Getting Busy

While Alaric held a grudge for the fact that his groveling became useless, he was much too worried about Sonic to care. As Gunnar lunged about the forest, they had already arrived clearing.

'Sonic will be fine... Grander is powerful, but stupid!'

Alaric looked back, noticing that Grander still seemed to be writhing in pain, and knew that the slip slime hadn't found its opportunity to escape yet.

"It's all up to luck, Sonic."

As a scout and fighter, Sonic was extremely useful to Alaric. Gunnar could probably fight well, and Pamela increased his own fighting capabilities, but neither could even remotely compare to the slip slime.

Gunnar had already exited the forest, and as such, they had run away safely. Alaric felt a bit defeated, he went to save Sonic, and eventually ran away, sacrificing Sonic.

'Not only did I grovel and hug the leg of a damnable beast... I also sacrificed my comrade and ran away! Disgusting!'

Most people could say that they'd fight on for their friends until the very last moment, but they didn't truly understand what that entailed. Now, Alaric did.

Alaric forced back the nausea induced from riding Gunnar to town, and vowed, "The next time we meet, Grander, you shall be the one to grovel!"

As if unlocked, something within Alaric's body changed, his mana began to thicken and his soul glowed a bright blue color... but Alaric knew nothing of this.

Soon, they arrived back at Forger Village.

Alaric knew that his own power would definitely be too weak to handle Grander, unless he became a rank-5 talent wielder, and decided to put it off until he had an army at his behest. After all, his talent was of the lord type, not the combat type.

"I'm certain that Sonic will make it back swiftly and safely, I named him Sonic for a reason! I must immediately begin my money grubbing, and allow for our prosperous future!"

Alaric's plan to earn a good amount of money was rather simple, he would steal the villagers from Ryder Village, and then attack!

How would he steal? With prospects! With business!

How would he attack? Did that matter? Can the Ryder family compare to Grander? As long as the opponent was of rank 3, Alaric was confident!

'Although I am merely a rank-1 wielder, I received over 10 soul shards on the trip to that forest, thanks to Sonic! I can easily progress to the peak of rank-1! With Pamela's help, defeating the rank-2 Penne Ryder is too simple!'

Still, Alaric's plan to lure the villagers over would actually risk Pamela's life. He had no choice, personally going to steal them was impossible.

'It wouldn't be too risky, the distance between our villages is merely 20 kilometers, I'm certain that Pamela could run away in the case of an emergency.'

Although Pamela was still slow and sticky, Alaric found that if she became smaller and used acid to dig into the dirt, like a worm, catching her would be impossible.

Alaric, after releasing himself from Gunnar, began to speak with Pamela, "Alright, Pamela. I have a job for you. I want you to ride on Gunnar, to the village 20 kilometers west from here and do this..."

Although the slime hadn't learned of things such as the distance of a kilometer, Alaric made sure to explain that it was 20 times as long as the distance from Forger Village to the Great Forest of Neuling.

The plan was rather simple, Gunnar would drop Pamela off in a secluded area near Ryder Village, and Pamela would wander about the village, searching for people with no mana signature, and then transform into the words "Go to Forger Village for education and protection." After which, she would acidify and eat the ground beneath her, embedding their intentions into the ground.

With no villagers as shields, the Ryder family would quickly lose a line of defense. Of course, the villagers would definitely make rumors and the act of running away would soon be found out.

By riding on Gunnar, Pamela would arrive in a quick 10 minutes. Although they may be seen along the way, Alaric was confident that there weren't any mounts faster than Gunnar nearby. A slime traveling at horse-like speeds would simply become a rumor.

"Go! I'll prepare the village for the new arrivals."

Pamela stuck to Gunnar and they soon exited the village.

'I'll see results overnight, I'm sure, but for now I must fix this hunk of garbage.' Alaric thought, looking at the village that Chief Forger so thematically planned the layout of.

Chief Forger could be said to be an okay leader, but a horrible city planner. Thankfully, Alaric knew a bit about the topic. The random layout of the houses and even the ugly village fence would need to be changed.

"Still, I'm totally defenseless right now... I guess I'll just evolve a slime."

Alaric only needed 7 cores total to evolve a slime, since, when he evolved Sonic, he had fed a core to 2 different slimes in order to speed up some processes. These slimes had eaten Wurst, the head of the village hunting team, and Cini, the village teacher, taking their names.

'Coincidentally, the slime that ate Wurst's corpse, is almost as talented at the slip slime, Sonic! I recall that when I first fed him a core, his mana levels nearly doubled.'

There was a problem, however. Alaric didn't have 7 cores! if he included the 2 unnamed slimes in the cold storage, and the 4 cores he had leftover from when he evolved Pamela and Gunnar, there would only be 6!

Evolving a slime with high talent would definitely add to Alaric's safety while all of his rank-2 slimes were away, it practically became a necessity. The hunting team wasn't around to protect him anymore.

"If I want to get to the fixing of this village's layout... I need to ensure my safety. But... to do that..."

Alaric thought, 'I'd have to sacrifice one of the named slimes...'