33 Enter Tilia!

Akiol used a teleport scroll and found himself in another town very similar to Goldlight. To prove his entry a notification appeared.

Akiol immediately headed towards the Adventurers Guild. Opening the doors he found Wrock, Yielya, and Tilia sitting at a table.

Akiol grinned, walking towards the trio he greeted, "Hello all, especially Tilia. Good to have you."

Tilia nodded in response, "Good to know most of the party is together, just missing two huh?"

Akiol nodded. Wrock cleared his throat and said, "Greeting and all are well however, at this rate it seems to be custom to do something together when we find someone new. What shall that be?"

Yielya responded to this, "A quest then! What are your ranks? Personally I am ranked D."

Wrock smiled, "I would be C. Tell me, can anyone match that?"

Tilia smirked and declared confidently, "I am also C, so I can match that."

Wrock clicked his tongue. Then the group turned and looked at Akiol expectantly.

Akiol made a straight face and said, "D plus."

The table was silent for a bit. Wrock was the first to respond by slamming the table and question, "What?! Surely not, did you even try?"

The other two other nodded vigorously in agreement.

Akiol chuckled and explained, "Long story short, they found out I was a slime and simply wanted to ask some questions. So my rank is on par with my current theoretical strength."

Wrock and Yielya accepted the explanation. Except for Tilia who exclaimed, "You're a what?!"

Akiol sighed and rubbed his temples, at this rate we was going to have to explain his predicament another two times after this.

After explaining the situation to Tilia she then calmed down. Yielya took this opportunity to bring up the idea of questing again.

Wrock added, "If we're going to do a quest I might as well pick one. Since C ranked quests give more experience and such."

There were no disagreements, so Wrock walked upstairs to grab a quest. While waiting Akiol brought out the Charged Shield he got from Titan. Handing it to Tilia he said, "Let me know if this is a better shield for you."

Tilia grabbed the shield and looked at it, she responded with, "It indeed is a little better, where'd you get it?"

"Something akin to a mini boss around the beginning village."

"The beginning village?"

Akiol nodded, "Yeah, why?"

"This shield is better than my current shield, which I bought from the blacksmith. That means this is one of, if not the, best shield from the villages."

Akiol was slightly surprised, after all the bandits were the strongest thing he had seen around the beginner village. So it wasn't too shocking of news.

Wrock came down the stairs shortly later, arriving at the table he said, "Got one, gear up we got some golems to destroy."

Akiol received a party invite and he accepted. Shortly later a quest appeared.

[Subjugate The Lesser Rock Golems]

These naturally occurring Rock Golems have been growing rapidly in number, to prevent a disaster lower their numbers.

Objective: Defeat 50 Rock Golems

Akiol chuckled at this turning to Wrock he said, "Truly, your name fits this."

Wrock shot back, "Unless I am wrecking them it doesn't count."

Yielya joined in, "If you don't 'wreck' them, I can claim that it was challenging for you to fight some Lesser Rock Golems."

Yielya emphasized the 'lesser' to do some extra damage.

Wrock mumbled, "I am being teamed on, someone call a ref."

Tilia was behind the three giggling at the friendly verbal combat.

—————————————————————

They soon came across the quest point. It was a decently shaped crater crawling with moving rocks.

Wrock exclaimed, "We're here! In formation soldiers! We got some rocks to break."

Akiol clicked his tongue, "Aren't I the leader?"

Wrock responded with a grin, "I don't think you're the hero anymore right? Let me take the lead this time."

This almost brought Akiol to his knees, now that he had no purpose was he just going to be used as a foot soldier? Akiol decided that, no, he wasn't going to be shot down here.

"I think your better with your fists than leading." Tilia pointed out.

Akiol immediately wanted to give Tilia a thumbs up, his hero had arrived.

Yielya also nodded and added, "Besides I am more used to Akiol doing that."

Akiol was ecstatic, he wasn't going to become a foot soldier at all! His good friends had saved his position.

Wrock sighed ruefully, "Alas, I have been out voted. Take the lead Akiol."

Akiol grinned, "Honestly it isn't going to be much different then what we usually do. Unless your surrounded just fight till your last breath."

Tilia and Yielya both shouted, "That's not leading at all!"

Akiol defended himself, "I believe in your strength. If you want me to come up with a solid plan I can. I just think it's a bit troublesome to come up with something if we can just fight straight on."

Wrock agreed, "This is true, if you need help call out besides that we can just charge through them."

The two agreed after some convincing. Honestly Akiol thought they were most likely upset on how he didn't 'lead' after they protected his position.

Akiol and Wrock charged into the horde of golems. Wrock immediately started punching and kicking rapidly. Knocking the golems around like balloons.

Akiol swung his sword at one, however his sword simply bounded off the golem. The same golem then punched through his stomach. Akiol almost believed that he was going to be sent flying into a water tank. He ignored this thought and turned towards Wrock.

He shouted, "Hey! My sword doesn't work here, did you do that on purpose?!"

Wrock shouted back, "No? I picked it because we would be able to fight a lot of golems. If your sword doesn't work go heal with Yielya or something."

Akiol could see Wrock's smile, however Wrock wouldn't pick a quest where someone was useless. Akiol simply thought Wrock found it funny.

However he wasn't going to be outdone, so he activated [Aura Boost] and canceled the speed and defense buff for all strength. Multiplying his strength by 360%!

This meant his strength was at 198! While his hand to hand skills weren't nearly as good as Wrock's. It didn't mean he was helpless. In fact Wrock taught the entire party a bit of hand combat.

Anyone in the party could easily beat an average person in hand to hand combat. Akiol and Tilia could beat some trained individuals as well. Simply because they had more combat experience.

Akiol then punched towards the golem that dared to turn him into a human, or slime, donut. Hitting its 'eye' the golem was sent crashing into its comrades.

Akiol grinned at this, he charged into the horde, tossing golems about like a kid in a ball pit. When he had cleared a decent area around him he looked towards Tilia, she was defending Yielya with her shield, while also dispatching some by smacking them with the shield.

He turned to Wrock who had a silly grin on his face as he was fighting through the golem horde. This brought a smile to Akiol's face, it was good to have some of his party back. He couldn't wait for the last two.

Blocking a strike from a golem he continued his battle. The counter was going down slowly, after all the golems had a lot of defense. So most the damage the party did was mainly pushing them around and not finishing them off.

After a few more golems Akiol's [Aura Boost] was cancelled, leaving him significantly weaker. Being left on the defensive he debated on his options.

Choosing the first he asked Stars, "Hey, being surrounded by golems right now. Since my current sword remained ineffective could I use you?"

'Ha! Serves you right, using a significantly weaker sword than me. Bet your regretting it now.'

"I would use you if you let me. It's not my fault."

Stars was quiet for a bit. 'If I let you use me, is the thing your going to do cool in any way?'

Akiol blocked a few more blows before responding, "Does tearing through a large amount of golems seem cool enough?"

'Eh, I suppose if you can do it in one shot.'

Akiol asked expectantly, "Then?"

'Use that thing you did to make you much more stronger. I think you would have barely enough strength to use a particular move I want to do.'

"That's going to be a bit then, can't quite use that right now. Wait-"

He turned to Yielya and shouted, "Yielya! Do you have a skill that clears skill cooldown?"

Yielya shouted back, "Yeah, but it randomly chooses one of your cooldowns."

That was perfect, Akiol only had one skill that was on cooldown. Signaling Yielya to use the skill Akiol told Stars, "Alright what next."

'While you were fixing your small predicament I added a requirement to use me.'

Akiol clicked his tongue, he wasn't desperate to use Stars so he responded, "No thanks, I'll just use the buff again."

'Wait! Wait, it isn't a big one, I just want you to shout the name of the skill. That wouldn't be too much to ask right?'

Akiol eyes squinted, "What's the skill called?" He asked.

Stars told him the skill name and Akiol agreed. It wasn't too much and he would be able to wipe out the golems for extra cool points. Secretly this was Akiol's plan to have Stars stay with him. If he can play his cards right he would be able to use the second most strongest sword.

He shouted towards Wrock, "Going to do something! Back away!"

Wrock made a sound, Akiol assumed it to be a protest but Wrock still broke off from his rampage.

He then dispelled Stars and used [Aura Boost] fully on strength.

Pointing the sword at the ground he shouted, "Repulse!"

At the tip of the sword a small black hole formed and grew rapidly. After becoming the size of a basketball it shrunk almost immediately and exploded, expanding to cover the crater. The golems in the crater had started to crumble, their bodies become rocks, the rocks into pebbles, the pebbles into dust. The golems were nearly fully wiped out with a few stranded survivors outside the radius of the blast.

Wrock almost immediately reacted, "What was that?!"

Next chapter