As I went to see the group of humans, they were engaging a horde of Giant Ants.
...Well, one of them —a masked woman— was fighting back; the rest were staring in shock; 'couldn't blame them. These creatures are as strong as B-rank adventurers individually; Handling them in groups means that the girl is at least A-rank.
She uses a sword infused with fire and cuts through the ants like butter. That sword is probably Unique-grade; the best one could find in the market.
I wonder who is the stronger one out of us both—
She leaped from her front foot, going above the incoming ant and slashing while doing a front flip; readjusting her position mid-air to cut open the mid-section of another.
Followed by closing the gap between the other ants quickly, doing an upward slash before it could react, and leaping again while changing the grip of the sword to stab the startled ant in the face, killing it effectively.
It is not just the amount of power. Her control over fire and sword skills are pretty impressive. I can learn from this a lot.
[Analysing...
Just as she was about to finish off the final ant, she suddenly fell a bit disoriented which gave the ant the opening to strike.
"Shizu-san!!" shouted another girl from the group.
'Should probably interfere.'
Water Blade.
*slice* *thud*
"..." The 3 of them quickly went to check up on the masked girl.
*sigh* "Am I ever going to need an attack other than Water Blade." they turned their attention toward me ready for combat—
"""...A slime?""" and lowered their weapons looking bewildered. How many times am I going to hear that?
"Are you all right?" I asked the masked girl ignoring the three.
"I am all right. Thank you for saving me," she said lowering her mask slightly. She is a young woman with black eyes and black hair, as well as red burn scars under one of her eyes; still very pretty though.
"Hmm. You all look battered up. How about you guys come to my town?"
"Your town? " the blonde quizzically inquired. That started the questioning spree about who I am, what I am doing here, etc.
'Sage, am I really that suspicious?'
[Report: According to Free Guild standards, a person capable of killing a Giant Ant effortlessly would be considered a high-ranking adventurer (at least A-minus). You would be regarded as a Hazard class monster—
'What is your point?'
[... A slime that can properly communicate with others while being a powerful monster could raise suspicions.]
Wow. Sage started talking back; in a not-so-normal way, but still, it is something.
'Good for you... still not clear with your reply though.'
[Report: Unable to comprehend.]
Baby steps.
"So, you are building a town because there is no Veldora to protect you guys anymore." summarized the thief of the party, I think.
"Basically, yeah." Then ignoring me the 3 of the group started murmuring among themselves in what I presume to be a secret.
*You think we can trust the slime?*
*Hmm*
*The slime doesn't seem to be an evil monster or anything*
... I can hear you. I almost said that. I guess they didn't know that I have Magic Sense. They are still being wary of me, it seems; time to show off a slime's cuteness.
"Once again, nice to meet you. My name's Rimuru. I'm not a bad slime."
*pfft*
Did she actually get the joke?
"What's up, Shizu?"
"It's nothing. Anyway," she said picking me up close to her chest, "we should take up on his offer."
"But..." hesitated the blondie.
"Don't worry, I'm certain he can be trusted." and started walking towards where I came from initially. "Is the town this way?" "Yeah." and the rest started following us.
Seems like Slime's cuteness worked out—
"Tell me, Slime-san, that line was from a game, right?"
—or not. As I thought she was from Earth.
"Yup. You also played Drag*n Qu*st?"
"No, not me... but heard it from a fellow countryman." she paused a bit "Are you from Japan, too?" "Yeah," I replied.
"I see," she said taking off her mask while smiling, "I'm so glad to meet you".
So cute.
Soon, we arrived at my place and they were being provided food after their long and tiring journey, as the trio put it.
"We have been on the run from those Giant Ants for 3 whole days."
"We lost our bags on the way."
"And just when we thought we got away from them..."
"We were attacked again while sleeping."
"We broke our gear—
"We are so tired—
"We're all hungry—
and so on. But after seeing the meat, they started munching it without any care. Even the ex-goblins are exasperated seeing their manners.
"Hey, Gido!!"
"That's not fair! It was mine!"
"The table is a battlefield as they say."
Seems like they are still not done with their battle.
"Is there a saying like that here?" I asked Shizu.
"No. Not really," she replied while eating the steak with the mask on; Neat. And she seems to be in a good mood for some reason.
"Damn it! I wanted that meat!"
"That's just mean, isn't it? I raised that meat myself!"
"I won't yield when it comes to food, leader."
"I apologize Rimuru-sama..."
"It's not your fault anyway, Rigurd. That said," raising my voice a bit "what are you guys doing here anyway?"
After swallowing the food the Blonde-Brown answered,
"My name is Kaval, the leader of this band… more or less. This is Elen, and that's Gido over there. We're adventurers, all ranked B—you know what that means, I imagine?"
"Hi! Elen here!"
"Gido, sir. A pleasure."
Kaval continued "This, meanwhile, is Shizu, a temporary addition to our team for this mission."
As for their story, the guild master of Blumund Kingdom (which borders this forest) sent them to examine the area around the cave and check for anything suspicious. However, this mission proved to be more difficult than they expected.
"Yeah, that's the thing! We're here looking for suspicious things, but what the heck is suspicious supposed to mean? We're clueless here!"
"Totally!" Eren chimed in. "I wish he could've said, like, 'Look for this or that or the other thing' instead of leaving it so vague!"
Gido continued "We might be good scouts and all that, but we can't do everything—"
And so they started rambling once again.
Still... with Dwargon being wary of the Eastern Empire's movements and Blumund investigating things, the other countries won't be silent & the root cause for all this chaos is the disappearance of the Strom Dragon.
'Seems like not everything Veldora said was made up. But how will the bordering nations will react I wonder. Now that Veldora is gone, will they claim the forest's territory?'
[Report: According to the Dwarf brothers and the soldiers of Dwargon, the nations surrounding the Jura Forest can't fend off monsters themselves and are dependent on temple knights and adventurers to defend themselves. It is very unlikely that Humans will claim the forest's territory]
'I see, it's not like there is any precious resource hidden in here which worth the risk.'
[Correct.]
'But since when did you talk to them for information gathering?'
[No such action was taken. The data was collected through your conversation with them in Dwargon and during your travel back here.]
'Hmm.'
...I can't tell Sage that I spaced out during the conversation.
—There is nothing in that cave," Gido added. "No treasures, no ores, no nothing."
It would be weird if there are any since I gobbled them up. No need to tell him though.
"Well, you guys can stay the night here to rest and rejuvenate," I said or else who knows how long they would complain.
"""Thank you."""
——————————
*Whoosh*
Currently, Shizu and I are riding Ranga. On the way, both of us talked about how we came to this world and all that. Shizu is a summon carried out by a Demon Lord named Leon Cromwell. This and that happened and now she is an instructor in a school for problem children. There were a lot of details that went through my ears(?) but that's the gist of it.
Also, she is apparently a lot older than she looks. It is the Greater Spirit: Ifrit that allows her to overcome the limitations of lifespan. So, there is a good chance the hero who sealed Veldora might be alive.
Am I... going to be all right if she realizes that I am breaking the seal? Thoughts for later.
"He is really fast. What do you call him, a Tempest Wolf?" she asked curiously.
"His name is Ranga."
"Ranga... make sure to protect your master, okay?"
"Of course, I will; friend of Master." Ranga barked while she petted him.
We arrived at a cliff with a nice sunset; perfect for confession, except for the fact that I'm not confessing.
"So, do you like our little town?"
"Quite a bit, yes." like that we enjoyed the silence for a while.
"Oh, right. You were a few decades behind Japan I know. How about I show you?"
"Show... ?"
Sage, play: Japan's reconstruction after the war.
[Activating Thought Communication...]
...
'...Wow.'
'Apparently, everyone banded together for rebuilding, I'm talking about the whole country.'
'How beautiful... what is that?'
'That's a bullet train.'
'Oh... no, not that... one. what is... this tower... ' her thoughts started to trail off.
'You all right?'
"Nghh!!" she slumped down like before and groaned painfully.
"What's wrong?"
"N-No! G-Get away... from m-me..."
[Report: Target's energy level has increased massively. The spirit inside her is attempting to seize control... successful. Hostility detected.]
'Relax. It will be fine, trust me.' I reassured her even though I didn't know the situation properly. Hearing that she fell unconscious, and things started getting heated (literally).
With a weird shout, her form turned into that of a masculine build with horns adoring its head and flames for hair with his costume looking like a tribal man with mystic fire powers.
"Master!" Ranga came running to me and assumed a defending position.
"You can't take him on Ranga. How 'bout you stay in my shadow for now?"
"But—
"That's not a request."
"Yes."
*spill swish*
Now then,
'It's battle time!'
Water Blade.
*fizzle*
'Finally! Someone actually withstood Water Blade—
*boom*
"Oi, let me complete my inner mono—!"
*blast* *boom*
... This dude is not listening to anything I say; he is dead set on hitting me with fireballs. Still, how should I attack him without killing Shizu? Physical attacks won't work on spirits... Hmm... if power can't do the trick speed might be the edge I need.
"Yo, what's wrong, can't hit me?" I said while dodging his flames. He seems pretty pissed for some reason.
After seeing that his attempts to torch me failed successfully, he changed tactics. His body started to produce flames around him which all turned into ifrits.
'is that an illusion?'
[Report: Negative. It is the effect of the skill `Replication´ which produces body doubles of lesser energy. Based on the energy levels the real body is identified.]
'...way to blow away the suspense.'
[...]
All the replications started using a breath attack of flames while I dodged them to get close to the real body. Suddenly, Ifrit used a magic flame attack—
Flare Circle.
—from below which completely enveloped me in flames.
Too bad fire attacks are automatically resisted by Thermal Fluctuation Resistance.
...Did he think I dodged his attacks because I'm susceptible to fire? Thanks to his misunderstanding, I easily closed the gap between us.
Predator.
Like that, before even knowing what had happened, the Flame Giant, who was responsible for Shizu's source of power and suffering, was consumed by the slime.
——————————
(Third person's pov)
Some time had passed before Shizu woke up. Rimuru is currently watching over her.
"Is this... Oh, I'm sorry... and thank you ... I almost killed someone important to me again."
"Heh. Despite how I look I'm fairly strong."
"So... it seems."
"Enough about me. You still remember who you are?"
"Ha-ha-ha! I do."
"Hmm, shall I call those 3? They are really worried about you."
"It's fine... " she continued with her voice barely audible "Can I ask you a favor, Slime-san?"
"Is it about the kids?"
"That too... also,"
"You have too many requests."
"I... apologize—"
"I cannot understand you." the slime interrupted sounding perplexed, "You have things to do yet you embrace death so easily. Is it because you are fine either way?"
"...No. It's because... I trust you... I just... want to know... if I am anything more than... a failure to him. I want... if possible... to save those kids..."
"That's right," said the slime. "If you want something, you go for it. Nothing else matters." The slime sounded satisfied with its answer. "I'll help you," the slime continued. "But if you truly desire to have your wish come true then, remove the shackles of your lifespan."
"Thank... you... the... mask... ?"
"Don't worry I already repaired it."
"Plea... ta... re... of..."
"We will talk later. Take rest for now."
With that Shizue Izawa breathed the last breath of her life yet her soul remains strong. This incident marks one of the decisive moments in history that even they are unaware of.
——————————
(? pov)
Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh.
To think that mask would crack... So, that's the case after all. That slime is... That person truly is the one...