[Creature: Slime
An extremely common demon, slimy and viscous like snot. Disgusting!
It dies instantly upon the destruction of its core. Humans face almost no danger to their lives unless they are surrounded by a massive quantity of Slimes.
Because the difficulty of slaying them is low, the experience points provided are not high. However, their sheer numbers mean novice Heroes can freely hunt them to accumulate experience points!]
"Oh! It really appeared!" Layton looked at the description of the Slime in amazement.
"Does this text only appear after encountering a demon once?" Ariana asked Anyi.
"I don't know. This is only the second time I've opened it," Anyi replied.
Before setting off, he deliberately pretended to casually open the Encyclopedia, then taught the others how to do it.
After all, the Encyclopedia collection rate was listed right at the top of the personal information panel. It was hard not to notice it.
"Lord Heroes, I apologize for not being able to attend to you earlier!"
On the side, Masi approached quickly with a tray holding four large cups, smiling cheerfully.
"Stop! What is that?!" A devotee accompanying them shouted in alarm to halt him.
The devotees weren't just there to assist the Heroes; they were there to protect Her Holiness the Saintess. Naturally, they couldn't let Masi bring strange items close.
"This is a drink I prepared as a tribute to the four Lord Heroes," Masi said with a facade of composure, smiling.
"A drink?! Haha! It arrived at the perfect time! I'm thirsty!"
Without waiting for the others to speak, Layton quickly stepped forward and grabbed a cup. He immediately downed almost half of it, only to make a face of discomfort.
"Lord Hero! Be careful, it might be poisoned!" The devotee quickly cautioned Layton.
"Poisoned? Why would it be poisoned? We're here to help eliminate Slimes. There's no way they'd poison us, right?"
Layton didn't understand the devotee's caution and promptly finished the rest of the half-cup.
"Ah! Refreshing! Easy to drink!"
"Aren't you all going to drink some? When someone prepares a gift, you should gratefully accept it! Otherwise, you're letting down their good intentions!" Layton said to the other three.
"Let me try," Anyi said, stepping forward and taking a drink from Masi's tray.
"Me too, me too," Ariana said happily. She felt a sense of goodwill from the outside world just as they were preparing to slay demons.
"You can't let down someone's good intentions..." Miruku mumbled with her head down, finally stepping forward as well.
Watching the other three Heroes take a small sip of the "drink," Masi clenched his fist in excitement.
「Good! They drank it!」
What they drank wasn't some fine beverage, but Slime mucus mixed with seasonings!
Slime mucus is corrosive, but its corrosion rate is very slow. It would move out through the esophagus and intestinal tract before it could corrode internal organs.
Within half an hour after they finish drinking, they would start vomiting and having diarrhea!
"Since this is a village that produces a lot of Slimes, they use Slime as a beverage, I see."
Anyi said this while taking another sip.
As soon as his words fell, everyone simultaneously turned their gaze to Masi, full of questioning and suspicion.
Masi instantly broke out in a cold sweat.
「Exposed?! Why?!」
"L-Lord Hero is correct! It is indeed a drink made from Slimes!"
He's already broken. There is no need to pretend further!
"It was an idea that struck someone before. They wanted to taste the flavor of Slime, then discovered the mouthfeel was special, cool and refreshing. So they added Slime juice and sugar, making it a beverage that has been passed down to this day!"
Since it had come to this, he could only talk nonsense!
"This is made from Slimes?!" Layton exclaimed in shock. "And it tastes good, too."
"Yes," Ariana also nodded.
Miruku: "Blech!"
What kind of disgusting stuff did I just drink?!
If it was Slime, they should have said so earlier!
Anyi remained silent and took another sip.
In his previous life, Slimes were actually a relatively popular drink among many Heroes.
Due to the existence of the [Gluttony] skill, Heroes were essentially mobile processing machines. They could swallow everything without residue, only taking in and never letting out.
Regardless of whether it was sweet or foul, once it was in their mouths, it was just food.
Even if they choked on Slime or Goblin flesh, a Hero would not let any of it go to waste.
Think about it: after a grueling battle, when a Hero's HP and Mana dropped to a certain level, even seeing their comrades might make them feel hungry.
So, if there happened to be a demon corpse nearby, what do you think they would do?
Therefore, using readily available Slimes as sustenance to replenish stamina was quite common.
Besides, the texture wasn't bad. Just eat it and be done with it.
However, Heroes can digest Slimes fine, but for ordinary people, eating Slimes results in consequences far more terrifying than eating spoiled food.
Because after death, Slimes turn into clear water.
In other words, what they drank was essentially still a living thing.
Even if the Slime mucus detached from the main body, it would still slowly revert to its original form.
This meant that after they drank it, within half an hour, the Slime mucus would uncontrollably erupt from their mouths and sphincters!
As for this village treating it as a specialty drink, one could only say...
「They're playing a huge game.」
Experience points belong to the individual, but Anyi felt he should advise them to go see a doctor. Specifically a doctor specializing in the posterior.
Of course, he wasn't oblivious to their true intentions.
The fact that they dared to offer this harmful substance to people to drink wasn't because they knew about the Hero's [Gluttony] skill.
More likely, they wanted them to vomit and have diarrhea, forcing them to squat helplessly on the toilet, right?
He didn't expose them directly, only because he wanted to know what exactly they were trying to achieve.
After finishing the "drink," the group began heading towards the forest where Slimes roamed.
Along the way, Masi deliberately dragged things out, pretending to be very excited.
He pointed at houses on the left, saying who lived inside, and pointed at houses on the right, explaining what the family usually did.
Clearly the leader of the Slime Cleaners, yet he knew everything happening in the village like a village head.
It seemed he never intended to do any real work, content to simply enjoy the local gossip.
"Right, Anyi. How did you know that was a Slime just now? Have you actually eaten one before?"
Along the path, Ariana asked with genuine curiosity.
"I tried it randomly once," Anyi replied with his usual calm.
Hearing their conversation, Masi was nearly losing his mind.
「Hurry up! Why aren't you people moving faster?!"
He had already led this group in circles for almost twenty minutes.
That strong man and the little girl who only drank a mouthful, he could ignore them. But their Saintess had consumed quite a lot!
Given her physical build, how could she possibly last twenty minutes?
As for the man playing with his swords, Masi had already abandoned any hope that Slimes would affect him.
He figured Anyi was the strongest of the lot, so the Slimes probably just evaporated the moment they hit his stomach.
"Captain! It's bad! It's really bad!!」
In the distance, a young boy ran toward them, gasping for breath.
「Here it comes!」
After such a long wait, the next stage of the plan was finally ready.
"What is it?!" Masi asked, pretending to be gripped by anxiety.
"The Slimes... The Slimes are rioting!!"
"A Slime riot?! What happened?! Take me there right now!"
Masi pushed his acting skills to the limit, put on a perfectly flustered face.
"Okay! I'll lead the way!" The staff member followed his lead.
"Lord Heroes, I will go ahead to see what is happening. Please, take a moment to rest. I'll be right back," Masi said, offering a strained smile to the group from the theocracy.
"No, we're coming too!" Layton declared immediately. "We came here specifically to deal with Slimes. How can we possibly rest?!"
"No, no, no! Clearing Slimes is our job. You are honored guests, how can we trouble you?"
Masi was still desperately trying to hold them back.
"Clearing Slimes is your job, but defeating the demon scourge is our sacred duty!
God granted us Strength! It is meant for slaying demons!
Enough, do not refuse us. Lead the way!"
Layton spoke with righteous indignation, his words inspiring every devotee nearby.
"That's right! Slaying demons is our duty!"
"Lead us there right this second!!"
"Slay the demon! Slay the demon! Slay the demon!!"
Seeing the frenzied devotees, Masi forced a hesitant smile.
"This... Alright then! We will go together!"
"OHHHHHHH!!"
The devotees were ignited with passion.
Miruku, watching Layton from the side, felt a dazzling light erupting from him. It made her wish she could curl into a dark corner and simply vanish.
Too... too hot-blooded! Someone like me shouldn't even be here!!
Ariana gripped her magic staff tight, looking incredibly eager.
Having just learned how to aim her magic, she couldn't wait to test her power on wild Slimes.
Anyi merely glanced silently at Masi, saying nothing at all.
...
When the group reached the edge of the village, before they even cleared the gates, they saw a massive, multicolored monster moving slowly toward the settlement.
It was a Slime, composed of thousands upon thousands of smaller ones.
Countless Magic Cores were visible at short intervals, and the Slime mucus had fused together, forming a giant creature nearly twenty meters tall.
"So... so big! Is that really a Slime?!" Layton gripped the wooden shield in his hand, momentarily frozen.
Could this small shield truly withstand such a massive monster?
At this moment, Masi was sweating profusely, unable to stop himself from swallowing hard.
He had told his subordinates to gather the Slimes, hoping to give these Heroes a small setback.
But...
With the scale of this fused mass, this was no longer something their Slime Cleaners could handle.
Too big!
Bigger than a mountain!!
Forget smashing the Magic Core; just being approached by this mass of Slimes would mean being swallowed whole.
The biggest taboo when cleaning Slimes is being fully enveloped by them. Their liquid nature makes it impossible to struggle, leaving victims to simply drown alive inside the Slime body.
A Slime of this size would flatten the village in no time.
"Then... maybe... maybe we should run? No, retreat first, wouldn't that be better...?"
A small, trembling voice came from beside Anyi.
The moment Miruku saw that super-giant Slime, her courage evaporated completely.
Other than running away, there was no other option!
"Fight."
Anyi replied with a single, sharp word.
As he spoke, a white light flashed in his hand, and the Sword of the Hero appeared.
"Alright!"
Layton grinned through clenched teeth, his eyes blazing with fighting spirit.
"That's what you call a man!
One should face difficulty head-on! Not run away because of fear!
If even we Heroes don't dare to stand at the front, who else can protect the villagers from this calamity?!"
"But I'm a woman..." Miruku said weakly, her voice so soft it was barely audible.
"Yes! As a man, you should step up!" Ariana, though also terrified, took a step forward to encourage herself.
"No, you are a woman," Anyi said evenly, letting out a mild curse. "But as a Hero, you are the one who must step forward."
At this moment, the devotees also reacted.
"Everyone, leave this place! Evacuate the nearby villagers!
This area is left to the Lord Heroes!!"
"OH OH OH OH OH OH OH!!!"
The second he finished speaking, all the devotees moved into action.
They had no hesitation now; they left the task of confronting the Slimes to the four Heroes.
Because Anyi was the first to step forward to meet the challenge!
Based on Anyi's performance so far, if he said they could fight, he must have a plan.
The Lord Sword Hero must be able to handle these Slimes. He wouldn't lead the other three Heroes to their deaths.
Soon, everyone else had fled, leaving only the four Heroes standing their ground.
A certain Thorn Hero stood further back, at least five steps behind her original position, looking like she might bolt at any second.
And the giant Slime was slowly oozing toward the village, with even more Slimes fusing into its back.
"What is the plan?!" Layton shouted to Anyi.
"You have the ability to attract enemy skills, right?
Now we need to make it change its trajectory. It cannot be allowed to enter the village," Anyi said.
"Understood!"
Layton shouted back, then sprinted toward the side of the giant Slime mass.
However...
Too slow!
His speed was no better than an ordinary person. In fact, due to his massive build, he moved even slower than Anyi did before receiving his attribute bonuses.
Anyi, however, had already seen this coming.
"Mr. Layton, take command of the system! Use the assignable points issued by the system and allocate 8 points each to Agility and Endurance!" Anyi shouted.
"Huh?!!" Layton stopped abruptly, spinning around to face Anyi.
He tapped away at his system interface for a moment, then turned back and yelled:
"It's gone!"
"Gone?" Anyi was stunned. "What do you mean?"
"The assignable points! They're all used up!!" Layton bellowed.
Anyi: "...?"
Used up?
"What did you spend them on?" Anyi asked loudly.
Layton tossed his shield aside, pounded his chest with pride, and declared: "Strength! And Durability!
As a man, one needs immense Strength and a durable body!
So, I dumped 25 points into both Strength and Durability!!"
Anyi: "?"
???
Why didn't you immediately use those points for something useful?!
"Then what do your attributes look like now?" Anyi asked.
"Strength, 28!
Durability, 29!
Endurance, 3!
Everything else is 0!!"
Layton shouted with a face full of self-satisfaction.
Anyi almost blacked out.
Bro, you don't just dump points like that.
If your Agility, Mana, Intelligence, and Technique are all at 0, that means outside of hitting hard and taking a punch, you're basically no better than a Slime!
"Wait, you two didn't allocate your points like that too, did you?" Anyi looked back at Ariana and Miruku.
"We did allocate our points," Ariana nodded sincerely. "Because God said there were 50 points to distribute, we just asked about them.
We checked which attributes were available and just... assigned them."
"What are your stats?"
"Mana 30, Intelligence 15, Technique 15. Everything else is 0," Ariana answered truthfully, looking innocently confused by his reaction.
No wonder she could spam that skill 30 times without running out of Mana!
With 30 points in Intelligence alone, her maximum Mana pool would be around 2000. Casting a few Holy Judges was nothing to her!
Next, Anyi shifted his gaze to Miruku, the last one.
"I'm sorry!" Miruku instantly dropped to her knees and slid toward Anyi.
Her "Mistake Radar" was screaming!
For some reason, she felt she was the one who should be apologizing!
"What are your attributes?" Anyi asked with a stone face.
"I put 4 points into Agility to get close to the target."
"Hmm, that's smart."
"It went up to 40."
"?"
...
When someone received assignable points, they only had to ask the system: "What are the assignable points for?" and the interface would pop up.
If they didn't understand the specific effects, they could ask: "What is the use of attributes?" or "What is the use of points?" to see the descriptions.
[Strength: Affects physical attack power and physical stamina limit.
Agility: Affects movement speed, dodge chance, and reaction speed.
Endurance: Affects stamina consumption rate, maximum movement distance, and maximum combat duration.
Durability: Affects dual resistance, maximum HP, and resistance to negative status effects.
Mana: Affects magic skill intensity, maximum Mana, and Mana recovery speed.
Intelligence: Affects magic learning speed and skill learning speed.
Technique: Affects magic casting speed, combat skill release speed, combat skill cooldown time, and combat reaction speed.]
In his previous life, Anyi and the others had fallen into the same trap, pumping only one or two attributes to extreme levels.
But the result of that was...
Once they fought a demon with a higher attribute in their weak area, they were in serious trouble.
For example, Layton had 0 Agility. If he fought a Goblin with 4 Agility, he wouldn't be able to chase, escape, or even block effectively. It would be a nightmare.
Even as a tank, he needed at least 8 points in Agility to avoid being a sitting duck against low-level demons.
Sure, a guy like him could pulverize a Goblin with one shield bash, but that only worked if the enemy was stupid enough to stand still.
「These newcomers... are a real handful.」
Anyi watched the massive, merging Slime mass creeping toward the village and sighed.
A Slime having 0 in its [Agility] attribute made it as slow as a frail human or a turtle.
Even a clever creature would have an Agility value of at least 2 or 3.
So, despite its massive size, its movement was painfully sluggish.
Although Layton's Agility was 0, his basic human physics kept him close to a value of 1.
...Wait a second.
Didn't he just say his Intelligence was 0?
"Anyi, Mr. Layton is in position!" Ariana interrupted his thoughts.
Anyi looked up. Layton had already run quite a distance, waving back to them to signal he was ready.
[Sword Hero: Have you taken your position? Try using the enemy attraction skill to change the Slimes' movement trajectory.]
Suddenly, a line of text appeared before the four of them.
"Huh? What is this?" Ariana looked up and asked Anyi.
[Sword Hero: I don't know exactly what it is.
Because the distance was too far, I was wondering if the God-granted system could transmit information remotely, and then this appeared.
The system told me the command is [Open Chat Group], and then I just need to think about what I want to say.]
Anyi didn't reply verbally but made the message reappear before everyone else.
Not bad, this was:
The Hero Chat Group!
Although the Chat Group didn't contain powerful figures from all realms sharing secret cultivation techniques or elixirs of immortality, it could still function as a group chat application.
[Holy Hero has joined the Chat Group!
Holy Hero: Oh wah wah wah wah!
Holy Hero: Amazing! We can really talk!
Thorn Hero has joined the Chat Group!
Thorn Hero has left the Chat Group!
Thorn Hero has joined the Chat Group!
Thorn Hero has left...]
"What is it?" Anyi looked towards Miruku on the side.
"Nothing, nothing..." Miruku flinched and waved her hand.
[Thorn Hero has joined the Chat Group!]
She was a little scared. If this thing displayed one's inner thoughts, what if her dark thoughts were exposed?!
By then, she would have to become a non-person!
Self-destruct! She must self-destruct!
[Shield Hero has joined the Chat Group!
Shield Hero: Good! I'm going to use a skill now!
Using a skill! Taunt!
Sword Hero: You don't need to post that here to use a skill...]
[Skill: Taunt
Skill Description:
You enter the [Taunt] state, able to forcibly attract the attention of monsters, making them regard you as their attack target.
Mana Cost: 10.]
In the instant the skill activated, the Slimes' hunting instincts were violently stimulated!
Slimes have no brains, no intelligence, and are completely incapable of understanding language.
However, the command, "You must attack that mocking enemy!" echoed endlessly deep within their souls!
Eat people!
They absolutely must eat that person holding the shield!
...
POP!
From within the massive Slime mass that obscured the sky, a Slime detached itself with a POP.
Then it hopped, hopped, hopped, and hopped right up to Layton's feet, struggling to engulf his ankle. It looked somewhat cute.
"What the heck!"
Layton stomped and crushed the Slime.
[Experience Points +10]
Does the enemy attraction skill only attract one target?
There are countless Slimes here!!
"Hey, hey, hey, hey!! You damn Slimes!! Come eat me, your great master!"
Layton pounded his shield with his fist while activating his true Taunt.
On the surface:
[Shield Hero: Failed! It doesn't work!
Sword Hero: What's wrong?
Shield Hero: The Taunt only attracts one Slime, and there are too many Slimes here!!]
"Then what should we do?" Ariana shouted anxiously at Anyi.
"The old method, question the system," Anyi said coldly.
[Sword Hero: Mr. Layton, question the system on whether there is a way to attract multiple enemies simultaneously.
Shield Hero: Alright! I'll try!]
In the distance, Layton nodded silently and asked internally.
「God, please tell me, is there a way to taunt multiple enemies simultaneously?」
[Searching...
Search complete.
Hello, Lord Hero. Please expend more Mana when using skills to activate the multi-target skill [Group Taunt].]
"Group Taunt...?"
Ah, is it really possible to redirect all these Slimes!
Learning from experience, Layton was beginning to grasp the system's operational methods.
If he didn't know something, he would just ask. If he had a request, he would state it directly, and the system would surely provide a corresponding answer!
Even if he couldn't activate the skill through speech, he could simply:
「Activate skill, Group Taunt!」
Layton commanded internally!
This time, he absolutely had to change the direction these Slimes were moving!
...
POP!
A Slime detached from the mass, hopped, hopped, hopped, and hopped right up to Layton's feet.
Layton: "...?"
Why didn't it work?!
Before Layton could think more, a sharp pang of intense hunger suddenly struck his stomach!
At this moment, a message from the [Shield Hero] appeared in the Chat Group.
[Shield Hero: Good...!
Holy Hero: Good? Did you draw out the Slimes?!
Shield Hero: Good...
Sword Hero: ?
Shield Hero: Good... Good...
So hungry!!!!!!!!
Thorn Hero has left the Chat Group!]
Miruku's mind: 「Even thoughts like this get recorded?! I should just leave!!」