The next day.
I grabbed the clothes I made yesterday, got all my slimes ready, and informed
everyone I was going out.
"I'll be heading out now."
"Thank you for your work."
"See you later, Ryoma."
"Do your best."
"We'll figure things out on our end too."
After everyone saw me off, I went to the guild.
"Good morning."
"Oh, you're the boy from yesterday. Ryoma, right? You came again."
"Yes, I want to take a job request..."
"Yes, so I've heard. Thanks for accepting this job. We really were in a tight
spot about it."
"You're welcome. Please proceed with the paperwork."
"Right-o, leave it to me... And done! Take this job form and go around the
western bloc. This is the key to the cesspit entrance. Don't lose it."
"Got it. I will go now."
"Be safe!"
I left the guild and headed for the western side of Gimul Town, as indicated.
The cesspit of the communal toilets... Ah, there it was. When I opened the
door installed onto the brick wall with the key that was entrusted to me, there
was a small building made of the same brick with another door. I went through
the first door and tried to close it from the inside but found there was no
keyhole. It was designed so that it couldn't be locked from inside, with two
layers of doors. Well, I guess I could keep it unlocked. With the closed door
behind me, I changed clothes and opened the entrance to the pit.
"Urk?!"
And slammed it shut again. The cesspits had been abandoned for several
months and released a tremendous stench. The stimulus to my nose made my
eyes water.
The scavenger slimes seemed fine, so I made them go inside first and split
themselves to deal with the cleanup, but I couldn't quite shake the shock off. It
took me a while to calm down. But once I did, I asked a cleaner slime to soak a
handkerchief with deodorant solution and wrapped it around my face to deal
with the smell. My eyes had also been affected earlier, so I took one of the
slimes and put it on my head, like a pair of goggles. Cleaner slimes had high
transparency, so it didn't affect my vision. Hooray for cleaner slimes.
Once I was fully equipped, I entered to see a staircase that led downwards to
a vast underground corridor. Both sides of the path were lined with swarms of
scavenger slimes, doing their best to clean the piles of filth.
From behind them, I used Mist Wash on the ceiling and walls to wash off the
filth and my original lightning spell Squall to heat the dirty water and disinfect
it. It was just so dirty, I tried it in hopes it would clean nicely... which seemed to
be successful. Initially, the status of the ceiling read:
Unclean Ceiling
Ceiling with filth on it.
But upon using Appraisal, it had changed to:
Stone Ceiling
The cesspit ceiling of the communal toilets in Gimul Town. Cleaned by being
disinfected with water and heat.
The information from the appraisal had changed from an unclean ceiling to a
stone one. When looking up the details, it stated it had been disinfected
through heat. Where did this information come from, anyway? I've always
wondered about that, but I guess as long as it wasn't wrong...
I continued cleaning while sometimes paying attention to irrelevant things,
ultimately resulting in taking 5 hours to clean 1 cesspit; when something else
happened, which added another three hours.
"Well, they have consumed a lot today."
The scavenger slimes were preparing to split themselves. There was still work
in the other pits to be done... but considering how it could make working more
efficient, I figured it'd be better to let them split themselves. We were already
in a place out of the public eye, so the slimes went ahead and split. It took three
hours for this to finish. But thanks to that, the number of scavenger slimes
increased to a total of 1464. There were 730 slimes before they split, so four of
them had split twice. It was a surprise to see how many nutrients they had
accumulated, but it made it easier to move on to the next job.
For now, all that was left for today was to make my report. There was no one
to demand I hurry like in my past life either. I took my time to leisurely confirm
that there was nothing wrong with the slimes. But when I noticed a change in
one of the scavenger slime's stats, a cold chill ran down my back.
Before cleaning, their skills were:
Disease Resistance 5, Poison Resistance 5, Foul Feeder 5, Cleanse 6, Deodorize
6, Deodorant Solution 4, Stench Release 4, Nutrient Reduction 3, Jump 2,
Consume 6, Absorb 3, Split 6
But now their skills were:
Disease Resistance 7, Poison Resistance 6, Foul Feeder 6, Cleanse 7, Deodorize
7, Deodorant Solution 4, Stench Release 6, Nutrient Reduction 5, Jump 2,
Consume 7, Absorb 3, Split 6
Their skills had increased in level across the board. But the most important
one was disease resistance. It had increased by 2 levels at once. The others
were fine, so there was no problem. But for disease resistance to rise, there had
to be a source of disease. In other words, that meant... this place was a
breeding ground for diseases!
No, I knew that. It was hard to admit here, but places where filth builds up
become hotbeds for disease. But... last time I asked Elise about scavenger slime
skills, she told me that disease resistance level 5 gave immunity to pretty much
most serious diseases (life-threatening, of course). For it to rise 2 levels from
that... there had to be bacteria here that could create an epidemic! This was
really bad... Wait, what about the other cesspits?! Oh no, I have to tell someone
about this... but first, disinfection! It'd be no joke if I ran out of here and spread
the bacteria everywhere!
I returned to the entrance in a hurry while trying to calm myself, then
checked on the slimes' condition with Monster Appraisal. Okay, they didn't
seem to have any active diseases at this point. First, I had the cleaner slime
cleanse the slime basket, slimes, and all of myself. After that, I thoroughly
disinfected the area around the entrance and used the neutral magic Appraisal
to confirm all my belongings and slimes were clear. I checked for the words
'dirty,' 'unclean,' or 'germs' in the information details. Thankfully they all said
'clean,' so it looked like the cleansing by the cleaner and scavenger slimes was
effective.
I locked the entrance and put up a barrier just in case, before rushing to the
guild. I attracted a lot of attention on my way to the guild. Since I was in a hurry,
I hadn't changed. But now wasn't the time to worry about that. I had to make
my report to the guildmaster and ducal house as soon as possible.
That was my only thought as I ran, but I realized something as I neared the
guild. If I started ranting about epidemics to the guild receptionist, at best bad
rumors would start and at worst great confusion could break out. That's why I
should pretend to be a young adventurer on his way back after work...
I dropped my pace to a walk before the guild and stepped inside calmly.
Gazes gathered on me for entering the guild with odd clothes, someone even
pointing a finger and laughing. But I ignored them and headed for the
receptionist. I didn't have time to care for them. It was all I could do to keep my
panic from showing.
"Excuse me."
"Oh my, Ryoma... What's that odd outfit?"
"These are my work clothes! What do you think? They're not the most stylish,
but they're easy to move in and can get as dirty as needed, so much that I can
even wade through a swamp!"
"If you say so..."
Several people around us were also nodding in agreement.
"By the way, I'd like to report today's job to the guildmaster. Does he have
time right now?"
"Huh? The guildmaster?"
"Could you ask the guildmaster for me? Tell him I have something I want to
say."
"Really? Hmm... I'll ask him, but he's with some guests right now so you might
wait a bit."
"That's fine, thank you."
The receptionist went through to the back and returned a long moment later.
"They said it's okay, Ryoma. Come on in."
Luckily, I was able to meet him right away.
But before I reached the guildmaster's office, the receptionist pulled me
aside.
"There are some extremely important people visiting the guildmaster right
now, so make sure you act very politely, okay? I doubt I'll need to worry about
you, but just in case, yeah?"
"Thank you for the warning. I'll be careful."
Then we arrived at the guildmaster's office, where the receptionist knocked
on the door.
"Excuse me, I've brought Ryoma."
"Come in."
We followed the guildmaster's voice inside.
There in the room were the four people of the Jamil family and Sebas.
"Good work, Ryoma."
"Everyone... why are you here?"
"We came to listen to the guildmaster's words about what you told us
yesterday. All of our escorts have also been sent to gather information."
"I see..."
It was a little unexpected, but this was convenient!
"And...? What's the matter?"
"There's something I'd like you to listen to with confidentiality."
"Did something happen? And what are those clothes? With your basket from
yesterday and clothes today, don't you think your outfits have grown more and
more eccentric?"
"These are work clothes I made for cleaning. They were built for function over
fashion, so please look past the clumsy shape... What's more important right
now is that I just came from cleaning the town's communal toilet cesspit."
I changed the topic rather forcefully. The guildmaster and ducal house
seemed to sense my mood and wore serious expressions to match.
"Yeah, the thing I told you about yesterday. What about it?"
"My cleaning method is to use water magic and my familiars, the scavenger
slimes. Scavenger slimes will eat unclean items like animal excretions and
rotten meat, and they possess the skill for cleansing. I've been cleaning with this
method."
"I've never heard of that slime before... Well, I get how you cleaned now."
"The real matter starts here. Filth is of course unclean and becomes a
breeding ground for disease. If the scavenger slime eats that, their disease
resistance skill would naturally increase. Up until today, my scavenger slimes
had level 5 disease resistance. But after today's job, it went up by two whole
levels at once."
Shocked gasps rose at my statement, a nervous tension running through the
room.
"What?!"
"Is that true?!"
"It's true. There is a disease in that pit toilet capable of raising disease
resistance from level 5 to level 7. Thankfully I noticed before leaving the pit, so I
had my cleaner slimes with the same cleansing skill as the scavenger slimes to
take care of the dirt on all of my belongings and confirmed they were clean with
the neutral magic Appraisal. I also used Appraisal on the entrance to check the
slimes cleaned properly. I did what I could in that situation before coming here.
The cleaning is done, but just in case I locked the pit entrance and put a barrier
over it to seal it."
"I see. Good job. But if disease is running rampant within there..."
"Guildmaster... Luckily, it seems my slimes can clean properly. That is why I
would like to continue doing the job, but could you make it forbidden to
approach the cesspit until it's completely done, and set some guards to make
sure no one goes inside?"
"Of course I can do that. But do you really want to continue cleaning, knowing
there's an outbreak of disease inside?"
"Why don't you just leave the work to the slimes instead? You can give them
orders from afar, right?"
"Cleaning up disease is far too dangerous!"
"We can take responsibility and send personnel to deal with it..."
Everyone tried to stop me, but I couldn't let them. There was something I
could do about this. As long as I knew that, it would pain me to leave it to
someone else.
"Unfortunately, just slimes aren't enough to clean it completely. The filth has
built up so that it's stuck to the walls and ceilings. And if I don't wash it off with
water magic, the slimes can't eat it. If it's not cleaned completely, the disease
will spread. I am grateful for your concern, but please let me do this. If you
blindly add more people to the task, you risk spreading the disease outside. If it
were just me and my slimes, I can take care of that risk. Anyway, I will be fine...
It's true that it could be done by anyone, but I'm probably the safest and fastest
choice."
After I said that, I pulled out my status board to show 4 of my skills to
persuade them.
Health 7
Life Enhancement 3
Super Recovery 3
Stamina Enhancement 6
Everyone who saw that — especially the guildmaster — reacted with surprise.
"What...?!"
"Health 7, this is a skill that counters diseases and poisons detrimental to
health. At this level, I should certainly be at less risk than other people of
contracting a disease. Even if I were to get sick, my life enhancement level 3 and
super recovery level 3 will make me sturdier and recover faster. The stamina
enhancement will help there. Going two to three days without sleep is
absolutely fine for me, which will make my work that much faster. I doubt it will
be easy to find someone more suitable than me, so how about it?"
The people in the room fell silent at my words. It seemed like they couldn't
object. But even if they accepted it logically, they didn't seem to accept it
emotionally, as they all had sour expressions on their faces. The silence
continued for a moment, until Reinbach opened his mouth.
"Well... it certainly is difficult to deny that there wouldn't be anyone more
suited after being shown this. It looks like we will be forcing all the dangers onto
you, but we entrust this task to you."
Reinbach stood up from his seat and bowed his head deeply.
"Leave it to me."
"...I thought a child would be more susceptible to disease, but you certainly
would be the safest option with these skills. All right. Ryoma, you can leave the
guards to me. I'll have a word with some tight-lipped people with high disease
resistance. If we're doing this, it'd be better to not to cause a commotion."
"Yes. Thankfully, the communal toilet facilities were built properly so nothing
spread. I'm glad we caught on to this early."
"Agreed. It would've been too late if the epidemic spread through the town."
"Yes. Since the cleaner slimes that were in the same pit toilet didn't increase
in disease resistance level like the scavenger slimes, the disease that's spread
through the pit isn't an airborne one. As long as the filth is disposed of, it should
be safe."
"What do you mean by airborne?"
Did the word airborne not exist here? This world did have magic and other
medicines impossible on Earth, after all. Based on our conversation up until
now, they seemed to treat diseases superstitiously here. I'd heard that Japan
treated measles similarly in the past, so it's possible that their knowledge of
pathogens was just less developed than Earth.
"You know how epidemics spread really quickly? That spread of disease is
called infection. The process can happen by spreading from person to person,
or by food and water like a poison, or one of many other ways. Among these
ways, the poison of epidemics spreads through the air, infecting people who
breathe it in. In this case, it makes it very easy for epidemics to spread and very
difficult to treat. But this time, my cleaner slimes that didn't come in contact
with the large volumes of filth did not rise in disease resistance level. That's why
I believe this is a case of either infection by direct contact with something
unclean, or something to do with ingesting food or drink that had poison in it. In
this case, as long as the source of infection — the filth — is cleaned, it shouldn't
be a problem. Thanks to the communal toilets being a pit, the filth falls down
right away without contact from anyone else, so as long as I'm careful not to
bring the epidemic out with me, it should be possible to deal with. I am no
expert though, so this is all incomplete knowledge."
"Nothing about that sounds incomplete to me. I've never even heard of such
a thing before."
"Ryoma, I... No, everyone here thinks the same. Where did you gain such
knowledge?"
So their understanding of disease was still undeveloped...
"I learned from my grandmother. She researched medicines, so she was
knowledgeable about diseases. Though I suppose saying I 'learned' it isn't very
accurate; my knowledge comes from our casual chats while I helped her
prepare medicines."
Everyone seemed to accept my words for now. Or perhaps they never
intended to question me more, as the topic changed to future plans.
After we went through several options, it was decided the next step would
take place tomorrow, so for today I would return to the inn with the ducal
house to rest. In addition to this, there was still the fact that I was potentially
infected at the moment. That's why I suggested I change inns to prevent any
possible spread to everyone at the inn, but all 7 of them — including the 2
maids — objected firmly. They understood what I was saying and my reason for
it. But what was I going to do if symptoms broke out? I should stay somewhere
within their reach, so that they could respond. That was the least they could do
for me, they said.
...In the end, I folded under the angry tears of Elise and her daughter, while
being very grateful for their sentiments.