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When Kufar regained his consciousness the next time, he didn’t know how long had passed. At the very least, there was no longer any light coming from the entrance, so he could judge it was at least half a day.

It seemed that a fight had taken place near his core, and the spilled blood reached it and slightly restored it, enough to regain his Slime body.

“Is it…night now…”

Since he gained this liquid body, he could finally utter words. He powerlessly crawled about and absorbed roadside dust and such. The labyrinth had abundant trash in the corners, so he was able to gain back enough volume to regain free movement.

“I experienced something painful there.”

As he grumbled, he glanced at the entrance from the corner at a little distance. He couldn’t see Bahamut anywhere now, but considering he appeared in front of him when he tried to take a step outside, he should be aware of Kufar’s presence.

It would be too optimistic to think it would be fine since it was night.

“It looks like escaping from that place would be impossible…”

Having said that, Kufar wasn’t aware of any other exit. No, he did have an idea of one. This World Tree was snapped in the middle. In other words, it would be the place beyond it.

It was unknown if the Dragon God was monitoring the sky above too, but at least there was more possibility of escaping from there compared to this entrance. Not to mention, it would have been impossible to climb it when it still had over a thousand floors, but now that it was half-snapped, it could be possible to reach the top.

He had a Slime body that excelled in stealth abilities, and had a human’s intellect, so there was a chance of succeeding. Thinking so, Kufar decided to head even deeper in. He used his camouflaging skills to devour monster corpses, and somehow regained his old size.

However, his sudden increase in capacity also diluted his composition and lowered his toxicity. The way he was, Kufar could only display power on the level of a normal Slime.

“Looks like I can only do surprise attacks for some time.”

Forget Adventurers, he couldn’t even safely beat Kobolds in a frontal fight. He was weakened to that point. Even so, he couldn’t just loiter in this labyrinth forever. But the only exit was guarded by the Dragon God, and there was a possibility that the other exit was also monitored.

Kufar thought he could do something about it if he reached the top, but the higher he climbed the stronger the enemies would grow, and his survival chance would be lowered.

“This, all doors are closed on me. Isn’t there any other way…”

Then he suddenly realized something. He was an intelligent Slime. Maybe he could make use of that fact.

For example, his body had no set form, so where his core could pass, he could pass too. And his core was only the size of a fingertip, so he could slip through things quite freely.

For example…

“Maybe the World Tree’s vessels?”

The World Tree’s vessels were big to match its gigantic size. The main vessel was big enough for a human to pass through. He realized that when he investigated the World Tree’s dead branch when planning to escape the city.

It would be hard to find a vessel that big inside the labyrinth, but ones that could allow his core to pass through might be around.

“Wait, maybe I can even open up a hole through it.”

Slimes were world-leading in terms of encroaching things. Even the source of this world, the World Tree, wasn’t absolutely perfect. The fact that it was destroyed by God of Destruction was proof of that.

It might be impossible for Kufar to open up a hole in the outer wall of this World Tree, but perhaps it was possible to open up a big enough hole through the vessels to slide his core in.

“You won’t know until you try… Or rather, that’s my only option.”

Resolving himself, Kufar approached the labyrinth wall and started corroding it. It was impossible to open up a hole instantly, as expected. Other monsters might come to attack while he was melting the wall too.

Even so, this guaranteed his survival far more than climbing the labyrinth with no plans.

“Kh, as expected, it’s tough. I can’t make any progress with the corrosion.”

He continued to slowly, very slowly, melt the wooden wall and absorb it. He somehow managed to open up a big enough hole for his core to pass through, but there was no vessel beyond it.

There was only a tight wooden wall continuing beyond it, with no signs of vessels nearby.

“This was a no-go, huh. But this doesn’t mean it won’t be elsewhere, so I’ll just continue until I find one.”

Thus, he continued opening holes in different places. By the time he lost count of the time and the holes he opened, he finally discovered a place where the sap was flowing from.

“I did it! And this vessel is quite thick!”

The liquid bursting out of it had quite a force. But that was only natural, as the space beyond it was a few dozen centimeters big. It was plenty thick for Kufar’s core to pass through.

He slid his core inside while opposing the liquid’s force, ending up abandoning the majority of his regenerated body in the process. However, once he was inside he could just absorb the tree sap and compensate for it.

All that was left was to leave the rest to the liquid current and head to the upper floors.