Frostfire Legacy

Chapter 19: First Hunt, First Retreat

The first floor of the dungeon was an open grassland and forest mix, with a particular "always morning" property. In short, within the entire first floor of the dungeon, the sun never sets!

"Cassy, it went over there!" Aster called as he panted.

He flipped the scarf he was wearing as if it were irksome that it was swinging along with every motion. Sweat fell from his forehead like post-shower droplets, spraying with every turn he made.

Aster sprinted desperately, trying to catch up to the thing that was scurrying around from within the tall grass.

"Got it!"

On the other end, Cassy was already in position, right where the creature was heading. They couldn't see its body, as it was hiding in the tall grass, but they could see the blades of foliage move along with it, exposing its position.

"Haiyaa!" With a cute shout, she wielded the rusty dagger clutched in her hand.

Her strike went straight, hitting the target in the middle... if she aimed to stab the ground, that is. "I missed! It went over there again, Star!"

Heeding her warning, Star turned his head around. When he spotted movement, he quickly lunged forward, bringing down the corroded sword held in his hand.

"Haaah! Kuh!"

*SCREECH!*

Upon impact, Aster felt the tactile sensation of hitting rubbery, gelatinous flesh. Finally, a direct hit!

"I got it... I did it, Cassy! We did it!" He cheered, brandishing his sword in the air while taking a deep breath.

*Huff!*

"We did it, yay~!" and Cassy joined in the celebration, jumping around joyously.

Upon closer inspection, the "prey" that the two had struggled to dispatch was merely a basketball-sized blob. Encased in thin outer skin covering its gel-like contents, which could be harvested and dried, turning into a blue powder of condensed mana.

The monster they labored to defeat was nothing but the weakest monster inside the dungeon's first-floor stratum, a Blue Slime!

Although they rejoiced in their first harvest, the materials they could get from it were too cheap. A slime's contents, even after getting dried properly, would only fetch around 50 Tels at most. It was far from the expenses they incurred along the way!

"It's nothing much, but it's something..." Aster's face remained bright, despite all that. "With this, we proved that we can really hunt monsters! We can become proper adventurers!"

Cassandra glanced at Aster while sporting a sweet smile, nodding her head in assent. Yet, at that instant, her ears twitched. Her expression shifted, fraught with worry, as she shouted, "Oh no, Star! Five more slimes are advancing toward us!"

They were so engrossed in their celebration that they forgot to keep their vigilance!

Aster turned 180 degrees and scanned the tall grasses around him. He quickly found a few spots moving unnaturally, of which three were heading straight for him.

He clenched the sword tightly in his hand before shouting, "Shit... let's run!"

Of course, he wasn't foolish enough to face five of the same enemy; they already had difficulty killing one when it was alone! Although it was wasteful, they left their first hunt behind, turning tail and retreating. Survival first, profiteering later.

Fortunately, the slimes were only quick for short distances, so they managed to leave them behind after a couple dozen seconds. However, just from that, Aster was already wheezing as if he were about to die, with his face pale. Large beads of sweat dripped from his forehead down to his chin, dripping to the ground.

Although his body's muscle mass increased, his stamina didn't.

"Are you alright, Star?" Cassandra asked with a worried expression. "Let me heal you real quick."

She extended a hand forward, placing it before Aster's lowered head, and began to chant.

"Priodis Sirreo Cura! Minor Heal!"

A faint light escaped her palm and rained down on Aster's head. Slowly, his anguished expression softened before finally returning to a healthy color. After about ten seconds, the light faded, and Aster was healed completely.

"Sorry about that, Cassy. I've made you waste a heal on me." Aster looked more guilty than thankful. "You only have three uses of it a day, right? You should save the last two for real emergencies. I'm fine; I won't die from running out of breath."

"..."

Cassandra's expression turned into a mix of sadness and pity as she heard his words filled with regret. However, Asted did have a point, so she agreed with his suggestion. If she wasted her heal, and they ended up running out of uses when it's needed, then she'd be the one regretting her actions, after all.

"... Let's move."

Although they were still too weak to fight evenly against slime, they still had to earn their keep, at least. The government's support fund was almost used up already. They didn't have the leeway to waste their entrance fee.

'I could probably request for more financial support, but after all I said before, it'll be awkward.' Aster thought to himself with a sigh.

Asking the government for support was the last choice when they've already tried out all avenues.

For now, all they need to do is hunt harder and try to become more powerful. It's not like they didn't have any clues, of course. Killing monsters would let one earn more mana into their bodies, raising their "life level" by one.

Aster grabbed his Adventurer's card and inspected both sides once more.

[

Name: Aster Mistral

Age: 2518

Race: Human

Purity: 100%

Level: 1

Party Members:

Cassandra Bright (Empty) (Empty) (Empty) (Empty) (Empty) (Empty)

]

[

Strength: 5

Dexterity: 10

Constitution: 2

Intelligence: 15

Wisdom: 16

Charisma: 12

Luck: 0

]

Seeing the glaring "1" written at his level, he could only sigh. Seeing the "2" for his Constitution, however, made him feel depressed. "I hope I can increase my stats soon," he whispered to the wind.

Cassy caught sight of Aster sighing while inspecting his card, so she peered over his shoulder, asking, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Aster glanced over his shoulder, responding flatly while ignoring the two soft objects bumping against his back, "Instead of that, we should go. We still need to hunt tons of slimes to avoid going into the red."

He's fine since he had a hotel room to stay in, where he gets free food. However, to Cassandra, who was as penniless as she claimed, she wouldn't be able to stay at an inn without earning anything for the day. At worst, she could starve even until tomorrow's hunt.

"Right. I still have to repay you for this dagger too!"

Cassy exclaimed, pumping herself up. Their hunting session was just beginning!