(Rimuru POV)
And with that, Risa's report was basically over. There was no point on her reporting on what was going on with Yuuki, he wasn't using his office much anymore, so the little Pipo clone that she'd snuck inside via his teleportation circle had been essentially rendered useless. As such, we didn't know much beyond 'he's working with Kagali, a homunculus with the soul of the Demon Lord Kazalim inside of it', and 'he's planning on doing something with Tempest in the near or late future'.
Basically nothing.
Which meant that it was time to open the floor to others.
According to Rigurd, trade was apparently on a rising trend. Apparently, word had begun getting around that Jura was now a safe, efficient, and comfortable trade route, and our merchant partners were beginning to get back into the regular pattern.
Along that route, we'd also gotten a missive from Thalion. Her Excellency, the Emperor of the Sorcerous Dynasty of Thalion. Apparently, she'd expressed a personal desire to open formal relations with Tempest, which basically felt like a whisper in my ear 'Build the road linking us, already!'
Which was actually necessary, anyway. Thalion would be a great ally for us, going forward. I'd already set aside a large High Orc workforce in preparation.
I'd also had Soei send Nanso, from his Team Kurenai that worked alongside Soka, out to check the path out, ensure that there wouldn't be any problems, or any monster villages that'd push back before we got the road laid down.
So far, there was only one problem. Apparently, the road went through the Kushu Mountains, which bordered Jura to the direct southwest. While it was technically unclaimed land, in reality, it belonged to the uber-powerful, long-nosed Tengu tribe.
If I wanted to build a road through it, I had two options: Ignore the Tengu, and use overwhelming power to stop them if they chose to fight the decision, or try diplomacy.
From what I'd heard, they were mostly friendly, but also capable of fighting Frey and her harpies to a draw.
Yeah, I'd try diplomacy first. "Alright, I'll just go over and-"
I offered to take care of it, but Benimaru ended up volunteering in the end, citing the fact that this sort of minor diplomatic work shouldn't fall to me.
Shuna was apparently pretty certain that he was going to use this to get closer to Alvis, who he'd been working with rather often over the last few weeks, but that wasn't my problem.
The next report was from Kaijin. Apparently, he and Vester had finally concluded the work that they'd been doing for the last few weeks, and were ready for mass production.
Basically, these barriers were specifically designed to deal with the massive amount of magicules that our residents here in Tempest output. The idea was simple: It'd pull in magicules to power a 3-dimensional magical circle of sorts inside the device, originally designed by Risa.
That circle created a barrier specialized to keep all hostiles out while empowering anyone who resided in Tempest long-term. Our Goblin Riders, for example, barely hit A-rank without being inside of this barrier, but were over-A Hazards within, capable of giving the younger dryads a run for their money. It wasn't as big a boost to people beyond that, like full-powered Gobta or Rigur, who could touch the Demon Lord Seed class, but it generally bumped the affected up around a rank or so, in terms of combat effectiveness.
And now, humans who entered Tempest wouldn't start getting magicule poisoning as our collective magicule density exploded over time.
"Wow! That'll make things so much easier for our patrols!" Gobta realized with a smile. Rigur nodded beside him in agreement.
"It'll at least improve public safety, but it's not exactly perfect…" Rigur thought aloud, "Is it possible to make portable ones for when we encounter high-ranking monsters in our forest patrols?" He wondered.
"Sorry. We're looking into miniaturizing, but it'll be a slow road." Kaijin immediately shot the Wood Goblin down.
To be honest, Risa and I could make portable versions with our crazy skills, but that wasn't a particularly good solution, not that the problem was that big to begin with.
The strongest monsters that tended to naturally appear in Jura were lower than rank A. When Unified, the Goblin Riders could take monsters like that on one-on-one, so long as they didn't lose focus. And since they patrolled in groups of three, it wasn't really a problem.
Unfortunately, we didn't have that many Riders. Definitely not enough to comprehensively cover the whole forest, so we filled it in with goblins from Rigur's command. They tended to be between C and B ranked on average, so when they ran into those crazy powerful near-A monsters, they had to call in backup and wait.
"If you're worried about your subordinates getting their butts kicked by monsters, perhaps you should refer them to me for more training." Hakuro told Rigur. Rigur sweated as everyone around Hakuro inched away from the terrifyingly menacing non-magical aura that Hakuro was producing.
All throughout Tempest, thousands of hobgoblins began shivering uncontrollably in terror for no reason at all.
"N-No, no, that's fine! I thank you for the offer, though, Hakuro!" Rigur turned the old man down awkwardly.
"So the barrier only empowers those who live in Tempest? Will it weaken my father when he comes to congratulate Lord Rimuru for becoming a Demon Lord?" Gabil asked Kaijin, changing the subject.
"...Wait, what?"
"Oh, no. Don't worry, Gabil. Only people with hostile intentions will be suppressed by the barrier. Abil will be able to completely ignore it. It also won't really affect hostile humans, since their bodily composition is so different from monsters." Risa explained in Kaijin's stead.
But I was more concerned with another part of what Gabil had said.
"Wait, Abil's coming to visit?!"