The night sky was beautiful with the moons shining all over the world, and the air was cold, yet it felt great running through one's body.
Within this moment, Nine and Marie are walking beside each other in a silent street, not looking at each other, in this moment, the only thing Nine was making was this: "...."
"So—"
"Shut up!" Marie cut off. Not letting Nine start anything. Because of what happened earlier, Marie couldn't help but feel embarrassed.
"Yeah, I'll be embarrassed too if I were to cry into a man's arms who's half my age....." Nine muttered, raising his pace of speed.
"You asshole!" Marie yelled out, chasing after him, waving the lunchbox in her hand at Nine.
Dodging the swing of hers, Nine followed up with: "So... Did it feel great?"
"What!?"
"I mean, crying your eyes out. Felt great right? Having someone acknowledge your hard work, you have been ignoring all this time. And finally letting out that emotion you have been keeping all this time in you."
Marie thought hard for a bit, hearing his words, thinking about it, she answered: "Yes! It felt great..... So stop attacking those guys, will you!"
"What are you talking about?" Nine played dumb on her words, while fully understanding her.
"I mean it's kinda obvious. But each time those old customers of mine try to mess with me, you'll attack them the very same night. Each time you do this, none of them will come back harassing me and my business ever again."
Marie smiled at Nine: "So, thanks!"
"I have no idea what you are talking about." Nine said, stopping his dodging, resulting in him being hit by the lunchbox. Helping him stand up, Marie looked at the window before her.
[Personal trait: God's Eye
Name: Nine.
Age: 18. Existence: 13.
World: Earth. Year: 2486.
Power system: Bloodline ***inaccessible***
Former occupation: Assassin.
Title: True Otherworlder.]
'Nine, the world you were in before was also supernatural. And in that world, you were an assassin.' Marie thought, looking at the details.
"I'm too tired for this. So I'm going home now." Nine said, leading the walk on them, Marie quietly followed him.
Looking closer at the details before her, she wondered: "Why is the power system in his inaccessible? Shouldn't he be able to use his world power system like those Murim warriors?"
Although this was in her mind, she knew asking about his past, which he didn't want to talk about, would be wrong. In the end, she decided to keep this to herself till someone could answer her.
***
Three weeks into the fall season.
Within one of the many taverns of the town, a conversation was set. "Hey!" A man called out to his drinking buddy.
"What?" His buddy, replied.
"So you know how slimes are common now, since it's the fall season perfect for them to exist?"
"Yes. What about it? Thanks to those creatures, even we can earn money now without much struggle." His buddy, replied.
Slimes are blob-like creatures known for being rare due to their needing the perfect temperature to exist.
For these creatures to exist they need to be in a place where it's cold enough that they can form a blob-like structure, while at the same time hot enough that they won't freeze.
Typically, one can find them inside the dungeons, a natural home for them, as these places provide enough mana for them to exist.
Other places to find them are in the mountains, near the sea, in the forest, and anywhere where both temperatures are perfect.
One of the many reasons for their popularity among people is that they have great physical resistance due to their nature.
To kill one of these creatures, one needs Magic that can one-shot, melt, or freeze them entirely in one go.
In this world, these creatures are a gold mine, since all the guilds and governments are willing to pay a great amount of money to make sure they don't overpopulate.
And the other reason for their popularity is that these creatures only exist in the fall and spring seasons, though they can be found in the other two seasons too, but it rarely happens.
"I see, it seems like you haven't heard the rumor spreading out in the town."
"What rumor?"
"There's a rumor going around that a person can one-shot to take these slimes in one go—"
"So? Many mages can do that, what makes this person special?" The drinking buddy asked, cutting the man's words.
"That's the thing. This person was not a mage; instead, the people who saw this person in action said the same thing: He splashed the slime with salt, and they melted in seconds."
"Salt? I know they are in the same category of slugs, but salt isn't enough to kill them, though? I even tried that when I was a kid."
"I know, but if we can just find out how this person did that, we could earn more money than we are earning right now. God, I wish I knew, what the secret of his."
Watching his friend go silent thinking about it, the drinking buddy said: "You're still paying for this one."
"Fuck! Here, I thought you would forget about that!" In the end, the man's plan failed. The reason for him starting this story was to make his buddy forget he was the one responsible for paying today's bills.
'Still, using salt to kill slimes? I kinda want his secret too then.' the buddy thought, taking a big bite out of a drumstick.
*****
End of chapter 19.