After her lesson, which left twenty twitching bodies on the school practice grounds, Nine suddenly became aware of something unusual happening in her interspatial bracelet. Alarmed, she hastily checked inside and wanted to heave a sigh of relief when she realized that it wasn't Black who was having problems.
Instead, there was something strange going on with Rainier.
Her alarm not diminishing in the least, she hastily called him out and held him in her hand. From what she could see, Rainier had just reached the Sixth Tier, which was something that would have shocked the world.
Looking at Rainier, her face lit up and then somewhat darkened. Rainier was a slime. Albeit, a rare slime, but still a slime, nonetheless. Her students were still in the middle of the Fourth Tier, with exception to Lucien, who was on the cusp of reaching the Fifth Tier.
Rainier was wobbling in her palm, his expression looking like he was dizzy.
"What's wrong, Rainier?" Nine asked through their familiar link.
She received no reply from the blue slime. Baffled, Nine poked Rainier's wobbling body lightly, causing it to wobble even harder. She inserted her magic into his body through their link, wondering what was wrong.
She probed his gelatine-like body, but her magic revealed to her that nothing was wrong. At this moment, her eyes flashed. Could it be that Rainier was undergoing some sort of mutation upon reaching the Sixth Tier? According to the fluctuations that he was giving out, it seemed like he had just advanced a few minutes ago.
Nine placed Rainier down on in her lap as she sat down quietly to watch. It would be remiss of her to do anything to disrupt the advancement of her familiar. She kept her magic circulating inside his body, giving him a little boost of magic to make the process quicker.
Strangely enough, she could feel her magic sinking into Rainier's body like it was disappearing. Rainier was using her magic to fuel his advancement, speeding up the process significantly. Through her magic, she could feel the process occurring gradually, giving her inexplicable feelings.
As minutes passed, Rainier's body mass increased, steadily growing larger. Before long, he was twice the size he was usually. The blue shade of his body had slowly bled into purple, eventually settling on a delicate shade of pastel purple.
Nine watched with interest, itching to record her findings down, but settled on watching the advancement process in full. She could tell that it wouldn't take very long now.
Abruptly, a blinding flash erupted from Rainier's body, causing Nine to hurriedly shut her eyes.
When she opened them, what greeted her left her slightly dazed.
[Rainier (Fire and Water Slime)]
[Status: Healthy (Excited)]
[Attributes: Fire, Water]
[Title: Slime of Unending Potential, Hard Worker]
[Skills: Fireball (Intermediate), Waterball (Mastered), Fire Lance (Beginner), …]
Rainier, apart from returning to his usual size, had retained its purple shade, an upgrade from his previous status as a Blue Slime. He had evolved into a slime that was capable of using two elements, which was actually exceedingly rare. Most Magic Beasts only ever retained one element in their entire lives unless they met a fortuitous encounter.
Checking his status board in full detail, she felt satisfied by the upgrade he had underwent. She looked at the status board that was hidden behind Rainier's status board and checked the newly born slime, which was transparent in colour.
[Unnamed (Rainier's Offspring)]
[Status: Healthy (Curious)]
[Attributes: Ice]
[Title: Rainier's First Child, Genius]
[Skills: Ice Shard (Mastered), Ice Slip (Advanced), Ice Lance (Advanced), …]
Nine, "…"
Why was Rainier's offspring so terrifying? When she felt out the new slime, she could feel that it had suddenly advanced to Second Tier in the short span it had existed in the world. It even had the title of 'Genius' as compared to Rainier's 'Hard Worker'. She looked at the skills, feeling speechless at the amount of advanced and mastered skills. Then, she looked at Rainier's, which contained a mishmash of skills ranging from beginner to mastered.
Nine silently closed her eyes.
She held the unnamed slime in her hands, wondering what she should do with it. Frankly speaking, she didn't need two slimes as her familiars, so it would be better to give it to one of her students.
Thinking up to this point, Nine cast a large area heal spell, waking the mass of students collapsed on the ground.
The first to wake up was Lucien, who groggily sat up before gracefully elevating himself and standing. He pushed his glasses up habitually before smiling at his Teacher. He looked like he had taken a refreshing stroll instead of getting drilled so hard that he had collapsed on the ground, somehow avoiding staining or ripping his clothes, only passing out from sheer exhaustion. He had been the last to go down and the first to get up.
Nine eyed him as she felt like bullying him some more before reining herself in. After the little slime chose its Master, haha. Sorry to say, but the new slime and Rainier were going to bully them into unconsciousness again.
The next to wake up was Deltan, who silently threw his arm over his eyes, as if unwilling to face harsh reality. His entire being exuded the desperate feeling of 'I'm asleep, ignore me'.
Aciel, Eden and Brooke had dragged themselves up from the hard ground, looking slightly worse for wear, but still rather energetic.
Brooke spotted Deltan being unable to face reality, smugly walking up to him and prodding him in the side with his shoe gleefully. Deltan let out a shout of indignance and anger, springing up from the ground to wrestle the other to the ground.
The rest of her students were awakened by the loud noises of their struggling and shouting of curses, waking up and standing. Most of them looked like they were about to pass out again, only keeping themselves upright out of sheer willpower.
Nine flicked her finger and gently pulled her students in front of her.
Their eyes locked onto their Teacher, wondering why she had woken them up. Brooke and Deltan inwardly trembled at the thought that more training awaited them.
Nine picked up the unnamed slime from her lap as Rainier made to sit on her shoulder.
"Congratulations, it's a slime," Nine said dryly. "Rainier just gave birth."
Twenty befuddled gazes looked at the transparent slime in her hands, their eyes darting to Rainier, who looked somewhat smug. The slime in her palms made a squeaky sound as it hopped up and down, looking cheerful and curious at the number of unfamiliar faces that surrounded it.
"Now, each of you insert a strand of your magic into this slime. Gently," she said, a faint smile on her face.
Each student inserted a bit of magic into the slime and waited around her. The newly born slime wobbled slightly, making one feel like poking it to make it wobble more.
Deltan looked at the slime with shining eyes, having wanted a slime since Rainier had comforted him that day. Instead, he had a very terrifying familiar in Cinder, whom he had grown to love dearly, but he still wanted a slime of his own.
A new bond snapped into place as the newly born slime moved towards its new Master. Deltan watched with heartbreak as it moved away from him and instead towards Lucien, who's eyes had lit up in surprise.
Lucien gently held the small slime in his hands, looking dazed. He felt a surge of unending affection for this little slime. He thanked Nine profusely, gently cradling the newly born slime.
"I'll name you Luciel," he said, inserting more of his magic into the newly named slime. The bond between familiar and master bloomed into existence, forming a bond between the two.
All eyes looked at the new pair with warm, gentle emotions.
Deltan shamelessly asked, "Little brother, next time Rainier multiplies, don't tell anyone else and give it to me, okay?"
Brooke broke out of his warm sentiments upon seeing the scene and took off his shoe, chucking it at the eldest prince. "Get lost, shameless!"
Deltan made a sound of anger, throwing himself at Brooke for another fight, causing numerous snorts and laughter.