Chapter 64—Pulling the crate out.
Elder Slime said sharply, "Let us begin now. Be serious."
Slime#47 nodded and cast, "Lightning Ball!" A light‑purple magic rune flashed on his palm as light‑purple lightning manifested in the shape of a few‑inch‑sized orb.
[ Ding! You have acquired the skill ’Lightning Ball’ {Common} Lv.1 ]
’Come on... now, it’s just grinding,’ he mused, already exhausted imagining how he’d have to push Lightning Rune Magic to Tier One over a few loops.
----
Days slipped by...
He hurled the Lightning Ball at the wooden fence. Bam!A scorch mark was left on the fence as a little smoke rose from it.
[ Ding! Lightning Ball proficiency +1 ]
[ Ding! Lightning Ball leveled up to level 3! ]
"Not bad... I just need to level it up two more times, and it’ll be max level," he muttered, glancing at the shimmering panel in his vision.
[ Ding! Lightning Magic Rune Proficiency +1 ]
[ —Masteries—
—Lightning Magic Rune Mastery {Tier 0}—
—Proficiency: 3/100]
"Good... very good. It’s now gone up to 3," he grinned as the new notification popped up.
Just from training Lightning Ball, he had already gained three points of proficiency.
’It’s time to step up the training,’ he decided.
"Lightning Ball! Lightning Ball! Lightning Ball!"
Instead of casting one, he cast three and tried to control them as he hurled them at the wooden fence.
----
Ten days had passed since the beginning of this loop...
Under the red light of the ten moons—
Bang!
"Iron Body, Acid Fist..." Slime#47 punched the ground with all his might. "Acid Fist, Acid Fist."
The already small crater in the ground expanded as he kept slamming his fist into it—bam! boom!
He wasn’t reckless like in his previous loop. He had to control the area of impact and make only a small hole, one that could be covered by the debris left from each punch.
’They don’t care about anomalies...’ he mused, glancing at the trough, which was now pushed half a meter away by the combined efforts of himself, Mama Slime, and Elder Slime.
He’d expected them to notice the trough changing position, but it seemed the Slime farm family didn’t care.
"There it is," he said excitedly as he saw metal when he pulled his fist out.
For the past several days, he, Mama Slime, and Old Slime had been pushing the trough and making a small crater to pull the crate out from the ground.
The problem was their low energy reserves—but that was where the Meditation 1skill came in. Meditation could recover both mana and aura slowly but noticeably, much faster than letting the body recover them on its own.
Wob! Mama Slime bounced over and cast, "Earth Drill."
A brown magic rune flashed on the ground, and the crater started expanding visibly to the naked eye.
It was thanks to her power that the crater really formed. If Young Slime had 10% of the hand in it, Elder Slime had 5%, and Mama Slime handled the rest.
’How does she have such a large mana reserve? And she’s already shown three spells... Did Elder Slime teach her?’ Slime#47 was impressed as he started noticing her more.
Before, he had only thought she had a large mana pool.
After a few moments, the crate was clearly visible as it drew closer to the surface.
Wob! Mama Slime bounced back, sweating heavily.
Wob!Old Slime took her place and, "Iron Body, Iron Fist!"—slammed his metallic fist into the crater, widening it a bit more.
After a while, he stepped back, closed his eyes, and began meditating to recover while Young Slime took over again.
----
They repeated this cycle the entire night...
"It’s close," Slime#47 exclaimed as he saw the crater fully expanded all around the crate.
Just a little more, and he could pull it out—but then the first rays of dawn from the rising sun fell on him.
"We will pull it out tonight," Elder Slime said, Wob!—bouncing over, while yawning.
"I think that’s best," Mama Slime agreed, feeling exhausted.
"Okay then," Young Slime said bitterly. He was just too close—he’d missed it by a little.
Then they picked up the debris from the ground, and poured it back in to cover it up.
"Come on, drink up," Mama Slime ordered the other slimes, who were Wob! Wob!playing around, waking up due to the early sunlight.
Hearing her, they bounced over and leapt into the trough.
They couldn’t all fit in at once, so they went in turns. Soon, every drop of water in the trough was gone, not a single bit of liquid left.
Slime#47 nodded. ’It was a good plan... the answer was right in front of us.’
This plan had been proposed by Old Slime. Instead of trying to push the full trough with water, they would have all the slimes drink the water and then push the now‑empty trough, making it lighter and easier to move.
After everyone drank, the three of them—Mama Slime, Elder Slime, and Young Slime—used all their strength, stacking boosts: "Iron Body, Iron Body, Boost Strength," as they pushed the trough over the crater to cover it.
They made sure not to widen the crater too much so it wouldn’t be noticeable. Once it was covered, they stopped and didn’t push the trough back to its original position.
’Anyway... they won’t care,’ Young Slime mused, noticing how far the trough now sat from where it had originally been.
By afternoon, the black sun had risen to its peak.
Thud! Thud!
The slime‑farm woman hauled a sack of garbage into the farm and dropped it on the ground—Thud!
Slime#47 kept an eye on her, watching to see if she’d notice anything odd about the trough. She did glance at it and noticed the drag marks on the ground... but she didn’t care.
’Hmm... she probably thinks we pushed it around by playing, unknowingly... We’re slimes, after all,’ he realized.
----
The next night...
The red rays illuminated the world.
Wob! Wob!
Thud!
They pulled the metal crate out and placed it on the ground.
They glanced at each other with a grin as they—Clink!—opened the crate.
End of the Chapter.
It’s a common skill and different then Aura Meditation {uncommon}.