I spent a few months working as an assistant teacher for Rimuru. After a while however, I decide it's about time for me to stop. At least for now. I have melt reasons that'll come into play later but in order to successfully complete my master plan I must leave now. How I'll pass the time, that's simple, a little adventuring can't hurt.
I say my goodbyes to the students who aren't exactly happy that I'm leaving and head on my way. I had informed Yuuki about my plan to go adventuring the month prior to make leaving easier.
When I leave I immediately work on deciding what kind of mission I want. After a while the conversation turns into a bombardment of warnings as I choose to do the hardest mission they have. Defeat a Giant Armored Serpent. Never heard of it but it sounds powerful. After a while of convincing I eventually take the mission.
On the way out I think, to be that terrified of one monster I wonder how strong it must be.
{The Giant…}
No spoilers.
Walking outside and eventually leaving the sightlines of the guards in front of the gates to Ingracia I finally decide it's time to summon Ranryo. As he flies out of my shadow, already wagging his tail he excitedly asks where we're going.
"We're going adventuring Ranryo, but I'm a little tired of being in my human form constantly so can I ride you?"
"Of course, Master!"
"Thanks." I turn back into my Slime form and jump on Ranryo. Relaxing on top of his mane losing my shape quickly, I melt on top of his soft fur. Finally I can relax, it's been nothing but work for the past few months.
We travel for 3 days without many incidents. The fr monsters we do encounter end up being repeats we had already encountered a while ago. Eventually we reach our destination, a small path going through a group of mountains in the middle of nowhere. The only reason this mission exists is probably due to the danger of that monster existing I suppose.
As Ranryo and I enter the mountains I decide to get off Ranryo and start walking to make fighting easier. Apparently monsters are supposed to be stronger in the mountain range which is another reason this is an S-rank mission so in case something ambushes us, being in human form is just the best bet. I look at a hint that the lady at the front desk gave me telling me that the serpent itself would be in its burrow, however due to its size I should really be looking for a cave.
A cave huh. This thing must be massive.
Not long after that I see something I've never seen before. A new monster I've never seen before. It's a mountain goat-like creature with shaggy black fur, glowing white horns that point forwards and piercing white eyes. Quite the strange creature. As soon as it sees me it immediately attacks with two magic lasers coming out of its horns. Missing me by a little bit the lasers leave a hole in the rock a few feet deep. Guess the monsters here really are stronger.
I wrap it up with [Sticky-Steel Threads] and pull it towards me, absorbing it with [Predator].
{Notice- Analysis of the Piercing Goat has been completed.
The ability to mimic the Piercing Goat has been obtained.
Extra Skill [Twin Laser] has been acquired.}
Not bad. Pretty good results for the first monster I found. Back during my exploring a while back I had found a lot of skill-less monsters or monsters with the exact same skills another one had before.
Moving on we continue the trek through the mountain path.
During our exploration I do occasionally find new monsters but they don't pose much of a challenge being an easy kill with [Air Cutter]. I do make sure to save some parts from most of the monsters however. In my [Stomach] I separate these monsters into the usable parts and the unusable parts. The usable parts are to be stored to trade into the guild later while the unusable parts are simply dissolved in my [Stomach]. A lot of the monsters I encounter are repeats whether it be more that are exclusive to this mountain or unusually powerful Charger Boars and Armorsaurus' there is no shortage of monster parts for me.
The normal skills I end up obtaining by the end are:
[X-ray Vision]
[Regenerator]
[Adrenaline Rush]
[Fire Breath]
[Streamline]
[Acid Spray]
Not the greatest set of skills to ever exist but they work. [Adrenaline Rush] turns out to be uniquely suited to work with [Genius] really well, as well. What it does is increase power at the cost of intelligence which is offset by [Genius]' effect. The rest are pretty self explanatory except [Streamline] which magically lowers air resistance.
However, ignoring those monsters I killed there do end up being four big ones. Those being, an Electric Moray, an Ice Arch-Dragon, a Shadow Leopard, and of course, the Giant Armored Serpent.
The first monster of these I encounter is the Electric Moray. Simply finding it in a small lake formed by the melting snow up top coming down the moray wastes no time, immediately jumping out and attacking me. It looks like a normal moray just with spikes running down its back and two huge vampire-like teeth with actual biological venom, no skill required. The two things setting it apart is, first of all, its 20 feet long, and second of all, it has the ability to control electricity like an Electric Eel on steroids.
A monster like this could put up quite the fight against a normal adventurer but I'm not some normal adventurer. I used [Air Cutter] instead of [Water Blade] because thanks to the abundance of wind on this mountain [Air Cutter] simply made more sense to use. However, nearby a lake [Water Blade] suddenly becomes superior. After I shoot an unusually large [Water Blade] at it, opening a large gash on the eel's body it retreats into the water. Ranryo attempts to attack it with [Black Lighting] but not only is the thing really tacky, the thing also has Electricity Resistance for it so it survives pretty easily.
Returning for round two the snake charges forward with its mouth wide open revealing three layers of teeth and a second jaw behind its first the moray jumps out attempting to eat me whole. I dodge and fire a [Black Flame] at the eel, killing it.
As the roasted remains land on the ground I turn to Ranryo. "You hungry?"
We stop near the pristine lake for a nice break. Looking around I think to myself, if this place wasn't such a death-trap, I think this would have been a really nice tourist attraction. It's actually quite beautiful here.
I cook the food with [Fire Manipulation] and give a huge part of the eel to Ranryo while I enjoy my share. It tastes pretty good but without proper seasoning it's not incredible.
{Notice- Analysis of the Electric Moray has been completed.
The ability to mimic the Electric Moray has been obtained.
Skills [Taze, Controlled Lightning, Discharge and Charge] have been acquired.}
Seeing the water gives me the urge to go swimming for a bit which I promptly do. Ranryo goes in as well. We enjoy the calming atmosphere for a bit. All the monsters were scared away by Ranryo's [Black Lighting] so there ends up being very little sound. Not what I was expecting when I signed up for an adventure.
We eventually leave the lake and move on our way. The first thing I do is look over my new skills. [Taze] is pretty simple, it shocks people that touch you. The shock itself can range from a small shock to a life threatening level of electricity depending on how much I want to discharge. [Controlled Lightning] is just as easy to understand, its controlled lighting. A lightning bolt you can aim and control.
[Charge] and [Discharge] are more interesting. They're counterparts. What [Charge] does is absorb electricity around it and absorb it. While [Discharge] releases it. The concept of these two skills remind my of Stockpile and Spit Up from Pokémon. Quite the interesting skills.
A day passes by before my next milestone, the Shadow Leopard. Shadow Leopards are ambush hunters taken to the extreme. They have a skill that allows them to phase through objects allowing them to jump out of walls to attack their victims. This is downright broken, how the hell are you supposed to react to an ambush hunter that can attack you from another side of a wall?
Anyways, my first reaction is to attack it with [Air Cutter]. When the attack goes right through the Leopard it immediately runs into the mountain.
[Great Sage]?
{Target Found- The Shadow Leopard is 2 two feet to the left.}
Wait what!? Suddenly it jumps out and tackles me to the ground. Kicking it off me I watch Ranryo bark at it before he shoots a [Black Lighting] at it which actually connects.
[Great Sage]. How did Ranryo's attack hit?
{Answer- The Extra Skill [Phantasm] allows the user to phase through objects however when faced with light it becomes unable to. Sufficient light can attack monsters with [Phantasm].}
Good to know. Let's try this.
I raise my arm outwards causing water droplets to appear in front of me. Suddenly thin weak lasers fire from those droplets and all concentrate on a single droplet not too far away from the leopard. It looks on in confusion getting closer to the center droplet. Big mistake. Suddenly a single clear laser shoots out of the droplet scoring a perfect headshot on the leopard going right through its brain. It worked. I just used Megiddo, the first example of physics magic in this world's history ends up being performed by me. Guess it only makes sense considering what I do.
"Sorry for stealing your idea Rimuru." I walk up to the leopard and absorb it.
{Notice- Analysis of the Shadow Leopard has been completed.
The ability to mimic the Shadow Leopard has been obtained.
Extra Skills [Phantasm and Death Stare] have been acquired.}
As I look through these skills I realize that these are way too good considering what I did to get them. [Phantasm] is a skill that as I've said allows you to phase through objects with the only drawback being a weakness to light. While [Death Stare] is a skill that kills people that are a certain amount weaker than you simply by looking at them. For someone like me, who is much stronger than your average person, I will be able to [Death Stare] my way through a ridiculous number of people.
We continue moving forward quickly after that. Eventually as we get higher we reach a snowy area. Looking around there aren't any monsters at all nearby. That's strange, what happened to them. Investigating what happened to them I find a Charger Boar skeleton. Now, most people wouldn't think twice about it and walk past it but I know better.
Charger Boars don't have much fur and would get cold fast where Ranryo and I are. The last Charger Boar I found was over a day ago at this point which means something carried it here. But what could carry such a big monster up so high? Charger Boars are big, about the size of Ranga or slightly bigger than Ranryo.
That question is quickly answered by a loud deafening shriek, and a small sonic boom. It's an Ice Arch-Dragon. It immediately attacks, protecting its territory by going after me. Before I can attack a [Black Lighting] hits the thing head on causing it to retreat flying upwards and flying overhead. After a while at incredible speeds the thing swoops downwards again taking Ranryo instead of me.
Thinking fast my Phoenix Wings appear as I fly after the thing using [Detonation] on one of its wings causing it to shriek in pain and drop Ranryo. I catch him as the dragon retreats into the clouds.
Everything goes quiet for a second.
"Ranryo, when I say go hit its injured wing with [Black Lighting], understood?"
"Yes Master." He prepares for the finisher.
{Warning- On your left.}
I dodge forwards as the dragon swoops downwards from my left with its mouth wide open, instead getting a mouthful of snow. It flaps back up and prepares to swoop down again.
"Now Ranryo!"
Ranryo hits it with a [Black Lighting] causing the dragon to fall a little allowing me to hit it with the final blow. I pull out my sword and cover it with [Magic Haki] and [Black Flame] as I cut its neck using the momentum of the thing falling downwards to add even more power to the swing. The attack is a clean cut across the Arch-Dragon's neck which kills it instantly.
I smile at Ranryo, "Good job Ranryo."
He happily wags his tail at the compliment and watches on as I absorb the Ice Arch-Dragon.
{Notice- Analysis of the Ice Arch-Dragon has been completed.
The ability to mimic the Ice Arch-Dragon has been obtained.
Extra Skills [Crystalline Armor, Subzero Breath, Ice Shard Barrage and Flash-Freeze] have been acquired.}
I look through my skills. An armor skill that causes ice to form on top of my skin, an ice breath type skill, a weaker form of my already existing [Icicle Barrage]. Gotta say the first three are pretty disappointing.
The final one, [Flash-Freeze] is interesting though. It instantly freezes anything I touch along with immediate surroundings. Not exactly the most incredible ability but if I can hit a vital spot with it, like freezing someone's nose and mouth this could be reasonably strong. I'll have to test it more myself later on though.
We continue moving forward for a few more hours before it becomes night-time. Turning back into my Slime form to relax I decide to take one last look around. Not expecting much, I turn the corner and immediately spot an unnatural looking cave. Oh, god. Looking higher up I see it, The Giant Armored Serpent.
The thing is huge, large enough to wrap around multiple Tempest factories multiple times. It looks like a giant bulky snake with stone plating on its head forming an almost beak-like structure on the front of its mouth that looks similar to what you would find on the extinct Dunkleosteus back on Earth. It's eyes are blank and white with no pupils seemingly relying on [Magic Sense] to see. The armor stretches down its back all the way to the unseen tail presumably. Shit!
Immediately turning back into my human form I go to warn Ranryo who had already fallen asleep. Probably seeing me as a threat the serpent immediately starts forming a giant rock in front of its mouth with some kind of skill and launches it at mach speeds at me. I dodge it with [Phantasm] but then I look back and see the aftermath. Part of the trail I took is completely gone, the only thing remaining being a huge crater from where the rock hit. It tore a large chinch of the mountain off as well causing a rockslide down below. Holy shit! No wonder this thing was classified as S!
It starts to move, chasing after me forcing me to fight back. I use [Detonation] on the only soft part of its body I can see, the inside of its mouth. The resulting explosion destroys its touché causing a literal river of blood to come flowing out of its mouth as it yells out in pain. The next thing that happens ends up being the worst thing that could possibly happen. It heals at breakneck using some kind of healing skill. "Are you fucking kidding me!" It looks over me and charges downwards ready to swallow me whole when suddenly a massive barrage of lightning comes out of nowhere.
As the serpent looks back I get a good look too. It's Ranryo, and he's evolving! His horns turn black, his eyes glow bright red in the same shade mine are, his fur darkens and the star on his forehead turns black as well.
{Notice- Ranryo has evolved into a Rogue Tempest Star Wolf. A Tempest Star Wolf that has broken off from its previous alpha.}
"So he won't listen to Ranga?"
{Answer- Yes.}
"He'll still listen to me right?"
{Answer- Unsure.}
That's actually kind of concerning. Suddenly Ranryo's power skyrockets as the barrage of [Black Lighting] increases in power. "What the hell is going on!?"
{Answer- Subject Ranryo has obtained the Unique Skill [Renegades Rage]. The skill will increase Subject Ranryo's power when enraged. The power of the boost depends on how enraged Subject Ranryo becomes.}
So he's angry, is it because the Giant Armored Serpent almost swallowed me? That's actually good…news. My train of thought is broken off as the [Black Lightning] becomes far more concentrated.
"Is that even [Black Lightning] anymore!?"
{Answer- No, the attack currently being used is the Extra Skill [Black Thunderstorm].}
Good to know. Finally loving past the shock of Ranryo's outburst I finally get back into the battle. Even with Ranryo's massive burst of power the serpent seems relatively unfazed by the attack, the attack only managing to catch its attention. God this thing is durable. Jumping back into the fight I use [Detonation] on the snake causing it to turn and swoop for a bite which I phase through.
This only causes Ranryo to growl angrily before howling even louder, increasing his power output even more to astronomical levels outclassing even me. "What the fuck!" How strong is this skill!
The snake counteracts this by attacking with an attack that summons much smaller rocks and launches them at us. Ranryo jumps over while I phase through them with [Phantasm]. Thank god this happened at…
"Augh! Are you kidding me! Not right now!" A rock hits me sending me flying, only angering Ranryo even more. This boost in output actually causes the lightning to increase to the point where he's leaving noticeable damages on the serpent's hide.
Recovering I can only think, if only I had stored a Magicule Bomb in my [Stomach]. We're in the middle of nowhere, no one would have noticed something like that here. I should probably keep that in mind later.
Seeing that it's eyes are also pretty vulnerable I use [Phoenix Fire] on its eyes. [Phoenix Fire] is like napalm Fire on steroids. It sticks to whatever it touches and can't be put out by anything. What keeps it on is Magicules fed to it by the person who started the fire. I feed the fire enough Magicules to where it only damages it's eyes to cause it pain rather than it's armored skin which is way too tough to significantly damage with [Phoenix Fire].
I see electricity patterns all over its body when I jump back. Looks like Ranryo's actually doing some really good damage. He's still going berserk though. If only I could tell him where to aim.
I hit it with another [Detonation] causing it to shriek in pain from the overly sensitive skin it has now. I made sure to aim at an area that was still scarred from Ranryo's Lightning just to get that reaction.
Come on, let's do this. I attempt to make a new skill on the spot. This shouldn't be too hard, let's do this!
{Notice- Extra Skill [Black Flame] and Extra Skill [Phoenix Fire] are being restructured into a new skill to fulfill your desire to kill the Giant Armored Serpent.
Unique Skill [Cremation] has been obtained.}
"Now, [Cremation]!" A massive blast of magic fire is fired right at its face melting a huge part of its skin, muscle and fat off exposing part of its skull. "[Detonation]!" Using Detonation on its exposed skull I crack it open revealing its brain. "[Cremation]!" One last blast of [Cremation] destroys its exposed brain before it can heal over killing the Giant Armored Serpent once and for all.
Landing nearby I catch my nonexistent breath and realize it's completely silent. Where's Ranryo? I turn to see Ranryo asleep on the ground where he was last standing firing it's [Black Thunderstorm]. Looks like all that tired him out.
I walk over to him and pet him, "Guess you completely exhausted your Magicules. Good work Ranryo." This causes him to smile in his sleep. This causes me to smile as well. Truly what you would expect from a giant dog.
I go up to the serpent's corpse and use a Predator to absorb it, taking some prizes like it's armor and teeth with me. I'm not going to give most of this to the guild. From how durable this thing was I'd rather use it for the benefit of Tempest.
{Notice- Analysis of the Giant Armored Serpent has been completed.
The ability to mimic the Giant Armored Serpent has been obtained.
Extra Skills [Rock Blaster, Earth Manipulation and Perfect Armor Plating] have been acquired.
Unique Skill [Hyper Regeneration] has been acquired.}
Pretty good skills. Looks like my Avatar Set is complete. Not even bothering to look through my skills I just collapse on Ranryo and just relax.
[Great Sage], make me go into sleep mode.
{Notice- Sleep mode has been activated.}
I slowly lose consciousness as I go to sleep for the first time in over a year. Of course no drea…
Suddenly the darkness is interrupted by a bright light. This light then suddenly shuts off and turns back on. 30 different images flash in my head. An ever changing ever adapting Chimera, 9 pairs of white wings with a black giant pair behind wrapping around them, a glowing blue Diamond and most interesting a blue slime with glowing blue bubbles. All these images lead up to an image of two giant godlike figures. Both with books, one with a pencil, one with a pen. One glowing bright blue, one glowing bright red. The image of an infinite clash between these two opposites appears and between the two I see a, is that a universe? What's happening?
Suddenly I am thrust forward, leaving the two gods behind. Going even further, beyond anything I could ever imagine I see, a man, sitting in a wooden chair, looking down at me. His face, blurry and covered in fog, but I can somehow tell he's smiling at me. I feel as he looks at me like he's gazing into my very soul. This uncomfortable cosmic staring contest continues for a while until he suddenly lifts his hand up, and snaps his fingers.
Everything goes blank.
Jumping up out of my sleep I hold my head. "Ugh, what happened?" I feel like something happened, but I can't remember. I look at my hand, it's shaking. "What the hell happened?" As a bright light creeps up on me from my subconscious my train of thought is interrupted by Ranryo waking up, saving me from my fate of the light's pain.
"Hello, Mast…" He suddenly stands up and looks around, freaking out a bit. "Where is it!?"
Showing him a foot long tooth I say, "It's already over Ranryo. Thanks for the help, you really saved me there."
Wagging his tail he says, "I deeply appreciate your praise, Master." He suddenly stops and looks down, "But I unfortunately don't deserve it. I couldn't make it to the end of the fight. If you had lost I wouldn't have been able to save you."
So he's still loyal. Thank…actually, never mind. "Don't worry Ranryo. You did your best. I couldn't have won without you."
"Thank you, Master."
"Now head back."
"Understood!"
With Ranryo running after his new evolution and with me running we get close to Ingracia pretty fast. But then suddenly I sense something.
"Ranryo, run. Go to that cliff. If something goes wrong I want you to warn Rimuru!"
"What's wrong Master!?"
"Just do what I say. You'll know what I mean when it happens!"
"Understood." He jumps in my shadow and escapes through it.
That bastard. I smile creeps across my face. "Well played." You were the one that made that mission, weren't you? With a monster that powerful there is plausible deniability to my death and with this just being a monster subjugation I didn't think to activate [Genius] before signing up to check for possible traps. You really drove me into a corner on this one.
Congratulations Yuuki Kagurazaka, you actually managed to outsmart me on this one.
I activate [Genius]. Of course this doesn't actually change anything, in fact, you just made another part of my plan much easier.
Walking up further I yell, "Hinata Sakaguchi! Captain of the Imperial Guard and leader of the Ten Great Saints! I know you're there! Come out and face me!"