After the restless breeze accompanied me with the white touch of the once-yellow dandelions throughout the greenery and barren roads. 

I arrived at Astia village's south entrance during the afternoon. Without waiting for the smoldering ground to warm my feet more than it should, my slim body hastened through the crowd of villagers.

Some men in white cloth with green hexagrams were up on their backs, carrying long manufactured sticks. Potentially wooden staffs, weapons of long-range casting, capable of turning their spells stronger and more accurate. Upon an unfortunate encounter with a foe, even to serve them as a shield against an attack.

There were those with some finer leather clothes. Those whose eyes were golden sought the many profits from the people's trades: merchants, their purpose in life. Keen men with a talent for the numbers, some better than others, yet all very opportunistic.

But what often picked my curiosity was the one in a hundred passer-by individuals who had masks as black as the night, leaving only their eyes uncovered. Those were good at losing their trackers and keeping themselves out of common sight.

I, too, had attempted to chase one of them, but hadn't taken me long to lose sight of their nimble movements. 

Such men were a rarity who'd be a more frequent eye catch during the night. It was due to that, that I dared not go out during such times through the village. Kidnappers existed, and there was a chance such men were behind the missing children.

I grew up with some of the kids, but truth be told that the same number that I used to know was far from the same amount that remained. Initially, I thought they had moved away to a different village. Perhaps even taken by their parents, who wished for a chance of making their fortune in the great capital.

But thanks to the severe warnings of my father, I withstood reasons to stay away from such men, always believing the worst.

At least as long as no close friend got taken, or my sister, for that matter. 

I bite my tongue, thinking about them.

'I can't do much as I am now,' there was hope in my sister's words. I could only wish no bad thing would happen before I obtained power. And if I didn't manage, then being able to find a way to get rid of the kidnappings wouldn't be bad either.

A lot of goals for my young self.

Such thoughts often roamed the endless sea inside my brain. 

Humans who were used to killing their own race were likely the toughest foes I could find. I dared not attempt to try my luck with them. Assassins, thieves, and all kinds of evildoers outclassed all my hopes.

The madness of this world could easily trample anyone's goodwill. This, too, had been a great lesson from my father. He had seen despicable narcissists and vile nobles trampling over the peasants. Yet that was just the tip of the iceberg. 

Certainly, there were more secrets to humanity than the ones we knew.

There was further chaos to pass through my emeralds, but for the time being, I stood true to myself.

I made my way to the adventurers' guild, through the center of the roads, waving to the people I knew. Many of them were not villagers I was acquainted with. Sometimes the gesture of saying good morning or doing a small wave at them with my left hand was enough to receive a similar one in return.

There's good in others, despite the bad and sad things of our world, and I enjoyed delving into their kindness.

Even with poverty, the taxes to the pope and to the royal family, the citizens didn't rebel.

Families who have more mouths than the ones they can feed, send a few to the church's orphanages. There they have to serve the men in white cloth, to become one of them and to spread the divine word.

Or, they're sent to the military barracks, where they are trained from a young age to turn into great soldiers. However, due to their birth origin, that's all they ever become. 

The blood in this kingdom dictated one's future possibilities for many generations, and it is no different for me. 

Born a peasant, dying as one.

A sigh escaped my lips as I took a glimpse of the guild's entrance.

As soon as I went through the entrance, the now-familiar scent of booze entered my nostrils. It didn't bring thirst upon my throat. My mother often told me we needed to keep our mind sharp and ale gave us a temporary sense of fake satisfaction and dullness.

She had a drunkard master in the past, known by many as a swordmaster. Yet, there was one peculiar thing about him that distinguished him from the rest. He rarely accepted a new student, and more often than not, these individuals were hand-picked by his own measurements. 

'Master Ray the fallen noble,' I had engraved his title and name in my mind. Important information such as this was by no means a trivial concept. 

Sometimes knowing this kind of info could one day allow me to know who I'm up against. Thus, falling back, or if possible, completely avoiding my opponent.

It was quite the same for the beasts and monsters of Artana. This world had a lot of dangerous species. Knowing them by eyesight and name alone increased the odds of survival out there in the wild.

Knowledge, while not the main factor of survivability, was still the one that could help an adventurer in many ways.

For once, getting to know the surrounding terrain, especially during the moon season when the snow could trick with hidden depths. Or if it was necessary to make a fire, one should do so in open spaces with full visibility for any approaching foes.

But above all, to know the instinctive methods humanity foes used to hunt my weak kin.

Took me thirty calm steps to reach the reception. 

"Good morning!"

"Good morning. How may I be of help?"

As soon as the man's words faltered, I placed the cards on top of the table.

"I'm here to form my party," my fingers spread the cards, showing that they were two and not one like it appeared to be, due to them being piled up.

"Just a moment," he retrieved them and checked their information. After taking some notes, he stole a glimpse in my way. "Party name?"

"Unknown," I added briefly, causing a guy from the table behind to chortle.

He followed such self-amusement with the typical bully commentary, "unknown indeed."

The trio laughed at his words, knowing I was no one in this guild. Not a worthy adventurer, nor famous, nor anything in this line of work.

"Don't mind the ale-for-life' party," he smiled briefly at me to not discourage my own. "I've registered the party. As per the rules, no quest higher than F can be taken until the rank improves."

"Yes. Thank you. I'd like one."

"In that case, your party can start with this one," he slid both cards along with a piece of paper my way and I got hold of them without hesitation, storing them inside the pocket of my jacket.

After stealing a glance at the laughing men, who had red cheeks and yellow teeth, I made my way to the nearby farm where my first solo quest awaited. In this place, I became aware of a cushion of flies floating on top of a huge piece of poo, alerting me that animals likely lived nearby. Despite looking at my surroundings for a while, there were only chickens trapped within wooden fences, certainly not big creatures enough to do that kind of crap. Disregarding the smell, I went on, finding a familiar face from older times.

"Hello, Thomas!"

 "Are you..." his hand shook as it held on his cane, possibly remembering my rare golden hair. "That little miss?"

"The scarecrow girl," I gleamed tenderly at him.

"How time flies! How have you been?" 

"Good and you?"

"Growing older," he laughed, glancing over at West due to the commotion. "A party came earlier for my request."

I followed his sight, finding a group of possible adventurers in the distance. "I've also come to help."

His bewildered expression faced me, "you've become an-"

And as he was about to finish his sentence, I showed him my card.

"You've truly grown up, little Iris. If I was still young, I'd burn those fiends with a torch!"

"I heard they are very resistant to most things."

He placed a second hand on the cane, as if exhausted from standing still. "You've not heard wrong. Not at all! Those pieces of poo melt everything they come in contact with!"

"They sound dangerous."

"They are!" His eyes hovered over my waistline, "especially since they manage to render metal completely useless."

At his words, I gripped my mother's sword, holding it by the pommel.

"Meaning I may not have much of a way to deal with them."

"Mages have it the easiest with all their elemental powers! I saw it with my own eyes, the way they reduced those nasty things with huge fireballs." Though his excitement died briefly after.

"What's wrong Thomas?"

"Well... the adventurers also turned the fields into ash back then."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Yes... it was almost better to leave them be, since they didn't eat everything."

I averted my gaze from him, knowing that there had been other stories like his. The adventurers wouldn't be punished for damaging personal belongings. Such was part of the contract the requester made with the guild. Yet, it made me upset at how incompetent they had been. I looked at the location where the fight was going on, hoping to make a change.

"Go on then."

I stole a glimpse at him, believing he was looking at my determined self and cheering for me, "I'll be back."

Hastily, I dashed to their encounter, noticing how they were all fighting by themselves quite spread from each other.

'What are they doing?'

The archer seemed to be having some trouble, running away from three slimes. I made my way to him, taking on my sword.

As he got almost surrounded, one of the monsters stretched itself toward him. However, I managed to block its attack just in time.

"Thank you."

His eyes must've looked at me, not knowing me.

"Who are you?"

"Iris," I gave him a brief answer, feeling rather overwhelmed by the situation at hand. 

Yet, as if taking this fight as a joke, he kept on talking. "I'm Helios from the hawk party. What are you doing here alone?"

But before I could answer, the internal stream coming from the slime propagated to the tentacle, causing me to force my sword left then with all my strength right, forcing it to disconnect, "annoying."

I picked up the scent of burning behind me, causing me to steal a glimpse at him burning his arrow. Just in case I moved a bit to the right, unknowingly if he'd accidentally hit me instead.

He shot and pierced the slime setting it ablaze. Its fluid self shook and made strange forms that weren't their usual seemingly one of round balls, innocently rolling through the ground and devouring everything that came in contact with them.

Without wanting to give the monster an option to recover, I sliced it along with the flames from above, splitting it into two equal parts.

System: You have received the title, Monster Slayer and Slime Slayer.
Notice: You have received 10 points of experience and 10 fame; Status updated.

"Hey! That kill was mine!"

With the other slime approaching me, I had no time to apologize for stealing it accidentally.

"My bad. You can have the soul stone."

At my words, he clicked his tongue, dashing to his party as if telling me to handle the rest on my own as punishment.

"Seriously?" I had just saved his life, and he acted so selfishly toward me in exchange. However, thanks to his running, one of the slimes went after him, allowing me to have a duel with the remaining one. Once again, I followed the same pattern, discovering that they'd halt their movements to stretch a part of themselves. As it did so, I parried the attack, pushing it away from me, taking a step closer, and slashing it in half.

But there was no message like before, causing me to doubt its death.

I jumped backward once, then twice, receiving a momentary chance to rub my sword on the greenery below, watching over what I thought to be its corpse slowly glueing back anew.

'So annoying,' I complained in my mind how unjust its regenerative abilities were, being able to heal its whole self, and worse yet, having suffered no damage whatsoever from my attack. The latter I couldn't prove, but its form didn't change, and it didn't look like it minded my attack. Certainly even as a helper, there were some monster that I had heard about but never got to meddle. A linger of regret withstood within my heart for not having researched things properly. Yet, in a fortunate way, the old man Thomas's words came to mind, allowing me to remember the fireball magic along with the way the archer had ignited his arrow.

'Will it work?' after waiting for the slime to try his luck once more, I blocked its upcoming stretching attack. "Freeze!" Its stretched part slowly turned more solid and white, allowing my hand to glue to the already-made ice, using less mana in the process. I used a lot of my energy to freeze even part of its body. Then, before he managed to melt it, I used my sword to slash through it, starting from the frozen layer for its particles to pierce the slime insides.

Notice: System consumed 50 mana. You have received 10 points of experience and 10 fame; Status updated.

"I did it? I did it!" For anyone else that may have seen me celebrating over killing these small fries, it may have looked silly and pitiful, but I was genuinely happy about succeeding, whereas before I was too scared to even try.

'She was right!' I coveted Aurora's words about myself, at the way she declared I could become more and better if I gave it my all.

I stole a glimpse at the party's way, realizing that Helios was pointing my way. Two of his members shook their heads to the side, moving even further away from me.

'Good job Iris. You've managed to make even more friends,' I thought to myself in an old habit of talking to myself, realizing that the party had put me on their blacklist. But I knew that the young man had overreacted and the price of the resources he had spent would be close to the soul stone value. I told myself these things to alleviate the pressure crushing me. Other people's feelings were often the cause of my anxiety, as I was often misunderstood by my awkward self, but it also felt like they did it on purpose. Since young my friends weren't many, I needed one hand to count those whom my heart trusted. There had been a lot of kids who grew up with me, which I became acquainted with, but age turned out relationships into a wider distance. The religion which propagated through the entire kingdom of Lumen made me a rare specimen. People were naturally not in favor of those who were different than what their goddess favored, but I, too, was a human being, and their actions and words hurt me. Age had made many of them aware of my blonde hair and eyes. They were jealous of my emeralds, yet couldn't care less about the rest. I thought to myself that I was quite cute, but all they cared about was for black-haired girls and boys.
Despite my best effort to come to terms with them, their parents made sure to teach their kids that I was some sort of otherworldly creature.

'I'm just a human being like you,' these had been the words I had used in one of my conversations with one of them, which led to them saying that I was too different.

Thus as years passed, I closed myself to outsiders, keeping the few bonds I managed to get, and sheltering them without going too deep into either of them.

Johan and Elise had been two of them, and Alice the third.

I looked at my hand, realizing that there were at least two more fingers than the number of my successful friendships.

'I'm so pitiful,' my complaints shook in my mind. More than anyone else, I desperately tried to make friends due to that horrible past life.

'Did I try too hard?' Some things were hard to know. At times, I felt the higher beings had cursed me, especially her, the sovereign of humanity: the goddess Aria.
Time and time again I felt myself distancing from her godliness, feeling that a part of my unfortunate life was thanks to her doings.
'She could have given us happiness,' I wished it for me and my family. My mother too had been discriminated against before. It was thanks to her stories that I withstood my ground without crumbling into pieces, learning that sometimes struggling through life was a must. 

A smile filled with despair formed on my face, 'life is so unfair.' 

Truly, how I hated this part of living.

With a melancholic expression and a long sigh, I grabbed the two soul stones and took them with me back to the adventurer guild.

I looked at the party location, noticing the fight getting fiercer. The movements of the slimes became a bit more concentrated. Farther behind them, there was a red ball, bigger in size, and with a circle below, transforming mana into an element.

"That looks like trouble!" I held myself back after Helios complained about me stealing the kill. 

Their group of four was composed of two male archers, both with a leather set and quivers on their backs. A lady wielding a dagger, and a short figure covered in a black robe and hood holding a club.

The big slime waved slightly creating a red magical circle that would convert mana into elemental energy, and briefly after, a huge fireball followed.

In a matter of seconds, the group dispersed further, especially the archers who dared not stay in the way of the upcoming projectile.

The girl who was in front got struck by it, causing a yell filled with pain to roar through the land. The fireball upon collision dispersed to the sides, burning the surrounding greenery.

The clear-looking creatures kept on attacking, forcing the survivors to retreat.

I noticed how fast they ran away as the red monster kept channeling more energy, possibly preparing another projectile.

'If only I had helped,' a bitter smile surfaced on my expression, knowing they deserved to be punished for their rude behavior. It didn't bother me someone had just died in front of my eyes. If anything, I just hoped it had been Helios.

'What will happen now?' My gaze kept on the burning ground, realizing the woman's body hadn't been completely reduced to ashes. 

'What is it doing?' 

The red monster canceled its channeling, moving closer to the girl, passing through the flames without a care in the world.

'Is it immune to fire?' It made me realize the fire arrows against it were likely useless, causing that monster to be quite nasty to deal with for that party.

'It's eating her...' the way the creature shone beautifully in golden made me wonder what it received for eating the girl's soul stone.

But I didn't dare to stay behind, unwilling to put myself in more danger. My mana was not enough to deal with that thing. Worse yet, it was not alone.

I had heard the stories of fellow adventurers at the guild, the way a golden aura surrounded them every time they leveled up. It felt rather surprising how these monsters increased their levels not by killing but by consuming soul stones.

'I need to get more mana,' for someone like me who wanted magic to be my main aspect. The parameters I currently possessed were rather lacking. Carefully, I made my way back to the guild.

'With levels, I'll receive status points. Then I'll spend them in wisdom to increase the max amount of magical energy my body can withstand,' my head swayed in a calm manner, symbolizing myself agreeing with this little plan of mine.