Chapter 115: Cleanup

    A sense of victory washed over me as I confirmed the successful harvest of alicorn horn, mane, hide, and feathers. Trixie and I leisurely flew back towards the tree, observing the lost and uncoordinated pegasi still in the air. Trixie, with her enigmatic demeanor, seemed to be concealing our presence, ensuring we remained completely undisturbed. Her actions, shrouded in a veil of mystery, were a puzzle, evading even my most rigorous attempts to sense or identify them. Any attempts to question her about it were met with a smug smile and giggles as if I were a child asking why water was wet.

    As we returned to the tree, the scene was a chaotic mess, the aftermath of the battle starkly evident. The once serene surroundings were now marred, the ground littered with fallen pegasi and unicorns, their lifeless bodies a stark contrast to the vibrant atmosphere that had filled the air moments ago. Despite their equal monster tier, the unicorn horns were much more valuable, and I felt a sense of duty to start harvesting them.

    "Right... You take care of all this mess, and I''ll handle the inside of the tree. I bet it''s like a barn in there." Trixie declared, her voice filled with a mix of determination and anticipation, and fluttered off inside, her wings a blur of motion.

    I wasn''t going to complain about being told to eat and harvest, so I started gathering the carcasses with pseudopods and bringing them to a giant blob of slime, which I was designating the [Dissection] zone. To facilitate this, I let my [Sub-Cores] control portions of slime while I got to sit down and relax. Occasionally, one of the pegasi would fly past as if searching for the tree, but it would fly past and not even react to me.

    ''Seriously, how incredibly powerful is she?'' I wondered, my awe and concern for her growing with each passing moment.

    While I delegated the boring work, I played around with [Frost Grasp], as I desperately wanted to add its freezing property to other spells. The [Icicle] spell currently felt more like it did more piercing or stabbing than anything ice-related. Still, I had hope that if I added the freezing property to it, then any icy shards stabbed into an enemy would slowly emanate and freeze them. Then, the next step would be to add [Chill] to the spell, further improving it. From there, I might have a working template for future ice spells.

    I was still moderately upset by the difference between intermediate and beginner spells. Nothing shown so far was impressive in an isolated use case, and instead, it provided a very complex building block for you to work with. Although I probably skipped quite a few steps, I could only assume that, normally, a mage would have quite an impressive repertoire before reaching my point. Spells like [Fireball] and [Torrent] were immediately useful; meanwhile, [Chill], [Ice Patch], and even now, [Frost Grasp] seemed niche in usage.

    ''Calm down, Syl, one step at a time...''

    It was already quite dark when I came out of my tinkering trance. I must have felt very safe to have gotten so absorbed in my work. Glancing over to the tree, I noticed a trailing line of rabbit-sized stick creatures carrying all sorts of garbage and bits before heading towards the tree''s platform edge and dumping it over. I could sense the small amount of Nature mana contained in these creatures.

    ''Are these Trixie''s?'' I wondered, watching the strange creatures work.

    "Don''t you dare eat them!" A warning shot through my mind.

    Not wanting to tempt fate, I ignored them and continued my work until, much later, Trixie approached me and gestured toward the tree with a big grin plastered on her face.

    "Our home away from home is cleaned and ready!" She announced excitedly. "Come on in, I''ll show you around."

    I followed her, a little excited to see what was inside. Despite the giant hole, there was actually still a large portion of the tree undisturbed, likely to prevent killing it entirely. I was surprised at the edges'' smoothness; some of it looked almost like it was naturally formed rather than cut out or crafted. There was a table that looked grown out of roots, two matching chairs, and on the outer wall, some wooden benches grown out of them directly.

    The walls were covered with freshly grown vines and ivy and decorated with floral arrangements, creating a very pleasant and peaceful atmosphere.

    "I''m surprised they managed to do all this...." I muttered.

    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    "No need to apologize; you freed me after all. I just wish I could find that corpse bastard and stick it to him." Trixie sighed, "Seriously, Syl, never trust a human."

    "Uh..." I muttered, not sure how to respond to such a statement.

    "Don''t tell me you have human friends?"

    "Well... Something like that. I''m technically part of the Adventurers Guild and have built up an entire persona. I''ve gone on quests, saved farmers, defeated monsters, and they even want to give me a promotion."

    Trixie paused momentarily before responding; I wondered if I had upset her, "That''s pretty impressive for a slime. Although you involve yourself in risky business, humans are smart and scheming... I''d hate to see you captured and experimented on."

    I shuddered. It was like Trixie had specifically targeted one of my greatest worries; "Not all of them are so bad... At first, I was very scared of them. They harvested me when I first appeared, and then I watched one obliterate a green slime. Then I fought some while protecting some goblins, and they seemed... Weak? Then I somehow ended up being rescued by them, became an Adventurer, had one try to kill me, survived, and got promoted. Honestly, it''s been kind of chaotic. But I''ve made a few I''d likely consider friends..."

    "I still think it''s far too risky; I just hope you''re strong enough that you''re prepared for it the day it inevitably happens." Trixie warned, then added, "You''ll have to show me your disguise in the morning; I want to see how you fooled them."

    "Sure, it''s been pretty good so far. Although it draws far more attention than I''d like, I''m considering creating another persona."

    "Interesting... Well, the more tricks, the better, in my opinion."

    We continued to make some more small talk late into the evening; being so open for a change was honestly rather pleasant.

    "Are we safe being out here? There was still quite a lot of pegasi flying around."

    "Don''t worry, nothing will find us while I''m around," Trixie replied with unshaken confidence. "Anyway, it''s been a long day, and I''m sleeping. Toodles."

    And just like that, she seemed to immediately fall asleep, the telepathic connection dropping. While I had faith in her capabilities, I still set up some orders to wake me up in an emergency and replaced my [Arcane Armor] on myself with orders to be refreshed if it expired.

    I opened [Mapping], the new landmark feature showing me how close we had now drifted towards Kaerlin, although Thern had said that it didn''t get close enough to actually pass over the city.

    ''I hope surviving pegasi don''t cause any problems below. Although, perhaps there was a good chance the alicorn might have ordered them to do so. He definitely seemed like the type to do that.'' I wondered. ''Well, I''m sure there are plenty of other capable adventurers; they can handle a few stragglers. Hell, I''m sure Lisa could blast them with lightning. Now that is a scary thought.''

    Sleep came relatively easily despite my concerns as I sank deeper into my tub. I made a mental note to claim this tub for myself when departing this island.