48 I ate it ...
"Limy ... Hey... Limy..."
The puddle on the ground was bubbling like it was boiling. There was no human way of knowing if a living mucus was really alive or not, so both Aeldrya and I could only helplessly watch the terrible state Limy was in.
"Stone, what is happening?"
"I want to know too!"
‘Helpy, I need you more than ever.’
[Insufficient information.]
‘Insufficient information... At least she's alive, right? Wait, I can check her status!’
Status:
Name: Limy
Kind: Slime | Race: Blue slime
Level: 0 | Experience: 0/0 | Grade: 0
HP: 0/0 | MP: 0/0
Stats:
Vitality: 0 | Strength: 0 | Agility: 0
Intellect: 0 | Magic power: 0
————————————————
I opened Limy's status, but instead of helping, it confused me even more.
'What the fuck is this status?! Everything is at 0 and the skills are gone! Her HP is also 0…'
Unlike the times when I hadn't been able to take a look at the status of an enemy, Limy's could be seen, but it made no sense whatsoever. If someone's HP goes down to 0, one should die...but is it the same case if the maximum number of one’s HP is directly 0? Technically speaking, her HP was completely full...
"You're her master, aren't you? Do something!"
Aeldrya grabbed me and started shocking me nonstop.
"I'm the first who wants to do something!"
The puddle stopped bubbling. From its center, a small black dot appeared and began to slowly dissolve into the blue pool.
"Is the black slime trying to take control of her body? Get the core out of her right now!" I screamed desperately.
"What core?! There is absolutely nothing here!"
Limy had literally turned into a puddle of mucus. Its thickness was not much more than a millimeter. It was impossible not to see the core with the naked eye, and yet there was still no trace of the core of the black slime... or her own...
"Did… both cores melt? Hey, erofu, is that possible?"
"I don't know... but I'm more concerned about that black dot."
'Helpy, what is that black dot!'
[Insufficient information.]
There was no way to understand what was happening. The black stain kept spreading. The helplessness kept growing inside me as I watched it rapidly expand.
"Come on Limy… show some sign of life…"
No trace of her own core, menacingly changing color and a completely unintelligible status. That was not good, not good at all.
"Damn reckless girl, why did you do this just now? I said that I didn't want to lose you..."
She still didn't respond and the stain had already almost completely covered her body.
—Damn girl, if you can hear me answer for the damn god's sake! Please... do not die!
But before turning completely black, the stain began to reduce out until it ended up becoming just little spots scattered all over the puddle.
—Master, I'm fine.
Limy's voice echoed inside my head.
"Limy! Thank goodness... Crap, don't make me worry like this! What the hell have you done?!" I screamed with all my might upon hearing her voice.
But she didn't answer my question. I was about to despair again, but with my head clearer, I remembered that she could not hear me in her real form... Surely she had not said anything the whole time because she had not even heard our desperate words...
'Damn crazy girl... Well, I'm glad to know that she's still alive...'
"What happened?!"
The perverted elf shook me again after hearing me speak to myself. Limy still wasn't saying anything, although it's not like she could speak in her real form either...
"She seems to be fine... I think... I hope..."
The puddle began to shrink, and little by little, the small blue slime reappeared. The remnants of the black spots floating inside her body continued to worry me, but at least she was no longer just a simple inert puddle on the ground.
"Is this little slime her?"
"Yeah, this is her true aspect."
"I see... What happened anyway?"
"This is something I want to know too."
—Limy, what have you done with the core of the black slime?
—I ate it.
—No… we have already noticed that… I mean what happened to it.
—I just ate it.
—Ehm... okay... And what happened to your core?
—I ate it.
My mind went blank for a moment.
—… Ok… Got it…
Got it my ass, but I was beginning to think that was worthless trying to find any logic behind any of this girl's doings...
"Answer to me!"
"Don't worry… There's no doubt it's Limy is fine… I think…"
I immediately opened her status again.
Status:
Name: Limy
Kind: Slime | Race: Blue slime
Level: 6 | Experience: 1394/2277 | Grade: 1 (Elite)
HP: 1/138 | MP: 0/55
Stats:
Vitality: 36 | Strength: 23 | Agility: 26
Intellect: 15 | Magic power: 10
Special abilities:
- Inner space: 1
- Mimic: 1
- Perverted slime tentacle: 1
————————————————
"Well, she has only one health point left… but I don't see any other problem."
I checked it over and over again. It seemed to be the same as before… although that still seemed quite worrisome to me. There was no trace of having gained any extra experience. The disappearance of both cores together, plus the little dots emerging within her body, did not seem very normal to me either. Anyway, I had no idea how slimes work, so I wasn't able to make an accurate hypothesis. Perhaps it was not so rare, there are cells without a nucleus, this could be the same, right? No... probably not ...
We stared at Limy for a while to verify that nothing bad was happening. In the end, we got ready to go back to town. There was only one problem, Limy's clothes were almost melted and we had nothing more she could wear.
"If she transforms again she will be almost naked… We will have to go back like this."
"Do you want to take a slime to a town? That's not a good idea."
"There is no other choice."
"Even if she is a simple blue slime, people will not be very happy to have a monster wandering into the town. It's almost certain that she will be attacked, so we need to hide her. The problem is how to do it."
"She is not very big, it should not be difficult… I know! I just came up with the best idea in the world!"
"I have a bad feeling..." Aeldrya muttered.
—Limy, hide under Aeldrya's clothes! And make sure that nobody could see you!
—Understood.
"What are you thinking ... aaaaaaaaaaaa! Get out! Not there! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
A group of tentacles shot out of Limy and encircled Aeldrya. Using them as an impulse, she climbed on top of the elf and began to sneak into her clothes until she was completely hidden. Aeldrya kept screaming and making strange sounds... with a very weirder face.
'I don't think it was such a good idea... Although I can't quite understand if it bothers her or if she likes it... Better not ask ... Anyway, it's the best possible hiding place, don't you think, Helpy?'
[It is awful. Something that would only come from a sick mind. No, even a depraved and broken mind would never think about it.]
"Yep, I love you too."
And so, we started to go down the mountain. It was impossible not to notice all the mess that the black slime had caused in just a moment. I was scared to think of what it could have done if it was left alone for a longer time. Luckily, we had managed to get rid of it and could return home alive... if we really would be allowed to return home... After all, the elf's thoughts about us were still a mystery...
***
"The black slime is dead."
The man with the number 3 embroidered on his tunic entered the dark room, where this time only the one who appeared to be the boss was standing.
“Really?”
"Yes, I have lost all signs of it, so there is no doubt that it is dead. This is really bad."
"I didn't expect it to last long, after all it's still a mindless monster that only knows how to swallow everything that comes its way, although I didn't think it would fall so fast."
"And that's not what worries me the most. Not only died, it completely disappeared. The only thing that may have caused this is that its core was completely reduced to dust or ash, without leaving a single fragment intact."
"Reduced to ashes, eh? Even if it was a simple slime, it was still a grade 5 monster, there are not many things that could make a core of that grade disappear... So I was right, the destruction of the previous dungeon was not a simple accident."
"Do you think someone is looking for us?"
The man with the number 1 covered his mouth as he seemed to be thinking deeply about the subject. In the end, he nodded and got up.
"It's probably the case, but they went straight for the slime and that is a good sign. Now we can get an idea about who are the culprits and their position."
"Should we go for them?"
"No, if they are who I think they are, we don't have a chance. However, If they acted so fast against a mere slime, I wonder what they would do against an even greater threat."
"Then, what do we do?"
The same man walked to a shelf full of objects and focused his gaze on a corner with sacks filled with different types of seeds and a glass jar with a fairly large pair of seeds inside.
"For the moment, we're going to cultivate some plants before going ahead with the plan. I know a good place where this pair could easily grow."
He picked up the bottle with the seeds and smiled before raising his head again and looked with a very serious face at another seed. It was notable for its faint pink color and size, which was more than double what he had just collected.
"It might be useless, but I guess I wouldn't lose anything by trying to plant this one too."
***
Due to there were no monsters since they had been eliminated by the slime itself or they had fled, the way back was quite uneventful… although seeing the state of my companion was somewhat disturbing.
"Stop walking with this red face ... you look like an erofu more than ever, you get on my nerves!"
"Says the one who had the great idea! It feels sticky and wet. It's… it's… It's not nice!"
'If you say those words with that face... they lose all credibility.'
"It's not that bad either... She has surrounded me a thousand times and I haven't gotten like that... Pervert..."
"You are the pervert!"
"I never made that face before."
"You don't have a face!"
'Well, this can be easily checked. Helpy, who is the real pervert?'
[You are both perverts.]
'Is not true! I don't look like this erofu at all!'
[You are identical.]
"Whatever... At least try not to influence my girl."
"Speaking about this, tell me right now who are you and your girl. Although it is hard for me to believe that there is a blue slime like her, it is not something impossible. You on the other hand... I never saw a stone speaking."
"Mysteries of modern mineral evolution. From time to time a gifted stone like me is born."
"Don't tell me nonsense!"
"Well... when we return to the capital, I'll tell you... For now, you'll have to be patient."
"Tell me right now!"
—Limy, move a bit...
"Aaaaaaaaa!"
The trip back to Clanara ended up being quite fun… at least for me.
