hooklinebooks Chapter 56 Slime: Mom
Chapter 56 Slime: Mom
Terra, Andrea 2, and Wendy stood before the imposing gates of the Trial Grounds. The air was thick with the smell of metal and dust, and the sounds of metal clashing could be heard from inside the gates from time to time.
The three were surrounded by a large group of prospective adventurers, their eyes filled with anticipation and nervousness for the trial.
At the entrance, there were staff members from the Adventurers' Guild, dressed in uniform. They showed slight surprise at the appearance of Terra and Andrea 2, but then regained their composure and asked the three to show their entry credentials.
Andrea 2 stepped forward first and handed over the proof.
Terra right-clicked to open the staff member's chat window, put the access pass from her backpack into it, and Wendy handed over the pass before quickly following Terra inside.
At the main entrance is an open-air gravel plaza, with people sitting on benches around it.
When Andrea 2 stepped onto the field, a chorus of gasps immediately erupted around her.
"Isn't this the legendary Andrea 2, who's at least a Gold-rank expert? Why is she here?"
"I've only just arrived in this town, and I've already seen living elves!"
Hearing the praise from these humans, Andrea 2 proudly raised her chin, deliberately put one hand on her hip, and turned her head forcefully, letting the long braid behind her head swing gently with the movement, the strands of hair drawing a beautiful arc in the air.
She also quietly concealed her slightly protruding belly from recent overeating. Remembering Wendy's comment that her belly was soft and comfortable, she felt a little annoyed. This was not a good sign; if she continued like this, she would become as round as a ball!
As Andrea 2 walks further in, the plaza connects several different areas. At the entrance to each area stands a yellow sign, some showing a bow and others a staff.
This must be because different testing areas are set up based on different weapons, Andrea 2 thought.
Andrea 2 turned and gestured to Terra and Wendy. After seeing a smiley face bubble appear above Terra's head, she walked straight to the entrance of the area marked with a bow and arrow.
Just as she approached the entrance, a blonde girl accidentally bumped into Andrea 2. The girl had long, thin pigtails tied on either side of her head, and was wearing a well-tailored lapel coat and a lace shirt underneath.
She wore a pleated skirt that was short, reaching mid-thigh, with white stockings covering her calves and ankle boots on her feet.
She looks like a young lady from a noble family.
Andrea 2 quickly bent down to help the girl up, asking with concern, "Are you alright?"
The girl gritted her teeth and looked up to see which one had no eyes and long ears—it was an elf!
She twitched her nose, her cheeks flushed, and her gaze remained fixed on the elf's face for a long time.
"Young Miss, are you alright?"
Behind the girl, two adult women dressed as maids jogged toward them.
Hearing the maid's call, the girl snapped out of her daze and stood up, grasping the elf's hand.
The two maids bowed slightly to the elf and said, "We apologize for the inconvenience caused." Then they left with the girl.
The girl walked a few steps with her back to the elf, then turned around and saw the elf enter the area marked with a bow and arrow, until the elf's figure completely disappeared.
She suddenly raised the hand that had just held the elf's, pressed her palm tightly against her nose, inhaled the lingering moisture, and murmured in ecstasy, "What a lovely scent..."
Seeing this, the two maids whispered, "Miss, should we take that elf back and tie her up in your bedroom? Although your bed is already full, there should be some space on your desk, and that place seems to stir up more emotions than the bed."
The girl's face turned even redder, and she stamped her little leather shoes, quickly waving her hands: "I didn't fall for that elf at all!"
The two maids exchanged a glance and nodded in unison, seemingly not believing her words.
The girl grew anxious and added, "Really, there's no need! Besides, she's an elf, she must be very powerful, right? You guys can't beat her!"
Upon hearing this, the maid immediately knelt on one knee and respectfully apologized: "It was our oversight. But please rest assured, we will clean ourselves thoroughly tonight and wear long-eared earrings, ready to serve you at any time."
"I already said I don't need it!"
*
Meanwhile, Terra and Wendy, holding their registration cards, entered the testing area marked with the staff. Because they arrived late, their numbers were later, so they had to wait on the side.
The two looked around, observing the performance of the other test takers. Midway through, they saw Stella busy in the Summoner's area. She had been assigned to record the scores that day.
Stella noticed them too. After asking her colleague to cover for her for a while, she immediately walked over with a smile and gave Wendy a big hug: "Wendy, don't be nervous! It's okay if you don't pass this trial. I've already found you a job. You can work with me as a receptionist in the guild hall from now on."
"I begged the president for ages, and even endured the humiliation of being forced to slap her a dozen or so times before she finally agreed!"
Stella spoke casually; she didn't actually expect Wendy to pass the trial this time.
"I'll pass this time," Wendy mumbled, her head buried in Stella's chest.
"I won't chat any longer, I still have work to do. You guys go and wait in the break room."
Once inside the lounge, Terra asked Wendy, "May I see your slime staff?"
Wendy thought to herself that it must be the summoning staff, and she held the staff out.
Terra, however, made her drop it on the ground. As soon as the summoning staff hit the ground, Terra sucked it directly into her body.
Terra glanced at the weapon's stats:
[Slime Staff]
Base damage: 8 (Summon)
[Repelled: 2]
Projectile velocity: 10
Price: 2 Gold Coins
[Summon baby slimes to fight for you!]
Then, Terra waved her summoning staff and summoned a baby slime that looked like a little girl, sucking on a pacifier.
After the baby slime is summoned, it jumps to Terra's side and calls him "Mommy".
Wendy's eyes widened in surprise: "Mr. Terra, you're so versatile! You can do everything!"
A smiley face bubble appeared above Terra's head: "I plan to try out all four classes in this new version."
Wendy said somewhat self-consciously, "I'm not that good. I only know how to use this summoning staff."
Terra said, "As a newbie, you like Summoner from the start? I can understand. After all, it's really cool to have a bunch of things following you. But it's still commendable to play a pure Summoner class from the beginning."
Terra had already summoned the slime, so she threw the slime staff back to the ground. Wendy touched the staff on the ground, and the staff, which had been pixelated and cardboard-style, had now returned to its previous appearance.
Wendy gripped her staff tremblingly: "I don't know if I can pass this time..."
"I can never summon any creatures. Even if I manage to summon one, it just disappears after a few seconds of teleportation."
"If Mr. Terra hadn't told me, I wouldn't have known that this staff could summon slimes. I used to think that summoning some kind of creature was based on a contract between the holder and the user."
"It's based on my contract." A cold female voice suddenly came from the side. Wendy turned her head and saw a woman wearing a high-slit, off-the-shoulder robe.
Wendy remembered that she was Miss Mana 1, who had given her silver coins before.
She hurriedly bowed to Mana to express her gratitude.
Mana1: "Forget it, you might as well just pay back the money sooner rather than bow down."
Wendy: "I'll work hard. If I pass the test today, I can become an adventurer and take on quests."
Mana1 poured cold water on the idea, saying, "Summoning magic isn't something you can learn just by trying. A person's magic power limit is finite, and summoning magic requires maintaining the existence of magical creatures, which consumes a huge amount of energy."
A question mark bubble appeared above Terra's head: "Wasn't version 1.4.4.9 already modified so that all summoning wands no longer require mana to use? Why haven't the NPCs' lines been updated in the new version?"
Wendy asked Mana with some curiosity, "Why are you here?"
Mana 1: "I was watching Terra and Andrea 2's tests; I'm curious. And also..."
Mana 1 moved closer to Terra and said, "Terra, could you take that necromancer's staff that you gave me before? Did you put some kind of binding curse or something on that staff? I can't shake it off no matter what I do. Tiffany is following me around... I really can't stand it anymore."
Wendy then noticed that behind Mana, behind a wall in the distance, was a woman dressed in black, her face flushed, and she looked somewhat familiar.
Wendy nudged Mana1: "Are you talking about her, Miss Mana1?"
Mana turned around and looked in the direction Wendy was pointing, then exclaimed in surprise, "How did this guy get here too! How did she get in?"
Mana shuddered as she recalled what had happened when she first caught Tiffany and had swung her little staff at her in front of the girl.
It seems like something strange has awakened within Tiffany; at first, she even cursed Mana for using her staff.
But now, it's Tiffany who blushes when she sees Mana using her staff, and even licks the magic water sprayed from the staff.
She suspected that she might have unintentionally turned this guy into a cuckold fetishist.
too frightening.
Terra's head popped up with a smiley face bubble: "Alright, I only temporarily put it with you because I didn't have enough inventory space." He opened Mana1's chat window and took Tiffany's little staff from Mana1's weapon slot.
Mana breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the staff on her body disappear.
Meanwhile, Tiffany was discovered by the adventurers for her suspicious behavior. Do you remember what Tiffany did at the Adventurers' Guild before?
They grabbed her and beat her severely before throwing her into the training grounds' cell. The ropes binding her were soaked with sweat.
Back on the other side, Wendy looked at the numbered slips of paper in her hand. There were only a few left before it was her turn. She was very nervous. "What if I can't summon my creature?"
"Why can't I summon any creatures?" Terra asked, a question mark bubble appearing above her head. "Oh, I see. So this is what this so-called adventurer's test means?"
"This is a tutorial to help inexperienced beginners get familiar with the basic operations. I'm an experienced player, so I can skip this. Got it."
Thinking of this, Terra decided to teach Wendy how to use the summoning staff: "Wendy, put the summoning staff in the first position of your hotbar, and then left-click to use it, just like I did before."
Mana 1 sat at the table next to her, resting her chest on the edge of the table and rubbing her shoulders. She thought to herself, "No matter how powerful Miss Andrea 2 is, she is only powerful on her own. You can't expect someone who has difficulty even summoning to suddenly summon something, can you?"
Wendy recalled Terra's previous actions; she had only raised it above her head and swung it down. She hadn't chanted any spells, nor had she seen Terra take off her clothes, dance, or bow to appease the spirits in the air.
Will this work?
Wendy raised her staff and swung it down in the same way. Nothing happened. Wendy said with relief, "Yeah, summoning isn't something you can just do with a wave of a staff, is it?"
But she suddenly noticed that Mana's mouth was agape as she stared in shock behind her.
Wendy turned around but saw nothing. Then she looked down and found a slime girl at her feet, exactly the same as the slime girl Terra had summoned earlier.
Also sucking on a pacifier, it looked at her with its round eyes and called out in a childish voice, "Mama!"
A smiley face bubble appeared above Terra's head: "See, it's been summoned."
Wendy was speechless with surprise. She herself did not feel any depletion of magic power in her body. Why could this slime exist in reality?
Mana couldn't help but applaud, but she suspected that the second slime was summoned by Terra but pretended to be summoned by Wendy so that Wendy could pass the test.
Terra continued to teach Wendy how to use the summoning staff: "Once the summoned creature is summoned, it will automatically attack enemies if there are enemies around, but this is somewhat random. If there are many enemies, you can also hold the staff and right-click on the enemies."
"A small white circle will appear around the enemy, and your summoned creatures will prioritize attacking that enemy. Summoning does not consume mana, and you can keep the summoned creatures in a certain position by constantly resummoning them."
Wendy wondered, "What does 'consuming mana' mean?" "This slime can exist without me consuming mana, so how do I make it disappear?"
Terra: "When you die, the summoned creatures naturally disappear."
Wendy: "Huh?"
Terra: "Or you can look at the top left corner of your view, there's a buff bar there, which shows the summon buffs. Right-click to cancel, and the summons will disappear. This buff also shows how many summons you've summoned so far."
Wendy didn't understand, so she demonstrated the staff to Terra again. Wendy watched it several times, but still couldn't figure out how it disappeared. Mr. Terra was just standing there without moving. So she had to let the slime follow her.
Anyway, nothing's going to happen, right?
Just then, a scream came from not far away. A girl with golden twin ponytails ran over angrily, grabbed Wendy's collar and tried to lift her up, but Wendy's body was almost half mineralized and very heavy, so she couldn't lift her up.
The girl stood on tiptoe and looked down at Wendy, demanding, "What have you been doing?!"
Wendy didn't understand what she had done to offend the other person and was a little flustered. Judging from the other person's appearance, she must be some noble lady.