The time spent inside that cave was really worth it.
I had proceeded to make up many magic theories like never before.
I barely even paid my mind to Rimuru.
I was extremely focused on gathering all the data for skills and inserting them into the laws of magic.
The results? Excellent!
Some new magic has been achieved, and I was extremely pleased with it.
By the time I knew it, we were facing the sun rays.
Sariel: 「Well, let me show you some parts of the forest, no?」
I could've actually straight up teleported out of the cave, but I'd been so fixated on my magic at the time, so you can't blame me.
Rimuru: 「Umu! Please do.」
Feels as if it's been a while, going outside like this. It has been several months, and come to think of it, I recently got an evolution.
Okay-perhaps not too recently, but ya'll get the details.
I feel so energy-packed as of late. Every single fiber of my being resonates with an extremely dense amount of energy.
It feels like a single hair plucked out would have more energy than my previous self.
Insane, right? That's how dense the energy quality is.
If I didn't place a leash on my body, I feel like I'd destroy the whole forest by fighting alone.
Now, I'd have to be careful with the magic I used.
If, by mistake, I put in too many magicules in my magic, I'd destroy a whole nation or even continents.
In my demon peer stage, I was strong enough to punch a hole through a mountain.
Now, I feel as if I'd decimate the freaking mountain, and the force would be enough to destroy the few behind it.
That's what shows that I evolved.
Now, it's not me exerting all my power; it's now me controlling all my power to a great extent.
How the tides have changed...
With this evolution, Reina-san has to actively control my heart core, where all the data of my existence is stored.
My astral and spiritual body is now regularly being monitored.
I'm the one controlling it, so if any mistakes (his power going out of control) were to happen, she'd simply handle it.
Now, I can be truly safe.
This must be the last evolution I'll ever undergo
So if there's still, or let me say-if there are still beings far stronger than me, it means I was meant to be fodder for life.
I mean, this world's power leveling is so messed up.
No matter how strong or powerful you are, if the abilities are lacking, you're food.
That's what everyone accepts. And then there's magic that can compete with ultimate skills, many of which I created.
If that's so, it means the inferior magic could now defeat an ultimate awakened. How is that fair?
Kalisha: 「You're one to talk. What would others say if they heard that you created a magic on par with-if not, stronger than some ultimate skills in a span of a few minutes?」
Sariel: 「....」
Kalisha: 「Yeah, thought so, too. Your existence must be the weirdest thing as of late.
You have dozens of ultimate magic in your arsenal now; you already have an ultimate skill, which will not remain one forever, and on top of that, your mere existence is already ultimate in nature. How unfair do you see yourself?
If anything, people like Guy and Feldway should be the ones complaining. They took millennia to achieve their level of power.
Yet, here you are, randomly spamming ultimates like, "Ahh, another monday morning. How nice."」
Sariel: 「....」
「She's right, you know? You're the pinnacle and the embodiment of strength now. It's almost unfair how fast you evolved.」
I was about to scream about the one behind all this, but I've evolved.
My maturity has, too. I'm not gonna spoil my cool for the likes of these two.
「Good. You know your place. Your maturity has indeed evolved.」
Kalisha: 「Need some dog biscuits? You did do a good job. Credit is due where credit is earned, right?」
I hate you two...
Kalisha: 「Hehe, we love you, too.」
「Heh.」
*Sigh*
Well, I guess what the message meant was that I don't have the right to complain.
But since I can, I will. Who's stopping me?
Well, no use complaining now, no?
The exit was just a hole at the foot of a mountain-more of a small hill, really, which stood out against the vast trees that surrounded it.
In fact, thanks to the dense foliage, this hill was the only point you could see the sun from.
Take a step into the forest, and all appeared to be dim darkness again.
Climbing to the top of the hill, I saw some kind of strange pattern carved into it.
A magical pentacle or something? Sure seemed like it.
Maybe those adventurers we bumped into were responsible? Guess it
doesn't matter much.
A fair amount of time had passed since I left the cave.
The sun was starting to set, which indicated that we must have reached the cave exit right around midday.
It was now past four in the afternoon. Normally, it would be about time to prep for dinner, but sadly, I no longer had to eat.
I could, but the meaninglessness of the gesture would probably just make me feel empty inside.
Eating all alone never had any meaning, and I'd only prefer to eat if there was anyone sharing with me.
Miss the times we last ate as a family; that would be back on earth, but that doesn't matter now, does it?
At times, the loneliness would kill me to the point that I'd need to prepare lots of good food to share with some of my family (demons) back in hell.
But here's the catch: there's nothing physical in that realm.
I'd have to make the shameful request to alter the physical constitution using magicules, only to get laughed at to death.
It's not nice, you know? At times like that, I really felt lonely...
It's not good to mock people in need.
Kalisha: 「Like I give a damn. You call yourself a person in need, but all I see you needing is a life.」
I see... I will definitely get a life.
Soooo-
「No, your spiritual constitution remains the same. I won't let anyone take the master away from me.」
Fuck you...
◇◇◇
So, I kept messing around with the new skills I'd obtained from the evolution.
Sariel seems to be messing with a bunch of his own, too.
That was what occupied my time as I continued down the path I'd
found.
There is no particular destination in mind.
It would've been nice if there was a town or village with someone nice I could've talked to...but everything had been incredibly quiet over the past few days.
After getting attacked so frequently in the cave, I hardly got any attention at all outdoors. How nice...
Just once, while practicing my elocution, a pack of wolves started stalking me.
I tried to threaten them-"Ah?" I said-and that was all it took.
Rimuru: 「Yipe!」
With pathetic yelps, they scampered away.
We're talking multiple enormous canines, each easily two meters or so in length, and the sight of a slime freaked them out.
Pathetic.
Not that I minded being left alone.
Getting a wolf's sense of smell would be neat, though. The reaction surprised me enough that I began paying closer
attention to my surroundings.
Turned out it wasn't just the wolves-not a single monster out there, dared get within several meters of me.
Were they really that scared? It sure seemed that way, but...like, why?
Sariel? Nah, he looks totally chill and all.
I can hardly believe he's a demon with that look.
If anything, he's an angel with that silvery-white hair and golden eyes. He's a total hottie-that's for sure.
Sariel: 「I'm pretty sure you just thought of something rude.」
See!?! He even has the whole women's intuition and stuff! Yes!
As I thought over that, my 『Magic Sense』 skill spotted a group of monsters approaching.
Nothing like a good crisis to come at you out of nowhere, huh?
They were small in size, their equipment plain and crude.
Their faces were dirty and devoid of intelligence, but with their swords, their shields, their stone axes, and their bows, they weren't entirely bestial.
It took a mere instant for my gray matter to figure out who
they were-goblins, those infamous marauders of many a would-be
adventuring party.
Talk about sticking to the script...
No doubt they were here to attack
the weakest of would-be heroes-which meant us, I guess.
But, really, thirty of them against a single slime and a demon? Kind of a lot at once, wasn't it?
Depends on the quality of the demon, though.
I hope Sariel could take on at least twenty of them for me.
Ten's more than enough for me.
They were much, and yet, I didn't feel so much as a whiff of terror. My instincts told me I had absolutely nothing to fear.
Sariel? Well, it might be one thing, but I can't completely take them seriously with those sweet candies in their possession.
Their swords had rust on them,
and their armor was thin and torn at the edges.
Some of them were dressed in nothing but stained rags.
Compared to the hard-scaled lizards and the spiders with massive serrated blades on their feet I had dealt with before, I couldn't imagine their gear inflicting any damage at all on me.
Besides, if things got hairy, I could just go into black-snake mode and 『Poisonous Breath』 them all into puddles of goo...
Plus, Sariel's here. He has that flashy magic thing that could put these little babies to sleep.
As I sized them up, the goblins' apparent leader opened his mouth to say something.
「Grah! Strong one... Have you business here?」
Huh. Goblins talk? Or maybe 『Magic Sense』 is helping me decipher their grunting?
And-come on, "strong one"? First they're surrounding us with
their weapons; then they're rolling out the red carpet for us...
What do they want?
It got me curious. They didn't look ready to descend upon us
immediately.
It might be a good chance to test out my speaking abilities. There is no better time to start than now.
I gave the goblins a quick look-over.
To them, this must have been one of the most frantic moments in
their lives.
Their eyes, as well as their weapons, were trained on me, although at least a few of them were ready to flee at the least
provocation.
The leader, meanwhile, was every bit up to the post, his steely eyes practically drilling holes in my gelatinous form.
Hmm. They seem intelligent enough, though.
Maybe this conversation thing could work out after all. But will they understand me?
I focused my thoughts on my still-newborn voice and gingerly tried a few words.
Rimuru: 「Good to meet you, I guess? My name is Rimuru. I'm the slime.」
The goblins murmured among themselves.
Does a talking slime surprise them, maybe?
I thought...only to find a few of them already prostrating themselves before us, weapons tossed away. Weird.
Eh? Sariel?
Sariel: 「Hmm? I thought you already knew about it, but you didn't? Well, you'll learn to control it later. Ahh, the shame...」
I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, so don't ask me.
Rimuru: 「So what did you need from me? We don't have any business around here.」
「I see. Village of us is ahead. We felt a strong monster nearby, so we came to patrol.」
Rimuru: 「A strong monster? I didn't spot anything like that...?」
Sariel: 「Pfft-」
「G-gaah! Grah-gah-gah! Such joking! You can not trick us, even with the magnificent form of you!」
No, no, no-these guys totally have the wrong idea. Apparently, they thought their powerful intruder had disguised himself as a slime.
These were goblins, the world-famous lower caste of the monster totem pole.
I shouldn't have expected much.
The goblins and I spoke for a while longer, and before long, we
wound up receiving an invitation to their village.
Rimuru: 「Should we go?」
Sariel: 「Well, I've never actually bothered to look at the forest and its inner workings. Sure. I'm sure we'll have some interesting encounters.」
If he said so.
The whole time, he had just been quietly listening to our conversation.
Was he uninterested in the goblins? Perhaps he's seen more interesting creatures to have a mind in the likes of goblins.
Besides, he is also an otherworlder and has been here far longer than I have.
Who knows? I think I'll talk to him and ask him more about life and stuff.
The goblins were willing to put me up for a bit, even. Pretty nice guys, given how scraggly they all looked.
So we accepted. We had no need to sleep, but a little rest never
hurt a guy.
Along the way, I got to hear a bit of the local gossip. It turned out the god they worshiped had recently disappeared.
Without it, the local monsters had started acting up a lot more than before.
At the same time, more human adventurers-"powerful ones," as they put it-were starting to invade the forest.
And so on.
Sariel: 「*Sigh* Those fools. They still don't learn, huh?」
Now, now, what's he complaining about?
Rimuru: 「What's up, yo?」
Sariel: 「There used to be this big figure that governed the forest and made sure the human kept away from it, but as they say, he dissappeared not long ago and they've already begun to invade.」
I see.
And funnily enough, the more we spoke to each other, the more
clearly, I began to understand him little by little.
Plus, we both know how to speak Japanese, so it's a bonus.
Speaking with him makes me comfortable and happy, so sure, he's a cool dude.
But with what he said, it seems the situation was far more serious than expected.
Well, we'll get to the center of it.
However, the goblin language was wending its way through the particles in the air.
Maybe getting in some practice with goblins before my big human debut was a good idea after all, I thought as I followed along.
The village was shockingly dingy. Maybe I shouldn't have expected
much from a goblin's den.
They guided me to what I supposed was the most structurally sound of the buildings.
It had a thatched, pitted roof
that was rotting away in areas, the walls bearing nothing but a few pieces of flat wood nailed to them.
No slum I'd ever seen in my world
could out-filth this one.
「I am sorry to keep you waiting, honored guests」, one of the goblins said as he entered.
The leader of the expeditionary force I ran into earlier accompanied him.
Rimuru: 「Oh, no need for that.」 I said, flashing my salesman's smile-or in this case, my slime smile.
Sariel: 「(Hey Rimuru, quick thinking. I don't want anyone to know of my actual name. I think I'll use the name I went with back on earth. Call me Fubuki Tempest from now on. Got it?」
Rimuru: 「(You're being real secretive now, you know? Not that I mind, but sure. Fubuki Tempest it is.)」
He might know someone who knows him around here.
Perhaps he prefers some isolation for a while?
Sariel: 「Don't worry yourself with pleasantries. I'm not really that type.」
「I see...」
Sariel: 「Oh, excuse my rudeness. The name's Fubuki.」
「Yes. I'm glad to have your name.」
And your name?
Rimuru: 「Don't worry about me. I haven't been waiting for that long.」
Something about smiling at your conversational partner always
did wonders to keep negotiations moving your way.
Once you were aware of it, it was scary how well it worked. Not that I knew what we were negotiating over yet.
「I apologize that we can not provide you with a bit more hospitality」, the goblin said as he brought out something that I think resembled tea for us both to deal with.
「I am the elder of this village.」
Even goblins must have this stuff, I thought as I took a sip (well, technically, slid my way over the teacup, but same difference).
I couldn't detect any taste from it, which made sense since I didn't have that sense.
That might have been for the better, for all I knew. (Who knows what they used to whip up this random drink.)
My analysis skills didn't detect any poison, but reportedly, it bore a bitter, acrid flavor. Figured. *Sigh*
It was good to see the goblins trying to play nice with me, though, so I made sure to politely drink it up.
Sariel: 「Thanks for the drink.」
I looked over to Sariel, who drank the uhhh, "tea"-if you can call it one-in one big *Gulp*.
As soon as he did that, he sighed, looking to the sky, smiling, and finally, he started tearing up.
Those were definitely tears of joy-I just know it!
Ignoring his antics, I decided to get to the point.
Rimuru: 「So, to what do we owe the favor?」I asked.
Sariel: 「Yeah. What made you decide to invite us over to your village?」
This had to be more than monsters acting buddy-buddy with each
other.
The village elder shivered a bit. Then, firming up his resolve, he
turned to me.
「You have heard, I trust, that the monsters have been more active around here as of late?」
I had, on the way here.
「Our god has protected the peace in this land for generations, but
about a month ago, he hid himself from us.
That has allowed the nearby monsters to start meddling with our lands once more.
We do not wish to let this continue, so we have fought back...but from a raw power perspective, we face an uphill climb.」
Hmmm. Was he talking about Veldora? It would match time-wise.
But if the goblins wanted our help... I'd have to consult Sariel first. He's the older brother of our little squad, right?
Besides...
Rimuru: 「I understand you well enough, but I'm just a slime, so I'm not exactly sure I can provide the help you need...」
「Grah-ha-ha! Trust me, there's no need for modesty! It is no mere slime who can emit the mystical force you do, yes?
I can not imagine why you are taking that form... but you have a name bestowed upon you, hm?」
Mystical-what now? What's that? I don't remember busting anything
like that out.
I focused my 『Magic Sense』 on myself instead of my environs.
Then I realized it. There was, in fact, some kind of weird and scary-looking aura covering my whole body.
Rimuru: 「Damn you, Fubuki!」
I could already hear his smug voice slapping me senseless.
You'd think I would've noticed that in the midst of all the monster transformation and Body Armor malarkey, but it was too late now.
Whew. Talk about embarrassing. Here I am, exuding all this
mystical stuff, and I didn't even bother to say "excuse me."
I felt as if I were walking down the middle of Main Street, baring everything I had to the world.
With all the magicules in the air over in the cave, I'd been completely oblivious.
This is bad!-Really bad! But at least it explained how the monsters in the forest reacted to me before now.
Not too many of them would have wanted to take on this hombre. No one was stupid enough to be
fooled by appearances.
Well, I might as well run with it.
Rimuru: 「Hee-hee-hee... Impressive, elder. You noticed?」
「Of course, my friend! Even in the shape that you are, there is
certainly no hiding the strength inside you!」
Rimuru: 「Ah. Well, if you spotted me, then I guess you guys have a lot of promise!」
Now I'm diggin' this! Let's just pull the elder's strings for a bit and talk my way out of trouble.
Fubuki: 「You walked out of the bathroom with your fly wide open, yes? Then a girl talked to you about it.
But then, you said to her, "Hee-hee-hee, impressive. So you noticed? Well, if you spotted it, then I guess you have a lot of promise! Let's test your full capabilities in my room!"
That's totally a random event in my dictionary-Yes-Yes.」
Damn it! Help me with this problem, shitty!
All he's doing is adding fuel to fire. I'm sure he knew of it all along, but he probably left it for nature to handle.
As I grumbled inwardly, I also tried to find a way to extinguish the mystical aura around me, futzing around with the surrounding magic to try to push it back in.
「Ohh... Were we being tested, perhaps? Then I certainly hope we
are worthy.
Many would be cowed to submission by such a force.」
By this time, my mystical whatever was mostly hidden.
I was back to being just a regular old slime.
It's funny to think, though- earlier, if I had looked like any old slime on the street, would the entire forest have tried to kill me? That would've been a bummer.
Rimuru: 「You're right. Anyone willing to speak to me without being frightened by my mystic powers must be worthy indeed.」
Fubuki: 「How shameless...」
Damn it!! Just... forget about him. Take in a deep breath, and it's all over. Yes...
Worthy how? I wondered to myself silently.
「Ha-ha! Thank you very much. I will refrain from asking you why
you hide your true form... but I do have a request of you. Would you be willing to listen to it?」
About what I figured. Nobody would go up to a fearsome, hideous monster for no reason at all.
Fubuki: 「It depends on what it is.」 he said, with me trying to keep my swagger going.
Rimuru: 「Yeah. But go ahead. State your business.」
Here's the rundown: It turned out some newcomer monsters from the lands to the east had been pushing into the area, hoping to seize it for themselves.
The area was home to several goblin villages, including this one, and even the small clashes so far had resulted in a large number of goblin deaths-including some named goblins.
One of these named creatures was the sort of guardian of this
village, and with his death, the value of keeping this village intact had declined dramatically.
The other goblin communities had largely abandoned this land.
Their reasoning was that they could coerce the newcomers to attack this village, buying them time to come up with some countermeasures of their own.
The village elder and the leader of the expedition who greeted me had tried to reason with them but were coldly brushed away.
The frustration was evident in their voices as the two of them
explained.
Fubuki: 「I see. So that's what the forest is being reduced to...」 He replied.
Fubuki: 「So how many of you live in this village? And how many are battle ready?」
「We have approximately one hundred residents. Counting our
womenfolk, about sixty of them are ready to fight.」
Doesn't sound like much. Pretty smart goblins, though, if they're
keeping track that closely.
Fubuki: 「All right. And what types and numbers are we talking about with the enemy?」
「They are direwolves, we believe-certainly wolflike in appearance.
Under normal circumstances, it would have to be ten of us against one of them for us to have a fighting chance...but they appear to number around a hundred themselves.」
Huh? What kind of impossible game is this? I turned my eyes
toward the village elder.
He didn't seem to be joking; his eyes were as sincere and dedicated as a goblin's could get.
Sariel also seemed to display emotional change even after hearing such nonsense.
That's totally bad for them-no, it'd be flat impossible to even resist.
Fubuki: 「How was this information obtained? Are you truly sure of its accuracy?」
Rimuru: 「So these goblin fighters took them on in such small numbers, even though they knew they couldn't win?」
「...No. This information I told you...Those fighters risked their
lives to obtain it.」
Oh. Might've been a rude question there.
Upon further questioning, the named goblin they'd lost turned out to be both the elder's son and the older brother of the scouting party.
I spent a moment weighing the options, the elder falling silent as he awaited my decision.
Rimuru: 「Whadya think, dude?」
Fubuki: 「I'd normally leave the dirty work for someone else to handle (Treyni), but where's the injury with doing it myself? What's your call?」
It might have been my imagination, but I could have sworn there were tears in his eyes... I was probably just
imagining it, though.
Tears don't go too well with monsters.
Better pump up the swagger, I figured. That's how a feared
monster should rightly act!
Rimuru: 「Let's get something straight, elder. If I help this village, what do I get in return? Do you even have anything to give?」
Not that I minded helping them out on a whim.
But it took ten goblins to maybe beat one big dog or whatever, and they'd be facing a pack of a hundred. It wouldn't be simple.
I think a little black-snake action could take care of them...but I can't just snap up this job
without thinking a bit.
Even Sariel gave my decision an approving nod as we proceeded.
「We... We shall give you our allegiance! Please grant us your
guardianship.
If you do, I promise we will swear our loyalty to you!」
Honestly, as gifts go, that's not much. But after experiencing
ninety days of silent solitude, even talking to goblins was kind of fun.
The thought of saving this squad probably would've disgusted me back in my human days, but right now, I was a monster. Same blood.
There is no need to worry about falling in a puddle and picking up some infectious disease any longer or stuff.
Plus, those eyes on the elder. I could tell that he was truly relying on me to say the right thing.
I reflected on my past life. When someone asked me to do something, I always did it.
Even though I bitched around and moaned about it at first, even though the guys at the office yelled at me about it, I was never able to say no to my manager or clients.
There's no need to hesitate. Sariel entrusted me with the decision, so let's do this!
With that motivation in mind, I exclaimed.
Rimuru: 「All right. Your request is granted!」
I nodded sagely. And that's how I became the guardian of a goblin
village.
◇◇◇
「Note: Everything here's copy and paste. It's also majorly irrelevant. Feel free to skip at your own discretion.」
The direwolves ruled the roost over at the plains to the east, enough to give endless headaches to the merchants who plied their trade between the Eastern Empire and the kingdoms around the Forest of Jura.
Each one of them was the equivalent of a C-ranked monster,
hard enough that an adventurer could find his leg bitten off if he wasn't paying attention.
The real threat, however, came when they roamed in packs. Only
when a talented alpha was leading the horde, did the direwolves show their real worth.
The entire pack would act as a single mind, a single creature, every member acting in lockstep.
Such a pack, in full motion, could easily be rated a B.
The eastern plains were located next to a wide grain-producing
region, a vital lifeline for the Eastern Empire, and one kept very well secured.
No matter how cunning the direwolves were, no matter how
advanced their skills, penetrating the Empire's defensive lines remained a difficult task.
Even if they made it through, doing so would rouse the full fury of the Empire, putting the direwolf race's very future into question.
The pack's leader was fully aware of this.
It was something he had
learned through hard-fought experience, amid the many skirmishes he had witnessed against the Empire over several decades.
Targeting the smaller-scale merchants who passed by wasn't enough to make the Empire take full action-but the moment wolves stepped into its grain fields, it would truly retaliate.
After so many failures, no more would the direwolves repeat the
mistakes of their comrades. That was the alpha's way of thinking.
But his monster's instincts also told him that, under the status quo, there would be no progress, nothing to push their pack forward.
As a rule, the direwolf race did not require food to survive.
Attacking and consuming humans provided them with a nice little
snack, but those didn't hold much in the way of magic.
To the pack, their real sustenance lay in the world's magicules.
They would need to attack stronger monsters or slaughter humans in droves to evolve into calamity-level creatures.
None of these options were particularly accessible to them. The Empire was just too powerful.
But merely picking off passing merchants would never do
anything for their dreams of evolution.
Then they heard tales of the southlands. A fertile territory, one with a forest that offered all its blessings-a vast store of magic.
A paradise for monsters, so it was said. In order to reach it, though, they would have to traverse the vast Forest of Jura.
The monsters of this woods were, in and of themselves, no great
foes.
Their past experience hunting the stragglers wandering out of it
proved as much.
So why had they shied away from entering it themselves?
Simple: Veldora the Storm Dragon.
He was the one and only reason.
Even when he was within his prison, the waves of dreadful
magical force shook their very hearts.
The creatures in the forest, they
believed, enjoyed the dragon's divine guardianship-which was why
they could survive under those scorching waves.
That was what they had to believe. Otherwise, the truth would drive them mad.
He knew how it pained them daily. The direwolves had given up
on infiltrating the forest. Until now.
The alpha turned his bloodred eyes toward the forest. That evil, horrid dragon could no longer be felt.
Now is the time, he thought, to
hunt the forest clean of monsters-and then we may become the
lords of the forest.
The idea made him lick his lips in satisfaction and sound the howl commanding his pack to advance.
---------------------------------
「Note: Another boring chapter here to you, the wonderful viewers (and perhaps authors. Same thing, though).
I don't know about you guys, but I think the slow and steady pace is alright. If you want that changed, just comment me down in the section we all know of.
I'm happy to see that my work is being appreciated, and I hope the future grants me the opportunity to make more of these to appease the viewers. Well, see ya'll later!」
Word Count: 「5220」