Shadow Slime
My eyes caught a shadow burning under the effect of Blaze Radiance.
It was strange to see a shadow in an empty space, but there was nothing strange about it at all.
Because that shadow was the true body of the monster I had been searching for.
'Shadow Slime!'
A unique monster that only appeared on the boss floor of the 20th-floor sewers.
It could slide across walls, ceilings, and floors like an actual shadow, and it was even capable of infusing physical force into those shadows to attack, just as it was doing now.
“Goblius!”
-One minute! Any longer will be difficult!
“That’s enough.”
At Goblius’s answer, I immediately switched the radiance. If I let Blaze Radiance burn it to nothing, I wouldn’t be able to resurrect it with Minion of the Underworld.
“Healing Radiance!”
As Blaze Radiance faded and the refreshing green light of Healing Radiance illuminated the area, the wounds on my injured goblin minions healed rapidly.
But!
Shhhhhhh…!
The residents’ horrifying advance, which had been halted by Blaze Radiance, resumed once more.
Now that they no longer had to fear being burned, the creatures surged toward me like a tidal wave. I had cast Healing Radiance, which carried the same provocation effect.
At that moment, Goblius stepped between me and the residents.
He swung his blade, creating a current of air that enveloped the space around us.
It was no ordinary current.
The airflow infused with Goblius’s sword energy grew fierce and began spinning rapidly, soon transforming into a massive blender that shredded every approaching enemy.
The residents were no exception.
“Sowon! Whatever you do, don’t move recklessly!”
“Yes!”
While I warned Sowon once more, the Shadow Slime that had crept close resumed its attack.
'It’s fast!'
As expected of a shadow, its speed was monstrous, and its movements were terrifyingly stealthy.
I hadn’t taken my eyes off it for even a second from the very beginning, yet I hadn’t detected its approach until it was right in front of me.
Slash!
The Shadow Slime’s body rose into a sharp point and thrust out another deadly spike.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
'Its consecutive attacks are disgustingly fast too!'
Parrying the strikes with my sword left my head spinning from the relentless barrage.
If I hadn’t learned the basic defensive forms of Imperial Swordsmanship from Goblius, there was no way I could have kept up with those consecutive attacks using stats alone.
Such blinding speed, near-nonexistent presence, devastating physical power, and relentless consecutive strikes…
On top of that, it possessed high resistance to physical damage. In truth, it was such a formidable monster that even high-level, high-rank hunters who relied on physical classes would struggle without proper countermeasures.
No wonder people said the Shadow Slime was the true boss monster of the 20th floor.
However, for all its strength, the Shadow Slime had a clear weakness.
It was extremely vulnerable to fire and light attacks.
Thanks to that, even relatively weak area-of-effect fire or light magic could take it down without much difficulty.
'If I had turned off Blaze Radiance even a second later, I would have died. Of course, the problem is that killing it with Blaze Radiance leaves no corpse.'
Still, its health must have dropped significantly from that last exchange. All that remained was to finish it off in one decisive strike.
The problem was that its movements were too fast and unpredictable.
Fortunately, the deep darkness of the sewers—which acted as a penalty for others—worked as an advantage for me, just as it did for the Shadow Slime.
'It’s still crude, but that’s the only way!'
“Chaos Attribute Imbuement. Light.”
Chaos Attribute Imbuement Lv.1 (All Attributes) (Buff) (Equipment Enhancement)
Using the recoil from deflecting the Shadow Slime’s attack, I leaped backward while swiftly imbuing my Clear Sky Sword with the Light attribute through Chaos Attribute Imbuement.
Chaos Attribute Imbuement was a buff skill I had obtained at level 25 after becoming a Chaos Knight. It allowed me to grant one of ten attributes—Holy, Demonic, Light, Dark, Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, Earth, or Wind—to my equipment.
Flash!
The Clear Sky Sword, now imbued with Light, radiated a soft, bright glow in addition to its naturally sharp and cold edge. It looked almost like a lightsaber from a movie.
'Imperial Swordsmanship, Chapter 3…'
Gust.
Whoosh!
The instant my feet touched the ground, I charged toward the Shadow Slime. Startled by the explosive speed, the creature flinched and chose to retreat sideways rather than face me head-on.
A wise decision. If it had confronted me directly, I would have run it through with my sword.
Besides, my Gust was still immature. Unlike Goblius, I couldn’t change direction mid-movement. That meant I could only watch as the creature quickly fled to the side.
But!
“Now!”
Swish… Thud! Thud! Thud!
Three flaming arrows flew from the darkness at the same time and embedded themselves deep into the floor.
More precisely, they had pierced straight into the Shadow Slime’s body, completely draining what remained of its health.
“My swordsmanship may be lacking, but fortunately I have reliable subordinates.”
Kikik!
As if answering me, Gobhood—who had been waiting for this very moment in the darkness—let out a pleased laugh.
Instead of a death cry, the Shadow Slime’s body twitched several times before spreading out wide, like black ink bleeding across paper.
“Sowon. If you would.”
“Bonus Looting.”
Sowon, who had already been prepared, quickly approached the dead Shadow Slime and used Bonus Looting…
“Huh? Humin! Take this first. Hurry!”
She must have obtained an unexpected item, because she urgently handed me a pair of pitch-black boots.
Since Goblius was nearing his limit, I decided to check the boots’ options later. For now, I would finish the urgent matters first.
“Minion of the Underworld. Summon.”
Minion of the Underworld Lv.38 (Undead) (Death) (Summon)
{Army of the Dead★} - Increases maximum summon limit by 2 per 3 skill levels of Minion of the Underworld.
The reason Minion of the Underworld had gained a star—that is, 1-Star—was because I had used my level 30 characteristic point to abandon the {Elite Soldier} trait and instead strengthen the existing Army of the Dead trait.
Thanks to that, the effect of {Army of the Dead} was further amplified by Thanatos’s Blessing, dramatically increasing the maximum summon limit from 5 per 3 levels to 10 per 3 levels.
As a result, my current Minion of the Underworld summon limit was the base 38 plus 120 from the {Army of the Dead} effect, for a total of 158.
Subtracting the 5 allocated to Goblius, 6 for the three goblin knights, and 50 for the goblin minions left me with a maximum of 97 additional summons available.
Even so, the reason I hadn’t summoned any monsters in the sewers until now was because of Blaze Radiance.
I couldn’t turn off Blaze Radiance because of the sewer residents, but keeping it active would purify monster corpses, turning them to ash and making them disappear.
That rendered both Minion of the Underworld and Bonus Looting impossible.
Of course, up until now it hadn’t been that big of a loss. The sewer monsters received heavy terrain buffs, but individually they were relatively weak.
To give an idea of how weak, the infected ratman spearmen I hunted on the 16th floor were weaker than the goblin swordsmen on the 10th floor.
But once I reached the 20th floor, things changed.
The sewer monsters, empowered by the boss floor’s buffs, had become genuinely strong and threatening foes.
Therefore, whenever possible, I resurrected any usable corpses with Minion of the Underworld and brought them along.
“It’s gotten… really crowded in here.”
Just as Sowon said, the sewers had become packed with the sewer monsters I had resurrected.
Even so, nothing made me prouder than the fact that I had finally found the Shadow Slime I had been looking for.
Glop. Glop.
When the skill activated, the Shadow Slime—which had spread out wide and faded from deep black to pale gray—regained its dark color and was resurrected.
'So this thing had eyes too.'
The blue flames that served as the mark of a minion now burned in the Shadow Slime’s eyes as well. This was the first time I realized it had eyes, but it wasn’t particularly important.
Eyes were mostly decorative anyway. It could function perfectly fine with them closed.
In fact, keeping them closed was functionally better since it hid the flames.
“Blaze Radiance.”
Whoosh!
With his task complete, Goblius stepped back. As the flames of Blaze Radiance reignited, the approaching residents began burning and vanishing once again.
“Sowon.”
While the goblin minions took care of the monsters swarming in my place, I turned to look at Sowon.
“Yes?”
“If you’re okay with it, would you like to try wearing the Shadow Slime?”
“Here? There’s nowhere to change… W-wait, what do you mean, try wearing it?!”
Sowon’s eyes widened in shock as she belatedly understood my words. I explained why I had been so eagerly waiting for the Shadow Slime.
“You know this already, right? Shadow Slimes don’t just cling to terrain and objects—they can also possess living creatures like monsters or people.”
“Y-yes, I know that, but…”
“Normally, when they wrap around a hunter, it’s to attack them. But this one is different. It won’t attack you. Instead, it will support your movements. It won’t try to control your body either. Of course, wearing a Shadow Slime might feel unfamiliar or even repulsive. I won’t force you. If I were in your position, I doubt I’d be happy about wrapping something like this around my body either.”
To prove it was harmless, I personally put on the Shadow Slime. Perhaps that reassured her somewhat, because Sowon spoke cautiously.
“…Still, the fact that you’re suggesting this means there must be some real value to it, right?”
“There might be. This is my first time trying something like this too.”
I couldn’t say for certain. But considering the Shadow Slime’s traits and abilities, I believed it was worth suggesting.
Of course, if she refused, that was fine. There were countless other ways to use a Shadow Slime.
I simply thought the benefits would be even greater if she wore it.
“Alright. I’ll try it.”
“Thank you, Sowon.”
Once she had made up her mind and nodded, I pointed at her. The Shadow Slime slid over, slipped beneath her clothes, and wrapped around her body in an instant.
Shadow Slimes were monsters that detected and reacted to bioelectricity.
Because of that, wearing it directly against bare skin was far more efficient in terms of reaction speed than wearing it over clothing.
Moreover, given the Shadow Slime’s aversion to fire and light, wearing it outside her clothes in areas with light would inevitably reduce its effectiveness—though it was fine here in the sewers.
“Is it uncomfortable? If it’s too bad, I can have it equip itself over your clothes even if the reaction speed drops a bit.”
“No, it was a little awkward at first, but now it feels like it was always part of my skin. I can still feel every sensation normally. The only difference is that my skin has turned pitch black. It’s really fascinating.”
“That’s probably because the Shadow Slime is transmitting the sensations it feels directly to your nerves. Of course, if you block the transmission, you won’t feel anything, so you won’t experience any pain.”
“Ah… But how do you know so much about this, Humin? Don’t tell me…”
“Yes. I did some research before coming here. It’s a famous monster on the 20th floor, after all. I looked into its characteristics and abilities to see if it had any useful applications, and this idea came to mind.”
“Can I try just one thing?”
“Of course.”
With those words, Sowon walked over to the nearest wall, took a deep breath, and clenched her fist tightly.
“Hoo…”
Then…
“Haaap!”
The wall exploded with a deafening boom.
“Kyaaak!”
The person who had thrown the punch was the most surprised. She shrieked and stumbled backward.
And for good reason—her fist had sunk deep into the stone wall all the way to her forearm as if it were pudding, and it had even created a spiderweb of cracks spanning three meters in radius!
“Th-this is…”
“How does it feel? Any discomfort or strain on your body?”
“N-no! Not at all! But… did I really just do that?”
“That was actually less power than I expected. It really is just supporting your movements. Your stance on that straight punch was completely off. The Shadow Slime simply added force to it.”
“And it still did this much? That’s insane… It feels like I’m wearing a power suit from a movie!”
“That guy should be more than enough to protect you.”
Obtaining a single Shadow Slime had changed the situation dramatically.
First, the fixed troops I had over-committed to Sowon’s protection could now be used far more effectively.
And furthermore…
“From now on, we’re running at full speed!”
“Yes! As fast as you want!”
Until now, Sowon had been carrying heavy luggage like a porter, so even if she lightened the load, there had been a limit to her speed.
But now there was nothing holding her back.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
I dashed forward at a speed that made me wonder if this was even allowed, and Sowon followed right behind me without any trouble.
The Shadow Slime’s traits—monstrous speed that could make even me flinch, and near-nonexistent presence—applied perfectly to Sowon while she wore it.
'She’s running right behind me and I can’t even hear her footsteps. If I weren’t watching with my own eyes, I wouldn’t even know she was following.'
“If you’re slowing down because of me, you can go even faster, you know?”
“Really? Then…”
Swoosh!
I put more strength into my legs as I kicked off the ground, just as she suggested.
The troops that had been escorting her had all moved forward and were busy cutting down the monsters swarming toward us.
That was fine. No matter how many monsters came from behind, none of them could perceive Sowon.
Her presence was already faint to begin with, and with me radiating radiance right beside her… virtually all hostility was focused on me. She no longer needed a separate escort.
'This is actually really good.'
The Shadow Slime’s abilities exceeded my expectations, so…
'Since things have come to this, farming Shadow Slimes doesn’t sound like a bad idea at all.'
Now that my worries about Sowon had eased, I set the key farming aside for later and began focusing seriously on farming Shadow Slimes.