In an act of desperation and annoyance, she grabbed the girl's arms, forcing them away from her face. Elaine shouted even louder hoping to get her attention.

The girl started crying even louder, her face was wet with a mixture of tears, sweat, and snot. She faced away from Elaine turning her head to the side, with eyes welded shut by a torrent of tears. Whatever words she had been able to mumble earlier were replaced with incoherent sobbing.

She let out another sigh as she shook her head.

“How do you get someone to stop crying?” she thought out loud.

Drawing a blank Elaine decided to just have some fun. Squatting down next to her, Elaine proceeded to gently poke her cheek. Each poke was accompanied with a high-pitched, "boop," sound by Elaine. She alternated between her left and right cheek slowly increasing the frequency of pokes. Every once in a while she would poke both cheeks simultaneously resulting in a more drawn-out, "booooop."

Time passed by as Elaine continued to have her fun. The girl's cries grew softer and softer, her reserve of tears nearing empty. She opened her eyes and was met with Elaine, her mouth was moving but she couldn't hear what she was saying. As the adrenaline gradually wore off she started regaining her other senses, being able to feel the touch of something against her cheek, pressing down before lifting away. She could hear an accompanying sound each time her cheek was being indented. When the girl finally regained full control of her sense of hearing she was able to discern Elaine's actions.

"...Boopy Boopy Boop-"

Elaine stopped upon realizing that she had caught the attention of the girl. Her face was beet red, both from embarrassment and crying.

"Are you done crying?" Elaine asked, ceasing her playful pokes.

"Am I dead? Are you a devil?" she barely managed to sputter out, her throat hoarse.

"If you continue calling me a devil you might end up dead. I saved you from those goblins," Elaine now stood up to her full height.

"Oh. Thanks..." she replied sheepishly.

"You're welcome. Mind telling me why an adventurer like you was being chased by some goblins?"

"Well... I'm not exactly good at fighting," she averted her gaze.

"Wasn't the point of the evaluation test to prove you could at least fight? Goblins aren't exactly that much harder to fight than slimes."

"Well, the thing is... you don't exactly have to kill the slimes to pass the test."

"What do you mean? Aren’t you supposed to defeat 50 slimes to pass?" Elaine asked even more confused now.

"You don't actually have to kill them for them to be counted as defeated."

"I'm not following."

"Turns out taming a slime is the same as defeating a slime, so..." she twiddled her thumbs.

"You tamed 50 slimes?!" Elaine exclaimed.

"Well... not exactly 50. I kind of have more than 50?"

"Why would you tame slimes? They aren't exactly good at fighting or anything much."

"Hey!" she snapped, "Don't disrespect slimes like that."

The drastic change in attitude took Elaine aback.

"Sorry. Still, why slimes? Why not something stronger?"

"Why not! Slimes are the greatest! They're all squishy, cuddly and cute. They come in all sorts of colors and sizes, and when you pet them they bounce and jiggle in your hands. They're amazing! Plus the way they go boing, boing, boing as they move is just soo cuteeee," she squealed.

"So you tamed slimes just because they're cute?" Elaine had a puzzled expression on her face.

“I mean… I’m a monster researcher with a specialty in slimes, but the Monster Research Association claimed that there were many more important monsters out there. To them, researching slimes was a waste of time so I didn’t get much funds,” her smile was replaced with a sorrowful frown.

"Is that why you’re adventuring now?"

"Yup! I've always heard about how those high-ranking adventurers earned like huge amounts of money and I thought if I could be one of them then I would have so much money to research on slimes," she excitedly rambled out.

"And how has that been working out for you?"

"Not... exactly that well," she stared at the ground.

Stolen novel; please report.

Elaine just sighed and shook her head, "You should really consider taming other monsters, either that or stop adventuring."

"B-b-but, my slime research. Plus I have to pay off my loan..."

"Loan?"

"Yeah... I mean you don't see any slimes here do you?"

Elaine looked around and realized she was right. For a person who claimed to have tamed more than 50 slimes the area around them was surprisingly slimeless, save for the slime that dripped out of the girl’s nostrils.

"So I kind of had to buy a storage crystal to store my slimes and now I'm stuck repaying them and adventuring is the fastest way to get paid cause you get paid per quest instead of the end of the month and I really need money so..." she was twiddling with her thumbs again.

Elaine just shook her head and held her palm to the forehead, in a classic facepalm.

"So? Just tame stronger monsters, not so strong that you risk dying in the process, but you get what I mean. Anyway, the town's that way and I guess I’ll see you around."

Elaine turned around and walked away waving as she did, her back facing the girl.

"W-w-wait!" the girl stammered.

"What?" Elaine stopped and turned around.

"C-c-can I come along with you. You know, until you head back to the guild. I'm kind of... scared."

“Sure, but seriously consider what I mentioned. No offense but slimes aren’t gonna cut it.”

"Oh," her mouth drooped into a melancholic frown.

"Are you coming or what?"

The girl was knocked out of the sorrowful thoughts that occupied her mind and quickly jogged over to Elaine.

"Um, can I at least know your name?"

"Elaine. Yours?"

"Cedra."

"Nice to meet you, Cedra. You'll have to wait till I finish my quest before I head back. That okay with you?"

Cedra just nodded, following Elaine as they continued scouring the farmlands for any more goblins. It wasn't long before Elaine spotted another group but rather than digging up crops they were surrounding something. A slime.

Its gelatinous body unsuccessfully avoided the blows it was being dealt with. The wooden clubs gradually splattered ooze everywhere as they continuously failed to connect with the core of the slime.

"No! Stop!" Cedra yelled out, alerting the goblins.

"What are you doing? Why are you letting them know we're here!" Elaine shouted at Cedra, chastising her.

The goblins' attention had shifted from the slime towards the two girls. They reared their clubs and charged at them, yelling out a battle cry in their goblin tongue.

"Stand behind me," Elaine dragged Cedra behind her.

The conjured bow appeared in her left hand and she took aim. The goblins in their reckless charge were running in a straight line.

Easy pickings, she thought.

Taking aim, a volley of arrows was let loose, one for each goblin. The arrows pierced through the heads of the goblins, instantly killing them. Cedra screamed in terror as the bodies of the goblins hit the floor, a pool of blood forming where they had landed.

Elaine readied one last arrow. Intending to finish off the group had started, to snuff out the life of another monster, the slime. Cedra despite the shock, and perhaps an act of instinct noticed Elaine's intention.

"Stop! Please," she yelled, her voice cracking in the process.

She clicked her tongue, "Fine."

Cedra ran up to the slime, her legs wobbling the whole time as she barely managed to avoid falling. Her eyes doing their best to avoid staring at the corpses that littered the ground. The slime was obviously scared, it was shivering causing the green slimy structure that it called its body to ripple and bounce all over.

"Don't worry, I'm here," Cedra attempted to pick up the slime.

The slime launched itself at Cedra, landing itself squarely in the gut. The impact caused Cedra to fall on her butt and clench her stomach.

“Owww,” she winced.

"Are you alright?" Elaine asked as she pulled out her dagger, ready to end another monster's life.

"Please. Don't. She's just scared," Cedra pleaded.

She approached the slime again, approaching on all fours this time. The slime slowly bounced backward, the fear it exuded clearly evident despite its lack of any facial features.

"I'm not here to hurt you," Cedra extended her hand, letting it stop inches away from the slime's body.

The slime stopped its feeble attempt at retreat and instead slowly chose to inspect the being that stood before it. The slime slowly inched forward examining Cedra's outstretched hand. It prodded it with its non-existent nose giving the hand a quick bump. Cedra moved her hand slowly towards the slime's body hoping the slime would let her caress it. To her pleasant surprise, the slime didn't pull away and even let her pet it.

"It's ok, baby. I'm here to help," she picked it up and continued to pet it.

"Wow. I didn't even know slimes could act that way," Elaine said with surprise in her voice.

"They're the best. Now I just need to do one more thing."

Elaine watched Cedra close her eyes and try to focus. She could see her building up a spell on the hand that was petting the slime. The spell slowly took form, the mana taking on a pinkish coloration. With a final pet, she placed the spell on the slime. The pinkish blob of mana morphed into a heart that sunk through the slimy body, diving into a sea of green, and stopped right at the core of the slime. The heart-shaped spell flashed a bright pink, before dimming and integrating into the core. The slime jumped up a few times in an act Elaine could only surmise as joy.

"Thanks for not killing her," said Cedra.

"Uh, welcome? That was the ‘Tame’ spell right?."

"Yup," her voice now all cheery, "Now I've got another friend with me."

"You know, I just thought of something.”

“Which is?” Cedra asked her attention wholly on her new friend.

"You said you had basically had an army of slimes with you so I was just wondering why didn't you use them earlier."

"What!" she screeched, "Why would I ever let my babies out and risk them dying."

Elaine was taken aback by the sudden outburst, “It was just a thought.”

"Look. I know you don't like monsters, much less slimes, but slimes mean everything to me. They're defenseless and it's my job to protect them, not the other way around."

"Alright, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that."

"It's alright. I'm sorry for raising my voice at you too," Cedra sighed, "I'm just kinda on edge lately."

"From the almost dying?"

"From the almost dying," Cedra nodded.