Syl

Chapter 179: Worms

Now, the only issue left to figure out is how to aim my projectiles into the mouth. The worms didn’t really close their mouths, and they were huge in size, so it wasn’t an impossible target. But, with the amount of time they thrashed around and refused to stay in one place, it wouldn’t be easy.

I kept producing spears and my attack on the worm, although I was reserving more in storage for later usage as I’d probably need to get closer to secure some shots down the gullet. My chance of victory wasn’t in question; it was just the time required and resources expended.

’I seriously can’t believe how much damn health this thing has. Did the dwarves scam me into taking this quest?’

I knew there wasn’t a penalty for failure, but personally, I refused to accept the outcome. I tried studying the two worms as they fought and wrestled. Besides their sheer size and mouths, they weren’t exactly high on the threat list. They weren’t even particularly fast. Trying to find potential weak points, I noted that they had no eyes, which made me wonder how they were sensing each other.

’I would have thought [Tremor Sense], but I don’t know how effective that would be while in magma. [Life Sight] would be a valid option; the two are both like beacons of life.’

For now, I just continued to safely observe and strike from afar. Trying my best to understand the two monsters while building up my projectile stockpile. After quite a bit of back and forth, I was beginning to lose hope that I’d discover something else to them other than their hatred of eating [Cryo Slime]. That changed when the two worms crashed into one of the pillars inside the magma lake that connected the floor to the ceiling and shattered it.

Suddenly, both worms frantically started trying to eat something within the pillar, even going so far as to partially ignore each other except when fighting over the scraps. I wasted no time using [Eagle Vision] to locate their target. Between the rubble of the collapsing pillar, I noted some ores within.

’They eat minerals?’

That revelation certainly explained some things. Clearly, the worms had some way to detect nearby ores, which they seemed to delight in eating. It also further explained why the dwarves had such a hatred for the damn things; imagine if one of them ate your gold mine! I’d certainly be furious.

If that were the case, would the smaller worm look like a tasty snack to the big one? It was coated in obsidian, after all. Perhaps the rarer the mineral, the more flavorful it was for the worms? If that was the case, then maybe I could fool the worm into eating a slime bomb by making it out of a rare or valuable metal.

Rather than anything too complicated, I made a silver sphere with a [Cryo Slime] center and primed it so that it would keep its shape. Then, using [Slime Shot], I fired the bomb toward the two worms that had resumed attacking one another.

I wasn’t expecting much; it was, after all, just a quick theory thrown together. But against my expectations, as soon as the silvery sphere was within a certain distance of the two worms, they both seemed to home in on it and desperately seek it out. The blasted obsidian worm swallowed the thing whole, much to the frustration of both me and the tempered worm.

Despite my anger, I didn’t detonate it immediately, as I needed the obsidian worm to stick around longer to keep the tempered worm occupied. I swapped from spear to silver ball production and began launching them toward the worms.

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Again, when the silver spheres neared the worms, they ravenously sought them out. Seeing the greedy obsidian worm trying its luck again, I needed to prevent it from eating it, so I detonated the first one, likely sitting in its stomach. A huge chunk of its life force immediately depleted before my very eyes, and it continued to drop rapidly by the looks of things. I hoped I hadn’t accidentally killed it too soon with the world’s deadliest candy.

The obsidian worm immediately howled in pain and thrashed around, ignoring all the tasty treats the tempered worm consumed gluttonously. As long as it kept eating, I kept spitting out silver balls, and only once the obsidian worm had recovered did I finally start the detonation.

The chain reaction of all the silver balls going off was extremely audible, even with the nonstop wailing from the obsidian worm. I squealed with joy when I saw each detonation removing another vast chunk of lifeforce and spreading out the deadly [Cryo Slime].

The damage the one bomb had done to the obsidian worm was impressive, but this was on a whole other level, not just due to the number of detonations but also because the tempered worm was fully debuffed. However, by my rough estimation, the worm would still live.

’Ah! I should have used [Assassinate]!’ I cursed my lack of hindsight.

I had six daily uses of the extra bonus damage and seldom used it. While I most assuredly forgot about it often, another small part of me wanted to always keep it in reserve for some desperate "what if" scenario that might never occur. But if I wasn’t going to use it now against something crazy like this, then when would I ever?

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’One for a [Decay] finisher, two for the obsidian worm, one for my hypothetical emergency, that leaves me with two to use right now!’ I reasoned.

I gave the order to regroup as I let go of the ceiling, my slime mass and [Sub-Cores] rapidly snapping back to reunite around my primary core. While falling, I began shifting into my blueblin form and rapidly flew closer to the thrashing worm.

The obsidian worm was taking its opportunity to land some solid bites against its still vulnerable aggressor. I pulled out some of my prepared spears and made the ad-hoc decision to merge them together into two larger ones. These would be my triggers for [Assassinate].

Flying this close to the worms was somewhat nerve-wracking, and I double-checked that I had my [Arcane Armor] cast on all my cores before the final approach. Then, with the aid of my helpers, I planned out the optimal [Slime Shot] to land directly down the gullet.

The two spears were partially sunk into my arms, which I had enlarged to house them and satisfy the requirements of [Slime Shot]. Before initiating the attack, I triggered the conditional use of [Assassinate], giving both spears the multiplicative boost.

When I had finally decided that this situation warranted the usage of my daily limits, I pondered whether I had to trigger the skill before launching the spears or before triggering the detonation. However, I had the gut feeling that it was before launching the spear and that the detonation and even the subsequent [Cryo Slime] would technically all fall under the same attack.

So, trusting my gut, I flew to the optimal position while dodging flailing worms. Despite my open hostility towards them, the two seemed to not even acknowledge my presence. Any attacks I avoided were purely coincidental collateral from their girthy body flailing around. I launched both spears, the moment almost freezing in time as I watched with eager anticipation. When both projectiles went straight down, I wasted no time triggering the detonation and mentally cheering before even seeing the final outcome.

The tempered worm reeled from the resulting attack. When its lifeforce dropped like a rock, I couldn’t help but feel giddy and thanked my gut for its good intuition. I swiftly cast [Contagion] to spread the debuffs to the unexpecting obsidian worm and began what I hoped would be my final attacks.

Since I still had some spears remaining in my [Core Storage], I began firing out the remains of my stockpile at both worms this time. The obsidian worm had seemed primed to go for the almost-fallen worm when I had unexpectedly assaulted it.

With the obsidian worm now occupied with itself, I triggered another [Assassinate] and finally cast [Decay] on the big worm. The purple mana swirled around the worm, and one by one, all of its afflictions were purged with magical fury, and a mighty singular blow was struck against it.

The worm gave a few remaining spasms before collapsing into the magma lake.

<Magma-Tempered Worm LV 1 defeated. Experience gained.>

<Racial Experience threshold reached. Chimeric Cluster Slime (Blue) is now LV 4.>

<11 Trait Points are now available.>

’Yes! Kill secured, now I just need to clean up.’ I cheered. Then I spotted the sinking worm. ’And then… Go fishing, I guess...’

Even without my attacks, the obsidian worm was not looking good. It had previously had to bear the brunt of all the attacks of the much larger worm in addition to any accidental damage it took from me. I thought I might have needed to use [Assassinate] against this one, too, but it looked like I was mistaken.

Unlike the tempered worm, the obsidian worm’s defenses held little remaining protection against my attacks once it was debuffed with [Erode]. It felt good to be on top of the food chain again as I watched it’s rapidly depleting life.

When I estimated it was close enough to death, I threw out another [Decay] to finish the job. Like before, the purple mana of the spell swirled around the monster, but in what felt like a less dramatic fashion than the [Assassinate] empowered version. Then, unceremoniously, it was over.

<Obsidian Worm LV 39 defeated. Experience gained.>

<Class Experience threshold reached. Elementalist is now LV 8.>

<15 Skill Points are now available.>

Before the obsidian worm could start to sink, I rushed over to it and threw out tendrils to try to grab it. Unfortunately, I was nowhere near strong enough to stop it from sinking, so I made the executive decision to dive down its gullet and eat it from the inside out.

As I had suspected, the worm meat was delicious and nutritious, and I saw a much-needed replenishment of my slime mass. Rather than depositing it, I let it balloon out and aid in consuming the worm. I ordered everyone to get to work and follow the instructions of [Dissection].

<Profile [Worm] complete.>

When I broke through to the fleshy interior of the magma lake, I couldn’t help but flinch reflexively. Not that I was afraid of the magma, but I borrowed [Fire Resistance] as a precaution.

I was initially surprised by how little was being saved from the worm; it seemed like, other than a few choice obsidian scales and its teeth, everything else was designated for eating. But the true prize would be the evolved one.

I had wanted to avoid looking at the worm profile until I ate the bigger one, but I realized that I would likely require it to aid in locating and retrieving it. So, I compromised by skimming through it.

The worm had [Tremor Sense], as I suspected, but also [Mineral Sense], which must have been how it sensed the ores. They were otherwise entirely blind, not even having something like [Life Sight] to sense nearby foes. Sure, they lived underground, but having such a crippling weakness to anything flying seemed very detrimental.

Borrowing the trait and beginning to transform into a worm myself, I could sense that the obsidian in its hide was being detected. And at the bottom of the lake, I could see my true prize glowing like a sun in all its glory.

All of my newly acquired slime began repurposing itself into facilitating my giant obsidian worm form. The transformation was startling, and having the entire massive body exclusively under my control was a bizarre feeling. I had never been in a body nearly this big before.

’You know… I had nearly given [Nitro Slime] the award of best trait ever. Still, the fact that [Chimeric Mimicry] is pretty much singlehandedly allowing me to control this entire form by itself is certainly eye-opening.’

The best part about my new worm form was that, unlike the original, I was not limited to being blind and could easily create transparent pockets for a [Sub-Core] to see out of. Not that there was anything to see at the moment aside from the depths of the magma lake.

And so I wormed my way to my next meal and hopefully a good trait or two.