Chapter 40: The Monster Encyclopedia’s Surprise
After spending a night at a cheap inn in Valencia Village.
The next morning.
Everyone gathered at the village entrance with their gear ready.
Valencia Village was a sparsely populated small village, mainly serving as a rest stop for the occasional caravans and wagon trains, aside from running an orchard.
According to the Village Chief, many young people had moved to Graystone Town, or even farther away to the forest city of Barry City for work and life.
"These slimes have already cost our village quite a few fruit trees, please help us catch those filthy blobs of muck!"
With the Village Chief’s earnest request, the party began searching around the Harvest Orchard.
Finding the slimes before fighting them was a difficult task.
Because the orchard was quite large.
The party had no choice but to split up, with two people forming each small team.
The swordsman and the priestess, Levin and the archer, and Gauss with the Rogue Apprentice Meiva.
Meiva was very skilled at this kind of search task.
Shortly after they began, she was already moving quickly through the orchard, searching for possible slime traces.
Slimes would leave behind slime trails where they passed.
Although the slime would quickly evaporate after sunrise, Meiva said that with careful observation, one could still see a faint reflective sheen.
Meiva gathered clues along the way, while Gauss took on the role of lookout.
He kept the Bone Wand in hand at all times.
With the casting speed bonus granted by the Bone Wand, he believed that even if a monster appeared, he could unleash a Magic Missile before the enemy made its move.
That was the confidence the wand gave him.
Although it was a weakened version of Magic Missile, it could still easily kill creatures like Goblins.
Currently, he could cast the weakened Magic Missile three times—unless they ran straight into the enemy stronghold, the two of them would be quite safe.
"Any findings?"
After walking for a while, Gauss noticed Meiva had been staying in front of a fence for some time and walked over to ask.
"Yeah."
"Here, there are slime marks—it probably went in that direction," Meiva said, pointing to a section of the fence before looking farther ahead.
Such sharp eyes?
Gauss crouched down to take a look but didn’t notice anything unusual.
It seemed elves truly were born archers—even someone like Meiva, who only had diluted elven blood, seemed to have better vision than regular people. True elves must have eyesight rivaling that of a hawk.
Gauss followed Meiva further down the path.
Along the way, Meiva continued scribbling and sketching on kraft paper, recording information.
Finally, she looked up.
"Let’s head back and regroup with Levin and the others."
"Alright."
Even though they had found slime traces, neither Meiva nor Gauss intended to explore any deeper.
Safety came first for a request like this.
They returned to the predetermined meeting spot and waited for a bit.
The other two small teams also returned one after another, though judging from their expressions, they seemed to have found nothing.
Fortunately, they weren’t the main force of this search.
Upon hearing that Gauss and Meiva had located slime traces, everyone looked relieved.
"It’s all thanks to you, Meiva."
"Good thing we came early and the sun hasn’t come out yet—otherwise, the traces would’ve completely disappeared," Meiva humbly replied.
The reassembled party began heading toward the direction Gauss and Meiva had found.
Along the way, Levin repeatedly reminded everyone to use the small wooden shields they had brought to block during combat.
Although slimes were just low-level small monsters, getting their slime on your skin would still cause a burning sensation for several days.
If you don’t want to suffer, then pay attention during the fight.
Gauss listened silently.
In his eyes, Levin shared the same sense of duty as a Shield Bearer—deeply responsible and always looking out for teammates—almost like a motherly man.
Was that just a coincidence?
Was he conforming to the Shield Bearer’s responsibility, or was the class itself subtly influencing him during training?
He felt a deeper understanding of Classes and Paths.
Perhaps it wasn’t just about leveling up.
As they walked through the woods, the soil underfoot gradually became damp.
Finally, in a remote muddy area beside a stream, the group spotted a small cluster of gelatinous, shapeless strange creatures from afar.
Their bodies were bright green, caked in mud, bouncing and frolicking in the mud.
Unlike the cute slimes Gauss remembered from his previous life’s animations, these slimes looked unpleasant—slimy, soft, and greasy like lumps of half-transparent lard, filled with sticks, undigested fruit, stones, and various bizarre objects.
And they were not small individually.
Each was about several dozen centimeters in size, and each bounce could easily cover more than a meter.
So their movements weren’t sluggish—if an ordinary person wasn’t careful, they could get knocked over, and being surrounded by several slimes could result in being digested inside their bodies.
“Twenty-five in total!”
Gauss heard Meiva’s count and felt a little excited.
For him, this kind of clustering small monster was the perfect fodder to boost the total kills in the Monster Encyclopedia.
His total monster kills had reached 23/50.
If he could wipe out all the slimes, he’d be just one step away from the next reward phase.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen.
Targeting for the “kill” during battle—their team wasn’t strong enough to afford that luxury.
Fortunately, his main goal today was simply to update the Encyclopedia with a slime kill.
“Can we lure some out with bait?” Gauss remembered how they previously lured out six Goblins and used traps to take them out with ease.
“Probably not,” Levin shook his head, then explained.
“Judging by how bloated these slimes look, they’re obviously full. It’s hard to lure them out of their lair when they’re like this.”
“Get ready for battle! Everyone stay safe.”
Thankfully, slimes weren’t strong opponents for a group like theirs.
Not being able to lure and eliminate a few first wasn’t a big problem—just meant a bit more effort.
“Oliver, Meiva, Gauss—you three go first,” Levin called out the names of the three with ranged capabilities.
Everyone slowly approached.
The slimes still hadn’t noticed them.
At about twenty meters away, they stopped.
Gauss, the archer Oliver, and Meiva with her hand crossbow exchanged glances.
Each began preparing.
Gauss, of course, readied a Magic Missile.
He wouldn’t pass up any chance to practice Magic Missile in real combat.
Although this spell was considered the party’s hidden trump card, if he never used it, its mastery would never improve.
His gaze locked on a patch of mud in the distance.
Two or three slimes were rubbing against each other.
You’re the ones!
Gauss, Oliver, and Meiva made hand signals to confirm their attacks wouldn’t overlap.
Draw the bow!
Pull the trigger!
Gauss also raised his Bone Wand.
All three struck simultaneously!
“Whoosh!” “Whoosh!” “Crack!”
Three sharp sounds tore through the air!
The fastest was the Magic Missile.
Already fast, the wand’s bonus made it even quicker!
With Gauss fully focused, entering a budget version of bullet time, the Magic Missile caught the perfect moment when three slimes were lined up.
“Bang!” “Bang!” “Bang!!”
Three crisp bursts—Magic Missile pierced through all three cores.
The shots exploded in the mud, sending filth flying several meters.
The two arrows followed right behind, tearing the air with a “whoosh,” trailing slender shadows, and accurately struck two slimes in the body, right at their ostrich-egg-sized cores.
“Splaaash!”
The slimes whose cores were pierced melted instantly, slime and mud mixing into one.
Slime -5!
“Slime Kill x3”
“Total Monster Kills: 26!”
“Title Earned: [Slime Hunter]. This title upgrades as the number of kills increases.”
“Current Effect: Intimidate. When activated, it causes a fear effect to all slimes within a 3-meter radius, inflicting 0.5–1 second of control! This ability requires a cooldown before reuse.”
“[Normal Monster] Collection Species +1! Note: Upon accumulating 5 species, you can randomly acquire a weakened racial trait from those five. The weaker the trait, the higher its chance of being drawn.”