[NunuNote: Enjoy your bonus Chapter from the Power Stones Goal!]
"So that’s how they capture monsters? By attacking them out of the blue without even trying to talk to them?" Lohan asked in surprise, even though he realized how familiar this seemed to a very popular anime he’d watched in the other world, the one with a cute little yellow mouse.
Lisa sighed as well, not caring about the monsters dying in front of her.
Considering how many monsters Halon and she had killed in the last few days, adding two more monsters to that tally was nothing.
"Yeah... and considering they’ve been following us since Thalendor, probably watching us interact with the town’s merchants, they should know that our cognitive abilities are superior to those of the ordinary monsters they’re used to dealing with," Lisa remarked, also doubting the intelligence of this group of people.
"That’s true!" Lohan realized this too and felt that the situation was even stranger.
Sighing, Lohan was unsure of how they should handle it.
If this were a group with entirely malicious intent, wanting to end their lives or capture them to sell as slaves, as happened in so many plots he’d witnessed in the other world, he wouldn’t mind turning these people into Biomass.
The problem was that this was clearly a group of young idiots who likely had no idea of the gravity of their actions, feeling like they owned the world, and now, clearly thought they were being wronged upon seeing their hired monsters being killed by the two "wild" monsters.
And to prove this even further, the half-elf boy was at that moment holding a staff aloft and chanting a spell in their direction, a spell that was gathering Mana in the air at an alarming speed and clearly without any restraint.
Dalyor, his eyes brimming with arrogance, finished chanting the spell. "Die, you filthy monsters! [Pillar of Flames]!"
A column of orange-red fire burst from his staff, advancing toward the pair.
For an ordinary Level 9 adventurer, perhaps even a Level 10, that would be a worrying blow, but for Lohan, who was now operating with the [Parallel Processing Core]
"Lisa, leave the fire to me. Use the momentum to finish off their ’pets,’" Lohan transmitted without much concern.
Lisa didn’t even need to respond.
Fully trusting the "Living Armor" around her, she leaped directly into the flames. The moment they made contact, Lohan’s blue membrane glowed intensely. He activated all his defensive skills, changing the fox’s color from the previous blue to a completely black hue, and the pillar of fire, instead of incinerating Lisa’s fur, collided with a surface that had suddenly become harder than ordinary metal, ignoring the heat and Mana of that attack with only minor burns.
Seeing this, Dalyor paled. "How... how did they break through my attack?! My father taught me this magic; he told me that below Level 11, no one could withstand my attack!"
Lisa emerged from the flames like a specter of destruction. With a [Spectral Step], she practically vanished from where she stood, ignoring Dalyor and landing on Draco, the horned lizard already struggling against Lohan’s [Neuro-Paralyzing Toxin].
With another kick imbued with reddish-white [Spiritual Fire], this time fueled by Halon’s Natural Energy, she struck the same spot as her previous attack, this time smashing the beast’s skull against the ground, silencing the creature instantly.
Meanwhile, Lohan didn’t stand idly by.
He expelled four small clones that glided like bluish projectiles across the ground at high speed.
Mira tried to leap backward to escape, but one of the clones managed to touch her and activated [Selective Viscosity] at maximum level beneath the girl’s feet, pinning her to the ground instantly.
"LET ME GO, YOU SHITTY JELLY! JAX, HELP ME!" Mira screamed, but Jax was paralyzed.
The clone holding Mira’s little ocelot showed no mercy. It extended threads of [Magical Weaving] that pierced the feline’s skin, initiating [Efficient Digestion] in plain sight.
The animal didn’t even manage to meow before its life essence was drained and converted into biomass for Lohan, who felt the flow of energy return to his core through the [Mental Connection].
Lohan then decided it was time for the final lesson.
He partially detached himself from Lisa and, with impeccable [Structural Stability Lv 18], formed two human arms extending from his spherical mass.
With a fluid motion, he pulled the [Level 3 Thalendor ID Card] from the spatial pocket of the [Astral Chest].
The glow of the three emerald gems on the ancient wooden card illuminated the terrified faces of the youths.
"I would like to know why you are attacking two citizens of Thalendor with Level 3 Identity Cards?" Lohan’s voice echoed telepathically in a cold tone. "We are ’Friends of Thalendor.’ By right of self-defense, I believe I could kill every one of you and Thalendor wouldn’t blame me for it, am I right?"
Dalyor fell to his knees, his staff slipping from his trembling hands, staring at that wooden card in horror. He knew that card very well because his father had one exactly like it, which meant that given the attack they had launched against the two monsters, the Slime was actually right!
Jax and Mira, now free of the slime but unable to move due to terror, stared at the monsters’ remains on the floor, doing their best to avoid looking at the Slime and the card in his hand.
"I’m not going to kill you. Not because you deserve to live, but because I want you to go back to Thalendor and tell everyone what happens when ’young masters’ try to pull pranks on the folks at the Astralis Requiem Guild." Lohan continued, uttering a phrase that surprised Lisa, but once she understood its meaning, she too slipped into character and growled, white flames crackling furiously in her mouth as if she were about to attack.
Lohan made a sharp gesture with his small, gelatinous hand, and the webs binding the group dissolved.
"Get out of my sight before I change my mind... and I’ll remember you. If I return to Thalendor and discover that you kept today’s actions a secret, too proud to admit your mistakes, then know that I myself will make sure to expose this, and be prepared for the consequences you’ll face when that happens."
The four young men didn’t wait for a second order. They bolted through the forest in panic, leaving behind only the carcasses of their ambitions and the heavy silence of the Mythlorien Forest.
Lisa sat up on her hind legs, watching the figures disappear.
"Satisfactory?" she asked mentally.
Lohan vibrated the gelatin as his clones returned to the main body, bringing with them the experience and the undigested corpses.
"More than I imagined." Lohan laughed with a satisfied voice, totally different from the cold, indifferent voice he had shown moments ago.
Looking at the two dead monsters in front of him, monsters he had never digested before, he was excited to see what evolutions he would gain from this.
Although he had previously killed monsters to level up, perhaps because of those monsters’ low potential, he hadn’t gained any useful abilities from them; however, considering that this lizard and the cat had been chosen by the young "nobles" of Thalendor, it’s possible that they possessed some useful talents.