Chapter 8

Slime can be found in many sizes and colors. Slime color determines their element affinity. Red means it was a fire slime, blue means water slime, green means air slime, brown means earth slime, yellow means electric slime, light blue means ice slime and gray means steel slime. Gooey was colorless, he didn't have any elemental affinity.

After walking and searching for a baby slime for an hour, Ethan finally found a baby slime. The baby slime in front of Ethan was smaller than normal slimes. It has the same color as Gooey, colorless.

Ethan's current stats

Hp – 1(+10) » 11 / MP – 1 / Str – 1(+10) » 11 / End – 1 / Int - 1 / Wis - 1 / Agi – 1

Nervous, Ethan pulled out his iron dagger (atk+10), took a stance and attacked the baby slime. The baby slime evades to his left, it bounces backward and its body faintly glowed for a second and slammed straight to Ethan's stomach. Ethan was send flying and then rolled on the ground for few turns and stopped. Ethan lying on his back, held on his pain and gasping for air.

'The attack causes 10 damage to HP. HP left – 1' the system notified Ethan.

"That much damage? My endurance is too low. I need to be careful. Can baby slime usually cause this much damage?" said Ethan.

Due to his nervousness for his first battle against monster, Ethan didn't realize that the baby slime use skill to attack him. The baby slime used skill Null: Tackle. This skill used 5 MP and caused 10 damage. The baby slime was weak, it only had 1 strength and the maximum damage it can inflicted was 11. Ethan's 1 endurance point lower the maximum damage to 10. The baby slime can only use Null: Tackle once. Ethan knew this fact but after Newborn reset his stats, most of his knowledge disappeared.

The baby slime then quickly bounced towards Ethan to finish him off. Ethan got panicked and clumsily evade the charging baby slime. His inexperienced in battle shone throughout this battle. The baby slime was slightly faster than Ethan and Ethan barely evade every attack of it. Ethan also always missed his attack. The battle went for 30 minutes with Ethan who always missed his attacks and barely evading the opposing attacks and the baby slime who always bouncing and charging towards Ethan. The baby slime's MP replenished and start activating its skill. Ethan saw that and decide to take a risk and countered the skill. The baby slime launched straight towards Ethan. Ethan timed his attack carefully and slash the baby slime. The baby slime split into two and died.

"Hahaha, I did it!!!" Ethan clenched his fist in a victory position "Ouch, ouch. Urgh my stomach… Potion… Argh!!! My potion broke. That roll…" Ethan sigh but smile back for his first victory.

'Ting~ Congratulations, the long battle increases your stats a lot. HP – 1 » 5 / MP – 1 » 3 / STR - 1» 3 / END – 1 » 6 / INT – 1 » 2 / WIS – 1 » 4 / AGI – 1 » 3'

"It increases a lot. I'm lucky," said Ethan while smiling.

'Ting~ Choose your drop. 1. Slime Fluid (A grade) 2. Slime Core (F grade)'

"??? Drop? We are not in a dungeon, why a drop?" Ethan stopped for a while and thinking "The Drops 50% special skill does this? Won't I be on the losing side if the skill affected my hunt outside of dungeon? I can only choose one… Hmm? There is grade for monster drops? Hmm~ Give me slime fluid" said Ethan.

The slime fluid appeared in a flask in front of Ethan. It was colorless, clear and no impurities. Ethan never saw any slime fluid, so he didn't know if the A grade slime fluid any better than a common slime fluid that can be found in the market. Slime core cost more than the fluid but Ethan chose the fluid because the grade was too far apart between the two drops.

'Ting~ INT increase to 4' the system suddenly notified Ethan.

"…"

"Pfft~ pfft~" an unknown sound came from behind Ethan.

Ethan looked behind him and saw a girl with long light blue hair and green clothes sit on the grass behind him. She was holding her mouth trying to hold her laughter. She can't hold it anymore and burst out laughing.

"Puhahaha~ hahaha, you are so funny. You look so happy when you killed the baby slime. You even made a triumphant pose, ahahaha" the mysterious girl said while laughing.

Ethan's face turns red and said "It's none of your business," he got up and left back to the city.

"Haaa~ I got a nice rest, I even get to see something funny," said the mysterious girl while smiling.

***

"That was so embarrassing. I didn't know she was watching me," said Ethan while walking. "I need to sell this slime drop. I hope the shop buy this at a high price,"

Ethan reach the material shop. The shop was big. The shop's named Modo. They were said to be the best shop in the southern area of Eplia City to sell your monster drops to.

"Their reputation is no joke. There are a lot of people inside," Ethan peeked through the glass.

Ethan went inside and went straight to the selling counter. There were 5 counter and Ethan went to the last counter.

"Welcome. How may I help you?" said the beautiful attendant lady

Ethan took out the flask containing the slime fluid and put it on the counter "I want to sell this?"

"… I'm sorry, may I ask what is this?" said the attendant lady while holding the flask checking the fluid inside.

"Huh? That's a slime fluid. Do slime fluid look different?" said Ethan.

"Is this really a slime fluid?" ask the lady again.

"Yes. I defeat a baby slime and harvest it from its body," said Ethan. Ethan lied because he didn't want people to know that he got drops outside of dungeon.

"Urm, please wait a minute," said the attendant lady and she went upstairs immediately.

A few minutes later, the lady comes down and ask Ethan to follow her. Ethan followed the lady and went upstairs into a room or rather an office. The office was spacious and a man who looks like in his late 30s was sitting in front of his desk.

"Are you the one who brought this?" ask the man.

"Yes… is there any problem with the fluid?" asked Ethan back.

"There is no problem with the fluid but this is my first time seeing a slime fluid of this quality. This fluid is clear and no impurities can be found in it," said the man while smiling.

The man get up from his seat and led Ethan to sit on a sofa.

"I'm Haruto, this shop owner. I will buy this from you for 1 gold coin," said Haruto.

Ethan was shocked from the price and accidentally said "Really?"

Haruto smiled and said "That price is because the slime fluid that you brought here is the highest quality I have ever seen in my life. Do you know that slime fluid is used as an ingredient for low potion? This slime fluid that you brought can be diluted and produce thousands of normal quality slime fluid. Normal slime fluid sell for 5 copper coins, so this slime fluid you brought is really expensive"

"How about we make a deal?" asked Haruto.

"Deal?"

"I will give you 50% discount for everything you buy from my shop. In exchange, whenever you get high quality materials, I want you to sell it to me," said Haruto.

"… yeah, sure," Ethan didn't think long and agreed. He continued, "but I can't promise that I will find high quality materials like this again."

"I know you will be able to find it again," said Haruto while staring at Ethan.

"O, oh, okay," said Ethan.

"You can get your money at the counter," said Haruto.

"Then I will leave now," Ethan left the office.

"Special skills… How many years has it been? This will be fun," said Haruto while smiling.

Ethan took his money and went to a weapon shop to buy a dagger and to a book shop and bought a bought. He surveyed the price for a storage item but they were super expensive. Ethan bought a few potions and after that, Ethan went straight back home.

Gooey saw Ethan but still stayed away from Ethan. "Gooey, it's okay now, you can come near me," said Ethan but Gooey shakes his head and went to a corner. Gooey still didn't have much confidence to get near Ethan. Ethan sadly smile. "I need to become stronger fast."

"Talents absorb," Ethan absorb the dagger and book he just bought.

'Ting~ Dagger talent and Language talent affinity increase to 2%'

"Okay. I will hunt for more baby slime tomorrow and raise my stats," said Ethan.

***

"That's the fifth and last slime for today… Sigh, I laugh at that guy but I'm not that much different from him," the mysterious girl showed an unhappy face.

"Why didn't I get the same talents as my parents? …I don't want to go home."