3

The journey towards the goblin village was not long, soon a half broken village with several huts came into view, "This looks more like a tribe than a village!" Kaede muttered looking at the state of the place.

Rimuru who was beside her had the same thoughts and the two walked into the place drawing the attention of the goblins in the neighborhood who started to spy on them, but this only lasted until they entered the village chief's hut.

There an elderly and shriveled goblin greeted them, "Welcome travelers, I am the head of this village." Her voice was so tired that Kaede thought he might fall hard to the ground at any moment but she introduced herself anyway.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Maple."

"Nice to meet you too, I'm Rimuru and what would you like to ask for help?" Rimuro asked directly and saw that the village chief and the goblin in the red headband looked at each other confirming her thoughts.

The village chief then began an explanation, apparently the magical beings in the forest are in unusual activity as their god disappeared a month ago and the magical beings started attacking them more often.

Kaede could tell that Rimuru knew something about it but didn't ask and waited for the explanation to end, "We tried to fight them but we're outnumbered, please help us!" The village chief said and bowed his head along with the goblin beside him.

"But I'm just a slime, I don't think I could do what's expected of me." Rimuru countered but the two just smirked, "You're very modest, a simple Slime wouldn't emit such an intense aura!" The goblin with the bandana countered.

"Aura?" Kaede wondered and tried to feel something from Rimuru but couldn't feel anything, he turned around and saw that Rimuru had started to sweat in slime form before stopping and making a serious face like a crime boss who didn't want his mistake to be perceived by your subordinate.

"Good job boss, gotta feel it!"

"But of course, it's not possible to hide such a magnificent presence!"

Kaede got lost in the middle of the conversation, she couldn't understand what this aura was but it seems they could come to an agreement in the end without any problems, she looked at the door and saw several goblin children spying and waved at them.

"Ah, the human saw us, run away or she'll eat us!" A child screamed and they quickly fled from the door, Kaede could only sigh at the children's attitude and went back to paying attention to the conversation.

"Well what we would like to ask about is..." He then proceeded to explain that wolf magical beings called dire wolves appeared and began a battle where several Goblin warriors died, including the chief's son who was a named warrior.

"The direwolf pack must have 100 individuals, but including females we are only 60 that can fight." The boss said sadly almost making Kaede shed some tears at their sad situation.

She was about to offer to help but Rimuru beside her said something first, "If I help you defend the village, what can you offer to reward me?" He said making the village head start shaking trying to think of something.

"We offer our loyalty! Please protect us!" He said and put his head on the ground begging, his son also put his head and asked for his help, at that moment several howls were heard outside the village causing the goblins to panic and the chief went outside to try to calm them down .

When everyone was thinking about running Rimuru jumped out of the tent, "No need to run, we will defeat them!" His voice sent was heard by all the goblins and gave them some hope in their defeated faces.

(Ding!)

(Updated Quest: Village Defense!)

(Help Rimuru slime defend the village from the direwolves.)

(Accept?) (Reject?)

Kaede smiled and clicked on accepting, she decided to help these poor goblins as much as she could and turned to look at the slime that was being watched by the entire village, "In the absence of Dragon Veldora, I Rimuru Tempest will fulfill your wish!" Her words moved the chief who bowed and the whole village followed suit.

"Thank you so much, we are Rimuru-sama's loyal servants from now on!" The boss said with tears in his eyes but more than that, there was hope in the looks of the goblins who were desperate before.

"This looks like the beginning of a great RPG story." Kaede muttered making the village's attention return to her, "That being the case I will help too, but on one condition!" Kaede said surprising the boss who looked at her with a strange look.

"And what would this Maple-sama condition be?" He asked while keeping a respectful tone, as Kaede came with Rimuru and he didn't know the relationship between the two is better to be respectful too.

(Snoring!.)

Kaede's stomach made a big noise, freezing the atmosphere, "Well look at that, I'm a little hungry hehehe!" She laughed embarrassed at the looks everyone was giving her.

The boss realizing that he still hadn't served the visitors anything since they arrived immediately sent a team to prepare food for Kaede and Rimuru, when the meal was ready Kaede didn't even look at the food before devouring it.

It was a soup with small pieces of meat and mushrooms, "Hey what is this meat?" Kaede asked as she took a bite of the meat and gulped down, "This is earth spider meat, they are the only animals we can hunt around here!" Rimuru who was eating next to Kaede almost spat out the soup and would have spat if he hadnt been a slime that could dissolve everything he eats.

He turned his head to see how Maple would react as a woman but instead she just continued eating normally as if it didn't matter where the food came from as long as it was edible.

( Ding: a new skill has been learned!)

"Eh?" Kaede stopped chewing when she saw the notification that flashed on his interface.

(You learned the skill: Earth Spider Threads.)

(You learn the skill: basic earth magic.)

Kaede remembers having learned skills before by devouring her opponents but this is very rare as the times she learned a skill could be counted in the hands, but just eating the dead spider's flesh she learned two skills what luck!