After being notified by my shadows that an intelligent slime had appeared in the sealed cave, I didn't waste any time and quickly teleported there, completely hiding my presence from him.
My goal is to copy his Unique Skill: [Great Sage].
My best chance at getting the skill is at its early stages before Rimuru is named or before the skill evolves.
So I started analyzing it while also observing the intelligent unnamed slime eating everything in its path.
To think that the slime that right now looks like it's mowing the lawn in a cave would become a god-like being in just a few years.
Honestly, it makes my progress over the past 300+ years look like nothing.
But that will change after I gain his Unique Skill and evolve my skills. Over the years since I made my Unique Skill: [Black Heart Reactor], I saved all my magicules so [Great Sage] could calculate and optimize the cost to evolve my other skills.
With its help, I could probably increase the effects of [Black Heart Reactor] without evolving it.
...
..
.
Having fully analyzed the skill and copied it, I decided to watch the slime for a bit longer.
Now that I think about it, slimes are often eaten as a desert. I looked at the slime and saw it shiver.
Eh. I can always find another slime to test it.
[Notice. Slimes taste best when eaten cold.]
'Oh... Emm... Thanks, Great Sage.' Being used to using [Thought Communication], I wasn't so surprised to hear a voice in my head. It's similar to how my system was before, but it's actually talking.
'Great Sage, could you start doing calculations on evolving my Unique Skill: [Mystery] with the least amount of magicules as possible?' I asked my new skill.
[Notice. Starting doing calculations on evolving Unique Skill: [Mystery] with the use of Lord of Heaven: [Astarte].]
Good, now, if that's on the way, I should return to my castle and wait for everything to start.
The first two years won't have anything interesting, but I think I should visit Tempest around the same time as Milim.
Or I could maybe play a small prank on Rimuru. I remember someone was claiming to be Rimuru's daughter in the Tensura game. I couldn't play the game with my screen being broken, but I read people talking about her.
Maybe I should prank Rimuru with something like that? Changing my appearance to look like him and just go around Tempest for a while like that. I would need to tell Milim about it so she plays along.
Well, I should get going now. Good luck, little slime.
With that, I left the cave and returned to my castle.
---
Rimuru Tempest POV:
"Oh, before you eat me, take these books," Veldora somehow gave me books through the barrier. How can the books go through if he can't?
I looked at the books... Wait, why is it named Dragon Ball? "Veldora, how did you get those?"
"Oh, so you recognize the sacred text!" Veldora looked at me impressed, "My rival found them during his travels around the continent and gave me them. We often discussed them together."
Aren't those mangas and novels from my past life? Wait, that can wait Veldora had a rival? "You had a rival?" Didn't he say he was one of the strongest beings? Then how can someone be his rival?
"Of course, I have a rival! We only fought once, but our fight was legendary!"
Yeah...
"What was his name?" I asked. If someone could be a dragon's rival, then I shouldn't offend that person.
"His name is Ashborn. He usually visits me every few years with new sacred texts, so watch out."
---
Cale Valentine POV:
Around a month passed since I copied [Great Sage], and during this time, the world went into a panic as Veldora completely disappeared.
The now-named Rimuru decided to name the Goblins and Direwolves before heading toward Dwargon.
'Great Sage, how is the calculation going?' I asked.
[Notice. Approximate time for complete calculation: 500 Years.]
'500 years? Is there a way to shorten it?'
[Notice. Evolution of copied skill: Unique Skill: [Great Sage] is required to shorten the calculation time.]
'I see.' I replied and started thinking. Evolving [Great Sage] would also be good. Even the 500 years that [Great Sage] said it would take is still around ten times faster than what it would take me to do the calculation alone.
My Unique Skill: [Mystery] is a weird skill, and when I calculated the cost for evolving it, I would need around 5,000 years just to store enough magicules. That's after doing me trying to reduce the amount for the past 200+ years.
While [Great Sage] is already shortened by a lot, it doesn't mean all I've done for the past 200+ years was discarded. My calculations were used as a base for [Great Sage] to start and improve upon.
'Okay, put the calculation for my Unique Skill: [Mystery] on hold and focus fully on getting the best results from your evolution.'
[Notice. Starting calculation for evolution.]
Good, now that's done, I should visit a few people to prepare for future events.
First on my list is Ramiris. I want to prepare a few prank traps for the time when Rimuru will take the kids to the Dwelling of Spirits. I won't put any traps that would kill or hurt them but some fun prank traps.
The first one is my favorite, the flushing toilet trap, and then we could go to the making fun of their height to maybe some cake shooting traps I once read about.
Then after Rimuru is done with the Orc Disaster, I should visit Milim and tell her about the 'I'm your son' prank.
Oh! I need to remember to call him Mom instead of Dad just for fun.
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Author's Note:
Thank you for reading this chapter.
Got stuck while writing a future chapter and somehow ended up going through all the comments and replies...
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