Magnator

"And then you can show that monk who's better. You can beat him at his own game, win the slimes back instead of beating him. The slimes see the man as a benefactor, with increased intelligence, they wouldn't like you physically beating him or the other way around."

far far away from them, back on earth, unknown to most of the world, a young girl about 18 years old ran back to her empty apartment from the rain. her distinctive orange hair tied into two ponytails and her thick circle glasses drenched in water.

"Gah, why did it have to rain today?"

on her shelf were first place trophies for fencing, Kudo, martial arts, violin, and kenjutsu. her mom pushed her into martial arts as a young child to protect her, but through the years, she developed a love for the arts and immersed herself in it. while drying her hair out with a towel, the air in her room started to wiggle. in front of her, white lines were forming out of thin air and connecting like moving cracks. she stopped drying her hair, put her glasses back on, and walked towards it. she had no idea what it was but she felt an urge to touch it. she put her hand into it, the cracks spread even faster than normal and something sucked her in even as she tried to pull back.

after being sucked in, the cracks all reversed and the air returned to normal, just without the girl and things she wore. on the other side, she was standing in the open air, the sun shining down on her.

"what... am I dead?" she asked, pinching her cheek.

"hey, what are you doing here?" someone yelled. she turned around and saw a chubby man in a chariot. "hey, what's your name? I'm Tarud."

"what are you saying?" she yelled back. they were speaking entirely different languages to each other, they both sounded like gibberish to one another.

Zeeth said, "Then where do we start? An eye, a skeleton, and two dudes."

"Guys, I feel sleepy," Elton said. "I never had to be awake so long."

"You sound like Black. Alright, do you want me to carry you? I'm not used to not carrying a hundred slimes, I feel too light."

"Yeah, yeah thanks." Elton's eyes dimmed a little and Zeeth propped him up on his shoulders. They began walking while talking.

"What about the eggs from Cuddles?" Zeeth said.

"Don't worry, I checked it out. Without a mother to warm it up, nothing will happen. The egg won't die, they won't open, only the warmth and mana of a female of the same race can allow it to progress. Without any damage, they will continue that way. Now I shall sleep as well." Black said and he fell silent again.

"Hey, I think I know why the beast woke up a year earlier than it was supposed to. It woke up when the portal opened and fell when the portal closed, maybe it's powered by energy from hell." Page said.

"But how?"

"That, I have no clue. But dude, that was awesome! You made a mana domain all on your own, that's really impressive. A mana domain is an area that you fill with your mana and allows yourself to do things you normally never would. When you use mana, you release it from your body, a part of your choosing. Then you attack from that part onto the other person. But a mana domain is when you gain control of mana in your surroundings. You did it out of sheer anger and somehow pulled that out of your head so it was a rather crude form, using the rain from clouds to create your own room. But even that takes a ton of experience. Normal domains use a variety of things, either releasing mana from you to control it or using natural mana." Page explained.

"I don't even need to ask anymore."

"Also, after losing a hundred slimes, the first thing we need is a weapon, right?" Page smiled.

"Yeah, I guess so, do you wanna go back to Fahlhala and grab a few things I made? Why are you smiling?"

"Because the place I just talked about, one of the three great cities, we can get some amazing things there. And one of them is your main weapon from back in the day."

"We need to go back to Fahlhala, I saw C.M. there when we were being pulled away."

"He likely wouldn't hurt anyone there. He has his eyes locked on you, he won't want to test out his latest projects on anyone else, no one would give him the results he needs. When I first learned what you were, I was surprised no one in this world thought of such a thing, it was truly genius so I understand what he's going through, he won't be interested in others right now."

"Why has no one here done anything like this? I thought science was advanced here."

"It is. But science has only advanced in the direction of mass weapons, large attacks that we can possibly produce on our own. That's the general interest of people in this world. There could be someone like you, but magic allowed people to regrow limbs and body parts with ease so no one really thought to replace it with metal. And if they had, it's not a popular idea, most people think magic hands are stronger than metal hands. But for you, you combine both and have them work cooperatively."

"Yeah, it looks like I'm a normal person above but the inside is all metal and moving bits. It's like they replaced my bones and muscles and put realistic skin on me."

"That is pretty much exactly what they did. The skin perfectly covers up your insides and opens and closes when needed."

"Also, how come I can have so many skills? You said people's bodies can't handle too many skills."

"Yeah, they can't but there are two reasons why you can handle so many, one is your unnaturally strong body trained by Afir. And second is that it isn't you who held all those skills, it was your slimes. You don't have the tattoo, right? That means you aren't the user, you simply had your slimes using it for you. But now that you've lost them, you can't use those skills either. This is a really good opportunity for you to see your own weaknesses without a hundred slimes protecting you."

"I can't believe my luck didn't help me out there."

"Well, luck can only change so much. In the face of overwhelming power, luck can't be depended on too much. And those were definitely some overwhelming powers, you just faced off the Monster of the East, a demon who should've come years later, and the monk who literally watches over the beast."

"Saying it like that does make it sound extreme. I just wish the one-time shield could be activated for others."

"If that was the case it would be way too overpowered. You already have the luck."

With God's eye, he finally realized just how amazing the lucky necklace was. Page had the stats

[HP: 1750 Strength: 570 Agility: 590 Stamina: 750 Intelligence: 1250 Luck: 62

Holder of Worldly Knowledge. {Encrypted}]

"Hey, something in the description of you says 'Encrypt'. What is that?"

"I've got no clue, I don't have the God's Eye on any level. By the way, we're here."

It took a few days of constant jogging and running but they finally arrived at their location. The largest dead city in the world and the previous largest city ever, Magnator. Claw marks and wild plants grew all over the place. It looked like no one walked here in decades, which was probably true. He was told that although masters of magic did come, they didn't usually take anything. Most of the objects they could get their hands on were too weak for those who could reach them.

The city had its own levels of danger and levels of rarity in objects. After the dragon attack, they left a dense cloud of mana that repelled those who were too weak. The density of mana was the least dangerous on the outer edges of the city but it got more and more dangerous the closer in they got. The density of the dangerous mana was given ranks just like hunters were. The outer edges were ranked D, closer in was C, and then B, and at the very center, the closest any kingdom went and recorded was A.

This means that anyone ranked D was able to go to any area labeled D, those ranked C were able to go anywhere labeled C, and so on. No one kept these regulations, it was simply common knowledge and a wise guideline to go by. The closer in the city it went, the better the lost items, and many people came to the city specifically for that. To snatch rare items that were lost during the attack. But the thing was, many of the items on the outer edge, in the areas ranked D, were of either E class or lower. Those in the C area were D rank or lower and anyone within C rank had no need for D ranked items. With no ability to traverse further, not many people saw things they wanted to take. Of course, people still took anything they thought they could sell but most people looking to sell anything weren't too strong, those who were strong could simply hunt monsters and take on tasks to earn money so most of those people were limited to C rank at best.

"But without my slimes, I really am a C5 rank. They learned the skills, they had the magic affinity that allowed me to do so much." Zeeth lamented.

"That's nonsense. When you took that test, you had a hundred slimes weight on you, did you not?"

"And they were also my source of power and defense, they protected and added weight to my attacks. Now I don't have any of that."

"You're still more powerful than C5. I would say you are at least B1 with your newly gained speed and techniques."

"Yeah, I've just recently started to realize, but I feel like I move faster and more efficiently. Even more so than I expected after losing 100 slimes."

"Of course, Black has been removing all your impurities, right?"

'It's been going a lot better without a hundred slimes on you. You don't know how much harder it makes it to clean with you constantly holding up that much weight.'

'How?'

'Let me just show you.'

Black pushed a memory into Zeeths head, something they got used to over the few days after learning it from Page. he saw what Black saw, an image showing an outline of his body. Black marks dotted all across his body and more kept growing.

'Impurities collect, I'm sure you know this. The more you exert yourself, the faster they collect, like dust on a table. This is what happens when you carry a hundred slimes on you, I am almost always working to remove new ones to reach your deeper impurities. But without the weight of a hundred slimes, almost no new impurities grow. I've cleaned out at least half of this and more is still going.'

'Hey, I have an idea. The impurities were really horrible smelling, right? Why don't we make them into liquids, bottle them up and weaponize them? They can be a secret attack.'

'Such a backhanded method. I love it. I rejoice at a host who isn't afraid to fight dirty.'

He had a sudden flashback, he was a little older, perhaps thirteen by now, and he wore a black suit. In his professional suit, he could feel the cold metal of a dagger. In front of him was a girl, dressed like a doll and even more decorated, she talked in an annoying way.

"Get me another glass of champagne!" she spat to another man, someone like a waiter.

"Miss, you've had two glasses and you're only fourteen, perhaps you should hold back."

"Did I ask for your opinion?! My daddy doesn't pay you to talk back to me! Or do you want to be fired?"

The man quickly rushed off as she quickly turned to him and gushed, "alright, he's gone. Let's go to my room, hehe."

He held her hand, gave it a kiss, and followed her up a set of large golden stairs layered with a purple tarp. The blade felt even heavier and so did his stomach but he knew he had to do this. In his mind, it was the girl or him. The next thing he knew, he was locked in her room, he felt his arm whip around as quickly as he could get it, supported by a mechanical arm that pushed it along the best line for the quickest death. Her face wasn't even allowed enough time to stop smiling. Blood poured from her neck as she fell to the ground and soaked her carpet in dark blood. He took out a flask of a transparent liquid, dropped the blade in it, and ran, avoiding the blood. He tore off a mask on his face that changed his appearance, took out his phone to call someone, and whispered, "the task is done."

The voice replied, "get out."

He jumped out the open window into the night sky. His legs opened up and springs held each joint together so that when he landed all the force was absorbed and dissolved and he didn't take any damage. They changed back as he bounced away and ran into a large floating van. His body went through a laser show, scanning every inch of his body for traces of blood or any other evidence and removing them.

"Agent Z, show me your cam." a man demanded.

He tore off a small black button from his black suit. The man took it and plugged it into a computer. It showed him walking into the grand palace along with hundreds of other equally well-dressed people.

"Fast forward five hours." the man barked.

The computer sped up and showed him slicing her throat. She fell to the ground and he ran away. "Good. Enter Mission 31 Completion by Z-33-TH."

He came back to reality but was a little disturbed at how easily he killed the girl. She trusted him yet he slit her throat without any kind of warning, he felt disgusted. He knew someone would watch him and he needed it done as efficiently as possible but it still felt dirty. He must've done that same thing dozens of times before to be able to kill so heartlessly.

When he came back, Page was walking toward the rubbles and overgrowth. The further in they went the more skeletons and weapons they saw. Page picked up a broken sword, tossed one to Zeeth and another to Elton.

"Let's practice. Figure out how best to hold a sword by yourself before we reach the center."

Page was the most skilled at sword arts, Elton was the fastest, and Zeeth was the most powerful with his strikes. The rusty old swords broke quickly. They kept heading toward the center as they picked up random swords or items they found interesting. Now that he didn't have the slimes to hold everything, he simply had the table unfolded and placed on his shoulder while its strings took everything.