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By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter 31




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Chapter 3 Episode 31: Rumors From the Plains

Around when the party was reaching peak activity, I heard something curious.

“Monsters on the road?” I asked.

“Yes,” Prenance said. “We came here through the southern plains, but before we left Keleban, I heard that ant monsters were sighted in the plains. I ended up being tenser than usual during my travels, and now I’m simply exhausted.” There were many types of ant monsters, but they all had hard exoskeletons and a tendency to be found in groups. Some were more dangerous than others.

“Don’t tell me they’re murder ants,” I said. Murder ants were giant, hostile, carnivorous ants with strong jaws. If they attacked as a group, they were highly threatening. Depending on the size of the ant colony, the adventurer’s guild designated them as at least C-Rank monsters.

“No, if it were murder ants, I would’ve picked another route entirely. These were tunnel ants, from what I heard.”

“I’m sorry, but can you explain what tunnel ants are?”

“Well, for one, they have the same hard exoskeleton as other ants, but their jaws, claws, and overall strength are lacking compared to other types, from what I hear. They aren’t poisonous either. Their offensive abilities are low in general, and they’re among the more gentle ant monsters, so they don’t proactively attack humans or animals. But they do have a knack for digging in soft earth, and their colonies are uniquely large. The colony itself is the problem. If any carriages unwittingly passed over it, the ground would collapse and leave them stuck inside,” Prenance explained. The colonies were fortified by the tunnel ants’ bodily fluids, so they wouldn’t break under human weight, but they couldn’t hold up a carriage full of luggage. Tunnel ants themselves weren’t that dangerous, but they were a nuisance for anyone traveling by carriage.

“That must be rough for anyone in the transportation business.”

“Hopefully they don’t impact the festival or repel any visitors,” Serge said after listening to our conversation from right next to us. He seemed concerned about them too.

“In that case, maybe I can go do something about them tomorrow.”

“You, Ryoma?” Prenance said with confusion, so I told him about my adventuring work. I also told him about my plans to go to the Sea of Trees of Syrus. “I see, and murder ants appear there?” he asked. The Sea of Trees had not only murder ants, but a number of different ant monsters, so these tunnel ants would serve as good reference material.

“I’m also worried about how they might affect the transportation of goods, so I might as well spend a day checking it out.”

“If you’re willing to do that, I would appreciate it,” Serge said.

“So would we,” Prenance agreed. “We don’t want to give the audience an unpracticed performance, and we were planning to practice in the plains a short ways from Gimul.”

Traveling performers like them had to go from city to city, so they usually didn’t have their own training grounds. Their performance was also their product, and they had to make sure it was good, so they practiced in places where they wouldn’t be seen. But the plains where they wanted to train were infested with tunnel ants. Considering the potential disasters they could cause, it was best to avoid the place. That was why they hoped I would exterminate them quickly, I guess.

“You could use my place,” I offered. If they just needed to avoid being seen, nobody ever came to my mine. The duke’s family said I could use it however I pleased, which would include using it to train for a performance. And I knew that no dangerous monsters were there. Even in the off chance that something was there, Sordio could probably handle it himself. He looked strong enough.

“Are you sure? They say that some traveling performers are thieves and kidnappers. Not that we would ever do such a thing, of course.”

“Oh, I’m not worried about that. There’s nothing valuable at my house,” I said. I kept everything of value in my Item Box, and if they just wanted to borrow the grounds, there was no problem with that. It would be more dangerous if they did enter the house, actually. I had things that could cause serious pain if they were touched the wrong way. If I left out some unfinished soap or caustic soda, that could get ugly fast. “If you really just want some space to use, I don’t see why there should be any issues.”

“Then we’d be happy to take your offer.”

“When would you like to come, then?”

“Tomorrow morning, if you don’t mind,” he requested. That didn’t leave much time at all, but if it was fine with him, I guess it was fine with me.

“Got it, then I’ll be waiting for you tomorrow morning. Just go straight north from Gimul, and I think you’ll find me.”

Thus, as we were making plans for tomorrow, the party came to an end.

■ ■ ■

The Semroid Troupe came to visit the next day, and I provided them with a place to train. I told them which places would be dangerous to enter and left drinking water for them, then left the rest to Prenance as I left for town. I got to the adventurer’s guild before noon and noticed that there were fewer people than usual. At least that meant I wouldn’t have to wait as long.


“Oh, if it isn’t Ryoma?” Maylene said.

“Hello, Maylene. I heard there are tunnel ants in the southern plains.”

“The news reached you quickly, then. If you want to take a job, here they are,” she said and pointed out the request sheets on the counter.

“So there’s one request for exterminating the tunnel ants, one for searching for ant colonies, and this one about excavation? I understand the first two, but what’s the excavation one about?”

“It’s for digging up the colony. If there are any eggs in there, then just squashing the ants isn’t going to keep more from coming. Leaving the colony intact could lead to unexpected incidents.”

“I see. Is that why there aren’t as many people at the guild today?”

“Right, a few colonies have already been found, and a lot of people are getting to work on those.”

“How much damage have the tunnel ants done?”

“Nothing too noticeable so far. But there is one thing,” Maylene said, her expression going dark. “I said that a few colonies have been found, right? I don’t know if they came here to breed or what, but there’s a good chance that any newly hatched tunnel ants are looking for a place to lie. I think there are still more colonies to find, and they could do some damage. That’s why the adventurer’s guild wants to put the most energy into searching for colonies. The tamer’s guild is helping with the extermination and excavation, so those are coming along nicely.”

“The tamer’s guild? Can you tell me more about that?”

“There’s not much more to say about it. Guilds sometimes work together on certain issues, like this one because it has to be dealt with fast. You know how this town is close to a mine? A lot of the tamers here also have powerful monsters because of that.”

“I don’t know if I should ask you this, but could I accept these same jobs through the tamer’s guild?”

“Probably, if you preferred,” she said, giving me an icy look.

“I’m actually registered with the tamer’s guild too, and I owe their guildmaster, but they’ve never had any jobs that I could do with my familiars. I haven’t taken even a single job there.”

“So you want to pay them back? That’s fine, don’t feel too bad about it. Whether you take jobs through us is up to you,” she said with a smile. It didn’t seem like I actually made her feel bad.

“Thanks, see you later, then.”

“See you! Take some jobs here sometime if you feel like it.”

I thanked Maylene for understanding, then left the adventurer’s guild.

■ ■ ■

“Careful out there!” the gate guard said as I set foot in the southern plains. I didn’t often visit the tamer’s guild, so they mistook me as a new applicant at first, but I otherwise had no problems accepting the job.

“Alright, let’s do this!” I shouted and sent my limour birds into the sky to fly in a V formation, so they could search for tunnel ants or colonies from above. According to the information from the tamer’s guild, tunnel ants had a tendency to take the dirt they dug out from making their colonies and expel it all over their surroundings. They didn’t make anything like an anthill, but if we found excavated dirt, then there was a high chance that a colony was nearby.

By sharing my senses with Eins and seeing through his eyes, I found uneven earth in part of the lush plains. It looked normal to the naked eye, but from the sky, it was apparent that something was different. If they were already excavating this colony, though, then I had no business here. The same was true of any colonies that were already being exterminated.

I used space magic to travel far from the city, where nobody was around. I opened my Dimension Home and let out my metal and iron slimes, then had them line up. There were four hundred in all. I aggressively increased their numbers in an effort to create two types of big slimes, but I ended up overfeeding and overproducing them. It only took a hundred slimes to make a big slime, but now I had two hundred of each type. But there were some advantages to having so many.

I had the slime with the highest transforming skill turn into a katana, then ordered the rest of the slimes to slowly roll across the plains. The metal orbs pushed through the dirty grass until, minutes later, they seemed to find something. Slimes are weak, but highly adept at sensing danger. That ability may not have been as strong after they evolved, but some of the iron slimes reacted to something. It seemed like they sensed something a little further ahead. They were cautious in their own way, even if that just meant coming to a stop.

I walked out in front of the slimes and carefully stepped forward. After three steps, when I was right where the iron slimes indicated, antennae popped up from out of the ground, followed by several eyes. It was an ant the size of my chest. It reminded me of a cave mantis. Before it could fully burrow out of the ground, I severed its head with the katana. Two more came out, and I slew them the same way. There were no more after that.

The tamer’s guild’s information said that tunnel ants were nocturnal to avoid coming out when more outside threats were present. They usually slept in their colonies during the day, aside from the guards who were stationed near the entrance. If the guards were prevented from returning to the colony, no more ants would come out. Those three ants were presumably the guards for this colony.

At any rate, that was one colony found. I wrote down the location and cast Earth Needle to create a visible landmark. My job was to find ant colonies, not to destroy them. After that, I searched around for other entrances, trying to avoid provoking the colony while I did, as I left the area. Then I went to another potential colony location.

I normally only let my slimes race around at the mine, so I decided to let them do the same in these plains as long as we were here. Both the metal and iron slimes seemed pleased. When I gave the signal, they immediately got rolling and rolling fast. I felt like these slimes had been turning into speed demons lately.



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