The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 3 - Chapter 169

Chapter 169:

Restrictions?

SORA KEPT EATING every sword Druid fed it. To be honest, its appetite tugged at my conscience a little. It had just polished off its eighth sword.

“Wow, Sora really did eat every kind of magic stone.” Druid’s voice was filled with awe, but there was a hint of concern in his face. As I sat there watching Sora eat, Druid turned that concerned expression on me.

Druid picked up the last sword left from the pile he’d gathered. I could tell just by looking that it was different from the rest. “This is a true sword. I didn’t think I’d actually find one here.”

Druid removed the sword from its sheath. A flowing design danced along the naked blade. I was entranced by the beautiful curves.

“It’s so pretty.”

“I know, right? True swords are very beautiful.”

“Why would anyone throw a true sword in the dump?”

I looked closer at the blade and noticed it was a bit chipped. Was that why it was thrown out? But why? A blacksmith could have easily repaired it. What a waste.

“If your sword deteriorates a little from neglecting proper maintenance, you can have a blacksmith repair it, but it will be more expensive than the first upgrade. Most people either have a new sword forged or have a dropped one upgraded. Well, if you ask me, since you’re putting all that money into your sword in the first place, you should just take good care of it. If you do, your sword will never chip.”

Druid sounded a bit frustrated. It certainly sounded like a waste of time and money. If I had a sword, I know I’d take very good care of it. Money is important!

“After watching Sora chow down on those other swords, I really want to see if it’ll eat this one.”

I looked at Sora, who seemed pretty content from its long meal. But even after devouring most of Druid’s pile, it was still staring eagerly at the true sword in his hand. I think we already had our answer…

“If you don’t give Sora that sword, it’ll probably attack you.”

“True. That stare is really something.”

Druid and I exchanged smirks. Then Druid handed Sora the final sword.

“Kyu-shuwaaa, kyu-shuwawaaa, kyu-shuwaaa, kyu-shuwawaaa.”

“Wow,” said Druid, a little breathlessly. “Sora’s eating it. A slime is eating a true sword…and so quickly, too. This is rarer than rare, you know?”

“Are you sure there aren’t any other slimes who eat true swords?”

“Come to think of it, maybe they do exist. Now I remember hearing of them, but they’re quite rare.”

Something about Druid’s dreamy gaze was comical. As I held in my chuckles, the true sword gradually disappeared into Sora.

“Pu! Pu, puuu, pu, pu! Pu, puuu.”

Sora was in a buoyant mood. It bounced all the way over to Ciel, then jumped onto the adandara’s belly and jiggled excitedly, like it was trying to share its joy. It was a wholesome scene—but it was slightly eclipsed by the monumental fact that Sora had just eaten a true sword. A memory from Past Me’s consciousness had been making me feel like something was strange here for quite a while now. I guess now was a good time to bring it up?

“Um…may I ask you a question?”

“Sure, what’s up?”

“Do people ever reuse old plates and bottles and stuff?”

“Some towns do.”

“Huh?! Really?”

“Yeah, but you need someone with a scrapping skill to return the items to their elements first, so it takes quite a while.”

Huh? You need to turn them into scraps first?

“Then, if you want to turn the scrapped materials back into usable products, you need skills like carpentry, masonry, or glasswork—and you need at least three stars in those skills.”

Finding people with so many stars sounded like a huge undertaking. But why were there such restrictions on it? Why did you need at least three stars in a scrapping skill? It was almost like whoever made these rules didn’t want people to recycle anything.

“Besides, monsters drop all sorts of materials that you can turn into items with just two stars. I guess that’s why, as a society, we tend to throw things away the minute they break.”

“But the dumps are getting bigger and bigger, and that’s a problem.”

“Yeah, the slimes can’t keep up with all the trash. In the capital, they’re trying to recycle items more, but it’s pretty difficult to assemble enough people for the job. Remember, you need someone with a scrapping skill and someone with three stars or more in item-crafting skills. That’s why the dumps just keep growing.”

It did make sense. “Can’t people without the scrapping skill dismantle trash?”

“When they do, it just makes a bunch of tiny pieces of trash. And if the trash is broken up too much, crafters can no longer fix it. They’re doing a lot of research in the capital, but I’m not sure how that’s going. We never get any news out here.”

Now that was interesting.

“Come to think of it, someone in the capital did find a way for people without crafting skills to make bottles a while ago.”

“Huh? You can make bottles without a skill?”

“Apparently, yes. But all the bottles they made cracked after only a week, so they were no good for practical use.”

If they figured that out, I guess they’re doing a lot of research.

“Well, wooden things like chests of drawers can be crafted without a skill. And you can always chop them into firewood when they break.”

Yeah, you wouldn’t need a skill for that.

“But if there were more slimes like Sora, this wouldn’t even be a problem.”

It was true. Slimes like Sora could do a lot of good for the world. Even Sora alone could greatly shrink the mountains of old swords along our travel route.

“Isn’t there a repairing skill or something?”

“A repairing skill? You mean a skill to repair magic tools?”

A skill to repair magic tools? “I don’t know what that is, but couldn’t somebody use that skill to repair items?”

“Hmm…I’ve never heard of that. Repairing skills are pretty rare.”

Oh, so they’re rare. I guess that won’t work, then. Suddenly I had another thought. “We rely on skills way too much.”

“You can say that again. Some people even go around saying skills are the only things of any worth.”

“Really? That’s…a pretty dangerous way of thinking.”

If this world turned into a place where only skills were valued, your skill would basically determine your job and the whole course of your life. People with many stars could thrive with minimal effort, and people with very few stars would probably lose their motivation to try.

“Does it scare you?”

“Yes. I’m scared of a world where people’s lives are ruled by skills. In a world like that, people would have no free will.”

“You’re right, it would come down to that.”

“Besides, if skills determined everything, don’t you think someone like me who could tame a high-level adandara and a super-rare slime would have more stars? But look at the facts: I have zero stars, less than anybody. So, in other words, I’m living proof that skills aren’t everything.”

“Pfft! You really are, yes. You are the walking proof that skills are not absolute.”

“Ha ha ha ha! I sure am.”

Since I had memories of living in a world different from this one, something about this society ruled by skills and stars always seemed amiss to me. I felt like everyone was being forced onto certain paths in life just because of the skills they were born with.

But since I also lived in this world, I felt that the world in my past life was strange, too. It was strange to have nothing decided for you. It made me wonder how all the people in my past life managed to find jobs that were right for them. In this world, you knew there was a perfect job out there for your skill. That meant everyone was guaranteed a work that suited them. Sometimes there were more skilled people than jobs to go around, and people were asked to migrate to other towns or villages, but they would still be able to find work.

And since all of this was common knowledge in this world, nobody felt anything was weird about it. It was just the way things were. Even if it seemed strange to Past Me, it was normal here. And in the same way, Past Me’s world felt normal to its inhabitants, even though it felt strange to Current Me.

“Okay…” Druid paused thoughtfully. “Now that Sora’s gotten even more important, what should we do?”

“What do you think we should do?”

“Keep it a secret for now, I guess.”

That was probably for the best. As far as I could tell, this was not something we should tell just anybody. “Yet another secret to add to Sora’s stack.”

“It seems like it just keeps growing. Well, don’t worry, I’ll help you keep all those secrets.”

I nodded gratefully to Druid. “Thank you.”

Without Druid, I never would have learned about true swords and multi-swords. I looked at Sora, who was staring at the dump again. It couldn’t still be hungry…

“I kind of want to see how many swords Sora can eat in one sitting,” Druid mused.

I quipped back, “You wanna see, my foot!” Ack! I just said something weird.

“Huh? I don’t want to see your foot! Pfft! Hee hee hee.”

“I just said the wrong word. I meant please don’t keep feeding it!”

I was so embarrassed. I covered my face with my hands…it felt hot. I’m sure I was bright red, too.