Absorption Acquired
The skeleton slime dangling from the ceiling had been rushing toward the light, but it was already too late. Given how slow slimes were, their only real tactic was to wait on the ceiling in advance, spit acid, and then smother a startled enemy's face to suffocate and dissolve them. That combo had already been shut down. The moment we seized the initiative, the fight tilted in our favor.
We set the torch on the ground and launched our attack right away.
Thwip—! Thump—!
Our first priority was forcing the cores to move. Yeonhee handled it instantly with two arrows. Instead of aiming straight for the cores, she fired in rapid succession to startle them.
······!
The two slimes that had climbed the walls first reached the ceiling, then jerked in surprise and dropped their cores downward.
Thud—! Whack! Whack! Crack!
I followed up with my battered club and shattered the cores in one strike. The remaining three slimes clinging to the side walls seemed to sense the danger. They froze, their bodies rippling uneasily.
Yeonhee immediately pulled her robe over herself. I ignored the threat and charged, grabbing two of them and hurling them toward the entrance.
Splat—! Hiss—!
The moment I seized them, acid sprayed across my face, sizzling against the bone, but I felt nothing. 'No pain means nothing to fear.'
I rushed the slimes that had crashed to the floor near the entrance and spat acid back at them.
Whoosh—! Sizzle—!
······!
They had never been hit by acid before. Their bodies bounced and flailed wildly in panic.
'How's Yeonhee doing?'
She had already driven her dagger into a core. One side of her robe was soaked in acid, but I remembered it was a cheap anti-slime robe she had bought after nearly dying to one last time. Even low-grade, it wouldn't be punctured by a single splash.
Crack—! Snap—!
One swing of the club used up the last of its durability. I tossed the shattered weapon aside and grabbed a rock from the ground, smashing down repeatedly. Four slimes fell to me.
And then, surprisingly—
Thievery trait activated.
Randomly stealing a trait from a normal Slime.
You have acquired the Absorption trait!
'Oh! Did I beat the 10% chance?!'
Thievery has leveled up.
Trait theft chance increased by 1%.
'Maybe I'm secretly lucky?'
11% chance to steal a random trait on repeated kills.
Rarity: Common
Your body can adhere firmly to any surface it touches and will not fall off.
'This trait looks incredibly useful...'
Stealing such a versatile trait doubled my satisfaction. Nodding contentedly, I was gathering the slime cores when Yeonhee came running over.
"Whoa! Ilwol got another trait?! At this rate you'll surpass me!"
She hadn't even touched me, yet she knew immediately. It seemed that whenever Thievery succeeded, the information was shared with her in real time.
'Surpass her... No matter what, I still can't beat her even if I die and come back.'
Of course, there was no way to test that, so I simply stared at her in silence. Her eyes sparkling, she brushed my hand a few times and asked,
"Can you show me Absorption?"
I was curious about the ability myself, so I readily moved toward the wall.
'Just press against it?'
I placed my hand on the wall, but nothing felt different from usual.
'Hmm... If I focus mana and will the absorption to activate...'
Then I felt my hand and the wall become one, sticking tightly.
'Ah, I get the feeling now. So it has a kind of switch. That's a relief.'
If adhesive fluid constantly oozed from my body, she would abandon me in no time.
Creak— Creak—
Making a sticky sound like honey-smeared bone, I began crawling up the wall.
'The noise might be fixable with practice... This is really good, though.'
My movement speed was extremely slow, but since the trait was meant for preparing ambushes, that was acceptable. When I reached the ceiling and kept moving without falling, like a spider, Yeonhee let out a delighted squeal from below.
'Well... should I just jump down?'
Thud— Crack—!
After testing the ability a bit, I dropped straight from three meters up. My knee joint twisted in a very wrong direction on landing.
'This body really is ridiculously fragile.'
I carefully tapped the misaligned joint back into place, and we set off again.
"Pfft—"
···?
"Sorry, watching you fix your bones just now reminded me of neighborhood grandmas going 'Oh dear, my poor knee.'"
"Clack—"
'Right... I need to be careful about that too.'
Anyway, I should avoid actions that made me seem too human.
Step, step—
'More importantly, my weapon broke. I need to snatch a decent goblin club or two.'
Ten minutes later, we spotted four goblins chasing a pack of mole crickets. Yeonhee immediately nocked an arrow. I picked up a few suitably sized rocks from the ground and hurled one at a goblin surrounding the mole crickets.
[Dagger Throw]
Smack—!
"Kek—?!"
Surprisingly, the goblin hit by the rock staggered, lost its balance, and collapsed. The other three goblins grabbed their clubs and began growling.
Whoosh— Thunk—!
"Kek—!"
The moment Yeonhee's arrow pierced another goblin's crown, I activated Stealth and charged forward.
Mana: 5/9 (-2)
"Kierer! Chaka!"
One goblin swung its club wildly in all directions, eyes gleaming as if that alone could provide perfect defense.
Crack—!
After smashing the head of the goblin that had fallen from the rock once more, I snatched its club.
"Chaa! Kieek!"
At that moment Stealth ended, and the two remaining goblins rushed me. But—
Thunk—!
Yeonhee's arrow buried itself deep in one goblin's side. I feinted a swing at the last goblin, then spat a wide spray of acid from my mouth.
Whoosh—!
"Kieeek—!"
The goblin's face, drenched in acid, sizzled as it screamed in agony.
Thwip— Thunk—!
Unable to react to Yeonhee's arrows or my club strikes, the goblins were wiped out.
Thud— Thud—!
After crushing the heads of the still-twitching goblins to finish them off, messages appeared in my mind.
Goblin defeated!
Acquired a small amount of experience...
Acquired a lowest-grade mana stone...
Level has increased.
As expected, the low-level range meant leveling up quickly even after killing just a few slimes and goblins. I had already planned where to allocate my stats, so I invested in Strength, Agility, and Constitution right away before moving on to the next task.
'Now I can hold my own against lower F-rank hunters.'
Satisfied with the growth, I nodded. This time I searched the goblins' pockets first and obtained three silver coins. I also cut off all the goblin ears and placed them in the pouch Yeonhee handed me.
'This kind of menial work comes naturally to me, so it's more efficient if I handle it.'
If we were lucky enough to encounter a mimic and obtain an artifact, the workload would decrease significantly, but otherwise, wasting time on such chores was simply fate. Yeonhee watched me work with a slightly surprised expression, clearly impressed by how naturally I handled everything.
Silver, goblin ears, and lowest-grade mana stones. Combined, each goblin was worth roughly six thousand won after fees. The reason income remained low despite the silver was because goblin silver had very low purity and thus fetched a poor price. It was strange that monsters carried silver at all, but since it was money, I didn't care.
At this rate, killing twenty monsters a day would bring in about one hundred twenty thousand won. I didn't know how much rent she paid, but a few days of hunting like this would ease her financial troubles.
"Ilwol, at this pace couldn't we do thirty a day? Once we find them, the kills are instant!"
Yeonhee's excitement was understandable. She had probably considered ten kills a day a success when hunting alone. Doubling that instantly was naturally cause for joy.
'Still, I remember Yeonhee was always diligent about earning money.'
Whether it was to buy a decent artifact or simply because she liked money, I knew her dedication.
Whine— Whine—
"Oh no, this poor mole cricket..."
A mole cricket that had been caught and clubbed by goblins lay on its side, trembling. 'It won't survive... its head is completely crushed.'
I stepped in front of Yeonhee, infused the club with [Smash], and brought it down with all my strength.
Thud—!
"Ugh..."