But for a Slime

* * *

Joe had slipped into the woods shortly after the sun had risen and was already back amongst the slimes. He picked up his stake, one again planted by the road to remind him where the slimes began, and examined it. He quickly saw that it was badly corroded by now, and he tossed it aside with a sigh. Grabbing another thick stick, he sharpened it to a blunt point and grabbed several more whisk sticks before heading after a slime that he had already spotted as he sharpened his stake.

He pulled out his spoon-spear and came up on the slime carefully, stake in one hand and spoon-spear in the other. This slime was on the road, so he wasn’t able to use any obstruction to block the slime’s leap. However, the leap was almost identical to every other slime he had approached, and simply turned to the side even as he saw the slime shrink in on itself to leap at him. The slime passed by him, even as he turned to keep the slime directly in front of him as it leapt past. He swung the stake around trying to catch the slime and stake it down into the road as it flew by. He tsked under his breath as he sprinted across the road after it, catching up to it just as it landed and he leapt towards it to swing the stake down through the body into the road surface just before it tried to leap again. Well, crap! Seems like it doesn’t need to turn around. It has no… face? It seems to be attack, move, jump, and focus in any direction. Man! Gotta be careful of that!

The stake sliced smoothly with little resistance through the slime’s body, but stuck poorly into the hard pack road surface. Joe cursed under his breath and gripped his spoon spear as quickly as possible before digging into the slime body and bringing it to bear on the gem at its center. It scooped around the gem well enough and when he flung it out, he found he had to put quite a bit more effort into the swing. Man! The wider surface adds a lot of resistance! As the spoon spear dragged the gem out of the slime, the gem came out but with quite a large goop of slime body as well. Joe raced up to the gem and found the slime was still very much alive and capable, although it had had its body reduced by a significant amount.

The slime tensed up and leapt towards him and he slid to the side once again. It flew past him and landed in puddle of what once was its body, reforming to its full size. Joe brought his spoon spear up before him in defense, but was surprised when he saw that the slime had reformed with the stake still thrust through it for the most part, although it seemed to be able to slide through it quite a bit quicker now. He sprinted towards it and brought his spoon spear to bear once again. He was able to arrive at it just as it slipped his stake and was able to plunge his spear into it, digging the blade into the dirt to hold it in place. He grabbed the fallen stake and slammed it back down through the slime into the road once again. The squealing alien scream echoed out again twice in quick succession. He released his grip on the stake and pulled his spear spoon up and positioned it at the gem again before he stopped in consideration.

Well, don’t think I wanna do that again! He prepared to drop the spear spoon and pull out his spear again when he stopped in consideration. A smirk played across his lips and he spun the spoon around, placing the convex portion of the spoon against the gem and flicked firmly. The spoon spear came out of the slime smoothly with only slightly more resistance that the spear, and the gem popped out. Even as the gem popped free of the slime, the death notification feel flooded through him and he blinked in surprise. Instakill? Really? He jogged to the slime and picked up the gem carefully but was surprised to see that there really was no ooze left. It was dead with a single swipe. Man, this’ll speed up things, right? He slipped the gem into his satchel and headed towards his next slime, this time heading to the north to follow the trail of slimes as he did the first day he went on his first slime hunting spree.

The second fight with his spoon spear went quite a bit more smoothly, and he began using the trees as shields to catch and stake the slimes as he had begun doing yesterday. The second time he used the ‘wrong’ side of his spoon went as smoothly as the first, however a bit of the ooze was able to stay stuck to the gem and he had to whisk it off with one of his furred sticks. The third time was also pretty quick and easy, and he soon was able to fall into an easy rhythm. He found that being able to eject a gem with the convex side of the spoon came easier and easier, but being able to pull it out without any ooze on it was a bit more difficult than he had thought, the first having been a bit of a fluke. But as the morning passed, he was able to kill almost half of the slimes with the first strike from his spoon without having to turn to his stick whisks to complete the kill.

Time pass quickly and he thought little of it, but when noon and lunch had come and gone, he suddenly realized that he hadn’t felt any status update representing gaining a level. He flipped up his status and looked on with shock as he looked at his Commoner level five job an experience bar only a little over half full. What… seriously? What is going on?

He slipped over to the log and looked at the entry for his latest kill, and it showed the slime giving five experience. How can I be getting even more experience but I’m showing even slower growth! What… how? Frustration seethed in Joe’s mind as he considered the situation. He had been certain that he had understood the system, but now something had changed. His mind got caught up in the issue but then shook it off. He could spend time tonight before bed trying to figure it out. Wasting daylight hours on it was unwise, and he redoubled his slime killing efforts.

The sun was just shy of kissing the horizon when he felt the status update for gaining a level. He sighed at the cost and loss of time but didn’t let that disturb him into an unwise mistake, and he turned to head for home. As the sun came close to setting, he slipped into a jog and made it into the village before dusk had fallen. He slipped into the inn and decided to drop off the spoils before eating. He hated to eat before bathing, but didn’t want to sit in the middle of the village half naked in broad daylight. He figured washing after sunset was slightly more modest, but as he came back down the stairs to take supper, he realized that he hadn’t picked up his towel and three wash cloths.

He slipped out of the inn and bee-lined for the merchant’s home. He knocked politely and waited for the merchant’s wife. The woman opened the door partially only wide enough to peek through a small crack in the door.

“Hello!” Joe offered a bright flash of a smile and a wave.

The lady stared at him for a few moments, then grumbled but offered little back by way of a greeting, simply grunting before opening the door slightly more and disappearing. Joe blinked with some confusion, but stayed there until she returned and pulled the door open wider. She looked at him in squinted anger, staring for a second or two before berating him cautiously. He did nothing, uncertain of how he had offended, but then bowed slightly and tried to at least be polite.

“Sorry! Donno what I did wrong, but I really meant no offense!”

She looked at him some more, a long stare, but said nothing before seeming to sigh, the anger flowing from her face before she handed him his towels and wash cloths, a bemused Mona Lisa smile gracing her lips. Joe waved again in grateful thanks and turned to leave, saying good bye.

He headed back to the inn and waved at the innkeeper matron before playing his signature mime for food, a rubbing of his stomach. The matron waved at him after several seconds delay and slipped into the kitchen before returning later with a bowl of hearty stew.

The evening passed without incidence, the meal eaten quickly. Bathing finished discretely and quickly, with the towel a welcome addition to drying quickly, although the cloth was absolutely terrible at absorbing water compared to what he was used to. He wrung out the two wash clothes he had used, one on his body and one to clean his spoon spear and his regular spear, although he wouldn’t need to clean his regular spear anymore. He washed his clothing as well, switching to a new pair. Five days in the same pair of clothes!

He made it back to his room and hung up the wet clothing over the edge of his one chair and the bed railing. Slipping into his sleeping bag that he had laid on top of the bed since the hay mattress proved to be very uncomfortable, he brought up his status. As it popped up, he saw that it displayed what was expected: six for all the stats that had started at one and point six for all the stats that had started at point one. Each stat had multiplied by the level. He didn’t spend too much time on his status or the current job status simply because it wasn’t of concern to him at the moment. He was most worried about the much longer time needed to make it to level six.

As he began delving in the log, he saw that the slimes had earned him five experience each while he was level five, as he had expected, and he then decided to count up the number of kills. When he reached thirty, he quickly realized that the amount that he had needed to level had increased significantly. Well, shiiiit. Five hundred experience per level now! Joe sighed and prepared for bed. I’m going to need to write all this stuff down!

* * *

Joe woke to his sixth day on the planet and slipped down grab breakfast. As he ate the same stew as last night, Joe grimaced and dreamed of bacon, eggs, and sausage. He enjoyed his meal, relaxing and not pushing himself to leave as he needed to wait for light anyway. Despite eating leisurely, he still finished the meager breakfast rather quickly and decided to change his table, moving closer to the fireplace for the light, despite the heat.

Pulling out his notebook and a pencil, he considered how to organize his data, and decided to put his general observations and theories at the end of the notebook. He spent about an hour putting his thoughts together to jot down what he had learned about the various stats and the general leveling speed he had learned in relation to the learning stat and the amount of experience needed. He also noted the actual amount of experience needed for each level: 1-5, 100 each, 5-? 500 each. Hmm… after five levels, the experience cost went up by five times. Will that continue? Although the learning stat seems pretty simple: double the learning to halve the experience cost. He then went back to the front of his book and wrote down the data from his commoner job, showing the basic stats at level one for all the applicable stats.

Commoner – Doesn’t seem to offer much at all.

Stats: 1 each for all 0 Luck

Resistances: 0.1 Wind, Water, Ice

Leveling: 1 - 5 100 exp per level

5 - 500 exp per level

Huh, I don’t think I’ll need to put any specific details about each level or how much stats I have right now. I have the current job window in status for that, and each level seems to simply be a multiplier based on the original level one stat. I’ll have to double check that when I change jobs, but…

Joe wrapped up his note taking and prepared to go out hunting once again, returning to his room to drop off his notepad and swapping it for his weaponry. It felt like only a few moments later and Joe was once again deep in the woods, approaching the next slime. The radiating danger that came from the slime was still strong as the yellow orange light radiated from its skin. The slime’s glow had become so second nature to him that he completely ignored it and brought his stake slamming down on the slime, locking it to the ground before spooning out the small gem at its center. One down, quite a bit more to go.

Late in the afternoon, he felt a status update wash through him, but he had long settled into a trance like state of moving from slime to slime, eradicating them. As the sun dimmed in descent, he quickly shifted to preparing to head back. He returned to the road, again killing any slimes he found on the way and headed … home. The evening repeated once again, eat, wash, wash weapons, dry, and head to bed. Before sleep was able to wash his consciousness away, he checked his status and noticed he had made it to level seven. He then remembered that he had reached it a bit earlier in the day, and checking the current job page showed a good chunk of the experience already completed; almost half! Huh. Why was it… ah, right. Checking his log, he found reaching seven had also taken five hundred experience. So, even an extra point in learning still was able to help cut down the time, and it seems its five hundred per level until level ten, if I were to guess! So, five times increase in cost every five levels?

Joe wrote down these ideas in the musings at the back of his notebook and collapsed back into bed.