For the slime, tentacles were a useful skill in all sorts of ways. It could make bulging muscles and grow stronger by training with dumbbells. It could also stretch one out to indicate where it wanted to go, and during sparring with Paulen, it could now dodge sword strikes that had once been impossible to avoid in midair. Lately, its tentacles had even let it play with fun magical devices.

But even those tentacles posed a slight problem when it came to using this new device.

Imitating Gracie's fingers, it took hold of the magical device with two tentacles and tried to turn the crank.

The whole thing spun around.

'Huh?'

Without anything holding the cylinder steady, the device had turned along with the crank.

"Hahaha! Quivery, you have to hold this part still before you turn it."

'Adorable.'

Paulen laughed heartily at the slime's mistake, while Amelia privately thought it was cute.

Gracie, meanwhile, observed the slime through a researcher's eyes.

'It has intelligence, but lacks knowledge?'

'Hold it still!'

The slime immediately followed Paulen's advice. It held the device steady with one tentacle and tried to turn the crank with the other.

CREAK! CREAK!

WHOOOOOSH!

One tentacle was enough to turn the crank and get the device working. But the movement could hardly be called smooth.

Naturally, the straight crank was designed to be turned by gripping its upper and lower ends between a thumb and forefinger. With only one tentacle, the slime had no choice but to push against an end with some force. It disliked having to shove it with the tentacle muscles it had trained with Paulen instead of operating it as smoothly as Gracie had.

'This is awkward!'

If it was going to play, it really wanted to play properly.

CREAK! CREAK!

So even after getting the wind-producing magical device working, the slime didn't enjoy the breeze. Instead, it kept moving the crank with its tentacle, turning the device off and on.

"Um... Why is it doing that?"

Watching the slime repeatedly turn the device off and on instead of doing what she'd expected, Gracie asked Amelia and Paulen.

"I'm not sure. It was happy when it got it..."

'Why is it angry?'

Having spent some time with the slime, Amelia could sense that it was angry now.

Just then, the slime suddenly bounced up from the tabletop and landed on the magical device.

"Quivery?"

Perched on the device, the slime used its two tentacles to grip the crank's upper-right and lower-left ends and tried to turn it.

But it rolled right off!

Perhaps the slime was lighter than it had thought, because the moment it tried to turn the crank, the device rotated and sent it tumbling down.

'Adorable!'

'S-so cute.'

To Amelia and Gracie, the sight of it tumbling while trying to do something delivered an unexpected, irresistible burst of cuteness. Naturally, some of the viewers watching felt the same way.

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶Aaaaaah! So adorable~!

▶Hahaha, failed, didn't you?

▶So round, it rolls perfectly, lol.

[Slam First Ask Later]▶Reminds me of my kids falling off me while playing on top of me.

▶What do they play now?

[Slam First Ask Later]▶They only play with each other.

▶Hey, lol, don't tease the dad who's getting left out, hahaha.

[Slam First Ask Later]▶I'm not getting left out!!!

▶Yeah, sure, if you say so, hahaha.

"Ah, so that's what it was."

While the two women were distracted by its cuteness, only Paulen understood what the slime was trying to do.

"What's what?"

"Saintess, Quivery wants to turn the crank properly."

"Turn it properly?"

"Unlike the water-producing device, you operate this one by turning a crank, don't you?"

Paulen took hold of the magical device the slime had climbed onto and spoke to it.

"Quivery, I'll hold it steady. Try turning it."

'Okay!'

The slime bounced down from the device and began turning the crank with its tentacles.

CLICK!

WHOOOOOOSH!

The slime quivered with delight at the feel of the crank turning just right, without any unnecessary force. This time, rather than turning the crank back to switch it off, it began playing with the strength of the breeze.

CLICK! CLICK!

WHOOOOOOOSH!

"It's having fun now. Was it really doing that because it wanted to turn the crank properly, like you said, Paulen?"

"You'd find it awkward too if someone told you to turn this by pushing it with just one finger, Saintess."

"When you put it that way, I understand."

'It isn't merely intelligent enough to use magical devices—it found this awkward. And although it didn't succeed, it even thought up its own way to solve the problem... Its use of magical devices is one thing, but this slime itself could be the subject of a paper!'

For the first time in a long while, Gracie's eyes blazed with a fierce thirst for knowledge.

Smartass watched her face through the screen. Seeing his descendant rely on magical devices to boost herself as a mage had dealt him mental damage in all sorts of ways, but seeing her so full of scholarly enthusiasm warmed his heart.

'If only she'd put that passion into developing her actual abilities instead of boosting herself with magical devices!'

But he couldn't very well appear before her right now and start giving unsolicited advice. Shifting his gaze from Gracie to the slime, he thought,

'Hmm. Surely it could turn that crank easily if it used more tentacles. Is two its limit? Or has it genuinely not thought of that?'

During the journey to slay the black dragon, the slime had seen unusual slimes a few times. Among them had been slimes capable of producing several tentacles.

'They were stronger than ordinary slimes, but they looked peculiar. In terms of strength, Squishy is far stronger.'

So couldn't this slime do it too?

Smartass looked at the chat window and typed a message.

[Free Spirit]▶Squishy! Couldn't you turn it properly if you made more tentacles?

▷Make more?

The slime immediately responded to Smartass's suggestion.

[Free Spirit]▶Yeah, more tentacles would make it easy to turn. Couldn't you hold the device steady with one and turn it with the other two?

▶Sounds plausible.

▶This guy... Was he a genius all along?

▶Genius, my ass, hahaha.

[Squishy Queen]▶Now that you mention it, more tentacles would have done the trick.

▶How did you forget that? Lol.

▶Someone else knows your own species better than you, hahaha.

[Squishy Queen]▶Silence! In time, I shall teach my kin something more useful than tentacles!

▶Yeah~ But if you can't do it now, you're useless, aren't you?

▶When are you going to teach something useful? (Genuinely asking.)

[Squishy Queen]▶Shut up!!!

As the chat grew noisy again, the slime sank into thought.

'A tentacle... One more...'

If it made another tentacle, how should it make it? Where should it grow the tentacle?

"Quivery?"

"Why has it suddenly stopped again?"

"I'm not sure this time, either..."

The three looked puzzled at the slime, which had suddenly become lost in thought. Then Paulen's thumb and forefinger, holding the device steady, caught its eye.

'Fingers!'

The slime decided where to produce its new tentacle. There was no need to grow it directly from its body. Thinking it only needed to make as much as necessary, where it was needed, the slime concentrated mana in its right tentacle.

'Nnnnnngh!'

POP!

Another short tentacle sprouted from its right tentacle.

The slime tapped Paulen's hand with its left tentacle, then thrust its right tentacle up high to show off the new growth.

"What? Your tentacle grew another tentacle? Aha, so you're going to do it yourself with that now?"

'Yes!'

It bounced.

Unlike Paulen, who immediately grasped its intention, Amelia and Gracie blinked at the slime's tentacle with its new offshoot.

"Quivery, you could do this too?"

"Even you didn't know, Saintess?"

"I've never seen it use them like this before."

'Intelligent enough to recognize an inconvenience and immediately use its own skill to solve it! This slime really is absurd. If I write papers about the various magical devices a slime like this uses... I-I won't have to worry about funding until I die of old age!'

Gracie felt as though the hope she already harbored had grown even greater and shone more brilliantly.

"All right, Quivery. Give it a try."

When Paulen switched off the device and placed it on the table, the slime immediately tested its new tentacle. First, it stretched out its left tentacle and wrapped it around the device to hold it steady. Then it gripped the upper and lower ends of the crank with its right tentacle. Using the strength of the tentacle muscles it regularly trained with Paulen, it twisted the crank.

CLICK!

WHOOOOOSH!

The magical device worked exactly the way the slime wanted it to.

'It worked!'

Quivering with delight, the slime immediately extended its tentacles to lift the device overhead and direct the breeze toward itself. The wind blowing straight down brushed pleasantly over its body.

'That feels nice!'

Even without it bouncing, the way the slime's soft body bobbed up and down made its delight obvious. Those squishy movements tugged at the two women's hearts even more.

'Adorable!'

'Cuteness that makes observing it worthwhile...'

CLICK! CLICK!

WHOOOOOOOOSH!

'So refreshing!'

With its new tentacle, the slime enjoyed the wind-blowing magical device to the fullest.

+++

Tartan, the city of duels and gambling, home to the colosseum.

Before the Black Dragon Festival preliminaries began, the competitors had gathered in the waiting room.

"Is that Valdis the Bloodstained over there? I knew he'd enter this Black Dragon Festival."

"Ha! I didn't expect to see you here, Padiar. I'll get to see how much your hammer skills have improved."

"Hey, look over there. That's the monstrous rookie adventurer who's been making a name lately."

"Shot straight up to B-rank at that young age, didn't they? What was the nickname—Snowflake Fist?"

The competitors in the waiting room began whispering as they looked over the others gathered there. With nothing to do until the preliminaries started, sizing up famous competitors and snickering was the most entertaining way to pass the time.

Godric's Party was in that waiting room too.

"..."

Unusually, the members of Godric's Party stood with solemn expressions instead of talking among themselves. A few of the more talkative competitors turned their attention toward them.

"Who are those guys?"

"No idea. Never seen them around here."

"Must have come from far away. But... there's something different about their expressions."

"You're right. I can tell. Only men who've experienced brutal battlefields wear faces like that."

"Heh heh. This Black Dragon Festival is going to be interesting."

Solemn as their expressions were, their ears were still open, and Godric's Party could hear the conversation about them.

'Brutal battlefields...'

'Ugh. It was a brutal battlefield, all right.'

'We overcame it. We made it through! Those hellish days.'

'Right now, I feel like I could w-win against anyone!'

'Because we survived Big Sis Marin's hellish special training!'

Godric's Party wore those solemn expressions because the three days of special training Nellin had put them through before the preliminaries had sent their pride soaring.

["Oh? You blocked it? Then try blocking this too. Here! I'm going faster now! How about this? How about this? How about this one!"]

["Ah~ That's not it! Here! You need to center your weight here and move your body to dodge! What's the point of being such a beanpole? Use that body! Who are you calling a nagging old fossil? Get over here!"]

["Your dodging patterns! Are too predictable! Move farther! With more variety! Move!"]

["Our dear Def~ You've got plenty of places to hit, so we ought to toughen you up this time, shouldn't we? You're the one I'm fondest and proudest of, so I'm telling you not to go down easily. You know that, right?"]

Remembering those three days of hell, every member of Godric's Party shuddered and broke into a cold sweat.