The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 1 - Chapter 22

Chapter 22:

Actually a Big Eater

WITH MY newfound riches in hand, I raced back to the place I’d been sleeping. I had five whole gidal now! What luck!

But this was due to that explosion in the snake monster population, and I’d have to deal with that on my way to the next village. At least I could sleep contentedly tonight.

I placed Sora at the base of a tree and hemmed it in with magic bag handles. Otherwise, Sora just ended up rolling away by the time I got back. Once it had really surprised me with just how far it rolled! To keep my friend from getting blown away by a strong wind, I’d come up with this little wall of magic bag handles. Even if Sora hadn’t died within a day, I still worried about it. And man, it sure did eat a lot.

Yesterday, I found a ton of potions people had tossed out. The blue ones alone had totaled fifty-eight. Some kids must have been learning to make them, churning out one after the other to polish their skills. You could tell someone was practicing because the potions were in simple bottles instead of proper containers. I’d thought of giving them to Sora, but that might’ve been risky. It was a different kind of container than usual, after all.

There were three types of common potion containers, from first-class to third-class. They differed in translucence and thickness. First-class containers were made from uniform glass, so light entered them in a predictable way.

How light entered was important. If the glass wasn’t uniform, the potions would expire faster. If you’re not a master potion-maker, though, you’d usually use third-class containers.

People who didn’t consistently make quality potions were recommended first-class containers to extend the life of their products. Still, since they were going to expire faster either way, they would have to be sold as inferior goods. The cost of the containers resulted in a net loss, so most people didn’t use first-class containers at all. These days, first-class containers were the mark of an expensive product.

In the training stage, people just used common bottles to see how quickly their potions would expire. If they lasted long enough, they’d move on to use proper containers that could be sold. These kinds of discarded potions were from that training stage.

I studied the bottles. What made proper containers different, anyway, apart from the shape? Did it make them…bubble…differently? Or something? As I sat there all puzzled, Sora rolled over and devoured one of the potions.

It was a crazy sight no matter how many times I saw it. The bottles of blue potions fizzled and disappeared inside Sora.

“I guess training bottles are fine, too?” With that figured out, I decided to give Sora as many as it wanted. Soon enough, the whole pile of potions was gone! Jeez, to think it could eat fifty-eight in one sitting…

I’d read about slime ecology, but all the book said was that their standard intake “depended on the individual,” which wasn’t much help. Maybe Sora was eating a lot, or maybe Sora was just eating a normal amount. Still, the slime was only a little bigger than one of my hands, so I couldn’t help but see it as a huge eater.

Training bottles were fine, right? Hmm…what would happen if I found an empty one and put it in front of the slime? I gave it a go, but Sora didn’t react at all. I guessed it needed to have a potion inside.

What do I do? How am I supposed to get enough potions?