"So this is the sli," Cleo muttered, raising her chin high to cast a glance at the blob that likely housed the sli's core.
"Yeah," Tom nodded his head. "If not for it, I have no idea what would happen to you. Hopefully, you would just sleep for a while, but it's not like we were sure about it," he added, his expression souring.
"Co on, I was just sleeping!" Cleo protested as she lowered her head and looked at Tom with grief. "Seriously, why did you wake up? It was that simple..." she muttered, only for her voice to fade away when all four mbers of the group threw her a look.
"It's not like we didn't try," Marvin joined in, taking the burden of dealing with his sister off Tom's arms. "You wouldn't wake up no matter how hard we attempted to force you up," he added before turning his face towards his friend. "Anyway, what are we going to do with it?"
"That's the right question," Tom replied offhandedly, staring at the blob with the sli's core. "We could try asking," he said before summoning all the magical spears that he still could.
After fiddling around with them for a little while, Tom finally managed to co up with a makeshift construction. By using the spears as poles, he set them up in a mutually-supportive arrangent, making a pyramid-like construct with a square base.
Yet, it wasn't sothing that one could just walk on. Rather than that, Tom had no other choice but to climb one of its sides like a ladder before he finally managed to reach high enough to get close to the sli.
"Hey sli, I know we just fought each other to the death, but the thing is, I never really tried to kill you seriously," Tom said, playing along with the act he ca up with.
In the end, after the shitload of stress they went through because of Cleo's problem, a little codic relief was necessary for the party.
"I an, when I first encountered you, I tried to kill you and get the stones you are protecting... but you tricked and attempted to retaliate as well, so we are even, right?" Tom continued his act.
The greatest challenge of what he was doing was to not die from cringe as he pretended to converse with the sli.
"You see, you proved to be capable of transforming huge amounts of magic, sothing that I could find a great use for. So how about instead of fighting each other to the death, you would just join us?" Tom asked, rolling his eyes.
"Tell him the benefits!" Marvin shouted over, joining in on the fun.
"Oh, right!" Tom slapped his own face as if he had forgotten about the most important part of the speech. "If you join us, I will keep feeding you magic whenever I have so spare. On the other hand, if we will need to heal soone, we will stea...- take so of that magic back for our own purposes," Tom continued his fun.
'The longer it goes, the more ti we will waste here. We are already behind schedule, so I will have to...' he thought when a sudden weight appeared on his shoulder.
Despite his level, Tom didn't dare to move an inch. He event kept looking straight, worried that he would move too rapidly if he were to even move as little as his eyeballs only.
"Tom..." Cleo muttered, her face tensed up in shock.
"It's on my shoulder, isn't it?" Tom asked, still trying to co up to terms with reality.
'I knew there were so intelligent monsters... but for a sli to be one as well?' he thought before a sudden idea appeared in his mind. 'What if... it's not an intelligent one? What if it's simply attacking right now?!'
Tom's wariness shot through the roof, only to die off in the next mont.
'Wait, if it had hostile intentions, then wouldn't it dissolve my clothes already?' Tom noticed, finally regaining the courage and looking to the side.
And just as expected, a small blob was currently sitting on his shoulder.
When compared to before, it was no longer invisible. Its color was... strange. It appeared as if it had no color at all, yet this lack of color was so dense that it appeared to be slightly greyish.
"Tom, it's no longer on the walls," Marvin pointed out.
'So it condensed...' Tom thought, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. "Well, let's try the most important thing, then," he said, slowly descending down the spear-made structure. "Can it pass through the barrier?"
With this question on his lips, Tom slowly approached the entrance to the corridor.
"I'm going to now pass through it. We need to know if you can move freely across this barrier or not," he added, explaining the situation to the sli.
Since it understood Tom's words before, then surely it would understand it now?
Yet, as soon as Tom made another step, the sli suddenly turned red. Then, its outer wall started to shake, as if its internal fluids were swirling around.
"What's wrong?" Tom asked before having to fight the wish to facepalm himself.
How was the sli supposed to answer him?
"We need to test it out, little one; you wouldn't want to be brought to another floor only to find out you can't cross the barrier!" Tom argued, trying to reason with the monster.
The shaking lessened while the sli's color turned pink.
Then, as if propelled by its inward motions of fluid, the sli jumped down from Tom's shoulder and rushed for the construction of magical spears!
"THAT LITTLE..." Tom shouted, suddenly realizing what was the sli's plan altogether. It likely hatched it when Tom first ca up with the construction, noticing how every last part of it was made out of juicy, juicy mana! "Stop it!" he shouted.
The amount of magic stored in Tom's spears on the construction was pretty much the sa as his current potential. The only reason why he managed to get so many of them was that he would create a new magical spear whenever his energy fully regenerated.
In a sense, those spears were Tom's stockpile of energy for ergencies.
And now, this damned sli was attempting to snatch them!
'Wait, can't I just recall those spears?' Tom suddenly noticed while both Marvin and Cleo jumped towards the sli, only for the monster to easily slip out of their reach.
'Recall,' Tom thought, calling forth all the spears from the construction to his side one by one. He couldn't recall them en mase, but he could get most of them out of the sli's way before it could reach them!
Slomp.
In the end, only two spears fell prey to the sli. As soon as its mbrane touched the handle of the first of the spears, its fluids exploded outwards, only to harden a mont later and fall down on the spears.
'I can't recall the spears anymore,' Tom thought, worried that doing so would bring the sli along.
Yet, the truly strange elents of the day were only about to happen.
Because after consuming both of the spears that Tom didn't manage to recall in ti...
The sli changed color to a green one before turning back to its usual, delicate grey. And as if nothing happened at all, it started to bounce up and down, only to return to Tom's shoulder a mont later!
"Excuse ?" Tom was stumped by the situation, unable to decide how he should react.
"Maybe it needed more energy to survive the passage?" Marvin suggested, a wry smile appearing on his lips.
"Isn't it cute?" Cleo comnted in a more girly fashion, her eyes starting to shine a little.
"Well..." Tom muttered, cautiously moving away from the pile of his spears.
Whatever was the intent of this sli, if it were to consu all or even a big part of Tom's spears, not only would Tom's ability to move around during a fight substantially weaken, but the sli could also beco an opponent even he would struggle against!
While the last part wasn't that bad in itself, after all, Tom could still defeat it by stealing his own mana back; he would no longer be able to protect the rest of his group while doing so.
"Try taking it outside the boss room," Marvin suggested, clearly aware of the thoughts that his friend would have in a mont like that.
"Yeah..." Tom muttered, making a wide circle around the pile of his weapons before approaching the gate once again.
Just like before, the sli turned red for a mont, only for the color to quickly fade away, replaced by a bright green.
'Is it trying to communicate by changing its color?' Tom concluded, still not sure what to think about the entire thing.
But there was a simple way to find out whether Marvin's guess was right.
So Tom took the step forward and crossed the barrier.
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