“Hey, hey, when are we gonna start the hunt? I’m so bored…”
It was a nice pleasant morning, and as everyone would do in a pleasant morning, the people were having a nice time, walking and chatting and so forth. The same also applied to the people of [Zestra], a pretty large trading town.
Walking through the streets were people of many kinds and ages, all having fun living their daily lives. Children, housewives, tired out men who worked their lives off for the town, and that one pesky guy who keeps on bumping to people all the time.
The medieval-style wooden buildings filled the town, each built with their own purposes and occupied by many different people. An occasional tree or two could be seen planted in front of the buildings, and maybe some flowers inside a pot if they’re feeling in the mood.
Overall, this was quite a humble little trading town.
But among the casual people, a pair of two men could be seen, hiding in the shadows of the alleyways.
“Just wait a second…Haven’t spotted any good ones yet.”
With cloaks over their heads, knives sheathed on their waist, and their figures hidden in the shadows, it was pretty obvious that these two weren’t the lawful types.
But then,
“Oho~, I just saw one. Come on brother, follow me.”
Just as one of them turned around, he saw it. A beautiful young woman, dressed in casual adventuring outfit, holding a bag of what seems to be a group of fruits in her hands. It was their perfect target.
“Comin~”
If you hadn’t guessed it by now(how haven’t you), these two were thieves, and they had a disturbing habit of always going for unsuspecting women.
Merging into the crowd, the two brothers followed the woman, their figures kept low and their knives readied. And-, oh~, and to make it even better, the woman looked around confused for a moment, before she diverged from the crowd and went into the alleyway.
With wicked smiles on their faces, the two thieves too broke away from the crowd and followed her into the dark alleyway, their minds already going wild on the odd fantasies they were having.
Like catching her off-guard, threatening to kill her, bringing her back to their base to break her, until she finally begs from release, in which they-…okay, that’s enough.
“Hrmm…Which way was it again?”
‘Perfect~, she’s even lost! Aha! Lady luck’s on our side today!’
Their disgusting grins only deepened as he watched the woman look at the two ways she could go, before she took a hopeful right turn, and of course, the two followed after her, and-
““…Eh?””
In front of them-, no, all around them, was darkness, pure, unrefined darkness. One which not even the specks of sunlight could pierce through, where only the occasional twinkling of the stars bestowed upon them the much needed light.
…Or that’s what they thought at least, until they realised that those twinkling stars, were actually the gleam of the countless [Phantom Blades] surrounding them!
“[Phantom Iron Maiden].”
*PUCHI!!*
And in a single stroke, all the blades moved, and sliced the two thieves into pieces, leaving behind only specks of meat, and a large bloody mess.
Sadly, while they were doing pretty good at tailing unsuspecting women, this certain ‘woman’ wasn’t going to take it as lightly as those helpless maidens!
“Hah…Humans can be so disgusting sometimes…Now, where did Diana say we meet up at?”
Going back a bit, after Diana and co woke up to a new morning, she retrieved the information her scout dogoos had gathered for her, and from what they’ve seen, there was a small trading town North from where they were at.
So, being the curious girl she was, Diana led her crew as they walked towards civilisation!
Some time later, as she expected, there it was, the small trading town of [Zestra]!
She was about to just instantly run there, but then immediately realised(with the help of Anna’s concerned shout), that bringing Rei, a ghoul that liked the taste of human flesh, into a town crowded by humans, chaos will definitely ensue.
Rei herself didn’t mind being left out, so she stayed behind. But Diana did give her a small dogoo as a tracker. In case either of them needed some help, the small dogoo will spring to life and charge towards where Diana currently is.
But enough backstory, for the current situation, Diana was still registering herself and her friends(except Rei) at the adventurer’s guild, Anna was with her, Crystal was out exploring, and since the three of them hadn’t had breakfast yet, so Crystal used the money Diana got from selling some monsters they killed on the way to buy some fruits.
However, Crystal ended up pulling a Zoro and got lost! And this time, she didn’t have a small slime that could help her!
She did finally get back to the adventurer’s guild, but she was an hour late, their guild cards were already done around half an hour ago, and Diana was slightly angry at her for being late. But whether that anger was genuine or just her being bubbly, she would never know.
Anyways, after they sat down and had their fruity fill for the day, Diana handed over Anna’s and Crystal’s respective guild cards!
In this world, the profession of being an adventurer was quite profitable, brought by a lot of fame, was quite dangerous, but most importantly, brought absolute fun as they travelled this wonderful world!
As for the way it worked, simply put, the colour of the card’s border determines how high your rank is. As for the rankings, they went according to the colour spectrum, starting from red, and going up all the way until violet.
From what she’s also heard, there seems to also be two more colours that were unique to certain people. There was, black, which was for the adventurers who were so high-up in comparison to the others, and gold, which was for royalty.
“Anyways~, Crystal! Is there anything interesting here?”
“Hmm…Not really. I mean, there’s a weapon shop, but it didn’t sell anything worth the value, and a trading guild, but I don’t feel like going there.”
“Yeah, me neither~”
Well, that’s a bummer. This was the first group of civilisation, and there’s nothing interesting to see or visit? She was extremely disappointed, but at the same time-!
“Well, we can just hunt some stuff outside, right~”
“A-Are you sure, Miss Diana…?”
They could use this boredom to fuel some battles against the monsters! Which was great, both as a way to have some god fun, and also to start Anna’s training to become a capable fighter!
“It’ll be fine! And besides, me and Crystal will be there to help out to!”
“B-But…”
“Don’t be a pussy. If you can’t fight, then don’t bother trying to live.”
“H-Hii!!”
Well…Crystal tried to…’encourage’ her, but that only ended up scaring her even more. And-, oh, she wasn’t sure why, but Crystal’s attitude towards Anna seems to be rather…hostile, especially when their having a chat together.
…Wait, could Crystal ALSO be a yandere, while also being a tsundere!? Oh...God...
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But, whether Anna was ready for it or not, this training needs to be done. So, after eating up the last apple in the bag, they got up and made their way out of the town, met up with the silently bored Rei, and walked into a nearby monster forest.
So! Here’s how the party composition works:
Anna will stand as the leader of the party…is what Diana wanted to do, but Anna was quite persistent on not being at the front lines, since she didn’t wanna die! In the end, Rei became the party leader, and Anna will attack the monsters from behind her with her bow and arrow.
Rei, as I said, will be the party leader. Any by ‘party leader’, I mean being the meat shield for Anna to hide behind when things start to go south. She’ll also take on the enemy’s aggro when needed.
She’s the Naotsugu of this team, in my honest opinion.
Diana and Crystal will stay at the back-lines, casually waiting and having small chats as they watched Anna fight on. If help is needed or an enemy that was too strong for her appears, then they would swoop in and take ‘em out!
And…it worked? I guess?
If your sense of success was being chased around by a 2 ft boar while bawling your eyes out and occasionally shooting arrows at it while your friends are watching you from the shadows, then yes, Anna definitely succeeded in that sense.
Oh, and that fight against the boar took 1 hour of her running around, just for context.
Of course, due to the loud sounds they were making, many monsters of the forest came in to try and attack them. But with the unseen help of the big trio, the small fries were easily dealt with and disposed of. ‘Disposed’, as in corroded away by Diana’s slime of course.
“Nice job~! Now, there’s a large wolf hiding behind that tree. Take it out, okay~” Diana said as casually as ever as she pointed at the tree behind her, before she quickly leapt off into the shadows, soon followed by her two close friends, leaving poor Anna alone, with the wolf.
“W-Wait a mo-, m-miss Diana!? Where did you gooaaAAHH!? G-GET AWAY!!”
…………………
A full-on hour later,
“Hah…hah…hic…M…Miss Diana is c-cruel…”
“…Cry?”
“Oi, Diana, you made her cry again.”
Well…She did live from that sudden encounter with that wolf, and she was now a level 5 peasant, meaning that she could advance classes, but…
‘Eh? But that’s how I train noobs at MMO’s though…’
That’s not how it works in this world, you dumbass.
“Who’s a dumbass?”
“M-Miss…Diana…?”
Wierdo. That sudden call out into thin air caused Anna to become even more scared now. No, she’s probably scarred for life because of that, you monster.
“…Ahem, but, you did it, right~? Then it’s all fine! Because no matter what happens, we’ll always be there for you!”
“Miss Diana…T-Thank you!!” Anna bowed deeply with respect as she said that, which did spook her a bit, but, well, she’s back to her normal self now, so her encouragement worked nonetheless, yeah?
Okay~, enough chit chats, the sun’s at the peak of the day, and their stomachs were running on dry gas now(especially Rei), so some lunch shall be served next!
This time, Diana actually came prepared to cooking, had a small knife she used to cut the meat, and even had ‘some’ seasonings, which was some salt and pepper, but hey! It’s something!
Cutting the boar into several different parts, as usual, she diced the boar meat and placed them on some wooden skewers she bought while waiting for Crystal. Lighting a quick fire with this thing we call ‘friction’, she poked some holes into the meat chunks, seasoned it with some salt and pepper, and then roasted them over the sizzling fire.
Several minutes later, the cooking was done, and lunch time finally began!
“So~, how’s it this time?”
“…Better.”
“Yosh! First step is over!”
And of course, Rei ended up being the first taste tester and the judge. After all, one of the main reasons as to why Rei was following her in the first place was to have her cook some dishes for her, so her interest in staying with her is at ‘steak’!
Get it? Cause it’s supposed to be ‘stake’ but I changed it to ‘steak’ and all…how unfunny I am
Forgive me for that pun
…Moving on, further to Anna’s dismay, the training continued on as usual, with Diana pointing out where the enemy is at, and then leaving her behind on her own to watch with Crystal and Rei.
Oh right~, wasn’t Rei supposed to be the ‘team leader’…?...Meh, it’ll be fine. Anna can do it on her own. After all, she’s a level 1 [Novice Archer] now! Using a bow was now her thing!
By the end of the day, Anna’s [Novice Archer] class reached up to level 6, her [Archery] skill was now at level 3, and her entire existence was completely tired out. By the time she finished, she fell unconscious actually, so Diana had to carry her back to their camp.
And also, since they were too lazy to sell the monster parts now, she just had Rei pull them using a slimy rope, created by Diana, that was attached to the many monster corpses Anna had piled up.
For dinner, they had a quick roasted wolf skewer(again), and that’s pretty much it. With all that done, today was officially over! For Anna anyways.
Rei was busy eating a ‘midnight snack’, while Crystal and Diana was lying atop the grass as they watched the starry sky, to, deepen their bond a bit.
After all, Diana was from another world, so the simple things people here took from granted looked amazing to her. Same goes for Crystal too. Since she’s been cooped up in her dungeon the entire time of her life, each event that went on was a specialty in her book.
Or, well, that’s what they were doing at the start. Their conversation devolved from a thoughtful talk about life, to Diana eagerly listening to Crystal as she rambled on about the many types of magic she’s known, and mastered.
Yes! That’s right, she can actually use other types of magic. I know! Mind blown am I right?
As for the reason why she doesn’t use them, she simply explained with a ‘My [Phantom Magic] is the strongest.’ And left it at that. It made sense, but it’d be cool of her to show some of her other magic in battle too.
All in all, she had a good fun talk with Crystal, before Crystal decided to finally sleep.
Which means…Testing time!
As you might remember, Diana had just gained some major skill points, and now she’s sitting on a good 36 points to spend. This time around, one special skill costs 30 skill points, which means~, that she could unlock another skill now!
[Slime Cloning]
Costs 30 Skill Points to unlock
It’s in the name. It allows the user to create a clone of themselves. The clone can perform anything the caster could do normally, including casting magic, but the power output is lowered as more clones are created. It’s kinda the Shadow Clone Jutsu from Naruto, but instead of Chakra, it uses mana. The mana cost depends on the level.
[Slime: Hardening!]
Costs 30 Skill Points to unlock
This skill allows the user to apply increased toughness and durability to their slime. At first, the effect is very minor, but the effect increases as the skill grows. The toughness of the slime depends on the user’s magic. This effect obviously breaks when it comes in contact with magic, so don’t go blocking any magic spells with this.
[Slime: Scorching!]
Costs 30 Skill Points to unlock
Just like the name, this allows the user to apply heat to the user’s slime. Despite its name, this does not make the user’s slime burn by any means, but adds a searing heat into it that can be felt on contact. The power of the effect increases as the skill levels. It’s a bit boring, but it’s effective, so that’s nice.
For those who’ve forgotten, these three were the choices she could pick. [Slime: Corrosive!] was also a special skill from this set too, but she already unlocked that ages ago.
Now, reviewing each of these skills, [Slime: Scorching!] might be good, but her corrosion was already far from enough. [Slime: Hardening!] sounds good on paper, but she’s immune to physical attacks, so why was this here anyways!?
So, all that boils down to her last choice, [Slime Cloning]. And obviously, she picked this one, since, who doesn’t want to be able to create a clone of themselves!? That’s awesome!
[[Slime Cloning] has been acquired]
Alright! Time to test it out then!
“[Slime Cloning]-, guha!? Oof, that uses a lot of mana…”
On her command, a puddle of slime rose from the ground and shaped itself into an exact copy of herself. Just like her [Slime Army], this clone of hers worked under her command, and even had her own thoughts. The only difference being that this clone of her was in human form. She could switch between slime and human form of course, but she’ll stick to human form for now.
Well, she’s tired now, and her MP’s running low thanks to this skill, so with a command for her clone to ‘Have some grinding fun’, she sent her clone away and allowed herself to slide into the world of dreams.
…………………
The next day quickly arrives on set.
Well, for Diana, it arrived much faster than the others though. Heck, when she awoke, the sun wasn’t even rising yet!
The reason for that, being the fact that her clone, the one she created yesterday for testing purposes, was now back! And with many many spoils to hand over too!
Since anything her slime, or her clone gathered will be given to her once they merge back with her, any Exp gained from the slime’s battles will all be given to her.
So, after she stripped naked, she walked up to her clone and merged together with her, receiving a lot of knowledge and memories from her night battles, but more importantly, this hue influx of Exp for her [Slime Queen]!
[Congratulations! Slime Queen has levelled up to Level 3! Your stats have improved]
[Congratulations! Slime Queen has levelled up to Level 4! Your stats have improved]
[Congratulations! Slime Queen has levelled up to Level 5! Your stats have improved]
[Congratulations! Slime Queen has levelled up to Level 6! Your stats have improved]
[Congratulations! Slime Queen has levelled up to Level 7! Your stats have improved]
[Congratulations! Slime Queen has levelled up to Level 8! Your stats have improved]
Woohoo~! Now talk about a huge profit! And this was when she was asleep too! Now, for the moment of truth!
Name: Diana
Race: Slime Queen Lv 8
Age: 17
Class: Slime Virtuoso Lv 13/25 Exp: 2750/3300
HP: 215/215
MP: 142/142
SP: 146/146
[Strength]: 77
[Tenacity]: 71
[Agility]: 74
[Intelligence]: 80
[Dexterity]: 76
[Mentality]: 79
[Endurance]: 74
[Wisdom]: 71
[Longevity]: 47
[Skill Points]: 16
{Skills}: [Slimic Sublimation: Lv 1/25], [Slime Magic Lv 6/10], [Assassination Lv 2/10], [Alleviation Lv 1/5], [Cooking Lv 2/10], [Internal Mana Manipulation Lv 2/10], [Arcane Bubble Magic Lv 1/25], [Slime Mend Lv 2/10], [Slime Army Lv 3/10], [Danger Perception Lv 2/10], [Beast Taming Lv 1/10], [Polearm Mastery Lv 3/10], [Slime: Corrosive! Lv 4/10], [Slime Cloning Lv 1/10]
{Magic}: [Slime Magic Set], [Bubble Magic Set]
{Titles}: [Slime Queen], [Conqueror of Slimes], [Soul Conqueror], [Dungeon Crawler]
Yep. That’s…That’s awesome, alright…Man, just, reading the huge boosts to her stat numbers was just, awesome. No other words capable of describing this.
Phew~…Anyways, today’s plan was to go back to the trading town, sell some of the monster parts they’ve gathered, get some money, buy some equipment(cooking utensils in Diana’s case), and go back to the forest to hunt and power level Anna up!
But, that can wait for a bit. For now, she’ll enjoy the beautiful view of the sun, slowly rising out of the horizon. Ah~, a beautiful new dawn, has arrived.