The day after the attack of the Siblings of the Strong Sword and the black-clothed men, I did as planed and stuffed my Dimension Home with goods, then went back to town, and reported the events last night while I handed over the goods.
Understandably, the people dispatched by the duke, especially Lilian-san, who I reassured that it would be safe for me to go back, told me, “You did something reckless again!” But I did get back safe, and the city did need to get back up its feet quickly, so in the end, they put the matter on hold.
Fortunately, eliminating me was the last of the enemy’s plan, and no more attacks or attempts to obstruct the city were done. There were still some vigilantes and villains left behind, but everyone’s continued efforts and support eventually allowed, the city of Gimuru to become stable again.
To that end, I took on various important jobs, and before I knew it, a week passed.
“I’m sorry to disturb your conversation, but…” [Lilian]
“What is it?” [Ryouma]
At the area of the former slums was a place temporarily called the Food Production Base. I was helping out there with the production of extra food and the shipping when Lilian-appeared looking rather hurried. Just when I was wondering what was up, it turns out that Reinhart-san and the others were visiting from the imperial capital and were already at the security company.
“Isn’t that too quick? I heard the New Year was supposed to be an important period for socializing to the nobles, but it’s only been 4 days since the new year started.” [Ryouma]
“They only attended the most important ceremonies and moved up the rest of their schedule. Right now they’re being briefed by the government office and the guilds. They have other arrangements to deal with afterwards, but they would like to have a proper talk with you in the evening.” [Lilian]
“I understand. I don’t have anything scheduled, so I’ll wrap up my work today early. The time should be just about right by the time I finish working on these produce.” {Ryouma]
“Very well. One more thing, would you happen to know where Yurdum-sama is?” [Lilian]
“If you mean Yurdum-san, he’s in the vegetable room at the third floor.” [Ryouma]
“The master and the madam have something they would like to discuss with him as well, so they would like for him to come to the security company.” [Lilian]
“Oh, I see, so that’s what’s up. Okay, I’ll bring you to him. Sorry, I’ll be right back.” [Ryouma]
“Alright. We’ll be proceeding with the shipping.” [Guild Helper]
After leaving everything to the helper from the guild, Lilian-san and I walked up the stairs with warning signs that read ‘Beware Monsters’ or ‘No Entry’.
“…It’s a wonder every time I come here, but you really are farming inside a building.” [Lilian]
It’s like growing a plant in a pot.” [Ryouma]
As we climbed up the stairs, Lilian-san was drawn to a windowless room in which soil was laid out and light was produced by the magic tools in the ceiling. In that room, where even the temperature was maintained, potatoes were grown, and the goblins harvested them.
It was like a modern food production plant, but there was nothing high-tech about its appearance, as though someone just brought soil into an undressed concrete building and started farming.
“I understand it’s like a greenhouse, but it still feels off… I mean, I can’t believe that the new kind of slime you mentioned recently would turn out to be these fields.” [Lilian]
“I was also surprised when the scavenger slimes turned into Composter Slimes and Fertile Soil Slimes. I thought nothing would surprise me anymore, but then they evolved in that.” [Ryouma]
The Composter Slime resembles a lump of soil, and the fertilizer it produces has turned into something like a compost. It also emits high heat during production. The nature of its fertilizer has changed, and now, it reduces the chance of “monsterification” when crops are over-fertilized.
It’s less efficient compared to scavenger slimes when accelerating growth through wood magic, but different fertilizers have always been applied depending on the objective. It is By studying agriculture and understanding how to best apply the scavenger slime’s fertilizer and the composter slime’s compost that the quality of the crops can be raised.
As for the fertilizer soil slime, it too looks like a lump of soil. It’s not that much different from the water slime and the mud slime in terms of ability, but as it name suggests, its body is rich in nutrients suitable for plant growth.
Moreover, they feed off of the composter’s fertilizer, and they love it when you mix a little bit of the scavenger slime’s fertilizer too. Apparently, the combination of the two produces a mysterious synergy that increases growth efficiency. Having the weed slime propagate plants, like the white clover, that can restore the fertility of the soil makes them happy and produce a synergistic effect too.
My lack of agricultural knowledge is a problem, but with these slimes that evolved into fields, I can better understand the state of the crops and have an easier time growing them.
Interestingly enough, the fertile soil slime can also evolve to become a soil slime, and vice versa, from soil slime to fertile soil slime. I pursued the subject some more and discovered that mud slimes and sand slimes that preferred the earth-attribute could evolve into soil slimes too.
Therefore, it can be concluded that slime evolution isn’t a one-way process. I also discovered that different species can share an evolution, making it even more likely that the conditions for their evolution are affected by their preferred attribute.
That would explain why they have so many evolutions. Now, I’ve yet to prove that hypothesis, but I’m already more or less convinced by it. If the evolution of slimes were to be represented in a correlation diagram of names and lines, the diagram would be so complicated it would look more like a mesh than a diagram.
But if so, then wouldn’t slime evolution really just be a change of state? In which case, would it even really be appropriate to call their evolution an ‘evolution’? …Well, that’s a topic for another time. More importantly…
“There you are, Yurdum-san!” [Ryouma]
“Boss. Lilian-san is with you too, I see.” [Yurdum]
“How are you?” [Ryouma]
“This makes it the third harvest. It’s mostly thanks to your slimes, but by now, we’ve produced enough harvest to start a store. The goblins do their part, but it’s really mostly because of that thing.” [Yurdum]
Yurdum-san looked at the goblins gathering vegetables and wryly smiled.
On the ground could be seen evenly spaced lines of giant parsnips called Passero and leafy vegetables that look like celery. Normally, they would have to dig them out every time they had to harvest them, but the field themselves were slimes, so the soil would just make way for them during harvest.
Meaning, the farming goblins didn’t have to dig at all. Because of that there was no chance of messing up and damaging the vegetables, and all they had to do was to pick up the vegetables that would come out, making their job much easier and faster than normal farm work. The crops were root vegetables too so there wasn’t even the slightest chance of error.
“The way they farm… It’s like they’re trying to pick a fight with actual farmers. It sure is convenient, though.” [Yurdum]
“That’s hard to deny, but… More importantly, and I know this is a bit abrupt, but Lilian-san needs you to come to the security company.” [Ryouma]
When I informed him that the duke and his wife came back and that they wanted to talk, his face twitched.
“I understand. I’ll go. But I’d like to get myself ready first.” [Yurdum]
“We have clothes prepared at the security company, so you can just change there.” [Lilian]
Yurdum followed Lilian-san with a meek expression and left the Food Production Base.
But before they left—
“Before we leave, please do remember to keep yourself from doing anything reckless, Ryouma-sama.” [Lilian]
“Yeah, just remember that the city storage isn’t empty, so the crops being produced here are actually just insurance.” [Yurdum]
—They made sure to remind me not to do anything reckless.
I know it’s my fault, but it appears that my trustworthiness in regards to not being reckless has hit rock bottom.
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