Earth-Style Slime Hunting Method

Ian, who had been swaying to the rhythm of birds singing in various tones and tempos, opened his eyes wide.

The birdsong was similar to yesterday's, but something was different. For some reason, there was a slightly sharp, wary edge to it.

It was a subtle change that humans wouldn't even notice, but Ian could feel it.

'What's going on? Is something happening?'

However, the feeling of wariness wasn't strong enough to suspect that something dangerous had appeared. Still, he decided he should check.

Ian sat up.

"Aigo, my back!"

A groan came out of him like an old man.

Well, truthfully, Ian was of an age where he could be considered an old man, but this body was that of a young man!

So why was he in this state?

Was his back hurting this badly just because he bent over yesterday to cut the bramble vine?

"This body's really no good. I should be bursting with energy at this age."

He opened the door and stepped out into the front yard.

It was a refreshing morning with sunlight shining brightly.

Perhaps he'd gotten used to it now, but even the air tasted sweet.

Ian did a light stretch as he looked around.

As always, he could see the sea of overlapping, beautiful mountains. It was enough to make him marvel.

Bathed in warm sunlight, he breathed in the fresh morning air to his heart's content.

"Ha, this is great. This is truly a Mount Jiri morning. Ahn Bin, you picked an amazing location for your house."

The sensation of crisp air filling his lungs made his whole body feel refreshed. It felt as if new vitality was filling his stiff body.

'Wait a second...?'

What he sensed now wasn't simply the morning air of Mount Jiri, but the energy of Praeri he felt within his own body.

'Did my energy get recharged? Am I just imagining things?'

No, it was unmistakable. As Praeri's energy flowed throughout his body, the aching back pain melted away like snow.

Just yesterday, he hadn't been able to finish the concealment and barrier because his strength was depleted.

If he could recharge his energy automatically without entering the portal, there wouldn't be anything more convenient.

He thought it would take research and training to link his energy with the nature of this world...

'Could it have already worked? I just slept, though?'

Excitement welled up inside him. But he soon realized it was a misjudgment.

Following the faint flow of energy, he went to the vegetable garden and saw that the plants he had brought from Praeri weren't just tall; they had spread into several thick patches.

"Oh! They grew a lot overnight? So I did bring some medicinal herbs with me!"

He had grabbed whatever was within reach, but now that he looked at them, these were herbs used for treating wounds.

The surprising part was how fast they had grown. They'd grown as quickly as when Ian cultivated them with telekinesis back on Praeri.

It seemed Praeri's energy had even greater influence here on Earth.

"Is this why the slime was considered a monster?"

Ian began picking the fully grown herbs and laying them out on the wooden platform. You could use them fresh, but drying them was better for long-term storage.

At that moment, from the bushes below the yard, there was a sudden rustling sound.

It was the overgrown bushes on the empty land between the neighboring house and Ian's house, on the hill.

'What's that?'

It didn't sound like mere wind in the grass. He sensed an unusual energy.

He hurried to the edge of the yard and looked down below.

Because the land was empty, the bushes were so thick that he couldn't see anything, but there was definitely something there.

Ian extended his sense to probe the area. He felt the energy of Praeri.

'What, did something come out of the portal during the night?'

He thought of the gap he hadn't properly sealed. Now he realized that even Praeri energy recharged in his body must have seeped out through that gap.

He could see something moving quickly, escaping from the bush where it had been hiding.

'Slime?'

He couldn't see its form, but judging from the movement and the energy it gave off, it was definitely a slime.

Ian dashed down the hill path in a hurry.

He needed to catch it and return it to the portal before the villagers discovered it.

'Stay right there!'

As Ian leapt into the bushes behind the neighbor's house, he extended his energy and tried to issue a command.

But it seemed he was already too late.

"Aaagh! A m-monster!"

A scream rang out from the neighbor's house. The slime must have already entered their yard.

When Ian rushed over to the neighbor's, the yard was completely empty.

"A monster! A monster!"

Through the screen door, he could see the neighbor woman inside, frantically handling her cell phone. The slime was already gone, nowhere to be seen.

"Are you all right?"

Ian asked the woman.

"There was a monster, a monster! It came to my yard and ate all the pumpkins and medicinal herbs I was drying! It even ate the wooden platform!"

She shouted while holding the cell phone to her ear, explaining to both Ian and whoever she was talking to.

"Please, stay inside the house!"

After shouting, Ian headed toward the bamboo grove beyond the yard, because he'd seen something moving that way.

It was a tricky situation. Not only had the neighbor woman seen the slime directly, but she had already told someone.

There was no way this was going to be handled quietly anymore.

'What should I do?'

The answer was clear.

'I have no choice. I'll have to kill it with my own hands.'

He couldn't just open a portal for a single slime's sake with the entire village watching.

Regrettably, he'd have to sacrifice the slime. He'd have to take care of it himself.

'Right. It's a creature of my domain, so I should be the one to handle it.'

It wasn't anything new. Gathering up creatures was a common task even on Praeri.

How many creatures had Ian collected in all his nearly a thousand years of life? They were countless.

'But where did this one go?'

Ian searched every corner of the bamboo grove, but the slime seemed to have already gotten away.

He extended his sense farther. Then he heard human voices down on the path below.

"Let's get moving!"

"Don't shout. Everybody, be careful."

"Everyone brought weapons, right?"

"Of course we did."

The village men were gathering.

It was the path leading up the hill from the center of the village. It seemed they had come out to hunt the monster after the neighbor woman's call.

Ian took another look at the villagers. Whenever they gathered, they usually just joked around, so he hadn't taken them seriously, but seeing them immediately mobilize at the news of a monster showed they had a brave side.

He was impressed by their resolve to protect the land they lived on themselves.

'They'd make great domain residents.'

Without thinking, Ian regarded them as the residents of his own domain.

He looked to see what they were carrying as weapons; it turned out to be farming tools.

There were hoes, sickles, shovels, and even a chainsaw. They must have just grabbed whatever was at hand at home.

Oh no—cutting open a slime's belly with those would be the perfect way to pollute the whole area...

Even if it wasn't as clear as Praeri, Mount Jiri's air was still refreshing.

According to Ahn Bin's memories, it was considered some of the cleanest air in Korea.

Did they really want to contaminate such clear air?

He couldn't just let that happen. He had to show them the proper way to catch a slime.

'But how should I capture a slime on Earth?'

On Praeri, he would use spell techniques to bind the slime so it couldn't burst, immobilize it, and then burn it from the inside.

If he were alone, he would have done it the usual way, but he needed a different method to show people.

'I need to cover it with something so it can't move, but an ordinary net would just let the slime pass through... There must be something better.'

Thinking, Ian leapt from the bamboo grove down toward the path where the people were.

"Oh! Ahn Bin, did you hear about the monster?"

The man in the lead asked when he saw Ian.

"Yes. I know. I'm out here to catch it."

"Did you see which way it went?"

"I saw it enter the bamboo grove, but it disappeared again."

"But you came out here empty-handed?"

"I rushed out after hearing the scream. But you shouldn't try to kill it with those farming tools."

Ian quickly formulated a response as he replied.

"What? We don't have guns, so what else can we do but bring pickaxes or whatever!"

"No, that's not it. We need to use another method. If you split open its belly, the area will get polluted."

"Polluted? That's the problem right now? We have to catch the monster first!"

"But if you do, farming will become impossible on this land."

The men murmured at Ian's words.

"Why is that?"

"But hey, how do you know about this kind of stuff?"

The men asked suspiciously.

That's when someone at the back of the group spoke up.

"Oh! That's right. They say the air in Seoul is a mess now because of pollution. After they caught a monster, the air went totally bad."

Everyone turned to look behind. Ian did too, and there was a girl who looked like a student, with short hair and wearing a tracksuit.

"Haeyeon, why did you come along for monster hunting?"

A man at the front walked toward the girl. Apparently, he was her father.

"I came to catch the monster, too."

"You're going to catch a monster?"

"I'm strong, you know. Look, I even brought a sickle. But anyway, that's not the important part..."

Stepping forward a few steps, Haeyeon continued.

"I looked on the internet this morning, and last night another monster appeared in Seoul, but this time the military caught it. But after the soldiers caught it, they threw up and got sick. They found out their lungs were damaged, and the air nearby had gone rotten too."

It was news that supported what Ian had been saying. Ian was secretly pleased.

"Is that true?"

"Young people really do get the news fast. If that's true, it's a big problem."

"Then how are we supposed to catch the monster? Are you saying we should beat it to death with our bare hands?"

The Internet—Earthlings trust in it absolutely, don't they? He would use that as an excuse. Ian immediately copied Haeyeon.

"I read about a hunting method on the Internet."

"Really? What is it?"

"You have to cover the monster so it can't move at all. Someone, go get a blanket made of synthetic fiber and a laundry line."

Actually, he'd just invented this Earth-style slime hunting method, using the information about synthetic fibers he picked up from Ahn Bin's memories.

"What? A blanket and a laundry line?"

The villagers were baffled. But since he was specifically requesting things, they seemed to think he had his reasons.

They decided to follow the instructions of the young return-to-farmer.

"Haeyeon, hurry to the house by the persimmon tree and bring a nylon blanket and a laundry line."

Haeyeon pouted in dissatisfaction, but in the end she went to fetch the blanket and line.

At that moment, there was a rustling sound from the bushes below the hill. The villagers seemed to miss it as they chatted, but Ian didn't.

"Shh!"

Ian pointed at the bush. The people immediately tensed and fell silent.

"I'll go in the middle. The rest of you, come down surrounding it from both sides."

Ian gave quiet instructions to the men and immediately entered the bush.

The village men looked at each other in surprise.

"Wow, was the young return-to-farmer always that brave?"

"Huh. Yeah, let's go in after him."

While the villagers entered a beat late due to their chatter, Ian quietly extended his energy and commanded the slime.

'Stay right there!'

This time, Ian's command got through. The moving bush bulged as the slime's form emerged.

"Gah! A monster!"

"There, over there!"

Suppressed cries came from behind Ian. Apparently, they couldn't help but let out some sort of scream.

Still, it seemed they had managed to form a formation flanking Ian, as he'd ordered.

Really, he just wanted to keep people away from him.

Ian parted the tall bushes and slowly advanced. The slime was completely still, not moving an inch.

Seeing it here on Earth, it was pretty big. Even with its body pressed flat, it was chest-high to a person.

After stopping a few steps away, Ian looked back. Haeyeon was just coming down the hill with the blanket and laundry line.

"Throw them!"

Ian shouted. Haeyeon rolled up the blanket and threw it with all her strength.

She really wasn't lying about being strong. Ian had expected it to fall short, but the blanket landed right at his feet.

Now it was Ian's turn.

He spread the blanket wide and flung it toward the slime.

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