Ranryo and I walk into the massive group of goblins and wolves surrounding Rimuru and to my surprise see not 4, but 5 dwarves. In the original story there were 4 dwarves that Rimuru brought back with him from Dwargon. Kaijin, Myrd, Dord and Garm. However, this time I see a fifth one.
He's about the same rough size as the other dwarves. Maybe a little taller and is wearing an armored leather outfit. He might even be a little stronger than the rest as well.
Interesting, so my presence already changed the timeline a bit. Not good. My main goal right now is keeping the timeline as close to the original as possible at least until my Demon Lord transformation. Reason why is I have a plan that if executed correctly will make me one of the strongest Demon Lords right off the bat. This shouldn't be too big of a change though so hopefully the changes stay minimal for now.
After thinking about this new unexpected change for a bit I finally decide to approach and ask Rimuru who they are. I ask, "Oh, hey Rimuru, looks like you're back. I see you've met some new people."
He excitedly replies saying, "Yeah! Allow me to introduce Kaijin, Myrd, Dord, Gard and Gurd."
Gurd, huh. Just like I thought, I don't recognize the name at all. He's original to this timeline. Running through my plan for the future nothing should change. Shizue and the Orc Lord's appearance had nothing to do with the village so that all should remain the same.
I say, "Oh, nice to meet you, my name is Migeru Tempest. I'm Rimuru's twin brother and the other leader of this village."
Kaijin walks up to me and says, "Nice to meet you."
After the introductions we all gather in a nearby hut to talk about recent events. I'm first up. All I can say is I did a little exploring which led to me getting some new skills. Not much to really say.
After that Rimuru explains what happened in Dwargon. From what he says apparently everything happened nearly the same up until the confrontation in the bar. In this timeline a dwarf named Gurd tried to defend them in the bar but ended up roped up in the trial as a result. This led to him being exiled alongside the Dwarf brothers and Kaijin. Overall, pretty minor deviation from the original timeline. My guess is that they probably went to the bar at a slightly different time or something else happened which lead to there being another Dwarf in the bar.
After the explanation of what happened in Dwargon concluded we eventually got down to business and talked about what they can do to help the village's construction. Of course the original Dwarves can do what they could in the original but this time we also have Gurd. Gurd says he was a construction worker who worked on buildings in Dwargon. That's surprisingly convenient as that is exactly what Rimuru wanted to go to Dwargon for.
With Kaijin working on tools, the Dwarf trio on crafting and Gurd working on construction and building design this should go even better than the original.
After our little discussion, Rigurd crouches underneath the hut to look inside. Yeah, we really needed these Dwarves. There's no way these tiny huts can support Hobgoblins. They were designed with the bodies of Goblins in mind. Now that most members of the village are double or in the case of someone like Rigurd, triple the size that they used to be, problems would've arrived quickly.
We had called for Rigurd halfway during our discussion but he says, "My sincerest apologies Lord Rimuru and Migeru, I rushed here as soon as you called but was unfortunately held back by some problems in the village."
Did he get taller?
{Confirmed- Rigurd has become a Goblin King during your exploratory mission.}
So it happened now? I didn't really remember when that happened in the original timeline but I guess it was pretty early.
Rimuru says, "Don't worry, Rigurd. We called for you to inform you that these Dwarves will begin working for us now. They should be a real help around here."
"Understood, Lord Rimuru!"
Just as overly loyal as in canon, huh. After we leave I ask them to show me how they do their jobs. Of course they don't have a place to work so I ask them what they need and make the thing for them using [Great Sage]. After they have the raw materials they get to work.
I use [Genius] to learn everything they do as they work. After about 5 hours of analyzing I have enough information to have [Great Sage] fill in the gaps with common knowledge from the world. If [Great Sage] can just get common knowledge from the world why didn't I use [Great Sage] to begin with. Well, the reason is simple. Even [Great Sage] has a limit as it only has access to knowledge that isn't hidden. The techniques of one of the greatest craftsmen in the world is of course not common knowledge.
However, by combining the techniques learned by watching the Dwarves work and combining them with the common knowledge I can get from [Great Sage], by the 5 hour mark I become a master craftsman and architect.
Now that I have this knowledge I can finally start building my house. I'm planning to build my house pretty far away. I'd say about 2 miles east. Of course, when I tell this to Rimuru he asks, "Why?" Well, the answer is simple. My house as well as another building I'm planning to build soon are also going to double as land for my scientific and magical research. With [Genius] and [Great Sage] at my disposal researching magic and technology is a no brainer. It would be a waste to not attempt this. I can only imagine the kind of weapons and technology I could develop.
However, due to how unpredictable magicules can be in certain situations explosion chances are relatively high. The problems that could arise from a magicule explosion in the middle of a village are pretty obvious. It would be best to do this research in a secluded area.
And while that is a really good reason, there's actually another hidden one. As the location of the lab and house of one of Tempest's leaders, monsters are bound to crowd around it developing into another separate settlement over time. This essentially will split the future capital of Tempest in half. Why would I do this? It actually has something to do with my long term plan to exploit my Demon Lord transformation as much as possible.
I'm not sure exactly how many people attempt to take over Tempest in the original story but I do know I need to absorb 10,000 souls to activate the Harvest Festival. I decided that by essentially splitting the capital in half attacking the city will become far more awkward. They would have to attack both cities at once essentially forcing them to send a bigger army.
The thing stopping them from just sending two smaller armies is that they have a pretty big lack of information in the original. They had no idea what Tempest's true potential was in the original. If they did they definitely would have been more careful. With the walking nuclear bomb named Rimuru running around any army with half a brain cell would have been far more careful when taking over than Falmuth was.
This means that when Falmuth attacks in this timeline they will see two whole cities who at that point would be attached by a road at they're edges which isn't enough for an army to cross quickly if my prediction for the growth of the cities are correct and be forced to play it safer and send a bigger army. It's not like they lack troops. It was stated in the original that they had a few hundred thousand troops at their disposal.
This higher number would make it far more likely that there will be enough souls to sustain two Demon Lord transformations at once there.
Of course, splitting a city in half does have other consequences, for example it would be far more unstable. And while yes, under normal circumstances it would, it doesn't really apply to these monsters. They are so blindly loyal to us that I highly doubt it'll be a problem. Even then, my plan for my side of Tempest is closer to an industrial area than another city. Odds are monsters living in my side of the capital would either work there or be related to someone that works there.
If problems still arise though I'll handle them then.
After I complete my little internal monologue I arrive at my destination. A small clearing a few miles east of the Goblin Village. I cut down a few more trees and absorb them with [Predator] both to prepare a larger area to begin building and to gather materials. I also absorbed some materials inside the sealed cave before coming here to have some minerals to build with as well. With that, the basic preparations are complete and I get to work. I already designed it in my head so all I need to do is not fuck up when building it.
Before I start building I address one last little problem. I'm a Slime, there's not much I can really do under normal circumstances when it comes to construction. I'm just a little round, blue water balloon in my normal state. However, there is a way to fix this.
I use my malleability to stretch out my body to as close as a human body as I can make it. After a few seconds of shaping it I eventually get close enough. It's still only vaguely humanoid but it works.
This does prove to be a lot harder than I imagined though as it stresses out my body to do this. It doesn't really hurt or anything as of course I can't feel pain but it is tiresome.
Just to get this over with as quickly as possible I shape the wood in my [Stomach] into planks with [Predator] and eject them in front of me. With this I can make the frame of the house. The placement of the planks isn't really that hard as with [Genius] and my house's design complete, it's just a matter of placing them in the right spot.
However, there's a problem, there's nothing there to hold these planks up. The answer again lies in [Predator]. Before coming here I went to the Sealed Cave to obtain some minerals from the cave and I went pretty deep. Hopefully, I've got something I can use to make nails in there. I ask [Great Sage].
{Confirmed- Among the minerals found inside the cavern, Iron and Copper have been found. Both can be used to make nails.}
I found iron? Is there enough to complete this house?
{Answer- Yes.}
Alright then, make just enough nails to complete this house. Oh, and while you're at it make a hammer as well. Make the handle out of wood to avoid wasting minerals though.
After a few seconds the nails are completed and in hand ready to build my house. I begin working on the house and as the sun sets I complete the frame of the house. As I am a Slime I don't need to sleep so I take advantage of this and also work throughout the night. Tonight I work on the walls of the house. The way I decide to build these walls is actually something only a Slime like me could do.
I create a really hard substance for the walls by mixing various types of stone, mud and a small amount of magisteel. The resulting material ends up durable to the point of being near indestructible by normal means and best of all I don't even have to use much magisteel. It's about two swords worth of magisteel total per room.
This material may seem crazy but it does in fact have a drawback. It's not like a concrete-like material where it starts off soft. No, this material is really hard all the time and has a melting point so high that melting it is out of the question. The way I place it is I crawl along the path of the wall releasing this material behind me as I do. Using this method it does in fact come out in one piece and allow me to make the walls, ceiling and flooring.
After I complete the base of the house I just need to finish touches. Furniture isn't that hard, just use [Predator] and [Great Sage]. However, other things require more creativity.
From a carpet made from monster fur and plant fibers to glass made from a transparent version of magisteel after draining the magicules from it using [Predator], by early next afternoon my house is complete.
Looking at it from the front, I'm actually a bit impressed. The house does in fact look like a normal modern house. The shape of the house is a large box with a balcony overhead to the second floor. Going into the house Tempe living room is directly in front of the kitchen to the right. Off to the side are stairs which connect to the second floor where the bathroom and bedroom are located. Sure while I don't need a bathroom and bedroom they're just a little nice to have. Plus, you never know, maybe I might get some visitors or even a girlfriend.
To the left of the living room, from the perspective of someone entering the house, there's a door which currently leads to nowhere. In the future this will lead outside to a walkway connecting it to my personal lab.
From the outside, while the house looks good it's a little barren. To fix this I add a fence around the house with a garden to the side. I collect some edible plant seeds from the forest and plant them in the farm.
I go up to a living tree, swallow it, dig a hole in my front lawn and place the tree. Then I cover the little hole left behind with dirt.
I then use [Great Sage] to convert some stone into brick which I then place down connecting my house's entrance to the gate. I plant some grass in the front lawn and backyard, finally finishing my house.
Next to my house I build a massive doghouse for Ranryo about 15 feet across and 18 feet tall. Looking at it after, it's like a quarter the size of the actual house it's connected to. Then again, Ranryo is huge.
With that over I finally decide it's time to connect this house to the main village. Converting a bunch of stone into bricks I begin slowly crawling in Tempest's direction leaving behind bricks on my way there to make a path. By the time I arrive though I sense something with [Magic Sense] and it isn't just Ranryo happily greeting me after I told him to stay in the village for a while. I look around for a while before hearing Rimuru's voice coming from a nearby hut. I rush in to see Shizue just sitting there talking to Rimuru.
You've got to be kidding me! I missed her arrival! Well, I guess it's my fault for not being in the village I guess. At least I didn't miss her completely. It would've been in a big shock if I was building my house then suddenly got the notification that I can now turn into my human form.. Thank god I at least managed to catch her.