(Attendances… plz…)
….
While Rimuru was beginning his grand adventure in the forest, Reinhard was walking back to the cave. He had spent a little more time with the slime than he'd originally planned.
The meeting had been interesting, to say the least. Being viewed as suspicious by the slime was unexpected, but understandable. He had met Rimuru Tempest. That was all that mattered for now.
As he was just a few steps from the cave entrance, a familiar, internal voice announced a change.
[Od Laguna has detected interference from an outside source.]
[Searching for a countermeasure…]
[Countermeasure found.]
[Bestowing Divine Protection of System Immunity.]
Reinhard didn't even break his stride. The new blessing, along with the knowledge of what it did, settled into his mind, and he understood immediately why it had appeared.
It didn't take him more than a second to connect the dots.
The new blessing was a defensive mechanism from Od Laguna, a direct response to an analysis attempt.
And there was only one person he'd been near who could do that. Rimuru must have instructed his Great Sage skill to analyze him.
Having memories of the Tensura anime, he knew what Great Sage was: a powerful, AI-like system that acted as Rimuru's ultimate support, capable of analysis, calculation, and providing answers to almost any question.
But he also knew that Great Sage, at this stage, was only a Unique Skill.
It probably would have struggled to get any meaningful data from his Ultimate Skill, Od Laguna, or any of his other blessings that would be categorized as Unique or higher. It was just a speculation, of course, but a logical one.
The only things Great Sage would have likely been able to read were his mundane, everyday blessings. Things like walking, cooking, aiming, and fishing.
His blessings, while simply "blessings" to him, could all be categorized into the skill system of this world based on their effects.
On our very first meeting, huh? Reinhard thought with a faint, internal smile. Oh well. This is a good thing. Now, with the Blessing of System Immunity, no one would be able to analyze, replicate, or copy his abilities.
If anything, this new blessing would probably be categorized as a Unique Skill itself, maybe even bordering on an Ultimate Skill due to its absolute defensive nature.
And if someone tried to forcefully analyze him again, Od Laguna would likely just create an even more powerful version of the blessing on the spot. It was a perfect, self-updating defense.
After dealing with the thought and all, Reinhard picked up his pace and re-entered the cave, where his party was waiting for him.
Kaval was tapping his foot impatiently, looking like a boss waiting for a late employee. Gido was just standing there stoically, ready to continue. Ellen seemed to be lost in thought.
"Hmm, you're back," Kaval said as Reinhard approached. "Have to say, you took your sweet time. So, did you take care of it, or did you just release it somewhere safe?"
Reinhard raised an eyebrow. "Why would you even think I would kill it, when I said I was going to drop it somewhere safe?"
"It was a joke," Kaval said quickly. "So, did you drop it off?"
"Yup," Reinhard replied with a nod. "It just took a little more time than I thought. I dropped it off beside a tree, away from any big monsters."
"Well, we should continue our mission then!" Ellen said, snapping out of her thoughts.
Gido, who clearly didn't understand why Reinhard had gone to all that trouble for a dumb slime, muttered, "We should have just killed it and been done with it."
Reinhard, along with Kaval and Ellen, completely ignored him. "Alright, let's get back to it," Reinhard said. "The sooner we finish this investigation, the sooner we can get out of this cave."
Seeing he was being ignored, Gido dropped the subject. Kaval took the lead, with Ellen and Reinhard behind him, and Gido bringing up the rear with his shield.
The cave was dark, but the glowing magic ore crystals lit their path perfectly. The tunnel sloped gently downward, winding between massive pillars of crystal. Patches of a strange, glowing grass grew along the walls.
Ellen recognized it immediately. "Oh, wow, look!" she exclaimed, her adventurer instincts kicking in. "That's high-grade Hipokute Herb! It's worth a fortune!"
She and Gido immediately got to work, carefully harvesting the valuable herbs while Reinhard and Kaval stood guard, looking out for any surprise monster attacks.
Ellen was carefully instructing Gido on how to pick them without damaging them, warning him that the price would drop if he wasn't careful.
In the middle of their harvesting, a small tremor shook the cavern. Dust rained down from the ceiling, sprinkling over Gido and Ellen.
"What was that?" Gido asked, shaking the dust from his hair.
They all looked up, but there was nothing on the ceiling. The tremor came again, stronger this time. It wasn't coming from above; it was the heavy footfalls of something big, coming toward them from deeper in the cave.
Everyone looked ahead down the dark tunnel. A hulking, massive shadow emerged from the darkness. It was an Armorsaurus, a massive, lizard-like monster covered in thick, rock-like plates of armor. It was easily a B-rank threat, and with its natural armor, it had incredibly high defense.
If the trio had been alone, their first thought would have been to run. The monster let out a deafening roar and charged at them. But before they could even react, something swept past them in a blur.
It was Reinhard. With his sword still in its sheath, he swung it in a single, clean arc. The sheer force of the blow, even through the scabbard, was enough to slice the heavily armored monster clean in two.
The two halves of the Armorsaurus slid past them and crashed into the cavern walls.
Kaval stared, his jaw slack. "So your sword, while not even drawn, is still strong enough to slice an Armorsaurus in half?"
"Well," Reinhard said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "It is the strongest weapon in my world, passed down from generation to generation. This is the least it can do, even while sheathed. Don't you think?"
Kaval let out a nervous laugh. "Hahaha, you're right! Wished I had a sword like that!"
"Well, now that you're no good in combat, you can help us pick up these herbs," Gido said, already back to harvesting.
"Yeah," Ellen added with a grin. "You're basically a freeloader now, Kaval."
"You can't talk to your leader like that!" Kaval grumbled, though he completely agreed in his head. He knelt down and started helping them collect the herbs.
After they had gathered all they could carry, they continued their investigation, venturing deeper and deeper into the cave.
Over the next few hours, more monsters appeared, but they were dealt with in an instant by Reinhard.
A monster would pop out, and in the next second, if it was hostile, it would be dead. The ones that ran away or didn't attack, he left untouched.
….
A/N: Well, this oart is complete. Next would be timeskip to them reporting at guild whatever they noticed and find. And shizue is coming.
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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