By the Grace of the Gods: Volume 1

by Roy

  After that, I returned to the room and created the statue, setting up the offering before having a meal, cleaner slime bath, and went to sleep. Thus ended my first day in Gimul Town.

  Chapter 1 Episode 14: First Job in Town

  The next day, I went to the Adventurers’ Guild alone.

  The ducal house informed me that they had business with the governor at the public office today, so I ended up going on my own. Elise told me it was fine if I wanted to stay in the inn instead of wandering the town alone, but I figured I had registered for the guild already, so I’d go and do my first job instead. Maybe something like gathering herbs, to be safe?

  I shifted the specially crafted basket backpack (with slimes inside) over my shoulders and looked at the job requests pasted on the G rank bulletin board. There was an interesting and wide range of jobs, from gathering herbs to cleaning and assisting in moving houses. At first, I thought about gathering herbs, but apparently those were accepted once the herbs were brought in. In which case, I could just do it on the way back from another job.

  And so, while I was searching for jobs other than herb collecting, two particular job requests stood out to me from the mountain of other forms stuck on the board. They involved cleaning a house and the communal toilets of the town. House aside, the communal toilets could be done with the magic I previously devised with the scavenger slimes. I should ask the receptionist for more details.

  “Excuse me, could I ask a question?”

  “Welcome, how can I help?”

  “Could you tell me some more details about the two requests over there?”

  “Which ones? Ah... those requests. Quite some time has passed since those two requests were first posted. They only involve cleaning, but they’re so smelly and dirty no one wants to do it. And the matter of area...”

  “Is it a wide space?”

  “Extremely so. First, for the house cleaning request: This client’s house is next to a landfill. The client didn’t like it either, but it made the house cheap, so they bought it anyway. Several months after the purchase the basement wall separating the house from the landfill collapsed, leading to all the rubbish flooding into the basement. Now the smell has permeated through the whole house, and they’re desperate. Even if it’s cleaned up, the rubbish will keep piling in if the wall isn’t fixed, but the wall can’t be fixed unless the rubbish is gone — it’s an endless circle, as you can see.

  “The communal toilets are meant to be cleaned by the public office hiring people living in the slums, but there was a problem with their payment, so they refused it. No one’s cleaned it out since then, and that was three months ago. There were so many complaints about the smell, it was given to the guild.”

  She explained it to me kindly, but the details were awful. No, the word “awful” was hardly sufficient to summarize it.

  “Rather than the complaints, the bigger concern should be disease... for both of them.”

  “Oh my, you’re very knowledgeable. Well done! That’s exactly right. They say that plague and disease lurk in unclean places, after all. That’s why something needs to be done, but no one will take the jobs...”

  “Exactly how large is the area?”

  “The house is 200 square meters, and the communal toilet cesspits are 7 meters wide, 2 kilometers from entrance to end, with 30 cubicles in total. The communal toilets are counted per cubicle.”

  “And the contents of the garbage? I know what to expect from the toilets.”

  “Most of it is household garbage, the rest is plant material and wood waste.”

  In that case, the scavenger slimes could eat it.

  “I see. In that case, may I take the request for the house?”

  “Huh?! You’ll take it?!”

  “Yes, I happen to have a spell that’s rather helpful for cleaning. It requires a bit more magic energy, so it doesn’t seem like many people use it, though.”

  “I see! Then please, take out your card. There’s no time limit to it, but you’ll be fined for abandoning the job.”

  “I understand.”

  The receptionist was either extremely passionate about her job, or serious when she said that no one would take it. She got everything ready in a flash, taking my guild card and wrapping up the formalities so I could head to the client’s house. The client’s house was located in eastern of Gimul Town, in the cheaper residential area. All the buildings in the vicinity were rather old. My destination house was also a worn-down brick house.

  I knocked on the door. There was no response... I knocked again... But there was still no answer. Were they away...? I tried knocking once more, this time calling out loud too.

  “Excuse me! I’ve come from the Adventurers’ Guild to fill your cleaning request!”

  The moment I shouted that, the great thumping of someone running on creaking floorboards could be heard before the door burst open.

  “Are you really here to clean, nya?!”

  “!”

  The woman who came out was a cat beastkin with ears on her head and a tail. I was aware of their existence and got a glimpse of some at the guild, but this was my first time interacting with a beastkin in the flesh. My mood was lifted with elation... it was unfortunate that my first interaction with a beastkin had to be over the tremendous stench of raw garbage. But... as a former Japanese person, I wouldn’t let my business smile slip!

  “Yes, I’m Ryoma Takebayashi, the adventurer dispatched by the guild. Would you be the client?”

  “That’s right! You really came to clean up, nya?! I had nearly given up!”

  “Then, please confirm the request form is correct.”

  “Yup, yup! There’s no mistake here, nya! I’m the client, Miya! Thank you so much for coming, nya!”

  “You should save the gratitude for after the job’s done.”

  “Uhh... Unyaaah!”

  She’s crying?!

  I had been trying to talk to her normally, but Miya suddenly burst into tears after looking over the request form multiple times. ...Wh-What should I do?

  “H-Hey. Let’s calm down, shall we?”

  “Sorry, nya... I’m just... so happy... All the adventurers who came here were always unhappy and full of complaints... They all went home partway, nya... Sometimes they couldn’t even stand the smell at the front door and just left right away... It’s my first time seeing someone as motivated as you, nya...”

  No, those adventurers should have tried a little harder. It’d be one thing if they got sick, but leaving at the front door was a little...

  “I’d like to get to work right away, it’s in the basement right?”

  “Yup. But what are you gonna do, nya?”

  “I was told the garbage was kitchen waste and plant material. In which case, I have a convenient spell that can deal with it.”

  “Is that true, nya?”

  “Yes. It expends a lot of magic energy, so few people use it, but it exists. And I have my familiars too.”

  “Oh, you’re a tamer, nya? Well... as long as you make it clean for me, anything’s fine. I’ll leave you right to it, nya.”

  “Understood. Just to confirm, but there isn’t anything you need to keep from the basement, is there?”

  “Nope, I never used the basement for storage, nya. Even if I did, I’d rather throw anything buried under all that garbage away, nya.”

  Well, unless it was something extremely important, most people would do the same with all that raw waste for such a long period of time. But it was all the better for me.

  “In that case, this should be over fairly quick. A complete disposal of the basement is fine with you?”

  “That’s fine by me, nya. I’m counting on you!”

  “Then I shall commence my work. Where is the entrance to the basement?”

  “This way, nya.”

  Miya led me to a staircase that continued downstairs. I descended to find a door at the bottom that opened to a mountain of garbage with flies buzzing about. I proceeded
to close the door and take out a huge scavenger slime from my basket, throwing it inside the door. After closing the door once more, I ordered them to split apart, filling the room with slimes from floor to ceiling. Flies would gather around the slimes if they released a little stench, so they could immediately feed on those. Apparently scavenger slimes found them delicious. All the work after that involved having the scavenger slimes eat all the raw garbage they could, but to an onlooker it would seem like I was slacking off, so I hid myself with a stealth barrier. Just because.

  Then, around twenty minutes of waiting later. The scavenger slimes informed me that they had eaten their way to the floor, so I finally entered the room myself. It was much better than when I started, but it was still smelly. And, exactly like the guild had described, there was a hole in the wall where new garbage was falling through. It seemed like this house was built on a slope with the landfill above it, so it was like the house was holding back the garbage from sliding down the slope. Just who would build a house in a place like this... Not to mention the foundation on the other side of the wall also seemed rather weak, as though it had been dug up to bury the garbage. But well, if it was like this it’d be easier to let all the garbage be eaten completely.

  “Miya.”

  “Ah... What is it, nya?”

  “The source of the garbage in the basement is from the left of your house, right?”

  “The landfill? That’s right, nya.”

  “I’m going to go over to the landfill to prevent more garbage from flowing in. Let me know if you need anything.”

  With a word to the client, I went outside and deployed my slimes in the landfill.

  “......”

  “It’s a slime!”

  “Y-Yes, so it seems...”

  ...A mother and child passing by gave me a skeptical look. I should put my stealth barrier up here too, just in case. There was nothing illegal about a tamer being out and about with their slime familiars, but some people may find it unpleasant.

  For the record, the stealth barrier was a type of barrier magic that used dark elemental energy to create an effect that allowed those within the barrier to be harder to notice, resulting in things like accidentally passing a turn you were supposed to make. Come to think of it, I used to pass by the front of my house a lot back when I first started learning to use it. I thought about such things as I helped the slimes, and in roughly an hour the landfill was all eaten up.

  ...I wondered how their bodies were holding up. Slimes weren’t particularly big eaters, if anything only eating as much as they were fed. But at any rate, the garbage was gone now. And the wall was still dirty, so it was my turn to work. I returned to the basement and ordered my scavenger and cleaner slimes. I had them spray deodorant solution inside and outside of the basement walls, removing the smell from the walls before I washed it all with water.

  “Mist Wash.”

  Water made from water magic was compressed and sprayed like a pressure washer. Back when I was researching magic in the forest, I failed to recreate a high-pressure water jet cutter; but noticed that the dirt had been removed from the target rock and figured it could be used as a type of cleaning magic instead. It could take down the most stubborn of stains, but using it required a constant stream of magic energy, so cleaning one room would expend a lot of energy. A benefit was that it could be continuously used with constant magic output, but that made it hard for people with less magic energy to use.

  “All right, that should do it.”

  The dirt on the walls was all washed off. I fed the dirty leftover water to the scavenger slimes, so there was no problem there. The next issue after obtaining a clean room was the hole in the wall. It wasn’t right to just leave it like this, so I guess I’d fill it with whatever I could. I used Create Block with the dirt outside to make stone blocks. Then once again to make the hole in the wall square. All that was left was to use the sticky slime’s hardening sticky solution as cement to fill the hole... with the help of the slimes, my work was done in 20 minutes.

  Once I had done everything I could, I got the cleaner slimes to give it a final polish before putting all the slimes away in my basket and heading to Miya.

  “Miya.”

  “Nya?! You changed back to the same clothes as when you arrived... Wh-What’s wrong, nya...? Don’t tell me, you’re giving up...”

  “Well, I am stopping... because I’m done, that is.”

  “...Nya? Err, what?”

  It’d be faster just to show her. I led a confused Miya down to the basement. When Miya looked around the room, her jaw dropped to the floor.

  “Nya... Wh-What did you do, nya?!”

  “Cleaning.”

  “Amazing, nya! You really cleaned it all! Even though everyone gave up because all the garbage kept pouring in! You even fixed the hole, nya?!”

  “I couldn’t let the garbage flow in again, so I used earth magic to make stone blocks and filled it. The difference with the surrounding stones is a little harsh, so if it’s ugly I can remove it...”

  “No need, nya! I don’t mind it, and I would have called a construction company to fill it after the cleaning anyway. That’s why I’m more grateful than anything, nya.”

  “I see, in that case... Would you consider the job completed?”

  “Of course, nya. You did such a good job and even fixed the wall; I’ll have to increase your reward!”

  “Thank you very much.”

  Miya signed the completion confirmation on the request form with a smile. With that, the job was completed. All that was left was to take the signed job form to the guild reception and receive payment. Miya saw me off with words of gratitude as I headed to the guild with light footsteps, filled with the feeling of accomplishment and relief that I had safely completed my first job in this town.

  Chapter 1 Episode 15: From a Good Job to the Next Job

  When I returned to the guild, the receptionist who explained the job to me earlier was still working.

  “Excuse me.”

  “Oh, you’re the one from this morning...”

  “I came to report a successful job.”

  “Huh? Successful? Barely 3 hours have passed since you accepted it... you’re not abandoning it?”

  “It’s completed.”

  I handed in the request form as proof.

  “...Wow, you really did complete it. And you even received a bonus reward. Pretty impressive. This wasn’t a difficult task, but the smell was terrible and many people gave up when the garbage kept pouring in from the hole.”

  “I was just fortunate to have just the right magic for it.”

  “Well, thank you for your hard work. Let me just finish filling the success report... Okay, here’s your reward of 30 medium silvers.”

  The receptionist placed a coin dish with the silver coins before me. Hm? That’s a lot more than what was written on the request form...

  “I know you said there was a bonus, but isn’t this too much?”

  “People stopped attempting the job, so the client — Miya — raised the reward to entice people. There’s an order for a bonus on top of that, so this amount is correct.”

  “Oh, okay then.”

  “Also, the guildmaster has asked you to visit his office upon your return; could you follow me?”

  “The guildmaster?”

  The one who answered my question wasn’t the woman before me, but the man at the next counter doing his paperwork.

  “Don’t sweat it, it’s no big deal. Just the usual.”

  “What do you mean? Ah... I’m Ryoma Takebayashi.”

  “I’m Jeff Grange. That old man, frequently, likes to stick his nose in other people’s business, particularly those of newbies and under-thirteen adventurers like you. He looked after me when I was a newbie too. His mug might look more like your average thug, but there’s no need to fear him.”

  “I see. Thank you very much.”

  “No probs.”

  Immediately after that, a
voice called out to us from behind the counter.

  “That’s right, you don’t need to be thanking him.”

  “Ah, Guildmaster.”

  “Geh! It’s the old man.”

  “Who takes one look at a person’s face and goes ‘geh’?! And I don’t look like a thug, damn it!”

  “Anyone who sees your face would see a thug!”

  “Shut up! I can’t help my rough facial structure! But I don’t have the crooked look of a thug!”

  “If a girl saw you walking the streets at night she’d run away screaming...”

  “Guh... The people of this town wouldn’t!”

  “That’s ‘cause they’re used to you already!”

  “Gwuh! Enough... Ryoma, follow me.”

  Jeff’s words stabbed into the guildmaster, who held his chest as he retreated into the back room while calling for me.

  I said goodbye to Jeff and the receptionist before following the guildmaster.

  The room I was led to was the same guildmaster’s office as yesterday.

  “Sit anywhere you like. And what is that basket? It sticks out like a sore thumb.”

  “I’m sorry, my familiars are in this basket.”

  “Oh, you’re a tamer? I totally thought you were a hunter or something.”

  “My familiars are just slimes, and I’m still an apprentice tamer. I guess that makes me a hunter who can use taming magic? I like to make use of sticky slimes to make traps, and poison slimes to dip the tips of my arrows in.”

  The guildmaster grinned at that.

  “...You sure came up with some dirty combinations.”

  “You think so? They’re just slimes, though.”

  “I’ve been through it myself, so I know. It’d be one thing if it were regular slimes, but advanced ones can’t be underestimated. Many adventurers lump regular slimes with their advanced species. Well, in reality, most of the advanced slimes are still weak, but if you get hit by an acid slime’s acid, your armor will break down. If the battle prolongs, new equipment will be in tatters by the time you go home. Taking the poison directly would also be a risk to your life, and sticky slimes are a nuisance, but if another monster comes while you’re stuck you can consider your life over. Adventurers who have had those kinds of encounters with slimes think of them as anything but weak. If they had such an encounter and still think that way, well... the next time the same thing happens, they’ll be heading upstairs instead. That’s the kind of business this is.”