101 Avatars
123. Illusion Slime

“What's up, Adventurer Mas?  Early in the morning was upset by myself.  Want to buy fruit?”  Said the fruit seller to me.

I just kept silent.  This is the fifth time I have seen that face.

“Hahahaha.  No, Sir.  I was just thinking something.”  I said while avoiding the fruit seller.

Me and the group looked at each other.  It seems, almost all of us have run out of ways to end this time loop.  But I saw a face that had not given up.  He is Professor Dios.

“There's one thing I want to discuss with all of you.  But first, let's go to a rather spacious place first in the bushes.  Follow me.”  Bring Professor Dios to us.

We followed him until we arrived in a large enough bush that was even enough for me to practice firing a rifle without worrying about disturbing anyone.

That's where Professor Dios said,

“Shou, please activate your water seal here so that no one can listen to our chat.”

It was seen that Uncle Shou was hesitant at first, but after a brief pause, he did as Professor Dios instructed him.

“Seal water.”  While removing the cube box that appears to be made of solidified water, but still in its liquid form, the, Uncle Shou surrounded around us with water that somehow came out through the cube box he called the water seal.

Professor Dios gave his explanation.

“Listen, everyone.  There is important information I obtained while possessing the body of the giant rat monster boss.  He looked very frightened by something in the village.  That's why he didn't attack the village when we stormed the misty forest.”

“But obviously they stormed the village in our third repetition.”  I also refute Professor Dios's opinion.

“That's strange.  Which means, when we don't storm the misty forest, the creature the boss fears is not in the village.  It is likely to be in a foggy forest that causes monsters to fear and then invade the village.”  Professor Dios explained.

“This is weird.  How can that be?”  Saying that, I tried to think back to what we have been through to date.  But still, there's nothing I can get.

“So, what Professor will suggest?”  My daydream was then split by Arskad's question.

“The key is on Adrian.”

“Eh, me?”  I couldn't believe it at once Professor Dios mentioned that the key to our mission's success was with me.

“Ya, you, Adrian.”

“But what specifics should I do, Professor?”  I went back to Professor Dios.

“We will utilize the sharpness of your eyes and ears to catch the oddity in the village.”

“Is that?  All right, Professor, I'm ready if I have to help.”

“Alright, now, I will drain my aura to the cold that I will spread around.  If the entire villagers here were just ordinary people, then naturally there would be no disturbance of the aura flow.  However, if he were among them some unusual creature, then the calm flow of my aura would indicate a disturbance.  That's where your role, Adrian, is to capture where it happens.”

“Alright, Professor Dios.  I understand, I'm ready.”

“Krek.”  Bingo.  The aura disturbance was caught by my sense of hearing.

“Professor Dios, I got.  Location, eh?  Isn't that the location where the fruit seller is?”

We rushed to the fruit seller.  There was clearly an aura disturbance that was detected from this fruit seller.  But we don't know yet, is he a bad person or not?  It could be that he was just hiding his strength alone for the sake of some sort of disguise of identity.  Because based on the description earlier, there are also adventurers in this world who are similar to vrmmorpg games which means there are also power users.

But do not rule out the possibility, he is the real villain in this place that causes the time loop that we experience.  That's a pretty logical explanation considering that every time we have a time loop, it's the face that we're going to see first.

That's where Aunt Sandra came forward to test it out.  He passed an electric current with the lowest voltage possible to the fruit seller, which would not be life-threatening, but enough to make him stung so that he would not be able to get out of bed for a day.

“Sriiiik.”

“Flash.”

The electric current that flows Aunty Sandra is unraveling.  The fruit seller then looked at us with a look that made us goosebumps.  Bingo.  Something strange happened to the fruit seller.

Slowly his body was green and melted.  No, he's back to his original form, a slime.

Surprisingly, none of the surrounding residents who happened to also be there noticed especially astonished at the incident as if they were unable to see it or indeed they were deliberately hypnotized to ignore it.

I've heard from Mom, that there used to be my uncle named Kazuki who has now been deceased able to use such power.

But it doesn't matter now.  All we had to do was clear, which was to eliminate this monster that appeared before us.  Unfortunately, none of us standing here right now are capable of unleashing a fire elemental stance.

Fire is the most effective weapon against slime-type monsters.  Because only a few body parts of the slime survive, they will only come back to life and even increase in number of body parts that survive.  Therefore, by burning it until all parts of his body become ashes is the most effective way to eradicate it completely.

“Plup.”

“Flash.”

But it seems, it's an unnecessary worry.  Uncle Shou immediately ensnared the entire slime body into a lump of water then swiftly Aunt Sandra flowed the electric current so that the entire slime body was charred instantly in a lump of Uncle Shou's water.

Slime vanished.  Suddenly the surrounding area blackened.  No, it was precisely gone including the people who were inside.  I get it now.  Everything here, whether the village, the misty forest, the monsters, including the people, was nothing but an illusion.

Only the green slime was the original which was likely the creature that was precisely the cause of the village's illusion.

We then head to another part that still retains its illusions.  Professor Dios is back to drain the cold that contains his aura.  Then once again I discovered the aura disturbance.  This time, it was the turn of NPC aunts who appeared to be carrying bread baskets.  Then come back Uncle Shou and Aunt Sandra to action by showing a brilliant combined attack.

We continue to repeat those steps, including in the foggy part of the forest.  Where in the foggy forest, there are 3 slimes that maintain the illusion, namely two disguised as part of a tree and the other disguised as the toenails of the right thumb of the giant white rat monster.

One question, then why did Professor Dios say that there was an existence in the village that was feared by the boss of the giant white rat monster.  Though that became our foundation until we managed to find the slime.  Moreover, the giant white rat monster was none other than one part of the illusion alone, its existence was not real.

No, it's wrong.  From the beginning if it was an illusion, why would he have such a feeling of fear?  Having feelings will signify its authenticity as a living being.  It's a mystery and I still haven't found the answer until now.

But it does not matter now that after all the illusions have disappeared which means that the entire slime has been successfully defeated, the gate also appears far stretched which is likely to come from the direction of the previous village.  And the map on which we were navigating in search of the mastermind of the disaster was clearly pointing in the direction of the gate.  We had no choice but to go there.