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By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 9 - Chapter 15




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Chapter 6 Episode 15: Summons

“Phew...” The day’s hunt and subsequent break for lunch also whisked by very quickly, and I found myself waiting for Nikki once again.

“Slime Guy! I just got out!” It looked like even Nikki finished his work early.

“Yeah...”

“Is something wrong?”

“No... I do have a bit of news for you, though.” I went on to tell him about the wire slime, without concealing anything.

“What?! It evolved already?!”

“It did. All thanks to you and the villagers providing it with all that food, of course.”

“I wanna see it! Can I see it? Huh, huh?!”

“Of course. I was thinking of testing what the slime could do out in the forest after gathering today’s trash...”

“Got it! Let’s get started!”

We left the dining hall together, and set off to work. Nikki was so enthusiastic to see the wire slime that we finished our trash collection in no time.

We traveled to the woods where we had gathered firewood before, and I summoned the wire slime.

“Huh... It looks the same,” Nikki observed.

“That’s right. It shrunk just a tiny bit, enough that you’d hardly notice it. But now...” I had the slime stretch out an appendage, and it obliged, stretching thin as a wire.

“Interesting... We fed it nets, so can it use that like a net? Can it change how thick or thin it is? How long can it stretch now?”

“Let’s find out.”

I asked the wire slime directly, and it told me that it could adjust the thickness of its wiry appendage, but could stretch it longer the thinner it became. I had already guessed that its volume played a factor in how far the slime could reach. I had it stretch itself in a cylindrical shape, maintaining the same circumference, and it maxed out at forty meters long. I calculated its volume as the cylinder, and its volume in its usual, spherical form; it was basically a match.

That being said, it seemed that its core wasn’t as malleable as the rest of its body, as it had been spherical and bare while it stretched itself as far as possible, save for a thin membrane. The fact that its weak point would be obviously identifiable was an issue I had to keep in mind.

I continued to test if it could form itself to a net-like shape; the slime could stretch any part of itself into wire, and could produce multiple strands at once. It could braid those appendages into rope too. It could still change its form like it used to when it was a metal slime, but it was limited to its wire-form: making itself into barbed or serrated wire.

“That about does it, I think. Now... Nikki, would you like to watch a slime evolve?”

“Sure would! You don’t mind, right?”

“I actually have one type of slime that I can induce to evolve right now.” I produced the slimes that we had caught or were given the other day. “Slimes react to magical energy just like they do to food. By giving it a lot of magical energy of a particular element at once, it will evolve into a slime that uses magic of that element.”

“You did tell me you evolved the magic slimes. Is that how you did it?”

“Call it serendipity. I think their elemental preference depends on their habitat. I almost exclusively found slimes that preferred the earth and dark elements at my home base, and I’ve heard of fire slimes being spotted in volcanic areas. Which brings me to these guys... I tested which element the slimes we caught around here preferred, and most of them like water magic.”

“So they’ll turn into slimes that can use water magic?”

“That’s right. I can provide them with magical energy now, so we should be able to evolve them. I don’t have a water slime yet, so let’s give it a try.”

I shot out water magic from my hand, and placed the first slime to approach me between Nikki and me. Making sure that Nikki was paying close attention, I gently poured water magic into the slime.

“It’s trying to cling to your hand,” Nikki noted.

The slime was stretching towards my hand, trying to absorb the magic I was giving it. Soon enough, the slime seemed to have taken enough magical energy. It reverted to its natural, gelatinous form, and vibrated a few times as if to find the right shape before becoming still again. It started to emit a trace amount of magical energy.

“It stopped moving...” Nikki said. It sounded like he couldn’t sense the magical energy coming from the slime, so I told him as much. “Really... Maybe because I can’t use magic, it just looks like it’s sitting there... What does magical energy look like, Slime Guy?”

“Well... It’s a bit hard to describe... Maybe like a series of waves. There are small waves coming out of the slime, which return to it like a flowing river... It’s also like the slime is breathing in the same air it’s breathing out. It’s not often I get to watch a slime evolve, but other, non-magic-wielding slimes do this circulation of magical energy too. It could be a necessary process to slime evolution.”

“Huh... I see.”

The color of the slime had begun to change, starting with the slightest hue of blue appearing on its translucent body. It slowly and steadily shifted into sky blue, until the circulation of magical energy stopped.

I appraised the slime.

Water Slime

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

“Yeah, it’s definitely evolved,” I noted.

I asked the slime to produce water by magic, and it shot out a stream of water with more force than I had expected; it was almost like a fountain.

“It actually used magic!” Nikki shouted. “What else can it do?”

I had the slime use attack spells like Water Ball, and Nikki applauded in excitement.

After a showcase of the water slime’s spells, he ran all through the woods, catching more slimes for me: fifteen slimes in all.

■ ■ ■

“What’s going on?”

“Seems like there’s info going around.”

Upon returning to the village, Nikki and I noticed that many adults were in discussion with each other out on the streets. Most households should have been preparing dinner at this time of day, but here we were.


“Let’s ask about it,” Nikki said. “Hello!”

“Oh, hello, Nikki, Ryoma. Were you out in the forest again?”

“Yeah, we just got back,” Nikki answered. “What happened?”

“We just received a messenger from the lord. He’s coming to our village tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?! Why so soon?”

“Well...” The lady turned to me. “He wants to see Ryoma.”

“What?! Me?”

“That’s what I heard. I don’t know the whole story... And there should have been a message delivered to Hoy’s place too. But why don’t you see the village leader? He was the one the knight’s messenger went to, so he should be able to fill you in.”

“Thanks, I’ll be sure to stop by.”

I couldn’t think of any reason for me to receive a summons from the lord of the land. I had heard a little bit about him, but there was no reason for him to know about me. It looked like my best bet for answers was the village elder, so I decided to knock on his door before going home and before it got dark. I thanked the woman whom we spoke to, and parted with Nikki along the way.

When I arrived at his residence, I bumped into the village elder, who seemed to have just returned from somewhere.

“Oh, Ryoma. Good timing. I was just at Hoy’s place.”

“About the lord coming to the village tomorrow... I heard a little bit about it, namely that he wants to see me... Do you know why?”

“Surely it’s because of your contribution to the hunt. He’s coming to give us a bit of encouragement, and he wants to see Kai and Kei as well.”

“Thank goodness... I didn’t know why he wanted to see me. For a moment there, I thought I was in trouble or something.”

The village leader laughed. “No need to be too concerned. Our lord is a very kind man. Just act natural, and you’ll get through it just fine.”

“Thanks. Speaking of, I actually have a letter I was given in case I gain an audience with your lord.” The thought just occurred to me; Reinhart, the current duke, had given it to me before I returned to Gimul, in case something happened during my time here. Since I had no plans to see the lord, I didn’t think I’d need it... Good thing I just kept it in the Item Box.

“Hm... Then I shall take it from you just before your meeting.”

“Thank you. I will see you tomorrow.”

“Indeed. Keep up the great work with the hunt, please. And stay warm.”

On my way home, the shrine at the edge of the plaza caught my attention. It held a rock that I took to be a divine statue, greatly worn out from what I assumed was decades of wind and rain.

“Maybe I’ll stop by for a prayer...” Come to think of it, this would be just the second noble I would end up meeting. All of the villagers had painted the lord as a kind man, but he would almost certainly be traveling with some kind of security detail... Standing before the shrine, I clapped my hands together and prayed that all would go well.

Just then, a brilliant white light flooded my eyes. Apparently, I didn’t have to be in a church to be summoned.

■ ■ ■

I suddenly felt a sense of weightlessness. I opened my eyes, surprised by this new method of summoning me, to find a wide expanse before me...

Water!

The instant the realization hit me, I fell straight into the body of water. While I couldn’t tell how far I’d fallen, I didn’t feel much of an impact. But now, the water seemed to cling to me and weighed me down. The surface was fading into the distance...

“Chill out. You can breathe in this stuff. Go ahead, give it a try,” a voice called out, just as I was about to try and crawl towards the air above.

Sure enough, even though it still felt like I was sinking through water, I could breathe just fine. Calming myself, I turned upward towards the voice. There floated a teenager’s silhouette against the bright refraction behind them. The silhouette slid through the water to approach me, where I could finally see them.

“Hello there.”

“Hello. I’m Ryoma Takebayashi... Excuse me for venturing a guess, but are you Serelipta, the god of fishing and ports?”

“Oh? Have we met somewhere before? Sharp boy. I would have thought all the statues of me were butch.”

My guess had apparently hit the mark. Indeed, most myths depicted Serelipta as a butch, stereotypically manly man of the sea. But the god currently addressing me had overgrown hair hiding the right half of his face, and a rather androgynous voice to boot. Even the visible half of his face was as pale as freshly fallen snow, the bags under his eyes detracting further from the mental image of a healthy fisherman.

Serelipta’s flowy layers of fabric concealed most of his stature, but his wrist poking from the fabric was so thin and fragile that it looked breakable. The god was far from a muscular man, and more like a little girl... I didn’t want to be rude, but I couldn’t help but get agoraphobic vibes from him.

“I only guessed who you were because I prayed at a shrine in a fishing village... Plus the whole, you know, falling into the water and stuff.”

“True.” He smirked. “I am the god associated with water, after all.” He continued floating in the water, the edges of his garb fluttering like tail fins. “You don’t have to struggle so much,” he said, laughing. “Just relax, and let yourself float on the water. Much easier that way.”

I did as he instructed, and found myself floating quite comfortably on the surface.

“There you go,” Serelipta said. “And no need for any formalities, by the way... Gain and the others call you here often, don’t they?”

“I enjoy the privilege every once in a while.”

“I usually don’t really talk to humans... But I’ve very much wanted to meet you.”

“Meet me? I’m honored, but why...? Do I amuse you as much as the other gods?”

“Nope. You’re a complete bore to watch.”

“Uh, really...”

“I mean, come on. You’re just living an average life in a fishing village. No monsters attacking you or anything. I could just watch any one of those villagers doing the same crap as you any day... It’s dull, you get me? There’s hardly any drama or conflict. Like, I get it, fighting and adventuring isn’t all life has to offer, but am I really supposed to watch you live out your perfectly normal life without getting bored out of my head?”

“Well...”

“I’m not saying you’re stuck in a rut of doing the same thing constantly or anything, but it’s still pretty monotonous, don’t you think? Can’t you put a little more action in your life every now and then? A little more pizazz?”

“I haven’t been living with the entertainment value of my actions in mind...”

“So I noticed. For a start...”

He continued to lazily, but steadily, criticize me in decidedly cutting terms; all I could do was just listen quietly. Again, I hadn’t really thought about stuff like that during my day-to-day routine, but somehow, this god I’d never met before was giving me serious “editor lecturing an author about every single mistake they make” vibes...



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