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nVolume 3 Chapter 114: Searching the Forest I (2

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nWhen 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.

n“I see… Thank you very much. Actually, there were others who came before you who reported that the forest was acting strange. We’re actually in the middle of sending people deep into the forest to investigate.” Receptionist Woman

n“I see. Do you have any idea what could be causing this outbreak, de aru?” Raypin

n“There’s 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.” Receptionist Woman

n“So that really is the case… Would it be a problem if we entered the forest? Regulation-wise, de aru.” Raypin

n“Feel free to enter it as you please. There won’t be any problems so long as you’re A Rank or B Rank.” Receptionist Woman

nI’m an E Rank, but I’ll just keep quiet, I think. Besides, it doesn’t 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.

nAdventurers 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 one’s income is common among adventurers that have the effort to spare.

nIn 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 won’t cost us any extra effort, while giving us double benefits. We can complete the job if we just hunt treants like we did today.

nLike this we gathered information and also picked up a treant subjugation job.

nThe next time we enter the forest will be tomorrow, so I’m free until then.

n“I don’t have any plans, so now I have a lot of free time on my hands.” Ryouma

nIt would be a waste to just kill time, so I entered my Dimension Home and trained with the slimes.

nToday I’ll be training the spear with the poison slimes.

nAs I set my mind on that, some 10 minutes later, an idea suddenly came to mind.

nWhat would happen if I gave Melzen’s spear to the poison slime?

nThat 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. …I know now that when a slime evolves, it releases mana, but can it only release mana during evolution? Or can they do it anytime they want?

nCurious. I have to test it.

nI called over a poison slime and ordered it to release mana. When I did, it readily released mana. This might actually work!

nNow that it’s come to this, I quickly took out Melzen’s Spear from my Item Box.

nI 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.

n“! It worked! Can you swing the spear?” Ryouma

nThe 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.

n“It’s tired? Normally, I can never notice it when they’re exhausted. Maybe it’s out of mana?” Ryouma

nI better put a stop to this.

nBut just as as I was thinking that. The poison slime dropped the spear and its body shrunk.

n“What happened!?” Ryouma

nI ran over to the slime and examined it, but its life didn’t seem to be in danger. It was still somewhat weakened, though. It’s now about half the size of a normal poison slime and its movements are dull. …For the meantime, I fed it poison-type mana while looking after it.

n“I doubt it’s because of the Shrink skill that it became smaller. After all, the poison slime doesn’t know that skill.” Ryouma

nI used monster identify on it, and just as I thought, it didn’t have the Shrink skill. Then why? Is it because I made it use mana? …I can’t think of any other reason, but then why would its body shrink when it uses mana?

n“Body… Mana… Could it be, it used its own body?” Ryouma

nI don’t have any proof, but is it possible that slime bodies are made out of mana? With that I found an explanation on why the slime shrunk after using mana. I can’t think of any reason other than that.

nBut mana is neither something that could be seen nor touched like a slime’s body. The slime’s body being mana might be able to provide an explanation for the phenomenon, but…

n“…No. Let’s put this matter away for now.” Ryouma

nFor the meantime, I’ll just accept the hypothesis that slime bodies are made out of mana. I’ll reconsider it after talking to Raypin-san.

nWhen supper came, I asked Raypin-san, but he said he didn’t know either.

nIn 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.

nIn 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 couldn’t use magic were no exception. As such, the slimes being able to use mana wasn’t anything surprising.

nBut the argument that the slime’s body itself is mana, which would be why they shrunk after using mana, wouldn’t be able to hold for cases like the earth slime or the heal slime since they always use mana but don’t shrink.

nMore research is needed…

nThe next day.

nWe’re hunting and gathering treants today too.

nStill, there sure are a lot of treants. We’ve been taking turns taking breaks from hunting from morning until noon, and we’ve already gathered approximately 600 treant lumber.

n“My 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?” Raypin

nWe’ve already accomplished our goal and we still have time. No one disagreed, so we decided to end our job for the day.

n“! Ryouma! Look at that, de aru!” Raypin

nWhile on our way out of the forest, Raypin-san suddenly pointed at the sky and yelled.

nAt 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? What is that?

n“It’s a slime, de aru!” Raypin

n“A slime!?” Ryouma

n“The fluff slime possesses the ability to fly, de aru. I believe you don’t have this slime among your ooze, right, de aru?” Raypin

n“Yes. In fact, I never even knew about it. Can we catch it?” Ryouma

n“A trivial task, de aru. ‘Pick Up’” Raypin

nRaypin-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.

n“What was that?” Ryouma

n“A dimension spell that teleports the target near your hand. The condition is that you need to be able to see the target. Also, it’s hard to aim, so it doesn’t have much use, but depending on who or what you’re 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.” Raypin

n“I see.” Ryouma

nNow that he mentions it, during the grell frog outbreak, he did mention catching them with a spell. So this was the spell he used.

n“Enough about the spell, hurry up and make a contract with it, de aru. This place isn’t exactly safe, de aru.” Raypin

n“Right.” Ryouma

nI quickly formed a contract with the fluff slime in front of me.

nIt was just big enough to fit the palm of my hand.

nAfter 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.

nThe sun still hadn’t set by the time we got back to town. I went straight back to our inn and used Monster Identify on the Fluff Slime.

nFluff Slime

nSkills

nFlight Lv1

nAccelerate Growth Lv5

nLighten Lv10

nPhotosynthesis Lv3

nAbsorb Lv1

nSplit Lv8

nIt has Photosynthesis, so I guess it doesn’t need Digest. The Absorb is probably for water. As for the Flight, Accelerate Growth, and Lighten skills. They are skills I’m seeing for the first time. And then there’s… Woah! The level of Split is so high! But since the fluffy parts do stick like dandelion fluffs, does that mean it reproduces just like dandelions do?

nFor the meantime, I decided to lift up the Fluff Slime and test its Lighten skill.

n“!” Ryouma

nThe 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.

nIt’s still the same size, though. I’m curious what’s 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 should’ve long realized that it would be useful for carrying stuff.

nHmm… 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. …I feel like it’s 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 doesn’t really change the fact that it’s just relying on the wind to move it.

nAfter observing it, I spoke to Raypin-san, and apparently, Fluff Slimes can ride on the wind and reach distant places. It’s a monster that could be spotted pretty much everywhere.

nJust that there’s rarely ever a lot of them. The Split level is so high, though, so why?

nWhen I asked that, the Fluff Slimes do spread just like dandelion fluff when splitting, but not all of the fluffs become a Fluff Slime.

nAnd in the case that a lot of Fluff Slimes are born, a nearby village could find them annoying and request that they be exterminated.

nAs for what the Fluff Slimes are capable of, that’s something I’ll have to think about after this job is over.

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