(13) Do I Even Need to Dodge?

He approached the first one, which soon noticed his presence. The range of their "eye" was just under 5 yards. He waited a moment until it fired its first stone, which he dodged. Then counted out loud for ten counts so that she could hear.

After the second stone was sent hurtling his way, he quickly dodged and sprinted forward. Geth kicked the Slime twice and then backed into his original space. During this time he was still counting out loud, he'd made it back to his position on the 8th second.

He continued this process with consistency until the creature died and he'd retrieved its core. He walked back towards the bend and smiled at her, "Your turn!"

She shook her head at his nonchalant attitude. "You know, even though it's very simple, a lot of people are going to die before what you just did becomes common knowledge."

He just shrugged, "Other people aren't my problem, you and the three little ones are. If I can handle teaching and protecting more of my family and friends then I will, but they aren't my priority."

She just nodded. He'd been like that for as long as she could remember. Zolis moved forward and attracted the attention of the next Slime in line.

She repeated the same method but had a much easier time dodging the stones. She used the first four boulders to get the count right. Once she was comfortable, she quickly moved in and threw a punch at the Slime.

The hard body of the creature instantly split and cracked, multiple sections falling off as debris. She struck out two more times before returning to her original spot.

Geth just stood there staring, he watched the creature's HP plummet.

:Slime; HP- 184/250:

'Bull shit.' He thought but didn't say anything out loud for fear of distracting her.

:119/250:

:57/250:

The next stone was its last, he watched as the creature went from full health to dust in less than 40 seconds. 'What awesome farming speed. It's a shame she can't keep it up consistently, one hit from that stone would probably take more than a third of her HP.' He wouldn't say it out loud, he didn't want to ruin her moment.

She spun around excitedly and stuck her tongue out at him. 'Maybe I should have said it.' He thought, rolling his eyes and laughing.

She picked up the core and card from the dust. "Wow, this kind of reminds me of a pokemon card." She said, bringing it back to him. "Do you want to read it before I use it?"

"Sure, why not." He took the card to check it out. There was a picture of a large boulder hovering over a field. It wasn't really possible to make out its size due to there being nothing to compare it to. The card read; The ability to slightly manipulate earth, raising a stone from the ground and willing it in a certain direction. Can even be used for travel. Can only form a small pebble in the initial levels.

"Wow, this will actually be extremely useful in the future." He could instantly see the possibilities ."Maybe I'll start calling you 'pack mule' instead."

"Don't you dare," She replied. She snatched the card back and placed it in her Grimoire.

After the assimilation process, she looked back into the larger tunnel. "I'll take out the rock Slimes, but until you have a strategy for the others I'll have to stay out of it. Just lead them over here and make sure that the kids don't interrupt."

"Yes ma'am, not a problem." He replied, giving her a sarcastic salute while chuckling. He peeked around the corner to glance at the little ones first, then ran towards the closest rock Slime.

Once he'd grabbed its attention, he didn't lead it to Zolis right away. Watching how much stronger she'd become as a Level 12 made him wonder just how much he had changed.

It only took a moment for the "eye" to turn his way. Once it caught sight of him, the Slime immediately formed and shot out a stone.

This time Geth didn't bother dodging. He held out his right hand to catch it. The stone flew towards him, clashing with his palm. He simply wrapped his fingers around it and held it in his hand, as if he'd just caught a softball.

"That was a lot less painful than I thought." He muttered quietly. It had stung slightly, but no more than catching a baseball with a glove. He glanced at his health to find that he'd only lost 2 HP.

"Are you insane!? What if that had broken your wrist?" Zolis cried out from behind him.

He laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "Then it would have broken my wrist. It would have just healed in a couple of hours anyway."

"Unbelievable." She pouted a bit. She knew that he didn't care about the pain and that their limits should be tested. Still, she didn't like how carefree he was about his experiments when they could hurt him.

"Alright, I tested what I wanted. Would you like to kill it for the experience?" He didn't want to waste any more time here, and she could clear the rest of the rock Slimes much quicker than him.

"Sure."

Geth caught the next stone as well, and she promptly landed three hits on the Slime and backed away. He nodded, and then went and sat with the kids while he waited.

He had a few minutes, so he tried to use his mud manipulation to make toys for them to play with. They weren't anything crazy, but he did manage to control the Mana enough to craft four basic toy soldiers and only caused himself a small migraine.

The practice was definitely increasing his capabilities, but he could tell that the constant use and recovery of Mana was making him tired. They needed to get this dungeon cleared and get some proper rest.