The explosion caused by Teras surprised not only the slime but also himself, his hand was burned from the impact of the explosion but thanks to the slime's compact body Teras's arm managed to avoid major injuries, the explosion was incredibly loud, and could have been heard from far
"Guys I think Teras is in trouble we have to change our plan"
Cara said when she heard the explosion
"But he told us to not move no matter what"
Har told her
"He can be dying this moment, and you still say that?"
Cara asked him, she was furious
"Har she is right, we have to go I don't care what he told us, if he dies it doesn't matter does it?"
Lia told him, Har didn't waste any more time, the 3 of them packed their things and started running towards the direction of the explosion
Meanwhile, the others were swiftly trying to discover what happened Teras didn't stop fighting with the slime, even after a huge explosion at this close range the king slime was barely affected, after the explosion Teras was heavily at a disadvantage because he was almost out of mana
'I don't know what happened but this explosion drained out my mana like crazy'
Teras thought as he barely managed to dodge the slime's attacks, the longer the fight lasted the more disadvantage Teras got since the king slime was destroying every source of escape Teras had
'This explosion thing happened at the adventurers' exam too, but I didn't think anything of it but it turns out, that this is similar to my mana overflow, if I only could find a way to utilize this incredible destructive power...'
Teras had a plan, the only problem was that he couldn't initiate it, suddenly a thought appeared to Teras
'I also have mana potions on me, and I think there isn't a better time to use it than now'
he thought as he took a potion out of his backpack, he quickly drank it and his mana quickly regenerated, Teras then activated his mana overflow, he then attacked the slime with a powerful stab, it looked like the slime finally took some serious damage, the slime started to aggressively hop around, trees and rocks were flying left and right, the area also cleared up from all the smoke, the reason the slime suffered this much damage was that Teras accidentally stabbed it at the same spot the explosion happened, slimes have a naturally weak defense against mana attacks
'Now that the slime is distracted I have to figure out how to do this explosion thing works. If I remember correctly I just focused a huge amount of mana into a single spot and an explosion occurred, so let's recreate it with less risk'
Teras thought, he then focused mana into the tip of his finger, and after some seconds a small explosion came out from his finger
"That's it!"
Teras said excitingly, the slime then suddenly launched a beam attack, and this time Teras couldn't dodge the attack, the beam launched Teras to a tree behind him burning his armor and a little bit of his skin in the process, Teras left out a scream of pain, the reason Teras didn't die was that he enhanced his whole body with mana, the slime didn't stop there, it also tried to squash Teras by jumping on top of him but Har came just in time to save him, with his earth powers he moved Teras's body out of the danger
"Looks like we came right on time"
Har told him as he extended a helping hand, Teras took his hand and got up
"About time"
Teras replied with a smile, Cara then quickly healed Teras's wound
"I will try to give you an opening, you simply support me if anything goes wrong"
Lia said as she charged at the slime, Lia cleverly dodged the attack of the slime and was easily able to distract it, her lighting powers gave her a sweet advantage since she could utilize her range
"We should help her, she can't possibly distract this slime all by herself!"
Cara said worriedly
"You have to put a bit more trust into your friends Cara"
Har told her to calm her down, but Cara couldn't calm herself even after what Har told her
"Guys hear me out! I noticed that Lia is following a recycling pattern of attacks and dodges, she simply goes around a circle and zaps the slime when she is facing us, to confuse the slime, and to my surprise, this works, Lia is constantly creating an opening, so while the slime is distracted with Lia we are going to strike, also try to use your card's ability and not your weapons since they don't have any effects against it, just make sure to follow up after my attack, try not to question what you see"
Teras told the others while he got ready to attack, Har and Cara agreed to his plan, it was clear that Teras knew what he was doing, Teras then enhanced his legs with mana and launched himself at the slime, and with a powerful mana enhanced punch he once again penetrated the slime's skin, Teras then fully concentrated, Lia was quite confused, Teras then created an even bigger explosion than before, a big part of the slime evaporated, Har and Cara then followed up with their own attacks, Har launched 3 spinning spears made of rock and Cara shot a powerful beam of boiling mana water, those attacks did more damaged than they would usually do because they were closer to the slime's core, the slime was slowed down from the attacks
'All my mana was drained once again from the explosion, to produce such a destructive power I will need to drain all my mana over and over'
"Keep on attacking it while I drink another mana potion"
Teras told the others, Har then continued to attack the slime with his rock-hard fists and to increase his power Har created little horns on the front of his fists, Cara continued to slash the slime's skin little by little and as for Lia she channeled a big attack to use it when Teras is ready
"I'm done! I will now attack once again, make sure to follow up!"
Teras said as he charged at the slime, the slime was already weakened from the other's attacks so Teras had an easier time penetrating the slime's skin, a big explosion was created once again, Lia then released her charged attack, It was as powerful as real lighting, the slime was almost defeated, so in a desperate attempt to defend itself the slime hardened all of its skin and curled up
"Why does it do that? Did we kill it?"
Lia wondered as she saw the slime
"I don't think so, red slimes are known for their ability to sustain damage, so it's hard for us to kill it that easy"
Har told all of them
"Then what happened?"
Cara asked curiously
"Maybe it's trying to recover, so I say we all attack it at once!"
Har suggested, it was hard for Teras to decide since something didn't feel good for him, the slime then started shaking manically, and the shaking made a weird sound
"GET DOWN!"
Teras yelled, but before anyone could do anything, the slime released a powerful attack, the slime's body extended in a spike-like shape and stabbed the others, since the king slime's body is highly toxic so it slightly poisoned the others paralyzing them, and everyone fell to the floor, they tried to bare the pain of the poison and the stabs, it was hard for them to breath too
'Damn it, we are doomed! I have to do something, I have to get up!'
Teras thought as he was fighting the pain, he slowly stood up
"Breaking every bone in my body hurt twice as much, so this can't hold me down"
Even though Teras was speaking with such confidence, Teras began losing his sight, the poison of slime had a great effect on humans, Teras then blindly took a mana potion and drank it
"I'm going to kill you!"
Teras told the slime with a smile, Teras couldn't see it but the slime was a lot smaller than before and it also was very damaged, Teras enhanced himself with mana and rushed at the slime, the slime did the same, and the 2 of them clashed with great force, Teras's punch had entered deep into the slime, the slime had focused all of its power to burn Teras's hand but it was futile, Teras had already won
"GO TO HELL!!!"
Teras screamed as he release a massive explosion that destroyed the slime once and for all, after the explosion, Teras fell to the ground from exhaustion, he had drained all of his mana 3 times in a row, and his body couldn't handle the shock so it forced Teras to sleep, plus his legs had given up on him so even if he didn't pass out he still couldn't move, Har and Lia had slowly gotten up, they hadn't lost too much blood since the attack of the slime barely scratched them, the only thing that made them fall to the ground was the paralyzing pain that the poison brought, but that wasn't the case with Cara
"Har come here quick! Cara is losing too much blood!"
Lia screamed in panic, Har quickly rushed to her but he couldn't do too much since he didn't know how to heal
"Make sure you heal her critical wounds, I will try to find something to stop the bleeding"
Har said, he then got up and started searching around, he then saw Teras's backpack, the bag contained a healing potion
'No, I can't take that! That's not mine'
Har thought as he looked at it, but before he left he changed his mind and he quickly took it
'Sorry Teras, I will repay you one day'
Har then took the potion to Cara so she can get healed, and to nobody's surprise Cara's wound quickly closed and the bleeding stopped, after Cara was healed Lia and Har quickly went to check on Teras
"His hands are a mess! Quickly search for another potion"
Lia said, little did she know that the potion Cara drank was the last one Teras had on him
"We have to wake up Cara, she can use her power to heal Teras, she can do it better than us"
Har said, but Cara had lost her consciousness, and it was really hard for them to wake her up, Lia then gave up on her and started healing Teras with all of her might
"Come on Teras, you can do better than that don't give up just yet"
an unknown boy told Teras
'what is this? Am I dreaming again?'
Teras thought as he looked at the boy
"Don't look at me like that! I warned you that he is a dangerous man but you were determined to fight him and for what? a moment of praise? You are better than that Teras, so if you don't give up and keep on training maybe one day you will surpass him"
the boy told him with a bright smile
"Who will I surpass exactly?"
Teras asked, but the boy didn't reply he just kept on looking at Teras as his face was mutating
Teras quickly woke up screaming and sweating, everyone got scared because of the scream
"What happened Teras? Did you have a bad dream?"
Cara asked him, she looked concerned
"Where am I?"
Teras asked confused, when Teras woke up he was inside a warm room, Lia and Har were also there, they were sitting at a table further away in the room
"Relax! we are inside a hotel room"
Cara told him, Teras felt more relaxed
"What about the quest?"
"We completed it, after we defeated the king slime we collected all of his remains and gave them to the association, and besides the money we got we were also rewarded with a room like this from the other adventurers, you had to see their faces when we told them that we slayed the king slime as a bronze party"
Cara told him as she giggled
"That's amazing! I have to go and thank them later, but now we have to decide about our next mission"
Teras said, that question concerned Har
"If you are thinking about the village the old man told us about I suggest you forget it, friend! We had enough trouble with the slime to be bothered with them"
Har whispered to him, he was against the idea of helping them from the start
"And you say let's try to fight unknown people for free? Have you two not understood that this is a business, we can't simply help people while we put our life at risk"
Har wasn't happy about Teras's mindset
"I'm going out to think about it! But if you don't want to go that's fine, I can always do solo quests"
Teras said as he got up
"Teras you are still injured, where are you going?"
Cara asked him but Teras didn't respond, he took his sword and exited the room
'what's wrong with Har, can he really ignore this cry for help?'
Teras thought as he walked into the quest hall, when he entered inside he saw something that made his eyes light up like no other, it was a quest
WE THE VILLAGERS OF YUKA ARE REQUESTING HELP, WE DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE A BRONZE OR A RANKER ADVENTURER, WE JUST WANT SOMEONE'S HELP TO LIBERATE OUR VILLAGE, PLEASE IF ANYONE SEES THIS PLEASE HELP US
REWARD: 5000 coins and life long stay in our village
Teras quickly accepted the quest and ran back to his room with news for the others
"Guys make sure to pack your things, we are leaving tomorrow"
Teras told them with excitement
"What makes you so happy?"
Lia asked confused
"Because we are going to help the villagers"
"Teras! it's not worth it!"
Har said with anger in his voice
"Oh, then 5000 coins and a permanent free stay in a village is not worth it?"
Teras asked while he show them the quest
"5000 coins! that's a fortune, of course, we are going!"
Cara said, she was beyond shocked
"5000 coins are good as they are, but throw in a permanent stay and you are creating an amazing deal"
Lia said, at this moment she was convinced to check the village out
"If all of you agree then I can't do anything can I?"
Har said
"So it's decided, we are going to Yuka!"