2 1st Move | Here be Dragons

After spending enough time in the cave that I got another ten charges, I began to become somewhat worried that I...

...might be lost.

Still, as most survival books would say, 'you can't panic', and thus, I remained calm and made another knife. I then started passively recalling things about myself after I completed a new survival knife and started wandering around the cave, my name was S—

—my name... what was my name? I remember having a name before! What is it?

I stopped walking and leaned on the damp cave walls for support, otherwise, I had a distinct feeling I would fall onto the cold, hard, and dirty ground.

After traveling for days, my feet are absolutely filled with mud. Yet oddly enough, despite being completely barefoot, none of the rock's sharp edges ever made me bleed. In fact, my skin was astonishingly difficult to pierce, with me having to use an excessive amount of force just so the skin would stay red for longer than a minute.

I also haven't felt a single droplet of sweat anywhere on my body despite the ambient temperature being hotter than most Canadian summers. I was particularly thankful for this as I recall being so obsessed with cleanliness in my last life that I would always take a shower whenever I came home, even if the weather is nice out.

"What... is my name?" I asked no one, and no one heard me. I know I'm not human, the sheer amount of apathy I'm feeling about leaving my old life behind is clear proof of that. That and how I just accepted reincarnation as though it's an everyday fact, like the sun rising tomorrow.

That or I've somehow become an uncaring sociopath.

I've been called a sociopath before by people behind my back. Granted, I can't blame them since I was absolutely ruthless on the business side of things. I remember how I would constantly come up with new ways of cutting corners and using underhanded tactics in negotiation. I guess scummy is also a way to describe me, but I prefer the word 'efficient'.

Still, I feel emotions like love and care nonetheless, just that those feelings are reserved for a small group.

Either way, the point is: there are 2 possibilities, both SHOULD be frightening yet I'm not disturbed by the fact I'm no longer human or the fact I may be a legitimate sociopath.

The latter of which seems less likely if the feeling of a hole, an emptiness, a feeling of uncertainty inside my mind is anything to go by. It feels like fear in a sense, or rather, it felt more akin to that period of time when I was consumed by Nihilism.

I continued walking while placing a single charge into [Philosophy] and another into [Multitasking]. [Multitasking] allows me to focus on two tasks simultaneously, and [Philosophy] allowed me to fill that void inside me for the time being. The specialties act like tiny voices that speak up periodically to give me blueprints or information about the objects in front of me, like an analysis if you will.

Nihilism is a problem that every rational being encounters, and philosophy is one of the best ways at combating such thoughts.

Immediately, I shut that line of thought down. Now's not the time to be bogged down by ideas of Nihilism. The first version of Nihilism only came into existence when we had more free time to ponder about science and if life has any meaning.

I don't have much free time right now.

I reached a section of the cave where I'm seeing evidence of mining: only the root of the crystals that once grew out of the ground remains.

A second later, I realized I'm on the trail of something, an unknown entity capable of smashing through these crystals and somehow using them in their entirety...perhaps another one like me? Another intelligence?

After placing a charge into [Mineral Examination], I picked up one of the shards that remain and started to examine it.

The weight is light, the shard is somewhat bigger than my middle finger.

There's no additional breakage or even cracks at any of the ends. A smooth cut, which means either means the crystal fractured itself or somehow an entity was able to... dissolve the main body of the crystal?

That can't be right.

I tried to bend the crystal, only to find it unyielding. I continued to try until both of my hands felt sore from the force I used. Gazing upon this piece of crystal, I found that there were small cracks around the middle.

I don't exactly have a reference for hardness, so I couldn't tell how hard this crystal is compared to things like diamonds.

Instead of breaking it down like those rocks, I decided to form it into another knife. Using pieces of another crystal, I smashed the two together at a specific angle to crack the first one and carve out special patterns on the flat edge of the blade.

This time the knife in question is somehow even sharper than the interlocking one I created before. With the grooves, whenever I swing this knife past a certain threshold in terms of speed, it heats up the air with friction, creating a thin coat of heated air to aid in the cutting.

What?

How do I KNOW this? How could I tell such a thing would happen based on sight alone? And how did I create something so deadly from a simple crystal? Just how dangerous IS this crystalline material if I'm able to create a weapon with special grooves that, when moved at speeds of more than 50 kilometers an hour, heats the air to upwards of 2000℃ for a fraction of a second?

What is this magical material?

"Crickey..." I mumbled. "I created a fucking pseudo-lightsaber...or I guess a pseudo-light-knife is more accurate."

I furrowed my brows, still unused to the unnaturalness of my voice. I massaged my throat with a frown on my face.

It honestly feels like hearing the voice of Herrscher of the Void from Honkai Impact for the first time. You really get the sense that the owner of the voice is not human.

So now armed with a close-range and a long-range option, I continued down the cave, feeling confident and taking wide strides as though I were not in a totally alien cave in the middle of nowhere.

_____________________________________________

I eventually stopped at an intersection with several openings to different tunnels. The openings' size ranges from being able to fit three of me across to one that I'll struggle to even get a single foot in.

Still no signs of life are present anywhere. According to [Cave Exploration], a cave should have startlingly alien lifeforms compared to those on the surface.

My gut is telling me to go down the one that'll lead me even lower underground. In truth, gut feelings are a complicated bunch.

Despite there being no scientific evidence, you're always taught to listen to your gut feeling since more times than not, it'll save you from a grisly fate.

And so, I acted accordingly and continued down the tunnel that goes even further down, only to see light at the end of the tunnel.

Looking at the light, I felt extremely nervous for a moment as I'm reminded of how the light at the end of the tunnel is usually a metaphor for the Afterlife in the books I've read.

I crept forward into the tunnel, like a character in a horror movie slowly walking down a hallway, just waiting for the jumpscare.

'Who is there?' a voice boomed out to me, causing me to freeze in less fear than I expected.

Placing a single charge into [Vocal Recognition] and another one in [Biology], I began to analyze what kind of animal could have made such a deep voice. It couldn't have been human.

Just in case, I placed one charge into [Escape Artist], leaving me one last charge in case of emergency.

I took another small step before a sense of immense dread caused me to place the last charge into [Stealth].

Instantly, my posture shifted to better accommodate a more stealthy frame. Alongside being more stealthy, my mind was filled with ways to create an invisible cloak using nothing more than nylon and electronics you can find in your kitchen.

Let's not even get into the blueprint for a Sound Silencer, capable of masking any sound by sending out a counter-vibration that could cancel each other out in what's known as a 'destructive interference'.

Reaching the light, I saw a massive cavern that served as the exit point for this tunnel. The cavern was absolutely massive! At least several hundred meters across and several dozen tall, it would put most warehouses to shame.

As my jaw became slack, I noticed how I'm very comfortable right now despite being so deep underground. [Cave Exploration] telling me the ambient temperature is around 46℃, hotter than even the Sahara yet I'm not sweating at all.

I feel nothing but cool and humid air.

As I noticed my apparent immunity to excessive temperature, I realized that my stomach is not growling at all. I haven't eaten for over two days now and I'm not feeling the fatigue that comes with starvation.

"..."

'I know you're still there! Even with this prison, I can still feel your soul. Come out!' It boomed.

Souls? I... I guess it makes sense since I got killed and ended up here, or wherever 'here' is.

Walking deeper into the chamber, I'm greeted by the sight of an utterly massive black-scaled dragon with a lighter-tone stomach, its wings folded since it's inside a cave.

Why is a dragon so deep underground? I felt my jaw go slack, opening wide as I drink in the sight. A wealth of blueprints poured into my mind by [Biology] as the specialty tried its best to come up with a blueprint on how to reproduce such an animal. The main ingredient involved in this process was magicules—

Magicule? What the hell is that?

'Hmm...' The dragon stared at me, yanking me out of my mind.

Its face is completely still, so I can't tell what they're thinking. I've had plenty of experience reading people, as it's a very necessary skill to have when negotiating with someone else.

'A human? No, no human can survive in areas of such high Magicule concentration, you'd suffocate long before you reached this deep... a Majin? no... could it be...?' It muttered, 'no, impossible'

It narrowed its eyes in suspicion, acting very human-like, 'what are you? You are most definitely a monster if you're capable of surviving such a large concentration of magicules that would poison a human, or even demi-human, hundreds of times over. Yet at the same time, you look like a human.'

It boomed at me, and I realized it wouldn't take silence for an answer. So despite my uneasiness at the alienness of my voice, I felt the need to reply if I'm to continue existing.

After all, I highly doubt a knife or two is going to do jack against a fucking dragon larger than a modern house.

Especially when according to biology, this is no conventional lifeform.

Realizing I'd been staying silent this whole time and the dragon is becoming impatient, I opened my mouth to speak.

I really hope my new voice doesn't come back to bite me.

"I— I—" I cleared my throat, the nervousness inside my mind caused me to stutter embarrassingly, "... I do not know what I am." the dragon seemed surprised at that, whether it was due to it confirming its suspicion about me, or I showed it something new. "All I know is that I woke up here a day ago, stepped on this blue slime, before walking for another two days, and reached here. Do you know where this place is?"

The dragon's eyes widened and it shifted its body so that more of it is facing me.

'hmm, I see. To have a reincarnated soul here of all places...' it closed its eyes in deep thought, before opening them a few seconds later, in it, I could almost feel a sense of sadness, 'My name is Veldora, the Storm Dragon, one of the Four True Dragons. Tell me, do you have a name?'

Veldora's head shifted as they focused on somewhere else. Tracing the True Dragon's line of sight, I found Veldora staring at the entrance of another tunnel.

'You there!' Veldora boomed again, oddly enough, [Vocal Recognition] is telling me he's not making any sounds despite me hearing him. 'Show yourself!'

A moment later, a familiar blue blob came into the light. Its width is longer than my waist with protrusions that outline two 'eyes'.

'Wha...what is this?' The slime... said? Where is the sound even coming from?

[Biology] is screaming at me at the sheer impossibility in front of me. Lifeforms— organic lifeforms— exist due to a mixed soup of complex chemicals. Slimes, like the ones made from an extremely dense fluid, should not exist on land, since they would fall apart without the surface tension of water helping to maintain their shape.

'Eep!'

Again, [Vocal Recognition] is still telling me that there wasn't a sound wave, starting to make me seriously doubt the veracity of this specialty. I began humoring the idea that specialties could be wrong.

'My name is Veldora, the Storm Dragon, one of the Four True Dragons, tell me, what is a slime doing here inside my cave? and an intelligent one at that.'

I continued to observe the conversation. In my experience, sometimes, it's best to stay quiet, that way you could collect far more information than otherwise. Since dragons are possible, would telepathy be as well?

The slime seems to be taken aback by Veldora's words, and just before they could continue, I interrupted them.

"Are you using telepathy to speak to me?" I inquired. The slime quickly turned to me as though they'd just heard a horrible screech, probably surprised by my voice.

'Of course!' Veldora replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, 'how else am I going to communicate past this prison?'

A prison? But how? All I see is air between me and Veldora. I moved forward, ignoring the continued conversation that the other two are having—

*Bang*

"Uh—!" Right before I could physically touch the dragon, I unceremoniously bump into an invisible barrier and fell onto the ground, causing the dragon and slime to laugh. I clutched my nose, admittedly it didn't hurt as much as I expected it to. I really need to know how tough is my new body.

The laughter... I took a quick glance at the slime and dragon, both continuously laughing at my misfortune. They're so human in their behavior, so much so that I think they could easily pass the Turing Test.

Let's test something.

Instantly, I puffed up my cheeks in faux embarrassment, the dragon moved to wipe a nonexistent tear off its eyes as it spoke to the both of us.

'Ah...it's been so long since I have laughed like that.' Veldora then sighed in sadness.

So... utterly... human in their behavior I'm tempted to ask whether or not they too are a reincarnator. It's almost creepy seeing a dragon act in such a way.

like really, humans only evolved such reactions as laughing due to our social structure. If we were solitary creatures we likely would've only developed facial muscles that would aid in intimidation.

'So how long have you been here anyways?' the slime asked. This type of telepathy seemed to be different from the ones I saw in superhero movies since I could 'hear' it as well despite not being the recipient.

'hmm...' The Storm Dragon's posture changed, this time appearing to look like they were in deep thought. Again, that posture looked so human I'm tempted to think it's a human wearing a dragon cosplay. '300 years since a Hero had sealed me in using [Unlimited Imprisonment].'

"Well...that's a bit harsh," Sympathy colored my voice. Humans can barely spend a few weeks in complete isolation before our sanity start to go down, I can't imagine what 300 years would do to someone.

Hell, I once read a study that showed how a long-term stay in solitary confinement harms the prisoner's mental health.

If I still had a charge left I would've liked to spend it on [Psychoanalysis], that way I could tell what kinds of damage such a long duration would have on the dragon's psyche.

Still, that's one point into the firmly "Not-Reincarnator" section.

'Indeed it was...but I guess I deserved it since I was attacking a human village at the time.'

...Well ...that just removed any sympathy I could've had for Veldora's situation, I remarked silently. If I'm using the legal system in my old world, it actually makes sense that he's been imprisoned for 300 years, any terrorists of his caliber would've received multiple-life sentences.

'What do you plan to do now' the slime asked, clearly unconcerned at the fact that this dragon killed dozens of people during that attack.

'I wish to be able to see the outside world.' the black-scaled dragon said simply. 'To fly free once more.'

The Slime seemed to be in deep thought—

Again, what's with such human actions in a completely inhuman organism? What's next? Freeing a dangerous dragon? Yeah right, nobody's that—

'How do I get you out?'

My jaws dropped, and I stared at the slime with a serious case of 'WTF' on my face. For a moment there I wondered if I 'heard' it right,

Seeing my face, the slime's body language turned into one of innocence, like a child wondering what they've done wrong while standing next to a broken vase, 'What?'

I turned my body to face the slime fully before raising a hand to gesture at the imprisoned mass murderer.

"This dragon burned down whole cities! It is—" 'he' "...Fine, HE was sealed here for a reason and you want to free him!?"

I turned towards the dragon with a placating gesture, "I mean no offense, but with a title as grand as 'One of the Four True Dragons' you gotta be a major player on the international stage! What are the geopolitical ramifications of allowing you free? Do you know or is your information 300 years out of date? What's more, how do we deal with the one who imprisoned you here? They're clearly more powerful than you are.

I feel confident about my questioning of the slime's proposal, after all, the prison stood for 300 years without fail and the slime probably isn't strong enough to take me on.

'True, but- counterpoint, I would not want my friend—'

"You JUST met him!" I glared at the slime.

'Guys, guys, guys! I don't want to see the first people I've talked to these past centuries, how about this, I swear upon the name, Veldora, that I would not attack another human village unless I have a good reason for it, my friends.'

I narrowed my eyes at the particular wording, stuff like that vague wording is way too common in corporate-speak.

'Sure!' the Slime said as I snapped my head to look at him.

You motherf-! I had to bite down on my tongue to prevent myself from uttering that insult. This is like a deal with the Devil! You need to read the fucking fine print damn it! Whom's definition of 'good reason' are we talking about here?

That is WAY too damn vague! It's why doing business in China is so risky, the law there is so vague that it's up to the police officer's interpretation, meaning that you can be jailed for an offense that other officers would only give you a ticket for.

'I can put you in my stomach, and let [Great Sage] analyze that prison so we can finally break it apart.'

Who the hell is Great Sage? I looked at the exchange between the two in awe and fear. Awe at how the slime is just accepting the dragon's words, and fear at how the slime just got rid of perhaps the biggest bargaining chip we have on the dragon.

I saw an opportunity to use the freeing of the dragon as leverage, and free Veldora in the future.

'Sure! but before I go, I should gift you two with names.'

"Names?" I asked.

'Monsters can be named in order to increase their power immensely. It scales directly off of the name giver's strength.'

Huh, so it's like a title system in an RPG?

'As a Slime, you classify as a Monster, however...' He turned to look at me, I took a step back in subtle nervousness at the intensity of the gaze. 'You are something I have not seen in centuries, a Perfect Homunculus... to think one could exist today is a miracle in and of itself.'

He took a deep breath as if remembering the past, a flash of nostalgia.

'A normal homunculus would be classified as either a human or a demi-human, mainly depending on what it's based on. But, your very existence blurs the line between human, demi-human, and monsters. you should do well to hide your nature as all nations 300 years ago have banned the creation of Perfect Homunculi. The world sees your kind as an abomination of the highest order and will proceed to do whatever it can to hunt you down and kill you. I doubt they are any different today.'

I gulped subconsciously. Even with my silenced emotion, the idea of going against entire nations before I'm set up scares me a little, and I'm not ashamed to say that.

'Names... names, aha! Your name shall be: Rimuru Tempest;' he pointed at the slime before turning to me, 'and Scientia Tempest!'

A bright white glow encompassed the both of us as I felt the name Scientia Tempest engrave itself upon my soul. It's... an indescribable feeling— it doesn't hurt thankfully but... it's... I have no reference to describe it other than it feels like eating food of another culture, something new, something unique.

After it had died down, Rimuru expanded like a net and gulped down the entire prison—

Crickey! Just how large can Rimuru get?

"Do you have a pocket dimension inside you or something?!" I yelled, shocked at how a dragon larger than a house can fit inside a space smaller than a human.

"Well... yeah..." [Vocal Recognition] pinged that at a deafening 103 dB. Well looked like the slime learned how to talk at least.

Darkness fell like a curtain as the light that once illuminated this place for hundreds of years was gone.

"Let's find a way out," Rimuru suggested.

_____________________________________________

AN: This chapter has been improved.

here's the first difference between our Scientia to Rimuru: Scientia is far less trusting of others due to working so long in a cutthroat corporate environment where everyone has an agenda.

Yes, the name Scientia is a reference.

For those wondering why Rimuru has evolved and found Veldora in a few days instead of the 3 months in canon, it was because he felt something had attacked him when he was just born, so he relied a lot on Great Sage and therefore evolved much quicker due to a perceived necessity in case he was attacked again. later, he found Scientia working on creating the crystal knife before tailing them as they moved through the cave network.

Current Charge:

Biology 1

Cave Exploration 1

Primitive Weapons 1

Vocal Recognition 1

Stealth 1

Martial Artist 3

Escape Artist 1

Philosophy 1

Multitasking 1

Mineral Examination 1

Extra Charge: 0

Wasted Charge: 0