Syl

Chapter 129: Yellow Hunt

The next day, Trixie's minions found two more sources for us to investigate. I was hopeful for our plan, but when the first monsters we encountered were a bunch of fresh harpies, I couldn't hide my disappointment. Dispatching them was a simple experience; I just had to align myself to Fire and detonate a sneaky [Nova] amongst their group, thanks to [Magical Subterfuge]. I couldn't help but compare myself to the adventurer I had seen at the start of my journey who obliterated that green slime. Only Trixie's repeated reassurance that spawned monsters weren't "living" kept me levelheaded. If I got a wish from Gramps, that would definitely be high on my list of changes. Assuming I survived long enough to become a Queen Slime, I'd feel a little reluctant that my own children were nothing but mindless slimes to be slaughtered wholesale.

The other monster we investigated was a freshly spawned griffin. It was currently hunting some of the regular animals that would also be spawned on the floating island, not brave or strong enough yet to risk descending to the surface. I had asked Trixie if I should be culling the normal animals too, but she had said it would be rather pointless as they took up almost no essence at all, and I risked leaving any monsters after we were gone with potentially no food to hunt.

Rather than exploding it out of the sky, I wanted to try a more preserving approach using [Ice Magic]. I shifted my alignment to ice and began debuffing the griffin before casting multiple [Icy Grasp] spells at range. Seeing a griffin flying around suddenly frozen solid and starting to plummet out of the sky was unbelievable. The alarm bells from [Dissection] blared, and I flew with the utmost haste to its landing spot. Then, I swelled into a giant slime cushion to catch my prey.

"That's worth a gold star," Trixie replied happily. The pixie seemed to take great pride in my magical accomplishments after she trained me to use it better.

Before returning to our home, Trixie started replacing some of her Branch Sprites that hadn't survived and spreading them out more around the island in hopes of finding my yellow slime. Despite wanting to be more proactive, I was now forced to wait, so I just passed the time by modifying my already existing spells; in particular, I wanted to upgrade [Frigid] my ice debuff to include freezing. I had thought about creating an entirely new debuff to handle that aspect. Still, it felt much more natural to incorporate freeze into an existing spell, and [Decay], my big debuff and affliction nuke, promised that damage was based not only on the number of ailments but also their relative strength.

I was in a routine loop of waking up early, doing some magic practice until Trixie woke up, and then running around the island using her like a monster sensor. After a lot of searching, we finally found the day spawn—Air Elementals. My mood soured, and I wasted no time detonating multiple [Nova] spells midair before promptly leaving.

Overall, it was another day of dismay. I kept psyching myself up with bubbling anticipation, only to be disappointed. Trying to find some silver lining, I at least successfully modified [Frigid] near the end of the day.

The next day, we awoke to the familiar sound of cracking thunder. My hopes were immediately reignited at their peak. Both Trixie and I raced towards the source.

"Looks like luck is finally on our side," Trixie said. "I'm also sensing quite a bunch of Lightning mana."

"And you'll be one step closer to getting Air, too." Trixie pointed out, although she still withheld exactly how I was supposed to make that happen.

We arrived on the scene, and my mood plummeted harder than that frozen griffin.

I cursed. Trixie sighed in disappointment and was about to try to say something before I unleashed on the elemental. The lightning elemental hadn't spotted us yet and seemed preoccupied with darting in and out of a cloud formation. With practiced precision, all my debuffs were fully unloaded before finally [Decay] was cast. With an almost pop, one moment, the elemental was darting around and sparking into the cloud; the next, it burst like a static discharge followed by a small thunderclap.

I barely glanced at my level up, and there was no point in searching for something to eat from the elemental, so I headed home.

"Come on, Syl. Cheer up." Trixie pleaded. "It'll happen eventually. I don't want to give you false hope, but the chances are higher now that there's been some lightning mana discharged into the environment."

"... Sorry. I'm still bitter about how close I was originally. Part of me expected it to just naturally line up after we dealt with the alicorn and undine."

"Look. I'm also disappointed, but don't let that dampen your mood. Just think of it as extra time to get all your ducks in a row before you get utterly lost in playing with lightning."

I knew she was right, and I was just being impatient, but it was still a bitter pill to swallow. I decided to continue plucking some low-hanging fruit still on my to-do list, like adding [Combust] to some of my fire spells. In an effort to cheer me up in the evening, Trixie changed the subject to the other disguise I had briefly mentioned to her. Sylvester.

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Trixie loved the name; I had originally thought she was simply trying to sweeten me up, but the way she kept going on and on about the delicious irony, I discovered that she was being genuine. Originally, my plan was for an old wise man, but Trixie said it would make me look rather incompetent if I was so old and only a sub-level twenty sorcerer. Going along with her advisement, I lowered the age to around the late thirties, and my magnificent wizard beard was reduced to a goatee. Trixie looked at me with envy when I shifted around some slime into some of the various robes I had eaten and settled on a dark navy blue coloring.

"You can just make clothes... I swear you're cheating at life here." Trixie stated.

Confused, I frowned, "But I've seen you make clothes too?"

The pixie coughed and looked away sheepishly. "Right... But yours seem nicer."

I wanted to challenge that, but I recognized the tone in her voice would just lead to me arguing with a brick wall.

"You know... If you shifted to an element, you could probably pretend to be a Cryomancer or Hydromancer." Trixie suggested.

"Would there be any benefit to doing that though?"

"Other than the name sounding more impressive?" Trixie smirked. "In all seriousness, hiding your other elemental affinities would be the main benefit. Not that just anyone can pick those up, but it can't hurt to be extra cautious, right?"

I nodded in agreement; the extra security alone was a big plus. And while it was my obvious paranoia talking, I liked that there would be a clear differentiator between Syl and Sylvester's affinities. Two people, both sharing the exact same affinities, two of which are rare elements, sounded far too incriminating.

We continued adjusting the disguise far later into the night than I expected. Trixie was having far too much fun, and when she finally gave a double thumbs up, I made sure to lock down the disguise as a permanently re-creatable form.

I hated putting my race level so low, but it would raise far too many red flags. And, while I could have put Cryomancer all the way up to thirty, I decided on a sort of midway point, which left Sylvester some room to grow.

Trixie's distraction the previous evening was clearly what the doctor ordered, as I woke up feeling much better and calmer the next day. I mindlessly poked away at adding [Combust] to [Fire Arrow]. I thought about adding it to [Fireball] but knew I could use [Contagion] to spread the effect if needed.

Then we were off, once again following the Trixie sensor. Unfortunately, her minions couldn't actually speak to her, merely sending her a signal when they spotted something. I would have much preferred to have known beforehand if this would be a monster cleanup or if we were actually getting our prize. I was absentmindedly thinking about my next goals, I still had yet to experiment with Arcane that much, and it held both a potential affliction and debuff. I had no clue what the affliction would do, perhaps some form of pure damage regardless of element? I hoped the debuff would be a general magic defense debuff, similar to [Erode] and physical defense.

"Syl!" Trixie shouted loudly through my mind, abruptly returning me to reality.

"What?" I asked, a little dumbfounded.

"Isn't that what you were after?" She asked, pointing towards the ground.

It was tiny compared to the one I had seen previously, but it was yellow slime! I couldn't help but shout triumphantly and thank Trixie profusely.

"I mean... You're welcome, but how about you thank me after you get it?" Trixie pointed out. "Do you want me to hide you so you can get close?"

"No. I don't think that will work; the last time I tried to sneak up on one, it shocked me as soon as I got close enough. I'm almost positive it didn't know I was there, so it must have just been triggered by proximity."

"And judging by your last attempt, you can't solve this with a [Fireball]?"

"No..." I admitted bitterly. "I'm going to freeze it, then eat it."

Trixie nodded. "Sounds good to me. Good luck!"

I was about to cast [Frigid] but held back at the last second. I was so afraid of doing too much damage and breaking the core. Instead, I cast a single [Frost Grasp] spell, alone, unempowered, and as basic as possible, and gently poked the yellow slime with the phantasmal hand. Within mere moments, the slime was completely frozen over and... dead?

With all my speed available, I rushed down and swallowed up the frozen slime, my emotions racing with anticipation.

'Yes!' I screamed.

While I immediately wanted to look at the new trait, I rushed to confirm my other goal. I tried to purchase [Lightning Magic].

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" I shouted triumphantly.

The spell installed into my core was somewhat underwhelming compared to my struggles to get here, but I couldn't care less. I finally had it! At its base, the spell would create a spark of lightning to strike a very nearby target, but I knew I could simply cast the spell at range, thanks to my training. Having the very first lightning spell be essentially melee only, I somewhat understood why Lisa became a warrior hybrid.

Finally, the moment of truth, I looked over my new trait. Even though it was only level two, I was still immensely satisfied.

This slime can store and generate lightning sparks; the maximum generation, storage, and output are all scaled with trait level. The maximum storage is a guideline and not a true limit; however, exceeding the limit will cause violent, uncontrollable discharges within its proximity.

To facilitate gathering and storing electrical energy, the slime can toggle into being an active lightning rod, causing nearby bolts to redirect towards it.

This trait adds lightning resistance, which scales with the trait level until immunity is reached at the maximum level. Furthermore, the slime core is insulated from its own lightning or electrical shocks, preventing the slime from killing itself.

Compatible with other slime traits.>

My mind was overwhelmed with excitement, and I felt the urge to give a long overdue happy tendril wiggle. However, one big question was on my mind: What the hell was electrical energy?