The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 5 - Chapter 270

Chapter 270:

It Happened. Again.

“So we have seventy-one magic stones total, five of which we can’t give away.”

This time there were five special magic stones, the kind that glittered brightly in the sun. Flame said it had no control over the level of the magic stones it created, so it couldn’t be helped. I looked at the sparkling potions next to them.

I might need to have two magic boxes someday…and that terrifies me. We have plenty of room left in the current one, but still.

It was shocking how Flame had increased its output of regenerated magic stones yet again. And it seemed to grow stronger with every regenerating session, too. It was incredibly surreal. Druid and I talked about it earlier, and as far as he knew, most normal slimes were nothing like Flame. We weren’t sure if other rare slimes had this characteristic or if it was unique to Flame. Sora had some secrets of its own, but Flame was nothing but mysteries.

“Okay, let’s swing by Rose’s shop on the way back and give these new magic stones to her,” Druid suggested, picking up the bag with all the Level 3 and lower stones.

“Sure. She’ll sure be surprised to see them considering we already gave her a batch this morning.”

“That’s for sure.”

We put everything in our bags and left the dump. I searched the area for auras, but Ciel still seemed to be off on its hunting trip.

“Oh, Mr. Druid, what do you think Ciel will do for hunting when the snow is too deep to move in?”

I hated to have the poor creature go hungry, but it would be hard for us to get the large amounts of meat it needed to be satisfied.

“Hm? Well, I guess we’ll have to go to the edge of the village and have Ciel jump over the wall.”

Jump over the wall? Um, wait a minute…

“I hate that we won’t be able to go outside with Ciel, but it is what it is,” Druid said.

“But don’t the walls around villages have some sort of magic spell on them?”

I had heard that the walls protecting towns and villages had a spell cast on them to stop people from crossing over them without being spotted. But from the way Druid was talking, was it possible for Ciel to jump over the walls undetected?

“Yes, there is a defensive barrier spell that goes about one meter above the walls, but the area above that is safe.”

The area above that? So, is Ciel supposed to come and go by jumping a meter above the wall? I think it’s probably able to jump that high, but I’d better ask it once it gets back just to make sure.

“Look, it’s back.”

Ciel came into view, dodging the trees as it dashed toward us. It always looked so magnificent when it ran.

“Hi, Ciel,” we both said.

Mrrrow.

I quickly looked over its body and saw that it wasn’t wounded. Thank goodness.

Mrrrow, Ciel trilled as it approached me.

“What’s up?”

I gently patted its head. After a while, it started to purr. I smiled and petted it harder, and it purred even louder in reply. Did it like being petted more heavily?

Mew! Ciel yipped and drew its head away. I stared at it curiously…then it suddenly spat out a magic stone. I stared at it in surprise while Druid picked it up and examined it.

“What’s wrong, sir?”

“This magic stone…it’s two-colored. Look.”

I looked at the stone in Druid’s hand. Sure enough, it had two colors: green and yellow.

“This is quite rare,” he said.

“Yeah, I’ve never seen a colored magic stone with two colors, either.”

I hadn’t even known they existed.

Mrrrow.

Ciel had never returned from a hunting trip with a magic stone before. Did it find it in a cave or something?

“Ciel, did you go in a cave?”

Ciel shook its head. It had discovered the stone elsewhere.

“Where do you think it found this magic stone?”

“If it wasn’t from a cave, maybe it came from a monster it killed?” my father suggested.

Ciel nodded its head, meaning the stone had been inside a monster.

“Sometimes monsters do carry magic stones inside them.”

“Yeah, some monsters eat magic stones because that’s the source of their power. And some of them even use the stones externally.”

I had no idea. There were still so many things I didn’t know.

“Thanks for showing us your magic stone, Ciel. I really ­appreciate it.” I made sure to look the stone over from several angles and appreciate it because I was sure it was a rare object that Ciel wanted me to see. But when I tried to return it, Ciel shook its head. “Huh? You don’t want it back?”

Mrrrow.

I looked at Ciel, who had an anxious expression on its face. Why did it look so worried? I retraced my steps, but I couldn’t think of anything I’d done recently that would make it feel bad. Umm…is it upset because I tried to give the stone back?

“Is this magic stone a present for me?”

Mrrrow. Ciel’s eyes lit up.

Aha, so the rare magic stone was a present. “Thanks, Ciel,” I said with a smile. Ciel’s tail wagged, stirring up a mini-tornado. That massive tail never ceased to amaze me. “Okay, Ciel, let’s pack things up. We have to go back to the village soon.”

Ciel immediately shapeshifted back into slime form.

“Thanks.”

On the walk back, I asked Ciel if it would be able to jump over the magic walls to hunt when the snow got too heavy for us to go outside. It answered me normally, which meant it would be okay with it. I was relieved to hear that, and I felt silly for worrying about it over the last few days.

Once the gate was in sight, I put the creatures back in their bag. I made sure the lid was tightly shut, then we greeted the gatekeeper and entered the village. On the way to Rose’s shop, we saw a few adventurers excitedly looking at something. They were cheering so loudly that I could make out a little of what they were saying. One of them had just received word that their little sister had had a baby. Watching them rejoice over the happy event made me smile, too.

“Agh!” A panicky voice from my side jolted me out of my reverie. I looked to see Druid, green in the face and quite frantic.

“What’s wrong?”

“I forgot to send a message.”

A message? What was he talking about?

“My parents said they wanted me to send them a message when I arrived in Hatow to let them know I’d gotten there safely.”

“Err…it’s been several weeks since we got here.”

Silence.

“We’d better get in touch with them right away.”

“Yeah.”

Wait a minute…how would he contact them? By letter?

“The guild should still be open.”

“Won’t it take several more weeks to arrive?”

“Huh?!” Druid looked a bit shocked by my question. I guess I said something wrong.

“Aren’t you sending a letter?”

“Oh, you thought I was sending a letter. Well, it technically is a letter, but the guild has a magic item called a faax. It takes a little time, but it can send messages within a day.”

A fax? I wasn’t sure why, but I suddenly got a mental picture of a box with numbered buttons. Is that a fax? But this is Past Me’s memory, right? Does this mean we also had faxes in my past life? That’s…kinda neat. It’s nice that they have the same name, too, so it doesn’t feel unnatural to me.

“Ivy, is it okay if we swing by the guild first?”

“Of course.”

We went to the adventurer guild on the way back and sent a message to Gotos telling him that we were okay and describing what we had been up to lately.

“Huh? Aren’t you sending it to your family?”

“Err…nah, I’ll have Gotos deliver the message.”

He was too shy to send a fax directly to his parents. When I laughed at him, he poked my forehead. A closer look revealed that his ears were red, which only made me chuckle again.

“Arrgh, fine. I’m gonna go send the message now.” Druid marched away in a huff.

I’d better pull myself together by the time he gets back. But wow, between ryce, ponzu, and fax, so many words from my past life keep popping up. It actually scares me a little.