"Phew... Thank you for your hard work today."
After concluding the final meeting with all the participants, I addressed Kormi and the two subordinates still present.
"Good job!" Kormi chirped.
"Thank you, sir. I will submit today’s minutes shortly," Eleanora added.
"Well done. I’m glad we managed to move forward without any major hitches," Yudum said.
"It really was a relief. By the way, what did you three think of this meeting style? Especially you, Kormi. Since we’re relying on your abilities for this, I wanted to make sure you weren't exhausted."
"Not at all! I had a blast! I used a little mana, sure, but I was absorbing more from the surroundings as I went, so I’m totally fine!"
"I have no complaints either," Eleanora said. "If anything, this method is so revolutionary that I’m still just trying to wrap my head around it."
"I’m actually worried that if I get too used to this, regular communication will start to feel like a massive chore," Yudum joked with a wry smile.
While Kormi spoke with genuine excitement, Eleanora and Yudum could only offer amused, slightly bewildered grins.
"Well, we can refine the process as we go. For now, it doesn't seem like there are any pressing issues. Since the report to the Ducal House is finished, let's focus on our immediate tasks. Eleanora, I’ll leave your usual duties to you. Yudum, please prepare to head to the Town of Gaunago with me in three days. I need to conduct negotiations with the Moulton Slave Company and receive further instructions from the Duke."
"Understood."
"Depending on those instructions, there’s a high possibility we’ll be traveling elsewhere from there, so please arrange a horse or carriage for your use. I can transport you via Space Magic if we’re just moving between towns, but if we need to split up, it’s better if we both have our own means of travel."
"Got it. I’ll rent a suitable horse from the local shop. And by 'suitable,' of course, I mean a palfrey. I can’t exactly show up as the attendant to a Ducal House Technician on a common nag."
I wasn't entirely sure what a "palfrey" was, so I asked for clarification. Apparently, rental horses were ranked by quality; a palfrey was a high-grade mount intended for nobles and knights. The sturdier, common horses rented by the general public were called "rouncies." The distinction between quality and price was a long-standing tradition.
"I have no such worries for a graduate of the knight course," I said. "Actually, why don't we just look into purchasing a dedicated horse and stable for you? We don't have enough time to browse this trip, but I expect these kinds of outings will only become more frequent."
"Ah, I see... To be honest, the option of actually owning a horse didn't even cross my mind," Yudum admitted. "I was taught how to drive a carriage, but since I never had any trouble moving around with Space Magic and physical reinforcement, the idea felt foreign to me."
In my previous life, owning a horse was a symbol of extreme wealth, and I assumed the upkeep would be astronomical. I had always felt it would be cruel to keep an animal if I couldn't care for it properly. Now, however, money wasn't an issue. I could afford the horse, the facilities, and even a dedicated caretaker.
"Let’s go ahead and order a few horses for a stable and one carriage," I decided.
"I’ll handle the selection and find a caretaker," Yudum offered. "I looked after the horses in the knight course the whole time I was a student, and I’ll likely be the one riding them most of the time anyway. It’s better to build that bond of trust from the start."
"Fair enough. I’ll leave the horses to you, Yudum. If you find yourself short-handed, let Eleanora know immediately so she can make arrangements. Are there any other points to confirm? No? Then let’s call it a day. I’m going to immerse myself in some 'research'—which is really just a hobby—for a while. If anything comes up, just tell Kormi. As you can see, I can respond immediately if it’s a quick conversation."
"I understand, sir."
"Understood."
"Then I’ll see you both in three days. Great job today."
I waved to them and had Kormi cut the connection.
"Link terminated!"
"Alright. Before I dive into the experiments, let’s take a quick look at the overall situation."
"You got it!"
At Kormi’s energetic response, multiple screens flickered into existence in the air. Each one displayed the field of vision of a different tamed monster, all working at their own pace. By using Taming Magic to link the monsters to me, and then using memory sharing to link myself to Kormi, we had created a multi-feed real-time monitoring system.
I had discovered this while testing Kormi’s abilities. It turned out that the Sensory Link from Taming Magic transmitted a lot of information that my brain normally filtered out or failed to recognize—likely due to low proficiency or simply a lack of mental processing power.
By having Kormi compensate for this, it was like upgrading a thin, laggy cable to a high-speed fiber-optic line. This allowed for simultaneous connections and centralized management.
Furthermore, this boost helped extend the effective range of my Taming Magic. Previously, if I was at the Abandoned Mine, my limit reached just short of the Town of Gimul. Now, I could reach past Gimul all the way to the new town currently under construction.
"Taming Magic goes surprisingly deep... Even without Kormi’s support, I should make this level of control my long-term goal. The Clay Slimes seem to be doing fine."
I watched the monitors, my eyes drawn to the Brick Production Line I had shown Reinhardt earlier.
The Clay Slimes I had bred in the Sea of Trees now numbered five hundred. Even though they were all "clay" slimes, their compositions varied. For instance, the ones born at the experiment ground were made of White Clay, the ones from the Sea of Trees were Black Clay, and the ones here at the mine were Red Earth.
Initially, I had been worried that different soil types might affect their health, but so far, they were perfectly fine. It seemed that as long as the material was clayey, the specific mineral makeup didn't matter much to them.
This was a huge help; as long as the soil had a clay-like consistency and enough moisture, they could process almost any earth into usable clay. In pottery, the composition changed the final color and texture after firing, so having different varieties would be excellent for mixing and adjusting hues.
"If anything, we’re running a bit low on water."
The production line required Goblins to dig up the red earth and feed it to Big Clay Slimes along with water. The speed of production and consumption was apparently higher than I had anticipated.
"Still, that just means adding more water. Hardly a crisis."
I sent a mental command to a Water Slime I had stationed inside the reservoir and had it cast Water Magic to top it off. I also informed the Goblins managing the site about the refill. I performed similar checks on the Goblins working in the drying rooms and those outside, issuing instructions as needed.
Rino was lounging happily in the square at the base of the mountain, and the Rimul Birds were patrolling the skies above the mine. They’d alert me if anything unusual popped up.
"Monitoring everything, giving orders through Taming Magic, and handling issues without ever leaving my seat... Kormi, the level of freedom you give me is incredible."
"Really? You mean it?"
"I’ve always divided tasks among my slimes, but now there’s this sense of total unity. It’s so much easier to manage."
The Clever Chickens in charge of egg production were currently cooped up and obsessed with chess and other logic games. If I ever tapped into their collective brainpower, the results might be terrifying—though, given that everyone except their leader, Kohaku, had developed a total NEET-like mindset, they might just refuse to help.
"Well, they’re laying eggs consistently, so I’ll just consider them a 'potential' asset for now. More importantly, let’s get to the experiment. How are those specific slimes doing?"
"Still no changes across the board. They finished all the food you left, though."
"Then let’s top them off."
From the warehouse where Kormi resided, I used Space Magic to transfer sacks of Raptor bone powder—which I had in massive quantities from my time in the Sea of Trees—directly into the testing chamber. As soon as Kormi tipped the sacks over, I watched the monitor as the normal slimes swarmed the powdered bone.
"They have quite the appetite. At this rate, they should evolve any day now."
"Can you really tell?"
"It’s just a hunch based on experience. The more they eat, the faster they tend to evolve. Besides, we already have a precedent for bone-eating slimes with the Acid Slime."
This experiment was specifically designed to see if I could trigger a different evolution by providing bone in a more digestible, powdered form.
From my observations of slime evolution so far—like how soil-based slimes become Soil Slimes—I had realized that evolution wasn't always a linear, one-way street. Sometimes, different types of slimes could share a common evolution path.
The Acid Slime was a bone-eater, but usually, slimes evolved into something physically similar to what they consumed. An Acid Slime evolving from bone was an anomaly.
I had wondered why it had become an Acid Slime instead of a Bone Slime. My hypothesis was that it hadn't evolved because it ate bone, but rather in order to eat bone. When the first Acid Slime was born, I had been giving it raw, hard bones. Since those are difficult for a normal slime to digest, I suspected it had become an acid-based creature specifically to dissolve the calcium and ash so it could absorb the nutrients.
"So that’s why you’re giving them powder this time, to make it easy for them."
"That’s part of it. I’m also looking at the type of mana the base slimes prefer."
Acid Slimes seem to favor Poison Attribute mana. When I had visited my house in Gana Forest to set up the communication room, I had captured and tested the local slimes. Most of them preferred poison-aspected mana. Since that area had rock salt with toxic components, the land itself was likely saturated with poison-attribute energy.
A slime’s body is made of mana, so their preferences are naturally linked to it. It stood to reason that even with the same food, the surrounding mana could fundamentally change the resulting evolution.
"That’s why I’ve separated the slimes in the lab based on their attribute preferences. It’s a bit of a broad test, but I should be able to see if the hypothesis holds up based on which attribute leads to which evolution."
I spent the next few days in high spirits, juggling multiple evolution experiments alongside my research into pottery and medicine. The results arrived sooner than I expected.
"Whoa! A Bone Slime! And its attribute is... No-Attribute!"
Bone Slime Skills: Hardening Lv1, Physical Attack Resistance Lv1, Jump Lv2, Digestion Lv3, Absorption Lv3, Division Lv2.
"It looks like a solid white lump. Its skills are identical to the Iron or Metal Slimes, but the levels are low and it's much more brittle. However, it's significantly lighter than a metal slime. When I touch the tentacles, they actually have a decent amount of give to them... This might be perfect for lightweight armor."
"Ryoma, tomorrow’s the day we head to Gaunago. Shouldn't you get some sleep?"
"Yeah... I’m okay. I’ll turn in in just a bit."
And so, another night deep in the mine passed in peaceful productivity.