Chapter 81

After finishing my conversation with Dianea and Anne leaving, by the time I had finished preparing the store, it was already late at night.

Or rather, it was almost morning.

Hestia was dozing off, so I decided to close up the shop and head home.

Just as I was about to close the counter space and leave the store,

"Hey, good evening, boss!"

"Hey there!"

I ran into Ash and the Shining Head gang.

Despite the location only being lit by moonlight and a few street lamps, visibility was excellent thanks to Ash's glow.

"Hey, good evening. Just got back, huh?"

"Yeah! I hunted some monsters and made a decent amount of money, so I was hoping you could buy us some drinks. What do you say?"

They held up a bag of silver coins.

Drinks, huh. Normally, I might have accepted,

"But it's too late today, I'm heading home. Sorry."

"No worries, don't mind it. Next time, let us buy you a drink."

"Sure, I'll take you up on that."

Just as I was about to part ways, I noticed something strange on Ash's neck.

"Hey, Ash. There's something on your neck."

"Huh…?"

On closer inspection, it was a thin, slime-like substance with a magic stone at its center.

"What is this, some kind of creature?"

"Oh, I didn't notice in the dark. It's a parasitic magic stone slime."

Tilting his head, Ash poked the slime with his finger.

"Is a parasitic type dangerous?"

"This thing, while incredibly resilient, isn't very strong. Hey, can you flick it off with a knife?"

"Sure thing."

Following Ash's request, one of the Shining Head members flicked the slime off with a knife.

"Basically, it's weak to piercing impacts. And even though it's parasitic, it can't absorb nutrients unless it stays attached for about a year."

"Wow…"

Quite a laid-back monster.

"After a year, it would die off anyway. It dies in hot baths too. So it's not that scary. Occasionally, it can take over animals and make them aggressive or mutate, though."

I see, so there are these kinds of variable monsters.

"Have you seen any of these among the Fafnir you've encountered?"

"Maybe. This slime isn't that rare; it's attracted to strong magic and vitality. I bet you've seen one before, boss?"

That's right. The large slime that used to come around my place, was it one of those?

I had completely eliminated it with golems and traps.

"Quite a few large ones came around, but I might have crushed them without noticing…"

"Haha, that's just like you, boss!"

Ash laughed, then turned serious and looked at me.

"…By the way, these slimes can grow large by absorbing magic from the magic stone, so we do need to be careful with the big ones. But it seems like you didn't even have to deal with that. That's pretty impressive."

"It's not really something to be praised for. …Yeah, it's good to know about this. Knowledge is never a bad thing to have."

Especially in my case, I often defeat them without even noticing.

"Haha, when it comes to monsters around here or in the dungeon, we know a lot. If you ever have any questions, feel free to ask. We'll do anything for you, boss!"

Laughing, Ash and the others left.

"Hmm, monster knowledge. It might be interesting to know more about that later."

When I have some free time, I'll ask Ash and Hestia about it.

With that thought, I started locking up the store. By the time I finished,

"Ku…"

"Oh dear, she's fallen asleep."

Hestia had completely dozed off. Well, there's no need to wake her.

She knows the way home.

"Here we go…"

I decided to carry the sleeping Hestia on my back and head home in the early morning.