We stood by the pond's edge, branches and rocks in hand, ready to deal with the blue slimes wobbling around the area.
They were sluggish and mostly rolling, but I warned the group again, "Stay more than ten feet away until you're ready to attack. If they feel threatened, they'll start jumping toward you."
Everyone nodded,
"I will stay back so I can watch and see what everyone can do when fighting with other people. if we are going to work together we need to know each other's weaknesses and strengths." I said
"Good thinking and we can point out any flaws we see with you," Araki said while smiling at me.
I shook my head and checked on everyone else.
Araki pulled out a sling, something he'd apparently kept hidden for emergencies. He loaded it with a smooth rock and aimed the closest slime.
Zek and Ark each held long branches, testing their range with a few experimental swings.
Orin crouched down, hefting a handful of stones, ready to launch them at any slime that got close.
Aaron, ever resourceful, had sharpened the tip of a stick into a crude spear and twirled it in his hands.
I nodded back, said "Let's get started," and gestured toward the cluster of slimes.
Spreading out as they began to approach the slimes.
Araki went first, his sling letting loose a rock that hit the nearest slime dead center. The creature quivered before its gelatinous form collapsed, leaving a light blue pearl-like core behind.
"That's one down!" I called out, keeping my eyes on the other slimes as they began to react.
Orin smashed one with his branch, cracking its gelatinous body open and exposing the light blue core in the center.
The core tumbled out onto the grass, but some slime residue clung to it. Orin quickly washed his hands in the pond, grimacing. "This stuff stings like hell."
"Better than letting it sit on your skin," I said. "Good work, though. Keep going and make sure not to crack the cores, we need them,"
Zek swung his branch like a bat, smashing one slime into pieces, though a bit of acid splashed onto his foot. He quickly ran to the pond and washed it off, gritting his teeth at the sting.
Aaron worked more cautiously, darting around the edge of the group and targeting smaller slimes that lagged behind the rest.
"These things are annoying, but at least they're slow," he muttered.
Ark staben a slime with his branch, keeping it at bay until Orin hurled a stone, shattering it with a loud splat causing Ark to jump back to avoid the acid that splashed.
"Sorry Ark!" Orin apologized.
The slimes started to notice the threat, rolling faster and trying to close the gap between themselves and the group.
One particularly bold slime jumped toward Ark when he got too close. He yelped and stumbled back, but Orin was quick to smash it mid-air with a well-aimed throw.
"Careful! Don't let them jump you," I called out, motioning for Ark to keep his distance.
The rest of the group moved in, spreading out to avoid being too close to the slimes.
"Watch out! Three of them are grouping together to your left!" I shouted.
Sure enough, a trio of slimes began wobbling toward them, slowly closing the distance.
When they were about ten feet away, they began hopping.
One jumped in Orin's direction, but he stepped to the side and brought a branch down, splattering its body into the ground.
"They really are bad jumpers," Orin laughed, wiping sweat off his brow.
I smiled and was happy to see they could handle these things.
I noticed a slime was slowly making its way towards me hiding behind the grass.
I didn't move and just waved my hand. Instantly the slime exploded into a blue mist and I turned my attention to the others who didn't notice a thing.
They worked well together, each sticking to their roles. Araki's sling proved invaluable, taking out slimes from a distance, while Aaron and Zek handled the ones that got too close.
By the time the last slime collapsed into a puddle, the group was sweating but grinning at their success.
"Seems like you all enjoyed yourselves," I said as I walked over to check on everyone.
They all nodded and Orin said grinning "Compared to the entrance exam these are nothing, but they do offer an interesting challenge since we can't use our normal gear."
Everyone nodded and even Zek said "You right there Orin. It has been a while since I haven't used magic for a fight so I forgot how it felt."
I smiled hearing their responses.
I crouched by the pond and began flicking the cores into the water with a slick to clean them, the light blue pearls making tiny splashes as they hit the surface.
I went over and picked them back up now that the acid had dissolved.
"That's ten down," I said, "Let's move on to the next pond. Ella mentioned one nearby with a bigger slime population. We'll handle the rest there."
They all nodded and we went to the next area after resupplying on branches and rocks.
Once we reached the next pond I saw the slimes instantly but unlike the first area, these slimes were clustered together, making them a bit more challenging to handle.
"Zek, use a little magic to freeze some and slow them down. Just be careful not to damage the cores," I instructed.
Zek nodded raised his staff and cast the spell.
[Frost Floor]
it was a toned-down version from the one he used during he entrance exam.
A thin layer of frost began to spread across the ground, freezing the slimes closest to the group and slowing down the others.
Araki took advantage of the frozen slimes, using his sling to shatter them before the frost melted. The rest of the group followed up, breaking apart the remaining slimes with their makeshift weapons.
It didn't take long for the group to finish off the slimes and I cleaned them again.
Unfortunately, a few cores ended up damaged in the process. I counted 8 broken and 22 intact.
"Not bad," I said, pocketing the cores. "Let's get moving to the next part of the quest."
This time, Araki took the lead. "Mint grows near my home," he said. "I know where to look if everyone is alright with that."
No one objected and we let Araki talk the lead.
He explained to the group (I already knew this) that mint liked to grow on the edge of swamps and stream banks so we followed a stream leading to one of the earlier ponds from the fields nearby.
We followed him as he scanned the ground for patches of wild mint. It didn't take long for him to find the first cluster, and everyone got to work harvesting the mint, careful not to damage the roots.
I showed everyone how big a batch was and we started gathering mint.
(the guild has a standard batch size to make sure amounts are paid for properly so that one person doesn't bring in one plant and another brings in 10 and they get paid the same.)
While we were doing this Ark got curious and asked "By the way, why does the guild want all this mint? What could they use it for?"
I smiled and said, "Mint is a common ingredient in Alchemy, beverage production and cooking so the guild will buy it from us and sell it on the market or use it to make potions."
Ark nodded and asked, "Is alchemy very useful ?"
Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at him dumbfounded.
"How do you not know about alchemy?" Araki asked
Ark realized he said something weird and hesitated but got out "I-I don't get out much! I never learned about things like it."
We all felt bad for Ark as we realized how isolated he was growing up and how little common sense he had for this world and its standards of knowledge. (Even if my knowledge is beyond what the mage tower knows.)
I sighed and explained "Alchemy is primarily used to make potions. In truth, it is one of the most lucrative and well-paying jobs in the entire kingdom that anyone can have regardless of where you were born."
"In truth, you get paid more for selling potions than you do for being a B-rank adventurer and taking quests. You can buy the ingredients for 5 silver and sell them for 50 silver for a massive profit or even grow your ingredients for free. You can make a lot of money from it."
Orin nodded and said "There are a lot of different options and adventurers use them all the time. Healing potions can heal serious wounds in a few minutes, stamina potions help you stay awake and not get tired, mana potions recharge a mage's mana and so on."
Next Zek said "There are potions that can boost different types of magic too or even make you immune to certain types of magic. There are many choices but annoyingly potions are also pretty expensive, low-grade ones are 50 silver each."
"Zek is right. I have some healing potions just in case but I only have 2. Potions are very expensive, especially for low-ranked adventurers."
Ark was wide-eyed as he took in my words.
I noticed curiosity well inside of him as he said "What is alchemy exactly? Is it similar to cooking?"
Zek nodded and said "Kind of... to make a potion you need to add certain ingredients in a specific order and filler precise steps and if you get it wrong on any step the potion fails. The Academy offers some Alchemy classes so if you want to try, you can."
Ark nodded and continued to think as we finished gathering the mint.