The day was still not over for Saki. It is currently afternoon and the sun is still high up, it was an indication for her to return to her training. With her new sheath strapped to her waist, she went out to their yard where her dummy was still standing.
She stood in front of the dummy and took a deep breath before pulling out her sword. The way she pulled out her sword felt good to her as she could imagine herself pulling it out in front of a dangerous monster. However, upon looking at the iron sword, she seems to hesitate.
Her new sword is made of iron. Her dummy would be ruined by the strikes she would deal with and provide no training at all once it breaks. She contemplates for a while as she holds the sword with both of her hands.
"Saki...!" Abigail called out. Saki turned and saw her leaning on their wooden fence. She asked. "What? Got any more bread to deliver?" She joked. "Got any more dreams to daydream?" Abigail bites back. Saki's eye twitched in annoyance. "I wasn't daydreaming. What do you want?" She replied. "I figured we should spend the rest of the day training yourself against real monsters" Abigail proposed. A jolt of excitement hits Saki's chest, her eyes fluttered wide instantly. "R-really? Y-yeah! That sounds nice!" She nods her head with anticipation.
"Hehe... Like a child going to the sweets shop" Abigail pressed her hand on her cheek as she adored Saki's excited expression. Saki quickly went back to her house to tell her parents and went out to meet Abigail. "Are you ready? We're going off the dirt path in the forest to find slimes and bugs" Abigail said as she started walking towards the forest. Saki followed after.
"Hey, wait... What if we get lost?" Saki expressed her concern. "If we did get lost, you will protect me, right?" Abigail smiles. Saki raised her brow at her. "I wasn't talking about protection, I was talking about how are we going to get home if we lose track of our location" She replied. Abigail mocked a sad and hurt look on her face as she looked at Saki. "So, you won't protect me?" Saki just looked at her with furrowed brows. "Of course, I would. I was just pointing out that that wasn't my point" She replied.
Abigail pulls out a green palm-sized orb and shows it to Saki. "We can use this item to teleport back to where we came from, so this will return us to Shigure if I activate it" Saki leans closer to the orb to see it closely. Upon closer inspection, it's just a green orb. There was nothing worth noticing other than the color of green in an orb shape.
"Why didn't you use it so we can return here instead of walking all the way from Kire?" Saki asked. "It only works when you're in a cave, forest, dungeons, and some other interiors. You want to get from place to place in an instant? Learn time magic, it's a new set of skills in the new mage class" Abigail said as they entered the forest.
The air was thick with the scent of pine and damp earth as they strayed away from the dirt path. Their senses heightened as they continued to traverse the forest past the designated road for travel. The forest hummed peacefully with insects buzzing and the fluttering of the leaves from the trees, disturbed by the noises of the underbrush and footsteps of the two ladies.
They walked for a while, traversing through seemingly endless trees and shrubs. At a certain spot, Saki stopped to look behind them, and Abigail stopped in her tracks as well. Looking back, the trees and plants looked the same. The path they walked now seemed to blend with the forest. The moment they faced up ahead again, they wouldn't know if it was in the same direction they were going, and the moment they looked back again, they wouldn't know if it was the path they walked from, Saki knew this.
Normally, it would be scary, but Abigail was with her and her orb to bring them back to their village. To her relief, they can go ahead and find a wild monster to train with without worrying about getting lost. Abigail remained quiet as she followed Saki ahead again.
"So... are you sure there are slimes and bug monsters here? It's so quiet I can hear my own voice inside my head" Saki complained. Aside from their footsteps, there are no other noises other than nature itself. She was expecting at least the distant squeaks of the slimes or the eerie buzzing of the bug monsters. "Don't be in a rush now. We're just training after all... If there were many slimes or bugs around, we wouldn't be able to train at all. It's good that the forest is still silent. What we need is a lone monster" Abigail smiles at her.
Saki lets out a grumpy "Alright" and just quietly proceeds. After what seemed to take forever, they heard a small squeak just to their right. The two immediately went cautious and lowered themselves. "You heard that? Slime!" Saki's eyes were almost glistening, she sounded very excited, and her excitement was evident on her face. "Yes, slime. Hopefully alone" Abigail nods as she slowly makes her way to the source of the noise.
As they near the source of the sound, they now could hear bouncy, watery noises followed by the grass and dirt it landed on. "Kii...! Kii...!" The slime squeals idly, revealing itself to the two ladies. "There it is!" Saki pointed at the blue slime, and they both stopped near a tree. "Slimes are cute aren't they?" Abigail pressed her hand on her cheek as she watched the slime bounce in a direction away from them.
"Kii...!" It squeals once more. "Not only do they look cute, but they also sound like a child!" Abigail added. "They're cute until they start slamming their bodies against you... I saw one of our village boys get hit by one of them and get sent to the ground, almost losing consciousness. He got a fractured shoulder when he was examined by a doctor" Saki replied in a monotone manner.
"You didn't have to ruin it for me" Abigail kept her smile but was slightly a bit afraid now. "Either way, you can't deny that they look cute when they're not attacking anyone" She added. "Yeah, but they attack people, so they're not cute at all. See how you're attracted to it? That's how they lure you in so they could attack you" Saki scoffs in amusement.
"How rude! You made it sound like I would carelessly approach one! I'm merely admiring it from a safe distance!" Abigail puffs her cheek at her. "Anyway, let's initiate a battle with it before it hops away further" She said as she and Saki moved out from the tree to approach the slime.
"Hey!" Abigail yells to call the slime's attention. Hearing her, the slime jumps and spins itself in the air to face their direction and lands with a wet noise. Its big white round eyes blinked twice as it recognized the two as enemies. "Here we go, Saki!" She said with excitement. Saki was waiting for this. She stands in front of Abigail and pulls out her iron sword. She imagined herself pulling out her sword like a true adventurer and it felt cool for her.
'Battle start!' Her battle interface appears and displays the initiation for the battle. Unlike the duel with the prince in Kire, this is Saki's first-ever battle. The duel was unfair, and she wasn't able to fight back at all. She refused to believe it was even a battle. This time, she can finally attack properly and deal damage. She made a stance as she faced the slime, one foot behind, her sword between them to provide a defense as they stood still, her eyes watching every movement of the slime. Just being in such a stance filled Saki's spirit courage and motivation.
The slime was still and watching her. Saki took this opportunity to attack. "Hyah...!" She raised her sword from the right and swung to slice the slime apart. However, upon impact, her sword only sank a bit into the slime before it regained its mass and bounced her sword away, making her lose her balance, and stumble backward. "What?!" She looked surprised as she recovered her balance. "Saki, they have viscous consistency! You need to hit harder!" Abigail advised her from behind.
"Got it!" Saki answered. In her interface, a text appears reading 'Attack'. The slime was about to perform a normal attack. She raised her sword slightly to brace for an attack. "Sha...!!!" The slime wildly hissed as it jumped and threw itself at Saki. "Whoa!" The slime hits Saki's hands, making her stumble back. "Ow, ow...!" She lowered her sword and looked at her hand. It was bruised. And she read on the interface 'Slime attacks Saki!' 'Saki takes 10 damage!'
She gasped and looked at her hit points. '40/50' A sweat ran down her head. "Ten damage?! So that means I can only take five hits from a slime?!" She complained loudly and immediately focused on the slime. "The curse of being an unfortunate villager lost in a forest. Just five attacks and your life is forfeit! Stay focused now! Hit it with all your strength!" Abigail's tone was that of a commanding one. Saki replied with a sharp yes.
Her sword has a base damage of 10 to 15. The slime has only 20 hit points. If she could just cut through the slime's thick body, she could easily send the slime into a critical stage. It was supposed to be that easy, Saki thought to herself. Igniting her spirit to fight, Saki swung her sword again, to have it bounce off the slime again. "Damn it!" She grunts as her attack doesn't go through again. With a stand-off, Saki struggles to find a way to defeat a simple slime