From now on, summoned beasts were their primary fighting force.

While humans would be able to fight to some extent during the early stages, their abilities would diminish as summoned beasts and their opponents become stronger.

***

"Guys, look at that goblin of his. It seems different from ours." In the distance, a fair-skinned youth with a mohawk hairstyle said then.

The other three looked in surprise as well.

"We've never seen such a summoned beast before, have we? Is it a new species?"

"It looks a little like a goblin."

"An evolved form of goblins?"

"Is that what goblins look like at level 2?"

"It's possible. Let's put our backs into it and try to reach level 2 by the end of the day!"

Since there was no lack of tree branches in the forest, they could quickly find new ones to lure the slimes in the mire. They did not appear to be smart either, and were easily lured ashore.

Since they were covered in thick mud, it would keep flowing off their bodies as they kept moving, covering any corner they went with a thin layer of mud.

As a matter of fact, the sight of Green Skin hitting a slime was just like a baker kneading a dough mixture with a rolling pin—the dough would change shape according to the baker's will: round, flat, or even square.

However, the slime's resistance to physical damage was very high, and it was not actually hurt much despite many physical blows inflicted upon it.

In the end, they had to use the blades they carried to cut it into sixteen smaller pieces to finally destroy it.

When they were cut in two, the slime had actually attempted to reattach itself.

Indeed, it was surprisingly resilient.

Be that as it may, it was severely lacking when it came to offensive moves.

In fact, it only had two attacks, and one of them was spitting corrosive mucus.

Green Skin was inadvertently struck and a dense pile of bubbles arose over its arm, forming red speckles.

And that was only thanks to Green Skin itself quickly applying mud to its wound to neutralize some of the corrosive mucus, reducing the corrosion considerably.

As for the other attacking method, the slime would wrap itself around a target and suffocate it.

Moreover, a slime's body was slightly corrosive in the first place, although not to the extent of its mucus.

According to Green Skin, slimes were unsavory, causing stomachaches and lacking meat—eating them was no different from chugging water.

However, Chen Yining had his opinion since he believed that there was nothing that could not be eaten, only food ingredients that had yet to be fully processed.

While he was certainly no professional chef and had not studied the subject extensively, it remained that there were several million people in Mountain Water City, and someone must know what to do.

Indeed, Chen Yining keenly awaited the day where he would have a taste of mint herbal slime cake with red sugar, grilled slime fillets, Chinese yam rib soup slime stew…

After they managed to kill it, the slime earned Green Skin 8 EXP.

Using the same method, Chen Yining and Chen Jing managed to lure out two more slimes from the quagmire, which provided Green Skin with 7 and 8 EXP respectively.

That was when Chen Yining learned that different individuals would provide different amounts of EXP.

However, there was a limited number of slimes although the quagmire spanned over a hundred hectares, and had trees going out of it.

There must be a throng of slimes living within. After Chen Yining and the party in the distance hunted them, their numbers were dwindling rapidly, and they could not find a single slime in the next half hour. There was no telling if they were completely gone or were afraid to come out.

"Brother, do you think the slimes would respawn?" Chen Jing asked.

"I think you've played too many video games." Chen Yining smiled.

"But aren't we playing a game right now? There's summoned beasts and a data panel."

"Sure, but do you see stuff like health bars, mana bars, or attack speed?" Chen Yining countered.

Chen Jing scratched his head at that.

"Of course, that's just my theory—there's a chance that you are right," Chen Yining added.

"Blurb~"

"Blurb~"

The quagmire was suddenly bubbling violently, and a geyser suddenly shot out from the center of the quagmire.

Chen Yining's first reaction was to lead the others and run away.

It was only after they reached the top of a slope that they stopped to look back.

A huge sphere that was three meters in diameter had risen out from the quagmire.

"It's so huge," Chen Jing muttered.

It was definitely the largest monster that they had seen so far.

Three meters was just slightly wider than a car—to be specific, while a normal slime was around seventy meters in diameter, the giant slime was quadruple their diameter. Moreover, by applying the mathematical formula for calculating the mass spherical objects, (4/3)r^3, its mass would at least be 64 times that of the smaller slimes!

Chen Yining narrowed his eyes.

Would the difference in mass mean an equal difference in EXP?

If they could kill that slime, Green Skin would at least level up once.

At the same time, the information on the slime appeared on his Summoner's Grimoire too.

[Monster: Giant Slime]

[Species: Slime]

[Level: 2]

[Rank: Normal ⭐⭐]

[Introduction: Slimes are a lesser magical beast, mild-tempered and weak in attack. They consume insects and tree leaves to sustain themselves.]

[Race Talent: Regeneration +3]

[Bond (Elemental)]

[(1) +15% elemental damage when there are more than 4 elementals.]

[(2) +30% elemental damage when there are more than 8 elementals.]

If Chen Yining's hunch was right, giant slimes were an evolved form of normal slimes, and they had also reached level 2.

Still, once he remembered how difficult it was to deal with the other slimes and that the giant slime would have a stronger regeneration ability, he realized that it would be a little difficult to get rid of the giant slime with only the clubs and sticks they had.

Chen Yining mused to himself and then decisively said, "Let's return for now. We'll come back with some gasoline."

Chen Jing's eyes lit up and he exclaimed, "Yes! The slime may be resistant to physical damage, but it might not withstand magic damage! It would be incredible if we have a bomb, since it would blow even slimes into pieces."

"Bomb? Dream on." Chen Yining rolled his eyes—how was one supposed to get their hands on something like that?

The city was now in lockdown, meaning that they could not make online purchases and could only rely on physical stores. In fact, most physical stores were already going bankrupt due to rapid development of online commerce in recent years, not to mention that Mountain Water City was a tourist destination that had gained viral fame and was not an industrial city, let alone have renowned heavy industries.

Still, Chen Yining thought that they could buy a lightweight mobile chainsaw if they were able to, but he was unsure if there were any such physical stores available.

Moreover, there was a chance that whoever had it might not sell it to them.

Meanwhile, as Chen Yining hesitated, the party of four in the distance was beside themselves in excitement, just like a party of dungeon explorers running into the Boss.

They should have a try whether they could win this, should they not?

Moreover, despite the giant slime being larger, it was not too intimidating in appearance.

How intimidating could a supersized yoga ball be to humans, after all?

Round and plump, it kept bouncing and whirling at the same spot, and it looked as if it would start leaking with a poke.

Meanwhile, though the party of four was trying to fight it, they were very cautious and used a long branch to keep poking at its general direction. Since they were too far from the giant slime, they had to use that method to provoke it for now.

That was when the giant slime bounced out of the quagmire, leaving a small portion of its body in the mud, with the rest of its body exposed in the air.

It rolled forward and started forward across the quagmire, and it was not actually slow.

That was thanks to the giant slime's own massive size, which left the party of four a little flustered. One of them even ran off and poked his head out from behind a tree for a peek.

In total, their summoned beasts consisted of nine slimes and three goblins, making it a total of twelve—each of them must have used up their quotas for summoned beasts.