The party wakes up in the morning and they all get ready. "Before we go, could we use the money from the merchant on some healing jellies?" Rika asks.
Dante nods. "We have about three-thousand left. And we do need to heal."
Tips: Healing jelly is a magical medicine, it has the consistency of well jelly! They come in a wide rage of fruity flavors, so adventurers pick them up all the time, especially when they can't afford the expensive elixirs.
They head out and buy, a bunch of jellies, Rika however gets most of them in cherry flavor, her favorite.
"These are so good!" Rika says as she slurps down another.
Dante raises an eyebrow. "How many of those have you eaten?"
Rika counts. "Like three." Rika says.
Dante snatches the bag from her. "These cost five-hundred each!"
Kaito laughs as he takes one of his own. He slurps it down and feels himself heal up. "Woah these really are good!" Kaito happily says.
"I wonder if I could cook these?" Kaito questions.
Nanami slurps one down too, her swollen eye healing. "No, you have to follow a complex set of steps in order to do so."
Nanami smiles then remembering testing in her hut. "That's why I also studied alchemy, but i could never remake jellies." She says.
Rika raises an eyebrow. "Did you make medicine in there?" She asks.
Nanami's smile slowly fades. "Uhm, not.... no." Nanami answers. She had began shaking a bit.
Kaito begins petting her head. "You ok Nanami?" He asks.
The petting slowly calms her. "Y-yes."
Rika stares and nods. "You sure are weird Nanami." She says.
Dante shoves her, "You're one to talk."
The party goes to leave, but the father stops them, "please, take this for your help." He bows to them.
Kaito raises his hands. "It's no problem, we just li-"
Rika takes the pouch from the man. "Thank you very much!" She happily says.
Dante and Nanami shakes their heads.
He had given them a thousand blastie.
Heading in the direction of the empire facility. Kaito excited to get on his trail finds himself getting impatient. "I wish we could move faster!"
"Nope no speeding this journey up, we gotta use the power of good ol legs!" Rika says happily.
"So Kaito, what kind of mage are you?" Nanami asks.
Kaito shrugs. "At first I thought I was just a regular fire guy, but when I went to the guild place, I was a dirt guy!" Kaito explains.
Nanami nods. "That's very peculiar, i've never heard of such a thing." She says.
Kaito thinks. "You haven't?"
Nanami shakes her head. "Elara shouldn't work that way, i've never heard of a mage who couldn't recall an element they've previously had." She explains.
Dante thinks. "Maybe he's a copy mage?"
Nanami furrows her brow deep in thought. "But how come he can use the element again after, even without a conduit?" She wonders.
Rika raises her arms way in the sky and groans. "Who cares what kinda mage he is, he uses a LOT of magic, simple as that." Rika explains.
Nanami and Dante again look unimpressed, "No help" "Idiot." They both mummer.
Kaito squinted ahead. "Anyone else feel like the ground's... sweating?"
Rika took a dramatic step forward. "Maybe the grass just has a healthy glow! Like me, after three cherry jellies and zero regrets."
Suddenly, the ground beneath her lurched.
"Uhhh... guys?"
SPLORCH.
The grass peeled away. Rika's shoes sunk into a shimmering green mass that had been masquerading as part of the hillside.
"Guys.....GUYS!"
The slime surged upward, a mountain of gelatin, forming eyes the size of shields and a wobbling, goopy mouth that stretched into a deranged smile.
It jiggled violently.
"IT'S ALIVE!" Rika screamed. "AND I'M STUCK IN ITS BUTT!!"
Dante shouted, "That's the front!"
"I'M IN ITS FRONT BUTT?!"
Kaito drew his dagger. "Hang on, I got this, FIRE!"
He threw out his hand.
WHOOSH.
A puff of wind rustled his hair.
"…Really?" Kaito muttered.
"HELP MEEEE!" Rika flailed. "It's getting higher! I'm gonna drown in slime! And it smells like expired kiwi!"
"Do slimes even have a scent?" Nanami asked, genuinely curious.
"I DON'T KNOW, BUT THIS ONE SMELLS LIKE AN ABANDONED SMOOTHIE BAR!"
The slime wobbled again, this time launching a blob of goo at Dante, who narrowly dodged.
"We need a plan!" he shouted. "Nanami?!"
Nanami was already flipping through her notes, muttering, "Viscosity too high... but gelatin-based... oh!"
She snapped her fingers. "Slimes slow down drastically when frozen! If we can lower its core temperature, its structure will collapse!"
"Okay, science talk later, can you freeze it?" Kaito asked Dante.
"Yeah, just buy me a second!"
Kaito raised his arm. "Barrier!"
A shimmering wall formed between Dante and the slime as another glob of goo splattered against it harmlessly.
"NOW!" Nanami called out.
Dante thrust his hands forward, a spiral of ice magic erupted from his palms, blasting the slime's center mass.
The creature froze in chunks, its upper body stiffening and cracking.
"IT'S STILL HOLDING ME!" Rika shouted. "I'm like a fly in jello! A very angry, very cherry-scented fly!"
"Hang tight!" Kaito yelled, dashing forward.
"No choice!" Rika shouted.
He leapt, his dagger in hand, and brought it down hard on the frozen section. With a sharp crack, the slime shattered, shards spraying like broken candy glass.
A huge chunk split in half, and Rika flopped out, landing on her back with a sticky splat.
Covered in goop, hair plastered to her face, she groaned, "Tell my family I died as I lived... full of sugar and poor decisions."
Nanami knelt beside her. "You're fine."
"I saw the afterlife," Rika mumbled. "It's was slimy."
Dante offered her a hand. "You want a jelly?"
"Not unless it's vengeance-flavored."
Kaito looked at the remains of the slime. "Okay. That was technically a win."
"Technically," Nanami echoed.
The group burst into laughter as they kept walking, Rika muttering threats at anything remotely wobbly-shaped along the way.
"Can we camp so I can clean up?!" Rika asks.
Kaito laughs. "Yeah sure." The group set up camp, as Kaito leaves to hunt something.
Rika comes back from a lake finally slime free. She sits her giant boomerang to the side, shocking Nanami.
"Where did that come from?" She asks. Rika stretches a grin ear to ear. "I always have it with me."
"But I didn't see you summon it, it was just there?" Nanami asks.
Rika smiles, waving her fingers dramatically. "Magic...."
Nanami looks offended by the answer. "No, you can't just say magic, what's the explanation?!" She shouts.
Rika looks at her through squinted eyes. "Magic." She responds.
Nanami looks to Dante. "Did she always have that?"
Dante smiles. "You don't question Rika on these things, she just has it sometimes." He answers.
Nanami rubs her eyes. "Ok."
Kaito comes back soaking wet, and he cooks up some fish.
Nanami smiles happily. "I'm pleased to enjoy more of your cooking." She says her ears jumping with joy.
Rika had scarfed the entire meal down, and fell asleep on spot.
In the night as Rika and Nanami shared a tent. Rika was awoken by Nanami whimpering and jumping around.
"mmmmm, i... sory." Nanami murmured. Rika woke up and saw Nanami having a nightmare.
She instead of getting upset held Nanami's hand, allowing her to calm down. "Stop interupting my sleep." Rika said as she looked at Nanami's pink nose. "Boop." Rika boops her nose.