Valkyrie's Shadow

Stone and Blood: Act 1, Chapter 4

Stone and Blood: Act 1, Chapter 4

Chapter 4

On silent footsteps, a lone hunter stalked through the undergrowth. Her quarry, a buck over twice her mass, picked his way through the woods ahead of her. It stopped on occasion, checking its surroundings before lowering its head to graze. The buck was one she had been keeping an eye on for the past few months. It possessed the profile of a six-year-old and was one of many that she needed to take care of before the autumn rut.

The sound of a stream trickled through the trees as the buck made its way to fresh water. She pulled a broadhead arrow from her quiver and nocked it to her bowstring. As the buck went to take a drink, she rose to take her aim.

Her bowstave creaked ever so slightly. The buck’s head shot up, eyes and ears alert as it stood perfectly still.

?Go!?

A green blob fell from the branches above and onto the buck’s head. The buck bounded away, crashing through the brush. She put her arrow away and walked off after it, following the trail of destruction left by her prey’s panicked flight.

Not a hundred metres away, she found the buck sprawled across the roots of a highland pine. Its head had been melted clean off and blood flowed out of the stump of its neck. The crimson stream didn’t get far, however, as it was being absorbed by the Slime that had killed the deer.

“Good job, Em,” she said. “Let’s get this guy dressed.”

If the Slime understood her, it gave no visible indication. Its satisfaction could be sensed over their telepathic bond, however.

She laid out a tarp, then drew her dagger and got to work. After exposing its body cavity, she sorted out the contents. Most of the offal would go to the fish farms, while the choicest organs would end up at the butcher. She divided them into the two preservation containers in her pack. Once she separated the hide, she laid it out for Em to clean out while she wrapped up the carcass in a Shroud of Sleep.

When Em was finished, it hopped onto her head. She bundled up the hide and added it to her pack before hefting the carcass onto her shoulders. Before her family had come to Warden’s Vale, it was crazy to think that a thirty-five-kilogram girl could carry a hundred-kilogram deer around. Now, it was just an everyday thing.

At some point along the way down the valley to the road, she realised that a pink-haired girl was walking beside her.

“Um…hi?”

The pink-haired girl didn’t respond. She wasn’t even looking at her – she was looking at the Slime riding on top of her head.

“…friend?” The girl asked in a soft, monotone voice.

“I guess you could say that. My name is Jelena – I’m a Ranger-in-training. This is Em – an Emerald Forest Slime. It’s my companion.”

“Oooh…”

Was she impressed? Her delivery was so deadpan that she couldn’t tell.

“Shizu,” the pink-haired girl pointed to herself.

“Nice to meet you, Shizu,” Jelena replied. “I’d shake your hand, but mine are kinda dirty.”

“Need help?”

“Nah, I do this every day.”

They continued along their way, following the banks of the forest stream. It was still early in the morning, and the sun had just risen above the mountains in the east. The sound of birds filled the air and they walked past the occasional animal that didn’t notice them go by.

“So…are you a Ranger, as well?”

“Kind of? I’m a scout. Better.”

“A scout…does that mean you’re in the army? I’m joining the army too.”

Shizu offered Jelena an unreadable look.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Is Em joining too?”

“Of course! Em goes everywhere with me.”

“What is Em? A Ranger? An Assassin?”

“Em is a Slime.”

The pink-haired girl stopped in her tracks. She stared at Jelena for a long while.

“Wh-what is it?” Jelena resisted the urge to squirm.

Shizu reached out and took the deer on her shoulders. It disappeared into a hole in the air.

“Come,” she said.

“But–”

“Come.”

The girl walked away. Since she had taken Jelena’s kill, she had no choice but to follow. A lot of people depended on her work.

“Where are you taking us?” Jelena asked.

“Seeking professional help,” Shizu answered.

“Help from a professional what?”

“A professional Ass…” Shizu’s voice trailed away before resuming again, “An expert on Slimes.”

Was there such a person in Warden’s Vale? Or was she going to end up in E-Rantel? The new ships made it a short trip, but it still wasn’t somewhere she could casually travel.

Eventually, they ended up at the shore of the lake, looking out over its northern end. While the body of water wasn’t even a year old, many rumours had already sprung up around it. The northern portion of the lake was so deep that even the Lizardmen didn’t know how far down it went and people kept speaking about unspeakable horrors lurking in the depths.

Shizu led them to a cluster of boulders that stuck out along the waterfront. She hopped onto the largest of them, then cupped her hands around her mouth.

“Tekeli-li!” Shizu’s cry echoed over the waves, “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!”

What was she doing? Were the rumours true about being a monster in the lake and Shizu was calling for it? A monster that was a Slime expert? As a resident of Warden’s Vale, she had witnessed too many unbelievable things to dismiss anything out of hand.

Shizu stopped and turned her uncovered eye on Jelena.

“Not helping?”

“M-me?” Jelena stared up at the pink-haired girl.

The pink-haired girl only stared back. Jelena clambered onto the rock to join her.

“Tek…er…”

“Tekeli-li.”

“Tekeli-li!”

“Tekeli-li!”

“Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!”

Together, they called out over the waves. Jelena felt stupid. Since Shizu was doing it too, however, it felt a bit less stupid. Hopefully, no one was watching.

“Tekeli-li!”

“Tekeli-li!”

“Teke…”

An odd wave rolled toward them. It stopped in the water just off of the rocks.

“So noisy,” the wave said in dulcet tones.

The wave talked? The wave was a girl?

“Help,” Shizu said.

Jelena stared as the wave climbed onto the rocks. The wave wasn’t a wave: it was a wave-coloured Slime.

“I didn’t know someone like you lived here,” Jelena said.

“I don’t live here,” the Slime replied.

“…then what are you doing here?” Jelena asked.

The Slime fell silent. Did she ask something she wasn’t supposed to?

“Building,” Shizu said. “Aquatic construction.”

So the Slime built stuff underwater? But what did that have to do with being a Slime expert? Just because she was a Slime? That didn’t make any sense. Humans weren’t Human experts just because they were Humans.

“Anyway,” the Slime slimed up to them. “What do you need help with?”

Shizu looked up at Em. The talking Slime seemed to follow her gaze, though she shouldn’t have needed to. Slimes had short-range Blindsense and they were more than close enough together.

“And just what do you expect me to do?” The Slime said.

“…build consultation? Big sister Solution is a professional Slime.”

“Shizu…”

“Help.”

The Slime let out a long sigh.

“Fine,” she said. “Let’s hear it.”

Jelena wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be talking about, but she talked anyway. After several minutes of meandering, she fell into an awkward silence. ‘Big sister Solution’ raised a pseudopod thoughtfully to her ‘head’ in a Human-like gesture.

“I see,” the Slime said. “So Em is joining the Royal Army but it doesn’t have a job. Except it sounds like it’s already a Ranger or a Rogue? Actually, Em looks a bit fat. Is it about to undergo mitosis?”

“What?”

“Divide,” Solution told her.

“Oh. Um…maybe in a few more days. Why?”

“What do you do with the new Em?”

“They usually stick around the village. The villagers were sort of wary of them at first, but now they mostly just let them do their thing.”

It helped that ‘doing their thing’ involved keeping the village nice and clean. They also usually stayed out of sight most of the time, hanging around the sewers and in damp and shadowy places.

“Are they under your control?” Solution asked.

“If you mean like Em, yeah.”

“Hmm…”

Despite sounding reluctant to help at first, the talking Slime now seemed interested in her Ems.

“In that case,” Solution said, “I think you should form a party.”

“A party?” Jelena said, “Like how Adventurers team up?”

“Something like that. If I heard correctly, the Royal Army’s Ranger Corps is supposed to serve as an auxiliary force that conducts reconnaissance missions. Usually, that means us stealthy types working alone, but if you’re a tamer…actually, wouldn’t Lady Aura know more about this than me?”

“You know Lady Aura?”

“Of course,” the Slime said. “Going by your response, I take it that you know her?”

“Yeah,” Jelena nodded. “Commander Wiluvien and Lluluvien are away in the Draconic Kingdom, so when Lady Aura’s patrol route takes her by here, she collects reports from all of the local patrols.”

“Then you should ask when you see her next,” Solution told her.

“Alright, I’ll do that. Thanks.”

“Mhm,” the Slime said as she returned to the water. “Work hard for Lord Ainz’s sake.”

Of course she would. He was her god, after all.

A gust of wind made its way along the shore, sending Jelena and Shizu’s hair to the side. Jelena glanced at the other girl.

“Do you think her idea will work?” Jelena asked.

“Let’s find out,” Shizu answered.

“Er…right now?”

Shizu nodded once.

At least it meant they would have to drop by the village. She needed to bring her kill to the butcher.

Jelena returned the greeting of the Death Knight at the gate and headed straight to the south side of the village square. The butcher looked up from his work at the counter.

“Oh, Jelena. I swear you get faster every week…or not. Did it get away?”

She unslung her pack and placed the containers filled with offal on the counter.

“No,” Jelena replied. “Um…Shizu?”

The pink-haired girl produced the deer carcass and placed it on the counter. She probably had something like Lady Zahradnik’s bags to carry stuff in. The butcher checked over everything before filling out a paper slip.

“Here you go.”

“Thanks,” Jelena smiled.

She looked down at the slip as they left the shop, mentally adding the amount to her total savings. It wouldn’t be long before she moved to the harbour to join the army. They had a barracks and everything at the base, but she still thought it would be good to have some spending money. Maybe some new magic items would come out.

Her next stop was the greengrocer, to whom she sold the fruits and vegetables that she had harvested along her patrol route. After that, she went to the tanner on the southern end of town to sell the deer hide. Finally, she returned to the village square to report to the lichtower. House Zahradnik kept meticulous records of all industrial activities in its territory, including forestry. It wasn’t something that the Nobles ever did in her old village, but, as Jelena grew stronger as a Ranger, her understanding as to why also seemed to grow clearer.

The clerk smiled brightly as Jelena approached the counter, but then the Elder Lich appeared at her side, bowing low. That was weird. Jelena placed her paperwork on the counter, unsure of what was going on. The Human clerk appeared just as confused as she was as they watched the Elder Lich work.

“Your activity has been logged and will be filed in the administrative archives,” the Elder Lich said after a few minutes. “Taxes have been deducted from your account as per your forestry contract with House Zahradnik.”

“Umm…thanks?”

Jelena retrieved her account book, exchanging one last, confused look with the Human clerk. The Elder Liches usually weren’t so long-winded. In fact, they usually let the clerk on duty do most of the work at the front counter.

She left the lichtower, scratching her head.

“That was weird,” she said to Shizu. “What do you think was going on?”

“Who knows?” The pink-haired girl replied as she looked around, “I don’t see any other Slimes.”

“I’ll call them together,” Jelena said. “Before we do anything else, I have to go tell my parents that I’m done for the morning.”

“Okay.”

Jelena called to her Ems through their bond with her as she walked to the western side of the village where her home was. Two of them were waiting outside the door by the time they got there. Most people believed that Slimes were slow, but they could be pretty quick if they wanted to be. Shizu knelt to examine them. Jelena pushed open the front door.

“Ma, I’m back.”

“Welcome back, dear,” her mother said from the kitchen. “How did everything go?”

“I finished my work for the morning,” Jelena replied. “I’m going to be doing something with Em, so I probably won’t be back until after work tonight.”

Back outside, she found Shizu sitting in the middle of three Ems. The one on Jelena’s head hopped off to join them.

“You have a lot,” Shizu said.

“They split up a lot when the village first came up,” Jelena said. “Once there were a few hundred in the sewer, they stopped multiplying unless we moved some over to populate the other villages. They only grow big enough to split when I let them eat a bunch on patrols now.”

“You don’t want any more?”

“I’m not even sure what I’m doing with the ones that I already have.”

“A party is six people.”

“…does that mean I need one more Em, or two?”

Shizu rose to her feet and walked off.

“Wait, where are we going?”

“To see Lady Aura.”

“Lady Aura is here?”

“Mm.”

Lady Aura’s patrol route encompassed the entire Sorcerous Kingdom, so one never knew when she would pop up. Some people would probably think that it was unreliable, but Lady Zahradnik said that it made it so that any potential intruders wouldn’t ever be sure when it was safe to cause trouble. Lady Aura was powerful, but Lady Aura and her Magical Beasts couldn’t be everywhere. Cultivating the belief that she could be anywhere was a better way to do things.

“So where do we need to go?” Jelena asked.

“Lizardman Village.”

“Hmm…okay. Just give me a moment.”

Jelena went back inside her house. To get to the Lizardman Village, they would be taking a wagon to the harbour so they could board a ship to the Lizardman lands – was calling them ‘lands’ correct? – in the middle of the lake. If so, she could bring the herbs that she had gathered and sell them to the Alchemists.

Shizu had three Ems in her arms and one on her head when Jelena went back outside. It looked like she didn’t have a problem with touching them as many others did. Her father was still worried about whether Em would just melt her head off one day, but Slimes were predators that naturally attacked prey they could swallow whole and take somewhere safe to digest. Otherwise, they would only do so if provoked.

They boarded a wagon waiting in its lot by the village square. The Soul Eater took them down the road into the valley and across the dam to the harbour. No one stopped Shizu when they entered the citadel area, so it looked like she was allowed to go wherever she wanted.

“This is where I’m going to be living soon,” Jelena proudly said as they passed the army base.

Shizu’s Em-coloured eye went to the blocky grey buildings.

“Really?”

“Uh-huh,” Jelena smiled. “Lady Zahradnik said that I would as soon as I learned my letters and numbers, so I did it as fast as I could. Even the village teacher was shocked at how fast I was.”

“You’re a good girl,” Shizu said. “Do many people want to fight for Lord Ainz?”

“Everyone likes His Majesty here,” Jelena said. “No one is as strong as the Undead, though. But Lady Zahradnik said that Rangers are special. They can do a lot of things that the Undead can’t, so they’re useful for the Royal Army. My village has four other kids in training and the other villages have four or five as well.”

“How come other Human Areas aren’t doing it?”

Human? Jelena looked across the wagon at Shizu. She didn’t have a tail or scales. Her ears weren’t pointed and her skin wasn’t green, nor did she have horns or claws or fur. She did call Solution ‘sister’, so was she actually a Slime? But Solution looked like a Slime and Shizu looked like a Human. Maybe Shizu was a Slime that could mimic other appearances. It would be neat if Em could do the same thing one day.

If she was a Slime, then maybe that was why she was so interested in Em. Maybe Em would have a girlfriend soon, though that didn’t quite make sense.

The wagon stopped in front of the Faculty of Alchemy. Jelena hopped off the back of the wagon.

“Everyone in Warden’s Vale loves His Majesty,” Jelena said. “Maybe that’s why. I’ll be right back.”

She took the preservation containers filled with herbs with her into the faculty office. The Elder Lich at the front desk summoned one of the Alchemists working in the secret laboratories further within the building.

“Hello, Jelena,” he said.

“Hello.”

“Hmm…it looks like the Keskelos roots are coming into season. I guess our estimates were off about how many we had to go through before the next batch came in.”

“Is that bad?”

“No, we just have to readjust our resource allocations. This is just the thing, though – we got our hands on the formula for a new skincare product, and Keskelos makes up a substantial portion of the base. With the price regulations on quality-of-life items, cosmetics are our most profitable products.”

“Um…if you say so.”

The Alchemist smiled slightly at her response.

“Aren’t you thirteen or so already?” He said, “Girls are usually interested in this sort of thing before your age…”

Jelena shook her head. While most of the people in Warden’s Vale followed The Six, a few ‘specialists’ that were hard to find didn’t. Four out of five of the mages in the Faculty of Alchemy didn’t when they moved in, and only a few of them had switched back from The Four to The Six since then. Some of them didn’t worship any gods at all, which was even crazier.

Once the Alchemist finished sorting out her things, she returned to the wagon with another slip. Shizu was under the wagon, lying on her back.

“A-Are you alright?” Jelena rushed over and went to her hands and knees.

“Mm.”

She didn’t look hurt. Jelena thought she had fallen off and the Soul Eater had rolled over her, but that had never happened before. The wagon was in the same place, too.

“What are you doing down there?” She asked.

“Looking.”

Looking at what? Jelena crawled closer to see if anything was stuck under the wagon, but there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Shizu came out and boarded the wagon again without saying anything further and they rode in silence as the Soul Eater took them to the village.

It was still late morning, so most of the people in the harbour village were at work. The Soul Eater took them past the village square and right up to the lakeside wharf. They boarded the boat there and, when they reached the Lizardman Village, Jelena went to sell the leftover offal to the fish farmers.

“Alright,” she said. “Where to now?”

Shizu wordlessly turned around and led them deeper into the complex. Jelena had been to the Lizardman Village many times before, as Miss Ezsris was one of her instructors. They passed the residential ring and crossed the bridge to the interior, walking through the small market manned by Lizardman Merchants.

At the centre of the village was its ‘Druid Grove’, which the Lizardmen had just started that spring. Nine saplings made a ring around the fringes of the mostly-bare island, and it was there where they found Lady Aura. She was standing with her brother, Lord Mare, and together they watched the familiar, red-leafed figure of Glasir.

The Dryad held out a hand, palm outward.

“?Cure Poison?.”

A swirl of healing magic washed over her target: a big grey wolf with a cut on its side. Lord Mare leaned from left to right and back again as he examined it.

“Ooh…”

“Did it work?” Lady Aura asked.

“Yeah,” Lord Mare answered.

“Well, congrats.”

“C-Congratulations.”

“Hehe…”

Glasir looked down, scratching the back of her neck. The wolf in front of her went poof.

“It looks like that training menu worked,” a Lizardman Druid to the side said. “I don’t think the other kids could survive it, though.”

“I didn’t think I would survive it,” a plaintive voice rose from Glasir. “Please tell me that’s the end of it.”

“For now,” Lord Mare replied. “Once you learn a couple more Second-tier spells, we can start again.”

“Ehhhhh…”

“Better learn some useful ones,” Lady Aura said, “or it’s going to suck for you.”

The Dryad’s leaves rustled as she sighed. Lady Aura looked over to where Jelena and Shizu were standing.

“Did you find anything, Shizu?” She asked.

Shizu turned her one-eyed gaze on Jelena. Lady Aura rubbed her chin.

“You’re…Jelena, right? One of the trainee Rangers from the first village.”

“Yes, my lady,” Jelena nodded. “I met Shizu while I was doing my rounds, and then we went to the lake where we met a Slime named Solution. Solution said that I should make a Slime party and told us that you would probably know more about how to do it.”

“A Slime party?”

“Yeah, like an Adventurer party.”

The Dark Elf Ranger peered at the Ems.

“So each one will have a role? Like healers and damage dealers…”

“And a tank,” Lord Mare added. “Sort of like Lady Bukubukuchagama?”

“Mmh…can that even happen?” Lady Aura said.

“You mean one of those Slimes becoming like Lady Bukubukuchagama?”

“No! I meant being able to turn them into a party. They obviously can’t be anything like Lady Bukubukuchagama.”

“I don’t see why not,” Lord Mare said. “They’re Heteromorphs, right? They should be able to level just like anyone else.”

Lady Aura crossed her arms, looking at the Ems with an envious expression.

“That sounds so cool,” she said. “I want to try it out too, but I’m already at my limit! Argh…”

“So is it a good idea?” Jelena asked.

“You should try it out,” Lord Mare said. “Having a full party everywhere you go would be pretty strong. The strength of pets isn’t limited by the strength of the tamer here.”

“Ugh,” Lady Aura made a face. “If everything wasn’t so weak, this place would be crazy. So, you’re going to have a Slime Fighter and a Slime healer of some sort…a Slime Wizard, too?”

“I-I don’t think a Wizard would work,” Lord Mare said. “They all have to be something that won’t have too many problems operating in the wilderness. The Rangers here are all becoming scouts for the Royal Army, I think.”

A frown crossed Lady Aura’s lips.

“That doesn’t leave very many options,” she said. “At least not to begin with.”

“That part probably doesn’t matter…”

Lady Aura shared a look with Lord Mare.

“You mean train them all up as Rangers and Druids?” Lady Aura said.

“Druids and Rangers are already pretty versatile,” Lord Mare replied. “They don’t have to all do the same thing, either.”

“So something like three Rangers and three Druids?”

“Three Druids and three Rangers,” Lord Mare nodded. “Each Druid could have a different specialisation. Like a healer and a summoner and a nuker.”

“Then you can have different Rangers, too,” Lady Aura added. “Two that specialise in melee and two that specialise in ranged combat.”

“You added an extra Slime, big sis…”

“Does it have to be six?”

Lady Aura’s look turned cross. Lord Mare shied away.

“I-I don’t know?” He said, “I-In that case, you can have two healers, a summoner, and a nuker. The party would be more stable that way.”

Jelena looked down at her Ems. It seemed like she would have to feed them more.

“So,” she said. “Eight Slimes. Four Rangers and four Druids. Two Rangers that are good at melee combat and two that are good at ranged combat. Two Druids specialised in healing, one specialised in summoning and one more specialised at…new…”

“Nuking,” Lord Mare said. “Damage-dealing spells. A Druid like me.”

“Don’t forget your Skills and Abilities as a tamer,” Lady Aura said.

“I just have basic Ranger training,” Jelena said. “If my lady could help with that…”

“I guess I could give you some pointers.”

“Thank you, my lady.”

“Un!” Lady Aura smiled, “Now, all that’s left for you to do is teach your Slimes magic.”

Jelena froze.

“Eh?”