A second ball of acid shot toward Yuuto, tearing through the cold air of the cave. For a split second, the image of his own death flashed through his mind.
Move. Move!
The silent scream inside him broke the fear that held his body still. He threw himself into a roll across the rough stone floor.
The acid splashed against the wall where he had been standing a heartbeat ago. Stone hissed and melted, white smoke curling upward. If that had hit him, he wouldn't have walked away.
Panting hard, Yuuto staggered back to widen the distance between him and the slime. His cheek throbbed, and his heart hammered so fast it hurt.
What was that?
The guides had said slimes only ram their target. None of them mentioned acid shots. Why was this one firing them?
A horrible thought rose in his mind. A rare mutant—one of those that sometimes gained a strange ability. And of course, his very first enemy had to be one of those.
LUK 10, huh. Figures.
The slime began to tremble again, gathering power for a third attack. Yuuto was running out of time.
Should he run? No. Turning his back would only make him an easy target. If he fled now, he would gain nothing.
He tightened his grip on his iron dagger. The creature's attack flew in a straight line and wasn't very fast. If he stayed calm, he could dodge it.
But how could he get close enough to strike? There was a small tell—just before the slime fired, its body shook and swelled on the surface. If he read that moment right, he might move in.
The slime shivered for the third time.
Here it comes.
Yuuto leapt sideways. The acid shot whistled past him and burst against the wall behind.
Yes. He could avoid it. But dodging alone wouldn't win this fight. He needed to close in during the opening.
He forced every sense to focus. The tiny ripples of the slime's jelly-like body. The faint shine on its slick surface. He watched for the smallest clue.
The fourth shot came. Yuuto didn't dodge back this time—he surged forward instead, kicking off the ground and rushing straight at the creature.
The slime hadn't expected him to charge. Its slow reaction was his one chance.
"Raaah!" he shouted, bringing the dagger down with all his strength. He aimed for the core at the center of its body—the one weak point the guides had promised.
The blade sank in with a sickening, rubbery resistance. It was like cutting a tough jelly dessert. The strike had no weight behind it.
Too shallow!
The core was still out of reach, and sticky slime wrapped around the dagger, holding it fast.
"No—!"
Before he could pull free, the slime swelled and lunged, its body stretching to swallow him whole.
A body slam. The simple attack slimes were supposed to use. At point-blank range, disarmed, and unable to move, it was deadly.
Yuuto had no time to escape. The creature engulfed him.
Cold, blue gel closed over his sight. He couldn't breathe. His skin stung as the weak digestive fluid burned him.
His HP ticked down—he could feel it. He would be digested before he even ran out of air.
The more he struggled, the deeper he sank. His limbs were pinned. He couldn't move.
So this was it.
He had been fired from his job and came to this world for one last hope. And now he would die in a dark cave, killed by the weakest monster out there. It was such a sad, pathetic end that he almost laughed.
Faces flickered through his fading thoughts—the blank look of his old manager, the smug grins of Suzuki and the others, the E-rank stamp on his explorer card.
No. Not like this.
He wouldn't die here and give them that story to laugh at. There had to be something—anything.
His only weapons were his odd support skills: Sort, Keep, and Break.
In a moment of clarity, one idea sparked. Break—used to destroy a target. He had assumed it was useless in a fight because the effect dropped if the target resisted.
But dropped didn't mean zero.
And right now, he was inside the slime—so close he could feel every part of its body. If Break worked at all, this was the best possible range.
It was worth a try.
His MP wasn't empty yet. Yuuto forced his fading mind to focus. His target was the slime's own body—the fluids, the gel, the core within. He pictured it all falling apart.
"Break!" he screamed in his mind, calling on the skill (a destroy effect) with everything he had.
The skill drank his MP in one heavy pull. The slime around him trembled, making a wet, ugly sound.
It didn't fully work—the creature fought back—but the body began to lose shape. Parts of it melted into loose water and slime that slid away.
A small blue magic stone floated into view in front of him.
The core!
Yuuto freed his right hand and crushed it.
It shattered with a sharp crack. At once, the slime holding him collapsed into a puddle on the ground.
Yuuto fell onto the wet stone, coughing hard. His clothes were half-melted and his skin burned all over.
But he was alive.
A faint system message appeared at the edge of his vision.
[Slime defeated]
[You gained 10 experience]
Only ten. But those ten were the first he had earned by his own strength in this world.
He lay there, unable to move, too tired to feel joy or relief. The only thing inside him was deep, heavy exhaustion.
His first battle had ended in victory—just barely. But it also showed him the cruel truth. To defeat only one of the weakest monsters, he had nearly died.
This was the level of an E-rank explorer.
It's only the beginning.
With shaking arms, Yuuto pushed himself upright. A rough smile crossed his tired, damaged face.