After spending a night at a cheap inn in Valencia Village.
The next morning.
Everyone gathered at the village entrance with all their gear.
Valencia Village was a small, sparsely populated village. Apart from running an orchard, its main purpose was to provide a place for passing caravans and convoys to stop.
According to the village chief, many young people had moved to Grayrock Town, or even farther away, to work and live in the forest city of Barry City.
"These Slimes have already cost the village quite a few fruit trees. Please help us root out those filthy lumps of mud!"
At the village chief's urging, the group began searching outside the Harvest Orchard.
Before they encountered the Slimes in battle, finding them was difficult.
The orchard covered a large area.
So the group split up, forming teams of two to search.
The Swordsman and the Cleric, Leven and the Archer, and Gauss and Meva, the Rogue apprentice.
Meva was very good at this kind of search.
As soon as they set out, she moved nimbly around the orchard, looking for traces the Slimes might have left behind.
Slimes left slime trails wherever they went.
Although the slime evaporated quickly after sunrise, Meva said that if you looked carefully, you might still spot a faint sheen.
Meva searched for clues along the way, while Gauss kept watch.
He kept the Bone Staff in his hand.
With the Bone Staff's bonus to casting speed, he was confident that even if a monster appeared, he could fire off a Magic Missile before it attacked.
That was the confidence the staff gave him.
Though it was a weakened version of Magic Missile, it could still easily kill creatures like Goblins in one hit.
And he could now cast the weakened Magic Missile three times. As long as they didn't stumble straight into the enemy's main camp, the two of them would be quite safe.
"Find anything?"
After they had walked some distance, Gauss noticed Meva lingering by a fence. He went over and asked.
"Yeah."
"Here. A Slime rubbed against this spot. Judging by the direction, it went that way." Meva pointed to a section of the fence from where she crouched, then looked farther ahead.
Her eyesight was that good?
Gauss crouched down to take a look, but couldn't see anything unusual.
Elves really were born Archers. Even Meva, with only a faint trace of elven blood, seemed to have better eyesight than ordinary people. Did that mean a full-blooded Elf could see as well as someone with Eagle Eye?
Gauss followed Meva a little farther.
Along the way, Meva kept jotting down notes on a piece of parchment.
Finally, she looked up.
"Let's go back and meet up with Leven and the others first."
"Okay."
Even though they had found traces of Slimes, neither Meva nor Gauss wanted to investigate any farther.
The commission had to be handled with safety as the priority.
They returned to the agreed meeting place and waited a while.
The other two teams soon returned as well, but from the looks on their faces, they hadn't found anything.
Fortunately, they hadn't been the main search party this time.
When they learned that Gauss and Meva had found traces of Slimes, everyone looked relieved.
"We're counting on you, Meva."
"Good thing we came early. The sun hasn't come up yet. If we'd waited much longer, the traces would've disappeared completely." Meva didn't take credit for herself.
The assembled team set off in the direction Gauss and Meva had found.
As they walked, Leven kept reminding everyone to use the small wooden shields they'd brought to block attacks during the fight.
Slimes were only low-level monsters, but if their slime got on your skin, it would leave it stinging for days.
If they didn't want to suffer, they had to be careful during the fight.
Gauss listened in silence.
As he saw it, Leven had the same class as him: Shieldbearer. He had a strong sense of responsibility and was diligent about protecting and advising his teammates. He was practically a mother hen.
Could that be more than a coincidence?
Was Leven instinctively taking on the responsibilities of a Shieldbearer, or was the class itself subtly influencing him as he practiced its skills?
Gauss felt he was beginning to understand classes and paths more deeply.
Perhaps they were more than just a way to level up.
As they walked through the woods, the soil beneath their feet grew damper.
At last, in a muddy patch beside a stream where few people ever ventured, they spotted a small group of strange, shapeless creatures made of slime.
Their bodies were bright green and caked in mud. They bounced around playfully in the muck.
Unlike the cute Slimes from the animated shows in Gauss's previous life, the Slimes before him were far from appealing. Their soft, sticky bodies looked like lumps of translucent, half-rotten meat, and were filled with all kinds of things: branches, undigested fruit pulp, stones, and other strange objects.
They were not small, either.
Each was about a few dozen centimeters across, and every hop carried them more than a meter.
They weren't slow, then. An ordinary person could easily be knocked over if they weren't paying attention. If someone got surrounded by several Slimes, they might end up as something for the creatures to digest.
"There are 25 of them!"
Hearing Meva's count, Gauss felt a little excited.
To him, small monsters that liked to gather together were perfect fodder for increasing his Monster Codex kill count.
His Monster Kill Count had already reached 23/50.
If they could wipe out this entire group of Slimes, he'd be just one step away from earning the next reward.
Unfortunately, that wasn't possible.
They would have to leave some kills for the others. Their team wasn't strong enough to have that much to spare.
Fortunately, his main goal today was just to register a Slime kill in the Codex.
"Could we lure some of them out with bait?" Gauss remembered how, on a previous assignment, they had lured out six Goblins and killed them effortlessly with traps.
"I don't think so." Leven shook his head, then explained, "Look at how swollen these Slimes are. They're clearly full, so it'll be difficult to lure them away from their habitat now."
"Get ready to fight! Everyone, stay safe."
Fortunately, Slimes weren't very strong opponents for a group like theirs.
If they couldn't lure some out and had to wipe them out here, that wasn't a big problem. It would just take a little more effort.
"Oliver, Meva, Gauss, you three take the initiative." Leven called out the names of the three members with ranged attacks.
They crept closer, bit by bit.
The Slimes still hadn't noticed them.
When they were about twenty meters away, they stopped.
Gauss exchanged a glance with Oliver the Archer and Meva, who held a Hand Crossbow.
They began preparing their attacks.
Gauss naturally planned to cast Magic Missile.
He wasn't going to pass up any chance to practice the spell in actual combat.
Magic Missile was one of their team's trump cards, but if he kept holding it back, his proficiency with the spell would grow more slowly.
He fixed his gaze on the muddy patch ahead.
Two or three Slimes were pressed together, rubbing against each other nonstop.
You're the ones!
Gauss signaled Oliver and Meva. After confirming their attacks wouldn't overlap—
He nocked an arrow!
He pulled the trigger!
Gauss raised the Bone Staff at the same time.
All three attacked together!
"Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" "Shhk!"
Three sharp sounds split the air!
The Magic Missile was the fastest.
The projectile was already incredibly fast, and the staff made it faster still!
Gauss focused, entering that low-grade Bullet Time state again. His Magic Missile struck at just the right moment, when three Slimes were lined up side by side.
"Thump!" "Thump!" "Thump!!"
Three crisp impacts rang out as the Magic Missile pierced the cores of all three.
It finally plunged into the mud, sending muddy water exploding several meters into the air!
The two arrows tore through the air with a "whoosh," leaving long streaks in their wake. They followed close behind the Magic Missile, each sinking precisely into a Slime and striking its core, about the size of an ostrich egg.
"Splatter!"
The Slimes' cores were pierced, and they melted instantly, their slime mixing with the muddy water.
Slimes -5!
"Killed 3 Slime Slimes"
"Monster Kill Count: 26!"
"Gained the title [Slime Hunter]. This title will level up as the number of this species you kill increases."
"Current effect: Intimidation. When activated, this ability can mentally intimidate Slimes within a 3-meter radius and control them for 0.5–1 second! There must be a cooldown between consecutive uses."
"[Common Monster] Collection: +1 species! Note: Once you have collected 5 species, you can randomly draw a weakened Talent ability from among those 5 monster species. The weaker a Talent ability's effect, the more likely it is to be drawn."
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