After her utter defeat in their sparring match, Claire asked Nellin to take her as a disciple and teach her how to grow stronger.

Nellin set her a condition. They were looking for a very intelligent slime that was friendly toward humans. Claire was to find it and bring it back.

But Claire disliked monsters.

She hated them.

Because monsters had attacked her village and taken away the people she cherished. They had robbed her of her friends, her neighbors, and her parents.

The village's sole survivor, Claire had burned with a desire for revenge at the sight of the villagers' remains strewn across the ground.

Adventurers who arrived too late took her into their protection, and she ended up in a city orphanage. There, she sought the strength she needed for revenge.

Day after day, she visited the adventurers' guild, stopping adventurers to beg them to make her stronger and promising she would do anything. One day, a martial artist took pity on her and taught her how to fight. She devoted herself to training for years.

From the day she became an adventurer onward, Claire defeated monsters with her fists and feet, over and over and over again. In a short time, she rose to C-rank entirely on her own.

Even after reaching C-rank, her yearning for strength—her desire to grow stronger so she could kill more monsters—never faded. Even now, whenever she closed her eyes, the horrific scene in her village rose vividly before her.

That was why Nellin's words bewildered her. She wanted to kill monsters, yet the person she wanted to learn from was looking for a slime. An intelligent slime that was supposedly friendly toward humans, at that.

One of the monsters she hated!

But Claire did not agonize over it for long. After all, it was only a slime! It was so weak that it did not even belong among the monsters she had resolved to kill in her pursuit of strength.

The monsters she hated were strong, cruel creatures that harmed people. Claire told herself that a slime did not even count as one of those “monsters.”

Her desire to grow stronger and kill the creatures she hated drove her to compromise. She asked Nellin whether finding the slime and bringing it back would earn her lessons in becoming stronger.

Without much expectation, Nellin replied, "Sure. If you find that slime and bring it back, I'll put you through the wringer and make you stronger. Why not?"

"That's a promise... please!"

And so Claire's search for the slime began. First, she decided to gather information at the place where, to her knowledge, more information accumulated than anywhere else: the adventurers' guild.

"Do you know where I can find an intelligent slime?"

"Pardon? Uh, um... Miss Claire, are you looking for the slime Godric’s Party is searching for?"

"That's right."

"I'm sorry. Unfortunately, we haven't received any information about an intelligent slime yet."

"I see."

'What should I do...? I'll ask the others, too.'

After a moment's thought, Claire asked not only the guild receptionist but the other adventurers whether they knew where the intelligent slime was. Of course, her questions were hardly going to yield a clear answer. Most of the adventurers looked baffled, said they did not know, and thought Claire strange for asking such an odd question.

'Nobody... knows.'

Unable to obtain any useful information at Tartan's adventurers' guild, Claire gave up on gathering information there.

'I'll ask somewhere else.'

If nobody here knew, she would go somewhere else and ask. Claire was a girl with no shortage of initiative.

Leaving Tartan, she traveled from village to village, asking whether anyone knew about an intelligent slime. But she had no real success. The only thing she learned, if it counted, was that there was a peculiar village where people raised slimes.

But when she heard about that village, Claire thought the slime she sought would not be there.

'They must have visited that village already.'

She had heard that the village was famous for being so unusual. Surely the party traveling with the elf she wanted to learn from would have visited it.

'I couldn't find it this time, either.'

The lack of progress frustrated her, but Claire had no intention of giving up. Her yearning for strength was not so feeble that this much would make her abandon the search.

The elf was so strong that Claire felt she could never win, no matter what she tried. She was certain that learning from Nellin would let her achieve her goal.

As she renewed her determination, something suddenly occurred to her.

'I haven't taken any requests lately.'

She had been so busy searching for the intelligent slime that she had neglected her usual requests.

With the prize money from the colosseum, she could afford not to take any requests for a while. No, for several months.

But to Claire, requests were not a means of earning a living. They were part of her revenge. She was searching for the slime to earn lessons that would make her stronger, but that was no reason to stop exterminating monsters, was it?

Claire immediately headed to the guild. After checking the request board, she tore down a request to exterminate C-rank monsters and took it to the reception desk.

"I want to do this one."

"The Howling Fox extermination request, I see. May I have your identification tag, please?"

"Here."

Claire handed over her identification tag, and the receptionist checked it.

'So this girl is Snowflake Fist. She's much younger than I imagined.'

Anyone of the appropriate rank could accept the request. Claire looked barely sixteen, and she reminded the receptionist of her own daughter. Rather than stop her, the receptionist offered some advice.

"Everything is in order. Miss Claire, the forest near this village is commonly known as Sudden Calamity Forest."

"Sudden Calamity Forest?"

"Most of its monsters are C-rank, but B-rank monsters live there as well. You could encounter a B-rank monster while hunting C-rank ones, so please be careful."

"... All right."

Claire nodded as she listened to the receptionist's advice, but she was not particularly worried. She believed she understood her own strength well. She could already defeat C-rank monsters without difficulty. Even if a B-rank monster appeared, she thought she could handle it, and escaping if necessary would be no problem.

Claire did not mind running away if it meant she could kill more monsters later. As soon as her request was registered, she set off for Sudden Calamity Forest.

Howling Foxes were foxlike monsters known for their distinctive cries and their habit of attacking in packs.

Their main method of attack was to surround their prey and fire sound waves from their mouths. These sound waves carried mana, giving them considerable physical force. Individually, they were only D-rank, but because they always traveled in packs, they were classified as C-rank.

This was not Claire's first time hunting Howling Foxes, so she planned to dispose of them quickly.

THUD! WHAM! CRACK!

YEEELP!

YAAAWL!

Less than twenty minutes after entering Sudden Calamity Forest, Claire encountered a pack of seven Howling Foxes and engaged them in battle. Before they could attack together, she charged in, throwing punches and taking them down one by one.

AWOOOOOO!

Perhaps because there were more than she expected, Claire failed to stop a Howling Fox from howling to summon its pack.

"Hup!"

WHAM!

YELP!

She hastily smashed its forehead with a downward blow, but its call for companions had already carried far into the forest.

TAP!

Judging that other packs of Howling Foxes would swarm her if she stayed, Claire hurried away without even collecting trophies as proof of the kills. She cut through the forest, trying to put distance between herself and the battle site. But she heard the sounds of something pursuing her.

'That's strange. It's fast.'

This was not her first time hunting Howling Foxes. Even if they had come the instant they heard the call, it was strange that she could already hear pursuit.

WHOOSH!

GRAAAH!

As though confirming her suspicions, the creature that burst from the undergrowth and attacked her was not a Howling Fox.

'A Gluttony Bear!'

A greedy bear with an enormous appetite and a habit of stealing other monsters' prey. Despite being bulkier than an ordinary bear, it moved nimbly and delivered powerful blows, earning it a B-rank classification.

The Gluttony Bear had no qualms about stealing another creature's prey, so it had begun tracking Claire as soon as it heard the Howling Fox's cry. It swung a forepaw at her.

SLASH!

"Ugh!"

Caught by the sudden ambush, she hastily kicked off the ground to dodge, but the Gluttony Bear's claws raked her shoulder. Blood flowed from the wound in her pale skin. Fortunately, it was not a serious injury.

'This much is fine.'

Claire put some distance between them and faced the Gluttony Bear. It was filled with a determination never to let its prey escape.

'Even if I run, it'll keep chasing me. The Howling Fox pack might catch up, too. I have to take it down quickly.'

Circulating mana throughout her body, Claire moved to finish the Gluttony Bear in one swift battle. Nellin had seen through this immediately and stopped her with ease, but...

TAP!

WHAAAM!

GRAAARGH!

The Gluttony Bear could not keep up with Claire's full speed. Still, it was a B-rank monster. Even a punch delivered with all her strength could not bring it down in one blow.

Though it staggered, the Gluttony Bear fought back, swinging its forepaws at her. Claire easily dodged its resistance and unleashed punch after punch, wearing down the massive creature's stamina.

With mana circulating through her body, Claire could not possibly lose to the Gluttony Bear, injured shoulder or not.

Provided the fight remained one-on-one.

GRAAAH!

'...!'

Just as she prepared to throw what she thought would be the finishing punch, another Gluttony Bear attacked her.

'Not twice.'

This time, she dodged the second Gluttony Bear's sudden ambush and drew back. Now there were two rather than one. But one was already near death, so Claire believed she could handle them.

Then it happened.

YAAAWL!

YEEAAAH!

The pack of Howling Foxes that had been pursuing Claire after hearing the call finally caught up.

+++

"Hah, hah, hah..."

Claire sank to the ground with her back against a tree. The fighting had given her no chance to rest. The balance had collapsed the instant the Howling Fox pack joined in.

She had missed her chance to finish off the dying Gluttony Bear. When she tried to flee, the monsters doggedly pursued her, and all she accomplished was increasing the number of Howling Foxes.

Even when she managed to kill the Howling Foxes with mana-infused blows, a Gluttony Bear would intervene just as she was about to finish the last one. While she fought the bear, the foxes called another pack for help. And as the battle continued, yet another Gluttony Bear would hear their cries and arrive.

Claire's stamina steadily dwindled, and her mounting exhaustion eventually allowed the monsters' attacks to land.

'No...'

Breathing raggedly, Claire watched the monsters approaching her—their utterly exhausted prey.

'I can't die here. I have to grow stronger and kill the monsters...'

She wanted to get up and run, to survive, but she could muster no strength in her body. At that desperate moment...

BOING!

Claire witnessed an unbelievable sight.

WHAAAAM!

YELP!

YAAAWL!

YEEEELP!

A pale green slime came flying out of nowhere and delivered a Body Slam to a Howling Fox. The fox shot away with tremendous force, sweeping up the other Howling Foxes standing in a line beside it and sending them crashing into a tree.