Flora walked down the street. The cursed weather of the Month of Mud had brought an untimely drizzle.
“To be burned to death by Dragon Flame...”
“How could you die so easily, my little brother?”
In Flora's eyes, her brother had been different from everyone else since childhood.
It wasn't a difference in appearance or personality.
Rather, it was an extremely rare, deep-seated difference in his baseline logical reasoning that formed his consciousness.
He was special, singular, rare, and had an incomprehensibly distinct nature.
In her heart, Zoe was incomparable to her other siblings, who were vulgar, greedy, and only cared about the family inheritance.
And yet...
“He died just like that.”
Flora wasn't sure if the feeling in her heart right now was grief or regret.
She only wanted to find a quiet place to tuck away all these emotions, which were as damp and heavy as the rainy weather.
Flora felt a sudden reluctance to return to the academy she had dropped out of, or to her family.
At the academy, there was nothing left for her to learn.
The professors and teachers guarded their knowledge and skills as if they were their very lives.
Meanwhile, the family only cared about titles like “hope of the family” or “swordsmanship genius.” No one cared about Flora Sable herself behind those labels.
Everyone would say with envy that the swordsmanship genius was Flora Sable.
But no one would say that Flora Sable was a swordsmanship genius.
The only younger brother who would say that was now dead.
Flora took out the temporary adventurer license she had registered.
What kind of scenery did Zoe see in his mind when he yearned to become an adventurer and embark on an adventure?
She wanted to see it for herself, to witness the scenery further along the path of adventure on behalf of her deceased younger brother, Zoe.
“Miss, would you like to buy a flower?”
A young girl stepped out of an alley, holding a flower basket. She was barefoot, dressed in rags, and looked incredibly pitiful.
In her hand, she held a pure white flower.
Pity inevitably welled up in Flora's heart. Besides, perhaps it would be nice to pay her respects to her younger brother with a flower.
Her poor brother had died without even a grave, though that made paying her respects much simpler.
Just as Flora reached out, a voice interrupted her movements.
“Stop.”
A golden light bypassed Flora and locked directly onto the little girl in front of her. It turned into chains, binding the girl layer by layer.
The girl's pitiful expression instantly twisted into a ferocious snarl.
“For the Great Merciful Lord!”
The girl shrieked in a high-pitched voice, and then her body began to swell as if she were about to explode.
However, the golden chains of light tightened rapidly, absorbing and heavily suppressing all of the swelling energy.
Flora quickly gripped the hilt of the sword at her waist, backing away from the girl.
“Are you a student of the Rose Noble Academy?”
A long-eared female figure wearing a golden mask stepped forward.
“A High Elf?”
“And a Sacred Circle Knight. What makes you think I'm an academy student?”
Looking at the figure in front of her, Flora's guard lowered significantly.
“Your every movement.”
“This girl is brainwashed by the Headhunter Cult. They must have had their eyes on you for some time.”
“Students from the royal academy possess great strength and rare classes, yet they lack vigilance—on top of being beautiful.”
“Sending this girl was likely a calculated 'hunting method' they prepared specifically after researching you.”
“The flower thorns are coated in poison, and the fragrance is a slow-acting toxin. If you kept it on you, the toxin would slowly accumulate.”
The High Elf picked up a white flower and detailed it word by word under the girl's furious gaze.
A cold shiver ran down Flora's spine.
Right when she was consumed by grief over her brother's death, the Headhunter Cult had exploited this emotional vulnerability, using a little girl to deliver a flower.
Such interconnected, calculating schemes...
“But even so, the probability of me detecting the poison is very high.”
Flora was speaking the truth.
As a Mid-tier Magic Swordsman, her senses were extremely sharp. Even if she didn't notice it immediately, once she gathered her emotions, there was a high probability she would detect the floral poison.
“So what? Even if you discovered it, you'd only find this girl, and then she would blow herself up.”
“And little girls can be found anywhere. To them, they are nothing more than cheap consumables.”
“Using a little girl for a chance to take out a Mid-tier Magic Swordsman is not a losing trade in their eyes.”
For the first time, Flora truly understood how evil and dangerous the “Headhunter Cult,” which had only been a term in books to her, actually was.
“My name is Evelyn. If you run into any trouble, you can come find me. This is the address of where I'm staying.”
Evelyn took out a slip of paper and handed it to Flora.
“And if it's not necessary, you shouldn't stay in this town any longer.”
“The Headhunter Cult is plotting something in the shadows, and it even involves the Rose nobility.”
“The movements of the monsters in the Great Hera Forest are also abnormal. Everything is pointing toward...”
“In short, it is very unstable here.”
Listening to Evelyn's words, Flora gripped the sword at her waist.
“You are hunting down the Headhunter Cult, right? Let me help you.”
“My name is Flora Sable, a Mid-tier Magic Swordsman.”
...
[Skill Spray (F-grade) Lv.4 proficiency +1. Skill Spray (F-grade) Lv.4 proficiency is maxed. Upgraded to Spray (F-grade) Lv.5.]
In this instant, Zoe felt the flow of the air around him become exceptionally clear.
It felt as though an invisible air chamber had appeared within his body, ready to allow him to spray at any time.
[Spray (F-grade) Lv.5] Proficiency MAX (Thoroughly Mastered)
“The proficiency is maxed!”
Zoe looked at his skill bar in pleasant surprise.
Even though it was only F-grade, the proficiency was indeed maxed, meaning he had thoroughly mastered it. It wouldn't disappear due to reincarnation; he would possess it forever.
This was his first permanently mastered skill.
Zoe tried to exhale. Right now, even without expelling acid or corrosive gas, he could spit out a gust of wind solely by relying on [Spray] itself.
He targeted the rock wall and suddenly spat out a sharp gust of wind.
The gust sliced through the air, leaving several white marks on the rock wall.
“Though the power is indeed nothing to write home about.”
Zoe stopped exhaling. He hadn't expected [Spray] to deal high damage anyway.
The primary purpose of the [Spray] skill was utility, expanding Zoe's combat options. Its practicality was actually higher than some high-grade skills, making it extremely versatile.
Calming his excitement, Zoe did not slack off and continued to train his other skills.
He had now obtained his first skill with maxed proficiency, and he had confirmed that Lv.5 was indeed the cap for skill proficiency.
Having a clear goal, Zoe was far more motivated than before.
In short, he just had to grind desperately toward Lv.5.
Outside the cave, Vera was also practicing diligently, unleashing her Frost Dragon Breath toward the rock wall.
She had already gotten the hang of it. Her current Frost Dragon Breath was quite impressive; she was no longer spitting out mere ice shards, but a white torrent of freezing air. A full-powered breath was enough to freeze a small tree.
At the foot of the hill, aside from the bouncing slimes...
The pigmen felled trees, actively building their new home.
Along with the pigmen, there were dozens of kobolds and dozens of lizardmen.
The kobolds and lizardmen had both traveled here to seek refuge after hearing of his reputation.
They did not live together with the pigmen.
The kobolds resided in the eastern forest, the pigmen in the southern forest, and the lizardmen lived by the river a bit further to the southeast.
The foot of the hill was divided into three residential areas for each race to live their own lives.
Although they didn't live together due to their different races, they still communicated since they swore fealty to the same lord.
The pigmen were skilled at construction, so they helped build houses for all three races.
The kobolds excelled at gathering and tailoring, so they processed hides, crafted clothes, and helped track prey for the three races.
The lizardmen were adept at combat and stealth, primarily acting as hunters for the community.
The ongoing construction here attracted more and more intelligent monsters to seek refuge. Every day, monsters from various races arrived.
Zoe welcomed them all. Once a monster swore fealty, he would allocate a plot of land at the foot of the hill for them to build on.
He didn't provide food, only space and protection. Whether they could survive depended entirely on their own capabilities.
Gradually, perhaps for convenience, this nameless territory acquired a name among the monsters living here.
Naturally, the monsters couldn't think of any sophisticated, elegant names. They simply and concisely referred to the territory they lived in as the Slime Territory.
And they called the low hill in the center the Slime Mountain.
Rate on N.U.
