By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 34

Chapter 2 Episode 34: Nice Find

The next day...

“Ugh, I have a headache.”

I didn’t spend time with Eliaria and the others yesterday, so I went to check on them in their room and found that Reinhart had a hangover.

“Oh, Ryoma, good morning.”

“Good morning, everyone.”

“Ryoma...”

“Looks like you’re having a rough time. Should I make you some medicine or something?”

“As long as you’re offering, could you do that?”

I used Warp to travel to different stores around town and pick up ingredients for medicine that would help with hangovers, as well as fruit that could be eaten along with it. I bought what I needed and returned to the inn.

“Here, drink this. You should also make sure to stay hydrated,” I said. If only there had been persimmons for sale. That or some miso soup with clams. Plenty of people traveled from my world to this one, so they had to be available somewhere. Maybe it would be worth searching for them at some point.

“Thank you, don’t mind if I do,” Reinhart replied.

“I suggest not taking too much medicine, though.”

“Sorry I’m in such a sorry state. Yesterday I― Agh, my head...”

Reinhart sounded like he was in agony and desperate for relief. At yesterday’s banquet at the government office, they tried to get on Reinbach, Reinhart, and even Elise and Eliaria’s good side by offering loads of food and alcohol. Elise was fine, but Eliaria wasn’t used to such events. While she was dealing with their approaches, Reinhart went off and drank too much, according to him.

Hearing about the banquet made me a bit uneasy. I didn’t know if Eliaria could handle these occasions. She would presumably have to go to more when she grew up, too. Thanks to Tekun’s blessing, I didn’t get too drunk or get hangovers, at least. I still didn’t know exactly how much I could drink now, but I also had experience from my past life. Maybe it would be best to test just how much I could drink at least once. I thought about this as I watched Reinhart drink the medicine and juice, then left the inn.

■ ■ ■

I got to my store a little late, briefly checked in with everyone, then left. There didn’t seem to be any problems. After that, I shifted gears and headed to the abandoned mine. There was something I wanted to test out, so I hoped to catch some slimes on the way there. Maybe we could pick herbs together too.

“Hello, Maylene.”

“Oh, Ryoma, working for the guild today?”

“Yes, I’ve left my store in the hands of my employees at this point.”

“Owning a store and hiring people to run it for you at your age is a big step up in life.”

“I just got lucky.”

“I’m sure there’s more to it than that. Oh, this isn’t a job or anything, but I have some information that might interest you. A party of five adventurers traveled here from another town, and they brought a high-ranking slime with them.”

“Can you tell me more?”

“If you capture a rare monster or obtain elusive information, selling it to the Tamer’s Guild earns you a tidy profit. This party happened across this slime, and they tried to sell it. There aren’t many high-ranking slimes, you see. But the guild didn’t want it. Slimes that can use magic, like your healing slime for example, are both rare and useful, so they go for a high price. The slime these people caught was different, presumably. They’re still young, and it sounds like they made a mistake when they were gathering info in advance. They thought they’d get good money for a high-ranking slime, but they were disappointed when that didn’t happen, from what it seems like.”

“So for enough money, I can buy this rare slime off them?”

“That’s right. Do you want it?”

“I do, very much so. Do you know where that party is?”

“They should be staying at a cheap inn called the Badger Inn on the east side of town. Their party’s called Sikum’s Pier. Just tell the innkeeper the name and you’ll probably get to talk to them.”

“Thank you, I’ll go there right away.”

I rushed out of the guild and hurried toward the Badger Inn. I had a change of plans.

■ ■ ■

“Is this it?” I asked myself. The Badger Inn was easy enough to find, but it looked utterly decrepit from the outside. I would’ve thought it was abandoned. I entered the building anyway and found a clearly middle-aged man at the counter.

“Welcome. You a customer?”

“I have business with Sikum’s Pier, an adventuring party staying at this inn. Are they here right now?”

“Sure are,” he said and pointed to a door on the right. “There’s a dining hall/bar in there where they should be eating. One of them’s been drinking since noon and complaining the whole time, so watch out for that one.”

“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.