Acid was Useful
Now that I knew that the Blue Moon of Salvation was trying to use the ‘Universal Purification Device’ to ‘save’ the world, I had come to the town of Maneia in order to get some information.
That is where I found a mansion with tight security, and had my slimes break through their defenses. As they had succeeded, I was going to make them start searching the place…
But there were even tighter security measures waiting for us inside.
“More doors…”
I muttered as I watched the image that appeared before me through ‘Shared Senses.’
There was a line of doors that all looked very strong.
And each door had a guard standing in front of it.
As I watched, a man entered the room.
At a glance, he looked like a villager… But there was something in his eyes that was obviously different from the others.
“Number 5267. I’ve come for the refining duties.”
“Understood. You are granted permission to enter.”
One of the guards answered, and there was the sound of the door unlocking from the other side. And then it swung open.
But there was no keyhole in the door.
So I wouldn’t be able to steal a key from any of the guards.
What was on the other side of the open door…was another door.
It wasn’t until the first door was properly closed that the second door opened.
Double doors.
And they could not be opened at the same time.
That meant the person who went inside would have to be trapped in that space for a short while.
Usually, the second door would open immediately… I suppose this was a way of stopping a potential invader who forced his way in just as the first door opened.
And now that I think about it…that space between the doors had strange holes in the ceiling.
“Would they go that far…”
I was surprised at how strict the security was. And so I asked the slimes.
‘Can you guys go under the door?’
‘Uh…I’ll try!’
It would have to be waterproof in order to stop the slimes.
Even if this place had tight security, I doubt they built this place to be waterproof.
Or so I thought…
‘Something is stopping me!’
‘I can’t get in!’
The slimes tried to enter, but the door stopped them.
On closer inspection, there was something like rubber in between… And this rubber seal was preventing the slimes from sliding through.
So it was waterproof after all.
“…I see. Poison gas.”
They used that space between the two doors so they could kill intruders with poison gas.
And so the doors needed to be airtight so that the gas didn’t leak…
Obviously, it was even easier to stop water.
In that case, this meant that the slimes had to enter while the door was still opened… Unfortunately, the doors opened and closed very quickly, and the slimes were not fast enough.
So…
‘We have no choice. We have to break it…’
‘Break it!?’
‘But won’t they find out?’
The slimes sounded very surprised when they heard me.
But I wasn’t suggesting that we destroy the entire door.
— ‘Slime Acid.’
I had seen such a thing among the Tamer Skills.
I believed it was a slime ability that used acid.
‘Can you use a skill called ‘Slime Acid’?’
‘Maybe!’
‘It’s that thing that melts stuff, right?’
‘Yeah. Can you use it on the rubber that’s getting in your way? … Just use a little so that no one notices.’
It was likely a natural rubber that was being used to seal the door.
And natural rubber was supposed to be weak to acid.
…While people would notice if we broke down the whole door, we could probably escape their notice if we just melted a little rubber.
‘Okay!’
And so the slimes started to rub their acid all over the rubber.
And then…while it was slow, the rubber started to melt.
‘It’s looking good. …Maybe we can use this skill for hunting as well?’
I had assumed that the slimes had no method for attacking, but maybe they could do something with this acid.
Or so I thought…
‘Hmmm… But my mom said slime acid is no good for fighting!’
‘There are some strong slimes that can melt through anything…but I can’t do that…’
Apparently, most slime acid was not strong enough to fight other monsters.
However, this weak acid was still perfect for what we needed currently.
If it was too strong, then there would be smoke rising from the rubber as it melted.
But this acid melted very slowly and quietly, which was perfect for getting in without being noticed.
And so we waited… Eventually, the rubber melted until there was a small gap under the door.
‘Do you think that you can get in now?’
It might become noticeable if they made too big a gap.
Besides, the slimes only need a gap that was a millimeter wide in order to get in.
So this seemed like it would be enough.
‘Oh, yeah!’
‘I can get in!’
So saying, the slimes started to slip through, one by one.
While it had taken a lot of work, we had somehow made it.