Chapter 26 Looking For Crystal

After half an hour of practicing crushing stuff, she decided to try something else. She walked to a big rock and placed her hand on it, then covered it in a black aura using her magic. She created zero gravity around the rock, causing her own body to feel twice as heavy. The rock, which was three times her size and weighed roughly 9 tons, was effortlessly lifted by Suzuka with just one finger. It started floating in the air, gradually ascending.

With all her might, the girl ax-kicked the rock upwards. Like an arrow, it shot up into the sky so high that she could barely see it. However, as the rock flew beyond the range of her magic power, her spell was canceled. Instantly, she felt light again, and the rock began to descend faster and faster, plummeting straight down.

"Oh no! That was a terrible idea! When it hits the ground, it's going to make so much noise. If I could crush it in mid-air, that would save me from this trouble," she yelled.

Focusing intently, the girl attempted to aim at the falling rock. However, its rapid descent proved to be quite a challenge to lock onto. After several failed attempts, she finally cloaked the rock with her aura and began to crush it. This time, it proved much harder than crushing small rocks; it felt like trying to crush a can with bare hands. The massive 9-ton rock crumbled into dust mid-air, which was then scattered by the wind across the field.

After playing around for a few more hours, the girl went to check on Bill. As she entered the cave, she saw Bill holding his broken axes, and he was visibly displeased.

"Hay, Bill... what's wrong?"

Bill was triggered by her question and got angry at her.

"What's wrong?! The girl asks Bill what's wrong?! Bill tell you what's wrong! Both axes broke! It's dark in here! Damn old man and his kid stole Bill's shiny crystal. Can't see well in here, can't fix Bill's ax!"

"If you calm down Bill... I might help you find another shiny crystal... or you can go outside it's still daytime. But first, let's calm down, okay?"

Bill puts down his ax on the ground and after a minute calms down.

"Okay, now... where did you find that shiny crystal, Bill?"

"It was close to the river in a small cave not too far from here. It looked nice so Bill took it. Crystal glows only in the dark."

"All right, so it was fluorescent crystal... we could go and look for one if you want."

"Yeah! The little girl is right... I should get a new one. If luck is on our side we should get the crystal and go back by nightfall. Let's go now!"

Bill got up, put his axes on the ground, and walked outside, Suzuka followed him. Right after they exit the cave Bill turned right and started to walk on a small path through the forest. After an hour of slow walking, they finally reached the river. It was an easy walk since Minotaur's presence scared off all predators away. This place had rocky terrain, lots of small caves, many broken trees, and piles of bones of all kinds of animals.

"Say, Bill, why are there so many bones around here? It's like a graveyard in here."

"This is a nest of Slime and it's their feeding ground. All of these bones are Slime victims. Animal, human, beast, mutant, the monster it does not matter to Slime... if it's meat they eat... that's all it is, girl."

"Oh, come on, Bill! Why didn't you tell me Slimes are here? I just puked one a few hours ago, I don't want to experience that again."

Bill slapped her on the back.

"Hahaha! Girl doesn't worry, Slime doesn't attack like some animal. Slime pray on defenseless victims and girl is far from one! Unless one run's into Slime Kings."

Suzuka starts to look around her to see if no Slime is creeping around, she doesn't want Slime to melt her meat. Hearing the name Slime King piques her interest.

"Slime King? What's the difference? Aren't all Slimes the same?"

Bill looks at the girl and facepalms himself.

"Why girl carry Monsterpedia if the girl not reading it? Don't ask all little things, just read the dam thing! No time to chat, not long till dark."

"Okay, okay, Bill! Just don't get mad, I will read it in my book... as soon as we get back. I still got a few things to ask you when we get back, hope you don't mind."

"Crystal first! Talk later! Now we split up, Bill goes upstream, and the girl goes downstream of the river... got it!"

"Okay! Got it, we meet here in an hour if we don't find anything, okay Bill?"

"Sure!"

Without saying anything else, Bill went upstream. The girl started to walk downstream while looking around for caves to find the crystal that Bill wants. It didn't take long until she found her first cave. It wasn't very big, and she didn't even need to go inside because it was empty. After about five more minutes of looking around, she found another small cave. This time, she noticed something glowing inside. The cave entrance was very small, so she had to lie down on her stomach and crawl to fit inside.

A few meters into the cave, it became wide enough for her to stand up. After taking a closer look around, at the end of a tunnel, she discovered the corpse of an adventurer. He was holding a small crystal that was glowing. His body had no flesh left, only armor and clothes remained on his bones. Suzuka checked his belongings, but nothing was of use to her. Even his armor and clothes were barely holding on. The crystal he was holding was also of no use to her.

She examined the adventurer's name tag, which revealed his name as Ricky. Engraved on his name tag was a title: 'Ricky The Crystal Whisperer.' The girl took his name tag and left the cave. After another 10 minutes of walking along the river, she came across a few more caves. Finally, she spotted a bright light emanating from one of the caves. She grabbed the crystal and pulled it out of the wall. The crystal was slightly bigger than her head and provided a good amount of light. Finished with the cave, she walked outside and followed the path she had come from. She safely arrived at the spot where she was supposed to meet Bill. However, after waiting for 30 minutes with no sign of Bill, she decided to go upstream and see why he was taking so long. She left the crystal on the ground next to the path that led back to Bill's cave and proceeded upstream.

After walking for a good 10 minutes, all she saw were small caves, broken trees, and piles of bones. Bill was nowhere to be seen or heard. Another 10 minutes passed, and she approached a cave from where she could hear some noise coming. Hoping that she had found Bill, Suzuka entered the cave.

"I don't know what or who making that noise in there but I need to check it, it might be Bill in there."

The girl stopped right after she was inside and with a faint voice shouted.

"Bill! Is that you?... Please answer me..."

But no one answered her, the noise was getting closer. Suzuka started to walk slowly deeper inside, It was a long, wet, and narrow cave. After a few more minutes inside, she walked into the big opening but it wasn't the end of the cave. When a girl reached the middle of the opening she saw that path further was flooded and she can't go further.

"Well, poop in the pants, it's as far as I can go. No Bill in here... where did he go? And who was making that sound?"

While the girl was talking to herself big Slime fell down on her from the cave ceiling. It was so big that the girl's body got engulfed by it preventing her from escaping. Suzuka couldn't even let out a shout when Slime started to drown her. No matter how hard she struggled she couldn't break away from inside the Slime. It didn't take long till she started to suffocate, this Slime was thicker than usual. It felt like swimming in gelatin, thick and elastic Slime started to work its way inside the girl's lungs and stomach. This Slime was a bright red color and almost transparent.

Suzuka felt her skin getting melted by Slime's digestive acid. Feeling the pain and with no way of breaking free, she starts to panic. She tries her magic a few times but it's no use, Slime just goes back to its form and she can't crush it while she's inside a Slime. Only a few minutes have passed since she got trapped by a Slime. Suzuka reaching her limits, and she's on the brink of losing consciousness. But Slime didn't let her lose it he forced himself hard inside her stomach bulging her belly and putting her in pain. After feeling how her body gets violated by Slime she remembers that she has a flask with alcohol in her pocket, which she looted in orc camp before meeting Clive. After opening the flask she started to shake it and splashed inside a Slime making him spit the girl out. The moment she was free Suzuka didn't wait for even a second and run to the exit while coughing up Slime remains from her lungs and stomach.

"You dam Slime! Cough... I will get you for this! Cough... You think... cough... you can abuse me!? Cough... I'll show you!"

Suzuka runs a couple of meters outside of the cave and extended her arm in front while targeting deep inside that cave. As anger was her trigger she didn't care about anything at that moment and unleashed one of her big moves.

"Take this one for size, you stupid Slime! Black Hole!"

Right after she used her power she felt a little bit of her mana depleted and she saw a dark ball forming inside a cave. Only in a matter of seconds, everything around that ball started to get sucked in towards it with great force. In another few seconds, the cave collapsed and got pulled in along with Slime inside that black ball. The longer that ball was active the stronger the pulling force become and not long till Suzuka felt getting pulled towards the ball. But before she got in trouble she canceled her magic and the dark ball disappeared. When it vanished a ball size of a fist fell on the ground with a huge force knocking it deep into the ground. Suzuka didn't look around and decided to go back to Bill's cave to drink some of his wine to clean the rest of the Slime. While returning she picked up the crystal she left on a path and went back to Bill's place.

"Oh, I was stupid to think he will wait for me, he probably doesn't even know how long an hour is. I bet he's already in his cave eating dam apples and laughing his butt cheeks off. Stupid crystal! He could just go outside and fix his dum axes there... but no! He needs a glowing crystal for that! And it's not even that dark in there! Come on! Ahhh! I'm so mad at him!"

After almost an hour of walking back, Suzuka comes back to Bill's cave and finds him snoring on his hay bed. Seeing Bill sleeping like a snoring baby all comfortable Suzuka kicks him to wake him up. 

Feeling a kick in the back Bill jumped from his bed and shouted, "Who dares to interrupt Bill's sleep?"

But after looking around and seeing only a girl in his cave Bill calm down and say to her, "Oh, it's just a little girl... don't do that again... or I eat your leg that kicked me!"

But Suzuka didn't get scared of him.

"You butt cheek! I can't believe you did that! You left me there! Why didn't you wait for me!? I went to look for you and almost got drowned by a huge red Slime in a cave!"

After hearing a girl saying all these things to him Bill didn't get mad, this time he only made a smile and let out a quiet laugh.

"Hahaha! So! The little girl fought with a Slime king and yet looks fine... Bill was right... the girl is a monster after all. No human adventurer stands a chance in front of a Slime king."

Suzuka got mad at him for calling her that but noticed that Bill has found crystal too. With her anger going down she said to him, "Would you stop calling me a monster!? Please! Wait... you found a crystal too? And it's big - maybe two times bigger than the one I found."

"Bill found this crystal right after we split up... girl said to wait an hour and Bill don't like to wait, so Bill went home to take a nap. Okay little monkey, Bill won't call you a monster."

"Okay, okay I give up, I don't care anymore... what I need right now is to get the rest of the Slime out of my system and a good rest. I feel tired after today's experiences."

"Sure little monster, wine is in the back... knock yourself out. Bill go sleep, still feels weak, the girl does whatever the girl needs to do."

Without answering Bill, she went to get his wine so that she could kill the Slime that was still inside her. She submerged her head into a pot where the wine was and inhaled it to kill the Slime that was inside her lungs. After coughing up the remains of the Slime, she had a few cups of wine to kill the one inside her stomach. Once she finished cleaning herself, she decided to go to sleep as well. Tomorrow would bring a long and hard day for the girl.