episode_0040

“Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to be chasing us.”

The giant slime, forcibly awakened from its long slumber, seemed unable to move its body properly. It merely stared intently at us as we fled, watching with the eye that had formed in its core.

Thanks to that, we were able to reach the vicinity of the village without major problems.

“Phew… Just a little… Let’s rest.”

Upon reaching the vicinity of the village, where the slime’s threat was no longer felt, Rai rubbed his face, which held a complex expression, then leaned weakly against a tree and collapsed onto the ground.

“Killua-nim.”

Watching Rai, who was sitting on the ground with his face buried in his hands, I subtly approached Killua’s side and called out to her in a small voice, just loud enough for her to hear.

“What was that giant slime from earlier?”

“It’s no longer merely a simple single-celled organism that could be called a slime. Now, it’s just… the term ‘mucus monster’ seems more fitting.”

Killua mumbled with a serious expression, habitually touching her lips.

“A mucus monster?”

Typically, slimes were very simple organisms made up of sticky mucus that formed their bodies and a nucleus that served as their core to maintain that mucus.

However, the giant slime’s core that we faced had an eye that seemed to mimic a creature’s eye, and nerve cells capable of simple thought and judgment had grown within it.

“It evolved using the vast magical power contained within the fragment.”

“But isn’t the slime’s characteristic just simple proliferation?”

A slime’s primary goal was merely to increase its population through proliferation.

As such, slimes that absorbed magical power would simply continue to produce more slimes based on that power, like a machine.

Though I had seen various slimes throughout my life, I had never seen an evolved form like the mucus monster we just encountered, no matter how much food and magical power was available in the space where it grew.

“Ariel, who was caught by the slime. It’s because of her.”

“Ariel? Because of her?”

Based on my common sense, her answer didn’t make sense.

Killua also nodded slightly, as if she had anticipated my reaction, and added a detailed explanation for her answer.

“I told you. If the slime had simply eaten my pendant fragment, it would have proliferated to the point where this entire area would be covered in slimes.”

“You did say that.”

When Killua confirmed with a detection spell that her pendant fragment had fallen in the Lime Forest, she had wondered why the slimes hadn’t covered the entire area.

“Thanks to the pendant fragment being embedded in the chest of a woman named Ariel, the vast magical power of the fragment wasn’t absorbed by the slime all at once.”

“Then…”

“Ariel is a living magical power regulator, you see.”

As Killua said, if the slime had acquired the pendant fragment directly, it would have proliferated into enormous numbers instantly, absorbing the vast magical power without filtering.

But thanks to Ariel possessing the fragment, the vast magical power of the fragment wasn’t absorbed all at once, and only a certain amount of magical power is continuously supplied to the slime through Ariel’s body.

“So that’s why the slime evolved?”

“A large amount of magical power has been steadily and stably supplied for five years. Such an ideal environment, the slime must have thought, was an opportunity to become a better being.”

Convinced by Killua’s explanation, I nodded.

But something felt ominous.

“Wait a minute. Then… didn’t we just interrupt its moment of evolution?”

The giant slime was sleeping as if dead, to the extent that even Rai, who could discern slimes camouflaged in various forms, mistook it for a cave.

The cave we entered was likely a breathing hole for the giant slime, meant for Ariel, its captive and a source of nearly infinite magical power.

When we, as foreign objects, entered such a breathing hole, and I even wielded magic lethal to slimes inside it, the creature, feeling threatened, was forcibly awakened from its slumber in the middle of its evolution process.

A low rumble…

The answer to my question came not from Killua’s lips, but was replaced by the ominously low trembling of the ground.

“That’s right. It seems to be incredibly angry.”

With a tense expression, Killua gripped the empty pendant hanging around her neck.

“First, let’s go to the village and figure out a plan.”

No matter how grotesque a mucus monster it had become, its origin was still a slime.

Though it possessed immense regenerative power, I had personally witnessed that beeswax powder was sufficiently effective.

If we all gathered our strength and prepared adequately, we would be able to prepare a way to deal with the mucus monster, which had not yet fully evolved.

“A-Ariel…”

Just as I was about to help the slumped Rai up and return to the village.

Rai, muttering his fiancée’s name in a low voice, collapsed weakly to the ground.

“Rai?!”

As he collapsed weakly to the ground, Killua was the first to rush to his side.

Killua, her eyes wide with surprise, rushed to him and urgently checked Rai’s condition.

“What’s wrong?!”

As he collapsed, I instinctively rushed to Killua’s side and checked Rai’s condition.

His breathing was rough, as if he was about to vomit, his face was flushed crimson, and his body was so hot it was difficult to touch.

“No way…!!”

Killua, biting her lip in ominous worry, unbuttoned Rai’s upper clothing, as he was unable to control his body.

“Slime poison!”

His waist had been momentarily entangled by the giant slime’s tentacles, though only for a very brief moment.

On his waist and lower abdomen, where the tentacles had wrapped around him, red tumor-like lumps had burrowed beneath his skin.

“He was afflicted in that short moment?!”

Thanks to my timely axe-swing, the giant slime’s tentacle had only gripped his waist for a very brief moment.

In that short time, it had squeezed through the gaps in his clothes and injected slime poison beneath his skin.

“Cough… Ugh… Haaack!!”

Rai, coughing from the strong intoxication caused by the slime poison, gagged from the nausea rising in his throat.

“It’s serious?!”

There were already four red tumors visible to the eye.

Since a large amount of poison had been injected, the uncontrollable, boiling intoxication was incapacitating Rai’s body at an incomparably faster rate than when Killua was affected.

“Jazel! Hurry and bring Rai home!!”

Killua, after checking the poisoned wounds, gave me a unilateral command and then urgently ran towards Rai’s house.

“Get on my back.”

I grabbed Rai’s arm and forcibly lifted him up, then tried to carry him on my back.

“I… I’m fine. Just support me…”

“There’s no time, hurry!!”

I snapped at Rai, who was asking only for support instead of getting on my back. I forcibly wrapped his arms around my neck, then summoned all my strength to lift him onto my back.

“Huuuh…”

Under a weight incomparably heavier than Killua’s, I let out a long sigh and set off towards Rai’s house at a fast pace.

“I… I’m sorry…”

Rai, limp on my back with no strength to resist, apologized for his mistakes and blunders.

“If you’re sorry, treat Killua well.”

Knowing Killua’s affection and feelings for him well, I took this opportunity to encourage him.

“……”

But Rai, due to the severe intoxication from the slime poison, was simply drooling profusely with a deathly pale face.

“Hoo… Hoo…”

As I ran, burdened by his heavy body and exhaling rough breaths, Rai’s house soon came into view.

Readjusting Rai’s body, which slid slightly with each small shift of my weight as I moved, I squeezed out my last bit of strength to force my trembling legs forward.

“Just a little more strength!!”

In front of Rai’s house, Killua, who had run ahead and arrived first, had opened the door wide for us to enter easily and was waiting for Rai and me, holding a tray filled with various medical tools.

“Killua-nim, are you going to treat him?”

I thought she would have called for villagers skilled enough to remove slime poison.

But contrary to my expectation, it seemed she intended to remove the slime poison herself, as she was waiting for us, holding a tray filled with medical tools.

“I have a rough idea how to remove the poison!”

Killua, who had previously been affected by slime poison and had it removed by Rai, replied as if confident that she too could remove the poison just like Rai.

“B-But…”

“Quickly! There’s no time to call for help!”

Rai was panting with trembling breaths, as if he would vomit everything inside him at any moment.

Yielding to Killua’s urgency, I had no choice but to enter the house and laid Rai on the makeshift bed she had prepared, made by placing three chairs together and topping them with soft cloth cushions.

“Take off his upper clothing.”

Following Killua’s instructions, I first unbuttoned the upper clothing of Rai, who was lying on the makeshift bed.

Meanwhile, as if her flowing hair was getting in the way, Killua tied her hair tightly back with a hair tie.

“Hoo…”

Killua took a light deep breath and gazed at the red tumors clustered on Rai’s lower abdomen.

And as if she had prepared herself mentally, she slowly applied the disinfectant and neutralizer from the tray onto the wounds.

“Killua-nim. Is there anything I can help with…”

I cautiously asked Killua if there was anything I could do to help.

Then Killua, sterilizing the tip of a medical needle over the flickering flame of a candle, answered my question.

“Please go outside. For a little… a long time.”

The medical needle held over the candle flame glowed red, like her cheeks.

The method to remove slime poison was to make an incision with a medical needle on the poisoned wound and then directly suck out the slime poison with one’s mouth.

The part of Rai’s body that was poisoned by the slime happened to be his lower abdomen. From the side, it would look like a rather suggestive scene, akin to a sexual act.

“Understood.”

I looked between the needle and Killua, and reluctantly answered her request, having no choice but to step back.

Killua, who nodded slightly as if thanking me for my action, carefully brought her face close to Rai’s lower abdomen, along with the hot, sterilized needle.