Once more...

The entire way back, since she actually had acquired the language here during the conversation with Veldora, she practices the local language like her life depends on it, abusing the ever living hell out of Occlumency to both absorb the language and its rules and the lessons from her solo practice of the language. She doesn't have anyone to correct her unfortunately, but there's not a whole lot she can do about that now is there?

Even as she does that, for the first part of the cave that she's already stripped she starts practicing using the crafting portion of her Predator Skill to start turning Hipokute into usable potions. Which takes a bit at first, about an hour for each potion at first though she starts ever so slowly chipping the initial fifty minutes down. By the time she hits the part she hasn't stripped she's got it down to forty-three minutes per potion, but stops that part to start absently going through the motions of gathering the Hipokute and magic ore she comes across.

As she reaches the end of the cave, she finds herself in front of a locked door. It honestly feels a bit ridiculous to her, since it certainly can't be to keep Veldora of all beings in. And from what he told her and what she gleaned, she honestly can't see anyone coming to try to break him out, or even anyone capable of succeeding in breaking Unlimited Prison if they did, but whatever.

She could absolutely bust it down, but she's actually been observing people sneaking close for the last couple minutes, so she figures she may as well wait to see if they're capable of unlocking it first. They actually do insert a key into the lock and start fighting with the rusted old thing for a few minutes but eventually they get it unlocked.

As they start to push it open, one of the two males is in the process of speaking, “Whew! Finally got this thing opened, the whole loc- Wha-? A Slime? How is one of those of all things..?”

She smiles habitually even though it doesn't translate, doing her best to make her projected voice carry the tone to accompany it, doing a quick flip through the information she has stored with Occlumancy, she speaks in the local language, “Hello. What might you three be doing here?”

The female stares, expression blank in surprise, “...It talks?”

She tilts her head, “That's rude. Or should I be saying ‘it sees?’ about you for identifying my species?”

The young woman flinches slightly, “...That's fair.”

Then one of her two male companions, a man who doesn't really have armor beyond a shoulder plate, with a sword sticking up from his back over it shifts, “What… What are you even doing here? Fuze said once we got past the door, the magicule saturation should be too high for any monsters to form. For a Slime of all things…”

She shrugs, she's been a bit uncertain how well that translates since she saw the strange up and down motion both sides of her body would make when she was watching what her own motions look like to note which would come through right and which wouldn't, but whatever, “Know of transmigrants?” The lady nods, “And reincarnators?” Another nod, “I'm both.”

At their surprised looks, she shrugs again, “Honestly, I think he was just bored after three hundred years here alone and was happy to have someone to talk to, because I actually spoke to Veldora when I went the wrong way. He's actually where I learned the term transmigrant from since it didn't exist in my old world. He suggested that since I accidentally got Words of the World to give me a Slime body when I was transferring worlds because I was thinking about the blood loss doing me in, then between the way they form from magic and the amount of magicules my soul was bombarded with on the way over that it was really the only place suitable to form me. What are you doing here though?”

The female jolts, “Ah- We-” She glances quickly at her companions, but they look just as uncertain and confused as she does, so she takes a deep breath, “You spoke to the infamous Storm Dragon?” She nods, “When was this?”

She has a sudden feeling she knows where this line of questioning is going, and quickly runs possible answers through her Prophet as she hums thoughtfully, letting out a vague murmur to buy a little more time, “Well, it's hard to have a sense of time in a cave, especially when in the short life you've lived, it's all been inside there. Also, do you even count time the same way they did in my old world?”

They do, she's gleaned that from digging through the language on her way back up after Great Sage gave her essentially the dictionary of the language. Again though, she's buying time while she runs through responses. The female looks a bit flustered at that, “That- Umm… I don't know?”

The other male, a little suspiciously asks, “If you only formed recently in this cave and you claim to be from another world, how do you know the language?”

She laughs that off lightly, “That? I got an analysis Skill when I was coming over as well as Magic Perception. Veldora said when you're listening with that, you just kind of… automatically understand what they're trying to say? But well, I was actually a bit lucky, since Veldora had Magic Perception as well, so he was able to understand what I was saying even though I speak a different language.”

“I figured I wouldn't get so lucky all time, so while we were talking, I was running his responses through my analysis Skill? You know, giving it enough data for it to figure out the language? Sorry if I stumble over any words, didn't have anyone to talk to on my way up while I was practicing the language constantly, which also means I didn't exactly have someone to correct me when I was wrong. I just had to go back through anything I said and run it through the language and its rules my Skill gave me after it got enough data. Or was I wrong and Magic Perception is a common Skill and I did all that for nothing?”

The female shakes her head, “No, no! Magic Perception is, well, it's not rare, but it is uncommon. Now that you mention it though, you have a similar accent to an otherworlder or two I've met…” She glances at her companions, “You know, like-” She cuts off, whirling at the sound of scales sliding across the floor, letting out a yelp as a large black snake approaches, staring them down, “Storm Serpent!”(1)

She scrambles away as the other two prepare to fight while cursing, but… she really doesn't get why? Do they have some sort of ability it hasn't shown yet? Because it… honestly doesn't feel powerful… Deciding to try her hand, though not without running its data through Great Sage and just storing it with her Occlumency to check out later since she doesn't know if she'll be able to if it dies, she uses the Molecular Manipulation she'd gained. Gathering some water out of the air and wrapping it around its neck before giving it a wire thin edge and pulling it all inwards towards the center of its neck. She honestly hadn't expected much, even narrowing it like she had to try and essentially ‘sharpen’ it, but it loops its head off like a particularly nasty garrote wire.

The three people all still in surprise and she tilts her head, “Why were you acting like that thing is a big deal? I was honestly just doing that as a test to try and prod at what the fuss was about, and yet…”

The male with the sword actually stutters a bit, “H-How did, I-I mean, y-you…”

From what she's been getting from Prophet, her best bet would be to be mostly honest, just lying about whereexactly Veldora had gone by omission, and also for some reason, it was indicating the best results were if she was pretty open about her Skills? For some reason? She'd already sort of suspected it was best to keep a lid on her part in Veldora's disappearance, but well, otherwise she can't see a reason not to go with its simultaneously limited yet open honest approach towards Skills and the like. To be more precise, Prophet has indicated she needs to be more secretive about Predator for now, to the point it's indicating she shouldn't even use it yet on this ‘Storm Serpent’, but that being rather forward about her other Skills was her best bet.

To that end, she shrugs as she habitually placed shields on each part of the cut off head to prevent any more blood loss, “That? Just a Skill I got experimenting with magicule manipulation after I formed. I mean, really, after I died and realized that voice that Veldora called Words of the World wasn't screwing with me, I was expecting them to, I don't know, be harder to get? But when I was wandering around experimenting it honestly felt like Words of the World was being as much of a chatterbox as when I was dying. On a different note, do you know if this thing's blood is usable for anything? It's just that this may be surprising, but this isn't the first time I've reincarnated and transmigrated, and in my very first world things like that were often usable in potions and rituals.”

The lady blinks, “Uhhh. I don't actually know now that you mention it… I mean, Storm Serpents are rare enough that I can't say I know a whole lot about what their various components are used for actually…” Then she shakes her head, “Wait, that's not important actually! What do you mean Words of the World was being a ‘chatterbox?!”

She shrugs, “I mean, from that first world, I know a thing or two about manipulating magic entirely on your own, like, no words or mediums or anything? So I just tried applying some of that know-how here? Had to toss in some things I picked up in a different world with its own type of magic, but I started just experimenting. Like, applying my own magic to excite molecules to try to create combustion and boom, Create Fire acquired. Move it around and boom, Manipulate Flame acquired. Slow some water vapor molecules, boom, Ice Creation acquired. Gather water molecules, boom, Gather Water acquired. Move some water, boom, Manipulate Water acquired. Get some molecules to rub together enough and boom, Generate Electricity acquired.”

“There was some more along the way but if it wasn't for how dull and steady its’ tone was constantly, I'd think it got exasperated not long after since next thing I knew, it was practically like, ‘You know what? Just wrap them all into one and take Molecular Manipulation, okay?” She laughs lightly, “So, you know, then I moved onto experimenting with making things lighter and heavier and moving them and all that and it wasn't too long before it basically gave up there too and gave me Gravity Manipulation as well.”

They stare at her in silence for a couple beats, before the female starts laughing, sounding a tinge hysterical for some reason. She knows it definitely doesn't translate, but she focuses more of her attention on the males, “Uhh, is she okay?”

The guy with the sword's voice has jumped an octave, “She's- She's fine! Thanks for asking!”

She tilts her head, then shrugs, especially since Prophet is insisting that this is still the best course of action, and well, it's not like she knows enough about this world to make her own judgements really right? She doesn't really have any other option but to believe in its predictions, “Anyway. You asked how long ago I spoke to Veldora, right? Do you guys count your time like,” She's careful to pace herself properly, pulling up the mental image of a digital timer with her Occlumency to help, “one second, two seconds, then count it as a minute when it hits sixty, then an hour when there's sixty of those?”

The female calmed herself as she was speaking, “Yeah. Yeah we do. Why?”

She shrugs again, “I have a pretty accurate mental clock. It may be a bit off, since again I've been in this cave this whole time, if I had to guess, I met him about a week ago? Why?”

That sobers them a bit, and the suspicious guy speaks up then, “He was there last you saw?”

And this is where Prophet is saying to lie by omission but otherwise be honest, “No actually. There was mention of a Skill to separate him from the world and analyze Unlimited Prison. He was gone when I left.”

The omission lie being who mentioned the Skill, and who's Skill he was hiding in of course, but while she didn't need it's warning really, she'd run the idea through it just to be certain and it had backed up her train of thought, making it abundantly clear that it was absolutely a terrible idea to tell anyone that right now. Though curiously, the chances of it having a negative consequence drop later. She can only assume something changes to make it that way, but she can't exactly tell what.

The female chews her lip, “But I mean… if he had a Skill that could potentially break him out, why hadn't he used it up until now?”

The sword guy shakes his head, “It must've been a desperate last resort, right? Like Miss Slime was saying, these three hundred years had to have been lonely and boring, so seeing her… it must've made him willing to take that step he's been avoiding to bust out, right?”

Suspicion guy sighs, “Gotta be.”

She shrugs, “There's nothing down there now, and it's a straight shot, but I could lead you there and show you exactly where he was if you'd like?”

The female shakes her head, “There's no point. If he's gone, it's not like we'd learn anything from seeing where he was.”

She does her best to convey her smile in her tone, “Then, how about we help each other a bit? I don't know the way out, and you guys were worried about things like this Storm Serpent as you called it. What do you say?”

The female blinks, then beams, “Sounds great to me!”

She supposes Prophet was nudging her to gain trust and solidify the idea that it was Veldora's Skill that was hiding him first, because now it was saying it was alright if they found out about Predator a bit. To that end, she shakes her head and moves forward towards the Storm Serpent, “Just give me a moment. I have a storage type Skill and can process things inside it so…”

The three nod happily as she moves forward to use Predator on it. She feels Predator flare a little, presumably from the mimicry ability, even as she hears Words of the World again, 《Intrinsic Skill Heat Source Perception, successfully acquired. Intrinsic Skill Poison Breath, successfully acquired.》 (2)

She's long since assumed the changed wording is in a difference between essentially requesting a Skill while transferring to this world as opposed to gaining one yourself in what seems to be a sort of achievement based system, but she really would like confirmation. If only because you never know when something is important after all, even the most miniscule of things.

The female responds to what she said previously right after she absorbs the corpse, “A storage Skill? Those are super useful!”

Then sword guy laughs, and in an entirely good-natured way, “Man, I'm kind of jealous, not gonna lie. Oh! I just realized! We never introduced ourselves, but if we're gonna travel with each other a bit, it's silly not to. I'm Kaval, this is Elen, and that's Gido.”

Since Prophet says it's fine to do so as long as she explicitly says it was an equal Naming, with some prodding revealing her best results come from her mentioning what he said about magicules bombarding her soul and what it says about how strong she is, she doesn't hesitate to introduce herself, “Mm, not sure what it was all about, but Veldora said something about magicules bombarding my soul on the way over without a vessel and how most souls would dissolve. That was when he mentioned that it was probably why I formed here, since there likely wasn't anywhere else with the magicule density. It's all relevant because he actually gave me an equal Naming. Figured I should explain before I introduced myself from what he told me about names. It's Rimuru Tempest though, pleasure to meet you.”

Elen gets an understanding look, “I was wondering why you were explaining all that! But you weren't wrong that it would've given people strange ideas if you just said ‘Veldora named me Rimuru Tempest’ and left it at that! It's nice to meet you though Rimuru!”

She does her best again to convey her smile with her tone, “You as well Elen. And you too Kaval, Gido. It's nice to meet you all.”

They head out at that, chatting as they go. More than once, they run into monsters, but since she needs to get a handle on using her Skills for combat anyway, she handles them all. The one the other three call an Armorsaurus gives her a bit of a problem from the Armor that gives it the name, but after targeting weak points for a bit, it gets a little too close to the other three so she just uses Molecular Manipulation to crush its brain with the fluid in its skull.

It's far from the only monster they come across, but it's the only one that gives her even a hint of trouble. In between fights, she chats with the three, mostly Elen, learning more about this world. She'd covered things like how the world functions with Veldora, but she was learning a few things on the societal aspect from Elen.

Once they get to the exit of the cave, Kaval turns asks her one more time, “You sure you don't wanna come back with us? You aren't wrong it would be a bit… strange and unconventional, but you are an otherworlder and one who used to be human, so…”

She shakes her head, “No, it's alright. It would be nice to be around people, I won't deny that, but given what you've said about the relationships with monsters, I'd inevitably make people uncomfortable, and I really don't want to do that.”

Elen frowns a little sadly, “If you're sure. Then, I guess this is goodbye?”

She shrugs, “Maybe. Who knows, we may see each other again.” Then something occurs to her, and after quickly running the idea through Prophet just to be certain and getting good reaults she goes for it, “Ah, hold on a moment before you go though.” Looking around, she quickly spots some sand in a nearby river and bounces over to it quickly to use Predator on a nice bit before coming back to the others, “Can I see a glass bottle of some sort for a moment? Doesn't matter if it has anything inside and I don't need to have it, just need you to pull it out so I can use analysis on it.”

Elen blinks rapidly, but shrugs and presents one. She quickly does exactly as she'd said she would, analyzing the glass bottle. In the process, she unintentionally analyzes it's contents to learn it's a High Potion, which is apparently achieved either when Full Potion like Great Sage has said she's been absently making ever since she left the locked portion with Elen and the others is diluted into twenty different potions, or is just made with slightly inferior quality from the get go. Further, apparently it's enough data for Great Sage to also tell her that a Low Potion is made by further diluting a High Potion into five of them.

It also tells her that a Low Potion can handle minor to moderate injuries, a High Potion can heal basically everything but lost limbs, and a Full Potion can restore basically anything but deathincluding lost limbs, though the more magic the user possesses the less effective it can be.

With an internal shrug, and a usage of Predator on some water in the atmosphere, she takes one of the four she'd been wanting to see the bottle to be able to process the sand into more to contain and turns it into twenty High Potions, then takes four of them to dilute into twenty Low Potions.

Then she uses analysis on one of their backpacks to get the design and turns some of the Storm Serpent's already processed hide into another before spitting it out, already carrying the three Full Potions in tinted red glass bottles, sixteen High Potions in yellow glass, and twenty Low Potions in green glass, “Just wanted to analyze it so my storage Skill's crafting part knows what its making. You'll probably need to put some cloth in to cushion them, but the ones in three red bottles are Full Potions to mark them for emergencies, the sixteen yellow bottles are High Potions to mark them as used for bad times but not inherently an emergency, and the twenty green ones are Low Potions. The bag is made of some of the Storm Serpent's hide, so you should be good as far as it potentially catching on something and tearing.”

Gido's jaw drops as he takes it with a stuttered thanks and a murmur of understanding as he opens it as well as his own bag to start shifting things around and cushioning the potions with some clothes. Elen tilts her head, “Where did you even get potions from?”

She laughs, “I told you. I have an analysis Skill as well as a crafting ability in my storage Skill. I analyzed some of the Hipokute Herbs in the cave and it told me how they're made. So I was just kind of gathering and storing all the Hipokute I came across when I was going the wrong way and went down to Veldora. Then grabbed the rest that had been behind where I started when I went for where the door actually was. I've been processing it in the background the whole way out.”

Kaval frowns in confusion at a red bottle, “...What's a Full Potion?”

She tilts her head, “Ah? Are those not common? That's just what my analysis Skill called it. It said Low Potions can handle minor to moderate injuries, High Potions can handle most severe injuries but can't do anything about lost limbs or anything like that, and Full Potions can heal basically anything as long as the body is alive, including restoring missing limbs. I don't need that much Potion though, so I figured from what you've said of how dangerous the Forest of Jura is that it'd probably be better to give you a good stock to see you back safely.”

Gido tightens his arms slightly on the now closed bag he's holding to his chest, “...Thanks.”

She laughs lightly, “It's no problem. Be safe alright? Maybe we'll see each other again.”

Elen nods quickly as they start off, peering over her shoulder beaming happily, “Hopefully! And you be safe as well Rimuru!”

After saying her goodbyes to Kaval and his party, she gazes after their retreating form for a bit. Once they're firmly out of earshot, she focuses her Magic Perception skywards as she murmurs thoughtfully, “Don't really know enough about this world to judge things myself, but I wonder why my Prophet Skill was judging it to be a good idea to be so open about most of my Skills and all that. Seems like cards to hold close to your chest if you ask me… Was it maybe just to gain their trust so they didn't prod at the honesty barring lie by omission regarding Veldora it was essentially recommending as the best way forward out of all the possibilities I ran through it..?”

She snorts, “Then again, I don't even know why it's basically recommending I say this out loud now when I ran ‘never mention it’ through and slowly narrowed when it was wanting me to mention it… Whatever, I really can't judge things myself yet, so I'll just have to trust Prophet's judgment for now… On that note, this way I guess from what it's projecting has the best chances for good things.”

With that, she starts walking. Well, bouncing, but again, it's easier to just continue to use all the human descriptions rather than rename it all because of her new form. As she heads off, being very careful not to summon it, she feeds Prophet a question. Well she means it as a question, but it can't read those, so she just feeds it the idea of summoning the Trunk within a year to see what it says. It actually spits out a positive, so she slowly narrows down how long until she can summon it, growing more and more incredulous and culminating in it peaking when it essentially tells her to do it now. She feeds it the possibility of it being summoned and no steps to protect it being taken, confirming that it's a bad idea.

So then. It wants- expects her to do something to protect it. She has no clue what it wants though is the problem. Well. What would she do if she'd summoned it by accident? It would've started reacting poorly at the contact with magicules, so she would've rushed to protect it. Easiest way to do that would've been to engulf it with her own body, right? But her body is made of magicules as well, so it would've continued to react poorly. At which point… she'd have used Predator on it. It'd still react poorly, so… isolation. But there's the possibility of it reacting poorly even then, so… flooding the inside of the Trunk's isolation area in particular with her Calanthe magic?

That would act as a buffer, so the only poor reaction was between the isolation barrier itself and the magic it was containing. That in and of itself may cause an explosion or something though, so if she was going to do that, she'd need to wrap the Trunk in protective shielding using her Calanthe magic.

She feeds that idea to Prophet, and the moment she gets the same result back as she had when she'd fed it the idea of summoning it now, she knows that's what it's expecting her to do. Is it even worth it? Like, can she still interact with it if it's in isolation? She feeds that question to Great Sage and gets another positive result as it adds that isolation just keeps Predated things from affecting her. She needs to work fast to do this though.

Perhaps because Prophet seemed to think she should be speaking out loud every now and then when she's alone, she finds herself muttering out loud as she prepares herself, “You better be right about this working Prophet. I'm gonna be mad as all hell if this doesn't let me summon the Trunk for use while also protecting it.”

She, well, she doesn't take a deep breath since she doesn't breathe, but it sure feels that way. And then she summons the Trunk. Immediately it starts sparking alarmingly when it meets the air, or rather the magicules in it, but she immediately engulfs it, risking drawing up her Calanthe magic internally and wrapping the Trunk in a shield made of and flooded with it after the air and it's magicules are removed from around it by her body. A split second later, she uses Predator and immediately moves it to an isolation field she floods with more Calanthe magic.

She can't quite interact with the inside of Predator's Stomach persay -which is something she really ought to figure out how to do-, but she can feel the way things calm down around the Trunk specifically, the reaction being contained to the isolation barrier and the magic it was flooded with.

She sighs habitually, but given the way she, you know, doesn't breathe it's a motion that comes off more like she's a balloon that deflated and caved in a bit at the top. Straightening herself up, she does her best to focus inward, manipulating the magic within the isolation to get it to open the Trunk. Then she uses more of it to summon her runic based Polyjuice transformation bracelet out with one goal in mind. She's not stupid enough to bring it out of isolation, but even there it's still within her Predator's Stomach and reach to analyze, so she turns it onto the bracelet, hoping strongly…

She ends up shaking as the instinctive joyful laughter takes over in a body that doesn't breathe and can't inherently speak on its own. It had worked. Through Predator's subskill Mimicry, she'd gained the forms ‘Human: Calanthe’ and ‘Human: Toshiko’ -as prodding the Skill tells her its named them- added to her form Mimicries. Well, it was fantastic in general obviously, but while she was just wandering around in the Forest of Jura, particularly given how many monsters Kaval had said were here... She wasn't sure how strong they were and if the ones who had intelligence would leave her alone, but it was easier to just slip by basically unnoticed due to her tiny innocuous form, right?

Shaking the thought off, she decides to stay in her Slime form for now as she starts off again. She doesn't know how much magic it takes of course, but now that she has the Trunk, she summons out a bar of iron from her stores. As a test, she pulls it out of Isolation, and it does spark and pop with small explosions for a few moments. The metal wethers it fine thankfully and was what she was testing to begin with, and it clears up faster than she'd thought it would. Not because the magics are getting along, more that the Calanthe type magic seeped into it is destroyed.

With the test out of the way and working out, she pulls out half of the stockpiles of basically all the types of metals she has. She sincerely doubts the iron will turn into magisteel just from her own magic, but it doesn't hurt to start observing it as it's exposed to try and get an idea of how much magic it needs to be exposed to. As well as whether it will affect the other metals and what it'll do, which is the whole reason she pulled them out.

Once that's done, she starts using Analysis on basically every plant she comes across, gathering seeds as she goes. She has her seed vault of course, but that was mostly as a just in case against the potential of being reborn in some sort of apocalypse world or something. Given this world has abundant life though, she doesn't want to risk anything in her vault screwing up its ecosystem. The most change she'd enact if she ended up using the seeds would be in cultivating the plants, sort of like how corn had gone from smaller than a pinky finger to something that was more of a two hand held food.

To that end, she actually uses Predator on some fertile soil Analysis finds, purely with the goal of using it and water from the river in case she needs to actually grow any of it in that process rather than just potentially doing something similar to genetic manipulation. Well, that and because it was better to set up some growing to essentially perpetuate her stocks of seeds as she works on them. Which, she'll also need to make a seed vault for those at each step, just in case something goes wrong and she needs to go back a bit. Given what magicules had done to grass though, she also can't help but wonder what would happen if they were grown using the highly magicule dense water from Veldora's cave.

She doesn't even know if she'll need to do any of this of course, but it's more just in case she needs it since she'd rather not have to introduce the seeds from her vault that came from a different world and may very well damage the ecosystem if she can avoid it.

From what Prophet was saying, she had time though, so that was alright.

He straightens sharply at the murmur she lets out after she separates from Elen and the others, “Wait, one of her Skills knows we're watching?”

Darling tilts her head, “I don't think so? I mean, not directly, I think it's just predicting that it's best if she says that out loud? Without even necessarily knowing why itself I mean.” She slides a Look over to him, “Though, I'd say it's because it had reasons for why it told her to be so open about her Skills so it didn't want someone potentially trying to silence them for knowing too much about her...”

He holds up his hands defensively, “Okay, okay, I get it! Trust that Rimuru,” She'd always be Sweetheart or maybe Xiǎolóng now that he can risk a nickname of course, but they'd been more than happy to leave those as terms of endearment and a nickname and use her actual name after she got one, “wouldn't be doing stuff like that for no reason!”

Sister leans forward to gaze at the screen closer, “Have you guys ever heard of Full Potions before?”

He snorts, “Not in the slightest. I'm going to go out on a limb and say her crafting portion of her Skill lets her take it to never before seen heights and she doesn't even realize it.”

As they watch her going around collecting plants, undoubtedly being her usual overprepared self and grabbing it all in case it may be useful for cultivation, he absently listens to Darling and Sister speculate on what her internal crafting does that no one else does to get Full Potions out of it. After a little bit though, Rimuru suddenly stops, a small section of the upper part of the orb that her gelatinous body makes twisting and tilting slightly. From what he's gleaned so far in her replications of humanoid gestures, it's likely a head tilt.

Darling and Sister both quiet down, wondering what's wrong, and after a beat, Rimuru suddenly shakes the upper part, her ‘head’ as it were, back and forth, “What the hell do you mean ‘individual not found’?! I know damn well-! No hold on, I don't care if I'm gonna be naked, let me-” Her form suddenly blooms up, and quite suddenly the nine year old(3) naked form of Calanthe Potter-Black, but with blue hair and golden eyes is standing where the Slime just was. She looks down at her chest then lifts her left foot, bending the knee almost as far as it'll go to peer at her ankle, then snaps her gaze around to look somewhat angrily at the sky, “No, they're definitely here, so what the fuck do you mean ‘individual not found’ when I ask about either of them Prophet?!”

“Like, I get none of the names they've had in other lives are their names here, but I explicitly worded my questions to take that into account! You've gotta have some sort of connection to Words of the World to pull of the predictions you're supposed to make, and that can clearly read minds, so wording it as things like ‘the soul of the individual who has been known as Hei, Sora, and Kuroha in three different lives’ should absolutely lock onto my damn husband! Same with inputting my wife's names! Or my sister-in-law’s! I mean, I don't exactly have a bond to confirm she's here, but…”

He takes a deep breath, holding it before deflating, “No, she's absolutely right, that absolutely should've gotten her a lock on, what the hell does her Skill mean, ‘individual not found?”

Sister and Darling both just stare before Darling suddenly sucks in a breath, “...When we went back in time.” He nods, “Veldanava assumed we were creations of his from the future. And he said that out loud. I'd like to remind you that he's the God of this cluster of universes.”

He sucks in a sharp breath of his own, “Are- Are you suggesting Veldanava unintentionally made Words of the World disregard any of our memories of previous lives? And it's interfering with Rimuru's Skill getting a lock based on those parameters?” His wife nods slowly, “Well. Fuck.”

Before anything else can be added, Calant- Rimuru, just because she looks like Calanthe doesn't mean she's not Rimuru now, only seems to grow more annoyed, “And you give me the same damn response even when I try to word it as ‘the individual who possesses a currently being created soul corridor with me’ as well! Are you trying to say it being an upgrade in progress essentially disables it or something?!”

Blowing out a sharp breath, she shakes her head in aggravation, knowing she won't be able to do anything about it. That does a pretty damn good job of distracting her in and of itself, since shaking her head causes her hair to sway, making her take notice of the fact it's blue. She catches a strand of her hair, pulling it in front of her face in surprise, “...Well that's new. An indicator of my species bleeding through perhaps?”

It's a tiny thing to focus on, but she's gonna lose her damn mind circling around possibilities fears terrors nonononononoNO, not again, she can't do it again THERE HAS TO BE A REASON WHY- SHE CAN'T- SHE HAS HER WORDS THEY HAVE TO BE HERE!- as to why it won't lock on to her soulmates. She's tried every wording she can think of but-

She basically mentally dives for the distraction her hair gave her, latching onto the question of whether or not it changed anything else about her appearance. Magic Perception does have the capability for her to turn her ‘gaze’ onto herself though, so she does just that. She's basically the exact same as she'd been as Calanthe at the age she appears, about nine, the only real difference being that she has blue hair, gold eyes, and lacks nipples while seeming to be as smooth as a barbie down below. Out of sheer curiosity, she switches to her Toshiko appearance which has the same differences as well.

After examining both, she shakes her head as she mutters to herself, “Still probably better to stay in Slime form for now…”

Which is exactly why she lets go of the transformation and slips back into it, firmly turning her attention back to the plants and their seeds she's gathering desperately trying to outrun the tidal wave of thoughts she can't handle and her analysis of them.

She's still heading in the direction Prophet basically told her to after she ran the possibilities of every direction she could go in, which she's updating as she goes to make sure she's still on track wondering if she can even trust its judgment since they have to be here as she continues. But well, she hadn't exactly been lying when she turned down Elen and the others’ suggestion of her going with them. She would make people uncomfortable right now, maybe not as much with her ability to take on a human form, but she wasn't much one for lying when there isn't a good reason for it, which her mimicry will lead to unless she explains.

Eventually, she's pulled from her single-minded focus on the plants by the approach of a sizable group of small humanoids. They aren't human, that much is obvious the moment they enter her Magic Perception's range, not with their small stature and green skin -which Great Sage informs her when she feeds it the analysis data are Goblins-, but that's the biggest difference between them. Eventually, the group is standing before her, holding trembling weapons -weapons in poor shape mind, all rusty and chipped, and for those that even have armor its not in much better shape given how worn out and thin it is in some places- towards her, looking scared out of their minds.

The one who seems to be in charge blurts out, “Strong One… do you have business here?”

She tilts her head, running both the possibility of both showing hostility and hospitality to them just to be sure, getting the response of what she was somewhat wanting to do anyway, given they just look scared rather than genuinely out to kill her or anything, “Perhaps? I have a Skill that was suggesting I come this way.”

He lowers his sword slightly, “Skill? Then… Words of the World sent you?”

She hums, “Given all Skills are under its power, I suppose so.”

He seems to tremble slightly, but from his expression, it seems more like him desperately trying to suppress the wave of relief that wants to wash over him, “Th-Then… will you help us?”

She tilts her head, “Possibly. I'm not the sort of person to agree to things without knowing what's being asked of me. What are you wanting help with?”

He falters slightly as he glances at a couple others, then straightens his shoulder, “Then… it is better to take you to the village elder so he may explain. Will you follow please, Strong One?”

She nods, “Sure.”

He half turns and she moves to his side to start heading with them. They seem too stressed and tense to talk much, and she's not about to pry at what has them so jumpy, particularly given she'll get he'd answers soon enough from the sounds of it.

It doesn't take long to reach the ramshackle village, a simple thing made of just straight up logs shoved into the ground haphazardly with straw roofs. She's led to the biggest and best of the buildings, though admittedly that isn't saying much in all honesty.

Not long after she gets inside, a hunched over Goblin comes shambling in, the leader of the force she'd met accompanying him, while he himself was leaning a good chunk of his weight on a walking stick, “I am sorry to keep you waiting, Honored Guest.”

She does her best to convey her smile with her tone, “Oh, don't worry about it in the slightest.”

As he settles, he twists his hands around his walking stick, “Younger Son… said Words of the World led you here?”

She hums, “In a manner of speaking I suppose. It was technically a Skill that was basically telling me to come this way, but those are under the preview of Words of the World, so I suppose one could say it told me to come here.”

His walking stick twisting gets a bit more desperate, “And you will help us?”

She shrugs, “As I told the one you call Younger Son, I'm not the sort to agree to things without knowing what's being asked. So I can't say one way or another until I know what you're wanting help with.”

The twisting gets even more desperate, “...Our god suddenly hid himself from us a month ago(4). In his absence, the monsters nearby have become more active. In particular, with our god gone, some have started meddling in our lands. We do not wish to let this continue… but from a raw power perspective, we face an uphill climb.”

She tilts her head, “A month ago? Do you mean Veldora?”

He jolts, “You say the god’s name so casually?!”

She makes a snorting noise, “I mean, right before he disappeared, I met him and we spoke. For quite a while actually. He actually gave me an equal Naming of Rimuru Tempest. And the Tempest last name is actually in reference to himself, so.”

His twisting suddenly stills, “The mighty Dragon god… Gave you a name as an equal? And… named you in a way that relates to him..?”

She shrugs, “I mean, I was born in the furthest back part of his cave where the magicules were so dense from how long he'd been there that nothing else could form, so…” She shakes her head, “Anyway, basically, when Veldora went missing, you started coming under attack, and that's what you're asking me to help you with?” He nods gravely, and she's gotten so used to using her Sound Manipulation Skill to speak that that she instinctively uses it to mutter, “Shit, this is kind of my fault.”

The Goblin elder tilts his head, “Excuse me Stron- I mean, Honored Rimuru Tempest?”

She separates out a tendril to wave away the question, “Don't worry about it. If that's what you're asking for, I'll certainly help you, though I hope you realize that depending on the strength of the attackers, there may not be much I can do.”

He laughs like she just told the funniest joke ever, “Trust me, no need for modesty! It is no mere Slime who can emit the mystical force you do! I cannot imagine why you are taking that form… but you have a name bestowed upon you, an equal name from the Dragon god no less, yes?”

She feels a bit confused, ‘Mystical what?’

She turns her gaze back on herself, but there's nothing out of the ordinary. The only thing ‘emitting’ from her is her magic, which she's tried to get a handle on but keeps infuriatingly slipping out whenever her attention wavers from it. She's about to start trying to see something else when she actually notices how much larger the magic aura or whatever it's called coming off of her is compared to everyone else around.

She turns her attention back to the elder as she pulls it back in again with some irritation, which actually seems to make the two Goblins relax slightly, “Oh, my magic. Sorry about that, I keep trying to get a hold of it but it keeps slipping out whenever my attention wavers. I really am a Slime though you know, it's just everything lining up just right to make me a rather… unique Slime. Well, I do have something of a shape-shifting Skill, but a Slime is my natural form.”

He tilts his head, “Truly? But… you can still help us?”

She shrugs, “Depends. Is whoever is attacking you stronger than a Storm Serpent?”

He jolts, “Heavens no!”

She snorts, “Should be a walk in the park then.”

He blinks, “That- Have you… faced Storm Serpents honored Rimuru?”

She hums in agreement, “Yeah. First thing I fought after forming actually. Thought it was a bigger threat then it turned out being, given it dropped in one attack.”

The two Goblins stare at each other in dumbfounded surprise before they start laughing in a mixture of disbelief, hysteria, and utter relief. She's not sure what the hysteria is for, she can sort of get the disbelief given what Elen and the others told her about Storm Serpents, but… Well, maybe it was just because they all seemed pretty weak in all honesty? It's the only thing she can think of as to why.

She shifts, “So, tell what you can about the attackers.”

As they settle in to talk more, another Goblin brings in some tea. From what her analysis is saying, it's not particularly good tea, but given how, well, she means it with no offense, but simple they seem to be given their houses and the way they sometimes talk and all that, it's not very surprising. Her Slime form doesn't have taste buds anyway, and it would be rude to turn them down.

As she listens to what they know about the enemy, Direwolves apparently, she contemplates the best way to defend the village. She can't be everywhere at once, and with a whole pack, they arguably need to set up some sort of perimeter. The easiest solution would likely be for her to just use Predator on some trees around, bring them back, then have them prepare them, then put them in place as a rough stake fence. It's not perfect obviously, but at minimum it should limit how the Direwolves can attack.

It's as she's watching them hurry to put up the perimeter wall when she suddenly feels Great Sage become more active within her, changing from inactive unless she manually interacts with it to passively active, ‘What? Why on earth is it changing how it works?’

To her surprise, a female voice exactly like the Words of the World suddenly responds, [Received. To make itself more available for use, the skill Great Sage has reworked itself, diverting part of its ‘World Language’ power to be more readily available.]

She tilts her head, ‘I see… So, you're what, basically a mental AI assistant?’

The voice responds immediately, [Received. Affirmative. In terms you are familiar with, I am a non-sentient AI.]

She mentally hums in acknowledgment, ‘If possible, please don't say ‘received’ every time. That gets repetitive. Anyway, if you're meant to assist me, then maybe you can give me your own rundown of my Skills to make sure I'm not missing anything? And tell me what World Language is.’

[World Language is a phenomenon that occurs when a great change to the world occurs or when skills are acquired or upgraded. Skills of the individual Rimuru Tempest are as follows.]

Then something similar to screens popped up in her head, laying out the abilities of the skills. Other then the fairly self explanatory resistances and the like, they read:

Predator effects:

Predation- Takes the target into your body. Lesser chance of success if the target has its own consciousness. Can be targeted on organic and inorganic objects, as well as skills and magic.

Analysis- Analyzes and researches targets. Lets you create craftable items. If the required materials are present, allows you to make a copy of the item. Successful analysis of the target allows you to learn the target's skills and magic.

Stomach- Stores the predated target. Can also store materials created via Analysis. Items stored in your stomach are unaffected by time.

Mimicry- Reproduces the form and skills of absorbed targets. Only available once the target has been analyzed.

Isolate- Stores harmful effects incapable of being analyzed, neutralizing them. Can also break them down into magical force if user desires.

Great Sage effects:

Hasten thought- Boosts perception speed by a thousand times.(5)

Analyze and Assess- Analyzes and assesses the target.

Parallel Operation- Operates on any matter you wish to analyze, separating it from the regular thought process.

Cast Cancel- Annuls the casting period required when using magic.

All of Creation- Provides full coverage of all unsuppressed matter and phenomenon in this world.

Prophet:

Success rate- Gives the user an idea of the chance of things ending well for the user from a particular course of action. As well as giving a vague indication of how mild or extreme the good or bad the consequences of the action can be.

Future glimpse- Allows the user to peer up to sixty seconds into the future.

Detect Absolute Truth:

Lie detection- Allows the user to detect lies.

Detect Mental Disturbance- Allows the user to detect when the one they're conversing with has had their mental state disturbed in some manner, such as mind control, mental alterations, or delusions.

She reads them over, then her mental brows furrow as she glances into herself at Great Sage, ‘Hold on, Hasten thought? I don't think so, but just to double check that wasn't active right? Wouldn't that slow down my perception of time if it was? Like make me think it's been longer than it has? Does that mean it hasn't been three months? How long has it been? No wait, I've been conversing with other people and all that so…’

[Negative. The skill Great Sage was not in use inherently due to reworking itself to be more readily available, however you were periodically activating the All of Creation subskill manually. This slowed the process of integration ever so slightly, so it has been ninety-one days, seven hours, and fifty-six minutes.]

She feels relief at that, then asks her next question, ‘If Great Sage had access to just about all common knowledge and can work on things separately from my own thought process, then would it be possible to have it handle the analysis from Predator automatically? Or do I have to feed it the data manually?’

[It is possible to link ‘Predator’ Analysis with ‘Great Sage’ Parallel Operation. Do you wish to link them? Yes. No.]

She smiles in her mind in satisfaction, ‘Yes. That'll undoubtedly be handy.’

As she looks back over the mental ‘screens’ of Predator and Great Sage's abilities, her mental form tilts its head, ‘Wait. Cast Cancel? Do the full non-pure magic manipulation spells here take a while to cast, like the rituals from my life as Calanthe? Or maybe something like the casting time of the magic in my life asToshiko?’

Another image pops up in her mind of someone casting a spell. A circle of magic appears in front of them and after a few moments, a gout of flame comes out of it, and the Great Sage explains as it plays out, [The regular magic of this world does not take as long as a ritual from your life as Calanthe Potter-Black, provided it isn't a ritual itself as they though do exist in this world, it is markedly slower than the magic you were familiar with as Calanthe, being more on par with the magic from your life as Toshiko as you suggested.]

She blinks, ‘I see… With that All of Creation thing, can you teach me some of the actual magic of this world?’

[Negative.]

She sighs, ‘That's a shame. Still, I'll take what I can get.’

She looks over the list of her Skills one last time, but there's nothing else she needs to try anything with right at that moment, so not quite sure if it'll work, she just makes some books in her mindscape and transfers the information to them, ‘Great Sage, do I need to dismiss these in some other way so you don't get strained maintaining them, like a computer with too many things open?’

[They were automatically dismissed from my operation when you transferred them to your own memory in your mindscape with Occlumancy.]

She nods mentally, ‘If I can link Skills together, and this Analysis of the Predator Skill lets me craft items with raw materials available in the Stomach's storage, would it be possible to have you take over the crafting of items? And would that be faster like I am assuming?’

[Affirmative. While it does become faster with familiarity with the process or the produced item as you have experienced, the base speed of it would increase by ninety-nine thousand nine hundred percent.] (6)

Mentally, she blinks rapidly, ‘That… Huh. Well apparently it was a good idea. So… just for comparison, since that percentage is… rather huge, how long would it take you to craft, say one hundred?’

[Approximately five minutes.]

She shakes her head mentally in disbelief, ‘Merlin. That's an insane difference… Well, I have a lot of these Hipokute Herbs I haven't had the chance to get through, please start crafting them, though, just in case I find some other use for Hipokute later, please leave half of the Hipokute in its herb form.’

[Understood.]

Not sure what else to make of the idea that one of her Skills is literally an AI assistant in her head, she turns her attention back to watching the Goblins work and figuring out the best way to handle the Direwolves. It's a bit difficult to pin anything down when she isn't even totally sure how strong they are though.

The movement of the canine bodies rushing towards them catches her attention in her Magic Perception more than anything. They really don't seem to have a particularly noticeable amount of power over the Goblins.

She moves into the opening -since they didn't really have the know how to make a gate- to wait for them, cluing the Goblins into the fact it's happening now.

As the Direwolves arrive, they quickly spread out to encircle the village. From the methods of handling it that she'd been running through Prophet, they'd likely respond to strength more than anything. To that end, she decides that playing the strong arm would be best, “Unless you wanna die, I'd suggest you stop where you are.”

The biggest one, presumably the leader of the pack, snarls at her, “Impudent little bastard. What do you think a Slime of all beings is to do against the might of a full Direwolf pack?! We will slaughter you all and-”

He's cut off, not by her words, but by the fact she extends a tendril of her body skyward to make it clear it's her doing it, activating Black Lightning and striking him without hesitation. The blast throws his burnt body forward towards her, and she casually moves forward to use Predator on the corpse, even as she purpose uses some Molecular Manipulation to create sparks around her, tinged black with a flicker of Black Lightning's power, just to hammer it home exactly who struck down the Direwolf boss.

She barely suppresses the jolt of surprise when Great Sage suddenly pipes up, [Analysis Complete. Mimic: Direwolf obtained. Direwolf intrinsic Skills “Keen Smell”, “Thought Communication”, and “Coercion” acquired.]

She'd been vaguely aware of those sorts of things happening before, feeling the new Skills settle within her, but even though Great Sage had told her it was essentially a mental AI assistant, she wasn't expecting it to speak up like that. It was useful, especially since it saved her the time of going through her Skills to see what she gained to get the details later. It's a little strange to hear the wording change, but given the way she didn't hear Words of the World telling her about the Skills and Great Sage flaring right before that, she comes to the conclusion that it had essentially intercepted the message.

Probably because while it wasn't sentient, it was still essentially an AI assistant, so it was probably basically set to intercept the announcements from Words of the World to deliver to her when she isn't too busy. But since it isn't sentient, it can't realize on its own that she's not too busy prior and just not intercept the message to begin with. It has to go through the metaphorical program in order. That is, intercept message, check whether she's busy, then give her a report when she's not. It's not capable of making the decision of ‘I already know she isn't busy, therefore there's no need to intercept it’ on its own.

Mentally shaking it off, she turns her attention to the one who seems like he's next in command still leaning into the strong man role, “So then, what'll it be? Surrender, or death?”

The Direwolf immediately lays down on his stomach, damn near flinging himself to the ground in his haste. It's hard to say if he acts first and the rest follow his lead or not, given the way they seem to all lay down near simultaneously.

She practically immediately gets a taste of the Direwolf's intrinsic Thought Communication when they all project at her basically immediately in a collective thought, <We pledge our allegiance to you!>

Ahh. Well. Was that why Prophet was saying she'd get her best results going with a slightly more aggressive approach when giving her ultimatum? Because it technically would have a better result in the loyalty of the Direwolves?

…If she had to guess, that was exactly why.

Thing was, she'd actually been contemplating taking advantage of Great Sage's AI nature to have it run probabilities through Prophet, but it honestly hadn't really occurred to her that its definition of ‘good’ differed from hers. Since it's her own Skill, she'd assumed it would be gauging things by her ideas of good and bad. It wasn't personal at all though, it was defined by a more textbook definition from the sounds of it, since she's not exactly the sort to want subordinates, but it technically is better for a person in general to possess loyal subordinates.

So then. Now what? She had the loyalty of the Direwolves, and from the starstruck way the Goblins were looking at her, that was true of them as well, but what was she supposed to do now?

She's so uncertain that even with her newfound hesitation towards it, she decides to start feeding whatever possibility crosses her mind into Prophet. She's taken quite by surprise when it spits out the notion that the best results will come if she stays, particularly, after feeding it additional possibilities on what exactly it means by that, if she makes it her home.

She's still not totally sure how accurate it is can't be gone, can't not be here, can't be alone but other than the fact it was more a textbook definition, so far it seems to have steered her right. So then…. First things first, she needs to make sure the Direwolves and Goblins will get along and then turn her attention towards how to improve the village. It'd be nice if they had names given how confusing it can get, and it's only gonna get worse now that the number of monsters basically dead even doubled.