- Silas -
"Take care, you two. I will be back in a week or so at best." I said two both Sakura and Lavy, as they got ready to go to Zeref's place.
"Hmm. You should be careful too."
"Please take care of yourself too." Sakura wished me well as the two left the Restaurant.
"Tch….lucky bastard."
….
"You two haven't given up on that yet?" I asked with a sigh.
"It hasn't been three months yet." Rimuru shrugged.
Sigh….
"Did you get everything for the journey?" Ainz asked.
"Yup, everything for the journey is packed. Tents and materials for making food are all there in the corner." I pointed towards the load of things I had prepared for the trip.
"Alright, I will put them in my inventory." He said waving his hand at the stuff as they magically disappeared in his inventory.
"Damn, that's a useful piece of magic. Sakura can do it too. Maybe I should learn something like this. Carrying everything in backpacks is bothersome."
"Hmm." Ainz nodded as I opened the door to Rimuru's world.
Rimuru took the lead and welcomed us.
Outside, the goblins were already ready, having prepared a welcoming ceremony for us. This time however even the dwarves had joined them.
I gave them a whole Barbeque Pig bought from my Restaurant to party on and some alcohol for the dwarves.
They looked extremely happy at the sudden arrival of booze and even offered to make equipment for them if I gave them the raw materials.
A surprising fact was that none of them were scared of Ainz, a bit curious sure but not afraid.
We found out that there were undead species of beings in this world too and that we might find some of them in this Jura Forest itself.
I guess this place was not as simple as it looked.
"You should approach other tribes of Goblins and even other species and take them under your rule." Ainz suggested Rimuru. "It will not only give you a better workforce to develop this town but also remove the dangers of any attacks from those tribes."
"That's….I will think about it." Rimuru nodded.
"Leave it to us, Rimuru-sama. We can send people to all the goblin tribes in the Jura Forest and invite them to join us. I am sure they will all join us if they know we get named here." Rigurd, the head of the goblin tribe said.
"Eh….are you sure?" Rimuru asked, surprised.
"Completely. Getting named is a great honour for any monster."
"Really? Then send some Goblin Raiders to other tribes. Start from the weaker ones first. Actually, only contact the ones till B Rank and give them the same offer. If they agree, ask them to gather here in a week. If they have any problems, we can discuss it too as long as it doesn't compromise the lives of our people."
"Yes Rimuru-sama!"
"Well, now that that is done, let's get to what we came here for." Ainz said and Rimuru nodded.
"Yes. Let's start our adventure."
- Scene Change -
The adventure consisted of us going in a random straight line, killing any monsters we encountered in the way. I was the one in front.
If I ever got in a dangerous position, Ainz nuked them with a Tier 9 spell or Rimuru just glomped their bodies.
Still, my new Devil Slayer Magic was something else.
It felt amazing everytime I used the magic.
The feeling was….exhilarating.
I now understood why August said it was the perfect magic for me.
I mean while normal Ice Magic was instinctual for me, the Ice Devil Slayer Magic came as easy to me as breathing.
Then again, it made sense as it was based on the magic used by demons so it would obviously be easier for me.
The more I used the power, the more I felt my Demon Seed growing and in turn my Demonic Power increasing.
But that was not all.
The best part in all this was training my senses and combat skills against completely unknown enemies.
I was making sure not to use my Chef Skill to avoid making things too easy so that I could train my combat skills and they worked.
Being able to use precise magic in normal times and in combat were extremely different things.
The fluidity in combat can only be learned while fighting.
For example, I could freeze every singular leaf on a tree….individually and defrost them without harming them at normal times but that would be an impossible dream in combat.
During fights, I was working on instincts basically for the first two days, throwing big attacks and wasting magic power.
It was only after I got used to combat and got control of my nerves that I could reduce my consumption of my magic power and use my magic more efficiently.
Sage obviously played a huge part in all of this.
Finally, we settled down in a camp after five days of adventuring.
During these past five days alone, my body had grown accustomed to my new power and was growing steadily.
My Demonic Power had grown and was still growing at a ridiculous pace due to the food we had been eating.
"So you can just eat anything and you gain their abilities?" I asked Rimuru, intrigued.
If that was true, then I could make him overpowered considering the things I saw in the Shop's list. Provided they had enough money.
I remember there being the corpse of an animal called Dragon King Derous or something which can shoot a beam strong enough to destroy multiple planets.
"Umu."
"That's cheating, you know." Ainz commented while picking a piece of monster meat and taking a bite.
"I had to evolve from a Slime, you know. From literally the lowest of the mobs. Even the level one goblins are stronger than those. Moreover, look at Sil, he can cut even fate. How is that not cheating?" Rimuru protested.
"I guess you have a point." Ainz nodded.
I shrugged too. It did make sense.
"And what's with you? You are a Devil and you are using Ice Devil Slayer Magic? How does that even work?"
"It's just named Ice Devil Slayer Magic as it copies the magic of Ice Devils. All Slayer Magics are named similarly."
"Ah….so that's the reason. By the way, I saw you eating Ice and Great Sage analysed that your magic went up after that….what's the deal with that?"
"Every Slayer can eat the element they wield. The only exception being their own magic. Doing so boosts their magic for a short time and even helps them recover their magic."
"Heh….that sounds awfully useful. So all you have to do is keep some ice in some inventory and you can recover your magic whenever you want."
"Pretty much."
"What other kinds of Slayer Magic are there?" Ainz asked.
"Devil Slayer, Dragon Slayer and God Slayer with the last one being the strongest among the three as it can eat the magic of the other two as well. Coincidentally, Lavinia is learning the Ice God Slayer Magic."
"Heh….so she can kick your butt anytime, can't she?" Rimuru smirked.
I remembered someone and smirked. "Nah….I'd win."
"Hoh! That's a big claim. Maybe we should ask Lavinia what she thinks…." Ainz said and even though his skeletal face showed no expressions, I knew he was smirking.
Rimuru had a smirk on his face too.
I just shrugged. "Unlike me, she has to learn the God Slayer Magic on her own without any kind of….racial assistance or Skills. It's hard to get started too."
"Ah….so, it's just a matter of time then…." Rimuru shook his head but his smirk was clear for everyone to see.
….
"Heh….you sound like you speak from experience. Shizuka-san does have her moments. Could it be that…." I asked, smirking.
Ainz knew when to change sides so he turned towards Rimuru too. "Really?"
"W-whaa….what are you two talking about?" The guy stepped back, being caught off guard at the sudden reversal.
We bantered with each other and ate our dinner in peace.
"Still, this world is so wonderful. I never imagined being able to walk around without a mask, let alone eat natural food ever." Ainz commented, shaking his head.
Yeah, his world was depressing.
"Human greed has no limits." Rimuru said slumping back with a full stomach too while looking at the night sky.
"It was the reason why all members of Nazarick were non-humans. We had perhaps lost our faith." Ainz shook his head sadly.
"But hey, there are good humans too. Saitama is one example." Rimuru offered.
"He is? I thought he was secretly becoming a cyborg?"
….
And with that all of us burst into laughter.
They might make fun of Saitama all the time but I knew that it was to get him to express more emotions. Anger or even irritation was an emotion after all.
Saitama knew of this as well.
The guy acted dumb but he was quite smart where it mattered.
Suddenly a wolf jumped out from under Rimuru's shadow.
"Rimuru-sama, sorry to disturb you but there is some urgent matter."
"Hmm? Did something happen back in the village?" Rimuru asked.
"Yes. As per your orders, we sent people to other Goblin groups and monster clans with the offer to join our village. We were able to gather twelve Goblin groups with a total of two thousand goblins and they are moving or have already moved near our village. The problem started when we started inviting other monster groups."
Rimuru narrowed his eyes. "What kind of problem?"
"Well….some people….just laughed at the hobgoblins we sent and insulted our people."
"Did they attack or injure anyone?" He asked with a frosty tone.
The wolf shivered and bowed quickly. "No….none of them were harmed."
And just like that Rimuru's frosty expression disappeared. "Well, as long as no one is injured, it's fine. If they don't want to join us, it's their decision. I am not going to force anyone."
I agreed with his thought but Ainz just shook his head, although he didn't interrupt Rimuru.
Ainz might be a bit extreme at times but he always respects the decision of his friends. Most of all, he is extremely protective of the people he cares about.
He could be a little cold at times but that was mostly because of the forced emotional balancing due to the system of his world.
That said, he had mellowed down considerably due to meeting and spending time with us.
Rimuru wanted to see if he could name him but turns out that he was currently not strong enough to do so.
It was one of the reasons we were training so that he could get named and maybe the connection with this world would do something about that emotional balancing thing from his own world?
"So, what's the problem?" Ainz asked.
The wolf looked towards him and bowed again.
Seriously, these guys were too serious.
Then again, unlike Rimuru, Ainz had a presence of a royal who commanded such respect, especially when he was in his Roleplay Mode.
"Ainz-sama, in our travels, we learned that an army of orcs was approaching the Jura Forest. Wherever they go, they destroy and eat everything, continuously evolving in the process. They are nearing an ogre village near this area right now. The Ogres are preparing to fight but they have no chance of winning. When we tried to talk to them, we were just driven out by the ogres but…."
"But?"
"But one of them approached us and said that if we can help them, she will convince her father, the leader of the village, to talk to us."
"Eh, so you talked with the princess of the ogres, huh?"
The wolf nodded.
"How big is this Orc army?" Ainz asked, already in thought.
"Above one hundred thousand large. Among them around ten thousand with their leader, the Orc Lord, are approaching the Ogre village which has only around eight hundred ogres."
Rimuru looked at us. "It would be a slaughter. What should we do?" He said with some emotion.
"It could be a slaughter if they are not saved. As dangerous as it sounds, it could be a great chance as well. Monsters respect strength. You can get their allegiance if you save them or at least some kind of alliance." Ainz said after some thought.
"You think so?"
"Well, it's worth trying. We will know when we reach there. What about you, Silas?"
I shrugged. "Sounds like a plan."
"But several thousand, do we even stand a chance?" He asked and I agreed. Our chances didn't look good.
"Their numbers will just act as fodder for my undead." Ainz replied proudly. "Worst case, I can open a Gate and we can just leave."
Rimuru looked pensive for a moment and then as if he remembered something, he stood up. "Okay, let's go then. Ranga, show us the way."