Fayette was walking through the city towards the northern river shore. As she walked, she gazed at her brand-new hunter’s license with some measure of pride. Alright, it wasn’t a proper hunter's license, it was only the junior version. It rankled Fayette to be dismissed amongst the children, but this would do for now; she would think of something when its use ran out.

This mission took her to the worse parts of town, so Fayette made sure to stick to the more populated streets. She didn’t want to cause too much trouble again. It was not an area for the wealthy, and it really showed in the buildings. There was no stone or brick here, only cramped one-story wood shacks.

The streets still did not seem any less busy than the other districts, which made Fayette a bit concerned. If the houses are this much smaller, but the amount of people seems to be the same, just how densely are they living?

Fayette kept her eyes trained to the front, as otherwise the persistent dirt and grime everywhere would have annoyed her too much. That, however, made her focus on the people. There had been beggars in the better districts, and they were here too, but something was different. These beggars were not hawking out their trades or appealing to the passers-by, they were just sitting about listlessly with glazed-over eyes. Many seemed downright sick.

I guess the ones with more energy would go to the places where business is better.

A quick walk later, Fayette finally made it to the river shore. There was a sort of buffer zone between the water and the city proper, with a sort of rocky beach in between. A few street urchins were watching the waters with strange poles in their hands. Fayette walked over to the river, and winced back from the stench. It smelled.

How can they mess up a river this bad? She turned to look upstream and saw the distant factory district. Tall chimneys were spewing out endless bouts of smoke, and many of the factories seemed to be built right by the riverside. Gah is nothing enough for those places? They have to billow out smoke to the skies, isn’t that enough for them? Are they doing something to the water too?

Fayette was brought back from her musings as she noticed movement on top of the water. It looked almost like a wave, but on closer inspection, something was different. First, the “wave” was tinted a lot darker than the rest of the water. Second, it was not moving with the flow or the wind, but was steadily approaching the shore.

Fayette took a few steps back and pulled out her broom as a slime slithered onshore. It looked like a greyish pile of goop, but there was an order to it. It slowly started slithering closer. Fayette smiled, cleaning away living stains seemed like very proper [Maid] work. Alright, I can see why the danger rating for this is so low. That thing is barely moving at all. Now, I just need to kill it and take the monster core along.

So far, Fayette had approached combat with a single strategy: Hit the enemy on the head until it died. It was a simple stratagem, but a very effective one—she had no reason to doubt it. Fayette raised her broom for a decisive strike, and slammed it at the slime with all her practiced strength.

The strike hit the slime, the slime compressed, and the strike bounced right back.

Fayette stumbled backwards, and looked at the slime with a new respect in her eyes. It managed to stand my blow! Not even a [Lord] managed that! Still, that left Fayette with a conundrum. She needed to kill the slime and take its monster core, but her usual method did not seem to work. She took some distance from the slowly-advancing-slime as she began to think of a new plan.

Wait a minute, I do have another method of attack. I haven’t used it as much, but it still should be somewhere around here... Fayette began rummaging through her [Apron of Holding], and eventually pulled out her [All Purpose Cleaner]. She still had a bottleful of it, about three quarters full now. If I need to clean a bit of spilled sludge, surely this will do the job!

She changed her broom for a mop and applied the cleaner liberally on it. Then she slowly approached the slime, and touched it with the mop-end, making sure to maximize cleaner contact.

A sizzling instantly sounded out and the slime started squirming. It was an unnerving sight—spasms went through the grey liquid in waves and the creature started backing away from the deadly mop. Fayette smiled at the good results she was having, and thrust the mop further out at the slime, making sure to get every bit of her cleaner on it. The slime backed away further, almost back into the river now.

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Fayette was smiling with victory when something concerning happened. The slime... started changing colour. It started from the portion closest to the mop. Gradually the greyish goop was being pushed back, replaced with a clear blue that was distinctly familiar to Fayette. She pulled her mop back in a panic. Is it becoming an [All Purpose Cleaner] slime?

Fayette backed away as the transformation continued, making the slime squirm and spasm about more and more. Just as the transformation seemed to be finishing, an especially strong spasm went through the creature, and it fell back into the river. Fayette watched as it was swept along with the current and kept her eyes on it until she was sure it was far beyond city limits. Alright, hopefully that won’t become a problem.

Fayette sighed as she stepped back—slime removal duty really wasn’t starting off as well as she had hoped. However, before she could mope about further, a clear voice interrupted her.

“Excuse me, are you hunting slimes?”

Fayette turned to the voice and saw a young dark-haired woman who was carrying a bag of groceries. She had her hair in a long braid and was wearing the clothes of a simple working woman. Fayette saw no reason to hide the truth.

“Yes, I am a hunter after all.”

The woman’s gaze travelled up and down Fayette’s prim [Maid] uniform, and her expression became one of doubt, even concern. “Is this something your master put you up to?”

Fayette shook her head. “I have no master anymore. I wanted to become a hunter, so that is what I did.”

The woman’s doubt was replaced with interest. “Is that really something you can just do? [Maids] don’t have real combat skills do they? Can you manage as a hunter?”

Fayette held her mop out with pride. “You hardly need those so called ‘Real Combat Skills’ to fight. Normal skills and a bit of cleverness can bring you quite far.”

The woman sighed. “I wish I had the confidence for something like that... We’ve been having a rat issue, but no hunters have accepted our quest. It would be nice if I could tackle things like that on my own.”

This time it was Fayette whose face turned interested. “You know about the rat problem? I was having a look at that mission; do you know who posted it?”

“Oh it was a whole bunch of neighbourhood folk, my mother included. The problem has only been getting worse though.”

Fayette saw an opportunity. She looked back to the river, a filthy, slime-infested stream Next to it, grimy streets lined with sickly beggars, and behind it all, high, atop the ridge, the factories which set the backdrop of the city, billowing out endless streams of smoke. She saw a futile effort. It was a mistake to start with this. Even if clear out slimes here all day, it won't matter at all as long as I don't deal with the source of these slimes.

If one starting point proved a dud, why not try a different one? The rat mission seemed like a promising start. Rats carry grime around and people say they spread diseases; would they work as a start for my cleaning? A thorough cleansing effort needs a sturdy foundation, so why not start by clearing that foundation of rats?

If the guild wouldn’t let her take the mission, why couldn’t she just directly go to the people who had posted the mission in the first place? She stood straighter and gave the woman a proper curtsey. “I am the hunter Fayette, miss. I might be interested in taking the mission, but I would like to do it outside... official channels.”

The woman smiled. She seemed to want to answer her curtsey, but her hands were a bit full with the bags, so she settled for a curt nod of the head. “I’m Elise, a [Labourer] at the textile mill. I can take you to talk with my mom if you want to.”

Fayette agreed eagerly and set off to follow the woman. They chatted a bit as they walked, with the conversation mostly being Elise’s questions about Fayette’s exploits. She seemed very interested in Fayette’s talk of battle—the [Maid] suspected the woman might have aspirations of her own in that direction.

Fayette decided to be encouraging and told her how it didn’t matter what one’s class was, as long as you had proper fighting spirit you could manage. The [Labourer] grew especially interested when Fayette told her about the quick levels she was getting.

The woman didn’t live in the worst part of the slums, but it was certainly not a luxurious place either. She led Fayette closer to the factories, and after a short walk they arrived at her humble abode—a simple one-story wooden house.

The [Labourer] opened the door. “Hey everyone! I’m back with a guest! Wait, you already have a guest here, who is this?”

Fayette followed Elise in and was surprised by what she saw within. Mireille was sitting at a table with a woman who was probably an older sister of Elise’s, drinking tea. The two locked eyes for a split second, before they both laughed. Elise looked at them, puzzled.

Mireille was the one who first managed to settle herself. “Well, this is certainly a coincidence. What brought you here?” She gestured at the woman who was seated with her. “Ange here is a [Seamstress], and she showed me around her workplace.”

The woman nodded at Fayette and Fayette nodded back. “I managed to join the hunter’s guild, and I just happened to meet Elise while I was doing some slime hunting. She’s got information on a rat hunting mission.”

Mireille nodded at Elise. “I see, how much is the pay?”

Fayette brough her finger to her face as she thought. “I think... it was around one Livre for every two rat corpses.”

Mireille’s eyes started gleaming. “Tell me more.”