He had checked out the quest yesterday already. It was reasonable for a beginner and yielded quite the reward.

“The Goblins are the weakest demons, but they attack in groups, so please be careful.”

“Sure.”

He answered curtly, left the Guild and wanted to leave the town right away, but he had things to buy, so he went into the shopping district.

He visited a weapon shop to buy a weapon, since even the weakest demon was hard to fight against with just bare hands, looking for a weapon within the range of his funds.

When he looked around with his funds in mind, he would have to go with a short weapon like a knife. Amongst these, he found a relatively robust one with a thick blade and a good grip.

“This one.”

Saying so, he showed it to the shop owner.

“Gladly. A solid knife, that’ll be 2650 Rigin.”

After paying, he received the weapon and appreciated the scabbard that he got as an unexpected freebie. Then he brooded over what to do about armour. A shield might be useful, but he concluded that he could just use his ?Word Magic? when necessity arose, and left the shop.

Leaving the town, he headed for the “Clair Forest” in the west. He could reach it by following a straight path called the “Toll Road”.

During his search for an inn yesterday, he had stopped by a general store and bought five “crispy beans” for HP restoration, three “honey toffee” for MP restoration along with a map of this world.

Even if they were necessary expenses, they completely emptied his wallet. He had to complete the quests by all means or he would have to sleep outside tonight. That sounded fun in itself, but he wanted to avoid a sudden hobo lifestyle.

During his trip, he spotted something weird in front of him.

(What’s that..?)

It looked like a big volleyball. However, it didn’t have a fixed appearance and contorted itself spongy, blocking his path.

(Wait, could it be..?)

The famous monster for levelling up as a beginner in a RPG..

“A slime!”

His voice was somewhat filled with excitement. There the slime suddenly charged into his direction, startled by his voice.

“Wait, a battle out of nowhere!?”

He drew his solid knife from the scabbard. The slime was slow, but Hiiro got the chills when he thought about coming in contact with that disgusting substance.

The moment the slime jumped up, he swung his knife downwards accordingly. There was no resistance and the slime was cut into half, but the two parts still moved meandering. To put it bluntly, it was disgusting.

“Don’t tell me it multiplied from being cut in half?”

In that case, a blade would be useless, so he wondered about what to do, whereas the demon writhed agonizing on the ground and stopped moving before long. Hiiro timidly poked it with his knife.

(Wait, there’s a faster way!)

He opened his ?Status?. The NEXT (required experience points until level up) column had been 10, but now it turned into 8. The fact that he had received experience points meant that the demon was defeated.

“Oh~ It was a demon after all. I bet it’s a weak one like the goblin. It only gave 2 EXP anyway.”

Still, he felt somewhat accomplished from his first battle and victory. At first he had feared it would pain him to kill, but it surprisingly turned out alright.

“..Still feels like a game.. Or rather, like it’s none of my beeswax.”

When he analysed it calmly, he heard another rustling sound from behind. He turned around and there were more slimes, three even.

“They seem perfect for levelling up. But I wish there were four of them.”

Then he could have levelled up. At the time he clicked his tongue, three more slimes appeared from behind him as to ridicule him. Hiiro was totally surrounded.

“Grr, a pincer attack on a beginner?”

While he grumbled bitter, he focused on defeating the three in front of him first. After he cut down the first and second one, an smacking impact hit his back. A slime seemingly attacked him with a charge.

“Kuh.. It unexpectedly hurts quite a bit.”

It felt just as if he was hit by someone. He took his distance and checked his ?Status?, seeing that his HP decreased by 3.

“Looks like I can’t play around.”

Bracing himself once more, he took a stance with his knife. Since two slimes attack him simultaneously, he dodged them and cut one down immediately. But two more were coming from behind.

“No more pain!”

By swinging his knife around, he managed to cut down two at once. One slime remained. Hiiro killed it by charging in on his own.

Upon that, he heard a weak PLIIINK sound over his head and opened his ?Status?.

Hiiro Okamura

Lvl 2

HP 21/30

MP 120/145

EXP 12

NEXT 12

ATK 15 (25)

DEF 10

AGI 30

HIT 12

INT 25

?Magic Attribute? None

?Magic? Word Magic (Single Chain Unlocked)

?Title? Innocent Bystander, World Traveller, Word Master

“Figures. That sound was from the level up. Anyway, my MP sure has an amazing gain. It went up by 25 in one level. Well, not that I’m complaining.”

Though he complained a bit about not recovering the health upon levelling up. Some games did that, so he had preferred it here too.

On his way to the “Clair Forest”, he kept defeating the appearing slimes.

He reached the “Clair Forest” alright, but he had no clue where to look for the goblins. As slimes had appeared various times, he was level three now.

With no other ideas, he advanced into the forest precautious and left marks on the trees as not to lose his way. He would use them as landmarks on his way back.

Then he heard the brushwood rustling and took a stance, thinking it was a goblin, but it was just a slime again.

“..’nother one of you.”

Although he was sick of them already, he killed it instantly as he was already familiar with them. The quest was to kill ten goblins. As proof, he had to bring the “goblin fang” back with him.

Incidentally, slimes dropped “slime substance” as part of a hunt quest, but he ignored it as it was too disgusting to touch.

Going through the forest, he encountered another slime. The moment he felt annoyed about it, something appeared from the bush to his side. And it attacked him with some kind of weapon.

WHOOSH!

He dodged it by bending his body at once, but he broke out in a cold sweat.

(C- Close call.. I see, that’s a goblin.)

Its appearance was identically to the picture in the reference book he was shown. A stature small like a child, but an ugly face and a club in its hand.

“Must hurt to get hit by that..”

When he glared at the goblin, he received another attack on the back and groaned. He had totally forgotten about the slime. Moreover, the goblin used this chance to attack too.

(Damn. Goblins come in groups, I can’t waste time here!)

He parried the club with his solid knife. The goblin let out a creaky voice like grinding one’s teeth, with drool spilling out of its mouth. Hiiro definitely didn’t want to get bitten and sent the goblin flying with a kick.

(Fuh, a humanoid demon.. Will I be able to kill it..?)

Speaking to himself, he narrowed his eyes as he stared at the goblin. Needless to say, he never killed anyone when he was in Japan. He had killed bugs, but never animals, so he was insecure about whether he was able to kill a living creature with a human appearance, even if it was a demon.

“..Hah. Well, I gotta survive here.”

He muttered as to convince himself.

“Sorry.. but you’ll be a stepping for me.”

Saying so, he rushed at the goblin with all his might. Hiiro had a lot of agility, although he didn’t know why. The goblin didn’t move as it intended to take him on upfront.

SLAAAASH!

He cut down the goblin. That made him somewhat sick in the stomach, but he swallowed it down and glared at the goblin.

“You’re next!”

Afterwards he defeated the slime, whereupon another level up sound resounded. His level turned to four now. It was going well.

The his joy only lasted for a moment as one goblin after another appeared in front of him. The earlier battle seemed to have attracted them.

However, Hiiro had waited for them. He concentrated his magic power into his finger tip and quickly draw a word onto the ground. The group of goblins came at him all at once.

(Good.. Come here!)

Just when the goblins were right before him,

“Activate!”

He shouted and the electrical discharge occurred in the word. In the next moment, various sharp objects appeared from the ground and pierced the goblins.

“Haha, it worked.”

The goblins desperately tried to move while grimacing in pain, but they couldn’t. After a while they stopped moving as they died.

The word Hiiro had written was “needle”.

The area of effect was roughly 6.5m2 wide, just like with the word “hard”. He had waited for the goblins to enter that area. The ground had turned into a cactus and killed all the goblins on it.

(Kuh.. It’s more tiring than I thought.)

Lot of blood was flowing out from the pierced spots of the goblins. Seeing that, Hiiro painfully became aware that this was a real battle, that he did this and that he could have turned into this himself if he was careless. It was taught to him in a forcible manner.

(Fuh, anyway, first things first)

He took action again right away. There were still goblins around, but confused by his weird attack, they were reluctant to attack him.

“Then let’s try the next one”

While saying so, he picked up a stone and wrote onto it the word “stop”.

If all went well, it might stop the goblin’s movement. He threw the stone at a goblin. The moment the goblin was hit at the shoulder, he activated it. However, only the stone was stopped. It stopped right in midair.

(Mhm, so it can’t emit magic)

As he had written it onto the stone, probably only the stone itself was influenced.

Hiiro had hoped that the effect from the stone would affect the goblin too, but sadly that wasn’t the case. Only the stone itself was affected, leaving the goblin unaffected.

(Okay, next one!)

Next up he wrote “extend” on the blade of his knife. Then he readied the knife and turned his body like a spinning top.

“Activate!”

WHOOOOOSH!

In a flash, the blade extended manifold and the goblins in the distant were cut. Three of them went down at once. As far as he could tell, that left three more.

“I only need two more for my quest, but I won’t let anyone escape.”

He slaughtered the goblins by swinging his extended knife around and was so immersed in it that he didn’t notice the level up sound during it.

After he defeated all of them, he collected the “goblin fangs”. It was the only sharp tooth on the upper jaw. But before that, he transformed his knife back by writing “origin” on it.

As soon as he finished collecting them, exhaustion befell his whole body. His MP was empty too, so he ate “honey toffee” to restore it.

(Oh right, I gotta fix the ground too)

With his MP replenished, he fixed the ground by writing “original”. Anyway, it had been a while since he moved around so much and he somehow endured that battle, which was akin to a massacre, albeit of only demons.

“Puh, never thought I was this emotional”

He sighed while saying that as he didn’t expect himself to get worn out mentally to such an extent. It really made him realize that this was not a game.

The smell of lots of blood, the sensation of cutting through flesh, the dying screams and corpses. All of that gave Hiiro, a citizen of a peaceful country, a dreadful shock.

Feeling more exhausted than expected, he sat down on the spot to rest. But a rustling sound announced the arrival of something. It was a goblin.

“Fuh~ Guess I can only keep going until I’m used to it..”

He made a resigning sigh and glared at the goblin.

“Then bring it on! Come at me! Until I get used to it!”

Somewhat out of frustration, he swung around his weapon.

“Aw~ I’m pooped~”

Hiiro had returned to the town, but took a rest on a bench on the street. The slimes and goblins had attacked him without rest. He had defeated them while their blood splashed onto him, so he was completely out of fuel now.

(Though I quite raised my level thanks to that)

Hiiro Okamura

Lvl 7

HP 31/65

MP 34/250

EXP 222

NEXT 87

ATK 25 (35)

DEF 21

AGI 46

HIT 20

INT 37

?Magic Attribute? None

?Magic? Word Magic (Single Chain Unlocked)

?Title? Innocent Bystander, World Traveller, Word Maste