Chapter 4
Volume 1 Chapter 4
3 days after departing from Ryouma’s house, the Duke and his men were able to arrive safely on the village of Gaunago.
“Father! Welcome home!”
“Welcome home, my dear”
Arriving home, the duke was greeted by his wife and daughter, as well as his own father.
“Rheinhart, you’re back. You shouldn’t make your wife and daughter worry too much. Even though it was only 1 day, because you didn’t arrive on time your daughter and wife weren’t able to calm down.”
“I see, I’m sorry you two”
“No it’s ok, since you were able to come back after all. Really, Grandpa! Why did you have to go and tell father that!?”
“Ho ho ho”
“Don’t try to trick me by laughing!”
“By the way, why were you late? And why is the horse you’re using different from when you left?”
“Actually, we had to take a slight detour in the Forest of Gana and was attacked by bandits”
“Bandits!? Are you hurt!?”
“I’m fine Elia. We didn’t lose to the bandits. But while we were fighting, a black bear came out of nowhere… and although we managed to win, Hyuzu got severely injured and I don’t know if the horse is still around but it ran away.”
“Is Hyuzu safe?”
“He’s fine. I thought if we kept going at our pace, we wouldn’t be able to save him because of how badly he was bleeding. So I made a decision to go through the forest to reach the village as soon as possible. Then along the way we ended up meeting a strange boy. He gave us medicines and potions and stuff, and even offered to provide us a place to rest. Thanks to that we were able to walk, and even managed to recover to the point we could use horses.”
Rheinhart proceeded to talk to the three about Ryoma.
“To think a child could stay deep in the forest and live by himself for 3 years”
“I was also surprised but it’s the truth. It seems he was mistreated quite badly in the village he lived in before. He grew to dislike towns and villages and secluded himself deep in the forest. And besides…”
“And besides?”
“We checked his skills through the Small Identifying Crystal Camil brought. Within the five projected skills, four of them were Resist Skills”
“4 Resist skills? I see…”
“Actually, he might have more than that, though I can’t say for sure”
“4 Resist Skills are plenty, you know? Just with that, it’s a given that he’s been raised in a horrible environment… Why do you think so?”
“Because all the five skills projected were all greater than Lv 7”
“ !!? “
The three were shocked..
“What did you say!?”
“Is that true!?”
“Yeah, I also doubted my own eyes but it’s unmistakable. Jill, Zeff and Camil also confirmed it”
”Father, from what I can remember, a person that possess a skill more than Lv5 is very rare. Just obtaining one level is a painful and bitter experience. Because of this there are many people who give up trying to gain skills, but to actually gain so many Resist Skills…”
“I agree. But no matter how many times I looked at it, it stayed the same. Disease Resist Lv7, Cold Resist Lv7. Even more, Physical Pain Resist and Mental Pain Resist were lv8 and Lv9 respectively”
“Eigh–, Nine!?”
“Impossible… What kind of life does one have to live to actually end up like that…”
“I was wondering the same thing, father. It’s highly probable, that he has more Resist Skills at Lv7 and below that wasn’t shown by the small identifying crystal. And he should also be in possession of bow and short sword skills. Honestly speaking, I left that place at a lost on what to do. This time I gave meeting to show my gratitude as an excuse, but I really wanted to have a conversation on what should be done.”
“Can that kid fight properly?”
“I wasn’t able to ask how he did it but he had several Black Bear Pelts. That goes to show that he has some skill. Plus he was able to use Slave Magic, Barrier Magic, and Earth Magic.”
“Is that kid also a Slave Magic User?”
“Yeah, it seems he learned from his deceased grandmother. It doesn’t seem like he’s registered with the church. But he is contracted with a number of slimes, and seems to have been researching the requirements for evolution. As can be seen from the number of higher class slimes that shouldn’t exist in the Forest of Gana. There were large numbers of five different variations. I wasn’t able to ask but two of the variants were classes I’ve never seen before.”
“Slime, was it? Did he learn to use Slave Magic by watching?”
“Who knows? There’s a possibility he was only able to learn an incomplete Slave Magic, however, whether one can be an accomplished Slave Magic User or not is not something that can be decided by the strength of one’s beast alone”
“Indeed, though it may be a slime, to be able to ascertain the conditions for evolution, he is exceptional. Especially slime related research, save for a few, there shouldn’t be anyone researching slimes. As for whether it will be valued by the church can’t be said with certainty… but that boy can definitely be called a pioneer.”
“Pioneer…”
“Hmm… dear. That child, he doesn’t seem like a dangerous child, huh?”
“Yeah, he only doesn’t want to go to town. I think he’s a pretty good kid.”
”Then in that case, let’s all go together to give our thanks and meet him”
“Everyone?”
“Yup, besides there’s a lot of things I don’t understand. If we go on a trip alongside the next inspection of Gimuru we’ll also be able to take Elia along. At that time, wouldn’t be fine if we stopped by the Forest of Gana for a bit? And besides, it’s bad for Elia to just study on her desk all the time. She should also practice outside, right, stepdad?”
“Yes, that’s correct… Elia is already 12, it should be fine if she goes out to tame her own beast soon.”
“Is that true grandfather?”
“Of course. Provided that you take the responsibility of caring for your magical beaset”
“Yes! I understand!”
“Good. Well, what do you think, Rheinhart?”
“No objections”
Like this they ended up making a visit to Ryouma’s house.
In the two weeks that passed after the Duke’s party returned home, Ryouma was extremely busy. Why? Because the slime splitting began. The result of those splits are the present numbers.
Sticky Slime x364
Skills
Poison Slime x323
Skills
Acid Slime x211
Skills
Cleaner Slime x11
Skills
Scavenger Slime x730
Skills
Heal Slime x2
Skills
To put it bluntly, they increased too much. After coming here, Ryouma finally remembered that thing about restraining himself. If it continues on like this, an effect on the ecosystem will probably be seen. Ryouma worried about what to do regarding the overpopulating slimes.
Ryouma made the slimes stop splitting temporarily in order to keep the population in check, since if it’s just to keep living, the slimes wouldn’t need so much food. But if that was no good, then Ryouma also thought of taking responsibility and thinning out the population of slimes. Recently, though, there were some goblins that came from time to time to build a village, so Ryouma instead sent the slimes to annihilate those Goblins and have those serve as feeds.
The extermination of the goblins didn’t only bring food, but also brought unexpected fortune. When fighting the goblins, the ones that didn’t die received grave injuries. Ryouma found those slimes and hurriedly gathered them and used healing magic on them. There were slimes that couldn’t make it, but there were also those that did. Among those slimes that were healed, there were two that were only normal slimes. The next day, those slimes evolved to Heal Slimes and were able to use healing magic.
Heal slime, a new slime was born. At the occurrence of that new evolution, Ryouma’s gamer obsession was once again lit. When he looked at the current situation, he was somehow able to endure. However, after those 3 days, Ryouma’s gamer obsession was again relit.
“These slimes, I wonder if they could fuse? Like Do○kue…”
The instant when Ryouma, who was looking at the slimes that packed the house, muttered that. All of the slime’s began to shiver, and all of the slimes that were of the same variant began to gather to one place. And in the blink of an eye, slimes that were of the same variant fused and became one.
Big Sticky Slime x1
Skills
Big Poison Slime x1
Skills
Big Acid Slime x1
Skills
Huge Scavenger Slime x1
Skills
A panicked Ryouma told them to return, and immediately the slimes split, returning to their original numbers. The relieved Ryouma was excited, and repeated the experiment.
The results, one can fuse and split freely provided that the slimes numbers reach 100 for Big Slime, and 500 and up for huge slimes. Fusing below 100 slimes is not possible. When a hundred scavenger slimes fused its name became Big Slime, and at 500, Huge Slime.
As such by some stroke of luck, because of this fusion, it became possible to save on food and space.
It seems it’s possible to make as many big slime as one wants, as long as one is able to reach the 100 same variant slime condition. But one also needs to consider that the split ability disappears when they fuse. For slimes bigger than big slimes, each variety has their own respective assemblies.
Moreover, when needed the new skill, compress, allows the Slimes to shrink to a size just a little bit bigger than the size of the normal slimes. Although it’s a mystery where all that volume goes into, Ryouma didn’t mind.
In regards to food, if you think of it as one slime then the consumption increases several times. But when you consider that it is a lump of 100 slimes, then the fact that the consumption is able to be held down from 1/20 until 1/50 can be understood.
After having spent the days like that, all of the sudden 20 people from the nearby group of people came to visit Ryouma’s house.
“Hey~ Ryouma! Open up! It’s me! Hyuzu! I’m not an enemy!”
The one screaming in front of Ryouma’s house was the injured person from two weeks ago, Hyuzu. The entrance of the house was being blocked by a boulder, so in order to be heard he has been shouting in a loud voice, only, Ryouma was actually in the thicket behind him.
“Now, I will open!”
“Ah! Oh, you were outside”
“Hunt… went….”
“So that’s why. Then, today we came to give our thanks for before. Since we had plans to go around this area anyway. Relax, we won’t bring you harm.
“..Understood”
Ryouma and Rheinhart stepped up.
“Ryouma-kun, it’s been 2 weeks. Today, I once again give my gratitude. I brought with me some present.”
“Thank you very much”
“It’s just something to show my gratitude”
“Dear, won’t you also introduce us?”
Behind Rheinhart stood a beautiful woman and a beautiful girl. There was also a man, who despite putting on years, as he stood straight gave off a majestic aura.
“Of course, let me introduce, my wife, my father, and my daughter”
“I am Rheinbach Jamil, the previous head of the Ducal Family of Jamil. Sorry to suddenly intrude on you. Let’s get along.”
“I’m Elize Jamil, thank you for saving my husband and my subordinate”
“Elialia Jamil. Nice to meet you.”
“… A pleasure to make your acquaintance… I am… Ryouma Takebayashi… You have gone on a long journey… please make yourselves… comfortable… This is but my humble abode… but I will do my best to welcome you…”
Although the sentences were disconnected, hearing such formal speech, the 4 members of the Ducal Family, the guards, and the maids were all shocked. But Rheinbach quickly replied.
“That kind of formality is unnecessary, talk to us just as you did a while ago. Hospitality is also unnecessary, since the one who suddenly came were us”
“Thank you very much. Saying that is… a great help to me”
Having said that, Ryouma immediately used Earth Magic and opened the entrance to his house. At that moment he suddenly remembered.
“Now…slave monster… Slimes will gather… injury… won’t cause, so…”
“Were you hunting?”
“Yes… just came back… lots of people… so made to hide…”
“Sorry for unnecessarily scaring you”
“It’s ok…”
“I’ve also informed the guards so it’s ok now.”
“Thank you very much… Then…”
Giving his thanks, Ryouma gave the order to return through his mind. Immediately innumerable slimes came from the surrounding thickets and gathered.
The number was greater than 1000. As expected, I don’t think they expected these many. Although these slimes weren’t enemies, the maids’ and guards’ faces still stiffened. In contrast to that, the 4 people of the ducal family, looked at the gathering slimes, deeply interested.
“Hou! I heard you tamed a lot of slimes, but I didn’t think it was to this extent!”
“Even though they’re slimes, it’s amazing you’re able to control this much.”
“This number… making just one listen should have been difficult, but…”
“What an amazing number… haven’t they increased a bit?”
“… After everyone went back home… they split…”
“Will they fit in the room?”
“After… It will be, alright…”
“It will be alright? What do you mean?”
As Rheinhart asked that, Ryouma ordered his slimes and made the slimes fuse right in front of their eyes. As he did that, aside from Elialia the three people opened their eyes wide and shrieked.
“Big Slime!?”
“It couldn’t possibly!?”
“No, this is definitely… you!? You were able to tame a Big Slime?”
“… is it weird?”
“Big slime, you see… It’s a magical beast that no one has ever been able to tame, you know?”
“Eh?”
“The Slave Monster Contract that Slave Magic Users use to tame high level variation races on and above the level of the Big Slime doesn’t work. Although there were people that attempted to, not even one has succeeded.”
“…Slave contract… meaningless… obviously…”
“What do you mean?”
“…Big slimes and up… is the gathering of many slimes… the Slave Monster contract’s condition… can’t be… fulfilled… Slave Monster Contract… can only be used… on 1 monster… at a time… many at the same time… impossible… when making the contract… accurately catching… 1 inside a 100… is impossible. Because you can’t see more than one… so… Slave Monster Contract… has no effect… I made a contract with many slimes… after gathering… was able to tame…”