Syl-Chapter 237: Slimy Results

I created my full eight pseudopods and wiggled them around, causing Vee to stare at me while radiating confusion.

"Are you trying to be an anemone?" Vee asked.

"New trait level; I can have eight tentacles now!" I said excitedly.

"What do you mean eight now? I've seen you have way more than that."

Rather than try to explain it, I showed the trait to Vee, hoping it would clarify things.

<[Pseudopod LV 8]

It can create and control numerous tendrils equal to the trait level of the available slime mass.

The degree of manipulation increases per level.

Quantity and size distribution are limited to available slime mass.

Compatible with other slime traits.>

It did not.

"I don't get it," Vee grumbled. "How is this any different than what you usually do?"

"This is all handled by the trait. When I change the shape of my slime overall or try to morph it into shapes, I have to almost consciously control it. When I mimic a form like a weapon, elf, human, dwarf, or monster, I have another trait, [Chimeric Mimicry], that does the heavy lifting and handles copying the form. Likewise, the tentacles made by the trait are effectively controlled for free and have much better manipulation than when I try to do it manually."

Vee hummed mentally while she mulled it over before finally speaking up again, "Maybe you didn't notice it much with being distracted. But I'm sure you had more than seven or even eight super tentacles against the demon."

"Really? I know my [Sub-Cores] are pretty good at controlling my slime for me when I delegate. I wonder if that's the reason?"

I ordered Alpha to create half a dozen tentacles without using the [Pseudopod] trait. I felt the slime mass being withdrawn and forming into some makeshift tentacles. I didn't even need Vee to point out that these were far from the highly controllable tendrils I usually use.

"That's weird..." I mumbled.

"Can each of your cores make eight tentacles?" Vee suggested.

"They couldn't before," I immediately replied, then paused, "Before I evolved!"

I snapped my fingers and grinned excitedly. I held out one arm and ordered Alpha to make eight tentacles on the arm. It happily complied as usual, and they wiggled with speed and dexterity. Then, I held out my other arm and ordered Beta to do the same. Another eight little tentacles formed, and I couldn't help but cheer.

"It's per core!" I said happily.

"Nice, that solves that mystery. Although I can't see when you'd ever need, what, 80 tentacles? Unless you want to try impersonating a centipede without using your mimic trait."

"Yeah, it's definitely overkill; my previous evolution has almost set me up for letting my [Sub-Cores] act independently from myself."

"But they're still stuck to you?" Vee asked.

I nodded, "At least for now, they still can't act or follow orders unless they are connected to me. Maybe [Core Collective] will do that if I uncap it, or maybe I need another trait."

"Or maybe it will be your next evolution," Vee suggested.

"Very possible. I upgraded from Mimic Slime to Chimeric Mimic, which was a big jump. So maybe I'll get a Distant Cluster Slime? I'd love to be able to use my [Sub-Cores] over a wider area."

"That name is terrible; maybe something like Remote Cluster Slime?" Vee teasingly suggested.

"It can be called anything at this point; I'd just be happy for the upgrade. I'm always worried about losing the connection, potentially the core, and all of the slime mass under its control."

"I wondered why you don't always spread out as much as possible unless things really call for it."

"Yeah, I'm being a bit stingy and neurotic, I'll admit. But in my defense, it is easier to move around and more compact. There's a reason I didn't take one of my evolution options, which was focused on just being a massive all-consuming blob."

"Really? Wow, 'cause that definitely fits you," Vee teased.

"That's rich coming from the one with the extra-dimensional stomach," I retorted, looking over what other skills or traits had improved.

[Derived Element (Air) LV 8]

At this point, I'm surprised you aren't at the max level yet!

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

[Magical Subterfuge LV 6]

[Exploit Weakness LV 6]

[Elemental Shift LV 6]

[Trap Mastery LV 5]

Nice. I got some good upgrades there. It's a pity I didn't get a level in [Nitro Slime], but its last improvement was pretty recent. I'd love to get all my slime traits to an even level eight across the board.

There was also one final notification.

<Your accomplishments have been acknowledged.

Emblem Achieved: [Banisher].>

So I did get something from the demon! I hope it's good!

<[Banisher]

Increases damage against summoned creatures by 10%.

Increases stability damage to summoned creatures by 10%, reducing the time they can stay anchored away from their home.

Equipping this Emblem doubles these bonuses.>

Not bad... But nothing amazing? I hoped for something cool and flashy like [Demon Slayer], but I didn't kill it. I suppose this does make my next fight with one somewhat easier.

"You know... I just realized we didn't give Trixie a bag or something," Vee spoke up.

"Why would that matter?"

"Well, she's tiny; how can she bring back any loot?"

"Oh... Maybe she has her own storage?" I suggested.

"I hope you're right. Otherwise, we will be stuck here waiting for a while as a tiny pixie drags a big sack of loot across the ground."

"While that would be pretty funny, she can create these magical little minions with [Nature Magic] to carry stuff for her if she has access to plants."

"Wow. And to think I only have two types of magic," Vee grumbled.

"Next evolution?" I suggested. "Or we could try to get one via a class for you."

Sadly, that idea fell through. I even tried showing [Derived Element] to Vee, but it said she lacked the required class to take the trait.

"Why do you even want to split your cores up?" Vee asked.

"Well, if I could leave one with you, you'd permanently have a magical helper at the very least. But imagine if I could have each core take a different form? I could have my own little adventuring party or have some great disguises with monsters."

"Wow. Okay, yeah, that sounds absurdly powerful," Vee agreed.

"I sort of had this idea of potentially pretending to be a Monster Tamer and have my cores pretend to be a slime or something else, which was why I even had [Bonded Companion] in the first place. The idea sort of fell flat when I realized that you can't tame slimes."

"Regular slimes anyway," Vee added. I nodded.

I withdrew some slime and demonstrated by having Alpha take the form of a griffin, still connected to me by a slimy tendril.

"This is sort of the idea I had," I explained. "But the big risk is that if this tendril breaks, not only does the disguise break, but I potentially lose all that slime. So I haven't risked it yet."

"Makes sense," Vee agreed.

We continued to chat a bit while I showed off some monster forms. It entertained us both and hopefully allowed me to gain some experience towards the next level of [Chimeric Mimicry] or [Morph Slime].

Trixie eventually showed up looking rather peeved off. As soon as she left the corrupted area, she made a few retching noises and shook herself like a wet dog.

"Never again!" Trixie declared.

"That bad?" Vee asked.

"It wasn't painful, but very uncomfortable," I explained.

"You're anything but normal in that regard," Trixie snapped back. "I was being serious when I said you shouldn't be letting your soul accumulate so much damage like that. Didn't you say one of your fears was being mind-controlled again? Well, having a weak soul would make it easier for you to submit."

I shuddered.

"Adding that to the top of my list of things to avoid. Soul damage. Avoid at all costs. Yup!" Vee responded nervously.

"Anyway, we should head back," Trixie said. "Wasn't there a kobold-dwarf war going on?"

"Was the war even real, or was it all these Outeatus people?" Vee asked.

"I think it's real, and they were just capitalizing on the opportunity," I replied.

"So what's the plan then?" Trixie asked.

"I want to throw this bag at the elves and leave," I answered.

Vee nodded.

"Really?" Trixie asked. "I thought you were pretty invested in dealing with the kobolds."

"We can sneak out and look for the leader to assassinate or something; I could even turn into a kobold to do it or just go giant worm on them."

"Wow, you must be especially upset if you're willing to drop all pretense," Trixie replied with a hint of bemusement.

"Syl, the elf adventurer, can go on hiatus for a while, as far as I'm concerned," I grumbled. "I like being on the attacking end, and I've had one attack against me too many."

"Are you going to report it to the guild?" Vee asked. "The attempted assassination, not the hiatus."

"I suppose," I shrugged. "But the elves first; I'm done with this stupid magic bag everyone seems to be after."

Vee nodded in agreement, but Trixie seemed less reluctant.

"You really want to go see the elves?"

"I'm throwing this bag at them and leaving," I answered. "Why do you not want to see them?"

Trixie rolled her eyes, "Something like that... I'm just not on great terms with a few of them."

"I thought you said spirits got on well with the elves and dwarves?" I asked.

"Yeah, but I'm extraordinary," Trixie giggled.

Vee's mental sigh was almost deafening across the companion bond, and I had to admit that I was beginning to agree.

Trixie must have sensed it or something as she huffed and puffed in some playful anger, "Look, when you get to be as old as me, you sometimes ruffle a few feathers. And among the ageless, some grudges get held for a very, very, very long time."

"Okay, if you don't want to see the elves, then you can go tell Thern and his family what happened," I offered.

"Sure, that works for me," Trixie replied happily.

Moments before leaving, the pixie upturned a tiny satchel she had, and its contents magically spewed out. Bags, weapons, tools, and coins aplenty poured out.

"I thought you couldn't put dimensional storage inside each other," I murmured curiously.

"My bag isn't dimensional; it shrinks stuff," Trixie answered.

"Huh, I wonder if I could make something like that?" Vee asked.

"Unless you want to donate your... Skin? Chitin? I don't think so," Trixie answered. "This is made from the skin of a monster that could naturally shrink and grow and then was enchanted to reactivate its natural properties."

"Uh... No thanks, I like my exoskeleton attached," Vee rejected the idea.

After removing the items from any enchanted bag, I tossed them into my [Core Storage]. When I had the time or energy, I'd go through them more thoroughly to see if they had anything worthwhile or maybe even some info to give the dwarves about their hostile actions.

That would probably be too convenient if they had evidence of their orders or actions. I doubt I'm that lucky.

Returning to the battlefield proper was both a surprise and a relief. Most of the kobold army looked scattered; even more, dwarves had taken to the field with the occasional human adventurer. There were massive scars and craters throughout the area, indicating there were some hefty siege attacks propelled toward the reptilian invaders.

"Wow, we really missed out on some of the action," Vee said.

"Yeah, but they were mostly small-fry; I doubt you would have gotten much experience," Trixie said.

After making sure my profile and disguise were all correctly in place, we began our retreat back toward the safety of the city. I threw out the occasional flashy [Fireball] spell at the retreating kobolds to keep up appearances.

When we got back, I approached one of the dwarves in charge and questioned him about the state of the battle.

"We won today, but they will be back," the dwarf replied. "Many of them retreated and got away, and I've been told it was similar on the other front. They'll regroup and attempt something else tomorrow, if not sooner. Watch the sneaky gits try to do something during the night shift."

"I'm surprised they could just throw away so many lives," I commented.

"Lives," the dwarf spat. "Them monsters don't have lives. Most are motherless, spawned from essence. They don't care how many they throw at us, as it'll just make more spawn. We even had to cull our dungeon so it could take in some of the excess essence."

I guess that's one way to reduce a monster army from respawning. No wonder all the major cities are near a dungeon.

I thanked him for his time and joined the queue to get back behind the city walls.

"Well, that was pretty grim," Vee remarked.

"Definitely makes me wonder what the gods were thinking when they decided to let souls come back as monsters," Trixie replied telepathically. "They must have known most of you would be killed on sight. Not everyone can shapeshift like Syl here."

"Ha! If you think that's bad, I couldn't even understand what the dwarves were saying. Then one day, I get this [Universal Language] skill added for free," Vee responded.

"Yeah, not understanding what the kid said to me while he carved me over his bucket was terrifying. Although I got [Universal Language] after being bonded."

"See, hearing all this makes me think they wanted you to die. Very cruel," Trixie replied, shaking her head.

"Survival of the fittest, I suppose," Vee shrugged.

"Well, if we stick together, I intend to survive," I replied confidently.

"After seeing you literally throw hands with a demon, I'll agree to that!" Vee cheered.