By the Grace of the Gods: Volume 3

by Roy

  “Thank you.”

  He was blunt, but a nice enough person. I opened the door and entered the dining hall. There were only five people there, so I knew they were the party in question right away. They all looked to be in their late teens.

  “Excuse me, are you a party called Sikum’s Pier?” I asked. They turned to look at me.

  “Hm? Who are you?”

  “Sorry, I should have introduced myself first. I’m Ryoma Takebayashi, a tamer and adventurer.”

  “Humph! A little snot like you’s an adventurer?”

  “Quit it, Thane. Sorry, he’s in a bad mood.”

  “I know what happened. You took a rare slime to the Tamer’s Guild, but they didn’t buy it, I believe.”

  “Yes, and then―”

  “Agh, what the hell’s your problem?! You wanna start a fight?!” Thane screamed, stood up, and tried to walk toward me, but his party members stopped him.

  “No, I’m not looking for a fight.”

  “What? Then you’re making fun of me, you little piss stain?! Even this brat’s doing it, damn it! Yeah, it’s true! We’re idiots! Came all the way here thinking we could sell a rare monster for big money, only to not be able to sell it! We spent a lot and gained nothing! But why’d you have to come rub it in?!” Thane shouted, then broke down crying. He was completely drunk and seemed to have a severe persecution complex.

  “Thane.”

  “Chill out.”

  “I’ll take Thane back to the room. There’s no use talking to him like this.”

  “I’ll go with.”

  Two of the other adventurers took Thane away.

  “Anyway, we’re Sikum’s Pier. I’m the leader, Shin.”

  “I’m Kai. Sorry about Thane.”

  “It’s fine.”

  “That’s good to hear. So, you wanted something from us?”

  Yes, that was the important thing. The drunk adventurer didn’t matter.

  “Yes, I was wondering if I could buy that slime off you.”

  “The one we couldn’t sell before?”

  “We’d appreciate it, but why? The guys at the Tamer’s Guild laughed at the thing.”

  “I collect and research slimes. If you have a rare one, I’d love to have it.”

  “Weird. But like Kai said, it’d be nice if someone buys it.”

  “You’ll sell it to me, won’t you? How much do you want?”

  “Well, why don’t you decide? The Tamer’s Guild said it was worthless, so it’d be hard for us to put a price on it.”

  “Just pay whatever you want, we’ve got nothing to lose. We were just going to get rid of it tomorrow anyway.”

  “I see, then can you show it to me? I won’t spend much on a slime I already have, but if it’s one I don’t have yet, I’ll pay good money.”

  “Fine by me.”

  “I’ll bring it out right now, one second.”

  Kai left his seat, and three minutes later, he returned with a stone box.

  “The slime’s in here. Be careful.”

  “Excuse me,” I said and cautiously opened the lid to see the slime inside. It was dark red and runnier than the average slime, closer to a pure liquid. After I got a good look, I closed the lid.

  “Well?”

  “I don’t have a slime like this. I’ll buy it for a high price. If you don’t mind me asking, how much did it cost you to travel here?”

  “About 5000 sute between the five of us. We kept the expenses as low as possible, but it still wasn’t cheap.”

  I took two small gold coins out of my item box.

  “Then including the cost of traveling back, it’ll add up to 10000. I’ll cover that cost for you, and pay another 10000 sute for the slime,” I said. The two adventurers panicked.

  “Seriously?! That’s 20000 in all.”

  “Two small gold coins for a single slime? You really want to pay that much?”

  “It’s fine, I’m getting a new slime thanks to the five of you.”

  “I see. Well, I don’t have any complaints. What about you?”

  “Course not.”

  “Then here you are,” I said and placed the money in Shin’s outstretched hand.

  “Thanks.”

  “I’ll be taking the slime, then. Thank you.”

  “We’re the ones who should thank you.”

  “That takes care of our money troubles for the time being. Thane should probably calm down too.”

  I did sort of understand how he felt. A lack of money can cause extreme anxiety. I’ve been in the same position in the past. Which reminded me, a job for a lot of money was supposed to show up at the guild soon.

  “If you want to make money, I think it might be a good idea to stay in this town for a while. Every year around this season, there’s a huge outbreak of monsters at a nearby swamp. From what I hear, those monsters can be hunted as ingredients for medicine and sold for a high price. As long as you can tolerate the stench of the swamp, it’s supposed to be a pretty profitable job.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, check with the guild. I don’t know exactly when the outbreak happens, but it’s supposed to be coming up.”

  “Thanks for the advice!”

  “That’s great info, thank you. Is there anything we can do to pay you back?”

  There was nothing I needed, but this was a good opportunity to do some advertising.

  “Come visit my store sometime. I run a laundromat on the side. It’s gotten to be a bit more than a side job, though.”

  “A laundromat?”

  “Yes, you buy one of the bags we sell and fill it with as much laundry as you can, and we’ll wash it all for one medium bronze coin. Also, for adventurers, you can pay one medium bronze coin and one small bronze coin to have your armor and equipment cleaned.”

  “Never heard of any stores like that.”

  “Got it, sounds cheap. I’ll give it a try.”

  “Thank you. You can find it just outside the residential district on the east side of town. A lot of our customers are adventurers, so if you ask around, I’m sure someone will give you directions.”

  “We’ll go there for sure.”

  “Thanks, we’re glad to have you.”

  After that, I hurried to the mine. I didn’t have to worry about my surroundings there; it was the perfect place to research slimes.

  ■　■　■

  I arrived at the mine. As long as I was there, I decided to make waterproof cloth as well. Today I made fifty strips. Once I finished my other business, it was finally time to make a contract with my new slime. I opened the lid of the stone box and stared at the slime as I cast the contract spell. Its liquid body violently rippled for a moment, then gradually went still. The contract was a success. I used Monster Appraisal.

  Bloody Slime

  Skills: Suck Blood 4, Deodorize 3, Disease Resistance 3, Poison Resistance 1, Play Dead 10, Consume 2, Absorb 4, Split 1

  Looking at the Suck Blood skill, I had to imagine this slime’s main form of sustenance was blood. It also had Deodorize and Disease Resistance, along with a low level version of Poison Resistance. I wasn’t sure exactly how Play Dead worked, but I could figure it out later. Feeding it was the big problem. If it ate blood, I didn’t know what to do about that.

  “Maybe I could hunt some random beasts or monsters,” I thought. I told my slimes that I had to go somewhere far away and they could do as they liked while I was gone, then brought the bloody slime with me to go hunting. Dozens of slimes picked up practice clubs and spears to start practicing on their own. I only left them behind for their protection, but apparently I had some pretty passionate slimes. Some of them practiced the club, spear, and unarmed attacks I taught them, and the pairs of two that had matches with each other seemed to be getting better by the day. It was nice, but it didn’t seem like normal slime behavior.

  I still had my questions about that as I looked around for animals. Eventually, I found a horned rabbit. I took a bow and arrows out of
my item box, swiftly killed the rabbit, and told the bloody slime it was fine to eat it. The slime oozed toward it like flowing blood and began to suck blood from the wound. It was similar to the mosquitoes and fleas we had on Earth. There were also types of birds that sucked blood, so maybe it was something like that.

  I watched the bloody slime’s behavior and made guesses about its biology until the slime’s already liquid body became even more fluid and entered the horned rabbit through its wound. I wasn’t expecting that. Bloody slimes were apparently unique in that they could change their viscosity to something closer to water. That allowed them to enter a creature’s veins and suck their blood from within. It was like no slime I had ever seen before.

  While I was still paralyzed by the bloody slime’s shocking behavior, it appeared to finish drinking and exited the horned rabbit’s body. Its body was dark red, so it looked like the rabbit was gushing blood in an unsettling fashion. Once I confirmed the bloody slime was fully out of the rabbit, I appraised the corpse.

  Horned Rabbit Corpse

  Its horns, flesh, and skin can be stripped off and collected.

  An arrow to the neck killed it in one shot, so the horns and skin have taken minimal damage and are of high quality.

  All the blood was drained from its body shortly after death, greatly reducing the stench. Its flesh is of the highest quality.

  I understood the part about the horns and skin, but I was surprised to learn there was no blood left at all. Maybe the bloody slime did drink a full rabbit’s worth of blood, but it could also have been sick. I used Appraisal again, but it wasn’t ill or anything. This slime seemed incredibly convenient for adventurers and hunters.

  I went back to the mine and dissected the horned rabbit. When I cooked and ate the meat, it turned out to be true that it didn’t stink, and it tasted great too. The lack of stench may have been thanks to the Deodorize skill. The bloody slime’s skills seemed useful and worth the price I paid.

  But if I wanted to go out of my way to evolve the bloody slime, I would presumably need to feed it tons of blood. For experimentation purposes, I would need a lot of blood anyway, but I couldn’t go around hunting all the beasts and monsters in the area. My slimes could probably collect plenty if I mobilized them all, but that could destabilize the ecosystem and take work away from other adventurers.

  In the end, I decided to talk to Sieg about it. Animal blood was sometimes used in cooking on Earth, but not in this world. The reason for that was the magic energy of a creature was contained in its blood. Drinking that blood would cause a human to take in that energy and enter a state called magic drunkenness caused by taking in too much. Much like a magic energy deficiency, it wasn’t something that demanded treatment, but it was best to avoid if at all possible.

  Sieg was a butcher, and he said he bought meat off of adventurers. If he drained blood at his store, maybe I could take the blood off his hands. I planned on giving him a visit when I got back to town. Later, when I was about to return to the mine, I remembered that I was going to capture some slimes. I caught three inside the mine and successfully made a contract with them. The cloths hadn’t dried yet, so I decided to start an experiment.

  Chapter 2 Episode 35: Food Preparation

  I relaxed my breathing, then unleashed magic energy toward three of my slimes. The slimes quivered and leaped at the energy. I sensed their joy. At first glance, it only looked like they were trembling, but my Magic Detection skill allowed me to see that the slimes were slowly taking in the energy, confirming my suspicions.

  When I saw an evolving slime releasing and absorbing magic energy yesterday, I had an idea regarding magic energy and slimes. Firstly, healing slimes could use recovery magic, so there was no doubt that they possessed magic energy. The cause of their evolution into healing slimes was also recovery magic, I believed. I recalled that at the time I thought maybe slimes could also use fire and water magic, and I experimented with that too. That only resulted in harming slimes with offensive magic, so I ended the experiment early, but I wondered if it would be different now.

  Slimes capable of using other types of magic must have been possible, considering the existence of healing slimes. After what I heard from Maylene the other day, I was confident in this assertion. There was plenty of reason to believe these slimes could be obtained through evolution in the same fashion as I had done so far, by feeding them. Maybe feeding slimes magic energy would do the trick.

  I released more magic energy. This time I did what I would when using fire magic, imagining the energy as a fiery explosion. Different people imagined different things when casting spells, from what I had heard, but this was a way to turn the non-elemental magic energy contained within the human body into fire energy for use in fire magic. All elemental magic required this conversion technique, but the conversion process usually also caused the magic to be unleashed at the same time. This was my first time stopping short of casting the spell itself and simply releasing the transformed energy. It demanded more precision than using magic normally, but that may have been because I wasn’t accustomed to this.

  Curious as to whether they would like non-elemental energy, I released it as-is. The slimes didn’t seem to absorb as much as before. I tested other elements and discovered that two of the three slimes took in a greater quantity of earth energy, while one of them preferred dark energy. Individual slimes appeared to have preferences when it came to elements. Maybe different magic energy had different flavors. In any case, the slimes were enjoying it, so I continued.

  By the time the cloths dried, I had given them almost all of my magic energy. I took some time to rest before I collected the dried waterproof cloths, then returned to town and headed to Sieg’s butcher shop.

  ■　■　■

  “Hey there! Here for some meat?” a boy in his teens asked me when I got to the butcher. From the look of it, he was around fourteen or fifteen.

  “Excuse me, but I wanted to talk to Sieg. Is he available?”

  “Oh, huh. Boss! Customer wants to see you!” the boy shouted. Sieg walked over from the work space in the back of the store, his clothes messy with blood. His skin was pale and he was so thin as to look sickly as well. He looked as frightening as Worgan, albeit in a different way.

  “If it isn’t Ryoma? Need something?”

  “Yes, actually,” I said and explained the situation, then made my request.

  “I see, didn’t know there were slimes like that. Sure, need some blood right away? Some young adventurers did a ton of hunting today, so I’ve got plenty on hand.”

  “Thank you, I’ll take it.”

  Sieg let me into his work space where five men were working. Everything from the walls to the ceiling was covered in hooks and strings from which bloody beasts dangled.

  “Over here,” Sieg said and led me right below the animals. There were two large containers full of blood that were each about the length of the room itself.

  “Thank you. Would you mind if it drinks right from these containers?”

  “That’s fine.”

  With Sieg’s permission, I put the bloody slime in a container. It rapidly drained the blood until nothing was left.

  “Wow, that thing’s convenient.”

  “You think so too, Sieg?”

  “We have to pump all the blood out of those tubs and thoroughly clean them out. You can see how big they are, so it’s a lot of work.”

  “Especially when we get a big animal, or tons of small animals to drain like today, it’s a lot of work and a huge pain.”

  “I see.”

  Even the nearby workers began to complain about how much effort it involved. I also asked if blood was used in any cooking.

  “Blood as food? Not that I’ve ever heard of.”

  “Everyone throws blood away, that’s just common sense.”

  “If it’s edible, I feel like that’s a waste, though.”

  “I’ve heard that the magic energy in blood goes away if it’s left alon
e long enough. But by then it’d be dry or rotten, so you can’t eat it anyway.”

  Blood with magic energy wasn’t much more than a toxin, apparently. After that, Sieg and the other workers said I could come back any time I needed blood, and I could even have their bones and any meat that went bad before they could sell it. They were generous enough to give me anything that would have been trash anyway. Now I could get food for my scavenger and acid slimes too.

  “Thank you!” I said, glad I got more than I was expecting. I left the butcher and saw some rowdy men being taken away from my store by city guards.

  “Get walking!”

  “Ouch!”

  “Hey, the hell are you looking at?!”

  “Nothing to see here!”

  “Shut up and walk!”

  Wondering what happened, I dashed to my store and found all my employees gathered together.

  “Is everyone all right?!”

  “Oh, Boss!”

  “I saw some guards dragging some men out of the store. Anyway, is anyone hurt?”

  “We’re fine! Nobody’s been injured!”

  “Fay stopped them all by himself!”

  “Really? Thank you, Fay.”

  “It was nothing. Just part of the job.”

  “Fay and Lilyn really helped today. Of course, you’re the one who hired them, Master Ryoma. You’re partially to thank for the safety of the store and our staff.”

  “No, no, I didn’t do anything,” I admitted. I didn’t even get there until after it happened.

  “Boss, I want to talk to you for a bit,” Lilyn said. “We need to put countermeasures in place in case this happens again.”

  I left Fay and the three village girls in charge of the store, then the reliable twins and I went to the office.

  “Although for now, we don’t have any problems. Not as long as I or my father are at the store. Either of us can handle any number of hoodlums on our own. But there is one thing I want to ask you, Boss. Is there anyone who’d hold a grudge against you?”