The medicinal herb gathering went smoothly.
Back when I lived in my village, I often gathered herbs and wild edible plants in the nearby woods.
Because of that, I had a decent grasp of how to navigate through the forest.
The only real difference now was that I had proper equipment on.
In the village, all I ever had was a worn-out knife.
Whenever monsters spotted me, I never fought back—I just ran away with everything I had.
"Phew... That should be enough herbs for the request."
Gather ten medicinal herbs of any variety.
That was the quest I had taken on.
The payout was ten copper coins, and it was one of the permanent quests at the Adventurer's Guild.
A permanent quest.
True to its name, it was a request that constantly sought adventurers to take it on.
There were other permanent requests as well, such as hunting low-tier monsters.
"Now then, time to test my skill."
Ever since I obtained the special skill [Fixed EXP], it had been on my mind nonstop.
The concept of "levels" existed in this world.
There were levels for a person's base body and levels for their skills.
And tied to both was something called experience points.
To raise your base level, you had to gain experience points by slaying living beings.
For a human, that generally meant defeating monsters to earn experience and level up.
"I remember someone telling me long ago that 'living beings' included our own kind, too."
A traveler who once passed through my village had explained the leveling system to me.
Most people raised their levels by defeating monsters.
"Most" implied that there were also people out there who leveled up by murdering fellow humans.
Hunting down bandits and highwaymen with such depraved mindsets was another duty of adventurers.
If you brought down a notorious outlaw with a bounty on their head, you could even receive official commendation from the realm, depending on who it was.
Still, I had no desire to pick fights with such dangerous opponents, so it had nothing to do with me.
"For now, I'd like to find a lone stray to take down..."
Keeping a close eye on my surroundings, I made my way deeper into the woods.
I had already spotted several monsters.
Goblins, slimes, horn rabbits.
They were all low-tier monsters, but facing a group of them might be more than I could handle right now.
Even if I won, fighting back-to-back battles would wear me down, leaving me vulnerable to ambushes by other beasts.
For my first real fight, I wanted to pick off an isolated stray.
"...Found one. And it's a slime."
Goblins were humanoid.
Horn rabbits were fast.
I wasn't looking to tangle with either of them yet.
From the start, my target was a slime—slow-moving, even for a low-tier monster, with an obvious weak point.
You could defeat a slime simply by destroying the core visible inside its translucent body.
The ones around here were common slimes, the lowest rank among their kind.
Higher-ranking slimes could be genuinely vicious.
Just because it was a slime didn't mean every single one was weak.
"Careful now... It hasn't noticed me..."
Creeping forward, step by quiet step, I closed the distance.
Staying low, I circled around the dense undergrowth to approach it from behind.
Oblivious to my presence, the slime was utterly absorbed in sunbathing.
"Ngh!"
"—!"
I felt a sudden shift, as if the slime had just sensed me.
In that split second, I lunged forward and brought my one-handed sword down with all my might.
A normal slime's body offered little resistance.
With no tough hide to turn aside a sharp blade, the strike plunged straight toward its core.
The moment the core shattered, the slime died on the spot.
With its life extinguished, the gelatinous mass lost its form and collapsed into a puddle.
Slime fluid served as a base for medicine and various other materials.
I scooped it into the empty bottles I had brought along, then stowed the fractured core away as well.
"Phew... That was nerve-wracking, but it went well."
With my first real battle behind me, I gathered the materials and left the area.
Finding a safe spot, I sat down and let out a long breath.
I had crossed paths with monsters before.
However, actually slaying one was a first for me, and my heart was still hammering against my ribs.
"Right. I wonder if anything changed on my status?"
Curious, I called up my status screen.
The moment I did, a separate window filled with text appeared alongside it.
◇
Monster defeated.
Acquired 1 EXP.
1/100 to next level.
◇
"...Wait, is this an effect of [Fixed EXP]?"
I had never heard of a skill that conjured an entirely separate display beside the status screen.
After studying the prompt, I checked my actual status.
"Nothing's changed here, huh..."
Still, I had managed to learn something new about my ability.
From then on, I hunted down isolated strays, staying active in the forest until the evening bells tolled.
"Welcome back. You got your gear quite dirty, didn't you?"
A few hours later, the evening bell rang, and I returned to the royal capital.
In the time since that first kill, I had hunted eighteen slimes.
Every single one was a lone stray; I hadn't bothered fighting any other types of monsters.
Slime hunting was another permanent quest, paying five copper coins for every ten batches of materials.
So, I had Reina-san process the turn-in for both the herbs and the extra slime bounties.
"My, look at you in proper gear. You didn't buy that at Harold's place, did you?"
"It's a rental. I think he was only willing to lend it to me because of your introduction, Amanda-san. Thank you for recommending such a wonderful shop."
Having finished my business at the guild, I was back at the inn.
Seeing me return looking completely different from when I had left, Amanda-san greeted me from behind the front desk with a warm smile.
"Think nothing of it. More importantly, dinner's ready. Want to eat now?"
"Yes, please! I'm starving!"
With that, I headed straight for the dining room and dug in.
After finishing my meal, I took time to maintain my gear before heading to the bath.
Since I hadn't fought any blood-bearing monsters, there were no gruesome stains to clean off.
Even so, the leather was smeared with dirt and crushed leaves.
I gave the pieces a thorough cleaning before finally stepping into the bath.
"...Nothing beats a hot soak after an honest day's work."
I sank in up to my shoulders, working the stiffness out of my arms and legs.
Once I finished bathing, I headed up to my room.
Collapsing onto the bed the moment I stepped inside, the day's exhaustion washed over me, and I drifted off to sleep in seconds.