Syl-Chapter 263: Crazy Slime

Despite my "discovery" and Mother giving me ample temptation to go down that path, I was blocked. I had thought creating the dimensional debuff was a tall order, but when attempting to modify even the slightest bit of the [Positioning] spell, I had the entire framework violently implode, claiming a massive chunk of my Mana and even my arm.

"Huh…" I commented as I regrew the arm.

"Huh!?" Vee cried. "That's all you have to say after magically removing your entire arm!"

"Losing the slime sucked, but it's not like I can't just regrow it back," I replied.

"Well, I can't, so please keep that dangerous magic away from me. Holy shit, I need to find some regeneration or life-saving traits before one of your obsessions kills both of us!"

"There's [Defy Death]," I answered. "Which… I just realized I had meant to share with you a while ago, but I kept getting distracted."

Vee groaned in frustration, but when I showed her the trait, her tune changed, "Thanks! Okay, that's one problem out of the way! Where did you even find this trait?"

"I got it from killing a giant badger monster," I answered.

Vee gasped, "You killed a honey badger!?"

I shook my head, "No, no honey, it had poison-coated claws and quills."

"I was going to complain about you missing the joke, like usual, but that sounds a hundred times worse!" Vee exclaimed. "Definitely a monster fitting of the trait; badgers don't go down without a fight! By the way, how the heck do I train this trait?"

"Oh, you train it by triggering it. I got a few levels by attempting to smash my own core," I replied nonchalantly.

"Syl… are you even human?" Vee asked.

"Well, no, I'm a slime."

"No! Obviously, I mean before being turned into a slime!" Vee cried out in frustration.

"I think so. Judging by how small the elf families are here, I don't think having a brother would be possible, and if I was a dwarf, I probably would have survived being poisoned," I answered with what I assumed was a reasonable explanation.

"Then why are you so… odd? No normal person would think, 'Gee, can I level up this trait by beating myself to near death!' that's seriously messed up."

"I didn't think it was that weird…" I hesitantly replied. "I mentioned Dewi, my pyromancer friend who set himself on fire to train his resistances. I can only assume Lisa shocked herself to train her lightning resistance. Then I also fought that troll [Experiment] who had an insane amount of regeneration; there's no way he leveled that up without actively hurting himself. Even his blood magic was routinely activated by cutting himself."

"Are you implying that I'm the weird one?"

"No, just pointing out that I'm not alone in some… creative training methods."

Vee sighed, "Well, I can't see myself beating myself to death. In fact, I think I'll spend a trait point to upgrade it to level two right away!"

"If it's only one point, it's probably a good idea," I agreed. "You don't want to be playing around with your life after all."

Vee didn't say anything, but I could sense the outright bubbling outrage and annoyance radiating off of her. I heard her sigh, but she changed the subject, to my surprise.

"I'm surprised I can take this trait. Most of the stuff you've shown me before hasn't been compatible."

"I'm lucky in that regard, as thanks to [Chimeric Mimicry], I'm pretty much unrestrained in whatever traits I borrow."

"Yes, rub it in…" Vee whined. "But still, don't you think this trait is very unspiderlike? I can't think of spiders being able to defy death. The same goes for you slimes; if anything, your kind dies at even a mild inconvenience."

"Maybe it's a universal monster trait?" I suggested. "I could try sharing it with the elves and see if they can take it."

"Sure, I guess… Still seems weird, though."

We continued our own activities, but I kept thinking about what Vee had mentioned. I pondered the strange thought until I came up with a plausible theory.

"I can sort of think of one reason why it might be a universal monster trait!" I said excitedly.

"What?" Vee replied in confusion as I interrupted her magical wrestling. "The defying death thing? You're still thinking about that?"

I shrugged, "It was stuck in my head. Anyway, listen, what if the Dungeon Masters got tired of their boss monsters dying in one hit, so they got the trait as a way to prevent that?"

Vee was about to respond but paused shortly, "Admittedly, I don't know much about dungeons beyond what you told me about your adventures. But! If they are controlled by individuals who are forced to provide a 'reasonable challenge without outright murdering people,' then I can definitely see them being somewhat peeved if their big monster died in one hit."

Stolen story; please report.

"Exactly! If I ran a dungeon, I'd want to give it to all my monster minions," I excitedly replied.

"If you ran a dungeon, I'd expect you to eat all the monsters and instead pretend to be them yourself," Vee joked.

"That's not a bad idea…" I admitted. "I could take over a dungeon and ingrain myself in the walls and floors with enough slime and [Sub-Cores]! Then, I could use my shapeshifting abilities to create slime monsters for people to fight! You think you're killing a monster, and then bam, it's only some slime! No experience for you!"

I laughed enthusiastically at the idea.

"That sounds downright evil. Is this where your villain arc begins?" Vee teased. "I think you'd anger a lot of people if they were fighting fake monsters with no rewards."

"Does that make you my evil minion? Or maybe the little spider devil on my shoulder," I teased back. "Also, even without experience, they might enjoy it—it would be a good way to train skills and traits or even get some practice done."

"I didn't expect you to be such a hypocrite!" Vee quickly pointed out.

"What? How?" I was baffled by the accusation.

"You literally told me that you went to war with the goblins because they stole your experience points."

"It wasn't a war… that's a huge exaggeration," I defended. "And they were secretly trying to enslave me. The stolen experience points were just the cherry on top of the bad situation."

"Straw that broke the camel's back," Vee corrected. "I still think people would get mad at a dungeon that provides no rewards besides skill training."

"I could give them mana potions," I suggested.

"So, just slime?"

"Valuable slime! Actually, that would really sell the idea of a training dungeon. You get skill experience and resources to continue training. Sounds like a win-win!"

"Meanwhile, you'd just snack on all the monster spawns for yourself?"

"Win-win-win!" I giggled.

Vee sighed and even attempted a spider shrug.

"If I took the gluttonous evolution, I could literally become the dungeon. I could make a tower, but in reality, it's all slime! I'd still need to find a way to officially become a Dungeon Master, though, so my dungeon takeover plan would be a better idea."

"Wow, your etiquette training has really cooked your brain. I know you didn't enjoy it, but now you've gone off the deep end of your stir craziness."

"No. All jokes aside, I genuinely think this might be an idea I can use in the future," I said. "Although I'm definitely a little stir-crazy. I'd love to go hunt again, but Paeris kept saying the stupid training was more important for now. Hopefully, now that it's done, we can go out."

Vee nodded, "Oh, well, who am I to complain? I want to transform from a spider into something human-ish. As you pointed out, your slime dungeon sounds more plausible."

"Considering I literally fought a wolfman, I think it's very likely," I said reassuringly. "Worst case, I beg Gramps to do something or maybe try making a wager that he couldn't make a spider human trait?"

"You want to try using reverse psychology on a god?"

"It could work. Maybe? I could threaten not to level up, and then he'd lose his bets."

"Okay, now I know you've gone crazy. There's no way you would stop leveling up."

"Yeah…" I admitted. "Although I could change my experience towards classes. Nothing but magic and skill points; let my slime side sit still. Considering my next-next evolution would be fifty levels away, I'd have plenty of time to convince him to meet our demands."

"Or he smites you, and you become a slimy stain on the ground."

I grinned smugly, "Well, as long as he doesn't smite me more than fourteen times, I think I can walk it off!"

Vee didn't respond, but I could feel her eyes boring into me. Moments before I was about to break the awkward silence, Vee beat me to it.

"Damn, I really thought I was about to get a 'slap the slime' quest!"

***

"How is the training? Will she be ready for the gala?" Loreleia asked.

"Despite some teething issues surrounding a large lack of focus on her part, yes," Paeris responded.

"Good work, Paeris; I knew I could count on you."

"Anytime, Mistress," he replied with a bow.

"And what of your personal evaluation?" she further questioned.

"I can confirm that there appears to be no sign of the slime or spider frenzying," Paeris said. "There have been frequent requests for hunting, although that appears to be more in terms of securing a food source for the slime than a desire to grow and evolve."

"That's reassuring; I must say that some of the reports of the eagerness expressed over the next evolution had me concerned. Even though Syl was probed by the Truthseeker, there is obviously the flaw that it's based on personal truth rather than factual—if these [Experiments] were misled into believing they were immune to succumbing like many monsters before them."

"Of course, Mistress. If anything, Vee, the spider, seems to be extremely in control despite being a higher-tier monster. She didn't even participate in much of the hunting but is perfectly content lazing about their abode and only occasionally partaking in their [Counter Magic] training."

"Excellent. With our immediate concerns out of the way, we can stop delaying," she replied firmly. "That also includes the requests they've made—speaking of which, how much have we managed to unearth?"

"Sadly, our branch has had very few spider companions, opting to stick mostly to felids as is tradition."

"Our branch does love their big cats…" Loreleia sighed, almost reminiscently.

"Indeed, but I have requested an exchange with the Carren branch. Should their freely given information be insufficient, I will have to leave it to you or Llewel to negotiate additional information."

"Yes, they always had a strange fascination with insectoids and arachnids. Poisons too…"

Paeris flinched, "Do you suspect them in the assassination attempt in Dhoggurum?"

"No… it would be too blatant if it was them, but they do have ample supply of Sanguine Dream. They most likely traded it to the true perpetrators unknowingly or had it stolen from their reserves."

"Of course, however, I'll still remain vigilant," Paeris responded. "As for the other request, I'm afraid to say that Llewel hasn't found too much, as our branch has never had a Riftmancer for long."

"Indeed, they would have been swept up the trunk directly back then. If not for the more… peaceful times we currently have, we would never have managed to keep Llewel to ourselves. Still, I imagine we must have some notes at the bare minimum?"

"Yes. I shall inform Llewel to release them along with the information he uncovered on elemental magic."

"It's a pity the slime doesn't have Verdant magic; I could have quite easily provided information on that, as it's our specialty," she sighed.

"Would it not gain it from consuming the pink core? It mentioned gaining new affinities and abilities from them," Paeris asked.

"No, Verdant is a combination of Healing, Nature and Holy. At most, the pink core would unlock Healing, and I doubt there's a slime related to Holy unless it's been lost to the ages."

"Thank you for the reminder, Mistress," Paeris said, bowing deeply.

Yes. It's almost perfect irony that the one my daughter named is also incapable of continuing my legacy, just like her, Loreleia thought bitterly.

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