章 9: Slime Hunts Are Short And Easy Money

I ordered the usual breakfast from the waitress at the inn's cafe. Sitting down at a table, I stretched my legs feeling very refreshed. All the soreness from yesterday was gone, and I was full of energy and excitement. Today at noon, I'd finally learn about magic from Bella.

The food came, and as usual, it was delicious. I thanked the chef as was now custom, paid for the food and left for the guild. I had a few hours before the lesson, so as I had planned, I was going to take a slime hunting quest.

I got to the guild after the morning rush had already happened, and snagged a slime hunting quest from the F rank board. At the Quest Counter, I handed over my Status Card and the quest slip to the guild worker so she could register the quest.

As she was registering the quest, I realized I still didn't know her name. "This is a bit awkward for me to say, but I've never gotten your name before. Could you tell me your name?" I asked while scratching the back of my neck in embarrassment.

"About time you asked! I've been waiting forever for you to ask. I'm Phoebe. It's a pleasure to meet you Lucifer." She replied with a smirk. She was clearly teasing me, but I decided not to let that bother me. I had somewhat earned it anyway.

She handed me my Status Card and said, "Remember, the core of the slime is it's proof. All you need to do is hit the core, and the slime will die immediately. Also, take these gloves to remove the core from it, as the slime has an acid in it's body that can burn your skin." Phoebe took out a pair of gloves from a drawer below the counter and passed them over to me. "Good luck!"

I thanked her for the advice, and immediately left for the west gate. Ten minutes of light jogging later, I was already past the gate and near the river where the slimes generally gathered. I unsheathed my sword, and moved to the bank of the river. Almost immediately, I spotted a group of slimes lazing in the sun a bit upstream.

I moved towards them and quickly poked each one in their core before they could even try fleeing. To begin with, slimes are very slow and don't have any form of defense. The problem is their reproduction rate. If you leave one slime alone by a river, within a day there will be fifty slimes from that one. Leave them alone for a week, and there will be more than a thousand of them. Because of this, the guild will always have slime hunting quests on the board, and sometimes even have mandatory group hunts for any F and E rank adventurers that are available.

I had two hours until I needed to complete my hunt, if I wanted to make it back in time for my magic lesson with Bella. Using my abnormal agility, I spent the next two hours collecting slime cores, and placing them in the bag. I had quickly lost count of the cores I had collected, and decided to leave the counting to the guild.

In a flash, the two hours were up and I finally started my walk back to Desil. I removed the gloves once the river was a short distance behind me. My hands felt liberated as I felt the light breeze brush over my hands.

I walked into the guild building with fourty minutes left until noon. Bailey was sitting there and smiled at me as I approached. "Is there a bigger tray or a big bowl that can be used for the slime cores I have?"

Bailey nodded in response and after telling me to wait a moment she left the Rewards Counter and came back a minute later with a Bowl that was clearly used specifically for slime hunts.

I took the bag off my back and turned it upside down. I thought to take out all the cores I had collected, and they started calling out of the bag. The bowl was quite large, as it was able to hold every single one of the cores. Though it was very close to overflowing.

"You went a bit overboard, dont you think? It's not even noon!" Bailey scolded me for doing my job too well. She started counting them, after telling me to go sit by a table and wait.

I left her to it and sat down at a table while I waited. I got bored of waiting and started loking around. The bar to the right of the counter was preparing to open. The barman was busy preparing the alcohol behind the bar and the sound of sizzling meat was coming from the kitchen window.

"Lucifer! You can come back now. I have your reward ready." Bailey called to me.

"Thanks. Sorry for the trouble." I apologized to her. She had seemed annoyed because of me, so I thought it best to do so.

"Forget it. In reality it's great that you collected so many, otherwise we would have had to set up a mandatory group quest soon. With this, it can be pushed off for a few more days. Anyway, here is your reward." She placed a pile of silver and copper coins on the tray, and said, "Slime quests don't have a set reward as you know, so we base the reward off of the amount collected. Each core is equal to ten coppers, but if you collect more than two hundred cores, the guild adds a bonus of two silvers. You collected three hundred and sixty five cores, so you have earned thirty six silvers and fifty coppers. Adding the two silvers from the bonus, your total reward comes out to thirty eight silvers and fifty coppers."

I was shocked at the amount, and just stood there for a moment. After thanking her, I scooped up the reward and put it in my bag. I had fifteen minutes until my magic lesson, so I quickly left the guild and jogged towards the east gate.

Magic lessons, here I come!