Chương 66: Chapter 62

"You're done?" Chael asked as Sobelle came back. Her eyes went up and down as she checked Sobelle's somber expression, they narrowed.

"Is something wrong? I hope nothing bad happened while you trained."

"No, nothing bad happened." Sobelle sobered up. She corrected her posture and relaxed, a sharp breath escaped her lips as she finally decided to forget about everything.

"I just realized that I no longer need to train, since it won't do anything for me anymore."

"You still need to do that." Chael raised one eyebrow and looked at Sobelle like she was insane. The merchant poked her lover's hardened muscles and blushed, "uh... Oh wow. I thought I didn't like muscles but..." Chael trailed off for a second before she shook her head.

"Okay! Not what I was trying to say! First off, you still need to train, otherwise your muscles will deteriorate! You start to lose them you know? Second, you're not some invincible spirit caller, so be sure to keep yourself in the best shape you possibly could!"

"I don't think that will happen, the deterioration of my muscles, I mean." Sobelle flexed her biceps and noticed that Chael had to cover her mouth when she did. She smirked, "do you like them?"

"What girl wouldn't?!" Chael pointed an accusing finger at Sobelle.

"So don't. Lose. Them." Her tone of voice turned stern as she gritted out every word.

"Also, even if you're that muscular, you wouldn't be able to beat a man in a straight up fight. They'll still be stronger than you, that's just how it works for us."

"Is that so?" Sobelle thought about all the skills she had gotten as well as the maxed out [Strength] stat she achieved and wondered if that was truly the case.

"So you believe that I wouldn't be able to beat a guy with no muscles in a fight?"

"What? No. Of course you'd beat them, I'm talking about men who trained the same way you did. Soldiers." Chael cleared whatever misunderstanding she believed Sobelle had. It wasn't needed, but Sobelle found it endearing that Chael was doing it.

"You do know that you are a girl, yes? Women can't beat men in terms of strength, we are caretakers, not warriors."

"I'd like to see for myself if I can do that though." Sobelle silently opened her system and looked at the numbers present within it.... Stats: [Stats] [Strength: 21] [Endurance: 20] [Dexterity: 17] [Intelligence: 13] [Wisdom: 13] [LeveL: 6] [Stat Points: 18]...

'Is 20 [Endurance] the maximum points a human can get in that stat? Is 20 the limit? But one of my quests pushed my [Strength] stat to 21, so that means I can go over the maximum limit, right? Do I need to wait for quests to do that though?' Sobelle found it unfortunate that she didn't get to read most of the system's tutorial back when she first got it. If she had been literate at the time, then she would have understood most of the system's mechanics and everything would be easy for her.

She never knew there was a limit to the natural increase in her stats, but she had a feeling she would have if she got the tutorial's full guidance. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. She didn't even know what the stat points did, and feared that she'd mess with her growth if she ever touched them.

"Maybe you can beat them." Chael muttered under her breath. Sobelle caught wind of it fairly easily, "do you need to rest for now? We can stop if you want, I know how exhausting it can be to train."

"I'll be okay, if you want me to, I can even pull the cart in your place." Sobelle retorted quickly. Chael wasn't as weak as she looked, her life as a merchant caused her to grow some musculature. They weren't as much as Sobelle's, but they were there.

"Do you need to take a break?"

"No, I'm fine." Chael denied the offered respite. She smiled, "I can pull on the cart for now, you can rest." Sobelle did not say anything in retaliation because she knew it'd just end in a back and forth of offers. It was pointless to continue so she decided to let it go. And well, it wasn't like Sobelle was the type to say no to breaks. She believed it was great to take a step back every now and then. They eventually did swap but it didn't last long, as they encountered something shortly afterwards.

"What is that?" Sobelle's features morphed into something stuck between shocked and disgusted. The thing in front of her was definitely an ugly one, it was like a slug decided to wrap itself into a thick puddle of mucus. Circular in shape, well, almost dome-like, with an undulating body that pulsed every time it moved, and a semi-transparent skin that revealed a good portion of its insides. There was a long stalk at the center of the creature's mass, it was composed of four thick strands of yellow rods.

The upper half was bent and created the shape of an inverse flower, and at the center of its petals was a dark orb. More importantly, it was half the height of a horse and was wide enough to take over the entire road. It was like a wall of living spit. It was ugly and Sobelle's hair stood up just from looking at it.

"Oh wow, its core is as smooth as a ball. It's healthy." Chael looked fascinated instead of disgusted.

"What a rare sight. How many of them had a core like this one? Probably not a lot... No one would believe me if I told them about it—""What is that?" Sobelle pointed at the... Thing. Its body suddenly ebbed and then it moved a foot or so forward.

"Did it just jump? It can't even do that properly."

"Oh, I think it did!" Chael laughed. How was she not disgusted by this thing? How she reacted genuinely confused Sobelle.

"Must be leftover instinct from when it was just a polyp!"

"What is it?" This was the third time Sobelle asked this question and she still did not get an answer.

"Chael?"

"It's a slime! Sobelle! Have you not seen them before?"

"Slime?" Sobelle's mind put all the clues together and the disgust she felt disappeared. Instead, it was replaced by heavy confusion.

"Why is it so big? That thing must at least be as wide as a small house. I thought they were small? And edible? Where are the fruits?"

"You're talking about the domesticated slimes right?" Chael's guess meant nothing to Sobelle but it did sound accurate so she nodded.

"Oh, well in that case this isn't one of them. Dilolutins are another type of slime entirely, they don't even make trees like domesticated slimes do."

"What are they then? A monster?" Sobelle readied herself for a confrontation with the creature.

"Do they kill humans?"

"Every so often, yes. In fact these slimes are one of the reasons why some mercenaries need to go down to the sewers, as they infest the canals and breed like crazy if left unchecked." As Chael spoke, the slime undulated again, it skipped another foot or so. Interestingly, the creature seemed more focused on crossing to the other side of the path than attacking the two of them.

"So do we kill this thing?" Sobelle wasn't quite sure what she needed to do in order to take the life of a slime, as it didn't have a head or any weak spot, but she was more than happy to try until she succeeded.

"If we can, then yes. It'd be great if we harvest this thing's core, one as big and smooth as this one would definitely fetch us a lot of money when we get to UnThilen."

"Then I should kill it." Sobelle raised her spear and pulled her arm back, only to be stopped by Chael.

"What now?"

"Do you know how to kill a slime? Also, our cart is right here, if you don't kill it and instead irritate it, we will have no choice but to leave the cart. And the slime will eat it. These things are ravenous." Chael's warning came from a place of experience, and Sobelle knew that.

"How do you kill a slime?" Sobelle lowered her spear.

"You cut the stalk at the center, or you shatter their core. It is believed that their brains are the stalk itself, so if you want to kill a slime, target that." Chael pointed at the only part of the slime that looked to be physically solid.

"There is one problem, and that's the slime's body. It is corrosive and would melt your wooden spear way before it reached the stalk, so if you can't do that, then it's best we wait this thing out and— wait, how?!" Sobelle had already thrown her spear when Chael was talking. The pointed tip easily broke through the surface of the slime and it traveled across the creature's body until it reached the stalk, where it then did enough damage to cause the blob to start pulsing intensely.

"I'm not sure." Sobelle tried not to weep for her blessed weapon, which was currently being melted into wood pulp.

"I just threw my weapon and it killed the slime." Seconds later, the movement stopped and the slime lay dead. Sobelle walked towards it, "so, how do we harvest the core?"