Chapter 13: A Sinner's Deal

Alaric quickly escorted the merchants to and from the warehouse. Roni, the Caravan Boss, received his wood, and Alaric received his watch and seeds.

Currently, they were again outside of the village gates.

"Boss Beard, I would like to make a specific request before you leave." Alaric said.

The merchant caravan obviously didn't have anything that Alaric especially needed, but the source of food and the ability to tell time were appreciated. Right now, however, Alaric needed manpower!

"And what's that, lad? A kid with a good head on his shoulders, like you, definitely won't waste my time, right?"

Alaric carefully spoke, "I... need help. I can't leave for the city right now, because I am currently transitioning to the position of village chief. The village needs people. What price do I have to pay for you to help bring some in?"

Roni went wide-eyed for a moment. Normally when someone asked for people, they meant slaves. After all, hiring workers was simply impossible in these village boonies, especially so when it was near the forest. Slaves weren't illegal in the Neuling Kingdom, but it was quite looked down upon to buy them.

"I can bring some slaves. Each one will require 500 copper coins, or some item of similar value... warriors cost double."

Of course, being a more modern man, Alaric was against the idea of slavery. Still, he needed it. He would bring the slaves in as his new villagers, and use them to propel his slime colony forward.

"5 silvers for an ordinary person and 10 silvers for a warrior? The warriors are unawakened right?"

"Yes, wielders don't often become slaves."

Alaric began to think, 'I don't have a single copper coin. To turn 0 coppers into 10 silvers is already hard enough, and especially so with a week-long time limit... but, I don't even need warriors.'

Although intimidated, Alaric was still confident. Inventions from the modern era, business strategies, psychological studies, such things would be found in his head after 2 hours of scrolling on his mobile phone.

"I don't have much right now, but a week should be enough. Bring as much as you can. I want a good amount."

Roni calculated in his heart, and responded, "Alright, prepare 1 gold coin by the time I'm back, next week. I'm bringing 20 slaves. If you don't have the money, the slaves will beat you to death in my stead."

A voice in the back sounded, "Ah? Boss's a slave trader now, eh?"

"Deal!"

Alaric didn't understand why Roni trusted him, but 1 gold coin was absolutely possible.

...

Alaric sent Roni and his caravan off, and immediately went to the village chief's abode, where he was keeping the slimes as they reproduced.

'Kri!' the slip slime hopped out of the leather bag that Alaric was carrying.

"Calm down, Sonic. I know I asked you to stay still until the caravan was gone, but don't get all uppity now that it is."

Yes, the slip slime received the name "Sonic," because it being a small, fast, and blue thing gave Alaric a hint of inspiration.

'Kri!'

"Oh? The two slimes that got a reproductive head start finally finished? They split?"

Alaric scanned the room, finding two slimes of a similar size to the two who had been splitting since before the others.

'Thankfully I can somehow tell the difference after naming them... I'm sure it has something to do with my ability.' Alaric thought.

Alaric pointed to the four slimes, "Clio, Rochefort, you two, come with me... Sonic, keep me entertained for this 30 minute trip to the village's cold storage."

...

30 minutes later, they had arrived at the village's cold storage. Alaric planned to feed all four of these slimes a limb from one of the robed corpses. Human meat tended to be the best nourishment for magical beasts below rank-3, after that, they had to eat other ranked beasts.

'Couldn't I have just brought the corpse to the slimes...? Forget it.'

Alaric pointed at one of the robed corpses, "Clio, eat the left leg. Rochefort, eat the right leg. Random Slime 1, eat the left arm. Random Slime 2, eat the right arm."

Soon, all four slimes were dissolving a frozen limb inside of their bodies. As they did, their size seemed to increase, slowly but surely reaching the size that Clio and Rochefort had been.

'I'm glad that the meat on hand is good enough. Once I have enough slimes, I can begin ranking a large amount of them up.'

Slimes had an extremely high level of temperature immunity, so Alaric decidedly have them all stay here, besides Sonic, avoiding a second 30 minute trip.

"I really need a way to transport the slimes faster... or rather, a way for them to transport themselves faster."

In fact, Alaric had already considered a number of solutions, such as waterways and... magically induced conveyor belts. Although, he had no idea to create a mechanical conveyor belt, let alone a magical one.

'Seems like waterways are what I'll need... they can let the water push them around and then stick to the wall when they need to stop.'

Slimes made excavation and digging of any kind extremely easy, so this was Alaric's personal favorite solution in the first place.

Alaric was currently making his way towards his parents' old home, there was paper and ink there, he could draw out his upcoming plans.

Looking to Sonic, the slip slime, who was currently rambling incessantly via telekinesis (something about wanting food too), Alaric said, "Sonic, you want to eat some meat too? I have a task for you. Go find and kill lots and lots of beasts, avoid the ones who are stronger than you. Find a way to hide them outside of the forest, and you can have 10% of the meat you catch!"

He didn't know if Sonic could handle this order, things such as how his pocket-sized body would be able to move animal corpses came to mind... but Alaric figured that the slip slime was smart enough to find out.

Sonic perked up, its eyes sliding across its body and staring at Alaric, and then it disappeared.

"The method of pushing itself forward with 8 tentacles to move quickly... I guess I really should have called it the octopus slime."