Surprisingly Strong Fish

A few hours later.

‘…There’s nothing here.’

‘Nothing!’

The slimes and I said.

We had searched quite a lot, but there wasn’t a single Maneater Bass in sight.

I had heard that they could be difficult to kill, but I hadn’t heard anything about them being difficult to find.

…And yet the slimes having their detection ability dulled just a little bit was enough to keep them hidden.

As I wondered about this, a certain possibility came to me.

‘What if the Maneater Bass are at the bottom of the river?’

‘The bottom?’

‘Yeah. Isn’t there a part of this river that is very deep? A place that is deeper than 10 meters. Perhaps that’s why you can’t detect them?’

Upon hearing this, the slime said something very surprising.

‘Then, should I swim?’

‘…Slimes can swim?’

‘Uh…can anyone swim?’

One of the slimes asked—there was no answer.

Apparently, none of the slimes that were with me could actually swim.

‘Yes, we can’t swim!’

‘Right. Then I’ll think of a different way.’

I said. Then I used Shared Senses to borrow the slimes’ detection ability to search the area for other monsters—then I found a rat-type monster nearby.

‘It’s the perfect size. Let’s use that.’

I said as I began to chant.

‘Magic Transfer—Area Freeze – Medium.’

The rat monster was taken by surprise, and it froze in an instant.

Flash freezing. Perfectly fresh.

‘Can you bring that monster over here?’

‘Okay!’

After a few minutes, the slime returned to me.

And then it took the frozen rat out of storage.

‘Here!’

‘Ah, thanks.’

‘What are you going to use it for?’

The slime asked me doubtfully as it handed over the rat.

Monster rats were not good for food or for anything, really. Most people ignore them.

However, I had a use for it.

‘Like this.’

I said as I defrosted the monster rat—and then I cut it lightly to draw blood before tossing it into the river.

The slime seemed to understand then.

‘Bait?’

‘…I’m surprised you knew about that.’

You didn’t use bait without a trap or a fishing pole.

So I hadn’t thought that the slime would know.

‘Yes! Scary monsters use delicious leaves as bait! And then they eat slimes!’

‘My mom told me not to go close to strange leaves!’

I see. So there were monsters that trapped slimes.

They got evaporated by Lesser Fire Dragons and trapped by others—life as a slime could be hard, it seemed.

As I mused over that—a giant dark shadow appeared in the water.

It was the same shape as the Maneater Bass I had seen at the guild.

‘A monster!’

‘It took the bait!’

It seemed to be going well.

I should have done this in the first place.

I wouldn’t even have to transfer magic at this distance.

Still, magic involving bullets seemed like they wouldn’t reach it…

“Area Freeze–Medium.”

I chanted. And then a giants sphere of ice grew in the area that the shadow had been.

The river water within the area of effect had all turned into ice.

So now I knew that the area of effect for Area Freeze was a nice sphere.

And with that thought, I pulled out the sphere of ice from the water.

“All right, mission accomplished.”

That being said, I couldn’t bring the entire block of ice with me.

I had to break it somehow…

It was while I was thinking this, that cracks started to appear on the block of ice.

“Huh?”

Perhaps it would just break naturally.

I thought hopefully—and then the cracks began to spread.

Then there was a loud cracking sound, and then the block of ice cracked in half completely—and the Maneater Bass jumped out.

‘It’s alive!’