Gun Chapter 34: Collection Complete (Patreon)

While Wakasha was clearing out the ordinary green slimes, the pale blue mutated slime suddenly sped up and lunged toward his flank, swinging a thick slime-tendril with a whistling rush of air straight at his arm.

This pale blue mutated slime was even faster than the one he had killed earlier. Clearly, being startled had driven it into a more frenzied state.

But Wakasha’s senses had already locked onto its movements. The instant it attacked, he stepped back and twisted aside, narrowly dodging the tendril.

The tendril slammed into the ground with a dull thump, splashing filthy mud all over the place. Some of it landed on Wakasha’s pant leg, cold, sticky, and extremely unpleasant.

He paid it no mind. He immediately swung Deathbird around, aimed at the pale blue mutated slime’s core, and pulled the trigger.

This time, he had loaded Mage Hand into the shot. The bullet carried the spell’s precision effect along with enhanced physical impact, intended to shatter the core in one hit.

Pfft!

The bullet struck the pale blue mutated slime’s core dead-on. The intense physical impact crushed it instantly, and the pale blue body collapsed at once, dissolving into a puddle of dark blue fluid that seeped into the muddy ground without even a struggle.

Compared to the earth-type mutated slime from earlier, this pale blue one was clearly much easier to deal with—probably because the earth-type mutation naturally had much higher defense.

After clearing out all the slimes, Wakasha finally let out a slow breath. The tension in his body eased at last. The fight hadn’t been especially fierce, but firing more than a dozen bullets in a row had still cost him a fair amount of mental power and mana—roughly 20% of his mental power and 15% of his mana. Fortunately, both his mental reserves and mana pool had increased along with his Intelligence, so what he had left was still more than enough for whatever came next.

He walked over to where he had killed the pale yellow mutated slime, crouched down, and took out the extractor, carefully collecting the residue it had left behind.

The earth-type mutated slime’s fluid was thicker than ordinary green slime residue, dark yellow in color, with a few tiny charred fibers still floating in it. It carried a faint earthy smell mixed with sour rot.

As for the pale blue mutated slime, its residue looked the same as the one he had killed earlier: dark blue, moderately thick, and strongly sour.

After the extractor finished collecting them, Wakasha had gained two more portions of the same special “slime gel,” along with seventeen more portions of ordinary slime gel.

That meant that, not even counting the three special portions of “slime gel,” he had already collected twenty-five ordinary portions.

Once he finished collecting everything, Wakasha opened his system panel and reviewed the gains from this hunt.

After killing more than a dozen ordinary green slimes and two mutated slimes in a row, both his EXP and skill EXP had gone up by quite a lot.

Deathbird alone had already accumulated over nine hundred EXP, putting it right on the verge of leveling up.

Wakasha had no interest in waiting any longer, so he immediately spent EXP to raise it.

[Concept Armament · Deathbird LV2 (0/2000): A manifestation born from the user’s soul, able to summon the armament Deathbird (handgun/staff). The strength of the Concept Armament depends on the skill’s level and the user’s relevant attributes. Current bonuses: armament cost -10%, power +10%]

[Skill · Concept Armament: Deathbird has reached LV2 —

1. Magazine Upgrade: Bullet capacity +10

2. Mind Blade: Bullets can strike non-physical targets

3. Gluttony: Killing enemies restores your own condition based on their life force

—Please select one as the level-up reward for this skill]

Wakasha hesitated for a moment, then chose Gluttony, because it was exactly the thing he needed most right now—sustain.

Magazine Upgrade was useful, but he could already generate bullets on the spot.

Mind Blade could be imitated to some extent by using spell-loaded bullets.

But the recovery effect from Gluttony was something he currently had no substitute for other than resting.

Next came the bonus options for Mage Hand. Because it had helped steal quite a few kills, Mage Hand had successfully reached level 3, while Spark at Fingertip, as the main damage dealer, had reached level 4—though it didn’t trigger any extra level-up option.

[Skill · Mage Hand has reached LV3, triggering bonus options —

1. Durable: Mage Hand durability +50%, gains 1 armor

2. Dexterous (Rare): Mage Hand flexibility +30%, operation load -30%

3. Many Arms (Rare): Number of simultaneously summoned Mage Hands doubles

—Please choose one of the three bonus options to permanently bind to this spell]

This one Wakasha didn’t hesitate much over. He chose Dexterous.

After all, the entire point of Mage Hand was that it was supposed to function like an extension of a mage’s hand.

And for a hand, the most important thing was flexibility. A stiff hand was useless to a mage.

After making his choice, Wakasha rested for a bit to absorb the rewards from this hunt.

The upgrades to all three skills had increased both his mental power and his mana noticeably.

At the very least, the fatigue from the previous fight had faded to almost nothing.

There was none of the weariness left from before.

After resting a while and getting himself back into shape, Wakasha continued deeper into the muddy marsh.

As he pushed farther in, the puddles grew denser, the water murkier, and the sour rot in the air even stronger. From time to time he could hear the faint sizzling sounds slimes made as they wriggled, along with the tiny noises of them consuming plants.

He kept his steps extremely light. Even on the sticky mud, he made only the faintest rustling sound, trying not to disturb the surrounding slimes.

As he advanced, he kept a close watch on his surroundings. With the sharpened perception granted by 7 Intelligence, it didn’t take long before he picked up a faint life signature—a cluster of five ordinary green slimes gathered in a large puddle not far ahead. Exactly the number he needed.

Wakasha didn’t rush in. Instead, he hid behind a clump of low marsh plants and carefully peeked out.

The five green slimes were bunched together in the middle of the puddle, slowly wriggling about. Their tiny slime-tendrils stretched out to gather algae floating on the water. Their movements were sluggish, and their vigilance was practically nonexistent. Clearly, they hadn’t noticed any danger nearby.

“Perfect. I can take them all at once and save myself some time.”

With that, Wakasha slowly extended his right hand. A flicker of light flashed, and Deathbird appeared in his palm.

He gathered five mental bullets, loading each with Mage Hand. At this point, he didn’t need to chase maximum damage. The precision effect from Mage Hand would let him kill these ordinary slimes quickly and efficiently, saving both mental power and mana.

Once he was ready, Wakasha raised Deathbird and lined the muzzle up with each slime’s core in turn, pulling the trigger rapidly.

Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft.

Five extremely faint muffled shots rang out one after another, completely buried beneath the wind and the slimes’ own faint sizzling noises. The five precision-loaded mental bullets shot out like meteors and struck every single green slime’s core with perfect accuracy.

There was no loud explosion, no dramatic burst of fire—only the faint crack of slime cores breaking.

All five green slimes collapsed instantly, their pale green gelatinous bodies melting into puddles of green fluid that seeped into the water, leaving behind only a few broken points of core-light that quickly dissolved into the air.

[Monster Killed: Green Slime ×5, obtained 1×5 = 5 EXP

Talent: Law of the Jungle activated, EXP ×10, actual EXP gained: 50

Concept Armament: Deathbird gained 50 Skill EXP

Spell: Mage Hand gained 50 Skill EXP]

As the system notification sounded, Wakasha clearly felt a faint warm current pass through his body.

That was Gluttony taking effect.

Ordinary green slimes didn’t have much life force, so the recovery it gave was very limited—but limited was still better than nothing. Especially in prolonged combat, even this tiny bit of recovery would help him maintain a better fighting condition.

Wakasha quickly walked to the puddle’s edge, crouched down, and took out the extractor, carefully collecting the residue left behind by the green slimes.

The five portions of ordinary green slime gel filled up the extractor’s remaining space exactly.

At that point, the commission requirement for thirty slime gels had been fully met—

Thirty portions of ordinary slime gel, plus three portions of special slime gel

(two portions from mutated blue slimes, one from a mutated yellow slime).