Chapter 22 Enchanted 

 

Kim is looking up at the black goo stuck to the side of the Blue Tower. At a closer look, the black goo is getting bigger at a steady pace. Most people have seen the mana recording of Black Slime swallowing an entire city before. The black mass rolls over an entire city and everything inside simply melts away. Kim is facing a problem that does not have an answer. How could a martial artist and illusionist magic specialist fight something like this? Her martial arts will do nothing and illusion magics are not useful against monsters with no sensory connections to the world. 

 

“You honestly looked unstoppable until now, Junior.” A man’s voice came from beside her. “But such a monster is beyond your set of abilities. You are quite frankly an anti-humanoid specialist.” 

 

Kim looked at the man. Blonde hair, tall, lean but muscular, quite handsome. He is from the republic. The thing that caught her eyes the most was his sword. The hilt looks like tree bark but darkened and polished, the blade is so thin that it is difficult to see from the side, almost as thin as paper. The sword exudes a strange magic, the mana clings to the blade without dissipating. Kim suspects the magic is elven. Senior Wind Blade’s famous weapon, Eluvain, is the magic sword. 

 

“Senior Wind Blade? That is a beautiful sword.” Kim slightly bowed her head, in the eastern culture this could be seen as a sign of disrespect, but Wind Blade was a man from the republic. 

 

“I was looking forward to fighting you, but it looks like I won't have the chance” his handsome face smirked mockingly. Kim wondered why this senior was hostile to her. She has not done anything to incite anyone’s anger since she came to this place. 

 

After Wind Blade walked away, another senior came up to her. A friendly one this time. 

 

“He is quite a jerk, isn't he? I bet he felt threatened by you. He thought he could easily get some mana stones, then you showed up out of nowhere.” Yulin’s long black hair flowed in the wind. Kim was awestruck. She was not exclusively attracted to women, but she was quite weak in the face of beautiful women. 

 

“Senior Yulin, it's been a while……..” Kim could feel her shyness rearing its head. Recently, she has felt comfortable enough to be outspoken and showed her true self around Jace, Beth, and Cade. She had forgotten this side of herself. 

 

“Haha, you are cute. Where did that fierce little girl go? She was here just a minute ago?” Yulin pokes Kim's cheeks. Then, she looks up at the black slime with a serious face. “Hehe, enough about that. How are you going to get past that?” 

 

“I am not quite sure. I need to ask my secret weapon.” Kim smirk

 

—------------------------

 

“So, why are we here?” in front of the blue tower, in a quiet corner. Jace and Tear were dragged here by Kim. Cade followed along as well. 

 

“So Jace is the secret weapon? I can see that!” Yulin eyes are sparkling. 

 

“Senior, you are wrong. It's this girl” Kim pointed at Tear, who was clinging to Jace and hiding behind him. She has become more comfortable around other people, but she still cannot speak freely like Kim. Birds of a feather flock together. 

 

“Peerless? I see.” Yulin nodded as she understood. She did not understand. 

 

“Beth, how can I beat that thing? Even Though we are supposed to work together with everyone to raid it, if I can't contribute, I won't be able to move to the next round.” Kim glares at the black slime 

 

“You can't. Unless you have some hidden skills you have yet to show me. Your current skill set is extremely specialized to be used against humanoid enemies.” Beth said in almost a robotic tone. 

 

“Damn…….I wanted to smack that guy’s smug face,” Kim said frustrated. 

 

“I don't want to know who you are talking about. In any case, you could still contribute to the fight while using your illusion magic. Wouldn't that be enough to pass?” Cade said something very sensible and realistic. 

 

“No, there are too many contestants. Most people without exceptional skills will try to use that same method. The only way to pass is to stand out” Jace said 

 

“So what do I do?” Kim placed a hand on her face in frustration. 

 

“Your skill set is not suited for monster extermination, especially something without solid physical form like a slime,” Beth said. 

 

“I know Beth. That's why I asked for all of your help.” This is the first time the group has ever seen Kim so frustrated. Jace realized she had a competitive streak. 

 

“But Jace’s skill set is the opposite. His skill sets can be said to be specialized in monster hunting. Big bombastic spells, extremely acute mana control, and one other thing.” Beth points to something on top of Jace’s head. A black ball is peacefully sleeping there. 

 

“He is not allowed to participate due to his injuries. He didn't even sign up to participate.” Kim said, a little hope in her voice

 

“You told me about Senior Wind Blade’s sword a little while ago. I have an idea” Tear showed a radiant smile. 

 

—------------------------

 

“Good Morning Everyone! Let's get this show started!” Foxy Three energetically announced. 

 

Around 900 contestants are surrounding the Blue Tower. As soon as the announcement came on, Mages started to bombard the Black Slime with fireballs. The most effective element against a slime, regardless of its evolution stage, is fire. 

 

The black slime did not show any type of response as its body melted away slowly by barrages of fire magic. The Blue Tower itself also suffered a lot of damage from the assault, but even when entire floors were blown away, the upper floor of the tower remained in place. The entire upper tower that has been completely severed from the lower section is floating in place. 

 

After the black mass had been reduced by more than half, the black slime started to move. Its black body started to revert to purple. A sign that its evolution has been interrupted and it had to end hibernation halfway. 

 

—--------------------------

 

“It went back to purple as we thought. There was no way that the witch would allow Black Slime to fight the students, no matter how talented they may be.” The good Duke Feng sat with his wife, admiring the budding of the next generation. 

 

“If those two are not participating, it's quite boring isn't it?” Lealatha rested her head on her husband’s lap, her eyes closed. She simply has no interest in any other children aside from those two. 

 

“Not entirely.” The Duke smiled and pointed to a small eastern girl standing behind the group of mages burning the purple slime. 

 

“Oh, that's interesting.” Lealatha 's eyes shined gold. 

 

—-------------------------

 

In the Blue Tower’s VIP cell

 

A group of dwarfs and researchers are once again glued to the screen 

 

“Ohhhhhhhhh, what is that? What are they doing? That lying elf girl seems to be the mastermind, while the freak is the enchanter and the little human is the host.” The elder dwarf is taking notes. 

 

“How is he using it like that? How is that possible? And it seems to be stuck to her armor for good? Is it not dissipating or melting it?” A human researcher is recording the screen with his mana net

 

“What is that armor made of? Dark mana steel? But in such an amount? It would cost an entire empire’s fortune” a blacksmith dwarf feels frustrated. Because of his stupid elder trying to capture a student, they were locked in here by Miss Harlet, unable to see the material up close. 

 

“When is she going to let us out? I promise not to capture that human child.” The elder dwarf spoke to the air. Suddenly a fog portal opened up. Miss Harlet’s face can be seen. 

 

“I will take that as a promise. All of you are also forbidden from seeking out that child unless he comes to you himself.” Miss Harlet is still watching the tournament as she speaks to them. 

 

The fog started to gather around everyone in that cell. The next thing they knew, they were already on the stand in front of the Blue Tower. 

 

“Damn, you should have done that sooner, elder!” One of the dwarves threw a seed at the elder. 

 

“Never mind that we have to prepare to cap-” Before the elder could finish, Miss Wanders put him to sleep with a sleep spell. 

 

“I will not go back to that cell!” 

 

—-------------------------

 

After the purple slime woke up, gelatinous tentacles started to attack the raid group. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of tentacles came out of the slime’s body. After failing the evolution, its purple form does not have enough fire resistance to just roll over a bunch of mages spewing fire at it. Each time a tentacle touched an unlucky raider, their body would melt. People with strong bodies like warriors or some aura warriors would get severe burns, but mages are not so lucky. If their mana shield were unable to block the tentacles, the part of their body that was touched would simply gone. 

 

Casualties started to pile up. 900 contestants quickly dropped to 400 within minutes. What surprised the audience and contestants was the fact that they were not being saved with teleports like in the other brackets. Perhaps because most of the contestants in this bracket are not students, Miss Harlet did not want to spend her energy saving them. 

 

However, their bodies were burned by white flames after they died. A spell that even children in this world must learn. A mana extinguishing flame. The last resort spell is to make sure that monsters would not be able to consume the human mana in the corpse. 

 

Suddenly the strong wind blew past the vanguard team, cutting the tentacles and even a section of the slime’s body. Anything the wind touched was sliced in two. Weirdly enough, the wind did not cut the vanguard team, only the tentacles. 

 

“Senior Wind Blade, thank you for the help” a few Aura Warriors called out. 

 

A blonde man floats up into the air. He is holding a black, polished piece of wood, the blade could not be seen at all. 

 

Each time Wind Blade swung his invisible sword, hundreds of tentacles were cut. But his sword could not eliminate the slime tentacles. After it is cut, the tentacles fall to the floor and slowly move back to its main body. 

 

“Mages, please back me up. Burn it while I protect you from the tentacles” Wind Blade yells to the raid team. 

 

This method was effective for a while, until the slime counterattack. Instead of crawling back to its main body, the fallen tentacles group together into medium-sized slimes and start to attack the mages on the ground. The amount of tentacles attacking Wind Blade increased as well. 

 

“Damn! Help me!” His speed and martial arts will not help him if he is surrounded by those tentacles. As an Aura Warrior, his body is quite durable, but not against something as deadly as a purple slime. 

 

“I think you should go now” a nonchalant voice came from one corner of the arena. Wind Blade did not have time to look as he fended off a hundred tentacles. 

 

“Damn, I wanted to finish it off when it's exhausted already,” Wind Blade thought that voice sounded familiar 

 

“.....go! Too many people have died.” a small voice said

 

“Master, I will do it now. Be careful, we don't know how long it will last.” A young man’s voice said 

 

Suddenly, the entire arena felt hot. Even the purple slime let out a horrible shriek that no one had heard even when it was being burned by a fire spell earlier. 

 

That Eastern girl, the Tyrant, her entire body covered in scaled red-black armor jumps up to the slime and shoots out mana from her fist. Her internal mana is coated by the elemental fire mana coating her armor as it passes by the armor. That elemental fire mana was so hot, that each punch opened up a hole in the giant slime body.

 

The slime’s body melts away so quickly, that Wind Blade is reminded of eating shaved ice in the Republic’s summer. Then, before the Tyrant could do anything else, the giant purple slime jumped off the tower, trying to get away from the heat. 

 

The audience was surprised to see that the Blue Tower was repairing itself as soon as the slime jumped off.

 

“Is it still working?” Wind Blade landed on the ground and turned to the corner of the arena where the voice came from. 

 

God of Thunder, Peerless, Green Hands, and Kingpin. What a luxurious line-up, basically every rising star of the freshmen year gathered in one place. 

 

“At least it's extremely effective. That's cool. Jace, enchant the entire battle Mage Troop next time. We can cleanse the entire forest.” Kingpin said to the God of Thunder. 

 

“Senior Yulin, you will burn down the entire forest” The God of Thunder seems to be a much more passive character than he thought. 

 

“The Tyrant’s companions?” Wind Blade thought that he was lacking connections while focusing only on training. Wind Blade checked his body condition before flying towards the purple slime. 

 

“Senior Wind Blade! Don't get too close! You will get burned!” A voice yelled after him. 

 

—----------------------

 

“This is fucking awesome.” Kim looked at her armor. The black scale armor has turned almost dark red from the heat of the mana infused into it. The scales itself looked like it was about to melt. Beth had mentioned that the reason dragons shed their scales is because as they grow stronger, the old scales could not withstand the new Mana's intensity. 

 

Beth had come up with an idea to enchant the dragon-scale armor with Ruin's mana. Since the scale itself originally belonged to Ruin himself, there should not be any complications from mana rejection. Usually controlling the mana of such a higher being like a dragon is not possible, not even for the elves, but Jace was able to do it for some reason. Moreover, Beth helps guide Jace to enchant the armor, the problem is that the magic clings to the armor, surrounding it without dissipating, similar to elven magic. Kim felt like something was suspicious there. But everyone in the magic world has their secrets, so Kim decided not to pry. Whatever the case may be, the result is this dragon’s mana enchanted armor. 

 

Even just going near the slime, it shrieks away in fear. Dragonic mana is flame itself. Before the enchantment runs out, she needs to kill this thing. 

 

The slime's large body is deceptively mobile. After jumping off the tower, it was already rolling towards the lake. Perhaps it thought that water would be sufficient protection against dragon’s mana. The raid team is chasing it while throwing fire spells after the big body. 

 

Wind Blade's best aspect is his speed, before anyone else could catch up, Wind Blade was already in front of the thing. He fires off dozens of invisible wind blades at the slime, expecting it to dodge and change directions. Unfortunately, the slime charges through while enduring multiple slashes to its body. The body parts that fell were promptly burned away by the raid team. 

 

—------------------

 

Kim sped past the raid team and Wind Blade that was surrounding the slime. With her entire body, she drove into the slime body. Exploding all of her mana, blowing up the slime body. The raid team could not even yell before everything happened. 

 

Dragonic mana was let loose completely, no longer barely contained within the dragon-scale armor. There was no fire anywhere in the vicinity, but the residue heat forced the raid group to retreat to the arena ground. A few slow raiders even received severe burns. The heat from dragonic mana was burning away the monster’s entire body, but Kim was somehow unaffected. A few pieces of dragon scale still clung to her body. Kim did not think about these things, she was searching for something else. A silver marble floats in the middle of the body, the slime core. 

 

Kim tries to crush or burn it, but the silver marble is completely unaffected. Instead, the black armor covering her body has started to melt. Strangely, her body was not harmed by the melting armor. 

 

“Kim, bring back the marble and the liquify scale” Beth's voice came from a nearby mana net screen projected onto the ground. 

 

—-----------------------

 

VIP stand 

 

The seats are empty, except for three people. The good Duke, his wife, and Miss Harlet. All of them have glowing golden eyes. Everyone else had immediately left as soon as Kim blew up the slime with the mana covering the armor. 

 

“That damn kid is a real troublemaker” the Duke laughs