Erin returns with Arnold back to their home, ready to sleep for the night.
In the morning Erin takes off to the guild to look if there are any quests in the north forest. He registers for a herb collection quest to collect ten rare Blue Roses. After a quick question he finds out that blue roses only grow in areas that a giant blue slime lives. Unlike the normal F Rank blue slime a giant slime is an E Rank monster and is usually around level 20, with skills that reduce damage taken but they have very poor attack damage.
Erin and Arnold return to the forest this time traveling together, Arnold takes out all slimes that they see very quickly due to his higher level.
Deeper into the forest the feeling of mana in the area heightens, so much so that Arnold has to cling on to Erin because he can't move any more. Before long they find themselves surrounded by blue slimes nearly 50 of them. With a fierce look Erin instantly covers the entire area in a magic circle easily large enough to engulf a large house, in the blink of an eye fire shoots from the ground instantly killing all of the blue slimes around them. The mana in the area diminishes a little bit but not enough for Arnold.
As Erin is collecting the 47 blue slime cores, he is stopped by a strong presence. Looking around he sees a giant blue slime with an angry look on its face. It immediately launches its giant body at Erin, but before it could land Erin launches a huge fire ball at the slime causing it to explode and die on impact.
A smile forms on his face as he collects the last of the blue slime cores and returns to looking for the blue roses. Now that the mana in the area goes back to normal he lets Arnold eat the rest of the cores. After eating all the cores Arnold starts to glow as he gains in size becoming as large as the giant blue slime from earlier. Erin focuses on Arnold's stats in his head to see the changes.
Giant Blue slime (Arnold)
Uncommon
Level 20
Health: 234.6
Mana: 159.7
Stamina: 463.8
Strength: 118
Speed: 58
Defence: 193.4
Skills: (2/6)
Focused Damage Reduction - D Rank (Reduces damage taken by 30%)
Recovery - F Rank (Recovers 10 mana, stamina and health every second)
Language Understanding - F Rank
Seeing the overall improvement to Arnold's stats Erin smiles happy with the increase. They continue exploring the area looking for blue roses eventually finding the ten they need as the sun was setting. Quickly returning to the guild hall they turn the quest in for a measly 4 silver coins before returning home to sleep, excited that tomorrow their furniture gets dropped off.
In the morning they are woken up by the furniture man who has delivered all of the furniture.
"Hey Kid! Need some help getting it in?" The guy says.
"Nah its okay." Erin says walking to the couch and picking it up with ease shocking the delivery man who despite his high strength stat and skills that help lifting things can't even lift the couch with such ease. He quickly heads off seeing Erin has things covered.
After getting all the furniture in Erin smiles as Arnold is bouncing on the couch happy.
They head out to the guild hall again, but upon entering he sees a group of adventurers asking the guild staff member if there are any mages needing a party. They need a mage to help them with long range attacks and support. Taking the opportunity Erin heads over too them and says "Hey, I'm a mage needing a party. I'm happy to sit with you and discuss this."
They turn to look at him and then back to the staff member before saying to the staff member "What's his credentials?"
The staff member hurriedly pulls up his file and scans it before a look of shock fills her face, "So actually he has A Rank Fire magic and A rank ranged weapon skills. He also has various self recovery skills and crafting skills as well."
Erin responds "Actually I need to update my file I just learned the S Rank Ultimate fire magic, reached level 29 and my tamed monster has evolved into a E rank monster."
The staff member nods and jots all of the information down. The party Infront of him turn to him and immediately says "We will take you. Lets go into one of the party rooms and discuss things." Leading Erin over to one of the side rooms.
In the room they all introduced themselves.
"I'm the party leader, Ike. I'm a swords man with B Rank melee weapon skill. I also have a C Rank Rage skill that increases my strength and stamina when activated." Ike says.
"I'm the parties healer, Min. I have the C Rank Light Magic skill." Min says. In response Erin says "I have something for you, Taking out a book from his bag and hands it to Min "This is a skill book for A Rank light Magic I got from when I worked in the church." Erin explained.
Min looked shocked as she opens the book and confirms its true. "I can't believe it. No one outside of the church can have any higher of a rank in light magic. This is worth a lifetime of wages. I'll treasure this forever." She says with tears running down her eyes.
"Thank you for doing that, her healing abilities will improve greatly with this. I am the Parties Tank, Gary. I have a C Rank Damage Reduction skill and the S Rank Lure skill. What about you?" Gary says.
"No worries it was just sitting around. I'm Erin. I have the S rank Ultimate fire magic skill, the A rank Master Ranged weapon skill and the S Rank Ultimate recovery skill. Plus a few other lower rank skills in production fields." Erin says.
"Amazing, two S Rank skills!" Min exclaims.
"Man I need a self recovery skill too! would make me more tanky." Gary says.
Ike grins "I guess we found our mage then. Here is our contract for you. I've adjusted it to your skillset."
Looking at the contract, it is a fairly standard one for adventurers. the pay part shocked him "You will be paid 30% of the profits from all quests and you will not be expected to chip in for supplies on quests outside of rations."
"why is it so high?" Erin asked.
"We all agree on the payment right?" Everyone nods "It's because you have two S Rank skills which would put you on the top 10% of all adventurers and then you also have many other skills. We would actually be interested in doing a mock battle with you to understand your skills more." Ike explains.