The next quest made me feel a little bit guilty. Not due to the subject matter, but more due to the fact that I found myself immediately excited by the prospect of it. An older woman was brewing healing potions, and required ten slime eyes. Naturally, fighting monsters is an important part of any hero's duty, but it's supposed to be done only when necessary. Being excited by the prospect of engaging in violence might be fine for the regular berserkers and brigands, but paladins are supposed to be above that sort of thing.
I just couldn't help it, though. Ever since I got my sword, I've been just dying to try it out. Well, it's a necessary task which will help others. I suppose, in the end, there's nothing wrong with taking joy in my work.
One doesn't need to move far outside of the town to reach the wilderness, but it's still far enough. Just leaving sight of my familiar home fills me with dread, but it isn't enough to stop me, of course. As I walk, I regularly practice drawing, swinging and sheathing my sword, and find myself getting much better at it, and barely drop it at all! It doesn't take long before I find myself face to face with my opponent.
The creature resembles a transparent green snail, minus a shell. Its body is, well... slime, a large congealed lump of it, which leaves a green trail whenever it moves. It has no clear bones or organs, aside from a large floating brain in the center of it, with nerves connecting to a pair of eyes which are suspended by gooey eye-stalks. I know that they aren't considered particularly powerful monsters, among the least powerful, really, but I still worry that I might have gotten in a bit over my head.
---- Battle Start! Squire Versus Slime(3)! ----
--Slime(1) closes the distance!
--Slime(2) closes the distance!
--Slime(3) closes the distance!
--Squire uses Divine Strike! Slime(1) suffers 125 point(s) of damage! Slime(1) is defeated! Slime(2) suffers 131 point(s) of damage! Slime(2) is defeated! Slime(3) suffers 109 point(s) of damage! Slime(3) is defeated!
---- Squire has won the battle and earned 45 point(s) of experience! ----
Wait... was that it? When the other two showed up, I worried that I might be in real trouble. I look down at my sword, the bright yellow glow from the attack rapidly fading, and survey my surroundings. I shouldn't be disappointed, of course, as the easier I can defeat such creatures, the quicker I can help those in need, but I was still expecting something more. Maybe I'm stronger than I thought? It would make sense. Pretty much anyone can defeat a slime, apparently. If doors were that weak, they wouldn't offer much in the way of security. Perhaps my victory against FrontDoor was a greater triumph than I had realized! No, no, it's way too early to be getting cocky. I still have a mission to complete. Well, technically two, but I'll focus on this one for now.
It took no time at all to encounter another two slimes. These ones were just lone wanderers and not in a group. I decided to fight them using conventional attacks, just to test how well they worked out. The result wasn't great. It's clear that the abundance of my strength comes from that paladin ability, and swinging the sword in my mouth was still rather awkward, but I was still able to defeat each one with two swings of my blade. I took a hit in between these attacks, of course, but suffered minimal damage. The counter attacks by FrontDoor were significantly stronger.
With my foes defeated, this lead to another problem... should I just leave the corpses here to rot? That seems rather dishonorable. I feel no guilt from hunting such creatures, but feel no malice towards them, either, and it feels as though their sacrifices should be honored. It's a little awkward to bury a puddle, however... plus, it seems rather wasteful.
The good news? It turns out that slime is way, way tastier than it looks! It has a sort of sweet, fruity flavor to it, and a soft, jiggly texture. I'm hesitant to call the next part bad news, as an abundance of delicious food can hardly be considered bad, but there was just so much of it, and I hated the idea of leaving it to waste. I forced myself to eat every bit, long after I was completely sick of it, and figured burying the brains was a fair compromise. Between severely overeating and this particular choice of diet, it really didn't sit well, and the trip back to town was a very slow and cumbersome one.
Still, after a few breaks, one of which resulted in an involuntary nap, I eventually returned, victoriously. I was a little worried about the eyes, to be honest. I feared that they would be basically liquid and difficult to move, but it turns out they were remarkably solid! Fitting all ten of them into my mouth was similarly no easy task, but it's amazing the sort of feats one can accomplish if you put your mind to it!
--- Quest completed! 75 Experience Point(s)! 15 Gold(s)! Buckler Shield! ---
Yay! More numbers! And a shield! Now I can use a sword and a shield, like a proper knight!
...wait, how is that supposed to work? I would need to hold it in my mouth, right? But that's where my sword goes. I gave the matter some thought, considering the possibility of simply fastening the shield to my side, or even my tail, but in the end couldn't see how I could make it work. Even if I had a way to properly put it on (and the sword alone was tough enough!), it would just put me off balance, and would offer little real protection. Disappointing, but not surprising. At least the sword works. That's the important thing.
As for the old medicine woman, she looked rather confused as I dropped the many eyes at her feet, having few close calls but thankfully not swallowing any in the process.
"Um... thank you?" she says. I'm quite proud of myself, of course, having worked hard, and am rewarded with a particularly nice head pat. "You'll have a rather rough time if you rely on carrying such things in your mouth, however." she says, seemingly unfazed by the fact that I'm a dog, which I greatly appreciate.
I hadn't really considered it, but she's right. What if she had wanted twelve eyes? Or something far larger? I suppose I could take multiple trips, but what if the items I had to obtain were further away? It seems quest givers have little interest in accepting such items one at a time, and instead want them all at once. Could I just leave them there, or would they disappear before I got back? Just as I began to worry, my mind flooded with potential unattainable mission objectives, the kindly lady came to my rescue.
"You should get yourself a proper bag to carry things in." she said.
Of course! That's the sort of thing adventurers are known to have! A relatively small pack which is inexplicably larger on the inside, with which to hold assorted loot, money and key items! Now, how exactly do I go about getting such a thing?
Once again, she saves day, pointing a shaky hand towards a heavyset man at the other side of the village who is chopping logs. He also happens to have the telltale exclamation mark over his head! Lucky! I bark happily to the eye lady and quickly bound over to him. I, again, feel a little guilty over the prospect of being more excited at the reward rather than the act of helping, but hey, it's something that will aid me in helping more people. That makes it a selfless act in the end, right?