Chapter 158: Orange You Glad

Chapter 158: Orange You Glad

Jet stepped out of a shadow behind us, looking haggard despite avoiding the explosion. He glared at the resulting destruction in horror. The smoke and rubble made visibility difficult, but [Life Sight] still showed Ian alive. Eliza wasted no time rushing forward to his aid.

"Ian!" She shouted again.

"H-hey... I'm alive." Ian said loudly; blood was leaking from his ears. "Bloody thing nearly triggered my [Last Stand]."

Pelopi turned on Jet and grabbed him by his shirt. "What happened!?" She demanded.

"Trapped hallway. I think it's an orange slime with illusion or camouflage or some other shit..." Jet explained bitterly.

"A slime did this?" Pelopi said, almost confused.

"Dungeon ones are no joke. They protect the dungeon with brutal efficiency, unlike their wild counterparts." Jet said with a frown.

'Huh... Do they not know they are controlled directly by the Dungeon Master? Trixie really dropped a lot of knowledge on me...' I wondered. 'Well... It looks like the dungeon is meeting my request, although maybe a bit reluctantly since it clearly tried to kill us.'

Ian looked like hell, and Eliza spent the last dregs of her holy pool trying to heal him before pulling out a potion and forcing him to drink it. Once it looked like he could stand on his feet and comprehend things, Jet rapidly approached him.

"Sorry, I couldn't pull you in with me." Jet apologized profusely, even going as far as to bow his head. "[Shadow Step] doesn't let me take passengers."

"Hey... No big deal. I'm the tank; I'm meant to take damage," Ian replied. He tried to shrug it off with a wave before wincing in pain.

"I thought you were fireproof?" Pelopi asked.

"Explosions aren't fire... I've taken a [Fireball], this was... More." Ian said, shaking his head with another wince.

"Well. We need to turn around and take the other passageway now." Jet said. "Normal procedure is to avoid orange slimes like the plague."

"I'm willing to risk going after it," I said, raising my hand. "I've got both ice and water, which the guild book suggested using against them."

Pelopi clung to my arm and started pulling me away. "No! Too risky..."

While I was appreciative that she cared, I wanted that slime core.

"Look. You can all stay safely here while I go in. I can protect myself well enough and can even [Thunder Step] away if something gets really bad." I said.

"Is it really worth the risk?" Eliza asked with a frown; she had lost her cheer after seeing Ian in such bad condition.

"I'm confident in my abilities. I'm perfectly suited to counter it and can safeguard myself with [Arcane Armor]." I said.

The three misfits still seemed unsure, but Jet nodded. "I do agree that you are the textbook counter for it having both Ice and Water magic. Frozen orange slime can no longer detonate."

"Then we can go together," Pelopi said, but Ian shook his head.

"No. What if Syl misses a spot? This orange blob is clearly able to hide its slime traps." Jet said. "Syl does have an escape skill and good reaction time. Not to mention at least three defensive spells from what I've seen in this dungeon alone."

Pelopi pouted but reluctantly agreed.

"We'll head back to the previous room and rest up." Jet said.

"And wait for your victory notification! Make sure to kill it extra dead for me," Ian said with a grin.

I waited for the others to safely retreat before I turned to the passageway.

"Right... Orange slime time." I said, struggling to hide my grin. I did feel a little guilty about having Ian caught in the blast, but I couldn't help but feel giddy about the potential of a new slime core!

I activated [Glacial Aura], dumping as much mana as possible into it to increase its range and effect. Then, I carefully started walking through the passageway. I could see something beginning to frost over like a trail across the walls and floors. Once it froze over, I could see its bright orange coloring.

I also activated [Cryo Slime] to drop my temperature as low as possible, hoping to further fuel my icy presence. Whenever I spotted a large portion of slime beginning to freeze over, I would hasten the process by casting [Frost Grasp] on it.

'Well... I expected that. I didn't see any illusions in its profile after all. Not to mention, I don't know if I even can integrate a mutation.'

I had some ingrained knowledge of the trait installed directly into my core, so I wanted to test it out. I triggered [Nitro Slime] and primed my fingertip with the intent of it exploding only forwards. It did so without issue, almost like a miniature [Nova] spell. I tried changing around its parameters, as I understood I could even change the type of explosion to be more slime scattering. The result was a blast scattering slime outwards, reminiscent of [Slime Burst].

'Huh... Actually, that's weird. I didn't see [Slime Burst] in the orange slime profile at all. Is that because it's redundant?'

I triggered [Slime Burst] and noticed that the similarity with[Nitro Slime] was undeniable. Curious about their interactions, I tried activating both at the same time.

'Well... That answers that question. Yes?'

Please confirm.>

I paused to think it over. Honestly, I couldn't think of any reason not to integrate it. I had no idea how big the penalty would be, but in reality, even a single additional level in [Nitro Slime] would be better for me in the long run. Having come to my conclusion, I confirmed.

'Two levels! Not bad! Straight over the dreaded level five.'

With the improvements, I could definitely feel greater control over the trait. It seemed like now I could even do an almost entirely shockwave-based explosion, and it seemed like now I could prime my slime to detonate on contact rather than purely on a trigger. Hell, I could even keep a detonation almost entirely internally by controlling its direction. I withdrew a bit of useless monster part inside myself, then triggered an internal blast and watched it be vaporized.

'An... Implosion? I think that's the word?' I wondered curiously.

'Of course, I could also fire a [Slime Shot] of primed slime and have it detonate midair, or even better, attach it to my target with [Adhesive Slime] and then trigger the detonation. Or go with the on-contact explosion. Or prime it to go off when something steps on it, which unleashes a payload of [Acid Slime]? So many options!'

I chuckled as I needed to calm down and report to my party before they came to investigate. I'd have plenty of time to play around with the trait later. But before doing that, I continued along the corridor with [Glacial Aura] active to clean up any left behind traps until I saw the next room and confirmed there wasn't another slimy ambusher. I stopped at the next room and smiled.

"Well. A deal is a deal. Thank you. I absolutely love the orange slime," I said in a happy whisper.

I doubted I'd get a chance to meet the requirements of the [Apex Hunter] emblem, so I swapped to [Nature's Bane]. Then, I visibly disguised my profile with [Identity Fabrication] to display [Dungeoneer] again.

"I hope that takes the pressure off. Thanks again." I gave an energetic wave to the dungeon wall before starting my journey back.

I returned to the rest of the team without issue. They all looked relieved, and Ian looked much better after receiving some TLC from Nurse Eliza.

"You're back!" Pelopi cheered. "We got the kill notification a while ago."

"I've been avenged!" Ian cheered.

"Yup. Problem solved." I said with a thumbs up. "I also checked until the next room and cleaned up any remaining slime."

"Great job." Jet said. "I guess we don't need to backtrack."

"Well, unless the room is a dead end." Eliza pointed out. "Did you check?"

"Oh... No..." I replied sheepishly. "Sorry."

"Glad even you can make mistakes." Ian teased.

"Well, let's get to it then," Jet said as he motioned to the exit. "Hopefully, the dungeon has fewer surprises left for us."

The others packed up their things, and we started retracing our steps.

"Did it put up much of a fight?" Pelopi asked curiously.

"Not really? Once I cast [Frost Grasp], it pretty much died on the spot." I answered.

"Ice magic is cool like that," Jet responded, causing a groan from the misfits. Guess they weren't a fan of puns.