Master Of None

"What is it?" Su came over and gained the same confused look that Walker had. "It smells sour almost?" Su was sniffing the ait slightly and finding that it was a sour burning smell that was coming from the area.

"Walker, look at the base of the rocks right there. Do you see what I see?" Gil was looking at the base of rocks where the ground met the edge and had discovered small yellow droplets. 

"Let me use my all around appraisal, although I have an idea of what it is." Walker had hopes that he would be wrong on his theory. 

'Acidic slime residue

The remains of an acidic yellow slime that has fed on the natural ores within a rock. Their body is made of an acid that is perfect for melting and burning stone and valuable natural ores.' 

"It's yellow acidic slime residue." Walker felt the air leave his lungs as he said this. He had noped that they wouldn't find much in the way of evidence for these things. 

"Good, I want to try a few things with it for potions and herbs. If we had found an entire slime it would be better. But this slime may have some use compared to those purple ones." Remey was already motioning for Walker to get a vial from his inventory. 

"I know it is dangerous and bad that the yellow slimes are already out here but they may prove useful if we can capture some." Walker stopped looking at Remey like she was crazy. He would much rather see something good come from the yellow slimes which would be unlike the purple slimes which only brought the decay that harmed the forest. 

"I might be able to use the acidic qualities in the slimes' body to break down certain herbs and use them better." Remey was already planning out the tests she would do. It was not uncommon to use certain slime body species as potion ingredients or to nullify certain properties in herbs. 

"If it is useful that will be great, but will you really be able to test things if you have so little?" Gil was doubtful that the small yellow droplets that Remey was gathering off the ground in to the vial would be useful at all.

"Just a small amount can give me enough information. If I get ahold of some steel seed palm nuts I can see if it will dissolve the toughy outer shell and make it easier to extract the seeds oils. All I need is a few drops to coat the seed and tests it instead of the normal process where someone has to smash the seen and get minimal oils from it." Remey was swift with her response making Walker start to think as well. 

"I did not know such things were a problem to be solved. The world of alchemy is very complicated." Su was opening her eyes to new possibilities she had not considered before. She had always just assumed the herbs would either be dried or used whole. The process of removing shells and creating oils was foreign to her. 

"In any case, this is a sign that from here on out we will need to worry about yellow slimes with acidic bodies. Su, I think your shield can withstand the attacks because of the materials it is made out of and I think Midnight will be fine with her dragon scales. But everyone else will need to be on high alert for acid attacks." 

Walker made sure to focus everyone on this danger. If someone were to get harmed by acid he knew that healing would not be the perfect solution. He would need to remove the acid with water and then heal it. This much he had learned while reading about a snake type monster in the swamp lands with acidic venom spray attacks. 

"I will be staying as far as I need from them. I wish I could say my arrows will be too since I am sure they can dissolve those...but I still need to attack." This was something Gil had been worrying over. He knew that this would drain a lot of his arrows since even a drop of the slime bodies could ruin the balance and make the arrows useless. Let alone ruin the ability to store elemental mana. 

"If we don't encounter them here we may in the dwarf cities' underground. They may sell something that could defend against these effects but it is a long shot." Walker wished they had more time to prepare, but they had already waited too long to come this far. 

Having warned everyone and spoken on their strategy the group started to move forward again. They needed to make up more ground but were sure that they would not make it all the way to the city today. It would take them another day of nonstop traveling at the rapid pace they had been setting. 

"You know, I feel like we have been moving a lot faster lately." Walker was looking at the map in his head that he had memorized with the mental archive skill and realized they had traveled a great distance in such a short time. 

"It's our agility and health points. They are much higher now and allow us to move faster. I have been taking note of just how fast we move as we have been going. The orcs all looked so slow but I am sure if we faced them earlier we would struggle." Su had been comparing herself to the way she was before the elf city and after. She had noticed the many small changes in their daily life that none of them had mentioned. 

"You know, I did notice that lifting the camping gear and walking so much was not making me as tired or stressed." Gil started to think on this too and so did everyone else as they continued their walk along the rocky path. 

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