Tale of Death

Chapter 3 - Green Slime

As Shi arrived at the entrance of the Wailing Woods, the birds can be heard singing their little songs while sitting on the long spread of branches of the large birch trees, which hovered far above the ground. While sounds can be heard throughout the forest, the sight was limited due to it being dark from the trees leafy branches blocking out most of the light, if not for the small patches here and there of light that were allowed to get through via holes it would be impossible to see.

Shi entered the forest taking the dirt path which was previously cut out from other villagers' usage, it was narrow and filled with plants of different types, but she made do, she walked this pathway often when she felt lost in thoughts, looking for a place to think.

She walked for quite a bit only getting further into the forest as she goes, however, she was still empty-handed. She walked for almost half an hour now, and had yet to find a single slime, she was growing tired and decided to stop to take a rest.

She picked a good spot in the forest to stop, the spot she picked didn't have a lot of branches above it, so it allowed a lot of light throw for her to see, and the area was mainly covered in gravel rather than high grass, so it would help her stay safe. The spot could be described as a clearing at best.

She looked for the biggest rock she could find which then doubled as a seat for her to rest and rejuvenate. She peacefully looked up at the clear blue sky thinking to herself about life and the future, she had dreamed about being able to freely fly through that sky and explore the world as an adventurer, but she also had to think about her poor, old mother and who would take care of her.

Her thoughts were cut short when out of nowhere a group of five green slimes appeared, it seemed they were hunting near the low bushes for safety as well, but Shi got here before them.

Shi quickly grabbed the average kitchen knife which she got from back home, tightening it in her grip, this was enough to hunt such monsters, monsters of the lowest level. If she couldn't even hunt these, she didn't deserve to adventure freely.

She thought back to what the paper said about the green slimes, and what she had heard from tales. Green Slimes are known to be small in size and weigh close to nothing, they are easily recognized by their fluorescent green liquid body. Green slimes attacks are low and thus tend to attack in groups of five or more. Like all slimes, they have what's known as a "core" within them apparently, it's a ball-like item that tends to be in the center of their body that, when destroyed, kills the slime.

The first slime jumped at her using its liquid body as a spring to lunch faster, Shi panicked at first because of the surprise attack closing her eyes, with panicked hands, she quickly slashed the knife in front of her in the direction of the slimes. When Shi slowly opened her eyes realizing she wasn't hurt by the slime, she saw to her surprise the knife had somehow slashed into the core of the slime rendering it lifeless on the ground.

The remaining four grew aggravated by the scene of her killing their teammate, and launched at her as well, taking her by surprise.

This time she could barely react in time, slashing once more, unfortunately, she was only successful this time to kill one more with that move leaving the impact from the remaining three to push her body back and crashing onto the floor with a loud thud.

Hitting her head on the floor Shi was in pain, however, this was no time to worry about that, the slimes were once again about to launch at her. This was how they commonly fought, rushing all at once to overwhelm their targets, Shi couldn't let this happen.

She quickly got up and in a slashing motion down to the ground stabbed her knife into the core of one of the slimes. That was another one down Shi thought to himself then moved her attention over to the remaining two, this time they didn't attack her right away, it was as if they were watching her, observing her while staying on high alert now that their other teammates were dead.

Suddenly the two remaining slimes got ready as if they were going to launch at her, but to Shi's surprise they launched themselves in the opposite direction fleeing from the fight, Shi wanted to chase after them but knew she wouldn't be able to catch up with her speed, plus she was already somewhat tired from killing those other slimes. The whole event was quite exciting for her young body, tiring both her mind and body out.

As the sweat running down her head shun in the sunlight she once again took a seat on the rock. She let out a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat away taking a short break to process fully what just happen and rest up.

After around ten minutes of resting, Shi got up from the rock, stretching her arms and legs, she first made her way over to the broken cores and picked each up putting them in his carrying bag so she can use it as verification of completing the quiet, she then turned back and started walking on the path back out to the village as quickly but quietly as she could, whereas she doesn't pull the unwanted attention of any powerful monster she can't take on.