39. Shwik, Shushwik, Shwik... then Bang!
39. Shwik, Shushwik, Shwik... then Bang!
Around 10 AM
We got off the bus and arrived at the request location.
"The mountain itself... isn't very high."
"Going to high mountains and deep valleys would be overkill."
Minerva surveyed the surroundings and assessed the atmosphere of the mountain.
I also took out the request form and slowly reviewed the plan for what I needed to do.
"............"
"...Yuno, are you motion sick?"
"Huh? Ah, no! I'm totally fine!"
Yuno's condition was just one step away from being an NTR angle.
If I were a typical NTR villain, I might have already dragged her behind those bushes, forcibly taken her lips, and then mounted her in a mating press while sneering, 'You abandoned bitch!'
Now that I think about it, that Protagonist bastard really owes me one.
Just how many NTR flags had I already snipped away?
'First, let's do the request.'
Stress or mental weakening could be alleviated later with buffs.
If push came to shove, I could even stay up all night to keep her company. Sure, my own condition would take a hit, but if it meant breaking NTR flags, a little sleep deprivation was nothing.
So right now, what I needed was to struggle just to avoid failing.
"Let's start with [Herb Gathering]."
According to the request form, it showed what the herbs looked like and how to gather them, right?
We could pick them as we went along on the way to the cave where the slimes lived.
"From its appearance, it's 'Bug-Catching Plant.' It repels insects when burned."
"So we just look for something like this?"
Minerva nodded as if she already knew, and Yuno was forcing her enthusiasm, probably trying to distract herself somehow.
At least it was better than being completely deflated.
I took out the [Slime Extermination] request form and handed it to Minerva.
"You take the lead first. I'll follow from behind."
"Hm? But the party leader is—ah, because of the backpack. In that case, it can't be helped."
Exactly as she said.
Walking ahead with that huge backpack would only block everyone else's view.
Plus, in terms of roles, I was closer to a back-row position, so it made more sense for Minerva, the vanguard, to be up front.
"Then I'll take the lead. If it gets difficult, please tell me in advance."
Minerva began walking toward the slime cave while checking the request form.
"Hmm.... It's here. And here as well."
She didn't forget to gather herbs along the way, either.
It showed the experience of someone who had led a group and acted as captain during the survival event.
"Hey, Chrono."
"Hm?"
On the other hand, Yuno's case...
"Is this, a Bug-Catching Plant?"
"No. That's a Poisonous Herb. The hairs will make you a little itchy if they prick you."
"Eek."
Truthfully, I hadn't expected much.
I brought her along as a ranged dealer and healer in the first place.
"Sorry... I'll just throw this away."
"Don't be sorry. How could you be familiar with a path you're on for the first time? Just go with the flow."
"But... Minerva and Chrono are good at it right from the start."
"That's because she and I are weird, so don't worry about it."
"...That is not weird."
Uh, no.
That was definitely plenty weird.
How could a cadet who just entered the academy, and who wasn't even an aspiring alchemist or blacksmith, know the name of every single herb?
'Even I'm just getting by with [Present Sight].'
Yuno, who likely had to learn it all from scratch without something like that, was bound to make a lot of mistakes. But I couldn't let myself get frustrated watching her.
"Try again. You'll find it this time."
"But... if I pick another weird one—"
"—If that happens, Minerva and I are here. That's what a party is for."
"...Okay! I'll try again!"
I had to encourage her and push her to keep at it.
Even if she only managed to pick one or two no matter how hard she tried, telling her to stop altogether would mean zero herbs, guaranteed.
Better to do a little than to do nothing at all.
"Chrono, will you... check this one?"
"Oh, you picked a good one this time?"
"Really? Yaaay!"
Like this, one at a time, eventually she would be able to gather ten, even twenty herbs.
Later on, I'd just grab a herb request every time we went to a dungeon.
Since the payout was per herb, saving them up could become a tidy little side income.
"Chrono! This one! And this, and this one too!"
"Mm, all weeds. At least you didn't pick any more poisonous herbs!"
"Eeeek..."
It would take some time for her to get used to it...
...
..
.
About two hours after we started climbing the mountain,
Minerva skillfully found her way and led us right up to the cave where the slimes lived.
"This seems to be it."
"Looks like it."
A single slime was visible on the other side.
It squished and bounced around with tiny boing-boing hops.
The way it dissolved the surrounding plants into its body to eat them was unmistakably a slime.
"It says we only need to kill... ten of them."
"Yeah, that's not it."
"What? But the request form says up to ten—"
"—We're going to kill the King Slime."
".........."
Her expression froze solid.
I grinned and pulled out another request form from my pocket, showing it to her.
"Coincidentally, it's the same location."
"Of course it's the same location! No, ah, aah, ngh...!"
Minerva staggered for a moment as if her head hurt.
Meanwhile, Yuno was casting Heal on her from the side.
That girl really was kind-hearted.
A little jealous, had an infidelity event, and was good at NTR drifting—that was the problem.
'...There are more problems than I thought?'
As expected of NTR Academy's true heroine.
She seemed like she wasn't, but she ran through every kind of mess there was.
But for now, she was a pure virgin.
"Chrono, let's give up on that request."
"I'm not giving up."
"Give it up. You have to give it up, how could we possibly do that?!"
"Why can't we?"
"Ah, ngh, aah, ngh...!!"
Minerva stomped her feet in frustration.
Honestly, that reaction was the normal one.
Even if we ranked relatively high among cadets, a King Slime was a different story.
'That's because it's an Erotic Trap Monster.'
Regular slimes were so weak you'd have a hard time losing to them.
But a King Slime, formed by a mass of slimes joining together, could be beaten if you slipped up.
And if you did lose—at that moment, a CG would play showing you turned into a breeding slave factory laying slime eggs.
That was only for when you were no longer a 'cadet.'
That scenario was set in the era after graduating from the academy, during the time of Ragnarok.
As of now, it would probably end with them getting touched a bit and then rescued, not outright rape.
"Minerva, Chrono must have thought things through."
"Yuno... The fact that you're only kind is its own problem. It's not that I don't trust Chrono. But when it comes to practical field experience, I have at least more of it than Chrono."
"Mmm... But still..."
Yuno turned to glance at me.
I usually told her not to trust me too much, but at this moment, I was grateful for that trust.
"Then let's do it this way. We'll try as much as we can, and if it seems impossible, we'll retreat."
"...If it's to that extent, I understand."
A compromise of sorts.
Minerva still shook her head, saying that challenging the King Slime was impossible no matter what.
It wasn't that I couldn't understand her thinking. Never mind the potential complications, the King Slime was an opponent immune to 'physical attacks' in the first place.
"Then shall we go in?"
We decided to enter the cave first.
Like it or not, we still had to deal with ten slimes.
Immediately, slimes appeared right in front of us. We all grabbed our weapons and attacked, and...
Kwajik! Pyusyuuk! Peobeobeok!
""".............."""
Without anything worth describing, they were annihilated.
That was only natural, because they were slimes.
"I was a little nervous since they're monsters... but they turned out to be nothing special?"
"Don't let your guard down, Yuno. Carelessness on the battlefield is poison."
"Ugh... sorry..."
Yuno lowered her head lightly in apology.
'Don't let your guard down against slimes, huh...'
It was a tough request to obey.
Slimes really were that easy, after all.
Since their bodies were small, you just had to aim with all your strength at the core in the center and they'd die.
And were they fast? Not really. Did they have poison? They secreted a mildly acidic fluid, but not enough to melt blades or armor.
Truly, they were even weaker than a tutorial monster.
But a monster like the King Slime was a different story.
Its body was so huge that attacks would be blocked before reaching the core, meaning physical attacks were effectively useless.
Put another way, it was a boss monster that had to be killed by hitting it hard enough to obliterate it in one shot, or by roasting it with holy magic.
"This presence... it's the boss."
"Looks like it."
"...If the attacks don't work, we'll turn back immediately. Understood?"
"Yeah, yeah."
Leaving behind a tightly strung Minerva with her sword raised, I slowly approached the King Slime.
...Pureung?
"It really is big..."
It was almost as big as my body.
No, maybe even bigger than me.
...Purrurrung.
"Huh... so scary."
Its body rippled with tiny tremors as it shivered.
It began to writhe, keeping its core far away from me while preparing to attack at the same time.
It probably intended to counterattack the moment I made my move, right?
"If I don't want to get hit, I'll have to kill it in one blow."
For the first time in a while, I pulled out [Cronus's Scythe].
"Hooooo..."
The grip felt the same as always.
Familiar, heavy, and slightly cool.
"Chrono, physical attacks don't work on the King Slime."
"I know."
The bullet's attack was calculated as 'physical damage.'
If I simply fired a bullet, I'd just get counterattacked unless it could one-shot the slime.
So I couldn't just leave it at that.
'That's why I need [Skills].'
I opened the skill window and allocated my skills.
Fortunately, my proficiency level had gone up from killing slimes, and the situation I had wanted was now drawn out.
"Here I go."
I placed my hand over the gun.
I wasn't entirely sure if it would work—but even if it didn't, I had the others behind me!
"[Holy Weapon]."
First, I imbued the gun with 'holy',
"[Double Excel]."
I extended time, making 1 second into 2 seconds,
"[Double Step]."
Enhanced agility, then closed the distance toward the slime— brought the muzzle right up to the slime's body,
"[Point-Blank Shot]."
Plus,
"[Twin Boost]."
Doubled the bullet's velocity.
When the time it took the bullet to hit was cut in half,
...
..
.
Paaaaaaaaaang!!!
"...Hoo!"
A violent explosion.
A sharp pain shot through my right wrist.
I slowly turned my head to the left and checked the King Slime's condition.
"It completely exploded."
Its core naturally burst, and the remaining fluid had splattered thickly across the cave wall from the bullet's impact.
The traces made it look like it had been hit by an anti-air cannon. This was the power of [Skills].
'I mixed in so many of them.'
Magic damage and physical damage,
plus the synergy of the other combined skills—
It would have been stranger if that sight hadn't occurred.
"How did you...?"
"It was suddenly, syuk, syusyuk, syuk and... peo-eong?"
Part of it was that the King Slime was a non-aggressive monster, making it easy to finish off.
"Kheuu... Fuck yeah!"
But the biggest reason was the skill chain pushed to its absolute limit.
This is why learning is important.