“Is it because it was too robust? The meat is a bit tough.”
“But its Mana is very abundant.”
As Zoe digested the severed head of the Land Dragon, he dragged its remaining carcass along while recovering his Mana.
The monsters Zoe hunted now were growing larger and larger, making traveling through the forest quite difficult.
“If only there were some kind of storage magic, or a storage magic item.”
The S-grade talent [Reincarnation Space] provided Zoe with a one-cubic-meter storage space, but it was simply too small.
As for storage-type magic items, Zoe had only heard of them in stories in his previous life.
Space magic was not something ordinary mages could master; it was incredibly precious knowledge.
However, the one-cubic-meter space provided by [Reincarnation Space] also had an absolute advantage.
That was time stasis; any item placed inside would be preserved in the exact state it was in the moment it entered.
“Hmm?”
Zoe stopped suddenly, then sniffed the Land Dragon carcass behind him, whose wound he had already plugged with slime.
“It's not coming from here... Then this bloody scent...”
A sharp red slash came flying toward him. With no time to think, Zoe could only react on pure instinct.
Using the Land Dragon's carcass as a shield, he hurled it directly at the incoming slash while shrinking his body behind it.
Riiip!
Like a sharp blade slicing through thick leather, the Land Dragon's tough hide was sliced clean open.
‘With this level of power, what kind of monster is it?!’
Zoe warily looked toward where the attack had come from, and finally made out the figure behind it.
It wasn't a monster.
But rather, a human caster!
“To think there would be a rare High Slime in the Great Hera Forest.”
“How surprising, exciting, and delightful!”
“Your core is mine!”
Accompanying the shrill male voice, the figure gradually became clear, and along with him, a massive presence of Mana became distinct.
This Mana belonged to a Mid-tier Mage of over Lv.20!
Hanging from the Mid-tier Mage's waist was a woman's head, her long hair tied to his belt as she dangled there.
‘A fallen adventurer, a cultist of the Headhunter Cult.’
Zoe quickly deduced the Mid-tier Mage's identity.
Adventurers were a mixed bag, and the corrupt scoundrels among them would turn on their companions during missions.
They would gain their trust, only to rape and murder their companions, or plunder their belongings.
As for the Headhunter Cult, it was an evil cult that used the heads of young and beautiful people to please an evil god in exchange for power.
Fallen adventurers and Headhunter Cultists highly overlapped.
They targeted young and beautiful adventurers, winning their trust before torturing, raping, and murdering them. Then, when the victims' resentment peaked, they would decapitate them to offer the head as a sacrifice, pleasing the evil god to exchange for unholy power.
They were scum, through and through.
Another sharp red energy slash flew at him, carrying a foul, evil stench of corruption.
This was likely the power he had obtained from pleasing the evil god.
Zoe continued to hide behind the Land Dragon's carcass to evade the attacks.
“How long are you going to hide, little slime?!”
A High Slime's core contained the power of High-speed Regeneration, which could regenerate severed limbs and restore vitality.
A treasure like this...
“...should belong to me!”
The sharp slashes completely sliced the Land Dragon to pieces. The evil power seeped into the carcass, utterly ruining Zoe's dinner.
Zoe darted out from behind the Land Dragon and dashed toward the fallen mage at high speed.
Turning your back to a mage was one of the most miserable ways to die.
“That's it, come to me obediently!”
With a wave of his wand, sharp Fire Arrows whistled through the air, shooting toward Zoe.
‘An F-grade spell: Fire Arrow.’
Zoe instantly identified the spell's grade. Instead of trying to evade, he braced himself and took the attack head-on!
The fallen adventurer was surprised to see that the slime could take a hit directly to its weak spot without faltering.
He quickly waved his wand and threw a reddish-yellow amber bead as a catalyst, instantly shortening his chanting time.
This was the only D-grade spell he had mastered—one he had tortured out of a female mage—and his most precious magic.
“Surging flames, gather here.”
“Dragon Head Manifestation!”
D-grade spell: Dragon Head Manifestation!
A magnificent fiery magic circle was instantly sketched in the air, and out of it emerged the head of a giant dragon composed of threads of fire.
The dragon looked fierce and ferocious. It opened its maw, and scorching flames erupted.
“What a pitiful slime. If you had just handed over your core obediently, it would have saved me the trouble of taking it myself.”
The fallen adventurer said with a look of mock pity, stroking the cheek of the female head hanging from his waist.
Facing the sweeping, erupting “Dragon Flame,” Zoe felt an intense sense of mortal danger.
Though he had never used it in real combat, he had no choice but to rely on that move now.
“Dragon Flame Bullet!”
Zoe's entire body glowed with a halo of Mana. With a soft pfft, more than half of his Mana—a whopping 800 points—was instantly drained by this single move.
The regurgitated Dragon Flame Bullet rapidly expanded, glowing with an orange-red fire light until it reached a diameter of one meter.
“A mere fireball... What?!”
The fallen adventurer's eyes widened in utter disbelief.
He watched as the one-meter-diameter fireball soared through the air, completely shattering the stream of fire spewed by his D-grade spell [Dragon Head Manifestation] before slamming directly into the manifested dragon head.
The dragon head made of fire threads instantly shattered. Blazing flames erupted, threatening to engulf the fallen adventurer in an instant.
His eyes bulged. In this moment, he could not afford to hesitate or fret over his losses.
He frantically waved his wand and threw out his only sapphire—worth a hundred gold coins—as a catalyst to instantly cast a spell.
E-grade spell: Water Shield!
Water jetted out, forming a spherical shield that cocooned the fallen adventurer within.
The violent impact blasted him backward. The water evaporated rapidly under the exploding Dragon Flame, and he finally crashed heavily into a tree, breaking it, before collapsing miserably to the ground.
His arms and chest were covered in severe burns, and his black walnut wand, worth forty-one gold coins and inlaid with a pound of crystal, had snapped right down the middle.
This brief clash had cost him a staggering 146 gold coins. The amber was the cheapest, costing only five gold coins.
He would have to save up for an entire year to amass that much gold—enough to buy a decent F-grade spell!
“Damned slime! Accursed slime! Bastard slime!”
He had to get its core. A High Slime's core would easily make up for his losses.
He quickly pushed himself up, clutching an orange-red piece of amber in his hand.
He raised his other hand.
On the other side, Zoe was also caught in the blast of the Dragon Flame Bullet. However, because he regularly took Dragon Flame head-on during training, he was able to withstand the shockwave.
Since the damage was mostly kinetic shockwaves, a physical force he was highly resistant to, he held up well.
His body was already undergoing High-speed Regeneration.
But...
He had only 241 Mana left.
With his Mana drastically depleted, his translucent body looked significantly dimmer.
“Draw the bow of fire, trace the flowing flames into an arrow...”
The fallen adventurer began a rapid chant.
Zoe ignored his still-regenerating body and charged straight at the fallen adventurer.
‘Dammit!’
Seeing Zoe charging at him, the fallen adventurer stopped holding back. He quickly threw the amber in his hand, which dissolved into the magic circle to accelerate his chant.
“...Let the flowing flames turn into a rapid rain, descending upon this place!”
“Fire Arrow Rain!”
E-grade spell: Fire Arrow Rain.
A deluge of fire arrows poured down toward Zoe. He dashed sideways to dodge them, but the Fire Arrow Rain seemed to have locked onto him, tracking his movements.
Meanwhile, a look of sheer agony over the cost flashed across the fallen mage's face as he pulled out a thumb-sized alchemical potion and downed it in one gulp.
Nectar II: Instantly restores a quarter of a Low-tier Mage's standard Mana pool (200 Mana). Cost: 25 gold coins.
Watching the fallen mage chugging potions, even with Zoe's exceptional patience, he couldn't help but curse inwardly.
‘I have to take a risk.’
Zoe looked at his remaining Mana, quickly ran some mental math, and closed the distance right through the barrage of the Fire Arrow Rain.
Scorching flames repeatedly struck his body, but he used [High-speed Regeneration] at the bare minimum to save Mana, preserving just enough mobility to keep moving.
At the same time, the corrosive gas throughout Zoe's body began to gather.
“Flames of the atmosphere, reveal your explosive form, follow the path of Mana...”
‘He's too close!’
Mid-chant, the frantic fallen mage had no choice but to throw another piece of amber to cut down his casting time.
“Condense here, linger here!”
“Fireball!”
E-grade spell: Fireball.
A blazing fireball materialized in front of his raised palm. Right at that exact second, Zoe used [Precision] to lock onto the fallen adventurer's arm.
Corrosive Gas Slash!
The corrosive gas transformed into a flying slash that tore through the air, instantly severing the fallen mage's arm.
With his arm clean severed, the impending spell instantly dissipated, and blood erupted from the stump like a fountain.
Rate on N.U.
