Chapter 428 : Removing Stains

We reluctantly finished cleaning up the town for what felt like the umpteenth time, and once again it reset itself, restoring the now blatantly false idyllic life. Thankfully, this time we had an actual plan and weren't just going around blind, so we hoped to make some genuine progress on this loop.

Even without teleportation, it was a simple matter for me to sneak into that hidden butcher's lab. At first, I tried melting through the ground, and while it was possible, I discovered that beneath the surface, it was made of a material similar to dungeon brick.

I could've forced it, thanks to my extreme levels in [Acid Slime], but I opted to just sneak in through the restaurant we discovered instead. Yes, I was still annoyed by what we'd gone through so far, but not enough to willingly destroy the domain of this place's creator, especially while still in this shrunken state and missing what felt like half of my magical abilities.

I distributed my excess [Sub-Cores] into bodies and spread them about the town, then with only myself and one more core, we effectively turned into a snake and slinked through the restaurant. It was a pretty simple task thanks to [Chroma Shift], which helped me match the background colors, and I quickly reached that vile lab.

Infiltration successful. Now, to seal the place up so that nobody interferes.

I withdrew more slime and began literally sealing the room by covering the doors and having my slime transform into matching walls. Before my timely upgrade, I would've had to spread myself out across the whole area to achieve this, but now, with a few well-placed blobs, I could manipulate the terrain to my liking.

Who even needs golems? Clearly, slime is the superior material! I can shape terrain, create minions, use it for direct attacks, and even recover my allies. I'm pretty much an all-purpose slime.

Now all I needed to do was prove my theory that I could somehow sense the brewing cursed energy in these people. I could've captured them, but until they noticed that all the doors had been removed, I decided to silently observe.

<Proficiency gained. [Vanish LV 7] improved to [Vanish LV 8].>

Well, that's convenient. I wonder what I'd even gain if I used [Skill Deconstruct] on this… No! Bad Syl, focus on the task!

I continued my observation, which, admittedly, was extremely grim given their activities. At one point, I thought I should revise my earlier silent observation just to stop them, until I noticed that the strange, lingering energy seemed to pulse from their actions.

So, I continued to let them work, honing in on that energy and trying to decipher a method to reliably sense it. It took some time, but eventually I discovered that it was almost like a tar, something that coated their souls and stained them. From there, I just needed to measure it, so I compared the leader of this setup to a general worker.

Again, it took a bit of trial and error, even partially using the [Accursed Body] trait myself and converting some Mana into that strange energy, but eventually I made a breakthrough. Once I figured out how to measure it, the difference was staggering, and from there I discovered that pretty much the entire town was at least partially tainted. Not only that, but all my efforts were rewarded in an unexpectedly spectacular way!

<Proficiency gained. [Soul Sight LV 9] improved to [Soul Sight LV MAX].>

Admittedly, I was a little upset by this, as I only had exactly ten trait points, so if I uncapped it, I'd be broke. I could've traded in Legend Points, but was extremely reluctant to do so after seeing that they did have other uses, like when I incorporated my two Mana traits into [Mana Slime].

Also, what happens when [Primordial Slime] reaches level twenty? Do I need to uncap it again? If I need twenty points, then I can't afford to spend ten to uncap [Soul Sight].

Thankfully, the level-up wasn't the only thing I received. I must have learned enough of this new sense for it to be officially "system-recognized," as I could now measure it quite effortlessly, and in much more detail. I immediately used this new level of proficiency to examine the town in greater detail, and quickly confirmed some of my earlier suspicions about those strange pulses.

It's growing the cursed energy…

The workers' energy was periodically growing as they performed their duties, but they were not alone. The unsuspecting residents above were also accumulating it whenever they ate, although the amount appeared to vary and was not based on quantity. I even observed that a couple who ate the same meal were receiving different degrees of tainting.

I wasn't sure what the cause was, so I decided to relay my findings to Vee to see if she had any sparks of inspiration. She had remained on the topside, and so I "possessed" one of my [Sub-Cores] to speak with her.

"I actually do have a bit of a theory…" Vee replied after hearing me out.

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"I'm all ears."

Vee nodded. "Okay, so, what if this tainted energy is like lingering resentment? Or maybe guilt would be a better way to describe it…? Anyway, my point is, the level of taint you get is based on how directly involved you are with all of this, or maybe even based on how much you know of the truth behind the matter."

"Admittedly, that is a bit far out there… Why would the energy be smart?" I asked rhetorically. "Although I suppose it could be controlled by the system, so it's not impossible."

"I was kinda thinking that it was like a grudge from the dead," Vee suggested. "The dead are judging them, and even if you are ignorant of the matter, that doesn't absolve you. The ones actually doing this are the most guilty, as they are getting the unknowing citizens involved in their crime."

What Vee said sort of made sense. Logically, it sounded pretty absurd, yet it weirdly felt close to the mark and conveniently explained what I'd witnessed. For the first time since we entered here, it felt like we had finally identified some of the pieces of this bizarre puzzle and could now try to solve it.

"Now the big question is… What do we do about this?" Vee asked. "Beyond the obvious path of destroying that creepy lab and taking out those workers before they can transform."

"After that, I imagine we should look for any other people with extreme levels of accumulated taint and eliminate them. If we take out enough, maybe we can prevent the outbreak from happening at all."

"Sounds good to me. Can the core you're loaning to me point them out, or is this something only Syl Prime can do?"

"Thanks to my latest upgrade, it should be something all my cores can do," I declared, with a hint of smug satisfaction.

"Great! I'll bet those restaurants are all guilty, so I'll head there first while you take care of the lab. If we mess up, it should be obvious considering all the howling and chaos that erupts throughout the town."

With that, we split up again, although I ordered the core I'd just been possessing to stay between Vee and myself. That way, we could keep the [Slime Puppetry] relay operating at extended range, and if anything went wrong, I could promptly back her up.

Actually, let's add another [Sub-Core] just in case. This damn snow globe makes teleporting way too annoying, so I don't know how long it would take me to realistically arrive with backup.

After giving my backup its own backup, I got to work on my own task. Thankfully, despite sealing the exits to this place, nobody had noticed as they'd been far too consumed with their tasks. I marked each worker by having a slime puppet right under them, another remarkable improvement with slime that didn't need to adhere to a minimum size and shape to safely house a core, and had them all strike at once.

While this mass assassination was underway, I was also carefully watching what happened to the taint that had accumulated on them. There was a good chance that they might twist and transform in their death throes, but I was hoping that wouldn't be the case. My method of attack was [Metal Slime], which shot out like a spike straight through both their brain and heart, as I wasn't willing to take any chances. I was even using Truesilver in hopes that its anti-demon properties would be at least partially effective against curses.

In mass unison, the entire room went silent, only a few gurgles and the sound of bodies hitting the floor. None of them had abruptly transformed, leaving me feeling very relieved that our plan of systematically taking out the sources of taint was viable.

<Proficiency gained. [Assassinate LV 7] improved to [Assassinate LV 8].>

Well, that makes sense. [Vanish] just leveled up, so you had to be close. Wait, crap, I'm being distracted, what about the taint?

I quickly resumed my careful watch, and what I saw was quite alarming. At first, the cursed taint in their bodies halved, giving me the false impression that it was about to be eliminated, but then it seemed to transfer, like smoke on the wind. I tried grabbing at it, even risking [Accursed Body], but it was like trying to catch light; it just phased through my tendrils and eventually the walls, like a ghost.

So it was reduced… But not removed entirely. The question is, where is it going? Is it seeking a new host, or is someone else intentionally collecting it?

I quickly cast [Map] and then adjusted it to provide a localized view of the snow globe's interior rather than the entire region. It required a lot of zooming, but soon I had the entire town and my location displayed. From there, I quickly estimated where the energy was heading and nearly slapped myself at the frankly obvious destination: the castle.

Well, at least this seems to be on the right track. They didn't transform, and there's no chaos in the town, so we just need to keep doing this.

I began silently destroying the entire lab, and while I couldn't see the results of my actions, I felt it might have further reduced the accumulated curse. When I told Vee about this through one of my [Sub-Cores], she was delighted.

"This is great! We're helping settle the grudge!"

"But what about the leftovers heading to the castle?" I quickly pointed out.

"Well, obviously that's going to reveal the real culprit. Maybe it will spawn the boss monster, like a mega cursed wendigo, or maybe even some kind of evil demigod thing."

"Hopefully you're right. I'm just glad we aren't repeating ourselves."

"Knock on wood. It's too early to get our hopes up just yet; we're one loose wendigo from sending us back to square one."

"Right… I'm heading to the barracks. I know for a fact all of them were in on this. By the way, how were the restaurants?"

"I guess you'll be getting your revenge for them throwing you in the slammer. As for me, a lot of them were corrupted. The waitstaff were mostly innocent, which made things a little tricky, but I managed to handle it thanks to the convenient spell you taught me, leaving nothing but dust."

"That's a bit unsettling. Imagine if you were in their situation, and suddenly your boss vanished."

"I'd rather not imagine myself in their shoes, thank you very much. But I will admit this probably means we need to speed things up. What if the town causing a panic over all these disappearances leads to another bad event?"

"Good idea. I'll send out more of my [Sub-Cores] to act as individual agents."

"And if we fail, then we can call in reinforcements."

I agreed to her proposal and returned my focus to my own core. I'd barely used this ability in the past, other than for makeshift eyes, but now, thanks to [Slime Puppetry], it was getting a whole new lease on life.

But now wasn't the time to reminisce, as I'd come to the door that led to the barracks, and while I wasn't exactly feeling vengeful, I had to admit that it felt like they were going to get their just desserts.

Now that I think about it, I'd better go check on that merchant who called the guards. No way his hands are clean with how quickly he called the guards on me. But, first things first, I've got to deal with the guards and the warden…