The slime hurried towards the ceiling upon seeing the light.
‘I’m late.’
Considering the only tactic a slow-moving slime could employ was to wait above and spit acid to surprise the enemy while suffocating them before melting them down for a snack, it was clear that their setup had already been thwarted.
Once the initiative was taken, the contest tilted sharply in our favor. We immediately launched our attack while leaving torches on the ground.
Phew-! Thwack-!
First, moving the core was the priority, and Yeon-hee did just that with two arrows. Instead of accurately hitting the core, the goal was to startle them, so she fired rapidly.
······!
The first two who climbed the wall to reach the ceiling were startled and moved the core down.
Puff-! Thud! Thud! Crack!
In sync with that, I smashed the slime’s core with my almost depleted club in one blow.
The remaining three slimes that were clinging to the walls seemed to sense the impending disaster as they froze and began to jiggle nervously.
Yeon-hee immediately draped herself in her robe, and without a care in the world, I charged forward, grabbing two of them and tossing them toward the entrance.
Puff-! Shwaaa-!
The moment I grabbed them, the acid they shot at me melted my facial bones, but…
‘No pain means no fear.’
Diving at the slimes that had flopped onto the entrance floor, I retaliated with my own acid.
Whaaaa—
Sizzle-!
······!
It must have been the first time these slimes experienced acid, as their bodies bounced around like they were going completely mad.
‘How’s Yeon-hee doing?’
She was already stabbing the slime’s core with her dagger.
Though one side of her robe was covered in acid, my memory told me that that robe was a budget model made specifically for fighting slimes.
It seemed she had bought it after nearly being defeated by a slime last time, and even though it was low quality, it wouldn’t be torn by a single acid hit.
Crack-! Pop-!
With one swing of the club, its durability was completely exhausted. I discarded the shattered pieces and bashed the slimes with rocks from the ground repeatedly.
I successfully killed four slimes.
And surprisingly…
– Trait [Thievery] is activated.
– Randomly steals a trait from the slime (common).
– Acquired trait [Adhesion]!
‘Oooh! Did I break a 10% chance?!’
– The level of trait [Thievery] has increased. The chance to steal traits rises by 1%.
‘Am I possibly a luck build?’
[Thievery Lv.2]
– Random skill theft upon first monster defeat.
– 11% chance to randomly steal traits upon repeated monster defeats.
Having killed ten monsters and stolen one trait, I thought it could well be seen as aligned with the probability.
However, in my experience, a 10% chance is perceived to be so low that you could attempt it 30 times without success, so my joy couldn’t be contained.
Moreover…
—–
Adhesion
– You can stick firmly to any surface your body touches.
—–
‘This trait seems pretty useful…’
Having stolen a trait that appeared to have high utility, my joy doubled. As I nodded satisfactorily while gathering the slimes’ cores, Yeon-hee rushed over.
“Wow! Il-wol, your traits have increased again?! At this rate, you’ll become stronger than me!”
Since she didn’t even touch me and said that, it seemed that my success with the Thievery trait was shared with her in real-time.
‘Surpassing her… even so, there’s no way I could beat her right now.’
Of course, there was no way to verify that, so I just kept quietly watching her. After she sparkled her eyes and brushed my hand a few times, she asked.
“Can you show me Adhesion?”
Curious about this ability myself, I confidently moved towards the wall.
‘Do I just need to touch it?’
I placed my hand against the wall, but felt nothing out of the ordinary.
‘Umm… if I focus my magic to activate to stick…’
Suddenly, I could feel my hand firmly sticking to the wall as if it had fused with it.
‘Ah, I get it now. It’s like a switch for this ability. Thank goodness for that.’
If adhesive fluids started oozing from my body every day, I would have been immediately abandoned by her.
Squelch- Slurp-
Making a sound like slathering honey on my bones, I began to crawl up the wall.
‘If I keep this up, I could probably kill them… this is great!’
Though my speed was incredibly slow, considering this was an ability suited for ambush, that was something I could work with.
Before long, having made it to the ceiling, I continued my movement without dropping down like a spider, and from below, Yeon-hee’s delighted, child-like sounds could be heard.
‘Hmm… can I just jump down?
Thud-
Crash-!
After checking my ability from three meters high, my knees twisted at an unnatural angle upon landing.
‘Truly, my body is unbelievably frail.’
Carefully tapping the misaligned part, I popped the bones back into place, and we set off down the path again.
“Fuh-huh-huh-”
…?
“I don’t know, but that bone-setting thing reminded me of the neighborhood grandmas. Like, ‘Oh my knee!’ or something like that.”
“Tap—”
‘Yeah, I need to be careful with that.’
In any case, I’d better refrain from actions that remind her of a person.
Step by step-
‘More importantly, the weapon broke, so it’s a problem… I should probably snatch some goblin weapons.’
Ten minutes later.
I spotted four goblins chasing after a bunch of earth puppies. Seeing that, Yeon-hee immediately notched an arrow.
I grabbed a few round stones of suitable size from the ground and aimed for one of the goblins encircling the earth puppies, throwing them with all my might.
[Dagger Throw]
Swoosh-!
“Keck-?!”
Surprisingly, the goblin hit by the stone wobbled, lost its balance, and ultimately collapsed, causing the other three goblins to grab their clubs and snarl.
Swish— Thwack-!
Seeing Yeon-hee’s arrow pierce the head of another goblin, I activated Stealth and dashed forward.
Magic: 5/9 (-2)
“Kyere! Chaka!”
One goblin swung his club in all directions, as if thinking he could create a perfect defense with it, his eyes wide.
Crack-!
I smashed the head of the previously dazed goblin with another stone and seized its club.
“Chaa! Kyeek!”
Just then, as Stealth wore off, two goblins charged at me.
But…
Swish-!
Yeon-hee’s arrow buried deep in one goblin’s side, and pretending to swing the club, I spat acid wide at the remaining one.
Puhah—!
The goblin’s face, now drenched in acid, sizzled while it let out a painful scream.
Phew— Swish—!
The goblins were wiped out, unable to respond to Yeon-hee’s arrow assaults or my club strikes.
Puff- Puff-!
I crushed the heads of the goblins that were still thrashing about, ensuring the finish, and then messages started flashing in my mind.
– You have defeated a goblin!
– You have gained a small amount of experience…
– You have acquired Low-Rank Mana Stone…
– Your level has increased.
As expected, the low-level interval allowed for rapid leveling even after killing just a few slimes and goblins. I had already planned ahead for stat distributions, so I quickly invested in Strength, Agility, and Health before moving on to the next task.
Strength: 12 (+3) Agility: 11 (+3) Health: 13 (+3)
‘Now I can take on F-rank low-rank monsters.’
Nodding in satisfaction at my steady growth. This time, I searched through the goblins’ pockets first and soon found 3 silver coins. I also cut off the goblin ears and put them into the pouch I received from Yeon-hee.
‘I can do these kinds of errands without breaking a sweat, so it’s more efficient for me to take care of them.’
If I luck out and meet a mimic and obtain an artifact, my workload will be significantly reduced, but if not, spending time on these errands is just part of my destiny.
Seeing me handle the tasks skillfully seemed to surprise her, as she looked on with a somewhat astonished expression.
Silver, goblin ears, Low-Rank Mana Stone.
Combining these, I could earn about six thousand won per goblin after paying the commission. Despite having silver, the income remained low because the silver obtained from goblins contained very little silver and was quite cheap.
It’s curious to wonder why monsters carry silver in the first place, but as long as it becomes money, it doesn’t really matter.
At this rate, if I take down twenty monsters a day, it’d yield about 120,000 won.
I’m not sure how much the monthly rent is, but if I continue hunting like this for a few days, her financial troubles should lessen.
“Il-wol, with this much effort, don’t you think thirty monsters a day is possible? Once we meet them, taking them down is a blink of an eye!”
I could understand Yeon-hee’s excitement. Having probably been hunting solo, for her, hitting ten monsters a day would have been considered a successful outcome. Now that it could be more than double that, it’s only natural she’d be thrilled.
‘Anyway, I do remember that she put in considerable effort to earn money.’
Whether it was to buy a good artifact or simply because money was nice, I knew this.
Kiiing— Kiiing—
“Oh dear, this earth puppy…”
An earth puppy that had been beaten a few times by goblins lay trembling on its side.
‘It’ll struggle to live… its head is all busted up.’
After moving slightly in front of her, I infused the club with [Slam] and brought it down forcefully.
Puh-!
“Ugh…”
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