There was only a brief sound of armor colliding. A figure beside him went from stillness to extreme speed in an instant. The muddy ground was stamped with imprints of metal boot heels. She swept past the wind and airflow, leaves flying in her wake.
Nolan pressed down his windswept hair, amazed inside at Noelle's powerful physique.
He didn't waste any time and quickly took down the wooden hunting bow from his back, hitched an iron-tipped arrow, and followed closely behind.
Noelle charged straight into the group of Slimes surrounding the girl, standing in front of her with greatsword raised in both hands, stance at the ready. A semi-transparent shield instantly materialized, blocking a water bullet attack from a Large Hydro Slime.
Nolan swiftly assessed and determined the number of Hydro Slimes as well as the current situation.
One Large Hydro Slime, with five Small Hydro Slimes. No mistake, it matched the commission description. The abundant water elements in this small lake must have attracted the Hydro Slimes over.
When the Adventurer's Guild investigators discovered them earlier, there were no attacks on people yet. And generally, they wouldn't become alert if left alone. So this commission wasn't particularly urgent.
Could it be that the girl provoked them on purpose? Nolan didn't think too much for now. Saving the person first.
He effortlessly drew back the bowstring. The iron arrowhead shot stealthily towards a Small Hydro Slime, piercing through its body with a splurt. Water elements splashed and its condition clearly weakened somewhat, but it wasn't defeated yet.
It vigilantly wobbled its soft, bouncy body, unable to spot Nolan in the distance. It channeled its anger into a headbutt at the only target it could see, Noelle.
Clang!
Its headbutt bounced off Noelle's breastplate armor, hurting itself significantly in recoil. Nolan shot it down with another arrow. With a Pop, the water elements burst forth.
A lump of Slime Condensate dropped.
[Defeated a Powerful Enemy, Obtained 35 Adventure EXP]
A pleasing voice sounded in his mind. The corners of Nolan's lips curled up slightly, he was in a good mood.
And so, with Noelle guarding the girl behind her and blocking the enraged Large Hydro Slime, Nolan picked off and defeated the Small Hydro Slimes one by one from afar.
The ones that fell short didn't count, on average, it only took two to three arrows to defeat each Small Hydro Slime. In the process, he deliberately employed techniques from "Favonius Archery - Fundamentals" that he just learned, successfully grasping it as it appeared on his stats page.
Arrows continuously fired. They could still be retrieved before being completely ruined, so it wasn't wasteful.
[+33 Adventure EXP]
[+37 Adventure EXP]
[+31 Adventure EXP]
[+38 Adventure EXP]
The five Small Hydro Slimes earned Nolan 174 Adventure EXP. Added to his previous 512, he could level up again.
He promptly invested the 600 Adventure EXP into his level. A familiar heat flow emerged in his body, every cell was being nurtured and evolved. Nolan's strength improved significantly again.
Seeing 86 Combat EXP left, not enough to increase character level, but just enough to raise Hunter's Archery skills to Lv.3.
After allocating EXP, Nolan's stats panel was refreshed:
Name: Nolan Walker
Level: Lv.7 (0/700)
Race: Human
Title: None
Innate Talent: Entangling Affections
Skills: Hunter's Archery Lv.3 (0/300), Favonius Archery - Fundamentals Lv.1 (2/100)
Specialty:[Descender]
Adventure EXP: 9
If this fanfic game stats panel was still the same as Nolan's understanding, then his character level at Lv.7 would be around the level of average monsters already.
And average monsters were generally around Lv.1~Lv.20, higher leveled ones are more rarely seen. With weaponry and skills, Nolan could be considered strong on the average monster level.
Nolan remembered that Level 20 represented a milestone. Upon reaching that level, he could obtain racial expertise, signifying that as a human, he had reached the pinnacle that ordinary people could grow to in their natural state.
To quickly get to Level 20, he still needed a lot more Adventure EXP. Nolan shifted his gaze back to the last Large Hydro Slime.
By now, with Nolan having taken care of the other Small Slimes, Noelle no longer needed to split her attention to protect the young woman behind her.
The splendid greatsword, judging by its looks should be a Favonius Greatsword. Its blade was covered in rich amber Geo elemental power, forming the shape of an enlarged and elongated sword edge.
Before the Large Hydro Slime could jump up to attack, she swung the sword down. The Slime was like a balloon being smashed down. However, this Large Hydro Slime was truly tenacious, only retreating a bit.
It seemed this Slime had high health, defense, elemental resistance, and so on - thick-skinned and sturdy.
But since it couldn't break through Noelle's armor, the outcome was self-evident. With Nolan joining the fight, one arrow after another struck its body until his last arrow finally defeated it.
Larger water elements than the Small Slimes burst forth. Being relatively close, Noelle reflexively used her hand to block, but her maid-like armor was still drenched. The rose pink skirt was partially soaked through too, though it didn't impact much.
Luckily where the Slime burst, the condensate merged into higher quality Slime Concentrate. Aside from selling to alchemists as alchemy material, it could also be used to craft potions, or even innovatively in cooking.
At the same time, defeating the monster also earned Nolan combat experience.
[Defeated a Powerful Enemy, Obtained 119 Adventure EXP]
It was the most he had ever gained, directly satisfying a little more than one-seventh of the level-up progress.
"Noelle, are you alright?" Nolan asked with concern.
"Ah, please don't worry, it's just that my clothes got a little wet. Let's check on her first."
In that last hit Noelle's armor broke before she could re-condense elemental power again, which led to her getting splashed by the water.
The young woman they rescued had light orange hair tied in a ponytail, some hair tips dangling beside her cheeks. Her top and sleeves were separate pieces. Her bloomer-like shorts were slightly puffed up.
She looks confident and youthful. Nolan appraised inwardly.
Noelle helped the young woman sitting on the ground to her feet. Her knees were a little red, probably scraped when knocked down by the Slimes, but it was just a minor injury.
"Thank you so much for your help, or else I may have never made it back to Mondstadt!"
The young woman patted her chest, still flustered.
[Vile Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 252 Affection Points. Current Affection Level Lv. 2 (152/200)]
"It's good that you're fine. We also came to clean up these Slimes to complete an Adventurers' Guild commission. Didn't expect someone would be in danger."
Noelle's metal glove-covered hands embarrassingly stroked the silver-gray hair strands falling beside her eyes.
"Mm, right." Nolan echoed in agreement.
At this time he felt very surprised inside. He didn't expect saving someone would give him so much affection, directly surpassing girls who currently had affection towards him.
It was probably comparable to a friend level already. After all, it took Amber quite some time to reach Lv.2 at Affection Level towards him.
Nolan could not help but think in his heart, if the rescue was a little more dramatic and he did a hero saving the beauty, would Vile fall head over heels for him with max Affection Level!?
Haha, quite wishful thinking. Though why did this name Vile seem familiar?
(End of Chapter)
To be continued...
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