Chapter 11 : Adventure Level 2 (4)

How dangerous could the slime we were about to hunt be?
The slimes we first caught in the city died from a simple kick, but this forest slime would surely be more dangerous.
The important question is how dangerous.
Internet rumors varied wildly: it was acidic and melted weapons, it was 150cm tall and swallowing meant doom, it couldn’t be killed by physical means, and so on.
But while such stories existed, they lacked credibility.
It seemed few people had reached level 5, so there were few reliable accounts.
People’s leveling speed was slower than expected.
Do Yugeon and I hunted only two or three times a week, and even then, lackadaisically, but knowing the prey’s location through mana sense and moving efficiently seemed to speed up our leveling.
Our pace was comparable to people who reportedly quit their jobs to focus on Exploration Alliance activities.
That holds true even considering the Exploration Alliance’s inherent incompetence.
Geniuses more talented than me would likely level up faster and know much more, but they didn’t seem to use the internet, so there was no way to know.
It would be nice to get their help.
If you have talent, don’t keep it to yourself; use the internet a bit and share some information—that would be great.

Due to the lack of internet information, I hadn’t planned on hunting slimes just yet.
But Do Yugeon wasn’t the same and kept pestering me to hunt one.
Worried he might recklessly go alone, and having personally experienced that scratches from branches disappeared upon logging out, I finally agreed to hunt it.
I also had the spellbook, so I could probably buy enough time to log out if needed.
The spellbook held tens of times more mana than I usually shoot, so it should work for buying time in an emergency.
Whether I’d have the presence of mind to shoot tens of times the mana in one go is another story.
After walking, we saw the slime.
A huge slime—blue, opaque, round, and about as tall as me.
As the slime slowly brushed past a tree, the tree melted and fell.
The sound echoed through the forest.
“……”
I had estimated its size through my senses, but having acid too? Isn’t that too much?

“Whoa! This is awesome.”
“What’s awesome about it?”
“This is what a proper adventure and hunt should be like. Let’s go!”
I don’t want to do things properly like that… I want to live life easily.
Following the excited kid who rushed ahead, I said, “If it gets dangerous, log out.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Are you listening? If it gets dangerous, what do you do?”
“Log in.”
As we got somewhat close to the slime, Do Yugeon looked around the ground, then picked up a large rock.
He handed me his sword.
“What are you doing?”
“Just a sec.”
He took a stance and threw the rock toward the slime.
Even considering the distance, it was a dangerous, impulsive action.
How does he know how the slime will react? Why provoke it already?
While I was flustered, Do Yugeon pulled me behind a tree.
The thrown rock hit the slime, was swallowed, and then melted away.
It was a fairly large rock, yet it had no effect.

The slime approached us.
Its movement was quite slow; it seemed possible to escape just by walking.
Since it was only approaching, maybe it couldn’t attack from range or had no immediate intention to attack?
Do Yugeon made a sound of thought.
“Stabbing it with a sword probably won’t work. How do we catch it?”
“More importantly, don’t do weird, dangerous things. It turned out okay just now, but that was a risky move.”
“Okay.”
An unconvincing reply.
Is there no point in saying more? Thinking about how to catch the slime would be more productive.
“In my opinion, a sword might be difficult, but magic should be easy.”
Its slow movement suggests I could probably catch it just by shooting magic from afar.
I don’t know how effective magic will be given its size, but if I shoot enough, it should die eventually.
“Only you can use magic. It’s meaningless if I can’t catch it.”
“Picky.”
“It’s fantasy, so even if we assume a slime core exists, how are you supposed to target it with a sword? It moves along with the slime, and it seems to be about 70cm deep.”
“Just get close and stab it. The sword is long enough.”
“Is that possible?”
“Of course.”
If the slime moves, the core will move violently too; is it really as easy as he says? Not to mention dangerous.

As he started to step forward, I grabbed his clothes and stopped him.
“Let’s try that on the next slime. Let’s catch this one safely with magic.”
After thinking for a moment, he agreed.
Together, we put a good distance between ourselves and the slime, hiding behind a tree.
As I held the spellbook and gathered mana, he spoke.
“You’re going to shoot mana now, right?”
“Right.”
“Since we’re catching it anyway, how about trying different magic?”
“Why? Hmm…”
Different magic—what could there be?
My current magic simply processes mana and shoots it.
No matter how I process the mana, isn’t it ultimately the same magic, just with differences in proficiency?
To be called different magic, it would need an additional element beyond processing.

Then let’s use a magic law. I haven’t tested if it can be called a law, but simple laws exist in magic.
One such law is that the more mana is compressed, the harder it is to compress.
In other words, mana resists itself? Or does mana have kinetic laws? Or is the amount of mana compressed proportional to the manipulation capacity?
Since I’m not in science or engineering, I don’t know the proper term. Let’s just say mana particles don’t get along well. Reconciling them is just a pain for me.
Since mana particles don’t get along, various actions are restricted, making magic simple.
But this time, I plan to use their bad relationship.
What happens if forcefully compressed mana is suddenly left unattended? Since they don’t get along, they’ll try to push apart.
Exactly—an explosion.
Mana explosion.
New and good.
Different from before.
Let’s try it.

I boldly gathered the surrounding mana.
Wind blew following the mana, and my clothes fluttered.
I compressed several times more mana than I usually shoot into a sphere.
It was about the size of a fist.
When I experimented before, even this much was a bit difficult, so I stopped, but now it’s easy.
Has my capacity increased? Then should I gather a whole lot more?
I pulled out a chunk of mana from the spellbook, added it, and compressed the mana to the size of a fingernail.
It’s getting difficult now.
Looking at the slime, it was still far away.
Even though we put a lot of distance between us, it’s slow.
The sight of the slime swallowing trees, causing them to fall and sounds to echo, is quite intimidating, but watching from afar, I don’t feel a sense of crisis yet.

I shot the mana lump, hid properly behind the tree, and closed my eyes.
Controlling mana becomes harder the farther it travels, so I needed to concentrate to keep it properly compressed until it reached the slime.
The mana lump passed between trees, through grass, collided with leaves several times yet maintained its shape, and finally met the slime.
Collision, expansion, explosion.
The slime burst, and trees were pushed back.
Clumps of dirt flew, and a strong wind shook the forest.
A loud bang sounded, making me cover my ears.
Should have done that sooner.
Shortly after, experience points flew toward me.
It’s dead. For a moment, I tensed, wondering if it might reform since it was a slime.

“Magic is cheating.”
He peeked out, observed the situation, and said.
“Can’t deny that.”
Easily defeating an acidic slime about 150cm tall? Yeah, it’s cheating.
Going to the site of the magic aftermath, I found a crater several meters wide, and the surrounding area was a mess of fallen trees and upturned earth.
If I, with just some talent, can do this much, I can’t imagine what true geniuses are capable of.
“Is it my turn now?”
“Are you sure you can catch it? Wouldn’t it be better if I just caught it with magic?”
Magic made it easy, but I couldn’t understand how he intended to catch a slime with a sword.
“Don’t worry. I’m a genius—I can do it.”
His arrogance is truly extreme.
Still, he does have talent, so maybe it’s possible? I don’t know.
Come to think of it, even if this kid manages somehow with his talent, how do other people catch them? When I asked him, the answer was simple.
“Probably use spears.”
“Now that you mention it, yeah… No. How do you pierce a small core with an unmastered spear?”
“They’ll figure it out themselves.”

We moved toward the next slime.
Facing the second slime, Do Yugeon actually put his words into practice—claiming he just needed to approach and stab the core—and easily caught the slime.
However, in the process, some ooze splattered onto his hand, causing a light burn.
Should I buy him gloves?

Logging out, we boarded the subway.
When hanging out with him, I usually consider his budget and opt for fast food or delivery, but this time, since Do Yugeon’s wish was for me to treat him to a meal, I had made reservations at a Korean formal dining restaurant.
Still, thinking about it now, asking for just a meal as his wish? Ridiculous.
“Why?”
As I stared at him for a bit, he asked, looking puzzled.
“It’s nothing. More importantly, let me see your injured hand.”
“It’s all healed.”
I examined his hand.
The burn disappeared after logging out, but I wondered if it was truly healed.
“Try clenching and unclenching your hand.”
Do Yugeon clenched and unclenched his hand.
“Fist, open, fist, open.”
Probably normal.
“How about going to the hospital for a check-up?”
“I appreciate the concern, but honestly, it’s excessive. It healed when I logged out.”
“That’s the thing.”
“You don’t have to say it—I know what you’re thinking. Cosmic horror event? You’re worried about something like that, right? Seems like excessive worry. It’s been fine so far—is there really a need to worry?”
“There’s no guarantee it will be fine in the future.”
“Then we can think about it again when a problem arises.”
“What if an irreversible—I mean, something unfixable happens?”
He thought for a moment and said, “Then let’s solve it with talent.”

I laughed out of sheer exasperation.
Talent, huh.
Actually, I sometimes wonder myself if my worries are excessive lately.
The possibility of cosmic horror exists, but since nothing has happened yet, maybe it will just end as delusion? Conversely, perhaps adapting to fantasy phenomena like the system requires actively taking risks? If fantasy is the trend of the era, shouldn’t we do that much to avoid falling behind? Lately, Dad has been busy predicting the impact of system distribution, which makes me even more confused.
Do Yugeon shrugged.
“Besides, it’s the weekend—hospitals aren’t open anyway.”
The weekend isn’t the issue, though.
Arriving at the restaurant, we were guided by a staff member into a private room.
I sat on the floor cushion and stretched.
Tired. Leveling up has improved my physical condition, and hunting around counts as exercise, so I definitely feel better physically.
But mentally, I’m tired.
Wandering outside is detrimental to the mind.
It would be much easier to just quit hunting and read books at home.
Being able to read lying down with magic would be the icing on the cake.

Do Yugeon looked around the room and said, “We’re eating at a place like this?”
“It’s close by.”
This place isn’t exceptionally amazing at cooking, but its proximity makes it convenient.
“That’s not what I meant.”
What now?
“…Was there something specific you wanted to eat?”
He just shrugged.

I’m feeling the limits of magic.
Controlling and applying mana can be called magic, sure, but it’s sorely lacking.
Isn’t it possible to do truly magical things? Like throwing fireballs or teleporting.
Considering the login process is teleportation, it doesn’t seem like an impossible fantasy, but I can’t find a clue how.
Have mages more genius than me found the answer? Or are they stuck here too? If they know the method, it would be nice if they shared it.
Still, this time, when Do Yugeon got burned and logged out, I found a clue.
Logging out heals injuries.
Briefly observing the process, I realized the mana around the wound arranged itself uniformly, and the mana’s properties changed, creating a healing effect.
Eureka.
The arrangement of mana and the change in its properties.
If this isn’t a clue, what is?
I searched the house and found a needle.