The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 3 Chapter 18

We spent five days in the carriage.

During that time, I took care of the cooking duties and learned how to handle horses from Mizelia-san and Miya-san.

I was tasked with the cooking because my cooking was the best in the group.

In exchange, the other jobs were mostly taken care of by the others. For example, although we were attacked a lot by the goblins, I didn’t have to go out and fight as Raypin-san would swiftly take care of them each and every time.

Consequently, I ended up with plenty of time in my hands. I’ve heard that horseback riding is quite useful, so I asked Miya-san and Mizelia-san if they could teach me, and they happily complied.

The thing though is that I didn’t know how to ride horses back in my previous life either, so even until now, I’m still learning how to ride them.

“You’ve already got the basics down. All that’s left is for you to practice and get used to it.” [Mizelia]
“Thank you. Mizelia-san.” [Ryouma]

Mizelia-san may have given me her approval, but I haven’t really gotten the basics down just yet. If I don’t practice, I’ll probably forget it immediately, so… should I buy a carriage? But there’s not really a lot of opportunities to use it, so it’s kind of a waste. It’s not just buying a carriage either too as I’ll need to buy a horse. Eh, I’ll just think about it later.

4 hours passed and we finally closed in to the village that’s closest to the forest. 20 more minutes passed, and the village gates entered our sight.

From hereon it’s going to get crowded with people so I switched with Mizelia-san, and then gazed at the village. This village is a lot quieter compared to Gimuru, but it’s bustling too in its own way.

Along the way I noticed that the houses here were are all made out of wood. I guess their forests must be thriving.

Caught up in my thoughts, before I knew it, we were already at the lodging’s entrance. There were 3 men and 4 women in our group, so we took 2 rooms, and then we made way for the adventurer’s guild. There, we gathered information about the places that the treants frequented. Afterwards, we prepared for tomorrow.

Tomorrow

“Is everyone ready, de gozaru?” [Asagi]

At Asagi-san’s question we all nodded, and then we entered the forest.

Leading in front was Miya-san and Mizelia-san, followed by Syria-san and Wereanna-san, and then by Raypin-san, and finally Asagi-san.

The forest is dimly lit and dense. If it were only that then it wouldn’t be different form the Forest of Gana, but for some reason, the atmosphere in the forest was suffocating.

“Oh? We’ve already found one. Miya, look. 20 meters ahead of us, there’s a tree that’s somewhat thicker than the others, de aru.” [Raypin]
“Is that it, nyaa?” [Miya]
“That’s right.” [Raypin]

At Raypin-san’s words, Miya-san pointed towards the tree. The tree was a needle-leaved tree with a diameter of 30cm to 40cm. Its height was around 4 meters high. It looked almost exactly the same as the trees around it. It was slightly bigger than the others, but that’s not really something that you’d notice at a glance.

After Raypin-san confirmed that the tree was a treant, and after we were sure that there were no other treants around it, Miya-san and Mizelia-san headed towards it with a one-handed axe in hand.

When Miya-san and Mizelia-san neared the tree, its branches suddenly curved. And like a whip it lashed with its branches from above towards the two. The two dodged it, but the treant’s branches could curve surprisingly well as it attempted to wrap around Mizelia-san.

Mizelia-san struck back with her axe, and at the same time – although I couldn’t really see her well as she appeared as nothing more than a shadow from where I was – she bashed the treant with her axe.

Immediately after, the branches began to droop, then the tree lurched. With the fight over, they waved at us, calling us over. When we got to where they were, Miya-san lodged her axe into the treant’s face.

“If you dodge the branches and hit it like this, you can beat it in one hit, nyaa.” [Miya]
“The fight is fairly easy when it’s 1 on 1, so if ever we come across another lone treant, Ryouma, you should try fighting it.” [Mizelia]
“Thank you very much.” [Ryouma]

While Miya-san and Mizelia-san were giving me advice, I noticed Raypin-san making a difficult face.

“Raypin-san, is something the matter?” [Ryouma]
“We found one too fast. Treants generally prefer living in the inner part of the forest, so it’s quite rare for one to be seen this close to the village, de aru.” [Raypin]

Come to think of it, the guild hadn’t mentioned anything about treants appearing by the entrance either.

“If it’s like this, then there might be quite a number of them deep in the forest, de aru.” [Raypin]
“There’s also the possibility that a treant just got lost, but we still shouldn’t be careless, de gozaru.” [Asagi]

Those words reminded us to be cautious, so we immediately focused our senses. Then we cut the branches of the treant, and stored it into Raypin-san’s ‘Dimension Home’. After which, we began to walk again.

After walking for a while, we found another treant.

“Ryouma, how about trying this one, de aru?” [Raypin]
“Sure.” [Ryouma]

I stepped forward and unsheathed my weapon. The weapon I have is shaped like a blade, but it’s actually a big iron slime. Incidentally, its sheath is a big metal slime.

Thanks to the ‘hardening’ skill, the blade is more than strong enough to be used as a weapon. Moreover, it’s also sharp enough too. On top of that, in the unlikely instance where my sword gets bent, the slime can reform itself immediately, fixing my weapon in an instant.

Using ‘Magic Detection’, I ascertain my target. Circulating my ki, I clad both my sword and body it in it as I wielded my sword, raising it right in front of me. The treant this time around is thinner compared to the last. As soon as I entered its range, one of its branches came whipping at me from above.

I dodged the whipping branch, and at the same time, I moved to the right and confirmed the location of the lump that is its weak point. Without any hesitation, I took my sword and slashed at it, smoothly cutting the lump off.

A voice that sounded like a throe resounded as the lump fell down to the ground where its roots were. Then just as the treant before it, its branches drooped, and it ceased to move. The battle had ended with a lone stroke from my blade. With the battle over, the others walked over to help collect the treant, and then we made our way through the forest again to look for another.

What’s scary about treants is that they are able to blend themselves in with the surrounding trees, making their surprise attacks fairly formidable. However, that also goes to mean that if you could spot them before entering their attacking range, the treants lose their fangs. In any case, one on one doesn’t seem to be a problem. How the fights will go when there’s a forest of them however… we’ll have to see.

We continued our treant hunting in the forest until the afternoon, subjugating them, then storing the logs in the ‘Dimension Home’. Then around the time I was finally getting used to fighting them, we spotted a forest of treants. With everyone’s help, we managed to annihilate all of those too.

But their numbers were still a staggering one-hundred and forty-seven. Even though the place they were at was supposedly a place often frequented by people as a resting place, the only thing we could see was an ever extending forest. This wasn’t in the information provided by the guild.

“We still have time, so there’s no need to rush the acquisition of treant lumber. More than that, I believe it’d be best to inform the guild about the treants’ number, de gozaru.” [Asagi]

True… There are far too many treants here in the forest compared to what the guild’s information said. We have already gathered a total of 200 treant lumbers. While the minimum we had planned to gather was only 300. With more than half of that quota already met, I suppose it really might be for the best that we go back to the village first.

And so we left the forest and quickly went to the guild where we reported our findings. There, we spoke to the female receptionist at the reception desk. After we explained the situation, the receptionist said this with a docile face.

“Thank you very much. Actually, just a moment ago, a group of people who had seen the strange state of the forest just as your group has, dropped by. And so we were actually in the process of sending someone out to investigate.” [Female Receptionist]
“I see… Would you happen to have any ideas what could possibly be causing this outbreak of treants?” [Raypin]
“There’s a possibility that there’s an Elder Treant. To begin with there are plenty of treants deep in the forest near this town, and sightings of it has also been reported once some years ago. I don’t know why, but it’s said that when an elder treant is born, a great number of treants will spring forth around it.” [Female Receptionist]
“So it’s as expected, de aru… Will you mind if we enter the forest? What are the rules regarding that?” [Raypin]
“Please do as you like. As long as you’re A Rank or B Rank, then there won’t be any problem.” [Female Receptionist]

Actually, I’m an E Rank, but I think I’ll just keep quiet. Besides she doesn’t look like she’s planning on stopping just me from going into the forest too anyway. And since we’re going into the forest either way, the female receptionist made us take a request to subjugate the treants.

Adventurers can actually take on multiple requests at the same time. Especially when those requests happen to be close to each other, and when the adventurers have some leeway to work with. Since it’s an easy way to make more income, it’s not really uncommon to do it.

This time around for example, by taking both the request to subjugate the treants near this town, and while taking on the request to gather treant lumber, we’ll be able to kill two birds with one stone, and receive the reward for both requests. It won’t take us much extra effort too, since one request is to gather lumber, which of course requires subjugating treants anyway, so it’s all pluses and no minuses.

After gathering the necessary information and accepting the treant subjugation request, we had nothing to do until tomorrow. So in order not to put that time to waste, I entered the hyperspace room, and began training with my slimes. Today the focus of the training are the poison slimes.

While doing our usual practice, it suddenly occurred to me what would happen if I handed Melzen’s Spear to a poison slime. I think it might be a bit heavy, but I’m sure it’ll manage somehow, and successfully use it as a spear. But then… Melzen’s Spear is also a magic weapon, will it be able to use its magic properties too?

Slimes do release magic power when they evolve. Moreover, I’ve also confirmed that they absorb that magic power as they complete their evolution. Is that magic power something that comes out only when they evolve? Or are they able to use that magic power any time?

My mind on fire, I called out one of the poison slimes, and made it release magic power. Surprisingly, it actually easily succeeded at releasing it! If it’s like this, then this might just work!

Filled with anticipation, I took out Melzen’s spear, and handed it over to the poison slime before me. As I ordered it to load the spear with magic power, a vigorous fire erupted from the tip of the spear.

It worked!

“Can you swing the spear while releasing magic power?” [Ryouma]

The poison slime began to swing the fire breathing spear. The spear’s a bit heavy, so its movements are a bit duller than normal… but it seems it can at least use it. But then its movements began to grow duller and duller.

“Slimes are supposedly tireless. They shouldn’t know the meaning of the word, fatigue, and yet… Could it be magic exhaustion?” [Ryouma]

As I was about to order the slime to stop, the poison slime suddenly dropped the spear, and it became smaller.

“Why!?” [Ryouma]

Panicked, I quickly rushed over to it, but fortunately, nothing else seems to be wrong. Only, it’s a bit weak. Its body is around half that of a normal poison slime, and its movements have become slow. For the meantime, let’s observe it while feeding it some poison attribute magic power.

“It doesn’t seem like it’s because of ‘Compression’ that it’s body has shrunk. Besides, a mere poison slime shouldn’t have the ‘Compression’ skill.” [Ryouma]

I identified it with ‘Monster Identify’, and just as expected, it didn’t have the ‘Compression’ skill. Then why? Why is it smaller? Is it because I made it use magic? I can’t think of any other explanation other than that, But if that’s the case, then why would magic power cause its body to shrink?

“Body… Magic power… Could it be, it’s consuming it?” [Ryouma]

I don’t have any positive proof, but if a slime’s body were to be made out of magic power, then it would make sense why it’d grow weaker and smaller from using magic power. I can’t think of any other reason; this has to be it.

But then… magic power is not something that you could normally see with the human eye, and neither is it something that you could touch… but at the same time, it’s true that slimes’ bodies disappear when they die. So if the body of slimes were to be made out of magic power, it would make perfect sense why their bodies just vanish on death, but… if that’s the case, then…

“… I should probably leave this at this for now. In any case, I’ve managed to come up with the hypothesis that slimes’ bodies are made out of magic power. I should talk to Raypin-san about this later, and ask for his opinion. Yeah, let’s do that.” [Ryouma]

After that I left the ‘Dimension Home’, and while having supper, I asked Raypin-san about the slimes, but apparently he didn’t know either. To begin with, giving a high class magic weapon to a slime is unheard of, and when he heard that slimes could release magic power, he was shocked.

In the end, the conclusion we both came to is that there’s a possibility to my hypothesis. Magical beasts do have more magical power in them compared to normal animals, and even those who can’t use magic are not an exception. So it’s not really that strange that slimes possess magic power.

But for it to shrink after using magic power, even though the earth slimes and the heal slimes don’t is something I just don’t understand. It seems I need to research more…

The next day.

We entered the forest today too, and hunted treants to gather lumber. We already knew that there’d be a lot of treants, but I still can’t wrap my head around just how many there are… We’ve been hunting since morning until noon, and so far with the previous day’s spoils together, we’ve already gathered 600 treant lumbers in total.

“Space is about to run out in the ‘Dimension Home’ so I believe we should end today’s work here, de aru.” [Raypin]

Since we’ve already completed our goal, and since we still have time left, everyone agreed, and we ended today’s work here. But while walking back out of the forest, Raypin-san suddenly pointed, and exclaimed,

“Ryouma! Look at that, de aru!” [Raypin]

In the direction Raypin-san was pointing, was a small, green sphere floating amidst the trees with a large fluff of dandelion attached above it.

What is that?

“What is that?” [Ryouma]
“It’s a slime!” [Raypin]
“Slime!?’ [Ryouma]
“It’s a fluff slime, a slime with the power to fly! I don’t believe Ryouma’s ever raised one though, de aru.” [Raypin]
“True, I’ve definitely never raised one. In fact, I didn’t even know about it. Would it be possible to catch it now?” [Ryouma]
“A simple task, de aru. ‘Pick Up’“ [Raypin]

Raypin-san stretched his hand out towards the flying slime, and chanted a spell. Then suddenly, the slime appeared right in front of Raypin-san’s hand, floating in the airspace directly in front of it.

“What was that magic?” [Ryouma]
“’Pick Up’, a space magic that teleports the target near the caster’s hand. It can only be used when the target can be seen. It’s not an easy magic to aim, so there are few who use it. Depending on the target, it’s possible to catch something without harming it, so it’s quite useful. I’ve been using this magic in order to gather magical beasts for my research, de aru. I used this to catch grell frogs too.” {Raypin}
“I see…” [Ryouma]

Come to think of it, he did mention catching grell frogs with magic. I guess he must’ve been referring to this magic then.

“Rather than that, hurry up and contract with it. We can’t exactly be certain that we’re safe here either, de aru.” [Raypin]
“Right.” [Ryouma]

I hurriedly contracted with the fluff slime. Looking at it closely, it’s about the size of a fist. A slime that could be carried in one’s hands.

After contracting with it, I stored it in the ‘Dimension Home’. I thanked everyone along with Raypin-san for keeping watch while I contracted with it, then we began walking again.

After some time of walking, we got to the village before the sun had fully set. I quickly went back to our lodging, and used ‘Monster Identify’ on the fluff slime.

Fluff Slime
Skills
Flight Lv1
Growth Acceleration Lv5
Lighten Lv10
Photosynthesis Lv3
Absorption Lv1
Split Lv8

It has photosynthesis, so I guess it doesn’t need digestion. As for absorption, that’s for water. And this flight and growth acceleration… it’s my first time seeing these kind of skills. And then this split level… it’s high! Then again something that looks like a dandelion fluff is attached to it, so I suppose it multiplies just like one too?

For the meantime, in order to understand its skills better, I lifted the fluff slime up, and made it use ‘Lighten’. Immediately, the fluff slime became so light to the point it seemed like it wasn’t even there. It was quite light to begin with, but even then it still had some weight. Yet now it was as if even that little weight had disappeared. It was really light.

But it can only use the skill on itself. Then again, if it could use it on other things too, that’d be just way too convenient for others not to notice. How to say this… it’s so light, it feels like it’s about to float.

It’s flight ability is probably because of this. A little sway from my arm seems to be more than enough to send it flying. But really, rather than flight, floating would be more apt. It seems it can fall to the ground by manipulating its weight to some extent, but the speed and direction is all up to the wind, and it can’t do anything about it.

After observing the fluff slime, I asked Raypin-san a couple of things. And apparently, the fluff slime can go quite far by being dragged by the wind, so it could be seen almost anywhere. However, it doesn’t reproduce much.

Don’t reproduce much? But why? Even though it’s level in splitting is so high.

When I asked that, apparently just as I had thought, the slime splits like a dandelion fluff would, but not all of the fluff would become a slime.

Moreover, it’s irritating to have so many fluff floating around, so a nearby village would send people to exterminate it.

After we complete this request and I get some free time, I should go and see what this fluff slime can do.