I breathed a sigh of relief as I finished the last of the transcriptions. It had been quite the ordeal. However, Gabriel seemed to have achieved a complete understanding of pearl cultivation in mere days.
“Thanks to you, the information was easy to digest,” Gabriel said.
“That’s good.” I was happy to hear that I’d been of help.
Though we’d only been working in the evenings thus far, it was now time to get started on cultivating the pearls proper.
“First, we need to find a lake where we can raise the oysters,” Gabriel said.
“Right.” According to the book, we ideally wanted a lake that was deep and relatively large.
“It would be nice to find somewhere with good water quality and few slimes, but...”
“Does a place like that exist here?”
“No.”
Triste was essentially a slime stronghold, after all. You couldn’t walk anywhere without encountering the gelatinous beasts.
“Let’s give up on that second condition,” I said. “We’ll prioritize water quality!”
“I can think of a few places. The most promising one is Shining Lake, famed for being the most beautiful lake in Triste. In fact, my father was so captivated by its beauty that, without thinking, he proposed to my mother when he saw it. I’ll teleport us there.”
“I can’t wait to see it.”
Gabriel cast his teleport spell, and the scenery transformed in a blink. I opened my eyes to a green lake overrun by plant life.
“Wh-What is this place?!” Gabriel exclaimed.
As if answering his question, the sign right next to us proclaimed the words “Shining Lake.”
“Did I bring us to the wrong place?” he mused.
“Um, Gabriel, the sign says, ‘Shining Lake.’”
Alerted to the presence of the sign, he held his head in his hands and fell to his knees. “I can’t believe it’s deteriorated into this state since my last visit.”
He explained that the year before last, Triste had experienced a record-breaking heat wave, which had caused the rampant growth of aquatic plants. There were an unbelievable number of them in this lake, covering the surface like a fine-meshed net.
Wibble touched a plant at the edge of the water and recoiled. “Whoa, it’s all sticky!”
The stickiness of the vegetation meant that once touched, it was hard to get off.
Gabriel slumped his shoulders and lamented, “It was my dream to bring you here for a picnic one day and show you its beauty!”
“It’s okay, Gabriel. I’m sure it would also be fun to have a picnic while looking at the plants on the lake.”
He looked up at me and gasped. “Oh, I understand! Nothing in this world is more beautiful than you, so as long as you’re there, we won’t need breathtaking scenery.”
That went in a completely different direction than intended, but since it cheered Gabriel up, I’ll let it slide.
Suddenly, he stood up and shouted, “Stand back! Wibble, protect Fran!”
“Okaaay!” Wibble transformed into a shield in front of me.
I looked at the lake, wondering what had happened, and saw the green mesh covering the surface rising up like a tsunami. “Wh-What is that?! A plant monster?!”
“Nope, it’s probably slimes.”
“Slimes?!”
Gabriel summoned his five different-colored slimes to confront the monsters. First, the black slime turned into a sword and sliced through the plants, exposing a large number of slime faces now peering through the gap. I was impressed by their cleverness in hiding under the vegetation to attack. The red slime shot fireballs at the organic mass to no effect—the slimes were nonflammable thanks to their current wet and sticky coating.
Gabriel quickly commanded, “Shoot lightning at that whole thing.”
“Got it!” The yellow slime vibrated as if charging up energy, then fired a bolt of electricity that traveled through the water and electrocuted the swarm of monsters. They instantly died, stopping the mass’s advance.
“Fran, were you injured at all?” Gabriel asked.
“Thanks to you and Wibble, I’m perfectly fine. Thank you.”
The electrocuted slimes had stiffened up, resembling ice. It surprised me because slimes usually melted into liquid when they died.
“Gabriel, why did the slimes go stiff when they died?” I asked.
“You could say it’s because of their nature.”
Apparently, when slimes were hit by paralyzing attacks, they hardened up in self-defense. However, it wasn’t that effective of a technique, so if you continued to attack them, they would still die.
“As a result, they die while maintaining that stiffened form,” Gabriel explained.
“That’s so interesting.”
“Isn’t it? I considered whether they could be used for something in that form, but it isn’t as transparent, and it takes more effort to extract mana from it than from normal deceased slimes. So I haven’t come up with anything yet.”
“Are they different from the crystals in my bracelet?”
“Yes, those were made by flash freezing liquid slime. I also extracted the mana and further polished the crystals before making them into jewelry.”
“That’s more involved than I expected. You really are amazing.”
“No, it was nothing special.”
He said that, but his expression showed that he was prouder than he let on. It seemed like my constant efforts to raise his self-esteem were slowly taking effect. I really wanted him to have more confidence in himself, so I’d just have to keep praising him.
“Anyway, this lake isn’t going to work,” he concluded.
“Would it be difficult to use even if you removed all of the plants?”
“Yes. The water doesn’t look very high-quality, perhaps because the plants’ sticky substance has dissolved into it.” He ordered the yellow slime to part the mess of vegetation, which revealed that the water underneath was just as green in color. He looked towards the depths of the forest and squinted with one eye.
“Is something wrong?”
“No, I just noticed that the large tree that used to be here has fallen down.” He pointed at a felled tree that had a large crack in it as if it had been struck by lightning. “I believe its branches and leaves used to overhang the lake.”
That probably further explained the issue. Without the tree to block the sun’s rays, the lake had become a hotbed for rapid vegetation growth.
“I doubt places with high exposure to sunlight would be conducive to cultivating pearls,” said Gabriel.
“We’ll have to find another lake, then.”
“Yes. There’s another one with relatively good water quality. Let’s go there now.”
He teleported us, and once again, the scenery changed in an instant. The previous forest had been bright and sunny, but this one was dense with trees, giving it a dark and gloomy atmosphere.
“It’s a bit unsettling, but the lake is surprisingly clean,” he explained. “I come by every once in a while because you can find many unusual medicinal herbs here.”
The vegetation was thick, making it seem as if only animals would normally weave their way through. We pushed past it as we proceeded through the forest.
“I had intended on teleporting us directly to the lake, but it seems that I miscalculated the coordinates,” Gabriel said.
“I don’t mind. This is kind of exciting—it’s like going on an adventure.” I’d certainly never had the opportunity to wade through this kind of overgrowth before.
“That’s good.” Suddenly, Gabriel turned around and frowned—not out of personal displeasure, though. It was the expression he made whenever he was deeply concerned about something. Before I could ask what had caught his attention, he said, “Fran, your dress is going to get wet. The plants around here are damp with moisture.”
Now that he mentioned it, the sleeves and hem of my dress were slightly wet. I hadn’t noticed at all because I’d been so absorbed in exploring.
“Wibble, can you turn into a raincoat to protect Fran’s clothes?” Gabriel asked.
“Okaaay!” Wibble pressed itself against my chest and transformed into a transparent cloak. “Raincoat!”
“Thank you, Wibble,” I said. “You too, Gabriel, for noticing.”
“Anytime!”
Since Gabriel had been leading the way and parting the vegetation for me, there were water droplets in his hair.
“Oh, Gabriel, you’re wet too,” I remarked.
“Where?”
“Stay still for a second.”
I wiped the droplets away with my handkerchief, and his ears flushed slightly red from embarrassment. Apparently he hadn’t considered that if I was wet, he must’ve been too. I wished he would care more about himself, but I also found his absent-minded side extremely adorable.
“Thank you, Fran.”
“You’re welcome.”
The lake was a little farther ahead.
“This is—” Gabriel froze in the middle of his introduction. The lake, which was supposed to be relatively clear, had become as muddy as a swamp. “How in the world did it get so dirty? In the past, it was home to many aquatic animals, like fish, frogs, and shrimp.”
The lake’s surface was bubbling. It was hard to imagine anything other than monsters surviving within it.
“Fran, please stay away from the lake. I have a bad feeling about this.”
“O-Okay.”
Gabriel summoned his five slimes and stayed on the alert. He must’ve sensed something.
“Gabriel, look down!” Wibble yelled.
“What?!”
Without us noticing, the mud from the lake had begun creeping towards him. He swiftly moved back to distance himself from it. At first, it seemed strange for mud to be moving on its own, but upon closer inspection, it had eyes and a mouth. It was undoubtedly a slime.
“Gabriel, is that a normal slime?” I asked.
“It’s highly likely that it is not.”
Triste had what were called “unique slimes”—slimes that had evolved in ways that no other slimes had. The five differently colored slimes contracted to Gabriel were also unique slimes, and there were no others like them in the world. The red slime had fire properties, the yellow slime had lightning properties, the blue slime had water properties, the green slime had wind properties, and the black slime had physical properties. Wibble’s elemental properties were shrouded in mystery, but it was an extremely rare slime that excelled in both metamorphosis and intelligence. It might have also been the only slime to ever become a spirit. It was definitely very special.
The slime lurking in the swampy lake was clearly different from the other slimes in the area. It had been slithering along the ground like a snake, only to suddenly attack when we noticed its presence. Its long, thin body curved through the air like a whip.
The black slime jumped forwards and slammed into it but didn’t seem to deal any damage.
“It’s completely made of mud,” said Gabriel. “I can’t see its core.”