Clank -!
The sound of iron slamming against one another echoed inside the cave room.
Miol walked into the cave room, the cold breeze greeting his open skin. The first thing he saw was Isla, an elf with short red hair, sitting on a rock, while working on something that seemed almost similar to a magic box.
The cave room was filled with all kinds of liquid, from smokey ones, to bubbly intense ones that looked like they could destroy a person in seconds.
"Uhm… Isla?" Miol called out before he walked into the cave.
"Yeah, what is it? I'm busy." Isla responded.
'Damn, her voice sounds sexier than the other three elves. But I'll play it cool for now, I still need to make sure of something.' Lumin pretended.
"Right, well, Melfi says I should give you this weird creature, she says you'd be interested in it, I guess." Miol uttered.
"Urgh! Your sister is always going to be a pain in the ass. It's hard for her to find me a city level magic crystal, but she can find me weird creatures? What a help she is." Isla sounded irritated.
Miol, standing at the entrance, felt attacked as stabbed connected.
"Geez, fine I'll just leave, not like i-"
Isla suddenly stood up.
"Eh?" Miol was confused.
"That creature you're holding, where did you find it?" She asked, her back still turned.
"I don't know, she only said to give it to-"
"Shut up, bring it here."
As she said this, Isla turned to face this, her facial expression so calm one could barely tell if she was angry or just slightly upset.
'H…Hai.'
Miol moved closer and handed the Blop to Isla.
The first thing she did was rub on its soft slightly liquified surface. Her face lightened up with each touch.
'Heheheh, touch me more… this is like a dream come true…hehe, more more'.
[I have located your subject Alpha, she is currently still in the forest, healthy with no sign of danger.]
'Uhn? Oh yeah Alpha, I told you to keep track of her for me. Yeah, good, the moment you sense anything wrong with her just let me know. For now, I need to explore some things with these elves for research purposes, not because I'm hoping for something'.
Isla grabbed the Blops small pseudos, rubbing her fingers on the tip.
"Hmm, a strange creature, looks like a slime, yet still not one. These small tentacles are probably to help it move around since its body isn't flexible, hmm… it has no senses either. It's like a plain rock." Isla spoke as she kept touching it all over.
"Y.. Yeah, can I go now?" Miol uttered.
"You're still here?" Isla asked back, looking at him with a confused expression.
The male elf sighed, "yeah yeah, I'm going over to meet Rugurd, by the way, he's probably going to kill Ernest today, I just hope you-".
"I've told you all already, Ernest broke the rule, and now the alpha elf has to kill her, I get it, you don't have to act like I'm some emotional brat, I understand how these things work".
Miol smiled in response, "I'm glad then, well, bye."
And with that, he left.
Isla stared at the entrance of the cave for a while, and then she carefully placed the Blop on the ground beside her, before moving on with what she was initially doing.
'Hmm… Alpha Elf? I didn't know elves had hierarchy.'
[This specific race of elves do. The strongest elf in the group tends to become the alpha, and gets to decide everything that goes on in the group.]
'I see, so typically like wolves uhn? And this alpha wants to execute her brother? Yeessh, I can see why she's calm about this. No use fighting something that can't be fixed.'
The Blop gently crawled forward, trying to see what she was working on.
When he moved forward, he noticed she had a dead crystal, with different magic looking strings connected to it, from a small wooden box with small legs all around it.
Isla seemed almost frustrated at how she had been working on it for months and almost no change. She knew everything she was doing was hopeless if she couldn't find a good magic source, hers and everyone in the cave wouldn't be anywhere near enough.
"Dammit."
Isla whispered to herself, this time, the tears were barely held back.
She hugged herself on the ground, her face hidden in the darkness.
'Atta girl, it was bound to happen, hell, I would have murdered the whole group if they were going to just kill my sibling. That said, system, run a scan on whenever this is'.
[Request confirmed.]
[This is a magic control automaton, an ancient technology developed by the dwarfs, it is said to be able to find other magic sources and detect threats to alert the owner.]
'So like a rader in battle royale games?'.
[Slightly similar.]
'And what is missing for it to work?'
[The individual is using a dead magic crystal, and the magic strings are almost impossible to conduct mana.]
'Okay, sounds like an easy fix.'
And it was, at least for the sentinel Blop, Lumin.
At first, he disconnected the strings connecting itself to the crystal and devoured them.
Since it counted as a weapon, he was able to use his skill [Weapon assimilation.] to rework the functions of the strings, adding mana and amplifying it so it would last even longer.
Once he was done, he spat them out, brand new strings.
Lumin connected the strings to the magic crystal that he soon poured a huge load of mana into it, just for the sole purpose of retaining its properties.
Once he was done, Lumin stood at the side, a smug look playing on his face internally.
A couple of hours passed, and Isla finally woke up from where she had fallen asleep.
She grabbed her head from the ache she felt, but something else caught her attention.
"Eh? Eh? Ehhhhhh?"
She screamed in shock as she grabbed the box, her eyes widened in surprise.
Somehow, the crystal was working and magic was running inside the dead box she had been working on for months.