Defend the treasures! At least one must survive to pass, but you lose out on potential rewards.

That was the first notification we received upon entering the next floor. There were two pedestals on opposite ends of the room, each with a yellow and green grape displayed.

"Oh great, that's number three and four out of the seven grapes," Vee cheered.

"I guess you can't sit back and relax in this one unless you want to forfeit your chance of eating them all."

Vee frantically shook her head, "Nope. I want them all. I haven't had a second breakfast yet, so this is perfect."

Five minutes till the challenge begins!

I positioned myself around my pedestal while Vee went to her own. She began frantically setting up a perimeter of webs around it like a big net. I had the easiest time as I just created a slime dome around it, leaving me free to do pretty much whatever I wanted.

Might as well use this opportunity to play with my new toys!

I didn't need any help defending my side as I doubted any plantoids would be able to penetrate my slime dome, so I focused on trying to create an area of expanded space near Vee's net. If enemies and their attacks took longer to reach her, then she could more easily deal with them.

"Woah… that's so trippy," she commented, staring at the space I was beginning to distort.

I ended up creating two cubes and two rectangles of expanded space, forming a squarish donut around Vee's defenses. Despite the difficulty and being outside of my personal rift, the cost was still relatively manageable at this stage. I felt like I'd have no trouble maintaining it throughout the entire defense.

Proficiency gained. [Triangulate LV 1] improved to [Triangulate LV 2].

"I love the early skill levels."

"Then why aren't you working on your three other magics?" Vee pointed out.

"There's no way I'm not messing with [Dimension Magic] now that it's actually useful! Plus, I get to level up [Triangulate] at the same time."

"Weren't you trying to get your elemental magic in equilibrium as well? Water, Earth, and Air need to catch up to Fire. Not to mention you were working on your derived thingy."

"What are you, my secretary?" I whined.

"I could be," Vee offered. "You probably need one with how many projects you start and leave midway. Your attention span is worse than a goldfish."

I was about to complain when our time ran out.

Defend your prizes for 30 minutes!

"Talk later!" Vee shouted.

The plantoids began emerging, bigger and stronger than before. Each and everyone had weapons and armor made from a variety of other plants or woods. In addition, they all had intermediate classes; no longer were they stuck with barebones Warrior or Scout.

This should be fun.

I wanted to use [Dimension Magic] offensively, but even with [Triangulates] assistance, I struggled to teleport even a single plantoid. My only success brought it straight into my slimy depths, where I promptly killed and ate it in acidic slime, but it was far from being combat capable.

I need that debuff. Maybe I'll have more success in making it now that I have [Triangulate], but that's something to do when we aren't in the middle of a dungeon.

I could've tried to bring plantoids into my [Rift Door] and then fought them with [Dimension Magic] later, but I recalled what Vee had mentioned—I'd been slacking on my previous goals.

Well, I can always do both. Use [Reduction] in combination with my elemental spells.

And that is what I did. I started creating tunnels of compressed space and firing Air and Water spells through them. Seeing [Waterjet] traveling through the dimensional area was a real treat, as it blasted the unsuspecting plantoids in the blink of an eye.

Vee was utilizing webs and [Corrosion Magic] to fight back while occasionally using [Warp] to directly assassinate a troublesome plantoid, such as a spellcaster.

And that was pretty much how we cleared the first floor of the second half of the dungeon trial. It wasn't too challenging, although Vee was quite tired at the end. The upkeep of four [Expansion] spells, in addition to my own castings of [Reduction] and various elemental spells, had even put a sizable dent into my previously "inexhaustible" Mana supply.

Although my Mana was rapidly regenerating and would even spike upwards when I ate plantoids and began generating new slime mass. [Mana Slime] was once again proving its worth. I also gained another level up, which was great and proved the quality difference of the invading monsters now. I was greatly looking forward to the next set of challenges.

Racial Experience threshold reached. Chimeric Cluster Slime (Blue) is now LV 28.

This text was taken from NovelBin. Help the author by reading the original version there.

17 Trait Points are now available.

It's too bad I didn't level up my air or water magic. But I'll keep combining them with [Reduction].

"Do you think we can take a short break before heading up?" Vee asked.

"I think it's fine. Just eat your grapes and enjoy it."

Technically, you're allowed to take a break at the end of each and every trial. But you two… you kept going and going. If I didn't outright say you'd earned a rest area after the boss, I was concerned you would never stop!

"Huh… neat!" Vee giggled.

"I was beginning to wonder how the elves would go through such an endless gauntlet. Even if they were getting replenished from the magic fruits."

...

"Well, this works. Take all the time you need, Vee, I'll be topped up on Mana in no time."

After Vee scarfed down her two magic grapes and squealed in delight, we began chatting a little about our fight. Vee had noticed a few things about the areas I had expanded and wanted to brainstorm.

The first thing she pointed out was that her [Rift Thread] ignored the expanded space. It went through it as if it wasn't there, so we could assume the same would be true of any area reduced. It was a bit of a bummer as the only drawback for her [Rift Thread] was its slowness compared to every other type of thread she could produce.

"Every other thread I can whip around faster than an iaijutsu master. But [Rift Thread] feels like a geriatric patient," Vee whined. "At least it makes it easier to use against enemies stuck inside your [Expansion] spell. But I would have really liked to have used it with [Reduction] like you were doing."

We continued chatting, and when my Mana was topped up, I began trying out a few ideas we had come up with. One thing we were both curious about was if it was possible to combine [Expansion] and [Reduction] as if we were defending a position, then we would theoretically want both effects.

If we could have expanded incoming while outgoing was reduced, that would be the perfect combination. But casting the two spells together, in any order, actually caused the spells to neutralize each other and vanish as if [Dispel] was cast.

"I'll have to work on a custom spell to make our dream effect," I said. "I'll need to take the directional component of something like [Fire Arrow] and add two of them inverted… it might work. Of course, one issue is that our enemies would benefit from the effect as long as they went away from us."

"I mean, in the short term, that's fine. Although an amazing improvement in the future would be some method of differentiating between friend and foe," Vee mused.

"Auras!" I blurted out.

"Oh, your slowly cold thing?"

"[Glacial Aura], but yes. What if I made an aura version of [Reduction]?"

"Sounds absolutely nutty, but I'm sure you could somehow get it to work eventually. Although are your current magic-making skills up to the task?"

"Um… no…" I admitted. "I've never managed to make an aura spell. Hell, I can't even make my damn dimensional debuff, and I've made a dozen debuffs!"

"You should ask Llewel; maybe he can give you some upgrades? A better version of [Mana Manipulation], maybe?"

"Or maybe I'll unlock Riftmancer when I hit level five in [Dimension Magic]. I could always change to that and see what skill revelations I get."

"Not while we are stuck in elf land, you can't," Vee teased. "Princess Sylthaeryn is an Elementalist."

I sighed and began chanting "pink slime core" a few times to remind myself why I was doing this.

"Oh, one last thing," Vee said. "The assassins waiting for us to leave… what if we create a trap for them?"

"That's why I was hoping they'd come into the dungeon for us. But it looks like they don't want to."

"Well, they'd have to climb the floors. I at least assume they wouldn't ascend without fighting a few monsters."

They would get the normal version of the trial if they wanted to enter. You're still getting a boosted amount of monsters, as you requested.

"See. They don't want to risk their time and energy; it's much better to wait outside and kill us when we're tired," Vee replied.

I nodded, "It would be amazing if we could get them through my [Rift Door]. We could close it behind them, and there would be no risk of them fleeing and revealing our secrets."

"That's actually exactly what I thought of!" Vee said excitedly. "What if we get ambushed by them and retreat to the dungeon. But the dungeon entrance is actually your [Rift Door] set up at the entrance!"

"Assuming they are dumb enough to follow us," I pointed out.

"It's a pity we don't have the damned pixie with us," Vee sighed.

"Trixie would be amazing in this situation. She could cast an illusion and hide the rift."

"What if… you make the door really big and put some trees or something near the entrance so it looks like the dungeon?" Vee suggested.

Please don't put a giant rift inside my dungeon…

"Well, how else do you expect us to fight them?" Vee retorted. "We could just fight them around your dungeon, but there are certain risks involved with that... the last time Syl fought a group of assassins, there was a giant battlefield-sized area that exploded with an evil black sun spell and scorched everything. Syl's middle name might as well be 'collateral damage.' Then there was the time Syl turned into a giant worm and exploded, turning an entire kobold settlement into a ruin! It even spawned essence sludge and boy, that was a mess to—"

Stop! Stop! Please…

Vee glanced at me and thrust one of her front legs up in victory.

Her mouth is terrifying…

I'll ask Juniper. Between the two of us, I'm certain we could hide your rift. Just please promise me that you'll keep the fighting contained inside it!

"We promise! Thank's Dran!" I replied enthusiastically.

In exchange… please leave my dungeon as soon as you finish the twentieth floor. I don't think my heart can handle anymore of this.

Vee snickered, but I agreed to his request. There was a good chance that if the next dungeon boss didn't get me to my evolution, then killing a group of experienced elves would certainly push me over the edge.

I doubt I could sit here and evolve before fighting them. If we bring them into my [Rift Door], I should be able to teleport them anywhere and everywhere inside. I should have Vee set some [Rift Thread] traps; we might kill a few instantly that way.

Although we should definitely keep at least one alive for interrogation—I bet Paeris would be thrilled if we brought back a captive. I can use [Poison Slime] to create some [Sanguine Dream], which will keep them alive until handed over to the Feirelle.

During some future downtime, I can keep trying to make some progress on my dimension debuff, too. Although there's a good chance I won't even need it if I get my [Triangulate] to a good enough level combined with the benefits of [Rift Door]. Still, I'm in a much better position to complete that than to create the combination of [Expansion] and [Reduction] that Vee wants.

We were finally heading up, and as we reached the floor, there was a familiar-looking plantoid wearing a floral wreath crown. He waved frantically to us as if he was happy to see us.

"This guy again?" Vee questioned.

"Oh no…"

Protect the Plantoid King!

I spat out a string of curses.