“Dazzling Spray!” the little magician exclaimed, closed her eyes, and swung her staff around. A cascade of bright colors exploded in a cone shape in front of her, crashing against everything in its path like an unstoppable rainbow tsunami.

Not daring to wait until the spray dissipates, Agatha charged in the midst of the chaos that ensued and grabbed Faith’s hand

“Come, we need to get out of here!”

“Aaaa, I can’t see a thing! I can’t see a thing!”

“It’s temporary! Just...just follow me!”

And so, she forcefully dragged her confused and blinded friend away, leaving the chaotic pandemonium behind.

***

They kept limping away for several minutes and didn’t dare stop until the plopping sounds of slimes couldn’t be heard anymore.

“I-I can’t believe you shot me too! What were you thinking?” Faith had already recovered and seemingly returned to her usual self. Understandably, she was quite angry! “Was this really the best strategy you could come up with!?”

Agatha, still tense and in a fighting mindset, didn’t feel like playing along just yet. She pointed to a nearby stream, and commanded:

“There, wash your face. It’s stained in slime.”

“D-don’t order me around, you jerk!”

And then she did as she was told. Agatha couldn’t help but chuckle, and the heavy mood was instantly dispelled.

“But, I can’t believe that it worked! I always assumed the slimes are immune to blindness?”

“They are immune to blindness, but not confusion. You might have not noticed it, but as we ran away, they actually turned on each other. When we come back, there should be some loot left for us!”

When slimes die, they lose most of their body mass and leave a <core> behind. This core is the slime's true form, before it absorbed whatever element and grew to enormous size, and also a valuable alchemist component.

“But what if they ambush us again?”, asked Agatha, deeply lost in thought.

It wasn’t like she actually expected an answer from her friend, she was merely talking to herself. Yet the answer soon arrived, in a form of a heavy stone forcefully pushed in her face.

“Ugha!?”

“A stone!”

“I can see that. But why are you....”

“A rope!”

“Huh?”

“And then....fusion!”

The plan was simple. Tie the stone to the bamboo sword, and make it into a blunt weapon. But...

“This will fall apart as soon as you swing it!” No matter how Agatha looked at it, Faith was no craftswoman. And why did she even have a rope in the first place? What else was hidden in that backpack of hers?

“That’s why I count on your help~”, smirked the white-haired girl and posed confidently.

Her blunt personality, frilly outfit, and dirty piece of rock she held in both her tiny hands spectacularly contrasted with each other. Agatha couldn't help but let out another chuckle, and the reward for that was another knock in the head. A loud, hollow sound reverberated through the woods and echoed far and wide.

“Ahaha, just as I thought~ There’s nothing in that skull of yours!”

“S-shut..! Ok, s-so you want me to enchant it?”

“Yeah, do the strengthening thing like the other day.”

“*Sigh* You do realize I have only 3 enchant uses before I need to rest?”

“It’s fine~ We just kill these slimes, get loot, and go back before the day ends~ What can go wrong?”

*A lot of things*, thought the magician, but she complied with her friend’s request. As crazy as it was, the plan was feasible. After all, slimes were especially vulnerable to blunt weapons.

However, if these were regular low-level slimes, a simple bamboo sword would have been more than enough to disperse them...
A shadow of worry once again clouded her thoughts. What could have caused them to level up? But she suppressed the ominous feeling and cast the spell as instructed.

***

After returning to the place of encounter, they found only 3 slimes remaining. They were hopping and plopping happily on a small meadow, surrounded by a dozen or so of blue, green, red, and yellow cores.

“Aren’t they...bigger?”, asked Faith timidly, her bravado once again draining away in face of actual danger.

“They must have cannibalized some of their own....”

“Eeek! Gross!”

Agatha took a deep breath and marched at the opponents. Her heart was beating rapidly, but her mind was steady. As long as they go with the plan, everything would be fine....

“Deflection Barrier!”

Casting a protective spell as soon as the slimes notices her was a matter of course. And no sooner than a transparent shield appeared around her, she was barraged with a swarm of sticky projectiles.

“Haha, the same trick won’t work twice! And now...” She swung her staff theatrically, closed her eyes, and pointed it in their general direction “Dazzling spray!”

Perfect. Now Faith would charge in and....

“Aaa, can’t see a thing! Can’t see a thing!”

Unfortunately, the main player was stumbling around, rubbing her eyes and not at all concerned with the battle at hand.

“Wha...!? Told you not to look at it! Aahh, forget it!”

Not being able to count on her airheaded friend, the magician decided to go into melee herself. Charging forward, she impaled the nearest slime on her staff, not unlike a lancer on a battlefield.

“Eh?”

Unfortunately, Agatha was no knight, and slimes were no average opponents. Upon being lodged into the squishy, jelly-like body, the staff got stuck.

“Ahh, pull out! Pull out already! *Kick Kick*”

Her feeble kicks had even less effect, and for a moment it seemed like she was in real trouble. But then...

“Hiyyaa!”

A makeshift hammer swung overhead, and smashed straight at the slime’s center of mass! The slime exploded into tiny bits of jelly...and Agatha, still pulling on her staff, stumbled backwards, lost her balance, and fell face-down into the grass.

“Weren’t you blinded!” she shouted angrily, spitting out little bits of grass and jelly-like substance.

“Tee hee hee, that was a little joke. Gee, what were you thinking, running at them like that!?”

“A k-knight...” mumbled Agatha, and felt her cheeks burning. Now that she thought about it, it was indeed quite silly....

“At any rate, there are two of them left...”, Faith pointed at the remaining slimes, tumbling around confused, and occasionally hitting each other “Should we finish them off, or wait until they kill each other?”

“They look like they still have a lot of health left! The spell will only last a couple more minutes. We must destroy them before time out!”

“Ok! Leave it to me!”

“Ah, wait!”

Alas, the little warrior didn’t wait and charged right in. Swing, swoosh! The leftmost slime took a few hits and then exploded just like the first one.

“I’ll try spinning, that’s a cool trick!”

“W-what!? Just finish it off already!” Agatha stomped the ground in frustration. But her friend wouldn’t listen and did as she proclaimed.

*Woosh, woosh, woosh*...What started as a slow, circular motion, gradually increased in speed. And soon, Faith turned into a menacing little-girl sized tornado and began moving around the meadow in seemingly random patterns.

“....”

“AAAAA caaaant stooop iiitttt”

“...Told you...”

“Buuuut it’s fuuuun~!”

“Take it seriously for once!” Agatha sighed and decided to once again take the matters into her own hands.

She decided to use up her remaining two enchant slots now. First, a strengthening buff on the staff....
Physical damage UP!

Next, attribute increase on herself...
Strength UP!

Raising her weapon overhead, she approached the target. The slime, no longer confused, shot several balls in her direction, but the barrier cast earlier deflected them just like the previous ones. The problem was, how was she going to deal with its melee attacks once she’s in range?

But before she could answer that question, an unexpected thing happened. The slime suddenly inflated like a balloon, and then exploded into tiny pieces of jelly, just like its fallen comrades did a moment ago.

And in its place stood a pale, blonde girl wearing a red scarf, a black cloak, and miniskirt. She held a dagger in each hand, and a smug smile decorated her face.

“A...shinobi?” whispered Agatha in disbelief. She heard stories about the legendary rogue subclass. But they were known to reside on the eastern edge of the continent! What could have brought her to this remote little town? “E-excuse me…?”

But before she had a chance to properly vocalize her questions, the mysterious girl threw a round object at the ground and disappeared in a cloud of white smoke.