"Tempest!? What a resounding name! From today onward, I shall be Veldora Tempest!"
"As for you, I bestow upon you the name Rimuru. From now on, you shall be Rimuru Tempest!"
The moment Nikki received the name, he felt a difference—an incredible transformation occurred from his soul to his body.
Especially the name Rimuru Tempest; it was branded deep into his soul.
Is this the evolution of my life-level? How truly incredible!
Then Nikki—no, Rimuru—activated his Unique Skill Predator and absorbed the Storm Dragon Veldora into his stomach.
"Do you wish to analyze the Infinite Prison? Yes/No?"
The voice of the Great Sage echoed in his mind, and Rimuru chose "Yes" without hesitation.
Looking at the now-empty cave, Rimuru couldn't help feeling a bit hollow, lonely, and cold.
Even though Veldora was a tsundere dragon and not human, he had been the first and only creature Rimuru had spoken to since reincarnating.
It's time to leave this Sealed Cave!
It had to be said—this cave was truly enormous. He had been bouncing around for nearly five days and still hadn't found his way out.
Now that the tsundere dragon had been absorbed, the Storm Dragon's deterrent power vanished, and some monsters began to stir.
He ate and evolved along the way, acquiring the Black Snake's skills Heat Source Detection and Poison Mist Breath, the Armored Lizard's Body Armor, the Evil Centipede's Paralysis Breath, the Black Spider's Sticky Thread and Steel Thread, and the Giant Bat's Blood Sucking and Supersonic Waves.
The Giant Bat's Supersonic Waves especially allowed Rimuru to successfully gain the ability to speak, which made him incredibly excited.
He kept saying meaningless words and singing monotonous, childish songs, just to enjoy the feeling of talking.
Two more days passed, and just as Rimuru felt he might get dizzy from wandering, he suddenly saw someone who absolutely shouldn't have been there.
Familiar clothes, a familiar mask—Izawa Shizue. How could she be here?
According to the original plot, Shizue definitely shouldn't appear in this cave.
Wait… what exactly was going on?
What shocked him even more was that Miss Shizue was surrounded by flames, struggling to suppress the rampage of the Fire Spirit Ifrit.
Is this… because my little butterfly effect caused a sudden change in the timeline, creating a new parallel universe?
Rimuru didn't know.
At the moment, all he could do was quietly wait for Shizue to slowly suppress the Fire Spirit's rage with her willpower.
Half an hour later, Shizue managed to subdue the rampage.
But suppressing it had consumed too much of her strength; her body gave out, and she collapsed.
Seeing this, Rimuru leaped over and positioned himself beneath her, acting as a soft cushion to break her fall.
Splat!
Rimuru slapped a glob of Recovery Potion onto Shizue's delicate body. A few seconds later, she indeed began to feel much better.
Shizue removed her mask, revealing a face so cute it was almost unfair. She smiled gently and said, "Thank you, Mr. Slime!"
Watching an anime was one thing; facing it in reality was something entirely different.
Being thanked from such close range made Rimuru's cheeks heat up.
Ahem. Rimuru changed the subject. "You're not afraid of me?"
To avoid disrupting the plot, he hadn't restrained the massive magical aura surrounding him. With Shizue's abilities, she would naturally sense how powerful he was.
Though wearing a mask earlier, Rimuru could still sense her faint smile. "If you were hostile toward me, why would you have waited until now?"
Rimuru felt he had asked a stupid question.
"That's true. I'm really not a bad slime!"
"Pfft!"
Hearing Rimuru's line, Shizue immediately burst into laughter.
"I'm not a bad slime" was a classic line from the Japanese national RPG Dragon Quest.
Even though Shizue had never played it, she had heard many otherworldly visitors mention it.
Shizue asked curiously, "Mr. Slime, did you also reincarnate from Japan in another world?"
Rimuru replied, "I did cross over from another world, but not Japan—China."
As expected, once she learned that he also came from Earth, Shizue became much friendlier.
She asked him many questions about Earth. Rimuru didn't hide anything, telling her carefully about events from World War II to the new century.
This made Shizue especially grateful. In return, she held nothing back, telling him every detail of her life.
Rimuru listened very carefully, knowing that Shizue's openness was her way of leaving proof of her existence in this world.
One day passed.
The Fire Spirit Ifrit inside Shizue went into a violent rampage. Shizue couldn't suppress it at all. In the end, Rimuru used a trick to swallow Ifrit into his stomach, successfully turning him into the tsundere dragon's chess buddy, thus resolving the crisis.
But without the Fire Spirit, Shizue's lifespan inevitably reached its final moments.
Inside the cave, Rimuru accompanied her through the last journey of her life, which made Shizue deeply grateful.
She had originally intended for the cave to become her final resting place, but now she had a new choice.
As in the original story, Shizue's last request was for him to use his stomach as her final resting place.
Even though he knew this was how it happened in the original story, experiencing it personally still made him unbearably sad.
It had to be said—Shizue's entire life, from beginning to end, was filled with tragedy.
Whenever she found a brief moment of happiness, a new misfortune soon followed. As she once said, "She hates this world, but she can't bring herself to hate it."
In the end, Shizue was simply a lonely girl who wanted to be recognized by a Demon Lord or a Hero.
But even such a small wish was something she would never attain.
"May you be accompanied by sweet dreams and find eternal peace."
After saying this, Rimuru activated his Predator skill.
After devouring Miss Shizue's remains, he successfully inherited her appearance and the Unique Skill Metamorphosis.
Although he had gained a human form, just like in the original plot, he couldn't feel happy about it.
Before he could think further, the entire cave suddenly began to collapse, like the end of the world.
Rimuru was shocked. What the hell? A collapsing cave?
Weren't things supposed to follow the plot smoothly until he reached the peak of his life?
There was no time to be sentimental. Mimicking a Giant Bat, Rimuru flew upward at full speed.
Fortunately, he wasn't far from the exit, and soon he reached the entrance.
Several water blades sliced through, and the door instantly crumbled. Without thinking, Rimuru rushed inside.
But to his surprise, after passing through the doorway, he didn't reach a sunny surface.
Instead—he had entered yet another cave.