"You know how long I've been standing here?!" Star yelled at me.

Seeing her this mad, I couldn't help but tease her. "Well, I dunno~. How long?"

"Like, an hour! I thought you only went out for groceries! Where were you?"

Anger was written all over her face. Her red hair perfectly embodied her boiling blood. Star is known as the kindest yet the most impatient person in class. Which is why she's perfect as the class president. Put her in an empty room and she'll die of boredom in less than 2 minutes. I'm surprised she even stood here for an hour straight just waiting for me.

"Well, you know… Groceries were heavy, and I had to eat lunch. At least I'm here now, right?" I scoffed at her.

"Hmph!" She had her arms crossed as she looked away from me.

----

After a minute or so, Star calmed down and forgave me for being late. Then, she took us to somewhere less crowded for us to talk.

The outside of town is magnificent.

Beyond the town wall, there was a plain of grass that waved up and down in tiny hills and valleys. On the horizon, I could see dense vegetation that borders the plains. A path led from the town gate to the distant forests; quite a lot of travellers used this path. Throughout the plains, there are bodies of water that made for great decoration. And it looks like those puddles are where the mobs spawn.

As for us, we chose a spot not too far from the town gate. Specifically, Star brought us southward just a few meters down the town wall. The place was empty at the moment, perfect for us to talk uninterrupted.

We sat together on the grass and leaned on the wall for comfort.

"So? We've got all day," I said. "What do you wanna do?"

Star brought out her backpack and took out a single piece of paper, which she unrolled and showed to me. "I found a quest while you weren't here. I think we should do this first!"

I took the paper from her hand and looked closer at it.

「Quest:" Get 10 unique rare drops from killing slimes.

Rewards: 67 Gold and an artifact of your choosing」

"Ohh. So this is what a quest looks like. Where did you get this?"

"When I walked from my spawn to the gate, there was this piece of paper that was being blown by the wind. I think someone might've dropped it. But finders keepers, right?"

I expressed a small bit of concern at her. "Maybe return it? What if this thing is actually rare? I don't wanna be a thief here."

"Ahh, who cares? They say there are plenty of fish in the sea. Also, you could literally go to the quest board and pick up a random quest from there. I'm sure they'll find a new quest soon enough."

"There's a quest board?"

"Yeah."

"I see…"

Once I was done reading the paper, I gave it back to Star. "You know," I said to her. "Should I still call you Star in game?"

"Hm? Obvee~. What else are you gonna call me?" She answered while putting the quest back in her bag. There wasn't a sense of doubt in her answer.

Yet I doubted myself. The girl who I sat next to looked like Star, yet she had red hair. Her clothes, though as fancy as Star's, were still nothing like what she'd wear in real life. And everything about here seemed a bit more exaggerated inside the game.

She did say that her name was Sanguine. Why would she mention that if she still approves of being called Star? "Are you sure? We're in game, you know? And Star is literally your real name. Aren't you a little worried that people might find out who you are IRL?"

"Oh, come on. Show me a person that thinks that 'Star' is a real name. Also, Sanguine is a mouthful. Also, I'm still calling you Lucy whether or not you want me to."

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"… I guess that's alright then."

She picked up her bag and held a hand out for me. "Well then, let's go!"

----

I took out the world map and searched for slime spots that are close to us. Although Star insisted that she knew and remembered the spots from yesterday, I still wanted to make good use of my map.

According to the map, we stood in the middle of these gigantic plains, with the town to our left and the forests around us. The map had little slime symbols placed all around these plains. They probably marked the spawning positions of the slimes.

So, we decided to go to the nearest slime spot, about east of where we were standing.

To kill time, we talked about our daily lives as we walked. A little bit about the weather, a little bit about what I ate, a little bit of what groceries I bought… A little bit of everything, really.

It was a good waste of time, which made the walk feel much faster.

We arrived at a small puddle surrounded with slimes bouncing around. They looked almost the same as the slime I saw back at the tutorial. Each of them generally looked like a glob of clear slime that had little eyes to indicate where they were facing.

Although some of them had a little tinge of colour on top of the transparency. Some were green, which I assumed was because of the grass that they were eating. And some were blue, which was because of the water puddle they spawned out of.

It was so cool to see these creatures in person. Looking at one inside a cage is one thing, but seeing them in their natural habitat was a completely different experience. I almost feel bad having to kill them.

But Star was a different story. Without hesitation, she unsheathed her glowing sword with a loud shing!

Her mighty confidence made me a bit nervous. "Whoa! You're really going to kill those guys?"

She held the sword tight with her hands and readied to fight. "Get your stuff out. Seems like we're gonna be here a while." She said.

"Wh—!"

Before I could speak, Star had already lunged at the pack of slimes. She slashed through the crowd with quick and swift movements. Each one she struck immediately ruptured into oblivion, spraying slime water all around her. She was so fast, even the slimes had no chance to hit her.

I was left standing there shocked out of my mind. Since when was this girl a master swordsman? She isn't even as good as me in other games! How is she doing that while carrying a heavy sword? She's in beast mode!

『Don't you want to start killing the slimes?』

"I can barely even follow her movements. You think I have a chance against her skills?" I whispered.

『Your question is logically irrelevant. You're working with her to kill the slimes, aren't you?』

"Yeah… I guess… It's still demoralising to know that she's already infinitely better than me after just one day of slime killing."

『Logically irrelevant. Take your weapons out and kill a slime or two. Try it out before you make your own judgements』

Why the hell is my AI being so aggressive?

----

I placed my backpack down on the ground and picked up my weapons. Damn! I just realized, Star's even wearing her backpack while killing the slimes! She's insane!

I approached one of the slimes with caution. It was my first enemy. A green, adorable slime faces me.

Instinctively, I approached the slime while holding my shield up. It looked very ready to spit at me. I had to avoid becoming a useless knocked-out piece of garbage in front of Star. I held it up high, almost covering my whole head. Just in case the slime suddenly spat at me.

The closer I got to it, the angrier it looked. Its eyes suddenly produced eyebrows and looked at me furiously as I reached its attack radius.

It lunged at me with a quick hop and hit me with great force, knocking me down to the ground.

I hadn't even processed what happened. I thought slimes could only spit at me.

『Slimes are capable of melee and ranged attacks. They will always switch between melee and ranged for every attack.You should be careful of its spit. If they get you just once, it's likely that you will be knocked out until someone saves you』

"Could've been more helpful if you told me that before I got hit," I whispered as I got back on my feet. The slime bounced up and down as if taunting me for being a weak fighter. I couldn't accept its gesture. I quickly sprung up and held the shield as closely to my head as possible. "So, the next attack is a ranged one, right?"

『Would you like me to repeat myself?』

"I'll take that as a yes."

Slowly, I took steps to approach it while taking little peeks at what it's currently doing. There was a little spiral of liquid that started to conjure inside the slime's body. That's probably the cue for its attack. It doesn't seem like it's retreating from me either, even as I reached melee range.

The slime's body contracted and squished itself in. In one quick motion, a little spurt of water shot at me with great speed. I could tell that the flying projectile was aimed directly at my head. I pulled my shield immediately and covered my whole head.

Thud!

I had successfully deflected the slime's spit!

The slime became more aggressive and started bouncing closer at me. Seems like it has some sort of cooldown between attacks. It's the perfect moment to strike!

Although my hands shook nervously at the thought of killing a creature, I realized that inside the game, murder isn't that big of a problem. Even if it was, slimes are meant to be killed by us players. I pumped myself up and gathered all my courage to kill the creature.

I grasped my sword tightly as I focused on the slime's position and movements.

In one fell swoop, I slashed the slime with all I've got. I tried hard to follow the blade's edge as I struck the slime.

Splash!

The slime immediately burst like a water balloon. Much of the water sprayed onto my surroundings, but some did get onto me.

『Don't worry, dead slime juice won't affect you in any way. If anything, you can collect the liquid and concentrate it to make drinks』

"Ew? That was oddly specific."

『Where do you think that Slime Soda came from?』

I let out a slight face of disgust as I thought about the implications of that question.

But I did it! I've defeated my first enemy! It's nothing too extreme, but I felt very accomplished.

The next thing to do is to kill all of the other ones, which are spawning at a very fast rate due to Star's genocide.

"Alright then, here we go again."