By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 11 - Chapter 12

Chapter 7, Episode 32: Advice from Taylor

In the afternoon, a meeting was held as scheduled in a boardroom within the Merchants’ Guild with the seven representatives of each relevant department: the three guildmasters, Dameyer the chief of security in the city, Arnold who was at the top of the bureaucracy, the leader of the slums Lible, and me.

Two hours were spent on the meeting, leaving me with thirty extra minutes that I had blocked out for it. I took the opportunity to ask branch manager Taylor about Sensory Sharing.

“That must be the monster’s vision. A slime’s vision, in your case. I’ll call it vision, even though it’s technically magical detection, but ‘vision’ in the sense that it is what the monster sees. First of all, you don’t see exactly what a monster sees through Sensory Sharing. It may sound obvious, but us humans and our monsters don’t share the same anatomy.”

I hadn’t thought about that. The anatomy of our sensory receptors were different. Humanoid monsters like goblins were one thing, but I doubted that a limour bird and I were truly seeing the same things, so to speak.

“Humans and monsters may be looking at the same view, but won’t share the same vision. Unless...”

“Unless the taming magic converts the vision into something humans can process?”

“Exactly. The effect of our contract is to enable communication with monsters. In addition to communicating commands from tamer to monster, it also communicates the monster’s feelings to the tamer. In the same way, Sensory Sharing converts visual data from the monster to a form the tamer can understand. But you, Ryoma, during your experimentation, must have glimpsed into the true vision of a slime... A world sensed only by magic detection.”

That sounded like my theory that slimes observe their surroundings with magic was correct!

“I hate to take the wind out of your sails, but if you intend to keep studying this, you should be aware of something,” Taylor jumped in. “I haven’t heard any tales of anyone else trying to pull off what you are, so I can’t be certain about this, but if a human were to attempt to process all of their sensory information through one single magical sense instead of the usual five senses, it could very well cause a sensory overload. You did fall ill rather quickly from all the information the slime was feeding to you, right?”

That made sense, and I appreciated his concern. I promised that I would be careful during my experiments.

“Good,” he said. “On another matter, I heard you started keeping goblins. You registered eight, I believe.”

“Yes. I detained goblins robbing my farm, so I contracted them to help with my work and the slimes.”

“How is it going? Are you getting along with them well?”

“Well... I can communicate with them, although not as smoothly as I do with the slimes. And I established a clear dynamic when I first detained them, so they’ve never tried to rebel. You could say we’re getting along well, but...” There was something on my mind.

“But?”

“They seem different from the goblins I’ve seen before. They’re very calm, and we never have any tension. The quieter they are the better, so I haven’t been too concerned.”

“Hm... How do you mean ‘calm,’ exactly? And how do you usually interact with them?”

“What I want from them is labor, so I have them do all kinds of work. Nothing too dangerous. I’ve forbidden them from leaving the mountain or attacking anyone, but they are free, otherwise. They are also very honest with what they want. If they find the work engaging or pleasant, they learn it more quickly. I tried to show them how each task can benefit them.”

When I first taught them how to tend the farm, for example, I used my magic to rapidly grow the crops so I could show them that their work would lead to a full meal. They had been nearly naked, but once I showed them that wearing clothes could keep them warm, they began wearing clothes without me having to tell them to. They used to eat the crops raw when they were hungry until I served them a hot meal. After that, they started asking and waiting for hot meals. I even showed them that using utensils would keep their hands from getting hot when eating their food, and they had started using them.

“I started ordering them to bathe to keep them clean, and those who liked it started taking baths twice a day without me telling them to. Once they tasted a prototype batch of the alcohol I started making recently, some of them started prepping more alcohol like they were trying to fill an entire mine, all in their free time... Just two days ago, they came up with the luxurious idea of drinking in the bath, which made them get wasted there. I told them that alcohol hits harder when you’re bathing and gave them a stern warning not to do it again. That’s the only problem I’ve encountered, I suppose.” As it crossed my mind that I might have to establish a drinking limit with the goblins, I noticed that Taylor was looking at me with a kind but pitiful gaze. “I’m sorry, I got carried away.”

“That’s all right. It doesn’t sound like you are having any issues that I was concerned about. You can’t hope for better than to form a good relationship with peaceful goblins, albeit on the indulgent side.”

Indulgent! That’s what those goblins reminded me of. The videos of animals at zoos in Japan being described as having lost their feral nature. Domesticated goblins...didn’t have the same charm as those animals, but the same principles applied.

“The low population of the goblins is also a factor,” Taylor said, producing a set of writing utensils to write or draw out his points.

Goblins were not too dangerous on their own. They were weak monsters to begin with, but they also prioritized avoiding danger, and satisfying their hunger when alone. With survival at the top of their minds, they rarely attacked other creatures. As their numbers in a group increased past a dozen or so, they grew more and more violent, beginning to hunt to provide enough food for the pack. They hunted small animals while their group was smaller, but larger groups hunted medium-sized prey, which included humans. When they became a horde of a hundred-plus, more violent, weapon-wielding species like the archer goblin, and strong, human-sized ones like the hobgoblin, were born.

From that point, the weapon-wielding species would lead large groups to defend their horde or hunt for food while the hobgoblins contributed to manual labor to rapidly expand their horde. After some time, advanced species like goblin knights that are both powerful and weapon-wielding emerge. In the end, they’d become a massive army with a “king” at their helm. I had been told that advanced species were more likely to be born in larger hordes, but not that they would become more violent as their numbers grew.

“They become more brazen in groups. They’re a bit like humans,” I remarked.

“If their ruler is dangerous, the entire group is dangerous. Not much different from humans. That’s why it’s important for the tamer to have a firm grip on their reins. And I’m glad you do, Ryoma. Don’t let your guard down with them. Also, the sprint-rabbit license exam is coming up in a week. Are you ready?”

“I think so. Everyone’s been kind enough to help me make time to study. One of the duke’s maids has the license, so she’s been tutoring me.”

“Glad to hear. As a proctor, I can’t disclose too much about the exam... But sprint rabbits are not too powerful, nor dangerous. So why is a license required to keep or breed them?”

“Because they breed rapidly and have a great appetite, they are likely to cause great damage to farms and their crops if they become feral, which can happen without proper care.”

“Correct. That’s the most important principle. Make sure to review specific guidelines for care and specifications for housing. If possible, you should research records of past and current sprint rabbit farms.”

Well, I couldn’t pass up on a tip from the top man of the Tamers’ Guild! I would use it to revise before the exam.

Shortly after, we reached the end of our scheduled meeting, formally adjourning it.