Vol 3 Chapter 4 – The Wrath of the Green Slime Part 5 : Forgotten Shrine

It was night time.

More accurately, it had been just been a few hours since the sun had completely set. The night was cloudy with the possible chance of a light shower.

Godou was currently in the midst of the woods on the outskirts of the small settlement known as Retwep Village. To be more precise, he was crouching at the base of a large moss covered tree.

There was a damp earthy smell, the sounds of rustling leaves and churning insects was clearly audible. Feeble rays of moonlight dimly lit up his surroundings. The moon itself could be partially seen through the wood’s canopy of leaves.

Despite all this, it was not that bad a place to be in, nevertheless, Godou had not come to this place to appreciate the wonders of nature.

Becoming aware of a strange aura, he had simply been drawn to this location. Now, clutched between his index finger and thumb, he beheld the origin of the abnormality.

It was a small pebble shaped object, about the size of his thumb. Additionally, the object radiated soft white light from its depths.

Ding!

You have found a Mana Fragment.

“What’s a mana fragment?”

[I… I actually have no idea. Try identifying it?]

As the system message appeared in front of him, Godou could help but stare at the strange glowing stone in bewilderment.

Trying Ferrex’s suggestion, Godou tried activating his Identification skill.

“Identify!”

Ding!

Identification has failed.

“Identify!”

Ding!

Identification has failed.

“Identify!”

Ding!

Identification has failed.

“Identify!”

Ding!

Identification has failed.

“Identify!”

Ding!

Identification has failed.

.

.

.

.

“Not working… My [Identification] skill is too low level.”

After a series of failed attempts, Godou gave up. A random thought occurred to him.

“Ferrex, are you able to use skills from where you are? Like that time with Knite when you put a switch on my [Body of Wind] skill– Can you identify it?”

[Unfortunately, if I could do that then you would not have needed Lexus to identify your stuff on Mt Revils. Plus, I would have been able to reconstruct my body back already...”

“Oh… right. I guess that’s not going to work then.”

[The modifications I did to your [Divine Wind Decree] were incredibly risky and not something I can replicate if I tried again. You current predicament is one in which you will probably have to resort to using that skill, however, I will caution you to be careful. There may have been some unexpected changes.]

Godou remembered, a while back in that crisis with Elemental Lord Candidate Knite, Ferrex had managed to modify Godou’s [Body of Wind] skill to make it more controllable. Perhaps he would be able to do something this time around as well– Godou’s reasoning was something along the lines of that.

However, Ferrex’s response was negative, moreover, he added in additional warnings which Godou had not been aware of previously.

“Unexpected changes? I didn’t notice anything too different when I used it.”

[We can only hope that such changes are my imagination then. However, Godou, you don’t you that skill very often do you? Something probably slipped past your awareness the few times you used it.]

“Hmm, that is true… Well, its fine as long as it doesn’t blow up in my face or anything.”

After his battle with Knite, Godou had not had many opportunities to use any of his Divine abilities, this of course, included [Divine Wind Decree] which had no activation restrictions. When fighting ordinary monsters his fighting spirit intimidated his opponents so much that they could barely move properly. Using a something like [Body of Wind] would just be severe overkill.

This was one reason why Godou didn’t have any intrinsic motivation to hunt monsters by himself. Monsters would die even if he were to flail about wildly with just mana weapons. There was no skill involved in obtaining victory in such a manner; no sense of challenge or achievement could be felt.

(But not being in a desperate life or dead struggle is a good thing right?)

As Godou desperately tried to convince himself this he could not help but imagine the amount of damage a skill like [Body of Wind] would do if it went berserk. Before Ferrex had limited it hadn’t that skill been able to create a path of ruin like a tornado?

[You know, I’m pretty sure that laidback attitude of yours is what caused the Tellap earthquake to happen…]

“Hey now, that was a complete accident! Although I do think I should have been more careful, how was I to know such a thing would happen?”

Had he had his body right now, Godou was sure that Ferrex would have tried to playfully nudge him. No, perhaps Ferrex’s personality would have been too reserved to make such bold gestures. Godou’s encounters with Ferrex had been come so infrequent that he was beginning to forget.

Nevertheless, such an action could no longer take place. Ferrex had no material body in the mortal realm. This was just another sombre reminder of that fact.

“Hey hey could you please drop that subject already… Actually, how were you able to gain access to my aura in the first place?”

[You’re wearing my pendant right now aren’t you? It’s because of that. I am closer to being something like an ego item or a familiar now I guess.]

That, in itself, was an unpleasant thought. Not to mention there was something morally wrong with the idea of forcing another person into such a situation against their will.

Godou once again found himself mustering up his motivation to help Ferrex reconstruct his body and free him from his current situation.

However, that was easier said than done.

There had been one time during his visits that Ferrex had tried to explain the problems of his attempts to recreate his body to Godou. However, be it in this world or the real world, Godou had no detailed understanding of magic. Needless to say, he had become completely confused after Ferrex had uttered the first few sentences.

That time, Godou had left feeling powerless and completely befuddled. Ferrex had helped him so much, but yet Godou could do nothing to help alleviate his suffering.

In the end, although Godou could understand the gist of the problem, he was completely useless in anything requiring advanced magical knowledge.

There were two obstacles preventing Ferrex from recreating his body.

The first was the presence of the seal on Ferrex’s “body”. Despite not knowing what it contained or how he got it, Ferrex had been adamant about maintaining that seal.

Due to the fact that the bulk of Ferrex’s power was used to maintain that spell, Ferrex was unable to cast overly complex spells. It actually wasn’t that he couldn’t cast the spells, it was that casting such a spell would cause the seal to weaken. Thus, Ferrex had that self-imposed limit placed on him.

The second problem was that Ferrex had technically died before ending up in his current state. For him to come back to the mortal realm, he had to completely reconstruct his physical body first.

Godou could still remember that incident vividly in his mind.

Ferrex being blown away by the Divine Saint of Embinyu… The tension and horror he felt… Ferrex’s body completely incinerated by golden flames… The helplessness and anger… Frustration and rage…

In Godou’s mind, Ferrex’s image suddenly overlapped with the image of a different person who had experienced death.

Looking back, that person had been saved hadn’t they?

The Great Knight of Kallamore, Badas Sky.

After using up his life force in a fierce battle with Knite, hadn’t he been saved? The Divine Saint of Freya, Lexus, had used resurrection magic just in the nick of time.

In one of their prior meetings, Godou had asked Ferrex tried suggesting they get Lexus to help in this matter, however, that too, had resulted in a dead end.

Resurrection magic could only be used within a set time limit. Additionally, the target’s body needed to be intact for it to work. It had already been over a month since Ferrex had lost his body. Whether they liked it or not, there was no way that resurrection magic could be used even if Lexus were to cast it.

Furthermore, there was there was another troubling reason as to why they hadn’t asked Lexus for help. Right after Godou had suggested going to Lexus for help, Ferrex had stated:

[For some reason, my instincts tell me not to rely on Lexus too much. I’ve never had the feeling before during the time the Church of Freya, it was actually only recently that I started to feel like this. It’s strange isn’t it? There are other inconsistencies as well… Well, anyway, I still need to sort myself out about that matter…. In the meantime, I think it is best for you to be wary of everyone who knows or asks about me.]

Obeying Ferrex’s wishes, Godou abandoned all intentions of getting help from the Church of Freya for now. Afterwards, unable to think of any other ideas, Godou was forced to just leave the matter as it is.

Still, Godou did intend to get Ferrex his body back some way or another, it was just he couldn’t do anything about it in the immediate present.

Back in the present, Godou held the mana fragment up high, examining it in the moonlight.

Even without his aura sensing, it was clear that the mana fragment was not an ordinary stone. However, without identifying it there was no way for him to know what its purpose was.

(Perhaps it could be used to help in recreating Ferrex’s body? No, Ferrex definitely would have said something if that were the case.)

After fruitlessly pondering on the matter for a while, Godou simply shrugged and placed the mana fragment in his inventory. Feeling hungry, he made his way back to town.

Foliage crunched noisily as he trekked through the woods. Somewhere, an owl hooted. A cold breeze of wind blew, rustling the leaves noisily.

Before they had set out to travel, Lis had said that she would be managing the raid supplies. This had included ammunition as well as food and water. Recalling that fact, Godou returned to the town to get food supplies from Lis.

Passing the somewhat rundown entrance of the town, Godou spent a good 30 minutes searching around the town before he found Lis having a conversation with someone through the pm chat function. Every now and then, someone would come up to her ask for her approval on something. Judging from how other people were acting, it seemed that handling the management of raids and other such administrative tasks were the norm for Lis.

Looking at this, Godou could understand why Lis seemed so lethargic nearly every time he saw her. Godou could understand why someone would do such a thing as a RL job but were there any real benefit in doing so in a game? Strangely, Lis didn’t seem to hate having that kind of job. Was she a workaholic or just a plain masochist?

The moment he saw an opening, Godou asked Lis about the supplies. Her reply was concise as always.

“Oh those, I gave them to Satoshi since he’s your party leader. He’s still online so he’s probably camped in the woods somewhere. While I’m at it, tell him that the Naidiriv suicide squad– I mean stalling team has started to head out. You should be able to meet them by tomorrow.”

To avoid attracting too much attention, the majority of players in the raid did not stay in the town. Some had logged off but most had simply camped out in the woods somewhere with their parties. Conversely, Lis had remained in the town so that the others knew where to go if they needed to ask her something.

Ignoring his stomach gnawing at him from hunger, Godou thanked Lis and immediately sent a pm to Satoshi intending to ask about his current location. Immediately afterwards, he was bombarded with Satoshi’s complaints.

- God damn it the jinx is real! While I was gathering reagents earlier I accidentally stepped on a mushroom monster which released a sweet scent that aggroed every nearby monster towards me and there happened to be a cave full of Zoobats and a B-drill hive close by. Really this is too much! Tree branches also randomly started falling from above almost crushing me as I ran! Heck I almost died several times! I’m not Lin! Just when did my luck become so bad? It’s a curse I tell you.

The fact that he was able to make such idiotic statements meant that Satoshi had calmed down compared to a few hours ago. Although he had given Godou an earful of questionable grievances, there didn’t seem to be any ill will in them. Rather, it seemed like Satoshi was trying to lighten the mood.

After a short conversation involving a series of convoluted directions, Satoshi simply sent out his bird golem to lead Godou to the campsite.

Following the white, pigeon-sized golem back into the woods, Godou could not help but note how peaceful the woods where. It was as if nature itself did not know that within a day’s time a raid would occur and soak the ground with blood.

Whilst Godou had been admiring the wonders of virtual reality, Satoshi had been continuing their conversation through the use of pms.

- For someone about to face off against a raid boss over twice your level you seem awfully carefree. Any ideas on how we’re going to handle this Godou? If not, we really need to figure something out before the raid starts.

“I’m actually at my wits end as well you know. Rather, isn’t all this your fault to begin with?”

- I volunteered you because I knew you would be able to survive one way or another. I, on the other hand, will probably die during this raid.

“Disregarding the fact that you gave me this position without my consent, you can still respawn can’t you?”

- It’s not the level loss that I’m concerned about! If Tellap town falls then the past year of effort will all be for nothing. Just when I finally found a clue! I need to alive to hold off any disaster that happens before I can–– Anyway, I said I before didn’t I? Choosing you to be bait is the best choice in this situation. Although I didn’t realise it immediately, your stat distribution is ideal for fighting boss monsters.”

Perhaps it was because it was unusual to see Satoshi so anxious or perhaps it was because Satoshi’s reason actually had some element of truth in them that Godou no longer wanted to pursue the matter further. What happened was in the past anyway. No amount of complaining could change their current situation.

As Satoshi remained silent, seemly deep in thought, Godou restarted the conversation. Meanwhile, the bird golem has started to lead him along a slightly concealed animal trail.

“Before we can strategies anything, I think its best if you tell me more able yourself. I think you already know about what I can do but I honestly have no idea what you are capable of.”

Apart from the few feats that he performed helping Badas during the incident with Knite, Godou really didn’t know what Satoshi could do. He had never had the opportunity to hunt with Satoshi before either, most of their interactions had been in pubs or working together in helping Tellap repair.

-…Ah that’s right, I guess we should really start at that point shouldn’t we? I have a few golems which could be useful but it’s a bit hard to explain in detail so I think I’ll wait for you to get to camp before I show them to you.

“What about your bird golem then?” Godou asked, referring to the golem that was currently leading him to the campsite, “Its right in front of me right now so I can already see it.”

- Although that golem has the ability of flight and size changing it has no real combat potential in anything but a scout or perhaps a mount. I’m not sure how much use it can be against a raid boss like Uor though.

“Speaking of combat potential, how strong are your golems overall?”

- It still needs a bit of tweaking but the latest golem I made has the stats and attack pattern programming of a level 200 monster. The earlier models are weaker than that so I don’t know how long they can last. Well, if I’m the one using them then my class bonus and passive skills boost its combat potential by over 150% but still we’re in quite a pinch aren’t we?”

“W–What… Wait a sec! Doesn’t that make it the equivalent of a level 500 monster then? Why are you so worried about Uor if you have this?”

Hearing Satoshi say such a statement so seriously Godou could not help but interject. Godou couldn’t see how Satoshi had been thrown in despair when forced to stall out against Uor if he had such a powerful summon hidden away.

Unfazed, Satoshi wryly answered Godou’s outburst.

- Godou, a raid boss like Uor is on a completely different level compared to normal monsters. Even if he is only in the level 300s, his actual combat level should be a lot higher. In addition, although that golem has the basic stats of a level 500 monster, it only has the AI attack patterns of a level 200 one meaning that anyone that knows how to dodge can deal with it easily. Also…

With each word, Satoshi started to sound even more dejected.

-…unlike monsters, my golems don’t have any active or passive skills so that further reduces their combat ability. At the level 300 range it also takes longer to level up so players and monsters usually gain bonus stats through other methods which I have yet to replicate. Since they have low intelligence, they can only obey a limited number of simple orders at a time.”

By now, Godou had the impression that Satoshi had lifelessly flopped onto all fours on the ground.

-If I send up running into someone who can use mental magic, I’m screwed. I have almost no offensive power apart from my golems. According to my sources, Uor has the ability to forcefully tame other monsters like giant wolves to obey him. I’m not sure about you but that sounds like mental magic to me… Then you have to consider that I’m partnered up with you who is immune to support magic. Damn it! Just what role am I supposed to play in this?!

“…Well, there’s also a party from Naidiriv coming to aid us in stalling Uor right? Nothing we can do about it now.”

“Them? Well, I wouldn’t get your hopes up too high. Unless that party contains at least two Grey Phantom tier players then they’re nothing but cannon fodder.”

Although Godou tried to find the silver lining in their situation, Satoshi crushed that hope as well.

“Grey Phantom? Speaking of which, I asked Reta to join this raid but apparently she’s on another quest.”

- I’m aware of that. I recommended one of my acquaintances to partner up with her for that quest. I don’t regret that decision but damn, having them around would definitely make things a lot easier.

“Really?”

Thinking back, Godou had never actually seen Reta fight at full power before. The only time he had seen her fight was against a demonic spirit but at that time Reta had been unable to use any skills. Meanwhile, Satoshi’s tone became more miserable as he was forced to remember some unpleasant memories.

-Yeah… fighting her is one of the most disorienting experiences I have ever had. It was like getting hunted down by some horror movie killer on a rollercoaster. I spend the entire time trying to decide if I was looking at the sky or the ground and before I knew it I got one shotted through a wall somewhere.

“How scary.”

-To my knowledge, there are only three players who have the compatibility to actually fight the Grey Phantom to a standstill in direct combat. Two of them were demon eye users like Reta while the other one just used pure speed. Speaking of which, you have some divine acceleration skill of some sort don’t you?

Satoshi turned his attention back at Godou, his tone stern. Godou could not help but be shocked that Satoshi already knew the true nature of [Divine Wind Decree]. However, looking back it shouldn’t be that surprising considering that Satoshi had constantly declared himself as an information broker.

-Although I think using it should be able to buy us some time I don’t think you should be overly reliant on it. It damages your health every time you use it doesn’t it? I can’t do anything to counter that since your wind aura will blow off any recovery spell tags I try to place on you.

“Eh? How did you find that out?”

-It’s only natural that healer type characters have the ability to see the Health bars of others you know. I was observing that fight with Knite from a distance.

“Is that so… Eh? A healer? Aren’t you always insisting that you’re an alchemist or an information broker though?

For some reason, that statement didn’t seem out of place when Satoshi said it. Though, now that he thought about it, Godou had seen Satoshi act in a manner befitting for a healer or a medic before…

“Come to think of it, you said something about being a magic researcher before as well. Actually, what is your class?”

-I am a Spellsmith Alchemist.

“A hidden class?”

-Nope, a second class advancement. Before that I was a White Mage.

It was at that point in time that Godou started to get the feeling that something was off. He looked around, now paying extra care to be mindful of his surroundings.

Trees, shrubbery and the occasional flickers of wildlife. None of these things seemed out of place, but yet Godou couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was different.No matter how hard he tried, Godou couldn’t quite place his finger on the issue so he simply let it go for now.

“So is there anything else you can do?”

-I’ve talked about my golem haven’t I? There’s actually not that much else I can show since most of my other abilities are irrelevant or use consumables. I can still use White Magic but your magic resistance class attributes could pose a problem… Wait a sec, there was a way to circumvent that wasn’t there? Anyway, you’re pretty close to the campsite now so I should try it out then…

As Satoshi started mumbling to himself, Godou had stopped walking. Releasing his aura sensing, Godou quickly found the source of the off-putting sensation he was experiencing. Close by, he could feel a weak holy aura radiating from a section of land.

Did this have anything to do with the Mana Fragment I found earlier? Godou couldn’t help but wonder.

-What’s wrong Godou?

“I don’t know, it’s just something feels weird nearby”

-Nearby? This place is close to the campsite, I’ve made sure to check the surroundings, there shouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary around here.

Noticing his actions, Satoshi’s golem had stopped flying away landed on Godou shoulder. Wordlessly, Godou shrove his way through the woodland underbrush in the direction of the aura.

After less than a minute of travelling he found the source of the aura. He managed to catch sight of a ruined temple before a message appeared in front of him.

Ding!

You have discovered the Abandoned Shrine of a Forgotten God.

+ 50 Fame

Abandoned Shrine of a Forgotten God

A shrine that used to belong with an ancient god whose religion is no more. The forgotten god once resided in this shrine, wasting the days away. With no followers and no ambitions, the god had given up and had been simply waiting to meet its end until it encountered a certain person. After making a life changing decision, the forgotten god eventually abandoned the shrine, once again finding purpose in its long-lived life.

Only those with a connection to the divine are able to find this shrine, to all others, this shrine will be both invisible and intangible. However, due to the passage of time, it is unclear how long this protection can be sustained. Being a place of leyline significance, this area has a stronger connection to the Immortal Realms than most other places.

Before Godou was a series of temple building ruins. Reading the message, Godou became curious and he made his way through these ruins carefully.

The actual building for the shrine seemed to have been made out of a combination of wood and stone. However, the passage of time had ravaged the building badly so that it was almost no longer recognisable. Many of the building no longer had roofs and were just collections of broken walls.

Although some of the buildings seemed to have weathered away somehow, it seemed that the majority of them had been destroyed by an external force. It was as if a great battle had taken place here long ago.

Near the centre of the shrine, Godou found a partially destroyed altar. This altar, too, had not escaped the ravages of nature. Like the rest of the shrine, it had become covered in moss and vines which had somehow bypassed the barrier around the temple. There was a fallen log next to it.

It was at that moment that Ferrex, who had remained silent for the journey so far, suddenly made that exclamation.

[Eh? No way… Impossible this…This… An awakening was performed here?! When? How? This close by?! I need some time to figure this out. Sorry Godou I probably won’t be paying attention to anything happening outside for the next few days.]

Just Godou was about to respond, he fell to his knees, his strength suddenly leaving him.

Your aura is being rapidly drained.

Stamina has fallen below 10%. You have started to black out. If your stamina falls to 0 then you may die.

“–What?!”

Godou barely had time to exclaim as he started to lose feeling to his limbs. His vision started darkening. Godou felt a bout of light-headedness strike him. In the background, he heard Satoshi yelling something.

Just before he completely lost his sight, Godou saw a bright light descend.

***

“It should be around here… The problem is, it isn’t.”

Satoshi scratched his head in confusion. When Godou had discovered the abandoned shrine Satoshi had left one of his golems to guard the camp and rushed over.

(Strange…)

When choosing his campsite Satoshi had made sure to scout the surrounding landscape. There had been no shrine in the area. He had been certain of that, yet looking through the eyes of his bird golem, Satoshi could confirm it.

In the place where there had been nothing but forest were supposed to be the damaged and worn ruins of a shrine.

Satoshi currently stood at the spot where Godou had discovered the shrine. From this position the shrine should be visible, in plain sight actually. However, before Satoshi was nothing but forest. In other words, there was no visible shrine.

(Strange... I could see it when my golem was with Godou but I can’t see anything when I’m by myself. A barrier? But then why am I being excluded?)

Satoshi started crawling on the ground searching for signs of a magic circle. Finding nothing, he stood up with a sigh and brushed dirt and leaves of his coat.

If he had to take a wild guess, Satoshi could only say that the shrine’s barrier was stopping him from finding it because he didn’t have divinity. Godou was a heretic god while a shrine was a place where a god was worshipped. The common link between the two was that they were related to divinity. That meant that Satoshi’s bird golem was only able to enter the shrine because it had physically been in close proximity with Godou.

While Satoshi really doubted that was the whole story, that was the only logical explanation he could make considering all the current clues.

However, if this explanation was true then all Satoshi needed to do was call Godou back to open the entrance for him. Reaching that conclusion, Satoshi transferred his consciousness to his bird golem seeing through its eyes.

Gaining a new point of view he saw… Godou collapsing on the ground with strained heavy breathing.

“Hey, Godou you okay?!!”

Startled, Satoshi asked through the pm function, however Godou seemed too preoccupied to respond.

(I don’t know what’s happening but I need to find a way to enter quickly! Use the bird golem to carry Godou out– No! It’s common sense not to move an injured person.)

Falling into panic, Satoshi took a few deep breathes. Suppressing some unpleasant memories, he calmed himself. He had to do something about this barrier. Satoshi started thinking about his choices carefully.

What happens when something inside the barrier exits it? That was the question Satoshi wanted to test and to do that, Satoshi planned to order his bird golem to fly back to him.

Would the barrier open temporarily for the bird golem to come out? If so then Satoshi would probably be able to enter the shrine in that moment. Although this would be the simplest outcome, hoping for something like that to be the case was only wishful thinking. After all, the barrier was around an ancient shrine, Satoshi doubted that it would be that easy to crack.

Rather, it would be more likely that the bird golem would just spontaneously appear or teleport in front of him as it passed through the barrier. If that was the case then Satoshi planned to have the bird golem fire a few attacks through the barrier so that he could observe the attacks suddenly appearing as they passed through the barrier. Through repetition he would reverse engineer how the barrier functioned and create a method to bypass or break it.

Of course, it was also high probable that the barrier could be broken through sheer force as well but without something like a nuke or an Imagine Breaking right hand, breaking such a powerful barrier through that method would take several hours. Although Satoshi could set up something akin to a nuke, it felt really wasteful to be using it in this situation.

Considering what he knew about ancient barriers, he was almost certain that the result would be the latter option. In short, he was going to have reverse engineer and fine loopholes in a high level barrier in a short period of time…

Impossible. Such a thing was impossible. Of course there existed geniuses who could perform such a challenge flawlessly. Sadly, Satoshi was not one of them–

“–Wait a sec, I’m over thinking this aren’t I?”

Following his previous logic wasn’t the section of the barrier around Godou constantly open because of divinity? If that were the case then it didn’t matter if the barrier was there or not, all he needed to do was find Godou!

It was a solution so simple that Satoshi felt like kicking himself for not realising it straight away.

In this world, there were people who performed better the more pressure was placed on them. On the other hand, there were others who simply cracked under pressure. Satoshi was a person who belonged in the latter category. This was a trait that he was well aware of having.

When faced with an unexpected problem he was prone to overthinking and completely overlooking simple solutions which should have been obvious. Be it in real life or in-game, improvising completely from scratch had always been his weak point.

To compensate for this, Satoshi was forced to either rely on others or put in the effort to plan and rehearse everything he wanted to do beforehand. Research, scout, practice, repeat. It really was a tedious cycle, hence when planning things out, Satoshi often focused on only the optimal solution and was prone to tunnel vision as a result of that.

Realising that he was wasting time reflecting on himself, Satoshi shook himself back to the present. He transferred his consciousness back into the bird golem to confirm Godou’s condition one more time, ready to break out into a sprint–

And then quickly stopped himself as he took in the bird golem’s sight. In the end, it seemed that all of his worries had been for naught.

By the time he had checked returned, Godou gotten back to his feet and was perfectly fine. If he hadn’t seen Godou in a critical condition moments earlier he probably won’t have believed it had even occurred. In fact, it looked like he was having a conversation with an invisible person.

Someone’s probably pming him, Satoshi concluded.

(Really now, this guy…)

Not wanted to interrupt, Satoshi sighed and leisurely made his way towards Godou’s position, observing with interest the ruins of the abandoned shrine which sudden appeared when he was a certain distance from Godou.

Perhaps in another situation, Satoshi would have tried to eavesdrop on Godou’s conversation with his bird golem, however due to a combination of nerves and stress that thought never came to mind. Regardless, by the time he had reached Godou, the conversation had ended.

Noticing that, Satoshi took the opportunity to voice his complaints.

“Godou, if you’re going to be fine after collapsing then please say so. I feel stupid for seriously thinking about how to break this barrier now.”

“Right, sorry. My stamina suddenly started dropping for some reason and then something else came up. Anyway, I’m fine now did I worry you?”

“Of course I was worried. You’re my meatshield after all. If you die how am I supposed to stall Uor by myself?”

“That’s rather harsh.”

“I’m joking of course.”

Although appearing disgruntled, Godou did not pursue the matter. Pretending to ignore that, Satoshi continued:

“Still, it really is such a lucky coincidence that I picked a campsite so close to such a place. How did you notice it?”

“I sensed a strange aura nearby.”

Godou stopped as if he suddenly remembered something.

“Saotshi, how good is your [Identification] skill?”

“Fair enough I would say.”

“Then please identify this for me.”

Taking a small glowing stone from his inventory, Godou handed it over to Satoshi.

“Hmmm what’s this? A mana fragment? Where did you get this?”

“I found it the same way I found this shrine. It seems too much of a coincidence that there’s a hidden shrine in the same area that I found it. Do you think there’s a connection?”

Satoshi held up the mana fragment mystified. He had never heard of such an item before. Perhaps it was a quest item for some unfortunate fool? Pondering on that matter, Satoshi sat down on the nearby fallen log before responding.

“I don’t know. Perhaps… Anyway, there’s no point in delaying the matter so, Identify!”

Ding!

Mana Fragment

A fragment of time essence that holds the power over time that even the Gods find difficult to use. It's power is unmeasurable even though it is a fragment is will have unknown effects to any that holds let alone uses it

Satoshi had just enough to read the information window before the log he sat on suddenly started moving.

With a start, Satoshi leapt back to his feet but tripped on a vine and fell flat on his face, the mana fragment slipping out of his grasp.

“Grawrr!”

The log which he had sat on emitted an angry roar. On closer inspection it wasn’t a log but a treeant that had just been roused awake.

(Really now, even if you’re a monster please find better places to sleep!)

Although the treeant’s sudden appearance was intimidating, Satoshi estimated its level to only be around the level 50 range. In other words, it was small fry.

Ever since he had been grouped up with Godou all sorts of strange events like this had happened to Satoshi. Randomly being attacked by hordes of monsters, having trees randomly fall close to him etc etc… by now Satoshi was thoroughly tired of all these random near death events.

Completely leaving the treeant for Godou to handle, he started looking for the mana fragment which he dropped. After a brief search, he found it impaled in a larger strange-looking rock– Wait, impaled?

Satoshi stared at the rocks in shock. Behind him, he could hear the sounds of combat but right now that wasn’t important.

(I don’t know about you but I’m pretty sure that normal rocks do not impale each other like this!)

Even as he thought that cracks started to appear in the bigger rock until it broke down. A viscous green liquid oozed out of it. Slowly, the mana fragment sunk in the middle of the green ooze.

Satoshi watched the process torn between fascination and shock. Then right before his eyes, the ooze clumped together to form a green ball. A smiley face appeared on the surface of the ball facing Satoshi.

Ding!

Baby green slime has absorbed the mana fragment.

“Goo~”

The baby green slime stared up innocently at Satoshi, making a cute sound.

“Ha?”

Ding!

Due to being the first moving thing that the baby green slime has seen, the green slime has become imprinted on you and now thinks of you as a parent.

“Ha?!!!”

--------------

Word count: ~ 6000 words

Man, its been a while since my last release hasn’t it? Several parts of this chapter gave me a severe writer’s block oh and for those who haven’t noticed, I went back and rewrote portions of the earlier chapters to make them flow easier. Advertisement Previous

Chapter Fiction

Index Next

Chapter RSS About the author 2 Fictions 55 Posts 1 Threads ninnin Follow Author Friday, July 24, 2015 1:53:54 PM Friday, July 24, 2015 1:55:08 PM

Bio:

Achievements Comments(4) Set Compact Log in to comment

Log In Load Comments Please enable JavaScript to load the comments! Log in to comment

Log In Settings Theme (Entire Website) Dark Light Dim background 0% 20% 40% 50% 60% 80% 100% Font Size 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 22 24 28 32 Reader Width Max 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% Font Family Default ————— Open Dyslexic Atkinson Hyperlegible ————— Arial Roboto Open Sans OS Default Comic Sans Lucida Verdana Ubuntu Ubuntu Condensed Franklin Gothic Garamond Caslon Minion Font Color Indent Color Scheme Theme Default OLED Black Royal Road Dark Dark Gray Gray Light Gray Sepia White Paragraph Spacing Close × Give Reputation to User: Points You can specify how many points you want to give (minimum: 0, maximum: 0). Comment (optional) Why are you giving this user reputation? Give Reputation Close About

Royal Road® is the home of web novels and fan fictions! In our amazing community, you can find various talented individuals who write as a hobby or even professionally, artists who create art for them, and many, many readers who provide valuable feedback and encouragement.

Amazon Affiliate Royal Road® is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Theme Select Dark Light

Follow Us On Need some help? Create a support ticket

Contact Contact Us by Email

Advertising Ads for Authors

Programmatic Advertising Royal Road® © 2013-2022 Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Blog | Status Tap again to scroll to the top!