CH 71

The interior of the cavern was slightly chillier than the outside. Although there wasn’t any light, the whole wall was slightly glittering in light, so there wasn’t any inconvenience for us to move forward at all.

“Hee. Luminous moss, is it? It’s nice that the interior of the cavern is well-lit.”

Frank-san rubbed the wall, and there was a faint light at the tip of his fingers.

“Luminous moss?”

“Yeah. They live in this kind of cavern. Without this, the dungeon will be dark and it will be hhard for us to proceed.”

Yeah. Come to think of it, in the early stages’ map, the dungeon was well-lit everywhere, but if we had to climb up a dungeon with some certain high levels, a torchlight might be necessary.

I see~. The interior of the dungeon is well-lit thanks to the luminous moss, huh?

In other words, there should be slimes who ate on the luminous moss.

If we were to subjugate one of them, wouldn’t it become a torchlight?!

According to what Carl-san said, [The Cavern of Ordeal] was a beginner-level dungeon where only weak monsters appeared. The path was a straight path without any branching, so we could just continue moving forward until the depths of it.

The monsters we encountered en route were light brown earth slimes, but perhaps since our levels were high, they were avoiding us by jiggling close to the wall.

…Yup. They were quite adorable.

But when I carelessly let my thought slip, Karin-san’s slime course began.

“Young lass. Do you know that the slimes in this dungeon are different from the ordinary slimes?”

Eh~ Different? Is there even any differences?

I turned my gaze towards the slimes who were jiggling as they collided into the walls as they were trying to avoid me.

…I couldn’t see what made them different from the ordinary slimes, though.

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“Hm. You lack knowledge.”

No, I wasn’t particularly planning on becoming a slime expert, so I wasn’t planning on studying it in the first place…

“The slimes in this dungeon are odourless.”

“Odour?”

“Yes. To begin with, the slimes are living creatures that will transform depending on the thing they took in when they first emerged. Even if they are all earth slimes, their odour will have subtle differences depending on the soil.”

“Is that so?”

“The slimes in the Monster Forest and the slimes that inhabit this area have completely different odour.”

Ho~ The odour is different.

But that. Wouldn’t that be something that only Karin-san could scent out?

“But the slimes inside this dungeon, each of them is odourless.”

“Why is that?”

“Hm. Before I answer that, young lass. Do you know what happens to the carcasses of the monsters defeated inside the dungeon?”

“Hmmmm. Wouldn’t they be cleaned by the slimes?”

Certainly, I felt like I had heard about it.

“That is true in places with slimes. But in the places where strong monsters live, there are no slimes. I haven’t observed it, though. The carcasses that were left as they were, before long they would end up getting absorbed by the dungeon. In addition—”

Karin-san stopped talking as she pulled out the short sword that was in its sheath on her waist, then she slashed at the slime that was close to the wall.

The slime’s surface was ripped, and transparent liquid came out from its insides.

“Ka-Karin-san?!”

“Look. If they are ordinary slimes, the soil and water inside their body will come out. But this, there’s only water.”

“…There is no soil, isn’t there?”

The liquid flowing from the slime soaked into the cavern’s ground, and eventually, all of it was absorbed.

“If it’s a green slime, there will be grass and water. If it’s blue, both are water anyway, so we can’t tell them apart…”

Come to think of it, the slimes in Elysia Online were only blue-coloured, but after defeating them, sometimes they dropped medicinal herbs.

If they were originally green slimes, perhaps the medicinal herbs they ate remained inside their bodies, and upon defeating them, the remaining contents came out.

Ooh~. It’s a new discovery!

Following the mystery why the Giant Rat dropped the golden ring, the mystery about why slimes dropped medicinal herbs was also solved.

“Apparently, I feel like the slimes in this dungeon are slimes, yet at the same time, they aren’t slimes.”

“They are slimes, but they aren’t slimes too?”

What does that even mean?

“In other words, they are not real slimes?”

Ar-niisama who listened to my and Karin-san’s conversation looked at the slimes who were bumping into the walls trying to avoid us and asked.

“Hm. There’s no excitement, too.”

“Excitement…”

In response to the unexpected word, Ar-niisama’s water-coloured eyes were widened.

Smelling their odour or feeling excitement…

How do I say it, Karin-san is truly… A bit… No, she’s a very serious slime nerd.

“When I see slimes, I will usually feel excited or some kind of throbbing sensation in my chest. But when I look at those slimes, I don’t feel that at all.”

Karin-san put both of her hands on her chest. It was a ladylike pose, but the thing that she said was completely perverted!

“This is just my hypothesis, but the monsters inside this dungeon aren’t real. I think that they might be illusion created by demons.”

“But when we defeated the monsters, we could obtain their fangs or flesh, right? If they were only illusion, wouldn’t that also disappear?”

Frank-san rebutted Karin-san’s theory.

Yes. Certainly, if they were illusions, the dropped items would have disappeared.

“That’s why it’s still a hypothesis. …Hmhmhm. I want to unravel it one day.”

As we continued walking and went out to an open area, there was a lake over there.

Whoa. This is an underground lake…

No fish could be found within the shining lake surface. It seemed like fish-lineage monsters weren’t present in this place.

Instead, blue slimes were jiggling and hopping around the lake.

Ooh. Wild blue slimes!

“Oioi, until when are you planning on continuing your lecture? Just leave the thing about the slimes, let’s quickly find the hidden room!”

Even though Karin-san said that she didn’t feel any excitement towards the slimes of this dungeon, she still began investigating alongside the walls in no rush. Because of it, Frank-san grasped her scruff.

“Kuh. Let me go! Let me gooooo!”

Between Frank-san who wanted to quickly conquer the dungeon and drink some sake and Karin-san who wanted to investigate the slimes, apparently Frank-san was the winner.

Karin-san. Let’s just hurry and find the hidden room here!