The group of monsters that's approaching us were small in size, their equipment plain and crude. Their faces were dirty and devoid of intelligence, but with their swords, their shields, their stone axes, and their bows, they weren't entirely bestial. It took a mere instant for us to figure out who they were—goblins, those infamous marauders of many a would-be adventuring party.
I don't feel any hostility coming from them ame their equipment are rusted and worn down compared to the hard-scaled lizards and the spiders with massive serrated blades on their feet we had dealt with before, I couldn't imagine their gear inflicting any damage, so I observed them without attacking until the goblins' apparent leader opened his mouth.
"Grah! Strong one… Have you business here?"
They were addressing rimuru, looks like they can't see me when I am concealing my magic power. It got me curious, They didn't look ready to fight. It might be a good good idea to inquire about our surroundings from them. I sent rimuru a telepathic message asking him to try to communicate with the, I don't want to suddenly appear and startle them, although I am not sure if they can even sense me without magic sense.
As rimuru was preparing to reply they looked ready to flee at any moment, the only one who has any semblance of calm was the leader.
"Good to meet you, I guess? My name is Rimuru. I'm a slime."
The goblins murmured among themselves. Does a talking slime surprise them, maybe? I thought…only to find a few of them already prostrating themselves before me, weapons tossed away.
"G-garrh! Strong one! We, we see mighty power of you. Please! Quiet the voice of you!"
Yeah you put to much force in that one.
"Sorry, I don't have this fine-tuned too well yet…"
"We, we need no apology from such great form of you!"
I guess talking in Japanese works on these goblins and the Usually polite-speaking rimuru got confidence from seeing them terrified of him.
"So what did you need from me? I don't have any business around here."
"I see. Village of us is ahead. We felt strong monster nearby, so we came to patrol."
"A strong monster? I didn't spot anything like that…?"
"G-gaah! Grah-gah-gah! Such joking! You cannot trick us, even with form of you!"
Looks like they thought rimuru was a strong monster because of the massive aura he is releasing, I was going to tell him about it but decided to do that later, let him intimidate the goblins a bit more to avoid conflict I don't feel like killing them after finding out that they are not mindless monsters.
They continued speaking for a while and rimuru ended up receiving an invitation to their village, pretty social goblins, given how scraggly they all looked. Rimuru accepted their invitation and I followed them still concealing my aura, never hurts to have an element of surprise in case anything happens.
Along the way, I got to hear a bit of the local gossip. It turned out the god they worshiped had recently disappeared. Without it, the local monsters had started acting up a lot more than before. At the same time, more human adventurers—"powerful ones," as they put it—were starting to invade the forest. And so on.
And funnily enough, the more they spoke to each other, the more clearly I began to understand them. It must have been my Magic Sense skills getting more accustomed to however the goblin language was wending its way through the particles in the air. Maybe getting in some practice with goblins before talking to humans is not a bad experiment.
The village was very dingy. Maybe I shouldn't have expected much from a goblin's den. They guided rimuru to what I supposed was the most structurally sound of the buildings. It had a thatched, pitted roof that was rotting away in areas, the walls bearing nothing but a few pieces of flat wood nailed to them.
"I am sorry to keep you waiting, honored guest," one of the goblins said as he entered. The leader of the expeditionary force we ran into earlier accompanied him.
"Oh, no need for that," rimuru said, flashing them a smile—or in this case, A slime smile. "Don't worry about me. I haven't been waiting for that long."
"I apologize we cannot provide you more hospitality," the goblin said as he brought out something resembling tea. "I am the elder of this village."
Even goblins have their hierarchy, It was good to see the goblins didn't try anything funny till now and even maintaining decorum.
Then rimuru decided to get to the point. "So to what do I owe the favor?" he asked. "What made you decide to invite me over to your village?" This had to be more than monsters acting buddy-buddy with each other.
The village elder shivered a bit. Then, firming up his resolve, he spoke.
"You have heard, I trust, that the monsters have been more active around here as of late?"
Yeah that said that the way here.
"Our god has protected the peace in this land for generations, but about a month ago, he hid himself from us. That has allowed the nearby monsters to start meddling with our lands once more. We do not wish to let this continue, so we have fought back…but from a raw-power perspective, we face an uphill climb."
Hmmm. Was he talking about Veldora? It would match time-wise. But if the goblins wanted help…
"I understand you well enough, but I'm just a slime, so I'm not exactly sure I can provide the help you need…"
"Grah-ha-ha! Trust me, no need for modesty! It is no mere slime who can emit the mystical force you do! I cannot imagine why you are taking that form…but you have a name bestowed upon you, yes?"
I told rimuru to focuse his magic sense on himself and he was suprised to feel that he emitting a massive aura unconsciously. You'd think he would've noticed that in the midst of all the monster transformation and Body Armor malarkey, but it was too late now. He then attempts to retract his aura and tried to play it cool.
"Hee-hee-hee… Impressive, elder. You noticed?"
"Of course, my friend! Even in the shape that you are, there is certainly no hiding the strength inside you!"
"Ah. Well, if you spotted me, then I guess you guys have a lot of promise!"
Now that he talked his way through I secretly told him a way to hide his aura fusing it around with the surrounding magic to try to push it back in.
"Ohh… Were we being tested, perhaps? Then I certainly hope we are worthy. Many would be cowed to submission by such a force."
By this time, His aura was mostly hidden. He was back to being just a regular old slime. Funny to think, though—earlier, if he had looked like any old slime on the street, would we have more encounters in the forest.
"You're right. Anyone willing to speak to me without being frightened by my mystic powers must be worthy indeed."
Worthy how? I wondered to myself silently.
"Ha-ha! Thank you very much. I will refrain from asking you why you hide your true form…but I do have a request of you. Would you be willing to listen to it?"
About what I figured. Nobody would go up to a fearsome, hideous monster for no reason at all.
"It depends on what it is," rimuru said, trying to keep his swagger going. "But go ahead. State your business."
Here's the rundown.
It turned out some newcomer monsters from the lands to the east had been pushing into the area, hoping to seize it for themselves. The area was home to several goblin villages, including this one, and even the small clashes so far had resulted in a large number of goblin deaths—including some named goblins.
One of these named creatures was the sort-of guardian of this village, and with his death, the value of keeping this village intact had declined dramatically.
The other goblin communities had largely abandoned this land. Their reasoning was that they could coerce the newcomers to attack this village, buying them time to come up with countermeasures of their own. The village elder and the leader of the expedition who greeted us had tried to reason with them but were coldly brushed away. The frustration was clear in their voices as the two of them explained.
"I see," rimuru replied. "So how many of you live in this village? And how many are battle ready?"
"We have approximately one hundred residents. Counting our womenfolk, about sixty of them are ready to fight."
Doesn't sound like much. Pretty smart goblins, though, if they're keeping track that closely.
"All right. And what types and numbers are we talking about with the enemy?"
"They are direwolves, we believe—certainly wolflike in appearance. Under normal circumstances, it would have to be ten of us against one of them for us to have a fighting chance…but they appear to number around a hundred themselves."
Huh? That was a massive imbalance in power, rimuru turned his eyes toward the village elder. He didn't seem to be joking; his eyes were as sincere and dedicated as a goblin's could get.
"So these goblin fighters took them on in such small numbers, even though they knew they couldn't win?"
"…No. This information I told you… Those fighters risked their lives to obtain it."
Oh. Might've been a sensitive subject for them.
Upon further questioning, the named goblin they'd lost turned out to be both the elder's son and the older brother of the scouting party. We spent a moment telepathically our the options, the elder falling silent as he awaited rimuru's decision. It might have been my imagination, but I could have sworn there were pleading looks on the eldsr's face, that's a strange look on a goblin.
(Hey raiden do we help them? thay won't be able to survive the wolves.)
(We might as well help, as it is caused by veldora disappearance we have a slight responsibility, although try asking them for information or a guide as payment, try to get something out of it)
With the matter decided rimurus answers:
"Let's get something straight, elder. If I help this village, what do I get in return? Do you even have anything to give?"
"We shall give you our allegiance! Please, grant us your guardianship. If you do, I promise we will swear our loyalty to you"