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[ Information ]

Name: Luke

Gender: Male

Age: 20

Magical Power: 0 / 0

Level: 68

[ Skills ]

Inventory (F)

Superstrength (B)

All Attribute Resistance (A)

[ Stats ]

Strength: 59 (+29)

Agility: 10

Intelligence: 0

Stamina: 10

Stat Points: 9

After the hunt, I opened my status window and felt pretty good.

Put aside the silly and weak stuff, at least the experience points were plenty.

It’s rare to find a world where defeating a Slime can get you a 9-level boost.

Naturally, I poured all my stat points into Strength.

Right now, my Strength stat is 68, plus the 34 from Superstrength, making it a whopping 102.

It doesn’t seem like it caps at 99, so I’ll need to test just how strong I really am later.

“Luke! Are you alright?”

While I was dazedly checking my status window, Luna rushed over, carrying a sleepy Yui on her back.

“Uh. I’m completely fine.”

I had just powered through an absurd one-sided beatdown, so of course, I’m good.

“You hunted in the most ridiculous way possible…”

“People are just too foolish.”

Ridiculous? Not at all, I’m just smart and creative!

Is it better to swing a hammer around in a dumb struggle or to take them down easily like I just did?

Obviously, the answer is the latter, right?

And you’re all making too much fuss over a Slime.

“Just don’t be too disheartened, Luna. The opponent was me, after all.”

Humans are creatures of jealousy.

Always comparing ourselves to others and beating ourselves up over it.

But if the comparison is to someone so high above them, they end up just giving up.

Think about it; I can’t possibly become like that, right?

If you end up giving up comparing yourself to my genius brain against your pea-sized one, that’ll block your growth.

“…I’m not disheartened at all.”

“But why does the girl on your back look like that?”

“Oh, that’s magical exhaustion.”

“Magical exhaustion?”

“Yeah. It happens when you use all your magic power and can’t move for a while.”

That exists?

Sounds just like some Red Demon tribe or something.

I guess when I told her to give it her all, she really went and did it.

If I had known that kind of thing existed, I would have left at least 1 behind by my own judgment.

“But didn’t you level up and recover some magic?”

“…Huh? Level up?”

“Hey, Yui. Wake up.”

“Y-yes…? I have no strength in my body right now…?”

“Don’t say you can’t do it without even trying. Just get up.”

Kids these days always say they can’t do something without even trying.

Lack of effort!

Do you know how much effort I put into being reincarnated into this story?

Two years.

I spent a whole two years not stepping out of my room even once!

At least if you’re gonna say you can’t, you should show some spirit like me before claiming that!

Luna, looking skeptical, bent down to let Yui climb down.

Yui, claiming her body was weak, somehow managed to awkwardly move and landed on the ground.

“Uh…? Huh…?”

“Of course, that’s how it is.”

“W-How is this…?”

Yui, who seemed to not understand the situation, looked quite flustered.

The principle is simple; the two who assisted me in the hunt got experience points just like I did and leveled up.

In the process, their magic recovered a bit as well.

Whether it’s 1 or 2, as long as there is a little bit, they should still be able to move.

Clap, clap, I gathered the amazed gazes of Luna and Yui.

“Enough of this, let’s gather evidence and head back quickly.”

Evidence of the Slime hunt.

We need to collect some bodily parts from the Slime.

Even if it evaporated, there are still traces left behind during the process.

It burst apart while dividing, leaving evidence scattered everywhere.

Since the main body is dead, it wouldn’t move anymore, but it still bubbled away, retaining its acidic properties.

So, I brought along the collection jars Adela had given me this morning for gathering.

I carefully scooped some of it out, ensuring not to let it touch my hands.

The translucent liquid visible through the jar.

To me, it all looks the same, but how would one distinguish this from a regular Slime?

I’m curious, but that’s not my area of expertise, so they’ll figure it out on their own.

But acidic, huh…

Hmm…

“…”

“Luke? What’s wrong?”

“Oh. I was just thinking about whether to sell this or keep it for myself.”

“This…?”

“Yeah.”

Finding an acid of this concentration is ridiculously rare in this world.

If it can melt rock that easily, it should work on the average B-rank monster too.

By the way, not just monsters, but people have been messing with me lately, so wouldn’t it be useful to splash a little on them and open the conversation?

After all, there’s no use in just having acidic liquid on hand.

And who’d buy something like this anyway? This isn’t Earth, where science has made it valuable!

‘Alright. I’ll keep it for myself.’

I filled just enough into the jar to submit and stored the rest in my personal empty glass flask.

Even a Slime, which is generally useless elsewhere, is really helpful for hunts.

“Well, looks like that’s done, so let’s head back now.”

I’ve gathered enough acidic liquid for evidence.

Everything I want to keep is stashed in my Inventory, so all that’s left is to go back.

The problem is, it’s an absolute trek back.

We traveled for half a day by cart, and there’s no way we can make it back to the Empire on foot before today’s over.

‘Well, since I brought a tent, we could camp, but…’

That doesn’t mean camping is a walk in the park either, so it’s better to leave early and arrive sooner.

“If we retrace our steps, we should be fine, right?”

Since we traveled in a straight line anyway, it shouldn’t be too hard to find our way back, even through a vast forest.

And so, as I took a step back in the direction we came from…

“Luke, that way is the opposite direction we came from…”

“Oh, right.”

*

After spending a night camping in the forest, returning to the Empire felt incredibly welcoming.

Honestly, given everything, even capturing the King Slime, I can’t say that was harder than camping.

Camping is no joke uncomfortable.

Firstly, my taste buds have become spoiled.

After eating restaurant food daily, it’s hard to get excited about munching on some burnt meat.

The sleeping arrangements were the worst too.

The ground is hard, and I had to keep watch, getting the most awful sleep, feeling totally low.

And the most annoying thing about keeping watch? Nothing happens.

A monster attack would’ve been better!

I could have toyed with it slowly until the sun came up without killing it.

So, after getting up early in the morning, we managed to return to the Empire just in time for sunrise.

“Ugh… camping is not something I want to do often.”

“Really? I thought it was quite luxurious.”

“Only you think that. Look at Yui.”

I pointed to Yui, who was following behind us, dragging her feet.

She looked like she hadn’t slept at all and was practically a skeleton of her former self.

“Hey, hey, Yui. Get a grip.”

“Y-yes, I’m not asleep!”

“See?”

“…”

Well, it makes sense. A hikikomori who usually rolls in a plush bed for comfort worked so hard that it drained her magic.

She must have found it tough.

If it were our diligent Vampire Queen Yui, that’d be different, but our shut-in Yui is clearly not cut out for camping.

“Next time, I should beat the driver to keep the cart reserved.”

“Wouldn’t that put you on the blacklist…?”

Then should I buy a bed… no, maybe a house to store in my Inventory and pull it out whenever needed?

“A house would probably cost a fortune?”

“…Huh?”

I can’t do this today—I need to rest for sure.

I still feel sluggish. I haven’t completely shaken off my fatigue.

Before anything else, we need to stop by the Adventurer’s Guild, so we headed straight there.

Even if we rest, we still need to collect our pay.

“I’m glad you made it back safely.”

Since it was early in the morning, not many people were at the Adventurer’s Guild yet.

Seeing us enter, Adela recited her signature line.

“I’m not really safe, though.”

“W-Were you hurt?”

“My feelings are hurt.”

Camping has really punctured my mood.

“…I’m sorry.”

Suddenly, Luna apologized.

“…You’re still your usual strange self.”

Hey, I’m not crazy!

If you keep treating me weirdly, who knows what I might do?

“Since you came today, I take it you successfully hunted the King Slime?”

“No, I didn’t come back safe, I said!”

My feelings are suffering!

Wah! Pat me!

“If you keep this up, your reward will be deducted.”

Immediately, I performed a bow.

“Gomen nasai!”

The view turned upside down as I barely caught a glimpse of Adela, who sighed as if fed up.

Well, it’s not like I shouldn’t have my reward deducted.

It’s a slime, after all; it deserves at least some payback.

“Did you bring back evidence, at least?”

“Of course, I did!”

I pulled out three jars from my Inventory.

“I’ll juggle as an apology~”

“P-please don’t…!!”

“Come on, it’s fine. Turns out I can juggle a bit.”

In my past life, I had the luxury of time, sitting idle in a chair juggling pens.

Don’t people juggle pens at least once in their lives when bored?

Fight me on this, and I’ll win.

Swish, swish—the three jars traced circular arcs in the air.

Adela watched fearfully as she followed the jars.

“Where are you looking? That’s just the afterimage of the jars!”

In that moment, I accidentally slipped, dropping one jar to the floor.

– Crash!

“Oh.”

– Sizzle…

The acidic liquid inside the jar began to flow out, burning the wooden floor.

“…”

“…”

“Ah, well, mistakes can happen in life, right—”

“The repair cost will be deducted from your reward.”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

*

With one jar meant for evidence smashed, I had no choice but to submit one flask I kept for myself as a replacement.

Losing my reward and having to offer a hunting tool in return? Talk about a snowball effect!

“Ugh… why are tears…”

“…This is all your fault.”

As Adela received the evidence, she handed us three iron adventurer badges.

It seemed like they prepared those in advance, expecting success.

“So how much is the reward?”

“25 Unhwa each, totaling 75 Unhwa. With a 1 Unhwa repair cost deducted, that’s 74 Unhwa.”

Ooh… still a decent amount, isn’t it?

With this much earnings for a C-rank quest, it’s no wonder some put their lives on the line as adventurers!

Considering our inn costs 10 Unhwa a week, it’s pretty substantial.

Sure, it’s less than what we got from the Iron Golem, but that was an emergency request, so rewards were boosted then.

“The repair cost isn’t that much, actually.”

“How expensive can a wooden floor get?”

True, it’d be silly to charge a lot for just a few planks.

If they charge several dozen Unhwa for that, they’d better be replacing my brain on the repair team.

“Oh, right!”

At that moment, Adela clapped her hands as if a thought clicked.

“Luke, Luke. A local request came in for you.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

I’ve just recently become C-Rank, yet why would I get a local request?

I guess this popularity is something else.

 

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