Mikaeru stood still for a moment as he let out a breath. With the inheritance of a human body naturally came a lot of new sensations to deal with, hence why he chose to take some time to get used to it.
He looked at his arm as he activated [Body Armor]. Immediately, an arm-guard-like layer of metallic armor appeared on it. He added [Thick-Skinned] to it. Once active, the armor thickened, becoming even stronger with an added layer of armor. It seemed [Thick-Skinned] added to whatever the top layer was. Without [Body Armor] it just made his skin thicker.
The skills available and how they manifested changed according to the body. That much he knew. However, he found it interesting to look into.
His skills weren't developed enough at that point to do anything too different to what Rimuru had managed to develop but he kept in mind that it wouldn't always be the case. The longer they lived, the more different their power sets would get. After all, while they worked with the same building blocks, the skills one would get after evolving were altered by differences in wills.
He looked around. "Now, to test the most intriguing one." Upon absorbing Shizue in this timeline, the two slimes had gotten a skill they didn't have in the original. Extra Skill [Elemental Transformation]. A derivative skill that came from [Flame Transformation]. The ability that granted Shizue the ability to enter a fully monsterized form, presumably at will in this timeline.
Without Ifrit, the two slimes were unable to copy the flame part, leaving them with just the transformation.
If used, how would they transform? He had to test it. "[Great Sage], record all data of the transformation."
{Notice- Beginning analysis}
He activated [Elemental Transformation]. Upon activation, Mikaeru felt a surge of magicules flow through him as his already impressive abilities were temporarily amplified. His long blue hair changed first as it began to glow and the texture of his hair became a strange state between hair and slime. His red eyes began to glow with a searing hot light, almost as if his irises contained a fire within them. Strangely, his clothing changed. His shirt and pants remained the same, but his sweater was replaced with a long black coat with a fur outcrop around his neck and scattered silver armor plating appeared across his body. Most notably his chest, lower arms and legs.
Floating in the air, he felt something on one side of his head. He reached for it. A horn? Odd. It was black— he confirmed using [Magic Sense]—but between the cracks in its sectioned off design, it glowed bright blue.
He looked down at his arms. His appearance remained humanoid for the most part, but it seemed patterned lines of glowing exposed slime had also begun to run throughout his body, culminating in his hands which were completely exposed as blue slime. They held their shape, but it seemed he had free reign to alter them as he wished. By all means, this was the appearance of a fully monsterized demonoid.
"[Great Sage], what are the specifics of this form?"
{Answer- An amplification of magical output of 2.5 times confirmed. Master has obtained the equivalent energy output of an S Rank Monster.
Notice- Possible alteration to skills have been confirmed. The use of any other copied forms would result in amplified manifestations}
"Alteration to skills?" He looked around and found a rocky outcrop in the distance. "[Black Lightning]."
His hand changed as electrical energy ran through it in a vibrant pattern before a massive streak of magic shot out, detonating the outcrop with a huge electrical explosion that sent a shockwave powerful enough to blow down trees rocketing outwards into the forest.
"Wow." He activated [Body Armor]. The ability merged with the already present metallic armor on his arm. The resulting arm-guard glowed blue with the same energy that ran through his body.
"Huh." Thinking through his copied forms, he found one that interested him and copied it, giving himself the wings of a wandering phoenix. The wings, now adjusted to his human size, were different from the ones on the bird. On top of glowing even brighter, they had noticeable additional claws at the end of them, almost like those found on a dinosaur. It seemed the elemental transformation made monster parts even more monstrous than before. He wondered what the transformation would do to a monster mimic.
"Mikaeru! What the heck are you doing!?"
"Huh?" He looked down, watching as Rimuru and Shizue ran over to him with a group of subordinates running behind. "Oh, I should probably stop this."
He deactivated the [Elemental Transformation] and let himself drop down. Landing with his clothes back to normal and his hands in his sweater's pockets.
With a smirk, he shrugged, "Nothing much, nothing much~. Just testing out a few new skills or two."
Rimuru didn't look pleased, "You scared everyone. Don't blow things up this close to the village!"
"I didn't." He pointed back, "I destroyed an outcrop a few kilometers away." He took his hands out of his pocket and crossed them. "It was that loud? I guess the amplification isn't anything to scoff at."
Shizue was looking at him with a look of bewilderment. "You. Is that what I think it was?"
"You have the Intrinsic Skill [Flame Transformation], right? When we analyzed you the two of us got an altered version of it. Is that what you think?"
"Yes, I…I didn't think that you would get it."
Rimuru realized what he was talking about. "Oh, so that's what the skill does? I haven't tested it."
"Yeah. Apparently it amplifies us by 2.5 times." He smiled, "Sorry about the noise. I just wasn't used to the power yet. It shouldn't happen now that I know."
Rimuru nodded along. He looked at Shizue. She looked a little out of it, "Is something wrong?"
"No, it's just…my relationship with that skill is a little…" She shook her head, "It's nothing."
Mikaeru looked at her with narrowed eyes. This Shizue had completely changed into a demonoid so her problems with Ifrit were solved. However, that didn't mean that her trauma was completely gone. It was likely she would still be reluctant to transform.
He wanted to test something. "Shizue. You have more experience with it, right? Are you up to showing us some pointers about it? If you want to."
Shizue's eyes hardened at the suggestion. "Pointers." She looked lost in thought. "I…sure. I'll teach you how to control it." She looked around. "We'll need more open space to do it, though."
"Open space, eh?" Mikaeru nodded along, "I was thinking of setting up a training ground for our warriors anyways so I guess we might as well get that done."
He looked behind them. A few hobgoblins and wolves that followed Rimuru were pretty much just standing around watching. "We should probably dismiss them first." He said with a mildly amused tone.
After that, the group of three made their way over to an untouched area of the forest. The location in which he was planning to set up the training ground.
"Alright, let's get this done with." He looked behind him. He had told Rimuru and Shizue to stand clear while he got the training ground done with. For good reason of course. With [Wind Manipulation], a massive gust of wind began swirling around him before he sharpened the gusts into sharpened slashes.
{Notice- Extra Skill [Air Cutter] has been obtained}
That's what he was waiting for. He added [Controlled Airflow] to the wind, creating a swirling collection of individually controlled gusts that he shot across in all directions, cutting down all nearby trees. [Body Double] activated, sending out a small army of replicated slimes to eat the fallen materials with [Predator] before jumping back into him. End result, a square outcropping of open land. He created a series of copies again and ordered them to use tunneling around the area, getting rid of imperfections under the land before using [Fire Manipulation] to bake the land dry before compacting it all by expanding his slime and pressing the land down.
Once finished, he looked around. "This works." He turned to the onlookers and smiled. "Done."
Rimuru slowly walked onto the newly created training grounds. "That was crazy."
"Creativity, Rimuru. You'll need it to get the most of these skills. Will this be enough space, Shizu?"
She nodded. "Yes. This will be more than enough."
Mikaeru smiled. "Alright then." After a brief talk on the specifics of the showing, Shizue made her way to the center of the grounds and used [Flame Tranformation]. A towering tornado of fire engulfed her as her body began to noticeably change.
The scleras of her eyes turned red while her irises went yellow like in the original, but it didn't stop there. Her hair caught fire, and began to as a golden crown manifested on top of her head. A pair of twin black horns about the length of her face appeared while the burn marks on her face lengthened and began to glow red. Floating in the air, quickly grew in temperature to oven-like levels, creating a pressure wave of air.
"God damn!" Mikaeru said. She looked like a complete middle ground between her and Ifrit.
{Warning- EP equivalent to Special S Rank confirmed}
With a final wave of heat, Shizue lowered herself, hanging over them in a low hover. She looked at the two slimes and smiled, "It has been some time since I have done this. As one might imagine, such a form is not something most humans would accept."
Mikaeru nodded. It made sense. Rimuru walked over, "You're…really strong Shizu."
He hadn't paid it much attention but this Shizue was passively S Rank. A multiplication of that power gave her the boost needed to reach Special S. He thanked Veldanava that this Shizue didn't go crazy on them.
He looked at Shizue. Her control over the heat given off was impressive. The entire area was hot, but she was able to wrap the majority of it into a single dense area around herself. No doubt a useful trait to have in a fight. Not just anyone could attack someone with a coating of energy reaching thousands of degrees around them. "You really are good at controlling this."
Shizue seemed pensive at this. "Yes. I…had a good instructor." She shook off her thoughts.
She went ahead and explained the specifics of the transformation. Simply put, it was a form that dramatically increased the energy output of those in it. The form constantly radiated out a large amount of magicules, which meant it was important to get used to controlling the flow to not damage anything. It was impossible as far as she could tell to stop it, so under the form it was hard to be stealthy for those that could sense magicules or worse, had [Magic Sense].
Mikaeru cross checked anything Shizue told him with [Great Sage] to ensure absolute accuracy.
After a while, Shizue explained how she was able to wrap her magicules around herself in the way she did. She was essentially just forcing it to swirl around to keep the radiating energy from burning everything.
Not long after that, she turned off the skill, returning to her normal form. She told the two to try it.
Mikaeru took the opportunity to look at Rimuru transform. His form was similar to Mikaeru's, although he didn't have the black horn. If he were to give a description of it, he would say it looked similar to his True Dragon outfit with a black and white color scheme, a white cape and golden accents. It made him wonder what exactly decided the specifics of the change.
After analyzing Rimuru, he was able to tell the reason why the transformation was simply called [Elemental Transformation]. Unlike Shizue, who exploded in a wave of heat when using her version, the slime twins only gave off non-distinct magicule bursts that changed to fit the type of magicules of whatever ability was used. For example, [Black Lightning] temporarily engulfed them in an electrical aura.
After looking at that, Mikaeru chuckled, transforming back into his normal body after mastering control over the flow of magicules. "This is really interesting."
It wasn't exactly [Stampede Mode], but he could make due.
He looked at Shizue. "Hey, do you mind if I take a look at that sword of yours?"
She reached for it. "Is there a reason why?"
"Yeah, I want to analyze it. It's the strongest sword I've seen so far. It would be good to use as a blueprint to make my own. I promise I won't eat it."
She saw no problem with it. After passing it to him, Mikaeru took a look at it. It was a beautiful looking sword. After getting a closer look, it seemed to be the same sword as she had originally, but it had been modified beyond that. The sheath was more detailed and the sword itself was a shiny black color. "Does this thing have a name? I heard some weapons do."
"The blacksmith that worked on it called it Ignir."
"Interesting name." He analyzed it. [Great Sage], is it possible to make a blade based off of this.
{Notice- It is possible at the expense of a large amount of magisteel. To forge an equivalent weapon, magicules would need to be siphoned away from stored magistone and added to magisteel}
Mikaeru nodded along. It was worth it. Make a broadsword. Copy the design I have in my head.
{Answer- Understood. Beginning weapon creation}
Mikaeru waited for [Great Sage] to finish before it popped out of his stomach like a xenomorph. He returned the sword to the Shizue before picking up his new prize. The hilt of the blade was blue, adorned with a magisteel coating to help its durability. Pulling the sword out, he took a close look at it. The handle was wooden with the guard and blade both being made of refined magisteel. A prominent gemstone was engraved where the sword met the hilt, which he made in preparation to make use of a special technology Tempest would make later on. "Not bad." He created a sword fastener for his clothes and latched it on. "I'll call you Adamant." Rimuru looked at him.
"Adamant? What does that even mean?" He asked.
"Figured an uneducated heathen like you couldn't comprehend the meaning behind the name."
"Eh?" Mikaeru laughed at his face.
"Kidding, kidding~. There's no reason why I named it that. It just appeared in my head for some reason." He crossed his arms, "Are you going to make one?"
Rimuru thought for a moment before out popped a black katana. He looked at it. "I'll have Kaijin look it over later. I'm sure he'll be able to improve it."
Mikaeru looked at Rimuru like he was an alien. "Wow. You actually gave a good suggestion."
"Hey!" Shizue chuckled to herself at the exchange.
They made their way back to the village, where they had dinner. As they did, Shizue mentioned something that caught Mikaeru's attention. It seemed she was heading out on a mission. She would come back to talk more about the training for the transformation of course, but she was planning on going to speak to a group of very big interest. "I'm going to talk with the Ogre Tribe."
Now that was interesting. "The ogre tribe?" Rimuru asked. "I heard that they're dangerous."
Shizue shook her head, "It's true that they're protective of their territory but they won't attack if you don't look threatening." Her smile grew warmer, "I…have a close relationship with them already. I just wanted to go visit. It has been some time."
"So you're friends with the ogres?" Rimuru asked.
"You could say that. I owe them a lot."
Mikaeru's eyes sharpened. For Shizue to speak like that, her relationship with Byakuya had to be good. He wanted to ask if he could go with her, but…Byakuya was way too sharp. It was possible that man wouldn't appreciate him trying to use Shizue as a middle man to get closer to him. He had made it clear in their talk before. He was open to talks with him, just not until the proper time. Forcing something early. That wasn't something he could do. So, he turned to Rimuru.
Now that innocent pa-brother right there. He was perfect. A kind yet ignorant person like him would forge a connection with Byakuya whether he wanted to or not. So, he threw out the suggestion. "Rimuru, I think it might be a good idea for you to go with her."
"Eh?" Rimuru said. "Why?"
"The ogre tribe is still open to hostilities with us. If we get too close they could kill a hobgoblin or two. It'll be smart to talk them down from hostile to neutral with our warriors. They might even give us access to some of their territory if you really play this right."
"Like some kind of political envoy?"
"Yeah." Mikaeru confirmed with a smirk.
"Why don't you go then?" He questioned.
"It would be better to send you. You give off a kinder air than me. It'll make opening up to you easier."
"I could help with negotiations if you want." Shizue cut in. "You just want open relations, right?"
"Yeah. We all live in the forest after all."
"I see. It shouldn't be hard to meet the tribe chief if I'm there. You can come if you want to."
Mikaeru smiled as he rested his head on his hand. "So, you gonna go or not, Rimuru? It might be fun."
Rimuru sighed, "I'm not going to win here."
"Good instincts." He stood up straight, "Well, seeing as this is happening. I'll get to work on preparations. You can leave the village to me of course!"
Rimuru groaned. This was definitely not on his bucket list. He was always pulled along by Mikaeru.