By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 9 - Chapter 7

Chapter 6 Episode 7: A Quick Breather...?

Now that I was officially recognized by the people of this village who had observed our little experiment as the slime freak, everyone called me “slime boy” or “slime kid” as I passed them. Not that I was unhappy with the recognition, but...

“I won’t deny I love slimes, but are they calling me a nerd or something? Here I thought people would be more interested once they got to know what these slimes are capable of... Like, take the poison slime, for example. It’s not just a creature that secretes poison; they can choose not to use their poison and wield, say, spears instead. There are many species of slimes that can be extremely useful in many situations.”

“Normal poison slimes just spit out poison.”

“You just have to put your trust in slimes... Maybe it’s my lack of salesmanship, or my lack of persuasion?”

“I guess...?”

“Most of the villagers would remember them now, Ryoma. It made things easier to get your plan in motion.”

Fair enough. Just as with any group project, any deviation to their norm of mad salamander hunting process was best communicated not only with the leading adventurer, but with people of the village as well. I would have had to teach those responsible for different groups involved in the hunt, but the crowd at the beach who’d witnessed my slimes streamlined the process for me. Furthermore, the only word of caution I received was to make sure the poison slimes didn’t release their toxin.

During tomorrow’s hunt, the defense of the processing station and its surroundings would be entrusted to me, my familiars, and Sikum’s Pier. If all went well, the other adventurers wouldn’t need to concern themselves with defending the processing station during the hunt, allowing them to run around a lot less and concentrate on defending the fish.

The team and I were walking down the street in conversation when Peyron suddenly stopped.

“What’s up?” Thane asked.

“Someone’s calling.” Peyron turned around.

I followed his gaze to see a little boy of about seven or eight running towards us.

“Huh? Is that Nikki?”

“Wait up, Slime Guy!”

“Does he mean me?” I asked, but I didn’t know the boy whom I assumed was Nikki. I took a casual step towards the incoming child.

“Wha—”

“Ryoma, look out!”

“Huh?”

“I got something for ya!” The boy threw something in my direction just as Shin and Kei’s pleas for caution reached my ears.

A small, round, and green object came hurling at me, eight appendages flapping in the air—a muddy, octopus-like creature.

“Huh, what?!” I instinctively caught the flying octopus (or whatever it was), and it spewed ink from its mouth.

“Ugh, little bugger was quicker on the draw...”

“You all right, Ryoma?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“Nikki!”

“You promised not to mess with anyone from outside the village!”

Seeing me doused in ink, the boy high-tailed it out of there.

Someone else shouted, and I turned to find an elderly woman coming around the corner.

“Oh, it’s you, Gran. Been chasing Nikki?”

“So he was here, Kai? I knew it! I’m sorry about your clothes,” she said to me.

I told her it was no problem, and activated Dimension Home. All of the ink on me was swiftly sucked up by a cleaner slime.

“My... That’s very convenient.”

“Don’t you run a laundry shop too, Ryoma?” Thane said.

“I forgot about that. Octo ink shouldn’t be a problem for you.” Peyron smiled.

The tension had lifted, and as I showed the elderly woman how spotless my clothes now were, she seemed to finally show relief.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” she said, “I have to go find that little sod and give him what for. If he comes around again...”

“We’ll hold him down until you come back.”

“Thanks a bunch, Shin... Now, where’d he run off to?” the woman asked.

“That way.” She ran off as soon as Kai pointed her in the direction.

She looked to be of considerable age, so I was a bit concerned about how quickly she ran off.

“Don’t worry about it. Happens all the time.”

Kei explained to me that Nikki was the most mischievous prankster in the entire village. His parents worked during the day, leaving him in the care of retirees... Apparently, he often escaped from his sitter and performed some pranks around the village.

“He usually doesn’t mess with anyone from outside the village.”

“Right, you mentioned something about a promise.”

“Yeah. We drill it into all of our kids not to mess with people coming to our village, not just Nikki. Pranking villagers is one thing.”

“We don’t want them causing trouble for those who came all this way, but we also wouldn’t really know what kind of person they were.”

“Lucky it was you, Ryoma, and you could laugh it off, but if he did that to some nutcase, he could put himself or his friends in danger.”

“The grown-ups try to keep an eye on them, but children need to understand what kind of behavior can be dangerous.”

That seemed like sound parenting advice to me. Then, something wrapped around my wrist.

“What should we do with this?” I asked, realizing that I was still holding the octopus (or just octo, as it was called in this world).

“Mm... You don’t have to give it back to him. Want to eat it?”

“I had a feeling it would be edible,” I remarked.

“We usually boil them. It’s good stuff.”

“I’m feeling kinda peckish myself.”

“Me too. But if all we have is that little one...”

“I have just the thing for that!”

“Just the thing?” the team repeated, and I suggested we return to the house before I explained.

■ ■ ■

When we returned to the kitchen of my new residence, I produced a flat-top grill with rows of round indentations.

“Wow... That’s pretty huge for this kitchen.”

“A magic crystal... Is this a magical item?”

“It is! This is a takoyaki maker I had commissioned a metalworker friend of mine for.”

Once I knew I would be getting loads of clever chicken eggs everyday, I figured I’d have a much bigger repertoire of dishes to cook; this made me want all sorts of new cooking equipment, so I asked the Dinome workshop to make them for me.

The takoyaki maker was just one example. I also had them make imagawayaki molds, an okonomiyaki plate and a yakisoba plate...and that was just my flat-top collection. Considering how excited I was about them, I didn’t mind that they all came industrial-sized; I sketched up a food stand like you’d see at a festival (where such things would commonly be used for commercial purposes in Japan) when describing the equipment to the metalworkers.

“Do you have enough ingredients? You can use anything we have here.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I think I can make do with what I have. I could use something for the broth, though.”

“Broth...? What about these?” Kai produced various dried fish from the pantry. “And this too.”

“What’s in the bottle?” I asked.

“Fish gravy. Made from fish, obviously. We use it in all sorts of dishes.”

“Fish gravy... Maybe it’s— Uh, do you mind if I try some?”

“Sure.”

I opened the bottle, and dripped a small amount onto the back of my hand. It ran more fluidly than I expected, so I quickly licked it off. The taste of salt and concentrated umami seeped into my mouth... It’s fish sauce! Since it didn’t have too much of a bite, and it was easy to cook out the bitterness, I used to use it as a secret ingredient in my cooking all the time. Was this why I kept feeling nostalgic about the soup they were serving me? Whatever it was, the addition of the dried fish and fish sauce would allow me to make something great!

First, I slaughtered the octo and handed it to a cleaner slime to have it get the dirt, ink, and mucus off of the meat. Meanwhile, I began preparing the broth by boiling water. I salted the boiling water, then threw in the cleaned octopus after massaging it thoroughly. I watched as its tentacles curled in and its color turned from green to a vibrant red... Now it looked indistinguishable from an octopus, and perfectly delicious. If only I could get more...

“Can you catch these octo from the lake too?” I asked the team, now relaxing in the living room. “I didn’t see any this morning.”

“What? We catch octo in the forest, not the lake.”

“Oh, the forest... Wait, the forest?!”

“Why so surprised? Where else would you see an octo?”

“They can be on treetops, inside trees, in the mud... Depends on the species, but they’re all on land.”

“I thought you knew, since you seem to know how to cook it.”

“Do you have octo that live in the water in your homeland, Ryoma?”

Apparently the octo was a land animal, unlike the octopus. I suppose they couldn’t have been too similar.

I skewered the octo to confirm it was cooked well enough, and pulled it out of the pot. All I had to do now was chop it up, and make a dough out of an abundance of eggs, flour, wheat starch (which I had sneakily refined with alchemy) and the fish broth!

I started up the magical flat-top and poured the dough into the indents once it was heated up. The only other ingredient would be the octo. I used chopsticks to shape and flip each bubble of dough, ensuring that they were baking fluffy and golden brown.

Once they were completely done, I arranged them on a plate with a side of dipping sauce made from broth, fish sauce, and seasonings.

“Here they are,” I announced. “Akashiyaki!” Albeit with fish sauce and broth in lieu of the usual steak sauce, of course. I was curious how they would turn out when made from this world’s ingredients.

Thane was the first to pick one up. “Hm... It’s very soft. Kind of slime-shaped.” He dipped it in the sauce, and popped it right into his mouth.

“Ooh, that’s good! Super hot, though!”

“Maybe because you dunked it in your mouth in one go... It is really good,” Shin agreed.

“It melts in my mouth... It’s certainly an expansive flavor. Great texture on the octo chunks as well.”

“You hear that, Ryoma? He loves it,” Kai explained. I had been worried since Peyron’s expression didn’t change upon eating one.

“It has a nice flavor to it. These would make a great snack,” Kei noted.

The dish proved popular with the team, as the stack of octo spheres depleted fast. I decided to join them. The umami of the egg, the broth, and the fish sauce made for a gentle flavor and texture that would warm you right up. The perfect snack for a cold day...

“Anyone home?! Kai?! Kei?!” A frantic voice interrupted us just as I began to unwind, accompanied by a loud banging on the door.

As I choked on my food, Kai and Kei shared a look and opened the door to reveal the same elderly woman from earlier. “Kai! Kei! Did you— Is he—”

“Calm down, Gran. Take some deep breaths first.”

“Slow down and tell us what’s wrong.”

“Where’s Nikki? Have you seen him?”

“Not since the last time we saw you.”

“Nope. We didn’t see him on the way home, and he hasn’t been over... What happened?”

The woman took a deep breath, and managed to choke out two words. “He’s gone.”