Amberser, faced with Isabel's near-nonsense question, couldn't be bothered to answer and simply said to her, "Is your mind so muddled with fatigue? Scram and rest if you're all right!"
After saying this rudely, Amberser turned and left the laboratory.
Humans are truly too fragile. It's just a few days of overtime, yet they're already confused.
Isabel watched his retreating figure, not understanding why her teacher suddenly got angry.
"It seems that the identity of an undead is a great shock to him. It's understandable, a young alchemy prodigy turned into a wandering soul in an old castle—certainly an unbearable memory to revisit. I was foolish to ask such a question.
"However, even when angry, the teacher still cares about my health, which is really quite tender."
Isabel felt moved inside, concluding that there indeed were kind undead in the world. At the same time, she reminded herself never to bring up anything related to the undead again next time she saw him.
Amberser left the castle under the cover of night.
Finding slimes wasn't a simple task, despite them being very weak creatures. Precisely because they were weak, they hid very well.
The slimes in this world weren't the cute, jelly-like beings, but rather they were more likely to be hiding in all sorts of dark corners like mushy mud.
Excessive light and extreme temperatures were unsuited for slimes, which thrived in dark, damp environments. Humidity kept their body form intact, and darkness was ideal for their hunting.
Slimes usually remained still, waiting for prey to come to them. Their sticky bodies could stealthily slide across the floor, drip down from walls or ceilings, and even squeeze through cracks—making them extremely hard to spot when hidden.
Once they encountered passing prey, slimes would launch surprise attacks. Victims wrapped by their acid-filled bodies were mostly decomposed into nutrients for absorption. However, such ambush hunting wasn't very efficient; slimes mainly subsisted on dust, fungi, or even garbage.
Amberser had never paid much attention to studying slimes and didn't know where to look at first. One or two might not be difficult, but Amberser was starting his research from scratch, conservatively needing a three-digit number of slimes. This couldn't be achieved by aimlessly wandering; professional help was needed.
When in doubt, turn to adventurers with a commission; most issues could be resolved that way.
Amberser, as usual, flew straight to Alchemy City in the middle of the night and then arrived at the bustling South Cross Street.
———
The weather was gradually getting colder, and Alchemy City was nearing winter. In such times, taverns easily attracted guests.
Even though the tavern called Iron Slag Remnants liked to water down their drinks, as the cheapest tavern in Alchemy City, down-and-out mercenaries and adventurers still packed the place.
Drinks at ten copper coins a glass left drinkers filled with anger, venting their grievances on other matters.
Slamming tables and cursing, occasionally reaching out to grope the bosom of a passing buxom maid—consider themselves half fortunate if they touch a thigh, and truly lucky if they get a hand on a buttock.
This was precisely the place Amberser needed to find.
Upon entering, Amberser frowned at the rush of hot air; liches preferred the cold, and a warm environment made their bones uncomfortably sticky with moisture.
The dwarves singing mountain songs in the corner were torture for Amberser. Couldn't they hire an elven minstrel? At least a human would do. A dwarf's voice is like two stones knocking together; can they even sing a lament?
The economic downturn really showed in the lackluster quality of the resident singers.
Amberser shook his head, pushed through the crowd, and made his way to the bar.
The Orcish bartender, who was wiping glasses, greeted warmly, "Young mage, I haven't seen you before, eh? First-time guest? This one's on the house."
A half glass of beer was brought over, rippling with a murky yellow color. Even though he no longer had a nose, Amberser could still sense the sour and astringent smell emanating from it, the scent of beer that had gone bad after being watered down. The Undead had no sense of smell or taste, but that didn't mean they couldn't discern odors; this was something Amberser detected with the Soul Fire.
He took a moderate sip, then took out a few copper coins and placed them on the bar before he said, "I'm looking to gather some information."
This was the custom, a tip before asking for information.
The towering Orcish Bartender stretched out a finger and pressed it on the coins. With the Orcs' innate bulk, a single press of his finger was enough to pin down five copper coins, which he quickly slid into his pocket.
"Generous patron, what would you like to know?"
Amberser: …
He miscalculated, the copper coins should have been spread out a bit more.
Orcs were naturally bulky, and a tap of the finger meant five copper coins, whereas a human would get at most two.
But he couldn't dwell on the loss. Amberser inquired, "Is there a place nearby where Slimes congregate in large numbers?"
The Orcish Bartender still maintained a professional ethic and immediately replied, "That would be the massive sewers of Alchemy City, of course. But lately, the sewers have been rather unsafe. I don't know what's going on, but there have been many dangerous variants of Slimes appearing."
"Dangerous variants?" Amberser asked again, "What's going on?"
"Heh, would you like another drink, sir? Only ten copper coins."
Amberser placed the copper coins on the bar and warned, "I hope this will be worth the money."
The Orcish Bartender confidently swept the coins into his pocket and gave Amberser the information he wanted, "You should know about the waste produced by Alchemy, much of it requires special disposal, which is a big expense. Recently, Alchemy City has been having some financial troubles, you should know this, so..."
Just like with industrial waste pollution, large-scale Alchemy would also produce a huge amount of pollutants, which are very troublesome and expensive to handle. With this, Amberser understood; those lunatics had been dumping alchemical waste into the sewers, which caused the Slimes within to mutate.
"No, there might be more than just Slimes..."
Amberser knew quite a bit about Alchemy himself. The common alchemical waste materials quickly formed a list in his Soul Fire, and if all that was dumped into the sewers, something truly horrifying might emerge after some time.
But now was not the time to back down. He should take advantage of the fact that truly horrifying monsters had yet to be bred and quickly gather the Slimes.
"Post a job for me, I need to collect... no, I need a guide familiar with the environment of the sewers."
Amberser initially intended to simply pay to collect the Slimes, but with the increased danger in the sewers, so too did the prices for Adventurers soar. Hence, he preferred to spend some time finding a guide to take him down there and catch the Slimes personally.
Although he was a Legendary of inferior quality, even an inferior Legendary is still a Legendary, capable of easily defeating common monsters.
On hearing this, the Bartender immediately said with delight, "Haha, you're in luck, patron. There's an Adventurer party ready to explore the sewers, and they just happen to be missing a Mage. If you manage to join them, you won't even have to pay for a guide, and you could earn a substantial commission."
Amberser frowned and said through gritted teeth, "You shouldn't have used that word."
The Orcish Bartender was taken aback and asked, "Sorry, what did you say? I didn't use any rude words, did I?"
Amberser spoke deliberately, "You shouldn't have said 'earn a substantial sum', let alone 'substantial value' and 'commission'."
"What's wrong with those words?" The Orcish Bartender became even more perplexed.
Amberser sighed and said, "After you've mentioned those, it's become impossible for me to refuse."