This situation didn’t look too good for me.
Not in the sense that I was in danger, but because it seems I had underestimated Ifrit, and my intention to get as close to him as possible to touch him and analyze as much information as possible would not be viable.
For some reason, in my head, I identified that it wouldn’t be too problematic, but it seems I forgot that the only reason Rimuru won was because of his resistance to temperature fluctuations, something I don’t have.
I guess not everything could go well.
I’ll settle for analyzing Shizue’s body when she’s unconscious, I thought.
Now I have to try to minimize the destruction as much as possible; after all, the job of defeating Ifrit is Rimuru’s.
“It’s the Flame Conqueror!” we heard Gido shout, who truly recognized who our enemy was.
At that moment, Shizue’s already fragmented mask falls completely, revealing her face amidst a whirlwind of fire, and at the same time, as if one problem wasn’t enough, she summons three flame salamanders, each of B rank.
Just after the summoning of the three lizards, the Voice of the World announces the activation of the unique ability “Degenerate.”
Shizue took no time at all to transform into a fire giant, although she looked almost more like a demon of a reddish-brown hue.
In Gido’s words, that creature was Ifrit, the fire titan and lord of spirits.
Rimuru seemed to be analyzing the situation and, as was evident, concluded that Shizue was not in control of the power she was unleashing, but that for some reason Ifrit had taken full control of her body and that the intentions he had were not friendly at all, they were rather destructive.
—Rimuru, I can’t get too close to that thing.
I will try to support you from the back and minimize damage.
Do you think you can finish that?
—Yes, but I need a while.
Try winning some time for me —he told me quickly.
“Perfect, no problem, but hurry up; fire and my fur don’t make a good combination,” I said comically in the midst of this situation.
POV RIMURU:
I tried to harm Ifrit by throwing a “Water Blade,” but before it could even touch him, the water evaporated.
I tried to do the same with the salamanders, and although I did manage to harm them, they quickly regenerated.
Ranga, who was on the battlefield, told me it was because physical attacks didn’t affect spiritual beings.
Now I knew how to damage the enemies in front of me, but I still didn’t have a way to do it, so after consulting with “Great Sage,” he told me it was possible to absorb a magical attack and replicate it.
So I asked Ellen to throw one of the ice spears he was using on the salamanders at me.
Thank God Kael was keeping the main body occupied, otherwise doing this in the middle of the fight could have been quite problematic.
As I absorbed and analyzed the ice spear that Ellen had thrown at me, I couldn’t help but think that this was the first time I had seen Kael fight.
Physically, he was clearly superior to me —I am a slime, after all— but he was also extremely fast and used what I believed to be elemental magic to draw Ifrit’s attention and move quickly across the terrain.
it wasn’t an elegant fighting style or anything like that; it was undoubtedly a wild style that he must have learned after surviving alone in the forest for more than a hundred days.
It’s not much, but he is stronger than me, I thought.
Well, now that I could damage spiritual beings, I decided to take action.
“Ranga,” I called in my head.
I quickly mounted it as soon as it appeared and used it to approach the salamanders and quickly finish them off, although the last one self-destructed and slightly injured the three adventurers.
I simply left them some potions and went to finish the work I had left.
POV KAELION:
As soon as I heard Rimuru’s voice, I quickly stepped back, not without first encouraging my friend.
—All yours, champ.
During the time Rimuru had been preparing, I had to keep Ifrit occupied and focused on me.
As I said before, he wasn’t really dangerous to me, and I could surely defeat him with some effort, but I didn’t want to harm Shizue or anything like that, so I limited myself to trying to achieve a result similar to the original story.
While I distracted him, I used the newly acquired Extra Skills for elemental manipulation that I had obtained yesterday.
Normally, ordinary elemental attacks shouldn’t be particularly effective against a spiritual life-form, but in this case, they were.
The reason was that the elemental phenomena I produced were manifested through my magicules, even though I controlled them through my Extra Skills.
“How did I manage to do this?
Well, the answer is rather simple.
While I was learning to generate and manipulate the elements in the forest, I discovered that I could manifest them through my magicules.
By imprinting the properties of each element onto my magicules, I could reproduce the corresponding elemental phenomena directly.
In practice, what I was doing was essentially a form of Aspectual Magic, using my magicules as the medium through which I manifested the elements.
In other words, the elemental phenomena I create are manifested through my magicules themselves rather than being ordinary physical elements.
That’s what allows them to interact with spiritual life-forms and potentially harm them—provided, of course, that they’re powerful enough to overcome their defenses.”
Using fire against a fire spirit was stupid, so I only attacked with water, ice, and light, while using wind to move more easily thru the air.
Overall, I had no problem; it was just about avoiding getting hit and making sure it didn’t focus on the others.
When Rimuru took over for me, things happened just like in the story.
I, in the background, took the opportunity to analyze Ifrit’s clone ability, but I couldn’t copy it or anything.
Bad luck, I guess.
When it was all over, only a slime and a woman remained at the center of the conflict.
After things calmed down a bit more, we left the three adventurers resting in the houses that had survived thanks to me.
I hadn’t managed to save them all, but at least I was able to help in some way.
Rimuru took Shizue directly to a bed so she could rest, and when he came out of there, he seemed a bit sad, so I decided to ask him even though I already knew what was wrong.
—You look a bit sad.
Is everything okay?
—Ah, yes, don’t worry.
It’s just that after using my ability on Shizue, I confirmed that she was also reincarnated like us, and I was thinking that I was really lucky to have reincarnated under the conditions I did.
—I see.
Don’t worry, I’ll take care of Shizue for now, you rest for a while.
We will take turns caring for Shizue while she is unconscious.
After that, he quickly withdrew to what I understand was to rest.
Although it seemed a bit unethical to me, I decided to try to analyze the unique skill “Degenerate” at this moment, taking advantage of the fact that things were still fresh.
I felt a bit bad taking advantage of someone who had suffered so much, especially while they were unconscious, but their ability would be very useful to me in the future if I could obtain it.
Upon entering the tent, Shizue was lying on the bed completely unconscious.
Before sitting in the chair next to her bed, I removed the cloth from her forehead, re-wet it, and cooled it a bit with my magic, then placed it back on her.
After a sigh, I began the analysis.
Speculator, any effective way to conduct the analysis?
“Speculator”: —The chances of acquiring the unique skill “Degenerate” from the individual Shizue Izawa in this attempt are 0.78%, and the chances of doing so during Charybdis’s evolution are 14.39%.
My suggestion is to try to gather as much information as possible and, in the future, attempt to acquire it when it is more likely.
Mmh.
I understand.
Is there anything specific you want me to do?
“Speculator”: —Affirmative.
Collect DNA samples from the individual Shizue Izawa and keep your hand in contact with their body while I conduct the analysis.—
Although I didn’t have much magic left after the fight, I collected some hair, blood, and saliva, and then I placed my hand on Shizue’s arm.
I stayed like that for almost an hour and then withdrew because Rimuru had come to keep Shizue company for a while.
For the next seven days, we took turns irregularly between Rimuru, me, and some hobgoblins to take care of Shizue.
In total, I was able to do more than 16 hours of analysis, which according to “Speculator” had been quite fruitful.
During these days, I was also training while I wasn’t with Shizue.
Using the information from Ifrit’s clones and “Speculator,” I managed to recreate Naruto’s shadow clones, although I could only make two without them becoming more of a burden than a help.
They were weaker than me and disappeared after a single hit, but it was a useful skill for me.
The only problem is that the clones’ memories did return, but they couldn’t perform analyses.
I also managed to convert the rest of my elemental skills into extra skills.
In total, I now had the respective manipulation of fire, wind, water, ice, earth, lightning, light, and darkness.
Overall, they were productive days.
By the time Shizue woke up, both Rimuru and I were by her bedside.
With a calm voice despite knowing her death was imminent, she told us about her life in this world and how she could never come to hate it, even though she didn’t like it at all.
In the end, she asked Rimuru to devour her to prevent her body from having to rest in this very world and, in this way, to finally be able to rest.
Even though I had barely been with this person, I couldn’t help but feel sad.
Her death only confirmed even more that this world was very real for me and for those around me, and that death was something that could happen to anyone.
Time to lock in.
I tough.