The next morning.
"Ugh... so cold!"
The drafty chill creeping through the gaps in my bedding snapped me wide awake. I had thought every morning lately was chilly, but this one was especially frigid. Winter was clearly arriving in earnest. Steeling my resolve, I crawled out of bed and began my morning routine. However, the clothes I had laid out by my pillow were ice-cold to the touch. This was going to be miserable.
"I definitely need to layer up today..."
Following my instincts, I pulled a different set of clothes from my Item Box. It was a mock down jacket I had crafted by stuffing Fluff Slime wool between layers of fabric and treating the exterior with a Sticky Slime waterproof coating. Since I hadn't been able to replicate zippers yet, the front fastened with buttons, but I had used rubber derived from Latex Slime fluid for the cuffs. The moderate elasticity prevented the cold air from flowing in—it was a piece of winter gear I was quite proud of.
After verifying the fit and insulation, I psyched myself up for the day ahead.
From that morning on, a week passed in the blink of an eye. My routine was fairly consistent: helping with the Mad Salamander cull in the mornings, researching and caring for the slimes with Niki in the afternoons, and preparing for the next day's meals in the evenings. It was repetitive, but plenty of small things happened along the way.
Here is a brief summary of the week:
Day 1
In the morning, while preparing for the hunt, the Rimur Birds I had released from my Dimension Home started acting strange. When I checked in with them, they conveyed a clear sentiment: It’s not that we can't work, but it’s just too cold.
Wild Rimur Birds were migratory by nature. Normally, they would have flown to warmer regions by this time of year. Consequently, I decided that the birds would no longer participate in the hunts and would instead remain on standby inside the Dimension Home. I still let them out to stretch their wings and relieve stress, but they usually retreated back inside after barely thirty minutes of flight. Fortunately, the temperature inside the Dimension Home was constant and comfortable for them. Once I returned to Gimul, I planned to consult them further and prepare a proper wintering area.
I also wondered if the Clever Chickens—being avian as well—wanted to come out, but their leader, Kohaku, informed me there was no need to worry. Given how the Clever Chickens usually behaved, I surmised that Kohaku was putting things quite delicately. I should probably give him a treat for his hard work later.
That night, Niki's mother taught me how to prepare the Kotsubuyarikusa for liquor brewing. During our work, she mentioned that the lunch duty at the processing plant was on a rotation and that my turn would come in two days. This led to a long venting session about the hardships of being a housewife: "Deciding the menu every day is a nightmare," "The men always complain they're bored of the food," "I'm working so hard to keep everyone healthy, but they don't appreciate it," and so on. I had died in my previous life without ever getting married, but if I ever did in this life, I realized I would need to be very careful about these things.
Day 2
The morning hunts followed a schedule of three days of work and one day of rest. This was a rest day, but since I woke up early anyway, I decided to go for a light run along the lakeshore to keep my legs in shape.
I took out the Iron and Metal Slimes—who usually struggled with sandy terrain—and had them practice moving at their own pace. By the end of the session, three of them were moving significantly faster than the rest. When I checked them with Monster Appraisal, I found they had acquired the "Rough Terrain Traversal" skill. It was only Level 1, but it suggested that with enough training, they could eventually move across sand as easily as a paved road. I felt a surge of excitement at the potential.
Later, while gathering refuse with Niki, the village chief approached us and gave me an old seine net from the village warehouse. Nets were a valuable food source for triggering specific slime evolutions, so I was genuinely grateful. When I thanked him profusely, the chief looked a bit awkward and asked if I wouldn't mind helping gather firewood for the village's winter stockpile in exchange. I gladly accepted.
Afterward, Niki looked at me with concern. "Niichan... was that really okay?"
"What do you mean? He gave me such a huge net, it’s only right that I do something in return."
"Every year after the fishing season, they have a festival where they burn all the irreparable nets in a bonfire. Niichan, he just pushed a village chore onto you in exchange for trash they were going to throw away anyway."
"Ah, I see. I suppose you could look at it that way. But the net is valuable to me. Besides, to get the wood, we have to go into the forest, right? That gives me a chance to look for local slimes, and maybe I'll even find one of those Mad Slimes people say live around here. I was going to go looking anyway, so this is perfect."
"Niichan, if you aren't careful, people are going to walk all over you..."
Niki seemed exasperated, but he still promised to help me with the wood and the slime search. He really was a good kid.
Day 3
The turnout for the hunt was smaller this morning because most of the visiting adventurers had left to defend a different village. The burden on each participant increased, but since everyone was now used to working alongside the slimes, there were no real issues.
Collecting the corpses proved to be excellent training—not just for my stamina, but for my Space Magic as well. After lunch, I waited for Niki to finish his chores and we headed into the woods. We decided to knock out the firewood gathering first so we could focus on the slimes.
When I casually hoisted a felled tree onto my shoulder, Niki looked at me with wide-eyed awe. Between the slimes doing the heavy lifting during the hunts and my youthful appearance, he apparently hadn't realized that I possessed significant physical strength of my own. It was a bit saddening that he saw me as a weakling, so I worked a little harder than usual to show off.
The village chief was delighted with the amount of wood we brought back. He gave Niki and me a bucket full of creatures that looked like a cross between a squid and a jellyfish. Niki told me they were a bit of a delicacy. That night, we made a dish similar to ikameshi, and it was even more delicious than the version I remembered from Earth.
Day 4
I spent the morning inventing new spells for corpse recovery. The first was "Drop-off," based on Raypin-san’s "Pick Up" spell. While his spell brought objects to his hand, mine sent objects from my hand to a distant destination. The second was "Wormhole," which functioned like an Item Box or Dimension Home. I would open an entrance at my hand and an exit at the destination, connecting the two.
Before this, I had to teleport alongside the salamanders to deliver them, which meant I had to spend mana to return for the next batch. With these new spells, I could stay in one place and send the corpses back continuously, making the process much more efficient. I’m currently trying to see if I can set the destination for "Drop-off" as the inside of my "Item Box" to bypass the middle step entirely.
In the afternoon, while waiting for Niki, I helped the Cleaner Slimes wash dishes in the processing plant. Niki showed up with his mother and several other village women. They all wanted me to take their household waste, which I happily did. A few of them also pulled me aside to ask if I could "deal with the contents of their toilets" as well. They must have heard about the Scavenger Slime's diet from Niki.
I visited the homes of those who requested it and deployed several Scavenger Slimes into their latrines, planning to collect them on my way back. After that, we headed into the forest and managed to catch three more slimes.
Day 5
Word had spread among the other village wives. They were waiting for me today, and we reached an agreement: I would receive their refuse and leftover food in exchange for cleaning their toilets. I ended up with a massive haul of slime food!
Day 6
A rest day for fishing and hunting. When I returned from my morning run, the square I was using as a temporary dump was already filled with trash. The adults told me it was a win-win because it saved them the trouble of their upcoming year-end cleaning.
"If you were just picking through the good stuff and dumping the rest into the lake, we wouldn't have stood for it, but you're being thorough!" one man joked. However, I noticed that neither he nor the people around him were actually smiling. It was a reminder of how important proper waste management was to them. I made a mental note to remain responsible.
Later that day, the village chief brought me a jar containing twenty slimes. He explained that since I was helping with the salamanders, the waste, and the firewood, he felt the refuse and leftovers weren't enough of a reward. He didn't want the village to be in my debt. Apparently, Niki had been the one to tell him that slimes were the best way to my heart. He knows me too well.
Day 7
After a week of constant practice, I feel like I finally have the hang of my new Space Magic. My success rate for teleporting multiple objects at once has improved significantly.
In the afternoon, I officially transitioned from adventurer to waste collector. I made the rounds to the homes of the elderly who couldn't carry heavy bags. Between the running and the constant use of Space Magic, it felt like an incredibly productive training session. I caught four slimes myself and received eight more as "tips" from the villagers.
And that brings us to the present.
Before my eyes stood the miracle of this past week. No, it was the culmination of the villagers' kindness and my own tireless gathering of waste.
In just seven days, two of my slimes had evolved into entirely new species!
The first was a Metal Slime that had gorged itself on the old nets. It looked similar to its previous form but was about one size smaller. I immediately checked its status.
"Appraisal."
Wire Slime Skills: Hardening Lv3, Expansion and Contraction Lv3, Physical Attack Resistance Lv2, High-speed Movement Lv3, Digestion Lv3, Absorption Lv3, Division Lv2.
"A Wire Slime... so the 'net' wasn't what it wanted; it wanted the fibers themselves. Its skills are nearly identical to the Metal Slime, except for 'Expansion and Contraction.' I suppose they could already change shape before, but this is different."
When I commanded it to use the skill, the Wire Slime extended a thin tentacle—only to then stretch the tip of that tentacle into a strand of metal thread so fine it was almost invisible.
"Wow... one meter, two meters... it's still going!"
It seemed it could extend the thread as long as its own body volume allowed. The thread moved with even more precision than a normal tentacle because it was so light. This had incredible potential for a variety of uses.
"And then there's this one..."
The second evolution was an Acid Slime that had been eating eggs and seashells. Given the diet, I had expected something related to calcium carbonate, but the result was breathtaking. Its body was a milky white with a deep, iridescent luster that shimmered beautifully in the light.
It was a Pearl Slime.
Skills: Protective Fluid Creation Lv3, Coating Lv3, Crystallization Lv3, Digestion Lv3, Absorption Lv3, Division Lv2.
"It really is a pearl..."
I wondered what the catalyst had been. Maybe the combination of acid and the nacreous lining of the seashells? On Earth, there was a famous chemistry experiment involving vinegar and eggs that resulted in "pearl-like" structures, but this was the real deal.
In my previous life, I remembered reading that before the advent of pearl farming, natural pearls were incredibly rare and expensive because you had to dive for thousands of oysters just to find a few. I didn't know the exact market price in this world, but my pharmacology knowledge flagged it as a high-value material.
Looking at its skills—Protective Fluid Creation, Coating, and Crystallization—I realized this slime might actually be capable of cultivating pearls. If that were true, the value of this single slime was astronomical. It was the kind of thing that would attract very dangerous people if word got out. I had to keep it a secret.
But that posed a problem.
"What am I going to tell Niki?"
He had been so excited to help me feed the slimes every day. He knew exactly what I’d been feeding the Acid Slime. How was I going to explain this away?
"Ryoma! You still in bed?"
I jumped. It was Kai. "I'm awake!"
"Good. Breakfast is ready."
"Thanks! I'll be right there!"
I hadn't realized how much time had passed. I'd have to figure out the Niki situation later—for now, it was time to eat.