episode_0073

When I wake up, I feel refreshed.

The hangover and the useless thoughts that continued while I was hungover all disappeared.

Thistle, who was sleeping with me, didn’t seem to have woken up before me.

The warmth I felt right next to where I was lying remained as a trace that Thistle had been next to me all night.

‘… I should try moving too.’

I get up, wash my face properly, and prepare to return to the barracks.

I take a walk around the dorm to check if anything bad happened during the night, and then head straight to the supply area.

The road to the barracks was deserted, as if all the people who had been drinking until dawn had already stretched out.

There were only two sane people I was able to meet on my way to the supply area.

One was a guard standing at the entrance to the barracks, and the other was a store owner who was going to open a store early in the morning to sell to people who were looking for hangovers.

When we came face to face with them, we passed by, congratulating each other for surviving yesterday’s drinking party safely and waking up in the morning without much of a hangover.

After that, as I got closer to the supply area, I thought the door was strangely open even though it was morning. Peria must have been waiting and came running right from inside.

Then he grabbed my clothes and said something random instead of saying hello.

“Oppa, let’s go catch slime.”

“What are you talking about this morning? Am I going to work now? I didn’t come here to have fun.”

“Aren’t you saying I want to go out and have fun too? I also got permission from Enin to borrow her brother. If you go into the forest, there’s a swamp. I’ll go there. Let’s stop by the store on the north side of the city and pick up some tools.”

“What kind of slime is it? No matter how much I do, I don’t think I have time to go around holding slime. Let’s leave that to beginner adventurers to make pocket money.”

I thought something important had happened because Peria rushed out in a hurry, but it turned out to be meaningless.

Slime is a spherical creature that is round and slightly elastic.

Since they do not have any animal-like features such as teeth, claws, or fur, they are not classified as magical beasts and are used in a variety of ways.

They are used as medicine, experimental subjects for magic experiments, and sometimes noble ladies who love their soft texture keep them as pets.

However, in some cases, some things are acidic and have the property of dissolving armor, castle walls, etc., or if various negative factors overlap, a city-sized slime will devour everything, regardless of whether it is a forest or a castle.

Especially when the two are combined, it is truly scary enough to be called the slime of destruction.

So, if the number seems to be increasing abnormally, the government provides subsidy before such a dangerous situation occurs, and continues to request rescue missions for beginner adventurers who need to survive immediately.

So, for me, I tried to refuse because I thought it wasn’t my job, but it seems that wasn’t what Peria said.

“Not that common one, but transparent blood slime! It’s an important ingredient for making my medicine, and I found a habitat nearby.”

I wondered what he was talking about, and then he said that he wanted to go get blood slime, one of the ingredients needed for Peria.

But even though I knew what it meant, I wasn’t very motivated.

“You should have said that first. Still, I wanted to get some training from my teacher today for the first time in a while. Can’t I go next time? If possible, let’s go a few weeks later when it’s really hot. If it’s a swamp, most of the water will dry by then and it will be easier to walk. And honestly-”

“Honestly?”

“I hate swamps. Really, hugely.”

There is nothing you can do in a swamp.

My feet keep falling, my body becomes heavy with mud, the moment I take a wrong step, I fall into an endless swamp and drown, and I have no good memories.

Since I cannot control the natural environment of the battlefield, I remember the swamp as the worst place for me, having been to most places except remote areas such as deserts.

But even though I answered honestly, Peria continued to hold on to my clothes.

“No. This is the information sent by the union this morning. Speed is everything, so you have to move quickly.”

“Can’t I go alone?”

“Are you telling me to go alone to a place full of demonic beasts? My brother and I are business partners. Is this really going to happen? Trickster’s partners always have a close relationship with each other, so they have a truly trusting relationship. So, I always followed my brother wherever he wanted to go.”

“ Hey, if you think about it that way, do I have to follow you around when you go to the bathroom and take a bath? Do you really do that?”

“But it doesn’t matter, let’s go~. A little!”

“Oh, my clothes are sagging.”

Peria grabs the hem of my shirt and hangs completely on me. The hem of the sleeve was torn last time, so I took it out and it was sagging again.

‘I really don’t like it, what should I do? Are you going to suddenly give orders with a bracelet?’

I wanted to use it as a last resort, but even that was blocked.

Whilick-

“If you make even the slightest move to wear the bracelet, I will break your arm.”

“It hurts! I will not! I won’t do it!”

The moment I was contemplating whether to raise my arm, Peria immediately wrapped her arm around me and bent it behind my back. It seems to get faster as each day goes by.

“Yes. Let’s go, go. I’ll just go in and say hello.”

“And if you turn around and use that, I’ll just cry here.”

“I’m really going, so don’t worry.”

I had no choice but to go inside and briefly say hello to Master and Enin.

From what I briefly heard, the ban on reporting on the news of Deshade’s advent was lifted today anyway.

‘It’s not some kind of embargo.’

So, the wizards and alchemists who heard the news said that they were visiting because they had questions they wanted to ask the god who had descended on earth, so the unit would be in an uproar trying to respond, so it wouldn’t matter if they left.

For some reason, early in the morning, it seemed like Deshade, Thistle, and Astesia were all gone, but they all went there because there was a place prepared by the military.

Now that things were like this, I really had nothing else to do, so I decided to calmly help Peria.

After putting on only the gauntlets and boots, the commander came out and told Peria, who was waiting, to leave.

“Then shall we go right away?”

“Yes! Then, let’s first go to the pharmacist’s workshop in the north. There is a pharmacist who has studied blood slime a lot, and he said he has a method and tool for catching it.”

“We’ll meet the pharmacist first and then go to the swamp… so there’s no need to bring anything fancy, right? Because it’s not my job as an investigator or inspector, I can’t even bring a spare body this time.”

“It’s okay. The swarming demon beasts don’t do anything in the swamp because they have nothing to eat. I heard there would only be wanderers. So, I think you just have to be a little careful on the way.”

I don’t think anything big will happen. Anyway, the large monsters are very large, so you can turn around in advance, and since I also have limited time, I can deal with one or two wanderers by myself.

“Good! Let’s go!”

Peria looked quite excited.

Well, he’s naturally a wandering person, but he got involved because of me and stayed here for a while, so it’s understandable.

I got so excited that I brought out the big bag I saw when we first met inside and put it on my back, but I kept stumbling around because it was heavy because there were so many other things already in it.

“Give me. I’ll just take it with me. As I was walking, I fell and broke my nose.”

I took the bag from Peria and put it on my back.

The bag was quite heavy, and considering that he had been carrying a bag like this before he met me, I feel like he must have had a pretty hard life.

“Oh. That kind of behavior is good, I like it. If you keep your mouth shut and remain quiet, you will be popular with women.”

“Really? Let’s talk less.”

“Yes. If we shorten it even further and live without talking until we die, wouldn’t we be able to get married?”

“For some reason, he praised me. That’s right if you do.”

Perfect!

“Aya!”

“Let’s go.”

“ Mr. Lee… Let’s go together!”

I gave Peria a light slap on the forehead, and the two of us walked towards the north of the village.

——————————-

[Morsling Asylum]

When we walked north for a while and arrived at the place Peria mentioned, we were greeted by a signboard with an unfamiliar word written on it.

“Feria. Didn’t you say it was a pharmacist’s workshop? But why is the name of the store Asylum? It’s not a pharmacy or drug store or anything like that.”

The Asylum I know is a facility related to the spirit, but it differs from what Peria said, so I wonder if I went to another place.

“I also heard that this is a store that sells simple vitality elixirs and antidotes… but according to the map, this is the correct location. Maybe the information hasn’t been updated. Should I go back and report it?”

“What you do will be the same. Let’s go in.”

‘But Morsling’s first name is the same as someone I know.’

When I opened the door to the store and entered, my expectations were not astray. As soon as I entered, the bird beak mask that I thought I would never forget until my death popped out.

“Welcome. hmm? Oh my, isn’t that Lee Rim’s soul disease? I told you to stop by sometime, and you actually came. Nice to meet you.”

“You got it right.”

I take Morsling’s hand and say hello to him as he greets me with joy, and I look over his shoulder to see the scenery.

To begin with, my impressions were as follows.

‘A suspicious-looking store.’

Inside the store, the walls were completely blocked by shelves, so not a single ray of light came in.

And there were lights hanging everywhere to brighten up the dark interior of the store, and those lights were decorating the store in a suspicious way.

The colors of the lights were all green, so it was hard to tell what they were all about, and to top it off, Morsling was still wearing the bird beak mask he had been wearing back then.

It was okay for me because I went in expecting Morsling, but Peria was standing behind me, not coming in, as if she was very suspicious.

“ji, is this really here? Brother, do you know that person? Just saying hello?”

“It’s okay. This is probably the store you’re looking for.”

He eases the worries of Peria, who cannot hide his suspicions, and formally greets Morsling.

“Nice to see this, Morsling. I followed an acquaintance for work, but I had no idea this was Morsling’s store.”

“Oh, is that what you said? I would be more grateful if you came to me because you were thinking of me, but what if it was just a coincidence? As it is, the world is not small, so it would be normal for us to have a small chance of meeting again like this without any connection. But doesn’t the fact that we have met now mean that the pillars of fate have become intertwined? This will be a welcome event again. Hahaha!”

‘Maybe it’s because he’s a somewhat older person, but he’s willing to let it go.’

I answered honestly because I had completely forgotten about it, but Morsling was generous.

I share my current situation with him, even briefly.

“How have you been doing well since then?”

“Well, since I successfully completed my disciple’s revenge, I was planning to quit my activities as an adventurer for a while. But you said that the security forces and adventurers would go together to attack the base of the heretics revealed at that time? So I joined in and got a lot of work done and earned some money. So the store is doing extremely well now. That’s about the income of wizards.”

“That’s a good thing.”

“What. Thank you for asking how I am. So what brought you here?”

After briefly sharing our current situation, we decided to get down to business.