Chapter 107: Battered Girl part 2
Translator: Soafp
First, when I looked at what kind of request there was, Ashera casually took out her guild card.
With a triumphant look, she showed me the card, on which the letter “E” was visible.
“You, did you become an E-rank?!”
“Yeah.”
She flashed a wide smile and made a V sign.
Listening to her explanation, it seems that on days with bad weather, she had been completing requests at a pace of about 1 to 3 times a week.
Moreover, Mom seemed to have been at a loss for what to do with her free time, so she accompanied Ashera on every other request. When Mom was with her, they would take on C or D-rank requests and receive substantial rewards, apparently using that money to buy a new Dragon Robe.
And once, they even took on a B-rank request. It was a request related to something we’re familiar with, the “Demon Forest” ecological survey. It involved camping with the knights for three days, including a day of investigation.
On the day of the investigation, when Halva went to see the adventurers, he froze for about a minute upon seeing his daughter and Rafina. Although he immediately suggested canceling the request, the two of them stubbornly refused to nod, and in the end, Halva reluctantly decided to accompany them.
It seems that Mom had already talked to Dad about it in advance, as Dad muttered with a tired expression, “Please, Halva …”
From there, it was a joint investigation with the knights. Both of them, being magic users, were quite useful, especially for setting up camps and securing water, and they were almost about to be assigned to rear support.
However, the two of them couldn’t simply follow such orders… and they began exploring the Demon Forest on their own.
Reluctantly, Halva sighed heavily and followed them…
And so, as a result of the investigation, it was found that the number of demons was higher than expected, three years after the previous expedition. If left unattended, there was a high possibility that the food would run out by winter and they would descend upon the inhabited areas.
As a result, an expedition force was urgently organized. It seems that departure would be either today or tomorrow, and if Ashera and Mom hadn’t come to the capital, they would have participated as well.
Personally, I don’t want them to go to the Demon Forest without me, remembering the “Black Gob.” But perhaps saying that to Ashera, who is stronger than me, is just my ego speaking.
Actually, if I were to encounter the “Black Gob” now, I probably wouldn’t feel it was much of a threat. In terms of strength alone, it’s on par with or slightly stronger than a Wyvern.
With Ashera’s magic, combat skills, and ability to inflict status ailments, a complete victory is possible.
While I was talking with Ashera, Lewis received a D-rank request.
“I used Ashera’s card. Thanks.”
“Sure thing.”
Lewis thanked Ashera as he returned her card.
A D-rank request… I don’t think Lewis would choose anything reckless, but I ask him what kind of request he took.
“What kind of request did you take?”
“I’ve been wanting to try it for a while… I took on a ‘Slime Capture’.”
“Slime? Like, those slimes?”
“I don’t know which slime it is, but it’s a slime.”
I was imagining the cute droplet-shaped slimes from a certain famous game in Japan.
“What do you even use a slime for?”
Everyone looked surprised at my words… I don’t get it.
“Are you serious, Aldo?”
“Yeah.”
“…slimes are used for disposing of garbage in any city.”
“Garbage… with slimes?”
“Yeah. There should have been some in Blue Ring.”
“I didn’t know that.”
El responded to my words and offered a follow-up explanation.
“You might not have been taught about it while we were studying the basics and you were training for physical enhancement.”
Lewis seemed to reluctantly accept El’s explanation.
While we were on the move, we listened to the story about slimes and urban waste disposal.
Apparently, slimes are utilized not only in cities but also in decent-sized villages. If you dig a relatively large hole and make the walls vertically more than two meters high, slimes cannot climb up.
Then, you dispose of garbage there, and the slimes digest it for you. However, when they reach a certain size, they tend to come out of the hole, so you need to kill them regularly and replace them with new ones.
In cities like the capital, there seems to be a “slime capture” request almost every day. Although it comes with its risks, this request, which provides a steady and lucrative income, is considered a stepping stone for intermediate adventurers.
“If you complete this request, you can proudly call yourself an intermediate adventurer.”
“Is it such a request? By the way, how do you catch slimes?”
Lewis then explained the specific methods for catching them.
First, slimes have a gel-like acidic body. If you touch them barehanded, you’ll get burned, and swords can’t inflict damage on them.
However, inside the slime, there is a sphere about five centimeters in diameter. This is the slime’s core. When you extract this core, the gel-like body collapses, and it becomes safe to touch. This core seems to be the slime’s true body.
If you leave the core untouched for a day, gel gradually seeps out, and by the second day, it can barely move. From there, you can dissolve bait and leave it, and they will multiply.
I had one question. Instead of capturing wild slimes, why not just extract the cores from slimes at the garbage disposal sites and leave them around?
When I asked Lewis exactly what I was thinking, he explained that they used to do what I suggested in the past.
However, perhaps because they are closer to humans or because of the quality of the bait, slimes in garbage disposal sites gradually become more aggressive. As a result, for safety reasons, it was decided to kill the slimes after using them once.
“That’s the gist of it. Understand?”
Lewis asked, sounding somewhat proud.
“Yeah, it was easy to understand. Thanks.”
Lewis shrugged his shoulders in response to my unexpected answer and began his next explanation.
“The next topic is the habitat of slimes…”
Lewis took out a note from his pocket and showed it to me. It had some doodles, but there was also a map indicating that there was a nest upstream of a river about an hour’s walk from the capital.
“As always, Lewis has an eye for detail.”
He shrugged in response to my comment, perhaps trying to hide his embarrassment.
We left the capital and headed down the highway. It took an hour to walk to the river, and another hour to reach the source upstream. Doubling that for the round trip, we would spend four hours on the move.
Rushing to go up the river could lead to accidents. The most expedient decision was to move towards the river first.
After enhancing our bodies, we reached the river in about 15 minutes.
“All right, let’s move upstream along the riverbank.”
Everyone followed Lewis’s lead, walking in a single file along the riverbank. Nero, acting as a scout, led the way, followed by me in the second position, designated as “able to move quickly” in case of emergencies. Third was usually Lewis, but today it was Ashera. Fourth was Lewis, and El, with the highest defense, was last.
We steadily made our way along the riverbank in this formation. Since it was December, the grass was withered, making the path easy to walk. Occasionally, we sensed the presence of animals, but they never appeared before us and always fled.
After about an hour had passed, we arrived at a large lake, which seemed to be the source of the river.
“According to the guild’s records, they lurk in or near the lake and attack when people or animals approach.”
“They camouflage themselves…”
“Technically, they’re D-rank monsters, so even a sneak attack from them can be dangerous for B or C-rank adventurers.”
Lewis began throwing two or three small stones into the water.
“They’re said to react to sounds and attack, so by throwing something like this…”
Pointing to where the stones landed.
I looked in the direction Lewis indicated and saw a mud-like substance wriggling as if trying to engulf the stones.
“Uwa… it’s not the droplet type, but the realistic type”
Everyone ignores my words…Suru-suru. It’s kind of cute…
“Lewis, how do you extract the cores?”
“It’s common to scatter the gel part with branches from nearby trees until the core is exposed and then pull it out.”
“With branches?”
“Yeah, it said that using a weapon would quickly damage it due to the acid.”
“I see.”
I picked up some branches lying around and tried hitting the slime. The gel splattered where the branch hit, and sure enough, the slime shrunk a bit.
Since this slime was about a meter in size, if I did this a few times, the core should be exposed.
Honestly, it was troublesome… Wasn’t there an easier way?
“Excuse me, everyone, please move away.”
After everyone had moved back, I shot a Wind Bullet (non-lethal type) at the slime. Despite being non-lethal, the Wind Bullet pierced through the slime’s body. It hit the core directly, blowing it out of the slime’s body.
I picked up the core with confidence, only to find it completely crushed.
“Aldo, you’re too careless.”
Ashera peeked out from behind me, looked at the crushed nucleus and muttered in dismay.
“Let’s try again.”
I said so and began to search for the next slime. Slimes seemed to be abundant in the area, and I quickly found another one.
“Here we go. Wind Bullet (Gentle Breeze Version).”
This was the weakest version of Wind Bullet, used in competitions, with only the power equivalent to a punch from an ordinary person.
My Wind Bullet hit the slime, just like before, piercing through it.
While the previous shot blew the core away, this time it seemed to push it out from the slime’s body.
With expectations, I picked up the core. Upon closer observation, there were no signs of crushing or damage.
“How is it, Lewis?”
I handed him the core for confirmation.
“I think it’s fine… But since it’s my first time seeing a slime core too, we won’t know for sure until we deliver it to the guild.”
“That’s true.”
“If there are no issues, maybe we should split up within earshot and each hunt down slimes.”
“Got it.”
El used Wind Bullet (Gentle Breeze Version) like me to retrieve a core. Lewis and Nero used branches to shrink the slimes before extracting the cores.
During one of the instances, Lewis almost got his hand caught by a slime, but he quickly wrapped it in magic and avoided any serious injury. Before casting healing magic, I checked his condition with Sonar and found that it was just a minor burn, which would heal in 2-3 days even if left untreated.
Finally, it was Ashera’s turn. Perhaps because she had seen Lewis’s hand, she wrapped her arm in magic and plunged it into the slime’s body. She grabbed the core and pulled it out from within. She removed her gauntlet and rolled up her robe sleeves to do this, as it could damage her equipment.
I stood there dumbfounded for a moment at what had just happened… Then, I quickly came to my senses and hurriedly cast Sonar on Ashera’s arm.
There was absolutely no problem… Her arm was clean, without a single scratch.
“W-What are you doing! What if you got injured?! How would you deal with it?”
I guess she realized that I was really angry, so she apologized honestly, which is rare.
“Sorry. I thought it would be fine… Besides, even if I got injured, Aldo would heal me.”
“There are injuries that even I can’t heal!”
“Even if there are injuries left, I’ll have let you take care of them, Aldo.”
“Y-Y-Y-You…!”
Surrounded by onlookers with looks of disbelief, I struggled to find the words to respond.
Diana Kurosawa
May 8, 2024 at 7:17 amShe shot him with carefree words enchanted with love~
Can’t argue with that~