Chapter 8: Slimes

  The dark-skinned axe wielder kept her hair braided and tied into two space buns. She was young, but grown and clearly trained hard. This was the voice of the group.

  “I’m Mari, the melee frontline.” She put her hand on the shoulder of the caster who honestly looked a bit scared.

  His straight brown hair fell straight down, covering a concerning amount of his face. He held a wooden staff with a small green center jewel.

  “This is Trey. He’s our backline earth Manipulator.”

  The blond girl stomped forward. “I’m Jocleyn, a midline archer.” Her intense face didn’t match her soft features.

  Her wavy hair was cut off above her shoulders. It was practical considering it would have gotten in the way of the quiver on her back had it been any longer.

  Mari took charge again. “We’re all advanced at the moment. What about you?”

  “I’m Vespera, an advanced conjurer. Nice to meet you all.” It’s not like just any magician could notice that I’m casting antimagic. It probably looks like normal conjuring to them all.

  “Ooh that’s impressive.. how old are you?”

  “10.”

  “I’m 15, Trey is 17, and Jocelyn is 16.”

  Did I just run into some really promising adventurers or is advanced rank somewhat common for their ages?

  Mari smiled harder, showing teeth. “Well you already agreed so you can’t back out now.

  Here let’s go to the kiosk and get you signed up.”

  She scanned the QR code of the slime slaying job, and I scanned my identification.

  “Alright, meet us at the door tomorrow morning at 8. We’ll go over strategy on the way there.”

  “You better not be late!” Jocelyn did some more of her stomping steps towards me which was somehow walking for her. “Trey is useless.”

  Instead of lowering his head even farther, Trey looked at the back of her head through his thick bangs.

  Mari tried some mediating. “What she means is we could use another caster in the backline.”

  Jocelyn still had some words but respected Mari enough to keep them in.

  “Okay, see you all tomorrow.” I waved them goodbye and returned to the dorms.

  Trey is the oldest but do they not know he’s the strongest of them? His mana was fierce and heavy. Maybe it’s experience he lacks.

  I scanned my card and opened the door. Sam was laying on her bed, reading like how I left her a half hour ago.

  “Welcome back! Did you get a job?” She kicked her feet.

  “Yeah I was invited to kill slimes tomorrow.”

  “Oh bring me back some of their body if you could please!” She reached for an empty vial and extended it to me. “They make a great catalyzers.”

  “Sure.” I grabbed it and slid it into my bag, then removed my cloak and hung it on a hook. My black mage gear was illuminated by the moonlight passing through the window.

  “You look way cuter like that by the way.” Sam was staring. “The boys are going to be all over you.”

  Cute? The word made my heart flutter. More proof I had become the new person I was born as here.

  I embraced it. I do want to feel more confident. “Thanks. I’ll go out like this then from now on.”

  Sam giggled.

  The bathroom thankfully has single stalls where you can shower and change all privately. I wasn’t ready for that amount of confidence yet.

  Following a clean, I climbed into bed. Sam had fallen asleep into her book, her glasses pressing into her face.

  After the long journey and day, sleep came easily.

  In the morning, I ditched the cloak as Sam recommended, and went downstairs only in my robes and pack. My knife was visible to those in the open, and I’m sure it looked expensive, but I could handle any trouble. Besides, this city really did seem safe.

  The party was waiting for me at the door. Mari and Jocelyn were dressed in light armor and Trey had his same long brown robes and was looking to the floor as usual.

  I had used my room’s alarm clock to make sure I arrived on time (another great benefit to the guild), and yet they all beat me here.

  Surprisingly, Jocelyn spoke first. “We can talk on the way there.

  First, Vespera and Trey need to talk and coordinate their magic.”

  Mari threw me some smiles.

  Me and Trey walked together in the back. I figured I had to be the one to talk first. “What do you need help with the most?”

  The gloomy magician responded clearly. “I can’t get a clear shot from the backline.” It was the first time I had heard him speak. It was direct.

  “Are you scared of hitting Mari?”

  He nodded.

  This isn’t some anime with characters that can perfectly coordinate their timings to let a mage get off an attack. One wrong move and our frontliner was dead. Trey’s hesitation was justified.

  Joceyln is an archer so she has similar timings to Trey, although she is a bit closer as a midliner. Still, her confidence told me that she fired those things away. This caster was a bit different.

  But I think I found a solution.

  “If there is only one enemy, then I think it’s best for Trey to be on the flank, not the backline. That way he can get a clear shot.” I made sure everyone could hear.

  “In case there are other weaker monsters, or more show up, it would be Jocelyn and I’s job to keep them off Trey while he helps Mari finish their current one off. If that’s not possible then we could at least give him time to regroup.”

  Mari burst out laughing, “Bahaha I didn’t know you had that in you!” I guess that was comical considering my age and how reserved I acted most of the time.

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  Jocelyn took it more seriously. “It’s not a bad idea. In that case, you will be on the opposite side of Mari which Trey is flanking and I will be between Mari and Trey in order to have the biggest view of the field.”

  Mari made sure to include everyone. “How do you feel about that, Trey?”

  He gripped his staff. “I can try.”

  Jocelyn looked at me confused. “Did you forget your wand?”

  Uhh. “Wands don’t help me.”

  That clearly didn’t answer her question but she must’ve chalked it up to me being young and not knowing I’m talking about. Either way, she let it be.

  The job requires us to kill 10 slimes, submit their stones, and submit samples of their slime for research into how they may be changing locally.

  I hadn’t had much time to study the monster we were hunting, but the job description always had key facts.

  Forest slimes are usually slow, big squares of slime. As long as you are conscious, they aren’t much of a threat in this state.

  Slicing them creates smaller pieces that can still move on their own. Smaller pieces moved faster and jump higher. Any contact with you could burn your skin and with prolonged contact they can even enter your bloodstream and act as a sort of poison. Even then, they take a while to chew through armor so you should be fine.

  The only way to defeat them is by reaching their core.

  “Since slimes can duplicate when cut, is Mari’s job just to grab aggression?” I asked.

  Mari looked back. “Yeah that’s pretty much the idea. If you guys miss the core and leave some pieces behind, I’ll chop them up and if I see an opening on the core, I’ll take it.”

  Even though basic slimes are pretty much the weakest enemy you can encounter, any job with combat was instantly an advanced tier job or higher.

  Our final destination was in the nearby forest, and in a short hour, we were at a promising site for battle.

  We had already had our weapons ready for a while (except me) thanks to Jocelyn’s instruction. Before long, we heard a clump of jelly inching through the forest.

  She assembled us. “Take formation.”

  As discussed, Trey lurked in the far left with Jocelyn who was a bit closer to Mari in the front. I stayed on the right side as a midliner.

  We approached the slime: a cube about 10 feet in each direction. Its center held a nice sized mana core.

  Mari grabbed its attention, enhancing her already strong legs in the event that she had to jump back.

  Trey manipulated some dirt from the ground into a cone and fired it at the slime. It reached a third of the way to the stone, and stopped.

  “We need to cut off a piece to reach the core!” I yelled for the group to hear me.

  Mari was already on it. She lept about 6 feet in the air and brought her axe down, tearing through from the top of the slime.

  At the same time, she kept her distance in order to avoid the splashback.

  It’s my turn now. It’s best to deal with the stray pieces now, before they get in the way. I just have to hope my party members won't notice.

  I manipulated some magic in the air to create a fireball which I hurled at the duplicated slice. It burned nicely.

  Jocelyn grabbed an arrow and pointed her bow at the core. She had a good angle to the damaged area.

  She released and the core was split in two. One down.

  The slime lost its firmness and slumped into a thick honey. I took the chance to collect a vial for Sam while Mari got a vial for the guild and Jocelyn collected the core.

  Mari celebrated the win. “Good job everyone! I doubt we will run into slimes bigger than that so we should be able to repeat it.”

  Jocelyn kept us humble. “We just need to make sure we are isolating our fights and aren't becoming too tired.

  If Mari can't swing down on a 10 foot enemy anymore, then we would need a new strategy.”

  The next slime went perfectly since we knew what to do, and the third went great too.

  During the fourth slime, Trey’s manipulation of the soil accidentally picked up a large stone that wouldn't mold into the cone shape he had designed.

  He didn't notice and fired anyway. The result was a blunt impact which created a splash of slime. It would’ve burned Mari’s face had she not blocked with her armored forearms and quick reaction.

  That move saved morale and the slime was defeated just the same.

  Mari didn't mention anything, but I'm sure Jocelyn noticed.

  We took a quick break. Mari chugged a flask of water as it dripped down her chin, neck, and into her big chest.

  Trey was as gloomy as ever and didn't eat anything. Jocelyn had a few bites while standing, thinking about our next moves.

  By the 5th slime, she had run out of arrows, but she has a trick up her sleeve. I guess she is one of those enhancer types who can even do a little conjuring, and she utilizes it in a really interesting way.

  Jocelyn conjures ice arrows, or manipulates arrows from the soil if she has time, then shoots them using her bow.

  It’s so efficient. It takes a good amount of mana in order to launch magic at your enemy, but all she has to do is create the projectile and enhance her body to shoot it with her bow, using less energy.

  “We only need 3 more but I want to save some mana. How about Mari cuts off on Vespera’s side instead and she finishes the last 3?

  Trey can move up a bit closer to move the duplicating piece out the way to give her a clear shot.”

  I was excited to try more precise magic as I had only used AoE fire up until then. “I can do it.”

  Trey seemed to gain confidence too. “I can position further up.”

  Mari was the piece of the puzzle that hadn't changed since the beginning.

  Her body was gleaming in beads of sweat and her breath was hot.

  I do have emotions to folder through in this new life, but watching Mari solidified something. Yup, I'm still into girls.

  “I can do 3 more too.” She wasn't backing down.

  We met our 8th slime and followed Jocelyn’s play calling.

  Mari chopped off the right piece. Trey fired a large flat wall at it, sending it flying off. I followed up with a conjured concentration of fire.

  You don't usually think of fire having any sort of impact or having the ability to break something without burning it, but concentrating fire in this world feels harder than metal.

  I used the technique Hilvire taught me, an explosion of this mass. The projectile was easy to miss. My long hair was launched back.

  I must have improved in magic because it made the slime look like butter. It was finished, the monster was a liquid again.

  Its magic stone wasn’t split, it held a small hole.

  “WHAT NO WAY! Nice shot Vespera!” Mari placed her hand on my head and shuffled my hair.

  Trey looked even sadder than before like he had lost some of the confidence that he recently gained.

  And Jocelyn was impressed but kept her tough girl attitude for the sake of the quest. “Good work. Let's keep it up for the last two.”

  During the next slime, I missed my first two shots, the holes closed back up right away. Finally, I nailed it with the third. Maybe the first time was a fluke.

  Thankfully, I repeated the single shot for the last slime and we had finished what we set out to do in a single day.

  During the walk back, I was still really curious about Jocelyn’s fighting style.

  I asked the group. “Is conjuring arrows common for archers?”

  Jocelyn didn't mind talking about herself. “Not really. First you need someone who is better at enhancing than manipulating and conjuring, otherwise they would just become a caster.

  Then you need to be an archer or another class with a projectile. Even then, arrows are faster to retrieve and don't use mana on their own.

  Archers are already uncommon.

  It's a useful skill when you can sit on the city walls and fire away at a siege. In those cases you have infinite ammo as those walls are stocked up.

  But on the outside, you're limited to what you can bring and it weighs you down. For questing, creating your own arrows during battle is really useful.”

  I was thankful for her detailed response, it made complete sense. “Thanks for explaining. I'm really interested in magic and never thought of using it that way.”

  I can't cast that kind of enhancing magic so I wouldn't be able to do that technique, but I still had another question on the topic.

  “If firing a projectile by bow uses less mana than firing a conjured spell, then why wouldn't more people do that?”

  “It's slower since you need to draw back your bow. You also have less variety over what you can cast since it can only be small pieces of rock or ice.

  You wouldn’t be able to use your fire magic as a projectile for example. And Trey wouldn't be able to fire a rock wall with a bow.

  Most people aren't going to be switching between their staff and bow in the middle of a fight depending on what they are casting.”

  “I see, thanks.”

  Mari still wouldn't let my feats go. “How'd you get so strong, Vespera?”

  I didn't really have an answer for her. “I guess I was born lucky but I had a great teacher too.”

  Mari started to walk backwards as we were back on the road now. She smiled. “Maybe the Gods blessed you.”

  With a couple hours of daylight to spare, we were back at the guild with my first completed quest.