It took a good while but after what felt like another day or so of walking, barring the occasional detour, Rimuru finally found the exit to the cave. Looking below she saw open fields and forests with rolling hills and mostly flat lands. The sight was beautiful to look upon, but she didn’t want to waste any time. She had spent most of the journey up until this point in human form, wearing the clothes she had obtained from Shizue, mostly having missed the feeling of a human body. Now though she turned back into a slime, beginning to bounce her way to the city she saw in the distance

The journey was only a few miles, but judging from what she had seen in the cave, it appeared to be an abandoned mine that shut down after all the resources ran dry. If Rimuru had to guess, it's likely that the early settlers of this new town, supposedly called ‘Axel’ came here for said mines, at least after Veldora destroyed the region.

{ This place looks a lot nicer than I left it! A lot less mountainous too! }

‘Mountainous?’

{ Yeah, there were I think two to three mountains here when I originally arrived. }

‘And where did the mountains go..?’ Rimuru asked the friend in her mind.

Veldora remained silent.

‘Veldooraaaaa’

As Veldora maintained his silence, Rimuru sighed, knowing full well that Veldora was probably the one to wipe said mountains off the map. Nevertheless it had been at least 300 years, and that's assuming the Dragon was even good at keeping track of time.

After a few hours she arrived at the outskirts of the city, lying low under the cover of some vegetation as she thought out her plan. ‘You know Shizue mentioned a shop in here run by another of the Devil King’s generals.’

{ Oh? You talked to her? }

‘Before she moved on, yeah. I had to clarify some things with her, but she did tell me a good bit. This Wiz is a general in name only though, so we’ll hold off on killing her, at least until we actually need to infiltrate the Devil King’s barrier.’

{ KYAHAHA! That’s my little information gatherer! Does this Wiz sell any clothes? }

‘I’m not sure, but if she’s a Devil King General, she might be more accepting of talking to monsters. I may be able to get her to help me out instead of stealing’

{ I suppose that could work, do you know where her shop is? }

‘...No’

{ Do you at least know what she looks like? }

‘...No’

{ I rescind any previous comments on your information gathering skills }

Rimuru sighed again, beginning to get closer to the town as she finally managed to sneak in, hiding in bushes or in tall grass as she snuck his way around, looking for any signs of where this ‘Wiz’ might be. After a bit of looking, and a realization that she could conveniently read this world’s language despite never seeing it before in her life, she still failed to find anything that gave her any clues.

Eventually as she looked around she was suddenly picked up from behind as she quickly turned around, startled. She looked up at the woman holding her and pushing her slightly against her breasts as she held her up to her chest. The woman had long-brown hair which covered one of her eyes as she wore a long purple robe which covered much of her body down to her legs. Her breasts were certainly large, a fact made obvious as Rimuru was pushed partially against them. While her skin was slightly pale, she otherwise seemed like a beautiful woman by Rimuru’s standards. She mentally thanked her slime body for its inability to blush.

The girl looked down at Rimuru as she held him with both hands, “What's a blue slime doing out here? It’s not really cold or wet enough… I suppose there may be some nearby, but not close enough that one would wander into the city…” She looked down at Rimuru again, “Doesn’t seem to be hostile, strange, it's rare for slimes to be so passive.”

Rimuru was too shocked, confused, and lost in the bliss of her breasts to even respond, simply remaining silent as the woman took her away into a nearby shop. The shop seemed to sell a multitude of random magical items, though Rimuru couldn’t tell the inherent value of any of them just yet.

The girl placed Rimuru on the counter, looking at the slime with curiosity as she muttered, “I wonder if I can teleport it back home… I can’t remember where I’ve seen blue slimes before though… It was probably some cave somewhere… Poor little guy must be lost.”

Rimuru, not wanting to be teleported away, finally began to speak, “U-Uh miss… I-I’d prefer it if you didn’t teleport me away…”

Before Rimuru was even halfway done speaking, the girl yelped in shock before clumsily falling over onto her behind. She slowly stood back up as she muttered, “I-I didn’t realize you were intelligent and could speak. You guys are quite rare, so I didn’t expect it.”

“It’s fine, really… I originally assumed I was the only one that was intelligent, but are there more?”

“There’s not many… In fact I only know one, though I don’t know where he is right now. Sorry if you were looking for more of your kind. Besides, he’s a poison slime anyways. You’re the only intelligent blue slime I know.”

“Ah I see…” Rimuru said as she thought, ‘Well, I wasn’t really looking for more slimes, but it's good to know that I’m supposedly an outlier. Best to keep my identity as a slime hidden to most.’ “Well I’m able to turn into a human form, however since the human form is a slightly modified body of one of the Devil King’s Generals and since the only clothes I got were from her, I can’t really walk around in that form without looking like one of the Devil King’s generals. A… friend I know wanted me to say hi to a shopkeep named ‘Wiz’ so I was looking for her to help me.”

The girl tilted her head, “Oh, that’s me.”

“Huh?”

“I’m Wiz.”

Rimuru jumped back a bit, startled at her apparent luck. Nevertheless she muttered, “A-Ah well in that case, I suppose I should tell you the full truth. You see, when I was attacked by Shizue Izawa, and in order to survive I ended up killing her. I had a chat with her before she died though, and while I did kill her rather ruthlessly, I can say that she passed on peacefully, if that helps. She wanted me to come to you to say goodbye since she didn’t get the chance while passing through.”

Wiz had a look of sadness on her face before turning it into a slight smile, “I see… She was a kind girl, if a bit misguided. It's sad that she’s gone, but I don’t think she was all too happy in this life. I’m glad she went away peacefully.”

“You don’t blame me for killing her?” Rimuru asked.

“Not necessarily. After all, as a General of the Devil King and someone who was attacking you, you had every right to kill her. Oh but I don’t have a bounty on me, so please don’t kill me!”

Rimuru shook her head, “Don’t worry, Shizue already told me you’re not really a General, I don’t have a reason to kill you. You mentioned a bounty though, did she have one?”

Wiz nodded, “She was one of the weaker generals though, and since she also never directly attacked humans, instead just aiding in random odd jobs the Devil King needed, her bounty is relatively low. Regardless, if you turn in proof that you killed her, you could get enough to get you started.”

Rimuru nodded, “Thanks for the info! Though that doesn’t solve my clothes situation…”

Wiz thought for a moment, “Oh I know! Do you have her sword or something to prove you killed her?”

Rimuru slowly slid the sword out of her slime body, allowing it to fall onto the floor in front of her, “This?”

“Mhm! I can go turn this into the adventurers guild, claim the reward, buy some clothes with it and give you the rest! It might be a bit strange if some newbie adventurer signed up and immediately showed proof that they killed a Devil King’s general,” Wiz said with a smile as she picked up the sword.

“I suppose that could work, I’ll wait here then!” Wiz suddenly picked up Rimuru, much to her shock, “H-Hey what are you doing?”

“You don’t need to wait here, I can simply say you’re a familiar or a pet, I doubt anyone would question it. I’d feel bad if I left you here alone.”

Rimuru sighed, allowing Wiz to carry her around town as she joined the girl in dropping off the sword. The adventurers guild basically went into a cheer at seeing Wiz having defeated a Devil King general, Wiz trying her best to calm them down, knowing she wasn’t the one to kill them.

After the situation at the guild soothed down, she carried Rimuru and the bag of money over to a nearby clothing store as she spoke silently to Rimuru, helping her pick out some items to wear. Wiz wasn’t much for fashion, but as a woman she was a great help to the former man, not that Rimuru told her that.

Ultimately despite the temptation to get a more feminine outfit, Rimuru ultimately decided on a blue coat with lighter blue fur at the ends of the sleeves with matching blue boots and baggy black pants. She also decided to get a pale-colored furred scarf to place around her neck. Upon returning to Wiz’s shop, she quickly absorbed it into her slime body and transformed into a human, now wearing all of the clothes.

Rimuru held up a thumbs up towards Wiz as she smiled, “You do look like her, though I suppose that’s to be expected. Your hair and eye color are different so that should be enough. Most people don’t know what the Devil King’s generals really look like anyways, either way though getting some clothes for yourself was definitely the right call. Faces can’t usually be detailed well enough to identify but clothing definitely is.”

Rimuru nodded as she moved around a bit in her clothes, having picked clothes specifically for more flexibility, aiming to become a spellsword of sorts, and as such not wanting to invest too heavily into excessive armor. “Yeah, thanks again, Wiz! You didn’t have to go through all of that for me though, I probably would’ve been fine with some rags to wear while I went clothes shopping.”

Wiz shook her head, “It was nothing, think of it as a favor to Shizue, even if you killed her it seems you were her friend in her last moments.”

“I should be heading out now, I’ll see ya!” Rimuru waved at Wiz who offered a polite smile in return. She then set out, now walking through the town as she tried to remember where the blacksmith was.

After a bit of remembering she found the shop, having passed it while being carried by Wiz. Entering the store, she looked around at all the weapons, though not many seemed all too interesting to her. They were seemingly well made, sure, but it wasn’t quite what she wanted.

After a brief moment of looking, a man with a tanned, muscular build with black hair and a beard came out from the back of the store, waving at Rimuru as he walked over to the corner of the store to check on something briefly as he spoke to the girl, “Hey there! Lookin’ for anything in particular, miss?”

He placed down the helmet he was examining as he turned to face Rimuru who nodded, “Yes, I was wondering if I could commission a specific type of weapon to be made. These swords look nice, but I’m looking for something a bit lighter and thinner.”

The blacksmith nodded, “Sure thing! I can whip that up for ya’ if you give me the proper time, of course. What kinda sword were ya’ thinkin’?”

Rimuru looked around for a brief moment, hand on her chin as she thought, “Do you perhaps have anything I could draw on?”

The blacksmith returned to the back of the shop and came back with a piece of paper and something to write with. After another few seconds Rimuru had finished her drawing of the sword she desired. Its design was akin to Japanese Katanas, though it lacked the curve, believing it to likely be too much of a hassle for a blacksmith unfamiliar with it.

The blacksmith picked up the paper and nodded, “A bit of an unusual sword, but I can see what ya’ going for.”

“Oh yeah one more question,” Rimuru pretended to reach into a back pocket as she pulled a manatite crystal out of her own internal storage, “Think you could use this in any way?”

The blacksmith picked up the crystal and analyzed it, looking it over for a bit before his eyes widened, “Holy smokes! This is pure manatite! I’ve never seen one so pure! Where the hell you’d get it?!”

Rimuru made a smug grin as she rubbed her nose, “Trade secret, I’m afraid. But you think you could turn it into somethin’ useful? If nothing else I could always sell it.”

“Normally something like this would be used more for mage staffs… but there is a way to make swords with it. By merging it with Mithril in a specific way you create a sort of magical alloy called ‘Magisteel’. It's incredibly strong and receptive to magic cast on it. That ultimately means it can take hits from magic really well as well as be funneled with the user’s magic really well too. Considering how you designed the sword, I take it you plan to be a mix of a spellcaster and a swordsman?”

Rimuru nodded, “Correct! I’ll be a spellsword!”

“Then Magisteel should work perfectly for you. I was over at the Adventurers Guild earlier today and saw Wiz bring in the sword of one of the Devil King’s generals, that thing was made of pure Magisteel, you should’ve seen it!”

“That works out great then! Think you could make me a Magisteel sword then?” Rimuru asked.

The blacksmith nodded, “Mithril’s a hard to get metal, however being the best blacksmith in a town that's the center for most starting adventurers has granted me quite the funds, so I should have just enough mithril to make this. The problem lies with cost. If you had another one of these, it would almost certainly be enough to cover the costs,” the blacksmith held the crystal above his head as he looked at it from all angles.

Reaching back behind her back again, she pulled out another crystal, “You mean like this one?”

The blacksmith's eyes widened as he took the other in his hands, “Hahaha! I believe we’ve got a deal. Meet me back here in a few days and I should have it ready.”

“Alright, thanks!” Rimuru said cheerfully as she turned around and exited the shop.

The blacksmith waved as he looked down at the manatite in a slight awe.

As she began walking around town, a voice echoed again in her head, { We should probably be careful waving those things around }

‘Yeah, they seem expensive. Best to limit how much we use them, since they’re so rare, what we got in that cave is all we’ll likely ever have. We can’t afford to use too much of it willy-nilly.’

{ Agreed. Either way, now that you got your sword ordered its best we sign up at the Adventurers Guild! }

‘Yeah, yeah, buddy, I’m getting to it!’

Despite lacking a proper weapon to use at that moment, Rimuru made her way toward the Adventurers Guild, she had been there with Wiz not too long ago, so she knew where to go and generally what to do.

Entering the Guild hall, the building itself seemed to be mostly empty at that time of day, only a handful of adventurers were inside, most sitting at the table eating or discussing various things. Right front in center as Rimuru entered was a massive statue showing a warrior, the importance of which Rimuru had no clue.

Rimuru turned right after entering, heading to the same counter that Wiz had just previously shown off Shizue’s sword. The girl at the counter was a well-endowed woman with golden eyes and blonde hair tied into a bun. Her clothing barely did much to hide her massive cleavage, so much so that Rimuru mentally thanked the fact she was now a woman and didn’t have to worry about appearing ‘excited’ so to speak.

The girl looked up at Rimuru from where she was sitting and smiled, “How can I help you today?”

“I was hoping to sign up and become an adventurer.”

“Sure thing! Just pay the registration fee and we’ll get started!”

Rimuru nodded, again pretending to reach into a pocket as he pulled some gold coins out of his storage, ‘Glad I didn’t go straight here… I wouldn’t have had the money to register.’

Rimuru looked at her coins and then back at the receptionist, “How many of these would I need?”

“Just two is enough,” the girl said, smiling.

Rimuru placed down the coins as the girl took them, pulling out a contraption from underneath the counter and placing it in front of her. “This here will write down your stats and you can use it to gain more skills and spells,” she placed a card under the needle-like part at the bottom of the contraption, “Please place your hand over the blue orb and it’ll write down your stats!”

Rimuru followed her instructions, placing her hand over it as it began to glow. After a moment a stream of light shot out of the needle, moving across the card as it began to write on it. It took only a few seconds for the contraption to be complete, the receptionist taking it out from under the contraption as she placed it away.

“Let's see… Rimuru Tempest, interesting name… Your Luck is rather average, your Intelligence and Strength are above average, but wow! Your Health, Magical Power, and Agility are all very high! With this you could become quite a few classes!” The girl looked at the card again, looking over to see what classes were available, “Huh? What’s this? Dragon Knight?!”

Just about everyone in the guild who heard her, including Rimuru, was shocked as many began to inch closer to hear and see what was going on.

Continuing, the girl said, “I didn’t know you had made a covenant with a dragon! A Dragon Knight is a rare and powerful class, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone starting as one, usually its obtained after adventurers are already somewhat strong!”

‘Dragon Knight? I assume this has to do with you, Veldora’

{ I suppose so… This world seems to classify me as a Dragon, which to be fair I technically am, but at the same time I’m also above the dragons of this world. Nevertheless it seems that in taking a shared name, we’ve formed a covenant, allowing you to become a Dragon Knight. }

‘Are you able to tell me what each class would give me if I selected it?’

{ Not from my own knowledge since I have no clue, but I do seem to be able to look at the classes you can take. The Dragon Knight class seems to make it cheaper to learn skills and spells from your Dragon Patron though, I think you should take it! }

‘Huh? You can teach me stuff like that?’

{ I sure can, friend! KYAHAHA! Become a Dragon Knight and I will teach you to harness the very storms themselves! }

Rimuru, satisfied with the prospect, nodded to the receptionist, “I’ll be a Dragon Knight then!”

Before Rimuru even noticed, a crowd had somehow formed cheering her on. After seeing the same thing happen when Wiz turned in the sword, Rimuru simply grew to assume that this was standard for this guild, though she was confused at where so many adventurers came from when the place was nearly empty a minute ago.

The receptionist nodded with a smile, “We welcome you to our guild, lady Rimuru. We look forward to your exploits.” The crowd began to cheer again, somewhat overwhelming for the person who had just been some average guy working in General Contracting in their last life. Nevertheless she smiled and slowly began to walk away.

{ Smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave. }

‘Who are you talking to? I’m the only one who can hear you!’

{ It’s a reference! }

Rimuru made a mental sigh as she exited the adventurers guild for the day. She wanted to go on a quest or something, but she needed to decide on where she would spend the night before doing anything else.

After buying a room in a nearby inn, Rimuru began to return to the guild before being interrupted by Veldora.

{ The hell? }

‘What is it?’

{ Look up. }

Looking up, Rimuru saw what appeared to be a sort of sunlight coming from above. The light had a sort of divine feeling, as if she was briefly gazing into the heavens themselves before the light gradually faded.

‘What was that?’

{ I mentioned before that I could sense when they summoned people here, right? }

‘Yeah I recall that.’

{ Well not only did they bring someone here, but whoever it was brought a whole god with them! }

‘Huh?! A God?! Should I be worried?’

{ Not sure yet. Depends on who it is. Have the gods gotten impatient and are going to intervene directly? I could’ve sworn that was against my brother’s rules for them… }

‘Do you know any of the gods? Maybe a friend or two that might be able to help us if it's them?’

{ I had some buddies, I suppose. Haven’t chatted with them in a long time, obviously. Though considering the nature of some of my friends… I would probably avoid them }

‘What kind of gods did you affiliate yourself with…?

{ Probably one of my closest friends was the Goddess of Sloth and Violence, Wolbach. Wonder what she’s up to these days. Probably being lazily violent or something. }

‘I-I see… The goddess of ‘violence’ doesn’t sound too nice…’

{ She was fine, really. }

‘That’s coming from the guy who leveled several mountains because he was bored!’

{ R-Right… A-Anyways, let's see what skills you can get! }

Now with the card within Rimuru’s stomach, Veldora, through his own skill ‘Investigator’ was able to look through the details of Rimuru’s stats. He had previously been unable to use his skills, but it seemed like while in Rimuru’s stomach at least, he had access to at least a portion of his abilities.

{ Seems like the main things you can learn are some fire and electrical spells. The fire spells are likely from the fight with Shizue, and the electrical spells are probably from me. As the ‘STORM’ Dragon, I can teach you quite a bit of lightning-based spells and skills. You do have some points, anything you wanna invest it in? }

‘How about those electrical skills? I won’t have my sword just yet so I might as well use other means of fighting. What works best?’

{ If you funnel almost all of the points you have now into it, you could get the super strong Black Lightning spell! }

‘Alright then, let's do it!’

Veldora promptly funneled most of Rimuru’s points into unlocking basic electrical spells before upgrading them into the ‘Black Lightning’ spell. The main strength of Black Lightning was that it had no upper limit, so as long as you had the mana to flow into it, its strength could be as much as you wanted it to. The more mana, the more strength.

Rimuru looked down to her hands as he began to test Black Lightning, small black sparks beginning to appear all over her hands as the occasional bolt of lightning moved from one part of her hand to the other.

‘It’s probably best if I don’t test it in the town. Let's get a quest and see how we do!’

{ Adventure awaits! Huzzah! }

As if on queue, the sound of a loud explosion rang through the air as Rimuru looked up to see the ball of fire from an explosion spell slowly dissipating far into the outskirts of the town.

‘Perhaps now isn’t the best time…’

{ Agreed }

<><><><><><><>

(Shorter chapter this time, longer chapters will come later once things really get going)

For the sake of simplicity, I’ve made a discord in case anyone wants to discuss things. I’ll also be pinging people whenever my fanfics update. I may also end up making some smut chapters in the future (likely non-canon) that would be posted exclusively there. For any interested, the code is below:

EakUsHM4pm