Jura Forest
Goblin Village
Daytime
Narrators POV
Look, you smiled back there and I saw it!
A man in an expensive Chinese dress that seemingly belongs to nobles screams at the top of his lungs, waving his hands in the air as a child who has long blue hair simply eats peacefully.
You must be seeing things
For the past few hours, he has been doing his best to prove that Rimuru smiled. However, Rimuru turned down each and every claim and denied any statement of him smiling. Uri basically groaned at each and every refusal, before giving up and resorting to trying his best to make Rimuru somehow smile again to prove his point.
Shizue just sat besides Rimuru and ate the cowdeer meat Infront of her quietly behind her mask, silently staring at Uri and Rimuru's coversation... (Somehow, she's eating right through her mask, and it's fucking creepy! - Shadow)
Haruto was the same as he decided to stop by and take a rest, considering he had absolutely no where to go in the forest. He also ate his cowdeer peacefully, whilst watching the commotion between Uri and Rimuru. A question popped in his mind whether this Dragon was seriously the one keeping control of the Chaos Dragon....
Shadow was intently listening to Uri's conversation, her Lord had actually smiled! Bummer, that she wasn't there to see it, she thought. She was doing her best to help Uri make Rimuru smile somehow in some way, but all their attempts had failed by now.
...
Oh right, why are they back here in this Goblin Village Rimuru apparently made? The same village Rimuru decided to abandon for no reason other then wanting to stay alone?
Well, the story is pretty simple...
They realized they had no place to stay and decided to come here, it's free real estate if they're being honest.
When they arrived, Rimuru expected Rigurd to throw him out merely because he decided to abandon them...
But apparently, the Goblins were more then happy to have Rimuru back and even celebrated his arrival with a feast.
Hell... It kind of made Rimuru warm up to them as they cheered for his arrival...
(P.S: He smiled again, only this time it was behind his mask so nobody saw it.)
Well, that aside, Rimuru was basically chilling the hell out over here with his subordinates and Uri. Hoku had decided to take a nap by the beach side since he liked the sun, aswell as the warm sand which made it cozy.
As for what happened in Ruberious...
Nothing, Uri and he departed from the area the moment Uri was free from fighting Mariabell. Rimuru had conveniently killed the OtherWorlder at that exact moment and received quite... A handy Unique Skill.
Mariabell seemed to have let go of Rimuru...
Rimuru: (Iē... Something isn't right. Knowing that woman, she probably is planning something else.)
But for someone like Mariabell, who spent most of her life trying to find him, to suddenly throw him away... She was definitely planning something behind the scenes if you asked him.
The case with Mariabell isn't over, it appears it will only continue to worsen as they progress.
Rimuru stood up after he finished eating, still in his thoughts as the rest looked at him.
Rimuru: Well, I'll be going to Veldora's Cave. If you need anything, just use telepathy.
Uri simply sighed alongside Shadow before laying on their backs, Haruto and Shizue simply nodded as Rimuru began walking out of the tent.
Once outside, he sprouted his two wings and began to fly off into the air in the direction of Veldora's Cave.
Rimuru: (That lady... Mariabell)
For her to let him go so easily after she had gone through so much trouble...
It just didn't make sense, and it was obvious that she was planning something behind the back of the stage.
Rimuru: (What are you going to do now...)
She is most certainly going to pull some strings.
All, in an attempt... To get him back.
...
Sitting ontop of a rock near a small pond, closed eyes as he seemed to be enjoying the quietness of the area and the peaceful surroundings.
Since he eliminated each and every monster inside this cave, he didn't need to worry about having interruptions and could peacefully sit here.
It was always nice for Rimuru to sit in peace, away from civilization and alone to his thoughts.
He always preferred to sit in the moonlight, enjoying the giant pearls peaceful light which shone neither too bright and neither too dim.
He loved it when he could peacefully sit at the park on a bench, staring into the moonlight as he was deep in his thoughts and no one was around to interrupt him.
He never liked the day, the time when people swarmed all over the place. Neither did he like the Sun's heat nor did he like how bright of a light it gave off.
Why prefer the giant ball of blazing heat rather then the shining pearl that soothed anyone who looked at it?
Although he wasn't sitting near the moonlight, the pond of lake provided as much peace as the moon did.
...
Rimuru's POV
...
Peace...
But I didn't just come here to sit around and do nothing.
I stand up and begin to use analysis on myself, specifically...
The new skill I just received was the Unique Skill of that guy named Cathal. It's the Unique Skill, {Creator}, whose function should be clear by the name alone.
Aside from the analysis part of this Unique Skill, which Great Sage already has, the other parts of this Skill are quite alright.
I came here to test out a few things aswell using my new Unique Skill, more specifically it's material Creation ability.
Ah, I should also mention I learned a few new things about my Unique Skill Gluttony. Remember that Starved Skill I had?
Apparently, I have a sort of ability that grants me my Subordinates Skills and strengthens me whenever I grow. I can take the skills my subordinates possess whilst they can still keep the skill I have taken. I believe it's called...
Food Chain? Makes sense, the one at the higher hierarchy takes from the lower hierarchy.
That being said, there are a few interesting aspects I have noticed from my subordinates.
Firstly comes Shadow, whose ability intrigued me, I believe it was called Shadow Step. This ability utilizes the movement between shadows from one area to another, ignoring all sorts of obstacles that get in the way. It is a space that holds no sort of air, making it hard to breathe. Ontop of that, this space also has no changing temperature, making it suitable for espinoge.
However, this ability is widely present amongst the Star Wolves for some reason...
But there is a key difference between Shadows ability and the Star Wolves ability...
Apparently, to activate Shadow Step, you need to use the shadow of a person or any object in particular. Ontop of that, if there is no shadow in the area... She can apparently create one.
Basically, she doesn't need shadows to move between one place to another and can freely move by using self made shadows which don't belong to her or anything in the vicinity.
For example, think of a barren land that is filled with complete sunlight and no shadows are present there. Obviously, she would need some sort of shadow present in that area to transport over there....
Yet, her ability defies it's very cons and she can use it to teleport to that very barren desert if she wanted to. That, I do not understand...
I did infact, try it out for myself, and it worked the same way the Star Wolves used it.
Perhaps it's her own ability to be able to use Shadow Step at such a degree? No, that can't be it...
Well, I still need to search the mechanism behind this ability, so for now I'll not focus on it.
The next one is Haruto, that Ogre who is now a Kijin apparently.
(A Kijin is a part of the ogre races and is the next step from the Ogres. They appear every century or so, atleast that's what I heard- Rimuru)
He has some sort of interesting flames...
These Grey Flames, to be specific. I light my hand on fire, and a grey flames appears that covers my palm.
They seem monotone in nature and don't appear to pose any harm or threat, but these things burn millions of degrees every second. Since I have temperature resist, they don't do much to me... However, anyone who isn't experienced in the art of flames would immediately disintegrate into thin air if they attempted to wield this.
It's an ability that holds unfathomable amounts of power if used correctly, a single strike from such an attack could wipe out an entire army if utilized.
However, this only applies to me as my magicules have buffed the hell out of them. For Haruto, whose magicules are as much as ten times inferior to mine in quality and quantity... They only burn to about as high as 500 to 700 degrees Celsius.
Anyways, that out of the way, I wanted to try something out.
Great Sage had the ability to merge any sort of spell, and Creator has the ability to create such spells out of thin air.
So, technically speaking...
If I combined these flames, and the Storm element with one another, I could create an attack that is stronger then a raging storm and hotter then a supernova.
[Confirmed...]
What the hell is this filth?
[You have received Extra Skill, {Storm Flames}]
I am surrounded by a circle of blue and white flames, electricity sparking from their edges aswell as flames melting the rocks underneath them.
The blue color seems to be the lightning, whilst the flames seem to be the white color...
This is quite ugly, but I can sense the power behind this... Hell, if I didn't have Great Sage, I don't think I would have been able to control this.
Very well.
Rimuru: Return.
The skill immediately dissipates into my hand, as if it never really existed to begin with.
Very well, onto the next experiment.
I'm gonna need a clone for this one.
Lemme just...
Boop.
There it is, a similar slime clone of mine sitting on the ground as monotonely as ever.
The next ability I received is from Hoku, it's named Multilayer Barrier.
I believe he got this when he started to tank the attacks of those dragons back in the mountain, he always has several of these surrounding him... I wonder why thought, why he keeps several of them instead of one with all the resistances?
I apply multilayer barrier to my clo-
ohhhhhhhh.
I see, that's why.
It appears you can only apply one resistance to each barrier.
In other words, since I have applied a heat barrier around my clone...
Yep, I see.
The flames I shot at it had no effect on it, they absorbed the damage and instantly repaired themselves on a whim.
However, there if I were to use something like the serpent's poison breath...
I see.
The poison immediately broke through the barrier and poisoned the clone of mine, destroying it's cells...
...
The slime melted into a puddle of goo...
Jesus Christ that's disgusting.
I'ma just-
Return that clone and create a new one.
Anyways, that's perhaps the main reason Hoku decided to use multiple barriers.
As he has many resistances, he can easily apply them to his barriers and become a walking tank. Maintaining the barriers is also pretty easy mainly because of the fact they take so less magicules to maintain.
That being said, I apply all sorts of multilayer barriers around my slime clone.
Ice Resistance Barrier.
Fire Resistance Barrier.
Electric Resistance Barrier.
You name them.
A total of 8 barriers which are Electric, Ice, Fire, Water, Earth, Poison, Storm and Piercing...
Elemental Manipulation sure is handy eh?
After that, I decide to unleash all hell on the slime clone of mine.
I first shoot a small spark of electricity at it, which would be more then enough to kill several thousand humans. The barrier managed to shrug it off...
I then shoot some icicle lances at the clone which are also absorbed by the barrier surrounding it.
I don't think I should use my flames but whatever...
It broke through the barrier, but it absorbed nearly 95 percent of the damage so the slime seems fine. I recreate the flame barrier around it and switch to the next element.
I create several water blade's behind me and launch it at the clone of mine, and they get absorbed as expected.
I utilize Earth element to strike from underneath, but the element stops after it hits the barrier and repels.
I use the poisonous breath attack of the serpent once more, and this time the Slime doesn't melt into whatever the fuck it did before.
Finally... My Storm element.
I don't think I'll use that, for obvious reasons.
I instead pull out my naginata and launch an attack, and the barrier barely manages to hold against the force of my strike. Either way, it stopped my attack and protected the clone of mine pretty easily.
However, since this is made out of magic...
Rimuru: Anti-Skill.
As expected...
The barrier immediately crumbled under the hands of my attack, not being able to stop my Anti-Skill ability.
Good thing I'm the only one who had it...
Very well, moving o-
Rimuru-Sama.
Huh?
Shadow sent me a telepathic message, what's it about?
Could you please teleport to me right now, there is an emergency...
Hm, what could it be?
I suppose I'll have to set aside my experiments for now...
I immediately use Shadow Step and begin searching for Shadows magicule signature, and it doesn't exactly take long to find it since she wasn't hiding it...
Rimuru: What's the matter?
I ask, wondering what she has in sto-
Wait...
Why am I picking up so many signatures with my Magic Sense.
Shadow: There's... Alot of humans here... And they are armed.
...
Pardon?
_____________________________________________
Cliffhanger go brrrrrrrrrr.
Next chapter will be uhhhh... About some briefing regarding the situation.
Storm Flames: The name is pretty simple, and should provide everything you need to know. It utilizes Rimuru's Storm Element and mixes it with Haruto's flames, creating a mixture of Flames and Lightning that burn and electrocute the enemy.
Next chapter: The Army of Falmuth (P/2)