By the Grace of the Gods: Volume 3

by Roy

  “How have they been selling?”

  “Those five aside, I sell at least a few every day. Quite a few adventurers already seem to know about them, and some even buy sets for their allies.”

  “Come to think of it, back when I was cleaning those tanks, I walked around in those clothes every day. Maybe they drew attention.”

  “That’s probably it. The demand may increase quicker than anticipated.”

  “I have seventy strips of cloth for you today, but I should still be able to produce more. I’ll expand my work space and try to make as many as possible.”

  “Thank you, but don’t push yourself too far,” Serge warned. Even he seemed to think that I worked too much.

  “I’ll be fine. The store doesn’t need me anymore, and most of the time I spend on the waterproof cloth involves waiting for them to dry, so I’m not left with much to do.”

  “If you say so,” Serge said and eyed me suspiciously, then checked my cloths and paid me the manufacturing fee. I took some unprocessed cloth and headed to the mine.

  ■　■　■

  Just as I arrived at the mine, I asked my sticky slimes to handle the cloths, then took my two earth slimes and my scavengers to another mine shaft to create a new work space. I had the earth slimes use Create Block to dig holes, while the scavengers carried the blocks, leaving me to reinforce the walls. We created more stands to increase our waterproof cloth production rate. As a result, we were able to produce 140 strips of cloth, double our previous record. It looked like the sticky slimes could still go further, but I decided that 150 would be our maximum. I didn’t want them to overdo it.

  The slimes did a lot of work that day, so I let them off without any training. I used water magic to fill up a stone bowl I created with earth magic. The slimes gathered around to drink from it, and as I watched them, something occurred to me. Maybe the earth and dark slimes weren’t the only ones that absorbed magic energy.

  To test it out, I released some non-elemental energy. The other slimes didn’t absorb it with the same vigor as the elemental ones, but they all seemed to consume some amount. I tried out different elements and found that the sticky slimes preferred their energy non-elemental, poison slimes liked the poison element, and the metal and iron slimes enjoyed the earth element. The earth and dark slime’s preferences should go without saying.

  The biggest surprises were the bloody slime that liked non-elemental and water energy, the acid slimes that liked poison and water, the cleaner slimes that liked water and light, and the scavenger slimes that liked earth and dark. They all enjoyed two elements about equally, so some slimes had multiple preferences. The healing slimes liked non-elemental, water, and light energy, but preferred healing spells most of all. I didn’t know why this one slime liked magic spells more than energy, but it was a chance to practice my healing magic, so I couldn’t complain.

  Soon enough, the healing slimes were ready to multiply. Magic energy must have acted as a form of sustenance for them. I would have to look into that later, but for now, I made a contract with the new slimes. Now I had four healing slimes.

  After that, I prepared for the contract with the limour bird by taking a guitar out of my Item Box and practicing with it. I played guitar as a hobby and never got that good. Hopefully it would be enough for the contract to work, but it wasn’t worth worrying about. If I failed, I could always find other bird monsters.

  I killed time until the cloths dried, then returned to town and went to Serge’s store as usual. Now he had enough to fill up on his stock of waterproof cloth for the time being. He said that manufacturing them into clothes would take time, so he didn’t need any more deliveries for a while. Maybe he was a bit hesitant to give me even more work. Most of that work was done by the slimes, though. I decided to make all my remaining cloth into waterproof cloth for the future.

  I left Serge’s store, looked at the sky, and thought for a bit. My work had ended at an awkward time. If I returned to the inn now, there would be nothing for me to do, but there was no time to go back to the mine and train. At times like these, there was no better place to go than the church.

  ■　■　■

  When I got to the church, the woman from when I got my status board created was outside the gate.

  “Oh, you’re the boy from before.”

  “Nice to see you again.”

  “Welcome, what business do you have here today?”

  “I came to pray.”

  “I see, then come this way, please.”

  Much like last time, I took a seat in the chapel and clasped my hands together in prayer. I expected to go to the world of the gods like I always did, but nothing happened. Maybe I was wrong to think it would happen every time. Or so I thought, but then everything flashed white.

  “Well, now I’m here, as usual. Strange that it took longer this time, though.”

  “Sorry about that, I hardly ever gotta use this power. It takes time,” someone answered from behind me. I turned around and saw a short, hairy, middle-aged man carrying a barrel under his right arm, drinking from a wine bottle in his left hand. I could immediately tell this was the God of Wine.

  “Are you Tekun, God of Wine?” I asked to make sure.

  “Yeah, I’m Tekun. And sure, I’m a god, but don’t feel like you have to kiss up to me. I can read your mind, so not much point in showing your respects verbally. I hate when humans do that, waste of time. Anyway, have a seat.”

  I never thought about it before, but maybe the formalities humans used with each other were meaningless to a being that could read minds. I did as Tekun asked and sat in place.

  “All right then, I’ll make it simple. Nice to meet you. I’m Ryoma Takebayashi. Thanks for blessing me.”

  “I’ve seen you plenty, kid, this isn’t much of a first meeting for me. The blessing was nothing, really. I just gave it to you because you happened to seem interesting,” Tekun said and took a drink from his bottle.

  “Are you the only one here today?”

  “Yeah, the others are off doing their own thing. The God of War, the God of Magic, the God of Land, they’re all off in what you humans would call their homes. They all look like white voids, but they’re actually pretty comfy.”

  “I see, I didn’t know about those. So is this your home?”

  “Nah, I don’t got no home. I’m a god of work and wine, and there are all sorts of places where you can partake in those. I just wander between worlds when I feel like it.”

  “You can do that?”

  “Sure, your world and ours are actually connected. Ask someone else for more details about that, though. Explaining stuff’s not my strong suit. Anyway, have a drink,” Tekun said and pulled a goblet full of wine out of thin air. It was golden, decorated with silver and small jewels.

  “Cheers!”

  “Ch-Cheers! This is delicious!” I shouted. It was particularly sweet wine.

  “A human blessed by the God of Agriculture used soil blessed by the God of Land to produce the fruit and flower honey. Then an artisan blessed by myself made the fruit wine. Of course it’s delicious.”

  “Neat. Can I find this somewhere when I get back? And can I get some land blessed too?”

  “Glad you like it, but this was an offering to the gods. These get given to us, then what’s left over is shared between the artisans. Doubt you’ll find it easily. As far as getting a blessing, I can only bless people, but the God of Land blesses the soil. There are some other gods who bless the places they like too. You know Gain, and that guy blessed this entire world way back in the day. Seeing as how he’s the Creator and all.

  “Well, by now the creatures of this world have grown to do their own thing, so Gain’s blessing isn’t as effective in as many places. Same goes for me, but that’s also because I stopped giving out many blessings. Like, say I like a guy for putting so much work into smithing, so I bless him. Now he’s able to make good stuff, but he starts to slack off because of it, so I take the blessing back
,” Tekun said and took a drink from his bottle. “By the way, you know where Gain and the rest of those guys have been going?”

  “They’ve been going somewhere?”

  “Yeah, I’ve hardly seen hide or hair of them lately. They just up and vanish all the time. Not like there’s much work to do, so it’s not that big a deal, but this never happened before, so I’m curious.”

  “I wouldn’t know. I can’t come to this world unless I’m summoned here,” I explained, but then I remembered what Kufo told me last time I was here. “Maybe they’ve been going to the world I first came from.”

  “That world? What was it, Earth?”

  “Yeah, Earth. Kufo told me that he, Gain, and a couple others were going to Earth to go sightseeing.”

  “What?! Sightseeing in another world?! The hell are they up to?!” Tekun cried.

  “Is something weird about that?”

  “Gods don’t usually interfere in the worlds they’re not in charge of. When we bring folks like you over from other worlds, it’s only because our world is in trouble. We don’t just go sightseeing willy-nilly.”

  “But that’s definitely what Kufo said. Gain was getting into idols, Lulutia wanted to try a bunch of sweets, and Kufo wanted to explore unexplored places or something.”

  “How could that be? You sure about that? I dunno anything about ‘idols,’ but that doesn’t sound right.”

  “Yeah, I’m telling the truth.”

  “I mean, it’s not impossible that they went, but that’d typically piss off the gods in that world. It’s never happened before you came to this world. Wait, could it be?!” Tekun suddenly roared and stood straight up.

  “What’s wrong?!”

  “Damn them, I know there hasn’t been a whole lot to do, but don’t tell me they were negotiating with other gods to get permission to go sightseeing. They’re not the only ones with time on their hands, but are they really gonna go have fun without me?” Tekun quivered, picked his barrel back up, and shouted. “They won’t get away with this! I’ll find them, I swear it!” When he was about to run off, I called out to stop him.

  “Hey! What am I supposed to do?!”

  “Oh, sorry, but you should be sent back when enough time passes. Just drink and wait till you can leave. If you pour magic energy into that goblet, it’ll generate an endless supply of wine. Anyway, I gotta rush! See ya!”

  “Wait! Wow, you’re fast!”

  Tekun ran away faster than the eye could see. The rate at which he ran didn’t seem to match the distance he traveled. He was already out of sight, leaving me behind.

  I didn’t know what I could do here by myself, so I decided to drink. It still tasted great, but I wanted something to eat along with it. Unfortunately, there was nothing around me except the wine and the goblet. Tekun said I could make more wine by filling the goblet with magic energy, but that wouldn’t give me food. If I could use magic energy here, though, maybe I could use magic spells too.

  I cast Item Box and opened up a black hole in the air. Item Box appeared to work from any location. I checked to see if I had anything to eat, but there was nothing. I had been keeping all my food in the fridge at my store. I pulled out a few random items from the Item Box, but didn’t find anything edible. Eventually a light began to shine, signaling that it was time for me to go back. I guzzled down the rest of the wine in one gulp and put all the items away as quickly as possible. Just as I closed the entrance to the Item Box, the light grew brighter and I returned to the world I came from.

  Wondering if I made it in time, I used Item Box and checked on my items. Everything that I had taken out in the world of the gods was placed back inside, thankfully. It was unfortunate that I had to drink all that wine at once, though. I would have liked to take the time to savor it. No alcohol had made me feel that way in a long time. Mildly disappointed, I offered a small donation to the church, then decided to leave.

  Chapter 2 Episode 43: To the Swamp

  The next day.

  Today was the day that I would attempt a contract with a limour bird. The duke’s family, Sebas, Jill, Zeph, Camil, Hughes, and I were walking to the abandoned mine. Everyone else was equipped with weapons and armor as they were during training, but I was in overalls, making me stand out. Because this was for Eliaria’s training, though, we weren’t taking the carriage. She had more stamina than I expected. We took the occasional break, but even so, she didn’t complain once.

  “Ryoma, are you doing all right?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You never get tired, do you?” Eliaria said, trying to not to show her exhaustion. We were walking uphill on an unpaved path, so some fatigue was to be expected. She must have thought she was better off not showing weakness. Camil seemed to notice the same thing.

  “It’s OK, Young Miss. Compared to other girls your age, you can walk quite far,” she said to reassure Eliaria.

  “That’s right, don’t compare yourself to Ryoma. This guy’s not normal. Most people’d be absolutely bushed by now. Seriously, Ryoma, at least sweat or something.”

  “I can’t just sweat on command.”

  “Master Ryoma, most people don’t have to be commanded to sweat.”

  “You’re walking alongside the Young Miss, so you don’t have to go that fast. I would understand if you had the training that we do, but what kind of training have you done, Ryoma?”

  “Well, to put it simply, I would train until I reached my limits, and if I fainted or tried to rest, I got beaten so hard that I could’ve been severely injured. Then I had to choose whether to endure the pain or train some more. When that’s your daily life, this is what happens.”

  “Was your trainer some kind of demon or what?!”

  “I can’t say for sure that he wasn’t.”

  I was terrified of my dad when I was young. Whenever I saw him, I felt short of breath. While I was reminiscing, the time came for us to move onward.

  “We have to get moving before Elia stops sweating completely.”

  “Just a little bit farther. You can do it.”

  We began to walk once more. About thirty minutes from our rest spot, we left the road and proceeded through the forest for another thirty minutes. We began to notice a foul stench, presumably that of the swamp. As we went further, the reddish-brown swamp entered our sight. It was situated right between the forest and the mine. This was still technically within the forest, but the trees were sparser, and the rain carried mud from the mine down to here. The closer we got, the stronger the stench. Eliaria held a hand to her nose.

  “This is the swamp. All the rotten leaves and animal corpses create this smell.”

  “It’s horrible,” Eliaria complained.

  “It certainly is, but if you’re going to travel to other lands, you have to get used to these environments.”

  The Jamil family’s territory was maintained by Reinbach, so it was in better shape than most, but I could only pray that other regions weren’t as bad as this swamp.

  “Hm, there don’t seem to be any grell frogs or limour birds around yet,” Reinbach said. “There is more than one swamp, so why don’t we check the others?”

  We followed Reinbach’s suggestion, and ten minutes later, we found a swamp three times the size of the last one. There were about thirty adventurers and tamers present, along with over two-hundred blue birds.

  “Those are limour birds!”

  “That’s them?”

  “They’re beautiful.”

  They looked like big parrots, but what stood out the most about them was their long tails. Their bodies were blue while their heads and tails had green feathers. I could see why they were popular. They looked otherworldly against the reds and browns of the swamp. The birds were absolutely stunning, which made the presence of the adventurers all the more annoying.

  “There it goes!”

  “Capture it!”

  “Ah?!”

  “Hurry! Before it gets eaten!”

  The adventurers ente
red the swamp and competed with the limour birds for the grell frogs. The burly men got muddy as they attempted to find the reddish-brown frogs in the similarly colored swamp by using nets or their bare hands. It was tough to watch. Meanwhile, two young men by the edge of the swamp were holding instruments.

  “Look, those two are trying to form a contract.”

  One of them played what looked like a recorder, but he wasn’t very good at it.

  “How much does your musical talent have an impact on the contract?”

  “I couldn’t say. It’s the limour birds who make the decision.”

  “Some have played songs they’re confident in and failed, and some have gotten so angry that they destroyed their instruments, only to succeed.”

  “How does that make sense?”

  When the man finished his song, all the limour birds cawed in unison. The sound they made was like that of a human laughing at somebody to shame them. It was aggravating to listen to. I also had the information Caulkin gave me. When limour birds heard a performance they disapproved of, they let out a warning call that was extremely unpleasant. Now I understood what he meant. This must have been a common occurrence, because the adventurers didn’t pay it much mind. Instead, they took it as an opportunity to gather up grell frogs.

  “I’m sure you could tell from the sound, but he failed. He’ll never be able to form a contract like this. He can attempt to do it a few more times, but they’ll attack if he tries too much, so it’s best to stop after one or two performances,” Reinhart explained as the other man began to play his flute. He was even worse than the last man, to the point that the limour birds began to laugh before he finished. It enraged the man so much that he pulled out a dagger, jumped in the swamp, and approached the limour birds.

  “Oh dear, that’s no good. Stand at the ready,” Reinbach commanded.

  “Yes, sir!” four guards responded and stepped forward. Even Sebas and Reinhart were on guard. Elise approached me and Eliaria. The limour birds nearest the man with the dagger sensed danger and cried out. A moment later, a shallow gash appeared in the man’s shoulder and made him scream. It was caused by wind magic. The rest of the limour birds looked at the man as well, turning his anger into fear and panic. He turned to run, as did everyone around him. Several limour birds cast Wind Cutter and aimed at his back. They all missed, but now the man ran even more desperately.