Jigglypuff's Diary

The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 2 Chapter 4 Part 2

TL Note:

I’ll just post the parts in parts from now on because it seems people prefer it that way. Also I’m sorry about the extra chapter but I’ll have to delay it to next week. There also won’t be a chapter tomorrow, on saturday, and on sunday. Sorry guys, but my exam this coming weekend is really big, and I really need to cram now.

This little excerpt down here is in fact related to the chapter, just some extra tidbits about what Ryouma is talking about in case you don’t know:

Gyudon is Japanese food. If you’ve never eaten it, you should. It tastes good. Usually it’s beef and rice with egg and sometimes veggies too. Mmm… it’s really good.

Some are expensive and some are cheap. The stores Ryouma are referring to are the cheaper ones. They go for like 250 yen to somewhere around less than 500 yen. Of course, there are also more expensive versions. Oh, and they also sell other stuff too, of course. Not just Gyudon.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH GYUDON

Edit: (2015/09/03) 4 pieces of silver -> 4 pieces of copper.

Volume 2 Chapter 4 Part 2

“Please excuse my unsightly behavior. Still though, this slime is truly amazing. With this slime, even if Ryouma-sama opens a laundromat, there should be no problem. Ah, with this speed, this price, and this result, Ryouma-sama’s laundromat will surely flourish.”

Ah, he seems to have gone off on a trip by himself…

“Then, how big of a bag would be good? It’s quite embarrassing, but I don’t know much about the market price.”
“Right… I’ll have several sizes brought over then.”

As Serge-san said that, he called a female servant over and had her bring several bags to us.

“As Ryouma-sama can see, I’ve arranged the bags from smallest to biggest, starting from the left to the right. The left most can take in an average man’s portion of clothes.”
“A slightly bigger one would be better I think. Families in general have more laundries, and amongst the bachelors there are many who find laundry to be troublesome and end up stockpiling them.

And also it’s cheaper for 4 and 5 pieces of clothes to go for 1 medium copper coin, than 1 medium copper coin for 1 piece of clothing. Like this, the customers will find this to be to their advantage. There’s also not much of a difference between one piece of clothing and five pieces when it comes to the efforts I have to put in on my side. And moreover I’m not even aiming to gain that much profit as all I’m aiming for is to make enough to get by. Lastly, I believe if I make one batch cheaper, then I’ll be able to make a profit as plenty of people will come and use my services repeatedly.”

In my previous life I was really indebted to these kind of cheap businesses… Even for lunch I’d go buy from those Gyudon chain stores.

The shop I bought from was also pretty much decided. During my previous life, I went there all the time, and so the people there already thought of me as a regular customer. I don’t know how much I’ve paid all in all to the stores around the place I lived in, in my previous life. But I’m not dissatisfied at all, rather I’m really grateful for being supported by them in my previous life. With that in mind, I think it’s important to create repeat customers for one’s business.

As I was thinking that, I noticed that Serge-san’s eyes were actually sparkling as they gazed at me.

“Wonderful. Ryouma-sama, to actually look into the future and not be influenced by immediate profits. Ryouma-sama already seems to possess amazing managerial insight. This Serge is in admiration.”

Most of the people in Japan know that, you know? Even kids could up with this, I’m not amazing at all…

I just spoke a little of something from my experiences in my previous life, so being praised over something like this makes me feel quite uneasy. To the people in Japan that seriously study management, I’m really sorry.

“Then in that case, how about this bag over here? This bag can take up to 3 to 4 people of a normal family’s 2 day’s portion of clothes.”
“And it seems that for a bachelor, this bag should be able to take even up to 1 weeks’ worth of laundry. Yes, this is quite good, let’s go with this. Also, I’d like to take around 2 or 3 bags that’s double the size of this one, as well as one whose size is five times this one. Will that be possible?”
“It’s possible, however isn’t it too big?’

“The bag from a while ago will be targeted to individuals. The bag double its size will be for small parties of adventurers. The one five times the normal bag’s size will be recommended for smithies with plenty of disciples, construction workers, and other big groups.

If we were to calculate the bag targeted at individuals as a man’s portion for a day, then for a week it’ll be as 7 people’s portion. Doubling that will get us 14 people’s portion, and five times the first bag will get us a portion for 35.

The bag targeted at individuals will go for 1 medium copper coin or 10 suits. The double-sized will go for 1 medium copper coin and 8 pieces of small copper coin for 18 suits. The bag five times the size of the first bag will go for 4 pieces of medium copper coins for 40 suits.

Since there’s a discount based on usage, I believe the number of people that will think of using the service will increase. In the instance where they don’t’ have enough people, then they’ll talk to other people about the laundromat in order to gather people. In the end, talk of the laundromat will spread and everyone will know about my laundromat.

And because there will be more people who will use the service, there will be more clothes to wash. A bag that would normally go for 14 portions if an individual were to fill it up, could then be filled up by 14 people for a day. Like this, the customers will use the laundromat almost every day, and I’ll also get a medium copper coin and 8 small copper coins almost every day as well.

Like this there will be income on a daily basis. Also because the amount paid per person is cheaper, it is clearly an advantage for the customers. And so like this it can become advantageous for both me and the customer.

Moreover because jobs like smithing and construction are occupations where one can get dirty easily, I expect a large number of customers from those occupations to use my services should they come. In that instance, there is the possibility that the customers who come to know the effectivity of my laundromat with their worker clothes may come to use my services personally. There is also the possibility that their coworkers come to have their clothes washed as well.

After all, construction work and the smithy are jobs that are generally taken care of by the men. So, there are people who are bad at laundry or find doing laundry to be troublesome and neglect their laundry, right? If I am able to make one big contract for that workplace, then it should be possible to acquire those kind of customers as well.

Fu…ah! Ah~…I screwed up, Serge-san has stiffened up… and his eyes are even wide open…Since a long time ago, I’ve always had this bad habit of talking one-sidedly… I’ve screwed up so much before because of this… I guess it’s because I had a business-like talk after a long time that I ended up slipping again.

“Sorry, from time to time I have this bad habit of going on and on by myself. Please excuse my rude behavior.”
“No, no, no! There’s nothing to apologize for! I’m just a little surprised. Ryouma-sama should only be 11 years old. To be able to calculate at that age, and on top of that mental math is certainly something to be praised. But more than that, the business policies that Ryouma-sama had talked about just now are things that I have never heard of. However, it should definitely be a very effective method. Today, I feel as if the scales have fallen from my eyes.”

That’s it!? That’s where you’re shocked!? Oh wait, now that he mentions it I am supposed to be an 11 year old kid! Calculations are… umm, whatever. But it would appear that he’s quite shocked even though all I did was spout a bunch of simple management strategies, huh? Rather than say I thought it up though, all I really did was line up the present time business strategies…Wait a moment, do they not have discounts around here? Did I really say something that shocking?

“Umm, aren’t there discounts around here?”
“There are discounts, but the kind of discount that Ryouma-sama had mentioned has not been thought up until just now. Discounts are something a merchant will normally do to gain favor even at the cost of suffering some loss for the sake of future transactions. There are also cases where discounts are given in order to quickly sell something.

Well those two are the basic reasons, as for others, there are also cases where discounts are given to make the customer leave quickly. And then there are also merchants that start off at an exorbitant price to customers that don’t know the market price, and then they pretend to sell it at a far lower price when in fact it is still higher than the market price. But that’s about it. As for shops that have a regular discount, I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

Well, he looks like he’s being serious.

“Since it has become like this, I highly recommend that Ryouma-sama register to the merchant guild.”
“Merchant guild?”
“Yes. Because there is also a branch of the merchant guild in this town, it is possible to register right away. The merchant guild is unique to each country, as it is necessary for all businesses to go through it before being granted permission. This includes even peddling, stalls, and carts.”

Eh!? Then…

“Then does that mean what I tried to do just now was illegal?”
“No, on the outward the guild may be operating the businesses of many countries, but it’s not like they’re really in charge of everything. For one, the villages in the borders trading their own commodities as they please, and adventurers stopping by in the middle of their adventure to sell the herbs they’ve gathered to a pharmacy isn’t forbidden.

In the same way, children or adventurers having a sideline, doing some sort of odd job, and receiving compensation isn’t a problem. In those instances, the money being exchanged isn’t that big, and is also not illegal, and as long as both participants show consent then it isn’t a problem.

However, from what Ryouma-sama has spoken about today, the money Ryouma-sama will be stumbling into is not something that can be called small. In this situation, the guild will definitely intervene and it will become a problem.”
“I see, that was close… thank you very much Serge-san.”
“Not at all, I have also made light of Ryouma-sama. I thought Ryouma-sama was just going to take a side job, and make some small change. But I had never imagined that Ryouma-sama would actually come up with such deep management policies. Because of that I didn’t talk about registering at the guild.”

I didn’t think about it that much at all actually…

“Then in order to start up my laundromat, I will have to register at the guild, right? However I am already affiliated with the adventurer’s guild and the tamer’s guild, will there be any problems?”
“Please rest assured as I will be recommending Ryouma-sama. Therefore there won’t be any problems, and Ryouma-sama will be able to register. Also there aren’t any exams in particular. And as for being a member of more than one guild, rather than that being seen as an impediment, because it will allow one to get information easier, it is actually seen as something that is very much welcome. If it’s alright with Ryouma-sama we can register at the guild tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? I still have a job to do as an adventurer tomorrow, so by the time I come back it will be around the same time as today.”
“That won’t be a problem. The merchant guild has several staff members, and so it is possible to process the papers at any given time. After all to a merchant, information is life. And so it is of utmost important to get any information before it becomes old.”

You mean even though it’s a different world they have 24 hour service?

“Then in that case, if it’s alright with Serge-san, then…”
“Of course!”

Woah!?

“The laundromat that Ryouma-sama has come up with, is truly a wonderful thing! This business idea will be able to reap huge profits that not even merchants have seen. It will definitely create a huge sensation on how businesses have been tackled until now! I, Serge Morgan, am fascinated. Please allow me to be of help!”

Somehow he’s started to really exaggerate this! To think it would actually become something so important… will this really turn out to be just some extra change?

“Th, thank you very much. Your words are very reassuring.”
“Such words are wasted on me. Since it’s already become like this, we also have to think about the land Ryouma-sama is going to be opening the store on.”
Store!? Hey, I wasn’t planning on doing something that big!

“Fumu… from Ryouma-sama’s face, I suppose Ryouma-sama wasn’t intending on making this that big?”
“Yes. I thought I would only be making enough to get by at most. So I thought that it would have been fine if I just took a corner of the town somewhere like a stall and then go around the neighborhood by myself. After all if it were to become a store then it wouldn’t be a side job anymore,”
“I see. However in terms of management, Ryouma-sama can rest assured as I am able to lend some of my people.”

No, that’s no good, right? Something like leaving it to others…

“No even if it’s a store, leaving everything to others is…”

As I said that, Serge-san made a wry smile.

“Fumu… I feel like I’ve somewhat understood at least a little of what the duke was saying. Ryouma-sama, there’s really nothing strange about leaving the management to other people.”

Eh?

“Of course at the start, it’s normal for someone to manage his store by himself. However once the store branches increase and becomes something on the level of my stores, then at that point it becomes impossible to manage everything by one’s self. In this instance it’s a good choice to pick trustworthy subordinates, raise them, and leave the management of the stores to them. Does Ryouma-sama find doing things in this way to be strange?”

Well… true. Now that he mentions it, it was quite common for the chain stores in Japan to have an employee manage it and not the owner…

“Certainly, it’s not something strange.”
“Right. Moreover there are people in the world that can and cannot do management. For people that can’t, instead of forcing it, those people generally hire someone else that can do management.”
“I can also understand that.”

“It would seem that Ryouma-sama can’t make a decision as of the present time. In my opinion Ryouma-sama has the talent for management. After all, there is the idea, the way to make it a reality, and amazing management strategies that will surely change the landscape of how businesses work. However I do not believe Ryouma-sama is very talented at the psychological war in discussions. Because, everything Ryouma-sama’s face is like an open book. Everything shows.”

You’d say something like that so bluntly!?

“For someone of Ryouma-sama’s age it may be something concealable, but that level won’t work against a sly old fox of a merchant such as myself.”
“I see…”

I had some confidence in my poker face in previous life, but was that just my imagination?

“Also, I am not lending Ryouma-sama my people completely out of virtue. When Rheinhart-sama had introduced Ryouma-sama to me, he told me to give Ryouma-sama advice. Aside from that we also talked about our thoughts on Ryouma-sama’s future prospects.”
“Future prospects?”
“Yes. To have come up with the waterproof cloth and the thread, as well as that iron ingot at that age. Even without Rheinhart-sama’s introduction, Ryouma-sama is definitely someone to watch out for. On top of that, because of the conversation today, the earnings from today onwards is something that can be looked forward to. This isn’t something that a merchant such as myself can ignore. Being able to sell the bags whole sale to Ryouma’s store is also good, so I would love to have a share in this. With all that in mind let us open the capital for investments.”

… Going this far, is that really ok? But you know…

“If you invest money into this and it fails, then what?”
“One who is afraid of failure would not be able to make a store big. A merchant that owns a store this size can more or less carry the risks.

Moreover, nothing comes to mind when it comes to factors that will cause Ryouma-sama’s business to fail. But in the case that it does fail, it will be enough for Ryouma-sama to create iron ingots and waterproof clothes to compensate the loss. The chance for success is high, and there’s even a way to get back my losses. With this kind of conditions, if I didn’t pitch in then I wouldn’t be called a merchant anymore.”

True, if I just made some ingots I would make money…

“I understand. Let’s work together.”
“Has Ryouma-sama started to feel like doing it?”
“Yes. But please excuse me from the financial investments. In the past I had subjugated some bandits, and because of that I have received quite a bit of compensation.”
“Is that so? Then, how about the workers.”
“Yes, please take care of that. Also, please let me buy the miscellaneous goods including the bag that will be used in the store, here. As for the talk regarding the ingot, let’s do that at a different time. To begin with, because the management of the mine had been left to me, I had already been planning on making some.”
“Thank you very much. From now on it appears that we can look forward to a good working relationship.”

With this we were able to conclude our discussion. After that I bought the bag from Serge-san, who was quite in a good mood, and then left the store.

I walked back home on the road that had already become dark. When I finally got to the lodging, Elia was there waiting for me. She was not happy, no. She was clearly pissed off and was releasing a horrifying aura to go with it.

“Elia…?”
“Ryouma-san, what were you doing up till now? I was worried, you know?”

As Elia put away her anger, she burst crying. Looks like she was really worried. Even though it was against a bunch of small fries, I still did take a request to subjugate monsters… my bad. Because of that I quietly received Elia’s scolding. After that, she got tired of crying and being angry, and then just said that she’s going to bed already. I was taken along by the maid as I sent Elia off.

“Excuse me. My apologies for having caused you to worry.” –Ryouma
“It’s fine, since from the looks of things it would appear that you’ve already been scolded plenty by Elia.” – Madam
“It’s true though that you made us worry.” – Rheinhart
“Be careful next time, ok?” – Rheinbach
“Yes, I’ve taken it to heart.” – Ryouma
“And? Where did Ryouma-kun run off to, to be home this late?” – Madam

“The carriage had an accident and was broken. Because of that, I walked from somewhere near the northern gate, and as I passed by Serge-san’s store, I decided to stop by. Thanks to the magic recovery potion that Serge-san gave me, we were able to keep healing the injured. So I went over to thank him for that. Along with that, I thought of buying some things, but before I knew it, it turned into a long discussion.” – Ryouma
“You were over at Serge-san’s? What did you talk about?” – Rheinhart

“We talked about the ways on how to make money for me to be able to support myself, as well as the use of cleaner slimes in my laundromat. Ah! By the way, I’ll be coming home a little late tomorrow. I know I was scolded just now, but…” – Ryouma
“It’s fine as long as you let us know, Ryouma-kun. Anyway, what’s going on tomorrow?” – Madam

“I’m going with Serge-san to the merchant guild to register. While we were discussing my plans, for some reason it ended up becoming something big.” – Ryouma
“What? Weren’t you just planning on making enough for your living expenses by doing chores?” – Rheinhart
“That’s also what I’d thought of at the start. But as I was talking with Serge-san, before I knew it, we ended up talking about setting up a store.”

“A store? Your discussion actually progressed to that point?” – Rheinbach
“Serge-san’s reason was apparently because he can see a prosperous future. And so it seems that the personnel who will be taking care of the store will be coming from Serge-san’s store.” – Ryouma
“Serge-san actually said that much, huh? So, when is the opening?”

Eh!? He actually went to ask about the opening naturally. And here I thought he was going to be surprised.

“There’s still a lot of things regarding the store that we haven’t discussed, so it’s still undecided. That aside, aren’t you guys surprised? For an 11 year old kid like me to actually say that he’s opening a store…” – Ryouma
“Well it’s because owning a store doesn’t have an age restriction. There are kids like Ryouma that have a stall and then there are also kids that tend the store.” – Rheinhart
“But of course there aren’t any 11 year old kids that have a store, but… well, since it’s you.” – Rheinbach
“Ryouma-kun is different from a normal kid after all, so I just ended up thinking, can he do it? But Ryouma-kun does possess various knowledge, and has even managed to get Serge’s stamp of approval, so it’s probably fine. But if anything happens you must rely on us, ok? You better not forget to contact us regularly as well, understand?” – Madam

Is it ok with that?

“I understand.”

Well after that I was able to somehow hazily go back to my room. There I had the slimes who haven’t split yet, split. Afterwards I contracted with them.

The current number of slimes are as follows:

Sticky Slime x 907
Poison Slime x 666
Acid Slime x 666
Cleaner Slime x 22
Scavenger Slime x 3033
Heal Slime x 2
Metal Slime x 1
Slime x 1

The sticky slime went over 900, in a little while it should go over 1000 too.
The poison slime and the acid slime are like a pair of double dices and even have the same number. That 666 is quite ominous though…

As for my cleaner slimes, I’m happy that they doubled in number.

I wonder if it’s because of the battle with the goblins. The slimes have gotten quite strong. The big slime and the huge slime acquiring the physical resistance is quite good. But I didn’t’ think at all that the slimes were actually capable of learning rod techniques, spear techniques, and even taijutsu.

I taught them a bunch of stuff, but I didn’t think that the slimes would actually be able to learn these kind of skills. I guess I’ll teach them all sorts of stuff from now on.

The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 2 Chapter 4 Part 1

TL Note: As has been mentioned before, I’ll be cutting the extra-long chapters like this one into two parts. This chapter is almost twice as long as the previous one, but because I needed to find a decent place to cut it, this part is quite shorter than the next. There are only two parts.

Also, the extra chapter will be released either tomorrow or on Friday.

Some Japanese terms:

Torimochi is a sticky liquid you use to catch birds and insects.

SOURCE

Edit: (2015/09/03) Some lines pertaining to silver coin -> copper coin fixed.

Volume 2 Chapter 4 Part 1

The day before yesterday I beat up the Fang of Orbtem’s members. And then yesterday, there was that goblin king incident that caused many adventurers to be hurt. Thanks to that, the subjugation of the monsters in the mine feels so slow.

Also, because of yesterday’s incident, my previous group has been dissolved. Jeff-san and the others were made to lead the lower ranked adventurers to ensure their safety.

As for me, I don’t need any guidance, but on the other hand you can’t really put me with the lower ranked adventurers and make me lead them. After all my rank is low, and my time as an adventurer is short. If I were to lead them, rather than feeling ensured, they’d just feel even more anxious instead. So because of that, I ended up hunting by myself alone with my slimes.

Regarding my hunt, I came up with an idea to use a rod that’s been covered in the sticky liquid of the sticky slime. By swinging this rod around, I’m able to catch the cave bats and the small rats quite easily, as they stick to the rod like they would to a torimochi. And as for the cave mantises, I equipped the poison slimes with the spears of the bandits I’d defeated before, and made them fight the cave mantises from a distance outside the range of their scythes. Like this, they were easily beaten and then eaten..

How should I put it? It seems that after some training these slimes have gotten quite strong. And also, after seeing these guys fight the cave mantis, I remembered that… what was that again? It’s a game from Earth that was really popular once. The theme song of that game was quite odd. Even though it was such a leisurely song, from what I remember its lyrics were for some reason quite blood thirsty.

Anyway, today nothing out of the ordinary happened and we finished the job. We found 5 goblins before noon once, but it didn’t have any allies. I reported it afterwards, but apparently it’s just the remnants of the village we destroyed yesterday.

Halfway through the job in the afternoon, I thought of trying out various different experiments with the sticky slime.

For example I had the sticky slime stick to the ceiling and stretch itself downwards, causing it to hang. And then we moved through the tunnel while the sticky slime remained in that state. Why? Well the cave bats were quite annoying as they kept flying around like flies. So since they reminded me of flies, I figured I’d have the sticky slime act like a fly paper. Thanks to this the cave bats were caught one after another, as they found themselves stuck into the sticky slime. Naturally, they were then eaten shortly after.

What’s more is that when I gave an order to the sticky slime to turn into a net right after jumping it was able to do it. So I took that slime and tried throwing it against a colony of cave bats. Mid-air that slime turned into a net, caught a huge number of them, and then fell to the ground. Hah! I completed a really convenient skill! Looks like I’ll be able to use this for a lot of things…

The sticky slime is super useful! How should I put it, I think the sticky slime can really do a lot of things. It’s a slime that can be used in battle, and even in one’s day-to-day life.

After the job finished, I rode the stagecoach to go back home. But as we were entering the town, there was an accident and the wheel of the carriage broke. Now although I say it’s an accident, it’s not like anyone was injured in particular. The carriage really just broke suddenly as it swayed a lot. Running seemed to be dangerous, so like the others, we all respectively walked back to the town.

And as I was walking, I happened to pass by Serge-san’s Morgan Firm.

Speaking of which, I was saved by the magic recovery potions I got yesterday. And there’s also the chance that I might happen by something I can use as a reference for the bag that I’m going to use in my laundromat, so I figured might as well stop by.

Thinking that, I entered the store. From what the female clerk said, it would appear that Serge-san was around.

As soon as he saw me, he smiled and called me over to the reception room. I tried to look at the goods of the store at the storefront, but…

“Welcome, Ryouma-sama. May I know what your errand is for today?”

“The magic recovery potion I got from Serge-san proved to be really useful yesterday, so I would like to give my gratitude for it. Also there’s also something I’d like, and because I don’t know any other store…”

“Is that so? Then if my store’s goods could prove to be any useful, please help yourself. It is also my honor to know that Ryouma-sama chose to come to my store. May I know what it is that Ryouma-sama is looking for?”

“I’m looking for some robust bags. Also, I don’t mind even if the material it is made out of is cheap. As for the size, I haven’t decided yet.”

“Oh? It’s also depends on what Ryouma-sama is going to be putting in it, but may I know for what purpose Ryouma-sama will be using the bag?”

“This’ll be quite a long story, but actually…”

As I began explaining to Serge-san about my decision to become independent, he showed me a shocked expression, while giving me a look of approval. As for my idea to start a laundromat, he showed great interest.

“I see, so Ryouma-sama plans to have a side job while working as an adventurer. And while thinking that Ryouma-sama has even thought of preparing for the possibility of becoming unable to continue work as an adventurer. This level of planning is truly admirable for someone of Ryouma-sama’s age.”

Well that’s because I’m actually 42 years old. I’m actually not that much of a planner when you compare me to the other uncles my age. But at the very least I do have enough reason in me to understand that the work I’m doing is dangerous and that I should prepare for it. After all, this world doesn’t have insurance or pension.

“No, no, it’s really not that much.”

“Still, a laundromat, huh? If the price range goes from 1 small copper coin to one medium copper coin, then it will certainly attract customers. And not only adventurers but also the commoners at that. But, there’s still the problem of getting people to help out who can bring out results good enough to satisfy the customer. Even if Ryouma-sama may start out fine, I don’t believe Ryouma-sama will be able to handle the work load once the number of customers increase.”

Ah, I forgot to talk about the cleaner slimes.

“My apologies, I forgot to inform you of something. Please wait a moment.”

I took out one cleaner slime from my dimension home.

“This is my slave monster. It’s called a cleaner slime.”

“It’s a slime I’ve never heard of before.”

“Yes, this is a new kind of slime I discovered. I’ve already given the information to the tamer guild, but as of now the only one who has this kind of slime is me.”

Having been told directly by the gods, themselves, that it’s a new type. There shouldn’t be any other cleaner slimes, right?

“Does the laundromat have anything to do with that slime?”

“This slime has a skill called ‘cleaning’. When that skill is used, this slime will eat only the dirt of something. And of course, once the dirt of something has been eaten, it will obviously become clean. I plan to use this for the laundry.”

At those words, Serge-san had his mouth hanging open. As expected, it’s quite hard to believe…

In response to that, I then took out the loin cloth of a goblin I had defeated today from my item box and then said this.

“I understand it must be hard to believe with just words alone. Then in that case, please take a look at this. This cloth is the loin cloth of a goblin that I’d defeated today. If it’s alright with Serge-san, I’d like to let the cleaner slime eat this, and show Serge-san the cleaned cloth.”

As I said that, Serge-san gulped and then meekly said this.

“Please by all means.”

“Just in case, would Serge-san like to use ‘identify’?”

“Yes, please allow me to. This smell is definitely that of a goblin’s loin cloth, but…”

As he said that while chuckling, Serge-san used ‘identify’. Having confirmed that the cloth is in fact, a goblin’s loin cloth, I passed the cloth over to my cleaner slime. The cleaner slime took the cloth inside it as usual, and moved like a washing machine. And right there and then, the cleaner slime quickly got rid of the dirt, and then threw up the cloth on the table in the reception room. The time taken was less than 30 seconds.

Serge-san timidly took the cloth that had a clearly different color from before, and used ‘identify’ on it. As soon as Serge-san saw the ‘identify’ show the result, ‘clean cloth’, he couldn’t help but exclaim in praise as he took my hands.

“To think that a goblin’s dirty loin cloth could actually be made this clean in such a short time!”

Umm… my hands were touching that dirty goblin’s loincloth just now, so… Ah. Looks like he remembered it after seeing the way I was looking at him, since his countenance had suddenly become visibly clouded. Well this is a good opportunity, so I guess I’ll also explain about the cleaner slime’s ability to clean even people. And I’ll also have the cleaner slime clean him. Of course, only the hand though.

As I explained that to him. He even went through the trouble to take my hand and uses ‘identify’ on it. And then after having the cleaner slime clean it, Serge-san exploded into a storm of praises.

You know, this guy is really not a bad guy. That, I can understand. However, mentally speaking, this guy is really exhausting…

The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 2 Chapter 3

TL Note: For the record the reason I try not to do [sentence] –[name of character speaking] is because it distracts from the immersion. Or so at least someone said. But in this case, there’s too many conversations and I wanna sleep already and not try to rack up my brain on how I can add names without the hyphen. So yeah… enjoy.

Volume 2 Chapter 3

I was with my slimes in a place away from the stagecoaches doing nothing, when Jeff-san and the others called out to me.

“Ryouma, what are you doing in a place like this?” – Jeff

“Aren’t you going home, nya?” – Miya

“Ah, everyone, good job today. As for going home, there’s a lot people crowding over it right now, so I thought I’d take the last ride and spend my time leisurely.” – Ryouma

“You too, huh?” – Jeff

“You too? You mean you guys are also…?” – Ryouma

“We’re also tired, you see? So we don’t really feel like joining in that crowd.” – Mizelia

“Seriously… although we were hired exactly for things like what had happened today, it was still really tough.” – Wereanna

“Today was definitely out of our expectations. To have that many goblins and even have a goblin king come out. We’d normally prepare well before setting off to do a job but this time… While we were fighting, I remembered that story. You know, that story about not letting one’s guard down around weak monsters. “

“Ah, is it that true story of a country that was ruined after being attacked by 100,000 goblins? I remember! I remember! It’s really a miracle that no one died today.” – Shell

There was a story like that!?

“I remember, de aru!” – Raypin

“What is it all of the sudden, old man?” – Jeff

“Ryouma, can you show me that heal slime from before? I’ve always only heard about heal slimes, de aru.” – Raypin

“Alright.” – Ryouma

As I said that, I called the two heal slimes over.

“Here.” – Ryouma

“I’m grateful, de aru. Fumu fumu, the body is white, and its body is quite small even amongst the slimes. I saw it use healing magic with my own eyes… it’s exactly as what I’ve heard. What about its meal? What do you feed it? – Raypin

“Not much actually, since it doesn’t eat anything else aside from water. The cleaner slime also doesn’t normally eat meat, but if you order it to, it will eat. There’s a big difference between the two though. When I thought that it was just a matter of preference, it turned out that the heal slimes really don’t eat anything else except water.” – Ryouma

“Is that true, de aru?” – Raypin

“How does it manage to live on water alone?” – Wereanna

“The heal slime has a skill called photosynthesis. This skill allows the slimes to get the necessary nutrients by bathing under the sunlight. From the looks of things, it’s thanks to this skill, that the slime can live on water alone.” – Ryouma

“There was such a skill, de aru!? Mu mu mu, how curious…” – Raypin

“Is that slime strong?” – Mizelia

“No, it’s ridiculously weak. It has no fighting abilities, and if it fights, it would lose even to a normal slime.” – Ryouma

“That is weak…” – Mizelia

“That’s probably the reason why the heal slimes are so rare. Even if a heal slime were to be born, it would immediately be killed by another beast or monster, and so it becomes extremely rare for people to find it.” – Ryouma

“I understand, de aru. Someone with no strength wouldn’t be able to survive in the wild. So does that mean the heal slime doesn’t have any way of defending itself, de aru?” – Raypin

“Nothing else aside from resistance skills. On top of the healing magic, it also has the strengthen vitality skill. So it can run away while being hit as it heals itself.” – Ryouma

“So all it can do is resist, heal, and run, de aru?” – Raypin

“It’s unexpectedly tough, but with that alone it can’t live in the wilds for long. I think it’s because they understand this themselves, that even if I tell them to do as they please, they won’t separate from me or my other slimes. Well, they can heal me and my slimes as soon as we get hurt, so they’re quite the useful bunch.” – Ryouma

“These kids are completely healers, huh.” – Syria

“Yes. I won’t take them out to fight.” – Ryouma

“I see… you’ve shown me something good, de aru. Thank you, de aru.” – Raypin

“No, if it’s something like this, I don’t mind. After all, it’s quite rare for me to show my research to someone who can understand. Something at this level is not a problem.” – Ryouma

“Umu. Ryouma, if you have anything you want to hear about monsters, then without holding back, please ask me, de aru. I find Ryouma’s discoveries to be very interesting. I truly do not understand what the tamer guild who doesn’t value Ryouma is thinking, de aru.” – Raypin

Hearing that, Asagi-san interjected.

“Ryouma, the tamer guild doesn’t see you in high regard, de gozaru? I have never seen a slave magic user control so many slave monsters, de gozaru. From what I’ve heard the more slave monsters there are, the harder it is to control them. So from that I think Ryouma-kun should be quite an accomplished slave magic user, de gozaru. But…” – Asagi

“Thank you, Asagi-san. However, because of my age and the fact that I’m only controlling slimes, it really can’t be helped that they end up looking down on me.” – Ryouma

“Age has nothing to do with ability, de aru. And also Ryouma has managed to discover these two types of slime, the Cleaner Slime, and the Scavenger Slime, both whose abilities are extremely useful, de aru. For someone to be unable to value that, and not understand the value of these two types of slimes. Such a person could only be called, a fool, de aru.” – Raypin

“I thought those two types were quite strange… are they a new race, nya?” – Miya

“Someone who doesn’t understand the value of the Cleaner Slime and the Scavenger Slime is really an idiot. Even someone like me who can’t be called ‘educated’ can understand the value of these two types. If I could use slave magic, I’d also use these.” – Wereanna

At Wereanna-san’s words, everyone in that place nodded. It seems that because of the latrine pits case and today’s goblin case, everyone can understand the value of the Scavenger Slime and the Cleaner Slime.

Seeing everyone’s reaction, I thought of something.

“If I made a laundromat, I wonder if I’d be able to make enough for a living…” – Ryouma

“Laundromat?”

Looks like I didn’t just think of it, I also said it out loud.

“I thought of it just now. I figured if I announced something like, “Use the cleaner slime and with a low price, you can even get rid of a goblins’ dirt!” to the adventurers, and took care of their laundries for them I would be able to make a living.” – Ryouma

“How cheap?” – Mizelia

“Let’s see… I’ll make a special bag, and for every one thing you put inside it, it would go for 1 small copper coin for the cheaper ones, and 1 medium copper coin for the more expensive ones. What do you think?” – Ryouma

“You would!”

As I said that, everyone exclaimed in unison.

“Ryouma-kun, that job will definitely make a profit! If it’s a goblins’ dirt, then there are people who’d pay even 1 mid copper coin! To provide that kind of service at 1 copper coin, everyone will definitely come!” – Mizelia

“There are people who buy new clothes and throw away their old dirty clothes, when they can’t get rid of a goblin’s dirt. It’s cheaper to pay 1 copper coin compared to buying a new one, and also, with your cleaner slime, the clothes will become as good as new. There’s no way it wouldn’t make a profit.”

“At that price, even people other than adventurers will come. When you think about the time and effort it takes, leaving it to you is faster and more comfortable. In fact, I’d want you to clean my stuff for me starting tomorrow.” – Jeff

“As for me, I’m bad at chores, and once I’m caught up in my research, the chores, especially the laundry becomes neglected, de aru. During that time I’d hire people, but the fees are not something one could scoff at, de aru.” – Raypin

“While in Raypin’s case, he gets charged a premium because his clothes gets too dirty after being neglected for too long… it is true that hiring people is quite expensive. Only nobles and rich people could possibly afford to do something like that, so it’s not worth it, de gozaru. With that in mind, the price Ryouma had proposed just now, would cause even the commoners to cheerfully ask for your service, de gozaru.” – Asagi

Somehow everyone seems to be in really high spirits… it’s something I just thought of but, it seems it’s quite a big deal…

“If you’re doing it for real, then there’s plenty of potential to make a profit. And also we’ll come by as customers and make full use of that laundromat of yours.” – Wereanna

“But why did you suddenly think of something like that?” – Mizelia

Ah, now that I think about it, I haven’t mentioned it, have I?

“Actually, I’ve thought of various things yesterday. And so I decided that I’d be independent.” – Ryouma

“What do you mean?”

“I think everyone knows, but I came to this town along with the duke’s family. And so they took care of me a lot, but recently… I noticed that I’d gotten too spoiled by the good will of the duke. And so I talked to them, refused their aid, and decided to become independent.” – Ryouma

“You refused the duke’s support!?”

“What a waste…”

“Even if I say I refused their support. It’s really only about the financial stuff and lodging. I received a lot of that kind of stuff, but it’s exactly because of that, that I started to become dependent on them, and so I thought I’d focus my mind.” – Ryouma

“But even then, that’s not something you’d normally do, you know? Something like refusing the duke’s support is something that’s normally improbable. To begin with, most don’t have that kind of opportunity.” – Mizelia

“However that kind of thinking is admirable, de gozaru.” – Asagi

“Hahaha… and so from what we’ve discussed, I made a promise to take the contract of one job and to contact them regularly. I’ll also be staying in this town, so because of that, I’ve been looking for different ways on how to make money.

I intend to continue as an adventurer, but on top of the contract I have with the duke, I can’t go too far away from this town. There’s also the off chance where I might end up becoming unable to continue as an adventurer, so in order to prepare for that, I’ve been thinking of several other ways to make money.” – Ryouma

“I see, then that’s fine. Do your best, ok?” – Wereanna

“Since you’ll be remaining here, it seems we’ll be seeing each other a lot. Let’s get along, de aru.” – Raypin

“Same here.” – Ryouma

After that, we continued to chatter about trivial things, and then we went back to the town on the last carriage.

After coming back to the lodging, I was called over to Elia’s room.

“Welcome back.” – Madam

“Ryouma-san, good job today as well.” – Elia

“The job ended early today, huh? Are the people at the mine doing well?” – Rheinhart

“Huh? Haven’t you been informed about it yet?” – Ryouma

“It’s because we were at the public office today, inquiring something about the management. Did anything happen?” – Rheinbach

“Today, we found a goblin village. Seeing that we decided to destroy it… but then it turned out that there was actually a goblin king there and it turned into a huge mess.” – Ryouma

“There was a goblin king!?” – Rheinbach

“Are you alright!?” – Elia

“Fortunately I was only tasked with the mission of preventing the goblins fleeing from escaping, so I’m alright. The others were also quite lucky, so in the end no one died.” – Ryouma

“I see, that’s good…” – Rheinhart

“However, because the nest was big enough to have even a goblin king and its servants, the goblin knights. The goblins that came fleeing to our side numbered 2000. Like this the job today turned out to be quite big, and so after dealing with the corpses, we were told to go home.” – Ryouma

“It’s really quite amazing that no one had died.” – Rheinbach

“In any case, I’m glad you’re alright.” – Madam

“Seeing how hard you worked today, you must be hungry, right? Is there anything you want to eat?” – Rheinhart

“Thank you, I’d love to eat my fill today.”

“The slimes worked hard today as well, right? Should we feed the slimes something too?” – Madam

“Oh, they’ve already eaten their fill today with the goblins. They ate so much so that they can split again tonight, so I think it’s more than enough already.” – Ryouma

“Oh, is that so? Which slimes are going to multiply?” – Madam

“The acid slime, the poison slime, the cleaner slime, and also the sticky slimes will multiply more.” – Ryouma

“They just suddenly decided to multiply, huh?” – Madam

“It’s because they ate so much. It’s not really a bad thing though. After all whichever slime reproduces, my fighting potential will increase, and the production rate of the waterproof cloth and thread will also increase, so it’s not exactly a bad thing. But unfortunately, because of how many there are I’ll end up having to spend quite a bit of magic power to enact the slave monster contract, and that’s quite troubling.”

“There’s so many of them, so it can’t be helped. But please don’t push yourself, ok?” – Madam

“Yes. If it’s too much for a day, then I’ll perform the contract across several days.” – Ryouma

“Right, that’s for the best.” – Madam

After that, I talked to them about what I’ll be doing from now on while we ate. I talked to them about how I plan to continue to live as an adventurer, as well as my thoughts about finding other ways to make money.

After that, I tried asking about how long the duke’s family will be here in the town. After all, I’ve never heard anything about how long they’ll be staying here.

“By the way, how long will you guys be here for? I haven’t been able to ask it until now, so…” – Ryouma

“We didn’t’ tell you? We’ll be staying here until the Grell Frog outbreak ends. Also, we’ll stay here for as long as Elia’s enrollment date will allow. We’ve already finished most of the procedures, and there’s also value in just staying here.” – Rheinbach

Grell Frog. If I’m correct that’s…

“Grell Frog is the magical beast from which the hide used on some armor come from, right?” – Ryouma

“Umu, its hide is definitely used to make armors. On top of that, its guts are also used to make medicine. Every year, around this time, a lot of them come out in the swamps around here.” – Rheinbach

“Halfway from this city towards the abandoned mine, there’s a swamp with red mud. Every year, that’s where the Grell Frogs come out in great numbers. Our goal in staying here, is to bring Elia to that place the moment the Grell Frogs erupt.” – Rheinhart

“Are you going to defeat the Grell Frogs?” – Ryouma

“That’s secondary. We’ll be heading there on foot for the sake of training how to travel。It’s not really a place a carriage can normally go to. Also that place doesn’t have a good environment, so going there is also for the sake of getting used to places with bad environments. As for why it’s bad, it’s because the mud of that swamp releases a really bad odor, and then some.” – Rheinhart

“It’s not all that bad. At the same time as the outbreak of Grell Frogs, the Rimel Birds that feed on the Grell Frogs will also come. The Rimel Bird is a magical beast bird with beautiful blue wings. But not only is its appearance beautiful, even its voice is. It can also fly quite fast, so it’s quite popular. Unfortunately though, it’s quite difficult to catch, so there are very few people who are able to do so. Because of that, it’s very rare to see one. Ryouma-kun, you should take this opportunity to see them.” – Madam

It doesn’t seem to be a scary magical beast. But the fact that it eats Grell Frogs means that it’s a carnivorous bird, right? Speaking of carnivorous birds, the only thing that comes to mind are the crows. But it has color, so I guess it’s a peacock? I don’t know. Yeah, I’m curious. If that bird is coming, then I guess I’m coming to take a look as well.

“I want to see.” – Ryouma

“Then you should come with us.” – Rheinhart

“Then please let me come with you during the Grell Frog Outbreak.” – Ryouma

“Of course! We’ll definitely go together!” – Elia

I promise Elia, and then after eating I come back to my room.

There, I began to let the slimes split and contract them, but halfway through, I ran out of magic power, and so I decided to just continue it tomorrow. I still have some magic potions, but really it’d be a waste.

Next Chapter

The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 2 Chapter 2

TL Note;

Remember,

De aru = Raypin (mage)

De gozaru = Asagi (samurai)

Term changes:

Magic Power Recovery Potion -> Magic Recovery Potion

I dont want to use MP recovery potion, because it’s too game like for the other characters to mention it.

The story has game elements, but the other characters don’t really act like it as they barely use any game terms.

So I’d like to hold off on using game terms as much as possible.

Volume 2 Chapter 2

The battled continued as we substituted several times, taking turns to take rest. After we were able to slay over 2,000 goblins, they finally stopped coming.

Because of the efforts of the healers, and the heal slimes, there weren’t big injuries on our side. As for the front line of the partitioned part of the ditch, it had so many dead bodies scattered on it that there was no more place left to step on.

Some time passed and 4 men came out of nowhere with space magic. These four were Raypin-san, Asagi-san, Gordon-san, and Shell-kun. Everyone else aside from Raypin-san was covered in blood.

“Is everyone alright, de aru?”

“Sorry guys! Relief really came too slow, what’s the situation?”

“It looks fine, yeah? By the looks of things there also seems to be quite a lot of dead bodies here.”

“Raypin-san, Asagi-san, Gordon-san, Shell-kun, you guys came, huh?”

“Hey! Ryouma, you’re safe, de aru!”

“Looks like you also had a rough time, huh? You’re covered in blood.”

“We’re the same too, so we really can’t be speaking for others.”

“That’s true, but anyway, what’s up with this number? More than 2,000 goblins came you know? And from the way you look, it would appear there were also quite a lot on your side…”

“Umu, we have to explain this.”

“Umm… who is the person in charge here? I’d like to talk about the situation.”

“It’s me!”

That voice came from Poly-san as she came over to explain the situation.

“I see, so that’s how it was, de aru.”

“Yes. If it wasn’t for Ryouma-kun and his slimes, the goblins would have broken through and our unit would have been destroyed.”

“It can’t be helped. Just being able to fight against this many without losing anyone is already a miracle, de gozaru.”

“In any case, it’s great that everyone is safe.”

“Umm, how are the people in the main force?”

“For the meantime, the situation’s been settled, de aru. However…”

“No one also died on our side, but many have been injured. The scouts weren’t able to grasp the opponent’s number completely and as a result there were far more than what we had originally expected. They even had a goblin king and a bunch of goblin knights serving it.”

“There was a goblin king!?”

The people around started chattering at the words ‘goblin king’.

“You guys! The goblin king’s already been taken care of so you don’t have to worry!”

At Gordon’s words, everyone calmed down a little, and then right after, people started to cheer. Ignoring that, Gordon continued his explanation.

“The tunnel that the goblins were using as a nest that the scouts found was actually connected to a different place and to a different tunnel just a little bit deeper inside. ‘Search’ apparently wasn’t able to reach until the deeper parts, and we used the map of the mine as a reference and then put up a battle plan.

According to the map, there shouldn’t have been a connecting route there, so the goblins must have dug a path themselves. More than likely they did it in order to widen the path and make their village bigger. There were also several pick axes which the miners seem to have forgotten.”

“The goblin village we attacked was really just a small part of the real thing. A lot of them came from a nesting hole that had become really big, de gozaru. The real village and boss was on the opposite side of the tunnel, it was already after some time after we had begun attacking when we noticed that.

Until then, a large number of goblins were able to escape through a different nesting hole. When we realized it, we immediately tried to stop it, but then the goblin king and the goblin knights resisted, as a result a lot of goblins came at us, de gozaru. This is the result of our incompetence, I truly feel regretful, de gozaru.”

“I see… but since no one was hurt that much, please don’t mind us. However, I do wonder how these many goblins had managed to keep themselves hidden for so long.”

“Raypin-san says that it’s most likely because they were able to feed off the small mice, the cave bats, and the cave mantises who had made their nest here. Because of that they didn’t have to go near the town, and so they were able to multiply to this extent. Within the goblin’s nest, there were plenty of bones belonging cave rats and cave bats. Add to this the fact that since last year no one has been coming close to this mine.”

“Since this mine wasn’t producing iron anymore, the public office has become negligent in managing it. And on top of not making any iron, because this mine wasn’t producing anything, the administration costs regarding it has already become nothing but unwanted expenses. However…”

As Raypin-san said that, he looked around and then said this.

“I’m really glad that everyone’s safe despite fighting so many, de aru. Since there doesn’t seem to be a lot of problems on this side, would it be ok if we took some healers with us? I want to entrust them with healing the injured ones on the side over there, de aru.”

“I understand. Those who still have some magic power left, and can use healing magic, please gather!”

The ones who came out to respond to Poly-san’s words, were me and three other adventurers.

“Sorry but we can only take three people at most with my space magic, de aru. One needs to go by himself, but…”

“Then in that case I’ll stay. Recently I’ve also started to learn ‘movement magic’ so I’ll be able to follow fairly soon.”

“Ryouma, you’ve also become able to use ‘movement magic’? That’s good to hear, de aru.”

“Ah, Raypin-san. Is it ok if you to take something with you?”

“As long as it’s not too big, then it’s fine.”

Hearing that, I called the two heal slimes over.

“Then, please take these two slimes with you, since I still can’t use ‘movement magic’ while taking someone along with me.”

“I understand, de aru. However, what are these slimes, de aru?”

“They’re heal slimes. They’re slimes that can use healing magic.”

“Oh! So this is a heal slime, de aru!? I’ve been researching magical beasts for a long time, but this is my first time seeing one, de aru. Alright, I’ll take responsibility for these two, and take them with me, de aru.”

“Please take care of them.”

“Umu. Then, I’ll be waiting for you there. ‘Warp’ “

As Raypin-san said that, he took the three adventurers with him, and then warped. Next is me, I guess. I’ll go give my greetings to Poly-san, and then I’ll warp over there as well.

“Poly-san, I’ll leave my slimes here, so please take care of them. It’s fine even if you just leave them alone.”

“Please leave it to me.”

“Yes. Then… ‘Teleport’ “

I use the low level short ranged movement magic several times until I reached a place where no one was around. There I used the mid-level magic, ‘Warp’. Naturally, if I were to make it known in front of so many people that I could use mid-level space magic, it would cause a huge commotion, so I went through all the trouble to do this.

When I had warped to the where the others were, I saw many adventurers who have been injured that were receiving treatment.

“Ryouma, over here, de aru!”

Hearing that, I rushed over to Raypin-san, took the two heal slimes, and while drinking the magic recovery potion I got from Serge-san, I continuously healed the injured people.

I and my slimes were healing relatively lightly injured people. Because of this they were fully awake and were able to see the slimes healing them. Seeing the slimes use healing magic, they couldn’t help but be shocked.

It would appear that the heal slimes are rare even amongst the different slime races, because of that there are plenty of people who haven’t seen them. But then again even if you say that they’re rare, I brought two with me so it may not seem like that at all.

After I finished the lightly injured, I went over to heal the more serious ones next.

The people who were injured heavily were only a few, but those few people have bled a lot, and so it took several healers, using the middle class healing magic, ‘High Heal’ in order to heal them.

The low level healing magic, ‘Heal’ won’t work on bigger wounds, but it can serve to delay it from getting worse, so with that in mind, we also joined.

I also distributed the magic recovery potions I had to the other healers.

After some time had passed, the person I was treating and the other healers who were treating others suddenly raised their voices. Hearing that, I asked the other healers in a loud voice.

“What’s wrong!? Do you need more help!?”

“N– No! There’s no problem!”

“It’s just that, the slime here that was helping out suddenly started using ‘High Heal’, I was just surprised!”

Haa!? My heal slimes are!? But my heal slimes can’t use any other healing magic other than ‘heal’. I’ve never seen it use anything other than heal…

The men who heard that reply looked at me and asked,

“Your heal slimes could use ‘High Heal’?”

At that I immediately shook my head.

“It probably learned how to use it just now, since I’ve never seen it use it before.”

“Well I’m grateful that the helping hands have increased!”

As he said that, we went back to healing the adventurers. Then after a while, it would appear that the heal slime who had been treating the patients that screamed a while ago and another patient have also started to use ‘High “heal’. Because of that, after using a lot of magic recovery potions, we were able to save everyone.

After the situation had settled down a bit, I tried checking the skills of the heal slimes, and apparently the skill level had become 3. Incidentally, I also took the opportunity to check mine, and it would seem that it had risen up to 2.

While I was doing that, I was suddenly surrounded by over 10 people, and they showered me with thanks. From what we’ve heard, they were apparently the comrades of the people we healed. While crying they said that if it weren’t for me, my slimes, and my magic potions, their comrades would have died.

As I was having a hard time dealing with them, the guild master came over and ordered me to act as a messenger to the unit I was a part of. Thanks to that I was able to run away. The message he had entrusted with me was to gather by the entrance of the mine.

I give my gratitude to the guild master inside my heart, and then quickly go back to my unit.

After that, I gave the guild master’s instructions to Poly-san. Then, I retrieved my slimes, and then went over to the entrance of the mine where everyone had gathered.

“Good work everyone! Today’s work ended up becoming bigger than expected, but as a result of that, the pay will also increase!”

The moment the guild master mentioned that, cheers began to erupt from all over the place.

“This time, everyone will at the very least, receive 1 big silver coin!”

At those words, the cheers became even louder. The voices of the F and G Rank adventurers were especially loud. 1 big silver coin is equivalent to 5000 suits. That’s enough to live on for 50 days. I guess this is their first time receiving such a big reward, huh?

“Does anyone have any complaints? Good! It’s still early, but we’ll proceed to dealing with the goblin corpses, and after that we’ll end the job here!”

At that, as if the guild master had remembered something, he looked at me and said this.

“Oh yeah, Ryouma!”

“What is it?”

“You’re paying for the corpses of the magical beasts, but you can have the goblins’ for free.”

“If you’re giving it, then I’ll gratefully accept, but is it really ok?”

“The goblins don’t really have any parts that can be sold, so… Hey! you guys are also cool with this, right?”

There were many adventurers who didn’t know that I was buying the corpses of the magical beasts and were greatly surprised, but no one came out to object. Many of them were saying that it’s good that they didn’t have to use magic to deal with the corpses, so they were actually grateful instead.

The method of dealing with the corpses is by incinerating them. It would appear, however, that in spite of the fire magicians being close to using up their magic power, they find being asked to use their magic to be painful and so they don’t really feel like doing it.

“In that case I’ll gratefully accept it. As a reward to the slimes, I’ll have them eat their fill.”

Just accepting is also bad. So I guess after all of this is done I’ll have the cleaner slimes service the adventurers.

After that we went back to where we had waited for the goblins before, and threw the goblins to the ditch were the acid slimes were. Because I’d already retrieved the acid slimes, there were no longer any acid left in the ditch. Along with the acid, the melted goblins had also disappeared, because the acid slimes had already absorbed them.

After we finish throwing off all of the dead bodies, I put the poison slimes and the sticky slimes inside, and made them eat the goblins. As for the scavenger slimes, I had them eat the blood and pieces of guts on the ground, as a result not even a single speck of blood was left.

Now that I think about it, isn’t this quite useful for removing the evidences of a crime? I really don’t want to give these slimes to a bad person. Not that I have any interest of handing these to anyone.

While the slimes were eating, I told the E, F, G, Rank adventurers, who I had worked with first, about the ability of the cleaner slimes, and showed it to them by using the cleaner slime on myself as a demonstration. Seeing my body, my equipment, and the smell that had clung to my clothes, all become clean, the number of people that wanted to try it overwhelmed me. In the end everyone came and asked for it.

After I had the eleven cleaner slimes clean everyone, I waited until the slimes that were eating in the ditch finish, and then after that I went over to where the main force was.

And then in the same way, I offered to have the cleaner slimes clean the people who had helped carry the dead bodies. I also had the scavenger slimes eat the dirt on the ground and the dirt in the nest of the goblins.

Just like a while ago, because the smell of the blood and bodily fluids of the goblins became extremely thin, the adventurers greatly thanked me for the cleaner slimes’ service.

And then as soon as we finished dealing with the corpses, everyone dispersed, rode the stage coaches and then went home. As for me, I rested in a place a little bit separated from where the stagecoaches were, along with the slimes.

Because of all the food the slimes have eaten today, the poison slime, the acid slime, and the cleaner slime have all become able to split. But because I didn’t have enough magic power in order to use the slave monster contract, I had to wait until I got enough magic power.

In order to allow my magic power to recover faster. I didn’t scramble with the others to be one of the first to ride a stage coach, and decided to be one of the last to ride instead.

I really used up quite a bit of magic power today. As expected I’m quite tired…

The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 2 Chapter 1

TL Note: Just a heads up, there won’t be a chapter in the coming Saturday and Sunday because of exams.

Also the TOC gets updated every chapter, so if you’re not seeing the chapter there, try refreshing the page. It should be updated.

Volume 2 Chapter 1

2nd day of the Mine Monster Subjugation Request

~Side Ryouma~

Just like yesterday, we will also be subjugating monsters today.

Although I said I’d become independent, the truth is I’m still being spoiled by Rheinhart-san and the others. So even if it’s just a little I need to start doing my best.

There’s no problem with where I’m going to be living since I’ll be staying in the abandoned mine. As for my training and my discipline, I’ll just go with my previous life’s routine and also meditate. Aside from that there’s nothing else left except taking requests from the guild, getting along with others, and piling up my experiences in this way.

The problem is my cost of living. But it’s not like I don’t have any money. I have the reward money I got from subjugating that bandit called Melzen of the Red Spear, which totals to 700 small gold coins. And I also have the money I looted from all the bandits, which total to 40 medium gold coins. And then lastly, although it’s not much, I have the money I got from selling off the equipment of the Fang of Orbtem’s members. So for a while I should be able to live a bit luxuriously.

As for making money, if I were to accept the guild request to clean out the latrine pits. Then if I were to clean all 30 pits, I should get 3 middle silver coins, totaling to 3000 suits. For a normal guy, this should last for 30 days.

Moreover, if I were to sell the iron ingots and the water proof cloth wholesale to Serge, I should be able to make more than enough.

While I’m not particularly troubled over it, but because it seems like I’m making money too easily… and because there is high risk involved when working as an adventurer. I figured that I should also think of a different way to make money.

That method doesn’t have to be anything special or make me too much money. In fact, I would go so far as to say that as long as I can make just barely enough to get by then it would be fine.

Why? Because ever since I’ve come to this world, until I met Rheinhart-san and the others, I haven’t used a single suit to keep on living. 100 suits a day should be more than enough for use in case of emergency… and as for the rest of the time, I’ll use it to train myself.

“Ryouma-kun. Hey~, you listening~?”

Ah, no good. I got too caught up in my thoughts again…
“Sorry, I was thinking of something. Is something the matter?”
Syria-san shook her head.
“It’s not good to be distracted in the middle of a fight… is what I thought I’d say but…”
“Even though you’re not really here with us in spirit, you still managed to easily dispose a magical beast.”
Wereanna glanced at me.
“Not even a single beast came over to us, you know?”
“Ah, sorry. My body just moved by itself…”
“Eh, forget it already. Rather than that, I’d like to stop killing monsters nonchalantly while muttering something, nya. It’s really scary, nya.”
“That’s… I’m sorry.”

Was I unconsciously speaking out loud…?

Jeff-san glanced at me and asked.
“About that, Ryouma, are you having problems with your finances? You said something about living expenses so…”
“Actually…”

As I tried to talk about my situation, a male adventurer came.

“Immediately gather by the entrance of the mine! We’re having a meeting!”
Seeing the anxious adventurer, Wereanna asked.
“Did something happen!?”
“The goblins made a village in a corner of the mine. What’s more is that it’s quite big. Fortunately, no adventurers had died, but there are many G Rank adventurers who have been injured.”
“A goblin village, huh? If we don’t get rid of it quickly…”
“I’m gonna go call the others too, so you guys hurry up and gather by the entrance!!”

As he said that, the man left hurriedly. We also left hurriedly and gathered by the entrance of the mine. A lot of adventurers had already gathered there. After waiting for a while, the guild master went up on the stage that was prepared just a while ago.

“I think you’ve already heard most of the story, but I’ll explain it now! Just a while ago in the tunnel where the goblins were, we found a village in that area! Because of this we’ll be starting an operation to completely wipe out the goblins! Consider this to be a mid-scale operation! There should be around 500 goblins! In order to lessen the damages as much as possible, D Rank adventurers up will be the ones to lead. Each rank should gather together and follow orders!!”

After that the guild master finished talking and called out to me.

“Ryouma, you here?”
“I’m here.”
“Although you’re an F Rank right now, in terms of ability you’re already E Rank up. Also, this request is for your E Rank promotion, right? So although it’s a bit early, I’ll have you participate as an E Rank.”
“I Understand.”
“No one has any complaints, right?”

At guild master’s words, no one came to object. I guess it’s the effect of yesterday’s incident.

“Alright! Everyone ready yourselves! If there’s anyone of you that needs some equipment, then come over here! Once you’ve finished your preparations, go gather with your respective ranks and start the operation!”

After that, I gathered with the other E ranked adventurers and took with us the G and F ranked adventurers. Our mission is to block the path of the goblins fleeing and to kill them, making sure no one escapes.

I then entered the meeting of the E Rank. There, the leader that was elected, a female adventurer named Poly, pointed her finger at a point in the map and began explaining the operation.

A, B, C, and D ranked adventurers are going to attack the tunnel and village from both directions, sieging and breaking into it. They will kill all the goblins running away except for those going a certain direction. And the ones waiting for that certain direction are us, the E, F, and G ranked adventurers. We are hiding in wait a little distance away from where the goblins fleeing are headed to. When they get here, we will be killing every single one of them without letting anything escape.

“I believe everyone already knows this, but our mission is to lay here in wait for the fleeing goblins, and then kill them all without letting a single one escape. Also, because we’ve taken with us the F and G ranked adventurers that have no experience, we need a way to ensure their safety. If anyone has any suggestion regarding this matter, please feel free to speak up.”

Many people raised their hands and gave their suggestions. I also gave my own suggestion, which was to use the method I had applied while I was in the forest.

“It was Ryouma-kun, right? What is it?”
“Yes, I have a method when dealing with a great number of goblins. What we could do is to dig a ditch between the nest and the place where we are waiting at and then fill that ditch with acid slimes. And then…”

I took out from my item box, a long rod with a knife attached to it, making it out to be something like a scythe.

“The goblins that have come near can be dealt with, with something like this together with the acid that has been poured into the hole. As for the people from afar, they can be dealt with archery and magic. With this method, the goblins that have fallen into the hole are powerless. Only a few of them should be able to climb up, and while they’re climbing we can pierce them with our spears. And then as long as we stay wary of the goblin archers and the goblin mages we should be fine, and even the beginner adventurers will be able to fight.”

There were quite a few people that liked my idea, and from the looks of it, it seems they have taken it into consideration. They also asked questions about it, and together we were able to hammer out the details. In the end, it was decided that we will be going with my proposal.

I took with me several adventurers that can use earth magic and went to an area in our waiting point, where there were cliffs on both sides of the path. Then using earth magic, we dug a hole that was 4m long, 50m wide, and 3m deep.

Inside the ditch we had just made, holes could be seen here and there. Deep inside this hole is a hollow area. This hollow area is for the sake of hiding the nucleus of the acid slime. In order to keep the slimes from being killed in an extremely unlikely case where a goblin is able to hit their nucleus, they can hide their nucleus in here.

The slimes will extend their tentacles from inside the hole, and melt the goblins that have fallen. The acid slimes start producing acid, and after a while they were able to make a pool of acid and digestive fluids.

When we started this operation, a different group had brought our luggage. The contents of the luggage were the long rods cut out from the nearby trees, and the scythes of the cave mantis that we’ve killed.

The cave mantis’ scythe isn’t that sharp but it’s strong in its own way. Because of that we decided that it’s good enough if its purpose is just to drag the goblins down the hole. I sent an order out to the sticky slimes in my mind, and had them glue the rod and the scythe together with their sticky liquid.

We also used the earth we dug out with earth magic to create some railing on our side, so as to prevent ourselves from falling in to the hole we had just made. We also made a small tower for magicians and archers to stand on. With this, they’ll be able to shoot from quite a distance.

The small tower is quite conspicuous, so I put up an anti-physical barrier with barrier magic to protect from the goblin archers. It’s also important to note that the anti-physical barrier can only block physical attacks and magic attacks will pass through, so everyone still had to be careful of the goblin mages.

It would be great to have put up the barrier on everyone, but unfortunately I’m not that proficient at it and the strength of my barrier is still not that strong. My barrier can work against arrows, but against blunt objects, it’ll break quite easily. Also, if one were to get hit by enough arrows, the barrier might also not last either. Because of this we should put the subjugation of the goblin archers and the goblin mages at maximum priority.

The adventurers ranked F and G are responsible for subjugating the goblins near the ditch we made. As for the E Rank adventurers, they are responsible for fighting in close combat at both sides, driving the goblins down the ditch, and assuring the safety of the F and G ranked adventurers. As for me, I’m waiting right at the center of where we’re waiting for them, striking the goblins from a distance with my bow.

With this, we’ve finished our preparations, and are resting until the battle begins.

After that 1 hour passed, and the battle began.

“Everyone’s at their positions, right? It’s a bit early but the enemy is coming! Please be careful!”

At poly-san’s words we all riled ourselves up. And then after 10 minutes, the first goblins came.

“They’re here! 3 in front! And then there’s more coming from the back!”
“Roger that!!!”

After I reported that I’ve spotted them, the people around me raised their voices. The goblins also noticed us, but because their heads aren’t very good, they came at us in a straight line. The first one of the three goblins, didn’t need to be dragged down the hole and fell by itself. The second one became wary of the hole when it saw the first one fall, but then it got dragged in by the scythe-like rod of one of the adventurers. The third one tried to jump over the hole, but being unable to jump far enough, it came falling straight into the hole.

The goblins that have fallen, cried voices of suffering, but because of being spit on by the acid slimes and because they swallowed the acid, they died fairly soon and it became quiet again. Their bodies were then melted by the acid slimes.

After that, many goblins came one after another. Some of them were made to fall in the hole, while some were felled with arrow or magic. By the way, all the arrowheads I’m using have being dipped in the poison slime’s poison. Because of this even if it’s a light injury, they’ll immediately become unable to move. Like this we were able to put a stop to the attacks of the goblin archers and the goblin mages, and until now not one of us has been injured.

Because I have the Magic Detection skill I can instantly tell when the goblin mages are trying to use magic. And although they can use magic, it’s not like they’re particularly skilled at it, so their invocation is quite slow. As for me, I’m using my Magic Detection, so before they’re even able to invocate, I can shoot them down.

Until now there’s been no casualties on our side, but… what’s up with this number? There’s just too many of them. The goblins we’ve subjugated already number over 500… and on top of that, the digestion fluids of the acid slimes are failing to keep up with the body count, and the corpses are starting to pile up. It’s not a problem yet, but at this rate it will be quite troubling…

The surrounding adventurers also started to be confused.

“Isn’t something strange!?”
“True, there’s really too many of them.”
“At this rate we’ll run out of arrows!”
“My arrows are running low!”
“You there! Don’t waste the arrows!”
“Haa… Haa… why are there so many goblins… until when are they gonna keep on coming?!!”

Goblins are not strong for a magical beast, and they’re not something that’s hated either. With a stature not bigger than that of a human child’s, their power isn’t all that great. The only problem is that they possess the knowledge to use weapons. And the fact that they reproduce ludicrously fast.

Also even if their skill is bad, as long as they have something sharp and can swing it, then it’s more than dangerous enough. There’s also the fact that because there’s so many of them, it becomes rather difficult for a single person to fight them alone. As for us we have over a 100 people ourselves, according to what I‘ve heard in the meeting. But more than half of that is made up of F and G Rank adventurers. These adventurers aren’t very strong to the point where they actually find 1v1’ing a goblin quite difficult, so much so that they can actually lose. And when they do fight they are only able to take out one at a time, and have a tendency to forget their surroundings and can get hit easily when attacked from the side. Naturally, someone with that kind of ability can’t be sent out to the front lines to act as the vanguards.

Because of this, the E Rank adventurers are the ones who were made to fight in close quarters, but unfortunately, their numbers are just insufficient. And although E Rank is the level at which an adventurer is finally able to show some degree of ability, in the end it is still a beginner’s rank.

Also, it’s not like all E Rank adventurers can fight in close quarters. Depending on the person, there are people that specialize in the bow, in magic, and then there are also people that specialize in healing magic. In the end, the number of people that can fight in close quarters number only to 28. And although there are also goblins that have been felled with by arrow and magic, the people fighting as vanguards are already starting to show signs of fatigue. There are also people that have incurred some damages. Although they would come back to the front lines right after being healed, it looks like they’re already at their limit. It’s true that it was certainly possible to deal with a few goblins running away, but this number of goblins is just too much.

It’s fortunate that Poly-san hasn’t lost her calm yet, but if we don’t do something about this, it’ll be really bad.

“Poly-san should I take the front lines with my slimes? It looks like it’s going to be a long battle, so please let me take the front lines and during that time let’s allow the adventurers to rest.”
“Well that’s true. Can I entrust you with this?’
“Yes.”
“Everyone in the front lines! Right now Ryouma and his slimes will substitute with you! During this time, even if it’s just a little bit, please use this time to recover!”

I sent the sticky slimes, the poison slimes, and the scavenger slimes that were on standby to take the front lines where the goblins were. And then I also jumped down from the pedestal, then jumped over the ditch and when I got to the other side, I gave this order to the slimes.

Fight the goblins, and show me the result of all that training you’ve done until now!

When I gave that order, the slimes started trembling in excitement. And then every one of them turned a part of their body into a tentacle and faced towards the goblins coming their way.

The sticky slimes would skillfully manipulate the rod the goblins were holding, hit the goblins, knock them over, and stop their movements with their sticky liquid.

The poison slimes would pick up the spears the goblins were using, smear the spearhead with poison and pierce the goblins with it.

As for the scavenger slimes, they would slip through the opening in between the legs of the goblins, wrap their tentacles around the goblins’ feet, and topple them. When the goblins fell, they would then cling to the head. They would also slide underneath the feet of the goblins, and when stepped on they would move their body and trip the goblins.

Because their power is simply not that strong it’s not possible to beat the goblins dead, but without being killed in a 1v1 situation and through certain varying methods, the slimes were able to kill the goblins. Especially the poison slimes that were able to kill faster than the other slimes because of their poison.

While seeing that, I also fought. Since I got here on the opposite side, the goblins have been swarming.

I take out the two short swords I have by my waist. I jump at the goblins coming at me and strike at its heart, piercing it in an instant, and without stopping I pull out my sword. I then rush at another goblin and cut its carotid artery. Next, I cut a wrist of a goblin’s hand that’s holding a sword, and at the same time kick it down, and have the slimes finish it off. I dodge the spears of the goblin coming at me from behind and move behind them. Continuing that, I moved my short swords, and with them I struck at their medulla oblongata.

“Guki!?’
“Goga!”
“Gue!!”
“Giiiiii!!!”

As I killed them one by one, their guts and blood filled the air. I can hear the death throes of the goblin, but I don’t care. I continue to focus on only killing them one after another.

The goblins may have a similar figure to humans, but they are a magical beast race that has a far stronger life force than humans. Even if their stomach gets pierced, they can still live for a short while. However, that only means to say that they will last a bit longer than humans, in the end if they were to take a fatal wound, then they would still also die.

Moreover, they have one particular feature, which is something brought about because of their similarity to humans. What I’m referring to of course is their vital points. If I were to strike at their vital points, then it is possible to take them out in one hit. For example cutting off their wrists and cutting the carotid artery will cause them to bleed and incapacitate them.

As for the ogres and the trolls who are also similar to the humans it may also be possible, but I’ve never fought against them so I don’t know for sure. In any case, from what I’ve seen so far when fighting goblins, as long as I cut their vital points, they’ll bleed quickly and become unable to fight, allowing me to easily take their lives. Just like I’m doing right now. Like this, there shouldn’t be any problems with subjugating these critters.

Although there is one thing concerning, their numbers. Really, they just keep on coming and coming. Exactly how many are there of these things?

The goblins might keep on coming, but in terms of war potential, we’re hanging on. Because their numbers far outstrip ours, and because we were able to get some room, I made the slimes pick up the arrows that haven’t broken.

I can also hear the voices of the adventurers that are resting, and from the looks of it they seem to be properly resting.

In a place somewhat distant from where Ryouma was fighting, some of the adventurers were talking. One of the female adventurers, seeing Ryouma fight, couldn’t help but say,
“Wait… haa… what’s up with that kid? Isn’t he too strong? Even though… we suffered so much…”
“We’re saved…”
One of the men amongst them, calmly analyzed the situation.
“In any case, let’s leave it to that kid for the time being… He’s buying as some time right now, so let’s do our best and get some rest!! And then we’ll substitute again!!”

At that the adventurers replied in unison.
“Right!!”
“Hey, are those really slimes?”
“Those slimes are really good at using the spear. They might actually even be better than me…”
“Forget being skilled. Why are those slimes using weapons!?”
“There are a lot of things weird, but at least were saved… huh? Arrow?”
“!? Archers! The slimes are bringing over arrows! Hey you! Move aside! Let the slimes pass!”

Slimes using weapons are certainly strange, but, can you really say that you have the luxury to think about that right now?

As I was thinking that, I suddenly felt the presence of magic. Looks like there’s another goblin mage!

I sheathe the short sword I have in my right hand, take out a throwing knife, and then agilely throw it at the mage, killing it one shot.

We continued like that, while the other adventurers continued to recover.

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The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 1 END

TL Note: Remember, suit is their currency.

Volume 1 END
~Side Ryouma~

After the job, I was called over by the guild master. Apparently I have the rights to the money and equipment of the members of the Fang of Orbtem.

I got a bag and the Tear of Keromi that I gave to Sacchi. Inside the bag were all the money of the members of the Fang of Orbtem, totaling to 140,800 suits. As for the equipment, it’s worthless so it’ll all be sold. The money, will of course, be kept.

Unfortunately though, I was told by the guild master not to expect much from selling the equipment. The equipment I got from the Fang of Orbtem definitely used to be good, but because of the acid of the acid slime, many of it has been damaged. Some of the obvious ones were the melted spear that had no spearhead left, and the armor whose leather strap and metal fixings have become brittle, making it impossible to wear.

One exception would be Sacchi’s axe. Because Sacchi was leading, he wasn’t able to use it, leaving it undamaged. It’s also apparently been enchanted with harden, make it a magic weapon. Like this, it should sell for a bit of price.

After that, Ryouma went home after also receiving the gathered corpses of the magical beasts.

When Ryouma rode the stagecoach, a large number of people showered him with praises. And now, he’s leisurely enjoying the quiet ride.

During that, he remembered what had happened again today.

It’s been awhile since I’ve let loose… I wonder when I got mad last was… most likely it was when my boss insulted my deceased mother. So the last time I acted violently was before I retired from that company…

As the people around me saw me thinking about what had happened today, they told me not to mind it. They were the ones were wrong. You’re still a kid, so it can’t be helped.
But am I kid? Wrong. Even if my body is that of a kid’s, I’m already a 42 year old grown man. I’m an adult that should be capable of reason.

Reason, do I have that?… No. Today I gave into my emotions and flew off the handle. Although I may not be completely out of mind, it still wouldn’t be strange for me to go on a rampage given the chance. Today I got provoked by the first six, and then because of Sacchi’s words, I was really just a little bit off of completely losing all sense of reason.

Because of the poison, I was able to cool my head a bit. And then, after that because I brought out my slimes from the Dimension Home, I was able to keep my distance and calm myself down. However, if I hadn’t let the slimes fight and instead fought by myself. I would probably have killed all of them. When Sacchi came at me the last time, I seriously wanted to strangle him to death.

Will I kill when I’m not liked? Will I kill whenever someone picks a fight with me? …if so, then how would I be any different from the Fang of Orbtem?

Somehow someway I was able to keep myself, but saying something like “I wanted to kill Sacchi by impulse” is unacceptable.

Right now, my abilities are more than enough. The only problem left is… my mind.

Now that I think about it, during my school days, did I really try to hold back? At that time there was already a difference in power between myself and my opponent. Would it have been possible to deal with them without hurting them? While I say that did my best at holding back, isn’t there also a part of me saying that I wanted to hurt them?

…I can’t refute that.

Now that I think about it… since I’ve come into this world, nothing has changed. I isolated myself in the forest, and avoided interacting with other people because I hated it. And then just like that, I kept living by myself in the forest.

And then, at a time like that, I met Rheinhart-san and the others.

If I hadn’t met them, I would have put off leaving the forest, and in the end I probably wouldn’t have been able to leave it. Since I’ve met them, I’ve troubled them a lot. They provided for my lodging and my food. They welcomed me warmly… and, slowly, I started relying on them.

Thinking back on the things that have happened since I’ve come here. Running from the things I don’t like, having no hardships, and being spoiled by the duke and playing around………………………..is no good. If I keep going like this, I’ll end up being worthless.

I’m grateful to the household of the duke, but I’m going to try leaving them. I need to retrain myself. Continuing to rely on the duke like this is also no good… I need to become independent.

Until now I’ve always been thinking on how I can show them my gratitude. But after everything they’ve done for me, to say I’m going to pay that back, it’s really quite shameless.

I kept thinking about that until I got to the town, then I made up my mind. When I got back to the lodging, I headed to where the four members of the Jamil Household were.

I was greeted by Aro-ne-san, and then brought to the table where the four members of the Jamil Household were.

“Welcome home, Ryouma-san.”
“Welcome home.”
“Welcome home. Looks like today got a bit rough, huh?”
“It’s not good to push yourself too hard.”

Looks like they already know about today.

“Everyone, thank you very much. This is quite sudden, but there’s something I’d like to talk about.”

The words I spoke after giving my thanks, immediately caused the four people’s faces to stiffen.

“What’s wrong?”
“What is it all of the sudden, Ryouma-san?”

The one who asked first with a serious expression was Rheinhart-san. And the one who said the next line with an uneasy expression was Elia.

“I’ve decided what I should do now from here on. I’ve been greatly taken care of by everyone but… I’m leaving because I want to become independent.”

The moment I said that, Elia stood from her seat and pressed me for answers. The other three remained seated without saying anything.

“What do you mean by that!?”
“I thought that if I were to keep going like this, being taken care of by everyone, I’ll end up becoming some no good guy. I’ve been spoiled much by everyone in these past few weeks, and I accepted that like it was perfectly normal. On top of that, today I lost control of myself, and giving in to my emotions I acted violently. It may be just me who’s saying this, but I believe I’m quite strong compared to other people. Because of that, if I were to lose control of myself and act violently, a lot of people could get hurt. That’s why I intend to become independent and retrain myself.”
“That… can’t we go together?”
“If we’re together, then I believe I’ll end up being spoiled. That’s why I’d like to take some distance for a bit.”

At that, the Madam asked.

“A bit, so in other words it’s not like we won’t meet again right?”
“Yes. I’m not keeping distance because of something like hate. That’s why if it’s alright, I’d like to meet again after I’ve retrained myself.”
At those words, the Madam exclaimed.
“Of course! Although really it would be fine to keep being spoiled. Ryouma-kun, you’re still only 11 years old, you’re at an age where it’s not strange at all for you to be living with your parents. Ryouma-kun, we’ll welcome you whenever you want!”
“Mother!? You’re not going to stop Ryouma-san!?”
“Elia, it’s not like we’ll never meet Ryouma-kun again. Elia, you’ll be going to school, and as for Ryouma, he too will be going to study on his own. Although, honestly speaking, I don’t believe there’s any need. Rather, I believe what’s important for Ryouma right now, is for Ryouma to be spoiled.”
Seeing the Madam start changing the flow of the conversation. Rheinhart-san interjected.
“Hey, hey, Elize. Haven’t we already made our decision on this?”
“I know. That’s why I’m not objecting. I’m just giving my opinion, that’s all.”

Decided? What is?

“Umm… what do you mean by ‘decided’?”

The ones who answered that question were Rheinbach-sama and Sebasu-san, respectively.

“Actually, we’ve already expected Ryouma-kun to say something like that since we’ve arrived at this town. After all, even though I’m like this I’ve already lived for a quite some time. Colleagues, subordinates, enemy, there are all sorts, but I’ve seen kids like you plenty of times.”

“Ryouma-sama may have felt that he was being spoiled, but we thought no such thing. It’s true, that until now the food and the lodging have been provided for by the duke, but that’s all there is to it.

Ryouma-sama did not make any requests, registered into the guild, and continued to work earnestly. Ryouma-sama is the kind of person that will do his best even without being told to. So we believed that the day would come when Ryouma-sama would bring up something like this. Of course, it was far earlier than we had expected.”

Rheinbach-sama nodded.

“We won’t stop you, but you’re not allowed to overdo it. In the past I had a subordinate that was like you. He was quite talented at the sword, and so he eagerly trained himself in its ways. He did nothing but train under harsh conditions, and in the end his body broke and he became unable to wield it.

Children like you are able to do their best by themselves, but in exchange they don’t know how to pace themselves. For some reason, these types keep going on until they destroy their body, and in the end before they’re able to get anything done, they end up broken. People like that are too serious and when they’re not able to reach their goals, they persecute themselves. And then there are also those who put their efforts in the wrong places so be careful.”

Sebasu-san continued.

“Other than resting there’s also asking other people for help and relying on them. Please treasure the fact that others can also help you. Ryouma-sama take on everything by himself a bit too much. Just doing what one is capable of by themselves like what the Ojousama had done in the house in the Forest of Gana, isn’t only limited to the Ojousama. I believe this also applies to Ryouma-sama.”

Rheinhart-san heaved a sigh.

“Seeing you, sometimes reminds me of a good friend I had. Your personality is completely the opposite though. You’re serious, whereas he’s not. He would normally throw all the annoying things to his subordinates or to other people while he’d slip out from his work. That much is a bit troubling, but I think that’s something that could be important to you. Just like what Sebasu and my dad told you, you should rest properly and rely on others. That kind of stuff isn’t bad, you know? My good friend for example, even though he does things like that, he’s doing pretty well.”

………………. I didn’t notice it at all. To think that they were actually thinking about me to this extent. I am truly grateful.

Now that I realize it, unconsciously, I suddenly started to shed tears.

“Thank you………very much.”
Rheinhart-san smiled.
“It’s fine. In exchange, I want you to make several promises. First of all, it’s alright if you separate from us for a bit, but you must come back. This world is dangerous, and all the more so when you’re an adventurer. I think Ryouma also understands this, but please come back to us without dying. It’s also fine if you come frequently.”

Rheinbach-sama nodded.
“Second, you have to continuously send us letters. And if anything happens, report it to us, so we can warn you if anything’s amiss.”
“Otherwise please let me personally visit Ryouma-sama with my space magic.”

Suggested Sebasu-san as the Madam began to vehemently push the third promise.

“And third, if something happens I want you to rely on us without holding anything back! You absolutely have to! Ryouma-kun, your magic, knowledge, and fighting abilities are already more than enough. You’re already more than good enough to be employed by us, so if anything were to happen you can also come work for us.”

I don’t know what I should say anymore… all I can really say now is that I’m grateful. At times like these it’s really unfortunate that my vocabulary is so limited.

“Ryouma-san.”

Hearing that voice, I looked at Elia, who had come to my side. Then while staring straight at me, Elia said this,

“I’m a little disappointed, but… if that’s what Ryouma-san has decided then I’ll respect that… however!”

And then Elia pointed her finger at me and then declared this,

“I have a condition!”
“…condition?”
“On top of the conditions my father, my grandfather, and mother had given. I’m going to give one more condition. Our reunion will be after 3 years, and then after 6 years.”
“After 3 years and then after 6 years?”

“I believe I’ve said this to Ryouma-san before, but I’ll be going to the school in the imperial capital this year to study. In that school, the graduation is after six years. Halfway through that, I’ll be given a long holiday. So at that time, let’s meet again. Until that time, I’ll do my best by myself in studying and practicing my magic.”

[TL Note: The meet used by Elia when she says, “Let’s meet again.” Uses 逢う and not 会う. Meaning it is an emotional meeting. The kind of meeting where you’re going, “My love, my love! Where art thou? Thou hast left mine chest cold. And mine heart in tatters. Ah! If I could fly I would and embrace thee now! Ah I want to meet thee!”… ♫ well something like that. Basically, it’s emotional whereas the other is just routine.]

I see, so it’s like that.

“I got it.”
“Good. I won’t forgive you if you forget because you got too caught up with something.”

As she said that she glared at me hard. Certainly, I do have the tendency to lose track of time when I’m fussing over something.

“I’ll do my best not to forget.”
“At a time like this you should say that you won’t forget! Seriously…”

Said Elia with an amazed voice. At that, Rheinhart-san asked me while laughing.

“Hahaha, well I think it’s going to be fine. By the way, have you decided what you’re going to be doing from now on?”
“I have my slimes, so I thought I’d try living around this town. And also I can live in this town as an adventurer, and while keeping my relationship with others I’ll be able to practice my Alchemy.”
“I see… then in that case can I ask you to care of something for me?’
“What is it? If it’s something I can do, then by all means.”

“I want you to take care of the abandoned mine you’re clearing out right now. We had only left it alone for a year and yet it’s already been infested by magical beasts and has even had a nest created within it…

It’s not good for there to be a nest of magical beasts not that far away from the town. That’s why I want the abandoned mine to be cleared out from time to time. If it’s not possible alone, then I’d like for you to post in the guild.

I’ve thought of blocking the entrance with earth magic or something, but then the cave mantises could just use their scythes to dig and make a nest anyway so there’s no meaning to that.”
“If it’s something like that then I’ll accept it.”

“Thanks. As thanks, you can use that mine as you wish. If it’s over there, then even if you train and practice your magic it won’t be a problem.”
“That’s…”

Isn’t that place perfect for me?! There’s space for me to make a house, it’s at a good distance away from where the people are, it’s doesn’t attract people so it’ll be good for my training, and I can also let the slimes muck around freely and on top of that I can make ingots as I please. There’s more to it for me than money, but…

“If you treat me this well, then I’ll end up being spoiled again…”
“I’m not spoiling you. This is a proper deal. Within the magical beasts, there are even more dangerous races. If those were to make nest not far away from the town, you understand what will happen once they multiply, right?”
“I understand that, but to allow me to do as I please with that mine…”

At that time, Rheinhart-san stopped me from talking with his hand, and with a serious face said this.

“It’s not strange to hire someone to take care of an abandoned mine. Normally the public office will send someone to check its condition and employ people, but… apparently this town’s public office doesn’t have that kind of management. That’s why I’m employing someone right now who has the ability and is someone that I can trust.

Technically speaking giving a different payment is a given, but we are actually able to settle that issue by just allowing you to do as you please with this mine that no longer holds any value to us or to the town. We are also able to decrease the work load, and there’s also no expenses for us.”

…Certainly, that may be true. Putting it that way, even I can understand. While I think that they’re spoiling me with their good intentions, it also makes me feel bad to just flat out reject them…

Realizing that I was thinking about such things, Rheinhart-san smiled wryly as he said this.

“Oh boy, looks like you really are too serious… you don’t’ have to think so much over something so trivial. Alright, let’s do it this way. Make some ingots over there, and then from that we’ll make some profit. Oh, and please don’t push yourself too hard making ingots.”
“I understand, I’ll do my best!”

Ok, I’ll set the quota for every month and then sell it whole sale to Serge-san every month. I have to be able do at least this much, otherwise it just wouldn’t be right.

“No, there’s no need for you to be that fired up…”
Seeing Ryouma like that the madam smiled.
“Also, while you’re here, come stay with us in the lodging.”
“Umm, that’s…”
“No. Even though I thought we would finally be able to travel together. Really, Ryouma-kun, you made up your mind too fast. That’s why you absolutely have to stay here!”
Rheinbach-sama continued.
“It’s only for around 1 or 2 months. Even if you retrain yourself after that time period, it still won’t be too late. This should be fine even for you, right?”

…If I don’t reject this I’ll end up being spoiled again

“You won’t be spoiled, Ryouma-sama.”

Sebasu-san read my mind!?

“Ryouma-kun. It came out on your face, you know? Just like a while ago.”
“It’s a face that’s really easy to understand.’

Did I really make that kind of face?

The madam puffed up and with a really strong tone said.
“In any case! Ryouma-kun, while we’re here in this town you’re going to be staying with us! Ok?”
“But…”
“Ok?”
“But…”
“It’s alright right!? Good!”

Doesn’t look like the madam will agree to anything else except a yes… it can’t be helped… or rather… was I always this weak-willed? Really, I’m extremely grateful but…

“I understand, then until everyone leaves the town, please take care of me.”
The madam grinned as she nodded.
“Right! That’s good~”

Well this kind of goodwill is something precious, so in the end I wasn’t able to reject.

After that, I gave my thanks one more time, then went back to my room.

Having gone back to my room, before going to sleep, I thought back to what the others said.

As I did so, tears naturally flooded my eyes.

I truly cannot express the gratitude I feel to those people…

The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 1 Chapter 25

TL Note: Raypin is the one that keeps saying –de aru and is not a samurai. Asagi is the one that keeps going –de gozaru and is samurai. I may have mixed this up a while ago, but only in the TL notes I think.

Also when you see the words old man, it’s usually Jeff talking.

Volume 1 Chapter 25

After Ryouma left, the onlookers all started talking.

“Old man, can’t you stop them?’

“If I could I would have already had! They’ve already agreed to duel so there’s nothing we can do anymore!”

“If you leave them alone like that the members of the Fang of Orbtem will be in danger –de gozaru.”

Syria-san tilted her head.

“Eh, the Fang of Orbtem is? Not Ryouma-kun?”

Wogan nodded.

“Umu, most likely even if the Fang of Orbtem uses all their members they won’t be able to stop Ryouma.”

“It looks like Sacchi has pissed him off, nya.”

Pondering, Jeff san said,

“He probably feels some sort of gratitude to the nobles that Sacchi was talking about. Old man, do you know something?”

“Whether I know something or not, the ones who put up the request for today is them, the Ducal Household of Jamil.”

At that the group couldn’t help but exclaim in unison.

“What!?”

“The Duke!? Isn’t that like a super big thing!?”

“Why is something like that involved!?’

“Like I’d know! Even I was surprised. That guy actually came over with the entire household of the duke to register, you know?”

Jeff shook his head.

“I don’t understand that guy…”

Pondering, Syria-san asked,

“Ryouma-kun isn’t a noble, right?”

“I’ve never heard of the Takebayashi Family so he most likely isn’t. And besides, if he were a noble then there’s no way he would have taken the job to clean the latrine pits –de aru.”

Mizelia-san sighed.

“Ryouma-kun is quite the mysterious child, huh? In a lot of ways.”

Nodding, Syria-san said,

“He also has a lot of high level and difficult skills at his age.”

“Holding several resistance skills, and that story about him being an orphan, it would appear that he has suffered quite a lot –de gozaru.”

Jeff-san nodded.

“There’s no mistaking that. Lv7 Disease Resist and Sleep Resist, isn’t something you get by living normally.”

“Everyone, rather than inquiring about Ryouma’s past, right now we need to find out how to put a stop to this mess –de gozaru.”

Wogan sighing said.

“Even if you tell me that… fortunately I’ll be the referee again. So I’ll stop it when things get bad, then under the pretense of following the order of the referee, you guys will interfere and stop them. Asagi and Jeff, you two should be able to stop Ryouma… but in the worst case I’ll go as well.”

“Understood –de gozaru.”

“Guess we’ll have to go with that.”

Mizelia-san nodded.

“Understood! By the way, Ryouma-kun said that he’d bring his slave monsters but…”

As if he realized something, Jeff asked,

“By monsters, he means those slimes, right? And when he mentioned that he’d bring them back with him… he wouldn’t actually go all the way back to the town, would he?”

Shaking his head, Wogan replied,

“It would be great if he just ran away like that but… That guy is unusually earnest so I doubt he’d run. He also doesn’t have any reason to run.”

“Ah, he came back nya!”

Ryouma came back with his slave monsters following him from behind. Seeing that, the Fang of Orbtem’s members that were insulting Ryouma, became even more enraged.

“Hey, that guy brought slimes!”

“Slimes? The asshole is treating us like idiots!”

“Wait a minute… isn’t there a bit too many?”

The slimes were bouncing behind Ryouma in a straight line, but that line was extending continuously, seemingly having no end.

“Sorry, my bad. Slimes are really quite slow so… And then, there’s also a lot of them so I figured that if I brought them all at the same time it would be quite shocking… so instead I made them line up behind me. We could have come faster if I didn’t make them line up but…”

“Whatever, let’s just start this stupid duel! Brat!!”

Because Sacchi yelled that, Ryouma ordered the slimes to break formation and to come as soon as possible. Doing so, a great number of slimes gathered.

“Eh? Wai–, kyaa!?”

“So many!”

“How many are there!?”

After they had all gathered, Ryouma spoke.

“I made you wait, these are my slave monsters. 4310 slimes in total.”

“That’s too many!”

Sacchi’s yell spoke not only for himself but for everyone who saw that scene.

“Seeing all the slimes gathered in a bright place like this, it certainly is an amazing sight, -de aru.”

“This is the first time that this one has seen so many slimes –de gozaru.”

Syria-san glanced at the Fang of Orbtem’s members.

“Looks like some of them have already withdrawn.”

Sacchi was shocked at the number of slimes that came out but he still yelled to start the duel. And so the two of them went to their starting positions, and at Wogan’s sign, the duel began. However, because of the great number of slimes, the members of the Fang of Orbtem were confused. Seeing that, Sacchi jeered at them.

“You idiots! Why the hell are you being scared just because there’s a lot slimes!? Kill them all!”

At those words, around ten men stepped forward. Within that ten, one man tried to cut one of the nearby slimes.

“Ha! Che! Next… shit!”

“What are you doing? You suck!! You still call yourself a D Rank with that!?”

Dodging and dodging, the Slime continued to dodge the man’s sword. That man being completely unable to beat that slime, was joined by another man, but…

“Arrgh! What is this slime!?”

“It moves so damn quick while it dodges!”

“Why can a slime dodge like this!?”

“Even if I graze it, I just can’t hit the nucleus…”

The 10 D ranked adventurers swung their swords many times, but they couldn’t kill even a single slime. Seeing that, the onlookers were left speechless.

Looking at that scene, Mizelia-san praised,

“Unexpectedly, those slimes can move pretty darn well.”

“Yeah, those slimes are unusually strong.”

“Umu. Completely seeing through their opponents attacks, they dodge while taking only a paper thin space – de gozaru.”

“I heard that amongst the slave magic users, there were some people that strengthened their slave monsters by training them. Looks like, Ryouma’s slimes have received some sort of training -de aru.”

“It’s not the kind of movement you’d expect from a slime, nya.”

Seeing that the slimes couldn’t be hit at all, they looked at it admiringly. Hearing that, Sacchi yelled jeers even harder.

“How long have you dumbasses been adventurers!? Stop messing around and get rid of those slimes!!”

And so it became a rough melee between the 33 adventurers and the 4310 slimes… or so it should have been.

“Uwaah!? What is this!”

“I can’t move! Help me!”

While rushing in to attack, the Sticky Slime spit out its Strong Sticky Liquid, tripping seven of the men and turning them over. Five other men tried to save them, but the liquid got stuck to them too. Having been entangled, all 12 of them where stuck on the ground. Seeing that, the other adventurers stopped moving.

“It’s a high class race! Don’t save the people that have fallen over! You’ll get stuck too!”

“Aah!! What is this!?”

“Now what!?”

“The, the spear…”

“What about the spear!”

“My spear is melting!”

“It’s acid slime! There are acid slimes mixed in with those!”

“What!?”

“Be careful! Your weapon will be melted!”

“This isn’t funny! My sword was expensive, you know!?”

“Hey! Your armor is being melted!!”

“Che! Zeno, Kotor… what’s wrong Kotor!? Get a hold of yourself!”

“Be… care….ful… the…re….are….ev…en….poi…..son…..sli…mes…”

“Ko, Kotor-san has been done in!?”

“Seriously?… What’s wrong with these slimes!!?”

At the unexpected fierce attack of the slimes, the members of the Fang of Orbtem were defeated one after another. Seeing that one-sided fight, the onlookers were stunned.

“How frightening…”

“It gets really troublesome when you gather these many high class slimes… One at a time can be disposed of easily, but…”

“Unless you wipe them all out with magic, this is impossible.”

“Because the slimes’ movements are good, it’s become even more difficult to kill them –de gozaru. The members of the Fang of Orbtem needs to attack the nucleus. In contrast to that, all the slimes need to do is spit out poison and acid without needing to actually target something so precise, while the members of the Fang of Orbtem, because they need to get close to attack, are basically targets that keep coming to get hit. If they throw up the acid and the poison they’ve dodged, it’s also easy for it to hit their allies or their armors. On top of that, because of the number of slimes there are they won’t be able to dodge – de gozaru.”

“As a magician, it’s still fine for me, but it’s extremely difficult for warriors. However, even for a magician, if one were to be attacked by this many slimes, there’s a possibility of eventually being grabbed. I will definitely not make an enemy out of Ryouma – de aru.”

Jeff showed a hint of disdain.

“That bastard, Sacchi. It became like this because he let his guard down because they were slimes.”

“And on top of that, they’re also really slow at dealing with them, nya.”

The onlookers now all believe that the Fang of Orbtem’s defeat has already been decided. And opinions about it have been coming out here and there. As for the leader, Sacchi. His comrades have all fallen, and the only thing he can do now is to keep yelling.

“Son of a bitch! Why are we, by that brat!? Why, by something like a slime!? This is dirty you brat!”

“The one who said to use my slave monsters was you, right? I did tell you that I didn’t mind fighting alone.”

“Arrgh… then, you, using poison is unfair!!”

“Is that something you should be saying!!!!?”

Right after Ryouma’s thundering roar against the Sacchi who was blind to his own shortcomings, more members of the Fang of Orbtem fell, and for a moment the battle stopped. Because of that what Ryouma had just said echoed.

“Using poison is unfair? You also used poison, right? Then we’re the same. You don’t have the right to say it’s unfair or to call me a coward. At the very least I don’t want to be told that by someone like you.”

“Wh, what are you talking about!?”

“Don’t play the fool… Raypin-san!”

“What is it –de aru?”

“Please use Identify on the contents of this wine.”

Saying that, Ryouma threw the wine Sacchi had thrown him before to Raypin. After that, Raypin who had used Identify on the bottle, yelled.

“This wine is poisoned!!”

At those words, the entire area broke into an uproar. Wogan stopped the duel, went over to Sacchi, and said this.

“The duel is being postponed! Sacchi, I would like to hear an explanation from you.”

“Wait, I didn’t do something like putting poison in the wine! That kid put it in the bottle himself and is trying to screw me over! Didn’t he add the poison when he called the slimes a while ago? As proof of that, that kid is perfectly ok, isn’t he!? He drank the wine, so isn’t it weird that he’s perfectly ok!?”

“Not really – de aru. This poison will only lightly paralyze the limbs. It will be problematic to hold one’s weapons, but just standing alone shouldn’t be a problem. – de aru.”

“Ryouma, are you paralyzed?”

“I have the Poison Resist Skill, so no. If I didn’t have the poison resist, then I wouldn’t have drank it to begin with.”

“Don’t lie! Even if you had 1 or 2 levels of poison resist, this isn’t the kind of poison that you could…”

At this time Sacchi who has been enraged until now has become shocked and impatient upon finding out that Ryouma knew about the poison. And upon knowing that Ryouma drank the wine while knowing about the poison in it, he became even more enraged. Having been taken over by his emotions, he couldn’t help but explode at Ryouma.

“… Certainly, just as Sacchi has mentioned, this is not the kind of poison that you could stop with a level or two of poison resist – de aru”

Wogan shook his head and stared hard at Sacchi.

“Sacchi, you did say that you didn’t know about the poison in this wine, right? You said the one who put the poison in this was Ryouma. Then, how come you know the strength of the poison mixed in with this? Hahhhh?”

“Gugugu…

“Give it up, Sacchi.”

“If you’d like, should I drink what’s left of that wine in front you? I’ll do it just like a while ago.”

“Certainly, with that you’ll definitely be able to provide proof that you did drink it, but… is that alright – de aru?”

“There’s won’t be any problem because my poison resist level is 7. Most poison won’t work on me.”

At those words, the people around started to murmur.

“Ryouma, how have you been living up till now? Level 7 poison resist is definitely not something you can get by living normally – de aru.”

“Ahh, I became a target of gambling, you see? So it was probably because of that, that it rose.”

“Gambling?”

“I’m an orphan who was taken in by my grandparents who lived in a village that was extremely cruel to outsiders. My grandparents raised me up, but because I’m an outsider the villagers hated me. And so they made me drink things like dirty water and poison. They then made me the target of their gambling and gambled as to whether or not I’d end up suffering because of the poison or because of a disease.”

Ryouma smoothly mixed the memories of his past life with the settings that the gods had set up for him. And after having said that, the people around him looked at him with eyes of pity.

“I asked you something bad. My apologies – de aru.”

“Please don’t mind, it’s already something of the past. Ah, and guild master please use this as evidence for the time being.”

As he said that, Ryouma showed the poison resist Lv7 on his status board.

“I’ve confirmed it. You certainly have poison resist Lv7. With this, unless it’s a really powerful medicine, then it won’t take effect on you. Now then, this duel, because of Sacchi’s foul play! This duel goes to Ryouma!!”

At Wogan’s decision, the people around shouted cheers and showered Ryouma with praises. At the same time they threw jeers at Sacchi and the Fang of Orbtem. After that, Sacchi and the Fang of Orbtem’s members, were taken to the guild by a number of adventurers and guild employees. Glancing at that, the onlookers finished their lunch break and went back to subjugate the monsters.

However at that time, Sacchi, who was unable to accept the result of the duel, did something reckless. We thought Sacchi would obediently allow himself to be taken, but he went against that expectation and knocked the adventurer, who was taking him to the guild. He then stole that adventurer’s one-handed axe and jumped at Ryouma from behind.

“Die brat!!!”

However that was also meaningless to Ryouma. Ryouma, without even turning to look at Sacchi, took a step back, and while dodging Sacchi’s stolen axe, bent his back backwards and grabbed Sacchi’s Adam’s apple with the thumb and index finger of his left hand.

“Awk!? Gak! Gah……”

At that attack, Sacchi unintentionally stepped back and coughed violently. During that time, Ryouma turned and stared at Sacchi.

At the same time, Sacchi glared at Ryouma again and came slashing with his axe diagonally down. Ryouma closed the gap between himself and Sacchi, and with his left arm he hit Sacchi’s right hand which held the axe, and averted the attack.

And then with Sacchi having swung the axe and extended his arms, Ryouma entangled his own right arm underneath the other side of the elbow of Sacchi’s right arm and like that kicked the back of Sacchi’s right knee. Having made Sacchi kneel, he hardened the arm he had taken Sacchi’s back with. At that, Sacchi dropped the axe he was holding.

After tightening his arm, Ryouma hit the back of Sacchi’s head with a karate chop from his left, grabbed Sacchi’s collar, pulled him behind, bent him backwards, then putting his arm around Sacchi’s neck, he strangled him and took away his consciousness.

Because of Ryouma, Sacchi was quickly arrested, preventing things from escalating. However, seeing Ryouma easily subdue Sacchi, who is a C Rank adventurer, the people around couldn’t help but be shocked.

Ryouma handed Sacchi over to the adventurers responsible for taking him to the guild. And then went back to Jeff and the others, only, the face he had was clearly not happy.　

Jeff-san seeing that expression.

“Something wrong, Ryouma?”

“Is the poison taking effect, nya?”

“No, there’s no problem with the poison. It’s just that… in the past, I wasn’t able to lash out. And so, while I thought of that, I thought of lashing out this time… but now that I’ve tried it, it doesn’t really make me feel that much better.”

Until the incident had ended, Ryouma had been remembering something painful. But, hearing Ryouma’s words just now, the expression of Jeff and the others who were there, softened. Seeing that, Ryouma was a little bewildered.

“What is it?”

“It’s nothing.”

‘We were just a little worried – de gozaru. Ryouma already possess a suitable amount of strength. If today’s incident caused Ryouma to become drunk on violence, then it would be quite bad for Ryouma, himself, as well as his surroundings. – de gozaru. But it looks like there’s no need to worry about that. –de gozaru.”

Mizelia-san nodded.

“Among the adventurers that raised their rank, there are definitely those that become arrogant and become violent… The members of the Fang of Orbtem, especially Sacchi, are that kind of adventurer.”

“In the past, he was also a serious adventurer… still, he was never the type who would poison someone in a duel. But then he rose up in the ranks, got drunk in power, and now he’s nothing but a shadow of his former self.”

Glancing at Ryouma, Wogan said.

“It’s good that you’re not that kind of person. It was a little flashy, but something like this is a normal occurrence for us adventurers. Also, you don’t have to worry about those guys, since they only have themselves to blame. As for Sacchi’s comrades that haven’t done that much wrong, we’ll let them off with a light warning and punishment. Of course, provided that they’re really innocent, right?”

After talking for a bit, Ryouma and the rest went back to subjugating monsters.

Jigglypuff, Schedules, and Donations

I am Jigglypuff!
Right, I’ll try to keep this short. Basically I’m a really whimsical person and I chose the series I’m translating now randomly, I also chose my name, blog name, and site randomly. Didn’t even know if I could actually translate with my level of Japanese, although, I have read novels in Japanese… but I’ve never translated.

Anyways, I’ve finally decided on a more apt name for myself. I chose my avatar randomly too, but it’s grown on me. And as such from this day on, I shall be referred to as Jigglypuff! Jiggly-sensei! 😀

Translation Schedule
TLDR: 1 Chapter everyday. If it’s one of the longer ones I’m cutting it into parts.
So I’m going to change the schedule again. This time I’m going to do things by parts. A normal Chinese webnovel chapter actually goes for around 2k to 2.5k words in English after translation. Or at the very least CD does.

The Man Picked up by the Gods goes from 2k to 6k+ words in English after translations. This discrepancy is just ridiculous. So I’ve technically been doing double or triple releases on some days. Chapter 22 is an example of almost 6k words at 5.6k words, and no, that’s not the longest one. Just one of the more recent long ones.

And so I’ve decided to post chapter parts every day from now on instead of full chapters for a total of seven chapter parts. Don’t worry, I’m not just doing this because I like cliff hanging people. It’s because it’s actually annoying to randomly realize that I have to write a 6000 word translations on some days. Anyways each chapter part will have around 2k to 2.5k words. That chapter part may or may not actually be a full chapter. It’s so random so who knows, you might actually get seven chapters in a week or just two long ones and one short. But regardless you’ll get similar number of words.

If there’s any discrepancy in the number of words between chapter parts from now on, that’ll be because I’m looking for a good place to cut the chapter. So one may end up longer or shorter than the others. But you won’t get a situation where one chapter is 2k and another is 500words. That won’t be happening.

Donation and Extra Chapters
So this is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now, I hope you guys don’t get mad. It’s optional anyway. I’ll do an extra chapter part whenever the donation box reaches 50$. And I’ll commit to releasing a total of at least three of these in a week. Anything more than that, depends on me. If I can afford to release more, then I will. I’ll make some site changes to make the queue number viewable.

Schedule for Extra Chapters
In every week from now on there will be 7 regular chapter parts each at 2k to 2.5k words. With extra parts I’ll simply increase that from 7 to 8 to 9… etc. And I’ll be releasing it sometime in that week.