# 003

"You!" A boy who looks a couple of years younger than me shouts and points in my direction making me look around to see who's he's upset with. "Don't play dumb, I know you're the asshole the ripped off my sister." He pulls a familiar looking girl out from where she's hiding behind his back.

"Oh, it's you." I nod when I recognize the girl from my first day in the woods. "You still owe me one-hundred-sixty-five copper." Jen laughs when I hold my palm out, Mom must have told her about my run-in with the girl.

"Fuck you, you bastard!" He shouts and starts charging me. I just laugh and snap my fingers, summoning an ice wall in his path just tall enough to trip him up. "Ahh!" He screams and goes ass over tea-kettle.

"Gods dammit, Mason!" The girl shouts and rushes up to him. I thought she was going to help him up, but she started smacking him around instead. "I told you that he saved my life by casting a magic barrier and you think it's a good idea to just charge him. We're only having money problems because you spent all of it on presents for girls that don't even like you."

"Ack! Lay off, dammit." He cringes under her blows making me snort out another laugh. "Fucking stop already. Gods, Maddie, what did I ever do to get stuck with a twin like you? And, those girls like me plenty." He adds with a bitter tone.

"You're twins too?" Sera steps forward to address the girl, Maddie, while completely ignoring the thrashing she's giving her brother. "I'm Sera, me and Esra are twins, we never met others like us. Too bad your twin is a boy, he looks stupid." Jen, Kaitlyn, and I all crack up laughing at our little sister's unvarnished words.

"He is stupid." Maddie agrees. "And, aren't you two just the cutest?" She melts just like most people do when meeting the girls for the first time. "Oh, I wish I could have had a little sister instead of him."

"I'm the big sister too." Sera gleams.

"We're both going to be big sisters when Mom has the new baby." Esra adds. I think she's happy to finally not be the youngest, even if it is only by a few minutes.

"And, weren't we going to look for something nice to buy for her?" I prompt, not wanting to deal with the idiot girl or her idiot brother anymore. Not that our shopping trip is actually for the baby that is still months away from being born, but I don't mind buying the girls something every now and then.

""Yay, toys."" The twins forget all about the new girl and start pulling on my clothes to drag me forward.

"I-I'm sorry about my brother." The idiot girl speaks up as we walk past. "I promise to repay what I owe you."

"Don't worry about it." I wave the matter away, the show the two of them just put on more than worth whatever coppers I could squeeze her for. "We stocked up in the city before moving here so that dab won't even be missed."

"..." Her brother opens his mouth, likely to spout some more bullshit, but she pops him one right in the breadbasket.

"Th-thank you." She ducks her head and forces her gasping brother to do the same.

"I think she likes you." Jen says once we're away from the idiot twins.

"Who cares? She's just some dumb adventurer." I wave it off and put the girl out of my mind.

...

"Not you again." I groan out when I stumble across the idiot girl the very next day. "Did your brother ditch you to chase girls again?"

"N-no." A slight blush creeps onto her cheeks after my words make her jump. "We split up to try and get more cores."

"Because going solo worked so well for you last time." I mock the stupid adventurer and continue on my way. "Try not to die, I won't be around to save you again."

"Do you have to be such a jerk?" She clamps her hands over her mouth and blushes all over after those words escape without her meaning to say them.

"Only to idiot adventurers." I reply with a laugh. "And, look out behind you. Wouldn't want you to get into any more debt, now would we." I laugh again when she swirls around just in time to block the slime that was about to attack.

...

"W-wait." She runs up to me out of breath a few minutes later. The only reason she was even able to catch up was because I found several slimes stuck in a dried-out creek and stopped to tame them all. "How... how do you run so fast?"

"You chased after me just to ask that?" I raise an eyebrow at her while taming the last slime. "Don't you have better things to do?"

"Please." She begs when I turn away again. "I thought I saw something bigger than a slime in the bushes back there."

"Just because it's called the Slime Forest doesn't mean that they are all that will spawn here." I explain with a roll of my eyes. "It's rare, but it does happen. Go find your brother, you should be fine as long as you're together. Honestly, you two are so new at this that if you went solo anywhere else you'd be dead a dozen times over by now."

"I don't know where he is, we each took different paths into the forest." I pinch the bridge of my nose at the frightened little kitten vibe she's sending out right now.

"Fine!" I huff. "You can stick with me, but try not to slow me down too much. You're just lucky I found all of these slimes stuck here, so I can afford to take it easy for a bit."

"Thank you." Tears of relief well up in her eyes. This girl is just not meant to be an adventurer, but that's none of my business. So, I just keep moving, at a much-reduced pace, deeper into the woods.

...

"Stop." I hiss and reach behind me to clamp a hand on the idiot girl's mouth before she can scare away the prize I just spotted. "Just stand here, and don't make a noise." She nods with a gulp.

Taking the sling from my belt, I take a couple of careful steps away from the girl. Both, so she won't be in the way, and to get a better angle on my prey. One swing, two, and loose.

"Yes! Rabbit for dinner." I dash forward to wring its neck, just in case the stone that smashed into its temple didn't finish it off. "Dress!" A pain in the butt spell, but beyond worth it to not have to deal with the blood or guts myself.

"Bunny!" The girl cries out when she sees the snow-white, horned rabbit that I just killed.

"Seriously?" I can't help but scoff at her. "What the fuck are you doing as an adventurer? I've tried not to say anything because... well, I mostly don't care. But, seriously? It is a monster; that cute little thing would have been happy to gut you while you were cooing over it."

"I-I know that." Oh, gods, she looks like she's going to cry again. "I was just surprised, is all."

"I mean it, what are you doing as an adventurer? And, you might as well sit down; this spell is going to take a Moment to finish." I lean up against a tree and wait for the spell to finish. "You're going to get yourself killed out here, you'd be a lot better off just getting a safe job in the city somewhere."

"I can't." She plops her butt down on the soft, forest floor. "Mason wants to be an adventurer just like our parents were before... Anyways, they asked me to take care of him."

"Because he's so stupid?" I interject.

"No! ...yes." She sighs and then starts laughing. "Gods, he's even worse at this than I am. I never should have let him out of my sight today, but he keeps spending all of our damned coin. What's your name, by the way? You never told me. I'm Madison." She adds her own as an afterthought.

"Cole and I didn't see the need. In case, you hadn't guessed, I'm not overly fond of adventurers."

"So, it's not just me?" She speaks without thinking and starts blushing again.

"You're cute, but I'm not interested." Maybe if she quit being stupid, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

"Why not?" She asks, indignant, and then slaps her hands over her mouth to keep any more stray thoughts from escaping.

"Heh." I chuckle as her face heats up even more. "You're an adventurer, however reluctantly, and that's more than enough to put me off."

"Aren't you one too?" She ventures after a moment.

"I am a member of the guild, but only because I have to be to work with monsters." I explain. "My family tames and sells slimes as cleaners. Alright, rest time is over, let's get moving." I wrap the now cleanly dressed rabbit in its hide before stuffing it in a pouch on my bag meant for just such occasions.

...

"Just how far do you plan to go?" Madison asks wearily, about an hour later.

"Not much further." I pass her my canteen. "The mana flows are stronger in the area we're about to reach. That means more slimes." I add when she looks confused. "I had planned to explore deeper into the woods today, but as long as I get my quota I'm good. I'll even let you take the extras."

"...thanks." Her voice is so soft that I barely even hear it.

"Just keep on your toes." I point a wand towards the bush she's about to plow through and tame the slime hiding in it before it attacks. "And, please consider getting a different job. I think your parents would rather you live, even if it means abandoning your brother to his fate."

"..." She just ducks her head to hide behind her hair.

...

"You're over-extending." I critique Madison's lousy sword form about half an hour later. The place was crawling with slimes, so I was able to capture all I needed easily. "Use tight attacks that keep the blade closer to your body. Those wild swings just leave you open to counterattacks." A barrier pops into existence just long enough to prevent the slime from hitting her.

"Distracting me mid-fight is not helping." She's only facing three slimes, so I don't know what she's complaining about.

"I can fuck off and take my barrier with me if you prefer." I counter with a smirk. "And, you'd better hurry. More are coming."

"Nnh." She whimpers and blocks a jumping slime with her shield before giving it a short but brutal chop with her sword. "Help!" She cries when she sees the other four hopping madly in her direction.

"Promise you'll quit this adventurer nonsense?" I ask as she slowly backs up towards me. "My twelve-year-old sister can handle twice this many without breaking a sweat. You're not meant for this life and the sooner you realize that the longer you'll live."

"I have to!" She shouts back. "Ahh!" She screams as she once again gets attacked from behind by a slime she wasn't looking out for. "Help!" She starts panicking again and turns to run at me.

"Give me your sword." I don't give her the option and just snatch it out of her hand. "Now, watch." Stalking forward, I wait for each slime to jump at me before side-stepping and cutting them in half with a single quick blow. "They can't change their trajectory once they're in the air, so all you need to do is dodge and cut, dodge and cut." It takes only seconds to wipe out all the monsters she was running scared from.

"..." Her mouth just hangs open when I flick her sword clean and return it hilt first.

"That should be enough cores to keep you and your brother from starving for another day or two." I say, still waiting for her to take the sword back. "Well, go collect them, I want to head home."

"Th-thank you?" She sounds unsure of herself and nearly drops the sword after finally taking it from me.

"Yeah, yeah." I wave her over to the cores shining in the forest litter. "Hurry up, and I'll even take the easy path back to town."

"You-you jerk!" She twirls on me. "There was an easy path?"

"Easy, but longer." I reply with a smirk. "You were slowing me down enough as it is."

"...hate you." She mutters the words just loudly enough for me to hear.

"Hate me all you want." I send her my most winning smile. "You'd still better collect those cores before the next wave gets here." I point into the distance and she pales to see another half-dozen slimes rolling closer.

...