Chapter 27: Day 41 – Voluntold

Chapter 27: Day 41 – Voluntold

“So, you are coming with me then?” I looked at Tyrese and his posse.

“I got voluntold by Boss Carlos,” he said.

“Voluntold?” I asked. I was pretty sure I knew what he meant, but I was curious what he would say.

“When he looks at you and asks for a volunteer.” That sounded about right.

“So, the new person?”

“That’s Tim.”

“Then Hans, Greg, and Laura with the bow.”

“You actually remembered,” Tyrese said.

“Easy names. If they were named Tyrese I might forget.” He shook his head at that.

“Let’s do this. So, that way?” Tyrese pointed and I nodded.

“Yes. Brown slimes should be treated like blue slimes, but swords are easier to use on them instead of clubs. Also, you need to look very carefully. I haven’t seen any too high up in trees, but you never know.”

We made our way past the North gate into the brown slime forest. “Anyone walk outside the walls to another gate?” I asked.

“No, well haven’t heard about it. Any of you?” Tyrese asked his people and they all responded with a negative. We walked a bit more before I came to a stop.

“Alright, there is the first slime. Look carefully.” They all looked, but it was clear they were having a hard time spotting the brown slime. “You can tell because it looks a bit clear and reflects the light more than the trees or roots.” I walked over and stabbed it with my sword. Thorny roots sprung up.L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Ñøv€l--B1n.

“These last about a 100 seconds. After that they turn to dust. Haven’t been pricked by any, but I would not recommend it.” I picked up the crystal.

“Come on.” They followed me and I came to a stop again. “Spot it?”

“There?” Amanda pointed.

“That is a root, so no.”

“There.” Tyrese pointed.

“You got it.”

The government, Carlos and Red Dawn, had to put in some work and get the people to work. Dammit, I had to push myself even more. At 300 crystals a day, which meant a rate of about one crystal every two minutes. I needed to push myself to one every minute. Get my crystal intake up to 700 a day.

Today, I was getting 400. I stopped thinking about life and how it sucked and focused on moving and killing slimes. The annoying part was waiting for the thorny roots to disappear. Brown slimes were too slow.

I finished the day with only 367 crystals. My best day of grinding yet, but nowhere close to what I wanted. I walked through the city at night back towards the plaza. Finding an empty building I stayed for the night.

The next day I cashed in my crystals, only handing out a 5 crystal tip to the guards. After a 53 point restoration, I had 3,757 points. I was tempted to buy some upgrades but held off. I was going to start saving up a bit. I wanted a buffer and a couple hundred points no longer cut it in my mind. I wasn’t struggling that much either, so a larger buffer wasn’t a loss right now.

Even if I purchased upgrades, the cost for the next one was 515 points. The scaling price also made me slow down. I made my way to the South. To the West were the blue slimes, North was the brown slimes, East had the grass plains, and South was another pine forest.

I reached the gate without that much difficultly and entered the forest. I went very slowly checking each and every angle. I also made sure to look up quite a bit.

Something moved. I paused and listened closely. I heard something stepping on the pine needles. I looked in that direction and spotted a form moving through the trees. The distance was great enough that I could only tell it looked like a wolf.

I banged my sword on my shield and then listened again. It was a wolf. Not an overly large one and it had a brown and gray coat, which let it blend in. It was only the one wolf as well.

It rushed at me, and I used my shield to block its initial charge. I then stabbed it in the neck, shoulder, area. I yanked my sword free, and the blood was red. The wolf and the blood quickly turned to dust leaving a crystal behind. At least the monster didn’t make too much of a mess.

I took the crystal and began wolf hunting. I made sure to check behind me and know my way back to the city. From what I could observe, the wolves patrolled. The blue slimes might have done the same thing, but they were so slow and ignorant of most stimuli that I never really considered it.

The thing about the brown wolves was that I could draw them to me. I would bang on my shield with my sword, and they would rush at me with the self-preservation of a lemming running off a cliff.

The key thing was to space out the engagements, so I didn’t run into two at once. Block their initial rush with my shield and then stab them in the neck, shoulder area and deep into their body. It was a lot more exhausting than the slimes, but it felt quicker.

I ended the day with 216 crystals. I didn’t risk staying out even as the sun began to set. While I had avoided any injury, the brown wolves were quick and stealthy. At least they didn’t leave behind a mess like people did, but then they would have been a source of meat.

No free food around here. I was stuck eating fruit and vegetables that evening. I really wanted tacos. Once that thought entered my brain, I began to think of all the foods I wanted. Pizza, tacos, pizza, pasta with alfredo sauce, tacos, turkey with stuffing, apple pie, ice cream, pizza, and the list kept going on and on. I really wanted pizza.

I rubbed my face and let out a sigh as I sat on the second floor of an empty building. That store upgrade needed to come soon; I wasn’t a rabbit. I wanted bread and meat. This was probably one of the biggest things to make me chip in for an upgrade.

I decided that I would hunt wolves here the next two days and then go back to the plaza to cash in and get repayment from Carl. After that I would probably check out the plains. I had kind of been expecting green slimes in this part of the forest. The fact there were brown wolves instead, made me think there might also be wolves in the plains.

I should also take the chance to leave out one gate and come back through a different gate just to confirm they weren’t portals of some kind. That was what the stone city reminded me of, Minecraft with block protection.

Someone built a city and then protected all the blocks. Also, the square houses didn’t help with that Minecraft vibe this place had. Minecraft cities were often deserted, another creepy similarity. The only curved things in the city were the walls, outer road, and pillars.

Some of the houses intersected each other as well. Most buildings had the default layout of a square with 9 rooms. If they intersected, then a room or two might be removed to make way for the other building. Everything was also two stories with no design marks or other personal touches on the inside or outside, just gray stone.

I kind of wanted my own place to spend the night, but I wouldn’t waste the points unless I could make it secure. I was missing any kind of bed. There was a lot I was missing.