Maybe I had been too nervous.
I threw myself into farming without even sleeping.
And before I knew it, the moment of reckoning had arrived.
“Should I back out while I still can?”
Holding the copier in one hand, I looked at Ppuu, who was waiting before me with a bewildered expression.
Nothing bad would happen to Ppuu, right?
I was only making a copy, after all.
“Haa…”
That single copier represented a whole year’s worth of value.
Of course, compared to the three years I’d spent going nowhere, it was only a third as long.
But the density of those periods was completely different.
If I had to compare them, a single day now was worth a month back then, perhaps even an entire year.
Should I put it off for one more day?
It wasn’t as though anything terrible would happen if I didn’t use it today.
For a moment, I was tempted to avoid the decision, but I quickly pulled myself together.
Smack!
Ppuu?!
“It’s not like I’m going to wait another year anyway.
I’m using it now.”
There had never been another option to begin with.
Delaying it because I thought it was too precious would only waste valuable time.
Wait until Mark Two reached level 10?
It would be far more profitable to raise Ppuu to level 11 in the meantime and let that advantage snowball.
While I was muttering to myself, the time finally arrived.
“Here we go!
Ppuu!”
Ppuu?
Without hesitation, I activated the Slime Copier.
[Using the Slime Copier.]
[Target confirmed.]
The copier in my hand began to melt.
It wriggled toward Ppuu, rapidly expanded to envelop the slime, and then started shining.
“Well, I’ve cast the die now.”
Feeling somewhat empty, I waited patiently.
The light gradually faded.
The copier peeled away from Ppuu, and another slime appeared, identical in appearance to the original.
[??
Slime LV.10]
[An extraordinary slime.]
[Currently sealed.]
[Liquid Synthesis available.]
[Ability: ??]
It was a perfect copy.
I hadn’t expected even the question marks to be duplicated.
“Ppuu, it’s time for you two to merge.”
Ppuu?
Ppuu?
Even their reactions were identical, so I couldn’t tell the real Ppuu from the copy.
Either way, it was time for a level 11 slime to make its debut.
[??
Slime LV.10 and ??
Slime LV.10 are being synthesized.]
[The merging slimes will share all their memories and experiences.]
Something was different this time.
Previously, the slimes had simply flowed together and produced a result almost immediately.
Now they continued undulating, and the synthesis was taking much longer.
“Did something go wrong?”
I watched anxiously for a while, but there was no sign of it ending.
Just in case, I approached to check the status window.
Fortunately, a message appeared.
[Synthesis in progress…]
“This has never happened before.”
It didn’t seem to have failed, but the appearance of a message like that suggested this was no ordinary synthesis.
Was level 10 the reason?
Or was it because Ppuu had been an unusual slime from the beginning?
I couldn’t tell.
Whatever the cause, there didn’t seem to be anything I could do right now.
Wobble?
Just then, Mark Two approached with its straw hat tilted sideways and cocked its body in curiosity.
The sight of Ppuu undergoing synthesis seemed to fascinate it.
Gloop?
“It’s in the middle of synthesis.
Don’t touch it, just in case.”
Wobble! This story is hosted at g.com.
It bobbed in acknowledgment, then swayed as though asking me to follow.
“Is it finally time to harvest?”
I looked back at Ppuu once more.
The yellow slime was still churning as the synthesis continued, so I decided to leave it alone and wait.
“Tell the others not to touch Ppuu either, just to be safe.”
Wobble!
Carefully avoiding Ppuu, I followed Mark Two.
When we reached the place it was leading me to, several slimes were already gathered together, working hard at something.
“Embergrill?”
Considering how long Layla had taken to harvest, this crop had grown remarkably fast.
Of course, not every dungeon crop grew at the same rate, but I still had some preconceived notions about them.
“Still, it really has grown a lot.”
The plant resembled a small tree, although its twisted branches looked more like vines.
Since I didn’t know how to harvest it, I watched what the slimes were doing first.
They stacked their bodies on top of one another like a ladder to reach the Embergrill.
Glooong!
Glooong!
Even that wasn’t enough, and they were straining to reach the top.
I walked over and lifted the recruit perched at the very top with my hand.
Wobble!
The little fellow squirmed as if to thank me, then began harvesting the Embergrill.
It picked the youngest shoots, almost like someone plucking tea leaves.
“Wow, I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.”
All the shoots looked the same to me, yet the slimes picked some and passed over others.
If I’d been doing this myself, I would undoubtedly have harvested everything without discrimination.
After helping them work through the entire section planted with Embergrill, we had gathered a considerable quantity of fresh shoots.
They hadn’t even harvested everything, and they’d clearly followed their own standards, but the amount was still impressive.
Gloop!
Glooooop!
“Hm?”
I was about to put the harvest into storage when Mark Two suddenly began reacting with unusual intensity.
I couldn’t work out exactly what it meant, so I set the Embergrill down and watched.
It gathered a handful of the shoots and carefully laid them out, one by one, on a nearby empty patch of ground.
“Ah!
Are you trying to dry them?”
Apparently they needed to go through a drying process, like tea leaves.
But all the Embergrill I had seen and heard about until now had been fresh, undried leaves.
‘Mark Two probably knows better than I do, though.’
I decided to trust Mark Two and its farming ability.
I’d already found it strange that no item information appeared for the Embergrill we’d harvested.
Perhaps this process would turn it into an item.
The slimes gathered and began spreading out the harvested Embergrill shoots.
And they didn’t stop there.
Each one coated the shoots it had laid out with its bodily fluid.
“What a strange way to do things.”
I’d previously sent some of their fluid to a research institute for analysis, but the results had shown nothing particularly unusual.
Still, the more I watched them, the more convinced I became that there was something special about it.
Glowing stones installed along the walls shone down in place of sunlight.
While we waited for the Embergrill to dry, I glanced at Ppuu again.
The slime was still undulating, with the synthesis ongoing.
Was it glowing a little more than before?
Gloop!
“What now?”
Having finished working on the Embergrill, Mark Two started tugging me along again.
I took that to mean something else was ready to harvest.
Judging from the direction it was leading me, it was finally time for the carrots I’d been eagerly awaiting.
These weren’t ordinary carrots.
I’d planted them using seeds imbued with mana.
“Why do they look smaller than before, though?”
The mana-infused carrots I’d harvested previously had been considerably larger than normal ones, but this batch actually looked smaller than ordinary carrots.
“That’s odd.”
Well, as long as they tasted good, I was fine with it.
Besides, their different appearance was proof that they had become a new variety, which only made me more excited.
“All right, everyone.
If you’ve rested enough, let’s get back to work.”
W-wobble?
The slimes, who had only just finished with the Embergrill, wriggled as though I’d said something outrageous.
I gracefully ignored their protests and took the initiative myself.
“Huh?”
As I carefully brushed away the soil to examine a carrot, I noticed something strange.
I’d assumed it was small because the leaves were shorter than before and the root wasn’t sticking out of the ground, but…
Pop!
“What in the world is this?”
Out came a carrot about the size of a large strawberry.
Its unexpectedly tiny size caught me off guard.
[A new crop has been discovered.]
[Please give it a name.]
The same message as before filled my vision.
For now, though, I decided to examine the crop I’d just harvested.
[??
LV.1]
[A crop containing mana.]
[Harmless to the human body.]
[Grants Clairvoyance for 15 seconds upon consumption.]
[Increases mana slightly for 3 seconds upon consumption.]
“Oh?”
The small mana increase was the same as the cherry tomatoes, but the Clairvoyance ability was new.
“It feels like the eyesight-related effect has gotten even stronger.”
I couldn’t honestly say which effect was better, but I had a feeling this one was more impressive.
If I really wanted to know, I could simply eat one and experience it myself.
“I’ll name it after I’ve tasted it.
Thanks for the food.”
With the slimes gathering around and staring at me, I popped the bite-sized carrot straight into my mouth.
It felt like eating a strawberry.
“Mmm?!”
But the flavor was unmistakably carrot.
[Clairvoyance is now available.]
Along with the notification that I could use the ability, the concentrated aroma of carrot shot through my nose and seemed to pierce straight into my brain, leaving an unforgettable impression.
“It’s delicioooous!”
I’d expected it to taste good, but it was even better than I’d imagined.
Even people who hated carrots would greedily devour these.
The funny part was that the rich taste and scent were unmistakably those of a carrot.
“It’s a shame they’re so smaaaall…
Huh?!”
While savoring the carrot, I suddenly noticed what the slimes were doing and stared in surprise.
They were digging farther into the soil where I’d pulled out the first carrot, extracting one small carrot after another.
Seeing strawberry-sized carrots pouring out in clusters, like potatoes or sweet potatoes, left me speechless.
“So that’s why they’re small.
I never imagined they’d change like this.”
The tomatoes had merely changed into a variety of colors without many other differences.
Naturally, I’d expected the carrots to undergo a similarly minor change.
It hadn’t occurred to me that they might transform this dramatically.
“…Let’s call them Mana Baby Carrots.”
A message immediately asked whether I wanted to register the name, and that was how the carrots became known as Mana Baby Carrots.
Looking at the harvest, they didn’t seem inferior to the original mana-infused carrots in terms of total yield.
In fact, their size made them much more convenient to eat.
“These are addictive, just like the cherry tomatoes.”
By the time I was eating my third, I was already experiencing the terrifying appeal of these carrots firsthand.
I felt bad enjoying them all by myself, so I told the slimes they could snack on a few as they worked.
The harvest promptly shrank by half.
“We still have quite a lot.”
I hadn’t weighed them yet, but there appeared to be more than last time, even after setting aside some for seedlings.
We immediately moved the harvested carrots to storage and sealed them in slime fluid.
For some reason, that fluid was starting to feel like an all-purpose miracle substance.
Not knowing why only made it more mysterious.
Wobble!
Gloop!
Once the work was done, things settled down again.
Ppuu still showed no sign of finishing its synthesis, and the other slimes began bringing me the carrots they’d been allotted, squirming expectantly.
“What?
You want me to cook for you again?”
Gloop!
Wobble!
Wobble!
These little rascals really did know what tasted good.
To be fair, the carrots were delicious even raw.
I was curious how much better they might taste if someone actually cooked them.
“…Should I just bring Jaeseong here permanently?”
He’d said he’d quit his job anyway, and my crops were the ingredients he’d been waiting for.
It might be better to have him live here and practice cooking with ingredients I’d grown myself.
I could even make him the slimes’ personal chef and pay him a salary.
He’d probably be horrified by the idea, though.
“Well, I’d better call him first.
Don’t eat those yet, everyone.
Just wait a little.”
There was no time like the present.
I decided to contact him right away.