[Naked and Unafraid, first milestone rewards can be claimed.]
It was confusing, I had gotten the quest after we killed the slime, so why had I gotten it credited towards it? Either way I wasn’t going to complain, I had quite a few slimes to kill and not a lot of time so I shouldn’t question it.
~~*~~
Bottle of Slime Pheromones
Description: A generic glass bottle filled with 8 ounces of slime pheromones. These can be used to attract slimes in the vicinity of 100 feet. Must be used on a living creature, will not prevent slimes from attacking the user.
~~*~~
“What kind of reward is this?!” The rage had returned and brought sarcasm with it. “You could have given me clothes, but nooo. You just had to give me slime pheromones. I would have been happy with a shirt or maybe even some different arrows or even 5 XP. But no. Slime pheromones.”
I kicked myself for believing in the gods, they weren’t kind. This was like a game or tv for them. I was foolish. Being around Aureus was definitely part of it. I never trusted anyone anymore, but that precious baby got my guard down and I started trusting the gods that appeared alongside him.
[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” complains that the quest name is Naked and Unafraid not t-shirts and terrified.]
[“Traveling Spring Painter” expresses that quests give good rewards and you should try it out.]
[“Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” frowns and complains that it's disappointing you don’t see the value of the item you received.]
[“Reflection of an Empty Throne” states that the three gods are to blame for spoiling you.]
Their comments stung, I knew it was a helpful item. But the idea of rubbing the pheromones of those wretched creatures on my mostly nude body made me want to vomit. I had struggled a lot, I nearly died and I lost my clothes... Maybe I was spoiled, people had likely already died. I had no clue what other people had been enduring all this time after all.
I looked at the quest window as the seconds ticked away. I had a whole week, really I should stop rebelling against reality and accept that this is something I needed to do. The quest’s difficulty increased exponentially, so I needed to suck it up and start working immediately. Killing that one was already emotionally taxing but just to get three more rewards I had to kill 1,110 more? Plus after that I can’t get the next reward without killing 10,000? There's no way I can kill that many through normal means. Well, not in a week at least.
I sighed, "You're right, I let my emotions get the better of me. This is a good opportunity. But! You didn't have to set it up this way! This is reality TV for you guys, huh? And you of course had to choose those disgusting things." I grumbled a few more complaints before getting up to start working. It seems I had grown more attached to the gods than I expected, I was overwhelmed with disgust and betrayal and lashed out before I knew it. I reminded myself that I was a Candidate and this was their game and that it was right to thank them for things like this even when I didn't want to.
So how did you want to hunt those creatures? I looked at Aureus, I was surprised he knew that's what we were going to do. Well of course I know, we are soul bonded plus I can see the windows and talk to those gods too.
Oh yeah, sometimes I forget you can hear my thoughts. I never expected that you could see the system and talk to the gods though. The part of me that found this unsettling was squashed down quickly, there was nothing more powerful than his cuteness. Momentarily I considered creating a cult with him at the center, I could definitely see people bowing down at his pudgy little feet. I smiled at the thought, and reminded myself that at the very least I didn’t need to keep my walls up with him. It was kind of relieving to have someone to rely on after so long, someone who would always be on my side.
It's not as though I can read your thoughts though? You just talk to me. Aureus’ voice pulled me out of my musings.
What do you mean I talk to you? I'm not talking?
Well yes, but you want me to know don't you? I'm only going to know what you want me to and the same goes for you.
So you're saying I could look through your mind if I wanted to and you allowed it?
Probably, or at least that's how it feels.
Well, either way we can talk about this later we need to come up with a good plan for killing the slimes. Sigh. Usually in games slimes are weak to ice, do you think you could practice your skill enough to add ice to the elements?
I can do anything, how can a dragon be limited in ways of magic?
I chuckled and scratched his chin, he lifted up his head in response and I noticed two small triangular protrusions from where his jaw and neck met on either side. They looked like once they grew more they would frame his face nicely. I poked at them mindlessly while I pondered ways to kill slimes enmasse. With our current abilities digging a pit and squishing them seemed the easiest but what if some of them didn't fall in? I shuddered at the thought of drowning in hundreds of slimes. Still a pit isn't that bad of an idea, the main problem is mana.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
I had no clue how much mana would be needed to dig the pit plus we had to drop rocks on top to squish them. I pondered methods to kill them for a while, freezing them and slashing, rolling a rock down a hill over them, trapping them in a pit and lighting them on fire, using wind to throw them high up and letting gravity do the hard work. I couldn't decide, not to mention I wasn’t really familiar with the limits of our abilities at the time. I wanted a quick and efficient method of killing slimes, we needed to kill as many as possible in a short span of time.
Aureus, can you create like a bomb?
A bomb? Like a fireball that explodes? I don't know how to do that though?
Well what if, hmm like could you create a fireball and force it to get smaller? Like create one and compress it a lot wouldn't it kinda explode if you did that?
That would probably take up a lot more mana than a regular fireball though and I can't learn ice element magic and that at the same time if you want to be quick.
That's true. Well how about you practice with water while trying to make ice? You could do something like a water cutter right? A thin dense line of water that cuts through things?
Aureus pondered briefly, turned and shot a disk of water through a rock several feet away. At first I thought he failed since the rock didn't crumble at all, but after a moment I noticed that it had a clean cut straight down the middle. Pride bloomed in my chest, of course my familiar would create a water cutter on his first try. He was a great and proud dragon after all, this was baby stuff. I caught myself mimicking his arrogance as I beamed looking at the rock he'd sliced through like butter with a hot knife.
Yes! That's great Aureus! We should learn and fight at the same time since we have a time limit. Hopefully soon you can figure out the ice element. It'd make hunting these things easier.
Aureus snorted, hunting such lower beings is already easy. I just used the wrong element last time.
I chuckled to myself since my imagination of his reaction wasn't too far off from reality. Yes, of course this is a cake walk for our Aureus.
He cocked his head to the side, Cake walk? Why would I walk on cake?
Hahaha! No it's just an expression to say it's easy. I rubbed his head as he sat up taller with pride.
"Oh yeah, I want to claim that reward from earlier." I said looking at the GGC.
["Whispering Playwright behind a Mask" sarcastically remarks that it is so unfortunate, they changed it since you didn't like it.]
I rolled my eyes, "Yes I know I was wrong, how do I claim it?"
["Seeker of Magic and Knowledge" tells you that you already claimed it and to get it out of your inventory.]
Inventory?
Just as I thought it, an inventory window like any game I'd ever played opened before me. I frowned, “Why didn’t you guys tell me I had an inventory? It would have made things so much easier.”
[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” asks what kind of game wouldn’t have an inventory.]
I rolled my eyes, I couldn’t rely on them for anything. There wasn’t much point in asking questions because they just told me whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted to. Well I really should have tried to open it before, it would make sense for there to be an inventory. I zoned out for a minute wondering how much they laughed while I struggled without an inventory.
The only item within it though was the slime pheromones. I reached towards the item and my hand disappeared through the window, pressing against a cold glass bottle. I pulled it out marveling at the process. Relieved I had a place to put items I picked up my arrows and placed them into the inventory, I tried to add the backpack as well but my hand went through the window and the bag fell to the ground. I decided it was probably because it wasn't an item created for the system and moved on to the bottle in my lap.
As soon as I unscrewed the wooden cap a smell like puddles on a rainy day enveloped me. I breathed in deeply, it was a comforting smell and it almost made me sleepy. Which in turn made me wonder how much time had passed and if it was night already. I dipped my finger into the viscous substance and cringed at the texture. Once I removed it the smell changed, it was sharper and deeper. The smell became stronger and in the distance I heard a chorus of plip-plops getting closer. Before I could panic Aureus flew past me shooting water cutters at the little monstrosities. I smiled.
~~*~~
With a yawn and a stretch I looked back at the quest window, it had been 3 hours of killing slimes. I had already killed 417 slimes and leveled up once. I was grossly overestimating them before, it was probably because of my fear. I really hadn’t done much these last three hours other than provide Aureus with mana. Most of my time was spent trying to remove every bit of slime from my body, and applying the slime pheromones while following Aureus’ trail of gooey destruction.
As it turned out killing slimes was actually a much better method of hunting for us, Aureus took no damage since he could fly and I didn’t have to get injured or tired since Aureus was doing the work. We had just leveled up again. I had also received the first two milestone rewards. The first was a portable mana powered cooking fire, including a stand that held a pot, a lid, a spoon, a knife and a bowl, no food was included. And the second was an “Underhollow Survival Kit” with a hammock, blanket, pillow, rope, mana lighter, and a first aid kit.
A smile I tried to repress won its rightful place on my face as I read through the rewards. Once the two of us got into a groove it wasn’t even that hard to get these rewards, I looked up at the GGC.
[“Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” furrows his brows mumbling that he’ll never understand humans.]
[“Traveling Spring Painter” states that common comforts like these are important for humans who aren’t used to fighting and living outside.]
[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” expresses that the other two should thank them for their suggestions since you obviously liked the rewards.]
“Thank you! Really, I really appreciate the rewards I’ve gotten.” Thinking about how I was going to sleep was really bothering me but now my worries were resolved so easily. I decided to add in some flowery words with the hope of getting some other rewards in the future, “I can tell y’all really thought about this quest and the rewards, even if I hate slimes this is amazing! You’re the best!”
[“Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” states that he will add your preferences into his notes for future quests and rewards.]
[“Traveling Spring Painter” smiles and says not to listen to “Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” since she had a hand in the quest and rewards as well.]
[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” rolls their eyes and accepts your thanks with a bow.]
Other than clothes these sort of things were what I wanted, and killing monsters that only amounted to 2 XP each was easy. Just killing 110 of them gave me more rewards than it probably should have. Still even though they were very generous with rewards, I couldn’t forget that this was entertainment for them. And a small voice in the back of my head wondered why they would be so generous and what they got out of it. The natural rhythm I fell into with them began to feel unsettling, and I wondered if I was making the right decision to play along.