The ladder bottomed out into a wide sewer tunnel. It had a walkway on either side and was surprisingly spacious.
I looked up as the hatch closed with a grating clank from above me.
I hope it opens from this side too. I thought, sighing into the stifling face mask.
The sewer was lit by glowing red spheres of light which seemed to float near the tunnel’s ceiling. They must have been made with magic.
To my knowledge, Celestia hadn’t discovered electricity yet. I guessed there wasn’t much need for earth-style modern technology when you could fix most problems with magic.
Looking around I could see that the tunnel led in both directions. I opened the map that Director Lucas had given me on my HUD.
It was mostly greyed out, but I had an option to click on local map and I saw myself as a small dot inside the tunnel.
I wasn’t sure how the sewer system was laid out, but hopefully I could use the map to find my way back if it turned out to be a maze.
I probably should have asked for a sewer map before I climbed down the ladder.
Oh well, too late now.
For no reason at all, I decided to go left and set off in that direction.
I stuck to the path at the side of the sewer tunnel, the mid-section was covered in foul looking, brown water. I hoped I wouldn’t have to go into it, it was so gross.
After less than a few minutes of walking I came across a little blue blob sitting on the path in front of me.
This must be a slime. I thought, focusing on it.
You have discovered a new monster:
Slime
As a hallmark of low-level monsters, the Slime is a pretty common and weak foe. Usually where there’s one there’s an entire colony.
Unless you come across Rimuru, they’re unlikely to cause much trouble to an intrepid adventurer such as yourself.
Did the system just make an anime reference? I wondered as I finished reading the notification. I guess I should see how easy these things are to kill.
Summoning my bow, I nocked an arrow and fired it at the blue, gelatinous blob. It exploded as the arrow passed through it and chipped the concrete flooring.
You have defeated: Slime (lvl 11)
“Level 11, seriously?” I muttered to myself.
If they were all going to be this weak then this quest was going to be pretty boring. So much for all the experience I was hoping to get.
With a sigh, I mentally asserted that I wanted to loot the slime and received ten gold coins and a vial of concentrated slime.
That confirmed my theory that all monster’s paid the same amount. Though maybe some higher levelled ones would give a bit more bang for their buck. I had no idea what concentrated slime could be used for, but it was interesting that it came in a vial.
I put that odd fact down to system fuckery and continued onwards. Maybe I’d be able to sell it somewhere when I got back above ground.
As I continued my trip down the rancid sewer tunnel I came across a few more lone slimes, killed them and looted them. Every time, they evaporated into dim blue light particles.
The quest had said there was an infestation, but honestly there didn’t seem to be that many of them so far. I wondered what the source it mentioned was.
Where did slimes even come from? The system notification didn’t say and I couldn’t think of any game I’d played that offered an explanation.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Their weakness was a little frustrating. I’d have to kill them by the thousands to have any chance of gaining a level, but at least they were good for farming coins.
I just hoped there were enough of them down here to pay for my armour. I’d need to kill more than 4000 of them to make the amount I needed.
As I rounded a corner, my wish came true.
The sewer tunnel widened and to my left I saw another ladder leading to the surface. Surrounding the ladder, the floor, and stuck to the ceiling was a gaggle of the little blue bastards.
There were so many of them I couldn’t tell where one started and another ended. It was like looking at the inside of a beehive.
I guess payday has come early. I thought with a little smirk as I began shooting them.
My first arrow hit one of the ceiling slimes which exploded like a water balloon, covering me in sticky, blue goop.
I wiped it from my eyes, grimacing with disgust and took a few steps back.
“I’m not making that mistake again.” I muttered as I began picking them off, away from the splash zone.
After about 30 minutes of extermination, my stamina was beginning to drop into the red. The slimes showed no sign of attacking me or moving at all really.
So I decided to meditate rather than waste a potion. I sat down on the damp ground in a cross-legged position and placed my hands on my knees, forming a circle with my thumb and ring finger.
Closing my eyes, I breathed in deeply and imagined the air turning into energy as it entered my body. I immediately saw the thick, red rope which I had visualised as my health the first time I’d meditated. It looked stronger than before, thicker, as it stretched out around my body and into my limbs.
I needed to get my stamina back so I’d have to decide how to visualise that. At first I thought of it as a green light, but my Soul Shot skill caused a green glow when it empowered my arrows.
In my case, I was pretty sure that green represented my soul energy. Likely because of my class being so heavily linked with acidic powers.
In that case I’d need to choose a different colour. I’d seen stamina represented as a yellow bar in some of the games I’d played, so that was the logical choice for me.
As I recalled the colour I began to see a thin yellow coil that swirled around my arms and legs, ending in my stomach.
It was all connected, as if the stamina itself originated in my core and reached out to all of my limbs and extremities from there. It was a faded yellow and part of the coil was bent out of shape.
I focused on sending the energy I’d breathed in towards it as I sank deeper into my own mind and subtly manipulated the blank energy, turning it yellow and sending it into my core.
Whilst it was there I visualised it wrapping around my core and strengthening the coiled stamina. It slowly began to glow with a more vibrant, almost golden sheen.
My core pulsed with a magnificent glow as it sent the vibrant colour of energy outwards.
It travelled along the coil towards my limbs, looking like a curly straw, as energy ran through the centre and slowly brightened up my entire body.
It took a lot of concentration to manipulate the energy this way. It was quite mentally draining, and I had no sense of the outside world. I wondered if I could feel pain in this deep of a meditative state.
Surely, my body would alert me if I was under attack. As I meditated I felt more at one with my inner self than I ever had before. It was like the ultimate self-reflection.
Deep in my core, buried beneath the stamina coil, I could still see the faint blue ball I’d seen the last time.
It had changed slightly from before.
The previous time I’d meditated it was like an ethereal blue ball of mist that I couldn’t touch no matter how hard I tried.
This time, however, it seemed to be more of a bluish green and it was ever so slightly more tangible. The transparent quality had filled in slightly from before.
I wondered if that was because of the Soul Shot skill I’d unlocked. The skill used my soul energy to coat my arrows and fire them with much more power. Perhaps that was why my soul had a greenish tint to it. It stood to reason that the more I developed and the more I unlocked skills relating to the soul, the more it would change.
Hopefully that wasn’t a bad thing.
The more I tried to reach out to it, the further away It seemed to be, like one of those dreams where you walk down a hallway with a door at the end of it but every time you get close it zooms off into the distance.
It was frustrating but I was sure that with practice I’d reach it eventually. The mystery of it all called out to me.
I longed to touch it, to mould it, to unleash its potential.
After what felt like only a short amount of time, my stamina coil was beaming like a sun and I awoke from my meditation.
A small, blue slime sat on my lap. Peacefully jiggling in front of me. It was actually kind of cute. I almost felt bad as I stabbed it with my dagger and it deflated like a popped football and died… almost.
I stood back up, resummoned my bow and started shooting the next wave of arrows. I had the feeling I would have to meditate and recover stamina a fair few times before I could kill them all.
Well, you asked for a metric shit tonne of slimes to farm and now you’ve got it. I thought with a slight smile as the ceiling slimes exploded one by one.
This was what I called grinding. It was almost like early on in an MMO. Except I’d killed a few hundred of them by now and still hadn’t gained a single level.
Actually, I take that back, this was exactly what grinding in an MMO felt like.
After a short while I dropped back into my seated position and meditated some more. It was oddly satisfying directing energy into my stamina coil.
It was similar to that feeling you get when you wipe down a surface with a wet wipe and it sparkles afterwards. It was a bit of a chore, but there was a certain amount of satisfaction to be gained in the monotony.
After my core was full once more, I stood up and fired off more arrows.
Slowly but surely, as I mixed between meditation and firing arrows, the slimes on the ceiling were exterminated and I was given the option to mass-loot them, which I did.
Loot: Slime (lvl *various*) x896
Y/N
I mentally asserted yes and gained 8960 gold coins and the same amount of concentrated slime vials. This quest was going to be pretty lucrative.
I’d barely even started too. If there were gaggles of these things all over the sewer then I’d be rich as fuck by the end of it.
I’d stumbled onto a veritable gold mine!
Before I could move on I’d have to take out the slimes on the ladder and in the area surrounding it. This was going to be a tedious quest, but it was the easiest money I’d ever made.
I dropped back down into a meditative pose, grinning from ear to ear.
What can I say? I guess I’m just a slave to the grind.