Syl

Chapter 223: Smelting

Glancing down below, it looked like the dwarves were finishing their task. The metal bars were melted, and the channels for the two vats were opened.

The two liquids merged in the central vat with a satisfying sizzling noise. That wasn’t the end, as they used an enchanted tool to mix the solution while making small talk.

"Wow... Those dwarves are braver than me; I don’t think I’d be willing to be that close to molten metal," Trixie said.

"The heat must be unbearable..." Vee agreed.

"They have [Forged Skin] as a racial trait, so I think they can take the heat," I answered. "I wonder if that could have stopped me boiling alive."

"You... Boiled. Alive?" Vee gasped, unbelieving.

"At this point, I’ll believe anything Syl says. It’s crazy what this slimy goofball has done," Trixie said.

"I was trying to fake my own death in a fiery explosion," I began my explanation. "I used a [Fire Resistance] trait back then, so I figured I could take it. Then I found out the resistance doesn’t include heat... Not pleasant."

"Bloody hell..." Vee muttered.

"At least it worked," I added. "Also, it looks like the dwarves are moving to their next step."

The dwarves looked satisfied with their job and began moving to the next step. They set up a collection of ingot molds and finally opened another valve, distributing the newly mixed molten silver solution into the molds.

Once they were satisfied that the mixture had been distributed to all the molds, they began packing away their tools. The one dwarf was clumsily packing away the tools, evidently eager to head towards the tavern.

"Cheers Vazmet! See you later!" the dwarf said abruptly, heading toward the door after his last hastily completed task.

"Yeah, yeah... Just leave me to finish the job," Vazmet grumbled as his coworker rushed off.

With the dwarf called Vazmet heading off, we followed after him quickly. He had mentioned feeding, and that could only mean the slimes in my eyes. I wondered how the dwarves’ farm and containment compared to the rather lackluster security that Stantondale had used.

We followed him deeper into the facility until we reached a large set of locked doors. Once he placed his key in and turned it, the entire door seemed to rotate and twist out.

"Wow... Is that an airlock?" Vee questioned.

Trixie and I stared in confusion at the spider, and she gave a defeated sigh and dropped the topic.

Continuing our stealthy pursuit of the dwarf, he started heading down a large set of stairs with a single rail designed to accommodate the carts the dwarves were pushing and pulling. When we reached the bottom, it looked like we had finally reached our destination.

The dwarf, Vazmet, grumbled angrily about so many steps and unlocked another door. Heading in quickly before he closed the door behind himself, we were welcomed to a rather large and elaborate room.

On one of the walls was a set of giant adamantine executioner axes. In the center of the room were four pits, and crawling along the ceiling to get a better vantage point, we saw a singular silver slime in the middle of all but one pit.

<Silvy; Slime (Silver) [III] LV 10. Elemental affinity: Earth.>

<Goldy; Slime (Silver) [III] LV 12. Elemental affinity: Earth.>

<Cooper; Slime (Silver) [III] LV 9. Elemental affinity: Earth.>

I wondered how they kept the slimes contained in the pits and noted that the walls were slanted inwards, lipped, and coated with a strange substance.

Probably something non-adhesive, I’d assume?

Vee and Trixie were snorting with giggles and laughs.

"What’s so funny?" I asked.

"That slime is named Silvy..." Trixie pointed.

"Yeah... Any relation?" Vee teased.

"Very funny..." I sighed. "I’ll be sure to make the same joke with the next spirit or spider we run into."

Vee giggled, "I doubt we will run into another spider with a name even close to Vee."

"Yeah? But what about one with a terrible name, like Terry?"

"Ugh... Okay, don’t remind me," Vee sighed.

"I presume they named the slimes to keep track of their metals... Smart," I said, changing the subject.

"Yeah, I guess that means Goldy over there is probably worth a fortune!" Trixie said excitedly.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"We aren’t going to steal the dwarves’ prized slime!" Vee shouted and then turned to me. "Or eat it!"

"I mean... I wasn’t planning on it..." I grumbled. "It’s tempting, but my trait is almost maxed out, so I’d be committing a huge felony for not much. I can wait for Flintheart to find me another, or perhaps I’ll get lucky and find one in the caverns or the next dungeon."

"Wow, Syl’s being reasonable around slime cores; who’d ever have thought it possible," Trixie sniffled as if drying fake tears. "They grow up so fast."

"Maybe a lead-silver cage will stop all this slime bullying," I taunted, causing Trixie to flinch and raise her hands in surrender.

We watched the dwarf continue his duties. He seemed to mostly be returning some items to various crates. I noted that other than those adamantine axes, the room was utterly devoid of even a hint of metal.

I guess the slimes do occasionally escape their pit, and this stops any risk of them eating something terrible. I’m guessing the adamantine axes aren’t possible for them to eat, so keeping them around is safe.

"Alright, boys and girls, feeding time!" Vazmet shouted happily.

The three slimes made no indication that they’d acknowledged his declaration. They truly were as dumb as rocks.

To my surprise, rather than throwing refuse or scraps, the dwarf actually threw chunks of what looked like relatively fresh monster meat. I learned that fresh monster meat gave the most slime mass personally, so the dwarves clearly knew what they were doing.

I had expected the dwarf to toss the meat and leave, but he carefully watched them. I wondered why he was so meticulous until he began to walk over to fetch one of the axes.

"Damn it, Cooper, you’re too fat again!" the dwarf complained.

I ignored my two snickering companions and watched as the dwarf prepared himself. He tied a rope to his waist, fastened a wooden bucket to his belt, and fetched what looked like an enchanted wooden buckler. Then he jumped into the put with Cooper.

"Oh, is he going to fight the slime?" Trixie wondered.

"Harvest it, I’m guessing, from the bucket," I answered.

"Come now, Cooper. Let’s get this over with so I can go home and grab my drink..." the dwarf grumbled as he cautiously approached the slime.

When Vazmet got in range, the silver slime vibrated slightly before shooting metallic spikes towards the dwarf. With well-practiced motions, the dwarf blocked the spikes onslaught with the enchanted buckler, pivoted himself, and immediately brought down the axe toward the extended spikes.

A clunking chop sound resonated through the room, and the metallic spikes were trimmed. Cooper immediately retracted its pruned stubs while the dwarf quickly tossed the spike ends into his bucket before they liquified.

"Huh... That’s an interesting way to harvest them," Trixie commented.

"How else would they harvest them?" Vee questioned.

"When I was a helpless blue slime, they just grabbed us and held us over a bucket," I shuddered. "Then they used a knife to separate our slime from our core."

"Oof, sounds horrible," Vee sympathized. "I’m guessing you couldn’t just stab them with spikes like that?"

"Ha, nope!" I chuckled grimly. "I could barely form a single tentacle back then. It was really tragic."

"Yeah... It’s too bad you weren’t born a silver slime," Trixie said. "You have almost the perfect name for it. Syl. Silver. Sounds very similar, no?"

"Har har, hilarious..." I droned sarcastically. "My name comes from Sylthaeryn. Supposedly to leave a small mark on the world or something."

"Wow, that’s a bit egotistical," Vee commented.

"She was dying at the time... I can’t exactly blame her," I answered honestly. "Plus, I like the name. It’s grown on me, and I don’t think I’d want anything else even if I could change it."

While chatting, the dwarf repeated the dance with Cooper twice before being satisfied with the slime’s newly diminished size. He rushed to the edge of the put, slapped his buckler on his back, and began clambering up the rope.

"Wow... He’s got some good upper body strength," Vee commented.

"He is a dwarf; they’re naturally quite strong," Trixie explained.

"Yeah, they have quite a selection of traits, although the descriptions are a nightmare," I laughed.

We observed the dwarf pack his things away and begin heading toward the door with his bucket in hand. Presumably, if one of the other slimes ate that slime mass, they’d also be contaminated by its metal qualities, so it had to be removed from the room.

We rushed after him when he opened the door, not wanting to get locked behind. Although Vee could’ve presumably teleported out, or worst case, I melted an escape tunnel.

"I wonder if I can sell the dwarf harvesting methods..." Vee explained.

"Who’d even buy it?" I sighed.

"Good point... It’s not like many others have silver slimes like the dwarves," Trixie sighed.

When we made it past the giant door, we breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"I still can’t believe we came all this way and aren’t going to steal or take something..." Trixie continued to grumble.

"Really? What’s with you?" I asked.

"It’s her Fey nature; she can’t help herself; she simply must be mischievous!" Vee explained.

"I can stop myself perfectly fine!" Trixie harumphed.

"Come on, guys. We can go celebrate with some food or something," I offered diplomatically, which got both of their attention.

Getting out was even easier than getting in, and with almost no effort, we were out on the streets again, with me in a rat form again as we looked for a good spot for me to revert to a dwarf so we could leave this district.

"As fun as that was... And I guess interesting, did you actually gain anything beneficial from it?" Vee asked.

"Not at all, I reckon," Trixie responded. "Although I did get to show my amazing skills."

"It was mostly to satisfy my idle curiosity, but it does potentially have a factor for me," I explained. "I wanted to get a rough idea of what to expect if I ever did a species evolution. While I’m particularly attached to being a blue slime, I can’t deny that Vee’s mention of getting a species power-up intrigues me."

"Can’t you just change your color to blue?" Trixie suggested.

"Yes, which I’ll probably do if I’m ever in slime form," I agreed. "But I wouldn’t permanently have [Mana Slime] anymore, in theory."

"That’s a big nope from me then!" Trixie immediately responded.

"Surely Syl being stronger and safer is better than being able to eat some Mana?" Vee pressed.

"Yes..." Trixie sighed. "But it’s not just me I’m thinking about. Wouldn’t you lose a lot of your magical capabilities then? It would need to be a very massive gain to trade for that."

"I’m actually not sure..." I admitted. "The risk is potentially losing my massive Mana pool, but I wouldn’t lose my [Mana Slime] trait... So I’m not even sure if that fear is valid."

"I have no clue. What are the risks of losing the [Mana Slime] trait?" Trixie asked.

"Well, unless your new species changes the trait, I’d say very minimal," Vee responded. "I had some traits upgrade or merge into new ones, but otherwise, I don’t think I lost anything with my two species evolutions. It’s been nothing but positives."

"Thanks for the confirmation," I said happily. "I still have plenty of time to decide, and I won’t truly know until I see whatever options are listed for me. Pink or Gold tempts me already based on their supposed scarcity."

"We could go rob some royalty?" Trixie suggested, with a particularly devilish smirk plastered on her face.

When we returned to the inn, there was a look of relief on some of the dwarf’s faces, and I realized they must have been some of the guards set to watch us, but in a sort of incognito disguise.

When we got back to our room, I first retrieved my [Sub-Cores] from my hiding spot and, with gleeful joy, inserted them back into myself. Finally, that awkward naked feeling was gone, and I felt immense comfort.

"Right, so food then magic training?" I suggested.

"Sounds good!" Trixie and Vee replied in unison.