The Man Picked up by the Gods - Volume 2   Chapter 4 Part 1

TL Note: As has been mentioned before, I’ll be cutting the extra-long chapters like this one into two parts. This chapter is almost twice as long as the previous one, but because I needed to find a decent place to cut it, this part is quite shorter than the next. There are only two parts.

Also, the extra chapter will be released either tomorrow or on Friday.

Some Japanese terms:

Torimochi is a sticky liquid you use to catch birds and insects.

SOURCE

Edit: (2015/09/03) Some lines pertaining to silver coin -> copper coin fixed.

Volume 2   Chapter 4 Part 1

The day before yesterday I beat up the Fang of Orbtem’s members. And then yesterday, there was that goblin king incident that caused many adventurers to be hurt. Thanks to that, the subjugation of the monsters in the mine feels so slow.

Also, because of yesterday’s incident, my previous group has been dissolved. Jeff-san and the others were made to lead the lower ranked adventurers to ensure their safety.

As for me, I don’t need any guidance, but on the other hand you can’t really put me with the lower ranked adventurers and make me lead them. After all my rank is low, and my time as an adventurer is short. If I were to lead them, rather than feeling ensured, they’d just feel even more anxious instead. So because of that, I ended up hunting by myself alone with my slimes.

Regarding my hunt, I came up with an idea to use a rod that’s been covered in the sticky liquid of the sticky slime. By swinging this rod around, I’m able to catch the cave bats and the small rats quite easily, as they stick to the rod like they would to a torimochi. And as for the cave mantises, I equipped the poison slimes with the spears of the bandits I’d defeated before, and made them fight the cave mantises from a distance outside the range of their scythes. Like this, they were easily beaten and then eaten..

How should I put it? It seems that after some training these slimes have gotten quite strong. And also, after seeing these guys fight the cave mantis, I remembered that... what was that again? It’s a game from Earth that was really popular once. The theme song of that game was quite odd. Even though it was such a leisurely song, from what I remember its lyrics were for some reason quite blood thirsty.

Anyway, today nothing out of the ordinary happened and we finished the job. We found 5 goblins before noon once, but it didn’t have any allies. I reported it afterwards, but apparently it’s just the remnants of the village we destroyed yesterday.

Halfway through the job in the afternoon, I thought of trying out various different experiments with the sticky slime.

For example I had the sticky slime stick to the ceiling and stretch itself downwards, causing it to hang. And then we moved through the tunnel while the sticky slime remained in that state. Why? Well the cave bats were quite annoying as they kept flying around like flies. So since they reminded me of flies, I figured I’d have the sticky slime act like a fly paper. Thanks to this the cave bats were caught one after another, as they found themselves stuck into the sticky slime. Naturally, they were then eaten shortly after.

What’s more is that when I gave an order to the sticky slime to turn into a net right after jumping it was able to do it. So I took that slime and tried throwing it against a colony of cave bats. Mid-air that slime turned into a net, caught a huge number of them, and then fell to the ground. Hah! I completed a really convenient skill! Looks like I’ll be able to use this for a lot of things...

The sticky slime is super useful! How should I put it, I think the sticky slime can really do a lot of things. It’s a slime that can be used in battle, and even in one’s day-to-day life.

After the job finished, I rode the stagecoach to go back home. But as we were entering the town, there was an accident and the wheel of the carriage broke. Now although I say it’s an accident, it’s not like anyone was injured in particular. The carriage really just broke suddenly as it swayed a lot. Running seemed to be dangerous, so like the others, we all respectively walked back to the town.

And as I was walking, I happened to pass by Serge-san’s Morgan Firm.

Speaking of which, I was saved by the magic recovery potions I got yesterday. And there’s also the chance that I might happen by something I can use as a reference for the bag that I’m going to use in my laundromat, so I figured might as well stop by.

Thinking that, I entered the store. From what the female clerk said, it would appear that Serge-san was around.

As soon as he saw me, he smiled and called me over to the reception room. I tried to look at the goods of the store at the storefront, but...

“Welcome, Ryouma-sama. May I know what your errand is for today?”

“The magic recovery potion I got from Serge-san proved to be really useful yesterday, so I would like to give my gratitude for it. Also there’s also something I’d like, and because I don’t know any other store...”

“Is that so? Then if my store’s goods could prove to be any useful, please help yourself. It is also my honor to know that Ryouma-sama chose to come to my store. May I know what it is that Ryouma-sama is looking for?”

“I’m looking for some robust bags. Also, I don’t mind even if the material it is made out of is cheap. As for the size, I haven’t decided yet.”

“Oh? It’s also depends on what Ryouma-sama is going to be putting in it, but may I know for what purpose Ryouma-sama will be using the bag?”

“This’ll be quite a long story, but actually...”

As I began explaining to Serge-san about my decision to become independent, he showed me a shocked expression, while giving me a look of approval. As for my idea to start a laundromat, he showed great interest.

“I see, so Ryouma-sama plans to have a side job while working as an adventurer. And while thinking that Ryouma-sama has even thought of preparing for the possibility of becoming unable to continue work as an adventurer. This level of planning is truly admirable for someone of Ryouma-sama’s age.”

Well that’s because I’m actually 42 years old. I’m actually not that much of a planner when you compare me to the other uncles my age. But at the very least I do have enough reason in me to understand that the work I’m doing is dangerous and that I should prepare for it. After all, this world doesn’t have insurance or pension.

“No, no, it’s really not that much.”

“Still, a laundromat, huh? If the price range goes from 1 small copper coin to one medium copper coin, then it will certainly attract customers. And not only adventurers but also the commoners at that. But, there’s still the problem of getting people to help out who can bring out results good enough to satisfy the customer. Even if Ryouma-sama may start out fine, I don’t believe Ryouma-sama will be able to handle the work load once the number of customers increase.”

Ah, I forgot to talk about the cleaner slimes.

“My apologies, I forgot to inform you of something. Please wait a moment.”

I took out one cleaner slime from my dimension home.

“This is my slave monster. It’s called a cleaner slime.”

“It’s a slime I’ve never heard of before.”

“Yes, this is a new kind of slime I discovered. I’ve already given the information to the tamer guild, but as of now the only one who has this kind of slime is me.”

Having been told directly by the gods, themselves, that it’s a new type. There shouldn’t be any other cleaner slimes, right?

“Does the laundromat have anything to do with that slime?”

“This slime has a skill called ‘cleaning’. When that skill is used, this slime will eat only the dirt of something. And of course, once the dirt of something has been eaten, it will obviously become clean. I plan to use this for the laundry.”

At those words, Serge-san had his mouth hanging open. As expected, it’s quite hard to believe...

In response to that, I then took out the loin cloth of a goblin I had defeated today from my item box and then said this.

“I understand it must be hard to believe with just words alone. Then in that case, please take a look at this. This cloth is the loin cloth of a goblin that I’d defeated today. If it’s alright with Serge-san, I’d like to let the cleaner slime eat this, and show Serge-san the cleaned cloth.”

As I said that, Serge-san gulped and then meekly said this.

“Please by all means.”

“Just in case, would Serge-san like to use ‘identify’?”

“Yes, please allow me to. This smell is definitely that of a goblin’s loin cloth, but...”

As he said that while chuckling, Serge-san used ‘identify’. Having confirmed that the cloth is in fact, a goblin’s loin cloth, I passed the cloth over to my cleaner slime. The cleaner slime took the cloth inside it as usual, and moved like a washing machine. And right there and then, the cleaner slime quickly got rid of the dirt, and then threw up the cloth on the table in the reception room. The time taken was less than 30 seconds.

Serge-san timidly took the cloth that had a clearly different color from before, and used ‘identify’ on it. As soon as Serge-san saw the ‘identify’ show the result, ‘clean cloth’, he couldn’t help but exclaim in praise as he took my hands.

“To think that a goblin’s dirty loin cloth could actually be made this clean in such a short time!”

Umm... my hands were touching that dirty goblin’s loincloth just now, so... Ah. Looks like he remembered it after seeing the way I was looking at him, since his countenance had suddenly become visibly clouded. Well this is a good opportunity, so I guess I’ll also explain about the cleaner slime’s ability to clean even people. And I’ll also have the cleaner slime clean him. Of course, only the hand though.

As I explained that to him. He even went through the trouble to take my hand and uses ‘identify’ on it. And then after having the cleaner slime clean it, Serge-san exploded into a storm of praises.

You know, this guy is really not a bad guy. That, I can understand. However, mentally speaking, this guy is really exhausting...