Aetheria

The first wave of slimes reached Bran before Mira and Kael were halfway to him.

Three green bodies bounded out of the grass and struck the road around the fallen hunter. Bran rolled onto his back and drew a knife, but his right arm barely rose before one of the creatures landed across his chest.

Kael passed Mira without warning.

He carried the greatsword low until the last few steps, then swung upward through the nearest slime. The broad blade divided its body from bottom to top and continued into a second.

Both creatures split around the metal.

Their cores shifted inside the disturbed gel.

Kael was already turning.

He struck the first core with the flat of the sword and drove it against the road. The cloudy bead shattered beneath the impact. Before the second slime could reform, he stepped onto one half of its body, forced the core closer to the surface with his weight and drove the sword tip through it.

Mira reached Bran several seconds later.

Her new Agility helped.

The missing foot did not.

The spear carried much of her weight, and every hurried step still forced her right leg to compensate for the absent left foot.

Elaine was thirty metres farther along the road with the shield-bearer.

Both were moving toward Eastmere.

A mass of slimes had spread between them and the gate.

Mira dropped beside Bran.

His left side was covered in translucent green residue. The leather protecting his ribs had partially dissolved, and the skin underneath was red, blistered and wet.

He tried to push himself upright.

"Stay down. I need to see the burn."

"Elaine needs help."

"So do you."

Mira drew the goblin knife and cut away the damaged leather.

The wound beneath it was broader than she expected.

Some of the slime had worked underneath the armour before Bran escaped.

Minor Heal gathered around her fingers.

Mira did not cover the entire injury.

The deep chemical burns were the immediate problem. The reddened skin farther out could wait until Bran was behind the walls.

Golden light contracted around three fingers.

She touched the worst section.

The healing spread through a narrow band of damaged tissue.

Bran's breathing eased as the deepest blistering contracted.

Mira shifted her fingers slightly and caught the next section without allowing the spell to widen over healthy skin.

The light followed.

She released it.

The expenditure was small enough that she felt the difference without opening her status.

Bran looked down.

"What did you do?"

"Enough to get you moving."

Mira hooked her good arm beneath his and helped him sit upright.

Kael backed toward them while facing the road.

Slimes bounced through the grass on both sides, converging wherever Essence flared from the archers along Eastmere's wall.

"They're following every skill," Kael said. "The ones farther back change direction when the archers fire."

Mira had already seen it.

More troubling was how quickly new slimes continued emerging.

One appeared beneath the trees.

Then several followed.

Another Radiant attack flashed from the wall.

Half the shapes in the grass changed direction at once.

"Can you carry Bran?"

Kael glanced at him.

"Yeah."

Bran immediately objected.

"I can walk."

"You collapsed less than a minute ago," Mira said. "You can demonstrate your recovery after the gate closes behind you."

Bran muttered something.

Mira chose not to hear it.

Kael crouched and pulled Bran's arm across his shoulders. The hunter was considerably heavier, but Kael stood without much difficulty.

Mira turned toward Elaine.

The shield-bearer had stopped retreating.

A dark slime blocked the road.

It was much larger than the river slimes Mira had fought, reaching nearly to the man's waist even while resting against the ground. Threads of black material moved through its transparent body, and its core was darker than the others, almost red near the centre.

The shield-bearer struck it.

His shield disappeared halfway into the slime.

The creature contracted.

He pulled.

It pulled harder.

Elaine raised her mace and struck toward the exposed side of the core.

The slime shifted its internal mass before the weapon connected.

The bead moved away.

Then the shield began smoking.

The man released it.

Mira's grip tightened around her spear.

"Kael, get Bran inside. I'll help Elaine."

Kael looked at the distance between Mira and the gate.

"You won't get back quickly."

"I know."

He adjusted Bran's weight.

"I'll come back."

Mira nodded and started toward Elaine.

The whispertail cub climbed halfway out of the satchel.

Mira pushed it down.

"Stay."

The cub immediately emerged again.

Mira looked at it while moving.

"Those things dissolve bones."

Five pale tails flicked behind it.

The cub remained where it was.

Apparently, that argument had been insufficient.

Mira tightened the satchel strap enough to secure its body and continued.

A green slime intercepted her.

Of course it did.

Mira planted the capped end of the spear and pivoted around it.

The slime bounced beneath her.

She drove the spearhead downward.

Missed the core.

Gel wrapped around the blade.

Mira twisted the shaft and forced the slime's body around itself.

The cloudy bead drifted toward the outer surface.

She struck that side against the road.

The core cracked.

The slime climbed toward her hands.

Mira struck the same section again.

The bead broke.

Green gel spread across the road.

Mira shook it from the spear.

Another slime bounced out of the grass.

Mira stared at it.

There were dozens of people on this road.

Somehow, this felt targeted.

The second slime launched.

Mira reversed the spear and struck it with the padded iron cap.

The wider surface compressed the creature instead of cutting through it.

Its body flattened.

The core became clearly visible.

Mira hit it against a roadside marker.

The bead fractured immediately.

The slime collapsed.

That was much easier.

A notification appeared at the edge of her vision.

Level increased.

Mira dismissed it without stopping.

Level 3 could wait.

There were still slimes.

An unreasonable number of slimes.

She continued toward Elaine.

The shield-bearer had lost his shield completely. What remained of it hung inside the dark slime and slowly dissolved.

Elaine had blood running from her forehead.

"You're supposed to be inside the gate," she said.

Mira moved beside her.

"You were supposed to be there first."

Elaine gave her a brief look.

The dark creature spread across the road.

Mira watched the black threads within it.

They were moving toward Elaine.

Elaine had gathered Essence around her mace.

"Let it go."

"What?"

"The skill."

Elaine released the gathered Essence.

The black threads slowed.

The slime's movement became less certain.

The shield-bearer backed away.

"That would have been useful earlier."

"I only learned it today."

He accepted that and drew a short hammer from his belt.

Another slime came from behind them.

Mira looked toward the wall.

Every bright flare of Essence drew movement from the grass.

"Tell the captain to reduce the casting."

Elaine followed her gaze.

"He can't leave the road undefended."

"He doesn't have to stop. They're shooting at everything."

Another volley flashed.

Several slimes that had been moving toward the trees turned toward Eastmere.

Mira pointed.

"Make them wait until the slimes are already committed. Fewer casts. More of them hitting the same targets."

Elaine looked toward the wall.

Then she shouted the instruction.

The dark slime moved before anyone answered.

Its body surged forward in a low wave.

Mira planted her spear and tried to hop aside.

The capped end landed in residue from another slime.

It slipped.

The dark creature hit her lower body.

Cold gel swallowed her right leg and climbed to her hips.

Mira drove the spearhead into the ground.

The slime pulled.

Her boot shifted.

Mira froze.

The creature contracted around her ankle.

Her heel slipped inside the boot.

Mira looked down.

"No."

Elaine grabbed her beneath one arm.

The shield-bearer struck the slime with his hammer.

Its surface rippled.

The core moved deeper.

Mira wedged the spear shaft beneath her knee and pulled against it.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The boot slid halfway off.

Her skeletal toes appeared.

The slime flowed around them.

The bridge returned to Mira's memory with perfect clarity.

Cold gel.

A loose boot.

Her foot floating inside a blue slime.

The river carrying it away.

Mira stopped struggling for one second.

Then she gathered Radiant Spark.

"No."

Golden light tightened between her fingers.

The slime pulled again.

Mira's heel slipped farther.

Her voice became very calm.

"You already have one."

She fired directly into the gel around her leg.

Light erupted through the creature.

The black threads recoiled.

The slime released her.

Mira came free so suddenly that Elaine fell backward with her.

Her foot remained attached.

Her boot did not.

The boot hung inside the slime.

Mira stared at it.

The creature drew the leather deeper into its body.

Acid began eating through the surface.

Mira looked at her bare skeletal foot.

Then at the slime.

It had attempted to steal the second one.

Something inside Mira settled.

"I'm killing that one."

Elaine pushed herself upright.

"I assumed that was already the plan."

"It is more the plan now."

Mira retrieved her spear.

The dark slime surged toward the lingering Essence around her hand.

This time she expected it.

Mira gathered a tiny point of Radiant Spark at her fingertips.

The creature accelerated.

She flicked her hand toward the side of the road.

The light stretched away from her fingers.

For an instant, a small golden bead separated from her hand.

It lasted barely a second.

The slime changed direction toward it.

Mira stared.

The mote collapsed.

So did her surprise.

Useful.

The slime turned back toward her.

Mira formed another.

Smaller.

She sent it farther to the right.

The golden point broke free and drifted through the air before fading.

The slime followed it again.

Elaine saw the movement.

"What are you doing?"

Mira had already formed a third.

"Moving it."

She sent the light past the shield-bearer's left side.

The slime surged after it.

His hammer came down.

The broad head compressed the creature and drove its core toward the opposite surface.

Elaine struck from there.

The core shifted again.

Too quickly.

Mira watched.

The creature was not waiting until weapons touched its core.

Pressure against the outer body reached the centre first.

The bead moved before the actual strike arrived.

Mira adjusted her grip on the spear.

"Opposite sides."

Elaine moved right.

The shield-bearer moved left.

They struck together.

The slime flattened between hammer and mace.

Its core darted upward.

Mira drove the spear down.

The point hit the bead.

A shallow crack appeared.

The slime convulsed.

Dark gel climbed the shaft and reached Mira's glove.

Acid hissed against the leather.

Mira dropped the spear before it reached her splinted arm.

The creature recoiled around its damaged core.

Elaine struck again.

The bead escaped.

Still intact.

The glove on Mira's right hand smoked across the palm.

Mira looked at it.

She had owned those gloves for less than a day.

Her gaze returned to the slime.

"You are paying for everything."

Elaine glanced toward her.

Mira ignored her.

The whispertail cub launched itself from the satchel.

Mira reached too late.

The little creature struck the slime from above.

Five white tails spread behind it as its claws entered the dark gel.

The slime contracted.

The cub screamed.

Mira's attention snapped entirely onto it.

She drove the spear through the slime without bothering with the core and ripped the shaft sideways.

A channel tore through the gel.

The cub kicked free.

Elaine caught it before it struck the road.

One pink-tipped tail had dark residue across the fur.

Mira took the cub immediately.

"That is why I told you to stay."

The cub trembled.

It still hissed at the slime.

Mira shoved it back into the satchel.

Its front paws clung to her scarf.

"Stay."

This time it did.

Mostly.

The dark slime was reforming.

Something had changed.

Its core had grown.

Mira looked around the road.

Every ordinary slime they had killed had left gel behind.

Thin streams of green residue were creeping toward the dark creature.

The damaged core repaired itself as the mass entered.

The shield-bearer swore.

"That's why they kept getting worse."

Elaine wiped blood from her brow.

"The one inside the quarry was larger."

Mira turned toward her.

"How much?"

Elaine spread her hands.

Farther than Mira would have preferred.

Mira looked at the dark slime again.

She hated slimes.

She had reached that conclusion earlier.

The evidence supporting it continued becoming stronger.

Behind them, someone shouted from the gate.

Kael was coming back.

He ran down the road alone, greatsword held behind him.

Two slimes intercepted him.

Kael changed direction before either one jumped, let both commit to the wrong position and brought the blade around through their cores in a single heavy sweep.

Mira watched him reach them.

She understood immediately why he had levelled faster than she had.

Kael was very good at this.

Annoyingly good.

He reached them and looked at the dark slime.

"Elite?"

The shield-bearer frowned.

Kael pointed.

"Stronger version. Usually better drops. Usually does something annoying."

"It absorbs the other slimes," Mira said.

Kael watched the streams of green gel travelling toward it.

"That's annoying."

"It also tried to steal my other foot."

Kael looked down.

Mira's bare skeletal foot rested against the road.

His gaze moved to the half-dissolved boot inside the slime.

He looked back at Mira.

For once, he did not smile.

"Okay. That's personal."

Mira appreciated the improvement.

Kael turned toward the gate.

"Move the dead ones!"

Several guards looked toward him.

"The green gel! Get it away from the big one!"

They began using hooked poles from behind the gate to drag ruined slime remains from the road.

The elite moved toward Kael.

He gripped his sword.

Mira saw the angle he intended to use.

"Don't cut it."

Kael checked the swing.

"Why?"

"The core moves when the outside feels pressure. Your blade gives it too much warning."

Kael looked at his sword.

Then at the slime.

"Flat?"

Mira nodded.

The slime jumped.

Kael turned.

The broad face of the greatsword hit it like a moving wall.

The creature flew across the road and struck a tree.

Its body spread around the trunk.

The core hit wood a moment later.

A deeper fracture appeared.

Kael smiled.

"That's much better."

Mira looked at the slime.

"Again."

They advanced together.

Kael handled the broad impacts.

Elaine attacked whenever the core became exposed.

The shield-bearer's hammer forced the creature away from the road whenever it tried to reach the remaining slime residue.

Mira stayed slightly farther back.

She watched the core.

A strike from the left sent it right.

Pressure from the front drove it deeper.

Broad impacts moved it farther than narrow ones.

Mira did not need anything more complicated than that.

"Left."

Kael struck the left side.

The core moved right.

"Elaine."

Her mace came from the front.

The core retreated.

Mira thrust from behind.

The spear scraped across it.

The crack widened.

The slime lashed outward.

A thick tendril hit Mira across the ribs.

She left the ground.

Her back struck the road.

Something broke inside her chest.

The world blurred.

Her glasses remained on her face, although one lens sat crookedly across her vision.

Mira tried to push herself upright.

Her right arm failed to support her properly.

She looked down.

Two ribs had fractured completely.

One had separated and hung at an angle beneath the torn robe.

The elite slime moved toward her.

Mira reached for the spear.

Too far.

Kael intercepted it.

He drove the flat of the greatsword into the slime and pushed.

The creature wrapped around the blade.

Black gel crawled toward his hands.

Kael pulled.

It followed.

Mira saw the core moving along the centre of the sword.

"Keep it there!"

Kael looked toward her.

"I usually prefer the monster off my weapon."

He planted his feet.

The slime engulfed more of the greatsword.

Elaine struck its exposed side.

The core moved away from the mace and travelled farther along Kael's blade.

Exactly where Mira expected.

Radiant Spark gathered between her fingers.

She compressed it immediately.

The light tightened.

A bright point formed between her index and middle finger.

The slime tore itself from Kael's sword.

The core shifted.

Mira's angle disappeared.

She closed her hand.

The unfinished Spark dissolved without being fired.

Kael looked toward her.

"You didn't shoot."

"I would have missed."

The slime struck Elaine.

She flew sideways into the ditch.

The shield-bearer rushed forward.

A tendril wrapped around his hammer arm and dragged him toward the main body.

Kael cut through the tendril.

The detached section collapsed.

Mira pushed herself upright using the road marker.

Her ribs shifted.

Pain followed.

Another notification appeared.

Level 3 reached.

The earlier increase had finished settling.

Three unassigned points waited.

Mira looked at the elite.

Then at the distance between herself and her spear.

Her Agility was already much better than it had been that morning.

Her body still lacked the strength to control the spear cleanly with one arm while supporting her entire weight through the same side.

She spent two points on Strength.

One on Endurance.

The change settled through her body.

Mira bent, caught the spear and stood.

The movement still hurt.

It worked.

The elite absorbed another strip of green residue.

Its core began sealing.

"Move the remains farther!" Kael shouted.

The captain had already understood.

Guards used hooks, shovels and eventually a market cart to clear every patch they could reach.

The slime had less material available.

Mira watched the core.

Cracked.

Repairing.

Slower now.

They could kill it.

The whispertail cub pushed its head from the satchel.

Its pale eyes tracked the slime.

Mira felt its body tense.

"Not inside it."

One ear moved.

Mira pointed toward the road beside the creature.

"If you insist on helping, hit it and leave."

The cub probably understood none of that.

It jumped anyway.

This time it did not land in the gel.

It hit the ground beside the slime, sprang off the roadside marker and swiped across the outer surface as it passed.

The slime compressed toward the movement.

Its core shifted away from the cub.

The cub landed on the far side of the road.

All five tails flared.

The elite surged toward it.

Mira formed a tiny point of Radiant Spark and flicked it across the slime's opposite side.

The golden mote separated.

The creature changed direction again.

Kael laughed once.

"You're baiting it with magic."

Mira was watching the core.

"Hit it."

Kael did.

The flat of the greatsword slammed into the left side.

The core moved right.

Mira sent another tiny Spark toward the roadside marker.

The slime followed the Essence.

Its own movement carried the core closer to the outer surface.

Elaine returned from the ditch.

She understood without being told.

Her mace struck from the front.

The core went backward.

Mira's attention settled on the stone marker.

"Kael."

He followed her gaze.

She did not need to explain further.

Kael ran at the slime from an angle.

The creature turned toward him.

He jumped onto the low stone edge and brought the greatsword around with both hands.

The flat struck.

The elite slime flew sideways.

Its body hit the marker.

The core lagged behind inside the gel.

Mira planted her spear from the opposite direction.

Pressure came from both sides.

The bead had nowhere useful to move.

It struck stone.

Mira gathered Radiant Spark.

The light condensed around her fingers.

Two Essence.

She had used the spell as a burst.

Then as a narrow shot.

Then as tiny detached lures.

The distance between her hand and the target was still the problem.

Her spear was already touching the slime.

Mira let the light follow that instead.

The glow stretched from her fingers onto the shaft.

It flickered.

Mira tightened her grip.

The light travelled farther.

Gold traced a narrow line along the wood toward the spearhead.

The elite convulsed.

Its core shifted.

The pressure against the stone held it in place.

Mira released the Spark.

Light shot along the spear.

It entered the slime through the spearhead.

The cracked bead flashed.

Then split.

The elite slime collapsed.

Its entire body lost tension at once.

Dark gel washed over Mira's spear, Kael's boots and most of the roadside.

Mira remained leaning against the weapon.

Kael looked down at his boots.

Then at Mira.

"Mine are still on."

Mira slowly turned her skull toward him.

Kael's expression became very serious.

"Important tactical observation."

Mira looked away before deciding whether stabbing him would interfere with the rescue.

A notification appeared.

Elite Quarry Slime defeated.

Experience gained.

Contribution reward earned.

Another followed.

Title progress discovered: Slime Slayer

Mira stopped.

She looked at the words.

The System had apparently witnessed everything that had happened to her and decided this was the appropriate response.

Kael noticed.

"What?"

Mira closed the notification.

"Nothing."

The cub climbed onto her shoulder.

It looked down at the dead elite and hissed.

Mira stroked between its ears.

"Exactly."

Elaine climbed out of the ditch with one hand pressed against her side.

"Is it dead?"

Mira poked the collapsed gel with her spear.

The broken core did not move.

"Yes."

Elaine looked around the road.

Smaller slimes still came from the forest, but the flow had weakened.

The archers on the wall had changed tactics. Instead of firing at every visible creature, they waited until groups entered marked ranges and concentrated their attacks. Guards removed the remains before other slimes could absorb them.

The tide was breaking.

Mira turned toward Elaine.

"Where are Derris and the archer?"

Elaine's expression changed.

"Alive when we separated."

The shield-bearer joined them.

"We found the trappers too. One was dead. The other is somewhere inside the quarry with Derris and Sera."

Kael rested his greatsword on one shoulder.

"Why didn't they come out with you?"

"The tunnel collapsed behind us."

Mira looked toward the forest.

Elaine continued.

"The slime inside was much larger than this one. Derris brought down part of the ceiling to block it while we escaped through another passage. He and Sera were on the far side."

The guild officer had reached them from the gate.

"How large?"

Elaine described it.

Mira's dislike of slimes found new territory.

The officer looked toward the road, where the remaining creatures were being contained.

"We'll send another party when the gate is secure."

Kael looked toward the quarry.

"I know another entrance."

Everyone turned toward him.

He pointed north-east.

"That's how I got out. There's a broken drainage channel behind the quarry. It reaches one of the lower tunnels."

Elaine stepped closer.

"You were inside?"

"I woke near the ruins above it. The front path had too many slimes, so I followed the water channel."

Mira's attention sharpened.

"Water runs through the quarry?"

"A lot of it. There's an underground stream."

That explained the rapid growth.

It also made everything worse.

Elaine looked toward the guild officer.

"If the colony reaches that stream, it could spread downstream."

"Where does it go?"

The shield-bearer answered.

"Eastmere River."

Mira stared at him.

The river.

The same system that passed beneath the bridge.

The same water that had carried her foot away.

Mira looked toward the north-eastern hills.

Somewhere upstream was a quarry filled with slimes.

Somewhere downstream was the slime that had stolen her foot.

She was beginning to regard the entire local watershed as hostile.

The guild officer began issuing orders.

Guards were sent toward the river approaches. Hunters were assigned to drainage channels and irrigation ditches. Someone ran toward the temple for Harven.

Kael stepped beside Mira.

"You were right about the Essence."

"So were you about the numbers."

He smiled.

Mira tolerated it.

A guard approached carrying a shallow metal tray.

"These came from the elite."

The recovered materials had been collected after the core broke.

A dark green stone sat in the middle of the tray, considerably larger than the river slime cores Mira had sold that morning. Thin black veins ran beneath its surface.

Beside it lay several folded layers of translucent membrane, a small vial filled with dense green fluid and two pale crystalline fragments.

Mira examined the core first.

Corrosive Slime Core

Quality: Uncommon

Item Level: 7

A developed slime core carrying corrosive Essence and strong adaptive properties.

She moved to the membrane.

Elastic Membrane

Quality: Uncommon

Item Level: 7

A resilient material capable of stretching under impact and returning toward its original shape.

Then the vial.

Concentrated Slime Catalyst

Quality: Uncommon

Item Level: 7

A reactive fluid used in alchemy, material treatment and controlled dissolution.

Mira returned to the membrane.

Flexible.

Impact resistant.

Potentially useful beneath cloth without interfering with movement.

Her gloves could use something similar.

So could whatever eventually replaced her missing boot.

Mira paused.

She looked at the dead slime.

It had eaten her boot.

Now she was considering turning it into the replacement.

Her mood improved slightly.

Kael looked at the tray.

"Good drops."

The guard nodded.

"Guild will calculate the shares. You four did most of the work on the large one."

Mira pointed toward Elaine and the shield-bearer.

"All four."

Kael glanced at her.

"You did most of the strange part."

"The strange part required you to hit it into a rock."

"That was the easy part."

Mira remembered his earlier opinion of slimes.

She chose not to continue while holding a spear.

The whispertail cub climbed farther out of the satchel.

It sniffed toward the Corrosive Slime Core.

Every tail puffed outward.

The cub retreated into Mira's scarf.

Mira touched one ear.

"I know."

The guild officer approached again.

"The gate is secure enough to hold. We have people trapped in the quarry and a colony connected to Eastmere's water. I'm forming another rescue group now."

His attention moved over Mira.

The fractured arm.

The missing foot.

The damaged ribs.

"You are going back to the temple."

Mira looked toward Elaine.

Elaine did not argue with him.

Kael did.

"She figured out the elite."

The officer's expression remained firm.

"She is thirteen, missing a foot, carrying a broken arm, and one of her ribs is visible through her robe."

Kael looked.

Mira pulled the torn fabric across her side.

"Stop looking."

Kael immediately looked away.

The officer continued.

"If Harven can stabilize her and she can travel afterward, I'll reconsider because she understands these things better than anyone else currently standing here. Until then, she's not entering the quarry."

That was considerably more reasonable than Mira wanted it to be.

She looked toward the distant hills.

Derris and Sera were trapped there.

Something inside the quarry was producing stronger slimes.

Water beneath it flowed toward Eastmere.

Kael knew another route inside.

The cub feared whatever had happened there.

Mira also had a body she could not heal, damaged equipment, almost no money and several pieces of monster material she intended to turn into significantly better clothing.

The quarry now connected most of those problems.

Mira tightened the scarf around the cub and started back toward the temple.

She opened her status while walking.

Status

Mira

Species: Human

Class: Cleric

Level: 3

Experience: 24 / 180

Strength: 7

Agility: 8

Endurance: 6

Perception: 8

Intelligence: 10

Spirit: 9

Essence: 16 / 45

Unassigned Attribute Points: 0

Individual Abilities

Simplification — Common

Improves the ability to reduce complex problems into their most relevant components using available information.

Skills

Minor Heal — Common

Radiant Spark — Common

Blessing of Shelter — Common

Equipment

Temple Spare Robe — Common — Heavily Damaged, Stained

Temple Cleric Scarf — Common — Stained

Training Gloves — Common — Right Palm Corroded

Goblin Knife — Common — 9 / 21 Durability

Goblin Spear — Common — Modified — 9 / 28 Durability

Novice Cleric Token — Common

Worn Leather Satchel — Common — Repaired

Inventory

Copper Coins ×10

Small Silver Coins ×2

Dried Fruit Strip ×1

Folded Cloth ×1

Low-Grade Flint ×1

Cord ×2

Bent Iron Buckle ×1

Broken Iron Awl — Common — Bent

Leather Strap ×1

Crude Whetstone ×1

Lesser Whisperstone — Uncommon ×1

Whispertail Claw — Common ×1

Whispertail Pelt Fragment — Common ×1

Black-Tipped Tail Fur — Common ×1

Condition

Left Foot — Missing

Left Radius — Fractured, Splinted

Left Ulna — Cracked

Rib Damage — Severe

Back and Shoulder — Impact Damage

Right Leg — Strained

Mira noticed one additional change before closing the screen.

She opened Radiant Spark.

Radiant Spark — Common

Essence Cost: Variable

The description beneath it had changed.

Produces concentrated radiant energy. Form, area and expenditure vary with control.

The skill had not become a different skill.

The System had simply stopped pretending it only did one thing.

She closed the screen.

Behind her, Kael's greatsword struck another slime hard enough to send it bouncing across the road.

Mira kept walking.

Six steps later, Kael called after her.

"I think this one dropped your boot."

Mira stopped.

The cub's head emerged from her scarf.

Very slowly, Mira looked back.

Kael held something from the tip of his greatsword.

Green slime dripped from it.

A boot hung from the blade.

Mira stared.

For one unreasonable, wonderful fraction of a second, she thought the river had somehow returned what it had taken.

Then she saw the size.

Wrong.

The leather.

Wrong.

The foot it had been made for.

Also wrong.

It was not her boot.

It was merely a boot.

Kael's smile weakened.

Mira continued staring.

The cub hissed at him from inside her scarf.

Kael lowered the sword.

"I'll put this down."

Mira turned and resumed walking.

Behind her came the wet sound of the boot hitting the road.

She made it almost to the gate before another small green slime bounced out from beneath a cart.

Mira stopped.

The slime stopped.

For a moment, they faced one another.

Mira pointed toward the forest with her spear.

"Go."

The slime bounced once.

Toward her.

Mira's grip tightened.

The cub climbed onto her shoulder and hissed.

Kael, several metres behind them, began laughing.

Mira formed the smallest Radiant Spark she had managed all day.

The tiny golden point floated away from her fingertips and drifted toward the side of the road.

The slime immediately bounced after it.

Mira watched it leave.

Then she looked at her hand.

The light had stayed separate for nearly two seconds.

Interesting.

She continued toward the temple before the slime could change its mind.

Whatever else Aetheria intended to teach her, Mira was becoming increasingly certain of one thing.

She was going to become extremely good at killing slimes.

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