“I’ve mapped out a small segment of this forest from the time I’ve left the cave till now, I can see the areas that have stronger accumulated enemies, the clumps are more habitable areas in the forest with better mana regulation.”
I mumbled out loud as I spoke to myself. It was a habit, I always tried to make sense of things by speaking candidly or speaking in third person as if describing the matter to make sense of it.
“There might be items of worth or herbs that are grown there or who know what other things that can make monsters decide to clump down those areas.”
Right now, I am only one man and I can’t go there no matter how much I want. But I promised myself when I had enough strength I would consume this forest and make it my domain. I wasn’t sure if once I had power I wanted this forest anyway.
“The battle with the goblins didn’t take long at all, lives are lost in a blink of the eye in this world. Actually it’s only been more than an hour since I’ve left the cave.”
I started sensing another mana hotspot, where the flow was slightly denser than the norm. I could tell that the further in I went from there the higher the level of difficulty of the monsters there would be.
“It is best if I go a different direction. I can only kill low level monsters efficiently at this point, there is no need for me to be too hasty.”
I decided to veer off into a different path and could sense some weaker monsters nearby.
[A group of slimes has been detected]
[Slime x 6]
[Red Slime(Level 4) x 1]
“Ohhh, just down my alley. The other slimes will be fast food for me but what about that Red Slime?”
[Red Slime]
One of the variations of slimes from the slime family. The slime is colored red and is slightly stronger than the common slime. It has an affinity to fire so don’t cast fire spells against it. If you are hit by the goo you might get some burns as well. There are some known to be able to cast fire spells but they are known as a rarity.
“So it’ll be fire attribute damage if I get hit huh? Does that mean if i keep getting hit my fire attribute resistance will go up?”
I amused myself but knew I wasn’t a masochist so I didn’t veer down that path yet.
“I’ve had a look at it’s other attributes and there’s nothing out of the ordinary, for a level 4 monster it’s HP is pretty low as well. It can’t even compare a hair to Scotty.”
[Red Slime 32/32 HP 13/13 MP]
“Guess you and your friends will become exp for me as well.”
I ran towards their location to intercept the slimes. It won’t take long before we would begin our battle and I thought to myself it should be easy since all the other slimes are in one hit range. I’ll practically be the reaper to them.
The first slime came into vision. I didn’t conceal myself, I just ran towards it with full gusto.
[You have slain Slime 3]
“Good, nothing out of the ordinary, it’s like a hot knife through butter.”
I shot my glance at the nearest slime and approached it too.
[You have slain Slime 5]
Another one dies as one of the slime tries to tackle me, but it’s just too slow.
[You have slain Slime 4]
[You have slain Slime 6]
A pile of goo was shot at me, I didn’t avoid it though.
[You have taken 1 DMG. You are now 121/122HP]
I wondered if this is what it felt like when an adventurer party battled a raid boss. They practically had to bash at it with an impossible amount of strikes to whittle away its HP.
[You have been hit by Fire Slime’s Goo. You have been inflicted with 3 burn DMG]
“Ahh, this would make more sense. At least you’ll be worth the exp harvested.”
Some extra burn damage after the strike but the initial damage is low so it shouldn’t matter anyway.
“I’ll dispose of the other two slimes first.”
I moved to the first slime and then to the next one. A simple slicing motion, however each strike was fatal and deadly to these simple creatures.
[You have slain Slime 1]
[You have slain Slime 2]
“Now it's just me and you buddy.”
The red slime wobbled about as if it was mourning for its companions. Was a tragic turn of events. It can’t be helped, blame it on the rules of this world.
Rushing forward I dodged another barrage of goo thrown out by this slime.
“I’ve seen that attack before. You can’t change the direction once it’s been thrown, while I can always change my attack trajectory.”
After pulling off some evasive maneuvers I drew close to the red slime again as I did a drive by slice.
[You have dealt 14 DMG to Red Slime]
It’s a fair amount. This guy is equivalent to a level 3 goblin with fire based ranged damage. The damage that went through is so-so because my STR is low and I’ve got a rusty copper sword attached to me.
“Stone Bullet”
I invoked <<Stone Bullet>> at the same as sliced past the red slime. I wasn’t intending to use it at first but I thought about training up my battle capability to fill in holes in my attack pattern with spell casting when I still required time to shift to my next physical movement.
[You have dealt 12 DMG to Red Slime]
I ground to a halt as I turned my ankles slightly to force myself to stop. A small amount of dust flew out as I had done so, nothing too big since I wasn’t as fast as the road runner or anything.
The slime had taken advantage of this opportunity to shoot another ball of goo at me. I think at this point it had accepted its defeat but wanted to inflict as much damage on me as possible. I merely turned my sword into a defensive position to block it.
“This sword is already rusted anyway. It can’t get much worse than this.”
I come rushing back forth to deliver the final blow on the slime. The sword falls from above and cleaves it into two halves.
[You have defeated the Slime party. You have earned 28 EXP points.]
“Honestly if a level 1 adventurer was as strong as I am, he would’ve become level 3 by now.”
I groaned. Earning exp at low levels was easy but the people out here in the sticks are just too weak. Their hp levels are lower than average and so is their growth so finding themselves in a battle between goblins could even be fatal.
[You are now 460/500 EXP to the next level]
“I’ll take the loot as well.”
[7 I-Grade Slime Cores have been obtained]
[1 Red-Flowered Grass has been dropped by Red Slime and obtained]
“Ahh it probably at this fire-element grass and forcefully evolved that would make sense. It gave me a good amount of EXP too. I think it was 21 EXP? Something akin to a goblin scout. The rest were 1 EXP except for the one level 2 slime in the party.”
[You have gained 2 EXP. You are now 462/500 EXP]
“Hmm, there must have been a battle in the dungeon in the time that I was gone. From the notes then that monster would have been strong enough to give roughly 20 EXP for me to receive this amount. I hope they’re alright.”
I try to sense the time off my body clock and feel like not much time has passed still. I don’t want to return before I gain a sense of satisfaction, after all I sensed that something strange was going to occur today and if I don’t take that chance.
“Then I will never be able to take that chance again.”
I stood up and left in another direction.
…
“What is going on? I haven't met any weaker mobs for the past 2 hours! This a monster forest, there should be monsters around of various levels of ability.”
First off, I left and found some straggler monsters here and there and were able to get rid of them. It wasn’t many, just a goblin or two. Right now I’m just 26 EXP short of a level up. But I haven’t seen any weaker monster groups in the past 2 hours. It’s almost dusk, is that why? Is the transition from afternoon to evening this bad? It couldn’t be right? I mean, why are the stronger monster groups also slowly coming towards my location.
“There was another fight in the dungeon as well. I can’t keep thinking about them because I’m in an odd situation myself. Maybe I should turn back?”
I definitely can’t turn back. I’ve already decided on this before, I’m just 26 EXP away. This one level will make a world of difference.
“Ahhhhhh! Somebody help!”
A yell came crying out in the distance, the voice of the distressed girl was somewhere in the vicinity. As I concentrated I could also hear sounds of fighting. I judged the distance. It’s definitely not within 50 meters or I would have recognised it already.
“If I had to guess, they’re 300 metres somewhere in that direction. But should I help?”
I should at least go and check. I activated concealment and left towards the direction of the sounds of fighting.
“You bandits! You won’t get away with this! If you want to fight then you better be prepared to go down with us.”
So it was like this after all, how cliche! Is this a merchant caravan? Ohh I finally found a road as well. I might as well mark it on my map.
“Calm down little miss. Just send us ya goods and we’ll be seeing ya off.”
A somewhat old bandit seemed to be at the forefront of the rest. I scanned through the neutral party and was a bit flabbergasted to say.
[Neutral]
[Merchant - Level 2]
[Warrior - Level 5]
[Archer - Level 4]
[Healer - Level 3]
“People actually have the gall to escort a merchant troupe through a forest with monsters with such abysmal ability?”
I then turned to view the ones in the bandit party and was more shocked.
[Bandit - Level 2] x 6
[Bandit - Level 3] x 3
[Bandit - Level 5]
[Bandit Leader- Level 6]
It’s definitely heavily skewed in the favor of the bandits. But most of them are fodder characters similar to the goblins. If I got a clean hit on them they would instantly collapse.
“Hey there, little friend. I would come out of the bush you hear? I don’t like it when there are onlookers when I do business you know?”
“!?”
“!?”
Author's Note:
Might be a double chapter release again if I can pump out 2 in a day. No promises though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
