The clerk was flustered as he thought he heard incorrectly. "It's unprecedented that a team of adventurers could gather that many drooms that quickly and a group of two no less. Please wait here for a second. The reason the quest reward for this was doubled is due to a sudden demand for drooms by the town mayor and you may be able to help solve our current crisis."
Kelemen was a little surprised at the request but decided it couldn't hurt to wait and looked for Mire's opinion before nodding. "Alright if we can help we would be glad to offer our services for the right price."
In a few seconds, a broad-shouldered man walked out completely dwarfing Kelemen and Mire. Hushed whispers could be heard in the adventurer's hall as he walked up to Kelemen. "That's one of the pillars of the adventurer hall, Audgan. Rumor has it that his ancestors were descendants of the great Giant clan and he throws the nastiest punch in our entire adventurer's hall. Even the guild leader tries to find reasons to avoid sparring him."
It was almost comedic seeing the combination of Kelemen, Mire, and Audgan as his muscles were clearly outlined despite his leather armor. As he walked up to the duo, Audgan cut to the chase and made his introduction and purpose known. "My name is Audgan and I understand that you two are able to find drooms very quickly? If possible I would like to hire you on behalf of the guild to help gather a large number of drooms. Of course, you will be properly compensated for your troubles."
Kelemen, however, couldn't help but stop and take a moment as he was thoroughly impressed by this man. Although muscular, he by no means looked slow-witted as his aura carried a sharp tint to it. He gave the impression that if they made one wrong step, they would be sliced to shreds. His gaze was also intense as he seemed to pierce through Kelemen and Mire, revealing all of their secrets. "Ah, it's certainly not a problem for us to accept the request but can you provide more specific details and a time frame for completion?", Kelemen said.
With a grunt, Audgan waved his hands signaling them to follow him as they walked into one of the backrooms of the guild. "This request is a courtesy our guild is doing for the mayor as one of our biggest investors. Right now the mayor's daughter is extremely ill and requires the assistance of something called the smiling flower, a plant with growing intelligence. No matter what we do we can't seem to lure it out and it was only after some time that we found it will come out only to scavenge drooms for food every so often. We want your help to clear all the drooms in a certain area so that we can force it out of its hiding spot. We are willing to offer you the same rate as the quest you just handed in but for every droom you gather. If you accept, you'll be doing the mayor a great favor and a favor for us as well." Audgan looked seriously at Kelemen's face awaiting his response, allowing no detail to go unnoticed.
Upon hearing the request, Kelemen became curious about this mayor. Kelemen was starting to connect the dots as it became clear that the mayor was the one who was creating the quests to gather the bundles of drooms. However, Kelemen was inwardly impressed that the mayor would try to buy out all the drooms in the area. Even if one had a lot of money, that was no small sum and it was clear from this that the mayor cared deeply about his daughter. Kelemen couldn't help but remember his own parents before sighing.
At the sigh, Audgan looked over and slightly frowned. "If the price is an issue you can state any extra terms." Clearly he had mistaken Kelemen's sigh as one of disapproval and refusal. However, in doing so he revealed that the situation may have been more urgent than he had let on earlier. This was a fact that Kelemen didn't miss, however, he was also unwilling to exploit someone while they were down. He understood the feeling all too well and even if he knew it was stupid or foolish, he would still stick to his own principles. "My apologies that sigh was for something else. The terms are perfectly acceptable, however, may I know when you're planning to set out?"
Audgan seemed to internally relax as his tensed stance loosened a little before replying. "We set out in 20 days. On the dawn of Cekalk we plan to use Cekalk's blessing to cut the problem at its roots. With his blessing, we should have enough power to take down the smiling flower with minimal risk." Audgan gave a slight smile as he responded.
Kelemen nodded as he finalized the terms with Audgan before leaving the adventurers hall. He had finally received his first bit of capital in this new world and it was going straight to an inn. Kelemen and Mire made their way around the streets of Spiritwood until they found a relatively quiet inn near the outskirts of the town. It was perfect for Kelemen to practice his new abilities without too much of a disturbance.
He quickly rented a room for a week which cost him all of his drooms leaving Kelemen a bit of heartache as his meager wealth disappeared immediately. Kelemen gave Mire a wry smile as he said, "We're gonna have to scavenge for food tonight." Deciding to do it now before the sun fully set, the duo made their way outwards once more and began scavenging for some edible food Kelemen knew of.
With his mana sense, the task took such a short amount of time that the two had enough for several days in only an hour. Looking at the sky, the clear sun shone above with clouds leisurely moving above. Seeing that there was still quite a bit of time before the sunset, Kelemen decided to try the new skills he learned earlier. Quickly Kelemen went over the key points in his head.
"Siphon the mana into a preset shape and consciously move the mana with your intentions the entire time…", Kelemen muttered aloud the instructions his guide had shown him. Quickly the mana began to form into the shape of an arrow as a sharp air passed through the area cutting through the grass and creating gashes into the trees. Seconds ticked as Kelemen continued filling the arrow with mana. With every second Kelemen imagined a spiraling arrow that could pierce through anything and finally when he felt like he could no longer control the arrow, he let go. In a split second, a boom resounded as a mana arrow shot forth ravaging the area in a straight path. In its wake was a clear path of destruction as trees, grass, rocks, and dirt were annihilated in an instant so long as the arrow passed through.
Looking at his handiwork Kelemen grinned as exhaustion filled his body. Although the mana arrow was impressive, it was the upper limit of the power he could currently unleash with his mana and he would need to take a short time to recover. He could create more arrows if he used less mana, but none of them would have the same destructive force that the one he just unleashed did. Nonetheless, it was an impressive attack that even exceeded Mire's. However, Mire's ability to use corrosive acid was a continuous ability that held its own advantages.
Kelemen continued practicing as he continuously absorbed mana and created arrows while trying to control more and more at one instance. By the time the sun was setting, Kelemen could already control three slightly weaker arrows, however, he could still only make one maximum strength arrow before becoming exhausted. However, as the sun was setting, they decided to make their way back to the inn, and made their way into a small room. The room boasted only a single bed and a desk which left Kelemen with quite a headache. "Mire sleep on the bed, I'll sleep—"
Mire cut him off before he could finish. "You will sleep on the bed. I'm a slime so the bed won't even feel comfortable for me. The floor has been my home since I was a lesser slime and in a way, I prefer sleeping on the floor. Besides I'm your familiar so there is no way I can let you sleep on the floor." Her words were final as her tone indicated there would be no room for budging.
Kelemen tried to interrupt and was given a stern stare before he could only relent and agree. Upon doing so, Mire gave out a wide smile of approval. Seeing the satisfied grin on Mire's face, Kelemen couldn't help but feel a warmth spread in his heart. Although she was awkward at times, and sometimes had trouble controlling her abilities, Mire really was a dependable friend that he appreciated. However, it also reaffirmed his need to get stronger and he knew that now was the time to learn more about his new abilities and continue to experiment.
Silently, Kelemen sat in the lotus position and began moving the mana from his illusory core to the other parts of his body. One by one he filled the different parts of his body with the mana and began revolving the body strengthening technique. Kelemen could feel his cells burning in response to the process as his entire body tensed wherever the mana went until his entire body seemed full of pressure. At that moment Kelemen could feel that if he didn't properly control the mana his entire body could very well burst into pieces. However, he continuously spread the mana evenly throughout his entire body until he felt entirely saturated. At that point Kelemen could only endure the strain it was placing on his body. Silently, minute after minute, and hour after hour, Kelemen sat there as time seemed to blur into nothingness.
Sweat poured down Kelemen's body as a black tar-like substance began oozing from his pores. Kelemen could feel the changes occurring to his body and continued holding on with a renewed vigor as he could slowly feel his physique improving. Unfortunately for Mire, the black tar-like substance was slowly filling the room with an unbearable stench. Mire felt as if she was slowly being suffocated to death and so she started spreading her slime to slowly corrode the black tar as she made sure to very carefully control her corrosive properties to avoid harming Kelemen.
Slowly, but surely Mire could feel herself beginning to improve her control over her abilities. Just like this, hours passed until the morning sun rose once again. In the end, neither Kelemen nor Mire had slept as they continuously improved their abilities. However, for Kelemen, he was feeling even more refreshed than any sleep he had ever had. In fact, all of Kelemen's senses improved as he felt he could see much farther, and hear much better as well.
However, when Kelemen opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed wasn't his improved senses, but instead his distinct lack of clothes. Kelemen could smell a faint putrid smell which reminded him of the impurities he had forced out of his body. He cringed as he connected the dots. He must have slowly tortured Mire with that disgusting smell and upon seeing his lack of clothes it was clear that she must have tried to destroy the impurities with her acid but didn't have fine enough control to save the clothes.
Mire, however, upon seeing Kelemen open his eyes, widened her eyes in terror. She blushed furiously as she kept muttering "sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry…"Mire's skin tone actually began to change from green to lighter pink as she looked away. Kelemen was slightly amused as he knew most slimes didn't even have a concept of sexual identity. It appeared that Mire was a bit different, however, as she was clearly embarrassed from her new skin tone. Thankfully Kelemen had the bedsheets to cover himself with which helped to ease Mire's self-reproach.
"Mire, it's okay the inn has spare clothes here and I'm sorry for what happened last night. I didn't expect that I would expel impurities from my body like that and in the future, I'll make sure I'm more prepared. I'm thankful that you got rid of the impurities too, it was a big help really, so you don't have to be so embarrassed!"
Mire continued peeking through her fingers as if to affirm that Kelemen wouldn't suddenly change his attitude in the next second. After confirming that her master really wasn't mad, she heaved a sigh of relief, and together they made their way down the stairs of the inn. As they passed the front desk where they checked in, the man who owned the inn saw Kelemen's clothes, looked at Mire, then looked at Kelemen and gave a knowing smile.
"Eh? Not bad, not bad. You booked a whole week too huh?. You're a bit of an animal eh!"
Kelemen could only give a wry smile lest he digs the hole even deeper and promised to pay him back for the clothes. The innkeeper gave a slight chuckle as he said "don't bother, you remind me of myself at your age…consider it on the house as part of our award-winning complimentary service!"
Kelemen stared speechlessly as he wondered what award? There's barely anyone here except for the three of us!