[Name: Varient Slime
Species: Rare
Level: 33
Element: Fire
Str: 44, Con: 35, Agi: 39, MP: 50
Skill: Ember Gel (E+++), Blazing Body (D-), Magma Shot (D-), Split (F+++), Flame Absorb (D), Smoke Veil (D-), Inferno Pulse (D++)
Status: Confused, Fearful
Description: A rare slime created when a dead slime's body absorbed the fiery essence of a Hellpepper. It still holds a small amount of that burning power inside, and under the right conditions, it may evolve into something new.The slime has started to show signs of emotion, hinting at the beginning of true awareness.]
The moment Alex cast Inspect on the slime monster, Alina got into her fighting stance.
He lowered his head, not daring to look at anything. Guilt weighed on him — it seemed this was again his carelessness.
'Damn, who would've known that potion would last this long?' Alex already knew that the items he imagined could persist even without his focus, but this long? He thought they'd disappear after a few minutes, like the abilities and skills he imagined.
But Alex had ignored — or rather, forgotten — one thing, What was a dead slime body doing in the school?
Slime bodies are actually very useful because of their slimy characteristics. They're used in many things, such as slime cement, insulating slime, regenerative paste, nutrient slurry, and much more.
That's why no one ever denies a slime body, and its market never falls.
"Alright, get ready to be kicked, you filthy monster!" Alina shouted as veins popped on her right hand. A clean, quick punch immediately struck the slime.
"..."
"..."
Alina blinked as she looked at the completely unharmed monster, her hand half-sunken into its body.
"Hehe," Alina gave a nervous smile.
"WAAAHHHSSHH!" It seemed the monster was irritated — or at least, that's how it looked to everyone.
The slime body glowed slightly as the heat around it rose.
"Och!" Alina hurriedly pulled her hands back, looking at her slightly reddened palms, especially her fake nails. She gritted her teeth and said,
"Just you wait, you smelly, stinky slime! I'll get my revenge for ruining my new nails!"
The slime monster seemed offended. It screamed, extended its body quickly, and tightly grabbed her hands, lifting her into the air as she screamed — then threw her backward.
Everyone stared blankly as Alina rapidly flew in Alex's direction.
"WAAHA! Alex! Ahhh!" Seeing she was going to collide with him, Alina closed her eyes and screamed even louder, not even trying to balance herself.
BAA!
Gently opening her eyes as she felt a warm and gentle embrace (all in her imagination), she froze. It wasn't Alex holding her, but Aedric.
Behind him, Alex was staring at the monster with a serious expression rarely seen on him.
"You o—" As Aedric opened his mouth to ask her, he was greeted with a strong, solid punch to his chin.
He stumbled back, holding his chin, as Alex steadied him from falling.
Alina also fell hard on her backside, her face bright red with embarrassment and anger.
"Is Aedric an idiot or something?" Robert said in a low voice.
"Maybe? He is definitely dense," Corin replied quietly.
At the back of the monster, Kael had finally stopped shouting and was sitting on the ground, breathing heavily.
The man looked at the chaos unfolding and hesitantly said in a voice loud enough for everyone,
"Can't we just run? The mo—slime doesn't seem to be hostile."
Everyone looked at him, stunned. Then they looked at the quiet monster and blinked.
"It see—" Robert opened his mouth but was immediately interrupted.
"Like hell I'm going to....f@#k this smelly bastard for ruining my nails that I worked so hard to get!" Alina stood up and rolled up her shirt sleeves.
"NO, WAIT!" Corin shouted as he saw Alina angrily throwing a punch. This time, the punch was so powerful that the sound of air slicing could be clearly heard.
BAAANG!
"WAHAAGH!" The slime screamed as it was pushed back.
"YEAH! THIS IS WHAT YOU GET F... for mess...ing..." Alina, with her hands raised high in a victory pose, fearfully looked at the slime.
The slime's maw opened as fire gathered, ready to evaporate Alina.
Everyone except Alex, Kael, and the unnamed man ran toward her.
Alina's brown eyes trembled with fear as she looked at the incoming fire.
---
Sprutual Plane
Alex looked around him. The place was empty, with only two people in view — a Death Reaper and Kael.
Looking down, he realized he wasn't standing on solid ground but on black water.
When he looked up, he saw a grey sky.
"Interesting human..." Then Alex heard a deep, low, and hoarse voice. He turned toward the source.
The Death Reaper was covered in a black cloak; only his skeleton-like face was visible.
In his eye sockets burned a blue flame.
"It's my luck to meet two people with such a powerful death affinity," he said.
"Death affinity? I don't have that. In fact, I don't have any talent related to death," Alex said with a thoughtful expression.
'The other one he's talking about must be Aedric,' Alex thought, and then his mind wandered to another question. 'Why do people differentiate between affinity and elements? Aren't they the same?'
It was strange that people awakened affinities as talents, because when they went through class awakening, they would get—or more accurately, come to know—their elements.
Alex, who prided himself as an avid reader, couldn't think of a clear reason why, but he had a theory.
Everyone possessed elements, but not everyone had affinity because their body wasn't attuned to that element. As a person with affinity talent grew, their talent advanced based on that attunement.
This was also why the item he created increased affinity. Of course, technically, Kael didn't even have light affinity—but the line between element and affinity was thin. The potion was so powerful that it forcibly attuned his body to the light element.
The same could be said for Robert.
"Really? Then your soul must be very powerful to cross the Spiritual Plane itself," the Death Reaper reasoned.
Alex was confused about what he meant by Spiritual Plane, but he had some guesses, so he didn't focus on it. Instead, he asked the question that had been bugging him.
"Why do you want to kill Kael?"
"Kael? You mean this kid with such a high light affinity?" The Death Reaper pointed toward Kael, who was also looking in their direction—but not truly seeing them.
"Hmm… so you want to kill him because of his high light element?" Alex frowned as he asked.
"Element? No. If he only had that, I wouldn't have been bothered. But when someone has a high element and affinity, that changes many things. Heheheh..." The Death Reaper let out a creepy laugh.
"What does it change?" Alex asked curiously, even though he already had a small clue.
"He already has a high light element. If he grows stronger, it'll only become higher—and I can't let that happen. After all, that's bad for dark creatures like me. Even the God of Light didn't have such a high light element at the start," he said in his hoarse voice.
"Oh!... Well, it seems your use has ended then."
Alex gave the confused Death Reaper an innocent, harmless smile.
Then, to the Death Reaper's fear and astonishment, Alex appeared in front of him with a huge grin. He raised his fist and said as his fist pierced through the Reaper's body—
"When I go to Hell, I'll complain about you to your boss."
The Death Reaper's body started to crumble into dust.
"H...ow... I... am... immo...rt...al..."
Alex looked at the dust of the Death Reaper drifting away slowly, a slight smile on his face.
Then, suddenly, the scene changed. He was back in the ruins of his school canteen.
And he was petrified when he felt two round, soft things pressed against him. Slowly and stiffly lowering his gaze, he saw Alina hugging him while crying.
'Okay… what happened again?'
---
A/N:
Ok I know that this element and affinity thing is confusing but it's important so I will try to explain more clearly in future chapters.
For now you only need to understand that they are same but different fundamentally.