The receptionist came to her senses and asked the leader.
“You’re saying the slime is also a party member?”
“That’s right.”
“...Is it safe?”
“Can’t you tell by how I’m carrying it on my head? Of course it’s safe. If anything happens, it’s our responsibility, so don’t worry too much.”
At the leader’s words, the receptionist thought for a moment and then spoke.
“Understood. There are adventurers who command animals too... But please remember that if something happens, we’ll have to hold you accountable.”
After finishing her words, the receptionist handed over a form.
“Please write your names here.”
The aspiring adventurers each wrote their names on the form she gave.
Def wrote the name of the slime, Tongtong, on its behalf.
“Let me confirm. Godrick, Hawane, Skol, Def, and... Tongtong. That’s five people, correct?”
“Yeah.”
“Could you pay the registration fee? Ah, the slime doesn’t need to pay.”
“Here.”
The receptionist, who received the payment from Godrick, activated a magical device on the counter.
Wooooong!
Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!
As mana gathered, the device emitted strange sounds and spat out four identification tags.
“Please make sure not to lose these. Here are some strings, so you can hang them around your neck, wrap them around your arm, or store them somewhere safe.”
“Hehe, so these are adventurer ID tags.”
After confirming everyone received theirs, the receptionist asked.
“What will your party name be?”
“A name... Hey guys, anyone got a good idea?”
At Godrick’s question, Skol asked the receptionist.
“Hey, can we change the party name later?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Boss! Then let’s use your name for now! We can change it later if we come up with something better!”
“Tsk... well, sure. Hawane, Def, are you okay with that?”
“Hmph, I’ll think of a cool name later.”
“Hehe, I’m fine with it too.”
“Then register us as ‘Godrick’s Party.’”
“Understood.”
The receptionist nodded and began a basic explanation.
“Currently, your rank is F. If you complete three F-rank quests, you can be promoted to E-rank. If you complete a certain number of quests, you can go up to D-rank without taking an exam. Starting from C-rank, you’ll need to complete guild-assigned quests to advance.”
“Now that you’re adventurers, you may use the training room in the guild. You may also use the rooms on the second floor if needed. Please check the request board for quests. If you’d like details about a request, bring it here and I’ll explain. Any other questions?”
“We can pick a request right now, right?”
“Yes, as long as it matches your current rank.”
“Great. Guys, let’s go look at the quests.”
“Yes, boss!”
Boing!
All eyes turned to the newly registered adventurer party: Godrick’s Party.
“A slime? Did they really form a party with a slime?”
“I thought I’d seen everything, but this is a first.”
“Is it okay to carry that on your head?”
“Where was it again... I heard some noble’s daughter raises a slime too.”
“I’ve heard of villages using slimes for food waste disposal, but hunting monsters with one?”
No one showed hostility for bringing a monster into the guild.
After all, it was a slime—famously weak.
Instead, curious and puzzled gazes turned toward Godrick’s Party.
Meanwhile.
‘Wow! So many!’
The slime happily looked around the guild from atop Def’s head.
During its month in the count’s estate, it had passed by the guild building a few times while on inspections with Jessie.
But this was the first time it had actually entered one.
The slime was filled with excitement.
New humans.
And it was told that by receiving quests and fighting monsters, it could grow stronger with Godrick’s group.
The slime knew what adventurers were.
It understood that Godrick’s group wanted to adventure together with it.
But what exactly did adventurers do?
While riding the wagon, the slime had asked viewers.
▷ What do adventurers do?
▶ They go around smashing monster skulls.
▶Bam! Bam! Bam!
▷Skull?
[Squishy Queen]▶ Don’t teach strange words to my kin!
[Squishy Queen]▶ My kin, don’t overthink it. Just go with them and defeat the monsters you meet. If they’re strong, just run away.
▶ Ooooh~ she’s encouraging monster-on-monster violence now.
▶What’s for dinner?
▶Meat from monsters weaker than me.
▶kkkkkkkk
Monsters didn’t feel kinship with others unless they were the same species.
To them, being eaten if you’re weak was just common sense.
[Squishy Queen]▶ If you get stronger, you can evolve and grow stronger again. And when you evolve, you’ll be able to see more!
▷Wow!
Hearing the Slime Queen’s words, the slime felt a surge of desire to evolve.
If it evolved, it could move around even more.
▶Wouldn’t that unlock the shop too?
[Free Spirit]▶ That’s not related to evolution. You need to rack up some points to unlock it.
▷Shop?
▶Ah yes, let me explain...
[Squishy Queen]▶ Just wait until the shop unlocks and we’ll explain then! Don’t say useless things!
▶Knowing early just makes you impatient anyway, lol.
The slime couldn’t learn much about the shop, but it had found a new goal.
‘Evolve!’
It would defeat many monsters with Godrick’s group and evolve.
By evolving, it would get to see even more.
That was the slime’s current goal.
That’s why the slime perched on Def’s head was carefully looking over the request board.
▶ What does it say?
▶ Ahaha, it can’t read.
▶ Squishy, translate for us!
▷ Manticore! B-rank! Lesser Troll! B-rank! Red Wyvern! C-rank! Goblin! E-rank!
At the viewers’ request, the slime simply read what it could see.
[Noblesse Fire]▶ What? Why would a wyvern lose to a lesser troll with poor regeneration? Are these humans clueless?
▶Hahaha flying lizard’s weak cousin got scratched lol
[Noblesse Fire]▶ Who are you calling a flying lizard!!! Wyverns aren’t even related!
[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶ There’s a big difference between wyverns and dragons. For starters, their intelligence is...
▶But you got mad, didn’t you? Did something bother you?
▶The flying lizard grandpas got scratched up together, lol.
▶That foul-mouthed human looks like a B-rank. Even weaker than a fake flying lizard.
▶That guy has strange tastes. He especially likes eating humans.
▶Ack, lol, is that why?
While the slime responded to the viewers' comments, Godrick’s party selected their first quest.
“This one looks the easiest.”
The quest they chose was herb gathering.
It was one of the most standard F-rank quests.
There was another F-rank quest to hunt slimes, but since their party included a slime, it didn’t feel right to accept that one.
Godrick tore the request from the board and approached the reception desk.
“We’ll take this one.”
“Yes. Understood.”
The receptionist pointed out a location nearby where herbs grew and asked, “Have you seen these herbs before? If not, I can show you a picture.”
“I know that much.”
“Shall I lend you some sickles and baskets to carry the herbs?”
“That’d be great.”
The receptionist bent down briefly and took out four sickles and some baskets.
“Here you are.”
Since this was a task every beginner adventurer went through, the tools for herb gathering were always prepared.
“If you lose them, you’ll have to compensate, so please make sure to return them.”
***
Godrick’s party each took a sickle and basket and headed to the location the receptionist had indicated.
“Boss! Over here!”
“Yeah. Good find, Skol.”
Godrick’s party squatted down and began harvesting the herbs growing from the ground.
While picking herbs, Def said, “Heh, hehehe. This reminds me of the old days. I used to gather herbs a lot near the village.”
“Hmph, that old pharmacist lady made us do it all the time.”
“She only gave us a piece of bread no matter how hard we worked! That old hag! And if any herb was even slightly damaged, she'd bop us on the head! Thinking about it now makes me angry!”
Even as he grumbled, Skol skillfully used his sickle to cut the herbs.
Not just Skol, but the other members of Godrick’s party also drew from childhood experience to carefully dig up the herbs without damaging the roots and placed them in their baskets.
Boing!
‘What do I do?’
The slime, who had nothing to do and was simply perched on Def’s head, bounced once.
“Bored, Tongtong? Sorry. But we’ll handle the herb gathering. Just help us out a lot when it’s time to fight monsters.”
‘Okay!’
Boing!
“Hehe, but herb gathering doesn’t make much money.”
“For an F-rank quest, this is fine. But hunting slimes would’ve felt... a bit wrong, you know.”
“Oh, boss! Now that I think about it, besides slime hunting and herb gathering, there was another F-rank quest I saw! It was to get rid of Great Rats!”
“We’re absolutely not doing that.”
Three voices overlapped at once.
Great Rat extermination.
Also known as sewer rat extermination, it was a quest to eliminate large rat-like monsters living in the city’s sewers.
Among F-rank quests, it offered the highest payout—more than even typical E-rank quests.
The reason was simple: it was the most avoided kind of quest.
No adventurer willingly entered the stinky sewers!
It was only natural that the more unpleasant the task, the higher the reward.
Even so, adventurers willing to take on Great Rat extermination were hard to find.
But the guild couldn’t leave the request unattended forever, so when reports came in that the rat population had increased, they issued nonrefusable named requests to adventurers.
After finishing the herb gathering without encountering any monsters, Godrick’s party returned to the city and headed to the guild.
“Here are the herbs.”
“Yes, I’ll check them now.”
The receptionist immediately inspected the herbs in the four baskets.
“Oh my, you gathered them well.”
She looked at Godrick’s party with a surprised expression after seeing the high-quality herbs.
A fat man, a scrawny one, a gloomy-looking one, a slightly intimidating man, and a slime.
They looked more like a band of thieves than an adventurer party, so it was unexpected that they would gather herbs so well.
“We did it as kids back in our village.”
“Oh, I see.”
Having no reason to doubt them, the receptionist accepted the explanation and placed the quest reward on the desk.
“Here’s your reward for completing the quest.”
“...Wait? Isn’t this more than what was written on the request?”
“All the herbs were excellent in quality, so we’re including a bonus. The base reward assumes there would be some low-quality herbs.”
‘Who would’ve thought the tasks that old herb hag made us do would come in handy someday.’
Godrick’s party accepted the bonus reward and left the guild.
“Pffft, what we learned from the old lady helped right away.”
“Hmph! Still makes me mad how she bossed us around!”
“Bo-boss! What should we eat today?”
“Dunno.”
As they wandered the streets looking for a decent place to eat—
“Hey, you there! Wait a moment. You guys with the slime.”
“Huh?”
A man in a robe called out to Godrick’s party.
He chuckled as he rubbed his hands together and said,
“Say, would you be willing to sell me that slime?”