Chapter 55 - Aqua Bonds With A Spirit?!
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After having changed Jobs and eaten a dozen or more skewers, she decided on finally doing something she had promised to Aqua, teaching her Spirit Magic!
But how could it be possible? Aqua was just a mere monster… it did not have near as much intelligence and thought processing prowess such as her…
Or did she?
Veronica began to think about how intelligent could Aqua truly be, and after inspecting her mind for a few days using thin tentacles made out of Mana and her soul alongside 'Special Five Senses', she connected to Aqua's soul and learned a few of her memories.
Slimes did not have brains, and instead of how it was believed, they did not store their minds and thoughts inside their cores. They used an even more primitive way of storing thoughts, their souls.
She saw her first days of life, born from a puddle of slime on a hidden floor and consuming small preys alongside her hundreds of siblings.
After a small analysis, Veronica concluded that most actions made by Aqua were out of instincts and survivability, but after being tamed by her, she became more intelligent, and slowly began to have more and complex thoughts.
She was even slowly learning the language Veronica was using, which was the language she learned in the Demon Nation, which seemed to be a language spoken by most of the world and tribes of intelligent races.
The language of Kritias was the same for almost every intelligent race and was originated by the gods, it had a big resemblance with earth's English, which Veronica was familiar with, so she learned how to speak very early in her previous life as Anastacia.
Veronica also discovered that Aqua had a lot of talent in copying her actions and then learning skills from them, just as she copied her Unarmed Fighting Techniques, and learned the skill, and she even learned Shield and Armor Techniques afterward.
Veronica then decided to teach her No-Attribute Magic, and even inserted memories of her learning it with 'Memory Retention' by connecting her soul with Aqua.
Through these days, Aqua had been not only practicing her other skills, but the No-Attribute Magic spell 'Mana Bullet'. And after opening and handling Mana more refined, she naturally learned the 'Water Attribute Magic' Skill, which seemed to be an obvious skill in a Water Slime such as her.
She not only was capable of firing projectiles using her body with 'Projectile Fire', but she was now able to fire No-Attribute Mana Bullets and Water Bullets… she also knew how to clear nasty water. That was all for now for Aqua, but Veronica was hopeful that she would learn stronger skills as she leveled up both Skills.
Now that Aqua had shown her talent for Magic, it was time to teach her how to call a Spirit, and Veronica sat down with her in the middle of a clearing in the forest.
Aqua seemed a bit nervous.
"Gu…"
"Don't worry, Aqua, we'll do it slowly" said Veronica, with a warm smile.
She expanded her soul into a thin, thread-like form and connected it to Aqua's. Having her mind connected to her, she then transferred memories of her through 'Memory Retention'.
In a few minutes, Aqua learned the incantation for calling Spirits… although she needed to do it mentally as she could not say words yet. Thankfully, she had already learned various skills that complemented magic spell casting, such as Mana Control and Chant Revocation.
When Aqua leaned Chant Revocation before Veronica, she got a bit jealous of her tamed slime talent.
Veronica had presumed that Aqua might have an affinity with Undine, the Water Spirit, so they both were sitting near a clearing, which also had a small river flowing calmly through the forest.
However, as Aqua called and called, a different attribute of mana gathered… it slowly took the shape of a small white cloud.
"It's not Undine… Wind Attribute Mana… That's Sylphid!" thought Veronica, surprised by Aqua's hidden affinity with the Wind Spirit, Sylphid.
This Sylphid seemed young, resembling a fluffy white cloud with the size of a tennis ball, it had a small scarlet eye in the middle of its body.
"Foo… Foo…" it said.
"A young Sylphid… Very well, Aqua, make a contract!" said Veronica.
"Guu!" said Aqua, slowly chanting the conjurations inside of her mind while feeding Sylphid with her mana, which was also Veronica's mana, as she was transferring it to Aqua to make up for her lesser pool.
Sylphid slowly approached.
"Foo… Foo…" it said, flowing slowly but steady like the wind, and sitting down over the top of Aqua's body.
Then, Aqua received the System message of her friendship with Sylphid being recognized, and as it did, she also learned the 'Spirit Magic' Skill!
"Amazing, Aqua! You really did it! So, more monsters other than me can learn Spirit Magic! This… this is an amazing discovery! If the Elves were to know about this, they would surely die out of frustration for their valuable secrets being learned by a Water Slime! Haha!" laughed Veronica, carrying Aqua around and celebrating.
The little Sylphid did not seem bothered by Veronica and was getting used to both hers and Aqua's Mana.
"Foo!" said Sylphid, 'sneezing' and blowing a large amount of wind around, making Aqua fly through the air for a moment.
"Guuu!" said Aqua, surprised, as she glanced at the horizon.
"If Aqua can learn… then even Charlotte! She has recently learned No-Attribute Magic through this entire week, so she will take much longer than Aqua, but it should be feasible… If I do not have an affinity with all the spirits, I will just ask their help through my tamed monsters…" thought Veronica.
Veronica glanced at the little Charlotte, who was playing tags with Shade, she was also practicing her thread creation by firing small amounts of it to Shade, who had to evade in time. Though even if they were to 'hit' him, they would just go through his ethereal body.
Veronica rested in the grass as she glanced with a smile to her new friends, her bonds were slowly growing inside of her heart, and she was already seeing them as her family.
"Gu? Gu! Gu!" shouted Aqua, flying with Sylphid's winds.
"Hm? Aqua? What is it?" asked Veronica.
"Guu! Guu!" shouted Aqua, extending her body into a small arm, and pointing it in a certain direction, where the village they were traveling towards was.
Veronica flew for a few seconds using 'Flight' as she glanced at what Aqua was pointing.
Although she could not completely see so far away, she could clearly see the smoke produced by a house being burned!
"…Eh? What is going on? What if that is the house of my split mind… Agh! No time to think, let us rush there! Shade, Charlotte, let us go!"
Veronica grabbed Aqua and Sylphid as she reached the ground, then she took on Shade and Charlotte and enhanced all of her capabilities, running like a bullet towards the village by repeatedly using 'Charge' and one of Sylphid's spells that Aqua had just learned, which increased her Agility stat a bit more.
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