Time flew by like it was a leaf caught in a strong wind. Half a year after my chance meeting with Blanche, autumn came and wood we were collecting for winter filled the room next to ours to the brim. Originally, I planned to have the room occupied by Blanche, but as it turned out, she was afraid of sleeping alone in a dark room, so she crawled to my sleeping bag on the first night and by fifth night I gave up and moved her bed to my room.

During this time I was hunting in the forest with the wolves and tamed quite a lot of slimes. Many of which evolved too. One more slime started drinking blood as it's primary food and within few days it evolved into Bloody slime. Some slimes died when they ate wild poisonous weeds, but more of them survived and evolved into Poison slimes. As their diet consisted of ever-present poisonous plants, they multiplied faster than any other kind and at present I had ninety just of them. Stone slimes grew in number to twenty, and speaking of slimes I had before, the Moss slimes expanded their numbers too and now I have forty of them.

Surprisingly, I found even new species of slimes. The first one called Spore Slime evolved from Moss Slime, but I was unable to guess the cause for the change. My best bet was that it ate flowers on our outing and the spores came from the flower's pollen. This slime also looks exactly the same as the Moss slime, except for its color, which turned from vibrant green to sickly yellow. It kinda looked like dried leaves.

Second slime that evolved from regular slime is called Cocoon slime. Its entire body is made from white silk-like substance and it can segregate silk. Unlike the Spore Slime I know exactly what it ate to evolve. It ate cocoons of giant bugs we found in the forest. I tried to tame caterpillars of said bugs, but for some reason failed. Though the caterpillar's meat is amazingly delicious. Blanche took a liking to this slime and started making threads and fabric. Currently, I have eighteen of them. As for the silk they produce, there are three variants: Sticky thread, water repelling thread and a highly durable and elastic thread.

Some of the slimes started eating bones of the animals we hunted and evolved into two different kinds. Those who ate only bones evolved into Acid Slimes and those who ate skin, fur and other body parts on top of bones we had to throw away became Collagen slimes. Of both variants I have ten monsters each. As far as the Collagen slime goes, it appears to eat primarily skin and bones, but it also can eat dead skin from my hands, which in turn made it a little glossier. Collagen slime secretes a white pearl-like substance that when dried and grounded into powder can be used as a food supplement. Recently, my body started growing stronger muscles so I better tone it down before I become a gorilla.

Lastly, I had to do something about the stench coming from our toilet. Firstly I wanted to blast it with fire magic, but some slimes wandered around at the time so I dropped them in the toilet and about a week later they evolved into Grime slimes. Their numbers grow quickly, but they produce fertilizer so all's well that ends well.

The pups are quite an interesting bunch. One of the five have different colored eyes which I firstly thought of as a harmless mutation, but upon taming it turned out that this yellow eyed wolf wasn't Black wolf, but Shadow wolf, a rare variant. He has a skill called Shadow movement which he usually uses to hide and jump on us when we don't expect that.

When the pups saw that I tame slimes, they started hunting monsters nearby with their parents looking after them and brought some of them for me to tame. So far, they brought a Fire Beetle, a monster that breathes fire and can increase its body temperature. Phantom Owl, an advanced species of Shadow owl which can use Wind and Light magic. And lastly a snake monster that tried to attack me right away so Kuro killed it. Most likely he wanted to stop them from running wild, though I liked that I didn't have to search for new monsters myself.

Speaking of taming monsters, I wanted Blanche to try taming a slime, but she was unable to use <Tame> the most important, and basic, taming magic spell. This got her really down so I started to think how to get her spirit up, but then it hit me.

If she can't use Taming magic, then she might have a knack for Summoning magic. As the two were complete opposites to each other, it would be no surprise she failed to use <Tame>. When I informed her of my idea, she got really happy and for some reason hugged me too.

"Arito, good morning," Blanche smiled at me from the bedroom where she just woke up. I was in the kitchen next door preparing breakfast consisting of mushrooms, herbs and several different grains.

As for my tools, all I was using was made from metals. As for how I got them, I ran into some more bandits and had to deal with them. Thanks to that we got all their equipment and goods. Some of them were useful, some of them weren't. Like for example coins. We could not use them so I stashed them away in the store room with the remaining items I found in the cave. On the other hand, I also found books. So as I already knew this world's language, letters and numbers, I was able to start teaching Blanche who was completely illiterate. Though it looks like this world has a really low literacy rate.

"Good morning Blanche, do you want tea? The pot still has enough hot water for a few cups."

"Yeah, I would love that…" she smiled, still sleepily.

Somehow, this feels more like married life than whatever I had with my girlfriend on earth.

That thought threw salt in wounds in my heart. Somehow, Blanche felt that as she immediately hugged me from behind. Just that, made me ease up and I patted her hand that was close to my neck.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome. This is really not that much compared to what you did for me, though," Blanche smiled at me and led me by hand to the table.

We started our breakfast and started talking about today's plan.

"Yesterday, I saw some Scale Frogs appearing near the Pond."

"Really? That's a good thing, I remember some adventurers using their skin for armor. They spit paralytic poison so their Poison sacks are commonly used by Drug stores in Paralysis poisons for arrows. Their livers on the other hand can be used as a paralysis antidote."

"You know a lot Blanche, were you close to someone making medicine?"

"My mother did…"

"Sorry about that."

"It's fine, information is only useful when used, their origin isn't important," Blanche shook her head and smiled, "Plus, if they never sold me, I would never meet you."

As she said that, I could feel my cheeks burning redder than they were before.

"A-anyway, once we hunt some, we should also get some more meat. So far we have deer, bear caterpillar, squirrels and some fish, but I'm not sure we will make it through the winter with just our stock right now, especially as we only have a handful of spices and herbs."

"Mushrooms also grow scarce in the forest. Yesterday, I saw one of the moss slimes feasting on some."

"Really? Hmm… maybe it will give us some light on how the Spore slimes came to be. I only bet on flowers, but it's possible for mushrooms to be the cause as well."

"Well, as long as it only eats mushrooms we didn't pick. They already have Poison resistance skills so they should be fine."

"Hahah, yeah, they became quite resilient."

"Wasn't it you, Arito, who ate mushrooms because the slimes said it was fine and got poisoned because of it?" Blanche looked at me a little accusingly.

"You got a point, but I did get Hallucination resistance skill from it and my Poison resistance also leveled up, so I guess I gained a little from it too."

"Honestly! Do you know how worried you made me? I don't want to feel like that ever again!"

"Okay, I hear you, don't get angry at me any more please," I raised my hands in defeat as I could not fight Blanche when she got into this worried housewife mode.

After breakfast we took our bows and hunting knives and went to the forest to check on our traps.

"This is my first time seeing a rabbit here," Blanche said as she took a black rabbit with white spots on its body from a trap we set up the furthest from our cave.

"It's my first time seeing one too. Apparently it's a Snowback rabbit and it lives in cold mountainous areas. I guess it will snow here soon," I reported findings of my Appraisal spell.

"That's weird… There are only flatlands near here. Kassana forests span over vast amounts of land and there is a mountain range to the north, but it's about a month's worth of walking."

"I could see them migrating this far if they had some kind of reason for it… maybe some powerful monster appeared."

"From what I heard back in the village, Snowback Rabbits are really weak so most monsters hunt them, even goblins can hunt them."

"Wow, they really are weak. Well, let's be vigilant, it's better be safe than sorry."

"Yeah."

"Woof!" The pups agreed with me as well and we continued hunting until evening.

Few days have passed and since then the winds started to get chilly. Leaves which were in all shades of yellow, red and brown started falling and we finally got to collect some nuts. Our traps started to have lower numbers of monsters that were edible and more goblins in them. Though, some goblins were smart and managed to get out of the traps by destroying them.

"I think we might be facing a goblin village…" Blanche said with a worried look.

"Is that bad?"

"Goblins by themselves are weak, but higher their numbers, the higher their danger level gets. If it's only a village of tens, then we will be okay, but if there are hundreds… we might be in trouble."

"I see…"

"The worst part is that the goblins sometimes kidnap instead of kill and… procrastinate with their captured victims," Blanche had a disgusted expression written all over her cute face.

"I guess we should find them and crush them quickly then," I freed the corpse of a goblin from my trap and the Corpse slime ate it. Recently, the Corpse slime split, so I now have four of them. "Persia, could you locate the highest numbers of goblins nearby?" I asked my Phantom Owl sitting on a tree branch.

"Hooo," Persia flew high into the air and disappeared in the skies above us.

"Now when we wait, why don't we try to look for some bug monsters?"

"Do we really have to? I can see how Rusty is useful, but I'm not so sure about other bugs," Blanche got really annoyed talking about bugs, but somehow I was unaffected by her unwillingness. In the end, I found another Fire beetle like Rusty and two slimes munching on fallen tree leaves.

Right after I finished taming the slime duo, Persia returned and sat on my shoulder. Once she was comfortably seated she wiped her wind in one direction. I'm always surprised how well Persia manages to navigate through the forest even on ground. I'm sure I couldn't navigate from a bird's perspective.

As we got deeper in the forest, or at least we did in my mental map, the trees were getting more and more sparse. We eased up our steps, executing caution with every move. Persia flew in the air and sat on a nearby tree's branch. We are close. This tension… huuuuh, it's even worse than before the deadline. Not like I have deadlines anymore…

Hidden in the shade of the forest I looked into the meadow.

The sight frightened me. There were tents that looked rough and beaten up. Each of the tents could hold four to five people in them. The goblins are around the size of a four year old child, but even from the shade I was hiding myself in, I could see a looming shadow of a goblin more than two meters tall.

"We don't have enough strength. We should return back and come up with a plan," I said to Blanche who tightly gripped her bow.

"I know…" Blanche had a complicated look on her face, but agreed to come with me anyway.

Back in the cave I placed ten cones representing tenants in similar shape as they were in the goblin camp.

"From what we saw, we can expect forty to fifty goblins. Plus they are breeding quickly so in a week their numbers may be double, given their food situation is good."

"Yeah," I nodded to Blanche, "they might start eating out the forest and we won't be able to live easily. Especially now before winter it's bad. What worries me the most is that giant."

"That's… most likely a Hobgoblin. They act as pack leaders and are as dangerous as any adult."

"Any weakness we could exploit?"

"None that I'm aware of," Blanche shook her head dismissively.

"Which leaves us with only so few options… We have eight wolves, almost two hundred of various slimes, but… will it be okay? The slimes are weak and not all can fight," I got worried about my pets as I placed the second Fire beetle next to the first one and they instantly became good friends, clacking their horns rhythmically.

"I believe we should. The slimes are considered weak monsters by themselves, but I believe these numbers will help them."

"Okay. Let's come up with an attack plan then," I gave her a nod, putting down the golden slime.

From here on, everything went easily. We made a plan to attack at noon, when the goblins are less active and take them all out at once, if possible.

And so, we once again set up for the Goblin village early in the morning of the next day. The Poison slimes were jumping and rolling all around us with wolves carrying Acid slimes on their backs. Our plan was for me and Blanche to surround the village with wolves and throw the acid slimes into the middle of the village. Then the slimes would attack with acid, forcing the goblins to run away. Of course that would make them targets too, so they will have to leave the village as fast as they could. Since the Acid slimes multiplied up to forty I'm not as worried, but still…

Lastly, any goblin that would escape would be hunted down by us and the wolves. The Poison slimes will form a line between us, using its poisons to make the goblins unable to approach us. Where I'm worried is that big goblin, hobgoblin, in the middle.

About an hour before noon we arrived at the goblin village. Some goblins were in their tents, but most of them were just lying around in the sun, lazing around.

"Let's do this…" I gave a hand signal to Blanche on the opposite side of the forest and we moved into position, each of us having ten Acid slimes with us to throw.

Once everyone was in position, I started by condensing energy around myself, not magical, but physical. The difference between the two is that when you surround your body with magical energy it becomes easier to cast spells but when you use Physical energy, you could enhance the power of your weapons too. It also works for muscles as they don't get as tired as they usually would.

The Acid slimes started flying through the air as if they were airborne. Some started dropping their acid as they were flying, some released it after landing. The goblins were in a state of panic. Some tried to take their weapons (mostly clubs, sticks or stones) and attack the slimes, but the slimes just passed around them and fled the attackers.

"GOBAAAAAAAA!!!!!!" Here came the giant goblin. It was currently inside one of the tents when slime landed on the roof, made a hole in it and fell down inside, where it sprayed its acid.

The giant goblin ran out of the tent and started rampaging. None of the small goblins stood a chance against the giant, they were getting stomped on, hit with the giant's fists and so on and so forth. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the Acid slime took out the Hobgoblin's eyes and a half of its face with them. Sensing the situation was turning grimmer to them, the goblins decided to run. I tugged an arrow in my bow and shot down the first one. From the look of things, most of the goblins died to the surprise attack so not as many were left for us to kill. Shikuro, the Shadow wolf, looked extremely bored so it lay down next to me, which prompted Kuro, his father, to smack him with his tail.

Seeing this lovely sight made me almost forget what was happening around us. The Hobgoblin in the meantime got attacked by other Acid slimes and started to bleed from other parts of his body. However as he was nearly blind he was attacking at random, doing more damage to his fellow goblins than us.

Finally, after about an hour, the goblins were gone. The hobgoblin was still rampaging, destroying the camp in its crushing wake. At this point in time it was about time he dropped dead so we closed in and I drove five arrows into his chest.

Once the Hobgoblin fell, I ordered my slimes to eat all the goblin corpses and clean up the place.

"It was surprisingly quick…" Blanche smiled as she walked up to me with four wolves accompanying her.

"Yeah… we didn't even lose a single slime, mark me surprised."

"Let's search for the goblin treasure. I'm sure it will only be some equipment from unlucky adventurers and farmers, though," she shrugged and entered the biggest tent where the Hobgoblin resided, "Huh?!"

Following her surprised yelp I entered the tent as well and did not believe my eyes. On the ground was a tied-up girl with a gag in her mouth. She was clearly a human teen with red hair and dark blue eyes. Her skin was slightly tanned and muscular, most likely a knight.

Seeing Blanche not wanting to approach her, I walked past her and knelt before the girl, removing the gag from her mouth. "Who are you?"

"I-I'm Henretta Nomille, daughter of duke Nomille. And you are?"

"A resident of Kassana forest. My name is Arito Aruze and she goes by Blanche."

"An Ancient… and an Albino Elf? Rare combination," she said as I worked on removing her restraints.

"You know about Ancients?"

"Ah, yes. My grandfather is Ancient actually. Though I don't have any marks on my hands or back to prove it. Thank you, I will make sure you are handsomely rewarded for this," Henretta moved her hands and legs to get her blood moving.

"No need for rewards. We live in the forest so we have no need for things from cityfolk," I denied her attempt at rewarding me and stood up, "I will leave some food and camping gear outside. You are free to take it."

"But that would be…"

"You will take it and go back to the city," I gave her a slightly cold look and went out muttering in a way she could hear me, "Humans again… will I ever be set free from those vermin…"

Once outside, I took a deep breath and looked at the depressed looking Blanche, "Are you okay?"

"Ah! Y-yes! …actually… I… I'm an albino… so…"

"What about it?" I put my hands behind my head and looked at her, "Does that have anything to do with your amazing cooking?"

"N-no…"

"Or your marksmanship?"

"N-no…"

"Or your sweet personality?"

"N-no…" Blanche blushed.

"Then there is nothing to worry about."

"B-but the people from the city… they might say some terrible things…"

"So what about it? Are they here? I haven't seen any. It's just you and me… oh, and the wolves and slimes. Though, they don't talk."

"I see," Blanche smiled at me and walked up to me, "It's just you and me."

Her smiling face at the time could charm even the most stone-hearted person. I quickly dropped the things I promised Henretta and left the place with Blanche and the wolves by my side.

We made our way back to the forest and I finally relaxed. Aaah, now that the goblins are gone, we should have some peace…

Just as that thought entered my mind, we exited the forest by the pond.

"I jinxed it…" I growled as a big Hobgoblin and two small goblins looked at me fearfully.