CHAPTER 9: HUNTING

Moments after leaving the town, Ray’s eyes fell upon a creature with a body shaped like a mound as it dragged its gelatinous translucent green body lazily across the grass like a snail.

"Green Slime?" He recognized it a glance.

Green Slimes were considered the weakest type of monster in existence, but that did not mean they were to be underestimated.

Since their appearance, they had killed a lot of humans.

In particular, those with a soft spot for anything small and squishy, those who let their guard down in the face of "cuteness," had fallen victim to their savage nature.

Their method of killing was as simple as it was terrifying. They latch onto the victim’s face and suffocate them to death, slowly, cruelly, and without mercy!

"If I didn’t have the memories of the original owner, I might have mistaken it for some cute, harmless blob," Ray thought, narrowing his eyes.

With his dagger drawn, he approached the green slime.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, it launched itself off the ground with startling speed, hurling its gelatinous body straight toward his face.

Ray quickly thrust his dagger forward in a straight line.

A cold glint pierced through the green slime before it burst like a balloon, splattering foul smelling green fluid in all directions.

Some of it got on Ray’s cheek, its smell was so bad his nose twisted in disgust. He quickly wiped it away with the back of his hand.

[Ding! You have slain a Green Slime. You have gained +2 EXP.]

"A Green slime gives 2 EXP?" Ray exhaled, a faint smile tugging at his lips. "If I kill four more, won’t my problem be resolved easily?"

Unfortunately for Ray, the next creature he stumbled upon was a Water Slime.

Worth knowing, based on their elemental attributes and attack patterns, demonic creatures were classified into different types.

Water slimes were elemental type demonic creatures, far dangerous than the physical type green slimes. They could release ranged attacks that could knock out an adult!

Among Intermediate Stage Iron Rank creatures, Water Slimes were considered quite deadly because of their terrifying skillset.

Against such a creature, Ray didn’t have the necessary strength to win a direct confrontation.

He slowly started to back away while keeping his eyes on it, hoping he would be ignored.

The slime had spotted him at the exact same moment he spotted it, and the cold glint in its beady eyes showed it had no intention of letting him escape.

Without warning, it released a sudden burst of pressurized water.

"Damn!"

The attack was so fast that Ray didn’t even have time to properly defend.

All he managed was a curse before—

WHAM!

The water blast slammed into his chest like a battering ram, lifting him clean off his feet and hurling him backward through the air.

With a dull thud, he crashed into the ground and grunted, pain blooming sharp and hot across his ribs. Yet even so, he didn’t let go of his dagger. It was his only weapon. He couldn’t afford to lose it, not in this place.

"That hurts like hell."

But he had experienced far worse before so he recovered just in time to see the water slime swelling ominously, preparing for another ranged attack by sucking in the moisture in the air by using its innate ability.

His instinct roared at him to move.

Bam!

He rolled sideways just as another water blast shredded through the spot where he’d been lying a heartbeat ago, splintering the soil and scattering wet clumps of earth into the air.

In that short time, the water slime had prepared another attack. After rolling on the ground for the second time in one night to dodge it, Ray scrambled back to his feet.

"Its attack speed is ridiculous. I need to get away."

Ray has thoroughly realized that until it runs out of magic power, the Water Slime was capable of shooting a water blast every other second. He, on the other hand, couldn’t even get close enough to attack it without getting blasted away by its water blast!

He rushed behind a tree, using it as a shield to block its next attack. Immediately after, using the surrounding terrain as a shield against the water slime’s relentless attacks, he tried to get away.

Every blast of water he dodged by rushing from the back of one tree to the back of another in time brought him closer to disappearing from its line of sight.

The Water Slime quivered in frustration as its attacks missed him time and time again, and it watched him get further and further away until he could no longer be seen.

It hesitated for a moment before giving chase. It had no intention of giving up on a wounded prey!

It bounced toward the direction where Ray was last seen. With every leap, it covered a distance of several feet.

As it passed a thick old tree, it completely missed the pair of dark eyes coldly watching it from within a lush green bush so thick it could easily hide an adult. The owner of this pair of eyes was Ray.

In a head on confrontation, he couldn’t win against the water slime, but he was certain he could hunt it down if he had the opportunity to catch it off guard and strike from the shadow. After all, its body was no more than tougher than the green slime he had hunted a while ago!

"Patience is the key to victory," Ray reminded himself as he waited for the perfect opportunity to strike, holding his breath, making his presence so little that even a veteran hunter would miss that he was hiding in the bush, much less a water slime.

The water slime bounced right past the bush he was hiding in, ignorant of the danger it was in.

"This is it."

In that very moment, Ray burst out from the bush and thrust his dagger towards its back

It was in mid-air, vulnerable and unable to change course.

The dagger pierced through his back and emerged from its chest.

Pop!

It burst like a balloon, leaving behind a pea-sized blue orb. Following which, a pleasant chime rang in Ray’s ears.

[Ding! You have slain a Water Slime. You have gained +5 EXP.]