HedroSlime
Now then, about what my plans for hereon are…….
Firstly, I intend to stick with the same equipment I sued for hunting Goblins for the most part.
If I wanted to be thorough about this, the order of things would be to first gather as much info about HedroSlimes as possible and then make preparations as a direct countermeasure to that but, if I’m going to take that much time I might as well get an undesignated request like the CowBird one.
It’s not like I’m underestimating it but for the first time around I want to stick to my usual methods.
After confirming the exact location of Mitsuria River, I left Realzard.
Walking south from Realzard for a while, a large river quickly came into my view.
So this must be the Mitsuria River, if I continue walking along the riverside, I should find HedroSlime pretty fast.
It’s a pretty big river so I doubt there’s just one of them, and in fact there should be other monsters lurking around here as well.
As I continued walking cautiously, I soon noticed a giant group of bug like monsters along the riverside.
They seemed to be devouring some sort of corpse, I could tell from here.
I’m sure there’s a different request for hunting those as well but I’m not suited to hunting that type of monsters.
I’m pretty confident in my ability to deal with humanoid sized enemies but when it comes to small monsters like that, I don’t really know how to handle those.
You could crush them with a big blunt weapon or pretty easily clear them out with a skill or magic but, trying to take those on one by one with a sword was foolishness.
When you get to bronze quests, you should always make sure to only accept quests that suit your own personal abilities.
While giving that swarm of insects a side glance, I once again realized how important every little info could be.
Since then, after walking for about another 20 mins, I soon spotted a big water-like muddy blackish blob moving about near a branching stream of the main river.
It’s shape changed with every movement, and at a glance you couldn’t really tell if it was actually a living thing or not; but that must be the HedroSlime.
Normal slimes were made out of a core and a liquid like material that covered around that core and it attacked using said liquid by transforming it in various ways.
HedroSlimes ,on the other hand, had that same outer liquid look more like sludge. (T/N; I should point this out here but Hedoro (ヘドロ) literally means Sludge or well, slime. So I kept the name as HedroSlime cuz it sounded better rather than, SludgeSlime or worse, SlimySlime lol)
Mitsuria river itself was used as a drainage for the city so it pretty dirty itself but these HedroSlime were like a concentration of all the filth of the river given life.
I was still far from it but I could still smell the vomit inducing stench coming from it.
I figured BubbleWisps were undead type monster that lacked a physical body so by process of elimination, I chose HedroSlimes as my target…..but this may have been a mistake.
Even if I can beat it, I’m not going to be able to dodge all that sludge and filth and I’ll have no choice but to return to Realzard steeped in all that stench.
The stench might even get stuck on my equipment, in the worst case; and I was filled with a desire to just turn back.
But the demerits of failing a quest were also big, and considering my need for money, I cant do that it seems.
“……..fuuu.”
I resolved myself with a deep breath, and began walking toward the HedroSlime.
A monster that can freely change its shape.
Its impossible to get a surprise attck on something you cant even tell which way its facing, I boldly walked straight towards it.
My face distorted from the increase in the stench but I kept my concentration high and took my stance, ready to pull my sword at any time.
Noticing my approach, it slowly moved away from the river and began and creeping towards me as well.
It’s size was about the same as me and looked pretty big when close by. The liquid surrounding the core turned a dark purple colour but since the core itself was jet black, I could still clearly see it.
The core moved first and the liquid moved as if reacting to it, or at least that’s how I would describe its movement style.
Since the core stays in the centre when its standing still, its best to attack it from the front when its moving while matching the timing.
I was resolved to be covered in mud and sludge if I couldn’t properly keep track of its core but now that I know I can, I can kill it in a single strike.
And thus, I counted to find the exact timing of my upcoming stab.
3…….2…….1.
The slime entered my range, and at the exact timing when the core was at the front most, I thrust my sword in to stab.
A perfect strike, or so I thought but……….
Because something was mixed inside the sludge, the tip of sword swayed just enough to miss the core.
I did feel my sword touching the core, but it wasn’t destroyed. I quickly pulled my sword back out, and turned to run back.
Seeing me run, it quickly tried to fire balls of sludge at me but I desperately moved my body to dodge it.
Having realized that my original method was not effective, I decided to switch to simply pull my arm back to build force, and unleash a barrage of multiple forceful thrusts.
The core was in the centre of the sludge but I jammed my entire hand inside as I unleashed the barrage to hit it.
Since I was in an odd stance, and the sludge really took away a lot of the force behind my attacks, I made even less of clear hit than my first strike but…….
Perhaps my first hit had done some damage after all, the moment my sword even touched the core a second time, I felt it break apart.
I quickly pulled out and moved away, and inspected the HedroSlime.
With its core destroyed, it was unable to maintain its shape and the spherical liquid surrounding it slowly melted away and became just a normal pool of sludge on the ground.
For proof of subjugation, I picked up the fragment of the core from the pool and then quickly moved towards the river to wash my hand and sword.
My sleeve was soaked in sludge so ripped it off and threw it away before washing my hand thoroughly.
After it was somewhat clean, I moved to cleaning my sword. The pommel of the sword was covered in sludge so I made an extra effort to wash it off, and finally oiling the blade itself to finish my on spot ‘first aid’.
It was a cheap sword but considering how much a new one would cost, I couldn’t afford to throw it away. Maybe it’ll be better to have the weapon shop look at it as well.
I had barely fought much yet I already felt tired.
…………this really doesn’t seem worth the 4 silver coins does it?
The sword’s treatment alone would cost 5 copper, and the broken inner would take another 5 to replace.
That left me with a profit of 3 silver, and a seemingly unwashable stench from the sludge stuck on my body.
It’s still morning but I swore in my heart to never take a HedroSlime quest ever again. While trying to cheer myself up from being too depressed, I made my way back to Realzard.