Chapter Four

Joe headed out into the forest, going back towards where he had found the slime before. He headed into the forest following the trail and had reached where he had come onto the road. Stopping, he considered the depths of the forest then glanced down the road. As he made plans, he thought of going back into the woods but reconsidered as he had only seen the single slime in the twenty to thirty minutes it had taken him to circumvent the town. Given that a town was settled here, it was likely that it would be a safe location and he figured finding monsters would require deeper explorations into the woods.

He continued on into the depths of the woods, sticking to the road and carefully peering into the depths of the forest on each side. After traveling for almost thirty minutes, he stopped in a bit of stunned shock when he saw two slimes in his line of sight. One was on the actual road and another he could see another hundred meters or so beyond at the forests edge. He wondered if the screams of the one he attacked would draw the other. He could only hope it would not or that he could kill the first fast enough.

Remembering what his arrow had done to the slime an hour ago, he stepped into the forest, found several twigs, and slipped them into his harness. He also searched for and found a large thick stick about a meter long and about as thick as two or three fingers. He was back on the road in only a few moments and pulled out his dagger. As soon as it settled in his palm, it began to buck in his hand the same way as his bow, spear, and shield. His grip firmed and he pressed it against the stick, sharpening the end into a point. He continued sharpening the stake while walking towards the slime. When he got within about thirty meters to the slime, it immediately turned towards him and moved quickly.

Joe slipped his dagger away and held the stake in front of him. He slowed cautiously and began to move forward carefully. The slime closed quickly, then leapt at him with startling speed. The attack caught him by such surprise that he had few options to protect himself but to throw himself to the ground. He rolled to the back and side coming all the way over in a reverse somersault while still holding the sharpened stake. He stabilized on his hands and knees and saw that the slime had leapt past him a good ten meters. Seriously? This… this …. This is bad! These guys are dangerous.

Joe leapt forward quickly, but the slime was faster, and leapt at him again with the same extreme speed and power. This time he leaned back and brought the stake up as it leapt at him and slammed into the stake, embedding itself on the stake. Joe swung it over his head and then leaned over and to slam the stake into the ground, pinning it to the ground the same way he had with the arrow before. The slime had screamed its alien cry as usual and found itself pinned to the ground and began hobbling its way off the stake. Bringing out his spear, he pressed it into the slime, then carefully scooped the gem out with the flat of his blade like spooning out the last marshmallow from a bowl of breakfast cereal. As soon as the gem popped out, the entire body of the slime collapsed into a puddle and the gem tumbled down the road. He leapt towards it and found a few specks of ooze still on it quickly traveling to each other and combining. He pulled out a twig and picked up the gem, quickly brushing off the ooze. Soon, he felt his status change, still an incredibly strange feeling, and knew it was dead. He dropped the gem into the satchel next to the first he had captured.

The entire fight had taken only a few minutes, but had left him flooded with adrenaline and a tense vibration echoed through his body. This fight was even more intense than the first. The arrow hobbling the first slime had made the fight too simple, and he hadn't expected how agile and fast the enemy would be. Joe looked down the road and headed for the next slime. This fight was much faster, now that he knew the slimes capabilities. He used the same technique, pinning the slime to the ground before spooning out the gem and wiping off the last of the ooze.

Even as he finished the second fight, he saw another slime slightly off to the left and continued his extermination of the slimes. There seemed to be a chain of slimes and he meandered down the road and off into the forest. As he went deeper into the forest, he began marking the trees to give him his direction in returning. About the time he was planning to head back to the village, he felt a strange sensation, slightly different and stronger than his normal status update feeling. He stopped and decided to look at his status. This had been different.