The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 5 - Chapter 252

Chapter 252: 

Flame Is Super Satisfied

Flame seemed to like regenerating magic stones so much that I honestly wished I could have let it keep going, so I talked it over with Druid and Rose. They said that, since this village was going to need a lot of red magic stones anyway, we might as well let Flame regenerate stones until it was satisfied.

The next morning, I set some of Rose’s spent magic stones in front of Flame. It blinked its eyes wide open in surprise.

“Whoa…have you ever seen Flame wake up so fast before?” Druid, who was just leaving to tell the staff whether or not we needed dinner today, stopped in his tracks and took a careful look at Flame’s face.

“No, I haven’t.” Druid was right. I had never seen Flame make that alert expression before. It usually looked very sleepy, which was cute in its own way, but it was also adorable when it was surprised like this. Druid gave Flame’s head a few pats and left the room.

“Ryu?” The way it leaned toward me with that little face was just too precious.

“Oh, right! I need to explain things to you. Okay, so this village is going to need a bunch of red magic stones, so you can do as you please with these. But only while we’re here in Hatow, okay?”

I wonder if we could get a license or something that would make it okay for us to sell a lot of magic stones?

“Ryuuu, ryu! Ryu-ryuuu, ryu-ryu-ryuuuu,” Flame sang, jiggling wildly in understanding. Its extremely excited jiggling caught the attention of Sora and Ciel. To be honest, I was quite taken aback, too. I didn’t even know Flame could ever get that excited. But that kind of reaction meant it probably had felt quite deprived all this time.

“Flame, calm down.”

It looked at me and jumped in my direction…but fell and tumbled before it could reach me. Flame was probably trying to mimic Sora and jump into my arms to express its joy, but no amount of excitement could cancel out Flame’s clumsiness. And I got the sense that it didn’t have as much energy to jump into my arms as it did before. Well, as long as it still had its appetite, I supposed I had nothing to worry about.

“Flame, you can regenerate as many magic stones as you like, but know your limits, okay? You don’t have to go too crazy and make super high-level stones. We can’t sell those anyway. Don’t overwork yourself.”

“Te! Ryu, ryuuu.”

It’s still so hyper. Will it be okay?

Druid returned to our room with a letter in hand. “Ivy, it’s from Rose. Her son asked us to come to her shop tomorrow afternoon.”

“Aye, sir! Wow, that was faster than I expected.”

Since the captain of the watch was so busy, Druid had assumed it would take a week to hear from him, but it had been only two days since we’d spoken with Rose.

“I hope Rose didn’t force him to make time for us.”

Knowing her, that’s quite possible. Well, since we’ll be giving him red magic stones, it isn’t a bad deal for him. And since he’s Rose’s son, I assume he’s safe. I’m still a little worried, though.

“I just realized something.”

“What’s that?”

“The magic stones we plan on selling…it doesn’t matter whether we know their level or not.”

“Oh…you’re right.”

Druid and I had talked it over and decided to sell the magic stones regardless of their level. Since Rose had advised us not to sell the Level 1 or Level 2 stones, we were planning on leaving out the transparent magic stones whose levels were unknown. All the other stones should be safe to sell, though…I hoped.

“Also, both guilds announced a state of emergency this morning. Now that that’s in effect, we should be able to price the magic stones at four different classes.”

“There’s a state of emergency?”

“Yeah. I just checked, and they were asking for magic stones. Just like we thought, there’s a big shortage.”

The state of emergency was called due to inclement weather. If I recalled correctly, these measures were only taken when conditions were life-threatening and… There was something else, right?

“I forget, are there any kinds of restrictions in this state of emergency?” I’d never been involved in anything like this, so I just didn’t know.

“Not for now, but they’re calling for all red magic stones, heating items, and potions anyone can spare.”

“Well, I guess we can’t exactly give them any potions.”

I looked over at our magic box, wondering if it was possible…but when I remembered the types of magic potions we had, I gave up on the idea.

“Also, what do you mean by pricing the magic stones at four different classes?”

“Well, usually, each magic stone is sold at its own unique price. If you offer them directly to the guild, they buy them at sixty percent of the normal price. But if there’s a state of emergency—at least this is how it works in other villages—they’re divided into four classes: Levels 1 through 4, Levels 5 and 6, Levels 7 and 8, and Levels 9 and 10. Each class has its own specific price; they don’t vary from stone to stone. I assume things are done the same way here in Hatow.”

“Oh, that’s good to know.”

“By the way, Ivy?”

I followed Druid’s gaze. “…Yeah?” Flame was still regenerating magic stones. It would probably be okay since I’d advised it to not push itself to its limits. And boy, did it look like it was enjoying itself. Sora and Ciel, drawn in by the fun, were playing with the regenerated magic stones.

“So…are you sure it’s okay to just let them loose like that?”

“Well…”

Ciel and Sora were batting a magic stone around. They’d most likely understood our conversation earlier and were keeping away from the ones we needed to sell. That meant they were probably playing with the magic stone we couldn’t sell… So the stone they were playing catch with was the especially shiny, transparent one. If anyone happened upon the scene, they would be glued to the spot in disbelief.

“Well, that’s the magic stone we can’t sell.”

Druid gave me a sarcastic smile. “Yes, technically it is. Oh, there’s more!”

The one sparkling magic stone had become two, and the two creatures continued to skillfully bat the pair of stones back and forth between them. Well…they’re having fun, and Druid and I are the only people in this room anyway, so let’s give them a pass.

“By the way, I told Flame we couldn’t sell the very high-level magic stones…but do you think maybe it doesn’t have any control over the types of stones it makes?”

“Yeah, that’s possible.”

If Flame had no control, then we might need to cut down on its regeneration sessions before they got out of hand. I wanted to avoid creating any more super-powerful magic stones, even though it really just meant that our magic box would get fuller…

“Ryuuu!” Flame sang, sounding very satisfied. I looked over and saw that it had finally finished regenerating magic stones. And the stones scattered about it… Unless I was imagining things, there were a lot more than before.

“Flame, I see you made a lot of stones again today. That’s twenty-eight in all, and three of them are super transparent.”

“Te! Ryu-ryuuu.”

“Did you have fun?” Druid asked.

“Ryuuu!” it screamed loudly in reply. Thank goodness we’d activated the noise-canceling item in advance. “Ryuuu…” Flame’s energetic voice suddenly sounded deflated. I looked at the slime. Its eyes were droopy with exhaustion, and it was yawning over and over.

“Flame, you overworked yourself. But thanks.”

Flame fell over on its face mid-yawn and went right to sleep.

“That was sudden,” Druid said.

I smiled and started putting the magic stones into a bag. “Looks like we have quite a collection of stones to give to the captain tomorrow.”

“Yeah, well…I think we should play it by ear.”

Oh, really? I thought Rose’s son would be trustworthy enough.

“Ivy, if you keep trusting people too easily, Rose will yell at you again.”

Dang. He read my mind. “Ha ha ha! But, well, he is Rose’s son, you know.”

“If you seriously said that to her, she’d definitely give you an earful.”

He was right. I could just picture myself bowing to Rose in shame. “Yes, sir. I promise I’ll be more cautious of other people from now on.”

I’ll have to ask Sora to help me out.