Nearby the abandoned mine’s entrance, in the shade of a rock where light didn’t reach, was something wriggling—the black ooze.

It was a monster that reacted to human voices despite being so far inside the cave’s recesses. Putting aside its violation of Frederica midway, it went towards the voices—it proceeded to the entrance.

Frederica, not recognizing the presence of people in her line of work, begged for it to not leave her on the verge of c.u.mming, but the slime ignored her and continued forward. But because she tried following it, clinging to it, the black ooze affixed her against the wall with some mucus it separated from its body.

The former mage beauty, originally someone who wouldn’t stoop to comforting herself and whose body was now used to being brought to blackout-inducing climaxes, miserably shook her waist against the wall of the cave’s depths on the brink of climaxing.

She would shed tears of delight if the slime returned, even prost.i.tutes might have called out for the monster to return.

Having left Frederica in such a state, the slime immediately judged that the humans taking up position outside of the entrance were adventurers that had gathered together.

Completely absorbing those two adventurers, the slime’s intelligence and intuition had risen another level. It hadn’t yet secured a method of using magic, but since it acquired mana, it was able to instinctively distinguish which adventurers among them were mages.

There were two—a man and a woman.

The slime would off the man and rape the woman.

If it obeyed its instincts, it might finally be able to obtain a way to use its mana.

The slime reduced its body’s volume so that the adventurers wouldn’t notice it from the rock’s shadow. Its ma.s.s didn’t change, but it could hide itself through changing its body’s size.

As its color was also black to begin with, it merged entirely with the abandoned mine’s darkness.

It didn’t have something like a sense of boredom at the pa.s.sing of time, so the slime simply continued to wait for the adventurers to make their move.

With its body size reduced, the slime looked somewhat like a rock, so even if it was seen it would appear as though it were using some mimetic ability. After holding that shape for around thirty more minutes, there was a movement from the group of adventurers.

The slime noticed this through its senses, but continued to stay as still as a stone.

Paying attention to all five of them at the same time was still too difficult a task for this slime. Moreover, this time there were two mages. Judging by its fight against Frederica—by its seizure of Frederica, it realized that its compatibility versus mages was very poor.

From it’s adventurer knowledge, the black ooze realized further that it was weak to heat and flame. Although it wasn’t as though all mages could use those magics, there was a definite possibility that at least one of these two mages could.

The black ooze became able to tolerate magic to a small extent after obtaining mana, but there was no helping it as that was the weak point of a slime.

First, it a.s.sumed that it had to disempower the mages.

For slas.h.i.+ng and blunt attacks, all it had to do was respond with paralytic poison when it was approached.

If it were a normal monster, it would simply follow its instincts and attack those coming straight at it. However, this slime was able to think. It would disempower its greatest enemy the first chance it got.

This was something no other monsters until now could do. This slime could plan ahead.

“Satia, be careful alright?”

“… Yes.”

Even with hearing the two mages speak directly next to it, the black ooze didn’t budge an inch.

The group pa.s.sed by it, not realizing a thing. When their footsteps faded, it finally undid its camouflage. Ascending the face of the wall with its soft and pliable body, it skillfully moved along the ceiling to chase after the adventurers.

The humans’ footsteps were slow going due to their reliance on the lantern light, so it was able to catch up quickly despite its relatively prolonged movements.

However, it didn’t act immediately. It would first stalk the adventurers for a while to observe them.

The adventurers methodically searched through the abandoned mine while taking notes about their progress, not aware that a slime was crawling on the ceiling behind them.

As ever, their path held no traces of recent habitation so the going was slow. Moreover, it was incredibly dusty. The farther they advanced into its interior, the more intense the dust. They’d reached the point where they covered their mouths with cloth to keep moving.

Moreover, the dust dispersed their lanterns’ light, further worsening their view. In that sort of situation, it was hard to even see the way to the ceiling.

Along with the abandoned mine’s darkness, there was both the stifling dust and the poltergeists’ voices that continued even now.

This all added together deprived the adventurers of their physical strength and their concentration.

Although they still had their composure, there was no helping the fact that they were becoming dispirited.

After walking for a while, their speed began slowing down.

“Look here, there’s a bit of bone.”

“Rather, it’d be weird if there weren’t any yeah?”

“Right.”

This was something else just as dangerous about poltergeists.

Even if they weren’t a problem if they could keep a firm grip on their mood, adventurers would naturally begin to wear down at some point.

And when that happened, they would return to the entrance.

Probably accustomed to taxing explorations like this, the adventurers wouldn’t explore for an unreasonable period of time.

How many more times would they look?

After taking a short rest break outside, they went back to looking through the abandoned mine.

The slime continued following the adventurers, waiting for an opportunity.

It understood that it was at a five-to-one disadvantage. It wouldn’t make its move unless the adventurers split up their party or showed some kind of definite opening.

Endurance and time held no sway to the slime, so chasing after them for an indefinite amount of time was nothing to it.

Perhaps the adventurers were lucky… or perhaps unlucky? The areas they searched through were all far from the depths where Frederica was in.

If they continued searching at their current pace, they would probably find Frederica after several days.

In this way, the first day came to an end and night fell. Encircling a fire near the mine’s entrance, the adventurers went to sleep after a.s.signing two people to the night watch.

It tried provoking a reaction from them by shaking some of the nearby vegetation, but this caused the sleeping adventurers to wake up as well.

Doing that wouldn’t work.

As expected, it would have to find some method inside the mine. The black ooze ended its futile precautions.

The night continued without it doing anything to the adventurers. It pa.s.sed the night making sure that it wouldn’t be noticed from the thicket.

Although it was probably reasonable for it to have returned into the abandoned mine, the black ooze judged that doing so would have been too dangerous as the group of adventurers set up at the entrance.

Like that, the adventurers woke up once the night ended and set out back into the mine. The black ooze followed them inside, paying attention so as to not alert them to its presence.

The second day was no different. The adventurers searched through the darkness and the dust, struggling against the poltergeists’ voices all the while.

This day seemed to pa.s.s more smoothly than the first day. They probably came to the conclusion that no people nor beasts inhabited the mine.

They were still cautious, but despite them not comparing their map to the mine as they went like they did with the first day, they advanced steadily until they came to forks in the path.

They appeared to have memorized the map to the abandoned mine. This was also something that pointed to them being experienced adventurers.

They would return to the entrance whenever their concentration wore thin, just like the first day, before diving right back in after a short rest.

The adventurers didn’t take any futile risks on the second day either.

And so the black ooze also continued doing what it had been doing, it kept itself concealed as it tried to think of something.