"Eh? Why is everything so dark? I feel like my eyes are open but I can't see anything. Ciel could you activate my [Magic Sense]?"
<<...>>
"...Ciel?"
<<Answer. [Great Sage] is currently in operation.>>
...
"EHHH?!!!"
Rimuru wakes up to a dark surrounding, the ground is hard and feels like there are some plants. He tried asking for Ciel but instead got a response of a nostalgic mechanical voice from Ciel's predecessor, Great Sage.
Rimuru tries to touch something after feeling his hands' presence. Of course he has a human body. He looks just the same as when he was Mikami Satoru. But what excited him more was, he got hus 'son' back or still. Next he felt the ground, and the grass that felt very familiar in shape.
"Hipokute? Where exactly am I?"
He used those to try and make something to cover himself up. It was hard being that he couldn't see, but he managed to cover his lower part.
<<Answer. You were just recntly reborn after you died on Earth, gaining new skills and resistances. Would you like to hear them? YES/NO?>>
"EHH?! That can't be. Did I restart or something? W-well, Yes, let's hear it, C-Great Sage."
<<Answer. You have the Unique Skills: [Great Sage] and [Predator]. You also have... (just all resistances and stuff he got after reincarnation, and their explanation too). >>
"Those are the same things I've had before, but why do I feel different. Could it be...Great Sage, what's my race?"
<<Answer. Race: Human>>
"...I don't know what to feel about that. I do like being human sometimes but I still want my slime self. It's just because I got used to it, or found it extremely comfortable, or found it convenient in a lot of things, and feel more freedom from it, doesn't mean that's all the reason I still want to be a slime. A normal human won't understand that."
Rimuru shakes his head, trying to move on.
"Well, whatever. I've been a human for a long time and a lot of times when I was a slime, so what could go wrong?"
...
"I WAS EXTREMELY WRO—befksijf!"
Rimuru stumbled one more time and face planted on a bed of hipokute. It wasn't long ago that he found himself naked but continued to venture out around the cave. He tried to eat the grass like he ate before but it didn't work. Other than it tastes too grassy, he also felt like he was a goat. It just feels so different. It was weird eating raw grass with a mouth that his stomach rumbled in protest. His [Predator] seemed almost useless with this body if it weren't for his mouth. After he took about two bites , he stopped eating.
He has his eyes open but the cave was to dark. He tried to regain his [Magic Sense] but it was harder than he thought. His slime self was able to do it because all his body parts are composed of multicells that could act as every organ compared to a human body, while his current human body has to focus and detect magicules a hundred fold more effort. And everytime he stumbled, he has to close his eyes just because they were sensitive and could easily catch dust and other particles. Even with [Pain Resistance], he still can't help the odd feeling of something in the eyes. Other than that, he was breathing less air due to how deep he was in the cave.
"Huh? AHH!!!"
He tripped on another stone, rolled downhill and fell in what felt like liquid with a splash. He felt his breathing got less and he tried to calm down when he realized...
"The lake? THIS IS BAD! Really, right now this is bad!"
He started trying to swim up where there seemed less gravity and far from a colder depths. Once he reached the top, he breathed in for more air and started swimming to where land could be.
He decided that enough is enough. He sat still on the ground and tried hard to concentrate more on sensing the magicules. After a long while, he finally managed to sense/see a bit of his surroundings, the far parts being blurry but doable. He decided to be contented with it for now and started the path to Veldora. If he doesn't want to die from hunger, he has to move fast. His slime self could live off with magicules as his food like the other normal slimes, but humans need actual human food to live. He thought once again, that a slime's body is really far convenient.
He has to hurry to find a way back. He's been so far in his journey as a slime and he doesn't want that gone or replaced. He was sure that being in this state is just a bad idea.
After a while of walking, he finally heard Veldora calling for him, sensing that thre was a human around.
"Hey you! Who is there? Are you here to seek the protection, and see the glory of the one and only Storm Dragon, Veldora?!"
Rimuru sweat-dropped and stood in front of a transparent oil-like barrier with a dragon inside, looking all smug.
"Oi old man. I just came here to make friends with you. If you don't want that then fine, I'll leave."
Pretending to walk away, Veldora immediately panicked and crossed his arms trying to look majestic.
"N-no! Of course I would accept your friendship, human."
Rimuru secretly smirked and walked back closer to Veldora who in turn, looked at him curiously.
"But why would a human able to come near me without collapsing?"
"Oh I wouldn't tell you that I'm straining my hardest just to get to you."
"W-well, I have to do my best if I want to befriend a strong dragon. I'm very much worthy now, ne?"
"Kuahaha! Right. Then we can be friends."
Veldora then started talking about how he got in this situation which Rimuru was not surprised, but instead he wondered how to get him in his stomach. A human body just isn't flexible like a slime. He tried asking Great Sage but she also can't find a solution. He sighed in disappointment.
"Then I guess I will have to leave you here. As much as I want to help you out, I can't. I'll come visit you from time to time. I might just be able to bring friends too."
"Of course. Please do. But first, you never told me your name."
"Ah! I actually don't have any..."
"A human without a name? That is surprising. Then I shall name you! Of course it would have been helpful if you were a monster, but no problem. Naming humans is completely normal for you, right?"
They paused. Rimuru realized that he would have a hard time again even after getting a name. He shakes his head out of his thoughts and decided to wing it.
"Yes. Then I shall also give you a last name if you want."
"Kuahaha! I, Storm Dragon, Veldora accept! From now on you will be, Rimuru!"
As if not feeling the sparks of having received a name like he did before, Rimuru's face momentarily dropped, but he immediately put back a slime.
"Then you shall have the name, Tempest!"
"Kuahaha! I am Veldora Tempest, and you shall be Rimuru Tempest!"
Feeling nostalgic, Rimuru gazed at Veldora with warm brotherly eyes, and Veldora with friendly eyes.
"Veldora..."
"Rimuru..."
"Then, I shall go, Veldora. I'll come back with friends if I survive coming out."
"Kuahaha! Surely you jest. You were able to enter my cave, how hard could it be for you to come out?"
"Now that I think about it, why is he only wearing hipokute herbs on his waist?"
Feeling all nervous, Rimuru kept to himself that he was reborn within the cave in the first place. He started to walk away and faced the river again with a new plan. He sat beside it and started splashing water, trying to form it in crescent shape. Needless to say, trying to remake his water blade was multiple times harder when you can't adjust its output. He tried to use his mouth this time and sprits it out. After knowing the sensation last time, he was able to adjust it much easier than using his hands.
<<Skill acquired: [Water Sprinkler]>>
Rimuru was dumbfounded for a bit before he exclaimed loudly in frustration.
"What the heck is that?! There's a skill like that?! I'm not planning to be a gardener!"
He retried gaining his water blade again but figured that even if he can control the shape, he can't control it's strength, which means it is close to impossible if he doesn't think of a way to do something about it.
He tried combining it with his knowledge of magic this time and was finally successful at it. He then started to use it as a jet he floated about the river, until finally he regained his Water Manipulation.
He stood up, breathing a bit heavily as he reached a side of the river where he believed is the pathway out.
"Haa...that was harder than I thought."
He heard the slither of the familiar serpent, and soon he faced it.
"I hope this works. Water Blade!"
The serpent fell after its head was chopped off while its body was still convulsing. Rimuru made a face of disgust once he imagined that he had to eat it if he wants to regain its power. Even with [Predator], he is still going to taste it directly through his mouth. He hesitated for a while longer than he did before. But before he made up his mind, he heard another rustle nearby. The Armorsaurus.
"You gotta be kidding me. Water Blade is not gonna work against that."
As the monster attacked him with its jaws, he tried to evade it as much as he could. After a bit of struggle and some fight backs, he finally...met his end, with a jaw to his human body.
...
"AHHH!!!"
Rimuru jolted awake and breathed heavily in habit, with dazed senses still clearing up. He looks around him and found himself on the tree he rested at, with the goblin village just beneath him. His past self was resting after all that naming.
After hearing a faint scream, the wolves and goblins went back to sleeping after thinking it was just their imagination.
Rimuru transformed himself into human, then back to slime, and exasperatedly but silently breathing a sigh of relief.
"...Ciel?"
<<Master requested a random dream. Therefore, master has no reason to blame me.>>
Immediately turned down by his God of Wisdom, Rimuru sighed in annoyance before shaking his head in amusement to his manas' antics.
<<Also, you should have thought how odd it would be to be reborn in a cave. First hint that it was a dream is that you weren't reincarnated but instead transmigrated. If you were reincarnated, you would have been reborn as a baby from a family that doesn't live in the cave. If you were reborn as a monster, other than slime, you would have been reborn like the monsters that lived in that cave, like the slimes in your case. If you were another monster, it would be the same case as having a family like the humans. Be it ogre, lizardmen, and many others. If you were of different specie, you would have been reborn somewhere else other than the cave. The cave isn't a spawnpoint for reincarnators and summons, you know. (Unlike other fanfics.)>>
He chuckled at her words but thought she was right, and he went back to relaxing, but this time he stayed awake and tried to think of a name for the wolf inside him. This one should well-thought of because he was gonna hand him over to someone special.
____________________________________
Words: 1998
Just a random thought. Next time I'm planning to add in my other random thought, and this time it would be as a True Dragon race. Of course coz youll be expecting it to be in the cave again, I'll just say no.
*Looks away, pretending I didn't give a hint.*
Thanks for reading. I hope you like it.