“What’s wrong?” Eric asked calmly.

“What are you doing here?” Phisola asked in a normal voice, “It’s too dangerous here! You’re supposed to be in the back!”

“I heard you yelling all the way there, so I came to see what it’s all about. What’s the problem?”

“They want to back out of the deal!” She pointed at the adventurers with fury on her face.

“And why do they want to do that? Don’t they want to kill the guardian too?”

“They are scared! They are too weak! They can’t kill a fucking snail!”

“Snail?” Eric looked in the distance, seeing the huge shell, “That’s … that’s a very big snail.”

“It’s resistant to magic, so I can’t hurt it. But they are too scared to fight it, so they want to back out.”

“So, you can’t hurt it, but they don’t think they would win either. What is the problem with the snail? Besides the fact that it’s resistant to magic.”

Phisola exhaled loudly while placing the thumb and the middle finger of the same hand on her eyebrows, massaging them slowly, “I don’t want to have that conversation again. We’ve been talking about it this whole time. Many things are wrong with it, enough to give seasoned adventurers pause. Hell, not just pause, to make them tuck their tail and run.”

“Humor me. Time is the one thing we have here. Is it the shell? Is it too thick?”

“That, and the fact that it can regenerate, is magical, can probably spit acid. And there is slime around it, making it impossible to fight it with melee weapons.”

“Slime … hmm …” Eric stroked his chin, “That slime could be its weakness.”

“How?”

“Slime is a fluid, so it’s probably a good conductor of electricity.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Do you know how to use some electric spells?”

“What is elektrik?” Phisola asked with furrowed brows and a confused expression on her face.

“Electricity. Oh … well,” Eric let out a small chuckle, “now that I remember, electricity is the product of the industrial age, so you people have probably never heard of it. Hmm … how about … do you know some spells that create lightning?”

“Lightning?” Phisola looked surprised, “Oh, is this connected to that conversation we had when we just met? About how your people use lightning as an energy source?”

“Yes. What you really need to kill this snail as easily as possible is to put some lightning in that slime. It will travel through the slime and electrocute the snail.”

“By elektrokjut, I take it you mean kill?”

“It could kill, daze, knock it unconscious, outright cook it alive, or just cause it severe pain. It depends on the strength of elect … of lightning and the snail’s constitution. But that would be a great way to hurt it from a distance, despite its massive shell. Hell, its shell would work as a perfect cooking pot. It would contain all the heat, boiling it in its own shell.”

Phisola stared him in the eye for a few moments before answering, “Sadly, I don’t know any lightning magic.”

“What about the adventurers? Maybe some of them do?”

“No. I’m absolutely sure they don’t know how to use it either.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because no one can use lightning, god or mortal. There is only one god who can and no one else.”

“Hmm … that’s a shame …”

“But hold on … hold on …” Phisola said while looking in the distance, “You may be onto something here.”

She turned towards Ghilanna, giving her a hopeful look, “Do you have an enhancer? A mage who knows how to enhance forces of nature, specifically.”

Ghilanna fixed her with her eyes, “A what? I know of enhancers who can enhance people’s physical attributes …”

“No,” the devil cut her off, “we need an enhancer that can enhance things like fire, wind, that sort of thing. They are very useful in conjunction with other mages, where they can drastically increase the potency of other mages’ spells. ”

Ghilanna looked at the other adventurers, “Actually … we do have someone like that. We got ourselves such a mage because we heard the guardian is a spell caster. We paid good coin for her services because, as far as I know, such mages can also suppress the spells and decrease their efficiency, so I figured it would be worth it.”

Ghilanna pointed at a mage with the head of a fox, grey fur, and grey robes.

“Can you do what the devil is asking for, Ugusa?”

The mage eyed the devil with distrust before responding in a feminine voice, “I’m … not sure.”

“Can you enhance fire?” The devil asked.

“… yes.”

“Can you enhance wind?”

“… yes.”

“Then we can do it. I have a plan that might work.”

The devil faced Eric and started talking in the devilish tongue, “Tell me, how certain are you that the lightning can kill that damn snail?”

“I’m absolutely sure. You just need a strong, intense lightning.”

“Give me the sack with my personal belongings.”

“I think it’s this one,” Eric said while putting one of the sacks he was carrying on his waist to the ground. Not waiting for a single moment, Phisola squatted and started rummaging through it.

“Aha, finally!” Picking up something small enough to fit between her fingers, she stood up and put it right in front of Eric’s face, “Tell me, can this thing kill the snail?”

“That … that’s the lighter’s igniter I’ve shown you.”

“Can it kill the snail?”

“No, it can’t kill anyone. I don’t think it can kill a fly, let alone a massive snail. It’s too small.”

“And what if we enhance the lightning it makes? We have a mage here who can enhance things. What if she can make the lightning powerful enough to kill the snail?”

“That … that depends on how strong she can make it to be. But … I’m not sure, to be honest. I don’t know if it will work.”

“Nobody does, but we can at least try it.”

“It’s not like it will be enough to enhance it for a small amount, like twenty five percent or even fifty. She will have to enhance it a hundred times or more. Unless … hmm … I really have no idea. I have no idea how snails react to being electrocuted. I know the thick skin protects the humans, but I have no idea what to say about the snails.”

“It doesn’t hurt to try. It’s not like we have anything to lose. You said that we don’t have to approach the snail. We can use the lightning on the slime, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Will the distance affect the potency of lightning?”

“Hmm … I think it does, but … you can’t step on the slime yourself. If you touch the slime while sending lightning through it, you will have a much higher chance of dying than the snail. But … hmm …”

“What?”

“I think you will achieve the greatest result if you can climb on top of the snail.”

“No shit!” Phisola gave him an exaggerated look of surprise with her eyes bulging out, “But don’t you think that will kill whoever is on top of it?”

“I don’t know what the snail can do, but I think the lightning won’t kill you. It’s because the lightning is always seeking ground. If you get on top of the snail and zap the shell, the lightning will travel downwards, through the snail. It will use the snail as the means of reaching the ground, it won’t go up.”

“And how sure are you of that?”

“Quite sure. If you could zap the snail’s skin directly, that would be great. But I think zapping the shell will work too. You won’t have to worry about the distance or the intensity dissipating over the slime. The lightning will go straight down, either through the snail or on the outer edges of the shell. But in either case, it will reach the snail’s flesh.”

“And what if it goes over the shell? Won’t it hit me if I’m standing on it?”

“It won’t because going through you would increase the distance from the ground.”

“You’re talking as if the lightning has a mind of its own.”

“It’s just physics. Just as you know things fall from the sky, we also know lightning always wants to be grounded. I mean, not wants as it desires …”

“Yes, yes, I get it. Lightning is just yet another force of nature to you.”

“As long as you can charge the lightning up to a sufficient degree, you will kill the snail. And the lightning won’t hit you as long as you are on top of the snail.”

Phisola took a deep, loud breath.

“Alright. I will trust you on this one, and you have no idea how much of a privilege that is. Show me how this damn thing works.”