The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 6 - Chapter 320

Chapter 320:

Just the Magic Energy!

“I GUESS WE SHOULD just let Sol finish eating first,” Druid said.

“Yeah.”

We kept a cautious eye out as we gathered potions for the slimes. There sure was a remarkable amount of trash.

“Mr. Druid, is there a particular reason why so many adventurers come to this spot?”

“Hang on a second…” Druid opened his map and checked our location. “Huh? I thought this rocky hill was… Yeah, there should be a cave nearby. A famous one, in fact.”

“What? You know this area?”

“Yeah, I think so. That rocky hill over there looks a lot like the one I remember, so I’m pretty sure I’m right.”

Druid was pointing at a large rocky hill. To give you an idea of just how big it was, it sprung up high over the trees.

“So what’s in this famous cave?”

“Lots of monsters that drop rare items. Some of them are easy to kill, but others are quite powerful.”

Rare items…I can see why lots of adventurers come here. Wait, but I don’t sense human auras anywhere near us.

“Do a lot of people still go to that cave? I don’t sense any humans nearby.”

“The monsters only hang around there between the summer and winter. They’re still hibernating this time of year, so that’s why there’s no adventurers.”

So they’re seasonal monsters…I can definitely imagine the cave filled with adventurers when summer rolls around.

“Having said that, I was last here four years ago, and there was no dump then.”

“Oh, huh.”

I looked at the dump. If we didn’t do something about it, it would cause all sorts of problems. But in reality, it was out of our hands. The only option was to put in a report at the next village.

THUD.

“Huh?!”

“What’s that?”

I heard something hit the ground. I looked toward the sound to see a monster I didn’t recognize lying on the turf of the dump. And next to it was…Sol?

“Um…is that you, Sol?”

“Pefu!”

Sol was back to its usual size, which was a relief to see. But for some reason, there were symbols glowing all over its body.

“Mr. Druid…have you seen those symbols before?”

“No, but then again, Sol is also the only black slime I’ve ever seen.”

Yeah, I guess he wouldn’t know what they were, either. But what was that monster lying next to Sol? Since it wasn’t moving, it seemed to be dead…but where had it come from? I looked up to see a clear blue sky unfurling in all directions. Were there monsters that could fly? I’d never heard of any. I looked back at Sol to see that it was bouncing on the fallen monster.

“Sol, do you know what that monster is?”

“Pefu!”

It does know.

“Could it be…?” Druid approached the monster, something piquing his interest. “I thought so. Remember how I said it was wrong to make a dump without permission?”

He’d told me that when we came across a dump on the way to Hatow Village.

“Yeah, you said it’s because some monsters suck up magic energy. And that’s dangerous because the energy can make them go berserk or mutate.”

“Correct. Well, this is the magic-sucking monster I was talking about.”

This is the monster?

“Wait a minute…”

A monster that sucks magic energy? But Sol also eats magic energy at dumps…right? Couldn’t that also be described as sucking magic? Which means…will Sol go berserk or mutate? Since Sora and the others had said Sol was safe, I’d never made the connection that it was a magic-sucking monster.

“Mr. Druid…I just thought of something.”

“What is it?”

“Could Sol go berserk or mutate?”

“What? You mean now?” Druid looked shocked, and I didn’t blame him. We definitely should’ve realized this problem much sooner.

“Yeah, right now. The thought never once crossed my mind before this moment.”

“I wonder if you’re right… Agh, to be honest, I was a little worried about Sol all this time.”

Of course he would worry. The possibility hadn’t even been a blip on my radar, though. For somebody who spends so much time trekking through the forest, I really am way too oblivious of danger. I need to be more careful.

“If Sol keeps eating too much magic energy, it might go berserk or mutate someday,” Druid said.

“So, it is possible.”

“Yeah…watching the way Sol fed itself all this time was really disarming. How do I put it…?”

Ooh, yeah, I get what he’s talking about. Whenever Sol eats magic, it makes a lazy sort of grin. The sight of it would make anybody feel at ease.

“Besides, Sora and the others said Sol was safe,” Druid continued. “Also, slimes aren’t on any lists of monsters that suck up magic energy.”

Did Druid do some research on those monsters after Sol joined our party? If so, he really did some pesky work on my behalf. I definitely need to be more discerning when I add members to our party. Yeah, next time I add someone, I’ll check with Druid first.

“Also, we don’t know for sure whether monsters actually do suck magic energy from dumps.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, scientists have been studying it for years, but there is still so much that’s unknown or purely speculation. There are only two things they know for sure: Some monsters increase their magic energy at dumps, and sometimes this energy makes them go berserk or mutate suddenly.”

But isn’t that more than enough information to draw some conclusions?

“But the most important question is still unanswered: How is magic energy gathered and stored?”

“Huh? But don’t they just suck up the magic?”

“No, we still don’t know how they actually do it. It’s just that most scientists support the magic-sucking theory, so that’s why everyone phrases it that way when they explain the danger of dumps.”

Oh, I see. But there can’t be another way to increase magic energy besides sucking it, can there? Wouldn’t that be the answer we’re looking for?

“Pefu!”

I looked in the direction of Sol’s voice and saw the dead monster.

“So, where did this monster come from anyway?” I still didn’t have an answer to that question.

“I think it was the one Sol ate earlier.”

“What?! Really? You mean the monster that attacked me?”

“Pefu!”

Since Sol spoke…does that mean it really was the monster that attacked me? I approached Druid and looked at the monster’s face. No…that’s not it. “Its face looks completely different…and I think it’s smaller, too.”

“All the overflowing magic energy probably transformed it and made it go berserk,” Druid explained.

The dead monster at our feet looked like a weaker type, but when that monster sprang at me, it was baring its fangs with clear intent to kill. I was terrified. The thought that this monster was the same as the other was unreal. Mutations caused by magic sure were frightening.

“So…would it be right to say that since the magic energy in its body is gone, it went back to its true form?”

That’s correct, isn’t it? If the magic energy inside their bodies was what transformed them, then they would return to their original forms when that energy was taken away. They’d be dead, too, though.

“Yeah, I think you’re right. Why do you ask?”

“In other words, Sol was eating just the magic energy, right?”

When Sol enveloped the monster, it looked like it was eating its whole body, but the corpse we were looking at was not damaged anywhere. That would mean I’d misinterpreted what I saw. It only looked like Sol had eaten the monster because sucking out its magic energy made it return to its original size.

“Yeah…it was just the magic energy.” Druid sounded disappointed.

“So, I was right.” The thought that Sol could eat something other than magic energy had been a fleeting joy. Too bad it wasn’t true.

“Pefu!”

Sol seemed confused by our reactions. Something about its behavior seemed odd, so I gave it a critical stare.

“Mr. Druid…”

“Yeah?”

“The symbols on Sol are gone now.”

“What?!”

Druid took Sol in his hands and looked it over.

“Pefuuu, pefuuu.”

Sol seemed fine, even without the symbols.

“Sol, has your body changed at all?”

Please don’t mutate on me!

“Pefu!”

“I think it’s going to be okay,” Druid said.

I heaved a heavy sigh of relief.