Unfortunately for Villager A, the Hero returned quite quickly.

"What, there weren't any slimes? If you just wait a bit, some more will spawn," Villager A said. He channeled his frustration into sweeping, though his poor broom creaked in protest.

"Oh, no, there were! I harvested 38 pieces of slime goo! I can sell that, right?" the Hero cheered, the pile of goo in his arms dripping. Villager A made a face. Why didn't he put that in his inventory?

"You killed that many that fast?" Villager A figured that was the Hero for you. He paused. "What level are you?" he asked. Maybe the Hero was already level 100.

"Hold on, let me get rid of these, first," the Hero replied, hurrying into the shop. After a few moments, he returned with a triumphant smile. "38 bronze! How much bronze is worth one gold?"

"50 bronze is one silver, and 50 silver is one gold, so"--Villager A calculated in his head--"about 2500 bronze?"

The Hero stopped smiling. "T...Twenty-five hundred bronze, huh...that's gonna be a lot of slimes..."

Villager A burst out in a laugh despite himself. "You don't have to kill only slimes, you know! If you go deeper into the forest, you'll find monsters worth more." Villager A was too busy trying to regain his composure to see the way the Hero lit up at his smile.

The Hero cleared his throat. "Yeah, but I don't wanna risk dying, you know...If I learned anything from reading adventure stories, it's that you can't be too overconfident! I don't know what will happen to me if I die here! And the slimes don't do any damage to me, so I can farm them without worry," the Hero said seriously. Villager A was perhaps a little surprised that the Hero had a brain after all.

"Well, what level are you? As long as you fight monsters that are a lower level than you, it should be okay." Villager A was really curious what the Hero's level was now.

"Right! I was wondering something. When you defeat a monster, you gain experience, right? Even if it's a low level monster, you'd still get one EXP point, right?"

"Yeah?" There the Hero went again, acting like he didn't know how the world worked. Villager A sighed. He had just been starting to respect the Hero, too. Just a little bit.

"So if you don't get any points, then you're max level, right?"

"Yes," Villager A rolled his eyes. "So you're level 100?"

The Hero rubbed his chin. "That's the thing. When I checked the settings, it didn't say level 100." He moved closer to Villager A and opened his profile. He pointed at the little symbol beside the LVL label. "That's infinity, right? Unless it actually means something else here..."

The clack of Villager A's broom against the cobblestones made the Hero jump. "Hey, you okay?" the Hero asked, putting a hand on Villager A's shoulder.

Villager A looked incredulously from the profile screen, to the Hero, back to the screen. Truly, the Hero of Prophecy was something else. Well, what did he expect from the one who was fated to defeat the Monster King? "You're really amazing," Villager A laughed, shaking his head.

The Hero grinned. "Thanks!" he said, assuming it was a compliment. He picked up the broom and held it out to Villager A. "But I guess you're right. It doesn't have to be slimes. What other monsters do you think I can fight that won't do damage to me?"

Villager A looked at the Hero like he was dirt on his shoes. He snatched his broom back. "With a level like that, you could fight the Monster King right away." Then again, Villager A didn't know what level the Monster King was. Maybe he was level infinity, too. "Probably," Villager A added as a disclaimer.

"Well, I just wanna make enough money to change my name. I can't stand being called CoolBoss69," the Hero said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

Villager A frowned. "I mean, there are villages suffering monster attacks along the border. You could go save them. You are the Hero, after all."

"Ehh?" The Hero looked reluctant. "I mean...I don't know...I ran away from the castle to get away from the Hero stuff...My priorities right now are just to change my name and to find a way home!"

This Hero was really pathetic, Villager A thought. "Not only would you get more valuable drops to sell from the monsters attacking the villages, but you'd also get a reward from the villagers for saving them. Saving a village could be enough to get you a name change."

The Hero lit up. "Oh, that sounds like a good deal!" he said, clapping his hands. "But wait, how dangerous are those monsters? If they're terrorizing a whole village, they must be strong...They won't be able to do damage to me, will they?"

"How should I know?!" Villager A cried. "And why do I have to bribe you like this to save the villages?! You're the Hero! That's your job!"

"I didn't ask to be the Hero!" the Hero whined. "Take my feelings into consideration!"

Villager A had had enough. He whacked the Hero behind the knees with his broom. "Just go! A good person shouldn't have to be convinced like this! Stop loitering in front of my family's shop!"

"Fine, fine! I'll come back as soon as possible!" the Hero said, jumping back from Villager A's attacks.

"Don't! There are other shops besides mine you can go to!" Villager A snapped. He brandished his broom threateningly as he watched the Hero make his way out of town. He wondered if the Hero even knew how to get to the border. Well, it wasn't his problem.