“What?”
Godric stared at the robed man in disbelief. The man continued as though he had expected that reaction.
“You see, I have quite an interest in monsters. I know there are villages that raise slimes... but this is the first time I’ve seen one so docile with my own eyes. What do you say? Would you consider selling it?”
Had Godric heard this offer on the day he met the slime, he would have asked the price and considered selling it. But now he already had a goal: to use the slime to succeed as an adventurer.
“No.”
“What a shame. If you were willing to sell... I was prepared to pay this much.”
The robed man took out a purse and showed them the money inside. Godric glanced at the amount and was startled.
‘He’d pay that much?’
It was twice the price Godric had originally hoped to sell the slime for.
“You’d pay that much?!”
Godric wasn’t the only one astonished by the sum. Sgol peered into the purse, then turned to Godric in shock.
“Boss! What should we do?”
Sgol looked back and forth between Godric and the slime in amazement. His reaction helped Godric regain his composure.
“What do you mean, what should we do? We’re not selling it, so move.”
“Heeheehee, what a shame. If you change your mind, let me know anytime~.”
The robed man stepped aside without pestering them further.
When they entered a restaurant and ordered their food, Sgol asked Godric,
“Boss, are you really okay with this? He offered us so much money.”
The purse the robed man had opened still lingered in Sgol’s mind.
Hawein chuckled at him.
“Pfft. You really don’t think ahead, Sgol.”
“What?! What do you mean, I don’t think ahead?”
“We can earn plenty of money like that doing requests anyway. Besides, wanting to sell the slime before we’ve even done a single request with it is just stupid.”
“How much help can a mere slime be?!”
“Heh. It’s stronger than you.”
“Hey!”
While Hawein teased Sgol, Def stroked the slime on his head.
“Hehe. Just wait a few more days, Bouncy. We’ll definitely do a request together.”
The slime answered Def with a quiver.
+++
Three days later, after gathering medicinal herbs repeatedly, Godric’s Party could finally accept E-rank monster extermination requests. They immediately chose goblin extermination and headed to the reception desk.
“This one.”
“Yes, your goblin extermination request is confirmed. What a shame, though. The apothecaries were delighted with the quality of the herbs you gathered.”
“We came to defeat monsters. We didn’t become adventurers to gather herbs.”
“Of course, I understand. Then I wish you a safe return.”
‘Monster extermination!’
The slime quivered with delight that it could finally take part in a request too. Def had stroked it and comforted it while they gathered herbs, but right now, it wanted to grow stronger and evolve.
The sights of the new city had kept it from getting bored. Even so, it never forgot its original goal and always wanted to achieve it.
On their way to the area where goblins appeared, Sgol asked Godric,
“Boss, there’s no limit on how many we can kill this time, right?”
“No. They pay for every kill, so go all out.”
“Great!”
Herb gathering always had a limit to prevent the plants from being wiped out, and the pay could hardly be called generous. That made Sgol all the more eager for monster extermination, which had no limit on the number of kills.
“Hehe, Bouncy. Let’s give it our all!”
The slime bounced!
Before long, Godric’s Party discovered a group of four goblins. The slime immediately jumped down from Def’s head and sprang ahead of the others.
‘Exterminate!’
All the eagerness it had held in check while Def comforted it finally burst free.
THWAAACK!
SKREEEE!
The slime’s tackle took one goblin’s life before the creatures even realized what was happening.
“Hey! Don’t just charge ahead on your own!”
“Heh. Looks like it was itching for some action.”
“Sgol, there are plenty of goblins around. Calm down.”
“Tch. Yes, Boss.”
“Bouncy! I’m coming too!”
Godric’s Party hunted goblins alongside the slime. After killing each goblin, they cut off one ear as proof and put it in a bag. They hunted almost without rest until the bag they had brought was half full.
“This should be enough for today.”
Godric checked the goblin ears in the bag and suggested that the group withdraw.
“Let’s head back!”
“Yes, Boss!” they answered together.
They had already been hunting for two hours, so no one asked to keep going.
“Hmph! Goblins really are too boring to fight!”
Sgol triumphantly swung his dagger through the air as they headed back to town.
“Heh. Bouncy got the most kills, though.”
“Shut up! I killed plenty too!”
“Hehe, Bouncy was incredibly strong! It even got two goblins at once!”
The slime bounced!
The slime had a skill it hadn’t shown when they first tested how well it could fight alongside them. When they saw Bounce Tackle for the first time, everyone in Godric’s Party stared wide-eyed in surprise.
Watching the slime’s Bounce Tackle, Godric had a thought of his own.
‘Wouldn’t this make killing orcs incredibly easy too?’
Orcs were green, pig-nosed monsters as tall as grown men. Even against those D-rank creatures, the slime’s tackle seemed powerful enough to work.
Wouldn’t everything go smoothly at this rate?
His vague plan was just beginning to take concrete shape when it happened.
KRYAH!
A goblin appeared. But it wasn’t an ordinary goblin. Instead of the usual pale green skin, this goblin’s skin was a vivid scarlet.
“What’s that bright red bastard?”
“... B-Boss. It’s dangerous.”
Hawein, who always wore a sinister smile, spoke in a trembling voice.
“What’s wrong, Hawein?”
“That bright red skin... There’s no mistaking it. It’s a scarlet goblin.”
“A s-scarlet goblin? What’s that?”
“A goblin variant. It’s three times as strong as an ordinary goblin.”
“Ha! You’re scared of a goblin that’s only three times stronger?”
“They’re also said to be vicious and cruel. Boss, we’re better off just going past it.”
‘Hawein wouldn’t say this for no reason.’
Godric took Hawein’s advice and tried to go around it.
Meanwhile...
▶Oh, a red goblin. Those taste pretty good.
[Noblesse Fire]▶How impertinent for a mere goblin to be red.
▶Now the old fart’s bragging about his color, lol.
▶So is it stronger than Squishy?
[Slam First Ask Later]▶You think Squishy, who I trained, would be weaker than some lousy red goblin?
▶LMAO, look at these human bastards trying to avoid that thing, lol.
▶What can weak-ass humans do anyway?
To intelligent monsters, the sight of Godric’s Party frightened into taking a detour around a mere scarlet goblin was pure comedy.
‘Three times stronger? Three times!’
But what mattered to the slime now was defeating stronger monsters and getting closer to evolution faster.
It bounced!
“B-Bouncy!”
“What’s that stupid slime doing?!”
“Hey! Stop it!”
Godric’s Party hurried to stop the slime, but they couldn’t move fast enough to catch up with it.
KRYAH?
The scarlet goblin looked at the slime that had suddenly appeared in front of it, then curled its lips into a cruel smile.
With its especially vicious, cruel nature, the scarlet goblin thought:
There was a weak slime.
There was a slime weaker than itself.
It had appeared before me without a trace of fear.
The scarlet goblin held a short sword in one hand—a weapon no goblin could make. It had taken the sword after killing a novice adventurer who had recklessly charged at it, not knowing any better.
But there was no need to use such a weapon on the slime before it.
Stomp it. Stomp it. Stomp it.
A weak slime foolish enough to appear before me deserved to be stomped.
The scarlet goblin raised one foot, intending to crush the slime in a single stomp.
Just then, the slime sprang up and hurled itself at the scarlet goblin’s face.
The attack came at a speed it hadn’t anticipated at all. Three times stronger than an ordinary goblin or not, it wasn’t quick enough to react to the sudden surprise attack.
THWAAAACK!
The slime’s body slammed into the scarlet goblin’s face. Filled with eagerness at the thought of growing stronger faster, this Bounce Tackle carried even more force than the one that had sent two goblins flying at once.
With its face caved in, the scarlet goblin flew a considerable distance and struck a tree with the back of its head.
CRACK!
Its skull broke with an audible crack.
THUD!
The scarlet goblin fell to the ground and convulsed, its head hanging limp. Apparently, its reputation for being three times stronger than an ordinary goblin was no lie: it was still alive, but barely.
At the sight, everyone in Godric’s Party gaped in shared astonishment. They had thought it safer to go around that scarlet goblin, yet a single Body Slam from the slime had left it in that state.
Oblivious to what the four men were feeling, the slime bounced over to Def and hopped in place several times.
‘Got it! Scarlet goblin! Got it! Finish it! Finish it!’
Remembering Def’s words about giving it their all together, the slime wanted to defeat the scarlet goblin with Godric’s Party rather than kill everything by itself. It had effectively done all the work alone, but it thought that letting them deliver the finishing blow would mean they had killed it together.
“Y-you’re really amazing, Bouncy!”
The slime bounced!
“What the hell did I just see? That red goblin’s face is completely caved in!”
“Hawein, is that really a scarlet goblin?”
“Definitely, Chief. Even the soles of its feet are red.”
“... Then what on earth is this Bouncy, if it can take down a scarlet goblin in one hit?”
“I don’t know either. Pfft.”
“Why are you laughing?”
“Oh, I just find it funny that I got scared for nothing when we have a companion far stronger than a scarlet goblin.”
The slime bounced, bounced, and bounced again!
After hopping in a circle around Godric and the others, it went back to the scarlet goblin, which was still twitching. Even someone as oblivious as Sgol understood that behavior.
“Boss, I think it wants us to come finish it off.”
“Looks that way.”
‘It really is trying to “cooperate” with us to kill monsters. ... Though you can hardly call this cooperation.’
Godric felt relieved that the slime was friendly toward them. Drawing his sword, he approached the fallen scarlet goblin with the others.
SLASH!
The moment Godric cut through the convulsing scarlet goblin’s neck, the slime heard the system’s voice.
[You have acquired 10 coins.]
‘Coins? Why?’
[You can acquire coins by contributing to the defeat of a being whose strength exceeds a certain threshold relative to your own.]
‘Wow!’
[Additionally, your total accumulated coins have exceeded 100, unlocking the coin shop.]
‘Shop!’
The slime reacted to a word it had seen in the chat before.
