I ran. For hours. I kept my [Intimidating Presence] on, so small fry wouldn’t get near me. The forest kept getting thicker and thicker. The mana level also is somehow thicker. I can feel it somehow. Its a monster thing, is how I rationalize this. Yes, I am a monster. I ditched Helen.

But this is not the place for a little human girl. I came to a rocky area now. There is no tree around, just rocks and dirt. Not even grass. The rocks don’t have moss on them, but it is moist.

As I was saying about Helen, she belongs with her people. And now with these kind of guys. Like me and those blobs right here.

Yeah, the very first encounter of most CRPG: the slime. And several of them. Now I know why this rocky area is picked clean. Slimes eat and dissolve almost anything. Including acid-vulnerable trolls.

And I have no weapon with me. I doubt that it would do any good. In games, there are two possible ways to defeat slimes. One type is the slime that just takes HP damage until they run out of health, and another is the “hit the core” type. But anyway, I have no weapon except my claw. Singular. The stump of an arm that is growing back can’t be used for anything right now. It is not to the elbow yet.

If I were a hero, there would be a stick of holy wood, but there is none here. The slimes approach. I back off.

Grendel uses [Ferocious Roar]… It is not effective. Slimes are immune to [Fear]. I’m playing p*k*m*n with myself now. Fight? Nope. Item? None useful. PkMn? None. Flee? Hell yeah.

Slimes uses [Bounce]… Grendel is out of range. Like hell I will stay next to those freaking things.

And there is nothing to use against them. The only items I have are arrow shafts.

Grendel throws [Broken Arrow]… Slimes eats [Broken Arrow]. Grendel backs off.

Slime attacks with [Pseudopod]! It is super effective! This thing can extend more than 3 meters! Cheater slime! It hurts a lot. There is a big burnt spot in my leg now.

I have to get back to the woods. Turn tail and run. The slimes give up once I am among the trees and probably out of range of their detection and begin to wander randomly.

I need a weapon. Let’s make one. After walking for a while in the forest, I find a rock that is shaped like a wedge, some sturdy vines, and a tree branch that is somewhat straight. A few moments later, crude troll ax crafted. +5 primitiveness. Why not a hammer? Simple. Slimes are made of acid, just being touched by one burned my leg. A hammer will make slime stuff splash everywhere. It is a suicide weapon. With an ax, it will spill less. I hope. I try some swings, and then hack at a tree. The vines holding the stone snap. Failure. I bind the thing again using stronger vines. Hack at the tree. The stone chips.

What are those trees made of? I search for another stone. Night falls. Trolls have night vision. Keep searching.

Found a stone. It is a different color, darker than the previous one. I take both stones together, and use one to sharpen the other. The first stone is brittle, and can’t sharpen the new one. This stone might be better. But I want to try something. I make a new ax using the brittle stone. This time I take care with the bindings, and the right length of the shaft. The result is better.

- Skill [Weapon craft (crude)] level 1 acquired.

Oh, c’mon! Don’t just attach a (crude) on my skill out of the blue. Eh, gift horses, gift horses.

I take my crude ax, and swing at a tree. The stone chips a bit, but a dent is left on the tree. Resin comes out of the wound. It is yellowish, and looks like the tree is bleeding. Syrupy. Is it tasty on pancakes? I take some. Nope. Too bitter. Back to the tree.

Is it a problem with the swing? The angle? My one-armed balance? I try all these on the tree, I want to yell timber tonight. After the utter obliteration of my makeshift ax on the tree, it comes along a lot of resin.

- Skill [One Handed Axes] level 1 acquired.

And then I make another ax with the better stone. Now back at the slimes. But before that, I wrap my arm stump and the shoulder with wolf pelts. If acid falls in this arm stump the regeneration will stop.

That first time I was unaware and just strolling around. But now that I know where the slimes roam, I will try to aggro less slimes now. Found one. It is almost transparent and has around one meter in width. Round. It is the cute type of slime, not the gross one. Is there a core? I look for any spot in it that looks different while it bounces in my direction. It seems to be the body slam type, not the pseudopod one. Good. I can control the distance. I kite the slime back to the forest edge.

I ready the ax, the slime bounces one, two, and I hack at it. It is a hit. The slime is hacked around its third, becomes misshapen. It bounces at me, but I dodge. Its pattern is predictable. Smoke rises from my ax. The slime’s acid is eating the vines. I hack again. This time I sever a third of the slime. The severed part becomes goo and stops moving. Some vines snap. The slime bounces. I try to dodge, but it grazes my thigh. It burns so much, I flinch in pain. The slime bounces again, I jump backwards.

This is probably the last swing of this ax. I take some time to examine the slime. If the severed part stopped moving, it means it has some sort of central system. Or it would just become two slimes. I see something, a distortion inside it. Hack it. The ax hits something solid. Something like glass breaks. The slime was bouncing up, but then is pushed down and bursts. Slime goo splashes everywhere. My legs, a part of my arm and my nose are hit.

I scream and run. The slime’s acid keeps eating my flesh. I run to a nearby stream I found while searching for stones. And dive in the water. Stupid. Why did I go there to pick a fight against my natural enemy?

I stay in the stream for a while. The cool water alleviates the burns.

- Skill [Acid Weakness (innate)] level decreased to 4.

And this is the reason I picked that fight. I need to shed my weaknesses. How is my status? HP at 60%, and [Burn] taking -16% of max HP away.

I get out of the stream, and search around for a shelter to spend the night in. There is none. Hunger sets in. I take some grilled wolf meat out of my rucksack and eat.

I will just sleep in the middle of the forest. I’ll leave [Presence Detection] activated as an alarm. I don’t even know if it works. But I am too tired.

I wake up to the sharp pain of being poked. I jump up, and there is a small green critter with a spear. It has long floppy ears, and a long nose. It is smaller than wolf, but bigger than a bunny. It is a goblin. It poked me in the neck. Blood drips into my shirt.

It tries to run away. I swing a claw at its back, and split the goblin in half. I press my neck wound, but the blood pressure is big. The wound closes after a while. Status… HP at 95% and the [Burn] at -9%. The [Burn] status is only healed by the [HP Recovery] skill, without the correction of [Regeneration]. And it happens only while HP is 100%. I take the goblin’s pemadra and spear. In my hand, it is a dart or javelin type of weapon. It is waxy. But its craftsmanship is better than my axes.

I eat the remaining wolf meat for breakfast. Regenerating increases hunger greatly. I should try to not get hurt so much, but the world would be like “Nope, take your daily dose of pain and shut up.”

I walk back to where I defeated the slime. My stone is there. I pick the stone, and search around. And then I find it. A pemadra. Broken in halves. It is almost transparent. This world’s slime is the core type. Find the core, hit it.

I need to make another ax. And figure out what I am going to eat for lunch.

While I am lost in my musings, another slime comes out. This one is slightly blue. Can I find its core? The only weapon I have is the goblin javelin. I doubt I can hit the core with a single toss. Maybe if I use the spear like a knife.

I kite the slime to the edge of the rocky area again. It comes, and launches a pseudopod at me. It is fast for something that has no muscle. Do you even lift, slime? I keep dodging the pseudopod and retreating. I need to strike its core. One pseudopod hits my cheek. Oh, great there goes my pretty face. Burn and hurts. I cross the edge into the forest. The slime stops. What?

The slime is standing still. I take a step into the rocky area. Pseudopod attack. Retreat. It stops. It does not attack after the tree line. It does not come here. I move further away. The slime loses interest and goes elsewhere. I ran towards it, the bounces revert and it comes at me again.

I stop at the “standstill zone”. Slime is there, making a stare contest without eyes. I’ll use this time to find its core. There is a discolored bubble that keeps moving around. Brownian motion. It is random, but now I can figure out those cores better. I ready the spear in my hand. I will get only one shot and this spear will dissolve. It is better to stab than throw. I am not sure how my aim is.

I run towards the slime, it launches a pseudopod. I dodge, the pseudopod hit the wolf pelts around my arm stub. Dangerous. I aim the spear at the moving core and stab it, then turn around and run. No way I am getting splashed by slime goo all over again. The slime bursts.

- Grendel has leveled up.

- 5 skill points available.

- Skill [Short spear] level 1 acquired.

I increase [Skill Growth] to level 5. Lets see my spoils. After the slime goo dries, I search the area. I find a baby blue pemadra, and the goblin spear. It was not harmed by the acid. I need to figure out how. I stash the pemadra in a bag with the others, and return to the forest to analyze the spear.

The spear is made of the same things as my ax. A tree branch, hemp and a sharpened stone. But the hemp and the shaft are waxy. Something was applied here, something that resists corrosion.

While I sit, my [HP Recovery] removes most of the [Burn] status. Only -5% left. I’d like to heal it completely, so I will put the slime hunt aside for a while. I need to find dinner.

Moving through the forest, I find a wolf pack. Six of them. All are of the normal type, but one of them is bigger, it seems to be the same type as the Red Streak lackey. I am downwind, so they haven’t noticed me yet. I take out my jacket and shirt, stash them in the rucksack and sling it over a tree branch. This will be messy, I don’t want to soil my clothes even more.

I get close to the rearmost wolf, and throw the goblin spear at its neck. The spear pierces and is stuck to the neck. Blood spurts from the wound. The wolves notice me. I dash, and launch a claw at the lackey. It dodges. Wolves circle me, and bark to intimidate me. The one at my back jumps, I dodge in the direction of the wolf with the wounded neck. I take the spear back, but lackey runs to my calf and bites. I kick it before it latches onto my flesh.

They circle me again. Barks and howls to distract me. But I know they will strike where I seem to be more vulnerable. I look to a side, the wolf I’m not looking around jumps. Too bad I am with [Presence Detection] on. I could be a blind lawyer now, I could hit you the same. I crouch and sweep my feet to gain enough angular momentum to present my head to the jumping wolf and gore it with my horn. Two down.

The other wolves attack, and I am bit several times. I finish another two with the claw, and the last normal wolf with a kick to the belly. Too bad for it I have claws on my feet as well. The lackey is angry. He howls at me. Let me show you how it is done.

“Fus… Roh…. [Intimidating Roar]”

Lackey tries to run, but he takes a spear to the knee. I overtake it, and finish its suffering with a claw to the neck.

I go back and pick my stuff from the tree. Dinner is grilled wolf steak… again.