The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 6 - Chapter 285

Chapter 285:

A Different Kind of Companion

“FOUND YOUUU!”

When my search with Druid yielded no results, we asked Sora and Flame where the black slime was. Sora bounced on top of our travel bag, and one moment later…

“Pu!”

I quickly removed Sora from the bag and checked inside…where I saw the little black slime staring up at me. I guess I should’ve asked Sora first. We would have saved a lot of time.

“Sorry we didn’t get a chance to talk yesterday,” I said.

“Pefu!”

“Can you come out of there for me? Let’s have a chat.”

Unlike Sora and Flame, this little black slime’s body was already quite sturdy. When it came out of the bag, it jumped normally. The only difference was that it was too small to cover much distance. Watching the little thing hop with all its might just made you want to cheer.

“Pefu?” The black slime, now out of the bag, looked up at me.

“I’ve made us some tea. Why don’t we drink it while we talk?” said Druid.

He’d made the tea while I wasn’t looking. I thanked him, then extended my hand to the little black slime. It understood what I wanted and bounced into my palm.

“Thanks,” I said.

“We have plenty of time to talk before we need to go to the dump,” Druid said.

“Okay.”

After setting the black slime onto the table, I sat in a chair and studied it. It seemed quite interested in my cup of tea.

“Be careful, it’s hot.”

It glanced at me for a moment, but its eyes quickly returned to the tea. Then something long and thin squidged out of its body and plopped gently into the tea.

“Peh!”

Guess it was too hot. The slime yanked its appendage out of the tea and flapped it in the air to cool it off. I was worried it had burned itself, but I was even more concerned about the thing it was waving around.

“Is that…an arm?” I wondered.

“Or maybe…a tentacle?” Druid speculated.

But slimes don’t have arms or tentacles, right? Wait, do they?

“Mr. Druid, do you know of any types of slimes that have tentacles?”

“Umm…I feel like I read something a long time ago about slimes with tentacles…”

A long time ago?

“Might I ask how big those slimes were?”

“I don’t remember that much. I wasn’t all that interested in slimes back then.”

Too bad. But there’s an old record about it, eh? I wonder if we can research this slime somewhere. Well, anyway, this slime is definitely rare. Especially with the tentacles.

“Um…are you okay?” I asked it.

“Pefu!”

Huh? I stared hard at the black slime. It was missing something that Sora and Flame had.

“It doesn’t have a taming symbol.”

“Of course it doesn’t. You haven’t tamed it yet.”

“Hm?”

“Huh?!”

Oh, right. I don’t think I’ve told him yet. “Um, so I think this slime is probably Flame’s baby.”

“Really? You mean the same way Sora gave birth to Flame?”

“Probably, yes. I can tell because Flame’s black stain is gone now.”

“Pefu!” the black slime answered me. It looked quite pleased with itself.

“Is that the slime’s way of saying you’re right?”

“Yeah, I think it is.”

“Wow. So you’re that black stain on Flame…” Druid leaned in close to get a good look at the black slime. Then he looked at Flame, who was asleep on the bed. “How do you think the black stain turned into a slime?”

“I dunno… I never really thought about it. I just figured that was how it’s done.”

After Sora split in two and Flame was born, I simply assumed that was how slimes reproduced. I remember being startled when I told Druid my theory and he said I was wrong… Well, let’s get back on topic.

“So anyway, Flame already had the taming symbol when it was born.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. So I just assumed that a tamed slime’s symbol would be passed down naturally when it gave birth…”

I checked over the black slime again and again, and still no taming symbol.

“You’re right, I don’t see a symbol. Maybe because it’s second generation?”

Aha…that’s definitely possible. To test that theory, we’d have to make Flame have another… No, let’s drop that thought.

“So, little black slime…is it okay if I tame you?”

It stared back blankly in response.

Does that mean no? If it would rather be independent, I’m fine with that.

“I don’t think it wants to be tamed,” I said.

“Are you okay with that?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I mean, couldn’t you just tame it by force?”

“Why would I ever do that?”

If I forcibly tamed that slime, I didn’t think we could share the same connection that I had with Sora and my other creatures. And anyway, I didn’t have enough magic to do it.

“Well, I guess that is something you’d say, Ivy.”

I gave Druid a funny look, then turned back to the black slime and said, “Would you like us to set you free in the forest?”

Another blank stare.

Huh? It doesn’t want that, either?

“Would you rather stay with us?”

“Pefu!”

“Umm… So, do you want to travel with us, too?”

“Pefu!”

It didn’t want to be tamed, but it did want to travel with us. It seemed like we’d just made a different kind of friend. Oh, right, if we’re going to be travel companions, we’ll need to give it a name.

“Is it all right if I give you a name?”

“Pefu!”

Ooh, it’s okay with that!

“Mr. Druid, can you help me think of a name?”

“That’s our Ivy being Ivy.”

I’m being me? Um, isn’t that redundant?

“C’mon, don’t make that weird face. I meant that you’re very kind.”

“Am I?”

Druid called me things like “kind” and “gentle” and “sweet” a lot…but all of those words applied to him, too.

“A name for the black slime… I wonder what would be good?”

I looked at the black slime, which was reaching its tentacle into the tea again. It was cooler now, so I didn’t have to worry about it getting burned. Does it like water? Stop that, Ivy, you need to think of a name. Umm, black, black… Blackie? I’m sure that came from Past Me’s memories. I dunno, I don’t think I really like that name… The only other one I can think of is “Sol.” What does that mean again…? Earth? Sun? Since it came from the memories of my past life, it was all a little hazy. But Sol…huh… I think Earth or Sun would work… A slime that fits in the palm of my hand named Earth? Or Sun? You know, I think I like it.

“What do you think of Sol? I think it means either Earth or Sun.”

“Sol? Earth? Sun? Oh, are those from your past life memories?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s quite a name for such a tiny slime.”

“I know, but what do you think of Sol as a name?”

“Pefu!” it jiggled, waving its wet tentacle around.

“Agh!”

“No! Don’t flap at us!”

“Peh?”

“The liquid on your tentacles gets everywhere, so don’t flap them when they’re wet, okay?”

“Um, Ivy, don’t you think you shouldn’t let it put its tentacles in your tea in the first place?”

“Er…heh heh heh!”

He’s right. He’s absolutely right.

“Anyway, since you like the name, welcome to the family, Sol!”

“Glad to have you with us, Sol,” Druid added.

“Pefu!” Sol raised a tentacle straight and high. I got the sense it was giving us a very favorable answer.

“Sol, I also don’t want you putting your tentacles in my tea, okay?”

There was that blank stare again.

“I don’t think it’ll go along with that one.”

“It didn’t have to get so upset about it. You know, Sol has quite the range of expressions.”

“It sure does. Hey, Sol, are you going to grow at all?”

Sol had nothing to say to that, either.

Since it didn’t answer, I guess that means it’s already fully grown. We’ll have to be careful not to lose track of it; it could easily worm its way into all sorts of hard-to-reach places. And there’s one more thing…

“What do you eat, Sol? Potions?” I’d never seen black potions before.

Silence.

“You don’t eat those?”

I guess we’ll have to show it a lot of different pieces of trash at the dump and see how it reacts. I suggested a bunch of items but got no reaction to any of them.

“What do you eat?” Druid was starting to look worried.

“You do need to eat, right?”

“Pefu!”

Since nothing was coming to mind, I confirmed that it needed to eat in the first place. And it answered that it did, though I guess I should have known that.

“Oh dear. What should we do, Mr. Druid? Can you think of anything else?”

Druid heaved an exasperated sigh. “Let’s just go to the dump and see what Sol does.”

Yeahhh…I guess we’ll have to go with that. Gee, I’m thirsty.

“Oh, Ivy, look! Your tea!”

“Agh! It’s all gone!”

Sol had drunk up all the tea. Oh well…I think it’ll be okay.