Chapter 45
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Director - 8
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I met Koon at the promised time.
For some reason, Delion, who should have been off-duty, was with him.
"I told you not to even joke about it."
"Sorry. I didn't think it would actually happen like I said."
"Yaaawn... I'm dying of sleepiness..."
The offhand joke I'd thrown out yesterday as a gag had taken root.
To fill the shortfall in footage, a nicely spectacular incident had erupted.
Thanks to that, Delion had to don his armor again without even a few hours of sleep after his shift ended.
"It's about time for it to show up seasonally. It's been quiet for a while."
"First, let's head out to identify what kind of monster it is."
Koon had blocked the forest entrance with log barricades and rushed to the scene.
"Ah, what about that thing you mentioned before? The situation isn't great for filming right now..."
"We'll handle the filming ourselves, so you can focus on dealing with this."
The only monsters on the first floor were slimes inhabiting the damp forest interior.
With just one type of monster, they only handled one kind of subjugation request.
But sometimes, like now, a different type would appear inside the village.
It was a phenomenon that popped up whenever you'd forget about it, and the guards sprang into action swiftly according to their manual.
"If we need a receptionist too, how about filming all three of us in one scene while we're at it?"
"What about the footage we recorded last night?"
"This is way better. If we do everything the same way, the video will get boring."
The director suggested including Delion, Koon, and even Ellie in one scene.
He was saying to scrap Delion's daily routine shot under the dark sky without regret.
"I wonder if Ellie's ready."
"I showed her all the footage we've gathered so far. She seemed to be practicing on her own."
Practicing?
It wasn't the last sequence I'd asked for, but I hoped the time that had passed was enough to loosen her up.
The director activated the camera and followed behind the guards.
"Koon! Scout the monster's appearance! I'll tie its feet down!"
The two divided their roles.
Delion drew his weapon to confront the massive monster, and during the time he bought, Koon had to identify its features and relay them to Ellie.
Of course, "tying its feet" was just a figure of speech.
The thing didn't have anything resembling feet.
Slimes didn't have limbs.
"Anything to identify? Isn't it just a bigger slime with a different color?"
"It's a slime. But do you know what kind?"
"What are you talking about? A slime's a slime."
"You'll see when you look it up."
Koon raised his right hand above his head and gave the signal.
"Got it."
"Good. Let's head to the request office."
Opening the door to the request office, I saw Ellie standing in front of the mirror.
She spotted us and her cheeks flushed bright red in an instant.
"D-Did you see?"
"See what?"
"N-Nothing! Here for requests today too, right?"
Ellie hurriedly moved to the other side of the reception counter.
"Looks like you were practicing in front of the mirror just now. I always see you preparing like that in your spare moments."
"How would you know that?"
"I've come here often to show footage to the receptionist. You pretend nothing's up when I walk in, embarrassed about mumbling to yourself in the mirror, but it's obvious."
She must have been hung up on how overly tense she'd been during the last shoot.
"Ellie. About that filming we postponed last time... can we do it now?"
"R-Right now? Uh... I'm all prepared! So the director came along for the shoot."
"There's one more besides the director."
Koon approached the counter.
"Oh? Guard Koon's here too?"
"Miss Ellie, we need to prepare a new request."
Ellie's round eyes widened.
"That means...?"
"Yes. A monster has appeared in the village."
"Hold on! Where did I put the dictionary?"
She rummaged through a drawer and pulled out a thick dictionary from inside.
The large letters reading Slime Dictionary caught my eye.
"There are this many types of slimes?"
"We record every new slime we discover in here. First, we need to check if this one's a new species."
Her solo practice had paid off; there were no mistakes like last time.
She led the proceedings smoothly without any stumbles.
"Koon, could you tell me all the features you observed?"
"It was light blue in color. It had a crown-like ornament on its head, and hexagonal scale fragments covered about half its body."
"That narrows it to about four candidates. Do you remember what its eyes looked like?"
"Not round like regular slimes—more like half-lidded, thin, and slanted."
"No other decorations?"
"That's right."
The candidates narrowed to one.
Ellie flipped to a page in the dictionary and pointed at the illustration with her finger.
"Found it! It's not a new species."
"What's its name?"
"Lazy Ice King Slime! This one!"
With the monster identified, it was time to create the request.
"That's an over-the-top name for a first-floor monster. And 'lazy' is a personality trait."
"They all have different expressions."
"Does that mean something?"
The director's curiosity was brushed off lightly.
"Now we write up the request form. It needs the monster's name and appearance, plus appropriate compensation."
"How much are you thinking?"
"Considering the value of the Lazy Ice King Slime's core and the subjugation difficulty... this should be good."
Lazy Ice King Slime Subjugation《RARE》
· Goal - Defeat Lazy Ice King Slime (0/1), Lazy Ice King Slime Core (0/1)
· Reward - 1500 Coins, 2000 EXP
"Once we post the request like this, adventurers can take it freely!"
The director nudged my side with his elbow.
"Me?"
"Who else is there to take it?"
The director had to hold the camera, and Sua revealing she lived on the first floor wouldn't be good.
Just me, huh?
"We're filming so your face doesn't show anyway. A bit of your arm is fine, right?"
"That much is whatever."
There was no info about regression in the video anyway, so appearing was no issue.
I took one step forward toward the counter.
"We have one adventurer here to accept the request!"
"Yes. I'm here to accept the request."
Ellie explained the request details skillfully.
Unlike the generic slime extermination requests overflowing in the damp forest, this was rich with precise information.
How strong the monster was.
Its strengths and weaknesses.
"As the name suggests, it's an ice-attribute monster. Weak to fire attacks! It has typical slime traits, so it's vulnerable to blunt force over slashing, and piercing the core is the best strategy if possible. Also, its lower body is covered in ice scales, so target the upper part."
The dictionary recommended five adventurers for subjugation, but we couldn't gather that many now, and I was sufficient alone, so she skipped it.
"The Lazy Ice King Slime is a very powerful monster. If not subjugated within a day, it'll cause massive damage to the village."
"Understood."
"Please defeat the one Lazy Ice King Slime that appeared in the village and bring back its core!"
Ellie extended both hands holding the request form.
I took it, and the director centered it in the frame.
"Good. Let's cut here for now."
"It's over?"
"We've got what we need to film here. We'll pick up after you catch the slime with the reward scene."
"Phew... I thought I was gonna die of nerves."
Ellie's legs nearly gave out; she barely propped herself up by draping her arms over the counter.
"Must've practiced a lot in front of the mirror. You didn't even shake this time."
"P-Practice? I didn't do any! I just... referenced how others do it."
"Hmm, sure."
"I-It's true! What's with that look? Did you seriously watch everything from outside earlier?"
Her voice pitched higher in fluster.
"Ugh, my face is burning. I shouldn't have practiced at all."
"Thanks to that, we nailed it in one take."
"I practiced thinking it'd be a forest slime, but a new monster showed up, so I couldn't use most of my lines."
The director skimmed the footage and commented.
"Maybe it turned out better because you weren't overprepared."
"...You think?"
"Memorizing lines makes you more camera-conscious. In unprepared situations, you focus purely on natural conversation."
"Kinda makes sense. But my role isn't done yet, so too early to relax?"
Koon cautiously tapped my shoulder.
"Earthbound Spirit. Shouldn't we hurry now?"
"Huh?"
"While we're dawdling, Delion's holding off the monster alone."
Ah.
Forgot.
"Koon! It's been ages since I sent you—why are you just now getting here?!"
"S-Sorry. Because of the filming..."
"That damn filming! My hands are freezing solid!"
"Earthbound Spirit! Let's join in!"
The director's camera was rolling behind us.
He said no faces, so he was probably focusing on Koon and Delion.
One shot would suffice, but that wouldn't give the footage he wanted.
Just enough to be noticeable, without stealing the spotlight.
The video's star wasn't me, after all.