Carrots and Sticks
After class, Leon called the group task team members to the middle school alchemy room.
To hear about the principles of ministry magic from Angelica using the group assignment as an excuse.
But for some reason, Angelica only kept her head bowed the entire time she followed Leon.
Thanks to her, she couldn’t see her face, but looking at her burning earlobes and nape of her neck, it wasn’t difficult to guess that her face would also be red.
In Angelica’s head, Leon’s voice resounded over and over again.
‘I just need him more than you.’
To Gail Tempest, who is called the next heir to the green magic mackerel, he declared in front of everyone that Angelica is more precious (?) than you.
But Vincent and Mary, on the other hand, were more focused on Arya, who didn’t know what she was thinking more than Angelica.
Eventually, Mary looked at Arya and Leon in turn and started talking.
“Until now, I thought it was just that, but now that I think about it, it’s very strange.”
“what?”
“That’s right. Obviously, it is known that the Rothbane and the Farostel mage do not have a good relationship with each other, but I was wondering what kind of relationship you have. Be honest. What are you guys doing?”
Angelica, who was alone in her delusions at Mary’s question, raised her head and looked at Leon and Arya.
The funny thing is that Arya, who was actually asked the question, looked at Leon with a really curious expression.
“What are we?”
“Well.”
Leon thought anew about his relationship with Arya.
Matches in friendly matches, encounters in direct dungeons, and birthday celebrations.
In retrospect, it was a no-brainer.
However, Leon’s relationship with Arya was deeper than that.
“It’s just that I have a one-sided feeling of sympathy with Arya.”
Leon knew the despair that Arya had seen on her face when they first met.
It was just that expression that bothered me.Read at noblemtl.com
Just that relationship.
“me too.”
And to Leon’s answer like that, Arya countered.
You’re not the only one feeling the same.
“So do I.”
He expressed his will, even in insufficient words.
Of course, no one could fully understand their conversation.
I can only vaguely feel the exchange of emotions between the two of them.
“More than that.”
Leon brought out the main topic to ventilate the increasingly strange atmosphere.
“Did I say that the evaluation criteria for this group task was a quota system?”
quota.
It was a system in which points were scored by allocating a quota of monsters to be hunted to each of the five members and filling the quota.
The maximum number of points each team member can earn is 20 points each, and five people gather to score 100 points.
Of course, since this is a group task, it was possible for Leon to give the team members points.
Leon fills his quota by giving a finishing blow to a monster that Leon half-suppressed.
The problem, however, was that there were team members who could not even eat even though Leon actively fed them.
“Then what about Angelica?”
The monster that Magician Angelica deals with is slime.
Slimes are non-class monsters, also called G-class, and it is not easy to defeat even F-class monsters.
“But, can’t even Angelica handle basic magic?”
Angelica’s face turned blue at Mary’s question, and she shook her head so that her blonde-brown hair fluttered.
“Of course, I am also a 3rd circle wizard, but since I use most of my mental power to share with slimes, it is difficult to use magic in real battles.”
Ministry art is a magic that forcibly controls and manipulates animals or insects that cannot be communicated with.
If the magician gives up his dominion even for a moment, the beasts, insects, and demons that are being ministered will run wild and cause damage to those around them.
If you have one question,
“Does it take that much mental power to minister slime?”
The magician’s ministry is similar to the elemental magician’s contract magic.
Of course, spirits have the advantage of being able to interact emotionally with humans and not being hostile to humans, but nonetheless, it is the same in that they show a bond by sharing their mental power.
Then, Mary, who achieved the status of the 2nd circle, also signed a contract with Sylph, who has the ability and intelligence appropriate for the low-middle-class wind spirits, monsters, and D-class abilities. is it?
“Slimes multiply…”
According to Angelica’s explanation that followed, when slimes grow to a certain extent, the number increases by causing division.
However, of course, as the number of slimes controlled by the magician increased, the amount of mental power consumed to rule the slimes had to increase as well.
“But for that kind of thing, there aren’t that many slimes that I usually carry with me.”
“The number of slimes has grown so much that we usually keep them in the sewer.”
Leon shrugged his chin for a moment, pondering, then asked.
“Then can you show me all the slimes you deal with?”
“It doesn’t matter, but it would be a little creepy.”
He said a few words, but Angelica didn’t want to show that to Leon as much as possible.
Because slime was a monster with a lot of likes and dislikes.
If it’s the amount you normally carry, it looks cute and the texture is quite addictive, so you get a lot of requests from other students to touch it. It was disgusting enough to make me feel bad when I saw something like a lump wriggling.
“I do not care. show me.”
However, at Leon’s strong demand, Angelica was forced to close her eyes tightly and resign.
“Then let’s go outside. It’s too narrow here.”
At Angelica’s words, Vincent and Mary tilted their heads.
The middle school alchemy club’s poor room looked a little cramped compared to other laboratories, but it was spacious enough to accommodate about 20 members.
But is this place narrow?
His doubts were resolved by going outside and watching Angelica gather the slimes.
“This······.”
“Is it beyond your imagination?”
There were hundreds of slimes the size of a human head.
“When a slime grows normally, it divides once a year.”
Because Mary said that the first time she worked for slime was when she was 5 years old.
“Is it calculated that 2 at 6 years old, 4 at 7 years old, 8 at 8 years old, and 512 at 14 years old?”
At Leon’s words, Angelica shook her head.
“Does this mean we underestimated Angelica too much?”
“Even if the slimes are out-of-class monsters, if this number gathers…”
“Isn’t it possible to easily suffocate an E-class monster?”
No, where are the only E-class monsters?
As long as the tactics are well thought out, it might be possible to safely face up to D-class monsters.
A small number of slimes act as bait to attract enemies, and other slimes form an encirclement and tighten them little by little, literally suffocating their breath.
Of course, in the case of a plant-type monster, it is difficult to completely block breathing, and even if you succeed in blocking breathing, you won’t die easily.
“How specific can you actually give slime instructions?”
“I think that would be the problem.”
As mentioned earlier, slimes are monsters that are created when Magi is infected with slime fungi, which are single-celled protists.
To give an easy example, it is a creature similar to an amoeba, and originally it was a creature that was too savage for a magician to work.
No matter how much work you are a magician, you cannot work with microorganisms.
Nevertheless, the reason why slimes can work is that slimes have the ability to think and judge for themselves, just like animals.
If you put the slime at the entrance of the maze and put the slime’s food at the exit, you can find the shortest distance and move, and if you install chemicals at the crossroads, the movement speed slows down as if you are wary and careful about it.
In fact, once you experience that the chemical is not harmful to you, it will show you the ability to learn at a fast pace from the next time.
Although slime is made up of single-celled protozoa, each cell is a muscle and performs the same role as a brain cell.
But the slime’s abilities didn’t end there.
No matter how much Angelica could emotionally communicate with the slime and give her instructions, in reality, even if Angelica’s instructions became a little more complicated, the slime could not understand her.
“Up until now, only ‘attack’, ‘follow me’, and ‘wait’ were the only things that were possible.”
“Then, the command to cover the enemy and obstruct the action or stop breathing…….”
“You won’t understand.”
Leon said after thinking about it for a moment.
“Maybe I can help.”
“Yes?”
“Instead, I need your help.”
What Leon thought was simple.
Add artificial spirit to slime.Read at noblemtl.com
Just like a spirit dwelling on a corpse, like artificial intelligence dwelling in an automata, it is to give an artificial intelligence to the slime.
A slime is itself a muscle and an organism that functions like a brain, so if it can expand its intelligence area, it has infinite potential to grow according to the training of a magician.
However, in order to do that, we had to find a way to minister to the artificial spirits created by Leon first.
After hearing Leon’s explanation, Angelica couldn’t understand what the hell she was hearing.
‘You say that the slime has a spirit? No, you said you created an artificial spirit in the first place?’
There is no common sense that such a thing is possible.
However, Leon proved his point by showing the sparkling spirit in the flask.
“Oh My God······!”
“I think you can make a contract with an artificial spirit if you find out how slime works. So, by any chance, can you give me some tricks?”
Angelica thought for a moment, but then nodded immediately.
She had no intention of hiding her work skills, and she was full of willingness to cooperate in anything that would help Leon.
“But in the first place, ministry is a realm of talent. Explaining the trick is no guarantee that Leon-kun will be able to use the magic of ministry.”
“Just call me Leon.”
“······yes.”
“And it doesn’t matter if I don’t master ministry skills. Then you just have to find another way. So please don’t be shy and let me know.”
“First of all, the well-known method as a means of ministry is a carrot and a stick. The first time I encountered a slime was when I followed my father up the mountain. My father was a herbalist, and although I was only 5 years old, I could recognize a few types of edible mushrooms. Then I met a slime.”
Of course, even if the slime was a non-class monster, there was no way he could get away with it at the young age of only 5 years.
Because her father was nearby, she would have been able to get help if she shouted out loud, but Angelica said that because it was the first time she had seen a monster, she was so scared that her voice could not even come out.
But soon, Angelica realized that the slime was targeting a mushroom.
Slime fungi usually feed on bacteria or microorganisms that are smaller than themselves, and they especially liked mushrooms, which are nutritious because they grow to a visible size as a fungus.
Angelica threw the mushroom she was holding in her hand and tried to run away with it as bait.
However, the slime swallowed the mushroom at once and immediately followed Angelica.
However, as it was the first time the slime had met a human, Angelica did not intend to attack Angelica easily.
“It felt like that time. A wave of spirit emanating from the slime. The slime was withdrawn from my threats, and was obsessed with the mushrooms I was offering and tried to rely on it. I instinctively felt that in order to overcome the slime, I had to subdue that wave of spirit, and I did it.”
That was the moment when Angelica first ministered to slime.
The slime, who had been withdrawn from Angelica’s threat, was instantly subdued by the wave of the spirit that Angelica emitted, and was smitten by the mushroom, subordinating her mind to Angelica.
“It is a wave of the spirit.”
Isn’t that a really intuitive expression?
If you translate the mental wave directly, it is the wave of the mind.
And through Angelica’s story, Leon also realized what he had to do.
‘Carrots and whips. and emotional exchanges.’
In order to achieve emotional exchange with a person who did not communicate with each other, there were times when it was necessary to take action before discussing a theory or a principle.
Clink!
“what?!”
“If the flask breaks, the artificial spirit will die!”
Leon heard Angelica’s words and threw the flask containing the spirit in his hand.
And the artificial spirit, who was protected by the magic circle engraved on the flask, began to weaken in an instant.
The magical light that forms the artificial spirit flickered and began to fade as if it would wither and disappear at any moment.
this is the whip.
‘Come here if you want to live.’
And Leon immediately held out the carrot.
At first glance, the contract between the Spirit Magician and the Spirit appears to be one-sided.
Because the Elementalist deals only with the power of the Spirit, a fragment of power, without any cost.
Is it only about the magician’s magic that is inevitably consumed when dealing with power?
But Leon knows.
In the first place, the contract magic between a spirit magician and a spirit is like a ‘parasitic’.
Spirits are a kind of spirit wave that is born as a result of the thoughts of God remaining in the world. Naturally, it gradually weakens over time and follows the path of extinction.
In order to avoid it, he had to reinforce the wave by sharing a spirit wave with a spirit magician who has a mental wave that matches him.
In other words, contract magic is to grant one’s own power in exchange for parasitizing the spirit of the spirit magician.
And now, in front of Leon’s eyes, there was an artificial spirit that was weak as if he would die at any moment.
Even if an artificial spirit is like a newborn baby, it must have a survival instinct.
Leon presented his psychic wave as a carrot to the artificial spirit struggling to survive.
If you eat this, you can live.
I will guarantee you a place to live.
Then, the artificial spirit, which seemed to be extinguished, allowed Leon to exist.
He wanted to create an exchange of souls with Leon and become subordinate to him.
At that moment, a dazzling light came out.
The artificial spirit, who regained strength by feeding on Leon’s spirit wave, began to achieve spiritual growth.