A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 150: Following A Slime

Chapter 150: Following A Slime

I slithered close behind the gelatinous creature as it led me eastwards, which was good. If it led me towards the north or south, I might have followed it, but not west, I didn’t want to lose all of my progress. Besides, I fell that it would’ve found me sooner if that was the case.

As I followed the creature, days passed and the trees dispersed, giving way to a beautiful field of bright and dazzling flowers. Off in the distance, I could see the signs of civilization.

The slime however, after reaching the field, did not go through it, and instead headed up north along the edge of the field, where I could see numerous mountains lining the horizon. I wasn’t sure if that was where we were headed but I continued to follow the slime anyways.

It took us another couple of days to reach the base of the mountain and when we arrived there seemed to be a path that went partway up the mountain and led into a cave of some sort.

The slime started to head up the path without a care in the world, but I was a bit more hesitant, as this path seemed to be man-made. Would there be people up there at the entrance? If so, who would they be, and what would they be like.

It’d been so long since I talked to someone that I was nervous at the mere prospect of having to talk to someone.

Still, I followed the pink slime up the path anyways, my curiosity overpowering my nervousness as I wanted to see what it had in store for me. Even if it was a trap I’m confident that I can escape with my strength, and even in the event that my strength isn’t enough and I die, I’ll be fine embracing death.

I continued to follow the slime up the winding stone pathway until we were about a third of the way up the mountain when we stumbled upon a plateau that had some small stalls here and there, all filled with various bits of equipment, and up against the wall of the mountain, there seemed to be the entrance to a mine, but it was seemingly blocked off by some guards.

As soon as I crested the path onto the plateau, everyone looked towards me instinctively, causing me to flinch in response. They all eyed my naked body, some with intrigue, some with disgust and some with desire. But after a few seconds they ignored me and went back to whatever they were doing seemingly used to naked people just wondering around.

There were a lot of humans here, and I mean A LOT of humans. If not for the occasional set of cat ears and tail that I saw on some people, then I would’ve thought that this was a human establishment.

I was scared as my father always told me to be wary of humans and their cunning nature that rivalled that of demons.

The pink slime however, didn’t care about that as it slid its way over towards the hole in the wall, leaving a trail of mucus behind it. No one batted an eye at the slimes actions and continued to carry out their business. I followed the slime, getting the odd side eye here and there but otherwise not much else happened.

At least until the slime passed through into the mine entrance and I tried to follow through. They blocked my passage through by crossing their spears together.

Taking another look at them, they were two human men wearing full, shining plate armour with a blue cape hanging from behind them. On their arms was a yellow sigil of a strange creature standing on its hind legs with a thin tail that had a small fluffy end plastered over a sun.

"You cannot enter this area without the proper registrations." One of them informed me.

"And wha-" *Cough* *Cough* I started to cough as soon as I tried speaking.

"You okay?" The other man asked.

I nodded in response as I rubbed my throat.

"Would you like some water? Your voice sounded real rough." The first guard offered me a flask of water, which I gratefully accepted.

I took a few sips before returning the flask and trying to speak once more.

"What registrations?" I asked in a raspy voice, trying not to strain it too much.

The two guards looked at me with worry.

"Are you good? Your voice doesn’t sound like it is." The first guard asked.

"I’m fine. Lost my voice and recovered only recently." I spoke using the fewest number of words possible while still conveying what I wanted to say.

"Oof. Hope you have a swift recovery, but, I’m afraid we can’t let you pass. Not like we don’t want you to, but we’re just following procedure." The second guard explained.

That was when we heard the sound of something wobbly begin to ripple. The three of us looked into the cave entrance and saw that the slime was either agitated or annoyed.

The guards looked at one another, then back at the slime, then at me.

"Are... Are you, with, the slime?" The first guard questioned

"I guess? I followed it from the forest as it seemed to want me here." I answered, my voice still extremely rough not just from being broken, but also lack of use.

"Well, we don’t want to anger that thing, but... We at least need to know if you’re strong enough to survive in there." The second guard said to me.

"Why?" I asked, then it hit me. I turned to look back at everyone else and found the people bartering at the stalls seemed to be adventurer’s and the people behind the stalls were selling them supplies. "Is there..."

"Yeah, popped up a few months ago when some miners accidentally broke the wall keeping it in. Sure, they can keep mining, but they don’t feel safe with a dungeon nearby, even if adventurer’s go in and out. Can’t blame ’em honestly, I’d feel the same." The first guard explained.

"Still, we can’t willingly let you in if you can’t protect yourself, and you don’t look like you could afford an escort to go with you." The second one chimed in.

"How strong then?" I asked.

"Uhh... You familiar with the adventurer ranking system?" The second guard asked.

"No, but simple, yes?" I said keeping my words short to let my voice adjust to being used again. I sounded like a silent banshee to be honest, and I wanted to get away from that as soon as possible.

"Pretty simple, start off at copper, then bronze, iron, silver, gold and so one. If we are to let you in, I’d sayyyyy about iron level?" The second guard said, a little unsure of himself. "At least to guaruntee you can stay safe and alive."

"How can I prove strength then?" I asked once more.

"Just a simple demonstration of your skills, preferably something like some high damage magic or a strong punch will do." The first guard explained patiently.

"Where?" I asked, not wanting to be annoying or annoy anyone.

"Just fire whatever into the air, they won’t mind." The first guard said.

I turned around and looked up at the sky. There were a few clouds here and there, not too cloudy but still enough of them that the sun would be blocked out for a bit.

It took me a moment on what to demonstrate, but I ended up with a good old-fashioned [Fireball]. I wasn’t going to throw a regular fireball, no, I was going to at least throw one empowered by runes. I created one roughly the half the size of my head and added a few simple runes onto it such as ’burst’ and ’velocity’ which would allow it to have a bigger blast and go a lot faster.

I hurled it into the air and waited a few seconds before setting it off so as to not let it affect anything or anyone.

*BOOOOOOM!!!*

It exploded with a thunderous bang and a bright flash, a shockwave soon reaching everyone but doing nothing more than blow against people like the wind on a decently windy day. Then the heat came shortly after. It wasn’t too uncomfortable, just a fair bit hotter than a camp fire.

The explosion soon resided and I turned back to see the two guards looking up at the place the explosion happened with awe.

I coughed to get their attention and they shook their heads to get out of their stupor before looking at me with astonishment and wonder. I could also see a little bit of fear behind those eyes, not much but it was there, though it was more the kind of fear that said ’I wasn’t expecting that’ which isn’t really fear but it seemed to be something along those lines.

"What... What was that?" the first guard stuttered.

"Fire magic?" I replied a bit confused.

"That wasn’t normal fire magic!" The second one screamed at me.

"Well, I did enhance it a bit." I explained.

"With what?" He asked back.

"Runes." I replied calmly.

"You have access to rune magic?" The first guard asked sceptically.

"Yes?" I responded in confusion once more. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, or maybe it is to humans and I just don’t know.

"Something’s not adding up here." The second guard said. "Rune magic can make spells more powerful, but that seemed too powerful, even for a standard enhancement."

"How would you that?" The first guard asked him in bewilderment.

"I saw one of the Merlin wizards use rune magic once, and they did the same thing." The second guard replied.

Before they could start an argument or something I coughed once more to get their attention.

They turned their head to me and I asked, "Can I go in now?"

"Oh yeah, yeah of course, go right ahead." The first guard said, going back to the side to guard the entrance to the mine while his buddy did the same.

Finally I was able to go in and follow the slime further.

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