Seeing the two items on the floor, Edart used identification on each of the items.
—["Slime Body.
Description: What was once a happy, bouncy slime is now just ooze rich in elemental mana. Can be used in alchemy recipes."]
—["Elemental Core Fragments.
Description: These fragments could store elemental mana and give life to a being. After it was broken, the mana concentrated inside it returned to the world."]
Looking at the slime's body with perception, he saw that it was rich in mana, but this mana was also dissipating into the surroundings. He didn't know what to make of it, the description made him feel bad about killing the slime, so he left it aside.
If he needed it in the future, this plain could provide him with enough.
The second item was interesting, it was a core that contained elemental mana. Seeing the description, Edart concluded that if he broke this core into a monster, he could immediately kill the monster. Which could make the next battles much easier.
This broken core wasn't of much use, but he kept it anyway. It was small, not taking up much space, in the future he could study more about it.
—"Do humans also have nuclei?"
Edart looked around for one, but found nothing.
—["I don't see any signs of a core, even when I use mana perception. Instead of being concentrated, the mana inside you is circulating chaotically."] Éris also checked him, but didn't find anything either.
—"Good thing, having such a weak point would be bad."
Having nothing else to do here, he took his spoils and returned to his makeshift camp.
Edart spent time resting in his advance camp, while he rested, he was training his mana perception skill.
Having rested enough, Edart set off in search of his next prey.
After searching for a while, he found his potential prey. One was blue slime and the other was a green slime.
—"Let's start with the easiest."
Having decided, he started with blue. This time unlike the others, he did not prepare his battlefield, instead, he would try to fight directly, to destroy the core as quickly as possible.
Edart didn't bother analyzing the slime, he picked up two chipped rocks and his club. Advancing against the slime, dodging its attacks, he first threw the stones, which hit the slime's body, sinking into its body, causing some damage.
Edart was already familiar with the water attacks, making it easy for him to dodge and get closer to the slime.
As he got closer, some attacks managed to hit him, but he ignored the pain and moved forward.
Getting close enough to attack with his club, Edart didn't hesitate and attacked. The slime who saw that no matter how much he attacked, his enemy would not stop his advance, seeing this he became hesitant and tried to run away.
Seeing the slime like that, Edart wasted no time and attacked mercilessly. After the sixth attack, he managed to hit the core and destroy it, the slime made a few more jumps, but soon stopped.
—["You killed a 'Blue Slime (Level: 3).'"].
— ["You gained 15 XP"].
— ["'Club Handling' is at level 3"].
Seeing that the battle had come to an end, Edart relaxed and sat down. There was no danger around him, so he didn't worry.
As the adrenaline wore off, pain appeared in his arms and legs. Checking his body, he found some cuts, but with a 'Life Ball' everything would be fine.
— "This slime was weak, if it were stronger I would have problems." He said after seeing his injuries.
— ["You shouldn't be so reckless, you don't have two lives, if you die, everything is over!!"] Éris shouted at him, but Edart realized that she was worried about him.
— "I know I know. This will not happen again. I promise."
— ["Really good!!"] After that, she didn't say anything else.
Indeed, Edart was very reckless in that last fight, but he is so eager to get stronger. As he had already killed two slimes, he felt very confident. Luckily, it was a weak slime.
Finally, he looked at the dead slime and used 'collect'.
— ["'Collect' is at level 2"].
—"That was easy." He said in surprise.
This time, the mana consumption was less than the green slime. Edart couldn't say if it was due to the size of the slime, as it was smaller, or if it was because he was more experienced.
Leaving that aside, the same things that the previous slime left behind were on the floor now. Having no use for the body, he just picked up the broken black stones and returned to his makeshift camp.
There, he rested until he recovered for the next fight. While resting, he used his 'Mana Perception'. Using this skill did not influence stamina recovery, but it increased mana recovery. It was as if he absorbed the mana consciously, not letting his body absorb it just naturally.
Time passed and the sun became high in the sky.
—"It's time to face the next one."
Edart got up and went after another slime, hoping to gain another level.
—"Éris, guide me to a lonely slime."
—["OK."]
Soon he found another green slime. This would be his victim.
This time, he didn't leave without a plan. His plan was to stay away, avoiding the attacks. When the slime got tired, it would attack and end the fight as quickly as possible.
Wasting no time, he caught the slime's attention using 'Identify'.
—["Name: Green Slime
Race: Mana Creature
Level: 14
Life: 33/33
Mana: 36/36
Stamina: 35/35
Vitality (VIT): 7
Strength (STR): 10
Endurance (END): 10
Agility (AGI): 8
Dexterity (DEX): 5
Intelligence (INT): 16
Will (VON): 8
Perception (PER): 7"].
— "This slime is very strong." Seeing the slime's information, Edart felt a little scared, which only lasted for a few seconds. Quickly, he pushed this feeling to the back of his mind and focused on the fight in front of him.
The slime didn't stay still, as soon as he felt someone using a skill on his body, he started looking for the person responsible. Seeing Edart standing there in fear, he didn't wait and attacked.
Creating a vine around Edart's foot, the slime managed to keep its target still. Seeing this, he began to prepare his attack.
Edart who just expelled his fear, focused on the battle, saw the leaves spinning at high speed on top of the slime. He didn't hesitate and started moving. Unfortunately for him, the slime already caught him and he fell to the ground.
—"Shit!"
Wasting no time, he began attacking the vine to free himself.
The slime saw his target try to flee, seeing Edart fall and trying to break his vines, he attacked with his Leaf Blades.
Ten leaves rotating at high speed flew towards him.
At this moment, a voice came to his ear. — ["The slime is attacking, be careful!!"] Spoke Éris.
Looking in the direction of the slime, he saw leaves 4 meters away coming towards him. Not having much time, he prepared himself.
In just a second, the leaves were already less than 1 meter away. At that moment, Edart used all the strength in his arms and threw himself to the right, moving about 40 centimeters. Unfortunately, his legs were tied.
In the next second, he felt the wind pass to his left. Although trapped, he dodged eight of the ten sheets coming towards him. The other two hit him, one in the left shoulder and the other in his calf.
—"Ahhhggrr!"
They dug 5 centimeters into his flesh and the pain reached his brain, causing him to clamp his mouth shut. A tear could be seen falling from his eye.
The slime saw that the attack, which was supposed to finish off the one that bothered him, had failed. Wasting no time, he started preparing 10 more sheets.
—"I need to get out of here!"
Edart saw that the slime didn't stay still, he realized that if he didn't do anything, this would be the end of his journey. He tried his best, broke the vines and tore off the two leaves from his body, blood flowed from his wounds without stopping. His hand ended up being cut off in the process.
—"Éris, show me my life bar!" Soon some words appeared in his vision.
— ["Edart, Life: 7/19"].
Without hesitation, he took two Life Balls and threw them into his mouth and ate them. He didn't wait for the result and threw himself aside again. In the previous location, there were 12 leaves stuck into the ground up to half their length.
The slime was not happy to see his opponent breaking free from his grasp, not wanting to let Edart get away, he created more vines.
Edart quickly got up and with a little effort, he avoided the new vines. Seeing that this opponent was at a much higher level than him, making a strategic retreat would be the best option.
It seemed like the slime knew what he wanted to do, because when Edart turned to leave, he saw more vines, different from the previous ones, which were thin and small. These looked like two tentacles, they were thick at the base and tapered towards the tip, being about 4 meters long.
As soon as Edart turned around and saw these new vines, the slime wasted no time and made the vines attack like a whip.
Edart raised his club horizontally and held it with both hands, one on each end, trying to defend himself from the attacks as best he could.
—"Since when can slimes do that?!
Éris was monitoring his status, occasionally showing him her vigor and health.
— ["Edart, Life 15/19, Vigor 5/12"]
The vine tentacles didn't do much damage, but each impact against his club sucked energy from him.
After a few moments, the tentacles lost their rhythm, attacking more slowly and with less force. Noticing this, Edart cheered up, it seemed like the slime was getting tired too.
—"You're not all that either. Hehe"
His joy was short-lived, feeling 3 points of impact on his body, followed by severe pain, spitting blood from his mouth. He let his guard down and one of the tentacles hit his chest hard, throwing Edart 3 meters, leaving him just 5 meters away from the slime.
— ["Edart, Life 3/19, Vigor 2/12"]
—["Quickly, use the 'Life Balls', the slime seems to be at its limit too."]
Receiving this warning, Edart reached into his pants pocket and took out two 'life balls', one small and one larger. He stuck it in his mouth and ate it.
—"It's all or nothing."
Without waiting and with the leaves still embedded in his flesh, Edart did the only thing he could. Holding his club like a spear, he aimed at the slime. Using his last points of stamina, he used all the strength he had to make this throw.
He saw the spear moving away, heading towards the slime. If he was in good condition, he was sure he could hit it from that distance, but in his current condition he didn't know if he would succeed.
His strength left his body, his vision began to darken and his body, luckily, fell forward, leaving his back facing the sky with the leaves embedded in him.
He didn't know if he would survive or not and the last thing he heard was Éris screaming her name.
— ["Edartttt!!!!"]
…
His world went dark, he couldn't feel anything or see anything. He didn't know where the sky was, nor where the ground was. All that existed was darkness.
—"Where am I?" He said in the darkness, unfortunately there was no one to answer him. Not even Éris was there to respond.
Time passed and nothing happened until now. Until he felt something passing by him, leaving a chaotic wind behind.
—"What is that?"
Right in front of him, in this black world, its color changed to a dark gray, he saw towers growing with a shade of black.
First, the buildings were few and small. As time passed, there were more and bigger they became. Then they ascended into the sky, where Edart could not see its top.
These buildings were plain and black, with no windows or doors. Edart didn't know what was happening.
—"There are so many towers. But what is all this?"
Time passed and the towers stagnated, they would not believe or decrease in number, nor would they increase or decrease in size.
Edart watched these towers pass by, seeing no difference for a long time.
Suddenly, he felt a shockwave that hit him, sending him crashing into a tower. He braced himself for impact, but nothing hit him. When I hit this tower, it was as if nothing was there.
He turned around and saw that the tower was collapsing, then other shockwaves came and threw him like he was a pinball.
—"How do I stop this !?"
Being thrown back and forth against the towers, one by one, they fell and disappeared into the darkness below.
So he stayed for a while, and more towers fell over time. Of the thousands of towers there were, only a few were intact as far as his vision could reach, and thousands were in pieces.
Time passed again, and calm set in. The towers that passed through Edart stopped and stayed that way. Edart looked around, but didn't see any living beings. He didn't know where he was or how to get out of here.
—"What is that?"
Then something caught his attention, in the distance, a tower fell, creating a cloud of smoke in its place. He looked at it but didn't notice anything. When he was about to look elsewhere, something appeared in the smoke.
It was red, starting thin and thickening as it came out of the smoke. A purple energy surrounded him, and Edart could feel how oppressive it was.
Suddenly, this tentacle shot towards a nearby tower, which fell without resistance. He went from tower to tower, knocking them all down without exception.
Soon, more tentacles appeared and more towers collapsed. Wherever Edart looked, he saw these tentacles destroying everything, leaving nothing behind.
The towers in the distance disappeared into the darkness and the tentacles approached the cent. Edart started to get scared, he had no way to defend himself and he was sure that these oppressive tentacles would leave nothing behind.
Tower by tower, they were destroyed, soon there was nothing left. As soon as the last towers were destroyed, the tentacles stopped.
There were thousands of them, far more than the peak number the towers reached.
Surrounded by red tentacles, the energy they emanated was enormous, but as if they were dormant as there were no more towers to destroy. That energy has diminished.
Edart was relieved that the pressure he felt had eased. But he didn't dare move. Time passed again, nothing happened. Understood, Edart wanted to try something, he wanted to see if his skills would work here.
Concentrating, he activated 'Mana Perception' but all he saw was darkness, he looked around but saw nothing different. Just as he was about to give up, a small light, with red, purple and black colors all mixed into a ball, caught his attention.
Soon this light intensified, and appeared in several places. More and more lit up. Growing stronger, he had to stop using the skill and close his eyes.
—"What is that?"
When he opened his eyes again, he was horrified. All the tentacles that were inert were pointed towards him. The heavy energy from before returned and was upon him.
Soon, the energy became so heavy that he could barely bear it. So he started to lose consciousness and the last thing he remembers was seeing all the tentacles shooting towards him.
—"Nooooo….."