...Quest failed? What does that mean?
Moch pulled up his system screen and willed his quest log open and noticed he now had two additional categories besides [ACTIVE], which were [COMPLETED] and [FAILED].
[ACTIVE - 0]
[COMPLETED - 1]
[VARIANT QUEST] The First Friend
Oats has come to you for a reason, and she hates wanton violence. When all the fish in your village are telling you to swim in one direction, she wants you to know that salmon swim upstream. You’re supposed to be a salmon.
Gain a Slime’s Trust 1 / 1
Rewards: Class Advice, Slime Spirit
VARIANT: You will not be able to complete “The First Step” if you complete this one.
After scrutinising the last line, he’d realised what he’d done.
[FAILED]
[QUEST] The First Step
The village chief wants you to prove you can take on the harsh world of Edea. There is no time limit, though slaying five slimes regardless of your class shouldn’t take too much of a toll.
Slay Slimes 0 / 5
Rewards: 5 silver, Novice identification token, Adventurer registration papers
Damn. What am I going to do about this…
Oats had come back to her own consciousness, and realised what just took place. She was happy - as if one of her own first quests had just completed as well.
“Hey! This is good news!” She shouted over at Moch, not noticing his crestfallen face.
“Mmm.” He could barely eke out a reply to the happy floating fairy, as he slid down a trunk and put his head in his hands. All his life, Moch’s parents had emphasised the importance of climbing up the ranks of the adventurer guild, and the glory that awaited him. Although there were other guilds, none were as recognised and as all-encompassing as a Gold or higher ranking from the adventurer guild. His childhood best friend had also begun her journey within it - and her most recent letter informed him that she’d climbed to Silver rank already - in the short span of a year since joining. With such high hopes placed on him to join them all eventually, Moch was beginning to crash out, blaming his own weaknesses that he couldn’t even finish the first quest and not knowing what he'd do next. Damn. Damn damn damn. What am I going to do? How will I explain that I'm now friends with the very first monster I was asked to slay? They told me this was a wolf-eat-wolf world - and I couldn't even do this.
“There’s another path ahead for you! Trust me!” Oats continued buzzing around him, pacing between the left and right of his peripheral vision. Yeah. Big help you’ve been to me so far. If Squish didn't eat those pebbles, I'd be slime food right now.
“Let’s find more creatures to befriend! It’ll cheer you up. Maybe things a little stronger than… that.” She pointed at Squish, looking down on its stats and stature.
As if sensing its leaders’ unhappiness at the floating pest that was Oats, Squish vibrated and shot a glob of gel at Oats with a satisfying "phtoo!", smothering her and making her crash land onto the forest floor in a mess of slime.
“Ew! What is this!” Oats exclaimed unhappily.
“Blrghlllghgr” Satisfied, Squish happily rolled towards Moch, kindly rubbing itself against his calf.
Noticing the exchange, Moch’s mental spiral stopped and he returned to reality, and chuckled.
“Haha. Thanks Squish. I needed that. Let’s go, we’ll figure something out.” Standing up, Moch held his hand out and Squish rolled onto it. Moch placed Squish on his right shoulder. Due to the malleability of a slime, Squish had no issues stabilising itself on Moch’s shoulder. It rumbled in happiness due to the new perch, and the friend it had in Moch. "Onward~!" Squish seemed to say.
“Hey, a little help here?” Oats had grabbed a few nearby bush leaves to wipe the slime off of her.
Moch kept walking.
“Rude much?” Oats swore she could feel Squish smirk at her, which made her feel crazy because slimes had no discernible face at all.
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Rubbing his head while thinking of a solution, Moch made his way through some bushes and back towards the village. I’ll have to clear this up with the chief. I don’t know how he’ll react if he sees one of the slimes I was made to kill on my shoulder.
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“Hey, what the heck is that!”
Oh dear. Not the people I’d like to meet right now.
Moch had reached one of the central forest roads that the village adventurers and guards had cleared beforehand and actively patrolled, and fell into the sight of three of his fellow novices. Boe, who he had spotted get his class yesterday, was one of them, but Moch also worryingly noted that he was with his two ‘partners-in-crime’. Boe alone was a decent enough person, but with these two? They were usually up to no-good delinquent behaviour, unable to overcome their immaturity and following through with their troublesome acts.
“What do you want?” Moch asked cautiously.
“Is that…? A slime? Are you really so weak that a slime can take control of you?” Jona, another warrior like Boe but with a spear, jested.
“Hey, we’re all done with our quests - freakishly easy I’ll say - but we don’t mind helping you out here.” Avo, a bowman, drew his bow, and without much warning, quick-drew the drawstring and released a wooden arrow at Moch’s shoulder. Boe didn’t say anything, but he chuckled.
Moch didn’t have the time to continue the conversation - as the arrow thankfully missed Squish by a hair’s breadth.
He had ducked instinctively, held onto Squish and shouted, “Oi! Let me explain, the slime’s now my friend because of my cla-”
“-He’s gone mental.” Boe added, loudly and unhelpfully.
“Does he really think the slime’s his friend?” Jona and Avo looked at each other incredulously.
It seemed as though some non-verbal agreement had come over the three, as they instinctively decided on something and stopped listening to Moch at all. Maybe a beating would return sense to their village-mate, who they’d always thought of as weird and lonesome.
Jona took his spear out from its sheath and sprinted towards Moch. Avo ran forward alongside Jona and took a more careful draw this time, aiming at Squish again, thinking of hitting it properly this time. Boe hung back, as he didn’t think someone’s foolishness warranted this much violence.
Having no other course of action, Moch had to retaliate. In another situation, he might have just taken the hits until the two were bored, but this time, they were crossing the line. This was Squish, his first party member and a monster who, despite having beaten him up just recently, now trusted him completely. Moch couldn’t betray anyone’s trust like that, human or slime.
Moch fully sobered up in the face of combat, gripped his [Olive Branch] tight in his right and clenched his empty left fist. Here goes nothing. Moch had always been larger than them due to his genes and diligent work in the fields, but never wanted to face the wrath of Jona or Avo's older siblings or families if he’d hurt them anytime before. That was, before this incident.
In the time it took Jona and Avo to teach Moch, he’d swiftly turned and placed Squish down and said, “Hide in the bushes, get to safety, wait for me there!” I don't want you to die. He then scraped his hand across the sandy ground and grabbed a bunch of sandy dirt.
“Hah!” The two had reached his back just after he’d given the order to Squish, and Moch had sensed that. He swung backwards to face them and did two things: he threw the dirt in Avo’s face, and he swung the [Olive Branch] at Jona. If this hit makes Jona stronger or something like it did before, I’m dead.
Combat had officially begun between Moch and the two and their health bars appeared above their heads. Avo’s vision was disturbed by the dirt, and he’d released his arrow blindly deep into the forest in a random direction. Jona’s health bar went down by a twelfth, so Moch knew what he was doing had worked. Okay, there's hope for me after all.
“I don’t know why you’re being this stubborn and idiotic, but I’m not backing down. Not this time.” Moch grunted, giving them time to come to their senses and leave him alone. This was a foolish and naive hope.
“Let's get him Avo! Get your shit together!” Jona shouted and re-gripped his spear, swinging it wildly at Moch.
“Dude I can’t see anything! Give me a bit of time!” Avo had begun to use his shirt sleeve to try and get the dirt out of his eye.
“Okay then.” Moch back stepped out of Jona’s range, and decisively charged at Avo, tackling him to the ground and swinging his fist and branch down on him.
Unfortunately for Moch, this also made him a static target, and Jona sprinted straight towards him and shoulder-charged him off of Avo.
“Is this worth it? Over a stupid slime? Give up!” Jona angrily shouted. Avo was blinking confidently, now having shaken the sand out of his eyes, and reached towards his waist.
“Quite sure the slime’s smarter than the both of you combined.” Moch stood up and spat out his reply.
The two charged at him. Avo had pulled out a dagger this time, and Jona with his spear.
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Squish had not wanted to disobey Moch at all, but desperate times called for desperate measures. He returned to his home-clearing to find Oats beginning to fly towards a random direction, probably hoping to find where Moch had gone.
“Blgghrrfafafa!” He rumbled urgently at Oats.
“Hmm?” She turned to face him. “Is Moch in trouble?”
Squish rumbled in agreement. Besides realising with minor shock that she actually understood the slime, Oats flew off in the direction Squish led her to.
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Having finished her quest, Raven had been thinking about Oats, and how the lonely introverted boy had always been nice to her whenever they interacted. She was smiling to herself when, “thunk!”, an arrow had landed in the tree trunk a few metres from her face.
“What the hell?” She shouted and prepared for battle before realising the assailant was nowhere around, using her senses.
“Something’s going on.” She ran in the direction of the arrow, and without revealing herself, saw a tussle between the very boy she was thinking about, Moch, against Jona & Avo, known troublemakers from the vilalge who had more than once messed with her daily duties for the fun of it.
Realising how serious the fight seemed to be, and noticing that they were actually hurting each other - Oats with the branch he’d never let go of, Jona with a sharp-tipped spear, and Avo with his metal dagger - she needed to do something.
With a decisive nod to herself, she ran off in the direction of the village.