But once the number of monsters reached a certain level, some were bound to make their way onto the roads or disrupt the villages' normal farming.
According to the information from the previous quest, searching along the stream should make it easier to find slimes.
As long as he killed ten slimes and collected their mucus, he could return to Oak City.
For a container to collect the mucus, he had prepared mineral water bottles. They had held purified water, after all, so temporarily storing slime mucus in them would not be a problem. When he went to the guild to settle the quest, the guild would have dedicated containers, and he could just pour it over then.
He walked deeper along the stream step by step. The moss-covered rocks beneath his feet were slippery, and if he was not careful, he would definitely take a nasty fall.
He tested the water temperature with a finger. It was probably melted ice and snow flowing down from the mountains, and the water was especially cold. Falling into it in this weather would be a terrible idea.
There was a faint scent of rotting leaves in the air, along with the crisp chill of melting snow.
Other than the occasional drops of unmelted snow falling from the treetops, the entire forest was extremely quiet. No other sounds could be heard.
The monsters in each area were basically fixed. Occasionally, monsters wandered into other areas, but the chances were low. If he encountered one, he just needed to retreat in time.
Activated [Assassin's Breathing Technique].
Everything around him instantly became quieter. In this state, he could not only hide himself better, but also focus his attention and sense the movements around him.
As he ventured deeper, the light before him grew dimmer and dimmer. Leaves and branches intertwined overhead. Not every type of tree shed its leaves in winter; some only dropped their leaves after the ice and snow melted, then quickly sprouted new buds once the weather warmed.
He moved forward step by step, one hand tightly gripping the dagger at his waist.
"Relax. Just treat this like a hardcore version of a game." Mel Carlo kept reassuring himself inwardly.
If he had not known so much, perhaps he would not have been this nervous. But the more he knew, the more frightening it became.
He heard something moving through the bushes, rhythmically striking the ground before bouncing back up. From the sound alone, he could tell that this was probably the slime he had been looking for.
His hand slowly released the dagger, then he retrieved a longsword from the System space. As he continued closing in, he could use a reverse [Back Hop] followed by [Mighty Slash] to land a killing blow.
In the game, dealing with low-level monsters like this had been easy. Usually, two swings were enough.
[Back Hop] activated instantly. He leaped backward, then struck the slime with a [Mighty Slash].
Proficiency +1
Effort +1
The slime was like a piece of blue gummy candy. The blade cut through its surface and sank in, but the attack did not go deep. It was tougher than he had imagined, not soft and limp at all.
Mel Carlo used [Back Hop] again to widen the distance and avoid the slime's charge.
With a thud, the slime slammed into a nearby tree. It felt like a solid rubber ball smashing into the trunk, sending a large sheet of snow and leaves sliding down from the branches.
If that thing hit him directly, it would probably break a rib.
After repeating the same maneuver several times, he finally killed the slime before him with the fifth Mighty Slash. Striking it felt nothing like cutting jelly; it was like chopping at a solid rubber ball.
Mel wiped away his sweat. He finally understood why slimes were considered monsters. Anything humans classified as a monster could truly kill people. If he had dealt with this thing based on his understanding from the game, he would have suffered badly.
"Back Hop plus Mighty Slash really is the godly combo for rookies opening up new ground. Who would've thought it'd work just as well in another world?" Mel took out his dagger and prepared to collect the slime mucus. The useful part was only the small amount of mucus around the slime's core. Its color was closer to dark blue, and after cutting it open with the dagger, it was clearly different from the light blue outer layer.
After killing one slime, he gained 5 points of Mighty Slash proficiency and 5 effort points. The mucus could be stored directly in the System space, but it would eventually have to be transferred into containers. Using mineral water bottles would let him clearly see how many milliliters of mucus one slime yielded.
Even a Level 2 slime was so difficult to deal with. Compared to monsters like these with no obvious weak points, dealing with people was much easier. Humans simply had too many vulnerable spots.
It filled roughly one-third of a mineral water bottle. In other words, one slime yielded 200 milliliters of mucus.
"Let's continue."
Mel Carlo continued deeper into the forest, but he gradually realized that he had only encountered a slime so quickly because he had been lucky. During most of the following search, he could not find any slimes at all. The forest floor was also extremely damp and muddy, only slightly better than a swamp.
"Slimes aren't social creatures. That makes things troublesome. I don't have any tracking skills either. Looks like I'll have to stay here all day."
Mel Carlo continued searching. The entire day passed just like that, and he finally killed enough slimes to meet his quota. It was truly exhausting, all that hard work for just thirty copper coins.
Slime mucus +10 Effort +100 Storage: Wallet, instant noodles ×49, Cola ×50, Potato chips ×50, Mineral water ×50, Bandit's blade, Alcohol ×9, First Aid Bandage ×9, YunX Baiyao ×4, Disposable Anesthetic Injection ×4, Chocolate beans ×2950, 4 bottles of Slime mucus. [Mighty Slash] Proficiency 850/10000 [Back Hop] Proficiency 3851/10000 Current Effort: 191.
His shoes were already soaked through, and his clothes were drenched with sweat. What a terrible day. He no longer wanted to practice Back Hop. After returning and eating his fill, he would find someone to practice stealing on, then go to sleep.
Dragging his exhausted body, Mel Carlo left the forest and walked step by step toward Oak City beneath the glow of the setting sun and melting snow.
He still had a long stretch of road ahead. Without a carriage, it would take some stamina, and other monsters might appear along the way. He had seen a goblin-hunting quest on the guild's notice board before, and it had been somewhere near this road.
But just dealing with slimes had already exhausted him. For now, he did not even dare think about goblins. They were the kind of monsters that had nearly taken down even a Level 15 adventurer, after all. Besides, goblins were social monsters.
He just wondered whether the goblins in this world captured women to reproduce. Many works described them that way, anyway.
The exhaustion in his body made his mind wander to other things to ease the strain.
Put more elegantly, it was called emptying his soul.
"Hurry up and get back. I want a hot bath." Mel Carlo muttered to himself. He had accidentally been hit by a slime during the earlier fight. If he had not rolled across the ground a few times to dissipate the force, he might not have recovered from it.
At least one thing was good: the temperature had begun to rise instead of continuing to fall, so he would not need to deliberately buy winter clothes.
Elsewhere along the same road, a freckle-faced youth was fighting goblins. Several wounds had already appeared on his body, and both hands were trembling uncontrollably. "The information was wrong. These goblins all have weapons, and they're at least Level 5! Those damned villagers must be trying to pay less!"
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