As our group steps out from under the shadow of the canopy at the edge of the tree line, my vision begins to adjust more to the brighter atmosphere from outside of the forest. After a few minutes of adjustment, I am then able to observe the group of 4 slimes, 1 mutant slime and 3 normal ones, who are aimlessly wandering around the timeworn stone castle and courtyard. I then focus my eyes and locate the commander who is remaining relatively stationary near the end of the courtyard, by a collapsed wall. Suddenly the other member begin ducking down to hide themselves one by one, and I follow there lead, and work my way over to where they are all gathered together. Then a whisper sounds out from Sophie who is standing at the center of the group, "Hey guys, we should rest up and get prepared before we go in there." Some murmurs of agreement are heard following her statement, and we decide to take 15 minutes before we enter to prepare, while making our plan of attack at the same time.

I focus on my own thoughts of how to take out the commander slime as quick as possible while also not letting it cry out like it did last time.

'It had around 130 HP last time, so how many fire arrows would that be?'

I open up my personal profile and "Identify" my boosts from my skill level, weapon boosts, and stat scaling before concluding it should take 4 arrows worth 96 MP to kill it.

'Hm... I should hit it with one arrow at first so it doesn't get too alerted, and then finish it off with three more at once. Yeah that should work.', I think to myself, psyching myself up.

Putting my focus back on the planning conversation the group is having, I volunteer myself to take care of the commander slime while the others designate their roles; Alice and Bruno are to take on the mutant slime, and Sophie, Lee, and Dylan each will take on a normal slime. After setting out plan in stone, we each try to focus on getting into our best shape before get ready to go in.

***

"Are we ready?", Sophie asks the group quietly, which triggers the silent nodding of heads by the other members of the party.

"Then let's go.", she says and we walk forward to confront this undefeatable enemies of ours.

Within a few dozen or so steps, we are standing on top of the fallen doors lying on the grass in the entranceway to the courtyard, but after just a few steps on the doors, the metallic echo from our footsteps alerts the slimes to our presence, and they all rotate towards us.

"Get in your positions guys.", Sophie says.

The unsheathing of various weapons sounds out, followed by the shuffling of footsteps as the group members get into position. I pull out my staff from one of my belt loops, and eye my target who is located near the back of the pack darting back and forth between cover. I stand still and keep my eyes on the commander, as my group advances to take care of their targets. I hear the sound of Bruno's shout as he charges towards the mutant slime, and the subsequent slapping sound of the impact, with Alice maintaining a good distance behind him. I hear Alice then start up her chant and I feel a dampness coming from her direction. Moving more of my attention to the other group of Sophie, Lee, and Dylan, I can hear the twang of a bow and the sharp sounds of metal impacting on stone, and during this symphony of the noises of combat, I finally notice the commander leaving it's cover to help out its comrades. I immediately start up my chant, and a single fire arrow flies towards it after a few seconds, but the slime barely reacts in time and dodges it by a hair's breadth, although it is licked by the residual flames a bit.

'My remote control over my spells isn't that good yet.', I sigh inwardly.

The slime then charges towards me, now entirely focused on eliminating me, but I quickly begin up my chant again firing another arrow towards it with this time, it directly impacting the right side of it's body.

'Nice', I inwardly mutter, followed by me starting up my next chant, this time for 3 arrows.

The slime, who was momentarily stunned from the fire arrow, once again resumes it's charge towards me after probably assuming it should be safe if this is the best I can do to it, but it will surely regret this decision in mere moments, as my third and final chant has finally finished and three fire arrows fly towards it all on a collision course towards the center of it's body.

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The slime freezes, possibly in fear or surprise, but either way it doesn't matter to me besides the slime becoming an easier target. Three impacts can be heard as the commander slime bursts into a slight green mist. I then wait in a silent state of uneasiness to see if it's screech can be heard, but after ten, what seems to be endless, seconds all I can hear is the sounds of combat around me.

Suddenly a congratulatory window appears in front of me, as if announcing the death of the commander slime.

Congratulations, your skill, Fire Creation, has leveled up to from level 4 -> 5.

Upon seeing the window, I breathe a deep sigh of relief as my nerves relax and I almost fall over in exhuberation.

'Finally... Finally, it is done.'

Looking around, I see that the others are almost finished up, it is just Bruno and Alice's target, and Lee's left. I go over to help Lee as he is looking a little tired, and fire off the remains of my mana towards the slightly lethargic looking slime that he is facing, and after burning through the remains of my mana, the slime looks like it only hanging on by a thread. Lee then stabs through it with his spear one last time and the slime turns to a puddle on the worn cobblestone floor. Glancing over to where the mutant slime is, I can see the other four members standing over a green puddle, a bit larger then the one by my feet.

I then decide to see what the commander slime dropped for me, so I start walking over to where it fell, slightly unsteadily at first, before regaining a little more sense of balance as I get closer to the pile of gold coins and the slime core that is sitting there.

'8 gold coins huh.', I think to myself before absorbing them.

I then put my attention on the slime core and mutter "Identify", to see if it's information is any different form the last time I got one, and a window appears in front of my eyes.

Commander Slime Core

The core of a deceased commander slime that has a small chance of dropping when it is killed.

When consumed, it has an extremely small chance of granting a skill related to one of the commander slime's abilities.

I try to remember whether any of the info from the window has changed, but after a brief recollection, I see that nothing has changed. Then, I cheerlessly swallow the core, not expecting any sort of benefit, but another window appear before me as if to purely contradict my expectations.

Congratulations on acquiring the skill Dash, the starting level of the skill you gained is level 1.

I then open up my personal profile, and along with my gold counter now at 8, I see a new skill in my skills list, so I mutter "Identify" excitedly.

Dash Skill Rank: E Skill Level: 1 A basic physical buff skill. This skill grants a temporary boost of speed for a short period of time at the cost of SP.

Grants a boost of 30% to running speed at the cost of 1 SP per second while activated.

I then look over at my recently leveled up Fire Creation, and" Identify" it to see its changes.

Fire Creation Skill Rank: F Skill Level: 5 A beginner fire magic skill that forms the base of all fire magic. Function is only limited by the user's imagination and mana capacity.

Can be used to make defensive or offensive spells with low efficiency. For every 2(2.4) mana used, 1.4 damage is inflicted in the case of offensive spells, and 1.4 damage is blocked in the case of defensive spells.

I feel a burst of excitement rush through my body, not only from the acquisition of a new skill and the level up of another, but from my victory over the commander slime that is finally sinking in. After a few moments of relishing in my sense of accomplishment, I walk over to join the party members who have gathered together, but I feel a increasing sense of tiredness as I get ever closer to them, and within a few moments I am collapsed on the ground, the last though flashing through my mind being, 'I did it.'