The receptionist collected herself and asked the leader, "So you want to include that slime as a party member?"

"That’s right."

"... Are you sure it’s safe?"

"Can’t you tell from the way we carry it around on our heads? Of course it’s safe. If anything happens, we’ll take responsibility, so don’t worry too much."

The receptionist considered his words for a moment before replying.

"Very well. Some adventurers do work with trained animals, after all... But please remember that you may be held responsible if any problems arise."

She finished speaking and held out a sheet of paper.

"Please write your names here."

The aspiring adventurers each wrote their names on the paper. Def wrote the slime’s name, Bouncy, for it.

"Let me confirm. Mr. Godric, Mr. Hawein, Mr. Sgol, Mr. Def, and... Bouncy. Five members in total, correct?"

"Yes."

"Could you pay the registration fees? Oh, you don’t need to pay one for the slime."

"Here."

After accepting the fees from the leader, Godric, the receptionist activated a magical device on the counter.

HUMMMMM!

CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! CLACK!

Mana gathered inside the device, which made a strange noise and spat out four identification tags.

"Please keep your identification tags somewhere safe so you don’t lose them. Here are some cords, too. You can thread them through the holes and wear them around your necks or wrists, or keep them somewhere else safe."

"Heh heh, so this is an adventurer’s tag."

Once she had confirmed that everyone had received a tag, the receptionist asked, "What would you like to call your party?"

"A name, huh... Boys, any good ideas?"

In response to Godric’s question, Sgol turned to the receptionist.

"Hey, we can change the party name later, right?"

"Yes, of course."

"Boss! Then let’s use your name for now! We can change it if we come up with something good later!"

"Well... I suppose we could. Hawein, Def, you two all right with that?"

"Heh, I’ll think up a splendid name later."

"Hehe, I’m fine with it too."

"Then put us down as Godric’s Party."

"Certainly."

The receptionist nodded, then began explaining the basics.

"Your current rank is F. You can attain E rank by completing three F-rank requests. After completing a certain number of requests, you can advance as far as D rank without taking a test. From C rank onward, you must complete requests designated by the guild to advance.

"Now that you’re adventurers, you may use the guild’s training grounds. You can also use the rooms on the second floor if you wish. Please check the bulletin board for requests. If you would like more details about a request, bring it over and I’ll explain it to you. Do you have any other questions?"

"We can pick a request right now, can’t we?"

"Yes, as long as it’s available at your current rank."

"Good. Boys, let’s go look at the requests."

"Yes, Boss!" they chorused.

BOING!

Eyes turned toward the newly registered Godric’s Party.

"A slime? They actually formed a party with a slime?"

"You really do see all sorts of weird things if you live long enough."

"Is it safe to put that on your head?"

"Where was it again...? I heard some count’s daughter keeps a slime too."

"I’ve heard of villages using slimes to dispose of leftovers, but hunting monsters with one?"

No one gave them hostile looks for bringing a monster into the guild. After all, it was a slime, a creature notorious for its weakness. The only looks directed at Godric’s Party were curious and puzzled ones.

Meanwhile...

'Wow! So many!'

The slime was enjoying the view inside the guild from atop Def’s head. During its month in the county, it had passed the guild building there several times while accompanying Jessi on inspections. But this was its first time actually going inside one.

The slime was full of anticipation. It had been told it could take on “requests” with its new human acquaintances, Godric and his companions, and grow stronger by fighting other monsters.

It knew what adventurers were, and understood that Godric’s group wanted to work as adventurers alongside it. But what exactly did adventurers do?

It had asked its viewers during the carriage ride.

▷What do you do when you become an adventurer?

▶Go around cracking other monsters’ noggins.

▶Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

▷Noggins?

[Squishy Queen]▶Do not teach my kin strange words!

[Squishy Queen]▶My kin, there is no need to overthink it. Simply go along with them and defeat the monsters you encounter. If you think an enemy is strong, you need only run away.

▶Booo~ Encouraging it to kill fellow monsters, huh.

▶What are you having for dinner tonight?

▶Meat from a monster weaker than me.

▶Lmaoooooo.

Monsters felt no sense of kinship with one another unless they belonged to the same species. To them, it was simply common sense that the weak would be eaten.

[Squishy Queen]▶Once you grow stronger, you can evolve again and become stronger still. And evolving will let you see even more things!

▷Wow!

The Slime Queen’s words kindled a desire to evolve within the slime.

▶Yep, you can move around more when you evolve.

▶Doesn’t it unlock the shop too?

[Free Spirit]▶That has nothing to do with evolution. You need to accumulate some points to unlock it.

▷Shop?

▶Ah, well, what that is...

[Squishy Queen]▶You can explain when the shop opens! Enough idle chatter!

▶Knowing now would only make it impatient anyway, lol.

Although it hadn’t learned much about the shop, the slime now had a new goal.

'Evolve!'

Hunt lots of other monsters with Godric’s group and evolve. Then see more things.

That was its current goal. And so, from atop Def’s head, it carefully examined the requests posted on the bulletin board.

▶What does it say?

▶Ahahaha, I can’t read it, lol.

▶Squishy, translate for us, please.

▷Manticore! B rank! Lesser Troll! B rank! Red Wyvern! C rank! Goblin! E rank!

At its viewers’ request, the slime began by reading out whatever it could see.

[Noblesse Fire]▶What? Why is a wyvern ranked below a lesser troll with its crappy regeneration? Don’t these humans know anything?

▶Lmaooo, the flying lizard’s salty because they called its relatives weak.

[Noblesse Fire]▶Who are you calling a flying lizard!!! Wyverns aren’t even our relatives!

[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶There is a clear distinction between wyverns and dragons. To begin with, their intelligence...

▶But you got mad, didn’t you? Something rubbed you the wrong way, huh?

▶Both old flying lizards got triggered, lmaooo.

▶That foulmouthed human-face is B rank, huh. It’s weaker than a knockoff flying lizard.

▶That bastard has weird tastes. Especially loves eating humans.

▶Ahahaha, is that why?

While the slime answered its viewers’ requests, Godric’s Party selected their first job.

"This looks like the safest bet."

They chose medicinal herb gathering, one of the typical F-rank quests. Another F-rank quest involved exterminating slimes, but with a slime in their party, killing other slimes didn’t sit right with them.

Godric pulled the request sheet from the board and headed to the counter.

"We’ll take this one."

"Certainly."

The receptionist told them where the herbs grew nearby, then asked, "Have you seen these herbs before? If you don’t recognize them, I can show you a picture."

"We know that much."

"Would you like to borrow sickles and baskets to store the herbs in?"

"That would be nice."

She bent down briefly and brought out four sickles and baskets.

"Here you are."

Since every novice adventurer went through this stage, the supplies needed for herb gathering were always kept ready.

"Please make sure you return them. You’ll have to pay for any you lose."

+++

Each carrying a sickle and a basket, Godric’s Party headed to the place the receptionist had indicated.

"Boss! Over here!"

"Good. Well spotted, Sgol."

They crouched down and began gathering the herbs growing there. As he worked, Def said, "Heh, hehe. This brings back memories. We used to gather herbs near the village all the time."

"Heh, that old apothecary woman had us doing it a lot."

"We worked our asses off, and all that old hag gave us was one piece of bread! And if we damaged the herbs even a little, she’d rap us on the head! Just thinking about it pisses me off!"

Despite his grumbling, Sgol deftly used his sickle to harvest the herbs. The other members were equally skilled, drawing on their childhood experience to pull up the plants with minimal damage to their roots and place them in their baskets.

BOING!

'What do I do?'

With nothing to do but sit on Def’s head, the slime bounced once.

"Are you bored, Bouncy? Sorry. We’ll handle the herb gathering ourselves. You can give us lots of help when we hunt monsters instead."

'Okay!'

BOING!

"Heh heh, gathering herbs doesn’t pay much, though."

"It’s reasonable for an F-rank request. And exterminating slimes would be a bit... you know."

"Oh, Boss! That reminds me, I saw an F-rank request besides slime extermination and herb gathering! There was one for exterminating great rats."

"We are absolutely not doing that."

Three voices spoke as one.

Great rat extermination, commonly known as sewer rat extermination, meant hunting large, ratlike monsters in the city’s sewers.

It paid the most of any F-rank request—even more than an ordinary E-rank job. The reason was simple: no one wanted to do it. What adventurer would willingly enter those reeking city sewers?

Naturally, the less people wanted to do a job, the higher its reward became. But even with increased pay, adventurers willing to exterminate great rats were hard to find. The request couldn’t be left unattended forever, however. Whenever reports came in that the great rat population in the sewers had increased, the guild would assign adventurers a compulsory request they couldn’t refuse.

After finishing their gathering, Godric’s Party returned to the city without encountering any monsters and headed to the guild.

"Here are the herbs."

"Thank you. Let me check them."

The receptionist inspected the herbs in all four baskets right at her desk.

"My, you’ve all gathered these very well!"

Seeing the excellent quality of the herbs, she looked at the party in surprise: a fat man, a scrawny man, a gloomy man, a somewhat fierce-looking man, and a slime. They looked so much like a band of thieves that anyone would have believed it. She hadn’t expected them to be so good at gathering herbs.

"We used to do it in our village as kids."

"Ah, I see."

With no particular reason to doubt them, she readily accepted the explanation and placed their reward on the counter.

"Here is your payment for completing the request."

"...? This is more than the request sheet said."

"It includes a bonus because all the herbs are of good quality. The base reward allows for some of the herbs being of lower quality."

'... Who would’ve thought the work that old herb woman made us do would come in handy now?'

With their extra pay in hand, Godric’s Party left the guild.

"Heh, what we learned from the old lady paid off right away."

"Hmph! I’m still pissed off about how she worked us to the bone!"

"B-Boss! What should we eat today?"

"Let’s see."