The Man Picked up by the Gods Volume 3 Chapter 38

Volume 3 Chapter 38

The Fourth Day

Today, I am walking again within the dense forest. The surrounding area all look the same, so it’ll be a disaster if I ever get lost… Fortunately, I have no problems with water thanks to my water magic. And there’re even greens and magical beasts that can be eaten around here, so there’re no problems in that regard.

As I was thinking those sort of things to myself, I suddenly felt the presence of humans from ahead.

There’s a person here? In a place like this? Moreover, alone? Hmm… but then again, I did come here all by myself, so I guess it wouldn’t be too strange for there to be another person aside from me… I wonder if it’s an adventurer who came here to collect something.

I approached the presence I felt while keeping my guard up. When I did, a man wearing an armor made of tree appeared before me. His body was covered in wounds all over, and blood was incessantly flowing out of him as he laid unconscious. A corpse? But just as I thought that, the man groaned.

“Ugh…” [Man]

“U-Ugh… [Man]

I called out to the man as I ran toward him to confirm whether he was conscious or not, but all I got in response was a groan. In any case, healing comes first!

“’High Heal’ ‘High Heal’ ‘High Heal’ ‘High Heal’” [Ryouma]

I casted healing magic all over the man’s body. The bleeding from the man’s feet were especially severe. Like this the man won’t be able to walk, much less fight, right? For some reason, no matter how much I casted healing magic, the bleeding wouldn’t stop.

In any case, I better transport him to the Dimension Home first, and have the heal slimes help. And if anything, the Dimension Home is at least safe.

As I thought that, I held the man, and was about to bring him to the Dimension Home, but–––‘

“!?” [Ryouma]

As I was about to use Dimension Home, the moment I stopped focusing on the man, the man’s body suddenly crumbled.

The bones throughout the man’s body suddenly vanished, turning his body extremely soft. And suddenly, the man took into him the arms that I was holding him with as he threw his leaned toward me with his chest out.

“Pshaw!” [Ryouma]

I was surprised for a moment, but I quickly gathered myself, and calmly responded by wrapping my body in electricity. As a result, the man who had tried to swallow my arms into his body was electrocuted, and he stopped moving. In that instance, I recovered my strength and shook the man, no, the something that looked like a man, into the ground, and then I kicked him.

That something that was kicked, crashed into a tree, and then crumbled. Continuing, I unsheathed my katana, and clad it in flames. Then with a stroke, I cut the something from its right leg all the way to its left armpit.

But that “something” didn’t seem to be fazed by it, and instead it tried to run away. The “something” that was before me did not possess the same regenerative abilities that the undead snake possessed, so instead it tried to run away by throwing away its lower body, and using only its arms to crawl away.

Then in the next instance, that “something” lost its human form, and it transformed into the form of a small Take Ostrich.

“Ah!?” [Ryouma]

The “something” ran with a speed comparable to the real Take Ostrich, but unfortunately for it, I had no plans of letting it go. If I ever had such thoughts, it disappeared just now!

“’Barricade’! ‘Bind Ivy’!!” [Ryouma]

With the wood element magic, I controlled the plants in the surrounding area, and created a wall, blocking the ostrich. And with another wood element magic, I tried to capture the ostrich with the vines. The result: success. These two magic make use of the surrounding greens, so it’s difficult to use in places with no greens. But here in the Great Forest of Shurus? It’s quite easy to use.

…But it can also become an obstacle to me, so I need to be careful when I use it.

“Oops. You think I’ll let you escape!?” [Ryouma]

The “something” that was bound with ivy suddenly broke its form as it tried to escape. But seeing it attempt to run, I quickly contracted it!

Skills Mimic Lv10 Mimic Memory Lv2 High-Speed Movement Lv8 Lure Prey Lv2 Enlarge Lv7 Compress Lv7 Consume Prey Lv3 Digestion Lv4 Absorption Lv4

The Mimic Memory that accompanies the mimic skill is probably the skill that allows the slime to learn the skills of its target. At that, I wondered whether the mimic slime would be able to transform into something else, but unfortunately, it could only transform into either a take ostrich or a raptor.

The form it took a while ago as a man was apparently a one-time thing. It can’t transform into that anymore. There’s probably some sort of condition that needs to be fulfilled before it’s able to freely mimic.

As for the Enlarge and Compress skills, I was a bit surprised at first, but thinking about it now, the skills are probably for changing its size to match with its target. It is after all only the size of a basketball before mimicking. At that size, it could become a sort of portable magical beast, but there’s no way it’d be able to trick its enemies.

Lastly, there’s the Consume Prey skill…

“I take it this means that this slime is a predator, and not a prey.” [Ryouma]

Slimes are generally at the bottom of the food chain, and are always being killed by humans and preyed upon by other magical beasts. But apparently, this slime has been living in such a ruthless environment that it actually transformed from a prey into a predator. This is just something I thought of just now, but I think it might have something to do with the fact that it hunts and then eats its prey.

What’s strange about this slime is that it doesn’t have the Split skill that other slimes have. I don’t know how this slime manages to reproduce, but that’s not something I can find out immediately, so I’ll put it on hold for now.

In any case, I was surprised for a bit, but with this the matter has been settled.

“Hy–…Hyu…” [Undead]

“’Light Ball’ Tch!” [Ryouma]

One hour passed after that. For some reason, the magical beasts that appeared were nothing but undead. The undead that appeared were the usual wraiths and zombies. There were also magical beast corpses turned undead, the beast zombies.

There were many kinds of beast zombie. Of course, there were raptors and blade rats. But there was also the C Rank magical beast, the Anchor Chameleon. It had the ability to change its body’s color to meld with its surroundings, while it attacked vital spots with the hard end of its long tongue. And there was also the Doping Bee. The doping bee has a body colored red and purple. It’s poisonous, and when I saw a zombiefied doping bee, I couldn’t help but break out cold sweat.

The doping bee is an A Rank magical beast. But unless its nest is attacked, it won’t go out of its way to attack humans. Its individual strength isn’t much either. In fact, its fighting prowess isn’t much different from that of a normal bee. At most it’s only really a pain to kill since it’s small and fast. And if one adequately prepared for it, then it’s possible to defeat them even as an E Rank adventurer.

As for why a magical beast like that was classified as A Rank, well that’s because of the doping bee’s poison and mode of life. The doping bee’s poison has the effect of strengthening the body of magical beasts as well as making them go feral.

In exchange for its lack of power, it has the ability to strengthen other magical beasts with its poison. It’s a kind of magical beast that makes use of other magical beasts to protect their nest. I did wonder at first whether the berserked magical beasts would be a danger to the nests as well, but apparently, because of the poison, the beasts won’t attack their nest.

In addition, the doping bee’s needle and honey can be turned into various medicines, making them highly profitable. But because it’s not possible to go around the nests of doping bee’s without risking one to death at the hands of one of their guardian magical beasts, there’s not much of their needles and honey being sold.

Then again, they’re not even the sort of magical beast that lie in limited places, so it’s not even possible to plan ahead. Consequently, their nests and magical beasts that have been stabbed by their needles are rarely s

Because of that, adventurers rush in droves whenever a magical beast that has been affected by their poison is spotted. Speaking of which, the way to identify whether a magical beast has been affected by the doping bee’s poison is to look at their eyes and the place where they were stabbed. Their eyes should have an abnormal congestion in it. And the place they were stabbed should have a vivid violet speck on it.

The doping bees here have all lost their special abilities though. They’ve all been zombiefied so it’s not really strange. Even if they were still alive, their poison wouldn’t work on zombies. So in the end there’s still no problem.

“Right now, it’s the raptors who’s a pain and not the doping bees.” {Ryouma}

Zombie raptors have lost their intelligence and can no longer fight as a group, but their agility remains strong, making them faster than the ghouls.

The sun has also set… I guess it can’t be helped. I fired Light Shot in all four directions, quickly blowing away the undead in the surrounding area. And then–––

“’Holy Space’ ‘Dimension Home’” [Ryouma]

Using the Holy Space that I had directly learned from Remiri-san, I created a safe area. Afterwards, I brought out the light slimes and the grave slimes.

“I didn’t bring them out before because it would make our pace too slow. But since I’m not moving anymore, I decided to let them show their strength.” [Ryouma]

After that… well it turned into a fixed operation.

The grave slimes used Attract Ghosts to lure the enemies, and swallow them. While the light slimes dealt with the violent ones with their light magic. When non-undead magical beasts came around, I protected the slimes while subjugating all of them.

Dealing with the undead wasn’t a problem, but there were many amongst the undead that went wild. The undead here were much more resistant to Attract Ghosts than the ones in the Town of Departed Spirits.

I’m a bit concerned, but oh well. It’s already dark, so I decided to retire for the day.

I hope I can get to Cormi Village by tomorrow.

Chapter end