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Volume 3 Chapter 28
“Good work~” [Remiri]
“Why did you dodge!?” [Remiri]
As we finished subjugating the undead, Remiri-san called out. Realizing I was about to be hugged, I dodged, and Remiri-san started pouting.
“But you suddenly jumped at me, so…” [Ryouma]
“No, it’s not come on!” [Ryouma]
“Sof–!?” [Ryouma]
Shocked and confused, I accidentally bit my tongue.
“Weren’t you looking at my breasts when we first met~? I won’t let you touch them, but it can’t be helped if they touch you while I hug you, right~?” [Remiri]
“Lying’s bad, you know? You can’t trick oneesan.” [Remiri]
What should I say? What should I do? Flustered, and caught in a dilemma, my head began to spin, when Sebasu-san intervened.
“Remiri-sama, please don’t tease Ryouma-sama any more than this. We’re currently near the labyrinth, so magical beasts could come at any time.” [Sebasu]
“Remiri, since when did you start thanking people for a job well done?” [Shiva]
“Ah, yes.” [Ryouma]
Unintentionally, I gave a half-hearted reply. Let’s change the topic.
“Anyway, it looks like we’ve already defeated the undead in this area.” [Ryouma]
“That was quite a lot of undead though. I guess we just caught some bad luck, and ran into a horde of them before they were whittled down by someone else.” [Shiva]
This maze isn’t really popular. The road is a mess, so fighting monsters is a pain. On top of that, there’re less magic jewels here compared to other magic-made labyrinths, so the profit here is less.
Because of that the undead rarely gets whittled down, and knights and clergymen need to be sent in order to get rid of the accumulating undead. It’s a good opportunity, so they’re apparently doing it both as training and as a job.
“Let’s go and find a safe place where we can rest first.” [Shiva]
“Camping tools.” [Ryouma]
What was in my hands were four iron rods. On one end, was a sharpened tip like that of a stake. And on the other end, was a circle pedestal to which something could be affixed to.
Cladding those rods in ki, I stabbed the sharp end of the iron rods into the north, west, south, and east borders of ‘Holy Space’ on the ground. And then I took out a spherical-shaped object from my ‘Item Box’, and placed it on top of a pedestal.
The shape of that object was a bit weird, but any Japanese would recognize it at first glance. It was an alcohol lamp.
Half a year ago, around the time when I was fuzzing over the drunk slime’s abilities, and was trying to create fruit wines with it, I concluded that the slime could mostly only be used for my personal amusement. As for why, it’s because Serge-san told me that alcohol is a tricky commodity to sell.
Sugar is expensive in this world. And sugar being one of the main ingredients of fruit wine, would mean that I can’t make any profit with liquor unless I sell it at a high price.
Moreover, while there are magical beasts that are publicly accepted as consumable meat (so I could technically sell the slimes’ alcohol) but at the same time, there are also those that don’t want to consume magical beasts depending on the species. Because of that, we concluded that there’s a possibility of slime liquor not being popular. As such it’s not something worth venturing into unless one is ready to suffer losses.
With that, I decided that it’s better to just use it for personal use. At the same time, I wondered whether there were some other ways I could use it, and using alchemy, I was able to create disinfectants, solvents, and fuel.
Although metal content could be found in the alcohol (ethanol) on earth, both drinkable and undrinkable. I couldn’t get any metals.
But even then, plenty of soot would come out, so I thought it was fine. But when I created an alcohol lamp out of the sticky slime’s concentrated hardened liquid, an idea hit me, and I thought of melting the concentrated sticky liquid. With that it went even better.
Moreover, while the fire lit from just ethanol was pale blue, and was hard to see in bright places. The fire from ethanol mixed with concentrated sticky liquid was bright enough to be useable as a torch. I created this alcohol lamp to make use of that. The alcohol goes into this tube here, and it lasts around an hour per cylinder without having to add more fuel, making it a pretty good tool in my opinion.
There’s nothing wrong with using light magic as light, but having options like this would mean being able to save up on magic power. It can also be used for kettles or cooking, so it’s no waste either way.
As I lit it, I taught Sebasu-san how to use the normal-sized alcohol lamp I created for kettle use.
“I see. It’s brighter than candles, and also quite hot. Like this it’ll definitely be useful even for cooking outside. Ryouma-sama, if you don’t mind, could I use this for a while?” [Sebasu]
In response, I just gave Sebasu-san a few points to be wary of when using it, then I lent it to him. At that, Remiri-san called out to me.
“Hey, Ryouma-kun.” [Remiri]
“What did you make this bedding out of? It’s really light, and it feels really good.” [Remiri]
Looks like she’s interested in my sleeping bag. Although I say ‘sleeping bag’, it’s not the type where I completely insert my body into. Rather I took a mattress, cut it into two, and sewed it up at the base. I made it that way so I could easily run away in case I need to. Well, I’m always in my ‘Dimension Home’ though, so I’ve never really had any situations where I needed to go outside immediately.
Incidentally, the materials used in this sleeping bag are the fluffs of the fluff slime that I caught half a year ago. While I was researching the fluff slime, and was watching the fluffs fluttering about in the air, I thought to use it to create pillows and mattresses.
When I first tried it out, I just filled a nearby jute bag with the fluffs, so the resulting product had a horrible texture. But I was at least able to prove that it’s possible. So after that, I dropped by Serge-san’s store, bought some sheets, and sewed them together. And like that, I was able to create a sack that had a nice texture, was soft, light, and warm, resulting in a product similar to that of a quilt.
Then I went a step further, and even treated the sheets with waterproofing. I also made it so that the fluffs inside would be uniform and not randomly arranged. After that, I revised it a few more times by trying it out, until finally I was able to complete my sleeping bag.
I also took the fluff slimes with me to the abandoned mine in Gimuru to observe it. As a result, I understood that the fluff slimes reproduce in the same way as the dandelions do.
At the start, a majority of the nucleus wouldn’t grow even without splitting, and died. Apparently, just like any other seed, the nucleus of the fluff slimes won’t grow unless it receives the proper nutrients. So it needs to fall to the ground, and absorb the nutrients around it. If the nutrients in the soil are insufficient, then it won’t grow either.
As proof of that, they barely grew with normal soil, but a great number of slimes were born with the soil that’s been cultivated with the scavenger slime’s fertilizer. Soil isn’t needed for its growth later on, but for a fluff slime to become a fluff slime from its fluff, it needs to have the proper nutrients.