Thinking rationally, I had no luck.
So even with two possible outcomes before me, I didn't give up.
The effect is different. The cases where ★ appeared were the same, but ★★ and ★★★ could each be different, right?
Please let it be ★★★.
If it finally breaks through the 1% probability after just 10 pulls, I was willing to use that thing till the end no matter what it was.
Please 3-star! 3-star!
But that future wasn't mine.
As the purple smoke settled, what appeared on the summoning circle wasn't a slime or slimefolk, but a corpse reeking of foul odor.
[Summon: High Ghoul (★★☆) has been summoned.]
"At least a 3-star came out."
Wow. A slime and a high ghoul—two 3-stars came out. Since there's three stars, that's two 3-stars. Hahaha.
"Fuck."
If the 4% one's gonna appear, couldn't it at least make me feel good by appearing as the 1%? It's really expert level at messing with people's feelings.
"No wait. It's not like I didn't fill up the slime squad. Right?"
Krrrk?
"You don't understand?"
Krrrrk?
The high ghoul tilted its head with its rotten arm dangling. Even if it doesn't understand my words, it should have enough intelligence to follow my orders.
[High Ghoul: An evolved form of ghoul. Harder than ghouls.]
"I don't even know what a ghoul is in the first place so what...."
Lightning suddenly struck my head. I opened 'Magic Stone Summon' and cheered at the updated summon list.
[Magic Stone Summon: Use magic stones to summon subordinates.]
[Slime 0 / 5 (Lowest)]
[Ghoul 0 / 10 (Lowest)]
[High Ghoul 0 / 10 (Low)]
[Currently summonable monsters: 3 types]
"How thoughtful."
It consumes nearly twice the lowest-grade magic stones as slimes, but probably because I summoned the high ghoul which is a higher species of ghoul, I can now summon the lower species too.
'Right. Since it's unhelpful anyway, at least there should be some fun in figuring things out.'
And I had several other matters to investigate. But I couldn't let the high ghoul sit idle during that time, so I took it outside the cave.
Scrape scrape.
The slimes were steadily gnawing at the walls from the top. Among them, the one working hardest was the slime dragon (to-be) I summoned with the monster summoning scroll.
Though its speed was slow, it was definitely breaking through the wall, and Lime was gnawing the wall most diligently at the front with its stem armband on.
The sight of it with its head buried in the wall and hands pressed against it looked almost admirable.
"Working so hard it's practically sparkling...."
Sparkling?
"Hey you bastard!!"
I ran over in one step and grabbed Lime's shoulder. Lime stood still with a half-ground magic stone in its mouth.
Gulp.
Lime swallowed the magic stone.
"Hehe, right. I told you to dig through the cave wall, but I didn't say not to eat whatever comes out in the middle, did I?"
Lime's movement stopped. At the same time, the other slimes stopped too.
"Well well, look at these guys."
The slimes had all leveled up a bit, probably thanks to eating magic stones. I felt both proud and pissed at these guys auto-leveling themselves.
Rising combat power is welcome, but I decline having potentially limited resources consumed without going through my management.
"Lime. Your squad, if magic stones come out while digging the cave, you gather them. You know what magic stones are, right? How should I get it out of you?"
Shake shake.
As expected of a guy who submitted to me because he didn't want to die, he's amazingly good at saving his own life. I rubbed Lime's face with my hand and declared.
"Lime. While digging the cave as I instructed, collect the magic stones from the slimes and gather them all. Next to my bed. Got it?"
Nod nod.
Lime nodded vigorously, and I ordered Lime squad to return to work.
'There weren't any when we were digging earlier.'
Why did magic stones pop out just when I started thinking I needed more? Or did these guys eat them before I could even see?
Squish, squish.
"...Seems like the latter."
After glaring at them for about a minute, one had a magic stone in its mouth. It popped the magic stone out of its body, and Lime picked it up and stored it in its body.
"Yeah, just do that. If the amount's low when I come back...."
Thud thud
Lime showed an example by banging its own head against the wall.
Since I gave one warning, they probably won't slack off. This time I'll let it slide since I didn't know magic stones came from the walls, but if there's a next time they really slack off....
'Then it really becomes Lime juice.'
Lime (★★☆☆) will become Lime (★☆☆). A 3-star slime dragon that listens well and works hard is better than a 4-star slime human that doesn't listen.
Anyway, when I come back, there should be some magic stones secured. Given my luck, probably only lowest-grade will keep coming out, but still, it's welcome that something's being created while breaking through the dungeon.
"Let's go, high ghoul."
Krrk.
I arrived at the cave entrance with the high ghoul. The wooden traps were already all destroyed.
'They did their job well.'
Making noise while breaking to alert of intruders' presence. I couldn't make decent traps with my own hands anyway, so traps were limited to this level.
'Would be nice to have goblins.'
When it comes to traps, aren't goblins the answer? But I used up all the monster summoning scrolls. So I'll have to aim for the next opportunity.
"High ghoul, remember this place well."
I cautiously exited the cave with the high ghoul while surveying the surroundings. Luckily there was no one outside, and I arrived at the logging site I'd set up with the high ghoul.
"Your mission is this, this."
I pointed at the trees Lime had felled by gnawing at their bases.
"Try lifting this."
Krrk.
The high ghoul tried to lift one tree, but its arm was about to fall off from lack of strength.
"Then try lifting this."
Krrk.
The high ghoul held a log chunk in one hand. It was exactly the size the system recognized as log chunks, and the high ghoul tucked log chunks at both its waist with its free hand.
"From now on, you stack log chunks of this size at the dungeon entrance. Just these log chunks here. Got it?"
Krrk.
I deliberately specified them one by one, and the high ghoul nodded, seeming to understand that much.
About twenty log chunks I designated. I tucked two at my sides too and sent the high ghoul ahead. The high ghoul looked around and started running toward one direction.
"As expected of native 2-star."
Luckily the high ghoul safely arrived at the dungeon entrance with the log chunks. I stacked the log chunks at the dungeon entrance, and the high ghoul also stacked log chunks following me.
"You can do this well, right? I trust you?"
Krrk.
The high ghoul waved both hands and turned around. The sight of it running precisely toward where the lumber was piled was clearly a diligent worker.
'If it does well, I should give it a name.'
Since it's a high ghoul, Hases.
I'm not a father anyway so it should be fine... right?
***
Even past lunchtime, the children didn't return.
Though a bit big to call children, they were fledglings who hadn't been long since their coming-of-age ceremony.
In the village adults' eyes, they were always immature young children, and their behavior was no different.
"No one's come back. Don't you think something happened?"
The missing youths' parents gathered in one spot in the square worrying about their children's safety. Even as the sun passed its zenith, the youths didn't return to eat lunch.
"Kids can play late sometimes! Isn't this when their blood runs hot? Just wait!"
Richard's father, the village chief, threw a tantrum and shouted.
The other parents were cowed by the village chief's authority as the village representative, but they still couldn't just sit still with their children in danger.
"Still, village chief. Isn't it strange that even Richard hasn't returned? He's a kid who shows up even when slacking off work as soon as it's mealtime."
"...Ugh, they probably hunted a pig or something! Instead of bringing it to the village to share, they're trying to eat it among themselves! Don't worry! Are there any dangerous monsters in this land? There aren't! Isn't that right, May that.... where's this woman?"
The chief looked for a woman named May. She was a widow who had raised her daughter Mary by herself, and she was the village's only mage. Mary was Richard's girlfriend. But May wasn't in the square.
"Maybe she's researching all night or something? It's her sleeping time now...."
"What mother sleeps when her daughter's gone missing?! Are you in your right mind?!"
At the chief's roar, Jack and Kai's parents cursed harshly inside. But the chief wasn't perceptive enough to notice, and he grumbled while knocking on May's door.
Bang bang bang!
"Lady! What are you doing! Sleeping?!"
The chief knocked so rudely. It was fortunate he even knocked at all.
Luckily there were signs of life inside. If someone didn't wake up after the chief knocked this loudly, it wouldn't be normal.
"...What is it.... yawn."
May, half-asleep as if just woken, greeted the chief with disheveled clothes. The valley visible between her disheveled clothes was quite deep, as expected of Mary's mother, but the chief gathered his wits and explained the situation.
"...Hmm, really? Then they'll be back before nightfall. Yaawn, what a fuss. I'm going back to sleep...."
Thud.
May was carefree, and seeing that, other parents wondered if they were overreacting.
"But village chief. Still...."
"Ugh, let's wait till evening! If they still don't show up then, we'll go look. Until then, finish your work! We're far from paying taxes!"
At the chief's urging, the villagers returned to work one by one with anxiety.
Until the time the sun crossed the mountain, they immersed themselves in work to forget their anxiety.
The youths didn't return.