Chapter 9

It was morning again, possibly noon by the time I woke up, the sun being far higher in the sky than my usual waking time gave me a pretty good idea how much I had slept in. I was still laying naked ontop of Belle, only having bothered to throw some covers over us before passing out after the third successive copulation. She was still gagged and tied, having forgotten to undo it after we exhausted ourselves by the end. Withdrawing from her, I untied the makeshift ropes on her hands and mouth, waking her up so she could spit out the bundle she had been holding the entire night.

She was clearly sore, moving gingerly while attempting to dress herself. I watched her move around while fetching new clothes for herself and I.

"Belle, is there anything you want to do today?" I asked her while she busied herself.

We were staying in the city today so she brought over some of my more comfort-styled clothes. We didn't have an exceptionally large repertoire to choose from, but given my background we certainly had more to choose from than an average family would. Belle settled on a padded jacket for me with matching pants, while choosing a simple two-piece blouse and long skirt. The clothes were wool, some of the warmer we had and appropriate for the season.

"Belle will do whatever master wants." She replied flatly.

I was slightly disappointed by her lack of initiative. In some ways her dependence on me was endearing, tickling the part of me that wanted to care for her like a prized pet, but ultimately that was not what I wanted from her. We no longer lived in a mansion, fully provided for. I was an adventurer of no status and could not afford the time or money to shelter her in such a way.

"Isn't there anything?" I asked, prompting her again.

She thought a bit while dressing herself, having already finished helping me into my own clothes.

"Belle needs things for washing clothes. A bucket, washer, lye. Those things" She said, somewhat hesitantly.

She must have been worried about our finances, I realized. Belle wasn't aware of how much if anything I had earned from yesterday, and was hesitant to ask me for something when she knew we had hardly any money. Smiling a bit, I moved over to my bag near the door, throwing the pouch I normally kept on my belt over to Belle to look inside. She peaked inside curiously before gasping softly.

"...Master what are these, they're all wet and slimy... and there are so many in here." She poked the inside of the bag gingerly, probably knowing these were from a monster.

"They're slime cores. May as well be copper coins. We're in luck because I know someone that will buy it." The guild bought monster parts, but they took a very large portion of the earnings, more than a fifth. They would guarantee a sale, but it was generally better to sell directly whenever you could. Luckily I knew just the buyer.

"Bring that with us, we're going to go see Cal today.

Eating leisurely downstairs, I explained the bed situation to the inn-keeper and settled it with our remaining coin.

We walked into Cal's shop a few minutes later.

Ashley was manning the counter, with Cal most likely holed in up his room busy with some experiment or busy with some old arcane tome.

"Is he back there? I asked her, motioning to the back to which she nodded in agreement.

"Master's working on a new recipe. You can go in." motioning to the back.

Belle, stayed back while I continued down the corridor, giving them an opportunity to catch up. Belle and Ashley were something like friends, even though Ashley was more of a servant than a slave, serving Cal for money rather than obligation.

Knocking on the door once, I entered the room.

Cal was at his desk, books covering the table fully, opened to pages with diagrams of plants and anatomical structures of various animals and monsters.

"Cal?" I called out to get his attention.

He was caught up in whatever it was he was doing, seemingly not having realized someone was in the room until I said his name.

"Keaton." He started, still at his books and not bothering to turn around. "You caught me at a busy time. What brings you here today?"

I looked over his shoulder while he continued to read the various reference texts.

"You know that I'm an adventurer now, I have something to sell you. You'll buy monster parts right?"

"Not all monster parts." He interrupted me. "Just the ones I need."

Putting the pouch I took from Belle on the counter, I untied the bag's seal revealing the transparent slime cores within.

"Ahh. Slimes I see, very good. I'll pay for them, but don't expect me to buy everything you bring in. Slimes are an exception."

I knew that slime cores were a popular item with alchemists, the liquid in the potion was almost always based on extract made from these cores, making it always in demand.

"Say Cal, if these are always in shortage why haven't people just started to grow slimes themselves? Don't they appear in water? Surely there's some way to industrialize this," exposing my thoughts out loud. It seemed very inefficient to rely on adventurers for something so fundamental.

"It's not the water that makes a slime, Keaton. It's the mana. They're a natural phenomena, the most basic of types of monsters. Slimes don't reproduce, but rather simply appear over time, given enough mana. Hardly the only type like this, but given the abundance of water they're certainly the most common type. " Cal finished his explanation, acting as if his answer fully explained the matter.

"... so why can't you grow them?" I asked, unsure of whether he really answered my question or not.

Cal began tapping his finger, seemingly annoyed that I still wasn't getting it. "You know how mana replenishes right? Monsters. Nobody's going to grow slimes around monsters, when they have those conditions already perfectly replicated in nature. It may be possible in certain areas of course. Ley lines, the bones of particularly powerful monsters, continue to generate mana perpetually, even after death. But any owner of a ley line wouldn't be caught dead using it to farm slimes, the things are priceless treasures." He said while chuckling to himself.

"Slimes are monsters though, aren't they? Can't you carry a slime back somewhere and wait for it to make enough mana for more slimes?"

Cal began to think more seriously about my proposal, which was really just a curious speculation on my part.

"A fascinating question you pose here. Not very lucrative from a business perspective, but perhaps one that has a certain value to researchers such as myself. Consider the following, a study on the magical emittance and doubling time of slimes. I'd be interested to know how long it takes to emit its own body worth in magic." He said, now leaning back in his chair.

"Yes, that's very good." I said brushing away his newfound interest, wanting to refocus our conversation on the topic I had originally wanted to bring up. "I have another request, aside from the matter of the cores." Starting again now that I had his attention.

"You know that I'm an adventurer, and as an adventurer I have a need to spend a certain amount of time in dangerous places. Away from town. You also know that I have a companion, Belle, who I can't bring with me during these times. I want you to let her stay here while I'm not in town." I looked at him hopefully, trying to crack his impassive expression.