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Chapter 4: The Catgirl’s First Real Combat

After buying the weapons, Reiner also bought 2 pieces of black bread for lunch, then returned to the small village where he lived.

On the way, Nora kept pulling out the dagger to toy with it.

Even without eavesdropping on her thoughts, he could tell she was delighted with the weapon.

Watching her cat tail swish back and forth, Reiner suddenly felt an urge to give it a grab…

Nora sensed Reiner’s gaze, turned around and hid her tail behind her, grumbling inwardly.

(Why is he always staring at my tail?)

Reiner coughed awkwardly, quickly turned away, climbed the wooden ladder up the village palisade, and glanced outside.

He vaguely saw several bouncing green slimes in the dense forest, and they seemed to be inching toward the village.

Although slimes posed little threat to people, their sheer numbers were a problem.

If left alone to accumulate, they would not only corrode the wooden walls but also damage the crops.

Over time, the losses would be no less than what bandits caused.

Therefore someone had to be hired every few days to cull them.

Reiner jumped down from the wall and led Nora toward the forest.

As soon as they neared the slimes, he caught a whiff of putrid stench.

In the nearest slime, its semi-transparent body faintly revealed a half-digested wild rabbit.

Reiner turned to Nora and asked, “Do you know how to kill a slime?”

“Mom taught me to pierce the shiny gem at the center of its body,” Nora nodded, drew her dagger from her belt, and walked toward the slime.

A soccer-sized slime was not hard to kill.

She stabbed the magic core with perfect accuracy and finished one off with ease.

She then carefully wiped the slime off her dagger as if cherishing it.

Reiner stepped up, picked the core out of the puddle of goo, stuffed it into his pouch, and said, “These can be exchanged for money; 10 cores equal 1 Dyast copper coin.”

Nora blinked, apparently not understanding.

(What does that mean? What is a copper coin?)

“You demi-humans, what do you usually trade with each other?”

“Food, or pelts, or bones.”

So they still bartered goods; no wonder she had no concept of money.

Reiner shook a magic core in front of Nora, pointed to the black bread hanging at his waist, and pronounced, “Twenty of these gems can buy one loaf of black bread.”

Nora suddenly understood and nodded vigorously.

She then continued killing slimes with her dagger.

With an extra helper, the slime-killing speed doubled.

He had indeed made the right choice.

Once he had more money, he would definitely buy several more slaves, which would multiply his earnings many times over.

Maybe in just a few years he could achieve a comfortable life in this other world.

The slaughter grew tedious, but the two soon filled an entire bag with cores.

Reiner counted them carefully.

There were only 36; they needed 4 more to finish the quest.

They would probably have to venture deeper into the forest.

But that was bandit territory, and with bad luck they might even run into goblins.

Normally Reiner never went that far in.

He looked up at the sun hidden behind dark clouds, saw that it was noon, and took out the black bread.

“Let’s eat first; once we’re done, we’ll head deeper, kill 4 more slimes, and come back.”

“Okay!”

Nora sheathed her dagger, stared longingly at the bread in Reiner’s hand, and swallowed.

The moment he handed her the bread, she started gnawing on it in huge bites…

The stuff was so dry and hard you could drive nails with it, yet she devoured it that quickly.

“Slow down, don’t choke, no one is taking it from you.”

Before Reiner finished speaking, sharp-toothed Nora had already bitten off another chunk and was chewing away.

Her bite force was impressive.

Reiner handed over the water skin; Nora took a huge swig and went right back to eating.

In less than 5 minutes, Nora had wolfed down the entire loaf.

Reiner cut himself a slice, tasted it, found it as awful as always… salty, sour, and tooth-shattering… and sighed at the bread, “When I get rich, I’ll never eat this stuff again.”

Nora asked in confusion, “Then what will we eat?”

“White bread.”

Nora froze for a moment. “What is white bread?”

“It’s white bread… higher-grade, more nutritious, and refined. It has no bran or sawdust mixed in and even includes eggs and milk, making it soft and fluffy, a thousand times tastier than this black bread. ‘Spread some sweet, delicious jam on it, and it’ll be even more…” Reiner hadn’t finished before Nora’s inner voice drifted into his head.

(I don’t understand all that, but it sounds delicious… I wish I could taste it.)

Drool actually leaked from her mouth. That reaction was understandable. Slave traders trying to squeeze out maximum profit probably fed them nothing but kitchen scraps or slop. Only slaves who looked strong or attractive enough to work fetched better food.

“Wipe your mouth, work hard, and when we earn money, I’ll buy you white bread.” Nora’s eyes sparkled, and she nodded vigorously.

Plainly, white bread tempted her greatly. However, the price difference between it and black bread was enormous. A loaf of black bread the size of a face cost 2 copper coins, yet a palm-sized white bread required 20 copper coins. A farmer earned about 2 gold coins a year… enough to buy roughly 43 pieces of white bread.

Most commoners simply could not afford such a high price. Basically, only nobles or wealthy merchants could eat white bread. But seeing how much Nora craved it, Reiner figured he could buy her a piece after they finished the quest.

Reiner cut half of his own bread and handed it to Nora. “Eat; you’re too thin. Put on some weight so you’ll have strength.” Nora paused, then carefully accepted the bread. She nibbled while sneaking glances at Reiner.

(He’s different from the others; he’s really kind to me.)

While gnawing, Nora seemed to sense something; her cat ears shot up. She stood and looked back at the bushes. She stuffed the half-eaten bread into her bag and mumbled, “Master, there’s a slime over there.”

Reiner walked to where she pointed and indeed spotted a bouncing slime.

Nora’s sensory ability was extraordinary.

She could hear a slime bouncing from that far away.

Reiner dispatched the slime with a single hammer strike, picked up its core, and kept moving deeper into the woods.

Soon he finished the quota of 40 slimes.

He shook the bag of cores and heard a crisp clatter.

At that moment the system’s voice sounded in his ear…

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