The wind blowed through its leaves and even made the same sounds as real leaves. As we watch the tree reach its full size, I saw something that I couldn’t help but to smile at.
There was something rapidly gathering on its branches and forming small balls of slime.
As soon as it got to the size of a real apple, the slime bubbles turned red coloring the tree with red dots.
“Well, I guess it's a success.” I said with a wry smile.
“Yeah, you should also make sure it doesn’t suck up all the ground's nutrients and instead uses mana to make the fruits. It would be bad to kill off the land here.” Kawi said with a worried look at the ground.
We looked as well and frowned. The ground looked really dry and ugly with all the dried grass.
“Guess the orders need to be very complex to keep the damage at its lowest.” Kumi said.
“Yeah, it's best to experiment with this first.” I replied and they both nodded.
After that we spent an hour working out the complex orders with Kawi telling us pro’s and cons of each thing we thought of. I had the slime stop sucking up nutrients so the damage doesn't grow.
What we came up was this list.
1) Use both nutrients in the soil as well as the mana released by Shai and keep a balance to not lay waste to the soil.
2) Don’t kill off the grass, leave it unless told to kill them off.
3) Don’t amass too many fruits, instead make enough to attract monsters into the domain and hunt them.
4) Allow the fruits and seed pod to fall and replenish the soil's nutrients and help revitalize the earth.
5) Every month, drop the leaves on the branches to cause faster revitalization of the earth and grow new ones at a slower pace as well as implementing a plant's proper food production method, photosynthesis, which was explained to us by Kawi who believes we don’t know about it since we are kids.
6) Finally, cover the trunks and branches with the dirt that is pushed out of the way for the roots. This is so the trees look as close to a natural one as possible.
With these rules, also passed on to Shai so she can implement them as well, we go about making the slimes eat the sprouts and planting them after we tell them the list of orders. Obviously the ones related to fruits only applied to the slimes that grew fruits but it's better to be cautious since some trees grow nuts and other stuff.
Anyway, soon the slimes buried themselves and spreading the roots first, they began growing quickly upwards until they were about a meter tall before it slowed down.
As all the slimes returned to Shai’s command following my own order, so they can access the mana of her domain.
As soon as that was accomplished the speed of their growth accelerated again and soon the underbrush flora was grown while the trees were still rising high.
"It will probably take a while but I have told Shai to breed the slimes. I can see the tree seeds being used as a way for releasing the slimes.” I said as I looked up at the large slime trees. From inside the tree you could see the dirt that was dug out from underground being brought up and a crust was being built over the trunk.
“Well, let's get down into the dungeon, Shai should have made several more mimic slimes and gel slimes, I need to make digging tool slimes for the animals as well as make a few animal slimes as well and have them begin breeding. The mushrooms and bugs will probably play a huge part in the growth of the slimes.” I said and walked in with the two following me.
“Sometimes I feel like Kuroko-sama is an older person than her age. Don’t you Miss Kawi?” Kumi suddenly said as we stand on the lift that was lowering us into the dungeon.
“Yeah, I also feel that when I talk with Kuroko-sama. Still, I have met kids called geniuses and most of them act abnormal or with much more maturity then they should. I took thinking of Kuroko as one of those people, because it’s easier to think like that since it makes it easier to accept stuffs she does that is too strange for a child to do.” Kawi said.
“You guys are mean. At least say that stuff when you're not in front of me.” I said with a frown.
“We aren’t afraid to say it in your face. We are friends so you should at least know what we think of you.” Kumi said with a smile.
I could only return a wry smile at this. Kawi simply sighed at that.
Down in the dungeon we pick up the new slimes. There were twelve mimics and twelve gel slimes already made but the slime population suffered for it.
I have Shai spawn six rabbits and foxes where they are absorbed by six mimics and the same happens to the fox.
With that done, I have the remaining twelve slimes absorb the digging tools and attach them to the mimic that corresponds with the proper tool and have Shai order them to become part of my own tamed creatures. I then order them to be summoned by the rabbit or fox depending on the tool they took up.
This is how Peach summoned her own armor when Dan grabbed her.
“Ok, with them equipped, it’s up to you now Shai, you can expand the dungeon as you like. I suggest you go for a maze format. I'll return in a little while after I take a look at the books I bought and eat lunch, ok?” I said
“Yes mistress, I shall begin breeding them but can I breed the goblins and pickaxe slimes as well?” she asked.
“Of course, you need workers. I don’t know if you need it at this moment but once you start branching off you will need more workers so for now make at best 30 goblins and at the least 16 slime animals of each type. I also think a place they can call home or a spawning ground would be good. Oh, and if you make a few mimic mushrooms you can set up traps in the mushroom farm so that is a heads up as well. Lastly, try and make a few small ponds or at least a spring or two around. We need to make space for living creatures and water is a necessity that all creatures need, including slimes.” I finished off saying.
“Yes mistress and thank you for the advice. I shall begin at once.” she replied in a tone befitting a maid.
We leave my dungeon, as the trees are shaking from the wind. Looking close I could see some unnatural movement but for the most part the tree slimes have gotten a poorly built crust which keeps expanding. Once it drys up it will possibly look more like a real tree.
With nothing else to do we head over to Stephanie’s dungeon which was where we agreed to go to have lunch.
Chapter 21 Forest of Mimics
After we leave my dungeon, we go southeast where Asher’s dungeon is. If you are wondering the position of Asher, Owen and my dungeon, it is like this.
With my dungeon in the north of the triangle, it was easy to get to the other dungeons.
It didn’t take more than a minute to reach Asher’s dungeon and find Owen, Zach and the dog demi human maid arriving as well.
“So you guys have finished the morning work?” I asked.
“Yep, I set about ordering the imps to dig out a few more rooms. I was lucky that these imps learned earth magic quickly. They can expand at an ok pace but it still takes a bit of time since they still need to rest.” He replied.
“All monsters have their own pros and cons. Miss Kuroko was able to somewhat surpass that with her slimes though.” Kawi said eyeing me.
“No I didn’t, the slimes still get tired, it's just that it's slower. They still have stamina like us.” I replied. “Also, I am currently stuck with goblins with no way of mining up high except making them mine a ramp and mine down from there.” I said.
“Ah, I guess there is that. Having a monster that can fly is convenient huh. I guess imps are good in that aspect since they are literally the bottom of the barrel in the demon hierarchy but if I want to rank one up they can become some rather nasty monsters.” Owen said and looked in the direction of my dungeon and sees the trees. “And I guess the slime trees are just as nasty.” He said with a grin.
"It’s just a matter of how to utilize a monster’s abilities to its fullest.” Kawi said. I hugged her for defending me. “Wh-what are you doing!!” she shouted.
&n
bsp; “Thanks for defending me Miss Kawaii~!” I said
"I-it’s nothing and don’t call me that~!” she said while blushing as a small smile start appearing on her face.
“Ah! Kuroko is finally here!” A sudden voice from a certain redhead said.
When we looked into the dungeon entrance the redhead came running out with a tired Asher and maid behind her.
“Why do you look so tired?” Owen asked.
The reply was simple. Both of them pointed at Margaret who was jumping and running all over the place.
“Ah!” Everyone unconsciously said in unision.
“Well, all that’s left is Stephanie, Emily, Nova, Eleonora and their maid chaperones. And there they are, Stephanie and Emily.” I said after looking at the far off forest where the two elves came out.
“Look up and you should find Nova.” Asher said while sitting down and sighing in relief.
Confused we looked at him before we looked up and saw the little girl with large dragon wings on her back and in her small arms was a crying blond princess, while hugging from behind to not fall out was the maid that accompany her
She was already in a straight 90 degree dive with her wings tucked close.
When she reached about 20 meters from the ground she spread her wings and slowed her descent and gently reached the ground.
“Hey hey, I'm here~~! Where is the food.” She shouted while letting down the princess on her feet.
Unsurprisingly, the princess collapsed unconscious with tears all over her face.
We simply look at her with pity at having drawn the short straw.
I looked at Kawi who sighed as she walked over and picked her up before taking her to the shade of the dungeon entrance. She then used healing magic incase there was any injury caused from the massive amount of g-force that came with flying so fast. She then cleaned the princess’ face from tears and snot. She left the girl sitting there since there was little she could do.
When Stephanie finally arrived she simply looked at Eleonora and sighed before looking at the smiling dragonoid who was sparing with the redhead.
“Let’s eat before problems start appearing.” She said and sighed again.
We all agreed and start to pull out some blankets so we could sit on it.
We began to tell each other what we did during the morning.
When Asher told us that his dungeon had been raided a few times by some animals and died, increasing his skeleton minions, he was happy while explaining it, but then I asked him a simple question.
“Hey Asher, why don’t you make a graveyard up here that will spawn the undead monsters you kill?” I asked.
Everyone looked at me staring with blank expressions.
“What?” I asked.
“Well, I never thought of it.” he said with the others nodding.
He did a dry laugh and spoke with his dungeon.
The next moment the ground shook a bit as an area of his domain suddenly had a long meter high old rotten wood fence appeared. The area inside the square was about 1000 m² in area.
In the empty land we could see quite a number of small dirt mounds appear.
“There, the undead monsters will spawn naturally. Soon the area here will also begin releasing Miasma because of the energy coming out of the graveyard.” He says.
“Ah Asher , why not change the landscape to a scary forest. Things like dead trees that can be undead treants hidden in a dead forest landscape.” The cat demi human maid said enthusiastically. "It should be a great place for dark attribute based creatures that would gather naturally in a favorable location like this.” She said.
Asher looked at his ring for a moment.
"I need more mana to make a huge landscape chance apparently.” He said.
“Then change the area around your entrance. It’s the most important area.” I said.
He nodded and after a moment we could see many trees start to rapidly grow to full size around the entrance before drying up.
“Wow that looks good. It goes all the way to the entrance of the graveyard and even some inside.” The cat maid said.
It really was impressive actually. If you ever saw an anime showing old abandoned mansion with dead forest around it then you should more or less understand what I am talking about.
The area itself seem to get more menacing and yet we just laughed it off because we knew it was a small growing effect of the new dungeon layout.
The maids said that layout changes like this would vanish when the dungeon core is removed while things like what I did with the slime would result in permanent changes.
Strange how that works. So it would be like me having Shai make a pond out of mana which would vanish and digging a pond and directing a flow of water into it which would still there even after she is removed.
We each gave suggestions and obviously the guys told me to make mimic chests but since they don't have much use for mining it was thrown out at the moment.
When we were done lunch we were going to return by Eleonora and the maid that was with her and Nova both begged to switch.
Nova was already preparing to fly off when they did that.
"Um... I can switch, since I can fly by myself, I can follow without worrying myself." Kumi said.
The result was that Kumi switched with Eleonora who was crying and thanking her. She had woken up halfway through lunch and sat as far as possible from Nova.
As for the maid, the half elf switched with her for similar reasons.
So the three flew off towards the lake while the rest of us walked to our dungeon.
The time for us to return home was before dusk so it was about 7 hours from now at around 8, but the walk takes about an hour so at 7 pm we need to gather.
The maids would monitor this so we could each work on our own projects without worry.
Eleonora followed me back to Shai's domain and I quickly told her what I did. Afterwards I went and picked a few of each fruit to examine. The results are rather interesting.
Mimic Apple
A fruit made by a mimic that copied its tree.
This fruit taste just as good as a high quality apple produced in plantation and is perfectly safe for sentient beings consumption. That said, the nutrients within make it much healthier to eat.
On the other hand, because the dungeon is affiliated on hunting monsters, this fruit is highly dangerous to monsters that aren't part of the dungeon. A single bite will kill any small or medium sized monster and weaken any large creature.
The fruit will be made dangerous to sentient beings should they be marked as invaders.
Mimic Orange
A fruit made by a mimic that copied its tree.
This strange citrus fruit has greater amounts of nutrient than regular fruits. The juices can be extracted and it possesses the same smell as a regular orange and can be processed in similar manners.
This fruit is highly dangerous to any monster not affiliated to the dungeon of the mimic and will die should they eat it. Small and medium sized monster will die should they eat it and large monsters will be weakened greatly and gain internal injuries caused by the extremely acidic juices that react greatly within a monster.
The fruit will be made dangerous to sentient beings should they be marked as invaders.
Mimic Pear
A fruit made by a mimic that copied its tree.
A bland flavored fruit for both humans and monsters. This harmless fruit has a prudent scent that is very attractive to monsters.
While the fruit itself is harmless, the mimic that makes them has a much more violent temperament towards invaders and will attack with its roots using them as spikes.
The fruits nutritional value is just as good as its flavor, which is non existent, that said, it seems to have some unknown alchemic properties but which kind is currently unknown.
These are the only fruits as of yet. I was surprised to find that unique plant trees make flowers with strange types of reproductive organs.
>
I asked Shai to keep a look on this and to inform me of any changes and what is they’re actually made from.
After examining all the fruits and possible effects, that includes picking some of the leaves which have this description on all of them.
Mimic tree leaf
A small ball of slime in the shape of a leaf.
These are found on mimics that have taken the form of a tree.
These leaves are unique because they developed the capability to mimic a real leafs’ ability to gather sunlight and use it with a plant's photosynthesis organ.
These small packets of slimes can be used for alchemy but effects are still unknown.
Enough said right, we gathered a number from various trees and store them by tree type, careful so that we don't mix them.
I was planning to pass them to the alchemy teacher because he would most likely want to test something like this out.
An hour above ground as we head into the dungeon, and after I hurriedly unsummon my slimes that came running for a kiss...damn it. They took my first kiss, but they’re cute so I don’t mind...wait sorry about that, back on track.
First off, the slime animals have been multiplied by feeding them mushrooms and bugs.
Obviously that would cause problem for the bug population as well as the farm but because Shai loaded the room temporarily with more mana than normal, the reproduction rate of the flies and the growth of the mushroom were abnormal.
Because of this, all the slimes were capable of growing completely and now I had a surplus of diggers.
We move to Shai's room and have her call all the mimics so that we can quickly distribute them to each spot we needed them to go.
When we arrived, the dungeon boss was in its slime form just below the dungeon core lazily napping.
Slime Tamer's Chronicles Page 24