LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 31: Slime Without a Core
The beasts here are much weaker than the ones in the mountains. The monsters’ levels are the same. That was the thought that came to mind as I tore into the salted meat under the midday sun.
Or maybe the mountains I lived in had a lot of unusually dangerous beasts. Maybe this is average, and the place I lived was just dangerous.
I’ve encountered all sorts of monsters. Moving carnivorous trees, ants the size of my foot that dig into and eat those trees. And Dalokos…
Even those that looked like humans, except they were cyclops. There wasn’t a single one that was easy to kill.
The beasts were also much bigger than I knew. And, wild boars. There were wild boars the same size as the one that killed me. I mean, the size of a compact car.
I went back to my hometown after returning to school, helping with the farm work during vacation, and then I met one of those things, so of course I didn’t survive. I wonder if my parents and grandmother are doing okay. I hope they’ve managed to get over it.
I growled at the wild boar that was running away for no reason and then chewed on the piece of meat.
“Don’t eat too much, Altera. We don’t have that much food. If you keep eating like that, you’ll have to eat tasteless monster meat later, you know?”
“I used to live eating that kind of stuff. I could eat it again if I had to. It just wouldn’t be… enjoyable.”
And if it’s really tasteless, I could just ask that mage for a favor. He’s unusually skilled, so I bet he could make something delicious even with those ingredients.
I was in the front, and Yuna was in the back, keeping watch, but I didn’t think we needed to do that even here. As soon as they saw us, beasts and monsters alike ran away.
“So, you said you saw a pureblood demon, right? What did it look like? And what did it say? Ah, don’t say it asked for the key. That’s too obvious.”
“It looked like… it had a black, straight horn about the size of a middle finger on its head, the demon’s characteristic reverse eyes with blue pupils, it was a woman… right. Her outfit was a bit flimsy like Altera’s. And she was wearing a mask or something that covered her mouth and nose.”
“Hmm, hmm. So that’s it. Hmm… clothes like a used rag, horns, blue eyes. Since she’s a pureblood, a detachable respirator is a given. Too generic, isn’t it? I’ve seen thousands of my main body that look like that. Any other features?”
The two men were discussing the demon.
It was so peaceful and boring that I wished something would happen, so I looked around for something interesting, and not far away, there was a human corpse that had half melted away.
“…She approached using invisibility. I guess she couldn’t control the vibrations, because Altera noticed her right away.”
“Invisibility, sneaking around? The demons are all gone. It’s pathetic to see those cowards acting like purebloods. It wasn’t like that in my day. I don’t know. At least, I don’t remember any cowards like that.”
“It’s good to talk, but look ahead. There’s a melted corpse. And there’s a trace of something… wet that seems to have passed by.”
“A corpse? What corpse? An animal? Or… a person… it is.”
Even I, who don’t have very good eyesight, can see it, so they must be able to see it too. As if my thoughts were correct, Myungho, who looked in the direction I was pointing, made a sullen face.
“…It looks like it was attacked by a slime, but it’s strange. Have they ever let their prey escape or leave them behind?”
Myungho closed the eyes of the gooey corpse and said that something was strange.
“No. But those wounds are definitely from a slime. So is the mucus… I’m sure of it. But like you said, it’s strange. Why did it leave it behind?”
“That’s right. They never leave anything behind. Hey, Master. Can we look for this slime? I want to see what kind of freak it is.”
“No. We don’t know how long it will take. We have a long way to go, and it’s just a slime.”
“That kind of anti-exploratory spirit is what hinders the development of technology and science. Haa, you wouldn’t understand this kind of curiosity… Okay, let’s go. Let’s go.”
If it’s a slime, is it the blob of goo that appears in games? I’ve never actually seen one, but I thought there might be one, and it seems there really was.
In the end, they decided to continue on their way, but I was curious about what a slime looked like, so I asked Myungho.
“What does a slime look like? Is it like this… round and round?”
Myungho looked at me with a rather strange look, scratched his temple as if pondering the right words, and then answered my question.
“No. It doesn’t have a fixed shape. Well… it really looks like whatever it wants. It flows around like water, and when it finds prey, it covers it and digests it whole. It has a core, so it’s not easy to catch.”
Hmm. I guess it’s not as pretty as I thought.
– – – –
The sun was still shining brightly, but it was slowly moving towards the east, as if it was about to set.
Right. In this world, the direction of rotation is such that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. Well, it didn’t change much, but it was shocking for the first month.
Thinking about having to cross the large mountain range that was clearly visible even from afar, I already doubted if I could do it, but looking at Altera, those worries went away.
Somehow, it’ll work out. If I’m lucky, I might even discover the ruined kingdom in the mountains that’s only rumored to exist. Although, I don’t know if it’s real.
As I walked, I saw a village with the mountain range behind it. What would it feel like to have such a rugged mountain range as the hill behind your neighborhood? I asked myself a question that had no answer and picked up the pace.
“…There, stop for a moment! Are you adventurers?!”
I was about to casually enter the village, but I immediately stopped when I saw the villagers in the distance welcoming me with farming tools and bows.
“Yes. We are gold-ranked adventurers! Why are you pointing weapons at us?”
“G-Gold rank! Then, you must be the ones who came on a request from the guild…! Oh, Hans has done it, everyone! That young man has done it!”
A request? There was no request from the village asking for help. And the corpse we saw on the way with the young man. It’s a story I don’t want to imagine, but it might be real, so I asked.
“By any chance… was that Hans’s hair color… brown? And his clothes… white?”
“So you’ve met him! Yes. That’s Hans! We gathered money to hire a gold-ranked adventurer and sent him, but we were worried because we hadn’t heard from him…!”
Oh, no.
“…I’m sorry to give you bad news, but I saw a half-melted corpse on the way, and I think that was Hans. I’m sorry to hear that.”
Then, the muscular man who seemed to be the leader lowered his head in despair.
“Ah… that’s… that lively young man… because of that cursed slime…!”
I approached him, slowly lowered the weapon I was holding, and told him to tell me what happened.
“It must have been a few weeks ago. A slime was wiggling around near the village. As usual, I tried to chase it away, but… that guy didn’t have a core.”
“No core?”
How can there be a slime without a core?
Slimes were monsters that even ordinary people could easily handle if they aimed for the core. Therefore, despite their terrifying nature, they were monsters that even low-ranked adventurers easily used to make money.
But… if there’s no core?
It was no use beating it, and magic wasn’t easily effective either. It was a perplexing monster to deal with, practically impossible to kill.
“I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. Ten people have already been eaten! Hans, Sophia, Evan, Ned, Chief Darren… they were all taken by that slime!”
He was crying as he called out the names of the people who had been eaten. I was just planning to stay here for a bit…
“…I am a Gold-ranked adventurer, but also a hero. I will help you. I will only accept a night’s lodging as payment. Could you tell me about this slime?”
When I revealed that I was a hero and offered to help, the villagers’ faces lit up. Akash was also delighted, thinking he could satisfy his curiosity.
Only Altera looked rather indifferent. She was looking at me with an expression that seemed to ask why she had to help these people.
“…Altera, please. I can’t just ignore this.”
“I know. It’s just that you’re so weak to requests.”
Amidst the cheers of the villagers, we entered what seemed to be the chief’s house and listened to everything they knew.
Its origin was unclear, and its behavior was distinctly different from other slimes. It lacked a core, which was its means of sensing, resulting in a lack of perception. However, it could locate humans through an unknown method.
And most importantly, it periodically attacked the village.
It was just a slime in appearance, but it was as if something else had entered it.
“…What is the attack cycle? What is its size? And any other abnormalities?”
Akash was asking the villagers questions, as if not wanting to miss a single detail.
“It will come soon. It’s been three days now…”
“Wait a minute. But if it doesn’t have a core, how did you repel it? You also said it has a mysterious power to sense people.”
“Ah. Well, if you poke or scrape it with something sharp, the slime comes off. We couldn’t reduce it completely because it runs away quickly once its size is reduced…”
It shrunk when I stabbed it? Is it because it doesn’t have a core?
Even if the slime decreases, the core would normally spew out more slime, but since there’s no core, it seems it can’t maintain its size.
If that’s the case, then Altera and Yuna aren’t entirely useless. With their power… they could easily dismantle a slime’s gelatinous body in an instant.
While I was slowly formulating a plan to subdue it, someone screamed outside, along with a shout.
“Slime… It’s a slime! The slime is back!!!”