Oops. This isn’t the time to be talking about this, is it?
[Taylor]
Branch Head Taylor looked down at the chart on his hand.
If I recall correctly, you are raising more than 1,000 slimes, right?
[Taylor]
Yes.
[Ryouma]
Although slimes are easy to form a contract with, 1,000 is still a lot of monsters. I have a feeling we’re going to be spending a lot of time here. Well then, shall we start?
[Taylor]
Yes. I’ll be in your care.
[Ryouma]
Come to think of it, how many monsters can people normally be able to form a contract with?
From what I know, the person who tamed the most monster beasts was able to tame about 300 ‘Chain Bugs’. But even without taming that many, just being able to tame about 20 monsters is enough to be considered a lot. I don’t know what number counts as a lot for slimes, though, since people normally don’t tame that many of them. But no matter what type of monster it is, I’ve never heard of anyone taming more than 1,000.
[Taylor]
In that case, I guess the number of monsters I have tamed really is exceptional.
After Branch Head Taylor answered my abrupt question, we finally began the affinity diagnosis.
Hmm… I see.
[Taylor]
2 hours later.
It’s only been 2 hours, but I’ve tried forming a contract with so many monster beasts.
Just the bird-type monsters alone had all sorts from tree sparrows to eagles to owls, and so on and so forth. Branch Head Taylor would change the type of monster and have me form a contract with them and then revoke the contract repeatedly.
Whether it was a bug or a fish or a mammal or a reptile, I repeated that process for all of them.
I was able to succeed with each one of them too. Until now, there hasn’t been a single monster beast that I couldn’t form a contract with just yet.
But while I might have been able to form a contract with all of the monsters so far, there were a lot of monsters that I had difficulty giving orders to compared to the slime.
Monsters like those were stubborn and refused to listen to orders. As expected, everyone has something they’re good at and bad at.
The problem is we had no idea what the conditions were for my monster taming. I was told the name of the monsters and their appearance in between the monster contracts, but I didn’t know much about their ecology. There were a lot of monsters here that I didn’t know about. Eventually, Branch Head Taylor seemed to have figured it out.
I think you have an affinity for monsters that tend to flock together.
[Taylor]
Tend to flock together?
[Ryouma]
That’s probably it. That’s the trend I’m seeing after comparing the monsters you had good compatibility with. Rimel birds are monster beasts that move in flocks, and as for the slimes, it’s probably related to the results of your research. If I were to provide another possibility, it would probably be ‘fecundity’. Although not as many as the monster beasts that tend to gather together, if this is the condition required for your monster contracts, then there’s still a lot of monsters that you’ll be able to form a contract with.
I’d love to explain everything one by one, but if I did, it would take too much time. I’ll introduce you to a book, so just read up on the more specific details with that. You could also buy one if you’d like, but you can read it for free inside the guild’s reference room. Knowledge pertaining to monsters should also prove useful to you as an adventurer.
[Taylor]
Thank you very much.
[Ryouma]
I’ll study on my own for the rest.
Still, ‘monsters that flock together’, huh? …Why would the condition for my monster taming be that?
It is said that one’s affinity has to do with one’s disposition and way of thinking. …In short, I don’t really know the reason all that well. Your affinity pertains to your individuality, so you should think about it yourself. Also, what’s important isn’t what ‘condition’ your ability requires, but ‘what to do’ now that you know it. When you figure that out, why don’t you look for some monsters you’re compatible with to widen your prospects?
[Taylor]
Now that I know, huh? …I am interested in fast monsters that I can ride.
[Ryouma]
I’ve previously considered making a bicycle using metal slimes transformed into wheels. But they moved by relying on their gravity to make themselves spin. If I ride on them, they won’t be able to move anymore, so there’s no point to it. Technically, I could ride a huge slime, but it would be too conspicuous, so that’s no good.
The slimes could do pretty much any basic stuff, but unfortunately, they don’t have a way to serve as transport.
Besides, it’s my job to do something about transportation anyway.
Still…
Some adventurers I worked with a few days ago recommended me to get a monster that could serve as my legs. They managed to pique my interest, so now I’m looking for something that could fit the bill. The adventurers guild also gave me permission to take on bandit subjugation jobs, so the scope of the jobs I take from here on might get bigger.
[Ryouma]
I see. If you want something for transport, normally, you’d rely on horse-type monsters. You can ride them, have them pull a carriage, and they also tend to gather together, so you should have good affinity with them. If you can come to understand each other with your monster taming abilities, then you should also be able to reduce the workload of handling a horse-type monster.
[Taylor]
