By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 37

Chapter 2 Episode 37: Forced Break

Once our break was over, I got back to training. Or so I would have, but that was all for the day.

“You both understand how to use Share Senses at this point, so now you just take the time to get used to it. Ryoma, relax and listen to Elia put on a show for you. She plays some excellent music, and I don’t just say that as a parent,” Reinhart said.

“Music? What are you talking about?”

“We talked about the limour bird before, remember?” Eliaria asked.

“Yes, that was why you came to this town, wasn’t it?”

“That’s right. Limour birds fly fast and use wind magic, so catching one alive and unharmed is a huge challenge, and they’re hardly ever spotted. But limour birds are monsters, so you can make contracts with them!”

“I see, but what does that have to do with music?”

“A lot, actually. To make a contract with a limour bird, a musical performance is absolutely essential,” Eliaria claimed. I thought that sounded absurd, but Sebas explained further.

“Limour birds house a great deal of magic energy in their bodies, and they’re highly intelligent. As such, they’re normally resistant to contracts, and they fail as a result. But limour birds use their beautiful cries to communicate and distinguish friend from foe. If you start off with music that the bird takes a liking to, it will be receptive to the idea of a contract.”

I should have expected as much of this alternate dimension. This method of capturing a creature would have been nonsense in my own world.

“You can make contracts that way? I had no idea.”

“The success rate is extremely low, so some question whether this actually works, but I have never heard of a contract with limour birds being made by any other means. It’s the highest chance we have, one could say,” Sebas continued.

“So there you have it. Elia’s going to put on a performance and try to make a contract with a limour bird. She’ll be practicing that this afternoon,” Reinhart said.

“Sit right there and listen, Ryoma,” Eliaria insisted. “You may sleep instead if you like, but you’re not allowed to leave.”

I didn’t understand the point of staying if I didn’t have to listen. I turned to the others and saw they were grinning and looking at me.

“Have you perhaps figured it out?”

“You’ve been working constantly, so we thought it would be best to give you a little break.”

“You’ve done everything from slaying monsters, to starting your own store, to hiring employees, to taking jobs from the Adventurer’s Guild, and you’re even patrolling the mine and making waterproof cloth. I hear you haven’t been taking any breaks. You had some ruffians in your store yesterday, and you might end up even busier as you figure out how to prevent that in the future. Before that happens, we wanted to use today’s taming magic training as an excuse to get you away from work.”

“We have informed your associates, and they all approved of the idea.”

“When did you do that?” I asked. I didn’t notice this at all.

“We’ll be watching very closely, making certain you don’t get to work today.”

“Being forced to take a break like this may make you feel restless, but you have to relax at some point for the sake of your health. If you keep working as you have been, we’ll drag you to our house by force if we must.”

“I’m sorry I worried everyone.”

“Maybe you don’t feel like you’re pushing yourself too far, but if a normal person did the amount of work you did, they’d undoubtedly hurt themselves. It’s possible you simply don’t realize what you’re doing to yourself, so you need to be careful.”

“So there you have it, you’re forced to take a break today. I’ll begin my performance now.”

Eliaria was being oddly pushy. Or maybe she was always pushy. To say her naivete made her demand a lot of people was probably more accurate. While I was pondering this, Eliaria took a violin from Sebas and began to play. I didn’t realize violins existed in this world, but maybe someone brought them over from my own.

Eliaria’s performance sounded simply excellent. She played a slow and relaxing song. Once it was over, she asked for my impressions.

“Ryoma, how did you like my performance?”

“It was great, seriously,” I said, and I wasn’t flattering her. I got a guitar as a gift back in my world and tried to learn how to play it, but I was never that great. I didn’t have much musical knowledge, but her performance sounded pleasant.

My simple compliment was enough to please Eliaria. She began to play the violin again. I listened and petted my slimes, along with the surprisingly receptive Luorg, having a tranquil time. Eventually it came time to feed my slimes, so I had my three newest ones absorb magic energy. I was shocked to find that one of them began to transform.

“It’s happening!”

“What?!” Eliaria exclaimed.

“Ryoma, what’s going on?” Elise asked.

“Did something happen?” Reinbach wondered.

My shout put Eliaria’s performance to a halt and made everyone approach to see what the hubbub was.

“A slime is evolving!”

All eyes turned to the slime I was petting. It jiggled like when the iron slime evolved, then stopped and repeatedly released and absorbed magic energy. It changed to a brown color at the same time. Nobody could look away. When the evolution ended, I used Monster Appraisal.

Earth Slime

Skills: Earth Magic 2, Earth Resistance 8, Earth Magic Absorption 1, Jump 1, Consume 3, Absorb 3, Split 1

The experiment was a success.

“Ryoma, what is it?” Eliaria asked.

“This slime evolved into an earth slime. It can use earth magic now.”

“Oh!” Reinbach exclaimed. “Another rare slime.”

“Ryoma, earth slimes are extremely rare. How did you manage that?” Elise asked. I explained my method. Eliaria and Elise tested it themselves.

“How does this work?”

“This is surprisingly difficult.”

They changed the element of their magic energy and released it, but it became magic spells in the process. That or it turned back into non-elemental energy. Keeping your magic energy in its transformed states seemed to require a high level of skill with magic energy control. I only had to use a bit of focus, but that was because my Magic Control skill had reached Level 4 after playing around so much. I came to the conclusion that Eliaria and Elise couldn’t do it at the moment.

Frustrated about this, Eliaria stopped playing her violin and began to practice controlling her magic instead, but she never succeeded in the end. Ultimately, she proclaimed that she would strive to learn the Magic Control skill later. She never took her eyes off the slimes I evolved. All three of them had now evolved, giving me two earth slimes and one dark slime.

Dark Slime

Skills: Dark Magic 2, Dark Resistance 8, Dark Magic Absorption 1, Jump 1, Consume 3, Absorb 3, Split 1

The evolution of my slimes was a bit of a surprise, but when my magic energy had just about run out, we settled down again.

“Oh, a horned rabbit.”

As I listened to the music and petted my slimes, I sent out the crew bird and found a pack of horned rabbits with it. Maybe I could give their meat to my employees as thanks. When I told the duke’s family about this and began to head out, Reinhart and Eliaria offered to help, so we easily hunted down tons of them. I killed a few with my bow, while Reinhart, Eliaria, and my sticky slimes went after others. The job was made simple when so many people were involved.

I met up with the rest of the group, returned the crew bird to its cage and canceled my contract with it. Elise said I could take it with me, but I turned down her offer. I could live without being able to see through the crew bird’s eyes, and if I did ever have need of one, I wanted to capture it myself.

“Shall we return home now, then?” Reinbach asked. A lot of time had passed before I knew it. We got on the carriage to return to town before it got dark. We weren’t in a hurry, so the rocking of the carriage was quiet and pleasant. I must have been more tired than I thought, because I ended up dozing off. When we got to the inn, I headed straight to my room and went to bed.