Seeing the Monster appear, the villagers instantly went on high alert.
Some figured the Hero had transformed, while others thought a beast had suddenly appeared to devour her. Either way, the thing's appearance was so terrifying it was impossible not to feel a surge of dread.
"Miruku... is she okay?" Ariana asked, her voice laced with worry.
Inside the Monster, Miruku's eyes looked vacant, and there was no visible sign of her breathing. It looked like she'd lost consciousness inside the slime.
"I'M GOOD! NEVER BETTER!"
Suddenly, the Slime Venom spoke. But it wasn't Miruku's voice; it was a coarse, rasping growl.
"You don't look good at all! Let Miss Miruku go, now!" Layton pointed at the creature, ready to stage a forceful rescue.
The next second, the Monster's massive frame shriveled instantly. The muscle-bound beast vanished, and Miruku dropped to the ground, back to her normal self.
"I, I'm fine," Miruku said, her delicate face flushing a deep red.
「What... what was that just now?!」
The moment the slime fluid had encased her, she'd felt an incredible surge of Power! Not just in her body, but in her heart too! She felt a hundred times more confident, like she could actually talk to people normally!
With a thought, she donned the Slime Venom suit again.
"There are no side effects once I put it on! I can think and talk perfectly fine, and I can take it off whenever I want!" The monster-form Miruku explained, opening its mouth.
Exhilarating!
This felt amazing!
Being able to blurt out everything she wanted to say in one go felt incredible!!
Ariana: "Talk... normally?"
Layton: "Is this what a 'normal' Miss Miruku sounds like?"
Anyi: "She's become abnormal."
Miruku: "Hey, hey, hey! What do you guys usually think of me, anyway?!!
Fine, fine, I know! You probably think I'm just some useless brat who can't pull her own weight, right?
Low stamina, no strength, can't even look people in the eye when I talk, and a total disaster at communicating! If you had a better Assassin on the team, things definitely wouldn't be this awkward!!
Being a Hero is exhausting! Honestly, I've wanted to quit since the very start—"
Before she could finish her rant, Miruku suddenly retracted the Venom armor with a WHOOSH.
She stood there, frozen, staring at the stunned faces of Ariana and Layton.
Even Anyi's ever-stoic, deadpan expression felt like a cold, judgmental glare to her.
It's over... it's all over!!
Miruku looked at them for a second before tears started streaming down her face like a waterfall.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!!!"
What... what did I just say?!
Miruku dropped to her knees and summoned her daggers.
"Now that it's come to this, I can only atone with my life!"
She raised her hand to drive the dagger into her own heart.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
The daggers vanished the moment they were about to touch her, so she ended up just thumping her own chest repeatedly.
"It's not that serious!! Calm down!!" Ariana rushed over to grab Miruku's hands.
"Exactly! If we're talking about being a burden, aren't I the biggest one?!" Layton added with tragic self-indignation.
"No way! I'm definitely the one holding everyone back!" Ariana chimed in immediately.
Miruku: "Waaaaaaaah!"
Don't comfort me! Just let me die!!
Anyi: "..."
So... can we get back to testing the new gear?
Ending a farce like this usually just required dragging away a certain meddlesome Saintess. Ariana looked like the most normal one, but in reality, whenever she joined the chaos, the other two would never hear the end of it.
After things settled down, Ariana prepared to test the effects of her new weapon. Her skills were originally channeled through a staff, and now that it was replaced by a magic orb, she wondered if things would feel different.
"Huh?" Ariana looked a bit puzzled. "The Great God says that using a Water-attribute weapon won't let my skills deal their full damage?"
The Slime series equipment was all Water-attribute, while Ariana's skills were Holy-attribute.
"Now that you have a Water-attribute weapon, you can use Water-attribute skills," Anyi said.
"Oh, right! Anyi used a fire skill before! But... how do you get Water-attribute skills? Do I need to level up?" Ariana asked Anyi curiously.
The other two were just as intrigued; they'd been wanting to ask this for a while. During Anyi's battles, he always seemed to pull out several high-powered skills, he had already used more than three types of elemental moves. Meanwhile, they only had three skills total, all tied to a single attribute.
How did Anyi get those other skills?
"You don't need to level up. You just need..."
"Insight."
Anyi remained as stoic as ever.
"Same old method: ask the system if you can use other elemental skills. If it says you can, you can. If it says you can't, you can't."
"I'll give it a shot!" Ariana nodded.
「Lord God, can I use skills of other attributes?」
[Searching...
Checking...
Scan complete.
Greetings, Lord Hero. Your currently compatible attributes are: Holy, Light, and Water.]
Lighta-attribute?
Setting aside Holy and Water for a moment, this was the first time Ariana realized she could actually use Light-based skills. But right now, her priority was testing a Water skill with her new gear.
「How do I use a Water attribute skill?」
[Searching...
Adding Water attribute skills to the skill list...
Update successful.]
When Ariana checked her skill list again, she found three new entries.
[Water Ball Lv1, Water Wall Lv1, Water Arrow Lv1]
"It actually worked!" Ariana looked at Anyi, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
The villagers and the faithful, watching Ariana's radiant smile, all wore expressions of pure bliss. They were ascending! To see Her Holiness the Saintess smile like that, honestly, they could die happy right now.
Miruku didn't say a word, but she had also received three new skills.
[Water Walk Lv1, Water Evasion Lv1, Mist Clone Lv1]
The first two were self-explanatory, while the last one allowed her to leave behind a misty silhouette of herself.
"I'm set too!"
Layton had been fiddling with his interface for a while and finally managed to add a new skill.
[Ripple Defense Lv1]
"I got one new skill. What about you guys?" Layton asked.
Ariana: "Three!"
Miruku: "Three."
Layton: "Huh? Why do I only have one?"
Anyi opened his mouth to explain, then thought better of it.
Intelligence affected the learning speed of magic and skills. In the early, as long as you had a base of 3 Intelligence, picking up three basic skills quickly was standard.
However...
Layton's Intelligence was zero.
So while everyone else had automatically intuited their full set, he could only manage to grasp one.
"Alright, let's take ten minutes to test out these new moves," Anyi said.
With that, he took a few steps back, creating some space between himself and the other three, and raised his Slime Sword in front of him.
"I'll be your sparring partner."
Anyi paused for a second, figuring they might hesitate to actually strike him.
"Don't overthink it. It's not like you guys can actually hurt me anyway."
The crowd erupted in a flurry of whispers.
That is way too cocky!
Anyi: "?"
Did I say something weird?
"Want to keep going?"
In the center of the square, Anyi looked at the three people sprawled out in different directions and asked expressionlessly.
"No, no, no... I'm good, I'm done," Layton said, sitting up from the ground and hurriedly waving his hand with a strained smile.
The battle hadn't ended in an instant; it had lasted for over ten minutes. It wasn't that Anyi had lasted ten minutes, but rather that the other three had managed to survive Anyi's surrounding pressure for that long.
Despite their numbers and their distinct roles, they looked pitifully small and helpless against Anyi's Slime Sword.
Whether it was Ariana's Water skills or Miruku in her Slime Venom light armor, all their offenses were easily dismantled by the Slime Sword, which acted as both an absolute offense and defense.
Layton, who was supposed to be testing his defensive skills, simply took a beating from start to finish. It was like being relentlessly whipped by a plantation owner in a cotton field—except the Slime Sword was black, and he... well, he wasn't.
"I... I also think we've tested enough!" Ariana said, rubbing her sore arms with a crestfallen expression, uncharacteristically backing down.
I didn't take this many hits even in the Slime Forest!
Miruku retracted her Venom armor and squatted on the ground, drawing circles with her dagger, her face full of gloom.
「Why... my Agility is so much higher than his. Why can he always find me?」
She was losing her confidence fast.
"Fine. Let's call it a day then. You should be familiar enough with your skills by now," Anyi said, sheathing his Slime Sword.
He had almost never used a Slime Sword in his previous life, so he had needed a little time to get a feel for it. After playing around for a bit, he'd grasped the mechanics.
The Slime Sword fell under the category of a [Water Elemental Sword].
His maxed-out Technique and sword proficiency allowed him to master the new weapon in record time.
Ariana's three Water skills were straightforward enough.
Layton's [Ripple Defense] didn't involve breathing techniques; it worked with his slime heavy armor to absorb damage, creating ripples across the armor's surface as it mitigated the impact.
The name was purely visual.
As for Miruku's three Water skills, they were pretty much useless in this environment. One was for walking on water, one for hiding in water, and one for creating a mist clone.
It was obvious these were designed for aquatic environments; on dry land, they didn't do much.
However, the Slime Venom did have a unique effect.
Aside from blabbing Miruku's intrusive thoughts, the armor also altered her stats.
Equipping the Venom light armor instantly cut her Agility by 10 points, but in exchange, it boosted her Strength, Endurance, and Durability by 3 points each.
For Miruku, this was actually a pretty great surprise.
She had 40 points in Agility but a pathetic 1 point in Strength and a literal 0 in Durability. While she'd bumped her Endurance up to 7, that stat didn't directly translate into raw combat power. The Venom armor giving her 3 points in Strength and Durability meant she finally had some frontline survivability.
Well...
At least she wouldn't be bullied by a common Goblin anymore.
After all, Anyi had soloed a Hobgoblin back when his base Strength was only 2. Low-tier demons were usually like that—they tended to be extremely "specialized" in one area but weak in others.
Slimes came in massive numbers, but their overall stats were garbage. Goblins had decent attack power in the early game, but their Durability and Agility weren't anything special—just slightly better than an average human. Once Heroes dumped a few points into their stats, they could slaughter them at will.
Of course, a Hero without high enough Agility or Durability could still easily get wrecked by a Hobgoblin.
"Lord Sword Hero, we've prepared the map of the disaster zones you requested."
Once the training session ended, a follower stepped forward and handed Anyi a document.
"A map of the disaster zones?" Ariana walked over, leaning in for a look.
The map didn't cover the entire human territory. Instead, it centered on the current village, marking the surrounding disaster zones and the Heroes born in those areas.
Most of the surrounding land was covered in slime infestations, but a few zones were marked with Goblin calamities. A Goblin disaster was far more severe than a slime one; you could clearly see that many villages in those areas had already been abandoned.
It was impossible to tell if the villagers had been killed or had managed to find refuge elsewhere.
"So there are other Heroes so close to us?" Ariana noted, looking at the Hero names marked in various regions.
Then, she noticed a particularly strange area. There were four Hero names listed, but three of them had been crossed out with large red X's.
"They've already..." Ariana hesitated, unable to finish the sentence.
"Your Holiness, those three Heroes have fallen. Though they have perished, their brave spirit in resisting the demons will live forever," the follower said solemnly.
Layton, standing nearby, remained silent, his expression heavy.
Like Ariana, he had a stark realization in that moment.
Fighting demons wasn't a game; it was a life-or-death commitment. They were lucky to have Anyi, a genius swordsman with immense combat experience, to guide them, but what about the other Heroes?
Anyi didn't tell them that, in the early stages, heavy casualties among Heroes were actually the norm. Any other squad would have been lucky just to limp out of the Slime Forest in one piece, let alone achieve the flawless victory they had.
"Our next destination is right here," Anyi said, pointing to the region where three Heroes had already perished.
"Uh, isn't that... wouldn't that be really dangerous?" Miruku piped up weakly from the side.
No kidding! Three Heroes have already died there, of course it's dangerous!
"Defeating demons is never safe! It's precisely because it's dangerous that we Heroes are needed to handle it!!" Layton's eyes burned with resolve as he spoke firmly.
"Well said!!"
"As expected of Lord Shield Hero!!"
"AAAAAHHHHH!!"
The crowd erupted into cheers and screams of support.
Anyi agreed with his sentiment and nodded. "Mr. Layton is right. Where there is danger, there is a problem to be solved. Besides, doesn't it strike you as odd?
A region only inhabited by Goblins managed to kill three Heroes in such a short time. That's clearly not something ordinary Goblins are capable of."
"Exactly! We need to investigate this thoroughly!" Layton added enthusiastically.
Miruku: "..."
Can't we... just go fight another Royal Slime instead?
Ariana stood nearby in silence, staring blankly at the ground.
Three dead Heroes...
Even with her power, it would take three months to bring them all back. She only had ten years to defeat the demons; just how many Heroes could she actually save?
...
In a tavern in a nearby town, a drunken man sat surrounded by women.
"You ladies have no idea! My three idiot teammates were wiped out in an instant by a pack of massive monsters! Luckily, I'm way stronger than any of them. I just took my staff and fought my way out of that horde all by myself!"
"Lord Hero, if the monsters ever come to our door, will you protect us?" one woman asked.
"Of course! Who do you think I am?! I am the Hero of the Staff!!"
...
That afternoon, the motorcade set off in a grand, sweeping procession.
With the white robes of the followers, white carriages, and white horses, the snowy convoy rolled slowly forward under the beating sun.
The next disaster zone wasn't far; having departed at noon, they would arrive by nightfall. In reality, the four Heroes could have made it there much faster on foot, but...
Anyi sat in the carriage, staring bored out the window.
Inside, Ariana and Miruku were huddled together on the opposite bench, fast asleep. The sight of two beautiful girls leaning against each other was a scene of peerless aesthetic grace.
On Anyi's side, Layton was slumped beside him, leaning against the far door and snoring loud enough to grate on anyone's nerves.
He wasn't sure how Ariana and Miruku could sleep through it; they must have been truly exhausted. They had caught some shut-eye on the way back from the forest, but that didn't mean they were fully recovered, so the moment they hit the carriage seats, they drifted off naturally.
Anyi was different.
As a Hero living his second life, he knew one thing for certain: if he slept now...
He'd be wide awake all night. He'd wait until then to sleep; there was no rush.
Anyi pulled his gaze back from the window and looked down at the disaster map in his lap. On the black-tinted map, those three red X's stood out like fresh wounds.
Goblins were the lowest-tier demons. Killing a human was easy enough for them, but taking down a Hero was another matter entirely. Even a Hobgoblin would struggle to gain an advantage against a Hero with a base Durability of 10 or more.
A guy like Layton, an ironclad sandbag with a nonsensical 29 Durability, could stand still and let a Hobgoblin wail on him for half a day.
Durability didn't just boost HP; it provided resistance. Any Hero with even a modicum of Durability could tank a Hobgoblin's hits. Furthermore, Goblins weren't particularly agile. A common Goblin had 4 Agility, and a Hobgoblin had 5.
Theoretically, once a Hero's Agility hit 3, they could track a Hobgoblin's movements, even if their actual attack speed lagged slightly. Anyi's base Agility was 3, and combined with his see-through-the-enemy's-laundry level of prediction, even with the Hobgoblin having 2 more points than him, it would find him hard to hit.
Honestly, looking at the whole team, only Ariana was at risk of being unable to tank a Hobgoblin's damage while also being unable to outrun it. But considering her magic, a Hobgoblin would never even get close to her.
She had a five-thousand-point mana pool!
Forget one Hobgoblin; even if a hundred of them showed up, she could handle it.
Summing it up, as long as a Hero didn't lose their mind and dump all their points into [Endurance, Intelligence, Technique], stats that don't directly boost early combat viability, they should fundamentally be able to take a Hobgoblin.
Even if someone was so afraid of pain they went full Durability, or so afraid of violence they went full Strength to become a One-Punch Man, they shouldn't end up dead at the hands of Goblins.
So, the real question was:
What on earth did that Hero squad encounter to suffer such casualties?
In Anyi's view, there were only two possibilities.
First, a demon that low-level Heroes couldn't handle appeared in that zone. Whether it was a high-tier demon or an overwhelming variety of demons, it fell under this category.
Second, an internal conflict broke out between the Heroes.
Yes, Heroes could "hurt each other."
Of course, it wasn't direct physical harm. System-issued weapons and skills wouldn't actually wound another Hero. Even if a hit "hurt," it was just a sensation of pain; the body would remain unscarred, and HP wouldn't drop a single point.
The real way Heroes "hurt each other" had been written into the system from the very beginning.
[Special Abilities]
A Hero's unique special ability could be stripped away by another Hero.
In his previous life, Anyi had witnessed this exact scenario. There were Heroes who, wanting to hoard the abilities of their teammates, would intentionally lead their squad into a death trap.
Once their teammates were forced to reveal their special abilities, the traitor would deduce the mechanics and, by [correctly reciting the skill description], steal the ability for themselves.
It was an atrocious act. Furthermore, once an ability was stolen, that specific Hero class would never manifest again. For example, if the special ability of the Hero of the Pig or the Hero of the Dog was stolen, no successor for those Heroes would ever appear in the world.
Yet, the system technically permitted this. After all, if one Hero could possess multiple special abilities, they would become a powerhouse. Just imagine the final Holy War against the Demon King: 100+ Heroes with one ability each versus 100+ Heroes with multiple abilities each, the difference was night and day.
Heroes weren't necessarily "good" people; they were just individuals possessed by a singular obsession to slaughter demons, regardless of their morality.
When a Hero's ability was stolen, they didn't lose their attributes or the system itself. Instead, after a one-month cooldown, they would have a single chance to steal it back.
Therefore, usually, after snatching an ability, the plunderer will find a way to kill the victim. Leading others into a death trap is the most effective way to dispose of them. Snatching the power while cleaning up the other Heroes, it's killing two birds with one stone.
However, stealing an ability is actually quite difficult because...
Everyone's skill description is different. Specifically, the phrasing is unique.
For example, Anyi's special ability is the [Ability to cleave the enemy in two], and the activation condition is shouting [One Sword] during combat. Thus, his precise skill description should be: [Ability to cleave the enemy in two].
From an outsider's perspective, they might guess it's: [Shouting One Sword to gain the ability to cleave the enemy in two]. Or perhaps: [Shouting One Sword to gain the ability to kill the enemy].
Once you fail to guess the exact phrasing while trying to seize a power, especially while in a life-threatening situation, everything goes to waste.
Then, there is one more scenario: voluntarily surrendering the ability.
This involves telling the exact description of your power to another person, allowing them to take it directly. Usually, this only happens when someone deeply trusts another and wants to entrust them with their hopes.
There are also those "big-hearted" villains who gain their teammates' trust, lure them into a trap, and then trick them into surrendering their abilities.
However, that kind of scenario is highly unlikely at this stage. It's only been a few days; it's much more probable that someone is using their own power rather than giving it away.
Besides... at this stage, no one has even realized that abilities can be transferred yet.
Anyi folded the map and looked out the window.
In his previous life, he possessed several special abilities, all of them entrusted to him by others. Without exception, every one of those people had reached the end of their path.
During the final Holy War, he had pushed himself to the limit, but before he could even confirm if the Demon King had fallen, he was dead.
He wondered if that counted as failing the expectations they had placed on him. If he encountered them again in this life, he decided... he wouldn't let those people die a second time.
Amidst the boredom of the carriage ride, nightfall soon arrived. The four of them, along with the group of followers, reached their destination for the day.
The sole surviving Hero from that region had already received the news and arrived early to meet them.
He had heard that these Heroes had just helped a nearby village deal with slimes, demons so weak a child could kill them, whereas he was a powerhouse who had personally fought his way out of a Goblin encirclement.
In terms of actual combat experience, he considered himself their senior; it was only natural for him to show up and look after them!