By the Grace of the Gods

Today, two chapters posted simultaneously.

This is the second chapter.

That night.

After finishing cleaning the hot spring, we received praise from the lord of the territory and, as promised, ten gold coins before heading home.

By the way, the reward was split evenly between Sikumu’s pier and me, 5:5.

I thought about dividing it equally among everyone, but since the knowledge, chemicals (acidic slime), cloth, and even the slimes used for cleaning all belonged to me, everyone declined their share. However, since they helped with the cleaning, it felt wrong not to give them anything, so we settled on the final amount.

Incidentally, the people at Sikumu’s pier used their reward to buy some somewhat expensive alcohol, food, and daily necessities in town before heading back.

Thanks to that, although we had only one boat on the way there, on the return trip we had to rent another small boat to split up. When we got back, the villagers noticed the things we had bought and made a big fuss about us making a profit. It was quite hectic but also fun.

Stretching out on the futon in the room I’m renting, I recall the day’s events.

“Hmm... phew. We managed to finish cleaning safely, got some cooking hints, and above all, found a new use for acidic slime. Today was fulfilling... Oh right, before going to sleep—”

Using the dimension home, I take out the leftover acidic slime from the cleaning, its container, the pearl slime, and the edible shellfish I fed it for evolution.

That morning when I noticed the acid slime had evolved into a pearl slime, I remembered the mayonnaise pearl, but after today’s cleaning, another possibility came to mind.

To test this possibility, I confirmed the pearl slime recognized the edible shellfish as food and then soaked it in the leftover acidic slime. Bubbles gradually started forming on the surface of the shell soaked in the strongest acid liquid.

When the bubbling stopped, I rinsed it with water in another container and had the cleaner slime wash off moisture and debris. The surface was slightly dissolved, but tiny sand-like deposits remained. So, I submerged it back into the acidic slime.

After repeating this two or three times, the liquid ran out, so I decided to leave it soaking overnight. I returned the slimes and tools into the dimension home and went to sleep that day.

The next morning.

Perhaps because of the experiment, I woke earlier than usual.

After getting ready to leave at any time, I checked the experiment’s results.

The shell left soaking overnight in acidic slime...

“Just as I thought.”

The acidic slime had dissolved the surface, revealing clean white spots here and there.

When lightly polished around those areas, a beautiful nacre layer was exposed.

“Nacre layer.”

Like pearls, it’s a lustrous substance mainly composed of calcium carbonate secreted by the mantle of the shellfish.

The nacre layer isn’t exclusive to pearl-producing shellfish; some species of non-pearl-producing edible shellfish also have it.

For example, the “night luminous shell” found in places like Okinawa in Japan is well-known and eaten.

Though, those live in seawater...

“‘Appraisal.’”

“Sand clam.”

A type of edible freshwater shellfish that secretes slime to attach fine sand and stones to its shell, camouflaging itself from predators.

It is edible and usually grilled in its shell, making a delicious dish.

However, heating causes the nacre’s shine to fade.

“A similar shellfish lives in this lake. It hid its nacre layer inside the shell, which it ate to evolve into the pearl slime.”

This makes more sense than the roundabout mayonnaise pearl theory made from acid and eggs. The doubts about evolution cleared up nicely.

“...What to do with this result?”

The other day, the god Seelelipta said the value of pearls is “beyond what I think.” So, if these shells with similar luster are processed properly, they could make decent products.

At least, before returning from town yesterday, I noticed that while there were accessories using colorful shells at a market stall, there were none utilizing the nacre layer. Also, these shells are given to the villagers as daily waste, so they're only seen as food.