Chapter 45: Divine's Trial
Sila was shocked because of the thing approaching him. He had never imagined that his inner self was this ugly. However, that wasn't important right now. Sila was now more worried due to the fact that this dark creature could clearly use Qi of Little Divine Beings.
Meanwhile, Sila had to depend on only Qi Reinforcement and the three slime-race skills. He couldn't circulate qi or fire hidden weapons in his current state.
Sila recalled the time when Poluk fought against the trolls. He imitated Poluk's actions by changing his body to become softer and dashed toward the enemy.
His inner self didn't seem to be surprised by Sila's actions. It lifted its hand which was glowing in intense Qi of Little Tiger and prepared to strike Sila. This attack seemed powerful as if it could kill Sila in one hit.
Once the red claw coming Sila's way was about to hit him, Sila immediately increased his heaviness with Formless Soldier. His body turned black and descended down into the ground, causing the attack from his enemy to miss.
When Sila was about to touch the ground, he changed his body to become softer again. His body bounced against the ground and charged at the chin of his inner self. He also didn't forget to change his body to become harder upon contact.
The sound of metallic clashing could be heard. Sila panicked as he found out that his opponent's body was as sturdy as metal. It seemed his inner self was also able to use Formless Soldier.
Moreover, based on its black appearance, it seemed his inner self was activating hardening aspect of Formless Soldier all the times. It couldn't be easily injured like this.
Sila felt uneasy. He was pushed back against the ground. He relied on the momentum and softened his body to bounce himself up again with double the speed. He didn't forget to activate Qi Reinforcement skill this time.
Their body collided strongly. Sila depended on the recoil to hop backward several meters. He looked at his inner self and found that there was a crack on its chin.
Sila released a sigh of relief as he discovered that at least his inner self wasn't immortal.
He was slightly dizzy though, as he still wasn't accustomed to bouncing himself back and forth.
Sila focused his mind and jumped at his opponent again. Although his inner self was full of power, it was quite stupid. Sila smiled softly. He didn't know whether he should be happy or sad because of the fact that his inner self is stupidly honest and relied only on direct confrontation.
Repeating the same method to attack, he bounced upward and hit his inner self's chin. If things went on like this, its injuries would accumulate until it lost.
Sila charged at the same spot. The crack on its chin was widened. Sila used this opportunity to bounce against the ground and rush at it again for the third time.
Sila's inner self wasn't just waiting for an incoming attack. Its left hand was glowing in blue aura and swiftly moved beautifully like a little fish playing in the lake. It grabbed Sila's body with ease.
Sila panicked. He was too careless and forgot that his opponent possessed Qi of Little Fish. Although it hadn't been enhanced with Qi of Little Tiger, the hand that grabbed onto Sila was as hard as steel, preventing him from getting away.
All five fingers squeezed tightly, causing Sila to feel pain all over his body.
Sila, who was in slime form, didn't have hands or legs to resist this predicament. He had to rely on the hardening aspect of Formless Soldier to withstand an incoming attack. The sound of metal grating against metal was loud.
Against Sila's resistance, the inner self used its right-hand empowered with Qi of Little Tiger to strengthen its grip on Sila.
The force Sila had to withstand increased by several times. Sila was screaming in pain. If this went on, he would surely die. His opponent even had one remaining arm to attack him.
Having no other choice, Sila's body color turned into red with the help of Orbiting Cosmos. Sila's body was hotter than fire as he spent all his magic power into executing this move.
The inner self screamed in pain. Its hands released their grasp slightly. Sila hurriedly used this opportunity to make his body softer and struggled out of its grasp.
He then moved back to take a moment of rest.
Sila looked at his inner self. Its eyes stared back at him. The color on its body had changed into bluish black. The vapor with icy sensation was released from its entire body.
Sila swallowed his saliva. His opponent used skill after skill as though its source of power was limitless. It was currently using the hardening aspect of Formless Soldier enhanced with the ice element from Orbiting Cosmos. It even maintained this state constantly.
His inner self glared at Sila without blinking. At that moment, Divine walked in between Sila and his inner self. He turned his head to talk with Sila.
"Let me stop this battle for a moment. I have something to tell Sila first," Divine said.
Sila didn't take his sight away from the inner self while shifting some of his attention to Divine.
"It seems Sila has misunderstood the objective of this trial," Divine said.
"Misunderstood? How?" Sila wondered.
"Yes. This is a psychic-type trial. Sila needs to depend only on Transparent Slime to achieve victory against this thing. Otherwise, even if Sila overwhelmingly beats it down, I will still have to give you a failing grade."
Sila pulled a wry face. "But, sir, Transparent Slime only causes my body to become more transparent. I can't see how it will help me in a fight."
"That completely depends on yourself. For psychic type, a resolute mind is the source of the skill. If Sila believes that skill can do that much, it will only amount to that much," Divine commented.
Sila was immersed in thought for a while.
"Then, let's continue. As I have said before, this trial's difficulty depends on Sila yourself," Divine said while jumping backward.
Once Divine got out of combat range, the inner self was releasing an ice-cold killing intent toward Sila once again. Its eyes were fixed on Sila.
Since he was told to rely on Transparent Slime, Sila closed his eyes and tried to remain calm. Except for this method, he was clueless about what he must do.
As the inner self witnessed Sila closing his eyes, it roared. It bared its fangs and jumped at Sila with Qi of Little Bird at high speed.
Sila's calmness was rippled due to the roar. His body's transparency became slightly dimmer.
Once the inner self approached Sila, it lifted its claw to strike at him strongly. Sila was hit and push away by its force, causing him to smash against the wall behind.
Sila gritted his teeth while enduring the painfulness. 'It doesn't work at all.' He thought before opened his eyes.
In practice, Transparent Slime was already quite hard. For him to empty his mind in life-and-death battle, it was nearly impossible.
Sila looked at his opponent, then, he stumbled onto something.
There was a slight crack on his inner self's hand. It was a very small crack that he might overlook if he didn't pay enough attention.
Sila hurriedly tried to come up with an answer. He was sure he hadn't attacked its hand before. How does a crack appear there?
'Was it… when it attacked me previously?'
Sila pushed himself out of the wall. He hopped forward to confront the inner self. He recalled Divine's advice. So far, Sila had overcome trial after trial because he depended on the advice he had been given (except from Viola whom didn't give him any.)
"…We don't have to fight against anyone. We fight against ourselves and opponents fight against themselves. A calm mind like a mirror will reflect everything…" Divine's sentences appeared in Sila consciousness.
"A calm mind like a mirror…" Sila muttered.
"The strongest psychic is a calm mind…" Sila continued.
"Calm… Mirror… We fight against ourselves and opponents fight against themselves…"
Meanwhile, the inner self dashed at Sila without delay.
Sila closed his eyes. He started to understand. We fight against ourselves and opponents fight against themselves. At that instant, everything around Sila became meaningless for him. Everything became nothingness. What was left were only the emptiness and stillness.
Still like a mirror… A mirror which can reflect everything.
Sila body was as transparent as Divine.
Divine, who was standing nearby, gave Sila a smile.
'Very skillful. He is indeed more suited to be a psychic-type player. But he will have to keep himself in this state all the time to be considered a true expert,' Divine thought.
Once the inner self's dark claw, filling with an insane amount of qi, struck at Sila's transparent body; Sila's body was illuminating an intense white light. The surroundings were covered by such light.
Then, the light faded off. Sila reopened his eyes.
The inner self stood in front of him. Its boy was full of cracks. It soon dissolved into particles and slowly dispersed in thin air.
A system sound alarmed.
Player Sila has overcome the trial of the Way of Slime (Psychic Part.)
Skill (F) Transparent Slime has been promoted to skill (S) Moon Reflecting Mirror.
Player Sila has overcome all three parts of the Way of Slime's ordeal.
Skill (F) Heart of Slime has been promoted to skill (S) Way of Slime.
Sila was surprised by the fact that the Heart of Slime skill also got promoted.
Racial skill: (S) Moon Reflecting Mirror
Psychic-type skill. An art of psychic manipulation. Can be used to change part of the body or its junction to become mirror-like, being able to reflect power.
Decreases the efficiency of illusions by 50%.
Decreases an opponent's psychic-based attack power by 20%.
Racial skill: (S) Way of Slime
[Sealed until player can comprehend the way of slime.]
Sila looked at Way of Slime's description with a frown. It seemed he had got another strange and hard-to-understand skill again. Slime race is indeed a very difficult race to play.
"Why is my Way of Slime skill sealed?" Sila asked Divine.
"I can't answer that. If Sila really wants to know, it's better to ask to the slime who has this same skill."
"Who is it?"
"Slime King. His Majesty is the sole slime who possess this skill. No, that's incorrect. Currently, Sila is another slime who possess it even though you still can't use it," Divine answered.
Sila nodded. He was bound to go back to visit Slime King again anyway. It's due to the fact that he still hadn't turned back to human form even though he had passed the ordeal.
"Before Sila go, I would like to give Sila a warning regarding the Moon Reflecting Mirror's weaknesses," Divine said.
"Does this skill have weaknesses? Sila asked. He just noticed that it's an S-grade skill without apparent weakness shown in the skill description.
"Although this skill possesses very high utility and is able to counter almost every kind of attacks, due to Sila's own lack of experience, it currently has three weaknesses," Divine explained.
Sila nodded. He could accept the fact that this skill has weakness due to his own incompetence. He knew full well that this skill was very hard for him to use.
"First, the concept of this skill heavily relies on emptying your mind. With Sila's current ability, you wouldn't be able to activate it together with other skills," Divine said. Sila completely agreed with this. He was indeed unable to empty his mind while performing other activities.
"Second, this skill only works for attacks that you understand ability of or are familiar with. The mirror can only reflect what it sees.
"Lastly, with Sila's current ability, you would only able be to use this skill in a defensive manner. However, Moon Reflecting Mirror can actually be used to directly perform an offensive act. All slime racial skills always have more than one way of being used," Divine concluded.
"How can I do that, sir?" Sila asked.
"You have to find the answer by yourself. I can only give you a hint: a mirror doesn't only reflect an enemy, it can also reflect oneself."
Sila kept Divine's statements in mind.
Afterward, Divine guided Sila out of this place.