Elegy For An Epilogue

Without waiting for the wolf, she gathered her items and set off into the forest. Her primary goal was to find more monsters to kill, but the direction she chose was also headed for the stream. Cecillia wasn’t a person who cared about her appearance, but like every woman, who would want to reek of filth.

As her figure disappeared into the shadows, Blackie quickly caught up and nuzzled against her thigh. The wolf pushed beneath her, forcing the girl onto its back as it once again became her loyal steed.

Unable to stop the edges of her lips from curling up, Cecillia patted the wolf gently. She leaned forward on Blackie’s back, her chest pressed against its fur and held on tight with her legs. In an instant, they were flying. The increase of its level had dramatically enhanced the wolf’s speed and strength to the point where her knuckles went white just from holding on.

Despite the challenge, Cecillia couldn’t deny that it was fun. The feeling of the wind rustling through her hair, racing past her skin as the world became a blur around them. It really was like if they were flying.

Fifteen minutes passed with Blackie sprinting at its highest possible speed. The wolf had to slow down from time to time to catch its breath. But other than that, its stamina level barely dipped below twelve hundred.

Finally seeing the stream in the distance, Cecillia slowed the wolf down to a trot and scanned the area. They were at a different section of the stream, and the water flowed much more intensely. It could’ve almost been considered a small river at this point.

No creatures could be seen in the distance as they moved closer. Cecillia actually looked forward to there being something to gain levels from, but either way she didn’t mind the peace. There was only one thing she was wary about in this forest, and that was the slavers from yesterday. If she was captured, they probably wouldn’t hurt her— She glanced down at Blackie, its safety wouldn’t be guaranteed in that event so she had to be quick.

Cecillia prodded Blackie to the river bank and hopped off casually next to the rushing water. She stripped her clothes, spreading them neatly as the breeze brushed against her skin. Thankful for her attunement, she dipped a toe into the water to test its depth before plunging herself in. The water came just below her collar bone as Blackie stared at her for a moment and huffed a snort. Then it was right alongside her in the water. The wolf splashed around happily and caused Cecillia to cover her face with a laugh.

“Stop it you!”

She hadn’t realized it, but the wolf had already grown on her, far more than she had expected. Shaking her head, Cecillia spread the filthy clothes and swished them through the most intense part of the river. Blood and dirt were pulled from the cloth and were quickly flushed down the stream, possibly to ruin someone else’s day.

After about thirty seconds, Cecillia gave the clothes one more go in the wringer before throwing them onto the bank. Now, it was her turn. Her hands came behind her head, pulling her hair into a ponytail as she squeezed out all the grease that had been built up. As she did, she wondered if there was an equivalent to shampoo and conditioner.

Regardless if there wasn’t, her hair soon became acceptable to the point where it wouldn’t warrant any further attention. Cecillia closed her eyes and dipped her head under the water. Before moving onto the rest of her body, she scrubbed away whatever was left on her face. The hardest thing though were actually the bandages on her arm. Layla had warned her that removing the bandages would cease the healing effect of the herbs, and she still felt the dullest of pains from the injury. It was just that the grime had already seeped into the material…

Cecillia frowned and left the water. She ran a hand through her locks to squeeze out the liquid before twisting them into a bun. If she had access to her class, drying herself would be but an easy task as she could just freeze dry the water and shake off the ice.

“Oh, well,” she sighed.

Cecillia picked the clothes up and twisted each of them into a roll. It hurt to see the only set of clothing she had wrinkled, but she didn’t necessarily want to be hunting while dripping like a broken faucet. She considered this to be the lesser of evils.

Cecillia threw the clothes over herself and hopped onto Blackie. The wolf had already dried itself and they were off. This time, they followed the river downstream as the slavers had gone in the upstream direction.

It wasn’t long until they made contact with something. Just up ahead were three spherical forms hanging near the water’s edge. They were blue and resembled something from a typical fantasy world.

[Blue Slime - (Level 5)]

[Blue Slime - (Level 6)]

[Blue Slime - (Level 7)]

Normally a girl that was nineteen years of age would look at the sight and scream cute. But Cecillia was mentally twenty-seven and her eyes narrowed. She had seen enough things that passed themselves off as something innocent and enough casualties had occurred.

The trio of slimes had not noticed them yet—and as Blackie moved into its cloak of darkness—they would never. The wolf hung within the shadows of the trees and they carefully approached. Cecillia had already drawn her bow, and the feather of an arrow was right next to her cheek.

One of the slimes was slightly bigger than the others, and at the center of its translucent body was a small mana core. With the trajectory’s path clear, she closed an eye and the tension within her hand was released. Sticky fluid-like gel splattered as the arrow pierced through the slime’s core and embedded itself into the ground.

Cecillia received the notification that the creature was slain, but she ignored it as she waited. A second passed and the other slimes didn’t react. Even as she released another arrow, instantly killing the second slime, the third one did not move. Raising a brow, she silently signaled to Blackie to wait and swung herself off the wolf.

Her companion’s stealth ability wore off and her form was exposed as she took a step into the sunlight. She didn’t care as her boots crunched against the dirt but there was a certain level of caution she maintained as she drew her dagger. Closing in on the slime, it showed no reaction at first. But as she got within a single step of its body, it finally decided to make the slightest of movements.

With a squelching slimy noise, the blue sphere shimmered and it almost seemed to rotate. Cecillia paused and tilted her head to the side as the slime merely stared. There were two depressions on the front of its face that she assumed were its eyes, but other than that, there was no mouth or anything.

“Hello?” she asked tentatively.

She was close enough now to see the faint shimmering that emitted from its core but other than that, there really wasn’t anything special about the creature. Cecillia leaned in and prepared to kill the thing with a quick flick of her wrist. Whether it was a trap or not, she trusted her forty points of agility.

As her blade moved, the slime suddenly leapt at her. Her eyes widened slightly and the speed of her arm increased instantaneously. The edge of her dagger flickered, but at the very last moment Cecillia stopped.

The slime bounced off her chest harmlessly and fell to the ground with a boing. Blackie growled from just a meter behind her, having disobeyed its orders. However, Cecillia paid the wolf no heed as her eyes settled on a string of words. It was something that she had seen once, and only once before.

[The Blue Slime wants to create a contract with you.]

The system notification hung in the air, faintly glowing at set intervals as if to taunt her. Cecillia frowned as she read over the sentence. She even read it over a second time as she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her own hands had killed this guy’s friends, and now it was begging for its life just to become her slave?

Cecillia eyed the blue slime curiously. She didn’t necessarily want to have a pet slime and was about to slash downwards until Blackie snarled. She turned around to face the wolf but paused as she realized that it was snarling at her.

“What?” Cecillia asked in annoyance.

The wolf took a step closer and bared its teeth at the slime. The threat was evident in the low sounds that reverberated from its throat.

“You don’t want me to have another pet?”

The wolf growled again, this time a little more submissive in tone. Cecillia rolled her eyes and glanced down at the slime. Its form was quivering and it shrunk back behind her leg, making itself seem as small as possible.

Cecillia pressed her lips together. “Blackie, you haven’t really been behaving too well lately. Isn’t it about time we got you another friend?”

The wolf snarled, lunging forward as Cecillia allowed it to do as it pleased. But just before its jagged teeth could close around the slime, an invisible presence made it impossible.

Cecillia chuckled softly, shaking her head before finally releasing a heavy sigh. Perhaps it was time for Blackie to learn a lesson. The rational side of her knew that it had been out of spite, as after all, she was missing out on a potential level. But as her gaze shifted downward, she witnessed the pure betrayal written all over the wolf’s face. All her previous qualms had disappeared, the contract was more than worth it.

“Now let’s see… just what kind of thing are you?” she smiled.

Her attention shifted back onto the slime and her knees bent into a crouch. She reached out with a finger to poke her new companion and the result was as expected. The touch was cool and soft, and with a little more pressure it was squishy. That was that for physical attributes, now for the important part. Just what were its skills and abilities?

[Congratulations! Your taming job has leveled up once!]

[Job: Tamer is now level 1!]

[Domesticated Animals will now be more likely to trust you. Approximate value 1%]

The line of text surprised Cecillia and caught her off guard. She wasn’t expecting the notification log to greet her like this, but the update was welcome. Then again, as she continued to stare at the message she began to think that the taming job was a little more than unfair. The job hasn’t specified the amount of contracts she could create and if she so wanted…

“Could I make my own army?”

Glancing back quickly at Blackie—who was still growling uselessly at the slime with obvious disdain—she started thinking.

If she could level the job so that monsters, like the troll, were friendly with her, then tame them all… well, a one percent improvement couldn’t go that far anyways. Assuming that the only way to level the job was creating new contracts, it would take centuries before she got to that point.

Regardless, Cecillia was content with the results and moved on to the rest of the notifications.

[Contract Terms]

Individual Cecillia (Master) should protect Blue Slime (Servant)

“Only one clause?” she said, narrowing her eyes as she again turned to Blackie “It’s a lot less greedy than you already, eh?”

The wolf’s growling immediately ceased. Its eyes averted from her piercing stare and its head shied away. Cecillia didn’t spare the damned wolf another second and accepted the pitiful terms that the slime had given her.

[Contract Finalized]

A pale glow enveloped the slime and its life was now unfairly tied to hers. Blackie snorted and turned away from the sight. It couldn’t understand why its master had chosen to take such an inferior creature as its companion.

[Would you like to name the Blue Slime?]

Cecillia nodded and scooped the slime into her hands. She brought the creature up to her eyes and her blue orbs inspected every single inch of its gooey flesh.

“Blue and gooey,” she murmured. “How about Bluey?”

The slime wobbled and its head seemed to be hanging low. How a slime could do that… you’d have to ask the author.

[Are you sure you want to name the Blue Slime, ‘Bluey?’ Remember, you can only name your contracted partner once, please be careful.]

“Confirm,” she stated.

The interface flashed with light and her identification skill activated.

[Contract Information #2]

Species: Blue Slime

Name: Bluey

Bond: Cecillia Black

Level: 6

Health: 350/350

Stamina: 250/250

Mana: 800/800

Attribute: Void

Skills:

Devour Lvl. 1

Regurgitate Lvl. 1

Cecillia’s eyes were blank as she studied the little slime’s pool of resources. Even though it was only level six, its mana reserves already matched Blackie’s. Yet the thing that intrigued her the most was the void attribute. In Blackie’s case, it had the attribute of shadow which made perfect sense.

“Void attribute, and two skills so it can eat better,” she muttered.

Cecillia placed the slime on the ground and took out a piece of bread from her bag, holding it out to the creature. The slime jiggled in a retort as if it was unsatisfied with her offer.

“Your contract didn’t say I had to protect you,” she frowned.

Fearfully, the slime hopped backwards and shook its body. The quivering gel made it clear it understood her words.

“That’s what I thought.”

If the slime didn’t want bread, then perhaps it was similar to Blackie. Cecillia’s eyes trailed to the manacores laying on the ground nearby. The wolf hadn’t even glanced at the spheres and it likely wouldn’t accept them even if she shoved it in its mouth. However, the slime had the devour skill and she was determined to see how it worked.

Ignoring how cruel it was, Cecillia grabbed a nearby core and placed it in front of Bluey. The slime hesitantly inched forward before looking up for its master’s approval. Cecillia nodded.

Immediately, the air pressure around them increased and goosebumps ran along her skin. Blackie growled but didn’t dare move as Cecillia waved a hand. Her eyes were focused and an infinite colorless void appeared. A malicious maw opened wide and instantly devoured the core. Everything after that returned to normal and Cecillia once again picked up the slime.

Bluey seemed to be happy, but Cecillia was more so confused. She squinted as she tried to peer inside its translucentness, but the core had just vanished.

“What the hell?” she muttered.

The core that it had just eaten was nowhere to be seen when it should’ve been floating next to its own core. Seeing how it worked, Cecillia concluded that the void was separate from its corporeal body.

“Alright then Bluey,” she said. “Spit it out now.”

The slime complied and the core rolled out of the nothingness it had as its mouth. Nothing had changed to the texture of the core, it was perfectly the same as she left it.

“Wow.”

Cecillia was at a loss for words.