can't get the category slug to use in a condition

Hi, i am trying to get the name of the current post category, and compare it to do some conditional tasks

but the condition don't work, i think because the category is not just a slug, it's a link !

here is my code

{% set cat = mb.get_the_term_list( post.ID, 'category') %}
{{ cat }}

{% if cat == archives %}
    <p>test</p>
{% endif %}

i try to echo test when the category slug is 'archives'

i also tried with

{% set termList = mb.get_the_terms( post.ID, 'category' ) %}
{{ termList[0].slug }}

but it didn't work either, maybe because i get a couple empty lines when it showed up in the chrome inspector !

i just need to get the category slug to compare it with simple text for some conditions

please help

thanks in advance