In the previous chapter…
After the episode of “Milia: Sex is war - The last one to orgasm loses”. The party was now attempting to escape from the ore mine.
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Alright, Slade. Pull yourself together! the sli thought.
Slade and his fellow pawn were the third and fourth wheel. They witnessed the lovely monts of intimacy between Shaki and Milia in silence.
He was exploding in frustration from being excluded. It felt so lonely that he felt bonding with the pawn, fondly renaming it “Broglodyte”.
Yes, he wasn’t from this world. But neither were Milia and Shaki.
“Kshiii” a beholder patrolled in front of the hole where Slade was hiding. Reaching the end of the corridor, it turned left.
Each day sucked Slade deeper into Hekalys, his new magical world.
He was no longer interested in worrying about the rent, going to job interviews or answering 56 missed phone calls.
I’ll get those girls out from this predicant, and I’ll earn the recognition I deserve! he thought.
His heart had a single wish: to fit in. He couldn’t care less about which world it was.
That’s why, he proved his usefulness by scouting ahead.
Scouting ahead
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Slade waited for the beholder to disappear from his sight, and crawled back into a hole. He latched around Milia’s eyes.
[All clear, you can get out.] he wrote on his body.
Milia, Shaki and Broglodyte erged from the small passage, sighing in relief.
“Thank god, I was scared that you would fart on my face considering all the grass you ate,” Shaki said.
Milia snatched an unused spear from her fellow rook.
“I’m sure you would have liked it,” Milia chortled while Shaki grimaced.
[The right path goes upwards at about 2°, but a beholder went in that direction.]
Slade surprised himself about how accurate he was able to sense his internal state.
Milia relayed Slade’s advice to her allies.
They walked stealthily, catching up with the patrolling enemy.
“It’s going to turn back. Let’s ambush it at the corner,” Shaki said.
Ambushing
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They waited, praying that there would be no other enemy flanking them from behind. Milia threw nervous glances behind. Her fingers squeezed her spear, as her parched throat tightened.
Slade wrote a countdown on his back.
[10… 9…]
The minotaur took deep breaths as she stood in readiness.
Finally, the countdown reached zero.
[Attack now!]
The woman’s head morphed into one of a cow. Her arms bulged out, a coat of fur wrapping them. She leaped onto the startled beholder, raising her spear in the air.
Milia strikes!
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Milia struck!
“Oops!” Milia gasped.
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The tip slipped on the center of its eye because of her low accuracy in the dark.
Fortunately, her bulky body slamd the beholder into the wall, and her spear managed to puncture the side of the beholder.
Pinned against the wall, the monster was about to scream. Instead, he only let out a gurgling sound as Shaki shoved her spear into its mouth.
In a last act of resistance, the beholder raised its tentacle. But Shaki’s guard gave the coup de grace with a thrust of his spear, straight into its brain.
Good job, broglodyte!
Milia threw the lone enemy onto the ground, and the party repeatedly stabbed the monster.
Slade jumped onto the corpse, absorbing it.
“Fu… I expected to one-shot it,” Milia said.
“Our flint spears don’t do nearly enough damage. It’s a good thing we kept the troglodyte with us,” Shaki said.
It took a minute for Slade to wipe away any trace of the beholder’s existence.
[Beholder form unlocked.]
They had no ti for celebration, fearing they’d be caught from behind. And thus, the party resud their escape towards the surface.
The corridors got wider and their elevation steeper. It was a good sign that they were heading to the surface.
After a couple of turns, Slade shuddered as he peeked out.
[Go back. Get away! Quick!]
Panik
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The party jumped in fright as Milia scampered.
“Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope-” she said under her breath.
Scampering away
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[It was an open room. There were about twenty beholders out there. They are probably cutting off our escape routes.]
They reconsidered their course of action after getting away.
“It’s depressing. How many more enemies are there?” Shaki said.
“There’s no choice, let’s go deeper and find so food. We can lay low until they get tired of blocking the path,” Milia suggested.
Shaki agreed with the plan. It was safer than fighting the enemy head on.
As they explored the depths of the maze, they managed to avoid the patrolling enemies. Unfortunately, their efforts were unrewarding as they were stopped by a series of dead ends.
“It’s the last path...” Shaki said.
A pair of beholders were standing guard. They stared at the end of the corridor without leaving any opening.
The party huddled together for a strategic eting.
Shaki: “We can’t reach them before they call for help.”
Milia: “I could try using my Avalanche skill, but…”
Broglodyte: “Gruuh?”
Shaki: “No, using you as a decoy is useless”
Slade (relayed by Milia): [We definitely can’t go with a frontal approach.]
Shaki: “Is there a way to sneak past them?”
Slade: [They are scrutinizing the end of the corridor. I thought that they almost spotted .]
Milia: “Can we lure them closer? Maybe we can ambush them.”
Shaki: “We almost failed the previous ambush. Is it possible to deal with two enemies at once?”
They were stuck in the corridor, out of ideas.
Brainstorming session
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Was this how Slade’s story ended?
No! Let’s pull out our skill list.
[Skills:
Mana transfer lv.3Absorption lv.3Regeneration lv.1Alchemical Synthesize lv.4Shapeshift lv.3Skin Care lv.1Massage lv.1Symbiosis lv.3Appraisal lv.1Corruption lv.1Impregnation lv.1Dark vision lv.1First aid lv.1]
Alchemical Synthesize… Maybe a sleep gas?
No… It’ll affect my allies too.
Shaki ruffled her hair, while Milia stared intently at the tip of the spear.
Shapeshift… Can I change my appearance to cover everyone and jump onto the enemies? No they almost noticed when I was only peeking out.
“How about throwing our spear?” Milia asked.
“We can’t one shot them like that! And losing our weapon will make it even worse,” Shaki said.
As he ntally explored the options of Shapeshift, his floating scroll changed descriptions.
[Shapeshift (passive): Exert efforts and mana to change shape of the Sli form. Allows the user to seamlessly use skills learned from absorbed creatures in the Sli form.
Sli: Alchemical synthesis, Symbiosis, Mana transferTroglodyte: DarkvisionGnoll: -Beholder: -]
Shapeshift Passive
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What? The skill had an active part?
[Shapeshift (active): Temporarily assu the body of an absorbed creature, mimicking its internal structures and material properties.
Allows the user to use unlocked skills of that form.]
Shapeshift Active
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Slade examined the available forms. The large number of skills overwheld Slade. As he focused, the system read his mind, filtering out the unimportant skills.
[Troglodyte
Learned: DarkvisionUnlocked: Troglodyte atshield, Troglodyte tongueLocked: Stealth
Gnoll
Unlocked: Gnoll Toughness, Common tongueLocked: Parry
Beholder
Unlocked: Disintegration Ray, Beholder tongue, Common tongue, True Sight Locked: Beholder Convergence]
Damn, can I learn all of these skills?
[Using skills from Shapeshift (active) increases mastery.
Upon reaching 100% mastery, an Unlocked skill will be Learned.]
Slade nodded. He found the solution to advance deeper unto the maze.
[Guys, hear out!] he wrote on Milia’s blindfold.
Milia perked up, tapping Shaki’s shoulder.
[We’ll separate. I will use Shapeshift to make a Beholder’s distress call. Hopefully, the guards will leave their post, then you’ll be able to sneak past.]
Milia relayed his ideas.
“Isn’t that thing too smart for a re sli? Will it be able to regroup? You said that they almost noticed it,” Shaki asked back.
[It’s okay, I’ll think of sothing,] he wrote on the bandana.
“That’s fine, I trust it,” Milia nodded.
“But, the onion soup idea didn’t work...” Shaki mumbled.
“It’s okay, we’ll just run if it goes wrong,” Milia said.
They couldn’t co up with a better plan.
The party backtracked while Slade stayed alone.
He crawled up to the ceiling and spread thin to get across the intersection. He had to lure the enemies in the opposite direction of where his party was.
The beholders squinted their eyes, locking on him. The sli froze in its track. They obviously noticed sothing strange.
He attempted to slowly advance.
FUCK!
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