I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 429: Eden

This was a semi-transparent, jelly-like, blue spherical creature.Its surface was smooth, reflecting a rainbow of colors.

A pair of harmless-looking black little eyeballs stared blankly at Gauss.

Seeing the appearance of that Slime, Gauss couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

Besides having a completely different appearance from conventional Slimes, the feeling it gave Gauss was also very special.

To be precise, in Gauss's perception, it seemed to completely blend into the air. If not for observing its existence with the naked eye, it was more like a mass of air that didn't exist.

This discovery made Gauss somewhat vigilant.

He rarely encountered creatures so lacking in a "sense of threat."

Even the lowest-level Goblins, Slimes, and the like, though they could no longer pose any harm to Gauss whatsoever, Gauss could still sense a kind of "malice" from them.

This malice was unrelated to the strength of either party; it was merely the instinctive rejection of "the other" at the perceptual level of life.

But the creature before him had nothing, just an emptiness.

This indicated that, at the very least, its abilities in concealment were extremely outstanding.

Furthermore, Gauss could faintly perceive this Slime's intelligence...

Network error, refresh and retry.

Besides looking at Gauss, it was also constantly sweeping its gaze over all the adventurers present, its eyes flowing with a human-like curiosity.

However, when its gaze swept over the monster corpses lying on the ground, it didn't show much extra emotion, appearing rather indifferent towards its dead companions.

This point actually ran counter to Gauss's original speculation.

He had originally thought that this monster's arrival was so swift, it must be a protective and warlike leader.

But now it seemed he felt the other party was acting more out of a strong sense of curiosity.

Just like in a long life, suddenly discovering a group of abnormal creatures intruding into its territory. It wasn't about friendliness or hatred, just pure novelty.

The way it looked at them, these human adventurers, was like looking at cats and dogs.

Several high-level mushroom creatures near the blue Slime began to communicate, invisible streams of information flowing towards the Slime's direction, like bullied children complaining to their belatedly arriving parents, trying to get them to stand up for them.

After quickly receiving the information, the blue Slime's gaze towards Gauss became even more filled with interest.

The next moment, under Gauss's ever-vigilant gaze, that small, cute Slime suddenly disappeared without any warning.

The moment it disappeared, Gauss felt the terrifying aspect of its talent for completely blending its aura into the environment even more.

Gauss pushed his mental Divine Sense to its strongest; not the slightest clue around him could hope to escape his perception.

Where did it go?

Simultaneously, his eyes, which had quietly taken on a gilded golden hue, were also rapidly locking onto all directions.

The mental perception network, vision, hearing, smell, the skin's sense of air flow—all his senses were elevated to their peak at the same time.

And whether it was the numerous other monsters or the members of the Red Dragon Guild, they all unanimously distanced themselves from the area where he stood.

Suddenly, Gauss's peripheral vision glanced at a certain spot beside him.

"Found you!"

He controlled the silver Bigby’s Hand to grab at those faintly unnatural spots in the air.

"Bang!"

Bigby’s Hand's "grasping palm" motion was accompanied by a massive air explosion sound.

"Puchi puchi!"

Dozens of rainbow-colored sharp spikes pierced out from the palm like branching twigs, piercing clean through the palm surface of Bigby’s Hand.

Fortunately, Bigby’s Hand was merely a construct of condensed mana. Though Gauss used it as effortlessly as moving his own arm, it wasn't a real body, so it didn't share pain sensation.

Gauss's gaze sharpened.

This was the first time since he mastered Bigby’s Hand so many days ago that an attack had broken through Bigby’s Hand's defense.

Although, compared to defense, Bigby’s Hand's offensive nature was more prominent, its foundation as a fifth-circle spell was still there; it wasn't something ordinary attack methods could easily break through.

The destructive power of that piercing attack just now was quite terrifying.

More crucially, he realized that the interior of Bigby’s Hand's "grasping palm" hadn't caught any object.

It was like crushing a clump of mana, and then the mana instinctively exploded, launching a thorn-piercing magic attack.

Where did the Slime go?

Opening Bigby’s Hand, the "wounds" pierced by the attack were rapidly healing, but as expected, the special Slime was not seen in the palm.

To be honest, this was the first time Gauss had encountered an opponent so elusive.

Past enemies, even if strong, could at least barely have their movements tracked, but this Slime was slippery and elusive like a ghost.

Did it master some kind of spatial magic?

Gauss couldn't help but guess this in his heart, yet he didn't sense any traces of spatial fluctuations.

Clearly, as a floor Lord, the Slime Lord of the fifth level Maze seemed to be much stronger than the Magic Frog Lord of the fourth level. Just this ability to come and go without a trace completely outclassed that Magic Frog, whose size resembled a small hill, by who knows how many times.

"Whoosh!"

Gauss suddenly felt another gust of wind.

The next moment, a figure instantly formed above his head.

Gauss's peripheral vision caught a flash of blue light.

"Vampiric Touch!"

He immediately activated the close-range magic, swinging the black-red tentacles wrapped around his arm like an octopus, lashing towards the abnormal spot above his head.

Perhaps this time the distance was closer, so his timing was more appropriate.

He clearly felt he had lashed onto some soft, springy object.

"Pfft!"

The other party's instinct to condense its form also produced a force-dispelling effect.

Gauss felt like he had lashed onto a tough mass of jelly; the other party was sent flying back along the powerful kinetic energy of his lashing.

"Whoosh!"

A blue ball of light stretched into a blue afterimage in the air.

"Thud!"

The blue afterimage slammed straight into the rock wall in the distance.

The blue Slime finally revealed its form. Having shifted from extreme motion to sudden stillness, it landed steadily on the rock wall, still in that soft spherical shape, with no change in its physical form. This gave an extremely discordant, unreasonable feeling, as if violating inherent human physical understanding.

Behind its rear, the rock wall cracked with a spiderweb of fissures spanning over ten meters.

Clearly, during that brief impact, the Slime Lord had perfectly transferred the impact kinetic energy it received onto the environment behind it.

A flash of interest also couldn't help but appear in Gauss's eyes.

To be honest, he hadn't encountered such a "powerful" opponent in a long time.

Here, "powerful" wasn't simply about being far ahead in level and destructive power, but rather a superiority in mechanism.

He even sensed an extremely familiar feeling from that unremarkable-looking Slime, as if seeing himself.

In other words, that Slime might also be a mechanism monster like him.

However, their mechanisms and talents were just different.

Thinking of this, a trace of fervent emotion couldn't help but ignite in his heart.

Though it was intentional on his part, he really hadn't encountered a decent opponent in a long time.

That aberrant centaur from Blackwater Town obviously didn't count; its strength at the time far exceeded his own then, so it couldn't be called an opponent. If a frontal battle had erupted then, it would most likely have been a one-sided outcome.

And now, this Slime Lord was overall at a "moderately difficult" level.

Thoughts flashed through Gauss's mind like lightning.

The golden dragon pupils reflected the form of the blue Slime. He faintly seemed to have guessed the principle behind its bizarre, elusive displacement method.

Though in its manifestation it resembled his [Dimension Door] or similar spatial magic, and an adventurer unfamiliar with spatial magic would likely misjudge it, Gauss could perceive that the underlying principles were vastly different.

One thing to know is that any spatial magic or effect would trigger ripples of spatial fluctuation.

For example, his Dimension Door, or the passages traveling between different levels in the Maze—when entering or exiting, one could feel an abnormal sensation. He also had that feeling when using that iron piece to teleport to the special level with the Insect-Person statue.

For Gauss, who was extremely sensitive to such methods, if the other party truly used spatial magic, it was impossible for him not to sense any spatial fluctuation at all.

Combined with the eerie feeling the blue Slime gave off upon its appearance, as if it didn't exist and completely blended into the environment,

Gauss, through these two or three exchanges of contact, finally understood part of the Slime's abilities.

To be precise, the Slime Lord didn't blend into the environment, but into the ever-present natural mana in the air.

One could tentatively consider that its body was too pure, almost entirely composed of condensed mana, so it could, under the cover of natural mana, form an ability of mana-ization, or elementalization.

In this state, Gauss couldn't perceive it; he could only observe its external form with the naked eye.

As for movement, it was the Slime Lord activating elementalization, merging itself into the natural mana, and then when it needed to launch an attack, it would condense a solid form, switching between these two states at will, even more underhanded than Shadow's innate ability.

Shadow's ability, in essence, still left the shadow itself as a medium when shadowed; it was traceable, and using energy attacks on the shadow would also force her to take damage and have to dispel the stealth state.

But the other party could completely dissolve into the natural mana, truly achieving a state where the body was nothing.

In that state, could it still be attacked?

If not, wouldn't it be naturally invincible?

Of course, this thought only existed in Gauss's mind for a very short time.

At least in his current understanding, such an invincible ability probably shouldn't appear, or he shouldn't encounter it at this stage.

It should also have its own shortcomings.

Time? Number of uses? Consumption burden? Transformation delay?

In short, while powerful, there must be some hidden flaw in one aspect.

For example, just now, when it was too close to him and got lashed away by Vampiric Touch, it might have been because it didn't react in time, or it exceeded the minimum time limit required for transformation.

However, this Slime's own combat instincts were quite outstanding.

In just an instant, it completed posture adjustment and, utilizing its extremely soft body characteristics, transferred and released the entire attack, suffering almost negligible damage to itself.

In the distance, the Red Dragon Guild members who had already withdrawn some distance observed this scene, all somewhat astonished.

They hadn't expected that unremarkable-looking little Slime to seemingly possess combat power far exceeding its appearance.

During this period, they had gained more understanding of their Guild Leader's strength. That the blue Slime could exchange a few moves with the Guild Leader and, from their perspective, not fall into an obvious disadvantage, itself spoke volumes about its terrifying strength.

Thinking of this, they couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Thankfully, it wasn't them facing such a terrifying monster; otherwise, they would most likely be crushed to death like meaningless cannon fodder.

"Prepare to engage the enemy!"

Albenia's thick, loud voice sounded timely.

Around them, other monsters were also quietly surrounding them.

Not just Gauss, they also had to fight.

On Gauss's side, what seemed like lengthy thinking had actually only passed in an instant.

As he figured out some information about the Slime, a bit more confidence appeared in his eyes.

Sometimes, an enemy with unknown information is more dangerous than an enemy who is powerful on the surface, because most people know to run from the latter if they can't win. As for the former, setting aside whether one can realize this layer, whether choosing to run or fight, the other party's mystery always hangs like a veil before them, making it hard to decide.

Fight, how to fight? Run, how to run?

Only with sufficient information can adventurers make relatively wise and reasonable decisions.

That is the importance of information in battle.

"Magic Missile!"

Gauss swung the rear end of the White Wand behind him, a small flood of blue missiles pouring out regardless of cost.

Numerous missiles poured down like a torrential rain towards the cracked rock wall where the Slime Lord was.

The next moment, in Gauss's tightly focused pupils, that light blue, small body abruptly disappeared again.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"

Numerous missiles engulfed the rock wall.

Instantly, the already cracked rock wall couldn't bear the load, collapsing in a chain reaction.

Hundreds of rock blocks continuously fell, smashing onto the ground, stirring up dust that obscured vision.

However, neither Gauss nor the Slime were targets that would be blocked by ordinary dust.

Gauss, whose attack had MISSED, didn't show much discouragement. Instead, the corner of his mouth lifted into a slight arc.

"As expected."

He felt it. When the numerous Magic Missiles triggered chain explosions, the intense magical effect covering a wide area caused vibrations in the surrounding natural mana.

And the Slime, merged into it, naturally also found it hard to remain unaffected amidst the large-scale environmental vibrations.

Therefore, it, which had been hiding extremely well, was keenly detected by Gauss.

However, realizing it was exposed, it also distanced itself in an extremely short time, leaving that area of relatively chaotic mana.

Following the transformation time, Gauss had once again detected another one of its shortcomings.

This is how battle is. No matter how mysterious an enemy seems, once both sides start fighting, there's always a way to collect enough useful information from its actions, peeling it open layer by layer like an onion.

"Human."

"You are interesting."

A childish, clear voice, or rather a stream of mental information, reached Gauss's ear.

He naturally knew where the information came from.

In return, he also used his omnipresent mental power to send out a message.

"Hello there, Slime."

"My name is Eden Graham Lydia Bolo Sutton Aqua Jay..."