Chapter 6
“Eeeeeek!”
Hannah screamed again.
And no wonder: four slimes had slithered out of the alchemy cauldron after an Alchemy attempt ended in a Desert Fumble.
This was exactly what I’d been aiming for—the very thing I wanted to do.
It was called 〈Infinite Artificial Slime Respawn〉, commonly known as Slime Respawn.
Ignoring Hannah’s scream, I immediately swept my sword through the slimes.
The four slimes had barely moved, so that single sweep took them all out. They vanished, leaving behind only two 〈Slime Jellies〉 and two 〈Magic Stones (Tiny)〉 as drops.
“Huh?”
“It’s over.”
Once again, it was over in a flash—or rather, in a single scream—and Hannah was left stunned.
But there’s no time to stand around in a daze, Hannah.
This is handy for raising some starting funds. With that in mind, I picked up the two Slime Jellies that had just dropped, along with enough muddy water for two more attempts, and approached Hannah.
All she did was look at them and murmur, “Huh?”
“All right, time for a marathon.”
Then I announced the start of hell to her, though she still seemed not to understand what was going on.
“Ugh. I’m starting to feel sorry for the slimes.”
“They’re monsters—walking bundles of resources. I’m sure they’re delighted to be of use to us.”
“You think so?”
The Slime Respawn Marathon came to an end when night fell and Hannah’s parents returned.
By the end, we’d gotten 721 〈Slime Jellies〉 and 1,439 〈Magic Stones (Tiny)〉 as drops.
They’d fetch a decent amount if I sold them. Not bad for starting funds before heading off to Dungeon Academy.
The slimes kept respawning, and for some reason, their numbers quadrupled each time. They moved so slowly that I could spawn a bunch at once and wipe them all out together, making it an easy way to earn money. I used to do this a lot in the early game, too.
The only downside was that I couldn’t level up without a Job, and slimes were the weakest of the weak, so even all these drops wouldn’t amount to much money.
If they brought in more money, I’d happily keep hunting them, but, well, they were only slimes.
In the end, Hannah and I both got tired of the routine and started playing like it was a whack-a-mole game.
Actually, maybe it was more like Crocodile Panic. If one crossed this line, it got whacked.
“Oh, right. Can I sell these Slime Jellies here?”
“Huh? I-I don’t think we need that many. Especially now that I know how easy they are to make...”
“Oh?”
“I-It’s not like I’m thinking of producing them myself, okay?! Really, I’m not.”
“Well, I don’t mind either way. You can make a lot more money in a dungeon than you can from Slime Jellies.”
“Really?!”
By all means.
If anything, I was more baffled that she’d be so happy just because she could make something like this...
Well, if she wouldn’t buy them, I had no choice. I’d sell them off at the academy.
Just then, my stomach growled to tell me I was hungry.
“...”
Hunger.
Of course I’d get hungry if there was food around.
In the game, there wasn’t a Hunger stat, but there were food items, so I’d completely forgotten about it.
Come to think of it, what was I supposed to do about meals?
“Zephyrus-kun, are you hungry? If you’d like, would you like to stay for dinner?”
“!!”
An invitation to dinner.
There was normal food in this real world—not just cooking items!
It might seem obvious, but since I saw everything through the lens of a game, I was genuinely shocked. Even more than when the green tea had been served.
So I immediately declared, “I’ll eat!” and was invited to dinner at Hannah’s house that day.
After finishing dinner, I sat there in a daze for a while.
“That was delicious...”
“Hehe, I’m glad. It was worth all the effort I put into making it.”
Hannah picked up on my muttered words and smiled bashfully.
Apparently, Hannah had made dinner herself.
I was surprised she could cook, since she still looked around middle-school age.
Her slightly flushed cheeks were adorable.
As I watched Hannah head to the kitchen to wash the dishes, I savored the moment, too.
By the way, Hannah’s parents had returned before dinner. Afterward, her father went to the shop to sort out the merchandise, while her mother washed the dishes with Hannah.
In the game, you had to return home at night, so everyday scenes like this were never shown. It was all so fresh.
“But I see. I’ll have living expenses from now on...”
Naturally, there were no such things as living expenses in 〈Dan-Katsu〉. You had to pay for an inn, but even meals were basically free.
When I thought about having to cover living expenses, I could understand why Hannah was happy over something as trivial as Slime Jellies.
No matter how cheap each one was, enough of them would add up. In other words, even something like Slime Respawn would be enough to keep me fed.
“Huh? I’m heading to the academy tomorrow, so what about transportation and food costs?”
If this world was different from the game, those things might cost money, too.
Worst case, I might even have to pay an enrollment fee.
The possibility had only just occurred to me, and a cold sweat ran down my back.
“I should ask Hannah. Maybe she’ll have a good idea. I should ask the village chief, too.”
Fortunately, the village chief told me that the country would cover my transportation and enrollment fees, so I went home relieved.