Exactly three days after we began our journey, we reached the grasslands at the foot of the Canaats. The city truly was beautiful—chiseled into the vast mountain cavern, a natural fortress created by nature.
It was the Armed Nation of Dwargon, The kingdom of the dwarves.
And, of course, there was a line to get in.
The front gate was enormous, built to block free entry into the vast cave opening.
This gate opened only whenever the army went inside or out, and that, I heard, happened just once a month. Today it was firmly closed, but at the bottom of the great doors were two small entryways meant for regular traffic. The right-hand one had nobody in front of it—probably meant for the nobility or any other lofty figures who showed up. The door we were waiting for was on the left, and while some people bore passes that allowed them free entry, others had to undergo luggage checks in a separate chamber. All of this, of course, was guarded by a security detail whose equipment certainly reminded you that this was the Armed Nation. They have a strict control over traffic.
Once you were through security, you were pretty free to do what you wanted around the city, it seemed…but man, what a line. We were bound to spend more time waiting than traveling at this rate.
"Guess we're really here, huh?" a nearby traveler ventured as I scanned the line of people down the corridor. "That's a fancy gate."
"Look at the armor on that soldier!" his companion exclaimed. "We probably couldn't afford gear like that after ten years on my salary."
"Yeah, I'll bet! Even the Eastern Empire tries to keep things peaceful with these guys—in public, at least. With that kind of equipment, I see why."
"You said it. They sure ain't gonna give you a second chance if you try anything. The blowback would be one hell of a headache for any nation that tried it!"
Looks like this is considered a free city and a hub of trade across races and species, it maintained at least a public face of neutrality. The fact that the Heroic King never allowed combat inside the city was fairly common knowledge among adventurers. I supposed that even in this world, you could afford to be neutral only if you had the muscle to back it up.
As I mused over this, I began hearing some more malicious voices.
"Hey! Hey, check it out, there're monsters out here! We can kill 'em, right? We aren't inside yet."
"Yeah, what the hell're you guys standing in line for? You think we're gonna letcha do that, you little runts? Gimme your spot before we kill you! And leave your crap there, too, all right? Then we'll letcha go!"
Looks like in every world, there will be idiodic cannon fodder, they were describing rimuru and gobta.
A bunch of loinclothed goblins riding gigantic wolves would have been bound to stir up at least a little attention, and not the good kind, not to mention a semitransparent spirit like myself, so I'd decided to conceal myself completely and follow rimuru with gobta as a guide. If I was somehow discovered I would pretend to be rimuru's summoned spirit, Rigur had wanted to join us, but was turned down.
They were all camped out at the forest entrance now, waiting for our return. Which left the three of us. I'm sure our group looked as if we had giant targets painted on our backs. Now this pair of adventurers was accosting us, whining about not liking our faces or whatever.
"Hey, did you hear something, Gobta?" rimuru asked
"Yes, I did…"
"Did you run into any trouble last time you were here?"
"Of course I did, sir! Ooh, they beat me silly! The kobold merchants had to pick me up off the ground! Might've died if they didn't, eh?"
"…They did, huh? So we can't avoid this?"
"It is, uhh, the fate of the weak…?"
I did t want attention drawn to us even before entering, I would have liked to knock them all out but I can't appear right now.
"Yo! You think you runts got a right to ignore us?!"
"Hey, isn't a talking slime pretty rare? Maybe we could get some money outta selling it."
The adventurers kept yapping at us. How irksome a little spiritual pressure and I can probably knock them all out, but I leave for rimuru to deal with it for now.
"Gobta… You remember the rules I gave you all before?"
"Y-yes, sir! Absolutely!"
"Good. In that case, could you close your eyes and cover your ears for me? No peeking!"
"Um…? All right, but…!"
Just then, the hostile adventurer on the right shifted his gaze, and I followed it. It led to another group, a trio, grinning as they watched the spectacle unfold.
A typical bandit group looks like, they want to beat weak monsters and take thier belongings.
"Whoa, whoa, back of the line!" rimuru said riling them up. "I'm feeling generous today, so I'll let all that slide if you line up out back!"
The duo looked stupefied for a moment. Then their faces turned bright red.
Didn't take much to tick them off.
"What the hell're you talking about, you little pissant?" one of them bellowed in his best evil-underling voice. "You wanna start something with us?!"
"You're dead! I promised you'd live if you just left all your stuff there, but you know what? Now that you've pissed me off, that's off the table."
After some back and forth between them rimuru moved toward them while implying that he wasn't really a slime.
"Heh-heh-heh… A piece of shit, huh? A slime? Where'd you get the idea that I was a slime, huh?"
"What? Cut the crap, man!"
"Yeah! If you ain't a slime, show me what you really are! It's gonna be tough to make excuses once you're dead!"
"All right!" rimuru shouted, keeping up the performance. "Allow me to show you my true form!" Then he released the mystical aura he had been covering up. Just a little of it not the whole power.
Some people noticed the aura but most of them didn't Including the two idiots facing rimuru.
A black mist suddenly spread out from rimuru body shrouding it completely. When it was cleared, a different monster stood there instead. A black wolf.
Looks like even the monster he absorbed before was evolved and he was actually larger than ranga and had two horns on his head.
I was hoping the sight would make these fools drop their swords and instantly run away.
But they didn't.
"Hah! I don't care how badass you look! You're still a runty goddamn piss-slime to me!"
"You think that was enough to freak us out? Come on, man!"
They aren't picking up on the situation at all doesn't rimuru look threatening enough? And even if you think it's just an illusion, shouldn't a shape-shifting slime give you at least a little pause?
And yet it didn't faze them at all. Maybe they relying on the that they still had their three friends for backup.
"Sheesh… Well, whatever. I've had enough of this. Take me on!" rimuru lost his patience with them and egged them on to attack looks like he is still afraid of not controlling his force enough and killing them.
Well it doesn't hurt to give them the first attack. Even if they were a hell of a lot stronger than they appeared, he'd just revert to slime form and take no damage.
"Hah! Prepare to die!"
Answering my call, the swordsman lunged at rimuru with a shout.
"Hrahh! Windbreaker Slash!"
Is that a swordsman skill? The blade of his sword started glowing green. But it didn't do much, sad to say… Rimuru's hide snapped his mighty blade cleanly in half.
As he attacked, his partner threw a set of three daggers as well. But none of them had enough force to even split a tempest starwolf's hair.
"What was that?" rimuru sneered at them, trying his best to play the villain figure.
"N-no! That pelt of yours… It's too tough"
"It can't be… I…I… It can't be! My sword is crafted from silver! It's supposed to hurt monsters more!"
…Silver's a relatively weak metal, isn't it?
"H-hey! Help me, you guys!"
Apparently the swordsman didn't care about saving face any longer. That other trio was with him after all.
"Hah! It's over for you now!"
"Oh, man… I really didn't think we'd have to wade into this, man."
"A transforming slime, huh? Interesting. Think I'll dissect it once it's dead."
"You haven't moved this whole battle, have you? Bet that magic fades away the moment you do, huh? Am I right, or what?"
The three of them prattled on as they joined their friends, making for a total of five surrounding rimuru, and went on the attack. The swordsman summoned magic blades of wind, his companion producing a shortsword to swipe at him. Their heavy fighter shouted "Grandbreaker Slash!" as he hefted up a great axe and slammed it down. The wizard tossed a few fireballs his way, and his monk friend built a magical defense for himself, expecting rimuru to target him first.
As parties went, it was rather well balanced. The only problem they had was that none of their attacks had enough force to do anything.
Once the dust settled, the group lifted their eyes, daring to take a look at the result. They were too shocked to speak. Rimuru used coercion skill on them at that moment.
With an earth-shaking roar, he invoked it…but, alas, he screwed it up. The audience began to faint to the ground, too, with assorted substances welling up around their pants.
What a mess. Now what? This'll be such a pain to deal with. Hmm? The party? Well, they had just taken a Coercion blow at point-blank range. I doubt I need to go into detail on what happened to them.
As I sensed the guards coming from the gates I know this will be Troublesome.