As she explained, Hinata's Crusaders had begun their training—beginning with Floor 51, as we agreed upon.
Ramiris had lined Floors 51 through 60 with her own set of traps, and of course she watched them excitedly as the paladins went about their business. Adalmann, the guy she tapped to be the Floor 60 boss monster, had summoned a massive force of undead, leading to innovations like corridors of infinitely spawning zombies, oxygen-free rooms (the dead didn't have to breathe, after all), and things even more diabolical than that.
"I was really confident, you know? And those stupid paladins kept on purifying everything in their path. The no-oxygen chamber stopped them for a bit, but the people behind the front-line team just resurrected them, and off they went…"
"They had the perfect tools for that challenge, huh? Well, that's the way it goes sometimes."
I tried to comfort the depressed Ramiris as she continued.
Before much longer, the Crusader group reached the boss on Floor 60. Adalmann was waiting for them, but again, he was just the kind of opponent the paladins trained for.
Thinking about it, the results really made perfect sense. As a wight with none of his own power, Adalmann was only as good as whatever he could summon. The paladins were way beyond what he could personally fight off. At the same time, however, Adalmann was a sort of "elder statesman" in the eyes of the paladins. He couldn't just run away from them, I suppose.
Hopefully he didn't find the experience too humiliating.
"He wasn't all depressed, was he?"
"He was…"
Ah. Thought so. Better give him a pep talk later. "So what happened next?"
"After defeating Adalmann," said Veldora, "they pressed on to the floors where my traps were set. I was watching from above, chuckling over all the pain and turmoil they'd undoubtedly be about to face, and—"
"And they actually dodged our master's traps, too! The slippery floors, the illusory walls, the Corridor of True Darkness, the death rays—not even I could come up with some of that stuff, but they strode through all of it!" Veldora and Ramiris gritted their teeth as they described it.
The floors between sixty-one and seventy were Veldora's to decorate as he saw fit. His traps did take some victims, yes, but unless they died instantly, the paladins could readily heal them back to shape. Between that and their Resurrection Bracelets, as they put it, the team never really acted like they were in danger.
And here I thought those floors were too tough. With a team ranked A or above, as long as the whole party didn't die at once, they could always bounce back. Something told me we'd need to recalibrate the difficulty level a little.
"But my Elemental Colossus put in a real good fight!" said Ramiris. "He wiped out all the challengers, even…"
Wow. If he can wipe out a team of paladins, that's nothing to sniff at. But hell, his sheer weight alone was a threat. He was impervious to swords or magic, he moved like a jackrabbit, and his weight had to be measured in tons.
He'd be anyone's nightmare.
So why was Ramiris all despondent?
"Well, it appears that seeing the paladins struggle against that boss frustrated Lady Hinata quite a bit," Mjöllmile said with a grin. "At one point, Sir Fritz, one of the paladin commanders in the party, said to his companions 'Why, I'm not even sure Lady Hinata herself could conquer this foe.'"
Hmm. Yes, if Hinata was there—an angered Hinata—not even an
Elemental Colossus could stop her. In fact…
"So, uh, how far did Hinata get…?"
"Y-yes, um…"
"That's the problem!"
It really shocked me. In the space of a single day, Hinata made it all the way down to the ninety-fifth floor. Even if we spotted her at Floor 61, that's an insane amount of speed.
She made quick work of the Elemental Colossus, stopping it in its tracks and using Disintegration to completely destroy it. Before much longer, she was at Floor 80, beating the boss there with pretty much a single blow.
"My apprentice Zegion's in pupal form at the moment, so he was in no shape to get moving," Veldora explained. "Apito woke up first, but she
couldn't keep up with that girl's speed, so she got whipped."
"Yeah, that was quite a fight! Being a queen wasp, Apito's agility puts her at the top of the monster kingdom. And she was trying her hardest to land a blow on that Hinata lady, but she fended off every single one," said Ramiris.
Mmm. Yeah, if it's Hinata involved, I could kinda see that. She's a strong one. How I even managed to beat her was still a mystery to me.
"And then she kept on going! Floors 81 through 89 are each ruled by one of Kumara's followers, but she knocked them out, one by one."
"Right, and Kumara's still too young, so I let Beretta serve as the boss of
Floor 90, but Hinata beat him!"
"Ah… It looked to me like Beretta had gotten stronger, but I guess he tangoed with the wrong lady," I said.
"Mm-hmm. It's incredible," replied Ramiris. "I can't believe people don't call Hinata a Hero."
And with that, Hinata called it a day and settled down in her elegant suite on the ninety-fifth floor.
She had spent yesterday conquering Floors 96 to 99, the "dragon floors" crafted by Milim that were supposed to be the toughest we had to offer.
"The Raging Earth floor, you know—the earthquakes are one thing, but the gravity traps are murder on you," continued Ramiris. "It's about five times normal gravity in there, so you'd think she'd have trouble moving around, but…"
But neither lightning from the heavens, nor bone-chilling cold, nor searing heat seemed to work against Hinata.
"So then it was finally time for my appearance."
"Whoa, really, Veldora? You fought her?"
"I did. I take all comers! As the last boss, I will flee from no challenger!"
"…And what happened?"
This was Veldora—of course he wouldn't run. But I needed to know the results. Veldora was stronger than me, so I couldn't imagine that he lost—but the question was how Hinata decided to approach this.
"Oh, I won, of course. But she was rather strong, I will admit. Her sword skills reminded me a tad of the Hero who banished me, but her fighting style was quite the opposite." Hohh?
Whether Veldora's victory was a foregone conclusion or not, I was kind of sad I missed the fight. I really wish someone thought to record it…
Understood. Unfortunately, all battle records appear to have been deleted.
Yeah… But damn. I can't believe how stupid I am for missing an epic event like that.
"I tell you, Sir Rimuru, I could hardly believe my own eyes! Ah, Lady
Hinata was poetry in motion!"
Oh, Mjöllmile saw it, too? I am so jealous.
"Yeah, I have to hand it to Hinata… People argue over who is better—am I or is she? But honestly, every time the question comes up, my stomach starts to hurt."
"Ah-ha-ha-ha! Modest as always, eh, Sir Masayuki?"
Mollie, please. That's not modesty at all. It's the cold, hard truth. "Hee-hee-hee! Oh, no need to joke about that, Mjöllmile." The smile on Masayuki's face looked taut and thin as he talked his way out of the question.
Mjöllmile didn't get the message. "Ah yes, indeed. I am sure that when it comes to battle, there is never any joking around with you! Why, if you ever had the chance to wage battle against Sir Veldora, I'm sure the results would be beyond comprehension. I'd love to have a front-row seat for that!"
It's funny. Mjöllmile was usually such a compassionate, empathetic man. But with Masayuki, he just didn't know when to quit. Please, just stop. The kid looks like he's about to have a heart attack!
"Oh, you think so? Would you like to have a bit of a sparring match, Masayuki?"
"A bit of a sparring match" would kill him.
"Now, now, now… Yes, Masayuki's a champion, but he uses his brain to fight more, you know? If we ever fought, I think I'd have a slight edge—but with your outlandish strength, Veldora, I don't think he'd ever live up to you."
"I see, I see! Yes, I thought as much as myself. You always were a fine judge of character, Rimuru! Kwaaah-ha-ha-ha!!"
Whew. That oughtta do it. Praise him, and it immediately lifts his spirits.
"Anyway, back to the topic?"
For now, I needed to hear Veldora's story to the end. I glanced at him, and he nodded back.
"Yes. You see, the Hero who sealed me away never made a single wasteful motion in her attacks. By comparison, that woman Hinata seemed to take a more varied approach, searching for something that could work against me. They were both coolheaded as fighters, never exposing themselves, but Hinata's style seemed full of needless strikes and movements to me."
As he described it, Hinata executed a wide range of attacks—every kind of magic, amulet, and artifact she could think of; she deployed them all. Simple physical attacks don't work on Veldora, so I imagine she was experimenting to see what, if anything, would. But pretty much nothing she threw at him had any effect.
"That final attack of hers was a fine one, though. It even damaged me, albeit a very small, tiny amount. It reminded me of the Hero's Absolute
Severance skill, to some extent."
He was talking about Meltslash, Hinata's ace in the hole and a finishing move that took advantage of her sword Moonlight. But not even that fazed him?
"Do you think she could be a threat if she used the right tactics?"
Ramiris thought about this for a moment. "Hmmm, I think she's stronger than Clayman or the other, lesser demon lords, that's for sure. Even the Octagram's current members might have a hard time with her if they let their guard down. But my master here's in a world of his own—"
"Kwah-ha-ha-ha! Exactly! If she wants to fight even with me, she'll need at least ten times the energy!"
Oh…
So not even Hinata was a good match for Veldora? I really wish I could've been there to study that battle. If I saved my memory of it, it could've been a great reference in the future. But there was nothing I could do now. Leaving the past where it belonged, I steered us back to the original topic.
"All right. So in essence, the second half of the labyrinth failed to function properly against the paladins and Hinata? But the bosses get resurrected, right?"
"Yeah, but Adalmann is weaker than Bovix, y'know? And he helps me with research and stuff—I think he's a real talent, but I don't think he's the best person for the Floor 60 boss. Also…" Ramiris began to visibly shake. "My—my masterpiece, the Elemental Colossus… It's broken…and it won't go back to normal!!"
Then she broke down in tears. Huh? Wasn't he a boss?
"Did he not have the bracelet on?"
"No, he did," came the downhearted reply. "But he won't resurrect. He didn't back when you broke him apart, either."
Apparently, golems that occur naturally can be resurrected in the Dungeon, but the types Ramiris built don't. That gave me an idea.
"Maybe it's because they don't have a soul. Beretta resurrected just fine, so maybe your labyrinth treats the Elemental Colossus like any other item?"
"…What?"
"Hmm, that seems likely to me," agreed Veldora. "Your authority fails to extend to him, Ramiris, because he's not counted as a potential target."
It sounded right to me. Which means that even if I rebuilt it, it might just get broken down again. That wasn't going to happen too often, given its strength, but we should really address that.
And before that:
"That takes a lot of time to build, doesn't it?"
"It does! So right now, Floor 70 doesn't have any boss at all…" I knew it.
"Yes, and down on Floor 80, Zegion will likely be sleeping for a while to come. Apito has grown stronger herself, but she has far too little real-battle experience. I think she needs some training before we can have her serve as a boss."
It turned out Apito was already receiving some remedial battle training. I wasn't quite sure this was what I put her in the labyrinth for, but she was gung ho about it, so I saw no harm in letting her. Hinata was her teacher, by the way; they asked her to help out in exchange for another chance at fighting Veldora. Hinata was already assisting with our kids, so giving Apito some battle instruction probably wasn't much more of a stretch.
That left Kumara. The Kumara minions running things from Floors 81 to 89 were, in essence, magic-born manifestations of Kumara's own nine tails, one per floor. Each had their own free will, evolving and learning by themselves, but detaching them from her own body like that greatly reduced Kumara's own magicule stores. Thus, they decided Kumara would join with Alice, Chloe, and the rest and study under Hinata.
…All of this was decided yesterday.
"Okay, so we have no real bosses from Floors 60 to 90 right now?"
"That's right!"
"Indeed. And that is why we have a problem!"
Ramiris and Veldora were sneering at me for some reason.
"Good heavens…"
"Boy, talk about bad timing, huh?"
Mjöllmile and Masayuki were just as surprised to hear about this. I thought things were pretty chill with the labyrinth by this point, but I guess I was wrong.
"…All right. I think I understand the situation." I heaved a resigned sigh.
So now I had a stack of problems to deal with at once, but at least we knew exactly what needed to be addressed from Floor 51 on down. Plus, the traps I laid out were still in fine shape.
"I suppose it'll only be a matter of time before someone slays the tempest serpent…but there's no need to panic!"
"Ah, that's the confident Rimuru I know. You have a plan?"
"Hee-hee! I thought so. I knew there was nothing to worry about with you around!"
The anxiety seemed to vanish from Veldora's and Ramiris's faces. It was very self-serving of them, but I nodded back and explained my thoughts.
"Right. Like I said before, my traps begin to get serious from Floor 41 downward. Those are bound to trip them up."
"Ah, how reassuring to hear!"
"Hmm? I suppose so, yes."
"And what kind of traps are these, Rimuru?" Oh, is that what you ask? Better sit down for this.
"Well, the coups de grâce are the slimes on Floor 49. Once you make it past a certain hallway, you're cut off from the rest of the floor and confronted with a huge pile of slimes. Bad ones, let me add."
This swarm of slimes would merge together to form truly gigantic slimes, almost ten feet in diameter. The escape routes in front of and behind it were cut off, effectively stranding the poor victims. Physical attacks—slices, blows, heavy impacts—didn't work on it, and in a closed corridor, not much magic was safe to use. Anything that exploded was likely to blow up in your face, so that was off the table.
These slimes didn't have much attack force, no, but they'll maneuver to cover you from both sides, the classic pincer strategy. If you can picture edging closer and closer to the wall behind you as one of them advances, you can probably see how much of a threat they could be.
"Kwah-ha-ha-ha! Victory is ours!!"
"Yeah! It's in the bag for us now!"
"Not so fast, you two. I didn't stop there."
I'm glad my initial salvo was enough to make them cheerlead for me, but there were a bunch of other traps. Prepare to quiver in fear as I break them down:
Slime Pool: What at first glance looks like a bouncy, rubbery corridor is actually a slime—one that opens into a soupy grave halfway down!
Slime Rain: A storm of fist-size slimes descends upon you, each one small enough to work their way into your clothing and armor. Watch for acid burns!
Slime Doll: Looks like a monster at first, but it tirelessly takes all your attacks, gradually exhausting you. Even worse, each attack you try on it exposes your weapon to corrosive acid. Try not to let your equipment get destroyed!
And so forth. I had other ideas, but for this set of floors, I wanted the focus to be on explorer harassment. Breaking their weapons, in particular, could make it impossible for them to fight any longer. It's the perfect way to buy us time.
"Brilliant. Truly, a brilliant selection of traps. So even if we don't defeat our enemies with these traps, we win as long as we can leave them damaged?"
"That's right, Veldora."
"Hmmm… And breaking their weapons is a good way to chase off the stronger contenders. I didn't think about that."
"Right. If you can beat them, it's fine, but now they're gonna have to think about what if they can't. It oughtta buy us some time."
For now, these traps wouldn't do much more than slow the challengers down. That was a shame, but we needed that time to come up with more permanent solutions.
"So what do you intend to do with the time you buy?" Veldora asked.
Better give a serious response to that. "It's important we don't forget that our labyrinth isn't your normal, run-of-the-mill labyrinth. This is the Advanced Dungeon, a newer, evolved type, and it's meant to keep evolving and growing more advanced."
"…!"
"Yes, of course."
"So we just need to make adjustments so the Dungeon can handle things better next time. First off… Adalmann. I'll figure something out with him. I wanted to change up the atmosphere in his boss room anyway, Ramiris, so I'll need your help."
"Sure thing!"
Adalmann had made it up to the rank of cardinal in his life; I think his job was officially high priest or something. In a party, he'd be your back-row support type. Leaving him to serve as a boss solo was a mistake; he needed to be paired up with some kind of front-row partner. I had some other thoughts, as well, so Ramiris and I decided to visit Adalmann later on.
Next came the Floor 70 boss.
"We'll just have to make another Elemental Colossus," I said. "And the perfect person for the job's just come back."
I could get the needed materials, so let's take that approach. But it wouldn't be any fun to just build the same thing again.
"The perfect person?" Ramiris asked.
I nodded at her. "Yeah, Kaijin is back. He knows a lot about spirit engineering, so I think he'll happily take the job. Plus, I think this'll help with the experiment I was conducting earlier. I'll show him my research results, so I think you can expect an even stronger colossus than before."
"…Really? Oh, great!"
We couldn't produce immediate results for her, but with Kaijin on the team, we'd be stronger than ever. It wouldn't be ready immediately, but it'd definitely be a threat for the next set of challengers who made it down there.
"So for Floors 80 and below…"
"I think that will work itself out over time. Once Zegion wakes up, your garden-variety challenger will have no chance, let me tell you. And the dragons Milim got should evolve for us once they spend some more time in the labyrinth."
Kumara was a growing creature as well. No need to hurry things along. The question was just how much time we could buy for ourselves.
"Okay. So that'll be our basic plan. Now we need more time, and I don't think my traps are gonna be enough. So there's something I wanted to test out, and Veldora… Ramiris… I need your help."
"But of course."
"Sure thing!"
They both affably nodded. I returned the nod, then looked at Masayuki.
"Masayuki, I'd like you to continue delving into the Dungeon. But instead of going past Floor 41, it might be best to focus on completing the Ogre
Series first."
"Very true. Sir Masayuki's activities in the Dungeon are always good advertising for us, and I don't see much need for him to hurry."
"So I should let someone else get past Floor 40 first, then?"
"Yeah. Also, I think you should maybe stay away from us for a little while. I don't want you getting caught up in our plans."
"Are you scheming something again?"
Masayuki leered at me. Well, that's mean. He's acting like I'm always hatching some kind of nefarious new caper.
"Well, let me keep that under my hat for now. But we'll handle things on our end, so Mjöllmile and Masayuki, I'd like you to keep things going as normal."
"Very well, Sir Rimuru!"
"All right. I'll give the news to my party."
Good, then. Now to see how long my traps can hold out.
"Okay, if there's nothing else, let's—"
"Oh, one moment. I did want to discuss something…"
Just as I was about adjourn the meeting, Mjöllmile stopped me. I guess he had other business to address.
"What is it?"
"Well…"
What Mjöllmile had to say threw me a bit.
"Lady Hinata was asking me about her reward money for conquering the labyrinth floors…"
"Huh?" I reflexively replied. Those prizes, awarded for clearing every tenth floor, were meant to attract the nobility's attention. What'd Hinata want with them? I mean, she did earn them, but…
"She did not officially make it down to the bottom during normal operation, no, but as she explained it to me, if she played by the rules, didn't she deserve to be paid?"
Mjöllmile looked concerned.
Okay, Hinata. Yes, you're technically right. But weren't we kind of in this together? It was a test for us, too, and to them it was on-the-field battle training. I didn't see how money had to be involved.
"No. Turn her down for me."
"Are you sure, Sir Rimuru? If we do, she may decide to stage a more serious challenge in the Dungeon, wouldn't she?"
"It's fine. Just remind her that people will learn she lost against the labyrinth master, and the word'll spread like wildfire."
"Kwah-ha-ha-ha! It is impossible for me to lose!!"
Nice. I knew he'd pitch in at a time like this. Plus, if she really did stage another attempt, we could leverage that in our advertising.
"W-well, all right. But if possible, I'd like you to break the news to her,
Sir Rimuru—"
"What? No way."
Yeah. No. I didn't want her hating me. It'd suck if she thought I was being a tightwad. Better to leave this role to someone like Mjöllmile, with the firm, resolved attitude I needed.
"B-but if I may, riling Lady Hinata's anger honestly scares me a little…"
"Thanks a bunch, Mollie!!"
I think he was about to say something, but I cut him off. Sorry. I'm just not into doing that stuff. A pretty girl like her, you know, I'd like us to stay friends. Besides, Mjöllmile's got a mafioso face and isn't afraid of anyone; he thinks of everything in terms of profit and loss, so I'm sure he'd have no problem saying no.
I'm also sure that I just imagined it when I thought I heard him sadly mutter "Perhaps I'll use my pocket money, then…" under his breath.
That wrapped up our agenda. Leaving the now-grieving Mjöllmile to himself, I went on with my business.
I told Veldora and Ramiris our meeting time tomorrow. There was some prep I'd need to wrap up before then, but before that, I had one errand to attend to.
Shion was on standby outside my chamber, so I took her along with me to visit Shuna.
Shuna was overseeing dinner preparations when we saw her, giving out instructions to her staff. There were more people in the kitchen now, the air alive with conversation between an assortment of species. The skill Shuna demonstrated by organizing them all showed her strength as a leader. I hated to interrupt her for my personal business, but we were battling against time here, so she'd have to forgive me.
"Hey, Shuna. Got a moment?"
"Oh, Sir Rimuru! By all means, tell me what you need."
Shuna ran up to me when I called out to her. In this noisy kitchen, everyone was always kind enough to let me sample their dishes when I stopped by now and then. I tried to offer a quick comment for everything I tasted, but I was in a rush, so our impromptu tasting had to wait.
"Sorry, guys, but I need Shuna's help with something today. I'll be able to take my time in here next time, okay?"
"Certainly!"
"Stop by whenever."
"Wait'll you see what we've been working on now!"
The enthusiasm was palpable. I guess me complimenting someone on their food was a kind of status symbol around here. Next time oughtta be real fun.
"Okay, Gobichi, can you run things for a while?"
"Yes, Lady Shuna! Ready and able!"
Gobichi was second only to Shuna in cookery by now. He was the head chef whenever Shuna was gone, so we were in good hands.
"Right, see you later," I said, waving at the disappointed kitchen staff.
We were on our way to Floor 60, Adalmann's lair.
"Oh, thanks for that sandwich, by the way. It was good."
Shuna smiled as we walked along. "I'm so glad you liked it."
"Allow me to make a box lunch for you next time, Sir Rimuru!" Shion was quick to volunteer.
I considered my options before replying. "Yeah, you're certainly improving by leaps and bounds. Could you maybe work with Shuna on one sometime?"
I thought I was safe trusting Shion by this point, but a little insurance never hurt. Shuna's presence should keep Shion from going crazy in the kitchen.
"Perhaps tomorrow then, Lady Shuna?!"
"Hee-hee! All right, Shion. Let's begin with something simple first."
It was a pleasant exchange. Their musical performance had been in perfect sync, too, actually. I'm glad they were getting along.
So we chatted along those lines as we reached the sixtieth floor.
"Adalmann, I'm coming in."
"Ah, it's you, Sir Rimuru! Truly, recent events have filled me with anguish. I am fully prepared to accept any punishment you deem fit for my inferior self—"
He immediately fell to his knees when I said his name. His penchant for exaggeration was as healthy as always, but I was used to it by now.
"Nah, as far as that goes, it's our fault for misreading this. You're not a good fit for combat against paladins. I don't think you could've avoided that defeat."
"…No, even now, I lament just how spiritless I was in battle. Losing to such inexperienced fighters… I approached the battle as if I were still a
wight king, but I lost after my magic failed to trigger…"
Right now, Adalmann was nothing more than a powerless wight. A wight with some pretty advanced magic knowledge and battle experience, sure, but species-wise, he was just a low-level monster. There wasn't much magic he could fully harness, and the only creatures he could summon were equally low-level undead. Monsters had the capacity to evolve via the magicules in the labyrinth, but that took time. Adalmann's minions wouldn't be evolving for a while to come—but what I was about to do would help him power up much more quickly.
"One of the most important things you can do is know the extent of your powers. Do you mind if I ask you a question?"
"Yes! Anything."
"How much holy magic can you wield at the moment?"
Holy magic was, in essence, force stemming from faith. You didn't need to gather up magicules from the atmosphere, and it wasn't affected by the magic strength within you. If you had the right knowledge and enough spellcasting time, you could weave powerful magic without exerting a great deal of energy.
What it did require, though, was a pact forged with a god. A god, for the purposes of this kind of magic, was an existence who could wield the spiritual particles that were the building blocks for magicules. It wasn't dependent on the caster believing in this or that god, or some other divine concept in this world—a god was just anyone who could directly interact with spiritual particles.
In Luminism, for example, Luminus was a god for this reason. Adalmann was a devout Luminist, and becoming a monster hadn't shaken his faith at all; that's why he could cast Disintegration as a wight king, I suppose. Now, however, he was worshipping me as a god instead of Luminus, and we couldn't forge a pact of faith with each other. I figured holy magic was thus out of the question, maybe.
"These days, not very much, I am afraid. Even lower-ranked magic is inaccessible to me."
I thought so. Holy magic, in essence, worked the same way as spirit magic. A pact was involved, and you were borrowing force from a higher power to cast your spells. Not even Hinata could cast holy magic without borrowing Luminus's powers. If the human race didn't align itself with a god like Luminus, they'd lose access to one of the most effective ways to handle monsters.
It'd be ironic if it weren't so scary to think about. If Luminus's whims had driven her to go in a different direction, the world might've wound up far more chaotic than it already was.
"All right. So let me ask you, Shuna: How much holy magic can you use?
And what's your faith pointed at?"
"In my case, it is not exactly holy magic. It is an imitation, powered by my unique skill Parser, and it works surprisingly well."
Ah, I see. An imitation? I did leave her to analyze the barrier over our town, come to think of it. Maybe that let her copy a subset of holy magic as a side effect.
And in addition to that:
"My faith is in you, Sir Rimuru, and there's no doubting the power that brings me. That's why I think I might be able to do this." Shuna gave me a somewhat bashful smile.
"…Huh? But when you fought me, didn't you say that even monsters could use holy magic…?"
"I was bluffing," Shuna replied, still smiling. "It was a bluff I was quite sure of, but you wound up proving it for me, Sir Rimuru."
Adalmann gave us a quizzical look. It was surprising how much variety there was to his facial expressions, being a skeleton and all. But regardless.
The most important element to executing holy magic was faith. Faith was intertwined with connections in the soul, and it might be that Shuna inadvertently grasped this at the deepest level. If that was the case, I just needed to present my theory and have Adalmann learn it. He should know how it feels, so I didn't think it'd be that hard.
"Now, I'd like both of you to accept for me what I'll call the secret skills of faith and favor. I just learned them from Luminus not long ago, and it's
strictly classified information, so keep that in mind."
As a former high priest, I figured Adalmann could rediscover holy magic once he could connect with me. Even now, when his magicule count was nothing like it used to be, holy magic ought to make him a lot more useful in a fight.
"The secret skills of faith and favor…?"
"Ah, ahhhh… Now I too shall bask in the powers of the truly divine…" He was even more stifling than usual today, but I put up with it.
"Um, Sir Rimuru, do you mind if I ask a question?"
I hadn't thought about it until now, but for the first time in a while, I was being carried by Shion—in slime form, of course. I didn't want that to stop— it was comfortable, after all. This holy-magic talk would fly straight over her head, I was sure, but I had to be confident she could keep it secret.
"Don't tell anyone, all right?" I said to her.
"Of course!" came the energetic reply. I was happy enough with that, so I went over the basics of my plan with Shuna.
"I see… So I can learn holy magic as well if I can 'believe' in you?"
"Right. I think so. It's something you can research in your free time anyway. Maybe talk about it with Adalmann and stuff."
"All right. I look forward to seeing how much of it I can learn."
Shuna was picking this up fast. With her Parser skill, maybe learning Disintegration wasn't a pipe dream, even.
As for Adalmann:
"Oh, ohh, ohhhhhh!! I am swelling, overflowing with power!!" He was pretty excited.
"Holy Cannon!!"
With a red light sparking up from deep within his eye sockets, Adalmann pointed a hand forward and screamed. A concentrated ball of energy flew out from his palm—a bolt of Holy Cannon, a full-fledged holy spell. A powerful one, too, and one he had generated all by himself.
"Ohh, Sir Rimuru, my god…"
He prostrated himself before me in worship. I wish he wouldn't. It kind of made my spine prickle.
"Great, um, that worked, huh? Now keep practicing so you can start casting some higher-level magic. And if something comes up, you can always turn to Shuna for advice!"
I was clearly trying to hurry things along. Shuna, understanding my intentions, lightly nodded.
"…Ah. So you want me to be his adviser since you dislike dealing with him yourself?"
I heard that question loud and clear, but pretending I didn't was probably the best move here. If she could just assume I'm an insensitive clod who doesn't understand anything for myself, that'd be great.
"I promise I will live up to your lofty expectations, Sir Rimuru!!" Adalmann, meanwhile, was energized like never before.
I decided now was a good time to give him another important piece of advice. "Now, as a wight, if you cast a holy spell, doesn't that damage you?"
There were two types of holy magic—one neutral type that worked with spiritual particles, and another of the "holy" type that canceled out magicules. Holy Cannon was the latter type, and as a monster, I figured that would cause him damage.
"Ha-ha-ha! A little pain is nothing that would faze me—"
Ah. Adalmann's just soldiering through it. But that doesn't really solve the problem. I could tap Beretta's Reverser unique skill to flip the holy attribute around to demonic…but that's another future research topic.
For the time being:
"Then how about this, Adalmann?" Still enveloped in Shion's chest, I sent a beam of light into the air.
"Ohhh!!"
"I removed the holy attribute and powered it up a bit. It's called Holy
Ray, and it's my own creation."
Holy Ray is a neutral attack, neither holy nor demonic in nature. As long as you didn't screw it up, it would never damage the caster. However, it was a trickier spell to cast—in other words, it required the user to have more "faith" in me…
It was meant for a single target, and in terms of spontaneous force, it was better than my Megiddo spell. It launched quickly and emitted a bright light, but it was actually a long string of concentrated, spinning spiritual particles. As a piercing attack, it wasn't as powerful as Disintegration, but took much less time to cast.
"Wonderful. Truly a wonderful spell!!"
Adalmann was beside himself with joy. If he could master this spell, it might help him get used to manipulating spiritual particles in general. Then he'd be able to launch bigger beams with tons more lethality. This was one of the spells Raphael developed based on my requests, and for Adalmann at the moment, this was the most ideal weapon I could give him.
"I'll be glad to discuss magic with you at any time, so don't be afraid to contact me."
Shuna had already kindly accepted my request. That was, to say the least, a relief.
"All right. Keep up your training, then, and try your best to learn holy magic that won't damage you."
I wanted that to be a focus. It would complicate fighting otherwise.
Raising a hand to quiet down the jubilant Adalmann, I then tackled our next problem.
"So right now, you don't have too many ways to attack. We can help you gradually build up an arsenal, but before that, there's something quick we can do."
"How do you mean?"
"Well, you're more of a back-row fighter by nature, right?"
"I would say my role more often was to provide rear support, yes. When I was a wight king, I'd often use summoning magic to bring forth an army of undead, overwhelming foes with my sheer numbers."
I'm sure he did. There was no rule that said a floor guardian had to fight solo, so all we had to do was bring on someone to take up the front row for him.
"Right? So I think it was a mistake for me to pit you against parties of people."
"Yes, I do have a variety of martial arts at my disposal, but with this body of bones, it's all rather incompatible…"
No, that's not the issue. He must've mistakenly thought I was scolding him. Punches and kicks weren't going to solve anything.
"Nah, nah, don't worry about that. If you're fighting a single person, then fine, but if it's more than one, call for some friends of your own. You had one, didn't you? I think his name was…"
"Oh, you mean my friend Alberto?"
"Yeah, right, Alberto. I guess he's a skeleton right now, but he used to be an imperial acolyte, didn't he? Good enough with a sword to trouble Hakuro, even. That's the kind of strength you need. And if he's got the right equipment, he can still cut it in a fight today, right?"
"Yes, with his talents, I am sure he can live up to your expectations, Sir Rimuru."
I could sense the pride in Adalmann's voice. Now I was getting more confident about the idea I had.
"Okay, can you give him this equipment for me later?"
I produced a set of gear from my Stomach and laid it out on the floor. Previously, I had heard Alberto was capable of fighting without a shield, so I figured this was the best set for him:
Cursed Sword: A one-handed, medium-length sword that absorbs life force from its surroundings—including the wielder, making it a failure as a weapon.
Cursed Mail: Produces a constantly deployed barrier with high magical resistance and defense—but also continually saps the wearer's life force.
These two items were collaborations between Kurobe and Garm, both trying to extract as many features from them as possible. They were planning to create a whole series, but they shelved it once they realized no living being could use them. Garm, in particular, actually collapsed while crafting them; things were touch and go for a little while. We could laugh about that now, but given that backstory, we were all a bit loath to just throw these things away.
Besides, they both worked really great. Unique-caliber gear, you could even call them. But since monsters count as living creatures, too, we figured they were completely unusable…and now, as I realized, that's no issue at all with the undead.
"What do you think? You don't feel sick or anything holding them, do you?"
"I feel nothing in particular. We are already dead, after all."
Adalmann checked them himself to be sure. The moment he unsheathed the sword, Shuna and Shion began to wince—that life-absorb feature must've been working. Given how Adalmann wasn't fazed at all, undead must've been impervious to it.
"Great. I think you'll be okay, then."
Back in its sheath, the sword no longer sapped our energy—but that alone could make it pretty decent for attacking.
"Oh, and there's this, too."
It was a surcoat, an outer garment, made of my Sticky Steel Thread—a superior piece, resistant to heat and cold and also resilient against bladed weapons. These were circulating around as part of the Tempest-made goods we had available, but we charged an arm and a leg for them.
"Very well. I will be sure Alberto receives these. He will be overjoyed, I promise you!"
Great. With Alberto fighting for him, Adalmann would have a lot more options in battle now.
Oops. Just remembered.
"And, Adalmann, I want you to have this."
I took out a jet-black robe, like something a priest from some dark, sinister cult would wear. It looked kind of cool, actually, not to mention gaudily decorated. It was, in fact, one of the most impressive pieces of the whole Tempest clothing collection—something worth at least a hundred gold coins, or the equivalent of a luxury sports car. Even royalty or nobility couldn't shell out for this without due consideration. Truly top of the line. And it performed well, too—amazingly, even if it got ripped, it'd use SelfRegeneration to fix itself up. That made it a magic item, one with features you almost never saw.
"Oh—ohhhhh…"
Adalmann respectfully took it from me.
"I'd like you to put that on and greet any challengers you see like you're still a wight king. I think that'll help create more of a 'floor guardian' atmosphere with you, y'know?"
This was more a matter of taste than anything—my taste—but still.
I had also asked Ramiris to help me renovate this floor. We envisioned something like a throne room, with Adalmann leading an army of undead like the king he was.
"I will gladly do that, Sir Rimuru. It happens to be one of my talents." Nice. It seemed like I could rely on him.
"Okay. I'll leave you be here, then. Also, if you have any other talented knights you'd like to have serving you in here, knock yourself out."
"Understood, my lord. If I could check with you on one thing…"
"Mmm? What is it?"
"Well, I would like to bring one of my pets here with me, but could I ask for your permission?"
A pet? Hmm… Didn't seem like an issue.
"Well, sure, if that's all it is. You can use whatever pets you want in battle, actually; just try not to have them outnumber the parties attacking you."
"Yes, my lord. I have been granted this land by my god, and I promise you that I, Adalmann, will protect it with all the ability I can muster!!"
Overreacting again. I let it slide. It wasn't worth commenting on.
"Okay. We're gonna be renovating this space to look like a throne room tonight, so feel free to choose whoever you want to serve you. If you have any questions, ask Shuna or Ramiris."
"Yes, my lord!!"
"May the words of Sir Rimuru propel you forward!"
Shion had to butt in there. I really wish she didn't—but she seemed happy with herself, so I didn't pursue it.
The next day, we all came together at the appointed hour.
"Hee-hee-hee… Adalmann's floor is just perfect now!"
The moment she caught sight of me, Ramiris started bragging. As she had reported, she completed the throne room the previous evening.
"Thanks much. The rest, I think we can leave to Adalmann."
"Are you sure?"
"Welllll, he'll perform better than he did yesterday anyway. If he's fighting an A ranker, he's gonna have trouble, but he'll at least be able to expose his opponents' skills for us."
The longer Adalmann held out, the more serious his foes would get. That's where Raphael would step in, analyzing the battle and figuring out how we should best respond—valuable info we could leverage in the next floor.
Despite everything I said to Adalmann, it really wasn't any big deal if he lost. Besides, depending on the decisions we made right now, both he and (for that matter) Bovix may be idle for a long time to come. We needed to address every facet of this.
So! Time to start implementing—
"What are you doing?! I heard all about it! My dragons got pummeled?!"
Now that's the last person I wanted to see—Milim, storming into the conference room and looking absolutely livid.
In her hand was Gobta, looking like a dirty old rag; he was being dragged along, but it looked like he was still breathing. I could hear him muttering "Heh-heh-heh… I did it… I sure did… I finished it all!" over and over to himself, too, so I guess he was conscious. Milim's training must've really done a number on him, but he didn't look any stronger to me—just kind of (okay, a lot more) beat up. Was he all right?
Milim nodded at me, oblivious to my concern. "Ah yes! Yes, Gobta performed brilliantly! I didn't think he'd ever beat Hell mode!"
She did look pretty satisfied. And judging by the praise from Milim, Gobta must've performed a truly monumental feat.
"In that case, it is time to teach him my Veldora-Style Death Stance—" "No it's not! Gobta is my disciple!"
Veldora and Milim promptly began arguing, a completely spent Gobta to the side of them. I really didn't want to get involved with that, so I'll leave that choice up to Gobta. Glad he's home safe, at least. I was going to reward him later.
Once I had his attention, I ordered Gobta to get some rest. He promptly headed to a nearby nap room.
Did I mention Ranga?
"My—my master, I have returned…"
He was wobbly as he padded toward me, voice hoarse. Gobta looked bad, and Ranga was about the same. Pretty intense training, I guess. I reflexively gave him a pat on the head; he squinted appreciatively. "Good job. You can rest in my shadow now." He jumped right in the moment I said it.
By the way, once he had recovered enough, I asked Gobta what they were up to. It turned out that his "training" was nothing but on-the-field battle— back-to-back fighting against monsters either at his level or slightly above it. Once he and Ranga were in perfect sync with each other, they moved on to a never-ending string of battles against people like Carillon and Middray.
As Milim apparently put it to him: "No matter how hard you try, you're never gonna house more magicules within your body. But don't worry! If you can Unify with Ranga, that immediately solves the problem—and once you learn how to master the increase in power, you'll be fine! So leave the
magicule surge to Ranga and just try to polish up your senses!"
"So it was nothing but battle-sense training since then," he concluded with a smile. He had also learned the extra skill Sage, which let him speed up his thoughts. I was pretty impressed.
Having Milim back was a boon, actually. After leaving Adalmann, I had been making the necessary preparations all night, just barely wrapping everything up in time.
Promptly, I took out one of the items I had completed. Veldora, Ramiris, and Milim each gave it curious stares as I held it in my hand.
"Pay attention, everyone! I have a special item here, something I've been developing for a little while. Personally, I think it's groundbreaking. It'll help us solve the problems we're facing in the labyrinth, and it'll also add some more fun to all our lives."
I gave all three one of their own. I didn't expect Milim in today, but I was planning to invite her over once I had something practical to share, so hers was all set to go.
The idea for this came from the homunculus Archduke Erald used earlier. I figured that having access to temporary bodies would let you do some pretty neat stuff.
"What's this?"
"Never seen this before. Do I eat it?"
"Hmm… To me, it looks like a vessel for the soul—or the like."
Milim, Ramiris, and Veldora seemed equally curious. No, Ramiris, it wasn't food. Did she think everything I brought over for her was food? Oh, well.
Veldora was fairly close to the right answer. These items were quasicompartments for souls. When transferring your consciousness to a homunculus, a corridor is established between it and your soul using some magic. I had Analyzed and Assessed the core components of that magic, revising them for my own needs. This was what I gave to Treyni—a vessel for her chaos core. I called it a pseudo-soul.
"Veldora's almost got it. This device imitates a soul vessel. I can't provide a soul itself, so instead, I tried to create a substitute that mimics one."
"Hohh. Why did you do that?"
Veldora, maybe pleased he got it right, tried to sound as intelligent as possible. There was no need for me to put on airs; I could go ahead and just state my aims, but before that, I wanted to surprise them a little. After all the effort I spent on this, I thought I deserved a bit of fun.
"Hey, not so fast, not so fast. I'll explain everything to you, okay? But next up, I've also got this. Take it and try to imagine a monster in your mind. Any one is fine."
I then took out a set of black balls, each about the size of a fist, and handed them to my audience.
Veldora gave it an odd look. "Hmm? Any type?"
"Yeah. Either an existing one or whatever crazy thing comes to mind for you."
"So a goblin or an orc? Or a horned hare, or an ogre bear, or anything?"
"Hmm? Sure. But make sure it's something you like. I don't want you to complain about your choice afterward."
"All right. A monster, then? Do these create monsters who you'll repel labyrinth challengers with…?"
"Something like that."
He was always supersharp with things like this.
Satisfied enough with my guidance, the three of them picked up their black orbs and sank into contemplation. These items were called master cores, and the magical core of Charybdis came in handy with developing them. I had that kept in isolation within my Stomach, but Raphael had finally finished analyzing it. It was the core of a large monster, as well as the root of its power; apparently, in the transformation into demon lord, I had consumed all the negative energy inside, so it was now an empty shell. That made it perfect for housing a soul vessel…and now, here we were.
After a few moments, the magicules in the air began to interact with the master cores, creating monsters—the exact ones each bearer imagined. "Well? Pretty neat, huh? And like Veldora said, we can use these monsters to engage parties in the labyrinth. That's what I gathered all of you here for."
That wasn't the only reason, but nobody was listening anyway. They were all marveling at the monsters they created.
Meanwhile, I was busy making my own monster—a ghost, a transparent, disembodied soul floating in the air. I'll omit its stats, but one special skill it had was Cancel Physical Attack—as a ghost, no physical attack worked on it. It couldn't attack physically, either, of course; magic was its only offense.
Next up was Veldora. There was now a skeleton standing next to him. It couldn't cast magic, although it could learn how later on—with the right evolution, it could also master Battlewill.
Milim, meanwhile, had generated a bouncy, lustrous blob. It had no limbs, its color a garish red that demanded your attention. It was a slime.
Um…
"Why'd you make a slime? Are you picking on me?!"
"N-no, um, you asked me to go with something I liked. What's the issue?"
Now she was firing back at me. Ah well. She was clearly happy, at least, her eyes all but shouting "Slime!" out loud. I was wondering about the DayGlo red, however.
Finally, we had Ramiris. What was this? A knight? Or a suit of armor? Yes, it was a suit of living armor, to be exact—full plate, but looking worn out for some reason. It was still the largest out of the four monsters we made. Maybe Ramiris's hang-ups about her size drove her to imagine something big. The fact that it was completely empty inside was pretty appropriate for her.
Everyone peered closely at the monsters they just willed to life. But the surprises were only beginning.
"All right, so listen. As Veldora pointed out, I'm thinking about using the monsters we created to dispatch the intruders inside our labyrinth."
"Mm? Intruders…?"
"Yes. These monsters are the guardians of the labyrinth, so anyone stepping inside has to be intruders, right?"
"Ah, I see."
"Huh? What?"
"Mmm, indeed. Remember, Ramiris, we are running this labyrinth.
Calling them 'challengers' is rather strange, if you think about it."
"Yes… Now that you mention it, you're right!"
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing."
Veldora's stepping in to explain matters was convincing enough for Ramiris. Milim, meanwhile, pretended she knew the entire time. I doubted she did at all, but I needed to move things along.
"Right. So we'll be taking on the intruders with these…but do you think it'll be possible at all?"
"Of course not. They are far too weak."
"My armor looks pretty cool, but I'm not too optimistic, no."
"Rimuru, I'm disappointed in you! You know I'm too smart a girl to expect anything from these."
Heh-heh-heh. Just as I thought, they were spouting off whatever popped into their minds. Why were Ramiris and Milim acting so haughty with me? That set me off a bit, but I needed to act my age here.
"Well, the story doesn't end when you create them. The real show begins now, so I'd like all of you to sit down and relax, okay? Now, what I'd like you to do is point your pseudo-souls at your monster and chant 'Possess!' out loud."
There were some incredulous looks, but they all settled into their seats for me. We had some pretty comfy chairs in this conference room; the cushioning was excellent.
Then, all at once:
"""Possess!"""
The moment we all said it together, the pseudo-souls in our hands lit up as they were absorbed into the monsters, fusing with the master cores inside them. This resulted in a complete avatar core—and when it was done, my consciousness blacked out.
In another moment, my view had changed. My Magic Sense, something I had on at all times, immediately shrank down its range, drastically affecting my vision. I had my five simulated senses now, so it was still far better than my first few days in this world, but the other three had never experienced anything like that, so it must've been a bear to deal with.
I looked around as I thought about this. In my hazy vision, I could see a skeleton stretching out its legs, a slime zooming around at surprising speed, and a suit of living armor methodically toddling around like a classic windup robot. All three of them had successfully "possessed" their monster.
Even now, I could feel myself getting used to this. It felt far more natural than anticipated—like it was my own body. A body that was far less capable than my own, however, so it was hard to move around. But once you figured out how you moved, it got easier to predict how your body would react to your will. You didn't need long at all to move it exactly as intended.
The same was true for the other three.
"""This is great!"""
After a few minutes of testing out their new bodies, they all shouted in unison.
"Isn't it? What do you think of my research, huh?" "Amazing. Truly amazing, Rimuru!" Veldora cried.
"That's classic Rimuru, isn't it? No wonder I thought you were such a great guy!" Ramiris agreed.
"I knew it all along," said Milim. "I've always believed in you!!"
They were hopelessly wrapped around my finger. But hey, glad they're happy. "Well, looks like we've got a resounding success. And now that you've all jumped into those monsters, I don't think I need to explain what we have to do, do I?"
"Heh-heh-heh…," Veldora chuckled. "Such a silly question. So instead of having the monsters do our bidding, we take matters into our own hands?
What a creative idea, Rimuru."
"Exactly!" I replied. "Although, I wish I could've tried conquering the labyrinth in this form…"
"So this is what a video game is like? I've heard about this!" "What? Is that true, Veldora?!" said Milim.
"Master! So we'll beat up the enemy like this, then? And then we can make these bodies learn new things, too…?" Ramiris jumped in.
Gotta hand it to Veldora. He immediately guessed what I wanted to do. Yes, this was basically a pseudo-MMORPG—although, there wasn't anything too "massive" about our party of four. Maybe just an MORPG, then? It doesn't matter. The key thing here, the concept, was that we could now enjoy the very labyrinth we expended the effort to build.
"Hee-hee-hee! Well put, Veldora. You can nearly read my mind, I see. But don't get the wrong idea yet. Yes, I developed this with an eye toward playing the labyrinth like a game, but we have other business first, don't we?"
"Kwah-ha-ha-ha, we do! We need to use these bodies to dispatch the challengers—I mean, the intruders causing us problems, then?"
He got it, all right. Yes, I thought about using these "avatars," these monster bodies, to interfere with Green Fury's rapid advance. And like Ramiris said, I had thought of several ways to enjoy these bodies—leveling them up to evolve them, learning how to fight with the restricted skills they had, and so on. Still, what I really wanted to do was go have fun beating up monsters and challengers—I had no idea I'd invent something so useful just to make that happen.
"Of course, once everything was ready, I was just thinking that we could enjoy conquering our own labyrinth as well," I said.
"Ah, right. We'll be able to test out our work, huh?"
"Mm-hmm. And with these avatars, we can't exercise our full powers, right? So I thought it'd help us get another perspective on problems in the labyrinth."
"Yes… True. And the master of the labyrinth taking on challengers himself—some people might see that as unseemly. But copying my soul into a weaker beast like this…"
"Right! This way, we can beat up intruders as regular old labyrinth denizens, not as True Dragons or demon lords."
"Now I get it! This sounds fun!!" Milim was certainly convinced. Given the nearly infinite power she lobbed around all the time, a much more inconvenient form must've seemed novel to her. She looked really excited about it.
"Well, shall we spring into action?"
"Yes, why not clean up the garbage before enjoying our own game?" said Veldora.
"The time has come to fully stretch out my arms, I'd say!" said Ramiris. "I can't wait to test all forty-eight of my finisher moves!"
"I'm not sure how any of this works, but this seems kinda fun to me!" Milim cheered.
We all triumphantly stood up. Time to go down there, get in Green Fury's way, and ensure they couldn't challenge the bottom floors for a little while. How would we do that? Well, I had a few other schemes in mind.
First, we needed to get used to our avatars. After that, the next important thing was equipment. We all put on Resurrection Bracelets with infinite charges, ensuring we could die as much as we wanted—but that wasn't enough. Our avatars were freshly born and extremely low level. Pushovers like us wouldn't deter Green Fury, no matter how well we surprised them. If we had some decent equipment, though…
"Right, we'll definitely want to get some equipment together. Let's go to
Kurobe's and have him craft some weapons and armor!"
"Ah yes, indeed! I'm a mere skeleton as it is, after all."
"Hee-hee! You fools! I'm a slime built for speed and mobility now! I could work just fine in the labyrinth!"
"Um, I'm just a suit of armor… Can I put more armor on over this?"
"Oh, we can figure something out. Let's just head over. And if you don't need equipment, Milim, just stay here."
"D-don't give me that nonsense! I can hold my own as it is, but I still need some gear!"
Talk about selfish. She should've just said so. I wanted some equipment as well, so I prepared to undo the Possession and leave.
"To go back, just picture the word separate in your mind. That'll bring you back."
I gave them a quick demo, putting the avatar core in my pocket as I taught them. These avatar cores had the monster encoded in them, one per core, and they couldn't be shared between different people. These cores were a second "self" for you, really, so I wanted to be sure people took good care of them.
"With these," I added, "you'll be able to call on your second form anytime you like."
"Pretty neat item, definitely. We'll need to think about what to do with them while we're busy Possessing."
Veldora and Ramiris, back in their original bodies, stood up from their chairs.
"Maybe fit it on our Bracelets so we don't lose them?" suggested Veldora.
"That's a good idea. I think I'll do that!" said Ramiris.
They both played around with the avatar cores in their hands. I think I'll do that with mine as well. But what about Milim?
"Hey, Mili—"
"I'm gonna go like this!"
Before I could call for her, Milim—in slime form—was digging her way into my pocket. "Okay, let's go!" she shouted, bossing me around and demonstrating her utter lack of interest in listening to me. She must've really liked that body. Pretty childlike of her…which, yeah, she is a child. Calling a child childish wasn't very constructive, so I gave up on scolding her and got going.
We were at Kurobe's workshop.
"You there, Kurobe?"
"Oh, Sir Rimuru? What brings you here today?"
Kurobe came right up when I asked for him. Seeing Veldora and Ramiris with me surprised him.
"Well, we're looking for some weapons," I said as we walked inside. I hadn't been around for a while, but the workshop definitely had more people now—monsters included. It was scorching hot as usual. Temperature didn't affect me, so it was fine, but working in here must've been grueling for the others.
"Looks like you've hired some more apprentices."
"Yeah, luckily! They still need practice, but some of 'em are pretty talented."
Some of them looked up as they heard us talking in the workshop. Once they saw who I was, they leaped to their feet and bowed at me. Seeing all of them do that at once startled me, but Kurobe was used to it.
"It's not break time yet! Get back to work!"
His ornery shouting drove his staff to return to their jobs. But I kind of understood their thought process. If you're sitting at your cube, and the CEO comes in out of nowhere, you'd be nervous, too—especially if you were on the bottom rung. And maybe it didn't feel that way to me, but I was the ruler of this nation. I hadn't let it concern me before now, but maybe I should have given more advance warning as a rule.
Coming in casually like this might've just caused trouble for everyone. Whenever a district manager or whatever came to view our workplace in my old world, we'd always spend the previous day cleaning up the whole office to prepare. If it was the president, then no mistakes would be tolerated. The higher up you went, the more it unnerved people when you got all casual with them, I guess.
Still, I didn't want every trip out to be filled with pomp and circumstance. I hated to call Kurobe out of his busy work schedule; better for me to just show up whenever he's free.
"Sorry I barged in without any warning. I think I'm gonna make a regular habit of it for a little while, so no need to get all tense, okay?"
Thus, I decided to address the staff. Maybe them being too casual with me would be a problem, but there was no need to be on pins and needles around me. I loved acting like a boss, but I didn't make a hobby out of inconveniencing people. If the other person's too nervous to react to me, that bothered me, too. Gobta's obliviousness was just right. Just keep in mind the acronym TPO—time, place, occasion—and it was easier to find the right approach.
My advice seemed to relieve the staff a bit. Once I was sure of that, I nodded and went into a room deeper inside the workshop.
I wasn't aware of this, by the way, but the apprentices weren't anxious just because I was a demon lord.
While I wasn't paying attention, someone had held a Tempest popularity contest, and apparently, I had been voted into the top-three idols alongside Shuna and Shion. A surprising result, they told me. Ramiris and Milim were in the rankings as well, and while I won't say exactly where, I can tell you that Milim and I were way ahead of Ramiris.
I wasn't sure whether to whine about it or marvel at how my town's grown. Either way, hearing about it later made me roll my eyes.