Upon hearing the beanie's words, James checked Leo's need to breathe. While the little bear was asleep, he'd placed his finger under the nose and mouth. He didn't feel any air coming out. Then, James brought out a few magic stones and fed them to Leo, who woke up to gobble them. While it was awake, James used his hand gently to pinch its nose while observing the bear carefully.
The bear cooed contentedly. For a moment, James wondered why it was so cute.
The connection between Leo and James was still there - after all, it was still making James relatively tired. But James didn't feel any sort of discomfort from the bear, despite the fact that it wasn't breathing.
"I guess Leo really doesn't need to breathe at all."
It wasn't as if he didn't trust the beanie, but understandably, he couldn't just toss the bear into a place where it could potentially asphyxiate just because the beanie told him it would be fine.
"Well, he doesn't need to breathe, but I can't help but worry about this plan of yours," James said to the beanie. "Well, I'm going to have to challenge this boss monster anyways, so I'll have to face this slime no matter what."
James was stuck in the particular floor of the dungeon until he cleared it. It was for this reason that he had tried to punch a goblin the first time he came into the dungeon. Otherwise, he probably would have hid in a corner and cried.
This was, unlike the minibosses on each floor, the first true boss monster James had fought, so he was nervous. He checked all of his equipment. If the beanie's plan wasn't feasible, he would need to defeat the slime the "old fashioned" way by having to find the core in a slime that was a meter wide. Thus, his weapon of choice was the spear. He made sure he could grab the spare spear in his bag in case the slime swallowed the first one.
James told Leo to go back into the dungeon card. "I might call you out later, okay?" He booped the bear on the nose. James didn't know whether Leo could understand him or not, because the only messages he could receive from him were "sleepy" and "hungry."
"Well, here goes."
The massive doors and a blue blob appeared on the floor in the center of the room. The blob began swelling, growing in size until it reached the size that the beanie predicted - approximately a meter across. It stayed there for a moment.
"Wait, I'm American. It's a yard in size. Or even better, half a bald eagle."
"???"
The beanie didn't understand his joke. James wasn't even sure if it knew what a bald eagle was, so he gave up. Instead, he turned his attention to the task at hand.
A subtle fluctuation in the mana in the room reverberated across. Even James, with his higher than average magic perception, could barely feel it. But he knew what it meant.
The instant the slime started moving, James hurled one of his throwing knives at the slime. The throwing knives hadn't had much use on the last 2 floors because James was fighting undead, but he had a feeling that they would not be of much use . The knife buried itself up to its hilt in the blue wobbly material, but unsurprisingly, didn't do anything. It just stayed stuck in the slime, which slowly moved towards James.
The best way to describe the way the slime's movement was that it moved like a caterpillar. It contracted, bringing its back end forwards, and then pushed out its front end, similar to the way caterpillars undulated in wave-like motions. Of course, the slime was pretty slow, due to its size.
If the slime had been able to jump like he imagined, James would run the risk of being squashed. Luckily, even slimes couldn't escape the square cube law.
James put away his scientific curiosity and cautiously approached the slime. Judging from the slime's movements, James would have no difficulty running away from the slime, even if it were to move twice as fast as it was. He was more concerned about the slime suddenly lunging at him.
At the very least, he was sure that the slime couldn't continuously lunge and chase him down.
James approached the slime and tried baiting it to see what would happen. Nothing happened. It simply continued to crawl towards him. He couldn't cut it, and stabbing it with the spear didn't do anything. When he pulled the spear out, the hole would simply close.
As he was running out of other things to test, he even poked the slime with the tip of his finger. It tried to suck him in, but he pulled out quickly and prepared to use a potion. It was unnecessary.
"I believe I did tell you the slime was not poisonous," said the beanie.
"I know that, but still, I had to check. Also, the fact that the slime isn't poisonous makes me worried. What's the hard part of this boss fight? If I were one of the other explorers with an artifact, I'd just blast it away."
"Actually, that is the hard part. This slime is magically resistant. Not only is it not affected by regular magic, but it will also stop physical enhancement magic from working. This makes it a rather difficult task to kill the slime."
"Oh? That means it's pretty well suited for me, I guess."
"Well, if I were in my prime, I could annihilate it."
"You know, you're getting a lot more lax. When I first met you, you were very vigilant about not giving away information."
"..."
After shutting the beanie up with his words, James ran a few paces away from the slime and brought out Leo. James looked at the bear seriously. "Tell me if you feel anything wrong. I'll pull you out immediately."
"Grru!" He might have imagined it, but he thought the bear nodded.
Yes, James was planning to test out the plan. He felt that the beanie was quite trustworthy, although the plan itself was, to put it plainly, ridiculous. However, everything that he had tested indicated that it might work. Since Leo was able to eat magic stones, it was believable that he might be able to consume the slime. James could feel mana coming from it, after all.
Before, James had already attempted and failed to cut off a piece of the slime. It was a very weird texture and he couldn't really cut it at all. It could be said that the slime was a very viscous fluid that had the ability to control its surface tension and cohesiveness, which allowed it to move and swallow things. But because of that, James couldn't cut it, since anytime he got close, it liquified and attempted to engulf him.
James held the bear using only one arm, keeping the other free if it was necessary to act. This wasn't a problem for him, given his increased strength.
He carefully moved the bear closer to the slime, ready to leap back if the slime showed any fishy movements. Leo the bear reached out and smoothly bit off a piece of the slime. Once it had happened, James pulled back and waited for Leo to eat the small part of the slime.
"How was Leo able to cut off a piece, but I wasn't?" James thought to himself.
As if it had read his mind, the beanie said: "Gluttonous mutants have the power to consume just about anything with magical power. Most of the magic stones you've fed it have probably gone into strengthening its teeth and digestive tract, not the bear itself. It's teeth are very fearful weapons."
James listened to the beanie's explanation as he watched Leo swallow the piece of slime. He was prepared to use a potion on the bear, but something James didn't expect happened: Leo let out a cry and wriggled out of his arms, jumping. It was the most Leo had moved since James had gotten him.
"Whaa..!? Wait…"
James initially panicked as the bear sank into the slime, but eventually realized that Leo was in no danger. Rather, the slime was the one in danger.
Gulp. Gulp. Gulp.
Leo was going at it with gusto. James could see the bear inside the blue transparent body of the slime, rapidly consuming the slime. He could see the volume of the slime decreasing slightly, but Leo didn't gain any weight.
Evidently, the slime knew that Leo was a danger, because it went batshit. It stopped chasing James and started wobbling around frantically, presumably in an attempt to get the gluttonous bear out of its body. However, all of its attempts failed. Leo kept drinking/eating.
"I told you," said the beanie. However, it didn't sound particularly smug.
"Yeah, but it was - no, it still is - hard to believe. Even though it's happening right in front of my eyes."
James and the beanie stared at the sight in front of them. Within a minute, the slime had shrunk visibly - about 20% of it was gone.
"How much more can Leo drink?"
"I said this already, but the bear will have no problem finishing the entire slime. What was its name? Leo?"
James didn't answer. Since the slime was on the opposite side of the room from him, he sat down on the floor. His fatigue, the problem that had landed him in this situation, was still there, but he had suppressed it because he was in the dungeon. So, when he finally let it go, he felt even more tired than before.
Yet, as Leo kept on drinking the slime, James felt as if his strength was slowly coming back to him.
"Yeah, it was definitely the connection between me and Leo. I don't even know how we made a connection."
They waited. The slime shrunk to a quarter of its original size. Leo wasn't as ravenous as before, but he continued eating the slime.
"Hey, beanie?" James asked nervously. "I feel..weird. There's this burning sensation flowing throughout my muscles. It's like when you finish exercising, but it's different."
"Ah, I forgot to tell you. The point was to solve your fatigue by fixing the bear's fatigue, not your connection. Since you haven't learned to moderate the magical connection, you will share the experience of reaching an equilibrium point and evolving with Leo."
"...why am I only hearing this important information now?"
"Don't worry. You'll be fine. At the worst, it will hurt a little bit. After all, this room is pretty safe. No monsters will appear after you kill the boss."
"A little bit? What do you mean a little bit?" James cried out at the moment when Leo finished devouring the slime. A nearly irresistible urge to sleep hit James.
[Congratulations! You have cleared the 5th floor! You have cleared the 1st tier floors! You will gain +2 stat points in each category! You have gained access to more items in the dungeon shop! You will receive your first magic tome for free!]
"Why do I keep...passing....out....."
James lost consciousness and leaned backwards. Before his head hit the floor, the beanie on his head expanded and cushioned his impact.