“I-It’s alright, Caulkin-san! We’ve already been employed by this store!” [Robelia]
“That’s right! We’ll be working under the boss from now on, so from now on, we can work to prove to other people just how valuable slimes are!” [Tony]
“Right… You’re exactly right. This isn’t the time to be frustrated! If anything this is the time to be working even harder!” [Caulkin]
Robelisan and Tony-san’s words seemed to have resonated with Caulkin-san, and in no time at all, he was back on his feet. He even appeared to be really motivated.
Actually, I already know the method to tame the big slimes, but if I tell that to them, they’ll probably become depressed again.
I neither have the courage nor the ability to reveal that without letting them get depressed, so I’ll just bring it up another time.
“Where were we again?” [Ryouma]
“We were just explaining to you how poorly the slime laboratory treated the slime researchers.” [Tony]
“Right. And then from there we ended up talking about the evolution condition. Boss, do you have any other questions?” [Tony]
I’m interested in the types of slimes.
“What other kinds of slimes evolved in the lab?” [Ryouma]
“Hmm… From the ones I’ve seen, there were at most the sticky slimes like the ones you have. One theory proposed that if the sticky slimes were to accumulate enough combat experience, they would eventually evolve into a big slime, so they were often made to fight to the death against other monsters.” [Tony]
Well, that certainly won’t help it evolve.
“In my case, the slime I was raising at the research lab evolved into a tree slime.” [Robelia]
Oh! That’s a new one!
“What kind of slime is that?” [Ryouma]
“At first, it was just like any other slime, but as time passed by, a tree grew out from its nucleus.” [Robelia
A tree grew out from its nucleus? Is that slime’s nucleus supposed to be a seed?
“And then?” [Ryouma]
“That’s it.” [Robelia]
“Huh?” [Ryouma]
“The tree gradually grew bigger and bigger, and then it rooted itself into the ground. The nucleus was functioning properly within the tree, but the slime couldn’t move anymore.” [Robelia]
“Was it useful for anything?” [Ryouma]
“Not particularly… I suppose you could harvest it for lumber.” [Robelia]
Lumber?
“You know, Boss. Useful slimes aren’t usually easy to find. Even sticky slimes are just used for their adhesive.” [Tony]
“And you could use glue anyway, so it’s not in demand either.” [Robelia]
“Slimes that have evolved also means one less specimen for research, so they’re usually treated as failures.” [Caulkin]
From the looks of things, the researchers at the lab just aren’t all that enthusiastic about slimes.
Not only are the researchers treated poorly, they also don’t have much to look forward to in terms of future prospects, so that’s probably why. Still, I think this sort of thinking is just too bad.
Maybe I could tell other people about the usefulness of slimes? And then I could make it my life goal in this world for everyone to know about it.
Actually, I don’t really understand why they’re not used much. I know they’re weak, but even the lower variants are plenty useful.
“Although slimes are weak, they’re really sensitive to danger, so they can immediately notice when monsters or bandits are nearby. They’re also easy to feed since they can live off of morning dew or water. And they’re also able to get various important information in order to survive in the wild.” [Ryouma]
“I’ve thought this before, but you sure are compatible with slimes, Boss.” [Caulkin]
“Indeed. You also control so many.” [Tony]
“That’s true too, but I was actually referring more about his understanding of them.” [Caulkin]
Understanding?
“Just because a person is compatible with his monster doesn’t meant that their personal differences won’t get in the way. For example, even if you gather a bunch of tamers and pair them with a specific monster they’re compatible with, not all of them will be able to understand their monster.” [robelia]
Apparently, there were many different ways for monster tamers to understand their monsters. Some would do it purely by understanding their feelings, while some would infer from their gestures to understand them.
“A monster tamer can’t really be said to have good compatibility with his monster if he can’t understand his monster sufficiently. Unfortunately, such people are extremely rare. But such people do actually exist. And you’re probably one of them, Boss.
As for me, at most, I can tell when my slime is unhappy.” [Robelia]
“Boss, if everybody could understand slimes the way you do, the slimes would probably be an invaluable monster by now.” [Tony]
I see… Apparently, my ability to understand my monster is vastly different compared to most monster tamers.
I do believe it’s limited to just the slimes, but this might be the reason why research on slime hasn’t progressed much.
After that I asked them for more specifics about that last topic, and then I also asked more about the different kind of slimes and their characteristics.
We continued talking like that, then before we knew it, it was already midnight.