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 Ba.s.s 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 Ba.s.s 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 fis.h.i.+ng 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 Ba.s.s 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 Ba.s.s jumped out .

‘It’s alive!’