Nick left Dark Dream again and ran towards the bridge.
He had been in the building for barely a couple of minutes, and the guards didn't even ask Nick any questions.
But the same thing wasn't true for the two Experts guarding the other side.
"You going out again?" one of them asked with raised brows.
Nick had just brought back a Specter, and he wanted to get even more?
That was the seventh Specter that had been caught within the last two years, the sixth one having been caught just a couple of days ago in the outside world.
Usually, Extractors didn't immediately run out to get another Specter after they just got one.
"You saw what I had," Nick commented.
"Right. Makes sense," the guard said.
Nick just ran down the corridor and entered the outside world again.
The four Veterans guarding the outside just looked on as Nick jumped into the valley.
As soon as Nick rounded the first corner in the valley, his ability reactivated, and he charged forward with much more speed.
'No one is following me,' Nick thought as he continued.
After rounding another corner, Nick's ability deactivated again, and he grew quite annoyed.
It was another one of the slimes.
'The forest is like four kilometers away, and I really don't want to lure it that far away.'
Nick just charged forward, right at the slime.
Naturally, the slime also charged at Nick.
SHING!
Nick's blades came out, and he immediately cut several of the long arms off.
This slime was barely on the level of an Adolescent, which made it far weaker than Nick, but the slimes were still very robust and difficult to kill.
A thrown spear would just shoot through it, coming out the other side without stopping the slime for long.
The issue was that these slimes had no vital organs.
There was no core or anything similar to that.
Even more, if a slime was cut in half, both halves would gain new "consciousnesses" and act autonomously from each other.
Of course, they were still weaker than the combined slime.
As the severed arms fell to the ground, they turned into slime again, which then attacked Nick.
It was important to note that a slime's arms were the only solid things on its body. After all, how would a liquid arm be able to pull the slime forward?
The arms were also a slime's weakness since they didn't have any other method of movement.
If they wanted to move, they needed to make new arms.
SHING!
But then, these arms would just get cut off again, turning into many tiny slimes.
As the slime became smaller, the arms also became smaller, which made the cut-off arms turn into even smaller slimes.
After cutting off over 30 arms, the many slimes were already climbing over each other, trying to get to Nick.
This was one of the fatal flaws of the slimes.
They could turn into many smaller slimes, but many smaller slimes couldn't turn into bigger slimes.
For nearly a full minute, Nick kept cutting off arms before starting to cut the small slimes.
As the slimes became smaller, their strength also decreased, which also made them slower.
Eventually, Nick jumped about a hundred meters away and looked back.
Nick had been attacked by a slime that was about as tall as him, but now, there were hundreds of slimes that were between five and fifteen centimeters tall.
They were about as big as rats.
And about as fast and strong.
Even if they swarmed Nick, they wouldn't be able to damage him in any way.
Sure, if one added up all the slimes, one would get the same amount of power, but that didn't matter.
Would 1,000 punches of an Initial Newbie be as strong as one punch of an Initial John?
Of course!
If one added all the power, that would be much more power.
But would these punches manage to get through a metal plate?
No.
Would the punch of the Initial John get through?
Probably.
The little slimes still knew where Nick was, and they moved towards him at a speed of about five kph.
Nick just turned around and continued on his way.
After Nick rounded the next corner, the slimes started to slow down.
They had lost their target.
They immediately started to search for more life but couldn't find any.
So, they just started to slowly move in random directions, splitting up.
Some of them would vanish in forests.
Some of them would fall into the Crimson Sea.
Many of them would eventually meet other Extractors with abilities that could actually kill them.
Just because Nick couldn't kill them didn't mean that other Extractors couldn't.
Jason, Petra, and Clayton could use their abilities to turn these small slimes into nothingness.
As long as one could remove the Zephyx that made up their bodies, they would vanish.
Sadly, Nick didn't have that ability.
After about half a minute, he reached the Swallowing Swamp again.
Nick's four Extractors were standing in a group, and when they saw him, they all turned to him.
"Did everything go well?" Jenny asked.
Nick nodded. "The Spilling Bottle is in the last Containment Unit on the second floor."
Then, he turned to the others. "I want to find another Specter. The city has only recently allowed Extractors to go outside again, and I want to make use of that fact."
"By using us as bait," Clayton said.
Nick looked at Clayton. "That is the agreement," he said, "but I will protect you with all of my power."
"I understand," Clayton said with a neutral voice. "It was not meant as a dig."
Nick nodded. "Are you guys ready?"
The group nodded back.
"Then, let's continue," Nick said as he turned towards the north. "I want to take a look at the mountain east of the city."
When the others heard that, they became a bit nervous.
It was possible that there were Specters on the mountain, but that wasn't the scary part.
The scary part was the mountain's elevation.
It was only about 300 meters high, but that was still high enough to see the Crimson Sea.
And naturally, nobody wanted to see the Crimson Sea.