Helena had just teleported to the doorway floor. Michael just sent her an SOS message. This couldn't be good. She had to arrive at the end of a long hallway. After this point, no magic was allowed to not interfere with the equipment in the monitoring room. Helena dashed through the corridor, wondering if this rule was just like the no cellphones in airplanes one although she knew that on airplanes, cellphones could interfere with the pilots communicating with the ground.
All this was just a way to distract herself. A quirk she had picked up while researching magic on the fourth layer of the MAZE. Every time she could only wait for a reply or a result, she would flood her mind with random facts about whatever.
Opening the monitoring room door, she saw the numerous screens showing the names of every explorer registered in this branch of the guild. This was the room where all the data from the bracelets was gathered. In the middle of it, Michael was sitting in front of a smaller screen split into nine parts.
"That was quick," he said.
"Do you expect me to take my time after you send an SOS? Now, what is going on?" Helena replied.
"Yeah, right. Sorry. It might be nothing, but you did say to call you if anything happened. This was... I mean, I guess this can be something..."Michael started to explain before he was interrupted.
"Michael! Stop blabbering and tell me what is going on," Helena reprimanded.
"Right, this," he moved to the side and pointed to the vitals of one of the recruits, "Those are not normal, are they?"
Helena stared at the screen. When she became a clerk, she got some basic training to do these readings. This was also a work she enjoyed doing. It felt very close to research, and sometimes she could even find something new. Reading the vitals, she could see the heart rate and the vitals increasing quickly, but the respiration rate had fallen to zero, and the temperature kept rising.
"Michael, go get a healer and ask him to be on standby near the doorway. We might need to take a recruit out of the test, do it quickly," Helena said calmly.
"Yes, ma'am," he replied and rushed outside the room. Helena could have a calm tone, but her face said otherwise.
As the man left, Helena kept staring at the vitals of the recruit. She pressed her bracelet on a scanner, and a big red button labeled 'stop' appeared beside the recruit's name.
"Why did you have to choose the one test that can be that dangerous, Hera?" she said to herself.
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The only thing Hera could see right now was the slime's description. She felt as if she was buried under sand, and each passing second made it harder for her to move. She couldn't even close the notification or breath. The grey slimy goo was covering her entire body. Thankfully, she could still see the sunlight. The slime wasn't completely opaque. She did her best to move around, trying to find a way to escape from the creature's grasp.
As she managed to push one of her hands outwards, the creature shifted its body, making Hera lose any ground she had gained. She tried to move downward, attempting to reach solid ground. But the slime stretched herself up, making Hera stay even farther away from the floor. The creature unintendedly made its body more flexible as it changed shape, giving Hera the chance to move around.
Trying to reach out, she did her best to feel any indication of where she could go. A small warm feeling near her back caught Hera's attention. It felt almost like the spheres she used during the evade training. Spinning inside the creature was closer to swimming than to moving on the ground. It took Hera longer than she was expecting to face that heat. She was starting to feel dizzy. It's been too long since she had to hold her breath.
Looking down, she could see a shape, a circular shape around the size of a baseball. She reached towards it, and the creature shifted, stretching even higher. Hera felt it was easier moving around. She tried to seize the object once more, and the slime stretched yet again.
To anyone outside, the apex slime was now taller than the trees. Feeling like she could move more freely, Hera pretended like the liquid was as dense as always and pushed her hand closer to what she believed to be the slime's core. The moment she felt it was close enough to grasp it, Hera snapped her arm towards it.
As she grasped the core with the tip of her fingers, the slime started to spasm wildly. It contracted and stretched in various directions, Hera felt like she was being crushed. At the same time that the liquid gave more room for her to move. She pressed the core as tightly as she could, trying to reach her chakram with the other hand.
For a moment, the slime shifted in a way that a small hole led some air towards Hera. She breathed in as much as she could at the same time that her off-hand grasped the handle of the chakram. Pushing the liquid away, Hera tried to aim the chakram to strike the slime's core. However, the moment the chakram passed through part of the sludge in front of her, the creature compressed back into the size of a boulder and spat Hera out.
Hera hit the ground and tumbled back, coughing and wheezing as she gasped for air. The slime was still having some spasms, but they started to get weaker. After a few moments, Hera managed to get back up and stare at the creature. Her body hurt, she could see black bruises around her arms, but the adrenalin pumping through her veins was enough to turn the pain into a slight discomfort. As she got up, the slime stopped moving around and started approaching her, several tendrils of sludge raised above it, pointing towards the recruit.
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Hera wanted to run. This creature was too much for her to fight alone. But could she? What would happen if she tried to run, and the slime attacked her? It was too risky, even if every inch of her body wanted to flee, but she had to wait for the right time.
The slime attacked with one of its tentacles, the same way one would attack using a spear. Hera dodged to the side and slashed the tendril with the chakram, cutting it away from the rest of the body. The part that she removed fell into the ground and started to dissolve. Hera glanced at it and saw that it was taking more time than the other slimes to disappear.
The creature attacked again. Two more tendrils flew towards Hera. She dodged the first, but the second hit her right shoulder. The hit wasn't strong enough to make Hera fall, but it took away her chance of attacking one of the tendrils. Looking around, Hera could see the grassland to her left. She was too close to the wall.
The tendrils were assailing Hera while she kept dodging most of them. Being grazed by a few and cutting off others. She was trying to move away from the wall, not only so she wouldn't end up being blocked by it, but also to increase her chances of escaping.
As she fought, one of the tendrils hit one part that was cut off from the slime. The moment it did that, the motionless liquid started to move and came back to the slime with the tentacle. Seeing that, Hera frowned. She planned to keep cutting the creature into pieces so it wouldn't be able to reach her as she ran.
The tendrils kept attacking, but now, the slime was with its back against the wall. Hera took a step back with each dodge, cutting the tentacles at every opportunity she had. Until one of the slime's attacks stopped before reaching her. That was the chance she was expecting. She waited for one more round of attacks, and they all missed, stopping a few centimeters short of reaching her. Before the tendrils even returned to the slime, Hera turned around and started to run.
She knew that the MAZE was a dangerous place, but she also knew that running away would always be an option. The test is over. She can just finish it right now. She didn't try to do it before because she usually would freeze during the teleportation. If the slime was still moving, it could easily kill her. She needed to find a safe place. Somewhere she could stop and end the test.
Hera glanced back and saw the slime reaching its tendrils to several trees. In a way, it almost looked like a slingshot. Coming with that realization, Hera dove down at the same time the slime catapulted itself towards her. The monster flew past Hera and landed in front of her, blocking her path.
"Seriously? I just wanna finish the test!" she yelled.
The tendrils raised once again as Hera grasped her weapons tightly. If that thing wasn't going to let her pass, she would have to finish it.
It took Hera almost half an hour, but now the creature had been reduced to the size of a large dog. Comparing with the boulder it was before, right now, it was much less menacing. Hera was feeling sore, sweat dripped from her face, but the creature was relentless in its attacks. It almost seemed like it had infinite stamina, even after being reduced to this size. Right now, Hera probably would be able to run from it. Yet, she spent so much time dealing with the creature that it felt a waste to run now. She needed to finish this.
She dashed towards the monster and aimed her handaxe towards where she felt the creature's core. The slime tried to grab her arm, but Hera used the chakram to cut away another piece of the monster. She kept slashing at the slime, and the slime attacked her back. There was no technique or skill in this fight. It looked like two beasts trying to kill each other before they were killed.
A few moments later, Hera finally made a cut deep enough to reach the core. The slime shivered and started to spasm out wildly. Its body changing its density quickly and randomly. It even created spikes that pierced Hera's arms and shoulder. But she didn't care. She wanted to kill this monster.
Hera hit the core once again, and the spams only became more savage. On the third strike, the slime lost part of its form, becoming little more than a puddle on the ground. Having a clearer shot, Hera slashed the core with all her strength, making the handaxe lodge itself deep into the ground.
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[All In] effects deactivated, the cooldown will now start
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The core broke in half, and the rest of the slime dissolved in an instant. Even the pieces spread around the area disappeared.
Now, the broken slime core was floating in a puddle of dark purple liquid. Worried it might be something else, Hera stepped back and activated her [Observe].
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Broken Apex slime core
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Liquid metal - Purple
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Seeing the names, Hera relaxed. The slime was dead. Picking her satchel, she noticed that the monster partially ate the fruits inside it. Even her waterskin was dirty. She threw away the contents of the bag and placed the metal inside of it. It was a piece much larger than the ones she got from the regular slimes. Maybe this would be enough for Betty to make a weapon.
Activating her [Inspect], she tried to get more information about the objects. The metal had only one line saying that the metal can change its color and proprieties, depending on the monster that generated it. The core, on the other hand, had more information.
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Broken slime core (Simulation)
Type: Apex Slime
The core of a slime creature. It controls how the rest of the body moves. In most cases, the core stays in the center of the slime's mass, even when it changes shape.
The quickest way of defeating a slime is to destroy its core.
A creature with an apex core becomes the unofficial leader of the species in that area. In situations where the species have a leader, it is typical to see the monsters becoming more aggressive and presenting odd behaviors.
Species not present inside the MAZE, created exclusively for the test.
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"I guess I finished this one too," she said with a smile.
Reaching for the core and the liquid metal, Hera felt a sharp pain through her body. Looking at her arms, she was covered in bruises and small cuts. Grabbing her tablet, she opened the test quest. Sadly, it was still at 60%. She probably would need to talk to Hayden before completing this quest.
She picked her drops and moved towards the creek to wash herself, and then walked back to Woodland. It took her longer than she wanted, but she wasn't in the best shape right now.
When she arrived, Hayden was at the entrance of the village. She talked to the hunter, who thanked her for the job, completing her quest. He also said something about the legend of a slime that walked like a human, but Hera was too tired to pay attention. She walked towards Betty, asking about the weapon. Confirming that the blacksmith had everything that she needed, Hera asked for a handaxe. Betty said she could do it, but she would need one day.
Hera nodded and went to the house she was using. She didn't care if it was still light out. She needed a long night of sleep after that fight. She sat on the bed and stared at the tablet.
"Maybe I should finish the test now. It doesn't matter if I can't go past 60%," she mumbled.
"Are you sure about that?"
Hera looked up. In the middle of the table, there was a familiar giant green apple looking at her.
"Peaches?"