「All right! Well, um… What do you think? Friends, then?」
I found myself asking the big guy this.
It was kind of…no, really embarrassing to put it like that.
I'd have been blushing right then, if I could.
Veldora: 「Wh-what? A mere slime, daring to seek the friendship of the mighty beast feared worldwide as Veldora the Storm Dragon?!」
Yeah, I expected as much. I mean,I just asked such a weird question out of the blue.
Who wouldn't seem suspicious?
「Oh, um, you don't have to if you don't want, but…」
Veldora: 「You fool! You foolish fool!! Who said anything about not wishing it?!」
Seriously? What's with him? A minute ago, he was bragging about his world achievement, and now he's…
Veldora: 「Oh, no? Okay, so, um…now what?—Mmm, indeed… If you insist…I suppose I could consider it…」
What's this I see?
I could feel him sneaking furtive glances at me.
Really?
It would have been one thing if it had been a cute girl sitting next to me at the movie theater, but it was quite another when it was death-dealing mythical beast.
It's not fun… —Pretty funny, though.
Sariel: 「You could always make more friends, you know?」
Veldora: 「No need! I have you already. How do you think my sisters would feel if they saw me playing with a slime.」
Sariel: 「You know, being a tsundere has never been a thing for dragons. Besides, the more the merrier, right?
As you experienced some time ago, I'm not always going to be around, so it's good to have lots of friends, right?」
The dude who was with us earlier arrived.
I wonder what he did on his way out?
But—wait, he gave me a chance!
I shot him an appreciative glance; that's if he even noticed my expression.
「Yep. I insist. It's settled! And if you don't like it, then watch out, 'cause I'll never come back!」
Sariel: 「I'm also gonna be busy with some forest management. You gotta let up, dude. (Besides, I'll have this slime babysit Veldora whilst he's at it).」
Veldora: 「Hmph!—Fine, so be it. I will become your… friend. I do hope you appreciate the gesture!
Hehe, be honored!」
I wondered whether I could manipulate the other three
dragons he mentioned like this.
I was made to exploit people, and he was made to be exploited. It's a perfect match!
Well, for the femboy, he seems to be a trickster in his own league. Better watch out for him.
「Well, to future times, then!」
Veldora: 「Indeed! To future times!」
「What of you? Wanna be friends and stuff?」
This feels so awkward.
But…
Sariel: 「Me? Heh. I'm too cool to hang out and around with some lame-ass characters with shitty backstories. But if you beg me, I'll reconsider.」
「.... How old are you, man?」
Sariel: 「*Sigh* Forget I said that. You've got my interest.」
「Is that a yes?」
Sariel: 「Your interpretation. But sure.」
Seriously, what's with these two? I thought he was cooler or something. He's just like the dragon.
Is he still mad at me for that gender misconception? I'll apologize for that later.
At least he accepted my friend request.
Veldora: 「…Ah, yes! Now that you're done, allow me to give you a name. In exchange, you will give one to us each.」
Huh? Why? Where'd that come from?
Veldora: 「It shall chisel into our souls the fact that we are of the same rank.」
Sariel: 「Hm? What are you up to now, Veldora?」
Veldora: 「Something similar to the family names the humans use—except my name—for him—will also provide a kind of divine blessing.
He's still nameless now, but through this, he'll will become a full-fledged named monster.」
Sariel: 「Weren't you the same guy acting all high and mighty?」
Veldora: 「You did no different! Besides, I've never tried this before. You gave me my name, you remember?」
Sariel: 「Ahh, yes, the old times...」
The old men were lost in thought—probably thinking of their bond or something, but I had to step in.
「Hey. You said I should find some cool name for you, right?」
Veldora: 「Yes!」
Mmmm.
So, in short, he wanted me to come up with a common name for us to share?
—And in exchange, I'd get my own name and all the benefits of named monster status?
「Hmm, what of you?」
Sariel: 「…Veldora, you know, it would seem weird that you have a second name, but I don't. You better make sure I don't regret this.」
Better think up something good. I'm terrible at this stuff…
The dude doesn't seem really happy with this. Perhaps he was afraid that I'd come with some shitty name.
Well, the expression on his face when I do that would be priceless, but I don't want to enter some dangerous situation.
Let's see… Hmm!!
「Well, you said you were a storm dragon, so… I dunno, "Tempest"
or something?」
Ugh. Kind of on the nose, I know, but it sounded cool to me.
Even so, does Veldora Tempest go well? Sariel Tempest? I don't think so, I hope they aren't mad or—
Veldora:「Perfect! So be it! A wonderful timbre to that title, yes.」
He liked it?!
Veldora: 「From this day forward, they will call me Veldora Tempest! And
you… You will be called Rimuru.
Proclaim to the world that your
name is Rimuru Tempest!」
Sariel: 「Huh, youre Rimuru? That's… weird.」
I looked over to the femboy who gave me a complicated gaze.
Rimuru: 「Hm? Now, now, what's with you? I was just named, but you're already like—"I've seen you before!" What's up?」
Sariel: 「Ahh, sorry. You just reminded me of someone. (Chloe is in love with a slime? That's a new fetish…).」
Veldora: 「Heh, hey, what do you think of it!? Doesn't it sound cool?! Sariel Tempest… Sariel Tempest... Yes, it sounds wonderful!!」
Sariel: 「You're only excited because it has something in relation to your nature.」
Veldora: 「Kuhahahaha!! That's right! But do you have a better suggestion?」
All eyes turned to the person the question was thrown to.
It would be nice to learn from an expert. Let's see what he's got.
Sariel: 「Seeing as I once named a demon of mine after a gun type, I surrender. I guess it's okay.」
Wait, am I hearing it right? He named a person after a gun?
Who does that?
But let's not touch on that now. We got the name issue over with, so it's cool.
The name was carved into my soul. Not that it did too much to me or my abilities. But somewhere, deep inside my soul, something did change a bit.
I suppose the same could be said of Veldora and Sariel. And that's how we all became friends.
Well, it was time to get going, I supposed. But before that:
Rimuru: 「Hey, so I had something I wanted to ask before I left, but…can't you do anything about that seal on you?」
Veldora: 「Not with my powers, no. Someone with a unique skill on the same level as the hero's would be necessary for there to be even a chance.」
Sariel: 「You don't have any, Veldora? I figured you'd get one since then.」
Veldora: 「..... Not that I don't have any, but now that I am sealed of , I can access none of them.
Telepathy is about all I can manage at the moment.」
The hero's 『Unlimited Imprisonment』 could hold its target captive in an infinite number of imaginary spaces for all of time.
It wasn't some weak barrier that would allow casual interference with the real world.
Looking back, it should have struck me as strange that Telepathy was possible, even.
It wasn't the sort of thing that would break down over time—but given that he could have any contact with the real world, and even exchange messages, perhaps it said more about Veldora.
None of us noticed this at the time, though.
Rimuru: 「Well, here, let me try something…」
I rolled over to Veldora and tapped my body against him.
«Invoking unique skill Predator to consume unique skill 『Unlimited Imprisonment』…Failed.»
Yep! I figured as much, but no, I certainly wasn't on the hero's caliber.
With a dazzling light, my unique skill tried to do its work but weakly bounced off without any further comment.
I thought it might have made a
small rip, but that was all. The barrier would repair itself shortly, no doubt.
I was hoping that unique skill on unique skill would result in
something, but it didn't.
Was there anything I could do, though? Something…?
«Received. The individual Sariel is capable of breaking this barrier with relative ease.»
Hm? What's this now. He must be strong as hell.
But does he have a reason for not helping?
They seemed to be close friends.
«Received. Partial Analysis of unique skill 『Unlimited Imprisonment』 complete. Reporting a potential escape route.»
Eh? Go on.
«Any escape involving a physical body is not possible. The chance of destroying the prison
by physically damaging it is zero.
Cannot analyze an escape route involving the annulment of
imaginary space.
One would need to be caught within the same 『Unlimited Imprisonment』 situation in order to analyze it from the inside.
This is currently impossible.
The chance of escaping in spiritual form is one percent.
If a spiritual form is prepared for the target on the outside to aid in the transition,
the success rate is three percent.
This process is equivalent to transmigration. If the target is poorly compatible with the physical form, he will lose all memories and abilities.
This concludes the report on potential escape routes.»
—Hmm. Kind of low numbers, it sounds like.
『Unlimited Imprisonment』looked like nothing more than a transparent membrane from my perspective…but physical damage did nothing against it?
Maybe it had some kind of insurmountable defense attached to it, for all I knew.
Rimuru: 「Hey, did you lay any damage on this hero at all? Or vice versa?」
Veldora: 「Ah, I am glad you asked! Most of my attacks were evaded, but I did land several direct hits…which, I regret, had no effect on her.
Death-Calling Wind, Dark Lightning, even Storm of Destruction had no effect, despite being completely unavoidable. A total loss…」
All I could do was laugh!
Veldora then accentuated the point with a loud, hearty guffaw.
It sounded as though you could also use this 『Unlimited
Imprisonment』 skill to cover your own body, making a shield to
protect from external attacks.
Pretty handy thing to have around. This hero was starting to sound downright omnipotent.
Between that and Absolute Severance, she was all but invincible, wasn't she?
I really wouldn't want to run into her…but then, I wouldn't have to.
I would have liked to assume she had died in the ensuing three hundred years, at least.
Either way, she was one tough character.
So if I was going to get him out of here, it would be through
transferring his consciousness into a new body, huh?
Rimuru: 「I guess I need some kind of physical body to get you out of here.
Even if it's in spirit form only, it sounds like it oughta be possible… right?」
There's no point telling him what kind of odds he had to go on.
I'd just be hurting Veldora further if I dampened his spirits.
Sariel: 「Well, from what I know, there is a way out of there. It's gonna be tricky, is all. Your energy…」
Veldora: 「Mm? There is a way out of here?! Indeed… I feel my magical force will exhaust itself by no later than a hundred years from now.
My magic continues to flow out of me, even now.」
Rimuru: 「Yeah? So that's why there's such a concentration of it around here…」
Sariel: 「Indeed. Even high-class monsters would not dare approach. You saw how there were no weeds on the ground?
The sort of plants that can thrive in this area are very rare indeed.」
Right. I recalled all the hipokute herbs I'd churned through over my short life. It was that valuable, huh?
Rimuru: 「If I'm right, you can probably bust him outta here. Why?」
Sariel: 「It's important that I stay out of this. Trust me.」
Rimuru: 「Your call, dude.」
Veldora: 「Well, as long as you don't leave me to rot in solitude, I don't really mind.」
Sariel: 「Besides, who knows what your sisters will do when they see you back in action, ready to show the humans their place!」
Veldora: 「....」
Rimuru: 「Yeah, so… you wanna try escaping, maybe? If I had the right physical body, I think that'd help our chances a fair amount… Do you know what I'd need, though?」
Veldora: 「…Indeed, even if I escaped in spiritual form only, it would be quite difficult to regather magic and form my core once more.
Your creating a small tear in the prison helped my chances immensely, no doubt. I'd get the needed energy in small amounts that way.
As for that material body—the new core, if you will—if you can
bring one to me, I'd only have to traverse myself over to it.」
Sariel: 「Transmigration, I suppose…」
Yosh! And here I thought he was a little slow.
He knew exactly what I was getting at, didn't he? The exact same conclusion the Sage had made.
Rimuru: 「Pretty much, yeah. If it's something I can get on this side, I could look for it for you.」
Veldora: 「Hmm… To tell the truth, I do not need any core at all… You can keep a secret, I trust?
As I said, I am both unique and the most perfect of my kind.
A fully unique creation, one that takes purely spiritual form. I have no particular attachment to this body.
It is merely the faith of those who live around me that form the shape you see.」
There he went again. Spouting off complete clandestine nonsense.
Sariel: 「Seriously? Enough bragging already, man.」
Veldora: 「Gahahaha!!」
Sariel: 「....」
Rimuru: 「*Sigh*」
As far as I could piece together in the ensuing conversation, the
basic idea went like this:
Using his consciousness alone, he could gather magicules toward
him to form a physical body.
Said body was currently being held in this prison, but that prison also prevented his will from collecting the magic he needed.
Could he escape in consciousness form alone? No, because he needed some kind of physical form.
If he simply burst out in spirit form, his essence would scatter to the winds like the magic itself, erasing his very existence.
This would result in the birth of a new storm dragon, somehow, somewhere—I didn't care about the details by this point.
But to sum up, maybe he could escape, but if he did, he'd wind up being something else.
It wouldn't matter to him.
So much for that. But what if I used Predator to consume Veldora
himself?
I could either analyze him inside my stomach or isolate him
and annul the effect of Unlimited Imprisonment, and he'd be out.
Would that work?
«Received: It is possible to store the target Veldora in your stomach via the unique skill
Predator.»
Really…? In that case, if I could convince him of it, we could get
going.
If I couldn't, he'd have another century of isolation before he was reduced to non-existence.
So I spent a few moments explaining the Predator skill to Veldora and Sariel and what I wanted to do with it.
It'd be impossible from the get-go without the Sage's help, but…
Veldora: 「Mwah-hah-hah-hah-hah! Fascinating! Please, go ahead. I leave myself at your mercy!」
Rimuru: 「You're that ready to believe me?」
Sariel: 「That's the pinnacke of recklessness. It's only something I'm supposed to do.」
These guys are…
Veldora: 「But of course! It'd be far more fun to break through this prison with you than sit around and await your return! With the two of us together, this 『Unlimited Imprisonment』could fall quicker than we thought!」
Now I got it. He was one, but now we were two, or three? Meh, whatever it was, I liked his outlook.
So the plan was I'd use Great Sage and Predator to analyze this dragon, and he'd try to destroy it from the inside.
No worries about Veldora dissipating away in my stomach.
I was starting to think this could actually work.
Rimuru: 「Alright! So I'm gonna eat you, all right? Hurry up and get outta there.」
Veldora: 「Heh-heh-heh! Right away! You shall make me wait no longer! Let us finally join together!」
Rimuru: 「Right!」
Veldora: 「And Sariel!」
Sariel: 「Yeah?」
Veldora: 「Please wacth over our new friend, hm?」
Sariel: 「Well, sure. You owe me one, though. But sure thing, buddy.」
I summoned up my stores of resolve, touching him for a
moment—then activated my Predation skill.
In a moment, Veldora's
massive form disappeared from sight.
It happened almost too fast. We all were talking just a moment ago.
Seeing him gone suddenly made me feel very small and very solitary. At least I still had the femboy to talk to, but he doesn't seem much of a talkative.
That's unless I'm wrong in judgment.
Using the skill on my first target created too much resistance to work at all, but with the help of a fully cooperative Veldora in all his
hugeness, it couldn't have gone more smoothly.
He and『Unlimited Imprisonment』 itself were sucked in at once.
It's kind of a surprise it all fit in me, though. As I checked my stomach usage… Geez, 25 percent? How big was that dragon, anyway?
Then:
«Conduct Analysis of unique skill Unlimited Imprisonment?
[Yes]/[No]?»
This better work, I prayed as I thought, "Yes: to myself.
—————————————————————————————————
「Note: Yep, it's short and bland—I know, but it'll wrap up the cave incident, yeah? Well, imma just speedrun the whole killing of monsters and acquiring new skills foe Rimuru and stuff.
In the next chapter, we'll get more of Sariel's point of view if that's even needed.
I did some sneaky work on the chapter, but I'm sure some of you must've already caught up to what I mean. Well, see ya'll later.」