Chapter 14

Name: Zelik

Black Warrior - level 1

HP: 200/365

MP: 40/40

-Skills-

Critical strike - (passive)

Sweep strike - 20mp

Name: Leah

Beast Tamer - level 1

HP: 365/365

MP: 50/50

-Skills-

Kindred (passive)

Tame

Call – Locked

Name: John

White Knight - level 1

HP: 320/480

MP: 30/90

-Skills-

Holy Light – 30mp

Name: Hope

Engineer - level 1

HP: 200/365

MP: 50/50

-Skills-

Craft

Repair

An arrow wacked the ground next to my foot, the end of the shaft vibrating from the impact. The slime in front of me bobbed up and down, steaming in anger.

Most of our loot ended up being spent on Leah’s weapon. The reasoning was that John and I could focus on defense while she deals damage from a distance. The only flaw in our plan, however, is that Leah had never fired a bow and arrow before in her life. Well, at least as far as we knew, but the results spoke for themselves.

“CRAP! SORRY!” Leah said, as she nocked another arrow.

“It’s alright!” I said, putting my arm up in the way of the slime’s vine attack, then returning an attack of my own.

Hope was still using the starter sword, along with me and John, as her class was most proficient with guns, which were currently outside of our price range. I at least had new leather armor, and John had a wooden shield which was actually much more effective than we had expected it to be. Aside from that, we were basically stuck in our starter gear.

“It’s alright, Leah! Just focus,” John said, stepping to the side to shield Hope from an attack.

There were 3 slimes in front of us, and I decided to try out the sweep slash skill, which was supposed to deal AOE damage.

I felt a sense of sureness enter my muscles as I held the blade out wide in one hand. It was like already knowing you’d make the shot as the basketball left the tips of your fingers. Wait… basketball? The word disappeared from my mind as soon as I focused on it.

My blade swung out in a wide arc, hitting all three slimes. Two of them died as they had already been damaged, the third had its button eyes turn to swirls as it became dazed. Hope stepped forward with a simple downward slash of her own and finished it off.

We each got a golden glow over our bodies, signaling we had gone up to level 2. Although, since we still hadn’t cleared our level 5 adventurer HP, the only immediate difference was slightly more MP for all of us.

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“Well, this is going better than our first time out, at least,” John said. “Let’s see, who needs a heal?”

“Right here, big boy,” Hope said as she kneeled down to loot the slime seeds.

Leah came over, bow held at her waist as she lowered her head apologetically. “I’m sorry, this is a lot harder than I thought it would be.”

“Hey, it’s alright. You’ll get the hang of it,” I said.

“Slimes are quite small targets,” John added. “We should have realized it was asking a lot to expect you to be able to hit them on your first day out.”

“Maybe we should do some target practice?” Hope asked, standing back up and counting the seeds she collected. “Huh, only 6 this time...” she said under her breath. A slime will drop anywhere from 1 to 4 seeds. An average of 2 seeds on that camp was rather bad luck.

“Um… I only have 10 arrows left,” Leah added. “Also, I think I should just use them on monsters since they cost money. I don’t want to use too many on practice and prevent you all from upgrading your equipment. Also, Hope will need material for crafting gadgets.”

I could tell she felt bad about this. We did spend most of our limited treasure on getting her a good bow. At this rate, we would only manage to loot enough slime seeds to cover our food and lodging tonight, and maybe replenish her spent arrows.

“Perhaps a change of tactics?” John suggested. “Let’s allow Leah to initiate the battles by firing an arrow from the woods. Pick a slime that is close and not in a group. If you miss and scare it off, we’ll just continue on to the next one.”

“I guess we can try,” Leah said, though there was little resolve left in her voice.

We retreated back to the woods and circled around the clearing until we found the scenario John suggested. A single slime, by itself, near the edge of the clearing.

“Okay, get as close as you can and wait for it to stop moving.”

Leah nodded and tip-toed forward, crouching down behind a bush and lifting her bow. She nocked an arrow and pulled back, holding that position, just watching the slime. She had one eye closed, head tilted. It hopped around lethargically as Leah patiently waited. Finally, when it stopped for a moment, she released the arrow. It zoomed through the air and then-

Kicked up dust as it stuck into the ground right behind the slime. It jumped up, its button eyes alarmed, then started hopping away.

Leah hung her head and sighed. “I missed again...”

“It’s alright,” I said as we came over to her. “Try again on the next one.”

We circled the clearing once again, once again finding the same situation. Once again, Leah missed her shot.

“I’m really sorry,” she said again, her voice becoming more defeated.

“Hey, knock that off!” Hope said, giving her back one good hard pat. “On the bright side, you can only get better, right?”

“Saying it like that just sounds like I’m so bad I can’t possibly get worse...” Leah said dryly.

The three of us looked at each other, then laughed, which reddened Leah’s face at first, but then she joined in and laughed as well.

“Come on,” John said, “Let's try again. Don’t worry about not performing well. You start doubting yourself like that, and you’ll never hit the target.”

We circled the clearing again, and again finding a lone slime for Leah. This time, John tip-toed behind the bush alongside her. There was something mildly humorous about the big guy sneaking through the foliage. Anyone who wasn’t half-blind would spot him instantly.

“Now, here is what I want you to do,” he said. “I want you to think about one thing, and that is hitting the slime. If you start thinking about not hitting the slime, about failing, or disappointing us, I want you to lower the bow and take a deep breath. Okay?”

“Easier said than done...” Leah said under her breath.

He chuckled softly, keeping his voice low enough so the slime wouldn’t hear. “Don’t worry, I understand. It’s natural to feel that way, but I don't want you to fire the arrow until you can lift that bow with nothing on your mind but the target. We have all the time in the world, and we are all rooting for you, so don’t worry about it.”

She smiled softly and said, “Thanks.”

She took a deep breath and began to raise her bow, but stopped halfway and relaxed again. After another moment of watching the slime, her bow came back up. She nocked the arrow, and pulled back.

I think we all felt it; there was something different this time. Just like the surety of movement the sweep strike skill gave me, I was sure of Leah’s ability.

The slime stopped hopping around, perhaps taking a moment to enjoy the scenery, and the arrow suddenly wizzed from Leah’s fingertips. A split second later, the slime was impaled and it let out a soft whistle as it deflated.

“YES!” Hope yelled, all of us jumping up.

Leah looked back at us, smiling brightly. “I-I did it!”

“Hell yeah, you did!” Hope said, patting her back once again.

“Perfect shot!” I cheered. “Look, right through the center of it!”

She turned to John and bowed her head. “Thanks, John. Your advice helped a lot.”

“Ah, it was nothing. I just had a feeling you were thinking too hard about it.”

Not for the first time, I wondered why I was the party leader. Under my lead, we almost got killed―twice. It was only thanks to Victoria we made it out okay. Meanwhile, John seemed to figure out how to solve our current problem. All I could do is say encouraging words which did not amount to much, but he actually knew how to help her.

Hope ran over to the slime to collect its seeds, and then we searched for another lone slime for Leah to practice on. Once again, she hit the target cleanly, killing it with one arrow. It looked like investing in the more expensive bow for her was a good move after all. We eventually ran out of lone slimes in the clearing but still allowed Leah to initiate the engagements. With her one-shotting slimes right at the start of the fight and all of us raising our levels, even camps of five slimes were becoming no problem.

Soon, the entire clearing was… well, cleared. We each had a pocket full of seeds and a fresh level up.

“Well, we still have a few hours of daylight left,” Hope said, looking up at the sky. “Should we go look for more?”

“That wouldn’t be a bad idea,” I said. “I just don’t know where else to find them.”

“Venturing through the woods might be a little risky,” John added. “At least until we improve our weapons and armor. Then again, I may be thinking too cautiously.”

“Well, I’m almost out of arrows,” Leah said. “Just got 3 left.”

“Ah, right,” I said, thinking for a second, then shrugged. “Well, that settles it then. Let's head back for the day!”