Chapter 63 (2/2)

What Feim had poured over the body was oil.

It was oil used for lanterns, which were made to burn especially well.

The fire that started spreading had started burning the slime that was wrapped around him.

As black smoke started rising and emitting a bad smell, the slime either seemed to realize that it was burning or seemed to feel the pain, as it started retreating from Ain’s body.

But Ain wasn’t getting out unscathed either, since he was so close to the flames and the heat.

He had turned his face away from the smoke and smell from the burning slime, but he started getting burns on his body.

But after waiting for an opportunity for the slime to weaken its grip, Ain had managed to peel them off his arm and leg, and rolled out of the spot, coughing and taking care to shield his burned arm.

“You okay Ain!?”

“d.a.m.n it! That was horrible!”

“I’m going to treat you with medicine and bandages because I still want to save up my healing divine arts.”

Ain was saved from falling prey to the slime, but he wasn’t in a good shape.

There were holes in his boots, and his left arm, which he held his shield with, was swelled up and had burns all over it.

And due to the flames, he had light burns on his face and neck, and Al started putting medicine and bandages on them.

“How would you rate how they did in that situation Loren?”

Lapis had been watching the whole thing in silence, and asked Loren, still clinging onto his waist.

Loren thought for a moment, keeping his torch above his head, and answered.

“I’m not that experienced as an adventurer, so.”

“How about as a mercenary?”

“I guess it was okay? Especially throwing the fire without hesitating.”

Slimes were quite tough against physical attacks.

Even if a part of their bodies were crushed, cut, or ripped, they wouldn’t flinch since they didn’t feel pain.

If you didn’t have a way to accurately destroy the core, it was common for the situation to become like what Ain and Cloud had shown.

To prevent that from happening, you would need a way to exterminate it quickly, and one of them was to kill it with fire.

If you had a magician that could use plenty of spells, depending on magic was a way, but if you had a magician that could only use a few spells like in the mercenary company that Loren was a part of, or if you were in a situation where no magicians were there, burning slimes were usually the only option they had.

And in if you or one of your companions were caught by one, the only way to pull it off was to burn them along with the slime.

Even if you tried to crush the core, you could end up hurting whoever was being attacked, and the slime would find a way inside the body through the injuries.

One of the reasons that Loren was holding a knife and was holding a torch above his head was so that if a slime attached itself onto him, he could immediately crush its core with the knife, or if he couldn’t, use the torch to burn it along with his body.

Loren knew that the great sword on his back wouldn’t do anything against slimes.

“Wouldn’t it be better if we give up and head back?”

Loren suggested so, seeing Ain’s condition, with all the medicine and bandages on his body, but he backed off as Ain shook his head and Cloud glared at him.

“We told you, we’re going to the bottom floor!”

“I heard that, but what about your light? You have an extra lantern?”

When Loren said that, Cloud looked at the burning girl’s body and the slime and looking at the fragments of their lantern scattered about, realized that they had lost their source of light.

Loren thought that breaking the lantern to light the fire was quite a violent method, but he knew that there wasn’t much time for Feim to open up the lantern and transfer the kindling, so he didn’t think that she should be blamed for throwing it on the floor, but Cloud seemed to have a different thought.

“Hey, what are we going to do? We still have a long way to go!?”

As Cloud drew closer to Feim with a grim face, she looked around at the others with an awkward look on her face.

“We don’t have any spare lanterns?”

“I have one. It’s okay Cloud, we’re fine.”

Al took some fire from the flames erupting from the girl’s body along with a bad stench and lit the spare that he had brought.

The party seemed relieved as they regained their source of light, but then their attention went to the burning body.

“One of them dropped out here.”

“The problem is whether they headed back or kept going…Judging from Parme’s personality, I think they probably moved ahead.”

“Klaus is with them, but then again, he’s only a proctor. If he didn’t say anything, I’m sure Parme would’ve continued ahead.”

“What should we do?”

At Cloud’s question, Ain thought for a moment while rubbing his injured arm, and eventually declared strongly.

“We go forward. We can’t go back only this much.”

“Let’s all hold oil and kindling for the slimes. And even if we see Parme’s group or Klaus, don’t go near them.”

“There’s a good one burning right now, so let’s get the fire from there.”

The slime that had attacked them was being burned along with the body, was writhing on the floor with its movements getting slower and slower.

Ain and the party decided that it was okay to leave it like that and started getting fire from the flames burning its body.

“I’ll hold the lantern this time. If this one breaks, we’re done for, so keep that in mind.”

“Burn it if you think you’re in danger. Got it. Ain, if it hurts, I’ll lend a shoulder?”

“I’m fine.”

Ain decided to throw away his shield, since it had been dissolved here and there by the slime, and had been burnt by the flames on top of that.

They would’ve taken equipment from the dead girl’s body, but Feim had already burned everything, leaving nothing useful for them to take.

“Feim, mark this area on the map, just in case. Other slimes will probably eat everything after the fire dies, but we still have to report it when we get back to the surface.”

“Okay.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

The party started moving forward at Ain’s call.

As Loren started following them, he realized that Lapis, who was still clinging onto him, was pulling his sleeve, so he looked towards her.

“Loren, I’ll leave finding the opportunity to you.”

“Opportunity? What opportunity?”

“This and that. Breaking away from this party, for example.”

Lapis suggested abandoning the job without any hesitation and looked at the backs of Ain and the others who were walking ahead of them.

“You’re not planning on dying with them, aren’t you?”

“Well, yeah…but without them we won’t be able to get to our destination, right?”

“It’ll work out. Just leave it to me, Loren.”

Lapis said with confidence.

Lapis had said there was a way, so she certainly had something up her sleeve, but using that meant that they would be leave Ain and his party and going off on their own.

Loren sighed at the fact that Lapis had given him the responsibility of finding the opportunity, and started thinking.