LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 17
Slimes collect mana hearts. Contrary to popular beliefs slimes do not form mana hearts, they collect them. It is unknown why they do this, but the fact is that every slime upon evolution changes into something that is hardly related to slimes anymore. Slime evolutions are extremely rare and slimes often stay at level 24 for the rest of their lives. Most experts believe that slimes just like shiny things.
Excerpt of ‘The Slimonomicon’ a collection of slime facts for slime fans
—
The group settled down near a stream they had found. Alyra went off hunting and Argul helped Arthur to the stream and to drink. Sadly Arthur had left behind his scout stuff before his flight and Alyra and Argul had never come across it.
Argul was playing around with the rifle when she finally decided to ask the dreaded question. “So, how are we going to prepare the meat?”
Arthur was sitting against a tree with his eyes closed. He opened one of them and looked at Argul. His voice was a bit raw. “No idea, but if there is a chance for more of those corrupted to be around I am not allowing any fire.”
Argul scratched her head while she thought about it. “So no fire. We could heat a stone and use it as a pan or grill.”
Arthur closed his eye again, shifted his position a bit and tensed up in pain for a second. Then he relaxed again. “And how are you going to heat the stone?”
Argul looked at him as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “With magic of course. It’s the perfect solution for those that have no survival skills, so it’s perfect for me!”
Arthur sighed in defeat. “Magic. Magic is a thing now.” Then his tone got quiet and he likely didn’t intend for Argul to hear it. “How does she even know how to do this?”
Argul’s face visibly lit up. Finally an interesting question! “Well, I don’t exactly know how to do it, but I will just create the skill. You know, magic is really fascinating. Anyone can do it as long as they know how to sense and manipulate mana. Afterwards it is really just creating a pattern to hold a spell and imprinting what you want on the mana. The possibilities are nearly endless!”
She babbled on for a few minutes afterwards until she realized she had lost Arthur. “Anyways I’m going to look around a bit for a good stone, but I will stay in voice range if you need me.”
Arthur inclined his head in agreement and Argul started to walk here and there searching for a nice stone. There wasn’t really anything useful around so she decided to go to the stream. It was most likely for her to find anything there.
As she scoured her surroundings she wondered why she wasn’t fatigued in any way. Her feet not hurting made sense because of her strength and Argul was really thankful for it. It made walking and running around barefoot acceptable, though she still didn’t like it.
Just imagining all the germs she was collecting made her shudder. Knowledge sometimes was a burden. She cast a cleanse at herself just to make sure.
Argul felt refreshingly okay for having run the quarter of a day. She was pretty sure she had never done something like this before.
The lovely sound of the stream got louder the nearer she walked to it. Argul started to search for a stone again. After about 5 minutes of walking around aimlessly and inspecting stone she finally found an acceptable one.
She picked it up and discovered it to be quite heavy. The stone had a flat surface, but was really bulbous underneath. Argul thought she would find this a lot more difficult with her old body. Now she just carried it back to the camp and while she did feel the weight it wasn’t too much to carry. All in all the stone weighed less than Arthur’s bag.
When she came back to the camp Arthur was still leaning against the tree, but now his forehead was creased in concentration. She put down the stone at a random place where it wouldn’t be in the way. “Any success?”
Arthur deflated a bit. “No, how are you doing this?”
Argul made sure the surface of the stone was even and then cleansed it so they wouldn’t eat dirt and sand. She thought about Arthur’s question for a second. “Have you felt anything before the people you were with mutated?”
Arthur winced at the mention of his old team. “Yeah there was something in the air.”
Argul nodded to herself. “Try to feel that again and once you have that down try to see the feeling. That’s how I did it.”
He made a noise of agreement.
Argul concentrated and moved her own mana through the stone. She created a layered pattern with only a few connections between the layers. Then she made her mana increase the movement of the atoms of the stone. They would sometimes crash and the friction would create heat.
She could have just increased the temperature, but that would be a lot more mana intensive than what she was doing right now. Argul only had to be careful to not crack the stone.
She improved her spell as much as she could again. Argul liked to search for inefficiencies and correct them. Once she was done she nodded to herself satisfied and opened the notifications.
Quest completed:
- Stone!
- You have found a stone suitable for your needs. What an achievement! Wis+1
Argul blinked. That had been a quest? For real?
Skill created:
- increase heat (solid)!
- You can heat up nonliving and solid things. The less distance there is between you and the target the less mana you will need. Higher temperatures require more mana.
She nodded to herself again, stood up and chose a tree opposite Arthur’s to settle down against. Then she watched Arthur trying to get sense mana. After 5 minutes Argul started humming the tune of a random pop song that came into her mind and played with Aina who had wobbled over to her.
It took more than an hour for Alyra to come back. She was carrying a dead rabbit and laid it down next to the stone slab. Her white fur was a bit bloodied so Argul cleansed it without having to be asked.
Alyra smiled at her. “Thanks mom! I have already eaten, so help yourself.”
Argul smiled back, looked at Arthur for a second and then at the dead rabbit. Her smile got a bit of an edge. “Aly, could you please skin the rabbit with your claws? We sadly lack any tools right now.”
Alyra opened her mouth and closed it again grumbling to herself. “As long as you clean me again afterwards.”
Arthur looked up. “Wait, you are mother and daughter?”
They both looked at him and smiled. “Yup!”
Were it not for their naturally better senses and higher stats the two would not have heard his murmur. “Could have sworn the fox is older.”
Alyra growled at him and he shut his flap. After that Alyra proceeded to skin the rabbit and cut the meat into pieces in a messy display. Her movement was a bit agitated and Arthur gulped at the sight of the bloody mess. That could be him.
Alyra put the meat on the stone slap and Argul cleaned her again. She looked at Arthur and decided that she would try grilling the meat. Argul started to heat the stone and had no idea how hot it should be, so she went with really hot.
The meat started to sizzle and left Argul with a problem. With what and where should she put the meat once it was done? She began to frantically search around for something and ripped a few large leaves from some kind of herb.
Argul went back taking two sticks on the way and then proceeded taking care of the meat. The first piece she took off of their grill was still a bit raw and the rest she had made, had been grilled a bit too long.
She looked down in shame and defeat, her ears and tail drooping a bit. Argul gave Arthur his share without looking him in the face and ate her own meat alone with her back to the other two. Aina moved to the mess Alyra had made and happily started to gobble up all the waste, even the pelt.
After a few minutes Argul turned back to the other two and leaned against her tree again. They settled down for the night without talking, each of them in their own thoughts. Arthur was the first who fell asleep, though going by his movements he didn’t dream about anything nice.
Argul couldn’t sleep and she technically didn’t have to. Instead she just took in the moment and the sky full of stars. She had never seen that many of them outside of some movie, though not knowing any formations made it boring fast.
Instead she decided to let her next floor start growing and then watched over the rest of her floors.
The slimes had started to populate her fourth floor and the fireflies were now on every floor. Nothing else really had changed and his fifth floor wasn’t even fully used so she just watched the animals doing their thing.
In the middle of the night Argul heard the whisper of a weird howling. She focused back on her avatar and especially her sense of hearing. Something howled again and she shuddered. It sounded super creepy.
It was a bit like a cat crying and it gave Argul the creeps, particularly at night. She had never heard a howl like that before and she feared the worst.