-Reyha Kingdom; Gallo's Outskirts; Goblin's Lair; 10th Floor-
Making it into Iketica's house, Kymani and Lavenica were quickly guided to where Rakuia was resting, and upon coming in found a room with various slash marks on the walls, and to the side, a desk full of papers that with Kymani's current level of awareness he could tell were about theories on how to improve the W.D.W technique.
At the end of it was a bed with a bucket to the side, and seated on the bed looking out through a wooden window was Rakuia, not wearing her mask or her more armored bone clothing, instead having a light white dress on, her neck gills on full display and her long green hair contrasting with her blue skin.
"I don't know what came over me back then... I actually endangered your life even though you were a rather pacifistic visitor, I invited... If you wish to kill me in retaliation do so as many times as need be, unlike you, I'm not in any real danger from that... I'm... I'm s-... S- Urgh!" Rakuia began talking calmly clearly aware of the presence of the others, as she tried to apologize, but was unable to she covered her mouth seemingly feeling the urge to vomit.
"Hey! Hey! Take it easy! What did I tell you about rash movements?! You should be sleeping right now." Iketica approached her quickly and grabbed the bucket giving it to her as he said so.
While she was letting it all out into the bucket, Iketica come back to the party and began talking. "She gets really bad whenever she abuses her limits. I don't know if you are familiar with the mana theory, but basically, due to her condition her mana veils in her mana circuit being clogged doesn't allow for proper flow and causes backlash every time she tries to conduct mana through her body naturally. This means, she can't use too many skills or techniques or anything that requires precise mana control without getting sick or in worst cases death."
"Not really." Kymani responded.
"Which mana theory? There I three major ones as far as I know." Lavenica questioned.
"The one that says that mana is the beginning of all things, and that once it ends its time to will all return to it. Explaining that magic is the result of mana reacting to an individual's Will, intent, idea and release. The final conclusion being that magic is 50% Idea, 30% Intent, 15% Will, and 5% release. In order to apply that to mana, you need to cleanse the body of its impurities so that mana can flow and you can cast magic. This is a summary but has the gist of it." Iketica clarified.
"So the old age mana theory... That's the first one and has been long considered insufficient." Lavenica pointed out.
"... That's what Zen and Den taught me, so that's what I know." Iketica expressed.
"It's not necessarily wrong so much as it is lacking. In other words, it's too incomplete to hold up today. Now, Master, I would ask you something." Lavenica continued then turned into Kymani.
"Yeah?" Kymani was curious about what she would say.
"Do you want to help Rakuia? It is possible for you to do so." Lavenica said.
{Wait, what do you mean?} Kymani asked through their connection.
{As a slime with the absorption unique ability, your medical prowess is not to be underestimated. Due to your slime nature, you can remold and manipulate your body to work in ways that make it possible to perform surgery. If you wish to, you can remove the inma inside Rakuia, and she would then be able to properly utilize mana.} Lavenica explained.
{Wait... I don't know if I can do something that precise, not to mention I have no actual medical skills, I know some things I learned from biology but that's too little for something like this.} Kymani rejected the notion.
{If you wish to do it, I will guide you through it. All you have to do is decide, do you wish to help her or not? Apologies for putting you in this position, but I feel it is necessary. As someone who will later be a ruler, it is a must for you to get used to making decisions of this nature.} Lavenica expressed.
"... If that's the case, I'll do it. Just show me how." Kymani decided.
"... Wait! What do you mean?!" Iketica was in shock as he heard them casually talk about something he thought was basically impossible.
"Master is a slime, which means he can remove the Inma clogging Rakuia without having to damage her body or worse, kill her. Worry not, I'll be guiding him through the whole process and there will be no problem for your wife, that is unless none of you are not interested in this option." Lavenica calmly elaborated.
"... That..." Iketica hesitated.
"Do it! Whatever it is, just do it!" Rakuia herself who had just gone through a whole vomiting session spoke up.
"Are you sure? This could leave damage even the dungeon won't repair when it reconstructs your body, this is actually dangerous!!" Iketica was the first the respond.
"If I end up a motionless puppet, it will be my fault and I can deal with it." Rakuia replied.
"... What about me then?..." Iketica asked.
"...." Rakuia didn't say anything.
"I see, if that's what will make you happy, I would be very thankful to you two for helping out." Iketica sighed before slowly nodding and then turning to the party accepting their offer.
In response, Kymani nodded and moved toward Rakuia receiving instructions from Lavenica who came closer right behind him.
"Lay down, so we can start, and be aware that it will feel a little weird. Oh and hold your breath, I can assure you, you'll be fine." Lavenica gave Rakuia instructions as well.
Following the instructions, She lay on the bed.
Soon after Kymani turned to his slime form and completely engulfed Rakuia, then Lavenica put her hands in Kymani and the process began leaving Iketica to watch as this happened in the now completely silent room.
"... This is pretty weird..." Iketica couldn't help but comment.
"What exactly?" Lavenica who was very much multi-tasking found it in herself to not leave him completely alone.
"My wife is inside this dude... Just saying it out loud feels wrong, oh this better work..." Iketica seemed to be affected by the nerves the situation was giving him.
"Don't think too much about it, it's a medical procedure nothing less nothing more." Lavenica reassured him.
"Yeah... You're right, I can't be selfish right now..." Iketica took a deep breath and began walking around the room keeping a certain distance from Lavenica and trying to distract himself.
Meanwhile, Lavenica was precisely and slowly guiding Kymani through removing all the inma inside Rakuia, who was being provided with oxygen by Kymani.
The process took a whole 10 hours to finish half of it, and everyone was still a bit nervous with all of it, actually only the men were nervous, both girls were relatively calm, Lavenica was actually super relaxed about all of it, and Rakuia was throwing all and any nervousness into the abyss, completely ignoring all of it.
Another 15 hours later, it was finally over, and Iketica fell to his knees as he let out a sigh basically letting out all the nervousness building up for the last 25 hours.
"This was very fast, I expected us to stay here for a whole week." Lavenica confessed as she pulled her hands out of Kymani.
Having finished it, Kymani let go of Rakuia and turned back into a sand-high goblin, before saying. "This was probably the weirdest experience in my life..."
The patient who was still taking in the fact she was finally out, slowly sat up and looked around as if she had been sleeping for years. "You tell me about it... You could have at least warned me it was going to be like this... At this point, I feel like you know my body better than me..." Rakuia complained jokingly while half serious.
"Please don't say that, my mind is already going places. Anyway, the most important, are you ok? How are you feeling?!" Iketica approached her and gripped her hand as he questioned.
"Hum... I don't know how to put it... Light, I guess." Rakuia grabbed her head as it seemed she was somewhat dizzy.
"No pain? What about the mana, can you move it around now?" Iketica continued.
"No, I feel ok... Aside from how my head is a little fizzy. As for mana... I don't feel anything in particular... It's so comfortable." She said before widening her eyes as tears began to flow, and slowly but surely, she felt free.
"That's great! You can finally do the things you've been trying to for so long." Iketica responded with a smile and tears in his eyes.
"I'm sorry and I love you. You deserved better." Rakuia responded as she hugged him.
"I love you too. Maybe but I'm happy this way." Iketica replied half joking.
"Then, why don't you go and marry her? Who is it?! Which one of those whores us it?!" Rakuia taking it too seriously inquired.
"I was joking..." Iketica answered with an awkward smile.
From there they broke down into an argument.
"Promise me, you'll never do that." Kymani said to Lavenica.
"Master... Are you implying I'm your wife?" Lavenica asked.
"So, what if I am?" Kymani retorted.
In response, Lavenica hugged him and hid her fave from him, which he thought was adorable, that was until he heard what she was saying under there, as she wasn't blushing or embarrassed. "I apologize but I can't promise that." She replied in low voice.
'This girl...' Kymani slowly shook his head.
-Later-
"Well, I'll go prepare some snacks, Lavenica, can you help me?" Iketica asked.
"... Ok." She responded and they both left the room.
This left Kymani and Rakuia in the room.
"I'm sorry... For kind of trying to kill you... It wasn't my intention... Well, it actually was but I regret it." Rakuia said.
"I don't take it to heart, I don't know... I just don't see death in the conventional way anymore. Don't get me wrong, I still don't want to die, but it's no longer terrifying at least not for the reasons it used to be." Kymani expressed.
"I don't know how you reached that conclusion, but I'm in the same boat, as you might imagine death works differently for us. We don't like it, but it's not the same as it once was. Most things aren't, but there's one thing, I believe will always be the same no matter what happens... At least for me." Rakuia agreed before adding her perspective.
"Oh, really? What is it?" Kymani curious inquired.
"Stories. Even when they get repetitive, eventually there's always one that touches me. It's why I started listening to them as a hobby, I was looking for something to cling onto. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband and want to build a family with him, but between that and being the chief, combine that with our dungeon hell prison... It feels like I'll never get anywhere, but the stories... They allowed me to see beyond the walls of this dungeon, and that's why I love them." Rakuia replied with a soft smile.
"I get that, I feel the same in some ways. You really shouldn't wear the mask again, though." Kymani pointed out.
"Huh?! Why?! Is it broken or uneven?!... No! Don't tell me there's something stuck on it?!" Rakuia immediately panicked.
"Hahaha, no I just feel sorry for Iketica. He won't be able to see your smile for a long time because of it." Kymani chuckled at her response and then actually explained.
"... That... That's not funny, you had me worried... But I'll think about it." Rakuia for the first time since Kymani meet her, got flustered, but almost immediately got her composure back.
"Think about what?" Just as she finished speaking, Iketica came back in carrying a tray with some snacks.
"Oh, it's... It's nothing." Rakuia got a bit flustered again, thinking of what she was just told.
Then he looked at Kymani. "What did you ask of my wife?!"
"I see your confidence in me stops there. I didn't say anything special, just some friendly advice, you can ask her." Kymani lifted his hands pleading innocence.
Iketica reflexively looked at Rakuia.
"Yeah... I won't tell you what, but I changed my mind about something you didn't like and you should be thanking Kymani." Rakuia expressed.
"Oh, of course, I knew my man Kymani was a real man. One who extends a hand to a brother, truly an honorable person." Iketica shamelessly acted like he never said anything negative.
Lavenica who was standing behind Iketica with a tray carrying tea rolled her eyes, before saying. "The tea will get cold, can we get going already?"
From then they all had a rather calm tea time with some snacks, and once it was over, Iketica looked at Kymani rather seriously and said.
"If I was not bound by this place, I would have sworn to be your knight this instant, but the reality isn't that simple. So let us go back to what you mentioned before, what exactly do you want from the dungeon guardian?"
"I don't want something from the dungeon guardian, I want to know where the dungeon guardian is so that I can kill him." Kymani replied.
"... You know he exists, but you don't know hope powerful he is, otherwise, you wouldn't think that it's a good idea to even get near him." Rakuia was the one to answer.
"... Is he that strong?" Kymani questioned.
"Enough to face me and Iketica at the same time and best us both... You see, the dungeon guardian... It's not part of the dungeon... At least not in the typical sense." Rakuia continued.
"Then, why and how is it here?" Kymani got curious.
"..." Rakuia didn't respond.
"He's a creation of Den and Zen. They set it up to protect the dungeon core, and the lab they set up here." Iketica was the one to reply.
"... So it won't attack you, right?" Kymani hoped.
"It very much will." Iketica burst that bubble of hope.
"Regardless, I have to do this. Can you at least guide me there?" Kymani inquired.
"No!" Rakuia was the first to say anything.
Before Kymani could even insist though, Iketica spoke up. "I'll take you there, but I highly advise against it."
"I still want to do it." Kymani insisted.
"..." Rakiua remained silent.
"Then so be it, I'll take you there." Iketica nodded.