9 AM had come, and I brought myself and Milim back with Ranboo's Teleportation.
He can only teleport a mile at a time, but the cooldown is insanely low. Also, it doesn't rely on magicules, since it's become part of Reality Survivor Formulae.
It was weird. My skill made it so this reality was now two at the same time, one operating normally and the other operating under Minecraft's system. My body had been completely converted to the new system, but my skills still used the old one.
As I thought about that, I got a chilling thought. I had tested with Karl's powers the ability to stop time. It stopped it in both dimensions, well, in the dimension. I'd need a time stopper on the original one to test out more of this since I might be vulnerable to getting time stopped and vice-versa, but it would suffice for now.
In any case, through Ranboo's powers, I managed to get myself and Milim back to town in about 10 seconds. Needless to say, she was impressed. It wasn't flashy, but it was certainly intriguing, and her inner child curiosity was booming.
As I arrived, Rimuru came over to scold us. I could see his position, but still, chill out. Milim ain't gonna be killed, and she ain't killing anyone with me around.
The day was pretty uneventful, partially because the Demon Lord decided to go hunting with the Kaval trio because of her Milim Eye. And by that, I mean up until a burst of energy formed in the middle of the town.
This turned out to be a Dryad. I had never met one before, but the others had. Memories from when I took information out of every member of the village proved that theory.
Though, I don't recall their memories feeding me a dryad like this. This was likely not Treyni. Then, she started to speak.
"I am the Dryad Trya, younger sister of Treyni."
"So, what's with that form and murderous aura?"
I was about to ask that question. If I didn't know better, I would've gone for the kill already to protect the town.
"An emergency. Calamity is upon us."
"Hm?"
"A Calamity-class Monster, Charybdis, has been revived. Worst of all, he's headed towards your land. Me and my sisters have attempted to slow it down, but we are no match for it. As the Ruler of the Skies, waging war on land against it is useless. I've come to recommend you to strengthen your defenses and prepare an airborne combat force."
Great. As if we didn't have a catastrophe-class entity in this town.
What's that? I'm a catastrophe-class entity too? No way. You've got the wrong guy here.
Anyway, we headed for the town hall after the briefing. There, Trya gave us a briefing of Charybdis's power and history.
I learned it was born from a cloud of Veldora the Storm Dragon's magicules. I decide to speak up.
"Sorry to interrupt, but there seems more to this than meets the eye. If Charybdis really is mindless, then it shouldn't be headed straight for town. Maybe it could be because this was Veldora's home, but the Storm Dragon's disappeared. Is there a way for it to be sentient?"
Rimuru flinched at what I said. Huh.
"W-well, Charybdis needs a physical body as a host to revive itself, and there's about 10% of a chance that the person holding the body's conscience will stay alive, but now that you mention it..."
"But who would antagonize us?"
Rimuru suddenly speaks up.
"Maybe Phobio?"
"Bruh. I told you I'd take care of that guy."
"Hey, I didn't know he was gonna get transformed into a giant monster!"
"Excuse me, but who is this Phobio person?"
Anyone could sense her bloodlust. Can't blame them. Dude just goes and revives a creature of the power of a Demon Lord and as vicious as a beast.
"He's apparently one of the three Beastkeepers, Demon Lord Carrion's strongest subordinates."
"Demon Lord Carrion, huh? I think I'm gonna have a discussion with him."
If you couldn't feel the intent to kill before, you certainly could now.
"Trya, hold up. I have a feeling this no longer has to do with that Demon Lord."
"You're saying this Phobio acted on his own?"
"Likely not. It's not easy for someone to bring back a calamity-class monster by themselves. My guess is someone orchestrated this and manipulated him into being the one behind it."
"I see, that explains the Lesser Dragons that were transformed into thirteen Megalodons."
"Wuahaha! Don't worry! Charybdis is no match for me!"
The Demon Lord's confident claim entered everyone's ears. Milim was hyped for some action. However, Shion quickly shut her down:
"We can't have that. This is our town's problem."
Shuna then added:
"She's right. It wouldn't be right for us to rely on you for everything just because you're a friend. If Rimuru-sama is in trouble, then your assistance would be very appreciated."
"I thought I was finally gonna get my chance to shine!"
I decided to try and cheer her up a bit.
"Hey Milim, wanna have a little spar? No weapons, no powers, just two naturally strong people on a one-on-one."
The room suddenly got tense. A match between us would be catastrophic. Everyone knew that, even if we had restrictions.
"Huh? Really?"
"Yes."
Milim's look was priceless, as she celebrated.
"Dave, you know I'm gonna need your help to defeat it, right?"
Pfft, like I'm gonna lift a finger. Rimuru can be very funny sometimes.
"I'm on the same boat as Milim. If you guys can't do it, we'll step in."
"Alright. Everyone, we prepare. We shall defeat Charybdis."
As everyone left, Fuze stayed behind. He likely had his doubts. Rimuru would take care of that. Ain't my problem.
Well, the battle was actually more interesting than I originally thought. I had the right to one Meg because I asked for it. Absorbing it into the Blood God could be beneficial.
They weren't really that strong, but they could prove to be as dangerous as an Iron Golem. I was willing to let one in, and work with its structure to make more out of the souls I held.
Apparently, these guys were also Lesser Dragons, so having a Dragon sucked in would be useful.
Or so I thought.
Turns out these guys were weak as all hell. An Ender Dragon would give me so much more trouble it makes these guys look pathetic.
The Ender Dragon was one of the three only mobs to really give me trouble, easily being the strongest monster out there. The fact that it shares a species with these guys is absolutely shameful.
Benimaru made barbecue out of the first Meg approaching. Not bad, but I expected more, from when I saw him attack Milim. Was it some skill? Suddenly I hear:
"Techno, use me. You know I can analyze stuff way better than you can regularly."
"Thanks, Wilbur."
Wilbur's Unfinished Symphony had two perks, the first one analytical and the second one combat-related. Aside from the first one, which he called Revolution Head, serving as a natural morale booster, it also allowed for perfect grasp on almost any situation or enemy. Well, as long as they weren't as absurd like Milim.
The other one was called Explosive Tragedy, with two perks. The first was the ability to become either a fully spiritual entity or a material one. The second was a charge-up ability that could explode the ground around him, with the only limiter being his own magicules (or my own if I was the caster) and the channeling time.
It wouldn't work on these guys though, as our opponents were rude enough to not come down to the ground.
Anyway, I kept watching the fight. Apparently, Charybdis was using a skill called Magic Jamming, which, as the name states, weakened magic near its main body.
Geld held down a Meg by himself, which surprised me a bit. He really was tough, well, tougher than you'd expect. His team of orcs also were in great sync with him. Made me wonder if he had a skill like Will.
His teammates didn't do much though, as the shark shook them all off, yet Geld never wavered. Suddenly, Gabiru comes from above with a Vortex Crash, blowing a hole in the fish's head.
It wasn't exactly intentional, but it was good teamwork. The Pegasus Knights were also putting in their efforts, beating a Meg without much stress.
I saw Gobta's gang struggling to keep their shark at bay, though their strategy seemed to be somewhat working. Meanwhile, Hakurou's sitting in the sidelines just evaluating them. Suddenly, I feel Milim's pull on my cape.
"Hey, are we going to spar or what?"
"How about when they finish off the Megs, it's actually pretty entertaining. Even the weaker ones' teamwork is a sight to see. When the sharks are all gone, we shall have our spar."
"Eeh? I want it now though!"
"Come on, you've waited for way longer than this for sure. And if you haven't, well, get used to it. Oh, look at that one."
I pointed to Souei. He was using his strings to control a Meg into smashing against another. Pretty good control honestly. I might've inspired him. Maybe. Few knew about Dream's threads.
"Ooh! He's controlling the Megalodons into fighting each other!"
"Rimuru, I'll be back. Gonna take that one Souei just brought down."
"Be back soon."
"Sure."
I knew what that meant. "Deal with Milim!" was what Rimuru wanted to say. I didn't complain though. As I find one of the massive sharks still alive on the floor, I put my hand on its head and start absorbing it for analysis.
By the time I was back, all the Megalodons had fallen. Now our spar could commence.
Without skills or weapons involved, it was a pretty normal duel. Except it was happening at crazy speeds. None of us could hit the other, as we would block the blows coming our way.
Suddenly, a volley of scales comes into our duel. It was pretty easy to dodge them for us, but the rest had a lot more trouble. Ranga, Shion and Souei were in mortal danger, in fact. That's when both of us finally saw Rimuru take action.
"Will."
"Looks like Rimuru used a skill called "Gluttony". Pretty fitting, that thing devoured all those scales."
Milim quickly shifted attention to the slime, as the Ruler of the Monsters finally stepped in. His power was, well, not very effective on Charybdis. It was a commendable effort though, not his fault that he was up against that monster. As his friends joined the fray, the assault truly began.
Milim had fallen asleep. It was now late afternoon. They really struggled, only reaching 30% after so long.
They would get rid of the beast eventually, but they were growing tired. I suppose I should step in now, when suddenly a genius idea struck me.
"Hey, Milim."
"Wha, yeah? I was totally awake!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna ask Rimuru if you can step in now. They're struggling a bit."
"No need to ask. Go ahead, Milim. That guy seems to hate you."
Rimuru came down from the skies, hovering just above us.
"Hmm? It seems it really is using that Phobio guy as its physical body. Can I fight him?"
"So it was him, huh? Well, I guess you can. Oh, by the way, Phobio works for the Demon Lord Carrion, right? I'd like to keep him alive."
Wow. Ever the pacifist.
"Wuahahah! No problem! I'll show you how much restraint I've learned!"
"By the way, Dave. How dare you sit this one out."
I give Rimuru a smirk.
"Did I need to get involved? Things seem to have gone relatively well without me. No one died, and you're about to win."
Rimuru sighs, disappointed in my little antic for sure.
"By the way, does she really mean restraint?"
"Milim's actually pretty smart. She'll probably show off as much as possible without killing him. That being said, get everyone out of range. She will no doubt obliterate it in one blow."
"If you say so."
Rimuru's face was priceless when he saw her stop the scale storm by moving her hand. Then, she starts charging up.
"Here it comes. Watch her pull a L'Manburg on that thing."
"What does that mean?"
As Rimuru asks this, he hears Milim shout:
"Drago Buster!"
Several energy bolts come out of her hands, shining like comets. As they come in contact with Charybdis, a massive explosion ensues.
"Told you she knew how to hold back."
As I say this, Phobio, roasted by Milim's attack, comes flying out of the massive cloud. Rimuru goes to grab him, and extract the Core of Charybdis.
Once the Pegasus Knights came down to us, the obvious question came out of their captain, Dolph.
"Would you explain to us what that was?"
Rimuru didn't bother with lies.
"Um, so this girl here is actually the Demon Lord Milim, so-"
"Hahahah! I see you enjoy your jokes, Sir Rimuru!"
"No, she actually-"
"But if you had a magical weapon capable of outputting so much force, I wish you could have informed us of that in advance! We'll be expecting a more official explanation later on."
Milim was pouting at this.
"Still, whatever you did managed to eliminate Charybdis, a true disaster to all living races. It is a stroke of good luck, indeed. If you will excuse me, then, I need to report to my liege."
"Thanks for all the help. I'll explain this to King Gazel soon."
"Give your thanks to His Majesty, not to me. Also, if I may speak only for myself..."
Dolph came a bit closer, lowering his voice.
"If you are going to report to the king, could I ask you to travel to Dwargon to make the report personally? His Majesty is still rather distressed about how your last visit turned out. The exile and refusal of board he sentenced you to has already been lifted, so..."
This was less likely Dolph's opinion and Gazel's personal wish. Rimuru wasted no time answering.
"All right. In that case, tell King Gazel that I would love to be extended an official invitation. I look forward to visiting again and giving my report."
"Excellent! I am sure His Majesty will be overjoyed. Kaijin, Garm, and the rest are also welcome to return at any time. They could join you, if they chose to."
After the departure of the Pegasus Knights, the Beastkeeper woke up.
"Ngh... Where... where am I? What happened to me...?"
The Kijins and the Dryads were on guard, but he was too exhausted to do anything. Rimuru spoke up, talking with unsettling tranquility.
"Hey there. You remember what you did?"
Phobio took some time to recollect the events that had happened. Once he did, he prostrated himself before Rimuru and Milim.
"I-I am sorry! I mean, I deeply apologize to you! I've done something horrible to you, Lady Milim...and I've put so much trouble upon all of you a second time!"
Rimuru looked at the Beastkeeper in confusion. I didn't. Spend enough time around a manipulator's victims and you begin to recognize the symptoms on other people.
Treyni, reasonably upset, wasted no time going for the big question.
"How did you know where Charybdis was sealed? I do not believe you merely stumbled upon it."
"Someone showed him for sure. Played him like a fiddle. That face is of someone who has been manipulated and hard. Who did it though?"
I just put it out. Phobio, to his credit, answered with the whole truth, not bothering to hide the identity of the two majin of the Moderate Harlequin Alliance, the two named Tear and Footman.
"Footman? One of the Orc Generals had a majin named like that on him."
Geld put his piece once he heard of Footman. Benimaru also joined in.
"Yeah, he is no doubt the majin that led all of them to our village."
Knowing this, I let Phil out as a crow. His Unique Skill, Crowfather, allowed him to create fifty feathers a second. These feathers were quite sharp and tough, and if paired up with my power it could deal damage not too far from Charybdis's attack given the same amount of feathers and scales. Though it should be mentioned that these feathers can be controlled at will.
It also had another perk: A thousand feathers could form a crow. Each crow could produce five feathers a second and everything they saw or heard would be sent Phil's way. A great skill that could be used either offensively, defensively or for utility.
Everyone was giving me weird looks.
"Don't look at me. Phil, you know what to do, right?"
"Mass produce crows and spread out to look for these three idiots. You sometimes forget we're a part of you, mate."
The rest of the group didn't bother with questioning me since the jesters are a bigger fish to fry. Rimuru actually asked Milim if she didn't know anything about it.
"Mmm? I've never heard of that group before, no. Nobody said anything about using guys like those to cause strife among races or anything. How interesting! I wish I could've gotten to meet them."
So Milim hadn't heard from them. I suppose she'd be talking about them, hyper as she is.
"Maybe it was Clayman scheming behind the scenes with this, not Gelmud. He had the connections for that."
"Who's Clayman?"
Rimuru immediately asked.
"Oh, one of the Demon Lords. He loves dirty little schemes like that."
Ah, new information. So I've gotta spy on a Demon Lord now. Well, if Milim is the strongest one, how hard could it really be? We're pretty sure this guy has been orchestrating everything now, finding evidence shouldn't be too hard.
"There's still something that bothers me though. This Laplace, he said he was not among the monster tribes."
In this world, a monster tribe could be defined as pretty much anyone who was hostile against the human races. Saying you weren't a monster was another way of saying you were allied with humans and so on. Assuming you weren't lying.
But if they had no quarrel with the human race, that seemed feasible enough to me—there were bound to be other majin who took Rimuru's approach.
"He said he wasn't magic?"
Rimuru asked Treyni.
"Yes, Sir Rimuru. He might have supporters in human society."
Now that's a problem I do not want to resolve. Too much work. I'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
With everyone fed up with debating about a bunch of clowns, we turned back to Phobio. RImuru, as the leader, spoke to him, displaying his intent to let him live.
"Try not to fall in fishy deals like this one in the future, alright?"
"Huh?"
Wow, this man was fully ready to die. Now that's commitment.
"I, er, I don't deserve to be forgiven. These were my actions only, unrelated to Lord Carrion, so allow me to pay for them with my life."
"N-no, really, I have no reason to kill you. Right, Milim?"
"Mm-hmm! Of course! I wanted to give you a wallop, sure, but I'm all grown-up now. I'm not angry at all, so consider yourself forgiven!"
I don't know if I can say she had character development right now. It is true that she didn't stomp him completely, but her "grown-up" mannerisms just didn't add up.
"See? And if she forgives you, I wouldn't worry about any of us. Well, unless..."
Rimuru looked at me. He knew enough about me to know that I held grudges.
"I don't really care as long as you've learned from this. No matter how strong you think you are, there is always something stronger, as unlikely as it may be. Adopt that mindset, recognize your current limits and fight to go beyond them. I've brought countless prideful people to their doom because of their stupidity."
My voice silenced everyone around. People have told me I have incredible charisma before, so I guess that's to be expected.
"He's right. And you're fine with that, too, aren't you, Carrion?"
Just as I suspected. I had noticed someone arrive with a powerful aura, but now I can see and gauge his true strength. Well, he was pretty weak compared to me, but I can't really use myself as a method of comparison. Phobio was surprised.
"Lord Carrion!"
Ignoring him, the Demon Lord kept walking towards us.
"You noticed, huh, Milim?"
"Of course I did!"
He turns to Rimuru.
"Thanks for sparing this guy's life."
"I wasn't expecting you to show up. My name is Rimuru Tempest, the leader of Tempest, our nation of monsters here in the forest."
Wow, Rimuru knows how to keep an act up. I can sense his fear yet he is unshaken on the outside.
"Pfft! A single majin establishing a new nation? Maybe I woulda believed it in the past, but in this world, you'd have to be suicidal. I was told the orc lord killed our mystery majin, but I guess that report wasn't too true, huh? You're the masked majin that killed Gelmud, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I was. Are you here to take revenge?"
"Ha-ha-ha-ha! No wonder Milim likes you."
Suddenly, his carefree expression goes cold and does something no one expected.
"Well, sorry one of my men went berserk on you. Guess I neglected to supervise him well enough. Hope you'll forgive me for that."
Yep, he apologized. Kind of weird to think of a Demon Lord saying sorry.
"In that case, it'd be nice if you could sign a nonaggression treaty with us."
Pfft-hahah! Rimuru gets a free IOU from a Demon Lord and asks for a pact of nonaggression, I have never met a creature like this in my life!
"Is that all? Very well. The Demon Lord, no, the Beastmaster of the Animal Kingdom of Eurazania, Carrion, swears on his name to never raise a blade to your nation. Of course, that relies on your part as well. Well, we're off. See you again, Rimuru."
And with that, he goes to Phobio and lets his fists scold the Beastkeeper for him, leaving the subordinate on the brink of death. Afterwards, he teleported away.
Rimuru, exhausted like everyone else, declares:
"Guess that's over. Let's head home."
3584 Words
A/N
Golly did I extend this chapter. I'm pretty sure I have added 1.5k words, what the heck. Also I noticed writing this because I went back to V3 of the LN to read things, but Milim actually never says "noda!" in the LN. Cope and seethe, idiots.
Anyway, updates are gonna be incredibly slow because I have gone out of my writing trance and finals are coming up. So yeah, I'm in that week where I want to die. I'll be fine though.
Probably.
Hopefully.
That's about it. See ya.