Chương 67: Chapter 63

They needed to wait for the slime's corrosive body to give out and lose its effects before they could harvest the core. Sobelle was fascinated by how the slime's death affected the environment and so she watched the process intensely from start to finish. How the gel corroded not just the grass, or even the land, but the very air itself was something she found mesmerizing. The slime was a walking... Well, slithering... undulating..? Hazard that decayed everything around it.

Nothing was safe from the effects of its acidic gel.

"Has anyone ever tried to weaponize these things before?" Naturally, Sobelle had to ask this question. The thought of turning the slime into a weapon fascinated her, so surely nobles would feel the same way right? They liked to go to war, and petty skirmishes was how they stayed in power so something this dangerous should easily get their attention.

"It died and then took everything else with it. I think that the ground itself isn't safe to walk on after the gel melted it."

"It isn't." Chael was very careful when she first approached the slime. Though now she treated it as more of an annoyance than something dangerous.

"We need to wait for a bit more before we can cross the affected area and grab the gel. After that, we need to move the cart across the field because the gel would stick to the wheels if we don't."

"Right, okay." Sobelle picked up the cart's handles and dragged it to the field of grass.

"Can you get the orb for me?" She saw Chael nod and decided that was enough confirmation and went to take the cart on a bumpy journey that ended with her forearms slightly hurting.

"Okay, I'm on the other side, can you... You're here already?"

"Yes." Chael came up from behind her, she apparently crossed the corrosive gel already. In her hands was the smooth, spherical core of the slime.

"This will get us a lot of money if we sell it to UnThilen's guild, and this is your kill, what do you want to do with it?"

"Buy a weapon, maybe? Is that enough?" Sobelle cautiously asked. She wasn't sure just how expensive tools can be, especially outside of the village.

"The stone tools are nice, but I want something metallic again. And this time, no one would be able to take it from me, since it's mine."

"That depends if you want something made out of red iron or not." Chael casually glossed over the second part of Sobelle's rant. She caressed the surface of the core with her thumb, "some of the weaponry the guild sells can be quite expensive, but a core should net you a bronze spear or two, maybe even an axe."

"Good enough." Sobelle nodded before she paused.

"Can I kill more monsters for the guild and save up enough money to buy gear made out of red iron?"

"Possibly, yes. Though you'd have to work non-stop for days, there will be plenty of quests available for you and bounties will not be short, but you can only do so much every single day. All that traveling will take a toll on your mind as well, so I advise you to be cautious."

"Working nonstop for days huh?.." Would her skills be enough to let her do that? She had [Inexhaustible Vessel] and that particular skill increased her stamina to the point she'd be able to rival mules in workload, so maybe it was possible.

"I think I can do that, yeah. I'll kill things so efficiently that all the other mercenaries would look at me in awe."

"Jealousy and envy." Chael immediately corrected. She shot Sobelle with a cautionary look.

"Do not think they'd praise you, competition is fierce in the guild, and anyone efficient enough to finish several quests in a week would make them jealous of you."

"So it's the same as it was back in the village then." Sobelle wanted to scream in frustration with how unfair everything was.

"Why would they even be jealous of me? It isn't like I actively mock them."

"Your existence alone is enough to do that, no mockery needed." Was Chael just being pessimistic? Sobelle felt that she was. She did heed the merchant's warning still.

"Competition is fierce amongst mercenaries, and no sane person would want to see themselves being upended by someone who they viewed as an upstart."

"That does make sense." Did it? Sobelle imagined herself experiencing that same thing and wondered if she too would get jealous but realized that she wouldn't. In the end, she'd just try and grow above that person. Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

'And maybe that's how it works.' To Sobelle, growing was natural. But to someone else? They'd want to bring those above them to their level rather than grow and train, because it'd take them years to do so. Which meant that the easiest way to make themselves feel better was to just hurt the competition.

'That doesn't really change the fact that they're scum. Why not just train years then? How pathetic.' Sobelle shook the thoughts off and focused on carrying the cart. Nothing came to disturb them for the rest of the afternoon, and they both made camp in the evening. Just like yesterday, Sobelle left to hunt for prey and make traps while Chael started the fire and pitched the tent. It was in the darkness that Sobelle was greeted by the system once more, and this time it asked her a simple question:...

[If you were to choose a spirit to guide you, what would it be?] - Wind - Fire - Earth - Water... Four options, all of which were the most common spirits that helped humanity. Was the system training her to become a caller? If so, she'd probably choose an option that helped her in physical combat. Fire spirits were far too destructive, and were commonly used in large scale battles. The same goes for earth.

It was why drums and religious chanting were common to see before a war, and then there was water, which was the most common spirit in cities and often had shrines dedicated to them. Water represented healing, prosperity, and protection. It was for defense. This leaves Sobelle with wind. Wind was for increasing speed, it was for playing. Traveling. Hiding. It had so many uses, but none of them represented fighting, which Sobelle realized wasn't a bad thing.

She did not need a spirit to help her fight, instead, she needed a spirit who would guide her. And wind spirits were the best ones to do that. If she were to ever find herself in a situation where she got lost or needed a way to escape, then having a wind spirit would be useful. And not to mention, she was going to be traveling from now on, so she needed a way to make walking easier. Or calm the weather. Sobelle chose the wind spirit and the system changed, it gave her another quest. [Prepare for War!] *Make a functional flute by the end of the week.... That was it. It requested one thing from her; which was to make a flute. Why? Sobelle wasn't sure. But she assumed it was related to calling for the spirit's aid. She'd ask Chael about it once she was back in camp. For now, Sobelle made her traps and readied a freshly made, non-blessed spear to hunt another animal. This time around, she found a sleeping plains strider instead of a grazer.

She crept up to it, careful as to not make a single noise that'd alert the creature's sensitive ears. Once she was close enough, Sobelle inspected the sleeping animal. The night sky was bright enough to illuminate the creature's features, and Sobelle stood fascinated. It was the first time she saw one of these things up close. It had a long snout like that of a horse, two powerful hind legs, and a body covered in yellow fur. Its two ears twitched every so often, but other than that, the creature slept soundly.

It did not sense Sobelle's presence at all. She raised her axe and aimed it at the creature's head. The weapon swung down and met the strider's head in a violent display of gore that caused it to split in half. The animal was dead before it even knew what happened. Sobelle picked it up and brought it back to camp, where she let it bleed just like always.

Sobelle sat next to Chael, the campfire the merchant prepared was warm, and the leftovers they had last night smelled good even after an entire day of being exposed to the hot sun. A few feet away from them sat a tiny structure, within it were the rabbit meat that hadn't finished smoking. Soon, the strider would join them.

"Chael?" For some reason, she was scared that the merchant would treat her weirdly because of a question, so Sobelle waited for a few seconds to ask Chael after she sat down.

"Can you tell me if flutes are a good way to call for wind spirits?"

"In a sense, yes. The wind spirits love the flute." Chael hadn't looked away from the stew she was reheating.

"Why? Do you want to become a spirit caller?"

"Mhmm." Sobelle hummed. What did Chael think of that decision? She wondered.

"I think I'm gonna make my own flute."

"That'd be great." Chael confirmed without an ounce of judgement.

"I wish you luck, having someone who can call wind spirits while on the road is a good thing." Sobelle hid her smile. Guess Chael hadn't judged her after all. During the night, Sobelle felt as though her entire body was being bitten by a million ants. She squirmed in pain and hardly slept, but it was possible. When she woke up, she noticed that her shirt had stretched to the point of being torn, and when she stood up, she realized that she was far taller than she had been when she slept the night before.

"Good morning." It was probably because she had just woken up, but Chael didn't seem to notice the changes.

"Should we get going?"

"We should, yes." Sobelle smiled stiffly. Was this the effect of [Biological Hypertrophy]? She did not expect the changes to be this prominent. Before long, their camp was packed up and the two of them continued down the road. Today was the day they reached the village, and so they needed to be presentable. Both girls went out of their way to find a lake or river, and they used Chael's map to do so.

They strayed from the route in favor of cleaning themselves in preparation for entering the nearby village, and yet, in the end, none of this mattered at all.