Syl-Chapter 222:: Infiltration

With only two cores to worry about, I had a much smaller repertoire of forms available. However, I couldn't help but feel like I was partially naked, which was highly disconcerting because I hadn't felt like that ever before.

I mean, technically, I run around naked all the time; I don't think you can count my slime as clothes. I'll return my other cores to their proper place once we return to our room.

Vee shrunk down to the most diminutive size I'd ever seen. Trixie cast some sort of spell on all three of us, and I turned into a big fat rat after depositing my hat.

"Really? Of all the things you turn into, you picked a rat?" Trixie questioned.

"It's either this or like... A spider? We've already got a spider on our team," I said. "I could turn into a bloodbug or a small worm if you'd prefer, or maybe a jackalope or a wolf?"

"No, no, it's fine..." Trixie sighed. "I guess a rat at least makes sense in the dwarf city; they would be very confused to see a wolf down here."

"Which is probably why Syl picked it," Vee pointed out.

"Exactly!" I agreed.

Trixie grumbled a bit, and we started trying to sneak into the building. It had several windows and ventholes, so we had plenty of entry points. Trixie also explained that rather than making us directly invisible, she applied a sort of filter over us.

"Why not just make us invisible?" Vee asked before I could.

"This works better," Trixie explained. "Invisibility is great if you're confident nobody will detect you, but if they can, then you stick out like a sore thumb. However, if you instead make their perception a little off, and you're being inconspicuous, they won't notice you in the first place!"

"So, like my hat?" I asked.

"Eh... Kinda?" Trixie shrugged. "Rather than making people think we were meant to be here, they think nothing of us. Just like seeing a faceless person in the crowd."

"Neat!" Vee replied excitedly.

Even in rat form, I could easily climb up the wall of the building thanks to adhesive slime. Trixie booed a little, hoping I would do something dramatic like sprout spider legs and become a rat spider. Vee and I sighed and prayed the pixie wouldn't give us away for a good laugh.

Thankfully, we made it inside without anyone spotting us, or at least not making a commotion if they did. It was a significant relief for me and Vee, but Trixie acted like it was the most natural outcome in the world.

"Okay, let's stick to the ceilings for now," I whispered mentally.

"Roger," Vee whispered back.

"You... really don't need to whisper," Trixie droned.

"It just feels like the right thing to do," I replied, and Vee agreed.

"I suppose, although it's definitely a bit silly," Trixie sighed.

With Vee and I clung to the ceiling and Trixie slowly fluttering after us, we began going from room to room. We briefly scanned a room before moving on to the next, and we saw a lot of furnaces and forges, weapon racks, and armor stands.

One room was literally just a room of raw metal ingots, which I casually perused to see if there were any new metals for me, but I came up short.

Vee and I both held our breaths whenever a dwarf walked under us, but Trixie just groaned and called us amateurs. I was forced into using [Soul Sight] again and trying to pinpoint the largest source of fire essence, hoping it would give us a better location. There was just so much fire essence throughout the whole building that it made it really tricky to proceed.

However, with some guidance and hints from Trixie, I eventually found a slight distinction, and we started going in that direction. Unlike the previous rooms, this one was clearly locked with what looked like blast doors, but it still had vents for the room to expel whatever heat was inside.

Vee and Trixie made it through without any issues, but it was an extremely tight squeeze for me. It was highly unpleasant having the bars of the grate scrape against the edges of my core, and on more than one occasion, I was tempted to melt my way through. They giggled at me, struggling to pass my core through the gap.

"Guess you need to go on a bit of a diet, Syl," Trixie teased.

"And to think you teased me about gaining [Overeating]..." Vee joked.

"It's not like I can change the size of my cores!" I protested.

"I could have probably teleported you with a portal," Vee offered.

I groaned, "Why didn't you say something sooner?"

"That probably would have been a terrible idea," Trixie said. "[Dimension Magic] uses a lot of Mana, if those teleportation stone discs are anything to go off of, and teleporting Syl would have made it even worse."

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"Yeah, Syl is dimensionally heavy," Vee giggled.

"So you're suggesting they might be able to detect spells?" I asked, trying my best to ignore the teasing.

"Yeah, it's always possible," Trixie answered. "I'm assuming Vee doesn't have anything to hide spellcasting yet since she hasn't broken through her Mana aura."

"No, not really," Vee answered.

"It's on the to-do list," I replied.

"Good, good," Trixie responded happily. "Now, let's see what they were hiding in here."

Following the trail of fire essence leaking out, we were met with the sight of an absolutely massive furnace-cum-cauldron. It had massive vats of molten metal blazing with an extreme amount of enchantments and an entire array of magical devices. At first, I thought they might have been red slime cores, but it appeared these were made from other parts.

Each vat had channels and valves that could be opened to pour the liquids out into a centralized one. I wondered if this was how they created alloys or if it had another purpose.

"Wow... It's hot in here," Trixie whined.

"Yeah, this is not pleasant at all..." Vee agreed.

"Syl, can't you turn into an ice slime so we can cool down?" Trixie requested.

"Sure, it's pretty simple," I replied.

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"Just make sure not to turn too cold; we don't want to get frostbite!" Trixie warned.

I shrugged off her warning; I knew perfectly well how to control my slime. Since we were attached to the ceiling anyway, I abandoned my rat form and instead blobbed out. I activated a low level of [Cryo Slime] and motioned with a tendril for Trixie to come over.

The pixie wasted no time flying into me and then letting out a relieved sigh. Seeing Trixie so happy, Vee cautiously approached before touching the slime as well.

"That's so cool, you're so cold!" Vee said excitedly.

"And now you know why I enjoy sitting on Syl's head so much, the pinnacle of slime comfort," Trixie giggled.

"You could probably make a killer waterbed or maybe a beanbag?" Vee suggested.

"Why would anyone sleep in a bed of water?" I asked.

"I think the mermen do," Trixie answered.

"No... It's not literally water; it's a mattress full of water, and it jiggles," Vee explained.

"Interesting..." Trixie said, rubbing her chin inquisitively.

"I see. Well, I sleep in a bedtub, so who am I to judge?" I said.

"Aww, you kept the bedtub I made for you?" Trixie asked happily.

"I even enchanted it!" I answered excitedly.

"Huh... Why aren't you using it at the inn?" Vee asked.

"I'm way too scared to drop my disguise in civilized areas," I replied. "Especially sleeping; who knows who might be watching?"

"Well, hopefully, once we leave the dwarves, you can start using it again," Trixie encouraged.

"Speaking of which... Do you have any idea what the hell that is?" Vee asked, gesturing one of her legs towards the massive construction.

"No idea! It looks like an artificial volcano with all the glowing molten metal!" Trixie guessed.

I stared at it for longer and began examining it, using my neglected [Eagle Vision] to get a closer look.

"Ah... Shit, I forgot to show you this," I said to Vee and offered her the trait.

"Oooh! That sounds super useful! Thanks!" Vee marveled.

"How the heck did you get that?" Trixie questioned.

"Griffons, although an adventurer friend of mine told me about the trait and said many adventurers hoard the good ones," I explained.

"Of course, they hoard the good stuff to themselves, damned humans," Trixie grumbled.

"Hey, I used to be human," Vee complained.

"You sure? How do you know you weren't a dwarf, elf, or something in between?" Trixie teased.

"None of those things existed in my last life!" Vee objected.

"Hmm... Sounds like a very boring world," Trixie shrugged.

While those two goofed around, I kept examining the contraption further. Initially, I had thought it was for alloying stuff, but when I looked at two of the connecting vats, they appeared to have the same colored solution in each one.

Why mix two of the same metals together? I wondered.

I shared my findings and original theory with the others. Trixie also thought it might be used for alloying, but Vee had no idea. While we were discussing possibilities, two dwarves walked into the room, dragging a cart modified to have a vat on top.

"Quickly now, I want to head straight to the tavern after this load!" one of the dwarves expressed.

"Yeah, yeah," the other dwarf shrugged it off. "I'll join you after I'm done feeding them."

"Make sure you hurry over; I'm pretty sure it's your turn to buy!" the first dwarf chuckled.

They continued to make small talk about food and drink before dumping a silvery solution straight into one of the vats and activating an enchantment on it, igniting the vat with fiery life.

Moving to the unoccupied vat, they opened a reinforced crate and began throwing silver bars into it.

"What the hell are they doing?" Trixie questioned.

"Melting silver bars by the looks of things..." Vee answered.

"Weird though, I could've sworn they poured some silvery metal into the first vat, so they are mixing silver with silver?" Trixie postulated.

"Or silver slime with silver bars?" I suggested.

"That sounds kind of dumb; why would they even need to do that?" Trixie brushed it off.

"Well... How do they get the silver slime to stay solid metal?" I pondered.

"Mixing it with real silver metal? Really?" Vee questioned. "That sounds a bit dumb."

"No, I think what Syl says makes sense," Trixie replied.

"I am the slime, after all," I asserted.

"Well, can the slime expert please explain? I'm very lost..." Vee complained.

I chuckled before agreeing and going into my semi-explanation. I started by first explaining my own slime, which, when detached from me, always reverted back to my natural state—[Mana Slime]. Sure, I could take on the aspects of the other slime types, but after time, it seemed to always revert back to my default if separated from my core.

I then explained that a silver slime's default state would presumably be [Metal Slime], so even when separated, it would still be whatever metal it was copying.

"I always wondered how they got around the fact that even if it was considered a metal, it would still be slimy goop after some time," I clarified. "Even if my slime always reverts to [Mana Slime], the same can't be said for any solids I make. Silver slimes have [Shape Slime] so they can make spikes or blades to attack, but it wouldn't stay solid."

"And so they mix the slimy metal with real metal and reforge it?" Trixie asked.

"That's my guess," I agreed.

"But wouldn't mixing it with slime lower its purity?" Vee objected.

"I guess the dwarves worked out a perfect ratio of slime to metal?" I suggested.

"So they're effectively doubling their metals... That's genius!" Trixie said excitedly. "Syl, we should totally duplicate metal bars! Think of the fortune we would make!"

"Why?" I rebutted. "It's not like we need more money..."

"We could have a hoard of gold!" Trixie countered.

"And do what with it? Swim in it?" Vee asked sarcastically.

Trixie gasped, "I was just going to suggest collecting it and staring at it, but swimming in it sounds even better!"

Vee groaned at Trixie's remark while I continued observing.