Chapter 469: Gifts

To my surprise, everyone had at least one slime core for me, except for Tabitha, who had joined up with Kurt to hand me three cracked blue slime cores. Obviously, these had come from when they were still living in Southbrook and were unfortunate accidents on the farm. I couldn't help staring at one of the blue slime cores in particular, as I could've sworn the crack on it was caused by a knife, sending an unexpected chill through my own core.

The biggest surprise, though, came from Lisa, who handed me a yellow slime core, and knowing how annoying it was to get my own, I nearly turned down her gift, but she insisted.

"This comes from an old weapon I bought and broke," Lisa explained. "I purchased it to help channel my lightning, but the sword itself must have been made from shoddy materials, as the core was the only thing that survived repeated usage."

I was so touched to see all the slime cores in front of me that I felt I really needed to return the favor, despite their insistence otherwise. I had a bunch of random items I could've pulled out, but none felt as meaningful as their gesture, so I looked at the various materials [Dissection] had harvested.

Oh! Now that's a good idea.

I had my target and had Nu withdraw it and transfer it into [Pocket Space], since I didn't really have my iconic bag to pull things out of anymore. I could've made a duplicate, but that bag represented an elf branch, so it would be weird for me to carry it around now that I wasn't a body double anymore. When Nu was done, I opened the [Pocket Space] in the middle of the table and let the contents pour out.

Everyone leaped up from the table at the sudden surprise, except for Vee, who had sensed the spatial fluctuations. What poured out of my storage was almost countless immaculate scales from the medusa's giant tail, and while it was probably overkill in terms of compensation, I had more scales than I knew what to do with. If I hadn't exploded in Dhoggurum, I would have offered them some obsidianite, and while I could easily produce it with [Metal Slime], it would revert to a liquid form when the primed state ran out.

"What's all this?" Roderick was the first to ask.

"Scales… Lots and lots of scales," Whitney answered, but was clearly unsure where they came from.

"Wait. Is this what I think it is?" Lisa asked, turning to me.

"If you're thinking it comes from the labyrinth maze, then yes," I replied with a cheeky wink.

"Medusa scales…" Lisa murmured.

Everyone gasped at the answer, well, almost everyone, as Kurt seemed not to know the full details and was perplexed by the small mountain of resources that had filled up the table. Vee also didn't really react and seemed more disgusted by them, if anything.

"I almost feel bad for the monster if you managed to harvest this much from it," Tabitha replied, gingerly picking up a scale and inspecting it. "I can't even imagine what level your [Dissection] skill is at now."

"It's maxed, and I'm debating whether to uncap it or see if I can get an upgrade," I answered.

Roderick whistled and shook his head. "I'll be damned. I have no idea how you maxed it out so quickly."

"What can I say? It just comes naturally to me," I chuckled, and dared not mention that I actually had multiple items on my profile uncapped or maxed. [Prodigy] was a good excuse, but nothing beat the free proficiency I gained from simply eating slime cores.

Judging by Vee's growth, I wonder if we [Experiments] aren't receiving some kind of boon. I know Gramps has offhandedly mentioned this is entertainment and has accidentally brought up bets and competitions, so I wouldn't put it past them. If we had ordinary growth rates, we'd probably spend days and weeks making very little progress. Then again, I could be wrong, as what are weeks, months, or even years to a god? Or maybe monsters in general have better rates to make up for the fact that they usually get hunted down by anything and everything.

"Feel free to take as much as you want," I said, waving at the table. "I have way more where this came from, and it would just be gathering dust in my storage."

"You'd make a terrible merchant," Tabitha joked.

"Why do you think I don't keep track of money? In fact, all my recent spending was done by Vee."

"Well, you can always transfer some money to my account if you aren't going to use it," Vee said, sticking out her tongue.

"I'll ask Luther if he can somehow link it. Otherwise, I could just give you some supplies for them to sell on your behalf."

"Talk about the power of nepotism," Kurt joked, shaking his head.

"Hey, we're benefiting too; where else could we try to give away some silly slime cores and get this much in return?" Dewi pointed out.

"Slime cores are not silly," I grumbled.

"Sorry, sorry, I just always see them as magical catalysts," Dewi admitted.

You know, I completely forgot that's what humans use them for. I've always just seen them as delicious experience bundles. I should ask Keldenar for some blueprints, and I can try enchanting one of my [Sub-Cores]...

I expected my friends to resist taking the scales, but perhaps because of the sheer amount I had casually thrown out, they swallowed their pride and accepted them. I truly hoped they could be put to some good use, and if anything, they should easily be able to make a full set of defensive armor to keep them safe and sound.

"Are you going to requisition the guild to craft you anything?" Lisa asked. "Or do you have access to elven crafters through your princess?"

"There's also Keld, which has some of the top crafters in the kingdom," Evan suggested.

"I'm not sure. I'm still thinking about it," I answered, trying to dodge the question.

It was kind of sad; the legendary monster's scales were actually inferior to what I could create with slime. Defense-wise, maybe the only thing that could compete would be something crazy like true dragon scales, but I had no access to anything like that. The only other benefit for using non-slime items would be enchanted effects, but I'd be better off dismantling them and reproducing them with temporary slime items.

After spreading the wealth, we finished our conversations, and it was probably time to return to Keaburg before Luther and Keldenar started worrying I'd abandoned them on what was supposed to be my celebration. As we discussed, the others decided to come with us for a mini vacation, and Lisa in particular looked ecstatic at the prospect of time away from her desk.

I considered opening a hole away from Keaburg, but then I recalled the guild master's room was pretty much available, so I poked open a tiny hole to confirm nobody was in the way. Vee suggested this privately while I debated how to safely open a rift without knowing what was on the other end.

With the peephole method confirming the room was vacant, I coordinated with Nu again to open a proper connected portal and opened up the doorway. Naturally, we had all thanked Trevor profusely for the meal and left a generous tip, while also extending him and his family the same offer to visit Keaburg. However, while they appreciated the gesture, they ultimately turned us down, saying they had too much to worry about to leave the inn vacant.

With that, I brought our guests straight to the Capital, and right in the middle of the celebrations. We snuck out of the guildmaster's office, the locked door successfully picked by Whitney, and began to mingle with the crowd. Lisa made an effort to find Luther right away and tell him we'd arrived, while I sought out Keldenar to tell him I was back.

Overall, we didn't miss much, mostly just festivities and loud celebrations, with the occasional impromptu competition. It was mostly just silly things, like the warriors doing arm wrestling, or spellcasters revealing their most visually impressive non-damaging spells. Of course, there were occasional trips into the various training rooms, where Keldenar's poor mass-produced golems were the punching bags.

With less direct attention on me, I also took the opportunity to finally chow down on my presents. Everyone else was enjoying the food, and while I did too, it was nowhere near the level of, say, Vee. Someone like Vee would squeal with delight over desserts or fruit, and the only thing that gave me a similar sensation was the delectable slime cores.

I savored each one carefully, and while I gained nothing new, as expected, I still gained plenty of proficiency.

<Proficiency gained. [Primordial Slime LV 20] improved to [Primordial Slime LV 21].>

<Proficiency gained. [Slime Mastery LV 18] improved to [Slime Mastery LV 20].>

I honestly expected to gain more levels, but it was clear that going beyond level twenty was a bigger task than I could imagine. I had previously needed dozens of blue slime cores to gain a single level above ten, but those all had low levels in their unique slime trait, whereas the cores I had just consumed had decent levels.

The yellow slime core in particular was a true delicacy, having seven levels in [Voltaic Slime], and was what ultimately pushed [Primordial Slime] over the limit. The rest of the slime traits that were swallowed up by [Slime Mastery] were all over the show, and I had reached the massive milestone before even getting halfway through my meal. I knew it would be stuck at twenty for quite some time, but that wasn't exactly the end of the world for me.

I quickly messaged my personas that our traits had been raised and took the opportunity to feel it out myself. [Primordial Slime] was, as always, a bit of a mystery in how it improved, but [Slime Mastery] had traits inside it with measurable effects, such as [Slime Puppetry]. In fact, the only way I could vaguely gauge how much [Primordial Slime] improved was through [Nitro Slime] and the increased primed duration.

Oh? Oh my! This is a bit absurd, isn't it?

The first ten levels of [Nitro Slime] were measured in minutes per rank, which rose to hours per rank in its teens, and, if I wasn't mistaken, the twenties now offered me days per rank! It was a pity it wasn't retroactive, with my previous ranks getting the new bonus, but even so, added together, I appeared to have well over a week, maybe even two, of primed time. Realistically, I wouldn't ever need such a long duration, especially taking into account [Slime Puppetry], but now I could theoretically use just slime as building material even without a [Sub-Core] staying behind.

As for [Slime Puppetry], the distance had also become absurd, and I could imagine Sylvain would be over the moon with his newfound freedom around the island waters. At the end of the day, I still wanted to give them all their own network slot if I could, but unfortunately I couldn't just eat slime cores to solve that problem.

Still, every bit helps, and if he's willing to create a daisy chain with his assigned [Sub-Cores], or maybe even borrow a few extra from Sylbera, he should be able to pretty much go wherever he wants.

Further testing would require me to be away from the city, but as one of the day's iconic figures, I sadly couldn't just disappear again. So I tried my best to spend time with my friends, answer questions from other adventurers, and handle whatever other social commitments I needed to.

Eventually, the day came to a close without any incidents, unless you counted a few people who couldn't handle their drinks and got a bit rowdy. Keldenar seemed disappointed, but Luther was very clearly relieved. Whatever spies the Outeatus Kingdom had in the Capital, they must have decided it was too risky to try anything. As for the royals who hated the golemancer's guts, they were probably weary of whatever connections he had to me and the elves.

I was going to offer to pay for my friends' accommodations, but Luther stole my thunder and arranged everything together with Lisa while I wasn't looking. She also seemed to have spoken quite a bit about how useful my portals would be to him, and he was even more eager for me to be part of the emergency response system.

As for Tabitha, she seemed to have tentatively agreed to be my handler, though she wanted a few more days to see if she was up to the big upgrade of living in Keaburg. But if she and Kurt were as close as they seemed, it was a done deal, as he was practically frothing at the mouth at how much bigger and better this was than Kaerlin.

"Thanks again, Syl… I wouldn't be here without you," Vee said, as we returned to our room.

"Haven't you thanked me enough?"

"Maybe… But after you introduced me to everyone, and they all welcomed me with open arms, I felt like I needed to again."

I smiled and patted her head; this time she didn't resist. Tomorrow we'd be departing with Keldenar, but since Luther was leaving me a dedicated teleportation spot in a vacant room in the guild, Keaburg was only a quick jump away. It was especially convenient since I'd need to come back to return the Kaerlin crew home when they were done with their sudden vacation.

Lisa really did a better job than Keldenar, cause now it feels like Luther is really trying to butter me up. Not that I'm complaining, but I need to make sure I don't end up with a similar reputation.