“Oh yeah, that’s a cheese elemental,” Tesilim said as he laid eyes on the slug-like pile of cheese slowly dragging itself through the forest.
The elemental, much like Rose had described, was a large blob of cheese, looking almost like an ooze. Its body was a dull yellow, and aside from the dirt, grass, and other general shrubbery it collected, its body also held slices of large pepperoni and a large variety of mushrooms. Additionally, and occasionally, a bubble would form on its undulating body before popping, causing cheese flesh to return to its normal state.
“How did we not find its trail long ago?” Rose asked, a question they had all been thinking. After all, as it moved, the elemental left behind puddles of cheese. The good thing was that their question was answered as they continued watching the creature and saw that all the cheese it left behind eventually evaporated.
“Well, that’s nifty,” Jasmine commented.
“I am more concerned about why we can’t smell it from a mile away. Does it not smell like cheese, or is it somehow controlling its scent.” Alyx questioned.
“Good point.” Tesilim agreed.
“So, what’s the plan? It seems fairly peaceful. Are you just going to try and catch it like that or?” Lili looked at the gnome for instructions since the whole thing was his to manage.
“Eh, I think it's only peaceful because it has no targets right now, but no, I am not trying anything until we weaken it further. If I do try anything and it does resist, it will be able to easily break free.”
“Hold on, I thought stuff couldn’t break free once you place them in a storage ring,” Jasmine asked worriedly, looking at the rings on her hand.
“That’s a good question. This is the stuff they don’t teach you at the academy.” Rose added, also curious.
“What? No. Stuff can definitely break free. The only reason rings are effective at keeping monsters trapped is because they limit the amount of mana that can enter the subspace, which slows a monster's recovery rate. However, if you leave a monster in there for long enough and they are strong enough, they will be able to tear the space down and escape.”
“Wait, does that mean you can throw a monster in a monster-containing ring when it's at full power?” Tesilim questioned, also curious about the topic.
“Technically, yes, but the ring's enchantment must be stronger than the monster's rank. Otherwise, the monster can resist the pull with its own magic.”
“Wait, so why didn’t you bring a B-rank ring? Aren’t you rich?” Rose asked getting agreements from Jasmine and Tesilim.
“Because, otherwise, what’s the point? At that point, I can just order a B ranker to come and capture the monster. Why did I even bother going into that fey cave? When I could have someone else do it? Why did I bother studying magic if I could get someone else to do it for me?” Alyx answered, getting more sarcastic as he went.
“Alright, we get it. You are a big gnome who wants to do things for himself; there is no need for all that, jeez.” Tesilim replied, rolling his eyes at his friend.
“Okay, enough messing around. The day isn’t getting any younger, and we have an elemental to catch.” Lili spoke, bringing everyone back to the topic at hand.
“Okay, yeah, so what’s the plan?” Tesilim asked, his gaze moving between Lili and Alyx.
“There isn’t one,” The gnome finally replied, getting confused looks from everyone but Lili.
“Stop joking, seriously, what’s the plan? Are we going to identify it and then make a plan or?”
“I am serious. This is an unknown. We go in carefully and bring it down without taking too many risks. On that note, there wouldn’t be any point in identifying it. Like I said, it is an unknown entity.” Alyx explained, but Tesilim’s confusion only grew.
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“Wait, so the identify spell doesn’t just miraculously give you all its information?”
“No, what made you think that?”
“Well, I identified Drex, and it gave me his information and the same thing for the Flame Drake.”
“Yes, but you made both and had the inherent knowledge beforehand.”
“Okay, I get that, but still, what about the magic items? I identified those just fine. In fact, what’s the point of monster identification if I won’t get any important information?” Tesilim spoke, confused and shocked, as he questioned all he thought he knew about identify.
Meanwhile, as this conversation between Alyx and Tesilim happened, Lili had gone to pet Drex, who had been snacking on a creature he had caught while waiting around. As for Rose and Jasmine, they just watched in amusement, completely understanding where Tesilim was coming from. This particular lesson was one of the things they had learned and had been just as confused as Tesilim was now.
“Alright, Tesilim, I don’t have all day to give you a proper explanation, so here is the run-down version. You can identify things in a few ways. One, you yourself have the knowledge which makes using a spell worthless. The other one, and done for magic items, is when the item itself has the magic in it, and the spell scans that magical information, and you learn what the item does because the World Crystal translates it. Finally, there is this place called the Realm of Knowledge, and when creatures die in this world, their knowledge goes in there.”
“Ah, gotcha.” Tesilim interrupted.
“You got it? Just from that?” Alyx questioned with Rose and Jasmine, giving Tesilim a look like they didn’t believe him at all. However, Lili knew that Tesilim was smarter than everyone gave him credit for and kept scratching Drex’s scales.
“Yeah, man, gnome. Basically, since no one knows what this elemental can do because its such a unique creature, then there isn’t knowledge of it stored in this Realm of Knowledge. Therefore if I use the spell, I am not going to get anything back. Meanwhile, if I was actually able to scan its soul, I wouldn’t learn anything because I don’t know anything about it, and there isn’t any knowledge about it, so I first have to gain that knowledge the hard way.”
“That’s fairly correct, yeah. With items, we get a bit of help from the World Crystal, but for monsters, we have to study ourselves or hope, a bit cruelly, that someone with some information on it has died.”
“Well, now that we got that out of the way, how about we do some actual fighting.” Lili proposed as she walked towards them, Drex in tow.
“Yeah, I think we have delayed enough.” Agreed Rose, who was eager to hit something. They had been watching the blob for a while now as it slowly made its way across the forest, and her warrior instincts were starting to make her impatient.
“I still think we should have a plan,” Tesilim interjected, bringing up the forgotten topic.
“Tesilim, again with this?” Lili responded, her tone indicating she couldn’t believe he was bringing it up again.
“Tesilim, if you want a plan that badly, then make one, go ahead. We will listen.” Alyx commented as he crossed his arms over his chest, waiting.
“Look, I get we can’t plan for what we don’t know, but what about how we engage it, or what if we have to retreat? The thing is, C rank, even if it is on the very low end.”
“Guys, he does have a point,” Jasmine said, joining the conversation again.
“Alright, fine, maybe I am letting my excitement get the better of me this time around. Lili, what do you think?”
“Not much, just glad you came back to your senses. It was surprising that Tesilim was more responsible than you this time around.” Lili answered, and the gnome embarrassedly looked away as he shuffled about, tidying his clothing.
The gnome eventually recovered, and they did make a quick plan.
They would start the fight with Tesilim’s die, and from there on, they would play things slow. Lili, Tesilim, Drex, and Rose keeping it distracted upfront while Alyx and Jasmine took shots at it. They all knew the elemental wasn’t going to be an easy fight, and the ones at most risk would probably be Tesilim, Rose, and Drex since they would be the closest and at the lowest rank. Even then, out of three, Rose was in the most danger. Unlike Tesilim, Rose didn’t have a way to teleport since spatial magic didn’t happen for most low-rankers, and she also couldn’t be respawned like Drex.
To that end, Jasmine and Alyx would focus on assisting Rose, followed by Tesilim and finally Lili. This would mostly consist of placing shields, giving boosts, and healing so the redhead could focus her magic on body enhancement. Though they would try to keep Drex alive, the drake would really be playing a melee support role in ensuring Rose wasn’t overwhelmed.
The final two discussions were about Tesilim’s Chaos Mana and what to do in case of retreat.
Preferably, Tesilim would keep his Chaos Mana until a finishing blow was needed or as an ace to allow for a retreat. And in terms of retreating, that would only happen if someone got incredibly hurt or Lili began to run low on mana. At which time, they would try and use whatever they had to delay the monster and runoff, only deploying Alyx’s room if they really needed to as a last resort. This was because Alyx didn’t want the team to get used to thinking of planning everything around his room since they never knew when they might get split apart due to unforeseen circumstances.
So, with a bare bone of a plan laid out, they all got ready and slowly got closer to the cheese elemental until Tesilim finally threw his die, and they all watched it fly towards the unsuspecting blob of cheese.