[Items: Soundless Pick, Boots of Lesser Minor Speed, Lesser Mana Potion, 3 Slot Tokens, 3 Acupuncture Darts]
I felt a jolt of excitement seeing two quests getting completed in a row. I didn’t know it was possible to be given a task that I had already done. For once, this System wasn’t so bad. The rewards were interesting too. I could imagine what the tokens were for. They obviously went into my slot machine and functioned as level-up points. Or at least I hoped they did.
The acupuncture darts were something I had never heard of before. They were incredibly light in my hands, and each dart had a thin point like a needle. Were these meant to be thrown? I was good at darts but even I didn’t think that I had the accuracy to hit someone’s pressure points from a distance.
I remember that I probably didn’t have to think about what they did. I could just click on them. I pressed my finger into each new item.
[Acupuncture Dart: A homing dart that flies into a pressure point specified by the user’s mind upon release. (Mind)]
[Slot Token: Can be used to play the level-up slot machine minigame.]
[Lesser Mana Potion: Recovers 30 MP when consumed.]
[Boots of Lesser Minor Speed: When equipped, increases movement speed by 3%.]
The acupuncture darts seemed amazing. They would home in on a pressure point that I chose? That would be incredibly strong in a fight. I could win by just throwing one of them at my enemy’s neck. Well, I suppose they could block it. But if I snuck up on them, I could silently knock them out with a dart from the shadows. One thing I didn’t understand was why it scaled with Mind. What effect would I have on the darts by increasing it? Perhaps it would make them fly faster.
The slot coins were as I expected. If I wasn’t mistaken, they were quite a powerful reward. At the moment, they would each be considered equal to 800 XP, since that’s how much I needed to level up. However, thinking about the bigger picture, I realised at later levels it would take significantly more XP to level up, and so the tokens would be that much more valuable.
The mana potion was very nice. I would have brushed it off as useless a few days ago, but now I was fully aware of the power of mana. I had escaped death multiple times due to my skills that cost mana. Having a get-out-of-jail-free card when I ran low on MP would be lifesaving.
The boots were ok. I mean they were nice, I guess. I did get them for free, after all. It was hard to fathom how much of a difference 3% really was. It seemed small. I remembered the world record for running was set by Usain Bolt, and his top speed was around 30 mph. With the boots that would be… I pulled out my chalkboard to do the math. 31 mph? Alright, the boots were useless but at least they were good quality and custom made for me.
“Excuse me, Yarm. Uhm, why do you have a mimic in your party?” Newmill worriedly asked.
“Is there something wrong with that?”
“Yes! Of course there is! Mimics are bloodthirsty monsters. Why do you have one in your party?”
“I thought you liked monsters? What’s with the prejudice all of a sudden?”
Newmill pushed his fingers together and connected his palms. He raised his hands to his nose and calmly said. “I like some monsters. Not all of them. Especially not the ones that ambush and kill people mercilessly.”
I waved my hands dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. This mimic is a vegetarian. It wouldn’t eat a fly, let alone a human.”
“Just because they wouldn’t eat one, doesn’t mean they wouldn’t kill one.”
“What do you mean?”
Newmill sighed. “To know so little, you’re a strange one, aren’t you? Answer me this: what’s the difference between a man-eating animal and a monster that kills humans?”
I paused to think. It was a question that hadn’t really entered my mind, but it was thought-provoking. Why would the king want to genocide monsters for killing humans but not animals that killed humans? Was a lion devouring a human any different from a slime dissolving a human into goo? “I don’t know.”
“Animals kill humans to survive but monsters kill humans for pleasure. If a monster eats a human, they gain no nutritional benefit. They kill because they want to. In the same vein, you’ll never see monster meat being served up at the market because we humans get no nutrients from eating them either.”
I pinched my chin in contemplation. “You told me you were a monster-sympathiser, prince. What’s with the negativity? My mimic friend would never talk about you being a bloodthirsty killer because you were human. Mainly because he can’t speak but you get the point.”
“I do like certain monsters. Like the ones who can think and reason. There are monsters with intelligence similar to humans, and I think it would be a mistake to eradicate them all.”
“You just want to spare the smart ones, is that it? I suppose I misjudged you.”
Newmill looked a little ashamed. “When you put it that way…” His eyes looked down at his feet and did not meet my gaze. “Certain monsters are just killers. It’s in their blood—” Newmill caught his tongue. He realised midway through his sentence that a monster could say the exact same thing about humans. “Perhaps if you show me this benign mimic, I’ll be of a different opinion.”
“If I do, will you help me to save the monsters, young prince?” I held out my hand for him to shake.
He hesitated for a moment but still accepted my handshake. “Deal.”
I pulled him in for a hug and patted him on the back. “Brilliant. Things are finally starting to go my way. Let’s go there now.”
“Now?” the prince said. “I’m sorry but I must prepare for a soiree. Tomorrow would be a better time for me.”
“You’re going to a soiree too? Just how many soirees are happening tonight?”
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