Grinding

When Trin was done with healing me, she stood up and held her hand out to help me stand up, which I took.

'I feel so much better, just like that...'

"Thank you," I told her with my sincerest tone.

"You're welcome."

Sung chimed in and gave us praise. Or at least said it to make us feel better.

"You did good reacting as soon as Lulu was hit."

I nodded at his words.

He continued to voice out his opinion on what had transpired and how we did in the battle.

"Well... there were also many mistakes, but that's because you're both new to this. You'll get used to it over time.

"The first thing I have to say is that you need more concrete planning. It doesn't have to be perfect because you never know what other factors could interfere. For example, Lulu initiated the fight as soon as the slime saw you two. Don't panic.

"You should have told Sim that you were to attack so that he could have reacted fast, or as I said, planned it beforehand."

"I see..." Lulu said, acknowledging her mistake. "I'm sorry, Sim. What I did put you in trouble."

"No, its my fault as well. As long as we can correct it next time," I replied.

Trin then joined the topic.

"Like Sung said, planning is very important. So when facing an enemy, it's important to look for weaknesses. If you can't find any, you have to find it as you battle through, as Sim did in the first fight."

"Yes, also don't rely too much on your weapon. It might be convenient, but not when it's ineffective," Sung added and continued to talk. "And finally, be always on your guard, always be aware of your surrounding, an enemy might just be behind you at any moment, just like earlier. Confirming that the enemy has died by continuing to attack was a good move."

Lulu and I nodded at their words with a serious expression, taking a mental note of everything they said.

'We learned a lot just from this one battle.'

"Overall, you both did a good job for someone who has zero experience."

Our faces brightened at the overall evaluation, and the sides of our mouth curled up. It meant a lot because we were basically clueless children in this world.

"Thank you for your teachings," I thanked both of them.

"Happy to be of help."

Then Trin went on to continue to talk.

"With that over, let's continue your training. This time, you will have to face more than one or two slimes!"

The two of us froze in place. One was hard enough, and a second was even harder. Now we have to face more than two at once.

'Is it because we did well in the fight?'

"With you two being able to kill slimes so easily, you won't be able to raise your stats at all," She added.

'How was that easy... Those slimes were nowhere as weak as they were depicted,' I thought, but I couldn't refuse what she suggested in order to become strong.

"Okay," the two of us agreed.

"We will capture some slimes and make them fight you two," She stated.

'So they can easily catch slimes without getting any injuries... I hope I can become as powerful as them.'

"Just wait in here a bit."

They walked out of the area hidden by bushes and went to the field of slimes. Lulu and I sat on the ground to rest ourselves a little.

***

After a few minutes of idling, Sung and Trin returned, holding a large container, probably created by Sung. They placed the container on the ground, Lulu and I went to it and saw that the container was filled with slimes of different colors, and they looked angry.

'Are they mad because they've been trapped? Would they be more powerful than the slimes last time?'

"We will take out a few of them at once, and once the you get over with that, we will release another round of slimes," Sung told us casually.

"Uhh... All right."

I didn't know what else to say. In games, grinding wasn't like this at all. It left me and Lulu speechless.

"Good, prepare yourselves."

We backed away from them and took our positions, me in front and Lulu at the back. Trin and Sung then released four slimes in front of us. All of them were of different colors, but at the same time transparent. They were blue, brown, red, and white.

The four slimes looked very, very angry.

It was as if their elements were seeping out in the air, making it look like an intimidating aura. These blobs look like they can tear someone's head off.

'Don't they look too scary for slimes?!'

The slimes looked in our direction.

*gulp*

I gulped, thinking of how I'm supposed to be taking the role of a vanguard against these angry slimes. I looked at Lulu, and her lips curled to form a bitter smile.

'Switch with me, damn it!'

But I know I can't do that because she's the ranged role in our party of two. I looked back at the slimes, getting nearer and preparing for their attack. I steeled myself to fight.

*pwoosh*

Water was blasted in my direction by the blue slime.

'A water blast.'

Earlier, while resting, I decided to name the attacks of the slimes, such as fireball, wind blast, and now water blast. The only one left is the earth element.

As I was prepared, I quickly sidestepped the water blast, but what I didn't see was the wind blast after it. It hit my left arm.

I groaned a little, but I kept my composure. The slimes started bouncing left and right, two in each side to close in on me. The earth slime with the water slime to the left, and the fire slime with the wind slime to the right.

"I'm going to start my attack now," Lulu's voice reached my ear.

*bang* *bang*

She hit the fire slime twice, which I followed with a stab, but the other slimes won't just sit idly while their comrade was getting attacked. The other slimes pounced on me as I went for the stab, but I knew that they would do that, so I sidestepped them, but one still hit me. It was the earth slime.

The earth slime's pounce attack was much heavier than the other slimes, pushing me away from the fire slime. Then, the other slimes used their elemental attack.

*pwoosh* *swoosh*

A water blast and wind blast, respectively, was shot toward me, but luckily, I managed to dodge the wind blast. The water blast hit the left side of my body.

'Shit.'

I cursed inwardly due to the pain.

*bang* *bang* *bang*

Lulu shot three of them excluding the fire slime, making them slow down a bit. I got back on my feet and went to stab the fire slime.

Since the slimes were slowed down a little, my stab successfully went in. I followed the stab with a swing, and this time, I didn't let my guard down and went for another round of attacks, cutting the fire slime fully in half. Soon a barrage of attacks came flying at me, including a new element, a rock.

I rolled to the left to dodge, but, alas, since I have never rolled like this, I failed miserably. But to my surprise, it actually worked.

*bang* *bang* *bang*

She shot thrice again, making the slimes much more weaker than before. I regained my footing and ran toward the closest slime to me, the water slime.

I attacked it just like the fire slime and killed it. The other slimes bounced away from me and went to Lulu's direction. But because she reloaded while still having 2 bullets in the cylinder, she still had 4 shots left, after firing 8 times in total.

*bang* *bang* *bang* *bang*

She fired all four and hit each slime twice, successfully killing them, ending the battle.

"Phew... great shots."

"Thank you, but you did a lot more than me, so, good job."

"I wouldn't be able to fight them at all if you weren't here to weaken them," I said with a chuckle.

"Then, good job to the both of us."

She went to my spot and raised both of her hands up. I followed it with mine and did a double high five.

"Yahoo! Success!" I cheered with possible the biggest smile I've ever put on my face.

"Yes!" She joined the cheer with also a big smile.

At that moment, Sung and Trin appeared.

"Great job, you two, impressive battle for a second time," Trin praised.

"Thank you," Lulu and I said in unison, still having a big smile on our faces.

"Now let's continue, your training," Sung declared with a gentle voice.

As soon as Sung said that, our expressions turned grim.

Constant groaning and gun shots could be heard until night.

Upon returning home, my limbs were creaking and felt like it might just fall off anytime soon. The same could be said with Lulu, although not as much as me, she was still hit by some attacks. She also had to run around making sure to get me out of her gun's line of sight before firing.

As the small house's outline appeared in my sight, joy could not be contained on me, making me walk faster.

"Haha, looks like you're eager to get home," Sung said with a laugh.

"After what we did today, I can't wait to wash myself and get some rest."

"Same for me," Lulu chimed in.

"Well just don't sleep yet, Trin and I will make food for dinner."

"Okay," Lulu and I nodded.

Soon we reached the house and I wanted to quickly run to the bathroom, but I had to ask Lulu if she wanted to go first.

"Can I use the bathroom first?"

"Of course, you're more muddy than me, rolling around and all. Go ahead."

"Thank you very much."

With that done, I washed my body and fatigue away, although only slightly on the latter.

When I was done, I came to the room we stayed in, which was just to the left of the bathroom after the storage room, and wore one of the clothes Sung gave from one of the days he returned home.

I called out to Lulu, who was in the living room, and she could be seen darting in the hallway to the bathroom.

I sat on the couch in the living room and rested my body.

After a while, Lulu also came to the living room feeling refreshed. Soon after, Trin and Sung called us to the dining room.

We walked in and saw a feast on the table. Each food looked extremely appetizing, they looked soft and sweet, savory, and pungent. The food filled the round table. But none of them looked exactly like Earth food.

'Except for the fries,' I added inwardly.

"Woah. Every food looks amazing," I voiced out my thoughts.

A sparkle could be seen from my and Lulu's eyes.

"Thanks, we tried our best to prepare these for you both," Trin replied.

"Why for us? We haven't done much for this house," Lulu asked.

"Well, it's for welcoming you both and also for the first time of your training."

"I see. Thank you very much."

"Yes, thank you very much, you two have helped us and have been kind to us a lot even though we've only known each other for not long," I thanked them with my deepest gratitude.

"Of course, since you both will be staying with us, we will treat you like family," Sung replied. "Now let us enjoy a great night!" He added.

All of us nodded and cheered. During the whole feast, we talked about the plans for our training, and it seems like the same routine will go on for a while and then change to a different monster.

'This is torture.'

Soon, the talking died down, and our bellies were filled. I didn't even want to move a single inch from the chair I was sitting on.

But I had to since we still have to clean up. After cleaning up, we said our goodnight to each other and went to our respective rooms.

I painfully set up my futon and sat on it. I turned my face to Lulu who was sitting on the bed and began to talk.

"What a tiring day, huh."

"It very much was. Probably more for you, being pounced on and all."

"Haha, yeah it hurt but I'm starting to get used to it."

"I don't think that's a good thing, but at the same time I think it is."

"I don't know either, probably not, though."

"Anyway, let's look at our stats, they probably rose up after that torturous training."

"All right!" I replied with enthusiasm.

"View Profile!" we both said in unison.

***

------

[Lulu Berg] 

Race: Human

Health: 15 -> 27

STR: 0.3 -> 0.4 (2) 

AGI: 0.2 -> 0.6 (3) 

INT: 0.5 -> 0.9 (4) 

Mana: 0.4 

Skill: None

------

As soon as I said the keyword, the stat panel appeared in front of me.

'Woah, it rose up quite a lot.

'I understand why the str stat didn't rise up much, though.

'And mana... is still the same, probably because we didn't use any mana, just borrowed from Sung.'

***

-----

[Sim Kliff] 

Race: Human

Health: 15 -> 35

STR: 0.2 -> 0.5 (3) 

AGI: 0.4 -> 0.8 (4) 

INT: 0.2 -> 0.6 (2) 

Mana: 0.3 

Skill: None

-----

The stat panel appeared just like the first time it did.

'Holy! I don't know if those are great numbers, but they rose up a lot.

...