Volume 3 Chapter 114: Searching the Forest I (2/2)
When we reported the strange situation of the forest to the receptionist girl, erm⊠woman would be better fit I suppose given she was a bit old⊠But anyway, she made a mysterious face and said this.
âI see⊠Thank you very much. Actually, there were others who came before you who reported that the forest was acting strange. Weâre actually in the middle of sending people deep into the forest to investigate.â [Receptionist Woman]
âI see. Do you have any idea what could be causing this outbreak, de aru?â [Raypin]
âThereâs a possibility than an Elder Treant may have been born. Treants are always being born at that forest, and once every few years to a decade or so, we get a report of one being sighted.â [Receptionist Woman]
âSo that really is the case⊠Would it be a problem if we entered the forest?ăRegulation-wise, de aru.â [Raypin]
âFeel free to enter it as you please. There wonât be any problems so long as youâre A Rank or B Rank.â [Receptionist Woman]
Iâm an E Rank, but Iâll just keep quiet, I think. Besides, it doesnât seem like she plans on stopping just me from entering the forest. And as far as the woman was concerned, since we were going to the forest anyway, we might as well take a subjugation job.
Adventurers could accept multiple jobs at the same time. Taking one job and then another job on top of that that could be done within the vicinity of the first job to increase oneâs income is common among adventurers that have the effort to spare.
In this case, we can pick up a hunting job and be compensated for hunting the treants, and at the same time, we can also collect them and bring them back to Gimuru with us, allowing us to be paid a second time for a collection job. The only objective of the job here is to defeat treants, while the objective of the job from Gimuru is to gather treant lumber, so doing both at the same time wonât cost us any extra effort, while giving us double benefits. We can complete the job if we just hunt treants like we did today.
Like this we gathered information and also picked up a treant subjugation job.
The next time we enter the forest will be tomorrow, so Iâm free until then.
âI donât have any plans, so now I have a lot of free time on my hands.â [Ryouma]
It would be a waste to just kill time, so I entered my Dimension Home and trained with the slimes.
Today Iâll be training the spear with the poison slimes.
As I set my mind on that, some 10 minutes later, an idea suddenly came to mind.
What would happen if I gave Melzenâs spear to the poison slime?
That spear rotting in my Item Box. It might be a bit heavy, but surely even the poison slime should be able to use it as a spear. But I wonder if they could use it as a magic weapon.ăâŠI know now that when a slime evolves, it releases mana, but can it only release mana during evolution?ăOr can they do it anytime they want?
Curious. I have to test it.
I called over a poison slime and ordered it to release mana. When I did, it readily released mana. This might actually work!
Now that itâs come to this, I quickly took out Melzenâs Spear from my Item Box.
I ordered the poison slime to hold it and infuse it with its mana. The next moment, fire shot out of the end of the spear.
â!ăIt worked!ăCan you swing the spear?â [Ryouma]
The poison slime handled the spear in front of me. As expected, because the spear was heavy, its movements were slower than usual, but⊠It can definitely use the spear. But as the slime continued to show off its skill with the spear, it gradually grew slower and slower.
âItâs tired? Normally, I can never notice it when theyâre exhausted. Maybe itâs out of mana?â [Ryouma]
I better put a stop to this.
But just as as I was thinking that. The poison slime dropped the spear and its body shrunk.
âWhat happened!?â [Ryouma]
I ran over to the slime and examined it, but its life didnât seem to be in danger. It was still somewhat weakened, though. Itâs now about half the size of a normal poison slime and its movements are dull. âŠFor the meantime, I fed it poison-type mana while looking after it.
âI doubt itâs because of the Shrink skill that it became smaller. After all, the poison slime doesnât know that skill.â [Ryouma]
I used monster identify on it, and just as I thought, it didnât have the Shrink skill. Then why?ăIs it because I made it use mana?ăâŠI canât think of any other reason, but then why would its body shrink when it uses mana?
âBody⊠Mana⊠Could it be, it used its own body?â [Ryouma]
I donât have any proof, but is it possible that slime bodies are made out of mana?ăWith that I found an explanation on why the slime shrunk after using mana. I canât think of any reason other than that.
But mana is neither something that could be seen nor touched like a slimeâs body. The slimeâs body being mana might be able to provide an explanation for the phenomenon, butâŠ
ââŠNo. Letâs put this matter away for now.â [Ryouma]
For the meantime, Iâll just accept the hypothesis that slime bodies are made out of mana. Iâll reconsider it after talking to Raypin-san.
When supper came, I asked Raypin-san, but he said he didnât know either.
In the first place, there were barely anyone in the world who would give something as expensive as a magic weapon to a slime, so actually, just the fact that the slimes could even release mana was a shock to Raypin-san.
In the end, however, the conclusion he came to was that it was possible. Monsters contained more mana within their bodies than normal animals, and even monsters that couldnât use magic were no exception. As such, the slimes being able to use mana wasnât anything surprising.
But the argument that the slimeâs body itself is mana, which would be why they shrunk after using mana, wouldnât be able to hold for cases like the earth slime or the heal slime since they always use mana but donât shrink.
More research is neededâŠ
The next day.
Weâre hunting and gathering treants today too.
Still, there sure are a lot of treants. Weâve been taking turns taking breaks from hunting from morning until noon, and weâve already gathered approximately 600 treant lumber.
âMy Dimension Home is going to be full soon, de aru. I think we should end the day soon, de aru, but what about you guys, de aru?â [Raypin]
Weâve already accomplished our goal and we still have time. No one disagreed, so we decided to end our job for the day.
â!ăRyouma!ăLook at that, de aru!â [Raypin]
While on our way out of the forest, Raypin-san suddenly pointed at the sky and yelled.
At the direction he pointed at was a small green ball floating between the trees. Is that⊠A huge dandelion fluff on top of that thing?ăWhat is that?
âItâs a slime, de aru!â [Raypin]
âA slime!?â [Ryouma]
âThe fluff slime possesses the ability to fly, de aru. I believe you donât have this slime among your ooze, right, de aru?â [Raypin]
âYes. In fact, I never even knew about it. Can we catch it?â [Ryouma]
âA trivial task, de aru. âPick Upââ [Raypin]
Raypin-san gazed at the slime above, stretched out his hand, and then chanted. Suddenly, the slime that should have been floating in the sky appeared just some distance away from his hands.
âWhat was that?â [Ryouma]
âA dimension spell that teleports the target near your hand. The condition is that you need to be able to see the target. Also, itâs hard to aim, so it doesnât have much use, but depending on who or what youâre using it against, you can use it to catch something without harming it at all. Which is why I use it to catch monsters for research, de aru. I used the same spell to catch the grell frogs I needed for research, de aru.â [Raypin]
âI see.â [Ryouma]
Now that he mentions it, during the grell frog outbreak, he did mention catching them with a spell. So this was the spell he used.
âEnough about the spell, hurry up and make a contract with it, de aru. This place isnât exactly safe, de aru.â [Raypin]
âRight.â [Ryouma]
I quickly formed a contract with the fluff slime in front of me.
It was just big enough to fit the palm of my hand.
After forming a contract with it, I stored it in my Dimension Home, and then I thanked everyone for keeping watch for me. I might have walked a bit quicker than usual after that.
The sun still hadnât set by the time we got back to town. I went straight back to our inn and used Monster Identify on the Fluff Slime.
Fluff Slime
Skills
Flight Lv1
Accelerate Growth Lv5
Lighten Lv10
Photosynthesis Lv3
Absorb Lv1
Split Lv8
It has Photosynthesis, so I guess it doesnât need Digest. The Absorb is probably for water. As for the Flight, Accelerate Growth, and Lighten skills. They are skills Iâm seeing for the first time. And then thereâs⊠Woah! The level of Split is so high!ăBut since the fluffy parts do stick like dandelion fluffs, does that mean it reproduces just like dandelions do?
For the meantime, I decided to lift up the Fluff Slime and test its Lighten skill.
â!â [Ryouma]
The moment the skill was invoked, all the weight vanished from the slime and it became light. Although, it was already lighter compared to the other slimes, it still had some weight to it. But now, even that weight was gone.
Itâs still the same size, though. Iâm curious whatâs going on with its physical mass, but it seems the only thing it can lighten is its own body. Well, if it could affect other things too, then someone shouldâve long realized that it would be useful for carrying stuff.
Hmm⊠While the slime is under the effects of Lighten, the little wind I make from moving my arms is enough to send it flying. This is probably the Flight skill. âŠI feel like itâs closer to floating rather than flying, but it can change its altitude by changing its weight and/or the rate by which it gains or loses it. That being said, that doesnât really change the fact that itâs just relying on the wind to move it.
After observing it, I spoke to Raypin-san, and apparently, Fluff Slimes can ride on the wind and reach distant places. Itâs a monster that could be spotted pretty much everywhere.
Just that thereâs rarely ever a lot of them. The Split level is so high, though, so why?
When I asked that, the Fluff Slimes do spread just like dandelion fluff when splitting, but not all of the fluffs become a Fluff Slime.
And in the case that a lot of Fluff Slimes are born, a nearby village could find them annoying and request that they be exterminated.
As for what the Fluff Slimes are capable of, thatâs something Iâll have to think about after this job is over.
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