(Attendances… plz…)
….
Rimuru was now deeply suspicious.
The man in front of him wanted to come back, sometimes, just to "check up on him." That was one of the most suspicious things anyone could possibly say.
He couldn't just say "no," could he? Not when his own Great Sage skill had confirmed this man was stronger than him.
But at the same time, this level of kindness was unheard of. No one is this kind to a monster.
In the modern world he came from, that kind of unsolicited kindness usually meant the person had an ulterior motive.
Rimuru eyed him, as much as a slime with no eyes could, and his voice was soft and confusing...
"Why? Like, really, why? Just because I can talk and have a name?"
"Well, you're right to be suspicious of me," Reinhard said, his smile not wavering. "But let's just say you're a very unique monster."
Rimuru already knew that, of course. Veldora had told him, and the blonde adventurer's comments about slimes being dumb and weak had confirmed it. He was anything but normal.
"Yeah, I know I can talk and I'm a bit stronger than other slimes…"
"That's just the smaller part of it," Reinhard said, his tone still conversational. "You're conversing with me, a human. You, a monster, who should have attacked me on sight. Even if you were just a little intelligent, your instincts should have made you hostile, now that you had some intelligence. Of course not all monsters are violent, for example you… a slime. And on top of that, you survived inside that cave for who knows how long."
Ohhhhhh.
It clicked. Now Rimuru understood. Monsters were supposed to attack humans, no questions asked.
Not only had he not done that, he had been smart enough to act dumb when he heard what normal slimes were like. His behavior was completely abnormal for a monster.
"I see…" he muttered.
"Well, it's not like I'm going to stop you from doing whatever you want," Reinhard said, as if sensing his thoughts.
"You have your freedom. Me coming by sometimes would just be for my own curiosity, and nothing else."
So I'm a specimen in a museum now, huh? Rimuru thought with a sigh. Oh well. I guess I would be curious, too. It didn't really matter what Reinhard's motives were, as long as he didn't interfere.
He'd just have to get used to the idea of being watched sometimes, probably without even knowing it.
"Well, we've been talking long enough," Reinhard said, glancing back toward the cave entrance. "I should go back to my party now."
Rimuru was, surprisingly, a little happy.
The first human he had met in this new world was kind. Kind enough to not immediately try to capture and sell him, even after realizing he was a unique, intelligent monster.
In any video game Rimuru had ever seen or played, slimes were the level-one EXP mobs you farmed before you could even think about fighting a real boss.
For Reinhard to be stronger than him and still show him this basic decency… it was a huge relief.
And maybe, just maybe, this could be useful later. If he had a powerful human friend, he might even be able to visit a human town someday.
Maybe after he got a human form… though he had no idea how that would even work.
A friend was a much better option than an enemy, especially an enemy like Reinhard.
"I understand," Rimuru projected, his voice now steady. "Thanks for not catching and selling me. I was really scared for a second."
Reinhard looked down at the little slime, a faint, sad smile on his face. "That was nothing. You shouldn't even have to thank me for that." He turned to leave. "I hope you take care of yourself in the forest. And… haha, don't get lost."
With that, Reinhard walked back towards the cave, his footsteps silent on the forest floor.
Rimuru, with a little pointy bit that served as a hand, waved a wobbly goodbye. He watched until the red-haired man was gone.
"Well," he said to the empty forest, his new voice quiet and a little lonely. "It's a little late for that. Because basically… technically… and by all means… I don't know this forest at all. So I'm… already lost."
He sighed, and his whole body seemed to slump onto the mossy ground.
The tension of the last few minutes drained out of him, leaving him feeling completely exhausted.
It was like he'd just finished a high-level presentation at the office, where the entire board of directors was staring at him, judging his every word.
"I hate being this stressed," he muttered. "Do slimes even get stress or depression?"
[Answer. No. Baseline slimes are low-intelligence, instinct-driven lifeforms, amorphous entities with rudimentary survival impulses. They cannot experience depression or stress in a human sense; they lack the self-concept, narrative memory, and metacognition required for such affective states.]
"It was a rhetorical question," Rimuru said to the air. "Though, thanks for the answer, I guess. And just to clarify, I can get stressed."
He wiggled for a moment, then began to bounce on the ground, picking a random direction and heading off into the unknown. He tried to sing a little song in his head to pass the time, even though he couldn't actually sing.
After bouncing through the forest for fifteen to twenty minutes, he was faced with another problem.
Standing directly in his path was a group of small, green-skinned creatures with pointed ears and rough, simple weapons. Goblins.
Rimuru stopped, readying himself for a fight. But as he looked at them, he noticed something strange.
Their weapons weren't raised to attack.
They were trembling. Their eyes were wide, and they were looking at him not with aggression, but with fear.
"Though," Rimuru muttered to himself, completely confused. "Why are they trembling?"
….
A/N: Next two chapters are already on my discord.
Melatonin, spawn and many more on my discord … thanks for beta reading this fic and not to mention suggestions too.
Hoped you all liked the chapter and all.
And if you want to read ahead you can do it by just joining my discord server.
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