By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 6 - Chapter 27

Chapter 4 Episode 27: Exam Results And A New Slime

“Oops, this is no time to be talking about that,” Taylor said, looking down at his chart. “You own more than a thousand slimes, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Slimes are easy to make contracts with for everyone, but that’s still a lot. I feel like this is going to take us a while. Shall we begin?”

“I’m ready. How many monsters can most people make contracts with, by the way?”

“The person who had the most contracts with monsters, to my knowledge, owned about three hundred chainbugs. But for most people, even twenty is a lot. Few people would even bother to make contracts with that many slimes, so it’s hard to know what’s normal for them, but I’ve never heard of anyone having over a thousand of any monster.”

If so, then my number of familiars was off the charts. With that cleared up, we began the exam.

■ ■ ■

“Hm, I see.”

Two hours later. I attempted to make contracts with countless monsters. Even when it came to just bird monsters, there were sparrow types, eagle types, owl types, and more that I had to form and break contracts with over and over. The same went for insects, fish, mammals, and reptiles.

All of my attempts were successful. As far as we could find, there were no monsters that I couldn’t form contracts with. Compared to slimes, however, I had trouble giving commands to most of the monsters. They wouldn’t do what I said most of the time, so I seemed to be better with some monsters than others. The problem was, I didn’t understand how it was determined which monsters worked best for me. All I knew about many of these monsters were their name or appearance, which I only learned just before making the contract. I knew nothing about their ecology. For the monsters that I had never seen before, I had nothing but questions. But Taylor seemed to have an idea.

“Ryoma, it looks like you’re compatible with monsters that have a tendency to form groups.”

“So more social monsters, then?”

“Most likely. Based on all the monsters you’ve been compatible with, I can see a trend there. Limour birds flock together. For slimes, I’m sure you’ve found something in your research that comes to mind. Another possibility is that you have an affinity for monsters that birth many children at once. This trend isn’t as consistent as the other, but it’s shared among many of these monsters. I’d explain what I mean for each individual monster, but that would take far too long. I’ll introduce you to a book on monsters that you can read for more details. You could buy a copy yourself, or you can read it for free in the guild’s reference room. Knowledge of monsters should also help with your adventuring work.”

“Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind. But I do wonder why I’m good with monsters that form groups specifically. What causes trends like that?”

“It’s caused by an individual’s unique traits and ways of thinking, they say. What that really means, though, is that we have no clear idea as to the cause. It’s a fair assumption that it’s because of some unique part of you. What’s important isn’t how your compatibility works; it’s what you do now that you have the knowledge. If you’re going to be expanding the scope of your work in the future, you might do well to find monsters that can assist with your goals.”

“I’d like to find a monster that I can ride.”

I had previously had the idea of making a bike with metal slimes for wheels. But they would roll around using their own weight and stop moving when I got on, so it turned out to be a failure. If I just wanted something to ride, then a huge slime would work, but it would be pretty conspicuous, and that wasn’t something I wanted from my means of transportation. While I could figure out a way to do most things using slimes, transportation was unfortunately not one of them, and making up for that was my own problem.

“The idea was recommended to me by an adventurer I was working with the other day, and it got me kind of interested. I also got permission from the Adventurer’s Guild to hunt bandits, so maybe I’ll be taking jobs at more distant locations.”

“I see. Transportation is generally done with horse monsters. You can ride them or have them pull carriages. They’re also social monsters, so you should be compatible with them. If you’re able to communicate through taming magic, it should make the coachman’s job that much easier.”

He also told me that if I wanted to travel greater distances in a single day, I’d want a type with excellent stamina. My choices would vary depending on the weight of what I might want to transport, or how far I wanted to travel. Taylor taught me that tamers needed to know monsters well, take advantage of their strengths, and compensate for their weaknesses. If I wanted some new familiars, the best first step would be to study.

■ ■ ■

We must have talked for a while, because when I left the guild, the sun was starting to set. But it was worth it. Not only did I now know my aptitude, but I got to see a lot of different monsters, and I came up with ideas for ways to use my slimes in the future. Now I just had to check the laundromat and head home.

“Boss, perfect timing,” Carme said as I entered. Something special had happened, according to him. I waited in the office until he brought me an unfamiliar wooden box.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“It contains a high-ranking slime. Most likely of a variety that you don’t own yet.”

“A slime? Sounds interesting, but how did it end up here?”

“It was brought to us just a moment ago. Somebody found it on the road to the mine. Did you ever purchase a slime from someone before?”

“I bought a bloody slime from some adventurers once.”

“I think this person heard about that and brought the slime expecting money in return. It was all rather sudden, but this is a slime I hadn’t seen you with before and I assumed you would want it, so I decided to buy it.”

“Thank you for being so considerate, I appreciate it. How much did it cost?”

“A thousand sute.”

“That’s surprisingly cheap.”

“It’s a slime, after all. It doesn’t seem like it can use magic either, so most places would have paid less, or refused to buy it at all. The person who brought it probably feels good about what they got right now.”

“Really? Well, that’s cool, I suppose.”

“If something like this were to happen again in the future, should I buy the slimes offered?”

“Sure, as long as you don’t lose your shirt.”

“As you wish. Right, if anyone brings us slimes, I’ll let them in for negotiations. Could you give me a list of the slimes you currently own? It would help me to decide whether to buy the slime and how much to pay.”

“Sure, no problem.”

“Also, Bell, the nun, has a message for you. Grass has grown from the slime they’re keeping at the church and the children are worried that it may have caught something. She’d like you to come check on it when you have the time.”

“Does it seem sick?”

“It doesn’t sound like it’s acting sick. It just sprouted grass from its body.”

“Maybe it evolved, then. Alright, I’ll head right there.”

Thus, I decided to stop by the church on the way home. But first I wanted to check the slime in the box. Once I confirmed there were no more messages for me, I opened the lid.

What I found inside appeared to be an ordinary stone the size of a fist. I was worried that we had been tricked for a moment, but I doubted that Carme would be so easily fooled. I cast the contract spell before it might have had the chance to jump out, and it worked. This was undoubtedly a monster. I cast Monster Appraisal on it.

Stone Slime

Skills: Harden 2, Physical Attack Resistance 2, Consume 3, Absorb 3, Split 3, Camouflage 10

It was certainly a slime. Its skills were close to that of a metal or iron slime, but neither of those possessed the Camouflage skill. That skill was at an especially high level, too. It was similar to how the bloody slimes could just look like puddles of blood if they sat still. This slime was indistinguishable from an ordinary rock, so I had no idea how it was found.

“He was getting along poorly with a coworker and happened to kick it out of frustration,” Carme explained. “He said he was surprised that the rock moved.”

“He got pretty lucky, then.”

The food for this slime would obviously have to be rocks. I did need to find out if it had preferences for certain types of rocks, though. I picked up a few random rocks to see what the slime would do.

“Boss, I have to get going now.”

“Oh, right. Thank you.”

Carme got back to work, while I spent some time thinking about the stone slime.