The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 6 - Chapter 293

Chapter 293:

Land Management

“YOUR SLIME eats magic?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Rose stared critically at Sol, the tiny black slime sitting in front of her. “Um…I don’t see a taming symbol.”

“Sol didn’t want to be tamed, so I didn’t do it,” I explained.

“You didn’t tame it…yet it doesn’t attack humans? And you named it, too?”

Huh?! Why would Sol attack people? And why wouldn’t I name it? “Oh, of course! Slimes are monsters, huh?”

It took a comment from Rose to make me remember that slimes were monsters and that they attacked people, too. After I met Sora, I’d completely forgotten about that.

“So, um…about my slime, Sol. It’s really smart, so it doesn’t want to hurt humans. And I named it Sol because it wanted me to.”

It was natural for monsters of low intelligence to attack humans. Slimes were no different; the wild ones you encountered in the forest lacked brainpower and fought humans on sight. However, slimes were so weak that it was easy to kill them with a little magic. Since I couldn’t use magic, I used to run and hide from slimes whenever I came across them at the start of my travels. And now that I think about it, I haven’t met many slimes since I tamed Sora. I wonder why that is?

“Okay, now I see. Sol is a lovely name. It has a nice ring to it.”

“Pefu!” Sol squeaked and jiggled happily in reply.

“Ivy…your friends all have very unique ways of talking.”

I wish you wouldn’t remind me, ma’am. It’s not like that’s why I’ve been gathering them.

“Pefu! Pefu!”

“Hm? Did I make ya angry, hon? Sorry about that; I wasn’t making fun. I think the way ya talk is really cute.”

“Pefuuu!”

“Ha ha ha! Yeah, ya are a smart little bugger. Well, all of Ivy’s monster friends are pretty brainy, so one more smart slime fits right in.”

That was true: I could carry on conversations with Flame and Sora with no problems. I remembered Druid being surprised by that when we first met. I see…so being able to talk with your tamed creatures must be rare. Since I’ve been carrying on all this time like it’s normal, I’ve gradually forgotten that my situation is anything but ordinary. Not only were the things my slimes digested abnormal; the way they communicated was abnormal, too. I would have to try extra hard to remember that.

“Well, eating magic is weird as it is, but that coloring is odd, too. If ya look closer, you’ll see it’s not all black. It looks half-transparent to me, maybe?”

Rose was right. At a glance, Sol looked black, but you could see it was partially transparent on closer examination. Just like Sora and Flame, its body was a bit see-through.

“And you’re quite tiny, aren’t ya? Are ya gonna grow any bigger, hon?”

“No, ma’am, it says it’s already fully grown.”

“Okay. Wow, I didn’t know slimes could be so teeny. You’d better be careful nobody else sees it, hon.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Oh dear. She sounded quite earnest there.

“So, y’all were looking for an item that can collect, store, and release magic energy at will, right?”

“Yes, ma’am. Do you have anything like that?” Druid asked.

A troubled look filled Rose’s face. “If we did, I wouldn’t sell it. That’s an item for land management.”

Land management?

“Collecting magic is a very dangerous endeavor. Magic energy tends to lose control when ya gather it up.”

Druid sighed, “Yeah, that’s what we were worried about.” It sounded like he’d already been thinking about that problem.

“Magic energy loses control, ma’am?”

“Yeah, magic energies get unstable when they collide. There’re records of a village that once got completely destroyed because magic energy went out of control there. That’s why they’ve got such strict rules about magic items that collect energy. I hear most of them are kept locked up.”

It doesn’t sound like we can rely on a magic item. I guess we’ll have to find a different way.

“But my goodness, what a fine kettle of fish. Magic energy, indeed!”

It was nice to have Rose struggling right along with us, but no solutions were coming to mind yet. It looked like we’d just have to suck it up and go to the dump regularly. We handed her the day’s magic stones, thanked her, and started back to the inn.

“We’ll just have to keep going to the dump until the forest gets too snowed over,” Druid said.

“Yeah, we’ll make it work.”

“Maybe when we get back to the inn, we should talk with Sol about what we should do when we can’t go there anymore.”

“Uh-huh, we should definitely figure out those details,” I agreed. “I don’t want to make the poor thing go hungry.”

If we can’t find a way to store food for Sol, will it decide to go live in the forest? If it’s what Sol wants, I’d love to let it have its way…but I would be so worried. Then again, if I can’t feed it, we’ll have no other choice.

“Aha! There you are! Mr. Druid! Miss Ivy!”

When we arrived at the inn’s steps, we heard a voice call out. We turned to see Guild Master Priya waving and running over to us.

“Good evening, sir,” we both said.

“Good evening. Sorry, can I have a word with you both for a minute?”

That confused me. Priya was the head of the guild. If he wanted to speak with us, he could just send word and we would come see him. Why had he come out personally like this? We might not have even been at the inn.

“Should we head over to the guild?” Druid asked.

“Oh, no need. So, um…are you planning on going into the forest tomorrow?”

Tomorrow? We were thinking we’d go to the dump to feed Sol, but why is he asking?

“Yes, we are…why do you ask?” Druid sounded just as confused as I was.

“Might I join you? If possible, I would like to borrow Ciel the Great.”

Ciel the Great…? When did he start calling my creature that?

“Sure. Would you like to talk more about this in our room?” Druid suggested.

Priya nodded. “Oh, could I? I wouldn’t want to impose.”

For some reason, there was a huge smile on Priya’s face.

“No problem. It’s all right with you, too, Ivy?”

“Yeah. We should take as long as we need to talk it over.”

I was curious to know why he was calling Ciel “the Great” and why he wanted to come into the forest with us, and those questions couldn’t easily be answered standing out in the open.

“Thank you very much,” Priya said.

His gratitude made me pause for a second. What was it? There was something different about him, like a heavy burden had just been lifted off his shoulders. Had something happened to him? While these questions swam in my mind, the three of us walked into the inn. Dola also looked surprised to see us.

“First the captain of the watch, now the guild master?” he asked.

That’s right, Captain Tableau was here to see us earlier.

Druid smiled awkwardly at Dola.

“So sorry to be a bother.” Guild Master Priya bowed to Dola. “I have a matter to discuss with them.”

“Oh, it’s not a bother at all. Er, would you like to have dinner here, Guild Master?”

“I’d like to, but I have some tasks to attend to.”

He had taken time out of his busy schedule to see us, apparently.

“Okay, then.”

We took some freshly baked sweets from Salifa up to our room. When we entered, Priya took an excited look around. I can just feel the giddiness wafting from you, sir… What’s up?

“Please, have a seat. I’ll go make us some tea,” I said.

“Thank you very much.”

Since Priya already knew about my creatures, I let them out of their bag. I took Sol out last of all and then tossed the dirty drool towel into the laundry basket.

“Huh? Who’s that?”

“Agh!” Druid and I gasped.

I messed up. I forgot he didn’t know about Sol.

“Um, it’s the newest addition to our party. Its name is Sol.”

“A black slime, I see. And quite small, too. Is it a baby?”

“No, sir. It’s an adult.”

“Ah… I see.”

Priya stared hard at Sol. It worried me a little, but I got the tea and set it on the table.

“Thanks. So, I see it doesn’t have a taming symbol…”

“Yes, um, we talked it over, and I decided not to tame it.”

“You talked it over… I see… Well, that does sound like you, Ivy.”

Huh? Why are his eyes sparkling like that? I looked at Druid, confused by this new side of the guild master. He took one look at Priya and laughed. I wonder why…