Syl

Chapter 217: Luminous

"Poor little guy... He watched you eat the corpses of his cousins in front of him, and now you’re going to eat him, too!" Trixie teased.

"I don’t think slimes have any kinship; right when I was first reborn, I watched one blue slime eat another," I pointed out.

"And now you are going to perpetuate the cycle! How tragic!" Trixie continued her overly dramatic theatrics.

"Oh please... After both of you have so routinely teased me about how dumb slimes are, I bet that violet slime doesn’t even know where it is," I shook my head.

"Syl’s got a point there," Vee responded. "This violet slime would probably walk straight into lava!"

After unsealing the glass fishbowl-like container, I upended it to free the violet slime. It jiggled when it landed on the table before slowly crawling around.

"Look! It’s absolutely terrified of Syl! It wants freedom!" Trixie teased.

I snorted, pulled out a tiny piece of food from my [Core Storage], and placed it in front of me. Almost immediately, the violet slime started heading towards it.

"Absolutely terrified..." I repeated deadpan.

"Wiggles?" Vee replied.

"What else would you name a slime?" Trixie shrugged.

"Wiggles" was now before me, slowly snacking on the tiny piece of meat in my fingers. I stared hungrily at the lapis blue core floating in the violet slime.

"It’s literally eating out of the hand of its predator... I don’t even know what to say," Vee chuckled.

"Goodbye, Wiggles..." Trixie feigned crying. "You were too dumb for this cruel world."

I grumbled and considered caging the mouthy pixie in some lead-silver. I formed a tiny [Pseudopod] from my fingertips and fired it out like a needle lance, piercing the lapis blue core and instantly dragging it in.

<Compatible core detected. Integrate new core at a penalty?>

Yes.

<Slime (Violet) Core absorbed. Trait [Luminous Slime] gained.>

<[Luminous Slime]

This slime can produce a bioluminescent glow, even in absolute darkness. The color of the glow relates to the coloring of the slime mass.

Compatible with other slime traits. This trait has no levels.>

"Well... That’s severely underwhelming," I complained after reading the trait.

Seeing and sensing my two companions’ confusion, I shared the description to show them both. Vee shrugged and called it a boring trait while Trixie howled with laughter.

"I mean... What did you expect?" Trixie choked out between giggle fits. "It’s literally known as a pet that glows in the dark..."

"Yeah, yeah..." I waved off the snickering pixie.

Meanwhile, I dug through my profiles for the alicorn and began looking for my real goal.

<Skill [Light Magic LV 1] obtained. Skill Points remaining: 17.>

Yes! I was so excited. Then, the next line rained on my parade.

<[Light Magic LV 1] spell [Lantern] learned.>

"Really..." I whined.

Trixie once again burst into laughter, leaning so far backward that she did an accidental backflip as she floated through the air.

"What? What’s so funny?" Vee questioned.

I sighed and cast the new spell I had just learned rather than explaining. It formed a tiny little floating ball of light that illuminated the room.

"Oh... That’s kinda pretty," Vee commented. "Although, don’t we all have [Dark Vision]?"

Trixie snickered.

"Yes. I think Trixie knew what the first spell I would get was," I sighed. "Hopefully, I get a good spell sooner or later. I saw some rather impressive [Light Magic] when I fought unicorns and an alicorn."

"Hey, at least it’s better than my first two levels of [Dimension Magic]!" Vee tried to say reassuringly.

"Right..." I responded. "Damn, when I get [Dimension Magic], I’m going to have to get through those early levels as well!"

"Assuming you don’t MacGyver some weird spell and breeze through the levels," Vee added.

"What?" Trixie and I asked in unison, the former barely recovering from her laughter.

"You know, you always make custom spells and whatnot," Vee explained.

"I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that being called MacGyver?" Trixie said curiously.

"Oh... It’s like making something out of nothing but scraps," Vee explained. "I feel like Syl could probably brute force something useful out of those concepts."

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"Oh... Okay, I like that meaning!" Trixie replied happily. "MacGyver? MacGyver... MacGyver!"

"You could also use jerry-rig..." Vee replied. "It sorta means the same thing."

"Oh, that one sounds familiar," I nodded. "But yeah... I’ll definitely be doing a lot of trial and error as soon as I get [Dimension Magic]."

To illustrate my point, I began hastily and forcibly constructing a projectile version of [Lantern]. Once completed, I harmlessly threw the glowing spell toward Trixie. It shone dazzlingly before harmlessly crashing into the pixie and disappearing.

"See!" Vee exclaimed. "My point exactly!"

"Yeah, but shooting a glorified glowing ball of light is hardly what I’d call a good spell," I sighed.

"Tasty, though!" Trixie said, licking her lips.

"Wha?" Vee was startled.

"It’s a bit complicated, but Trixie eats Mana..." I answered.

"Only tasty Mana, though! Syl’s is the best!" Trixie replied, giving a big thumbs up.

"Okay, so we fed Syl. What’s next?" Vee asked, trying to change the subject.

"It’s too early to do our espionage..." Trixie mumbled. "Should we do some shopping on Syl’s wallet?"

"Either that or go explore the chaotic essence," I replied.

"Tough choice!" Trixie complained, genuinely struggling to decide which idea she liked more.

"Just don’t forget there might be another assassin waiting for you outside..." Vee warned.

"I’d almost say that makes going outside more tempting," I answered honestly. "That last one gave me a lot of experience."

"I suppose..." Vee agreed reluctantly.

"Onward to adventure then!" Trixie cheered before fluttering to her usual resting spot and thrusting a fist forward.

I shrugged, and we started heading towards the gate. To our surprise, while I wasn’t denied exit, some of the guards warned me against doing so. When I pressed that I wanted to go out to explore and do some monster hunting, they reluctantly agreed to let me pass before warning me to be vigilant and careful.

"Wow, they’re really giving you the VIP treatment," Trixie noted.

"They didn’t previously," I sighed. "I really think we should consider leaving this place soon."

"Not going to stick around till you get more silver cores?" Vee questioned.

"Frankly, I think I got more than I ever expected. My [Metal Slime] trait is almost at the level cap!" I replied happily.

"You’ve really been eating a lot then!" Trixie exclaimed. "What’s the next slime on your target list?"

Recalling the shopping list Gramps had given me, I mumbled and pondered a bit. "I’d really like to get a pink slime to heal others, like Vee, but I think that might be impossible..."

"Aww... Thanks!" Vee blushed.

"Oof... Yeah, even if you have abundant wealth, that might be impossible unless you’re also politically powerful," Trixie replied. "You’d probably be better off trying to raid a random labyrinth dungeon until you get lucky."

"Adding labyrinth dungeon to our to-do list then," I chuckled.

"Before or after the beach?" Vee questioned.

"Depends on if we find one between us and the beach, I suppose." I shrugged.

"Other than that, black slime looked really powerful!" I energetically replied. "There was the brown slime, but I think we’d need to go visit the elves to get one of those."

"The fertilizer slimes!" Trixie snickered. "Would that give you Nature affinity?"

"It’s my best guess," I answered.

"Hmm..." Trixie mumbled as she scratched her head. "I could probably try to arrange a trip to the elves."

"Is that wise? It was the elves who sent an assassin after all," Vee asked.

"I guess I’d need to take on a different persona then... It seems this one has some history," I sighed. I’d grown oddly attached to this form, being my oldest disguise.

"Boo!" Trixie whined. "You’re so cute like this, though."

"It’s better than being stabbed in the back," Vee commented.

"I’m sure it didn’t even hurt one bit," Trixie replied dismissively.

"True..." I mumbled. "I’ve also set up a bit of a contingency the next time someone decides to get stabby with me.

"That sounds delightfully cheeky; what did you do?" Trixie asked curiously.

"My fake blood will be primed [Nitro Slime], so then I can detonate their blade and hopefully disarm them or even take them out!" I grinned.

"That’s diabolical!" Trixie giggled mischievously. "Almost as good as the time you seduced the alicorn!"

"What...?" Vee cried. "Actually, no, don’t tell me! After imagining the dragon worm, I already have enough images that need bleaching."

"Worm?" Trixie repeated.

"I can turn into a worm now, and it’s compatible with one of my dragon heritage traits," I answered.

"You can turn into a worm?" Trixie didn’t seem impressed, so she snapped fingers when she realized it. "Oh! The giant mineral-eating ones, yeah, that makes more sense!"

We continued our three-way mental conversation as we headed toward the fungal cavern. Vee and I had grown somewhat familiar with the location, but this was apparently Trixie’s first time seeing the environment.

"Wow! So much glowing fungus!" Trixie exclaimed as she pointed to every little strange plant or thing.

As we headed toward the last known location of the tunnel I had dug out, Trixie suddenly tensed up.

"Woah... What the heck has happened here?"

Vee looked around confusedly. "I don’t see anything?"

Borrowing a better level of [Essence Sight], I looked around and immediately saw what had caused Trixie such an extreme reaction. The natural essence flow was anything but natural; it was warped beyond recognition, and I struggled to make out what elements had been mixed into this hodgepodge of essence stew.

<Proficiency gained. [Essence Sight LV 4] improved to [Essence Sight LV 5].>

Oh nice, I got my level! I can fuse them now.

But we heard a strange guttural growling before I could investigate that thought. We all stared down the hole and toward the source, a bizarre and dreadful amalgamation of creature parts and elements.

<Failed to identify.>

"Well, that’s peculiar..." I muttered when my skill failed.

The creature wasn’t moving towards us; if anything, it sounded in agony as it continued to moan and occasionally lash out against the wall.

"What exactly did you do to this area?" Trixie asked.

I rapidly created a spell orb and showed it to Trixie.

"That’s new," Trixie replied before examining it further. "I don’t see how this would have caused it, though."

Before explaining, I quickly infused it with a spell, showing it could store a spell. "I made a bunch of these and detonated all of them."

"I’d say hundreds, but that might be an overestimate," Vee added.

"Oh..." Trixie seemed to have made the realization. "And you killed a bunch of kobolds, too."

"An entire fortress," Vee explained again.

"Right. So lots of unresolved essences," Trixie pondered. "I suppose we are relatively far away from the dungeon... Or perhaps it didn’t want to regulate it due to the nature of all the elements mixing in. It’s very unnatural for this area to be so flooded with ice and lightning, not to mention corrosion."

"Why’s that an issue?" Vee asked.

Trixie pointed to the strange creature. "You wouldn’t expect an octopus to spawn in a desert or a yeti in a volcano, right? It’s pretty much the same principle. But it all had to go somewhere, and it threw them together into... That."

That was a certainly apt description of the strange creature. If I wasn’t looking straight at it, I would’ve sworn it was both wet and on fire simultaneously. Not to mention melting, yet clearly solid, and occasionally cracking with lightning.

Vee nervously chuckled, "I guess we should be thankful you haven’t got [Dimension Magic] yet..."

Trixie gasped, "Oh wow. That could have been bad! I’d highly suggest not exploding anything with Dimension Mana!"

I sighed, "I wasn’t planning on that... Besides, as Vee pointed out, what would they even do? Set coordinates?"

Trixie giggled almost maniacally before responding, "Unstable rips in reality that portal you into non-existence would be my guess."

Is that where the original Kappa went? I couldn’t help but wonder.

"Anyway... I’d suggest killing them. I reckon you’d be doing them and the world a favor," Trixie said.

"Do you think they’re safe to eat?" I asked.

"Eww..." Vee gagged. "Count me out. I’ve grown accustomed to eating proper food!"

"That goes double for me!" Trixie quickly added. "I don’t want to be anywhere near those bloated essence bubbles when they pop!"

Oh well... More for me.