Chapter 109: …It hasn’t rained around here lately, right?

"...It hasn’t rained around here lately, right?"

Kazui checked with Yuri.

"It hasn’t, but why?"

Without answering Yuri, through the window connecting the truck bed and the cabin Kazui called out in a sharp voice to the contractor man in the driver’s seat.

"Stop the truck! There might be a slime ahead!"

"Eh? A slime?"

A young man in his late twenties wearing gray work clothes answered Kazui while stomping on the brake pedal.

The truck shook hard, let out a brake sound like a scream, and stopped suddenly.

"A slime? Seriously?"

This time Kazui answered that question from Yuri.

"Seriously. Ahead... even though it hasn’t even rained around here lately, there’s something that looks like a big puddle. It might be a slime’s camouflage."

A slime was an amoeba-like monster.

Slimes often appeared in Japanese fantasy fiction and the like as well.

In Japanese fiction they were usually treated as fodder, the weakest category of monster, but the slimes that actually existed in this world could be called similar existences.

Because most slimes were defined as Privates, the weakest category of monster, with only one sun mark.

To adventurers slimes were fodder, but to ordinary humans they were a threat, and even with a weapon in hand they could not contend with them.

Humans who encountered a slime without an adventurer escort were usually killed.

Being an amoeba-like formless existence with a water-like transparency, when a slime flattened and stopped moving it looked like a puddle.

Using this property, slimes camouflaged as puddles and ambushed and attacked humans.

Kazui had encountered slimes pretending to be puddles many times until now.

That was why, even though it had not rained, he had seen something like a puddle and grown wary of an ambush by a slime camouflaged as a puddle.

If there was a detour nearby they would have gone around, but there was no detour around here.

They could not go around and avoid the existence that might be a slime.

"I’ll check for now. If it’s a slime I’ll hunt it."

Right after declaring that while tightening his focus, Kazui’s body gave off a faint white light, but the light immediately vanished.

Right after generating Aura he activated Aura Mail, so the light vanished.

"Make an exit."

Hearing Kazui’s instruction, Yuri created an exit in the defensive barrier.

Most defensive barriers could have holes opened freely by the one who created them.

They were sometimes used like loopholes or embrasures for attacking, and sometimes used as an entrance and exit like this time.

"It’s pretty big. Be careful."

Just as Yuri said, judging from the area of the thing that looked like a puddle, the slime was in the large category.

It was big enough that it looked like it could swallow the truck Kazui and the others were riding whole.

"I know."

Answering, Kazui passed through the entrance and exit opened in the defensive barrier and jumped down from the truck bed.

Right after that the entrance and exit in the defensive barrier finished its role and closed.

Coming out in front of the truck, Kazui fixed his eyes on the thing like a puddle visible about twenty meters ahead.

(Even my Aura Shot can just barely reach this range. I have leeway with Aura, so first I’ll check with Aura Shot.)

Today he had barely used Aura, so Kazui’s remaining Aura had leeway.

He stretched his right arm forward and pointed his right palm at the thing like a puddle.

Like a sniper aiming with a sniper rifle, he aimed at the thing like a puddle with his right palm.

Then just as his whole body shone with Aura light, that light gathered in his right palm in an instant.

From his right palm that started shining brightly like a light, white light began to blast out like a jet.

The torrent of light did not spread suddenly. It flew while gradually dispersing.

The Aura released with Aura Shot had a longer range and higher power if you narrowed it so it would not disperse.

To keep as high a power as possible even at the edge of the range, Kazui narrowed it and released Aura Shot.

At about the same speed as a ball thrown by a baseball pitcher, the torrent of light charged forward and scored a direct hit on the thing like a puddle about three meters in diameter.

If it were a real puddle it would have been blown away by the Aura Shot like a storm of Aura and scattered.

But if it were a slime, the story was different.

Even though it was an attack with simple Aura with no attribute added, if it took it with no guard it would take damage, so the slime would evade or defend and reveal its true form.

The Aura Shot Kazui released immediately scored a direct hit on the thing like a puddle... it did not.

The thing like a puddle instantly moved while changing shape and avoided the storm of Aura.

The Aura Shot collided with the ground, blew away earth and sand in a range a little over three meters in radius, and opened a hole in the ground.

"It really is a slime!"

Just as Kazui had been wary of, the thing like a puddle was a slime.

It had an appearance like a huge amoeba with transparency, with a volume that looked like about ten humans.

Whether an ordinary living thing or a monster, Aura flowed inside the body.

If an Aura attack was thrown at it and no defensive measures were taken, the flow of Aura inside the body was disturbed and it became unable to act properly.

In the case of adventurers and monsters, they usually took some kind of defensive measure.

On top of that, anyone with a certain ability to manipulate Aura could straighten the flow of Aura on their own and recover immediately.

In the case of Aura Shot with Aura whose output itself was powerful, or Aura with some attribute added, the story was different.

Even taking defensive measures it was hard to block, and recovering by manipulating the flow of Aura was not easy either, so you could deal major damage to an enemy or even kill them.

But in Kazui’s case, his Aura output was weak and he could not add attributes either.

He could only release plain Aura at low output.

That was why with twenty meters of range open, Kazui’s Aura Shot could not deal major damage to the slime or defeat it in one hit.

Kazui had released Aura Shot not to damage or defeat the slime.

Even a weak Aura Shot, if taken with no guard, would scramble the slime’s Aura flow and disorder its actions.

In other words the slime would become unable to maintain its camouflage and reveal its true form.

If the slime had taken defensive measures, a weak Aura Shot would be blocked.

In other words it would not scatter like a real puddle, so in that case too it would reveal its true form.

If it were a real puddle, taking Aura Shot would only turn it into spray and scatter it together with the surrounding earth and sand.

In other words Kazui had released Aura Shot to check whether the thing like a puddle was a real puddle or a slime’s camouflage.

The slime that had undone its camouflage moved as if sliding over the ground while writhing and changing the shape of its body, and charged at Kazui.

It showed quick movement that did not match its huge body.

Just as a white flash of Aura was released from Kazui’s whole body, that light gathered in his right hand.

Without releasing Aura Shot, he charged toward the attacking slime and met it.

Around where he had dashed several meters, Kazui collided with the slime.

On the slime spreading like a tsunami and trying to swallow him, he rained punches and kicks in succession.

Ordinary strikes and weapon attacks were nullified by slimes.

But attacks wrapped in Aura and attacks by magic were effective.