Stepping into the main village tent, Mikaeru took a look at Rigurd. He wasn't as weak as he was when Rimuru originally found him, but Mikaeru could tell he wasn't exactly in peak condition. Goblins were quite the pathetic race. As a degraded descendent race of the oni, goblins were the weakest monster race on the planet other than slimes. Being weaker, dumber, shorter, and more short lived than everything else.
He looked at the old man. Goblins were probably the only race that needed to evolve to reach the level of an average human. Rimuru, keeping up his paper thin facade of a powerful monster, proudly declared, "You can explain all the details of your plight."
The unnamed Rigur walked over to his father and explained that he had already told the slimes that there were wolves, but nothing else. So, the old man started with, "If I may, you are aware of the recent monster activity, correct? You see, we have lived peacefully here under the protection of our god for many years." He drooped down, "Sadly, he seems to have disappeared sometime a few weeks ago. Ever since, the balance of the forest has entered disarray, and we goblins have been left to fend for ourselves.
Unnamed Rigur explained, "It is no secret among the other races of this forest that we are the weakest. It is likely that the wolves will not be the end." He looked sad, "The entire forest is in conflict. We are in need of the aid of a great one's power."
{Notice- Unique Skill [Soul Link] has been activated}
In a worried tone, Rimuru asked, "Do you think the god they're talking about is Veldora?"
"The timeline matches up so it does make sense. Veldora said something about how great his power as the Storm Dragon was. Seeing as the strongest humans of this world saw to it that he was sealed away, well, it's not hard to guess it's him."
"Wha…so you're saying this is our fault!?"
Mikaeru explained in a calm tone, "Well, yeah, but we really didn't have much of a choice. If we left Veldora there, he would have still died eventually so it was an inevitability that this would happen."
Rimuru drooped, "Well, I still feel bad." He puffed up, "I will help them! It's the least I can do for them!"
{Notice- Unique Skill [Soul Link] has been deactivated}
Rimuru asked them, "I understand your plight, but do you really believe slimes like us could help?" He flinched, "Not that I wouldn't try to help!"
Unnamed Rigurd laughed, "Hahaha, how modest. A mere slime could never emanate such power!"
Mikaeru spoke up as Rimuru tried to work on trying to hide his power better, "I assume this means you won't just need us for the wolves, but more long term as guardians for your village."
Unnamed Rigurd bowed as best he could, "Apologies great strong ones, but yes, I am afraid we would like to borrow your power at the very least until the unrest of this forest calms down."
Mikaeru pretended to think, "In exchange for your loyalty of course." Mikaeru turned to Rimuru, "It's a pitiful offering, yes, but I do see potential." He turned to the goblins, "I shall decide when my brother gives his final answer. I shall give him the final say."
Rimuru looked shocked at this. Again!? Why was he always being put on the spot here!?
{Notice- Unique Skill [Soul Link] has been activated}
Mikaeru advised, "We should definitely accept the deal. It'll be a good play for the long term."
"Eh?" Rimuru seemed confused, "What do you mean? Aren't we just helping them out?"
Mikaeru explained that, "For the time being, we don't have much of an anchor on this world. We're basically just random wanderers with no real place to go. If we accept subordinates now, not only will we gain territory, but we'll have a place to call base." He added, "Also, it'll be important we do this if we want to interact with humans in the future as well. As monsters we can't walk in. We'll need some sort of leverage. The status of a monster village leader or protector could get us in if we play this right."
Rimuru seemed taken aback by Mikaeru's explanation, "Wow, you're thinking really far ahead."
"It's not hard to think about this sort of stuff if you stop to think. We weren't given the best hand for our bodies, so we'll need to find workarounds."
{Notice- Unique Skill [Soul Link] has been deactivated}
The two slimes turned as the goblins bowed, "Please, sir. Lend us your power. As your vassals, we shall promise that we will put our all into ensuring that we serve you as best as we are capable."
Rimuru stopped for a second, almost as if waiting for dramatic effect, then he yelled out, "It is so! Having beheld our aura yet having the confidence and will to speak with us. And not only that, but to prepare to sacrifice all you have for the safety of those under your care and protection! You all have earned our respect and have earned our protection!"
What the fuck? Mikaeru could feel his nonexistent brow rise. He had forgotten this part of Rimuru.
Unnamed Rigurd smiled, "Truly! Your kindness is wasted upon us! We shall not inquire about your true form, lest we overstep our bounds! Your strength is more than enough for one's as meager as us!"
Mikaeru stepped in, "You said the wolves are going to attack, soon, right? How are your forces?"
Unnamed Rigurd explained, "Apologies for our incompetence, but we are unfortunately not in the possession of a formal defense. However, we do have warriors in our village willing to fight for us."
"I see." Mikaeru asked, "What's the number?"
Unnamed Rigurd told them, "At the moment, our number of warriors stand at no more than 300."
Not bad. That's about double what they had left in canon. "Are there any who are unable to fight due to injury or some kind of sickness?" Rimuru asked.
"We have 20 injured." He seemed embarrassed, "Apologies but a few of our men were injured on route to a trading expedition to a nearby nation."
"That's great!" Rimuru exclaimed. "No, wait, I didn't mean because they got injured!" He explained, "We have the means to heal them. Can you take us to where they are being held? I want to see them."
Unnamed Rigurd looked at his son. "Son, if you can, could you escort our benefactors to the bay?"
"I shall do as I can," Unnamed Rigur said.
When they made it to the sick bay, Mikaeru immediately spotted two goblins he recognized. It looked like Gobta and Gobzo were injured.
Rimuru rolled out into the center of the bay and began jiggling, throwing out full potions in all directions, instantly healing everyone there. The entire area was immediately filled with relief and gratitude at the miracle Rimuru performed. Mikaeru looked around. Taking a closer look, he began roughly making out the visages of a few more goblins. Gobwa and…Kataki? That's interesting. Mikaeru took note of that for later. That guy wasn't supposed to be canon to the main story.
Mikaeru jumped over to Rimuru, "320 fighters, eh? Not bad." Not that it really mattered in the end.
Making their way back outside, Mikaeru took a gander at the village. While it was in better shape than originally, there was no such thing as being too safe. Bouncing back to Unnamed Rigurd's tent, he advised, "We should reinforce the defenses of this village before anything. You have a fence, which is a good start, but if we want to ensure they can't tear it down or jump over, there needs to be something more forceful there."
"Is there anything you're thinking of?" Asked Rimuru.
"Traps, spikes, basically anything we can make to avoid giving the enemy a free line straight to one of the women or children." He looked around, "There should be plenty of stray material in the forest so we should start with that. We should still have a few hours."
"Do you think they'll attack sometime today?"
"There's no way to tell based on what they've told us so far. Apparently they told them to surrender a few days ago now. But, it is safe to bet they will attack at night, so we can at least count on that. We'll have the rest of this day to prepare at the very least."
"They're wolves, right?" Rimuru muttered, "I guess it would make sense that they'd attack in the dark."
"Yeah." He turned back to the chief, "You got that?"
"Y-yes sir!" He asked his son, "Spread the word. We must take heed of the strong ones' words!"
"Understood!" Mikaeru watched as the Unnamed Rigur ran out. The two slimes followed soon after, gathering all capable goblins and moving them throughout the village to prepare for the attack.
As this happened, Mikaeru took note of the inventory. The weapons available for the goblins didn't look too good. They were all old, worn down weapons, clearly gotten for cheap from some random swindler in the back alleys of Dwargon. "[Great Sage]. What are we looking at in terms of producible weaponry?"
{Notice- It is possible to create simple weaponry using refined magistone and a variety of collected ores. The resulting weapons would be low b-rank in quality due to insufficient analysis of crafted weaponry}
"That should be good enough." Make 200 of them. Make sure to make them big enough to be usable to a goblin, but hold their value in the hands of a hobgoblin. Eating the old weapons, he had [Great Sage] repair them as well before heading out into the village.
Jumping throughout the village, he handed out all of the crafted weapons to the surrounding goblins, ensuring they were at least capable of defense.
By the time night came around, the goblin village had changed a noticeable amount. The walls were surrounded by wooden spikes and holes with traps at the bottom and each and every goblin was armed with a simple spear, ideal for untrained fighters, or one of the repaired weapons they originally had stocked.
Mikaeru looked out into the forest that night with a serious outlook. "They're coming, aren't they?"
{Notice- A collection of monsters has been detected approaching from the east
Calculating number…165}
There were more than in the original. So it seemed the goblins had managed to at least get a few of them before being reduced to scraps. He wondered how many the evolved Rigur had brought down with him.
Mikaeru listened as Rimuru also detected them and began to yell out, "Listen, we have sensed the wolves! Squadron 1, 2 and 3, you cover the east! Squadron 4, you cover west! Squadron 5 and 6, you get north and south! Don't let anyone pass the village walls!"
"Making sure we aren't flanked, eh? Good plan."
Rimuru chuckled to himself. "Don't you worry, I watched all of Attack on Titan!"
"My soldiers rage, huh?" Mikaeru muttered as he looked out into the forest. There were dozens of white dots rapidly approaching from the darkness. "This'll be a pain to deal with one by one." Mikaeru said.
Rimuru thought for a second, "Maybe if we can get the alpha to surrender, we can stop this before it even begins!" He jumped in place, "No violence needed!"
Mikaeru looked out, "Yeah, that could work."
Not long after that, the time had come. Mikaeru watched as the pack came to a stop, and one wolf walked out in front of the rest. Ranga's father. With clear annoyance in his voice, he looked out at the village, "Pathetic worms. Do they think their measly little tricks will stop my pack from ending them?"
Of the two slimes, Rimuru was the one to speak. As soon as the wolf leader got within range, he yelled out, "Alright! Stop right there!" The wolf locked his eyes on Rimuru, making him flinch. He quickly shook it off though. "My name is Rimuru! The one on my right is my brother, Mikaeru! We are the protectors of this village! Leave now, and there will be no consequences! We'll be forced to attack if you don't withdraw!"
The area went silent as Rimuru's warning shot out. Then, Ranga's father laughed, "Miserable slime! Do you truly believe you would be capable of defeating me!?" He growled, "I'll pulverize you! Attack! Now!"
A group of wolves immediately shot out, triggering several of the traps between them and the village.1, 2, 3, eventually 8 pack members were left severely injured before the whole pack stopped mobilizing. "Such cheap tricks!" Ranga's father yelled. He looked around as the wolves stopped moving. "What are you doing!? Can't you see their weakness! I'll show you!"
The two slimes watched as the wolf charged, effortlessly dodging all the traps and biting through the threads Rimuru had set up as nonlethal nets. Jumping up, Rimuru watched as he prepared to kill him. "Not today you won't." Mikaeru immediately used [Steel Thread] to completely immobilize him in the air.
Struggling, the wolf yelled out, "You worms! Know that this shall not hold me for long!"
Mikaeru laughed. "Yeah, that's what this is for." He launched a [Water Blade] at the wolf, cutting him cleanly in half. Blood shot out behind him, covering the ground behind him in the wolf's own insides. Mikaeru let go of the wolf, watching him drop onto the ground.
He turned to the wolves. "Rimuru, let's show them what our full auras are really like." Rimuru seemed to understand, immediately letting go of his unrestrained power. Mikaeru did the same. Immediately the entire area was drenched in the combined power of the two slimes. Mikaeru declared, "Retreat, surrender or die! It is your choice, wolves! What will it be!?"
All of the wolves struggled under the force of the magicule pressure, leaving just one of them standing. The son of the alpha, the one later called Ranga. He alone stepped forward, struggling through the pressure. Rimuru began to worry that this would really end up turning into a bloodbath. Was he really not giving up?
But then, a dog-like whine was heard and Ranga bowed down, "We surrender!" He yelled. "We shall give our complete loyalty to you, great strong ones!"
Rimuru flinched, "W-w-whaaaaaat!?" This night had turned out to have ended in a very unexpected way.
The next day, Mikaeru made his way into one of the larger tents in the village to meet with someone very interesting. "So, how does it feel to lose, alpha?"
Yes, it was none other than Ranga's father. He growled, "How demeaning." He yelled out, "Do you think I will accept this humiliating pity!?"
Mikaeru held strong, "Pity, eh?" Mikaeru's voice deepened, "I did not save you out of pity."
The wolf immediately felt the pressure as Mikaeru released a fraction of his own power. "I saved you because you are useful." He explained, "As the alpha, not only are you the most experienced, but you are the one that possesses the most knowledge about the inner workings of your pack. Now that they are part of our own forces, is it not smart to ensure you are still here to guide them? For our own interests of course."
"Do you not have my son!?" He declared, "That fool of a son! Did he not declare his loyalty already!?"
"Yes, but to be honest with you. I like your style more. Knowing when to quit is important, don't get me wrong, but a ruler that does not bend to those before him even under horrible odds of winning. Now my friend, that is interesting. Of course, as long as you are not stupid and refuse to bend under certain death like last night. Retreat is best then of course." Mikaeru released an even larger amount of pressure, "The law of this world states that the weak must obey those that are strong, am I not correct? You have lost, alpha, so obey or I really will kill you this time." His voice hardened ever more, "What is your choice?"
Rimuru waited outside, getting ever more nervous as the pressure got higher. "Should I go in?"
No, he didn't need to. The pressure went back to zero not long after he asked himself that as Mikaeru made his way out the tent. "He accepted the terms."
"Really!?" Rimuru yelled out in excitement.
"Yes, yes~." After thoroughly beating down his pride of course. It was impressive all things considered. That wolf had more pride in him than the ogres did. He refused to fully submit, at least not yet. Mikaeru knew living in Tempest would eventually mellow the wolf out, but at least for now, he was only a reluctant ally.
He looked around, "It seems the rest of the wolves are getting started on adjusting as well?"
"Yeah." Rimuru said. "Hopefully it goes well."
"Yeah, that's as much as we can hope for now."
Far off in the distance, a town situated deep in the Jura Forest felt a disturbance as an old man opened his eyes. "Master Araki? Is there something wrong?"
The old man stood up, "Wrong? No." The man muttered, "But, it appears something new has stirred in this forest." Two presences carrying weight unlike those he had felt before. "What shall these new arrivals bring forth? Further chaos or the calm this forest needs?"