee across any slimes, then I want to buy or im the core."
"Feel free to. Assuming you can kill one without destroying the core." Ian shrugged.
"She''s got [Ice Magic], remember." Jet answered. "Most of our intact corese from them unless you got [Death Magic]. Or you can do it the old-fashioned way and repeatedly remove its slime until you starve it out. I''ve also heard of some adventurers who can even pluck the core directly out of the slime mass."
It took all my restraint not to visibly shudder at hearing that horrific way of killing a slime. I realized that other slimes did not have [Core Storage] as I''d never seen it in any of the various profiles, so assuming they ran out of slime or their core was removed from their slime mass, that was it.
We finished storing the ant parts and splitting the gold. Ian temporarily wore the amulet just in case the dungeon threw water monsters at us to counter his fire. At this point, we were all a little paranoid that it was out to get us. Eliza was extremely excited about the next room as I agreed to take some damage from [Thunder Step] for her to siphon.
We were also cautious about moving to the next room, as there was now the possibility of traps. I got to witness how Jet handled it, although he kind of got to cheat with his affinity. Whatever his perception failed to catch, he would double-check by almost solidifying his shadow, which elongated in front of him. We did encounter one or two minor traps, the most notorious of which was a pitfall hidden under an illusion.
"I really think the dungeon is out to get us," Jet chuckled. "I know this is the illusion floor, but putting traps under illusions seems a step too far."
During this time, I also nced at the three ant profiles. Nothing was too eye-catching unless I suddenly wanted to get into pheromones. I already had a hallucinogen poison, so it seemed a little moot, and my [Acid Slime] was far superior to their formic acid. The chitin held some promise, but then again, I had lesser dragon scales... At least the mandibles were a decent part to potentially mimic. The weirdest trait, however, was [Ant Haul], something they all had from birth. It significantly boosted strength, but only when carrying or lifting things. I could probably find a use for that.
We spotted the next room and cautiously approached to take a peek inside. We saw a multitude of goblins and orcs. The room appeared normal, but we were extremely hesitant. I could immediately tell that something was wrong with everything in it.
"I can''t break the illusion entirely, but I feel a great sense of wrongness," I whispered.
"Their shadows are all extremely weird. None of them match up." Jet also agreed.
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"They don''t smell like goblins or orcs." Pelopi pointed out. "In fact, I almost don''t smell anything..."
"Wonderful. Guess we just go in zing?" Ian asked.
"Let me try to spread my debuffs?" I asked. "Don''t enter the room until the cloud disperses unless you want to be weak to everything."
"Noted," Jet replied.
"Yeah... I can''t say being afflicted with debuffs is on my bucket list." Ian joked.
I targeted one of the monsters; there was something there, but not the actual monster before my eyes. [Thermal Vision] didn''t show anything, so the monster must be perfectly matching the room temperature, and [Electro-Maic Sense] didn''t either, so they had to be neutral in conductivity. [Life Sight] was the only thing that told me something was there, but not enough to pierce the illusory veil.
I cast my full cycle of debuffs before casting [Contagion], and a cloud of Corrosion Mana burst throughout the room. The monsters began yelling battle cries as they drew their weapons and looked ready to fight. It was startling how real they looked, even though we knew that wasn''t true.
As soon as the cloud dispersed, Ian ran into the room aze. Pelopi ran after him, ws out and eager for battle. Despite their fake appearances, they were hitting something as purple blood sttered with their blows. Ian would intercept a blow from a monster and physically feel it but then take an unexined blow from elsewhere. Whatever the monsters were, they were coordinated well with their illusions to give a false sense of realism.
I joined them with a double [Thunder Step], one into the room and another up into the air. I had taken the single jump well when I tested it, so I figured I could handle a double surge, and it would give me plenty of energy to work with. I let the precious seconds of thebo chain expire, and the bacsh began. It was not a pleasant feeling having lightning surge inside me, but the damage was quickly siphoned off thanks to Eliza as a ck mist radiated off me. Meanwhile, I wrestled the surge into [Voltaic Slime], which I collected in my right arm while gracefullynding on the floor.
Spreading all my debuffs had given me a much clearer vision of the room, as now the enemies were all glowing in my [Electro-Maic Sense] thanks to [Conductive] and [Lightning Rod]. I wasn''t sure what they were, but they looked vaguely cone-shaped and connected to the floor or ceiling. I wasted no time firing a st of stored energy from my arm. At the same time, I cast a [Lightning Bolt] spell, hoping to disguise the controlled burst as me using the surging energy to fuel my spell. A giant double burst of lightning and thunder struck whatever was on the roof. The sound was almost deafening, and the light nearly blinding.
"Holy shit!" Ian shouted in surprise.
Pelopi actually dropped into a huddle and clutched her head. I may have gone overboard. Luckily, Jet covered for herpse in judgment with a few well-timed crossbow bolts. It was hrious that even though some of his shots were misses, the shadow still struck the enemies and dealt damage. Meanwhile, whatever I had hit iling wildly as the energy coursed through it; it seemed [Lightning Rod] was especially deadly with such arge amount of directed energy.
"A warning next time!" Jet scolded. "I swear it''s Lisa all over again. Bloody thunder and lightning."
"Lurkers!?" Ian shouted in confusion.
"A giant maw with tentacles!" Jet shouted. "Try not to be grabbed."
"It''s hiding its tentacles in ce of the monsters!" I shouted, having finally realized what I was actually seeing.
"Sneaky buggers aren''t they!" Ian chuckled as he instinctively dodged an orc axeing to his face, only for him to suddenly trip and start behind, lifted by his foot towards the ceiling. "Shit! I''ve been grabbed!"
Suddenly, a bolt of ck lightning forked out of nowhere towards the ceiling. It arced and crackled menacingly. Whatever was holding Ian let go, and he tumbled gracefully to the floor, rolling to his feet in a fluid motion.
"Was that dark lightning!?" He shouted excitedly.
"Hell, yes!" Eliza shouted; dark energy was coursing through her arms and staff. She fired another crackle of dark ck lightning toward something else. "This is the coolest thing ever!"
Pelopi had recovered and was now tearing into one of the cone monsters on the ground, having already brutally ripped off its tendrils. "You better step up your game, Ian, or Eliza will run off with Syl."
"That''s not fair!" He chuckled, stepping up his fiery ze to a higher grade that also coated his axe in mes. "I''m just an ordinary human; you can''t expect me topete against an elf."
Not wanting to be left out, I kept throwing around [Lightning Bolt] spells and asionally doing a single hop [Thunder Step] into [Voltaic Slime] discharge. The single jumps were much more manageable and didn''t leave the entire party quaking.
Eliza looked like she was having the time of her life,ughing maniacally while firing the ck lightning surges toward wherever there was a hint of life. I figured she had to be using [Life Sight] to make sure she was hitting something real.
Thankfully, there were no more surprises, and we cleaned up the rest of the room without too much trouble. We could all see the clearly horrific monsters, with the illusions now broken. They were like fleshy stgmites or stctites with endless rows of jagged teeth. Their tendrils were either smooth or tipped with barbs.
"You going to try to eat those?" I asked Pelopi, pointing to a particrly nasty-looking tentacle.
"No way," Pelopi immediately rejected the idea. "That''s far too gross, and even if it wasn''t, it''s a magical monster, so it doesn''t work with my ss."
"They''re also poisonous, so definitely not a good idea." Jet quickly added. "I think it was called [Spitebite]? While not at all deadly, it sends your sense of pain into overdrive."
"Oh... That exins why I actually felt something." Ian said almost casually. "I was a little surprised. Reminded me before I got my pain resistance skill."
I threw some barbed tendril tips into storage while sneakily withdrawing one inside myself.
''Weird that there was a poison that just caused hurt, but oh well. Another for the collection.''
We also gathered some of their teeth; apparently, they made really good arrowheads or sawdes. While we worked, Jet exined that the monsters usually live in caves, naturally camouge among the rocks, and are predominantly ambush predators. Combining an ambush monster with illusions was nasty, but at least it was more in line with what the dungeon should have been throwing at us.
When we were done collecting our spoils, I had even eaten enough loose parts to finally satisfy my [Consuming Osmosis].
Looking at their profile, I immediately noticed [Thermal Vision], which might have exined why they mostly ignored me and went primarily for Ian, even without his taunt. Having barbed tendrils in my collection and their razor-sharp maw were pretty interesting for mimicking. Trait-wise, they had [Natural Camouge], which helped them blend in with the environment, and they also had [Illusion Magic].
''Of course...'' I grumbled mentally.
We also discussed my [Thunder Step] usage and concluded that I should stick to only single jumps if I wasn''t going to discharge safely on the ground. While I could handle it, and Eliza had enough to drain the damage, it was putting her at the near max of her dark pool instantly, and she was actually a little worried she wouldn''t be able to drain it fast enough. She was clearly very reluctant about limiting it, as she found the ck lightning it generated both fun and extremely effective. I didn''t mind either way; happy for a way to train my skills and traits.
"So... Left or right?" Ian asked, pointing towards our two options.
"Flip a coin?" Eliza suggested.
"Might as well. With our luck, it''ll be a dead end anyway, and we will end up backtracking." Jet said with an exaggerated sigh.
"Bad luck, but plenty of loot!" Pelopi said positively.
"Guess that''s the silver lining." I chuckled.
We flipped a coin and headed down the left passageway.
Chapter 157: Delusions and Blurs
Chapter 157: Delusions and Blurs
Our passageway was again trapped behind illusions, frustrating even Jet. Ian stepped on a pressure te that waspletely missed, being far too heavy to be triggered by Jet''s shadow, and was stabbed in the leg by a spear that emerged from the wall. Luckily, Eliza was still topped up on Holy energy, so it was healed almost instantly, but it was frustrating how dirty the dungeon was being.
And what was the result of our struggle through the heavily trapped passageway? We entered arge room with the door closing behind us and enemies flooding the room. They wererge multi-winged bat monsters armed with [Air Magic] and sonic-based attacks. Luckily for us, they couldn''t avoid Ian''s area taunt, and a lot of them ended up burning to death when they came into contact with him.
Most frustrating was they were emitting a constant hum that echoed throughout the room and afflicted us with an auditory hallucination to hide their projectiles rather than themselves. While I certainly was immune to poisons and pheromones, as evidenced by my harpy encounters, sound, and sonics were a definite weakness of mine.
''This must be how the pegasi felt when Trixie hid all my [Icicle] spells.'' I thought.
I kept sting lightning to kill them as fast as possible, joined by Eliza''s dark lightning. Pelopi actually used some magic when she ran out of the biting variety of bats to fight; she conjured up a strange spiky seed pod that exploded rather violently with an apanying tiny spark of me. I had to refresh my [Arcane Armor] twice during the encounter, as it was broken by the hidden des of wind.
Thankfully, we came out of the encounter with a victory.
''Okay... Seriously, this is getting annoying now. I want to level up my ss!''
''What!? An actual usable spell right out of the gate?'' I could not hide my shock and surprise.
"You get something good?" Pelopi asked me curiously."Yeah... I just reached level four with [Lightning Magic]; I just learned [Chain Lightning]," I responded, trying to understand the spell''s implications. I cast and held the spell to start my deciphering.
"Oh shit," Jet said, looking a little pale. "If you thought Pyromancers and wanton [Fireball] spells were the number one cause of friendly fire... You''ve never been in a party with damn [Chain Lightning] in the arsenal."
"Hmm... I can tell it sort of bounces between nearby targets?" I responded.
"Ha! That''s an understatement." Jet shook his head. "The bigger the spell, the more bounces, jumps, chains, or whatever you want to call it. Not to mention, it can hit the same target twice, and yeah, it does not differentiate between friend or foe."
I nodded in confirmation; there was nothing about targeting beyond the initial target, which means it was likely semi-random but likely influenced by proximity and factors like conductivity. It shouldn''t hit any friends if I threw a bunch of [Lightning Rod] debuffs on enemies.
''Actually... if I fought a big enemy, couldn''t I use [Voltaic Slime] to bounce between me and the enemy? Or would [Voltaic Slime] fully absorb the bolt and therefore no more bounces?'' I wondered. Unfortunately, I couldn''t exactly reliably test that, as no doubt the others would question why I was willingly casting an offensive spell against myself.
I also briefly nced at what was clearly the [Chain] portion of the spell, as the rest was pretty much just [Spark] and [Projectile]. It wasplex as all hell, and I wondered what other types of magic it would bepatible with. Could I make bouncing mes? [Chained Fireball]? Definitely something to look forward to.
The strange bat monsters didn''t have much for us to harvest, mostly just their fangs. Their rtively small size meant I could toss a few into "storage" and withdraw them internally.
That was at least some silver lining¡ªmore profiles! After the horror of the first floor''s giving me nothing, I was extremely happy to have my doubts stifled. As suspected, the Gust version had [Air Magic], while the Fanged variety had [Blood Drain]. The Acoustic portion gave it the [Auditory Delusion] skill, which, of course, required an Illusion affinity. I had to assume the Mutation also gave it the affinity, as otherwise, it was ratherckluster in terms of what it gave the bat monster. My Mimic mutation, for example, didn''t give me an affinity, but they gave me extremely powerful traits and skills in exchange.
Both, however, had an interesting trait [Echolocation]. Unfortunately, the trait was ipatible with my species, which I guess made sense since slimes didn''t exactly have ears or mouths. Still, it was undoubtedly something nice to have in my back pocket for [Chimeric Mimicry]. However, there was a new trait I could buy [Sonic Resistance], which I grabbed because I hoped it would prevent future sound-rted threats.
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We carefully backtracked and took the other option, which led to a fork, and we again decided to flip a coin. However, this time, Pelopi insisted we take the route the coin didn''t choose. Which... Lead us into another trapped room full of elementals. But not just any elementals, no...
The worst part was we couldn''t urately deduce their numbers or even which elemental we were fighting as they blurred together and heavily obfuscated their numbers.
"I bloody called it!" Ian shouted as we engaged the enemies.
I threw as much Mana and empowerment into [cial Aura] as I could after aligning to Ice. [Icicle] would be my main attack, but I threw the asional [Bubble] spell around to protect my allies.
Ian was quite disheartened at being unable to do much in this situation besides being a meatshield. Pelopi also had to resort to throwing around her swampy [Water Orb] spells or risk seriously hurting herself in the process. Jet remained as effective as normal; despite his bolts burning on contact, their shadowy counterpart still dealt damage.
One very positive thing was that the Magma Elemental was the only considerable threat, and thanks to my aura, it was struggling to reach any of us in a timely manner. I also threw up the asional [Ice Dome] to either provide cover for allies or a temporary roadblock for the elemental. With all the ice and water being thrown around, the mirages eventually vanished, and we could cleanly and efficiently remove the weaker elementals while evading the magma.
"All I can say is thank the gods it doesn''t have a ranged attack," Ian said, looking rather tired from all the constant running around and taunting.
"Just please kill it already... I''m sweating my tits off." Elizained.
"I kinda like it. It''s like the entire room is a big sauna." Pelopi said cheerfully before throwing another swampy [Water Orb]. "I think we need the waterser."
"You might be right..." I agreed. "When I freeze portions of it, it just melts them again. It''s surprisingly durable for an elemental."
I had already, by this point, thrown all my debuffs on the monster, so I began firing [Waterjets] at it repeatedly and hoping to hit its crystal core somewhere in the slowly moving burning blob. It took quite a while, but eventually, I struck it, and it rather unceremoniously began to turn into a lifeless, yet still burning, puddle.
Pretty much the whole party copsed when we got the final kill notification.
"Well... That wasn''t fun." Jet sighed.
"But look! More loot!" Pelopi pointed to the chest.
"Yaaaaaay..." Ian said as he tiredly raised one arm to cheer.
"We might need to take a rest. I don''t think we can rush to the boss at this rate." Eliza suggested.
We all took a moment to eat, drink, and rest. Ian even took a power nap, using Eliza''sp as a pillow as he was greatly tuckered out from all the running. Pelopi started growing some "stamina herbs" from seeds she pulled out of her pouch along with a mountain of apples.
Jet popped open the chest to reveal our prize. Inside was a vast quantity of coins and a sacrificial-looking dagger that any wannabe cultist would be overjoyed to receive.
"Oh shit. A named weapon." Jet said excitedly. "Any idea what it does besides the obvious bleeding?"
I took a moment to study the enchantments carefully; it appeared there were three housed within this weapon, carefully arranged spectacrly. Not even Greg''s work was this sublime.
"It looks like it has a chance to cause a bleeding affliction. It also has a function of returning when thrown, and finally, it has abination of auto-repair and auto-sharpen," I answered. Thest one, in particr, was so well designed I couldn''t help but be awed.
Jet gave an impressive whistle before picking up the dagger. He flourished it a little before tossing it against the wall; it prated about an inch deep before shing ckish red and returning to his hand.
"Bloody hells, that sounds amazing for any rogue. I''d be tempted to buy it if I wasn''t already so specialized in rangedbat." Jet said excitedly.
"Hmm... Maybe I should buy it for my friend then." I replied. I figured Whitney would probably love a weapon like this.
"Sounds like I need to get in line to be your friend if your pockets are that deep." Jet teased. He did another small flourish and presented the weapon to me with the de held delicately between two of his fingers and the handle pointing outwards.
"Thanks. Unless anyone else wants it?" I said, taking the de and gesturing to the rest of the group.
"As cool as it looks, I''d rather get a big hammer or axe," Ian said.
Pelopi giggled and held out her bear ws, "I only need these babies."
Eliza paused as she scratched her cheek in thought. "The only use I could think of would be to cut Ian so I could siphon bleed damage off of him."
"Nope! Vetoed!" Ian instantly rejected the idea as he wildly iled his arms in protest.
"Well... You heard the baby; I guess it''s all yours." Eliza giggled. "Plus, it definitely suits you more."
"Yes. Very appropriate for the magical elf assassin." Pelopi nodded in agreement.
"Could you not cut yourself?" I asked curiously, then chuckled. "Wow, that sounds horrible out loud and out of context."
Eliza smirked. "I can''t siphon from myself. Probably to prevent me from doing some loop where I take damage from my leaky dark pool and then siphon that."
"And one of the main reasons I try to damage myself as quickly as possible so she has some Holy to heal herself." Ian quickly added.
We chatted a bit longer while eating apples and evenly distributing the gold from the chest. I tried out the dagger a few times, which was pretty fun; thankfully, I didn''t make myself look like an idiot due to [Attack Mastery (Lesser)].
''I think I''ll pay the points to tier it up when it reaches level eight...''
This room, despite locking us in, did have another exit so we could continue our journey deeper into the second floor. Once again, we carefully journeyed forward with Jet out in front, followed by Ian, while the rest of us followed at a safer distance. The idea was that if Jet failed to detect another illusioned trap, Ian might trigger it and be in a much better position to survive than the rest of us.
"I wonder if the dungeon is finally taking pity on us?" Ian joked since we had yet to encounter even a single trap.
"Maybe. It''s been highly unusual." Jet wondered.
Suddenly, Jet paused and frowned.
"What?" Ian asked.
We all took a ready stance.
"Did you not hear that?" Jet said as he walked a few paces.
Eliza, Pelopi, and I were too far away to hear reliably whatever Jet was talking about.
Ian seemed to be thinking as he also took a few steps. "It sounds... Squishy?"
"That''s what I thought too..." Jet said, frowning hard as his shadow tried to interact with the floor.
"Is that... Sizzling?" Ian suddenly said.
"Run!" Jet screamed as he threw himself into his shadow.
Ian stumbled backward into a run when the entire corridor before us suddenly erupted in an explosion. I reflexively threw up multiple [Aegis] spells to shield Pelopi and Eliza behind me.
"Ian!" Eliza screamed out amongst the deafening st.
Big Announcement!
Big Announcement!
Hi all!
Lunadea here! I''ve got a bunch of announcements.
Our beloved Syl has wandered all over Royal Road and will soon be wandering over to Amazon to explore what''s going on there! Unfortunately, that does mean the story is going to get stubbed, as KU pays so much, and I enjoy things like paying my rent and being able to write more Syl.
The story will get stubbed from RR on November 9th. It''ll be live on Amazon on November 11th!
I want to express my appreciation to each and every one of you for being a part of this incredible journey. When I first started writing about Syl, a neurotic little slime (and Gramps!), I never imagined the overwhelming support it would receive.
Your encouragement and enthusiasm have been the driving force behind my continued writing, and I can''t thank you enough. I''m truly excited to see what the future holds for us and Syl!
Only the first book is being stubbed, and RR postings will continue as normal for all the slimy goodness you''vee to expect.
We''ve also got a shiny new cover! Thank you, Tsuu and Mango Media, for making it happen! I adore Tsuu''s work, so when I was given the option to pick her as my cover artist, I literally jumped at the opportunity!
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition.
Patreon: I''m not trying to slip in a Patreon change in the middle to hide it, but there are going to be some changes to the Patreon.
The current $5 Mana Slime tier is going to get locked and grandfathered on November 1st. Everyone still in the tier when it closes - all of my early followers who made this all possible - willcontinue to get the same level of content as the new $10 Slime Core tier. A permanent reward for being an early subscriber and supporter of Syl.
Fair warning, though. If you lose the tier, there''s no way to get it back.
So, on November 1st, there will be a $5 Slime tier (10 advanced chapters) and a $10 Slime Core tier (25 advanced chapters).
There are also going to be a few new vanity tiers that offer nothing besides a fancy Discord role and maybe a personalized thank-you note from me. Again, there is nothing extra besides vanity and being able to support me. There''s a $15 Sub Core, a $25 Trixie, and a $50 Gramps tier.
For my existing Mana Core followers, I haven''t forgotten about you. The tier will also be locked on November 1st, and you''ll be treated like the other vanity tiers. Thank you for giving more support when you didn''t need to.
Rest assured, I''ll share the preorder links with you as soon as they''re avable. The audiobook is currently undergoing its final check, and I''ll update you on its status as soon as I have more information. Your patience and understanding are greatly appreciated.
Thank you all for understanding and supporting me on the journey!
Luna.
Chapter 158: Orange You Glad
Chapter 158: Orange You d
Jet stepped out of a shadow behind us, looking haggard despite avoiding the explosion. He red at the resulting destruction in horror. The smoke and rubble made visibility difficult, but [Life Sight] still showed Ian alive. Eliza wasted no time rushing forward to his aid.
"Ian!" She shouted again.
"H-hey... I''m alive." Ian said loudly; blood was leaking from his ears. "Bloody thing nearly triggered my [Last Stand]."
Pelopi turned on Jet and grabbed him by his shirt. "What happened!?" She demanded.
"Trapped hallway. I think it''s an orange slime with illusion or camouge or some other shit..." Jet exined bitterly.
"A slime did this?" Pelopi said, almost confused.
"Dungeon ones are no joke. They protect the dungeon with brutal efficiency, unlike their wild counterparts." Jet said with a frown.
''Huh... Do they not know they are controlled directly by the Dungeon Master? Trixie really dropped a lot of knowledge on me...'' I wondered. ''Well... It looks like the dungeon is meeting my request, although maybe a bit reluctantly since it clearly tried to kill us.''
Ian looked like hell, and Eliza spent thest dregs of her holy pool trying to heal him before pulling out a potion and forcing him to drink it. Once it looked like he could stand on his feet andprehend things, Jet rapidly approached him."Sorry, I couldn''t pull you in with me." Jet apologized profusely, even going as far as to bow his head. "[Shadow Step] doesn''t let me take passengers."
"Hey... No big deal. I''m the tank; I''m meant to take damage," Ian replied. He tried to shrug it off with a wave before wincing in pain.
"I thought you were fireproof?" Pelopi asked.
"Explosions aren''t fire... I''ve taken a [Fireball], this was... More." Ian said, shaking his head with another wince.
"Well. We need to turn around and take the other passageway now." Jet said. "Normal procedure is to avoid orange slimes like the gue."
"I''m willing to risk going after it," I said, raising my hand. "I''ve got both ice and water, which the guild book suggested using against them."
Pelopi clung to my arm and started pulling me away. "No! Too risky..."
While I was appreciative that she cared, I wanted that slime core.
"Look. You can all stay safely here while I go in. I can protect myself well enough and can even [Thunder Step] away if something gets really bad." I said.
"Is it really worth the risk?" Eliza asked with a frown; she had lost her cheer after seeing Ian in such bad condition.
"I''m confident in my abilities. I''m perfectly suited to counter it and can safeguard myself with [Arcane Armor]." I said.
The three misfits still seemed unsure, but Jet nodded. "I do agree that you are the textbook counter for it having both Ice and Water magic. Frozen orange slime can no longer detonate."
"Then we can go together," Pelopi said, but Ian shook his head.
"No. What if Syl misses a spot? This orange blob is clearly able to hide its slime traps." Jet said. "Syl does have an escape skill and good reaction time. Not to mention at least three defensive spells from what I''ve seen in this dungeon alone."
Pelopi pouted but reluctantly agreed.
"We''ll head back to the previous room and rest up." Jet said.
"And wait for your victory notification! Make sure to kill it extra dead for me," Ian said with a grin.
I waited for the others to safely retreat before I turned to the passageway.
"Right... Orange slime time." I said, struggling to hide my grin. I did feel a little guilty about having Ian caught in the st, but I couldn''t help but feel giddy about the potential of a new slime core!
I activated [cial Aura], dumping as much mana as possible into it to increase its range and effect. Then, I carefully started walking through the passageway. I could see something beginning to frost over like a trail across the walls and floors. Once it froze over, I could see its bright orange coloring.
I also activated [Cryo Slime] to drop my temperature as low as possible, hoping to further fuel my icy presence. Whenever I spotted arge portion of slime beginning to freeze over, I would hasten the process by casting [Frost Grasp] on it.
I ensured my [Sub-Cores] used all my various forms of vision and senses to detect the slime in case it tried to ambush me. My biggest hope was that [Electro-Maic Sense] would reveal it if it was as conductive as myself.
Turning a corner, I spotted something trying its best to hide in a tiny nook. As I predicted, its natural conductivity gave it away as it was like a golden beacon in the monochromatic vision. I couldn''t help but shudder a little, remembering how dangerous that conductivity was for me.
Either it was angered bying into contact with my [cial Aura], or it realized it was spotted and spat a blob of slime toward me. I dodged to the side, only for the projectile to detonate at my nk. The explosion brushed dangerously against my [Arcane Armor].
"Sneaky bastard, aren''t you!" I responded, apanied by an excited grin.
With some alignment shifts and coordinated teamwork with my cores, we threw [Frigid] on it before a dual casting of [Frost Grasp]. The orange slime immediately became violently hostile, perhaps sensing its icy doom and causing more orange slime to detonate in our vicinity. It even detonated itself in an attempt to escape its rapidly forming frozen prison, and I cursed aloud, thinking it might have killed itself. But when the explosion settled, the core was still alive and well, missing arge portion of its remaining slime mass and the tiny remainder frosting over swiftly.
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It died a little unceremoniously, as seemed to be tradition with slimes. A little sad that there was quite a lot of power tucked into that little orange slime ball, but it was so extremely countered by ice.
''It makes me wonder what my remaining outstanding biggest weaknesses are. I can''t be frozen anymore. I''m mostly free of worry from lightning. I can''t boil alive anymore... [Death Magic] and any mind bullshit, I guess.''
I happily plucked the frozen remains of the orange slime and engulfed it. Now that it was dead, it had returned to its original coloring, an extremely vibrant orange for the slime, and its core was a toxic green. I crunched down happily on it.
''Yes!'' I answered, struggling to contain my excitement.
''My slime power collection grows!''
''Free new trait! Score!''
''I guess that makes sense. I don''t exactly have a limit on any colors or opacity.''
.
''Damn... Not enough to get it a level in either of these.''
I looked over my two new traits eagerly.
This slime has the ability to prime its slime mass for detonation. Once primed, the slime mass retains its current state of being and can be triggered with a mere thought to detonate.
The power scaling of detonations and control over the primed slime are determined by trait level, and additional levels may provide further control, tools, or applications.
Furthermore, the location of primed slime can be urately and innately sensed within 20m per rank. Primed slime retains its state for 6 minutes per rank.
The trait also provides the slime Shockwave and Detonation resistance to prevent an untimely demise, scaling greatly with trait level until immunity.
Compatible with other slime traits.>
''Shockwave resistance? I wonder if I just made my [Sonic Resistance] redundant? Well... It should be fine? If I fuse it together with other resistance traits into some bigbined skill. The rest of this sounds great. I wonder how much additional control further levels will grant.''
This trait allows the user to discern vibrations and sense the location of anything in contact with the same surface.
The trait level determines the minimum detection level and increases uracy.
5m per trait rank radius for pinpoint detection and 10m per trait rank for rough detection.>
''Amazing! Truly amazing! What an awesome trait!''
Extremely pleased with my two new traits, I looked over its profile. Sadly, there wasn''t more than what I had already acquired from it. It looked like the Camo mutation just gave it the [Chroma Shift] trait and then the [Stealth], [Sneak Attack], and [Trapping] skills. Quite an awful mutation, all things considered, much like the Greater mutation I had seen on that bear. Unless there was something I was missing? I tried to buy a skill.
''Well... I expected that. I didn''t see any illusions in its profile after all. Not to mention, I don''t know if I even can integrate a mutation.''
I had some ingrained knowledge of the trait installed directly into my core, so I wanted to test it out. I triggered [Nitro Slime] and primed my fingertip with the intent of it exploding only forwards. It did so without issue, almost like a miniature [Nova] spell. I tried changing around its parameters, as I understood I could even change the type of explosion to be more slime scattering. The result was a st scattering slime outwards, reminiscent of [Slime Burst].
''Huh... Actually, that''s weird. I didn''t see [Slime Burst] in the orange slime profile at all. Is that because it''s redundant?''
I triggered [Slime Burst] and noticed that the simrity with[Nitro Slime] was undeniable. Curious about their interactions, I tried activating both at the same time.
''Well... That answers that question. Yes?''
Please confirm.>
I paused to think it over. Honestly, I couldn''t think of any reason not to integrate it. I had no idea how big the penalty would be, but in reality, even a single additional level in [Nitro Slime] would be better for me in the long run. Havinge to my conclusion, I confirmed.
''Two levels! Not bad! Straight over the dreaded level five.''
With the improvements, I could definitely feel greater control over the trait. It seemed like now I could even do an almost entirely shockwave-based explosion, and it seemed like now I could prime my slime to detonate on contact rather than purely on a trigger. Hell, I could even keep a detonation almost entirely internally by controlling its direction. I withdrew a bit of useless monster part inside myself, then triggered an internal st and watched it be vaporized.
''An... Implosion? I think that''s the word?'' I wondered curiously.
''Of course, I could also fire a [Slime Shot] of primed slime and have it detonate midair, or even better, attach it to my target with [Adhesive Slime] and then trigger the detonation. Or go with the on-contact explosion. Or prime it to go off when something steps on it, which unleashes a payload of [Acid Slime]? So many options!''
I chuckled as I needed to calm down and report to my party before they came to investigate. I''d have plenty of time to y around with the traitter. But before doing that, I continued along the corridor with [cial Aura] active to clean up any left behind traps until I saw the next room and confirmed there wasn''t another slimy ambusher. I stopped at the next room and smiled.
"Well. A deal is a deal. Thank you. I absolutely love the orange slime," I said in a happy whisper.
I doubted I''d get a chance to meet the requirements of the [Apex Hunter] emblem, so I swapped to [Nature''s Bane]. Then, I visibly disguised my profile with [Identity Fabrication] to disy [Dungeoneer] again.
"I hope that takes the pressure off. Thanks again." I gave an energetic wave to the dungeon wall before starting my journey back.
I returned to the rest of the team without issue. They all looked relieved, and Ian looked much better after receiving some TLC from Nurse Eliza.
"You''re back!" Pelopi cheered. "We got the kill notification a while ago."
"I''ve been avenged!" Ian cheered.
"Yup. Problem solved." I said with a thumbs up. "I also checked until the next room and cleaned up any remaining slime."
"Great job." Jet said. "I guess we don''t need to backtrack."
"Well, unless the room is a dead end." Eliza pointed out. "Did you check?"
"Oh... No..." I replied sheepishly. "Sorry."
"d even you can make mistakes." Ian teased.
"Well, let''s get to it then," Jet said as he motioned to the exit. "Hopefully, the dungeon has fewer surprises left for us."
The others packed up their things, and we started retracing our steps.
"Did it put up much of a fight?" Pelopi asked curiously.
"Not really? Once I cast [Frost Grasp], it pretty much died on the spot." I answered.
"Ice magic is cool like that," Jet responded, causing a groan from the misfits. Guess they weren''t a fan of puns.
Chapter 159: Jinxed
Chapter 159: Jinxed
Despite my reassurances, everyone was extremely careful as we retraced our steps. I even joined the vanguard with [cial Aura] active, just in case. Interestingly enough, the dungeon had already cleaned up all the mess, and any damage from exploding slime was gone.
We reached the room again without incident and peeked inside. It was mostly empty except for a small fountain and arge ornate door, which indicated that it was the boss''s room.
"Look! The boss room is just ahead," Ian eximed, his voice filled with excitement and anticipation.
"And a fountain; I''m surprised we''re getting a safe zone," Eliza said curiously. "Unless I''m mistaking theyout?"
"No. This does look like a rest area." Jet confirmed as he red at the water.
"Are you worried it''s poisoned?" I asked, pulling out one of my sks and cing it inside the fountain while absorbing some of the mystery liquid through my arm. From what I could tell, no notifications or anything significant happened.
"Yeah. As stupid as that sounds." Jet said with a sigh. "Dungeon fountains are supposed to be rejuvenating waters. But this dungeon has been anything but ordinary since we reached the second floor."
"Oh! I read about those. They''re like weak healing potions, right?" Eliza asked.
Ian gestured for my canteen, so I handed it over to him. He poured some of the contents on some of his wounds and massaged it in with his free hand. As he continued the work, the damaged skin slowly started looking better."Amazing!" Ian said happily.
"Too bad this one didn''te with a pink slime, or we could pretty much regrow some limbs with that fountain." Jet pointed out.
"Is this dungeon big enough for that?" I asked curiously.
Jet shook his head. "Regrettably, no. I was just joking. Otherwise, we could have been set for life."
We took some time to collect some of the healing water and rest up while Ian rejuvenated himself.
"So, do you think we should take the boss on now?" Jet asked.
"Kill the boss! Get the loot! Sleep!" Pelopi dered.
"I''m ready and willing," I responded but turned to Eliza. "But your Holy pool is tapped out, isn''t it?"
"Yeah... But unless we backtrack to the other passageway and find some monsters to fight, that will not change." Eliza responded. "I can always generate some on the fly, especially if you do your zip-zap step and I siphon your damage. I''m more concerned about Ian."
Ian let out a smirk as he gestured at his now healthy-looking skin. "Oh, I''m good to go. This water has me as smooth as a baby''s bottom."
"Okay," Jet said with a nod. "Sounds like we will be attempting the boss then. We know it''ll be illusions and whatever the next floor is, so be careful."
"And probably a Fey, or you''ll eat your hat," Pelopi added.
"Yes..." Jet frowned before giving a light chuckle. "I might need to buy a hat..."
We made our preparations and were in generally high spirits as we snacked on some of Pelopi''s apples and ironed out our opening strategy. No matter what enemy was thrown at us, my job was to harm myself with [Thunder Step] so Eliza could rapidly refill her reserve.
We entered the room and waited... Weapons were drawn, and you could almost sense the held breath as we all anticipated what this menacing floor would finally throw at us.
A ck cat appeared in a poof of rainbow smoke and glitter. Then, as the smoke began to disperse, we saw that it was no ordinary ck cat. Its fur was ck like midnight, and on its chest was a white patch of fur in a starburst pattern. On its back, it had tiny dragonfly wings that glimmered like an iridescent rainbow. On top of its head was an adorably small crown tilted to its side as if worn with a casual demeanor.
As we all stared in bewilderment at the strange creature before us, it also stared back at us as if annoyed it had to deal with us. Its icy blue eyes slowly blinked in an almost reptilian manner, the left eye blinking horizontally while its right eye blinked vertically.
"Ha! It''s a Fey! I knew it!" Jet shouted triumphantly.
"No! Why!?" I shouted.
I blinked in bafflement at the strange additions to my [Identify], but my thoughts were interrupted.
"What''s wrong, Syl?" Pelopi asked worriedly.
"It''s a ghost..." I muttered with disappointment.
"No! Not ghosts!" Pelopi joined in on my frustration.
Before the others could question it, the ck cat let out a menacing hiss as it slowly started levitating.
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Right. Despite its weird appearance, this was a boss fight. I triggered [Thunder Step], appearing in the air and casting [Conductive] on the enemy before I needed to unleash the bacshed lightning. I immediately felt physical relief as Eliza siphoned off the damage, and as if we coordinated it, we both unleashed our respective lightning attacks simultaneously. The thunder boomed, and lightning crackled as it coursed through the cat as it screeched in pain. The cat looked almostical in its outrage as it growled and hissed like a feral beast as it red at us.
Ian had charged in with his axe, only for it to swing right through the monster, and Pelopi''s w strikes from its exposed nk also phased through the cat.
"Well, shit. I can''t hit this damn thing!" Ian shouted right before the cat exploded with a dark miasma of ckish mana.
"Is it trying to kill me in status messages!?" Pelopi shouted in disarray.
"I don''t even know what half of these are?" Eliza spoke frantically.
Jet fired an arrow, which soared straight through the cat, but its shadowy counterpart thankfully stillnded a blow. I overheard him mutter aint, "Ghosts... Honestly... This dungeon..."
I immediately went through my full debuff cycle and various elemental spells to see what worked and what didn''t. [Icicle] passed straight through the cat; however, it still seemed to do some harm from the [Frostbite] and [Frost Grasp]ponents added to it. [Fire Magic] and [Lightning Magic] were definitely my strongest options, as even the powerful [Waterjet] spell seemed to be less effective than I anticipated.
The cat, unfortunately, was not going to just debuff us and call it a day; I wondered if it would start sting us with spells, but then suddenly, an array of floating weapons began appearing around it, which it seemed to expertly control and either throw at us or swing with practiced precision. I immediately thought of the alicorn prince and his light-based weapons, and I was eager to try [Counter Magic] against it, but there seemed to be no anchor point or spell totch onto. Very odd.
It kept conjuring magical armaments to fight us, although despite the weapons looking especially deadly, they didn''t seem to deal as much damage as one would expect. The hardest part was that the weapons seemed extraordinarily magically guided, and no amount of dodging would end their unrelenting pursuit. My [Arcane Armor] was getting a thorough workout as the armaments crashed against the briefly appearing barrier.
Pelopi''s bestial ws likewise seemed to do nothing to the cat, and she resorted to falling back on her magic. She first tried to cast various Nature spells, like a vine or her exploding seed trick, but all passed through the annoying ghost cat. She threw a few muddy [Water Orb] spells before finally settling on [Fire Arrow].
Ian was the most disadvantaged as he could literally do nothing against the cat with actual weapons. His only contribution was taunting it, which appeared to still work, and hopefully, burning it by proximity. He was also moving unnaturally slow, so he clearly failed to resist that affliction.
Eliza''s ck lightning and asional dark bolt still retained its usual effectiveness. I''d even argue it was perhaps more influential than my own lightning based on how the cat would try to actively defend against it by trying to dodge or even forming some magical shields to block the spells.
"I can''t seem to siphon the damage inflicted by these weapons. They might be cursed or something!" Eliza shouted. "Holy seems to still work, so keep me topped up, Ian and Syl."
"Not like I can do much else against this bloody ghost cat!" Ian shouted.
"I hate it!" Pelopi shouted angrily, right before her [Fire Arrow] spell she was attempting to cast suddenly exploded in her face.
"The hell?" Jet shouted as his crossbow seemed to... Break? The various mechanisms of his device seemed to creak, and the bowstring snapped.
Nearly right after that, one of my [Lightning Bolt] spells became extremely unruly and burst within my grasp; I felt a bacsh of mental anguish straight to my core while the violent lightning was stored within [Voltaic Slime]. I had never seen my magic behave like this except when I was attempting to brute-force my spell creations, so it was utterly baffling.
"Is this the [Jinx Aura]?" Eliza questioned.
"Oh bloody hells. That''s ridiculous!" Ian shouted, right as his axe seemed to slip out of his hands almostically.
"I don''t suppose you have [Dispel]?" Eliza asked me with concern. "Anything stronger than a poison or disease is beyond my current Holy magic level."
"No? Should I have it?" I questioned before sting another [Lightning Bolt] at the cat. Sessfully this time and juicing it with some of the discharge stored within [Voltaic Slime].
"It''s one of the spells from [Arcane Magic]!" Jet answered while pulling out a different crossbow from his magic storage.
"Mine''s only level three!" I replied.
"Balls." Jet muttered.
A hammer struck against my [Arcane Armor], finally shattering the barrier, and at the same time, a sword sliced along my arm. Blood leaked from my arm, and I clenched it in pain with my other hand.
"Bloody hell, that hurt..." I grunted as I recast [Arcane Armor].
"These weapons seem to hurt a lot more than normal. Even I''m taking some pain." Ian said angrily.
I then stared at my arm in shock. It hurt. Why? My arm wasn''t real; it was slime and anything not striking my core was meaningless.
''So why the hell did that hurt me?'' I asked in utter confusion.
Even when I told Alpha to fix the wound, it still was there... Bleeding as if my arm was real, and only when Eliza''s Holy magic embraced me, did the wound finally close up. It made no sense; it didn''t seem real.
I told my [Sub-Cores] to continue the battle in my ce while keeping up my facade, which they seemed to have no problem understanding. Their new level of intelligence, after mytest evolution, still needed to be fully explored, but it appeared they easily understood my intent. Once I confirmed their performance was believable, keeping in line with my usual disyed adventurer power level, I could focus internally on trying to puzzle out this conundrum.
The cat was a Fey, so it was something like Trixie. This was the second floor, so illusions were the theme, and the third floor seemed to be ghosts... The more I puzzled together, the more wrong the situation was. Was this entirely an illusion? But then, why did it feel so real? Illusions surely couldn''t actually deal damage?
''Or... Can they?'' I questioned and recalled a simr discussion with Trixie about a certain trait I had acquired from the prince. I pulled it up.
Raises spell power by 5% per trait rank.
Spells focused through the horn be more real.>
''More real!'' I eximed excitedly to myself. ''They are illusions, but the cat must have a trait to make them more real. That''s terrifying, I''m d it didn''t just make an illusion dragon to eat us or something.''
As if to confirm my new understanding, the wrongness of the room seemed to be rapidly apparent. The glowing magical weapons started to turn more shadowy and ethereal, proving their falsehood, and if that wasn''t enough, I received a sudden prompt.
"It''s all fake!" I shouted aloud with glee and noticed that even the bloodstain on my arm vanished with my promation.
The cat red at me with utter abhorrence and loathing.
Chapter 160: Declawed and Decrowned
Chapter 160: Dewed and Decrowned
"What do you mean it''s not real!?" Ian shouted as he was fighting off a group of imaginary swords. Now that I had broken through sessfully, the entire fight seemed almostical.
"All the weapons are an illusion! You need to disbelieve it!" I shouted.
To prove my point, I used [Thunder Step] to appear next to the cat and attempted to backhand one of its floating swords. There were some yells from my party members for me to stop, but I knew it wasn''t real, and my hand passed straight through the de despite some of their gasps and astonishment.
The cat growled, and then its shadow erupted with shadowy spikes toward me; I reflexively threw up an [Aegis] and saw the dark spikes crash against it.
"Okay, its shadow can apparently attack!" I warned as I retreated to a safe distance with another [Thunder Step].
"Is that why it cast [Eclipse]?" Jet said with a frown. "Bloody hell. No stupid monster cat will use my own affinity against me."
Jet seemed to ept what I said easily enough, and soon enough, he ignored the illusory des that passed through him. Eliza joined shortly after, as it seemed her inability to siphon the illusion damage had spoken volumes to her frame of mind. Ian and Pelopi, however, were struggling desperately to ovee it. I wondered if it was due to their failure to resist one of the numerous curses the cat had flung at us, and unfortunately, the cat seemed to know this as it focused its assault on them and tried to ignore us.
While throwing [Lightning Bolts] at it was all fun and good, it had an enormous mana pool and thus effective health. I had the perfect new spell to try out ¡ª[Mana Burn]!
When I cast the spell on the cat, it screeched with rage. Its shadow flickered wildly and lost all cat-like resemnce, instead looking like it belonged to one of my chimeric monstrosity forms. Everyone reacted with shock, and that was when its shadow rose from the surface, detached itself from the cat, and flung itself at me with burning hatred.I threw up an [Aegis] in reaction, and the shadow monster tore through; as soon as I heard the familiar shattering sound, I threw up another, and this time, it finally halted its trajectory. The shadow slithered around and over the [Aegis] before flinging itself towards me again.
"Focus on the cat! We have to kill it before its shadow gets Syl!" Jet ordered.
"I still can''t hit the damn thing!" Ian shouted in frustration. "Eliza! I''m going maximum burn!"
"Right!" Eliza confirmed.
Ian erupted with newfound firepower, the tips of his mes even turning blue with the intense ferocity. Under the insane heat, his flesh was in a constant flux of charring before returning to normal, while a massive amount of dark energy was being constantly siphoned. With her free hand raised, a ck me formed, and then, rather than her usual dark bolt, a methrower of ck congration streamed from her palm.
Pelopi kept up her [Fire Arrow] spells while running away from the swords chasing her. She sprinted and dodged with feline grace.
Jet reced his crossbow again, this time with two identical handheld ones, and began firing a torrent of shadow-infused bolts at the cat.
Meanwhile, I had my shadowy pursuer hounding me with dreadful ferocity. I tried casting spells at it, but it seemedpletely ineffectual against the shadow. The closest I got to harming it was with bright light generated from either [Fire Magic] or [Lightning Magic], which seemed to stun the entity temporarily. This thing was like my worst nightmare: immune to debuffs, immune to afflictions, immune to magic, and likely even immune to slime.
I tried casting some [Lightning Bolts] at the cat when I got the chance but received a scolding from Jet.
"Worry about keeping yourself alive, Syl! It''s a damage race right now!" Jet shouted.
"We''ve got this!" Eliza said reassuringly.
I nodded as I used [Thunder Step] to evade the shadow once more. It almost instantly rebounded off the dungeon wall when it missed me and was again like a projectile seeking to end me. I made sure to at least order any expiring debuffs and afflictions refreshed to my cores, especially [Mana Burn], which seemed to be double dipping in the damage department.
''I had presumed destroying mana would deal damage like bacsh does; it seems my assumption was correct. So since mana is being destroyed and mana is its health, it''s stacking together. No wonder it sed its shadow on me exclusively.''
With the number of [Aegis] spells this shadow was chewing through, I was honestly beginning to worry even I''d run into some mana issues. It was bing a bncing act of trying to estimate whether I should avoid it with [Thunder Step] or block it with [Aegis] depending on its iing velocity. What made matters worse was the [Jinx Aura] was affecting both my skill and magic, as sometimes I would trigger [Thunder Step], and it would just fail, and I''d be left standing on the spot looking like an idiot. [Aegis] failing was awful as the magical shield would form and instantly shatter without blocking even a single blow, wasting a considerable amount of mana in the process, not to mention the bacsh, which felt like taking a hammer to the core. Not fun.
After our game of cat and mouse, it seemed to finally reach a level of its remaining life when it recalled its shadow to deal with the others. With only Pelopi and Ian taking damage from its illusions anymore, it needed to take out the others. It seemed Eliza was its next target as the shadow flung itself at her; I immediately threw up two [Aegis] spells to block it.
"It''sing for Eliza!" I shouted.
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"Shit! Ahh! We were winning this race! Stupid ghost cat! Stop cheating!" Pelopi screamed.
From my perspective, its mana was dangerously low, so I made the impromptu decision to try to seal the deal with [Decay] and also triggered [Assassinate], even if the bonus damage would be halved for the cat being fully aware of me. With six debuffs at least, eight if I included the ones I had merged, and four afflictions, I knew it would be a big chunk of damage, and I prayed to Gramps that it would be enough to end this.
There was a conflux of the various forms of mana surging around the cat and then an explosion; it all converted into a singr source of necrotic mana. The cat''s eyes went wide, its shadow shuddered, and then, with a pop, it burst into a cloud of rainbow sparkles and glitter. Its tiny crown ttered to the ground and then poofed into rainbow smoke.
"Is... Is it dead?" Ian stammered as he copsed to his knees, and his me died out.
Eliza copsed so hard that she nearly facented. She struggled to her belt to reach for a blue potion before Pelopi rushed to her side to help her drink the concoction.
Our group cheered. However, it was considerably less energetic than our previous kill, which was understandable given how frantic and rushed it got at the end.
"Gods, if I see another bloody illusion spell, I am going to lose my bloody mind." Jetined rather uncharacteristically.
"Well... Isn''t the final boss all three mutations together?" Eliza said, having recovered some energy after her potion.
Jet opened his mouth to answer, then paused. He put away his crossbow, which I noticed was neither of his two handheld ones nor one of his previously used ones. The [Jinx Aura] must have affected him greatly. He muttered a curse, then pulled out a sk and started drinking.
"Sounds like tomorrow''s problem," Pelopi dered.
''Damn it, Gramps! Please give me some ss levels already!''
Once again, myints went straight into the void. Swallowing my disappointment, I noticed other unread notifications during my frantic escape attempts and looked over them.
With all the [Thunder Step] usage I''d been doing throughout the dungeon, I was grateful for a well-earned level-up. I honestly loved the skill, and I felt like I needed to give Lisa a big hug or maybe offer my dress-cleaning services to her again.
[Exploit Weakness] was also long overdue, and I wondered if it was perhaps due to most of my foes notsting long enough to take extra damage from the [Vulnerability] stacks. Did attacking an enemy with stacks give more experience than applying a stack? Or was I killing things so fast that the [Vulnerability] debuff didn''t even apply? I could only shrug and move on.
''I could have used you ages ago... Great!'' I grumbled.
Despite its name and my initial presumption, it did not instantly end all magical effects. There was a lot of information in this one spell hastily crammed into my core, and I had trouble deciphering it all. My rushed understanding was it would take my [Mana Maniption] and [Arcane Magic] levels and p them together versus the enemy''s own [Mana Maniption] and equivalent magic skill. That was the basic interpretation. There was stuff for the amount of mana utilized and oveing resistances, as well as if you were trying to [Dispel] one effect or multiple. It was also easier to [Dispel] something on myself than on another unless that person was an ally, and so on and so on.
Everyone took some time to recover, mostly drinking water, catching their breaths, and letting mana recover. Thest one was especially important for me. I had gone all the way down to Ebbing Mana, which I had not seen in ages outside of my transportation expenditure.
"So, did we get any loot? Or was it all gone because of stupid ghosts?" I questioned.
"There''s a chest." Jet mumbled as he pointed a thumb in the direction.
"Only one? What a cheapskate dungeon. Thest boss gave two!" Eliza muttered.
''Sorry guys... At least that proves my fake emblem isn''t working anymore. Hopefully, the dungeon will be less brutal from now on...''
"It could have at least given us the cat''s crown." Ian joined in the group rant.
"What do you mean?" Pelopi asked curiously. "The crown is on Syl''s head."
"What?" I questioned. Was Pelopi still afflicted?
Everyone turned to me, and they gazed at my head.
"Huh. How''d that happen?" Ian said, scratching his head.
"Now she''s be a noble." Pelopi teased. "Or maybe royalty?"
Jet coughed, seemingly having choked on his drink a little.
I reached up to touch the top of my head, and sure enough, there was a tiny crown there. I pulled it off and looked at it with a frown.
I stared at the tiny crown in confusion. It seemed to have some form of enchantment, but I had trouble deciphering any of it.
"I have no idea what this does," I said with a mumble.
"Well, it''s not magical," Eliza said.
"Yeah, [Appraisal] is showing nothing." Jet agreed, having recovered from his coughing fit.
I stared at them in bewilderment before responding. "It''s definitely magical. I can see three different types of enchantments at least, and my [Appraisal] calls it the [Cat Sith Crown]."
"That''s... Odd?" Jet said curiously. "Toss it here?"
I threw the crown over to him, and he examined it closer.
"[Appraisal] still shows nothing... Not even a failed [Identify] notification." Jet said, scratching his head in puzzlement.
Eliza and Pelopi also took a closer look, but both concluded it was showing up as non-magical in Pelopi''s [Mana Sight] and Eliza''s [Mana Conception].
"So Syl''s the crazy one for once." Ian joked. "Think it''s the cat''s revenge for you breaking its illusion?"
"I hope not..." I mumbled.
Pelopi ced the crown on her head and gave a mocking and snootyugh befitting a pompous noble. "Bow down before Princess Pelopi!" She joked.
The crown suddenly poofed off her head.
"Your crown''s been stolen, your highness." Ian roared withughter.
Pelopi frantically grabbed at her head where the crown once was.
"Well, shit. It''s definitely magical if it can disappear." Jet said.
"But where did it go?" I asked curiously.
Pelopi suddenly pointed to me. "Crown thief!"
"Oh. It appeared on Syl''s head again..." Ian said. "That''s handy?"
"Or worrying... An unknown magical item has attached itself to her." Eliza pointed out.
"This bloody dungeon... I swear." Jet grumbled, taking another drink.
"It doesn''t seem harmful," I said, hoping it was true. At least no scary notifications or garbled text was appearing. "Although if I''m forced to wear this thing, I wish it was a hat rather than a crown..."
As soon as I said that, there were some gasps from the others. Jet spat out his drink and started coughing.
"What!?" I said with worry.
"Definitely a magic crown," Eliza stated.
"It''s a magic hat now!" Pelopi corrected.
I reached up and pulled it off my head. What was there now was a round-brimmed cap with arge bright red feather attached to it.
"Huh..." I mumbled, staring at the strange... Hat?
Chapter 161: Hats, Axes, and Claws
Chapter 161: Hats, Axes, and ws
We were all staring at the crown-turned-hat in bewilderment. To everyone else, it appeared utterly mundane and only revealed its true nature to me, its apparent new owner. Its abnormal attachment to me and its tendency to return to my head or even sneak into my [Core Storage] was a mystery that kept us all on edge. Thetter was extremely rming, and I couldn''t shake the feeling that the crown was ying a prank on me for trying to get rid of it.
Finally, Jet spoke up. "Okay, take everything I say with a mountain of salt because I''m pulling on some utter dregs of secondhand information, but I think it''s be soul-bound to you."
"How and why?" I asked with concern.
"I assume because you dealt the final blow on the cat. It''s the only thing that makes sense." Jet answered.
"So, is this a good thing or a bad thing?" Eliza asked, her curiosity piqued.
To everyone''s surprise, it was Pelopi who answered. "Soul-bound items are unusual but not that rare. I know my family had one; I was supposed to inherit it one day. It just means nobody, but you can use it."
"That''s vaguely in line with what I heard," Jet responded, scratching his chin. "I heard a swordsman who was soul-bound to his sword, and only he could unsheathe it. It also apparently couldn''t cut him."
"And I got a hat..." I replied with deadpan disappointment.
"A transforming hat," Ian corrected with a cheeky grin. "Although I can sympathize with the disappointment of not getting a cool magic weapon."We spent some time exploring the limits of the crown''s transformations. Anything considered even loosely as headwear and head essories was up for grabs, including ribbons, hairclips, hoods, helmets, masks, and even bizarrely, a scarf as long as it was one of thoserge ones that covered one''s mouth. Also, nobody was able to remove it from my head except myself, which further added to its mysteries.
I ended up settling for an oversized ck witch hat as I recalled Kurt mentioning that any self-respecting mage would have an iconic hat. The Misfits all heartily agreed with the decision and wondered why I didn''t have an impressive mage hat sooner. Jet muttered something about stereotypes but otherwise shrugged and said it looked good.
Finally, after our distractions, we looked at our loot chest. The group''s disappointment over only one reward chest was greatly diminished when they saw its utter size, which easily dwarfed any of our others.
Ian excitedly pped his hands together in prayer. "Please give me a new weapon! Please, please, please!"
"You never say wishes out loud," Pelopi scolded him. "Everyone knows that."
"Hush you. I''m begging this wonderful and generous dungeon to give me a new toy." Ian replied. "With your magnificent hallways. I love how you''ve decorated the ce, by the way, and yourbinations for this run have been masterfully deceptive."
Eliza leaned over to Jet to whisper into his ear. "Does that work?"
Jet gave a subdued chuckle. "Probably not, but let a man dream."
Even without Ian''s unwavering optimism, we were all excited to see what was in the chest. After confirming that it was not trapped, illusion or otherwise, Jet finally opened the chest. Everyone held their breath.
"Yes!" Ian cried out in victory.
Inside the chest was a golden-orange double axe. The entire thing seemed impossibly made from a single material as if carved out rather than forged. It also hummed with a now recognizablebination enchantment of auto-repair and sharpening. Most startling, there were also two mystery enchantments on each axe de that I wasn''t entirely sure what they did. Once again, it was beyond my own [Rune Reading], except I could tell that the enchantments were almost the direct opposite of one another. One axede had a reddish glow, while the other had a blueish glow.
''A reversed effect depending on which axede you use?'' I wondered to myself.
"A bit of an ominous name." Jet said and turned to me. "Your [Appraisal] telling you anything better?"
"It''s got repair and sharpening, and each de is... Different." I replied with uncertainty. "Opposite effects, as far as I can tell."
"Well, there''s one way to find out!" Ian dered.
We all looked at him expectantly as he reached towards the axe with zero hesitation and picked it up. Then he ran the back of his free hand along the blueish side, causing Eliza to scream at him. He pulled his hand back and revealed... Nothing? Not a single wound.
"Shit. Don''t tell me I finally got a weapon drop, and then it can''t actually cut anything!" Ian said with disappointment.
"I told you not to say your wish out loud! You ruined it!" Pelopi replied.
"I can''t believe you!" Eliza shouted before punching him in the shoulder.
"What?" Ian said with a yful shrug and grin. "I figured you still had some Holy pool to heal me with. It seemed the quickest way to see what it does."
Jet cleared his throat. "Putting aside superstitions and... Impulsive decisions. Syl said each side was the opposite effect, so..."
"Right!" Ian interrupted with glee as he reached towards the red side.
"Don''t!" Eliza shouted in an attempt to stop him. But again, without hesitation, he touched the axede.
"Ouch!" Ian said as he immediately pulled his hand back, a rather deep cut on the back of his hand despite a rather gentle touch.
Eliza immediately reached for his hand and spent some of her remaining Holy pool to heal it. Thankfully, it did close up without any concern. However, she still punched him repeatedly in the shoulder for his recklessness.
Jet sighed and walked away, once again reaching for his sk. It had been a rough day for our party. Well, maybe not for me. Today was wonderful for me, thanks to that orange slime.
The axe obviously went to Ian, as he probably would have fought someone over it. Likewise, the crown was now mine since we literally couldn''t remove it from my possession. I hoped Thern or perhaps Trixie would know what the crown did and how to remove it if I wanted to. Thankfully, it would happily sit inside my [Core Storage] so I could easily hide it away if I needed to slime out.
The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Everyone began setting up tents and a fire at our campsite. Now that we had just the final floor to handle, the Misfits were filled with giddy anticipation. Jet almost immediately started pulling out five crossbows once done and began working on fixing them, a mix of anger and determination in his expression.
"So the next floor is ghosts, huh?" Elizamented.
"I believe it is actually the Ethereal mutation." Jet spoke up while continuing to fix his crossbows. "This means we can expect a bunch of beings that are either permanently incorporeal, halfway, or can swap between the two states."
"I thought you weren''t supposed to help us too much?" I questioned.
"Oh no. As far as I''m concerned, you''ve all passed already." Jet said before giving a rather wicked smirk. "Now... Now it''s personal."
The Misfits were cheering, and I was also quite content; that meant we only had to make it out alive to tell the tale. Jet refrained from the celebrations and continued working on fixing his weapons with a dark glint in his eyes. asionally, he would mutter about "five bloody breaks." and "bloody ghost fey." before taking a swig of his sk.
Since Jet was in his own world and I figured I''d rather leave him alone, I hung out with the others. They were trying to figure out how to deal with more ghosts.
"Well. Assuming my axe can''t do anything, even with its cool name, I can just keep them taunted, and you guys deal with them." Ian said while polishing his new weapon with great attention.
"I have no problems with ghosts," Eliza replied. "Hell, if the healing required is light enough, I could even throw an offensive Holy spell as crazy as that sounds."
"True. That''s assuming that they have the usual ghosts and undead weakness." Ian replied.
"If this floor was anything to go by, I don''t think they will be undead..." I said as I joined in on the conversation.
"Yeah. Jet said Ethereal, right?" Elizamented.
"I just hope that means I can actually sink my ws into something..." Pelopi grumbled; she did not look pleased with the revtion. "Syl was right, damn ghosts."
"Why are you unhappy with ghosts?" Ian asked me. "You have so much magic; you''re like an anti-ghost."
"I hate ghosts because they leave nothing behind to harvest..." I replied.
''And thus no profile or even slime mass. If not for the experience, it would be a total loss...'' I thought bitterly.
"Ah. That makes sense." Ian nodded. "You probably get a bunch of money from your harvests, not to mention skill levels."
"Never get in the way of a girl and her spending money." Eliza teased.
"As long as I get to keep the axe, you can buy whatever you want." Ian instantly replied.
"So... Any ideas for me?" Pelopi asked, her ears once again drooping.
"Well... [Fire Magic] usually works well against undead." I answered.
"Boo," Pelopi said, sticking out her tongue. "Magic is no fun."
"Even if you tailored it to yourself?" I questioned. "Sure, [Water Orb] and [me Arrow] are kinda dull, but couldn''t you do something like fire ws or water ws?"
Pelopi''s ears perked up at that suggestion. "Huh... Magic can do that?"
Ian burst outughing. "It''s called magic for a reason."
Pelopi punched him in the shoulder, and unlike Eliza''s rather yful ones, it nearly sent the man toppling.
"Yeesh! Grumpy wolfcat." Ian chuckled as he rubbed his shoulder.
"Well... Unfortunately, I don''t know how much help it will be right now, but assuming you have at least [Water Whip], that''s the starting point." I began exining.
I cast [Water Whip], then began shifting it into different weapons. Pelopi stared unblinkingly.
"Water is the safe option for experimenting with the shape andyout, and when you have confidence, you can start recing the water mana with the type you want." I continued exining and turned my impromptu water axe into an ice one.
"I don''t have ice..." Pelopi pointed out dejectedly.
"I did that for safety and convenience, but it''s certainly possible with Fire," I responded.
Despite Dewi''s initial suggestion to create a me whip, I hadn''t explored making any fire weapons. Still, with the ease thanks to my Elementalist ss and the plethora of experience I had gained in customizing spells and recing mana, it was rtively easy to do on the fly for such a basic spell. Especially since I brought in all my helpers to speed up the task. After letting the frozen axe disappear, I reced it with one made out of Fire.
Ian whistled. "Maybe I should explore my Fire affinity more..."
"You just got a new axe," Eliza said, poking him in the ribs.
"I''m just thinking of the future!" Ian defended himself. "That''s also only assuming Ghostflesh here can''t deal with them."
Pelopi reached out to touch the axe handle and winced in pain as she retreated her hand. "Hot!"
"Oh... Well, it is literally a ming axe." I responded sheepishly.
In curiosity, Ian also touched the handle but shrugged as it didn''t seem to harm him. It was a low-level spell cast at the bare minimum; after all, no need to bring out the blue mes for a demonstration.
"d I''m not the only one with [Fire Resistance]," Ian chuckled.
"One of my original magic teachers would point-nk cast [Fireball] on himself," I exined.
"Good old Pyromancers sharing the love of [Fireball] with the world." Ian gave a toothy grin.
I then tried to give Pelopi a crash course in basic spell modification. Unfortunately, her skill levels in magic were ratherckluster, and she only had [Water Magic LV 3] and [Fire Magic LV 2] for our anti-ghost options. She had [Nature Magic LV 5] and [Earth Magic LV 2], but it sounded like none had anything to deal with ghostly entities since they were extremely physical despite being magic.
I possibly needed to apologize to Trixie for criticizing her teaching talents as I struggled to exin things properly just as much, if not worse than she did. Pelopi was growing increasingly frustrated when her attempts to reshape [Water Whip] failed.
"Is it because ws aren''t a weapon?" Ian asked.
I shook my head and cast my own version of the watery ws. "No. It just requires a lot of trial and error and practice. I usually spend all my free time tinkering with spells; my [Mana Maniption] is level six through proficiency alone."
"Bloody hell." Ian shook his head. "No purchases at all?"
"I''ve been... Reluctant to spend my points..." I admitted.
Eliza snapped her fingers. "I have an idea! Pelopi, how fuzzy can you make your bear ws?"
Pelopi shifted her arms in response, showing full fur, paws, and ws with no hint of her human appendage remaining.
"Okay. What if Syl ice ws for you?" Eliza said. "Assuming they aren''t too cold for you to handle."
"Huh... That''s not a bad idea." I responded.
''Especially if I just move the anchor point to Pelopi''s hand, I could just have one of my [Sub-Cores] maintain it for me and forget about it.''
"Isn''t Ice too physical?" Ian asked.
"True... But if I added [Frostbite] to the tips of the ws, perhaps..." I started responding, then paused to begin my spell work. Inspiration had struck!
I started shaping my water ws to fit over her paws and extend like a giant wed gauntlet. Once I was happy with the design, I started recing the Water Mana with Ice; thanks to the frozen sharpness, they looked quite savage.
Then I started experimenting with [Frostbite] to see if it could be kept contained only to the w portion of the icy gauntlet. Strangely enough, this partial modification of an existing spell seemed remarkably easy. Perhaps this was due to just slightly limiting an existing effect rather than trying to add a brand-new one? Either way, I was happy the gauntlet portion wouldn''t be giving Pelopi an affliction.
Happy with the result, I cast the spell by maneuvering the anchor point and situating it onto her arm. Pelopi shifted ufortably, perhaps feeling the subconscious effect of a spell within her personal aura. I was about to finally cast the spell when a sudden prompt appeared rather unexpectedly.
I paused as a smile began rapidly forming on my face.
''Oh! So your stupid little create spells never got to ws, huh?''
"What''s got you so happy?" Eliza asked.
"Apparently, the spell is entirely new. So, I get to name it." I replied.
"That''s so cool!" Pelopi replied. "Okay, you''ve convinced me to work more on my magic! I had no idea you get to name spells!"
"What are you going to name it?" Ian asked curiously.
"For simplicity, I was thinking something like ice w, but giving it something more impactful could be fun," I replied.
"Well... You have Frostbite already, so what about Frostw?" Eliza suggested.
"That sounds like a dad joke..." Ian chuckled. "I love it."
"Frostw sounds awesome!" Pelopi cheered.
I had to agree; it was a great-sounding name. Much better than [Create: Ice w] or whatever other garbage that other mage had created.
"Frostw," I answered to the system message.
I couldn''t hide my victorious smirk.
Chapter 162: Ethereal
Chapter 162: Ethereal
Casting the new spell encased Pelopi''s arm in the icy gauntlet. I had to quickly warn her not to touch the ws under any circumstances. If we weren''t in the middle of a dungeon run and I had more time to endlessly tinker, I would have tried to scrutinize how buffs work and try to apply that to the spell.
Pelopi spent some time swinging around her new toy and scratching the ws against the dungeon walls. It looked like she was trying to break it, but as long as I kept holding and maintaining the spell, it would repair the damage at the cost of some of my mana. When I finally released the spell, it cracked and crumbled off Pelopi''s arm, leaving behind some wet and cold-looking fur, and when she shifted back, it was bright pink.
"Okay... It''s a little chilly but really fun!" Pelopi said, trying to warm up her arm.
"I''d say we could wrap up your arm, but I don''t know how much warmer that would be than them being literally bear arms," Eliza replied.
"Do you have [Ice Resistance]?" I asked, to which Pelopi shook her head.
I rummaged through my profiles and found the trait sitting with the orc profile, then disyed it.
"You''re like a walking treasure trove of traits," Ian joked.
"She does have nearly fifty race levels." Eliza pointed out. "Are you beelining for your next ascension that much?"
I chuckled, hoping to hide the fact I needed to lie to answer the awkward question. "I want to get all the elemental affinities since it ties directly to my ss.""That makes sense," Pelopi said, then held out her other arm. "I''m ready for another test."
I cast the spell, and she had fun practicing and swinging the icy w around, leaving frosty scratches on the walls and floor.
"I wonder if giving her a new toy wille back to bite us..." Eliza muttered while watching the unrestricted vandalism.
"Let her have some fun," Ian replied, poking her. "She''s had a rough second floor with all the illusionary nonsense, and I bet even with those magic ice ws, the ghosts aren''t going to make it any easier for her..."
Since [Frostw] wasn''t designed with the intent to hurt the wielder, even the first level of [Ice Resistance]bined with her bear arms was enough for Pelopi tofortably wield it for an extended duration. I was asked if we could do it with any other elements; most notably, Pelopi wanted lightning ws, but I couldn''t see a way to mimic the effect of a gauntlet as it was far too immaterial of a concept.
The rest of the evening went by with not much other details. When it was my turn to take watch, I made sure to wander away and thanked the dungeon again for the orange slime. There was no reaction again; even if it was a coincidence, I thought it better to be safe and polite.
I also spent some time doing some very minor testing with [Nitro Slime] and what were the implications of "primed slime" since, ording to the description, it retained its state for the duration. I formed a small sphere of slime and primed it, then ced it on the floor,pletely separated from me. Unlike any of my previous attempts to separate my slime, it actually kept its form. As amazing as that was, it unfortunately was the limit of the extra control, and I couldn''t reform it once it was separated as usual.
I also tried cing a [Sub-Core] in another sphere of primed slime, but despite the sphere retaining its shape, color, or any other modifications I had made before priming it, as soon as it left my grasp, the [Sub-Core] connection was broken. Unconnected slime control was still beyond my abilities, and I wondered if it was even possible. I certainly hoped so.
If I had been willing to take the risk, I could''ve created a gauntlet of primed slime for Pelopi and perhaps made a solution for lightning ws that wouldn''t harm her. It was something potentially worth exploring, especially when I got my tendrils on that silver slime. I could make a metal slime sword that was actually detachable! For half an hour anyway...
Finally, before my shift was over, I looked over my profile. There had been quite a few changes, and I couldn''t help but re at my unmoving Elementalist levels. A lofty goal I anticipated would be all my [Sub-Cores] reaching level six together; that would be a glorious cascade of notifications.
Name: Syl [Nature''s Bane]
Race: Chimeric Cluster Slime (Blue) LV 1 (-3)
ss: Elementalist LV 4
Status: Healthy
Mana: Overflowing
Emblems:
[Experiment]
[Apex Hunter]
[Elven Legacy]
[Dungeoneer]
[Nature''s Bane]*
[Manhunter]
Traits:
Slime:
[Mana Slime LV 11]
[Acid Slime LV 7]
[Poison Slime LV 6]
[ze Slime LV 6]
[Cryo Slime LV 7]
[Voltaic Slime LV 6]
[Nitro Slime LV 6]
[Morph Slime LV 8]
[Pseudopod LV 7]
[Slime Shot LV 7]
[Vaporize Slime]
Core:
[Core Collective LV 8]
[Core Storage LV 6]
[Sub-Core Alpha LV 5] [Sub-Core Beta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Gamma LV 5] [Sub-Core Eta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Delta LV 5] [Sub-Core Theta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Epsilon LV 5] [Sub-Core Iota LV 5]
[Sub-Core Zeta LV 5] [Sub-Core Kappa LV 5]
Mimic:
[Chimeric Mimicry LV 7]
[Chroma Shift LV MAX]
[Consuming Osmosis LV MAX]
Mana:
[Mana Cirction LV 7]
[Mana Reinforcement LV 7]
[Mana Infusion]
Attributes/Other:
[Soul Mastery LV 7]
[Enhanced Vitality LV 5]
[Magic Resistance (Lesser) LV 5]
[Curse Resistance LV 2]
[Illusion Resistance LV 3]
[Sonic Resistance LV 1]
[Prodigy]
Senses:
[Olfactory Sense]
[Dark Vision LV MAX]
[Mana Conception LV 6]
[Life Sight LV 4]
[Thermal Vision LV MAX]
[Eagle Vision LV 3]
[Electro-Maic Sense LV 4]
[Tremor Sense LV 2]
Trait Points remaining: 5
Skills:
General:
[Universal Language]
[Equipment Swap]
[Dissection LV 7]
[Mapping LV 5]
[Tracking LV 2]
[Identify LV 6]
[Multitasking LV 5]
[Perception LV 4]
[Aerial Finesse LV 4]
[Thunder Step LV 4]
[Companion Bond]
Combat:
[Tranquil Flow LV 5]
[Attack Mastery (Lesser) LV 7]
[Affliction Mastery LV 5]
[Exploit Weakness LV 4]
Magic:
[Water Magic LV 5]
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition.[Fire Magic LV 5]
[Corrosion Magic LV 5]
[Ice Magic LV 5]
[Arcane Magic LV 4]
[Lightning Magic LV 4]
[Mana Maniption LV 6]
[Magic Efficiency LV 5]
[Counter Magic LV 3]
[Elemental Shift LV 5]
[Elemental Adaptation]
[Ritual Casting]
[Mana Suppression]
[Meditate]
Sneaky:
[Vanish LV 6]
[Assassinate LV 6]
[Identity Fabrication LV 6]
[Acting LV 5]
[Rogue Expertise LV 4]
[Magical Subterfuge LV 3]
[Subtle Afflictions]
Skill Points remaining: 13
Profession:
Enchanting:
[Rune Reading LV 6]
[Rune Engraving LV 1]
[Rune Framework LV 7]
[Rune Tracing LV 5]
[Rune Design LV 3]
[Runecrafting LV 2]
[Rune Inspection LV 5]
[Rune Filigree LV 3]
[Rune Repair LV 2]
[Brand]
Profession Points Remaining: 0
***
Everyone woke excited for the day, although without Jet, none of us would have known the actual time, thanks to the dungeon''s artificial lighting. I thought he bought the skill [Time Keeper], which I had previously scoffed at, but he had a magical device that kept track of the time. It was a strange circr device with two arms that told you the time together. I would have thought it entirely mundane, but it had the tiniest sliver of an enchantment on it that, as far as I could tell, merely made the arms spin. I had wondered who came up with such a strange device, and thankfully, there was a [Brand] on the device indicating that its creator was Keldenar.
''So the Golemancer made these? Very interesting... I still have his invitation to visit his kingdom from that damage test. Perhaps I should bump my visits priority after the dwarves?''
With us finally ready, we started heading down the stairs to the final floor. Like the transition from the first to the second, it immediately stepped up in quality: the floor looked wonderfully paved, and the walls even had sconces. Before we reached the first room, I cast [Frostw] twice for Pelopi and had my two Ice [Sub-Cores] hold it. Thankfully, the upkeep cost was minimal, and Pelopi had seemingly gotten used to the difort of having my spells within her aura.
We reached the first room without any traps, and inside, we could hear a yipping noise and chattering. Peering inside, we saw a bunch of little lizard people in various scaled colors, and most importantly, they all had different opacity levels. Thencers were only mildly transparent, whereas the three magical varieties were barely visible and even floating.
"I bet how see-through they are is corrted to how ethereal they are," Eliza whispered.
We all nodded in agreement. Which meant that it was my primary duty to deal with them, and I''d target the healers first. Ian and Pelopi were itching to try out their new weapons, so we didn''t do any further nning.
Ian once again burst into the room, and Pelopi sprinted afterward while making a beeline towards the snipers. I used [Thunder Step] to appear midair beside one of the clerics, startling him as I cast a point-nk [Lightning Bolt]. Due to the sheer number of kobolds being thrown at us, I didn''t expect them to be too difficult to dispatch, but I didn''t expect my first cleric to basically be sted into nonexistence. Even with all my various bonuses, it seemed far more effective than normal.
This was further proven when Eliza''s ck lightning from siphoning my self-damage demolished one of the other healers. Eliza didn''t have as many stacking bonuses as I did, so it was a rather strange sight, further proven when she stared at her hand in bewilderment.
Thencers came in two varieties, one with arge twohanded spear and another with a short spear and shield. The shielded ones had [Taunt] and made sure to use the skill on us. [Taunt] was interesting; even if you resisted it, which I did, it still had a minor effect on you. If you attacked anyone but the taunter, you dealt reduced damage and had a constant nagging feeling in the back of your head. Failure meant you were to attack the target, but these kobolds must not have had the skill at a high level as none of our group failed to resist.
Ian swung his axe with excitement clearly visible on his face. He was testing out the blue enchantment side, and this time, it diddamage thencer with which he was directly engaged. With well-practiced precision and a flick of his wrists, he instantly rotated the weapon around for his second swing on the red side. The second swing caused a huge bloody gash in the kobold, dropping it on the spot.
With both kobold clerics down, I moved on to the geomancers, easily dispatching another with a [Lightning Bolt]. I felt a buildup of mana, and [Tremor Sense] detected huge vibrations below me, so I used another [Thunder Step] to go directly upwards. The ground erupted upwards into a deadly batch of rocky shards and spikes as if the ground was trying to eat me. In response, I threw a quick [Aegis] spell below me to block any shrapnel and watched Eliza take out another geomancer.
Pelopi, meanwhile, was tearing through the kobolds, bouncing around the room like a flea before pouncing down on the small lizards and tearing into them with the icy ws. Any shes she made would be a deadly frozen gash creeping over the kobolds before they poofed out. It was greatly upsetting that the ethereal theme likely meant there would be nothing left to harvest for this entire floor.
Jet had tried shooting a few of the casters but soon switched to helping Ian with thencers. It appeared he was dealing less damage than he liked against the more transparent variety. Thanks to their see-through nature, they didn''t seem to have solid shadows, which appeared to be reducing his usual method of attack.
''Such a strange interaction.'' I thought to myself before sting another geomancer.
"Can you save a pyromancer for me!" Ian shouted aloud.
"Want to test the axe?" Eliza questioned.
"Yup!" Ian replied with a grin as he cut into anotherncer.
Hriously, the pyromancers were the least dangerous of the lot as the [Fire Arrow] spells it cast against Ian barely singed his skin. Likewise, the snipers were somewhat ineffectual, as Pelopi downright ignored some fired arrows. One of the snipers started bing more opaque before firing an arrow, and this time, it left a flesh wound on her. An interesting observation for the post-battle talk.
We didn''t take much longer to clean up the remaining kobolds, and Ian was slowly approaching the lone pyromancer left. I would''ve thought it might have cowered or begged, but it kept fighting mindlessly, showing a clear difference between dungeon-spawned monsters and others. Ian swung down with the red side, and it barely scratched the kobold, who responded by casting [Nova] right into Ian''s face, also doing almost nothing. With a big grin, Ian swung with the blue side again and tore straight through the ethereal kobold with a strange ripping noise.
"I bloody love this axe!" Ian shouted aloud. "Red side for flesh, blue side for ghosts!"
"Ghostflesh makes sense now..." Jet murmured.
I definitely needed a thorough copy of the blue enchantment; perhaps I''d finally find a way to eat ghosts if I could somehow apply it to myself. Or could I possibly create an enchanted weapon with silver slime?
''Although how would I eat it then? The enchantment would break as soon as I turned the ghost weapon into slime for dissolving? If Ibined it with [Acid Slime], would any dissolving be enough for a profile? Questions, so many questions...''
"Who cares about your silly axe? These ws were outstanding!" Pelopi boasted with a beaming smile. "I killed so many stupid ghosts!"
"On the other hand, these ethereal ones seem to give me a lot of trouble..." Jet said, shaking his head. "They don''t have full shadows, so it''s reducing my umbral damage, and then my actual bolts don''t deal full damage due to their ethereal nature..."
"I noticed one of the snipers briefly be opaque before firing." I pointed out. "So, at least for the physical damage dealers, they''re also hampered."
"Which was why the mages were at maximum ghostliness." Pelopi agreed.
"On the flip side, they were very weak..." Eliza added. "I know the lightning I''m siphoning from Syl is strong, but it was certainly not that strong before."
"Ethereal entities take more damage from magic in exchange for their physical resistance or outright immunity." Jet exined. "It''s definitely a tradeoff."
"Guess that''s good for me." I chuckled.
"Well, until the dungeon starts stretching the definition of ethereal, like I''m half expecting it to do." Jet grumbled.
"Hey, all things considered, the dungeon was pretty good to us so far." Ian argued. "Nothing like crazy pheromone ants on the first room of the second floor."
"I bet it''s luring us into a false sense of security..." Pelopi spected.
Ian faked outrage with a gasp and ran his hand softly along the dungeon wall. "Don''t listen to the cranky catwolf, you beautiful dungeon. I love the axe, by the way..."
"And to think I was worried about Syl, but he''s about to cheat on me with a stinky dungeon and an axe." Eliza joked.
"To be fair. It is a beautiful axe." Jet responded.
"Boys and their toys." Pelopi shook her head.
"You''re one to talk, Miss [Frostw]!" Ian countered.
We all couldn''t help butugh at that exchange. So far, so good with our entrance to the third floor.
Chapter 163: Phantoms and Shadows
Chapter 163: Phantoms and Shadows
The third floor was not what we expected. As we continued through it, we found ourselves rxing more and more after the stressful second floor was put further behind us. While Ethereal was annoying, ourposition was quite suited to counter, especially since Ian''s new axe could harm them.
Our next encounter was with Phantom Yetis, and even though Pelopi had to give up using [Frostw], we still dispatched them rtively easily. Honestly, it was a bit weird how much the dungeon seemed to favor therge white furry creatures as this was their second appearance, and Ian boasted that the dungeon must really like him since it was throwing something he so effortlessly countered. He technically didn''t even need his new axe to beat them since they were extraordinarily weak to fire.
I would have loved to have gotten my tendrils on their profile to see if there were some hidden gems for the dungeon to keep throwing them at us. Unfortunately, any cool and interesting monsters I saw on this damned floor were nothing but a tease, and it looked like the few monsters I got to eat on the second floor would be all I would be getting. Well, except for my orange slime, which was the true prize.
Our loot for the yeti was some ordinary chainmail armor and some coin, much to the rest of the group''s disappointment. Everyone else was suspicious that the dungeon wasn''t being so ruthless on this floor. Pelopi still imed it was trying to lure us into a trap, while Eliza wondered if the dungeon was just trying to get rid of us as soon as possible, as even the trapped hallways seemed to be gone. Ian defended the dungeon''s virtue, while Jet had noment and still seemed extremely peeved about going through so many crossbows against the cat.
Our next encounter was against headless knights called Duhan. Their ckened armor and weapons looked extremely impressive and intimidating, which seemed to favor greatswords that they could wield one-handed. At first, we wondered how their being Ethereal would help such a clear physical monster, but they cleverly were only keeping their heads ghostly while their body remained entirely physical.
The Duhan hid their vulnerable ghostly heads inside their chest cavity, trying to exploit their intangible dual nature to their benefit. This rapidly turned in our favor as [Lightning Bolt] nearly killed one in a single blow, likely due to all the energy surging inside such a convenient conductive metal trap.
After that demonstration, the remaining Duhan hriously all withdrew their heads from their chests with great haste. Seeing a dungeon monster act with such a determined effort to save itself was peculiar. I wondered if the dungeon master was taking a more direct approach, something like a course correction on what was supposed to be a challenging encounter suddenly being too easy.
Sadly for the Duhan, I could still just throw [Conductive] on their vulnerable head specifically, and it would help redirect my spells toward it. Dewi might have said [Fireball] was the solution to everything, but now I had begun to wonder if the true solution wasn''t [Lightning Bolt].
Noting that the Duhan head was an entirely separate target, I cast [Conductive] on both the head and body of one and then cast [Chain Lightning]. The body tried to block the bolt of magical energy with its body, as it knew trying to dodge with its head wasn''t viable. The result was the [Chain Lightning] violently striking into the armored body before sparking off into the head, then back into the body and repeating over and over until the Duhan exploded into dead ghostly mist. Thankfully, the remaining energy within the spell was not enough to jump toward any further targets, and it was discharged safely."Well... That was shocking." I said with a nervous chuckle.
"As I warned, the spell can be extremely dangerous." Jet shook his head. "At least you aren''t using yourself as a conduit like Lisa once tried."
''One in three lightning mages end up killing themselves... I''m starting to think Trixie wasn''t just joking around.''
These monsters also proved that Ian''s axe had a limit; it wasn''t called Ghostflesh for nothing, and the red enchantment seemed to give no additional benefit against their ckened armor. At least it still dealt damage, though, which could not be said for the blue enchantment, which seemed incapable of dealing even blunt damage against corporeal targets.
''I''ll need to be careful if I sessfully reproduce that enchantment effect. Imagine if I put that enchantment on my core and made myself permanently unable to deal damage to non-ghosts. I''d be forced to destroy my core.''
Other than my lightning, Jet was actually the most effective against these heavily armored foes. His umbral crossbow bolts seemed to pierce through any and all defense, and it was abruptly clear he was not holding back. It was surreal to see the actual bolt ricochet off the armor rtively harmlessly, only for a puncture wound to abruptly burst from seemingly nowhere.
''My debt is almost paid off...''
After a brief respite, we swiftly continued since there was no loot to gather or corpses to harvest. Our theory that the dungeon was trying to get us out of it as soon as possible was called into question when the next room was full of rock, crystal, and earth elementals, clearly in retaliation to my abundant use of lightning.
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To make matters worse, they didn''t just have a generic Ethereal mutation; instead, they had one that clearly skirted the theme''s edges. Shadow. I would have thought Jet would have thrived against such foes, but it appeared that would not be the case, as it seemed the Shadow mutation gave a generic resistance against almost everything due to its strange sort of ethereal nature. Big tanky earth elementals with improved resistances...
"Well... This is going to be a slog." Ian grumbled.
And a slog it was. We dispatched most lesser elementals without much trouble, but the Crystal variety was highly resistant to magic even before its Shadowy mutation. It finally went down after a lot ofbined effort from Pelopi and Jet, absolutely pummeling it with endless attacks. It finally cracked, shattered, and copsed into a lifeless, hazy ck blob.
That only left the Obsidian one, which, despite our best efforts, resisted almost everything we threw at it. Water and Corrosion seemed the best avable out of my magic options, but even that produced ackluster result. Seeing [Waterjet] fail to prate the elemental despite [Permeable] and [Hexed] being applied to it was extremely demoralizing, and I wished I could have gone full slime on the sted thing.
The way we finally dealt with the monster was boring but effective. I cast [Mana Burn] on it, and we waited till it eventually ran out of mana and died. Sure, there was no glory, and it wasn''t very fun, but we won against the sted thing. We each had to take turns kiting the slow and cumbersome monster around the room, as Ian did not have the stamina to handle the task for the full duration.
"So boring!" Pelopi whined.
"I didn''t expect the dungeon to throw such a high-tier monster at us, although thankfully, it was just one of the durable variety." Jet said.
"I''ve been meaning to ask this for a while, but my [Identify] leveled up, and it''s... Different." I asked Jet while thinking of the strange obsidian elemental.
"Oh? You do unlock more stuff as it goes. What changed?" Jet asked.
"The Obsidian Elemental had a symbol next to its name?" I said, holding out my index and middle finger to mimic the V-shape.
"Ah! Yes, I know exactly what you''re talking about," Jet said rather happily. "It''s a curious number script, believe it or not. Nobody knows why the Gods use it, but that means tier five. The Crystal elemental was tier four, and the Rock elemental was tier three."
I used [Identify] on myself and looked at the result.
''So I''m tier four then?''
"Does that mean the obsidian elemental evolved five times?" Pelopi asked.
"No, wouldn''t it be four evolutions?" Ian interjected. "One plus four."
Jet chuckled. "You''re both wrong. Not all monsters start at tier one."
"That makes sense. No way you canpare a goblin to an orc." Eliza joined in on the conversation.
"Yes and no," Jet replied, swishing his hand. "Depending on how it evolved, a goblin, in theory, could have more potential than an orc. Evolutions and Mutations can be scary, depending on which ones are stacked together. For example, an Ogre is tier three, but personally, I''d be more cautious around a tier three goblin."
"Why, though?" Pelopi asked.
"The goblin would have more levels, wouldn''t it?" I asked.
"Correct!" Jet replied. "I''m d to hear someone has read up a bit on monster theory; there are quite a lot of books at our Kaerlin branch otherwise gathering dust... Anyway, a tier three goblin has, in theory, thirty monster levels behind it."
"That many?" Ian asked, looking a little shocked.
Jet pointed to me to answer, perhaps wanting to test my knowledge.
"Ten for the first evolution and twenty for the second evolution. Their level resets on each evolution, so it''s a cumtive thirty." I answered.
"That''s thirty trait points. Bloody hell." Eliza said wide-eyed.
"Bingo!" Jet chuckled. "Now, obviously, a fresh Ogre doesn''t start with no traits, but a goblin that survived that long? It would also have a ton of encounters and experience in addition to whatever it evolved."
"Assuming it survives that long..." Eliza added, and Jet nodded in agreement.
"But we fought some evolved goblins, and they weren''t so tough?" Pelopi questioned.
"They were dungeon spawned, though," Jet replied. "Theye in at a set level; they didn''t work and earn that level. They are also like slimes in how mindless they are, as are most dungeon minions."
''Hey... I resent thatment.''
"Okay. So, if I see an evolved goblin in the wild, I must be super cautious. Got it." Pelopi said, nodding enthusiastically.
"Cautious is an understatement. Having gone through two or three evolutions, a goblin would be downright sadistic in its quest for more power." Jet warned.
"Evolution crazy...." Eliza muttered. "It''s a pity; imagine if we could have civilized goblins on our side."
"Goblin adventurers would be kind of fun," Pelopi giggled.
"It''s been tried and failed far too many times, unfortunately." Jet shrugged. "It never ends well."
"Boo! That''s no fun." Pelopi whined.
"Hey, don''t shoot the messenger," Jet waved his hand. "Goin to the Gods."
"What about [Bonded Companions]?" I asked curiously.
"Yeah! Monster Tamers!" Pelopi agreed with unbridled energy and enthusiasm.
"Damn, you aren''t giving this old man a break." Jet chuckled.
"You''re not that old yet." Ian countered.
"Compared to you lot, I feel like I am." Jet teased. "Now, I''m no expert, but from what I understand, the bond helps keep the sanity in check, but if the monster evolves too quickly before a well-established rtionship, thepanion bes feral and must be put down."
Pelopi flinched, and her ears drooped in disappointment.
"Brutal," Ianmented.
"Harsh," Eliza agreed.
"Hey, I said I''m not an expert!" Jet defended himself. "There are probably other ways around it, like dominating the beast until itplies or perhaps tricking it with snacks, or who knows."
Rested up, we continued onwards, only to be met with an extremelyrge set of ornate doors not long after.
"Final boss room already?" Jet murmured, unable to hide his surprise.
"The dungeon must genuinely want to get rid of us," Eliza giggled.
"Hardly any traps. No forked passageways. Looks like the dungeon is treating us well." Ian said passionately.
"Almost no loot though," I added.
"I''m not going toin! I can''t wait to see the sun again!" Pelopi cheered.
"So... The final boss will be all three mutations?" Imented.
"A mismatch of multiple monsters with illusions and ethereal..." Jet answered, then shook his head. "I get the feeling I''m going to despise this."
"Look on the bright side; at least you don''t need to eat your hat anymore." Pelopi teased.
I could''ve sworn I felt my oversized witch hat tremble at thatment.
Chapter 164: Boss Time
Chapter 164: Boss Time
"Well, I''m ready," Ian said excitedly, softly tossing the axe handle between his hands.
"Remember, retreat is an option." Jet warned. "You have already passed in my books."
"Thanks, but..." Eliza started replying.
"We want to kick this dungeon''s butt!" Pelopi roared.
"Don''t get me wrong, I fully agree." Jet smirked. "I''m just fulfilling my guild staff obligation."
He pulled out his [Splinterstorm] crossbow and stroked it with a glint in his eyes. "I think we all want some... Revenge."
Ian pointed to his axe and chuckled. "I don''t know if I''d say revenge, but I want to finish the job."
"Remember to be on the lookout for illusions..." I warned.
"The worst part is, thanks to the first floor, it will be a huge mystery..." Eliza sighed. "I''m assuming the boss will just be a big unknown with [Identify].""Yes, which is actually very unfortunate." Jet grumbled. "If we knew what type of ethereal monster it was, it could help, like the difference between a phantom and a shadow."
"Anything but pheromones again..." Pelopi pleaded as she rubbed her nose ufortably.
"Our usual opener?" I asked Eliza.
"I''m still pretty topped up on my Holy pool, but I won''t say no to more ck lightning," Eliza replied happily.
"Just please wait till I use [Taunt] first," Ian groaned.
The Misfits did somest-minute emergency potion distribution, and then everyone finally dered they were fully ready. At the same time, Jet pulled out a ck cloak and hood that he draped over himself. I tried to have my [Sub-Cores] memorize any enchantments they saw in the brief moments before it activated, causing his features to be heavily obscured by an oppressive shadowy aura.
Then... We entered. The room wasrge and circr, with massive marble pirs reaching the ceiling arranged fairly symmetrically. At the center was a giant magical circle with intricate sigils and embellishing glyphs. It looked majestic as it shone brightly with vivid magical coloring. It was also clearly fake, as [Rune Reading] showed that the entire thing was a bunch of Filigree.
''Well... Points for presentation.''
The boss hadn''t appeared yet, and everyone split up to avoid being clumped up, our rangedbatants taking position safely behind a marble pir. Finally, Ian approached the center with Pelopi in the wings, ready to pounce.
The room flickered with magical lights, and the fake magic circle put on a wonderful disy. Thunder crackled, and there was a booming, echoeyugh. Transparent barriers enclosed the circle, and then, within the circle, a tremendous eyeball appeared.
''Huh...''
The eyeball rotated and blinked while the room hummed with magical energy. Then, multiple tendrils burst out from the eyeball, each with a different w, appendage, mouth, or even more eyes.
''Ripoff! I already did that in Simon''s dungeon.'' I joked to myself.
"Oh gods, is that an Eyedra?" Jet muttered.
"As in... A hydra of eyes?" Eliza asked.
"Yes." Jet responded. "Although it seems to have reced its eyes with... Everything."
Then, the eyeball started to be semi-transparent. The barrier had yet to drop, so we still couldn''t engage it; this dungeon seemingly wanted to ham up the theatrics of this final encounter.
"And its giant weak point is ethereal now... Great." Jet moaned.
"I mean, that works for us," I responded, pointing to Eliza and myself.
"Yes, but Eyedras are innate spellcasters and quite magic-resistant." Jet pointed out.
"Well, shit." Eliza shrugged.
Tentacles kept appearing off the eyeball while it red at us unblinkingly. I started trying to decipher all the various tendril ends. There were ws from a multitude of animal and monster varieties, from crabs to bears to badgers. Then, all forms of mouths and jaws, from shark, canine, and evenmprey. Some tendrils were just grabbers, others ended in a pointy bit, and quite a few ended in another unblinking eyeball. One tendril, in particr, was an eyeball that opened into rows and rows of razor-sharp, jagged teeth.
"I got some good news and bad news," Jet said while the barrier started to flicker out as if counting down the start of this climactic battle.
"Please tell me it''s not a giant eyeball; instead, it is something normal, like maybe a golem or drake," Pelopi begged.
"No... It''s clearly an eyeball, or at least something simrly spherical." Jet chuckled. "But, I think some of its tentacles are fakes; they don''t have proper shadows."
"That''s something at least," Ian replied.
I couldn''t confirm or deny Jet''s theory since the magical barrier prevented me from sensing anything rted to the eyeball. None of my debuff spells could prate the barrier, which was strange because they always seemed to work on anything I could perceive. Needless to say, trying to cast inside the barrier didn''t work either. This strange translucent barrier blocked senses and spells and, from what I could tell, was entirely non-magical itself.
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The creature let out an indescribable roar, and the barrier abruptly vanished. My senses could finally pick up the monster for real, and there were quite a few tendrils without any heat signature.
Ian let out a battle cry as he used [Taunt] and charged forward while immting.
I triggered [Thunder Step] to appear behind and far from the eyeball while ordering my [Sub-Cores] to begin their debuff cycle. As each debuff went off, there was a brief flicker of a barrier around the central eye, and messages began to flood my vision.
I noticed two things rtively quickly from the flood of information. Firstly, it majorly resisted my [Hex] spell, as the [Hexed] debuff failed to stick around. Secondly, it immediately failed to resist [Erode], meaning physical defense was definitely not its strong point. Unfortunately for the stupid eyeball, my [Sub-Cores] were overly diligent workers and would endure and strive to fulfill my order.
This might not have been even a minor struggle for them if I had made my affliction debuff. Still, seeing them brute-force their way to victory was hrious as the giant eyeball seemed to widen in stupefaction at the sheer unrelenting excess of spells being endlessly thrown at it.
Regardless, I fired mybination of [Lightning Bolt] and [Voltaic Slime] at it and watched as one of the tiny eyeballs directly intercepted with a forming [Aegis] spell. While I would have loved to have thrown around more lightning, I figured what I really needed to do was to start trying to trim down on the tentacles with [Waterjet].
"Syl!" Pelopi shouted while currently brawling with some of the wed tentacles. "[Frostw] me up! But just one!"
We didn''t start the encounter with them as we weren''t sure if she''d need it. While her ws must have still been sufficient, she had grown fond of the magical ice variety and wanted at least one to cause mayhem with. I set Delta to cast and maintain one [Frostw] while I had my other Ice-aligned core, Theta, activate [cial Aura].
When [Frostw] was cast, the giant eyeball''s pupil immediately dted and focused on Pelopi, and I felt a mental tug-of-war had started between Delta and the Eyedra.
''Innate spellcaster!'' I recalled Jet''s warning. ''Stupid eyeball, I''ll have you know I was trained by Trixie herself!''
I jumped in to help Delta and started to overwhelm the attacks against the spell. I longed to finally try out [Counter Magic] and see how I would stack up against an actual enemy, as after Trixie''s training, I had no opportunity to use it.
Again, the eyeball seemed stupefied by what it was witnessing, and after I pped its filthy mana hands away from my spell, it soon gave up. Or maybe I was personifying the eyeball too much? Either way, I hoped I showed it who the boss was. I ordered Delta to call for help if the spell came under attack again, as no doubt it would likely throw in some sneak attacks while it thought I was distracted.
''Everyone else, be on the lookout for any spells we can attack!'' I ordered.
With that out of the way, I shifted my alignment to Water and began firing [Waterjet] spells to cut down the number of threats we needed to watch out for. Hopefully, the eyeball didn''t have regeneration or anything, and they would stay trimmed. The eyeball must have hated what I was doing as it sent a handful to directly assault me before I zipped away, thanks to [Thunder Step].
''Man, I love this skill. As awesome as magic is, I wonder what I''m missing out on from the non-casters.'' I couldn''t help being curious.
Eliza was making sure to use marble pirs as cover as she darted around the battlefield and asionally threw out a variety of ckish des and piercing spells. Ian was doing his job well and was being assailed by multiple tentacles of all varieties while she was sucking up the damage and trying to dish it back out.
He was swinging his axe around with reckless abandon and a battle-frenzied grin. asionally, his axe would pass straight through an illusioned tentacle, but he took those in stride before swinging again.
The Eyedra was rtively clever with its usage of intangibility as it would try its best to partially shift a tendril where either Pelopi''s ws or Ian''s axe would swing through. Pelopi would follow up any failed shredding with the [Frostw], while Ian would pivot into using the blue de to rend through any ghostly shenanigans.
Jet, true to his word, was not holding back. The man was like an undefined shadowy blur of a presence on the battlefield, and if not for the asional volley of bolts being fired, I would''ve sworn he had left us. From where I saw his boltsnd, he tried his best to target the eyestalk tentacles exclusively.
Speaking of which, those mini-eyeballs were quite nasty and would cast rtively basic low-level spells from a wide variety of magical affinities. No big spells were being cast from them, and while I didn''t know the exact spells of the affinities I didn''t have, I presumed nothing went above second-level spells, as they matched the mana quantity of [Fire Arrow] and [Acid Dart] that was being flung around. It was like each eyeball tentacle was a poor man''s [Sub-Core], and I soon spotted that the color of the iris seemed to determine what spell affinity the tentacle could cast.
''Are we seriously fighting a bargain bin version of myself? Just with added illusions and ghostly bullshit instead of all my cool slime traits.''
I so desperately wished I could throw around some slime right now and assert my dominance over this crude impersonation.
My cockiness backfired, and I must not have been random enough with my [Thunder Steps] as when I reappeared from mytest jump, the giant eyeball fired a beam of pure arcane energy directly at me.
I threw up a [Aegis] spell, which shattered nearly instantly, then rapidly started throwing more and more behind one another to stop the arcane deathray. I sadly had no time to see if that was a spell or trait as the eyeball seemed to take my momentary distraction as the perfect chance to strike.
Hidden eyestalks suddenly appeared with an entirely ck iris. They reeked of Death mana, and suddenly, I felt a slow and draining pain in my core.
''A low-level [Death Magic] spell?'' I wondered.
I cast [Arcane Armor] on my core directly, and the constant pain was more than halved. I was grateful they were limited to this basic spell. If they could just rip the life force right out of me, I would''ve been in some serious trouble. Not that I was going to let it slowly siphon me, as I quickly ordered Zeta and Kappa to remove those eyeballs with [Waterjet] while I kept defending myself.
''No idea how many spells you can [Multicast], but I''ve got my army of cores on my side!''
I would''ve loved to have said it was a wless execution, but the Eyedra wouldn''t let me destroy its Death eyes without some struggle as they began to weave and dodge like slippery snakes.
My surroundings darkened dramatically, and my shadow spread as if suddenly growing. Abruptly, a vaguely humanoid shape half-emerged and pulled out a crossbow from the shrouded pit.
"Need a hand?" Jet''s familiar voice asked although it sounded strangely distorted.
"I mean... If you''re offering," I responded. "I''ve got all eyes on me right now."
Jet chuckled, although it sounded far from reassuring, thanks to his distorted voice, before firing a volley of bolts with pinpoint uracy. When the Death eyes tried to be tricky with their evasion, he simply targeted their shadows, which ruptured the eyes into lifeless stumps.
Between Jet and my two Water cores, soon all the ambushing eyes were dealt with moments before the giant arcaneser finally fizzled out.
"Strike now while it has to recharge!" Jet''s voice echoed from every shadow within the room.
Everyone flinched and spouted a variety of curses from sheer shock.
"I''m d he''s on our side..." I heard Eliza mutter before all three Misfits burst into action, and I happily joined them; it was time to turn the tables.
Chapter 165: Eyedra
Chapter 165: Eyedra
With Jet''s deration, we had believed this was our moment to end the battle. Fueled by determination, we unleashed as a collective force, holding nothing back. Whether Jet''s knowledge wascking or he had underestimated the boss monster, our chance was met with a ruthless counterattack.
The remaining eyestalks tried to cast a barrage of spells to intercept; arrows of fire, darts of acid, balls of water, des of wind, and shards of rock attempted to make an unrelenting barrage against us. Meanwhile, the tentacles with added appendages tried to stab, cut, shred, pincer, or even just body block if all else failed.
Despite the mounting wounds, Ian remained an unstoppable force. His resilience was awe-inspiring as he shrugged off the repeated blows with seemingly little care. His toughness must have been off the charts, and he clearly had only one objective: to nt his shiny axe into the giant eyeball.
''Then again, he does have the utmost confidence in Eliza to keep him breathing.''
Pelopi, due to her choice of attack, was also forced to engage in melee, and unlike Ian, she couldn''t just barrel through. Instead, she started dodging and weaving while pouncing forward, even using some of the tendrils to vault herself further forward. The way her body contorted and flexed was shockingly impressive.
''She''s supposed to be a human, yet here she''s impressing me with her body control, and I''m a slime!''
With ample energy being siphoned from Ian, Eliza threw out ck bolts like there was no tomorrow. It would have been funny if it manifested as her own ck tentacles, but it seemed that if the damage source was too varied, that was the default fallback. Rather than trying to strike the central eye, she targeted the limbs that had abandoned any idea of self-preservation to stop the iing adventurers.
Jet was the luckiest of the bunch; being entirely ranged, he didn''t need to charge forward to deal damage. As I wondered what he would do while not holding back, it was answered as his own shadow lifted itself off the ground, and he casually tossed one of his spare crossbows. It nodded silently as if receiving an order and began its covering fire.
The eyeball was desperate, throwing out illusions to stop the group. Lousy illusions. Who would honestly believe a wless wall would suddenly appear in front of them without any source at all. The Eyedra was certainly no Fey with its attempted trickery. Pelopi and Ian charged through the illusions without hesitation, and neither Jet nor his shadow failed to hit their mark.That left me. Since its defenses were supposedly lowered and it was already debuffed, I began throwing out afflictions before the melee began. It would have been amazing if I could have sealed the deal with [Mana Burn], but the Eyedra had such vast quantities of mana that it was not a viable option. Still, every little bit of damage would help.
Since I knew Pelopi would be engaging in melee and she was still armed with one [Frostw], I decided I''d use [Icicle] on the Eyedra since it would avoid coteral damage on the rest of the party. Perhaps we could build up enough freeze ailment together. But first, I opened up with a trusty [Fireball] spell so I could brag to Dewi the next time I saw him. The spell detonated in a spectacr explosion of blue me that thankfully dispersed before Ian or Pelopi arrived.
Sadly, its high magic resistance was clearly showing, and I couldn''t help but be a little disappointed in theck of damage. This was further emphasized when I threw out a [Lightning Bolt] to see it almost disperse against a membrane of protective skin tightly covering the Eyedra. [Icicle] was more effective due to its more physical nature, but even that was quite disappointing.
When Ian finally reached it and swung his axe, causing a huge bloody gash into the eye, easily outdoing all the cumtive damage I dealt to the central eye in a single hit, I couldn''t help but feel a little jealous.
Pelopi also began shing into it with unbridled feral ferocity. She even started growling and looking a lot more bestial with each swing of her ws.
''Guess this is their chance to shine. Oh well, I''ll start on tentacle cleanup duty then.''
I shifted most of my cores over to Lightning and ordered them to start casting [Conductive] on all tentacles in sight. Integrating it with [Lightning Rod] was still one of my proudest magical achievements, and I was going to have some fun.
Swapping over to [Electro-Maic Sense], I looked for thergest cluster of now brightly glowing tentacles and began casting and firing an empowered [Chain Lightning] spell with glee.
It. Was. Glorious!
The bolt of lightning struck the tentacle, sparkling and crackling with overwhelming energy. It was fried into a charred husk before the spell bounced to the next nearest target. Between all the sparks and crackling thunder, it was like a miniature fireworks disy was going off as the spell bounced around the room. When I spotted another juicy cluster, I wasted no time hurling out another spell to chain between the tentacles and wipe them out.
The eyeball was covered in horrific wounds when it suddenly surged with arcane energy and released a shockwave, knocking everyone back. It began slowly floating upwards as interlocking hexagonal barriers started to form and surround it. Any remaining tentacles, even stumps, it had was retracted to within the safety of the barrier while it stared menacingly at us.
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"Damn, guess we don''t have enough damage to kill it in one go." Jet grumbled in his still distorted voice. His shadow was trying to regain itself, but it looked far less substantial now.
"My legs!" Ian began yelling in panic.
We all stared at him as he tried to crawl away further away from the Eyedra. His legs looked roughed up but perfectly fine, yet he was yelling as if he was amputated.
"Ian!" Eliza yelled at him. "Get a grip, it''s an illusion!"
He blinked a few times, then reached down, sighing in relief as he touched them. "That was a cruel joke," Ian muttered.
"Its illusions are terrible! I can''t believe you fell for that," Elizamented in disbelief.
Pelopi meanwhile charged back in and started mming against the barrier, while the Eyedra kept consolidating its power and reinforcing its defenses. She let out a ferocious roar and then abruptly began to shift more and more. She swelled in size, her joints creaked and snapped, and her mouth twisted into a muzzle. It happened in mere moments, and her clothes ripped and tore away, and suddenly, she was reced entirely with a massive brown bear. The only thing that remained beyond some torn scraps was the magical belt of strength, which had conveniently resized and strapped around the bear''s waist, and the slowfall cloak, which, against all belief, was somehow attached to her back.
"Did she just turn into a bear?" I asked as I hurled another [Lightning Bolt] at the Eyedra, crashing against the barrier and barely destroying one hexagon, which was reced by another.
"Yes, it''s a thing she can do a limited amount of times per day," Eliza answered. "Focus, guys! We are so close to killing the thing!"
Ian picked himself up and charged in again, mming his axe against the barrier rather ineffectually. He rapidly swapped to the other enchanted side, but it couldn''t prate the barrier.
Jet''s arrows also couldn''t damage the Eyedra now that it had bunkered down, as the bolt''s shadow failed to reach deep enough into the barrier.
One of the few intact tentaclesshed out against Pelopi, who was raging and roaring against the barrier, but it squashed against the barrier and failed to go outward.
Ian must have also noticed it, as he notified the rest of the party before me. "I think it''s trapped in its own barrier! We can''t get it, but it can''t get us."
Jet stopped shooting, I couldn''t see his facial features, but I was pretty sure he was frowning. "So we have to wait it out until it runs out of Mana?"
"The thing has barely touched its Mana; we might be here forever," Imented.
"Ideas, people! We need ideas!" Eliza urged.
"What''s the rush?" Ianmented. "It''s not like it can harm us while it''s being a coward."
As if to directly disprove Ian''s words, a spell construct of pitch ck death mana formed rapidly into a scythe. Instinctually, I reached out and seized it, tearing it to shreds with the full might of my eleven cores. The Eyedra could not hide its shock and pain from the resulting bacsh.
"What the hell was that!?" Eliza shouted, having clearly witnessed the spell forming.
"Looks like it can cast spells outside the barrier," I answered. "I tore the spell to shreds."
"Could you cast spells inside the barrier?" Jet immediately asked.
"I can certainly try..." I replied.
I knew it was risky since its mana aura was no doubt fully epassing the barrier, but at worst, I would get some magical bacsh. I attempted to cast [Ball Lightning] inside the barrier, but the Eyedra immediately focused on it, seized it, and tore it apart without even a second of hesitation. I thought it might have tried to tussle with me for a more detrimental oue, but it seemed it was not confident in an extended [Counter Magic] battle against me. I winced at the magical bacsh, and Eliza quickly threw out a healing spell on me.
"When did you get so damaged?" Eliza asked with concern.
"Some Death spell and then magical bacsh," I answered.
Eliza frowned and sighed. "Guess Death spells are another form of damage I can''t siphon... Wonderful."
"Guess we are back to our stalemate," Ian grimaced.
"On the plus side, if it tries to cast outside of its barrier, I''ll make it pay," I said.
"We need a way to dispel through that damn barrier," Eliza said, chewing on her thumbnail with frustration.
"Oh," I responded in shock. "I''ll try [Dispel]."
"I thought you didn''t have it?" Eliza asked with an usatory tone.
"I actually got it after the cat boss..." I admitted. "It kind of slipped my mind with everything else going on."
"Great!" Jet replied. "Everyone, get ready!"
I began preparing to cast [Dispel], dumping a considerable dose of mana into it as I wasn''t entirely sure how much I would need. I had not used the spell and figured more would likely lead to a more favorable oue.
The Eyedra must have known what I was doing as it risked casting another spell behind me, the ck scythe of death mana forming before my [Sub-Cores] grabbed it for me and shredded it with ruthless efficiency. Perhaps truly frantic, it attempted to cast two spells simultaneously, but again, my [Sub-Cores] jumped into action and ripped them apart.
''Haha! Thanks for the free level!'' I taunted in my head. ''Even without my help, it''s ten against one; you got no chance, you bloated eyeball.''
Finalizing the spell, I informed everyone; they all readied attacks, waiting for it to go off. Well, except for Pelopi, who was still mindlessly smashing against the barrier in her hulking bear form. The spell went off, and the barrier briefly dropped; everyone barelynded a single attack before being shunted backward, and the barrier returned.
"Well... That kinda worked?" Ian said, rubbing his head.
Pelopi roared in agreement. Or maybe inint? I had no idea; I wasn''t fluent in bear.
''Unless [Nature Commune] works? Does Pelopi count as a non-magical animal?'' I wondered.
My curiosity couldn''t be contained, and so I tried it out. No response. I doubted Pelopi was dumber than that wolf I tried to speak to, so unfortunately, she must not have been a viable target.
"So, do we just keep trying to kill it one hit at a time?" Eliza asked.
"I''m surprised it reformed so quickly..." Ian grumbled.
"It wasn''t fully destroyed." Jet answered.
"What do you mean?" Ian asked. "I thought that was the point of [Dispel]? It destroys magic, right?"
"If you totally overwhelm the spell, it does. Otherwise, it can briefly turn it off." Eliza answered. "That barrier is absolutely crazy, so I kind of doubt Syl canpletely overpower it."
"Hey..." Iined, feeling a tiny bit insulted.
"No offense!" Eliza apologized.
"So..." Ian said awkwardly. "Strategy session?"
Everyone else agreed. I grumbled out mine, still feeling a little soured.
Chapter 166: Acidic Solutions
Chapter 166: Acidic Solutions
"So... Any ideas?" Ian asked.
If I had my way, we would just be smacking it between my [Dispels], but the others seemed reluctant. It would be a slow and steady way to victory since we could see the Eyedra was slowly regenerating over time.
If I used a giantbination casting with all of my [Sub-Cores] and a massive chunk of my mana, I would be rtively sure I could just overpower the Eyedra''s reinforced barrier. Still, it would be an enormous disy of power that I probably couldn''t exin away as "elf things."
The Eyedra was more than happy to re at us from its protective bubble and lick its wounds. Only asionally attempting to cast a spell outside when it thought our guard was down before my [Sub-Cores] would shatter it. I had thought of seizing the spell and trying to drain the Eyedra that way, but that would also be a massive revtion that would be hard to exin away. The Eyedra also kept using [Death Magic], with which I had zero familiarity, furthering my hesitancy. What if I identally modified it, and it killed everyone in the room?
"We need something to keep damaging it even while it hides away," Eliza replied.
"We could try a poison or something, perhaps? Jet suggested.
He had dropped his full shadow mode and was looking haggard. Whatever that was, it evidently took a lot out of him to do it for an extended period of time.
''Actually, everyone other than Pelopi and myself looks exhausted. I guess that''s why they aren''t happy about extending the fight out longer.''
"Poison or Acid could work..." I mumbled. "But the problem is its intangibility.""Actually, that might not be a problem. It''s been remaining tangible more often when I smack it with the blue de." Ian said and proudly patted his axe. "It really hates the ghost-hitting enchantment for some reason."
"So. Does our super magical elf assassin have some awesome poison for us?" Eliza asked teasingly.
I paused to think.
Ideally, I''d use Bloodrot [Poison Slime], but that would undoubtedly be an illegal substance. My other big option would be [Acid Slime], which would certainly cause tremendous damage to the Eyedra with its reduced defenses and its absurd potency. The only issue was how to deliver it, as even if I borrowed a potion vial or simr, I doubted it would survive the full extent of [Acid Slime LV 7].
While pretending to be lost in thought, I started experimenting inside of myself. I formed a potion bottle out of slime and primed it with [Nitro Slime] after filling its center with my highest concentration and density of [Acid Slime]. Unfortunately, the slime bottle melted, and all the slime rejoined inside me again. I grumbled in annoyance as I felt my [Sub-Cores] fend off another attempt of [Death Magic].
I needed [Acid Slime] to prevent the [Nitro Slime] from melting. Ideally, I''d just mix the two and be done with it, but I nned to have one of the others toss the bottle at the Eyedra, likely Jet, who could no doubt do it perfectly hidden once the Eyedra became tangible. I was extremely worried that handing a bottle literally made out of [Acid Slime] would likely melt their flesh, even if it was in a primed state.
I repeated the process again, but this time, I coated the inside of the slime bottle with a mix of [Nitro Slime] and [Acid Slime] and primed both. The final result was a bottle outside of [Nitro Slime], a full container of maximum [Acid Slime], and the mixyered between. Sloshing the bottle around, I noted that the primed mixture sessfully contained it, and there seemed to be no interaction between the two primedyers. Happy with the result, I pulled it out from my "bag" and held it up for the others to witness.
"I really didn''t want to use this..." I lied. "But this is an extremely powerful non-magical acid."
I swished the bottle around, letting the contents swirl. The fake bottle was semi-transparent, while the acidic contents were bright green.
Jet whistled, sounding quite impressed.
"Is that... Green slime?" Eliza asked, frowning.
"Something like that..." I answered reluctantly.
"I''m shocked it hasn''t melted that bottle into goop," Jet replied. "If it''s as powerful as you say it is, there''s not much that can keep green slime contained."
"Which is why I''m extremely reluctant to use this." I lied again, hoping it sounded reasonable.
"No doubt. I bet an alchemist would try to rob you for it." Jet chuckled.
"Indeed..." I grumbled ufortably and presented the bottle to Jet. "Ian makes it tangible; you throw the bottle at it."
Jet hesitantly epted the bottle. I admittedly was a little nervous about him touching it, but there were no adverse effects.
"Well, I like that n." Jet grinned.
"Me too." Ian agreed.
Pelopi roared.
Everyone took their positions while the Eyedra red cautiously at us. Jet disappeared, and I could only tell his positioning thanks to my ability to pinpoint my primed slime. From what I could discern, he seemed to bounce around the room from shadow to shadow until settling directly under Pelopi. The man was literally hiding in her shadow.
I prepped my [Dispel] again, throwing more mana into it and pulling in two [Sub-Cores] for a boost, hoping to give them a bigger opportunity window. If Ian threatened the Eyedra enough with his axe, it would hopefully stay corporeal long enough for the acid to do its work.
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Like clockwork, the Eyedra again attempted to stop me. I had my [Sub-Cores] hold the spell hostage until I destroyed it in coordination with my casting of [Dispel]. Once again, its barrier flickered out, and it reeled back in pain from the magical bacsh. Ian wasted no time in nting his axe straight into the monster.
Ian waspletely correct. The Eyedra dropped its ethereal nature within seconds of the first blow, not wanting to take the second by any means. Jet appeared and flung the acid bottle with utter precision. Using my control over the primed slime, I flipped a mental switch and set it to detonate on contact. The bottle tapped the back of the Eyedra and immediately exploded, showering the creature with acidic contents.
If the stupid eye had a mouth, I bet it would have been screaming as the acid had done immense damage, practically turning its entire rear into bloody goop in rapid haste. Jet leaped in withdrawal before firing a few crossbow bolts, screaming curses while he did so. Pelopi also let out a concerned howl before stumbling backward, clearly not wanting to go anywhere near the rapidly melting flesh.
''Thank goodness I set the [Nitro Slime] to the absolute minimum explosion... Otherwise, I might have coated them in acid.''
"I can''t believe that was in my hand!" Jet shouted. "It was that vtile! And you were just casually keeping it in your bag!"
Pelopi made a grunting bear sound, clearly in full agreement with Jet''s assessment.
"It was only a little acid..." I mumbled.
The Eyedra started returning to its ethereal state, preferring the axe to the acid. Luck or fortune must have been on our side, as its reforming barrier was nowhere in sight; perhaps it lost its concentration. Ian was ready and waiting tond blow after blow with his blue enchantment, letting out victorious shouts with each blownded.
Whatever remained of the acid slime was now eating into the floor, so Pelopi charged in to start clobbering the Eyedra with her [Frostw]. However, she only got in a few more hits before Ian sealed the deal, and with a mighty blow, when he cleaved into the Eyeball, it burst into ghostly energy.
''Well... At least my evolution debt is paid off now.''
? Pay off your debt.
? Leave the dungeon.
? Find somewhere safe to sleep.
Reward: Slime evolution list.>
''Hidden quest? Is that how you''re going to give it to me?'' I wondered. ''Interesting that it wants me to leave the dungeon? Is that so I can''t try to extort another slime from this one?''
"We did it!" Ian shouted in victory.
"We did it!" Eliza joined in. "I''m not even mad that I didn''t get to hit it at the end!"
Pelopi roared and started nudging Eliza.
"Right... Clothes... " Eliza sighed and started heading behind a pir with Pelopi in tow.
Jet looked a mixture of happy, concerned, and upset as he gestured toward the melted hole in the floor.
"I don''t know whether to be d we killed it or angry that you had something that dangerous lying around." Jet grumbled. "I don''t want to know how you got it; just please tell me you don''t have more of it sitting in your bag."
"I definitely don''t have more in my bag," I responded. Technically, this was true since it wasn''t in my bag; it was me.
Jet looked skeptical but sighed, shaking his head. "I just hope it''s safely secured if you do have more."
"Well, it exins why Syl took so long to decide on the idea," Ian added as he joined the conversation. "She must have been extremely reluctant to use such a powerful one-time tool."
"True... Anyway, let''s im our final chest. I want to be out of this damn dungeon right after." Jet responded as he started walking to the back of the room, where arge, ornately decorated chest awaited.
Ian nodded but snuck me a quick wink and thumbs up before following after Jet.
"At least the dungeon isn''t being skimpy on our final reward..." Jet admitted before looking over the chest.
Surprisingly, he discovered a single trap on the chest, linked to a micro-crossbow hidden within the fake lock. He disarmed the trap with rtive ease and then dismantled and removed the micro-crossbow. He was eagerly examining it as he muttered to himself.
"I bet I could get this as a wrist mount..." Jet said, barely hiding his enthusiasm. "Reloading it would be a bitch, but if I had it coated with a poison or something, it would be great for emergencies..."
"Forget your toy!" Ianined. "What about the loot?"
Inside the chest was a crossbow, although unenchanted and made of a strange wood that made Jet curious. There was also a set of hide armor, which came in a stunning bright orange with ck stripes, enchanted with self-repair and size-changing. The inside was also full of various coin denominations, although the vast bulk seemed to be silver rather than gold to make up a more impressive quantity. Finally, there was the true prize, a ring of pure ck metal with three individual transparent gems arranged in a triangr formation on therge setting.
"Bloody hells." Jet said when he spotted the ring.
Each tiny gem held an identical intricate spherical enchantment that I hastily ordered all of my [Sub-Cores] to save the blueprint. Once again, it was beyond my [Rune Reading] level, but the name given by [Appraisal] was rather self-exnatory.
"Does it do what it says on the tin?" I asked Jet since he seemed to have some idea.
"Yes. You cast a spell into the ring, which is saved in one of the gems. This one has three sockets and is a very good find." Jet exined.
"Oh? How big is the range?" I asked with genuine curiosity. At the same time, I examined the ring from different angles to ensure my cores were recording every minute detail.
"Lowest is one, highest I''ve heard about is six." Jet answered. "High-ranking nobles love them; they usually store them with an offensive and healing spell."
"That sounds perfect for Eliza..." Ian mumbled. "Assuming she can store one of her healing spells, she''d have an emergency heal in case her Holy pool is empty."
"An excellent idea." Jet agreed.
"But..." Ian said with a little dismay. I noticed he was looking at me, and I pieced together his concern.
"Don''t worry, I don''t want it." I chuckled and gave a reassuring smile. "It''s fascinating from a magical perspective, but I don''t think I''d have much use in storing a spell."
''Well... At least in ring form...'' I admitted to myself. ''If I could find a way to replicate this spherical enchantment on a core, or perhaps even slime when I get my silver core, then who knows what possibilities there are.''
Ian looked relieved and then a little guilty. "Are you sure? You''ve not exactly gotten much loot from this dungeon for yourself."
"Ian''s right." Jet admitted. "You took a dagger for your friend, but otherwise, there''s been nothing for you."
''Well... My real prize was the orange slime core.'' Not that they know about that.
"What are you talking about?" I smiled mischievously. "I got this amazing hat."
Both of them blinked in confusion, staring hard at the hat.
"I honestly forgot about the hat..." Jet admitted.
"Same..." Ian agreed.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, just let me witness both storing and using a spell from the ring a few times for educational purposes," I said.
"That''s more than reasonable." Ian smiled and then burst intoughter. "Hell, I bet Eliza will beg you to store a [Lightning Bolt] in the damn ring!"
"I understandpletely," I said, giving a finger flourishing of sparks. "I''ve been finding Lightning very addictive."
Chapter 167: Stunning Advice
Chapter 167: Stunning Advice
Pelopi and Eliza eventually joined the rest of us, the former now wearing a new set of clearly disposable clothing. We brought both of them up to speed and started discussing the loot distribution.
Pelopi was quite disappointed with the loot on disy until I pointed out that the hide armor was good for her since it held self-repair and resizing. I was d to repurpose the advice I had received from Simon. I hadn''t bothered to invest in it, opting for most of my attire, other than my smander leathers, to be pure slime for now.
Pelopi was hesitant to try out the armor with some partial beast shifting, not wanting to ruin the attire until I pointed out that even in the worst-case scenario, if she slightly damaged it, the outfit would repair over time. The childlike glee on her face was quite the sight when she found the outfit freely expanded to match her shifting.
Jet took the mundane crossbow, some coin, and the trap crossbow, which was not technically a reward, but he seemed to be counting it.
Ian obviously didn''t want anything and even said he''d forfeit some of his portions to pay for Eliza''s ring. He was quite happy with his axe.
Nothing really caught my eye outside of what I had already taken, although the Misfits had sort of forced the [Cloak of Slowfall] onto me. Eliza argued that if I used it inbination with [Thunder Step], I could safely glide without worrying about gravity and rain death down on monsters below me. It felt like a waste for me since I had wings and could fly, but that was not true for Syl the Elf, so I reluctantly epted it.
Eliza was absolutely thrilled with the ring and immediately sought to confirm that it worked with her type of magic. Luckily, her Holy pool hadn''tpletely drained yet, so she rapidly tested out a few spells. It was aplete sess, and I got to witness the enchantment in action very directly.
As Ian predicted, Eliza immediately asked me if I could store two [Lightning Bolt] spells for her. I had asked if she wouldn''t prefer [Chain Lightning], but Ian practically screamed his objection. Jet also cited safety concerns, and Eliza very reluctantly agreed.
I had to wear the ring to store a spell, but other than that restriction, it was easily intuitive. I stored and cast a few spells, trying to further investigate the enchantment where possible. A rather neat feature was that the clear crystal gem that housed the enchantment would glow when it stored a spell, and its glow color was rted to the spell''s affinity.Needless to say, Eliza tried out a few [Lightning Bolt] spells herself, which I happily refilled. Perhaps we were excessive in our testing and tomfoolery, or I was just that close after using [Lightning Magic] so often, as I received a rather sudden notification during our fun.
''So [Lightning Magic] also has its own ailment!'' I thought excitedly.
From what I could tell from the spell, it inflicted the [Stunned] ailment, temporarily preventing the receiver from moving. Unlike any other ailment, though, its duration was minuscule, and if I understood it correctly, even if fully boosted, it would not exceed a few seconds.
"Something wrong?" Eliza asked.
"Oh, sorry, I just got a new spell..." I replied, realizing I must have stood there utter silence.
"Is it better than [Chain Lightning]?" Eliza asked curiously, unable to hide a clearly mischievous grin.
"Eliza... No..." Ian cautioned.
I cast the new spell and watched my hand begin to spark at an extreme frequency, apanied by a loud buzzing-ticking sound. Compared to [Lightning Bolt], it seemed different and was a blueish-purple color.
Jet suddenly leaped backward, cursing and swearing up a storm.
"Gods!" He shouted, recovering from his panic. "You scared the life right out of me."
"Sorry?" I said, unsure.
Jet seemed to recover and shook his head. "No... No, it''s not your fault. It''s Lisa''s."
"Exin?" Eliza asked.
"That spell," Jet pointed harshly at my hand. "Lisa thought it was a hrious prank to use it on us since it didn''t deal damage. Needless to say, I''ve been... Conditioned to react a little uncouth due to it."
"Yeesh. d I''m not in your party." Pelopi expressed.
"How bad can it be?" Ian said, shrugging.
Jet gave a dark chuckle. "Be my guest..."
"Ian... You''re almost fireproof, not lightningproof." Eliza replied.
"What? Jet said it doesn''t deal damage." Ian said, turning to me. "Right, Syl?"
I nodded. "No damage, but it inflicts [Stunned] ailment."
"Ailment is putting it lightly..." Jet understandably grumbled. "One minute you''re minding your own business, the next you hear that noise followed by a poke in the back."
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"I had no idea Lisa was such a prankster..." I replied. "Not that I don''t believe you, but it seems so out of image from my interactions with her."
"The Guild Master role definitely mellowed her out... Moderately." Jet replied. "But trust me, that dangerous prankster side lurks beneath, waiting for me to drop my guard."
"Enough talk." Ian dered. "Stun me!"
I poked him.
The blueish-purple energy immediately discharged straight into him. Ian immediately yelled out and copsed onto the ground like a puppet tangled in its own strings, his limbs twitching a bit.
Pelopi burst outughing, as did Eliza, but Jet was just nodding sagely.
"I warned you..." Jet said, smirking.
Ian shook his head frantically as he slowly stood up, his legs wobbling. "Okay... I understand and fully agree... That spell is just evil..."
"It''s the sound that gets me..." Jet shuddered.
We were ready to leave after everyone rested and the loot was distributed. Eliza also returned my mana regeneration ring to me; I wished I could have given it to her, but I didn''t want to potentially anger the Golemancer, whom I nned on visiting after the dwarves. We headed towards the now-open door at the back of the room, and looking inside, we saw a spiral staircase leading straight up.
"This the exit?" Pelopi asked eagerly.
"Yup. Thankfully, this isn''t one of the dungeons you''re forced to backtrack through," Jet exined. "Some of the really big ones even have a teleport to the exit."
"Thank the gods. I don''t think I could handle going through the illusion floor again," Ian admitted.
We all easily agreed to that and began our slow ascent towards the exit.
"So... While I''ve got you all here and there''s nothing better to do, how about I give you all some individual evaluation?" Jet offered.
"Really?" Eliza asked. "That''s awfully nice of you."
"I mean... It is my job." Jet answered. "And we have a long walk ahead of us..."
"Yes, please!" Pelopi immediately agreed.
"I''d love some advice from a Gold-rank guild staff," Ian said excitedly.
"Great. We''ll start with Pelopi since she responded first." Jet started. "You''ve got great battle awareness, and your energy and enthusiasm are unrivaled. You quickly dispatch foes and move on to the next target with minimal downtime."
"I would''ve rmended getting some more animal shifts, but that already seems to be your priority, so I''ll say you should try giving some more attention to some magic."
"As Syl demonstrated, there are other uses for magic, and if you could add some magic ws or even some crowd control via some nts or vines, I think you''d add a lot more to your versatility."
Pelopi nodded, although she looked like she had been fed a lemon with thatst statement.
"Ian. You''re the party tank, and you fulfill the role tremendously well. You take the damage and dish it back out, and your self-immtion style to work in tandem with your dedicated healer is outstanding teamwork."
"My suggestion, although I''m pretty sure you''re aware of it, is that you''re rapidly bing fireproof, although it seems your ss has given you an extremer me topensate for that. I don''t know how that will work out when you reach immunity, as that tends to be very cut and dry."
"My one issue with your style is that there are some attacks you just cannot take. Right now, you throw yourself into the damage, and I worry that when you need to tank an opponent that needs to be avoided or blocked, you could end up in a dire situation. That shield bracer is a start, although you seemed to have forgotten it existed after you got your shiny new axe."
Ian facepalmed and groaned in frustration. "Damn it! Ipletely forgot about the bracer!"
"Eliza... Your ss is the most absurd of the bunch, and that''s putting it lightly. I''ve never witnessed a healer that heals through damage, but I have to say it was fascinating. The cooperation and teamwork between you and Ian are enviable, and I apud the kill-it-quickly fighting style."
"I won''t rehash what I said about Ian''s eventual fireproofing, but just be aware of it as that was your most reliable source. Your new ring has thankfully shored up your biggest weakness; your Holy pool being empty at the start of a fight."
"I wish I could give you some solid or confirmed advice, but because your ss is so unknown to me, I can only make suggestions. I hope they bear fruit for you in the future... The most pressing thing would be to learn more thoroughly what you cannot siphon, as demonstrated in ourst fight where Syl was left damaged, unbeknown to you. The other suggestion would be to investigate further into what spells you can cast from your Holy pool. Buffse to mind, but even things such as regeneration spells or area healing could be ideal focus areas."
Eliza nodded. "Thanks, I''ll definitely look into both."
"Syl. Your ss is terrifyingly adaptable and potent; it is a textbook example showing that not all sses, even on the same tier, are equal. I genuinely wish we had more people like you to show youngsters not to rush to their first advanced ss, and I''m so d that none of the Misfits have picked one yet."
"Your debuffs alone would be enough to put you on any party, but you also can capitalize on those yourself and brutally target weaknesses. I really liked how you were willing to help Pelopi out; I just wish you had offered something sooner. You''re a bit of a lone wolf, and it shows."
"Now, there''s nothing strictly wrong with that, and I''d honestly say you''re already better than the average solo temp I''ve worked with. So, take it more as an advisement than a criticism. Notably, on your offensive side, you could have suggested some tactics for some of your more coteral spells to shine, like [Fireball] and [Chain Lightning]."
"The Eyedra gave you a bit of a struggle with its high magic resistance, but honestly, if you''re in a party, you should rely on others to cover that weakness for you. I''m most assuredly not going to tell you to be a master mage and warrior."
Jet paused and scratched his chin. "Actually... Yeah, that''s something to work on; rely on others a little more. Assuming you actually desire to join more parties in the future anyway."
I paused to let his advice sink in. It was definitely true and solid advice, assuming I was just a mage. Obviously, in reality, my fallback would be my slime. Still, it was true that I felt myself holding back, perhaps a little too much, and I should have coordinated a bit more so I could throw around [Chain Lightning] without needing a massive setup with [Conductive].
But what truly had me thinking was Jet''sstment. Did I want to be in parties in the future? While my time with the Misfits was pleasant, I enjoyed being fully open and myself in my adventures with Trixie. Although I''d hardly say Trixie and I had much teamwork in that regard, as in actualbat, her biggest contribution was making my [Icicle] spells invisible.
''Well, once I''ve got my silver core, I can reevaluate how much I want to moonlight as an adventurer. The solo work definitely still suits me.''
We all continued chatting and sharing random thoughts and advice, thanks to Jet''s icebreaker. Overall, it was a pleasant group conversation that helped pass the time ascending the massive staircase. We eventually reached the end, where it was blocked by a hatch; opening it, we were weed by the fading afternoon sunlight.
"Sunlight and fresh air!" Pelopi joyously eximed.
"Dungeon officiallyplete!" Eliza said happily.
"And now we can celebrate the night away!" Ian cheered.
"The gods know I need a stiff drink..." Jet sighed.
It certainly sounded like it would be a night of festivities.
Chapter 168: Farewell and a Letter
Chapter 168: Farewell and a Letter
A serpentine body coiled up as it watched thetest group exit the dungeon. A sigh of relief escaped from its mandible mouth.
"To think I was threatened by a slime..." The horrific amalgamation muttered.
"At least it was restrained by its disguise. When I encountered it, it tore through my dungeon unabated." A skeletal voice replied from a shimmering image.
"You know I don''t respond well to threats, Simon." It snapped back. "And it''s your fault it has that damnable Emblem."
"Regrettably, our hands are tied. It''s the pet project of one of the gods."
"Yes... And what a strange project it is... The one silver lining is the next Dungeon Master whoes across that pest is in for a nasty surprise." The strange creature started to chortle maniacally.
"I would have thought you might have been pleased to see another chimeric monster," Simon said slightly mockingly. "You could even im to be its distant cousin."
"Yes... Just like you are rted to those mindless zombies." The creature retorted, once again clicking its mandibles. "Your body parts can even be pulled off."
"Now, now. It was just a joke. Besides, at least you haven''t encountered the dragon," Simon responded. "Word on the grapevine is that it practically destroyed Juniper''s entire dungeon.""A dragon... Honestly, what were they thinking... Although that''s hardly an aplishment, her dungeon is just one giant tree. Of course, it would burn down," Its mandibles clicked together as it paused. "I think the slime is potentially far worse with its growth potential."
"I''ll agree there. From the report you sent me, I see it''s drastically shot up in power since Ist encountered it."
"And now it''s armed with the power of an orange slime... So much for the restrictions of not letting dungeon slimes ever escape."
Simon chuckled. "Well, at least it''s not our problem anymore. You could almost say we both got off lightly."
"Indeed... I find myself looking forward to hearing what bes of our coworkers in the future."
***
It was interesting that as soon as we left the hatch exit for the dungeon, it immediately shut and vanished as if it no longer existed. [Tremor Sense] even showed me that the entire tunnel was being sealed away.
''Who knew Dungeon Masters could do such rapidndscaping?''
It was a little concerning that the Dungeon Master could extend its influence beyond what would be officially considered the dungeon. Could they, in theory, spawn monsters above ground if they so wished? I had to believe they didn''t because of rules and restrictions set by the gods.
We were only a short jog away from the encampment, and we did so triumphantly. The Misfits were extremely proud of themselves and mouring in the attention, while Jet and I were happy to be in the shadows. Sadly, unlike Jet, I couldn''t literally hide in the shadows, and this Elf persona was far too noticeable.
''When I make another disguise, I''m certainly taking a page from Sylvester''s book. I wonder how feasible it would be to get a Dwarf profile? If the Dwarves have criminals, I could sign up for some bounty-hunting and get one that way. Dwarven warrior? Alchemist or cksmith, maybe?''
We headed to the Guild''s tent and reported our sess. During this time, we also dumped all our loot that we weren''t keeping and recorded what had already been distributed. I was relieved that the Guild took charge of selling and redistributing the spoils, as getting involved directly with money was thest thing I wanted to do. There was a lot of open transparency where each member would receive a report, and you could raise a formal dispute if you were unhappy with the result, but it sounded like it was far too much work for me. I could just go hunt some more monsters and earn money that way; no need to penny-pinch.
As was clearly custom for adventurers, our group started partaking in copious amounts of alcohol. Even Jet, who was supposed to be a staff member, was chugging like a champion. When Ian was intoxicated enough, he started bragging about our dungeon adventure to the entire tent and giving his own boastful retelling of our encounters.
asionally, Eliza corrected him; other times, the listeners turned to Jet as if looking for confirmation of the tall tale. Other parties who had witnessed an illusion floor were shocked at the ruthlessness the dungeon had thrown at us. Apparently, their encounters usually involved just a few additional fake monsters thrown into the mix as a distraction or a goblin disguised as an orc. The highlight of the retelling was clearly our boss battles, and the audience gasped when we mentioned fighting an Eyedra.
We continuedte into the night, and when things started to settle down, I was propositioned by the Misfits. I had expected them to offer me a spot in their group, so I politely turned it down, citing my goals to head towards the Dwarven Empire now that I hadpleted my task.
This was where I discovered that Pelopi was a clingy drunk. She started holding onto my arm, refusing to let go, and nearly sobbing while begging me to stay with them. Despite the heartbreaking scene, I had to firmly decline, although I threw in the notion that if our paths crossed again, I''d be more than willing to join their party again. It cheered her up a bit, and thankfully, Eliza pointed out that their group needed to get to Gold first. Unlike myself, they still had some more quest requirements to fulfill.
When it was finally time to leave, we said our farewells for the evening. Pelopi was still somewhat snotty and teary, but she gave me an almost crushing hug. Eliza and Ian gave me high-fives and then wandered to their tent.
Jet approached me, looking almost miraculously more sober than moments ago. "I bet you''re going to disappear in the morning."
I gave a small smile. "Guilty... I''m not a fan of saying goodbye."
Jet chuckled before replying. "No, don''t worry, I understand. I already had my initial evaluation sent through Bert. Lisa can promote you as soon as you get back, and you can be on your journey with Thern."
"Thanks, Jet. I appreciate it."
"No problem. Hups aside, it was a fun dungeon run, and it reminded me of my glory days."
"You''re starting to sound like Roderick."
He shrugged. "I made Gold; that was my end goal. I hope the climb beyond doesn''t scare you off."
"I guess we''ll see..." I replied, unsure of what exactly to say.
"Take care, Syl. Enjoy the Dwarves, I''m sure you''ll fit right in with how you handle your booze." Jet said, chuckling to himself as he walked off.
"Take care, Jet. Thanks for showing up."
Walking off into the night, I found myself a safe haven to burrow into, making sure I was well outside of what I assumed was the dungeon''s reach. I burrowed down and withdrew my glorious bedtub before blobbing out entirely.
***
As sleep overcame me, I found myself floating in my mind. It was slightly simr to the void I had grown used to where I had conversed with Gramps. Abruptly, numerous textboxes appeared before me, stacked neatly like multiple reams of paper. The front textbox was clearly a letter addressed to me, so I started reading it.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the vition.
You finally paid off your debt. Took you long enough!
As previously agreed, I''ve given you a list of base slime species you do not know about.
I also included ones that your previous evolutions skipped over due to their lower tier; otherwise, this list would be just two slimes!
I didn''t bother including mutations, as I presume you were seeking more targets to hunt for rather than casual evolution perusal.
I wish you luck in your hunt and ever-growing collection.
~Gramps.
PS: I received aint about you threatening a Dungeon Master. While I find the ideaughable, please do not be a repeat offender with the same Dungeon.
PPS: Mother was delighted by your dabbling into Enchanting. I found it a little dull, but I apud your use of it on your cores.>
''Thanks Gramps! Also, is he encouraging me to try to exploit more dungeons? I mean... I was going to anyway, as I don''t think I''d get pink slime any other way. Unless I go rob royalty.''
I mentally waved the textbox away, and it flew off before dispersing into motes of light. The next textbox was immediately recognizable, a slime evolution profile, and I eagerly started reading.
A dungeon slime that attacks by crushing foes under its extreme weight as the slime has the strange ability to freely adjust the weight of its slime.
While its method of attack can be exceptionally deadly, the slime itself has no additional resistance or immunities and can be easily dispatched unless caught off guard.
Its slime cores seem to offer no known uses and are considered not worth the trouble of attempted harvest.>
''Interesting... Being able to change my weight would be interesting. I could have everything at maximum density and then just reduce my weight. Conversely, a heavy-weight [Slime Shot] could be interesting?''
A scarce and harmless slime found deep in untamed wilds or, asionally, an unsuspecting farmers'' field. Its slime is like a highly nutritious fertilizer that causes rapid nt growth, which aids it greatly in its seeking of sustenance.
A rarity amongst slimes is this slime''s almost vegetarian nature, as it prefers to eat nts over meat, which usually produces far more slime mass.
Their cores can be utilized as Nature Catalysts but are highly coveted and protected by the Elves.>
''Interesting... So the dwarves have Silver, and the Elves have Brown. While I don''t think I''d care about the ability to make fertilizer, I have to assume this would give me ess to [Nature Magic]. Although... If their ability to more efficiently process nts into slime mass is a trait, then that might be very valuable for me now that I no longer have [Mana Conversion].''
A harmless and often times friendly slime that can emit a glow even in the darkest depths.
Surviving on roots, fungus, and tiny bugs, this slime is considered almost an endangered species, as any environment in which it could theoretically spawn is far too hostile for such a low-tier monster to survive.
Some adventurers have even imed to have taken them as a cute pet and household cleaners.
The uses for their core are unknown due to scarcity.>
''Harmless? Friendly? Pet? And they can GLOW? What is even in glowing when traits like [Dark Vision] exist? The only reason I don''t write off this entire slime is toplete my collection and in the hope that it could possibly offer me [Light Magic].''
An extraordinarily rare slime hardly ever encountered due to its scarcity and strange nature. The gold slime seemingly has no ability of its own but instead causes reactions based on various substances it encounters or mixes with.
Its habitat is unknown, but it can presumably be found in dungeons with a rarity exceeding that of the highly sought-after pink slime.
One main use recorded for the Gold slime is its usage in Enchanting, as apparently, its slime worked marvelously for Rune Engraving.
Another recorded usage is in Alchemy, where its slime had strange catalytic properties that either enhanced the oue or, in some cases, caused a contrasting effect.
There are no recorded uses for its core, likely due to its unwillingness to risk losing its source of the mysterious golden slime.>
''Rarer than a pink slime? Unknown uses? Enchanting and Alchemy? It sounds intriguing, but... I can''t even think of an affinity this one might give me. Also, it sounds like unless I make a deal with another Dungeon Master, I have no hopes of finding one?''
ceholder. Seriously, we have Silver and Gold slime, so why not Copper slime? Consistency, people! TBD.>
''Uh... Gramps? Seriously? I mean, unfortunately, I do agree, but seriously?''
By far, the ck slime is one of the deadliest base slimes, as this slime has the ability to siphon lifeforce for nourishment and to replenish itself.
The slime is extremely hostile, sensing and seeking life with fervor; it is known to overwhelm adventurers by attacking and engulfing them from all angles.
The slime itself is weak to Holy magic, and when enough of its slime is destroyed, it retreats, keeping its vulnerable core out of sight and secure.
Exclusively found in the highest-level dungeons, they prove that even a humble slime can still threaten even veteran adventurers, as they often attack in small yet overwhelming swarms.
There are no known uses for their cores, and some adventurers who''ve encountered them even swear they do not have a core despite the logical impossibility of such an existence.>
''Holy shit! Jackpot! Well, unless thatst line is true... If it is a coreless slime, can I even integrate it? But draining lifeforce sounds really good, and basically, it''s like that [Death Magic] spell the Eyedra was casting on me. It''s also weak to Holy, so I have to assume it would have a Death affinity... It''s very odd that they work in a swarm together; I presume that''s just the Dungeon Master controlling multiple of them as that''s very unslimelike.''
When I dismissed the final textbox, the world started to darken, and I found myself drifting off into true slumber.
Another leg of my journey was finallyplete, and I couldn''t wait to see what awaited me in the Dwarven Empire. New people to meet, a new core to acquire, and likely new monsters to fight and eat. Not to mention my possible reunion with Trixie.
One thing was for sure; I would have a slime of a time.
Name: Syl [Nature''s Bane]
Race: Chimeric Cluster Slime (Blue) LV 1
ss: Elementalist LV 4
Status: Healthy
Mana: Overflowing
Emblems:
[Experiment]
[Apex Hunter]
[Elven Legacy]
[Dungeoneer]
[Nature''s Bane]*
[Manhunter]
Traits:
Slime:
[Mana Slime LV 11]
[Acid Slime LV 7]
[Poison Slime LV 6]
[ze Slime LV 6]
[Cryo Slime LV 7]
[Voltaic Slime LV 6]
[Nitro Slime LV 6]
[Morph Slime LV 8]
[Pseudopod LV 7]
[Slime Shot LV 7]
[Vaporize Slime]
Core:
[Core Collective LV 8]
[Core Storage LV 6]
[Sub-Core Alpha LV 5] [Sub-Core Beta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Gamma LV 5] [Sub-Core Eta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Delta LV 5] [Sub-Core Theta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Epsilon LV 5] [Sub-Core Iota LV 5]
[Sub-Core Zeta LV 5] [Sub-Core Kappa LV 5]
Mimic:
[Chimeric Mimicry LV 7]
[Chroma Shift LV MAX]
[Consuming Osmosis LV MAX]
Mana:
[Mana Cirction LV 7]
[Mana Reinforcement LV 7]
[Mana Infusion]
Attributes/Other:
[Soul Mastery LV 7]
[Enhanced Vitality LV 5]
[Magic Resistance (Lesser) LV 5]
[Curse Resistance LV 2]
[Illusion Resistance LV 3]
[Sonic Resistance LV 1]
[Prodigy]
Senses:
[Olfactory Sense]
[Dark Vision LV MAX]
[Mana Conception LV 6]
[Life Sight LV 4]
[Thermal Vision LV MAX]
[Eagle Vision LV 3]
[Electro-Maic Sense LV 4]
[Tremor Sense LV 2]
Trait Points remaining: 8
Skills:
General:
[Universal Language]
[Equipment Swap]
[Dissection LV 7]
[Mapping LV 5]
[Tracking LV 2]
[Identify LV 6]
[Multitasking LV 5]
[Perception LV 4]
[Aerial Finesse LV 4]
[Thunder Step LV 4]
[Companion Bond]
Combat:
[Tranquil Flow LV 5]
[Attack Mastery (Lesser) LV 7]
[Affliction Mastery LV 6]
[Exploit Weakness LV 4]
Magic:
[Water Magic LV 5]
[Fire Magic LV 5]
[Corrosion Magic LV 5]
[Ice Magic LV 5]
[Arcane Magic LV 4]
[Lightning Magic LV 5]
[Mana Maniption LV 6]
[Magic Efficiency LV 5]
[Counter Magic LV 4]
[Elemental Shift LV 5]
[Elemental Adaptation]
[Ritual Casting]
[Mana Suppression]
[Meditate]
Sneaky:
[Vanish LV 6]
[Assassinate LV 6]
[Identity Fabrication LV 6]
[Acting LV 5]
[Rogue Expertise LV 4]
[Magical Subterfuge LV 4]
[Subtle Afflictions]
Skill Points remaining: 13
Profession:
Enchanting:
[Rune Reading LV 6]
[Rune Engraving LV 1]
[Rune Framework LV 7]
[Rune Tracing LV 5]
[Rune Design LV 3]
[Runecrafting LV 2]
[Rune Inspection LV 5]
[Rune Filigree LV 3]
[Rune Repair LV 2]
[Brand]
Profession Points Remaining: 0
Chapter 169: Returning
I woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the day, but my mind was still rtively buzzing with the information I had received from Gramps. While I was eager to capitalize on seeking out the other types of slime, that would have to wait until after the Dwarves and I got my tendrils all over that delicious silver slime core. Reluctantly crawling out of my bathtub, I stored it away and began to exit safely to the surface.
''I''m sure Thern will want to leave almost immediately. However, there''s a brief stop I want to take before I head back to Kaerlin...''
I was about to [Thunder Step] away when I realized I''d probably be waking up a bunch of hungover adventurers¡ªit was barely sunrise, after all¡ªand decided to shift into a griffin and soar into the air. [Aerial Finesse]bined with [Enchanted Wings] was a blessed way to travel, and I happily soared through the sky.
''Man, I missed flying... I must figure out a good excuse for my persona to fly.''
I abruptly realized that I still had my giant hat to worry about, which would be detrimental to my monstrous disguises. However, when I looked at it, I noticed it had already transformed into a very subtle, small hairclip, barely visible and clipped securely behind one of my ears.
''I keep forgetting this hat exists... I definitely didn''t change it myself, but if it responds to my intent, then it''s a little more useful than I realized. Although other than being transforming headwear, I still don''t know if it has a beneficial effect.''
Once sufficiently away, I started to add [Thunder Step] while in flight. My top speed was significantly improved, although the bacsh was fierce when I chained one too many jumps.
''I really wish [Voltaic Slime] was a higher level...''
I consulted my [Mapping] and saw that Glimmerock was, regrettably, a great distance away. Trying to take a small detour to attempt another yellow slime hunt just wasn''t feasible unless I wanted to further risk Thern leaving me behind. Sighing to myself, I continued my journey towards Stantondale, ensuring that anyrge multi-chain jumps were safely discharged into the ground.
Combining flying with [Thunder Step] shaved off almost two days of travel time despite the greater distance to Stantondale than Kaerlin. However, that was also with a higher level [Thunder Step] skill, which meant I could do far longer chains, so my rough mental calction was a guesstimate at best.
I also caught and ate a few wild monsters I spotted on the way. While it felt like bullying, and the experience was clearly not worth mentioning, I wanted to build up a bit of a reserve of slime mass. Mytest acquisition, [Nitro Slime], was simply amazing, and I wanted to try it out in various ways and see what it was capable of. However, I would require sufficient slime mass to do this, as the trait utterly destroyed the slime when it detonated.
It was a fascinatingly powerful trait, and a few monsters on the way fell victim to my experiments. One of my most nefarious experiments was when I made a tiny bunny and primed it to hold its form, then left it on the ground near an unsuspecting wolf. I would have thought the bunny''s utterly lifeless and frozen state would have made the wolf suspicious, but it wasted no time in savagely biting on the fake bunny, which then detonated.
''While leaving explosive traps behind is one thing, my ability to mimic and disguise the bombs as something else is frighteningly powerful. Gods... Imagine if I could move them? I could make homing bombs, like tiny pigeons, to fly at a target before detonating.''
During the evenings, I spent some time looking into [Stunvolt]; the obvious application would be to see if I could add the stunning concept to my other spells or create a greater affliction effect like I had with [Frostbite]. I wasn''t exactly sure how that would work because of the short duration of the stunned ailment. Freezing something was basically a finisher; not much could survive the final stage of the ailment, whereas stunning was rather easy to apply but extremely short-lived.
''Perhaps rather than a build-up, I could work on it by applying the condition periodically. Then it would stun the target briefly every few seconds? Would that work?''
It was definitely something worth exploring.
***
When I neared Stantondale, I halted all [Thunder Step] usage and stuck to flying high in the sky, trying my best to blend into the background by maximizing my transparency. By the time I had officially arrived, it waste afternoon, so I spent some time casually waiting and practicing my sustained flight and [Eagle Vision]. I patiently waited until the evening approached, watching the people go about their final day activities from the sky.
''It''s slightly horrifying to think they have no idea I''m here... If I were a crazy monster, what would be able to stop me from flying over the town and dropping [Nitro Slime] bombs on them? Which... Is what dragons apparently do to kill anyone who awakens their bloodline... Yikes.''
Once sufficiently dark, I shifted into a small blue slime form and slowly descended as stealthily as possible. Once Inded, I hid my wings away and threw my magic hat into storage. The fact that it could be easily thrown into storage gave mefort over the strange item supposedly soulbound to me.
''To think I''m back here again...'' I thought, feeling slightly nostalgic as I watched the slimes bouncing around me.
Their numbers had greatly replenished since myst feast, and it seemed the humans had grown tired of them being feasted on. There was also now a rudimentary fence surrounding their extremelyrge enclosure. The fence wouldn''t stop any slimes from escaping, but evidently, the hope was that it would keep any predators out.
Stolen story; please report.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om
Looking through my profiles, I borrowed the [Telepathy (Lesser)] and attempted to contact one of the blue slimes.
Silence.
I tried reaching out to others, but there was nothing. Not even a hint of a thought. I even tried keeping contact with one while I produced some food for it, but other than greedily devouring it from my hand, there was not even a hint of a thought.
''I''m really beginning to understand why Trixie couldn''t believe I was a slime...''
Focusing on [Companion Bond], I tried to see if I could establish a link that way. I had never used the skill before, so I wasn''t sure what to expect, and in a way, it felt like I was reaching out to make a mental handshake with the creature in front of me. I had a brief moment of hope, but my mental hand grew cold, and the slime showed no hint of acknowledgment of my offer.
''I didn''t even get a rejection notification, which I assume I would have gotten if it said no... Are slimes just incapable of it?''
I felt quite bitter, as one of my solutions was to try to appear as a slime tamer, but if it was impossible, I was in a bad situation.
''I can''t handwave something as cut and dry as this. There''s only so much bullshit people are willing to believe as Elf things.''
With that bitter confirmation, I moved on to the final activity I wanted to try. I wanted to know if eating a few more slimes could further improve my [Mana Slime] trait. I reached out with a tendril and engulfed an unsuspecting blue slime whole, devouring its slime and core entirely.
''Hmm... I gained the trait but no level-up. Perhaps I just need to eat a few more...''
...
''It''s shocking how upressed their slime is... Was I really this weak back in the day?''
...
...
''Ha! It worked!''I cheered happily.
It had taken far more slimes than I thought it would have. I had eaten six slimes for a single level.
''And I have to assume that it was only six due to me partially leveling up the skill...''
I had to know. My tendrils spread out and started to grab more slimes.
...
...
...
''Eleven slimes!''I eximed.
It was a shockingly high amount required, and the field was starting to look barren of slime life. My guilty conscience rose as I realized I was eating away the primary ie for the town.
''Uh... Maybe I can make it up to them? I mean, my slime is far better than this garbage... Although saying that, I still can''t even feel or see a difference between this trait now and when it was still at level ten.''
I started pulling out some of the empty vials and containers in my storage, ensuring they were both clean and empty and ready for me to fill them with my own slime. I confirmed it was only [Mana Slime] and filtered it down so it wasn''t ultra-dense. I scattered the containers on the ground, hoping it would be good enoughpensation for my meal.
''It''s a good thing I have quite a few canteens and the vials I took from that ghoulb.''
Feelingslightlyless burdened by my conscience, I sprouted wings and flew straight up. While flying high up in the sky, I also flew over Stantondale, seeing the few windows illuminated by the lights within. I also pulled out the adventurer tags I had taken back when I was with the goblins and dropped them inside the town one by one.
''Hopefully, someone finds these... I should have returned them ages ago, but I kept forgetting I had them.''
Part of me wanted to drop in and say hi to Roderick, Tabitha, and Kurt, while my stomach desperately wanted me to visit Trevor''s Inn for some, no doubt, high-quality food. Sadly, I had to give up on either idea; it was far too risky, and I didn''t want the disappearing slimes linked back to me even if I gave somepensation. I soared into the night sky with the stars and moon guiding me while I headed toward Kaerlin. I briefly nced at the mountain deep in the forest and wondered if the goblins had survived... Something to look into when I didn''t have obligations.
***
When I neared Kaerlin, I shifted my trajectory toward the dungeon so that my arrival would make more sense. Landing down stealthily, I shifted back to my elven persona, stretching and confirming my profile, and everything was in order. Then, after a bit of stretching, I grinned as I began my thunderous arrival.
I couldn''t help but chuckle as the guards and citizens waiting in line were startled when I arrived. I even overheard some muttering from the older guards bemoaning Lisa.
''Sounds like Jet wasn''t joking when he said she was a bit of a prankster back in the day...''
Thankfully, there seemed to be no resentment, and I was let inside the city with minimal interaction. Despite not getting told to head straight to the Adventurer''s Guild, I still made my way there, seeing no reason not to report in and see if Thern hadn''t grown tired of waiting.
''I wonder how the dwarven city willpare... Hopefully, I won''t have as many eyes always staring at me.''
Arriving at the guild without issue, I politely waited until Luke had finished dealing with his current client. While waiting, a few other parties asked me if I was interested in joining for a quest, which I had to politely decline, saying I had prior obligations. Unlike the fiasco at the dungeon, there was no outburst of anger or insults thrown at me.
''That situation still really bugged me... I wonder what that guy''s problem was? My paranoia can''t help but feel like it was somewhat staged.''
Finally, Luke arrived, smiling brightly. "Good to see you again, Miss Syl."
"Pleasure to see you as well, Luke. I''m back from a sessful dungeon run."
"I did receive Sir Jet''smunication and gave it directly to Master Lisa. She told me to send you to her office as soon as you reappeared." Luke paused and chuckled. "Some bets were going on if you were going to be gone for months again."
"As fun as that would''ve been, I don''t think I could keep poor Thern waiting any longer. Assuming he hasn''t left me behind already?"
"No. He''s still waiting and mentioned that he wants to drag you off as soon as you get your new tag. By force if necessary."
I couldn''t help but wince, feeling remorse for leaving him waiting for so long. I made a mental note to expedite giving him some more alcohol slime. We exchanged a few more pleasantries before I headed to Lisa''s office.
''Gold-rank, here Ie!''
Chapter 170: Gold Interface
Chapter 170: Gold Interface
"I''m d you didn''t bring an army of angry horses this time." Lisa joked when she first saw me. "Have fun in the dungeon?"
"Aside from some issues getting started, it went pretty well. Thanks for sending Jet." I answered honestly.
"No problem. He was just sitting around gathering dust. I hope he didn''t spook you with his shadows?"
"Just some mild jealousy; it certainly looked useful."
"Yeah, I wish I could send my shadow to fetch snacks for me," Lisa admitted.
We reviewed Jet''s report, and she confirmed some of the oddities we experienced in the dungeon. I also gave a report on [Thunder Step] and how I found it. I couldn''t stop singing the skills praise, and Lisa seemed thrilled that I had no buyer''s remorse.
I also asked how things were in the city, and that was how I found out that, unfortunately, I had missed Whitney, who ended up taking her assignment in the capital to further hunt down the smugglers. I pulled out the enchanted dagger and showed it to Lisa.
"Is there any way I could have this sent to her?" I asked, lightly tossing the dagger into the air before it poofed and reappeared in my hand. "I found it in the dungeon, and I think it''s perfect for her."
"Oh! A returning weapon, those are pretty nifty. We once found a javelin that had that enchantment." Lisa said rather enthusiastically.
"It''s also got an enchantment that causes bleeding and then abination of self-repair and sharpening," I added.
"Wow... I had no idea you could give advanced appraisals." Lisa said, looking genuinely surprised. "I must remember to add it to your guild profile when I update its rank."
"So I''m Gold?" I asked. "Cause otherwise, I think Thern will kill me."
"So, I think it''s safe to say you''ve passed," Lisa said proudly. "Now, normally, for Gold rank and above, we would have a ceremony..."
"Oh no..."
"But!" Lisa interrupted, holding up a single finger. "I know you''d hate that, so we will skip the big presentation."
I sighed in relief. "Thank you."
"No problem. Besides, Thern would kill me if I held you up with a big ceremony. He''d leave with you right this moment if he had his way."n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om
"That reminds me, I need to do some shopping..."
"Yes.Pleasebribe the very grumpy dwarf, especially if you have more of that crazy alcohol he loves so much." Lisa said, chuckling.
"Sorry... I''m guessing that''s my fault."
"Heavens no. His enchanting buddy has apparently been an insufferable braggart." Lisa responded. "His words, not mine."
"Oh..."
As if summoned, Lisa''s door mmed open, and a grumpy-looking dwarf entered.
"There you are!" Thern grunted, pointing a meaty finger at me. "Finally crawled out of the dungeon, I see... Good! We leave tomorrow morning, bright and early. Meet you at the guild reception."
Before either of us could say anything, he stormed out.
"And that, Syl, is why you never want to meet a sober dwarf." Lisa chuckled.
"I''ll get him some emergency alcohol pronto."
"The guild thanks you for your sacrifice." Lisa joked. "Anyway, we can get this over and done with if you hand over your old tag."
I pulled it off my neck and ced it on her desk. She unlocked a small safe in her desk drawer and pulled a golden chain with an absolutely massive crystal. I had to hide a wince of pain when I tried to use [Rune Reading] on the new tag; even my old one was beyond myprehension.
''They did say this was something put in ce as a wish from the gods, so I guess it makes sense that I can''t understand it at all. Still, I didn''t expect to take mental damage just from ncing at it.''
She put it next to my old tag, and with a casual wave, both crystals shone brightly.
"Poof. It''s done." Lisa smiled and gestured for me to take it.
I picked it up and ced it over my neck.
"You can now take up to five quests at once. You now also have the guild vouching for entry into foreign allied nations, so yes, you can ess the Dwarven Empire now. Your ess to guild-managed dungeons has also increased, which I''m sure you''ll enjoy." Lisa began exining.
I nodded along.
"Finally, it''s time for the big reveal..." Lisa said, pausing for dramatic effect. "Say or thinkInterface, like you would your profile."
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''Interface.''
Suddenly, strange objects appeared in my vision; what looked like a tiny map was in the corner of my sight. Red and blue bars appeared above Lisa''s head, while another two nearly identical bars were at the bottom of my vision. The red bar above Lisa''s head absolutely dwarfed the one at the bottom of my vision, while the opposite was true for the blue ones and to amuchsomeoneasked the gods for. Some love it, others hate it and refuse to use it."
"What... Is all this?" I said, trying to look around, but the things followed my vision.
"Well. That depends on what traits or skills you have avable to you, and I''m not entirely sure what you have." Lisa answered. "I know you have [Mapping], so you should have a minimap. You''re also a spellcaster, so you undoubtedly have [Mana Sense], if not better, and so, you should have a mana bar."
"So this... Blue bar is my Mana?" I asked.
"Yes, your own is quite urate, while the bar on others is aparative estimate to your own amountbined with your corresponding trait or skill level," Lisa exined. "For example, I can tell you have more Mana than me, but I have no idea how much more. It''s mostly a visual trantion of your feelings or intuition."
"I guess the reddish one is lifeforce, then?" I asked.
"Yeah, it''s pretty good for healers to see if a Party member is injured and needs serious attention at a nce," Lisa answered. "I guess you could also use it to estimate how close a monster is to death, but personally, that sounds stupid. You keep stabbing until it stops moving."
Lisa continued exining this feature to me; it was interesting that everything promptly vanished when I removed my guild tag from my neck. Only the gods could have designed a device linked to one''s skills and traits. Thankfully, it was also customizable, and I could dismiss information I wasn''t interested in. Lisa also mentioned that new features were always being discovered from some obscure trait or skill, especially if it was some form of upgrade or enhancement to the [Identify] skill.
''If it works with [Affliction Tracker], then that might make it quite useful.''
"Last thing before I let you go grab your supplies, food, and whatnot," Lisa said. "As a Gold-rank adventurer, you may be called upon in a time of crisis if you are within the area. Think of that orc raid you stopped, except on a bigger scale. The guild would usually post an emergency notice, and you might be asked to participate. It''s not mandatory per se, but if you reject too many emergencies without a reasonable exnation, you could find yourself getting fined at a minimum and, at worst, face demotion."
I nodded. It sounded reasonable enough, like almost an impromptu militia for serious threats.
"Oh. I almost forgot," Lisa said, pointing to the dagger. "We can have that sent to the capital branch for Whitney."
"Thanks, that sounds perfect," I said happily. I had already memorized its enchantments, so I had no use for it myself.
"So you got a cloak and a dagger... Not exactly the best dungeon loot for you, all things considered." Lisa said.
"I also got this hat," I said, pointing to the giant witch hat.
Lisa looked at me with genuine confusion on her face. "Didn''t you always have that hat?"
"No. I definitely got it in the dungeon. It came from a Cat Sith." I pointed out, wondering if this was some bad prank.
Lisa frowned and scratched her head. "Are you sure? I genuinely can''t picture you without that hat; it perfectly suits you."
"I would have absolutely remembered having a shape-changing hat," I said, demonstrating how to change it into a tiny crown.
Lisa looked startled at first, then smiled. "Okay, that''s a pretty great hat; one of our diamond ranks has a robe that can be any other form of clothing. Although... Her robe actuallyes up as magical, whereas your hat looks utterly mundane no matter how much I look at it."
"We theorized that only I can see its enchantments because it''s soulbound to me," I answered.
"Fascinating, but other than the convenience of having a hat for every asion, I can''t say I''m that impressed. Jet mentioned that Eliza got a spell-storing ring withthreeslots!" Lisa replied, then frowned as she pulled out a sheet of parchment from her desk and quickly read through it.
"Actually... His report doesn''t mention your hat at all..." Lisa said, frowning, and then she burst intoughter. "I get it. You''re both ying a prank on me; Jet pulled you in to get some revenge for old times'' sake?"
I sighed. I felt like we were going around in circles; clearly, something Fey-rted was happening. "Sure. It looks like you figured it out."
"Ha! Brilliant. You almost had me going there." Lisa chuckled.
When I was leaving, I even overheard Lisa asking her secretary if she liked my new hat. The secretary replied almost instantly, "Didn''t she have that hat when we first met her?"
''There''s something funny going on, and I feel like my only hope for an answer is Trixie since the cat was a Fey. Still... What a strange effect. It appears utterly normal to anyone but me, and it somehow convinces them that I always had it.''
When I was exiting, I subtly showed Luke my new tag, to which he grinned happily and gave me a thumbs up. I was d they knew I didn''t want to make a big deal about it and were happy to keep it hushed for me.
I proceeded to go on a shopping spree, buying a few new sks and some kegs this time since Thern had previously scolded me for buying barrels. I also purchased some empty chests and food supplies before finally retiring to the inn.
Once in my room, I began to work. I filled the kegs with alcoholic slime, as well as some sks and canteens for Thern. At the same time, I began enchanting the chests I bought with the storage enchantment. Despite using [Rune Engraving] and the proper tool, the enchantments would only be temporary as I was carving them directly into the chests without a medium such as gold or electrum.
I could have used another method to make them permanent, such as adding a gathering array, but it felt like too much effort when I just wanted disposable chests to store the kegs and barrels. I wanted the chests to make the handover of the alcoholic slime simpler and to also draw less attention to how crazy my storage space was.
As if the ever-growing capacity for my [Core Storage] and its timeless feature wasn''t bad enough, it also seemed tosomehowget around one of the biggest restrictions when working with storage enchantments. Putting a dimensional storage into another one.
If you had two storage chests and tried to put the smaller one into therger one, it would just refuse to enter. No matter how much you wanted to force it. An unbeatable and invisible force would prevent it, and the chest would bend and break sooner than enter. For some reason, I had no restriction on my [Core Storage] and could easily throw any storage chests inside it.
This was part of the exnation I was given when I was learning the storage enchantment from Greg, although he said there were storage artifacts from dungeons that could circumvent this restriction. For example, some Diamond-rank adventurers would find an amulet, ring, or bracelet with a dimensional space feature.
So, I began enchanting chests and throwing barrels and kegs into them once they were filled and sealed with alcoholic slime. The chests could then be put on a wagon or cart.
''Actually... Thern never mentioned how we are traveling...''I thought curiously.''Oh well. Tomorrow will tell. Hopefully, it''s not too long of a journey.''
Chapter 171: Travel Arrangements
Chapter 171: Travel Arrangements
The next morning, I awoke bright and early and hurried to the Adventurer''s Guild. The graveyard shift workers, who were still on duty, were taken aback by my early arrival. When I mentioned that Thern had instructed me to be there early, they couldn''t help but chuckle. However, they also confessed that even Thern''s usual arrival time was still a good hour or two away.
"I can at least take your luggage so long." One of the staff members offered.
I nodded and ced my various chests on the floor. The man was startled momentarily before giving a firm nod and then rubbing his hands together energetically. He then started lifting the chests one by one, somehow bncing them in a tower formation. Some of the other staff joked about him showing off to pretty girls again as he trundled to deliver the chests.
Despite what the staff had said, Thern did, in fact, arrive sooner than they expected. Before even greeting him, I silently handed him a sk. He stared at it briefly, twisted the cap off, and took a swig. He immediately started coughing, followed byughter.
"Ah! That''s the stuff!" Thern said, sounding much more pleasant than yesterday.
"It''s good to see you, friend. Again, I''m sorry for the wait." I apologized and handed him more sks, which he eagerly epted.
"It''s not that bad. I''d be taking the long way home if not for you." Thern admitted.
He pointed to an obsidian-colored chest in his luggage, which was highly locked up with multiple chains and enchantments.
"In here is a brand-spanking new furnace heart, all thanks to that smander you dealt with," Thern exined.
"Right... I had wondered who won the bidding war," I said, recalling my conversation with Luke. "I had hoped the dwarves would win it so I could negotiate for another silver slime core."
"Ha! Well, you''ll certainly have the money to potentially negotiate. Although you could also sell your services, many beasties live around us with valuable parts." Thern said.
"So I could do a bunch of hunting quests and get another core that way?"
"Aye. My pa has already told some of the higher-ups that you were the one to secure the inferno sac." Thern answered. "Just make sure to do it through the Adventurer''s Guild branch, so you have some diplomatic protection."
"Diplomatic protection?"
"Just in case some scoundrel tries to renege on a deal. Then the full weight of the guild can be dropped upon them." Thern said with a hearty chortle.
I followed Thern as he led the way; we stopped off at the library, where he collected a few of his things before heading towards a deeper section of the guild. I hadn''t seen this section before and wondered where we were headed. Did the guild have some sort of staging area for wagons or something? Thern unfortunately refused to answer my query and instead just chuckled with a "wait and see" response.
We had to enter through three locked doors, and my tag briefly glowed as we passed through each one. I turned my head to Thern, showing my concerned curiosity, and he smirked.
"Security. It''s checking that you haven''t stolen that Gold-rank tag. Congrats, by the way! Bring me something fancy to enchant, and I''ll do it for free." Thern replied, showing a toothy grin.
The final door led to arge room with a massive circr dais. Hundreds of glyphs and sigils decorated the tform engraved in gold, a stark contrast to the almost pitch-ck stone the main structure was made of. In the center of the dais was a waist-high column, also fully engraved but made out of pristine marble, and at the tip was a beautiful-looking crystal sphere. I briefly thought it might have been a slime core, but upon further inspection, it seemed to be an artificially made crystal.
Seeing my shock and surprise, Thern couldn''t help butugh. "First time seeing a teleportation room?"
"I didn''t even know they existed..." I admitted.
"Aye. Most people don''t. They are quite expensive to use and with very strict security." Thern answered and then patted the ck box holding the furnace''s heart. "Our trip is being sponsored by the Empire! They don''t trust such a valuable object being transported by ordinary means."
"I''m not going toin... But I''m sure we could handle some bandits between the two of us."
"No doubt," Thern admitted confidently. "But I guess all the smuggling going on here in Kaerlin has made some of them worry. Not to mention the pegasi and orc attacks... But look on the bright side; their paranoia gets us afy trip!"
"Sounds great. So how does it work?"
"Ha! I don''t me you for asking. Unfortunately, this is one of the rare asions that I can''t actually exin something Enchanting rted." Thern admitted, almost looking slightly embarrassed. "I''ve spent months staring at these glyphs, trying to decipher them, but it''s like it''s written in multiple bloody foreignnguages. All I know is that you ce a keystone in two of these and then channel mana into the orb, and it works."
"Keystone?"
Thern pulled out a stone disc, cast in marble and engraved with silver. "This here is the keystone. Drew it myself. On the other side is another matching one, and they somehow speak to one another through that monstrosity." Thern said as he pointed to the dais.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"Can it be anything as long as they match?" I asked curiously.
"Aye. But that''s risky," Thern answered. "It''s very hard to make two things absolutely identical, so it tries to make the link between the two best matches. If we did something simple like a circle, we could end up in another teleportation room with a circle keystone."
"I see. That could be a big safety concern."
"Which is why this room is so heavily monitored. Now help me get your chests onto the tform," Thern said, pointing to my luggage in the corner.
We moved the chests on the tform, and Thern looked inside them, confirming that the contents were safe and smiling when he saw all the barrels. While we were setting up, Luke and Lisa came to check on us and wish us a good time in the Empire.
"If you n on bringing back any souvenirs,pleaseget anything other than alcohol. I swear that''s all anyone brings back from the Dwarves." Lisa had joked.
Thern slotted the keystone into an empty slot in the dais, and when he did so, it seemed toplete the framework as the entire thing hummed to life. I tried desperately to understand what I saw, but Thern wasn''t joking or humble when he said he had no idea what it was. I felt I would have no chance if someone as educated as he couldn''tprehend it.
''I could probably get my [Sub-Cores] to recreate this... Although that''s certainly risky. I could end up sending myself to go visit Kappa if I screwed up.''
"Right. I think we are ready." Thern said, looking pleased.
"Anything I should know or be warned about?"
"Keep your arms and legs inside the circle. Seriously." Thern said sternly. "Other than that, try not to vomit."
I nodded and stepped up onto the tform to join him. Thern ced his hand on the crystal orb, and it began to slowly build up with a glowing light. The sigils and glyphs on the dais began to shimmer and transform before my eyes, and the entire room began to bend and warp.
"Hold on to your breakfast!" Thern bellowed withughter.
Then the orb suddenly flickered red, and Thern muttered a dozen curses.
"I thought they charged the bloody thing!" Thern shouted angrily.
He pped his hand on top of the orb, and I saw the orb pulling vast quantities of Mana from him. Thern started muttering curses and then suddenly fell to his knee.
"Shit! Syl, I''m gonna need you to help dump Mana into this thing! It sucked me dry!" Thern shouted in panic.
I nodded, rushed to the orb, and ced my hand on it. Immediately, I felt the orb start to siphon Mana from me. Thern looked relieved when the dais'' enchantments suddenly became alive, and the room rapidly warped and twisted. There was a popping noise, and abruptly, the room we were in lookedpletely different. The wooden floors and walls were reced with pure stonework. Where there might have been a sconce, instead, an engraving was carved directly into the stone, providing an ample light source.
Thern took a swig from his sk before steadily standing up again. "Bloody beards. That could have gone to shit."
I opened my mouth to ask what had happened when the door to the room slid open. Rather than a wooden door that swings, it was what looked like a stone door that somehow slid into the wall to open a walkway.
A stout female dwarf entered the room, looking absolutely livid. While Thern had an impressive beard that went down past his waist, she, on the other hand, had a massive hairdo that stood tall above her head like a giant beehive. It was massively braided and well taken care of with its wispy ck coloring.
Thern looked at the woman storming towards him, his eyes wide. He looked about to say something when the woman decked him in the face with a massive right hook that sent him crashing off the dais and tumbling to the wall.
Unsure if we were under attack or not, I swiftly cast and held [Stunvolt] in my hand. The blueish-purple energy sparked dangerously on my hand, the buzzing-ticking sound filling the entire room as, unlike my testing, I held nothing back, and it was fully empowered. The dwarven woman actually flinched in surprise at the loud noise and swiveled to look at me; she red as if I had challenged her.
"Syl! No! That''s my ma!" Thern shouted, spitting out some blood.
"What''s wrong, boy? Not gonna let your pointy-eared girlfriend defend your honor?" The woman barked.
"Ma!" Thern shouted, going red in the face. "We''re coworkers!"
"And how many other coworkers have you brought home with ya?" Thern''s mom snorted in response.
Thern facepalmed while fiercely groaning. "Just cause I work with the humans doesn''t mean I''ve adopted their taste in woman, ma! I''m still a dwarf at heart."
"That''s a relief on a poor mother''s heart," She responded.
"Bah! The only way to relieve your ck heart would be to throw it into a volcano." Thern spat.
Then, both dwarves abruptly startedughing so hard that tears began forming in their eyes. I dropped my spell and looked at the two, feeling lost and confused.
"I have no idea what''s going on..." I mumbled to myself.
"My son is saying you''re too skinny to be a wife. And I don''t me him. Are those humans starving you or something? You''re practically skin and bones!" Thern''s mom responded.
"Ma!" Thern shouted.
"Sorry... Sorry... Forgive an old bat for being brusque; I haven''t had my morning drink yet."
I pulled out a sk and handed it to her, immediately making the woman burst out with a devilish grin. "Boy, I think I like this one!"
"Ma!"
"You''re right. Where''s my manners." The woman chuckled. "Name''s Thessa; pleased to meet ya!"
"Syl. Pleasure to meet your acquaintance."
Thessa nodded, then finally took a swig of the canteen. She kept drinking and drinking before finally stopping and letting out a breathy sigh followed by a belch.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om
"Well, p my tits; that''s probably the strongest drink I''ve ever had!" Thessa eximed happily.
"Did ya think I was fibbing to pa?" Thern questioned.
"I thought maybe you''d lost your gut living out in the sun with the humans," Thessa admitted. "But I''m happy to be proven wrong. Although you''ve clearly gotten rusty if that teleportation was anything to go by!"
"You can insult me, but never insult my work! I copied the keystone design perfectly!" Thern shouted back.
"Then exin what went wrong with the teleportation? It clearly needed more Mana topensate for your screwup."
Thern reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of parchment with what looked like ck markings on it. He stomped over and angrily thrust it towards his mom.
"Good thing I took a rubbing of the finished product." Thern defended himself.
Thessa examined the piece of parchment with the utmost scrutiny.
"Hmm... I''d give this a less than five percent deviation... Not bad, boy!" She said, scratching her chin. "But then what the hell happened?"
"I thought maybe the guild might not have charged the mana battery enough," Thern said.
"Surely they wouldn''t be that stupid," Thessa said. "Although the only other possibility is too much dimensional weight."
"Dimensional weight?" I asked.
"It''s not exactly anofficialterm, but we use it to describe the phenomenon. Basically, you can''t cheat teleport costs with dimensional storage." Thern answered. "But even with the extra chests, it wouldn''t have costthatmuch more Mana. I mean to exin that you''d need an absolutelymassiveamount of dimensional space, on par with an artifact storage!"
Chapter 172: Dhoggurum
Chapter 172: Dhoggurum
As if answering his own question, Thern suddenly looked at the pouch on my hip. The bag made out of ornate-looking leaves was still an unresolved mystery. He hummed in thought, perhaps thinking that the bag was potentially an artifact. Honestly, I was beginning to think it may be as well, as despite my advancements in skills and traits, including my profession, I couldn''t make heads or tails of the bag.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
''I wonder if the bag is soulbound to Sylthaeryn? If it''s at all like my hat, then that would exin a lot. Although... Then why did she ask me to give it to another elf? Is it perhaps soulbound to the elven race specifically?''
Thern chuckled. "It''s my fault. I should have asked how much you have stored away personally,especiallyafter what I''ve seen you pull out from harvests."
"You also should have exined the emergency procedure," Thessa grumbled. "You bloody nearly drained yourself dry trying to do it yourself..."
Thern looked quite embarrassed as he sighed. "You''re right. Sorry, Syl. I hope it didn''t drain you too much."
"It didn''t seem that bad..." I answered honestly, which caused both Dwarves to stare at me in astonishment.
"I know you brag about your Mana capacity a lot, but even so... It should have been horrible since the conversion ratio is so poor," Thern said, scratching his beard in thought.
"What would have happened if we didn''t pay the Mana?" I asked.
"Your storage bag would have exploded," Thessa answered. "The teleportation tform has safety measures that ensure it teleports anything living first."
''I wonder how that works for my [Core Storage]...''I couldn''t help but wonder with morbid curiosity.
"But enough of that!" Thessa said cheerfully. "Come,e. Let''s get you unpacked and settled in."
Before we left, Thessa imed the keystone from the tform and gave Thern another scolding, saying that the first security measure was toimmediatelyremove it after teleportation. Under his mother''s verbal thrashing, Thern could only sigh and nod. Then, we both followed her out of the room after each grabbing a chest. I got an abrupt notification when I first stepped beyond the door.
"Dhoggurum?" I muttered and activated my [Mapping] skill.
Suddenly, the room swayed, and I nearly fell over. As if expecting that Thern caught me before I fell. I could only thank the gods my [Sub-Cores] handled keeping my disguise intact.
"Ha! Lisa owes me a bottle of whiskey!" Thern joked.
My vision stopped spinning, and my [Mapping] skill seemed to finalize what it was trying to do. It zoomed outdrastically, and I saw we were to the distant north¡ªabsurdly far from Kaerlin.
"What... Happened?" I murmured, confused.
"Your [Mapping] skill updated with a new distance. I bet you had never traveled this far before, but Lisa said she was sure you had." Thern exined. "First-time teleporters usually experience this."
"Some... Warning would''ve been nice." I grumbled.
"Aye. But then, I wouldn''t have won my bet." Thern smirked.
Once I had recovered, we continued out through multiple stone doors that slid into their holding like the previous one. The security was very impressivepared to anything I had seen in the human city.
After following her through passageways, we eventually came to an almost familiar sight: an Adventurer''s Guild reception. Theyout was eerily simr, except nearly everything was carved from stone, and barely anything was made from wood. And it went without saying that almost everyone present was a dwarf, except for a few humans scattered about.
Thern gestured for me to follow him to one of the reception desks, where we needed to register our arrival. The receptionist was a little surprised to see me hand over a Gold tag.
"Blimey. I thought you were escorting an elf ambassador or something. I can''t believe one actually joined the guild." The dwarf said as he twirled the tip of his pointed beard.
"Ha! Wait till she starts doing some quests here; then, you''ll be in for a real shock and surprise!" Thern bragged and gave me a big wink.
Then we followed after Thessa again, who was tapping her foot impatiently. One thing I was immediately grateful for was the dwarf''s attitude towards me; I could see they would look a bit surprised at my appearance but then almost immediately pushed it aside and went about their day. On the other hand, the few humans tantly stared and promptly started gossiping with theirpanions, as I had grown reluctantly ustomed to.
Exiting the Adventurer''s Guild, I was weed to the sight of the city.
"Wee to Dhoggurum!" Thessa said proudly.
The entire city was carved out of solid stone, showcasing the unmatched dedication of the dwarven people. The walls, buildings, and even the streets were all hewn from the rock, disying remarkable precision andmitment. I marveled at the underground metropolis''s grand architecture and its sheer scale. The ceilings towered high above, supported by colossal stone pirs that seemed to disappear into the darkness above, creating an almost artificial starry canopy.
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The city was organized with practicality and efficiency in mind, with narrow passageways leading to various districts and chambers. Every detail, from the ornate carvings adorning the buildings to the meticulously crafted bridges spanning deep chasms, spoke magnitudes about the dwarven mastery of stonework and engineering. The glow of magical lights illuminated the bustling streets, casting a warm and inviting ambiance throughout the city. Despite being underground, the dwarven city felt vibrant and alive, with shops, taverns, and workshops bustling with activity.
This spectacr view was due to our location on the topmost level. The center of the sprawling city was entirely hollow and carved out, making each level visible from this vantage point and showing its grand majesty. Massive staircases essing the other floors and even what looked like floating tforms rose and descended through magical or engineered means.
"Is it a giant cube?" I couldn''t help but ask.
Thern burst outughing while Thessa looked a teensy bit upset.
"Aye! It''s a bloody cube because we Dwarves like efficiency, so it''s focused on trying to keep everything as close as possible by using verticality." Thern exined.
"Doesn''t living on top of everyone get... Overwhelming?" I asked.
"Back in the day, that was a small problem, but you''ll find everything enchanted to block out sound or intrusion. No need to worry about a snooping neighbor." Thessa answered.
"Then that definitely makes a lot more sense. It sounds convenient."
Thessa liked my agreement as she showed a toothy smile. "d you can see our dwarven wisdom. I don''t know how the humans live, so... Spread out."
We continued following her as she showed us around. Seeing so many enchantments in the walls for light or decoration was spectacr. We descended a staircase and eventually headed into what looked like a mostly residential area. Thessa opened the door and weed us into her home.
"I see you upgraded from ourst home," Thern said.
"Business has been good. The old one was getting too cramped, and now I have my own personal forge." Thessa said proudly.
"Soundproofed, I hope," Thern said.
"And temperature regted," Thessa answered. "You know how much Darmod loves his beauty sleep."
Thernughed. "Pa was always too sensitive."
Thessa led each of us to a room. Thern''s was clearly meant for family, while mine was evidently a guest room. It was still well decorated and had a very nice, soft, and fancy-looking human-sized bed.
"You''re lucky we have a human bed. Otherwise, you''d need to fit yourself into a dwarf one." Thessa chuckled. "I think all your nutrients are going into your height; I swear you elves are far too tall. Now, let''s get some food into you both!"
The food was wonderful and generously portioned, and of course, a keg of alcohol was promptly opened. Thern and his mom caught up, and I let them while trying my best not to pry into their family business. Then, the conversation swayed into talk of adventuring and some of my work.
That was when Thern admitted he wanted me to be on the lookout for any monsters that had parts suitable for enchanting when I eventually left the city on some hunts. He was still clearly very jealous of the unicorn horn I had given Greg.
Thessa couldn''t hide her curiosity, which led to Thern showing her thepleted forge heart. Honestly, the thing looked nothing like the original organ, and instead, it almost looked like an encrusted obsidian gem glittering with massive amounts of enchantments. Thessa inspected it with a critical eye and evaluated it as satisfactory.
"This is good, but it''s the finished product," Thessa sighed. "I was hoping you had some raw materials to show off."
"Got anything interesting leftover from the dungeon?" Thern asked.
I winced since the Misfits and I had decided to sell everything. However, I still had three parts left over: my alicorn horn, my earthshaker carapace, and the ws from the badger. I withdrew the first two and ignored the ws, as I didn''t want to potentially implicate myself with Bloodrot.
"Sadly, we sold all the dungeon loot, but I still have these," I answered.
"This would make some mighty fine armor... And you harvested this yourself?" Thessa asked, examining the rocky carapace.
"You should''ve seen it back in the guild. A room full of stuff this good." Thern chuckled.
"Why the bloody hell are you running around killing monsters then?" Thessa asked, bbergasted. "You could sit safely in a room and make a fortune."
I couldn''t help but grin before I answered. "But where would the fun in that be? Where''s the adventure? I get to explore, kill monsters, and level up."
Thern burst out withughter. "Aye! Spoken like a true adventurer!"
Thessa sighed deeply. "I really don''t understand you lot. Stick me in a forge all day, and I''d live a happy life."
"Well... Think of it this way. Without people like me, you wouldn''t get to see and use stuff like this." I replied.
"Don''t you start using facts and logic to dissuade me now," Thessa chuckled. "A mother wants her son to stay safe and sound."
"Ma!" Thern grunted, looking mightily embarrassed.
"Hush you. You''ll always be my baby boy no matter how big of a beard you grow."
It was a rxing and pleasant time, andter in the afternoon, Thern''s father arrived home. He looked nearly identical to Thern, except his beard was groomed to perfection and even had some braids and jewelry tied into it. He was almost the spitting image of a well-off merchant and had a bit of a beer belly going on.
While Thern and Thessa were quite boisterous, Darmod was polite and a little reserved. It seemed Thessa wore the pants in the rtionship. However, when he saw the barrels I had brought and sampled some, there was a twinkle in his eye, and he suddenly became very enthused and energetic.
"Syl. We are going to make a fortune!" Darmod said enthusiastically.
"Well... I''m honestly more interested in a silver core than money." I answered.
Thern again couldn''t help bursting out withughter. "My pa didn''t believe me when I said you wanted that."
Darmod grumbled a bit at being caught off guard like that but nodded. "Well, it''s a good thing my son convinced me otherwise. I should be able to requisition your silver core by lunchtime tomorrow."
"Yes! Please do!" I said, unable to hide my excitement. "And please let anyone know I''m willing to work for more, even doing some hunts." I made sure to point out the rocky carapace I had harvested.
Darmod couldn''t help but blink in surprise. "Yes... I''ll be sure to do it. Just to confirm, this will be a dead slime from amon metal."
"Yes. Anyone is fine. Why would that matter?" I asked.
Darmod fiddled with one of his braids before asking his own question. "How much do you know about slimes eating other slimes?"
"When a slime eats another, it bes purer," I answered.
"Alright, that''s good, so I''m not identally revealing a dwarven secret." Darmod chuckled nervously. "Silver slimes, when they eat another, not only be purer, but they also take on any metals the other slime umted."
"Why is that an issue?" I asked.
"Because if you have a slime that can produce gold, why would you want to contaminate it with tin?" Darmod responded. "The slimes are stupid, so they mixallof their absorbed metals together."
"Ah... So they create unexpected alloys."
"Yes. That''s why if any slime with amon metal is found, it is usually swiftly disposed of. We dare not risk it being consumed by another and causing a contamination."
We continued to chat into the evening before finally calling it a night. Despite my glorious bed, I felt like I would struggle to sleep because of my unbridled anticipation.
Chapter 173: A Feast
Chapter 173: A Feast
"Roderick!" One of the staff members burst into his office. "We might have a situation."
Roderick groaned as he stared at the mountain of paperwork on his desk. Harris had certainly kept this aspect of the job in the dark from him, and he was undoubtedly having some second thoughtstely.
"What''s the issue?" Roderick asked, trying to hide his displeasure.
"Old Tom says something happened to the slimes. He''s requesting an urgent meeting with you and Harris at his house."
"Don''t tell me the goblins are back..." Roderick muttered angrily.
The staff member could only gesture in confusion. He hadn''t received any more detail about the situation. Roderick grabbed his coat and briskly left the guild.
''I swear if it''s goblins again, I''ll personally shove my shield down their throat...''
Roderick arrived at Tom''s house, knocking and hastily entering to escape the cold. Harris had already arrived and was casually chatting with Tom; judging by their rxed disposition, it appeared the news hadn''t been brought up yet.
"d you could make it," Harris said. "Paperwork keeping you busy?"
Roderick grunted a response while Tom gestured for him to take a chair.
"So, what''s happening, Tom? Is it the bloody goblins again?" Roderick asked.
"I''m not actually sure what it is..." Tom said, frowning deeply and exposing his tanned wrinkles. "Many slimes have gone missing, presumably killed, but it''s not like thest time."
Old Tom reached under the table and pulled out a bag, which he opened on the table to reveal various sks, canteens, and potion vials.
"What''s all this?" Roderick asked.
"These were left in the slime field," Tom answered. "Each one seems to contain slime."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
"So some bastard harvested our slimes and left behind a constion prize?" Roderick spat, feeling frustrated.
"I don''t think that''s the case," Tom responded. "I had my alchemist friend look at it, and he nearly lost his mind."
"What do you mean?" Harris asked curiously.
"He said it''s the purest slime he''s ever seen. Far beyond anything ever recorded." Tom replied. "He asked me if I knew who refined it."
Roderick sighed as he massaged his temples in frustration, a headache brewing. "So some mad alchemist experimented on our slimes?"
"Sounds usible..." Harris muttered, then he picked up one of the vials. "Maybe you''re too young to recognize this, Roderick, but this potion vial isancient."
Old Tom actually nodded. "That''s what bugged me too. Vials in that style haven''t been around for decades."
"So what does this mean?" Roderick sighed. "Do we have to worry about some powerful ancient alchemist wizard?"
"Well, considering he left behind payment. Perhaps not?" Harris responded. "Any idea how much this is worth?"
"My buddy says it''s worth a fortune. Easily more than we''d make a year if not more." Tom shrugged.
Roderick had mixed feelings, but Harris actually startedughing.
"Sounds like we lucked out. A mysterious alchemist drops by and advances our ie by ayear?" Harris chuckled cheerily.
"Perhaps..." Roderick admitted. "We need to keep this hushed. We can''t let the Stantons hear about it."
"Noints from me. Those bastards would steal all the money." Tom spat.
"I''m more worried about them using the money to flee before Whitney finishes her investigation," Roderick said in a hushed tone.
Harris whistled. "Exciting times."
"At least it''s not goblins." Tom gave a gap-toothed grin.
***
The next morning, we had another hearty breakfast and chatted about our ns for the day. Darmod would take one of the chests to his client and arrange for the silver core, and then we would meet up for lunch at one of the nicer establishments.
Meanwhile, Thern and I were going to do some shopping. Thessa would have loved to join us, but she, unfortunately, had to deliver the furnace heart to the forges.
"Bah! Don''t let those crocodile tears fool ya." Thern barked out. "Ma prefers a forge to any living person. I bet she wants to be the first to test out the new heart."
Following Thern, we headed toward the merchant''s district. The hustle and bustle of the crowd were intense, and there were so many people it was a little ustrophobic. Despite literally standing out amongst the dwarves, it was great that they seemed to pay me no extra attention and were much more interested in getting their own business done.
We explored various stores, but none of them really caught my interest until we found a cksmith. I ended up purchasing the smallest weapon of each different metal or alloy I could find. While I could have saved money by just getting a raw ingot, I decided against that route because it might indicate that I was nning to do something with silver slime.
The mithril rapier I ended up purchasing was the most expensive, and I deeply regretted that I''d be eating itter since it looked magnificent. Thern bought himself a few different hammers, and while hemented their cost, he said it was worth it to get the dwarven quality assurance.
After our shopping was done, we made our way to the food court, where Thern explored a few breweries while we waited for our appointment.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Lunch finally arrived, and we met up with Darmod, but Thessa was nowhere to be seen.
"I bet Ma won''t be showing up," Thern said. "She''s probably got herself lost in the forge."
"Looks like it..." Darmod said with a knowing sigh as we entered the establishment.
While the decor wasn''t on par with the best I''d seen, the food on disy far exceeded my expectations. The portions were absolutely massive, and it seemed this restaurant specialized in the strangest steaks avable. The meat variety ranged from drakes to basilisks to worms, and I was utterly intrigued and deeply regretful that food on its own wasn''t enough to qualify for a profile.
"Worm meat is soft and juicy. But if you want my rmendation, go for basilisk." Darmod suggested. "It''s tough, and you''ll need to fight with your teeth, but the taste is worth it!"
It seemed rtively the same to me, so I followed his advice. When Thern and Darmod dug into their meals, you could audibly hear the crunching in their teeth, as if they were chewing on rocks, but the look of bliss on their faces showed how much they enjoyed it.
I had to admit, it did not disappoint, and finally, I could say I had eaten something that surpassed Trevor''s inn. Best of all, I didn''t need to struggle with my meal since I could easily dissolve my way through it. Clearly, the dwarves had been expecting a reaction, and their disappointment was evident on their faces.
"What the bloody hell are elf teeth made out of," I overheard Thern muttering to himself in a whisper.
When it came for after-meal drinks, Darmod finally opened a pouch and ced an iron-gray core on the table for me. "Well, Syl. Here''s your silver core."
I gingerly picked it up and examined it in my hand. A tiny crack and hole in the sphere indicated how they had killed the slime¡ªalmost like they had driven a thin nail through it.
"Thank you very much!" I said eagerly.
I pocketed the core but then withdrew it inside myself.
''Yes!''
''Wow, that was a low-level slime. Still, I could work on leveling up the trait myself, and then if I can get some more cores, I can perhaps bypass the slower levels.''
I wanted to read the trait and profile but held back while I was still in active conversation.
"Any mention about me doing some hunting work for them?" I asked.
"They were interested but hesitant that you could do the job," Darmod admitted with a sigh. "Someone said you came from the humannds where the monsters are still rtively weak."
"That''s a load of hogwash!" Thern disagreed angrily. "She bloody killed an Inferno Smander! By herself! I''d like to see one of those shitheads even survive in its presence."
"I know, son. I agree, and I argued as such," Darmod quickly responded. "They just want her to do a quest or two with the guild, and then we can p that in their face as proof."
"Sure. Sounds good to me," I replied calmly. "I was going to go hunting anyway, regardless of their opinions. I want to see what''s out there!"
"I can''t wait to see the regret on their faces when they didn''t jump on your offer sooner," Darmod said with a smirk. "And when they run out of that alcohol, we can fleece them good!"
Once we left the restaurant, I finally looked at my new trait.
This slime contains the properties of various ores and metals and can harden and transmute itself at will to mimic them; the strength and advantages gained heavily depend on the type of metal chosen.
While the slime''s usual outside factors, such as density, affect this trait''s usage positively, its primary scalinges from its level, and the strength of its metals will be significantly hindered if they surpass the trait level.
Different metals can be mixed at a reduced strength for eachbination except forpatible and proven alloys, which provide a small bonus.
Additional metal types must be acquired through sampling ores, metals, or alloys.
Avable metals: Tin.
Compatible with other slime traits.>
''Interesting... Unlike my other traits, it''s heavily dependent on both the trait level and the metals I have avable. I''m d I didn''t pick this as my evolution option. Also, I wonder what hindering metals above the level means?''
I secretly started depositing small pieces of various metals inside my stomach to dissolve.
''Also, I just realized the trait only showed tin as avable, meaning it wasn''t retroactive. I''m d I decided to save my metals.''
''Interesting. That silver ore is ssified as different.''
''I''m so going to catch Trixie and prank her when I see her! Assuming my [Metal Slime] level is high enough to mimic this correctly.''
Unfortunately, I''d have to wait till I got home to eat my adamantine hammer and mithril rapier. I couldn''t think of a way to sneakily deposit them inside my thin, elven frame.
I was curious about what else I might count as an ore, so I started withdrawing other things and taking a small nibble out of them. Most of my tests were unfruitful, but I did get one shocking revtion.
''Seriously, floatstone is an ore?''
While Idesperatelywanted to start experimenting, I couldn''t leave as Darmod was ying tour guide for me. Although I could swear his tour was just an excuse to go on a city-wide drinking binge.
I looked over the silver slime profile and noticed it had [Shape Slime] and [Pseudopod]. This go-tobo was a st from my past, and I wondered how different my life would have been if I had started as something other than blue.
When we finally started heading back, we picked up some food from a stall on the way home. I was curious why, but it became quite apparent when we arrived at an empty home.
"Ma''s gonna be stuck in the forge all night." Thern chuckled.
"I wish you never told her about that new forge heart," Darmod joked.
Finally, alone in my room, I pulled out my mithril rapier and adamantine hammer. Surprisingly, both took quite a while to dissolve despite the full might of my [Acid Slime]. The adamantine especially seemed to refuse to dissolve until I cast [Erode] on it to assist in my digestion.
''I gained a level just from sampling metals! Ha!''
Eagerly, I formed a [Pseudopod] and then activated [Metal Slime]; I started with iron as I assumed it would work wlessly despite the low level. A metallic sheen glimmered, and I watched my slime take on the new trait.
I started shifting the tendril into various weapons and couldn''t help but be amazed at the perfection. Previously, my weapon mimicry was as close to real as possible; anyone observing likely could not tell the difference, but now, not evenIcould tell this wasn''t an iron sword, and Iknewit was literally my slime.
''Okay! Let''s try out mithril!''
I mentally changed the metal selection and watched in real time as it transmuted from gray into silvery blue. It was beautiful; it was magnificent. Then, the sword flopped like a wet noodle, and if I wasn''t keeping tight control over its density and form, I knew it would be falling apart before my very eyes.
''So... I''m guessing this is the significant hindering mentioned in the description.''
It was a little disheartening to see such a loss of control over my slime; I knew I could have made a stronger sword without the trait at allpared to this result. But I knew it held significant potential, and leveling it up would be one of my highest priorities.
Chapter 174: Cavern Questing
Chapter 174: Cavern Questing
Syl
After much testing, my current limit with [Metal Slime] seemed to be iron. Copper and lead were both perfectly usable, but iron seemed to be my best option in terms of weapons. I also could predict that the next level would likely give me ess to Silver and possibly Bronze.
Despite the momentary disappointment at not being able to immediately use the best metals, the trait itself was fascinating, and it brought me fond memories of my initial testing with my slime when I was first starting out.
It was intriguing that despite my prior work with [Chimeric Mimicry] and [Morph Slime] being what I would call nearly wless, now armed with [Metal Slime], I couldn¡¯t help but notice that any formed weapons seemed better. I always struggled to mimic sharpness, even with thebination ofplete profiles, high trait levels, and plenty of practice, but now it was beyondpare. The inherentpatibility between all my slime traits was simply outstanding; I felt like giving Gramps a standing ovation.
¡¯I didn¡¯t even need to make the mental adjustments or anything myself; it¡¯s like my mimicry trait automatically knows what traits to incorporate.¡¯
Finally, having exhausted myself, I called it a night. I couldn¡¯t wait to head out and start using [Metal Slime] against monsters.
***
"I wish I could¡¯ve joined ya for some hunting. But I need to go get Ma out of the forge." Thern said during breakfast.
"No problem, Thern. Familyes first, and we can go on a hunt next time."
Thern shook his head. "I¡¯m not worried about Ma. I¡¯m worried about the other dwarves probably stuck there with her. But I¡¯ll definitely take you up on that rain check."
After breakfast, I left the house, saying farewell to Thern and Darmod. I was extremely thankful for [Mapping]; otherwise, I might not have found my way back.
¡¯Sure, it might be efficient. But it¡¯s certainly confusing needing to traverse multiple floors.¡¯
While the guild was busy, it didn¡¯t take me long to finally get an avable receptionist. She looked cheery enough and had a simr giant beehive hairstyle, except it came with a big single braid hanging over her shoulder.
"Good day. Do you have a quest to post for us?" The dwarf asked with a cheery attitude.
"Ah. No, I¡¯m an adventurer and looking for some quests." I said, pulling out my tag.
"Ah, shit! Sorry, sorry." The dwarf apologized nervously. "I heard the rumor but didn¡¯t think it was true. I thought maybe you were one of the elves from the embassy."
I hid my surprise at him mentioning other elves and decided to ask Darmod about itter. I still had the bag I was tasked with returning, after all.
"Nope. Freshly promoted to Gold and looking to prove myself." I answered.
"Looking to impress someone? Hmm..." The dwarf responded, tugging at her braid. "Well, I think your first two quests can be the permanent ones for killing Worms and Kobolds. There¡¯s no penalty for not doing them, and you never know when you will run into either."
I nodded and epted both.
"Now those always earn goodwill, especially if you can kill a worm. Those bastards are always threatening our wards." The receptionist exined. "As for what else will make people look at you... Let me look at your quest record and what we have avable."
I nodded and waited in silence.
"Okay. Your profile says you¡¯re really good at mass exterminations. That is alotof orcs you killed there!" The dwarf said excitedly. "An ant princess was spotted forming a new nest nearby. If you can exterminate it before she sets up and bes a queen, you¡¯d be making a big ssh!"
"Any different to dungeon ants?" I asked.
"The regr drones will be on par, maybe even dumber than dungeon minions?" The receptionist said with a shrug. "The ant princess, though, will be smart and is the real threat. She will also try to run away, so make sure to seal the deal."
"Sounds good to me." I agreed and epted the quest.
"If you kill the princess, that¡¯s questplete. But any dead ants is good in our books." The receptionist grinned.
I thanked the receptionist and was given some guidance on which city gate to use. Unfortunately, her verbal guidance wasn¡¯t enough, and I got somewhat lost. I wished I could have gotten a quest marker to the gate as I got a little lost until I found appropriate signage pointing towards the gate.
***
"That¡¯s a gate? It looks more like a vault door." I muttered to myself, staring at the massive circr door absolutely buzzing with enchantments.
I wondered if they had to open the gate to exit, but I noticed a much smaller hatch-style door leading out when I neared it. Again, I was mistaken for an elven ambassador, but I got loudughs and apologies when I showed my guild tag. Then I was outside the city, and it opened up into the mouth of a giant cavern.
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"I am so d I have [Darkvision]..." I chuckled.
I allowed the Ant Princess Quest to guide me since it was the only one with a location. I followed a well-maintained tunnel path with torches, markers, and even some hints of well-worn flooring. I was grateful for the tunnel path as it appeared I was heading off to quite a distant locale. I used the time to try familiarizing myself with [Tremor Sense] since I figured it might be vital to locate the burrowing worms or the ant nest.
When I reached the end of the tunnel, I couldn¡¯t help but gasp at the sight before me. It was like an entirely different biome had opened up. The underground cavern was primarily upied by towering mushroom trees reaching up toward the unseen ceiling, their gigantic caps casting eerie shadows. The soft glow of bioluminescent fungus carpeted the ground, illuminating the surroundings with an otherworldly light.
As I ventured deeper into the cavern, the air was filled with a faint, earthy scent of damp soil and the gentle rustle of unseen creatures moving through the mushroom grove. It was a mesmerizing and enchantingndscape, unlike anything I had ever seen.
"I swear if you dropped me here, I think I¡¯d struggle to realize I was underground," I muttered to myself.
Despite my hope of using [Tremor Sense], there was so much activity from all sorts of creepy crawlies in this mushroom biome that I struggled to make heads or tails of where to go or what to pursue. I tried my best to filter it to onlyrger points of interest, but even then, it was a little overwhelming.
"Let me just head towards the ant sighting rather..." I said, trying to suppress the small headache forming.
Heading deeper into the mushrooms, I noticed that most of the non-monstrous critters seemed to be bugs or invertebrates. Nothing seemed particrly eye-catching as I grabbed and snacked on a few things. Eventually, I sensed something trying to creep up on me, and I thought it might have been a serpent judging by how it moved, but when I turned to face it, it appeared to be some form of living fungus.
"Seriously? You¡¯re a tier three monster?" I looked at the strange thing with bafflement.
I was about to lob a [Fireball] at it when I paused and decided this was ample opportunity to try out my twotest slime traits extensively.
Forming a shortsword in one hand and a rapier in the other, I took a stab and a swing at the fungus. It didn¡¯t even react, and my attacks seemed to not affect it in the slightest. It counter-attacked by trying to unexpectedly rise up and try to engulf my weapon and use it to crawl towards my arms.
¡¯Honestly... I should have seen thising. It¡¯s literally just iron at this point.¡¯I sighed and activated [Nitro Slime] with an instant prime and detonation.
There was a click, and then the sword it was crawling over abruptly detonated, sending bits of fungus scattering. The small remnants of the fungus creature were writhing on the ground, trying to reconstitute itself. Not willing to let it do so, I stabbed into it with my rapier, which I then reverted to a more slime state and engulfed it.
¡¯Weren¡¯t nts supposed to fear me?¡¯I wondered.
I still had the [Nature¡¯s Bane] emblem equipped, even though I disyed [Dungeoneer] using [Identity Fabrication].
¡¯Perhaps I should swap to thetter in case I discover a hidden dungeon nearby?¡¯
I changed my emblem and then started looking through its profile to find out why it had approached me. The answer was baffling.
¡¯It¡¯s a damn slug? Seriously? It basically has fungus in its name?¡¯
The traits were alsoughably bad. It secreted digestive acids used to eat prey and could even vomit them out. Itmighthave been useful if I didn¡¯t have [Acid Slime]. Its final trait allowed it to morph into the appearance of a fungus it was in contact with. I found it pretty dull and disappointing.
¡¯I hope the worms or kobolds have better traits... I already have an ant profile, so there¡¯s not much hope there unless the princess has something... Wait!¡¯
I realized I already had an ant profile! I threw everything into storage and shifted into a giant ant, making sure to pick up the various pheromone-rted traits.
¡¯I¡¯m sure I can use this to find the ant nest!¡¯I thought happily as I continued my search.
Sure enough, after exploring a bit more, I began to find many trails left behind, all heading toward a unified direction and previously invisible to my normal senses. Feeling quite happy about a well-executed n, I started following the trail and saw a few drones meandering about. Unlike the previous ants, they were bright red and busy harvesting what they could.
¡¯That¡¯s a bit on the nose, isn¡¯t it?¡¯
I crawled up arge mushroom and watched them continue to work. The numbers were quite considerable, but they were all low-level. The nest most likely held some higher-tier ants.
¡¯I know [Nitro Slime] is very effective... But could Ibine it with [Metal Slime]?¡¯
I began thinking of how I could effectivelybine the two. One idea that came to mind was to create a shrapnel-style bomb that would explode and cut up the ants. While that would certainly satisfy my inner Dewi, I wondered if there was potentially a moreelegantsolution. I especially wanted to toy with more cost-efficient ideas. Sure, I could detonate a smallke¡¯s worth of [Nitro Slime] and probably kill nearly anything, but it felt wasteful.
Since [Metal Slime] had made me think of my past tactics, I wondered if I shouldn¡¯t explore that. I could create metal projectiles to shoot like I had once done with tusks and teeth. I thought of the giant frog and the boar I had attacked from the inside and wondered if I could apply that method somehow?
¡¯Metal spikes or needles that are primed and detonate from the inside? Could that work? I could even coat the tip with [Acid Slime] for enhanced pration.¡¯
The idea sounded good, and I started experimenting by using both traits to design thin needles. Once I made a few and chose my favorite design, I locked it in, created a few more, and then primed them to hold their shape.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
¡¯The conditions I can set with [Nitro Slime] will expand with further trait levels. How amazing would it be if I could set the exploding condition for after you are inside? The on-contact explosion is probably too quick. My other option is a 5-second dy, but that feels too long. Hell, if a monster is too small, the needle might be outside of it before it detonates!¡¯
I was searching for a solution when the obvious one struck me. I could set them as on-trigger and then use a [Sub-Core] to monitor and detonate once the needle had prated. Given how high-spec they had be after evolving, I was sure they could easily handle the task.
With a salvo of iron needles formed from [Metal Slime], tipped with [Acid Slime], and primed with [Nitro Slime], I began sneaking about for some good firing angles.
Like an assassin, except with explosive needles rather than poison, I began my assault. Needles fired out unbeknownst to the ant drones going about their business and pierced rather effortlessly through their carapace. Thanks to the various skills and traits I had umted, it was far more urate than I had realized, and as each needle pierced through, they detonated.
...
¡¯Haha! Nice, good, excellent!¡¯I cheered as the explosive needles were far more effective than I realized. The ant drones were popping before my very eyes.
...
<14 Skill Points are now avable.>
.
...
Chapter 175: Metal Urchin
Chapter 175: Metal Urchin
I was extremely happy with the results; my explosive metal needles were far more effective than I could¡¯ve realized at the time. While the [Metal Slime] trait was clearly being carried by [Nitro Slime], I was sure they¡¯d both be pulling their own weight when I had proper ess to better metals. Just imagining an adamantine needle exploding gave me chills.
¡¯Still... [Nitro Slime] is terrifying. I can understand why they don¡¯t allow orange slimes to spawn outside of dungeons. The only thing stopping it from being my ultimate secret weapon is the fact that it destroys the slime mass. Ugh... If I hadn¡¯t lost [Mana Conversion], I wouldn¡¯t even need to worry about resource costs.¡¯
I had a bunch of notifications to go through; I had thought all of them would¡¯ve been ant deaths, but I came across a shocking revtion.
<14 Skill Points are now avable.>
¡¯Huh... Either I was really close to a level up, or perhaps the Eyedra had leftover experience after I paid off my debt.¡¯I thought, surprised I had gained a level so soon from such low-tier monsters.
Then, I looked at the new skills.
.
¡¯I was so distracted by [Metal Slime] that Ipletely forgot to check whether I had gained Earth affinity!¡¯
<[Earth Magic LV 1] spell [Rock Lob] learned.>
¡¯Sess!¡¯I cheered happily.¡¯Although now I¡¯ve gained Earth before Air... Seriously, Trixie, you promised me Air affinity!¡¯
The spell it gave me was rather simple. I could pull up a rock, rapidly mold earth into a rock, or even apparate a rockentirelyfrom Mana, although at quite a cost. While it was inherently extremely simple, the fact that it was so variable in its mana price was at least interesting.
¡¯I bet the type of earth affects the cost. Something fine like sand probably costs morepared to something coarse like gravel.¡¯
Then, I pulled up my new skill.
<[Elemental Harmony]
Enter a trance to increase your natural Mana flow and Mana regeneration, which is greatly enhanced by the elemental essence of the region and affected by your [Elemental Shift] skill level.
Beneficial effects scale exponentially the longer the trance is maintained.
If you are aligned to match a region element, a small portion of these benefits are granted passively if sufficient elemental essence is present.
This skill has no levels.>
¡¯Oh. This is clearly an upgrade to [Meditate].¡¯I realized and pulled up the skill topare.
<[Meditate]
Enter a trance to increase your natural mana flow and mana regeneration.
Meditation can be used to stave off the effects of sleep deprivation, but it is not a true substitute.
Beneficial effects scale exponentially the longer the trance is maintained. This skill has no levels.>
¡¯Yeah... I never used this at all since I got it. I lost the sleep portion, but passively gaining some of the effects while aligned sounds ideal. Otherwise, when would I ever use this?¡¯
¡¯Go for it.¡¯
¡¯I effectively lost a skill point since I never used [Meditate] once... Or, would I not have been able to grab [Elemental Harmony] without [Meditate] as a prerequisite?¡¯I pondered. Then, I looked at my final notification.
Would you like to swap sses?>.
¡¯Nope. I¡¯m a happy Elementalist, thank you very much.¡¯I replied, rejecting the ss swap.
Now, did I want to buy two more [Sub-Cores]? While I had eight points to spend, part of me wanted to save up for another uncapping or to potentially use them to upgrade Magic Resistance from Lesser to Greater.
¡¯Yeah... Let¡¯s hold off on spending more. Which means I¡¯ll have to realign my current cores. Sorry [Alpha] and [Beta], you two will be on Earth duty for now. Although it¡¯s not like you can¡¯t cast Arcane or Corrosion spells even while aligned.¡¯
I tested it out, and while Corrosion was definitely unaffected, I did notice trace amounts of elemental contamination in my Arcane spells.
¡¯Okay. I¡¯ll just keep myself unaligned then and hot-swap as needed. At least until I decide to get more cores.¡¯I decided.¡¯Now, the elephant in the room... Do I start using [Earth Magic] now?¡¯
I spent some time grumbling to myself, trying to make a decision. I had just gained a new shiny toy, and I knew bringing it up to my other magic levels would no doubt help me, especially if it contained other spellponents. A small part of me acknowledged my poor impulse control as I fluttered from one thing to the next, and so, with great reluctance, I decided I wouldn¡¯t actively pursue [Earth Magic] for now.
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¡¯I want to level up [Metal Slime] through usage, not to mention testing [Nitro Slime].¡¯I nced at Alpha and Beta and realized I was also being stupidly greedy for wanting my own handspersonallyin every project.¡¯I could try leaving it to them. I mean, it¡¯s probably stupid that I haven¡¯t already... Just... Would it still be my aplishment?¡¯
I knew I was being weirdly insistent on this subject, but I just struggled to let go. Of course, I didn¡¯t need to rush into crazy [Earth Magic] right away as well.
¡¯Okay... Let¡¯s just take a step back. I¡¯ll keep my custom spells to myself for now, no rush, but I¡¯ll set Alpha and Beta on apparating rocks with [Rock Lob]. The mana cost will be high, as will the initial difficultypared to using the earth avable, so it might train a few of my skills and traits. Meanwhile, I¡¯ll focus on my slime as I originally nned.¡¯
Rtively happy with my decisions, I gave them both the order to start grinding away. I set up some conditions that they wouldn¡¯t do while I was actively using stealth to avoid blowing my cover, and if there were no engaged enemies nearby, they would just drop the rocks. Otherwise, they would provide supporting fire. It was a bit of aplex order, but it seemed they were easily fine with epting such a conditional order. I also gave them a halt order if my Mana dropped below thirty percent.
Then I started gathering and eating the remains of the ants scattered about. Using my much neglected [Pseudopod] trait to reach out and collect them. My ant profile was updated, and I found out this subspecies of ant could, in fact, expel fire and also came with a rather high level of innate [Fire Resistance]. The smander had [Inferno Sac], which was the upgrade of [me Sac], while these drones had an even further downgrade called an [Ember Sac].
¡¯If the soldier ants have [me Sac], I wonder if the princess will have an [Inferno Sac]?¡¯I wondered.
Although it made some logical sense, I somehow doubted that was the case, as otherwise, the dwarves surely would have mentioned it or sought out this ant colony much sooner.
With my mealplete and some slime mass recovered, I started following the scent trails left behind by the fire ants. One unexpected side effect was that incorporating this ant species made me understand their specific scent trails more clearly. They left odd scents of "collect here" or "food here" rather than basicmunication.
¡¯I guess I shouldn¡¯t judge them too harshly. My slime brethren literally can¡¯t think at all...¡¯
I made sure to take out any drones I spotted on the way to the nest, which, by following the trail, I realized was quite a distance away from the initial location given by the quest. Not that I could me the guild; the original location was evidently just the first point of contact.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
When I finally found the nest, I was surprised at the level of camouge the ants had adopted. The nest was well hidden under some copsed towering mushrooms, and if I hadn¡¯t had the trail to follow, I wouldn¡¯t have spotted it that easily.
¡¯Can that really be called tracking? I followed a trail directly left behind...¡¯I shrugged.
Trying to understand how big the nest was, I activated [Tremor Sense] and saw that it was quite a sprawlingwork below me as numerous blips appeared through the sense.
¡¯Okay, it¡¯s ant extermination time!¡¯
As I neared the nest entrance, I saw it wasn¡¯t entirely undefended. Threerge ants were hanging from the underside of a mushroom.
¡¯I wonder if I could sneak in and assassinate the princess?¡¯
I pondered as I quickly shifted into an appropriate fire ant drone disguise and continued forward. At first, it seemed like my n was perfect, as the ants showed no hints of hostility. But when I neared them, I suddenly caught a new whiff of a scent that clearly meant "intruder."
Two of the three soldiers immediately tried to seize me with their massive mandibles, which was when I abandoned my ant form and swelled out to a far more impressive, blobby form. I opted to use the silver slime¡¯s natural method of attack as iron spikes protruded from my body, and I formed ded pseudopods.
The soldier ants had a much more robust carapace, so I had to target weak points to get past their defenses. Meanwhile, a hail of magical forming rocks was lobbed at the third soldier who remained behind.
The strategy executed by these fire ants seemed to be to lock something in ce with their mandibles and then unload their [me Sac] point nk. Some drones even appeared from the nest, trying to hold me down. Unfortunately for them, you can¡¯t hold a slime in ce, and even if they could, I was so fireproof at this stage that it was a joke.
With much poking and prodding, I managed to stab through into one of the soldier ants and had the invading tendril burst outwards like a sea urchin of iron spikes. It was certainly an effective method of attack, and the ant died shortly afterward.
While [Acid Slime] would have made prating much simpler, I wasn¡¯t sure how mixing my slime traits affected experience distribution. If the cause of death was acid, I presumed it would gain the lion¡¯s share of experience, which made me hesitant to use the deadly slime.
¡¯Ugh. I¡¯m being stupid again.¡¯I admitted.
I sent an order to my remaining [Sub-Cores] to cast [Erode] when I was engaging in melee with the ants. This way, I could continue using [Metal Slime] as my offensive.
When my metal-ded tendrils started cutting through the ant carapace, I grinned maniacally as I formed more weapons, bing a whirling blender on the poor ant. I gained a newer appreciation of my defense debuff and wondered if this was how Roderick and Ian had felt.
With both soldiers dead, I was prepared to take on the third when I noticed it battered and broken with countless rocks and shards around him. Alpha and Beta had shown no mercy and clearly were having quite some fun with [Rock Lob] as they crushed the ant.
I quickly ate what I could and began my descent into the nest, only to be met with a wall of drones that all unleashed their [Ember Sac] in unison. I wanted to giggle at the tickle of embers, as even Dewi had trained himself on much harsher mes.
¡¯Talk about a perfect opportunity to use [Contagion]!¡¯I fiendishly thought.
[Erode] was cast on the most central ant, and then a boosted [Contagion] sent out a massive cloud of the debuff, infecting every ant present. While I would havelovedto have spread something crazy like [Electrocute] or [Frostbite] and watched the ensuing chaos, I had another fun idea nned.
I opted to morph into a metallic boar and charge forward into the crowd of ants; as I broke through their ranks with my mighty charge, I gave the order to control and erupt into as many spikes of slime as possible to all of my cores.
So much slime mass was being directly manipted I was forced to withdraw more as an endless sea of spikes, prongs, and drills burst outwards. Seeing such well-executed and precise control over my slime mass wassosatisfying.
¡¯Should I call this the metal urchin of death? Or is that too edgy?¡¯I couldn¡¯t help but snort at the terrible joke.
Perhaps driven by instinct, when an ant was killed, it was immediately dragged in by hooked tendrils and promptly eaten and absorbed. It was a little surprising to see my [Sub-Cores] actually understood my desire to train [Metal Slime], and thus, only my center of mass became the designated eating zone to ensure no kills were made with [Acid Slime].
¡¯Myst evolution really gave them a boost. I probably haven¡¯t scratched the surface of what¡¯s now possible.¡¯I thought as they continued to cull the drones.
Chapter 176: Ant Assault
Chapter 176: Ant Assault
¡¯These ants are worth a pittance of experience. I hope I at least get a level from the princess.¡¯
After cleaning up the ant mess, I realized I was slightly on fire. It was not hot enough to cause any real damage, but the rather consistent me was noticeable. It was nearly identical to my experimentation with creating the mmable adhesive slime.
The profile of the soldier ant revealed the source; they had a fluid nd that created the strange mmable substance. It looked like they could spray it from their rears if they developed the right trait for it, but otherwise, it was flowing throughout their body, and it would likely coat anything that killed or wounded them.
¡¯Really brings a whole new meaning to sacrificial soldiers.¡¯
The fluid also served as a marker, making me realize why so many ants were charging me so suddenly. I must have been like a beacon to them. A simple rotation of my slime cleaned off the residue.
Being underground, the area was likely full of Earth essence, so I swapped my own core over to Earth alignment to hopefully gain some of the new passive benefits from [Elemental Harmony]. At the same time, I wanted to see how Earth affinity affected [Mana Reinforcement] with [Elemental Adaptation]. Although I could hazard a guess it probably increased my defenses.
I continued my delve deeper into the ant nest. I had to rein in my overconfidence; my near defeat on the floating ind was still rtively fresh in my mind. But it was gettinghardnot to when I saw ant after ant erupting with metallic spiky protrusions after being invaded by a tendril.
¡¯It really makes it hard for me to judge these quest ranks; I¡¯m not struggling at all here! I guess the average person might struggle against a swarm? But I think anyone with any decent amount of [Fire Resistance] could have done this.¡¯
I watched as another ant failed to prate my defenses and then was swiftly torn apart by one of the [Sub-Cores] in retribution. Getting into physical contact with me was already bad enough for most enemies, but seeing jagged spikes of metal burst out in retaliation was quite a sight.
¡¯I guess, unlike the adventurers, I don¡¯t need to worry about my body taking wounds. Although even if I did need to worry about my slime body, with [Metal Slime], I¡¯m probably tougher than tanks like Ian and Roderick. Just as long as nothing hits my core... But once I get enough [Metal Slime] levels, I can probably create a coating around them, my own personal armor.¡¯
All the activity in the ant tunnels meant that [Tremor Sense] was getting a workout, although I delegated the information to my [Sub-Cores] as trying to process it myself was a little too distracting.
Likewise, Alpha and Beta kept throwing rocks around, and they didn¡¯t take long to reach the next level in [Earth Magic]. As far as first-level spells went, [Rock Lob] was pretty mediocre, and it would likely have barely threatened the ants at all if not for [Erode] ruining their defense.
<[Earth Magic LV 2] spell [Rampart] learned.>
The new spell lets you pull up the earth into rough structures; the main use was clearly to make walls, as the name implied. At least that was the base intent, as with enough levels in [Mana Maniption] and some effort, you could force more borate designs.
The more Mana you dumped into the spell, the more refined the result. I sealed off a tunnel behind me as an experiment, and when I threw my entire magical weight into the spell, the resulting wall closely resembled granite in terms of toughness.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om
Finally, unlike [Rock Lob], this spell wanted you to use existing resources, as the cost to create even the simplest earthen wall from pure Mana alone was astronomical. My self-proimed endless supply of Mana was put in its ce. Of course, unless I was flying, I couldn¡¯t see a reason to ever need to create it from Mana alone, and I¡¯d be far better off using many more avable options in that scenario.
¡¯When I¡¯m forced into some non-slime downtime, I must investigate pulling apart this spell and recing Earth with Ice. It¡¯s my only other Mana type with such a strong physical presence. You can¡¯t exactly make structures out of Fire and Lightning. Arcane is a possibility... But if maintenance cost is anything like [Aegis], then it¡¯s a no-go.¡¯
The path I followed was likely the primary shaft, judging by its size and the number of branches it led out to. While I wasn¡¯t too worried about ant reinforcements, I still had some experiments I wanted to try out with [Nitro Slime]. One of my options was to create bombs that would trigger when stepped on, a feature clearly devised with dungeon traps in mind. Borrowing that dungeon trap inspiration, I trapped the various side tunnels with these slime mines as I progressed deeper into the nest.
The fact that I could customize each bomb¡¯s payload with differentbinations of slime traits made me wonder if this was always the n for it or if Gramps had modified itter with me in mind. I presumed I might get a first-time bonus for each different type of bomb, so I tried to give each tunnel a unique trap.
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At first, I covered the basic types: [Acid Slime], [Cryo Slime], and [ze Slime] were all deadly payloads entirely on their own. Then, I needed to get creative. I wasn¡¯t sure what to do with [Poison Slime] on its own, but I found a potential winningbination with vaporized Bloodrot.
[Voltaic Slime] was also tricky, as it wasn¡¯t inherently dangerous without some stored charge. It seemed like it might have been a long shot to think I could store charged slime in a primed bomb, but I was wrong, and it worked without a hitch.
¡¯I¡¯d almost say Gramps needs to split out the primed state as its own trait; the fact that it¡¯s baked into [Nitro Slime] almost seems too much. Even if it¡¯s only frozen and can¡¯t be manipted, the fact that it keeps shape, form, and capability with disconnected slime has so much potential.¡¯
For the [Metal Slime] bomb, I added shrapnel and hoped for the best. With only iron, it was likely the weakest of my options. If I wasn¡¯t just curious and wanted to focus on only the best result, I probably would have coated the shrapnel in Bloodrot.
I could sense the bombs, but keeping track of when they detonated and then trying to assign the corresponding kill notifications to each bomb sounded impossible, at least alone. I assigned each bomb trap to a [Sub-Core], color-coded for my own convenience, and told them to keep track of the kills with the vague hope it was within their capabilities.
¡¯This is probably the most ambiguous instruction I¡¯ve ever given them. Let¡¯s see if they can handle it.¡¯
It didn¡¯t take long for notifications to starting in; I mostly ignored them and simply checked to see if I had received any level-ups. Meanwhile, the ants in front of me were getting much more desperate in attempting to halt my progress.
<9 Trait Points are now avable.>
<13 Skill Points are now avable.>
Before reaching the princess, I was pleasantly surprised to gain a level in my race and ss. Before proceeding further, I asked the [Sub-Core] with the highest kill count to present itself.
Beta and Delta floated closer, representing [Poison Slime] and [Cryo Slime], respectively. I was overjoyed that they had somehow followed that vague order. I had no ideahowthey did it, but I wouldn¡¯t argue with the results. I had them arrange themselves in order from most to least kills, and I was initially surprised to see Gamma representing [ze Slime] at the lowest end.
¡¯I guess the ants are fire and heat resistant... Seems a bit unfair considering I nearly boiled alive in my own slime even when I had [Fire Resistance].¡¯
I made a few more questions and arrangements and discovered that while Beta and Delta were almost equal in kill count, there was noparison if wepared time to kill. The [Cryo Slime] bombs were a nearly instant death for the ants.
¡¯Good to know. If the princess gives me any trouble, I can throw around some [Ice Magic]. Also, it¡¯s kind of weird that [Voltaic Slime] performed less impressively than I thought it would. Did I not charge the slime enough, or are the ants resistant?¡¯
I entered what I assumed was an important chamber due to its sheer size, thanks to [Tremor Sense]. Inside, I was treated to the sight of the princess nked by two absolutely massive ants. The princess was smaller than I expected, but she dide with wings and an erged butt. On the other hand, her protectors were absolutely kitted out with impressive chitin, spiked mandibles, and what looked like the sprayer upgrade on their rear.
¡¯Princess, you appear to be cking off. Your subjects are at a higher level than yourself.¡¯
The rest of the room seemed to be a hatchery as there were white oval-shaped egg things slightly squirming, being grabbed and taken away by some drones.
They immediately spotted me, causing the two bodyguards to snap their mandibles threateningly and sh with a red-hot glow. The princess also seemed to glow, and then I witnessed her release a glowing aura that permeated throughout the entire chamber, and a glow settled onto her two bodyguards.
¡¯Is that a buff aura? I¡¯ve never seen another besides my [cial Aura] and that cat¡¯s [Jinx Aura]. I hope that¡¯s a trait I can mimic.¡¯
The uncharacteristic disy of intelligence also gave me a nagging feeling in my mind, so I grabbed [Telepathy (Lesser)] and mentally reached out to the princess. A soft, bubble-like shield surrounded her mind and attempted to prevent my reaching out, but I broke through easily with a small flex of my mental might.
"Hello!" I reached out.
"INTRUDER!" The ant princess screeched out with an almost alien-like mind.
"Are you an [Experiment]?" I questioned.
"LEAVE OR DIE!" She responded and was clearly trying to shove my mental connection away.
I tried a few more times to speak with her, but she kept repeating, "Leave or die."
I broke the connection because I did not want the alien voice screeching in my head and wrote off the princess¡¯s possibility as a fellow [Experiment].
Not wanting to be outdone by the ant aura, I cast [cial Aura]. The icy, ethereal Mana spread out and flooded the entire room. The antsreallydidn¡¯t like that, and now the two guards started hastily charging at me. Meanwhile, I saw the princess sneaking towards one of the exits.
I had Alpha and Beta, my two personal earth mages, cast [Rampart] to seal the exits. At the same time, I shifted into a more bulky form by shifting into a mostly earthshaker bear body while reinforcing it with [Metal Slime]. And so, as a silvery-gray earthshaker bear, I met the royal guards in a head-on collision.
The impact was audible. The first guard I ran into was sent backward, digging in its heels, while the second guard mped down on me with its scorching mandibles. A powerful nging noise echoed throughout the sealed chamber as the ant repeatedly tried and failed to prate.
Now that I had Earth affinity, the borrowed [Earthen Carapace LV 7] trait was operating at full defensive capability, and it was reinforced with [Metal Slime]and[Mana Reinforcement]. Not to mention whatever defenses my increased density would provide. There were minor scuffs and scratches, but my metallic rocky carapace was unharmed otherwise.
¡¯I guess I¡¯m an ironshaker bear now!¡¯
Chapter 177: Playground
Chapter 177: yground
I was extremely happy with how tanky I had be. I only wished I had a bigger monster form to mimic. Still, my chimeric evolution added flexibility to my forms, so I started to swell and grow my size far beyond the original earthshaker bear.
¡¯It¡¯s disappointing I didn¡¯t manage to get a yeti or ogre profile from the dungeon; those looked really strong. I hope I can find something big and brutish down here.¡¯
While I still loved magic, there was something inherently fun about turning into some giant oversized monster and smashing my foes. Speaking of magic, my [cial Aura] was clearly building up its effect as the ants started to be noticeably slower, and some of the weaker drones copsed and began to freeze over.
To counter this, the royal guards started leaking heat from their bodies, a misty haze rising from their carapace as their bodies began to glow softly. They also started vomiting out mes to try to melt me.
Realizing she was trapped, the princess joined more directly in the fight and started fluttering around therge chamber and lobbing globs of spit at me, which seemed to react harshly with the mes present and further fuel their intensity.
¡¯Okay, everyone, metal urchin!¡¯
My body rippled and burst outwards with hundreds of protruding spikes. The full form of my seven [Pseudopods] formed and began more directly assaulting the two royal guards. Not to be outdone by their mandibles, my tendrils were tipped with fangs, ws, and weapons from various profiles as they started to pierce, crush, and slice into the ants.
Since I was the leader, I delegated full bodily control over the cores and decided to focus on the princess. She was fluttering around a lot more anxiously now, so I started firing my metallic needles at her.
She must have had either a danger sense skill or evasion as she promptly began dodging; unfortunately for her, all my needles were also explosive payloads, and it was easy to catch her off bnce by detonating them once they were behind her or when they were ncing past her side.
The two royal guards red up with even more strength when I attacked the princess and began pushing back. They ignored all wounds and attacks and just mindlessly pushed forward to eliminate the threat to their princess. Their berserker mindset was offputting, especially when I saw that some of their wounds began congealing and sealing up.
¡¯Okay, team, let¡¯s throw in some [Bloodrot]!¡¯
The order was immediately received, and the metallic weaponry glinted with a dark maroonish tint. When the next batch of wounds was caused on the royal guards, their wounds started to fester, and that congealing goop was nowhere to be seen.
While I was happy to have countered their healing, I did start to receive a rather notableint from [Dissection]. It appeared these ants were quite valuable. I pushed the objection away and continued my fight; I was having too much fun right now.
I found myself toying with the princess, using thebat to get some thorough practice with [Nitro Slime] and some more advanced attacking maneuvers. By leading her around with needles and explosions, I could lure her into taking hits she really shouldn¡¯t have; I also yed around with the idea of leaving needles embedded into the wall and then only detonating them when she dodged closer.
This chamber had be my trapped explosive yground, and I was setting the rules.
The battle continued; the guards must have died at some point, as I noticed the chamber had be quiet except for the sound of explosions. At this point, the princess had stopped trying to attack and was frantically trying to survive the explosive gauntlet. However, my amusement ran out when the princess frantically abandoned reason and charged at a wall, trying to burrow furiously with her superheated mandibles.
I sighed, disappointed, andshed out with [Cryo Slime] tendrils to drag her back. When the icy slime even grazed her, she violently trembled. Frantically thrashing, my tendrils began to drag her back into the room, but then she died far sooner than I expected.
¡¯Huh... I knew [Cryo Slime] was effective... But that effective?¡¯I couldn¡¯t help but wonder.¡¯Sure, she was damaged, with less than half her life force remaining, ording to [Life Sight].¡¯
I could have easily conquered this battle if I wasn¡¯t so focused on leveling up and trying out my newer traits. [Dissection] was still giving me some attitude, but I shrugged it off, as the princess was in good enough condition to harvest fully. And while the royal guards looked like moldy sponges with numerous holes and Bloodrot festering, their mandibles were still in adequate condition.
As I ate and harvested, I looked over my notifications.
<10 Trait Points are now avable.>
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<14 Skill Points are now avable.>
¡¯Two levels each from defeating basically an entire nest. Not bad.¡¯I initially was quite happy, then paused.¡¯Wait... That actually seems a bit high, right? If I look at my progress from the dungeon...¡¯
I started looking through my profile. Thankfully, it didn¡¯t take me too long to solve this puzzle.
<[Assassinate LV 6]
Adds bonus damage to attacks on unaware or defenseless targets, greatly scaling with skill level.
This bonus damage moderately ignores most forms of mitigation and resistance if executed from stealth.
Once per day per skill level, you can trigger an [Assassination] attack that deals 2x+0.1x per level. If the target is aware of you, the bonus damage is reduced by half.
If you defeat an enemy in a single attack while they arepletely unaware, bonus experience will be awarded.>
¡¯I bet my traps were triggering [Assassinate]... No wonder they were so effective! And then I gained bonus experience for defeating them in a single attack!¡¯
It was an exciting revtion and rapidly elevated [Nitro Slime] to likely be my best trait candidate. Sure,allmy slime traits had the tagline "Compatible with other slime traits," but this flexibility and usability were just so damn good!
¡¯I wonder if there are any sses rted to traps? While I¡¯m pretty deadset on seeing what Elementalist offers me at higher levels, and Trixie promised me Air affinity, I¡¯m certainly open to other options. Not to mention what Trixie had said when I gained Elementalist...¡¯I pondered and then tried to recall Trixie¡¯s exact wording.
"It¡¯s your first advanced ss, more like the start of your journey."I could almost hear her voice. I missed the damn pixie; I hope she arrived in Dhoggurum soon.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
¡¯To think I tried to blow her up...¡¯I thought grimly.¡¯But yeah... If I need multiple advanced sses, assuming there¡¯s something trap-rted, I¡¯m putting that high on my list. Not to mention the progression from Shadowcaster, although I¡¯ll likely need a higher level in [Corrosion Magic] and [Vanish] to unlock that.¡¯
Then, I looked to see what skills or traits leveled up. Sadly, there weren¡¯t many; it wasn¡¯t like I was triggering [Apex Hunter] or any other form of bonus experience.
¡¯Excellent! I now have ess to silver and bronze. Sadly, there is no level-up for [Nitro Slime].¡¯
I quickly tested the new metals; my grayish silver bear became gloriously bronzed. I wasn¡¯t entirely sure if this was better than iron; was it just harder to form because it was an alloy? Moving on, I formed an ornate silver rapier, proving that my previous theory was correct.
¡¯Nice... Now, if only I could figure out what other Sight trait I¡¯m missing. I¡¯m almost positive there¡¯s abination between this and [Mana Sight]. Well... [Mana Conception] for me, since I upgraded it.¡¯
I had also postted a potentialbination of traits with the name Sense, like [Tremor Sense] and [Electro-Maic Sense]. Likewise, I figured there was probably something with Vision, but apparently, [Eagle Vision] didn¡¯t count as a trio with [Dark Vision] and [Thermal Vision].
The two new ant profiles were interesting, as they were synergistic evolutions and relied on each other with traits to facilitate that. As long as the royal guards were in the presence of their assigned princess or queen, they would receive quite a stat boost. The princess also somehow took reduced damage as long as her royal guards were present, in a strange linked way, reminding me of Eliza¡¯s damage siphoning.
¡¯I guess that might be why she died so easily. No royal guards, no special damage mitigation. Well, and these ants are super weak to Ice.¡¯
I tried mimicking both traits at once, but it looked like I couldn¡¯t cheat the system like that. The princess¡¯s aura was from a strange nd, and it would affect any progeny. I tried using it myself, hoping my [Sub-Cores] could¡¯ve been loosely ssified as my offspring, but sadly, that was not the case.
The regeneration also came from a nd; while I could use it, it was a little impractical. With [Inferno Sac], I could send Mana into it to generate the me nearly instantly, and this [Regen nd] functioned that way, except at a much slower rate. Store and useter, rather than spend and use now. I tested to see if the fluid could be stored outside the nd, but it rapidly faded upon removal, even within my [Core Storage].
¡¯An exploit fix?¡¯I guessed.
The princess also had eggying... I ignored it.
¡¯Trixie must never find out.¡¯I vowed.
The mmable spit was interesting. It was also stored in some nd sac thing, and [Dissection] seemed to be preserving it. I tried sampling it, but it didn¡¯t trigger anything, so I just stored it in some canteens.
¡¯I literally just bought these canteens before the teleport, and I¡¯m emptying them already... I need to get more conventional storage.¡¯
Then, I saw the final trait in the princess¡¯s profile. I gasped.
<[Essence Sight]
See the natural flow of Essence in the environment.
Higher trait level allows further understanding of Essence concentration, elements, and condition.
Trait level determines detection range.>
¡¯I knew another sight trait existed!¡¯I celebrated.
I tested to see if I could buy it, and it waspatible with my race! However, I rejected the purchase and instead opted to borrow it and earn it that way. Now that my race levels were more irregr in frequency, I needed some scrimping, especially if I wanted to potentially uncap or uptier a trait.
¡¯It shouldn¡¯t take too long to unlock it if I also borrow the human trait [Untapped Potential].¡¯I reasoned and shifted into a goblinoid form.¡¯Still... Why does the ant princess have it? I thought only spirits were involved with Essence.¡¯
Thanks to [Chimeric Mimicry], I borrowed and activated the trait at level seven. The room erupted with previously unseen colors and substances; I quickly canceled the trait and recovered from the surprise.
¡¯Okay... That was a lot of information...¡¯
Instead, I borrowed the trait at level one. It was much more manageable this time, although it didn¡¯t tell me much except that this room had Essence. I began gradually adding more levels to the trait; the slower pace allowed me to be ustomed to it and parse the additional information each level provided.
First, I understood the Essence concentration, then the primary element, and then, as more levels were added, I could tell what the minor elements were present. The final packet of information contained any recent changes to the Essence flow.
Putting this all together, I could tell this room had a high concentration of Essence, which had recently spiked. All the ant deaths exined that. Also, while the primary element was Earth, there was a lot of Fire element originating from below the chamber, and the egg pile was on the closest hotspot.
¡¯So... The ant princess has this trait to find a good nest location?¡¯I reasoned.¡¯But... Then why didn¡¯t the harpy queen have the trait? Or do harpies not care about their nest location as much. Or is it because they are monstrous humanoids rather than just in monsters?¡¯
Sadly, neither of the two profiles could answer the question, although, in the grand scheme of things, it didn¡¯t matter other than to feed my growing curiosity.
¡¯Speaking of curiosity...¡¯I thought as I stared at the Fire Essence source below.¡¯I wonder where this goes?¡¯
Chapter 178: Exploratory Mining
Chapter 178: Exploratory Mining
I briefly considerednotexploring the unknown source of fire essence. But in the end, I loved a good mystery too much, and perhaps it would hold something interesting to eat, or maybe it would be one of the other quest targets I was supposed to exterminate.
¡¯A quick peek, and then I¡¯ll head back. I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll be home in time for supper!¡¯
With acidic tendrils as my tools, I began my burrowing descent towards this heated source. It was certainly not the most exciting time, so I kept myself upied trying to create my earth debuff.
¡¯What would an earth weakness even be called? Rocked? Soiled? Dirtied?¡¯
As I descended deeper, the rock density and the ambient heat increased. Eventually, I reached ayer of ckish rock that was remarkably warm to the touch.
¡¯I¡¯m so d I can¡¯t boil alive anymore. Otherwise, this would¡¯ve been a really stupid idea.¡¯
[Tremor Sense] told me that beyond this rock, it opened up into what appeared to be an open cavern. With excited anticipation, I continued through.
As I broke through, a vast and lengthy cavern was revealed, where a river of molten magma flowed with a mesmerizing, fiery glow. The intense heat radiating from the magma river made the air shimmer, and the distant rumbling of the flowing magma echoed throughout the cavern.
Using adhesive tendrils totch onto my entry hole, I lowered myself near the magma, feeling the heat wash over me and marveling at the raw energy before me. I poked the river a few times; it seemed like my resistances were enough for my slime to not burst into mes on contact, although I wasn¡¯t about to take a dip.
I also tried looking down both ends of this river using [Eagle Vision], but both weren¡¯t entirely straight and curved off. I wasn¡¯t sure which end of the river to follow, and there didn¡¯t seem to be anything below the surface, at least within range of my current position.
Borrowing a higher level of [Essence Sight] again, I discovered that one path headed towards more fire essence. My decision was made. I took on my regr winged blueblin form for its convenient flying size and began to fly carefully down the tunnel.
To my surprise, I wasn¡¯t the only flying creature in these tunnels, and there seemed to be a few fire elemental bats fluttering around. For the most part, they seemed non-hostile and would actually flee from me. Their low numbers, low tier, and inedible status made me defeat only one with [Frost Grasp] before ignoring them.
The magma river, however, was extremely intriguing, and asionally, I¡¯d see what looked like fish coated in ckish ss. I paused and attempted some fishing experiments by trying to catch some by dipping my [Pseudopods] into the molten river.
It took quite a bit of trial and error, as I was almost fishing blindly. The only vaguely reliable sense or vision I had to use was [Life Sight], as the strange fish didn¡¯t appear with [Mana Conception]. They were clearly the same temperature as the magma itself, so they blended in when I used [Thermal Vision]. The area and creatures were not conductive, so [Electro-maic Sense] was also a bust.
When I eventually caught one, it was quite a nutritious feast despite itsck of levels, which fell more under critter status than a monster. They were called obsidian fish, and when I noticed some other creatures in the magma, they all had obsidian as a prefix to their species.
I was mostly minding my own business when my fishing expedition was interrupted by the sound of some immense rumbling. I flew towards one of the walls and pressed against it to try to get a sense of where it wasing from with [Tremor Sense]. Whatever it was, it was making such powerful vibrations that it was being picked up despite myck of trait levels.
¡¯Is that... Two of them?¡¯I pondered, trying to decipher what I was feeling.
If I read the trajectory correctly, they would appear further ahead in this tunnel, closer to the source of fire essence. I hastily flew towards it, hoping to catch sight of whatever it was as it approached.
I spotted the destination up ahead. The magma river opened up into ake and an absolutely massive cavern. The cavern ceiling was extremely tall and littered with various mineral deposits in a stctite formation. The magmake was also notpletely unpopted, and it had its own pirs, creating impromptu tforms or inds.
The ceiling and walls were littered with burrowed holes in varying shapes and sizes as if many creatures had sought out this destination.
The rumbling grew louder, so I flew towards a stctite to hide behind. Depending on what was approaching, I could flee or attack. I didn¡¯t have to wait long.
A massive tube of rotating teeth burst out of a newly formed hole, revealing itself as a gigantic ssy ck worm. The worm dived into the magmake as if seeking refuge.
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¡¯Well... I did ask for something bigger to eat and fight. I can see why the dwarves want these things killed; they could potentially try to tunnel into the city and break their defensive wards.¡¯
The rumbling hadn¡¯t stopped, and the previously burrowed-out hole burst open to reveal an evenrger worm. It was also mostly ck, but unlike the first one, it seemed refined and reforged. Down its entire length were what seemed like carved-out channels into its hide that pulsed like a living furnace with a bright orange glow. Its outer coating alone sent [Dissection] into a frenzy.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om
The bigger worm was likely chasing the smaller one, and now the two were wrestling and writhing within the magmake. I hadn¡¯t often seen members of the same monster species fighting, but perhaps worms were solitary. Were they territorial rivals? The evolution must have been fairly recent, judging by its reset level. Was it trying to take out thepetition before it could also evolve?
I borrowed [Telepathy (Lesser)] and tried contacting both to see if there was anything from such high-tier monsters. While Icouldconnect to both, all I got back from either was a deep-rooted desire to kill, eat, and grow. Not even words.
¡¯I guess not every monster is as intelligent as the ant princess. A shame she wasn¡¯t willing to talk.¡¯
As for the two worms, I wanted to defeat both of them. Just thinking about the massive amount of slime mass I¡¯d generate from either meal, not to mention the traits and a brand-new form, was absolutely mouth-watering.
¡¯I should help the small one kill the big one. As long as I secure the killing blow. [Decay] would be ideal since it¡¯s a huge chunk of damage, and my [Life Sight] is much better nowadays. It¡¯s too bad I can¡¯t use the interface feature without directly wearing my guild tag; having their life bars would have been convenient.¡¯
It was an odd limitation. The tag had no problem tracking my quest progress while in my [Core Storage] but could not activate the interface feature unless I actually wore it. I wasn¡¯t worried about the tag breaking; it seemed almost impossible to even damage, but I refused to wear it out of disguise.
Hidden behind my stctite, I threw all my debuffs onto the tempered worm. The difference was evident, as now some of the bites from the obsidian worm were breaking through, but not nearly as well as I thought.
A fully empowered [Erode] initiated from stealth gave a defense debuff of 100%, but that clearly did not removeallof the tempered worm¡¯s protection. After all, it would be immensely powerful if it included any additions it had made to its defense.
¡¯I¡¯m throwing random numbers around here, but if the worm had 150% defense, I probably lowered it to 50%.¡¯
I initially thought it would be strange if I was already at the maximum potential of my debuffs when [Corrosion Magic] still had another five levels to go, and this made me think it would go beyond 100%.
Even with my debuff assistance, it didn¡¯t look like the obsidian worm would seed. It was tricky topare myself to regr monsters, but this made the gap between evolutions especially apparent. I began preparing some of my explosive needles with eager anticipation when I paused. I looked at my needle and then the sheer size of the damn worms.
¡¯Right... Needles aren¡¯t going to cut it.¡¯
Thanks to eating almost an entire ant nest, I had an excessive amount of slime mass, and the delicious meal before me would undoubtedly return any investment made with interest. Thus, I started upgrading from needles to spears while watching the two worms continue their wrestling match in the magmake.
¡¯It¡¯s too bad I don¡¯t have a profile for something more exotic like a harpoon. Perhaps I need to visit a coastal city next?¡¯
The increased weapon size also gave me more room to work with. The design I finalized had a spearhead of [Acid Slime] and [Metal Slime], while the shaft reced the former with adhesive [Cryo Slime].
I liked this design as I could readily rece the payload contained in the shaft depending on the monster, and I quite easily predicted these worms would be weak to Ice and Cold.
I alternated between iron and bronze for my metal choice, as I had no idea which was better. Then I mixed [Nitro Slime] into the entire creation and primed it. Happy with the finished product, I told my [Sub-Cores] to remember this configuration and set up most of them to handle the production.
¡¯I¡¯m tempted to throw in some [Bloodrot]... But if I ruin that harvest, I think [Dissection] will kill me. Not to mention, I¡¯d hate to ruin the meal for myself.¡¯
My blueblin form wasn¡¯t ideal for the rapid internal creation of my exploding spears, so I was forced to swell in size andtch onto the ceiling. I had all of my cores spread out as much as possible and was disguising myself as part of the ceiling with individual stctites that each housed a core.
¡¯I think this is thergest amount of slime mass I¡¯ve ever pulled out and controlled at once. Actually... This is almost like an adaptation of what Gramps¡¯ emergency contingency did to save my life against that de wolf.¡¯
With my position secured and doing my best to blend in with the ceiling, I began my assault. The cores not assigned to production would join me in the firing line. With the element of surprise and my high trait levels, the dozen or so spears wereunched and met their target with startling efficiency.
About half of those ricocheted off its exterior, and I had them detonated to avoid wasting the payload, causing a light sttering of [Cryo Slime]. Another half stabbed in but didn¡¯t make it fully inside, but they were in a perfect position to at least coat the worm after detonation. Finally, the remainder prated deep into the worm and unleashed their full strength.
The worm ulted in pain, echoing throughout the cavern, resembling an endless cacophony of gravel and metal being pulverized together. The other worm tried to take advantage of this momentary respite tond its own chomps into the foe but desperately winced away when it took in a mouthful of what must have been some residual [Cryo Slime].
¡¯Come on, it¡¯s just a bit of cold slime, don¡¯t be such a baby! I¡¯m doing all the work here!¡¯
I kept firing spears and having them appropriately detonate depending on the oue. Any that ricocheted hurt me on an emotional level, as it was like throwing slime away. Sure, I had the slime budget to afford this, but it still stung.
Things were going rtively well, although I noted that the obsidian worm was still iling around like an idiot. It had taken one mouthful of slime; surely it wasn¡¯t that bad?
¡¯Or... Is the inside of their mouth a giant weak point? Maybe their stomach can¡¯t handle the slime?¡¯
I had attacked monsters in the mouth before, but seeing those rows upon rows of teeth made me shudder. I would not want to stick my tendrils in there, but perhaps I could make one identally swallow a slime bomb? Judging by the vast amount of lifeforce the tempered worm disyed, I might have to.
Chapter 179: Worms
Chapter 179: Worms
Now, the only issue left to figure out is how to aim my projectiles into the mouth. The worms didn¡¯t really close their mouths, and they were huge in size, so it wasn¡¯t an impossible target. But, with the amount of time they thrashed around and refused to stay in one ce, it wouldn¡¯t be easy.
I kept producing spears and my attack on the worm, although I was reserving more in storage forter usage as I¡¯d probably need to get closer to secure some shots down the gullet. My chance of victory wasn¡¯t in question; it was just the time required and resources expended.
¡¯I seriously can¡¯t believe how much damn health this thing has. Did the dwarves scam me into taking this quest?¡¯
I knew there wasn¡¯t a penalty for failure, but personally, I refused to ept the oue. I tried studying the two worms as they fought and wrestled. Besides their sheer size and mouths, they weren¡¯t exactly high on the threat list. They weren¡¯t even particrly fast. Trying to find potential weak points, I noted that they had no eyes, which made me wonder how they were sensing each other.
¡¯I would have thought [Tremor Sense], but I don¡¯t know how effective that would be while in magma. [Life Sight] would be a valid option; the two are both like beacons of life.¡¯
For now, I just continued to safely observe and strike from afar. Trying my best to understand the two monsters while building up my projectile stockpile. After quite a bit of back and forth, I was beginning to lose hope that I¡¯d discover something else to them other than their hatred of eating [Cryo Slime]. That changed when the two worms crashed into one of the pirs inside the magmake that connected the floor to the ceiling and shattered it.
Suddenly, both worms frantically started trying to eat something within the pir, even going so far as to partially ignore each other except when fighting over the scraps. I wasted no time using [Eagle Vision] to locate their target. Between the rubble of the copsing pir, I noted some ores within.
¡¯They eat minerals?¡¯
That revtion certainly exined some things. Clearly, the worms had some way to detect nearby ores, which they seemed to delight in eating. It also further exined why the dwarves had such a hatred for the damn things; imagine if one of them ate your gold mine! I¡¯d certainly be furious.If that were the case, would the smaller worm look like a tasty snack to the big one? It was coated in obsidian, after all. Perhaps the rarer the mineral, the more vorful it was for the worms? If that was the case, then maybe I could fool the worm into eating a slime bomb by making it out of a rare or valuable metal.
Rather than anything tooplicated, I made a silver sphere with a [Cryo Slime] center and primed it so that it would keep its shape. Then, using [Slime Shot], I fired the bomb toward the two worms that had resumed attacking one another.
I wasn¡¯t expecting much; it was, after all, just a quick theory thrown together. But against my expectations, as soon as the silvery sphere was within a certain distance of the two worms, they both seemed to home in on it and desperately seek it out. The sted obsidian worm swallowed the thing whole, much to the frustration of both me and the tempered worm.
Despite my anger, I didn¡¯t detonate it immediately, as I needed the obsidian worm to stick around longer to keep the tempered worm upied. I swapped from spear to silver ball production and beganunching them toward the worms.
Again, when the silver spheres neared the worms, they ravenously sought them out. Seeing the greedy obsidian worm trying its luck again, I needed to prevent it from eating it, so I detonated the first one, likely sitting in its stomach. A huge chunk of its life force immediately depleted before my very eyes, and it continued to drop rapidly by the looks of things. I hoped I hadn¡¯t identally killed it too soon with the world¡¯s deadliest candy.
The obsidian worm immediately howled in pain and thrashed around, ignoring all the tasty treats the tempered worm consumed gluttonously. As long as it kept eating, I kept spitting out silver balls, and only once the obsidian worm had recovered did I finally start the detonation.
The chain reaction of all the silver balls going off was extremely audible, even with the nonstop wailing from the obsidian worm. I squealed with joy when I saw each detonation removing another vast chunk of lifeforce and spreading out the deadly [Cryo Slime].
The damage the one bomb had done to the obsidian worm was impressive, but this was on a whole other level, not just due to the number of detonations but also because the tempered worm was fully debuffed. However, by my rough estimation, the worm would still live.
¡¯Ah! I should have used [Assassinate]!¡¯ I cursed myck of hindsight.
I had six daily uses of the extra bonus damage and seldom used it. While I most assuredly forgot about it often, another small part of me wanted to always keep it in reserve for some desperate "what if" scenario that might never ur. But if I wasn¡¯t going to use it now against something crazy like this, then when would I ever?
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¡¯One for a [Decay] finisher, two for the obsidian worm, one for my hypothetical emergency, that leaves me with two to use right now!¡¯ I reasoned.
I gave the order to regroup as I let go of the ceiling, my slime mass and [Sub-Cores] rapidly snapping back to reunite around my primary core. While falling, I began shifting into my blueblin form and rapidly flew closer to the thrashing worm.
The obsidian worm was taking its opportunity tond some solid bites against its still vulnerable aggressor. I pulled out some of my prepared spears and made the ad-hoc decision to merge them together into tworger ones. These would be my triggers for [Assassinate].
Flying this close to the worms was somewhat nerve-wracking, and I double-checked that I had my [Arcane Armor] cast on all my cores before the final approach. Then, with the aid of my helpers, I nned out the optimal [Slime Shot] tond directly down the gullet.
The two spears were partially sunk into my arms, which I had erged to house them and satisfy the requirements of [Slime Shot]. Before initiating the attack, I triggered the conditional use of [Assassinate], giving both spears the multiplicative boost.
When I had finally decided that this situation warranted the usage of my daily limits, I pondered whether I had to trigger the skill beforeunching the spears or before triggering the detonation. However, I had the gut feeling that it was beforeunching the spear and that the detonation and even the subsequent [Cryo Slime] would technically all fall under the same attack.
So, trusting my gut, I flew to the optimal position while dodging iling worms. Despite my open hostility towards them, the two seemed to not even acknowledge my presence. Any attacks I avoided were purely coincidental coteral from their girthy body iling around. Iunched both spears, the moment almost freezing in time as I watched with eager anticipation. When both projectiles went straight down, I wasted no time triggering the detonation and mentally cheering before even seeing the final oue.
The tempered worm reeled from the resulting attack. When its lifeforce dropped like a rock, I couldn¡¯t help but feel giddy and thanked my gut for its good intuition. I swiftly cast [Contagion] to spread the debuffs to the unexpecting obsidian worm and began what I hoped would be my final attacks.
Since I still had some spears remaining in my [Core Storage], I began firing out the remains of my stockpile at both worms this time. The obsidian worm had seemed primed to go for the almost-fallen worm when I had unexpectedly assaulted it.
With the obsidian worm now upied with itself, I triggered another [Assassinate] and finally cast [Decay] on the big worm. The purple mana swirled around the worm, and one by one, all of its afflictions were purged with magical fury, and a mighty singr blow was struck against it.
The worm gave a few remaining spasms before copsing into the magmake.
<11 Trait Points are now avable.>
¡¯Yes! Kill secured, now I just need to clean up.¡¯ I cheered. Then I spotted the sinking worm. ¡¯And then¡ Go fishing, I guess...¡¯
Even without my attacks, the obsidian worm was not looking good. It had previously had to bear the brunt of all the attacks of the muchrger worm in addition to any idental damage it took from me. I thought I might have needed to use [Assassinate] against this one, too, but it looked like I was mistaken.
Unlike the tempered worm, the obsidian worm¡¯s defenses held little remaining protection against my attacks once it was debuffed with [Erode]. It felt good to be on top of the food chain again as I watched it¡¯s rapidly depleting life.
When I estimated it was close enough to death, I threw out another [Decay] to finish the job. Like before, the purple mana of the spell swirled around the monster, but in what felt like a less dramatic fashion than the [Assassinate] empowered version. Then, unceremoniously, it was over.
<15 Skill Points are now avable.>
Before the obsidian worm could start to sink, I rushed over to it and threw out tendrils to try to grab it. Unfortunately, I was nowhere near strong enough to stop it from sinking, so I made the executive decision to dive down its gullet and eat it from the inside out.
As I had suspected, the worm meat was delicious and nutritious, and I saw a much-needed replenishment of my slime mass. Rather than depositing it, I let it balloon out and aid in consuming the worm. I ordered everyone to get to work and follow the instructions of [Dissection].
When I broke through to the fleshy interior of the magmake, I couldn¡¯t help but flinch reflexively. Not that I was afraid of the magma, but I borrowed [Fire Resistance] as a precaution.
I was initially surprised by how little was being saved from the worm; it seemed like, other than a few choice obsidian scales and its teeth, everything else was designated for eating. But the true prize would be the evolved one.
I had wanted to avoid looking at the worm profile until I ate the bigger one, but I realized that I would likely require it to aid in locating and retrieving it. So, Ipromised by skimming through it.
The worm had [Tremor Sense], as I suspected, but also [Mineral Sense], which must have been how it sensed the ores. They were otherwise entirely blind, not even having something like [Life Sight] to sense nearby foes. Sure, they lived underground, but having such a crippling weakness to anything flying seemed very detrimental.
Borrowing the trait and beginning to transform into a worm myself, I could sense that the obsidian in its hide was being detected. And at the bottom of theke, I could see my true prize glowing like a sun in all its glory.
All of my newly acquired slime began repurposing itself into facilitating my giant obsidian worm form. The transformation was startling, and having the entire massive body exclusively under my control was a bizarre feeling. I had never been in a body nearly this big before.
¡¯You know¡ I had nearly given [Nitro Slime] the award of best trait ever. Still, the fact that [Chimeric Mimicry] is pretty much singlehandedly allowing me to control this entire form by itself is certainly eye-opening.¡¯
The best part about my new worm form was that, unlike the original, I was not limited to being blind and could easily create transparent pockets for a [Sub-Core] to see out of. Not that there was anything to see at the moment aside from the depths of the magmake.
And so I wormed my way to my next meal and hopefully a good trait or two.
Chapter 180: Eating Rocks
Chapter 180: Eating Rocks
When I finally reached the tempered worm, I wasted no time diving into a presumably delightful meal. I had tried to dig in like any of my previous meals, but even with my [Acid Slime], I had some issues with the worm. If anything, it seemed sturdier than when I was fighting it.
Adapting to the situation, I shrunk my worm form down in size and ate at the fleshy interior to get around the conundrum.
While I perused the profile, I let the rest of my [Sub-Cores] and [Dissection] continue the work.
<[Tempered Reinforcement]
Increases a monster¡¯s physical defense in proportion to its heat level. Affecting most, if not all, forms of natural armor it may have.
The base defensive boost and the maximum heat bonus scale with trait level.
This trait also greatly boosts resistance to all forms of heat, but ites at the cost of equal vulnerability to cold.>
¡¯Very interesting... I guess I left it a bit too long in the magma, so it¡¯s all gone hard. But if cold lowers the defense, then I¡¯ll just add [Cryo Slime] in with [Acid Slime] for the harvesting.¡¯Before I gave the full go-ahead to all my [Sub-Cores], I personally tested the theory with the directed guidance of [Dissection]. The difference was outstanding, and I was back to my familiar harvesting capabilities in almost no time.
¡¯That¡¯s good. Otherwise, I might have needed to drag this sucker out of the magmake.¡¯
Letting the gang get back to work with the newfound knowledge, I was about to continue perusing the profile. But an unexpected notification interrupted me.
<[Obsidianite] has been sampled. [Metal Slime] updated.>
¡¯What!? I ate basically the other entire worm and didn¡¯t get anything, and now you update? What the hell is obsidianite?¡¯
[Metal Slime] held no answers for me, and so I was forced to scour through the monster¡¯s profile for the answer. That answer was also frustratingly inadequate; the best I could put together was that this unknown metal was formed during the monster¡¯s evolution.
¡¯It¡¯s like the rocky obsidian evolved into a metal... Maybe the dwarves will know?¡¯
I tried using [Metal Slime] to form some myself, but it was impossible at my current trait level, like both mithril and adamantine. Possibly even worse, it was hard to tell the difference in my slime falling apart.
The evolved worm¡¯s only remaining trait was [Volcanic Stomach], which let it rapidly convert rock into magma that it could spew out. It was pretty cool, although [Tempered Reinforcement] was the true prize and ripe for mimicry. As far as I could tell, nothing stopped me from borrowing the trait and heating myself up with [ze Slime]. No need for a magma bath.
¡¯[Volcanic Stomach] is probably how it¡¯s supposed to heat itself up if there¡¯s no other source nearby.¡¯
As for the traits both worms had, [Mineral Sense] seemed useful, and perhaps I couldbine it with [Electro-Maic Sense] and [Tremor Sense] in somebination.
Both worms had a trait called [Obsidian Scales], which seemed to be an alternate version of [Earthen Carapace], with the caveat that it also required Fire affinity. I did try using both at the same time, but they seemed mutually exclusive. The deciding factor was that [Earthen Carapace] was ipatible with [Tempered Reinforcement].
They also had [Rock Connoisseur], an unranked trait that allowed them to eat rocks and raw minerals for food. The trait mentioned rarer minerals as more nutritious and delicious. I thought it might be a good way to exploitatively generate slime mass, so I tried mimicking it and eating some rocks.
Firstly, the amount of slime it generated was so infinitesimal that I could only assume Gramps, or someone else, had perhaps had some foresight to prevent me from doing something like this. Secondly, despite the trait iming the rock and minerals were delicious, that couldn¡¯t be further from the truth.
¡¯What a scam. I can¡¯t believe I toggled [Olfactory Sense] on for this disappointment.¡¯
Eating and harvesting the second worm entirely took far longer than expected. I was beginning to worry that Thern might get worried about my absence if I didn¡¯t return home in time for supper.
¡¯Not that I think I could eat another bite after that meal.¡¯ I chuckled to myself.
And, of course, I simply had to try out the new form. Massive quantities of slime were withdrawn, and I found my wormy body swelling to its newer proportions. Even if I had experienced fighting these obsidianite scales firsthand, I could instantly recognize their value now that my body was wrapped in them.
¡¯And to think it will be even stronger when I can handle obsidianite myself via [Metal Slime]. Although I swear, I can feel [Chimeric Mimicry] already somehow using a small portion of it.¡¯
And now that I had a full understanding of the worm in sight, I could tell that those glowing channels along its outer body were actually linked to its stomach. A very convenient design and considerably more pleasant than the idea I had where it barfed over itself.
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The trip back to the hole I made was rather fun as I got to experience traveling like a giant worm down the magma river. Although I was feeling more like a leviathan or sea serpent than a burrowing worm.
I had hoped I might have encountered something to test out the new form against, but sadly, that didn¡¯t happen. Perhaps they were all scared away from the racket of the two rampaging worms, as even most of the critters had seemingly fled.
Not wanting to immediately end my time trying out the new body, I startedpressing and shrinking the form to a more manageable size when I reached my destination.
¡¯Time to try out burrowing with a mouth full of rotating teeth!¡¯
I double-checked that [Olfactory Sense] was disabled and then began tunneling upwards back into the ant nest. The trip back up was brief, and the worm¡¯s natural burrowing significantly outdid my "just melt it" strategy.
Since I had a stomach full of rock and earth, I felt obligated to at least give [Volcanic Stomach] a quick chance. All things considered, vomiting up the molten rock wasn¡¯t as bad as I thought it would be, thanks to the worm¡¯s body literally designed to amodate such a feature.
Of course, I simply had to try some slime shenanigans as well. I formed tendrils connected to my worm stomach and collected the magma. Armed with some new ammunition, I used [Slime Shot] to try various projectile methods.
¡¯It¡¯s a shame I don¡¯t think this is too useful... Trying it out is entertaining, but my slime is far better if I want to burn or melt an enemy. And that¡¯s without needing to eat rock first, waiting for the stomach to convert it, and only then spitting it out. How sad is that? I can spit magma, and I could probably say it¡¯s a neat trick.¡¯
I shrugged it off. The body alone was worth its weight in gold for me. I dug myself an expedited exit out of the ant nest and even caught a few drone stragglers wandering around aimlessly. A chomp or a few tail whacks was far more than the simple ant drones could survive. The fact that the teeth ripped apart the ants like wet paper was a little startling.
I triple-checked that the coast was clear before returning to my elven persona. I wasn¡¯t sure how long this adventure had taken, and I really hoped I hadn¡¯t caused Thern or his family to worry about me.
"I need to buy one of those time tools..." I sighed. "Unless only Keld sells them? Maybe they are imported? I¡¯ll ask Darmod when I get home."
I was heading back to the dwarven tunnel that led to this fungal cavern. I had my eyes out for kobolds just in case, but I doubted I¡¯d be that lucky.
At the same time, I made sure to keep using [Essence Sight]. I had checked, and it was already appearing as the [??? LV 0] trait, so I knew I was very close! [Prodigy] was working overtime with [Untapped Potential].
¡¯Speaking of traits, I wonder what the dwarves have... Something like [Alcohol Connoisseur]?¡¯ I couldn¡¯t help but giggle.
I reached the tunnel without any fuss, and now, in the rtively safe confines of familiar ground, I sped up my pace in returning. Deep in the tunnel, I finally received my notification.
"Great!" I cheered. "Saved a trait point right there."
I immediately pulled up my profile and attempted a trait fusion. Excitement was bubbling; I hadn¡¯t done this sessfully in what felt like ages. Would it finally work this time?
Bes Trait: [Soul Sight LV 6].
This will cost 1 Trait Point.>
¡¯Nope! I¡¯m gonna get some free levels in [Essence Sight] first.¡¯ I rejected the prompt.
¡¯Hopefully, I can also get [Mineral Sense] for free... What would thatbination be? I want to doubt it¡¯s [Soul Sense], but maybe Gramp¡¯s felt uninspired with the names again.¡¯
To my surprise, I met a squad of dwarven guards on patrol in the tunnel. They were more surprised to see me, but a sh of my guild tag to confirm my identity was all that I needed to do. They became jovial once they realized I was an adventurer, and one even offered me a sk as a reward for "a hard day of adventuring."
I thanked him and epted it, even going as far as to chug some of it on the spot, much to the delight of the dwarves.
"Are ya sure you aren¡¯t a dwarf trapped in an elf body?" One of the guards joked, causing quite a joyous ruckus from the group, which I joined in on.
I waved goodbye and continued my journey, wishing them a safe return. The guards at the gate were simrly happy to see my return and curious about what quest I had been on.
When I mentioned that I had taken out an ant princess, quite a few guards offered to take me to a tavern to celebrate with multiple rounds of drinks. It felt nice to be appreciated for the job.
I politely turned them down and told them I had a friend waiting for my return, which they epted without too much fuss. If they had pressed the issue, I might have given in to the social pressure.
If I hadn¡¯t been concerned about potentially causing Thern and his family some worry, I would have returned to the guild to report mypleted quests. So I beelined towards his home, my [Mapping] skill actually being helpful this time thanks to retracing familiar ground. I still had no idea how the dwarves navigated this city unless they all had it.
Knocking on the door, I waited patiently for a response.
¡¯Wait. Shit. What if they¡¯re sleeping? How do the dwarves tell howte it is without a sun?¡¯
My momentary panic was put at ease when Darmod opened the door. He gave a big grin, seeing me safe and sound.
"Syl! d you made it back in one piece," Darmod said cheerfully.
"Yup. It was a rather fun experience; hopefully, defeating an ant princess is good enough to prove my worth," I answered.
Darmod gave an impressed whistle as he led me into the house.
"Definitely. Those ants are a real menace," Darmod answered. "I think any dwarf in the world would buy you a drink if you told him you killed a princess or queen."
Thern was seated at the table with a few mugs of ale on the table. There was no sign of Thessa.
"Ah, you¡¯re back!" Thern chuckled. "I was worried you¡¯d be gone for months again."
"I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m sorry. I should have returned from the floating ind sooner," I apologized again.
"Bah. Don¡¯t listen to Thern; I bet he¡¯d be gone for a year if he was on a floating ind," Darmod chuckled.
"Did you manage to drag your mom from the forge?" I asked curiously, noting Thessa¡¯s absence.
"Aye. Kicking and screaming," Thern shook his head. "And she bloody passed out as soon as her head touched the pillow."
"That¡¯s good. I wanted to ask her about a metal I found, but it can wait till tomorrow," I exined.
"Oh? I¡¯m not a smith, but being married to one, maybe I can help?" Darmod offered.
"Sure. It¡¯s not a big deal, but I found some obsidianite." I answered nonchntly.
Thern was busy taking a drink while I was talking to Darmod, and when I finished speaking, he immediately spat out a spray of ale. While Thern was coughing and spluttering, Darmod appeared frozen in a state of shock.
Chapter 181: Obsidianite
Chapter 181: Obsidianite
"What?" I questioned the two dwarves.
Thern tried to say something, but it just came out as a splutter of coughing.
"Did you say obsidianite?" Darmod asked in an almost hushed tone.
"Yes. I got some from a worm I killed." I answered honestly.
"Bloody beards," Darmod muttered. "You said she was special withing back with crazy shit, son, but I think you undersold her."
"Shit!" Thern eventually yelled after recovering enough, "Why didn¡¯t Ie with ya? Of all the bloody luck!"
"Can someone please exin what the big deal is?" I requested.
"Obsidianite is a very rare metal. To say people have died trying to get some wouldn¡¯t be an exaggeration." Darmod started to exin.
"What makes it so special?" I asked. "It didn¡¯t appear that much better than adamantine.""You¡¯re right that, in most cases, it¡¯s not that different from adamantine," Thern answered before Darmod. "However, while adamantine can rarely be found and dug up, this bloody stuff is rare to an extreme. It doesn¡¯t form naturally and cannot be created artificially. It can only be obtained from a select few monsters through the godly power of evolution."
"Huh... What about feeding it to a silver slime?" I suggested.
Thern¡¯s face scrunched up, evidently greatly disturbed or disgusted by the very idea.
"I¡¯m sure it¡¯s been tried... Like bloody throwing money away," Darmod answered, also looking bothered by the suggestion. "But you¡¯d either need a silver slime that spawned with obsidianite as its metal type, or it would be ruined by the slime mixing the two metals together."
"And I¡¯m guessing obsidianite has no alloys," I replied.
"Nope. None of the legendary metals like to y nice," Thern answered.
"Well... Are you going to show us?" Darmod asked, licking his lips.
"Aye. You can¡¯t leave us high and dry by teasing us like that," Thern agreed.
I shrugged and pulled out one of thergest fully intact scales from the worm, gently cing it on the table. Thern¡¯s response was to start cussing up a storm, while Darmod was beginning to look particrly sweaty.
"Gods... It¡¯s fully intact," Darmod said, shaking his head.
"You really don¡¯t half-arse anything, do ya, Syl?" Thern chortled.
"I mean... I had no idea," I shrugged. "My [Dissection] skill told me it was valuable, so I grabbed it."
"This one scale is probably worth more than our damn house," Darmod exined.
"Huh... Think I could get some silver slime cores?" I asked.
Thern groaned as if expecting my question while Darmod stared at me as if I had grown a second head.
"That would be such a waste!" Thern eximed. "I know you have your kinks about the bloody slime cores, but we¡¯re talking about a piece of valuable obsidianite. Bloody beards, just imagine a forge hammer or inscriber made from it!"
"I mean... You can certainly have those," I responded. "I just want some silver slime cores since I¡¯m unlikely find them outside here."
"What do you mean?" Thern asked, looking puzzled.
"I didn¡¯t say that was my only piece-" I began answering.
"Gods!" Darmod shouted, standing up so quickly that his chair tipped. "H-how many do you have!?"
Both dwarves stared at me so hard it felt like they were trying to drill into my mind with their gaze. Their abnormal reaction to this entire situation made me feel uneasy. [Acting] must have agreed, as I was getting a subtle hint that I shouldn¡¯t reveal the truth.
"A few..." I responded hesitantly.
I slowly pulled out a few more; with each one I pulled out, the dwarves looked increasingly frantic, so I stopped when I reached five. I got the odd feeling that if I revealed that I had harvested almost the entire worm, minus the scales I ruined, I might get attacked.
Both dwarves were speechless for quite a while, staring at the obsidianite with a mixture of concern, envy, and awe. I was growing increasingly ufortable when Thern finally broke the silence.
"We can¡¯t let anyone find out where they came from."
"They¡¯re going to find out eventually," Darmod countered. "Nobody can keep fiverge intact pieces of obsidianite a secret. Gods, doesn¡¯t the Adventurer¡¯s Guild know she took a worm kill quest?"
"Yes, but the guild would never sell out an adventurer, especially not one who¡¯s reached gold-rank," Thern disagreed.
"I dunno, son, greased palms can tempt foolish dwarves," Darmod replied.
"That¡¯s not reassuring..." I muttered.
"Well, then we should sell it through yourpany discreetly," Thern suggested
"Hmm... That would be maybe usible. I could pull in one of the noble houses to be our benefactor for a small cut, perhaps get some protection that way to conceal the true source."
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"Whatever you two think is best, as long as I can get a few slime cores out of this, I¡¯m happy," I replied. "You¡¯re wee to take one for an inscription tool, Thern."
The dwarf looked genuinely gobsmacked. "R-really!?"
"Of course, I wouldn¡¯t be here if not for you," I replied. "You even waited for me when I waste..."
Thern broke outughing hysterically. "Bloody beards, Syl, I think I could kiss you!"
"I¡¯d rather not. No offense," I replied, waving my hand dismissively.
"It¡¯s an expression!" Thernughed more, "Wait till Greg hears about this. Sure, he had a prodigy for an apprentice, but I got a bloody elf adventurer!"
I chuckled, remembering how sour he was after I gave Greg the unicorn horn.
"Although if you¡¯re going out adventuring tomorrow, you have got to take me along!" Thern demanded. "I¡¯m sick of missing out on all the fun, which you seem to be a ma for. First, you visit a floating ind and find unicorns, alicorns, and pegasi, and now, barely a few days here, you find obsidianite! When I take my eye off you, I bet you¡¯ll find some lost, enchanted relic or godly artifact."
"Sure. I¡¯d be d to see what runes can do inbat," I replied honestly. His strange ss had greatly interested me. "I had a quest to exterminate kobolds, but I didn¡¯t run into any today."
"Aye, the cheeky buggers can be hard to find," Thern admitted. "But I¡¯m sure we can find some. Teach them not to mess with a dwarf and an elf!"
"In the meantime, I¡¯ll contact the Flintheart family. I¡¯m practically blood brothers with Kaldrour, their current heir, so they¡¯ll be extra discreet." Darmod added to the conversation. "I¡¯ll tell him you want silver slime cores as payment... But I don¡¯t know if even they can wrangle enough to pay you."
"I¡¯m alright with other cores. I¡¯m missing a few from my collection." I responded.
"Sure, which ones?" Darmod asked. "Can¡¯t hurt to ask. Hell, they might buy some off the market for you. It¡¯s a bit middleman, but whatever works."
"ck, Pink, Gold, Gray, Brown, Violet," I replied, listing the ones I knew from memory.
"Lass... You have expensive taste. I¡¯m pretty sure half of those are forbidden or unknown." Darmod replied. "Also, no offense, but I think you¡¯d be the best person to obtain a brown slime core."
Thern burst outughing. "You take entric to a whole new level. But if you keep finding such incredible loot, I won¡¯tin no matter what you do with all those cores!"
"What¡¯s all the racket down here?" A grumpy Thessa asked, practically storming down the stairs. "You drag me away from my work, telling me I need to sleep, and then you make enough bluster to rouse the bloody dead!"
"Sorry dear, we were just discussing-" Darmod replied before pausing.
Thessa suddenly started sniffing very loudly, and then she looked at the table with an almost predatory gaze. "Is that what I think it is?"
"Pa! She¡¯s got that look in her eyes!" Thern warned.
Darmod moved swiftly to Thessa as if to halt her progress, but he was slowly being pushed backward even when he ced his hands on her shoulders and braced himself.
"Honey! Dear! Be reasonable! We have a guest!" Darmod begged.
I stared unblinkingly at the strange situation until Thessa reached the table. Her eyes went wide as she saw the obsidianite scales, and she immediately took a big whiff of them. As if that wasn¡¯t strange enough, she picked it up and proceeded to lick it. A momentter, she actually bit into it!
¡¯Gods, is she going to eat it?¡¯ I couldn¡¯t help but wonder.
My fear went unproven, and instead, she started cackling withughter.
"Obsidianite!" Thessa eximed. "It¡¯s been almost twenty years since Ist worked with it!"
"Ma... Be reasonable. That belongs to Syl." Thern said. "Well, except for the piece that will be my inscription tool and hammer."
"Oh?" Thessa asked almost threateningly. "And who exactly is going to forge those for you? I don¡¯t see another master smith in the room."
"W-Well..." Thern stuttered.
Thessa grinned triumphantly.
"st it. She¡¯s right. Especially if we want to be discreet," Thern grumbled.
"And you, Syl!" Thessa dered, pointing at me. "I¡¯m going to forge you a weapon!"
"I don¡¯t really use weapons," I answered honestly. "I have a bow I earned from a dungeon ages ago that¡¯s gathering dust. I¡¯m pretty heavily focused on magic."
"Bah. Mages," Thessa scoffed. "What if you run out of Mana? Always good to have a backup."
"Well...." I stammered.
Perhaps hoping to gain some ground on his mom, Thern chuckled and answered. "I don¡¯t think Syl here has ever run out of Mana; I know you don¡¯t have [Mana Sight], ma, but she¡¯s got enough to light up the entirety of Dhoggurum."
"Well, ornamental then!" Thessa replied. It was rapidly beginning to look like she wouldn¡¯t take no for an answer.
"Well... I do like rapiers," I answered.
Thessa sighed, "Of course... Something dainty..."
"Never disparage the client¡¯s choice, dear." Darmod chuckled.
"You¡¯re right," Thessa said reluctantly. "At least she didn¡¯t say something silly like a bow. Sure, I was hoping for a big warhammer or battleaxe, but I¡¯ll just have to make do."
"Maybe it¡¯s a littlete to bring this up again, but I still haven¡¯t understood why obsidianite is so good," I said. "I know it¡¯s rare since it¡¯s only from monsters, but what makes it special to use? I¡¯m hoping it¡¯s not purely decorative for its rarity."
"Heavens no." Thessa chuckled. "Let the smith do the talking, not the merchant or enchanter."
Darmod and Thern nodded in agreement.
"Obsidianite is nearly as durable as adamantine. Through its godly creation and monster evolution, it¡¯s lost all the brittleness of obsidian and has be a true metal worth using." Thessa began exining. "You¡¯re probably familiar with mithril being a Mana conductor. Obsidianite is a little simr in that regard; instead of conducting it and distributing it, it drinks it up and stores it, using it to reinforce itself."
"To add to what Ma is saying, if you have either Earth or Fire affinity, it will naturally enhance the obsidianite. Earth adds to its durability, while Fire refines its edges," Thern exined.
"That¡¯s... Honestly, very impressive," I conceded.
"I thought you¡¯d like that. Especially since you have Fire affinity," Thern grinned.
"Actually, I just recently got Earth too."
"Bloody beards, girl! Will you have every affinity the next time I see you?" Thern eximed.
"Even better then!" Thessa cheered. "What about some obsidianite armor? A nice set of full te to seal your defense."
The dwarves were going back and forth so fast that I couldn¡¯t find the opportunity to speak up.
"You really want her nking around in full te?" Thern asked. "Her previous ss was a rogue mage hybrid. I¡¯m pretty sure she still likes being sneaky."
"I do," I admitted. "Although I wouldn¡¯t say no to an armor upgrade."
"Hmm... I could add some small tings to your existing leathers. Like studded leather, except far more expensive," Thessa chuckled. "What¡¯s this made out of?"
"Inferno Smander," I replied.
Thessa whistled and nodded, looking very excited.
"Made from the original owner of that new furnace heart," Thern added.
"That¡¯s perfect," Thessa answered happily. "The natural Fire affinity in the armor will blend well with the obsidianite. I would have thrown it away if it was made of something like fish scales."
Using [Equipment Swap], I exchanged it for one of my spare robes and handed it over to Thessa. To my surprise, she began examining it on the spot.
"Hmm... Good, the maker knew what he was doing. Also, damn, do you bloody elves not sweat at all?" Thessa asked. "Of all the racial differences possible, I think that might be cheating too much," she shook her head and then swiftly changed the subject. "I¡¯m assuming the runes are your handiwork, Thern?"
"Aye. I¡¯ll need to redo them when you¡¯re done with the rework," He replied.
"Good. I¡¯m d to have more evidence proving you haven¡¯t gotten rusty," Thessa poked. "You¡¯d have broken a poor mother¡¯s heart."
"Quit the act, you forge devil," Thern quipped back.
"So... About payment," Thessa said mischievously.
"I can put a deposit down or something," I answered, pulling out my guild tag.
"Ahh... I¡¯m afraid Thessa¡¯s Forge only epts trade as payments for the foreseeable future," She chuckled.
Of course, the dwarf wanted some of the obsidianite herself. However, I saw no reason to refuse, as apparently, I had more than they knew what to do with.
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Chapter 182: Saber-Rattling
Chapter 182: Saber-Rattling
A n was being put together by the three dwarves, and I left them to continue their work. I really didn¡¯t want to get involved with money and negotiations, so I felt like delegating the task to them was more than appropriate. Darmod was the merchant, after all, and I trusted Thern to keep his family from potentially scamming me.
Thern also reconfirmed that he woulde out with me on some adventuring tomorrow. I saw no reason to refuse, but sadly, that meant I would need a slight pause on my [Nitro Slime] testing and [Metal Slime] training.
Well... If I get more silver cores from this trade deal, I guess thetter wouldn¡¯t be so much of a downside. Plus, I get to see a Glyph Mage in action!
I already had Enchanting covered, so I could probably unlock it myself, and it would be added to my list of potential ss considerations when I¡¯d gotten everything I wanted out of Elementalist.
Since slime was unfortunately a no-go tomorrow, magic was back on the menu, so I spent the rest of my evening hashing out an [Earth Magic] debuff. It took surprisingly little effort, and in no time, I had aplished it.
Hmm... I don¡¯t know if I¡¯m sold on that name. I¡¯d almost say [Fracture] should be the armor debuff, and [Erode] should be the earth debuff. No? I don¡¯t know if you¡¯re listening, Mother, but that¡¯s my feedback!
I wondered if [Soul Sight] would help further my spell tinkering when I got it. [Mana Maniption] was undoubtedly the key yer, but progressing in [Mana Conception] allowed me to identify a lot more spell concepts and Mana types.
I was wildly curious but restrained myself as I wanted to get more [Essence Sight] levels before the fusion into [Soul Sight]. And so, I called it a night with nothing immediately pressing.***
"I swear you¡¯ve woken up the beast in both of ¡¯em; I¡¯ve never seen Pa and Ma so excited before," Thern said as we headed towards the guild.
"No offense, but you also had quite the look in your eye," I pointed out teasingly.
"If you understood enchanting and saw the state of my toolspared to some of my peers, you¡¯d understand my excitement," Thern defended himself. "Damn, Greg has been eating it up with his bloody unicorn horn tool. If only I had a Light or Holy affinity... And tools with dual Fire and Earth are also rare."
"Hmm... Would not normal obsidian also work? Or perhaps one from an obsidian golem or something?" I couldn¡¯t help but ask.
"I could¡¯ve, but I¡¯d bankrupt myself with frequent tool recements. I¡¯m not the most delicate when using tools, as ismon with most dwarves."
"Ah... That makes sense," I agreed.
The guild wasn¡¯t too busy when we arrived, and soon enough, we were in discussion with a handler. I reported my sessful ant princess extermination, and Thern requested to be assigned the same quests that were assigned to me already.
At some point during our conversation, the handler looked absolutely startled and wide-eyed but rapidly recovered, shaking his head. I barely caught it and wondered if I had imagined hisposure breaking.
Maybe he¡¯s just having a rough day. Probably recovering from reveling too muchst night if the other dwarves are any indication. I swear they have at least one tavern on every street.
"Been a while since I got to stop kobolds; this should be fun," Thern grinned happily when he got his quest, and we left together.
Our trip to the gate was uneventful, and we mostly just made small talk with Thern leading the way. I was grateful to follow, as I felt I might still get lost with how this city was structured, even with [Mapping].
Once again, the city guards were ecstatic at our arrival and gave us a series of shouts and cheers at our departure. When we were out of sight of the gate, I turned to Thern with a questioning gaze as he had added his own contribution to getting the guards worked up.
"Us dwarves love a good fight, so adventuring is basically in our blood!" He began exining. "For any good dwarf, defending the home and people is seen as honorable, and with how brutal it can be down here, it¡¯s instilled in us from a very young age. Adventuring doubly so, as you protect the home from current threats, prevent potential future threats, and risk your life to do it! Right out there in the open, not behind a wall or nothin¡¯! There can be no greater honor!"
Thern gave me a hefty pat on the back, and we chuckled as we continued down the familiar passageway.
***
"Badour,d, what¡¯s got you so worked up?" The dwarven guild master asked.
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The dwarf hade practically storming into his office early this morning with urgent news. As far as he knew, there were no dire emergencies or anything presently happening that could threaten the great city of Dhoggurum.
"Master Lukhek, I was handling a quest turn this morning and saw the most outrageous thing. I just had to tell you about it," Badour exined.
"Oh? Did we get a rare monster kill or something?" Lukhek asked, stroking his beard curiously. "I hope it was a big beastie! Always good for morale! Who¡¯s the lucky dwarf?"
"Well... Actually, it was an elf," Badour admitted.
"An elf?" Lukhek questioned, then recalled what he had read about a recent elerated promotion and approval for travel. "Ah... I think I read about her. I thought it was more a diplomatic position than anything else. Or at least that¡¯s the rumor I heard since no elf has ever been interested in joining the guild."
"Bloody beards, sir. If she¡¯s a mere diplomat, then I¡¯m terrified of what the actual elfbatants can do," Badour admitted with a dry gulp.
"I see... What quest did sheplete?" Lukhek further inquired.
"She eliminated a reported ant princess in the fungal cavern; it was of the Fire Ant variety."
"Bloody ants," Lukhek grunted. "While that¡¯s an admirable first quest and decent aplishment, it¡¯s not that unusual. I¡¯d expect any gold-ranker to do that. However, that proves that she wasn¡¯t given her rank as a diplomatic gesture... I¡¯ll have that rumor squashed; it¡¯s disgraceful for someone who¡¯s contributed to defending Dhoggurum¡¯s future."
Badour nodded in agreement; such rumors were utterly contemptible.
"It wasn¡¯t just the ant princess... She also took a general ant extermination quest, and here is the recorded amount from the finalized quest payout," Badour exined and handed over a document.
Now, Lukhek was curious. He epted the document and began perusing it. The number he saw was startling; he almost didn¡¯t believe it, but it was impossible to fool the quest system as it was a reward designed by the gods themselves.
"That¡¯s a lot of dead ants..." Lukhek muttered. "And two of them were royal guards if I¡¯m estimating the payout amounts correctly."
"And unless she had secret helpers outside of a Party, she did it entirely solo," Badour further exined.
"Bloody beards... This is quite a show of force; what are those elves up to," Lukhek questioned. He began scratching his beard in thought. "Is this them saber-rattling?"
"Why would they do that, Master Lukhek?" Badour asked. "I thought we were on good terms with the elves."
"Well... Are you familiar with the Outeatus trade expansion?"
"Ah! My cousin mentioned something like that," Badour said excitedly. "Was it something about the Outeatus Kingdom finally opening up their coffers to buy foreign goods?"
"Aye. That¡¯s the one. If your cousin is a merchant, then I¡¯m sure you¡¯re familiar with the fact that most dwarves will ept anyone¡¯s coin, whether they be human, fairy, elf, or otherwise."
"Oh, trust me, I know. The bastard would probably sell his mother for the right price."
"Ha! Sounds about right," Lukhek barked out augh. "Well, the elves aren¡¯t too happy about us potentially trading arms and armor to them. I¡¯ve heard the diplomats here are kicking up a storm."
"Why do they care who we trade with? It¡¯s none of their business," Badour scoffed.
"Come on,d, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve read at least one history book?" Lukhek asked with a frown.
Badour shrugged sheepishly.
Sighing and shaking his head, Lukhek answered. "The Outeatus Kingdom are the ones who instigated the second great war. Ordered by their God King to usurp the [Elven Legacy] emblem for the royal family."
"Oh... Right... That..." Badour pretended to recall. "But that was ages ago, right? Bygones and all that, especially if there¡¯s coin to be made."
"Bloody beards,d; if your work is as half bad as your talent in lying, I might need to hire some new staff," Lukhek joked, causing Badour to pale. "Some of the elves involved are still alive and kicking! Of course, it¡¯s still relevant to them, even now!"
"Oh... So is this reminding us to choose them over the humans?"
"Maybe... It¡¯s certainly convenient timing, but I could just be poking at shadows," Lukhek admitted. "I can¡¯t say I¡¯ve ever heard anything good about the Outeatus royals. And it¡¯s hard to sympathize with a family all sired by a human supremacist who called himself a God King. I mean... Bloody beards, we know that the gods literally exist; that¡¯s at least sphemous or foolish. On the other hand, what about the ordinary people of the kingdom? Surely they aren¡¯t guilty..."
"I... Uh? Sorry, Master Lukhek, but this is going over my head," Badour admitted.
"Sorry,d. I¡¯m rambling. A curse of old age. I¡¯ll let you run off now. Thanks for bringing this to my attention," Lukhek said, giving him a friendly shoulder pat.
"Thanks, Master Lukhek!" Badour said with a quick salute. And you aren¡¯t old, sir; you have plenty of years left to dedicate toward protecting Dhoggurum!"
Lukhek watched thed run off and chuckled to himself.
Cheeky little brown-noser.
Still... He wasn¡¯t sure what to make of this. It should at least be mentioned to the diplomats that the elves might be taking this exceptionally seriously.
Using his [Guild Master] emblem, Lukhek brought up a secondary menu that was not unlike one¡¯s own personal profile. He quickly searched for any other recent quests this adventure hadpleted or undertaken.
Oh, it looks like she still has a quest for worms and kobolds in progress. I¡¯d swear she was a dwarf looking for a promotion. He thought with a chuckle.
Then he noticed two payments had already been made on the worm quest. Most of these things were entirely automated, thanks to the glorious gift from the gods. In fact, some adventurers never even bothered to mention apleted quest; it was more of a friendly formality or for a bit of bragging.
Or someone trying to make a statement? Lukhek wondered.
Using his authority, he looked at the payments; one of the two seemed a bit too high, ording to his memory of worm quest payouts.
That¡¯s odd... What kind of worm would give so much gold?
Now that his intrigue was poked, he couldn¡¯t help but start following the trail. He pulled up quest records and started looking for the ones rted to worm extermination. When he found the list close to the payment amount, he couldn¡¯t help but gasp.
These are all tier-five worms! Bloody beards!
He clutched at his table to steady himself; it was such a startling discovery.
I want to believe she had hidden helpers outside of a Party... But gods, if I¡¯m wrong, this could be a grave warning to us dwarves! Screw the bloody God King¡¯s seed and their bloody coin; it can¡¯t be worth risking something like this!
Feeling slightly flustered, he rushed out of his office. He needed to tell one of the noble families about this and hoped they¡¯d intercede in the diplomatic discussions.
Bloody beards! Our great ancestors¡¯ teachings always mentioned that we should be wary of digging too deep¡ªto control our greed!
***
Rxing in his chair while rolling a small marble ball between his fingers, Gramps couldn¡¯t help but smirk.
"I hope she can take the constructive criticism over her spell names... That¡¯ll teach her to get upset over some ceholder traits," Gramps chuckled to himself.
Chapter 183: Glyph Mage
Chapter 183: Glyph Mage
Explosions rocked the cave¡¯s corridor, sending rocky shrapnel flying.
"Take that, you scaly bastards!" Thern shouted triumphantly as he threw another glowing stone down the corridor. Shortly after, another explosion rang out, encrusting the rock and enemies in an icy residue.
A small tunnel abruptly emerged from our side, and a small ambush squadron of kobolds was sent to nk us. Thankfully, I had [Tremor Sense] active and could feel their approach through the rocky floor. I immediately threw out a [Chain Lightning] spell at the first target after they breached, causing a cacophony of yips and yaps from the affected tiny lizard people as the dangerous lightning magic chained between them.
Behind us, another set of explosions went off as the trap that Thern had left was triggered.
"Ha! I told you they¡¯d try to sneak behind us!" Thern gloated before casting a spell to seal one of the passageways with a rocky wall.
Thern¡¯s ss was... Interesting. He had Fire and Earth Magic in his repertoire and asionally used both effectively when the situation called for it. However, any spellcaster could aplish that, and that¡¯s where his Glyph Mage got to show off a little.
Thern could rapidly create a set of offensive enchantments pretty much at will. They were like hostile or unstable versions ofrger enchantments, like spells stored within an object just waiting to go off. His favorite application was storing an explosive glyph on a rock or something and throwing it at an enemy.
He¡¯d also shown that he could leave a glyph behind, as he had demonstrated with his trap, with trigger conditions to go off. I couldn¡¯t help but drawparisons to my own [Nitro Slime] trait and its usage, except while mine was sort of taken care of thanks to the trait system, Thern had to draw in his instructions and conditions.
However, one aspect that was quite interesting was that Thern¡¯s glyphs weren¡¯t limited to only his affinities, and he could pull on a variety of tricks from once beneficial enchantments now turned malicious. Of course, if he actually had the affinity himself, it would be better, and that¡¯s where I could help him.Thern could create an almost nk glyph, just waiting to absorb some Mana, and it would rapidly transform itself. Taking full advantage of how Arcane Mana was so transmutable. Thern could enchant a bunch of rocks, and if I just briefly channeled my Mana through the bag, it would convert all of them.
Like Eliza, Thern had also be quite a fan of having Lightning added to his arsenal but soon requested Ice instead, as it was "making his beard fuzzy."
Another interesting use for his ss was he could quickly apply glyphs to himself and others, applying an enchantment as if it were a buff rather than a permanent effect and not requiring one to wear armor or some magic item. Thern had given both of us physical, earth, and fire resistance quite rapidly to deal with the kobolds.
The ss¡¯s intention clearly focused on utility more than offense, but Thern seemingly took that theme under advisement only. Only a crazy dwarf could think of using unstable enchantments as a weapon.
When he exined it to me, I thought of potentially using an unstable storage enchantment, but Thern said it didn¡¯t work that way. Instead of sucking up the space and destroying whatever was in it, when Thern applied that enchantment offensively, it instead ejected a concussive force as if expanding the area.
In fact, quite a few enchantments behaved oddly when turned into unstable glyphs. Weight reduction, used offensively, briefly applied a downward crushing force to those caught in its explosive residue, and it was clear that Thern had done many experiments to discover the strange variety of effects.
Preparation was mandatory for his ss, but with practiced fast rune tracing or using a skill he had picked up that let him instantly apply a temte, albeit at a reduced effect, he overcame such burdens.
When that wasn¡¯t enough, he also had a backup weapon that looked like abination of a hammer and a pickaxe. On one end, it had arge t hammerhead; on the other, it had the sharp, pointy end of a pick. While it looked like a tool for heavy excavating, Thern made it look like a deadly weapon he had spent years honing.
I sensed the survivors of the trap behind us approaching, so I turned around and cast a barrage of [Rock Lob], as I still needed to work on getting my [Earth Magic] up. The hail of rocks battered against their shields and armor. They cursed and hissed, throwing ranged projectiles and their own spells in retaliation, bouncing against my [Arcane Armor].
The kobolds were strange creatures. Since I had only seen the dungeon variety before this, I wasn¡¯t sure how ones not under its influence would behave. I thought they¡¯d behave simrly to goblins since they reminded me of them, but they had a more savage feralness to them.
As soon as they spotted us, they flew into an almost murderous rage and, in particr, focused a lot of effort on attacking Thern. I would have described goblins as cunning but cautious, but the kobolds were cunning and vicious.
The goblins I had encountered used traps and strategy asionally, where the kobolds lived and breathed it. The tunnel we were trying to travel through had all sorts of hidden ambush points and devious devices designed to deal with intruders. While the goblins were numerous, the kobolds felt endless.
Or was the goblin tribe I met just on the small side?
Stolen from its rightful ce, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
We were making good progress down their tunnel when suddenly there was a rumbling, and the entire tunnel felt like it would copse. [Tremor Sense] was basically screaming warnings at me, and I quickly began casting [Rampart] to create makeshift supports.
Thern, with barely a flinch, also started using the [Rampart] spell to secure our position.
"Bloody cowards tried to drop the mountain on us!" Thern spat out. "Stupid lizards, don¡¯t you know you can never bury a dwarf! This might as well be a spa for me!"
Thern had always been rough around the edges, but I¡¯d never seen this side of him before. Evidently, the animosity between Dwarves and Kobolds went deep.
When the rumbling finally stopped, Thern let out a disappointed sigh.
"We¡¯re gonna have to go back and find another one of their tunnels."
"Could we not just dig our way deeper?" I asked.
Thern shook his head. "Not worth the effort. These cowardly lizards, when they retreat, copse the entire tunnel. We¡¯d have to dig through an absolute avnche of rock and stone to get anywhere.
"I see... Well, you found this tunnel easy enough; I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll find another for us."
That had been quite the surprise. When we arrived at the fungal cavern, Thern wasted no time locating "signs of kobolds." It was frankly a little embarrassing since I was the one with the [Tracking] skill, but how Thern handled it so effortlessly proved that he had done this many times before.
Thern led us to a secluded wall section with a hidden tunnel in a small alcove. From a distance, I wouldn¡¯t have even noticed it was a tunnel as it seemed to create an almost natural optical illusion or camouge.
Thern had just chuckled and called them sneaky lizards. Then, he proceeded to periodically throw some of his enchanted rocks down the tunnel to "disarm" traps and wake up the kobolds.
After that, it had practically been a nonstop barrage of the little buggers. The experience was rather poor, but Thern warned me not to underestimate them as they had apparently imed the lives of many overconfident dwarves through poison and treachery.
Not that I have to worry about being poisoned...
"So... What¡¯s the n to get out? I could maybe start throwing around some acid from [Corrosion Magic]?" I asked.
"That sounds like a terrible idea," Thern said bluntly. "I thought you said you got [Earth Magic] now?"
"It¡¯s level two..." I answered. "I haven¡¯t had the chance to get much use out of it. Throwing rocks isn¡¯t nearly as effective as sting things with lightning."
Thern sighed. "If you weren¡¯t so honest, I¡¯d suspect you were just beingzy..."
He began casting a spell, slowly turning the fallen rocks and debris behind us into fine sand.
"Now that looks useful," I praised. "What spell is it?"
"[Sand Pit] spell," Thern answered. "Well, an application of it. You¡¯d get it at level four if you weren¡¯t cking off."
"I was too busy getting obsidianite to level it up," I teased back. "You know, that magic metal that all three of you were so handsy over?"
"Bah! You got me there," Thern chuckled. "It¡¯s definitely a useful spell, though; it lets you break down most forms of rock and earth."
"Sounds like [Rampart] in reverse," I pointed out.
"Pretty much," Thern answered. "That big orc tunnel you found back in Kaerlin was probably dug out with it."
"I wonder how they got rid of all the sand, though..." I murmured curiously.
"Well! That¡¯s something you can help with!" Thern said happily as if expecting that question. "Start using all this sand to make some dense hand-sized rocks for me; the more spherical, the better. You¡¯ll be helping clear our way, give me more ammunition to throw glyphs on, and train your [Earth Magic]."
I nodded in agreement. It was reasonable, and I didn¡¯t have anything better to do.
"I wonder how many kobolds I¡¯ll need to gain a level up..." I couldn¡¯t help but wonder aloud.
"A lot... But we might start seeing some of their elites, now that we¡¯ve kicked the ho¡¯s nest. Especially if they decided to abandon this entire tunnel," Thern answered.
"What do the evolved kobolds look like?" I asked.
"It depends. Some revert to a more monstrous form, like smanders or small drakes. They abandon their intelligence and are handled like wild beasts by the typical kobolds. Others be just a bit bigger, simr to hobgoblins," Thern answered as we continued working. "The ones you really need to watch out for are the ones that start looking more draconic... Their scales are the first thing to notice, not unlike that smander you harvested, and some even get vestigial wings. You see one of those buggers, you kill it immediately!"
"I wouldn¡¯t think only one evolution further would be that much of a threat?" I asked curiously.
"No, it¡¯s the threat of what they could be," Thern answered. "Each evolution after that, they be more draconic, and soon you got a lesser dragon on your hands."
"Surely one monster isn¡¯t that bad?"
"Aye. You¡¯d be right. It¡¯s still nowhere near a real dragon, not even close. But the kobolds worship dragons, and one of those can unite multiple tribes together, and soon you have an entire kobold warband out for blood and conquest."
Thern sighed. "It¡¯s a pity cause lesser dragons give very good materials and are incredibly rare. But the risk isn¡¯t worth it."
I would¡¯ve loved to get my tendrils on a lesser dragon, but it sounded like that wasn¡¯t going to happen. A real pity. Of course, I had taken some nibbles on the kobolds that attacked us, but there wasn¡¯t much other than having a cool new form to mimic at some point. So, if we went deeper into their territory, I hoped to get more of their profiles from their various evolutions.
They were still interesting, though. If I understood their profile correctly, they would be born with a random elemental affinity and then gain a spit based on that element, as well as the appropriate resistance. Rarer ones could even get corrosion! Although it seemed they only got half of it, either poison or acid. The idea of a little lizard goblin spitting acid was quite the image.
Eventually, we broke out to the fungal cavern once again. After all our efforts, I was rewarded with two level-ups. Sure, it wasn¡¯t the biggest surprise, but it was still very wee.
I had been using the skill when I could, and watching the area¡¯s essence gradually rise from the dead kobolds was likely worth quite a bit.
<[Earth Magic LV 3] spell [Shatterquake] learned.>
And, as expected, my [Earth Magic] leveled up. Of course, Thern took full credit for this, and I let him have it after he had to dig us out of this mess.
As for the new spell, it was one I was quite familiar with... As that damned bear had given me a very up-close and personal experience!
The spell had twoponents. One was that it could quake the ground to cause instability, which Thern said was quite good for knocking someone off their feet. The other was that it could violently shatter rock, creating andunching hazardous shrapnel.
So, tremors are created in the earth and soil, while rock is shattered. That¡¯s pretty cool. However, I wonder if that ring of erupting rock spires was just the bear using [Rampart]...
Chapter 184: Kobolds and Dwarves
Chapter 184: Kobolds and Dwarves
Thern began collecting all the rock balls I had made for him and cing his glyphs on them individually. Once they were ready, he would put them in a small storage pouch he had that was rapidly essible.
"These are pretty good spheres!" Heplimented me while he worked. "If you ever decide to take a break from all the monster killing, you should maybe look into enchanting. I dunno if you know this, but spheres are pretty important with high-level enchanting."
"The way you¡¯re using it certainly looks entertaining," I chuckled, hoping to dodge the question. "And I thought I¡¯d seen it all with the damage-dealing healer."
"Now that sounds like a fun ss!" Thern responded. "Where the heck did you see one of those?"
"One of the members of a party called The Misfits. We ran the mutation dungeon together. They had a shapeshifting druid, a burning barbarian, and a dark healer," I exined.
"Well, I¡¯ll give them points for a good Party name," Thernughed. "Now, let¡¯s find us another tunnel!"
It didn¡¯t take Thern long to find another one, and then we were again engaged with kobold defenders. Now that I had a higher level of [Earth Magic] and since we were surrounded by rock, I started using [Shatterquake] to explode shrapnel on nearby walls.
"Bloody beards! Was that you?" Thern questioned while mming his hammer into a kobold.
"Yes? I wanted to try out the new spell," I answered while casting it again, this time below a group of kobolds trying to shoot us with arrows."A warning next time would be nice!" Thern scolded.
"Sorry! I¡¯m used to solo fights."
"I can see that. You are like a one-elf artillery mage," Thern joked.
It didn¡¯t take us long to defeat the initial defenders, so we quickly took a recovery break. Thern, of course, drank from his sk.
"I had no idea you could do that," He finally spoke up.
"What? You literally just took credit for my [Earth Magic] leveling up not even an hour ago," I responded.
"No, no, not that!" Thern rified. "You¡¯re casting that spell so far away! Is that a trait or skill or something? I know I¡¯m not exactly a traditional spellcaster, but mine can¡¯t go nearly that far out!"
"Oh..." I replied. I hadn¡¯t even realized I was technically casting outside my Mana aura. "It¡¯s not a trait or skill; it¡¯s a technique that allows changing the anchor point of a spell."
"No kidding?" Thern asked, scratching his beard. "Wait... Isn¡¯t that Mage Guild stuff?"
"Yeah... Jet mentioned something like that to me as well," I sighed.
"Don¡¯t fret; if it¡¯s a secret, then my lips are sealed," Thern reassured me.
"I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s a secret or not... I just wasn¡¯t taught by anyone from the guild. Jet mentioned it would be quite an opportunity if I wasn¡¯t bound by any agreement not to share," I exined.
"I sorta understand. They¡¯re quite a strict bunch, so they could take it as someone on the inside leaking their teachings," Thern said, nodding to himself, "Well, I don¡¯t think you need to worry about any of that here; there¡¯s no Mage¡¯s Guild branch in any dwarven city."
"That¡¯s a little surprising. I would have thought they¡¯d at least have a branch in Dhoggurum."
"Eh, it¡¯s all bullshit politics. Don¡¯t worry about it," Thern brushed it off. "Now, let¡¯s get back to fighting some kobolds before they decide to close this tunnel off again!"
We continued pushing deeper into the tunnels. It was strange that we were almost getting less resistance to our assault than the first time as if the kobold¡¯s attention was elsewhere.
I had mixed feelings watching Thern bruteforce his way through the kobold traps, most of the time breaking them with destructive force. Thinking about the time I spent with Whitney and Jet to disarm traps, I began to feel like I had wasted my time.
To think I was supposed to be the rogue, but Thern just breaks them... Maybe I¡¯ll get my chance on the dungeon I do solo?
We finally met some real resistance when we were ambushed by a group of kobolds leading a pack of smanders.
"I hope you¡¯ve got enough [Fire Resistance]!" Thern joked as he quickly scrawled a new enchantment on himself.
"I dealt with an Inferno Smander; I think these whelps will feel like a warm breeze byparison."
Thern burst intoughter. "Goodbat banter! I love it! This is the dwarven way!"
Despite the new enemies, things were going pretty well until a greenish smander showed up and breathed noxious gas all over Thern, sending him into a coughing fit.
I was about to intervene when Thern recklessly charged at the thing and forced it to swallow a few of his rocks by prying its jaw open. The death of that smander was shockingly gruesome, and even some of the kobolds began to retreat after that.
This tale has been uwfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Giving my [Sub-Cores] some permission to join the fight, I started throwing more spells around than normal to keep everything under control, feeling concerned about my dwarven friend.
I have a few healing potions... Shit, why didn¡¯t I buy an antidote or something? I fretted, trying to think what I was supposed to do if he was fatally poisoned.
My worry became unfounded as Thern pulled out his potion and quickly chugged it after thumbing open the stopper. He made horrendous retching sounds before quickly washing it down with his usual sk.
"I can¡¯t believe the bastards poisoned me," Thern grumbled. "Drinking a bloody antidote potion is never fun. I swear those alchemists make them taste like ass on purpose."
"You okay?" I asked.
"Yeah, I¡¯ll be good in a minute or two..." Thern grumbled. "I warned you to be careful and then look at me, letting a mindless smander get the jump on me."
"Well, at least you got your revenge. By the way..." I started gesturing towards my chin and then pointing at his beard. "You got some smander... Everywhere."
"Ah bloody beards, I got the giblets all over me," Thern said with frustration. "I¡¯m gonna need a good soak after this."
"Quite literally, bloody beard," I said with a cheeky grin.
Thern briefly looked upset before bursting out withughter. "Good one. I¡¯m d to see you¡¯vee out of your shell; gone is the polite little elf that entered my library."
"I hope you¡¯re not implying I¡¯ve lost all my manners."
"Nope, but you¡¯re a lot more fun to be around. Although I wish some of your luck would also rub off on me."
"Well, there¡¯s still more tunnel to explore unless they n on copsing this one on us as well."
"I hope not. But I wouldn¡¯t put it past the bloody cowards," Thern grumbled.
I quickly harvested the smanders, cutting offrge parts to "harvest properly"ter. Interestingly, I had to intentionally use [Dissection] as if the skill was upset that I was regressing in the rarity of materials to harvest.
Are normal smander parts not good enough for you anymore?
Admittedly, I felt simrly unlocking the lesser profile when I already had the one from Inferno Smander. At least it furtherpleted my collection, and now I had the strange evolutionary interconnection from Kobold to Inferno Smander.
Was the one I fought originally a kobold? Probably not; I don¡¯t think they¡¯re native to the region?
With Thern fully recovered and the hasty collection of valuables, we continued.
We were making some good progress deeper into the kobold tunnels when we came across an unexpected sight; another group of dwarves!
It was a rtivelyrge party, although of much lower levels. They were currently fighting arge horde of kobolds at an intersecting fork. Thern wasted no time joining the fray and tossing a few unexpected, explosive rocks around.
Seeing their group under some pressure from a group of kobolds with ranged weapons, I focused on multiple big castings of [Shatterquake] directly under them. This caused the rocks to violently explode, killing some and disrupting the others.
The resulting chaos caused some dwarves tounch attacks at me, but I quickly threw up a few [Aegis] spells to block their barrage.
"That¡¯s a friend, you sted dimwits!" Thern shouted in rage.
"Hold your fire!" One of the dwarves bellowed to the rest of his group.
The rest quickly heeded, which was good, as Thern looked about ready to start bashing in some skulls. With both of our groups, it didn¡¯t take long to mop up the rest of the kobold forces.
"Sorry about that..." The apparent leader of the group said, looking concerned.
"You better be sorry!" Thern shouted. "You just attacked a gold-ranker in front of a guild staff member. You¡¯re lucky she¡¯s got a cooler head than you lot, or you¡¯d all be fried with lightning!"
Two of the older-looking dwarves seemed shocked, while the group¡¯s youngsters looked upset.
"Ah! I¡¯m so sorry, sir! Ma¡¯am! Uhh..." The dwarf started stammering and apologizing profusely.
"Don¡¯t tell me they¡¯re going to steal our tunnel; we were here first!" One of the dwarvesined.
"Yeah... I¡¯m so close to getting my next ss; I could almost taste it... What rotten luck."
"Oi! You little punks sure have some mouths on you!" Thern said gruffly, albeit in a joking manner.
"Sorry, sir..." The party leader tried to apologize again.
"Na, don¡¯t bed. It¡¯s all good," Thern shook his head. "We were mostly just blowing off steam... I¡¯m sure we don¡¯t mind letting you have the experience?"
Thern turned to me and shrugged questioningly. I didn¡¯t really need much time to make my decision.
"I don¡¯t mind. The experience is kind of bad..." I admitted. "Although, what about the evolved kobolds? We did stir up trouble earlier."
"Bring ¡¯em on!" One of the dwarves shouted confidently.
Thern, on the other hand, was stroking his beard in thought.
"We could babysit a bit until the inevitable tunnel copse?" Thern suggested. "It¡¯s better than going home early, at least. Get to help the next generation of dwarf adventurers and all that."
The leader seemed thrilled with the suggestion, and most of the group did, although the two younger dwarves seemed disgruntled. I overheard some especially rude remarks about Thern¡¯s use of babysitting.
I shrugged. "I don¡¯t mind. Does it earn me some points with the guild?"
Thernughed. "I¡¯ll put it on your record. In case you ever want to join the guild staff." Thern winked.
There was some discussion amongst the dwarves, and eventually, they agreed. Both Thern and I watched the group leading the charge down the only unexplored path since we¡¯d cleared out our own respective tunnels.
"So... Do we just watch them? How does this work?" I asked once they were out of earshot.
"Aye," Thern answered. "Watch, and if anything too deadly happens, intervene. If we spot any evolved monsters, kill ¡¯em right away. Although I get the feeling we won¡¯t be here too long, the kobolds will probably drop the tunnel soon, so be ready to help me with the ceiling."
I nodded and began my watching...
Some of me was a bit upset at not getting to train my skills or traits, but I supposed I would get back into the thick of it tomorrow.
The one benefit was that it was interesting to see a full party work together from the sidelines; I had always either been in the thick of it myself or the target of it.
Thern was getting surprisingly invested and often shouted suggestions or warnings to the group. There was even some praise or cheers at a well-delivered blow.
I decided to just watch in silence, looking for any good opportunities. The other dwarves seemed quite jumpy about me, considering they had tried to attack me in the tunnel.
Thern and I only needed to intervene once; an ambush with a pack of smanders practically dropped on the group came out of nowhere. It got a little frantic, and while there were some wounds amongst the group, thankfully, nobody had died.
<16 Skill Points are now avable.>
Well... At least that¡¯s good.
There was a huge rumbling apanied by the sound of explosions and quakes. Thern and I both jumped into action, hastily casting [Rampart].
"Everyone gather round!" Thern shouted. "There¡¯s gonna be a lot of digging in the future."
A few breathster, we were joined by the Geomancer in the dwarf group. He recovered from his shock and helped create earthen pirs to support our makeshift structure.
Thern looked at him and smirked. "Lad, I hope you have [Sand Pit], or I¡¯m going to be a very grumpy dwarf."
Chapter 185: Politics
Chapter 185: Politics
By the time we finally escaped the tunnel, everyone was extremely tired and grumpy. Well... Except for me, I felt pretty good, all things considered, the benefits of being a slime.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
Since there were so many of us, fresh air apparently became an issue for the dwarves, but Thern and the party leader hade prepared, and both had a dimensional storage container containing fresh air.
"Any smart dwarf keeps at least one of these things; you don¡¯t want to be trapped underground and suffocate," Thern exined.
I guess being buried alive is amon urrence for them... That¡¯s rather unsettling.
Thern and the Geomancer had to repeatedly work overtime casting [Sand Pit], but thed had far less Mana than Thern and frequently took breaks to recover.
Meanwhile, I keptpressing the sand into spheres, even though Thern was unlikely to need them anymore. asionally, I¡¯d throw out [Shatterquake] to contribute to our excavation by breaking apart arge enough rock into more manageable chunks for our two diggers.
To boost morale and also aid in their recovery, I pulled out some of my "alcohol" to share with the group. Thern chugged it as soon as it was in his grasp, while the rest of the dwarves were initially hesitant. Although once they all had a few sips, they were hooked and singing praises.
"Is this recovering my Mana?" The Geomancer asked, looking astonished.
"I always had suspicions about that myself," Thern answered. "Whenever I had a hard day full of enchanting, nothing put the spring back in my step than some of that glorious booze."
"I guess the secrets out. I like to think it gives it the extra kick," I replied, relying heavily on [Acting] to save the day.
"Ha! What next? You gonna start mixing in health potions?" Thern said,ughing uproariously.
"Either that or antidote," I teased.
"Sorry, I don¡¯t think even the gods could make your booze ptable if you mixed in that gunk," Thern replied, shaking his head.
"Please don¡¯t," The other dwarves agreed. It seemedeveryonehated the taste of antidote potions.
Nobody wished to continue, so we all headed back to Dhoggurum together.
The group seemed quite happy, and it looked like they had made good progress despite the kobolds ending their adventure early. They had also be much more amiable to Thern and me, and some brown-nosing was happening with the former.
When we finally got back inside the city, we said our goodbyes and headed back home.
"Sorry about that. I¡¯m sure you usually get to do far more exciting stuff," Thern apologized unexpectedly.
"No worries. I¡¯m sorry my luck didn¡¯t activate, and we couldn¡¯t kill a lesser dragon or something rare and interesting," I responded.
"Ha! Now, that would have been a story," Thern chuckled. "Still, it feels good to get a bit of a workout. Feels like it¡¯s been too long since I did some good monster hunting, even if it was just a few kobolds."
"Too much sitting around enchanting?"
"Mostly. That and paperwork," Thern shuddered. "What¡¯s your next n? Going to go find a good quest to hunt? Take a break?"
I paused to think a bit, then nodded before responding, "Maybe a small break... I want to do some shopping. Do you think I could get one of those timekeeper tools?"
"Oh, you want a clock? I¡¯m sure my Pa can point you in the right direction," Thern answered.
"Great, thanks," I replied cheerfully.
***
The next day, I went on a shopping trip. While I would have appreciated it if Darmod had apanied me, he was a little too busy negotiating with the Flinthearts.
Thankfully, he did at least give me a list of shops to check out and which ones to avoid. Having a merchant¡¯s opinion was always good.
Thern, meanwhile, was called in to assist Thessa with some enchanting, so it was just me today. This meant I spent arge portion of my morning getting utterly lost in this dwarven maze until I finally gave in and asked for directions.
The merchants I dealt with were polite and friendly, especially when I shed my gold-rank adventurer tag, and then they ensured I was given VIP treatment. I managed to get my hands on one of the time devices, a clock, as they called it, and I fondly inspected the rounded and ttened device in my hands.
They came in various casings, but I chose the sturdiest option avable, preferring robust practicality over gaudiness. It did not look bad¡ªfar from it¡ªbut it was remarkably more subduedpared to some of the gem-encrusted pieces they had on disy.
At least now I¡¯ll know the time if I spent days in a dungeon, underground, or who knows where.I thought happily over my purchase.
I also stocked up on some more containers in case I needed them for harvesting and opted to buy a few emergency potions. I wasn¡¯t sure if or when I¡¯d group up with someone again, but I didn¡¯t want to end up in a situation where someone I cared about was dying of poison, and I could only watch helplessly.
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Definitely adding alchemy to my to-do list at some point. Either that or somehow convincing a dungeon to give me a pink slime... Probably both, though, why not. I have the time.
I pulled out my coin marked by Trixie and wondered when the pixie would arrive. I certainly hope she wasn¡¯t ying a prank on me, saying she¡¯d meet up with me only to leave me waiting months.
Hopefully, she didn¡¯t get herself captured again...I couldn¡¯t help but worry.
Before returning home, I purchased some choice cuts and other food items for our dinner. They gave me free room and board and refused any payment offer. So, if I wanted to reciprocate their kindness, I had to take any chance I could, and they could never turn down food or drinks that had already been purchased.
Then again... They had already helped themselves to that obsidianite...
At dinner, Darmod was looking mightily pleased with himself.
"I got this as a downpayment from the Flinthearts," Darmod said with a wink as he handed me another silver slime core.
I couldn¡¯t help but smile at it gleefully. "Thanks!"
While I wasincrediblytempted to eat it on the spot, I knew I¡¯d be wasting the trait level up. [Metal Slime] had leveled up after the fight with the ant princess.
Then I had gone to fight two powerful worms and used them extensively, so I could only hope that the next level-up was somewhat close, especially after sampling something as rare as obsidianite.
Nope... Patience, Syl. Get the trait to level five; then, it¡¯ll be time to chow down.
"Speaking of which, the Flinthearts were wondering if you were open topleting a quest for them?" Darmod asked.
"Sure, I don¡¯t mind doing a quest," I replied happily. "It¡¯s sort of my job, even if I¡¯m kind of treating this a little like a vacation."
"That¡¯s good. It¡¯ll also help you, relieving some of their financial pressure," Darmod said happily.
"Oh? Why¡¯s that?" I asked curiously.
"They¡¯ve been having trouble with one of their mines, and someone is blocking people from taking the quest posted to free it up," Darmod exined.
"The guild would never!" Thern shouted angrily.
"It¡¯s not the guild staff, but adventurers who ept the quest get...Persuadedto turn it down," Darmod said sadly. "While the bribes are no doubt less than the reward, theye with no risk."
"Bloody noble politics," Thern spat.
"Well, I don¡¯t think they could bribe me unless they offered me a ton of slime cores," I joked.
"Pleasedon¡¯t..." Darmod begged.
"She¡¯s joking, Pa..." Thern paused. "At least Ihopeshe is."
"Mostly," I teased. "Any idea what the issue is?"
"Just that a monster has taken residence in their orichalcum mine," Darmod answered. "You can meet Kaldrour Flintheart at the guild for more details; he¡¯s dying to meet you."
"Sure, sign me up."
***
Elsewhere...
Two individuals were seated in a grand chamber adorned with opulent furnishings and extravagant decorations. The walls were draped with rich, heavy curtains in deep, royal colors and scattered intricate tapestries depicting historical battles and tales of valor.
Wall disy cases showcased rare and valuable artifacts, intricate sculptures, and ancient tomes. The room was also adorned with gilded mirrors, which added a sense of grandeur and expansiveness.
The room¡¯s centerpiece was arge, polished marble table surrounded by ornately carved chairs upholstered in sumptuous fabrics. The table adorned elegant candbras, casting a warm, flickering light across the room.
As a finishing touch, a small serving area was discreetly tucked into one corner, offering a selection of fine wines, pastries, and other delicacies to indulge in.
"It¡¯s been decided that we will continue our trade agreements with the Outeatus Kingdom, but only for necessities and luxury goods. Arms and armor are off the table," The dwarf spoke before sipping his wine. "I hope this is satisfactory to The Grove."
"More than satisfactory, my old friend," A lithe elven male replied before gracefully sipping his own cup. "After months of refusal to budge over the promised wealth, I¡¯m frankly surprised that The Empire has so abruptlye to reason."
"Oh? Are you going to y the fool, Tamnaeth? After you made such a tant power disy," The dwarf chuckled.
Tamnaeth was immediately suspicious but hid it behind a mask of utterposure. Power disy? He¡¯d done no such thing. Had one of the elders interfered with theck of progress in recent months? He had reassured them multiple times that things were still within expectations.
While something had been suggested originally to remind the dwarves not to trust thatsavagekingdom, it was deemed far too risky at the time. When dealing with their stout allies, if you weretooforceful, they tended to dig in their heels and oppose you out of sheer stubbornness.
"Come now, Loldraeg. Surely you can indulge me," Tamnaeth threw on as much social charm as possible, even though it was notoriously ineffectual against the dwarves. "For old time¡¯s sake?"
"Fine, fine," Loldraeg chuckled, giving a knowing wink and grin. "I understand the need to gloat and bask in the glory of a job well done. I¡¯ll give it to ya."
Tamnaeth gave a tiny smile as he drank from his cup. He patiently waited for Loldraeg to continue.
"I don¡¯t know whether to call it a stroke of genius or madness. Sending an elf to join the adventurers guild was startling enough on its own, but going out of her way to ept multiple quests to turn dwarven goodwill towards her was smart thinking.
Singlehandedly taking out a fire ant princess and two royal guards, and, by estimating the numbers, likely almost the entire nest. You know how much we dwarves hate those sted ants...
And then, the cherry on top is having her defeat a tierfivemonster, presumably also by herself. But not bragging about it openly, and instead subtly handing it in with thepleted ant quest to an inquisitive staff member, who would question the sheer numbers...
Combining goodwill and a reminder of your fangs all in one neat package. Truly brilliant," Loldraeg said, raising a ss to toast.
Tamnaeth was shocked. He had not heardanyof this; it took all of his social prowess not to let his mask crack. He couldn¡¯t sense any falsehood in Loldraeg¡¯s statement, but it soundedoundish.
Would the elders really send someone to join that guild? They always scoffed at the idea and said it was beneath us. While killing a tier-five monster isn¡¯t that unbelievable, it would have to be of someone with some degree of pedigree. Would any parent ept their child dirtying their lineage by joining that group of rabbles? Even if it was for a good cause.
Tamnaeth merely smiled, epting the toast. "Thank you for the indulgence, old friend."
"Anytime. Personally, I think any coin epted from that kingdom isn¡¯t worth it," Loldraeg admitted with a sigh. "Those coffers reek of blood, but the lust for wealth has tempted many young dwarves..."
"I can¡¯t see even the staunchest of our eldersining about trading a few amenities," Tamnaeth replied, waving his hand dismissively in gesture. "Besides, I assume even that trade will be guarded for snapping mutts."
Loldraeg nodded. "Of course. Should any of that cursed seed think themselves another God King, they¡¯ll be swiftly reminded why their forefather failed."
They continued to exchange pleasantries. Meanwhile, Tamnaeth kept thinking about that elven agent in the Adventurer¡¯s Guild.
I¡¯ll have to pay them a visit... I¡¯m curious about who they sent and why I wasn¡¯t informed. I understand the need for some undercover action, but not evening to greet me when I¡¯m in the most authoritative position for this region is almost insulting. Still... It certainly has garnered results.
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Chapter 186: Meetings
Chapter 186: Meetings
I was heading towards the Adventurer Guild that morning to meet with Darmod¡¯s friend, Kaldrour Flintheart. I had yet to interact with any dwarven nobles, so I wondered how their demeanor would differ from the human ones. But if he was friends with Darmod, then he surely couldn¡¯t be too bad.
When I arrived, I asked one of the staff members to help me find the meeting room where I was supposed to wait.
"Ah, Miss Syl, good morning. Sir Flintheart hasn¡¯t arrived yet. However, another gentleman has requested your presence. Would you be willing to do so?"
Are they already trying to bribe me so I do not take the quest? Word sure travels around fast... Well, I¡¯ll ept the meeting so I can at least warn Darmod and Kaldrour who it was.
"Sure, I don¡¯t mind since I got some free time," I replied politely.
The dwarf looked relieved at my eptance. I was led to a rather ornate room filled with rather fanciful decorations and a surprising amount of pastries and wine.
Oh? Are they trying to butter me up?
"Greetings, it¡¯s nice to finally meet you," a gentle and refined voice said. "I hope your time in Dhoggurum has been pleasant."
Rising from his seat was a lithe elven male with long silvery hair, perfectly straight and prim. His outfit was an immacte tunic brimmed with defensive enchantments, leaving him both fashionable and protected.It¡¯s an elf! I thought with astonishment. I know I kept hearing they had some diplomats here, but I never suspected I would run into one soon. Does that mean the Flintheart¡¯s enemies are the elves?
No tiers or elements... Did my [Identify] partially fail? Also, he has two sses!
"You may call me Tamnaeth. I¡¯m the currently assigned elven authority to this region," Tamnaeth introduced himself before I could say anything.
"Syl, it¡¯s nice to meet you," I responded.
"Syl? You¡¯re using an alias?" The elf spoke while he seemed to be examining me more closely. "You look..." He paused, his face looking like he was either weighing up options or running calctions.
Has he seen through my disguise?
Recovering from my initial shock, I remembered the request I had been given by Sylthaeryn.
"I was told to give you this," I said. Reaching for the bag and removing it from my person. I held it out.
The elf suddenly went pale. Hisposure almost instantly shattered. His eyes widened, and his pupils constrained.
"I-I¡¯m terribly sorry!" He spluttered out, his once dignifiedposure broken. "I had no idea. You¡¯ll receive no interference in your duty from me!"
The elf suddenly started moving toward the door as if his life depended on it.
"No, wait, I need you to take this." I tried to protest as he continued his exit.
"I understand. Message received. I¡¯m truly sorry for risking your cover, mydy," Tamnaeth said as he practically fled the room.
When the door swung closed behind him, I could only blink in utter confusion. I¡¯d been left holding the bag.
"What the hell just happened?" I asked myself.
***
Tamnaeth took controlled breaths as he rapidly reapplied a mask ofposure and regalness. He didn¡¯t want any of the dwarves, be theymon or noble, to see that crack in his social armor.
Gods... I can¡¯t believe they sent one of the vines. But that bag is proof enough. Is there something bigger at y here than just the Outeatus Kingdom? Which branch would willing to send their child outside of the Grove?
He recalled what his [Identify] had told him.
I know I¡¯ve been stagnant in progressing my racial levels ever since picking up this diplomat position, but still... That was humbling. Not to mention her ss¡ªmight it be a rare or hidden one? It reeks of someone¡¯s prodigious progeny, certainly above my pay grade. And with a racial level that high, I wonder what her other sses are? No way that singr advanced ss is the entire story...
Tamnaeth shook his head, attempting to dispel his curiosity.
No, I must not interfere. I¡¯ll send a message back to my elder and seek further instruction. I must not jeopardize her mission; her threat was clear enough.
He shuddered, remembering her holding out her golden oak bag so nonchntly, as if in a brazen disy of force. If that wasn¡¯t a tant sign of hermand.
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"I was told to give you this." (Look, here is my authority.)
"No, wait, I need you to take this." (Don¡¯t approach without permission again.)
Speaking in subtle code was challenging without breaking cover, especially if she was under a mentalpulsion not to break the persona. But Tamnaeth felt he had interpreted the messages correctly.
And to think I so brazenly called myself the authority in the region. He shuddered. I¡¯ll report the mission as a sess and, if needed, apologize to her branch.
***
I sighed and began raiding the snacks and drinks, throwing everything into storage.
If he¡¯s going to leave me hanging with the bag, then I¡¯m at least taking the food. Maybe I¡¯ll have to seek him outter and drop off the bag. I intend to keep my promise to Sylthaeryn even if I have to coat it in adhesive slime and throw it at him!
I left the room with my [Core Storage] full of newfound deliciousness. It didn¡¯t take too long for me to run into another staff member.
"Ah, you finished your meeting already?" He asked curiously.
"You could say that..." I grumbled.
The dwarf clearly didn¡¯t understand my annoyance and merely gave a sympathetic smile.
"Well, Sir Flintheart has arrived. Do you need a break to freshen up?"
"No, I¡¯m good. Let¡¯s get this over with."
I swear if he runs away, too, I will be furious.
I was taken to a less ornate room this time. Sitting inside was a rather friendly-looking dwarf with a fiery orange hair and beardbo.
"Ah! You must be Miss Syl!" He said merrily. "Darmod has been singing your praises, so I¡¯ve been ecstatic to meet the adventuring elf myself."
"That¡¯s me," I replied. "Pleasure to meet you, Sir Flintheart."
"Please! Any friend of Darmod is a friend of mine. Call me Kaldrour."
"Sure, just call me Syl then," I nodded. "So what¡¯s this orichalcum mine issue Darmod mentioned?"
"Straight down to business, I can appreciate that," Kaldrour said with a nod, then frowned. "It¡¯s been a rather frustrating predicament... A monster has taken up residence in my orichalcum mine, and anyone I¡¯ve tried to recruit to deal with it is either underqualified or bribed by mypetition to look the other way."
"Why are they bribing adventurers? Sure, it must be hurting your ie, but aren¡¯t they just burning their own funds to do so?" I questioned.
Kaldrour nodded. "My rivals are hoping that if I don¡¯t meet my mineral quotas, they can bid for the ownership of the mine."
"Really? That seems a little excessive, especially if it¡¯s through no fault of your own." I replied, unable to hide my confusion. "You have a quota for something you personally own? Why does that matter? I can¡¯t imagine the city being upset a farmer¡¯s cow isn¡¯t producing milk."
"Mines and minerals are the lifeblood of the dwarven empire," Flint exined. "So much so that having adequate output is mandatory. Not meeting the minimum levels is seen as an affront to any self-respecting dwarf, and thus, it will be sold and taken over by someone else who promises to fix the mistakes."
"That¡¯s... Harsh." I responded. "I mean, it¡¯s not like the monster living in the orichalcum mine is your fault."
"I suppose it would seem that way for any non-dwarf." He chuckled. "But again, any self-respecting dwarf is expected to protect their own domain. It¡¯s why the defense of Dhoggurum is seen in such a positive light. Me being unable to defend my property is seen as a weakness."
"Even though it¡¯s your rivals stopping you from defending it?"
"Defending oneself from cutthroat business is-" Kaldrour began exining.
"I get it," I interrupted Kaldrour. "Any self-respecting dwarf should be able to do so."
He let out a loud chortle. "Exactly!"
"I don¡¯t suppose your rivals have any elven connections, do they?" I asked curiously, my prior encounter still fresh in my mind.
He scoffed at that. "Those scoundrels? No way, they are a bunch of lesser nobles like myself. I doubt the Grove would give them the time of day."
"Huh... Well, I¡¯m willing to help. So what¡¯s moved into your mine?"
"A spider monster known as ¡¯The Terror¡¯,"
"¡¯The Terror¡¯?" I replied deadpan.
"Some adventurers started calling it that, and it became a named monster," Kaldrour answered, shaking his head. "Quite a lot is unknown about the bugger, but it used to be a Trapweaver Spider and was notoriously tricky as it wouldy devious traps that befuddled even some veteran adventurers."
"Used to be?"
"It¡¯s likely since evolved... But the result is unknown," Kaldrour answered.
"Interesting..."
"I¡¯m d you think so. It¡¯s terrified any lower-rank adventurers, and the high ones I¡¯ve tried to hire to take care of it get bribed to look the other way," He shook his head. "I don¡¯t want to send a bunch of mustached younglings to their deaths."
"That¡¯s honestly very respectable. Still, I¡¯m surprised that the other adventurers are so easily bribed..."
"I think that¡¯s why they¡¯ve been drumming up the name ¡¯The Terror¡¯ so much." He answered. "Anyone I¡¯ve hired hears it, then when is offered free money to just notplete the quest, well... You can understand why they¡¯d ept money with zero risk."
"Well, I can¡¯t see them bribing me," I answered honestly. "Killing a rare monster and getting who knows what parts from its harvest sounds far more enriching."
"Ha! You really are a true adventurer; Darmod wasn¡¯t kidding."
"So kill the monster, and the quest is done? Anything else?"
"Honestly, if you can even just get it out of the mine, I¡¯d consider it a sess. Even though it¡¯s got the nickname ¡¯The Terror, ¡¯ it¡¯s rather unsuiting. Many of the initial adventurers that went against it were allowed to escape, and only the ones that truly threatened its life were killed."
"That¡¯s rather unusual behavior..." I replied.
"Indeed. I care more about my mine than its death, so if it¡¯s safer to just make it flee, then please take that objective. Don¡¯t go dying on my ount."
"Anything I should know about my potential bribers?"
"I presume they will try to contact you while you¡¯re on the way to the city gate. If you reject their offer, I¡¯m unsure what they will attempt, so please be careful."
"Oh? Would they send some hired goons my way?"
He grunted angrily. "I honestly wish I could say no. But it¡¯s feasible. The one is rumored to have some extremely seedy connections, but I keep hitting dead ends whenever I¡¯ve tried to dig deeper."
Please send me some scumbag thugs my way! I thought eagerly. If I get to kill some scoundrels, that¡¯s a free dwarf profile for me!
"Can I ask a... Sensitive question?"
"Of course. My lips are sealed," Kaldrour replied with a firm nod.
"If they do send some thugs my way... Do I have to resort to non-lethal methods?"
"Ha! Part of me wants to say yes because even scumbags deserve a second chance, but the rules of self-defense are extremely clear here," Kaldrour spoke. "If they threaten your life, then their own is forfeit. I¡¯m pretty sure the Adventurer¡¯s Guild has a simr policy about defending its own, no?"
I nodded. "It does... Just wanted to make sure there wasn¡¯t some dwarvenw or something I¡¯d be breaking."
Kaldrour chuckled. "It¡¯s always good to check. So, if I haven¡¯t scared you off, are you sure you want the quest?"
"dy. Plus, helping you out is how I get myself some more silver slime cores."
Kaldrour burst outughing. "So Darmod really wasn¡¯t kidding about that... Well, I¡¯ll dly put in all my effort with that regard, even if you can¡¯t clear out the mine." He leaned over and spoke in a hushed whisper. "That obsidianite is going to make all of us very rich."
With no further questions, I happily epted the quest. Thankfully, it came with a convenient [Mapping] tracker, so I was unlikely to get lost this time.
A chance at a dwarf profile and some new spider monster. Sounds like I¡¯m in for a fun time.
Chapter 187: Scoundrels
Chapter 187: Scoundrels
Walking towards the gate, I looked for the potential contacts. I wondered if they would perhaps not approach me since I was a supposed elf, or was their greed enough to ignore that?
It didn¡¯t take too long for a rather posh-looking dwarf to intercept me.
"Miss, might I have a moment of your time?" The dwarf asked.
"Ten silver slime cores," I responded.
"I beg your pardon?" The dwarf asked befuddled.
"That¡¯s my price to not clear out the orichalcum mine."
The dwarf¡¯s shock and surprise were so apparent that I thought his eyes would pop out or his jaw would hit the floor.
"Surely you¡¯re joking?"
"Nope. That¡¯s my price. Gold, jewels, or anything else has no value to me. If you want to bribe me, then that¡¯s my price.""I-I... I could maybe get one?" The dwarf stammered.
"Not good enough, sorry."
"Two! I meant two!"
I kept walking.
"Silver slime cores are rare. Even if they are trash ones killed. You can¡¯t be serious!" The dwarf failed to reason with me. "Surely you don¡¯t want to face The Terror!?"
"I¡¯mpletely serious. Sorry, we couldn¡¯t go do business. I¡¯ve got a spider monster to deal with." I replied with a shrug.
The dwarf¡¯s bafflement was soon reced with rage.
"Don¡¯t you know who I am?" He shouted in outrage.
"Should I? Any fool willing to stop a gold-rank adventurer with a fully legalized quest must not be worth knowing."
His face flipped through various emotions before he settled back on anger. "How dare you! You¡¯ll regret not taking my offer."
"Maybe... Or you¡¯ll regret not saying yes to my ten silver cores. Bye."
I walked off, leaving the dwarf once again utterly baffled and upset. I did throw a quick [Identify] his way just so I¡¯d have a name to give back to Kaldrour.
I hoped he bought the act enough to send his thugs to stop me; I wanted a perfectly legal reason to get my tendrils on a dwarf profile.
Surprisingly, someone else attempted to bribe me so I would notplete the quest, but I didn¡¯t even bother talking to that one. I¡¯d given my price, and they were still trying to throw useless things like gold coins at me.
I mean... If I wanted gold, I¡¯d just make it myself. Well... Once I get a higher rank in [Metal Slime] anyway. I chuckled to myself.
The route to the mines differed from my previous exits, so I had to rely fully on [Mapping] to point the way.
I wonder what kind of spider it is. Trapweaver sounds very enticing. If it has some great trap-rted traits, they could bebined nicely with [Nitro Slime]. I really need to look up if there¡¯s a trapper ss or something.
Leaving this gate, I was weed to extremely vast tunnels with dedicated walkways and tracks for transportation, as well as many, many dwarves. The majority wereborers apanied by the asional guard patrol.
Wow, the dwarves really don¡¯t half-arse anything... I think this is my first time seeing minecarts.
Seeing this many dwarves made me doubt if they would send any thugs my way, which was somewhat disappointing. However, that soon faded when [Mapping] started leading me towards tunnels with far fewer dwarves. That further emptied out when I began taking a tunnel that looked practically abandoned.
I guess this must lead to the Flintheart mine. They¡¯ve really been suffering if it looks like this has already been abandoned. I wonder how he¡¯s been meeting the quotas. Is he buying from someone else and passing it off as his own?
I started going down the tunnel at my own pace when I heard multiple footsteps rapidly approaching.
"It¡¯s this way, right?"
"Must be. Look how abandoned it is."
"So, do we just rough her up?"
"I guess that depends on how cooperative she is or not."
"The boss was furious, but I don¡¯t want to have the guild after me for killing one of their own..."
"Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ve got the numbers, and that¡¯ll scare her off."
Their voices echoed down the tunnel. I couldn¡¯t help but silentlyugh with glee.
Now the question is... Do I kill them all and reveal myself? I guess it depends on how much of a threat they are. I could maybe kill a few and send the rest off running, showing some leniency. A warning not to mess with me? Of course, that¡¯s assuming I don¡¯t need to resort to using my slime abilities; I¡¯m not going to let cockiness be my downfall.
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I turned around to face the oing thugs and ensured [Arcane Armor] was up.
It was a group of around six dwarves of middling levels. I was honestly feeling a little insulted by the show of force. Two held heavy crossbows; one looked to be some sort of spellcaster, one had a massive mace, and the other two looked like typical tanks.
Interesting that my [Identify] only got the elemental affinities or ss ranks for some of them. I guess I need to raise its level more?
"Well! Look who¡¯s been waiting for us, boys!" one of the goons said, smirking.
"I¡¯m here on official adventurer guild business. Are you really sure you want to interfere?"
"I don¡¯t like this... She¡¯s far too confident."
"Bah! False bravado. Those adventurer types know how to fight mindless monsters and think they¡¯re hot shit."
"Last chance to back down, missy! Why don¡¯t you go back to your forest and leave the orichalcum mine alone? It¡¯s for everyone¡¯s best interest."
I snorted augh. It was too absurd; they sounded almost worse than Stantondale brat¡¯s thugs.
I gave a flourish of my hands with lightning crackling between them.
"I feel like I should be warning you. Last chance to turn around and run away?" I replied confidently.
"Oh, a bloody mage. Of course, that¡¯s why she¡¯s so confident." One of the thugsughed triumphantly.
"Bet she¡¯s never fought a spellbreaker before."
I actually have... Although I don¡¯t remember him doing much other than screaming at me.
"Let¡¯s see how good you can concentrate on your spells when we smack you around!"
Well... I guess there¡¯s no reason to hold back.
I ordered my [Sub-Cores] to cast my debuffs on one of the dwarves; this was the perfect opportunity to spread them all. It took only mere moments, and then, with a confident grin, I cast [Contagion].
The dwarves had missed all the subtle afflictions being cast, but when I cast that spell, they had noticed and almost immediately reacted.
"Attack!" One of them shouted just as the transparent ckish cloud of Mana exploded from their debuffedpanion.
From what I could tell, it appeared that none of them resisted the debuffs.
Oh, wait! I¡¯m wearing my guild tag. Interface!
Suddenly, little bar indicators appeared in my vision. As I suspected, it seemed like [Affliction Tracker] was one of the skills that would integrate with the magic item as tiny pictures with a red border appeared next to each hostile dwarf.
The lightning bolt with a red border must be [Conductive]; likewise, the me must be [mmable]. This is very useful!
My thoughts were interrupted as two crossbow bolts were fired at me. The first bounced off my [Arcane Armor] while the second shattered it, but the bolt was still stopped.
I shifted to Lightning affinity and cast [Chain Lightning] at the mace dwarf. To my surprise, he swung his mace at the iing bolt and smashed it!
How the hell? At least it should have shocked him through the mace!? I protested.
"Ha! I told you she¡¯s never fought anything but monsters!" He sneered.
I clicked my tongue in annoyance and began "multicasting" with my [Sub-Cores]. [Arcane Armor] was reapplied, while two [Fireballs] were formed andunched at the backline, which was my first priority to takeout. To keep the spellbreaker upied, I fired another [Lightning Bolt] at him, forcing him to smash it with his mace.
"Gods, so many spells!" The geomancer shouted in surprise. "Her [Multicast] must be an insane level!"
"Shut up and get the wall behind her, then get rid of her footing." The sniper shouted.
The fortress knight threw himself to block one of the [Fireballs] while the mirror knight¡¯s shield glimmered brightly, and when the spell made contact, it was reflected directly back at me!
Okay, this is getting annoying! I grumbled angrily as I cast [Aegis] to block my returned spell.
Clearly, their strategy was for the two tanks to defend their backline. Then their spellbreaker could get up in my face while the three of them provided supporting fire.
An earthen wall was erected behind me, and the geomancer began casting [Sand Pit] to further trap me.
I had my Ice aligned [Sub-Cores] cast [cial Aura] while I began casting a [Waterjet] spell at the mirror knight. Surely there was a limit to what he could reflect?
The pressurized water beam struck his shield violently, sending him a few feet back. It looked like he had initiated the reflection but could only aim it to the side and not directly at me. I kept the spell going to see if he had a time limit on his reflection, but the way the dwarf smirked made me think otherwise.
"Keep wasting your Mana knife ears!"
While he was trapped, I began peppering the fortress knight with [Acid Dart] spells. While he was incredibly tanky and probably had various elemental resistances, I doubted he had something to protect him from the corrosive acid¡ªespecially if it destroyed his precious shield.
The spellbreaker had reached me by now, and even though he was well within the range of my aura, he seemed to be hardly affected by it. He swung his mace at me, and when it made contact with my protection spell, it caused it to instantly shatter. At the same time, my [Waterjet] spell abruptly ended, and my [cial Aura] winked out.
What!?
Two crossbow bolts were timed perfectly to coincide with my defense going down. I had no time for a spell, so I triggered [Tranquil Flow] to dodge. I dodged both of them, but then one of the bolts seemed to correct its trajectory, embedding itself into me.
"Got ya bitch!" The sniper jeered as fake blood oozed from the wound.
My feet had also sunk into thepleted sand trap, and it looked like a rather unfortunate situation. The spellbreaker moniker seemed not just for show, as it quite literally broke or disrupted my spells.
I triggered [Thunder Step], abandoning the slime that made up my feet to avoid any potential hindrance.
"The hell!?"
"Bloody beards!"
"That¡¯s not a spell!?"
The dwarves shouted in shock and surprise as I chained a few jumps until I ended right above the sniper.
"Got ya..." I muttered as I grabbed him moments before the [Thunder Step] bacsh began.
Using him as a conduit and utilizing [Voltaic Slime], I channeled as much of the surging energy directly into him as possible. He screamed out in pain, and I watched the bar representing his life force plummet, but it wasn¡¯t enough to kill such a high-level dwarf so easily.
The marksman and geomancer backed off while the two knights charged at me. Both used a skill intending to prevent me from dealing enough damage to kill theirpanion.
That was frustrating, as while I wasn¡¯t mindless enough to be forced into attacking the mirror knight, it meant that everyone but him now took reduced damage.
I had made up my mind; no survivors. I instructed my [Sub-Cores] to cast [Rampart] to seal off the remaining tunnel entrance and kicked the rather limp and screaming sniper dwarf, sending him tumbling toward his two knightpanions.
The fortress knight caught him while the mirror knight interceded between us.
"I got you, Gotm!" The fortress knight said, reaching into his pouch, likely for a potion to administer. "What¡¯s all this sticky gunk stuck on your chest?" He questioned while trying to pull at it, but it seemed far too slimy and adhesive for his gauntleted hands.
The mirror knight was ring at me, waiting for me to make any indication of casting a spell.
I simply smiled. "Boom."
And an explosion echoed throughout the now sealed tunnel.
Chapter 188: Anti-Mages
Chapter 188: Anti-Mages
Despite the dramatic explosion, the dwarf was still barely alive. I had expected a kill notification, but it appeared that [Taunt] reduced my damage a lot more than I realized.
Which means I need to defeat the mirror knight first.
"Kastramri! Why didn¡¯t you reflect the spell!?" The fortress knight screamed in anger.
"That wasn¡¯t a spell!" He defended himself.
Internally, I rapidly created four explosive needles and withdrew them between the fingers of my clenched fist. At the same time, I kept up internal production so that I would have a good supply of needles.
"Looks like she might have some assassin training!" The mirror knight shouted before he smirked. "Not that it will do much against a tank. I¡¯ve got you countered pointy-ears!"
Although I made a throwing gesture with my hands, I was actually utilizing [Slime Shot], which was far faster and more urate than anything I could try to replicate. The mirror knight brought up his shield, but the reflective glimmer did nothing since it was not a spell.
To my surprise, the needles went straight through the shield and pierced into his armor and flesh. The dwarf uttered an angry and shocked yell moments before I triggered the detonation. Four simultaneous explosions reverberated throughout the tunnel, startling everyone present.
The marksman seemed to have lost her cool, but the geomancer was now trying to skewer me with spires of rock and earth. I dodged the first few before reapplying my [Arcane Shield] and throwing out [Manaburn] to hopefully siphon her resources.However, that wasn¡¯t enough for me, and I also fired more needles at the geomancer and marksman. I needed to try to deal with them before that damn spellbreaker got back into my face. The marksman took a direct hit, but to my astonishment, my projectiles aimed at the geomancer were intercepted by what looked like floating basalt rocks.
That¡¯s an interesting way to defend yourself. I wonder if it¡¯s a custom spell or something atter levels.
"I can smell the metal in those needles; you won¡¯t trick me!" The geomancer spat right as I detonated all the needles.
Interesting...
I wished I had more time to think and examine what was happening, but I had the mirror knight and spellbreaker engaging me in melee. Seeing the fortress knight still trying to recover the sniper, I knew I needed to take him out.
With two sturdy dwarven bodies blocking me, both designed to counter direct magic, I was forced to reveal one of my secrets. I began casting [Chain Lightning], and both immediately readied themselves to stop me.
I guess their sses allow them to sense Mana or when a spell is being cast. It¡¯s too bad for you; I¡¯m not casting the spell directly.
I fired the spell after moving the anchor point directly above the fortress knight, who was administering a potion. The bolt of surging lightning Mana struck him directly and then began to bounce back and forth between him and his patient.
The two magical counters looked baffled momentarily before bing furious. The spellbreaker rushed to strike me with his hammer to disrupt my casting.
But he was toote.
To everyone¡¯s surprise, once the sniper was in, the spell then ricocheted towards the mirror knight after bouncing to the fortress knight onest time. I must have underestimated how much I juiced the spell, as it seemed to still have plenty of Mana for some additional bouncing.
I had no idea the spell would stop targeting something once it was dead. Is that because [Conductive] fell off once he died?
Despite being effectively caught blindsided, once the spell hit the mirror knight and dealt some damage, it unraveled entirely and dispersed. To me, that felt unfair, but I suppose it was some antimagic skill from his ss.
The spellbreaker¡¯s mace once again crashed against my [Arcane Amor], instantly shattering it. He wasted no time throwing follow-ups against me. I dodged the first blow and tried throwing a [Aegis] to block a second, but it might as well have been wet paper, and his weapon crashed into my arm as a result.
My arm sttered into a misshapen form from the powerful blow; I couldn¡¯t believe it overcame my defenses so easily. I had [Mana Reinforcement] on constantly; it made no sense!
Even though it hadn¡¯t hurt and wasn¡¯t genuine damage despite Alpha faking an absolutely bloody mangled mess, I used [Thunder Step] to get out of direct contact with the spellbreaker and mirror knight.
As if expecting that the spellbreaker heckled at me. "Bloody coward! Get back here and fight! Or are you so scared after your Mana failed you?"
Can I really not use any Mana against those two? Crazy that there are sses like this. There better not be a ss or skill that disables traits, or I¡¯d be absolutely screwed.
I pretended to "heal" my arm by chugging from an empty canteen. Causing the dwarves to re in outrage when it "recovered."
"What a rich bitch, affording potions that good," The mirror knight spat in disgust.
"Don¡¯t worry; we can split her loot once she¡¯s down," The spellbreaker replied. "Plus, this way, she gets to suffer a bit more before we put her down."
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The mirror knight nodded, then shouted. "Broudaen! Swap with me!"
"Okay!" The fortress knight shouted back.
<[Taunt] has been reced.>
Interesting... I guess he¡¯s worried about me shoving more explosive needles at him if he gets close and wants the damage reduction. Makes sense if the fortress knight is going to stand back.
If I wasn¡¯t concerned that they might have somemunication methods with their employer, I¡¯d just go full slime monster on them. I was fine with them knowing I¡¯d killed them, but revealing absolutely everything felt foolish, even if I really wanted to.
Well... If I¡¯m a rich bitch, I might as well pull out some fancy toys to go with it. I chuckled to myself.
I equipped myself with a shield and spear made from satisfying [Metal Slime]. The dwarves approaching me again seemed minorly annoyed at me, making their job more difficult. To make matters worse for them, I hastily cast [Fireball] directly downwards on the poor marksman, leaving the poor dwarf practically on the death¡¯s door.
"How does she keep casting spells like that!?" The mirror knight demanded an answer.
"No idea. Must be some elf bullshit!" The spellbreaker spat out. "Either way, you and me don¡¯t need to worry about that. She can cast all the tricksy spells she wants, and we¡¯ll be just fine."
"Damn you, Nuzzun!" The fortress knight cursed, "Care about your coworkers, you greedy shit!"
"I don¡¯t get paid to care. That costs extra!" He said smugly.
Even I was slightly taken aback by such an attitude. But while the fortress knight looked pissed, the mirror knight was even nodding in agreement.
Wow... I guess when you lie with mutts, don¡¯t be surprised when you get fleas.
"Stop wasting time and kill her!" The geomancer shouted. "She cast something that¡¯s draining my Mana, so hurry up!"
Both anti-mages looked annoyed at that revtion and began charging at me. The geomancer immediately began supporting them; shrapnel was exploding out from the nearby rocks while stone walls began trying to box me in further.
I flung my primed spear at the mirror knight. I expected him to block it, which I hoped for, but he dodged to the side instead, so I was forced to detonate the weapon, to his surprise.
While pulling out a second spear, I blocked the iing blow of the spellbreaker with my shield. Thankfully, the shield blocked his blow this time, but it still negatively affected me. Each blow, even though I was blocking it, seemed to be eating away at my Mana.
Seriously, does his ss let him burn Mana with attacks? I¡¯m blocking him, dammit!
I wasn¡¯t going to let him slowly eat away at my health, so spikes erupted from my shield,pletely catching him off guard and stabbing him into his arm.
"Agh! You bitch!" He yelled in anger.
As he pulled back, I swiftly stabbed forward with my spear, digging cleanly through his armor and into his side. He looked about to curse in horror when he must have seen my grin and realized this spear was the same as my previous one.
"No! Don¡¯t!" He screamed out immediately as I detonated the spearhead.
I didn¡¯t want to be unarmed, so I pulled out another spear before the smoke cleared. When it did, it revealed the spellbreaker lying on the ground, bleeding heavily but still alive.
I¡¯m not used to opponents not going down so quickly. Dwarves really are something else. Although I am still taunted.
I nced toward the fortress knight, who, surprisingly, still hadn¡¯t joined the frenzy. Instead, he was looking over the geomancer, who was looking rough, on her knees, panting heavily. Her Mana was looking like dregs. When he caught my gaze toward him, something unexpected happened.
<[Taunt] has been removed.>
I hummed curiously as I wondered what his angle was. Is he asking me to spare him and the geomancer?
My curiosity was interrupted when a lightning bolt struck me out of nowhere; I turned to the source and saw the mirror knight looking incensed. Even with [Voltaic Slime] siphoning off arge amount of the spell into my storage capacity, it still hurt as I was not entirely lightningproof yet.
Seeing my pained face caused him to glee in delight, and then he unleashed a fireball at me. Then, another fireball, and he kept going.
He¡¯s not a spellcaster. Where the hell did he get these spells from? He¡¯s certainly not casting them. That lightning bolt was especially powerful; was that mine?
Unbeknownst to the mirror knight, the fireballs he was unloading on me were doing almost nothing. Unless he had some blue fire secretly stored away¡ªhe just wasn¡¯t hot enough. It gave me the perfect opportunity to think.
I guess it¡¯s a good thing he doesn¡¯t have more lightning spells... Is that how he dispersed my [Chain Lightning]? Does he store the spell inside himself to useter? Then he must be emptying his collection to try to kill me.
Even with all the fiery smoke and explosions, I could still make him out clearly. He must have run out of [Fireball] spells, as he was now resorting to [Fire Arrow]. Mindlessly firing at the singr spot, hest saw me.
Before the smoke and me cleared, I ordered all [Sub-Cores] to create a batch of needles, and once I had a sufficient stockpile, they all fired out in a spray. It oddly reminded me of Jet¡¯s [Splinterstorm], seeing that many go out at once.
The dwarf became a living pincushion as he spat out blood. He seemed about to say something when there was a soft click followed by multiple detonations.
When the explosion¡¯s echoes finally started quieting down, I could hear someone cursing at himself.
"Bloody hells... Bloody beards... Gods..."
I looked and saw the fortress knight shaking his head.
"What the hell did they sign us up for? An easy target? Bloody fools!" The dwarf continued to rant.
He looked terrified when he saw me looking pretty much unharmed from the fire spell barrage. He dropped his shield and weapon and held up his hands.
"I surrender! I¡¯ll do whatever you want!"
Well, now I¡¯m extra d I didn¡¯t go slime monster on them. It would have been quite a blow to my conscience to kill someone who¡¯s actively surrendering like that. Even if he probably still deserves it.
"Fine. But I won¡¯t hold back if I see your face again," I warned.
He visibly shuddered. "Hold back? That was you holdingback? Bloody crazy elves..." He must not have wanted to say thest part out loud as he immediately shut his mouth and looked about to soil himself.
I pointed to the exit and just red at him. "Go! Before I change my mind."
He nodded, grabbed the unconscious geomancer, and started running, even leaving his weapon and shield behind. Then he awkwardly halted as he reached the rock wall I had thrown up, which was currently blocking his hasty escape.
I sighed and began casting a spell. Using [Shatterquake], I made the wall explode outwards away from them and unsealed the passageway. I didn¡¯t have [Sand Pit] yet, so an explosion was the only way out unless I melted it with acid.
Seeing the entire wall explode like that into rocky shrapnel made the dwarf nearly drop his unconsciouspanion. He briefly bowed his head and then ran.
I don¡¯t think letting him live wille back to bite me... Worst case, they send more dwarves to attack me, and I still have my ultimate trump card.
I didn¡¯t expect him to try to save the mirror knight after he had abandoned his camaraderie, but I was surprised he left the marksman behind. Then I saw she was dead; I had just missed the notification.
The spellbreaker had long passed out from his wounds. Even if I gave him a potion, it was unlikely he¡¯d survive, not that I had any intention of saving someone with such a troublesome ss.
Seriously. Damaging my lifeforce directly through Mana burn is not fun. I don¡¯t think I could ever be immune to that form of damage.
I twirled my spear before stabbing down to finish the job.
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Chapter 189: Derived Dwarves
Chapter 189: Derived Dwarves
I had several notifications to look through but had more pressing concerns. I threw up another wall with [Rampart] to reblock the passageway and gain rtive safety and privacy.
Right. Time to eat up and get that dwarf profile!
I looted the scoundrels of their valuables and turned up the [Acid Slime] to the max.
Great. Now, I¡¯ll be able to make a dwarf persona at some point.
Besides their equipment, they all had exactly 100 gold coins in a small pouch. I threw pretty much everything into my [Core Storage], although I frowned as I puzzled together the implication of the coins.
Did they seriously only pay 600 gold to take me out? I¡¯m insulted being worth so little! At least... I assume that¡¯s a little? I have far more than that in my guild ount, after all.
With that out of the way, I pulled up the dwarf profile and began my perusal of their traits. I probably wouldn¡¯t be able to buy any myself, like the elf ones, but they would all be prime for borrowing.
I began looking at every trait, but my confusion grew as I went through each one.<[Dwarven Resilience]
What doesn¡¯t kill you only makes you stronger! This goes double for your belly.
A tough dwarf is a good dwarf!>
What?
<[Prospecting]
Smell the bounty within the rock!
Those stones aren¡¯t just for looking pretty!>
Is this just [Mineral Sense]?
<[Stubborn Willed]
Your mind is your own, but your anger gets the better of you!>
Anti-mind control? With anger management issues?
<[Forged Skin]
Your skin is tempered to withstand rock and me!
Those puny pokers won¡¯t do much, either.>
Elemental resistances? Defense?
<[Stunted Strength]
Dynamitees in small packages, so let your fists do the talking!
You won¡¯t be winning any ballroom dances, however.>
Strength buff and an agility debuff?
<[Stone¡¯s Blessing]
All things Earthe naturally; the bounty of the stone will never leave you wanting.>
Earth... Magic? Earth Affinity? Details, please!
<[Capable Hands]
As long as it¡¯s Metal or Rock, your hands will do the talking!
Let them guide you and your tools.>
Why would hands talk!?
<[Underdweller]
The ground is where the home is.
Never get lost, and be safe in the stone¡¯s embrace.>
Is this how they navigate their city? An entire trait for that? Does it do more?
I paused, letting it all slowly digest.
I think I hate them? What the hell are these descriptions!? Nothing Gramps could have ever written! I thought some of the Elf trait descriptions were a little flowery, but this is a whole other story! I can probably guess what some of these do, but that doesn¡¯t make it any less frustrating!
Since I was in a sealed room, and none of my senses or visions could sense anything, I blocked out my entire profile. Then, I began testing a few dwarven shapes. Male, female, bearded, giant hair, stocky, buff, and all sorts between.
A fullypleted profile really makes the difference. I also took the time to shapeshift quickly into a few kobold forms since I hadn¡¯t tried that out yet.
Feels mostly like the goblins, except with a lizard tail. I thought, flicking my tail around.
Returning to the dwarf forms, since I hadn¡¯t settled on a persona idea yet, I mostly stuck to copying one of the dwarves I had in. Once again, I found another racepatible with the dragon scales trait.
I threw on all the dwarven traits I could and started ying around with my form. I started trying to blend the elf and dwarf profiles, but I noticed it leaned more toward dwarf than elf.
Is this because I¡¯mcking the full elf profile? I really need toplete that... Could I eat that Tamnaeth guy? No... That¡¯s probably not a good idea, even if he did run away and refuse to take the stupid bag. If he tried to kill me, that would be one thing, but being annoyingly smug and then running away certainly isn¡¯t enough justification. Don¡¯t want to go full evolution crazy, haha...
My strange dwarf-elf hybrid could, in fact, take traits from both races!
This means that I could, at some point, cherry-pick the best to create my ultimate non-slime form! Part goblin, part kobold, part elf, and part dwarf!
I chuckled and began moving on to all the notifications I¡¯d been putting off.
Great! Should I fuse it now or wait a bit longer? I¡¯m tempted to wait till five to get the maximum benefit!
Another stack, which means an extra 5% damage bonus! I¡¯m d it¡¯s just there in the background, adding to everything. Actually... That¡¯s probably why my [Decay] dealt so much damage against that worm, even with the [Assassinate] bonus. If I understand correctly, I gained another four debuffs for its final tally.
<[Corrosion Magic LV 6] spell [Caustic Cloud] learned.>
Oh! Oh shit! I just got sixth-level magic! I¡¯m shocked it wasn¡¯t Fire or Water... Although, now that I think about it, I¡¯m technically using a bit of [Corrosion Magic] with every debuff or affliction I cast, even if its primary Mana is now Fire or something. So maybe I shouldn¡¯t be surprised [Corrossion Magic] was the first to reach it.
I took the time to quickly understand the spell. As its name implied, it was another spell based on the acidic portion of Corrosion Mana. Interestingly, this gave me another look at the "cloud"ponent that [Contagion] also had. Except in this case, this cloud lingered in a set area rather than spreading and dispersing immediately.
I began casting the spell but held off on its finalpletion as I examined it more thoroughly. Getting a closer look, I could see that it wasn¡¯t an apparated effect but more like an orb I could deposit at a location and explode into the hazardous cloud.
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I finished the casting and watched as the sickly bright green orb was flung out and hit my targetted wall. It burst into a simrly colored cloud, partially obscuring, and lingered around for far longer than I had expected for a base spell. When it finally dispersed, the contaminated rocky area looked significantly goopy.
Talk about a rather horrific spell. A cloud of acid that melts whatever is inside. I mean... I could do the same with [Vaporize Slime], but it wouldn¡¯t linger around unless I kept fueling it with slime. Also, Mana is basically free for me. Sucks that it¡¯s another spell without any distinction between friend and foe, though. Gods, if I wasn¡¯t getting some insane resistance from [Acid Slime], it would affect me, too!
Sadly, there were no more skill or trait notifications. I had really hoped [Metal Slime] or [Nitro Slime] might have gained something, or even [Earth Magic], but clearly, I hadn¡¯t used any of them enough.
Finally, I looked over my level-ups.
<12 Trait Points are now avable.>
<17 Skill Points are now avable.>
Both race and ss levels are always nice! Those assholes were at least worth decent experience. Also, my ss is revealing a trait! Those are pretty rare! Let¡¯s see what we¡¯ve got; please be something good!
<[Derived Element (Basic)]
Select a Basic Element and gain it as an Affinity, with Mana Purity levels greatly influenced by this trait level.
One¡¯s Mana Purity can influence this trait, notably its leveling speed and, to a minor degree, the starting Mana Purity.
The trait points invested will be partially refunded if the owner gains the extra affinity through other means, such as Ascension.>
It took me a while to fullyprehend what I had just read. Was this finally my solution to theck of Air Affinity for so long?
Trixie wasn¡¯t lying!
I couldn¡¯t believe it. While I trusted Trixie¡ªrtively speaking¡ªI had somewhat assumed this was a long-building prank on her part.
Then again... She probably didn¡¯t think I¡¯d have my ss levels halted for so long when she advertised this ss as a possible solution! Also, if this offers me a Basic Element now, does that mean I might get offered an Advanced Element at maybe level 20 or 30!?
It was so exciting. I wasted no time purchasing my trait. Rather than immediately acquiring the trait, I was giving the mental impression that I had a choice to make, although my only option was Air in this circumstance.
I giggled to myself. This was so exciting! I quickly moved to see if I truly had the affinity and tried to purchase the magic skill.
<[Air Magic LV 1] spell [Wind Cutter] learned.>
Oh, that¡¯s the spell the Mage used to kill the green slime back in the forest! This is truly wonderful!
I cast the spell and fired a small de of wind at the rock wall. It didn¡¯t leave a veryrge cut, as it was only a first-level spell, and I hadn¡¯t even empowered it or anything.
I was curious if my derived element counted for [Elemental Shift] and tested it by trying to align myself to Air. There seemed no hup at all.
Well, that¡¯s great!
I tried casting another [Wind Cutter], cutting a much further gash into the rock wall. The difference was remarkable.
I forgot how much of a buff [Elemental Shift] gives me... I thought before my thoughts were abruptly interrupted.
I stared at the sudden notification. That was far sooner than I had ever expected.
Is my [Mana Slime] trait boosting it? Maybe even [Elven Legacy]?
I had no idea, but I wouldn¡¯tin about a trait leveling up fast. Mana Purity seemed to be my thing if Trixie was any indication.
Then... I browsed for the skill that eluded me for so long. I opened up its description to look at it.
<[Wind Step]
Move a short distance with near-impossible speed, even in mid-air.
Skill level determines mana efficiency and maximum chained usage.>
Far too long, you have taunted me. But not anymore!
I purchased the skill.
"No!" I screamed in fury.
I stared long and hard.
"Did I just get pranked?" I asked, ring at the previous failed prompt that seemed to be fading away before my eyes.
Part of me wanted to go on a rant, but I was terrified it might be taken away. Instead, I finally used the skill and moved a tiny short distance.
[Thunder Step] is faster... But this is entirely silent. Though, I wonder...
I used [Thunder Step] into the air, ensuring the chain was considered broken. I immediately used [Wind Step] to hit the ground when I felt that tingling. The surging pain lessened as I partially grounded myself, but not enough to stop everything.
Damn, I thought it might have worked... I guess you can¡¯t just entirely negate a downside like that. I wonder if there are more Step skills and, more importantly, if they can bebined!
It was a really interesting idea. Before heading off, I reviewed my freshly updated profile.
Name: Syl [Dungeoneer]
Race: Chimeric Cluster Slime (Blue) LV 5
ss: Elementalist LV 10
Status: Healthy
Mana: Overflowing
Emblems:
[Experiment]
[Apex Hunter]
[Elven Legacy]
[Dungeoneer]*
[Nature¡¯s Bane]
[Manhunter]
Traits:
Slime:
[Mana Slime LV 13]
[Acid Slime LV 7]
[Poison Slime LV 6]
[ze Slime LV 6]
[Cryo Slime LV 7]
[Voltaic Slime LV 6]
[Nitro Slime LV 6]
[Metal Slime LV 4]
[Morph Slime LV 8]
[Pseudopod LV 7]
[Slime Shot LV 7]
[Vaporize Slime]
Core:
[Core Collective LV 8]
[Core Storage LV 6]
[Sub-Core Alpha LV 5] [Sub-Core Beta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Gamma LV 5] [Sub-Core Eta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Delta LV 5] [Sub-Core Theta LV 5]
[Sub-Core Epsilon LV 5] [Sub-Core Iota LV 5]
[Sub-Core Zeta LV 5] [Sub-Core Kappa LV 5]
Mimic:
[Chimeric Mimicry LV 7]
[Chroma Shift LV MAX]
[Consuming Osmosis LV MAX]
Mana:
[Mana Cirction LV 7]
[Mana Reinforcement LV 7]
[Derived Element (Air) LV 2]
[Mana Infusion]
Attributes/Other:
[Soul Mastery LV 7]
[Enhanced Vitality LV 5]
[Magic Resistance (Lesser) LV 5]
[Curse Resistance LV 2]
[Illusion Resistance LV 3]
[Sonic Resistance LV 1]
[Prodigy]
Senses:
[Olfactory Sense]
[Dark Vision LV MAX]
[Mana Conception LV 6]
[Life Sight LV 5]
[Essence Sight LV 3]
[Thermal Vision LV MAX]
[Eagle Vision LV 3]
[Electro-Maic Sense LV 4]
[Tremor Sense LV 3]
Trait Points remaining: 11
Skills:
General:
[Universal Language]
[Equipment Swap]
[Dissection LV 7]
[Mapping LV 5]
[Tracking LV 3]
[Identify LV 6]
[Multitasking LV 5]
[Perception LV 4]
[Aerial Finesse LV 4]
[Thunder Step LV 4]
[Wind Step LV 1]
[Companion Bond]
Combat:
[Tranquil Flow LV 5]
[Attack Mastery (Lesser) LV 7]
[Affliction Mastery LV 6]
[Exploit Weakness LV 5]
Magic:
[Water Magic LV 5]
[Fire Magic LV 5]
[Corrosion Magic LV 6]
[Ice Magic LV 5]
[Arcane Magic LV 4]
[Lightning Magic LV 5]
[Earth Magic LV 3]
[Air Magic LV 1]
[Mana Maniption LV 6]
[Magic Efficiency LV 5]
[Counter Magic LV 4]
[Elemental Shift LV 5]
[Elemental Adaptation]
[Ritual Casting]
[Mana Suppression]
[Elemental Harmony]
Sneaky:
[Vanish LV 6]
[Assassinate LV 6]
[Identity Fabrication LV 6]
[Acting LV 5]
[Rogue Expertise LV 4]
[Magical Subterfuge LV 4]
[Subtle Afflictions]
Skill Points remaining: 15
Profession:
Enchanting:
[Rune Reading LV 6]
[Rune Engraving LV 1]
[Rune Framework LV 7]
[Rune Tracing LV 5]
[Rune Design LV 3]
[Runecrafting LV 2]
[Rune Inspection LV 5]
[Rune Filigree LV 3]
[Rune Repair LV 2]
[Brand]
Profession Points Remaining: 0
Chapter 190: Trapping the Trapper
Chapter 190: Trapping the Trapper
With [Shatterquake], I smashed through the wall the enemy geomancer had cast, clearing the path to the mine. I left the remaining roadblock intact for safety and deterrence, a silent warning to unwee visitors.
Alright, take on the spider monster, grab some orichalcum for the profile, and return to the guild triumphantly!
As I approached the mine, the scene was one of thorough abandonment. Tools and picks were scattered about, and minecarts were upturned, likely further acts of petty vandalism from the enemies of the Flinthearts. Carved into the bottom of one of the minecarts were the words "GO AWAY."
They really went all out with the spooky ambiance. I chuckled to myself.
And as if to prove that the mine had been captured by a spider monster, there was an endless sea of webbing scattered about. I cast [Wind Cutter] at the mine entrance to clear the way, and to my surprise, while it did break most of the minor webbing, arge portion remained intact.
That¡¯s some tough web... Good thing I¡¯m a slime, or I could end up stuck. Let¡¯s turn on the acid and melt my way through.
But before I officially entered, I spent some time organizing my cores. I now had two new elements to level up, even though I had really wanted to work on [Metal Slime] and [Nitro Slime].
I aligned each pair of [Sub-Cores] to Earth, Air, Lightning, Ice, and Fire. Water was the odd one out, but I figured it wouldn¡¯t be useful against a spider monster unless it evolved into some Lava spider. I kept myself aligned with Air, hoping to level up the trait.
Speak of the devil... That¡¯s some utterly absurd leveling speed! It can only be my [Mana Slime LV 13], right? Not even [Prodigy] gives that much. It¡¯s too bad my [Air Magic] and [Earth Magic] don¡¯t level up that fast.
I stayed in my mostly elven form in case I had any unsuspecting visitors and powered up my defenses by borrowing the [Draconic Scales (Lesser)] trait and ensuring my outeryer was reinforced with [Metal Slime].
Stepping forward into the webs, they all gave way effortlessly. While they may have been able to withstand my basic Air spell, they were no match for the might of [Acid Slime LV 7].
I started using all my senses to try to understand the mine¡¯syout, and at the same time, I grabbed [Mineral Sense] to find the nearest deposit of orichalcum.
After wandering the abandoned mine for quite some time, I questioned whether this spider existed. I had run into absolutely nothing living so far. I had found some orichalcum with rtive ease and sampled it immediately; it wasn¡¯t enough to grant me a level, but my gut told me I was close.
Is this spider even here? I couldn¡¯t help but question. Or is it luring me into a trap? It is a trapweaver, after all. Maybe it¡¯s avoiding me since I¡¯m destroying its webs just by walking into them?
As I was contemting this, I suddenly fell face-first into the ground. My body impacted the ground with a metallic ng due to my metalyer.
I blinked in confusion and turned my gaze to what had tripped me. What had been my feet was now a puddle of slime and had been entirely separated from my body with an impossibly clean cut. I stared at my leg stumps in confusion, watching Alpha producing a fountain of fake blood.
What the hell just happened?
I cycled through all my avable senses to examine the spot closely. Rather than find something, it was more like I found nothing. Or, rather, an absence of anything. A thin line of nothing was running low across the ground like a tripwire. I could only vaguely pick it up due to the utterck of even essence in that minuscule spot.
I regrew my feet and crawled over to the spot. I carefully avoided any major contact with the abnormality, stretched my arm out, and ran a single finger over the ce. My finger fell off. I watched as the appendage fell to the ground and sttered from its lost form.
What the hell?
Before I could question it further or experiment, the abnormal spot vanished. The absence of essence rushed to fill in the tiny gap.
This has to be the spiders doing, right? Did it realize I had discovered its trap? Then, was it removed before I could test its capabilities?
This was a disturbing revtion. I hadn¡¯t expected such an intelligent monster, and its unknown evolution might have pushed it even further beyond what Kaldrour had described.
On the other hand... Imagine if I get my tendrils on that profile! I licked my lips.
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With newfound determination, I got up and continued my trek deeper into the mine. Now, I was being extra cautious, as I needed to not sense something specific but rather the absence of something, a highly frustrating conundrum.
As if proving my point about the task¡¯s difficulty, the trapmaker caught me in a few more as if probing at my capabilities. I lost an arm and a leg and narrowly avoided losing my head entirely.
Also, why can¡¯t I sense the damn spider? [Tremor Sense] or [Life Sight] surely should be enough? At least it¡¯s still treating me as if I were a person and not a monster as if I have regeneration rather than a body of slime.
I was very tempted to fuse [Soul Sight] on the spot to have a better chance of discovering this hidden foe. The one silver lining to this bizarre duel was it seemed to be doing great for my experience gains.
I had the bright idea of delegating the task to my [Sub-Cores], but even they seemed perplexed by this encounter. Was the spider onlyying the traps mere moments before I ran into them? It would be one way to exin the strange circumstances.
Not happy to be the one being probed, I decided to hole up in a spot that looked like it used to be a rest point for the miners. I sat down on one of the stools and waited.
I stretched my senses to the max, assigning each [Sub-Core] a specific trait and immediately reporting anything. I had set up a few bombs in the room with [Nitro Slime] and even left a few mines in the tunnels, hoping to catch the spider off-guard if it poked one.
Meanwhile, I passed the time by working on my [Air Magic]. I had a new debuff to construct. At this point, it was almost a routine more than a task, and creating one took very little effort.
I actually really like that name! I couldn¡¯t help butpliment it.
And, of course, discovering a new spell came with plentiful experience.
<[Air Magic LV 2] spell [Gust] learned.>
The new spell was rtively simple but useful. Creating a one-directional burst of wind. Maintaining the spell was also an option that produced a continuous breeze as long as you kept feeding it Mana.
A one-time big burst of wind, or keep it going. This is what that harpy queen must have done. It would be great against any archers, although I think someone with Jet¡¯s skill level and equipment could probably ignore any windy conditions.
I hummed as I waited patiently for the spider to make its appearance. asionally, I¡¯d be forced to rece one of my traps with a refreshed one, as my [Nitro Slime] still had a rtively restricted time limit attached to it.
And so began my cold war against the spider.
Now that I was being much more passive, I didn¡¯t haphazardly lose any more limbs to its suddenly appearing traps. It felt like a rtive stalemate until, what must have been curious on its part, I heard a detonation of one of my [Nitro Slime] mines.
I giggled to myself as all of the nted bombs in that same vicinity were immediately triggered in response. To anyone else, it would have seemed like a chain reaction, but I had plotted to hopefully catch it in my own trap.
I didn¡¯t get a notification, so either it¡¯s still alive, or I missed it...
I went to examine the resulting explosions, but I couldn¡¯t see any blood or limbs in the resulting rocky carnage. I slowly returned to my resting spot but encountered no opposition.
ording to my clock, two hours passed. I spent some of that time gleefully examining the strange device and praised my foresight in purchasing it. In addition, I was swinging a sword made of [Metal Slime] around and changing its form partially midswing in a desperate attempt to level up the trait again so I could eat the core sitting in my storage.
Did I scare it off with that explosion? I couldn¡¯t help but wonder.
Strangely, it had made no further attempts to investigate me or my various devices being nted. I sighed and sat up from my spot.
I guess it¡¯s forcing my hand. Unfortunately, I¡¯m in a position where I have to attack to break the stalemate.
I stepped through the room doorway, and suddenly, my vision twisted.
What!?
I found myself no longer stepping out from the rest point, and instead, I was hurtling down into what looked like a deep chasm. I blinked in confusion and sprouted wings, halting my descent safely.
I examined my surroundings cautiously. Other than this pit drop, there seemed to be no further hostilities.
How the heck did I get here? Where exactly am I?
Activating my [Mapping] skill confirmed that I had been teleported, as my map had a notable gap. I was still within the orichalcum mine but far deeper and below.
I flew to the point where I had appeared, and the only evidence left behind was a small bit of spiderweb rapidly fading away. I clicked my tongue in annoyance while trying to locate anything else out of the ordinary.
This just further proves that the spider evolved... But what kind of evolution lets it teleport me? Dimension magic? That¡¯s a terrifying thought... An evolution or mutation just outright gives a monster something scary like that.
Though... Would it have even had the time to get used to a new skill like that if its evolution was recentish? Unless Flintheart was understating the timeframe. It¡¯s not like most normal monsters have skill points to spend unless it also got the [Apex Hunter] emblem? I doubt it has a ss, or Flintheart would have mentioned that.
I sighed. There was an obvious elephant in the room I had been avoiding.
I¡¯m probably dealing with another [Experiment]. It exins theck of killing, the cautious behavior, and even the strange evolution. Although... Dropping me down a pit would certainly have been lethal under normal circumstances.
I continued searching for any clues, but the trail was cold.
Now, do I try to reason with him or her? I¡¯d certainly like to chitchat with another experiment. Having someone else in the same situation as me would be nice. Another person who gets to know the full slimy details, perhaps?
Although... After Odark, I have no idea if that¡¯s a good idea anymore. But! He wasn¡¯t the most emotionally stable, living the orc lifestyle and whatnot. Maybe this spider will be better mentally, having lived alone? Why did it decide to live inside this mine rather than escape elsewhere? If it can teleport, then surely it isn¡¯t trapped here.
I nodded, my mind made up. I¡¯d certainly give diplomacy a try. At worst, I¡¯d get a nice new profile to eat or perhaps another bribe to let the [Experiment] escape and live?
Either way. Iplete my quest and get my silver cores! Win-win-win for Syl!
Chapter 191: The Terror
Chapter 191: The Terror
But first, I need to find that spider... If it even is a spider anymore? Honestly, it¡¯s starting to feel like it has evolved into a ghost, with how I¡¯ve not even caught sight of the damned thing.
I paused, realized the possibility, and groaned.
Please don¡¯t be a damned ghost!
***
She was right! I can¡¯t believe she was right! A small spider frantically thought to herself as she scurried away toward her den.
She couldn¡¯t believe the absurd situation she was in when she had finally gotten some peace and quiet from the nonstop dwarf attacks. But now some crazy exterminator elf was after her! She thought back to the warning given to her by the mysterious voice during herst evolution.
"There¡¯s a good chance you¡¯ll run into an... Elf in the near future." The bodiless womanly voice expressed. "I don¡¯t think you currently have the strength to prevail, so I suggest you improve yourself drastically."
She hated the voice, especially how it always spoke in a "mother knows best" sort of manner. Like she was a damn child. It was the reason she was in this situation in the first ce!
A brand new life it had enticed her with, filled with possibilities and unknowns. The only payment was some of your old memories, a real bargain, right? Sure, she got the brand new life she was promised, only the hidden caveat of being reborn as a damned spider! She couldn¡¯t believe her misfortune; where was the disimer on this deal?Please note that this new and exciting promised life has no guarantee of being even remotely human. That should have been my warning! She cursed to herself. And only some of my memories? I can¡¯t even remember my old name! What I was left best with feels so random and useless!
She pulled up her profile quickly to look at her condition. As always, she grimaced when she saw the new name the dwarves had somehow given her.
Name: The Terror [Manhunter]
Race: Riftweaver Spider LV 25
ss: -
Status: Injured (Minor)
Mana: Draining
My Mana is looking atrocious. Why did teleporting that elf cost so much, Mana! I barely moved her any distance at all! And why isn¡¯t she affected by [Manhunter]? The fear effect worked on the dwarves, so it should work on elves, too! I¡¯m only halfway to my next evolution, so it¡¯s not like I can pull something out of my ass to gain the upper hand.
She began spinning more [Rift Thread]; it was her best weapon remaining after her Mana had plummeted so spectacrly. Hertest evolution was spectacr, and she felt like she could take on anything, or so she had thought until this elf proved otherwise.
Sometimes, I really wish I could have a do-over with my choices. Picking the Shrinking mutation was a mistake of note; make myself small and cute, and maybe the dwarves will stop attacking me? Ha! Good joke, past-me. Nobody finds spiders cute...
She paused and tried to think on the bright side.
Although... it did allow me to qualify for this dimension evolution since dimensions are apparently rted to size. Or something. Ugh, all this stuff makes my head hurt. Maybe I should have taken her advice and picked a magic-rted evolution sooner?
She pondered the thought a bit before shaking her little head.
No... While some spite may have influenced my decision, Trapweaver was definitely the way to go. I wouldn¡¯t have survived as long as I have if I hadn¡¯t been bunkering up in this booby-trapped mine.
She sighed.
Well... Until the elf exterminator showed up and destroyed everything that I had constructed by casually walking through it! Seriously? Is her body itself a weapon? Why does everything except [Rift Thread] just break on contact with her?
And does she have instant regeneration or something, too? It took ages to grow back when I lost a leg, even when I used that [Regen nd]! Meanwhile, I watched her regrow an entire arm in seconds! Talk about unfair...And most importantly, why do elves have wings!?
That had really shattered her hope of defeating the elf. Gravity was her ultimate secret weapon, the great equalizer to all, but even that wasn¡¯t enough to stop the elf.
With a new supply of [Rift Thread], she began crafting some [Recovery Thread] and manipting it with [Thread Mastery] to cover her burn wounds before recoating herself in some [Armor Thread].
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Andndmines? Freakin¡¯ndmines! I thought this was a fantasy world with magic and monsters; why does she havendmines!? If I hadn¡¯t used [Blink], I would have been a smoldering corpse.
She "pped" herself with one of her pedipalps. This was no time to get into a negativity spiral. At worst, she could [Blink] away and abandon her home; escape was always an option.
She sat in her web cluster and activated [Spatial Sense], getting a small but incredibly urate reading of her surroundings. [Spatial Sense] was almost mandatory to use anything with [Dimension Magic] or even to utilize her [Rift Thread] effectively.
Next, she activated [Thread Mastery] again and began exploring through her silkenworkid throughout the mine to locate the elf. Ordinarily, it would provide minimal sensory input intended only for vibrational feedback. However,bining the two traits allowed her almostplete remote surveince anywhere within her spiderweb.
This,bined with [Rift Thread], which was imbued with dimensional energy, allowed her to set traps remotely anywhere within her domain. It took her a while, but she found the elf cautiously exploring another tunnel. She grasped some of her [Rift Thread] and shunted it into appearing and upying the space surrounding the elf.
When used like this, her [Rift Thread] was especially deadly. It created a tiny area of nothingness, and since she could basically "teleport" it into an open space, she could trap someone without them realizing it. However, that did not seem to be the case with the elf. She immediately froze as if having discovered the suddenly appearing trap.
Agh! Just step into it! She shouted in frustration, but now the elf examined the hidden [Rift Thread]. Why? How? Nobody else could detect it; this is so frustrating!
She snapped some of the connected threads in an attempt to use the trap as an offensive trap. But it was far from effective, as it was extremely slow due to the strange nature of the [Rift Thread], seemingly disregarding most of the usual properties she had routinely used. Factors like wind and even tension, the strange otherworldy thread seemed to ignore all that and behave by its own made-up rules.
Watching the deadly thread slowly drift towards the elf, only for her to casually move out of the way and watch it with puzzlement, was disheartening. If it was her normal threads, she could have snapped them like whips and cut the elf into pieces by now.
Frustrated by the experience, she sent one of her ceiling traps copsing like a well-positioned. Thanks to the high tension applied to the thread, it sprung from nowhere and at an incredible speed. The entire was created from [Poison Thread] and was razor-sharp.
When she had used it against even the toughest of dwarves, they would at least receive some cuts from it, and her poison would get to work. But once again, when the touched the elf, it just... Melted. The elf tilted its head at the trap with a bemused expression.
Why didn¡¯t I pick a spider with deadly fangs instead of all this thread nonsense? Then I could just bite her!
The elf tilted her head, then smiled. "I think I found you..."
What! How? She screamed mentally. Then she saw the elf¡¯s gaze following along the ceiling at her hidden spiderwebwork.
No! No, no, no! She started panicking. Why did I do that? I knew she had some crazy sensory ability to see the [Rift Thread]!
The elf was moving with startling speed, using some movement ability to vanish from sight and appear at a distance.
Does she have something like [Blink] too? Shit!
Following along with [Thread Mastery] and [Spatial Sense] became increasingly problematic as the elf moved far too quickly, making tracking her difficult. She made the snap decision to upgrade [Spatial Sense] using some trait points to further increase its vision radius. Immediately, her field of vision increased, and now the elf wasn¡¯t instantly escaping from her vision¡¯s boundary.
Okay! Trap time! I can use her reckless speed to my advantage!
But before that, she quickly threw up a boundary web between herself and the entrance to her home. By creating an entire frame of [Rift Thread], she could create makeshift portals by imbuing it with some of her Mana. It was how she had originally sent the elf plummeting into the pit trap.
Feeling a little safer, she started creating lethal tripwires in front of the elf. She barreled straight through one, leaving a gash that initially made the spider cheer at sess, but the elf kept going. Despite the massive amount of blood produced, the wound was seemingly almost superficial with how quickly it closed up and how she ignored it.
Stop cheating! You must suffer some penalty for all the blood you¡¯ve been losing!
She created more tripwires, but now the elf was prepared, and right when she thought she finally had her, the elf suddenly burst into lightning and appeared an even greater distance away.
It was so absurd that it bordered on the unbelievable. Just how many tricks could one person have? Were all elves like this? None of the dwarves had disyed anything nearly as good as this, and even the ones she struggled to defeat fell victim to gravity.
Why was I born a stupid spider when I could have been born a killer elf? Look at her!
She gave up on trying to create more tripwires; she was wasting what precious [Rift Thread] she had left and instead was preparing for ast stand. She still had her teleport trap on the doorway, and when not operating remotely, she had far greater control over her threads.
I guess I¡¯m testing using it as a direct weapon now. I wish I had the foresight to practice this some more, but I never imagined none of my traps would work.
If she was desperate, she could even undo her shrink and return to her full size or even pump it up and try to crush the elf. Hell, maybe even use her old fangs like when she first started.
Would my fangs even work? Or would they also melt? She shuddered at the thought.
At the same time, she confirmed that she still had avenues of escape using [Blink]. She could hear the sound of rock exploding as the elf destroyed a path towards her den.
That¡¯s when she finally came face to face with her would-be assassin. She stared at the beautiful elf with envy, a far cry from her monstrous spiderly form. She tensed, expecting a sudden attack, and was ready to use [Blink] at a moment¡¯s notice, but instead, the elf just stared at her as if trying to solve a puzzle.
It was like a silent standoff, with both parties slowly examining each other, but neithermitted to taking the first hostile action. The spider could feel fatigue slowly building up on her, like a creeping poison. The tensity of the situation was clearly getting the better of her.
Since the equipped effect of the [Manhunter] emblem wasn¡¯t doing anything, she decided to swap it out for [Apex Hunter] as a troublesome thought was niggling in the back of her mind. As soon as the new emblem was transferred over, a familiar voice tickled the back of her mind.
Worthy!
No, no, no! She¡¯s stronger than me? I already suspected it, but having it so bluntly confirmed is rotten!
And then she felt her heart sink as the elf suddenly smirked.
Dread immediately assailed her, and she instinctively reached for [Blink], only for it to fail spectacrly, and she barely moved a few inches.
No, why!? She demanded, the fear gripping her as she pulled up her profile. She had ascertained she had the Mana previously, and it had been recovering too. What she saw next robbed her of all remaining hope.
Mana: Drained
What did she do to me?
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