Chapter 85 - An Awkward World

---Gaeabrande, Mael POV---

"Who are you two?", Chaos Machina demanded pointing her sword at us, "Are you members of the Hero's Party?"

Taking one look at her, Kratos chuckled and asked if her garb was normal here. Looking at her clothing, she asked him what was wrong with it.

"You look more an entertainer than a fighter.", Kratos said being well versed in both types of women.

Admittedly, she did really look a stripper at the moment. She had nothing covering her upper body aside from a bra. If I didn't know who she was, I'd have assumed the same thing. Scowling at him, she didn't take being called a prostitute very well. Launching herself forward, she brought the sword down on Kratos only to have him catch it with ease. Cracking his neck with an irritated look, he ripped the sword out of her hand and broke it with a single hand.

"You do not want this fight.", Kratos told her, "Leave and do not return."

"Haha, you are pretty arrogant.", she said bulking up, "That won't work a second time!"

"We don't have time to deal with piss ants.", I said pulling out Rhitta, "Goodbye."

Bisecting her with my axe, she looked at us in shock as she split down the middle and fell to the ground. Turning to ash before she hit the dirt, I checked the radar for where we needed to go.

"You aren't going to chase after that man? He had one of your women, didn't he?", Kratos inquired having seen Seiya and Ristarte together.

"Alternate version of her.", I remarked as I adjusted the radar, "The Ristarte I am dating is back in Orario still, the one we saw is from this universe. I am going to leave a few Shadow Demons behind just in case the Dark Slime did more damage to this world. The radar is only detecting the one energy signature here, but that doesn't mean he didn't boost the Demon Lord or something else. Either way I will come back to help the Hero."

"If he doesn't run like a coward again.", Kratos grumbled.

"Haha, very true.", I laughed, "Come on, let's find the Dark Slime."

Following behind me, he asked if there were other versions of him out there. Telling him there were, I said that every outcome for his life had a universe...including ones where he never became a Spartan General and never made a deal with Ares.

"Hmm...you said you are a powerful entity in the Omniverse, correct?", he asked me, "Are you capable of resurrecting my family?"

"I...I am.", I replied honestly, "Resurrecting them is easy, but...which family would you want?"

Instead of giving me an answer right away, he started mulling that thought over in his head just like I thought he would. Getting a lock on the Dark Slime's location, it turned out it wasn't that far from the Starter Town. Crossing over several hills, we found it with a group of newbie Adventurers. The newbies were all women, and curvy at that.

'Don't tell me...', I thought as we approached, "Excuse me ladies, that is quite an unusual slime you have there."

Turning around to look at us, the women greeted us with a smile but the slime immediately started backing away. It knew who I was the moment it saw me, and knew why I was here.

"Yeah, he's a really nice slime that helps out new Adventurers by weakening monsters for us.", one of the women said, "He weakens the monsters so we can finish them off to get stronger."

"Does he now...what does he ask for in return?", I questioned as I stared at it.

"He just asks for hugs.", their priestess replied blissfully unaware of the Dark Slime's real intention.

'So the Dark Slime Fragments are heavily influenced by Rimuru's personality.', I thought, "I really apologize ladies, but we have a quest to kill that Slime."

Looking at the slime as it tried to make itself scarce, they asked why we had to kill it. Telling them that a wizard opened a quest to kill it, I said that it was a dangerous magical creature. Stating that larger versions of it had already killed many people, they immediately jumped away from it.

"Wait!! That's not true!! Only one of us killed people!!", it shouted in protest, "I am a friendly slime that only likes-"

"So it's true!", the women squealed as they ran off, "He's going to kill us!"

"No!! Don't leave me here with them!!", the Dark Slime cried.

"Enough...let's get this over with.", Kratos said as he approached with an angry look.

Trying to get away, I cut off it's escape with Purgatory Flames. Realizing that it was cornered, it tried bargaining with us to spare it's life. Telling the slime that it had nothing to offer me, it tried to suggest it could help us track down it's allies. Stomping on the slime, Kratos shattered it's core killing it instantly as there was no room for negotiations.

"One down!", I said confirming no more Dark Slimes were here, "Alright, on to the next one."

"Why didn't it start collecting allies?", Kratos asked, "I thought they were supposed to be building an army of slimes."

"They appear to have far less intelligence and drive than the main body did. If my hunch is right, each of the fragments is significantly swayed by personality traits, memories, and desires that the main body had. In this case, it got side tracked by curvy women.", I replied trying not to laugh, "We...we can probably call this a Pervy Slime."

Laughing at that, Kratos agreed with me. Opening a portal, I took one glance back before walking through with him. Since we had time today to continue our hunt, I flicked on the radar to lead us to our next target. Picking up an unusually large signature this time, it either meant it had gathered a lot of power or there were a lot of them there. Picking up Kratos, I flew off following the radar's guidance.

As we arrived at the universe, it looked warped and twisted by magic. Just standing outside the universe was enough to make the radar go screwy as it had issues locating anymore Dark Slime Fragments. Opening a portal into the world, the image from the other side looked like almost like static as the connection wasn't stable.

"What does this mean?", Kratos asked.

"From what I understand, this disruption means someone, or something, is tampering with the magic flow of the universe. This could be the work of a powerful mage, a Philosopher's Stone, a deity, or the Dark Slime. Either way we know there is at least one here so we need to investigate.", I replied, "Let's get this over with, and get back to the guild for some drinks."

"Agreed, a cold beer and fried food sounds amazing.", Kratos said with a chuckle.

Stepping through the portal together, I ended up in a hallway without Kratos. Pulling the radar to look for Kratos, the unit wasn't functioning properly at all now. His energy signature was bouncing all over the world, and when I tried using the compass mode it just spun rapidly as if I was standing in the Bermuda Triangle. Putting it away I let out a sigh as this wasn't going to be fun.

'Well shit now I have to find the Dark Slime Fragment and Kratos...', I thought looking around the area, 'Am I in a high school?'

Seeing high school lockers lining the halls, I tried to figure out what world I was in. Unfortunately the hallway was far too generic so identify the world wasn't possible. Looking out one of the many windows in the hallway, I discovered the school was perched up on a hill overlooking a bustling city. Students were walking down the hill from the school meaning class had already let out for the day.

As I was about to leave, a teacher came out of one of the classrooms. Changing into Mael's white garb before he saw me, I hoped he didn't see the quick change. Since I didn't know which world I was in, I wanted to minimize my impact as much as possible.

"Ah, you must be the new foreign exchange student.", he said, "My word...I didn't know young man got to be your size. Are there many boys your size in Finland?'

"Uh...I don't know.", I replied with confusion, "You are?"

"Right, my name is name is Mr. Hasegawa. I am your homeroom teacher for this year.", he told me, "Please come in, some of your classmates are still here. You must be very excited to show up a day early."

Trying to tell him I wasn't the foreign exchange student, he laughed it off saying he heard that many times before. Pulling me into his classroom, several students were reviewing their classwork together. Looking at each one of them, I tried to identify anyone I may know. Stopping at a tan skinned girl and a blue haired boy, I wanted to to laugh at how ironic this was.

'Of fucking course that fucking Perverted Slime would end up in a Hentai World!', I thought recognizing Yukikaze Mizuki and Tatsurou Akiyama, 'Leave it to them to come to a world perfectly suited for creatures like them. They would have a field day with all the crazy shit that happens here.'

"Please introduce yourself.", Hasegawa asked.

Looking over at me, the students were shocked by my size.

"Hello...my name is Mael Solaris.", I told them with a smile, "It's a pleasure to meet you all."

Watching him write down the pronunciation of my name, I had to give the teacher credit for going the extra mile for his students. Asking Mizuki to give me a tour of the school, she let out a sigh and got up from her desk. Motioning for me to follow her, I did so to play along. Giving her boyfriend Akiyama a hug before walking out, the first thing she said to me was that she was spoken for and that I shouldn't get any ideas.

"I didn't have any...", I laughed dryly, 'Jeez, she was nicer in the visual novels.'

Showing me around to the various facilities at the school, we ended up at the student councils office. Confirming that no one was around to overhear us, I decided to ask if she knew anything about the Dark Slime. As a member of a crime fighting organization, she'd have access to this information which would make my life easier.

"Mizuki, I was wondering if you could help me with something. I know you are a member of the Taimanin, I was hoping you might have some information on a creature I am hunting.", I stated as I went to show her an image of the Dark Slime.

"How do you know that!?", she hissed as she stared at me.

"Cool it, if I was here to fight you I would have done so when your guard was down.", I remarked showing her an image of it, "I am here to kill this thing, it's a magical creature with a very destructive nature. It needs stopped before it goes on a rampage, it has human level intelligence with a desire for world domination."

Looking at the photo for a moment, she started laughing and saying it didn't look that tough. Stating that it's appearance was deceiving, I told her it gained power by devouring strong individuals. Telling her that the Taimanin Organization were prime targets for it, I asked if they had any run-ins with it.

"I...I have to talk to my superiors before I can tell you anything.", she told me.

'Ugh...bureaucratic bullshit...', I thought rubbing my forehead, "How soon will you know if you can tell me? Time is of the essence here, the longer it's out there the more dangerous it becomes."

"I can find out tonight, and let you know in the morning.", she replied, "What organization are you with?"

"I don't work with one, I am a freelancer. The slime is a creation of Kiryuu Sabato so-", I said before she grabbed me.

Grabbing my hand, she pulled me away and said that she would just take me to her superiors. Stating that if it was his creation, it had to be stopped now as almost all of his creations ended killing a lot of people. Not bothering to grab her stuff or talk to her boyfriend, she got us on a city and took me straight to their regional headquarters.