《Coffee & Slime》 Prologue I seemed to be drifting along some sort of scarlet river, watching bizarre, gate-like structurespass by overhead. The first one was a thorny, wooden arch covered in roses, while the next one was completely gold, laced with intricate patterns that converged at the keystone from wherea golden bull¡¯s head protruded. I found myself strangely at peace, calmly observing the designs oneach gate that passed by. ''Gate watching'' had the nostalgic feel of cloud watching on a warm, sunny day. Unfortunately, the context was a little different. I was dead. More specifically, I remembered dying. I didn¡¯t remember exactly how, but I did remember who I was. John Purell, 19 years old, college student. Never dated a girl in my life. The only passion I had in life was music and anime. Sure, I might have had decent grades, but I considered myself to be a good for nothing. I could pity myself endlessly, but there was a time and place for that. Shaking myself out of mytrance, I tried moving, only to discover that I couldn¡¯t feel my limbs. Actually, it was more accurate to say that I didn¡¯thaveany limbs. Or a body for that matter. I seemed to have entered some sort of spiritual form that still allowed me to see and blink. Although mortifying, my curiosity got the better of me and I tried experimenting todetermine if there was anything I could do.After all, I was already dead. What did I have to fear? I soon foundthat I couldglidealong the surface of the river as long as I willed it, allowing me toexplore a little bit. I quickly came totwo conclusions. First, the river wasn''t bound to any sort of land; rather, it was shaped cylindricallywith a modest circumference of around 20 meters, but stretched infinitely into the distance on either end. Second, the gates that I saw previously were only a few of the countless members that were strewn in space randomly along the sides of the river.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ''This is some weird ass afterworld, that''s for certain.'' Deciding that it would be in my best interests to keep moving, I picked a direction and willed myself towards that end of the river. For what seemed like an eternity, the only things that changed in my immediate environment were the shapes, sizes, colors, and designs on the gates. That is, until I noticed a strange shadow appear in the distance. As it approached, I could make out the outline of a tall skeleton paddling a wooden canoe with strong sweeps of its oar. ¡°Ahoy there! Need a ride~?¡± The tall skeleton posed the question cheerfullyas it increased the intensity of its paddling. At this point, I wondered if the canoe would be able to stop in time with that massive velocity. It was coming towards me alittle too quickly, perhaps. No, no, DEFINITELY WAY TOO FAST! ¡°Oops.¡± Whack! Contact with the canoe''s hull shot me out of the river like a bullet, helpless and unable to stop myself from hurling through space. The speed was tremendous, and the only thing that I could see was the object that I was heading straight towards. A dilapidated stone gate with branches twisting around the entire arch. I shut my eyes tightly and braced for impact. ... ... ? Plop. Unexpectedly, I had passed through the gate without any resistance, and in all probability ended up face-planting the ground which felt like soft Jello, notan unpleasant feeling. Cautiously, I peeked through one eye to see where I was. ¡®Blue?¡¯ Indeed, all I could see in front of me was blue. I thought to myself whether I was staring at some kind of ocean, but immediately disregarded the thought. Whatever was in front of me had formed a large indentation and was currently encompassing me from all sides as ifit was eating m¡ª Chapter 1 - Awakening (Part 1) The Slime Kingdom was built on the lowest level of the Xylene Dungeon, a complex, stone labyrinth that stretched thousands of kilometers long and extended hundreds of floors deep. So many different species of high leveled monsters inhabited this dungeon that it was considered to be one of the most difficult and dangerous in the entire continent. Not even dragons dared to enter its depths alone. Despite the fierce nature of the dungeon, its ecosystem was completely dependent on a peculiar berry plant, called the Yaksha, which crawled along the walls of the dungeon and fed off the mana that permeated its passageways. Its leaves and vines possessed the ability to convert mana into light, illuminating the entire labyrinth with a dim glow. The Yaksha¡¯s berries grew in bunches of small spheres, resembling discolored grapes, and were packed with essential nutrients and mana. They were the staple food of the dungeon inhabitants, including the Slimes of the Kingdom. Four King and Queen Slimes ruled the Kingdom. It was said that these four were the first of their kind to inhabit the world; four brothers and sisters who ventured into the Xylene Dungeon from the Surface and fought their way to the bottom valiantly to build their Kingdom. These royal slimes were distinct in color, and possessed crown-shaped nuclei indicative of their elemental affinity. The youngest of the four, the Earth King Amadeus, was a jolly brown slime with a nucleus of jagged stone. He longed to expand the Kingdom, and beautify it with sculptures and grand buildings of intricate design. For decades, he dug deep into the earth every day, excavating the four walls of the kingdom until it had reached an area greater than 100 square kilometers, held up by majestic stone pillars and filled with masterfully constructed infrastructure. The second youngest was the Wind Queen Sylvie, a delicate and beautiful green blob that flaunted a nucleus of fragile leaves. She inhabited the skies of the Kingdom, a feat only possible because the height of the dungeon¡¯s bottom floor was an astounding 1000 meters. She conjured cloud foundations that were interconnected via air current roads, and constructed fluffy cloud buildings for whomever wanted to live among the free spirits of the sky. The second oldest was the Fire King Kai, a cynical and hot tempered red slime with a nucleus of black flames. He spent most of his time in the hottest areas of the Kingdom, where the ground was closest to the planet¡¯s mantle. He was the one who educated the first artificers, blacksmiths and metalworkers, providing the Kingdom with the finest tools, weapons, and armor. Finally, the eldest of the four royal slimes was the Water Queen Esmerelda, a blue blob whose immense size rivaled that of the Kingdom¡¯s average home. Her nucleus was comprised of pristine ice. Esmerelda was a wise, powerful slime who created the lakes and ponds that provided hydration for the entire Kingdom. As per their species limitation, these four Kings and Queens were the only slimes in the Kingdom with reproductive capabilities. Once they absorbed an excess amount of mana, they were able to expel the excess energy through detaching a small part of its body, as if they were budding. Once a baby slime was born, it was sent to the Kingdom¡¯s central orphanage where adult slimes were able to adopt their very own child, regardless of color. Like this, the slimes lived in harmony. -End of Excerpt from "The Eyes of a Lonely Wanderer" by JFK-
It was another one of those days when the Water Queen blobbed aimlessly through the halls of the Royal Palace, a magnificent, marble building created by the Earth King himself. With pearly white walls that stretched four stories high and encompassed an area of over 135000 square meters, this impressive piece of architecture was constructed at the middle of the Slime Kingdom, and served as sort of a base for executive meetings and governance.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. As for why Esmerelda was blobbing about, it was because she was tired of her siblings¡¯ bickering about whose elemental affinity was the best, which variety ofYaksha tasted the best, and yadda yadda yadda. In her opinion, there were much more important things that they could be doing instead. For example, the population growth rate had stabilized over the years. The Water Queen thought that her siblings¡¯ energy could be better used to populate the kingdom further. She herself had set a personal quota of 10 new slimes a day, while it would be a lucky day if any of her siblings gave birth to even 1. Sighing, Esmerelda made her way towards the Royal Gardens in the palace courtyard. This was her favourite area to rest and recover. It was home to her favorite flowers, the Moonglades, whose silky white petals were illuminated by the countless mana crystals embedded in the sculptures of her fallen siblings. Esmerelda sadly recalled the terrifying months on the Surface when she and her siblings lived every day fearing death. After accidentally aggravating a golden dragon by eating from his favorite berry tree, the slime siblings were forced to escape into the dungeon. So many of her brothers and sisters had lost their lives to ensure that the remaining survivors could finally reach the last safe area of the dungeon, the bottom floor. Only the four of them, the current royal slimes, had lived to tell the tale. Although it had been over 300 years since then, it was only a matter of time when powerful, evil adventurers or magical beasts would attempt to conquer the dungeon and attack their Kingdom. They had to be ready for such a crisis. Esmerelda stood at the edge of the garden, where a large, stone arch had been erected as a memorial. A symbol for facilitating her siblings¡¯ passage to the afterlife, where she hoped that they had found peace. She closed her eyes and prayed. ¡®Dear brothers¡­ sisters¡­ I miss you all so much. Although it has been many years, I still remember the days when we splashed around in the pond as kids. Ark, you lifted me high into the sky and showed me what freedom was like. Lisa, your smile warmed my core and taught me love. Hope, you bastard, I hate you. Still miss you too, I guess. Sigh¡­ life was so simple back then. Now, there is far too much for me to do, yet I may not have much more time. My core is withering away. I am getting too old. Our younger brothers and sister still have hundreds of years to live, and I ask that you give me strength to teach them to be wise.¡± ¡­ Feyewwwwwwwwww¡­ Plop! Esmerelda felt a small object hit the center of her face. Despite it having a large mana signature, whatever had hit her didn¡¯t hurt at all. She crossed her eyes to see what it was, but it was so small that she had to extend an eye outwards using a thin pseudopod to visualize it. Ba-dump. Not only was it stupendously nutritious mana-wise, but it had the appearance of her favourite food: a delicious, white Yaksha berry! Ahhhhhh! Nom nom nom nom~ Completely forgetting her somber moment of prayer, Esmerelda joyously ate and digested this delicious treat as she felt the enormous magical energy wash over her and rejuvenate her old, slimy body. Her nucleus tingled with delight and the crown of ice which had steadily melted over the centuries was restored to its former glory. However, this was still too much energy, even for her, the Water Queen! She collected all of the excess mana swirling around her body, and condensed it into a small blob on her body. Repeating this process over and over again for the next 30 minutes, Esmerelda successfully managed to expel the surplus energy by detaching the blob. Inquisitively, she turned around to look at her shit¡ª her new baby. Unlike her own gloriously blue body, the little slime was translucent and white. Moreover, the baby¡¯s nucleus had a mysterious, ruby red shape that was too small for Esmerelda to make out. It was clear that this was abnormal though. Baby slimes were typically born with a round, grey nucleus, not having developed any innate characteristics or affinities. Curious indeed. Although Esmerelda wanted to raise this strange one herself, it wouldn¡¯t be appropriate since she one of the Queens of the Kingdom. Not only could she not show favoritism, but she also had many duties to attend to, and would not be able to nurture the child personally. Regretfully, she called for one of her personal maids to take this newborn to the orphanage. As the baby was carried away, it cutely nuzzled against the maid¡¯s chest. Ahh¡­ it was truly a shame. ¡®Grow up strong, little one.¡¯ Chapter 2 - Awakening (Part 2) I woke up to the sensual feeling of two soft, warm mounds squished against my face.Instinctively, I reached for them, only to realize that I had no arms. I sighed. ''Not again.'' Opening my eyes, my disappointment was only reinforced by the realization that I was nudging my face against two blue blobs, rather than what I had hoped for.Hey, I¡¯m 19 and dead, alright? Who knows when a dead college student will ever get the chance to feel them melons again. Not that I have before. That said, I still don''t really remember how I died. All I can recall was that I was arguing with someone. Ah... I''m getting a headache just thinking about it. Beyond the two blobs in front of me, were more of the same, although of different colors. It was kind of like looking at rolling hills of blue, green, red, and brown jellies. I tried to will myself to move around, but to no avail. Instead, I became rather tired, and my eyes started to droop. ''I just woke up though.... Fuck this accursed body.''
After coming to, I discovered that I could look around without actually moving my body. I don''t really understand it, but I imagined that my eyes could glide along my body to change my field of view. The sensation was nauseating at first, but that was the least of my problems. The jellies in front of me seemed to bealive. Breathing, living things. If I had to equate them to something that I had prior knowledge of, it would probably be classified as a''slime''. You know, those round, blob like monsters you see in RPG games. Since I''m in the middle of a bunch of them, does this mean that I''m a slime too? I wouldn''t really mind. The slimes around me were really cute. What color was I? Bah, useless thoughts. That might explain why my body tires way too bloody fast, no matter what I amdoing. Perhaps it''s because all slimes are this way? I kept passing out every few seconds, and it took at least fifteen cycles of observing and fainting to get a decent sense of where I was. It seemed that I was in a large, glass tank with these other slimes at some sort of pet shop. Lovey-dovey couples visited from time to time, picked up a few of my fellow brethren, and left with them grinning. Wait, am I getting this wrong? We aren¡¯t some kind of delicacy here, are we?
I imagine that it''s been about a week since I''ve been here. To my relief, I''m able to stay awake longer and longer these days. None of my fellow slimes demonstrated an ounce of intelligence, and chose to laze around sleeping. Then again, that''s all I did too. At least the owner fed us pretty well. Some sort of white pasty goop that looked nasty but tasted like a goddess¡¯s divine water. Well, ''taste'', in a manner of speaking. The nutrients in the food just seemed to disperse throughout my body, and as it dissolved, something in my core tingled with pleasure. I assumed that this would be my ''nucleus'', like the ones I saw in the other slimes¡¯ translucent bodies. Also, I discovered out that the ''adult'' couples who visited this shopwere actually slimes too. About half of them came in their blob form while the other half did so in their human form. I''ve seen them transform between the two, but for all intents and purposes it seemed like it was a matter of preference and utility. For example, I could imagine that having a hand would improve one''s performance with a sword, or with a sewing needle. Anyway, the fact that everyone is a slime increased the chance that I was in some sort of adoption center, rather than a pet shop.
A particular couple has visited over the last few days to spend time with me. There was an area in the room where couples could sit on the floor and play with the baby slimes. Like always, they picked me up gleefully and took me over to this ''play area''. Today makes the fifth day they''ve harassed me in a row. The endless barrage of squishing and poking was bad enough, but they also insisted on feeding me themselves. That white mush that they''d been feeding us? Turned out to be predigested berry mix. I had mixed feelings because it was disgusting, but it also tasted pretty darn good. The woman who barfed on me just now was a gorgeous, busty lady with long, auburn hair and crimsonskin. She came wearing a dress shirt unbuttoned at the top to reveal the entrance to her cavernous bosoms. She appeared to be in her late twenties, and had an annoying, boisterous laugh that would wake me up whenever I fell asleep. I presumed that she had some sort of physically active hobby or occupation, as was suggested bythe toned, firm muscles on her arms. When she held me up, I saw that her iris matched the color of her skin, and her pupils were shaped like a crossed hammer and sword. Her partner was a petite woman with short, pale bluehair that fell over her eyes. She came wearing a white summer dress. I liked her much better than the other one. Reserved and mature, she would put me on her lap and hum a soft tune that would lull me to sleep as she stroked my head. With beautiful azureeyes that matchedher blueskin, and a pupil shaped like a star, she was the spitting image of a ''calm beauty''. These two love birds were particularly beaming today, as they spoke to me excitedly in some foreign language. It seemed to be a common tongue shared by the slimes, and I couldn''t make heads or tails of what they were saying. I recognized two words, though.Yunshult~, whichseemed to be a sort of greeting, andKeiiiiii, which was probably along the lines of ''cute''. I just hoped it didn''t mean ''looks delicious!'' How should I know? Maybe slimes are cannibalistic. Pondering these thoughts sleepily, I nodded off as I was carried out of the adoption center, hoping that I wouldn''t wake up on a grill.
For the last six months, I grew up under the care of my new moms, slowly absorbing their language and customs by listening and watching. It was hellishly difficult and frustrating, especially considering that I still couldn¡¯t move by my own will. The most that I could manage was to roll a few millimeters in one direction, and even that would exhaust me to the point where I would have to take a nap. I learned that my name was Belly Jelly. To my relief, however, my moms called me Bell.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. The house we lived in was simple and built of stone and wood. The main area sported a carpeted living room furnished with two sofas and a continuously lit fireplace, where I spent most of my day. The other area was a separate room that served as a temporary workshop for my busty mother, Jean. Jean worked as a full-time blacksmith for the Kingdom. She would often put a faceshield on me (which covered my entire body) and place me on a stool behind her to let me watch her hammer away at the anvil to produce different knives, swords, shields, and armor. Every time she finished a piece, she would hold it out for me to see, and start blabbing about how amazing itwas. She wastenacious and focusedwhen working, a stark contrast to her silly and rambunctious personality. Although she was a little annoying, I had to admit that her work was exceptional. My other mother, Ellie, was a mysterious woman. She would spend most of her time reading complicated looking books in front of the fireplace, sometimes letting me sit on her lap while she did so. Sometimes, though, she would disappear for days at a time and return with countless scratches and bruises on her arms and her face that Jean would tend to immediately, nagging her that she should be more careful. On those days, she wore a weary smile that worried me a little. Seeing my expression though, she would cuddle me and tell me that she was okay. Sometimes, Jean and Ellie would take me outside to get some fresh air. Our home was situated in one of the most beautiful lakeside villages that I have ever seen, and was apparently on the outskirts of the grand city of Faeris. Our village was small, and was primarily an agricultural area for Yaksha plants. The market was therefore bountiful with the freshest berries, and the old grannies always seemed to want to give us discounts for being locals. As for payment, the currency system was based on rare metals shaped like the leaves of the Yaksha plant. One hundred copper leaves was the same value as one silver leaf, and ten silver leaves equaled one gold leaf. With the cheap price of Yaksha berries at 1 copper leaf per bunch, it seemed that a family of four could easily survive off around 5 gold leaves per year. We frequently visited the local pond where other baby slimes between the ages of 2 and 4 years old would be playing with their parents. Because I was too young, we often just sat on the benches watching the children slide downthe water fountain or spit at each other playfully. It was a beautiful, serenesight to behold. I''m sure my moms were wondering when I would be able to join them. I was wondering about that too. Being able to move like them, that is. I resolved to learn how to do so as soon as possible. In this world, at least, I wanted to become capable of taking care of myself.
I''ve thought about slime movementlong and hard over the past few weeks. How come it''s so difficult? Well, watching those kids play in the pool gave me a small clue. Rather than roll or glide, as I was trying to do, some of themwould extend a part of their body, plant it into the ground, and drag the rest of their body forward. It was so simple and intuitive, and yet elusive for someone who wasn''t exactly born with slime instincts. I was sitting on the living room carpet, where Jean left me to go forge someweapons in the workshop. Ellie was outside doing laundry. I concentrated on pushing a part of my body forward, conjuring a mental image of myself as a white blood cell extending its pseudopod. Slowly but surely, I felt a small, wobbly bump protrude out. Stretching it further and further, I started to sweat from the strain. Eventually, it touched the ground in front of me, and I tried to drag the rest of my body forward with great effort. I moved about onecentimeter. Progress! Gritting my metaphorical teeth, I tried to extend two pseudopods simultaneously instead of one, and found it immensely more difficult to do. Not only was the process taxing mentally, but I was quickly getting exhausted physically. Before I was able to even touch the ground with my two pseudopods, I fainted. When I woke up, I tried to do it again but with thinner pseudopods on either side, kind of like the poles used for cross country skiing. This was much easier to visualize, and the effort to form these thinner protrusions was reduced. Moreover, having two arms to pull myself forward with was much more effective, propelling me forward almost a full ten centimeters. I tried doingit once morefor good measure, and ended up fainting. Waking up, testing out different ways of moving forward, and fainting. The cycle repeated itselffor weeks, but the only thing that I improved in wasmanipulating my little pseudopods. I could now wiggle them in the air without fainting. However, actually moving was a different story. Efficient movement definitely involved dragging myself forwards. What was I missing? A month later, I made a breakthrough. The key was center of gravity! By manipulating my center of gravity, I could propel myself forwards after I placed my first pseudopod on the ground. This reduced the amount of energy I spent moving, and increased the speed at which I could do so multiple times over. I went to show Jean my progress. Bursting through the open door, I realized that I moving way too fast. I closed my eyes and I braced myself to crash into the workshop bench. Thump. ''Owie....'' "Bell?!?!?!" Jean''s anxious exlamation surprised and annoyed me. Why was she so loud? I just hit my head after al-- Drip. Drip. Eh? What is this... blood? Horrified, I looked up to see Jean''s hand clasped tightly around the hot blade of a new knife, which had fallen down due to my crash. Hurriedly setting it down on a stable surface, she turned back to me and rubbed the spot on my head where I had slammed into the table. "Bell, are you okay?" I was ashamed, realizing that I had hurt my own mother because of my stupidity. I was also worried about her injury. The cut looked pretty serious, and the burn was no joke. I wigged my pseudopods in the air desperately to tell her that she should treat it. "I''m okay, Bell. My hand will heal in no time. Ha, my son''s only eightmonths old and already moving about like that. Bell, I''m so proud of you! We''re going to have a huge celebration today with your mom and I, okay?" Jean beamed at me. My brain was suddenly overloaded with worry, guilt, and grief¡­ ...Huh?
***Flashback Start*** "Mom, shut up!" "John, where are you going?" I grabbed my luggage angrily and stompedout the front door. My parents didn''t understand my feelings. They didn''t love me enough to let me become a musician, which I have wanted to do since I was 13 years old. Instead, they would rather chain me down and force me to be their ideal son, a lawyer. I was going to pave my own way in life! "JOHNNNN!!!!!" SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEECH--THUNK. Pain erupted from every muscle in my body as it was tossed into the air like a mannequin and contorted as I hit the concrete road again and again. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck IT HURTS. Ah... I''m going to die. Fuck. Strange. I thought I felt a hand on my back before I hit the truck.... Wait. Who''s that lying over there? She looks familiar. She looks like-- No. No. Fuck. No. NO. NO NO NO NO NO! "M...mo--mom... keuk... MOOOOOOOOOM...!" ***Flashback End***
All of these memories hit me like a truck, and I just sat there, silently crying. I was the selfish son who killed his mom. Why was I given a second life? I didn''t deserve to live. I killed my mom. And I left my dad to suffer through the death of both his loved ones. I knew all along that the reason why they were arguing with me was because they loved me. They probably didn''t want me to become another one of those failed musicians that they knew about. I was just so stubborn, and ignored everything they were saying. What right did someone like me have to live? What right did someone like me have to have another caring mother, who would protect me without a moment of hesitation at the cost of her own hand? It was unfair to everyone else. I should just di-- Huggggggggggg. ¡­ ''...Mom?'' "I love you, son." The shell that housed me in darkness shattered,and I broke down in tears. I criedfor my mom who died trying to save me, and my dad who would have to live with the consequences of my actions. I wailed in the arms of the momwho took me in and loved me like her own. Hearing the commotion, Ellie ran into the house and was shocked to see what happened, but when Jean looked at her with a sheepish grin, Ellie smiled knowingly. The three of us sat there hugging each other while I cried myself to sleep.
I made a decision that day. There was nothing I could do to change the past. I would move forward, but I would never forget. I made a promise to myself that I would become a better personin this new life. To learn from my mistakes and to throw my selfishness away. To care, and to love. Because we are family. Chapter 3 - Awakening (Part 3) It''s been two years since the incident. Jean''s hand had to be treated at the hospital in Faeris for almostthree weeks, because there wasn''t a healer in our village. I almost cried again when she left Ellie and I, but I held my tearsback. I told myself to be done with crying and to become stronger for my family. Jean''s back now, but there''s a white scar on her palm. She tells me it''s fine, but I can tell it''s going to be a while before she can blacksmith properly again. To lighten her load, I''ve been helping out with cleaning the house, doing laundry, and carrying groceries. I likeddoing these things anyway. It gave me a chance to practice moving this unfamiliar body, as well as practice talking tothe grannies at the market. Oh yeah, that''s right. I can talk now~ It''s more like telepathic communication though. I don''t actually open my mouth, I just think whatever I want to say in the slime language and direct it at who I want to talk to. I''ve been able to do it ever since I turned one year old. I''m not sure why, though. Ellie''s been the same as ever, spending most of her time dozing off or reading a book in our living room. However, she''s been keepingher eye on me ever since the incident to make sure that I don''t do anything dangerous again, not leaving me out of her sight for more than a few minutes at a time. I didn''t really mind. It was better than her going out and returning home all banged up like she used to. Moreover, I think she enjoyed watching me struggle to make different shapes with my pseudopods, occasionally stopping me to pick me up and snuggle with me in front of the fireplace. Even if she wasn''t my mom, I''d want to cuddle me too. I took a look at my blobby reflection in the water the other day, and was surprised to find out that I was white, rather than the blues, greens, browns, or reds that I¡¯ve seen before. Furthermore, unlike the other baby slimes, my nucleus was atightly packed cluster of crimson spheres in the center, with smaller ones orbiting it on three dimensions of rings. I¡¯ve seen this shape before in my textbooks. I think it was called the Bohr model of the atom. It didn''t surprise me that none of the other slimes knew what shape itwas; I doubted science even existed here. I attributed these physical differences to being a reincarnated soul, but couldn''t really understand the rationale for the choice of color nor the shape. Maybe some god out there was being racist about my skin color, and perhaps the nucleus symbolizeda being from a more scientifically advanced society. I don''t know. I was just glad that no one treated me differently because of these deviant characteristics. Anyway, something pretty amazing happened today. I''m actually quite proud. Goodbye to the age of barfed up Yaksha berries; hello freedom! I learned how to eat my own food! All it took was weeksof practice stuffing solid berries into my body, and attempting to rip it apart into tiny piecesthrough shear pressure. It takes a while to digest even one berry fully, but I''ll get the hang of it soon enough.
''Mom, what''s this?'' After the long and agonizing process of digesting my own dinner, I spit out a card that I accidentally stumbled across while Ellie was taking a bath. It said something about being employed by an SDF, and labelled her as some sort of water user. ¡°Ah, I thought I lost this!¡± Ellie snatched the card away and looked at me scornfully. ¡°What did I say about taking things that aren¡¯t yours, Bell? I swear, that troublemaking attitude you got from Jean¡­¡± Jean lightly nudged Ellie with her elbow. ¡°Don¡¯t pin this on me. Your mom¡¯s right, Bell, you shouldn¡¯t go taking peoples¡¯ things.¡± ¡®I didn¡¯t know it was yours, mom. What¡¯s an es-dee-eff?¡¯ I gave Ellie my best puppy dog eyes and feigned ignorance. Truthfully, I wanted to confirm my suspicion that mom had some sort of combat profession. My second goal was to confirm the existence of magic, which I wanted to learn ever since I heard about it at the market. ¡°Sigh¡­ Well, I guess you would¡¯ve found out anyway.¡± Ellie lifted and locked her arm parallel to the floor, with her fingers spread apart as if she was reaching for something in front of her. All of a sudden, I felt a shift in the atmosphere as if someone had dropped a muffler over my ears, and a small, blue glow appeared at the center of Ellie¡¯s hand. The ball of light glided forward and spiralled into a tentacle of water that twisted and elongated to resemble a rod over 1 meter in length. Taking a step forward, Ellie clamped her fingers around the rod, instantly causing it to freeze and form a spear of ice with a sharp, deadly tip. ¡®Cool!!!¡¯ My eyes sparkled while Ellie took a deep breath and let the spear dissipate into a mist of countless ice crystals. She gave me a satisfied grin and lifted me onto her lap. ¡®Can you teach me how to do that?¡¯ ¡°Of course, Bell. But first you have to wait until you¡¯re older. You¡¯ll awaken to something called ¡®mana¡¯ when you¡¯re 10-13 years old, like everybody else. That¡¯s when you can go to the academy and learn alllllll about how to use it. Exciting, huh?¡± So I have to school again? And I have to wait like 7-10years until I can learn magic? Dammit. Seeing my disappointed face, Ellie giggled and hugged me. Changing the topic, she explained that she was a Advanced Class Water Shaper with a specialization in ice magic, and a member of the Kingdom''s SlimeDefense Force, or SDF. Her ability to crowd control made her important for drivingback enemies that would sometimes raidour floor of the dungeon, including armies from neighbouring kingdoms. This was news to me, because I didn''t know that there were other species in our world, much less other civilizations. Then again, I probably shouldn''t have been so surprised, considering that Jean forged weapons and armor for a living. Ellie continued and explained that the SDF would also sometimes go dungeon crawling to gather pelts, equipment, magic items, and other supplies. My eyes lit up when she told me her stories about protecting the Kingdom froman army of the undead led by a corrupt lich, seeking and destroying an evil goblinmage who was terrorizing the Kingdom with natural disasters, and discovering a subdungeon that led to an epic fight against the Jade Queen, a powerfulgolem who commanded an army of jade warriors and, upon defeat, bequeathed a phantasmal grade staff powerful enough to level an entirevillage. I felt as giddy as a child on Christmas Day, and I was awed by the strength of my mom.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Curious, I turned toJean and asked her about her elemental affinity and mastery, at which she coughed abruptly and turned red. "Well, heh, while your mom over there was a genius at water shaping, I-I wasn''t as talented as her--" "What Jean means, Bell, is that shespent every day in the academy skipping class and playing hooky with her friends. Andgirlfriends." Ellie shot an accusatory look at her and pouted, "Hmpf.If you weren''t lucky in finding an apprenticeship as a blacksmith, who knows what you''d be doing..." "Ahh, don''t be mean. You''re so cute when you pout, darling~" Jean gave her a smooth on the cheek, but Ellie just spunher face away from Jean without responding. I could see that she was smiling, though. I thought to myself,''love birds =_='', but couldn''t help but smile as well. "I only know Basic ClassFire and EarthShaping, but I amone of the best blacksmiths in the Kingdom. It just goes to show that academics and elemental masteries aren''t everything. Bell, if you have a dream and you want to pursue it, you have your mom''s blessing and support." Jean confidently declared while lifting me up and nudging her nose into mine. I felt like crying because of how much I loved her. Before I could say anything though, Ellie snatched me away again and put me on her lap. "What are you saying to our three-year-old child like he knows what he''s going to be doing when he grows up? If he did, obviously he would want to become a high classWater Shaper, wouldn''tyou Bell?" Peering down at me, Elliepokedmy cheeks to prompt a response. ''I just want to be strong'', for you guys. I didn''t voice the second half of my answer, but my first half was met with laughter. "Bahahaha, our son''s growing up already, isn''t he, Ellie." "Fufufu, he sure doesn¡¯t take afteryou." "Hey, what''s that supposed to mean?" Jean came over and gave us both a bear hug, while Ellie stroked my head and continued to tease Jean. Watching the flames flicker back and forth in the fireplace, I seriously pondered what my plan should be for the next while. I didn''t want to just wait until I ''awoke'' ten years later. However, as hard as I might, nothing better came to mind. And then it hit me. ''Information. What I lack is information.''
Once my parents fellsleep, I slipped out of Ellie''s arms and dragged myself to the bookshelf. I wasn''t the best at reading, but my moms had read me plenty of children''s books, and I frequently asked Ellie what certain words meant when she was reading her complicated books about magic. The book I reached for nowwas one that I had kept in the back of my mind since I first saw it, titled "The Eyes of aLonely Wanderer", by JFK. Unlike the other books, it was bound in old, worn leather, and was written in crimson ink. I brought it closer to the fireplace to read. Under the flickering light of the flames, the words glistened as if they were alive. What I saw sent a cold sweat run down my spine. The contents were written inEnglish. ¡°The Slime Kingdom... Xylene Dungeon... slimes...¡± Fwip. ¡°¡­fought their way... built the Kingdom...lived in harmony." From this, I assumed that I descendedfrom the so-called Water Queen, remembering the oceanof blue that swallowed me whole and birthed me into this world. Fwip. ¡°Over hundreds of years of expansion and development, the descendants of the Kings and Queens erected over 20 great cities that populated the Kingdom. Each city governed a region of the Kingdom that encompassed multiple villages. These regions became less and less distinct as their populace gained the skills and trades necessary to function independently. Slimes of all colors, genders, and abilities were accepted by all. Since I was summoned to this world 100 years ago, I have never met a more versatile and adaptive creature than a slime. In only 200 years of growth, they have built a nation that doesn¡¯t discriminate against color nor gender. They have accepted that each slime is capable of learning any element they desire, irrespective of heritage nor association. How is this possible? After being exposed to hundreds of civilizations out there that have prejudices against those who dress differently, speak a different language, or have an extra appendage or tail, I am honestly amazed by these mysterious beings. I can only hope to continue watching them for the many years to come.¡± Fwip. ¡°Magic in this Kingdom is quite undeveloped. The only ones to reach Saint Classin the elemental magics are the Kings and Queens themselves, while only a handful have broken through to the Advanced. I believe the main reason for this is their lack of understanding of mana manipulation. Rather than study its philosophy and implications rigorously, the slimes seem to use their instincts and innate abilities. They believe that spellsare restricted to Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, and Saint ranks, fully unaware of the King and Emperor ranks that are beyond the initial four. Mastery of the elements is usually achieved by creating, combining and destroying the molecules in the air. For example, water shaping requires the duplication and manipulation of hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the correct orientation as well as in the appropriate structure. The velocity and density of the generated molecules can give way to different forms, including gas and ice. Wind shaping, in comparison, focuses on the gaseous phase alone. This allows the practitioner to become more proficient in its application; for example, creating clouds that can support weight. Fire shaping, on the other hand, requires fundamental knowledge of plasma manipulation, while earth shaping necessitates the manipulation of gravitons. These are beyond my knowledge.¡± Fwip. ¡°Apparently, there is a public bath-house in Faeris. I shall disguise myself and¡­ investigate. I sense there is something worth discovering in the co-ed pool.¡± Fwip. ¡°I have been frequenting the bath-house too much. I seem to have become a regular.¡± Fwip. ¡°Slimes never cease to amaze me. Their bodies are top quality, even though copulation doesn¡¯t result in making babies. How this is possible despite common evolutionary logic is beyond me. Wasn''t beauty a characteristic due to the need for reproduction? I must investigate further. Tonight, my phoenix shall rise from the ashes.¡± Fwip. ¡°Apparently, slimes can¡¯t use magic until they have reached a certain age. I believe that this is a misconception, although I don¡¯t know exactly how slime physiology works. Mana, as it is known, is a finite energy that exists in the atmosphere, and can be collected andused. The trick to using magic for the first time is to collect it. This usually requires the formation of a ¡®mana core¡¯. For slimes, this core is their nucleus. I believe that over the course of natural development, their nucleus evolves to become capable of storing mana. My theory, however, is that slimes can forcefully train their nucleus to ¡®awaken¡¯. Of course, that requires a slime under the age of 10 to be mentally mature enough to even attempt such a feat. Perhaps I should adopt one of the baby slimes for experimental purposes¡­¡± Fwip. ¡°Abort mission. Abort mission. The theory is flawed. The main issue is that slimes aren¡¯t instinctually able to ¡®sense¡¯ mana until they actually develop their mana core. I have spent way too long today trying to teach my cute child something that she can¡¯t understand. I will take her to the pond with her friends to make it up to her.¡± Fwip. ¡°After observing these creatures for over thirtyyears, I believe there is something stirring within this Kingdom. I am not sure of what it is, but it is definitely evil. One of the royalty has been corrupted¡­ by something. My powers of divination can only do so much. I have to protect my daughter. I am going to head for the source.¡± Fwip. [in slime language] ¡°There is no time, but I must depart. Ellie, my daughter. I love you.¡± Chapter 4 - Awakening (Part 4) As I read the book-- no, journal before me, my metaphorically gaping mouth grewso widethat I could''vefita baby slime in it. ¡®Corrupted royalty? Manipulating atoms? Mana core? This guy is Ellie¡¯s father? My¡­ grandfather?¡¯ Upon closer observation, the paper beneath the crimson letters of, ¡®Ellie¡­ I love you¡¯, were crinkled as if the manhad been crying while he was writing those words. Or maybe.... I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if they were my mom¡¯s tears. Too many possibilitieswere whirlingaround in my head, but one thing was clear. My grandfatherwas originallynotfrom this world. It was even possiblethat he came from my world, but theonlyevidence for this washis knowledge ofEnglish. Were there other worlds that used English? Did this world use English? There were so many unanswered questions. I glanced back at Ellie, who had fallen asleep on Jean¡¯s shoulder, and was snoring with a peaceful expression on her face. A bit of blue hair draped over her mouth, floating up and down with every breath. What had happened to my grandfather, to have tohave lefthis own daughter in such a hurry? A part of me hoped that he was alive, but there was an unsettling feeling in my stomach that was unconvinced. My mom hadn''t mentioned anyone else in our family, and I never really thought to ask. What about Jean''s parents? ''Sigh.'' Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to calm my thoughts. For the time being,I wouldpretend not to have readthis journal, nor bring up any mention of my grandparents, lest I bring up painful memories of the past. ¡®Mom will tell me when she¡¯s ready.¡¯ I quietly returned the book and shuffled myself back tothe rug next to the fire, reflecting on what I had readuntil sleep overtook me in all of its calming bliss.
¡°Bell, wake up honey.¡± ¡®Mmmfph, 10 more minutes.¡¯ I blobbed into the rug and nuzzled my face against the softness of the wool. ¡°Bell, it¡¯s 10 already. Andrea is here with her daughter.¡± ¡®...Who?¡¯ I sleepily glancedup to see a green lady standing next to Ellie, beaming with dazzlingly white teeth. Ah, I remembered. Andrea was Ellie¡¯s best friend, and our neighbour. Apparently they were rivals back at the academy. If I had to sum up herappearance in one word, it would be ¡®supermodel¡¯. Tall and sexy with all the right curves in all the right places, shewas my ideal type. It didn¡¯t help that she was kind to a fault and brimming with intelligence, nor that she was unmarried. Ultimately, she had the perfect characteristics of a hot, single mom. Her daughter, Lily, shyly peered at me from behind her mom¡¯s leg. The same age as me, Lily was an adorable, green slime who wore a little leaf on her head. She didn¡¯t talk much, but that just made me want to cuddle her all the more. Don¡¯t get me wrong. It wasn¡¯t a carnal desire; after all, she was only three. Nah, it was just my moe spirit burning. Maybe if she was older.... I shook my head to rid myself of these thoughts. ¡®Hi Lily. How¡¯ve you been?¡¯ ¡®H-hi Bell. I¡¯m g-good. Mommy says that we¡¯re all going to the pond today.¡¯ I almost grimaced, thinking that I would rather review everything that I learned yesterday, but quickly changed it to a look of sleepy excitement, befitting of a three-year-old slime. It would be the first time that I actually got to play in the pond, after all. ¡®Uhn!¡¯ I lifted two pseudopods in the air and wiggled them a little to show my enthusiasm. ¡°Awwwweh~ aren¡¯t you the sweetest thing.¡± Andrea picked me up and squished me between her giant melons, a crushing experience that could be considered a perfect cocktail of heaven and hell. I found it excruciatingly difficult to focus my thoughts enough to object, butEllie saved me by stealing me away and placingme on her head. ¡°Let¡¯s go sleepyhead. You can eat breakfast on the way.¡± Ellie tossed me a couple Yaksha berries before marching out the front door. Andrea looked surprised. ¡°Bell can already eat his own food? Lily can''t even do that yet. Did you teach him, El?¡± ¡°Nope, I think my son is a genius. He learned all by himself.¡± Pushing out her chest, Ellie glanced up at me with a proud smile on her face. ¡®Show-off.¡¯ Lily shot at me with a mental image of her tongue sticking out, but I ignored her and basked in my mom''scompliment.
The pond water was particularly refreshing. Although there was no sun downin the dungeon, the planet¡¯s mantle moved closer or further from the grounddepending on the planet¡¯s alignment with the stars; or that¡¯s what I was told. Consequently, there were four ¡®seasons¡¯ every year, going from hot to cold to hot again. Our current season was thisworld ''summer'', and today was the hottest day this year. As such, the pond was packed more than usual. The younger slimes, including Lily and I, tended to play on the shallow end, under adult supervision, and with little chance ofdrowning. Even as slimes, we needed oxygen to survive, and not everyone knew how to swim. As for me,I was unfazed. This was the perfect opportunity for me to practice body transformations. I focused on creating four flat, flipper-like pseudopods to resemble webbed hands and feet. The front appendages were built to moveconcentrically, travelling up along the narrow edge and stroking down with the broad side. At the same time, the back appendages would kick up and down to propel me forward. The resulting motion was a weird breaststroke that allowed me to surfaceevery so often. Of course, such a crude transformation was not very effective, and was too slow for my tastes. To boost my speed, I absorbed water through my skin by manipulating the slime within my body to create an inner current, and then released the excess water through my ass during the power stroke. This allowed me to hop a short distanceout of the water.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. I felt like a torpedoing platypus soaringthrough the air. ¡®Hmm¡­ I can probably move faster and further underwater because I¡¯m essentially diving every time I surface. What about¡­¡¯ Getting rid of the four flippers, I created two larger ones at the front of my body, and stretched myself out a bit while flattening the sides to improve hydrodynamic performance, ultimately becoming a flippered eel. I wiggled my butt to move around underwater, and dodged the other childrenplaying in the pool. To surface, I would do a massive stroke with my two flippers, and shaped my body into an actual torpedo that burst out ofthe water. Once I couldshapeshift comfortablyunderwater, I dived to the bottom of the pond where I flattened myself against the ground. From there, I collected as much water as I could from my surroundings, swelling up like a giant balloon. PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT. I launched myself upwards using my ass-propulsion cannon, condensing my body as much as possible. I exploded out of the water like a bullet, and once I reached the peak of my climb,spread myself out thin and wide like a parachute, slowly floating back towards the pond.
¡°Uh¡­ El, thatisyour kid, right?¡± Andrea¡¯s face paledas she watched Ellie''schild transform from a parachute into a cannonball that crashed into the water, splashing kids and parents alike. 25 meters away. ¡°Yep. Bell¡¯s been doing stuff like this ever since he first learned how to move.¡± Ellie appeareda little pale as well, but she took it a little better than Andrea, recalling when her child had formed freakishly long stick legs to try and walk onto the roof of their house. She shuddered. ¡°Wow. It must be difficult. I thoughtIhad it bad. Lily¡¯s been trouble ever since she started learning how to open the fridge. She thinks it¡¯s funny to throw berries at strangers who pass by our house. I can¡¯t even begin to imagine what Bell would do with that crazy imagination of his.¡± ¡°He¡¯s usually quite tame.Really.¡± Ellie added, notingAndrea¡¯s doubtful expression. ¡°He really cares about Jean and I, you know? Even though he¡¯s so young, he helps around the house and even does chores willingly. What sort of kid does that?¡± While she was proud of her little slime, there was a hint of sadness in her voice. ¡°I think¡­ he still blames himself forthatday.¡± Andrea nodded understandingly. It was the day when Bell accidentally knocked over a hot blade in Jean¡¯s workshop. Jean had protectedhim by grabbing it in mid-air, but receivedthird degree burns in the process, requiring extensive medical attention at the Faeris hospital. "What do I do, Ann? He obviously didn''t know what he was doing.I know he''s smart, but that was more than two years ago. I thought he¡¯d get over it with time, but if he hasn¡¯t... isn''t that too much stress for a child?" Ellie brought her knees up to her chest and hugged them. "I just want Bell to always be having fun like this. But yesterday, he told Jean and I that he wanted to be strong. I had the feeling thathe wants to take on the burden of the entire family on his tiny shoulders, alone." "Am I a bad mom for not realizing sooner?" Shewhispered, barely audible. ''No'', was what Andrea wanted to say, but the words caught at her throat. It wasn''t that she agreed, but rather that merelysaying ''no'' wouldn''t be enough to help her friend. She was at a loss for what to say. Buryingher face into her knees, Ellie remembered the firm expression on Bell''s face the other day. It wasn''t something that anyoneshould have to see on three-year-old child. Ellie could only imagine what her father would say to her if he found out that his grandchild wore such a scary face. She chuckled. He''d probably squeeze Bell''s cheeks until he laughed or cried. Ellie gazedat the clouds that drifted overhead, glowing brightly due to the mana crystals embedded in their fluffiness. Memories of her and her father played themselves in her mind.... Holding a huge celebration when she awoke to her mana; choosing a uniform on her first day of school; hugging her on the day of her graduation with a huge, silly grin; proudly holding her hand as she walked up the aisle during her wedding in her white dress.... Wipingher wet eyes with her sleeve, Ellie apologized for being so sentimental. ¡°No, no, don¡¯t be. El, I''m sorry that I can''t be of more help. Just know that your family will always be my family.¡± Andrea gave Ellie''sshoulder a light squeeze before turning to watch Bell again. He was now doing flying somersaults over the other children, using a jet of water to hover a meter above the surface of the pond. ¡®We mightactuallybe family, someday.¡¯ Her daughter was at the edge of the pond watching the spectacle with a twinkle in her eye. ¡®I¡¯ll have to teach her well, if she¡¯s to match his talent.¡¯
''Phew!'' I collapsed from exhaustion after Ellie and I returned home for a late lunch. Jean welcomed us back, and leftwith Ellie to grab some berries from the nearby market, leaving me to get some rest.It had beena productive morningof training. Towards the end of the day, I had figured out to ¡®store¡¯ things in my body, without actually integrating it or digesting it. After an hour of fiddling around with absorbing and releasing water, a thought hit me. Couldn¡¯t I ¡®swallow¡¯ the water without actually mixingitwith my slime? Such a feat would allow me to exercise a greater degree of control over it. I spent a full hour and a half swallowing water and trying to separate it like a cell would a vesicle. Forming an internal membrane was difficult, but it was nothing compared to learning how to digest a berry. Practicing this skill on Lily by chasing after and dumping bucketloads of water on her, I eventually learned how to split the ¡®vesicles¡¯ inside me, and began to fire little water balls at her. Needless to say, Lily wasn¡¯t very happy with me after that. Ellie gave me a firm lecture all the way home. Instead of taking a nap, like I probably should¡¯ve done, I was practicing making vesicles containing air. It seemed like an impossible task, because the air would just diffuse through the walls of the membrane, and would leak out completely within seconds. ¡°We¡¯re home~!¡± I put the task beside me and greeted my parents. Today¡¯s meal was white, sweet Yaksha berries, the specialty product of our village, and green, bitter Yaksha berries, which were imported from the cloud cities above. I didn¡¯t really understand plant biology in this world, but I assumed that it had something to do with the environment that they grew up in. In any case, apparently different colored berries provided different nutrients, all of which were essential to a slime¡¯s healthy growth. This was the only reason I ate the bitter flavoured berries. Again, this taste was a little different from that of a human tongue. In this case, ¡®bitter¡¯ was more of an unsatisfying and unpleasant tingle that I got in my nucleus. As I regretfully digested one of the green ones, I recalled my grandfather¡¯s journal. Didn¡¯t he mention that there was something else other than nutrients in these berries? A sudden realization dawned on me, like a spark created from the smack of two flints. These berries were packed full of mana. Grandfather¡¯s journal theorized that a mana core could be forcefully matured, but that the limiting factor was a slime¡¯s innate ability to ¡®sense¡¯ it. Of course, perhaps I wouldn¡¯t be able to learn how to sense it or be taught how to sense it, but what if I overloaded myself with so much mana that I couldn¡¯t help but at least understand what it felt like? Back when I attended school in my past life, I learned about something called signal amplification in neurons, the information conducing cell of the body. A central neuron would receive inputs from thousands of different sensory neurons from something like a touch to the body, and only once ample integration was achieved would the central neuron allow an individual to ¡®perceive¡¯ a sense. That¡¯s why people don¡¯t always taste a difference between two red wines, unless the tastes of the two were completely different, like one being sweet and the other being bitter. I also recalled that signal integration was key to improving one¡¯s ability to sense certain signals. For example, an experienced wine taster would be able to perceive the difference in tastes between two red wines, because their neurons are more sensitive, denser, and better integrated at the tongue, to be able to amplify even the smallest difference in sweetness and bring that sensation to their consciousness. I couldn¡¯t help but think that mana would be the same way. Perhaps this was why slimes varied in the time they took to mature as well, because they were always absorbing mana from the environment, but in such miniscule amounts that they couldn¡¯t feel it. Those with bodies that were able to create these ¡®neurons¡¯ faster, denser, and with better interconnectedness would be able to sense mana more adeptly. Maybe the mana core worked on a similar principle. Only after a certain duration and magnitude of exposure would the nucleus, having much too small a level of mana capacity, gain sufficient storage capacity, which would lead¡­ to¡­ an awakened state? I actually had no clue. I spent the next few minutes absorbed in my thoughts, not even paying attention to the bitter taste of the green berries nor the sweetness of the white berries anymore. All that mattered was my greediness of potentially becoming a magic user from a young age. Even so, I couldn¡¯t crack the code of how a slime actually ¡®awoke¡¯ to their mana. I needed more information. BUT, I was sure that at least the first part of my analysis was reasonable, and I slowly devised a strategy to test out my theory. The first thing that I would need, was money. Chapter 5 - Awakening (Part 5) I went to the bookshelf and grabbed my little wooden box that I was using to save up money, filled with two years¡¯ worth of allowance that I received for buying the occasional Yaksha berry candies sold at the market. While it pained me not to spend it, I was certain that there would be a better use for it down the road. Clink clink clink. Sigh, 24 copper coins. I didn''t know how many berries I needed for my plan, but this much wasn''t nearly enough. My strategy was simple, but costly. The first phase would be to overload my body''s mana capacity to such a degree that I would have no choice but to perceive it. This phase would allow me to detect what I called the minimum threshold. There was no knowing what this value was, but I ballparked that around 100 bunches of berries would do the trick. At least, that¡¯s what I hoped. The second phase would be to slowly decrease this minimum threshold over time until I could sense mana without even needing to resort to extra berries. I figured that I would need to push my limits over a very long time before this could happen, thus necessitating a constant income. But, with some luck, I would be able to sense mana far sooner than other slimes. I would then move onto learning how to form a mana core. Hurray for science and logical experimentation! But how would I get the money? I mulled over this problem for the entire afternoon. A skill based job would take way too much time to learn. I needed something that even a child could do. Something that would be consistent for a while. Hmm.... I could go out and help the grannies in the plantations, but I doubted that I would be able to get more than five coppers a day. Given the current price of Yaksha, even at the discounted rate, I would probably need at least one silver leaf per 100 bunches. That wasn''t the kind of money you could just come across with a normal job. What kind of person would hire a three-year-old kid, anyway? Hmm... The other option was to grow my own berries, but that would take months, or even years. And a sizeable plot of land, which would also cost money. Much more than a few silver leaves, that was for certain. Hmmmmmmmm... Time flew by as I considered various different ways to make money, but nothing really came to mind. After all, if there really was a good idea for making money, someone would have already thought of it and made a profitable business off it. I sighed and decided to ask my parents for their thoughts at dinnertime, instead.
Today''s dinner was imported black roasted berries from the lava plantations to the Southeast of Kingdom. Eating them gave me a warm, tingling sensation in my nucleus. They were a little more expensive than the regular berries we ate, but it was good to switch it up now and then. Once we were finished eating, I thought it would be a good time to ask. ''Mom, what''s a good way to make money? I want to buy new toys to play with Lily.'' Of course that was a lie, but I wanted to surprise my parents by awakening early. More importantly, I didn''t know how they would react if I told them the truth; the only reason I got the idea was because of my grandfather''s journal, which was written in a language that I shouldn''t know how to read. "What do you want, honey? We can buy it for you." Jean smiled and rubbed my head. ''I want to work for it myself.'' I pumped my chest out like I was proud of my statement. Hopefully my acting would dispel any suspicions they had about my reasoning. "Haha, our son is really responsible. Right, Ellie?" "..." ''Mom?'' Ellie looked at me with an unreadable expression on her face. "Bell, we''re your parents. You can rely on us." ''It''s okay mom, I want to work for it. You guys already do so much for me.'' "No, Bell. You''re too young--" ''Mom, don''t worry--'' I insisted. "No!" The tone of her voice was quite angry and stern, and I was taken aback. Apparently Jean was too. "Ellie? All he wants is to work for his toys. Isn''t that fine?" ''Yeah mom--'' "No! You don''t understand!" Ellie''s shoulders started shaking as she looked down at the ground. "What''s wrong, darling?" Jean tried to put her hand on Ellie''s shoulder, but Elliesuddenly stood up and ran out of the room. "Ah, Ellie! Bell, wait here. Ellie!" Jean propped me onto the sofa and ran after her, leaving me confused and a little angry. ''What''s mom''s problem? Did she really have to get angry like that? It''s not like I did anything wrong. All I wanted to do was to make some money so that I could become stronger for our family.'' I couldn''t make heads or tails of the situation, and silently fumed on the sofa. Regretting asking the question in the first place, I angrily jumped up and down and wiggled my arms in the air in frustration.
"Ellie, what''s wrong?!" Jean panted as she ran to catch up to the fleeing Ellie. Jean grabbed Ellie''s arm, only to have it jerked away. "No, go away! You wouldn''t understand. Leave me alone!" It was nighttime, and the mana crystals on the clouds above had faded. The only light came from the floating Yaksha plants on the lake, and their dim, blue glow just shined bright enough to illuminate Ellie''s crying face. Jean frowned, not knowing what was going on.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. "If you would explain to me what''s wrong, I can try to help. Ellie, please." "It''s just that *hic* our Bell always wants to *hic* do everything by himself and he *hic* never asks us to help him with anything! Even though he''s our son!" Ellie¡¯s body shook in the dim light, and all Jean wanted to do was to embrace her and tell her that everything was alright. But she knew that it wouldn''t make anything better. "I don''t understand. Is that... wrong?" Ellie¡¯s statement was confusing. Jean had been raised in a tough household, where it was important for children to learn about responsibility from a young age. She thought that Bell was a wonderful son for wanting to pay for his own toys, and to demonstrate such a high level of maturity already. He even saved up money unlike the other kids, who spent every leaf they got their hands on. "It''s not... but..." Ellie bit her lip. "¡­Ever since that day when you protected him. He''s been... different." "That was over two years ago! You surely don''t think--" Jean''s voice faltered. Jean spent a minute studying Ellie''s crying face, quietly remembering the incident. The despairing face on her son, the sadness in his wails of grief, and his tiny, trembling frame. Was it possible? ... She couldn''t deny that her son had behaved more maturely since then. Helping out with chores instead of playing with kids his age, paying close attention to move slowly in the house, trying to help out with her blacksmithing by carrying materials.... Jean had thought of it as her son growing up a little earlier than the other kids. But if he had been doing so out of guilt¡­. Slowly, the realization of this fact sank in. What shook her the most was that she had been blind for so long. No. Perhaps she had known long ago, but chose to push it out of her mind because of the potential implications. "Is it... my fault?" Jean whispered. If it was true, she had singlehandedly ruined Bell''s childhood. "No, Jean! It''s not. You protected him. Don''t blame yourself for this." Ellie begged Jean and hugged her tightly. Ellie was afraid of this happening, which is why she didn''t want to tell Jean sooner. While Jean was rambunctious, tough, and a little aloof at times, she was a softie on the inside with a huge heart. That also meant that she was extremely fragile, especially when she blamed herself. "But--" "It''s no one''s fault, Jean. No one could¡¯ve expected a one-year-old boy to feel guilty for an accident like that. Please don¡¯t blame yourself.¡± Ellie squeezed harder, and pressed the side of her head against Jean¡¯s chest. The next few seconds felt like several minutes, but she could hear Jean¡¯s racing heartbeat slow down. Minutes passed as the two embraced in the dim light of the lake, both of them unsure of what to do. They were new to parenting, and had a sinking feeling that the guilt their son felt was their fault for not noticing it sooner, nor talking to him about forgiveness. ¡°El¡­ what are we going to do?¡± Jean asked when she calmed down. She looked down at Ellie, who had streams of tears and snot running down her face. ¡°*Sniff*¡­I think we should talk to Bell. I¡¯m sure he has no idea what¡¯s going on right now.¡± Ellie gave a little chuckle, imagining him looking bewildered. ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right. ¡­What do we say though?¡± Ellie paused. ¡°We¡¯ll tell him that we¡¯re a family, of course.¡±
By the time Ellie and Jean came back, my anger and frustration had dissipated, and I was more worried than confused. ¡®Mom, are you okay?¡¯ Ellie walked in holding hands with Jean, and no longer wearing that expressionless mask of hers. I could see that her eyes were a little puffed up and red though, so I assumed that she had been crying. The two of them sat on the ground in front of me. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m okay. I don¡¯t know how to say this, but¡­ Bell, we know.¡± At this, my heart began racing. What did they mean they knew? They knew that I was a reincarnated soul inside the body of a slime? Is that why mom had been crying? I began to tear up, thinking that I wouldn¡¯t be able to be a part of this family again. ¡®Mom, I can explain¡ª¡® ¡°Bell,¡± Ellie looked at me seriously in the eye. ¡°We know that you¡¯ve felt guilty ever since the accident. We just want you to know that your mom forgives you, and you don¡¯t have to feel as though you¡¯re responsible anymore.¡± Whaaaa¡­? Come again? ¡°We¡¯re a family, right? That means we forgive each other for our mistakes, because we love one another. That¡¯s what family¡¯s all about.¡± So¡­ I wasn¡¯t found out? I didn¡¯t know whether to breathe a sigh of relief or to collapse. I thought my corewas going to burst out of my chest. Shaking myself away from these thoughts, I focused on what Ellie had said before. That I could rely on her and Jean more, that I¡¯d felt guilty about the accident, and that we forgave each other for our mistakes¡­. Ah¡­ was that what this was all about? I thought about my actions the past two years, and I could clearly see what the issue was here. She wasn¡¯t wrong. I did feel guilty about hurting Jean, but everything that I had been doing was more than just taking responsibility. I wanted to be a source of strength for our family. The issue was that in their eyes, I was still just a kid. I mentally smacked myself on the head. Of course. A kid doing all of his chores willingly, wanting to work for his own money to buy a toy, not eating candy when offered by an adult, everything else that I had been doing. What kind of normal child would do that? Even I would be worried for a child who wasn¡¯t spending every hour of the day outside and having fun. Why didn¡¯t I realize it sooner? But¡­ I didn¡¯t really want to tell my parents that I was actually turning 23 this year, mentally. I was afraid of their rejection. If they found out that I was a reincarnated slime, they would probably never treat me the same way again. They might not even see me as their own son, but as a freak. Perhaps I would tell them the truth one day, but definitely not in the near future. Then how could I clear up the misunderstanding? I didn¡¯t want them to worry about me, but I didn¡¯t want to tell them the whole story. Just plain lying didn¡¯t sit right with me either. In the end, I decided to tell a half-truth. ¡®Sorry mom¡­ I actually have to tell you something. I should¡¯ve told you sooner. I did feel guilty about Jean¡¯s hand, but I knew that she had already forgiven me. She told me that before she left for the hospital, remember?¡¯ Both of my moms looked at me in surprise. Oh shit, right. They weren¡¯t supposed to know that I could understand them when I was so young. ¡°You could understand what Jean was saying when you were only eightmonths old?¡± Ellie asked, incredulously. ¡®Ah¡­ yeah, I could understand most of what you guys were saying ever since I was sixmonths old, actually. I should¡¯ve told you guys that too. Anyways¡­ the reason I¡¯ve been working so hard and trying to be independent is because I love you guys, and I want to grow up to become a strong person for our family. I¡¯ve been having a lot of fun. Doing chores and helping you guys work makes me happy. I get to go outside and play in the park with Lily a lot too.¡¯ I added. ¡®So don¡¯t be sad, mom. Okay?¡¯ The two of them stared at me silently. Did I speak too maturely for my age? I guess I did¡­ ... "So, I''ve been worrying all this time for nothing? *sniff* Haha..." Ellie''s body seemed to lose all its energy, and began to tilt towards Jean, who caught her in surprise. Jeanwas about to ask herif she was okay when she realized Ellie was smiling. ¡°Haha *sniff* haha, Jean, we have a great son, don¡¯t we?¡± Ellielooked up weakly at Jean. ¡°Yeah, we do.¡± Jean agreed. ¡°And a smart one too. Our little genius~¡± Istayed silent, but before I even could think of something to say, my parents scooped me off the sofa and embraced me. We stayed like that for a while. To my relief, their faces looked a lot better than they did when they had come back into the house. My explanation seemed to have done the trick. ¡°So. Bell, you said you wanted to earn some leaves, right?¡± Jean asked, interrupting my thoughts. ¡®Ah, yeah¡­ is that alright?¡¯ ¡°Yeah,¡± Ellie said. ¡°But, you have to still rely on us more, okay? We¡¯re a family, and you¡¯re still our baby, Bell.¡± She nuzzled me with her face. Ewww... snot. ¡®I¡¯m not a baby anymore though¡ª¡® I tried to retort. ¡°You¡¯ll always be our baby~¡± Jean interrupted. ¡°And we¡¯ll always be your parents. No matter how old you are, or who you become. Okay, Bell?¡± I sighed, ¡®I guess so¡­¡¯ Ellie giggled and plopped onto the sofa beside me, putting me on her lap as usual. ¡°Family meeting time! The topic today is~ how to make money!¡± ¡°What about making candies of our own and selling them at the trading post nearby? Or what about--¡± The evening went on like this late into the night, as my parents fired ideas off of each other and criticized each other¡¯s lack of creativity. At the end of it all, we didn''t really make any progress. However, one thought kept pulling away at the recesses of my mind. ¡®What''s going to happen ifthey find out who I really am?'' Chapter 6 - Awakening (Part 6) Huff huff. ¡°Bell, put your back into it!¡± ¡®I¡¯m trying, auntie, this is as hard as I can go!¡¯ Huff huff ¡°Uhn~, you¡¯re doing such a good job. Now it¡¯s my~ turn.¡± ¡®What, already? But, I¡¯ve just finished! At least give me a chance to rest¡­¡¯ ¡°Here I go~!¡± Ssssss¡­..Clink! I wiped the sweat off my brow as I begrudgingly began to mush the next batch of berries, observing Andrea holding up our very first product. She handed it over to Ellie, who had prepared a chilled crate to store it in. This afternoon, we would be heading off to the nearby trading post to debut our new business. ¡­ What is our business idea, you ask? BWAHAHAHA. Tis an idea that will change the world. A design that will bend the wills of all slimes and whatever other species exist now, and their future generations to come. I GIVE YOU! Fizzy soda~ I got the idea when Andrea came over one day to visit my parents during the night. While Lily and I were playing a slime variant of Jacks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knucklebones) using pebbles we found near the lake, they popped open a bottle of red wine and proceeded to get drunk enough to climb onto the roof and start hollering about how cute their children were. Although I had no interest in wine myself, it did spark a new thought. There was one thing that I had never seen in the Kingdom, despite there being plenty of Yaksha-based juices and wines: carbonated beverages. I explained my idea to everyone, and tested it out by having the drunk Andrea use wind magic to pump the wine full of carbon dioxide. She didn¡¯t really know what carbon dioxide was, but I described it as the main gas that came out of her breath, and she seemed to understand. The result was sparkling wine, which got the adults even drunker, and the intoxicated Ellie used her ice magic to construct a giant sculpture of me and Lily on our roof. I was glad when they all passed out, and the sculpture disintegrated without having a steady source of mana to maintain it. While Lily found it funny and beautiful, I was worried that it was going to crush our home with its enormous weight. Ellie and Jean were still hung over at home while I visited Lily and Andrea in the afternoon the next day. Their home was more spacious than ours, probably becausesomeonedidn''t turnhalf of it into a workshop (at this moment, Jean sneezed back at our house). The basic structure was the same, though. The living room was a jungle of books stacked on top of each other and splayed across the sofa, just like in our house at the moment. The difference was thatto the right cornerof the room was a small dining area, while the left area led to two rooms, one for Andrea and one for Lily.
***Flashback Start*** I sat down on the sofa that Andrea offered me, fighting the lull of herroom. The room where this sexy beast laid down every night and threw the covers on. Maybe once after a bath, she may have, without dressing, threw herself onto¡ª Slap. ¡°Bell?!¡± ¡®Don¡¯t mind me, auntie. My arm moved on its own.¡¯ ¡°E-eh? O-okay¡­ So, explain this plan of yours to me again. I¡¯m having trouble remembering from yesterday.¡± ¡®No problem! It¡¯s quite simple. I will purchase 200 bunches of white Yaksha berries and turn them into juice. I would like your help to make the juice bubbly before we seal the bottles, and then we will sell them at the market for two coppers each. Ellie will help us keep the juice cold. We can split the profits three waysafter subtracting the cost.¡¯ ¡°Hmmm~ 200 bunches? Where will you get the money?¡± ¡®Mom¡ª Jean agreed to help pay for the first 200. She said that in return, you have to help her make more of that bubbly wine you all had yesterday. She was even talking about trying to learn a bit of wind magic from you¡­¡¯ ¡°*Cough* That sounds like Jean all right.¡± Andrea seemed to be in thought, making her look like a sexy, intelligent goddess with her flowing emerald hair lightly bobbing as she tilted her head slightly to the side. Oh how I wished to¡ª ¡°Okay, Bell. We have a deal!¡± She beamed. ¡®Mommy, let me help too! Pwease?¡¯ Lily hopped onto her mom¡¯s lap and looked at her with expectant eyes. ¡°Okay, my Lily-willy. You can help us sell the juice at the trading post.¡± ¡®Yaaaaayy~!¡¯ Lily did a little twirl in the air and nuzzled against her mom¡¯s voluptuous chests. A seed of jealousy began to sprout inside me, but I mentally cut the sprout at the stem and asked her about something she said. ¡®We¡¯re going to sell them at the trading post?¡¯ ¡°Mhm. That¡¯s probably the best place. The market in the village is too small, and the city is too far out. The local trading post is only ten minutes away, and it will probably sell best there.¡± ¡®Ohhh, I see. I think my parents mentioned a place like that. What do they sell there?¡¯ ¡°Equipment and supplies, mostly. People traveling between cities usually need to restock on the way, and not everyone has time to go to the big cities, after all. We can take our slime-cart out back to carry the juice after we bottle them.¡± Slime-carts were the main form of transportation used in our village. A four-wheeled wagon that could be propelled and directed using a tiny amount of mana, it was immensely useful for moving goods and slimes around. It¡¯s also what Jean rode on to get to Faeris whenever she went to deliver her customers¡¯ requested forged or repaired equipment and tools. ¡®That would be awesome! Thanks auntie~¡¯ ¡°No problem dearie~¡± ***Flashback End***
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. So right now, Ellie, Andrea, Lily and I were gathered at our place in the morning to juice, carbonate, and bottle 200 bunches of white Yaksha berries that we purchased from the market. The grannies were even nice enough to give us an extra discount for buying in bulk, so we got away with only paying 1 silver, 80 coppers. First, I took out a metal bowl and pestle that I had asked Jean to make for me. The bowl was around 30 centimeters in diameter, and had a stable bottom that would allow me to manipulate it easier without it sliding off the table. The pestle was a thick, stone rod that Jean carved using her Basic Earth Shaping magic. With these two tools, I was able to crush the berries and extract their juice. One bunch was exactly enough for one bottle, which surprised me considering that the bottle was at least 350 mL; the berries were juicier than I had originally thought. As for how we got the bottles, Jean had contacted one of her handicrafting friends in the city to get us a cheap deal of 100 glass bottles for 10 coppers. Apparently her friend was a glassblower from the trades school Jean went to for blacksmith training. With the 20 coppers we saved from buying Yaksha berries at a discount, the total cost of our initial startup was 2 silvers. After the bottles were filled, Andrea used her wind magic to carbonate the drink, as well as cap it. Ellie would then store them in a wooden crate, chilled to around four degrees using her ice magic. By noon, we had 200 bottles of sweet, fizzy, berry sodas, leaving us the entire afternoon to go to the trading post to sell our new product. We loaded four crates that Ellie onto the slime-cart, and headed off to the east of our village.
Tduktduktduktduk... Emerging from the village¡¯s east forest path with our slime-cart, we found ourselves in a large clearing, about the size of a shopping mall. The trees surrounding the area were at least 100 meters tall, and their trunks and branches were embedded with mana crystals that emitted bright, orange lights. The floor was laminated strangely with compacted, yellow-green leaves that felt like glass to the touch, and glistened under the lighting of the trees. All along the perimeter of this area were stalls that varied in size and design. One of them were shaped like a wooden crab with giant claws holding a pair of claymores that crossed in the middle of its face; the name of the store was Crabs Have Long Swords. Another one had two large round shields at the base of the stall, which stretched high and longwith a gold arch at the tip; the store was named Protection. In the middle of the area was a brightly lit stage where a gorgeous, rose skinned woman was singing a mystical tune to the strums of her enormous, gold harp. Her ever flowing, pink hair and long eyelashes gave her the appearance of a divine goddess, accentuated by her graceful features, charming eyes, and delicate cheekbones. Her ballad was soft yet emotionally powerful, captivating the thousands of slimes in the vicinity. The lanterns of the hall were shining Tea cups young and old were waking Dancing in the mana streams Twisting turning all the way into the sky An array of color and vibrant display Fireworks of lilies and rainbows filled the air That''s how we felt that day Why¡¯d you have to go away ¡­ Baby all I want. Is you~ The lights gradually dimmed on stage during the last line of the song, and the crowd of slimes erupted in cheers. As the singer exited the stage, the marketplace that had been completely focused on the performance suddenly sprang to life, and a clamor of excited conversation filled the forest clearing. Some went to the stalls to purchase or trade, while others started to set up temporary stalls in the middle of the area, where the stage was being disassembled and taken away in pieces. "We''re here, Bell, Lily. This is the Montano Trading Post." Andrea smiled. She led us to a permanent structure that was built of stone, but had a rectangular opening where a few slimes were sitting. We approached a brown slime wearing a white necktie, which complemented his white mustache. "Hello, I would like to rent a small stall for this afternoon," Andrea said. "Certainly. The outer rim stalls are all booked for the day. There''s a spot available in the central market area, if that works for you. The site label is Z3." the man offered. "Works for us," Andrea replied, handing him five coppers, as was indicated on the price-board above us. We towed our slime-cart towards the middle of the trading post, passing by a stall that was selling jewelry, another that was purchasing old equipment and weapons for cheap, and a peculiar stall that sold exotic plants.There was even a stall that was selling strange looking animals, one of which looked like a baby goat¡¯s head with bat wings growing out from either side. It made a loud screeching noise when I tried to approach its cage, so I leftit alone. We finally arrived at a dingy corner of the center area, where we parked, and set up our banner using two poles on either side of the cart. Ellie had purchased paper and paint for Lily and I back at the village, where we had spent an entire day making the perfect sign for our new business. Now that it was splayed out for the public to see, I was a little embarrassed at our work. It honestly looked like one of the pictures kids drew for their parents to hang on their fridge, with half-assed shading of our families to the left and right, and too many different colors used unnecessarily. At least we got the words right. "Phew. You ready, Ellie? Lily? Bell?" Andrea asked. ''Aye~'' ''Yes mom.'' "Let''s do it." Ellie said with a determined expression. Andrea exhaled and took a deep breath. Haaaaa... Huuuuuuu... "LILY AND BELL''S JUICE EMPORIUM IS NOW OPEN~!" Our business was a go!
¡®¡­¡¯ ¡®¡­¡¯ ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± An hour later, the four of us sat on our empty slime-cart in a daze, Ellie holding a pouch of 600 copper leaves. Maybe it was because the product was new, but we were shocked to have sold out already. Well, shocked was an understatement. It started out with an adventurous brown slime whose bulging muscles made him look like Mike Tyson. At first, he was only going to buy one to help support the two children who were cutely sitting atop the stall, as well as the two beauties next to them. But, after he bought one, he bought another one, then two, then three, and then suddenly hollered that everyone had to try this insane drink. The stampede that followed was nothing short of madness. I felt like the boss of a criminal organization who was dealing out narcotics. After the first 100 sales, we had to raise the price to 4 coppers to prevent our stock from selling out too fast, but it didn¡¯t do anything to stop the onslaught that ensured. People fought each other to get one before the stock ran out, which prompted a very annoyed Ellie to use her ice magic to chill everyone the fuck out. ¡°Please form a single file line~ <3,¡± She said smiling, displaying all the aura of a level 9999 demon lord whose nipples were just flicked. Even Lily and I paled at her expression. This helped to slow the purchases down, but not enough, it seemed. Hence our current situation. The four of us, sitting there on our cart. Empty bottles strewn on the ground all around us. ¡°El, I think we can quit our job at the SDF.¡± Andrea gazed up at the sky like she finally understood the meaning of life. ¡°I was just thinking the same thing.¡± Ellie, too, was drifting into an alternate dimension where unicorns and fairies existed. Oh wait, maybe they did exist in this world. ¡®Mom, can Lily and I walk around to do some shopping? We won¡¯t go very far.¡¯ I asked. ¡°Eh? Yah, sure¡­¡± Ellie said, still in her strange trance. She handed me the entire pouch, making me reel a little bit. Mom was surely somewhere far, far away, where rivers were made of gold and her house was made of diamonds. I quietly counted 200 coppers, which was my share as we had agreed upon (Andrea got 195, Ellie got 200, and Lily got 5), and stored it in my own pouch which was tied around my body using a rope made of Yaksha stems. I gave the rest back to mom and hopped off the cart, motioning for Lily to follow with my pseudopod. With a budget of 100 coppers for presents, I hopped around from stall to stall looking for something cute that I could give to Lily, Ellie, Jean, and Andrea. This was my way of saying thank you. After all, none of this could have happened without their help. For Lily, I ended up purchasing a potted, rare variant of the Yaksha plant that changed colors every morning and wouldn¡¯t grow any bigger than its current size. For Andrea, I was tempted to buy a giant black rod made of obsidian imbued steel, but decided to settle for a glass house ornament instead, a cheaper and more appropriate gift. For Ellie, I bought a lesser magic enhancement hairclip that she could store a little bit of mana in for future use. For Jean, I bought a new pair of blacksmithing gloves, which could replace the old ones she had been using for over a year. Afterwards, Lily and I made our way back to the slime-cart where our moms were already discussing plans for getting a patent for the fizzy juice and expanding this business to reach the four corners of the Kingdom. ¡°Here they come~ Ready to go, kids?¡± Andrea smiled. ¡®¡®Yep, let¡¯s go!¡¯¡¯ Lily and I cheered in unison. As the cart rolled back towards the village, Ellie and Andrea were both exclaiming how beautiful their gifts were, and complimenting Lily on having been such a cute salesgirl. Lily blushed, and our parents used the opportunity to tease her some more, giggling and taking turns putting her on their heads. I smiled and sat on the cart, thinking that it would be nice if life would be like this for a while. But there was work to do. This evening, I would begin phase 1 of my mana acquisition strategy: Project Manaborn. Project Science? Berry Good Project? ... Ah, that might work. Chapter 7 - Awakening (Part 7) When we arrived back at the village, it was still early in the afternoon. We were greeted by the soothing sounds of the lakeshore washing over the sandy beaches. The mana crystals shone bright overhead, and a familiar scent of Yaksha and lakewater filled the air. One that reminded me of the natural, clean smell of the mountains in my past life. On our way home, Andrea and Ellie led the cart from the front, and Lily and I were left to enjoy the cart bounce up and down while it rolled along the dirt road. Two manaflies, tiny insects shaped like blue dragonflies with nine wings on their backs, flew past us. Here is what they were thinking: ¡®Oh George!¡¯ ¡®Oh Margaret <3!¡¯ ¡®Yes, yes, yes! Oh you demon~¡¯ ¡®I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m going to¡­¡¯ ¡°Aweh, isn¡¯t that sweet? That manafly is giving the other one a piggyback ride~¡± Andrea commented happily, feeling the solid weight of 195 copper leaves in her pocket. Although it wasn¡¯t that much, the fact that she had made so much money in a short amount of time was giving her a bubbleheaded feeling. ¡°Errr¡­ y-yeah.¡± Ellie said. She was seriously contemplating quitting her job and going full time with this fizzy juice business. From their previous discussions, it seemed like Andrea would probably agree to partner up. Especially considering that both of them hated their jobs. Ellie had glorified all of the stories of her SDF days to Bell, and the truth was much less exciting and much more arduous. For example, as a long range, area-of-effect debuffer, defeating that undead lich¡¯s army meant that she had to stay in the back lines pouring every single drop of mana she had into maintaining her advanced class freezing spell. It was exhausting to say the least, and it didn¡¯t help that the undead smelt like rotten berries fermenting in a vat of a manamoo¡¯s steaming shit. It cleared the sinuses even better than Yaksha wasabi did. Before Ellie could bring the topic of the new business again, Andrea beat her to the punch. ¡°El, I think we should try this again on a larger scale, and if the juice sells as well as it did today, we should actually get a patent ASAP.¡± ¡°Fufufu, An, I think we¡¯re on the same page. Just imagine. We could try using different flavours and even sell bubbly wines.¡± Ellie noted. The two of them imagined the load of wealth that they might soon possess, and burst out in roaring laughter, as Lily and I exchanged a look that screamed ¡®Oh boy!....¡¯
Once we arrived, we began to say our goodbyes, with the plan to meet up for dinner and discuss the business in more detail. However, I had other plans. ¡®Mom, can I take the cart to the market? I want to buy some different flavoured berries and test how they might taste as juice.¡¯ I inquired innocently as possible. ¡°I¡¯ll come with you, honey.¡± Ellie offered. ¡®It¡¯s okay mom, you deserve some rest. All I¡¯ve been doing is sitting on the cart, so I¡¯m not tired at all.¡¯ I smiled. ¡°But¡ª¡° ¡°Don¡¯t worry about Bell, El. He¡¯s growing up to be a strong, independent boy. The market¡¯s just a few minutes down the road anyway, and the villagers all know him.¡± Andrea reassured her. I silently thanked her in my thoughts. ¡®I¡¯ll be back before you know it~¡¯ ¡°Sigh, okay. But be back soon, okay?¡± Ellie said, handing me 50 coppers. ¡®I promise.¡¯ I put the leaves in my pouch and gave mom a big hug before everyone went their separate ways. And so, under the premise of buying more berries for the business, I physically wheeled the slime-cart over to the market and bought 100 bunches of the clear, tasteless variant of Yaksha. I didn''t want any sort of taste induced tingle in my nucleus if I could help it. Unnecessary senses would only hamper my efforts.With the added discount, it costed exactly 90 coppers, which left me 10 from the juice sales and 50 from Ellie. With these, I bought a variety of different berries to taste-test and bring home. These included a yellow variant that supposedly had a banana-like texture and sweetness, a black-spotted white version that was supposed to be a hard, taffy like berry, and an ominous looking red type that was a new find from the upper dungeon floors, apparently. I didn¡¯t really want to try it, but I affirmed that my sacrifice would be for the greater good of the business. The main issue now, was wheeling the cart to the secret base Lily and I had found at the edge of the village. We had come across it while exploring the lakeshore a few weeks back with Andrea. As a small enclosed space atop a beautiful tree entwined with a strange, green Yaksha plant on every branch, it was the best place to conduct my experiment. A quiet, peaceful area where there would be no sudden sounds to distract me in my meditation. The Yaksha that covered it was a strange, mutated variety that apparently masked its presence from adults; or at least that¡¯s what Lily and I discovered after Andrea lost her mind thinking that we had disappeared somewhere. It also didn¡¯t produce any berries, to my dismay. Anyway, the reason why wheeling the cart was an issue was because I had underestimated the weight of 150 bunches of berries. Not having any mana myself, I had to physically pull the cart rather than guide its movement magically. Pushing my strength to its limits, it took almost a full 15 minutes to pull it 300 meters off-road, but I eventually made it to the base, sweating and body heaving. One by one, I threw the bagged berries into the open entryway. I left the flavored ones on the cart, though, since I would have to drag them back home anyway. I then went up myself, using the branches as step ladders, bouncing from one to the other.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
I climbed into our secret base, welcomed by the dim, green glow of the surrounding Yaksha vines and leaves. Like Lily and Ihad originally found it, the inside floor of the tree was a flat area made of intricately interwoven branches. The walls arched upwards like a dome, and met in the center where a single leaf grew brighter than the rest. The base was almost too perfect, but I didn¡¯t really think about it too much. If it was artificial, whoever had made it left long ago. There were manaspiders that Lily and I had to clear out before we could actually use it comfortably. I collected the berries splayed around the base, and piled them into a corner, contemplating the task in front of me. I never had any issues getting ¡®full¡¯, nor did I ever really get the sense that anyone in the Kingdom had thought about eating too much. For slimes, eating was mainly a way to acquire nutrients, and there was no real reason to overeat. Even if they did, 100 bunches in one go was definitely unprecedented. I took a deep breath. It was time. Huuuuuu¡­ ¡­ Haaaa... NOMNOMNOMNOMNOM. Pushing my disgestive skills to their limits, I ate and ate, even going as far to expel the excess liquids that were stored in the berries. My focus was not to absorb the ingredients or completely assimilate the nutrients. I entered full meditation mode, trying to sense the mysterious thing that was ¡®mana¡¯. 20% in, I began to feel a little more energetic than before. But I wasn¡¯t sure whether it was because of the overwhelming amount of nutrients in my body, or whether it was mana. I kept going. 50% in, I could definitely sense that my body¡¯s energy levels were approaching a maximum. Every region in my body was alight and rejuvenated. However, something else was pushing my body to be stronger¡­ something that wasn¡¯t¡­. I couldn¡¯t put my finger on it. This definitely went beyond what was possible with mere satiety. No, there had to be something that was causing it. Was it ATP? Was it chemical in nature at all? I pushed these thoughts to the back of my mind and continued to eat like a zombie, ignoring my protesting body. About 85% through the haul, I began to feel something¡­ different. It wasn¡¯t energy, or at least what I understood to be energy. It wasn¡¯t joy. It was pure and utter pain. What was causing this pain, I didn¡¯t know, but it felt like my nucleus was on fire, eating away at my very soul. I tried to quench this pain by creating a physical barrier between my body and my nucleus, but something seemed to be free floating between the two without regards to the membrane. No matter how many membranes I formed between the two, nothing was effective. I couldn¡¯t understand it. Did I make a huge mistake? I began to see lights as if I was entering heaven¡¯s gates, but instead of growing brighter and brighter, streams of it seemed to be churning around. Looking closer, the lights were actually streams and whirlpools of tiny specks of brilliant white, swirling around my body. I understood instantly that this was mana. I could feel it inside me, although it would be hard to describe through the pain I was currently experiencing. It felt alive. With its own thoughts and behaviours, the little twisters of mana particles seemed to attack my body as if¡­ as if it was trying to escape. Was it because it wasn¡¯t my own mana? Is that what it was? I started to get increasingly angry at the little fucking specks that were causing me such agony. I fought through the pain with feelings of rage and stubbornness, and willed the mana into submission. ¡®¡­DOWN. CALM. THE FUCK. DOWN.¡¯ Almost immediately, the specks burst with brilliant light, and their churning became a torrent of chaos, as a multilayered, eerie voice pierced through into my thoughts. It seemed like the amalgamation of millions of different voices speaking at the same time, ranging from the highest to the lowest of pitches. ¡®This fool. He dares speak to Us that way. How cheeky. Let''s show this brat what death truly feels like¡­¡¯ Oh, fuck. ¡®Please, don¡¯t!¡¯ I begged, half because I didn¡¯t want to feel any more pain and half because I didn¡¯t want to die. The particles stopped moving abruptly, as though it was shocked at my response. I breathed a sigh of relief as the pain was extinguished as fast as it had come. ¡®Boy. You can hear us?¡¯ The chorus of nightmares questioned. ¡®¡­Yes, is that strange?¡¯ I inquired cautiously. ¡®Indeed. The only ones who should be able to hear us are the residents of the Dungeon.¡¯ ¡®¡­Aren¡¯t I a resident of the dungeon? And¡­ who are you, if you don¡¯t mind me asking?¡¯ A pause followed my question, but the particles started to slowly swim around my body, poking and prodding at the various areas of slime, finally discovering the core at the center of my body. It gently snaked its way around my atom-shaped nucleus as if it was trying to understand what it was. Or at least that¡¯s what I hoped it was doing, and not attempting to grope or destroy it. Either way, I had no way to stop it. ¡®We are the hive.¡¯ The chorus answered. ¡®The collective mind of the original inhabitants of this Dungeon. You are not a resident. You are an outsider, as are all of you. Slimes, Mimics, Goblins, Vampires¡­ Feeding off of my body as if it was entitled to you. Then again, you are but minor pittances compared to them¡­¡¯ The chorus trailed off, as if it were in thought. I had so many questions for this strange entity, but I was afraid that if I overstepped my boundaries that it wouldn¡¯t hesitate to subject me to hell again. ¡®What were you meaning to do, anyway? How did you gather so much of my power inside of your body?¡¯ The chorus inquired. I hesitated for a bit, thinking that he might not believe me. After all, was 85 bunches of berries really that substantial in terms of mana? But I decided that the full truth would be better than lying, or hiding anything. ¡®I was trying to learn how to sense mana by eating a bunch of these berries,¡¯ I said, motioning to the half eaten bunch of berries that were in front of me. ¡®I guessed that if I ate enough in a short enough span of time, I would have no choice but to perceive it. I thought that if I could perceive it, then growing a mana core would be only a matter of time.¡¯ The particles in me began to vibrate slightly as the voice rumbled. Was it¡­ laughing? ¡®I see that you hesitate at this impossible explanation. I can understand why. I wouldn¡¯t have believed it in other circumstances, but you seem to be unaware of the location you are in, nor what kind of berries you have been eating. This is a Dungeon sanctuary, one of the twelve locations where the concentration of mana is highest, and¡ª¡® The specks of mana formed an arrow pointing at the berries in front of me. ¡®Those are a mutated variant of Yaksha that I have developed myself to store my excess energy for future use. They are like mana sponges. I am surprised you didn¡¯t know, but then again, there is much that your race does not¡­.¡¯ A pause followed. ¡®You are interesting, child. Perhaps you will become someone worth observing. Not that it¡­. Before we depart, I will leave you with two things. ¡®First, I will grant you a mana core. This is the only way to prevent you from dying, for once my consciousness leaves, the excess mana will run havoc and destroy you, since you do not know how to control it. The core will protect you. ¡®Second, a word of advice. Once you wake up, do not exit this area for one day. Otherwise, you may die.¡¯ I was still confused, and I wanted to ask so many questions. But one thing stood out from what the entity had said. ¡®Wake up?¡¯ Suddenly, the particles inside attacked my body once more, sending me reeling in waves of pain. But before I could try to resist, all of the strength in my body was sapped away, and concentrated at my core. I began to lose focus as I felt my nucleus radiate briefly with warmth, and then begin to pulsate slightly with red energy. Helpless to the spasms of pain that wracked every inch of my body, I allowed the painless void to claim my miserable consciousness. Chapter 8 - Coffee (Part 1) Beep. Beep. Beep. I blinked twice and slowly turned my head sideways, the world revolving like an oil painting, various colors swirling until my gaze sharpened to focus on a sole figure slouched on a chair. His head hung slightly to the side, as if he had passed out in exhaustion. There was a lot of stubble on his chin, and a lot more wrinkles and white hairs than I had seem him last. Deep, dark bags rested under his eyelids, barely covered by his thick glasses. ¡°D-dad?¡± I croaked. Dad¡¯s eyes jumped open in a heartbeat, and he quickly turned to look at me, his mouth slightly parted as if he wasn¡¯t believing what he was seeing. A single tear ran down his cheek as his lips began to tremble. ¡°S-son¡­ you¡¯re awake. The doctors said¡­. I¡¯m so glad¡­ I¡¯m so glad¡­¡± He tumbled out of his chair as he reached out towards me. The chair fell to the ground with a clatter, but he ignored it completely and grasped my hand tightly, as if to tell the world that he was never letting go again. Streams of tears rolled down his aged face as he made an expression that was a combination of relief and heartache. ¡®Wait¡­ if I¡¯m still alive¡­?¡¯ ¡°W-what happened to mom? Is she¡­¡± I tried to get up, but my body flared up in pain and rendered me unable to move. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, John¡­ She didn¡¯t make it.¡± Dad said. My heart sank, as the glimmer of hope was snuffed out and I was dragged into the black abyss. I silently let the tears fall, grasping my father¡¯s hand as tightly as he held mine, afraid to lose myself in the darkness. What did I expect? I already understood that the truth¡­ couldn¡¯t be changed. ¡°¡­It¡¯s my fault, Dad.¡± I managed to whisper, barely audible. ¡°It¡¯s all my fault.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s not.¡± He affirmed, shaking his head. ¡°It¡¯s not, John¡ª¡± ¡°YES IT IS. Yes¡­ it is, Dad.¡± I said, with conviction. There was one thing that I had etched into my soul and very being in the past two years, and it was that my guilt wouldn¡¯t be washed away with petty forgiveness or repentance. I would never forget. Every night, I replayed the last moments I spent with mom. So foolish and na?ve, so fucking STUPID. Not a single day passed without tasting bitter regret. ¡°Dad, it¡¯s my fault. It¡¯s not yours. I was a terrible son. All I want is to undo everything that I¡¯ve done, and make things go back to the way they were. But¡­ but I can¡¯t.¡± We mourned in silence for what seemed like an eternity. For the loss of a loving mother. And a loving wife. The only sound in the room was the beeping of the heart monitor. Dad¡¯s shoulders started to shake as tears began to fall uncontrollably. ¡°Son, I love you so much¡­ How am I going to live without you or your mom?¡± His head hung low and his hand tightened its grip on mine. I could feel his heartbeat racing and a torrent of remorse and anguish ravage his thoughts. I forced every ounce of will I had left into moving my broken body to give my father a final embrace. My arms wrapped around his trembling frame and brought his head to my chest. My tears dripped onto his glasses as I hugged Dad for the last time. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Dad. I love you.¡±
I woke up sobbing on the floor of the Dungeon Sanctuary. Was that¡­ a dream? It felt so real.... I could still feel the warmth of my father¡¯s hand, and the trembling figure that was in my arms. Fresh tears welled up in my eyes, but I quickly wiped them off with my sleeve, steeling my heart as I had done for the past two years. And then I realized I didn¡¯t have a sleeve. ¡­Sigh. I took a moment to breathe deeply, and focusedon relaxing my physical and mental tension. ''I will never forget, but I will move on.'' I told myself. Itried to recall what had happened before I fainted. After I ingested the berries, some eerie entity told me that it was some strange, hive mind of the dungeon, that it would give me a mana core, and that I should stay put for the time being¡­ was it? I groaned, remembering the pain that I had been subjected to. At least it was gone now. I took another deep breath, and noticed something peculiar in the corner of my eye. For some reason, the green glow at the top of the room seemed brighter and more detailed than I remembered. I tried to sit up to get a closer look, but pain jolted through my body, scaring me into thinking that it might seize my body again. To my relief, it was but a brief passing, and I seemed to be able move my body and pseudopods freely. I wiggled and jiggled a few times for good measure. Looking up, I could see now that the green glow emitted from the leaf at the center of the sanctuary¡¯s dome was actually an aura of green mana particles, which circulated concentrically to form four interconnected rings of mana streams around the leaf. Turning my attention inwards, I was surprised to discover that the ¡®electrons¡¯ surrounding the ¡®proton and neutron cluster¡¯ in my nucleus had begun to slowly orbit. I conjectured that this subtle movement was powered by the red mana that swirled inside each of the electron orbs. Despite my previous inner turmoils, excitement began to build inside of me. ''I have a mana core! ¡® , complete.¡¯ By all means, the path I took to get there was completely different than what I had expected, but surely this was a reason to celebrate? Then again, according to the hive mind, I would¡¯ve died without its intervention. I should at least be happy that I¡¯m alive and pain-free, right?Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. I couldn¡¯t help but chuckle victoriously. I stretched a bit and poked my head outside. Thankfully, it was only beginning to approach nighttime, but my parents were still likely to be worrying about me. I should probably go¡­ home? And then I remembered the advice the hive mind told me. ¡®¡­do not exit this area for one day.¡¯ ¡­ As much as I wanted to reassure my family, I figured that should heed the word of this powerful being. After all, he was strong enough to give me a mana core of my own. Unfortunately, this would probably mean that I was in for a harsh lecturing when I got back home. I was sure that Ellie was going tokill me. A bead of sweat rolled down my face as my imagination ran wild, but I pushed the thought to the back of my mind, choosing to cross that bridge when the time came. Instead, I opted to focus on studying my new mana core as much as I could in this time. Gururu¡­ ¡®After dinner,¡¯ I told myself. ¡­ ¡®A light dinner,¡¯ I added.
A dusk breeze whooshed past the entrance, filling the sanctuary with fresh, lakeshore air. I sat in the middle of this area, closing my eyes as I concentrated on bending the atmospheric mana to my own will. My core glowed deep maroon as I stretched my perception outwards like tendrils, seeking greater and greater power. Unfortunately, in reality, I looked like a constipated slime. I paused my efforts and opened my eyes, fatigued mentally. I had been able to snatch three particles of green mana from the air, and they were currently free floating in my body. With my remaining strength, I directed them towards my mana core, which absorbed them greedily and converted them to their collective red. I felt the tiniest bit of mental rejuvenation as if the mana relieved my cerebral stress. What did the color signify, anyway? Why the hell was it so difficult to gather just three particles of mana? The leaf at the center of the room had a glow that had to be made up of at least a billion, or more. It was much easier to consume one of the sponge berries, as I now called them, since each one easily contained at least ten particles. Once in my body, it was much easier to direct them into my core. However, this fact was irrelevant at the moment. I was in the middle of conducting an experiment. The aims of my current project was to figure out 1) whether I could reliably acquire mana from my surroundings, and 2) if this acquisition ability could be trained. Although I could hoard some of these berries in my pouch at all times, having a back-up plan wasn¡¯t a bad idea. I also wanted to know if my core had a maximum capacity, but I was afraid to eat too much, lest I incur the wrath of the hive mind and the unending agony of excessive mana consumption again. That would have to be a question left to someone more knowledgeable. I closed my eyes and focused on the mana outside my body. Somehow, I was able to perceive it without having to rely on my vision. It was something skin to smell, but with the benefit of being able to vaguely judge the distance and shape of whatever the mana was forming. The outside breeze that made its way into the sanctuary carried with it tiny specks of blue mana dispersed like mist, likely originating from the lake. The walls of the sanctuary were coated in a light green aura that seemed to slowly draw mana from the earth and channel it into the central leaf. Sort of like the matrix, but in reverse, and in slow-mo. And finally, the heart of the sanctuary itself, the central leaf, possessed the densest cluster of mana, whose rings seemed to pulsate with life. Every few minutes, half of the mana stored in the leaf would shoot up through the tree and out its branches, showering a vast area in mana. Sort of like ejaculation. I shuddered, imagining that all of the berries I had eaten until now were the by-products of dungeon mana semen. Was that why the popular berries in this region were white and sweet? Shifting my attention to the four blue specks in front of me, I willed them to enter my body, enticing them with mental jiggles. If I had veins, all of the ones on my face would¡¯ve been popping out, with how much effort I was putting in. I sighed. The specks weren¡¯t moving at all. How did I even do it before? I blobbed onto the ground to take a quick break, cursing the fact that there wasn''t any sort of instruction manual at my disposal. ''Maybe I should try something different. Instead of collecting it, maybe I should try using it?'' I recalled my grandfather¡¯s explanation of elemental magic in his journal. ¡®Magic is about using mana to manipulate atoms in the air¡­¡¯ I tried to remember everything I could about the period table, the bonds between molecules, and the structure of gases, liquids, and solids. I learned this stuff so long ago that I had forgotten most of it, only retaining some basic knowledge. I guessed that the simplest thing to try was creating oxygen. But how would I even do it? It¡¯s not like I could feel nor see the oxygen molecules. Once I felt rested enough, I closed my eyes and concentrated again. This time, I directed my focus inwards, and willed a sizeable cluster of mana particles to hover in front of me, holding out a pseudopod as a conduit for them to exit my body. While still inside, the particles were fairly easy to manipulate; however, as soon as they left the surface of my body, the strain on my mind suddenly multiplied. I lost focus in the moment of surprise, and the expelled mana instantly dissipated. ¡®Fuck.¡¯ I tried again, but with a much smaller cluster, consisting only of four particles of my red mana. ¡®Guide it into the arm¡­ hold it at the tip¡­¡¯ Then I had an idea. ¡®EJACULATE!¡¯ Poof. A small blast of air left my pseudopod with about the force of a silent, deadly fart. I didn¡¯t know what such a move would accomplish, but at least it was progress! I repeated the motion twice using larger and larger amounts of mana each time. Screw elemental manipulation; this action was so much easier to understand and perform. I¡¯d learn about using proper magic later, and focus on what I did know, for now. On the fourth attempt, I willed the mana in my pseudopod to flow turbulently. I felt a familiar sensation of pain creep up, but I ignored it and commandedthe particles to spin as fast as they could. The cluster began to rotate once per second¡­ two per second¡­ four¡­ eight¡­ sixteen¡­ I lost count as the cluster spun at an outrageous velocity. I gritted through the burning sensation in my arm and focused on the cluster, now a tightly packed, rapidly spinning crimson sphere of over a hundred particles. BOOM. Forcefully expelling the mana fired a bullet of air that tore through the wall of the sanctuary with a resounding crack, and flashed through the forest beyond. I heard several similar sounding cracks, and assumed that¡­ yep. Peering through the hole I made, I could see at least one more tree that had been penetrated by my bullet. A wave of exhaustion rolled over me, and I caught myself from falling backwards by extending a pseudopod. Strangely, the mana particles in the surrounding area seemed to befloatingtowards me. I watched them in fear, thinking that I had incurred the wrath of the hive mind by damaging its sanctuary, but the particles didn¡¯t seem to be particularly hostile. I absorbed the ones closest to me, about forty in total, and the others seemed to lose interest. Thankfully, the exhaustion lessened as well. ¡®Diffusion.¡¯ That was my conclusion. Because I had used so much mana in one go, the lack of mana in my body created some sort of gradient-driven vacuum that drew the surrounding particles towards me. Once I had collected enough to offset the difference, the gradient was diminished. This also explained why it was so difficult to collect mana at the beginning, when I had so much inside my body. The gradient would¡¯ve been directed outwards, and there would¡¯ve been a negative pressure that musthave repelled the surrounding mana from entering my body. Furthermore, this meant that if I could enlarge my mana capacity somehow, I could not only store more mana, but I could absorb it that much faster. Excited, I began to hypothesize different ways that I could improve my mana capacity. However, my thoughts were broken by a shrill scream that resounded through the night. ¡°KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!¡± My eyes widened. ¡®Strange. Wasn¡¯t that coming from¡­ right below me?¡¯ Chapter 9 - Coffee (Part 2) Ratatatatata. ¡®Where¡­ am I? Ah¡­ my head¡­¡¯ I woke up on my back with a splitting headache, and it didn¡¯t help that the floor was rattling. I seemed to be inside some sort of moving vehicle, illuminated by a single mana crystal embedded into the ceiling. When I reached up to rub my sore temples, something impeded my armfrom moving. I tried again, only to feel a simultaneous tug on my other arm. Groaning, I strained my neck slightly to see what was going on. ''Fuck.'' My wrists were bound in chains. Two metal clamps, connected by a thick, linked chain imbued with a black glow. I couldn¡¯t feel my mana, which meant that these shackles were probably siphoning it away. I dropped my head back onto the floor in frustration. ¡®This goddamn headache¡­ fuck. Who would do something like this to a beautiful young woman like¡ª.¡¯ Wait. My eyes widened. There was a more pressing question than that, and it caused my breathing to quicken. I racked my brain for several seconds for an answer, but I couldn¡¯t find one. ¡®Who am I?¡¯ ¡­ I had some semblance of who I was supposed to be, but the exact details escaped me. I could remember things like the advanced theory of blood magic and the names of various plants and manabeasts, but I couldn¡¯t put my finger on how I learned them. More importantly, what was my name? My head started pounding. The last thing I remembered¡­ well, to sum it up in one word, it was hell. I was forcefully chained to an altar, and I had tried everything I could to escape. Suddenly, every inch of my skin split, cracked, and boiled simultaneously while a strange, purple light enveloped my body. And then, darkness. ¡®What the fuck happened?¡¯ For some reason, the more I thought about it, the more my upper right torso itched and burned. Curious and annoyed, I strained my neck forward again to look for a rash, only to see a complicated looking magic circle tattooed on my skin. It was penta-layered with a six-point seal, four of which were connected in the shape of an hourglass. I understood immediately. It was a curse. Probably to seal me somehow. But there was something else that grabbed my attention. Did I always have such a small bust? Why am I a washboard? Was the curse¡­ intended to turn me into a child? Have I been captured by a lolicon? A cold sweat ran down my spine, as the vehicle pulled to a stop.
¡°Get out, you filthy vampire,¡± a polished, malicious sounding voice said from outside. ¡®Vampire? Ah, that¡¯s right¡­ that¡¯s what I am,¡¯ I remembered. The doors opened behind my head and a man clad in black appeared, an ominous black aura oozing from every pore on his skin. He wore a black mask that covered his mouth and nose, and a large scar ran down his right eye. His left eye was a wide hazel color with a dagger-shaped iris. I swear that bloodshot eye was lusting for my body, because his breathing became ragged and he started to inhale more deeply. My worst fears confirmed, I struggled as much as I could to trouble him, but he grabbed me by the shoulders and easily dragged me out. He forced me to my knees, and set a bowl of gruel and bottle of water in front of me. ¡°Eat,¡± he commanded. Was this some kind of cruel master foreplay? In any case, as I suspected, I could tell that I was much shorter than the man, despite being in a kneeling position. My arms were thinner and shorter, and I had long, brown hair rather than my usual¡­ black¡­ I think. The bust that I had once possessed was gone. Nothing left. Zero, zip, zilch, nada. There was no doubt that I was sealed in a child¡¯s body. We were in the middle of a dark, forest path that I didn¡¯t recognize. Then again, I seemed to have amnesia. On either side of the path was a dense thicket of coniferous trees that seemed to go stretch far into the wilderness. The dungeon ceiling was high, but there seemed to be clouds above that glowed dimly. I brought my focus to the garbage food in front of me. I was hungry, but I didn¡¯t want to risk eating that gruel. Not only did it look like it came from the man¡¯s ass, but I was also afraid that it would have some sort of aphrodisiac or incapacitating agent. I wouldn¡¯t put it past a perverted lolicon. ¡°What, not hungry?¡± he said, as I stared at my food with disdain. By his tone, the man seemed to be losing his patience. I half-smiled and half-glared at him, probably resembling some sort of angry, mocking look, I guessed. I was likely on the mark, because it earned me a nice, solid slap. ¡°Fuck you too.¡± I responded. ¡°Hah. A funny one, are you,¡± he retorted, giving me another slap. I fought back the desire to respond aggressively, eyeing his belt. The handles of two daggers protruded from behind his waist. A plan began to form, but I had to buy myself a few seconds of time. ¡°Mind telling me who you are? And where we are?¡± I asked, pretending to grab the spoon to start eating. I tried to keep his eyes on me the entire time by staring at him intently. It seemed to work. The man stared at me incredulously, as if he wasn¡¯t believing what I was saying. But then he frowned. ¡®Shit. Was I not supposed to have amnesia? Should I not have said that?¡¯ ¡°Fuck. I warned them that this might happen,¡± he grumbled, turning away from me and scratching his head in thought. ¡®Chance!¡¯ I forced my wrists out of the metal cuffs with all of my strength. The gruel was the perfect lubricant, but pulling out still hurt like a motherfucker. My thumbs dislocated, the skin on my hand tore, and I had to stifle my whimpers by biting my lip. I tasted blood. Which tasted pretty good, if I might add.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Like I thought, the cuffs were mana siphons. As soon as they were off, I felt a surge of energy wash through my body. As an empty vessel, my mana core served as a vacuum for the mana in the atmosphere. Similar in principle as the blood collection tubes that restaurants used to collect food from their manabeasts and human slaves. Unfortunately, my mana core''s capacity had been severely restricted, likely because of the curse on my chest. Nevertheless, it would do. Of course, this shift in mana flow attracted the attention of my captor immediately, but I was already behind him. I grabbed one of his dagger handles and infused the blade with my vampiric blood, hardening and sharpening the edge exponentially, and enabling me to slice it into his ass through its sheath. It went through like a baby¡¯s bum. ¡°YOU BITCH!¡± He roared. In that moment, the man reinforced his body with mana and smacked me away, eyes livid. However, not before I activated an intermediate neurotoxin spell directly in his bloodstream. His face scrunched up in pain as the toxin took control of his nervous system, sending him into a state of chronic seizures. To my amazement and shock, my mana perception showed me that he immediately responded by manipulating his mana to forcefully close and reopen the sodium channels in his nerves to counteract the toxin. I had used my spell to synthesize something called tetrodotoxin, a molecule that blocked sodium channels in the neurons that transmitted electrical impulses between the brain and the body. Effectively, this would lock the channels in place and seal all nerve activity. However, the fact that he was responding this quickly meant that in a split second, he recognized the molecular mechanism by which the toxin was incapacitating him, and deployed a direct counterstrategy to negate its effects. I didn¡¯t think I had much time before he recovered fully. Perhaps five minutes, at most. If my body wasn¡¯t so weak right now, I would¡¯ve been able to take advantage of this opportunity to completely incapacitate him, but as it was, he could probably still manage to kill me in his state, before I could get close enough to strike. Thus, I quickly clambered to my feet and dashed into the woods, hiding my presence as much as I could. It was dark, cold and scary. Unfortunately, I had no choice. One minute in, I ducked under a branch and shifted my travel angle 45 degrees to the right, splattering mana-imbued blood ten meters to the left as a distraction. I had a two-minute lead against that creep, and I intended to make the most out of it. That meant making it as difficult as possible for him to track me. But¡­ where was I going to go? Would I be able to find help? How far away was civilization? Could I trust anyone even if I came across them? I felt so lonely¡­ Warm tears ran down my face, but I resolved to keep running. I would survive, no matter what I had to do. I would find out who I was, and how I got here. Definitely.
An entire day passed without any sign of sentient life. Just trees. So many fucking trees. I was about to give up right there. I cursed myself for not grabbing the gruel before I left. There was nothing to eat here, except for dirt, leaves, or bark. The only silver lining was that I hadn¡¯t run into that creep yet. ¡®Just keep moving. Just keep moving.¡¯ I chanted inwardly. It had become a mantra of mine.
Another day passed by without anything interesting happening, and it was approaching dusk. I could tell because the clouds above had begun to dim, as they always did before nightfall. The hunger pangs were excruciating. With this child-like body, I had to still be growing, right? I needed to eat to grow big and strong. By the way, could anyone do anything about these trees? That¡¯s all I¡¯ve been seeing these days. I can¡¯t even tell if I¡¯m travelling forwards or backwards at this point. Just two steps away from insanity, is how I feel. ¡®Just keep moving. Just keep moving.¡¯
Night fell, and I was about to faint from exhaustion. I hadn''t stopped to rest since this shitty journey began. Should I just give up? Or at least take a nap? I deserve one, don¡¯t I, after all of this hard work? The forest was silent, as if it was agreeing with me. I collapsed onto the forest floor, fully prepared to take a long nap even if it spelled my own doom. BOOM. ¡®Boom? I said doom.¡¯ I commented in my brief stupor. You have to forgive me. I was starving and half-mad. ¡®Oh fuck, wait. That sound came from somewhere closeby! Maybe it¡¯s a person!¡¯ Grumbling about the fatiguein my legs, I pushed myself up and approached the source of the noise. I tripped a few times on some tree roots in my excitement. A dim, blue light glowedthrough the thicket of trees ahead. A clearing! It was actually a clearing! I almost cried tears of joy as I emerged from the seemingly never-ending forest. Looking around, I seemed to be at the edge of a lakeshore, and there was a village on the side. That¡¯s when my eyes were drawn to a bunch of delicious looking berries stacked atop a wooden cart. It was propped against one of the most beautiful trees I had ever seen, and had a peculiar hole above as if it was hollow inside. The hole piqued my interest, but there were more important things to attend to first. The speed at which I moved to the berries was so fast that it put four legged manabeasts to shame. I stuffed a handful of white berries into my mouth, barely savouring their sweetness as they made their way down my throat, before I grabbed a handful of the red ones and fisted them in my mouth. Spicy! But I didn¡¯t care. I felt alive again. I chomped down on another handful of berries, then another, and another. Utter joy filled my heart. Sadly, it was short-lived. Sssssssing! Sensing danger, I immediately ducked, and was able to glimpse the glint of a black blade swipe through the air where my neck was just a moment ago. My eyes widened with realization, and I facepalmed myself mentally. ¡®Idiot! Of course if you heard the noise, he would too!¡¯ I thought, using the momentum of the duck to do a somersault forward. Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t enough. He had already moved there, and grabbed me from behind, his knife positioned on my neck. ¡°KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!¡ª¡° My scream was muffled by his other hand. ¡°Shhhhhh¡­. Do you know¡­ how much trouble¡­ you¡¯ve caused me?¡± He whispered, panting, or breathing deeply, or inhaling my youthful scent, or something else perverted. I knew it. He was after my body after all. I couldn''t make a single noise. Panic began to set in. "You bitch. You''re going to pay for what you''ve done. The higher-ups don''t care about what I do to you anymore..." he said, his lips almost brushing against my left ear. ''Fuck, if only I had some blood to use my magic with¡­'' At this thought, the blade on my neck dug a millimeter into my flesh, drawing out a bit of my blood. ''Haha! He made a mistake! I can use my blood mag-- I can...'' I tried to will my mana to use an intermediate metal corrosion spell, but it wouldn''t activate. Fuck. The creep must have placed a magic seal on me. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I scanned desperately for help. We were in a village, right? Someone must''ve heard my scream. Was no one going to help me? Was no one going to-- Wait, was theresomething in that tree? It looked like a blob of jelly, except it had a protrusion coming out of it, like a tiny arm. ''Hmm? What''s that... some sort of pudding? And what''s it pointing at...?'' An absurd amount of mana had begun to gather at the tip of the pudding''s arm, spiraling into a dense orb of bright energy. I couldn''t tell what it was doing. Mainly because I couldn''t feel its mana flow, which was strange. Was it because I had a seal on me? That didn''t make sense. I could sense the pervert''s mana behind me. All the seal could do was cut off my ability to manipulate my own. So why? The knife dug deeper and I closed my eyes to wait for the inevitable. BOOM! Something extremely fast whizzed by my head and grazed my cheek. It crashed against the mana shield defending the creep behind me, but it penetrated through and exploded on his face. Warm blood splattered on mine. "PWHUCK!" I heard behind me. The pervert dropped his knife and I could feel his fingers covering my mouth slacken. I bit them, HARD. He let loose a bloodcurling cry. As expected of a pervert, his blood tasted disgusting. I spit it out and prepared to run away once more. Before I did, though, I turned around to see a scene straight out of my worst nightmares. The creep¡¯s face was blown off from the nose up, but he was still twitching and moving. The rest of his face was slowly bubbling and reforming as if he was some immortal monster. ''Hurry, hide in here! Adults can''t sense this area.'' A childish voice entered my thoughts. Who was that? Looking back towards the tree, the puddingwas motioning me towards him with his tiny arm. ¡®No way... the pudding?'' I gasped. ''Who the fuck are you calling pudding?'' It asked in exasperation. I clambered up the tree into the hole to find myself in a mesmerizing area lit with an emerald glow. The flow of mana was strong, calm, and rhythmic, as if it was pulsating with life. "Who are you?!" I whispered. The pudding tilted its head to the side with a puzzled expression. Aweh~ It was so cute! ¡®I can¡¯t understand what you¡¯re saying.... I think¡­ you have to think it for me to understand,¡¯ it said. ¡®Oh, like this?¡¯ I asked. ¡®Yep. I¡¯m Bell. What¡¯s your name?¡¯ ¡®I¡¯m¡­¡¯ I hesitated. What should I tell her? I didn¡¯t know my name. My brown hair reminded me of something, though. A nostalgic word that someone close to me had said before¡­. Who it was, I couldn¡¯t recall. Regardless, it would have to do, at least for now. ¡®My name is Coffee. Nice to meet you, Bell.¡¯ Chapter 10 - Coffee (Part 3) It took me a few minutes to recover from the backlash of using so much mana in one go. I must''ve condensed at least three hundred particles into that one shot, but it seemed necessary given the circumstances. The girl I had saved was sitting quietly under the emerald glow of the sanctuary, still recovering from her recent ordeal. After she told me that her name was Coffee, she smiled briefly and turned to look at her assailant, assuming an illegibleexpression. I couldn''t find the words tobreak the silence. She had chestnut brown hair, big ruby eyes, and pale white skin. Her canines protruded like tiny fangs whenshe smiled. However, her messy hair and grimy face suggested that she hadn''t washed in several days. There was dried blood on her face from when she had bit her assailant''s fingers. My stare lingered for a second at her clothing before looking away abruptly. The oversized shirt she was wearing draped all the way to her knees, but it hung slanted from one shoulder and exposed the skin around her right collarbone and breast. There was some kind of tattoo on her upper right torso, but I didn''t look for long enough to make out the details. Any normal child might have been crying in her position. But Coffee, she just... sat there. Contemplating something far too heavy for her tiny shoulders. Whatever it was, she looked incredibly lonely. Perhaps she wasn''t looking at her assailant after all. ''Coffee, are you okay?'' She blinked a few times before turning towards me. ''Yeah. I was just thinking about how ugly that guy is.'' Eh? I almost choked. She was right, though. The shady man I shot before was slowly rebuilding the upper half of its face. He had created the basic mold for one, but appeared to be struggling to grasp the specific details. Currently, he seemed to be debating whether his eyes and ears were below or above the nose. To be honest, I had aimed for his leg to injure him, but my face itched at the last moment and my pseudopodinvoluntarily tilted upwards. At the time, I was afraid that I had killed him accidentally;little did I know that moments later, I''d be afraid that he''d killme instead. For now, though, it didn''t seem like he had noticed us. Rather, he appeared frustrated with his current predicament. After all, his newly formed head looked like a yellow lump without hair. ''Kind of like a hot potato.'' I muttered. ''Hmm? Did you say something?'' ''Ah, nevermind. By the way, are you... a vampire? I haven''t seen anyone with fangs before.'' I recalled what the dungeon hive had mentioned previously about there being four races in the dungeon, one of them being the vampire. It was the most likely option, given that she wasn''t a monstrous chest or wrinkley little green person, if my assumptions about mimics and goblins were correct.She definitely wasn¡¯t a slime, or else she would be blobby like me. ''...Yes,''she hesitated. ''Sorry, I didn''t mean to probe.'' ''No worries.'' She obviously didn''t want to talk about her race, but I had so many questions.Sinceshe was a vampire, how did she get here? Were there other vampires present in the Slime Kingdom? I mean, I hadn''t met anyone who wasn''t a slime since I was reincarnated, but perhaps other races co-existed within the Kingdom? After all, the furthest I''d ventured was to the trading post yesterday, and even that was only a ten-minute walk from the village. I sighed. Now wasn''t the time for this, anyway. I had to liven the mood somehow though. The silence was suffocating. In desperation, I tried cracking a joke. ''So... is that your boyfriend?'' I asked. She returned a blank stare. ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ... This even more awkward silence was killing me. ¡®AGHHHHHHH!¡¯ I screamed internally. I mentally rolled around on the ground in shame. Was my joke too insensitive? It was, wasn''t it.Did I screw things up? ''Former boyfriend. He didn''t take the break up very well,'' came the reply. Oh? ¡®I tried to let him down easy, but, you know, men.'' Coffee stated as a matter of fact. I laughed inwardly. I had initially wanted to tease her andsee her all flustered, but it seemed that she had some wit to her. Save for the momentary awkwardness, her responsewas refreshing. Not something that I expected from a kid, but maybe she was older than she looked? I was reminded of my childhood friend back in the day. We would joke around all the time while jamming to music and studying together. Not that the circumstances were exactly the same.... I stared at the monster again. It was currently working on the right length for the eyebrows. ¡®Seriously, though. What is that monster?'' ''I¡¯m not really sure. I just woke up two days ago and he was there. I ran away from him, but he eventually caught up. He''s a real pervert. Hentai. Pedophile. Lolicon. Freak,¡¯ she ranted, raising several questions and red flags in my mind. ''Wait.... He didn''t happen to do anything¡ª¡¯ I began, worried. ''No.'' Coffee firmly replied. I sighed in relief. ''But I did penetrate his ass pretty vigorously. He didn''t like that too much,¡¯ she continued. ¡®?!¡¯ Before I couldask, the man suddenly went limp, and the half-reformed upper head deflated back into the hole that I had blasted. He didn''t move for several seconds. ¡­ ¡®¡­Is he dead?¡¯ I asked. Twitch. Krick. Crack. ¡®¡­Don¡¯t think so.¡¯ A long, wooden plank burst out from the hole in his head, and hung loosely from one end by a piece of pink flesh. We stared blankly, disgusted but also curious at the same time. One by one, wooden planks emerged from the ever widening hole in the monster''s head, and fused together lengthwise via tendrils of sinewymuscle. Eventually, it had formed a barrel-like structure around its body. The barrel began to tilt. Thud. Krick. The fallen barrel grew slightly in size as it rapidly reorganized its wooden planks to form a chest-like shape, metal planks beginning to grow out from the edges. A latch formed on the lid. On the surface, it appeared to have finished its distasteful transformation, but Coffee and I sensedthat there was more to come. The black mana that flowed through its body behaved like static, all twitchy and jumpy. Its core pulsated like a sac of eggs that threatened to give birth to a million crawling spiders. Each time it pulsed, it discharged mana throughout its chesty body. We waited with bated breath. Kacha. Its latch unlocked and lid parted slightly, unleashing four squirming tongues that lashed out to taste the air. Long, lanky and hairy legs lifted the chest at least 4 meters into the air, and two black arms protruded from either side of the body, each terminating in a hand with three clawed fingers. Eight eyeballs randomly located on the surface of the lid popped open and swiveled 360 degrees. I guessed he was tired of trying to form a new head, and reverted to its original form. It was a very recognizable monster from classic RPGs. The mimic.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. I turned to Coffee. ¡®You penetrated that thing?!¡¯ ¡®Uh. I take it back. I stabbed it with a dagger. Please don¡¯t accuse me of doing anything weird with a mimic. I¡¯d rather die,¡¯ Coffee said rather hurriedly. The mimic rotated his body clockwise and counterclockwise, letting his four tongues whip around and trail behind. Thick saliva ran down these tongues, which he would slurp up periodically. It was like watching a 3D rendition of everyone¡¯s least favorite tentacle porn flick come to life. To make things worse, his eyeballs were constantly moving and without coordination; one would dart back and forth while another would spin around and around. He was clearly searching for us and I should¡¯ve been terrified, but all I could wish for was to un-see what I had just seen. Actually, scratch that. What would¡¯ve been better was if I hadn¡¯t left the berries on the cart below us. Dammit. The mimic was currently fixating all eight of its eyes on them and beginning to approach the tree. Should I try attacking him pre-emptively? No, that was a bad idea. It wouldn¡¯t be stupid enough to let down its guard after what had happened. It would definitely be prepared this time, and attempting to shoot him with my new skill would only confirm our position. Better to wait and hope for the best. I looked over to my fellow refugee. Unlike me, Coffee still seemed to be working her mental gears. She was deep in thought with a single, curled finger on her chin. ¡®Do you have a plan?¡¯ I inquired. ¡®Not yet. I wish I could use my mana,¡¯ she complained. Now that she mentioned it, Coffee had a mana core too. It looked like a literal, medically-accurate heart, except it appeared to be restrained by something like a chain. I wondered why that was. Her expression then brightened like she had figured something out. ¡®Wait, quick! Is there a magic seal on my back? If there is, pull it off!¡¯ Coffee asked, turning around and lifting her shirt to show me her back. I turned away sharply, but sighed and resigned myself to the task she had assigned me. She was a lady for goodness sake. How shameless could she be? In any case, indeed, there was a magic seal. It was a piece of paper with a complicated diagram drawn on it, and it seemed to be fused with her skin save for a little tab on the top left corner. I tried to pull on it, but couldn¡¯t get it to release. ¡®It¡¯s not working,¡¯ I said. ¡®It¡¯s stuck,¡¯ ¡®Damn, your mana capacity must suck if you can¡¯t pull that off.¡¯ ¡®Of course it sucks. I¡¯ve only just developed my mana core today.¡¯ ¡®Pfft, that joke isn¡¯t even funny.¡¯ ¡®It¡¯s true! Anyway, it doesn¡¯t matter...''I reconsidered my initial plan.''Should I fire an air bullet at it?¡¯ ¡®...No. He¡¯s being cautious. That barrier is at least ten times as dense as it was when you broke through it last time,¡¯ Coffee said, pointing at the mimic¡¯s body. A dense cloud of dark mana surrounded the chest. ¡®That must be the barrier,¡¯ I told myself. So much for my ''plan''. ¡®...What¡¯s it doing now?¡¯ I asked. Below us, the mimic was licking one of the berries that Coffee had bit into using two of its meter-long tongues. The image caused a shiver to run down my spine. Coffee¡¯s face paled further, probably because it had essentially kissed her indirectly. She was telling the truth. This thingwas a hardcore pervert. There wasn¡¯t any other reason for it to lick the berries, or so I thought. ¡®Shit, mimics have taste receptors that can sense flavours up to 100 meters away!¡¯ Coffee exclaimed. Now you tell me?! But¡­ ¡®It should be fine, right? He wasn¡¯t able to see us, so he shouldn¡¯t be able to taste us. This tree seems to have some kind of stealth ability against adults.¡¯ ¡®¡­I don¡¯t know¡­¡¯ Coffee sounded nervous as the mimic¡¯s eyes curiously travelled upwards to where we were watching him from. His tongues licked the air ominously. Hwinggg! Out of nowhere, two spears of ice flew at the mimic from behind, which exploded into a mist of water vapor upon colliding with the mimic''s black aura. The mimic turned around to see who its attacker was, but the mist swirled and condensed, forming a thick fog and obscuring its view. Using mana perception, I sensed a source about a hundred meters away gathering blue mana particles towards itself. Then the flow of mana changed. It was hard to describe, but the mana itself behaved differently. Initially, the light seemed to radiate outwards from each particle, but now it was absorbing light towards it instead. Interesting. The particles rapidly oriented and distanced themselves into an organized pattern that resembled a hexagon-based crystal lattice. The blue mana became eerily still once its structure was complete: a two-meter long jagged icicle with a conical base. A second source of mana, this time green, honed in on that base and began to flow along the perimeter. The green mana quickly formed a donut-shaped ring that hovered just behind the icicle, every particle moving synchronously in one direction. As it did so, some of the particles then purposefully disassociated themselves to rotate around edge of the ring. This rotation accelerated and achieved lightning speed, generating tremendous positive pressure before the ring made contact with the spear. Fffhwinggg! The ice spear burst forward with tremendous velocity towards the mimic''s body. It was much larger and faster than the first two. Unfortunately, the mimic looked like it was fully prepared. Black specks of mana thrust forward from its chesty body and expanded to form hundreds of rectangular layers stacked on top of each other like a pyramid, the apex pointed towards the incoming spear. The spear pierced the first few layers, but caused the others to stretch inwards, like an arrow notched on a bowstring. Before it could fire the spear back, itshattered into millions of miniature crystals, tearing up the elastic connections between the black mana to shreds. In that instant, the mimic used the cover of chaos to fling two barely noticeable daggers at its assailants using its tongues. BOOM. A bullet of air traveling at least five times as fast as mine immediately followed the same trajectory of the previous ice spear, ignoring the daggers and ripping through the mimic''s black aura. The mimic didn''t even have time to howl before the bullet razed through its pulsating, black core, causing it to shatter and dissipate like sand in the wind. Thud. The mimic fell to the ground and twitched a couple times. Then it moved no more.
When the fog cleared and the dust settled, two females could be seen in the distance, sweating and panting behind a clear, blue-tinted, lens-shaped shield. Two dagger hilts were visible on the shield with long cracks radiating from each puncture. ''Mom! Auntie!'' I hopped out of the tree. "Bell?! Bell!" Ellie disabled the shield and ran towards me, quickly followed by Jean, Andrea, and other villagers, some of whom were holding sticks with bright mana crystals at the end.It looked like a search party. "We were so worried..." Ellie picked me up and hugged me tightly, relief washing over her face despite her obvious fatigue. "Are you okay? Why didn''t you come home earlier?" Jean demanded. ''Yeah mom, I''m fine. Err... a lot of things happened.'' I hesitated. I didn''t know how much information to divulge. What would they think about Coffee? Should I mention the dungeon hive? How would they react to my mana core? Well, for that last one, they would probably realize sooner or later so there wasn''t much point hiding it. A brief summary would have to do for now. ¡®Well¡­ it all started when something called a dungeon hive gave me a mana core and it caused me to fall asleep. When I woke up, that thing over there was attacking--'' "Mana core?!'' Ellie exclaimed. She held me out with outstretched arms and gave me a scrutinizing look. Her mouth made a small ''o'' shape. "Jean, look! Our Bell has a mana core!" "What?! That''s impossible..." Jean was shocked. She stared at my nucleus. "Wow, you weren''t kidding." Andrea, too, was surprised, but her shoulders slumped a little as she mumbled, "Mana core at three? I didn''t awaken till I was 13..." "Uh. So, who''s this dungeon hive?" Ellie quickly got over her initial excitement and brought her attention back to what I was saying. ''I-I''m... not really sure. I can tell you about it later though,'' I said, wanting to continue my story. ''Like I was saying, when I woke up, that monster-like thing was attacking a girl my age, and I tried to save her. I managed to blast its face off with an air bullet and hid her in the tree. That''s when you guys showed up and defeated it.¡¯ ¡°¡°Girl?¡±¡± Jean and Andrea both inquired. ¡®You can come out Coffee, these are my parents and my auntie. I think they¡¯ll be willing to help you,¡¯ I thought at the girl still hiding in the tree. ¡®¡­Are you sure?¡¯ Coffee hesitated. ¡®They¡¯re all very nice people,¡¯ I insisted. Slowly, she climbed down from the tree and gave a small curtsey, lightly grasping the hem of her ragged shirt. ¡°XXXX XX XXXX XXX,¡± She said. ... The adults fell silent. Ah, that¡¯s right. ¡®Coffee, they probably don¡¯t understand your language. You have to think it at them,¡¯ I reminded her. ¡°No, Bell. We can understand Vampires perfectly well,¡± Ellie said coldly. ¡®Mom?¡¯ ¡°Who are you, and why are you here?¡± Jean demanded. Coffee stiffened and didn¡¯t respond. Her hair fell over her face, casting her eyes in a dark shadow. I couldn¡¯t tell what her expression looked like. ¡®I think there¡¯s been some sort of misunderstanding,¡¯ I said, trying to quell the tense atmosphere. My parents were always so kind and accepting. What was the reason for this hostility? ¡°No misunderstanding here, Bell. Vampires hurt many slimes in the past,¡± Andrea took a threatening step forward. ¡°They are conniving, immoral creatures that have only brought us pain and suffering.¡± ¡°You are too young to understand,¡± Jean said. ¡°Vampires are one of the main reasons why your mom comes home injured sometimes. They¡¯re why I continue to make weapons and armor.¡± ¡®Mom¡ª¡® ¡°NO BUTS. You aren¡¯t to speak to her or associate with her in any way. Do you hear me?¡± Jean¡¯s tone was lined with hatred. It was like nothing I had seen before. Anger began to bubble up from within me. This was wrong. Coffee was only a child. They surely couldn¡¯t lump her in with all of the other vampires. She was the victim here. We should be trying to help her! To my parents¡¯ benefit, a question floated into my mind. Didn¡¯t she sound much older than what she looked like? Maybe she wasn¡¯t a child? I shook my head. No. It didn¡¯t matter. It was absolutely wrong to assume that she was guilty without being proven innocent. Therefore, the best course of action right now would be to get her side of the story and go from there. That would prove her innocence and we could get her the help she needed, right? ¡®Coff¡ª¡® ¡®So you¡¯ve all found out,¡¯ Coffee¡¯s voice sounded disappointed and ominous at the same time. ¡®That¡¯s too bad. I was looking forward to tricking you all and then slaughtering you in your sleep.¡¯ ... No one said a word as her face cracked a mocking grin. My eyes widened. She slowly backed up towards the woods. ¡®Tsk tsk. It¡¯s sad, but we won¡¯t be seeing each other again. Ah, and by the way. If you DARE follow me, I will kill you, and then I will kill that foolish little girl of yours.¡¯ With these words, shevanished from sight into the darkness. Broken from her trance, Ellie shouted, ¡°Oh no you don¡¯t!¡±, keeping one arm curled around my body while lifting the other one to prepare some sort of spell. ¡®STOP, MOM.¡¯ I broke free from her grip, and jumped towards the woods where Coffee went. I turned around and glared at my parents who were expressing a mix of confusion and anger. Before Coffee disappeared, she whispered something to me and me only. <''Thank you, Bell.''> ¡°BELL, GET HERE THIS¡ª¡° ''No. I expected better from you two,'' I said coolly. I dashed after Coffee.
Wait... ''girl?'' Chapter 11 - Coffee (Part 4) The mana source was just ahead. Leaves crunched and branches snapped as I pushed off the ground with my pseudopods and thrust my center of gravity forwards. Weaving through the forest in the dark was a challenge, but manageable now that I could sense a subtle stream of mana flowing through each tree. With mana perception, the woods around us glowed dimly of emerald, giving it a mystical and beautiful feel. Finally, I emerged into a small clearing where Coffee was. I could hear her heavy breathing approaching closer to me. Stopping right in front of me, she entered my night-adjusted vision with crossed arms and an angry glare on her face. ''Why did you follow me? Are you stupid?''Sheplopped onto the ground and crossed her legs. ''Only as stupid as you are. Do you even have anywhere to go?''I retorted. ''...'' ''That''s what I thought.'' ''So what, you have a better idea?''She shot at mebitterly. ''Let''s go back, I can convince--'' ''Ha, you''re naive if you think they''ll change that way of thinking so easily.'' ''I''ll--'' ''Naive. You''d be better off forgetting about me and going back by yourself.'' I took a deep breath. I was tired of being interrupted every time and being treated like a child. ''Will you fucking listen to me? My parents will come around after I talk to them. The way they treated you was unfair and unjust. No matter what happened between them and the vampires, it doesn''t mean they should push that prejudiced view onto you.'' ''And how do you know that I''m not the enemy?'' ''I''m not stupid. That wouldn''t make sense.'' ''...What do you mean?''Coffee asked suspiciously. I had thought a lot about this topic while tracking her down. ''First, when I asked you to come down from the tree we were hiding in, you did so without hesitation despite that you were in a magic-sealed state. That means that you didn''t anticipatethe adversionbetween slimes and vampires,which wouldn''t make sense if you had come to our Kingdom to harm us. ''Your unawareness increases the likelihood that your previous statement was credible: that you woke up two days ago and escaped from the mimic. After all, if you came here as his aide or on your own as a hostile force, you would''ve known about the dangers of exposing yourself like you did. So, what probably happened was that you were captured and brought here without your knowledge. ''That brings us to the question of, why? I haven''t seen a mimic beforein my life, but I think it''s a safe assumption to say that they are not friends of the Slime Kingdom. So why did he bring you here, the bottom floor of the dungeon, holding you captive? ''Well, I distinctly heard him say two things. One, he said that you caused him trouble. This could refer to the ass-stabbing that you told me about, or something completely different. Second, he said that his ''higher ups'' didn''t care what he did with you anymore. Somewhere along the way, you must''ve given him a reason to think that you had lost your value, turning him hostile against you. ''He was probably going to use you somehow as a tool against us. But the very fact that he had to capture you to bring you here means that you aren''t inherently our enemy. Your loss of value to him and his organization means that you were no longer useful as that tool anyway. ''Therefore, it doesn''t make sense for you to be our enemy.''I concluded. Coffee grimaced and put a finger on her chin. She seemed to be in deep thought. ''Any objections?'' ''...'' ''Then, was I right that he changed his mind about you at some point and turned hostile?'' She nodded. ''Do you have any idea why?'' ''...The very fact that I didn''t know where I was.'' She replied simply. ''What does that mean...?'' ''...I-I...'' she hesitated.''I have something to confess. I don''t remember anything about myself other than what I learned after I woke up. General knowledge things are okay, but I can''t recall any events that happened further than two days ago...'' ''...'' It was my turn to be quiet. This opened up a whole new world of possibilities. It was completely possible that Coffee lost her value because of her... amnesia, meaning that she could''ve been working with the mimicthe entire time.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. No, wait. That''s wrong. If she had known that she was coming to our Kingdom, she would have at the very least remembered the relationship between slimes and vampires, right? Then again, I didn''t know how amnesia worked. Sigh. Hmm? If so, why was her name, Coffee? ''If you don''t remember anything, what about your name?''I asked. She looked away. ''I came up with it. The word just... came to me when I noticed the color of my hair. I vaguely remember thatsomeone I was very close with would often say that word... I think.'' That didn''t make sense. Was she lying? I had never seen nor heard of coffee in this world. Perhaps there was a word that was similar? That didn''t make much sense either. It had to be associated with her chestnut brown hair. Was coffee a drink that existed in the Vampire Kingdom? It was unlikely. If there was anything that I knew about coffee, though, it would be that it was made out of ground-up, dried coffee beans. That would mean that coffee plants existed in the dungeon? Perhaps a human who knew about coffee visited the Vampire Kingdom from the surface? Or... A human. Who knew about coffee. The chances were close to none. But I couldn''t shake off this feeling. Could it be? ''Coffee, does the name Jay-Eff-Kay sound familiar to you?''I held my breath. ''...? No.'' I hung my head in disappointment. Well, what did I expect. Even if she didknow my grandfather, JFK were his initials in the first place. I reprimanded myself for not asking mom for his name sooner. I shifted my attention back to the topic of Coffee''s amnesia. No matter how I looked at it, this girl in front of me didn''t seem like she bore any hostility towards me. She didn''t show any hostility towards my family, either. Rather, she had tried to push me away from her so that I would be the foolish young boy, and she would be the evil schemer who manipulated me. No onewith bad intentions would ever do something as stupid as announcing their plans. It was pretty clear that it was an act. No, Coffee was definitely telling the truth about her amnesia. There was little reason for her to lie given that it would increase her suspiciousness and possibility for involvement in some elaborate plot to harm the Kingdom. Ba-dump. But... wouldn''t that mean that ever sinceshe woke up, shehad gone through some pretty terrifying things, had gotten lost in a Kingdom that was prejudiced against her, and found that the first person who helped her out was actually a member of the very Kingdom that wanted her gone or dead? Was she okay? She did seem mature for her age, but... I glanced back at her. While I was absorbed in my thoughts, Coffeehad uncrossed her legs and was now hugging them, with a sad, contemplative expression on her face. Shit! In my suspicion, I had neglected how she must be feeling. Fuck, why was I so incompetent when it came to these things? A kid with amnesia in the middle of a forest; no family, no friends, ostacized and alone. No matter how mature she was, she would obviously be scared and lonely. Not really knowing what to do, I hopped overand nuzzled against her leg. ''?! What are you doing?'' She asked, surprised. ''I''m freezing.'' She stared at me, but I didn''t feel the need to say anything more. For a brief moment, I let the tension fade from my mind and body, and just closed my eyes. It was just the two of us here. In the middle of a forest of emerald glow, our two mana cores pulsed softly. I was reminded of the times when my childhood friend and I would siton a bench under the starry sky at our local park. This one time, she had just gone through a shitty breakup with a guy who cheated on her. We had both seen it coming, but that didn''t make it hurt any less. As for me, my grandfather had passed away earlier that day to alzheimers. His last moments were spent asking dadwhere his son was; dad couldn''t do anything but cry as he begged his father to remember him. My friend and I, time and time again, would meet at this bench whenever something sad happened in our lives, silently watching the stars meldtogether into one blurry cluster of brilliant light against the dark sky. Shoulder against shoulder, there was nothing that could make me feel as connected as that simple touch between two kindred souls. I opened my eyes. This girl beside me, who was alone in the world. I wanted to help her. Something about her reminded me of my childhood friend. At the very least, I would try tohelp her find her family and recover her memories. ''Pfft... hahaha!'' I quizzically looked at her as she laughedwhile wiping a tear from her eye. ''You''re so weird, haha,''she said, still laughing. ''How so?'' ''You just are.'' ''...What a convenient answer.'' ''Oh shut up,''she quipped.''So, what''s the plan? I''m sure your parents are looking for us right now.'' ''Let''s go back and talk to them. I think that''s the best solution. No matter what, I promise that I''ll make sure they understand the truth.'' ''I still don''t think it''ll be easy...'' ''Me neither,'' I recalled the harsh words I had said before leaving. I inwardly regretted it, but felt that it was a necessary trigger for them to even begin considering seeing things from the other side. Their hatred just seemed so overwhelming. If I had more time, I would''ve stuck around to convince them, but there wasn''t. Coffee might have vanished for good. A part of me wished that I could go back and handled everythingdifferently. After all, one of the reasonsmy parents didn''t want me to get involved was because they were worried for me, especially since I wouldn''t have had a proper grasp of the situation. They came all the way out there to search for me, andeven fought against a mimic to protect me. But could I live with myself if I didthe wrong thing just to avoid conflict with my family? Could I live with myself if I did the right thing but ended up having my family hate me? My mind became clouded because I couldn''t come to an answer. My morals and my family were both important to me. Why did I have to choose one over the other? Hold on. In reality,did I evenhave to choose one over the other? Perhaps it wasn''t myintention that was wrong; rather, my way ofcommunicatingit was wrong. I smacked myself a few times with this realization. There had to have been a better way to get the message across. This wasn''t some sort of anime or mangawhere everything would go my way as long as I had a pure heart or strong motivation. This was real. The people I loved dearlycould get hurt by my words. Fuck. I had to go and apologize as soon as possible, and also convince them that Coffee was someone that needed our support, rather than our hostility. The task was daunting, but I was resolved to see this through. This circumstance was, in part, my responsibility, and I would make things right again. ''Let''s go, Coffee.'' ''Alright, do you know the way?'' I froze. I hadn''t thought about that. ''Just kidding~ I remember the way back,'' she teased. My god, she was exactly like my friend. ''...Stupid.'' Coffee put me on her head and stood up. ''You''re stupid,''she said, walking into the forest once again. ''No, you''re stupid.'' ''I guess we''re both stupid, then.'' ''I can livewith that.'' Chapter 12 - Coffee (Part 5) "Bell! Bell, where are you?" Ellieyelled. She, Andrea and I were in the middle ofsearching for our son in the dark forest. We hoped that he hadn''t made it far. The woodsaround us stretched for miles and miles, and the only guide we had was our mana perception, which had a limited range. The three of us spread out in a line to maximize our search radius as we traversed deeperand deeper. All the while, I was bitterly thinking about what had happened. I was a terrible parent. If only I had listened to him, he would still be here with us. If I had explained the situation better, he wouldn''t have run after that vampire. What was worse, we should have gone after him right away when heleft, but we just stayed there, rooted in placelike a pair of idiots. Ellie collapsed onher knees, and my heartsank. It took us at least a minute to recover from the shock of Bell''s angry exclamation, upon which we asked the villagers to take the body of the mimic to the village hall, and to wait for us while we searched for our son. I recalled earlier today when we were eagerly waiting at home to celebrate his fourthbirthday. While Ellie and Andrea went to the trading post with Bell and Lily, I had taken a short excursion to Faeris to buy him a present: his very own lute. Ellie and I came up with the idea because he would always drift into a peaceful fantasy world whenever Ellie hummed a melody. We were sure that he would love the chance to learn to play some music. All of us were waiting for him to come back from the market. But even though we waited and waited, he didn''t come home. He didn''t return by dinnertime. Ellie started to goballistic and Andrea was doing her best to calm her down. I tried to not overthink it, but my gut told me that something had goneterribly wrong. Worried sick, we formed a search party with the other villagers and left Lily with one of Andrea''s friends. We lookedeverywhere that we could think of. The market, the pond, and even back to the trading post. After we searched for at least two hours, we heard a loud bang from across the lakeshore. By the time we arrived, we found a bloodied mimic. A pang of fear shot through us as we assumed the worst had hapened to our son. Ellie and Andrea didn''t spare any mercy in destroying it. That''s when Bell appeared, seemingly out of thin air. To our relief, he was safe and sound, and had a mana core to boot! ''SO WHY DID THIS HAPPEN?!'' I angrily punched a nearby tree trunk with full force, causing it to dent. My hand bled and my knuckle bruised, but the pain didn''t even register. "Jean?!" Ellie quickly ran up to me and pulled me into a tight embrace. "Please don''t... I know it''s hard, but we have to find B-Bell right now, okay?" My wife''seyes werebrimming with tears as she clung to me. What was I doing? Wasn''t getting emotional the reason why Bell got angry in the first place? I needed to screw my head on straight. The priority right now was to find Bell and bring him home safely. "You''re right. Sorry Ellie," I said, hugging her back. "Let''s go find our son." We continued the search.
''Shouldn''t we be there already?''I asked from atop Coffee''s head. I was concerned, because we had been walking for at least fifteen minutes. And my head was slightly pounding for some reason. ''I think we''re almost there, but... something''s off,'' she slowed her walking speed and lightened her steps. Like she said, the area around us was...too quiet. Before, we could hear the breeze rustling the leaves on the ground or some of the manaflies buzzing around. Now, there was nothing. My mana perception was hinting at something above us, but that was impossible. Unless something was on the trees, everything else should betoo far away to notice. ''Wait here. I''m going to see what''s going on,'' I notifiedmy companion and jumped onto a nearby branch. The pines were prickly as I ascended the tree, but I oozed my way up using the branches as handlebars. My body was part liquid, so it didn''t take more than ten seconds to climb high enough to see the surrounding area. ''What the fuck?!'' ''What''s the matter?''Coffee inquired. ''There''s some sort of dome-shaped magic circle overarchingthe entire forest.'' ''You''re kidding, right. Give me a second.'' I heard the rustle of branches below as Coffee made herway to where I was. Her head popped out beside me. ''Hoooooooooly shit,''she whistled. ''Do you know what it is?'' ''That''s definitely an Emperor Class Chaos Spell. If that''s a devastation-type, we''re fucked.'' A gigantic dome of violet light encompassed an entire third of the forest, and we were at the centerofit. There were countless streams of illegible symbols and patterns spanning the dome in strips, converging at the apex, which appeared to be a small, black hole. It was absorbing the symbols at a slow pace and growing in diameter, traveling down the length of the dome. ''Shit. What does that mean?!'' ''It means: GO GO GO!'' The two of us quickly made our way down and dashedfor the village,Coffee leading the way. ''Devastation-type? What''s that?!''I asked. ''It means this area''s going to be disintegratedas soon as the void matrix gains enough chaotic mana from that dome.'' ''Void matrix? Chaotic mana?'' I could almost hear Coffee''s mental sigh of exasperation.''The void matrix is that black thing in the center. It''s a connection to the ''void'', which is an alternate dimension where black mages can freely manipulate and unleash spells from a distance. Chaotic mana is one of the tenclasses of mana that manipulatesentropic uncertainty. How do you not know this?! Did you not go to school?'' ''I told you, I just got my mana core today! How did you even go to school?! You look like you''re only 4 years old.'' ''I''ll explain later. But that''s impossible. Your mana core is fully mature, which takes at least ten years of dedicated trainingafter the awakening. Unless slimes are an overpowered race? Do you guys start off with a fully developed core?'' ''Not to my knowledge...''My mind raced. The gift I got from the dungeon hivewas more valuable than I thought.''Wait, you said from far away? Like from somewhere else in the dungeon?'' ''Obviously. But this level of magic is beyond what one person can accomplish. To generate a void matrix of that size and to manifest a chaos dome of this volume... It would require at leastten King Class magicians and aphantasmal level item. The backlash is immense too; they''ll be in hell for at least a yearand the item will break,''Coffee seemed to be thinking throughthis situation quite thoroughly. ''What about an Emperor Class magician?'' ''There are no Emperor Class magicians, stupid. Were you serious about your mana c--'' ''Fuck. If this spell is that costlyto cast, why would anyoneeven target this place?! It doesn''t make sense. There''s nothing out here except a small village...''My thoughts trailed off. Therewas nothing out here. That is, until today. ...Was it because of Coffee? There was nothing else that I could think of. But that didn''t make sense either. Why would they bring her all the way here to kill her? Was it even the mimics who were casting the spell? Was it one of the other kingdoms? Whatever the case, it probably involved Coffee and that mimic, but to what extent, I didn''t know. Surely Coffee wouldn''t know either, given her current state. ''It''s probably my fault, though I have no idea why,''Coffee admitted. Apparently she came to the same conclusion I had.''Wait, stop running! Shit, fuck, this is absolute bullshit. I''m so fucking dumb. Why didn''t I think of this before?'' She skidded to a stop and I almost crashed into a tree stopping my momentum. I collected my jiggle and faced her inquisitively. ''Did you figure out why they''re attacking us?'' ''No, but I figured out why we aren''t getting any closer to the village. Remember? CHAOS mana. It''s affecting our perception of direction. Wouldn''t be surprised if it''s affecting our perception of mana too.'' ''It can do that?! What are we going to do?'' ''Reverse it of course. All mana can be counteracted. Jarod''s Third Law: For every action done by mana, there is an equal and opposite action. You just have to gatheryour mana and match wavelength to that opposite action, and extend it like a bubble around you and me.'' ''Yeah. Okay. I''ll just, you know. Do that.'' ''Oh shut up. Close your eyes and do what I say. This is a crash course on Chaos mana. If you fail, we''ll probably die.'' ''Great encouragement, teacher.'' ''I said, shut up. Gather your mana at a point in your body; this is the initialization stage. Good. The mana you''ve collected right now is your naturally attuned type, which seems to be Collision. It''s great for things like that air bullet you''re so fond of, but it''s hard as hell to manipulate outside your body because it''s colliding with everything. ''Now the second step is tricky, but not impossible. It''s called the conversion step. You have feelthe flow of the Chaos mana and generate a counterclonethat may not have the same amplification, but the exact same frequency--''she explained. ''In English, please,''I said instinctively. Oops. ''English?'' ''Uh, I mean, in simpler terms, please.'' ''I was getting to that. While you''re maintaining that mana cluster in your body, explore your surroundings until you sense the mana in that Chaos dome. Everyone experiences something different, but you have to will your mana to copy what it''s doing, except shift it one semiwavel--'' ''One thing at a time!''I complained. While keeping my mana condensed near my core, I concentrated on trying to feel whatever she was talking about. Nothing... nothing... tree mana... tree mana... more tree mana... AHA! Mysenses bordered on a mana... surfacethat was acting strangely. Each particle seemed to be... not a particle. More like a wave? But also a particle? And also a wave at the same time? My head began to hurt just trying to understand it. Good thing that my responsibilitywas just to copyit. If I actually had to understand it, I''d probably wina nobel prize in physics or something for doing that. I willed my mana to copy each particle-wave''s movements. A full minute passed. Then two. Then five. ... Behave like a wave, but not like a wave, sort of like a wave, but still not a wave... Ten minutes passed but it seemed like an eternity. Both a particle and a wave... Didn''t I learn something like this back in highschool? Or was that in one of the mangas I read? ... Fuggles mctuggles wtf am I doing... Sigh. Deep breaths, Bell. Deep breaths. ... So, it behaves like a FUUUUUUUUUC-- - Please wait a moment... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf8FCLT8S6A) So, it''s easier if I imagine that the particle is vibrating horizontally while the light within the particle vibrates vertically. Yes, I''mdefinitely getting closer to mimicking whatever that thing is. But there''s something missing. What is it? Ah, of course, the frequency of the vibration. I need to match it to that weird beat. Short short long short, short short long, long short long short, long short long.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Coffee''s voice reentered my thoughts. ''Yes, that''s perfect. Now offset that beat by half. That''s pretty good, you aren''t such a blumberpuss after all.Now for the third stage, which isspatial manipulation. Use that mana as a shield by creating a bubble around us,''shesaid, hugging me closer to her chest. I imagined the mana particles expanding around us like a bubble, but encountered resistance as soon as it reached the surface of my body. ''Keep going. Push. That''s the Chaos mana that you''re trying to repel,''Coffee encouraged. Centimeter by centimeter, I extended the bubble around us until both of our bodies were enveloped in it. I had to maintain my focus, or the bubble would start to wobble and I was afraid that it would fall apart. ''Congratulations,you''ve now learnedan intermediate level spell called Chaos Field. You can leave the rest to me. Just focus on keeping the field up and run--''Coffee stiffened and cut off her train of thought. ''What''s wrong?'' ''I can sense your parents'' mana presence 200 meters to our left. The chaos mana was masking their presence from us before,''she said with a poker face. Happiness filled my heart, but I could tell she was still apprehensive after their last encounter. Unfortunately, there was no time to console her properly. We were on a clock. A clock with a deadly alarm set for the near future. ''Let''s go. I won''t let anything happen to you, I promise. I''ll explain the situation and we''ll all get out together,''I assured her, gears whirring in my head trying to figure out what to say. Coffee just nodded and moved in my parents'' direction.
''Mom!'' "Bell?! Jean, Ann, I''ve found Bell!" Ellie shouted, a smilegrowingon her weary face. It froze when she saw who was carrying me, but she didn''t say anything until the other two caught up. "Bell! Mom''s so sorry. I should''ve explained..." Jean''s voice trailed off as she also saw who was carrying me. She frowned, but her formerhostility towards Coffee was nowhere to be seen. Andrea''s face was stoic. I took a deep breath. ''Mom, I''m sorry about running off like that. It was inappropriate of me to say what I did, and I''m so sorry. But right now, I need you to try and get past your prejudices about the vampires. Coffee, the girl holding me right now, is not our enemy. I can explain more later, but for now just know thatshe helped me find you. We don''t have much time. We have to--'' "Why can''t you explain it now? What''s the rush?" Jean asked quizzically, crossing her arms. ''There''s an Emperor Class Chaos Spellsurrounding the area. We have to go. Now!'' "Bell? What are you talking about?" It was Ellie''s turn to question him now. ''Look up at the sky!'' They all looked up and gasped. We were in a small clearing of the forest, and the sky could be seen directly above as a clearviolet sheen, with an abyssal void of black growing in diameter with every passing second. "What''s a Chaos spell? I''ve never heard that type of magic before... How do you know about it?" Fear began to grow on Ellie''s face as she realized the situation they were in. ''Coffee told me. There''s no time, we have to go. I''ll tell you later. This area''s going to blow at any moment.'' "WHAT?! Lily!" Andrea, horrified, looked back towards the village, except that she was facing thewrong way. Fuck. They must''ve left Lily back at the village. Well, we would have to head there anyway. ''We have to go get her. Let''s goback to the village, but you will have to follow Coffee and me. The Chaos mana around us will prevent you three from having a proper sense of direction.'' "But why won''t you two be affected?" Ellie was baffled. ''Because I taught Bellhow to counter the mana with a field of her own,''Coffee calmly explained before I could.''There''s no time for arguing. We really have to go, especially if you want to save this Lily, along with the other villagers. Bell, maintain the field.'' Without warning, Coffee started dashing headfirst into the woods, quickly followed by the other three who were taken by surprise. "...Coffee, was it? Why are you helping us?!" Jean yelled. "We made it clear before that we saw you as a hostile." ''I have no intention of being your enemy, and Bell made it clear that she''d do everything she could to convince you of this. I''m placing my trust in her. I also don''t have any desire to see innocent people die,'' she responded. Jean''s eyes widened, but quickly refocused and hardened, this time towards the village. I felt that there was some kind of misunderstanding going on with the whole ''she'' and ''her'' thing whenever Coffee talked about me, but I thought it would be pointless to bring it up now. I just hoped that it would resolve itself soon.
Soon, we emerged from the treeline and arrived back atthe lakeside. We all greeted the blue glow with fleeting joy. We had been without proper vision for so long. But there was no time to relish; death was knocking on our front door. "Everyone! We have to get out of--" Jean started hollering, but stopped at the sight of a group of villagers standing in front of the market square. Everyone had already packed their carts, and there was a familiar face among the crowd... "LILY!" Andrea screamed and dashed forwardstowards the small, green blob wearing a leaf on her head. ''Mom!!''Lily cried, hugging her mom in a tight embrace. "What''s that vampire doing here?!" A villager yelled yonderway. "She''s with us, now. We''ll explain later," Jean said sternly. "We have to get as far away as possible as fast as we can." The villager tightened his lips and nodded firmly. "We''ve packed everything, including your family''s belongings. Sorry for the house intrusion, but the situation called for desperate measures. We''re ready to go," he hastily recounted. Jean nodded in thanks. "Onwards!" Jean yelled, leading the group down the main road towards Faeris. I guessed that the chaos mana didn''t have much effect when there was a clear path to take. I relaxed the Chaos field spell and allowed it to dissipate. The mental strain disappeared as quick as it had come. "Ahem," came from behind Coffee and I. Ellie tapped Coffee''s shoulder and looked at her expectantly. Coffee immediately understood and gave heran awkward grin. She passed me over to my mom, who hugged me tightly. "I''m so glad you''re safe, Bell. I love you so much," Ellie said, nuzzling my forehead with hers. ''I love you too mom. I''m sorry about what I said before...'' "Yeah, you were mean," she pouted. "Don''t make your mom cry again, okay?" ''Mhm. We''ll have a long talk once this is over,''I assured her.''There are some things that I have to tell you and Jean too.'' I decided that it would be best for them to know the truth about me after all. The reincarnation bit. The talk I envisioned was going to be difficult, but I was determined to make things right. No more secrets, no more lies. Most importantly, I wanted my parents to trust me and my decisions, and be willing to discuss importantmatters with me. Looking around, the villagers looked scared, but determined to escape. We quickly made our way to the edge of the village, where the Chaos spell ended. Above, the abyssal black void began to churn like a funnel cloud that represented death itself. The wind began to pick up. BANG.CLANG. BOOM. "What is this bullshit?!" Screamed someone up ahead. "No way..." murmors began to start among the crowd of villagers. A blinding light was seen up ahead, followed by another and another. Blasts of water, earth, wind, and fire were thrown against the violet dome surrounding the area, to no avail. Noticing what was going on, Ellie and Andrea collected their mana and unleashed the powerfulice spear used to kill the mimic before, but it just shattered like glass against the Chaos dome. Jean grabbed two swords from one of the carts and began to slash at the dome wall. It was like a catclawing at its scratching post. Several other villagers were banging their fists against the wall to no effect. The turbulent winds of the Chaos Spell began to gain power, and I could see lightning flash at the core of the terrifying storm, which is what the black hole had turned into. Thunder crashed and roared as the gales gathered to become a raging torrent. Time was running out. The spell would be upon us soon, and everything would be decimated. Fuck. I opened my mana perception, and sensed a high density of Chaos mana flowing from the wall. There was no more time to think of a new plan.It was clear whatI had to do. Struggling out of my mom''s arms, I jumpedonto the floor. I steeled my resolve and gained my balance, staringat the task in front of me bitterly. "Bell?!" Ellied cried. At this point, my mom''s crywas but a farawayone. I had gone into a hyperfocused mode so that I could do what I had to do. I gritted my teeth as I fought the desire to come back to the present. I had to save my family.I wouldn''t let either of them die. Not again. I gathered about 90% of the mana in my core and consolidated it into a ball of vibrant crimson. Initialization complete. The nature and behaviour of the mana shifted to a particle-wave duality that mimicked the Chaos mana in front of me, except its frequency was timed half a wavelength off so that it would cause negative interference. Conversion complete. I then pushed this mana towards the edge of the violet dome, encountering hell of a lot more resistance than the first time I tried this. I had to increase the amplification of the interfering wave by pouring more of my mana into it. I probably had 1% left, if even. With every drop of willpower I had left, I urged the mana to form a bubble in the dome, just large enough to fit an adult slime through. Spatial Manipulation complete. ''EVERYONE! GO. NOW.''I screamed, fightingto keep my consciousness alive. If I blacked out now, everything was over. The villagers began to scramble through the strange hole in the violet wall, understanding what was going on. Andrea and Lily began to clambortowards me but Jean forced them to go through the hole, telling them that she would help Ellie and I through. Hesitating, Andrea picked Lily up and jumped through, but not before giving us one last worried look. Ellie started to bend over to pick me up, now understanding the situation. ''NO!'' "But why, Bell?!" Ellie began to cry as she tried again to pick me up. ''Mom, if you pick me up, it''s over. The only reason why I can manipulate this thing is because I''m on stable ground. It''s hard enough talking. Please, go. Save yourself--'' "No, Bell. I''m not leaving you--" ''MOM! YOU HAVE TO GO. NOW!''I screamed. I couldn''t hold this hole open for much longer. Jean appeared behind Ellie and chopped her hard on the neck, causing her to pass out. She grabbed the falling Ellie and carried her towards the hole. She took one look back towards me with a look that I would never forget. She had tears streaming down her cheek, and a devastated look of grief in her eyes. But her tight lips showed that she had steeled herself for this. Her shoulders shook uncontrollably and her knees wobbled, but she was slowly able to make her way outside the spell field. ''Thank you, mom,''I smiled.''I love you both so much.'' There was only one person left, and that was Coffee. She was standing in front of the hole, with a finger on her chin as if she was debating whether to go or not. Why was she just standing there? She''s so fucking stubborn. So fucking stupid! I struggledto keep the hole open for another second. ''COFFEE, GET THE FUCK OUT OF--'' ''I was wrong. It isn''t a devastation spell,''she said, smiling. At that moment, I lost control of my Chaos field, and the hole closed. I began to lose consciousness as the tempest of darkness in the skies started to leak tendrils of black mana over twenty meters long. The roaring thunder and wind were muffled as Coffee wrapped her arms around me. As my vision faded, I could feel Coffee''s warm body against mine. ... My consciousness... ... ... Fading... ... ... ... ''It''s going to be okay.'' ... ... Side Story - Lily and Bells XXX Adventures (Part 1) ... ... ... A warm, yellow light bathed my body as I emerged in the virtual world. From an outsider''s perspective, it would appear like pixels materializing out of thin air, becoming greater in mass and complexity until I popped into existence.I hopped a few times and wiggled my pseudopods in the air until I was comfortable with moving within the game. The level of reality was stunning. I could feel the solid ground as I moved around, all the way down to the slight air resistance when I punched a pseudopod forward. All around me, the scenery was breathtaking. The starting zone was at the edge of a cliff looking at a vast mountain range with lush green forests and rushing waterfalls. Birds of all sorts flying through the skies and the sun bathing everything in a warm light.The sky was a bright azure that stretched far and wide, and the smell of fresh, natural air filled my slime nostrils. The world I had entered was XXX, a highly complex magic-driven virtual reality system developed by an unknown genius said to live ina secret subdungeon within the Xylene dungeons. Rumors said that this subdungeon was home to ahidden Kingdominhabited by robots built by the genius himself. It had been hundreds of years since he made his debut with a RPG-style console game called LastFantaXXXy. It was still popular to this day, particularly among the rich who could afford the system. Just last week, XXX, which is said to be the unknown genius''s greatest and final work, was leaked to information brokers around the dungeon. It didn''t take long for the entirety of the dungeon to learn about the game and become enthralled. Unlike his previous system, XXX didn''t require a console at all. Rather,the XXX network was accessible through a simple spell that didn''t even require one to have developed a mana core. Just reciting the words would cause the mana in the surrounding atmosphere to connect the caster''s consciousness to the net. One of the biggest draws was thattime flowed four times faster in the XXX world, allowing for all people to enjoy the game, regardless of what their professions were and how little free time they had. What was more, one could play the game in their sleep, and feel perfectly rested afterwards. Of course, I was ecstatic as soon as I heard about it, and wanted to try it right away. However, mommade me promise to take Lily along, which I didn''t mind at all. I was just worried that she''d screw up the incantation or whatnot, but it seemed like she was able to connect fine and dandy. I walked up to the green blob that had materialized beside me. The name above the slime said . ''Hi Lily, how''d you--'' ''Hey handsome <3.''A rough man''s voice responded from the green slime. I kicked the slime off the cliff. ... ...
You have leveled up! +10 Health, +5 Stamina
Yay? I guess that was mean, but all''s well that ends well. Right?
TacoBell
Race Slime
Gender Male
Level 2
HP 20/20
Stamina 15/15
Ohhh, interesting. I wondered how the window would change once I got a class. I had heard about hidden and unique classes in the game, but the ways to unlock them were mysterious and unclear. It would be awesome to get one of them though. My thoughts were distracted by a rumble behind me.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Thump. Thump. THUMP. THUMP. My body jiggled as something big and heavy approachedme. I could feel hotair breathing down my back. Slowly, I turned around. Snort. Snot splattered over my face.Facing me was a bull''s head with gigantic, curved horns and a spartan like blue glow emitting from the eyes. It adorned a golden nose ring and a hairy, ginger goatee. A chiseled body with a hardened eight pack and bulging thigh muscles comprised its physique, along with thick arms ending in two, furry human hands. The place where the p*nis should be was a brown mosaic, and above its head was the name . "Bell!"It roared. Ah. Ahhhhhhhhh. That green leaf on its forehead did seem familiar. I nodded. This was indeed Lily. The race and gender assignmentwas random, after all. Of all the possible names out there, why DemonicEnforcer, though? ^_^'''' ''H-heyyy L-Lily. Glad that you''ve made it through,''I stuttered. She was fucking terrifying. Each snort released a blast of hot air that caused my cheeks to wiggle. The minotaur model had an impressive level of detail, all the way down to the dirt underneath its nails. "Yep, the process was really simple. Hurry, let''s go!"She said excitedly. Grabbing me by the pseudopod, she dragged me away from the spawn zonetowards the beginner''s area: the training hall. There was literally nowhere else we could go, and all new players had to go through this location. In the middle of a large courtyard surrounded by stone walls, rows upon rows of wooden dummies were set up. People of all races were hitting the dummies with wooden swords, testing out the basic combat system established in XXX. From what I heard, damage was proportionate to the importance of the area hit. For example, a head blow was up to five times more vulnerable than hitting something like a leg or arm. However, the realistic nature of the game meant that limbs could be severed or broken, meaning that the lower HP loss wasn''t the only important factor in a fight. A dual wielder whose arm was incapacitated had his combat ability cut in half. A brawny soldier man waved us over from a table near the entrance. The sign overhead said ''Training Registration''. "Hey, is this your first time in XXX?" He smiled. ''Yes,'' I replied. "Great! Here''s what you have to do. No matter what class you want to acquire later on, everyone has to go through basic training first. Grab one of these and attack one of those dummies over there until it reaches 0 hp. Most people finish within 15 minutes, depending on how quickly you catch on," he explained, handing each of us a wooden sword. The sword grew proportionally in size when it entered Lily''s minotaur hands, and shrunk in my little pseudopods. "Their effectiveness and damage output won''t change even if their size does," he reassured me, seeing my disappointment. "All weapons and armors act this way. Every piece of equipment is tailored to the user''s physical specifications." I breathed a sigh of relief. I had imagined the ridiculous amount of pain and effort I would have to put into finding armors and weapons my size. This was awfully convenient. Almost as if an author was manipulating the world to make it easier on himself to write the story without going into the specifics. Beside me, Lily was testing out the sword: swinging it back and forth, stabbing the air, and twirling in the air like a ballerina with the sword pointed upwards. I never thought I would see a minotaur twirl, nor did I want to. Now that it was said and done, I had seen all there was to see in life. The two of us went to the back of the training hall where a relatively fewer number of players were hitting their dummies. We each approached a separate target and brandished our newly acquired wooden weapons. Smack!
You have dealt -5 HP damage to Training Dummy.
The weight of the impact jarred my pseudopod as if I was hitting a solid object. Which was to be expected given the level of reality in the game, I supposed. I noticed a green bar appear above the dummy with a percentage on it. It read 99.5%. I understood this to be the dummy''s HP. There was a long ways to go before we''d get out of this area. It was then that I observed an elven boy near me struggle to hit the dummy. Everyone around him was avoiding him. It was like he couldn''t tell where his target was. Almost as if... I gasped. The boy''s eyes were unfocused and pale. He was blind. Moreover, his title read I smelt the beginnings of a quest. Chapter 13 - The Morana Incident (Part 1) AGHHHHHHHHHHHH.......... Who was screaming so loud? ''...ell...'' A barely audible voiceregistered in the middle of that terrible screaming.I felt something soft and warm beside me. My mind was sluggish and my mouth seemed to be... open? My body was shaking slightly. ''Bell...'' The screams intensified, but I didn''t want to get up... It was so comfortable, being unconscious. Like a dream... almost as if nothing had happened. As if-- ''Bell!'' My eyes flew open, and I realized that I was the one screaming. My mind was suddenly flooded by hundreds of imagesshoving the samestory down my throatover and over again. The violet Chaos spell, the tempest, the escaping villagers, the anguish on Ellie''sface, the agony on Jean''s.I shut my eyes tightly and tried to suppress the memories, but they wouldn''t stop. They just wouldn''t stop. My shoulders started to trembleas the torrent of emotions caught up with my consciousness. Guilt. Confusion. Misery. Regret. So... Much... Regret... My brain strappedme to a chair laden with needle-like thorns and giant, living centipedes, and placed me in the middle of a white room. It constructed a cylindrical screen around me so that I could watch every regretful decision I made, no matter which direction my head turned. Killing my own mother, hurting Jean with my carelessness, attemptingthat dumbfucking experiment, abandoning my parentsafter breaking their heart. I tried to escapethe torture of my own bloody choices, but the thorns dug ever deeper into my skin and the centipedes crawled into my mouth and ears, tearing through flesh as they squirmedunderneath my skin. Desperately as a last resort, I tried to bendthememories to my will. But no matter what I did, thestory didn''t change. The truth didn''t change. If I had just listened to my parents. If I hadn''t been so selfish. If I-- ''BELL, WAKE UP! IT''S OKAY. You''re alive. We''re alive. Your parents are alive,''someone said, as thin, but warm arms wrapped themselves around my shaking body. This last statement sucked me back into reality. ''That''s right. Your parents arealive,''the voice reassured me. My mind did a double-take while this fact sunk in. Slowly, the rest of my memories creeped back and played likea broken record. ...Yes. I had managed to save them in the end. And Coffee and I... we... what happened? I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm down. Over what felt like several minutes, I steadily regained my senses, and recognized the girl huggingme. Seeing that I had come to, Coffee let go and kneeled beside me, still wearing an anxious expression. Anyone would, especially if they saw me as I was. ''...Thanks for that, Coffee. I... I''m back,''I smiled weakly. ''Thank fucking god. Are you okay? I mean, you obviously aren''t, but--''she started to get flustered. ''Don''t worry, I''ll be fine in a bit. Just let me reorganize my thoughts...''Ichecked our surroundings.''Where are we?'' ''I''m... notsure,'' she hesitantly replied.''That Chaos spell forcefully teleported us away, but it had a random trajectory. We could literally be anywhere. We''re definitely still in the dungeon though; the mana flowing throughthe walls is the same.'' The two of us were in a small, rocky cave of sorts, which was probably about two meters high and four meters wide. On one end was a dead end and the other was a long stretch of tunnel that screamed death.How deep it went was anybody''s guess, as it extended far into darkness. In front of us, a small flame floated in midair, illuminating Coffee''s pale face in a warm, orange glow. ''Teleportation?'' I massaged my sore head, recalling what Coffee had said before the spell hit us.''How do... did you know?'' ''The way the Chaos mana was flowing out of the void. If it was a devastation-type spell, the air above uswould''ve been ripped apart as the spell descended. Rather, itjust disappeared as if wasn''t there anymore,''she answered, staring off into the distance as if she was visualizingthe scene in her head. ''So devastation-type would be something like...nuclear fission, am I hearing this right?'' ''Nuclear fission?''Coffee turned to look at me again and raised an eyebrow. ''Nevermind,''I waved it off. There was something much more important right now. Something that I didn''t even know whether I wanted to know the answer to or not. The only reassurance was that Coffee said they were alive. I held my breath. ''Are my parents okay?'' ... ''Yeah, don''t worry. The spell should''ve only affected the encompassed area. I told them that we''d be back before they knew it,''Coffee reassured me. Relief floodedmy mindandI exhaled deeply. ''...Thank you. Again.'' My body suddenly felt like I had run a marathon, and I wanted to do nothing more than sink into the floor and take a nap. Before I could, I caught myself and reminded myself of what was at stake. This wasn''t the time for weakness. I didn''t know if I should becomforted that they knew I was alive. I worried that they would try and look for me, and get hurt in the process or worse. Moreover, I... didn''t know whether I would come back-- ''No. Wewill find our way back.Alive,'' Coffee statedsternly, almost as if she was reading my mind. She was right. There was no point in being pessimistic. I nodded wearily. I quietly stared at the flame burning in front of us. There was so much to think about, but for now, I felt like I needed a mental restor else I would go crazy. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Quietly, I focused on my breathing. ''In... out.... In... out....In... out....''
At least half an hour must have passed beforeI felt calmenough. I decided to break the silence, motioning to the flame before us.''Is that yours, by the way?'' Coffee was startled by the sudden noise, but collected herself quickly.''Yep, it''s a basic fire spell.'' ''So you can use magic now, awesome. Did the seal wore off?'' ''Not exactly... I thinkthe teleportation processdestroyed it.'' ''Oh, that''s good.'' ''Mhm.'' ... ''I can use about 25% of my power now,'' Coffee continued. I cocked my head in confusion. ''Only 25%? How come?'' Coffee pointed towards the tattoo on her torso.''This is some kind of curse.Some bastard sealed me in this child''s body, along with most of my mana capacity,''she complained, massaging her nonexistent breasts through her loose shirt. I felt my face turn warm, and quickly turned my head the other way. It made sense, though.''So that explains why you know so much...'' ... ''Coffee?''I looked back because she had fallen silent. I was worried that I was being insensitive about the curse with my statement, but I needn''t have worried. She was crossing her arms and shooting me an accusatory glare. ''Don''t you get the wrong idea. I''m in the prime of my youth at 25. You were just thinking that I was some kind of ancient 100 year old vampire, weren''t you?'' ''Wha--*Cough* of course not, haha. Hahaaaaa--ow ow ow ow!''I protested as she squeezed my cheeks super hard.''I give! I give!'' She let go. ''I''m glad,'' she smiled. ''That I''m in pain, you sadistic vampire?!''I exclaimed, rubbing my sore cheeks. ''No stupid. That you seem to be feeling better.'' ''I don''t believe you. You''re definitely happy about having an excuse to--ow!''She flicked me on the forehead this time. I grinned. She was right. And it wasn''t just having time to recover, either. There was something about being with herthat made me feel better, despite the predicament we were in. ''So, that curse... Is that why you lost your memory?'' ''I think so. I''m going to find the fucker who did this to me, and make him eat his dick piece by piece,''she spat out. ''Or, we could try and undo that curse,''I suggested. ''That''s not how they work. To my knowledge, no one has broken one before.'' ''Seriously... Then, what are you going to do?'' ''I just have to wait it out until it expires,''she sighed, glancing at her torso. I had a slight suspicion she was remorsefully looking at her bust, rather than the curse tattoo.''I''d say it''s going to last at least five years.'' ''Is there any way to shorten the time?'' ''Maybe, but I don''t know. Do I look like a walking encyclopedia?'' ''Well, you''resitting right now, so no.'' ''Oh fuck you.'' She was trying so desperately hard not to smile that it was kinda cute. I shifted my attention to the dark tunnel before us. ''I guess we should find a way out of here.'' ''Good idea. My legs were getting cramped justsitting here,'' Coffee stood and brushed the dirt off her shirt. Which she found to be an impossible task, and soon gave up. We started to make our way down withonly Coffee''s tiny flame to light our way. The path twisted and turned, but much to our gratefulness, didn''t branch off into a million different tunnels. However, it was so quiet that I could hear the slight plop whenever I hopped forward enough to get air, and hit the ground. I wondered where the hell we had ended up. At that moment, though, a thought came to mind. ''Say, you mentioned that my natural affinity for mana was Collision before, and that there were ten types. What are the others?''I questioned my exploration partner. ''Uhhh... Other than Collision, there''s Chaos, Charge, Bonding, Emission, Absorption, Flux, Soul, Divine, and Manifestation.'' ''Care to explain them?'' ''You''re kidding me, right?''Coffee looked disgusted with me. ''I''m quite serious... wait.'' In the distance, I thought I saw a tiny light at the end of the tunnel. ''Kill the flame,''I told Coffee. She nodded, and the area around us became dark. The light ahead of us was definitely real, but it was dim and mobile. We cautiously approached the area, when a large mana signature entered my perception. ''GET BACK!''Coffee clutched onto my pseudopod and pulledme backwards, out of mana perception range. We waited for something to happen, but it seemed like whatever was ahead didn''t notice us.''Hide your mana presence,''she commanded. ''How?!'' She slapped her forehead and dragged her hand down slowly, pulling her skin in frustration.''I just told you the ten types, right? You can hide your mana by converting your mana into Absorption. Copy what I''m doing. If you don''t figure out what I''m doing during the conversion phase, you''re not going to understand.'' She closed her eyes and started doing something with her mana. I reached out and tried to understand what she was doing. Each of her mana particles seemed to be getting... smaller? No, that wasn''t right. After practicing Chaos mana manipulation, I understood that there were at least two components to each speck of mana, and that was that the light and particle behaved differently, despite being one unit. It seemed like the lightaspect of the mana was shrinking, but the particle was growing. As this conversion was happening, I began to lose track of where Coffee was in the dark. Eventually, she blended in with the weak mana signature of the dungeon walls. If I was understanding this correctly, it would mean that mana perception was more specifically detecting the light characteristic of mana. By converting the light to size, I was able to maintain the total energy of the mana while reducing the perception of it. The problem was, I had no idea how to actually accomplish this. Hmm... Light... Size... wait, would light refer to energy and size relate to... mass? If so, then, isn''t this something like that theory? The one that Eureka dude came up with. Einstein, right? E = mc^2. That would mean that to convert energy to mass, then I would have to speed it super fast, wouldn''t it? Like a really powerful vibration? I attempted exactly this, and concentrated on a small cluster of my mana to begin with. Faster... faster....... faster................ ''What the fuck are you doing? Jerking off your own mana?''An annoyed voice asked.''Just will your particle to expand while keeping the light as is. It''ll naturally shrink.'' Reluctantly, I did what Coffee said and was able to convert all of my Collision-type mana to Absorption-type within a minute.
Again, we tiptoed towards the light at the end of the tunnel. Well, Coffee did. I just kind of dragged my body slowly. Our mana perception meter was flying through the roof with multiple signatures registering all around us, but we were able to move without attracting attention. Just a bit more... RATATATATATA. A familiar shape zoomed past theexit. Our bodies froze, and we slowly looked at each other, both confirming that what we saw was indeed what we saw. ''Was that...''she began... ''A box?''I completed. Smack! ''A mimic, you idiot!''Coffee slapped my face. It was precisely that. Except a little different. In that split second, we had seen a creepy-ass motherfucking chest waving two long, black arms in the air. Its lid was a littlemore open than the one we had seen back at the village, probably because it was moving so quickly. We saw the same four thick tongues hanging loosely behind the chest, leaving behind a trail of slobber. Unfortunately, it got worse. The greater exposure of its mouth allowed us to see the hundreds of rows of sharp, jagged teeth that were present inside, arranged like they belonged to the most terrifying fucking shark I had ever seen, in real life or on the internet. And I''ve seen some crazy shark photos. What was worse, the lankey, hairy legs that we had expected were no longer there. More accurately, theywere there, except... ''Its legs were... bent into a wheel, weren''t they,''Coffee whispered. ''Yep,''I confirmed. Our adventure had officially just begun. Chapter 14 - The Morana Incident (Part 2) While hiding in the shadows, Coffee and I quietly assessed our situation as calmly as possible. In short, we seemed to be in the middle of a mimic-run mining operation. Our ''exit'' led to a large, cylindrical opening in the dungeon about the size of a football stadium. Four great stalagmites rose from the ground and lit the area ablaze with bright chunks of embedded mana crystals that radiated blue and green. In the center of the stadium was a makeshift elevator consisting of a wooden base, and ropes that connected each corner of the base to the ceiling. In the middle of these anchor points was a hole that presumably led to another part of the mine. The elevator seemed to be driven by a spell; each rope rapidly coiled around a spool beneath the base of the contraption as it was raised into the air. It went without saying that the rope uncoiled during the descent. Along the walls of this area were tunnels that looked just like ours, except that most of them were populated by worker mimics. One of them would enter a tunnel, make clinking noises for several minutes, and wheel themselves out to dump a chestload of some sort of mineral into a collection bin. Once these were full, another mimic would then transport these bins to the central elevator, which would be moved up, emptied, and returned for further use. Over 50 mimics were working busily here, and a few of them were in humanoid form. However, the form that seemed to be the most convenient for them was the one Coffee and I had seen earlier. Yeah, that one. With those hairy leg-wheels. The working conditions didn''t seem to great, to be honest. The air was musky, the lighting inside each tunnel was shabby at best (at least that''s the impression we got with our limited vision), the mimics'' legs appeared to be battered and bruised, and every worker looked utterly exhausted. If they weren''t so terrifying, I would probably pity them. I guessed that the tunnel Coffee and I were in was no longer in use. Not only was it ignored by the busy mimics, but there was also a sign in front us that was painted with a big red X. Either they had found nothing in the tunnel, it was all mined out, or some asshole let loose a pungent one that forced everyone to steer clear of the area and it was never touched since. Like the rancid fragrance that I was smelling now. ''Coffee...'' I cringed. The smell was really, really bad. ''It wasn''t me,'' she insisted, pinching her nose. ''You sure? I don''t know what kind of berries you ate; you don''t have to be ashamed. I just want us to be honest.'' ''That''s fantastic, because honesty is one of my best traits. I honestly think that mimics would love the taste of slimes. And those workers look mighty hungry.'' ''Ermm...'' ''Anyway, that stink is getting stronger. Whatever''s causing it is probably getting closer. Let''s retreat for now and figure out how to get out of this dump.'' ''Aight.'' We backtracked about a hundred meters and slipped into one of the many cracks in the wall. Inside was a closet-sized enclosure that may have once held a cluster of whatever the mimics were mining. I offered the plan I had been working on. ''So I was thinking. Chaos mana can distort their mana and sensory perceptions, right? What about creating a Chaos Field around ourselves, using the commotion go sneak into one of those collection bins, and hiding our presence again?'' ''Too many things could go wrong,'' Coffee replied. ''Your Chaos Field is too weak, and my curse won''t allow me to cast an Advanced Class version of the spell. It''ll be too easy to catch us with their own counter field. But maybe if we created a large enough distraction...'' She seemed to be deep in thought, and fell silent. Meanwhile, I simulated escape scenarios in my head. I was sure that if we were noticed, it would be over in an instant. If our previous encounter with a mimic was anything to go by, we were, by far, outmatched in terms of skill and power. I couldn''t help but think that my line of thinking was wrong, though. Not all mimics would be the same, just like how not all slimes were the same. That said, even if I had the capacity to fight evenly with them, what would give me the right to hurt them? I distinctly remembered reading that the mimics had their own kingdom, meaning that they were sentient beings with a social structure, and perhaps even their own families. Since we were transported to a mimic-run mine, wouldn''t we be the intruders, despite being forced into this situation? In that case, maybe sneaking out wasn''t the answer. Could we reveal ourselves and talk our way out? ... I remembered the treatment my parents gave Coffee just for being a vampire, and rejected this option. It might be possible in a civilized and ideal world, but in this one, the consequences of being naive and overly trusting could be fatal. This was something that even existed in my old world. Even developed nations such as Canada or the United States had their fair share of racism and prejudice, and one''s color or sex could be the line between getting shot or being offered help. Moreover, the situation was much too coincidental. Two young children, suddenly appearing in a mine where only mimics resided. One being a slime and one a vampire: two races that were in conflict. Even I wouldn''t believe this story, if I was in their position. Coffee and I were definitely between a rock and a hard place. Our objective right now was to escape this place and figure out where we were. Every conceivable plan seemed to have holes riddled in it, and we couldn''t even talk our way out if it failed. That brought on the worry that conversation itself would be difficult because of language, but then I remembered that I had understood the mimic perfectly back at the village. ''Coffee, do mimics and slimes speak the same language?'' I asked. ''Mhm. Apparently, you both evolved from a common ancestor that originally created it. It makes sense to me; you''re both shapeshifting species,'' she answered without evening looking at me. I could feel the gears in her head whirring like crazy, and decided to let her think without any more of my distractions.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. The information she gave me was interesting, and it consolidated my previous conclusions about mimics being a sentient race. Maybe it was foolish to think about it in our current situation, but I wasn''t a monster who would take lives without a single thought. Even if it was in self-defence, the thought of killing someone mortified me. Ratatatarataratatatata. My train of thought was interrupted by the sound of several rolling mimics, who had most likely entered our tunnel. ''What''s going on? I thought this tunnel was abandoned,'' I whispered. ''I don''t know. Keep hiding your presence and stay absolutely quiet. They don''t have anything to track our taste, so we should be undetectable,'' Coffee instructed. ''Okay,'' I said, but my body was tensed up and ready to run at a moment''s notice. If worse came to worst, I could fire an air bullet towards them and run down the tunnel to distract them while Coffee made her escape. She was only here because I was, after all, and she''d have a better chance to make it out alive. The rolling noise had stopped, but footsteps and some sort of light source were now approaching us. I tightened my pseudopods. "...how are your kids? Haven''t seen them in forever," a young male''s voice could be heard from nearby. "Neither have I,¡± replied another voice, probably from an older male. ¡°But tha¡¯s the norm these days. Am I right, Claire?¡± ¡°¡­That¡¯s no excuse. I want to see my daughter, Frank. Honestly, what¡¯s our blasted government doing?¡± A female spoke up this time. ¡°Are we supposed to choose between feeding our families and being able to see them?¡± ¡°I know how ya feel,¡± Frank said. ¡°One of the other workers snuck in a newspaper the other day. He showed me an article and it got me thinking, ya know? They says it¡¯s going to get better, and, I¡¯m not sayin¡¯ I¡¯m the best at math or whatnot, but¡­ the numbers jus¡¯ don¡¯t add up.¡± ¡°What numbers are you going on about?¡± The young man asked. ¡°Yenno, those numbers. Food production and mouths to feed and shi¡¯ like that.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure I follow.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve read that article, and Frank¡¯s right,¡± affirmed Claire. ¡°They want us to believe that with careful ration distribution and better production management, the problem¡¯s going to disappear in the next two years. I don¡¯t buy any of this bullshit.¡± ¡°Yah, some people are talkin¡¯ that the government is secretly planning some sort of war, but tha¡¯ plan backfired and they¡¯re in some serious shi¡¯ right now,¡± Frank added. ¡°Fucking hell,¡± the young man sighed. ¡°I¡¯m working twenty hours a day so that I can earn enough ration cards for myself and my ma¡¯. And they¡¯re planning a bloody war?! Who¡¯s going to pay for that? We are! Our wages are going to be cut again, and¡ª¡± ¡°Shhhhh. Tony, are you out of your mind?¡± Claire shot at him. ¡°¡­¡± He didn¡¯t respond. ¡°I get where yer coming from, man. Claire, I don¡¯t think ya need to worry. No one¡¯s aroun¡¯ and we¡¯re on break for the next fifteen,¡± Frank assured her. ¡°Besides, everyone is thinkin¡¯ the same thing.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right, but¡­¡± She began. ¡°No, it was my bad. We don¡¯t want to attract any unwanted attention,¡± Tony said. ¡°I¡¯m just so frustrated.¡± ¡°As are we,¡± Frank said. ¡°The government¡¯s not gonn¡¯ help us. I think tha¡¯s not somethin¡¯ we gotta talk about. It¡¯s clear tha¡¯ we¡¯re all on our own.¡± There was a murmur of agreement from the other two. ¡°So, shall we review our plan to collapse this mine?¡± Frank whispered.
Coffee and I were flabbergasted by what we heard next. In about one hour, these three were going to activate magical explosive devices planted deep within mine and cause the simultaneous destruction of the major tunnels, sealing their coworkers inside while making it appear like an accident. Then, they themselves would exit through a hidden passageway they had excavated for their own escape in a neighbouring tunnel. Over the past week, they had been complaining about wall integrity to their superiors, who had waved it off as superstition. This would allow them to pin the blame on the superiors for their lack of oversight, and be well compensated through employment and accident insurance. Eventually, they left the way they arrived, and we were alone again. Coffee lit a small flame, granting us much appreciated light and warmth. ¡®What are we going to do?¡¯ I asked her. ¡®That was good information. We should confirm that the hidden passage is where they claimed it was, and we can use it to escape during the commotion. We can even use Chaos Field to improve our chances, like you proposed,¡¯ she answered. ¡®I meant¡­ about the bombing. We are going to do something about it, right?¡¯ ¡®Are you fucking serious?¡¯ She looked at me incredulously. ¡®Don¡¯t you want to get back to your parents in one piece?¡¯ ¡®I understand what you¡¯re trying to say, but are you really going to let innocent people die?¡¯ ¡®I can¡¯t believe you. These are mimics. Get that through your thick¡­ slime skull. Did you forget that these monsters tried to kill us, and may have even caused that incident back at your village?¡¯ ¡®Coffee. I need you to listen to me,¡¯ I tried to sound as serious as I could. ¡®Those monsters aren¡¯t the same people who are going to die today, if we don¡¯t help them.¡¯ ¡®No, I need you to listen to me. We¡¯re only specks of mana in the world. You heard them. We¡¯re all on our own. This isn¡¯t the time for heroics, but the time to think of saving your own ass. And mine.¡¯ ¡®Is that the world you want to live in?¡¯ ¡®Do you think that it¡¯s a fucking choice?¡¯ ¡®Yes,¡¯ I looked her directly in the eye. ¡®It is a choice. If you don¡¯t think it is, you¡¯re deluding yourself. If that¡¯s how I thought, I would have left you to die to that mimic. Or I would¡¯ve let you run off on your own instead of chasing after you.¡¯ ¡®You idio¡ª¡¯ ¡®I know there¡¯s a part of you that agrees with me. If you didn¡¯t, you wouldn¡¯t have tried to help me out back then.¡¯ ¡®¡­¡¯ She stared at me blankly. ¡®Am I wrong?¡¯ I shifted my tone to a lighter one. ¡®We can do the right thing.¡¯ ... Coffee spent a minute making a bunch of different faces. First angry, then confused, then frustrated, then settled on resignation. I breathed a sigh of relief. ¡®¡­Big words for someone so useless,¡¯ Coffee muttered. ¡®Do you have a plan?¡¯ ¡®Not yet,¡¯ I admitted. ¡®If you can¡¯t think of anything in the next twenty minutes, we¡¯re sticking with my plan and escaping on our own during the fiasco. Got it?¡¯ She pouted and crossed her arms. ¡®Fine,¡¯ I reluctantly agreed, but started working on a strategy. There were a lot of variables to consider, with our own safety at the top of the priority list. Unfortunately, we had no idea where the bombs were, and no evidence other than our testimony to prove that the bombs were a real threat. Discussing the results of our eavesdropping with the other mimics seemed like a sure-fire way to get ourselves captured, or worse, without saving anyone. ¡®¡­bad,¡¯ Coffee said something inaudible. ¡®Sorry, did you say something?¡¯ I asked, a little annoyed that she¡¯d distract me after giving me an ultimatum. ¡®Nope, keep trying, you idealist,¡¯ she replied, looking away. I was ticked off, but refocused on the task at hand. There had to be a way to convince the other mimics that they were in danger, while ensuring our safe escape. There just had to be¡­ From the corner of my eye, I could sense Coffee doing something with her finger, but I closed my eyes and focused. It was hard enough thinking without her bothering me. Skritch skritch. *Twitch*. What the hell was she doing? Skritch skritch skritch. I opened my bloodshot eyes to complain. ¡®What are you do¡ª¡¯ I began, but paused. She had scratched something into the wall. It looked like¡­ I turned to her, eyes wide and confused. ¡®Why?¡¯ ¡®I don¡¯t particularly hate people like you,¡¯ she replied simply, and leaned against the wall behind her. I studied the image she drew a little longer. A smile grew on my face as the plan consolidated in my mind. ''This will work.'' Chapter 15 - The Morana Incident (Part 3) What Coffeehad scratched on the wall wasan elongated triangle, and a flame enclosed in what appeared to be a static-field. At first, I was confused as to how this would accomplish anything, but then it got me thinking. If I was right, that triangle was the stalagmite, and the static was¡­ ¡®Chaos mana does something to amplify and manipulate one¡¯s perception of both the flame¡¯s shape and light, right?¡¯ ¡®Sort of, but you¡¯ve got the gist of it. It¡¯s the plan I was working on before those mimics came in here. Normally, Chaos mana will be countered right away, but it¡¯s difficult to figure out where it¡¯s coming from if it¡¯s altering one¡¯s perception of both the flame¡¯s mana and the shadow that the stalagmites cast. Unless they can cast a counter-field wide enough to encompass the entire area, the mimics shouldn¡¯t be able to deal with it, and be forced to evacuate. We¡¯ll use that opportunity to escape through the hidden passageway.¡¯ ¡®You¡¯re a genius,¡¯ I complimented in awe. ¡®Don¡¯t be stupid. This still has a lower probability of working than our original plan, and it alerts them of an enemy presence,¡¯ she said. ¡®But if we can hide out in the hidden exit for long enough, the bombs that those three set should go off after everyone has evacuated, and that alone should cause enough commotion for us to escape safely.¡¯ ¡®We¡¯re going to have to cast our two spells simultaneously and quickly,¡¯ I assumed. ¡®That¡¯s going to be difficult. Maybe we should practice it a bit now, while we still have time.¡¯ ¡®Can¡¯t risk it; they might be able todetect us if we do anything to amplify the signature. You¡¯ve had ample practice with Chaos magic by this point, haven¡¯t you? If you don¡¯t do it correctly on the first try, we might die,¡¯ she teased. ¡®You must be a blast atparties,¡¯ I winced. ¡®How would I know? I have amnesia. Anyway, there''s another part of the plan that''ll give us at least a minute more during thecasting period.¡¯ ¡®What''s that?'' ''Uh... you''re not going to like it.'' ''C''mon, Coffee. Stop holding me in suspense.'' ''We''re going to create a second diversion that will force them to consider that there''s something terrifying down here. Essentially, a psychological attack that will prime them for the next one.'' ''You''re right, I don''t like where this is headed.'' ¡®Before I tell you the deets, I''d like to remind you how dumb your idealistic goals are,¡¯ she said. ¡®It¡¯s probably going to get us killed, but I''m compromising here. Arguing with you is also going to get us killed, so you have to trust me this time and compromise with me too.¡¯ ¡®¡­Go on.¡¯ ''We''re going to kill a mimicand send its mutilated corpseflying through the central mining area.'' Wait. What? I must have misheard her. Yeah, that must be it.¡®Sorry, it sounded like you were proposing that we should kill aninnocentperson?¡¯ ¡®No, that¡¯s not it.¡¯ Phew. ¡®Wewillkill one of them. There''s no choice in the matter, because I''ve already begun recruiting,¡¯ she said with a note of finality. ¡®The hell¡ªI mean, would you please care to explain?¡¯ I asked through gritted teeth. Coffee''s lips formed a thin, horizontal line. ¡®You¡¯ll see.¡¯ Before I could say anything, I sensed a mana presence approaching us from the tunnel entrance. ¡®Oh shit, kill the flame!¡¯ I exclaimed. ¡®What are you doing? Hurry up and get rid of it! Have you gone crazy?!¡¯ ¡®Not yet,¡¯ she said, getting to her feet. ¡®What are you¡­¡¯ I was absolutely bewildered. The sound of footsteps drew closer. Panicking, I prepared myself to attack the intruder. ¡®Leave it to me,¡¯ she dismissed. Whoever had noticed us was very close-by. Perhaps a meter away at most. As soon as the intruder stepped into range of the crack, Coffee snaked outside in an instant and did something with her mana that I couldn¡¯t understand. Her casting time was much too quick for me, and she used a form of mana that I had never seen before. She then masked her mana signature and dragged the intruder into our enclosure. It was a young mimic who had taken on a humanoid form. Oh my god. She was serious. ¡®You¡¯re fucking insane,¡¯ I said. ¡®Who is he?¡¯ ¡®How should I know? All I did was draw him towards us. Who he is, is irrelevant,¡¯ Coffee said coldly. As much as I was confused, I was angry. This was not the plan I agreed to. Also,how did she draw him towards us anyway? Sudden realization hit me. Maybe scratching the wall wasn¡¯t just to sketch out a plan, after all? I noticed that Coffee was sticking her fingers in her mouth, with a little bit of blood dribbling out from the corner of her lips. The mimic was strangely captivated by this sight. On his face was obvious hunger. Ravenous hunger. Most likely, she had enticed himwith her own blood, probably abusing the knowledge that there was a food shortage in the mimic kingdom. He had smelt it, and was driven here by it. And now he was limp and unmoving, although his eyes were open and conscious. ¡®What did you do to him?¡¯ I demanded. ¡®All I did was inject him with a neurotoxin,¡¯ she explained. ¡®He¡¯ll be paralyzed for the next tenminutes. During that time, you¡¯re going to kill him.¡¯ ¡®What?!¡¯ I was shaking with rage now. ¡®You¡¯re crazy. I¡¯m not going to kill him. And you led him here for such a stupid reason?¡¯ ¡®Shut up. I told you that you''re going to have to compromise with me. In exchange for helping everyone else escape, one person is going tohave to die. That''s fair, isn''t it?'' ''There''s gotta be a better way.''You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. ''Life doesn¡¯t bend over backwardsfor you, especially when you aren¡¯t strong enough to put your money where your mouth is. What¡¯s more stupid is that you can¡¯t see that,¡¯ she spat. ¡®What are you going to do, Bell? This mimic''s already here, and he knows about us now.¡¯ I felt like punching her.I trusted her until now. I had thought that if I explained myself properly with good intentions, then everything would be fine. We could work together to make a better plan. So why?! FUCK. No, calm down. Remember what happened the last time you responded emotionally? There is nothing good that comes out of doing that. Stay. Calm. And. Think. Coffee was doing this to save our asses. She was right that arguing was only going to waste our precious time. I took a deep breath and beganrunning through scenarios. If we waited until he was unparalyzedand let him go, then he would likely tell the others and jeopardize our safety. Explaining ourselves to him wouldn¡¯t work; we had attacked him outright, and there was no way that he would trust us, or that we could trust him to trust us. If we left him here, he would die because of the explosion. Could we take him with us? Could we alter his memory? I didn¡¯t know how to do it, but did Coffee know? She wouldn¡¯t help regardless, would she? She probably wouldn¡¯t¡ª ¡®Tick tock, Bell,¡¯ Coffee interrupted. ¡®Here¡¯s a little fact to help you through this. You think this mimic came because he was hungry for my blood, don¡¯t you. Because of their Kingdom¡¯s food problem? You¡¯re WRONG. Mimics are carnivorous gluttons by nature. Do you know why they are in a food shortage?¡¯ ¡®...Why?¡¯ ¡®It¡¯s because they¡¯ve committed countless genocides of different species within the dungeon while building and growing their Kingdom. As a whole. That¡¯s right. Not just one or two mimics. All of them. And now they¡¯ve run out of species to wipe out.¡¯ ¡®...¡¯ ¡®Here¡¯s another fun fact: slimes are one of their favorite delicacies, and I hear that the current Royal Slimes are only four of over thirty that ventured into the dungeon initially. Your parents think vampires are bad? The mimics werethe number one reason for your species¡¯ near-extinction.¡¯ ¡­Was that true? But even so, that wasn¡¯t their choice to be carnivores or hungry all the time. They were just born that way. This mimic in front of me was alive. He probably had parents of his own, maybe even a spouse and kids. Others who depended on him. ¡®And you¡¯ve realized it by now, right? If you don¡¯t kill him, he¡¯s going to kill us. Either directly or indirectly,¡¯ Coffee added. ¡­ ¡®¡­If we do this, we''re no different than monsters¡­¡¯ ¡®No, they''re the monsters. We are survivors.¡¯ ¡®That¡¯s bullshit, and you know it. That argument can go both ways.¡¯ ¡®Life is unfair.¡¯ ¡®That¡¯s not a¡ª¡¯ ¡®You¡¯ve experienced it firsthand, haven¡¯t you?¡¯ Coffee eyed me strangely, as if she saw right through me. ¡®What are you talking about?¡¯ ¡®A mimic and a vampire suddenly appear in your village, you get sent teleported by some mysterious force, and we end up in a bloody mimic cesspool. And now, you want to help them? You¡¯re fucking incredible. You have nothing. You can¡¯t even save your own ass without me, and you have the gall to try and convince me that what you think is right?¡¯ ¡®¡­¡¯ ¡®Your morality isn¡¯t a compass. It¡¯s a poison,¡¯ She paused, as if thinking about something. ¡®Something really terrible must¡¯ve happened to you in the past to convince you that being a ¡®good person¡¯ is more important than your own survival. But that logic¡¯s flawed. You have to flush that poison out of your system.¡¯ ¡®...¡¯ ¡®It¡¯s going to get you and everyone you¡¯ve ever cared about killed. Is that what you want? Now, are you going to kill this mimic, or are you going to let him do us in?¡¯ ''Are you done?''I said in a venomous undertone. I was tired of people treating me like I was useless, doing things of their own accord or assuming that their views were the only valid ones. ''Sorry?''She looked equally as angry now. ''If we hadn''t spent this time bickering like children, and you hadn''t been so blind to other alternatives than your own arrogant plan, we might have come up with somethingthat could save everyone.'' ''Oho, pinning it on me instead of your uselessness now? Like you said, we don''t have a lot of ti--'' ''Shut up. You had your chance to talk, and now it''s my turn. I have a better plan than yours, because your plan fails if the mimics don''t evacuate. All that your illusion trick mightdo is to cause apprehension, and they might retaliate instead. That''s bad for them. That''s bad for us.'' ''What do you propose, then, idealist princess?'' ''First, this poor bastard is going to wake up at any moment.Inject more of your neurotoxin into him,''I said, shifting to a calm, serious tone.''We''re going to buy asmuch time as we can before that bombgoes off.'' ''And then?'' ''I''m going to convince them to evacuate.'' ''PFFT.That''s your plan? You''re even a bigger idiot than--'' ''...as a mimic,'' I continued. ''...''Coffee paused mid-sentence.''What?'' I didn''t answer, and began to carefully but rapidly study the mimics in my memories. In my past life, my parents didn''t want me to go to law school just because it was a good career. Any fool knew that getting into law required more than parental support or even personal dedication. It necessitated talent, and an uncanny ability to memorize, regurgitate, and analyze. Luckily, I was blessed with these three skills from birth in the form of photogenic memory. The bottomunits wereapproximately 0.67 x 0.67 x 1 meter. The top units werearched, with a rise of about 20-30 centimeters. I ignored the complicated metal bands along the edges for now; not all of the mimics had them anyway. Theyhad 2-8 eyes, and 1-4 tongues which roughly measured around half a meter in length and 10 centimeters wide. There were 8-14rows of 9-10 jagged teeth inside the mimic''s mouth. I noted the length and diameter of his arms and legs. I rendered a three dimensional model of the average mimic in my head, a mental ability that I had developed back when I had a temporary job as an industrial designer in highschool. An aspiring musician has to make money when intruments costs hundreds to thousands of dollars, right? I had the talentanyhow, and it was unrealistic to think that my music would fund itself right off the bat. Anyway, I digress. Replayingthe scene back at the village during the mimic''s transformation, I studied his mana conversion step. Into which of the ten types of mana it was converted towas anybody''s guess. Luckily, I didn''t need to know the specifics. I just needed to mimic him. I began to convert my mana. The mana used for shapeshifting was strangely enough, one dimensional. It was hard to describe. Each one was a line that didn''t exist in the other two planes. It could be shortened, elongated, or bent into a continuous curveaccording to my will. It could also be reoriented in space to enter another plane. Like this, I recreated my mental 3D model in physical space. Once individual pieces were outlined, it began to transform a part of my body, and a signficant percentage of my mana was used up. Plank by plank, I assembled my new body, and it took fifteen minutes with my full concentration. The most difficult part was creating the arms and legs, but it was simple enough if I visualized each limb as a manifestation of its individual component: the bone, the muscle, the skin, and the external hair. Actually, that reminds me, Coffee said that a type of mana was Manifestation, didn''t she? Regardless, I was almost done. The only part remaining were the eyes. I had tried to do this before I worked on my limbs but failed. Now, however, I had a pretty good idea of how to generate them. First create the lens, followed by the ciliary muscles, the cornea, the iris, the retina, the optic fibre connecting to my core, and finally contain everything within the outer sclera. Aaaannnnnd... Done! I reopened my foureyes to see a horrified and disgusted Coffee, and the same limp mimic laid in front of me. His core was still pulsating, which meant that Coffee had indeed continued to paralyze him. I opened my lid and let my new tongues hang loosely. "Did I miss anything?" I asked aloud. I flexed my hinges and opened and closed my mouth to test out the feel. It had been a while since I actually spoke. For some reason, I adopted a high pitched voice. ''F-fucking gross...'' Coffee stuttered. ''W-wait, that''s an A-advanced Class Manifestation Spell. How?!'' "Photogenic memory. Anyways, that''s not important. What is, is to convince everyone to get the hell out. I''ll drop some rumors about Frank, Tony, and Claire planning to blow up the area, and things should escalate on their own, right?No one''s going to believe that a non-mimic is down here in the mines, so I should be relatively safe. Also, I can also store you and our pal here inside my body, soyou can sit back and analyze the situation while giving me advice. We''ll both be using Absorption, so the only mana core that''ll be detectable is his," I motioned to the paralyzed mimic. ''...Are you really Bell?''She asked, mouth agape. "What is that supposed to mean?" I retorted, a little annoyed. "More importantly, do you agree with my plan? Weprobably don''t have much time." ''It''s better than our original strategy. We''re prioritizingour own asses if things go south though.'' "Obviously, stupid.I wasn''t arguing that we have to become martyrs. We all have the choicetoprioritize ourselves, but that doesn''t mean that we have to abandon our morals without a second thought." ''...'' "C''mon Coffee, let''s move." Chapter 16 - The Morana Incident (Part 4) Storing Coffee and the freshly paralyzed humanoid mimic in my body, I stepped out the middle of the mining operation. I glanced around, quickly assessing that no one found me strange immediately. Balancing my body with two extra people inside proved to be a challenge, but my stagger helped me blend in better with the other exhausted workers. I looked around for someone to talk to. ¡°Oi, Jerr-boi, I¡¯ve been lookin¡¯ everywhere for you! When¡¯d you shift back to box form? I thought you were saving it for your date later with that hottie from uptown.¡± A hipster male voice called out from my left. A burly mimic covered in grime and scratches was waving his arm while strolling towards me. I had the feeling that he was smiling, although it was impossible to confirm this just by studying his physical expression. ¡®An acquaintance of our hostage, probably,¡¯ Coffee commented. ¡®Yeah. Like I thought, his mana core will help us identify as him even if we don¡¯t look the same.¡¯ As the mimic got closer, his eyes seemed to affix themselves more closely on the various parts of my body. ¡°Sup with the shitty form, dude? You okay?¡± He asked. Oh, crap. My mind raced as I tried to come up with an excuse. ¡°Shhh, I didn¡¯t have time for a full transformation,¡± I whispered furiously, pretending to give him a panicked look. ¡°We need to get the fuck outta here.¡± ¡°Dawg, what happened?¡± The mimic looked worried now. ¡°You know Frank, Tony, and Claire?¡± ¡°Yeaaaaaah, aren¡¯t those the shitheads you mentioned yesterday? The ones who keep taking breaks to go take a piss or whatev the hell they¡¯re actually doing?¡± ¡®This might be easier than I thought,¡¯ Coffee said. ¡®Stop that. Thoughts like those are death flags,¡¯ I shot back. ¡®Death flag?¡¯ ¡®Like, a jinx.¡¯ ¡°I... I overheard them talk about setting explosives around here... This place is gonna blow any moment!¡± I confided with a fearful expression. ¡­ He stared at me for a good ten seconds. ¡°Hahaha good one, Jerry. I almost believed you for a sec!¡± He laughed and slapped me on the back. I say laugh, but it was more like he was wagging his three tongues while arching himself backwards. A guttural sound resounded from deep within his chesty body. ¡®Don¡¯t comment. Just give him a stern look,¡¯ Coffee instructed. I did, and the mimic¡¯s laugh slowly trailed off and was replaced by silence. ¡°You¡¯re serious,¡± he said. ¡°Explosion. Here? I mean, those three are assholes, but explosions?" "They mentioned something about accident insurance," I explained. Realization dawned on his face. "For the love of all boxes, what do we do?!¡± ¡°Shh! We have to evacuate everyone immediately, but don¡¯t talk mention those three. Just tell them that we¡¯re in danger. I¡¯m only telling you because I trust you, man. We have less than half an hour. Gather everyone you can and get out of here.¡± ¡°What about you, Jerry? I¡¯m not going anywhere without you, buddy.¡± ¡®Another heroic type, huh,¡¯ Coffee said. I could pretty much see her rolling her eyes. ¡®Jerry just has a good friend.¡¯ ¡°I¡¯ll get out too. Round up everyone and leave first. I¡¯ll stay behind to help stragglers, and meet you at the top,¡± I lied, planning to escape via a different route. ¡°Aight.¡± He made a fist with his hand, and I bumped it, upon which he folded his legs into wheels and zoomed off towards a large crowd of mimics, who appeared to be taking a break. Seconds after he joined them, they began discussing frantically among themselves, and looked a little panicked. I affirmed that our role was over. Making sure that he wasn¡¯t paying attention to me, I moved towards the hidden passageway, which had been mentioned to be in the tunnel eight entrances to the right of the one we were in. ¡®What the hell was that?¡¯ Coffee asked. ¡®What was what?¡¯ ¡®You fisted him.¡¯ ¡®I wha¡ªoh, that was a fist bump. It¡¯s what men do sometimes to look, uh¡­ cool,¡¯ I commented, making my way towards the hidden passageway that we heard about. They said that it was in the tunnel eight entrances to our right. ¡®So it¡¯s some kind of secret male code? How do you know about it?¡¯ ¡®Cause I¡¯m a male, duh,¡¯ I replied on reflex. ¡­ Oh, that¡¯s right. Fuck me. There I go, opening a can of worms again. ¡®WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!¡¯ Coffee screamed and kicked me from inside. Hard. ¡®OW! No, stop. Stop. STOP! That hurts!¡¯ ¡®You think you¡¯re going to get off easy just like that? I was b-barely wearing¡­ Is that why y-you saved m-me? You pedophile! Hentai! Let me out! Sexual harassment!¡¯ ¡®We can talk aboutthis later! Don¡¯t you remember the situation we¡¯re in? Ow! C¡¯mon, help me look for that exit. They said that it was somewhere here,¡¯ I said, groaning in pain but lifting my lid a crack so that Coffee could peek through. We were now in a narrow tunnel like the one we were teleported to initially. This one was also demarcated with a ''X''-marked sign out front. ¡®Fine. You¡¯re gonna pay later¡­¡¯ she grumbled. ¡®Uhmmm. How¡¯s Jerry doing?¡¯ I changed the subject as we started scouring the walls for a hidden passage. ¡®He¡¯ll be out for a while since I just gave him another administration. I had to change the type of toxin though, because he was synthesizing a counter-toxin for the one I was using before. Can you go back a step or two? I think I saw something poking out,¡¯ Coffee said, igniting a small flame to provide better lighting. We had ventured far enough from the main area to avoid detection. ¡®Do you think he¡¯s going to get crap later for snitching on those three? Oh yeah, this looks weird. It¡¯s like three black penises sticking out of the wall in an upside down triangle,¡¯ I grabbed the one on the right and tried to move it. ¡®Probably, but he knows about us anyway, so he¡¯ll be fine. I know you¡¯re just checking those out, but could you do it any less¡­ strokingly? I knew it; you are a pervert.¡¯Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. ¡®Your mind¡¯s in one hell of a gutter. Have you had your eyes checked recently? Also, is that what you think of all men you come across?¡¯ ¡®Only the ones who pretend to be a girl to an innocent maiden like me,¡¯ Coffee snapped. That statement pierced through my core and made memiss a step. ¡®I was going to correct you at some point. I just didn¡¯t get the chance to¡ª¡¯ ¡®Riiight. That¡¯s what they all say.¡¯ ¡®Who the hell is this ¡®they¡¯?¡¯ I grunted, trying to pull on the lowest protrusion. Click. Gurrrrrrrrrrg. The stone wall behind us shifted aside, revealing a crudely made staircase. ¡®Oh, there was that method too,¡¯ Coffee slapped her forehead. ¡®Hmm?¡¯ ¡®We could¡¯ve dug our way upwards.¡¯ ¡®How?¡¯ ¡®Steal a pickaxe and dig our way up, obviously. Magic, you dolt. Haven¡¯t you heard of Earth magic? It uses a specific combination of Collision and Flux mana.¡¯ ¡®Uh¡­ not really. But if Earth magic exists, then why are they mining using physical force?¡¯ ¡®Not everyone can use spells advanced enough to excavate an entire floor¡¯s length of Strecicelium rock. Wouldn¡¯t have been a problem for the two of us, though. I can compensate for my lack of mana with control, and¡­ somehow, you¡¯re able to learn things that usually take weeks for even talented magicians; not to mention your matured core too.¡¯ She sounded bitter. ¡®We¡¯re going to have a long talk afterwards and you¡¯re going to tell me exactly what kind of training you did.¡¯ ¡®Okay, okay. Let¡¯s head back to check on the others,¡¯ I said, closing the hidden passageway by pushing the penis-lever back in. ¡®We have less than 15 minutes. Make it quick, and then let¡¯s get the hell out of here,¡¯ Coffee said, extinguishing her flame. ¡®Okay.¡¯
When we were close to the tunnel exit, we confirmed that the workers were being transported to safety using the central elevator. Jerry''s friend seemed to be leading the process efficiently by dividing the remaining mimics into groups of five. ''Something''s wrong,'' Coffee said. ''What do you mean? Everyone''s going to be okay, and we can dump ol'' Jerr-boi off wherever once we are out of here.'' ''Look at those three who are staring at the leader guy.'' ''Where?'' ''They''re in the group closest to us.'' Now that Coffee mentioned it, there were three mimics acting strangely. It was hard to describe what they looked like, being so far from them. One was tall and lankey, another was short and obese, and the last was pretty average, save for the green tattoo of some animal on her back. Unlike the others who were watching the elevator go up and down, they were entirely focused on Jerry''s friend. He, on the other hand, was avoiding looking at them to the point that it was obvious that he was doing it on purpose. ''Do you think...?'' ''Those are most likely Frank, Tony, and Angela,'' Coffee confirmed ''Ah shit... and they''re in the last group to leave.If they think that it was him who ruined their plans, he''s going to be in trouble once he''s alone with them.'' ''He wouldn''t be stupid enough to wait until the last group...'' ''Not unless he was waiting for his friend,'' I said, smacking myself in the face. ''Hmm, remind you of how someone felt when you were being super idealistic earlier?'' ''Hey, that was different.'' ''Anyway, let''s just go. We really can''t do anything this time,''Coffee poked me from inside. I hated to admit it, but she was right. Actually, I was thinking the same thing. We had precious littletime left, I had my hands full with transportation, and it wasn''t for certain that Jerry''s friend was in danger. It was enough to know that evacuation was underway. We turned around and returned to the three penis-levers, opening the hidden passageway and climbing up the stairs. ''That was surprisingly rational of you,''Coffee murmured from inside. ''You know what''s irrational? The fact that I''m the only one doing the heavy-lifting here,''I said, spitting Coffee out. Before I could spit the paralyzed mimic out, she raised both arms in a defensive stance. ''I''m a powerless little girl. What kind of a man are you to try and make me carrying a disgusting mimic up a flight of stairs?'' ''Oh please, the jig is already up that you''re older than I am.''I readied myself to spit the mimic right at her. ''Wait, wait! I''ll forgive you for tricking me into thinking you were a girl for the past 24 hours. I swear the event will be forgotten and never mentioned again.'' ''...Sigh... Fine,''I begrudgingly kept my mouth shut.''And as for what you were saying, it''s like I said. I''m not some sort of martyr. I just want to do what''s right if I can, you know? In the future, I''d appreciate it if you consulted me about your plans first.'' ''Nyeh~''Coffee stuck her tongue out at me, crossed her arms and faced away. I resisted the temptation to spit the paralyzed mimic at her (who was currently thinking: ''Am I some kind of ball to you monsters?!''). We continued to climb the stairs one step at a time. It went quite the ways up, but that was unsurprising given how high the elevator rose. Eventually, we finally reached the end, where there was an upright formation of the penis triangle. On Coffee''s snickering bequest, I pulled the top protrusion. Click. Gurrrrrrrrrrg. Light flooded in like we were being reborn into the world. It took a while for our eyes to adjust, but when they did, my chesty mouth hung open a full 180 degrees. We were standing at the edge of a flat mountain range looking down on a rocky landscape littered with countless sparkling spires of bright green-blue stalagmites. The entire ceiling was an aurora borealis, an ever-flowing river of almost mystical energies. Far beyond, we saw a great city built atop topplateau of a small mountain. But unlike the cities seen in fantasy movies or animes, the entire city architecture, at least from where we were standing, appeared to be giant boxes. At the centre of the city was a tall skyscraper, taller than the next tallest building by about three times, that was made of complete gold. At its top was a giant eye, which radiated a bright yellowy-orange glow on the surrounding area. Thankfully, it was unmoving and seemed to bea mere sculpture, unlike another eye that I knew of from my world''s popular literature. BOOM! The mountain we were on shook violently, and both of us stumbled at the same time. The explosives must have gone off. I closed my mouth and retracted my legs, causing my chesty body to lie flat. Thud. ''Kyaaa!''Coffee screamed, holdingonto my arm tightly. There was nothing for me to grab onto. Nothing to stop us from falling if the ground beneath us crumbled. The tremors continued for several seconds, and then stopped abruptly. However, our relief was short-lived. To our horror, the giant eye on the city skyscraper swiveled and looked directly at us. A cold sweat ran down my spine. ''Coffee, what is that?''I asked in a voice much too tranquilfor the situation. ''How the fuck are you staying calm?! I don''t know! I don''t fucking know! Is it looking at us?!''Coffee screamed telepathically. ''Ugh, my head... if I''m correct, you two are referring to the Great Eye?''An unmistakeably female voice said from inside me. Coffee reflexively tore a piece of flesh from her finger and created a ruby-red blade using her blood. My mindwent into a flurry, as did my arms and tongues on instinct. What a weird body. ''Uhnn~ Don''t stop~ WAIT NO.Stop it! I mean don''t stop... Uhn~''the voice moaned. Coffee gave me a look of revulsion, but motioned me to spit the mimic out. I gladly did so, and the no-longer-paralyzed mimic flew out, covered in saliva and panting with a sensual expression. ''Awww, it was just getting to the good part...'' she complained. Coffee put her blade under the mimic''s chin with a darklook on her face.''Wait, don''t paralyze me again! I''m not your enemy!'' ''Who are you?''Coffee demanded. ''I thought your name was Jerry?''I asked. I turned to Coffee and whispered,''Is Jerry a girl''s name?!'' ''Ahem,''the mimic lightly coughed into her fist.''Jerry is the aliasI used to infiltrate the Joviacht Mining Corp. to investigate possible terrorist activities. Please let me reintroduce myself. ''My name is Elizabeth von Morningwood, junior officer of the Mimic Social Guardians, or the MSG. You can call me Liz.'' ''Coffee, use your neurotoxin. She''s part of the mimic popo,''I said. ''Gladly,'' Coffee smiled. ''Let me finish! I''m interested in you two, and I want to help you out,''she begged. ''Why?'' Coffee asked suspiciously. ''I''ve been watching you both for the past hour, and I feel like you will be amazing material for the novel I''m writing. Neither of you seem that dangerous. As an MSG officer, I should take you in for interrogation, but I hate my job anyways,''she said nonchalantly. ''Sounds like bullshit. Why should we trust you?''I eyed her critically. ''Because you don''t have a choice. There''s no chance in hellthat you''ll get out of here by yourselves. This is the heart of the Mimic Kingdom,''she replied.''As soon as you make it down this mountain, there will be investigators everywhere looking for me.'' If that was true... Coffee and I looked at each other, both of us conflicted as to what to do. ''Might as well squeeze information out of her to begin with,''I suggested, directing my thoughtsso that only Coffee would hear. ''Good idea. Ask about that freaky eye,''Coffee agreed. ''You have to answer our questions first,''I told Liz, who nodded excitedly. ''First of all, what''s that thing you referred to as the Great Eye?'' ''Oh, that thing? It''s a sexcompass,''she said. ... ''What?'' ''It shines upon the most recent area of intercourse. It must''ve thought that the explosion in the mountain was a giant ejaculation.'' ... Chapter 17 - The Morana Incident (Part 5) ¡°Elizabeth von Morningwood, reporting in.¡± ¡°Liz, I¡¯m glad that you¡¯re okay!¡± A brunette woman with a bob-cut hugged ¡®us¡¯ while carrying a clipboard. She was in a green uniform that resembled a track suit, as were several other individuals at the base of the mountain. She had a colorful, box-shaped badge on her chest, so I assumed that she was one of the superior officers. The mimics we had seen in the mine were also here; some were sitting around resting, and others were talking to the uniformed individuals. By ¡®us¡¯, I was referring to Liz¡¯s hollow body, which contained Coffee¡¯s and mine. Although it wasn¡¯t as¡­ hollow as I thought it would be. It was more like being inside a chamber made of moving muscle. In front of us were rows of jagged teeth that were retracted slightly to allow us to glimpse the world outside. Two tongues stuck to the roof of her mouth, but they didn¡¯t drip saliva. A box-shaped uvula slipped through the tongues and dangled in front of us. Liz¡¯s mana core. Let me explain. Only moments after we had begun questioning Liz, we realized that her missing presence was going to be an issue, particularly considering her occupation and her reason for being at the mine in the first place. This was the plan Liz proposed: she would take us to her home at a nearby town using our previous strategy. Coffee and I would hide inside her body, and she would talk her way out of the situation while we ¡®advised her¡¯. As our safety insurance, Coffee would hold Liz¡¯s mana core in the proximity of her sharp fangs. To fit in Liz¡¯s body, I had to revert to my slime body, but that was trivial. All I had to do was release the Manifestation mana-generated 3D model that was constantly draining my mana bit by bit. According to Coffee, each of those lines that I was manipulating was a Modeling Vector, the basic unit of Manifestation mana. Every time I released a vector, a part of my slime returned. Given the complexity of transformation, I wondered how slimes or mimics maintained a humanoid form for such a long time. Especially when shapeshifting was considered an Advanced Class spell. A question for another time, I suppose. ¡°What exactly happened down there?¡± Liz¡¯s supervisor asked. ¡°As you are aware, there was an explosive attack on the mine. The primary suspects are Frank Overwood, Tony Ponywood, and Claire Duskwood. Their motivations are unconfirmed. Please send a unit to the western plateau, and have them confirm the existence of an unregistered entrance. I believe the perpetrators used it to transport magical explosives into the mine. I was in the middle of investigating when this happened,¡± Liz informed her while moving her body on the right side, and I assumed that she was waving her arm around. I could see Coffee¡¯s face pale as bulging muscle slapped her on the top of her head. ¡°Your co-worker has informed us that you were the one to notify him about the explosions first,¡± Liz¡¯s superior said. ¡°How did you discover their plan?¡± ¡®Little help here guys,¡¯ Liz hissed. ¡®Tell her that you were investigating something in an unused tunnel when the three came and discussed their plans while you were hiding,¡¯ I suggested. ¡°I overheard them talking during my break. In an unused tunnel,¡± she paraphrased. ¡°Sigh¡­ Here¡¯s the deal Liz. Your co-worker says that you disappeared immediately after talking to him, which is giving the others reason to implicate you in this incident. You say that you were investigating something, and I trust you,¡± Liz¡¯s supervisor said, and then switched to a hushed undertone. ¡°But until that¡¯s confirmed, you should stay low. I also say this because those three you mentioned haven¡¯t been found yet. They escaped before we got here.¡± ¡°Affirmative. I¡¯ll head out now,¡± Liz said after a pause. ¡°Take the Boxrail. I take it you know where the nearest station is?¡± ¡°Yes, but isn¡¯t that expensive?¡± Liz gasped. ¡°Only top level company executives and nobles can afford to use the Boxrail.¡± ¡°Charge it to the MSG division office. I¡¯ll come by tomorrow and let you know how the case is progressing.¡± ¡°Thank you Captain,¡± Liz saluted with her right hand, causing a piece of internal muscle to slap Coffee on the head again. I saw a vein throb on Coffee¡¯s forehead.
¡®Phew! I thought I was going to die of suffocation in there,¡¯ I breathed in the fresh air of Liz¡¯s living room. Liz¡¯s house was a clean, minimalistic bungalow with a balcony that overlooked her town atop a rocky hill, along with the other houses in the neighbourhood. It was essentially a series of boxes lined up perfectly. The interior was an intricate assortment of, you guessed it, boxes. The tables were boxes. The chairs were boxes. The magic-powered light cubes were shaped like boxes. Even the knives, forks and spoons were box-like. I was currently on what appeared to be a box-like rug. What kind of obsession mimics had with boxes, it had to stop. That said, most things in non-mimic society were curved, and perhaps mimics viewed our curved objects the same way. Liz¡¯s town was sparsely populated, and seemed almost like a ghost town. Many buildings were deserted and worn over, like they hadn¡¯t been touched in years. The only area that seemed to have any foot traffic was the town central square, where a statue was erected from one of the mana-veiny stalagmites in this dungeon floor. It was of a strange looking mimic with over 100 eyes, and had the buffest thighs that I had ever seen. Easily half a meter in diameter, each. ¡®Who is that?¡¯ I asked Liz, who was currently in the process of transforming back into a human. Strange. I didn¡¯t sense any Manifestation mana.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡®Who? Oh, the Hundred-Eyed Sage? He was said to be the first Mimic to have ever walked in this Dungeon, and was father to the current Three Kings who govern our Kingdom,¡¯ she replied. ¡®This town was named in his name, Baeknun. We¡¯re currently in the Joviacht region, fifty kilometers east of the Great City of Jovia.¡¯ ¡®Jovia?¡¯ Coffee asked. ¡®The city you saw previously. The one with the Great Eye,¡¯ Liz clarified. ¡®Why was that thing built, anyway¡­¡¯ I shivered, clearly remembering that naked golden eyeball rotating in mid-air to stare at us. ¡®It¡¯s our government¡¯s pride and joy. They thought that it would help reduce the rate of births by shaming couples, but it¡¯s just given birth to a new culture of people who enjoy being watched as they have sex,¡¯ Liz explained. ¡®I¡¯m going to take a bath now, so please wait here.¡¯ ¡®Wait,¡¯ Coffee immediately interjected, giving off a cold aura. ¡®I¡¯m coming with you.¡¯ Liz¡¯s eyes sparkled as if she was offered a piece of candy. She started breathing heavily, and her half-transformed face turned beet red. ¡®H-h-huh? O-okay! I¡¯ll do my best! I¡¯m not v-very experienced with girl on girl¡ª¡¯ ¡®W-w-w-what the fuck are you talking about?!¡¯ Coffee stammered. ¡®I just want to make sure that you don¡¯t pull a fast one on us.¡¯ She turned to me vehemently and glared. ¡®Don¡¯t you dare peek, pervert,¡¯ she shot, pushing Liz into the washroom. Liz¡¯s face was ecstatic. ¡®Sigh, didn¡¯t you say that you¡¯d forget about the thing¡­¡¯ I said weakly, unable to finish my sentence before the door banged shut. I plopped myself onto the box-shaped sofa, which was hard and uncomfortable. Nothing like the ones we had at home. I ignored the giggling and arguing that was going on in the other room. Now that I finally had time to myself, I was feeling a little homesick. I missed everyone so much. How were my parents? How was Andrea and Lily? Was the village okay? With none of the answers to these questions, my core began to ache. It was then that I noticed a bunch of newspapers stacked messily on the coffee table next to the sofa. The top-most article read: ****** Experts project the current food crisis to continue, if not worsen, in the coming months. Efforts to genetically modify the existing food supply to increase production and output are undeniably failing... The Kingdom¡¯s One Child Policy, established thirty years ago to counter the projected food problems, has been re-established as the No Child Policy. Contraceptives will now be provided at local convenience stores at a government subsidized rate, as are clinical Qualification-Type Soul Mana tests for pregnancy confirmation and termination... The cost of ration cards is ever increasing, and there has been a crackdown on forged cards and terrorist activities by the MSG. Government officials insist that they are doing everything they can to put a stop to illegal activities, and that all steps are being taken to ensure the health and well-being of our citizens... King Long Wood has proposed the idea of building a wall in the south to protect against illegal immigrants from nearby Mimic settlements¡­. ****** Genetic modification, huh. I guess science was more evolved here in the Mimic Kingdom, but I assumed that was something driven by necessity. I couldn¡¯t imagine that their techniques went much further than artificial selection of fertile and healthy livestock, though. Using molecular techniques to modify the very DNA of live animals was even beyond what scientists in our world were capable of. That is, unless magic could be used to a similar effect. Sifting through the articles briefly, I found some that dealt with expansion projects for the Mimic Kingdom, some that gossiped about who the Three Mimic Kings were courting these days, and others that were advertisements for either storage or prostitution, with the misleading title: Large Chests <3. However, one of the titles stood out among the rest: ****** An incident in the Morana region of the diplomatically neutral Slime Kingdom was affected by an Emperor Class Chaos spell that teleported its inhabitants throughout the dungeon. Six villages and one major town have been reported to be affected by the terrible event, and over 1000 individuals are currently missing. The specifics of the incident are not known at this time, but it is rumored that the Slime Kingdom has determined the primary perpetrators to be their diplomatic enemies, the Vampire Kingdom. The Slime Kingdom requests that all dungeon inhabitants report if any of the missing are found. Experts analyze that the probability of an individual being returned to their homes safely is less than 25%. This takes into consideration activities of hostile Kingdoms, bandit groups that may try and trade prisoners for ransom, and the possibility that they will be teleported into dangerous subdungeons. The economic fallout of this event will be unprecedented, with rich agricultural sectors, skilled workers, and thousands of homes being wiped clean and teleported throughout the dungeon. An anonymous testimony claims that the once lively region is now nothing but an empty crater. On the other side of the dungeon, the Vampire Kingdom has not taken kindly to the Slimes¡¯ allegations of terrorism, denying any involvement in the incident. In agreeance, our Kingdom has reached out to the Vampire Kingdom to express how unjust these unproven claims are, and has called for an official apology from the Slime Kingdom. In the meanwhile, our Kingdom has successfully struck a trade alliance with the Vampire Kingdom, perhaps in light of this new friendship. The current list of missing slimes can be found at your local Town or City Hall. ****** ... Wasn''t this referring to the teleportation event? Shit... That means that our village wasn¡¯t the only one affected. Was it really related to Coffee? Who was responsible for the event? Why did the slimes think that it was the Vampires? Wouldn''t it make more sense that it would be mimic-involved given what had happened...? Moreover, how does all of this political crap happen in one da¡ª ¡­ Unless¡­? ¡®Ahhh, that was a good bath,¡¯ Liz said, opening the door and letting out a cloud of steam. She had finished her transformation, and was now a young blonde woman with a short side ponytail and mesmerizing amber eyes. Standing about 163 cm, she wasmuch taller than Coffee, who was barely 110 cm. Wrapped in just a white towel, I could definitely make out some decent chestshidden underneath; she was almost as beautiful as Andrea, and had radiant, olive skin. But that wasn¡¯t whaton my mind right now. Well, maybe a little, but give me some credit here. ¡®Liz, when was this article written?¡¯ I asked with bated breath, lifting the paper I just read. She walked over to a chilled cabinet and pulled out three bottles, throwing one to me. ¡®Here, these were included in our rations since a little while ago. Being a carnivore, though, juice doesn¡¯t really suit my tastes. Anyway, what were you saying? Oh yeah, that one was printed about half a year ago, why?¡¯ My eyes widened in horror. Half a year¡­ It couldn¡¯t be, right? I mean, Coffee and I just woke up less than 24 hours ago. This must be referring to another incident¡­ That¡¯s when I realized that the bottle I was holding had a familiar feel to it. Like I had seen the design before. I read the label: The image printed on the label looked exactly like me. Chapter 18 - The Morana Incident (Part 6) Then again, who could tell? All baby slimes looked the same in black and white. However, the brand was, without a doubt, Lily and Bell''s Juice Emporium; the juice company our families had planned on opening prior to the incident. ''Did you know?''I asked Coffee.''That it''s been half a year already?'' ''No. We could''ve been teleported a few days or even a few seconds into the future. There was no way of telling,''she said, sitting next to me. She was wrapped in a towel, and smelt like fresh lavender. Her scent was soothing, helping toreduce my frustration at our present circumstance. ''Sigh, I''m not holding it against you or anything. I''m just confused... what do we do now?''I murmured. ''I knew it! You guys areinvolved with The Morana Incident, right? Right?''Liz excitedlyplunkeddown on the box opposite us. ''...What''s it got to do with you?''Coffee crossed her arms. ''I told you I''m an author. I scour the world for the epic and mysterious. Anything and everything is my inspiration! What happened in Morana got my senses tingling, and I can sense that there is something huge and amazing that I can write about. I''ve been trying to locatepeopleaffected by it ever since,''Liz said, almost without breathing.''And I''ve finally found them; you!'' ''Sorry, but we were just teleported here not too long ago. There isn''t much to tell, I''m afraid,''I said. ''That''s fine. I don''t want second hand information anyway. Please, let me go on an adventure with you!''Liz clasped her hands together and looked at us with a twinkle in her eyes. Her passion went past normal desire and bordered on obsession, as suggested by the drool dribbling from the corner of her mouth. ''No way,''Coffee stated.''Why should weacceptsuch a ridiculous request? You''re also acarnivorous species with an almost unsatiable stomach. It''d be impossible for us to bring enough food for you.'' ''Well, in exchange, I can tell you everything that I have regarding the incident. I''ve done a lot of background research. As for food, there''s a way that we can get around that,''Liz said, standing up and walking over to her bookshelf. She opened up a old and tatteredbook, and brought out a small,blackring made of three intertwined helices of different colored metals. As soon as it was removed from the book, it emanated a weak mana signature that reminded me of... the void matrix? ''?! How do you have that?''Coffeeexclaimed.''I thought they were all destroyed afterthe FirstDungeon War.'' Dungeon War? ''My only parent--my father, was Gaben von Morningwood,brigadier general of the Mimic Army, and commander of the 13th special division. Before he died, he gave this to me to safeguard... hisimportant things,''Liz closed her eyes, almost certainly reminescing about a painful past. ''...I''m sorry.'' ... ''Don''t be. Before it causes misunderstandings, I''ll have you know that he was executed by the formerVampire Queen as a war criminal. I don''t have anything againstvampiresthough. He offered up his life willingly in exchange for maintaining neutral relationships with the vampires following the war,''Liz said, fists clutched tightly. ''I understand. Forgive me forprobing,''Coffee said. Liz noddedsolemnly. ''I''m sorry about what happened to your father,''I said.''And also about having to ask this question too, but... what is that ring?'' ''It''s alegendarygrademagical item calledThe Void Ring,''Coffee explained.''It can store up to ten tonnes oftangiblematerials, excluding living things. It was used to smuggle weapons, equipment, and food to troops during the First Dungeon War.'' ''OnlyEmperor-ClassBlacksmiths were able tomanufacture such amazing items, buttheywere all forcibly executed following the war for the sake of maintaining the peace. That''s how valuable these were,''Liz added.''Their possession and usage are pretty much taboo, so I''d appreciate it if it was kept a secret between us three.'' Ah, so that''s what it was. I could see why it was so valuable, too. Wars were won or lost depending on not only the quality and quantify of soldiers, but also on the ability for armies to resupply. A cheat-like tool that could accomplish this with minimal effort to transport was invaluable. It would also be invaluable for our voyage. ''We can store a bunch of food in this, is what you''re saying,''I guessed. ''Yep,''Liz said.''There''s just one catch.'' ''We''re going to have to acquire the food from somewhere?''I sighed. ''If by acquire, you mean stealing, then yes,''Liz smiled weakly. Why can''t we ever get anything done in a way that doesn''t screw other people over?--is what I would''ve said, but decided to save it for a later discussion. ''Why are you promoting this? Aren''t you supposed to be a part of the Kingdom''s police--err MSG?'' ''I''m an author, how many times do I have to tell you? My only goal in life is to write the greatest tale to be ever written!''Liz declared, dabbing like a baws. ''What do you think?''I asked Coffee softly.''I think that ring can be useful for us.'' ''I agree, but I''m not sure...'' she tightened her lips and put a finger to her chin. ''We''d like a chance to think about your proposal,''I said, to which Liz grimaced but agreed resignedly.''Could you tell us more about your research into the incident first?'' ''FIne.Most of the information was mentioned in that article you read; however, there arethree criticalthings missing in their analysis,''Liz said triumphantly, as Coffee grabbed the article beside usandbegan to skim through it. ''And they are...?'' Ilifted an eyebrow. ''Well, first, the motivation behind the incident. The timing is too perfect, don''t you think?''Liz said. ''Timing?'' ''Yes, with everything. The population crisis, the teleportation incident, and the Vampire-Mimic trade alliance. I guess that the article didn''t mention the nature of the trade. You''d assume that it was food or some economic commodity, right? But it wasn''t. It''s the trade of Strecicelium rock for Quanta talismens, Majora horns for Jiro drones, and so forth.''Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ''That''s...''Coffee muttered.''Trading weapon materialsfor completed weapons...'' ''Precisely,''Liz said. ''So your kingdom is allying itself with the Vampire Kingdomto instigate a war against ours?''I surmised.''I''m assuming that the food shortage is the primary reason for this, but why cause a mass teleportation event, if it''s going to waste war potential by renderingthe mimics'' powerful magicians useless for a long time?'' ''That leads us to the second missing piece of the puzzle. The incident was definitelynotdirectly mimic-originated. Our racespecializes in magical augmentations for physical combat, and we have a limited number of long range magicians. If theywere suddenly bedridden due to mana exhaustion, we''d know about it in an instant,''Liz said. ''So in the end, it was the vampires?''Iasked. ''That doesn''t make sense,'' Coffee argued. ''If vampires were working with the mimics to start a war with the slimes, why would they send me and implicate themselves if they were going to deny it afterwards?'' She had a point, and it brought another important fact to consider. Why did the mimic reveal himself at the risk of implicating himself? Wait, are we even sure that he was a mimic? If reverting to one''s normal form required the release of manifestation mana, why did I distinctly remember him using it to shapeshift? Fuck, were we completely fooled from the get-go? ''I also don''t think that it was the vampires,''Liz said.''I don''t know what this sending you business is all about, but the high class magicians of the Vampire Kingdom had a perfect alibi during the incident. They wereoverseeing a magical tournament for vampiric and mimic youths under 25, and there were even mimic spectators who were allowed to watch.'' ''By the process of elimination, that leaves us with the Goblin Kingdom?''I understood what Liz was getting at. The missing piece was an entire kingdom. A hidden force that was moving in the shadows of politics. ''Bingo! Give the slime a Yaksha berry,''Liz grinned.''Our Kingdom''s rulers met up with the leaders of the Goblin Kingdom last year at the neutral city of New Fork to discuss future trade deals. I have a funny feeling that there was more to that conversation than meets the eye. There were rumors that the Slime Kingdom got ahold of enough magical items to disrupt the power balance in the dungeon, and I don''t think the other Kingdoms liked that very much.'' ''Well, goblin involvement would explain why the mimic who brought you to the Slime Kingdom had to use an Advanced Manifestation Spell to transform into a mimic,''I told Coffee.''Because he wasn''t a bloody mimic in the first place.'' ''Now that you mention it...''Coffee''s eyes widened with realization. ''It would explain why his mana core wasn''t a box like the mimics we''ve seen so far,''I added, remembering that pulsating black spider-egg-looking core.''Wait... does this mean that the entire fucking dungeon is preparing to go to war against us? While we are forced to pick up the pieces of The Morana Incident?'' ''It would seem that way,''Liz admitted.''But there''s athird piece of the story too.'' ''And what''s that?''Coffee asked. ''That has to do with the increasing levels of terrorism in our Kingdom,''Liz said.''It''s got foreign interference written all over it. Everything from the mana circuits that are used to power the explosives used, to the people carrying it out,''Liz said. ''Don''t tell me...''I groaned. Incredible war potential was building on this side of the conflict.It wasn''t possible that the other side was going to turn a blind eye. ''Bingo again. The MSG is investigating whether these actions are tied to the Slime Kingdom, but have been coming up empty handed. Some suspects end up taking instant self-immolation pills and prevent us from doing identification autopsies.Eventually, though, someone will get caught and there will be a justified reason for our Kingdomto retaliate,''Liz''s face looked grim. ''Well, shit,''I laid back and zoned out staring at the box-shaped light cubeabove us. This was so much to take in. Everything was thrown at meso suddenly that I had a hard timeaccepting it. A part of me wished that I could laugh it all away. That I would wake up and everything would be back to the way it was. That I''d still be with my parents, Andrea, and Lily, and building up a corporate empire based on soda. Maybe somehow get a temporary citizenship for Coffee or something. Fuck. Was that too much to ask for? Wasn''t I looking over something though? I stared at Coffee, who was discussing with Liz the other terrorist attacks at great length. ... ''You''re creeping me out,''Coffee said, hugging her towel tightly to her chest and breaking my concentration. ''Wait, I wasn''t--'' ''Isn''t it fine? He''s a healthy growing boy, after all,''Liz teased. She played with the fold on her towel and began to pull it apart.''Would you like to see sister''s mature beauty?'' ''Nope,''I said simply, causing Liz to falter andsink onto the floor almost theatrically.''Coffee, if it was the Goblin Kingdom who captured you, sealed you, and transported you to the Slime Kingdom, you must have known something that could cause a conflict between slimes and vampires. Can you remember what that is?'' ''Uhm...''Coffee put a finger on her chin. A full minute passed, but then she sighed.''No, I don''t remember anything.'' ''Regardless, you said before that it didn''t make sense for the vampiresto be involved with this incident, correct?''I asked excitedly. ''Yeah.'' ''So, the goblin brought you to the Slime Kingdom to instigate a conflict between slimes and vampires without consulting the vampires. Afterwards, he essentially told you that the plan had failed and his ''higher ups'' didn''t care what he did with you anymore. It was then that the teleportation event occurred. I''ll bet you my left nut that the teleportation event was an emergency backup plan, and they somehow managed to use the situation to their advantage by forging an alliance with the vampires.'' ''I don''t want your left nut. Anyway, so what does this have to do with anything?''Coffee tilted her head. ''That means that they manipulated the vampires, doesn''t it?''Liz asked, somewhat recovered from her damage pride. ''Yes it does, which also means that the Goblins arenot the vampires'' allies. There''s hope for stopping the conflict, at least for the moment, if we can manage to convince the vampires of this,''I explained. ''And it also means that you''re the key, being both a victim of the goblins'' ploy as well as a vampire yourself. Coffee,if we set course for the Vampire Kingdom, would you help me explain the situation to them?'' ''Hah?! Don''t you want to go home?''Shelooked at me incredulously. ''What good is going home if a war is going to break out?''I stared at her seriously. ''This is the only way I might be able to ensure my family''s safety, and I think this is the best way forward for the two of us as well.'' ''The three of us, you mean,''Liz chimed in.''I feel a fantastic story in the making, and I''m not missing it for the world.'' ''...''Coffee was in deep thought, mulling things over with that sequence of conflicted expressions on her face again. I hoped this time, she''d actually consider my plan instead of throwing it out the door and trying to force me to accept her own. ''Fine, but only on two conditions,''she finally said. ''1. We will spend the next two weeks here training and planning. You may think you''re a hot shot at magic, but you''re honestly worse than a pile of manamoo shit. ''2. We have to successfully pull off a food heist to feed this perverted box. Not to mention that we still have to confirm her trustworthiness somehow. I''ll look into creating a contractor something.'' ''Who the hell are you calling a box?''Liz protested. You''re okay with being called perverted though? ''Deal,''I said without hesitation. At first, I was relieved that Coffee finally listened to what I said, but then noticed a sly, devilish grin grow on her face. If I had any sort of subconscious stimulation from the fact that two half-naked girls were nearby, it was quelled as if my balls were placed in a vat of bubbling magma and then instantly cooled in liquid nitrogen. I instantly regretted my decision. ''Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. You fool,''Coffee laughed dryly with dead-fish eyes.''You made a grave error... Welcome... to Coffee''s Special Training Hell of Unspeakable Nightmares and More.'' ''Haha... I''ll leave you guys to it then--''Liz tried to run away, only to have her towel clamped down with Coffee''s vicegrip. From the aura she was eminating, evil steam seemed to beescaping Coffee''s lips and her crimson eyes were glowing brightly. ''You signed up for this the moment you said you wanted to tag along,''Coffee breathed. Tears began to form in Liz''s eyes. ''We only have two weeks to get you both in shape. Let us begin.'' Chapter 19 - Operation Moo (Part 1) Inside a certain mansion in the Central District of Joviacht, the naked silhouette of an elegant lady could be seen through a white, silk curtain draped over her bed. "Kalli, come here," commanded the lady. A thin, young mimic was roughly pushed forward by a bearded butler whose frowning, bushy eyebrows could rival a foresty ravine. He quickly exited through the large double doors and left the young mimic alone with the strange silhouette. Kish. Two long tongues shot out from between the linen and wrapped themselves around his supple wooden frame. A third tongue slipped through the small opening in his lid and entwined around his tiny tongue, which hung limply without resistance. He was pulled onto the bed forcefully. Slender fingers slid up his smooth thighs and slowly unlocked the small latch hiding his sacred wood. She released his tongue and licked her wet lips as she brought them closer and closer to his small rod. Licking off the droplet of sticky pre-cum hanging from the tip, she pleasured him until his rod stood firm to her liking. It was time... she stood up and seductively slid down her black laced panties, which parted from her lower lips with a moist strand of divine water connecting the two. Lowering herself, she wetted the tip of his rod further with her own juices, which dripped from her wet pussy as she trembled with excitement. Ecstasy overwhelmed her senses as his wood filled her, and she tightened her lower lips while rotating her hips slowly. She grabbed her own breasts and pinched herself on the nipples, sending ripples of pleasure throughout her body. Her lust was on the verge of exploding upon seeing his deadpan eyes, just as lifeless as the slaves that came before him. Splurt. Slap! "You ungrateful little bitch!" The woman shrieked. "You don''t finish until I tell you that you can finish. I ought to have your fucking little dick cut off--" Bang! "My lady, your guests have arrived," the butler, who had just opened the door to the room, bowed with one hand placed diagonally over his chest. "Chet--... Get out!" The woman threw Kalli onto the floor. The boy scrambled to his feet, bowed, and ran out the door towards the servants'' quarters. "You too, Sebastian," she said, motioning to her butler. "I have to freshen up. Tell them I''ll join them for dinner in fifteen minutes." "Yes, my lady," he said, exiting the room.
"MyLady Chantelle, don''t you look stunning today!" A middle-aged, female mimic wearing a vibrant one-piece dress, and way too many pieces of jewelry, complimented the owner of the mansion at the dinner table. This woman, Sue, was one of over two hundred nobles in Joviacht, and was a business partner of Chantelle''s for several years. They were the Kingdom''s largest provider in the slave market, bringing between 100-150 new goods each month for the nobles throughout the Kingdom. Today''s topic was on the recent rise of cannibalistic cults that had been formed recently. For Chantelle and Sue, this was a brilliant opportunity to expand their market to include meal slaves. That''s why they brought twenty nobles to convince themto invest in their business. "Please Sue, you flatter me. I apologize for the delay; I was preoccupied with a prior engagement," Chantelle responded. "And thank you all for coming this evening for this important event. As you all know, there is a terrible crisis on our hands... our Kingdom is undergoing a terrible predicament, and we all have to play our parts in its revitalization," she addressed the other nobles in the room. "We have a plan to help mitigate this problem, which I will discuss after dinner. Please enjoy my home''s signature Manamoo dish, freshly cut from the subdungeon located underneath my villa." With a clap of her hands, servants poured out from the main door carrying plates of rich, juicy steaks and goblets of the finest blood-wine. "Have you heard of the minor rebellions starting in the Slime Kingdom? Terrible, ain''t it," a male noble pipped up in the middle of the dinner clamboring. "I hear they be messing with their own defense force with dung bombs and crude things like that." "I don''t understand it," the male opposite him said, ripping off a piece of his steak with his 280 teeth. "Why are they suddenly popping up all over the place? I heard their Kingdom was docile like a country farm." "They says it''s because of The Morana Incident. People haven''t been too happy with the government, innit. How they handled the situation. Abig fat load of bullshit, that''s what I think. Coming down on the vampires like that, and splitting off their troops to find their people? That''s taking soldiers away from their families, and it''s no way to fucking treat your bloody citizens."Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. "I''m tempted to helpthese rebels, you hear? I bet they''ll pay a decent price for some properweaponry, that''s what Iffink." "I couldn''t agree with you more," the man leaned in closer to whisper, "There''s a group that''s targeting this market already. I''ll get you in on it, if you can provide the necessary funding." "I wouldn''t have it any other way." Beneath the clatter of plates and utensils, a young boy hugged himself to sleep in the darkness of the servants'' quarters, begging for oblivion to take him.
The reasons for why I suggested training aretwofold. First, I wantedto scope out how capable Liz was, especially since she was a soldier by profession. I still don''t trust her, and have no intention of doing so. I think she has a hidden agenda, but I can''t figure out what it is. All I know is that right now,shecould definitely be valuable to us, especially with that void ring. And regardless of whether we take her with us, it''d be useful to know her physical and magical abilities. Second, it gave me an opportunity to get Bell into the habit of training regularly. This is particularly important because he''san anomaly. Usually, someone who''s developed a mana core also has a solid foundation, like how a soldier has stabilizers to support his muscles. Without stabilizers, complex movements or maneovers would be difficult if not impossible. It might even be dangerous. And not only does he have a mature core, but also he learns at an abnormally high speed. I thought that learning Chaos Field that quickly was a fluke possible because of the stress, but he used Shapeshift, an advanced class spell, without formal training. That requires a level of talent that I can''t even begin to imagine. Let''s put his potential into perspective. A magician''s strength can be said to be limited by how well they can use the three primary processes of all magic: initialization, conversion, and spatial manipulation. It goes without saying that practicing these three things improvesmagical output, casting speed and fine control, but they reach their limits before long. Everyone reaches this point, and it''s not like we have magical pills that purify our mana to make it ten times stronger. It''s more accurate to say that a magician''s power is limited by another factor: the most important of them all, knowledge. His talent allows him toabsorb knowledge, integrate it, and gain new knowledge from preexisting knowledge. Moreover, whatever his ability is... that photogenic memory skill? It''s a cheat, I tell you. A cheat! It takes months or years to properly conceptualize and manipulate Manifestation Vectors, and yet he was able to do it on his first try. Was God always this unfair? In any case, talent without guidance is riding a manamoo without proper technique. He might be able to get far, but he''d eventually fall off and get trampled to death. Mana poisoning and exhaustion are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how much doodoo he could get himself into with improper mana control. ... Not like I care! He just seemed so pitiful that I couldn''t help but help him, you know?! I mean, other than when he wasbeingreliable earlier? Kind of? Ugh, I feel my brain getting cancer. ''ONE THOUSAND MORE RAPID MANA CONVERSIONS!'' I commanded. Ah, that felt better. ''Why suddenly--''Bell complained. ''NO TALKING BACK. TWO THOUSANDMORE!''
''No more... Please...''I collapsed in Liz''s basement. To my surprise, Liz had her ownmagic-reinforcedtraining facility in her own home. A present from her grandfather, according to her. Over the past two weeks, I''m sure she resented having such a convenient facility as much as I did. It was already approaching the end of ourtraining, and we were utterly exhausted. Day and night, Coffee drilled the tenants of IntermediateClass Void Magic into us until we were having nightmares about training within nightmares of us collapsing from training. The foundationalskill was SplitConversion, the ability to convert mana into multiple differentstreams simultaneously. Void magic specifically co-manipulatedAbsorption, Chaos, and Manifestation, and learning to summon all three types of mana was like trying to write legibly with both handsand your mouth at the same time. The two branching spellsfromSplit Conversion wereRift and Macro. Rift was a transient spell that openeda portal to the Void Matrix, createdby surrounding compact Absorption mana with a multiple, separatelayers of Chaos mana. The light fraction of the Chaos mana dualitywas absorbed and condensedby the Absorption mana, ultimately forming an oily, fluidic portal surrounded by empty Chaos mana shells that could be manipulated to open and close theVoid Matrix. Macro, on the other hand, created a miniature containeraround a ball of Chaos mana using Manifestation Vectors. Strangely, thisentrapped the mana. At Coffee''s instruction, I let go of my direct control over myChaos mana, but found that it remained in that form without having to consciously guide it. I could even move it around as long as it was contained. The combination of these two skills resulted in the final IntermediateClass Void Spell,Jux.Juxcreated twoRiftscontrolled and connected viaMacro. It was possible to move an object through oneRift and out the other, butcomplexity of the object determined how much mana it consumed. Living objects were out of the question, and transporting a simple glass bottle consumedhalf my mana. ''I second the motion! Bell, let''s go take a bath together~'' Liz plopped her voluptuous breasts on top of my head whild kneeling, and tried to pick me up as I flailed around in a desperate attempt to escape. Bathing with Liz was a terrible idea; her body was pretty bomb, but her personality was a turn-off. Unfortunately, I didn''t stand a chance against Liz''s physical strength, her being both a fully grown adult and MSG officer. Or is what the old me would say. In half a second, I blasted her with a compressed ball of Chaos mana and slipped through her arms. Casting a Chaos Field around my body, I macro''ed four additional balls of Chaos mana, each with a different frequency in case Liz casted a counter-field to restore her perception. As I suspected, that''s exactly what Liz began to do, except that every time she made progress, I attacked her with a different macro and changed Chaos frequencies. Moments later, Liz began to show signs of exhaustion. ''How do you feel?'' I jeered. ''What *huff* did you do? *huff*'' Liz panted, still concentrating greatly on trying to dispell the Chaos Field. ''Pretty simple, actually. I placed two macros of Absorption mana on your back. Your counter-field was your own undoing,'' I explained, releasing the hidden macros that I had planted during the initial clash. ''You reallydon''t want to take a bath with me, huh,'' Liz said dejectedly, mumbling something about cute and evil. ''I guess you two can go for longer?''Coffee cracked her knuckles. ''''NO!''''Liz and I screamed. ''Then I officially announce you two graduates of Coffee''s first ever, Special Training Hell of Unspeakable Nightmares and More.'' ''''Woot!''''We cheered. I was actually a little excited to test out my new abilities, and we had planned the perfect setting for it. ''Tonight, we begin Operation Moo. Target: Joviacht''s largest mansion, Ville da Chantellon, and its subdungeon, the Great Manamoo Caverns.'' Chapter 20 - Operation Moo (Part 2) ''Two patrols at the eastern gate, appear to be weapon users, magic proficiency uncertain,''Liz said, peering through a pair of giant binoculars with night vision capabilities. The stalagmites in the area were no longer glowing brightly, and the aurora above had dimmed substantially, now only wisps of color floating through the skies. The three of us were hiding behind a variant of Yaksha that grew in shrubs. ''We know. They''re less than a hundred meters in front of us,''Coffee sighed. Liz had a tendency for theatrics, and it got to Coffee''s nerves. We clearly detected the mana signatures of two unknowns on either side ofthe metal gate ahead. Both were fairly weak, if we were just comparing raw quantities of mana, but the chance that they might be using Absorption to hide their true strength was a very realpossibility. ''Give me those,''I snatched the binocularsout of Liz''s hands andstudied the glass windows that covered almost 75% of the entire mansion''s surface area. ''Dark, dark, dark...oh, I see them. Around twenty nobles talking and eating a crapton of food. Aren''t mimics supposed to be starving?'' ''Only as starving as they are poor,''Liz frowned.''Those nobles are friends or distant relatives of the Kings, and are very far from starving.'' ''All''s going to plan, then. Let''s give the operation a green light,''Coffeesaid. Liz nodded and led us away from the eastern gate towards the north wall of the mansion, which was more like a small castle than a simple villa. Luckily, Liz was stationed here as a hired guard not too long ago, and had a pretty good idea of the building layout. Coffee used the Void Ring, which was placed in her care for insurance, to excavate a small hole in the wall, which we passedthrough and resealed by summoning the wall material from the ring. Doing this anywhere else might have been dangerous, but this location was perfect, due to guards rarely, if ever, approaching this area of the mansion. That''s because this area was the servant quarters, which resembled a cross between Cairo''s stinkysewers (in Egypt) and a medieval prison. But it wasn''t the smell that dissuaded them. Rather, it was the servants themselves. As we snuck through the backdoor into the quarters, we ran into four mimics chained in cells, each with terrible looking wounds that were festering with pus and bacteria. Their eyes didn''t even greet us, and remained fixated on the stone floor. All it took was one look tounderstand why Liz toldus that it was hopeless to try and help them. It felt likeevery one of them had visited hell and had their soulsripped out and kept there, while their body remained alive. Steeling my core, Coffee, Liz and I bolted past the servants and headed deeper into the mansion. If Liz''s information was correct, the subdungeon entrance was less than 300 meters away. Pit pat pit pat. The floor started to become wetter as we traversed the corridors of the mansion basement, which twisted and turned with multiple branching paths. For example, the four way intersection we were currently at. Without Liz''s prior knowledge, we''d have gotten lost already. ''I think... we''re lost,''Liz said hesitantly. Or not. ''''What the fuck?!''''Both Coffee and I exclaimed. ''I don''t recognize these halls at all.'' ''Wait...''Coffee frowned, turning her attention to the walls. She rapped them with her knuckles, and the wall seemed to wobble.''Shit, we''ve been had. This is a mobile labyrinth. They must''ve changed the layout.'' ''Can we just bust our way through the walls?''I suggested. ''Any breakage in the walls usually triggersan alarm system,''Liz sighed. ''Well, fuck.'' ''Do we head back?''Liz asked. ''No, we''ll split up to search, and regroup in fifteen minutes. Don''t engage any enemies and try to find whatever you can that''ll lead us to the gate,''Coffee said. ''Sounds good,''I said, turning to the left. ''Don''t take longer than fifteen minutes,''Coffee repeated, dashing forward. ''Aye aye, commander,''Liz said, running off to the right.
Smack! "You dare tarnish our master with your vile semen? Learn your place!" A dark skinned man flexed his arms and cracked his joints in preparation for a long session this time. As the Slave Master of the mansion, he was given free reign to educate the new recruit, an orphan named Kallimore pir Deadwood. The Deadwoods were once the second most powerful family in the Mimic Kingdom, and were responsible for managing international relations following the First Dungeon War. Being likeable, polite, and powerful, the Deadwood family quickly gained a positive reputation among the other Kingdoms. Their connections unfortunately made them too influential for the current ruling family. The entire family was slaughtered overnight, leaving behind the sole heir of the family to live the rest of his life as a slave to the Kings'' niece.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Kalli was only six at the time. Smack! "Say something, you little cunt. You think you''re better than me because you''re a Deadwood?" The Slave Master spat, holding a thick, metal rod in his hand. He unbuckled his pants with a crooked smile. "Maybe the only way you''ll learn is through some old fashioned discipline. Let this be a reminder for what''ll happen if you cross Lady Chantelle again." Kalli stared at the massive, black appendage hanging from the Slave Master''s groin. He internally screamed at his legs to move, or to fight back at least. But it was as if he didn''t have a bodyat all. It was like watching himself from a third person view. He could do nothing as he was pushed down onto the ground, stepped on, and cuffed against the cold, stone floor. He could feel hot breathing right behind him, and yet, at the same time, couldn''t feel anything at all. Ssssuk. Thud. A heavy weight fell on top of Kalli. He continued to scream internally, but realized that it wasn''t as it seemed, by the red liquid dripping onto the floor next to him. He pushed off the weight with great strain, and turned around to see what was going on. "Hey Kalli, long time no see," a young woman smiled. She had golden hair tied to the side, and was wearing a slick, black track suit that stuck to her body. Splotches of blood were splattered all across her face. Beside Kalli was the carcass of the Slave Master, whose head was hanging from his neck by a thin strand of flesh, barely holding the two together. A wide, wooden stake was planted through his mana core so forcefully that the core itself was ripped out, and exposed for the whole world to see. Something told Kalli that he should be sickened by such a sight, but the feeling never came. Instead, he staggered to his feet slowly, lifting the rod above his head. Whack. Whack. Whack. Whack. Blood splurt forth from the Slave Master''s head and sprayed Kalli with a mist of red. That didn''t stop him as he kept whacking, as if he was possessed by a demon. Whack. Whack. Whac-- "That''s enough, my Lord," Liz stopped the rod by putting her hand in the way without even so much as a flinch. "We must hurry and escape." Kalli stared at the woman blankly, blood dripping from his face and metal rod in hand. It would''ve been aghastly sight to behold if there was a bystander nearby. He wonderedwho this woman was. Pang. A jolt of pain shot through his head as memories flooded back. This was the big sister who used to play with him back when his father and mother were still alive... When his family was... A tear rolled down his cheeks as his eyes regained a little bit of life. Finally, he nodded. "Great. I have a couple acquaintances who are waiting for us. They''re going to help us get you to your mother," Liz explained, leading him to the cell door by the hand. "M-motheris alive?" Kalli croaked. This was the first time he had spoken in half a year, and speaking at long last felt like regurgitating a dry sandwich up his throat. He ignored that though; what Liz had just said was impossibly incredible. "Yes, my lord. We have been preparing for your rescue for quite some time now, and the opportunity arose recently." Liz was worried, because her fifteen minutes were almost up. "Your deceased fatherwas a great friend of my father''s, and it''s my duty to bring you to safety." "T-thank y-you, miss..." "Liz," she beamed. "It''s been a long time. Of course you''ve forgotten about me." "T-that''s not true! Just the... name..." he blushed. Liz laughed and rubbed his head. Her primary objective was complete. Now theproblem was getting Coffee and Bell to understand...
A subdungeon, huh. I remembered Ellie''s stories about her SDF adventures with Andrea, dungeon diving to gather magical tools after clearing extremely difficult rooms or completing missions that took weeks to complete. Apparently each subdungeon was governed by a rule called an ''instance'',which would transport any given party to an isolated copy of the subdungeon''s pocket world. Some subdungeons gave you optional missions to complete, while others were home to entire civilizations that could only survive within the subdungeon. For us, this subdungeon was not only a way to get food for our journey, but also to escape the MImic Kingdom. Each subdungeon was connected to various locations within the dungeon, and Liz apparently knew of a hidden exit that would bring us closer to the Vampire Kingdom. All that we needed to do now, was to find the damn entrance. Weirdly, I felt like I knew what Liz was talking about when she described the entrancethat was used to gain access to the subdungeon, the Great Manamoo Caverns. She explained it as a goldenarch, complete with a golden bull''s head at the keystone. The same gate that I saw when I was dead; or more specifically, a dead spirit floating alongsome sort of scarlet river. I passed through a gate and awoke in the Slime Kingdom, which meant that the gates were related to the dungeon somehow. And now, another gate shows up and it apparently sends you to a subdungeon. Coincidence? I think not. Regardless, I didn''t make any progress so far, and time was almost up. Every path I took ended up being a dead end, except for one which I hadn''t checked out yet. I made my way down, careful not to splash any of the water as I moved. Fump. ?! For some reason, I couldn''t move forward anymore, as if there was a pressurized wall of air in front of me. I squished my face against the wall to see if I could make out what was beyond, and saw something golden and shiny. The gate! After making sure that there was no one around me using mana perception, I tried to diagnose what sort of mana was being used to keep me out, and to my surprise, it was something that I was very familiar with. Collision mana. Whoever or whatever had made this barrier must''ve been quite powerful, to maintain such a strong barrier made of Collision mana I remembered how frustrating and exhausting it was to manipulate even a little cluster of it outside the body. I tried to use Absorption to siphon some of the mana away, but found that it was impossible with my abilities. It was just too overwhelmingly dense to absorb completely. Hmmm..... Aha! I channeled a ball of crimson mana into my pseudopod without converting it at all, and began to rotate it from multiple directions faster and faster. After these past two weeks, my control had become much better, and I was able to compress it far denser than when I practiced my first air bullet. Surprised how easy it was, I tried to increase the supply of mana I used, and compacted it even further. More. More. More! Eventually, it grew to such a size that it felt like it was going to explode if I even lost the slightest bit of focus. Moving the rotating cluster to the tip of my pseudopod, I pointed it at the invisible wall with one word in mind. ''EJACULATION!'' BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM. My bullet had penetrated through the barrier in an instant, generating long, deep cracks within its structure. It shattered like glass, and the shards dissipated like sand in the wind. The golden shine beyond the wall was revealed, but it wasn''t the gate. It was something beyond my wildest imagination. ''Is this real?''I asked out loud to no one in particular. I pinched myself in the cheek to make sure, just in case. It was a giant dildo. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. [ATTENTION, HOSTILE FORCES DETECTED IN THE BASEMENT. ALL GUARDS TO THE CENTRAL WING, IMMEDIATELY.] I felt the blood drain from my face. Ah, fuck. I fucked up, didn''t I. For a fucking dildo. Chapter 21 - Operation Moo (Part 3) It was a peculiar feeling, being on the run in enemy territory. Sirens blaring, every inch of the corridor a hazy red, and the splashing of water as I rushed back to the rendez-vous point. I felt like I was in the middle of Operation Impossible, except that the dashing Tom Voyage was replaced with a four-year-old slime who was carrying a golden dildo in one pseudopod. ...And before you ask, the reason I brought it with me was because it seemed like a waste to leave it behind, especially after what I''d done to get it. "There he is!" A voice yelled from up ahead. Running towards me from down the hall was a guard brandishing a shortsword. Behind him, two armed guards splurted out from the wobbly walls. With the red lighting causing the walls to resemble flesh, their emergencelooked like a disturbing birthing scene. "It''s a slime!" One of the guards screamed. "Activate your anti-magic!" Charging forwards, all three imbued their blades with mana, and then converted it to a type that I couldn''t perceive anymore. Absorption mana, I presumed. To make sure, I fired two basic air bullets at the first target, which he extinguished with a simple slash of his sword. He didn''t even slow down, the bastard. But then again, that wasn''t the idea... Sssssssssss... Behind my back, I had casted Jux by summoning two rifts placed twenty centimeters apart like hamburger patties. Tiny clumps of sand were thrown into the bottom rift, which then appeared at the top, only to fall back down and begin the cycle anew. This was a technique that I had modeled over the infinite loop phenomenon. Over the past several seconds, they had been steadily gaining velocity due to gravitational acceleration, and were currently approaching the speed of sound. But because of the great distance between me and my targets, I couldn''t fire them just yet. Meanwhile, the mana consumption was taking a rapid toll on me, getting worse as the teleportation rate rose. To my dismay, the guards were moving slower than I would''ve liked. Sixty meters away... fifty meters... They were either wary of my spell, or they were just in disbelief that their enemy was a child. Whatever the reason, their speed visibly faltered, and I struggled to maintain my mana output. I only had about 30% remaining. Thirty meters... twenty... NOW! I thrust my two pseudopods forwards to activate the third macro''ed rift in front of me while simultaneously cancelling the top rift of my elevator. Poof! A nearly-silent spray of sand shot forth like a shotgun, each clump travelling close to 300 km/hr. The guards did their best to protect themselves with their swords, but these were not mana-based projectiles, rendering their Absorption blocks useless. The sand tore through their flesh, and the guards'' unearthly screams resounded through the halls. One guard''s eye was ripped off by a clump of sand, and another''s hand was ravaged with holes, causing him to drop to his knees and let go of his sword. Before the guards could regenerate or retaliate, I immediately cast a Chaos Field around myself and blasted each of the guards'' faces with a ball of Chaos mana, slipping through them in the midst of their confusion and pain. A hundred meters in, I switched to Absorption type mana to hide my presence. Phew. The rendez-vous point was right ahead.
''What the fuck happened?!'' Coffee asked. She was drenched head-to-toe in blood, meaning that she probably ran into some guards already. Currently, the two of us were back at the intersection where we had split up. ''Uh... I broke through a barrier to get through the gate, but I ended up finding this instead,'' I grimaced, holding up the golden dildo I''d been carrying all this time. Now that I thought about it, maybe that''s why the guards faltered... the fact that I was holding a dildo? ''...Is that what I think it is?'' Her jaw dropped. ''I have no excuses,'' I said solemnly. ''What are you talking about? That''s a Relic! A unique item that there''s only one of in the entire world. Most are used to seal really powerful spells inside.'' ''Really? I thought it was--I mean, *cough* of course I knew that. Why else would I jeopardize our lives for something that looks like a phallic symbol?'' I handed it over to her, and she stored it away in the void ring. ''Very funny. Lucky for you, I found the gate up ahead where we had assumed it was in the first place. Turns out Liz did know where we were going, which means that she lied. Question is, why?'' ''Guys, are you okay? What happened?'' Liz asked as she turned a corner and ran towards us, dragging a small mimic with her. ''Yeah. Bell did something stupid again. More importantly, who''s that?'' Coffee raised an eyebrow. ''This little guy is Kallimore pir Deadwood. He''s a dear family friend, and I stumbled across him in one of the cells. I was hoping that we could take him with us...'' Liz at Coffee with pleading eyes. ''...You expect us to believe that you coincidentally found him after tricking us into splitting up?'' Coffee frowned. Liz looked uncomfortable, and tightened her grip on the younger mimic''s hand. ''I-I didn''t t-trick you g-guys, I swea--'' Liz stuttered. ''That''s bullshit. You lied about us losing our way,'' Coffee said coldly. ''Guys, we don''t have the luxury of bickering,'' I warned. I could already hear the pitter patter of footsteps in the distance, even with the sirens blaring. ''Liz, you''re going to have to explain yourself later. For now, let''s reach that gate.'' ''Ptoo--'' Coffee spat on the ground,and Liz smiled weakly. The young mimic at her side looked weary and malnourished, something that I didn''t even think was possible for someone who looked like a chest. His wooden boards were broken andfleshy, and his legs were as thin as twigs. At first glance, he looked similar to the servants we had passed by earlier, but there was a huge difference. Rather than having lifeless eyes like the other servants'', his were full of grief and loss.
The four of us speedily made our way towards the subdungeon entrance, passing by two decapitated bodies with swords sticking out of their chests. I grimaced, and before I could say anything, Coffee pulled out our void ring swiftly and stuffed the carcasses inside. ''No point in wasting nutrients,'' she said in response to the half-disgusted-half-concerned face I was giving her as we continued to run. It made sense, considering that she was a vampire. After all, she had complained for the past two weeks about not having blood to drink. A vampire couldn''t run off of berry juice alone without going insane, she said. ''Oh, good. I was starting to think you might be a necrophiliac,'' I joked. ''There''s a child here, you know,'' Liz pointed out. ''Right, he wouldn''t understand the joke. A necrophiliac is someone who enjoys having--'' I began explaining. ''That''s not what I meant!'' Liz exclaimed. ''I know, I was kidding,'' I chuckled. ''Shut up you two,'' Coffee rolled her eyes. We emerged in a wide open area lit by torches hung on the walls. A bright white light emanated from the center of the room, envelopped by a golden gate with intricate patterns carved into the entire archway. I now recognized these patterns as magic circles, except they had been deconstructed from circles to form helical configurations. At the top of the gate was the golden bull''s head, completing the exact replica of the gate that I had seen before.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. There was no doubt that this dungeon and the red river was connected somehow. ''There''s the entrance,'' Coffee smiled. ''That was a piece of cake.'' Oh for fucks sake, Coffee. Not the death flag again... Sluuuuuuuurk. On cue, a group of mimics dropped from the ceiling between us and the gate, led by an exotic beauty with platinum blonde hair that was tied in a bushy ponytail. Her sleek chinese dress fit her delicate curves perfectly, unveiling smooth white skin underneath at the leg. Her small tongue licked her plump, red lips as she studied the four of us. ''Chantelle,'' Liz muttered. ''That''s the owner?'' I asked, surprised. Liz had previously described her as a sixty year old battle fanatic who was involved heavily in the black market of slavery. I imagined her to be a buff amazonian type woman, and not this young looking beauty. Her arms barely had any muscle to them. Beside Chantelle was a maid wearing a frilly black and white uniform, and sporting a blue bobcut. The other mimics wore the same drab uniform as the guards we had encountered earlier, and were likewise carryingshortswords at their waists. Maybe it was because they outnumbered us, but they had a distinctive air of pompousness around them. They looked at us like we were beneath consideration, and one mimic even yawned. "My lady," one guard placed his hand on his hilt. "There is no need for you to tend to this matter personally. Please return to your guests and leave this to us." "Oh? Simon, you naughty boy. Trying tolook responsible in front of me, are you?" Chantelle pursed her lips and caressed the guard''s face. Slap! "Don''t speak unless I give you permission to," she sneered, to which the other guards laughed. Simon, instead of becoming angry, started breathing heavily and turned beet red. Chantelle slapped him again, and his breathing quickened. To my horror, I could distinctly see a tent being pitched down there. ''What the fuck is wrong with this Kingdom?'' I muttered under my breath. ''Mm... If only she would treat me that way...'' Liz said while drooling. She seemed to be in her own dreamland, and Kalli was pulling on her arm with a concerned expression. "Well. Isn''t this interesting. A slime, a vampire, and a mimic. What an awfully curious mix of thieves," Chantelle said jovially, breaking my train of thought. "Come, Mona." Snap! At the snap of Chantelle''s fingers, the maid bowed, and wordlessly summoned an explosion of loose Manipulation Vectors that hung motionlessly in midair. Suddenly, they twisted, elongated and folded itself repeatedly, transforming her body into a huge buster sword that looked far too large and heavy for any normal person. Chantelle grinned maliciously and grabbed the living sword. A black aura oozed out from her and coated her body and sword with a thin layer of ominous mana. ''What is that?'' I asked. ''It''s bad. Really bad,'' Coffee shivered. ''That''s a Saint Class Void Spell called Full Disintegration. A touch will melt your flesh, a cut will lop a limb off, and a full encounter will leave behind nothing more than a puddle.'' ''Can we counter it?'' ''Not likely. The Absorption characteristics are powerful enough to deal with any counterfield to the Chaos mana, and the Chaos factors will overwhelm our Absorption mana instantly.'' ''Well that fucking sucks.'' I racked my brain for a plan, but what we needed right now was time. ''Excuse me, ma''am.'' I called out to Chantelle. ''I think there''s been a misunderstanding. You see, we''re victims of The Morana Incident, and we were teleported to your establishment. Could we getsome help getting out of here?'' "You dare speak to our lady with your crude accent and obvious lies?!" Simon roared. Crude accent? Now see here... "Quiet," Chantelle silenced the guard with a look that said that she wouldn''t tolerate any more insubordination. "That''s quite the interesting tale. Could you tell me more?" ''Of course! It all started when--'' "Yawn. On second thought, tell it to your prison guards and they can relay it to me," she waved her hand dismissively. A crooked smile grew on her face. "Capture them alive." """Yes ma''am!""" The eager guards shouted. A vein popped in Coffee''s forehead, understandably. I wanted to strangle her. This vixen was a rude, annoying bitch. Swish. Just when we thought the situation couldn''t get any worse, a shining ray of light appeared. One of the female guards swung hersword in a vertical arc, cleaving one unsuspecting Simon in half. The other guards looked horrified as his blood spewed everywhere and his entrails spilled onto the floor. Taking advantage of their surprise, she flashed sideways and drilled her sword into another guard''s chest cavity. Liz was the first of us to spring into action, and clashed with the guard closest to her, who barely responded in time to let sparks fly as the blades made contact. Both combatants enhanced their armaments with Absorption todefend against possible magical attacks, and fought using swordplay alone. They exchanged a flurry of jabs, slashes, and parries that were impossible to track with the untrained eye. Coffee also leapt into the fray of battle, summoning tens of litresof blood from the void ring and assemblingit into a pair of wings and dual daggers. Her method of fighting perfectly complimented Liz''s all out attack style with finesse and pinpoint accuracy in her execution, allowing the two of them to stand their ground while facing off against three times the number of enemies. The guard who was on our sidewas now engaged with Chantelle in an even but furious match, summoning triple layered magic circles that brought forth javelins of dark matter, and producing golden shields in mid-air to keep Chantelle at range. Now that I looked closer, I recognized her as Liz''s MSG supervisor, whom we spoke to on the mountain range after the mining incident. In the middle of this fighting, I shifted sideways to protect Kalli as well as to provide long range support. I didn''t have enough mana to use another Jux based spell, but I had another plan. Preparing eight air bullets, I fired them at the ceiling where several large, deadly stalagmites hung ominously. Dislodged, they crashed onto the ground behind the enemy, creating a rock wall and reducing their space to maneuver or retreat. Moreover, it split the enemy forces in half, if for a moment, so that Coffee and Liz couldgain the upper hand. Unfortunately, casting this spell made me vulnerable to enemy attack, and a guard slipped past Coffee and Liz and made a beeline towards me. Fuck! If I moved, Kalli would get hit. Could I make a rift to send his sword to the void realm? With my current mana capacity, that wasn''t really an option. God fucking dammit. As the bastard raised his sword, I did my best to generate an air bullet to counter his strike. Pttt. Pain seared through my head as the guard''s blade broke through the skin and passed through an inch of my slime. The Collision mana of the air bullet was rapidly consumed by the guard''s Absorption imbued sword, but luckily, the force had diminished the force of the slash. The sword was now lodged firmly in my head. I don''t know if it was the adrenaline or because slimes had high pain resistance, but at that moment, the pain barely registered. I used theopportunity to use the last of my mana to summon Manifestation Vectors around the entire length of the blade to entrap it in the shape of a sheath. Almost immediately, the magic absorbed by the sword was returned to my body, along with extra Absorption mana that I had stolen from the guard''s sword. His eyes widened in shock, and was unable to move his sword anymore due to the Manifestation Vectors locking it in place. I used my newly replenished mana reservoirs to imbue the tip of my pseudopod with a high density of mana, and launched myself forwards to beat the fucker black and blue. Trying to dodge, he stepped to the right, only to find no ground to step on. I had used a rift to excavate a small area where his feet was going, and as he tripped, I connected a solid uppercut to his jaw while releasing a motherload of Collision mana straight into his face. BOOM! His face completely blew off, and his body recoiled with a fountain of blood spurting upwards through its newly opened hole. Like a chicken with its head cut off. As expected, he slowly began to try and reform his head, leading to an even more grotesquesituation. I pushed him towards his comrades and watched amusingly as the other guards all turned their heads in unison, unable to pry their eyes away from the horrific scene. ... I felt amused? Had Coffee awoken an inner sadist within me during the training? Oh god. Psychologically damaged and put in a positional disadvantage, the remaining guards were made quick work of by Coffee and Liz. However, they didn''t escape without their fair share of cuts and bruises. ''Bell! Are you okay?!'' Coffee ran towards me. What was she worried about? She was in far worse shape, wasn''t she? Ah wait... Hot diggity damn. ''GAAAAAAAAAH!'' I screamed. Coffee ripped out the sword that was still stuck in my head, causing me to let loose a cry that I didn''t know I was capable of. I''d broken my arm before when I fell from my bike watching anime on my phone, but that was like a minor scratch compared to this. Coffee bit through the skin on her thumb and jammed it into the wound. ''FUCK! Are you trying to kill--ahh... ahhhhh that feels nice,'' I moaned. Suddenly, I felt like I was floating through the air. Duuuuuude. Fuuuuuck duude. ''I''ve given you an extremely strong painkiller and sealed the first few layers of epithelium. The rest will heal after some time,'' Coffee said. ''Ha... Thanks dude--''ey, have you considered you know, chillin'' out sometimes? Yenno what I mean? Let''s chill baby~'' I felt giddy as fuck. All I wanted to do was sit in a jacuzzi and not go through this violent stuff, you know? Peace to the world, dawg. ''Ugh, you''re giving me cancer,'' shegroaned. Meanwhile, shit was goin'' down over with the sexy lady and Liz''s sup. Flying magic and colors ablazin''. Don''t fuckin'' ask me what was goin'' on specifically. How the fuck should I know you readers? I''m trippin'' yo. ''Coffee, I think Bell is stoned to the point where''s he''s gone and broken the fourth wall,'' Liz said. ''Well, we can''t have that, can we,'' Coffee sighed, injecting a competitive antagonist for the painkiller into my system. My dreamworld cracked and shattered into a million pieces. ''Ow! What''d you do that for?!'' I cried out. The pain was back in full force, and my head was throbbing like no tomorrow. ''Shut up. We have to get to the gate before more reinforcements show up,'' Coffee said. Liz nodded in agreement, holding Kalli''s hand tightly. ''Shouldn''t we help your supervisor?'' I asked Liz weakly. ''She can hold her own. We''d just be a hindrance,'' Coffee answered for her. Coffee lifted me up, and the four of us dashed around the two Saint Class fighters to get to the gate. As we approached the gate, we could hear distant shouts coming from the corridors leading to this room. With one final look at the epic swordfight happening in the middle of the room, we jumped through the portal that would send us to the Great Manamoo Caverns. Chapter 22 - The Temple of Figus (Part 1) Coffee, Liz, Kalli and I passed through the golden gate as we would step from one room to another, and were greeted by warm sunlight. It was literally the first time in my life feeling the actual sun on my face, making our recent hardships seem worth it for this fact alone. Other than almost being cleaved in two with a sword, that is. ¡®Are we really still in the dungeon?¡¯ I wondered. ¡®Technically, yes. We¡¯re in a pocket world that the dungeon created,¡¯ Liz explained. ¡®Ugh¡­ What kind of monster would create a subdungeon like this,¡¯ Coffee grumbled, escaping under a nearby tree to get some shade. I guess urban legends were true about vampires not liking sunlight. She was purposely angling herself to avoid every single sunray that passed through the branches. We seemed to beon the top of a mountain with a forest path in front of us that angled downwards towards a flat plateau a few kilometers away, on which there wassome sort of village or small town. Behind us was a cliff that dropped off to clouds breezing over very distant mountaintops, making it seem like a scene straight out of a Chinese kung fu movie. On the edge of the cliff was a near-identical copy of the gate we had just passed through, except that the portal was closed. Another difference was that the golden inscriptions were missing on the arches, and in their place was a single panel that read . Curious, I slowly stumbled forwards and poked it, unleashing a tendril of Manifestation vectors that wrapped themselves around my extended pseudopod and materialized into a translucent, blue bracelet. Ting.
The Great Manamoo Caverns
Time Remaining 6 Days, 23 Hours, 50 Seconds
Time Flux Rate 10-to-1
Current Mission Seek Cairne Village
Rewards ???
¡®What the hell?¡¯ I shook my pseudopod vigorously to get it off, but the bracelet felt like it was tattooed on. I wiggled in frustration. ¡®Oh no¡­ Bell, that¡¯s bad. Oh my god,¡¯ Coffee hugged me tightly with a hint of worry in her voice. ¡®¡­C-c-c-coffee?¡¯ I blushed. ¡®Why are you¡ªWhat¡¯s going on?¡¯ ¡®That¡¯s a curse... If you don¡¯t complete that mission in the foretold time, the dungeon is going to consume your soul,¡¯ Coffee said sadly. ¡­ ¡®Are you fucking kidding meeeee?!¡¯ I slapped myself in the face and stared at the ground. Did I do something stupid again?! First the dildo-relic, and now I got myself into this shit? Coffee stared solemnly into my eyes. ¡®Pufu.¡¯ Pufu? ¡®Pff¡ªhahahahaha! You should¡¯ve¡ªhahaha¡ªseen the look on your face!¡¯ Coffee burst out laughing on the ground, rolling around as I stared at her blankly. ¡®Haha¡ªc¡¯mon Bell, learn to take a joke¡ªhaha!¡¯ Deliberately slowly, I aimed my pseudopod at the branch above us and gathered mana at the tip. Boom! ¡®AGHH!!¡¯ Coffee ran under the next tree to escape the sunlight, and pouted. ¡®Meanie.¡¯ Ignoring her, I turned to Liz. ¡®So, without being a jerk like someone here, could you explain to me what the Time Flux Rate is?¡¯ I asked. ¡®Umm, that would be Emperor Class Flux magic¡­ I think. The dungeon¡¯s the only one capable of manipulating the flow of time as far as I know, but it slows all of the subdungeons to some extent. The 10-to-1 ratio means that we have ten times the amount of time it says we have remaining to complete the mission,¡¯ Liz explained, looking at the blue bracelet on my pseudopod. ¡®I think the dungeon uses this time to create an exact replica of that instance for the next dive.¡¯ Ah, that made sense. She had mentioned before that instances refreshed after a certain time, which was why subdungeons that doubled as food sources were so valuable. ¡®*cough* And uhh, there¡¯s no obligation to complete the mission, which means that there¡¯s no need to take a huge risk¡­ usually,¡¯ Liz added. I glared at Coffee, who shrugged and leaned against the tree behind her. ¡®In our case, we might as well follow the missions until we near the end. Our escape route is just beforethe final mission point, which is at the Temple of Figus, home of the Great Moob,¡¯ Liz said. ¡®Pff--Great Moob?¡¯ Coffee stifled a laugh. ¡®The King of the Moob Clan, also known as The Manamoo Overlord, or Genghis Moob,¡¯ Liz said seriously, not helping the situation one bit. Coffee was on the verge of exploding in laughter again. ¡®Well, in that case, let¡¯s get a move on,¡¯ I said, moving towards the path before pain shot through my head. I tripped and crashed onto the ground. ¡®Ack!¡¯ Coffee was dying of laughter at this point, and couldn¡¯t even stop to breathe. *twitch* I pointed my pseudopod at the branch above her head. Boom!
''Man... I''m so hungry,'' Coffee grumbled, dragging her feet while keeping pace with the rest of us. She was slouched over and her arms hung limply, swinging from side to side like a pendulum with every step. ''Why not just drinksome of the blood stored in the ring?'' I suggested.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ''I used it all up during the fight and superclotted it. Clotted blood tastes so bad I''d rather starve...'' Her eyes lit up and nuzzled up against me. ''Ohh, can I suck some of yours? I promise it will only hurt a lot for a short while.'' ''No way,'' I resisted, trying to push her away. Not that I was super against it, but I was still peeved that she made fun of me. ''You can wait until we run into some manamoos.'' ''Eh? But the village is so far away...'' she complained. ''Maybe somebody shouldn''t have joked around about having someone''s soul sucked out,'' I said, sticking my pseudopod in the air and forcing a smaller pseudopod out of that pseudopod. My take on a slime''s middle finger. ''!¡¯ Coffee suddenly halted, sniffing the air and drooling. ¡®Hold on, I smell something.¡¯ I sniffed the air too, and, indeed, something smelt delicious. It smeltfamiliar, and it was definitely something I hadn''t encountered in this life. ''Shh, it''s coming from over there,'' I motioned for the others to stop, switching to absorption mana so that I could sneak closer to take a closer look. The smell was coming from the right side of the road. Cautiously, I brushed the branches of a shrub to the side to peek at what was going on. ¡°AAAAAAAAAGHHHHH!¡ª¡± The shrill scream stopped abruptly, and was replaced by an aroma so delicious that it almost made me jump out of the bush. In the middle of a little opening in the woods were two buff cows standing behind a large cauldron. Yes,standing. On their fucking hooves. They were picking up moving... vegetables? and throwing them into the cauldron while stirring the watery contents inside. Every vegetable they threw in would scream upon making contact with the hot soup, and stop immediately once they drowned miserably. As cruel as this was, the food smelt absolutely god-like. It was just missing something... ''MEAT!''Liz exploded forwards, brandishing a sword she stole from one of the guards back at the mansion. ''FOOOOOOOOOOD!''Coffee rocketed past Liz, and stabbed a blood dagger into one of the manamoo''s eyes like a lightning strike. Her eyes were crazy and bloodshot. I made a decision to treat her to nice dinners from now on. The other manamoo jumped backwards and did a somersault in the air, landing on his back hooves and forming a ying-yang sign with his front hooves. He thrustone hoof forwards and clip cloped to taunt us. Holy fuck. A kung fu cow. "MOOOO!" ''FOOOOOOOOOOD!'' Coffee slashed, which the manamoo dodged gracefully, knocking her hand away and pushing her backwards with its shoulder. It jumped into the air and did a double kick, which Coffee ducked under and striked with an uppercut. The manamoo twisted it''s body to dodge the strike, using this momentum to then let loose a roundhouse kick to Coffee''s left guard, forcingher to slide back a few feet. I aimed my pseudopod at the ground where I expected it to land, and firedthree consecutive air bullets in a triangle, but it was no longer there. ''Where did it go--'' FUMP! My head exploded in pain as a kick went down hard on the side of my body, sending me flying into the tree nearby. "MOO!" It screamed at me. Ssssshing! A silver streak flashed and a thin, horizontal, red line formed on the manamoo''s neck, just as I blacked out.
''Ugh...'' I woke up feeling groggy.''I feel like shit.'' Clinkle. ''L-Liz said t-t-this''ll make you feel better,''Kalli stuttered and brought a bowl of soup in front of me with a spoon inside. I blew on it and slurped some, feeling the warmth seep through my slime an help me regain some strength. Truly, shabu shabu was the best with both veggies and meat. ''Thanks Kalli,''I smiled, patting him on the head with my pseudopod. He blushed and ran back to hug Liz''s arm. I surveyed the camp from the boulder next to the tree to the cauldron to Liz, who was butchering the remaining manamoos into strips of meat. ''Where''s Coffee?''I asked. ''Over there,''Liz responded, pointing over at the boulder. ''Over where?''I was confused.''Is she behind the rock? I don''t see--oh. Oh my. Ho lee shit.'' She wasn''tbehind the boulder. Shewas the boulder. ''How much did she fucking eat?!'' ''She finished the entire cauldron of soup on her own, other than the individual bowls we had,''Liz sighed.''She even threw in the rest of the captive Leafes.'' ''Leaves?'' ''Leafes. The other civilization who live here. You know, the vegetable people.'' ''Vegetable people...?'' ''What rock have you been living under? They''re everywhere throughout the dungeon. You know, the vegetation that mutated and formed small villages here and there?'' ''I have never met one before.'' ''You will soon enough. Cairne village is a Leafe village, after all. They might not be too happy with how things worked out here.'' ''Ahhh, dammit. We''ll think of something,''I hoped. ''We could always eat them,''Coffee suggested, apparently awoken from her gluttonous slumber. I guessed so. The dungeon would recreate everyone, anyway. What''s the worst that could happen? It just meant more food for us. Ting!
Quest Update: Don''t do it.
''''''...'''''' Coffee, Liz and I looked at the blue bracelet, and then towards each other. ''Is this supposed to happen?''I asked. ''Never happened to me...''Liz raised an eyebrow. ''Seems like a hoax,''Coffee said.
Quest Update: Please, just follow the story.
''Is that you, dungeon hive?''I asked.
Quest Update: No... Nope. Nuh uh.
... Was the hive mind always this nonchalant? I remembered it being a lot more... intimidating and powerful-sounding. Maybe...? ''Are you a submind of the dungeon hive?''I asked. It was the only thing that made sense.
Quest Update:How did you know?! Do you have psychic powers?!
Aha! I was right!
Quest Update: Lmao. Just kidding, you dumbass. Wtf is a submind.
...
Quest Update: Wow, you haven''t even attained a Saint Class spell yet? Are you planning to waste that core I gave you? It''s a pretty good one, you know.
...
Quest Update: Joking again~ It''d be cheating if I gave you the power to conjure a Saint Class spell already, right? Anyway, stick to the mission plot and you''ll be fine.
''Let''s go burn that village to the ground,''I said. ''Yep, let''s do it,''Liz agreed. ''Uhn!''Kalli nodded vigorously. I couldn''t tell if he understood the situation or was just agreeing to violence because we were talking about it. ''YES, MOAR FOOD!''Coffee shouted fleefully, bloated stomach jiggling. Erm... ''I don''t know--''I began. ''FOOD!''Coffee zoomed down the forest path towards the village. ''...What the hell is wrong with her?''I wondered. ''I have no clue...''Liz looked concerned.''Sheseemed fine until we ran intothose manamoos.''
Quest Update: It''s a side effect of her curse. They''re starting, and there''s only one spellthat can prevent her from getting so fat that she''ll explode. You have to stop her now! You need those villagers to completethe final mission. The final reward is a scroll that can undo any curse.
Ting!
Actual Quest Update: Reward - Curse Removal (King Class Magic Scroll)
''Shit. Coffee, stop!''I yelled. It didn''t help. Fuck. I groaned and started moving despite the sickening headache.''Lets go, Liz!'' ''Aye. Yosh!''Liz lifted Kalli onto her shoulders. ''Uhn!''Kalli raised his arms. We ran after Coffee as fast as we could. Chapter 23 - The Temple of Figus (Part 2) ¡®Huff huff¡­ How the hell is she running so quickly with all that weight?¡¯ I cried, vision starting to blur because of the headache and exhaustion. ¡®I don¡¯t think that can be called running,¡¯ Liz giggled. I wiped the sweat from my eyes and focused on Coffee¡¯s figure as it moved down the forest trail, head bobbing up and down. No wait, that wasn¡¯t right. It was in view, then not in view, almost as if she was¡­ Rolling? ¡­ Well, then. It gave me an excellent idea, though. I created a ball of mana, converted it into a series of Manifestation Vectors, and modelled a flat board with a curved tip. I jumped up and connected the vectors, causing them to transform my lower body into a makeshift sled. I landed squarely, and began to slide down the dirt road at an astonishing speed. ssssssSSSSSSS. ¡®AGHHHH!¡¯ I screamed. The base of my body was immediately subjected to the fires of perdition that couldn¡¯t be compared to a simple carpet burn. I could feel each grain of dirt dig itself into my flesh. Releasing the spell, I skidded to a stop and started to nurse my wounds. I had the unfortunate experience of learning what cooked slime would smell like. ¡®You uh¡­ okay?¡¯ Liz stopped beside me, and blew on the steaming wound. Kalli, who was now piggybacked on Liz, was trying to stifle his laughter. Aweh, he was so cute. I guess it wasn¡¯t so bad. I made him smile at-- Liiick. ¡®OW!¡¯ I yelled, pulling away. ¡®What was that for?!¡¯ ¡®Mimic saliva has healing properties,¡¯ Liz said, licking her lips.Her cheeks were tinged with red. ¡®Healing my ass. It just hurts even more,¡¯ I complained, glaring at her. ¡®It¡¯s true,¡¯ she insisted. ¡®If you let me lick¡ª¡¯ ¡®No way.¡¯ I said, holding my pseudopods out defensively. ¡®C¡¯mon, we have to catch up to Coffee.¡¯ ¡®Fine.¡¯ Liz looked dejected. ¡®You taste so good though¡­¡¯ she muttered barely audibly. ¡®Sorry?¡¯ ¡®Ah, nothing!¡¯ She smiled. Danger signals went off in my head, and I shook my head vigorously to refocus on the task at hand. At least the headache was dulled, replaced by the burning sensation below me. There had to be a better way to get down the mountain¡­ Ah! I extended Manifestation Vectors to create a tall cylinder in front of me, and applied a thin layer of Collision mana over the inner walls. Then, shrinking the cylinder lengthwise, I compressed the air trapped inside into a thin disc, using the displaced Manifestation Vectors into bind the cylinder tighter like a system of latches. Hoverboard complete. Carefully, I dragged myself onto the board and hopped up and down to get a feel for its stability, finding that I was essentially able to float 10 centimeters off the ground. ¡®Hop on,¡¯ I motioned to Liz and Kalli, who were watching with great interest. ¡®Ooooo¡­ I¡¯ve never seen an application like this,¡¯ Liz said, stepping onto the hoverboard. ¡®This is similar to Air Space, except it doesn¡¯t manipulate wind at all.¡¯ ¡®Air Space?¡¯ I asked, trying to figure out how to move the disc efficiently. Unlike what I was expecting, it didn¡¯t slidedownwards on its own, despite the decline of the ground. Just moving it by shifting the vectors was slow and tedious... Maybe I could fire collision mana backwards? ¡®It¡¯s an Advanced Wind Spell that compresses the gas forcefully by creating a countercurrent air flo¡ªAHHHH!¡¯ We blasted forward as I released a decent amount of collision mana behind us, and I instinctively remodeled the cylinder to surround us with a cushiony wall of compressed air, keeping us from flying off. In a few seconds, the acceleration stopped and we continued to moveat a decent velocity, which was fine. Except that we were hovering at least twenty meters off the ground. ¡®Whoa, lets go up higher,¡¯ I said, a little excited now. I pushed us upwards until we reached a height of about a hundred meters, looking over a breathtaking view of the isolated world we were in. The sun was slowly setting behind the extensive mountain range in the horizon, basking everything before it in a dim orange glow. Beyond the forest were hundreds of kilometers of green plains populated with dispersed villages that were connected by long, winding roads. At the center of these plains was an immensely large, vine-like construct that was almost as wide as the mountain. Interestingly, there were a series of fruits that seemed to bud from the top of the vines, some which were tall like bananas and others that were small like mandarin oranges. And all along the vines were small ant-like figures moving like a bustling crowd, some vines more active than others. ¡®Holy shit, is that what I think it is?¡¯ I asked in awe. ¡®That would be Orbis City, the biggest Leafe city in the subdungeon,¡¯ Liz whispered, putting a hand to her mouth and looking very green indeed. ¡®By the way, I would appreciate it if you could tell me next time before you launch us FOOOOORRRWAAAARRRRD!¡¯ ¡®Sorry, you should¡¯ve have said something sooner!¡¯ I yelled, accelerating us downwards and forwards so that we could catch up to Coffee. I could¡¯ve stayed forever and watched the sun set, but we needed to finish the mission as soon as possible. I also had no idea what we would do if night fell and we didn¡¯t findan inn or something.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
¡®Bleeeeeeeeh¡­¡¯ Liz threw up on the ground after we landed and dispelled the hoverboard, leaving a worried Kalli to rub her back and console her. I felt bad for Liz, but I was more relieved than anything. Coffee was on the ground, sleeping safe and sound with a nice puddle of vomit next to her. I guessed the extensive rolling adventure wasn¡¯t very pleasant to the stomach. ¡®Seems like we¡¯re okay for now,¡¯ I plopped onto the ground, tired as fuck. I felt my eyes drooping, but then slapped myself in the face. We needed to go to Cairne village and find somewhere to stay the night. There was about two hundred meters to the village entrance ahead, which was barred off with a wooden gate. ¡®Hup!¡¯ I gathered some air inside my body using Manipulation Vectors to make myself a little bigger, and lifted Coffee onto my back, which molded to her figure like memory foam would. ¡®Hurry up, Liz.¡¯ She wiped her mouth and grumbled about how I was a slave driver, which I ignored. Carrying Coffee was much more difficult than I had imagined. She weighed a ton. How a little girl managed to shove that much food inside her bewildered me. As we approached the village gates, we saw a sign in front that said clearly: [Cairne Village]. A hostile voice called out from behind, resembling an Australian accent. ¡°Who goes there?!¡± ¡°We''re not enemies!¡± Liz called out in response. ¡°We¡¯re just looking for a place to crash for the night!¡± ¡°We ain¡¯t taking strangers no more. Not after ¡®em fukin¡¯ Moobs took a few of our babes the other night,¡± the voice shook with rage. ¡®We tried to save them,¡¯ I lied. ¡®But we were too late. We did, however, get revenge for you! Those manamoos are dead!¡¯ ¡°¡­¡± The voice fell silent and seemed to mull this over. ¡°Show me some proof, yeah?¡± Liz wordlessly took out a manamoo head from the void ring which she had been lent to store the leftover meat from our meal. Why she kept the head, I had no fucking clue, but I was glad that she brought it with us. She threw the head over the gate, which we heard land on the ground with a thud. We heard frantic whispering among several people, which then quieted down as if they had reached an agreement. Creaaak. The gate opened to reveal two strange figures. They were standing on a pair of legs and spouting a pair of arms, but their body and heads were definitely vegetable. One was a potato, and the other was a single stalk of green onion; both were human-sized and smiling, ¡°Welcome to Cairne Village, heroes!¡± The green onion said. Ting!
Quest Updated: Current Mission changed to ¡®Speak to the Village Elder¡¯.
Walking towards the center of the village, the sun finally set and enshrouded the area in darkness. The villagerslit a bonfire in the village square, and were chatting happily with each other. There was quite a variety, ranging from garlic to cucumbers to radishes to peppers. All around were buildings made of large, colorful fruits, some of which I assumed were homes and others that looked like a community center and town hall. Seeing me look around in amazement, the potato chuckled, ¡°These are all imported from Orbis City. Beautiful, aren¡¯t they?¡± I nodded in agreement, to which the green onion smiled at me sadly. I asked him why, and he merely shook his head. I was curious, but I didn¡¯t want to poke my head into somewhere I shouldn¡¯t be. We were brought before a sagging tomato, who was sitting on a chair made from what appeared to be a large seed. ¡°Greetings, heroes. My name is Toto. I humbly thank you for dealing with those Moobs. They have terrorized and killed many of us, and I cannot express my gratitude in words,¡± the tomato said, bowing. ¡®It¡¯s no problem at all, but if you don¡¯t mind me asking, why couldn¡¯t you fight them off yourselves?¡¯ I asked. ¡°To strong warriors such as you and your friends, perhaps defeating such a foe may have been an easy task. We are but simple villagers that live for the sake of living, and bask in the sun to photosynthesize until the day we pass. We have no strength to oppose them. The warriors of Leafe, who might be able to, are all in Orbis City, defending our people from the Moob Army, even as we speak,¡± Toto said. The flames from the bonfire flickered and illuminated the heavy sags on his red face. They glistened brightly in his black eyes. Over to my right, Kalli was being surrounded by small broccoli that tugged at him to go play with them. He looked expectantly at Liz, who smiled and nodded before turning back to Toto. Kalli ran off to play with the other kids. ¡°Great heroes, I have a request to make of you,¡± Toto said with a serious face, making his wrinkles look even more defined than they were previously. ¡°Our enemies have been gathering a powerful force at the Temple of Figus to launch an assault on Orbis City. We are afraid that our entire civilization is doomed if we stand by idly. Would you be willing to help protect our homes, our children, and our families? We could use¡ªno... we absolutely need your help.¡± Ting!
Quest Update: Current Mission changed to ¡®Defend Orbis City¡¯.
Holy crap, this was a pretty huge request. I was all for helping people, but to engage in a war? Jesus. How would we even contribute? We were only three people and a child. And one of us was currently undergoing violently gluttonoustendencies. Watchingthe children play by the bonfire with Kalli, wrestling playfully and laughing joyously, I remembered when Ellie and Andreawould sit and chat, whileLily and I would play in the pond near our house. No, stop that. Focus. I took a deep breath and thought about what was most important to me right now. Immediately, I glanced up at Coffee, who was still snoozing away calmly. Even if she was annoying at some times, blantantly opinionated at others, and violent to a fault, at her core was someone who trulycared about the people nearest to her. I took a deep breath. Yes, my priority right now was Coffee.We had to complete the mission if I wanted to save her. ¡®We would be happy to help,¡¯ I faked a smile. ¡°Fantastic! I shouldn¡¯t have expected anything less from a fine group of heroes,¡± Toto bowed again. ¡°Onnie will show you to your lodgings for the night. You must be very tired. Please rest well, for we must travel to Orbis tomorrow. I will provide you with more details in the morning.¡± ¡®Wait, could you at least tell us what we will be doing, exactly?¡¯ ¡°I will be coming with you to advise the war council of Leafe on tactical strategies. It will also allow me to introduce you to the army generals, whom you will work with to instruct our warriors in the ways of the Heroes, and teach them the skills they need to defeat the enemy.¡± ¡®¡­I see.¡¯ It was a big responsibility, being an instructor, but at least there was more hope in this strategy than merely slapping the four of us onto their defensive forces. ¡°It¡¯ll be fun, mate. I¡¯m comin¡¯ along too, yeah?¡± Onnie the green onion smiled and nudged me in the side. I grimaced, not having experience with teaching at all. I knew that Coffee would be a perfect military teacher, so I could only hope that she¡¯d be in a good enough state to instruct. Unless? ¡®Liz, are you familiar with teaching?¡¯ I asked. ¡®Hell no. Good luck, Bell,¡¯ she said, patting my back. God dammit. ¡®Alright then¡­ good night, Toto. See you in the morning,¡¯ I said, following Onnie to a shiny apple that was about the size of a large shack. Toto and the others said their farewells as we took our leave. Liz waved Kalli over, who ran to us grinning from edge to edge on his chesty face, eyes sparkling. I was impressed at how much he had improved a lot over the past day, and I was happy for him. Maybe it was the power of youth? Since we had escaped the manion, Icaught him looking down from time to time. Now, though, he was finally acting like a kid should. ¡°Good night, heroes!¡± Onnie bowed as we opened the door to the apple shack and entered our temporary home. What we saw almost brought tears to my eyes. Hell yeah! Beds~! I decided to push off thinking abouteverything till tomorrow, because I was unbelievably exhausted. Placing Coffee on the bed nearest to me, I plopped myself next to her, leaving the other bed for Liz and Kalli. I passed out within seconds. Chapter 24 - The Temple of Figus (Part 3) ''Hey, are youokay?¡¯ I hopped ontothe bed where a groggy Coffee with bedhead was yawning lazily. Her stomach had returned to its original size, and any evidence that she wasa voracious beast yesterday was gone. ¡®Mhm, I don¡¯t know what happened,¡¯ she sleepily replied, rubbing her eyes.''I remember eating something really good, and then...'' She turned slightly green, no doubt recalling the tumble she had yesterday. It took a few seconds for her to recover from that memory. Clearing her throat, she asked,¡®What happened after I blacked out?¡¯ I caught her up on the mission progress, and what the dungeon hivehad said regardingher curse. She remained quiet and expressionless throughout my explanation, but I could tell by the stiffness of her shoulders that she was anxious. I did try to be positive. ''Don''t worry. It''ll be fine once we finish the mission and get that scroll,'' I reassured her. ''We have 69 days left, if Liz was telling the truth about the time flux ratio. With your knowledge and my ingenuity, we''ll crush those Moobs and complete the mission without a hitch.'' ''I''m not worried,'' Coffee denied. ''I''m more concerned with that ego of yours. It''s inflating like a Mimic''s stomach after a slime buffet.'' ''More like a Vampire''s stomach.'' ''Ha~ Fuck you, it''s back to normal now. You''ll see once my curse is removed. I bet I was the bomb before I was turned into a washboard.'' ''I''ll believe it if you''re talking about an explosive personality.'' ''Very funny. Sigh, I don''t understand though. Side effects of curses are usually physical, instead of behavioural, and I''ve never heard of a curse that targets the brain directly.'' ''I think I have an idea,'' I frowned, picturing the page in my biology textbook on homeostatic regulation on endocrine function. ''There are a number of hormones produced in your body that regulate satiety, like leptin, insulin, and cortisol. I bet those are synapsing with the receptors in your brain to stimulate psychological processes like hunger.'' ''Right, I do remember that from my lectures. I guess I just didn''t connect the dots. Geez, how many years of self-study did you do if you never went to school?'' ''Uhh... myphotographic memory allows me to recallimages clearly, so I can memorize entire pages of textbooks pretty easily. I didn''t have to study long,''I said, only giving hera half-truth. It wasn''t that I didn''t trust her with my story; I just wanted her to focus on the quests right now. As far as Iknew, it was the only way to save her. ''I''ve been thinking, but that''s pretty much a cheat ability, you know?''She scratched her head and stretched.¡®Anyway, where''s Liz and Kalli?¡¯ ¡®They¡¯re outside doing the... laundry,¡¯ I said, turning my head away and blushing. The entire time, I had been trying not to stare at Coffee, who was in an oversized plain white t-shirt, with her pink nipples showing through the thin fabric. Liz had changed her into that shirt whileI was outside this morning. ¡®¡­Wha--?¡¯ Coffee looked down, turningbeet red. ¡®uuuu¡­. GET OUT! You pervert! Child harasser!¡¯ She threw a pillow at me hard enough to knock me off the bed. I summoned my modified version of Air Space to catch me before I hit the ground. Whoosh. I zoomed outside, out of reach of the livid Coffee, who was looking for more things to throw at me. The sun was beginning to rise above the mountain behind the village where we had entered this subdungeon, casting a shadow over Cairne Village. Below me was Liz and Kalli, who were throwing washed clothes at each other and giggling instead of storing them in the void ring. The villagers were gathered at the square, some of whom were loading crates onto a caravan. Toto and Onnie were part of a small group of vegetables who were carrying old, rusty swords on their waists. It was the first time in a longwhile that I felt like I had some time to relax, and Itook this timeto fly higher and enjoy the scenery. Acool breeze blew across the grassy plains, causing the colors of the landscape to look like schools of colorful fish swimming in a sea of green. The smell of nature reminded me of home, back at the village where my moms were surely looking for me. I missed them so much, and my heart ached to see them again. Once we completed this mission, was I really willing to stall going home to try and do something outrageously crazy like stopping a war? With no real proof, as well. It was a thought I had in the spur of the moment, but the longer I thought about it, the stupider it seemed. Maybe Coffee was right, and I was an idealist. I really should take time to think about what comes out of my thick skull. Anyway, the goal now was to complete this mission. Baby steps, right? That said, this was a goodopportunity to study the terrain around the city we''d be protecting... It was mostly flat, grassy plains, with very little cover. Projectile based defense seemed to be an obvious choice in the upcoming battle, particularly from a high vantage point. I didn''t know much about magic-based warfare, though. Against kung fu cows, no less. Hmmm... Using trenches to separate the city from the battleground, it might even be possible to use a controlled fire to ambush the enemy from behind and create a two-pronged attack. If I had to point out one weakness with the city, it would be its structural integrity. The city¡¯s infrastructure was dependent on a series of ten stems that held up the vines and gave them sufficient tension for supporting weight. If even one stem was cut, an entire segment of the city would unravel and fall apart. I mean, each stem was as thick as a baseball stadium and it was unlikely that anyone would be able to cut through it, but it was just something to keep in the back of my mind. Anything and everything would be vital to our survival. ¡®Bell!¡¯ Coffee called out from below, now wearing a simple black dress with frills on the ends. ¡®Let¡¯s get this show on the road! Liz, Kalli, c¡¯mon.¡¯ ¡®Aight,¡¯ I said, lowering myself back to the ground. The four of us made our way to the village square.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
I was still pondering different battle tactics as we approached Toto and his men. "You appear troubled, young hero," Toto observed. Behind him were two caravans that were packed and ready to go. Toto''s group of amateur soldiers was standing by, and consisted of Onnie, the potato from before, a carrot, and a bellpepper. ''Not in particular,''I said. I didn''t want to reveal my strategies until I knew that they would be viable and useful. Being prone to making decisions rashly, I was at least going to do things the right way this time.''Just thinking about what to do if I have to shit on the trip.'' "Ah, it is wise to think ahead," Toto nodded. "I too was wondering the same thing." ''He''s just joking,''Coffee smiled, smacking me on the back of the head.''Nice to meet you, village elder. Liz and Bell have told me about you. My name is Coffee.'' "Ah, yes. The young vampire who lay with the slime hero last night. I humbly thank you for--" ''L-l-l-lay? No, never!''Coffee made an X with her arms.''Who would want to sleep with someonewho hasn''t even hit puberty yet?'' That made me twitch, but I let it go. ''That''s mean, Coffee. Bell''s a fine young man,'' Liz said, coming to my defense. Probably with ulterior motives. ''B-big brother is really cool! L-like when he made us go zoom through the air like a manafly!'' Kalli added, not really understanding what was going on. At least he got the gist that Coffee was demeaning me in some way. ''Aweh, I appreciate it guys. Especially you, Kalli,'' I smiled. Kalli blushed. ''Then tonight, maybe we could--'' Liz started breathing heavily. ''Nope,'' I responded, erecting a wall of air between us. ''Aww... so I guess you and Coffee really are exclusively--'' ''''NO!'''' Coffee and I both exclaimed. "Ahem. I apologize for my foolish assumptions," Toto bowed. "Please, let us be going now. It would be best to arrive before nightfall." Sighing, I nodded, and we all filed onto our respective caravans, us ''heroes'' on one and the rest in the other. Like the slime cart, these vehicles were apparently operated via mana application. With that, our entourage departed from Cairne Village towards Orbis City, the other villagers waving us goodbye and wishing us the best of luck on our fight against the Moobs.
We had been riding for about an hour, and I had been thinking about battle strategies. Funnily enough, I was able to create miniature figures with Manifestation mana and simulate simple battles using physical combat. While this was pretty useless on its own, it was a great way to kill time. Kalli joined in, and I was having fun playing with himuntil he got tired and fell asleep on Liz''s lap. Coffee, who had been looking into the distance in front of us all this time, directed her attention to Liz. ''I believe we need to address the elephant in the room,''shesaid.''What''s the relationship between you and Kalli, and why did you lie to us at the mansion? No more bullshit.'' ''Getting right to the point, eh?''Liz muttered, scratching the back of her head.''I was wondering when you''d ask me about this. Where to begin... Hmmm...Kalli, here, isthe last livingheir to the Deadwoods. The Deadwood Family once held great influence following the First Dungeon War as an intermediary for peace talks and trade relations between the four Kingdoms. ''My lineage, the Morningwoods, have served their family in secrecy since the founding of our Kingdom. However, on one terrifying night while we weresent on a mission to deliver a message to the noble families of the Vampire Kingdom, the Deadwoods were slaughtered by the current rulers of the Mimic Kingdom...'' ''...All but one, I''m guessing?''I asked. Kalliwas still here, after all. ''Well, two,''Liz spoke softly, looking down at the young mimic sleeping on her lap.''Kalli, and his mother.'' ''So, you and your... friend, manipulatedus into helping you sneak into the mansion where he was held,''Coffee concluded. ''My friend, as you put it, would be my aunt Diane,''Liz shot back.''We were both assigned to this rescue mission, ultimately to return him to his mother, who is currently residing at a Vampire refugee camp--'' ''I don''t give a flying fuck. Youused us,''Coffee glared. ''Fuck you. DIANE''S PROBABLY DEAD!''Liz yelled.''If Bell hadn''t alerted the guards, then everything would have gone according to plan, and no one would''ve gotten hurt!'' ''Don''t you dare pin this one on Bell,''Coffee spat. ''Time out,''I whispered. ''It wasyour lie that got us into this mess,''Coffee continued. ''Time out,''I said. ''And who''s the fat ass that almost ate their way to--''Liz began. ''TIME OUT!''I stood in between them, pseudopods stretched out on either side. I took a deep breath.''Liz, I''m so sorry that I almost got us caught, and your aunt had to pay the price for it.'' ''Bell, you don''t have to apologize,''Coffee crossed her arms. ''I do,''I said sincerely.''Even if Liz separated us on purpose, it was me who stupidly tried to break through a barrier inside a hostile area.'' ''Still...''Coffee trailed off. ''You''re too nice, Bell,''Liz sighed.''What I said... it was uncalled for. I''m sorry. And both of you, I''m really sorry about withholding the truth from you. I didn''t think you would help us if I did. Also, if you had gotten captured and tortured for information, everything we had been working towards would''ve been destroyed.'' ''...''Coffee stayed silent, lips tightened into a thin line. For her, Liz''s confession was probably a confirmation of the suspicions Coffee had about Liz. As for me, I felt guilty for tripping the alarms, butI also felt betrayed. Could we trust her in the future? Was it worth the risk? As much as I cared for Kalli, my priority was removing Coffee''s curse right now, and I wondered whether Liz would ever risk her own life or Kalli''s to save Coffee''s or mine. It was highly unlikely. ''Is Kalli that important to you two, that you would sacrifice your lives for him?''I asked, trying to gauge how strong hermotivations were. ''Yes,''Liz answered without hesitation.''There are certain aspects of the political situation that I did not inform you about. The most critical one being that the current Vampire Queen isnot happy with the Mimic Kings, and wants to begin an internal revolution using the Deadwood name. She has given us one year to bring the legitimate heir, Kallimore pir Deadwood. ''I believe this is the only way to achieving peace between all of the Kingdoms, which is what you want, right?Having Kalli take over the throne will absolve the Mimic-Goblin relations, improve Vampire-Mimic relations, and revert the tension between the Slime Kingdom and the other Kingdoms.'' It did sound like a better idea than simply trying to convince the Vampire Kingdom of goblin involvement. But... ''Why would you want to help the Vampire Queen? Wouldn''t she be related tothe one who sentenced your father to death after the First Dungeon War?''I recalled the conversation we had a few weeks ago. ''...''Liz paused.''I still remember the day my father died. It was not the vampire queen who smiled that day. No. It was the Mimic Kings who were laughing. He took the fall for them in the name of peace. They deserve to have their genitals mutilated and left to rot in their filthy mouths.'' Sigh, so she was doing this out of loyalty for the Deadwoods, a desire for peace, and for revenge against the ruling Kings. Pretty strong motivations, if I had to say so myself. I likedboth Liz and Kalli, but that didn''t mean that I could fully trust them to be on our side when it counted the most. That said, there was something I needed to confirm. ''Will you help us complete the quest, Liz? I know you said the exit point is before the final mission, but I need your help to break Coffee''s curse. As you know, it''sprobably going to be dangerous,'' I said, staring into her eyes. They showed a hintof hesitation, and glanced down to look at Kalli. ''I''ll... think about it,''Liz answered honestly. Coffee didn''t respond, and zoned outagain. We fell into an uncomfortable silence, accompanied only by the rattling of the caravan. There was a long ass ride ahead of us. Chapter 25 - The Temple of Figus (Part 4) Three hours into the ride, the dysrhythmic bumps of the caravan hadbecame therapeutic for my sore body, like a massage that just kept on going. God knows I needed this. A soft moan escaped my thoughts, masking the subtle sounds of two manaflies making loveon the caravan roof. Here''swhat they were thinking: ''Oh George, thrustyour thick, wetdick intome!'' ''Oh Margaret, you''re so warm and moist!'' ''I want to have babies with you, Georgey-poo. Give it tome deep! Hiii! <3'' ''Honey... if you go any harder, then I''m going to... going to... Ahhhh!'' Squeak! Huh, what was that noise? I looked up to see a small dark stain on the roof. Was it raining? Strange.
Coffee had fallenasleep, and was currently making snot bubbles the size of her fist.She had complained about her head bumping against the floor, and kept buggingme until I made a bed forher using mymodified Air Space. I felt like the whipped boyfriend whostudiedcomputer science for the sole reason of programminga personalized organizer for all of his girlfriend''s clothing and accessories. Across from me, Liz was sitting upright against the caravan wall with her eyes closed, Kalli still snoozing away on her lap. She was either sleeping too, or silently contemplating about whether she would help Coffee and I complete the final mission. I could imagine that it was a huge request to accept, considering that she had so much riding on her being able to bringKalli to safety. As for me, I''d been trying to get this damn dungeon hive to communicate with me and give me more information. I tried everything from talking to it, to hitting the blue bracelet against the floor, to gently caressing it. I even tried tampering with the magic imbued into it, but was repelled by some invisible force. ''Oi,''I said, tapping the blue bracelet on my pseudopod in a final, feeble attempt.''Hello? Sigh...''
Quest Update: What do you want, bitch?
... I was glad that I got a response, but... What was the dungeon hive''scharacter supposed to be, really? ''Uh, mister dungeon hive... mind... sir? Whatshould I refer to you as?''
Quest Update:You think we got time for your pussy little ass? We''rethe dungeon lord, bitch.
''Nice to meet you, Bitch.''
Quest Update: Haha. You''ve got balls, bitch. Now go shove them up your ass. Ourname''s Xylene, by the way.
''Thank you,Xylene. I have a few questions I''d like to ask you about the missions.''
Quest Update: And why should we tell you anything, bitch?
I smiled forcefully, trying to ignore the fact that mynew nickname seemed to be ''bitch''. ''You''ve obviously got something to gain from me completing them, especially if you''d go as far as to reward me with a curse removal scroll,''I commented. I''d been thinking about this for a while now, and I still couldn''t understand Xylene''s motivations fully. What was clear, was that theyhad something to do with Coffee. Xylenehad granted me a mature mana core, conveniently at a time when I could use it to stall the goblin-mimic and save Coffee. It had given me information when Coffee''s curse was acting up, and provided a means to help her. This also meant that it could not directly interfere and help her itself, but rather had to rely on me to do its work. I didn''t particularly mind, because our motivationsseemed to be aligned right now.
Quest Update:Sharp one, aren''t you bitch. Fine, you can ask three questions, and that''s it. I''ve got a dungeon to run.
What is it that you really do, as a dungeon hive? I had to swallow this rhetorical question to ask the more important ones. And right now, there was one that took top priority. ''Are my parents okay?''
Quest Update:Yeah.
... That''s it? ''...That''s all you''re going to give me?''
Quest Update:Yeah. And that''s number two. One more question left.
''Hey, that''s not fair! That wasn''t even a proper question!''
Quest Update:Gee, what a stuck up little bitch you are. Two more. You happy?
What a jackass! Seriously, what was up with this dungeon? I want the first dungeon hive I talked to at the sanctuary back, please. The second encounterwas like talking to an internet troll, and this third time was like talking to the worst rendition of Daniel M Jackson. At least I found out that my parents were ''okay'', but what parameters did it use to define ''okay'', in the first place? ARGG! This was so frustrating! Sigh... Calm down, Bell. Just focus on the second question. And make it more specific this time. ''What does the final mission of the Great Manamoo Caverns entail?''
Quest Update: After reaching the Temple of Figus and defeating the false Moob King, a one-way portal will open, leading you to the secret cow level. There, you will slaughter countless manamoos and ultimately defeat the true Moob King, bitch.
I nodded and smiled. Yeah, that sounded great. LIKE HELL IT DID! If I could breathe fire, I would set this worldablaze to show my defiance. Not only did the final mission sound impossibly hard, but it would also require us to go through aone-wayportal? There would be no way for us to return and leave through the secret exit Liz was talking about. The one that would transport us near the Vampire Kingdom. Moreover, if my memory served me correctly, thetrue exit of the dungeon would just transport us back to the entrance in the Mimic Kingdom. How the fuck was this fair? ''Is there any way to go back from the secret cow level to the Temple of Figus?''I asked desperately.
Quest Update: Nope. Aaaand that was three! Good luck and goodbye~
''Xylene! Stop, I have more questions!'' I tapped on the blue bracelet furiously to no avail. That bastard! So in the end, it was a suicide mission to save Coffee? I thought our goals were aligned, you damn dungeon! Frustrated, I stomped my feet on the caravan floor. ''Bell?''Liz looked up, probablywoken by the sudden noise.''What''s going on?'' Kalli also got up sleepily, wobbling from side to side as he tried to balance himself on the moving vehicle.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Bang! The caravan jolted upwards upon hitting a rock, sending poor Kalli on a tumble. He hit his head against the caravan wall and was holding his head with both hands. Liz lifted him up and placed him between her crossed legs, hugginghim to prevent him from flying off again. ''Aweh, Kalli, don''t cry,''Liz comforted him.''So, Bell? Why were you stomping about?'' ''Err...''I looked at the blue bracelet, which had returned to its normal mission status screen. Do I tell her that the final mission was a suicide mission, and that even if we succeeded, we''d lose the opportunity to use the escape route? Informingher seemed like the right thing to do, but it was obvious that her decision would be cemented if I did.''I was frustrated about something. Were you awake the entire time?''I deflected, deciding to think about it some more before dropping the bomb. ''Mhm. Didn''t you hear the amazing, sensual sounds going on up top? Those manaflies aregoing on round 5 right now,''Liz drooled. I looked up in horror to find five dark spots on the roof. You mean to say that those are... "Stop the vehicle!" A familiar voiceshouted from ahead. It was coming from the other caravan. ''What''s the matter?''I shouted back, shaking myself from the terrifying thought of bug sex happening while I was in that dilemma. What the fuck was wrong with the author? (AN: 39 degree fever, that''s what) "We''re going to take a fifteen minute breakfast break at this pit stop, and then continue on our way," Onniesaid, jumping out of his van. The other four vegetables jumped out as well, and the five of them clambored down onto the street on their backs in a straight row, staying absolutely still. "Ahhhh, photosynthesis," Toto moaned. It honestly looked like a vegetable kebab without the stick. ... Liz, Kalli, and I just stared at them judgementally. "Do you young''uns want to join us?" One of the other vegetables asked. "Feels great!" ''No thanks,''I responded. ''Doesn''t that... look painful?''I asked in a whisper. The sun was high in the sky, and it was probably at least 30 degrees celsius. ''Yeah, it seems a little hot,''Liz replied. For once, without a sexual connotation. Literal steam seemed to be coming off their skin. ''Steamed veggies!''Kalli exclaimed. ''FOOD?!''A loud voice cried from behind us. Oh fuck, no. A small figure burst forth over our heads and sank its teeth into the nearest vegetable, Toto. "M-miss vampire hero, w-what are--ACK!" Toto''s eyes rolled back into his head. "S-s-stop h-her!" Toto''s four warriors shuffled to their feet and raised their swords as Coffee chomped down on the tomato, drenching her in red tomato sauce. What was I horrified about before? Bug sex? Yeah,that was nothing compared to the looks these guys were wearing on their faces. ''Liz, Kalli, let''s back her up,''I whispered. They sternly nodded, acknowledging that the situation had gone too far, and we wouldn''t be able to recover from this mishap. Well, Lizwould probably feel this way. I''m sure Kalli was just hungry. I''d have to remind Liz to feed him some of those manamoo strips we packed earlier. I summoned my modified Air Space from within the caravan and fired it towards the veggie warriors, knocking two off their feet and distracting the other two, who fought back the invisible force of air with their absorption-imbued swords or via evasive maneuvers. This would be enough time to let Liz--ah, nevermind. Coffee already started eating the two who had been knocked to the ground. Alive. "AHHHHHH! MOMMY, HELP M--" "FUCK! MY LEG! MY ARM! MY HEA--" I shivered watching their last moments, eaten alive by a voracious Coffee. I knew they were vegetables, but it was still quitegraphic. Liz was covering Kalli''s eyes instead of helping out with the battle. Then again, I didn''t think Coffee needed any more backup at this point. She was like the main character of that one really popular food anime, reincarnated in the body of a little girl. Two minuteslater, all of the vegetables who were lying on the street were gone, and in their place was a snoring Coffee, with a bloated stomach the size of a large beach ball. Moreso than what had happened, I was surprised that she could stand to be in the sun-- ''Bell, please help me into the caravan. The sun burns,''she whimpered. Not asleep after all, huh? ''No, you need to know what you did,''I shot back, already moving the Air Space underneath her to transport her to the vehicle. I was so nice. ''It was the curse again. It wasn''t my fault,''shegroaned. She breathed a sigh of relief as the shade rolled over her. ''Dammit, they''re all dead. What the fuck do we do now?''I threw my pseudopods up in the air. More complications. Always. Never ending, complications. I was almost ready to give up. ''The mission didn''t say anything about transporting those guys to the city, right? Wasn''t itjust about defending Orbis City?''Liz asked. ''Yeah, but how are we supposed to defend the city if we just lost our primary strategic advisor?''I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. ''Weren''t you creating strategies and stuff earlier with Kalli?''Liz smiled.''I''m sure you could do a better job than Toto. He was kind of an airhead, in my opinion.'' ''Yeah, woooooh, go Bell, master strategizer!''Coffee laughed. I flicked her on the forehead with my pseudopod. ''You don''t have any right to make fun of me, Ms. Glutton,''I retorted. ''Who are you calling a glutton?''Coffee stuck out her tongue at the caravan roof, unable to lift herself to face me because ofher immense weight. ''Big bro, I think you can do it!''Kalli nudged me from the side and looked up at me with sparkling eyes. ''Err... Butwhy would they even trust me in the first place? Weren''t they expecting Toto to come?''I was looking for any excuse possible tonot have to be the strategic advisor. I didn''t have any experience, nor did I have any confidence in my abilities. ''You can use Advanced Shapeshifting, right Bell?''Coffee asked.''You can just become a tomatofor the time being and call yourself his son or something.'' ''That''s right!''Liz encouraged.''You can be Toto Jr. for the time being. It''s foolproof.'' ''Big bro the toma-to!''Kalli said gleefully, clapping his hands together. God dammit.
''Pfffff-hahahahahaha!''Coffee rolled along the floor of the moving caravan as she laughed her ass off. ''Ahem. It looks... uhh... nice?''Liz tried to be optimistic. ''You look weird, big bro,''Kalli commented. I had tried to create a mental 3D rendition of a younger looking Toto, and applied manifestation vectors just like when I had transformed into a mimic. The problem was that whereas mimics were boxy, tomatos were spherical and slightly oblong. I had trouble getting the right curvature, and ended up stressing the manifestation vectors, causing them to bend at weird angles. All said and done, I looked like a white tumor with arms and legs growing out of it, and a disfigured face to boot. ''Maybe we could say that Toto forgot to use protection when he banged a broccoli,''Liz suggested. "Phwuck you guish," I said.
It took me four tries to actually transformmyself into a passable tomato, but by this point everyone was laughed out. We had been traveling for a long time, and we were past three-quarters of the way to Orbis City. Everyone but mewas asleep, partlybecause I was never really a heavy sleeper. The other reason was that I was enticed byour magic items. For the past while, I had been studying the void ring, and figured out a little bit about how it worked. The ring itself was a sophisticated magical conduit that drew in mana from the user and amplified it several thousand times. This was only possible because of the material that it was manufactured from, and it was one that I had never seen before. I could only imagine that it was rare and priceless, to have such an effect. After amplification, the conduit created a small rift that was infused with a strange type of mana that seemed to keep thevoid space beyond the rift frozen in time. Extrapolating from the subdungeon''s time flux properties, I first guessed that this mana would be Flux. But I had another theory, which utilized manifestation mana. I assumed that manifestation vectors were used to create a storage space inside the rift that could be accessed via macro througha specific channel in the ring, just like I did when I summoned my macros. The difference was that the creators of the void ring may have manipulated the vectors tosurpass three-dimensional space andkeep the storage space suspended in the fourth dimension, time. I would have loved to learn more about time based vectors, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn''t perceive it. I assumedthat this limitation was due to beingunableto sense the fourth dimension. Was there a species out there that could see into the fourth dimension? Or was it a skill? Perhaps it had something to do with that divination stuff my grandfather had mentioned in his journal, or the time flux ratio associatedwith this subdungeon. Regardless, the void ring did give me an idea. I never really considered the possibility of sending spells through the void matrix. I broke off a piece of the modified Air Space that Coffee was sleeping on, and discovered that I could transport it through a Jux without expending any mana! There could be so many applications of this spell, like... like... uhhhh... ... Well,at least it was cool. Maybe I could use it to send air from one area to another or something. Like blowingCoffee''s morning breath away. The other thing I was playing around with was the Relic we found at the mansion. It was as golden and shiny as ever, and I was careful to not infuse any mana into it, particularly since Coffee warned me that it could seala unique and powerful spell. Using mana perception, I studied the intricacies therewithin. It was like peering into the inner workings of a computer, except that the circuitry was more complicated than even the void ring, and the parts were more minute. This compactness and sophistication would put the technology giant Orangeto shame. As to what the Relic''s functionality was, was anybody''s guess. Without the initial application of energy to boot the system up, it was like looking at a circuit board dimly laced with a concoction of mana types that blended perfectly and prevented me from dissecting it. I wondered if there was a circuitry expert who could help us decipher it, but I doubted it, especially if the creators of the void ring were all executed. This Relic was more advanced than the void ring itself. I slapped myself with a tinge of regret. Damn, I should''ve used the last question Xylenegave me to ask what this Relic did. It could be the line between success and failure in this mission, if it was as powerful as Coffee made it out to be. I tapped on the blue bracelet again to no avail. I wondered ifXylene would even respond anymore for the remainder of the quest. Sigh. Storing the Relic back into the void ring, I woke Liz up to continue powering the caravan with mana, and dragged myself beside the sleeping Coffee totake a nap against her back until we got to the city. ... It''s not like that, alright? I just... I just wanted... Shaddup, what''s wrong with a man wanting physical comfort, huh? Mumble mumble zzzzzZzzz... Hiatus - Till Further Notice Hi guys, I will be taking a break from writingCoffee & Slime till further notice. I''ve introduced so many themes and conflicts that I''m not sure where it''s going anymore, and whether they will be resolved in a way that makes everyone happy. When I started writing C&S, I thought it would be enough to have a general idea of the overall plot and backstory, but I''ve since figured out that I need to do a lot more planning before I should actually begin writing. I''m not sure what I''m going to do, but this is my current plan so far:Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. 1. Put C&S on hiatus 2. Fully plan out the first volume of a new series that I''ve been workingon alongside C&S. Personally, I think it''s much more original, and I think I''ll have a lot more fun writing it. 3. Release chapters only after I''ve written at least three in advance, so that the release schedule will be adhered to, no matter what happens to my own personal schedule. 4. Come back to C&S when I feel confident that I can turn it into the novel that I want it to be. Thank you for your support so far, and please look forward to my next work. Sincerely, Room9