CH 4

Just as I thought that my butt was getting sore from all the rocking the carriage made, Rofas-san pointed to something up ahead.

「That’s the potion field over there.」

Hm?

Past the trees was a single wooden house sitting on the top of a steep cliff.

Nothing over there looked like the wide field I was expecting.

「Hey!! Have you kids been doing well? I brought a new friend for all of you. Please teach her how to do the job. I’m counting on you all!」

As the carriage traveled closer to the house, three children ran up to us.

There was a girl who looked around five, a boy who looked around eight, and an older boy who looked around thirteen.

「Eh? Onee-chan, you’re joining us?」

「Alright, you’ll hear about the job’s details from these kids. I’m going to pick up some stuff from the mid-level dungeon and the upper-level dungeon up ahead. I’ll drop by in three or four days to check up on you. Gather up a lot of potions in the meantime!」

Rofas-san said, then waved goodbye and left.

「Um, so, you can get potions at that cave over there.」

「You usually get one potion for every ten slimes you kill, but sometimes bad potions get dropped instead, so you might have to kill around thirty before one drops.」

「Also, also, your level goes up if you defeat a lot of slimes.」

Huh?

Slimes?

Kill?

Eh??

That meant the potion field…

…was actually killing monsters for their loot! I didn’t sign up for this!

I couldn’t possibly kill living creatures!

「Um, if you beat the slimes with this, you can defeat it. But they move really fast, so it’s hard.」

Slimes were those jelly-like cute blobs with round eyes, right?

「Onee-chan, let’s go! I couldn’t kill any when I first started either. If you work hard for about a week, you can defeat them too!」

The little girl pulled my arm and dragged me into the cave.

The inside of the cave was covered in some sort of illuminating moss, so the walls gave off a dim light. It was bright enough that once my eyes adjusted to it, I could see my surroundings.

Rustle rustle.

Eek!

That sound…

Also, the shadow I saw at the corner of my eye…

Hyahh! It’s the black devil! A cockroach!!

「Ah, a slime came out already.」

Huh?

Slime?

「Look, over there! Onee-chan, it’s that thing over there!」

One of the children pointed at the black creature that was the size of a gyoza.

That black glossy thing had no arms and legs and was a bit flat, so it was different from the black devil.

I-it’s not actually a cockroach. It swayed a bit, like its body was made out of liquid

But still, why!

The way it made that rustling sound when it moved, and how it speedily crawled all around! Those movements were just like the black devil’s!

「Gyaaahh!! Noo!!!」

Smack!

「Don’t come near me!」

Splat!

I aimed for the black devil and successively swung the makeshift slipper at it.

「T-that’s amazing, onee-chan!」

「You hit the slime even though it’s so fast!」

Fast? Certainly, its movements were rather fast, but…

Unlike the black devil from back home, this one didn’t have wings to fly with. Also, since we’re inside a cave, there were no corners and furniture to hide behind.

In other words, it was always in my line of sight!

Uwah.

Smack!

Kyahh!

Splat.

Hah, hah, hah…

Somebody help me…

「Wow, that’s the eighth one!」

「Maybe a potion’s gonna drop soon.」

「Onee-chan, you’re so cool! You’ve only been in here for five minutes!」

What kind of hell was this, for eight of those black devils to appear in five minutes…