Syl

Chapter 103: Up and Down

'Well, that was annoying. As much as I want to fly to my next destination, let's land on the edge and slowly progress inward for now. There's a good chance other flying monsters will attack me if I make myself so visible.'

I flapped down slowly to the island's edge, my wings beating against the wind. Finally, I landed on the solid ground, a wave of relief washing over me. Just as I was about to appreciate being on solid ground again, two notifications suddenly popped up.

'Landmark?' I questioned and activated my newly upgraded [Mapping] skill.

Looking at my mental map, I could see some places, most notably Stantondale, Kaerlin, and Glimmerock, were now named and marked. Weirdly, the forest, the mine, the farm, or even the goblin cave did not have any names or markings, despite me mentally knowing that was their location.

'Perhaps they aren't notable enough? Or not specifically named. Hmm...'

I canceled my griffin shape and was partway into transforming into an elf when I stopped it abruptly. Instead, I just reverted to my default slime form, feeling the familiar fluidity of my gelatinous body. I stretched out, loose and free, forming all my [Pseudopods] and giving them a much-needed wiggle.

'How long has it been since I was just a regular slime?' I asked myself, 'Well, I can't exactly call myself regular anymore.'

I peeked over the edge briefly before retreating when I felt a mild sense of vertigo; it was a long way down. I chuckled to myself and questioned why I felt such a fear. I bet I could survive the fall; even if I didn't, [Defy Death] would kick in. Hell, I could likely recover if I transformed into a griffin quickly enough.

'Okay, so let's set some goals. The main priority is to find a yellow slime, above all else. The secondary goal would be to find interesting monsters to eat and explore the island. Tertiary would be to work on my skills and traits.'

After thinking for a moment and recalling the island's topology from my prior observation, I made a decision.

'The lake and that overgrown ruin would probably be ideal; they're central to the island, and having access to all that water could be useful for offense or defense.'

As usual, magic practice was my go-to activity when traveling. I was very curious about what the next level of [Arcane Magic] and [Ice Magic] would provide. The slowness of Arcane, however, really bugged me. I was sure I should have reached level two by now.

'Is it the spell that's at fault? Does [Arcane Hand] just give crap experience?' I wondered, trying to think of the difference between it and my other forms of magic.

'Not being able to use it in combat is definitely a downside; I know that gives more experience than usual... If only there were an arcane arrow spell or something...' I mused.

'Wait. I could just make an arcane arrow spell. I have the components for a projectile spell; I've been so focused on making afflictions and debuffs that I've neglected my basic building blocks!'

I immediately tossed aside all my spells in progress and formed a [Fire Arrow], then immediately started removing all traces of Fire mana and replacing it with Arcane. I had to ensure the spell was completely clean; otherwise, the frustratingly malleable Arcane mana would become Fire before I knew it.

The basic components were easy to work with, and soon, I had a solid and easy spell structure. I promptly cast it, aiming at a sizeable rock, and a colorless bolt of mana emerged and blasted it, sending it flying with surprising force. I immediately cast it again, expecting a notification.

'Huh. Not what I would have called it, but sure.' I grumbled, 'I guess I shouldn't be too surprised with such a basic combination already existing; it wasn't exactly some great innovation.'

'Wait... Does discovering spells give a massive amount of experience? It's probably the first-time bonus, at least. Have I been ignoring a small goldmine in experience?'

My curiosity was interrupted by a random identification. Returning to reality, I spotted a winged horse drinking from the lake with seemingly no care in the world. I immediately thought of blowing it up with a good [Fireball] spell, but then I realized I could sneak up on it and give it the old slime hug since it was alone. I did, however, cast my debuffs, wanting the free experience, before I flattened myself against the ground, changed my coloring, and started to slither towards it.

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There was a bright flash, and the horse's head went up. I had thought it might have spotted me when suddenly there was the sound of cracking thunder. Its nose flared with a disgusting snort moments before I leaped forward, slime extended outwards like a giant net, and tendrils latching onto the winged horse.

As soon as I grabbed on, it frantically whinnied and started bucking, but I latched on tight and enveloped it. Mana seemed to coalesce into its wings before it shot up into the sky at gravity-defying speeds, but that wouldn't be enough to remove me. I had already started to invade its body and turned on the acid. Its wings were an obvious point I should have attacked, but I knew [Dissection] wanted them badly, and I didn't want to ruin another harvest.

I realized it was trying to call for help moments before smothering its mouth. I also made sure to use [Life Sense] to see if I could finally notice a difference in the trait.

Two more horses seemed to answer its call, their wings also glowing bright with mana, and the wind itself began answering its call. I wondered how they would deal with me without harming their ally. They cast a few shallow blades of wind, not wanting to cut deep enough to damage their rapidly melting friend, which I could ignore.

'Are they hoping that they can cause me pain so I'll release? I mean, it's a sound strategy if I could feel pain in my slime.'

Suddenly, I saw the life plummet on my captured pegasus, and then it promptly died, giving way to all my acid and dissolving almost instantly, except the wings, which I stored away for proper harvest later. There were lots of furious horse noises, followed by the sound of intense wind that began to cut away at me.

I was more than happy to plummet back down to the safety of the floating island, so rather than turn into a griffin or pegasus, I partially transformed some salamander hide and utilized [Draconic Scales (Lesser)] to block the blades of wind.

Armed with [Arcane Bolt] and five willing fighters, we rapidly returned fire. The pegasus seemed startled at the sudden barrage and began to float through the sky with unparalleled grace as they dodged the magical projectiles. Against my expectations, they cooperated and created a large buffet of wind that sent me flying back up high into the sky.

'Looks like they want to keep me up in their domain. That's rather frustrating.'

While I didn't feel at risk, I didn't enjoy being manhandled and thrown into the sky like a ragdoll repeatedly. If they could dodge six [Arcane Bolts], then I'd need to redouble my effort.

'I've never had my [Sub-Cores] try this before, but it should work!'

I would have all of us use [Multicast] combined with [Arcane Bolt]. I gave the order and physically felt the mana in my body strain; what was normally a continuous, rapid flow of mana suddenly became a violent deluge. I felt a strange... Pain? Something wasn't happy with what I was attempting to do. Did I not have enough flow to output the mana I was trying to use at once?

'Come on! I'm a bloody walking mana potion! I should be able to do this!' I screamed in protest.

Something deep in my core popped, for lack of a better word. Then, it felt like it was going to split in two. Suddenly, garbled notifications appeared, temporarily blocking my vision. I had an immense sense of dread.

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Then, against my expectations, my [Sub-Cores] complied and began each firing two [Arcane Bolt] spells simultaneously. I wanted to cheer mentally, but I was struggling to focus. I wanted to join them, but I had to keep us together at this point. Whatever I had done, the mental impairment had been beyond expectations, and if I were human, I think I would have blacked out.

Relegating myself to the cheerleader of this situation, I watched the cores work together in tandem to provide a bullet hell pattern of magical bolts that caused one pegasus to dodge into another. Once one slipped up, they all focused fire and barraged it endlessly. It was not a pretty sight, and soon, a rather mangled pegasus was plummeting.

I thought I was finally out of trouble and would be landing shortly when, again, I was lifted up into the air. Three more stupid horses had appeared. I was mentally cursing when a flash of light blitzed toward the group of pegasus, followed by the rumble of thunder. Energy crackled between the horses, and they seemed temporarily stunned before another bolt struck them, and soon, three charred corpses were plummeting.

I called off my cores and was hoping to focus on defense. I searched for the cause of the lightning, and then I spotted it.

The yellow slime was far larger than any other slime I had seen, bordering between boar and horse size. It had a large violet core that crackled with energy. Most strange of all, the slime undulated rhythmically, almost like a bellows or a coil being wound up and released. It even had two [Pseudopods] on top, spread out in a v-shape, lightning arcing between them.

I only had a moment to admire it before it fired another bolt from the v-shape that fried the remaining pegasus; I hadn't even noticed it was rapidly retreating away. I felt threatened by this slime but also awed by its power. Its base slime species was technically on par with my two mutations, and if I didn't have my class levels, it would technically be higher level than me.

My admiration was abruptly interrupted when I slammed into the ground with a squelch.