Syl

Chapter 78: Quest Complete

Thanks to [Mapping], I thoroughly searched the rest of the tunnels and pathways and regretfully concluded that I couldn't find the final rock elemental. I was prepared to start heading back to the mine entrance, but first, I wanted to try each of my new forms to claim the first-time and perfection bonuses.

The orc form felt solid and robust. I liked the raw strength it held over a regular human and, in particular, against my frail, by comparison, elven form. Still, I couldn't see myself using it over a bear or some other chimeric monstrosity form. In theory, I could potentially infiltrate the orcs, but I certainly didn't want to rehash my goblin experience.

I had already tried the elemental forms, so I skipped them and tried out the spiders I could access. Much to my embarrassment, coordinating eight legs took a few attempts, but I was easily skittering up the tunnel walls shortly after. The web creation traits were intriguing because I was only imitating the organ, so it felt strange that I could produce a web. Examining it closely, I discovered that the trait substituted the likeliest available resource to create the phenomenon, which, in my situation, was a pittance of mana. Unfortunately, the trait alone wasn't enough to give me the instincts and creativity needed to make a proper web, and my best effort was a crude star shape that might trip someone at best. If I ever used this trait, I'd have to stick to spraying it out, although again, I could accomplish so much more if I just used slime with maximum adhesion.

I found the salamander form lacking overall, and if not for the two traits I stole, I'd likely never use it. It was frail, lacked strength, and wasn't that nimble. The only things it had going for it were its impressive scales and extreme firepower, both of which I could borrow without significantly applying its form. It was almost a one-trick pony, which likely brought it far until it met something that directly countered its one trick.

I shifted back into my disguise and practiced adding scales under my robe and experimenting with trying to use the [Inferno Sac]. I discovered that without borrowing [Fire Resistance], I couldn't handle the maximum output of the trait without burning away my slime. I'd need a higher level of [Blaze Slime] to handle it without fusing some Hobgoblin or Salamander into my form, which could take the trait.

'I should be thankful that recreating the organ itself is enough for me to borrow the trait; if I had to add even more salamander parts to take it, I'd ruin my disguise.'

Speaking of disguise, I thankfully remembered that I needed to remove the [Identity Block] on my profile. I was glad my warning was adhered to, and nobody ventured into the mines that I was aware of. Dealing with the consequences of being discovered was a bridge I hoped I wouldn't be forced to cross any time soon.

I exited the cavern to a late afternoon sun and a few terrified-looking guards, whose expressions were relieved when they saw it was me.

"Thank the Gods you survived, ma'am. We all feared the worst when we felt that terrible explosion," one of the guards said.

"Thanks for the concern. Do you know how long it's been since I entered?"

"Well over a day." He answered, "I pray you were successful?"

'That explains my mental fatigue. I worked through an entire night without realizing it.'

"The salamander, spiders, and elementals are dealt with. I thoroughly searched the entire mine and couldn't find any more."

The guard's expressions brightened, and the few miners still in the vicinity cheered at the news. It sounded like the miners didn't get paid unless they worked, which didn't sound fair to me - it wasn't their fault that a monster invaded because it wanted to imitate a dragon badly. I took out the raw ore in my storage, leaving only a single piece and the mana-enriched piece I had discovered for future sampling.

"The salamander was collecting the ore and nesting on it. This was all I managed to recover. Unfortunately, quite a lot of it melted with the rock."

Shocked, the miners looked at me and began shaking their heads, "We couldn't possibly take this from you. It's your loot from dealing with the monster."

"Don't worry about it. I earned more than enough from the quest payout and the salamander harvesting. If you want to earn it, you could help me find the last rock elemental I need to complete my quest."

After some thought, the miners nodded, and the guards also volunteered to help. My decision to give the ore to the miners was half guilt over taking longer than I should have to deal with the quest due to my experimentation and half laziness with needing to somehow deal with selling the ores after the fact.

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According to one of the miners, they could form on the surface because of the overabundance of essence in the area, but they are usually quite docile unless you enter their domain. This would obviously be a problem in the mines if one decided to reside in a critical tunnel path. It didn't take too long for one of the miners to find one for me; it had taken up residence in the rock dumping area and looked to have only been formed recently, as it was only level one and minuscule.

I cast all my debuffs on it, just for practice, before I began turning its body into mud with some creative [Water Whip] usage. I wrapped it up in the whip and could rapidly erode away at its body by applying some pressure. It wasn't long before I received the notification of its death, and my quest was complete.

I thanked them for their assistance in finding it and said our farewells. They tried convincing me to stay the night at their camp, where they said there would be some minor celebrations. One of the miners even said he was breaking out his emergency alcohol rations to celebrate. Unfortunately, the mental fatigue caught up, and I was worried I'd slip up somewhere. I wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole somewhere and turn into a formless blob.

I started to wander back towards the city but then took a detour and veered off course until I found a relatively isolated area with a few sparse trees and foliage. I jumped and climbed up the largest tree and extended a tendril from the palm of my hand to burrow away with [Acid Slime]. Once the hole was deep enough, and I made sure my surroundings were clear of any witnesses, I deposited all my items, liquefied my form while I rapidly entered the hole, and continued to dig downwards till I was well beyond the tree's roots. When I felt sufficiently deep and safe, I ordered my [Sub-Cores] to keep a lookout before succumbing to the oblivion of sleep.

When I woke up, I felt great, and my mind was cleared of any mental fog. I hadn't realized how important sleep was for my mind until now, I was surprised I could keep going for so long, and I could only assume it was due to my mental stats being off the chart thanks to [Soul Mastery] and [Core Refinement].

While using [Vanish], I exited the tree, and after confirming I was safe with all my available senses, I transformed back into my disguise. Looking at the sun, I judged it was early to mid-morning, which meant I had slept far longer than ever before - not counting evolution time.

I rejoined the road and casually strolled towards the city, revisiting the spell tinkering that had befuddled my fatigued mind. I got some odd stares as I was tinkering with a spell while walking, but nobody stopped me or vocally mentioned it, so I figured I wasn't breaking any law or anything.

It still frustrated me greatly as I couldn't visually see the individual components of the corrosion mana. I even borrowed [Mana Sight LV 6] from the elf profile, but the extra level didn't make a difference, and it felt like I was fundamentally missing something. I'd have to pick Dewi's brain to see if he knew a solution to my predicament, as I was sure he'd be more than thrilled I was tinkering with a custom fire spell.

Thanks to my more casual pace, it was late afternoon by the time I reached the city. My slow, methodical replacement of the spell construct was maybe thirty percent complete at best, and that was with five perfect helpers. Another benefit of getting my [Sub-Cores] to help was that I could get one of them to save my latest modification before the spell unraveled, quickly backing up my process. If I had to start from scratch every single time, I would've given up long ago. That made me wonder how a normal human was supposed to accomplish this; I could only assume they would try to obtain a trait or skill to enhance memory - something like eidetic memory, perhaps? Or I was approaching the method incorrectly, but it was the best I could come up with from Dewi's vaguery.

I entered the city without issue and used [Vanish] till I approached the adventurers guild. I deactivated the skill upon entering and politely requested the receptionist to let Luke know I had returned at his earliest convenience. I didn't have to wait long and was soon ushered to a booth.

"Good to see you again, Miss Syl."

"Hey Luke, all my quests were successful; it was a pretty fun experience."

"There was some concern that something went wrong. We expected you to return sooner; the time between completing your spider extermination and the salamander was quite significant."

"I may have gone overboard on the spider extermination; I cleared out the entire mine. I was also searching for rock elementals, which proved difficult because the salamander had killed quite a few."

"Huh... That's slightly odd behavior. What level was it?"

"Five. I think it recently evolved."

Luke slammed the table, causing me to flinch in surprise, "Wait, it had evolved?!"

"I believe so. It was an Inferno Salamander, if that helps?"

Rather than helping, Luke seemed to go slightly pale. He began frantically shuffling through papers and muttering to himself; when he found what he was looking for, he read it carefully and then shook his head before finally speaking.

"I double-checked the original request. They definitely said it was a normal salamander. The request wasn't that old; I don't know how it evolved so soon..." He bowed his head, "I'm so sorry, Miss Syl. I put you in danger by recommending this quest."

Confused by the display, I quickly tried to calm him down, "It wasn't that much of an issue. Your advice helped a lot as its insides were extremely weak, and I got a lot of experience and practice with my [Water Magic]."

"No. You don't understand, Miss Syl. This is an upper Silver-rank threat; if it was a higher level, this would have been a low Gold-rank. Sending a lone, freshly promoted Silver-rank adventurer against something like this is a suicide mission."

"Well, it's good I'm trying to get promoted to Gold as soon as possible," I said with a smirk, hoping to ease his concern.

He sighed at my utter refusal to accept the gravity of the situation, "We might have to if it truly was as easy as you are appearing to make it."

"Anyway, let's get down to business. I got plenty of materials to show you."

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