I hadn’t exactly been aiming for it, but I truly realized that sometimes, voicing a wish aloud really can make it come true.
Since we had been heading deeper into the dungeon in search of monsters, the possibility had been there, but we actually encountered one before we could merge with the traveling queue.
"…There it is."
"It showed up."
"There it is, then."
We spotted the monster and let out collective sighs. In games and fiction, it was the ultimate weakling, the textbook "trash mob." In reality, however, it was widely considered the number-one deceptive foe due to the massive gap between its looks and its actual difficulty.
With its translucent, slightly quivering, soft-looking body, the monster resembled a water-jelly cake. Its name was the slime.
"A slime, huh…"
"It’s a slime…"
"So that’s a slime…"
"Wow, it’s all jiggly."
Mika and Saori-chan looked slightly annoyed, as if they had run into something troublesome, while Tatebayashi-san and Hino-san looked on with curiosity, as the creature lacked the frightening appearance of the monsters they had seen so far.
The difference in their reactions likely came down to whether or not they knew the slime’s ecology.
"Tatebayashi-san, Hino-san, don’t let its looks deceive you. A major cause of injury for inexperienced newcomer explorers is letting their guard down because they were misled by a slime’s appearance."
Eh?
"Yeah, that reaction alone tells me exactly how much you were underestimating it."
…
At my point, Tatebayashi-san and Hino-san looked awkward and apologetically averted their eyes.
"Sigh. Alright, let me give you a brief explanation of the slime, okay?"
…Yes.
"To put it simply, a slime is a viscous monster that’s resistant to physical strikes and won’t die unless you destroy its core. For newcomer explorers without attack skills, the risk of injury is high because you have to get close and destroy the core with a piercing attack. Furthermore, the slime’s body fluids have corrosive properties; the weapon used for the attack will melt and break, and if you fail to destroy the core and take a counterattack, you’ll suffer wounds similar to burns. It’s bad enough on an arm or a leg, but if one latches onto your face, even for a short time, it’ll lead to serious injury. You have to be careful."
…
Even with just a simple explanation like that, the slime was quite a formidable foe. Unless you knew an effective way to handle it, it was a monster generally recommended to avoid.
After hearing the explanation, Tatebayashi-san and Hino-san turned a bit pale and turned an apprehensive gaze toward the creature.
"That’s right. I occasionally see newcomers who didn’t know any better and underestimated a slime, only to end up crying after the weapon they spent a lot of money on got dissolved."
"Ah, yeah, there are kids like that. I’ve also heard stories about people who failed to break the core and ended up drowning in debt after having to use expensive recovery potions to treat the slime’s counterattack…"
Mika and Saori-chan followed up, driving home the fate of rookies who took slimes lightly. Tatebayashi-san and Hino-san grew even paler. Well, anyone would after hearing that.
"But, well, you know, as long as you know the correct way to handle it, they aren't that hard to defeat. You shouldn't let your guard down, but there's no need to dread encountering them."
! Really?!
When I told them there was a way to handle it, the two girls' expressions brightened. Well, rest assured. There was an incredibly effective—or rather, fatal—method.
"Really. It's a method we’ve thoroughly proven ourselves. Though, it's more of a 'backdoor' trick."
"A trick… like that water gun with the super-spicy water you used earlier?"
"Exactly, something like that. It’s highly effective and very cheap."
"Effective, and cheap…"
If you went with an expensive method, you could buy a skill scroll for a magic skill or spray liquid nitrogen to freeze the target, but those were difficult for cash-strapped newcomers to pull off. If there was a method that was simple, cheap, and highly effective, they naturally wanted to know it.
"Well then, since we're here, I'll show you how it's done."
"Ah, Onii-chan, I'll do it."
"Is that so? Then I'll leave it to you."
"Okay."
Since Mika offered to demonstrate, I decided to explain the item used for slime extermination to Tatebayashi-san and Hino-san. I took it out of my backpack and showed it to the two of them.
"Alright, this is the secret behind the trick for slime extermination."
"This… is it?"
"Is this… salt?"
"That's right. Correct, it's salt."
To Tatebayashi-san and Hino-san, who wore expressions of surprise and confusion, I handed each of them a small resealable bag of salt. The amount of salt in these small bags was roughly what was needed to safely defeat one slime. If you were stingy and used the bare minimum, you couldn't be sure you'd finish it off, which would be dangerous.
"It might seem surprising, but if you sprinkle this salt on a slime, you can defeat it."
"Defeating it with salt…"
"Isn't that just like a slug?"
"Well, you'd think that. But this really can defeat them, though I don't know the scientific reason why."
When I told them that salt could defeat a slime, Tatebayashi-san and Hino-san immediately shot me suspicious looks. I suppose it couldn't be helped, but I felt a bit awkward.
…
"Don't look at me with such doubt. Look, Mika is about to actually demonstrate it, so judge whether I'm teasing you after you see it for yourselves."
…Yes.
The emotion packed into their short reply felt like forty percent trust and sixty percent suspicion.
"Look, you two, Mika is starting."
…
Where I was pointing, Mika stood with an identical small bag in her hand. She approached the slime with slow steps, and before the opponent could move…
"There!"
"…!?!?"
Mika flipped the small bag over all at once, dumping the salt onto the slime, and quickly backed away. Pulled by gravity, the clump of salt fell straight toward the slime and landed, dyeing its entire body white. A few moments after being showered in salt, the slime violently contracted its body as if letting out a death rattle.
Ah…
"Extermination successful. See, just like I said, right? You can defeat a slime with salt."
The slime that had been covered in salt stopped moving within seconds, and as we watched, its body began its particleization. This was the moment when the effectiveness of salt in exterminating slimes was proven right before the skeptical eyes of the newcomers.
You really can defeat a slime with salt…
"I won't teach you lies. If you were to believe false information I gave as a joke, it could lead to a serious accident. It might have seemed strange, but the things I've taught you today are only things we've verified ourselves."
I had often heard stories about what happened to newcomer explorers who believed unverified information from the internet and acted on it. Unless we had verified it ourselves, I was too scared to teach it to others. If something were to happen because of a joke I made, the guilt would be unbearable.
"Just to be safe, let me say this: doubting isn't a bad thing, okay? From now on, I'm sure you'll hear hard-to-believe strategies or 'too good to be true' information just like this, but don't just jump on it because it sounds profitable. Judge carefully. If you believe and act too easily, it can lead to irreparable injuries."
No, really—there was all sorts of information regarding dungeons floating around on the internet, so it was hard to judge what was real. That was why I wanted them to consider and judge things carefully before moving.
"…Yes, I'm sorry for doubting you."
"I'm sorry."
"It's not something you need to apologize for, so don't worry about it. More importantly, look over there."
Where I pointed, something was rolling where the slime had vanished, and Mika was picking up the drop item.
"Ugh, too bad. It's a Core Crystal."
Apparently, the drop item was just a Core Crystal, and Mika looked a bit disappointed. Well, if you fought twice and got drop items both times, even if they were cheap, it was better than nothing.
"Looks like it was a Core Crystal. I guess things won't go perfectly every time."
"I guess so. That's too bad."
"I was hoping another recovery potion would drop… it didn't keep going, did it?"
Drop items with good exchange rates didn't come out that often. That's why explorers had no choice but to increase their number of encounters with monsters to raise the probability of obtaining something good.
Therefore, the first goal for newcomer explorers was to steadily repeat combat, get used to it, and become able to explore dungeons efficiently. Once they were used to it, they'd be able to dive to the deep floors of the dungeon and efficiently obtain items with good exchange rates. Once they reached that point, they'd graduate from being newcomer explorers and would be able to call themselves beginner explorers.
"We're still on the 1st floor, so good drop items don't really appear often. Even the recovery potion Tatebayashi-san got earlier is actually quite a catch for a drop item on the 1st floor, you know?"
"Is that so?"
"While purchase prices have dropped significantly for everything except some rare drops, recovery potions are in high demand, so they can still be sold at a relatively stable price even now."
"I see…"
As a matter of fact, it seemed that the recovery potions they occasionally obtained served as a financial lifeline for newcomer explorers. With the purchase prices of other drop items having plummeted, recovery potions, which could be sold for a decent price, were indispensable for newcomers to continue being explorers. A charm for when you were lightly injured and useful as a way to make money—that was what the recovery potion was to a newcomer.
"That's right. So, if a newcomer explorer wants to earn money on the upper floors, aiming for recovery potions is a stable way to do it. There's a limit to how much one person can carry, after all. The further you go into the dungeon, the harder it becomes to bring back every single drop item. Considering the weight, you'll need to be selective to some extent. Of course, it would be best to get a rare drop like a skill scroll… but those require a different kind of caution."
"I see…"
Tatebayashi-san and Hino-san let out small voices of admiration and looked at the backpacks they were carrying. Being an explorer wasn't just about fighting monsters. If you didn't think about how to turn things into profit and sustain your activities, you'd soon go bust. I’d heard plenty of stories about explorer groups who got a rare drop, went on a splurge with the temporary windfall, wasted even their activity funds, and ended up ruined.
"Now then, since the slime battle is over, shall we move?"
"Right."
"Yeah."
Understood.
Yes!
Thus, after finishing the battle with the slime, we successfully joined the traveling queue and were able to leave the dungeon without any further incidents. And so, Tatebayashi-san and Hino-san’s first dungeon exploration came to an end. It had taken about two hours in total.
Even though the exploration itself was over, there were still things left to do. If anything, as an explorer, this part was the main event.
"Alright, first is changing clothes. Once that's done, we'll verify today's spoils and head to the purchase counter with the drop items."
Yes.
"Then, Hiiragi-san, sorry, but could you follow up with the two of them? I think the timing when they change clothes is when they're most likely to let their guard down…"
When you change from combat gear into ordinary clothes, your consciousness, which had been unconsciously on guard, switches from combat mode to everyday mode. It's like how you're fine while working in a uniform, but once you get home and change into private clothes, the fatigue hits you all at once. It’s a matter of mindset, but I thought the moment they truly realized they’d finished their first dungeon exploration would be then.
Hiiragi-san, as well as Mika and Saori-chan, nodded back firmly as if they already understood.
"Leave it to me. It might take a little time, so you two can sit in chairs and wait."
"Got it, I’m counting on you."
"Right."
After nodding lightly, Hiiragi-san led Tatebayashi-san and Hino-san into the changing room. The two of them had expressions that suggested they didn't quite understand the meaning of our conversation, but they would realize it soon enough.
"Well then, shall we hurry up and finish changing, too?"
"Yeah."
After seeing the five of them off, Yuji and I also entered the changing room to change.
Phew, I'm glad it ended safely.
The moment you become conscious of finishing work, fatigue really does come rushing in all at once.