B2 | Chapter 30 - Ashton’s Reaction

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B2 | Chapter 30 - Ashton’s Reaction

Baron Ashton POV

Baron Ashton couldn't stop pacing. Back and forth across the entrance chamber of the mines, his boots clicking against the stone. The sound echoed off the cavern walls, joining the distant dripping of water and the low murmur of voices from the slime farm workers deeper in the complex. He'd worn a path in the dust by now, he was sure of it.

The noises had been getting worse. Not just the usual sounds you'd expect from a mining operation—pickaxes striking stone, carts rumbling along tracks, men calling to each other across the tunnels. No, these were different. The kind of sounds that made even seasoned miners stop their work and glance nervously toward the darker passages that led to the lower levels.

Where the Slime King waited.

Ashton ran a hand through his thinning hair and tried to push down the knot of anxiety that had taken permanent residence in his gut. This whole operation had been risky from the start, but when a royal comes knocking at your door with a plan to clear out the monsters that have been plaguing your most profitable mine, especially one you were trying to improve your relations with, you don't exactly say no. Especially when that royal happens to be Theodore.

The king would have his head if anything happened to the boy. Not metaphorically, either. Literally. Ashton had seen what happened to nobles who failed to protect royal interests, and it wasn't pretty. The gibbet in the capital square had hosted more than one baron who'd disappointed his majesty over the years.

But what choice had he had? The fervidite mines had been bleeding money for months now. The deeper veins, the ones with the highest quality ore, had become completely inaccessible once the Slime King had moved in and made the lower tunnels its domain. A Rank 3 monster, powerful enough to spawn lesser slimes by the dozen, creating an ecosystem of acidic death that had already claimed too many good miners.

Ashton paused in his pacing to glance toward the tunnel entrance that led to the slime farms. At least that part of the operation was going well. The controlled breeding program they'd established using captured lesser slimes had been producing decent yields. The workers he'd spoken to just an hour ago had been cautiously optimistic about their progress.

"Yield's up by nearly thirty percent, my lord," old Henrik had told him, wiping slime residue from his weathered hands with a rag that had seen better days. "Got ourselves a good breeding population established now. Healthy specimens, reproducing at a steady rate."

"And the solidification problem?"

Henrik's expression had soured slightly. "Still working on that one, sir. The slime hardens too quick once it's extracted. Makes it near impossible to shape into proper insulation panels before it sets. Lord Theodore said he'd have a solution for us, but..."

But Theodore was currently somewhere in the deeper tunnels, facing down a monster that could tear apart a squad of seasoned adventurers without breaking whatever passed for a sweat on a creature made of slime.

Ashton resumed his pacing with renewed vigor. The boy was capable, he'd give him that. More capable than most nobles his age, who spent their time playing at court politics and learning to dance rather than developing any practical skills. Theodore had surprised him from the moment he'd arrived, displaying a knowledge of both combat tactics and industrial processes that spoke to serious study and preparation.

But capability only went so far when you were facing a Rank 3 monster in its own territory.

The Slime King wasn't just powerful, it was intelligent. And Theodore had walked right in with a handful of adventurers and that troublesome Rufus.

The solidification problem, Theodore had told him he'd handle all that, but he hadn't come back yet—

A commotion from the tunnel entrance made him freeze mid-step. Voices, echoing off the stone walls. Multiple voices, getting closer. Ashton's heart jumped into his throat as he spun toward the sound, straining to make out individual words over the general din.

They were coming back.

But as the group emerged from the shadowy mouth of the tunnel, Ashton's relief at seeing familiar faces was immediately tempered by confusion. Theodore was there, thank the gods, looking tired but unharmed. Roland was beside him. Several of the other adventurers followed behind.

But where was Rufus?

Ashton's eye took in the group's demeanor as they approached. Most of them looked... defeated. Shoulders slumped, eyes downcast, the kind of body language that spoke to failure and loss. They weren't meeting his gaze, weren't showing any of the triumphant energy you'd expect from a successful monster hunt.

They'd failed. The Slime King was still alive, Rufus was probably dead, and now they were back with nothing to show for it but casualties and disappointment.

Ashton's mind immediately began calculating damage control. They'd need to regroup, maybe send word for additional support. The mine would remain closed for who knew how much longer, bleeding money and resources while they figured out their next move.

The group reached him, and Ashton immediately launched into what he hoped was a supportive speech. "It's alright," he said, trying to project confidence he didn't feel. "These things happen. We can regroup, put together a new team after everyone's had a chance to rest and recover. I'm sure you're all tired, I've had tents prepared for all of you—follow me and we'll get you settled."

It wasn't proper for someone his station to lower himself like that, but he had to, given Theodore was present in the group.

Theodore looked at him with an expression of mild confusion.

"That's very thoughtful of you, Baron, but I think there might be some misunderstanding here."

"No misunderstanding at all," Ashton smiled, determined to maintain a positive front. "Sometimes these expeditions don't go according to plan. The important thing is that everyone who could make it back did so safely. We'll try again with a different approach—"

"The Slime King is dead."

Ashton's mouth snapped shut mid-sentence, his brain not responding. For a moment, he was certain he'd misheard.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"The Slime King is dead," Theodore repeated, brushing dust from his clothes with the casual air of someone discussing the weather. "The slime farm should continue operating normally—in fact, I suspect you'll see improved yields now that the source of interference has been eliminated. The remaining monsters have been cleared from the lower tunnels, so fervidite mining can resume immediately. The operation was a complete success."

Ashton stared at him, his mind struggling to process what he was hearing. Theodore looked tired, certainly, and there were stains on his clothing that might have been slime residue as well as tears and dirt, but he was speaking with the calm confidence of someone reporting routine maintenance rather than the aftermath of mortal combat with a Rank 3 monster.

"I'll need to rest for a few hours," Theodore said. "Then you and I should have a detailed discussion about the mining operations and the slime production, as well as fervidite. I have some ideas that might help with that solidification issue. After that, I'll be returning to Holden."

With that, Theodore turned and walked away, leaving Ashton standing there with his mouth hanging open like a landed fish.

"W-wait!" Ashton called after him, but the man was already disappearing out of the exit presumably in search of those tents he'd mentioned.

Ashton whirled to face the remaining members of the expedition, his eyes wide with a mixture of disbelief and desperate hope. "Tell me everything that happened!"

The response was immediate and utterly chaotic. Every single member of the group began talking at once, their voices overlapping and interrupting each other in a cacophony of contradictory information.

"—got down there and the thing was huge—"

"—started making copies of us, but they were wrong somehow—"

"—Rufus went crazy, started attacking—"

"—Theodore just stood there, unfazed, and let it hit him—"

"—turned into slime himself, I swear by all the gods—"

"—killed Rufus with his bare hands—"

"SHUT UP!" Ashton roared.

Everyone quietened and he took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart, then pointed at one of the men. The warrior looked to be the most experience and was least likely to embellish details for dramatic effect.

"You," Ashton said. "Tell me what happened. Slowly. From the beginning."

The man, Grigor as he introduced himself, nodded, running a hand through his graying beard. "We made it down to the lower chambers without much trouble. Found the Slime King in what used to be the main chamber. Thing was bigger than we expected, just sitting there in the middle of this lake of slime."

"And then?"

"We attacked, just like we planned. Spread out, tried to hit it from multiple angles. But the thing had some kind of magic we didn't account for. Started creating copies of us. Perfect copies, as far as I could tell, with all our abilities and equipment."

Ashton frowned. "Copies? You mean illusions?"

"No sir, real as you or me. They could fight, use skills, everything. Strong as the originals, maybe stronger. We found ourselves fighting ourselves, if you take my meaning."

That didn't make sense. Ashton had never heard of any monster with that kind of ability, certainly not a slime. "Are you certain they weren't just lesser slimes that had somehow mimicked your appearance?"

"I saw my own double get killed, sir," Grigor said grimly. "These weren't mimics or shapeshifters. They were perfect copies."

"That's... that's impossible," Ashton said, though even as he spoke the words, he realized how hollow they sounded. "What happened next?"

"Things went bad fast," Grigor continued. "We were getting overwhelmed by our own doubles, and then Rufus decided that was a good time to show his true colors."

"Rufus betrayed you?"

"Turned on us like a rabid dog. Don't know if he'd planned it all along, but he ran off, collapsed the exit shaft, and the resulting chaos nearly took out half the team before Theodore stepped in."

"And what did Theodore do?"

Grigor's expression became distant, almost awed. "He fought them all, sir. All the doubles, all at once. I've never seen anything like it. They kept hitting him, cutting him, should have killed him ten times over, but he just kept fighting. Killed the Slime King too. And then..."

"Then what?"

"Then he became one of them. Turned into slime, just like the Slime King. But instead of losing himself to it, he seemed to control it. Used it against the monster, consumed it from the inside out."

Ashton stared at Roland, searching the man's weathered face for any sign of deception or delusion. "You're telling me that Theodore turned himself into a slime?"

"Saw it with my own eyes, sir. One moment he was human, the next he wasn't, then came back out human again like nothing had happened."

"That's..." Ashton began, then stopped. What was it? Impossible? He'd already established that much of what he was hearing seemed impossible. Unbelievable? The man telling him the story was a veteran warrior with years of experience, not some green recruit prone to flights of fancy.

Though he did know about Body Familiars so it wasn't that far fetched if Theodore turned into a slime. Granted, of course, he use the Slime King as the familiar, which was entirely possible. Though, Ashton hadn't heard of physical transformations that were as extreme as Theodore's.

"What happened to Rufus?" he asked instead.

Grigor's expression darkened. "Theodore killed him when we got back to the surface. Rufus tried to attack again, and the Theodore just... ended it. Quick and clean, with a… miniature sun, I guess."

Ashton sat down heavily on a nearby crate, his legs suddenly feeling unsteady. Everything Grigor was telling him contradicted everything he thought he knew about the world. Slimes didn't create perfect copies of their enemies. Young nobles didn't single-handedly defeat Rank 3 threats that had been terrorizing experienced miners for months.

And yet, Theodore was alive and unharmed. The expedition had returned with casualties but also with success. The noises from the deep tunnels had stopped.

"You're absolutely certain the Slime King is dead?" Ashton asked.

"Dead as dead gets, sir. Theodore made sure of that."

Ashton buried his face in his hands, trying to process it all. If what Grigor was telling him was true—and increasingly, he was finding it hard to doubt—then Theodore was far more capable than he'd thought.

Good thing I decided to go all in trying to recover my blunder. Ashton sighed, not knowing what would've happened if he'd gone down a different path.

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