Hunting the Deep Slime
The Deep Slime resides in the northern reaches of the wasteland.
I walked onward, using the sun suspended in the sky as my compass.
It was about time for the Deep Slime to appear….
“What’s this?”
I furrowed my brow.
Several footprints were etched across the wasteland.
Judging by their length and stride, they were unmistakably human.
Five in total. Three men, two women.
It couldn’t be a coincidence.
I wasn’t the only one targeting the Deep Slime.
Boss monsters regenerate ten days after being slain. That was the rule of the tutorial stage.
I had far too much to do to waste time returning to the wasteland for a single Deep Slime.
Boom—! The roar of an explosion echoed in my ears.
Had they already found it?
I braced my legs and sprinted along the trail of footprints.
“Chyurup!”
“Chyururup!”
A few slimes lunged at me, but I ignored them.
Before long the battlefield came into view.
Five players completely surrounded by a swarm of slimes.
“So it’s them.”
Tsk—I clicked my tongue.
I hadn’t expected competitors in the wasteland.
Unfortunately, the battle wasn’t going well.
“There are too many slimes!”
“We’ll be wiped out before we even reach the Deep Slime!”
The two players acting as tanks screamed.
Smoke rose from their bodies. Their armor was caked with layers of slime mucus.
The fact that it wasn’t melting suggested they wore fairly decent gear.
Still, it was only a matter of time.
If they couldn’t thin the horde, the outcome was obvious.
“Fire Bolt!”
“Fire……”
“Lightning!”
A streak of lightning and two flaming arrows slammed into the slimes.
Bang—! One slime swelled up and exploded with a deafening burst.
Two tanks and three ranged dealers.
They can probably handle the swarm.
Hunting the Deep Slime lurking behind them, however, would be too much.
I’d treat it as saving these poor souls and claim the Deep Slime for myself.
As I drew closer to the raging battle, the player team glanced my way.
“You there! Slimes are too dangerous for a first-day player—stay back!”
One of the tanks shouted.
They must have judged me as an unprepared rookie from my appearance.
“No need to worry about me.”
I stepped forward without hesitation, heading straight for the slime horde—and the Deep Slime behind them.
“Chyurup!”
One slime spread its body wide like a net.
“Fi……”
A ranged dealer frantically prepared a fire spell.
Like I said.
“I told you not to worry.”
Don’t make me repeat myself.
I swung my arm lightly.
Boom! The fully spread slime burst like a drum struck with full force.
“Huh…?”
One player let out a dazed sound.
Oh Jiwon was a former weightlifter turned player.
His awakening ability was Iron Man.
It was a rare power that granted extra bonus stats on every level-up and added options to defensive skills.
Thanks to it, he had been scouted by Phoenix—one of Korea’s top ten guilds—and even received special training before entering the Tower.
Yet.
Who the hell is that guy?
Oh Jiwon’s eyes trembled.
The man who shocked him—Jinho—had been completely dominating the Deep Slime from the very start.
Oh Jiwon glanced at Kim Mi-jin, his fellow Phoenix rookie.
“Doesn’t the Deep Slime only take damage from fire or lightning attacks?”
“Correct. In normal cases.”
“Maybe he enchanted his hands?”
The Deep Slime’s physical defense was far higher than that of ordinary wasteland slimes.
Theoretically, even a level-50 close-combat hunter would struggle to wound that mucus.
Kim Mi-jin, a fire awakener, shook her head.
“I sense zero magical energy. That’s pure physical force.”
“Haha.”
“Team Leader Jiwon. There’s one more method to defeat a Deep Slime, remember?”
“Targeting the cores embedded in its body?”
Five cores were attached inside the Deep Slime’s mass.
In theory, destroying every core within the mucus could kill it.
“The instructor declared that method impossible.”
Oh Jiwon shook his head and continued.
“It requires perfect timing and overwhelming power to destroy a Deep Slime.”
“And it looks like someone’s doing exactly that right now.”
Kim Mi-jin was right.
If it wasn’t the second supposedly impossible strategy, there was no explaining how Jinho was beating the Deep Slime.
“There’s only one person the guild mentioned who hunted a Deep Slime on day one.”
“Who?”
“Guild Master Yang Jeong-su.”
Korea’s second-ranked player.
A powerhouse who stood near the top of the global rankings.
“Come on, comparing him to the guild master just for killing one Deep Slime feels like a stretch.”
Kim Mi-jin spoke with clear reluctance.
“You never know.”
Oh Jiwon muttered calmly, indifferent to whether the prospective Phoenix members were shocked or not.
“This thing is as disgusting as ever.”
Jinho frowned.
White smoke rose from the back of his hand.
Destroying one core of a normal slime removed its dissolving acid.
But the Deep Slime had multiple cores, so avoiding the acid was impossible.
Each time a burn mark appeared on Jinho’s hand, another core shattered.
“Only one left, huh?”
“Chyurururup!”
The Deep Slime wailed pathetically.
The wriggling slime horde surged forward.
Oh Jiwon lifted his shield and blocked their path.
“You’re not getting through!”
Taunt Roar
The slimes flinched.
The provocation skill that instilled instinctive fear.
Against creatures that moved purely on instinct, its effect was perfect.
“Jiwon—wait, Team Leader Jiwon?”
Kim Mi-jin’s eyes widened.
Oh Jiwon answered with a hardened expression.
“Our team will assist that player in defeating the Deep Slime.”
“But the Phoenix Guild assigned us to bring back its corpse.”
“Without him we would have been annihilated anyway. Aiming for the next opportunity is wiser.”
“That’s… haa, fine. I don’t care anymore.”
Kim Mi-jin bit her lip, then instantly conjured flaming arrows and struck the slimes from behind.
“Chyurup!”
“Chyurup!”
Oh Jiwon held the front.
From the rear, the ranged dealers unleashed a relentless barrage.
“Chyurururup!!!!”
“Come at me!”
The Deep Slime’s pitiful scream and Oh Jiwon’s roar blended together.
While the slime horde was trapped, unable to advance or retreat—
“It’s too noisy. Time to sleep.”
Jinho’s fist smashed into the Deep Slime’s final core.
Boss Monster — Deep Slime has been defeated.
You have accomplished an outstanding achievement. Player Yu Jinho’s name has been recorded in the Tower.
Additional rewards will be granted upon tutorial completion.
Level up.
One level.
The tutorial reward had also been upgraded.
These were the same messages I had grown utterly sick of hearing before my regression.
I felt almost nothing.
With an indifferent expression I glanced at the group of players.
“This thing’s corpse belongs to me.”
“By all means.”
“You’re accepting it more readily than I expected.”
It was surprising.
They were clearly rookies from a major guild.
Just looking at their supplied equipment made it obvious.
At minimum Rare-grade. The weapons and armor they wore were worth hundreds of millions in cash.
Either they came from money, or the guild was backing them heavily.
The fact they moved as a team from the start of the tutorial made it obvious.
“If not for you, our entire team would have died here.”
“That’s true.”
“We nearly got eliminated in the tutorial for nothing. We’re the ones who received help.”
The man spoke in a calm, steady tone.
From what I had seen earlier, despite limited real combat experience his movements were quite decent.
“What’s your name?”
“Oh Jiwon.”
I stroked my chin.
The name didn’t ring any bells.
With that level of spirit, character, and potential, he should have made a name for himself later.
Or perhaps he had died trying to hunt the Deep Slime recklessly.
Death in the tutorial also stripped away player privileges, after all.
“You people.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t push yourselves too hard.”
I pointed at Oh Jiwon’s team with my index finger.
“What the—? This old man, after everything we—”
The woman who had used the flame magic flushed red and raised her voice.
“Ah, I’m not dismissing you.”
“If that wasn’t dismissing us, then what was—mmph.”
“I won’t forget the advice you just gave.”
Oh Jiwon stepped forward and covered the woman’s mouth.
Oh. So he knows how to swallow his pride.
If saving a player through my regression had changed something, I was curious to see how this man would grow.
Maybe I’m being too sentimental.
A bitter smile touched my lips.
The ones behind the Tower—the Old Gods—were overwhelmingly powerful.
Even the top players later called Monarchs had struggled to handle even a single one.
I hoped he wouldn’t die in some meaningless place.
I set my thoughts about Oh Jiwon aside.
The only one I could rely on was myself.
In that spirit, time to do what needed doing.
I thrust my hand deep into the Deep Slime’s body and activated Devour.
The Deep Slime’s mass began to shrivel.
Devouring the essence of the Deep Slime.
Essence absorbed: 100%
Stamina +4
Mana +3
Skill — Acid Blood has been added.
Acid Blood
Grade: ★★
Type: Active
Turns the user’s blood into acid.
Acidity varies depending on mana consumed.
At first glance it seemed like a vague skill similar to Dissolve.
But the true value of Acid Blood lay in the concept of altering the very nature of blood itself.
The first step toward divine blood.
To reach the realm of transcendence, multiple conditions had to be met.
One of them was acquiring divine blood.
Normally one needed a god’s blessing or items like nectar or golden apples.
But I had zero intention of becoming the pet of any gods.
The Old Gods are bastards, but the current gods are no different—they simply watch from the sidelines.
Accepting divine blessing meant being unable to interfere when the Tower eroded Earth.
Predestined salvation? They could shove it.
That was why I had to reach transcendence by fully exploiting Devour.
It was something I had already done before my regression.
There was nothing difficult about it.
It was the same as solving a math problem when you already knew the answer—the process became clear.
“The Deep Slime’s corpse is shriveling.”
“That’s the main ingredient for mana recovery potions. It should be insanely expensive.”
“Too bad it was never ours to begin with.”
I could clearly hear the prospective Phoenix Guild members murmuring among themselves.
It reminded me of the nickname I had before regression: “The Ability User Who Turns Gold Into Trash.”
“No complaints?”
“You have the right to it.”
“Try again in ten days. I won’t need this one anymore.”
Rare species allowed 100% essence absorption after a single Devour.
When they challenged it again in ten days, the monster would be far stronger.
At least the shadow of certain death wouldn’t loom over them like it had this time.
“I have one question.”
“What is it?”
“Your name.”
Ah. I had asked for his name but never introduced myself.
“Yu Jinho.”
“I will remember it.”
“Planning to get revenge later?”
“No. I want to become as strong as you, Player Yu Jinho.”
Oh Jiwon’s eyes burned with firm resolve.
That look wasn’t bad.
Even if, in the future I remembered, he had died without leaving behind any notable name.
“Then don’t die a dog’s death.”
I spoke calmly, yet with genuine sincerity.