Chapter 8 : Chapter 8
Chapter 8. A Bottomless Pit? She Is Actually Really Strong?!
On the small path leading to the western suburban forest.
Wu You looked at his now-empty food bag.
Then he looked at Vivian beside him, whose stomach was slightly rounded as she licked the bread crumbs from the corner of her mouth with satisfaction.
His face turned livid.
“Were you a starving ghost in your last life? That was three days’ worth of rations, and you finished it all in half a day?!”
Vivian guiltily turned her face away.
But she quickly puffed out her little chest again and forced herself to stay calm.
“Hmph. It was only some dry rations… I was replenishing my magic power! Magic power, understand? When it is time to clear monsters later, you will be relying entirely on me!”
Wu You’s temples throbbed with anger.
Too annoyed to keep arguing with her, he lowered his head and continued on.
At last, they reached the edge of the western suburban forest.
Sure enough, they saw quite a few sticky, jelly-like blue Slimes slowly wriggling around.
There were roughly a dozen of them.
Wu You let out a breath of relief.
At least there was finally something serious to deal with.
He silently asked in his mind, “System, with my current strength, about what level of an ordinary class holder am I equal to?”
A translucent panel that only he could see popped up.
【Name: Wu You】
【Class: Basic Swordsman (Goddess-Cursed Version)】
【Level: 1 (Experience: 50%)】
【Strength: Slightly above average】
【Agility: Slightly above average】
【Constitution: Slightly above average】
【Spirit: Tenacious】
【Core Skills: Enhanced Upward Slash, Straight Thrust (Prototype), Horizontal Slash, Block, Swift Step】
【System Evaluation: Your skills have extremely high potential, but the host body itself still needs work. Your current overall combat power is roughly equal to that of three ordinary Level 1 swordsmen.】
Wu You: “…”
That evaluation really did not spare him any dignity.
Still, if he could fight three people of the same level, then the feedback from the skills seemed to be working quite well.
He drew his iron sword, preparing to use these Slimes as practice and finish the mission at the same time.
Right at that moment...
“Chomp, chomp…”
A clear chewing sound came from beside him.
Wu You turned his head and saw Vivian somehow pull out another half piece of dry ration that he had missed.
She was happily munching away at it.
A vein twitched on Wu You’s forehead.
“Hey, glutton!”
He irritably pointed at the group of Slimes.
“Stop freeloading and eating all the time! Weren’t you going to prove how powerful you are? Go on! Let me see that ‘tremendous power’ magic of yours!”
Vivian was enraged by the words “glutton.”
She swallowed the food in two or three bites, her little cheeks puffed up with anger.
“How rude! You are insulting the future Great Mage, Lady Vivian!”
She stomped over behind a large tree.
There was a rustling sound, and then...
Wu You watched with wide eyes as the little girl pulled out a...
A thick, black wooden staff that was almost taller than she was.
And she had pulled it out from underneath that oversized, tattered skirt of hers!
At the top of the staff was a dim, cracked, gray crystal that looked completely lifeless.
“…”
The corner of Wu You’s mouth twitched.
Both the way the staff made its entrance and the place she had hidden it left him at a loss for words.
Vivian, however, struggled to lift the nearly floor-dragging staff with both hands.
Her little face was filled with solemnity, though Wu You was convinced she was only pretending.
Her emerald-green eyes looked toward the Slime group as she chanted loudly in a dramatic, sing-song voice.
“O spirits of fire wandering between heaven and earth! Hear me, Vivian Shadowmoon, inheritor of the blood of Night Shadow and Elemental power, and the future Great Mage whose name shall resound across the continent!”
Wu You held his forehead.
“…Here we go.”
Those embarrassingly overdramatic lines made his toes curl.
Vivian continued anyway, her spell long and awkward.
“...By my true name and bloodline, gather your wild and blazing power, and become the purifying flame that burns all filth from this world...”
At first, Wu You paid it no mind.
He only thought that this little brat was putting on far too much of a show.
But soon, he realized something was wrong.
The surrounding air began to heat up.
The thin fire elements in the air were actually gathering toward Vivian, or rather, toward the cracked crystal at the tip of her shabby staff.
And the speed and density of that gathering far exceeded his expectations.
“Wait, this energy fluctuation…”
Wu You’s eyes slowly widened.
Although his level was low, the feedback from his skills had made his senses sharper than those of ordinary people.
He could feel that the magic Vivian was guiding at this moment, though unstable, was far too powerful...
This was definitely not something a child, or even an ordinary low-level mage, should be capable of wielding.
If he used this world’s maximum level of sixty as a rough benchmark, then the energy level of the spell taking shape right now was probably equivalent to the strike of a Level 10 mage!
The problem was that Vivian herself looked weak enough to collapse in a gust of wind.
And that staff of hers looked more like a firewood stick than a proper weapon.
So where was all that power coming from?
Could what she said about being a “half-demon descendant” and having “tremendous power” actually be true?
“The casting time is way too slow, though!”
Wu You watched as Vivian continued reciting that ridiculously long spell.
Meanwhile, the distant Slimes seemed to have been alarmed by the steadily intensifying heat and began wriggling about in agitation, moving toward them.
Finally, just as Wu You was on the verge of stepping in to cut down a few Slimes himself, Vivian’s spell reached its end.
“...Appear! Great Fireball!”
She swung the heavy staff forward with all her strength, pointing it at the area where the Slimes were most densely clustered.
Several Slimes just happened to be gathered on a half-man-high boulder there.
At the tip of the staff, that dull gray cracked crystal suddenly burst into blinding red light.
A huge orange-red fireball, as large as a washbasin and so hot that it distorted the surrounding air, shot forward with a howl from the end of the staff.
Dragging a long tail of flame behind it, the fireball traced an arc through the air and smashed into its target with astonishing speed and force!
“Holy shit!” Wu You only had time to blurt out a curse.
“BOOM!!!”
A deafening explosion erupted.
Flames shot into the sky, and dirt and shattered stone flew everywhere!
When the smoke and dust finally began to clear, Wu You and Vivian looked toward the blast site.
That half-man-high boulder was gone without a trace.
All that remained in its place was a small scorched crater, still smoking.
The five or six Slimes around the rock did not even leave behind a smear of slime.
They had probably been vaporized on the spot.
The Slimes farther away had also been blasted into the air by the shockwave, slime splattering everywhere.
But most of them still seemed stubbornly alive, though they were now bouncing around in panic.
Wu You stared at the scorched crater.
Then he looked at the line on the mission scroll that read, “Clear the Slimes. Bring back at least ten Slime Cores as proof.”
He fell silent for a full five seconds.
Then he slowly turned his head and looked at Vivian, whose little face was flushed red with excitement from releasing such a “powerful” spell, and who was now panting slightly.
“Vivian.”
Wu You’s voice was unnaturally calm.
“Hm? Well? You have witnessed my greatness now, haven’t you?” Vivian proudly lifted her little chin.
“Greatness, my ass!!!”
Wu You suddenly exploded, pointing at that scorched crater as he shouted and stamped his feet.
“Slime Cores! My mission proof! You blasted them into dust along with the rock! There is not even dust left! What am I supposed to take back to complete the mission?! Air?!”
“Huh?”
Vivian froze.
The smug pride on her little face stiffened.
“C-Cores? You needed those too?”
“Of course I did! Otherwise how would the guild confirm that I actually cleared them?!”
Wu You was on the verge of breaking down.
This little menace had not only eaten all his food, she had also blown away his mission items!
“B-But...” Vivian still wanted to argue, but her little face suddenly turned pale.
Her body swayed.
“But what but?! You—”
Before Wu You could finish speaking, Vivian’s eyes closed.
The thick black staff in her hand hit the ground with a loud clatter.
And her body, like a stiff log, toppled straight forward.
THUD.
She fell face-first into the grass and lay there motionless.
Wu You’s furious shouting stopped abruptly.
He stared blankly at the small figure lying face-down on the ground without a sound.
Then he looked at the remaining Slimes in the distance, which had begun gathering and moving toward them after being disturbed by the explosion.
A chilly breeze carrying the smell of burning drifted past.
Expressionless, Wu You lifted his head and looked up at the sky.
“…”
“What kind of sins did I commit to deserve this?!”