Chapter 69

The Road to Carriage*8
And so, I made a steam bath. I put the slimes inside.

The slimes were getting nicely steamed, looking a bit melted. But they seemed to like the steam bath itself, squishing around happily. Maybe they prefer hot and humid environments. If that’s the case, wouldn’t they just love the Japanese summer on the Pacific side? Come, my friends, to summer in Japan.

“Asuma-samaaa, why are you steaming the slimes?”

“Uh, to concentrate mana. This steam bath works like this: beneath the slatted floor, there’s a tank where the water is heated, that water evaporates, and then on the ceiling there’s a cooling pipe that condenses it, and those droplets fall onto the slimes, plip-plop.

Even now, inside the steam bath, it’s warm and dripping with humidity, but the slimes seem to enjoy being hit by the droplets falling from the ceiling. They really do like rainy days, after all.

“And the ceiling has cooling-water pipes… but I added junk mana into the material of those pipes. So the droplets formed by condensation contain junk mana. And since the cooling water is spring water sourced from the hot spring, junk mana keeps getting supplied to the pipes.”

“S-Sounds amazing even though I don’t get it!”

“Yup. Well, we won’t know if it works until we try.”

What I’m doing is basically the same as a Soxhlet extractor. Keeping the solvent clean while reusing it so it can extract the desired stuff efficiently.

… There’s only one problem with this.

“The problem is, are potions okay if you boil them?”

To do the extraction, you have to keep evaporating the solvent, which means I’m basically heating a potion!

“Eh… some potions can handle heat and some can’t!”

“Right. I know. But I think it’ll probably be fine. I mean, the hot spring already had slime broth dissolved into it…”

“Ah… right…”

… Though some mana could be volatile, so I’ll have to check that.

But considering the slimes were relaxing in the hot spring while releasing their beauty components, I’d guess that at least hot-spring level heat doesn’t harm them.

Why can they handle heat? Because slimes love to clog up pipes that have lots of mana-filled water flowing through them! And in a hot spring facility, that means the hot-water pipes! These guys clog those sometimes—even though the water is way too hot!

… Maybe slimes would’ve been fine even if I simmered them in a pot. The thought crossed my mind.

After steaming the slimes for a while, they came out all glossy and bouncy.

… How should I put it? They look shinier. And livelier than usual. Maybe it is better for them to sometimes be in a hot, humid environment. Or maybe they just got super energized from soaking up all that junk mana…

Well, whatever. Even if this experiment fails, I can leave this steam bath as a welfare facility for the slimes… Now then, as for the mana concentration…

“Success.”

… We successfully concentrated the mana!

“I don’t really know what succeeded, but something did! Congratulations! Congratulations!”

“Thank you! Thank you!”

So Mishisia-san and I grabbed hands and started dancing. Luntatta, luntatta. Dancing a bon dance to a waltz rhythm.

“Now, the question is whether we can actually make rubber-like stuff by dumping this into water… hmm…”

Since I raised the temperature for extraction, I considered lowering the temperature to see if that would prevent it from mixing… but for now, let’s just try it. I pour the concentrated slime potion into water inside a tire mold.

“… It worked.”

“It really worked.”

… and with a wobble, a rubber-like tire solidified.

Hmm… so it does work. Yeah. Yeah… why?

I don’t get the theory, but it worked. I tested it multiple times, and the results were reproducible. I grabbed Mishisia-san, Lisas-san, and also an adventurer who looked bored while muttering, “I got nothin’ to do… nothin’ to do…” and had them try too.

They were able to reproduce it, so we decided to approve this method for making tires.

As for attaching spokes and assembling the final product… we’ll get to that later. Now then…

“Mishisia-san! Come on! Try riding it!”

“Really!? Okay, I’ll try!”

I put Mishisia-san on the freshly completed bicycle—hopefully reproducible by the locals too—and she pedaled and glided forward smoothly.

“Seems fine!?”

“Yup! It’s great!”

… and thus, development of the carriage is temporarily complete… Though it’s not a carriage anymore but a bicycle and a cart.

Still, this should at least affect the distribution network a little. At the very least, the path from Panis Village to Lark Town and then to the capital… I want more traffic along that route.

“By the way, can’t this ‘bike’ go faster…?”

“Should we just make a moped? Maybe if we combine some fantasy power we can easily make an engine…”

“Circle array…? Something round…?”

… Well, there’s still room for improvement.

Yeah… if a moped's too hard, maybe a mobile vehicle…?

… And so, one month later.

“I’m becoming not the Dungeon Master, but the Bike Master…”

I was endlessly making bikes.

The craftsmen increasing in Panis Village are helping too, but I can mass-produce them way faster by reconstructing them myself. So that’s what I’ve been doing.

“Bikes for people, and tricycles for carrying cargo, with fantasy engines…”

Especially the fantasy-engine ones. They’re incredibly popular because they’re a great substitute for horses…

The engine runs on gemstones… Well, the mana inside the gemstones.

It works by consuming the junk mana in the gems to produce a ‘Propulsion’ spell. Something like that. And since this thing exists now, the mysterious tri-wheeled bike powered by fantasy force is now serving as the main logistic workhorse.

And to produce those tri-wheeled bikes, I’m working nonstop. I’m not the Lord of the Dungeon anymore. I’m the Bike Master.

“Well, now that I’ve figured out more about mana’s properties…”

That said, I haven’t been doing only bike work. I’ve been keeping up with foundational research too.

… It seems that mana particles cause various effects by transforming nearby junk mana.

A person who drinks a potion doesn’t heal only by the potion’s ‘Healing’ mana particles; they also transform the junk mana inside the person into ‘Healing’ mana, aiding recovery.

The ‘soft and springy mana’ extracted from slimes not only acts on water itself but also transforms the junk mana inside that water into springy mana, making the rubber-like stuff.

Basically, the more of these mana particles that guide junk mana, the stronger the influence—meaning concentration. A potion with a high mana concentration has a bigger effect.

Thus, concentration is important… But some mana evaporates—or rather, won’t stay stable inside a potion. This requires more research…

Anyway, research on turning various kinds of mana into potion form, or letting potionized mana act on other substances, is progressing well. I might be the frontier of national technology at this rate!

But then—

“Asuma-sama, you look tired. Are you okay? Want to take a little nap?”

“No, thank you, Edele-san, I’m— No, really, I’m fine! Edele-san! Edele-san! Aaaaaaaah!”

… The work is exhausting.

And when I get tired… Edele-san comes to put me to sleep!

Ahh, ahhhhhh… When Edele-san hugs me tightly, pats my back, wraps me in a towel blanket with practiced skill, then rocks me gently… I get sleepy, even though I told her not to…

Zzz.

I get put to sleep every day, but I’m healthy. Because she puts me to sleep, I stay healthy. Daily naps with guaranteed deep sleep. Of course I’m healthy.

But today, I must not be put to sleep. And Edele-san probably doesn’t have the time, either.

… Today, Laperesiana-sama is coming! The whole village will welcome her!

Preparations to welcome Laperesiana-sama and the Third Knights Order went smoothly.

Recently, not only eggs but also Mewmya milk can be produced in Panis Village, so our cooking repertoire has increased. Having unlimited dairy is a huge deal.

Mewmya milk yields less than cow milk, but it’s rich and delicious. Cheese made from it is light yet full of milky richness and savor, and it pairs exceptionally well with slime-grown tomatoes. It’s the best. Butter made from Mewmya milk is also very milky, so when you bake a butter cake with it, it turns absurdly good.

… So we prepared such dishes and waited for Laperesiana-sama’s group…

“… Hey, Asuma-sama. Do you hear something?”

“Hm? Something? … Ah—I hear it, maybe. A growling? No…?”

We heard a low, rumbling sound.

Could it be a large monster? We immediately grew tense. Mishisia-san, with her sharp hearing, was especially alert.

… But.

“Let’s take a look… huh?”

Using my Dungeon Power to shift my viewpoint, what I saw was shocking.

… Silver hair blowing fiercely in the wind, turquoise-blue eyes fixed straight ahead… Laperesiana-sama and the Third Knights Order she leads…

“Laperesiana-sama! Laperesiana-sama!”

“Has something happened to Laperesiana-sama!?”

“She’s riding! She’s riding!”

“… A huge bike!”

… She was riding a motorcycle!

Yep! Better than a bicycle! Good enough!

What do you think about this chapter?