When it comes to farmed slimes, there are usually a few things one must watch out for: first is the filament that keeps their shape being thick, the second is the trail they produce from moving, the third is if there's waste on their body, and lastly, their weight.

  Preferably, a slime should be perfectly spherical, with a lot of excess fluids, no residue inside of them, also heavy.

  Spherical means that the slime is healthy, as their outer coating— or cellular wall. — is the equivalent of their muscles, and that sagging either means the slime doesn't eat enough and is thus conserving energy or that it is just simply weak, a weak coating often means that diseases and useless particulates such as spores and dust have entered the slime, contaminating the jelly.

  Liberty stops in front of a slime that is almost flat in shape, it bobs slowly across the ground, throwing out one slimey tendril at time before shifting its inside into that tendril. It's like if a balloon can stretch in a direction and then move the air inside of itself into that stretched out part.

  She quickly looks away, deeming it as useless.

  "That one's good miss!" Alosin said from outside the cage, his grin proud. "They make a mighty fine soup!"

  "I don't want these things for soup." Liberty replied with an understanding smile, while it is true that the slimes she's looking for are good for medicine, the opposite is true if they were to be turned into soup.

  The weaker the membrane, less viscous the jelly, giving it the same consistency as water and thus perfect for soup. Viscous jelly is what she's looking for, as she wants to make a potion, however, that kind of jelly is also used for pies! Glue, and sometimes even building materials.

  She spots another slime, this one has a pointed head and a round bottom, a pear-shaped body so to say, if the pear's top is sharp that is. The bottom half of this slime has the kind of consistency that she wants and she made a mental note to pick it up later if she doesn't find a better slime. Good enough is better than the worst.

  'Wait.' Liberty paused and bent her knees to get a better look of the smile. 'It's dehydrated.'

  Which means that the reason why the bottom is so thick is not because of health, but rather, the slime's jelly is simply too dry to lose shape, like a ball of spit that's been left to dry in the sun. Not ideal. She forgets about it and moves on.

  "Hah! Do you actually know how to spot slimes miss?"

  "I do, yeah." Liberty turns to the rancher, her smile soft. "You thought I didn't?"

  "Ya fancy falks usually don't!" Alosin chuckled. "Guess there are some exceptions to that rule ya?"

  "You can say that." Nods the Leech, she turns away and goes back to scanning the slimes.

  Next on the list is a particular bouncy blob, it had great consistency and judging by its color— a deep blue, the jelly is clear, which means that the filament is thick enough to put an organic "filter" over it, thus the coloration. — it has a thick and healthy membrane. The core is almost invisible actually.

  Liberty does another check, she searches for any organic or inorganic residue within and finds nothing, next up is the trail, which while very little, is not thick and has a consistency closer to egg yolk rather than honey, wet dough, or god forbid, molasses.

  'Huh! Never thought I'd find one this early!' Liberty grinned and picked up the blob, she carried it to Alosin, who took it and placed it in a crate.

  "Yer goin' back?"

  "Yep! I have such a perfect opportunity to get my hands on good slimes, I'm not wasting it!" Liberty said excitedly.

  "Well miss, ya don't have to worry about nothin! I promise I'll tell the folks that yer a great and passionate customer!" Alosin patted his chest, a slight redness to his cheeks. "I'm sure they'll appreciate someone like ya!"

  "Nope." Liberty shook her head. "I'm finding them now."

  "If that's what ya want miss!" Grinned the rancher. "I'll be here, waitin' for yer to com' back!"

  With one last wave, Liberty went into the pen again and continued searching, the slime she got was one of the better ones so there's definitely others like it in here. She scanned the entire enclosure, hoping that she would spot another perfect slime with just a single search.

  All she sees are blobs. Oh there are definitely outliers— mainly slimes that have a lighter color. And ones which are very out of shape are pretty obvious as well. — but mostly? It's just a sea of blue balls.

  She went close to the slimes with deeper colors and inspected them, most have tiny flaws that she refused to overlook such as floating debris inside their bodies or a trail so thick that stepping on them locked her shoes in place. She genuinely felt scared when that happened, because what if her soles get left behind?

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  Will she have to walk around this enclosure barefoot? Eugh. The thought makes her shudder.

  Finding another perfect slime didn't take her long fortunately, and with a second blob in hand, Liberty decided that this was enough and that it was time to go with Alosin and check on their cattle.

  "So, what do you need my help with?" Liberty asked as she wiped her hands on a nearby towel. Thank god that the ranch provided these things, there's a bucket of salt just outside the pen for her shoes as well.

  "Well, our Gonk's been actin' wrong recently, tis' like she suddenly went feral."

  Liberty listened to what the rancher had to say, from what he just said, it might be because the animal is feeling antsy? Maybe? Gonks are docile creatures so the only way for one to act out is if they are bored or pregnant.

  "Has the animal been released recently?" Liberty stops, that was a wrong way to say that. "Or before he turned feral?"

  "Yeah! She's—" so it's a girl? "— got out of her cage a day before she suddenly decided to attack me and ma brother! Papa had to reign her in! He got his foot stomped while doin' so!"

  "And where is he now?" Liberty felt that maybe they should be more concerned about that guy instead of the animal that's probably gotten pregnant?

  "He says he's fine! We need to focus on the cattle first! They're more important than him! Whatever is happening is unnatural, he says!"

  ... Okay? Why, though?

  Is it appropriate to ask that? It totally isn't right? Yeah, it definitely isn't. Liberty decided to keep her silence, maybe they'll get into a fight if she lets her curiosity win and that's not good.

  "Then let's do this quickly, I need to check on her to know what's happening."

  Alosin immediately moved quicker the moment she says that so Liberty had no choice but to do the same to catch up to him. She was really thankful that her strides were long, otherwise she'd be out of breath when they reach the barn where the Gonk— and also rabbit-like creatures called Oggies. — are holed up in.

  "She's in that stable right there."

  Coming closer to the aforementioned stable got Liberty to start hearing heavy breathing, which was pretty strange, and Alosin must have thought so too because he suddenly went pale and rushed over while yelling "don't worry! I'll save you!" Loudly.

  Liberty of course had to also speed up because she didn't want to look like a bad doctor, she stood just outside of the fence gates, though she's not really confident about this thing holding up once the Gonk actually attacks them.

  Fences just wouldn't stop a walking tank like this animal, you know?

  Standing roughly at 9 feet tall including the neck— lying at 5 feet tall in this case. — was a behemoth of an animal with a thick gut, thick, trunk-like legs, and a cylinder-shaped neck with holes running down the sides. It had the face of a horse, with a long snout, long eyes, and wide nose.

  There is a thin, membranous mane running down its back and jutting out of its cheeks, like some kind of frilled lizard. There are also wide, oval holes under its jaw, they expand and contract as the creature tries to breathe, and it is clearly struggling to do so.

  'The snot pouring out of its ventrils isn't normal either, there's too much mucus.' Liberty wanted to go in there and check the animal but she was scared of getting killed.

  "Is it safe for me to go in?" As she says that, she notices the heat wafting out of the stable. Sweat is also coming out of Alosin's skin in large droplets, it must be like an oven in there...

  "Yes! She won't hurt you!"

  Liberty sighs and shakes off her cloak before rushing in, "hold her head steady, I need to check on something."

  "O-okay!" Alosin expertly looked away as he wrapped his arms around the snout of the Gonk, his elbow hit something soft but he ignored it as hard as he could. "What are w-we doing?"

  "I'm collecting samples, this much mucus obviously isn't normal so I need to know what's going on with the animal." What can cause an abundance of mucus to form? An infection? Something else?

  She checks for inflammation but there's very little of it, the ventrils probably aren't even clogged by expanding blood vessels, just a bunch of mucus. If these are cleared, then the animal can get on the path to recovery.

  Liberty dips the mucus on two different wooden cups, in the first one, she pours down alcohol, and in the other she exposes it to the last bit of Bulb-Headed River Stalk sap that she had.

  "Where did this girl go the last time you released her?" She can only really pray that this is an infection, she does not have the tools to cut through the flesh of something like a Gonk.

  "I have no idea, Vethal was the one who brought her to water that day!"

  "Your brother?" Liberty frowns, why does she feel like this case is connected to the patient she had in the Hunter's Guild? "Where did he take her, exactly?"

  "Around the river? It was raining at the time so the Gonk enjoyed it, when they came back both of them suddenly got sick!"

  "And I'm guessing that Vethal went to the Hunter's Guild?" Liberty's heart was racing. Please say no. Please...

  "Yes? How did you know?"

  "Damn it!" She screamed and opened her bag, she just got the sap of Salt-Rash yesterday and now she has to use one again?! Where's the justice in that?! Do people not know how expensive this damn thing is?!

  "W-what do you mean?"

  "Nothing, I have a way to cure your horse." Liberty sighs and rubs the sap directly on the neck of the animal.

  "Horse?"

  "Gonk. Whatever." That was a mistake borne from stress, she will never repeat that again. "There's a good chance that it may die regardless but this way, it at least has a fighting chance."

  The good news is, Gonks are so big that combustion parasites cannot feasibly wrap around their entire spine, the thing is probably just forcing it to heat up without killing the pain, hence why it's so irritated the last few days.

  But thankfully, gigantic animals do have a way to deal with a lot of heat: almost all megafauna in this world do, and in the case of Gonks, their membranous mane and frills do that job, and the other thing would be...

  The ventrils. Which are blocked. How? Liberty guessed that the worm's other end got lucky and instead of empty muscle, it dug directly into the Ventril, causing them to get infected.

  Liberty checked her cups with the samples and the one with the best result was alcohol, the mucus had broken down easily when exposed to it so that's the solution here isn't it?

  Liberty poured the remaining alcohol in her bottle down the Gonk's ventrils and sat back.

  "Set up something that expands that thing's mane and fans." Liberty pointed at the cheek and neck of the animal. "And make it drink a lot of water."

  "O-of course!"

  She wiped a bead of her sweat from her forehead as she walked out. Seriously, it's annoying how all of her resources are now gone because of a single animal, she wouldn't be able to heal anyone for another two days...

  'Do I just become a hunter by this point?' That doesn't sound like a bad idea but bullets are too expensive. 'But... I don't have to use bullets now do I?'