After shaking off the smug smile of the innkeeper, Kelemen couldn't help but feel disgruntled at the people of this world and the man's imparting words. "Kid, she definitely likes ya eh? Seems she can't even get ya out of her mind, yup that poor lass. Heh, reminds me of myself. Ladies couldn't get enough of me I tell ya. Never enough heh!"
"What kind of sick monster would even have thoughts like that about such a cute kid?", Kelemen thought. In his past life, that man would definitely have nowhere to hide when his door was being broken down. If anything he felt he would be her brother and nothing more."
Pushing the thoughts out of his head, Kelemen and Mire headed to the adventurer's hall to pick up a new quest. From time to time Kelemen would look at Mire while they were walking to which she smiled back. He gave a long sigh as he arrived in front of the adventurer's hall and gave himself a wry smile."Heh, I've really gone crazy from that dirty old man. There's no way Mire could ever feel that way about me anyways. Heck, I literally attacked her the first time we met."
Feeling that he had come to a certain conclusion, he smiled as he shelved his thoughts and walked to the front of the board of requests. Kelemen decided to pick up one for hunting. In his mind, Kelemen felt that this was the prime opportunity for him to get accustomed to one of the cold truths in this world. He wasn't so naive as to think he would never have to kill and if the time came, he didn't want to pay the price for his indecision.
Whether it was his life or Mire's life, Kelemen steeled himself in his decision to be selfish if he had to. The request today, however, was to eliminate a group of iron deer. Supposedly their skin was as hard as iron and although they were naturally pacifist by nature, a large herd of them had been spotted recently causing animals to move closer and closer to the surrounding farms with some animals even attacking the farmers. In his adventurer's guide, these iron deer were classified as the lowest tier of magical beasts, however, their iron skin alone made them far superior to any normal predator. In fact, the so-called king of the jungle in his past life would only be able to cower in the face of an iron deer lest they unwittingly provoke death.
Usually, adventurers would also avoid provoking these creatures as they wouldn't attack otherwise. However, there were some more daring ones that would form groups and purposefully hunt down mana-rich creatures like this for their valuable bodies. Natural mana-attuned beings like the iron deer were quite valuable from their bones to their pelt as it could all be used to make highly sought after tools and armor.
The request this time was to bring back the carcasses of 5 deer and for the first time, Kelemen was wondering whether he could really do it. These were naturally peaceful creatures that had never done anything wrong and yet he wanted to slaughter them for his own benefit and training. Thinking back to his initial gung ho attitude and the fact that he actually attacked Mire for no reason at all was starting to make him cringe. As long as it wasn't human would he be indifferent to taking lives? At that thought, Kelemen felt strange as he realized he never considered the countless bugs he had killed in his last life and he pondered whether this was important or not.
Nonetheless, Kelemen accepted the quest and headed out. No matter what, in this life, he would eventually have to diary his hands. This wasn't like his last life. Here if you didn't fight against the current, you fell behind and continued falling behind. Although he hadn't been in this world long, even he was beginning to see that strength was the law and without it, he couldn't guarantee his safety or anyone else's. He couldn't expect himself to be so lucky as to find another Mire, in case he was attacked again.
After reaffirming his resolve once more he set out with two goals. One was to accustom himself to what it would be like to kill. The second was to test out his defensive skills using mana. He had high hopes for them considering the other abilities he had already learned from the beginner's guide. This was the last one he had yet to test. Thereafter at neither a brisk nor slow pace, Kelemen and Mire continued their way into the lower layers of Spiritwood where the man sightings of the iron deer had occurred.
Since there was nothing to do while walking, Kelemen quietly tried to create multiple mana arrows while walking to improve his control over mana. Although it would have been quite difficult to even walk while creating mana arrows yesterday, he had no problem doing it now after having practiced the body strengthening technique. It seemed there was a synergistic effect between the breathing technique and the body strengthening technique as his improved physique actually helped him control his mana more easily.
While previously manipulating mana was like dragging a stick through mud, now it was as if the stick was a fish swimming through water. It felt much more natural as he controlled the path of mana in and out of his body. Also since the arrows were much smaller, there was even less strain than when he manipulated three normal-sized arrows at once. Although these smaller arrows didn't have the same destructive force as a full-sized arrow, he realized that this could actually be better to concentrate more damage at a single point as he could sharpen the mana arrow to an extreme while it was smaller.
After a while of repeatedly doing this, Mire began to catch onto what he was doing. Seeing how he was still training even when they were on their way to complete a quest she also began to feel inspired. When she was a lesser slime her days were dark and bleary and she never wanted to be left alone like that again. She shivered as she remembered how she mindlessly drifted to and fro never really recognizing what was around her. Part of this was due to her dulled senses, but also it was due to her rough life as a slime.
When Mire first awoke, the only thing she could remember was darkness. There were no other slimes and she found herself in a dark dark place that she later learned was something called a cave. No matter where she went, she was attacked. It didn't matter whether they were a monster or human, she could only run and continue running for her life. There were even times she would sense some terrifying beings around her that would snort as they left her alone where she dared not do a single thing. It was only one day when she met Kelemen that things changed.
At first, she was scared that he might be like the other terrifying beings she had come across, but he seemed so…weak. In fact, she had never met such a weak being, so much so that she felt she might even win if they fought. However, in him, she could see a bit of herself. Moreover, although he attacked her, she could tell that it wouldn't do anything and that there wasn't really any malice behind his attacks. She felt a little strange as she watched him move back and forth as he quickly tired himself out. For the first time, she felt happy? Maybe it was just amusement but she felt herself relax and let down her guard a little around him and then a curious thing happened, she evolved.
Although she didn't know why or how she knew it was related to that funny man. She felt a voice in her head then as a question appeared?
"Do you wish to become the familiar of [Kelemen]?"
Although she didn't really understand what that meant, she knew that she was happy around him and so she agreed. Although it had only been a short while since then, every moment felt like a dream to her as she floated from one interesting experience to the next.
Suddenly Mire was broken from her reverie as Kelemen called out to her. They both felt their throats go dry and couldn't help but gulp from the scene in front of them. Hundreds of iron deer from the young to the old were gathered together and resting ahead. It was a beautiful sight to behold as the younger ones galloped around chasing the others, while the older ones watched with their protective gaze from behind. A slight breeze filled the air and the morning rays of light illuminated the fields of grass. Although they were peaceful now, Kelemen didn't doubt that if he dared attack them, they may very well leave Mire without even bones to discard. Even Mire might not be able to survive due to their overwhelming numbers.
The more Kelemen watched, however, the more he felt that he couldn't do it. Nevermind the fact that he definitely couldn't win in a fight, he wasn't sure that he was mentally prepared to take life either. Even though he was a human, and they were 'beasts', was that enough to justify others trying to take their life? As Kelemen saw an older deer gently nuzzle their head against one of the younger ones, Kelemen finally resolved himself.
As long as he followed his own principles, he could always become stronger, but if he were to ignore his own heart and consciousness for a sum of money and power, then he was no better than scum. "Mire let's go. We've seen enough, I'm abandoning th—"
BOOM!
Suddenly, an earth-shattering explosion sounded as a deafening array of piercing cries followed. Blood stained the grass, as some deer were instantly turned to paste. A grieving wail resounded through the lower layer that day as the iron deer instantly turned towards the direction of the attack.
Meanwhile, Kelemen's face turned pale from the sudden scene of carnage as he could only say one thing, "Oh F*ck."