"The Man Picked Up by the Gods" is a work in the so-called "Narou" genre. It was posted on the novel posting site "Let's Become a Novelist", and was made into an anime in 2020, and a new series will be broadcast in 2023, which is a hot topic. In the story, the protagonist studies slime, and slime is an indispensable part of the story. This time, I would like to explain about slime!
What kind of story is it?
Ryuma Takebayashi, a middle-aged office worker, was working for a black company and was living a very sad life, being all alone in the world. One day, he dies suddenly from a sneeze while sleeping. After his death, he is transferred to another world by the grace of the gods, and begins living alone in the forest under their generous protection. He meets a duke family who cares about his life, and then he starts living in the city. In the city, he uses his experience in slime research while living alone to do business, solve problems as an adventurer, and do various other things.
What on earth are slimes?
A type of squishy magical beast. It belongs to the bottom of the ecosystem in the other world. In the wild, they cannot even eat a decent meal, but if they are properly fed in a managed captive environment, they will evolve. Although many details such as the conditions for evolution have yet to be clarified, the details were revealed through the research of the main character Ryoma Takebayashi, and as a result, a new species of slime was created. Slimes have the following characteristics: when more than 100 slimes combine together, they become big slimes; when more than 500 slimes combine together, they become huge slimes; when more than 1000 slimes combine together, they become a higher species called king slimes; and their skills also evolve. Since contracts usually require one slime at a time, it is not possible to make a contract with big slimes or huge slimes, which are formed by the merging of many slimes. When slimes combine together, they become larger, but they also have the skill to shrink, so they can be shrunk smaller. Furthermore, they can be separated back into their original individual form before they combined. Slimes have different food preferences, and they evolve differently depending on what they like. The word "slime" itself appears in other anime, manga, games, etc., but the position of slimes varies greatly depending on the work.
About types of slime
Furthermore, by giving them weapons, their combat abilities will increase and they will be able to acquire skills according to the weapon they are holding. Acid slimes specialize in digestive abilities and are useful for digesting things that are hard to digest, such as animal bones and horns. In addition to being able to develop compounds and medicines using the acid used for digestion, they can also be used as traps. Poison slimes are slimes that have been fed poisonous plants and are resistant to poison. Although there are few individuals that can withstand poison, they have the characteristic of dividing faster than other slimes. Scavenger slimes are a new type of slime that eats grass, excrement, and garbage, and are useful for cleaning jobs. The scavenger slime was born when Ryouma, who was dissatisfied with the bad smell in a place that was both a toilet and a garbage dump, got the idea from seeing slimes swarming around rotting animal corpses. Slimes themselves are excellent, but Ryouma, who came up with such a way to use slimes, is also very good.
Slime business development? ?
There are also cases where the power of slime has been useful not only in daily life and battle, but also in business. Cleaner slimes are a new type of slime that has evolved by feeding slime dirty water. It especially likes human sweat and sebum, and creates a deodorizing liquid with deodorizing capabilities. It has the characteristic of only eating dirt, and is an excellent product that can easily remove goblin-related odors and dirt that are generally said to be difficult to remove. This slime later became useful as it was the trigger for Ryouma to open a laundry shop. Also, as they grow, they acquire the cleaning skill of absorbing and carrying unnecessary things into their body, collecting them in one place, and cleaning up the area. There are many more types of slime, so I would like to continue explaining them in the next chapter!
There are still more! Unique slimes
Sticky slime evolves when slime is fed a magical beast called Green Caterpillar. It has a powerful sticky liquid and the skill to harden it, and can create thread, which is useful for hunting, traps, and sewing thread. Heal slime is a new type of slime that evolves the day after a wounded slime is healed and saved. Although their combat power is so low that they can even be defeated by normal slimes, they are specialized in enduring. As the name suggests, they use healing magic, and in addition, they have a skill to strengthen vitality. Basically, they only consume water, but they can photosynthesize like plants, so when they are exposed to light, they can create nutrients in their bodies. Metal slimes feed on metals such as iron. Because their bodies are made of metal, they are strong, but they move slowly and do not like acid. They also have the characteristic of changing shape according to the movement of the hand when stroked. Iron slimes are slimes that evolved by feeding them red soil (iron) that was discarded in mines. Their skills are similar to metal slimes, but their hardening level is slightly higher. In addition to being as useful as metal slimes, they are trained to transform into weapons and are sometimes carried as equipment by Ryoma.
Slime's Great Discovery of the Century!
Among the slimes that appear in the work, there is a type called bloody slime. Bloody slimes are slimes that have skills such as blood-sucking and death simulation. In addition to using his blood-sucking ability to work in a meat processing plant, Ryoma has gained resistance to poison by ingesting poisoned blood, and has also gained antibodies by ingesting diseased blood, allowing him to fight both poison and bacteria. He has succeeded in creating the first serum in the world of the story. With a serum, many lives can be saved in the medical field. It's surprising that such a serum was created from slime research, beyond just being useful.
Slimes Summary
In the story, there are various types of slimes, and they are indispensable not only in battle and recovery, but also in everyday life. Ryoma's talent as a researcher, who is able to notice the characteristics of slimes and use them to his advantage, as well as the slimes themselves, shows that he is an excellent researcher. I'm sure we'll see more of Ryoma's relationship with slimes in the second season, so let's look forward to it!
