Chapter 146: The third partner

When Ethan said ’smash it,’ the first thing that changed wasn’t Laira but the expression on the Slime’s face.

Its two yellow eyes immediately contracted. The body that had been puffed up to over three meters also shrank slightly, but in the blink of an eye, Mumu had forced itself upright again. Its two short arms rose before its chest, and the lopsided halo atop its head emitted a feeble golden glow, as though it still wanted to maintain its initial intimidating appearance.

"Mumu!"

The cry rang out very loudly.

But the end wavered slightly.

Laira retracted her longspear. The crimson-violet Thunder Flame around her body also dimmed, making Mumu seem to truly believe she’d given up. It snuck back half a step, its yellow eyes blinking, waiting for her to turn away.

The very next second, Laira clenched her fist.

BOOM!

Red Dragon aura erupted.

The dragon wings reconstructed by Thunder Wing spread wide behind her, hundreds of metallic feathers trembling in unison. Thunder Flame ran from her shoulder down her arm, but this time Laira didn’t condense it into a longspear.

QingZhu had taught her very clearly: there were times when a weapon only made the motion longer. If all you needed to do was hit a target standing right in front of you, a fist was enough.

Laira stomped down.

CRASH!

The ground exploded.

Mumu panicked, raising both hands.

"Mumu!"

Golden light immediately covered its body, forming a layer of damage immunity. However, after the halo flashed, the light on it quickly dimmed. Ethan could see clearly that the energy was slowly recharging; before ten seconds passed, Mumu wouldn’t be able to produce a new effect.

Laira appeared before it.

But she didn’t punch.

Her right foot swept horizontal.

BOOM!

The golden layer shattered. Mumu was kicked off the coffin, its soft body spinning once in midair before slamming onto the stone floor.

Splat.

It flattened onto the ground like a giant pancake.

Ethan and Ruo Yan both went silent.

A few seconds later, the Slime slowly puffed back up. Mumu raised its head, two yellow eyes staring hard at Laira, trying to look angry.

"Mumu!"

Laira was about to step forward when the halo on its head lit up again.

Exactly ten seconds.

A stream of pale blue light flowed from the halo down into Mumu’s body. The Slime’s formerly soft mass immediately became more translucent, its outer surface rippling continuously like water disturbed by wind.

Ethan narrowed his eyes.

"Careful. It just buffed itself."

Laira didn’t care. "A blob of mud wants to buff itself?"

She charged in, her Thunder Flame-coated fist driving straight into Mumu’s body.

Squelch!

The fist didn’t pierce through the Slime.

The soft liquid layer caved deeply inward, pulling Laira’s arm in nearly to the elbow. Mumu let out a panicked squeal, its entire body warping from the compression, but in the very next instant, the compressed portion snapped back.

BOOM!

Laira was flung backward by the elastic recoil.

She flipped once in midair and slammed her feet into the stone floor to stabilize. Laira wasn’t injured or hit by a counter, but a layer of yellowish-black liquid had splattered across her hand, her armor, and even her dragon wings.

It was sticky, clinging tight, and stretching into long strings whenever Laira moved.

Laira stood rigid for a few seconds.

Then her entire body shuddered.

"Disgusting."

Mumu also froze, apparently not expecting it had actually knocked her away. Its two yellow eyes went wide, then immediately showed a very brief flash of delight.

"Mumu!"

Laira slowly raised her head.

"You just got this stuff on me?"

Mumu shrank back.

"Mumu..."

Laira yanked her arm hard, but the fluid clung like glue. Her movements slowed noticeably; even when she tried to beat her dragon wings to lunge forward, the slime stretching across the metallic feathers reduced the burst of force.

Ruo Yan observed for a moment, then said: "It’s not a counterattack. It only increased its own elasticity, but the fluid is also slowing her down."

"I know." Laira looked at the slime on her hand, her expression growing increasingly grim. "That’s what makes it disgusting."

Mumu heard that, and its two short arms shot up in front of its face. It tried to produce a fierce roar, but the moment it saw Laira stepping forward, the entire blob of a body spun around.

Bounce.

Bounce.

Bounce.

It actually ran.

Ethan watched a creature over three meters tall bouncing and fleeing through the great hall, Laira chasing behind with a cold expression but clearly reduced speed. He was silent for two seconds, then turned to Ruo Yan.

"Why do I feel like Floor 27 keeps getting weirder?"

Ruo Yan walked past him, the corner of her mouth lifting slightly.

"I find it rather entertaining."

"You smiled."

"No I didn’t."

"The corner of your mouth is curving."

Ruo Yan immediately restored her neutral expression. "You’re seeing things."

Up ahead, Mumu heard the sound of Laira smashing a stone pillar behind it and immediately let out a panicked cry.

"MUMU!"

It bounced sideways, trying to squeeze through the gap between two stone pillars. But the moment it touched the ground, three Soul Threads had already wrapped around its body.

Ruo Yan tightened her grip.

"Got it."

Mumu’s body was too soft. The Soul Threads sank deep inside, unable to hold it completely rigid, but still enough to slow it down. Mumu thrashed wildly, its yellow eyes continuously flicking toward Laira, who was peeling the slime off her dragon wings and slowly approaching.

The halo on its head was still dim.

Ten seconds hadn’t passed.

Mumu could only desperately bounce upward, but the Soul Threads yanked it back time after time. When the halo finally lit up again, its two short arms immediately shot high.

"Mumu!"

A layer of golden light covered its body.

At the same time, a gray debuff effect fell onto Ruo Yan.

Her hands trembled slightly. The Soul Threads immediately slipped, but the defensive barrier had also just appeared around Mumu’s body.

Ethan had been waiting for exactly that moment.

Boundary Breaker appeared in his right hand. His eyes weren’t on Mumu’s body but focused on the halo above its head.

Throughout the entire fight, he’d observed the pattern. Every time Mumu created a beneficial or detrimental effect, the energy always passed through that halo first before spreading to the body. It wasn’t the Slime’s sole source of power, but it was definitely the relay point.

Breaking it would at least create an opening.

Ethan channeled lightning into the weapon’s core.

x5.

The barrel heated up.

BANG!

A bolt of lightning cut across the great hall. The golden layer around Mumu shattered, and the round vanished with it.

The Slime turned toward Ethan. Its two yellow eyes curved upward, as though it was smugly satisfied at having blocked the attack.

"Mumu!"

Ethan pulled the trigger again.

BANG!

The second round flew.

No more defensive layer.

CRACK!

The halo was shot through. Part of the yellow-black structure exploded, and Mumu immediately froze in place. Every effect on the skeletons throughout the great hall flickered off simultaneously.

"M...u?"

"Now!" Ethan shouted.

Laira didn’t need to be told twice. Even though the slime residue still weighed down her dragon wings and arms, she forced one wing open and detonated Thunder Wing. Laira appeared before Mumu; no defensive layer, no speed boost, and its ability to generate effects had been severed by the broken halo.

Her Thunder Flame-coated fist drew back.

Mumu looked at that fist, its two yellow eyes trembling visibly. It tried to back away, but Ruo Yan’s Soul Threads were still coiled around its body, allowing it only the smallest shuffle.

Laira paused for a beat and turned to Ethan.

"Kill it?"

Ethan hesitated slightly.

It was precisely that question that made a thought flash through his mind.

A deceased existence.

Partner Contract.

The SS contract sheet had been in his possession ever since he’d opened the Limit Mystery Box. A support-type Partner that could continuously buff allies and debuff enemies, even if currently limited to one effect every ten seconds, would still be enough to change the course of many battles.

Ethan looked at Mumu, held in place by Ruo Yan. His expression slowly shifted.

"Kill it."

Laira didn’t ask why.

Her fist came down.

BOOM!!!

Thunder Flame tore through the soft body. The Slime puffed up one final time, its two yellow eyes going wide.

"Mumu..."

The sound faded away.

The light inside its body went dark.

Every skeleton frame in the great hall simultaneously lost its power.

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

Dozens of skeletal structures collapsed. Silence returned so quickly it was almost unnatural.

Laira withdrew her hand from the liquid that was gradually solidifying, looking at the Slime’s remains on the floor. She still frowned at the bit of slime clinging to her gauntlet.

"Done."

Ruo Yan retracted her Soul Threads. She was about to ask Ethan if he’d spotted anything worth salvaging from the remains when he was already walking over. Laira recognized that look and immediately watched him.

"You see something again?"

"No." Ethan knelt before the Slime’s body. "I remembered something."

He raised his right hand. A very faint silver mark slowly appeared on the back of it.

Ruo Yan recognized it the moment she saw it.

"Partner Contract?"

"Yeah."

Laira lowered her gaze to the Slime, then looked at Ethan.

"You want this thing?"

"Not for fighting." Ethan looked at the skeletons scattered across the great hall. "But its support capabilities are too useful."

An existence that could continuously buff allies and debuff enemies, even with effects currently spaced ten seconds apart, held enormous value standing behind Laira and Ruo Yan. More importantly, the Partner Contract could only be used on a deceased existence.

Right now, the conditions were exactly met.

Ethan placed his hand on the Slime’s body. The silver mark immediately lit up.

[Deceased target detected.]

[Soul status: Not fully dissipated.]

[Conditions met for Partner Contract usage.]

[SS-rank Partner Contract will activate the target’s latent bloodline and elevate racial quality to SS.]

[After contract completion, the target’s level will synchronize with the Awakened.]

[Confirm?]

Ethan looked at the Slime.

He remembered the "Mumu" cries from the start of the fight to the very end. A deceased existence couldn’t actively consent the way Ruo Yan once had, but the Partner Contract had been created for precisely this kind of situation.

Ethan didn’t hesitate further.

"Confirm."

BOOM!

Silver light erupted. An invisible contract materialized in the air, one end connected to Ethan, the other piercing into the Slime’s body. The entire great hall trembled faintly.

The yellowish-black liquid that had lost its glow began to move again.

Thump.

One beat.

Thump.

A second beat.

Laira’s eyes widened slightly, and Ruo Yan also stepped closer. The sections of body destroyed by Thunder Flame sealed shut on their own; the golden liquid inside brightened gradually, and the dark outer layer crawled back up toward the top of its head. The halo that Boundary Breaker had shattered also regenerated, but the patterns on it were now far more intricate than before.

Mumu’s aura rose.

Gold tier one.

Tier three.

Tier five.

Tier seven.

Finally...

Gold tier nine.

Equal to Ethan.

The notification appeared.

[Contract complete.]

[Third Partner has been established.]

[Name: Mumu.]

[Race: Mutated Slime.]

[Quality/Bloodline: SS.]

[Level: Gold tier 9.]

[Core Talent: Endless Blessing and Curse.]

[Effect 1: Every 3 seconds, Mumu can cast a beneficial effect on one or more allies within its area of influence.]

[Effect 2: Every 3 seconds, Mumu can cast a detrimental effect on one or more enemies within its area of influence.]

[Effect type, intensity, and number of affected targets scale with level and quality.]

Ethan finished reading the notification and was silent for a few seconds.

Laira and Ruo Yan also read through it.

The Slime on the ground trembled faintly. Two yellow eyes slowly opened, and it looked at Ethan, then at Laira. Laira had barely narrowed her eyes before Mumu instinctively shrank itself a little smaller.

It looked at Ruo Yan next, then finally turned back to Ethan.

Two short arms rose up.

"Mumu!"

It lunged.

Ethan reflexively raised his right hand, but Mumu wasn’t attacking. The Slime, standing over three meters tall, toppled forward and engulfed him in an embrace.

Splat.

Ethan disappeared more than halfway into the soft Slime mass.

Laira stood still.

Ruo Yan also stood still.

From inside the blob of liquid came Ethan’s slightly muffled voice.

"Laira."

"Yeah?"

"Help me."

Laira looked at Mumu happily jiggling away, the corner of her mouth slowly curving upward.

"I think it really likes you."

"I’m about to stop breathing."

Ruo Yan raised a hand to cover her mouth. Her shoulders trembled slightly.

"Mumu!"

The newly revived creature only hugged tighter.

Ethan closed his eyes.

’Why do all my Partners insist on doing this?’

In the end, Laira still pulled him out. She grabbed the top of Mumu’s head and hoisted it to the side like a giant sack of liquid. Mumu dangled in the air, swaying back and forth.

"Mumu?"

Laira looked at it very seriously.

"Rule number one: you are not allowed to hug Ethan until he suffocates."

Mumu blinked.

"Mumu."

"Do you understand?"

"Mumu."

Laira turned to Ethan. "I think it agreed."

Ethan brushed off the yellow liquid still clinging to his clothes.

"I’m not so sure."

Right then, the entire Floor 27 shook.

BOOM!

The red patterns on the walls all lit up simultaneously. The black coffin at the center began dissolving into particles of light, while a new notification appeared before Ethan.

[Floor 27 target eliminated.]

[Floor 27 trial complete.]

[Conditions met for establishing a new anchor point.]

[Floor 27 anchor point forming.]

Ethan looked up.

A familiar sensation appeared.

Behind him, space slowly split apart. The Epic Celestial Gate materialized, the pale golden lines running along the gate frame beginning to shudder, then each pattern detached and restructured itself in an entirely different configuration.

Ethan immediately recalled Floor 18.

Every nine floors.

One evolution.

The final notification appeared.

[Celestial Gate evolution conditions detected.]

[Epic Celestial Gate beginning evolution.]

[Next destination: Legendary.]

The smile on Ethan’s face slowly faded.

Last time, the Celestial Gate’s evolution had torn down and rebuilt the entire foundation of his realm.

This time, he was at Gold tier nine.

Ethan looked at the gate behind him, glowing brighter and brighter.

"Mumu."

The Slime standing beside him also looked up.

Laira watched Ethan, and Ruo Yan stepped closer too.

BOOM!

The Celestial Gate opened.