"Fine, I won't cast the spell, but I hope we will get at least one more floor to do some good monster grinding. I need a lot more levels if I'm going to take on those assassins," I replied.

Very well… just please be reasonable.

"I can see why they called you the dungeon extorter," Vee said.

"I'm not that bad. It's just some plant monsters, which I'm sure Dran is effortlessly creating. If I was asking for something specific, I'd understand. Plus, this is supposed to be my trial and power me up as the heir to the Feirelle branch, and I'm getting no rewards at all!"

"Yes, that's a good defense for your case. Blame them for not giving you sufficient rewards," Vee jokingly replied.

We moved on to the next floor and were once again greeted by the damn plantoid king. He wasn't doing his dance this time, and if I was reading his body language correctly, he seemed a little disappointed.

"Wow. No dance?" Vee taunted. However, unlike the [Dungeon Master], he had no reaction to Vee's taunt, so clearly, he couldn't hear her telepathic ramblings.

Protect the plantoid king while he attempts to save his queen! But beware, as hostile forces are attempting to usurp his castle during his absence.

"Oh? That's a little different than normal." I commented.

"A bit annoying, too. We have to protect him and his castle?"

His "castle" was entirely made of flowers and looked highly flammable—one stray spark would reduce it to ashes.

"I'm not confident in defending the castle, but I'm even less confident in keeping the dancing king alive. So I'll protect the home base while you do the escort?" Vee suggested.

"That works for me. I can cast [Expansion] on the castle since I probably don't want to delay him while he's trying to save his queen."

"Yeah, I bet they will kill the queen if you take too long," Vee warned.

I quickly cast my spell, and not a moment too soon as the challenge started.

A large group of enemies spawned behind protective barriers, which was clearly our target to attack. At the same time, an invading army was created from the opposite end, which Vee would do her best to stop.

Begin! The king and queen must survive!

It's good to know we can sacrifice the castle, but I wager that would lower our reward. I'd like Vee to get all the fruits, so we better do our best.

I followed after the king, who abruptly charged out towards the enemy stronghold. I lamented that I couldn't reuse my old strategy without risking the queen and started thinking of what protective buffs I had available.

Wait! I have [Basic Elemental Magic] now! I can use [Bubble] but with every element!

And that was precisely what I did. I first started with [Zephyr's Shroud] before casting [Bubble] on him. I then started rapidly dumping out the remaining rock I had left in my storage before effortlessly creating new versions of the spell for Fire and Earth. A shield of loosely floating rocks formed, surrounding the watery barrier. Once the earthen defense was done, a barrier of fire was created around it.

The plantoid king seemed surprised by the sudden upgrade to his situation, and when he charged forward, I noticed a few skips in his steps. Clearly, he happily approved. He charged directly at the enemy plantoids and danced with delight as they were battered aside from the rocky shield and burnt by the outward flames.

I must just remember to remove those when he meets the queen. Or he might burn her to death with a hug.

While I wanted to go crazy, needing to secure the plantoid queen alive meant that I needed to restrain myself. So, despite having a plethora of new spell swaps available to me, I opted to stick to [Fireflies] instead, as it was the perfect blend of keeping control while still affecting a large area.

Vee's defense idea was a good offense. She teleported directly into the enemy formation before unleashing [Caustic Cloud] throughout their entire formation before teleporting back to the flower castle. Then, she started weaving a network of webs between the army and the castle, creating the ultimate roadblock.

It didn't take long for the king to eventually find his queen. The system clearly identified her as an ally as I threw out the same defensive buff spells on her, causing her captors to be knocked away by the wind and water before being bashed by rocks and burnt by the flame.

With her secured, I began dumping out an endless swarm of [Fireflies] with the help of my [Sub-Cores] and watching as the enemies were set ablaze.

With the enemies defeated, the king and queen rushed to each other's side, and I quickly dismissed their spells so they could embrace one another. They shared a passionate hug, followed by a strange dance, before they started to head back to the castle. I guarded them both like a hawk until we got notification of our mission accomplishment.

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"Well, that was pretty fun," Vee said as we arrived back at the castle.

"It honestly could have been a lot worse. I expected the king and queen to behave as chaotically as before, but he was single-mindedly focused on recovering her, so protecting him was quite easy."

Racial Experience threshold reached. Chimeric Cluster Slime (Blue) is now LV 32.

20 Trait Points are now available.

Eight more levels to go! And I can uncap two traits now. Realistically, my next one will probably be [Soul Sight] unless I get to eat a bunch more slime cores.

When they reunited and returned to their "castle," the queen presented us with a crystal turnip. She handed it proudly to us before skipping back to the king and dancing endlessly together. I gave the strange vegetable to Vee, who seemed peeved.

"Why is it a turnip? I thought I was getting fruits!" Vee whined.

"I dunno, but eat up. I'm sure it's good for you."

Vee was upset but still ate it. Since both of us were still feeling energized, we headed up.

The next floor was another survival room, except with a much greater time limit. Clearly, this was Dran's olive branch, and I gratefully accepted it.

We repeated our strategy on the previous floor, with me casting a massive [Reduction] over the entire floor.

Proficiency gained. [Triangulate LV 3] improved to [Triangulate LV 4].

I then told my [Sub-Cores] to once again go wild with me and use every skill, trait, and magic we had available to slaughter the endlessly spawning plantoids.

Racial Experience threshold reached. Chimeric Cluster Slime (Blue) is now LV 33.

21 Trait Points are now available.

I was extremely pleased that I'd gained my level before completing the floor, as it meant I was already working on the next level before the final floor before the boss. If I managed to get one more level and two from the final boss, that would put me only four levels away from my evolution!

And hopefully, the elves will have enough experience to gain four levels. Or maybe that's asking too much? I suppose I could always do some hunting afterward.

When the timer finally finished, and we succeeded, Vee nearly collapsed into a heap. There were actually quite a few close calls this time as she expended all her energy in a desperate attempt to keep the spawns flowing. Still, my [Sub-Cores] remained vigilant, and some key [Aegis] spells protected her from any serious harm.

"I… think we should take a break," Vee replied, utterly exhausted.

"We can sleep and tackle the last floor and boss in the morning," I suggested.

"Yes… please…"

I was actually happy to take the break, as I was feeling the mental burden of keeping such a complex spell active. Not to mention the relatively unfamiliar feeling of having so much of my Mana drained away.

Maybe it was because I was a Mana slime, but when I was this empty, I felt strangely "diluted," as if my slime wasn't at its proper density level.

I'd figured this downtime would be a perfect opportunity to teach Vee [Rift Door], but when I checked on her, she was already out like a light. So, instead, I decided to use my newfound [Triangulate] skill and my additional levels in [Dimension Magic] to finally create my debuff once and for all.

I worked tirelessly and endlessly, pushing myself to my mental limits. I wanted to finally complete this spell. I even opened up a [Rift Door] and, after withdrawing a lot of slime, positioned myself half inside and outside. My idea was that the ease of manipulating coordinates inside my own dimensional space would somehow provide the catalyst I needed to complete the spell.

I'd lost track of time and the outside world as I continued in my state of hyperfixation until finally, the last pieces of the spell construct slid into place, and I finally reached… something.

I cast the unknown spell once but was unsure if I was successful. I cast it again and held my non-existent breath.

Spell [Displaced] discovered.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! I did it! Who needs a better magic skill if you've got enough perseverance and determination? Ha!" I laughed mirthfully, and then, all at once, my extreme buildup of mental fatigue came crashing down.

"Oh… that's not good," I mumbled as the world seemed to lurch.

The world went black… and then I woke up. My mind was clear, and the mental strain was gone.

"Huh? What happened?"

"You slept like a corpse for who knows how long," Vee's voice replied.

"I did?" I asked curiously.

"Well, more like a messy puddle. I can see why you normally use a bathtub. But it looks like you remained somewhat intact—I was a little afraid that your cores were going to drift away."

"Sorry… I just had to complete it."

"I only woke up from the screams of 'Yes, yes, yes,' so I have no idea what it is," Vee replied.

"[Displaced]! My dimensional debuff!" I exclaimed happily. "Unless that was a dream?"

I frantically tried to cast the spell from my memory, and when I held the construct between my tendrils, I let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh gods, what the hell is that!?" Vee cried out. "How on Earth did you ever make something like that? It looks like the mindmap of a lunatic!"

"Um…" I glanced at Vee and the construct a few times. "I'm honestly a little unsure. I was in the zone and trying everything and anything. Honestly speaking, it was collapsing about seventy percent of the time the second I did anything, but I brute forced my way through!"

Vee was silent for a while before ultimately replying, "Syl, are you okay?"

"I'm great. Why?"

"I could barely handle a few rounds of spell backlash, and you effectively tortured yourself for what sounds like hours. Right, Ygdran?"

"I wouldn't call it torture—"

I had to stop watching after a while. I tried a few times to get her to stop, but she just kept going. I was worried that if I attempted to forcibly stop her, she would create an unstable rift and destroy my dungeon.

"See? Even the tree thinks you went too far," Vee scolded. "You really should have waited until you had better skills or traits or something; it would have been much safer."

"Um… sorry? I really didn't think I was doing anything too out of the ordinary."

Vee sighed, "Maybe I'm overreacting… but seeing you lifelessly spreading out all over the floor was not a pleasant experience. If not for repeatedly checking on our bond and your [Rift Door] remaining open throughout, I would have thought you were actually dead."

"Sorry again, Vee, I'll try to be a little more… reasonable with my research."

"I guess that's as good as I'm going to get. Hopefully, the guilt of leaving me all alone in this crazy world will keep you in check."

I was about to apologize again, as I wasn't sure what else to do, but Vee interrupted.

"No. It's fine. Enough apologies. Let's go beat the next floor, defeat the final boss, and then lay our trap for those elves!"

"And get you that last rainbow grape," I added.

"Naturally! The most important part."