The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 9 - Chapter 448

Chapter 448:

Squisha, Shoo-waaa

“THIS IS THE PLACE.”

We arrived at the temporary storage area at the time the guild master had arranged—and we were startled to find more trash piled up than we’d imagined. When did they even start using this place as a dump? I thought the sharmy went berserk in the forest right after we arrived in Hataka, but maybe I was wrong?

“Oh, good, you’re here!”

We looked toward the voice to find Arly waving us in.

“Thanks for your help today, sir.”

“Yeah, sorry to bother you.”

My father and I bowed humbly, but Arly uncomfortably shook his head. He seemed to gaze upon us with sparkles in his eyes now…unless I was mistaken?

“Oh, no, thank you!” Arly’s praise confused us. We didn’t remember doing anything deserving of thanks recently. I was about to ask what he meant when I felt a rustling in my bag. My creatures’ patience was at its breaking point.

“Is it okay if I take my creatures out of their bag, sir?”

“Of course! Oh, wait just a moment, please. I need to set up first.” Arly checked outside the entrance to the storage area, then closed and locked the door and activated a magic item.

“What’s that, sir?”

“An item that makes this building invisible from the outside. You know, since Cholshi is still at large…”

So they hadn’t caught him yet… You know, I get the feeling we’re being protected more than normal here—it’s not just me, right? Had they found out something that they couldn’t tell me about?

“Thank you very much, sir.”

Well, there’s no use worrying about it. I opened my bag, and out jumped Sora and Sol. Flame flew close behind them, and last came Ciel.

“Puuu!”

“Ryuuu!”

Sora and Flame happily cried out as they flew straight into the mountain of trash. Sol got right to work climbing the mountain in silence.

“What incredible spunk they have.”

“Well, they haven’t had anything to eat since lunch yesterday.”

The guild master had given us all his discarded potions, but there still weren’t that many. We’d wanted to go collect some more, but we were forbidden from doing so because the entire village was bustling and it would be too dangerous for us. And since nobody was free to go shopping for us, my slimes had had to go half a day without any meals.

“We should also pick up the things we need while we’re here.” My father handed me a magic bag.

“Okay.”

Let’s do this! There’s no guarantee we’ll find any illegal dumps during our travels—I mean, illegal dumps are bad anyway—so let’s assume there won’t be any and fill our bags to the brim. Would you look at that…Sora and Flame are really scarfing it down, aren’t they? Good thing there’s a lot of trash here.

“Let me help you. Um… So you just want blue and red potions, correct?”

“Yes, sir.”

“So I shouldn’t pick up the ones that have gotten severely discolored?” Arly held up a discolored blue potion for me to look at. The color was so murky and faint that it was hard to tell it had been a blue potion to begin with.

“No, it’s okay, sir. My slimes can still eat those.”

“Got it. But wow, they really do eat the potions bottle and all, don’t they?”

Wait, is this his first time watching my slimes eat?

“I wouldn’t call it strange, exactly, but it does feel unsettling to watch.”

I tried not to laugh as I picked up the potions beside Arly. I’d been surprised the first time I saw Sora eat a potion that way because it was different from the books, but that unsettling feeling disappeared quickly. But to those who were used to normal slimes, watching my slimes feed must have been kind of a scary sight.

Squisha-squisha, shoo-waaa, shoo-waaa.

“Huh? What’s that noise?”

Squisha-squisha, shoo-waaa, shoo-waaa.

I looked around, surprised by the unusual sound.

“Ivy…it’s Sol,” my father said, pointing at the top of the mountain of trash. I looked up there to see Sol sticking a magic item directly in its mouth.

“Hm? Wha? Huh?!” I was so shocked by the unexpected sight that a bunch of non-words spilled out of my mouth. Wait a minute…isn’t Sol a slime that only eats magic energy? But there it was, deftly using its tentacles to break up magic items into a size just a little bigger than its whole body and put them in its mouth.

Squisha-squisha, shoo-waaa, shoo-waaa.

From the sounds, I could tell that Sol was digesting them.

“Amazing!” Arly’s shocked voice piped up from behind me.

Yup, it’s definitely amazing. I agree.

My father walked over to Sol and handed it a nearby magic item. Sol eagerly divided it and stuck the pieces in its mouth. “Do you think this happened because you tamed Sol? Or is it an evolution?”

I pursed my lips and raised an eyebrow. I’d never read anything about slimes changing their diets once they were tamed. And what did he mean by an evolution?

“Do slimes evolve?” I approached Sol to get a closer look at how it was eating.

Squisha-squisha, shoo-waaa, shoo-waaa.

What a magnificent way to eat.

“No, I’ve never heard of that. Do you know something about it, Arly?” my father asked.

Having had the conversation flung at him, Arly frantically shook his head no.

“I see.”

Squisha-squisha, shoo-waaa, shoo-waaa.

All questions aside, Sol sure was digesting those magic items fast—just as fast as Sora digested swords. Looking for Sora and Flame, I saw they were paying Sol no mind and busily eating their meals. Ciel was curled up on the ground a few yards away from the trash, swishing its tail and taking a nap. Wait a minute—when did Ciel return to adandara form? I hadn’t even noticed.

“I guess it’s nothing to worry about,” I said. My father looked at what the three creatures were doing and nodded.

“Hey, Sol, do those magic items taste good?”

“Pefu!” Based on Sol’s satisfied chirp, I decided nothing was wrong, so I got back to work picking up potions.

“How’re things looking on your end?” my father asked.

I thought back to the potions I’d added to my bag. “I got equal blues and reds, and my bag’s almost full. What about you?”

“Same kind of thing. What about you, Arly?” my father asked, stealing a glance at Arly as he picked up a potion.

Arly peered into his bag, then looked up at us pitifully. “I’m sorry, sir, but I got seventy percent blue potions.”

“Okay. Ivy, grab some extra red potions, and I’ll go get some magic items. Arly, could you help me pick them up?”

“Okay, Dad.”

“Happy to help, sir!” Having collected potions in silence for a while, Arly climbed down from the mountain of trash. He set his bulging magic bag beside Ciel, then took out a fresh one to collect magic items.

“Hey, do you think Sol has any preferences when it comes to magic items?” Sora and Flame each had their designated potion color—did Sol have something similar?

Arly froze mid-action. “You know, that’s a good question,” my father said, climbing down the mountain of trash to put his magic bag beside Ciel. He picked up a new bag and climbed back up the mountain toward Sol. “Hey, Sol, do you like all magic items equally?”

Sol stole a glance at my father, then moved away from the magic item next to it and scurried over to feed on one that was further away.

“Looks like Sol does have preferences.” My father picked up the magic item Sol had discarded and looked it over. It was a magic box, and it didn’t look like there was anything wrong with it. But since Sol had refused to eat it, that meant there were some magic items even Sol wouldn’t feed on.

“Okay, that’s the last one.” I put my last potion in my bursting magic bag, climbed down the mountain of trash, and set the bag down next to Ciel, whose eye twitched open to look at me.

“Thanks for guarding our slimes’ meals.”

Mrrrow.

It was a pity my hands were too dirty to pet Ciel. “We’re almost done, okay?”

I grabbed a new bag and climbed up the mountain of trash to get some red potions.

“Hey, Sol, what about this one? What about this one?”

I looked toward my father’s voice and saw him pointing at several different magic items which he had lined up in front of Sol. He and Arly were both having a hard time figuring out which ones Sol preferred.

“You can’t tell?” I asked, approaching the men and staring at the magic items.

“No, we can’t. We’re stuck.”

“Which are the magic items Sol didn’t want?” I asked.

My father pointed at three of them. “Those ones.”

I picked up one of the magic items to examine it. It seemed new—it wasn’t at all damaged, and the magic energy inside it felt strong. “Wait a minute, isn’t this magic item still usable?”

My father and Arly both looked the item over. “You know, yeah, it does have some life left in it.”

“It’d be a waste to throw it away,” Arly agreed.

“What about the other two?” My father checked out the other two magic items. “Yeah, these have plenty of life in them, too. I hadn’t noticed before, because I wasn’t looking for usability.”

I looked at the magic item Sol was eating. It was old and quite weathered.

“I guess Sol doesn’t eat magic items that can still be used.”

What an incredible food preference. Come to think of it, Sora and Flame won’t eat new or new-ish potions, either.