The slimes were crawling across the wide grassland without a worry in the world. The slimes here were passive and wouldn't attack as long as you didn't attack them first.

They were slow and weak, but for beginners, they were challenging enough. The slimes were usually the first monster encountered by players. The sudden realization of how real everything felt put most user on edge, so keeping things relatively easy was a good idea.

But Rust wasn't a beginner. Yes, he was level 1, but he had killed enough slimes to become sick of it. He could do it with his eyes closed at this point.

He confidently walked over to the closest slime.

'Don't think badly of me. Blame this dog eat dog world.'

Did slimes even have feelings?

Rust raised his foot and slammed it against the slime's green and wobbly skin.

[You have dealt 5 damage.]

[You have suffered 5 damage.]

What? He only did 5 damage? Hitting it with a sword did damage in the 20s, even at level 1. And he even received damage!

He thought himself a master slime killer, but couldn't even remember the simple fact that slimes were acidic.

"What the hell!" Rust's fist lashed out.

[You have dealt 4 damage.]

[You have suffered 5 damage.]

Even an idiot would most likely realize the acidic nature of slimes at this point. But Rust's anger at the fact that he received more damage than he dealt to a slime was blinding him. He was a god among these creatures. They should just lay down and die silently.

"Just. Die. Already." The punches and kicks flew like a storm.

[You have dealt 5 damage.]

[You have suffered 5 damage.]

[You have dealt 6 damage.]

[You have suffered 5 damage.]

[You have dealt 5 damage.]

[You have suffered 5 damage.]

Rust was far from the sharpest tool in the shed, but being able to fight slimes blind wasn't an overstatement. By the time the slime lunged towards him, he had already moved behind it.

[You have dealt 5 damage.]

[You have suffered 5 damage.]

[You have defeated 'Green Slime']

[You have gained 10 exp]

[You have received 'Slime Core' x1]

[You have received 2 copper]

The slime turned into glittering motes of light which were drawn to the star on his forehead. It was how Battleheart showed exp gain.

Rust felt out of breath. The fight had been short, but he had no experience fighting without a weapon, and wildly flailing his arms and legs put a heavy strain on his already small stamina pool. He would have to give more thought to how he attacked from now on.

After calming down and coming to his senses, he realized why he had taken damage.

'Slimes have corrosive skin.'

He gave himself a short nod like he was some kind of expert.

It had even burned holes in some of his equipment. He started regretting his choice of fighting without a weapon.

But thinking a little further gave him some much-required willpower.

'Creatures with an ability like the slime are rare.'

He had very little basis for these claims. His highest level had only been half of what an average person currently had. It was a fact he had willfully forgotten.

He tried calculating the speed at which he could hunt the slimes. A 'Green Slime' had between 25 and 35 health. Punching and kicking seemed to do an average of 5 damage. Every time he attacked he would receive 5 damage. He had 80 health. Which meant that to stay safe, he shouldn't kill more than 2 slimes before resting.

He had complete faith in his ability to dodge any attacks, so they were removed from the calculations.

"Slow..." Rust let out a sigh.

With his small health pool, it would take 10 minutes of rest to heal back to full health. Having to wait for 10 minutes after every second slime was extremely frustrating.

There existed other ways to regain lost health. But they were unavailable or too wasteful for the current Rust. As far as he knew, the most effective methods were sleep, magic, and potions.

But the truth is that it was still quicker than doing nothing, so he got to work.

To his big surprise, it was as slow and painful as he imagined it to be. You could feel pain in Battleheart. It had however been lowered significantly compared to reality. No one actually wanted to feel the pain of being stabbed or burned alive.

But that didn't change the fact that pain was the body's warning system that something was wrong, which meant that it was unpleasant even if they had removed the worst of it.

Not every slime dropped an intact core either, which made it even worse.

But like what someone famous once said 'Good things come to those who wait.'

[You have defeated 'Green Slime']

[You have gained 11 exp]

[You have received 3 copper]

After absorbing the orbs of light, the normally hidden star on his forehead gave off a bright flash.

[Congratulations, you have gained a level.]

'Finally.'

Rust smiled. He had been waiting.

Heading into his status screen, he allocated 5 of the 10 points into strength, 2 into agility and 3 into vitality. Increased strength and agility would allow him to hunt faster, while the increased vitality would let him kill an extra slime before resting unless he got extremely unlucky. It was also said that high vitality gave you an increased recovery rate. Another bonus was the fact that leveling up refilled your health, stamina, and mana.

RUST

104/104 hp

100/100 mana

150/50 stamina

Attack Power: 30

Defense:25

Evasion: 0%

15 Strength

12 Agility

10 Dexterity

10 Endurance

10 Spirit

13 Vitality

2 Luck

Available stat points: 0

The 2 extra stat points of [Jack of All] was both randomly allocated to luck.

Luck had two effects as far as he knew. The first was a small increase in the chance of getting a critical hit, and the second was a small boost in the chance of rare loot dropping.

Increasing a special stat which couldn't be increased through normal means was great, but he felt it would have been better if they helped grow his combat ability more instead.

Finalizing his level up, he continued the hunting. He could now kill 3 slimes before resting. Or that was the plan at least.

A heavy, gruff voice interrupted him. "You'll get hurt, newbie."

Turning his head he saw something that looked like a walking fortress. The 2m tall figure had dark, thick metal plates covering their entire body and head. The large axe on it's back swung dangerously close to the ground when it walked.

"The slimes are acidic." The supremely manly voice of the armored behemoth answered matter of factly.

"Huh?"

What was this giant talking about? 'Titan'? He seemed to be a player. No, before that, why the hell was he here?

"What do you mean 'huh'? Is the translator messing up?" Titan's voice was tinged with annoyance.

'Oh no.'

What if he found out Rust could hear him perfectly fine? Would he be mad? Getting PKed at level 2 would be a new low, even for Rust. He couldn't stop the cold sweat from running down his back. This is why he avoided players!

Rust was a strange one. He would treat NPCs like real people, but would often panic and lose himself in strange delusions when meeting actual real people. It was the biggest reason for his solo play.

"Are you perhaps?... I apologize. I didn't realize." The giant's voice sounded sincere.

'Sincere about what is the problem.'

Things were getting worse by the minute. The behemoth called Titan made him more and more confused.

"I-I'm sorry, but-"

Titan put up his hand for him to stop talking.

'Now I've done it.'

It wouldn't even be a fight. Titan was clearly in a different dimension compared to Rust. He just hoped that he could appease his anger by dying once.

Rust let out a small breath and gave himself a nod.

'I'm ready.'

What happened next left him stunned. Titan seemed to do a small dance and gestured wildly with his hands. Next, he grabbed his massive axe and walked towards a slime.

Woosh!

The axe had struck the slime before Rust could even react.

Where the slime had been, there was now nothing. It had turned it into dust. Rust couldn't help but gulp and wonder what would happen to the exp in a situation like that.

'Why is he showing off?'

Rust felt like he was going crazy,

Titan then walked over to another slime, and pulled the thickly plated gauntlet off his right hand, exposing the rugged and thick skin. He then carefully placed it onto the slime.

The low sound of sizzling came from the area where Titan's hand was touching the slime.

'Masochist?'

Rust couldn't be blamed for thinking so. It truly was a bizarre sight. Rust was getting more and more nervous.

'This person is crazy!'

The giant placed his hand back into the battle-scarred gauntlet. After opening and clenching fist, he seemed satisfied.

This is where shock almost made Rust pass out. All the giant did was give him a thumbs up and wave goodbye while walking off into the distance.

Rust sat down. He had no choice. His legs would no longer support him. It was the first time he had met a truly insane person and it left mental trauma. He would rather hunt slimes at level 1 for a month than ever meeting Titan again.

While Rust was thinking that, Titan had completely different thoughts.