"And that's the st one…" I pced my Slime cages in the valley as the Blue moon was arriving in a few more nights. The Kobolds and Goblins were helping me to pce everything in its pce. To make everything more stable, I leveled the ground with
spells. Now, the valley looked more like an amphitheater I once saw on a study trip in Greece. Well, the only thing missing is the stage, we only have seats here…
"My lord! We are finished!" Yenga, the Kobold priest and leader of the Kobolds called out to me, his two sons, the Kobold Padins, were standing next to him, as fluffy as ever and copying their father's pose.
"We have quite a number of Slimes that will go through the Blue moon for the first time, so we need to be ready for anything that might happen," Bnche finished writing down the list of slimes we would be having to make us the Blue moon Liquids.
"Really? How much?"
"Fourteen hundred and thirty-seven new slimes, plus nearly fourteen hundred old ones."
"Oh… Wait, how is the number of new ones so great?"
"The Fluff slimes split extremely fast. There are nearly thirteen hundred of just those."
"Damn, I know I tamed them, but that number is still crazy… and I wanted to experiment before the Blue moon arrives too…"
"What kind of experiment?"
"Dryas, like the one I have in my Dimension home taking care of the herbs, is considered a Magic Born Monster, so I wanted to know what would happen, if I awakened a bunch of flowers or fruit bearing trees."
"Ah, I see now. Most of the Treants we encountered so far, were awakened from trees like Pynes and Cyapresses."
"Yep. So, I had these seeds prepared and the rest of our Magifertilizer, courtesy of the st Blue Moon." With that said, I took out several gardening pots of various sizes and started filling them with dirt and humus I made with the help of my many monsters. When the pots were about seventy five percent full, I put in the seeds and sprinkled them with some dirt to cover them.
"All right, that should do it. Now then, I would usually continue with using the wood magic now, but I want to be sure the Magifertilizer will work and I got an idea from a book using this."
"An empty Magic Crystal?"
"Yep. Apparently, you can dilute lower magic crystals into water with alchemy. I want to see how different water will react… Also, I want to test the different effect the blue moon will have on awakened pnts. The first group will be awakened before the Moon, second while the moon is out and the third I pn to pnt during the Blue moon into the Magifertilizer."
"I see… we should still have enough Magifertilizer in the green Magic Bag… Also, what is this weird feeling I'm getting from above?"
"Aah, that's a warding barrier. It should make us impossible to detect from the outside, and make sure we are not interrupted."
"Yeah, that could be it. Hm? Is this a new container for the slimes?" Bnche looked at a slightly bigger cage I made that had drilled holes in its legs and was fastened to the ground.
"I think it would be good to try keeping the slimes in their Big and Huge variants during this Blue moon and see what will happen."
"Huh? Isn't that dangerous?"
"It could be. The magical overdose causes the monsters to behave irrationally and quite literally— like wild beasts. This brings me to how we perceive Big and Huge slimes."
"Well, it does look like one monster so people were confused why they can't tame them. The truth however is that they are a group of one hundred and more slimes."
"Indeed. They are basically a colony, but in these forms, they eat less food than the separated slimes in total. Meaning, the slimes are dividing it equally among themselves. We can summarize that this works as a defensive feature and survival strategy for times when there is less food present for the colony."
"That would mean the Blue moon, that usually brings frenzyness, will result in the slimes creating less Blue Moon Liquid."
"Well, that at least is the theory. Question is which slimes to test in on."
"Let's only test it on the Big slime and not the Huge slime. We have only the Fluff slime in numbers great enough to work for this test, but we don't know if the liquid they produce is safe."
"True that. Let's go with Moss slimes. We have around six hundred of them, right?"
"...six hundred and one exactly," Bnche flipped her papers, checking the numbers and looking like a natural born secretary, which made her look extremely cute.
"Great… so let's do it like this, there will be one regur slime, in a separate barrel, one Big Moss Slime having his own barrel in its regur size and one Huge Moss Slime minimized to the slightly bigger size compared to regur slime… though we still haven’t seen a Huge Moss Slime yet…" as I started making arrangements, the Space Slime teleported on my shoulder. "You hungry, little fellow? Here, enjoy."
I started feeding the Slime some Space elemental magic, and it wiggled happily. At the same time, however, it started getting taller and taller before shrinking back and splitting into two.
"Whoa! You split now?" I quickly tamed the new slime and checked my Magic Power reserves. "If slime taming costs this much… then the amount of Space Magic energy this little fellow needs for splitting is around… three times my total reserve."
"Don't you have a crazy high amount, though?"
"That's what scares me. Given how long I fed this one little fellow, I expect that it will take at least five years before we can see a Big Space Slime."
"…Well, that isn't that much, right?" Bnche tilted her head.
Oh… I forgot we are of the long-lived races… Five years is actually quite a short time span to us. On the other hand, thanks to the races mixing with each other, the mental growth is quite fast, only secluded vilges have the problem of long development nowadays.
"I guess not…" With that, we continued our work.
"Booossss!!!" Shizu called out to me from the cave and waved us over.
"Looks important, let's go."
"Sure!" Bnche agreed readily and we sprung into action.
We made it to Shizu in a matter of seconds and were led to the store room, where I had my aquatic monster breeding station.
"Look here…" Shizu pointed at one of the containers where the Lightning Squids —a kind of jellyfish with electricity-producing organs— were swimming. At first, I didn't see anything amiss, but then…
"A… slime?" Not missing a beat, I used appraisal on it.
Octo Slime
Advanced Species of slime usually found in oceans. They have the ability to grow tentacles with strong suction cups. Approximately twenty centimeters in diameter. Suction Cups 8, Water propelling 7, Ink creation 8, Ink shot 6, Blinding Ink 4, Predation 5, Dissolve 3, Split 3, Regenerate 4, Physical attack nullification 3, Paralysis Resistance 2
"An Octo Slime?!" Holding the small creature in my palms, it spread eight tentacles and started wiggling them, as if saying 'Hi'.
"But… How did this happen?" Bnche peeked over my shoulder.
"I think this one used to be an Ink Slime that ate the remnants of the Octolocks, instead of the Ink Sacks… but how did it go under radar for so long?"
"Master… This one… was in the big tank… not getting fed with the rest…" Shizu revealed the secret.
"He was in the Aquarium, huh? Honestly, that thing turned into quite an underwater jungle, I need to trim those pnts…"
"Also… this…" Shizu picked up a bucket full of water and tried to pour it into the reservoir, but the water, as if defying gravity, refused to drop down.
"Huh?!" Bnche was positively speechless, letting out only a small voice.
Aquatic Slime
Advanced species of slime almost unrecognizable from regur water. Absorb moisture 10, Regenerate 10, Water Magic 8, Water Magic Resistance 8, Water Magic Absorption 7, Synchronize (Water) 9
"And now it's an Aquatic slime?!"
Okay, time to calm down. I know for a fact that some of my Water Slimes had been drinking a greater amount of water compared to others…
"There might be five more Aquatic Slimes…" I tried to contact my Water Slimes and call them over. And sure enough, only twenty-two answered the call, confirming there are five more Aquatic Slimes somewhere on this floor. We set out looking for them and surprisingly found all of them in the Aquarium, being completely invisible.
"Fuuu, good thing we found them!" Bnche smiled happily as she carried the bucket into my Dimension Home.
"Right! Now then, let's get to awakening the pnts…" Sighing with relief, we returned to our original work.
Seeds I decided on were as follows: Appo, Citon, Strawa (local strawberries), Giiger (local version of ginger) and finally Rappo and Arappo berry bushes.
"Uhh… what?"
As it turned out, turning these into living monsters might've been a mistake. Appo and Citon trees turned into Treants —Appo Treant and Citon Treant respectively— Strawa became Crawling Strawa, Rappo and Arappo bushes became Awakened Rappo and Arappo bushes and Giiger… became Living Root.
One would think that pnt monsters are hard to tame as they hardly ever move. Sadly for the researchers all around the world, the pnt monsters here were trying to reach the remaining Magifertilizer with its vines, branches and even roots. The Crawling Strawa even started using its vines as hands and started crawling, pulling the pot behind itself.
"Did I just create a lot of trouble? Hmm… let's make it a problem for the future Arito, yep. Nothing else to see here, just problems of my future self, nothing more…"
I decided to store away the rest of the Magifertilizer and used earth magic to create small walls around the pots, in order to prevent them from tilting. While I did this, Bnche prepared some bricks from compressed dirt and stones and waited for me in the kitchen.
"Are you sure you want to see me use necromancy, Bnche? I think you said you're bad with skeletons…" I turned to her, as she took a chair and pced it next to me.
"I should be good if I'm next to you," Bnche smiled at me.
Ack! I took super effective damage!!! Bring me a medic!!!
"I see. If it gets too scary for you, tell me, okay?"
"Kaaay!" Bnche's smile was even more devastating than before as I forcefully cleared my throat and got to work.
First of all, the paper with description of the Animate spell I received from Mr. Figaro read as follows: 'Animate uses Soul Shards gathered with Necromancy to give life to objects that are not living. Corpse will make a zombie, pile of bones, a skeleton, carved rocks golem etc. It is possible to make Bone Golem, if the bones do not fit together, but when they do fit, they become Skeleton instead. Animate doesn't always work, pin ol' rock won't become a golem unless it has four distinctive limbs. You can animate weapons too, but those tend to not listen to their owner and are highly dangerous.'
"Hmm… If this is true, then the carriage could be made into golem under these conditions, right?" Bnche asked me.
"Yeah, I believe so. It would definitely make moving our produce much easier."
"Right! I'm sure Yenga and the rest would be thrilled! We could move it between floors much more easily!"
Next thing on our agenda was making the body we would animate. I made a humanoid shape and gave it joints by modifying the mass. In a way, I was making an action figure out of cy. This reminds me of my ceramics css back in elementary school… back then dad was still alive and everything was good… Alright, enough of this reminiscent about the good ol' times, now focus… focus…
"
"It's alive!!!" Bnche ughed, which reminded me of Mad Scientists from stories back on Earth.
"Sit up," I ordered the doll and it slowly tried to. Once it stood up, it wobbled on its feet and even fell, but we caught it, just the nick of time. The doll, barely twenty centimeters tall, was making small steps, which were actually big for my first use of the Animate spell.
"Should we give it something to work on?" Bnche asked as she looked at the doll with a smile.
"Good question, but what can it do?"
Stone Golem
Golem made using the Animate spell. It doesn't have a sense of self and only does as ordered. With time, however, it will grow to be much more independent in its tasks.
"Seems like it doesn't have any skills of its own, so it will have to learn. It's basically a newborn right now…"
"Oh? A newborn? As a baby you mean?" Bnche’s eyes sparkled.
"Pretty much…"
"Heheheh, a baby huh?" Bnche blushed in deep crimson.
What's up with he— Oh… I see…
Fighting back my own blush creeping on me, I opened up my Item Box and took out a plush we were selling in the shop. Coincidentally, the plushies were selling like hot cakes not just to regur people, but to nobles as well. Just a few days ago, there was a butler who bought about fifty plushies for his dy as a present for her daughter and asked us to make a plush of a monster they had in their coat of arms. It was a no-brainer to figure out they were from Reva duchy, i.e. family of miss Laina, who were leaving the capital as their business with the king was done. We didn’t meet them, though.
"Let's test it out on this one now!" I took out a plush, looking like a cat with two tails. This plush wasn't filled with fluff of Fluff slimes, but with sand, giving it a heavier body, which was also much more likely to not bend in weird directions.
"
Animated Doll
A doll brought to life with an Animate spell. Its body is heavy so it cannot levitate or float in the air. The shape of a cat gives it almost no advantage against other monsters.
"So, it has no advantage, huh? Well, it can be a pet in the orphanage at the very least," I smiled happily and started making the next thing on the agenda — carts for transporting the produce of the fields. I'm gonna keep the skeletons for another time. I should still have at least one complete skeleton of a Skull bear… wait, now that I think about it, I should still have those dead bodies of those rebelling goblins, right? I can try them too…
With these experiments done, I started making carts from rocks and with Animate managed to awaken them all. Now, we had a supply line between the underground farms and brewery on the first underground floor.
As Bnche was teaching the carts where to get filled and where to drop off the cargo, I returned to my testing room and took out bones of Skull Bear I had on hand and one dead body of a Goblin. I still wasn't ready to dispose of it, so I decided to use it now.
"
Goblin Ghoul
A foul monster feeding on meat of its former kind. In the past it was believed they were reted to Vampires, but that theory was proven incorrect. Sharp Cws 4, Running 2
"A ghoul, huh? I thought it would be a Zombie… I guess the state of damage the body is in decides the type of monster the corpse becomes. Skeletons come to be from bones. Zombies from rotting corpses and Ghouls are from fresh corpses. Good to know, now I don't need to waste the skull bear skeleton."
As I thought about that, the Goblin Ghoul started moving. It walked over to my Necromant Slime and dived headlong into it, letting itself be eaten.
"Well, that takes care of even more things… I should think of ways to use undead monster materials…"
***
With everything finished in our base, we returned to the city by the underground tunnel and emerged from the Orphanage’s basement.
"So, you are going to take the license test today?" Bnche asked me as she walked next to me, a big smile pstered on her face.
"Yep. Today is going to be the test for everyone who wishes to tame Cave Pigs and Cachiks. Though, I also want to take the test for Mountain Rats to feed my reptiles and owls. Having them eat those will be better than giving them remnants of our hunts."
"I see. In that case, I will cheer you on!" Bnche pushed up her little fists, which made me smile.
"Thanks, I appreciate it," I smiled back at her. I had already finished living spaces for all three types of monsters, so I just needed to get my License and the actual monsters.
We soon made it in front of the Summoner's guild and entered the building. There, the test was being held on the second floor, so I headed there alone. The room I was shown in was filled to the brim with nervous looking young tamers, so their nerves were slightly rubbing on me, but not to the point that I would be too severely affected by it. The Cave Pig test was actually quite easy. I had to write about its preferable living pce, types of food it eats and write down what can happen when the monsters overpopute. The Cachik test was simir, but there was also a section about tending to their feathers, beaks and talons. The Mountain Rat test was so far the hardest, as there were parts that had me puzzled. Well, it's not like I know all the fantasy diseases… Like, what the hell even is Purple Tail? Is it an actual purple colored tail or is it just rotting?
Once I was done with the test, I returned to the lobby to wait for the test's result when I came upon a scene.
"I'm telling you they are fine!" a man with brown hair cut short with a sword on him hit the counter with his fist.
"I'm sorry sir, but we only deal in eggs that can be stored without the need for incubation by a parent-like monster, such as insect eggs. We cannot buy bird monster eggs, as they require body heat and we do not possess monsters to raise them. As you surely know, even lizard eggs are not widely sold by the guild."
It seemed like an adventurer hoped to earn a quick cash by stealing eggs from monster nests and hitting a wall due to the eggs he picked.
"Hey Arito, do you think we could buy them?" Bnche asked me.
"Why though?"
"Well, if they can't buy them because they don't have a monster to heat them, then I could summon my Vulcanbeak to do it for us."
Did she learn to be this shrewd from me? No, definitely not… Okay, let's not lie to myself. I'm the one who taught her this. It's my fault no question asked.
"Fine. I will get them," I nodded to Bnche and went to the adventurer.
"Don't screw with me!!!" the adventurer roared at the clerk, his fist trembling.
"Um, sir?"
"What do you want, kid? Scram now before I get even more angry," the adventurer grumbled at me, sparing me a single look. This gave me a chance to see his face. He had a dark brown moustache and deep blue eyes. Seems my skills don't react to him, so I guess he is a good guy?
"I am somewhat interested in those eggs, so if you would allow me to take a look at them, I would appreciate it," I gave him a warm smile. The adventurer looked confused so I continued my sales pitch, "You see, I would love to get some bird monsters for myself as I study monsters as a hobby. What do you say? If you sell them to me, I will give you a fair price and I will get them cheaper than if I was buying them through a guild. One hand washes the other as they say."
"Fine! Let's get outta here first!"
"Sorry, but I still wait for my tests to be returned, could we take it to a table over there?" I pointed to a table in a corner of the room, where Bnche was sipping her tea.
"Well… fine, I guess."
We went to the pce where Bnche was waiting for us and the adventurer opened his box.
"Is that… a Heater Stone?" I was surprised by a red Sorcery stone embedded in the lid, giving off a light heat simir to an animal’s.
"Damn right it is! I got this bad boy during my time in Amoeba Principality! They mine these Sorcery Stones on an isnd with an active volcano, meaning they are much more potent than other Heater Stones!"
"That is indeed amazing, but could I get a look at those eggs? I wish to appraise them to make sure they are alive and well."
"Be my guest, kiddo!"
The Adventurer opened the side of the box and took out ptes on which the eggs were pced. Each pte could hold twenty-five eggs, and the top three were full. The fourth pte was removed and on the fifth pte were two big eggs. The remaining ptes were empty, but these eggs were now much more interesting to me.
The two big eggs were from a monster called Suntypus. Apparently, they were ptypus-like monsters with sun colored fur that lived in watering holes in the Great Sea of Stone to the south of Kassana forest, past the great mountains. Next were Heartbird and Peabird eggs, these birds were both common monsters that lived without a fear of humans. However, among the Peabird eggs were mixed in eggs of a monster called Fog Gecko, which is also a monster living in the Great Sea of Stone Caniogga.
"So, all these are bird monsters, eh?"
"Indeed. While they are common Peabirds and Heartbirds, they are from the Great Sea of Stone Caniogga, meaning they are stronger than city dwelling monsters of the same species! The two big ones are however called Suntypus, a type of monster that isn't either a bird or a mammal."
"Yes, I am well versed in these monsters," I nodded to the adventurer as I almost roared in victory. He didn't realize that Fog Geckoes pnt their eggs in nests of Peabirds, having them raise their kids for them. When Fog Gecko hatches, it eats eggs around itself while creating fog with magic and escaping. Basically, Fog Geckoes are preparing their newborn feast before they even get born.
"How much would you like for them?"
"A thousand Alba for one Suntypus and fifty for one of the smaller eggs."
"That's quite cheap, isn't it?"
"Well, as you said, we have no intermediary between us, so of course it would be cheap," the adventurer smiled.
"Fine, I will take all the eggs."
"Thanks for the patronage."
As we exchanged the money, I gave the eggs to Bnche and had her hurry to the Orphanage.
"May I ask you something?"
"Sure. Ask whatever." The adventurer counted the money as he responded to me.
"Do you have a taming magic skill?"
"Yes, I do. Why?"
"I wonder if I could ask you to look for slimes on your travels."
"Slimes? Those weaklings?"
"Indeed. I'm working on a theory about monster evolutions, so if you could get me slimes, I would be happy."
"Slimes, huh? Those are easy to tame."
"True. I gave the guild a list of slimes I own for the chance someone took my job to know which slimes to avoid, but so far no luck."
"Ah, so you posted that job. Okay, I will look for them for you. Any other monsters you might be interested in?"
"I don't know about any."
"Okay! I'm going now."
"Good bye!"
As we said our farewells, I was called to the counter and received my certification to raise Cave Pigs and Cachiks instantly, as I got full marks on the tests. And as for the Mountain Rats, I got the license as well, but only by a hair's breadth. Seems like the diseases got me good. Nevertheless, I was allowed to raise Mountain Rats as well, so I was happy.
***
"I requested ten of each species to be delivered to the Summoner's guild and they should arrive tomorrow or the day after that at the test from that farm… I will have to go meet with Bnche in the orphanage, but since I'm already in this part of town, I should deliver the merchandise I have on me…" Deciding on what to do next, I headed for my shop.
Looking around, I noticed that there was a slight commotion near my shop.
"Oh, hello there, Mr. Aruze," a middle-aged man smiled at me as he stopped next to me, carrying a big bag of fertilizer on his back as if it was nothing.
"Mister Underhill, long time no see. Thank you for your patronage," I bowed slightly to the man as we started our conversation.
"Happy to be of help! This fertilizer of yours is truly amazing, you know? Even flowers that aren't in season right now grow strong and big thanks to this thing, I really can't thank you enough!" Mister Underhill smiled at me broadly. As a florist in the side alley next to my shop, we were neighbors in business. His wife was doing a undry for people all around and she was known for her above average quality work. Mostly thanks to her husband's special soap, he made from some of his flowers, which produced an amazing smell that sted quite long. We didn't really need their services as we had Cleaning Slimes, but I got some seeds from them for flowers I could use in Alchemy. I got from him for example Maiga flower seeds, which I used to diversify the genetic pool of flowers I had. Roots of Maiga flower make for a great tea when roasted and mixed with Lagoda tree leaves and Grippa seeds it tasted simirly to coffee.
"Um, do you know what happened here?"
"Ah, some guys tried to cause a commotion again, but were taken by the guards already."
"Aaah, not again…" I grumbled and started walking with Mr. Underhill to the side gate of my shop.
"It's Arito and papa!" a girl around my age ran up to us with a great grin on her face.
"Luisa, why are you here? Aren't you supposed to help your mother with her work?"
"I'm already done with it!" The girl smiled and looked at me with a great grin on her face. "Are you bringing your wares again, Mr. Arito?"
"Of course I am! Antidotes are still selling like hot cakes, so I have to keep up my shipments to make the customers happy."
"I really hope they will resolve the Murder ant case as soon as possible so that we can get more shipments from Macedia," Mr. Underhill grumbled as he put down the bag with fertilizer on the ground.
"I heard they called for a group of S rank adventurers already to take care of the queen. So far, the adventurers of our town are keeping them down. I believe we will soon see an influx of Murder Ant armor and weapons being made. Just yesterday, I saw an adventurer with a spear made from Murder Ant's bde arm."
"You are an adventurer too, right Mr. Arito? Are you going to take part in the hunt?" Mr. Underhill asked me while cracking his neck as a form of relief after putting down the big bag of fertilizer.
"No, because of those ruffians trying to meddle with my shop, I have to put my all into strengthening my defenses in the town. Also, in a few days there will be a Blue moon and I need to prepare for it."
"I see, I wish you the best of luck then," Mr. Underhill bowed lightly and went to the shop with his daughter.
I opened my gate and entered my own shop from the other side.
"Boss! We need help!" Quida ran up to me, her usually serious look overwritten with worry.
"Miss Quida, what seems to be the problem?"
"The people who tried to make a ruckus today tried to pnt a Spyder!"
"Spyder? What is that?"
"Master, Spyders are spider type monsters, which hunt in groups. They can share what they see and feel with others in their group. Not to mention the tamers. These spiders can blend in with their surroundings, making them perfect spies," Hugh expined to me what Spyders were.
"Hmm… in that case, we need to dispose of the spyder as soon as possible. What about the person who tried to pnt it here?"
"Mister Alphons Beerem noticed his attempt to poison himself and stopped it. Since we couldn't determine whether he used some other poison, I decided to send Sciel to bring in Miss Nene from the orphanage. Also, we keep him tied up in the basement."
Alphons and Sciel are members of Humming Fairy mercenaries, who loves alcohol a lot, so undermining the shop is a matter of great distrust to them. While Sciel is a human, Alphons is of a race known as Nothic. Up until a few decades ago they were believed to be monsters, but thanks to the treaty called 'Decration of Races' they were accepted as fellow races. I wonder if I could have Urza and Chika get recognized as one of the races too. I would first have to look into that Decration though… Can't have them recognized if I don't know what kind of requirements there are for recognition.
"Alright. Good. We will wait for Nene and start the questioning after that. Anything else to report?"
"Yes. Here sir, this is what I came up with, regarding what we were talking about previously."
"The buyout of bottles, right? I started making bottles with the logo of the company on the bottom, so once we start circuting them, it should be protected from others trying to copy us," I took out one empty bottle from my Item Box and showed it to Hugh.
"Oh, I see… You've created a protective mark… it's not engraved on the inside or outside… however did you manage it?"
"I did it by yering the resin. First I made the inside yer on which I engraved the logo and then covered it with a second yer. Since the two resins are both transparent, I had to dye the engraved section beforehand."
I studied this technique when I was writing a story about a gss blower. As it turns out, there were two types of gss in the history of Earth. In Southern Europe the gss was cooling over a longer time, so it was processed while still hot. On the other hand, in Central Europe the gss cooled down faster, so it was processed while cold. This type of gss was perfect for engraving and the hardened resin is much more reminiscent of this type of gss, so I try to use simir techniques.
"I see! This is completely unlike any other type of gss I have ever seen. Most of the gss I know of, cannot be engraved, as it would shatter the entire piece. Anyway, sir, I've come across a disturbing rumor that might have a big impact on us."
"What is it?"
"Well, it's not really about our produce, it is just that there are people questioning our production method. Some even go so far as to cim we steal produce from farmers so we could make our alcohol. Most of the rumors however speak of fraud, ciming the alcohol is not made from monster materials."
"I see… hm, in that case, how about we hold a Workshop?"
"Workshop?"
"Let's say that we put up a board before the shop that will say: 'On this date the MonsterWork company will be presenting its alcohol production method to the public. Anyone is welcome to visit and try out freshly made alcohol. You can even bring your fruits to be made into your very own liquor, free of charge!' We could also throw in a small contest and the winner would get to take home a special reward."
"I see, that might work. There are people who can't buy high quality alcohol like ours is and this would give them the perfect opportunity to try it. However, whatever do you mean by special reward?" to Hugh's slightly confused question I smiled and took out a small potion bottle with blue liquid. "Huh?! It's blue?"
"This is Blue Liquor, a special type of liquor that can be made only once a month in a limited amount. And get this, his majesty the king likes it," I added the st part in a barely audible whisper. Coincidentally, this info was given to me by Henry, i.e. the King's little brother.
"Understood sir! I will get right to it! I will make this a complete success!!"
"Oh! Before you go, please tell Miss Emma and Miss Palsha to try coming up with some salty snacks that could go along with the drinks. You can leave the salt acquisition to me. I should be able to get us some fairly soon."
"Of course! I will inform them right away!"
Salt is an indispensable ingredient in human life and I honestly was worried about salt deficiency for a long time when I lived in the forest. I started with extracting salt from rocks with alchemy, but as the process was quite straining with my limited knowledge at the time, I came up with a spell called Create Salt which came from the earth magic attribute. Anyone with basic knowledge of science and chemistry of Earth could possibly do the same. I used earth magic to produce the two types of rocks and combined them in a 1:1 ratio.
Fun fact about the Create Salt spell. Pying around with it, I made another spell called Salt Bst and it is scarily effective. I once came across a monster that was immune to magic and could be only hurt with physical attacks. However, the Salt Bst spell did a lot of damage and then some. Which was due to it creating a physical phenomena aside from the magical one. You could say I was quite literally rubbing salt into its wounds.
"I have arrived… oh, master. Good time seeing you," Nene came to the meeting room and bowed slightly. She was still dressed in her maid uniform that was provided by Romi, however the feel around her was different. She gave off this dangerous vibe, like a cat stalking its prey. Well, she is a catfolk, so it makes sense, I guess…
"Good. Let's collect everyone and get to the investigation. What kind of drugs do you have on you?"
"I got Truth Serum tinted with a tiny bit of alcoholic potion that makes you feel drunk even with a single drop. Imbecilic potion to make him dumb and this little critter," Nene smiled evilly as she took out a vial with worm-like monster swimming in milky water.
"What the hell is that?!"
"A tiny bug called Drill parasite. This little fel enters your intestines, drills its tail into its prey and ys its eggs in the blood veins, making them circute all over the body. When these eggs hatch, they eat the meat and multiply quickly. Locking the person in a vicious cycle of pain. Heheh, they especially like to live near the heart where they get a lot of blood."
"We're not using that! …it might be a good technique to instill fear in the guy, but it is a bit overboard for me, please understand!" I quickly shot down the idea.
"Of course, master. I will keep it to the Truth Serum and Imbecilic potion, then," Nene agreed and we went to meet up with the Humming Fairy mercenaries and Hugh, who exchanged his look for a much more composed one.
Before them was a man tied to a stone chair made from magic. From the looks of it, the man was a human of considerably thin stature, his body was quite beaten up and every here and there you could see blood clogging under the skin, making for a sickly look.
"You guys really didn't hold back, I see.
"Gah! Ah! You'll pay for this!" the man spat, anger and hatred mixing in his eyes.
"He's still rebelling, I see…
"Ew, he wet himself."
"I know you are strong, boss, but you are also merciless, I see!" Saibert ughed.
"Well, he was messing with the shop, so of course I would show no mercy. What did you do with the Spyder anyway?" I turned to the man as Nene started taking out her utensils.
"Cut off its legs one by one and then start dicing it into a fine paste. That should send shivers through the rest of the pack and to the tamer as well. They might have seen our faces, but they didn't see yours nor Miss Nene’s, so the orphanage should be fine."
"I see, good thinking."
"You honor me too much, boss," Saibert smiled like a crook.
"Alright' I'm done! We can start," Nene took out a potion and poured it in the tied man's throat.
"Gurgh!" The man almost vomited, but the potion took effect almost instantly, which we could tell by reddish light appearing in his eyes.
"What's your name?"
"Jazz Answing."
"Who sent you? I want a name."
"Master Hollow. He wanted to see the reaction of this shop… the previous rioters were under deployment of Bck."
"Damn it…" Nene's face crumbled in anger.
"Is something the matter?"
"Hollow is one of the Six Masks. He serves directly under Lady Orange, the head of the Drug dealing division of my former organization, the Reversed Sun."
"Huh?! You belong to them?" Saibert pced his hand on his sword, ready to draw it at any time.
"Was. I already left, and on my way out, I crushed the assassin division. Now, I'm just Nene, a maid under dy Romi serving master Arito," Nene gave Saibert a slightly elegant bow. If she said she was still a part of the organization, he would cut her down, no doubt.
"What we need to worry about is Hollow being in this town. If he works with a subordinate of Bck for some reason, we need to be careful."
"I will need all the information you can give me on the Reversed Sun organization, Nene. Now Jazz, tell me the subordinate of bck who you work with."
"It's the master of Al—gah!" Just as the man was about to reveal the name of the co-inspirator, he coughed up a pool of blood.
"
"This looks like… …a Contract magic, I think?" Nene remained stone cold as she looked over the corpse.
"Things are much more severe than I thought. We need to go to Mr. Henry and his family to inform them.
"Hugh, Saibert, don't speak of what you saw here. Also, Saibert I will need you to up the defenses of the shop. We might be targeted again and I don't want to leave anything to chance. Nene, I feel it is weird for him to be fine revealing Hollow and not that dependent of Bck or whoever. He called him "All-something", please look into who he can be."
"Yessir, understood!"
"Leave it to us."
The two men nodded resolutely and went upstairs. Following that, I went to the inn with Nene and waited for the Ducal family to arrive.
"Oh, Arito! It's rare for you to call on us, has something happened?"
"It did…"
From this point we retold everything that transpired up to the assaints' death.
"The Reversed Sun, huh? That crime syndicate obsessed with the Nether realm and demons is a pain in the back of the entire Southern Alliance. So, they pn on attacking here… Edgar," Henry had a dark look on his face.
"Sir!" the elderly butler stepped next to his lord.
"I will need you to call on our reserves. We need to up the city defenses as soon as possible. Send a message to Nofmme and inform the royal capital. We might need the help of Royal knights and quite possibly even the Holy knights under the church."
"Understood my lord. I will do so right away," Edgar bowed politely and went outside the room.
"Well, mark me impress, to think that this maid of yours is a member of that dangerous organization," Laina gred at Nene standing behind me.
"Former member. I left once my overall goal had been fulfilled and I didn't need them anymore."
"It doesn't matter, correct? You are still a criminal," Laina, as it looked, had zero tolerance for criminals.
"I understand your distaste with me, and am willing to be punished for my many crimes, but if the organization goes after my lord, I will protect him with all I have," Nene gave Laina a resolute look.
"My, you really seem adamant about it."
"Well, seeing the kids in the orphanage grow made me realize many things," Nene smiled with mencholy in both eyes and tone.
"If that's the case, let us have a little chat after this is done."
"Understood, midy," Nene nodded and upon my request started telling us about the organization.
The Reversed Sun is an organization separated into seven divisions, each assigned a color. White researches monsters and conducts experiments on them and with them. Bck produces sacrifices and is the main source of illegal svery in the Alliance. Purple gathers information and materials. Green oversees money leasing and gambling. Orange makes drugs and medicines. Yellow smuggles illegal substances and people, apparently, they even bring spies from non allied countries here. Blue is overseeing brothels and all other kinds of sexual pleasure. Finally, Red is the head of assassinations. This is the organization Nene was a part of as well as one of the main figures in the organization called Four fingers. However, Nene killed the three other members of Four Fingers as well as all the members of a bigger group called Red Drops.
"I see, so you are a member of Four Fingers. There are many things I would like to ask you," Henry said with an angry gre in his eyes.
"Of course, I will tell you all that I remember, I believe I still have some names of our most wealthy patrons. Master, I believe this will take a long time, may I ask you to inform Miss Romi of my absence for the night?"
"Yeah sure. We did get some new eggs recently, so I was pnning to go there."
"Okay, we will talk with her for some more time before sending her back to you," Laina said with a small smile before I walked out with a small bow to the people inside the room.
***
Since it was evening by this time already, I made my way to the orphanage. There is a chance all who were in the shop are being followed. I feel some unpleasant eyes on my back, so I guess I should throw them off…
With that, I headed to the gate. I used some back alleys to open up a Dimension Home and take out Persia. Letting her fly ahead, I continued until I came face to face with a guard station. The eyes were still on me until I left the city.
"Fool ya," opening my left eye, I let Persia nd on my hand, "You're such a good girl, you know that Persia? I guess I will get you an extra piece of meat after dinner," I patted the owl's head and let her in the Dimension Home.
What I did was rather simple. I let Persia circle above the city and had her spy on those spies. Everything she saw was transmitted to my head with the use of [As One] spell.
"Sadly, most of those guys looked like common mobs… I guess I won't get much info out of them… Anyway,
Using magic a couple of times, I arrived at the basin where the mines were located.
"Hey! Arito! Over here!"
"Huh? Bnche? I thought you were in the orphanage!"
"When Nene left, she said something about intruders, and since she sounded really grim, I thought it would be best for me to go here! So, here I am!" Bnche sounded extremely pleased with herself. "Now, come, come! The eggs are about to hatch!"
Being pulled into the cave by the excited Bnche, I gave in and a smile spread over my face. Well, the most important thing is for us to be alive. I did all I could, so now I have to leave it in the hands of Lena and her family.