The next day.
(Third person's pov)
There is a slime, sitting(?) on an altar making a speech, while goblins and wolves are listening intently. A bizarre situation; yet the monsters are looking at the slime with reverence.
"As I stated earlier, I intended to travel through the forest to look for intelligent races," Rimuru said, pausing a bit. "but now I changed my mind." Relief could be seen among them as their guardian continued speaking.
"With the disappearance of the Storm Dragon the very lives of monsters are threatened in the forest. Yesterday, the goblins were threatened by the wolves, and tomorrow the wolves will be hunted down by Lizardmen or Ogres. By working with each other such threats will become easier to handle; Fighting amongst yourself will not be tolerated." The monsters seemed to understand the intention of their leader; satisfied with their reaction the slime continued.
"Rigurd with his experience will be the Goblin King while the four village chiefs will be the Goblin Lords under him to carry out administrative work. Riguruchi will be responsible for the defense. Ranga will have direct command over the tempest wolves but each individual wolf will work in tandem with their respective Hobgoblin/Goblina. Remember, there is no village chief anymore; only one community. So, cooperate with each other, all right?"
""""Y-Yes, my lord/master!"""" they all bowed in unison.
The slime who didn't understand the actual value of titles, gave them thoughtlessly.
(Rimuru's pov)
No one seemed to be objecting.
...at least ask a question or something. Why did I even prepare a speech all night, for this? Well, whatever.
"Do you guys know why I didn't use the word town just now?"
"..."
"... 'cause we're not humans."
Do they not know what a town is?
"We don't live together," said Gobme.
"Correct. We need a place to call our home and none of the villages have enough space to house all of us. So, we will move out of here"
"But if we claim a land as our own we might face backlash from other monster tribes" pitched in Riguruchi.
"How about the area around the sealed cave? I already cleaned up all the monsters there so it should be fine, right?"
"Y-Yes."
"I-It should b-be..."
"I doubt we would face any monsters there after that."
It seems like they have something to say, but probably nothing big.
"All right then, we will move out towards the sealed cave."
They quickly sprang into action... even if I say that it is going to take a while to move out.
——————————
(Time skip for 2 weeks)
(Third person's pov)
As the monsters started to settle down, the important figures of each department were discussing on how to proceed from now on.
Rigurd: "For now, we have secured enough land for the populace."
Rogurd: "But that alone is not enough."
Rugurd: "We can feed the hungry bellies for now, but the situation will not be the same."
Regurd: "Soon the season will change and bring new monsters around this area."
Lilina: "We need a permanent food source."
Rigurd: "Our lack of knowledge to produce clothing & shelter is apparent."
Riguruchi: "I can't believe evolving would pose such problems."
Riguruni: "Yeah, we are a lot taller so the huts don't fit us anymore."
Gobta: " ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°) "
Regurd: "Great Rimuru said we cannot depend on trade forever; we need to be self-sufficient in smithing, construction, agriculture..."
Rogurd: "The dwarves should be capable of building houses and making clothes, but the problem is..."
Rugurd: "How should we bring this up to Great Rimuru?"
Gobta: "I don't think Rimuru-sama would mind that much."
Everyone: " (￣_￣|||) "
While it is true that their master has been benevolent so far, they don't know what might rile him up.
In the end, they decided to consult the matter with their lord.
"I see. I will take a few people to meet the Dwarves." was his reply; pretty nonchalant. It was hard for his followers to figure out which was the real face(?) of their master.
"Make arrangements, Rigurd."
"Leave it to me! Rimuru-sama," he said flexing his muscles.
The next day. (again)
"Remember don't be hostile to humans; They live in large groups and their armies contain thousands of soldiers. If provoked they will lay waste to us." the monsters nodded their heads in agreement. Feeling satisfied the slime leaped onto Ranga back towards Dwargon.
"See you in a while."
"""Have a safe journey."""
——————————
With the help of the tempest wolves, the journey to Dwargon was cut short from 2 months to 3 days. Only 2 of the entourage decided to go into the city to avoid standing out.
Currently, the slime is waiting in a queue at the entrance, accompanied by Gobta (who, prior to evolution, survived a round-trip alone). After scaring the sh*t out of certain bandits (adventurers) they were finally into the city.
Entering the city, they set out to visit various shops under the lead of Gobta while Sage analyzed the weapons, armor, magic items, etc., without anyone noticing. Their goal was not to buy anything but to find skilled artisans.
There is no official degree or anything but people are given licenses for practicing smithing and such. In short, Good items = Good artisans.
Then, why are they entering a mine instead, you ask?
Well, Goblins didn't have much money except for some coppers and a few silvers they looted. They need money to buy anything, but if they keep going around only window shopping the guards might arrest them out of suspicion. Luckily, some blacksmiths are searching for ores and they are hiring personnel for guard duty.
"A goblin and a slime... can 2 you even fight?" a workman asked them.
"This is what happens when the people can't afford adventurers."
"Well, hiring an adventurer comes at a cost."
"Don't be like that, with soldiers doing more drills we need every help we can."
"What! Are they going to wage a war?"
"Seems like it. They even withheld potions and medicine stocks."
"For real..."
Soon, the topic shifted from the monsters to an upcoming war, and both of them got ignored by their fellow workers. The night came and the next shift of workers arrived. They were provided some space to sleep near the entrance. Like that, a few days passed by without any problems.
But one day, they suddenly heard screams inside the cave. Soon, one of the smiths came running out of the mines (injured slightly) shouting. "An armorsaurus just showed up in the mines! It's already injured some of us."
The workmen started panicking at the mention of the monster's name.
"What?!"
"A-Armorsaurus! That is a B-minus rank monster!"
"We didn't sign up for this!!"
"L-Let's inform the soldiers."
They all ran towards the hills except for 2 people.
"We are going in, Gobta." The poor goblin (literally) got dragged into the cave by his master. "Don't worry I've already dealt with them a few times." assured the slime.
(Rimuru's pov)
'If we save the smiths we can... Ku-Ku-Ku!'
'What, is it wrong to help others? My intentions are pure.'
[Report: Great Sage detected a lie in your thoughts.]
'I don't know what you are talking about.'
Activating the skill, `it never happened´.
[The individual does not possess such skill.]
As we went further, we found people (dwarfs) running away from the monster.
"But Rimuru-sama, normally people can't kill off an armorsaurus," said Gobta.
I see, that might draw too much attention.
"Okay. Lure the monster into attacking you; I'll use the time to rescue the miners."
"Wha?! That's impossible—
"Didn't you say you defeated a blade tiger? Also, I will come to save you in a while."
"B-but what if—
"Just summon your wolf buddy. I'm sure you will be fine" I said pushing him, and immediately the armorsaurus noticed him.
He started running while shouting something about me—
Activating the skill, `it never happened´.
[...]
(Third person's pov)
The miners were relieved to see the monster finally lose interest in them and go after a goblin. But then a talking slime appeared and miraculously healed them with potions. They weren't able to keep up with the turn of events, but still grateful for the help.
"Thanks a ton!"
"You healed the whole arm! I didn't think I'd ever work again, even if I survived somehow… Thank you!"
*Hmm Hmm*
...even if some of them are unable to express that through words.
The soldiers quickly dispatched the monster upon arrival and became alert upon seeing a goblin on top of an evolved direwolf.
"What is a black direwolf doing here?!"
After a lot of questioning, the soldiers were convinced that the goblin was not a threat and allowed them to leave. The artisans were scared to see a B-rank monster so Gobta unsummoned the wolf. Soon, they became quick friends; they were even invited to their place to spend the night.
(Rimuru's pov)
I explained the situation during our stay and requested help from them. While I might be able to learn a few things through sage, I'm not proficient enough to teach them all. Instead, it is better to hire a set of artisans. From what I've seen humans are not fond of monsters; I mean one step away from killing them. But dwarves aren't like that.
"In 5 years the contract will be complete with monetary compensation in Gold coins (Accommodation and meals included till the end of the contract). You guys will teach us your skills in exchange; Additional clause for research and development includes..."
"Woah! What is this!"
"I didn't even understand half of it..."
*Hmm Hmm*
There goes my plan. It seems like these people are clueless about career development.
In the end, it was decided that they would consult their friend about this, and we chose to tag along to avoid any misunderstandings.
——————————
Their friend was supposedly the former captain of the engineering corps; a part of the King's personal knight corps. But he was pretty casual and even gave a nod of approval for the contract.
He (Kaijin) started talking about how a minister overburdened him with an impossible task and I helped him with that as a token of goodwill. Yep, nothing but a favor to a friend in need.
A small party was arranged to commemorate the completion of 20 Long Swords in time; the venue was a host club run by elves.
There, I confirmed another perk of being a slime.
{Confirmed: Extra skill Lucky Pervert acquisition... successful.}
...It was a great experience.
Until the same minister Kaijin talked about came in and made Kaijin mad; A couple of blows to the minister's face brought us into the prison.
In the end, it was Gazel Dwargo's judgment on the court that got us out of the country without any sentence.
"So much for the contract...." I sighed.
"Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha!" laughed Kaijin.
*sigh*
"Either way you are coming with us. To the Jura forest." I said with a dramatic effect.
Dwarfs: """" (◉_◉) """"
"A-Ahem. Let's go."
After the dwarfs finished packing their things we headed out to meet the rest of the group, who were waiting outside of Dwargon. Joining the group we returned to our settlement in another 3 days. The events stoned the dwarfs to silence.
Upon arrival, I soon delegated the tasks to the dwarfs.
(Kaijin: Weapon smithing alongside Engineering.
Garm: Armor smithing and Clothing.
Dord: Craftsmanship (helps with clothing as well).
Myrd: Construction and Architecture.)
The work started processing smoothly towards building a small town and the goblins started learning the skills from the dwarfs.
Like that, a few weeks have passed by...
The initial problem of not having a house over their roof is slowly being rendered moot, and with the expanded hunting grounds more monster materials are gathered which are currently being used as clothing, weapons, and armor.
Parallely we are working on water & septic systems, but it would take a while to have every house provided with tap water and flush toilets. The layout of the town is coming well and the monsters' standard of living is increased.
Some goblins came in for protection witnessing the prowess of the ex-goblins and direwolves and granted names in return by yours truly.
"Gobler, Gobnar, Gobson, Gobwin..."
As I thought, it was a good idea to name the goblins. It boosted their prowess both physically and mentally. Some monsters are more stronger while others are more intelligent.
"Rimuru-sama!!" shouted Rigurd while running towards me.
Another thing was the title; The frail old goblin has become larger than an ogre, not just in looks but also in strength. It was surprising to see a non-combatant like him could gain that much power. It is clear as a day that, having titles means having more strength.
"What's wrong?"
"Riguruni's security team has spotted a few humans surveying the forest. How shall we approach them?"
Humans eh? Let's hope this time will be a friendly encounter.