Published: August 2, 2025
Today, the story updates simultaneously.
This is the fourth chapter.
In the young ladies' room, as usual, I enjoy the tea that Mr. Alone prepared while giving a report.
"Did you manage to get approval from the Guild?"
"Yes, and today we already hired three Beast Tamers."
"You hired them already? Isn't that too rushed?"
"Perhaps, but we found good talent. The guild master of the commercial guild also gave his stamp of approval."
"Oh, then that's reassuring."
"Besides, all of them were demoted and were researching slime, so they seem very motivated. They're thinking, 'This is our chance for revenge!' and so on..."
"I see, that makes sense."
"I suppose they're more trustworthy than people who make up strange excuses to cover up."
After discussing the shop, I also heard from Mr. Reinhardt about the massive outbreak of grell frogs. The contract with the limule birds is scheduled for the day after tomorrow.
The next day:
I stopped by the shop in the morning and talked about tomorrow’s plans to clear my schedule. Then Mr. Kokin shared some points of caution regarding the limule birds.
"Thank you. You’re quite knowledgeable."
"Haha, I’ve tried every year to make a contract for a comeback. Although I never succeeded, I at least gained knowledge."
"And this year?"
"Until yesterday, I planned to go... but now that I can work at this shop, I don’t really care about the limule birds anymore."
He said this with a bright expression.
I'm glad he feels that way about our shop. Feeling good, I left and headed to Mr. Serge’s shop next.
"Welcome, Lord Ryoma."
"Good morning, Mr. Serge. I came to deliver waterproof cloth."
"Thank you. This is the cloth from the day before yesterday. I heard you also advertised yesterday; five customers came."
"How are the sales?"
"Besides those five you introduced, a few pieces are always sold daily. Many adventurers already knew about it and even bought some for their companions."
"Now that you mention it... when I was cleaning the cesspit before, I always walked around town in that outfit. Maybe I stood out then."
"That’s probably it. At this rate, demand might increase faster than expected."
"Today’s delivery is 70 bolts, but there’s still room to produce more. I’ll expand the workshop and try to increase production as much as possible."
"Please do. But don’t overwork yourself."
Ah, so Mr. Serge also heard about me working too hard.
"I’m fine. The shop doesn’t really need me now, and most of the time for waterproof cloth is just drying after processing, so I’m mostly free."
"Well, that’s good..."
Mr. Serge gave me a somewhat suspicious look before checking the waterproof cloth I brought and paying for the processing. Then I took the payment and the unprocessed cloth for today and headed to the abandoned mine shaft.
Right after arriving at the abandoned mine shaft:
I asked the sticky slime for processing, then took two earth slimes and the scavengers to another tunnel to build a new workshop.
The two earth slimes dug holes with create block magic. The scavengers carried blocks. I reinforced the walls—each of us had a role, and we quickly progressed to increase waterproof cloth production with the new platform.
As a result, I succeeded in processing 140 bolts, double last time. The sticky slime still seemed to have some capacity left, but I decided to stop around 150 to avoid overworking it.
"Alright... you can do as you like now."
Since they worked hard today, I skipped training the slimes.
I poured water conjured by water magic into stone containers made with earth magic.
...Oh, slowly but surely, they gathered. They’re drinking, drinking... hmm?
Watching the slimes gather, I suddenly wondered:
Do slimes other than earth slime and dark slime also absorb mana?
...Well, there’s only one way to find out.
I quietly released non-attribute mana.
...Though the absorption intensity differs from earth and dark slimes, it seems all slimes absorb mana.
When I changed attributes, sticky slime preferred non-attribute mana, poison slime liked poison attribute, metal and iron liked earth attribute mana. Earth slime and dark slime are obvious.