"I took the other path. All the sub-caves lead to this Slime pond," Alex replied, as he had been waiting for Kai. To be honest, he had forgotten which cave they took.
"This… Did you do all this?"
When Kai arrived at the end of the Slime cave, he was shocked.
At the end of the cave, there wasn't anything fancy—just a big pond. However, what shocked Kai were the thousands of Slime gels scattered all over the place.
"I got bored waiting for you," Alex lied through his teeth.
There was no way he could kill thousands of Slimes, especially when they were led by a Slime King, all by himself. It was his master who had done it.
The Slime Pond gathers Ki and creates Slimes. Slimes are mindless creatures, and there's no way they should be classified as Level 1 monsters.
However, aside from producing normal Slimes, the Slime Pond also creates a Slime King, which is a Level 3 Monster.
The Slime King acts as a hive mind for all Slimes created by the same pond. Under its control, Slimes become far more dangerous than normal monsters.
With the Slime King's command, they can cooperate, call for reinforcements, and even follow strategic plans.
When Alex and Kai first entered the Slime cave, Alex had noticed something was wrong—the Slimes were acting like mindless fools.
Later, while looking for Kai after meeting his master, Alex discovered that the Slime King had already been killed.
So, he decided to wait for Kai at the end of the cave and occasionally kill new Slimes produced by the Slime Pond.
"What are you waiting for? Quickly go and collect the Ki," Alex urged. After all, more than an hour had passed, and some of the Ki was already starting to dissipate.
"Okay," Kai didn't ask any questions and immediately started collecting the Ki. After all, he knew he wouldn't get another opportunity like this again.
With the number of destroyed cores here, Alex had certainly killed more than a thousand Slimes.
Kai spent the next five minutes moving from one corner to another, collecting Ki.
"No way… so much."
Looking at his Ki reserves, Kai was stunned to see an increase of more than 100 points—even though most of the Ki had already dissipated.
> [Ki: 642.3 → 795.5]
Seeing this massive increase, Kai looked at Alex as if he were a treasure trove.
After all, a Vitality Pill costs 200 Honey Points—which equals 200 gold coins—and only increases Ki reserves by 100 points.
But during this single trip into the Slime cave, Kai's Ki reserves had gone up by more than 170 points.
One more hunting trip like this, and he would be performing [Herb Weaving] by the end of the week.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
Alex felt a chill run down his spine when he saw Kai staring at him with stars in his eyes.
"Help me run another trip like this. Please!"
Kai looked at Alex with puppy eyes.
It couldn't be helped—for the first time in his life, he had experienced what it was like to be carried by someone else.
"I can't do that."
Alex refused immediately. There was no way he could clear Slime cave all by himself.
"Why not? Just help me this time! I'll sell you all the potions and pills I make at half the price."
Kai's recent success had clouded his judgment. He was desperate to unlock the [Ki Control] Gift as soon as possible.
"It's not that I don't want to help you. It's just that it'll take around a week for the cave to be filled with Slimes again."
Hearing Kai offer to sell him goods at half the price didn't impress Alex much.
Instead, what truly made him happy was seeing Kai's determination to acquire the [Ki Control] Gift as soon as possible.
The mission that Master assigned Alex when leaving Blue Wing Town was to help Kai whenever he needed it and to make sure Kai learned about the [Ki Control] Gift.
However, since Master had promised to take Alex to see her mother after Kai underwent his Third Heavenly Trial, Alex was more than willing to help Kai.
The problem was, he couldn't solo an entire Slime cave.
It only takes half a day for the Slime Pond to create thousands of Slimes.
But it takes a whole week before another Slime King emerges.
So, he hadn't lied completely—he just told half the truth.
"Oh."
Kai felt deeply let down when he heard it would take a whole week for the Slime cave to refill with Slimes.
"Don't worry. I can take you hunting Kobolds tomorrow."
Although Alex couldn't clear a Slime cave, killing Kobolds was easy, and adult Kobolds are Level 2 monsters.
With plans made for tomorrow, Alex and Kai headed back to town.
[Blue Wing Town]
Rank: Mid
Residents: 73,746
Highest Combat Power: Level 5 (21)
Specialty: None]
By the time they arrived back in town, it was already 10:00 AM.
They had spent three hours hunting monsters and clearing the Slime cave.
"Okay, see you tomorrow."
Alex walked off to check if any team was interested in letting him join.
Kai made his way toward the Honey Pill Shop.
"You're a little late today. Did something happen?" Miya asked as she handed Kai the brewing list.
"Just woke up late."
Without offering further explanation, Kai took the list and headed to his Alchemy room.
[Brewing List]
Name: Kai
Date: Year 0, Month 4, Day 23
Task: 30 Basic Vitality Pills, 2 Strength Potions]
"Seems easy. I should first deal with the excess Ki in my system."
Kai had spent the last week making potions. Seeing only two to brew today made him feel at ease.
Putting the brewing list aside, Kai sat down and began gathering Ki.
Right now, his Ki reserves were at 795.5. If Kai didn't do something about the extra 0.5, it would either be consumed by his body or leak out and dissipate into the air.
This wouldn't be a problem if Source Ki wasn't picky—it only considers a full unit of Ki worth devouring. Anything less, and it won't even bother.
Kai drew in more Ki, merging it with the half unit already inside him to complete a full cycle.
Seeing this, the Source Ki grew excited.
It had been eyeing that half-unit for a while but had ignored it because it wasn't complete. Now, with more Ki gathering around it, the Source Ki knew it was its time to shine.
More than ten minutes later, Kai completed the cycle, and the Source Ki rushed forward and happily devoured it.
[Ki: 796]
Having dealt with the excess Ki, Kai began refining a batch of Basic Vitality Pills.
Two hours later, he molded the paste into 17 pills and checked each one carefully.
Surprisingly, 2 out of the 17 Basic Vitality Pills were of Mid Grade.