Rimuru had met up with Guy and Velzard again, they shared a cup of tea before deciding to ask Iudex on how to proceed forward, since Rimuru had gotten much stronger.
They all awoke at the same time, unlike last time.
Iudex smiled seeing this, knowing there was nothing disturbing Rimuru's mind anymore, in fact, Rimuru had not returned to his happy and joyous attitude, rather, he had become a serious and responsible person, Iudex obviously knew why from analyzing his skills.
"It's good to have you back on board, Rimuru."
"All thanks to you, Iudex, now, what do we do?"
As they discussed, laughed, planned and settled they reached this conclusion:
The top priority is getting Rimuru a seat in the demon lord council.
Then Rimuru meeting with the woman Hinata, and meeting Luminas.
Iudex has told Rimuru a line along the meaning of "watch for the maid", which Rimuru at first didn't understand, but Guy did.
Third is possibly the most important.
Dealing with a certain greedy person in a part of the north, who will come when the time sets itself right.
Iudex said all of this and watched them laugh and enjoy themselves discussing how people would react when Rimuru becomes a demon lord.
Of course, Rimuru was still going to kick some Clayman ass, Iudex knew this much, that's a given, Clayman is possibly the most corrupted person in the world.
He has not told him how to deal with the clowns yet, since he does not view them as a threat yet, only one does pose a threat somehow, but the time will for it.
Iudex wanted one thing through all of this.
He wanted to help them, he felt utterly useless in terms of application, sure he told them what to do, but he won't always guarantee success.
He was embarrassed to ask such a heavy favor from them, he didn't want to lie to them to get his goal either.
He had told Guy what his ultimate goal was, to incarnate in the world some day.
And he had told Guy he wished to save Rudra himself, but he had come to terms with the possibility of that never happening.
They noticed his silence, and Rimuru asked him.
"Well, Iudex, you said you're basically the god of everything in here right?"
"Well.. I guess so.. what about it?"
"Why don't you create a space for us to enjoy talking more?" Rimuru asked, he cared for his friend.
"I don't want you guys to see the worry in me."
"You? Worried? I've never seen you worried yet, doubt I will." Velzard added.
"Or are you just shy, Iudex~" Velzard had to add the tease at the end.
"A-Alright... fine."
"Just bare with me.. I have never used these powers.."
They felt a massive release of power in all directions, the world began to turn into a habitable space, a massive field of green with a very cool shade of sun, with a table under a massive tree with 4 chairs, Iudex had his back turned to them as he took his chairs.
He took a deep breath and turned to them.
They looked quite surprised seeing his face for the first time, a medium black haired man wearing armor mixed with some robes, his face looked quite clear, like he was in his prime age, he was of decent height, as tall as Guy it seemed, with his blue eyes he seemed like your handsome 29 year old.
"Is this how you actually look?" Guy immediately took to asking.
"Wow, you look quite good, not going to lie, I've seen my fair share of humans."
Velzard complimented him.
Iudex looked flustered, before clearing his throat.
Rimuru was just staring in awe at this, in his world he would've been the perfect man.
"A-Anyways.. sorry if you expected something else, heroes don't age that well, you know?"
"Heroes? You were a hero?"
"Ah... you guys.. fine.."
He just quickly ran over who he was, not telling them how he got here, until Rimuru asked.
"How did you get here tho? I'm sure it wasn't that simple."
"...Sigh..
I'm sure you know Rudra Nam Ul Nasca, yes?" He waited for all of them to nod, which they did.
"I know he's the eastern emperor, pretty much all I know about him."
"I know my little sister is obsessed with him."
"Eh, you know what's between me and him."
"Well, I used to be his martial arts instructor, and his close friend.
He started to worry too much, so I made a wish, directly connecting to the Voice Of The World.
Sacrificing quite literally EVERYTHING I had to create one skill, the Forgotten Skill "Sleep Space".
That's all you need to know, the basics."
Rimuru and Velzard looked a bit sympathetic, Guy, while he did feel relieved that Rudra had no longer a pawn of this caliber, could feel a tiny salt piece of sympathy for him, no man would wish such a horrible fate upon someone.
"And it's been my "life" goal, to get back to the real world, incarnate.
But I've not found a solution yet, I have a theory but I could not test it.."
"That theory being?" Rimuru immediately asked, he wanted to help.
"Well.. if we can get the Voice Of The World to connect to this world through a skill's evolution.. maybe that would allow me to traverse back to the original world? I never could confirm it, sadly."
"Well, that certainly sounds good, and I think we already have someone who is quite adept at evolving." Guy nudged Rimuru with his elbow.
"W-well.. yeah, you can rely on me.."
"That's the thing, we can't predict when you'll evolve, the best bet is trying to evolve you into a new species, thus putting you into a sleep..
Wait.. that's it.."
"Well, we figured it out, didn't we, Iudex~" Velzard affirmed that this was teamwork.
"Yeah, good thing we did, when will Rimuru even evolve tho?" Guy questioned.
"Does it have to be Rimuru? Can't we just.. take anyone else?" Velzard responded.
"I guess we can, can't we, Rimuru?" Guy asked.
"How do we even evolve them? I don't know how." Rimuru asked.
"Souls." Both said at the same time.
"Eh.. kill more people..?"
"Well, I have some I can lend you." Guy said.
"HUH? You had some all this time? How many do I need?"
"I don't know, I guess something between 50-100,000?" Guy just said it like it was nothing.
"WAIT WHAT? That's 10 times as much as it was for me!??"
"Yeah well, life's unfair, but I'm willing to make you in my debt."
Iudex and Velzard were just pleased to see them exchanging so lightly.
Guy was nothing like his reputation, he was quite generous and kind.
Velzard was not a cold hearted individual, yes she was prideful, but she was still a good person.
Iudex was relieved to know they were good people.
"Well, who will it be, Rimuru?" Iudex asked.
"I think I know who will it be, but it will take quite some time..."