Slime Evolution

Chapter 459: 459 - Interruption

It was at that exact moment, with the two of them still wrapped in that silent embrace, that the office door swung open abruptly, with no warning whatsoever.

“Everyone, we finally found the…” Alice began, walking in excitedly, her own enthusiasm spilling out with every word, but the sentence died in her throat the moment her eyes caught the scene in front of her.

Lisa, still wrapped up in Lohan’s jelly, accepting that embrace with no apparent resistance.

Alice froze completely in the middle of the doorway, her eyes wide at that unexpected sight, the scroll tucked under her arm nearly slipping from her fingers.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” she said quickly, already starting to back out into the hallway, one hand raised in a hurried apologetic gesture.

Lisa, realizing the situation, felt her face heat up instantly, the warmth rushing up her cheeks so fast there’d be no hiding it even if she tried.

With an abrupt jump, she pulled away from the embrace, putting physical distance between the two bodies with an obviously exaggerated haste, which only made the whole thing look even more suspicious.

“You’re not interrupting anything,” Lisa said, trying to keep her own voice firm and serious, but visibly failing at it, her pitch coming out higher than usual. “We were just… testing out a skill.”

Alice, still standing in the doorway, raised an eyebrow, a slow, thoroughly unconvinced smile forming on her face.

“Testing out a skill,” she repeated, skepticism dripping from every syllable. “Sure. That makes total sense.”

“It’s true,” Lisa insisted, her voice coming out even more defensive. “Halon was… testing the density of his own biomass against my Spirit Energy… you wouldn’t understand.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Alice agreed, her smile widening even further at that increasingly elaborate and increasingly unconvincing explanation. “Biomass density. Of course that’s what it was.”

Lohan, watching that whole scene play out with amusement, decided to step in before Lisa tangled herself up even further in her own transparent lie.

“Go ahead and say what you came to say, Alice,” he said, forming his little cute eyes again, complemented by a discreet wink aimed specifically at the fairy.

Alice smiled even wider at that conspiratorial gesture, clearly understanding perfectly well that no skill was being tested there, but deciding, with a kind consideration, not to push the subject any further.

“Alright,” she said, composing herself again. “I came to let you know we finally found the monster you were looking for, Halon. One with high mental power, and more importantly, at a level that’s actually within our reach.”

Hearing that, any lingering trace of embarrassment vanished instantly from Lohan’s mind, replaced by a genuine and growing excitement.

“Really?” he asked, his own voice vibrating with anticipation. “I’m finally going to be able to communicate on my own?!”

Lisa, beside him, also felt a sincere smile form, the irritation from minutes ago completely dissolving in the face of his genuine happiness, her own body relaxing even further after all the tension built up over the last few minutes.

She knew exactly how much that specific area of his development bothered him, how much he silently got frustrated every time he had to rely on her mental link to communicate, instead of being able to do it naturally like any other sentient creature in Elysium.

“That’s wonderful, Halon,” she said, the pride clear in her voice. “After waiting so long for a chance like this, you deserve this bit of luck.”

“Tell me more details,” Lohan asked, turning fully toward Alice, his own jelly vibrating slightly with pent up anticipation. “What kind of monster is it? Where is it located? I need to know everything before I decide how to approach this.”

Alice, however, seemed to hesitate for a moment, a little surprised by that question.

“Actually,” she admitted, “this information had already been available to us for a few days. The problem was nobody knew we specifically needed it until now. The new members who had this information never imagined it would be relevant enough to mention before.”

Without wasting any more time on indirect explanations, Alice turned toward the still open door.

“Dan, Sam, you can come in,” she called out.

The two brothers walked into the meeting room right after, moving with visible hesitation, their bodies carrying a shy wariness at standing in front of the guild’s leaders.

Lisa, noticing that withdrawn posture, smiled gently at the two of them, trying to convey as much warmth as possible through her own expression.

“Feel free to speak up,” she said, deliberately softening her voice. “Nobody here is going to judge you for anything.”

“The information actually came from them,” Alice explained, gesturing toward the pair.

Dan, adjusting his own decrepit posture with visible effort, was the one who finally worked up the courage to speak first.

“Near the volcano where we used to hunt,” he began, his hoarse voice coming out low, but clear, “there are some small demons with pretty powerful mental abilities. We ran into them a few times during the grind.”

Sam, floating beside his brother, finished the thought, his spiritual voice echoing softly through the room.

“They resist my possession way better than any other monster we’ve ever faced,” he added. “The first time I tried invading one of their minds, I thought it was just a system bug, because the resistance was absurdly stronger than anything we’d run into up to that point.”

Lohan and Lisa exchanged a quick glance, both feeling their own excitement spike instantly at that description.

“That sounds exactly like the kind of creature I need,” Lohan said, barely able to contain his own enthusiasm. “Where exactly did you find these demons? What level are they at?”

But before the two brothers could answer with more specific details, a visible hesitation took hold of both of them, Dan trading a worried look with Sam before continuing.

“Well,” Dan admitted, his voice losing some of its earlier confidence, “there’s a problem with that.”

“What kind of problem?” Lisa asked, frowning.

“Before we came to Astralis,” Sam explained, his spiritual voice now carrying a more cautious tone, “we heard there’s a guild completely monopolizing the hunting of those specific monsters in that region, because of how much their horns go for on the market.”

“They patrol the area constantly,” Dan added, “and chase off any independent group that tries to hunt there without their prior approval. We never got close enough to confirm it ourselves, but the rumors going around among the few players who passed through that region were pretty consistent.”

Lohan felt his own excitement cool slightly at that unexpected complication, knowing that dealing with just monsters or locations in Elysium was always a lot easier than dealing with other Players…

“Well,” he said, exchanging a meaningful look with Lisa, “then it seems like we’re going to need to have a talk with that guild.”

Lisa crossed her arms, a confident smile forming on her face.

“Or we just convince them that monopoly is far too ugly a word to exist anywhere near the Astralis Requiem.” she remarked, her voice calm as she stepped into her own domain. “Let’s find out exactly who they are, and then decide on the best approach. We can try diplomacy first, but if something else is needed…”

“I’m sure we’ll find a solution,” Dan said, visible relief loosening his own shoulders, his initial wariness finally starting to give way in the face of the calm confidence the guild’s two leaders were showing.

Sam, floating beside his brother, also seemed to relax considerably, his own ethereal form visibly growing less tense.

“It’s good to know our information could actually be useful to the Guild.” he said with a big relieved smile on his face.