Blessings Be Upon You*7
“Other dungeons have low mana…?”
“Yeah. Or rather, the Panis Village Dungeon has an absurd amount of mana!”
After thinking it through, I reached a conclusion.
… It’s not that the others are weird. It’s my place that’s abnormal!
“… I do have an idea why. When I came to the dungeon, there was a bit of an accident and… probably everything that could be broken down and absorbed as mana got completely taken in…”
Looking back, it was ridiculously simple.
What I lost when I came to this world… well, leaving the underwear aside, my laptop, my smartphone, and my smartwatch. All three of them could connect to the internet… all of them filled with massive amounts of data.
In other words, they were lumps of information.
… And to the dungeon, they were “lumps of mana.”
If those were broken down and absorbed, it would be enough mana to turn the dungeon slimes into the soft, squishy, mochi-like ones we have now instead of the kind of vicious slimes other places get… that’s how much mana they were worth.
And naturally, there’s nothing else like that “lump of mana” in this world.
… Right, the world I came from was overflowing with information compared to this one.
A world where you take a few steps down the street and there’s info popping out everywhere. That strange glowing crack in the ceiling at the deepest part of the dungeon… it’s probably information leaking from my old world, turning into mana, and raining down here… which is why this dungeon ends up so full of mana.
… Thinking like this, it really makes me wonder “what even is a dungeon?” but… uh, let’s leave that for later. My head’s gonna explode… explode…
“For now, I want to propose the theory that raising a dungeon’s mana keeps its slimes from becoming violent! And also propose that if we raise mana in the capital, its slimes might also be usable as farmland!”
Let’s get back on track. Not the dungeon—slimes! Slimes!
“So basically! If we raise the capital dungeon’s mana, I bet slimes will behave normally here too, and become farmland just like in Panis Village!”
“I’d love it if slimes like the Panis Village ones increased… but I dunno.”
“Hmm… feels pretty difficult…”
… Well yeah, messing with the dungeon itself is the last resort. There are way too many things we’d need to maintain.
In the end this theory becomes: “Feels doable, but would cost too much, so rejected.”
… Yeah. The cost is the killer.
First you’d need to start with reforming public opinion on slimes. That alone would take massive time and effort, and in the current political climate where even the direction of the royal authority is unclear, it’d be risky. Especially when we’re trying to break away from Blessings—that is, religion!—this isn’t something to suddenly throw in.
And if we were to modify a dungeon into farmland, who knows how the dungeon itself would react. We’d need negotiations there too… and we don’t even know if that’s possible.
And above all, if we investigate a dungeon, there’s the risk of human casualties. That’s… yeah, no thanks.
So yeah, influencing the dungeon is the last resort. Definitely.
… But, if things get desperate enough, the day may come when we have to do something with the dungeon.
Which is why we should remember this: “Other dungeons might actually be mana-deficient!” Weaknesses can be negotiation cards!
“Well, leaving dungeons and slimes aside… we should probably continue verifying Blessings first.”
“Yeah. If we’re aiming to break away from Blessings, it’s a path we’ll have to walk eventually.”
Right. We always end up back here.
… Time to consult Laperesiana-sama and Saintess Sati.
But thanks to the slimes’ form changes, we gained a little more insight.
The experiments weren’t a waste.
So we invited Laperesiana-sama again and asked, “May we take Saintess Sati to Panis Village!?”
Her answer was “Wait a while. I will negotiate.”
So we decided to remain in the capital for another ten days and continue the experiments. Originally we planned to experiment for twenty days anyway. All according to schedule.
When we checked the results at the twenty-day mark…
“It really seems like stacking Blessings makes a difference.”
Comparing fields A1 and A2, the difference was obvious.
A2, which received an additional Blessing on day ten, was doing far better.
“These are fine turnips.”
“For a radish, this is pretty big…”
The radishes turned out… well, more like turnips. Not quite “The Gigantic Turnip,” but with a bit more effort they could pass as “Seigoin Daikon.”
“Same goes for fields B to D. Judging from how A2 and B2 aren’t too different, whether the seeds ever received a Blessing seems like a major factor.”
“So fields blessed only through water fall behind, huh.”
“Seems like it. But still, water-only Blessing is way better than no Blessing at all.”
Field C, blessed through water only, was behind fields A and B, whose soil itself was blessed. Direct influence seems huge.
“As for the soil… feels like total mana amount is what really matters.”
“So the gem-infused soil really is better!”
The soil results were basically the same as the ten-day point. Higher mana = better.
… After looking through everything—
“Then all that’s left is to bring Saintess Sati to Panis Village and confirm everything through breakdown absorption!”
“I can’t wait, Asuma-sama!”
We were excited that day.
Seeing Saintess Sati smiling while snuggling into the slimes makes you think: “Oh, please—go to the hot spring with the slimes, eat delicious food, sleep with the slimes, and relax!”
She just loves slimes so much. We hoped she’d have fun being buried in the soft, squishy, bouncy slimes… or so we thought…
We thought…
“… There were many objections to moving Saintess Sati out of the capital. At the very least, I won’t be able to persuade them today or tomorrow. Forgive me.”
… What! Permission to take Saintess Sati was denied!
What the hell!
Laperesiana-sama looked exhausted. Understandable…
“Keeping Saintess Sati in the capital is the strongest pressure against the Great Cathedral. We cannot risk breaking that balance, not even by a fraction.”
“Ah—like, she might get attacked before reaching Panis Village…”
“… Exactly. And if they say that’s a possibility, I can’t refute it. On top of that, the claim that ‘research cannot progress unless we go to Panis Village’ is unreasonable, they said…”
“Ah… yeah, they’d say that.”
The fact that I’m “the dungeon’s little god” is still a secret. If too many people learn about that, it’s bad. Which means we can’t explain why the experiments must take place inside the Panis Village Dungeon.
If we can only experiment there, people will doubt whether the results apply anywhere else. And it’s not like we have any special equipment there—unless we count dungeon power, which would mean revealing that I’m the dungeon’s master!
… So yeah, taking Saintess Sati is tough.
Laperesiana-sama is clearly frustrated. But she’s already been moving boldly for us. Pushing further would cause friction everywhere, and I can’t demand more. She’s already done so much.
… And apparently the report about the giant-ass Slime has already reached the castle, and she’s been the one running around explaining “No, it’s harmless!” Honestly, I owe her so much… Hey you, giant-ass Slime! Show some respect! Flatten yourself a bit!
“That’s how it is. My apologies, even though you’ve been advancing the research…”
“No, it’s okay. Even without Saintess Sati herself, there’s still plenty we can do.”
So I immediately started planning.
We’ll test this and that. Analyze that too. And then… yes.
“We’ll need Saintess Sati to apply a few more Blessings. Soil, water, slimes for sure… and also seeds, and some radishes that get Blessed afterward… ah, I’ll make a list!”
… We’ll just do what we can.
Analyzing magic in the moment it’s used is hard anyway, so… this should still tell us a lot. Probably. Probably, yeah. Yup.
So we asked Saintess Sati for several more Blessings, then returned to Panis Village.
… By the way, the giant-ass Slime remains as is. The Royal Third Knight Order will be managing it. I truly cannot thank them enough. I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to create a slime that stupidly huge!
With that guilt weighing on me, in the carriage on the way home…
“… Is the carriage okay?”
Up on the driver’s bench, Lisas-san glanced back in concern. But neither Mishisia-san nor I could answer.
… Because right now! We are! Buried in slimes inside the carriage!
Since we needed to bring back soil, seeds, and water— even with the space freed by the giant-ass Slime being gone— the return trip was even more cramped!
“My apologies. This looks bad… I’ll switch out soon.”
Yeah… Lisas-san, I’m really sorry… Thank you so much…
And so we returned home to Panis Village. I’m home.
“I thought I was gonna turn into a slime.”
“I also thought I was gonna turn into a slime.”
“… Sorry. My size made switching impossible…”
The carriage made the entire trip with zero rotations. Why? Because if Mishisia-san swapped with Lisas-san, there wouldn’t be enough space for the slimes!
Mishisia-san is smaller than Lisas-san. Even she was squished against the walls. If Lisas-san got in, either a slime, soil, seeds, or I myself would be squeezed out. So—better that Mishisia-san and I were crammed together the whole way.
“Yeah, okay, next time we’ll adjust how many slimes we bring. Let’s bring a number that’ll still fit after they get big…”
“We brought way too many this time… I didn’t think we’d run out of space once they grew…”
… Lots of lessons from Farm Test No.1. Next time we adjust. Yes. Really.
Alright.
“Breakdown absorption breakdown absorption breakdown absorption…”
I broke down and absorbed all the soil, seeds, water, everything we brought back. I even shaved off a tiny bit of a slime to absorb that too. The slime sulked. I gave it fertilizer. It forgave me. Very simple creature.
“Okay then, what’s the true nature of ‘Blessings’? Let’s see, let’s see…”
Once the slime was happy, I checked the breakdown absorption data again…
“Oh—there it is, there it… what is this?”
… Something strange appeared.
“How was it? Asuma-sama, how was it? Tell me, how was it?”
“Uh, well—mana is moving.”
“Huh?”
… The seeds and soil that received Blessings—their mana moves a lot.
Like when someone’s using magic.
What do you think about this chapter?
