""...""
Seeing how the branch guild leader was essentially swallowed up whole in front of them, the guild leader and crimson flame knight had no idea how to react as both of them just stared at the dragon devouring slime without knowing what to say as they watched how the branch guild leader wiggled around inside the body of the slime together with the slimes that had been on her body-
Plop~!
And before they could mount a rescue effort to get her out of the dragon devouring slime, she somehow managed to use the slimes on her body to drag her out of the dragon devouring slime before it could do any real damage to her.
"Did you... Tame it? Or was-"
"No time, there is something wrong with this dragon devouring slime, it’s behaving different from how it should and tried to devour me!"
As the guild leader was about to ask her what had happened and if it was just something normal in the process of taming a larger slime, the branch guild leader didn’t allow him to finish as she grabbed the hand of both the guild leader and crimson flame knight before dragging them away from the dragon devouring slime that didn’t seem to have noticed her escape.
Behaving different than a normal dragon devouring slime? It’s not supposed to devour others?
As they were dragged away from the dragon devouring slime, both the crimson flame knight and the guild leader could not help looking at each other as they thought about the exact same thing, both wondering if she had ended up saying something wrong just now.
"Don’t look at me like that, a dragon devouring slime is normally peaceful and won’t attack anyone without dragon blood flowing through them unless it’s being attacked. Even if it attacks and kills others in this manner, it won’t devour them like it was trying to do to me earlier."
"I see... So, what is wrong with this one?" Hearing what the branch guild leader said, the guild leader could not help asking what it was that was wrong with it, as he personally didn’t know a lot about the slime in front of them or how it was different from other slimes.
"It seems to have started going along a different evolutionary path compared to normal, likely caused by the lack of dragon related monsters around forcing it to try and devour other monsters, thus resulting in its willingness to devour monsters and humans that it normally wouldn’t care about under normal circumstances.
Although... Even if this evolutionary path had been forced onto it due to its difficult circumstances in an environment without any dragon related monsters, it shouldn’t have been capable of easily following this path, as past records indicate that most dragon devouring slimes would rather starve to death and die than devour something without dragon blood in it."
Shaking her head as she said this with a somewhat confused expression on her face, the branch guild leader didn’t notice how both the guild leader and the crimson flame knight suddenly narrowed their eyes after hearing her mention the difficulty of the dragon devouring slime devouring other monsters than dragon related ones.
In their heads, they already tied this together with the person from the Holy Flower Sect and guessed that it should have been him and other people from the Holy Flower Sect who had ended up changing the dragon devouring slime and ended up making it start devouring things other than monsters with dragon blood flowing through them.
"Now that the taming attempt failed, I think we should look for a way to kill it before it starts causing any more chaos than it already has. Hopefully before it gets too strong for us to deal with!" Taking the opportunity while the branch guild leader was lost in her own thoughts after describing the difficulty of the dragon devouring slime evolving in the direction that it had ended up going in, the crimson flame knight decided to step forward and remind the other two- mostly the branch guild leader, about their original goal of killing the dragon devouring slime.
"Huh? Ah... Yes, I understand, I will brief you on how to best kill it." Hesitating for a short moment as she looked up in shock after hearing what the crimson flame knight said, the branch guild leader ultimately nodded her head in agreement before starting to explain the best method for killing a dragon devouring slime.
Although the slime had long since gone extinct following the disappearance of the dragons that had become rare sight in the world today, there were extensive records on how to deal with it that had been written back during the first few civilizations that had been established back when the dragons were still around.
Back then, the dragon devouring slimes could be considered a rather common slime that could be found across the world, so the methods for dealing with them were in-depth. The main problem was that most of the ways to deal with dragon devouring slime required someone either proficient in earth magic or lighting magic.
Because of this, the number of ways for them to deal with the dragon devouring slime in front of them was still limited to some extent, as the easiest method the branch guild leader could find was for the crimson flame knight to try and boil the exterior surface of the slime with fire magic and force it to cycle the slime to ensure it didn’t overheat.
Of course, even though this method didn’t kill the dragon devouring slime, it would force it to stand still and present a perfect opportunity for someone else to launch a sneak attack towards its core. If timed correct and with a fast enough attack, it was possible to catch the dragon devouring slime off guard and destroy the core before it could react and move it safely out of the way.
The main problem with this method was that neither the branch guild leader nor the guild leader specialized in launching fast attacks like that.
Even then, they didn’t really have much of a choice when it came to trying to kill a large slime like the dragon devouring slime and so, the group of three slowly moved into position as the crimson flame knight positioned himself to lure in the dragon devouring slime who had just discovered that the branch guild leader had escaped.
Boing~! Boing~! Boing~!
Not even a second later, the dragon devouring slime began angrily bouncing towards him. Clearly angered by the fact that the prey it thought to have lots of dragon blood inside of it had run away.
"Fire Prison!"
Like this, the crimson flame knight soon used his fire magic to conjure up a massive net of fire around the dragon devouring slime. Forcing it to a stop, as its exterior began boiling under the extreme heat.
Even then, the crimson flame knight was not used to using magic like this, as he was a knight. Not a mage. Resulting in the drain caused by the fiery net on his mana to far exceed that of a normal fire mage.
"Fast! I can’t keep this up for long!"
Because of this, he quickly called out to the two guild leaders in hiding, as he already made it through half of his mana in the short span of the ten seconds it took before the exterior of the dragon devouring slime began boiling.
Whoosh-!
Knowing that they didn’t have any time to waste after seeing the crimson flame knight barely holding on after such a short period of time, the two guild leaders jumped forth from their hiding place. Slashing down towards the core of the dragon devouring slime, as the crimson flame knight dispersed the flaming net just when they reached it-
Swish-!
As a result, both of them managed to successfully cut into the dragon devouring slime, as both their attacks rapidly moved towards the core at the center of its body-
Boing~!
Unfortunately, just as their attacks were about to reach the core, the slime seemed to recover as it moved back along with its core. Dodging the attack, as it soon escaped into the distance before any of the three could stop it or catch up with it. Disappearing behind the nearby trees.
"It escaped..."
"Yeah... And we were so close!"
"This is bad, it looks like we will have to ask for people more suited for dealing with it before it becomes too powerful. For now, we might have to evacuate this island and try sealing the paths leading to the second floor of the dungeon."
In the end, the three adventurers could only helplessly look in the direction that the dragon devouring slime disappeared in before they turned around and left. Knowing that it would be a waste of time for them to continue hunting down the slime, as they didn’t have the ability to deal with it on their own.