Chapter 26: Afterword

A perfectly good Slime—wouldn’t it be better to just stay honestly perched in the trees and sip the wind?

Why did it have to crawl into the mine?

What?

Fire Slimes can’t climb trees because they’d burn them down?

Well, that’s fine then.

Picking up the Magic Crystal left behind by the Fire Slime, Krexia pocketed it and moved closer to Fana and the other two.

After Elvie’s treatment, Fana and Falco’s conditions had clearly improved a lot.

Seeing Krexia approach, the three immediately stood up from the ground, their eyes filled with gratitude.

There was also a hint of shame.

They probably never imagined in their lives that three fully armed Silver Adventurers would be chased and beaten so badly by Slimes, to the point of having to use a magical scroll—such a luxury.

Such news would be explosive in any circle.

But thankfully, the mission was completed.

“Miss Krexia, I really don’t know how to thank you…”

“No need for formalities, Miss Elvie. I’ve said before, I’m not much older than you.”

“Y-Yes, understood, Miss Krexia.”

Elvie smiled as she replied but still insisted on using formal speech.

She grew up in the church, where the library contained much knowledge about the various races on the continent, including the Elves from the northern Heldenor Forest.

The books described them as genuine long-lived beings, with lifespans almost comparable to the Blood Clan.

Their lengthy lifespans made their sense of age vague—in their race, elves of three to four hundred years old could still be considered maidens.

She naturally wouldn’t take Krexia’s casual claim seriously.

“Hmm… Miss Krexia of the Elven Race…”

Fana stared somewhat dazedly at Krexia’s silver hair and wine-red eyes.

Red eyes could signify an overflow of magical power within the body, but silver hair was harder to explain.

Silver-haired Elves were not unheard of, but extremely rare; typically, only the Elven Royalty possessed such hair.

However… since the war between the Blood Clan and the Elves, the Elven Royal Family had been almost wiped out and had withdrawn deep into the Origin Land to recover.

Occasionally, a member of the Royal Family would be born, and they would be treated like treasures, never allowed to leave, especially not near the Blood Clan Territory.

So if Krexia wasn’t Elven Royalty, then…

Impossible. The Blood Clan wouldn’t be foolish enough to disguise themselves with just skin color and blindly approach humans.

Moreover, the magical aura from this person was unrecognizable even to herself. The Molang Family, masters of disguise, hadn’t had any new members for nearly a hundred years.

So where did this person come from?

Fana fell into deep thought.

“Fana?”

“Hmm? Miss Krexia, you called me?”

Fana snapped back to reality, noticing Krexia staring at her.

“What are you thinking about? You look so lost.”

“Ah, nothing much. Just wondering where this Slime came from. I’ve never even heard of a Fourth-Tier Slime before.”

Fana gave a casual excuse and changed the subject.

She then took several small vials from her Storage Ring, scooped some slime mucus from the spot where the Slime died, and sealed it, intending to bring it back for study.

One sample would also be handed over to the Adventurer Association as proof of the commission’s completion.

As for the Fourth-Tier Magic Crystal, since Krexia defeated the monster, it naturally belonged to her.

However, hearing Fana’s words, Krexia’s expression became a little awkward.

Where did it come from?

Who knows?

So hard to guess~

After tidying up the scene a bit, the group ate some simple food and headed toward Vanor City.

They needed to report the forest incident to the Adventurer Association so that other adventurers would be more cautious on future missions.

With this information, tomorrow’s commissions would likely focus on intelligence gathering.

Given this strange anomaly, sending mercenaries into the mine would be like sending them to their deaths.

“Fana, can you tell me how your mission went? How did you encounter this Slime?”

“Ah, of course.”

Fana replied promptly.

“Well… let me start with the details of our commission.”

She began recounting the entire event.

Their squad had accepted the same C-Rank commission as Krexia: clearing out the abnormal concentration of various mutated Slimes in the Mithril Mine and investigating the cause of their gathering.

They had prepared thoroughly in advance, studying the mine’s passages, layout, maps, magical energy hotspots, and the quantity and types of Slimes concentrated there.

Since Fana specialized in fire-element magic, they specifically confirmed there were no fire-element Slimes before accepting the commission.

Then came their encounter with Krexia.

After parting at the Mageling Forest’s outer entrance, they immediately entered the Mithril Mine.

Thanks to their preparations, the early stages went smoothly.

There were over forty Slimes clustered inside the mine, only one Third-Tier wind-element Slime, about a dozen Second-Tier, and the rest were First-Tier fodder.

Such a group might be tough for ordinary teams, but it was easy for them.

After about thirty minutes of battle, they wiped out the Slime squad and successfully investigated why they had gathered.

A lucky miner had unearthed a Crystal Ore Vein, and the abundant leaking magical energy attracted these magic-chasing little jellies, which quickly nurtured a Third-Tier individual under the mana’s nourishment.

If left unchecked, more Third-Tier Slimes would soon appear, making removal much harder.

As they finished the mission and were about to leave, they encountered another Slime in the mine—the same one Krexia saw when she arrived.

But they were absolutely sure there had been no Fire Slime in their initial investigation, let alone a Fourth-Tier one.

Had they known such a powerful foe existed, they would never have accepted this deadly mission.

What followed was the series of events after Krexia’s arrival.

In summary, this Slime was an outsider, but no one knew where it had come from.

These creatures are born from concentrated magical energy; wherever there is a mana hotspot, even without external monsters, they can spontaneously spawn.

Just like Goblins.

And the magical source Krexia sensed earlier was likely this very Slime.

Considering a Fourth-Tier Slime’s ability to cause such large environmental effects on the surrounding forest, it made sense.

(2/2)