Sura moved with a squish-squish towards the small monster meat and material fragments placed on the table. When it came right beside them, it simply absorbed them into its body.
Slimes, of course, lack vocal organs, nor do they have distinct mouths.
They approach their prey, envelop it with their entire bodies, and then absorb it internally to digest it.
If it were just that, it would be no different from commonly known knowledge.
Kousuke and the others didn’t want to prepare food for Sura just to see something so ordinary.
“…Hmm. It’s avoiding them quite skillfully.”
“It is. On what basis is it deciding?”
Floria nodded, as if impressed by Kousuke’s groaning words.
What the two were watching now was Sura, moving restlessly, eating what Kousuke and the others considered trash, and the materials left behind.
Sura, by some mysterious criteria, was selectively avoiding the materials Kousuke and the others needed, and was only digesting the trash.
“The size… it doesn’t make sense at all.”
Among the materials placed there were rare materials smaller than the ones Sura was currently digesting.
Sura avoided them without touching them, moving on.
“Perhaps it’s the magic power contained within the materials?”
Silvia spoke with a lack of confidence.
It was clear from her expression that she didn’t believe it was the correct answer.
“It’s not wrong, but it’s not entirely right, is it?”
Kousuke had also considered what Silvia had said, but he didn’t think it was the sole reason.
Everyone watched Sura, tilting their heads, but Kousuke suddenly had an idea.
“Sura. Come here for a moment.”
When Kousuke called out, Sura immediately stopped eating and moved over with a bounce-bounce.
Its hopping approach was undeniably cute, but it was actually a method Sura had learned at some point.
Before, it used to move by dragging itself along.
Then, Sura, who had moved to Kousuke’s side, finally hopped onto Kousuke’s outstretched hand.
Trembling slightly on Kousuke’s hand, it looked as if it were asserting that this was its designated spot.
Of course, whether Sura actually thought so was unknown.
With Sura resting on his right palm, Kousuke picked up a rare material from the table with his left hand and brought it close to Sura.
Sura showed no reaction as Kousuke brought his left hand near.
However, when Kousuke said, “You can eat this,” a visibly delighted (?) Sura hopped onto his left hand and began to eat the rare material.
“…It ate it.”
Kousuke said that, and then placed Sura back on the table so as not to disturb its meal.
“So it eats if it has permission?”
“It doesn’t seem like it *can’t* eat it.”
It became even more unclear how Sura was making its selections, and Floria and Silvia wore troubled expressions.
“It’s not simply eating things that are out of the way, is it?”
“Based on the results, that seems to be the case.”
“It’s also avoiding materials we need, so it doesn’t seem to be reading Master Kousuke’s thoughts either.”
Kousuke and the others looked at each other’s faces before groaning.
After about a minute in that state, Kousuke shook his head side to side in resignation.
“It’s no good, I give up. No matter how much I think about it, I don’t think I’ll figure it out. Sura is an apartment cleaner, and that’s fine, isn’t it?”
Kousuke’s words were surprisingly casual, but Floria nodded in agreement.
“That’s true. There doesn’t seem to be any real harm being done.”
“Even if something were to happen, given its nature, it seems like it would be alright if we taught it properly.”
Silvia also accepted this quite readily.
In reality, even if they knew Sura’s method of selecting food, it wouldn’t significantly impact their lives.
There was no need to force themselves to find out.
By the way, since Sura possesses the Fairy Language skill, it wouldn’t be impossible to ask Shurein or Colette.
The reason they hadn’t was simply that the investigation they were engaged in was merely a pastime.
It was also the reason the three of them gave up so easily.
Ultimately, Sura’s food selection method remained a mystery and was left as one of its enigmatic ecological traits.
***
“You didn’t know?!”
Schmidt exclaimed, his eyes wide, after hearing Kousuke’s story.
In Krone, the use of slimes for room cleaning had actually been a field of research for quite some time.
As a result, some slimes had already been commercialized and were being sold.
“No, not at all. When did Krone start researching this?”
“It was when Lord Kousuke proposed keeping slimes for materials.”
“Ah, there was that, I remember now.”
Kousuke himself had completely forgotten about it, but as Schmidt said, he had indeed suggested keeping slimes.
“The trigger was during research into slime husbandry, they noticed that the stables they were kept in were becoming inexplicably clean.”
The reason was exactly the same as Kousuke and the others.
If one remembered that the rooms with slimes were clean and could recall their common name, it was easy to connect the two.
It was natural for anyone, not just Kousuke and the others, to think about utilizing them effectively.
To Schmidt, Kousuke’s sudden revelation was surprising, but it also made sense.
“Perhaps it’s good to sometimes look at ordinary monsters, not just high-level ones.”
“That’s absolutely true.”
Kousuke could only offer a bitter smile at Schmidt’s comment.
While it might have been different when he first started managing the tower, Kousuke was now surrounded only by high-ranking monsters (familiars).
He had hardly any opportunities to learn about the ecology of low-level monsters.
Of course, considering Sura’s skills, it would be a mistake to classify it as a low-level monster.
Seizing the opportunity, Schmidt decided to tell Kousuke about other ways slimes could be utilized.
Of course, he wasn’t just talking; he expected that by sharing this information, it would spark Kousuke’s own innovative ideas.
“Also, it’s still under research, but the production department is experimenting with using them for farm management.”
“Ah, I see.”
Kousuke nodded, recalling how the goblins had established farming methods using slimes.
Seeing that, Schmidt sensed that Kousuke had something in mind as well.
However, he didn’t pry further.
That was Schmidt’s survival tactic, honed through his interactions with Kousuke.
Slimes, said to be the simplest and most well-known.
Yet, even slimes still held many unknown aspects and could be useful to humans in many ways.
Looking at Sura, who had come to the management layer, Kousuke realized this anew.
By the way, the shape of the slime (Sura) is left to your imagination.
