Walking towards the guild, I paused at the entrance. There seemed to be a loud ruckus occurring from within. Did someone came to pick a fight with us?

I pushed open the door and strode in, hand at my masks ready to kick some ass. To my surprise, I see many adventurers gearing up. Focusing on the crowd as I edged towards the receptionist desk, I asked the guild receptionist on duty. "Hey Shadow, did the demon orc come back to life or something?" 

"No, the guildmaster posted an update today. It says we can take as many as six quests at a time. One quest above your rank, three quests at your rank, and two quests below your rank. There are now new quests posted on the quest board as well." The tinkerer in all black replied.

"Really? That's great! Time to rack up some completions and raise my rank." I replied excitedly.

I walked up to the quest board and looked at the surplus of quests. There were some monster extermination quests, some expedition quests, some special quests, some gathering quests, and some limited first-come-first-serve quests. After browsing for a minute or two, I decided to choose four monster extermination quests and one gathering quest.

I walked up to Shadow and handed him the application for the five quests. "Here, these are the quests I'll be taking: Slay twenty slimes, slay five boar warriors, slay eight rampaging rhinos, slay five cyclopes, and gather three fire crystals."

"Wow, that's a lot." Shadow exclaimed as he reviewed my application. "You sure you can do all of them?"

"No problem." I patted my chest confidently.

"Okay, here you are then." Shadow replied as he finished processing my application and handed my guild card back to me.

*******

As I walked out of the guild, I decided to hunt some slimes first. Remembering that slimes resided in the grasslands, I headed north of the city to a large plains. After walking for a few hours, I entered the grasslands. Rummaging around the tall grass, I finally came upon a slime.

This green little blob of booger-like existence with a dark green core in the center shouldn't be that hard, right? Taking my skinning knife out, I stabbed at the slime and pierced through its nucleus.

The slime, after having its nucleus and its source of magical power pierced, collapsed into 'slime water'. Curiously looking at the slime water, I muttered to myself with interest. "Hmm, this can probably be used as a material."

Taking out a small-sized jar, I scooped the harmless slime water into it. Then, I continued looking for slimes. Each slime I meet, I would just pierce the nucleus and then collect the slime water.

Strangely, however, the fifth slime that I killed made a *SKREEE* noise when it died. Didn't know slimes could make such noises. As I collected my fifth jar of slime water, I couldn't help but shiver involuntarily. I had a bad feeling - it felt as if I was being watched.

*THUD!*

I turned around and saw a giant slime in the distance. A giant slime was usually made when 10 or more slimes merged together. This giant slime was tough and could be considered as a D-rank monster. The nucleus was situated deep in the center, making it impossible for a knife user like him to reach in without being swallowed.

"What to do?" I scratched my head as I kept my distance.

Suddenly, a light bulb flashed in my head. Reaching in my backpack, I pulled out a violet hobgoblin mask I had made in my previous adventures.

I put on the mask and transformed into a violet-colored hobgoblin a few seconds later. Now, violet-colored hobgoblins were known to have thunder affinity and could do some basic thunder or lightning spells.

In my mind, I reasoned that since the normal slimes were made mostly from water, then their weakness would have to be thunder or lightning. With lightning coursing through my arms from the skill - Paralyzing Sting, I approached the giant slime.

As if unbothered by the sparks flying from my arms, the giant slime lunged towards me in an attempt to swallow me whole. However, I thrust out both my arms and plunged them into the giant slime.

*BZZZT!*

The lightning quickly spread around and throughout the giant slime. Paralyzed, the giant slime could not uphold the bonds required to merge and collapsed into what looked like fifteen slimes.

Luckily for me, the fifteen slimes were still paralyzed and could not move. Quickly, I took off my mask, pulled out my skinning knife, and stabbed each slime into their nuclei. After collecting the some of the slime water into a number of jars, I left the grasslands and prepared to move on to my next destination.