Chương 242: (237) 4.16. Mirror Mirror on the… Floor?

The first thing they noticed after entering the giant spire was the sound, or lack thereof. The near-constant explosions of thunder high above them had made conversing a tad difficult as they'd made their way through the fragment, to the point where Vin was pretty certain it would have been completely impossible if it weren't for their superhuman focus attributes.

Thankfully, high focus also helped a person differentiate between sounds rather than just enhance everything, as otherwise he very well may have gone deaf traveling through this fragment. Yet barely a few feet into the spire, the never-ending storm suddenly sounded as if it were occurring miles away, instead of right over their heads. He wasn't the only one to notice the change, either.

"Thank the Gods, I can finally hear myself think again," Scule muttered, peering around at the interior of the spire.

"... Not a lot to see, though." The large entrance had led into what looked like a small cave, barely larger than their own apartment back in Terra. The only real thing of note were the dozens and dozens of dark holes all around the surrounding walls and ceilings.

"What do you think these are for?" Alka asked, walking over and tapping the edge of one of the holes with her warpick. The one she'd picked was nearly a foot wide, and they could actually see a good distance up the hole before it bent and presumably went in a different direction. But there were plenty of other holes that were only half that size, and some that were barely a few inches wide.

"Maybe they're just from the natural formation of this spire," Shia offered, tapping her chin as she peered into another one of the holes.

"This one has some sort of… thin film coating the walls of the hole. It almost reminds me of sap in a way." Sure enough, Vin picked one of the larger holes for himself and took a look inside. Just as Shia had mentioned, the one he'd chosen also had what looked like a sticky, viscous substance coating the walls. Though it didn't look like any sort of tree sap that he'd ever seen.

"I don't know about sap, it looks more like a giant snail went through here if you ask me," he said, wondering if he should risk touching it. Thankfully, they had a volunteer.

"Ohh a mysterious liquid hidden deep within a deadly fragment? Sign me up!" Scule hopped up onto his shoulder, before pointing at the hole.

"Platform please!" Rolling his eyes, Vin extended his hand a few inches into the hole, holding his palm out for the petian. Scule nimbly ran down onto his palm and crouched down, pulling an entire alchemical vial out of his cape and using some sort of sampling stick to start collecting the slime.

"You really think this might be poisonous?" Vin asked, curiously watching Scule finish filling up his first vial and pull out a second.

"Probably not, but who knows." He shrugged, quickly getting to work on the new vial.

"Even if it's not, Bill might be able to work wonders with the substance, and it never hurts to have the town Alchemist owe you one."

"Fair enough," Vin conceded, his other hand brushing against the small handful of potions he now had on him thanks to Bill's efforts. Bill was a prestiged Alchemist from the third wave and a friend of Scule's. His current claim to fame was having cracked the method needed to brew minor health and mana potions. The health potions weren't quite as good as a focused hit from Renewal, and they didn't actually do too much for someone at their level, but Vin had three of them on his person all the same.

Similarly, while the minor mana potions barely restored even a fraction of his massive mana pool, he had a handful of them secured to his belt as well. It was a shame that each potion drank within a single day gave diminishing returns, else Vin would have contemplated pouring a dozen of the mana potions together into one giant canteen and just downing that as a pick-me-up when needed. The potions were also in rather limited supply at the moment, so there was that to consider as well.

Just as Scule was corking his second vial, a gasp rang out from across the room.

"Guys, you might want to come see this," Shia said, stepping back from her hole and gripping her staff as she stared at it. Curious, Vin pulled Scule back from their own hole and moved over to join her. Just in time to see some sort of rippling blob fall out of the hole Shia had been peering into. Vin blinked as the foot-wide ball of slime dropped to the rocky ground, splatting a bit as it impacted the floor. It managed to pull itself together again in only a few seconds, however, and quickly began taking shape.

Before they knew what was happening, the group suddenly found themselves staring at a three-foot-tall humanoid made seemingly entirely of slime and devoid of any real features other than a tiny glowing shard of something floating within the center of its being. New magical beast discovered! 2, 500 exp gained.

"Hello," it said quietly, its voice warbling as it somehow emanated from its entire body.

"Uh… hello," Vin said, stepping forward and nodding down at the slime-being.

"Sorry to intrude on your home. We're travelers exploring the different fragments." Rather than answer him, the slime turned to face him directly. Its entire body rippled, and suddenly, Vin found himself staring at a small replica of himself, devoid of any actual color.

"Travelers," it said, mimicking his nod as it gestured around itself at the spire surrounding them.

"Home." If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"Woah, that's awesome!" Alka laughed, stepping forward and waving to get the little thing's attention.

"Do me!" Sure enough, the slime turned to face Alka, and after another ripple, the group found themselves looking at a miniaturized knight, the slime capable of replicating her gilded armor and body, even if not the color.

"Hello," it said again, before laughing just as she had.

"I think your theory about the denizens of this fragment being like the swamp creatures may have been rather spot on," Scule whispered in his ear as Alka continued laughing and began comparing warpicks with her double.

"This has to be some sort of primitive species."

"Yeah, I'm starting to think that's the case as well, seeing as they live in tiny holes and don't talk much," Vin murmured back, watching the display with a smile on his face.

"At the very least, they don't seem aggressive or anything."

"Do you have a name?" Shia tried, finally interrupting the slime's game with Alka.

"Name," it said, turning and transforming into a small Shia, with staff included. Tapping itself in the chest with the fake staff, it nodded.

"Umine."

"It's nice to meet you, Umine." Shia smiled, giving the slime a rather curious look.

"Do you live here on your own?"

"No," Umine said, using its version of Shia's staff to point at the other holes dotting the interior of the spire.

"Family. Sleep."

"Umine, what do you guys actually do here?" Vin couldn't help but ask, stifling a laugh as it turned and transformed into him once again, complete with a fake little Scule on its shoulder that looked like a puppet. The transformation seemed almost reflexive, like the slime couldn't help but mirror whoever it was currently paying attention to.

"Surely you do more than just sleep, right?"

"Yes," it nodded, pointing to the holes once more.

"Build. Home."

"That makes sense, I think Umine is saying they built this giant spire," Shia surmised, getting another nod from the slime as it morphed back into a small Shia.

"Can lightning even hurt your people?"

"Food," it said simply, tapping its chin in imitation of the elf before pointing its staff at her and finally asking its own question.

"Help?"

"You need our help?" Shia repeated, getting another nod from the slime. Glancing around at all of them and getting curious nods in return, she shrugged and continued.

"We can certainly try. What do you need?"

"Gone," Umine said, pointing with its staff at the slime-free hole Alka had originally been poking around in.

"Missing."

"One of your friends is missing," Alka said, tapping the indicated hole with her warpick again.

"That's why this hole isn't covered in that weird slime?"

"Yes," Umine said, morphing into another tiny Slayer and tapping its warpick on the ground in imitation of her.

"Gone."

"I mean, we can certainly try to find your missing friend," Vin said, scratching his head at the thought of trying to find a small ball of slime in this massive, spire-filled fragment.

"How long have they been gone?" Umine morphed back into him just to scratch at its own head and shrug.

"Gone," it repeated a third time.

"Alright, excuse us for one moment," Scule said, having to tear his eyes away from the sight of Umine transforming into a larger version of him as the slime maintained its three-foot-tall size.

"Guys, a word?" Once they'd all gathered off to the side of the spire, Scule shook his head.

"I'm down for random quests and rewards as always, but I don't know how much we can actually help here. I didn't see any sort of slime trail leading in or out of the giant spire, did you?"

"No, I didn't see one either." Shia frowned, peering over their shoulders at Umine, who was waiting patiently for them.

"And I don't think Umine has a very solid grasp of time. There's no telling how long the missing slime has been gone for. Vin, does Sense Life even work on them?"

"Let me check." A quick cast of the spell confirmed that it didn't count whatever Umine was made of as 'life,' but a following cast of Sense Magic worked just fine, the glowing shard in Umine's chest highlighted like a beacon to his spell, as if it were an artifact." Sense Life doesn't work, but I can use Sense Magic to try and track down the missing slime.

It's not as if there are any other magical signatures anywhere on this fragment, so I should be able to boost the range of the spell pretty far without actually hurting myself."

"Famous last words." Scule snorted.

"Why help the thing anyway? It's not like it can give us anything as a reward."

"You literally just took two entire vials filled with these guys' slime," Shia pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

"You don't think we should spend a few minutes trying to help Umine find its lost friend in exchange?"

"Why does me taking things around you guys always have some sort of catch?" Scule sighed, waving away his argument.

"Alright, fine. Let's try and help the slime find its other missing slime."

"Alka," Vin asked, turning toward the Slayer.

"Thoughts?"

"I like the little guy!" She laughed, sounding more entertained than she had in ages.

"I say we help them."

"Alright then." Turning back toward Umine, Vin stepped forward, nodding at the small version of himself that looked back at him.

"Umine, we'll do what we can to find your missing friend. Though it's a rather big fragment and we can't move through it all that quickly, so it might take us some time."

"Time. Yes." Umine said, nodding back at him and pointing with an outstretched finger.

"Friend."

"Thank you." Vin grinned, admiring his miniature form. He'd been so entertained by Umine's shifting form, he'd forgotten to try out his Common Ally passive on it. A quick thought brought the information to the forefront of his mind, and he nodded as it ended up being pretty much what he expected. Umine's people were called schlimes, a fact that tickled him a bit.

According to his title, they were a rather lethargic people that didn't move around much, content to spend their lives simply feeding off energy and slowly working on their homes. As he suspected, they had a tiny core that gave them the ability to move, but curiously, they didn't actually die if it was destroyed. The tiny magical shard was small and simple enough that with enough energy, a new core would form over time, and they would be good as new.

"Don't worry, Umine, we'll do what we can to find your friend," he finished, motioning for his friends to follow him as he headed back out into the lightning storm. After all, making friends with yet another seemingly immortal race of people was never a bad idea.