Syl

Chapter 218: Essence Sludge

"I’d avoid using any magic that made them..." Trixie suggested.

"That’s... All my magic!" I complained.

"Well, not Light!" Vee corrected.

"Great, I’ll flashlight them to death!" I complained.

"You know what a flashlight is, yet look at me like I’m talking crazy half the time!" Vee whined.

"What? Flashlights exist... They’re pretty common adventuring tools," I answered.

Vee grumbled very loudly at that comment.

"I guess I could use [Rift Thread] to attack them," Vee sighed. "If you didn’t use Corrosion, I could have used that..."

"It’s not like I could have predicted strange sludge monsters to be created from a few bombs," I defended myself. "You could try making an attack spell with your new spell."

Trixie nodded, "I agree with the little spider. No telling what storing something like that would do to your Mana."

I sighed, "Fine. I’ll just go all slime monster on it."

"Good luck!" Trixie said before hopping off my head.

I began casting my debuffs, only to watch none of them apply to the monster. Worse, it seemed casting them had triggered the monster to wake up, as it suddenly jumped up and looked directly toward us.

"I did say no magic!" Trixie teased.

I grumbled and began readying myself. The monster was barreling towards us.

"Want me to try [Rift Thread]?" Vee asked.

I shook my head, "Let me have a go at it first."

Not wanting to get my armor dirty with whatever the creature was, I deposited all my gear and began shapeshifting into a somewhat blobby form myself while sprouting all my [Pseudopods].

I had thought of going into my blueblin form, but I wanted some more mass between my cores and this creature.

"All this time, and you turn into a big jellyfish?" Trixie asked, sounding disappointed.

I ignored the mouthy pixie and began surging forward with my tendrils to grab hold or strike the creature. At the tip of each tendril, I fashioned various weapons or monstrous armaments and reinforced them with [Metal Slime]. I had gained a new level, and so I’d successfully unlocked the ability to copy the properties of adamantine perfectly.

That caused Trixie to shut up, and she whistled as if impressed.

When my tendrils touched the creature, there was an almost caustic reaction. It was definitely harmful to the touch, but I seemed relatively immune, thanks to my plethora of resistances from my various slime traits and multiple reinforcements.

The amalgam let out an alien roar, and a surge of elemental energy exploded off it. It was undoubtedly a wave of all the elements I had used in my bombs. Of everything, the lightning would have been the most threatening, but it was easily within the capability of my [Voltaic Slime] to store.

My tendrils began slicing or bashing into the creature while others tried to grab hold and lift it up while trying to pull it apart. Attempting to catch the monster seemed impossible as its substance was almost slime-like, and bits would just give way.

One of its limbs tried grabbing my tendril and pulling me towards it. Rather than allowing such a thing to occur, I decided to cut off the limb and give it to the creature. But not before priming it with [Nitro Slime].

"Oh no, you’ve been disarmed!" Trixie teased.

I chuckled before triggering the detonation. Vee sighed, perhaps growing weary of my constant explosions, while Trixie was flabbergasted. The creature itself was none too pleased. It had lost parts of its form and began thrashing about.

I continued assaulting it with a swarm of weaponized tendrils, but no matter how much I beat on the amalgam, it wasn’t dying. I’d also tried to dissolve some of it with [Acid Slime], and to my horror, it seemed I couldn’t dissolve it.

Trying to use [Life Sight] revealed nothing as if it wasn’t alive in the first place. With no other ideas, I kept trying to beat it into submission. Hopefully, when it stopped moving, it would be dead. I just kept bashing, cutting, and occasionally exploding on the creature.

"Uh... Are you going to kill it?" Vee asked curiously.

I sighed. "I’m trying, aren’t I?"

"It doesn’t seem to want to stay dead..." Trixie mumbled.

"I’m open to suggestions?" I said impatiently.

I wasn’t exactly struggling, but this was undoubtedly growing on my nerves. I even tried throwing a spell at it on occasion, but that only seemed to renew it.

"Oh... Is it eating the essence to keep living?" Trixie suggested. "I guess it will die eventually when the essence runs out."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"That could take ages!" I complained.

"Take turns or something? I don’t know..." Trixie sighed.

"Sure... Might as well tag me in," Vee replied. "Gives me a chance to see if weaving these threads makes any difference!"

Using all my tendrils, I punched into the creature, sending it hurtling into the cave wall before retracting everything and retreating. Vee took the opportunity to [Blink] to my spot and pulled out countless strands of [Rift Thread].

"Woah, where’d she get so much of it from?" Trixie asked.

I noticed Vee was casting [Pocket Space], and it explained where she was keeping her ample supply.

"Doesn’t it weigh a lot?" I couldn’t help but ask.

Vee giggled before answering, "Hah! Compared to that canteen of slime you gave me, this is trivial. It weighs practically nothing at all!"

Vee began weaving a boundary around the creature, like a giant cage of the deadly thread.

"Why’s Vee calling you fat?" Trixie asked.

I sighed before responding, "I’m dimensionally heavy, apparently."

Trixie hummed before asking her next question, "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Good in the sense that someone can’t teleport me without a hefty cost," I answered.

Trixie nodded and added, "But it’s bad if a friend tries to teleport you."

"Pretty much," I agreed. "Other than Vee, I can’t see it happening too often. If I use the city teleport platforms again, I can just offer to pay the Mana cost myself."

When the creature finally reconstituted itself enough, it aggressively lunged toward Vee. It clearly couldn’t sense the trap waiting for it and rapidly began losing chunks of itself to the reality-slicing threads. Despite losing large portions of itself, it kept going forward.

"Oh! I think that’s working!" Trixie said excitedly. "Unlike when you were smashing it and exploding it, Vee is actually just outright removing some of it from existence."

"So a big enough weave of the thread would just remove it outright?" I suggested.

Trixie vibrated nervously at that comment. "Yeah, as terrifying as that sounds, it should work. Like a giant flyswatter of anti-essence."

"Okay... Giant flyswatter... I think I can make that?" Vee replied.

What next was a Vee frantically trying to weave between [Blinks]. She would weave a portion and vanish when the creature got within range. When it escaped the web, Vee would teleport in, and when it reentered, Vee would poof out.

It was gradually wearing down the creature, and even without Vee completing the weave of interlocking threads, it would no doubt eventually succumb to its own mindless drive.

Vee eventually had a small blanket-sized portion of weaved [Rift Thread]. She tied the ends of the blanket to other threads before manipulating it on some sort of pully-like system, causing the blanket to spread out to its full area.

"Oh gods, that is horrible..." Trixie mumbled. "I do not like that one bit; it’s like looking directly into nothingness."

Even I had to admit it was uncomfortable. What were usually hard-to-spot tripwires of infinite-cutting potential were now woven together into a death blanket.

Pulling on the strings of her impromptu creation, she sent it gliding and engulfed the strange creature. There was no roar, no wail, or anything. Where once there was a creature, there was now nothing.

<??? defeated. Experience gained.>

"I did it!" Vee said excitedly before clumsily trying to recollect the terrifying blanket.

"That wouldn’t work on you, would it?" I asked with a gulp.

"It sort of would," Trixie answered, albeit reluctantly. "Unlike that creature, I’m very affirmed in my existence. It would hurt and deal a lot of damage, but I wouldn’t be removed with a swipe. Likewise, I don’t think it would kill you in a single hit."

"Good to know..." I answered. "Cause it cut through my slime like butter."

"Actually, I think you’re much safer than me in that regard," Trixie explained. "What made the individual threads so dangerous is their almost infinitely small surface area, so it could cut you basically no matter what. Woven together like that, I don’t think it can cut you."

To both our relief, Vee stored it away using [Pocket Space] and began cleaning up what threads she could. Splintered threads seemed to fade away after a short time, so it wasn’t like leaving them behind would cause any random wanderers some harm.

"Okay, I love this spell," Vee said happily. "I can keep so much stuff ready for battle. Preparation time has always been my biggest issue; now, with [Pocket Space], I can use my downtime to my advantage!"

I nodded, "I sort of do the same with my [Core Storage]. I keep ready-made slime, and lately, I’ve been keeping constructs out of [Metal Slime] and [Nitro Slime]."

"Well, I’m certainly feeling left out," Trixie pouted. "I barely have pockets, and the ones I do have could fit a few grains of rice."

"What would you even keep?" I asked.

"Stuff..." Trixie grumbled.

"Stuff..." Vee repeated.

"Stuff..." I joined in on the teasing.

The pixie seemed very offended and disappeared in a huff. Vee and I couldn’t help but laugh at its absurdity.

"Should we see if there are any more?" Vee suggested.

I shrugged, "Might as well."

We started heading down the tunnel towards the impact site of my giant detonation. [Essence Sight] informed me the area was better but still greatly disturbed, and we spotted a few more lumbering hulks.

Oh, I should fuse the traits!

<Would you like to Fuse: [Mana Conception LV 6], [Life Sight LV 5], [Essence Sight LV 5]?

Becomes Trait: [Soul Sight LV 8].

This will cost 1 Trait Point.>

Yes!

<Fused Trait [Soul Sight LV 8] obtained. 15 Trait Points remaining.>

I had expected the new sight to just be the three combined into one, but it somehow seemed more than that. I tried examining Vee and using the new trait to determine her Life, Mana, and Essence.

Since I was relatively useless against the monsters unless we wanted to keep them restrained, I let Vee continue to fight them while I tried to adjust to the new vision or at least regain my previous levels of sight.

I’m in trouble if I can’t use [Mana Conception]. If I can’t tell what’s Mana or Essence, how am I supposed to construct my spells?

I sat on a nearby rock and began casting familiar spells I had previously constructed together. I started feeling uneasy as I went through my more intimately familiar spells, which were not as I remembered them looking.

When I looked at a specific section of a spell I knew housed a particular concept or element, instead of their normal appearance, they were almost corroded by extra information that I couldn’t decipher.

It’s almost like someone has spilled paint over my favorite book or piece of art. I know what’s under the paint but can’t see it.

Driven by curiosity and concern, I tried ordering my [Sub-Cores] to do some basic spell procedures. I had a new element to work with, so I told them to create a debuff for it.

Remarkably, my little helpers seemed to have no issue following my order. I watched as their many invisible hands created a spell I had only a vague understanding of.

This works... But I kind of hate it, I liked making the spells myself...

Eventually, they stopped, and I stared at the foreign spell construct floating before me. I had no idea if it would work or not, so I cast it at one of the black blob monsters Vee had yet to engage with.

<Spell [Illuminated] discovered.>

I guess that’s the light debuff? I wondered, right as another notification popped up.

<Proficiency gained. [Light Magic LV 1] improved to [Light Magic LV 2].>

<[Light Magic LV 2] spell [Flash] learned.>

And it’s not an attack spell... Great. This makes a flash of blinding light; I reckon that could have some uses...

I hoped I wouldn’t have to wait too long for that laser spell. If the unicorns had it, then hopefully, it would be within the next level or two. I couldn’t see those buffoons having too high a level in the magic.