Rimuru has been preparing for this, Treyni the Dryad has come announcing to him that the legendary Special A rank monster Charybdis has appeared, and he immediately heads out, he tells no one to come but Milim Nava and tells the rest to stand down.
Milim is of course not one to question why he brought no one since she is very excited about going to battle Charybdis.
They both walk through the great sights of the Great Jura Forest, now the lands of The Jura-Tempest Federation.
Milim was just jumping around Rimuru like a child in a toy store, Rimuru is just admiring the land he has taken for a home.
Rimuru spotted Charybdis, and sighed...
'I don't.. want to kill Phobio..
Maybe... I can save him..
Great Sage.. If the core is lost, can you still revive?'
{Answer, it is not possible.}
'....Please... I don't want to kill an innocent person..
Sure he acted like an idiot... but he can learn..
And I have to kill humans after this aswell...'
Milim noticed Rimuru's silence and just asked him straight up.
"What's wrong bestie? You have nothing to fear! I am with you!"
She didn't understand why is he sad when she is around, he just kept walking, not focused with her at all.
'What's wrong..? Even my Milim Eye can't detect why he's sad! Even my sharp senses tell me nothing, what is wrong..'
Milim calmed down and began to walk beside Rimuru.
"What's wrong Rimuru? Why are you sad?" Milim asked in a serious tone, actual concern for her friends was not a normal thing to be seen.
"...It's nothing, don't worry about it." Rimuru begun having doubts about Iudex.
Is he really right? Driving people to us and instigating them to attack us.. just to make me stronger? Is he actually trying to help Rimuru? Or is he trying to make a puppet superpower..
Rimuru was lost in thought, they were just standing there observing Charybdis for a while.
Eventually Charybdis turned and targeted Milim.
It was saying some incomprehensible words that slowly made sense to Rimuru.
It was Phobio's anger cursing Milim and shouting her name.
"M..Mi..Milim! Cu..Curse You! Mi...Milim!" Just those same lines over and over.
Rimuru just watched it's hateful and angry aura spread everywhere.
Milim asked Rimuru
"Do I go?"
Rimuru made his choice.
Milim assured him she was able to hold back and leave the cores.
Rimuru had decided to follow Iudex's way, what caused him to leave his doubts was the fact that Iudex himself had said he needed to hurry and get power so he could protect his people.
Leading him to believe that Iudex is truly a good person wanting the best for Rimuru.
Milim stood in front of Charybdis, the latter erupting with anger when it saw Milim, preparing to attack her.
"This is what you get for making my bestie sad!
DRAGOOOO!
NOVA!"
And within a flash Charybdis and Phobio were no more.
Rimuru was in position and immediately consumed Phobio's and Charybdis' Cores.
[Success. Individual Rimuru Tempest has gained the skills:
Extra Skill - "Gravity Manipulation"
Extra Skill - "Summon Monster: Megalodon"
Extra Skill - "Beast Transformation"
With the Extra Skills "Summon Monster: Megalodon" and "Beast Transformation" being present, would the individual Rimuru Tempest like to fuse these skills with the Unique Skill "Supercharge" to create Unique Skill "Bestial Rage" - Allows user to empower and increase all their physical capabilities by threefold, expending magicules overtime, additionally, this skill can apply to objects that the user creates and/or has been selected as the object's master, such as swords, it is possible to apply this skill to other skills that have direct physical contact, such as Individual Rimuru Tempest's Air Blade and Unending Gluttony.]
"..Yes.."
[Success, Unique Skill "Bestial Rage" Has been acquired.]
Rimuru felt much more powerful, and felt his magicule count increase drastically.
But with that, he felt his heart ache.
He has made his first important decision.
Rimuru landed on the ground and laid down facing the sky.
Milim laid beside him.
"You're still sad Bestie? But isn't power what you wanted?"
"...Yes.. Milim..
Remind me to reward you later..
I'm always going to be grateful.." Rimuru said, whether he meant it or not could not be confirmed from his tone of speaking.
'If I'm struggling over one person.. I can't fathom the future...
I must.. get stronger.. but strength isn't power only.. it's mentality..
I need to be more cautious so I never have to feel like this again..'
Rimuru felt a new spark in his heart, he found a new resolve.
He will never let go of his allies, no matter what, he will never cause them pain.
If the humans want to attack him no matter what, even without instigation, then he will massacre them, because if he is feeling this much grief over a stranger he barely knew, he couldn't imagine the absolute misery and despair he would feel if one of his allies died.
"Really?!" Milim snapped him out of his thoughts after he said he would reward her and be eternally grateful to her.
"..Yes.. I will..
Let's go!" Rimuru's frown turned upside down and he walked back with Milim after rewarding her with some Kebab stakes.
"Well, it seems he did it, he, or rather, Milim, got rid of it."
"Yeah, it's going exactly like Iudex said it would, Rimuru is following his words to a tee." Guy and Velzard exchanged these two lines.
"I seemed to have sensed a bit of grief and despair from him, did he really get sad over a stranger he doesn't even know or like? If he got this sad I couldn't imagine his grief over one of his citizens, even worse, his close subordinates." Guy said quite dumbfounded at how Rimuru is so heavily effected by his emotions.
"It is interesting, and he even caused my niece, Milim, of all people, to resonate with him."
Velzard and Guy just sipped tea while this was all going on.
"Well, we should call him over for a quick talk, let's see how much he grew."
"I agree, Rimuru is truly a peculiar individual, I would like to see how much he will grow in the future, not in strength, but rather, his character, if he wants to grow, he has to overcome this obstacle of emotions he has." Velzard added.
"Yeah, I'll call him over later."
Over in Tempest, a massive banquet was being held, Rimuru and Milim sitting besides each other enjoying food, or rather, it was Milim herself, Rimuru was barely eating, not that he needed to.
"C'mon Rimuru! Eat something! You can't not eat something as good as this!"
Milim kept pestering him before Rimuru apologized and left in the middle of the night, the banquet continued as normal.
Milim followed him silently, only to see him meet up with Guy, then they disappeared
"Huh they're still meeting? Wait.. are they secretly besties behind my back? I must know!"
Milim took flight to the Ice Continent immediately after saying that.