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nCh. 63: Unable to Decide After Being Attacked

nSomething was lying on the floor down the corridor, where the light from the lantern didn’t reach.

nMiraculously, there were no slimes in that area.

nIt had leather armor around it with long brown hair sprawled all over, and to Loren, it looked like a person.

n“It’s one of the girls from Parme’s party.”

nCloud, who had slowly walked up towards it, quickened his steps as he saw what it was.

nIt wasn’t certain if the girl was conscious or not, but she didn’t react to the footsteps nearing her and continued lying face down on the ground.

n“H-hey?”

nCloud called out with fear in his voice, but the girl still didn’t move.

nCloud turned back to his companions, but none of them had an answer.

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n“Is she…alive?”

nThere was no way for them to know how long the girl had been lying there.

nBut with so many slimes in the area, it would be weird if she had fallen unconscious somehow and managed to be okay.

nThen it would be normal to a.s.sume that she was dead, but Ain and Cloud couldn’t tell if the girl lying before them was dead or alive.

n“What do we do?”

n“Um, let’s see.”

nAin, who didn’t know how to deal with this, poked the girl with the tip of his sword.

nThe girl didn’t react to it.

nAs Ain and his party looked at each other, deciding that she was indeed dead, the girl’s body suddenly started twitching.

nAs Ain and Cloud took a few steps back, the girl’s twitching body somehow rolled face up.

n“Ahh!?”

nOne of two let out a cry of surprise.

nIn any case, they had seen the girl’s face.

nWhat they saw was a mask-like face, like a bad craftsman had made it.

nHer eyes were half open, but instead of her eyeb.a.l.l.s, they could only see black voids under her eyelids.

nHer mouth was open as well, but they couldn’t see her teeth or tongue.

nSince she had a pretty face, the hollow holes that her eyes and mouth had become gave a strange air about her, and even after she rolled face up, her body was still twitching and didn’t show any signs of stopping.

n“W-what is this!?”

nCloud lashed out in disgust.

nAs if responding to Cloud’s voice, something started gushing out of the girl’s eyes, nose, and mouth.

n“Is this a slime?”

nAin said in a shaky voice as he saw what had come out of the girl’s body.

nIt was indeed as a slime, as Ain had said.

nIt seemed to have attacked the girl in some way and killed her, then invaded her body through any places it could find and trampled through her insides.

n“Then that means…”

nCloud paled as he realized that the body in front of him was nothing but skin.

nIt meant that nothing that should be inside a body was left inside, and that was inside was the slime.

nAlthough it wasn’t reading Cloud’s mental state, the girl’s body erupted from the inside and splattered.

nThe slime that had eaten her insides had jumped out from inside.

nIts body, which was usually transparent, was bright red, as if it hadn’t been long since it ate all the girl’s flesh and blood, and inside its translucent body, they could see the parts that hadn’t been digested yet floating around.

n“Ugh…”

nCloud’s reaction slowed at the sight before him.

nThere was no way a slime would look past an opportunity that its prey stopped moving.

n“Cloud, watch out!”

nAin’s response was quicker since he didn’t everything that Cloud saw.

nHe blocked the slime’s body with his shield and pushed Cloud back, but the slime started to reach for Ain’s body, along with the shield.

n“You!”

nAin tried to shake the slime off by swinging his shield, but there was no way it was going to fly off so easily.

nHe was so focused on his shield, he didn’t see the rest of the slime that were in the girl’s body crawling and reaching towards him.

nBy the time he realized, one of them caught his right foot and the one on his shield started reaching for his hand, and he fell into utter fear.

n“H-help me!”

n‘Ain! d.a.m.n it! Let go of him!”

nCloud got back to his senses as he heard Ain’s call for help, and he thrusted his estoc into the slime that was grabbing Ain’s foot, but to a slime that could only be killed if its core was destroyed, a thrusting weapon such as an estoc wasn’t effective at all.

nThe slime, unfazed at the strikes, covered up to Ain’s ankle, and his boot started to change color as it started dissolving.

n“Ow!? d.a.m.n it! My hand is burning!?”

nIn the case of the girl, they killed her somehow and then proceeded to enter her body and ate it away from the inside, but this time, since Ain was struggling or since it grabbed onto a bad location, it started eating away at Ain before killing him.

nAin’s hand and the part of his arm that the slime was covering started melting and inflaming and started turning red and black, as if acid had been poured on there, and Ain screamed as he tried to peel it off.

n“Al! Do something!”

n“Do what…”

nCloud’s estoc didn’t even make the slime flinch, and there was no way he could grab it bare handed, so he asked Al for help, but he didn’t have a way to peel the slime off either.

n“Um, the way to deal with slimes is…”

nWhile Ain and the others were shouting about, Feim was reaching all over her robe, trying to look for something to deal with the situation.

nHer gaze repeatedly went towards Loren, and Loren was aware of it, but he didn’t say anything since she didn’t ask him anything, so he silently watched Ain, with Cloud and Al pacing around him, but after a while he sighed, looked at Feim, and pointed to the torch that he was holding over his head.

nFeim pondered about what that meant, but eventually she seemed to have thought of something, as she took a small bottle out of her robe, ran past Ain and the others, and poured the thick contents onto the dead girl’s body as well as here and there in the area.

n“Ain! Hold your breath!”

nAfter shouting a warning, Feim smashed the lantern next to the body.

nThe pieces of the lantern flew about, and the fire that was burning inside it spread onto the body and turned into a large flame.

n“Feim!? What are you doing!?”

n“We learned in cla.s.s that the only way to get rid of slimes wrapped around a body is to burn them!”

nBurning slimes was known as one of the most effective methods against them.

nSometimes it wasn’t depending on the species, but most slimes hated fire since most of their bodies were made up of water.

nWhat Feim had poured over the body was oil.

nIt was oil used for lanterns, which were made to burn especially well.

nThe fire that started spreading had started burning the slime that was wrapped around him.

nAs black smoke started rising and emitting a bad smell, the slime either seemed to realize that it was burning or seemed to feel the pain, as it started retreating from Ain’s body.

nBut Ain wasn’t getting out unscathed either, since he was so close to the flames and the heat.

nHe had turned his face away from the smoke and smell from the burning slime, but he started getting burns on his body.

nBut after waiting for an opportunity for the slime to weaken its grip, Ain had managed to peel them off his arm and leg, and rolled out of the spot, coughing and taking care to shield his burned arm.

n“You okay Ain!?”

n“d.a.m.n it! That was horrible!”

n“I’m going to treat you with medicine and bandages because I still want to save up my healing divine arts.”

nAin was saved from falling prey to the slime, but he wasn’t in a good shape.

nThere were holes in his boots, and his left arm, which he held his shield with, was swelled up and had burns all over it.

nAnd due to the flames, he had light burns on his face and neck, and Al started putting medicine and bandages on them.

n“How would you rate how they did in that situation Loren?”

nLapis had been watching the whole thing in silence, and asked Loren, still clinging onto his waist.

nLoren thought for a moment, keeping his torch above his head, and answered.

n“I’m not that experienced as an adventurer, so.”

n“How about as a mercenary?”

n“I guess it was okay? Especially throwing the fire without hesitating.”

nSlimes were quite tough against physical attacks.

nEven if a part of their bodies were crushed, cut, or ripped, they wouldn’t flinch since they didn’t feel pain.

nIf you didn’t have a way to accurately destroy the core, it was common for the situation to become like what Ain and Cloud had shown.

nTo prevent that from happening, you would need a way to exterminate it quickly, and one of them was to kill it with fire.

nIf you had a magician that could use plenty of spells, depending on magic was a way, but if you had a magician that could only use a few spells like in the mercenary company that Loren was a part of, or if you were in a situation where no magicians were there, burning slimes were usually the only option they had.

nAnd in if you or one of your companions were caught by one, the only way to pull it off was to burn them along with the slime.

nEven if you tried to crush the core, you could end up hurting whoever was being attacked, and the slime would find a way inside the body through the injuries.

nOne of the reasons that Loren was holding a knife and was holding a torch above his head was so that if a slime attached itself onto him, he could immediately crush its core with the knife, or if he couldn’t, use the torch to burn it along with his body.

nLoren knew that the great sword on his back wouldn’t do anything against slimes.

n“Wouldn’t it be better if we give up and head back?”

nLoren suggested so, seeing Ain’s condition, with all the medicine and bandages on his body, but he backed off as Ain shook his head and Cloud glared at him.

n“We told you, we’re going to the bottom floor!”

n“I heard that, but what about your light? You have an extra lantern?”

nWhen Loren said that, Cloud looked at the burning girl’s body and the slime and looking at the fragments of their lantern scattered about, realized that they had lost their source of light.

nLoren thought that breaking the lantern to light the fire was quite a violent method, but he knew that there wasn’t much time for Feim to open up the lantern and transfer the kindling, so he didn’t think that she should be blamed for throwing it on the floor, but Cloud seemed to have a different thought.

n“Hey, what are we going to do? We still have a long way to go!?”

nAs Cloud drew closer to Feim with a grim face, she looked around at the others with an awkward look on her face.

n“We don’t have any spare lanterns?”

n“I have one. It’s okay Cloud, we’re fine.”

nAl took some fire from the flames erupting from the girl’s body along with a bad stench and lit the spare that he had brought.

nThe party seemed relieved as they regained their source of light, but then their attention went to the burning body.

n“One of them dropped out here.”

n“The problem is whether they headed back or kept going…Judging from Parme’s personality, I think they probably moved ahead.”

n“Klaus is with them, but then again, he’s only a proctor. If he didn’t say anything, I’m sure Parme would’ve continued ahead.”

n“What should we do?”

nAt Cloud’s question, Ain thought for a moment while rubbing his injured arm, and eventually declared strongly.

n“We go forward. We can’t go back only this much.”

n“Let’s all hold oil and kindling for the slimes. And even if we see Parme’s group or Klaus, don’t go near them.”

n“There’s a good one burning right now, so let’s get the fire from there.”

nThe slime that had attacked them was being burned along with the body, was writhing on the floor with its movements getting slower and slower.

nAin and the party decided that it was okay to leave it like that and started getting fire from the flames burning its body.

n“I’ll hold the lantern this time. If this one breaks, we’re done for, so keep that in mind.”

n“Burn it if you think you’re in danger. Got it. Ain, if it hurts, I’ll lend a shoulder?”

n“I’m fine.”

nAin decided to throw away his shield, since it had been dissolved here and there by the slime, and had been burnt by the flames on top of that.

nThey would’ve taken equipment from the dead girl’s body, but Feim had already burned everything, leaving nothing useful for them to take.

n“Feim, mark this area on the map, just in case. Other slimes will probably eat everything after the fire dies, but we still have to report it when we get back to the surface.”

n“Okay.”

n“Alright, let’s go.”

nThe party started moving forward at Ain’s call.

nAs Loren started following them, he realized that Lapis, who was still clinging onto him, was pulling his sleeve, so he looked towards her.

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n“Loren, I’ll leave finding the opportunity to you.”

n“Opportunity? What opportunity?”

n“This and that. Breaking away from this party, for example.”

nLapis suggested abandoning the job without any hesitation and looked at the backs of Ain and the others who were walking ahead of them.

n“You’re not planning on dying with them, aren’t you?”

n“Well, yeah…but without them we won’t be able to get to our destination, right?”

n“It’ll work out. Just leave it to me, Loren.”

nLapis said with confidence.

nLapis had said there was a way, so she certainly had something up her sleeve, but using that meant that they would be leave Ain and his party and going off on their own.

nLoren sighed at the fact that Lapis had given him the responsibility of finding the opportunity, and started thinking.

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