Starting with the goblin extermination

Looking up along the knuckles, one sees a girl completely shrouded in a gray cloak. She is slender, yet even in the sweltering heat, one can feel a slight coolness emanating from beneath the cloak. Her face is hidden in shadow, making it difficult to see clearly.

But their eyes met briefly in mid-air, and Logan saw it more clearly.

She has neat, shoulder-length blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and her lower half of her face is covered by a mask; she's a beautiful woman.

She stared at Logan silently for a while.

Then, he withdrew his finger, turned around, and disappeared into the noisy crowd, like a drop of water disappearing into the sea.

What a strange person.

Logan shook his head and tore off the task sheet.

......

The sewer entrance is hidden behind a huge iron fence at the underpass in the west section.

Before he even got close, a stench mixed with rotting vegetables, excrement, and the smell of dead rats assaulted Logan's nose.

The worst smell Logan had ever encountered in his life was the mouthfuls of excrement he swallowed when he fell into a cesspool as a child. It seemed he was about to break that barrier today.

He pushed open the heavy iron bars and crawled inside.

The sewers are not completely dark.

On both sides of the rushing sewage river in the middle are well-paved stone walkways, and the gray walls next to the walkways are covered with strange moss growing wildly.

Perhaps due to absorbing waste from the sewers, they mutated, emitting a faint green glow that looked eerie on their faces, but it was also a great help.

With the help of the green light, Logan could barely make out the road ahead.

According to the quest description, the slime will appear near the entrance.

Actually, the slimes in the sewers were intentionally placed there. They are weak creatures that can eat garbage and digest some alchemical toxins, making them excellent sewer cleaners.

However, they reproduce quickly, requiring regular cleaning and maintenance.

According to eyewitnesses, the slimes initially placed deep in the sewers had appeared near the exit, which led to Logan accepting the mission.

After walking for a while, he still hadn't seen the slime. The stone bricks dripping with water from above and the sticky mud underfoot were already making Logan feel a bit annoyed.

Not to mention the nauseating smell in the air.

However, there's no way around it; being an adventurer isn't as glamorous as you might imagine. Low-level adventurers are actually no different from the "Sanwa Gods" of my previous life—just doing odd jobs, only more dangerous and with greater potential for advancement.

From the shadows around the corner ahead, a sickeningly loud scraping sound finally came.

A gray, semi-transparent gelatinous substance was slowly wriggling against the wall.

It was about the size of a millstone. By the light, you could see that inside it were several undigested bones, a dead rat, and a crystal core about the size of an egg that was emitting a faint blue light.

This is a slime.

It seemed to sense Logan's presence.

The slime's body suddenly contracted, its internal crystal core was tightly wrapped by something else, and then its whole body bounced over like a ball.

Logan was prepared.

The slime gradually grew larger in his eyes as he calculated the distance.

I slid to the left, my foot making a dent in the mud, and the stone slab beneath my feet became clearly visible.

The slime brushed past his clothes and landed behind him.

Immediately following was a streak of silver light.

[Thrust]

The arm muscles tensed instantly, without any unnecessary movements, and the sword tip precisely pierced through the viscous gel, reaching the core.

puff--

It was like a water-filled balloon being punctured. The slime trembled violently the moment its core shattered, then lost the magic that allowed it to maintain its shape and turned into a lifeless puddle of water.

Only a broken crystal the size of an egg remained.

[Proficiency +1]

It's simpler than I imagined.

Just as the Adventurer's Handbook says, although these things are disgusting, they are not very intelligent and their combat power is not strong. As long as they are not surrounded, they are easy to deal with.

carry on.

In the sewage ahead, several slimes are slowly devouring a clump of garbage.

Logan picked up a stone and threw it.

Snapped.

The stone slammed into a slime's body. The gelatinous mass paused for a moment, then made a gurgling sound and hopped toward Logan.

The other birds also sensed the vibration and turned around.

There are six in total.

Logan wants to improve efficiency this time.

He didn't retreat quickly, but maintained a certain distance, letting the slimes line up in a straight line and rush towards him one after another.

The first one slashed horizontally into the slime's body with a longsword. It didn't use any combat techniques, and there was a noticeable resistance, but it still shattered the core.

The second one, the sword tip pierced the crystal core precisely and very smoothly, the effect of the combat skill was still very obvious.

[Proficiency +1]

The third one.

The fourth one...

With each use of combat techniques, Logan felt the usual awkwardness slowly fading. In the past, activating combat techniques felt like his body was being forcibly taken over, his muscles passively executing some kind of command.

But now, that power is beginning to seep into my bones, gradually becoming an instinct.

As the longsword pierced the core of the sixth slime, a warm current surged through his arm and spread throughout his body, turning his combat skills into Logan's instincts.

[Proficiency +1]

[Thrust] LV1 — [Thrust] LV2 (1/100)

The "Wind-Piercing Hand" special skill has been unlocked.

......

【Wind-piercing Hands】

[Effect: Increases combat skill casting speed by 10% and penetration power by 20%]

......

The fatigue from using combat skills repeatedly made Logan feel weak, but at the same time, the feeling of his combat skills level increasing made him feel warm all over.

Although his adventurer career has only just begun, he has already become stronger.

Three more were needed. Logan sat against the wall for a while, then continued walking along the sewage river.

Not long after, Logan found the last three slimes.

The LV2 level [Thrust] skill does indeed provide a significant boost.

What used to require complete concentration to strike is now done with ease. The first two slimes were pinned to the wall almost instantly upon meeting.

[Proficiency +1]

There's only one left.

The mission was about to end, and Logan had had enough of the colorful sewage next to him and the ubiquitous piles of garbage all around.

Just as Logan was about to finish off the last slime—

A dark figure darted out from the garbage heap.

Logan looked closely and almost thrust his sword at the target.

It wasn't a monster; it was actually a person.

It was an old man, dressed in rags and covered in filth. Strangely, a small gray slime was stuck on his head, sizzling and corroding his scalp, emitting puffs of white smoke, but the man seemed to feel no pain.

"Damn it... one more glass, one more glass, someone give me a drink, damn it!"

The old man swung the bottle incoherently and smashed it against the slime in front of Logan.

boom--

The bottle that should have been trapped inside shattered into pieces, spilling its liquor all over the slime's body. Then came the cutting of glass shards. Who would have thought that the slime would be smashed to pieces by this blow, with its core splitting into four pieces.

Logan's lips twitched, and he quickly helped the old man who was about to fall.

He swayed, then face down and vomited several mouthfuls of yellowish-brown vomit, which were all encased in the slime on his head, before becoming still.

"..."

What is this? Stealing monsters?

Logan poked the old man in the back with the hilt of his sword.

no response.

But the slime on the old man's head was still there. The gray, gelatinous substance seemed to have made a delicious meal of the old man's head, happily secreting digestive juices. Perhaps soon, the old man's scalp would be completely digested.

Logan frowned, suppressing his nausea, and forcefully plunged his hand into the slime's body, crushing the crystal core.

Snapped--

The entire slime fell down, revealing the old man's skin, which had been scalded dark red by the slime, and the empty scalp in the middle of his head.

His weathered face, even in his coma, still carried an air of nonchalance.

The old man tried his best to lift his eyelids, but they quickly drooped again. He began to snore, and then exhaled a pungent smell of alcohol that was even more overpowering than sewer gas. His head lolled to the side, and he passed out completely.

Logan searched him thoroughly, but found not a single coin.

"He's a poor wretch too."

Logan sighed. It was inexplicable; turning away now would have been a wise choice. But leaving a living person in this sewer full of slimes and poisonous gas... his conscience wouldn't allow it.

"I guess I'm just unlucky."

He grabbed the old man by the collar and dragged him outside.

It's really heavy.

This old man looks thin, but he's as heavy as a weight.

Ten minutes later, Logan, panting, dumped the old man in a side alley next to the sewer. It was a peaceful place with people coming and going, a sunny spot, and a trash can nearby—definitely more comfortable than the sewer.

"Consider it a debt you owe me."

Logan wiped his hands on the wall and walked towards the guild without looking back.

Behind him, the old man still tried his best to lift his eyelids, this time opening them slightly to look at Logan's back with his cloudy eyes before quickly closing them again and snoring loudly.