“OK, haul!” Kim said. I was on one side of the slime, which was medium-sized and spread out in the water. It was about the size of two double beds and resting on the mud, maybe a meter deep.
Susan was waist-deep in the water at the shallower end. She had stone armour and sunk into the mud. I was on the other side, also waist-deep in the water but not so sunk into the mud. I didn’t want to damage my new armour, so I stripped down to a pair of shorts, trusting my Resistant Fur to stop the acid. The water was only weak acid. I doubted I would get a new resistance from this.
We stretched Mara’s “sail” behind the slime and dragged the bottom edge through the mud under it. We then grabbed the top and bottom and dragged it toward the land, making sure the slime was caught in it.
Susan had the Might Essence, and I had my Mighty Oak. Jules was on land with a rope tied to the top. He had the Empower Confluence Essence, and he was pulling with Mara beside him, but mostly, he was empowering Susan and me. I needed it more than Susan.
It was a huge effort, but it was coming. They were larger than we expected. We were about halfway out of the water when the slime reacted. It started to turn very acidic and visibly started dissolving the cloth.
I slammed a wooden Shield Wall behind the weakest area. “Susan, Mara, it’s going to escape!” I warned. The warning was superfluous, as a longer wooden wall appeared behind my small one, and stone edging stretched out from the solid land.
Kim threw liquid fire over the slime, and Kai set it alight. The slime did not like that, and ripples moved over the agitated creature as it tried to extinguish the flame with its acid. This only made Kai’s flame burn hotter.
The Acid was eating through my wood, but Mara’s was tougher. “My wood is almost dissolved. How long will yours last, Mara?”
“As long as I have mana,” she replied. “I have a skill called Reinforce Wood from my Wood essence.”
I was only a little bit jealous. She has the whole Wood Essence; I just have an awakening stone in my Plant Essence. Imagine what I could do with my shields with that. Never mind. Her wood is lighter and softer than mine, so I guess she needs to reinforce it more.
It took about fifteen minutes to burn the slime enough so I could reach in with my Fire Resistance and grab the core. This killed it, and the rest continued to burn.
I dragged myself up onto the bank, sat down, and looked at Kim as she triggered her looting power. The remaining slime turned to rainbow smoke, and she said, “It seems like I get the first looting option here.”
My Reaping Magic syphoned the rainbow smoke, and I looked at my options. I got a choice of Acid Slime, Monster Core, concentrated Acid, and coins, all of which are bronze-rank. I got the concentrated acid.
“I think it was still the same, from what I can tell.”
Kim's eyes lit up, “So we can loot the monsters twice? Fantastic!”
“It looks like,” I said with a smile.
Kim was not keen on sharing everything she had looted, but she handed me a container of cream as a sample. “It is for treating acid burns,” she said.
“Fantastic. I will see if I can work out what is in it to make my own,” I said, and I stored it in my Pack. I still need a place to work my alchemy.
“Right,” said Kim, “that was only partially successful, and it was only medium-sized and close to solid ground. We have six more to do. Let's throw out some ideas and see what we can come up with.”
“What about floating wooden platforms?” I said. “Mara’s wood is light, and she can pump in the air. It would limit the water the slime has access to.”
Kim looked at Mara, “What do you think?”
“It is very mana-intensive for me. I have to reinforce and pump air, so even if we can reuse the platform, I would be tapped out,” she replied.
“We don’t need to burn the whole slime,” Jules said. “All we need is a tunnel to the core.”
“True,” said Kim. “A fire essence user would be able to direct the flame, can Kai?”
“Not to that extent,” I said, “however, if we focussed the liquid fire down a stone tube, that might work.”
“Susan?” Kim asked.
“I can do a tube. How long?”
“We need it to extend all the way into the core,” I replied.
Susan nodded.
“How would we extract the core?” Jules asked.
“Kai could grab it, and we haul him out with the tube,” I said.
Kim looked around and saw no objections. “Ok, we'll try that. We still need to get the slime out of the water, or the tube is not going in.”
“We can try the platform idea,” Mara said, “But I don’t think I can reinforce at the same time as I can pump air.”
“You don’t need to,” I said. “We can premake two floating platforms for us to work on. Neither your wood nor the slime is heavy; the main weight is the water, and we want that to be left behind.”
Kim nodded. “Give me a minute, and I will design something.”
Kim came back with designs she thought would work. Mara could actually manipulate wood, whereas I could only create shields of a certain size and shape. My shields formed the end caps of the air-filled barrels she created, and she did the platform to go under the slime. My shield wall sat on top of the floating barrels for us to stand on. I coated her wood in Resin to make it more resistant to the acid.
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The ropes were a problem as the ones we used for the first attempt looked frayed from the acidic water. I replaced them with braided Cutting Web and coated them in Resin to protect them from the acid and to protect it from cutting the wood and people's hands. The fact that Resin can now be created directly over conjured material meant I produced this Web covered in Resin in almost one move. It was very convenient.
We polled our rafts into position near the next slime. We sunk the platform, which had holes in it to let the water drain, but not enough to let the slime drain, according to Kim—a big sieve. We would then Pole our rafts so the platform went under the slime, and then we had to raise it. According to Kim’s calculations, the rafts had enough lift to do this. We will see.
Unfortunately, somebody had to go under the water, guide the platform under the slime, and make sure it didn’t snag on anything, like roots or rocks. We have seen what happens if the slime gets agitated and waves of acid are released. We don’t want that. My Fur might resist, but my eyes and ears will not. I made some Resin flippers.
I took a breath and went under. The water level was just over my head. The slime was resting on the mud, so the platform would have to go a bit deeper than that. I swam to the edge of the sunken platform and sharpened the edge so it would slide through the mud more easily. I then had Kai indicate to Kim that it had to be lower, and then we started moving forward.
The slime was translucent fluorescent green, so it was easy to see where it was. The platform was stirring up mud, but it wasn’t that that stung my eyes. It was the residue acid in the water. I wonder if I can make some Resin goggles, possibly with the clearer sand mixture I had. It is only iron rank, but it should be enough. If we do this again, I am definitely trying it.
The platform was three-quarters of the way under when it snagged. The slime was not resting, but it was not agitated yet. I pulled out a spear and slid it through the mud to try and find where it was hooked. There was a rock, and I couldn’t move it. I had Kai give Kim the signal to lift a little and stop. That cleared it, but we were scraping the bottom of the slime, so it was time I got out of there. I surfaced and said, “Go now!”
Susan was on one side on her own, and Jules, Mara and Kim were on the other. Jules and Susan gave a hard shove with the poles to get it as far under the slime as possible, and then everybody started to lift.
I climbed up on Susan’s raft, and Jules tossed me some jerky to eat. I declined in favour of my Hunters Feast food, even though his was tastier. We hauled and tried to keep our balance as the green slime rose above the water level.
The slime was definitely agitated now, and acid was being expelled from it. Mara sat down and started reinforcing hard. I grabbed the ropes off Susan and said, “Start,” even though the slime was still partially in the water. I hauled on the ropes with all my Mighty Oak like Jules and Kim were on the other side.
Susan had premade the tube, and she pushed it against the slime, and Kai disappeared. Flames started eating at the slime, but I could see it visibly regenerating. I hauled harder on the ropes, the platform rose, and the regeneration slowed.
More.
Again.
And hold. And hold. And keep holding. This might be a small flaw in the plan. I can see Jules and Kim straining. Our mighty one is the one who has to use the tube.
Then I mentally cursed myself and switched from Mighty Oak to Heart of the Oak, and I was holding it with a lot less strain as it hardened my body.
The tube was going in at a steady pace, and Susan reached down and touched the edge of the slime. I saw part of the slime turn to stone around her hand and at a depth of about the length of her forearm.
As we approached the Core, Kai stopped the flames. Susan shoved hard on the tube, sending it past the core. Kai was scuttling back up the tube, but he still got splashed when Susan closed the end of the tube, cutting the core from the rest of the slime. She then extracted the tube as fast as she could, and the slime died. All the fluorescent green jelly slumped, and Kim activated her looting power.
Fire Kai was not too damaged, so he retired to the garden to rest as we worked on refining our technique. I made goggles. Mara made hooks we can attach to keep the platform afloat without us holding it up.
“What was the skill that turned the Slime to stone?” I asked Susan.
“Petrify. It came from the Gorgon awakening stone. I had been hoping for a summons or an empowering skill. Petrify was a surprise, but it is quite handy turning organic material into stone.”
“You do have a familiar, though, don't you?” I asked.
She nodded. A long snake emerged from her arm and curled around her shoulders. She probably needed the might skill to stay standing with that snake, which looked more like stone than a snake. “Meet Ceto. He is a Stone Basilisk.”
“Nice to meet you, Ceto,” I said, and he melted back into her body.
“He resides in my bones, strengthening them,” she said at my unspoken query.
Fascinating.
We moved to the next slime when we had rested and completed our modifications. Two down, five to go. This was a smaller one in deeper water, so it was easier.
The fourth was a monster and almost escaped. I was still in the water when it became agitated, and I caught a full blast of its acid. I would be blind with out my goggles, and the resin ear and nose plugs saved me.
We took a break after that, as the platform needed significant repairs, and I needed to make new ropes.
Jules tasted my jerky, “Oh, that is bland,” he said. “I will get you some recipes.”
“That sounds wonderful.”
“Here, let me try something,” Jules said, and he used a spell on some jerky and then tasted it again. “Yeah, that worked. Here, try this,” and he handed everybody some of the jerky. I ate some, and it not only boosted my health but also my mana.
“How?” I asked.
“I have the Empower essence confluence,” he said. “One of my abilities enhances the properties of the food, and another can add properties. When I enhanced your food from your Hunters Feast, it made that benefit available to everyone who ate it, not just you, and then I added Mana Rejen on top. It didn’t do anything to enhance the taste, though. I will definitely get you some better recipes and teach you how to cook properly.”
Kim looked thoughtful. “Have you ever thought of working in an abattoir, Theo?”
“No, and I wouldn’t want to.” It brought back memories of mass killings in my village.
“Shame. You killing beasts would trigger your Hunters Feast, and Jules could cook and enhance it, and you could make a lot of coins with that,” she said.
Jules looked interested.
“I am not doing that full time,” I reiterated, “However, now and again, it would be OK. Some for us and some to sell.”
“Maybe once a week?” Jules asked.
“Maybe,” I said.
“We could market it to adventurers at a premium,” Kim said. “Limited supply would increase the price. This could work nicely. I will make a business plan.”
It seemed to have been decided. Double-dipping the looting and the food buffs seemed too good to be true.
Jules took a turn in the water for the next one, but his skin reacted badly to the acid in the water, even diluted as it was.
I finished in the water for the last two. I was offered an acid-inflecting knife from the monster slime. I think it was the only one with enough magic to produce more than acid and acid slime. My fur did get a small acid resistance.
It was later than expected as we headed home from a successful contract. Mara didn’t have to worry about the direction of the breeze to speed home. I think I am going to enjoy working with the Part-timers.