BXBX NOVEL Volume 4, 2 – Experiment
Volume 4, Chapter 2 – Experiment
In a room at the upper floor of the dungeon.
Smell of suspicious chemicals filled the air, and apparatuses of unknown use for many were scattered everywhere.
Elsie and I were in a room that looked exactly like a laboratory.
In the water tank-like vessel we have put in the center, we are mixing some chemicals and applying magic in it.
“Senpai, this is the last step”
“Elsie hands over a chemical in a test tube.
“I see. I beg you once more, please work”
I casted magic while pouring the contents.
Then, the mixed liquid turned green and started to wobble.
“Yes, we did it senpai!”
Elsie jumped in joy, but I noticed that the green viscous body was acting strange.
“Wait, Elsie. This is……Danger, get down!”
Suddenly, the movements of the viscous green goo became violent, and its volume started to expand.
“Hyaaaaa!? Wh-what”
“Damn it!”
I dragged the confused Elsie and hide in the cover of a magical shield I created with magic.
The next moment, the green goo that expanded to the limit reached about two meters, then it exploded.
Its body splattered everywhere, blowing down all our instruments with the impact of its explosion.
“Haaa, another failure……”
Confirming that everything had calmed down, I got up and muttered while looking at the now messy room.
“After all, it was too reckless to make creatures out of magic, senpai”
Elsie who also got up said with tears in her eyes.
One week has passed since that meeting, but we still haven’t yet created a single monster.
I felt like I’m on the verge of accomplishing it, but I always fail at the last step.
“Even though it’s senpai. I don’t think it’s possible to create a living creature out of just magic…… Isn’t it better to breed non-living monsters like golems?”
Elsie’s words also made sense.
There is still no precedent in this world for creatures made my magic alone.
Magic is said to be able to manipulate time and space amongst all things, but it cannot produce living things by itself.
Although various theories have been proposed for this reason, from most scientific to most magical to most spiritual and most mythological, it was an established theory that life cannot be created with it alone.
“While that’s certainly a well-known theory, this also means it is still yet to be proven, right?”
There is nothing impossible for me, the culmination of the Bain House, who is said to be the mother of all magic.
This challenge has my pride at stake.
I’m not the coward of the previous life anymore. I have been reborn.
Any man would want to accomplish his dreams if given a chance like me.
“Actually, my method is faring pretty well on the right track”
“Yes, senpai’s strategy of “intentionally creating a biological defect as an imperfect living creature” is shockingly 90% successful. The only problem is that it starts to collapse from the moment of birth and dies in a few seconds.”
Our objective this time is to create a slime monster without any intelligence and relies only on its instinct.
This alone should have reduced the hurdles considerably.
“I wonder what is missing”
“Right”
We are at a loss
Then, an unexpected savior appeared.
“Yahho~ how are you doing?”
Belle came in with her usually cheerful vibe.
“Uwaaa, quite a mess you got here”
The demon lord frowned upon seeing the devastation in the room.
“Just as you see, another failure. The slime exploded”
“How on this world did you make a slime explode!?”
That’s right, creatures don’t explode normally.
“Haaa, what are we gonna do about this……
“And, what do you need here, demon-lord-san?”
Did the continuous failures make her irritated? Elsie’s tone is stronger than usual.
“I was making hard-boiled eggs to eat with Dahlia a while ago, but I made too much and came to share with you all. I’ll leave it down here, so eat it later!”
Belle placed a basket with hard-boiled eggs on one of the undamaged desks.
“Oh, thank you”
I expressed gratitude with a tired voice.
“Don’t work yourselves too hard, okay? See you”
Belle said so and went out.
“Well, how about we take a grub for the time being?”
“Elsie’s hungry too……wow, this looks delicious!”
Though they don’t usually get along with each other, looks like it doesn’t matter in front of human hunger.
While thinking so, I took one hard-boiled egg.
‘Yep, this is pretty good”
As I ate a couple of eggs, my eyes were struck in the shells that we’ve peeled.
“……is it the egg? Shall I try it once?”
We were stuck in a deadlock anyway. It’s worth doing it in any way at this point.
“Okay. Elsie!”
“Cough! W-what is it, senpai?”
“Elsie coughed a bit, surprised by my sudden call.
“Oh, sorry. I just came up with a new way. We’ll experiment right away”
“As expected of senpai! To have already come up with a new method!”
“Don’t ready your tea yet. We still don’t know if it’ll work”
I told Elsie, and we started our preparations once again.
Then, a few days later……
“Now, we’ll just have to wait and see”
In front of me is a bunch of eggs in a boring case.
The new method is to hatch monsters from eggs.
These aren’t sized like ordinary eggs, but as big as an ostrich has. They’re monster eggs after all.
This was a common pattern in the games I used to play in my old days, but I never thought I’d actually hatch a monster in this second life.
“I think it’s a very novel method, senpai, after all, senpai is unique among others!”
Elsie worked hard too.
When this is over, success or not, we’ll take a break for the time being.
“Ah, S-senpai! The egg, it’s moving!!”
“What?”
Upon hearing Elsie’s words, I took a quick look at the case. One of the eggs is shaking.
And as we continued to watch, the other eggs began to shake as well.
“Good, Elsie. Let’s get this over with”
“Yes, senpai!”
Elsie and I took out a hammer each and started cracking the egg shell gently.
Cracking in a way that won’t hurt its contents, a green viscous body appeared from the inside.
We observed it further, but there was no explosion.
A slime was born.
“We did it, we did it, senpai!”
“Yeah, it seems that our change in characteristics has somehow gone well”
I tried to touch the slime with my fingertips, but it didn’t dissolve.
Also, after a couple of observations, we have observed that this slime only moves with my magic power.
In other words, it can only live inside this labyrinth.
If there’s no external help from the outside, it is not possible for one to be born.
“However, it is definitely a living thing. We still need to verify which conditions are its key to its success, bit for now, this is fine”
“Eh, why? This is the greatest discovery of the century, you know!?”
I understand what Elsie is trying to say, and I’m also happy that I succeeded.
“I’m not a researcher. As for its performance, this is already enough for me.”
I said so, soothing Elsie.
“I see, it can’t be helped then”
It’s good that she understands. I still have other things to do after all.
“That said, Elsie has something she wants to say to senpai”
Elsie suddenly drew herself closer, making me draw myself back by instinct.
“Wh-what is it?”
The mage apprentice smiled, then she continued.
“Elsie worked hard to help senpai. Elsie wants her reward”
“……Un”
I nodded to my assistant whose cheeks were tinged in a dye of red.
It was a perfect timing, as I have also gathered up quite a bit.
After that, Elsie and I left the room as it is.