Troll was sure of his own conclusion.
Everything about the elf Claire had described except the name matched.
A ponytailed elf with pale green hair, striking blue eyes, and incredible strength.
And if the elf was looking for a slime, it could only be Nellin.
But then why was the name Marin and not Nellin?
‘She must’ve thought using her real name in public would be a hassle! But Marin? Seriously! Couldn’t you have at least twisted the pronunciation a bit more, Nellin?’
It was just like Nellin to come up with a lazy alias, but even so, Troll thought she went too far this time.
He was debating whether to tell Squishy that Marin was actually Nellin.
Right then, Claire turned to the slime and said, “You’re still a helpful slime. I got a lot of help from you.”
No matter how much Claire hated monsters, she wouldn’t turn her back on a slime who had saved her multiple times.
Besides—
‘If I show her such a smart slime, she might teach me something.’
Even if this wasn’t the slime she was searching for, if she showed it to Marin, Marin might think it was the one she was looking for.
Thinking she might be able to learn something from Marin, Claire decided to take the slime to her.
“If you come with me, I’ll treat you to a meal. You coming?”
‘Food!’
Boing!
The slime happily bounced along, thrilled at the idea of eating town food again.
Claire walked a bit ahead and, seeing the slime follow, assumed it would keep up and continued walking.
Boing! Boing!
The slime kept bouncing after her.
On the way to the town, Claire suddenly stopped in her tracks, remembering something.
“Oh, I forgot to collect the loot.”
In the chaos of the fight, she had completely forgotten to take proof of the monster’s defeat.
But Claire didn’t regret it.
She cared more about defeating monsters than the actual requests.
Besides, missing out on a reward wasn't going to hurt her financially.
***
It was easy for Claire to bring the slime into town.
Right before entering, she lifted the slime with both hands and marched in confidently.
A guard at the town gate came over and asked, “What’s that slime about?”
“Found it.”
“Well, technically it’s still a monster...”
“It’s safe.”
Claire’s name, "Frost Fist Claire," was well-known in the town.
The champion of the recent Black Dragon Festival at the Colosseum, and an adventurer infamous for her fury and obsession with monsters.
A slime brought in by someone like Claire, who swore it was safe, wasn’t going to be much of an issue.
Plus, there were other veteran adventurers in town, so even if the slime went wild, they could easily take it down.
“Understood. Go ahead.”
“Yep.”
After entering the town with the slime, Claire headed straight to a restaurant.
It was way earlier than her usual mealtime.
But after an unexpected intense battle and the energy spent recovering from injuries, she was starving.
Inside the restaurant, Claire placed the slime on the table and looked at the menu.
What she really wanted right now was a meat dish.
While browsing, she suddenly felt a gaze from right in front of her.
‘Food.’
The slime was looking at Claire with a hopeful sparkle.
‘What kind of food does a slime like?’
“What do you wanna eat?”
Claire held up the menu for the slime to see.
She didn’t stop to consider whether the slime could read.
If it didn’t choose, she’d just order herself anyway.
‘Menu!’
The slime was overjoyed by Claire’s gesture.
It was the first time anyone had offered it a menu.
Back with Godrick’s party, no one ever showed the menu to the slime—they just ordered whatever and handed it over.
The slime scanned the items listed on the menu.
They were mostly the same dishes it had eaten with Godrick’s party before.
▶ Hmm. I understand perfectly what’s written.
▶ Say what it is, then.
▶ I don’t listen to those weaker than me.
[Noblesse Fire] ▶ Just spit it out.
▶ I don’t yield to those stronger than me either.
▶ Classic "answer-you-wanted" jerk lmao.
▶ Gahahaha.
‘This one!’
Pop!
The slime extended a tentacle and pointed to a specific dish.
“Huh?”
Claire blinked in surprise—she hadn’t expected the slime to really point to anything.
‘It can read…? That’s… amazing.’
Claire herself only learned to read after becoming an adventurer.
She started learning so she could read books to defeat monsters more quickly and efficiently.
Right after becoming an adventurer, she asked the guild receptionist where to learn to read, and was told the guild offered lessons.
There were plenty of adventurers who ran out into the field without knowing a single thing, unable to even read a request.
That’s why the guild offered literacy classes for a fee.
Claire, who had studied in those classes, knew just how hard it was to learn to read.
So she couldn’t help but be amazed by the slime.
Claire flipped over the menu to check what the slime had picked.
Vegetable soup?
‘It likes vegetables?’
Since the secret workshop, the slime had only eaten monster meat that Troll had hunted.
All it wanted now was to enjoy a good bowl of vegetable soup for the first time in a while.
But Claire, unaware of that history, suddenly remembered the words of the martial artist who taught her the basics of combat.
—Meat’s great and all, but eat your veggies too!
At the time, Claire had thought meat tasted better and ignored the advice.
But here was a super-strong slime… and it liked vegetables?
‘Is that how it got so strong?’
Claire, lost in thought, made a decision.
“One vegetable soup for each of us, and one roast meat.”
There was no way she was skipping meat entirely from this meal.
Not long after, the food was brought to the table, and the sight of a properly cooked meal sparked activity in the chat window.
Daaamn, finally some legit human food.
Compared to that fake meat crap Troll made, this is gourmet.
[Free Spirit] ▶ Hey, I did my best.
▶ Best effort? You just brought meat and grilled it.
[Free Spirit] ▶ I couldn’t get any other ingredients, what was I supposed to do?
▶Not my problem. If you don’t like it, cook better lolol.
The slime slid toward its plate and absorbed the soup.
‘Delicious!’
The taste of freshly prepared food after so long truly satisfied the slime’s palate.
“Oh. That’s so weird.”
It was the first time Claire had ever seen a slime eat.
The moment the slime absorbed the soup, Claire expected to see the food inside its body—but that didn’t happen.
It didn’t even open its mouth, yet the vegetable soup was sucked in effortlessly—it was a fascinating sight.
While the slime happily slurped the vegetable soup, Claire, trying to recover her strength and heal her wounds, tore into the roast meat and downed her own soup.
After finishing the meal, Claire picked up the slime and headed to the Adventurers' Guild.
“You’re back, Miss Claire. Hm? That slime is…”
“Found it.”
“I-Is that so?”
“I took down thirteen Howling Foxes. But a Gluttony Bear showed up in the middle, so I had to retreat and couldn’t collect the loot.”
“R-Really? Are you all right?”
Howling Foxes usually travel in packs.
And the fact that a B-rank monster appeared in the middle of that fight meant it had to be extremely dangerous.
“Yeah. I’m fine. Since I didn’t get any loot, I don’t need the reward. But I still came to report.”
“Understood. I’m just glad you’re safe.”
Even if someone was trustworthy, rules were rules—no loot meant no reward.
But since there were some so-called ‘problem adventurers’ who’d demand payment without proof, showing only injuries as evidence, the receptionist was thankful for Claire’s integrity.
After her report, Claire brought up her next question.
“I’ve got something I want to ask.”
“Something you’re curious about?”
“Where’s Marin?”
“Marin? Is that an adventurer?”
“Yeah. Super strong.”
“Uh, well… I haven’t heard of any B- or A-rank adventurer by that name.”
Claire then described Marin’s hair color, style, eye color, race—everything she had explained to the slime.
But the receptionist couldn’t provide a satisfying answer.
“I’m sorry. Even with that, I still don’t know.”
“I see…”
Claire lowered her head, disappointed that she couldn’t locate Marin even after finally finding a slime to show her.
‘When will I find her?’
“Do you have some business with this adventurer?”
“Yeah. Marin’s looking for a smart slime. She’s been looking while forming parties with other adventurers. I wanted to show her this slime.”
“She’s looking for a slime?”
The receptionist thought for a moment after hearing that Claire was seeking a slime, and then something came to mind.
“I’m not sure about anyone named Marin, but I’ve heard of a party of adventurers who were looking for a unique slime. They even spent money making flyers to distribute through the guild network.”
“Really? Do you have one of those flyers?”
“No, I only heard the rumor. We haven’t received any flyers here in this town yet. But the party’s name was… right, Godrick’s Party.”
‘Godrick!’
Shiver!
The slime immediately reacted to the familiar name.
And it wasn’t just the slime.
[Gothic Luxury Bone] ▶ Godrick? That was one of the humans who traveled with Squishy.
[Noblesse Fire] ▶ Ohhh, those total scrubs?
[Just Slam First] ▶ The humans who always made the slime body slam enemies. Are we meeting them again?
▶ LMAO those pathetic human noobs flailing around was comedy gold.
▶ Way better than sparring. Hunting with them was peak entertainment.
The viewers who enjoyed the streams from the days the slime was with Godrick’s party reacted instantly at the mention of his name.
Watching humans weaker than the slime fight with its help was entertaining in the same way as watching low-level players struggle to survive.
“Godrick… Godrick… hmmm.”
Claire shut her eyes tightly and repeated the name.
It sounded vaguely familiar—but maybe not.
When they met at the Black Dragon Festival, all her attention had been focused on Marin, so the rest of the Godric party had faded from her memory.
“Ah.”
After pondering for a while, Claire finally recalled Godrick’s party.
“Godrick’s party. I know them.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. That’s the party Marin was teaching.”
“Then I guess Marin is in that same party. That’s great—if it’s Godrick’s party, I think I know where they are.”
“Really?”
“Yes. The rumor I heard was that another town received a flyer request from their party.”
“Then where is that town?”
“It’s a place called Chilture, about a week’s journey from here.”
“I see.”
Claire’s next destination was set.