Mature Content Warning: Mild language concerns

Author's Note: I probably won't update this again for a few days, so I can update my other stories a bit. When I start posting this again, I'll do so daily till the first volume ends, then take a week long break so that I can finish up one of my other stories completely and bring another close to completion. That will give me more time for this and Nocturne. :)

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The subtle interplay of light and shadow, the scent of fresh green grass; these were things that many people might take for granted. Scott was not such a person. He spent every moment of his new life enjoying the sights and sounds of this strange world. In recent days he had enjoyed one sight, and one specific sound, more than many others.

Rhea laughed softly, musically. Her eyes seemed to dance and sparkle in the firelight. “You really did such a thing?”

Scott could not help but laugh as well. “Yeah, getting locked out of the barracks, while standing on a window ledge in my underwear, is one of the highlights of my military career.”

She laughed even louder then made a silly little snorting sound that caused her to place her hands to her face. She had laughed so hard that she had snorted, how undignified! Rhea could not help it, though. “How did you get back inside?”

“I had to wait a while. After what felt like forever, I slid around the ledge to the communal bathroom window and crawled back inside. Went to where I hid a screwdriver inside the janitor’s closet, and used it to pop open my door since all of the doors were ancient as crap.”

“Did you get caught?”

Scott shook his head. “How someone did not see me standing on the side of the building in my underwear will always remain a mystery.”

Rhea laughed again then clutched her stomach. It was a funny story, but not that funny. Scott wondered if she had ever really left her hometown before.

“Why would you even think to go out on that ledge? That was clever.”

He shrugged. “We used the ledges as emergency entrances. It was nothing to see a soldier crawling along the side of the barracks to get into his room through his open window. Someone locked themselves out of their room at least once or twice a week.”

She shook her head then giggled into her hands. “Soldiers must be more agile in your home country. I couldn’t imagine an average human soldier in this country doing that without falling off the building.”

Scott laughed. “No one fell in the few years I was stationed there, thankfully.”

He looked at her curiously. “How about you, anything silly happen in the last few centuries?”

She smiled then sighed softly. “No, I don’t really have any interesting stories.”

“I doubt that. You’ve been an interesting story since I first met you at the shrine.” said Scott.

Rhea gripped the end of her hair and drew a solid lock of it around to the front, then stroked it gently. Her cheeks took on a slightly reddened shade. “No... I’m kind of boring...”

Scott’s face began to heat up a little at the sight. The girl was too cute for her own good. It was hard to believe someone so shy and innocent could exist.

“T-tell me more about you, OK?” she asked sweetly.

He smiled at her then nodded slowly. It was actually, sort of nice. He rarely had the chance to talk about himself with someone of the fairer sex. It usually developed into hearing his date or girlfriend tell him all her problems like he was some sort of therapist.

Chapter 9: Elf Stuff

The forest home of the slimes; traditional hunting place for beginning adventurers who specialized in elemental magic, it was a surprisingly normal looking place. Scott looked around excitedly, but saw no sign of the rumored creature that was known to be the staple of many old school role-playing games.

It took quite a while before they actually found a slime to hunt. However, once they did find one Scott was introduced to an interesting phenomenon.

Rhea called out, “Watch carefully!”

Scott did as she asked, and the girl raced forward to attack the slime with her sword. A hint of electrical current sparked along the edge of her blade. She struck outward with a single powerful slash that neatly slid through the transparent spherical mass at the center of the oozing creature’s body. A bright red number six rose up from the body of the slime and its twin parts remained limp for a time.

She quickly hopped back then returned to Scott’s side. “Watch what happens.”

They looked at the two halves of the bisected slime. Scot watched the two halves begin to jiggle a little. After about a minute a bright green number three rose up above both of the halves, and the slimes started to move around. One slime had become two.

“That’s pretty neat!”

“Isn’t it? The slimes in this part of the forest are weak, but if you split them up like this you can increase their numbers.”

The sorcerer looked at the randomly moving creatures and noticed that they seemed a little confused. He had no point of reference for their behavior, but they still seemed a little out of it.

“You need to cut completely through their nucleus in one strike, and use an elementally enhanced blade to make this work.”

“Why is that?”

“Well if you cut the nucleus in half, you can form two new slimes. The lightning magic causes the nucleus to fire and speeds up the growth process a little.”

Scott looked at the slimes as they wobbled and gooshed around erratically. After about a minute another set of green number threes rose up above them and they stopped moving randomly. Immediately they started to slide toward the human and elf intruding into their territory.

Rhea pointed at the slime on the left. “I’ll try to split that one. You can try the right one since I already cast lightning magic on you.”

“Sounds good!” said Scott.

They raced off toward the slimes and set about trying to split them once more. Rhea did so easily, but Scott needed to stab and slash at his slime a few times to coax it into splitting. This was partially due to his smaller blade, partially due to his inexperience with the process.

The two slimes became four. The four slimes became eight. In time the eight slimes became sixteen. It was at that point that they changed their tactics. Rhea and Scott ran around in circles to get the attention of the low-level monsters and led them to a point where they had all clustered closely together.

“Freeze!” exclaimed Scott. A wave of magical energy shot from his palm, rapidly cooling the slimes. Unlike the physical attacks, the pure magical assault did a lot more damage. Still, the sheer number of slimes forced him to use his spell twice.

Each cast was enough to kill an individual slime, and since they were so closely aligned most died after the first cast, and the rest died after the second cast. They were practically immune to normal physical attacks, but magic destroyed the slime nucleus easily.

“Good job!” said Rhea. Sixteen slimes defeated in such a manner was a fair bit of hunting.

Victory music began to play and a screen popped up to show them their rewards.

Victory!

You have defeated sixteen slimes! Using a simple but effective method you have found a way to turn one slime into a hoard of monsters. Since you have just learned this new technique, you will receive a one-time bonus.

+23 EXP

+48 Fayth

+16 Ability Points

Item(s) Acquired:

Small Slime core X 16

Slime Essence 16

Tiny Aquamarine X 2

Bonus:

+16 EXP

“Neat. A slime is worth a lot more Fayth than a grass rat.” said Scott.

“Yes! What I’m excited about are the two aquamarines, though.” said Rhea.

“The aquamarines?” asked Scott.

She nodded at him. “Yes, it is considered a rare find even if they aren’t actually rare gemstones. You can mine them or find them in certain areas. Some monsters drop gems as well. Slimes in this area will drop them on rare occasion. These slimes can drop aquamarines or pearls.”

“Is there something special about gemstones?”

Rhea smiled. “Well, they are useful for some magical applications such as enchanting. They are also used in jewelry or as donations at the temples of certain gods. I like them because they are worth a lot of Fayth.”

“A lot of Fayth, how much?” Now she had his full attention!

She placed a finger to her chin. “These are tiny so probably only a few hundred Fayth. You can’t expect much from level one monsters, you know.”

Scott understood now. People probably hunted these poor slimes like crazy. He had learned that hunting in the same area frequently would cause the monster population to drop. The respawn rate slowed greatly. It was the reason that rabbits were less common that grass rats. Rabbits gave more experience and they had tastier meat. Though, even the grass rats only swarmed if you pissed them off. They were quite timid if they faced someone several levels higher than they were.

“Thank you for showing me that trick for hunting slimes.” said the sorcerer.

Rhea punched him gently on the arm. “Hey, we’re comrades, right? Teaching you a thing or two is important.”

“Oh yes, fill me with your wisdom.” said Scott, before laughing softly.

She smirked at him then pulled out a cloth to clean her sword off. There was surprisingly little goo on her blade, but she did not want to sheathe her sword without cleaning the remainder from its surface.

“I almost feel bad for the slimes, though.”

She looked at him, a curious expression on her face. “Why is that?”

“I don’t know. It feels wrong to overhunt monsters. Don’t they serve a natural function in this world?” Every animal in the world was considered to be a monster of some sort.

Her face lit up then she clasped his gauntlet clad hands. “Yes, they do.”

Scott didn’t know why she seemed to be so happy that he had said such a thing, but he was not going to spoil the moment. The sheer joy in her expression was enough to make his heart skip a beat.

“It’s fine and necessary to hunt monsters... But, overhunting can cause problems for the environment. Slimes keep the water pure, for instance.”

“Really? So, is there a lot of water standing around in this forest?”

“Not really. At least, not as far as I can tell. There used to be, but that area is a stagnant swamp now, due to overhunting the slimes.”

The sorcerer frowned. Now he felt bad about hunting the slimes. It was like he was contributing to the destruction of the forest.

Rhea smiled at him then placed her hand on his shoulder. “It’s ok. The respawn rate is already as low as it can go, I think.

So, it’s not like the swamp will get much bigger. There just won’t be as many slimes as there could be in this part of the world.”

“I guess so... Is that how it works?”

“Yes, if you hunt monsters a lot the spawn rate of that monster species goes down in that area. Other species might increase though, if they aren’t hunted.”

“Ah, so that’s why there are usually fewer monsters near towns and villages?”

“Exactly! Constant hunting keeps the monster levels low and it also reduces the spawn rate. It is actually necessary for civilization to exist.”

“Are we likely to find stronger slimes farther into the forest?” asked Scott suddenly.

“Not really. This entire zone is low level. I would be surprised if you found a single monster higher than level four.”

“Zone?”

She stared at him for a moment, uncertain of what he was asking. “Yes, zone. You know, the Victory Station Zone?”

“Uhm...”

“You honestly don’t know what a zone is?”

Scott winced then shook his head. Rhea squinted at him then pulled up a map screen.

She pointed at their location on the map then showed him the squiggly lines surrounding the area. “These lines are zone boundaries. When you leave a zone you will be told that you are entering a new area. Different zones have different locations and geographical markers.”

“Really? So, what is this zone considered?”

“This is a town zone. So, that means weaker monsters within about three day’s travel from town. There are forest, and grass land areas here.”

She waved off his incoming questions and tapped another area that was adjacent to their current zone. “This is a savannah zone. There is no town there. I think it’s about a week’s worth of walking to get from one side to the other.”

“You’ve been there?”

“Yes, I’ve traveled to about thirty zones. Most adventurers travel through several hundred within the course of a few years. The zone I am pointing at right now typically has monsters that range from level two to six.”

“Because it is still close to a town?”

She nodded at him. “Yes, exactly. The farther you go from a town zone, the stronger the monsters become. Be careful, though. Once you go a certain distance from a town, the level differences can vary a great deal.”

“How much?”

She rubbed her chin for a moment then tapped an area four zones to the northwest. “If you walk, it will take several weeks to get here. The monsters there tend to be around level thirty to fifty. However, this mountain area adjacent to it is known for having level eighty and higher monsters. Right below that zone, the grassland area just to the south has level twelve to fifteen monsters.”

“That’s definitely a major jump!”

Rhea closed down her map screen then smiled at him. “Yep. You will want to stick to the roads when traveling between towns. It is incredibly easy to wander off and end up in a high level zone.”

Scott took that bit of advice to heart. Something nagged at him a little, though. If she was as old as she claimed, and had traveled so widely, why was her level so low? He could not restrain himself, so he asked her.

“Hmm, oh that? You can’t obtain an adventurer class till you’re an adult...but you knew that, right?”

He started to say something then stopped. He did not want to admit his lack of common knowledge more than he already had, but he also did not want to lie to her. Instead, he changed the subject. “Is there a better hunting zone for us than here?”

Fighting slimes was easy enough, but due to how they had to share experience, and the slime’s low level, it seemed like a good idea to head to a better spot. The slime multiplication trick was neat, but it had taken quite some time to find the first one.

“Um, maybe. If you’re up for fighting opponents that can wield weapons, we can go try our luck at a cave that I have heard about.”

“A cave? Wouldn’t we need lights?”

“I can take care of that. We might want to head back to Victory Station first.”

She pulled up her map screen and pointed to a zone to the west of their current location. “This forest area has a small mine. It used to be used for mining various types of ore, but it is abandoned now. There should be cave bats, possibly a few slimes or cave rats, and a weak goblin tribe there. I’m not sure exactly where it is, though.”

Scott looked at the map then grinned. He pulled up his own map screen and compared the zone to his quest leads and location markers. “Maybe it is the Red Rock Mine?”

“You already know about it?” She asked, mildly surprised.

“I spent a lot of time in the library recently learning about the area. I don’t know as much about zones and the like since they were never mentioned in the books. I did learn about a few different areas though.

“A few? You must have fifty places marked on your map!” Her eyes widened significantly.

“What can I say? I wanted to know a few places to go in my travels.”

She noticed something on his map screen then asked, “These glowing spots. Are those quest leads?”

“Ah, yes. They are places that I have heard of that I might be able to complete a few quests.”

“Askrida, that’s a town three zones from here.” He had her curiosity piqued.

“Ah, yes. I was told that Askrida was having a bit of trouble with Corpse Rats.”

“Corpse Rats? Do you intend to go help?”

“I guess. I’m not sure what the trouble is, but if I can help I will. I do want to train more first.”

“I suggest we do. The monsters between here and Askrida can reach up to level six, though locations like that mine might go a few levels higher since people explore such places less frequently compared to simply traveling through the land.”

Scott laughed softly. “Yes! Finally, something to hunt besides level one critters.”

Rhea giggled at his enthusiasm. After collecting their wits, the happy adventurers turned back from hunting the low level slimes and started back toward town. They had to sell off their loot and buy a few supplies.

Along the way Rhea bid Scott to stop. She had seen something useful.

“What are those, herbs?”

She nodded and a happy smile rose upon her face. “Yes! They are the final ingredient that I need to make Fairy’s Cure.”

“What’s that?” asked Scott.

“That’s the basic healing and restorative tonic that I learned to make. It does a little bit of everything, but it’s weak. You can use it to heal minor status effects, and slightly restore health and mana.”

“Wow, useful!”

“I think so, too. Do you mind if I use some of the slime core and essence to make it?”

“No, go ahead. Use whatever you want. We both earned them.”

“Thanks!”

In the end, she used four of the slime cores and ten of essences. They sat on a fallen log and chatted in a friendly manner while she compounded the medicine. It took over an hour, and during that time they witnessed many people coming and going from the forest in the distance. They were not on the road, currently. They had cut across the countryside to reach the slime forest since normal monsters in this area were too weak to be a threat.

“There had to be a few hundred people going through there on the road.” said Scott.

“Yes, the road leads to other zones, but I’m sure many of them went to the forest to try and hunt slimes.”

They had not run into anyone on their brief hunting excursion, but that had no doubt been due to the location that they entered the forest. Scott longed to find a less crowded area that did not have as much overhunting.

“I wonder why I rarely saw people fighting rats and rabbits...”

“Neither of them drops gems. The trick that I showed you is a well-known tip for hunting slimes. A large party could probably farm a single slime all day if they took turns killing off all but a few of them at a time.”

“That would mean that they would earn tons of slime cores.” Scott felt as though he understood why the cores were not worth much by themselves.

“Yes, no doubt. Of course, a large group would get very little experience from such low end monsters. This is a hunting spot based on money. Even if they somehow were to manage to kill a thousand slimes per day, they would have to share that money many ways.”

Scott ran the numbers. If a ten person party hunted one thousand slimes. They would probably split around three thousand to five thousand experience, depending on their level. Higher level members might not get any experience. It would take several days of hunting at that rate for him to gain another level.

The Fayth distribution would only allow them a few hundred Fayth per member if it was evenly distributed. They might gain a hundred aquamarines. He guessed they might be worth around three hundred Fayth each from what Rhea had said. They probably earned four or five thousand Fayth each after selling everything.

Of course, they would probably earn one thousand ability points each. He nearly salivated, thinking about that! Though, the likelihood of actually killing one thousand slimes per day was low.

He suddenly realized something. Scott slapped himself in the forehead, starling Rhea.

“What’s wrong?” she asked in concern.

“I just realized why adventuring equipment was so expensive! People overhunting slimes and similar monsters will probably drive up the price of things due to inflation.”

“Ah, yes. Adventurers and hunters can make a lot of money. Though, you can’t hunt the same monster forever to any good purpose.”

“Ah yes, they’ll stop spawning when you are around.” Scott knew that much. He rarely saw rabbits anymore, and the rats refused to even show up when he was around.

“We’re probably around the limit for the slimes in this area, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if that one only showed up because there were two of us. There is also the ability, experience, and Fayth limit. ”

“What limits are you talking about?”

She finished making her medicine then turned a soft smile in his direction. “Once you reach a certain level, or defeat the same monster a specific number of times in a given month, you’ll stop gaining anything from fighting them.”

“I see! So, when does the level-cap come into play?”

“Level-cap? Oh, you mean when defeating a monster stops giving you a reward?”

“Yep, that.” He smiled at her and she returned it in kind.

“Well, it varies. Usually, it will become obvious because you get half as much experience. Two or three levels after that the experience will drop to zero and you’ll receive half of the Fayth. Another two or three levels later, and you’ll lose the capacity to gain ability points.”

“Hmm, so what... when you’re about ten levels higher you won’t earn anything from a monster.”

“Sure, right now that is probably true. At higher levels it might stretch out a bit.”

Scott rubbed his chin. He would love to exploit such a cheaty method of acquiring ability points like the people hunting here. Maybe there would be slimes in the mine? They were supposed to be a possibility as a cavern inhabitant and would be a slightly higher level.

“Alright, I’m done. It turned out well I think.”

She showed Scott a glass jar filled with a clear water-like substance. “This is how an elf makes money from hunting slimes.”

“Oh?”

She grinned. “Fairy’s Cure is a low-tier healing tonic but it is worth the same amount as a medium-tier healing potion. We could get two thousand Fayth for this potion, easy. A merchant would sell it for several times that amount”

Scott nearly choked when he heard that. “Are you kidding?”

“Nope. Of course, it requires a lot of ingredients. Some of them don’t grow around here. I would have to buy them. So, profit wise we would probably only gain six hundred Fayth.”

His eyes lit up! “Please become my personal pharmacist! I’ll work you like a beautiful dog!”

She snorted at him. “Beautiful dog?”

“Yes, one of those Frou-Frou ones that wear clothes and fancy hats.”

Rhea giggled at his stupidity then shook her head. “I’m happy to make medicine to sell, but it isn’t something I can do in large amounts even with the ingredients.”

“Really, why not?” He smiled at her.

“I’ll be put in prison for being an unlicensed alchemist and merchandising without permission. You have to be a member of merchant guild to sell more than twenty potions in a month. If you’re caught overselling you can go to jail for a year and end up with a massive fine.”

“Ah, still... it would be a nice bit of extra money I suppose.”

“Yes, it will.”

Scott smiled at her. She had really been an amazing person to run across. She was so kind and patient with him. Rhea was definitely a special sort of person.

As though she could sense his thoughts, she leaned against him and put her head on his shoulder. Scott could not help himself any longer. Slowly, he slipped his hand around and rested it gently on her hip.

Rhea’s eyes widened for a moment then slowly closed. She wanted to enjoy the moment, the first time Scott had ever given her a hug on his own.

After a few minutes she looked up at him. He looked down at her. Slowly, inexorably they began to move their faces toward each other. Lips parted.

“Scott...” she said sweetly.

“Rhea...” replied the man.

On the cusp of a sweet kiss a loud snore broke the spell. Scott blinked and looked down. Rhea’s head had dropped suddenly. “What... Rhea!”

He patted her face and shook her a little. Several minutes passed and he began to grow desperate. Had she been poisoned earlier? Was she sick? Did a monster cast a spell?

Scott looked around frantically for some sign of why this was happening. Just as he was about to put her over his shoulder and try to carry her to town, she woke up.

“Dammit...” she said, in a very un-Rhea-like manner. Her beautiful face was pressed into an adorably angry frown.

“Rhea! Are you alright?” Scott took her by the shoulders and made her look at him.

She glared at him for a moment then blinked. “Oh! S-sorry, yes.”

“You... just passed out then woke up angry. What happened?”

“I’m not angry... at least not at you.”

Scott tilted his head to the side and looked at her with an expression of confusion etched onto his features. “Then, what happened?”

Rhea sighed softly. “I... well; sometimes I will fall asleep for no good reason.”

“Do you need some sort of medicine? Is it a curse?”

She blinked then jumped back a bit and started to wave her hands around in front of her. “No, no... I just... Ah... just have a condition. It comes and goes.”

“Really...?”

She nodded her head vigorously. “Uh, yes. Yes, and um... I know it will sound weird, but sometimes I’ll have to go off by myself for a bit... by myself.”

“Ok, but can you tell me why?”

She shook her head then bit her lower lip. She shrugged her shoulders in an adorable way and nervously said, “I... uh... have to do elf stuff?”

“Elf stuff? Like what?”

She waved her hands around again then said, “Just stuff... Girl elf stuff...”

She turned his head up and acquired yet another confused expression. What the hell was girl elf stuff?

“S-speaking of which, and don’t think this has anything to do with you or anything, but I am kinda gonna have to go do some of that for a while.”

“You need to go do ...elf stuff... right now?” asked Scott warily.

She nodded quickly and tried to smile but it ended up looking more like she was both constipated and attempting to hold in a massive bit of flatulence at the same time. It was a complicated and curious sort of expression.

“OK, if you need to go... that’s... How long will you need to do this, girl elf stuff? Should I wait for you?”

“I don’t know.” She said while growling.

“I see...”

Rhea lunged forward and gave him a tight hug before whispering. “I’m so sorry, Scott. I... I’ll meet you at Victory Station tomorrow, OK? Can... Will you wait for me?”

He whispered back. “Yes, I think you’re worth waiting for.”

She pulled back from him and looked at him, just looked at him. Her eyes began to sparkle and shimmer a little, as though she was about to cry. She clasped his hands and said, “You don’t know how much that means to me.”

“I’d like to find out, I think.”

“Yeah... Ok!” Her cheeks took on a brilliant scarlet color and she nodded her head up and down rapidly.

Scott was about to say something else, but she shook nodded off again and started to snore. He blinked at reached over to shake her, but she woke up immediately. She wore an angry expression once again.

She growled low in her throat then stood up after taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry, but I really am going to have to go do ... do elf stuff.”

Scott stood up as well then reached out to take her hand. “What are you talking about? What if you fall asleep on the way to whatever it is that you’re going to do?”

She gently removed his hand from hers then shook her head. “No, that won’t happen. I’ll be perfectly fine.”

“But...”

She looked down and turned her head to the side. “Please stop asking questions...”

“Of course I am asking questions! I’m worried about you, dammit!” snapped Scott.

She flinched visibly, as though she had been struck. “I’m sorry...”

Scott tried to grab her hand again, but she danced away from him and ran off toward the forest. Scott took off after her, but she easily outpaced him due to her greater elven agility. He pressed on, but the moment she entered the forest he lost all sight of her. It was like she had simply disappeared.