By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 1 - Chapter SS1

Bonus Short Stories

The Observing Gods

One day in the divine realm...

“Gain! Kufo! Look at this!”

“What’s wrong, Lulutia?”

“Has something that urgent come up...?”

“Is Ryoma finally leaving for town?”

“No! It is about Ryoma, but not that! Just look!”

“Just what are you on about...”

Gain and Kufo peered down at the world below, dubious of Lulutia’s menacing look.

“...I don’t see anything different?”

“He’s just staring at slimes as usual.”

“Look closely at the slime.”

“Hmm? Now that you mention it, I haven’t seen that color before. I guess it evolved into an advanced species.”

“Oh, so that’s why he’s observing it so closely. What did it evolve into? ...Huh? Gain, I’ve never seen this species name before.”

“What? ...You’re right. Scavenger slime... did such a species exist in this world?”

“...I just confirmed it, there’s no precedent.”

“Which makes it a new species?!”

“Wow! It’s been a long time since a new species of slime appeared.”

“In exchange for being the weakest living creature, these monsters have high adaptability to their surroundings. They existed long before mankind, so pretty much all the evolutions should have happened by now.”

“I looked it up, and it would basically take a miracle for this to happen. Look.”

Lulutia waved her hand airily, summoning a parchment before the other two gods.

“...Whoa, wouldn’t it take a tremendous effort to do this intentionally?”

“Gather the waste and remains of plant and animal material together in one location, then select slimes that favor that material. Germs mixed into the ash and soil added to reduce odor also come into play. The minimum conditions needed for an environment where waste can easily break down and return to the ground. But even then, there’s still a higher chance of evolution into a different species. I doubt Ryoma planned this intentionally either.”

“If it hadn’t been a scavenger, what would it have turned into?”

“Wouldn’t there be a higher chance of a sludge slime or sewage slime? There are some places where advanced slimes like that live like normal.”

“There’s also a possibility of the virus slime. There’s a lot of bacteria and pathogens too, after all. I can think of a few more as well...”

The conclusion the three gods arrived at was that the chance of a new species being born was extremely minuscule.

“It doesn’t look like he’s realized how rare that is himself... But he looks like he’s having fun.”

“Shall we tell him if he ever obtains the oracle skill?”

“Well, in his case, I’m sure he could be happy no matter the slime.”

The three gods laughed together at the pleasant conversation.

However, several months later.

“Hey, Gain, Lulutia.”

“Hmm... Another new species has been born, huh?”

“Not that it’s a problem — if anything, it’s a joyous occasion, but... Was this always such a common occurrence?”

The gods were peering at the new cleaner slime had been born under Ryoma’s care.

“A slime that mainly consumes skin matter, body fluids, and waste products of living creatures... There are some monsters that rely on other living creatures to survive, the cleaner slime sounds similar to those.”

“Natural slimes dissolve everything, and they die before they can do that.”

“I was surprised before with the scavenger slimes, but for another new species to be discovered in such a short time...”

“Hey Gain, didn’t you tweak Ryoma’s luck a little when we were transferring him here? Could it be because of that?”

“I did fiddle with it a little, but only so that the misfortune the Earth god bestowed upon him wasn’t brought to this side. There shouldn’t be any clearly unreasonable acts of bad luck anymore, but I didn’t bless him with the fortune to miraculously discover new species one after another.”

“I see... Then maybe he’s just lucky.”

“Lucky... I wonder if that’s true? Look over there.”

“Huh? Ah... bandits.”

“At this rate, they’ll reach his area in a day or two.”

“Didn’t he encounter bandits two months ago too?”

“It seems like his luck sways heavily from lucky to unlucky...”

“It’s curious, but bandit encounters are a plausible form of bad luck. And those bandits wouldn’t be a problem for him anyway.”

At the end of further discussion, the gods decided to continue their days of observation. Until the day Ryoma eventually visited the church...