That time I was troubled by my concerns

After Shiro evolved, Veldora felt a very strong destructive feeling coming from him (the force released by a newly acquired ultimate skill) reminding him of a certain pink haired loli demon lord, the daughter of his brother, and his nephew.

He could tell that as of now Shiro could probably fight him in an all out battle, although Shiro's chances of winning are still questionable, the difference in their EP is still worlds apart.

"Congratulations, you've evolved."

Veldora congratulated Shiro.

"Yeah, I guess so, and I thank you for that, I also want to thank you for granting me my former name, my friend."

Shiro sincerely thank Veldora twice.

He was deeply grateful to the dragon.

Veldora is the ideal friend he could wish for.

'Although, he couldn't read my mind he can still tell what I want.'

'Well, he did acquire the unique skill [Investigator] even if he couldn't use it because of the infinite prison, he is still good at scrutinizing people.'

Shiro thought.

Earlier, Shiro was planning to ask Veldora to let him retain his former life's name but after spending a short time with Veldora, Shiro began to like the company of the dragon and just let him decide his name.

But never did his expected for Veldora to be so thoughtful.

Shiro couldn't really part ways with his former name as it was the only thing left of his former identity, the last semblance that reminded him of his family.

Shiro as of now has the power to met his former family reincarnation using [Destined Dream] and [Abyss] but was reluctant to met them.

Shiro can use [Destined Dream] to peek through the destiny of his former family, by doing so Shiro is able to pinpoint their location, regardless of where they are.

[Abyss] will allow him to travel between realities and dimensions, searching for his families reincarnation wouldn't be much of a hassle to him.

Unfortunately, Shiro is reluctant to take this action for many reasons.

He also knew that after meeting them a soul resonance will be triggered and past life memories of his former family will resurface, and that would complicate things for his former family's new incarnations.

Moreover, he doesn't have the courage to face them after knowing how horrible his actions were after his sister's death and the injustice he had experience first hand.

The mere thought of seeing his mom look at him with disgust could make him crumble.

…

"Friend, you say. That doesn't sound bad at all."

Unlike when Rimuru suggested to Veldora that they should be friends, that time Veldora acted shy and tsundere.

However, when it comes to Shiro, Veldora recognized him not just as a friend but also as someone whose strong enough to put a fight against him.

After his defeat against masked hero (Chloe Aubert/Hinata Sakaguchi) and being sealed for the last 300 years, Veldora view point had changed.

"Now that you name me we can establish a soul corridor, this way even if you're sealed here you'll still be able to see and feel the outside world through me. I don't have the power to release you at the moment, but surely in due time I'll be able to do that. Furthermore, you can use me as a conductor of sort to the outside world, and you wouldn't be drained completely in magicules and die.

Shiro had long devised this plan with [Forlorn Sage] the day he found out that Rimuru had yet to put Veldora in his stomach.

By applying Causality Manipulation, Soul Manipulation, Space Time Manipulation and Law Manipulation to the Soul Corridor he was planning to establish with Veldora, even if he is put in a private subspace (Rimuru's Stomach) they will still able to maintain their connection.

At the same time Shiro would also be able to establish a connection with Rimuru after she swallows Veldora.

The main purpose to why Shiro is in need to establish a soul corridor with Veldora is to have an infinite supply of magicules where he didn't need to worry of running out.

Naming Mei earlier also made him realized how foolish it is to name every monster that got interest to, as it consumes a lot of magicules and his magicule resource recovery speed is at turtle speed.

The risk of having low magicule count is very high in this world where every corner there might creatures that posed a threat to him.

Rimuru was only able to go around naming everyone was due to Veldora's existence, basically granting him a pseudo magicule generator, added to his protagonist aura making sure no powerful creature is nearby to take him down when he is vulnerable.

But Shiro is not Rimuru.

Moreover, Shiro also plans to explore the Cardinal World and the worlds beyond that.

The story only focused on the Magic Continent, ignoring how wide the world is.

The world is approximately more than hundreds of billions of years old, it hid numerous mysteries that even True Dragons are privy to.

(A/N: This story doesn't follow a considerable portion of the original story's terminology. Moreover, the fact that there's no definite age given to the Cardinal World, so I just pushed my own idea to the story.)

It was also stated that Cardinal World although considered to be the central world is just one of the infinite worlds, in the infinite universes and infinite realities Star King Veldanava created during his days of boredom.

Who knows how big the scope of creation is, Veldanava himself the creator even before losing his true power didn't know everything.

(A/N: I don't believe in true omniscient (all knowing) in my point of view everything is meaningless if one possessed such power, at that point you'll be no different from a non-sentient machine. The fact that Veldanava was bored meant that he isn't all knowing because he was affected by emotion and was seeking something new to sate his boredom.)

And in order to keep his life, Shiro plans to take all the possible advantages available.

…

Shiro could just have used his newly acquired [Shiva God Of Destruction] to destroy the [Infinite Prison] and free Veldora, but doing such a thing wouldn't bring him any benefits, changing the timeline that great of a degree will do more harm to him than good.

Likewise, this plan of his solidified after acquiring [Shiva God Of Destruction] it's sub skills evolving into something far superior compared to what they are previously.

…

"Interesting, that doesn't sound bad at all, and I trust you my friend."

Shiro felt his stomach churning for lying to his new friend.

Unfortunately, this is something he must do to ensure not just his own safety, but also Veldora's safety and this world's.

He wouldn't let a world he learned to love when it was but a fiction be destroyed.

His existence might have already disturbed the balance of things but Shiro doesn't plan to let things spiral out of control, also doing anything foolish, like freeing Veldora even before meeting Rimuru wouldn't be wise of him.

Shiro might have been a bit manipulative but so long it's for the best of his benefit and for the people he cared for, Shiro don't care what others thought of his actions.

His only concern is his own self, people he cared about, the safety of the world and lastly his own and his people's interest.