But for a Slime

Chapter Ninety One

He lay on his bed, happy to have a day off as a Dungeon Guardian while he lazily tossed a core into the air before consuming it. Its power burrowed into his being and increased his strength, if only by an absolutely miniscule amount. Another seven or eight dozen lay on the bed beside him as he lazily grabbed another and tossed it into the air before catching it and immediately consuming it. The core melted into his skin, liquefying before simply fading into the depths of his being, going wherever it did. He'd explored it deeply, hoping to understand and cheat the system himself, but had never figured it out.

By now, he needed hundreds of thousands, even millions of cores to gain a single growth but each gain increased his vitality and only empowered him further. He'd done well by himself for a time, but now the amount of cores needed became daunting. So, he'd turned to one of the few elite organizations available to him which could supply him with the amount of cores he would need: the Dungeon Guardians and the Dragon's Spear. He could only hope that he could develop quickly enough to gain entrance to the Dragon's Spear and thus ever greater cores.

He sighed and grabbed another core, consuming it instantly before picking up a handful and consuming them all at once. It was faster, but still took longer than the time to consume a single one, the liquefied cores somehow needed more time to imbue him. Or whatever the things do… He sighed and allowed the consuming to continue but his hand was empty so he grabbed another core and played with it, rolling it through his hand a bit before spitting out some mana through it, absent mindedly. He continued emitting mana but then suddenly became aware of something odd. He glanced around his surroundings, first checking for some form of ambush or attack, incredibly cautious even as he pulled all his cores back into a small pouch he owned. He dropped the core he was playing with into his pouch as well then blinked in surprise. Huh… the odd … He paused. The core? He pulled all the cores out again and frowned with some annoyance as they all spilled out. Which one was it?

He sighed again, this time at the annoyance of multiplying his work. Gotta check them all now… was a yellowish one… right? Maybe more orange? Or… He frowned and began, picking up the first core. Nope… He picked up another and then frowned. Yup… that… ooh! Shock hit him when he realized what he'd felt. He tested it another few dozen times as his breathing increased. Perfect core! He stared at it and then frowned. Not… It's a different one… isn't it?

For the next bell or two, he tested and found dozens of perfect cores in his possession and felt his greed quickly shift to terror. Is this… are they testing me? But… have I consumed some without… Not… I can't…

He gathered up all the perfect cores and quickly prepared to head back to his boss before pausing. Probably bring the other cores… just to be safe? Yeah. He quickly ran back and gathered up all the cores but made sure to keep them separate. He sprinted to the office of his boss with some alacrity and came in panting, having pushed past his stamina a bit. His boss seemed surprised when he came in, but listened easily enough. His polite attention quickly grew to intense grave concern then to instant action. By the end of the day, the Dungeon Guardians and the Dragon's Spear had been called to action, both compounds bustling into activity like a kicked bee's hive.

* * *

A soft ding echoed through the small room as a crystal chunked into the tray and the librarian sighed in frustration. Her supervisor had insisted that a chime be added to the whole affair when a previous job only a few weeks ago had been forgotten and left over night. She turned to the tray and begged it was only one. She cursed when fifty or so combat job core crystals in red tumbled to the tray. Another … maybe five sets of combat jobs… The sigh was deep and she began cataloging the new jobs into a perfect memory core at her side. With one hand on the memory core, ready to record the information, she placed one of the combat jobs into the irreplaceable name extractor and prepared to capture the data to be passed to the memory core. Even with its exquisite design, the name extractor still caused micro-stress fractures to the memory core so she also very carefully memorized each name. Soft and rather alien names echoed in her mind and she made sure to remember them carefully. Archer… Crossbowman… Squire Crossbowman…. Seasoned Crossbowman… Hardened Crossbowman... She kept the sigh from her lips for she was a professional, and dropped crystal after crystal into the reader, memorizing each one while she spoke each name to her partner aloud. They continued until all were completed before passing the name into a perfect memory core. All memories of the names were lost to her, but her partner reiterated the names, and she memorized them easily enough.

"So many."

"And you said this job would be easy."

The librarian snorted at her friend and they both busied themselves with passing the job cores on to the main library. Maybe… I should seek another job. This time, the sigh escaped her lips.

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* * *

The Saga priesthood of Coushar gathered together under the leadership of the Coushar abbot. The abbot called the meeting to order and while it did come to order, the topic in discussion quickly taking over although order didn't seem to return with any reasonableness as the shouting and conversation increased. They didn't actually get much done at all, finally turning the ultimate decision over to higher authorities by sending a message to the pope of Saga once the Coushar gate was opened once more.

* * *

Joe woke again in the middle of the night and began his exercises as normal, working on mana and his skills. However, his irritation levels were high and kept rising. He didn't let it stop him from practicing his various skills but soon found himself agitated, so agitated that he roused himself out of bed and was wandering his room. It didn't last and he was soon outside circling the villa, still practicing his mana and skills. After a while, his agitation grew even worse and he was no longer able to focus on any of his practice, whether mana or skills.

His agitation grew and quickly flooded over into anger until he was almost stomping around the villa. He was moving just trying to exhaust himself. Finally, it proved too much for him and he sought escape, not wishing to focus on his anger. He knew its source. It was rather obvious. He was still angry at what had happened to Kilniara and for the rest of the girls.

He finally found an escape that worked a little, flipping open his status window. He flipped through the various windows in boredom then remembered the new tab, flipping open the curses tab. It was empty, Joe not really expecting to find anything, but still relieved to notice that it was empty. He flipped through the various tabs rather quickly, however, and quickly reached the end of his distraction. He turned to seeking other distractions when he suddenly had a moment of enlightenment. Ooh. Change job to Knight to become a noble.