Chapter 361: Savior

Two weeks had already passed since the war event began. Conflicts and the gathering of forces were happening in every place all over the New World. Even the Island of Beginnings, which had never been involved in the previous war event, was swept up by it. Its ten-year-long peace was gone.

The place of births and new adventures, where new players accumulated experience before venturing to the Main Continent, had become the battlefield between the lone king and the army of slimes.

A huge domain had been dominating a third of the island for a couple of days already, and it showed no sign of collapsing soon.

Nevertheless, the beach on the southern side of the Island of Beginnings was relatively peaceful. The moon shone its gentle moonlight down on the sea without minding the surge of dark and water elements magic power from the west side of the island.

A young woman in white clothing strapped her hair into a ponytail and tightened her robe. She moved closer to a bonfire to warm herself up. Standing guard near her was a giant rabbit with a physique similar to a bear.

There must be a safer place for her to stay somewhere in the town, but there were many reasons that she had been avoiding entering the city for several weeks.

She didn’t feel lonely, however. She always had the giant white rabbit—namely Fluffy—as her companion. Additionally, yesterday she just unexpectedly got another member into her family.

Reminding of yesterday, she showed a gentle smile while stroking the hair of the black-haired little girl who was taking a nap next to her. The girl was wearing light armor made of blackfish scales weaving together.

“Oww! It hurts. Don’t bite, Qua-chan. It’s not cute.” She scolded the girl.

“I’m not a pet, human.” The girl struggled to get out of the young woman’s lap, but her body was currently too weak to do that. “My name is Quasar, not Qua-chan!”

The current state of the Eclipse Fish Quasar—the legendary Light Stealer—was no different from a helpless infant. At the time when she was injured in Zhongsuyuan City, she was in a bad shape since dark-element magic didn’t have recovery spells. In order to heal herself, she needed to rest in the place with condensed dark magic energy, so she exerted the last bit of her power to leap through ambient mana to the place with the most powerful dark energy in the New World. Compared to the Monster Realm, she thought anywhere in this world would be just a child’s playground for her. Unexpectedly, when she appeared on this island, she showed up in the middle of the battlefield.

Having to flee from Mamon was upsetting enough, but her luck just got worse by every minute. Her rank was demoted to Marquis Rank, her health points greatly declined. As she planned to absorb ambient mana to use, she found that there was a spellcaster stronger than her within a twenty-kilometer radius constantly consuming mana, refused to let her have even a speck of it.

Quasar is basically an aquatic animal. She normally lives in the water and depends on it for survival, though she had learned to spend magic power to support her life in the place without water. She usually had no problem with the constant energy consumption since she could either take a human form or rely on ambient mana. Unfortunately, she was no longer a Lord Rank monster and Kritsana was seizing complete control over ambient mana, leaving her no choice but to use her own magic reserve—which was pathetically low due to her low rank.

Explosions from countless abilities and undying corpses brimming with magic power raged the battlefield. It took Quasar everything she had to desperately flee from that place toward the south, which was relatively safer. Once she got out of the sinister domain, however, her magic reserve was completely expended, no longer able to support herself to swim in mid-air. She crashed, rolled, and stopped on the beach—just ten meters away from the water source.

She was terribly dehydrated and about to die. Gritting her teeth, she felt bitter to realize that she was going to die without fulfilling her revenge yet.

Darkness overcame her vision. Darkness was usually her ally—her favorite place to live—but it was currently depriving her of her life. She let out a dry cough as she lamented this ironic joke.

She hadn’t escaped from Hell just to die uselessly like this...

‘Lady Nyx... Please show me mercy... I don’t want to be in that place anymore...’

Hell was a vast desolate land, possibly borderless. Roaming in there were monsters that had lost their desires, goals, and ambition. It took all of her efforts just to hang onto her wills and ego, refusing to let them go.

Knowing that she had to return to that cruel place, she was hopeless to the point she prayed for the mercy of the Goddess of the Night—who she had forgotten for a long time.

When was the last time that she had called out the Goddess’ name? And Why did she stop worshipping her? Thinking back... It must be around thousands of years ago when Mammon silently ambushed her from a dark shadow. After that, she quit putting her faith in the Goddess.

Her incredibly weak body was lifted up. Quasar thought she had already died, yet she heard the celestial sound of an unknown goddess.

“Fluffy? What did you pick up? Don’t eat leftover food, or you will have a stomachache otherwise.”

At that time, Quasar had actually believed that the voice’s owner was a Goddess, though she found out later that they were simply a human. Since she didn’t have an ounce of strength left to resist, she was immediately registered as a pet once the voice’s owner came to take care of her.

Then, the name of her first-ever master emerged inside her mind, disregarding her will.

Francine.

“Don’t be stubborn. It’s already late at night. You should rest. Your body is still weak, isn’t it?” Francine lightly scolded the girl.

“I don’t need to sleep!!” Quasar lost her temper. “Quit treating me like a little kid!”

Due to her status as a pet and Francine’s Mind Link, however, Quasar was well aware that Francine was genuinely worried about her. Thus, she was reluctant to behave too aggressively.

Concurrently, with the said skill, Francine was also aware of Quasar’s hidden consideration toward her.

“Kya~ You’re so adorable.”

Quasar rolled her eyes in annoyance. Using the Eclipse Scale Mana Shell spell might not be the best idea since the spell made her stay in the childish human form, though she had to do it to preserve her magic power. The spell temporarily transformed her fish scales and gills into clothing and generated a small dark domain to cover her skin, stopping her from suffocating.

Francine showed a mild smile. She liked monsters more than humans since their personalities were generally more straightforward. She planned to continue spending time in the Island of Beginnings befriending Quasar and raising her Affection Level.

Never again that she would repeat her past mistake, taming too many monsters beyond her capability. In order to utilize that many monsters, her rank would have to be at least Lord.

With Fluffy’s help, she had recovered her lost levels and was now at Level 1,000 Knight Rank. As she was, if she wanted to display the full potential of each of her pets, taming three or four monsters was her limit.

Francine took a look at Quasar’s tiny diamond earring. Actually, this item was attached to the left fin of Quasar’s original body, but it seemed the system made it be apparent even when the monster was covering her body under a spell. The earring was the power-dampening device designed as a pet accessory. It was mainly used to tame a monster stronger than the master. Fortunately, she had kept it in the bank, so she didn’t lose it when she died under Sebastian’s hand. The earring used to be on Fluffy’s ear, though it got transferred to Quasar yesterday. Fluffy’s Affection Level toward her was already at max value anyway.

As Francine was busy playing with Quasar (Francine did it one-sidely, actually), Fluffy’s ears suddenly pointed up. It looked to the left.

With the effect of Mind Link, Francine felt that Fluffy was sensing something approaching them, so she stopped playing with Quasar and got up. She packed her belonging, ready to flee.

In the past months, her escape skill got improved a lot. She wanted to avoid fighting as much as possible, especially against players. Most of her time usually spent on either grinding levels near the Illusion Forest or playing with Fluffy to increase its Affection Level and her understanding of its behaviors.

Fluffy’s sense told her that the approaching one wasn’t a human, but a monster. It’s rare to see a monster wandering alone, but when it happened, the monster was likely to be strong.

“...The slime race. Level 300 Marquis Rank.” Francine could accurately discern the monster’s level. “At this level, I think it’s manageable for us. Let’s wait and see.”

Fluffy nodded. It spared the approaching slime a sharp look. The scar under its right eye twitched for no reason. Once the invader hopped into its attack range, Fluffy gave out a warning by expanding its qi sphere that was as cold as the snow land bathed under the moonlight.

Snow Moon Qi — Lunar Rabbit.

The tranquil and passive qi extended with God’s Cathedral qi technique, forming a freezing domain. Under extreme coldness, the incoming orange creature slowed down significantly, ice starting to cover its skin. It descended to the sandy beach by the gravity.

Racial Skill — Mega Flare.

The orange creature heavily vibrated, causing the ice on its skin to break and disperse. It opened its mouth, which released hot steam coming from its body. It hopped three times in quick succession and stopped in front of Fluffy.

Luaid had been staying in the Slime Kingdom since birth. His rank might be Marquis and he might possess only four combat skills, but his mastery over his skills shouldn’t be underestimated.

Adult slimes in the Slime Kingdom must possess at least one of the skills belonging to the Guardians. Including their own Way of Slime, that meant they were free to learn two other skills from others before their skill quota was filled.

Luaid preferred brains over the brawl, so he didn’t possess direct combat or defensive skills such as Formless Soldier or Orbiting Cosmos. With his desire to become a handsome and capable slime as Divine, he eventually chose Moon Reflecting Mirror that comes with versatility.

For the record, his Way of Slime was Slime’s Roar, which was the skill developed from Slime Sing-a-Song, while the Mega Flare skill was the advanced version of Slime’s Roar, similar to how Poluk having Genesis Punch or Viola having Divine Raiment. Presently, Luaid was the only one capable of using Mega Flare.

As for the other two skills, Luaid chose to learn Opaque Slime (which would develop into Sparkless Lightning) and Sleeping Slime (which would develop into Thousand Dreams) from a couple of old husband and wife who quit fighting and secluded themselves, staying peacefully somewhere in the Kingdom.

Both Opaque Slime and Sleeping Slime were psychic-type skills. Unfortunately, Luaid wasn’t at the level where he could improve the skills yet.

Luaid’s target was Francine, the person he was given the direct assignment from His Majesty to find her. With his eyes locking onto her, he didn’t care about other beings regardless of they were humans or monsters. He bounced past Fluffy without even sparing the rabbit a glance. Even though Fluffy’s level was higher—being Level 10 Lord Rank—the rabbit race was generally docile. Compared to Quasar’s craftiness or Luaid’s techniques, Fluffy’s fighting prowess was inferior to the two.

Being ignored by a lower rank opponent, Fluffy was upset. Since its master hadn’t given any specific order, it expressed its anger by cladding its left palm with Freezing Soul qi technique. Baring its freezing claws, it struck at the small creature next to it.

Snow Moon Qi — Rabbit Hunt.

Luaid didn’t even look at the attack. No matter how powerful the attack was, such a straightforward approach wasn’t worth his attention. His skin became slightly darker for a second before Fluffy’s palm hit the spot where he was standing. The orange slime vanished and miraculously reappeared on Fluffy’s shoulder.

“Don’t waste my time, ya!” His imposing voice contained the power of Slime’s Roar, though he limited the skill’s effective range and destructive power. Fluffy covered its ears, its body swaying. It lost its balance and collapsed.

Luaid hopped over the defeated opponent and stopped in front of Francine. He looked up at her, his dole eyes blinking.

“Hello.” Francine activated the skill that allowed her to mentally communicate with monsters. It was quite ineffectively, however, which she had already anticipated from the facts that Luaid’s rank was higher than her and was in a perfectly healthy state. Knowing so, she was concerned. The orange little slime’s appearance might look adorable, but its fighting prowess was beyond Fluffy’s, who was at Lord Rank. The previous exchange between them implied that if the slime intended to kill, even Fluffy wouldn’t be able to protect her.

Nevertheless, the little slime’s next action was to make a crying face, tears running down from its big eyes. It made an expression like someone who had been lost for a long time but finally found their destination. It wept at her, making a loud noise.

“Oh! Savior! Finally, I meet you! I have been searching for you for a really, really long time.”

...The truth was that Luaid’s journey lasted only a couple of days.

“Savior?” Francine pointed at herself.

“Oh! You’re our greatest hope! Only you can break the Slime Kingdom free from the thousand-year-long curse.” Again, the Slime Kingdom was attacked less than a week ago. “Please lend us your strength, Savior!”

Luaid had a habit of exaggerating things. It wasn’t that he was a liar, but doing things this way was more exciting. For him, who had been staying under the darkness within the sealed Slime Kingdom for a long time, making things more exciting was his only enjoyment.

Francine realized this must be some kind of a hidden quest. “What do I need to do?”

Luaid’s eyes sparkled with a ray of hope. “It’s not difficult at all, Savior. Please listen to my story.”