Description: A gel-like soil ball formed from the magical mucous secreted by a ferocious burrowing worm, containing a small amount of toxin and magical energy.
It can serve as an auxiliary material for alchemy or enchantment.
It can be used as spellcasting material for spells related to poison, earth elements, etc.
...
It’s actually real!
Gauss saw these clusters of orbs from afar and had a hunch, so he came closer for a detailed inspection.
However, under the effect of the Identification Technique, the white glow it emitted was extremely faint.
It barely crossed the threshold of Magic Items.
Generally, the deeper the color, the better the quality.
But, in any case, it is a Magic Item.
Gauss slightly focused his mind.
Then the light from the Identification Technique in the White Magic Wand in his hand gradually faded.
To be replaced by the wave of Clay Magic.
Magic Power surged from the tip of the White Magic Wand, then spread over the dozens of mucus soil clusters before his eyes.
It was a bit stiff at first, but after a while.
After the Magic Power fused with the mucus soil clusters, the dozen or so fist-sized soil clusters quickly gathered on the ground.
Their combined volume was roughly the size of a bowling ball.
Gauss threw a [goblin spirit] into it.
However, this goblin spirit wasn’t that strong.
After all, he truly mastered Clay Magic only after entering the second floor of the labyrinth, and there weren’t as many goblins on the second floor as there were on the first, leading to this goblin spirit having absorbed only a few goblin spirits.
"Let’s give it a try."
The strength of a clay creature is influenced by many factors, among which the magnitude of the spirits is an important one.
Although the goblin’s body is weak, it can’t withstand the addition of many goblin spirits in the future. The quantitative change might cause a qualitative change, making it one of the stronger forms among his various clay forms.
After the spiritual essence integrated, the clay began to wriggle and transform.
In a few breaths.
A bizarre humanoid creature appeared in front of Gauss.
"Is this the goblin form of the clay creature?"
Gauss looked at the limp humanoid creature before him.
Its size was small, appearing only the size of a big rat, but one could faintly discern its goblin-like appearance.
It had a big head, tusks, and strong, sturdy limbs.
After forming, it walked a few steps on the ground and bumped into Gauss’s shin, and the tiny clay goblin’s legs gave out, causing it to plop down on the ground.
"Why does it look a bit dumb?" Gauss looked down at the clay goblin, feeling somewhat disdainful.
But then he changed his mind.
He had set his expectations too high for this newborn.
First, there was too little clay to form the shape it should have, resulting in this severely reduced version.
Second, the rarity of the Magic Item used this time wasn’t as high as what he’d obtained from a golem.
Although the burrowing worm’s strength was definitely much higher than the golem’s, the former was merely a product of secreted mucous combined with soil, while the latter was an important core part of its body. Their importance couldn’t be compared, so the difference in rarity was entirely reasonable.
Finally, the amount of spiritual essence invested was extremely insufficient.
Gauss reflected for a moment.
He hadn’t slain enough goblins with Clay Magic; if he’d slain a thousand and infused them all at once, would it still be like this?
Gauss felt the responsibility lay with him.
If he infused the essence of a thousand goblins, even if it was still this mini-sized version, wouldn’t it be formidable?
The tiny goblin stood up from the ground.
A nearby Clay Spider approached, originally just an unconscious behavior.
But the tiny goblin, taking advantage of the situation, unceremoniously rode on top.
Feeling inexplicably trampled on, the Clay Spider was somewhat angry and shook its body, directly throwing the tiny goblin off.
Gauss watched this scene, speechless.
"Well, maybe goblins are just not very smart beings, and the attached spirit essence only exacerbated its foolishness."
He returned to Aaliyah with the two clay creatures.
"Is it useful?" Aaliyah looked at the dark brown mini clay goblin; the three of them had specifically come here for this.
Seeing Gauss had acquired more spellcasting materials, she felt relieved.
But... it’s so ugly.
She refrained from voicing her internal critique.
"It’s usable. The clay it produces is the most basic Magic Item and can be used as my spellcasting material," Gauss nodded. "However, the quantity is still too low."
"No worries, we can call out that burrowing worm again as long as I invoke the natural forces," Aaliyah said confidently.
She knew that the burrowing worm earlier was summoned by her natural forces.
Since it worked just now, let’s do it again.
"Okay. Be careful."
After the three were ready.
Aaliyah tapped the ground with her oak staff.
Then a pale green light quickly penetrated downward.
This time, with a clear purpose, the speed of the descent of nature’s power was faster.
In an instant, a vague rumbling came from underground again.
With psychological preparation, Gauss and the others reacted more swiftly.
Ulfen carried Aaliyah and quickly ran away.
"Boom!!!"
Where the three had just been standing, the rumbling sound suddenly intensified.
Then the ground suddenly exploded!
The familiar giant breaking from the earth’s sound came again, like something was being blasted.
The giant worm burst out from underground once more.
This time, however, being disturbed a second time, it was clearly more furious and ferocious, its five or six meters of body frantically writhing, occasionally whipping and hitting the ground, causing the next wave of tremors.
Meanwhile, Gauss also noticed it seemed to have spotted them, its head frequently turning toward Aaliyah’s direction, continuously pounding the ground.
In this process, more fluid seeped and flowed from the cracks in its carapace, constantly landing on the ground, merging with the soil.
Gauss watched with great delight.
But it wasn’t long before the worm retreated again.
However, unlike last time, Gauss noticed that shortly after it shrunk back, a crack rapidly extended on the ground toward Aaliyah’s direction.
It’s pursuing!
"Aaliyah, keep running! It’s chasing you underground!"
Realizing this, he quickly alerted the halted Ulfen and Aaliyah on its back.
Ulfen immediately continued to run towards the garden’s exit.
"Boom boom!"
In a brief moment, the ground where Aaliyah had paused was once again pierced by the burrowing worm.
Gauss seized this opportunity.
The white magic wand in his hand, ready for action, launched five blue missile orbs instantly.
"Whoosh!!"
The missiles, locked onto the burrowing worm, tore through the air with a wailing sound.
Finally hitting the burrowing worm precisely on its body.
"Bang!!!"
The magic missiles unleashed a force field impact.
One impact, two impacts... finally, all five impacts struck the same point consecutively.
The aftermath dissipated.
The damage caused by the attack was as Gauss expected, though it still left him somewhat disappointed.
The dark purple carapace showed no cracks and remained shiny as new.
"Such strong defense..."
Gauss finally understood why, even with its not too difficult to dodge attack patterns, it still posed a considerable challenge to adventurers.
This "shell" was too hard.
He surmised that even if he entered "ghost form" and released magic missiles again, there wouldn’t be much difference in the damage inflicted.
However, while the magic missiles didn’t harm the burrowing worm, they made it even angrier.
It seemed to lock onto Gauss’s direction again with some mysterious perception organ.
A deafening roar came from its mouth.
Facing its provocation, Gauss followed up with a series of five successive missile blasts.
This time, Gauss directly targeted its head’s mouthpart area.
Unfortunately, it seemed to respond by quickly tightening its mouthparts.
"Bang bang bang!"
The missiles that hit struck its sharp teeth.
The waves dissipated, causing no damage once again.
Just as Gauss thought it would be enraged and attack his position.
The burrowing worm roared twice and then abruptly retreated underground.
"Did it flee?" Gauss blinked.
He completely failed to break its defense, yet it fled after being attacked twice?
However, when his gaze shifted to the ground full of sticky soil balls, he couldn’t help but smile.
He deliberately waited for a while, in case the burrowing worm made a return attack, then used Mage’s Hand to pick up the clay one by one.