My death came so quickly, I hadn’t even notice it had come at all until I was already in my subspace. I now understand why the adventurers were so adamant with their warning. That thing was absolutely terrifying. And the force behind its roar and breath… What rank was it? C rank? B rank?

There must be a kill quest for it already. Maybe that’s the real reason why IGAG didn’t approve the oil toad quest. That monster’s mere presence would prevent any other quests from existing while it still lives in the area.

And the oil toad quest givers didn’t deem fit to mention it? Even after giving a paltry reward of two mana crystals — less than even IGAG typically rewards — per oil toad? If I ever see the people who commissioned that quest, we’re going to have words.

But for now, I’m just glad I survived. How many times have I already been saved by my immortality? How many more times am I going to be? I’m going to end up like the phoenix if I’m not more careful in the future. Actually, had I not remembered to change to pigeon form, I’d have lost my best tool against the oil toads as well.

I waited a half hour, long enough to be reasonably certain the alligator monster would be gone, and left my subspace again, taking the form of another bird just in case it was still in the area.

Instead of portaling out where I had died, I instead found myself in an awkwardly enclosed space, with soft pink walls surrounding me.

Now that I think about it, I don’t actually know how my own self-resurrection looks from the outside. I assumed my body just inverted itself like it does when I portal, but apparently it leaves a corpse behind. Which the monster just ate. Oh, for Vorfahr’s sake!

Breathe, Sylas. Just breathe. You can still get out of this, it just might take a bit more time and effort than expected.

Now, do I wait to be digested, or do I try getting out by myself? I don’t know how long it will take to digest, and I really don’t care to find out. What tools do I have to escape?

Let’s start with a space-bolt. Maybe I can tear a hole in its stomach or something?

I spent a half-hour crafting the bolt, holding on to a fleshy bit with my talons. I dropped it below me, and the stomach barely expanded an inch, completely overpowering the spell with just its passive body enhancement. A moment later, the stomach clenched down around me, flattening me against the side of its esophagus.

For my next attempt, I transformed into an oil toad, and phased out every drop of oil the toads I had consumed previously produced up to this point, then clashed my claws together to set it alight. The flesh burned slightly, but almost seemed to heal itself as quickly as it burned.

This time, there was a more visceral reaction. The stomach expanded with the smoke and oil I poured down its gullet, and the alligator’s stomach started to rumble.

Instead of throwing up as I’d hoped the monster would, it instead belched intensely. The force of the air pressure, as well as the overwhelming vibration of the monster burp shattered my skull and bones, killing me again.

What in Vorfahr’s name am I supposed to do against a monster that can burp another monster to death? Is there anything I can do against it at all? Does it even have any weaknesses?

Maybe I can find out. Though it may be of a lower rank, another one of these creatures lies in my subspace. Should I ask Rhannu for help, too? I suppose there’s no harm in talking this stuff out.

“Hey Rhannu” I called, casually popping into existence in front of him.

“Hello, Sylas.” Rhannu said, barely phased. I may have been doing this too much if he’s used to it already.

“So, I might have gotten myself into something.”

“Again?”

“Yes, Rhannu. Again. I got eaten by an alligator, and need some help figuring a way out.”

“Can you not just claw or blink out of it?”

“I can’t even damage it, and I don’t know the blink spell yet. I don’t think I’m strong enough to cast that anyways. I was thinking maybe we could find a weakness in the monster itself? I have a lower ranked version of it that we can experiment on.”

“You’ll let me fight it?” Rhannu’s eyes lit up.

“No, there’s no need for that. I was thinking more along the lines of me transforming into it, and we see if there’s any glaring weakness to exploit.”

“Oh.“ Rhannu’s shoulder dropped. I guess he hasn’t had a chance to strut his stuff in a while. Hmm…

“I guess we can spar too, once we get out of here. Just make sure not to do any permanent damage. I still don’t have any way to heal.”

“Deal. Shall we get started?”

“Sure, let me just make an arena first. We wouldn’t want the slimes to get hurt, would we Ci?”

Ci jiggled at his name being called. “What a good cuddlemental. I’ll give you a treat later.” Ci hopped at the word ‘treat’.

With a wave of my hand, I cut off a portion of the space around us, and transported the both of us into it and away from the original terrarium.

Rhannu took a step back in surprise, then tilted his head. “You can do that, but you can’t cast a blink spell?”

“I don’t understand it either, to be honest. Something about the space here just morphs itself to my will. I’m not entirely convinced I’m the one doing anything.”

“What is, then?”

“What is, indeed.” I shrugged, and morphed into the alligator monster.

My vision shifted drastically, going from a normal range of colors to reds and yellows, purples and blacks. Rhannu was a bright red, while my own body was only a slightly lighter shade of yellow than the ground. The void outside was black and cold, though the other terrariums shown as beacons around us. Thermal vision.

I felt the mana around and within me, then cycled through what I could feel, and found one source of mana quite a bit denser than the rest, residing in my skin. Flesh aligned, with a warrior’s detection.

I clenched and unclenched my alligator fist, activating and deactivating the monster’s body enhancements. I’ve been getting better at determining the strength of each form’s rank just by feel, and this one appears to be E rank.

Momentarily shifting back into Rhannu’s form, I relayed this information.

“I see. Flesh aligned could pose a problem.”

“How so?”

“Simply put, flesh aligned are rather hard to injure, and even harder to keep injured. Did you notice anything when you tried to get out?”

“Yeah. Just as you said, nothing I threw at it did any real damage, and when I tried to burn it, it just regenerated what little charring I managed.”

“The good news is that as a warrior, it will be able to detect any spells you throw at it from the inside.”

“How is that good news?”

“Even if you can’t permanently injure it, it may realize what you’re doing, and choose to just spit you out to avoid the trouble.”

Hmm… Would that work? “I already tried pouring a ton of burning oil down its throat. It’s so far beyond my rank, even that wasn’t enough to get its attention. What could we try that would match that?”

“Hmm… Perhaps a strong enough bombardment of spells would work. You could try making a wood bolt, but I’m not sure if that would be enough either. If only there were a way for me to assist you from in here.”

A way to pass spells through, eh? Rhannu himself can’t leave the subspace, but if I can move a monster’s oil outside, then there’s nothing stopping a spell from passing too. But as Rhannu said, that wouldn’t be enough, and I doubt adding a space bolt to the equation would change things. Maybe if I could make more than one it would work, but I don’t have nearly enough brain power or practice to concentrate on multiple spells at once, even if I had the mana to cast them. Wait a minute… Brain power?

A plan began forming in my mind.

---

I climbed into the pond, and shifted into the D rank Spatium Polypus. Rhannu casted and held his wood bolt, and with each of the arms I could control — still 10 at this point — I concentrated on a separate mana bolt, using the brain power each tentacle offered on their own.

Using my own head to concentrate, I opened a portal to the alligator’s stomach, and we threw our spells out at it. The wood bolt hit first, detonating into a spiky wooden tree on impact. It did nothing to the alligator at first, but then the space bolts hit the tree, combining with and expanding it. The tree burst through the alligator’s stomach, emptying its contents — which included the portal — into the marsh below.

The alligator regenerated the hole in mere seconds, then screamed out in anger, sending a shockwave throughout the marsh and into the terrarium through the portal opening. The alligator squinted at the portal, then turned to whip its gargantuan fleshy tail at us, but I closed the portal moments before impact.

I shifted back and stared at Rhannu, and he stared back. “We did it.”

“Just barely. Next time, try not to get eaten in the first place.” Rhannu smiled. “Now, about that sparring match.”