The Man Picked up by the Gods

TL Note: The Japanese don’t have any L, so they use R and L interchangeably. There’s a pun here in this chapter that plays on this idea, and it’s not really translatable since... well... author is quoting an English word and we’re talking in the English language, so yeah. Just keep it in mind. I’m fairly sure you guys will recognize what I’m talking about as soon as you see it. It’s kind of hard to miss.

Change: last line in previous chapter -> And so, we decided to spend another night outside the labyrinth, and then make our way home.

Volume 3 Chapter 32

When we got out of the labyrinth, the sun was high up in the sky. We couldn’t tell the time at all from inside the labyrinth. We then made camp, and then we rested outside the labyrinth as we had lunch.

“Ryouma-kun, how’s your magic power?” [Rheinbach]

“I spent much fighting, but I’ve already recovered 90% of it. It seems like it’s recovering faster than normal though.” [Ryouma]

There, Remiri-san explained why.

“Breathing the air or eating food which both contain magic power will instill the magic power found in those things within your body, quickly increasing the speed of your magic’s recovery. And right now, we’re here right next to a labyrinth which contains much magic power. So the recovery rate of magic power here is faster than other areas. There are wizards who intentionally go to labyrinths for the recovery bonus, so they can train faster.” [Remiri]

I see, so that’s how it is.

“Ryouma-chan, are you going to practice after eating? You’ve already recovered your magic power, so I think you could, but then again, you must be tired from the curse...” [Remiri]

“I’ll train. I’ve fully understood from the recent incident just how important anti-curse spells are. So please teach me, Remiri-san.” [Ryouma]

“Really? Well, alright. Let’s start with the light magic, ‘Dispel’.” [Remiri]

After eating, Remiri-san picked up a nearby stone, and chanted,

“’Illness’” [Remiri]

At that instant, Remiri-san passed me a stone she clad in magic power.

“Alright, hold this.” [Remiri]

I held the stone as she instructed, and my body began to feel feverish. When I removed my hand from the stone, the feverish sensation vanished.

“There are different kinds of curses. The curse afflicted on that stone is Illness. A curse of illness. When afflicted by this curse or when wielding an objected afflicted by this curse, you will experience the same symptoms as the illness imbued in the curse. And unlike normal illnesses, you won’t be able to recover from it with medicine.” [Remiri]

“So that’s where that feverish sensation was coming from.” [Ryouma]

“I started off with a simple curse to make it easy to understand. We’ll use that to practice ‘Dispel’.” [Remiri]

Like this I began the training on ‘Dispel’ which permeates a target in light attribute magic power to purify the darkness attribute magic power and remove the curse.

The darkness attribute magic power that’s used in curses is altered, and is different from the normal darkness attribute magic power. Which is the reason why the magic jewels did not lose the magic power imbued in them when the curse was lifted from them.

I practiced by recalling the sensation I felt when ‘Dispel’ was used on me back in the execution grounds of starvation. The result: I failed 8 times, and succeeded on the 9th try.

The next spell I was taught is the light magic, ‘Anti-Curse’. It’s a spell that creates a barrier around the body to protect from curses. I also succeeded at using this spell with the concept of magic battle technique.

Then in order to find out just how much I am able to defend against curses with the ‘Anti-Curse’ spell, Remiri-san casted curses at me with increasing intensity until I was able to understand my limits.

As a result, I found out that my ‘Anti-Curse’ wasn’t very strong. It immediately broke as soon as a slightly stronger curse was casted.

Thanks to my mental resistance and physical pain resistance though, I can actually endure quite a bit even after being afflicted with a curse. It seems I’ll be able to cast ‘Dispel’ on myself to remove curses afflicted on my body. The only problem is the fact that I’ll be left defenseless while I’m doing so. My defense against curses are weak too, so it’s bit worrying. A situation where a strong curse that I can’t defend is casted on me won’t be pretty.

There, Remiri-san suggested,

“If you’re that worried, you could try looking for a magic tool.” [Remiri]

“A magic tool?” [Ryouma]

“Right, a magic tool. Amongst magic tools there’s one that’s imbued with the ‘Anti-Curse’ spell. Unfortunately, people who make magic armaments imbued with curse resist spells are rare, so it’ll probably be a challenge to find. You’ll probably have to spend a pretty penny too.” [Remiri]

Then Remiri-san jokingly added, it’s because the hated nobles keep gathering those craftsmen.

I see... If I find one, I should buy it. But for the meantime, I should keep training at it until I’m good enough to defend myself.

With that conclusion we went on to the next magic. But Remiri-san was starting to get low on magic power, so we changed the subject from curses to the other spell that Remiri-san used before, ‘Hide’. We’ll study on curses again tomorrow.

The dark magic, ‘Hide’, is a spell that creates a barrier around one’s surrounding with darkness attribute magic power. That magic power is able to isolate one’s presence. It could also suck the surrounding area to blur one’s image.

This spell’s relatively easy to learn, and I was able to learn it by my fourth try. I decided the spell was good enough when Shiva-san, who was watching us train, told me he couldn’t feel my presence anymore.

Incidentally, Shiva-san had a match with five of my king scavengers just a while ago. The labyrinth search was too easy, so Shiva-san was feeling unsatisfied. And so he requested to train with the king scavenger slimes. Shiva-san thought it’d be good practice with the slimes’ physical attack resistance and ‘Enlarge’ and with all five of them attacking at the same time.

As for me, I thought it’d be a good way to get experience for the slimes as well, so I happily agreed.

As I was thinking that, a zombie came out of the labyrinth. Then looking at the setting sun, I thought to myself, Oh, it’s already time for the zombies to come out, huh? And so I thought to feed the scavenger slimes and have them split. I need to increase the scavenger slimes’ number in order to find out whether there’re still any more after King or not after all.

But I also want to leave some magic power for my training... so I decided to let only a hundred split today.

And so, I had a king scavenger slime split. And I had 100 scavenger slimes feed on the zombies. The scavenger slimes immediately chased after the zombies, and the zombies were annihilated.

After that, I gave the OK for the slimes to attack the zombies coming out of the labyrinth as well. And I spent the rest of time with the others, drinking tea as we chatted. A little later, 19 scavenger slimes entered the ‘Holy Space’.

As I was wondering why, the slimes suddenly began to evolve. Apparently, they wanted a place where they could evolve safely.

The slimes began to release and absorb magic power repeatedly as usual, but unlike before, the amount of magic power they released was greater than other evolutions. At first I thought it was just because there were 19 of them evolving at the same time. But after looking at them closely, the amount of magic power was greater even individually speaking.

Shiva-san and Remiri-san gazed at the slimes with interest with me until the slimes finished evolving. Apparently, it’s their first time seeing a slime evolve.

This is something I heard from Robelia-san, but apparently, slimes won’t evolve unless they are at place where there’re no enemies, and they feel that they’re safe. So there’re actually little opportunities for people aside from researchers to see slimes evolve.

As I recalled that to myself, the slimes finished evolving. The slimes’ bodies have turned into the hue of blackish dirt, and their bodies were considerably bigger compared to other slimes, having a diameter of 60cm. A perfect height for sitting. Not that I’m going to sit on them though.

I used ‘Identify’ on one of the slimes, and I found out that they’re called, ‘Glaive Slime’.

Glaive slime... that weapon that’s like a spear or halberd? But why? Is what I was thinking, but then after looking at their skills, I realized I was mistaken.

Skills

Attract Ghosts Lv1

Absorb Ghosts Lv3

Enshrine Remains Lv3

Disease Resistance Lv7

Poison Resistance Lv7

Eat Filth Lv6

Cleaning Lv2

Deodorize Lv7

Physical Attack Resistance Lv2

Jump Lv3

Digestion Lv7

Absorb Lv3

Split Lv2

Taijutsu Lv2

Attract Ghosts, Absorb Ghosts, Enshrine Remains... Could it be, it’s referring to graves?

Come to think of it, grave is also written in English as グレイブ (Grave/Glaive). In any case, the cleaning skill seems to have gone down in level, and the deodorization liquid skill has vanished. In exchange, the slimes learned those three new skills related to graves. It’s good that they didn’t lose the skill they learned from my training though.

After that, I took a look at what attributes they liked, and they liked earth and darkness first, followed by dimension... Dimension!?

Well, that’s a surprise. It’s my first time seeing a slime that likes the dimension attribute.

I’ve tried feeding slimes with dimension attribute magic power all this time to no effect, but with this... Maybe, just maybe, it might be possible to bring out a slime that can use dimension magic!

Then while I was caught up in my own thoughts, Rheinbach-sama asked,

“What kind of slime is it this time?” [Rheinbach]

“Grave Slime.” [Ryouma]

Apparently, no one’s heard of it yet. A new type it seems.

Since there was no information whatsoever, I decided to try out their new skills. But before everything else, I had the scavenger slimes that were feasting on the undead come back first. I then found that 10 were eligible for splitting, so I had them split, and then I contracted them.

After that came the testing of the skills. When I had the grave slimes use the ‘Attract Ghosts’ skill, the grave slimes’ body faintly turned pale blue as they shone an obscure light. The undead outside the holy space suddenly started approaching us.

Then with the activation of the ‘Absorb Ghosts’ skill, the slimes took the gathered undead into their bodies. And over half of the undead meekly allowed themselves to be swallowed. It’s different compared to when the scavengers were fighting. During that time the undead were resisting and fighting... Could this be the grave slimes’ ability? Looking at the undead closely, there were also those that were heading on their own volition to be swallowed.

Regarding the last skill, ‘Enshrine Remains’, it apparently allows the slime to hide an undead body into their body without letting it rot. The slime can then expulse the undead from its body any time.

“A slime that catches undead... How strange.” [Remiri]

“It’s convenient for hunting undead. You can gather the undead in one area, and finish them off in one gulp. If there’re too many, then you could just imprison them within the slimes, and then gradually whittle them down.” [Shiva]

“It can also be used to tame undead-type magical beasts.” [Rheinbach]

The others gave their own opinions about the grave slimes, but it was Rheinbach-sama’s comment that piqued my curiosity.

“Undead can also be tamed?” [Ryouma]

“Of course. The undead are splendid magical beasts. Only... They’re not well liked, so there are no slave magic users that use them. Their regeneration is great, but the problem is that they’re too eerie.” [Rheinbach]

“There’s also the odor from zombies and ghouls. And they’re also weaker during the day, so there’s some downside in using them.” [Sebasu]

“The undead can’t stay at an inn too, so they won’t be able to enter towns.” [Remiri]

“Now that you mention it, there’s definitely plenty of reason for them to be unpopular.” [Ryouma]

“Right? Because of that, the only ones that employ undead-type into their service are researchers and slave magic users that don’t have any affinity for anything else but undead-type magical beasts. Because of that, there’re barely any that use undead.” [Shiva]

I guess the undead researchers are next to the slime researchers in terms of misfortune.

I wonder what those researchers would think were they to know that there’s a slime like this. You could just have the undead enter the grave slimes when it’s inconvenient... And there’s also the ‘Deodorization’ skill, so doesn’t this solve the problem?

I decided to tame an undead to prove my hypothesis. There were already a number of undead nearby because of the grave slimes, so I just contracted one of those, and–––

Buchi!!

“What was that just now?” [Remiri]

“What happened?” [Shiva]

“I just thought I’d try contracting zombie, but for some reason, it felt different than normal... It felt like the magic power line wouldn’t connect. Like it was being rejected...” [Ryouma]

It probably just failed, but it felt like a phone that was cut violently.

“Well, you could’ve just failed because it’s your first time. You might also just have poor affinity for zombies, so why don’t you try with other undead?” [Rheinbach]

Just as Rheinbach suggested, I tried contracting with skeletons and wraiths, but it was all the same. Apparently, my affinity for undead-type magical beasts is really bad.

The grave slimes being able to go in and out holy space is because they’re not undead, but I wonder what would happen if I had an undead-type slime.

While I was thinking that, I decided to retire for the day. We didn’t need to thin out the undead today, so I went inside my ‘Dimension Home’, and slept by myself.

The next day.

I readied myself, and then I went out of my ‘Dimension Home’.

And first thing in the morning, I received Remiri-san’s lecture on dark magic.

First was how to afflict curses, and after that was how to defend against curses.

The curse and defense against it that I learned were ‘Curse Transfer’ and ‘Return Curse’.

‘Cast Transfer’ isn’t a spell for releasing curses. Instead, it’s a spell that transfers a curse to remove the effect on the target. ‘Return Curse’ is a spell that protects the body, and returns the curse to the person that casted it. They’re both ways of dealing with curses, but they’re very different from each other.

When morning training ended, we were to go home, but...

Right now, we’re riding on the back of a reddish-brown, western dragon with a length of 50m from its head to its tail.

This dragon is Rheinbach-sama’s slave demon. It’s of the Ignis Dragon variety. It can breathe out fire, and generally lives in volcanoes. But it can live anywhere else too as long as it’s not cold.

It’s been decided that we’ll be going home on the back of this dragon. As for me, I’ll be dropped by somewhere close to Gimuru.

Apparently, they were originally planning to use the dragon to get to the labyrinth, but then they met me, and so they didn’t use it in order to buy time for my lessons. It also worked out well, as the walk going there was good experience for me.

They actually went out of their way to walk through that ravine just to teach me, I’m really grateful.

“Are you ready? Hold tight!” [Rheinbach]

“Yes!” [Ryouma]

We sat on what appeared to be a saddle on the back of the dragon, and hung onto the handles that were affixed to its body with metals. The dragon spread its giant wings, and it ran as it flapped them. Then it took off with great vigor.

“Wow...” [Ryouma]

It’s my first time flying since coming to this world. I’ve traveled many times on air before in my previous life, but this is a completely different experience. The rumbling strong wind blew past me, forcing my eyes to a slit as I did my best to resist its pressure. And gradually, the labyrinth down below became smaller and smaller as the great ravine filled my vision.

This dragon was quite terrifying when it was first summoned. I actually sweated a bit, wondering what was going to happen. But now that I’m riding on it, I have to say, it’s not bad. It flies safely, and the ride is comfortable too.

Rheinbach-sama did tell me beforehand that it’s safe, but the dragon’s menacing posture when it was summoned was a considerable pressure. My body froze in fear, and I couldn’t move an inch. I’d hate to actually make an enemy with one of these. Its claws are sharp, and its tail is thick like a log. Every single one of its attacks probably contains a force strong enough to kill in one hit. I’ll make a note to remind me to run if I ever meet one of these out in the wild.

After all, just because a magical beast has the same rank as another, doesn’t mean that they’re the same on the danger scale. The Ignis Dragons are A Ranked requests when put up, but they can also be S Rank depending on the situation. You could say that the Ignis Dragons are at the summit of A Rank magical beasts. I’d really rather not fight with one, unless I have to.

The labyrinth grew farther and farther as I quietly thought those things to myself. With this, my first labyrinth search and the training I needed for the Great Forest of Shurus has both come to an end.

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