“You should be safe here,” Alex said. He looked around their secluded chamber. He knew that from the direction they came, there were more adventurers, and he’d be heading in the direction of the concentrated mana. “The slimes only come from these smaller tunnels, and they move slowly enough that you’ll see them coming. Besides, you’ve already proven you can handle them.” He smiled as he thought of how efficiently their cooler traps had worked.
Edwin nodded, still processing his Status Screen. “How long before these quests appear, Master Moore?”
“Shouldn’t be more than fifteen minutes. I’m going to head deeper into the cavern system and take care of my share of slimes. I’ll check back in about ten minutes to see if you’ve gotten your quests yet.”
He considered using his new [Parallel Mind] skill but quickly dismissed the idea.
Better to practice that somewhere less dangerous.
While he didn’t think that the slimes were all that dangerous, he still wasn’t quite sure how the skill worked or would affect him. Without Sam, he didn’t want to risk taking an injury from the acidic monsters.
He put his hand on his spatial pouch and knew that he had nineteen sets of ritual material remaining. “Remember, if you need anything, just shout. There are plenty of other adventures in the main tunnels.” He gestured toward the larger passage that they’d entered from. “Besides, Val will be here to protect you. He’s likely stronger than any of the adventurers anyway.”
“No, want bouncy food.”
If you stay here and make sure that they’re safe, I’ll make sure to bring you back some Mana Stones. Okay?
There was a brief pause in their mental communication.
“Val, protect!”
The wyrm looped around the two staff members’ heads, causing Alex to laugh at his quick change in attitude.
Alex drifted toward one of the smaller tunnels using [Feather Step]. “I won’t go too far,” he called over his shoulder. His movement skill allowed him to glide swiftly and silently across the crystalline floor. The mana streams were visible to his Heavenly Eye, and see could tell that the flow of mana through the environment was growing thicker the deeper he went. He knew it was only a matter of time before one of the connecting tunnels arrived at a cluster of slimes.
He wasn’t disappointed. Around the next bend, three blue slimes bobbed along. Their gelatinous bodies caught the light from the nearby crystals, and Alex felt a feral grin stretch the scar on his cheeks.
Quickly drawing a ritual circle with [Mana Thread], he placed one of his prepared material pouches in position with another thread. He took a moment to increase the size of the ritual by a small margin.
When everything was in place, he stepped forward and got the attention of the trio of monsters. As they began to wiggle and launch themselves toward Alex, he casually hopped backward. It only took a few seconds to pull the small group into his waiting Ritual.
Just as they landed, Alex used [Feather Step] to create a fair amount of distance between them before activating the ritual.
Rather than the concentrated beam of heat that he was expecting, the slimes rapidly expanded before violently deflating with a loud pop. It surprised Alex, but he just began laughing as he realized that the concentrated acid and gas reacted violently with the heat. While he’d seen something similar with the single slime before, the effect was magnified with three slimes together in a tight group.
Where the slimes had been only moments before, were scattered droplets of blue gook remaining from their rapid expansion and deflation. There were now streams of vapor drifted up into the air from the few spots of blue.
A single Mana Stone lay in the blue carnage, and he jogged over to collect it.
He checked the System prompt for his own quest.
Personal Quest: Culling Cave Creatures
Kill 15 of the creatures within the Crystalline Caverns. Rift Quest: Deep Dweller
Slay the Rift Boss at the lowest point of the caves.
He was pleased with how quickly he could complete quests like this. Now that he was so high leveled, the slimes posed almost no threat to him whatsoever.
Should I just be entering as many Common Rifts as I can to complete quests? I wonder if there are titles for completing a certain number of quests.
It would certainly be efficient and allow him to reap rewards from the quests, whether items or tokens. The system-granted rewards seemed to be very valuable. He pushed the thoughts aside, knowing that it was an idle fantasy. He wanted to help his friends catch up to where he was before focusing on such selfish pursuits.
As he moved deeper into the tunnels, he fell into an efficient rhythm of locating the slimes, setting up a ritual, triggering their rapid expansion and deflation, and collecting any potentially dropped Mana Stones.
In the caverns, the walls glowed with each ritual as the crystal-lined walls reflected the flash of heat and rapidly evaporating slimes.
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While he was traveling through one particular tunnel, he heard grunts and shouts of fright. He turned quickly and moved to turn the corner and came across a young man backing away from four slimes. The adventurer clutched a wooden staff, jabbing ineffectively at the nearest creature.
“Need a hand?” Alex called out, memories of his own first encounter flooding back.
Five minutes of hitting it with a stick and a rock, a ruined pair of pants, and a slightly burned leg…
The man’s relief was evident. “Please!”
Alex stepped forward, quickly setting up a ritual. “These things are tougher than they look, aren’t they?” The man backpedaled, trying to create more distance from the creatures. “I tried to use a stick on my first time, too. Rushed in like a total idiot, and it was the only thing around.”
The following violent pop and spray of slime caused the man to yell and cover his head. Alex stepped forward and used his enhanced strength to grab the back of the man’s pants by his belt and lifted him up. He used [Feather Step] to move him out of the way as a surviving slime jumped where he’d been cowering.
“Want to take care of the last one yourself?”
“I… yeah, I think I can handle one,” the man said while gripping his staff with white knuckles.
Alex nodded before stepping back and gesturing at the monster. “Just remember, they’re predictable. Watch for the wiggle before they jump. The blunt physical damage can work, but it’s going to take you a lot of effort. Magic makes it easier. You could maybe use one of the small streams of water too, if it works, you could potentially dilute them and cause their forms to break up.” He smiled, thinking how far he’d come since his first encounter and what a little bit of research did to help. That day, he’d been desperate and unprepared.
“Thanks,” the man said. “Was- was that magic, then?”
Alex scratched his head and scanned the man with his Heavenly Eye. “Yeah, it was a heating Ritual. The slimes are very weak to fire and ice. I am probably not in a great position to lecture you on this, but you should definitely be down here with a group.” The young man was only level three and seemed to be quite far from the main channel of the Rift. “I have two friends who I just helped Awaken. Do you want to walk back to the exit with us?”
The man shook his head and re-gripped the staff. He looked over at the slime. Alex tried once more, and when his offer was rebuffed, he wished the newly Awakened good luck before departing. He lifted his hand in farewell and drifted away at a quick pace, leaving the adventurer staring after him.
Thirteen ritual pouches left. I’ve still got a bit of time before I need to get back to Edwin and Gabby.
----------------------------------------
Edwin brought his hammer down on the last of the frozen slimes. Over the last half hour, they had gotten efficient at packing up the coolers and hammers, migrating to a new area, and preparing. Alex would gather up a few slimes and bait them back toward the two newly Awakened, and they would take turns luring them into the dry ice coolers.
"Well, that is quite beautiful to see," Edwin said as Alex saw his eyes trace invisible experience motes into the air before they rushed into him.
"You guys did great," Alex said before giving Gabby a stern look. "No, Gabby."
The large woman froze with her back to him, and Alex waited for her to stand and look at him with a guilty expression.
"Okay, come on, boss! They're just so cute."
Behind Gabby, Alex could see where she'd dumped the dry ice out of the cooler and was instead attempting to bait a slime into the ice-box when it was empty.
What does she think she's going to do with the thing? Keep it in the cupboard?
"I could just keep it in my room at the house, you'd never even know it was there!" she said with a beaming smile.
Alex palmed his face and shook his head. "No, Gabby. We have no way to keep an acidic slime at the house. Maybe we can look into some sort of stable or something, but for now, there's just no way." He had another thought as he imagined her taking care of the little thing. "Anyway, wouldn't it be bad if you got a monster tamer class or something, instead of a chef class? At the very least, let's wait until you hit level 10 and then we can think about it."
Gabby deflated a bit but nodded in understanding. "Yeah, you're right. That was a bit silly. I was just thinkin' about how cool it would be to have the little guy cook with me. It could eat all my scraps and just bounce around all day."
Alex had to force himself not to groan as he thought of her taking care of a slime.
It's definitely a different first experience with the monsters than I had…
They all packed up the supplies, and Alex decided not to press the issue any further. While it should be important for Gabby to think of the monsters as sufficiently dangerous, he didn't think it was worth dismissing her daydream.
They won't be in the field much anyway. So their exposure to monsters should be minimal.
As they walked toward the Rift entrance, Alex reflected on his own slime hunt. He'd run out of ritual materials faster than expected, mainly due to how effective the heating ritual had been. The way the slimes' acidic bodies reacted to the extreme heat had given him an idea, though.
If I can reverse the effects of the heating ritual as I did with the weight-reducing ritual… I might be able to create an extremely cold ritual schematic. Or at least one that removes heat from whatever steps in it.
The idea was interesting to him. Not just from a combat perspective, but he imagined other ways that such a ritual might be useful.
What if I’m in a Rift that’s really hot, like a desert environment? Or what if I want to freeze food or make a ritual around an icebox while we’re camping out in a Rift?
The weight-increasing ritual that he’d created before had quickly become one of his most used Rituals in combat and physical training. The practical uses of the magic were something that truly excited Alex.
“Did you see how those slimes just popped?” An excited voice caught his attention as a group of young adventures huddled near the entrance. The young girl was gesturing animatedly as she spoke. “He was just zipping through the tunnels like it was nothing!”
“Yeah, I can’t believe they just popped like that. I should have thought to bring something with fire, instead of a spear. I thought slimes were supposed to have a core or something I could stab.”
“The Slime Slayer strikes again!”
Alex saw a fist pump into the air at the last statement, and he tried to look inconspicuous as they passed, but Gabby wasn’t making it easy. She was practically vibrating with suppressed laughter, and even Edwin’s carefully maintained composure couldn’t quite hide his smirk.
“The Slime Slayer?” Gabby whispered once they were out of earshot. “Really?”
“Not a word,” Alex muttered, deadpan. He did his best to turn away from the pair behind him, worried they’d see how completely red his face was. “How do you guys feel after finishing your quests.”
“Quite good,” Edwin replied smoothly, and Alex was thankful that the man allowed him to change the subject. “Though, I’m not sure I enjoy this kind of outing. I’d much prefer to be at the estate, where things are less prone to attack me. Though it seemed like you were having a blast, Master Moore.”
Alex narrowed his eyes and looked back at Edwin, who couldn’t suppress the slight twitching of his mustache. He groaned as Gabby finally lost her battle with laughter.
Val sent Alex feelings of reassurance that felt like the mental equivalent of a head-pat.
Not you, too.
He looked up at his companion who floated along lazily overhead, a bulge in his long body from the two Mana Stones he’d been given to eat.