[Book 1 Completed] Industrial Mage: Modernizing a Magical World [Kingdom Building LitRPG]
B2 | Chapter 20 – Killing the Slime King

Roland POV

Once again, Theodore was exceeding expectations as if the natural order had never mattered. This was not the first time Roland had witnessed it but now he had just become accustomed to the fact that doubt no longer murmured in the back of his mind.

Even though what Theodore was doing was illogical, it kept happening.

Before, it was fairly clear. Rank 1s fought Rank 1s. They occasionally won. They lost sometimes. It depended on the person and on how well someone used what they had. Move up the ladder, and the stakes change. Generally speaking, a Rank 2 should destroy a Rank 1.

Unless there was a significant disparity in skill, and even then, there were limitations. A mountain could not be avoided, and an avalanche could not be outwitted.

He'd witnessed it too often to think otherwise. Someone with a G Rank Race who was only an Apprentice Rank in Class? To a villager, they might appear powerful. However, they were soft wood to an actual adversary.

The opposite was true as well.

When squeezed, an Initiate with an F Rank in Race still cracked. Not only skill was the source of power. The Rank mattered more... The body ceased being entirely human and transformed into something else; it was in the blood, bone, and the way mana hummed inside you.

So then came Theodore. He was already punching over his weight when he wasn't even fully Rank 2 yet. Fighting a Rank 3 beast when he was still barely Rank 2 was absolute insanity.

At first, Roland had wanted to explain it, and wanted to believe the creature had been young. Fresh from its cocoon. Power without direction. That would make sense.

The world would be able to continue spinning as it always has.

Now, though? No. No more.

Roland would never have permitted this. He would have snarled and told him to not do this. Lately, however, he had been softer. It was because of her, not because he didn't care about his work. Theodore was followed like a shadow by that woman. She was stronger than Roland, and he had only met her once when Lady Karmicheal had introduced her to him.

Perhaps Theodore should be allowed to do as he pleased as long as she could handle any problems that might arise.

And now this was the result of that… Facing a creature that was Rank 3. It wasn't an infant; this thing had grown into its skin. It had long since acclimated to its power, and still Theodore hadn't died.

Roland nearly burst out laughing. Not with delight, but with incredulity. When reality began to crumble and you could see the difference between what should have been and what was, you couldn't help but laugh quietly.

No one would believe it, but so what?

***

Theodore POV

Theodore barely dodged beneath one of the sprung-forward tendrils—dropping and sliding beneath as it passed barely a handspan over his face.

The grin that split his face was surprising, even to him, yet it felt good to move, to react, to be alive. He pivoted, boots scratching against slime-slicked stone.

The smile wasn't one of happiness, but rather of pressure turning into hilarity, the type of smile that appears when one is too far into a storm to be afraid.

He ducked under a shaft of slime that could have torn his head off. He squinted his eyes.

It wasn't attacking randomly.

It was defending.

Its tendrils responded more quickly and violently in one area of its enormous bulk. The reaction was always stronger, faster, and nearly preemptive whenever he went close to it. It was no accident.

So what was it hiding?

Theodore took a breath, let it out, and made a false feint with his fingers. Around him, aura flared, mana swelled outward, just enough to give the impression that he was getting ready for a full-frontal attack. As expected, the Slime King's tendrils encircled that part protectively.

Got you, you bastard. Then, it was mostly instinct. Air thickened around him, and he pulled it into a ball. Pull, compress, pull more forcefully, and compress more forcefully. By refining the edges and pushing on them with mana, compressing, twisting, and compounding the elemental pressure, he sculpted it with threads of mana until he felt something small and dreadful tremble in the pit of his palm.

The button-sized ball of doom was poised to detonate the instant he released it. It moved smoothly. His shoulder rolled forward as he poured a secondary burst of air magic behind him—propulsion—kicking him forward like a missile in its own right.

The ball hit first.

As though the air itself had demanded a corridor and the slime had complied, the Slime King shivered, and the slime parted around the explosion, not pushed aside but divided. Like a sea split by a god. A passage led directly into the Slime King's center.

Above his palms, a thick vortex formed as he summoned water. He pulled, his hands tensed. The water rushed.

He didn't stop there.

Air came after he summoned as much water as he could. Compressed gusts spiraled like veins of silver thread through the gathering water as he forced it in.

It was half as big as the slime, and he threw the water and air into the open wound caused by the ball of doom.

The water rushed inward, colliding with the inner membrane of the slime and seeping into the spaces between the gelatinous mass layers. The air trailed behind, creating pockets—bubbles that would not mix. It couldn't be absorbed. The Slime King would have to force Theodore to relinquish control of the mana, and that was not going to be an easy task.

And like the fool he was, Theodore jumped right in. As he moved, layers of [Mana Shield] slid into position around him.

The shields buzzed when they collided with the internal pressure of the slime. He had underestimated its density.

With each inch he moved forward, it was compressing around him. It wanted him out. No, it desired his death.

However, he pushed through.

In each palm, thermal energy blades blazed to life. These weren't lances; they were thicker, shorter, and jagged. He spun them about as he pushed down the tunnel, tearing through the Slime King's inner membrane like a drill and using heat to melt any resistance.

Hissing and boiling, the slime turned into a noxious vapor that steamed up against his defenses.

Still, he pushed forward. The water he had previously sent in waited all around him. It hadn't dispersed, and it couldn't either, for he had it under control.

He reached for it, touched it, and used his mana to control it. In response, the air pockets grew and exploded into tiny explosions that ripped chunks of slime from within.

More importantly, he prevented the slime from simply contracting around him by using the air and water to counter the compression.

The slime reacted violently. He pushed deeper. Then he felt a powerful mana signature there. A sudden rise in mana density caused him to halt.

There was a brilliant stone inside the wavy mass of slime, nestled like a yolk. Beside it, there was a red core. That was it. The creature's battery as well as its heart.

Theodore questioned how it had located a mana stone, but this wasn't the time to think more about it. He understood that however the Slime King had found the mana stone, it had chosen to root itself atop it like a parasite, satisfied with remaining stationary for the increase in power gained.

That explained the storage, the spells, and the regeneration. This implied that the origins of this mana stone were a mystery. He would have to conduct some investigation on it when he left here, it seems.

Because if the mana stone had given the Slime King access to some runes and the clone spell, he could probably learn the spells or skills himself.

Both would be very useful!

Taking care not to damage the mana stone, he summoned another ball of doom and launched it in the direction of the core. There was a flash after the ball of doom struck.

The slime swelled and ballooned, and Theodore felt himself blasted back.

A large portion of the blow was absorbed by the Slime King, but it still hit the core, causing it to crack.

He felt a tremble in his bones as its shape twisted, rippled, then squeezed; the Slime King convulsed.

His mana shields broke under the pressure, and he concentrated on conjuring more. His lungs were burning. He had to breathe. When the slime failed to absorb the ball of doom, the energy it had attempted to absorb spilled outward, causing the slime surrounding him to explode. It had lost control, and all the slime from its storage was exploding outward. Like a visceral geyser, slime exploded from fissures in its center in all directions.

He pushed up. He crawled, climbed, and swam. The exit was near. So near. However, the Slime King had lost his mind and saw that he was trying to flee, so it would not permit it. A tendril wrapped around his ankle and pulled him backward. Another struck his shoulder, causing him to lose his sense of balance. The world swayed. Something unforgiving and gelatinous crashed into him.

He scowled before turning to the core. Once more, his mana burst outward, but this time it was without any finesse or control.

He simply released his hold on his mana. He exuded everything outward.

His aura filled the chamber, permeating the air, the slime, and the stone. It touched everything, and he could feel it radiating forth like furnace heat. The Slime King froze.

He called for a [Thermal Lance], then another, and another. Then, having pushed it well beyond its limits, he conjured another ball of doom, this one glowing white-hot in his fingers like a miniature star. He continued even though the light burned his flesh and pressed against his [Mana Shield].

Theodore then threw the ball of doom toward the core along with the lances. Once more, the core cracked, but this time it wasn't the end.

The dazzling light rushed forth. The Slime King convulsed. Following two convulsions, the Slime King began to disintegrate internally.

It folded in on itself, and Theodore watched calmly.

After a single twitch, its tendrils transformed to vapor. Its shape became disjointed. The Slime King was nothing more than thick, powerful liquid without mana to bind it, and a being without form could not exist.

Thus, it collapsed into a pool of slime.

***

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