Chapter 42
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 42
Chapter Title: Slime Cave
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The next day.
"Hello, Adventurer!"
Amael's greeting rang out with energy.
She must be in a good mood today.
The moment Yoon Young saw her, he pinched her cheek and kneaded it gently.
Squish!
"Mmm. This is the feeling."
He always noticed it, but she even smelled nice...
There was no better companion than this.
"Wanna go hunting together today?"
With those words, he recruited her as his companion.
"Sure thing! If it's with you, Adventurer, I'd be delighted!"
Her affinity must have risen quite a bit—her dialogue options were getting richer.
As far as he knew, she was still at affinity stage 3...
I wonder what changes at stage 5?
Yoon Young handed her a gift today, too, full of anticipation.
"Oh...! Thank you so much, Adventurer!"
Amael beamed at the gift.
Yoon Young couldn't help but smile back.
'Alright, with the beginner knight quest done, time to head back for more slime slaughter.'
He checked his quest window, which had been delayed a few days by side trips.
[Mysterious Cave]
A request to investigate the cave near the hunting grounds, where variant slimes have been appearing in noticeably higher numbers.
He accepted it right away and set out.
"Let's go, Amael."
Yoon Young strode forward confidently.
"Ah, wait for me!"
As the distance grew, Amael scurried after him.
Her yellow-and-white outfit made her look just like a baby bird—adorable.
*
Squelch, squelch!
A slime crawled peacefully along the ground.
Slash!
A mana-infused strike fell upon it.
Sizzle...!
Amael, who had been charging with her mace, froze in place. The slime had died in one hit.
"That's more like it."
Regular mobs that weren't variants were now almost guaranteed one-shots.
'Once I upgrade my weapon, this is gonna be a real show.'
He'd been stubborn about getting a weapon from drops, but with money piling up steadily, maybe it was time to buy one.
Yoon Young swept through the regular mobs effortlessly as he searched for the quest target: the cave.
"This must be it..."
A cave nestled in Slime Forest 2.
Peeking from afar, he spotted the entrance crawling with purple, gooey jellies and an unusually high number of slimes.
Anyone could tell this was the quest spot.
Now fully powered up, Yoon Young charged in without hesitation.
Splatter! Splatter!
As he approached the cave, slimes slithered toward him, only to be cleaved away by his sword.
Sizzle!
"Ugh...!"
A hot sensation stung his arm. Looking down, a tiny slime had latched on, dealing damage.
'What the heck? Why's this slime so small?'
Yoon Young ripped it off roughly, stomped it flat, and scanned the surroundings.
'Doesn't it feel like there are more now...?'
He'd cut down a ton, but their numbers seemed higher.
And they looked a bit smaller.
A thought flashed through Yoon Young's mind.
'Oh, they're splitting!'
Splitting. A classic pattern, if a bit clichéd.
Pretty much every game had slimes that split at some point.
"This is getting annoying..."
Yoon Young grumbled as he swung his sword wildly.
They couldn't split forever...!
Keep slashing, and they'd die eventually.
That's when it happened.
"Blessing...!"
Amael seemed to chant a spell, and strength flowed into Yoon Young's body.
"Oh?"
Checking it out, he saw Amael had buffed him.
"Whoa...!"
So she learned stuff like this after becoming an official priest?
Splatter! Splatter!
His body felt much lighter.
Several slimes were now getting diced up in chunks at once.
'These used to stick like raw meat to a dull knife, but with the buff, it feels totally different.'
Thwack!
"Hya! Hya!"
She wasn't just buffing and idling—she was smashing slimes with her mace, fighting hard alongside him.
It was so commendable he wanted to give her a kiss.
Splaaatter!
As Yoon Young figured, the slimes didn't split forever.
Thanks to Amael's buff, he wiped out every last one at the entrance.
[Variant Slime Core]
[Variant Slime Core]
[Variant Slime Core]
[Variant Slime Core]
"Whoa, items everywhere."
Junk items turned into cash too.
Yoon Young diligently picked up the spoils.
[Plain Leather Shoes]
[Low-Grade Adventurer's Cloth Robe]
'Whoa, two equipment items.'
With so many monsters killed, even one fight dropped two pieces of gear.
And his luck stat wasn't even that high today.
'If the entrance is like this, how much is inside the cave?'
That last fight had been pure hack-and-slash bliss, mowing down monsters in a frenzy.
There had to be a swarm inside.
Juicy EXP and loot galore.
'Nothing to fear with Amael by my side.'
Yoon Young confidently stepped into the cave.
Step, step.
'It's kinda dark in here...'
Whether it was an effect or just naturally dim, pitch blackness shrouded his vision after just a few steps.
They said darkness was humanity's greatest fear.
Unable to see in the gloom, tension crept in inevitably.
"Amael, stick right by my side."
With that, Yoon Young gripped her wrist tightly.
Amael, oblivious to fear, simply followed wherever he led.
Squelch!
"Gah!"
As Yoon Young advanced cautiously, something squishy brushed his face, startling him badly.
He raised his sword to fight, but nothing attacked.
'What was that...?'
Calming down, his dark-adapted eyes began to make out shapes.
"...!"
Once he confirmed it, Yoon Young doubted his own eyes for a second.
'...A person?'
He hadn't seen details, but the silhouette was unmistakable.
'Nah, must've been my imagination.'
Thinking that, he double-checked closely.
"Ugh..."
There was no denying it.
Definitely a person. Trapped inside some jelly-like membrane.
'Ugh, that's creepy.'
Even so, Yoon Young carefully slid his sword into the membrane to avoid harming the person inside, prying it open and pulling them out.
"Cough! Cough cough...!"
The NPC was still alive, hacking away urgently.
"Huff... Finally... rescued...!!"
The build had suggested it, but the voice confirmed: definitely a man.
[What happened?]
Talking to him brought up the prompt right away.
"Cough...! I was hunting slimes when I got ambushed and lost consciousness. When I came to, I was trapped in that slime goo... There are more people inside...!"
Ambushed while hunting slimes...
'Is there a villain behind this?'
It made sense.
Maybe some remnant of the force that once tried to revive the Demon King who nearly destroyed the world.
'Pushing the story forward means fighting evil groups like that, right?'
Setting that aside for now.
More captives meant rescuing other NPCs too.
'The more I save, the better the reward, probably.'
With that in mind, as he moved to press on—
Thud!
He hit an invisible wall.
[You must complete the prerequisite quest.]
"Hm."
So it was that kind of deal—one rescue for now, then plan next steps.
In reality, you'd rush to save the others before they died, but...
'It's a game, after all.'
Accepting it, Yoon Young talked to the adventurer NPC again.
[Can you walk?]
"Ah, yes...! Not too badly hurt... Thank you for saving me. I'll head back to the village first!"
The adventurer NPC bolted from the cave.
[Mission completed.]
The cave exploration quest seemed done too, so heading back and regrouping made sense.
"Yes, mission confirmed complete."
Back at the Adventurer's Guild, he reported straight to the receptionist.
Wondering what to do next, he wandered outside when a white pigeon circled overhead.
"Adventurer, about that mission you completed last time—the situation's taken a turn for the worse. Come to the Adventurer's Guild right away."
Knight Redia.
'Quick response, huh?'
Yoon Young hurried back to the guild.
In one corner inside, Redia and two older men stood with grave expressions.
As Yoon Young approached, all three began speaking in unison, as if on cue.
"Ah, good timing. We were just about to discuss it."
Redia welcomed him warmly.
But she couldn't hide the worry on her face.
"Continue where we left off. Frederick, are you certain?"
The white-haired man with a solidly muscled build spoke, and the hollow-eyed, bespectacled man replied.
"I'm just as puzzled. Trapping people in slime bodies to extract mana—that's a method only demons used... It's never been seen since the Demon King's army was annihilated."
So the glasses guy was Frederick.
He looked every bit the scholar.
"Hm. It's been over 200 years since the Demon King's army fell... Could this be linked to the recent anomalies?"
The white-haired man muttered thoughtfully.
Then the choices appeared.
[Is this about the adventurer I rescued?]
Redia nodded.
"According to the adventurer you rescued from that cave, someone using Demon King army tactics is kidnapping adventurers via slimes."
[The Demon King army...?]
"Yes, it's a puzzling situation all around. That's why we're gathering manpower for a deeper cave investigation. I'd like you to lead the team... Will you accept?"
[Quest arrived.]
A quest to team up and complete the slime cave investigation.
No reason for Yoon Young to refuse.
"Sure, why not. Let's do it."
He accepted the quest with that reply.
"As expected of the man I've got my eye on. Perfect timing—reinforcements just arrived."
Step. Step.
Footsteps approached, clearly heading their way.
Turning around, he saw a man and woman pair.
The man wore what looked like knight's attire, his blond hair giving him a flashy, carefree vibe.
His blue-haired companion held what seemed like a magic staff, exuding a fierce, venomous aura—like a mage, but sharp and prickly.
'I like a venomous look. As long as she's pretty!'
Yoon Young leered sleazily at the new female NPC and sauntered over, his casual sexual harassment now second nature.