Chapter 12: First Request.
Three weeks had passed since Vincent had learned ignition. During this time, he had been practicing different kinds of magic.
On their way to the Guild, Mona looked at Vincent and said,
"Vincent, stop doing that."
His fingertip was frozen. He had mastered a water variation type magic.
<<Freeze>>
Each spell was more difficult than his predecessor. With water manipulation, Ignition, and Freeze, he had to practice them every day. With his mastery in water manipulation magic reaching its peak, he was ready to take on his first request as an adventurer.
He released his mana, and the frozen finger started to thaw. With a mana cover inside, his finger was unharmed.
"Are you nervous?"
Over the past few weeks, he had been progressing as expected. His growth was abnormal to other people, but his struggles were more or less the same as any other beginning individual. Visualizing magic through pure imagination was not his strong point.
"A little bit."
They entered the guild. Inside, many adventurers were walking around.
Vincent looked at the maid in the corner and called out to her.
"Miss Anna!"
The maid looked towards him and smiled. She had been expecting the two of them.
"The mistress has been out for some official work. She told me to give you this."
Anna walked towards Mona and handed her a piece of paper.
"C-Rank quest, Slime Hunt."
Vincent looked at Mona and said,
"Can I see it?"
Mona handed the paper to Vincent.
"Isn't this a bit tough for a kid like him?"
Mona asked Anna, who responded immediately,
"Mistress said that he would be fine. Here, his adventurer card."
Mona took the card and read its description.
"Vincent Hunter, E-class adventurer."
The words on the card were engraved with golden ink. Below his name, there was the affiliation.
"Belongs to the House of Kindred. Occupation, Retainer."
Mona and James had agreed that Vincent was going to be a member of the Kindred family. That way, if anything ever happened to Melida, they could pass him onto the respective family for caretaking.
"Don't let it get lost. That will be your pass of identification around the kingdom."
Anna patted Vincent's head.
"Now go and complete your quest. There is a time limit to it."
He read the quest paper carefully.
"Time limit, two days."
-----------------------------------------
"Slimes are impervious to physical attacks."
Vincent was reading out loud from his monster encyclopedia.
"Mona, what does that mean?"
"It means that you cannot use weapons against them. If you attack them with weapons, they can easily take hits without getting damage."
He was confused.
"So a person with no aptitude for magic cannot defeat them?"
"Correct. There have been slime outbreaks that have destroyed villages in the past. You have to be extremely cautious when you face them."
He continued reading from the book and said,
"Near rock formations, Rock Slimes are present. Near water, water element slimes. In deserts and near volcanoes, the most dangerous out of all the slimes, heat element slimes are present. While dual-element slimes are possible, they are rarely found naturally."
Mona ruffled his hair and said,
"We are going to hunt slimes in a cave. What type of slime will we be facing?"
"Rock slime!"
"Correct."
They had reached the entrance of the cave.
"One last question. If the rock slime is made up of rock, then why don't physical attacks work on it?"
Mona smiled and said,
"It is not completely solid like a rock. The slime part uses rock to shield itself and throw projectiles to attack its opponent. You need to get the fixed core present in the middle of its body. If a rock slime is big enough, it could shoot out boulders."
He closed his book and said,
"I think I understand."
Mona looked at him and asked,
"Ready?"
He took a deep breath and said,
"Yes."
They both entered the cave.
Mona gathered her mana and said,
<<Illuminate>>
The cave lit up. Vincent could see now.
"We will have to go deeper inside. This used to be a mine, and you would usually see a lot of adventurers around this part."
"Then why are we alone in here?"
Mona was constantly looking around for monsters. She slowly whispered,
"Grandma arranged it. With everyone working to find the missing boy, there was a lack of adventurers down here."
She raised her hand and signaled Vincent to stop.
"There is a slime 5 steps ahead. He has not yet noticed us, so be as swift as possible."
Vincent conjured up a ball of water. He spread the water out and pushed it with his mana.
It flew off like a blade. The slime sensed it in time and dodged.
"Quick, create a barrier!"
Vincent created some more water and spread it out as a barrier. The stones were blocked, and he repelled them back to the slime.
The slime got ready to absorb the rocks.
"Now!"
He used the barrier and turned it into another blade. When the slime was done absorbing the rocks, the water blade slashed through his core, breaking it into two pieces.
"You killed a bottom-tier C-class monster. Congratulations."
"That felt amazing!"
Vincent felt exhilarated. Slimes moved faster than boars, and their attacks were stronger. They didn't try to run, which made them fun to battle against.
"Calm down. There are three more slimes ahead. We have to kill at least 19 more before we can leave."
<<Share sense.>>
She interlinked their senses using mana, giving him an estimate of the distance between them.
"Now, begin."
He simultaneously created two balls of water and spread them out into blades.
"Should I use freeze?"
"Will you be able to handle the mana consumption?"
His smile vanished.
"Keep going with your water manipulation. This quest is to determine whether you are good enough to use your mastery to kill monsters."
He closed his eyes, and the water balls around him increased. Slowly, multiple blades appeared.
"Now."
He released a blade towards one of the slimes. It sensed it and dodged, but he was prepared. When it moved into a different spot, a water blade directly dissected it.
The other two slimes chose to attack with their rock, But instead of blocking them, he used the blade to cut through the rocks and the cores directly. Within mere moments, three slimes were dead.
He opened his eyes and looked back at Mona, who had her jaw hanging in shock. Unable to contain his laughter at her expression, he said,
"Your face looks funny."
Mona noticed her unsightly expression and closed her mouth in embarrassment.
"Four gone. 16 more to go."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Honestdegenerate
Honestdegenerate Thank you for reading this chapter!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone