137-124 Logging for the second time (2)

"Well, let's shelve that for now. More importantly, there's been a subtle reaction from the enemy.

"Did the demons come close again?　I'm not sure what to do.

I'm not sure what to make of it.

It's a pain in the ass to have to fight every time you kill one. I hope it's Orcs instead of Scalp Ape. Nao, what?

"No, I said it's delicate.　If I knew, I would have told you.

What's subtle about it is, first of all, its movement speed is slow.

It doesn't change its speed before or after the logging, and it's approaching slowly.

In addition, it reacts alone, and for a demon that lives in this area, it seems quite weak.

"Weaker than a goblin?

No, it's a stronger reaction than that.　I'm not sure if it's a good idea, but I think it's a good idea.

I'm not sure if it's a good idea, but I'm pretty sure the reaction to demons is proportional to the magic power contained in the demon stone, or to put it more simply, the selling price. In other words, the higher the price, the stronger the reaction, and the lower the price, the weaker the reaction.

Normally, the stronger the demon, the higher the price of the demon stone, but there are also some troublesome opponents depending on how you fight them, so you can't be too careful.

Incidentally, animals such as task boars and vipu bears react differently from demons, so you can distinguish them.

I don't know, a new species?　...... Okay, let's go check it out!

...... We're not sure it's going to be here yet, are we?　There's a chance they'll finish their work before we get there.

If it comes while we're working, we'll be in trouble. Let's get rid of it first instead of waiting.

Hmm, it is true that a preemptive attack is more advantageous.

Since we don't know what we're up against, we can't say that there is no possibility of damaging the wood we've cut.

What do you think?

I'm curious about the new demon, aren't you?

Yes. The only demon I haven't encountered in this area is the ogre, but it's not that strong, is it?

Natsuki asked, and I nodded.

Ogres are said to be much stronger than Orcs. If it were such a demon, it wouldn't have such a subtle reaction.

So it's a demon we don't know about. I'm curious too?

We all agree?

Then I guess we can't stop going.

I don't know.

I think that's slime.

Isn't it?　It's kind of squishy.

I can see all the magic rocks, can't I?

You can see the magic stone in full view.

But the color is like muddy water, and it doesn't look tasty at all.

I didn't know there was slime around here. I didn't see any information about it on .......

"How do you defeat it?　Are they actually strong?

It seems to be proportional to its size.　The easiest way is to destroy the magic stone, but then you won't get anything. ......

There seems to be no material. And then what?

It's best to just pop out the magic stone. If you put too much pressure on it, it will break, so use moderate pressure. There's also a way to defeat it with magic.

That's easy.

I'll do it.

Then I'll--" Natsuki grabbed Toya's hand tightly as he held up his sword.

Hmm?

No. The sword will be damaged. Slime can dissolve almost anything.

It seems that even the weakest slime has the ability to dissolve and digest almost anything, although the speed of dissolution varies.

This level of slime is only a problem if you wash it immediately, but it would not be good to damage the expensive sword.

For this level of slime, a branch on the ground is sufficient.

Natsuki wielded his hatchet and made a stick about a meter long, and handed it to Toya.

Here you go.

"Oh, hey. --Hey!

When Toya shook the stick lightly, the magic stone inside the slime flew away with the pieces of slime.

When Yuki saw this, she shouted, "Ah! Yuki saw this and hurriedly chased after the magic stone.

The slime that had lost its magic stone trembled for a little while, but it soon lost its shape and spread out on the ground.

"Toya, you're putting too much pressure on it!

"Sorry!　It was softer than I thought.

I'm not sure what to do, but I'm going to do it.

But while Toya is amazing at hitting a magic stone that is no bigger than the tip of a fingernail, Yuki is also quite good at chasing after it and picking it up.

It would be hard to find a stone of that size lying around in the forest.

By the way, how much does this magic stone cost?

The slime's demon stone can be bought for as much as you want. I'm sure you'll be able to find something that will work for you.

I'm not sure what to make of that. That may be true.

It's true that the response to the [Searching for enemies] was more than goblins.

If you take that into account, the price is going to be about that much.

When Toya hears this, he has a look of disappointment on his face.

"What, that price for not smashing a goblin's head?　That's insanely good, slime.

It's definitely good to get magic stones without the gloom. It's weak.

That is, if you can get the magic stones out of it. Toya did it easily, but it's not that easy, it's smaller than a golf ball.

No, that's true. You need to be able to swing a stick and accurately hit the magic stone, which is only 1/10th the size of a golf ball in terms of volume, and not lose sight of it as it flies away.

And it's in a forest. If you can afford it, you might want to set up a catcher's mitt behind you.

Moreover, even if you hit it well, if you put too much effort into it and the magic stone shatters, you will get nothing.

It would be easier to kill it with magic, since it would leave a magic stone on the spot, but the reality is that not many adventurers can use magic, so it may not be a good deal.

If there are a lot of slimes, we can use magic to kill them all and make some money. ......

It's going to be difficult. They don't seem to swarm much.

It's not like we're going to get 300 rares for this.

If we cut down a tree and go home, we'll get 400,000 rares.

It's not worth the effort to hunt slimes. But...

"It would have been three days' wages for Yuki when she was in Sahlstat.

"Geez. That's right!　"Oh, my salary is too low!

"I was right!

We went to pick her up, and I guess you could say we were recruiters.

Well, in Yuki's case, she has successfully changed jobs and is now earning money, so I guess we can call her a success.

You can say that you are a success because you have successfully changed jobs and are earning money. Let's get back to it and keep working.

Yes, we should!　There are more than a thousand slime trees growing all around us. There's no time to rest.

There are more than a thousand slime trees growing around us. ...... That's a good point.

It's certainly worth it, though.

"Okay!　Then I'll come back early and make a lot of money!

Yes, yes.

I've achieved my goal of confirming the identity of the new demon.

It turned out to be just a slime, but the fact that we could confirm it was significant.

We went back to the logging site with Yuki in the lead and resumed our work.

"Don't worry about it.

"Don't worry about it. Just go ahead and cut.

This was Simon's answer to our question about whether it would be bad to cut too many trees from the north forest.

He said that he was not concerned that it would affect the lumberjacks.

Even if we sell some of the wood from the north to the market, the price difference between the wood from the south is obvious.

Therefore, there is little possibility that the customers who used to buy furniture made of southern wood will move to furniture made of northern wood, and the demand for southern wood is unlikely to decrease.

On the other hand, there is also no need to consider the possibility that people who want to use northern wood have to put up with southern wood.

It is the aristocracy and the rich who want to use the best wood, and they are basically vain.

Either they can't use cheap wood as a substitute, and won't order it if it's not available, or they have to pay a lot of money to use the few remaining northern woods.

If we supply them with northern wood, the furniture factories will be able to take on work they couldn't before, and the whole city of Laffan will improve.

Even if the supply is a bit large, there is a high possibility that each workshop will increase their stockpile in consideration of the past cases where the supply was suddenly cut off, so there will not be a glut in the market.

It's a great way to make sure you're getting the most out of your money.

...... Hmm?　Is that too much to ask for a daily basis?

If you've got a six-day week with two days off, you've already got a third of the week off, and since you're also off depending on the weather, you've got about half of the week off.

It's a pretty relaxed job.

However, the income is more than enough.

Even if we divide the proceeds among the five of us, we can earn more than the annual income of an average person in one day, so we can't stop laughing.

Well, even that income is not enough for the average person's yearly income, considering the need for new equipment.

There is no shortage of money at the moment, but considering the future, we can't afford to waste it.

And so the seasons passed, and at some point the wind in the forest began to feel warm.