Appraiser"s Job Chapter 16: VS the Fresh Meat
Mr. Lloyd attacked first. "Oryaa!" he shouted, swinging down his halberd. It"s ma.s.sive blade bit deeply into the slimes skin-like exterior. Bodily fluids gushed out of the wound with a whoosh. The vicious, deep-red substance for some reason had a close resemblance to that of blood.
The fresh meat"s entire body began to tremble violently. Perhaps this was its replacement for screaming, or perhaps it was the preamble to an attack.
It appeared to be the latter.
It"s entire body tightly condensed while a spear like protrusion vigorously extended out from its surface. More appeared with it. Mr. Lloyd hastily withdrew his halberd from the fresh meat and distanced himself from the slime that had begun to completely resemble that of a sea urchin. The meat spears piercing through the empty air retreated back into its body. For the second time the fresh meat trembled violently as its body expanded back to its original volume.
Then Mr. Larsh thrust his sword he held at the ready into the slime.
{Fire Sword!}
His sword became coated in shining flames.
It was a magic sword. There were only a handful of adventurers who could use this kind of sword technique.
Incidentally, you don"t need to choose a specialized weapon in order to use this technique. If you don"t feel like getting a sword, you can get a bow or a whip and still have the same effect.
Mr. Larsh brandished his sword. The blazing blade sc.r.a.ped off a chunk of the fresh meat"s skin, scorching it. The sc.r.a.pped off flesh turned into a pale-pink liquid and was absorbed into the dungeon floor.
"Since you"ve got that magical sword, I wish you would have helped me take care of all the small fry earlier," Ms. Ruka whispered disapprovingly to herself as she stood with her wand ready and waiting for the opportunity to attack.
Continuously striking at that fresh meat, Mr. Larsh answered, "That"s because I can"t use my magic that easily!"
The fresh meat"s body expanded. It hung over the melee fighters, as if trying to absorb them.
Mr. Larsh kicked off from the floor, quickly retreating from the front line. Then Ms. Ruka let fly her fire magic. Taking her fireb.a.l.l.s into its body, the fresh meat"s flesh undulated greatly before it transformed into a limp mess shaped like a baby"s futon spread out on the floor.
All around its body, tentacle like structures extended out. And just like that, its snake-like head came out of the watery surface. The tips of the tentacles extended toward Mr. Larsh in an attempt to capture him. From his side, Mr. Lloyd"s halberd came swiftly down, hacking off the tentacles. With its tentacles torn off, the fresh meat"s broken body scattered along the floor.
{Fire sword!}
Mr. Larsh"s magic grew into a pillar of flames, impacting against the fresh meat"s body. It writhed, exposed to the heat.
"Shi-!" It vanished within the flames, Mr. Larsh stabbed his blade into where the center of the slimes body should be. Moreover, Mr. Lloyd"s attacks continuously joined in. There"s no such thing as overkill when it comes to fighting for your life.
Miniature explosions along the slimes exterior caused its body to tremble. Geysers erupted, spewing out the fresh meat"s bodily fluids. The stench of raw flesh and iron spread out and enveloped us.
I held the palm of my hand over my nose.
"Both of you stay back!" Ms. Ruka called out, twirling her wand above her head as she refined her magic.
Mr. Larsh and company, having heard Ms. Ruka"s words, distanced themselves from the fresh meat slime.
{Firewall!}
A bright, red magical square appear at the base of the fresh meat"s body. Vigorous flames spurt forth, trapping the fresh meat inside. The slime writhed in agony as it was sealed behind the burning flame walls. The burning heat circulated in the air around it.
Without thinking I took a step back from the scene of swirling dust and charred skin.
The fire burned out.
The beautiful, pale-pink exterior of the fresh meat had turned into the charred brown of yakiniku.* (Yakiniku is grilled meat, kind of like korean bbq.)
It doesn"t look like I"ll be able to eat yakiniku for quite some time after this…
Shluuush, the fresh meat crawled out.
No way, are you still alive?
All of us were immediately on our guards within the next moment.
The fresh meat crashed to the ground like a defenseless baby, and spread out on the floor in a gigantic puddle.
"..............."
Mr. Larsh warily looked down on the slime. The fresh meat did not move. It stopped all motion once it had turned into a puddle.
{Appraiser"s Sight….}
I invoked my appraiser"s magic.
The information I got from the fresh meat: "It looks to be defeated."
Mr. Larsh, upon hearing my words, let out a long sigh and relaxed his sword stance. "This is certainly the dungeon"s boss."
Picking up the lantern he had left on the floor, we turned to return the way we had come.
"That was a formidable opponent."
"Look. Something dropped," Ms. Ruka said, pointing near the fresh meat"s corpse. We slowly approached the spot. Indeed, something had dropped.
At first glance the object gave a sausage-like impression….
{Appraiser"s Sight}
[Fresh Meat Innards]
The internal organs of a fresh meat slime. An alchemical medicine.
"Fresh Meat Innards…….looks to be raw materials from the slime. More or less."
"These are the internal organs of a slime?"
"Does this mean this guy is special now?"
"For now, just pick it up,and let"s get back. It"s a valuable drop," Mr. Larsh said doing just that. He folded the innards up and stuffed them in his backpack.
I wonder if it"s alright to just shove it in like that….Sure, they"re innards, but…..
"Since the boss was here, this must be the lowest level of the dungeon."
"Does this mean we conquered the dungeon?" Returning the halberd to his back, Mr. Lloyd picked up his own backpack. "Are we returning to the surface?"
"That"s correct. We"ve basically completed our investigation…..and the boss will resp.a.w.n if we stay here too long. Let"s return."
And what of the other monsters that live here?...In the time it took to kill the boss, the previous monsters we had defeated, would have reappeared. Dungeons have this kind of special characteristic.
Because the rules of life are twisted by the magic permeating the dungeons, for various reasons they"re thought to not be real places, and as such aren"t well understood. For the time being it can be said that adventurers shouldn"t overstay their welcome in a dungeon, as the monsters there will eventually reappear and attack them once more.
Now that the dungeon survey is over, we don"t have the luxury of doing just that. It"s nothing but trouble.
"It"s a long while until we get back. Brace yourselves and let"s go."
With Mr. Larsh taking up the vanguard, we headed back on our original path.
And so we safely marked the end of our dungeon exploration.
Footnotes:
T/N:
Congratulations Mr. Io. You completed your first dungeon. And it was a first clear even!
Well that was exciting. Even had some interesting "baby" imagery going on there. Idk if I"d want to mix babies and slimes, but a baby slime would certainly be cute.
I tried changing up how spells were notated. I switched to using {} instead of just quotation marks. If you"ve got any thoughts on this change, please let me know. :D
Credits: