--
With TJ's permission, the first enemy he'd face for this exam has been summoned.
Slimes are translucent, gelatinous creatures, roughly the size of a large barrel, with a surface constantly rippling and folding inward like slow-moving waves.
Through its semi-clear body, you can see dissolved bones, weapons, and stones floating lazily—trophies of things it's devoured. The slime's core, a pulsing orb of faint light near its center, glows brighter when agitated, sending ripples of energy through its body.
When it moves, it sloshes forward with wet, suctioned sounds, dragging itself across the ground in sluggish hops. Striking it with metal makes a hollow, gurgling echo. Physical attacks cause little harm—weapons simply sink into its gelatinous mass unless they strike the core directly.
Slimes aren't categorized as hostile creatures. They're actually tame, all things considered. However, don't mistake that for harmlessness. There had been a lot of reports throughout history of slimes killing people.
But even their reasons for attacking or killing humans were, most of the time, innocent. Slimes aren't smart. They're governed by their instincts. If they need sustenance, they will eat, and they're not picky with their targets. That gelatinous body of theirs could break down pretty much anything. The time it takes becomes longer the more durable their target is.
Even in this VR, the slime was peaceful.
The moment it was summoned, it just went still, seemingly confused about where it was. But it didn't take long before it began bouncing around without any care in the world, leaving behind a trail of wet blue goop.
"Alright, here we go," TJ whispered to himself.
He crouched down to pick up a rock and threw it at the innocent slime. It went still for a bit before spinning around, giving him the impression of facing him.
Then its bounces became swifter, and it was heading his way.
In TJ's mind, a voice whispered:
[Combat Initiated!]
[All applicable skill perks, active!]
TJ suddenly felt his entire body becoming lighter than air. His eyes shone as he held his rapier for this. Then, with a push of his soles, he disappeared from where he was.
Boo!
TJ appeared like a ghost near the slime with his arms curled. With a huge stride forward, he lunged at the slime, driving his rapier into a strong stab aimed at the slime's core.
Tss!!
He withdrew his weapon as swiftly as he stabbed it out. The slime was still alive; he missed his target. The slime's core moved at the last moment, deftly avoiding his stab.
Even with TJ's sharp perception, he still missed. But he wasn't too surprised by this. Instead, he kept his guard up, and it's a good thing he did because the slime suddenly shot up like a cannonball.
TJ rolled to the side, keeping his body low, to evade that attack.
Yeah, no. He wouldn't let that kind of attack touch him.
You see, many people underestimate how dense slimes are, and it often leads to their demise.
Slimes had skills too. The most common ones are [Body Slam] and [Hardening]. Both skills are pretty self-explanatory, and due to their simplicity, most people tend to look down on them.
Not TJ, though. He's not going to fall for that trick. He didn't want to embarrass himself by being eliminated by a slime.
After neatly avoiding the body slam, TJ twisted his body and delivered another stab. Of course, he's still aiming at the slime's core.
Core evaded once more, keeping the slime safe, but TJ noticed that the speed of the core this time was slower compared to the previous one.
'Alright, one more should do it.'
TJ didn't mind his failures. If anything, he was expecting this.
The slime core's ability to move was its innate ability for self-preservation. It's to be expected since once the slime's core was destroyed, it died.
But this innate ability has its own limits. Slimes can't always keep their cores moving, at least not weak ones like this. Even short bursts of movements like this drain the slime a lot; they would need to eat and rest more if they want to recover.
TJ obviously wouldn't miss this chance. So, with another quick movement, he lunged at the slime again. And this time...
Crack!
The tip of his rapier connected to the fragile slime core, shattering it in the process. Losing its core, whatever force holding up the slime's shape disappeared, and it simply evaporated.
As the slime died, a couple of system messages popped out and flashed before TJ's eyes.
**
[Slime defeated!]
[+10 exp!]
[Quest updated!]
[Slime 1/1]
[Summon the Goblin?]
**
TJ stalled for a bit.
Killing the slime wasn't that hard; the whole encounter lasted for a little bit more than a minute. This wasn't surprising given that TJ knew what to expect.
What really got his attention was the message that said he received exp from this.
'+10 exp with that one single enemy? This is equivalent to a couple of hours of hard work in the training room! '
TJ's eyes were shining.
Indeed, his expectations were proven to be true.
Before coming here, he already thought that maybe, just maybe, killing the monsters here might give them exp. He wasn't so sure of it because that seems too good to be true, but he anticipated it anyway since it wouldn't really be that weird if they did.
And to his luck, he was right! The monsters did drop exp.
Fired up and excited, TJ took a deep and grounding breath before deciding to summon the next enemy.
This time, it's a goblin.
Small and wiry, barely reaching a man's chest, with ashen-green skin, yellow, predatory eyes, and long, knotted fingers clutching rusted weapons. Their teeth are jagged and too many for their small mouths; their ears are long and constantly twitching. They wear mismatched scraps of leather and bone, trophies scavenged from corpses or stolen from travelers.
This is what Goblins looked like.
"Kih! Kih!"
They move in twitchy bursts—skittering forward, darting back, and circling prey with unnerving coordination. They are cowardly alone but cunning in packs. Their speech is a mix of grunts, snarls, and broken mimicry of human words.
Goblins were another one of the more common and easy monsters to hunt. Compared to slimes, though, these greedy little things are for sure hostile to humans.
"Raaggh!!"
The single goblin raised its dagger and began to charge at him. Its short legs took it far and fast. And it certainly wasn't shy about baring its fangs at him or showing its hostility.
Goblins are more intelligent compared to slimes. They are capable of recognizing threats, planning, following orders and coordinated attacks, and even building a society when there are a group of them.
They can feel fear, joy, excitement, anger, etc. More often than not, they could even carry out a proper conversation with humans.
Typically, a lone goblin wouldn't attack in such a straightforwardmanner. It will either run away to create distance and shoot arrows from afar, or it will report its findings to its friends before planning an ambush.
Many have fallen to the dirty and cunning tricks of goblins before. TJ was certainly not trying to add himself to that count.
'Either it's programmed to attack, or it underestimates me. Either way works for me; at least I don't have to chase it,' TJ thought to himself as he prepared for the clash.
Clang!
The goblin's dagger and his rapier met briefly. TJ got to see what the goblin looked like face-to-face and even got to smell its rancid breath. With a push of his arm, he disengaged and went into a lunge.
He heard the goblin shriek before doing a panic roll to evade him. It probably wasn't expecting him to be this fast or decisive.
TJ wasn't too concerned, though. Instead, he pushed the initiative and his advantage. He drew his blade briefly before stabbing it out again.
The goblin was about to evade again, but TJ caught it with another lunge. His previous attack was a feint, and the greedy little thing fell for it. The tip of his rapier pierced through the leather hide and the goblin's shoulder joint.
With a twist of the handle, TJ dislocated the goblin's dominant arm, making it drop its weapon.
A piercing and pitiful shriek escaped from the goblin's mouth. It then fell onto its butt and was now looking at TJ with a terrified face.
Then, through a surprising twist, it knelt down and groveled before him before looking up wearing an even more pitiful expression on its face.
Looking at its face would certainly tug the heartstrings of some softhearted people. They might even be tempted to withdraw their weapons and nurse them back to health, apologizing in the process.
But that would be the peak of stupidity because this act was fake.
[Pickpocket] and [Fake Tears]—these are two of the most common skills goblins have.
If TJ were to show mercy to it now, this thing will surely wedge its dagger into his heart at the next or most opportune moment. On his dying breath, he will only hear its creepy laugh as it strips him of everything that has value.
Such was the nature of goblins.