“That’s the end of it. The victor is Rimuru Tempest.”
“Oh, is it already over?”
At that moment, Lu Minghao, who was studying his own talents on the side, looked up into the distance. He saw Rimuru and Gazel, who had been fighting just now, had stopped and started talking. Gazel's teacher, Hakurou, also joined them.
“A reunion of master and disciple?”
Lu Minghao chuckled as he watched Gazel looking at Hakurou with excitement. He lowered his head and continued to examine the information on the talent panel. According to Lu Minghao's current research, he had roughly figured out the principle behind the [Encounter in Another World] talent for traversing other worlds.
In short, it uses the world's origin as a driving force to randomly send Lu Minghao to a completely new world. After arriving in the new world, that world's origin will be integrated into Lu Minghao's body and soul, not only awakening a brand new purple talent but also allowing him to integrate into the new world.
However, unlike the first time he traveled, Lu Minghao had been crushed into mincemeat by a truck, and his stomach contents were splattered all over the ground, so he came to this world as a reincarnation and became a slime.
And now, when Lu Minghao travels again, he will go to the next world with his current body. When he arrives in the next world and plunders enough of the world's origin again, Lu Minghao will have two choices.
One is to return to the Slime world, which already has world coordinates, and the other is to go to a completely new and unfamiliar world. By the way, as Lu Minghao travels to more and more worlds in the future, the [Encounter in Another World] talent will also record the coordinates of each world Lu Minghao has visited.
In simple terms, Lu Minghao doesn't need to worry about not being able to return to the Slime world after traveling to a completely new world.
“However, the flow of time between each world is completely different, and this cannot be controlled unless I can grow to the point of transcending time in the future.”
The next second, Lu Minghao closed the talent panel in front of him, stood up, and walked towards Rimuru and the others. As for the problem of different time flows between worlds, Lu Minghao didn't care too much now, because it was useless to care.
“Yo, it seems you guys are finished.”
Lu Minghao waved his hand with a faint smile, looking at Rimuru and Gazel who were talking to each other in front. Lu Minghao had expected this result. After all, King Gazel of the Dwarves was not a brainless idiot. As a hero king, he had enough strategy, courage, wisdom, and powerful martial strength.
After seeing that Rimuru's side had three Demon Lord seeds, plus the existence of Lu Minghao, who was suspected to be a true Demon Lord, the result was already doomed. It was a very simple principle: if the other party was not only stronger than you but also had a good personality, then the best choice was to join them if you couldn't beat them.
“Yes, it's over. And Minghao, do you know? Gazel is actually Hakurou's disciple. It's a small world.”
Rimuru smiled sweetly at Lu Minghao who was walking over, pointing to Hakurou beside him. He had never thought that Gazel, the hero of the Dwarf race, would be Hakurou's disciple.
“I just saw it. And this kind of thing is not surprising. After all, the Armed Nation of the Dwarves, Dwargon, is adjacent to the Jura Forest. It's normal for Gazel to come to the Jura Forest to adventure when he was young.”
As he spoke, Lu Minghao looked at Gazel who was looking at him. This guy had climbed up from the bottom step by step to become the ruler of the entire Dwarf Kingdom. His life experience must be extremely rich. It was not unreasonable for him to meet Hakurou and receive his teachings when he was young.
“By the way, let's have a banquet to welcome Gazel and the others!”
Suddenly, Rimuru, who was standing on the side, stepped forward and looked at Gazel and the many Dwarf knights behind him, his cute and androgynous little face full of joy. For Rimuru, today was a day worth celebrating. After all, they had successfully resolved the misunderstanding with Gazel and his party, and they might even become friends next.
“A banquet, huh? I'm really looking forward to it.”
When Gazel heard that Rimuru was going to hold a banquet, a look of anticipation appeared on his firm, square face. He could also take the opportunity at the banquet to propose an alliance to Rimuru.
In this way, the two groups of people, who were at daggers drawn just a few minutes ago, returned to the town under construction together. When night fell, a grand banquet began, and during this grand banquet, the Jura-Tempest Federation was successfully established.
Rimuru, as the king, and Gazel, the king of the Armed Nation of Dwargon, successfully formed an alliance and named the central city under construction 'Rimuru' after Rimuru's name.
“As expected, is that how it is?”
At the banquet, Lu Minghao looked up at Rimuru, Benimaru, and the others who were reveling in the distance. Just when Rimuru announced the establishment of the Jura-Tempest Federation and the alliance with the Armed Nation of Dwargon, Lu Minghao clearly felt that his [Encounter in Another World] talent had fluctuated.
In other words, Lu Minghao's previous guess was correct. When he was in and participated in the key stages of each world, the speed of plundering the world's origin would be accelerated. Currently, Lu Minghao has summarized three ways to plunder the world's origin.
First: Become a strong person in that world. However, the speed of plundering the world's origin depends on Lu Minghao's strength. The speed of plundering the world's origin when he became a Demon Lord seed and awakened to become a true Demon Lord were completely different concepts.
Second: Like now, participating in the key stages of the world can also successfully plunder the world's origin.
Third: Devouring the world. This is just Lu Minghao's guess and has not been tested yet. After returning from the new world, Lu Minghao plans to devour the original Western Nations, now the Gluttony Empire, to try.
“However, there's no rush. There's still time, so I can take my time.”
The next second, Lu Minghao threw the thoughts about plundering the world's origin in his head aside. Anyway, Lu Minghao is not in a hurry now. With Rimuru, the beloved friend and scapegoat king, attracting everyone's attention, Lu Minghao, hidden behind the scenes, can slowly plan everything.
“Next, after verifying how much gap there is between myself and the top powerhouses in this world, I can leave.”
As he spoke, Lu Minghao raised his wine glass and looked at the dark night sky outside the window. Stars twinkled with faint light in the distant sky, and in the distant distance, the oldest Demon Lord, the Destroyer Tyrant Milim, was rushing towards this place at high speed.
.......
At the same time, in the distant distance, a streak of crimson light was flying towards the Jura Forest at high speed in the dark night sky. In the crimson light, a girl with pink pigtails and a silly hair on top of her head was constantly swaying in the strong wind.
Beneath a cowlick, an adorable loli face wore an expression of anticipation and excitement. However, in contrast to her cute loli appearance, her clothes possessed a hint of seductive allure. Her pair of jade-like, rounded thighs were adorned with bright red long boots, the left one encased in a pink stocking with white patterns, while the right one sported a garter ring.
Above her thighs, a jet-black piece of lingerie resembling a bi(meow)kini peeked out, coupled with a top that revealed ample skin, instantly adding a touch of allure to her originally cute appearance. Yet, this feeling didn't feel out of place at all; rather, it seemed to perfect the girl.
"I'm so excited, so excited!"
In the night sky, Milim's light blue eyes sparkled with excitement and anticipation. Not long ago, she had received news of Clayman's failure in his plan to create a new Demon Lord. Originally joining the plan out of boredom, Milim's interest was piqued when Clayman told her that the one who defeated the Orc Lord was a slime.
Moreover, Clayman had informed her that in the war against the Orcs, there was not only the powerful slime but also a Kijin of Demon Lord caliber and a suspected awakened True Demon Lord.
Upon learning all this, Milim, already bored to the extreme, immediately decided to personally investigate these 'toys' in the Jura Forest and warned Clayman and his associates not to interfere, as they were all her 'new toys'.
"Just a little further, I need to speed up!"
In the next second, a tsunami of magic essence erupted from Milim's petite body, and her already rapidly moving figure transformed into a streak of light, disappearing into the sky.
......
Meanwhile, in the central city of Rimuru.
Two days had passed since the Jura Tempest Federation and the Armed Nation of Dwargon formed an alliance. During this time, not only did all the monsters under Rimuru know about the establishment of their monster kingdom, but Gazel, who had already returned to the Dwargon Kingdom, also sent Rimuru a gift.
It was Vesta, whom Rimuru had encountered when he went to the Dwarf Kingdom to recruit the Kijin brothers. This guy had been imprisoned for his past mistakes and was now being given to Rimuru as a gift by Gazel. With his wealth of knowledge and technology, Vesta would be able to assist Rimuru in building the Jura Tempest Federation.
Lu Minghao, the bystander and melon-eating spectator, watched as Kaijin forgave Vesta and successfully joined Rimuru's ranks.
"Rimuru, what do you plan to do with this guy?"
After glancing at Gazel, who had already become a black dot in the sky, Lu Minghao turned his head and asked Rimuru, who was beside him.
"I plan to have Vesta research the production of Hipokute herbs for recovery potions."
Upon hearing Lu Minghao's words, Rimuru looked at Vesta and pondered for a few seconds before speaking. Rimuru had learned a bit about Vesta's previous research when he recruited the Kaijin brothers. Coincidentally, the cave where the Storm Dragon Veldora had been sealed contained a large amount of magic essence, making it suitable for Hipokute herb growth.
Previously, Rimuru had already arranged for a group of goblins to go to the cave to plant Hipokute herbs. If Vesta's research was added, this recovery potion would become a major economic pillar of the Jura Tempest Federation in the future, and a large amount of recovery potions would also allow the warriors to receive timely treatment after being injured.
"Hmm, a good arrangement."
Lu Minghao nodded in agreement with Rimuru's suggestion. Although Lu Minghao had already seen this matter in the original work, he still had to pretend that he didn't know anything.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, Souei appeared before Rimuru and Lu Minghao, a faint scent of blood wafting from his arms. In Souei's arms, he tightly held a heavily injured figure.
"Souei, what happened?"
Rimuru looked at the heavily injured figure in Souei's arms, and the familiar face instantly made Rimuru recognize her identity: Souka, the leader of the Lizardmen. However, at this moment, Souka's aura had become extremely weak, and her entire body was covered in wounds. Seeing this, Rimuru quickly took out a recovery potion and fed it to her.
Under the effects of the top-tier recovery potion, the originally heavily injured Souka was completely recovered in a matter of seconds. Her tightly closed eyes slowly opened, and upon seeing Lu Minghao and Rimuru in front of her, a look of relief appeared on her delicate face.
"Rimuru-sama, today I was patrolling the surroundings when I suddenly encountered the heavily injured Souka-sama. As for the other details, I am not aware of them. When I encountered Souka-sama, she had already fainted on the ground."
Souei looked at Souka, who had already woken up in his arms, gently placed her aside, and then looked up at Rimuru and said. Just over ten minutes ago, Souka was patrolling the surroundings as usual when she suddenly encountered Souka lying on the ground in the forest. Realizing that Souka's life force had become extremely weak, he returned to the central city of Rimuru.
"Souka, what exactly happened?"
At this time, Lu Minghao, who was beside him, looked at Souka with a serious and solemn expression, as if he really didn't know anything.
"Minghao-sama... Last night, a clown named Laplace attacked our Lizardmen tribe and easily slaughtered all the Lizardmen except for me. He also said that a Demon Lord named Clayman instructed him to do so."
Souka looked up at Lu Minghao, a look of fear flashing in her big eyes, her delicate face full of sadness and pain as she slowly spoke, as if she had really been attacked by Laplace last night.
"Laplace, Clayman?"
After hearing Souka's words, Rimuru revealed a trace of doubt. For some reason, he always felt that the name Clayman sounded familiar.
"Rimuru-sama, Clayman is one of the Ten Great Demon Lords, and the Demon Lord who secretly instructed the Orcs before was likely him as well."
At this time, Souei stepped forward and looked at Rimuru with a solemn expression. Every one of the Ten Great Demon Lords was a powerful existence known throughout the world, and before, when the Orcs invaded the Jura Forest, Benimaru and the others also guessed that a certain Demon Lord was behind it all.
And now, they finally knew who the Demon Lord who instructed all this was.
".... Souei, lead the reconnaissance team and Luminous Valentine to the underground cavern to investigate the current situation of the Lizardmen tribe. Also, if there is danger, retreat immediately."
When Rimuru heard that all this was instructed by the Demon Lord named Clayman, his cute, androgynous face became serious. After looking at Souka, who was full of grief beside him, he asked Souei to go to the underground cavern to investigate the Lizardmen tribe and the guy named Laplace. In order to prevent Souei and the others from encountering danger, he specially asked him to bring Luminous Valentine.
In this way, even if there was any danger, with Luminous Valentine, who was a Demon Lord seed, they could hold out until they arrived.
"Yes, Rimuru-sama."
After saying that, Souei disappeared directly in place and went to the underground cavern, leaving only Rimuru, who was full of solemn thoughts, in place.
"Rimuru, don't be so nervous. Moreover, the fact that the Demon Lord named Clayman is doing this only proves that the failure of his plan has made him incredibly angry. But due to his strength or some other reason, he can only retaliate against the Lizardmen. In short, we are still very safe at the moment, but we can't be careless."
Beside him, Lu Minghao, seeing Rimuru's solemn expression, stepped forward, patted him on the shoulder, and comforted him. But in reality, all of this was just arranged by Lu Minghao. Firstly, it allowed the Lizardmen disguised as sub-bodies to make a reasonable exit, and secondly, it shifted the blame to Clayman.
As for whether doing so would expose Lu Minghao himself, he wasn't worried at all. First of all, he is now Rimuru's beloved friend, and although the Lizardmen's affair was done by Lu Minghao, the mastermind behind the previous Orc incident was indeed Clayman.
With the preconceived notion in place, Rimuru and the others would never think it was Lu Minghao. In addition, the Lizardmen's only survivor, Lizardman Chief Souei, personally admitted that all of this was done by Clayman, so Clayman really had no choice but to take the blame.
"Yeah, I know."
Rimuru raised his head and looked at Lu Minghao, who was comforting him. That kind and sunny smile instantly made Rimuru feel his heart beat faster, and a faint blush appeared on his fair face. He shyly lowered his head and gently hummed in agreement.
"....Well, Rimuru, I'll take Souei to Shuna first. After all, Souei is Shuna's subordinate."
After saying that, Lu Minghao didn't wait for Rimuru to answer and directly pulled Souei aside and ran away. Only after running out of Rimuru's sight did Lu Minghao let go of Souei and looked back with lingering fear. After discovering that Rimuru hadn't chased after him, Lu Minghao finally breathed a sigh of relief.
God knows what he just experienced. That shy, cute, and slightly tender Rimuru was simply terrifying. If he didn't know that Rimuru was a thirty-year-old great mage in his previous life, Lu Minghao would have suspected that he would have couldn't help but make a move on Rimuru just now, dragging him to the small black room next door and doing this and that, posing Rimuru in one hundred and eight positions.
"So dangerous!"
The next second, Lu Minghao patted his chest with a bewildered expression on Souei's face and walked forward. Souei didn't dare to ask anything about this, and quickly followed. In fact, Souei wanted to ask just now, but her instinct told her that if she asked that question, she would definitely die miserably.
A few minutes later, Lu Minghao took Souei back to the two-story wooden house he shared with Shuna. Opening the door, he saw Shuna sitting on the sofa with her legs crossed, a manga book on her fair knees. At this time, Shuna was stuffing snacks into her mouth, her cheeks bulging as she watched the manga with relish.
As for where the manga came from, it was of course given to Shuna by Rimuru not long ago. He also gave Lu Minghao a set, but it was given to Loyna by him.
"Minghao, you're back!"
Hearing the movement at the door, Shuna raised her small head and looked over. Seeing Lu Minghao, she instantly jumped up from the sofa and threw herself into Lu Minghao's arms.
"Master."
At this time, Souei, who had been following behind Lu Minghao, stepped forward and looked at Shuna, who was lying in Lu Minghao's arms, and said softly.
"It's Souei, has everything been resolved?"
Shuna raised her head and glanced at Souei beside her. In just an instant, she understood what had happened. After all, Shuna also knew clearly about the Lizardmen sub-bodies, so she knew what had happened when she saw Souei.
"Yes, Master."
After hearing Shuna's words, Souei obediently nodded, then looked at Shuna in Lu Minghao's arms, wanting to know what she needed to do next. After all, the entire Lizardman tribe had now become a part of her.
"Souei, you will stay here for now. Remember to get along well with the monsters here."
Looking at Souei looking at her, Shuna thought for a while and decided to let Souei stay here in Rimuru's place, becoming their second spy to infiltrate Rimuru's forces. As for the first spy, Loyna, she has now become Rimuru and the others' favorite.
"Yes, Master."
After hearing Shuna's order, Souei nodded and turned to leave the room. As for what to do next, she knew it herself.
"By the way, Shuna, I will be leaving here for a while. You and Loyna will stay here first."
After Souei left, Lu Minghao closed the door, set up a magic barrier, and whispered while holding Shuna in his arms. Lu Minghao currently has no way to take Shuna with him when crossing other worlds, unless Shuna, like Nina, becomes a part of the Abyss of Evil.
But Lu Minghao would not let Shuna become a part of his Abyss of Evil. After all, for Lu Minghao, Shuna is special.
"Leave here?"
Shuna raised her head and looked at Lu Minghao's serious face, her delicate and cute face like a porcelain doll showing a look of reluctance. But looking at Lu Minghao's expression, she knew that Lu Minghao had something very important to do. Shuna had vaguely noticed this since the end of the war with the Orcs.
It's just that Lu Minghao didn't tell her what it was, so Shuna wouldn't ask, because Shuna knew that if it was something that needed her, Lu Minghao would have told her long ago.
"Yeah, I'm going to a very special place, and for the time being, only I can go to that place."
Lu Minghao gently stroked Shuna's hair. Lu Minghao didn't plan to tell Shuna about crossing the world for the time being. It wasn't that he didn't trust Shuna, but that Shuna's strength was not enough now. Sometimes knowing too much is also a threat.
"Then will Minghao come back?"
Shuna bit her lip tightly, looking at Lu Minghao with her big purple eyes blinking, her heart full of unease and fear, fearing that Lu Minghao would say the words 'not coming back'.
"I will definitely come back."
Lu Minghao looked at Shuna with a hint of tears in her big eyes, hugged her tightly in his arms, and said in a gentle but firm tone.
"Yeah, Shuna knows. Shuna will always wait for Minghao to come back."
Shuna hugged Lu Minghao tightly, her small face pressed against Lu Minghao's chest, saying word by word. Although she didn't know where Lu Minghao was going or why he was going, since Lu Minghao had made a decision, what Shuna had to do was support him unconditionally.
Moreover, she believed that Lu Minghao would return to her side again. No matter how long it took, she would wait, and when that time came, she would give Lu Minghao a big surprise.
"Don't worry, I will definitely come back here again, but there is actually still some time before I leave, I'm just telling Shuna you in advance."
Feeling Shuna's arms tightly hugging him, Lu Minghao stroked Shuna's long hair even more gently, then turned his head and looked at the sky outside the window. There, Lu Minghao sensed a terrifying magical aura full of overwhelming power approaching rapidly. If nothing unexpected happened, it would be the ancient Demon Lord, the Destroyer Tyrant Milim.
