Sometime after all that.

I was riding the Proud Wold and dashing through the forest.

‘It’s surprisingly far…’

‘Oh, this distance is nothing!’

From the town, the volcanic mountain had appeared to be very close by.

I thought the Proud Wolf would have taken us there within half an hour.

However, I was clearly mistaken.

An hour had already elapsed, and the volcanic mountain was only now starting to look like it was close by.

‘Do any of you detect magic from the Lesser Fire Dragons?’

‘Hmm…no!’

‘What kind of monsters are they?’

As we were getting close, it seemed like a good time for them to start showing themselves…but I guess not.

‘I guess we’ll have to go into the mountain…’

I didn’t like that idea at all.

Volcanic mountains seemed like they would be the most dangerous place in any world.

Not only was there lava, but there could be toxic gases that would cause you to lose consciousness as it slowly killed you. And then, of course, it could just erupt at any moment.

Though, there wouldn’t be any problem if it was dormant… But the mountain in front of us had smoke rising from the top. It looked active to me.

I was quite sure that we would find lava at the top.

‘Can we really go inside of that mountain?’

I doubted they would be able to tell me anything, but I asked the slimes anyway.

And then–they replied in a most surprising way.

‘I’ll go ask them!’

‘Hey, wait!’

A few slimes had splintered off before jumping away from the Proud Wolf.

I frantically told the Proud Wolf to stop. I didn’t want the slimes to be left behind.

‘Proud Wolf, stop.’

‘Understood!’

And so the Proud Wolf stopped right there.

And then I used ‘Shared Senses’ to follow the slimes that had gone off.

And–a slightly red slime appeared in their vision.

Actually…was that really a slime?

As I wondered this, a window popped up in front of me.

———————————————-

‘Monster – You have Tamed a Red Slime.’

So they were called Red Slimes. How simple…

As I mused on this, a slime shouted.

‘It’s okay!’

‘It will be fine for the next 3 days!’

So they had acquired information from the local slimes.

This slime information network was very useful…

…According to the slime, this mountain wouldn’t erupt for at least 3 more days.

I didn’t know how trustworthy this information network really was, but they do say that wild animals run away before an eruption. And monsters tended to have sharper instincts.

Besides, it was better than charging into the volcanic mountain without any information at all.

‘All right. Thank you. …Let’s go then.’

‘Yes!’

And so I retrieved all of the slimes and we continued on to the mountain.

By the way, the Red Slime was able to combine with my other slimes, and it had already befriended the slimes on my shoulders.

Though, it did seem like the combined slime was a little redder now…but as it was just one slime among hundreds, it was only a small difference.

‘So, how’s life in a volcanic mountain?’

‘Are there hot springs?’

‘Does the gra.s.s taste good?’

It seemed like the new slime was being bombarded with questions from the other slimes.

They were very curious about the places they hadn’t lived in before.

‘The leaves are delicious! …But the volcano is scary!’

‘Oh, it’s scary!’

I listened to their chattering while looking at my surroundings…

Just then, I thought I saw a flash of something huge and red coming from the forest.