Blessings be Upon You*3
And so, we arrived at the royal capital. The experiment begins.
“Chiki-chiki! The experiment to see how many days it takes for the seeds planted in a Slime to sprout!”
“Waaah!”
… Mishisia-san and I were overflowing with energy. At times like this, it’s best to crank up the excitement for no reason and have fun for no reason.
“Asuma-sama! Is this Slime here supposed to be for tomatoes!?”
“Ah, yeah! That row over—ah!? Wait! Wait! The rows are getting mixed up! That row and this row are mixing aaaahhhh!”
… Well, Slimes are once again mochi-mochi squishy and carefree today, so we’re struggling. But hey, that’s part of their charm…
The land in the capital was provided for us by Laperesiana-sama.
Originally, I think this place was supposed to be farmland, but apparently it hasn’t been used for a while. The soil is exactly like that—hard, mixed with stones, weeds everywhere.
But well, even in an environment like this, a Slime farm has no problem. If Slime farming can be used anywhere, the labor needed for land cultivation will decrease dramatically. This is looking promising!
“Asuma-samaaa! The grass is so tall I lost sight of the Slimes!”
“Ahh, guess we gotta cut the grass then…”
… Well, grass-cutting and tilling the soil are very different levels of work. Even if we have to cut grass, it’s still a net positive…
So we cut the grass. There are no lawnmowers in this world, but there are great scythes.
…Yes. Great scythes. Huge scythes. Those things Grim Reapers carry.
Those are genuine farming tools, and when you swing one around, weeds get sliced cleanly. Lisas-san was cutting the grass nonstop with the great scythe.
However…
“That great scythe is so cool…”
“R-really…?”
“Yeah. Really cool…”
…I mean, great scythes are cool. They’re the stuff of dreams. Right?
So I spent a while watching the cool scenery of grass-cutting with a giant scythe. I mean, it just looks like something meant for reaping souls. Seeing it in real life being used practically like this really stirs the imagination! The romance overflows!
Romance aside, while Lisas-san kept cutting grass, Mishisia-san and I built the fence.
Even if we’re letting the Slimes roam free, it’d be a problem if they wandered off forever, so we’re putting up a fence.
… It’s less about trapping them and more about teaching them “don’t go past this point.” So it’s nothing tight—just stakes hammered in here and there with some ropes stretched between them. Well, Slimes are smart, so this should be enough.
“The Slimes’ water source… wow, without dungeon power it’s hard to make a water area.”
“Oh, for the water source, Laperesiana-sama said she’ll send a mage who can use water mana before evening. A mage who can use earth mana will also come to make a simple shed.”
“Fantasy!”
With that, everything progresses even more easily. Honestly—yeah, that’s how it is. In this world, construction, landscaping, even river management—everything can be done with mana… Of course science never got a chance to develop.
Or rather, the development pattern is so discontinuous from a scientific viewpoint… like, “even if you don’t know how to level a surface, mana can make perfect architecture”… the parts that form the ‘basics’ in our world just aren’t needed… ahhh fantasy!
Well, with all that, the Slime farm testing site was complete.
When we released the Slimes into the freshly made test field, they went mochi-mochi over the freshly cut weeds, mochi-mochi to check the water source, mochi-mochi into the shed to relax. They seemed to really like the water source and shed. Some were sitting atop the pile of cut weeds too.
“Okay, I’ll start planting now!”
And so, the Slime experiment begins. I caught each Slime one by one and planted seeds in them.
Since this is a test, I used three types of seeds: tomatoes, carrots, and medicinal herbs. I picked three plants that use fruit, root, and leaf respectively.
And for half of them, I used the fertilizer we brought. For the other half, I only gave water. Water from the capital. Meaning, the method we’d use when deploying Slime farms normally in various places from now on.
“Alright, let’s see how this goes! I’m kind of excited!”
“Yeah. I’m kinda excited too!”
Now we wait. Since Mishisia-san and I were in a “excited but also bored!” mood, we joined hands and danced. If all goes well, we should have tomatoes by tomorrow morning!
… We stayed at an inn in the capital that night.
It was a very nice room, so Lisas-san and I were a bit tense. Mishisia-san was thrilled, shouting “Yaaay! Such a pretty room!” I want to live like her just once.
This inn fee was paid by Laperesiana-sama. “It is expense for research, is it not? Then it is proper for us to cover it,” she said. I’m humbled!
Even if I can’t be as carefree as Mishisia-san, this is absolutely good reference material for building lodging facilities in Panis Village, so I enjoyed it thoroughly.
… And then, the next morning.
“They didn’t grow!? Why!?”
To my shock! The tomatoes still hadn’t fruited!
Checking the tomatoes sprouting from the Slimes’ heads—yes, they had grown, but not enough to bear fruit.
The ones with fertilizer had grown to the seedling stage. The ones with only water had barely sprouted.
The carrots and herbs were in similar condition. This is a problem.
“This is troubling… so fertilizer really was necessary…?”
“Or maybe it’s mana. Remember, Panis Village’s spring water is full of mana.”
“Oh, really…?”
I can’t decompose/absorb/reconstruct outside my dungeon area, so I’ve never broken down the water outside the village. I don’t know the ‘normal mana concentration’ of water.
“They say the reason Panis Village’s hot springs work so well is because the source is rich in mana!”
“Oh, I see…”
… Yeah, I really should’ve learned more about the evaluation of our own hot spring. But yeah, that makes sense. Our hot spring is loaded with Slime broth, rich in “mochi-mochi soft mana”… of course it’d become a highly mana-rich spring.
Setting Slime broth aside—back to the crops.
“Hmmm… basically, Slime-grown crops need mana too, huh.”
“That must be it. Which means we need to provide mana from elsewhere…”
“Dumping potions in… ah, right, potions can’t be made without mana-rich water…”
If it’s a mana shortage, we just need to add mana. But to make mana, we need mana. More precisely, what we need right now isn’t a specific mana molecule—it’s junk mana… the scattered mana elements.
Elements are elements. If they’re not there, they’re not there. Doesn’t look like we can create them from nothing… so this is tough.
“What about concentrating mana by boiling it down over and over…? No, the labor cost ruins the point…”
Ughhh, no solution in sight!
At the very least, we learned that Slime farming might not function well outside Panis Village, and that’s already a big result… but still, this is worse than “Slimes might change depending on environment.” This is fundamental. What do we do…
We tried one more day, but the Slimes just mochi-mochi’ed peacefully, and the crops still didn’t grow enough to harvest.
Even with fertilizer. Fertilizer helped a lot, but fantasy power still wins…
“Extracting mana from dungeon-born gems… that would be… difficult…”
“Not all dungeons produce gems like the Panis Village dungeon.”
Right… hmm. This is hard. Too hard. If the problem is mana shortage, the only immediate countermeasures are “reduce required mana” or “increase provided mana.”
And… the best long-term solution is probably reducing required mana.
Most likely, the plants need specific mana molecules to grow, and synthesizing those requires lots of junk mana… so if we identify just the specific ones needed and supply only those, the total mana needed should drop drastically.
However, we can’t produce specific mana types right now, so the only option is giving lots of junk mana and having the Slimes synthesize it… is that how it works? Also, why does planting crops on Slimes make them grow unbelievably fast in the first place?
… Ahhh! I don’t get it!
I buried myself in the Slimes while groaning “I don’t get iiiit!” The Slimes being buried under me looked a bit bothered, but forgive me. I want to be buried in you.
“How goes it?”
Laperesiana-sama arrived just then, and I quickly stopped burying myself in Slimes. The Slimes mochi-mochi’ed away from me. Yeah. You hated that. Sorry…
“It’s not going well!”
“I see. Well, that cannot be helped. Nothing ever goes perfectly smoothly.”
Ughhh, her understanding just makes me feel more guilty…
… Is this how I would’ve felt back in college if a thesis experiment was going nowhere…?
Feeling a bit gloomy, I gathered myself.
“It seems Panis Village’s Slime farming only works so well because the village has a dungeon.”
Report time. Reporting, contacting, consulting—these are important. Laperesiana-sama crossed her arms and nodded, “I see. It cannot be helped.” I feel so bad…
“If the land had higher mana, this could work… maybe near a dungeon.”
“Then perhaps inside the royal capital’s gold-mine dungeon?”
“Yes. That’s one possibility.”
But well, the hypothesis is now clear: “If mana is insufficient, go to a place with more mana.” Meaning some locations may still allow practical use.
The capital’s dungeon is relatively safe, so if we really wanted, we could probably do it… Water source creation would depend on the dungeon though…
But even then—
Using only the capital’s dungeon won’t feed the whole kingdom.
Using other dungeons means we need communication with them. And we can’t guarantee they won’t betray us… that feels too risky.
Which means…
“… I think we need a more fundamental solution using mana itself.”
I really think this is the way.
“Did the ‘Blessing’ really consume that much mana? If not, there must be a secret behind it. I want to investigate that first.”
The “Blessing” the Church people used.
I think investigating that should be the top priority.
“I see. Understood. Then I shall bring someone who can use the ‘Blessing.’”
Laperesiana-sama acts fast! So fast!
I mean, if she can arrange that, it helps unbelievably, but I honestly didn’t expect it!
“The Saintess would be suitable. She is currently being protected in the royal castle.”
“The Saintess!? Amazing!”
“Awesome! That’s amazing!”
And the Saintess herself! If she’s coming… then we really need to analyze everything thoroughly! So Mishisia-san and I broke into a dance. When in doubt, dance.
… Though even if we analyze the Saintess’s “Blessing,” who knows if we’ll understand it or reproduce it. But if it works… it’s obviously better to spread that technique widely and make it commonplace. No question!
My heart is burning! Burning!
… As Mishisia-san and I danced and Lisas-san watched us with an indescribable expression…
“By the way, about the Saintess.”
Laperesiana-sama smiled meaningfully and said:
“She is seven years old. Be cautious.”
What do you think about this chapter?
