Riot Grasper - Volume 4

–Wow a Prismatic Slime woke up and looked at me as if it wanted to join us.

Do you want to join them?

I was so happy that I almost screamed when a scene from a nostalgic game replayed in my brain… and I ended up with this expression.

「I’m dumbfounded…. Of course you can also tame monsters. Are you even human?」

I ignored Rei’s gaze, which is increasingly treating me like a monster, and thanked my good fortune.

Let’s talk about we got here though.

Originally, the two twins were supposed to come with me, but Ren suddenly complained of being sick today, so i had no choice but to visit the Paudal Wetlands with Rei.

The beautiful scenery seemed to have done wonders in putting her in a good mood, but it was me who was in trouble.

After arriving there, I had planned to have both Rei and Ren relax so that I could take the skills from the slimes while I was there, but being alone with just Rei has made it difficult to do that.

It’s troublesome to make excuses when you’re seen to be extremely interested in the Prismatic Slimes that you encounter, and you only attack them moderately so that they will fuse with other slimes and heal their wounds in order to grow the rare magic skills they possess so I can steal them.

As I was wondering what to do, I couldn’t help but notice that a Prismatic Slime, which I didn’t see too many of, showed up.

I asked Rei not to touch her, and watched her while I thought about it – the other party also seemed to be a monster that possessed origin magic, and although weak, used magic of each attribute.

It’s a dexterous thing, and it shoots fire bullets, water bullets, wind blades, rock bullets, dark fog, and light bullets in order, so I countered all of them with magic of the opposite attribute while planning countermeasures.

I don’t know if that was the catalyst, but this one appears to be interested in the fact that I can also handle origin magic.

The Prismatic Slime, with its six shimmering colors, slowly approached me and moved its soft-looking body with a plu, indicating its intention to interact with me.

— Thus, the prismatic slime became a new friend.

I bought Rook and stole Kuroko, so I can’t help but feel a little happy about actually taming a wild monster.

「Okay. Then let’s have you merge with the other slimes, shall we?」

He twisted his little fluid body as if to show his understanding, and looked behind him as he disappeared into the marshland.

Her body, shimmering with six colors, was glistening in the sunlight. And I’m sure my eyes were glittering, too.

The first command given to the Prismatic Slime — let’s call her Prim from now on — is to repeatedly merge with other slimes to increase its proficiency in the former’s magic skills.

I knew that it would merge with other slimes in a pinch, but now that I’ve tamed it, I can actively merge it myself. I don’t have to tell you that it’s very efficient.

If I can grow my origin magic skills from Prim, my magic level will jump significantly. It’s a dream come true just to be able to wait and see.

「–It’s still a little early for lunch, but I think I’ll get Rook’s lunch.」

Now that I don’t have to rush around chasing slimes anymore, I’ll just take it easy.

「I’ll help you with that. Only because I have to get one for her.」

Rei showed her approval as she patted the head of the cavalry monster beside her. By the way, she rode to Paudal Swamp on a horse that she rented from a store.

I asked Rei if she wanted to ride with me, since Rook doesn’t mind riding with two people. She wasn’t sure what to do, so I mentioned to her that it wouldn’t be a problem since he never seemed to get tired when I rode her with Lim, but then she suddenly insisted on renting a cavalry animal from the store.

We’ve got Dario’s special lunch box for us, so that is not a problem, but we’ll have to provide for Rook and Rei’s cavalry ourselves.

Fortunately, this is a wetland area, so there are many animals that live here. Although there are no large beasts roaming around like in the forest, the birds that gather at watering holes would be perfect pray.

Occasionally, light slimes and flame slimes appeared, but they were immediately cut down and their cores collected. I’m planning to bring back a certain number of cores, as I was asked to do so by the guild.

In such a situation…

「I found…」

With a small whisper, Rei, who was walking in front of me, stopped walking.

I followed my gaze and saw several birds resting their wings in a flock. Their heads were red and their chest was a beautiful jade color. Their bodies were wrapped in brown feathers, and the tail feathers are magnificent, probably several tens of centimeters long.

「That’s a Lilac Bird. They’re delicious.」

「Really?」

「Yes. It’s good to cook or bake. It would be a shame to feed it to the cavalry honestly.」

「The bushes and water plants are hiding us from view, but if we get any closer, they’ll notice us.」

Even though Rook’s legs are fast, there is indeed nothing she can do if they escape into the sky. Let’s try to kill it with a long-range attack from our current position.

I didn’t have a bow or anything, so I focused my attention on creating a blade of air with wind magic.

「I’ll try. Rei and Rook are here at —- what are you doing?」

When I looked, I saw Rei next to me holding a throwing knife, and Rook was about to spit out a dragon breath by concentrating light in her mouth.

「This is…. first come, first served…」

「Kuahh!」

「Wait!」

Losing to the two of them, I impatiently released my wind blade. The blade of flying wind narrowly missed the Lilac Bird’s body.

The next attack was a torrent of light-heated dragon breath. A few Lilac Birds got caught in the middle and were instantly obliterated.

「Hey…. Rook. What are you going to do when you literally erase your pray? It doesn’t matter if you hit it with that thing?」

「Kua? Kuoo….」

Apparently she’s also lamenting her failure, so I’ll say no more.

「Oh no, I didn’t catch any birds after all.」

As I slumped my shoulders as if to express my disappointment, Rei, who was standing beside me, relaxed her cheeks and looked down at me from above.

Why the smug look?

「My knife hit my target perfectly.」

「….. really?」

I ran over to where the flock had taken off and spotted the Lilac Bird lying on the ground. The knife sticking out of its body was indeed hers.

–And two birds.

「Ah, I guess I missed one.」

Rei had a total of three throwing knives in her possession. Hey, that’s pretty impressive.

「Hey. Let me have a little taste」

「No thanks. You’ll have to catch your own.」

Hmm. It’s almost refreshing to see such a refusal.

「I’ll do something about that.」

「Huh?」

「…. Oh, yeah. That’s fine then. I’ll be hunting something else that even better. Watch me.」

– The time is midday.

As the sun reached the middle of the sky, it was time for lunch.

Rook gobbled up the prey he had killed, and the cavalry beast that carried Rei chewed and swallowed the meat of the unicorn rabbit she had caught with relish.

And me, I was depressed with a special lunch box in my hand.

No, I am not going to complain about this lunch. However, I have to admit that I get depressed when I see the Lilac Bird roasting on the bonfire in front of me.

「–Yes. I’ll give you one as a thank you for taking it apart.」

Yes. After all, I couldn’t hunt my prey.

I was proud to say that I possessed a reasonable good offensive capability in short and medium range combat, but I was not satisfied with my hunting abilities at all. It’s a shame.

What saved me was that I was able to test the sharpness of the new knife that Zig-san had made for me. The fruit knife, forged from the Phosphorus Dragon Crystal, was able to slice through tick bones like fruit.

I seasoned the meat with the seasonings I had stocked in my tool bag, and bit into it.

「Oh…. delicious.」

「Right?」

A completely thorough response from Rei about being correct, but this is delicious.

The meat, which has been trained by flying in the sky on a daily basis, is moderately firm, but not too fatty. The juices that flowed from the seared meat was a delight for my taste buds from the moment they reached my tongue.

The prepared salt brought out even more flavor, and it’s interesting how the taste changed with dried vegetables and fruit powders (stock seasoning).

….. but we couldn’t eat the whole bird because we also had Dario’s lunch.

「Yeah, I think I’ll feed the extra…. to that guy.」

While we were leisurely enjoying our meal, Prim was hard at work repeating the merging process.

I threw the fireball I generated on my palm towards the sky, and it burst prominently.

–After a while, Prim emerged, scrambling through the water plants.

「It’s getting pretty big.」

I was aware that when slimes combine, their bodies grow a size larger. Originally, Prim was about half of my size, but she’s grown several times larger.

When I brought the Lilac Bird close to my body, it slipped into the fluid-shaped Prim.

「Tastes good, right?」

Prim expressed her joy by shaking her body, and in no time at all, it had melted and digested the flesh of the Lilac Bird.

— Well, and.

This is the most fun moment of the day.

I double-checked Prim’s origin magic skills.

Origin Magic Lv1 (26/50)

It’s going well, isn’t it? It was (7/50) originally.

I think it’s probably merged about three times… hmm?

「What? Are you tired already? ….. I see, better not push yourself too hard.」

Apparently, merging also uses physical strength.

Hmm. What’s going on here?

It’s good to proficient, but I’m not too sure if I should take the skills from Prim today.

Should I have her continue to work in the Paudal wetlands and get more leveled up?

There is a probability that my Riot Grasper skill will fail.

That’s why I’ve been limited myself to merging slimes only once so far, to increase the number of possible times I can take away their skills. If I fail to take the skill from an individual who has repeatedly combined with you, all the hard work done up to that point would be for naught.

Then it would have been more efficient to prepare a few individuals that were combined only once and take them away, given the current odds.

But now that Prim is with me, I don’t have to worry about them escaping, and I think it would be better to let her grow more. I need to raise the base success rate as much as possible.

….. but wait a minute.

To begin with, I was thinking based on the premise of getting the skill from Prim, but what if I were to take it from someone that has become a friend?

This is the kind of thing I should have thought about first, but I can’t deny that my head was definitely in a flower garden of joy from the thought of having Prim as a friend.

With a troubled look on her face, Prim came to my side and shook her body.

『Master. I’ll do my best to combine tomorrow, so please support me.』

As the devoted Prim spoke to me, I began to feel more and more guilty about what I was about to do.

….. I think I should just let Prim get stronger for now.

I have no doubt that if I leave her in the Paudal Wetlands she’ll grow rapidly. Isn’t it great having strong friends?

「Hey… didn’t you get another request from the guild?」

「What?… ah!」

As I stood there, worrying, Rei tapped me lightly on the shoulder.

Apart from receiving a request to collect slime cores in the Paudal Wetlands, the Leruno Merchant Association sent a request for help in collecting monster materials.

It seems we’ll be dealing with some tough monsters, and when Sienna introduced me as an adventurer who fit the bill, the other side agreed.

I could have refused, but that would have been a slap in the face to Sienna who had recommended me. There was no way I could do that.

「Right. We need to go to the meeting place soon.」

The place isn’t too far from here in the Paudal Wetlands.

We’re supposed to meet up with them by using a big tree known as the Ergo Tree as a landmark.

Switching my thoughts, I decided to put on hold what I was planning to do with Prim’s Origin Magic.

First of all, I’ll let you work hard at merging here in the Paudal Wetlands on a daily basis.

「Huh? You’re leaving that slime… here?」

I nodded my head towards Rei, who voiced her confusion.

「This seems like a good place to live from an environmental standpoint, so I’ll leave her for now.」

「Hmm. Then she’ll have to be careful not to get hunted by other adventurer’s or something.」

….. what?

「Because, you know, there are adventurer’s and mercenaries who come to collect slime cores. It’s hard to tell from the outside, and there’s a good chance she’d be killed off as just a regular monster.」

….. Was that a possibility?

Completely forgot about that.

Even if I were to strengthen her Origin Magic, even Prim would be killed if surrounded by multiple adventurers.

Then bring them back to….?

But then I wouldn’t be able to enhance Prim….

I’d rather just take the skill today….. No, I don’t think so.

「I’m worried about you and want to take you home, but then….」

It’s not easy to decide right away.

But time is ticking away.

「I wash I had two bodies.」

I let out a mumble that wasn’t directed at anyone, and beside me as I pondered – Prim began to shake her body in small increments.

「Hmm?」

The next thing I know, her soft body is shaking from side-to-side and I was worried she was going to be torn to shreds.

「Hey, hey…. what are you doing? You’re scaring me, stop–」

Buu, buu! Buu, buu!

「Oiiiiiii! You’re shredding! What the hell are you doing?」

The sight was so shocking that I couldn’t help but shout out.

…. Yes, no, wait.

Maybe….. this.

If slimes can merge, what about the other way around?

Upon closer inspection, I could see that the shredded body also had a core floating in it’s center. The Prims, that’s plural, were no shaking their bodies – what a surprise, there were now two of them.

Seriously, huh?

Although her body had become smaller and her proficiency in the Origin Magic was divided equally, she seems to have successfully divide herself.

「Prim…. you can split?」

『I’ll do my best for my master!』

…. Damn! What a good girl!

When I thought about it, up until now, my friends have all been monsters with quirks, such as Rook, who refuses to let me ride if she’s in a bad mood, and Kuroko, who usually treats me like a stalker, which makes the honest Prim seem even more adorable.

— In the end, we let one of them stay to keep merging in the Paudal Wetlands to strengthen it’s Original Magic.

I decided to take the other one home with me. Riding Rook with Prim in the back, we headed towards our destination, the Ergo Tree.

On the road, I honestly told Prim what I was planning to do.

『Please. Let me be of service to my master.』

The power of skills that you possess.

Prim was also tolerant of the idea of taking it away.

「….. I’ll think about it.」

— Arriving safely at the Ergo Great Tree, we saw some figures in the distance.

They were probably sent by the Leruno Merchant Association.

「Four of them, huh? They’re all armed to some degree.」

Rei, running alongside next to me, stated her observations.

I’ve heard that they deal with some tough monsters there, so the Merchant Group must have sent some mercenaries.

I approached and got off of Rook’s back, greeting them briefly.

「Hello. Nice to meet you.」

「….. Ah. Are you the adventurer from the guild? Nice to meet you.」

A soft-faced man advanced towards us and asked for a handshake.

「Wow. What a beautifully colored slime. Did you tame it?」

Turning to Prim, the man nodded admiringly.

「Yes. So, could you tell me more about this request?」

「….. Okay. I have been told by the Merchant Association to capture the subject alive this time. However, if you are able to secure the necessary parts, there is no problem with killing them.」

Caught alive, huh? That sounds like a lot of work.

「Okay. So, what kind of demon are you after? If you want to capture it alive, you can surround it with multiple people.」

「Yeah. No problem on that score.」

「What….?」

As I listened back – I heard a sickening thumping sound behind me.

When I turned around, lying on the ground was a fluid body shimmering with six colors. The core has cracks running through it and was about to shatter.

P….. rim?

What the hell? What is going on?

Who the hell did this to you?

That’s obvious. A man with a sword in his hand is laughing right there?

「What! What are you doing?」

「Oh no. I had a great chance, but if I let a slime get in the way, my sword skills will be questioned.」

Some kind of….

「Seiji! Pull yourself together!」

With Rei’s yelling, I managed to calm my thoughts.

「Following up on what I said earlier, I think it’s safe to say that the problem you were so concerned about has already been resolved.」

Huh?

「–We’re already surrounded like this.」

The four men surrounded me and Rei to keep us from escaping.

「So your plan to take the target alive, to reduce its strength before it can resist, has failed. The part you need — the say you can kill it if you can get the information out of it–are you willing to talk to…..?」

「I don’t understand what you’re saying.」

What do you want me to say?

「–You’re not a very understanding guy, are you? That’s a given isn’t it?」

This guy’s voice is familiar?

Appearing from behind the trunk of the great tree was the mercenary from before – Cyrus.

「Did you think you could just walk away from a fight you started with me? I don’t do anything I can’t afford, but this might be a chance to make some money.」

If it wasn’t a coincidence that we were able to encounter a rare Scorching Agni Tiger, they might be able to obtain a large amount of valuable materials. If there’s a trick to it, they’ll obviously want to know, even if they have to be a little rough.

Was it…. Cyrus who instigated the Merchant Association.

But–

「This request came from the Leruno Merchant Association. It wasn’t the Karnak group. Besides, do you realize what kind of sanctions you’ll face from the guild later if you do this when you listed it as an official guild request?」

The Adventurer’s Guild is responsible for the requests that adventurer’s receive. They trust the guild to take care of their requests. Do they realize how dangerous it is to cheat the Adventurer’s Guild and smear their trust?

「The Merchant Association, you know. There’s a lot of connections.」

Fiddling with his stubble, Cyrus continued to speak.

「I know how scary the Adventurer’s Guild can be. I’ll make sure they take you alive…. If you want to talk straight here, I’ll let you choose an easier way to die. Dead men tell no tales.」

I see. If there is no one to report to the guild, it won’t be a problem. Even if we were taken alive, we would be killed when we were no longer useful.

「No way I’m talking.」

「Oh, I see. Then I can’t help it….. But you’re the only one I’m going to take alive. I’m not sure what to do with her, but I’d like to know what it feels like to watch sit back and watch your woman be violated by a bunch of men.」

「Worse. Vulgar. Disgusting. Die.」

Thanks to Rei, who was spewing out every word that came into her head with a look of utter d

「…. you, shut up for a bit.」

「Huh?」

「You can’t hear this guy’s voice…..」

He gets down on one knee and talked to Prim, who was about to melt away.

It’s only a matter of time before the core is completely shattered.

『I won’t make it. But there is the other me, don’t worry about it.』

With that, Prim summoned the last of her strength and put her own body into my hands.

….. I got it.

Heeding Prim’s wishes, I went straight into invoking my Riot Grasper skill.

At the same time as a warm sensation was transmitted, the core of her body shattered with a cracking sound.

The body that was trembling and shaking lost its elasticity and melted like water, disappearing into the ground.

「Anyway, how does it feel to have a monster as a companion? Can I just use it to practice my hunting in my spare time? Hahahaha!」

「….. Hey, Rei.」

「What?」

Focusing on the men around her, I called out to her, reading their status.

「At the Paudal Wetlands, I was shocked that I couldn’t hunt something for lunch.」

「…..so」

「I want to redeem my honor.」

「You can do whatever you want.」

「Yeah. I can.」

I pulled a fruit knife from my belt and held it up.

The encircling men reacted in various ways, either disgusted or ridiculed by such behavior.

Cyrus asked, “Are those magnificent twin swords at your waist for decoration?”

「Oh. Sorry. Those are for combat, I won’t be using them right now.」

What we are about to do is not a battle.

「This is more than enough to deal with people who are as dumb as animals.」

—- This is a hunt.

「You’ve got be kidding me. Hey, at least cut one of his arms off.」

After Cyrus’s words, the man who slashed Prim swung his sword over his head.

In a fit of rage, I kicked the ground and instantly closed the distance to within the reach of my fruit knife. As it is, I struck the side of my opponent’s sword, and he screamed as it crackled with sparks.

Smaller knives are easier to handle because they are lighter.

The second impact was delivered in rapid succession at a position not dissimilar to the first, and the opponent’s blade shattered and broke with uncanny ease.

「–This knife. Nice and sharp, isn’t it.」

Naturally, there is not a single spill on the silvery white knife.

「I’ll be dismantling them all.」