It was time to finish that quest Joseph gave Tabitha. This time, with a stomach full of bread and without trying to do too much in one night by going and chopping down trees when she had no training in doing so. Though, she did bring her helmet with her in the event of any potential tree branches falling down and smacking into the back of her head again. She really didn’t want to get knocked out, need rescued, and nursed back to health by Hanne again.

That was just embarrassing.

So, instead, it was time to hunt those glowing worms and only that.

Tabitha pulled up the quest information just to remind herself of its exact requirements once she reached the forest with a few, glass jars in hand.

Quest Information

Name: Slitherglow Hunt

Source: Joseph Kroll, Riverbend

Objective: Acquire one vial full of Slitherglow Fluid.

Bonus Objective 1: Ensure that the vial of Slitherglow Fluid has at least 50 Quality.

Bonus Objective 2: Ensure that the vial of Slitherglow Fluid has the [Bright] Tag.

Reward: 5 Gold Pieces | 1 Attribute Point | Slitherglow Bait

“Vial, jar, same thing probably,” Tabitha said. “So, if I want those bonus rewards, I’ve got to do those objectives. Wonder which one is harder. Usually, the higher the bonus objective, the harder it is, but the first bonus gives an attribute point which I would think is a better reward than some bait for the very things all over the place.”

They really were everywhere, too. As soon as the sun went down and it was too dark to see normally, the slitherglows could be seen all throughout the forest with shining abdomens. Or rather, glowing eggs shining through their abdomens.

Now, seeing a glowing worm was one thing. Knowing that they were actually glowing, parasitic eggs kind of ruined just how pretty the sight would have been if they were only glowing worms.

“Parasites ruin everythin’,” Tabitha said before walking up to the nearest worm. It had what looked like three, large eggs inside of its abdomen, each one glowing. “So, what do I do? Do I just kill ya?”

The worm wiggled in response to her. Well, it wasn’t so much in response to her as it was in response to simply living and having nothing else to do aside from trying to attract a predator to come and devour it and its eggs.

“Not sure why you’d evolve only to get eaten… but it is what it is.” With that being said, she took the dagger she made off of the oversized belt she borrowed from Joseph and pinned the worm against the tree with her other hand. Once she had it held up so that it wouldn’t fall or anything, she sliced off what looked like its head with a single, swift motion.

No damage notification popped up, nor did any message about earning experience or anything else pop up.

“Huh. No achievement? Not even one named ‘Pest Control’ or somethin’? Alright. Wait, what if I just need to kill even more of them? I wonder if there’s a path for that. The Exterminator path? Ya know, I bet there are plenty of folk in this world who hate bugs. Especially if there are giant spiders. Humans back on Earth can’t be the only ones. So… what if I start my own pest control business where I use tools and traps and sprays made of my own recipes? Bet I’d make a lot of money that way. And the more money I make, the more materials I can buy, the more things I can make, the more money I have, the better materials I can buy…”

Tabitha could already imagine it. Her on the TV with an advertisement offering giant spider slaying spears, flamethrowers, and insecticide grenades. Runa showed up with her in her imagination wearing a matching shirt with a logo on it that showed Tabitha using a flamethrower on a giant spider.

“Someday, Tabitha, someday.”

Once she was done with her imagination, she realized that the worm was still wiggling around despite its head being cut off. She figured it must have been like those other insects that don’t necessarily die just because they’ve lost their head due to their brain basically being spread out throughout their entire body. Even so, it wouldn’t live for too much longer. Especially since Tabitha set the worm down on the ground and carefully ran her dagger through the worm’s length going inside the gaps between each egg so as to not damage any of them.

Seeing how slimy the eggs were was not exactly pleasant, but she didn’t hesitate to carefully pick them up and use Analyze on them.

Item Information

Name

Slitherglow Eggs

Glowing eggs from a Slitherglow.

Rarity

D

Quality

46

Element

Nature

When she put two of three of them in the jar and tried to use Analyze on the remaining egg, nothing popped up. It was similar to the pine needles. She needed a minimum amount of the item in question for it to actually register as an item that might have tags or have quality.

Now, with all three eggs in the jar, she picked up a stick on the ground and used it to pop them open and mash them up. The resulting fluid was much… chunkier than she expected. As it turned out, the three eggs were more like sacs that hosted dozens of tiny eggs inside of them. Crushing them up with the stick was hard due to how slippery they were but, when she did manage to crush them up, they popped with glowing fluid.

And when Tabitha dipped her finger into that fluid, another window popped up to show her the result.

Item Information

Name

Slitherglow Fluid

The glowing fluid from Slitherglow eggs.

Rarity

D

Quality

35

Element

Nature

“Oh, come on. Why’d the quality go down? Wait,” Tabitha said before narrowing her eyes at the stick and analyzing it.

Item Information

Name

Stick

A stick from a tree or bush.

Rarity

E

Quality

25

Element

Nature

“Really? Come on. Alright, then because I want to get that bonus objective for havin’ over fifty quality, I guess I’ve got to go find myself a good crushin’ stick.”

So, just like usual, Tabitha got sidetracked and went on a sub-quest instead of focusing on main thing she was supposed to be doing.