Zlimes once lived alongside humans
They were extremely gentle creatures that lived in herds
They were said to be as calm as the Buddha
But, for whatever reason, there were some that separated from their herds
Leading to a completely different story
Those Zlimes, ending up all alone
Lacked the stability of a herd, and lost the support for their hearts
Resulting in an increase in ferocity
These Zlimes would even attack humans
Causing them to be treated as monsters
There were some that were ejected from the herd due to their looks
They slanted towards being quite aggressive
These were called Ugly Zlimes
However, even being more aggressive, they were still Zlimes
So they were quickly dispatched by adventurers
But there were some Zlimes that patiently bided their time
Turning a blind eye to the deaths of their fellow brethren and continued living on
These became known by a different name
The wildest of the wild
The loneliest of the loners
They were the Wild Zlimes
It wasn’t just that they were living in the wild, they strayed from even that
As natural loners, the Wild Zlimes were strong
Having survived by stepping over the carcasses of their brethren
They possess a vast amount of magic energy, and their potential has far surpassed that of Zlimes
And with their hearts forged from long years of loneliness
They were even able to use magic, something that was impossible for Zlimes
For adventurers, they were not simple opponents to deal with
Then, when those Wild Zlimes continued living
The prolonged lives as loners slowly petrified their hearts
Resulting in the metallic body of the Silver Wild Zlime
Silver Wild Zlimes trust in nobody and have no desires
Their closed-off hearts harden even their bodies into a cold silver color
Having survived without caring about anything else, they are very fast at escaping
Even experienced adventurers would have problems catching up
Unlike Wild Zlimes, they immediately run away when they see an adventurer
Since they run away, have high defense and high agility, it is difficult to defeat them
In that case, defeating them should yield a lot of experience
You might anticipate that, but in the end it’s just a secluded loner
So there’s no way it has a lot of life experience
Perhaps that is part of their self-preservation tactics
From the difficulty of defeating them to the small amount of experience and Elements
They stopped being the target of adventurers
The Silvers have become true solitary loners
On the other hand, there are some Wild Zlimes that proactively fight with adventurers
Constantly improving themselves until they start giving off a golden glow
These are the Golden Wild Zlimes
Their tough bodies and speed at escaping are the same as the Silvers
But their reasons for escaping and the amount of experience and magic energy they hold are completely different
While they are very powerful, they do not desire to fight
However, the experience that they had continued to accumulate until their bodies turned golden
As well as their large amount of Elements were especially alluring for adventurers
And since they don’t want to fight, they will not attack
Thus, all the adventurers yearn for them
They are completely different from the unpopular and lonely Silvers.
So that’s why I’m a Golden Wild Zlime
And you’re a Silver Wild Zlime!
QED!
Above was a lengthy post that had appeared in Nekomimineko’s forums.
It was basically just a lengthy attack at the end of a flame war, but in the end, the poster was chased out of the thread by a full-combo of “tl;dr”, “disgusting”, and “you’re still a loner in the end, though”. But, since the contents were quite interesting, the post made its way into a corner of the Nekomimineko wiki. Of course, everything about the Zlimes was completely made up, but at the same time it made one feel like it might not be complete gibberish.
Silver Wild Zlimes were completely worthless monsters since they hardly gave any experience or money, probably due to a mistake from the staff when setting the values, but Golden Wild Zlimes had a vast amount of experience and money, and they didn’t even attack at all. They could theoretically be defeated as a level 1; they were literally the perfect example of being sitting ducks.
If there was going to be a mass spawning of Golden Wild Zlimes, that was something that couldn’t be passed up.
To put it simply, a mass spawning involved a single type of monster taking over a specific field or dungeon. There was a distinctive sign for this: a few hours before the mass spawning occurred, monsters in that location would stop respawning.
The monster chosen for mass spawnings was randomly selected out of all of the monsters that could spawn in that location, but this was the first time that I’d ever seen it be the Golden Wild Zlime.
The time of the mass spawning was predicted to be around two hours later, from 2pm to 4pm this afternoon.
If we did this right, we could easily make up enough for tonight’s inn. Not only that, it might even be possible to make enough that we wouldn’t need to worry about money for a while.
I moved my gaze to the commotion around, and saw that the adventurers who had seen the sheet of paper were all rushing towards the counter, shouting out their intent on joining the Extermination Fest. We couldn’t afford to miss this chance.
“Ringo, we’re joining too.”
From what I could see, there were less than 20 people in the guild right now. With just this number, securing a spot should be possible, but if we waited too long that might not be the case.
Pulling Ringo by her hand, we moved towards the counter.
I applied at the counter, entering Ringo and myself as a team for the Golden Wild Zlime Extermination Fest.
We received the special crystal that kept track of the number of monsters destroyed from the seedy old man at the counter.
Normally, the magic energy from defeated monsters was automatically absorbed by the crystal one carried as a wallet, becoming Elements (money), but the Bounty Hunters’ Guild used that principle to create a special crystal for destroy requests.
This special crystal only absorbed the magic energy of the specified monster, and filled up completely after the specified number of monsters had been defeated, notifying that the request had been completed. Bringing this back to the counter acted as proof that the request was fulfilled, but, in order to borrow this, half of the reward in Elements had to be put down as security.
But during Extermination Fests, in order to prevent the mass spawned monsters from attacking the towns, or at least with that pretext, the first 50 registrants could rent the special crystal for free.
Obtaining one of those special crystals was the first requirement for participating in an Extermination Fest.
Extermination Fests were a mix of both destroy and collect requests for the mass spawned monster (in this case, the Golden Wild Zlime).
During Extermination Fests, participants were treated like they constantly had a destroy and collect request active. What this meant was that if you defeated 10 of the target monsters during an Extermination Fest, then you would receive a reward equivalent to if you had accepted a destroy request for 10 of those monsters, and if you collected 5 of the monster’s drop items, then you would receive a reward equivalent to if you had accepted a collect request for 5 of those drop items, paid out at the end of the Fest.
This was already extremely enticing. Just that was already extremely enticing, but in addition, for the participant that received the highest reward during the Extermination Fest, their reward jumped to 10x as a bonus! Second place would get 3x, and third place would get 2x. Due to the incomparable increase in reward, it was extremely important to aim for the top 3.
Especially important were teams. During registration, up to three players could form a team, and the total reward would be summed up among those players.
Like I mentioned, I had registered with Ringo as a team. While it would be advantageous to have a third person, I didn’t want to deal with fighting over the reward at the end. We’d do our best to aim for first place with just the two of us.
Mass spawning and the associated Extermination Fest were rare events that one would be lucky to run into even two or three times before clearing the game. But it was one of the biggest bonus events in Nekomimineko, and yet another reason why the Bounty Hunters’ Guild was called the saving grace of Nekomimineko.
That said, if the target monster was too strong then it would be impossible to participate, and if the target location was too far away then, in the worst case, it might even be impossible to reach the location before the end of the mass spawning.
Also, since monsters spawned in large numbers, it frequently led to much tougher combat situations than normal.
While mass spawnings and Extermination Fests were definitely big chances, they were certainly not freebie events.
Except this time.
Occurring in the nearby Deus Plains, with the target monster being the high reward, low risk Golden Wild Zlime, this was something that I had never seen even in the game, and something that I couldn’t ask any more of.
Against Goldens, there was no risk of death, and becoming a millionaire might not be a dream if first place were secured. Even without that, just killing a few of them would ensure that we wouldn’t have to worry about lodging costs anymore.
Goodbye, stables! We’re heading to better places!
I’d had quite the time since coming to this world, but it seemed that somewhere some god had been looking over me.
Finally, it was my lucky day.
“Alright, let’s go practice our strategy right away!”
For now, there were still two hours until the mass spawning. During that time, we needed to come up with a plan for defeating the Golden Wild Zlimes.
–Just then.
As I was about to waltz out of the guild, I heard a voice that, while just as agitated as the adventurers squealing about their sudden stroke of luck, was of a slightly different tone.
“Why, why Goldens of all things! Ah, ahhhh, the guild reserves we built up bit by bit over 300 years…! It’s the end of the guilddd!!”
…Ah, yeah. Sorry, my sincerest condolences.
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