Chapter 10 : Work, Luck Stat!

The dark, murky slime surging toward me was like a tidal wave.

An acidic slime that dissolved leather, and even stone.

If I got swallowed by a thing like that, there would not even be any bones left to collect.

“Haaah!”

I rolled away again.

I had thrown my body onto the stone floor several times now, but strangely, it did not hurt.

Because I had no time to feel pain.

If that thing eats me, I’ll melt and die right then and there!

The slime barely stopped itself before smashing into the wall.

It turned back toward me quickly.

Shlrrrk!

The slime came at me relentlessly.

I could not keep dodging forever.

Eventually, I would be caught.

I don’t have a proper weapon, but…

If I wanted to attack a slime, I had no choice but to hit it with my bare hands.

But if I had Wer’s shield, it could protect my hands from melting.

In that case, I should attack now while I still have shields left!

The best defense was offense.

This time, instead of dodging, I spread my palm wide and swung it.

Claaang!

Along with a cool, satisfying sound, the sensation of striking a hard water surface rang through my palm.

The slime flashed like lightning, and at the same time, red shard-like light burst from my hand.

“Ritark! You must not drag this out!”

My palm was fine thanks to Wer blocking it with his shield.

But the next one would be the last.

“Yeah. I need to finish this quickly.”

I tore open a packet containing an elixir.

The bluish powdered medicine melted in my mouth without even giving me time to feel it on my tongue.

A Low-Grade Elixir of Luck, which had the effect of increasing my Luck stat by 2 for 10 minutes.

The increase was small, but something was naturally better than nothing.

Splash!

I struck the slime again.

At the same time, a brief light flashed.

It was the red light that appeared when a shield broke.

Wer lowered the arm he had stretched forward.

“…Now I have used up all my strength.”

“I know. It’s fine.”

The slime’s core was nowhere to be seen.

It seemed luck had not followed me this time either.

“…Tch.”

If you lost all your health, you died.

That was true for most monsters, but slimes were different.

Unless their core was destroyed, they would gather themselves back together and attack again, over and over.

There were three main ways to kill one.

One was to crush it in a single blow, and another was to split it apart into tiny pieces until you got lucky.

Both were methods you could only attempt if you had enough damage to overpower it to a certain extent.

In the end, there’s only one option I can choose…

The last method.

Destroy the slime’s core when it appeared at a certain probability the moment it took damage.

The probability set in the game was 25 percent.

It isn’t an extremely low probability.

There were plenty of games where you had to break through a one percent chance, or maybe even lower, to get the currency you wanted.

But 25 percent did not mean that if you attacked four times, one would definitely succeed.

Just because the chance of getting heads when flipping a coin was 50 percent, that did not mean heads would definitely come after tails.

Shrrrk!

The slime opened its mouth silently and charged.

The moment I narrowly slipped out of its path and swung my hand—

Sssssss!

A fierce pain shot through me.

Sour steam rising from my palm stabbed unpleasantly into my nose.

“…Urgh.”

“Ritark!”

“Stay there!”

Neras, who had hurriedly tried to descend, stopped in place.

It would be nice to receive support, but well.

Would it really be possible to expect much help from Neras?

It’ll be a relief if she doesn’t get eaten.

I had no mental room to fight while protecting Neras too.

My hand kept trembling as I took out a Health Recovery Potion.

The core didn’t show up this time either.

When I drank the recovery potion, my reddened, inflamed palm slowly healed, and the stinging pain settled down.

However, the trembling did not completely stop.

“…My health is filled back up, so I’m fine.”

It was different from simply clicking away at a keyboard and mouse.

There was pain the system had never told me about.

Even so, one fact did not change.

As long as the core appears, anyone can easily take this monster down.

I still had plenty of supplies.

The probability that the core would appear was 25 percent.

As long as the god of probability did not abandon me, I could kill it.

And as long as I did not give up.

Squeeze.

Biting my lip, I swung my hand again.

Sizzle! Ssst! Sss!

The gloomy-colored slime flashed brilliantly every time I struck it.

And each time, my hand burned in vivid colors too.

Clatter!

I hurriedly poured a recovery potion into my mouth.

This was already the fourth one.

“Disgusting bastard…”

The creature did not tire and kept coming at me.

It probably could not even tell whether the opponent before it was easy prey or not.

It was truly a monster that moved only by instinct, without a brain.

“Come on, do your job already, Luck stat!”

In the end, I was the one who had to put an end to this.

I clenched my teeth and struck the solid slime with all my strength once more.

Crack!

The slime shone brightly.

This time, the light did not go out.

The thing, which had been moving quickly in a way no slime should, stood frozen in place.

“The core has finally been exposed! Now, Ritark!”

At the center of the light was a murky, fist-sized core condensed into a lump.

I shoved my hand into the slime.

Tssss…

I could not get used to the smell of burning flesh at all.

But this was the end.

Crunch.

I clenched my fist.

With its core shattered, the slime could no longer maintain its form and flowed down.

“Hah, huff.”

I had no reason to keep enduring anymore, so I flopped down flat on my back.

My hand was completely ruined, and my whole body began screaming in pain as if demanding payment for a debt that had been delayed.

It was because I had been rolling around and slamming into things.

“Ritark!”

“Are you all right?”

I did not even have the strength to joke and ask if I looked all right.

Even after using the medicine I had prepared and burning through all the shields, I had struggled quite a bit.

A slime that was harder to deal with than the first disaster, a boss monster.

It was almost laughable.

If I’d had time, I would have found materials and made medicine to block the acid.

But I could not always encounter enemies only after preparing countermeasures for them.

I needed at least some minimum defense.

As expected, I need at least one usable weapon…

That was something to think about later.

For now, I decided to focus on recovery.

Clatter.

I emptied all the recovery potions in my bag and drank them.

My hand, which had melted so badly I had worried whether it would heal properly, slowly regained its shape.

Since I had drunk several, there was enough recovery.

It would’ve been so convenient if I could drink several Elixirs of Luck too.

Unfortunately, stat increase effects did not stack.

In other words, drinking more would only be a waste.

“Whew.”

After roughly catching my breath, I jerked my upper body upright.

Now it was time to check the results of my hard work.

I appraised the shard I had been clutching.

“Broken Acidic Slime Core. Dissolves objects it touches. It can be used as an item crafting material.”

It was a rare material that was difficult to obtain at this stage.

Since it dissolved everything it touched with its vicious acidity, it would be difficult to keep holding it or put it in my bag.

“Here. Hold onto this for me.”

I handed the slime core to Wer.

If it was an extradimensional space, I did not need to worry about how to store it.

Wer accepted the item without complaint and put it away.

“Now, let’s head back.”

When I turned, Neras approached hesitantly.

“It would be better if you rested a little longer…”

“You left your sibling lying there alone. Wouldn’t it be better to go check?”

“Th-that’s true.”

We quickly moved, and the way back was much faster than when we came.

It was partly because we were in a hurry, but also because there was no need to proceed carefully anymore.

There were no threats ahead.

We reached the Fourtail Grass habitat quickly.

“Rah!”

Neras quickly lifted her sibling into her arms.

The child’s face, which had been flushed with red fever spots, was now just pleasantly rosy.

“Neras… Is it already morning? I want to sleep just a little more.”

“After I check your temperature first. Are you not hurting anymore?”

“Mm…”

Rah complained sleepily, as if annoyed by the hands turning them this way and that.

Neras’s bustling hands only barely stopped after quite some time.

“Ah, you really are better…!”

“You worked hard. Both you and your sibling.”

“It is all thanks to your efforts, Ritark. Thank you. I do not know how to repay this kindness.”

Neras bowed her head several times.

Her eyes, which had been watery all along, were now deeply curved.

“How else would you repay it? Just send me Fourtail Grass regularly.”

“What? Ritark, honestly. That is only natural. We already promised it.”

Neras waved her hands and burst into a bright peal of laughter.

So she was a fairy who could make that kind of sound too.

“Then since you’re giving it to me anyway, can you grind it finely and dry it for about ten days before sending it?”

I decided not to miss the opportunity.

Neras readily nodded.

She seemed to be in an especially good mood.

“I will do that! We have a little Fourtail Grass powder at home already, so I will prepare it for you. And of course, I will continue to do so from now on!”

What a windfall.

Naturally, there was no reason to refuse a medicinal ingredient that could be used immediately.

“Let’s hurry back to the village.”

I quickly moved my feet.

Even climbing back up the well felt thrilling.

It was a little tough, but since the result was good, I could not help feeling pleased.

“The day has already broken!”

Wer, who had exited the well first, spun round and round above my head.

The morning sunlight slowly reached even inside the well.

“We ended up staying up all night.”

Since I had been underground, my sense of time must have vanished.

Only now did fatigue begin creeping in.

It was just as I naturally yawned.

“Wh-what should we do? We do not have a bed suitable for you…”

“Hm?”

I had not meant to pressure her.

Did she really think I would expect a bed a human could lie on in a fairy village?

And in a village with no exchange with humans at that.

Just as I awkwardly scratched my cheek—

“Rather than looking for a place in the village, it would be far better to send him somewhere comfortable for humans.”

A high-handed voice cut in.

A fairy with pale, long hair and fluttering clothes that swayed softly.

That fairy’s eyes were closed.

Her long lashes, as if they might tremble in the wind, held a mystical atmosphere.

Neras spread both arms and blocked the fairy approaching us.

“What brings you here in person, Elder?”

“Please step aside, Neras.”

The Elder Fairy let out a small sigh.

“As the leader of the village, I cannot avoid offering thanks personally.”

“I cannot step aside…! Th-thanks?”

“The strange change in the forest has suddenly disappeared. Coincidentally, it happened not long after this person visited the village.”

Neras awkwardly lowered her arms.

“Are you saying the forest has returned to normal?”

“It would be best to confirm it directly.”

The Elder Fairy turned and beat her wings.

The place we reached after following her was the Forest of Wind.

Unlike the claim that flowers would instantly bloom again once morning came, the forest was quiet.

“Has it simply died completely now?”

“No. Look here, Wer.”

I placed my hand on the rough tree trunk.

At the end of the trail I followed upward, there was a tender new shoot.

A single pale green sprout.

There was not even the slightest sign that it would grow in an instant.

“The ominous energy that had been circulating through the entire forest has disappeared.”

The Elder Fairy placed one hand on her chest and bowed her head slightly.

Her hair slid down along her shoulder.

For some reason, she looked especially drained.

“We could not figure out where the strange phenomenon came from, and now we cannot even tell where it disappeared to.”

“It won’t come back, so don’t worry.”

“…Is that so?”

“And ask Neras how to treat the sick children.”

The Elder Fairy suddenly lifted her head.

“Has Rah gotten back on their feet?”

“They’ll probably be flying around energetically soon.”

“I-is that so? On behalf of the village, I offer my thanks.”

The face offering gratitude looked deeply complicated.

A matter she had agonized over all this time had been solved in an instant, but she was probably not in a position where she could readily rejoice.

Since she did not understand what had happened, maybe it did not feel real, or perhaps the time they had suffered felt hollow.

As a leader, it would also be hard not to worry about her own authority.

Of course, that was not my problem to worry about.

“Thanks are nice and all, but I’d like to hear more about what you said earlier.”

“Pardon? Which…”

“You said it would be much better to send me somewhere comfortable for humans.”

What I needed to think about now was none other than the second disaster.

Preparations to attack that bastard.

I should take a free ride where I can get one.

Especially if that ride was an express bus, no—

If it was a hyperloop, of course I had to grab onto it.

[End of Chapter]