I Love This Hidden Class!
Kozaki Productions HQ
Shinagawa, Japan.
It was a lively office, with the smell of coffee and milk harmonizing in the air. It had a big number of employees. They all sat down behind screens, monitoring what seemed to be Freedom Fantasy's game data. It was divided into divisions; with each division monitoring different things.
In the quest activation department, two employees were gossiping.
"Do you know? Lost is still doing that quest." Said the employee with dyed green hair.
"Really? Shouldn't that player be able to do at least the killer rabbit quests by now?" Said the plain looking-employee.
"Yeah... it's a waste of the Monster Eater class..."
"Let him be, he chose to do that after all."
From a corner, a black-haired man with thick frame glasses appeared. His beard seemed to be unshaven and unkempt.
"K-Kozaki-san, sir!" The green haired employee immediately stood up and bowed to the man.
"It's okay, you don't have to do that."
"Y-yes sir!" The employee immediately got up from his bowing position and into a salute.
"Anyway, how many times has he completed that quest?"
"Lost has completed quest ST-CQ001 a number of 99 times, sir!"
"Oho? Well something interesting will happen soon."
"What is it, sir?" The plain looking employee finally spoke up.
Kozaki then smiled.
"It's a ****** *****"
The two employees' eyes widened.
.
.
.
[You have dealt 26 damage!]
[You have dealt 27 damage!]
[You have dealt 25 damage!]
[You have dealt 23...]
[You have killed a slime!]
[You have killed a...]
.
.
.
[You have dealt 24 damage!]
[You have killed a slime!]
[You have obtained the title 'Slime Extirpator!']
"..?! Isn't this OP?"
"Well, to slimes, but still."
[You have equipped the title 'Slime Extirpator']
Lost was on his 100th slime eradicating quest. No other player has done this before, for it was a tutorial quest. But he felt like this was needed, for he died terribly when he tried killing wolves after he first respawned as a Monster Eater. Due to the constant comments of other players in the Adventurer's Guild, he decided to do other quests when he has completed it 100 times.
"Just one more.."
He arrived at the gate of the slime king area. It was the same as ever, with the big wooden sign that wrote 'Warning, big bad slime!' next to it.
[You have entered the Boss Area!]
He was about to get ready to taunt the slime king, when he noticed something different. The smell of shampoo and soap wasn't there anymore. Instead he smelled something metallic, which reminded him of school lockers. Then, a notification appeared in front of him.
[You have activated a Hidden Quest!]
[The quest 'Slime Eradication' has been changed to 'The Slime King'.]
“...!"
Before he could react, something fast and hard approached him. Panicked, he tripped on a twig, and luckily didn’t get the full damage. The object scratched his shoulder.
“Ack!”
[You have taken 200 damage!]
‘Just a scratch dealt this much damage?’
“So strong...”
Lost looked at his health bar, and he had only 17 health left.
[You have drunk ‘Low-grade Potion’ and recovered 50 health!]
Stolen story; please report.
[You have drunk ‘Low-grade Potion’ and recovered 50 health!]
‘Ah I ran out of potions’
[You have equipped the characteristic ‘Hungry Viscosity’ on your whole body.]
“R*muru time!”
Woosh!
The object jumped towards Lost. He barely evaded the object that hit him before. He saw it, and his eyes widened.
Lvl. 50 Boss-fiend
“A named monster?”
“The number one cliché thing in LitRPG novels!”
The named boss then formed a hammer shape with its body.
‘Oh sh-‘
Tchsss…
[You have nullified the opponent’s damage!]
[You have dealt 516 damage!]
‘Huh?’
516 was not a small number. For the level 80 Lost, maybe it was. But for what he was at the time, it was surprising, since he dealt 10-20 damage to slimes. Lost smelt of molten metal, and then he remembered.
“…Dissolve objects?”
“Dissolve objects!”
‘But isn’t this more like melting Iron?’
‘Oh well, whatever.’
A wide grin appeared on Lost’s face, and with his now viscous hand, he struck Slimon with confidence.
Schrp!
Tchss…
[You have dealt 554 damage!]
“Hoho?”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
“What?”
“Human… why won’t you just die?”
“You can speak?”
The iron slime then formed a sword with its body, it looked like it was sharp enough to cut a tree down in one go. Lost noticed this and thought that he would be cut in two before he could dissolve the iron.
The boss-fiend then dashed towards Lost.
Using his viscous body, Lost made himself a blob of slime.
Sshing!
Creak….
Barr!
Lost noticed it correctly, it was strong enough to cut a tree. He took a quick look at the tree and it was a clean cut.
“Oh right it’s level 50.” He remembered.
Without wasting any second the slime went in for a strike. Lost tried to evade, but the sword shaped iron slime barely hit him.
Tchs!
Tchs!
Shrueck!
[You have taken 105 damage]
Lost had only 2 health left.
“How do I defeat it now?”
“Do I really have no hope?”
“That’s right, fall into despair, human.”
“The same despair that we had!”
The slime king once again dashed towards Lost. This time he went for a horizontal slash.
“..!”
Lost then remembered a scene from one of his favorite fight scenes.
‘If it’s that… maybe it’ll work.’
‘I just need to wait for the correct timing…’
He reverted back to his human form, still with the ‘Hungry Viscosity’ characteristic.
Lost was once a Knives and Bullet ranker. Because of meeting strong opponents here and there, he has developed a skill which slows down everything for a brief moment. Whenever he did it, the world becomes devoid of sound, and for a few seconds, his concentration would skyrocket. This skill gave him the nickname of “Solo Pentakill”. He was the only teammate left in the game, and everyone on the enemy team was still alive. He killed everyone one by one, one shot each.
He closed his eyes. The slime king needed to reach approximately 1.67 meters to hit him. Once the slime moved 27 centimeters towards him, he strengthened his legs.
3…
2…
1…!
Slimon was now 0.51 meters away from him. Lost jumped up with his right leg. The sword was supposed to slash his body into two right now, but it was currently under him. With his left leg, he stepped on the sword and jumped up once more.
“Lay-up, and then...” He uttered, flipping mid-air.
He then plunged down towards the main body of the slime.
“Meteor!”
Lay-up Meteor, a special move used by the main character of a children’s kids show called “Slam Dungeon”. It was a very popular series, turning many basketball players into RPG players.
Tchss!!
There was a loud sound covering the area once Lost’s ‘Hungry Viscosity’ dissolved the Iron Slime King. Notifications filled Grid’s screen as he continuously dealt damage.
[You have dealt 509 damage!]
[You have dealt 515 damage!]
[You have dealt 514 damage!]
[You have dealt 510 damage!]
[You have dealt 508…]
.
.
.
[You have defeated Black Iron Slime King, Slimon!]
[You have obtained a ‘Corrupted Slime King’s Crown’!]
[You have obtained a ‘Slime Core’!]
[You have levelled up to 24!]
‘9 levels!?’
[You have completed the ‘The Slime King’ quest!]
[You have obtained 1000 Feoh!]
[You have obtained 10 Black Iron!]
“The rewards are nice and all but…”
‘I… kinda feel bad…’
‘I mean, I did cause all this to happen… right?’
He never experienced a connection to an NPC before, since there were no NPCs in KnB, nor did he pay any attention to them in his first playthrough as an archer. Seeing that he triggered something due to his actions, he opened his eyes.
“Maybe, NPCs are also humans?”
He then saw the corpse of Slimon. He was sure he completely dissolved the slime king moments ago, and so he stated proudly,
“Naahhhh, this is just the game design.”
“He’s a mob anyways, that’s why there were requests to eliminate them right?”
He tried to justify his actions. Then he took a deep breath and said,
“I hate it, but I gotta do it, Lesser Devour!”
[You have…
‘pleasepleasepleaseplease’
…obtained…
‘..!’
…a characteristic ‘Black Iron Body’!]
“...”
“YEEAASSSS!!!”
“I take back everything I said, I love this class!”
Even without the Black Iron Body characteristic, he would now be able to take on harder difficulty quest, seeing his level was 15 when he first saw the slime king. Now that his level is 24, he would be able to fight harder enemies. But he didn’t know this, his standard was still low, due to him dying to wolves when he first respawned.
“Now I can fight the slimes faster!”
“Wait no I promised to do better quests…”
He skipped happily towards Saleima, to take on a quest that would suit him. Then he tripped on a tree’s roots and fell face first into a sharp rock.
[You have died!]
[Your level has been decreased by one!]
‘Oh… the world still hates me.’