By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 16 - Chapter 17

Chapter 10, Episode 17: Mountainside Infrastructure Blueprint Draft

“Wow, you discovered another new slime?” said Hudom.

As usual, we were exchanging reports of our morning over lunch. I had just told him about my accelerated hexing course and the new curse slime.

“That’s not all,” I said. “Lord Rosenberg told me about something called a miasma slime.” Recalling the Starving Gallows, I’d theorized with Rosenberg that there may be slimes that consumed cursed energy.

That’s when he told me that, in locations where cursed energy was especially dense, there were rare sightings of miasma slimes. “Warlocks are recommended to eliminate miasma slimes because they can spread cursed energy, and that is proof that they actually exist. Do not expect to find one easily, but there is at least a chance. However, even if you find one, it may be difficult to transfer the miasma slime outside of the area you find it in. Expect to go through some red tape or need to obtain a special permission.”

Cursed energy was a danger to anyone who came in contact with it, so all that made sense. Still, there wasn’t a rule against keeping a miasma slime as a familiar. There’s no way that anyone had ever attempted to keep a monster that oozed cursed energy as a pet. It would even be too dangerous to use for some kind of crime. As a result, there was no need for a law to prevent keeping one. Loophole or no, that meant that it was legal for me to have a miasma slime. Besides, I believed it would be possible for me to evolve a slime into a miasma slime using the cursed energy of this mountain without having to hunt all over the world for one.

I wouldn’t get to test that evolution for a while, though. First, I needed to find a slime that preferred to consume cursed energy. I tried presenting the cursed energy I had siphoned from the soil to it, but the curse slime didn’t take to it. Even if it had, I wouldn’t try to evolve it until after I thoroughly observed it. Based on how cursed energy worked and what reactions it caused, along with my experience from evolving poison slimes, I expected that any slime incompatible with cursed energy would most likely die. I sometimes fed my slimes poisons out of curiosity, but I’d never kill a slime for no reason. Cursed energy was still magical energy, so I expected miasma slimes to be close to curse slimes in the evolutionary tree of slimes. For the time being, I planned to find more slimes that liked Dark magic to evolve into dark slimes, so I could experiment with whether they would evolve into a miasma slime or another slime altogether.

Depending on whether the miasma slime emitted cursed energy perpetually or only when hunting or defending itself, there was a chance a miasma slime could help store or cleanse cursed energy by ingesting it.

“I will need to have appropriate safety protocols prepared,” I said. “Even though I have this testing ground, I don’t want to cause unnecessary damage. I would also like to hone my skills of dealing with cursed energy myself in the time it takes for those conditions to line up.”

“Good idea,” said Mizelia the tiger beastkin. “We don’t know about cleansing or hexes, but we did sense something bad in the land.”

The other beastkin and Jeff nodded in agreement.

“That’s how my morning went,” I said. “How was the mountain?”

“We focused on looking for parts of the mountain better suited for your projects,” Jeff said, referencing the flatland Cilia and the others had mentioned yesterday. “Like yesterday, the only living things we saw were bugs and small animals. Nothing big or dangerous. It’s no place for hunting, but the mountain’s safe save for that cursed land.”

“We weren’t sure how much work you were going to do on the mountain, but there’s plenty of room for farms and buildings too,” said Miya. “When it comes to securing water, Hudom has an idea.”

“An idea?” I asked. Did he find a river?

“I did find a creek, but it isn’t too deep and it runs too far from the flatland. We could secure drinking and household water from it, but it’s a little inconvenient. We were saying that, if you want to irrigate any farms, we should dig a well too,” Hudom said.

“So you must have found potential spots for a well,” I said.

“Right. There are all varieties of trees growing on this mountain, and one of them is called baobark. It’s a tree that stores a lot of water in its trunk, and they grow in water-dense soil. They’re famous indicators for water mains.”

While I tucked in that new knowledge, Hudom went on to add that they had already found a group of baobark. They were quick with work as always. I still hadn’t decided how much infrastructure I was going to build into the mountain, but if the creek and baobark cluster were separated, I wouldn’t have to worry about water. I could definitely dig up irrigation with magic, and probably the well too.

“When it comes to maintaining the mountain, we should trim the underbrush and take some saplings and branches. Not only does it give away that the mountain has been neglected, wildfires will spread more rapidly,” Hudom said.

“Right... We do need to prepare for mountain fires.” I hadn’t thought of that. If it was only about appearances, I could give the excuse that I hadn’t had control of the mountain for long. But if there were a fire that caused casualties, nothing I could say after the fact would do any good. I’d have to make the best preparations I could to mitigate any potential disasters. One thing I could do right away was to build a firebreak. If I recalled correctly, Japanese law stipulated a firebreak with a width of six to thirty meters where all trees were cut down to stop a wildfire when it came to it.

“Oh, Hudom. If the baobark trees retain water, are they more resistant to fire? If they can be transplanted, I was thinking of lining the paths we build with them to protect them from potential fires,” I said.

“Live baobark trees are. They dry out quickly when they’re cut down, though, and burn easily. We should be able to propagate them with cuttings, and if I can use your slime fertilizer, I can get saplings ready to plant. Do you want me to try?” Hudom offered.

“Yes, please.” I didn’t know too much about maintaining a mountain, but even I knew that we couldn’t just cut down trees without plans of planting more. Otherwise, we’d just be destroying nature like the cursed land was doing. I wouldn’t and couldn’t do that.

Hudom knew a lot more about plants than I did, so I’d be taking his advice on that front. My job would be to specify my plans for the mountain’s new infrastructure. Since I’d have the final word, until I announced at least the general direction of the project, no one could make any specific suggestions or notes.

“Our top priority at this moment would be to carve paths and clean up the mountain. If I release the huge bush slime, it’ll take care of much of the underbrush around the cottage. I’ll also send out all of my goblins to knock down branches. Once the metal and iron slimes transform, the goblins will have enough tools as well,” I said.

“You have nearly a hundred goblins if I recall. They would be a great asset to the project,” Sebas said, having witnessed my goblin brigade in the City of Lost Souls.

Just last week, my goblins had surpassed a hundred to a total of one hundred and thirteen. That wouldn’t even be close to the numbers I’d need for full-scale development, but that was a great number for our project. “They can perform simple tasks as well as humans, and the hobgoblins are very strong. I think making the paths will be more efficient for me and the slimes to do together, but they can handle the branches. Once we set up paths and clean up the mountain, I’d like to work on the cursed land itself.”

Another landslide could hit any minute, which would make cleansing cursed energy more difficult. Fortunately, using the hex I’d learned in that morning’s class would let me prevent cursed energy from spreading, with the bonus of using and reviewing the knowledge I’d gained. “And the goblins will try to make alcohol whenever they get a chance, so they need something they can burn their energy on.” On top of white liquor, they’d begun distilling liquor with other ingredients like the wheat and potatoes from the slime farms...and the leftover fruit I’d brought back from the Sea of Trees too. At least, their endeavor also benefited my research sometimes, like when I discovered the drunk slime that liked to consume alcohol mid-fermentation. However, the drunk slime would most likely further evolve into a slime that would aid in the goblins’ distilling.

I would always cherish the birth of another type of slime, but if they were so focused on distilling, I would really need to do something about their operation. Staying holed up in the Dimension Home couldn’t be good for the goblins’ health either. This was a great opportunity not just for the goblins but for me to train.

“Train?” Mizelia asked when I brought up the idea.

“If I have the time. Remember how I went back to my home village the other day? Even though I had no problem crossing the Sea of Trees, I still feel like my damage output is lacking when I’m fighting monsters deep in the forest,” I said.

“You went into the Sea of Trees and came back, so you can’t really sell yourself short. Are monsters deep in the forest really that bad?”

“Many of them are large and tough. There are plenty of small and annoying monsters, but those I don’t have trouble dealing damage to,” I said, thinking that I would have had a really tough time against tyrant raptors and the cannonball rhino’s boss if Glen hadn’t been there with me. I probably could have taken them down with some kind of slime strategy, but that didn’t address how I felt my own strength was lacking. While I didn’t want to be like Glen, I would like to work on buffing my body with physical and magical energy. Besides, Glen ran off saying that he wanted to buy instant meals, so I expected to see him again before long. When I did see him, I wouldn’t put it past him to demand another sparring match.

“Well, let us know if we can help.”

“We can use enhancement magic too.”

“I’ll be there too.”

“Thank you!” I told the group. Finding time to train could be a lot of fun. Restraining the urge to hammer out the details, I brought our conversation back on track. “So the goblins will help us trim the mountains... I would love to see the site with my own eyes.”

“Then I’ll take you there,” Hudom offered. “I’ve been shown almost everywhere we’ve explored, so we can go any time that works for you.”

“Anytime that works... Lord Rosenberg?” I asked.

My tutor smiled heartily. “Ryoma already knows how to perform most tasks surrounding cleansing cursed energy. I’ll continue giving what advice is needed, but the rest comes down to practicing in the field and exploring methods that suit him best. I can help you out if you need me to, so this is up to you, Ryoma.”

With the ball back in my court, I decided to have Hudom show me around the mountain that afternoon. “If that works with you, Hudom.”

“You got it, boss.”

“And, Lord Rosenberg. If I give you the documents regarding the lost spell later, could you look them over?” I asked.

“Of course.”

I’d had the files ready, but I hadn’t had a chance to give them to him since we’d jumped into my cleansing training. Tomorrow, I’d talk to him in detail about it. I’d been subjected to way too many unplanned tasks and changes in jobs in my previous life, but talking it over with the group and making step-by-step decisions made it enjoyable. This was the kind of environment I wanted to maintain while we worked hard to accomplish our goal.