By the Grace of the Gods: Volume 3

by Roy

  “When a merchant has something they know will sell, they’re supposed to overcharge. Your offer is great for me, though. On another topic, where will you be doing the work? If people learn you’re the one producing these, who knows what kind of suspicious fellows you could find on your doorstep. Do you have any safe work spaces in mind? If not, I could get one ready for you.”

  “I’d like to set up shop in the mine that was abandoned the other day.”

  “You certainly wouldn’t have to worry about anyone showing up there, but are you sure that’s the best place?”

  “I can wander around there all I want, since I hold the title of Manager. I can also use earth magic to create a large work space.”

  Once that was settled, I took the cloth, left the store, and headed to the abandoned mine.

  Chapter 2 Episode 31: Working in the Abandoned Mine

  I arrived at the abandoned mine and mobilized all my slimes aside from the cleaners. After I patrolled the mine shafts, I cleaned up the shaft situated at the highest point in the mine and turned it into a work space. All that really entailed was using earth magic to create some work stands in an already large area, so it wasn’t much of a challenge. I stacked up bricks across an area as long as an outstretched strip of cloth, then dug trenches by each side of the stand. I got out some sticks the size of the trenches and used those to fix them in place. By covering the sticks in the sticky slime fluid, I could paste them to each end of the cloth. All I had to do was repeat this 45 times.

  Once all the cloths were stuck in place, I ordered the sticky slimes to smear them with their fluids. I just had to watch out for any bugs or monsters that might show up throughout the process. I considered getting a door installed at some point. As I thought about possible renovations, I delivered orders to the stickies. I watched for a while, and the stands seemed to function as intended. The slimes were also diligent. That being the case, there was nothing for me to do. Had I been at the store, there would at least be some business I could attend to. Left with nothing else worth doing, I decided to train.

  ■　■　■

  Three hours later...

  I practiced all my hand-to-hand fighting skills and tried meditating, but the cloths still hadn’t fully dried. I then decided to train the slimes as well. I used alchemy to dry the wood outside, then used a buzz saw and polish to create tons of sticks and practice spears. Now I could work on the staff and spear skills I learned the other day.

  ■　■　■

  My training with the slimes reached a natural end, but the cloths looked like they needed a bit more time to dry. Maybe the cloth was too absorbent. This was the first time I tested it on such large cloths, so I didn’t know.

  I had nothing to do again, so I figured I would check out my status board. My magic recovery speed level had increased by one, reaching Level 3. Putting my store together took a lot of magic, so that might have been why. My taming magic, alchemy, wind magic, and lightning magic levels had also gone up by one. I used those a fair bit too. That reminded me that Eliaria wanted to see a doll I made. Maybe I could make one now. I could just use some dirt lying around and make whatever I felt like.

  “Create Block, Rock, Break Rock,” I chanted, preparing some rocks and simple tools. I used Break Rock to roughly shape the core of the doll from stone. Then I cast Playing Clay to give the dirt the consistency of clay and use it as putty to make the figure. I covered the core with it and used the tools to work on the details. That reminded me that I had some lime left over. I used it to coat the doll before I moved on to the coloring stage.

  I cast Light to illuminate the mine shaft, using magic as necessary as I killed time making a bland doll. At least, that was my intention.

  “All right! I ended up making a bunch of these,” I remarked. Next thing I knew, the doll was surrounded by more dolls. “What time is it? Wait, ack!”

  It was almost sunset. I scrambled to collect all the dolls and dried cloths, then headed home. I expended too much magic energy, so it was a bit agonizing, but I had to hurry to get back before the sun set. I decided not to get too engrossed in my work while at the mine in the future. It was easy to forget the time as it was, and the passage of time wasn’t obvious from inside the mine. I reflected on my poor choices as the sun sank lower by the second. I ran toward town and repeatedly cast space magic.

  ■　■　■

  “I’m exhausted,” I muttered. I somehow made it to the inn before the sun had set completely. After some brief rest, I went to give a report to Eliaria and the others. When I visited their room, Araune led me inside.

  “Welcome, Ryoma.”

  “It’s not often that you come to our room. Did something happen?”

  “Nothing much, but I’ll start by talking about work,” I said, then described my deal with Serge. “I successfully produced 45 strips of waterproof cloth today, and it’s already been delivered to Serge’s store. I had my hands free for a lot of the time, so I’ll try gradually producing more each day to see how far I can take it.”

  “I see, it sounds like there are no problems producing the waterproof cloth, then. Anything else?”

  “My Lady wanted to see a doll, so I made some while waiting for the cloths to dry.”

  “Really? Show me, please!”

  I opened my item box and took out various types of dolls. First, there was a bear that resembled a famous souvenir in my old world, but this was made of stone rather than wood.

  “A black bear ornament, eh? And it looks like it’s in the middle of catching a fish.”

  “These ones are so little and adorable!” Eliaria said of a set of cave bats, cave mantises, small rats, and other monsters that I designed as miniatures.

  “Also, there’s these, the first ones I made,” I said and took out some ordinary human figures. I couldn’t think of anything else to base them on, so I modeled them after the four members of the duke’s family, as well as Sebas and the maids.

  “Is this one me?”

  “This is me.”

  “I’m here too!”

  “I, Sebas, Araune, and Lilian are here as well.”

  “These dolls are quite elaborate. I knew that you made divine statues, but I must say your skills are magnificent.”

  Seeing them so overjoyed was a bit new and exciting. In my old world, I never made anyone happy aside from Tabuchi. That reminded me that Tabuchi might have asked me for a figure before I died. I had no memory of what came of that.

  “I didn’t have anyone else to model them after. I’m honored that you like them.”

  “Ryoma, may I have this?”

  “Take as many as you like.”

  “Thank you!”

  All this joy made these figures worth making. I considered trying to create something else sometime.

  “If I ever have the chance to again, I’ll make more.”

  “Please do.”

  I chatted with them for a while, then returned to my room. When I headed back, Sebas said he would pay me for the dolls and presented ten medium gold coins, but that was more than I could accept for this work, so I rejected the offer. I only did it to kill time, the materials were cheap, and most of all, I couldn’t take a whole ten medium gold coins for a bunch of dolls. In the end, I accepted a fifth of that at two medium gold coins, but I didn’t feel quite right about that either.

  “Quite a number of nobles would like statues of themselves to place in their homes or around town,” Sebas said. “If you made statues for them, I believe you’ll find that this money I’m paying you now is a paltry sum. You have enough talent to find work in that field, no doubt.”

  That sounded hard to believe, but when I got back to my room, I thought about what I should make while waiting for the cloths to dry tomorrow. I kept considering different ideas until I fell asleep.

  Chapter 2 Episode 32: Slime Abnormality

  The next day...

  I went to the store first thing in the morning to confirm there were no problems, then
went to the abandoned mine. I got started on the waterproof cloth production, but then I was left with nothing to do again. I fell asleep yesterday while I was thinking about what to do today, so nothing came to mind. In my past world, I would have read a book or played a video game to pass the time, but now I needed something else.

  I received 45 strips of cloth today, the same as yesterday. My work was already over. I had gotten more used to it since yesterday and finished even faster than before. I didn’t quite know what to do now, and I had already trained my slimes.

  After some thought, I decided to gather my scavengers together into a king scavenger for me to fight one on one. My king scavenger slime had the following skills.

  Skills: Disease Resistance 7, Poison Resistance 7, Foul Feeder 8, Cleanse 8, Deodorize 8, Deodorant Solution 6, Stench Release 8, Nutrient Reduction 7, Physical Attack Resistance 5, Maximize 5, Minimize 6, Jump 3, Gluttony 4, Unarmed Combat 2

  The Physical Attack Resistance that the scavengers had meant that the king scavenger had the same skill one level higher. Scavengers also had an Unarmed Combat level of only 1, but king scavengers had it at 2. Compared to individual scavengers, its skill level was higher all around. I couldn’t be sure of this, but maybe when they combined, the experience of each slime mixed together or something.

  When I fought the king scavenger, its Physical Attack Resistance was highly effective and my attacks hardly worked. Its elasticity had increased enough for attacks to bounce right off. Its skills weren’t especially honed yet, but its defenses were excellent.

  For example, when I hit the king scavenger with a serious punch, it endured the blow entirely. Of course, I avoided hitting the core just to be safe, but piercing through the slime took a lot of time and effort.

  But its downside was its low attack power. It could use Maximize to grow and increase its mass to crush enemies, but lacked in muscle strength, if that was a thing that slimes had at all. I could just shake it off if I wanted to, and its strike attacks didn’t pack a punch.

  This was to be expected, so I considered having it stretch its body into tentacles to use like whips to attack or ensnare opponents. It could use their momentum against them, take advantage of its own elasticity and use its Maximize ability to perform a sort of shoulder throw. I taught it these and a few other skills I came up with. The basic strategy I had it use was to protect itself from enemy attacks, then use the force of their strikes to throw them and, once they fell on the ground, use Maximize to crush them.

  This took a fair amount of time, but still not enough for the cloths to dry. They were nearly ready, so I figured I could take a walk with my slimes, and they’d be finished by the time I was done.

  I got my slimes together and was about to go outside, but then one of the slimes I made a contract with began to behave strangely. The effects of the taming contract gave me some grasp on the situation, but I didn’t know what was happening.

  When I reached the slime in question, I found it was one that I captured for my metal slime evolution experiment. It was jiggling, but didn’t seem ill. That could only mean one thing.

  “Evolution?!” I shouted. I thought maybe I was getting ahead of myself, but it was the only answer I could come up with. I watched in silence until the slime went still, at which time I sensed a bit of magic energy that it seemed to be releasing. But it wasn’t using magic. In fact, it seemed to absorb all the energy it released. For what purpose, I didn’t know. Maybe it was required for evolution, or maybe it was doing it unconsciously.

  The magic energy entered and exited its body dozens of times, during which the slime steadily changed color. It ultimately turned silver, which I could only guess meant it had safely evolved. It seemed to be acting normal now. But metal slimes were supposed to be more of a dark gray color, while this slime was a bright silver. I used my Monster Appraisal skill.

  Iron Slime

  Skills: Harden 3, Physical Attack Resistance 2, Jump 1, Consume 3, Absorb 3, Split 2

  It was called an iron slime. Its skills seemed the same as a metal slime’s, but its Harden skill was one level higher. This happened because I fed it iron, I presumed.

  “But metal slimes eat iron too, right?” I asked myself. If they consume the same food, why did mine turn out this way? “Iron is just one type of metal, so maybe metal slimes need more varieties!”

  I took out some stone meant to be fed to metal slimes and appraised it.

  Stone (Red Clay)

  Dirt and sediment found in a mine and consolidated with earth magic.

  Contains the following metals: iron oxide, aluminum oxide

  As I thought, red clay contained aluminum oxide. It reminded me of a part time job I had in road construction, and a conversation I had with a coworker about this subject.

  “Metal slimes don’t just eat iron, but aluminum too. Maybe some other metals too,” I said. I used alchemy to extract iron and aluminum from some bricks, then called my iron slime and metal slime over, splitting up the materials between the two of them. The iron slime only ate iron, but the metal slime ate both types of metal. I called the metal slime closer and petted it.

  “So you’ll eat anything that’s metal? Seems like it. The iron slime’s just made of metal, I’m sure, but what about you? Some combination of iron and aluminum or what?” I asked the metal slime, but got no answer, of course. “Well, at least I know how to evolve you now. That was the first time I saw a slime evolve.”

  Every time prior to this, they evolved while I was asleep for some reason. If you feed slimes well enough, they tend to evolve within half a year, but you never know exactly when it will happen, and staying up every night to keep an eye on them wouldn’t be easy. Now I knew that they spat up and sucked in magic energy while they evolved. It was fascinating, but I worried that I might be late to get home again if I thought about it for too long.

  “That reminds me, I think I’ve figured out this Appraisal spell a bit better,” I said to redirect my thoughts. The non-elemental spell known as Appraisal produced information similar to that of an internet search. When I used it out of curiosity before, all that popped up was a name. Later when I tried to get detailed information out of it, it only returned simple data.

  But when I was cleaning the pit toilet the other day and used Appraisal on the roof, it showed me the word ‘Disinfection.’ Using it on filth presented me with the word ‘Germs.’ It was probably based on the user’s knowledge, so depending on how much you know, the information provided could be different.

  I tried it a few more times and learned that to check something in detail, you need to think about whatever details you want to know in a way that can be understood with your own knowledge if you want the best results. For example, I wondered about the weight of this red clay and the percentage of it that was composed of iron and aluminum.

  503.9g Stone (Red Clay)

  Dirt and sediment found in a mine and consolidated with earth magic.

  Contains the following metals: iron oxide (4.2%, 21.1638g), aluminum oxide (5.1%, 25.6989g)

  Now I got this much detail, likely because my thoughts were more detailed when I cast the spell. This seemed useful, though I didn’t know to what extent. It was nice that I could get more detailed information, but I didn’t especially need it at the moment. Maybe I could use it to sort the iron ingots I brought to Serge by weight next time. Or maybe I could ask Serge for some of the highest quality iron ingots in this world and create my own based off of them. It would be worth it if that meant the ingots I made didn’t stand out anymore, but there didn’t seem to be much use for Appraisal for the time being. The way it worked so far was good enough anyway.

  As I waited for the waterproof cloths to dry, I practiced making 500g, 80% pure iron and aluminum ingots over and over. When the cloths dried, I gathered them together, returned to town, and delivered them to Serge’s store. After that, I received another 300 strips of cloth and went back to the inn, but it wasn’t quite time for bed, so then I headed to my
store. It was too late to accept any jobs at the guild, so I decided to check on my employees.

  ■　■　■

  When I got to the store, the same hordes of people were there. There might even have been more customers now. I used the employee entrance to enter the break room, but nobody was there. Maybe everyone had to work to keep up with all the business. I opened the door to the store area and found Fina, one of the trio of girls.

  “Boss, it’s nice to see you,” she said.

  “Nice to see you, too. I noticed nobody was in the break room. Is everyone busy?”

  “There’s not a lot of free time, but I wouldn’t say we’re that busy. At least we have plenty of employees. We figured out when we get the most customers, so everyone’s doing their part to deal with the big rush.”

  Everyone got used to the job while I was away. It looked like I didn’t have much to worry about. But then I noticed something and gasped.

  “What’s wrong?” Fina asked.

  “The cleaner slimes are ready to split.”

  “Huh?”

  Cleaner slimes used this method of cleaning as a way of getting food as well, so all the sustenance they had been getting every day put them in a state where they could divide.

  “We’re going to get more slimes that can clean. That’ll improve our cleaning efficiency,” I said.

  “Really?! Wow!”

  “Thank the slimes for a job well done. I’ll be over here for a while, but don’t mind me.”

  “Okay!” Fina said and ran off with some finished laundry. Now it was time for me to do my part.

  ■　■　■

  I made a contract with the new slimes, now having a total of 54 cleaner slimes. Cleaner slimes didn’t divide that often, but a whole ten of them multiplied twice. It must have been because of the job they were doing. Also, when I had the cleaner slimes divide, their increased numbers helped them work that much faster. Their work rate had more than doubled. There was no way I could let this efficiency go to waste.