Blessings Be Upon You*6
“I see. So if you stack a Blessing on a giant-ass slime that already got giant-ass from a Blessing, it turns into a Super giant-ass Slime.”
Yep. What now stood before us was a house-sized Super giant-ass Slime — all because we “layered Blessings onto the giant-ass slime and it ended up like this.”
“The radish is… whoaaa, a giant turnip! This is a giant turnip!”
And just as the slime had grown enormous, the radish had grown massive as well. Man, this is straight-up fantasy!
“You look happy, Asuma-sama.”
Of course I do! Tons of Japanese folks get excited when they see “The Giant Turnip,” right!? Because it’s The Giant Turnip! The Giant Turnip!
“Hmm… what should we do? Pulling this thing out is gonna be a real pain.”
“Then let’s all work together and pull it! And let’s use the chant ‘Heave-ho, heave-ho!’”
“Asuma-sama, why are you that happy?”
Because it’s a giant turnip! A giant turnip! Of course I’m fired up! Hyaahhaa!!
And so we pulled out the giant turnip of the Super giant-ass Slime. I even got to say “Heave-ho, heave-ho.” Thanks, everyone. A dream I thought would never come true has just been fulfilled.
“I wonder… how this tastes. Usually when something gets too big it ends up tough and not tasty…”
“With this size, we can't just casually taste it. Hmm… should we cut it open first?”
“Yeah. Let’s do it. Cutting up a turnip… this is a first for me…”
And so, after pulling out a giant turnip, I gained yet another experience: dismantling a giant turnip. Uh, the titanium knife I got from Lisas-san. I worked hard with that.
Lisas-san kept fidgeting, going, “Should I use my sword? At this size, I feel like we should…” but I really wanted to try using this knife, and I wanted to cut the turnip on my own, so I stuck with it.
The result: the turnip got cut into blocks about 10–20 cm on a side… What the heck is this!? Turnip blocks!? What!? What IS this!?
“Oh! It’s delicious! Really delicious!”
Mishisia-san immediately bit into one of the relatively smaller blocks, so I followed her lead and took a big bite too.
“Let’s see… whoa, this really is delicious!”
And the shock!
The fine, delicate texture of turnip remained completely intact, soft yet with a crisp bite! Bursting with juiciness, strongly sweet, richly flavored… this is turnip!
This juicy yet almost creamy richness! It’s certainly delicious — that’s for sure! But what the heck are we supposed to do with it!? This is a problem!
“… So, what should we do with all this?”
That’s the thing. It’s insanely delicious, but this turnip is WAY too big.
A turnip this massive is hard to process. We can’t eat it all ourselves… it’s just too big. Yep.
“… Well, if we take it to the Royal Capital’s Gold Mine Dungeon, it’ll probably be gone in no time.”
“Ahh, true. Then let’s have them use it for a stew line or something…”
Turnip tastes great stewed too. I love turnip pot-au-feu. Put some chicken in there too, please.
…And so the giant turnip was hauled to the Royal Capital Dungeon to be taken off our hands. The wagon loaded with turnip blocks rocked and shook. Do-na-do-na-dooo-na…
Okay, the turnip is fine. The turnip is fine, but… there’s still something we have no idea how to deal with!
“What do we do with this Super giant-ass Slime?”
“We can’t take it home at this size…”
Exactly! This Super giant-ass Slime! It’s so super giant-ass that it’s completely unmanageable!
“For the record, I am… kind of curious how much bigger this guy can get…!”
“If it gets any bigger it’ll be a big problem, Asuma-samaaa!”
Yeah. I get it. In Panis Village, slimes are basically treated like pets/cushions/fields already, but in the Royal Capital they’re still considered monsters.
As Panis Village becomes more famous as a tourist spot, I’m sure the rumors of harmless slimes will spread… but still, if a house-sized slime was wobbling around, that’d be scary even for me.
“… Anyway, hey you, can’t you make yourself smaller?”
Well, first things first, I asked the Super giant-ass Slime… but sadly, it only rippled with a big moyon wave. Doesn’t seem like it wants to shrink. Goddammit.
“Cutting it up… would be too sad, right?”
“Asuma-sama. For someone saying it’s sad… you are planting vegetables in it. Is that fine?”
“Yeah. I mean, it is sad, but it doesn’t seem bothered, and honestly, it’s kind of sad-cute so…”
Turning a slime into farmland is a WIN-WIN relationship as far as I’m concerned, so the slime will have to accept that. But cutting it apart… I dunno. If cutting it apart would turn one Super giant-ass Slime into lots of small slimes… then okay, maybe I’d try it…
“Ah—Saintess Sati. Could you… make this thing smaller?”
“I-I don’t know…”
“Knew it…”
Even asking the producer herself didn’t help. Makes sense, I guess.
Saintess Sati herself doesn’t seem to know the details of how “Blessings” work. Well, she’s probably never blessed a slime before, so yeah…
We need to get past this “that’s just how it is” wall and figure things out, so I do want to ask Saintess Sati what “Blessing” actually feels like.
But… hmm.
“… Let’s take a nap and think about it.”
“Yeah! It’s the perfect squishiness for that! Sati-chan, nap with us! Okay!?”
“Is that alright?”
“It’s fine, it’s fine! Come on, let’s sleep! Poyooon!”
First, let’s fully enjoy this Super giant-ass Slime. Ahhh, this squishiness feels amazing. Even huge, it’s mo-yon mo-yon and perfect. Alright, goodnight!
And then we woke up. While gnawing on radish for a snack… now then.
“… I’ve formed a few hypotheses. Some are huge leaps, and some are based on ‘my instincts as a Dungeon Master,’ so take them with a grain of salt.”
We held a meeting atop the Super giant-ass Slime. What can I say — it’s just really comfortable to sit on…
“My guess is: slimes turn aggressive when they lack mana.”
“That’s what does it!?”
“Yeah, well, it’s a hypothesis. …If they’re given plenty of mana and can grow slowly and plumply in peace, then slimes become gentle and won’t attack people. Because they have no need to.”
“I see… so they attack because they need to. That’s the idea.”
Yep. That’s where I started from.
The reason slimes outside Panis Village get aggressive or dangerous… it’s probably because they need to.
Living creatures become what they are out of necessity. They carry poison or fangs because they need them… and thinking that way, “in an environment where there’s no need to fight, unarmed slimes emerge” makes perfect sense.
“And… gentle slimes don’t mind having vegetables planted on them!”
“Well, they won’t mind because it doesn’t kill them.”
“And the larger the slime — the less danger it faces — the gentler it gets, and the less it cares about vegetables!”
“They don’t even care that we’re sitting on them right now.”
Yeah. When you think about it, ignoring animals sleeping on you is an insane level of gentleness…
“… And one of the reasons slimes grow huge seems to be absorbing large amounts of mana.”
Right. This part we already figured out in Panis Village. Every once in a while, giant-ass Slimes appear because they’ve absorbed lots of mana.
“How the Saintess’s ‘Blessing’ works exactly… well, unless we bring her to Panis Village and analyze it with absorption and reconstruction included, we won’t know. But I’m sure mana is being added somehow…”
… Which is why I want to analyze what kind of mana particles are appearing.
And also… why do mana particles arise? Basically — “Why can the people of this world use fantasy-powers at all!?” I wanna figure out the root of that too. I really wanna know… because it makes no sense…
“So yeah, we should invite Saintess Sati to Panis Village soon.”
“I see… if we’re bringing the Saintess to Panis Village… then we’ll need to get Laperesiana-sama’s approval.”
“Laperesiana should just come with her! Right!? Right!? Let’s do that!”
Mishisia-san is giving the most casual, friendly suggestion possible, but well… Laperesiana-sama is insanely busy. And moving Saintess Sati around too much could cause political trouble. Hmm…
Well, we’ll discuss that later…
And lastly… there’s this one question that popped up, and we’ll have to deal with it eventually… but it’s hard to verify and all, so… yeah…
“Slimes are happy when they have plenty of mana. Since they’re born from mana and water, grow with mana and water, and probably maintain their life with mana and water too… that’s why lots of mana makes them happy.”
“Yeah, I get that. These kids look happy when you give them water, Asuma-sama!”
Huh, really? They look happy? … I still barely understand what slimes are thinking. Sometimes I can tell “they seem happy” or “they seem displeased” just from the vibe…
“… And if a living creature changes shape or lifestyle to compensate for what it lacks… then there’s this one huge question we can’t ignore…”
Slime mood aside, slimes need mana, and slimes act to obtain mana… so logically, you kind of have to think this way:
“… Places where slimes get aggressive — like other dungeons — might actually… be low on mana.”
What do you think about this chapter?
