Ninya frowned. "You're leaving? For how long?"

  Lord Antikythera always went somewhere whenever they finished her lessons, but he always came back every morning to teach her more. And then he suddenly said that he couldn't come back to the vilge for a while? Why?! Ninya wanted to ask him about whatever was going on, but she felt that it wasn't her pce to do so.

  "Two days at most. I have something to do," Lord Antikythera replied mysteriously. "Do not worry, I will leave you a few things to practice with, and Yuri Alpha will supervise in my pce. For now, I will let you practice with a live target rather than a strawman. Your mana levels have increased, correct?"

  "Uh, yeah? The food you've been giving me tastes weird, but I don't really care since you said it'll make me stronger." Ninya didn’t even feel suspicious about the weird pnts he had given her. Lord Antikythera said that eating them would make her a better mage, so she ate them without compint. She even cleaned her pte afterward!

  "And they will," Lord Antikythera shook his head. "What I have given you is capable of creating slimes under the right circumstances. Two of my colleagues have been using them to design a certain species, even."

  "Wait, really?" Ninya blinked. Pnts can be used to make slimes? Actually, scratch that—slimes can be made?! "How do you make slimes?"

  "You create a core, then surround that core with cellur walls to create a slime nucleus. Afterward, you can throw the nucleus in a body of water, and a slime will emerge."

  Lord Antikythera’s expnation seemed simple enough, so Ninya nodded.

  "I made and prepared a few slime nuclei yesterday, and we will use them to give you proper, but still weak, enemies. Depending on how fast you can kill a slime, I will upgrade them accordingly. It is vital that you push yourself to your limits, so you should see how far you can go, but I advise you to be cautious as you are still physically unfit. Tell me when you want to stop the exercise."

  "Yeah, I got it." Ninya nodded in determination. Did Lord Antikythera still think she was weak? She was a proper mage now! With spells and everything! If Lord Antikythera wanted to stress her out, some slimes weren't gonna cut it.

  "Very well." The automaton opened his hand, and a blue orb surrounded by a transparent ball dropped into a water bucket next to him.

  When did those get here?

  "I wish you luck, Ninya."

  Lord Antikythera stepped aside and let things run their course—which naturally meant winning over the stupid ball of water that was crawling out of the bucket!

  Ninya didn’t wait for the slime to fully emerge. She immediately began bsting it with bolts of electricity. Small ones for now. Single-strike lightning bolts were more than enough to kill a simple slime, except… it clearly wasn’t. Were slimes magic-resistant?!

  Ninya put more power into her next spell and shocked the slime with a powerful bst that also blew away the bucket. She blinked. Well, at least it died?

  Ninya turned to Lord Antikythera. "Did I do well?"

  "Too well," Lord Antikythera answered. "I will not criticize you at this time and will simply upgrade the slime as promised."

  He dropped another nucleus into a bucket, but this time, he added a few other things alongside it—some leaves, from what Ninya could gather.

  As the bucket began to birth the slime, Ninya started to feel worried. Was she overconfident? Were slimes stronger than she thought? How was she supposed to beat this thing? Ninya wanted to turn to Lord Antikythera for guidance, but she knew he wouldn’t say anything right now, so she swallowed her desire to ask for help.

  In a panic, Ninya released another attack—this one more powerful than her previous two spells combined. The bucket was bsted into smithereens, and the wooden debris that entered the slime showed Ninya just how fast the creature could melt things in its getinous body.

  She warily watched it, realizing that the slime was slow.

  An idea came to her then, and she took her time enhancing her next spell. She fed it mana, used channeling methods that prevented her hands from being ruined, and utilized the ambient mana to increase its potency. She even charged the air to maximize its output.

  Ninya threw a blue ball at the slime. This was an original spell she had crafted by combining [Electric Sheep]’s casting method and [Electro Burst]’s power. She didn’t know what to call it yet, but one thing was for certain—if she was to give this thing a name, it needed to fit the spell’s sheer power.

  The ball entered the slime. Steam sizzled out of its obloid body as the getin lost its viscosity and began to evaporate. Then the ball burst into a storm of lightning that reminded Ninya of nights when the storms were harsh. Sparks crawled over everything as the explosion consumed the surrounding area, and a stray bolt even struck a faraway sapling, burning it.

  There was nothing left of the slime once the light show finished. The earth it stood on was now scorched bck, patches of grass had been burned away by the stray lightning, and smoke rose from spots touched by embers. The scent of ozone littered the air, tasting like iron in Ninya’s nose.

  "Good job." Lord Antikythera was now standing behind a much rger bucket, and Ninya saw one of his automatons carrying a basin from a distance. "You have exceeded my expectations. I did not know you held such a destructive spell in your arsenal."

  "I wanted to surprise you." Ninya pouted. "But I had no choice, so I decided to use it."

  "That was as good a time to show it to me as any." Lord Antikythera nodded in approval at her. "But as promised, you will now face a slime without the weaknesses of its previous iterations—and with all their strength combined."

  "Uh-huh! Bring it on!" Ninya pumped her fist. She was scared of this one, but she didn’t want to let it show. She had been scared before too! But she beat those slimes anyway!

  This time, Lord Antikythera dropped the herbs into the bucket and blended them together. The tool that his hand turned into rotated so quickly that Ninya felt scared he might have broken his wrist, but her worries were pointless since Lord Antikythera pulled out his hand and turned it back to normal.

  When the nucleus dropped into the bucket, it bubbled. A small amount of steam flew out from its surface, then it glowed brightly. When the light stopped, a tiny tendril, thinner than even Ninya’s finger, shot out toward Lord Antikythera.

  The automaton spped it away casually before facing Ninya. "I wish you the best of luck."

  Ninya nodded and followed it up with a silent gulp. She called forth her mana and formed her previous spell, adding more energy than normal. She felt something shock her hand—then again, and again. Ninya gritted her teeth and added more power into the spell.

  She fired it at the slime. It entered the creature’s bulbous body and began to make its rounds through its getinous form. It bubbled, waves formed on its surface for a few seconds, and when her spell exploded, the slime expanded—ballooning to a great size before quickly defting. It was smaller than before when it shrank, and Ninya realized that the slime had only lost its mass from her attack. It didn’t receive any other damage beyond that.

  Ninya ran away, fearing when the slime would do the same thing it did to Lord Antikythera after it was made. When she looked back, she saw a thin line growing out of the slime, steadily returning to the creature. Ninya understood what its presence meant—the slime had tried to spear her, but with its mass now gone, it couldn't reach her without sacrificing more of its body.

  Ninya fired a quick spell at the appendage. Electricity ran through it, but it was cut off before it could reach the main body.

  She prepared another spell—one st time.

  When she got back to Lord Antikythera, Ninya got a nod of approval for her efforts and a reassurance that she wouldn’t have to fight another slime.

  Ninya felt relieved. She fell down and breathed.

  When she looked back, Lord Antikythera was gone.