Lime, Coal, and Shelly are (probably) ready to be heroes!
Monsters Can Be Heroes Too!
is a Webcomic by Rakkuguy, starring three adorable monsters who become an adventuring party: Coal the Kobold, Lime the Slime, and Shelly the Skeleton.
The comic went on hiatus for a few years due to the artist having financial difficulties and later due to a breakdown caused by getting doxxed but they have returned back to the internet and have announced that they intend to continue the comic.
Tropes:
- Adorable Evil Minions: The skeletons that Coal was sent to fight on her second quest aren't any bigger than she is and look more like cartoon skeletons. Coal beats them pretty easily. All of Coal's party are also adorable monsters that normally are just low level Mooks.
- Adventure Guild: The story starts with Coal joining the Adventurers' Guild. The guild gives out quests and assigns adventurers' ranks.
- All Animals Are Dogs: Downplayed with Coal, who wags her tail when excited but otherwise isn't very doglike.
- Conspicuously Light Patch: In "This One Looks Cool", "The Boney Boys" quest is front and center, as the quest that's being pointed at and clearly written out, but, the quest that Coal chooses is to kill a dragon, clearly very dangerous with a reward of 100K. Until the next strip, "Trouble Brewing", where "The Boney Boys" is shown again.
- Cute Slime Mook: Lime the Slime. Upon meeting her, Coal is so charmed that she forgets she was supposed to kill a slime and brings her back instead.
- Dem Bones: Coal's second quest is to go defeat a gang of Skeletons. She recruits a skeleton named Shelly to join her party from them.
- Eat Dirt, Cheap: Coal eats minerals. This includes coins - the staple currency of the setting - and given her lack of impulse control, the party is often left suffering financially.
- Headless Horseman: "This One Looks Cool" shows a quest to hunt a Dulahan in the background, along with a picture of the bottom half of a horse.
- Killer Rabbit: Lime. Despite being a small, adorable green slime, she's also the party's tank, she can engulf things much larger than herself, and she's caustic enough to digest metal.
- I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Coal's first assignment as an adventurer is go out and kill a slime. She ends up bringing a slime named Lime back with her because Lime is cute, completely forgetting the mission.
- Mass Monster-Slaughter Sidequest: Coal's test to join the Adventurers' Guild is to go out and kill a slime and bring back proof. She fails the mission because she forgets what she was supposed to do and brings back a live slime she made friends with.
- Metal Muncher: Lime is able to eat metal. When the party gets their first quest reward, Coal and Lime have already started eating the coins before Shelly can say they should save some to buy armor and weapons.
- Monster Adventurers: The entire concept is that three monsters decide they can be adventurers themselves.
- Now That's Using Your Teeth!: When Coal is fighting a skeleton who claims that he has the legendary blade Excalibur, Coal responds by biting down on his sword. Coal has the ability to eat metal, so biting a sword isn't a problem for her.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: In "Jiggle", that's how Lime the Slime convinces Coal that she's a friend, when her previously dark eyes start sparkling and we get a zoomed in panel of them.
- Revive Kills Zombie: The current page image source. Shelly the Skeleton accidentally kills one of her skeleton allies when she tries to heal them.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter:
- Everything about Coal is adorable. She is a cute little lizard person with an innocent personality.
- Lime is a tiny, adorable green slime. Despite being mostly featureless, she radiates charm.
- Shelly is a short, shy skeleton. Being a Shrinking Violet and the team Butt-Monkey helps.
- RPG Mechanics 'Verse: When Shelly casts heal, numbers appear over the target, showing the damage inflicted. And in one piece of artwork not in the comic, Coal steals a high level sword from a display but struggles to lift it because her level isn't high enough.
- The Speechless: Lime does not speak.
- Square Race, Round Class: Shelly chose the wrong character class. She is an undead, but she is a white mage, whose abilities are useful for fighting the undead and supporting the living. This is less of a problem when she joins Coal's party.
- White Mage: Shelly's character class. Too bad for her healing spells don't work on undead.
