Chapter 94: <Explosive Web Slime>

While the penguin army in Mascot Slime suits stomped on Red, who wore a red Mascot Slime.

Song Taesan, called the legend of Korean Hunters, quietly broke out in a cold sweat from a step back.

At some point, a penguin he hadn’t seen before had joined in and was also stomping on Red.

With Song Taesan’s level of skill and experience, he could usually size up an opponent at a glance.

Even when he saw the massive Slime Mother, he figured that with S-rank Hunters at the core and A-rank or higher Hunters equipped with the right gear, they could win somehow.

In other words, if the Hunters gathered here had the proper equipment, they could win.

But the Alchemy Slime mixed in among the Mascot Slimes was different.

He couldn’t read it at all.

He’d had experiences where he couldn’t fully gauge the ability of someone stronger than himself.

But this was the first time he couldn’t even tell if someone was strong or weak.

Back during the world-scale raid where the top Hunters from every country gathered.

What they barely managed to defeat then was something incomprehensible.

The Alchemy Slime looked just like that thing.

Suddenly, Alchemy Slime’s body slipped down and popped out from the side.

“That’s not the face you should show your employer.”

Song Taesan reflexively touched his own face.

The Mascot Slime was covering his face properly.

“There’s no surveillance function or anything like that. It’s just that my senses are different from ordinary people, so I can see through the Mascot Slime. Just like how you saw something in me that others couldn’t, Hunter Song Taesan.”

“Sorry… about that.”

“Hahaha. Please, speak comfortably. You’re my senior by far.”

“Ahem. Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine. Honestly, there’s nothing to apologize for. Sometimes you just run into people who seem suspicious for no reason. I can’t understand our company director either, so I call him an alien in my head.”

Song Taesan immediately realized who Alchemy Slime was talking about.

Hans Obeson was certainly a man whose expression you couldn’t read.

He was definitely not an Awakened, yet he gave off a strange sense of pressure.

“My body isn’t in a normal state because of the side effects of the alchemy potions. So I might look a little odd. Oh, that’s a secret, okay?”

“Is it alright to tell a secret like that to someone you just met?”

“You signed the non-disclosure agreement, didn’t you? If this secret gets out and causes losses, I’ll be sending you a claim for damages.”

In stark contrast to the playful tone, the coldly realistic threat made Song Taesan let out a dry laugh.

Someone who spoke like this couldn’t possibly be a monster.

“Sorry for the late introduction. I’m Alchemy Slime.”

“I’m Song Taesan.”

“How does it feel wearing that suit?”

Song Taesan clenched his fist tightly.

Instead of his usual firmness, he felt a soft squish.

When he opened his hand, it returned to its original form immediately.

“Feels reassuring.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

“There’s something I’d like to ask.”

“Please, go ahead.”

“Why do you want to hire me as a mascot? Wouldn’t it be better to put me in charge of management?”

“Are you after the title?”

“I’m just worried if those young people can really lead everyone well.”

At the end of Song Taesan’s gaze were Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow Mascot Slimes, surrounded and harassed by the penguins they’d gotten tangled up with. The three had tried to step in and calm the angry penguins, but ended up getting caught up and scolded together.

“Listen to what they’re saying.”

-You think you’re so great? You think you’re good enough to order us around?

-How can you act like you’re in charge when Song Taesan teacher is here?

“If I’m at the top, there’ll be a lot less complaints.”

“And then Hunter Song Taesan wouldn’t be able to do the tough mascot jobs. ‘Teacher, please just stay put. We’ll handle it.’ They’ll block you with lines like that. Because the mascot work-getting hit, being clung to, playing with kids-looks rough. Besides, none of them have experience playing with kids, right?”

Alchemy Slime was right.

They’d probably oppose putting management in the field, saying management has its own work.

“Even if they later realize how rewarding playing with kids is, once the structure is set, it’s hard to change. That’s why, from the start, I put people who wouldn’t look out of place on the field into management.”

The Slime Rangers are basically the youngest ones here. Plus, since they’ve been working as Hunter Rangers, that entertainer image is deeply ingrained.

No one would try to stop them if they wanted to work in the field, even though they’re management.

“I want to make Slime Land a fun place. If the workers aren’t having fun, can the place really be fun? I don’t think so. So let me ask you.”

The eyes of the Slime mask Alchemy Slime wore moved and looked straight at Song Taesan.

“Do you want to be in management, or do you want to play and mingle with the kids?”

Song Taesan hesitated for a moment.

Thinking about why he left home and came here, the answer was already decided.

But there was something he was worried about.

“Can they really lead everyone well?”

Did he say something wrong?

The four surrounded ones were getting stomped on again.

They didn’t look very reliable.

“They can do it. They’re lighthouses.”

The job of a lighthouse is always to shine.

Maybe some crooked captains will decide not to head toward the lighthouse.

But if they keep drifting in the dark sea, they’ll end up heading that way eventually.

After stomping on Red to their heart’s content, the penguins helped him up.

-Don’t say dumb things like before, and explain it properly.

-The training you all need to do is: No matter how annoyed you get! No matter how bothersome it is! No matter how much you’re attacked, you must not retaliate!

And so, following Red’s instructions, the training began.

“Looks like they’re already starting to head for the lighthouse.”

“Please put me on the side that plays with the kids.”

“I look forward to working with you.”

“Likewise. And this is a separate topic, but may I ask?”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“With your skills, why don’t you sell Hunter-exclusive alchemy products?”

Song Taesan knew that Hunters were now living much more comfortable lives in dungeons thanks to the alchemy products made by Alchemy Slime.

Still, if alchemy tools for Hunters were manufactured, even more Hunters could raid dungeons safely.

It was a bit of a shame that Alchemy Slime didn’t do that.

“You don’t know Explosive Web Slime?”

“…I don’t.”

“That’s exactly my status in the Hunter market. Hunters don’t bother with new makers.”

“But hasn’t your skill been proven?”

“You didn’t know about Explosive Web Slime, did you?”

“Ahem. I’ve been retired a long time.”

“Then let’s ask everyone. See if anyone knows Explosive Web Slime.”

When Alchemy Slime clapped, all conversation stopped and every Hunter’s gaze focused at once.

“If you know Explosive Web Slime, please raise your hand!”

No one did. Even the recently retired Hunter Rangers didn’t know.

“Please try out the items I’m handing out now on each other and share your thoughts.”

Alchemy Slime handed out Explosive Web Slime to everyone.

The thrown Explosive Web Slime instantly wrapped up the target and tied them up so they couldn’t move for three minutes.

“What do you think?”

“Wow… If we’d had this back in my day, our struggles would have been cut in half.”

“Half? It would’ve been cut to a quarter.”

The consensus was overwhelmingly positive.

“For the record, that hardly sells at all.”

“Back in my day, if you said it was made with alchemy, people were just grateful to use it. And now you won’t even touch something this good? Kids these days are spoiled. Absolutely spoiled.”

The penguin wearing a Wig Slime on its head nudged Red for no reason.

“In my time, even Hunter-grade rope was hard to come by, so we’d cut vines in the dungeon to make our own ropes. You know that?”

“You were lucky if you even had vines. Seven of us had to cling on bare-handed just to take down a monster that looked like a dinosaur.”

“You can just toss this little thing and have three whole minutes to beat on your target, and you still won’t use it?”

“We didn’t have anything like this when I was active!”

As Red desperately tried to deflect, all eyes turned to Green and the other two.

“I didn’t even know something like that was being sold!”

Green, desperate, raised his voice and pulled out his smartphone to show them.

“Look at this! You have to change the menu settings for it to even show up on the screen.”

Alchemy Slime tilted its head.

“Really?”

“You didn’t know?”

“Of course not. I’m not a Hunter. If you access the site without logging in, it doesn’t show up at all, and if you log in with my account, the display method is a little different. Red, can I borrow your smartphone?”

Alchemy Slime took Red’s smartphone and checked the menu.

By default, Hunter-exclusive products were set to be hidden.

In a situation where you never knew when Slime might run out, who would leisurely change settings just to check the store?

“It’s true. I can’t believe the sales were that bad just because the product wasn’t being displayed.”

“Come on. With performance like this, you’d expect word to spread, right?”

The penguin with the wig nudged Green.

Blue answered this time.

“If word gets out, it’ll be just like when you try to buy other Slimes-everyone’s competing. But if you keep it quiet, you can buy it whenever you need. Why would anyone spread the word?”

“So that’s why it sells in tiny, steady trickles.”

“And I’m sorry to say this, boss, but this item doesn’t fit current trends. These days, gear quality is so high that you just kill monsters outright instead of trying to restrain them. For big monsters, you might need to knock them down first, but this kind of thing doesn’t even work on large monsters, does it?”

“Even if it can’t completely wrap up a big target, it can still tie up their feet and legs. Ah, but the older versions wouldn’t work. Anyone who tried it back then already thinks it doesn’t work.”

“And honestly, it’s just not very reassuring.”

“Huh?”

The penguins surrounded Blue.

“Are you saying you don’t trust Slime right now?”

“Are you gonna have to take off what you’re wearing and get smacked before you come to your senses?”

Even the usually cool and calm Blue started babbling under the pressure.

“We know how tough Mascot Slime is, but other people don’t! There aren’t many enemies you could actually tie up with something that looks like a toy. And if you bring this into a dungeon as your so-called weapon, what do you think everyone else will say?”

At those words, the proud penguins fell silent.

To be honest, Explosive Web Slime really did look like a toy.

If someone had brought this as gear when they were still active, they would’ve been kicked out of the party after getting their butt kicked.

“So the design was a problem too.”

“It really is a good item. If you tried it even once, you’d keep using it. But…”

“That first try is the problem. Maybe if it’d been promoted, but honestly, we all just gave up on that Slime and never paid attention to it again.”

It was hard to even know it was for sale, and even if you found it, the design put you off, it didn’t fit the current hunting trends, and even the performance was questionable.

Alchemy Slime admitted its mistake.

“Thanks to you, a long-standing mystery is solved.”

Sensing an opportunity from Alchemy Slime’s nod, a few penguins perked up.

“Boss, are you thinking of entering the Hunter market by any chance?”

“If so, I could help with promotion.”

“I know quite a few people myself.”

“I could get it set up as standard gear in the guild I used to belong to.”

The original Penguin Slime shook its head.

“I’m too busy building Slime Land right now, so I don’t have time.”

It was a swing and a miss.

***

Chairman Ash of Sole Alchemy immediately opened the package that had arrived.

When the delivery was due, he’d made sure no one would dare interrupt him.

There were two items inside the box.

One was a Slime forming a perfect sphere.

The other was wrapped in an extra layer of packaging.

Realizing that the sphere was a puzzle from Alchemy Slime, Ash picked it up with both hands.

Whenever he checked out an alchemy product sent by Alchemy Slime, his heart would pound.

Lately, though, that excitement had started to fade.

He’d sent Sacred Wood and potions to give Alchemy Slime a chance to improve-how much progress had been made?

If there was no progress, he might soon get bored of it.

To the naked eye, it was just a ball sparkling with inner light.

But once Ash started analyzing it in earnest, a completely different sight appeared.

It was as if the movements of celestial bodies were playing out inside at tens of millions of times normal speed.

He immediately knew what he needed to do.

If he stimulated it at just the right moment, parts of it would stop and form constellations.

Ash, who had memorized a bunch of constellations in an instant by searching, began solving the puzzle.

Before long, he realized there was a certain rhythm to the movements.

Tap. Tap. Taptaptap. Tap. Taptaptap.

Soon the puzzle was solved, and a shroud of darkness enveloped the space around Ash.

On top of that, pale flames began to bloom one by one.

Before he knew it, Ash was surrounded by countless stars.

‘Are these Sacred Flames, each and every star?’

It was a stunning sight, but it didn’t really excite him.

There was something else that bothered Ash even more.

He’d managed to solve it, but he was annoyed that he’d missed the rhythm partway through.

Ash reset the planetarium and solved it again.

‘All right.’

This time, he solved it with perfect rhythm.

Absentmindedly clenching his fist, Ash glanced around for no reason.

He reset the planetarium once more, opened the lock on the display case, and placed it inside.

Next to it were all the items Alchemy Slime had sent so far.

Ash took out the other item from the delivery box.

When he unwrapped it, inside were some monster fur and a Slime.

Guessing what it meant, Ash put the fur into the Slime.

The fur dissolved into a goo and oozed out of the Slime.

Seeing that, Ash frowned a little.

It was as good as pointing out the flaws in the potion Ash had made.

If anyone else had done this, he would’ve been furious.

But Alchemy Slime was one of the few alchemists Ash acknowledged.

-If you use Slime, you can mass-produce even better potions, so let’s work together.

Alchemy Slime’s intentions came through loud and clear, with no room for misunderstanding.

‘The place I’ve reached is no summit.’

Ash looked over at the planetarium.

‘So there’s still room for improvement.’