The next day, Lone and Sophie were heading to The Adventurer's Guild after Lone’s blacksmithing lesson with Grimsley for the day was finished. They had also briefly returned to the Amberbark Inn for lunch.
Lone had yet to meet the cook, Lefakern’s wife, but there was almost no doubt in his mind that she was at least as good as him if not better with the Cooking Mastery skill.
‘I need to swipe some of the meals offered at the inn and keep them safe in my Dimensional Storage. Could always use some of that cooking for when we’re on the road and can’t afford to cook ourselves or don’t want to bother with rations,’ Lone thought.
Then again, he could just create gold and buy a massive amount of meals from a famous restaurant or something, even if his species meant he’d have to use Sophie as a proxy to do it.
It was something to think on. Speaking of which, Lone couldn’t help but think about his blacksmithing master.
Grimsley had seemed to be a little bit distracted during today's lesson, but Lone had managed to level up his Blacksmithing and Weaponsmithing skills to intermediate-level-two, so he was happy and thankful regardless of Grimsley's mood.
"None of these quests seems to be very dangerous..." Lone grumbled as he held his chin and continued to pour over all of the posted quests.
A burly human to his left chuckled. "Did ya nut 'ere 'bout the 'ero?"
Lone was surprised by the man's friendly tone since, well, he was a human, and most humans were very discriminatory against him for being a foxkin.
His massive accent despite the translation magic was a bit off-putting too. Understanding a dwarf’s very Scottish accent was easy enough given his own heritage.
This adventurer, however, sounded like he was from rural England or somewhere akin to that.
After getting past his shock, Lone smiled and rocked his head from side to side. "The hero? No, why, did he do something?"
Nodding, the muscular man replied, "'At's right. The pompous arsehole came in 'ere first thing in a mornin' an’ was screamin' an' a hollerin' 'bout ‘ow the spider queen was stolen from 'im. The immature little cunt went an' snatched all of the E-ranked an' up subjugation requests."
"You're allowed to do that?" Lone asked with a frown.
Shaking his head and sighing, the human adventurer said, "Well, s’not really against the rules, so ta speak. S’common etiquette though ta only take one or two quests at a time. Foreign bastard ‘ardly cares ‘bout us locals. Ah, no offence."
"None taken. But still, he even took the quests that are outside of his capabilities? He's a hero, yeah, but he can't be an S-ranker, can he? Some of those quests were restricted by rank or plate. Like the Hydra one," Lone asked.
"Hahaha, that waste ah sperm? Nah. 'E's a C-ranker 'e is. ‘Is Wood Elf slave though? She's a B-ranker, so, long as 'e's with 'er, 'e can take all the quests 'at she can as well. Dunno 'bout 'at Hydra quest through. Maybe a travellin' S-ranker took it." After saying that, the adventurer grabbed a quest asking for some hired help for an escort to a nearby merchant kingdom.
He then patted Lone's shoulder and said one final thing before he left. "I'd be careful was I wearin' your shoes, pal. The 'ero mentioned seein' a nine-tail'd foxkin an' an armoured girly when he was huntin' the queen. The bastard seems immature an' sick enough ta try somethin' funny. Keep yer guard up, ya hear?"
"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks," Lone replied with a smile.
Grinning, the man left Lone's side and approached a reception desk to officially sign up for the quest he'd chosen.
Lone held his elbow in one hand and his chin in the other. "Daisuke, huh? This could be troublesome..."
"We found an acceptable quest," the cold yet calming voice of Sophie announced as she held out her arms and showed Lone a sheet of paper, snapping him out of his thoughts.
Looking down at the quest she'd selected, Lone smirked. "Trust you and your absurd luck to find a subjugation request despite all of them being supposedly claimed already."
Sophie shrugged, making her armour clink about. "Just as we were about to give up, a minister’s page came and put up this request. It seems the minister in question is tired of the smell."
"Smell?" Lone actually took a moment to read the request. "Ah. Slimes in the sewers? Boy, is that as cliche as can be. Well, it's something, at least."
"Indeed. It was either this, or a quest to assist the Church of The Primals in building the new wing of the cathedral, and while we are sure you would adore the chance to learn some more mundane construction skills, we had a feeling that you'd rather gain some resistance to death by corrosion or acid. Perhaps even both," Sophie suggested with a shrug of her shoulders.
Lone nodded. "I haven't researched slimes much. There’s a bit of info on them here or there in the library’s bestiaries, but they seem to be heavily overlooked due to how weak they are. So yeah, that sounds interesting. Let's accept the quest then drop by the library real quick, 'kay? I wanna learn everything that I can about slimes before we enter a sewer system full of 'em. There’s gotta be a book or short essay or something with more detailed descriptions of them laying around somewhere in there."
"Whatever pleases you, Lone," Sophie replied in an uncaring manner.
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A slack-jawed guard charged with protecting the city's southern sewer entrance noticed Lone and Sophie’s arrival. "Ah. Yous is the adventurers who're gunna kill those little slimy fuck'rs?"
The sun was still high in the sky, but two hours had passed since they had accepted the quest earlier that afternoon.
Rather unsurprisingly, the library had a lot of information on slimes, in particular, on the two races of slimes known as Corrosion Slimes and Acidic Slimes.
Why Lone hadn’t found much on the monsters during his prior research of the local fauna and flora was because they were almost exclusively the focus of papers dedicated to the infrastructure of a city.
According to the book he’d read on the matter, where there was enough infrastructure, and thus, enough waste, there would be slimes.
Apparently, it was a very common occurrence for Corrosion Slimes to be born from the filth that built up over roughly a month in the sewers, and if a noble didn't issue a quest themselves with a decent reward, then the guild would offer the quest as an exclusive one for the iron-plates or lower to give them a chance to gain some experience.
As for Acidic Slimes, they were a rarer race of slimes, supposedly. They were only born from the extreme concentration of, well, acid. As it would so happen, one of Ranton's staple foods was the lemon, so while Acidic Slimes were normally uncommon, in Ranton, they were as ordinary as could be.
Lone smiled. "Yes, we are."
The guard scratched his head. "Yous don't got no torches or lanterns? It's dark down there. I can let yous borrow mine, but make sure yous give it back later, ya hear?"
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
'Why is it only the simple people that aren't guild staff who don't seem to be racists? It's like speciesism and racism are only taught to the well-to-do,' Lone thought with a mental sigh. "Thank you, but we'll be fine."
"'S'at so? Well then, may the Primals be with ya, an' be careful ah gettin' covered in slime. Damn stuff'll eat through steel like a beggar'll eat through bread," the guard warned.
"We'll keep that in mind, thanks again. See you soon," Lone said in farewell.
"Mmm," the guard replied.
Lone and Sophie then walked down the set of stairs behind the guard and entered the sewers. Once they had reached the bottom, Lone pulled out a shabby looking lantern from his Dimensional Storage and passed it to Sophie. He then grabbed a matchbook and a thick candle.
As he was slotting the candle into the lantern and lighting it, Sophie asked, "Did you really have to use this horrendous lantern? Could you not have simply created one that wasn't littered with imperfections? We feel like it will fall apart the moment we drop it."
Lone grinned. "Shut up. I put my heart and soul into that, and it's one of the few things that I've successfully forged besides daggers while under Grimsley’s tutelage, so treat it carefully."
Sophie groaned in frustration. "We doubt we will ever understand how you value things. This wouldn’t sell for more than perhaps three or four coppers."
Lone shrugged. "So long as you know that I value you and Soph, what does it matter if you know how I value anything else?"
"... Sneak attacks are unfair," Sophie grumbled as she closed the lantern's glass casing now that Lone was finished lighting the candle.
"Heh, that so? Well, anyway, keep a good hold of that for me, 'kay? Since you can't fight any of the slimes for fear of melting alive, and since I can't see mana like you can, I'll be counting on you to be my source of light," Lone said as he failed to hide a smirk. 'I wonder what kind of expression is on her face? She's definitely embarrassed, isn't she?'
Sophie sulked beneath her helmet. "We shall do our best, but you should really dedicate some time to teaching us Crude Fireball. We have so much mana, but only a single skill to use it on."
"Teleportation is one hell of a skill though, and sure, though I only learned it because of my Growth Accelerator. Apparently, you need a good affinity and a lot of training to learn a magic skill usually," Lone replied as he and Sophie began walking through the sewers of Ranton.
"There is no harm in trying, at least," she said. "By the way, Lone, is there anything important about slimes that we should be aware of? We shall not be fighting them since they will corrode our swords and our armour, but we would like to know if you found out anything else of note during your research."
Lone shrugged. "Slimes are pretty interesting. Apparently, they have almost 100 races. As you already know, the ones we're meant to be hunting are the Acid Slimes and the Corrosion Slimes. They're immune to a lot of magic types but are very weak to fire magic, so we're good on that front. They can be killed with physical force, but yeah, you'll ruin your weapon, so it's not advised to use weapons that you care about on them.”
Lone squinted a bit to better his vision as he continued, “The guild actually provides swords and spears and bows that are on their last legs to newbie adventurers when they are forced to issue the quest themselves. Anyway, we need to collect their cores if we want to officially claim our reward. We need 25 at the minimum if I recall correctly."
"Yes, it was 25, but is that all? Their immunity to several magic types is somewhat intriguing, but are there no queen variations like the Manasilk Spiders?" Sophie asked as they went further into the sewers.
Lone scratched his head. "Maybe? Chief Slimes are kinda common, but they aren't nearly as powerful as the Manasilk Spider Queen was. There's also King Slimes, which are super rare. We'd be lucky to find one today, to be honest. The books also said that there's supposedly an emperor variation, but yeah, that one's just a legend."
"A legend? That reminds us, Lone, considering how much time you have been dedicating to studying this world, do you know what the legends about Golden Foxkin are yet? We would be lying if we said that we were not interested," Sophie asked.
Lone nodded. "Yeah, I looked into it, but most of it is garbage. Like, there are the legends about hardening parts of our bodies, which I now know means our tails, but outside of that? Supposedly Golden Foxkin can fly, can use almost every type of magic, can force people to submit with just a glare, and a bunch of other ridiculously blown out of proportion things."
"Hah. Well, as far as using every type of magic is concerned, that one is not strictly wrong in your case, now is it?" Sophie teased.
Lone smiled wryly. "That has nothing to do with my species."
"Indeed, it does not... But regardless, chiefs, yes? Well, perhaps our luck will assist you and result in a few appearing, hmm? We are sure that you would love the stats killing such creatures would offer," Sophie said a bit sarcastically.
"Hey, don't jinx us. I'm perfectly happy burning my body to get acid and corrosion resistance, but I'd rather not have a life-threatening battle so soon after the spider queen, thanks," Lone replied with a sigh.
Sophie just smiled underneath her helmet and continued walking through the dank and dirty sewers with Lone at her side.
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"Y'know, it's not nearly as painful as I was expecting," Lone commented as he poked the tiny opaque-green slime and the little lime-green slime that were both attached to his left arm.
"You are healing as much as you're burning and corroding. We expect it would be far more painful if you focused on blocking your Basic Regeneration and allowed them to get down to your bones," Sophie commented with a shrug.
"True, but yeah, I ain't gonna test that. As much as I enjoy seeing Basic Regen level up, fuck torturing myself. But yeah, Basic Regen and PPR are fantastic skills. Ah, looks like we're done here," Lone announced.
"Fireball. Fireball." After blowing the two slimes to smithereens and pocketing their cores, Lone checked his two new skills as he waited for his now-burnt arm to heal.
The host has developed the passive skill: Acid Resistance.
Passive Skill: Acid Resistance
A skill that allows the host to resist most types of acid.
Most acid that the host comes in contact with shall be weakened by 5%.
Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 1
The host has developed the passive skill: Corrosion Resistance.
Passive Skill: Corrosion Resistance
A skill that allows the host to resist corrosion.
Any corrosion to the skin that the host suffers shall be weakened by 5%.
Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 1
Congratulations! The host's active fire magic skill [Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 2.
"So most acid and all corrosion, but only my skin can resist the corrosion? That's interesting... I guess more parts of my body will gain the ability to fight off corrosion as the skill ranks up. Kinda like how Bone Armour unlocked more armour pieces as it ranked up, right?" Lone muttered to himself.
Sophie jabbed one of her armoured fingers into Lone's side, resulting in him frowning in annoyance.
While he had a high level of Physical Pain Resistance, all that skill did was make any pain he suffered more tolerable, not lessen the actual pain. "What?"
"Stop. Talking. To. Yourself. Idiot," Sophie said, jabbing her finger further and further in with each word.
"Sure, but only if you give me a big kiss and a cuddle- actually, make that two big kisses and a cuddle. I want one now and one later," Lone replied with a grin strewn across his lips.
Sophie whispered something that Lone couldn't hear before she took her helmet off and then suddenly attached her lips to his passionately.
Only after a few seconds had elapsed did she move back from him. "You'll get your other kiss and your cuddle tonight. Happy now?"
"Very, but also very surprised. I was kinda expecting you to go all soft at the knees like you usually do," Lone admitted as he failed to hide his flushed cheeks.
Sophie smirked as she put her helmet back on. "You shall not defeat us forever with your dastardly sneak attacks. Now, let us continue, shall we? We can sense three more slimes around that corner."
"Haha, sure, let's," Lone replied.