"Jackpot!"
Cordelia exclaimed as she looked at the scenery in front of her.
"Finally, I don't have to face those hideous goblins anymore," mumbled Cordelia to herself in slight elation.
'Nice, so many of them are here!'
She noticed different varieties of monsters in the location she reached after her long and arduous journey.
'Clock.'
She subconsciously called out to the blue window and it responded without its usual sound.
[7:36:20/24:00:00]
"Damn! I still need to kill 15 more of these monsters."
Cordelia grumbled but a smile stuck to her chapped, dry lips, even if she had only killed 4 in her journey to this location, which she referred to as 'Jackpot'.
"Hehe~ It would've been a problem before, but now? Aren't these guys waiting to become my points?"
Cordelia smiled devilishly while looking at the numerous slimes present in front of her, sucking tree sap peacefully.
She didn't hesitate in her next action as she didn't want to waste any more time than necessary and directly attacked the slime that had been approaching her silently.
Well, it was more or less approaching the tree she stood next to and not her as slimes generally didn't attack anything unless they were numerous enough or had evolved into a variant slime like elemental slimes.
Puchak
Fwoosh
Unfortunately, it didn't die as the tip of the iron spear, courtesy of a dead goblin, wasn't sharp enough to pierce through its jelly-like outer shell or covering.
"Fudge! Who said killing slimes is easy?"
All slimes had a core and if one didn't destroy it, they could regenerate continuously for a long time before they die after being drained of their mana.
But the layer of slimy mucous, which is very jelly-like, covering their core makes it difficult for newbies to kill them in one go.
Such was the case for poor Cordelia with her 1 meter long iron spear with its unsharpened tip.
She already started cussing and using uncouth language as she killed the first slime by piercing it's core after multiple failed attempts,
Crack
Shatter
It shattered just like glass and the slimy mucous that formed the slime's body fell apart into the surroundings.
"Eww," disgusted by the slimy mucous, she hurriedly moved away to prevent it from getting on her body or what remained of her tattered clothes.
Ding!
The familiar chime of the blue window came to her as she opened it with an audible sigh.
Sigh
[You have successfully subjugated a Slime]
[Reward: 2 Points]
"#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#"
After cursing to her heart's content, she went crazy with the low points given for slime-killing, prompting her to rush towards the slimes to kill as many of them as possible in a short timeframe.
She was completely unaware that slimes were not even considered monsters by most races due to their docile nature of never attacking first and sometimes not even retaliating when attacked.
If only she knew, she would be glad that they even counted as monsters and gave 2 points each, helping her complete her mission faster and give her some points. After all, something is most of the times better than nothing.
Ding!
Her anger at getting only 2 points was so intense that she even managed to ignore the chiming sound of the blue window for the next couple of minutes.
Ding!
Ding!
"Die!"
Ding!
Ding!
...
Just like that, Cordelia carried on with killing slimes non-stop for more than twenty minutes before she felt tired and decided to rest, away from the disgusting slimy mucous of their dead bodies or the alive slimes.
Well, her tiredness made sense as she had had no food and was walking or fighting for her life before arriving and slaughtering the slimes, so she decided to take a breather.
"Haah... Haah..."
She panted for breath as she took a rest after barely climbing a tree that was 3 meters tall.
'I should look at the notifications, they have been ringing for so long.'
"So annoying..." grumbled Cordelia as she thought 'All Unread Notifications'.
Ding!
It's annoying chime sounded once again into her ears or mind as she waited for the notifications to show themselves.
[Individual Mission: Subjugate 50 Monsters(20 must be goblins)]
[Mission Progress: 50/50 Monsters(20/20 Goblins)]
[Mission Reward: 300 Points]
[Failure Penalty: Final score will be 30% of your collected score]
[Tip: Mission Progress won't change from monsters subjugated with help but points will be rewarded for them!]
Ding!
[Mission Completed!]
[Reward: 300 Points]
Ding!
[You have successfully subjugated a Slime]
[Reward: 2 Points]
Ding!
[You have successfully subjugated a Slime]
[Reward: 2 Points]
...
"Ugh."
Cordelia groaned as such notifications rang inside her head continuously, causing her to feel nauseous.
Unfortunately, she couldn't do anything about it.
Well, she could, but she just didn't know about it.
Only after a few seconds of notifications chiming passed that silence prevailed as she felt the notifications finally stop.
"Haah..."
"So I killed 21 slimes in 30 or so minutes. That's good. Better than I expected."
She judged herself based on the result and felt that it made sense.
"Alas, I will have to leave this sanctuary so soon."
Sigh
Cordelia felt a little sad at the fact that she wouldn't be able to farm points here, but getting the Hidden Pieces was just that much more important.
Her current location was the edges of the forest where other landscapes met, but one couldn't leave the forest since that was the only designated area for the test.
She had moved in the same direction from the start of the test in hopes of reaching near the borders of the forest because it was free of goblins and filled with all kinds of slimes that she could easily kill.
"This place is a natural haven. If only..."
Cordelia lamented the fact again and again as she turned to look back at the place every few steps she took away from it.
'I can't waste time. I have to take it. Survival comes first and anyways, there will be plenty of points…'
Luckily, something she knew for sure was that the map feature becomes active after you complete your Individual Mission, giving access to the examinee's current location.
Of course, it was a blank map with just trees, hills, and waterfalls being marked with one's live location, but that was all she needed to track many of the hidden pieces.
'If I head North for 1 hour and look around the area, I'll be able to find the one that is closest to me,' concluded Cordelia as she continued her journey irrespective of the monsters she encountered on her path.
Be it goblins, wolves, jackals, bugs, birds, or any other type of monster, she didn't hesitate to strike at them to clear the path ahead of her.
Naturally, the distances were just that large in the forest and even if she was given a month, she wouldn't be able to get all the Hidden Pieces, let alone when she barely had a day.
'Clock.'
[9:24:01/24:00:00]
Unconsciously, she would check the time remaining before the test would end every few minutes and the map as well, just to be sure that she was heading in the correct direction and did not take the wrong route or got involved in some illusion-type of monster.
'I can't get most of the Hidden Pieces, but that doesn't stop me from getting my hands on the ones I can.'
Yes, she was certain that she would get the Hidden Pieces, irrespective of the timeline of the novel, which would sound weird if any other transmigrator heard her thoughts as they had to fight tooth and nail to get the secret rewards before the villain or protagonist or anyone else.
'After all, everything gets carried over to the next tests, irrespective of them being explored and Hidden Pieces can only increase but not decrease because it is strictly forbidden to talk about them, restricting anyone from knowing about their locations and hoarding them...but, I am different.'
Cordelia kept heading in that direction confidently. She didn't mind the numerous beasts she had slain.
At this point, she had become apathetic to them and even gotten better at dealing with them swiftly without getting injured in the least amount of time without expending a lot of energy as well.
Alas, if only she was aware of the sight she would witness and the unexpected fate awaiting her.