Chapter 200: An Unexpected Evolution (3/3)
Sixth day
Another rest day for fishing and hunting.
After coming back from my morning jog, I saw people bringing their trash to the to the part of the square that was temporarily being used to hold my garbage. The villagers were already using it as if it were perfectly natural.
I greeted the people bringing their trash with them and asked why they were giving all of these to me, and they laughed, saying that there was a huge cleanup at the end of the year anyway, so they might as well just give their garbage to me to deal with.
“With this we can just pick out what we need and randomly throw the rest away. We couldn’t do this if your methods polluted the sea, but I guess there’s nothing to fear in that regard!”
—Someone said jokingly, but the adults weren’t really laughing.
I’m glad they’re able to dispose their trash properly. I think I’ll continue to take care of their trash from here on out too.
Moreover, other than the feeds, the village headman also gave me pots with slime inside as thanks. 20 slimes all in all.
According to the village headman, I was a huge help in subjugating the mud salamanders, disposing their trash, and gathering firewood. The subjugation of the mud salamanders was properly compensated for, but disposing the trash and gathering the firewood wasn’t. As expected, they couldn’t be at ease just repaying my work by just giving me their trash and leftovers.
Personally, I’m glad just to have their trash and leftovers, but the village headman probably didn’t want to leave debts even in the smallest things. I gratefully accepted the slimes.
By the way, the reason the village headman compensated me with slimes is because when he was thinking of how to thank me Niki-kun said, ‘if it’s onii-san you’re talking about, then you should give him slimes!’
Niki-kun sure understands me.
After the village headman was able to thank me, he left feeling relieved.
Seventh day.
After repeatedly teleporting the corpses with my dimension magic, I’ve finally developed a knack for the skill.
I haven’t gotten any hard data, but I think I’m a lot more efficient now at teleporting multiple targets simultaneously.
At noon my occupation changes from an adventurer to a garbage collector.
I went around the village collecting garbage from the elderly who couldn’t carry the heavy ones.
I made full use of my Dimension Magic too, so it made for good training.
I managed to catch four slimes today and got 8 slimes as tip for my garbage collection services.
The days passed by like that until finally reaching present time.
Before me is the miracle of one week.
No, it’s the favor of the villagers and the fruit of continuously collecting garbage – two slimes.
That’s right. In just one week, two of my slimes evolved into two new variants.
One of the two slimes was the metal slime that ate nets.
It hasn’t changed much on the surface, but its body has shrunk a little.
But what about its skill and abilities?
“… Monster Identify.” [Ryouma]
‘Wire Slime’
Skill: Harden Lv3, Expansion and Contraction Lv3, Physical Attack Resist Lv2, High-Speed Movement Lv3, Digest Lv3, Absorb Lv3, Skill Lv2
“Wire, in other words, a thread of metal… So I guess that means it didn’t really want the net itself but rather the ‘thread’ that made it. It has mostly the same skillset as the metal slime. Just one skill was added to it – Expansion and Contraction. But it’s been able to transform into weapons all this time and it could expand and contract too…” [Ryouma]
I had it try the new skill out, and the wire slime extended a part of its body. I thought it was just going to extend a part of its body like a tentacle as usual, but it extended it like a thread instead!
“1m, 2m… You can extend it even further?” [Ryouma]
…Looks like this is still far from its limits. As I watched it move fervently in an attempt to show off, I noted that the extended thread was the same as the tentacle – No. It’s not exactly the same, the thread is thinner and lighter, and the slime can move it more freely.
I had the slime extend it for a while, and the slime’s main body shrunk. Is the range limited by the volume of the wire slime? …I’ll research that later. Anyhow, this one seems to have a lot of uses. A very useful slime indeed!
“As for the other one… Yeah, it’s ‘that’. I’ve never seen one so big, though.” [Ryouma]
The other slime was the one that loved to eat egg and seashells. The ex-acid-slime.
I thought the common point between the two feeds would be the calcium carbonate, but the actual result turned out to be something completely unexpected.
The slime’s new body was milky-white with a unique luster and dazzled magnificently under light.
‘Pearl Slime’
Skill: Refine Protective Body Liquid Lv3, Coating Lv3, Crystallization Lv3, Digest Lv3, Absorb Lv3, Split Lv2
“I knew it! It’s a pearl.”
But why would acid turn into a pearl? …It ate seashells, but those weren’t pearl oysters… Ah, but I guess those shells had nacre inside.
There were various kinds of shells, weren’t there? And the main ingredient of pearl is calcium carbonate. When I think of it that way, I guess it’s still within expectations… Hmm? A former acid slime fed on seashells and eggs… Hmm? Acid and egg? Vinegar…
You can make mayonnaise with vinegar and egg. Mayonnaise and pearl… If I think of it that way, then I think I might have an idea how this happened. In the past, there was a very similar chemical experiment called Mayonnaise Pearl.
But as much as I’m curious how things ended up like this, there’s a bigger problem right now.
In the middle ages of Earth, the technology to cultivate pearls didn’t exist, so people had to catch wild pearl oysters from under the sea. And even then tens of thousands of pearl oysters would only net a paltry amount of pearl, which caused pearl to become really expensive. This was written in a light novel I read before.
I don’t know how much pearl goes for in this country and this world, but it’s a precious resource in pharmaceutics and it’s not that well known in society, so it should be fairly expensive.
The pearl slime looks like a giant pearl, so just that alone should fetch it a good price, but… Refine Protective Body Liquid, Coating, Crystallization… From the sound of these skills, this slime can probably create more pearls.
It’s just a possibility right now, but what if it is possible?
Pearl Slime. A slime that looks like an expensive pearl and can create pearls.
Considering its value, it wouldn’t be strange if people set its sights on it.
It would be better not to show it to others or talk about it.
But…
“What should I tell Niki-kun?” [Ryouma]
He’s been enjoying himself feeding the slimes everyday, so he knows that I’ve been feeding an acid slime egg and seashells… What to do?
“Ryouma? Are you still asleep?” [???]
“!!” [Ryouma]
That surprised me… It’s Kai-san.
“I’m awake.” [Ryouma]
“I see. It’s time for breakfast already.”
“Thank you, I’ll be right there!”
Before I knew it, it was already that time.
…For the mean time, I better go have my breakfast…