Chapter 9: The World Beyond the Forest
The second guardian was dead.
Tanaka stared at the bits of broken metal littering the ground in the hidden chamber.
"That was exhausting."
The little slime bounced beside him.
Boing.
"I know."
"It wasn’t even close."
The Black Stone Guardian was stronger than the first.
Not much, really.
But it was smarter.
It used its axe to keep him at range and pitted the floor to stop him in his tracks.
More than once, Tanaka had had to use Stone Body to take a blow to his midsection.
If it hadn’t been for the little slime continually distracting the lesser stone creatures...
It would have ganged up on him.
"It almost split me in half."
Tanaka inspected a gash on his side that was slowly knitting itself together.
"Definitely my hardest fight yet."
Fortunately for him. The end was simple.
Tanaka had tricked the guardian into digging its axe into the ground.
Before it could pull it back out, he had used Earth Impact and Leap to knock it out.
"Still, we won."
Golden specks of light massed and flew into his body.
His Magic Core gave a happy pulse.
Not enough to evolve, but it was close.
Tanaka scooped up a black magic core from the debris.
Its mana was thicker than the previous guardian’s, if anything.
Tanaka stored it without hesitation, then looked around at another prize.
It was a pouch of several fist-sized mana crystals.
The little slime bounced around the crystals happily.
"You like shiny things too?"
Boing!
Tanaka chuckled.
"I guess we’re alike."
Everything went into his Storage Ring.
Tanaka gave one last look around the chamber, then realized that there was nothing else left.
The chamber was completely empty.
"Let’s go home."
The return trip was uneventful, as the other stone creatures had apparently all been under the guardians’ control or retreated deeper into the dungeon, as Tanaka hadn’t encountered anything else.
When the pair finally exited the dungeon, Tanaka paused.
Fresh air.
The birdsong.
The scent of wet leaves.
"I missed this."
The little slime bounced lightly ahead of him, then halted after a few steps and turned to wait for him.
"I’m coming."
The two eventually exited the forest, and Tanaka sorted through his thoughts as it began to sink in just what exactly this world was.
It wasn’t anything like he thought.
Not really.
Sure, there were superficial similarities.
Skills.
Magic Cores.
Dungeons.
Evolution.
But he wasn’t at the center of it all.
The dungeon was there long before he ever found it.
The slime village had its own history, its own customs and culture.
"I’m just..." Tanaka shook his head.
"...living here now."
Strange as it was, he was actually ok with that.
______
Several miles away, beyond the forest, a dirt road meandered between rolling hills.
Five figures trekked up the road under the midday sun, their belongings slung across their backs.
Leather armor.
Short swords.
Spears.
Bows.
They weren’t dressed like heroes, just ordinary people.
And that was exactly what they were.
The group’s leader, a thickset man with a trimmed beard, unfurled a rolled-up map and gestured at it.
"We’re close."
One of the younger hunters adjusted the pack on his shoulder.
"You sure the scout wasn’t lying to us?"
"He wasn’t," The leader said firmly as he tapped a black smudge on the map near the edge of the forest.
"Minor monster settlement."
"Species?" Asked another hunter.
"Slimes."
The youngest hunter let out a loud groan.
"Seriously?"
"We came all this way for slimes?"
The woman wit a bow shot him a sharp look.
"Not easy prey, but everyone has to start somewhere."
"They’re weak," The youth muttered.
"Yes," The woman smiled.
"Which means they’re good for practice."
One of the other hunters chuckled.
"Everyone who’s anyone has had to go slime hunting at some point in their lives when they first get into the guild.
It’s where everyone learns their lesson about never looking down on the little guy."
The young hunter grimaced.
"I thought goblins paid better."
"They do," The leader said, "but they’re much more aggressive."
The group chuckled at that, and the bearded hunter rolled up the map.
"Now listen," He said seriously.
"Slimes are F-Rank monsters, which puts them near the bottom of the monster hierarchy."
"They don’t use weapons or cast high-level spells," He gestured at the potion belt around his waist.
"They rarely come after humans on their own accord, only when they’re cornered."
"Then why are we hunting them," The young hunter asked.
The leader gave him a sharp look.
"Alchemy.
The gel in their bodies is used to make stabilizers."
Tanaka tilted his head at that.
"Stabilizers?
What’s that?"
The bow-woman gave him a long look.
"Without the gel, most beginner potions would be unstable.
It keeps the liquid from separating.
In short, half the potions sold in the frontier couldn’t exist without slime gel."
"They really are that common. They’re practically a renewable resource.
That’s why the Guild usually has extermination contracts up for them."
The youngest hunter scratched his head.
"So they’re just... livestock?"
"No," The leader said darkly.
"They’re still monsters, and if one of them happens to evolve..."
"then they become something else entirely."
The group fell silent, and after a while another hunter spoke.
"There was apparently a slime that reached D-Rank before."
They all chuckled at that.
"That’s ridiculous.
No slime has ever reached that high.
Probably because they all die before they get that big."
The leader didn’t smile.
"Usually, anyway."