[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 250 – In the Toxin Hole III

Matt rested within the tunnel, safely out of sight of the agitated spiders. There were two distinct groups fighting each other now. Each believed the other was the aggressor, while Matt was able to rest and recuperate.

It was Matt, of course, that had peppered them with poisoned throwing daggers. Good thing they didn’t know that. His MP was on the low side, even after pacing his attacks.

There were that many monsters to work through.

Rubbing his hands together briskly, Matt eagerly looked over his most recent gains. Half the kills were thanks to the infighting. Matt focused on hitting one spider, then a differently colored one nearby, using their territorial nature against them.

It worked better than he could have ever hoped!

Level Up!

Your [Poisonmind] Job has reached Level 29.

+2 Strength | +1 Vigor | +3 Agility | +2 Dexterity

+2 Arcane | +2 Resonance | +2 Control | +2 Mind

Level Up!

Your [Toxin] Path has reached Level 7.

+1 Insight Talent | +1 Arcane Talent

+1 Poison Talent

The poison within you stirs.

You gain: [Poison Splash]

[Poison Splash]

(Trait) (F-Class)

(★☆ Uncommon)

Whenever a creature you have afflicted with poison or toxin dies, the poison erupts from their body, afflicting nearby targets with the same affliction. Duration and stacks are reset for each new afflicted target.

“Damn, having a Path is cool. I’ve been missing out on all the fun.” Matt chuckled darkly to himself.

His slime buddy bounced up and down. “Kewl!”

Matt gave him an affectionate pat.

This was precisely the sort of thing he was looking for. Curious whether it was retroactive or not, he peeked out into the cavern where the spiders were still fighting.

Sure enough, one of them was being attacked by two others. Vivid green glowing splashes of Toxin mana leaked from the small blade wound in the creature’s abdomen even as the other spiders ganged up and devoured it.

“Bad call,” Matt muttered.

Even if he didn’t have [Poison Splash], Matt had seen firsthand what happened when a spider ate a Toxin-laced creature.

Before the toxic effect could spread, the afflicted spider died. Matt frowned. He was more than a little disappointed when nothing happened.

He was just about to turn around when he caught some motion out of the corner of his eye. The spider’s corpse bulged like an overfilled water balloon and burst with a fountain of glowing green Toxin mana.

Half a dozen spiders around the dead creature were afflicted. In the ensuing mayhem that followed, Matt was able to get off a few more daggers.

He crept back up the tunnel and waited. One by one, the defeat messages rolled in.

You defeat the [Cave Dweller Spined Spider (Level 27)].

You gain greater Experience for slaying an even match monster!

You defeat the [Cave Dweller Orb Spider (Level 26)].

You gain greater Experience for slaying an even match monster!

You defeat the [Cave Dweller Spined Spider (Level 27)].

You gain greater Experience for slaying an even match monster!

Grinning to himself, Matt laced his fingers behind his head and took his rest.

His slime obediently stayed precisely where Matt had told him to. He wasn’t used to somebody paying attention to him in this new world. That was his old life. A life he was happy to leave behind.

A scraping sound alerted Matt to the mouth of the tunnel. Matt figured a spider had finally tried to find the source of the disturbance, or at least flee the brutal melee.

The explosive death of [Poison Splash] caused pieces of spider legs to fly all over the room. One such blackened spike rolled right in front of the tunnel entrance. It practically begged for him to pick it up.

So he did.

Matt reached over and pulled the spiny thing into the cave. For some reason he could not explain (and would never want to) he felt compelled to crack it open and eat the succulent meat inside like an oversized lobster or crab.

The slime’s eyes swiveled across his gelatinous blob body to peer at the spider leg with obvious interest. The slime managed this without moving from his spot.

“It’s probably poisoned,” Matt told the slime. “Are you sure you want to try it?”

The slime quivered with excitement. “Try!”

Who was Matt to deny the little guy some food? He handed the spear-length appendage over to the slime. Matt watched as the slime devoured it with the same unhinged gusto as his ex going to town on a bloomin’ onion.

Your Familiar Bond has deepened [Academy Slime].

Familiar Bond: 87%

Your [Academy Slime] has reached Level 7.

Your [Academy Slime] has reached Level 8.

Your [Academy Slime] has reached Level 9.

The slime squinted and strained. Its pinkish features reddened further until a single spindly spider leg popped out of its side. It wiggled it about like it was testing out a new toy and promptly fell over onto its side.

“Now that’s cool.” Matt looked at the slime. “Can you do another one?”

The slime blinked out of sync. It strained again, but nothing happened.

Your [Academy Slime] has partially learned a monster familiar skill.

“Wait right there,” Matt said. “I think I get it.”

While it didn’t make much sense to Matt considering his mediocre grasp on DNA, it seemed that the slime could replicate specific parts.

What if he gave the slime a whole spider?

A normal person might have thought about how bad of an idea it was to let a slime they barely know turn into a spider the size of a sedan. Matt was too wrapped up in the excitement of what the little guy could do to ever consider the possibilities of how this could go horribly, horribly wrong.

The few spiders that were alive were still busy fighting one another, but the vast majority of the cavern was a graveyard of poisoned creatures. Matt selected the one that seemed least likely to hurt the little slime and dragged its corpse back to the tunnel.

His slime was waiting for him and understood what Matt was offering.

In the blink of an eye, the spider was gone. Where it went, Matt couldn’t say. He would have expected the slime to grow in size. Apparently mana could shortcut or straight-up violate the laws of physics as he understood them, because the spider’s mass simply disappeared as the slime ate it.

“Try again,” Matt told him.

“Ageen,” the slime mimicked.

Straining, the pinkish hued creature suddenly popped and appeared as a gelatinous spider that blocked up most of the tunnel. Thankfully, it still had its cute doe-eyed stare with two eyes instead of eight.

The likeness was uncanny. Provided you could get past the fact that the slime-spider was pink and translucent.

Your [Academy Slime] has reached Level 10.

Your [Academy Slime] has learned the monster familiar skill [Spider Form].

The slime hiccupped and something small appeared within its abdomen. The slime’s spider form faltered, and it reappeared as a small slime.

Matt immediately sensed something was off. He ran to the slime’s side and picked it up.

A fizzing and bubbling mass inside the creature seemed to be hurting it. Matt immediately understood that some of his Toxin mana was poisoning the little guy. It must have been left over on the body when the slime ate it.

Without thinking of how it might go wrong, Matt placed his palm flat on the slime’s side and pulled with all his might. He tried to siphon out the poison, as he had done before with his friends.

The fizzing mass was drawn slowly toward Matt’s palm. He felt a sense of relief right up until the poison mass touched him.

A chain reaction that Matt could not have foreseen caused the poison lodged within the slime to explode. The pair were thrown apart and Matt landed on a pile of spider corpses in the room.

He didn’t even have time to worry about the remaining spiders. Matt rolled over and crawled back to the tunnel, calling out to the slime. He was deathly afraid that he had killed the little thing.

Matt turned a bend in the tunnel and what he saw made his heart drop.

The slime was gone. Instead of a single happy-looking goofy little slime, there were dozens of hardened gel chunks littering the space.

Matt couldn’t accept the loss.

He gathered up each piece. With infinite care, he put them back together. It took him hours to find every little chunk and put it back in its proper place.

They immediately fell apart.

“No, no, no, no!” Matt cried, trying to push them back into shape. “You have to be okay. I’m not a bad guy. I can’t have hurt something so stupidly innocent. There wasn’t even a defeat message. You can’t be gone!”

Toxin mana flowed out from his fingers as he used the poisonous substance to gently melt the slime’s pieces and stick them together. It was madness incarnate, but Matt was out of options.

Just to be on the safe side, he poured a [Health Potion] over the Frankensteined pieces, hoping that the slight damage his Toxin mana did would be undone by the healing effects.

Again, nothing happened.

Matt sagged with defeat. Despite the recent levels and his Path he felt like he had failed on some fundamental level. A level that Sam or Raiko would have passed with flying colors.

It wasn’t until he heard a soft, “Henlo?” that Matt pulled himself out of his pity spiral.

The slime stood before him, healthy and whole. Instead of a soft pink, his body had changed to a gorgeous azure-blue.

“...henlo?” the slime asked again. There was a clear quiver of worry in his child-like voice.

Matt dove forward and scooped him up. “You’re alive!”

“Alive!” the slime called out excitedly.

Your Familiar Bond has deepened [Academy Slime].

Familiar Bond: 100%

Your [Academy Slime] has evolved!

Your [Azure Academy Slime] has learned the monster familiar skill [Amorph Poison Immunity].

Your [Azure Academy Slime] has learned the monster familiar skill [Slime Reform].

Do you wish to name your [Azure Academy Slime] familiar?

Y/N

Just a few moments ago, Matt thought he had killed the magical equivalent of a lost puppy. Now he not only had him back but was able to give him a name?

The implications had Matt’s head spinning.

Not only because it meant that the slime likely was a newborn, but that it did not have a name.

Every creature has a name. At least the reasoning ones. It was always Matt’s opinion that monsters lacked names purely because people did not understand what their names were.

Not because they didn’t exist!

Matt held the slime close. It cooed gently in his arms.

“I’ll name you Puddles, because you’re blue and cute. Hopefully, you don’t actually make puddles on the floor.”

The slime looked up excitedly. “Pubbles.”

“Puddles.”

“Pubdles.”

“Puddles,” Matt said slowly.

The slime blinked out of sync. “P…” Matt waited with bated breath. “Puggies?”

Matt sighed. “Close enough, little guy.” He looked at the Shardscript. “So does that mean you’re immune to poison now?”

The slime blinked at him.

“You’re kinda dumb, aren’t you?”

“Dumb.”

“Well, you know how to say that word,” Matt grumbled.

He set the slime down and headed out into the spider cavern. The noises had died down, but he didn’t drop his guard in case there were any lurking in the shadows high up above where his vision could not pierce.

Puddles hopped and bounced happily alongside Matt like an exuberant little puppy, eager to see the world and finding it full of things he could put his mouth on.

The slime devoured every spider in the room until Matt stopped him. He didn’t think the spiders could hurt Puddles anymore, but he wanted some of the loot for himself. They had venom sacs that he was curious about.

His inkling that each spider had a different type of poison turned out to be correct as he examined the harvested venom sacks. A process made infinitely easier when he directed Puddles to consume only the parts of the spider he did not want to harvest.

As a result, Puddles earned a few more levels, and Matt gained valuable new poisons. His rapid growth was slowing down though.

Pressing on, Matt didn’t see anything in particular that might lead back up into the Aker Academy proper. The environment was a full-blown cavern without any lingering stonework from the castle’s sewers.

While he could have turned back, he didn’t. Matt wanted to see what was ahead. There were so many divergent passages to take, he could have gone anywhere.

I think I’ll come back here in the future, Matt decided. This place is an excellent source of poisons, and it’s always good to keep the monster numbers down.

One passage brought with it the scent of fresh air prompting him to quicken his pace. He was nearly out!

The tunnel filled with daylight as the floor dipped and rose like a roller coaster track. A blue oval appeared in the distance where the cave opened up onto the Skyshard. Matt sprinted forward, eager to see where this tunnel system led out.

He skidded to a halt a few seconds later with his hands thrown out to catch the rocky wall. The toes of his boots hung out over open air.

He wasn’t on top of the Skyshard. He was beneath the Aker Academy. The tunnels had led out on the underside of the Skyshard. “Huh. I can see Raiko’s tree from here.”

The sea of clouds spread out in every direction around Sil’mara, littered with distant floating islands caught in the Maelstrom’s current. Its wall of utter destruction had changed into a swirling, raging storm.

Another Skyshard was getting too close to Sil’mara, like it was being drawn in. While there was no ogre wreaking havoc on top, that Skyshard was anything but peaceful.

“Oh boy.”