Slime Evolution

Chapter 416 - Plan

The deep silence of the rocky gorge was almost absolute, broken only by the nervous whispers of the bored Broken Suns officers glancing around a little drowsily.

Hidden beneath the dark leaves of the shrub, his gelatin membrane completely camouflaged by the shadows of the rocks, Lohan watched the scene with heightened attention.

The mage in the blue robe, Eldrin, gripped the crystal staff with both trembling hands, while the three level twenty runes floated around the head of the staff, framed by an unstable, pulsing neon blue glow.

The purple smoke of the void kept escaping through the cracks in the old seal, saturating the air with that heavy, acidic, extremely oppressive energy. Lohan felt his gelatin vibrate with revulsion at that destructive static.

He knew very well that if Eldrin made any major miscalculation fusing those energies, the rift would suffer a violent chain reaction.

The corrupted mana explosion would likely destroy the gorge, spread pollution across the entire northern sector, and trigger Thalendor’s defenses.

If that happened, the blame would fall on the Broken Suns, but the destruction would also hurt Astralis Requiem’s credibility, after all, if a group of Players caused that much damage to Mythlorien, everyone would suffer, especially considering Yrneha had given them this mission and could be disappointed if they handled it poorly.

Through the guild’s mental link, Lohan shared his line of reasoning with Lisa, Dylan, and Alice, who had arrived just moments ago, but stayed hidden at a distance behind the dense foliage so as not to alert the Broken Suns.

”We have a serious problem here.” Lohan transmitted, keeping his tone calm and analytical.

Dylan tensed his shoulders in the darkness, trying to get a better look from afar. ”Yeah... if we try to fix the problem now the credit for doing so will go to them, and if we try to make the problem worse we could screw everything up to the point it drags us down too... at this point the only option we seem to have left is to leave it as is and report what we saw to Yrneha...”

That was the most logical alternative, but no one there was willing to settle for just that.

Simply reporting what they’d seen would earn them a decent reward, but they didn’t want just a decent reward for snitching on the other group’s screwup, they wanted at least a bigger share of responsibility in solving the problem, so they could earn rewards proportional to the responsibility they took on.

Lohan’s core vibrated, an extremely subtle plan taking shape in his mind split across its channels.

”I think I have an idea, everyone.” Lohan transmitted over the link. ”We’re going to let Eldrin fail. The mage is tense, and the level twenty runes he’s using are already several tiers above what he can actually control. His plan is to open the old seal to fuse in the new high level runes. That transition moment is incredibly unstable. If we cause a micro distortion in the air pressure at the exact instant he’s channeling the spell, the spell’s magical geometry will collapse from within.”

”How do you plan on doing that without them noticing your presence, Halon?” Dylan asked, intrigued by the mechanics of the plan.

”I’m going to use the vacuum pressure collapse I got from evolving explosive steps.” Lohan explained. ”I don’t need to fire off a loud area attack. I’m going to generate a microscopic, invisible suction very close to Eldrin at the critical moment of the fusion. The shift in air density will make his hand tremble for a fraction of a second. That’ll be enough for the magic circle to reject the three level twenty runes. Everyone can already picture the reaction that’s going to cause, so the mana leak will spike violently.”

”But Halon...” Alice questioned, her tone worried. ”If the leak spikes violently, won’t that cause the explosion that destroys the forest and ruins our reputation with Yrneha?”

”Yes, and no... yes because that really would cause damage beyond our control, and no because we’ll be here to openly keep the side effects of that under control as much as possible.” Lohan replied decisively. ”I can’t purify the deep rift, nor handle the full side effect of this, but Lisa and I can contain the purple smoke that escapes into the air. We’re going to raise a magical web combined with my sacred light, and her spirit flames, to form a temporary outer barrier. That barrier will hold the acidic gas in a protective bubble above the ground, protecting the forest as much as possible from the ecological damage coming from there.”

”While we hold the bubble, Dylan can go alert the Council and Yrneha herself that Astralis Requiem discovered that the Broken Suns’ northern rift is collapsing...” Lisa added. ”When the guards and the archmage teleport here, they’ll find the enemy officers desperate on the ground with the expensive runes disintegrated, as proof of their crime, after all it was their responsibility to have already handled this problem, not to keep patching over a shoddy job. At the same time, they’ll see Astralis Requiem acting heroically to save Thalendor!”

”What a wonderful strategy.” Alice admitted, a wide smile spreading across her face. ”This is why I love being part of this group. We get to break their legs without throwing a single physical punch at them.”

Even Dylan, who had been a bit skeptical of this plan, the more he heard about it the more he realized how much sense it made.

After all, Astralis was supposed to already be monitoring this, they had a reason to be there. As long as the evidence showed it was entirely the Broken Suns’ fault the incident happened, with no trace of Astralis having caused it, the credit they wanted so badly would be right there for the taking!

”Get ready.” Lohan warned, keeping his eyes fixed on the mage Eldrin. ”The moment for the show is very close now.”

In the gorge, the enemy officers remained oblivious to the invisible danger.

Eldrin took two steps forward, moving even closer to the wall where the purple smoke was escaping. He raised the staff, and the three rare runes began spinning even more intensely around him, tracing circles of mana into the night air.

Eldrin chanted the spell, his voice already coming out shaky with exhaustion, but trying his hardest to sound confident and powerful. ”Let the barrier expand and merge with the new pathways...”

The dark purple magic circle grew brighter and more unstable on the ground, its runic lines vibrating at a harsh frequency that made the surrounding stones crack.

Eldrin began guiding the three gems toward the grooves of the old seal, trying to fuse them together.

Lohan pushed his processing to its limit, since he’d never used that ability at such a long distance before.

He aimed at the small pocket of air surrounding Eldrin’s fingers, preparing to release a quick burst of force. He waited for the tactical split second of the fusion and focused his membrane to act.

He knew how important that moment was, and that he could not fail there.