As Gara trudged to the community head's home, someone hailed him. "Hallo there Gara!"

Turning, he saw it was one of his friend circle, an ancient two-leg hyena Folk whose fur had long since turned silver. Thoy was older than most of his friends, but she told the best stories about her life as a monster hunter. "Hello, Thoy, I'm just on my way to give the community head the news about my levelup."

Thoy sprinted at him. "'Slime Friend'. It fits you oddly well. I swear, you're always happy when you talk about those slimes."

Gara blinked. "I am? The farm's a big source of worry, not to mention my debts. But I do like the slimes themselves, yes."

Thoy gave a dismissive wave. "That'll work itself out in time. Starting a new thing's like that. I should know, one of my spouses took years to work off the money she'd borrowed to open an bakery."

"Yeah..." Gara pursued his lips. "I was making good progress, but looks like I'll have to ramp down on how much mana-rich food I'm feeding them. They're suffering from mana overload, to the point one of them turned into a monster."

"That how you got your levelup? You look a real mess, more than you usually do after going in that mud pit," Thoy said.

"Yeah... had to kill the poor thing. It took out a couple other of my slimes too." Gara sighed.

Thoy gave him a sympathetic look. "Like I said it'll work itself out. You've been doing good work."

Gara nodded. "Thanks. It would be a bit easier if Tamu had stuck with it. Ah well."

"Too bad about that. Hey, listen up I'm gonna give you some tips since you're gonna be doing some monster hunting." Thoy held up a finger to stave off any objection. "Don't want see you die before I do. This old biddy's time is near."

He just shook his head with a smile. "Your time's been near since I was a little kid."

She said, "I'm just stubborn enough and have high enough Resolve to stave off my death until I find a fitting time and place."

He frowned. "Right, that thing of yours about dying in a worthy battle."

"Aye. When I go, I'm gonna go out in a bang." Thoy stared off in the distance before saying, "This old lady's tips are, first, run when you gotta. Sometimes you gotta grab help or tackle the problem a different way. Second, always keep an eye out. Never know when a monster'll show up. When you'll run across a trap. When something'll ambush you while you're fighting something else."

Gara didn't say anything, staying respectfully silent. Thoy continued, "Third, invest in survivability."

Gara nodded. "Yeah, I've done that. Put a point in Resolve, got a regeneration ability."

"Good. That ability will save your life. Make sure to upgrade it at least once. Would've died if it wasn't for my own healing." Thoy sighed. "Seen too many younglings focus too much on offense and die the first time something mulches them."

Gara said, "I've heard you talking about stat spreads. That's why I picked the one I did. Agility, Control, Resolve. Balanced spread."

Thoy nodded. "Not the only good kind of spread. I've seen people who go all in on Physical or Spiritual and put one in Resilience do well. Does mean they'll have to work harder against stuff resistant to physical or spiritual. Not my favorite because of that, but it works. Heavy focus on Resilience is good too. Means you have a hard time dying, but you got fewer attack options. But me? I like balanced best of all. Gives you a tool for every situation."

"Right. You're Strength/Aura/Resolve aren't you? Not very subtle." Not that Gara disapproved. It just wasn't for him.

Thoy chuckled. "I like things to just explode when I hit them. But a place for that and a place for subtlety as you say. Speaking of, tip number four. Don't go it alone if you can avoid it. Teammates not only add numbers, they add abilities and approaches you don't have. Can cover for your weaknesses while you cover theirs."

Gara said, "Thanks for the advice. Got any more?"

"That's what on top of my head." Thoy wagged a finger. "Just be careful. Don't want you dying young, okay?"

"Got it," Gara said though he wasn't sure it was completely up to him.

Thoy winked. "Anyways, run on your way. Let me know if you need anything crushed or blown up."

The old woman really could do it. Even at her age, she had a formidable strength. After all, she was level 7, 3 higher than the next strongest person in the community. She even had a powerful ultimate ability, though she wouldn't say what it was. With such thoughts, Gara went on his way.

After responding to queries on his messy appearance from bypassing folks, he arrived at his destination. It wasn't a particularly large house, not even the largest in the community. The head wasn't particularly full of himself, if anything people liked and respected him. He had managed to reach level 4 and had a pretty level head.

As much as Gara didn't want to be put on guard and monster hunting duty, he had to acknowledge that the rule that everyone at least level 1 had to do it had its reasons. Many people never managed to level up; it took being potentially on the brink of disaster and overcoming it with ones own effort. And taking turns allowed everyone to do their part while still being able to go about their normal lives. There were only two full time guardians.

"Hello, Head," Gara said as he stepped inside and saw the walrus Folk sitting by his interior pool. Unlike Thoy, the Head wasn't a two-legs, instead having having flippers and a tail.

"Hello, my good slime farmer! I see you bear certain news," Phylu said.

"Good and bad, I suppose. One of my slimes went monster but I managed to kill it." Gara sighed while rubbing his head. "Leveled up. I'm reporting in."

"I see, I see!" A tablet and a chalk flew over and landed in front of the Head. Minor telekinesis was ARMLESS's gift to those Folk without arms to hold things. "Hmm. Can you do a shift tomorrow afternoon? Yeek just called out because of a sick kid. You'll have Sardu as a partner to show you the ropes. You're friends, right? It's fine if you can't do tomorrow, I'll just assign you a different shift and pull in someone else."

Gara hadn't expected a shift coming that soon, but after a quick thought, he decided it was manageable if he fed his slimes earlier in the day. He'd have to get someone else to watch them, but Thoy was generally pretty free and he didn't currently owe her a favor. As for Sardu, they got along pretty well. She was a human Folk like him, who smiled easily and was pretty active. She was one of the two full-time guardians, both of them level 3.

"Yeah, I can do it," he said, "Gonna just go take a bath and a rest."

"Good, good." Phylu wrote Gara's name on the patrol schedule with a telekinetic flourish. "Enjoy your bath."

Gara certainly would. After all, he'd be Aono soon after. As he left and headed toward his house, his steps quickened. He barely said a cursory hello to the people who greeted him, but none of them seemed offended. As soon as he entered his house, he put up the sign asking guests to knock and slid in the bar to lock the door. After all, Aono was his secret. Only Ghaan and the tailor in the next door over that he'd bought the women's clothes from knew, and they were both close-lipped people. He hadn't told Ghaan, but she had her fairy eye ability. She knew basically everything about everyone. In fact, she was the one who had given him the enchanted makeup set, which was how he had found out she knew.

Not that Aono wasn't thankful to Ghaan. It was a very good enchantment. The makeup never ran out and did a very good job of disguising his manly appearance so she could become herself. After a vigorous scrub in her round tub which she put away once she was done, she pulled on the long skirt, underskirt, and blouse she had set out before the bath. Next was the makeup application, followed by pulling out the small mirror she only pulled out when she was Aono. It wasn't a very good mirror, slight disruptions showing in it, but it was enough to see a more pretty and feminine face.

Ahh, if only she could be like this all the time. But she had to be Gara, live his life. It wouldn't be fair to the people who knew Gara otherwise. But here, where no one would see, she could just be Aono. She liked it so much better than being Gara. With a sigh, she sank back onto her bed and before she knew it fell asleep, more exhausted than she had realized.