His mana pool started increasing rapidly as he absorbed the over one hundred slime ESs he had just collected.
"Are you trying to tier up now?!" Raitha yelled as she stared at Shyam, who was attempting to tier up in the middle of a battle.
"Looks like it," Shyam replied sarcastically.
"But you know it's dangerous doing this in an environment like this, right?!" she warned. Tiering up was no joke. One needed a calm, peaceful environment to tier up. If anyone tried to tier up during a battle or a fight, then their level might break, and the person might even become crazy.
Though the chances of tier break were low, the chances of permanent injury that could block the person from ever tiering up again were very high. Even still, Shyam wanted to take that risk? But why? Just because he wanted to see the farm be green again?
"I know, but I gotta try this too! Besides, I've got you here with me!" Shyam replied and started focusing on the process. He dodged the slime's attacks while circulating his mana through his nerves in order to tier up.
His mana pool slowly filled up, energy kept pouring in. Soon, the mana pool couldn't handle the energy anymore, and a shock spread through Shyam's nerves. With a tung sound, he made a breakthrough.
"Good, I made it," he whispered as he dodged another slime ball.
"What do you mean 'made it'?! You could have died! Not that I care though," Raitha said as she stood above the rock, still monitoring Shyam.
"Not so easily," Shyam said and dashed toward the slimes while making a punch. Chup—he hit the slime.
But nothing happened. The slime still stood tall, staring at Shyam like it was looking at the stupidest being on the planet. Can someone really punch a slime? A creature made mostly of liquid?
But it couldn't think anything more. How could it? Shyam just didn't let it think anything any longer.
"Fireball," he whispered. A big ball made with pure, very high temperature fire burst through the slime like it was nothing but water—which wasn't far off from the truth.
The slime just became liquid and laid down on the ground, just like water does after every rain. Shyam stared at it as he breathed heavily.
> [ The Blue Slime Boss was killed / 1,250 XP / Level Up - 49 ]
[ Boss Loot - Slime Stick / 250V Gold ]
The moment the slime fell, the other slimes ran off faster than Shyam could look at them. They probably wouldn't come back again, but Shyam still needed to report that back to the guild as well.
The canal was now free. There was no slime blocking it. Though the sides were a little bit sticky—but eh, the villagers would see to that. His work here was almost done.
Shyam looked at the dead body of the slime.
WAIT! Did the slime even have a body? It was frickin' transparent!
"RIP, Sir Slime," Shyam whispered sarcastically. Raitha had finally jumped off from the rock and came to the scene she had enjoyed from afar.
"So, what are we going to do with this now?" she asked as she put her finger in the leftover liquid.
"Capture it, of course," Shyam replied and raised his hands.
"SOUL CAPTURE!" he yelled. White and blue mana particles floated around the liquid. It hovered around it for a few moments until finally it vanished.
> [ Soul Captured / Blue Slime Boss / ID - B3 / Slots Left - 4 ]
[ HP - 1,250 / Defense - 650 / Attack - 130 / Abilities - Slimeball, Jump Squeeze ]
"Finally, I now have a backup with me," Shyam murmured as he looked at his captured souls window. Although he opened that window to see his newly captured soul, he was flabbergasted with an overwhelming amount of options. He had opened this window before as well—but all he saw back then were two buttons only:
One: Delete
Second: Summon
But now it had options like: Levels, Equipment, Effects, Fuse, Deploy, Extract, Upgrade, Evolve, and a few more which were locked.
"I can do so much with my captured souls now!" he murmured as he started exploring the given features. Minutes passed into hours, and it took him the entire noon to finish his feature exploration.
"Let's head back home now," Shyam whispered as he gazed at the setting sun. It was already evening.
"Sure, but... wanna look at this?" Raitha said as she stood beside the canal. Shyam looked toward it and stared, confused.
The water wasn't back yet. Come to think of it, the water wasn't there from the beginning. Only now was he noticing it.
"What might be the problem?" Shyam said as he sat beside the canal. The sides of the canal had short, dried-out grass as if they hadn't known what water meant.
Shyam rubbed his jaw as he tried looking toward the start of the canal.
"Do you think there are more slimes over there?" Raitha whispered as she pointed her finger toward the direction Shyam looked. The view was blocked by trees with vines and big leaves.
"Might be," Shyam murmured and started walking toward it.
While walking, he opened up his mail window and claimed the Slime Stick—the loot he received after killing the Blue Slime Boss. The stick was made of wood. The tip of the stick had a slime-like texture.
"What's this?" Shyam asked as he held the stick in his hands. Raitha had yet again climbed onto Shyam's head like a caterpillar. She looked down at the stick.
"Might be a magical stick to, like, shoot slime balls or something," she said.
"Huh?" Shyam sighed.
"Eh, I'll see it once I go back to the inn," he whispered and put the stick into his storage ring, after which he focused on finding the cause of the issue.
After following the canal for a while, he finally saw an end to it—the kind of end you wouldn't expect a canal to have.
"A blockage?" Shyam whispered as he looked at the dirt that had blocked the canal. There were grass and saplings on the dirt that blocked the waterways.
"Probably from a landslide," Raitha said.
"Yeah," Shyam replied and started walking behind the blockage.
It took him a few minutes, but he reached the back of the blockage and saw a whole river flowing there. Clean and deep. But the dirt was just too much for the water to curve. Because of that, it couldn't reach the village. If the water had flowed through the canal, maybe the slimes never would've made the canal their home.
But now that Shyam had learned the truth, he started going back to the village to both report what had happened and to take his reward for completing the quest.
It didn't take him too long to come back to the village, but the sun had already half disappeared and the moon had already appeared.
Shyam entered the guild—but this time, there were no adventurers here. Maybe because it was nighttime. But he didn't have any business with the adventurers, so he went straight to the reception.
Those same two women sat behind the reception, bored and half asleep.
"Hey," Shyam said.
One of the women opened her eyes fully and looked at Shyam. She stood up immediately as if she had seen a ghost. Shyam was no less.
"Could I talk to the Guild Master?" Shyam said as he sat down on a chair.
"Of course," she replied and went to the Guild Master's office.
After that, she told Shyam to enter the office himself. After all, this time they knew who he was.
The Guild Master was sitting behind the table doing his paperwork.
"Oh! Welcome!" he stood up as soon as he saw Shyam enter the room.
"No need to stand up," Shyam said as he sat down on the chair. The Guild Master did the same.
"So, are the preparations for the quest done?" he asked as he pushed forward a cup of pre-made tea.
"Preparations?" Shyam spoke in confusion.
"Like, ready your weapons and equipment," the Guild Master said.
"Oh no! I actually just returned after completing the quest," Shyam said and put the T1, Level 10 Blue Slime Boss ES on the table.
The Guild Master looked at the ES, then at Shyam, then again at the ES and screamed,
"Done?! So fast?!" His face was watchable. According to his past adventuring experience, a D-rank adventurer should not be able to defeat a T1, Level 10 boss alone. And this was no ordinary boss—it was a slime.
Sharp weapons don't affect it much. Then how did this adventurer complete the quest so fast? The Guild Master wanted to question Shyam, but Shyam knew if the Guild Master started questioning him, it'd take a while before he could go back.
So he changed the topic to the current issue with the canal.
"Actually, the real problem of the water blockage wasn't the slimes," he said as he took a sip of tea.
"Then?" the Guild Master asked as he held his pen to ready Shyam's quest completion paper.
"I think there was a landslide before. The dirt has covered the canal fully," Shyam said.
"A dirt blockage, huh?" the Guild Master said, still staring at the Blue Slime Boss ES like it owed him money.
"If it's only dirt, it shouldn't be a problem to clear it all out. We just have to gather all the villagers and ask them to help! I'm sure, seeing their current situation, they'll help us!" The Guild Master had confidence in himself. Of course he did—not only was he old, but he was the Guild Master of this village. And for who knows how many years.
"Okay, I understand. But can I get my reward now? I'm feeling a little tired right now," Shyam said.
"Of course!" the Guild Master replied as he gave Shyam a sack of coins.
Shyam took it and left the adventurer's guild. After that, he went to the same tavern as yesterday. And then it was straight to bedtime! He did say he would test the Slime Stick, but he was just too tired to do anything right now. Right now, he needed a good night's sleep...
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Ch-33