Just as I smirked at my own poorly-timed thoughts, that thing made its presence known again — this time, the sound came from somewhere above. The mockery went on for a couple more minutes, until suddenly the game turned deadly. Now, each chuckle was followed by a sharp icicle hurtling toward me. Dodging them wasn't exactly hard, but it sure as hell wasn't easy either.
The stalemate didn't last. First it was two icicles at once. Then three. And once it started flinging four at a time, it turned into a full-on survival game. It wasn't trying to kill me — at least, not right away. The bastard was enjoying the torment, laughing its nasally little laugh and throwing in the occasional taunt, like some third-rate villain from a low-budget xianxia webnovel.
Rimuru had tried to help at first, bless his gooey little heart, but I shut that down fast. At this pace, the slime would burn out before doing anything remotely useful. Better to save his tricks for when we really need them.
"I'm right here..."
God, that voice was grating.
I have no idea how long the twisted dance lasted, but eventually, dodging got easier. Either I was getting faster, or the smug little bastard was getting tired — hard to say. But one thing was clear: the attacks followed a pattern.
Laugh. One second of silence. Then the icicles. Like clockwork — every three to four seconds. Never changed once.
"Rimuru, on my mark," I whispered, keeping my eyes on the treetops and starting the mental countdown.
One... two... three —
I pivoted hard on my heel, faced the shadow I'd come to loathe, and shouted. A blast of wind erupted toward the target, strong enough that I nearly got knocked off my feet myself. Rimuru wasn't holding back — and good thing, too. For the first time in minutes, the slippery bastard stopped laughing.
I grinned wide and gave chase. What I saw next warmed my heart.
Not only had Rimuru's attack hit, it smashed the thing into a tree with enough force to leave a solid dent in the bark. If that had hit a human, they'd already be packing for their one-way trip to an isekai.
Cryo Abyss Mage – Lv. 28
"Not so funny now, are you, jackass?" I snarled, spinning my spear and slamming it down on the motionless freak.
"The hell?!"
For a split second, a pale-white dome shimmered into view above its body. A barrier.
I struck again. Same thing. Again. And again. No matter how hard I tried, the damn thing wouldn't break. My furious attempts to finish the bastard didn't go unnoticed. Rimuru, who'd been watching quietly until now, tried his luck too.
Nope. Nothing.
"Boo!"
The slime headbutted my cheek and then stared into my eyes with unsettling determination.
It took me a moment to figure out what Rimuru actually wanted. And honestly, if I didn't have the "Beast Tamer" skill — which gave me a kind of gut-level sense of what my gooey companion was feeling — we probably would've spent the entire day playing charades.
I pulled out a stack of slime cores from my inventory and watched as Rimuru immediately dove in and started devouring them. He vacuumed up nearly the entire stash, and then, without warning, his body lit up like someone plugged him into a Vision socket. A second later, the level indicator above his head shot skyward.
The glow faded in just a couple seconds. Then Rimuru let out what sounded like a very satisfied hiccup, turned toward the still-unconscious Cryo mage, and started charging another wind bullet. At first glance, it looked just like the last one. But only at first glance. I had a feeling this one was hiding something special under the hood.
And I was right.
The energy packed into that shot was just enough to crack the mage's barrier with a sound like shattering glass. The bullet pushed forward a few more inches… and then just fizzled out with a whisper.
Level Up.
Level Up.
Level Up.
Level Up.
Level Up.
New Title Unlocked: "On the Edge of Impossible" — Defeat an enemy vastly above your level. (+2 to all stats)
Whoa. All that for one kill? The system really laid on the rewards. Generous, but hell, I earned it.
Taking out that bastard solo at my current level? Not a chance in any other scenario. If Rimuru hadn't tagged along and the mage hadn't gotten cocky enough to toy with me, I'd be lying face-down in the dirt right now with a one-way ticket back to the main menu.
I skimmed through my freshly updated status screen, and it finally clicked: the reason I managed to adapt during the fight was thanks to a sharp boost in agility, perception, and coordination — plus an unexpected awakening of the "intuition" skill.
Those four changes were the only reason I wasn't out here doing my best Sasuke Uchiha impression.
Name: Mark
Health: 331/350
Mana: 89/90
Titles:
Novice Monster Hunter (+1 to all stats)
On the Edge of Impossible (+2 to all stats)
Level: 15
Attributes:
Strength: 18 (21)
Agility: 24 (27)
Perception: 14 (17)
Endurance: 17 (20)
Mana: 6 (9)
Unspent Stat Points: 64
Abilities:
Skills:
Spear Mastery: Lv. 10 (Beginner)
Pain Tolerance: Lv. 9 (Beginner)
Field Medicine: Lv. 1 (Beginner)
Campfire Cooking: Lv. 5 (Beginner)
Beast Handling: Lv. 7 (Beginner)
Coordination: Lv. 6 (Beginner)
Intuition: Lv. 2 (Beginner)
As the adrenaline in my veins finally started to cool and my thoughts settled back into something resembling rationality, the first thing I did was snatch the mask off the Abyss Mage.
No surprises there. Just the same twisted, almost-human face I'd seen before — creepy, distorted, and definitely not something you'd find in a biology textbook. No dramatic anime-style reveal, thank the Archons. Honestly, that kind of cliché was the last thing I needed.
I tossed the mask into my inventory and made my way back to the hilichurls I'd dropped earlier, repeating the same routine. I looted their bodies, grabbed their crossbows and bolts, and stuffed everything into my dimensional pocket. Then I paused, wondering if I should head back now… but decided to scout a little further. Good call.
Turns out their camp was only a few dozen meters to the east, tucked away behind a thick wall of undergrowth. If not for the familiar guttural chanting coming from that direction, I probably would've walked right past it.
The security? Pathetic. Just five of them, no weapons in sight, squatting around a campfire like it was just another lazy evening. A few paces behind them were a couple of wagons — clearly looted from a merchant convoy or an unlucky group of travelers.
Nobody else seemed to be around.
Took me no time at all to clean up the rest. After that, I checked the wagons. The first was a bust — just a pile of reeking cloth that made me gag. But the second one? Jackpot. A few more crossbows and three odd little trinkets that turned out to be handmade talismans. Crude, but charming in a way.
Then came the part I'd hoped to avoid.
I found the owners of all this stuff — or what was left of them — in a shallow gully just a few meters from the camp. The smell hit before I even saw the bodies. Once I climbed down and confirmed my worst suspicions, I let out a string of curses that would've made a Fatui agent blush.
Dead. All of them.
Still, I forced myself to check for survivors, even though I already knew how that would end. Just to ease my conscience, I guess. I pushed through the stench and examined each corpse carefully.
No miracle today. Five bodies — six if you count the one I spotted near the road earlier.
Fucking hell.
The next hour of my life was spent dragging the corpses out of the gully, one by one, trying not to vomit as I hauled them over to their fallen comrade. When I finally finished, I stepped back and surveyed the scene. It didn't sit right with me. Just leaving them there in the open? No. Not happening.
I sighed — loudly — and for what felt like the tenth time that day, swore under my breath. Then I started dragging the bodies into the nearby bushes, hoping that would at least keep the scavengers off them for a while.
What I didn't expect was for someone to catch me mid-process.
"You've got about five seconds to explain what the hell you're doing," a sharp female voice snapped behind me. "And I'd think twice about lying."
A moment later, something long and definitely sharp pressed against my back.
...Fantastic.