A/N: Sorry for all the delays in chapters recently. Things have been hectic in my life for the last little while, but it looks like things are finally calming down. I have worked for the last 14 days straight, most days being over 10 hours and 12+ if you count commutes. I was even supposed to come into work today, too, but I refused.
Anyway, sorry about the rant last time. I deleted the chapter, but to anyone who read it, I was basically letting my ADHD run wild while severely sleep-deprived.
.~.~.~.
"Gobta!" Rimuru declared as another Goblin was named.
I wanted to roll my eyes, but decided against it. Currently, Rimuru was naming all the Goblins while I held my hand on his back and steadily fed him magicules so that he wouldn't run out like in canon. This also had the effect of spreading my magicules throughout the population as well, empowering them with my Storm Attribute. If the average power level of a Hobgoblin after being named by Rimuru was around Rank C, now they were around Rank B+. It was a small change for someone like me, but for them, that was a 50% increase in strength. They'd be on par with Ogres now, though, after I helped to evolve the Ogres, the gap would once again widen.
I didn't mind, though. Other than Veldanava, Veldora in the novels was always stated to not only have the most magicules out of any of the True Dragons, but also the fastest regeneration rate. I could already feel this was true here too. I was only barely losing magicuels here as my regeneration was so fast if we took even a few more seconds between each naming instance, we'd be at sustainable levels of Goblin Evolution.
Now that's a Green New Deal everyone could get behind.
It took almost an hour to get through all the namings, but once we were one, and Rimuru moved on to the dire wolves, I decided to intervene before Rimuru started naming each one individually.
"Hey, Rimuru, just so you know, Dire Wolves, and their evolutions, are considered as a single 'entity' when they are named, so only name the leader of the pack. Otherwise, if you start naming them individually, they will each be forced to either become a Lone-Wolf type or create their own pack rather than remain as a single unit." I mentioned.
"Really?" Rimuru asked, seemingly surprised.
The wolf whom I knew was going to be named Ranga, nodded and spoke via [Thought Communication] with us. *'Yes, that is true.*' He confirmed.
Rimuru nodded. "I see... well then I will name only you, as the son of the leader..." Rimuru began muttering, trying to figure out a name.
I thought for a bit, wondering if I should find myself a lone-wolf type to be my companion, but decided against it. Sure, I wanted a wolf whom I could name 'Fenrir' or just 'Fen', but that was more because of wanting cool vibes rather than actually needing or wanting one. I think this part of my thinking was almost exclusively coming from the part of my soul that made up the original Veldora, as I was starting to want to do things for illogical reasons that almost always came down to 'but it would be cool though'!
I smiled and lightly shook my head, clearing it of those thoughts as I heard Rimuru declare Ranga was his given name. Unlike in canon, Rimuru didn't fall into sleep mode, and was, instead, left alone with me as the villagers and dire wolves all began going into their homes as sleep overcame them.
"Why is everyone going to bed? It's the middle of the day?" Rimuru asked aloud.
I sighed. "Evolution in monsters isn't like in Pokémon; it takes time and usually occurs when asleep. In certain rare instances, if one has perfect control of their physical body and magic power, they can remain awake during the process, but even that would be a challenge." I explained.
Rimuru nodded and looked at everyone in wonder for a while. "I wonder what Evolution feels like?" He wondered aloud.
I raised my eyebrow and then activated [Nyarlothotep] to see if it was possible for Rimuru to evolve past this point without becoming a Demon Lord. Surprisingly, it was. He could become an Ooze, which was a rare slime-like monster with a lot of perks that Rimuru already had. Basically, Oozes just had better digestion ability, which was already overshadowed by Rimuru's Unique Skill [Predator], and better Regeneration, which was covered by his [Ultraspeed Regeneration] Skill. The only real benefit to Rimuru would be a 'stat increase' as his magicule reserves would increase by a bit.
"Well, I can help you evolve into an Ooze, but the only changes you'd see are a slightly larger body size and an increase in your 'base stats' and magicules reserves," I stated.
"You can do that?" Rimuru asked, almost shocked.
I shrugged my shoulders. "Why not? Not like you're going to turn down becoming stronger, right?" I asked.
Rimuru thought for a few more moments, clearly hesitating. "Are you worried?" I asked him.
Rimuru nodded, looking over the sleeping forms of the Goblins and Dire Wolves. "I'm worried that I'll start losing even more of my humanity." He quietly admitted.
I sighed. "Rimuru, you already lost your humanity. You are a slime, and the fact you kept your memories after reincarnating and even reincarnated as a monster to begin with, and with TWO Unique Skills, makes you the furthest thing from normal baseline humanity. No normal human could do any one of those things, and only the exceptional among them could do any one of them. Most who reincarnate or are summoned only get a single Unique Skill too, but you have two." I explained.
Rimuru nodded along, listening to my words, so I continued. "You may have started life in a human shell, but your soul is far stronger than any normal human's soul. As a matter of fact, it's almost like you have the Soul of a Primordial or True Dragon." I stated, giving him a hint. "Besides, you will, eventually, need to give up some parts of your humanity, timidity, and niavity if you want to survive in this world."
"Give it up?" He asked.
"Humans won't like the fact that you are gathering a powerful group of monsters. Eventually, they will attack you. Are you going to sit there and let them murder everyone just because you want to remain human? Some monsters become incredibly beautiful once they evolve. Will you allow things like r*pe to occur just because you prefer humans to monsters?" I asked.
Rimuru flinched for a moment. "Obviously not!" He declared.
"Are you willing to kill to stop them?" I asked coldly to which Rimuru didn't immediately respond and began to think.
I closed my eyes. "This type of world is survival of the fittest. If you cling to the peaceful and non-confrontational ways of Japan, you are going to get eaten alive. Humans are weak, but they survive and thrive in this world where monsters reign primarily because of how cunning they are and their willingness to do anything for survival." I finished with my closing statement, allowing Rimuru to chew more on my words and be lost in thought for a while.
I didn't interrupt him and let him think. After a few minutes of this, he finally turned back to me. "Do it."
I nodded and activated [Nyarlothotep].
[Nyarlothotep]'s [Causality Manipulation] was a super-enhanced version of my previous [Certain Outcome] ability. With [Certain Outcome], I was able to overwrite the laws of the world to force an outcome that I desired. Because I desired an Ultimate Skill, I was able to upgrade [Investigator] into [Faust] almost instantly with no effort, and then combine all my other skills to create [Nyarlothotep].
With a super-charged version of the ability, I was given even more freedom to do as I pleased. Evolving Rimuru into an Ooze was child's play.
Rimuru shivered for a moment before his body began to melt as his consciousness faded. I made sure to pick him up o he wouldn't just be lying on the floor in the open and took him over to my favorite tree as I sat against it. I closed my eyes and began to relax. I wouldn't sleep, as I had to keep guard over everyone, but I wasn't going to be doing anything for at least a few hours.
I was being watched.
"Can you stop spying on me like a creep and show yourself already?" I spoke.
There was a moment of ssilence before the Shadow beneath the tree began to elongate unnaturally and a form began to emerge from it.
Even with my eyes closed, due to [Universal Detect], I knew instantly who it was.
"What does the estemeed Demon Lord want from me?" I asked. "Or do you go by Goddess now?"
Luminous frowned. "You're different from how you used to be." She stated.
"People change," I stated.
"Not you. Never you." She said back, almost offended that I'd talked back to her.
"Even I can change, though I don't expect you to believe me immediately anyway," I muttered as I finally opened my eyes and looked at her with them.
Damn, she was perfect.
Luminous narrowed her eyes at me. "What's your goal, Lizard?" She said, obviously trying to provoke me.
"I'll ignore the 'Lizard' comment for now, but my goal is simple: live a life worth living," I stated.
"How unambitious," Luminous said, partially mocking me.
"Not all of us have the ego to call ourselves Goddesses." I shot back.
Luminous's eye twitched. "There was a deep and meaningful reason for that..." She began muttering a defence.
I smirked. "Look, I get that you're an S, but to get off on people calling you Goddess is a whole other level." I teased.
Luminous recoiled, blushing briefly before composing herself. "Oh shut up! You're just a Lizard!" She shot back.
I smiled and leaned forward a bit, putting on the charm. "You're so cute when you get flustered."
The blush returned to Luminous' face before I reached up and caught the sword she'd swung at me like she was some kind of Tsundere trying to attack her crush. Now she was blushing even harder as she withdrew her weapon and turned away.
"I'm leaving." She stepped towards the shadow of another tree.
My smirk deepened. "I hate to see you go, but boy, do you look good as you're walking away." I teased.
Luminous flinched and covered her butt with her hands before dropping all pretenses and just teleporting away. "Pervert!" She shouted as she vanished.
I chuckled a bit. "She didn't even get any information out of me. Is she that weak to compliments?" I asked before realizing. She'd probably never been flirted with before.
She was Twilight's daughter; therefore, her status was above everyone but the True Dragons when she was born by default. That probably meant that while she was called beautiful and treated with respect by everyone around her, she probably had never had an informal romantic encounter where she wasn't above her partner in the power dynamic.
'I doubt she is a virgin, but does she still have that same innocence even though she is thousands of years old?' I asked myself.
It wouldn't be the craziest idea, considering Milim exists, but then I thought of how Childish my older sister Velzard is. In the Light Novel, she allowed herself to fall under the control of the end-game villain Feldway, basically throwing a tantrum to get her crush's (Guy's) attention because both of them were too shy and childish to just say 'I love you' to each other.
Feldway was lashing out at the world because he had abandonment issues from Veldanava, and OG Veldora was just bored, which is why he was always rampaging. My sisters, Velgrynd and Veldora, also didn't know how to properly care for him, which led to him being traumatized and never growing up properly...
It seemed that the more I thought about it, the more almost the most powerful people in the world tended to seem like traumatized children.
Now there was a frightening thought.