Chapter 2: This is not what I want.

　Vassal Fusion. It was also called Vassal Synthesis, and it was a forbidden technique.

　How forbidden was it? In school, the teachers would tell us again and again as they taught us that "We're only teaching you all this because it is part of the curriculum. Only use it in times of emergency!" That's how forbidden it was.

　The beings summoned by a Mage Summoner consisted of energy. Although summons took on the shape of living creatures by using the magic stones as a medium, their original form was shapeless energy which could be blended together. My summons all took the form of formless liquid for some reason, but the basic principle remains the same.

　When a summoned creature is converted back into energy which is then combined with some other energy, the form of the summon may change. That is Vassal Fusion. As combining two vassals would result in a large amount of aggregate energy, as well as merge two cores into one, the resulting fused summon would be stronger than the individual summons before the fusion. Once a magic stone has been used as a core, it would be marked with information on the 'type of summon' which cannot be overridden. Therefore, it was impossible for the fusion of two Slimes to produce a Dragon. In my case, however, I mainly just wanted to solve the problem of insufficient space, so this was not an issue.

　Mage Summoners typically do not to fuse the vassals they have already become familiar with because the vassals' memories would not carry over, but I honestly had no fondness for Slimes so I did not feel any guilt whatsoever in fusing my summons. I mean, they all looked the same so I honestly had no idea which one of them was the first Slime I had summoned anyway.

　I fused my Slimes together efficiently, just as if I were cooking, and soon the unknown number of Slimes I had had been reduced to several dozen. I had heard that there was the possibility that rejection may occur during Vassal Fusion due to the differences between the types of vassals being combined. Unfortunately, my vassals were all Slimes, so there was no such thing to worry about.

　The elevated Slimes all increased in solidity. They were now as firm as jelly or pudding. However, they were still Slimes and were still as useless as ever. Moreover, the decrease from 100 Slimes to 50 was not really noticeable. Well, the remaining Slimes were actually even more annoying now that their forms were even more solid.

　Surrounded by a large number of wriggling jellies, I was kicked out of the house by my mother.

　My family home was an inn, so it was a business with customers. Raising a pet wasn't something to be praised under these circumstances, not to mention that these weren't dogs or cats, but Slimes. It was no wonder that my mother would chase me out. Perhaps it was only the unconditional love of a mother which had prevented her from kicking me out until this point.

　Even a best-selling book could not continue flying off the shelves forever — now that I had sunk all my earnings into magic stones, I was once again out of money.

　Saddled with a bunch of 'children', I could not even go crash at a girl's house. These were Slimes, you know. Slimes. Who would take in a man going around with several dozen Slimes? I don't think so.

　I had no home and no job. All I had were Slimes. As I walked along the street surrounded by squirming Slimes, I watched the pedestrians make way for me as I contemplated my situation.

　I wanted to summon.

　But I had no money. Unfortunately, my reliable cousin brother was not around. He had heard news of a powerful monster outbreak overseas and had left on an official trip to check things out. That was the sad fate of being affiliated with the nation. I was extremely envious.

　Mage Summoners were renowned for being powerful, but their power was undoubtedly based on the strength of their summoned vassals. Since I only had weak vassals, I could not obtain materials by defeating monsters to sell for money. In any case, the amount one could earn that way was not much. I had already tasted the joy of summoning 100 times consecutively and could no longer turn back.

　I wanted to earn as much as I possibly could through legal means. However, all I had was a great amount of Slimes.

　Hmm... a legal way to earn money using Slimes... The only things I could think of was to start a laundry service utilising the dirt-eating properties of Slimes, or to run a sex shop with Slimes.

　

　I decided to start a laundry service. For the time being, I was able to borrow money from the bank due to my Mage Summoner license. With that as my fighting capital, I set up a large laundry service in a prime location in the city.

　Normally, a laundry service uses the diluted body fluids of Slimes to remove dirt. Slime fluids could be obtained from defeating Slimes in the wild, but there was a knack to obtaining it so the prices were rather high. With so many Slimes under my control to do with as I liked, there was no reason I would lose.

　My shop was thriving. Even though the profits were not very high, my cost was pretty much zero. Well, no, you could even say I gained since I did not have to pay to feed my Slimes anymore. One store increased to two, then three, and the count kept increasing. I even opened up stores in other towns. Incidentally, I also sold Slime fluid to other laundry services on top of running my own laundry service, so that was another profitable source of income. If not for such a unique circumstance as mine, a Mage Summoner would never be running a laundry service. I had no competition.

　Within the span of three years, I entered the limelight with the glorious moniker of 'King of Laundry'. There was not a single person who did not know of the laundry service with the Slime logo.

　I found myself laughing when I was interviewed by the media, but there was no pride in it as a Mage Summoner. The number of stores increased, but that was no problem because the number of Slimes also increased along with the profits. I had indisputably joined the ranks of the millionaires.

　However, I was buying up and gathering so many magic stones that the normal distribution of goods was being affected, and so I received a federal warning. This was out of my expectations. Still, it was the country who was really at fault for dealing in magic stones that could only summon Slimes.

　When I produced evidence that I had only been able to summon Slimes from all the magic stones I had bought in an appeal to the court, I somehow managed to win my suit. I received an apology as well as some compensation money. However, it was impossible for me to continue remaining in town now that the country had its eye on me. They might even send assassins after me.

　Thus, I left the country. I sold all my shops and even the brand itself, and I reduced the innumerable Slimes I owned by fusing them as much as possible.

　All my assets were invested into magic stones, and all those magic stones resulted in Slimes. The new Slimes I gained were again subjected to Vassal Synthesis.

　At this point, I had half given up.

　I don't even know how many hundred times I had pulled. All of them resulted in Slimes. Is Slime the only thing I am capable of summoning? No, probably not, but that was all I could think about.

　Still, I could not just give up here. It was fine while I was still running the laundry service, but now all of my wealth was in the Slimes. If I gave up now, I would just be a clown, just the Slime Master. Things might have been different if these were Dragons we were talking about, but my pride would not allow me to live a life dancing to the tune of Slimes.

　I crossed over to the closest largest country, and with the trust and connections I had accrued while I had been a millionaire, I built a house in the royal capital. A great mansion which could hold a large number of Slimes.

　In one of the rooms, I sat enveloped in a luxurious chair and thought.

        ―― I want to summon.

　I needed money to summon. The debt I owed to build the mansion must also be returned quickly. I had been loaned that money in good faith. If I betrayed that trust, the merchants would be the ones to send assassins after me this time.

　I could open a laundry service again, but I had already sold my brand and the stores I had owned. If I established a new brand here, I would probably be subjected to eye-rolls of contempt.

　There was only one option left to me.

　I started a sex service with my Slimes.

　Of course, it was impossible to obtain a permit to use Slimes this way, so this service was offered in secret.

　It did not take long to synthesize the best premium Slime to captivate people. Its unique softness and temperature were perfectly suited for pleasure. Even though it might be strange and a little scary at first, once you had a taste of it, you would be addicted to it like a drug and never want to stop. And since my vassal Slimes were the ones working, there was no fear of being sued by my employees.

　News of my Slime sex service spread explosively via word of mouth. My peers among the rich probably noticed that I was the one controlling things behind the scenes, but none of them tattled on me. By this time, many among the upper echelons of the country who enforced the regulations in the first place had already become my customers, so there was no way I would be caught. Moreover, there was a loophole in the law. Technically, you could call these transactions as a consensual relationship between a Slime and a person. I thought that this business would never go down.

　In just one year, my Slimes had increased again and I managed to fully pay off my debt. After that, my primary focus once again turned to increasing my number of Slimes. Very soon, I had all kinds of Slimes. After engraving the joys of Slime onto everyone's minds, I steadily increased my prices, but even then, there was no end to the customers.

　But one day, some news reached my ears. There seemed to be a movement towards regulating sex services involving Slimes.

　I might have overdone it. It seems that there has been an increasing number of people who have gotten so accustomed to Slimes that they have become bad at interacting with other people. Moreover, there have also been cases of heroes dying after trying out wild Slimes when they could not afford to pay for the sex service. The country was finally moving to take action.

　After considering all this, I closed down the service. I could not afford to be captured right now. Besides, I had no intentions of becoming an enemy of the nation. I just wanted to summon.

　Around that time, as I continued to apply Vassal Fusion to my increasing number of Slimes, I made the discovery of the century.

　If you synthesize Jelly Slimes in a specific way, a Metal Seed would be produced.

　Metal Seed was a rare metal that exists in nature. It had extremely high hardness, and after being processed through a specific method, it was a metal that was in exceedingly high demand with defense contractors. Unlike other common metals, there were no mineral veins from which to mine it. It would just appear randomly in an area without any warning signs. It was a rare metal that could seldom be found, but if you managed to get your hands on some, it was a dream metal which could be traded for tens to hundreds times more money than what you could get for the same gram of gold.

　Who could have imagined that this so-called "God's gift" was actually a Slime whose body had grown too hard to move?

　If I continued to pull Slimes, I would have a stable supply of the metal.

　For the sake of magic stones, I approached an arm dealer to do business with him.

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Previous: Chapter 1: No matter how many times I summon, no rares appear.
Next: Chapter 3: If I keep pulling until it appears, it'll be 100%

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