Chapter 6: Slimes
"Let's hunt."
We crossed the 1km mark and began slowly walking across the forest with our guards up. Hans walked closely behind me as he decided that it would be easier to protect me in case of an ambush from behind or attacks from the front. Although with his strength of S rank I doubt anything in this forest could harm him however it seems he is serious in making sure that no harm comes to me which slightly made me feel warm as no one has put it upon themselves to protect me.
[Congratulations on the host on leaving the safe zone. The system has decided to slowly increase the difficulty the further the hosts walk in the forest. Near the 1km mark is the weakest of F rank monsters the 'Slimes' and at the end of the forest lies the strongest of the C rank monsters the 'The Draconic Python'.]
!!!
I was stunned by how easy the system set up this world to make my training more suitable. However what amazed me was the notice after!
[The host has received a mission.
Mission: Become the strongest being in this world and defeat all the monsters residing in this forest!
Reward: One pass to chose anything from the systems store for free.
Failure: The host shall remain in this world till he completes his mission
Time limit: None]
[Will the host accept the mission?] [Y/N]
'Yes!'
[Mission accepted.]
After hearing the rewards from the mission I felt my blood rush from excitement as I have seen the contents within the store and how ridiculously overpowered they were.
With a new sense of purpose in my mind, I began putting more focus in my surroundings and it wasn't long until we encounter a 'Slime.' It was blue and jelly like and sort of crawled across the ground reaching up to my ankle. It reminded of a snail. Through its translucent body I could see a round small,blue object about the size of my nail floating within.
I tried using Appraisal on the object and all I seemed to get was the name of the object which was called a 'Magic core'.
Inwardly vowing to level up my Appraisal, I decided to ask Hans what a magic core was.
"A magic core is found inside monsters when they die. They are the crystallisation of the mana inside a monsters body as the body can no longer contain it nor expel it. This forces the mana to condense into one place hence magic cores. However there are some monsters which have magic cores already inside them like golems or like that slime over there as it serves as there source of power like a heart."
"I see. Is there any value in them."
"Magic cores can be used to power magic equipment."
'So like batteries' I thought.
"Thanks for telling me."
As I thanked him I saw Hans face lighting up and I turned around embarrassed as all I did was thank him.
I turned to face the slime and Hans began telling me that I should aim for the core inside the slime as that is its weakness.
Raising my sword I aimed it straight down where it's core is. As the sword cut through it felt like cutting jelly and as soon as the blade touched the core the slime 'melted' and its body sank into the ground leaving its core.
Surprised, Hans told me that the bodies disappearing is unique to monsters that have magic cores beforehand and other monsters bodies with no cores while alive will always remain.
As I listened, I walked up to the magic core and stored it inside my inventory as I thought that it may be important later on.
I checked my status to see if killing the slime changed anything.
Name: Lucas Veridant
Age:18 Rank:F
Level:0 Exp:1/10
Health:50(+10%) Mana:1
Strength:1
Speed:20(+10%)
Defence:10(+10%)
Skills:
Appraisal Lv2(1/100) Inventory Lv1(21/50)
Summons:
Battle butler (Hans) Rank:S
Points:1
Seeing the points and exp going up by 1, I started to look for more slimes with Hans while using Appraisal on the surrounding plants. After going around killing slimes for a an hour I managed to level up to level 5!
Name: Lucas Veridant
Age:18 Rank:F
Level:5 Exp:0/50
Health:150(+10%) Mana:11
Strength:11
Speed:120(+10%)
Defence:110(+10%)
Skills:
Appraisal Lv4(0/40) Inventory Lv1(40/50)
Swordsmanship Lv1(5/10)
Summons:
Battle butler (Hans) Rank:S
Points:50
Not only did my level and my strength begin to increase at a noticeable rate of two points every level I gained the swordsmanship skill after killing the 30th slime! I guess just waving my sword around was the reason why I got it. Just like the other skills, as soon as I got it information on how to use a sword entered my mind and how to effectively use it instead of just uselessly swinging it! Even though the skill level is low I noticed that the force I can give out is more precise, faster and stronger then my regular swings before the skill!
Not only did I gain a new skill I also found a fruit which increases mana by 2 while using Appraisal which finally managed to give descriptions instead of just names! It looked like a tomato but was blue and slightly glowing a dim blue light.
[Mana riser
A fruit that collects the surrounding mana to grow. When a person eats the entire fruit they gain +2 mana permanently.]
Even though not having skills which uses mana, I plan on gaining magic skills like those in novels that shoot fireballs and flying across the sky like I wished I could do when I was a kid. I managed to find about 20 of them and stored them in my inventory to eat later in the safe area.
Me and Hans decided to walk deeper into the forest as killing slimes was to easy. After walking for a while we saw a monster that was the size of a 5 to 6 year old.
Even though the outline was like that of a human with two hands and legs it looked anything but human. It's skin was green with bulging yellow eyes. It had dirty yellow teeth and both pointy nose and ears. In its right hand was a wooden club half its size covered in dried blood. Around its waist was a dirty brown cloth which can hardly be called clothing, thankfully covering its nether regions or I would be having nightmare for weeks.
[Goblin Rank:F
A monster which travels in groups with its own kind but sometimes travels by itself. They kidnap women from different species to propagate and they are famous for being a race which quickly grows as they easily reproduce and grow at a rapid pace.]
Even though it looked weak I couldn't tell as my Appraisal was still annoying low levelled and would only tell the descriptions instead of stats of othering beings. With my guard up and Hans standing behind me I slowly sneaked up behind the goblin. The reason why Hans isn't joining the fight is because even though his kills are viewed as my kills, by fighting by myself would I be able to gain actual experiences on how to fight monsters and know their weak spots and other hands on experience. That is why I asked him to only intervene when my life as endangered. He protested as first but after explaining my reasons to him did he reluctantly give up.
Noticing my presence the goblin turned around and began to swing its club high up and brought it down to where my head is. Raising my sword I cut through the club breaking it into two, the front half flying somewhere behind me. The goblin looked startled by its club being broken and by using that moment of confusion I took my sword and cut the goblins head straight through.
As soon as the head rolled off green blood began spring out from the neck drenching my body and giving of a revolting scent, making me want to vomit. Seeing my state Hans quickly cast Purification on me and the area and the blood and smell quickly disappear as though never there. He began to compliment me while I was looking at how useful magic was.
"Lucas you looked so cool. You reminded me of hero! Your not hurt anywhere are you if you are tell me so I can heal you. If your hurt I will hunt down every last goblin bastard and swear to make them instinct!"
Seeing a scary face on Hans on face like I have never seen before I quickly calmed him down and told him I was uninjured and thanked him for cleaning up the smell and for also worrying about me.
Hans began to show a relieved look after hearing I was uninjured and smiled like his usual puppy face when I said 'thank you' to him.
I turned around at the headless goblin body and asked Hans on how to get the magic core out. He walked over and cut straight into the abdomen of the goblin telling me that the cores are usually located at the abdomens of the monster. There he took out a blue magic core slightly bigger then the slimes and casted Purification on his hand and the core to get rid of the goblin blood.
Thanking him I grabbed the core and put it into my inventory. I opened my status and saw that killing one goblin can give two exp and points for the system shop even though they are the same rank as the slime!
Seeing the benefit of hunting goblins I decide to hunt then as they are more rewarding to kill then slimes.
"Let's slay some goblins!"