Syl-Chapter 219: Tea Slime

"What you doing?" Trixie asked me curiously. "I thought you'd be playing with new toys, but you seem to be rehashing some old ones."

"I fused [Soul Sight]... I'm having some issues differentiating the components that made it up," I explained.

"Oh... Yeesh, that's not good," Trixie looked concerned.

"That bad?"

Trixie shrugged, "It depends; knowing you, you'll figure it out in no time or cheat and find another way around it."

"I guess I could try using my [Sub-Cores]; they seem to have no issue doing what I used to," I mumbled.

"You've also picked probably the worst spot to try this in," Trixie pointed out. "There's so much essence, not to mention all the chaos and random elements being so haphazardly mixed together. Ideally, you'd be in an almost essenceless area, or at least with good control. As a pretty awesome spirit, if I do say so myself, I'd offer to help you, but I don't really want to touch any of this essence."

"Controlled essence... So, a dungeon?" I asked.

Trixie snapped her fingers, "That could work!"

"Guess we can return to our old training ground with the rock elementals once Vee cleans up here. I still need to train Vee some more, so I'll get my discount, so it's probably a good idea."

"I can't help with Dimension or Corrosion stuff," Trixie sighed. "At best, I could offer some emotional support with the rock method."

"It probably doesn't help that she's trying to do it with [Acid Dart] either," I suggested. "I at least got to try it with [Water Magic], but Vee's only options are [Dimension Magic] and [Corrosion Magic]."

Trixie nodded, "Probably, but don't look so glum! We'll put that spider through the magic boot camp!"

"Please, no boot camp..." Vee replied, sounding partially annoyed. "You left me to fight all the monsters while you two sat around having a tea party?"

Trixie giggled, "If this is a tea party, it's the worst one I've ever attended. Where's the scones?"

"We don't even have tea..." I shrugged. "The best I could offer you is some alcoholic slime."

"Why do you have alcoholic slime?" Vee asked.

Trixie seemed very amused by this change in topic, "Are you trying to mix things and see what happens? Or were you attempting to get yourself drunk?"

"It's one of my traits," I answered.

"They made a trait for alcohol slimes? The dwarves would love you," Trixie teased.

"No, it's from my [Poison Slime] trait," I corrected.

"Oh... That kinda makes sense," Vee spoke up.

"How does that make any sense?" Trixie asked.

"In terms of biology... I think the body treats alcohol as if it were a poison. It's why they call it intoxicated," Vee answered.

"Is that true?" Trixie asked me.

I shrugged, "Beats me. Vee's either right or confidently incorrect. But it does fall under my [Poison Slime] trait."

"Coffee would fall under it, too, I think," Vee added.

Trixie made a dry, heaving noise, "Bleh, coffee? Why would anyone drink that horrid stuff... Don't you dare make my delicious slime taste like coffee!"

"Well, it's the caffeine part specifically that I'm talking about," Vee mentioned. "If alcohol counts, then caffeine probably does too."

"Great! I'll have to get my tendrils on it and try it out. Hopefully, it adds to the trait," I replied happily.

Trixie shook her head, "Too risky. Don't do it, Syl!"

"You know... Tea has caffeine in it, too," Vee pointed out.

Follow current novels on freewebnσvel.cѳm.

Trixie gasped, "Tea-flavored slime? Hmm... Maybe that's worth the risk."

"I'm morbidly curious to see what a pixie hopped up on caffeine would do..." Vee said with a giggle. "She'll probably be bouncing off the walls!"

"We'll add it to the list!" I replied. "But magic training must come first! And my regaining proper control over this new trait."

"Boo, that's not fun," Vee whined.

"We'll have plenty of time to eat and drink afterward," I offered. "But I still need to qualify for that discount so I can start working on [Dimension Magic] with you."

"You just gained [Light Magic]," Vee countered. "Isn't that enough?"

"Don't get me wrong, I'm sure [Light Magic] will get good eventually, but this advanced magic is sitting right before me!" I argued.

Trixie giggled, "Well, you'll need to have sorted out your [Soul Sight] before then! Also, good job, Vee. The area is looking much cleaner with those abominations taken care of."

"Yeah, yeah," Vee shrugged it off. "At least it gave decent experience. Not to mention trying out a new use for my [Rift Thread]."

I looked over my own gains. Thanks to [Bonded Companion], I received quite a haul from Vee's accomplishments. I felt a little dirty taking from her spoils, but we were considered as always in a party now.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I could argue that my [Sub-Cores] would have defended her if she was in danger. I still haven't rescinded that shield order and don't plan to.

<Racial Experience threshold reached. Chimeric Cluster Slime (Blue) is now LV 11>

<16 Trait Points are now available.>

<Class Experience threshold reached. Elementalist is now LV 15.>

<19 Skill Points are now available.>

<Your class has revealed the following skill: [Magical Overcharge].>

<[Magical Overcharge]

Allows the user to greatly overcharge spells, increasing their potency at the cost of additional Mana and subsequent Manaburn proportional to the intended boost.

Further skill levels not only increase the maximum boost but also provide better efficiency in the Mana to potency conversion and small mitigation of the resulting backlash.>

Huh? This seems practical, but I'm skeptical about the Mana burn part. I'd be directly damaging myself when, otherwise, I don't often actually take any real damage. I wonder if it's possible to gain resistance to Mana burn? Maybe if I use this enough times, I will gain it. Although I'm not looking forward to willingly hurting myself again.

<Skill [Magical Overcharge LV 1] obtained. Skill Points remaining 18.>

We spent some time chatting and looking around to see if any of the strange black sludge abominations had spawned, but only a few had. Trixie even gave it a more thorough examination and informed us that the area was self-regulating.

We then started heading back, only taking minor detours for Trixie to sample a few of the glowing mushrooms. Vee had cautioned her about eating strange plants, but Trixie claimed spirits couldn't get poisoned. Vee was rather unhappy to hear about that, especially when I mentioned I was also immune.

"I can't believe you're making me jealous of not being born a slime..." Vee grumbled.

"It definitely has a lot of plus sides..." Trixie agreed. "I think it's usually offset by their complete lack of intelligence."

"I mean, you're both seeing me now, but things weren't always this great," I admitted. "You're forgetting the part where I was literally manhandled by a child. I struggled to fight boars and wolves."

"Yeah, a poorly balanced start, but big potential payoffs," Vee agreed.

To our surprise, we reached the city again without any issue. I was almost sure that we would have been attacked. Vee brought up that perhaps they were afraid of Trixie, but the pixie burst out into laughter.

"I keep myself hidden most of the time, only selectively letting people see me," she explained. "If someone unwanted could see me, then I think we'd have a much bigger problem on our hands than whatever this assassination plot is."

I had no idea how the pixie's confidence in her invisibility measured up to her actual proficiency, but I had no reason to doubt her at this stage. Either way, if someone did attack, I had another ally on my side.

We grabbed an early dinner and headed straight to the dungeon. I was not pleased about my current situation with not being able to use the individual components of [Soul Sight] and wanted it resolved immediately.

I'd offered for Trixie and Vee to do their own thing, but they tagged along. Vee was happy after a good meal, and Trixie was curious to see Vee trying to learn and see if I could work my way out of the predicament. She also clearly loved any excess Mana I happened to be leaking.

When we approached the dungeon, the guards halted us and specifically singled out Trixie. I wondered if there was some issue, but it turns out they just requested that she not mess with any of the dungeon's essence.

"I thought you were invisible?" Vee asked.

Trixie scoffed, "Well, outside I am. It's a bit rude to do it inside cities; they might think I'm some scoundrel or ne'er-do-well."

Meanwhile, I had a bigger question, "I didn't think a spirit would be capable of overpowering a Dungeon Master's control over the essence."

"Maybe in a particular room, but I couldn't do much with it," Trixie explained. "At best, I could siphon a little and feed on it. I wouldn't be able to force something to spawn or anything like that. I'd basically just be robbing the poor dungeon."

"Guess my dream of a pink slime is still a ways off..." I sighed.

"I'm sure you'll conquer a labyrinth dungeon in no time and be feasting on the poor pink core in no time," Trixie said reassuringly.

When we reached our training room, the rock elemental spawner, I asked Trixie, "So, do you think I could manage in this room?"

Trixie nodded and gave a big thumbs-up, "This room is great! It's very, very boring, but great! I've never seen such a strangely orderly flow of essence before."

"I guess the dwarves really did beat the dungeon into submission..." Vee chuckled nervously. "I'm sort of glad I'm no longer their enemy."

"Oh yeah, you do not want to do that," Trixie immediately agreed. "Never underestimate the stubbornness of a dwarf. There's a story about a party of dwarves who died killing a dragon."

"Died killing a dragon?" Vee repeated. "How the heck does that work?"

"Wait for me to finish!" Trixie pouted. "Anyway, they were apparently being chowed down on; the dragon was big enough to chomp them in one bite. And the legend goes that in their sheer stubbornness, they worked together to cause the dragon to choke to death!"

"Ahh! The attack them from the inside strategy!" I replied excitedly.

Trixie shrugged, "More like making the best of a bad situation."

"Yeesh... I don't think I could be that persistent in going down fighting; I think I'd just accept my fate at that point," Vee admitted.

"Attacking from the inside works great, though," I replied. "Early on, I used it to defeat quite a few foes. I had a Gigatoad swallow me so I could attack it from the inside out!"

"Ew..." Vee whined.

"With your shrinking and teleporting, attacking from the inside would probably work great!" I added.

"No thank you!" Vee rejected the idea.

"Teleporting out would probably work," Trixie said, rubbing her chin. "But you can't teleport inside someone."

"Why not?" Vee asked.

"Mana Aura?" I replied in question.

"Bingo!" Trixie said. "Same reason you can't spawn a [Fireball] inside someone's stomach."

"I think I'd rather spawn a [Ball Lightning]... Or [Caustic Cloud]!"

Trixie shuddered, "That is absolutely horrific! And the exact reason why you can't do it! Probably!"

"Damn, I really need to learn this stupid Mana aura thing..." Vee grumbled.

"It's certainly useful. Just imagine what you could do with [Pocket Space]," I pointed out.

"Yeah... I know, but I'm not feeling very much like the rock," Vee whined.

"Good thing I'm here! I have a hundred percent success rate!" Trixie said excitedly.

"Oh? That's actually pretty reassuring," Vee responded positively. "How many students?"

Trixie pointed towards me, "One!"

Vee groaned, "I should have seen that coming..."

Trixie burst into laughter until Vee threatened her with the [Rift Thread] flyswatter. We talked it over and decided to leave the training for now with Trixie while I focused on familiarizing myself with [Soul Sight].

"Once you work it out, you'll probably wonder how you ever functioned without it," Trixie said, hoping the alluring taunt would work on me.

And she was definitely right; such a tantalizing prospect greatly appealed to me, and I wanted to see what it had in store for me. I activated [Soul Sight] and tried differentiating between Essence, Life, and Mana.

I spent what felt like hours staring at various aspects of it. Casting a spell, holding a spell, staring at Vee or Trixie directly, and even slowly beating an elemental to death, hoping to see what its lifeforce depleting looked like. I soon realized afterward that an elemental was probably not the ideal target for this study, being mainly composed of what I assumed was Mana and Essence.

Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way... Perhaps it isn't actually individual concepts but more like parts of a bigger whole? I can't differentiate between them because there's nothing to differentiate? All three forces make up the so-called Soul?

I paused to think about it some more.

No... That can't be right. My spell doesn't have lifeforce, but it should have a blend of Mana and Essence. Huh... Maybe?

So I began getting lost in trial and error, ignorant of whatever training Taskmaster Trixie was putting Vee through.