38
My Villains Chapter 38
10. Underground Floor 4 (3)
After the cleanup was done.
Mr. Luke, holding a long quarterstaff, stretched out his wrinkled hand in front of the pile of ratman corpses.
"Vernut'sya vel pyl'......"
Along with the low-voiced incantation, ashen magic power spewed from Mr. Luke's hand.
Tsu tsu tsu.
Like a flashlight with dying batteries flickering, the ashen magic power began to flicker dimly and eat away at the Ratmen's corpses. It was the 1st rank spell of annihilation magic, 'Touch of Decay'.
It was a powerful spell that rotted and decomposed anything it touched, but in the game, its range was too short, making it a skill that was discarded after the very early stages.
Whatever it was like in the game, seeing Mr. Luke emit ashen magic power in reality felt quite significant.
Was it because of the fact that he volunteered as an undertaker? Or was it strange that a Necromancer was getting rid of corpses?
Unlike me, who was silently appreciating the sight of the Ratmen's corpses slowly disappearing, Ellen, standing next to me, pouted and grumbled.
"How long do we have to wait? Wasting time like this on a Ratman funeral."
Saying that, Ellen glanced sideways at me.
While pretending to be talking to herself, she seemed to be hoping for me to answer. Well, she's the type to ignore everyone else's words anyway, so it must have been directed at me.
I wanted to ignore her coolly too, but remembering Mr. Luke's advice to be kind to her, I reluctantly opened my mouth.
"If we leave the corpses as they are, other monsters might eat them and get stronger. There's no harm in getting rid of them."
"Ha, does that look like it's rotting and disappearing to you?"
"...Then?"
"It's impossible to completely eliminate any object. Does it look like it's disappearing? In reality, it's just being divided and scattered into pieces too small to see."
...This girl who always spouts nonsense about balance and detachment is now saying something resembling the law of conservation of mass.
But, is it okay for a magician to say such things? Isn't magic about creating something from nothing?
While I was thinking that, Ellen continued speaking.
"In the end, these corpses will become nutrients and fatten up tiny creatures. The Ratmen will catch and eat those creatures again to have offspring, and then the situation will return to the beginning."
"Well, that might happen after a couple of months pass. But do we need to worry about such things?"
"...Are you saying it's effective in the short term? Hmph, if that's the case, we might as well spend this time killing other Ratmen."
"Don't think about it so complicatedly, let's just consider it as having something interesting to watch while resting. It's fascinating, isn't it?"
Ellen, still unconvinced, continued to grumble about something.
Mr. Luke, who had turned around after finishing his task, noticed Ellen and gave a hearty laugh.
"I'm sorry for making you wait, Miss Ellen. I was going to let it pass if possible, but there were so many corpses that I couldn't just ignore them."
"Don't talk to me, old man. I'm in a bad mood."
...To strangers, it might look like the arrogance befitting a magician?
But this girl was just as ill-mannered even when she was a wand stand. Really, she's quite consistent.
I swallowed my irritation and reprimanded her in a low voice.
"Ellen. I told you not to talk like that, didn't I?"
"What did I say? I didn't call him a smelly old corpse or anything."
"Hey! You really- Sigh. I'm sorry, Mr. Luke."
As I turned to apologize to Mr. Luke on Ellen's behalf.
"It's alright. It's true that I caused a delay because of me. I'm sorry, everyone."
He said this with a hearty laugh.
He must have heard all the talk about corpse smell... Is this the composure of an old man?
Looking at Mr. Luke's face, it seemed he wasn't just pretending to be okay, but genuinely didn't mind, which I found admirable. If it were me, I would have smacked her on the head with the quarterstaff I was holding.
In place of me, who was at a loss for words due to admiration, Arnal, who was stretching, joked around.
"It's okay, Grandpa. *Yawn* Thanks to you, we got a good rest. If I had my way, I'd like this to happen every time we meet monsters."
"I'm grateful that you say so."
Grania, who was changing the torch, shrugged her shoulders and expressed concern.
"I'm worried about Mr. Luke, though. If you use spells in a place like this and run out of magic power when we need to fight..."
"Don't worry about that. The training I've accumulated until this age isn't all for nothing, so I have plenty of magic power."
"If you say so, then..."
Naturally, Middel World wasn't a world where hierarchy was determined by a difference of one or two years in age.
However, as in any human society, an old man with white hair like Mr. Luke became an object of respect.
Rather than respecting him simply because he was old, it was more about considering someone who had survived to old age in this harsh world as having something extraordinary about them. This is probably a big reason why the two mercenaries treat Mr. Luke so well.
But thinking back, even if Mr. Luke had been a young man, it probably wouldn't have been much different.
Who wouldn't like someone who uses mysterious and powerful spells but always acts humbly and kindly? If there's someone who doesn't like that, they must be a weirdo-
"Unpleasant old man."
...Here she is, that weirdo.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"...It's nothing."
"What do you mean it's nothing? What is it?"
Looking at Ellen, who was furrowing her white brows, I sighed.
Was the 4th floor of the sewer the domain of the Ratmen?
After dealing with a group of nearly fifty ratmen, there were hardly any monsters to be seen.
We searched the surroundings for over two hours, but not even the tip of a monster's nose was visible.
Just as the tension was starting to ease, we were subjected to an unexpected attack.
Without any warning, something dropped from the ceiling.
My mind couldn't react at all.
Hmph, slap!
Was it thanks to the agility of 20 points? Phoenix's body managed to react instinctively. I swung the torch I was holding and struck the unidentified enemy.
"Ugh, what is this?"
Exclaiming, I turned to look at the unidentified enemy, and it had slightly shriveled from the heat and bounced off, sticking to the wall.
Then it started to crawl, wriggling towards Ellen.
Squirm, squirm squirm.
"Wh-what is that?"
It was dissolving something on the corpse like sticky mucus.
The creature contracted to the size of a head and then expanded to be larger than a calf, crawling rapidly across the wall surface.
A monster with a jelly-like shape with a black sheen-
Ugh, it's disgustingly nauseating.
"Everyone be careful! It's a slime!"
As Luke shouted, the identity of the enemy attacking us was a slime.
It had been hiding by sticking to the ceiling using its characteristic adhesiveness, and then attacked me as I passed underneath it.
Ellen, who was walking absentmindedly, discovered the monster lunging towards her. She calmly tried to chant a spell-
"Kyaaaa!"
-but instead, she just let out a scream at the chilling form of the slime.
"It's a slime! Shoot Flame Arrows!"
"Hu- o ≡ o ah"
As if she couldn't hear my voice, Ellen, with a pale face, only backed away without showing any reaction.
Damn, she seems to have fallen into panic.
"Ugh, damn it!"
Twang!
Arnal gritted her teeth and quickly shot an arrow, but,
Damn it, physical attacks don't work on slimes!
Indeed, the slime hit by the arrow showed no damage at all, just wriggling with the arrow attached to it.
No, it wasn't just undamaged, it was even dissolving the arrow in an instant.
Ugh, fear doesn't work on slimes either, so Luke's spell is useless too. Dealing with it using attribute magic would be the easiest, but with Ellen like that...
"Oh, Grania?"
As I was running towards Ellen while thinking of ways to deal with it, I let out a cry of astonishment.
Grania, who had been guarding the rear of our party, suddenly jumped out from behind Ellen and rushed towards the slime.
"No, it's dangerous-"
Before I could even stop Grania, the slime that was charging at Ellen noticed the life form approaching it and bounced up like a rubber ball.
"W o uh"
Grania seemed surprised by the slime's sudden leap, but fortunately, she instinctively raised her shield.
As the spread-out slime wrapped around the shield, Grania quickly threw away the shield and retreated.
Splurt splurt. The slime made a strange sound, then shook its body and started spraying acidic liquid in all directions.
"Damn it,"
Thanks to quickly turning her head and backing away, Grania avoided getting hit in the face, but her armor was melting away, emitting white smoke.
Her left arm, which was especially splashed with the acidic liquid, was bubbling up to the skin after melting through the leather armor.
"Kuuugh!"
"Grania!"
Arnal and I started throwing torches and shooting arrows to draw the slime's attention.
Meanwhile, Luke, who had thrown away his six-foot staff, managed to grab Grania, who was groaning in pain, and urgently pull her back.
As the slime, which had spat out the half-melted shield, started to squirm towards us again, I gritted my teeth and drew my falchion.
At that moment, Luke, who had evacuated Grania, stepped forward again.
"Dusha, plot', plamya!"
With these three words uttered powerfully, blue flames rose above Luke's head. The will-of-wisp flickering in the air lunged at the slime following Luke's hand gesture.
Sizzle
As the will-of-wisp with its long tail wrapped around the slime's body with a hissing sound, it started to twist its body inside out.
Splurt splurt.
It was resisting the will-of-wisp by hiding the drying and burning surface inside and bringing the moisture-laden surface outside.
Despite looking like it was burning blue like a gas flame, the heat emitted by the will-o'-the-wisp wasn't particularly strong.
Luke summoned more will-of-wisps, but it didn't seem like it would be enough to kill the slime.
As I was blocking Ellen's front while keeping the slime at bay with a torch, she had also collected herself and was aiming her stonebow.
"Flame Arrows! Shoot a Flame Arrow!"
"Hu- huu. No, that's not enough."
"What do you mean? Not enough?"
"S-slime's weakness is fire, but *huu* for that size, ordinary heat won't do. Not with just Flame Arrows."
As she said this while fumbling inside her sling bag, I quickly snatched the stonebow, guessing her intention.
"I'll do it, you chant the spell!"
"But-"
"Hurry!"
As I skillfully rummaged through the sling bag and took out a bottle with a reddish aura, she seemed relieved and quickly started chanting the spell.
"Influ-unt flammae."
Just before the spell was completed, I aimed at the slime with the fire bottle loaded in the stonebow. I narrowed my shoulders as much as possible to fix the handle, put my hand on the trigger, and waited for her spell.
"satus!"
Just as the slime, which had now swallowed the will-of-wisp, was about to leap at Luke, the Flame Arrow originating from Ellen's fingertips instantly pierced through it.
As it was engulfed in flames, I quickly pulled the trigger.
Twang.
The fired fire bottle landed exactly in the center of the slime. But then...
Squish.
"Huh?"
"...Hey, you idiot! What are you doing!"
Damn, the bottle didn't break as it was buried in the slime's gelatinous body!
Kim Seung-soo, you idiot! You should have shot it at the ground nearby to break it or at least set it on fire before shooting!
Crackle, crackle. Enveloped in weakening flames, the slime fiercely twisted its body and lunged towards us.
At that moment, a sharp shout was heard.
"Stand back!"
It was Arnal who shouted.
With bloodshot eyes, she was pulling her bowstring. After a brief silence, she shot the arrow. The arrow, drawing an exquisite trajectory, not only pierced through the slime but also-
Crash.
It hit and broke the fire bottle covered in slime!
The distance wasn't too far, but to hit a slime moving irregularly with such accuracy? That's no ordinary skill.
Anyway, as a result, the flame flower oil mixed with sugar burst out from inside the slime's body.
Whoosh.
Orange flames momentarily shot up to the ceiling.
Engulfed in such fierce flames, the slime started to shrink with a 'crackle, crackle' sound.
The slime began to die, letting out a silent scream. As its body with a black sheen melted away, the contents it had been digesting inside spilled out.
"Ugh, blegh."
Ellen turned her head away, retching at the disgusting sight.
Ugh, how can a slime be so gross? The slimes in games like Maple Story were so cute. This is why you should play domestic games...
I suddenly disliked this world even more.