The demon trampled across the dark realm like a savage beast.
Beyond the Gates of Hell lay a spirit realm one could call the land of the dead, or even hell itself, and there he was annihilating demons, like a living manifestation of violence. The powerless ran screaming, the more powerful banding together to defend themselves, but to that demon, it was just helpless struggling. All foes fell to his might, and his rampage continued.
Demons were a kind of spiritual life-form. If you destroyed the physical body of one, it would self-regenerate over time. Perhaps he knew this, because he held nothing back, showing no mercy to anyone coming his way.
The name of this personification of violence was Diablo.
"Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… It's been so long since my last visit. Quite a number of chumps have sprung up in the meantime, haven't they? Assembling a group of these will accomplish nothing. I need to find my old friends."
His "old friends" were those comparable to him. His mission, during this long journey, was to recruit them.
"Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… I am sure they have what it takes to make Sir Rimuru satisfied!"
With those words, Diablo teleported away and disappeared, leaving nothing but the carcasses of those who failed to correctly gauge his might.
My inspections were complete, and I had a grasp of where we currently stood.
I couldn't even see the end of rail installation work yet. We were considering
three lines for now—from the Dwarven Kingdom to Tempest, from Tempest to the Kingdom of Blumund, and from Blumund to the Kingdom of Farminus. There was also a route that forked south from the line to Dwargon, running past Lake Sisu (stomping grounds of the lizardmen) on its way to Eurazania. In addition, we had to build a highway from the Blumund line to Thalion, which included a tunnel through the Khusha Mountains. A railway along that route would be considered later, but I had to expect it'd come well into the future.
I'd really like to build a railway to the ocean somewhere soon, so we can get seafood for cheaper. Going forward, I also envisioned a trunk line between Blumund and the Kingdom of Englesia—but either way, completing this whole network would take a lot of time, and we still had more trains to develop.
With our test locomotive completed, we were officially over the hump. Now we just had to run that thing to the ground in a trial-and-error test process. We had the exact energy drive I wanted, but development wouldn't end there. It had to be comfortable to ride in, and we had to eliminate noise concerns for the surrounding areas. These were already quieter than normal steam trains, but the speedier these got, the louder they'd be. A research team led by Kaijin was tackling these smaller details, digging deeper into them and working out theoretical solutions. I wanted his team to record all their proceedings, because I figured it'd help us with future developments. Of course, the magic core was the hardest part, and with that completed, I could let Kaijin handle the rest of the locomotive.
When this project got started, I covered all the expenses with our national budget—even giving them a little more money, as much as it made Mjöllmile's chins jiggle. I was now an occasional visitor to the project, giving me more chances to befriend the researchers and have in-depth conversations. They were interested in my otherworlder knowledge, apparently, so they'd ask for my opinions on this and that. Anything very tricky, Raphael handled for me—it worked faster than a quantum supercomputer, so any calculation was completed in an instant. No reason not to make use of it.
After work was done, it was time to socialize. Our evening haunts didn't all have to be high-end nightclubs. If people were encountering walls in their research, we'd hit the city, debating among ourselves and forgetting our
problems. I kept up with them late into the night, although I didn't get paid any overtime, oddly enough. (I should note that our generous budget wasn't being entirely devoted to the drink tabs. They really were contributing to science and technology, though, so I let it slide a bit.)
By the way, between Veldora, Ramiris, and me, Ramiris was earning the highest salary at the moment. Even subtracting her Dungeon maintenance fees, we were raking in a massive profit from the labyrinth, and she took twenty percent of that. Our initial goal of two gold coins a day now seemed quaint—we were making over twenty on average, the equivalent of at least twenty thousand dollars. Ramiris used her cut to pay Treyni, her sisters, and Beretta, but I reckoned she ended every month up nearly a hundred gold coins.
Veldora and I, meanwhile, were paid equally—one gold coin a day from the national treasury. As master of the labyrinth, Veldora also got an allowance from Ramiris, and since his magicules were a constant boon to us, the treasury sometimes awarded him special payments. Thus, he was definitely making more money than I was. Of course, I had my own hidden revenue streams and business involvements, so I wasn't exactly destitute, either.
Inspired by everyone's suddenly impressive work ethic, I resolved to put in more of an effort. First, it was time to get serious about the physical body vessels I promised Diablo. Ramiris was my assistant; we'd also be working on bodies for Treyni's sisters, and I wanted to get her feedback. She kindly accepted the request, although she was already whining to me about needing more personnel.
"I really need someone to handle all the odd jobs I need, and I have a few other things I wanna ask you for, too. With Treyni and Beretta alone, I can't quite seem to keep up with all my work…"
I thought she just wanted more people to brag about herself to—but recalling how busy Treyni and the others looked, I reconsidered. Plus, Ramiris wasn't just my assistant. She had her own mission: craft a new Elemental Colossus.
Its heart, the core of the whole thing, was complete. I had a skeleton and framework in place, as well as a sample Elemental Colossus to work with. I figured we could just proceed based on that, but modifications always take a lot
of time. Kaijin's hands were full with the trains, and Vester was hard at work by himself, picking up his old armored-soldier project again. He was already lending a hand to Ramiris in his spare time, and I worried he was overworking himself a bit. This was going to be built into the completed magic core, so I want to get some test data—and for that, we'd need as many people as possible.
"What about Veldora?"
"Ahhh yes, what about the master, indeed? Whenever I ask him for some detailed piece of work, he disappears…"
I see. Maybe not worth relying upon, then. It makes sense to me. Veldora is Veldora, always busily running from one spot to the next. I thought he'd be a bother to most people, but he actually wasn't. He was smart, despite his personality, and I suppose he really was helping out a lot. He certainly loved being the center of attention, so instead of asking him to assist Ramiris, I felt it was better to just let him do his own thing.
"All right. I'll round up someone."
"Great. Thanks!"
With that promise, I began pondering who to select.
The days then proceeded by, peacefully as ever…until one day, when they came along.
Right in my office, atop my desk, was a huge pile of documents requiring my approval.
I couldn't guess how long it'd usually take to process all these, but in my case, I left it to Raphael. It nimbly evaluated all the proposals, rearranging them by priority level. It approved or rejected them, and then I applied my stamp, all in a continuous flow. Maybe it wasn't that taxing, but this kind of rote work was always a pain to me. Silently, I stamped away, wishing Diablo were here to handle this.
Time for a break.
Returning to slime mode, I lazed around on my sofa. This always felt great—
the softness of my body and the elasticity of the cushions. Put together, it felt like a ball pit full of feathers. Now that sleeping required a trick or two for me, this was my secret little heaven right here.
Then I heard knocking. I wanted to keep chillaxing for a bit longer, but someone was here. Ah well. Switching to human form, I sat on my chair.
"Come in," I replied, making sure my pose was just right. The door opened, revealing Shuna. She bowed at me.
"Sir Rimuru, you have a visitor. He gave his name as Deeno, and he says you'd know who he is?"
Just as expected, a visitor was here. But Deeno, though? There was only one Deeno I could possibly know of.
"He's a demon lord, isn't he? Part of the Octagram. What's he here for?" "A demon lord? Should I ask my brother to assemble our troops, just in case?"
"No, that's all right. If we come to blows, just get me Benimaru and Shion… but I doubt we will. If I had to guess, he's come to check things out."
I reassured the concerned Shuna and stood up. There seemed to be little to worry about. I think Deeno did say he wanted to stop by during the Walpurgis meeting, didn't he? I kind of ignored it then, but I guess he was serious.
"…Very well. I will make the arrangements."
With a nod, Shuna guided me to the room where Deeno was waiting. It's helpful to have a lot of rooms for occasions like this; then you can choose one for the situation. Merchants and the nobility can have ornate parlors; famed monsters or suspicious people can be shown simple but solidly built rooms, if only because they might cause expensive damage otherwise. Thus, Deeno was waiting in a functional, if not very flashy-looking, chamber.
When I came in with Shuna, I found Deeno looking pretty, well, casual. In fact, he was sprawled out on the sofa, taking full advantage despite being a guest. He certainly didn't care what people thought about him, for better or (likely) worse.
"Hey. Nice to see ya. Doing well?"
He greeted me from the sofa, showing no sign of getting up. Shuna wrinkled her nose but silently bowed and left the room, no doubt to fetch some tea.
"Great, thanks," I said as I took a seat facing him. "I got a lot of problems to deal with, so things aren't exactly chill, but…"
I took a closer look at Deeno. He looked just as blasé and unaffected as the last time I met him, but still his attitude suggested I better keep my guard up. No wonder Shuna was wary of him.
"You got problems? That sucks."
"Yeah, kind of. I'm still pretty new to demon lord-ing, so nothing's going easy for me yet. But what brings you here?"
"Oh? Me? Well, I said I'd visit you, so here I am."
His reply was rather brisk—sounded like a lie to me. We both quickly fell into silence, but just then, Shuna came back with some tea and snacks, navigating the quiet chamber like nothing was amiss. Hastily laying everything out, she bowed again and left the room. She really is a professional.
I took a sip of tea and turned my eye toward Deeno. He was the first to relent. "…Well, to tell you the truth, I got kicked out of Daggrull's place." "Huh?"
"Yeah, y'know, I'm kind of homeless, so I'd been hangin' at Daggrull's joint. I'm also penniless, so…"
Whoa. This is a demon lord? He may be honest, but this guy's bad news, isn't he?
"…So I thought about what I oughtta do, and I remembered that Daggrull's sons had nice things to say about their time in your country. So now I'm lookin' for a place here!"
I couldn't show him a single iota of mercy.
"No. You can't."
I immediately turned down the request.
"…What?"
"Hmm?"
The room fell to silence again, Deeno reacting like he never pictured me saying no. If he was really that oblivious, that surprised me even more. Yes, I knew him, but I had no obligation to house such a sketchy drifter. Already, I could tell this was the kinda guy who'd never work a day in his life.
"W-wait. I want you to give me a sec, okay? I mean, what do you want me to do? Go die out in the wilderness?"
"No. Get a job."
"Are you crazy?! To me, staying out of the working class is part of my style. I've never earned any of my money the past few hundred years, and I've never paid for any of my food or drink!"
Well, there you go. You're penniless because you don't work. No wonder you can't pay at restaurants.
"Wow. Impressive. You can leave after you're done eating that, okay?"
The sooner someone like this was out of your hair, the better. Ignoring him, I reached out for the snack in front of me, a fluffy cream puff to go with the tea.
Delicious. Doubt I'll ever grow sick of this.
Deeno looked a bit panicked, but he followed my lead, took a bite—and suddenly, his eyes changed.
"All right. I'll become a citizen of this country, so let me serve you." This nonsense struck me like a lightning bolt.
"What? Look, why are you coming in here, and—?"
"No, I'm serious. If I can eat stuff like this every day, I have no regrets. Rimuru… Um, I mean, let me call you Sir Rimuru. Your wish is my command!"
...
I told him I wasn't gonna hire him.
"Ughhh… I know we've met before and all, but it was just that one time, okay? What do you really want?"
Finishing my cream puff, I gave Deeno a stern look as I sipped my tea. His eyes darted around—a habit he shared with Ramiris, except he wasn't nearly as cute. But giving up, he shrugged and dropped the couch surfer act.
"Well, the way Guy puts it, I'm probably best off here in this country. He didn't tell me why, though—he's selfish like that. It's a pain in the ass if you defy him, and I really did get kicked out of Daggrull's place. And I got sick of thinking about it, so I just came over."
"Guy? That redhead?"
"Yeah. That redhead."
Hmmm. He didn't seem to be lying. Guy must've actually said that. But why me?
Understood. It is very likely the subject Guy Crimson disliked supporting the subject Deeno and wishes to have you care for him instead.
Dude. Way to be blunt with it. But that did seem likely.
"Oh, right, I got a letter from Guy."
Deeno took it out and handed it to me. Between the seal and the eerie force oozing from it, I could definitely spot Guy Crimson's mark. The entire contents of the letter: Take care of Deeno for me.
Guess I wasn't wrong, then. If Deeno was carrying this around, he must've been mooching off Guy for a while. Apparently, I was having the hot potato thrown in my direction now.
"So…we good?"
No, we're not good!
Irritated, I thought matters over. This was a pain in the ass, but antagonizing Guy was ill-advised. He was on a level of his own among demon lords, and I doubted I could beat him now. It'd be safer, certainly, to accommodate Deeno than tangle with Guy.
So do I just grin and bear it? If I do, I'm not gonna let him screw around. I never invited him as a guest, and I didn't want to set a bad precedent. Then I remembered: This guy's subservient to Ramiris, isn't he? And she said she needed more staff. Maybe this is actually perfect timing. I can't let my guard down around Deeno, but (whether he meant it or not) he did offer his services, so I may as well reach out and accept them.
Yes. Let's make him Ramiris's assistant. I grinned at him.
"All right. But you're gonna have to work!"
"What did you say?!"
Quit acting so shocked, dude! You told me seconds ago that my wish was your command! Bottling my frustration, I tried to explain the job in question to Deeno.
"Of course, when I say work, it's really simple, actually. I want you to be an assistant to Ramiris."
"Ramiris? She's here, too?"
"She sure is. She's helping with a lot of my work."
"Huh? I thought she was like me, just holed up in her labyrinth all day…"
Looks like Deeno thought Ramiris was a kindred soul. I could see why, but these days, she was actually workin' pretty hard.
"No, she's pitching in around here now, and between you and me, I think
she's having a lot of fun. I want to focus on development, but I have all these other things keeping me busy, so she's really a big help to me."
I'd never tell her that since it'd go to her head, but it was truly how I felt. It stunned Deeno into silence for a bit, but after a few moments, he gingerly spoke up.
"S-so what kinda work would she have me do?"
He sounded really against it. I thought about telling him, but maybe not right now. Better to just put him on the job and teach him whatever he needs to know on-site.
"Well, no need to fret about it. Whatever you're able to do is welcome. But let me show you to your workplace first."
"Mmngh… All right. Don't expect much from me."
"Hmm? Oh, don't act that way before you even start. I think you'll be just fine. Probably you'll only be following Ramiris's directions, so…"
With a pang of anxiety still fresh in my brain, I decided to take Deeno to our personal laboratory on Floor 100.
Taking the direct trip there, we proceeded past Veldora's chambers—the large room he used as his lair for engaging challengers—and his private quarters behind that. He was nowhere to be found, either. I wondered where he went? Probably out goofing around somewhere.
"Dude, why're there so many magicules around?"
"Oh, that's Veldora's room in there. Don't go in, okay? He's pretty selfish, so he gets pissy if anyone touches his stuff."
"Um… Veldora lives here?! I've been wondering since the last Walpurgis— How are you two connected, exactly?"
"We're friends, is all."
"Friends? You seemed like more than acquaintances to me, yeah, but… Well…"
Deeno was usually a little droopy-eyed, but now they were opened a bit more, out of surprise.
"So that's why Veldora seemed to disappear from my detection. He was hiding in Ramiris's labyrinth!"
"Ah, not exactly. He disappeared because he learned how to control his magicules. He used to let his aura pour out of him, so there were tons of magicules all over the place. If I wanted to invite a bunch of visitors in here, I couldn't really have that, now could I? So I had him practice controlling his aura."
"Huhhh? Veldora, ruler of the Forest of Jura? And now he's holding his aura back so well that not even I can detect it? Him?!"
The agitated Deeno must've thought I made it sound too easy. But it was the truth.
"Huh? I mean, he was pretty amenable to it. Otherwise, I'd say the majority of people in this city would be having problems right now."
"Y-yeah, but… I mean, all that magical energy he had… Until the Hero sealed him away, people feared him as this flying disaster, his aura spreading across the world. So why?"
That sounded pretty mean to me, although it was probably the truth. Given his past with Luminus, he must have misbehaved a lot.
"Well, I suppose he's changed a little. Now, if I ask him to do something, he'll actually listen to some extent. He's not that selfish any longer."
"Didn't you just say he was selfish a moment ago?"
Oh, did I?
Understood. You did.
Oh.
"Yes, but I mean it's never that bad. But that aura control, remember…"
In a situation like this, it was best to change the subject as soon as possible. I decided to tell Deeno about what happened when I released Veldora.
"And with his aura, I told him he'd look cooler if he held it back, so he practiced pretty hard. It was tough for me, too, helping him with it."
It was tough but worth it. Not that we had much choice anyway. As he was, I couldn't possibly show him around to others.
"R-really? Wow, Rimuru. You definitely live up to my expectations."
Weren't you just trying to bum free meals from me? You might try to sound all cool right now, but you can't trick me.
"I'm amazed you actually managed to tame Veldora," he continued, still looking impressed. Really, though, Milim's way more selfish than he ever was, and even she couldn't mouth off against Frey. Everyone has people they know better than to mess around with.
"Well, Veldora's hardly the only selfish brat I had to deal with; Milim, too—"
I regaled Deeno with the story of how I met Milim and how intensely unfair she acted toward me. She wasn't here, so I was free to speak my mind, telling him all about her most recent annoying nonsense. I also told him about some of Veldora's terrible exploits as well, figuring I could ask him which one he thought was the worst.
There was a lot I had to talk about, and it seemed to put Deeno in a state of shock, unable to even comprehend half of it after a certain point. I never did find out which was the worst in his mind.
In the midst of this, we finally reached my laboratory. Looking inside, I found Veldora himself busily assisting Ramiris—another day of honest work, by the looks of it. Considering how much Ramiris used and abused him, he was proving to be a very loyal dragon.
"V-Veldora…is working?!"
"See? I told you."
Even with all his complaints, he was still lending Ramiris a hand. He was awfully kind to her—maybe he liked her habit of calling him Master. He always did what I asked him to, in the end, and it was even easier to keep him in line if
you buttered him up a little. By dragon standards, he was a pushover.
Vester was there, too, despite his responsibilities modifying the Elemental Colossus on Floor 95. I said we were short on people, so maybe he decided to put my job first? Ramiris and Veldora were having fun, flashing evil grins at each other, but Vester looked exhausted and in dire need of a break. I wondered if he was all right.
"Hey, guys. How's the research going?"
I said hello as I stepped inside. Vester stopped whatever he was writing and stood up.
"Ah, Sir Rimuru…"
"Nah, nah, stay where you are. Hey, you doing okay? You look kinda worn out."
"I'd like to say I'm okay…but this kind of research is rather taxing on the mind…"
Hmm? Sounds a bit hard to talk about. I considered asking further, but Veldora interrupted.
"Well, well, Rimuru! I am pitching in here, as you can see. I normally wouldn't, but Ramiris insisted, of course."
"Thanks. It really does look like she could use more help."
My research was treated as top secret. I couldn't bring in researchers from Floor 95 for it, so I could only show it to people I could trust. Well, no—I could only show it to people who wouldn't bitch at me about it, more like. After all, I was preparing a small army of bodies to implant demons into. Research or not, people might see it as a military threat, so it's better not to let people from other countries know.
"Heya, Rimuru! I've been waiting for you! The master's been helping me in a lot of ways, but I still need to fill up my open spaces fast!"
"I thought you'd say that, so I brought along some help today. You know this guy, right, Ramiris? It's Deeno, a demon lord like us, and it sounds like he wants to help starting today. If you need anything, ask him, okay?"
I doubted Deeno had any academic knowledge, but anything requiring muscle ought to be up his alley. It's not like an amateur could assist at a research lab anyway. Chances are he'd be doing things like moving stuff around and collecting data—but we needed people to cover the more basic tasks like that, so he could still be useful.
Deeno looked around the room, curious. "Name's Deeno. As you know, I'm a demon lord, more or less. I don't like working, but I've got no other choice, so I'm gonna help out here. Thanks in advance."
A pretty listless way to introduce yourself, but that's all right. At least he was willing to pitch in.
I moved on, discovering why Vester was here and what they were up to. Vester was at my lab on Floor 100 because Ramiris kidnapped him, basically. As expected, there wasn't enough staff on hand, so she placed a temporary halt to his work and put my own project first. Vester didn't have any say in the matter, but I'm not sure what I could've done. We needed someone to fuss over the details of organizing documents and collecting data. Beretta handled the physical labor, while Treyni was taking care of Ramiris and managing her labyrinth. Veldora didn't want to help with any of that, so Vester was the next best option.
"You can afford to ignore the Elemental Colossus for now?"
"Wellll, not really, but once we're done with this, Treyni's sisters can have bodies, too, right? I figured we could kick off development from there."
That did seem more rational to me.
"Sorry you got it so rough," I told Vester. He shrugged and gave me a childlike grin.
"Part of me wants to see the armored-soldier project to completion, but this research has its gratifying aspects as well…"
I guess he had mixed feelings about it, too. He had a valid complaint, but being involved with this research made him happy, too. I guess, as a scientist, he had his own internal conflicts, and they were helping him rapidly mature. He looked a little surprised to learn Deeno was a demon lord, but he recovered
almost instantly. All the surprises Tempest offered must've given him a protective shell of sorts. As talented as he was, I figured he'd want to devote himself to his own research…but maybe that's not necessarily the case. No, he was just worn out because of this research.
"But indeed, I hope to continue with the research here. These base bodies you're trying to create, Sir Rimuru… I'd like to see them completed. There's a new surprise every day. I almost hate to lose time to sleep!"
He didn't try to hide his excitement. I guess his haggard look was just the result of sleep deprivation. There were magically driven ways to refresh oneself, but it wasn't an all-in-one solution. You still needed to take breaks; you couldn't just go on forever. So I decided to order Vester to rest for now. Since Deeno happened to be here, he'd be able to handle any miscellaneous tasks for the time being.
So Vester was now explaining the work to Deeno. Hopefully, they'd get along all right. Dealing with a new demon lord sure didn't faze Vester anyway.
"Now, Sir Deeno, not to hurry things along, but would you mind assisting me?"
"Huh?"
"No, not 'Huh.' We only have so much time!"
"But I'm a demon lord."
"So?"
"So…"
With a sigh, Vester kept a steady gaze on Deeno.
"Listen, whether you're a demon lord doesn't matter here. Look at how much fun Sir Veldora and Lady Ramiris are having with their work."
"I—I can see that, but…"
"I'm glad you understand. Now, let's begin!"
"…Okay."
Vester's a strong guy. I watched them for a while, but it looked like they'd be
okay. I decided not to worry about them.
Now for our research results.
I know I promised Diablo and everything, but preparing a thousand physical bodies took a ton of effort. One idea was to craft a magisteel doll like Beretta and then make copies of it with Raphael, but this sounded like a slog to me—at the same time, however, painstakingly crafting each one was out of the question. So I came up with another brilliant idea: a facility that could manufacture mass quantities of these bodies.
For this, I prepared a set of reinforced clear-glass capsules, around three and a half feet wide and almost ten feet tall. I called these incubation capsules, and as the name suggested, they were meant for growing monsters and other organic matter inside. Each one was filled with a liquid solution—water from the Sealed Cave's underground lake, internalized inside my Stomach. This was magic water, infused with a high concentration of magicules, making it useful for diluting or strengthening all kinds of medicinal effects.
Each incubation capsule included a port for magicule injection, letting people add more at any time. We could freely adjust the concentration of the magic water to best suit the monster we were trying to generate inside. If that concentration dipped down too low, our system would automatically inject magicules, keeping the count at a predefined level.
I had a thousand of these capsules ready. Part of me felt that crafting all these was about as much work as just making the damn bodies myself, but I banished the thought. It's all about the spectacle. It was a blast designing them anyway, so I had no regrets.
So we now had a chamber lined with incubation capsules. It was quite a sight. We also knew from our research that generating monsters required that certain conditions were met. Just filling a capsule with magicules wouldn't cut it, no matter how much you had. But if some other element was included—an element that would enhance and manifest itself in the monster who resulted— the story was different.
Let me explain. Assume I put a snake in an incubation capsule. The magicules
inside would kill it, but its body would melt, mix with the magicules, and become reborn as a tempest serpent. From a common snake, you now had a creature of A-minus rank, which should show just how dangerous one of these capsules was. The monsters these capsules produced were thus guaranteed to be several levels more advanced than what Mother Nature would create. You'd have these powerful, refined bodies, perhaps because we kept the magicule concentrate at just the right level.
However, some monsters born this way would quickly collapse and die. Body stability, as it were, seemed a matter of luck. We had room for improvement, to be sure, but I still wanted to use these capsules' features to produce a thousand demon bodies.
"So how have things been going?"
"Perfectly, Rimuru! And you know, my research has been moving along, too!" "Oh? I look forward to seeing it— Wait, what's that?"
What I saw floating in the capsule made me laugh. It was amazing, wholly unlike what I expected. Personally, I thought we'd just make skeletons out of magisteel and toss them in the capsules, producing the base for a bone golem. Its artificial frame would minimize the risk of collapse, and it wouldn't be infused with a soul, either. The magicules in the liquid would just crystallize on the bones, so I thought there was zero chance it'd achieve sentience. There was no need for intricate design work, unlike with Beretta, because the demons occupying them would use their own magicules to customize them to their liking.
…Or so I thought.
Floating inside the thousand capsules here were a thousand bone golem bodies, that much was certain. But each one of them had assorted work done on varying sections. The area around their hearts stood out the most—in the middle, where their hearts would be, a spirit core beat a rhythm instead.
"This…"
"Yeah, it's my idea! With a strong core like that, I'm sure the monsters usin' them will be stronger than ever!"
Ramiris, smiling, seemed to see this as no big deal. Preparing a thousand spirit cores had to be a pain in the ass, though. I didn't need much time for that, but unless you had a real interest and passion for it, it was too rote a process to enjoy very much. That's why I chose the simplest method for making all these bodies, but that wasn't good enough for Ramiris. She put in the hours required to produce a thousand of those, and each one had a pseudo-soul inside it as well. It even featured tech we cribbed from the Thalion homunculi.
Beretta had no problem possessing his body, but Treyni's sisters might have a harder time of it, so adding pseudo-souls was probably a good idea. But that, too, must've taken up so much time… No wonder she constantly complained about needing more staff.
"Lady Ramiris's idea was wonderfully compelling to me," Vester said, gazing into the distance. "One look, and I really just had to help out." I could see his point. With this large of a sample run, you could record all the data you ever wanted.
Each fist-size spirit core looked high quality to me when I sized them up. Fusing them with the skeletons I crafted resulted in changes not imagined in my original plan. My frameworks were magically inscribed so the magicules would form muscle groups over them, too, which made it look like we had an up-close perspective on monster development like never before. Now I understood why Vester barely felt the need to sleep.
"What d'you think? Pretty neat, huh?"
"Kwah-ha-ha-ha! Just seeing that face from you makes this project a fine success!"
Ramiris and Veldora seemed happy with themselves.
"It's pretty interesting, yeah…but was this really your idea, Ramiris?" "What? Of course it was. What d'you think of that?!"
She was almost shouting as she puffed her chest out at me. Yeah, she deserved to be proud. I was sure impressed. Ramiris might seem like an idiot at first glance, but she was actually pretty smart. Her sense for spirit engineering was perfect, and she was studying sorcerous science and paying frequent visits
to Floor 95. As long as she's lived, she's had a full grasp of the laws of physics, and although it astounded me to say it, she had all the qualifications you needed for a researcher. You can't judge her by the externals, I suppose.
"This is really amazing. If this was all handmade, it must've been super difficult, right?"
"Well, kind of. These frameworks are modeled after people's skeletons—not like with Beretta's ball joints. But with an artificial heart, they really soak in the magicules and gain a lot of magic energy, I think!"
I nodded at her impassioned theory. She was right—this probably would enhance their bodily strength beyond what I pictured. By a lot, actually.
Watching these bodies in their incubation capsules, I tried picturing what powers they'd have. If I had to guess, in terms of magicule energy, they'd be positioned on the upper end of the A rank. And we had a thousand of them. I still couldn't believe Ramiris prepared enough spirit cores and pseudo-souls for them all. She really deserved a round of applause.
Several days passed since Deeno's arrival. Diablo wasn't back yet, but I had a feeling he would be soon. Today, as well, I headed to the lab to get those bodies wrapped up for him.
Things were busy as always over there, Ramiris and Veldora verbally jousting over something.
"I told you, Master, if you want to encourage growth, we need to inject your magicules directly into them!"
"Yeah, but what if that winds up breaking this thing? Then Rimuru will yell at me, not you."
They were at it again. It sounded interesting, so I hid myself and watched. I was getting good at concealing my presence lately, so it didn't look like Veldora noticed my arrival.
"It's fine! You know how many we have! And I promise I'll put in a good word when you ask him for your favor. So please?"
Sounded like Ramiris was asking him for some magicule support. But what did Veldora want from me? I couldn't guess.
"Well, all right. You better live up to your word, though."
"Yep, yep! Just trust me!"
They had a deal, so Veldora nodded. Considering how haughty he usually acted, he seemed to be enjoying what was to come quite a bit. It looked like Ramiris put him up to it, by and large, but he was receptive from the beginning.
So Veldora brought a hand up to an incubation capsule, and—with an apparently meaningful "Hah!"—infused it with magicules. The capsule was now swirling with an unusually high concentration of them, and considering the pressure, I could see how the capsule might break apart. Was this going to be okay? I was worried but decided to keep watching silently. If it shattered, we could deal with it—I was more curious about what Ramiris was attempting.
Inside the capsule, the crystallized magicules attached to the magisteel skeleton began transforming into what looked like muscle tissue. Raphael had predicted this much; it was part of the plan. But now, with Veldora directly injecting his own magic force, something unexpected was about to happen. Vast numbers of magicules began to pervade the skeleton, transforming the framework itself.
I could hear Ramiris say "Oh? I didn't expect that." Which, well, that's what experiments are for.
The skeleton material could really no longer be called magisteel. Nor was it orichalc or mithril—not without any gold or silver mixed in. But while its strength wasn't crimson steel yet, it had risen to at least the level of orichalc.
More impressive, however, was how the skeleton seemed to live—literally breathe, even—despite being metal.
Understood. It is a type of adamant or bio-magisteel. It has been transformed by the magical waves of the subject Veldora. Theoretically, one could call it dragontite.
I see.
To me, it looked like Ramiris was groping for a way to finish the bodies faster, and in the process, she'd stumbled upon the discovery of a neat new metal. And it wasn't over yet.
"Wh-whoa! Master?! Stop! Stoppppp!!"
"Mm? Oooh. There are cracks in the capsule…?!"
Both of them panicked. I couldn't tell if they were geniuses or dunces right now.
"What are you people doing?"
I decided to finally step in and regain control of the situation.
After repairing the capsule, I called for a coffee and snack break, inviting Vester and Deeno to join. Treyni the dryad was kind enough to serve us.
"Tch. Just when we were at a good part…"
"Oh, you didn't want any cake? I'll just let Ramiris have it, then…"
"I'm sorry. I was lying. Well, no, it was true, but um, just a slip of the tongue…"
Deeno was having a snit over his work being interrupted, but he bowed his head and got back in line once I threatened to leave him high and cakeless. Are you sure that's how you want to act, Deeno? Some Sleeping Ruler you are— But he seemed devoted to his work, at least, which was a relief.
Vester and Deeno were working on experiments together, recording data from the thousand incubation capsules and checking out Kurobe's completed slot-compatible swords in their spare time. This was mainly thanks to my bragging. Vester was eager to join in on this, hoping it'd help with the impasse in his Elemental Colossus modification work. Deeno was using the sample cores I gave him, and Vester was diligently recording the results.
As I surmised from his attitude when he came in, Deeno really liked this work. It was work, but just a thin line away from play, really. He may've whined about how much he hated a decent living, but in this environment, he was doing real work whether he realized it or not. If you find your work fun, you never work a day in your life, I suppose.
After spending a few minutes relaxing, I turned to Ramiris and cut to the chase.
"So, Ramiris, why were you in such a hurry to create a complete body?" "Oh, ummm…"
She seemed hesitant.
Treyni stepped up to defend her. "Wait a minute, Sir Rimuru. Lady Ramiris is devoting her all to helping my sisters and our friends!"
I didn't intend to criticize her, but Treyni must've thought I was angry, because she was already arguing in Ramiris's defense. That's how it always worked. Treyni was just way too lenient with her.
"No, I just want to know the reason. I'm not mad at all. Well, Ramiris?" I tried to put Treyni's mind at ease before continuing.
"Hmm…looking back, I was probably moving too fast. You know, I have a lot of adoring fans, so I wanted them to have their own bodies ASAP. That'd make them a lot happier and stuff, and I'd have more personnel, and then everybody's good, right?"
Awkward as she seemed, Ramiris did have a point. Even without bodies, the dryads could work and operate within the labyrinth. Treants, on the other hand, couldn't. They could manifest themselves nearby the trees that were their "main" bodies, but they couldn't venture anywhere that tree wasn't in view. Without a body, they'd be discharging magicules like mad, a major drag on them. Even dryads faced a drastic cut in power once they were too far from their "real" bodies—and they were on the upper echelon of A rank, a level above high-end magic-born. The lower-level treants couldn't expect much at all by comparison.
As Ramiris reasoned, the bodies in these incubation capsules would give physical freedom to both the dryads and the treants. Thus, she was surreptitiously completing, and borrowing, a few bodies for herself.
"Well, if that's all you wanted, why didn't you ask? Diablo's not back yet, and I don't even know exactly how many demons he's bringing with him. We can
always make more if we need to later, so let's get bodies ready for the dryads first."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course I am."
"Thank you, Rimuru!!"
She flitted happily in the air, doing a few laps around me. But this suited my purposes as well. We really didn't have enough people. Treyni's sisters and the other dryads were working hard maintaining the labyrinth, which was tough work in itself, so clearly we didn't have much of a safety net. At this rate, we were all bound to burn out and screw something up. The labyrinth was open day and night, after all, and we needed to set up a proper shift system to deal with that soon.
With these bodies, even the treants could be A-ranked creatures, able to hold their own in the labyrinth. If they managed to wreck their physical bodies somehow, they'd be safe—they were just possessing them, is all. This would likely only apply within Ramiris's labyrinth, which was as far as their thoughts could travel, but that was good enough.
The dryads, meanwhile…
"So yeah, I figure we could make Traya, Doreth, and Alpha and the others into Dryas Doll Dryads like you, Treyni—"
"…?!"
"Hmm?"
"Are you sure about that?"
Even before I could finish, Treyni latched on to my proposal with astonishing speed.
"You're sure, Rimuru?"
Ramiris was similarly uneasy, leaving Deeno and the rest in the dark. "Am I sure about what?"
"Evolving creatures to Dryas Doll Dryads takes a ton of work, doesn't it?"
"Oh, kind of. But I owe them for all their efforts, and I'd like to have them keep helping with the labyrinth, so…"
"Yes, but we've been granted a place to live already… Lady Ramiris has agreed to work with you, Sir Rimuru, and as her servants, we are only carrying out our promise."
Treyni sounded apologetic, but her help around the labyrinth was a massive boon. To pay for that, I wanted anyone evolved to dryad to have the chance at an independent body. It'd involve handcrafting a body for each one, but in a way, making handsome-looking male and female figures was a hobby of mine— and besides, just reusing the bodies I was making for Diablo seemed trite. Dryad bodies really demanded you make them with wood, I thought.
"No, no, you really do help us a lot. I'd like you to keep up the good work, so please don't be afraid to accept them. I'll let each one of them decide whether they'll use one of the bodies here or evolve into a Dryas Doll Dryad with the bodies I carve for them."
Treyni eagerly nodded. Ramiris, next to her, was grumbling along the lines of "Why is he kinder to Treyni than me? I don't like that…," but I ignored it.