Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 126: Slime Acid Production Experiment
【So what you’re saying is, the acid I obtained from the strong-acid slime can’t be used?】
Owen asked.
【Not exactly. I can give you a complete procedure to separate the different acids. But! The separation process is extremely troublesome, and it’d honestly be easier to just buy raw materials from elsewhere and synthesize them directly in the lab.】
Hearing Winston say this, Owen immediately lost interest in raising the strong-acid slime. It felt like he had wasted a lot of time for nothing.
【And to think I spent such a hefty sum hiring the Gemini Chamber of Commerce just to get my hands on a strong-acid slime…】
Owen shook his head, disappointed.
【Hey! Don’t be discouraged so quickly. The slime might not be entirely useless.】
【Oh? You mean you have another idea?】
【Well, I’m not completely certain yet. But let’s run a series of experiments with the strong-acid slime first and see.】
Winston suggested.
Since things had already come this far, Owen decided to carry it through to the end.
The first thing to clarify was whether the slime’s acid secretion was related to what it had eaten shortly beforehand.
For that, Owen prepared green vitriol (iron sulfate) and saltpeter (potassium nitrate) for testing.
He first fed the slime green vitriol, waited until it was fully digested, then stimulated it to extract acid.
The result: the acid that came out was thick and viscous, like oil, slow to flow.
Seeing this, Winston’s tone grew extremely excited.
【Oh-ho! This might actually be better than I expected. Owen, shake it up a few more times and extract several more samples. Let’s see what happens.】
【Alright.】
Following Winston’s advice, Owen stimulated the slime five times and collected five samples of acid.
However, with each extraction, the acid became less and less viscous, until the last batch flowed as easily as water.
Next, it was time to try feeding it saltpeter and extracting again.
But when Owen released the strong-acid slime from the clay jar, it was no longer plump and rounded. Instead, it sagged like a deflated pancake, sprawled weakly on the ground, barely clinging to life.
【This… it looks like you overdid the extraction. It’s on the verge of collapse.】
Winston said.
Not expecting such a turn, Owen felt a wave of regret. Clearly, extracting too much at once would endanger the slime’s life.
He had spent a fortune to get this slime, and he absolutely couldn’t let it die just for an experiment.
The experiment was cut short as Owen hurriedly brought a large platter of leftovers from the kitchen, along with water, and placed them before the slime, watching as it slowly absorbed the food into its body.
When Euchina returned from school and saw the slime in such a state, she panicked and ran to Owen.
“Big brother Owen, the pet in the courtyard looks sick!”
“The slime’s condition isn’t great, but I’ve already given it medicine. Don’t worry.”
Owen couldn’t bring himself to admit that it was his experiment that had pushed the slime to this state.
The next day, seeing it restored to its plump form, lively and energetic again, Owen finally let out a sigh of relief.
The experiments continued. This time, Owen limited himself to extracting only four samples from the strong-acid slime.
The first sample was pale yellow and emitted wisps of white vapor.
Seeing this, Winston immediately urged Owen to cover it tightly and store it away from light, saying the acid was volatile and needed careful handling.
After the experiment, the strong acid slime looked weak and listless, but it was much better than yesterday’s state. With some food and water, plus a bit of rest, it would recover quickly.
In total, Owen obtained ten samples of acid. He carefully divided small portions of each into tiny vials, labeled them, and then transferred them to Winston for analysis.
Here’s something important about the transfer process: the time interval between two transfers is directly related to the amount transferred in the previous one.
Simply put—the less you transfer, the shorter the cooldown time before the next transfer, and vice versa.
That was why Owen could proceed with a second transfer so quickly last time—he had only transferred a small portion of acid.
The test results soon came back, and Winston joyfully reported to Owen:
【The results are even better than I expected—quite surprising, actually.】
The experiments proved that what was fed to the slime was closely related to the composition of the acid it produced.
For example: Green vitriol, whose main component is ferrous sulfate. When fed to the strong acid slime, the resulting acid contained an extremely high concentration of sulfuric acid.
Especially the first batch—it could be used directly in a laboratory as concentrated sulfuric acid.
In the second and third extractions, the water content was higher, diluting the sulfuric acid. But through distillation, the acid could be purified into concentrated form.
From the fourth extraction onward, the acid resembled the first batch from the earlier experiment—various acids mixed together, troublesome to separate.
Feeding nitre (saltpeter) produced a similar result, except the main component of the acid was nitric acid instead.
Winston hypothesized that as long as the slime was fed with substances rich in a particular non-metal element, for a certain period, it would preferentially produce the corresponding acid.
- Sulfur from green vitriol → sulfuric acid.
- Nitrogen from saltpeter → nitric acid.
To test this, Owen tried feeding the slime pure sulfur. As expected, he obtained a viscous, oily liquid. No identification was needed—it was clearly sulfuric acid.
From now on, this method could provide an easy, endless supply of various high-purity acids.
One thing was now certain: after feeding the strong acid slime, it only needed to be stimulated three times to yield three samples of acid with different concentrations.
The next step was figuring out how to maximize acid extraction without killing the slime.
Winston enthusiastically proposed experimental plans, and just as Owen was about to proceed—an unexpected event occurred.
The strong acid slime… split apart.
To be precise, it had just undergone a reproductive division, becoming two smaller slimes.
Like single-celled organisms, slimes reproduce through this kind of asexual division.
The number of strong acid slimes had doubled—an unexpected boon.
However, this meant Owen now had to run new experiments: testing whether small slimes and large slimes produced different kinds of acid, or if the only difference was in quantity, and so on.
After completing this new series of experiments, Owen carefully summarized a complete plan for breeding strong acid slimes and maximizing their acid output.
Now it was time to recruit people to take over slime breeding for him. Once a sufficient scale of cultivation was established, the acid produced would be enough to meet both laboratory and industrial needs.
But who should he entrust this to?
Owen recalled a report about a commoner who had discovered a vampire. If he remembered correctly, that person was a cattle breeder… what was his name again?
Ah, right—Rona.
He would do. Owen would send someone to ask whether Rona was willing to work for the lord. Naturally, the pay would be generous.
Though raising cattle and raising slimes were worlds apart, at least Rona had some livestock experience.
In addition, Owen would ask Viru to construct a specialized farm for breeding strong acid slimes. As for the best location to build it—that was something that required careful discussion.