Stone and Blood: Act 1, Chapter 4

Stone and Blood: Act 1, Chapter 4

Chapter 4

On silent footsteps, a lone hunter stalked through the undergrowth. Her quarry, a buck over twice her mass, picked his way through the woods ahead of her. It stopped on occasion, checking its surroundings before lowering its head to graze. The buck was one she had been keeping an eye on for the past few months. It possessed the profile of a six-year-old and was one of many that she needed to take care of before the autumn rut.

The sound of a stream trickled through the trees as the buck made its way to fresh water. She pulled a broadhead arrow from her quiver and nocked it to her bowstring. As the buck went to take a drink, she rose to take her aim.

Her bowstave creaked ever so slightly. The buck’s head shot up, eyes and ears alert as it stood perfectly still.

『Go!』

A green blob fell from the branches above and onto the buck’s head. The buck bounded away, crashing through the brush. She put her arrow away and walked off after it, following the trail of destruction left by her prey’s panicked flight.

Not a hundred metres away, she found the buck sprawled across the roots of a highland pine. Its head had been melted clean off and blood flowed out of the stump of its neck. The crimson stream didn’t get far, however, as it was being absorbed by the Slime that had killed the deer.

“Good job, Em,” she said. “Let’s get this guy dressed.”

If the Slime understood her, it gave no visible indication. Its satisfaction could be sensed over their telepathic bond, however.

She laid out a tarp, then drew her dagger and got to work. After exposing its body cavity, she sorted out the contents. Most of the offal would go to the fish farms, while the choicest organs would end up at the butcher. She divided them into the two preservation containers in her pack. Once she separated the hide, she laid it out for Em to clean out while she wrapped up the carcass in a Shroud of Sleep.

When Em was finished, it hopped onto her head. She bundled up the hide and added it to her pack before hefting the carcass onto her shoulders. Before her family had come to Warden’s Vale, it was crazy to think that a thirty-five-kilogram girl could carry a hundred-kilogram deer around. Now, it was just an everyday thing.

At some point along the way down the valley to the road, she realised that a pink-haired girl was walking beside her.

“Um...hi?”

The pink-haired girl didn’t respond. She wasn’t even looking at her – she was looking at the Slime riding on top of her head.

“...friend?” The girl asked in a soft, monotone voice.

“I guess you could say that. My name is Jelena – I’m a Ranger-in-training. This is Em – an Emerald Forest Slime. It’s my companion.”

“Oooh...”

Was she impressed? Her delivery was so deadpan that she couldn’t tell.

“Shizu,” the pink-haired girl pointed to herself.

“Nice to meet you, Shizu,” Jelena replied. “I’d shake your hand, but mine are kinda dirty.”

“Need help?”

“Nah, I do this every day.”

They continued along their way, following the banks of the forest stream. It was still early in the morning, and the sun had just risen above the mountains in the east. The sound of birds filled the air and they walked past the occasional animal that didn’t notice them go by.

“So...are you a Ranger, as well?”

“Kind of? I’m a scout. Better.”

“A scout...does that mean you’re in the army? I’m joining the army too.”

Shizu offered Jelena an unreadable look.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Is Em joining too?”

“Of course! Em goes everywhere with me.”

“What is Em? A Ranger? An Assassin?”

“Em is a Slime.”

The pink-haired girl stopped in her tracks. She stared at Jelena for a long while.

“Wh-what is it?” Jelena resisted the urge to squirm.

Shizu reached out and took the deer on her shoulders. It disappeared into a hole in the air.

“Come,” she said.

“But–”

“Come.”

The girl walked away. Since she had taken Jelena’s kill, she had no choice but to follow. A lot of people depended on her work.

“Where are you taking us?” Jelena asked.

“Seeking professional help,” Shizu answered.

“Help from a professional what?”

“A professional Ass...” Shizu’s voice trailed away before resuming again, “An expert on Slimes.”

Was there such a person in Warden’s Vale? Or was she going to end up in E-Rantel? The new ships made it a short trip, but it still wasn’t somewhere she could casually travel.

Eventually, they ended up at the shore of the lake, looking out over its northern end. While the body of water wasn’t even a year old, many rumours had already sprung up around it. The northern portion of the lake was so deep that even the Lizardmen didn’t know how far down it went and people kept speaking about unspeakable horrors lurking in the depths.

Shizu led them to a cluster of boulders that stuck out along the waterfront. She hopped onto the largest of them, then cupped her hands around her mouth.

“Tekeli-li!” Shizu’s cry echoed over the waves, “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!”

What was she doing? Were the rumours true about being a monster in the lake and Shizu was calling for it? A monster that was a Slime expert? As a resident of Warden’s Vale, she had witnessed too many unbelievable things to dismiss anything out of hand.

Shizu stopped and turned her uncovered eye on Jelena.

“Not helping?”

“M-me?” Jelena stared up at the pink-haired girl.

The pink-haired girl only stared back. Jelena clambered onto the rock to join her.

“Tek...er...”

“Tekeli-li.”

“Tekeli-li!”

“Tekeli-li!”

“Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!”

Together, they called out over the waves. Jelena felt stupid. Since Shizu was doing it too, however, it felt a bit less stupid. Hopefully, no one was watching.

“Tekeli-li!”

“Tekeli-li!”

“Teke...”

An odd wave rolled toward them. It stopped in the water just off of the rocks.

“So noisy,” the wave said in dulcet tones.

The wave talked? The wave was a girl?

“Help,” Shizu said.

Jelena stared as the wave climbed onto the rocks. The wave wasn’t a wave: it was a wave-coloured Slime.

“I didn’t know someone like you lived here,” Jelena said.

“I don’t live here,” the Slime replied.

“...then what are you doing here?” Jelena asked.

The Slime fell silent. Did she ask something she wasn’t supposed to?

“Building,” Shizu said. “Aquatic construction.”

So the Slime built stuff underwater? But what did that have to do with being a Slime expert? Just because she was a Slime? That didn’t make any sense. Humans weren’t Human experts just because they were Humans.

“Anyway,” the Slime slimed up to them. “What do you need help with?”

Shizu looked up at Em. The talking Slime seemed to follow her gaze, though she shouldn’t have needed to. Slimes had short-range Blindsense and they were more than close enough together.

“And just what do you expect me to do?” The Slime said.

“...build consultation? Big sister Solution is a professional Slime.”

“Shizu...”

“Help.”

The Slime let out a long sigh.

“Everyone in Warden’s Vale loves His Majesty,” Jelena said. “Maybe that’s why. I’ll be right back.”

She took the preservation containers filled with herbs with her into the faculty office. The Elder Lich at the front desk summoned one of the Alchemists working in the secret laboratories further within the building.

“Hello, Jelena,” he said.

“Hello.”

“Hmm...it looks like the Keskelos roots are coming into season. I guess our estimates were off about how many we had to go through before the next batch came in.”

“Is that bad?”

“No, we just have to readjust our resource allocations. This is just the thing, though – we got our hands on the formula for a new skincare product, and Keskelos makes up a substantial portion of the base. With the price regulations on quality-of-life items, cosmetics are our most profitable products.”

“Um...if you say so.”

The Alchemist smiled slightly at her response.

“Aren’t you thirteen or so already?” He said, “Girls are usually interested in this sort of thing before your age...”

Jelena shook her head. While most of the people in Warden’s Vale followed The Six, a few ‘specialists’ that were hard to find didn’t. Four out of five of the mages in the Faculty of Alchemy didn’t when they moved in, and only a few of them had switched back from The Four to The Six since then. Some of them didn’t worship any gods at all, which was even crazier.

Once the Alchemist finished sorting out her things, she returned to the wagon with another slip. Shizu was under the wagon, lying on her back.

“A-Are you alright?” Jelena rushed over and went to her hands and knees.

“Mm.”

She didn’t look hurt. Jelena thought she had fallen off and the Soul Eater had rolled over her, but that had never happened before. The wagon was in the same place, too.

“What are you doing down there?” She asked.

“Looking.”

Looking at what? Jelena crawled closer to see if anything was stuck under the wagon, but there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Shizu came out and boarded the wagon again without saying anything further and they rode in silence as the Soul Eater took them to the village.

It was still late morning, so most of the people in the harbour village were at work. The Soul Eater took them past the village square and right up to the lakeside wharf. They boarded the boat there and, when they reached the Lizardman Village, Jelena went to sell the leftover offal to the fish farmers.

“Alright,” she said. “Where to now?”

Shizu wordlessly turned around and led them deeper into the complex. Jelena had been to the Lizardman Village many times before, as Miss Ezsris was one of her instructors. They passed the residential ring and crossed the bridge to the interior, walking through the small market manned by Lizardman Merchants.

At the centre of the village was its ‘Druid Grove’, which the Lizardmen had just started that spring. Nine saplings made a ring around the fringes of the mostly-bare island, and it was there where they found Lady Aura. She was standing with her brother, Lord Mare, and together they watched the familiar, red-leafed figure of Glasir.

The Dryad held out a hand, palm outward.

“「Cure Poison」.”

A swirl of healing magic washed over her target: a big grey wolf with a cut on its side. Lord Mare leaned from left to right and back again as he examined it.

“Ooh...”

“Did it work?” Lady Aura asked.

“Yeah,” Lord Mare answered.

“Well, congrats.”

“C-Congratulations.”

“Hehe...”

Glasir looked down, scratching the back of her neck. The wolf in front of her went poof.

“It looks like that training menu worked,” a Lizardman Druid to the side said. “I don’t think the other kids could survive it, though.”

“I didn’t think I would survive it,” a plaintive voice rose from Glasir. “Please tell me that’s the end of it.”

“For now,” Lord Mare replied. “Once you learn a couple more Second-tier spells, we can start again.”

“Ehhhhh...”

“Better learn some useful ones,” Lady Aura said, “or it’s going to suck for you.”

The Dryad’s leaves rustled as she sighed. Lady Aura looked over to where Jelena and Shizu were standing.

“Did you find anything, Shizu?” She asked.

Shizu turned her one-eyed gaze on Jelena. Lady Aura rubbed her chin.

“You’re...Jelena, right? One of the trainee Rangers from the first village.”

“Yes, my lady,” Jelena nodded. “I met Shizu while I was doing my rounds, and then we went to the lake where we met a Slime named Solution. Solution said that I should make a Slime party and told us that you would probably know more about how to do it.”

“A Slime party?”

“Yeah, like an Adventurer party.”

The Dark Elf Ranger peered at the Ems.

“So each one will have a role? Like healers and damage dealers...”

“And a tank,” Lord Mare added. “Sort of like Lady Bukubukuchagama?”

“Mmh...can that even happen?” Lady Aura said.

“You mean one of those Slimes becoming like Lady Bukubukuchagama?”

“No! I meant being able to turn them into a party. They obviously can’t be anything like Lady Bukubukuchagama.”

“I don’t see why not,” Lord Mare said. “They’re Heteromorphs, right? They should be able to level just like anyone else.”

Lady Aura crossed her arms, looking at the Ems with an envious expression.

“That sounds so cool,” she said. “I want to try it out too, but I’m already at my limit! Argh...”

“So is it a good idea?” Jelena asked.

“You should try it out,” Lord Mare said. “Having a full party everywhere you go would be pretty strong. The strength of pets isn’t limited by the strength of the tamer here.”

“Ugh,” Lady Aura made a face. “If everything wasn’t so weak, this place would be crazy. So, you’re going to have a Slime Fighter and a Slime healer of some sort...a Slime Wizard, too?”

“I-I don’t think a Wizard would work,” Lord Mare said. “They all have to be something that won’t have too many problems operating in the wilderness. The Rangers here are all becoming scouts for the Royal Army, I think.”

A frown crossed Lady Aura’s lips.

“That doesn’t leave very many options,” she said. “At least not to begin with.”

“That part probably doesn’t matter...”

Lady Aura shared a look with Lord Mare.

“You mean train them all up as Rangers and Druids?” Lady Aura said.

“Druids and Rangers are already pretty versatile,” Lord Mare replied. “They don’t have to all do the same thing, either.”

“So something like three Rangers and three Druids?”

“Three Druids and three Rangers,” Lord Mare nodded. “Each Druid could have a different specialisation. Like a healer and a summoner and a nuker.”

“Then you can have different Rangers, too,” Lady Aura added. “Two that specialise in melee and two that specialise in ranged combat.”

“You added an extra Slime, big sis...”

“Does it have to be six?”

Lady Aura’s look turned cross. Lord Mare shied away.

“I-I don’t know?” He said, “I-In that case, you can have two healers, a summoner, and a nuker. The party would be more stable that way.”

Jelena looked down at her Ems. It seemed like she would have to feed them more.

“So,” she said. “Eight Slimes. Four Rangers and four Druids. Two Rangers that are good at melee combat and two that are good at ranged combat. Two Druids specialised in healing, one specialised in summoning and one more specialised at...new...”

“Nuking,” Lord Mare said. “Damage-dealing spells. A Druid like me.”

“Don’t forget your Skills and Abilities as a tamer,” Lady Aura said.

“I just have basic Ranger training,” Jelena said. “If my lady could help with that...”

“I guess I could give you some pointers.”

“Thank you, my lady.”

“Un!” Lady Aura smiled, “Now, all that’s left for you to do is teach your Slimes magic.”

Jelena froze.

“Eh?”VIssịT n0(v)eL/b(i)(n).com for the best novel reading experience