Chapter 20: Day 30 (3) – Good Help is Hard to Find

Chapter 20: Day 30 (3) – Good Help is Hard to Find

I made my way to the road that led to the slimes and picked a wall to stand against. I pulled out my copper dagger and began carefully trimming my nails with it.

Then I just waited and watched people. I wasn’t discrete in my conversation with Carlos earlier, so people had overheard. I saw several people give me looks and whisper.

A large man came up to me. “You are supposed to be the toughest person here?”

“Yes, you want to fight to the death?” I asked and he seemed taken aback by my apparent bloodlust.

“No, just wondering if what Carlos said is true?”

“All true. No reason to lie about this hellhole.”

“You are looking for people?”

“I need someone to carry stuff for me. It is dangerous and there is a good chance of death. I go to places that others don’t come back from. I am the one who found out about the slimes.” He seemed to think on that and just looked at me for a long moment.

“What’s in it for me?”N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

“Twenty slime crystals for each full day. You have to buy your own gear and food. You can keep whatever crystal you get from a kill, but you have to keep up with me. Crystals you earn are crystals you don’t get paid. You earn ten crystals from killing things, you only get ten from me. But if you earn more than twenty, you can keep the extra. Also, no taxes. So, you get to keep it all.”

The man seemed to give it some serious thought. “I won’t sacrifice my life or anything like that.”

“That is fine, but I need someone with steel balls. Who can swallow their fear and not run at the first fight? I won’t ask you to go first, but I don’t want a coward either.”

“How dangerous are the monsters?”

“Slimes are easy, anyone that has met anything else has died or disappeared. I need someone to carry things for me in the area I want to check out. But like I said, it is pants shitting terrifying and I need someone with balls of steel.” I wasn’t about to sugar coat things and have the person I hired run at the first sign of danger.

“I need to think about it.”

“That is fine. Not forcing anyone.” The man walked away. Well, that fish slipped the line. Another man and then a woman both came over and I had similar conversations with both of them. In the end both of them declined.

The fourth person was a wiry looking chap with glasses. He gave me villain vibes with the suit he was wearing. Like a young wolf of wall street but only nerdier. He would be an anime villain for sure with that look.

“I’m in.” I was a bit surprised at how quick his decision was.

“Alright, we are going to hunt slimes for five days to see if you can cut it. You need a pack, club, and fruit to eat. Don’t worry, the food doesn’t go bad. You might want to see if the restoration from the pillar will fix your eyes as well and how much it costs. I will wait here. Name’s Michael by the way.”

“Carl Smith.” He held out his hand and I shook it. He bought his gear and then came back.

“Let’s go. If you can’t keep up my pace, let me know.”

“So how will this work exactly?”

“Well, we are going to go outside the city and then I will kill slimes. Your job is to grab crystals and toss them in your pack. When you are ready to fight your first one after watching me, let me know. There is a bit of a technique. Whatever happens don’t let any acid get on you. If you do, then you are screwed.”

“How bad is the acid.”

“Eat right through your flesh with a drop kind of bad. The slimes are slow and stupid, but they are incredibly deadly. The biggest risk when fighting them is having them burst on your body or completely ruining your weapon. Body means death, and weapon means a waste of points.”

“I see.”

I picked up my pace moving to the high-density slime area, closer to the deadlands and began killing slime after slime. I occasionally glanced back. Carl was keeping up, but he was struggling, and exhaustion was on his face.

After fifty or so slimes I came to a halt. “Keeping up, okay?” I asked.

“A bit winded,” he said through heavy breaths. At least it wasn’t me dying for once.

“We will take a short break and then keep going. Don’t worry, after a couple of days of this, you will be in great shape.”

“Don’t know how I will manage to kill a slime. You race from one to the next.”

“You have to race up there with me. Well, if you want to fight one, I can let you take on the next one, get a feel for it.”

“Alright. A glancing blow, right?”

“Yes, you might need more than one. Also watch where your feet are, so they don’t melt off. Slimes are low to the ground, so it is a pain to hit them while not getting your feet melted. Saw it happen, the man killed himself after that from the pain and no real chance of recovery.” I saw Carl look a bit nervous at that.

“Alright, let’s go.” We moved forward a bit and ran into a slime. “All yours.”

He went over and missed on the first swing. The second swing he managed to hit it, but the slime was only leaking slightly. The third swing it the same spot and the slime died, but his club was degraded a fair bit.

I walked over. “Don’t hit the same spot twice. They leak.”

“Yeah, I see that now.”

“Well, that is one for you and no feet melting. Good job. Now let’s keep moving.” We managed to get around 120 crystals by the time the sun started to go down. Carl looked completely winded and exhausted.

“Alright, time to head back. Good job this afternoon.”

“Thanks, that...was...you do...this...every day?”

“Pretty much. But I am hoping to move onto other areas and monsters. Giving up, that is okay. I won’t force you to continue if you don’t want to.” Carl hesitated for a bit.

“I will let you know in the morning.”

“That is fine. Free choice and all that. Well, we should get headed back. Let’s go, unless you want to sleep out here over night.” Carl gave me a look of terror.

“Night...?”

“Yeah. Come on.” At least he didn’t complain at all, a huge plus in my book. We reached the gate as the last bit of light was disappearing. I picked a building about a minute walk from the gate, and we went up to the second floor. Carl basically collapsed on the floor, completely tired from what we had done.

“Eat some fruit, it helps.”

“How?”

“You just need to have more mental strength than the pain your body is telling you.” He let out a groan as he sat up. He brought over his pack and took out an apple. I was already peeling an orange.

“I don’t think I can physically make it if we do that all day tomorrow.”

“Hmm. Well, you can’t get a partial restoration. Like I said if you want to quit, that is your choice. I had to push through a lot of pain to reach this point. Lots of chaffing, pain, and suffering.” I patted my still overly large gut.

“Well at least it gets easier,” Carl mumbled. He was already falling asleep. I didn’t say anything else and let him fall asleep. I waited for a while listening for anyone else but didn’t hear anyone. I fell asleep as well.