Chapter 30: Ignored and Distanced

Outside of the Great Forest of Neuling, Alaric was standing still, waiting for Sonic. After commanding the slip slime to come to him immediately, Alaric found that he had been ignored!

"Why hasn't he come yet? I feel Sonic's presence is only about 750 meters northwest, it should have arrived by now, even if it was in battle! Instead of coming closer, why is it getting farther away?"

Not only had Alaric put a good amount of mana into that command, he even expressed the severity of the issue.

'Odd... I guess I'll only find out if I search for him directly.'

Alaric began entering the forest, telling Pamela the command "rope" as he did. With the "rope" command, Pamela would hold onto Alaric and stick to a high vantage point, pulling Alaric forward.

"Swing!" Alaric ordered. This command basically told Pamela that he wanted to swing from place to place, in order to speed up. All Alaric had to do was point where, and Pamela would make it happen.

'Although I used it when Grander chased me, this really is a terrifying experience.' Alaric thought.

Each time he swung, he would increase in speed, and it wasn't getting any slower. One misstep from the change slime, and his face would slam directly into a tree trunk.

Soon, Alaric arrived at the place where he originally sensed the slip slime, Sonic. Although the slime had run away from this location and was currently outside of Alaric's slime-sensing range, he could at least glean some clues from the site.

'A slime colony is here?'

The first thing Alaric noticed upon arriving is that there was a relatively large slime colony, consisting of 53 slimes.

'I'd love to bring them home... but... slimes are too slow. If I ordered them to go there themselves, a wielder may ambush them on the way back. I'll leave them here.'

As opposed to what Alaric originally believed, he could not, in fact, gleam any clues from the location. He expected a battleground, corpses, a food or water source, or even a safe spot for rest. A slime colony? Completely outside of expectations, and unless he heard from Sonic itself, there was no way he'd be able to understand.

'I'm not one to create assumptions without evidence. Sonic gets further and further away by the second. Whatever is going on, I have to take action immediately!'

Alaric walked towards the colony of slimes and ordered them to look away from him. Immediately, he extracted 8 slime cores.

"I'll evolve one of these guys, and maybe that'll give me what I need."

Alaric brought one of the slimes to the side and fed it all 8 cores immediately. After 4 minutes of dissolving the cores, Alaric began to note the changes. The evolution of a random slime wasn't really a major event to him anymore.

"It's getting larger... another giant slime? Just like Gunnar? The mana feels a bit weaker though."

Soon, Alaric's questions were answered. It was indeed a second giant slime, one that Alaric would leave unnamed.

'Although it isn't a new breed, this will help too.'

Using his talent, Alaric explained the process of mounting to the large slime, which frequently responded with 'Kra!'

Alaric would use this new slime buddy of his as a mount, to more quickly chase Sonic.

"I don't know what you're pulling, Sonic, but it better not be stupid."

Alaric mounted the new, unnamed giant slime, and left in the direction he felt Sonic had left. Luckily the slime wasn't too dumb and evaded each and every tree with precision.

Alaric pondered, 'For Sonic's last known whereabouts to be a slime colony, could he have wanted freedom? From me? A family? Or is he rebelling?'

The slip slime was probably the most obedient of any of his slimes, taking on dangerous missions with the simplest of commands. The fact that it would ignore and avoid Alaric was baffling, to say the least.

In fact, Alaric had more of an attachment to Sonic than any of his other slimes, even Pamela, Gunnar, and Wurst could not compare.

'It is the first after all... my starter slime!'

Alaric soon sensed the slime's presence again, noting it to be about 400 meters to his current position's west. He quickly ordered the giant slime to make chase once again.

"I think... Sonic is leading me somewhere?"

...

Further into the depths of the forest, Sonic was waiting. It had kept Alaric a certain distance away on purpose, wanting to lead him to where he was right now.

'Kri!'

When the slip slime noticed Alaric had come, it immediately assumed that he was here for it. For the past few days, Sonic had gone against its instincts and ignored Alaric's order to return.

What lay here had completely overturned the slime's view of who it should follow. It was confused.

...

Alaric felt that the slip slime, Sonic, was getting closer and closer. This time, it wasn't running away. He became certain that Sonic was trying to lure him here.

'It shouldn't be intelligent enough for that... I think? Actually, I haven't completely tested the capabilities of Sonic's intelligence.'

After a nausea-inducing ride upon the giant slime's back, Alaric arrived at the slip slime's location. In front of him, was a giant crack in the ground, not wide enough to be called a ravine, but extremely deep.

'It's here?' Alaric questioned, ordering the giant slime to maintain its position.

He walked up to the giant opening in the ground, which seemed to stretch for tens of meters, and commanded Pamela, "Armor."

The armor command just so happened to allow Alaric to stick to walls, and climb them. This was only possible because of the change slime's ability to decide when it became acidic.

Lower, Sonic laid in wait.

'I can see Sonic... what is he standing on? Such a smooth material, and it's such a beautiful blue...'

Alaric soon arrived near the slip slime, which simply used its telepathy and said, 'Kri!'

"You said this is a slime's... core?!"