The Slime King knew how to hide.
Despite its intimidating size, it was merely an upper-class slime monster. Its methods of killing relied primarily on suffocation through sheer mass and drowning its prey in slime. Corrosion, though a common trait in lower slimes, wasn't particularly potent at this stage. Merely brushing against it wouldn't melt flesh or burn through armor, not until it ascended to a Corruption Slime or Venom Slime, where the corrosive properties would be far more dangerous.
After Anyi was swallowed whole, his situation seemed dire. Judging by his stats, escape from the suffocating, gelatinous embrace of the Slime King should have been nearly impossible. Slime could absorb every ounce of strength he exerted, rendering physical force useless against it. His movements were futile, smothered by the viscous mass.
But liquid had its weaknesses. One, in particular, Anyi had long anticipated.
*Low temperature.*
The moment the slime enveloped him, Anyi triggered his ice-element skill—something he had deliberately concealed from the others. As the slime surged around him, attempting to consume him entirely, he unleashed a freezing blast. The liquid body of the Slime King hardened instantly into brittle shards of ice. Then, with one swift motion, Anyi shattered it from the inside.
He had worried he might not get a chance to delve beneath the surface and find the true body of the Slime King. But, ironically, the creature itself had carried him underground, straight to where it hid.
Camouflaged as part of the earth, the Slime King’s core had been lurking below, using its immense mass as a decoy. Now, with the frozen path ahead, Anyi simply followed the trail of liquid, freezing everything in his wake. His cold magic would lead him directly to the core.
If this was merely a trap and didn’t lead to the true body, it would still be fine. He’d escape, return to the surface, and regroup. But if he was right, victory was close at hand.
As for the others? He hadn't mentioned to them that he was still alive. Let them struggle, let them fight. They needed the experience, after all. The battle would be short-lived once he reached the core and ended it.
...
Anyi had fallen into the enemy's trap, his fate uncertain. Now, Ariana’s magic had been turned against her, and Layton stood defiantly in front of her, struggling to withstand the force with his shield. This moment would haunt Miruku forever.
If she had been faster, more decisive, perhaps none of this would have happened. Now, Anyi and Ariana were out of commission, and Layton, though strong, couldn’t kill the Slime King alone. The weight of that realization pressed on her. This could be her one chance in life to change everything.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Her hand tightened around her daggers.
[Special Skill: Backstab]
Her special skill—her most powerful trump card, capable of killing an enemy with one strike, regardless of stats. The conditions to activate it were brutally specific:
Not seen by the enemy, not heard, not smelled, not touched, and not sensed.
Her ability had a cooldown of a month, but this moment was its purpose.
Anyi once said she lacked offensive power. Perhaps that was because this one lethal skill consumed it all. Her other abilities were simply designed to keep her hidden—to create the perfect opening for this one, fatal blow. She had tested it many times before. The toughest conditions couldn’t be altered: the enemy couldn’t hear, smell, or touch her. But the first two—sight and sensing—could be manipulated by range. All she had to do was leave the Slime King’s sensory perception and the ability would be ready.
Her status screen confirmed it:
[Not seen (0/1)
Not heard (1/1)
Not smelled (1/1)
Not touched (1/1)
Not sensed (0/1)]
She just needed to slip away unnoticed.
Her heart pounded, but the moment Layton blocked Ariana, even as the magic beam rebounded, Miruku vanished into the night. Her movements were so fast, so precise, that in the chaos, neither the Slime King nor her companions realized she had disappeared.
At 40 Agility, enhanced by her skill Swift Pace, she moved like the wind. And with Escape into the Shadows, her body dissolved into darkness, rendering her invisible in the night. She became a shadow, a wraith darting through the battlefield.
Her breath was ragged as she pushed herself to the limits. At this speed, her bones felt as though they might shatter, but she pressed on. This was no time for pain.
Two hundred meters. One hundred meters.
'Long Step.'
In an instant, she was a dark blur streaking toward the Slime King. The ability propelled her like an arrow shot from a bow, the distance vanishing in the blink of an eye.
Her system updated:
[Not seen (1/1)
Not sensed (1/1)]
She had done it. The enemy had no idea she was coming.
Her fingers tightened around her daggers. Black mist began to gather around the blades as she prepared to unleash her final strike.
[Backstab. Activation conditions met.]
In one fluid motion, Miruku leapt into the air, her figure appearing from the shadows like a ghost. Her daggers, glowing with the inky black aura of her skill, slashed toward the Slime King.
This was it. The final blow.
'One strike, one kill.'
The daggers pierced the slime, but as they sliced through the gelatinous body, something was wrong. The core—it was still out of reach. The daggers barely sunk in before the momentum stalled. The once deadly strike now felt sluggish, as though she were trying to swim through tar.
From behind, Layton and Ariana watched in horror. A fleeting shadow had darted past the Slime King, her daggers glinting for only a heartbeat before they disappeared into the viscous slime. But nothing more.
Miruku’s body struggled, her arms and legs flailing as the slime began to consume her, pulling her into its mass.
"No... no!" Ariana’s voice trembled, her eyes brimming with tears. "Mi...ru...ku..."