novelraw Chapter 138: Mr. Qi Almost Took the Blame
Chapter 138: Mr. Qi Almost Took the Blame
“Mm.”
Faced with the opportunity to be carried along by a true master, Leon naturally accepted without hesitation. Still, judging by the looks of it, the two Slimes would be locked in their little standoff for a while longer.
Not one to sit idle, Leon began chatting with Linus to dig for information.
“Linus, why are you trying to catch a newborn prismatic Slime?”
“A friend needs one. I owe her a favor, so I came here myself.” Linus made no attempt to hide it, speaking with complete openness.
“Other than dropping prismatic slime jelly, do prismatic Slimes have any other uses?” Leon pressed.
“I’m not sure. My friend likes collecting odd things—maybe she just wants it for her collection.” Linus tilted his head, then asked in return, “By the way, do you think you’ll ever try raising Slimes yourself?”
“I’m not sure.” Leon shook his head. He hadn’t even built his first coop yet—thinking about raising Slimes now was far too early.
“If you ever do, come find me. I’ve got a few Slime eggs lying around. I’ve no real use for them—you can take them and have some fun with it,” Linus said.
“Thanks in advance.” Leon didn’t stand on ceremony, nor did he bring up payment. He knew Linus would refuse anyway.Otherwise, this master wouldn’t be living in a tent up in the northern foothills, sleeping in a sleeping bag every night.
“They’re coming,” Linus suddenly whispered, drawing Leon’s attention back to the two mating Slimes.
The green Slime on the bottom began to swell. Slowly, a lump of gelatinous matter separated from its bloated body. The process was sluggish, but once the lump completely split off, vague facial features emerged on its surface, along with a single thin tendril.
The newborn Slime started out green, but once it moved, red, blue, purple, and yellow hues began cycling across its body. Its shifting colors alternated like a living carousel.
Once Linus confirmed the baby prismatic Slime was fully independent from its mother, he placed his hand on the stone they were hiding behind. With a casual squeeze, he pinched off two chunks of rock—like tofu—and tossed them toward the adult prismatic Slime and the green Slime.
The moment the stones left his hand, Linus’s figure vanished like a phantom. In the next heartbeat, Leon saw him appear beside the baby Slime and grab it in one hand.
Meanwhile, the stones he had thrown finally arrived. They struck the two just-mated Slimes dead-on, shredding them apart like blasts from a large-caliber shotgun. Their momentum didn’t stop there—the stones gouged deep pits into the cave floor, embedding themselves in the rock. The mining cave’s strange rules then kicked in, drawing the fragments into the ground and leaving only two empty craters as evidence of the Slimes’ existence.
It had all happened so quickly that to Leon it felt like flipping through a slideshow: one moment Linus was beside him, the next he was five meters away, clutching the baby Slime.
What shocked Leon even more was that Linus had crushed those stones with his bare hands, thrown them with pinpoint accuracy to instantly kill two Slimes, blasted pits into bedrock that even Cherry Bombs couldn’t dent, and still managed to appear at his destination before the projectiles had even landed.
“So this is the world of the strong…” Leon thought, piecing together the events that had happened in the blink of an eye.
“My task here is done. Time to head back. Here’s your prismatic slime jelly.”
While Leon was still reeling, Linus returned, the baby Slime in one hand and a shimmering mass of rainbow-hued jelly in the other.
“Thanks, Linus. I honestly didn’t expect you to move that fast,” Leon said, taking the jelly.
“You’ll be able to do it too someday. You have the potential.” Linus patted his shoulder with a smile, then started up the stairs with the baby Slime.
After two steps, Linus turned back. Reaching into the deep pocket of his coat, he pulled out a pair of leather boots—far too big to have actually fit inside—and tossed them to Leon.
“I found these in a chest on the tenth floor earlier. They’ll give you a bit of extra protection—perfect for someone new to the mines. Take them.”
“Leather Boots (Footwear): +1 Defense, +1 Immunity.”
The moment Leon caught them, the system gave a description.
“Uh… thanks.” Leon suddenly realized why he hadn’t found the chest Mr. Qi had prepared for him on the tenth floor. It wasn’t because Mr. Qi hadn’t placed one—it was because Linus had gotten there first.
“I’ll be off. Stay safe in here,” Linus said, finally departing. Strangely enough, he left in the most ordinary way possible—just climbing the stairs. Not cool or dramatic in the least.
If Leon hadn’t just witnessed Linus crush stone in his bare hands, throw it like a shotgun blast, and move so fast he left afterimages, he might have thought Linus was just a regular old man.
Only once Linus vanished upstairs did Leon look away. He stowed the prismatic jelly in his backpack and continued his mining journey.
As he ventured deeper, copper ore became more common. Past the eleventh floor, Leon encountered a new kind of monster—a fat, ruler-length grub. Disgusting to look at, its corpse would burst upon death, spilling green blood with a foul stench that made it even more revolting.
He had no choice but to kill them. If a grub spotted him and he failed to kill it quickly, it would cocoon and transform into a large flying fly. During cocooning, its skin became so tough that even the Galaxy Watermelon Knife couldn’t pierce it. Once transformed, it moved faster, and the buzzing of its wings was maddeningly loud. Thankfully, it still couldn’t withstand a single slash from the Galaxy Watermelon Knife—so long as Leon landed the hit, its life was forfeit.
And so, Leon pressed on—slaying monsters, mining ore. By 8 p.m., he had finally reached the twentieth floor.
This time, with no Linus to beat him to it, Leon found a chest standing in the center of the room. He opened it and took out a longsword.