It's about time I get this annoying Fairy off my back. Yesterday I got to speak to Myourmile and got some insight into Luminous' relationship with what is definitely my future so I'm decently free today. I have a bigger plan for the Labyrinth than just setting it up. I'm actually planning to get the monsters inside to get stronger faster to boost the Labyrinth's longevity. Given that, that naturally takes a decent amount of time that's why I held off on helping Ramiris although I already had the plan ready. Looks like it's time. 3, 2, 1.
Ramiris bursts through into my office again yelling, "Today is the day! You can't stop me this time! I'll…"
"Yeah, sure. Let's go."
"Hahaha! You see! I won't let you…" She looks shocked. "Wait, you'll come?"
I cross my arms and say, "Yeah, let's go."
A huge childlike smile appears on her face for a split second before catching herself and stopping herself. She pretends to cough a little as she tries to look more regal. She haughtily says, "About time. I can't believe you made a Great Demon Lord like me wait so long."
As we begin to walk, or for Ramiris, fully out I sarcastically say, "Yeah, yeah, I apologize Great Demon Lord Ramiris. Sorry for the inconvenience." Using [Tempest Link] to locate Veldora I say, "But first, we've got some…"
Before I finish my sentence, Beretta runs in and begins apologizing. Treyni follows behind with a bright smile on her face. Looks like she's just as clueless as ever to Ramiris' antics. Gesturing Beretta to calm down I say, "Don't worry Beretta. I'm actually planning to start working on the Labyrinth now so having her around so fast is actually helpful."
Beretta calms down but is still ashamed of letting Ramiris escape again. Suddenly Ramiris asks, "What were you going to say?"
"Oh, we've got someone to talk to first."
She tilts her head, "Who?"
"Veldora."
"Master!?"
"Still calling him master, eh? You do know he never said yes right?" She ignores me. As expected I guess. "Anyways, we're going to need Veldora. He's going to be really important for the success of the Labyrinth."
Beretta asks, "I apologize for the interruption but how might the presence of Lord Veldora help?"
"You'll see."
After a relatively long walk we make it to Rimuru's house. The place Veldora has been freeloading for the past few weeks or so. We walk in and enter Rimuru's room where we find Veldora reading a manga. "Veldora." No response. "Veldora!" He only glances in my direction. "Fuck it." I grab the manga volume and rip it in half with my bare hands. Ramiris visibly flinches when I do this behind me.
Veldora immediately jumps up, "Migeru! What have you done!?" Tears stream down as he mourns the loss of part of his already massive collection.
"Stop being a baby. How are you the most childish out of the three of us? You're like 1000 years old."
"Actually I'm…"
"I don't care. I'll make you a new one, it's just I need you to do something first. Listen carefully, you've been living in Rimuru's house since we revived you right? I've got a proposal. How would you like your own personal home to keep those piles of manga in." I point at the piles of manga stretching well beyond my short height, being even taller than Veldora himself in some parts of the piles.
He looks intrigued. Seems like I have his attention. Turning to Ramiris, I say, "With Veldora ready let's go Ramiris."
She jumps a little. She had her full attention on the paper on the ground after I ripped it. She no doubt thinks I'll do the same to her smaller collection if she isn't careful. After regaining her composure she salutes me and yells, "Yes sir!"
"Great. Read this." I give her a pile of Ramiris sized papers. Enough to make a thick booklet. She flips through it curiously.
She looks up at me confused, "What's all this?"
Smiling menacingly I say, "It's the specifications for how I want the Labyrinth to look. I want you to break any rule in this. I'll destroy one manga per broken rule, got it?"
She looks dead inside as she looks at the papers. Gesturing her to start reading, I give one to the only other adult here, Beretta, and urge him to do the same. He immediately gets to it with urgency. Glad to have one reliable person working on this. With that, we head out to the area I'm planning to place the Labyrinth. It's designed to maximize profits if placed there. Rimuru was originally going to put houses in the empty lot I claimed for the Labyrinth but I stopped him just in time. With this place, this world's version of the Labyrinth will be the ultimate adventurer tourist trap. Maximized for profits while maintaining the fun parts for adventurers.
As we get there I turn to look at Ramiris with stars in her eyes. I look at what page she's on. It's the part specifying how much money we're going to earn per day from this. Makes sense. She's probably more obsessed with money than Myourmile. She asks excitedly, "D-does this mean we will earn money!?"
"Yes."
"Will I get paid!?"
"I mean, you're going to be the owner of the Labyrinth. It's kinda obvious. And I can't have you working for free obviously now that money is becoming more widespread in Tempest."
"How much!?"
I put up two fingers, "Two Gold Coins maybe every week or so. Maybe even more if you do a good job."
She's almost jumping for joy, "That much!?"
"Of course, but we'll have to make it first, you know." Walking into the actual area I'm planning to build the Labyrinth in I see Ramiris muttering something about not being the jobless Demon Lord or something. She realizes Dino is also there right? Well, I guess he's not actually jobless but he basically is to everyone else. Catching her attention I say, "Hey, Ramiris, this is the spot. I explain the positioning and strategic money-making advantages of putting it here while she listens intently. Finally something she's actually serious about.
After I finish she nods. It seems she agrees with me and is ready to start building the Labyrinth already. Seeing this I say, "Anyways, I cleared this up with Rimuru. It should be okay to build the Labyrinth here." This area had remained empty for a while with Rimuru not knowing much about why I told him to leave this part of the city's construction empty. He was relieved when I told him it was for the Labyrinth. He thought I was gonna make some kind of superweapon there or something. Seriously? What kind of person does he take me for? Superweapons don't belong inside of the city!
She yells, "Then let's get to it!" She flies over to begin making the Labyrinth while I walk over to Veldora. Beretta follows Ramiris to make sure she doesn't fuck up too badly. Good reassurance.
Walking up to Veldora I explain, "Veldora, I actually brought you for two reasons. So I've been sensing you've been having problems with keeping in your Magicules." I point to Ramiris behind me, "She will be the way we get rid of this problem."
He looks visibly confused, "How? Surely a puny little thing like her can't handle my…"
"Listen, I was getting to that. I'm planning to make this Labyrinth based on Labyrinths from the fantasy genre. Similar to the ones you've seen in your, "Sacred Texts." I make quotation marks with my hands while I say sacred texts. "We need monsters to spawn in this Labyrinth but Ramiris can't do that on her own. That's where you come in. What you'll do is stay in the bottom floor and release your Magicules inside. The Magicules you release inside will be the fuel that causes monsters to spawn. This'll make the Labyrinth get progressively harder because the Magicules will get denser the farther you go. This'll also serve as your way to release your pent up Magicules. Do you get it?"
He surprisingly looks pretty serious now as he thinks about what I've said, "I see, so will that bottom floor by my home you've been speaking of?"
"Yes, and here's the best part. Because you will be at the bottom floor you would be the last thing people face if they travel to the bottom of the Labyrinth. You will be the final boss, the overlord. To fit the theme you will be able to unleash your dragon form. Can you imagine, the final unstoppable dragon at…"
He looks at me with stars in his eyes interrupting me. "Kuahaha, as expected of my sworn brother! So I'll be allowed to use my full power on them! Ah, I can use those cool words I've read in the sacred texts!" He begins to ramble on about the one-liners he's seen in manga. Just as enthusiastic as he was originally I see. Well, nothing positive energy can't beat. Although just like originally, he's heavily overestimating how many people will actually manage to get to him. Even more now that I'm planning on beefing up people like Zegion earlier than originally.
When he calms down I check up on Ramiris who already set up a small base. "You're fast."
She smiles with pride, "Why do you think they call me Ramiris of the Labyrinth?"
"I guess you're right. You do have a skill just for this so I shouldn't be surprised."
"Ye…wait, how did you know about my skill?"
"Can't say."
"Herrrm, Migeru! Why don't you tell me! Tell me, tell me, tell…"
I shut her up, "Fine, I can read your power perfectly with one of my skills. Every detail down to possible fused effects by combining the effects of multiple skills are available for me to see." Pretty cool skill, huh. It's pretty unique. I chuckle a bit at that internal comment.
{Sigh.}
Hey! That was pretty good.
After looking at me a little shocked she floats over to me and whispers in my ear, "That's a really good skill. I don't know if I would reveal something like that to…"
"Hmm, really? You're not the most secretive with these kinds of things either, you know. You were the one announcing to anyone within earshot that you're a Demon Lord back in Tempest." I shrug, "But even then. I don't mind parting with that kind of secrecy for a skill like that, Ramiris. It's not like I told you the effects of my 5 Ultimate Skills or anything."
Her eyes open wide and her jaw drops to the floor, "Five!?"
I walk away laughing as she thinks about what I said. Apparently my abilities have remained secret for a while now thanks to [Solomon] using [Hermetic Reality] passively without my input using an ability I've now dubbed Subjective Reality to affect the Magicules around me. I doubt even someone like Guy or Milim can tell what my true power is at this point from just sensing me now that I think about it. I wonder what he was thinking when he saw my completely unreadable power back at the Walpurgis? Apparently it's been active since my evolution, I just never noticed.
Five Ultimate Skills must be pretty insane to hear. Not only are Ultimate Skills incredibly hard to get, they are also really taxing on your ego. Just being able to handle 5 Ultimate Skills, let alone get them, is really crazy and there's no way Ramiris doesn't know that.
As I think about this, Veldora runs over to me. He asks if my 5 Ultimate Skills are true. I guess he doesn't know either. Maybe even Rimuru might not know. Well, with [Tempest Link] he might know now that I think about it. I should ask.
This Subjective Reality has other uses but those are for later. The thing that interests me is [Solomon] did this on its own. That's not normal. [Great Sage] deciding to evolve itself was a major turning point in the original story because it was when it made its first conscious decision. [Solomon] just topped that mere weeks after its evolution by strategically keeping my power a secret through nothing more than a subconscious urge I had to do it after evolution. [Solomon] doing that is actually really impressive. I hear a prideful chuckle.
I heard that. So you do have positive emotions. I hear no immediate response. Makes sense you wouldn't answer that. Alright then. Almost moving on I hear.
{Of course I do, idiot.}
There it is.
{…}