The origin of the slime is said to be a type of magical creature created by demons for cleaning purposes.
It’s a monster that engulfs and absorbs things like waste, pests, and mice with a strong acidic digestive fluid.
If trained well, a single slime the size of a head could handle the cleaning duties of three janitors, they say.
Of course, this is only true for small slimes raised by demons.
The combat slimes sent to the dungeon were literally like predator tanks.
At least the size of a person, with a digestive fluid potent enough to melt through armor and enough vitality to stick together and regenerate even when shattered.
For a warrior whose only support was his own body and weapons, they were extremely troublesome monsters that could make one’s face contort in anguish upon encounter.
Even if you chop it up into tiny pieces with spears or swords, it won’t die; it’ll just dissolve your weapon in its digestive fluid.
Once you get swallowed by one, even your armor becomes meaningless. Even the celestial armor wouldn’t fare any better.
Any armor needs gaps to function properly, but if the slime’s digestive fluid seeps into those gaps, it’ll dissolve everything on the inside.
Thankfully, they were a bit slow, but if they were fast too, we might have labeled them a disaster.
From the perspective of warriors, it was hard to believe such an unreasonable monster existed.
There are three main ways to deal with such slimes effectively.
You could “purify” them with a priest’s holy miracle, feed them to a larger slime, or finally, unleash elemental magic that completely transforms the slime’s body.
Burning them to ashes with enough firepower to vaporize all its bodily fluids or freezing and shattering it whole.
What if there’s no wizard, priest, or larger slime around? Well, if you don’t want to get eaten, then you’d better run.
You can fry small slimes with just a torch, but the ones raised for battle are different; it won’t work on them.
Would you expect to vaporize a mass of bodily fluids the size of a person with a torch? Even if you cover it, the torch would get extinguished and melt!
When it comes to fire magic, you need strong firepower for it to be effective; weak spells like ‘fire arrow’ are just a waste of mana.
On the other hand, with ice magic, things are a bit better. If you keep blasting it with cold, it will eventually freeze.
As long as you don’t get killed by the slime’s counterattack before you can freeze it!
◆◆
Unlike wizards, priests don’t need to call on high-output holy miracles to deal with slimes.
The slime’s regeneration is nullified in the face of holy miracles, so even the lowest attack miracle, ‘arrow of punishment,’ can completely annihilate a slime.
“I can use it fifteen more times from now… so three to four should be enough.”
The miracle Arine chose was also that arrow of punishment.
It was a reasonable choice. Even if she loved chopping, she’d definitely not want to engage in close combat with a monster that melts everything on contact.
That would be foolish and not brave.
“O heavenly goddess, scatter your light and punish the wicked.”
Arine, clutching her holy symbol, mumbled the prayer. As a seasoned silver badge adventurer, her casting was quick and concise.
– Fwoosh!
In the empty air, light sparkled and pure white arrows took shape three times.
As Arine aimed her left hand at the slime, the light arrows shot forth, leaving a comet-like tail and embedding themselves into the slime like wedges.
Three flashes. Three explosions.
Before the slime could even attempt to counterattack after realizing it had been hit, the three bursts of sacred power ripped its body apart.
It wasn’t a physical cut but a destruction of the cellular structure by the holy power.
The remnants of the slime sank to the ground like a crushed egg due to irreversible damage.
“Um… is that thing dead?”
“Yes, it’s definitely dead. We’ve erased the very mana sustaining its false life.”
Arine nodded while looking down at the slime’s bodily fluid flowing on the ground like waste.
The digestive fluid had lost its dissolving ability due to being altered by the holy power.
Honestly, it was now just a liquid akin to water, but since it was still monster bodily fluid, it invoked a certain physiological disgust.
“Good job, Arine. Let’s continue the search.”
There couldn’t only be one monster lurking on the fourth floor. They wanted to move swiftly before more showed up.
Unless I planned to unveil Friede’s true identity, Arine was the only one among us capable of dealing with slimes.
But Arine’s holy miracle had a limited number of uses, so if another five or six of these slimes showed up, things would get very tricky.
Therefore, we had to leave the fourth floor before the slimes gathered.
Unless the fifth floor was also a slime den, the other three, including myself, should be able to handle any monsters there.
“Everyone, be careful. These slimes can stick to the ceiling and ambush; if you get hit, your head will melt in an instant. You wouldn’t even be able to scream before dying.”
The search resumed.
Taking on the critical role of a scout, Reed glanced up at the ceiling, recounting the dangers of the slimes he had witnessed.
There was a story about ten people all stabbing with spears, only to be gobbled up and melted the next moment.
Or how a slime hiding on the ceiling ambushed a rear mage so quietly that not even a sound was heard.
When the other party members turned around, the mage’s head was noted to be nothing but a part of the lower jaw remaining.
“Ugh….”
That sounded more like a horror story than an experience. If the intent was to demoralize the party with fear, it was a massive success.
“Moreover, I heard that among them, there are slimes that spray their digestive fluid like fountains.”
“They spray it? Digestive fluid?”
“Yeah. They compress their bodies small and spray the fluid with that pressure. It’s said if you wipe it off immediately, you can survive, but if multiple slime spray at once, you’re done for.”
That sure sounds horrifying. A death where you shower in digestive fluid and dissolve away. The victim must feel like they’ve plunged into a furnace.
“Don’t worry. If that happens, I’ll block it with a holy barrier. I can still use it ten more times.”
Arine interjected into our conversation, glancing slyly at Reed.
“Ten times, huh… that should be enough to block anything that comes our way. As expected of you, Arine. You’re really reliable in situations like this!”
“Did you only just notice that now?”
What an interesting pair. A nun from the Goddess faith and a wager of a lifetime.
It’s hard to think of a more mismatched combination, yet surprisingly, they seemed quite close.
Unlike when they spoke to me, their tone changed when they talked to each other.
…Well, thinking about it, they belonged to the same organization and were both silver badge adventurers, so they must have spent plenty of time working together.
After sharing both the joys and struggles of life, some bond inevitably forms, and perhaps Reed and Arine had grown close in such a way.
◆◆
It seemed like the monsters on the fourth floor had eaten all the others because only slimes occupied this area.
And the number of those slimes surpassed my expectations.
It really, really was a lot.
“More are coming! Front! There’s no room to escape!”
“Heal-Krimhilde! There are tons coming from behind too! All the way to the ceiling!”
The squishy and dripping mass of dark purple filled every direction, crashing upon us like a tidal wave.
There had to be over a hundred slimes at the very least.
With the back completely blocked, retreat was nearly impossible, so we concentrated all our strength on charging forward, breaking through the slimes that got in our way.
“Arine! Spread the holy barrier just before contact! We’ll push through using the barrier to create a gap!”
“Got it! O Elianel, show us your mercy—”
Praying in a position where she was pinned like a package against my side, just as the vast ocean of slimes was about to engulf and melt us,
“Now!”
“Yes!”
In time with my signal, the holy barrier Arine cast burst forth as a sphere of radiant white light, enveloping our party.
– Zip!
The sound of burning flesh. The colossal slime, now unified and swollen, let out a roaring cry as it writhed.
Arine’s holy barrier pushed its flesh aside while burning it, creating a cavern-like hole in the bottom of its dark purple form.
“Everyone, run! Faster!”
The holy barrier was enveloped in slime’s digestive fluid, emitting smoke as it started to grow faint.
Given that we were essentially swallowed whole by the slime, the speed of the barrier’s degradation was terrifyingly fast.
“If it keeps up like this, we’ll actually die!”
“If you can talk, just run!”
Fortunately, our feet were slightly faster than the destruction of the holy barrier.
“Alright, let’s keep running! We’ll head down to the fifth floor just like this!”
I confirmed that Reed and Krimhilde had exited the tidal wave of slimes safely and dashed forward once again.
“Roooaaar!”
“It’s chasing us! It’s fast!”
“Reed! Are you okay over there?! You didn’t get swallowed, did you?”
“I’m still in one piece! That persistent little bugger just can’t seem to give up, maybe it’s because it doesn’t have a brain!”
The giant slime let out an anguished bleat that sounded both perplexed and frustrated, then turned on its heel to eerily follow us.
Perplexed, eh?
Sure, it would be bewildering.
This was the first time it likely faced prey that pierced through its body and passed by.
This was also my first time experiencing such a thing.
I mean, just having passed through the inside of a giant slime unscathed. When else would I ever get to do this?
Of course, it wasn’t an enjoyable experience that would make me want to do it again. In fact, quite the opposite.
This was an experience that was enough just once. For real.
