Slime Farmin

Daniels set off at a light jog with Lilly keeping up right behind him.

He had on him six eleven-round magazines fully loaded to bear. Lilly just behind him had 4 magazines of ammo. Putting it all together they had 111 rounds of .45 ACP to spend on the slimes. Even with Daniel's ability he had no profile on how the slimes moved or attacked. Factor in Lilly being new to (albeit surprisingly skilled at) shooting, they'd have to make this work.

Daniels slowed and crouch walked, thankful that Lilly followed his stance. Ahead of them was a grove of trees grouped around what seemed to be a pond. Daniels stepped forward to get a line of sight through the thicket and bush. The request hadn't lied, the place was full of them.

He watched as the slimes hurled themselves about at decently high speeds. Didn't appear fast enough to kill through kinetic force (to which he was surprised to see them impact solidly) but certainly enough to leave you with bruises.

There were about 60 of the things hopping about. Daniels gestured for Lilly to come forward to which she did.

"What do you think? You ever fight one of these things?"

"Once a stray attacked me. It felt like I was punched strongly. Enough of them could certainly cause harm. They are very simple creatures though, easy to work with. With these guns, we should be able to handle them."

"Alright cool. Good to have your input. There's about 10 feet from our position in the tree line and their pond. Would you be alright from here if I rotate around and strike at another angle?"

"I am confident on that," she nodded resolutely.

Daniels gave her a nod and began rotating around the circle of trees. moving stealthily through the bushes he made his way around. About 30 feet away from Lilly's position, He gave her a finger gun motion. She nodded and readied her gun.

Daniels palmed a fresh magazine for ease of reload. He steadied his breathing and lined up the site picture. The safety was already off, round chambered, target acquired. He fired three consecutive shots that killed all three of his targets.

The round blobs were easily penetrated by the .45 cal bullet. The entry wound leaked some strange fluid, but the exit wound quickly emptied the blob. The three deflated blobs laid on the ground like popped balloons.

He heard four cracks from Lilly's direction he watched three more of the things pop and a small cloud of dirt kicked up. He transitioned into focus mode, aiming down the site post on one of the jumping blobs. Time seemed to slow down as he squeezed the trigger. He felt a detached sensation of the recoil being subconsciously handled. He could've sworn he could see the trail of the bullet slicing through air before splattering the thing, but he knew that wasn't possible.

Readjust, fire. Readjust, fire.

He squeezed the trigger repeatedly immediately transitioning targets so fast it'd have John Wick blush. Vaguely he could hear other cracks of fire from Lilly but he subconsciously blotted all of that out, the only information his mind processed was the slide locking back.

He thumbed the mag release and immediately loaded the mag he'd palmed. He squeezed off another three rounds with another three hits when he felt an impact hit him in the collarbone.

He let out an "oomf" as he staggered slightly before shooting the offending slime. The volleyball-sized blob deflated on the ground. He saw three more oncoming and dropped the fuckers with prejudice.

[Four rounds left in the mag...}

another three came forward and launched at him. He fired Four times but missed one of them. the other hit him in the chest.

He clocked it with the heavy pistol denting it while drawing the bayonet with his other hand. He ended it with a downward strike. Readjusting his balance he spotted four nearing him.

Thanks to being prepared this time the impacts were absorbed by his arms. He quickly stabbed a larger one and in the same fluid motion pieced the skin of another. He kicked one away and the last one impaled itself jumping at his blade.

It seemed he'd done an excellent job attracting their attention as Lilly was continuously firing still. She must have killed 25 of them as the simple-minded things ignored her and rushed at him.

He backpedaled while reloading the handgun. Hitting the slide release he leveled the gun ready to release some hurt.

He methodically shot them as they jumped at him only missing twice. Sensing another close-quarters fight he holstered the pistol and resumed a fighting stance. It never came to that as Lilley appeared behind them and shot the stragglers.

"Are you ok?" she asked worriedly as she came up to him.

Before he could assure her he was fine just a little bruised she explored his body for wounds pressing a little too hard on the bruise on his collar. He involuntarily let out a grunt in pain.

"You are hurt!" she began reaching in her bag for a healing vial but he grabbed her arms stopping her.

"No it's okay I'm alright, just a couple of bruises. You weren't kidding it felt like I was hit with a bat."

"A what?"

"Sorry, club."

"More importantly, Lilly you did absolutely excellent! You were shooting about 10 feet or so at quickly moving targets hitting almost all of your shots that I saw!"

She blushed brightly at the sudden praise, "Er, well, I know I missed a lot more than that, I mean magic toolsmanship takes good coordination and all that. Really it's nothing that grand."

He chuckled a little. She'd' woken up in the room of a man she'd only briefly met without batting an eye, but a little bit of praise really did her in.

She blushed even brighter but he just patted her head reassuringly.

"Trust me, Lilly, you did awesome just take my word on it."

She nodded and he helped her up.

"Come on, let's head back and report to that woman."

"Shouldn't we gather the cores first?"

"They have cores?"

"Yep, they're used for identification and an ingredient of a simple detox medicine. it doesn't matter if they're whole or not it's more of a gel-like substance."

"Would you happen to know how to harvest them?"

"I'm not an expert in it but yes I've done it once or twice," she responded.

She picked up a carcass and asked for his blade. He handed it to her and she cut the exit wound open reaching in and pulling out a gel-like ball.

"Looks like this one is perfectly intact, but they'll measure the kill count by weight and the alchemists grind it into a paste anyways.

He mimicked her and soon he was on a roll harvesting them. Lilly helped by digging through exit holes and gathering the gel. It wasn't quite as easy but she was doing a good job. It must've been near an hour but they finished the job.

They split the gel between them but Daniels was secreting some away in the item box so they could get all of it. All in all 60 ish slimes worth of gel. Depending on the payout per core this could be quite the lucrative albeit low-rank request for average adventurers that hadn't stumbled upon wealth.

"How many magazines did you spend Lilly?"

"Almost all four magazines. I think I have three or so shots left in the last magazine."

"I spent about three and a half magazines," he said checking the current magazine.

He slotted one of his remaining fresh magazines into the pistol, not needing to rack the slide as a round was chambered.

"Pass me those remaining bullets and I'll trade you two of your empties for a couple full ones. I've got loose rounds stored so we can repack when we get back to the tavern. It's good that we split what we have left in case of emergency," he reasoned.

She nodded and gave him the mag with three bullets and an empty. He gave her back two full mags one of which she loaded and the other went into her belt. He thumbed the bullets out of the nearly empty mag and added it to his half-depleted mag giving him one full and one with eight rounds. Hopefully, it wouldn't come to a fight but if it did so far it hadn't taken him more than a magazine to deal with human targets, and there were no dangerous monsters here.

They cinched their packs up and dusted themselves off and started walking back to have the woman sign the paperwork for the request. As they were walking Lilly turned to him.

"That was actually really fun. Thank you, Daniels, without you I'd be a corpse being feasted upon by forest creatures. Really I owe everything I have now including my life to you."

"Like I've said before Lilly I just did what anybody should do. As far as forming a party with you, you seemed kind and looking like you needed a new path to take. Besides, look at your work here today, trust me, Lilly, you are earning your keep as well."

She smiled at him and they continued their walk. Soon enough they made their way back to the farming town. They walked inside the town hall and were directed by a receptionist to the woman's office.

"Welcome back, you guys have any success with the request?" she asked looking skeptical. Albeit not the most lethal monsters it would be difficult to take on a horde with only one knife between two people. Or at least, that's how she saw their equipment setup.

Daniels unslung his backpack and opened up the main pouch displaying it to the woman.

"Well I'll be," she said.

"We went to the pond and eliminated all of them. I know the request was just to thin them but they didn't seem like they'd be happy if we just left after killing some. I won't ask for more payment for that though."

"Ah hell you're too modest kid," she smiled, "Would you two like to come over to mine for lunch? I have some good beef that I won't be able to eat all myself."

Daniels turned to Lilly and she nodded.

"That sounds wonderful, we'd be happy to if you'll have us."

She stood up and gave Daniels a good handshake.

"My name's Synthia, may I ask yours?" she asked the both of them.

"My name is Daniels, pleased to meet you."

"Lilly, pleasure to make your acquaintance," Lilly bowed slightly. Daniels figured had she been in a dress she'd of curtsied.

"Mary I'm heading out early today," Syntia called to the receptionist.

"Have a good day Miss Synthia," was the reply that came back.

Synthia led them out of the town hall and down a little ways to a quaint farmhouse. She invited them inside and had them sit in the dining room.

"How does stew and bread sound?" she asked them.

"That would be lovely, thank you," replied Daniels.

She nodded and headed off to the kitchen.

Daniels grabbed the five empty or non-full magazines from his belt and drop leg pouches. He reached into his bag and summoned the boxes of .45. He'd consolidated the rounds into three boxes two boxes of 40 and a partially full box of 25. He passed Lilly a box of 40 and she nodded beginning to repack her magazines.

Daniel set into the comforting rhythm of loading the magazines. It was a therapeutic feeling; the smooth round bullets passing between his fingers before slotting into the mag with a satisfying click. He let out a content sigh.

It seemed Lilly felt much the same way as she had a light smile on her face as she reloaded the magazines. She'd stacked two filled magazines and was just finishing up with the third. She nodded and passed him the box containing 7 rounds.

Daniels himself was taking a little more time but soon enough he'd finished repacking the magazines. They'd spent 74 of the free bullets repacking the spent mags leaving them with 15 free left. Barring a major gunfight, they'd be perfectly fine until Daniels could get more ammo.

Soon enough Synthia walked into the Dining room with a pot of stew and fresh bread.

"It smells wonderful Miss Synthia, thank you for the meal."

"No need to be so formal, please call me Synthia."

"Alright then Synthia."

She served them up and they began eating.

In the middle of the meal Synthia spoke up.

"How did you guys do it? Are you magicians by chance? Like I said earlier its strange you'd be able to kill them all with just a knife. Would you happen to be magicians?"

"Ah no, well at least not me, but we didn't use magic. We have a special set of toosl and skills that allow us to even the playingfield. I really can't say much more than that unfortunately."

She nodded, "I understand, have to keep your methods to yourselves or others would just imitate it."

[Not that they could but no need to go spouting specifics about my abilities.]

"I appreciate your understanding. Say would ou mind if I asked some questions about this place?"

"Ask away."

"The request had said this was just a small district part of the main town, but judging by your town hall that isn't quite true is it?"

"Yes and no. We operate as a separate governing body but still have to pay taxes to the town proper. They allow us to manage our modest farming community as long as we make sure to fulfill the agreed upon trades with the town as well as the aforementioned taxes."

"Huh, personally I find it pretty interesting. Where I come from we use something similar, I just didn't expect to see it here," he said thinking about state governments and the city governments that fell under them back in the US.

"You two really did a wonderful job today though. Could I get your party name by chance so that in the future we could request you again? Not all adventurers are as polite or hardworking as you two are."

"I'm happy we were able to provide good service. We don't really have a party name but if you asked for Daniels and Lilly I'm sure they'd know who to look for."

She nodded and set a small bag on the table.

"I figured since you two did such a good job I'd throw in some extra money alongside the meal. There's five silver there to go with the 8 silver quest reward."

"Thank you but really you don't have to," Daniels replied thinking of the good amount of gold he had to his name.

She however took it as him being modest and humble.

"I insist you take it. You did an excellent job and deserve the extra cash."

He was going to object again but she interrupted.

"I'll take it as a matter of pride if you don't accept it."

He relented and took the money, thanking her for it of course.

"Really though, thank you Synthia. We really appreciate your hospitality."

"Anytime you two come by again I'd be happy to accommodate," she replied.

Daniels gave a nod and left the house with Lilly in tow. Synthia watched through the window as the odd yet polite pair left for town.