Nozomanu Fushi no Boukensha (LN) - Volume 7 - Chapter SS5

A Researcher’s Nature 

“What? Well, uh, but...” 

As I was napping on the second floor of Lorraine’s house, I heard someone speaking on the floor below. We must have had a visitor. Lorraine was an alchemist and a magic medic, so she received her fair share of visitors at night. People would suddenly fall ill and come for medicine and such. I didn’t think she had to go out of her way to assist everyone who came to her doorstep, but Lorraine was always happy to help. When someone came to see her out of concern for their family, she almost never ignored them. She did turn particularly awful people away, though, so she wasn’t too generous. 

I thought that this was one of those people looking for medicine at first, but if so, then their conversation was lasting an oddly long time. Lorraine would usually just ask about their symptoms and hand over some concoction. Maybe it was about something else, but it was wrong to eavesdrop, I guess. I tried to ignore what I heard and go back to sleep, but a few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. 

“Lorraine?” I said as I cocked my head, got up, and opened the door. There stood the head of the household. 

“Yes, sorry to bother you so late.” 

“It’s fine. Does this have something to do with your guest?” 

“You heard us? Well, you do have incredible ears, so I suppose you would. That makes things quick, then.” 

“Hold it, I didn’t hear exactly what it was about. I could have, but I thought it best not to listen. You’ll have to explain.” 

“Thanks for being considerate,” Lorraine said. “All right, I have a bit of a favor to ask.” 

What Lorraine described to me was just a bit disheartening. She sounded like she didn’t even even want to discuss it, but I could tell it was something that had to be dealt with. 

“So a scholar you know caused an accident at their research facility in Maalt. It isn’t a problem for that scholar, but now the facility is full of dangerous gas and there may be modified monsters living there. And you want me to do something about it?” 

“That’s the idea. It’s not that big of a facility. You know that building that looks like a warehouse next to that blue spire?” 

I immediately thought of the building she meant. I’d lived in this town for a decade, so I knew what was where. 

“That? I never knew it was used for experiments.” 

“It’s privately owned, so there’s no sign or anything. But they’ve gotten some decent results there. They aren’t lacking in funding either. But they’re having trouble cleaning up after this mess, so they came crying to me. I could ask another adventurer, but the gas seems to be pretty bad. They’ve kept it from leaking outside, but nobody can get inside.” 

“But this acquaintance thought you could go inside?” 

“I’m Silver-class, after all. And I know a lot about alchemy, so they thought I could handle it. They overestimate me, though. I was going to say nothing could be done, but I do have you. Gas would have no effect on you, would it?” 

“That’s true, it wouldn’t. Well, I got it. I just need to kill all the monsters, right?” 

“Right. According to them, the gas should be neutralized within a few days, so we don’t need to worry about that. I imagine that most human beings would still be worried about it, though.” 

“I’m glad this job is perfect for me,” I said as I got ready to leave. “I’ll be off, then.” 

“It’s in your hands.” 

“Well, well, there are some interesting monsters living in here.” 

When I got to the research facility, a few robed sorcerers were standing outside the building. They were probably researchers. When I told them I was here to slay the monsters, they guided me to the entrance. 

“You can enter through here,” one said. “We’ve used magic to keep the gas from leaking out, so don’t concern yourself with that. But this gas makes monsters go wild, so be careful.” 

“Thanks for the unpleasant information. Well, at least I know what the gas does. What types of monsters are there?” 

“Slimes and goblins, and slimes and orcs, but...” 

“But what?” 

“I think you’ll understand when you see them. Good luck.” 

That didn’t sound good, but I just sighed and went inside. The building was fairly large, but when one monster spotted a human, the rest would gather around as well. I couldn’t exactly call myself human, but I looked humanoid enough that they might see me as worth attacking. That made things quick, so that was nice. 

But the monsters themselves were a problem. I saw what the researcher was talking about. There were goblin-shaped slimes and orc-shaped slimes. Slimes could change their shape in an attempt to intimidate foes, but only more advanced slimes could imitate other monsters this accurately. These didn’t look as powerful as those advanced slimes, however. They were just a little stronger than an ordinary slime. Lorraine’s acquaintance probably created these, whether on purpose or by accident. Maybe this actually made that acquaintance an excellent researcher. But I couldn’t just run away. If I did, a whole new type of monster might start to thrive in the wild. I had to stop them all here. So I drew my sword, charged it with spirit, and dashed at them. 

To my surprise, the goblin and orc slimes both moved exactly like the monsters they were copying. I didn’t know how these could have been created, but they were amazing. Just on a technical level though; they weren’t that strong. The gas probably had some effect on them too, making their movements exceedingly repetitive. It seemed like it made them more powerful too, but they were no match for me. I destroyed all of their cores in one strike. 

I left the research facility and told the researcher who I presumed to be Lorraine’s acquaintance that I’d defeated all the monsters. The researcher looked somewhat disappointed but said, “What’s important is that nobody was hurt. Thank goodness for that.” It didn’t sound like she was a mad scientist, at least. 

“If something like this ever happens again, just tell me. Gas like this doesn’t pose much problem to me.” 

I’d said it to make her feel better, but it made her eyes light up. “Oh, very interesting. Could I do some research on you?” she asked. 

At that, I frantically ran away. “What else should I have expected from an acquaintance of Lorraine’s? She’s just like her, in a way,” I muttered to myself as I rushed to Lorraine’s house.