Slimes crawled across the large grass. They were the size of a dog, some smaller and larger. It was usually good to go for the bigger monsters, as they have awarded more experience points. However, it was also far riskier, as the greater slimes bore more strength than their smaller counterparts.

The others tried to take out these monsters with a sneaky ambush, but Gabriel was different. He stubbornly raised his short sword and approached the largest slime.

"If I want to get stronger, I need to go for the bigger monsters. Since I gain experience at a much slower rate thanks to my two classes, I have to keep targeting high experience targets to stay on the same power level as the others."

The slimes were green balls with two black lines for eyes. Though they possessed no internal organs, the material they were built by was incredibly acidic to the point of melting armor. Adventurers had to stay vigilant when fighting a slime, as the smallest mistake could leave a pretty large burn mark on the skin.

The goat-sized slime which aimlessly wandered the fields stopped as it saw Gabriel's approach. He stopped three meters away from the gooey slime and raised his sword, patiently waiting for an attack.

"Still, if I refuse to go out of my and hurt an innocent life. If this monster is truly a menace to society, it should attack a human like me on sight."

The monster looked at Gabriel, or at least turned its head towards the boy, and peacefully crawled away.

"I see," Gabriel turned away from the slime. "It's just a mindless animal with no wish for unnecessary violence. I will let it live."

Gabriel began to stroll away. The slime noticed this and as it saw Gabriel's unprotected back…

Boing!

The slime launched its body into the air and straight towards Gabriel.

It was about to successfully ambush him, however, Gabriel was well aware of this attack.

"This single act was enough proof of your vileness."

Gabriel swiftly turned around and sent his sword into the slime, impaling it upon his sword. As the steel pierced its sticky membrane, the slime made a high-pitched crying sound.

"Chumiii!"

Gabriel pushed the sword deeper into the slime and its gooey insides began to pour down the weapon. The liquid slowly poured onto Gabriel's hand and before he could have realized it…

"Gaah!" The slime burned his skin!

Gabriel threw away the sword and the slime with it. He tried to wipe the acid off of his skin, but he was in for another surprise.

The acid was sentient. It pulled away when Gabriel tried to wipe it off, then launched itself straight towards his eye.

The human eye is extremely fragile. Some, if not all countries have a saying about its preciousness and fragility of it. All it takes is one tiny mistake, one wrong choice and one can lose an eye, ironically enough, in the blink of an eye.

The same would have happened with Gabriel, was it not for the extreme speed of his reaction.

"Gotcha!" Gabriel caught the sentient snot and launched it far into the distance.

The large slime was still on the ground. It crawled towards Gabriel with its innards leaking behind in a trial, all while it made a horrible high-pitched wail.

"Chu…mi…"

The sword lay just next to it. Gabriel quickly moved and took the weapon before stabbing it straight down the monster's head.

It let out another high-pitched cry.

"Chumiii!"

However, it could cry for too long. Gabriel pushed the sword deeper into the slime and launched a kick into its face.

As the slime was kicked away, the sword inside its body cut it into two halves. Warm acid shot everywhere as the creature's corpse landed meters away.

A tiny droplet rained upon Gabriel's face. He pulled out a handkerchief and wiped it off.

When he looked down, he saw that the acid burnt through the cloth. It left a small hole, surrounded by a burn mark.

"What an incredible opponent. And they say it's considered low level?"

The slime's corpse began to dematerialize. It disappeared in a cloud of blue particles and text appeared in its place.

[ Rewards: 3 Slimeballs ]

"Oh, right." Gabriel checked his inventory. "Killing monsters makes me receive loot. I could trade that with a local vendor or use it for my own goods."

Before he could have had another thought, a noise grew behind his back.

The grass rattled. There was someone in there.

Gabriel swiftly raised his sword. He was waiting for another slime to try and ambush him, but it was a false alarm. The one inside the grass was Naomi, bearing an excited smile.

"That was awesome! I knew you had a fighting spirit, but not that it wasn't just psychical!"

Gabriel shook his head and sighed.

"You like to use big words, don't you? Anyways, why are you not out there, hunting with the others?"

"Oh, yeah, about that…"

Naomi put his two index fingers together and blushed like he just shat himself.

This gave Gabriel a bad vibe, especially the latter. He raised an eyebrow and poked the man with his sword.

"What, did you get a bit too scared by the slimes?"

"N-No! It's not like that!" He reached for the book on his side. "Look! These spells were made for people with medium magic knowledge. They got details and everything, there is even a tips and tricks section with highly informative graphs!"

"Then what is your problem? Are you too lazy to read?"

"Well, maybe a bit of that too… B-But the few spells I read had some very specific requirements. If I was to use them, I need to be close to the monster and take some time with casting my spell."

Gabriel began to understand his problem.

"Aren't mages meant to stay at the backline during a fight?"

"Exactly! But, the high-range spells require mana that I don't yet possess. The few I can cast are all close-range and it takes way too long for them to cast! If I was to just walk up to a slime and try to kill it, I would be eaten before you can say 'hot dog'!"

"Hot dog?" Gabriel repeated the unfamiliar word.

"Yes! I need someone who can cover me while I cast my spells."

"Hm." Gabriel put a hand on his chin. "Why didn't you go to Suzuki with that? I'm sure he could defend you while you cast some spells."

"Yeah, about that… Pepon already stole him."

"Pepon?" Gabriel's eyes widened.

He understood Naomi's problem, but that was nothing compared to the one he faced.

Pepon hinted that Suzuki would try something shady during the battle practice. He didn't know what she meant by that, but he knew that Pepon had a solid base to say that and whatever it was, it would possibly put her in danger's way.

"What is her greater plan? Why did she go with Suzuki instead of me?"

Suzuki was already an enigma, but Pepon was far more unpredictable. She looked like an annoying alcoholic on the surface, but there was a hidden shade to her. She revealed that to Gabriel and even hinted at the fact that it could be the solution to the 'Suzuki problem'.

Gabriel wasn't sure about either of the two. Still, he knew that Pepon was expecting him.

Conjuring a bright smile on his face, Gabriel gestured at Naomi to follow him.

"You want someone to defend you? You got me! Make sure you stay behind your amazing protector and don't cause me any harm. Got it?"

Naomi was surprised. Gabriel's expression changed in less than a second. Needless to say, he did not think about it too much as he only saw that it meant good for him.

"You got it, dude!" Naomi ran after him. "Let's slay some slimes!"