Every Adventurer’s Start

Jin takes slow cautious steps as he holds the sword in hand tightly. His small knuckles turn white from his deathly grip upon the hilt. A small shake runs through him as some wind blows leaves of a tree nearby.

Suddenly, to wake him from his stupor, a hand slaps the back of his head. Marim chuckles loudly as she rests her rifle over her shoulder.

"There is no need to be so afraid. It's only child slimes. They are small and cute." Lileen says warmly as she imagines playing with one in her hands. She lets out a gentle coo as Marim grins and pats Jin's head, ruffling his hair.

"Yeah what she said. They barely even hurt regular people. It's more of a population issue because they eat a lot of food that other animals might have. You can hold them in your hand without anything happening." Marim states as she walks with Jin. Jin nods meekly as he tries to imagine the monster.

"Do you remember how to defeat slimes, Jin?" Lileen questions as she walks on the other side of him. Jin looks over at her, his trembling sword still held up.

"Th-They have a stone-sized crystal in them that makes them pop if you break it, right?" Jin half-answers half-asks.

"Correct. Child slimes don't have much size to them so their core crystal is rather large compared to their liquid parts." Lileen says matter-of-factly with a finger up. Jin looked up and noticed her massive floppy sorceress hat.

"Wo-Woah, when did you get that?" Jin asks with a bit of fascination. Lileen lightly runs her finger along the rim shyly.

"Looks good, right? I got it for her when I got that sword. She tore up her old one." Marim butts in as she grins at the hat.

Stopping the conversation, Lileen and Marim both pause and look at a nearby bush. Looking at each other they step back, leaving Jin there with a confused look. Marim puts her hand on his back and Lileen places her staff's butt against his back, then together they push him forward.

Jin stumbles forward with his sword raised shakily as he remembers why they had come here. The leaves rustle and jostle until a small blue slime the size of a chicken hops out of the bush. It wobbles and ripples as it sits there for a moment. If it had eyes, it would probably be staring at Jin with a puzzled expression.

"D-Don't come any closer." Jin yells as the slime starts to slide over. Marim sighs and slaps her hand to her forehead as Lileen nervously laughs.

Jin raises the sword high and closes his eyes as the he slams it down. It hits the ground with a slicing thud. Opening his eyes, slime liquid covers the tip of his blade and a small split rock sat on each side. Jin finally breathes again, not realizing he had held his breath.

Marim raises a fist and cheers as Lileen claps cheerfully. Jin laughs breathlessly before trying to pull his sword from the ground with no success. He tugs a bit as Lileen and Marim laugh at the sight.

"It looks more like the sword killed the slime than you, Jin." Lileen says teasingly as she walks over and pulls it out of the ground for him, handing it back to him.

"Eh well, a kill is a kill. You're well on your way to being one of us." Marim says as she slams her hand against his back, knocking the wind out of him. She laughs out loudly.

"S-So am I ready to be an adventurer?" Jin asks as he fits the sword back into his scabbard on his little back.

"What? Not a chance! You haven't even finished this quest! You need to kill a lot more." Marim says to him as Lileen inspects the defeated slime. Lileen picks up both halves of the crystal and pockets them in her side pouch.

"Do not worry, we'll help with a few. You do not have to kill all of them by yourself." Lileen says as she rejoins the two. Marim rolls her eyes.

"Even though you should be able to." She mutters. Lileen shoots her a glare before Jin nods determinedly, drawing the attention back to him. His brown curls flutters in the blowing wind as he looks at the two of them. Marim places her hand on her hip and grins.

"That's the spirit. Let's get out there!" Marim grabs Jin by the neck and drags him off. Lileen sighs and follows after them.

After a full morning of hunting slimes, Jin had gotten more used to swinging the blade and only got it planted into the ground half the time. Lileen and Marim killed a couple of larger slimes that they came across.

Marim didn't even properly hold her rifle, she just raised the barrel and blew a hole through most slimes' cores. Lileen often tapped her finger at the air and froze most slimes solid. The two of them collected near perfect slime cores while Jin often got split cores at best.

"What skill do you need to shoot a gun?" Jin says breathlessly as he heaves the sword over his shoulder into the scabbard with a prideful grin. Lileen sighs, closes her eyes, and walks away muttering about Jin's fate.

By the time they get back the adventurer's guild, the receptionist looks at the two of them with a polite professional smile.

"I assume everything went well? You two are triple gold feathers, after all." The receptionist says to them as she prepares a document to record their work. The two of them step aside to a red puffy boy only 8 years in age.

"Wh-What??" The receptionist says slack-jawed as the puffed lips and bruised face of the boy step up and place a couple of slime cores on the counter.

"Yes, yes." He says in a muffled voice due to his swollen lips. "They are v-vewy strong. A-And gunsh are s-sho cool." Marim nods and crosses her arms, Lileen just sighs and shakes her head.

"W-Was it th-that bad?! W-Weren't they just a bunch of young slimes? A-And who are you??" The receptionist says, her professional demeanor dropped at the sight of the boy, a sword only slightly shorter than him on his back in a massive scabbard.

"Oh, can I also take the advenjurer'sh tesht?" The little boy says. The counter to the receptionist was at his chest height, and that was with him standing on his toes.