Venti: "They're firing in all directions... it's perfect."
He wasn't even trying to attack yet. He was just having fun.
Venti: "Wow!"
Each dodge sharpened his reflexes, each step strengthened his control over the wind.
Venti: "Whoa!"
He felt his skill stabilize, become more natural, as if his body were gradually recovering buried memories.
The wind reacted to his every move, subtly altering its trajectory, accelerating a movement, softening a landing.
Projectiles continued to rain down around him, shattering in the sand or dissipating into the air, unable to touch him.
Amidst this elemental chaos, Venti smiled.
He continued to dodge each attack by hopping to the left or sliding to the right.
But now it was his turn to attack.
Venti: "Okay... my turn now."
FFFFfffffff
The wind around him intensified, ready to shift from dodging to attacking.
He was tired of dodging; now it was his turn to attack.
FFFFfffffff
An arrow appeared in his hand.
Venti abruptly slowed his pace and, in an almost instinctive movement, conjured his bow between his fingers.
The light wood vibrated softly, carried by an invisible breath.
And he positioned the arrow on his bowstring.
Without really thinking, he drew back the string and aimed at one of the nearest slimes, a hydro slime, still reforming after a missed shot.
Thanks to the use of his abilities, the slimes' power, resistance, and speed decreased while his own increased.
The arrow flew.
Slash
The precise moment he released the string, Venti felt something different.
A familiar pressure, a shiver in his chest, and then the wind responded before he even realized it.
Anemo energy naturally seeped along the arrow, enveloping it in a greenish, translucent halo.
Venti: "Wait... what?"
He didn't have time to finish his thought.
He was so obsessed with finishing the fight quickly that he hadn't even realized he'd infused his arrow with Anemo elemental energy.
Flash
The arrow struck the slime head-on, and instead of simply sinking into its gelatinous mass, the wind exploded around the point of impact.
The Anemo energy dispersed violently, sucking in the surrounding elements like an invisible vortex.
Venti had unintentionally triggered an elemental reaction; his Anemo energy had superimposed itself on the Hydro.
And it was far from over.
FFFFfffffff
Immediately, the moisture-laden wind spread toward the neighboring slimes.
An already weakened Electro slime came into contact with this unstable mixture.
Bbbbbbbzzzz
A violent discharge erupted with a deafening crackle, sending bluish sparks flying in all directions.
Venti: "...Oh."
"I should have been more careful."
The reaction didn't stop there.
The electrified blast struck a pyro slime.
Boom
The next instant, an elemental explosion resounded, shaking the ground.
Fire and electricity, amplified by Anemo Dispersion, combined in a brutal blast that sent nearby slimes flying in all directions.
Boom
The cryo slimes, caught in the wave of wind and residual energy, saw their surfaces crack under the sudden thermal shock.
Crack
Ice fissures ran through their bodies before they collapsed heavily onto the sand.
And this process began to repeat itself again and again.
Venti had no idea that the dispersal he had created had triggered a chain reaction, forcing the slimes to accidentally kill each other.
Boom
Crack
Slash
Bbbbbbzzzz
Bam
Slash
Bbbbbbzzzz
Bam
Boom
Crack
Slash
Bbbbbbzzzz
Bam
........
The slimes began to gather due to the energy condensation:
- The Large Pyro slimes began to swell
- The Large Electro slimes began to vibrate
- The shells of the Large Cryo slimes began to crack
- And ice particles began to form on the surface of the Large Hydro slimes
Venti: "......"
Venti began to move away because he understood that a huge explosion was about to occur, and that's exactly what happened.
The slimes of the four different elements had now come into contact.
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Venti had managed to move far enough away to avoid being caught in the elemental explosion about ten meters away from him.
Venti: "................ "!
"Huh!"
The uproar dissipated as quickly as it had appeared.
Venti stood frozen for a moment, bow still in hand, eyes wide open.
Before him, the beach was marked with scorched tracks, glassy sand, and elemental residue floating slowly in the air, carried by the wind.
A crater had appeared in the middle of the beach where the slimes had been just seconds before.
Venti: "I…"
"…"
"I didn't mean to do this…"
He murmured, half shocked, half amazed.
Then a slow smile spread across his face.
Venti: "Well… not to this extent."
Venti's original plan was to use his arrows and fire at each slime, using his buff and nerf skills to increase their levels, but instead, he eliminated them all. He understood now.
Even unintentionally, his connection to the Anemo transformed each of his actions into a catalyst.
The wind wasn't just a tool; it was a bridge between the elements.
And before him, the surviving slimes were still trembling, aware for the first time that they had just triggered something far beyond their control.
There was a Large Electro Slime and a Large Cryo Slime.
Venti surveyed the battlefield for a moment.
The remaining slimes were mere shadows of what they had been just seconds before.
Their gelatinous bodies were slowly reforming, crisscrossed by luminous fissures and unsteady pulsations.
Some were even struggling to move, sinking softly into the still-warm sand.
He inhaled slowly.
Venti: "Let's finish this properly."
This time, he left nothing to chance.
His arrow reappeared in his hand.
Venti straightened his bow and nocked another arrow.
He closed his eyes for a moment, concentrating fully.
FFFFfffffff
The wind responded immediately, converging around him in a soft but powerful whisper.
Anemo energy consciously coiled around the arrow, more stable, denser than the previous one.
It no longer vibrated uncontrollably: it waited.
Venti: ".................".
When he opened his eyes again, his gaze was calm, almost detached.
And
He fired.
Slash
The arrow sliced through the air with a pure hiss, leaving behind a trail of compressed wind.
In mid-air, the Anemo energy was gradually released, creating an invisible wave that swept across the beach.
The slimes still standing were pulled toward the center of the impact, their elements ripped from their cores and forcibly mixed together.
Boom
A final burst of dispersion erupted.
Electricity crackled, and the ice shattered with a sharp crack.
Crack
The explosion was shorter than the previous one, but far more precise, perfectly controlled.
FFFfffffff
When the wind died down, there was nothing left.
Where the group of slimes had been, only elemental fragments remained, shimmering faintly before dissipating into the air, carried skyward by a light breeze.
And also a huge amount of slime.
The beach gradually returned to calm, the waves resuming their natural rhythm as if nothing had happened.
Venti lowered his bow, which dissipated gently between his fingers.
He remained silent for a few seconds, observing the result, then let out a small laugh.
Venti: "Mission accomplished."
"I guess."
FFFFfffffff
As silence fell completely over the beach, Venti finally relaxed.
The waves on the beach continued to roll in a steady rhythm, and the sand in front of Venti was covered with a strange, gelatinous substance that represented the corpses of all the slimes he had just eliminated.
He was already about to turn back when a thought suddenly crossed his mind.
The proof…
He froze.
The receptionist had made it perfectly clear:
To validate an extermination quest, you had to bring back physical evidence.
Generally, for slimes, this meant slime ooze or fragments of elemental core preserved in a sealed vial.
Venti instinctively rummaged through his satchel… before remembering that he had put it down earlier and had never bothered to check its contents.
Venti: "Great…"
He sighed.
No vial.
No container.
Nothing that could properly hold this kind of substance without risking it dissolving or exploding due to the residual effects of the elements.
He looked up, a little dejected, and scanned the beach, searching for an improvised solution.
The sand was still vitrified in places by the explosions, and a few gelatinous residues were slowly evaporating, carried away by the wind.
If he waited too long, there would be nothing left to salvage.
Then something caught his eye.
A few meters away, near a pile of rocks where the waves crashed, lay a glass jar.
Venti: "What a coincidence."
Venti approached the jar and examined it to see if it was usable.
The container was intact, slightly fogged by the sea mist, but without the slightest crack.
It seemed to have been abandoned there for some time, perhaps forgotten by a fisherman, an amateur alchemist, or a careless adventurer.
Or perhaps it was simply someone who had decided to get rid of the container and chose to pollute rather than dispose of it properly.
Venti approached it and carefully picked it up.
Venti: "This should do the trick..."
He examined the glass in the sunlight.
Thick, sturdy, and, most importantly, large enough to hold several samples.
A satisfied smile spread across his face.
The jar was slightly covered in sand, so Venti decided to use seawater to clean it lightly. He was going to fill it with a strange substance anyway, so it wasn't a big deal that the jar was dirty.
Without wasting any time, he returned to where the slimes had disappeared and used his telekinesis to gather the remaining traces of elemental slime still clinging to the sand.
The residue moved slowly, as if carried by a gentle breeze, before settling neatly inside the jar.
It would have been quicker to just grab a small shovel and fill the voice channel with my Venti. Venti finally decided to use his telekinesis to practice and also to level up.
He carefully closed the lid after about ten minutes.
Venti: "Evidence retrieved."
"I hope my telekinesis skill levels up to 2 soon."
Holding the jar to his chest, Venti cast one last glance at the beach and the horizon, where the distant island was still faintly visible.
Then, satisfied to have completed his mission despite the unexpected turn of events, he set off for the city, ready to deliver his reward to the Adventurers' Guild.
Venti: "If I use teleportation, it'll be faster."
He was about to teleport, but then he remembered another detail.
Venti: "..............."
Venti observed the jar for a moment, gently rotating it in his hands.
The glass shimmered in the sunlight, and inside, the slime still quivered slightly, laden with elemental residue.
One wrong move, one miscalculated teleportation… and everything could shatter.
Venti: "No, bad idea."
He remembered the sensation of teleportation vividly:
That brief stretching of the world, that momentary loss of bearings.
Even though his skill had improved, it was still imprecise, especially when carrying a fragile object.
Venti: "If it breaks, I'll have to start all over again…"
Venti carefully tucked the jar into his coat, keeping it firmly in place to prevent it from rattling against other objects.
Then he set off, choosing a quiet but steady pace.
Each step sank slightly into the damp sand before finding firmer ground as he moved further from the beach.
FFFFfffffff
The wind blew gently at his back, as if it understood his decision.
No exaggerated leaps, no chain teleportation this time.
Just a mindful, almost meditative walk.
As he walked, Venti thought back to the battle.
To how easily the elemental reactions had been triggered.
To how the Anemo had linked fire, electricity, water, and ice.
And above all, to that familiar feeling, like an old memory slowly resurfacing.
Venti: "I'm making progress…"
"Too fast, perhaps."
A few minutes later:
The transition between the beach and the meadows was easily visible; the point where the sand and grass met was clearly discernible.
He adjusted his grip on the jar and continued on his way, crossing the grassy plain that led toward the town.
This time, he would arrive without fanfare, without explosions… but with undeniable proof that he had accomplished his mission like a true adventurer.
Venti: "Now I just have to walk to the town, Luckily, Rillmont is right next to the beach."
Venti walked calmly toward the town, the jar clutched tightly in his hands.
With each step, he was mindful of his balance, instinctively adjusting his pace to avoid stumbling.
The glass was cold against his palms, yet strangely reassuring: tangible proof of his progress, his first real step as an adventurer.
Around him, the landscape stretched out with an almost unreal gentleness.
The plain rippled in the sea breeze, the tall grass bending in the wind like a silent green sea.
In the distance, the ocean shimmered in the sunlight, and the island he had glimpsed earlier was barely visible on the horizon, shrouded in mystery.
FFFFFFFFFFfffffffffffffff
The wind carried the scent of salt, mingled with the aromas of earth and wildflowers.
Venti let out a soft breath.
Venti: "This is strange..."
He felt good. Tired, certainly, but alive. Every muscle in his body bore witness to the recent exertion, and yet his mind was surprisingly clear.
Venti: "Two days ago, I woke up not knowing who I was... not knowing why the wind answered me."
His fingers tightened slightly around the jar.
Venti: "And today, I'm hunting slimes, fighting monsters, leveling up... as if it were all perfectly natural."
He looked up at the sky, watching the clouds drift by slowly.
Venti: "Barbatos..."
The name echoed in his mind, though he couldn't yet grasp its full significance.
He sensed there was more, much more, behind this natural affinity with the wind.
Fragmented memories, old emotions, a forgotten responsibility.
Venti: "Perhaps becoming an adventurer really is the right path."
The Guild, the missions, the battles… all of this allowed him to train, to understand his skills, to push his limits without attracting undue attention. Not yet.
He gave a faint smile.
Venti: "One day, I will find everything again."
"My strength… and the truth."
The wind passed gently beside him, lightly lifting his hair and his coat, like a silent response to his determination.
Venti resumed his walk, calm and resolute, as the city gates drew ever closer, ready to welcome him for the next stage of his adventure.
About thirty minutes later:
Venti continued his leisurely walk, his gaze still fixed on the horizon, until the ground beneath his feet changed slightly.
The grass gave way to packed earth, then to the first hewn stones forming the main path.
Without really realizing it, he had just passed the city gate.
It was only after a few more steps that he realized something.
The two guards, stationed on either side of the monumental gate, hadn't even acknowledged him.
No gesture.
No request.
No suspicious glance.
Venti slowed slightly, casting a discreet look over his shoulder.
The guards were talking amongst themselves, spears resting on the ground, completely indifferent to his passing.
Venti: "...Huh?"
He frowned, a little disconcerted.
Venti: "Wait…"
He immediately thought back to the previous day.
To the long wait at the administrative office.
To the forms, the signatures, the repetitive questions.
To that infamous temporary ID card he'd carefully slipped into his satchel.
Venti: "I did go to some trouble for all this…"
His gaze flickered to his satchel, then to the guards.
Venti: "And they… they don't ask anything?"
Chapter 19: A fight on the beach
The End