Despite the long winding corridors of the Gelatomb Dungeon living up to its name by being the spitting image of a tomb with its weathered grey brick walls and its exclusive monsters consisting solely of slime variants, not even monsters covered in slime, simply slimes. The place's atmosphere did little in the way to dampen a certain girl's mood, because what in the world could hope to distract the noble-aestetic girl from all the whiplash she'd experienced at the mana-made hands of Morilore.

  Strutting her stuff with a sizeable amount of bombastic flair, Yuuvia, being the proud noble girl that she was, wanted to ensure all who saw her knew how little a dungeon fazed her. But that was just a surface lie; her main motivator for putting on a front in the current moment was something entirely different from her usual reasoning: she desperately tried to keep her misidentification of Morilore's connection to Lizu and Inkaro far from the forefront of her mind.

  It was all she could reasonably think about without her mind spiralling from a lack of concentration. She also couldn't get the idea of those two being a thing out of her head. It didn't help her case that Inkaro showed no signs of feeling anxious from all the squelching ambience created from the many slimes that could potentially be just around the corner. "What is with this guy...? He's acting like there aren't threats around every corner."

  Yuuvia continued to mumble under her breath, fiddling with her thick, glowing pale-lavender ring on her left thigh, as she walked alongside Inkaro, ready to pull her weapon out at the call of trouble. As she had eyes trained on the back of the guy's head and more importantly the crown-like crystal accessory adorning the hood-riding G.Galore, she couldn't stop thinking about how, not in an eerie way, that girl Morilore acted with a perfect blend of Lizu and Inkaro's mannerisms, the kind of which goes beyond mere golem programming.

  The thought made her a little jealous, not that she'd readily admit that out loud. Not because he could do it, but because she couldn't do it to the same extent. So, she tried to divert her attention, but just by doing so, a thought occurred to her as her gaze returned to the CoTE (crystal crown accessory). "Hold it... is that made from the core of a mana manifestation?"

  "Huh? Oh, yeah. I had considered using a substitute instead until I realised how tedious doing so would be with such a time constraint," Inkaro said amusedly, swaying his head from side to side as a slight giddy demeanour weasled its way into him at remembering a similar project he was running. A project he ended up placing on hold when Lizu wanted to go all in on making honey flavour variants.

  "Substitute?" Yuuvia asked with a scrutinous amount of suspicion, practically dreading the incoming mind-melting rationality Inkaro would impart to her. Still with that thought in mind, she remained firm; she'd rather succumb to insanity than allow herself to belittle herself by being anything less than a proper noble. Because, in her mind, not being noble was no different than the death of herself.

  "Indeed, an artificial one, but that would've meant my gift for Lizu would've missed her birthday."

  Utter insanity, a complete disregard for common sense and even basic logic, was the only way Yuuvia dared to describe the guy's response and reasoning to such a bombshell. It was what she expected, but expectation can only protect so much before insanity sets in. Then, in the middle of her battle with her own mind, a thought came to mind, and she clung to it, since she had nothing to lose if she'd go insane anyway. "Where did you even get such a thing? Those things are hardly a small piece of coin."

  Inkaro waved his head to the side, unsure what Yuuvia was referring to until she pointed to G.Galore's, as Yuuvia called it, hairpiece.

  "I encountered and captured mana manifestation while I was travelling to Solicrave, simple as that."

  With half-libbed eyes full of disbelief, Yuuvia looked forward, deciding that conversing with Inkaro any further would be a detriment to her very ability to think. Luckily for her, an opportunity presented itself for her to take her mind off Inkaro. A wail of panic roared its way from up ahead, one distinctly from a person and not a slime.

  A sinisterly noble smirk sprawled across Yuuvia's face as she planted a hand on her leg, grabbing onto her thigh band before reeling out a staff containing a component of outerworldly history from its storage.

  :Tapesty:

  [Crescent of the Waxing Moon][Type: Spell Booster/Empowerer][Rank: SS]

  -A very thin platinum staff. It has a pale and muted yellow crescent moon-cut moonstone that's rotated forty-five degrees. On the half of the crescent moon furthest from the staff stem, there are five groove-like, square-shaped sockets. The moon-like part is attached to the head of the staff by a transparent, pale blue glass-like cube that's oriented so that a point where a corner would be is pointed at the staff stem.

  :Curio:

  [Storage Thigh Band][Type: Storage][Rank: A]

  -a thick, glowing pale lavender ring.

  Up ahead, the floors were sleek and slippery, coated from here to there by a transparent, yet luckily reflectively visible, liquid. The liquid oozed relentlessly from the boulder-sized slime monster whose transparency rivalled a pristine and newly installed window.

  Each of the sword swings and lightning attacks that came the slime's way was met with equally decisive swings from its tendrils, deflecting the attacks thanks to the lubricant liquid it generated.

  Shooting out an attack of its own, the slime swung one of its tendrils in a low leg swing, aiming for the sword wielder's legs as she had her gaze aimed a little too high after getting distracted by a splat noise from above.

  "Watch out!" the grimoire supporting girl called out just in the nick of time.

  Not even bothering to look at the attack, the headstrong first year kicked off against the ground, narrowly avoiding the slime's attack as she slid across the ground like it was ice.

  As she drew near to her friend, the headstrong girl shot her feet out at an angle, maximising the surface area against the direction of her momentum, bringing her to a delayed stop beside her friend before priming her sword at the slime again.

  Gritting her teeth as she ripped her sword from the slime's gelatinous form that was stuck to her sword, flinging bits of slime everywhere and even on herself by accident, the headstrong first year grumbled under her breath about her grievances with the slime: "This thing is so hard to hit, I can barely see it. And I've hit its core multiple times, but it just won't go down."

  "I know, usually a firm enough hit to its core should destabilise its body from the vibrations," the girmoire wielder mentioned as she watched the slime with continually increasing dread, her nerves getting that more razzled from the monster's sudden halt on attacking.

  Suddenly, there was a wiggle, not from the slime's main body but from the many clumps of its detached form on the headstrong girl.

  "For the love of-". That was all the headstrong first year managed to say before the gelatin on her body exploded into multiple mini tendrils, looking like water after a stone is dropped into it. The little tendrils shot off at the speed of sound, indiscriminately wrapping around her limbs and religiously covering all the spots on her body with cuts. She winced as the applied pressure stung like crazy.

  Then the slime refused to do any sort of follow-up attack during the girl's vulnerable state.

  The act seemed odd to the duo, but the grimoire wielder still mentioned this could be a trap. Her friend asked how she could be sure, and the grimoire-holding girl turned a little red, redder than an oversaturated apple with a light point directly at it. She mumbled incoherently, something about seeing similar things on the W.I.S.N. before when she was totally doing research.

  Although not entirely sure why they'd need to do research on an entry-level dungeon, she conceded that fighting this slime would've been much easier to deal with had they done a little research themselves.

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  Just to be safe, the headstrong academy student told her friend to stand back so she wouldn't also get caught up in the slime, in the event it acted up again. Begrudgingly, the girl with a shield-looking grimoire stepped back from the battle, allowing her friend free rein to attack without fear of getting any slime on her.

  Despite seeing the concerned look in her friend's eyes, filled with an adamant desire to help, the headstrong girl knew it would only take one slip, which her friend was prone to on not slippery terrain, and they'd both be put in an easily trappable state.

  But, even with her friend's warning, the grimore-having girl would be damned if she'd just sit and watch. So, to make up the difference of not getting close, she raised her girmoire overhead, its pages flipping one after another until it landed on the page she required. Spark shot out from her grimoire as she announced the spell she called "Lightning Phane", which coiled through the air and around her friend's sword and legs.

  With a proud smirk to face, the headstrong first year reeled her sword overhead, sparking with lightning, eyeing up the slime's movements, calculating the precise moment to strike, before zipping right in front of it thanks to her buffs.

  The slime, though lacking the ability to think, was taken aback as the sparking sword was brought down upon it with the fury of a berserker, managing to break through the jelly membrane and nick the mana core enough to chip it. Naturally, the force of the attack sent more chunks of slime flying everywhere, but mostly onto the wielder of the sword and the sword itself.

  After a few extra jiggles unrelated to the impact, the slime went limp with a plopping noise.

  The grimoire-wielding girl gained a faltering smirk, briefly believing her friend had defeated the monster, only to be disheartened as the large slime started to wobble about once more.

  The duo collectively sighed so hard their shoulders slumped like the gravity exerted on them had magnified by multiple magnitudes.

  "How odd, a slime of this size shouldn't be on such a high floor... I'm referring to elevation, not the number," Inkaro remarked nonchalantly, leaving the two fellow girls from the Solicrave Academy baffled. Even the slime was confused, maybe? Or so an onlooker would assume, given how it had stopped its advance on the headstrong girl.

  None had the chance to process whatever Inkaro had said as a castle siege's worth of mini icicle spikes rocketed by the two girls and plunged deep into the larger slime.

  Writhing on the spot, the slime frantically flailed its body, letting out a garbled, watery shriek as its body rippled like a lake constantly being struck by rain.

  One moment it was liquidish; the next, it was solid down to its core.

  Although grateful the slime was stopped for real this time, the conclusion made more apparent as the gelatin on the headstrong girl started to slacken and slowly slide off her body, the two girls only had one thought on their minds: exhaustion.

  A point made more apparent as they dropped onto their butts as their adrenaline finally ran dry, panting heavily now they could freely catch their breath.

  "Was that kind of rescue really necessary? I'm sure they could have handled it on their own if you used a different spell to support them," Inkaro mentioned, only to get a mean scowl from Yuuvia as she felt more offended that he didn't bat an eye at such a complex Tapesty spell than her annoyance at the girl for struggling against the slime monster.

  On the topic of the girls, Yuuvia decided they needed guidance, but with Inkaro here, she didn't want to show any sort of compassion that would make her look weak. In her mind, she had to compromise by covering up the advice somehow; after all, she couldn't look weak in front of a commoner, but mainly the guy she suspected was Lizu's partner.

  She'd never hear the end of it if Inkaro snitched to Lizu. Her pride would be in utter shambles. She mentally toiled away, desperate for her brain to give her an inkling of how to save face.

  Then she got an idea, borrowing from how Morilore masked her annoyance at being referred to as a simple magical device by pretending she was just making some clarifications. However, unlike the sentient grimoire, Yuuvia knew she could mask her true intentions way better. She had enough faith in herself to keep up the act for longer than the grimoire; at least she was sure of that.

  With that plan in mind, Yuuvia shot an overbearing side eye to the duo, glaring at the girls with vitriol to shut up any complaint they might've had and getting a few fearful trembles out of them, too. To ensure any future complaints were snuffed out, the pompous presenting noble aimed the base of her staff at the headstrong classmate. The girl with the grimoire, unlike her mostly unfazed friend, flinched so hard she genuinely could've jumped out of her skin, despite not being the target of the pointing.

  "Whaat, you thought I saved them out of the goodness of my heart? Proposterous, it is only natural for a noble person to defend the weak, is it not?" Yuuvia proclaimed, her words directed at Inkaro, despite them being aimed at the girls, as any other course of action would be unbecoming of a noble. Altering her posture slightly, she affixed her gaze to the girls fully before talking in a somewhat softer tone, "So I suggest you quit your mental whining and make off to a safe zone. You'll only end up being a hindrance if you don't get your wounds healed, even if they're shallow. How'd you even get cut by a slime anyway?"

  After that fake tirade of anger, Yuuvia heavily sighed, misconstrued by the girls as her disappointment in them.

  They went to stand but were stopped by Yuuvia when she groaned heavily. Before she allowed them to stand, she moved her staff slightly to the side and knocked a piece of slime gel off the headstrong classmate's shoulder. Then, only after letting out a pragmatic huff of self-assurance, Yuuvia turned on her heel and marched onwards with Inkaro in tow, leaving the duo at a loss for words.

  As they walked on, Inkaro asked a question: "So, by noble, is that the verb or the noun you're using?"

  Instead of an immediate verbal response, Yuuvia put on a pout/wince combo, wincing like she just received the meanest sucker punch to her stomach with the way her face scrunched up in fury. "Both, duh. Also, it's not like you were much help other than that information you told me."

  "You mean the part about that particular slime was a hive of smaller secretion slimes... I believe Lizu mentioned slimes do such a thing when gangs of matching slimes coexist for prolonged amounts of time," Inkaro stated, intentionally raising his voice high enough so the two other girls couldn't possibly miss his message.

  Inkaro's actions made Yuuvia shiver uncomfortably, believing for the briefest moment that Inkaro was secretly mocking her by doing something similar to what she did to hide her true intention.

  "Really. A monster lecture...? Though I can't complain about knowing such info, if it means slimes can boost their strength outside the assigned" Yuuvia murmured, her annoyance lasting for the briefest moment before her tone turned to one of reluctant acceptance.

  Watching their benefactors walk, the two classmates were left to wonder if everyone who gets into the Star Course has to have some screws loose.

  Even further down the hall, Inkaro noticed the somewhat sombre glare Yuuvia had unrelentingly applied to her face, wearing the expression of a wronged person after being swindled out of something rightfully owed to them.

  He recalled Lizu making similar faces over the years whenever she showed off a new spell, and he didn't praise her or ask her about its inner workings immediately. The sight made him wonder if all girls who are nobles were desperate for praise, given that Nuenala was more of a reactive praise receiver, while Lizu and Yuuvia were proactive.

  Figuring it was best just to play along, fearing the girl would have a similar outburst like Lizu if her annoyance builds up too much, Inkaro formulated the best choice of words in his mind with a quiet whisper of verbal suggestion from G.Galore.

  "That magic display of yours was elegantly coordinated, I'm sure if you weren't in a rush to save those two, you could've showed off more," Inkaro said with reckless earnestness, somehow sounding extra flattering to Yuuvia, given the guy's usual non-use of such verbose words. Yuuvia's eyes sparkled for a moment. But she quickly recovered from the sudden praise, resuming her usual annoyed facade.

  "Heh, I didn't expect you to have a silver tongue, or maybe sweet tongue is more accurate. It does make logical sense, though, that Lizuranti wouldn't have been so overprotective of you otherwise."

  "And here I thought our relationship was built on our shared interest in grimoires... and my cooking skills," Inkaro jested while the rattles of G.Galore's chain echoed from his hood, clearly angered by the notion her creator was showing Yuuvia any positive emotion.

  "See! You did it again."

  Raising an eyebrow at the accusation, Inkaro tilted his head to one side; he hadn't the foggiest idea what she could be alluding to: "Again?"

  Yuuvia wanted to knock Inkaro up the head or just explode on the spot in a ball of fury, despite knowing neither would remedy the frustration Inkaro's actions were causing her. Harnessing all the restraint she could muster to stop herself from pouncing on him, Yuuvia pointed a finger right at Inkaro's face with her free hand, doing so to make sure the guy was fully listening to her.

  "That selective obliviousness of yours that somehow comes off as endearing and cute; it's like how a kitten managing to unlock the door multiple times by dumb luck is simply adorable. You know?"

  Like how most who listen to him when talking about grimoires, Inkaro didn't follow her reasoning in the slightest, but did find the explanation familiar to some extent. While bringing his own hand to his face, Inkaro murmured astutely, "Lizu has used analogies similar to that you just described."

  Slapping her once raised hand to her side, Yuuvia obtusely groaned in defeat: "Of course she has...."