Chapter 5: The next time. The next time might be it!

The title bestowed upon me was a barony.

　It was a somewhat honorary title, with no hereditary succession allowed and no titled lands. The state would pay me a meagre salary, but it was at best only equivalent to about 4 or 5 magic stones. The terms might have been better if the winner had been a knight commander who had served his country for a long time, but this was the most they could allow for an outsider like me. Even though I had expected something like this, I still clicked my tongue, feeling rather salty. In any case, I was a wealthy man, if only within the context of an average man or a knight. One year's salary was instantly converted into 4 magic stones, which was then converted into 4 Slimes as if by default.

　This wasn't a futile move. I was buying a dream and possibilities.

　I hired an artist to produce a sketch of the 4 Slimes, along with a couple of other Slimes I had stored in a warehouse I had recently rented to cope with the overpopulation of Slimes I had. I used the sketch as a signboard for my business.

　Soon, there was no one in the country who did not know my name. And it went without saying that my fame was along the lines of "Ah, the one with the Slimes...".

　The arms dealers and other merchants gave me gifts to celebrate my victory. They were shrewd people, so the gifts they chose were magic stones. As natural as breathing, I summoned Slimes from them.

　My next target was Arcadia, the utopia of magic stones, where the dormant mines of magic stones lay.

　However, magic stones were strategic resources, and so the mining rights were, of course, held by the government. Especially since the price of magic stones had risen dramatically in recent years, the magic stone mines were now receiving special attention from the nobles.

　There were great interests at stake — Even I, the hottest hero right now, having just won the grand martial tournament of the kingdom, had no room to intervene.

　I was stumped. There were 2 options. The direct approach or the roundabout approach. The direct approach would take up too much time, so it was definitely out of the question. However, even if I went with the circular approach, I could not come up with any plan of action. In order to obtain a mine, not only would I have to outsmart and beat the merchants who were responsible for the supply and distribution, but also the nobles behind them who were pulling the strings. As a simple Mage Summoner, I could not go up against the nobles without consequences.

　At a loss, I decided I would just do my best to raise my reputation in the country for the time being.

　I wouldn't do anything unreasonable. Even if I did not manage to obtain a magic stone mine, I was a hero now. That should ensure a certain supply of magic stones. Now was the time to lay low.

　I took advantage of my position as the official Slime merchant of the royal family to establish a Slime company. As usual, I had no competitors. Every year, new Mage Summoners would appear, but I was apparently the only one who only summoned Slime exclusively. I felt like dying.

　Around this time, my relationship with the arms dealer was threatened. He was unable to use the refining method I had taught him to produce Metal Seeds. I had not lied, and I even produced a Metal Seed right before his eyes, but he still accused me of being a fraud. In the end, I made a deal to deliver Metal Seeds to him on a regular basis for a certain duration of time instead, but this conflict left a rift between us. This was a weakness. The arms dealer was aware of my machinations in the tournament to rig the results, so this might become a problem one day if I did not deal with it. All I wanted to do was summon, but things had become rather troublesome.

　Capitalising on my fame as a hero and the profits from selling Slime merchandise, I gradually began to develop even more Slime goods. It was around this time that I finally realised that I seemed to possess some business acumen. In retrospect, it was good that I had promoted my goods at the tournament. The inhibitions and purse strings of the masses were loosened during the Millennium Festival, and the goods I released sold like hotcakes. Rather than this talent for business, I wished I had better summoning luck instead.

　I aimed to soar even higher on the sales of Slime goods. The low profit margins and high sales had led to he proliferation of Slime goods, ingraining the presence of Slime into the public's consciousness.

　If existing paths closed, a new path would just have to be created. The euphoria I felt every time I gacha-summoned was an endless supply of fuel, driving me forwards. I bribed the nobles once more to pass a bill.

　A bill allowing Slimes to become pets.

　― Everything was for the sake of magic stones.

§§§

　Pet Slimes.

　Obedient and cute. Fancy and eye-catching. They could be used to dispose of leftover food, and they could also help eliminate pests such as mosquitoes and flies. There was no danger at all since the Slimes were summons.

　The pet Slimes I put up for sale set off a boom which swept through the masses. At the same time, I joined forces with a merchant to begin dabbling in mixed media. We produced everything from comics and novels to plays and dramas featuring Slimes as the main characters. The nation danced to the tune of me and my Slimes. While everyone was swept up in the frenzy of Slimes, I was the only one who continued trying to summon anything but Slime, and yet, in line with the boom, only Slimes appeared.

　It was probably a good thing that I had not prioritised profit at the start. It was probably a good thing that I had thrown money out like hot water to bribe people of influence and to promote the business. It could also have been the influence of making sure the royal family was provided with a sample of all Slime goods first.

　I knew from experience. It was easy to regain things like money as long as you had control of public opinion.

　I started selling Slimes as pets after a great deal of marketing. The price varied depending on the type and size of the Slime, but they were basically luxury pets. The cost of one Slime would be enough to build a mansion, but the pet Slimes still sold like hotcakes. Having a pet Slime became a status symbol for the nobility. Using this as a pretext, I began producing a great number of Slime subspecies.

　Copper Slime, Silver Slime, Gold Slime, Platinum Slime. Regardless of their rarity, I divided and graded the Slimes based on their colour. I presented the Royal Slime, which was considered to be the Slime of the highest value, to the Third Princess as a gift. The princess, who should have been accustomed to all the luxuries accorded to her as a royal, was overjoyed by the gift of Slime and hugged me. 'What am I doing?' I wondered.

　Pet Slime mania swept the nation. The profit margin from pet Slime sales exceeded that of Metal Seeds.

　Later, this would be called the great era of Slime. At this time, it seemed like every Tom, Dick, and Harry had a Slime.

　My name as Slime Master became renowned throughout the nation and beyond. I became a charismatic figure.

　In a strange turn of events, some Mage Summoners even wanted to summon Slimes like me. However, no one was able to do so. After all, Slime was an outlier among summons, so though there were Mage Summoners who occasionally managed to summon Slime, there really was no competition for me. The control one had over one's vassals depended on the skill of the summoner. Over 10 years of constant summoning and exerting control over my many Slimes had honed my skills significantly, leaving me peerless in this respect. Besides that, my Slimes were of a higher quality due to repeated fusing. I gave the Slimes summoned by other Mage Summoners the review of 'well, they tried their best', and then went on to manipulate the media behind the scenes to label those Slimes as imitation goods.

　There were a few Mage Summoners who apprenticed under me, but I immediately kicked out anyone who summoned anything other than Slime. Some among them even summoned Dragons, which I had never stopped being obsessed about. I stormed off to bed without saying a word.

　Meanwhile, alongside running my business, I had also begun researching Slime formulations in secret. In case I had to handle any obstacles in my way.

　Poison Slimes could no longer be relied on. The merchants who had helped me win the tournament knew about those Slimes. They would have taken all the necessary precautions against Poison Slimes.

　I had plenty of experimental materials. Whether it was one summoning, 10 summonings, or even 100 summonings, all I got was Slime, Slime, Slime, Slime, Slime. Just because Slimes were now considered cute pets did not mean that all Slimes could be sold as pets. A certain degree of solidity was required for an obedient and cute pet.

　The new mansion I had built had an enormous pool, and in it was a great number of unsellable Slime.

　Soon, people from other nations came, chasing after rumours of the Slime. The Slime fever burned even hotter with this influx of foreign investment. Even at this stage, there was no competition, and so my income soared even more. However, I retained almost no currency. My aim was not to become wealthy, you see, but to summon a Dragon. My money vanished into investments and magic stones, so I was always dressed modestly. The media praised me for my frugality.

　Although some people were alarmed by the situation and advised caution, their voices were drowned out in the flood of enthusiasm of the masses.

　The safety and quality of the Slime were assured. Slimes ate pests, but not live animals or human corpses, so there was little risk of them being used for criminal purposes.

　Furthermore, needless to say, everyone believed that Slime was the weakest of all summons and could be easily disposed of at any time. In fact, all the books and research materials only talked about the weaknesses of Jelly Slime, saying very little about its dangers.

　It was a pathetic creature vulnerable to fire, ice, lightning, and physical attacks. Ironically, I, someone who never wanted to see Slime ever again, was the one most familiar with it.

　The information was misguided. No — it was true that wild Jelly Slimes were weak. However, the Slimes that I had created via synthesis were already fully capable of killing humans.

　The Slimes were only safe to be around because I had ordered them to be so. Under my orders, they remained docile and only ate harmful pests, leaving human corpses alone.

　The Slimes were still my loyal vassals even after they had been sold.

　And no one was aware of this.

§§§

　I summoned and synthesized over and over, day and night, and even though I never summoned a dragon, I eventually produced a revolutionary Slime.

　It was a Jelly Slime which emitted a pale white glow that no one had ever seen before. I named it 'Perfect Jelly'.

　The fluids secreted by this Jelly Slime would cause an overproduction of pleasure substances in the human brain, corrupting the person.

　I realised that I was close to obtaining a magic stone mine.

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Previous: Chapter 4: God doesn't roll the dice, but I'll keep summoning
Next: Chapter 6: Too much greed.

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