Volume 3, Chapter 4 – The Giant Slime Attacks

“Is she not wearing enough clothes…?”

After placing Mary on the quilt laid out in the carriage, Yisi pulled the blanket over her.

To Yisi, a fever was a very common ailment. Back on Earth, she would get one almost every time the seasons changed, and back then, all it took was some fever-reducing medicine to cure it.

Of course, a fever was a different concept in this world. The church’s healing magic could only treat external injuries; illnesses like the common cold could only be cured with herbal medicine. Moreover, pharmacology in this world was exceptionally underdeveloped, so even a simple cold could easily claim a person’s life. Take Yisi’s initial cold for example; if it weren’t for Winterbloom Grass, which could cure most diseases, the outcome might have long since become irreversible.

“Good thing I bought a lot of Winterbloom Grass before we left… I remember one stalk cost a silver coin. What a profitable industry.”

What Yisi didn’t know was that Winterbloom Grass was a plant with extremely strict environmental requirements and couldn’t be artificially cultivated. In fact, most of this world’s resources still relied on natural supply, so it was only natural for the price to be high.

Yisi tossed the Winterbloom Grass into the iron pot used for making porridge, set up a stand for brewing medicine using a wooden stick and ‘Solidify’ magic, and then began to brew the herb in the night wind, yawning all the while. Although she didn’t know the principle behind it, Winterbloom Grass was indeed a panacea for illnesses. According to the apothecary who sold it, not only was it useful for exorcising demons, but it could also suppress wound infections. In Yisi’s eyes, Winterbloom Grass had become a more convenient drug than antibiotics.

After all, antibiotics were ineffective against viruses, but Winterbloom Grass was.

“Speaking of which, the weather here is clearly warmer than in Celtic City, and Mary seemed fine when she was talking during the day. Why would she suddenly get a fever? Normally, there should be a progression of the illness, right?”

Mulling this over, Yisi checked Mary’s status with the Omniscient Map. The result displayed on the status bar was not ‘Fever,’ but ‘Calamity Affliction.’

This unexpected discovery made Yisi stand up abruptly.

“Eh?”

‘Calamity Affliction’ should have been the status of that slime girl from the morning.

Yisi hurriedly checked her own and Camilla’s status bars. Fortunately, neither of them had the ‘Calamity Affliction’ status.

Recalling how the slime girl had told her to back away when they came into contact, and how she kept emphasizing the word “sickness,” Yisi suddenly understood the slime girl’s intention. The slime girl probably already knew she was afflicted with ‘Calamity Affliction’ and that it was contagious. But because she didn’t know the true nature of ‘Calamity Affliction,’ she could only explain it as a sickness.

As for why Mary was infected instead of Yisi, who had been closest to the slime girl, Yisi could only attribute it to their immune systems.

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But was ‘Calamity Affliction’ really a disease?

No matter how she looked at it, the name didn’t sound like an illness. Yisi could only resort to her old method: experimentation.

“First, I’ll have Mary drink the Winterbloom Grass tea. If that doesn’t cure her, I’ll try using a skill that removes abnormal statuses.”

Yisi sat back down on the stone and patiently brewed the Winterbloom Grass.

…

Time quickly passed to the next day.

Sunlight broke through the thin morning mist, awakening all of creation from its slumber. Noticing the change in light, Yisi, who had been dozing on a stone stool, opened her eyes. Although a vampire’s body was not afraid of the cold and required less sleep than a human’s, keeping watch like this still made her feel exceptionally tired.

She stretched long and hard, and her bones immediately let out a series of crisp cracks. Yisi exhaled.

“Camilla, Mary, time to get up.”

Perhaps due to her training from a young age, Camilla was usually a light sleeper. All Yisi had to do was call out once, and Camilla would wake up. As for Mary, who had the fever, she had already recovered thanks to the Winterbloom Grass. ‘Calamity Affliction’ was a simpler illness than she had imagined.

Yawning, Yisi doused the fire with water. After this, since she was on watch for the second half of the night, she would sleep until noon.

As expected, Camilla, wearing a white dress, jumped down from the carriage.

“Onee-sama, the bed is made. Did something happen last night? It seemed a little noisy.”

“Ah, it was nothing. Just waking Mary up to take her medicine and driving off some small animals that came to attack.”

For some reason, all the monsters in Hermion County were exceptionally cute-looking animals, all with round eyes and fluffy tails. At first, when the monsters approached Yisi, she thought she had an affinity for animals. Driven by boredom, she let the little monsters get close and even fed them some cured meat.

But just as Yisi allowed them to climb onto her shoulder, the monsters opened their mouths to reveal hidden teeth and bit down hard. Although the monsters’ teeth weren’t strong enough and broke in two, Yisi still put away her playful attitude and flicked them into the nearby forest with a snap of her fingers.

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The cute appearance of these monsters was purely a result of evolution—using their adorable looks to deceive humans and then kill them once their guard was down. In fact, their teeth contained a potent venom.

Yisi could only be thankful that she was the one on watch for the second half of the night. If it had been Mary, she would have certainly fallen for it.

“Onee-sama, you should go sleep in the carriage. Mary and I will handle guarding and driving.”

“Mhm.”

Yisi waved at Camilla and crawled into the still-warm bedding. Because Camilla had just used it, the blanket still carried her sweet scent. Yisi couldn’t help but glance at Mary, who was sleepily getting dressed nearby. After confirming Mary wasn’t looking her way, she quickly pulled the Camilla-scented blanket over her head and took a deep breath.

Although she knew she would definitely be seen as a pervert if discovered, it was just like how one couldn’t help but stare a little longer when seeing a cute girl or a girl showing off her “absolute territory” on the street. This was a normal reaction—probably.

It’s probably not normal…

But she’d accept being called a pervert.

With a self-deprecating mindset, Yisi turned over in the blankets.

“Speaking of which, once we reach the next stop, we should consider ditching the carriage and paying to join someone’s caravan. With our current manpower, trying to both keep watch and drive the carriage is feeling a bit overwhelming.”

Having made this decision, Yisi closed her eyes, still under the covers. Enveloped by Camilla’s sweet scent and the clattering sound of the carriage, she slowly drifted off to sleep.

But less than an hour later, the situation changed.

The carriage was currently traveling through a valley between two mountain peaks. From somewhere up ahead, out of sight, came the sound of galloping hooves and people’s shouts, as if they had encountered some emergency.

Mary, in the driver’s seat, pulled the reins tight, bringing the carriage to a halt.

“Miss Camilla, it looks like something is happening up ahead…”

“Mhm, I hear it too. Turn the carriage around first. It could be bandits.”

“Should we wake up the Master?”

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“Let’s not bother Onee-sama with things we can handle ourselves.”

As she said this, Camilla reached out into the air in front of her. A black hole materialized from thin air, and Camilla pulled out a branch-like staff from within.

“I’ll hold them off with magic first. Mary, you drive the carriage away. If we can’t shake them, prepare for battle.”

“Mhm.”

Nodding vigorously at Camilla with a nervous expression, Mary looked as if she were facing a great enemy. She controlled the horses to turn the carriage around. It was at this moment that the source of the commotion appeared in Camilla’s line of sight.

It was a group of fleeing adventurers.

The reason she identified them as adventurers and not villagers was that there were no elderly or children among them. Most wore incomplete sets of animal hides and were all equipped with weapons at their waists or on their backs. Although there were more than twenty of them, every face was filled with terror, as if they were being chased by something, running for their lives.

The adventurer at the very front quickly spotted Camilla’s carriage and immediately shouted.

“Run! There’s a giant slime behind us!”

Just as the adventurer’s shout faded, the sound of viscous liquid squirming reached Camilla’s ears. Immediately after, a green slime as tall as a two-story building leaped into view. An adventurer at the back of the group didn’t have time to dodge and was directly swallowed by the jumping giant slime.

“H-help meeeeeee!!!”

The cries of their companion did not make the adventurers stop. On the contrary, everyone’s running speed increased, and they sprinted desperately without regard for their stamina.

Although slimes weren’t considered very strong monsters, a giant slime the height of a two-story building was a different matter entirely. Its level was probably approaching ten. And even if they defeated it, it would be extremely difficult to ensure the corrosive liquid didn’t touch their skin.

Of course, if it was only level ten, she and Mary working together should be able to take it down. This thought had just surfaced in Camilla’s mind when five more identical slimes appeared behind the first one. Among them was even a mutated giant slime whose body was orange-red and covered in flames.

Putting the five giant slimes aside, just facing the mutated one alone would undoubtedly be a tough fight. Camilla finally understood why more than twenty adventurers were being chased by a single giant slime. She subconsciously swallowed.

“Mary, go, now!”

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“Yes!”

Mary, who had been waiting for this command, urged the two horses on. With a burst of urgent hoofbeats, they quickly fled in the opposite direction.

Unfortunately, although the giant slimes only jumped once every five or six seconds, each jump covered at least fifty meters, clearly faster than the adventurers and even the carriage.

If they continued to flee, they would be caught sooner or later, and there were no other escape routes in the valley. Camilla began to feel anxious. Due to the slimes’ devouring, the number of adventurers had already dwindled from over twenty to only about fifteen. The mutated flame slime could even use a long-range fire-breathing attack.

However, just as Camilla was preparing to make a last stand, she felt a tap on her back. Turning around, she found Yisi, dressed in her pajamas with her silver hair still messy, half-kneeling inside the carriage. But unlike the sleepy eyes one should have after waking up, Yisi’s blue eyes were now filled with only anger.

“Onee-sama?”

“Camilla, I’m not dressed to go out. I need you to pretend you’re chanting a spell. I’m going to give these guys who disturbed my sleep a nice, big surprise.”

“O-okay.”

Since the back of the box carriage couldn’t be opened, Camilla had to climb onto the roof. Then, in front of all the adventurers, she raised her staff. Meanwhile, Yisi was preparing magic at the small window of the carriage below Mary.

“Onee-sama, what should I say?”

Because the carriage was speeding along, Camilla’s voice sounded a bit muffled.

“Anything is fine! I’ll coordinate with you, Camilla!”

“In that case…”

Taking a deep breath, Camilla put on a serious expression, raised her staff high, and then shouted at the adventurers.

“[Meteor Fall!]”

“Huh!?”