Currently I have a week left until Rimuru leaves Ingracia and the attack on Tempest starts. Until then I've been using [Great Sage] and [Genius] to its maximum potential and studying Magicules, science and the skill system constantly. By doing this I should be able to apply them to my evolution to achieve really good results. You never know when you might stumble upon a breakthrough. Any new discoveries could be huge. All of this is in preparation for my evolution.
Of course, that's not all I'm doing. Thanks to [Parallel Processing] I am able to move that process away from my general thinking process in order to still do other things. It does come at the downside of slower general calculation speeds but they don't really matter.
For now I've got two things I've got to do. First of all we've got the meeting with Gard Myourmile. Thanks to my intervention when the Arch-Dragon attacked the city of Ingracia, Rimuru didn't encounter Gard. Accurate to my calculations but still annoying to have to deal with.
Gard is a very important person in Tempest's future as the man who handles Tempest's money. Finding him will make the future much more convenient. Judging by his actions he should still be in Ingracia right now so I only really have to find him. For this I finally get to use this. I pull out a tiny device, small enough to fit on a fingernail but powerful enough to completely hide your Magicules.
That's right, one of the two devices I developed over a year ago, the other one being the Magicule Bomb, will finally come into play. I make a clone of myself using [Body Double] and have it copy the form of the tiny fly-like monster from all those months ago. Finally, everything is going to come together.
After I equip it with the Magicule hiding device, I send it off on a mission. The mission being, find Gard Myourmile. With [Genius], finding Gard shouldn't be much of a problem but for now I don't really have much else to do. Putting another Magicule hiding device on myself, I begin flying around in search of Gard.
Due to the form I'm using, flying Gard on the first day is very unlikely though, even with [Genius]. Unlike Yuuki, who I could find nearly 100% of the time with very little information thanks to my complete analysis of him, I haven't met Gard yet. [Genius] is crazy, but not that crazy. It's just a Unique Skill after all.
Before I start looking for Gard I take one last peak into Yuuki's office. Flying over to his office, I see that he isn't really doing anything too suspicious. Simply reading manga for the time being as predicted. With that little checkup completed I set off into the massive city of Ingracia to look for one single man. Normally a nearly impossible feat for a normal guy, but I'm not your normal everyday guy, hehe.
{...}
I feel someone looking at me with a brutal deadpan expression. Strange, no one should be able to see me.
The clone flukes around where Rimuru should be and uses all sensory abilities to see what Rimuru is doing and thinking. Seems that he is just as clueless to my "death" as I thought he would be. He's happily teaching the kids something that he doesn't seem to understand too well either. I can tell [Great Sage] is saving his ass on this one. Thanks to [Sage's Link] I can see when his [Great Sage] is active and vice versa. He, I would know how to teach that, Rimuru.
During my time teaching the kids I was the one that would handle, you know, the actual teaching of information. Rimuru was mostly there for support during those parts of class. Apparently I was a nightmare teacher as Rimuru pointed out one night. Not really holding back on hard subjects and pushing everyone to their absolute limits when training. Good to see I haven't gone soft. My old little sister from before I died also said that.
My little sister. I look down a little. I wonder how she's doing. Snapping out of it I focus on the task at hand again. Find Gard. No distractions!
I continue to scan the entire city in search of Gard. No luck on the first day. With night coming quickly, I decide to stop for now. Gard is likely asleep by this point in time so finding him will likely be harder. For now I focus on my second goal outside of research. Making myself a new weapon.
My sword has been lacking a bit recently. It's a good sword, don't get me wrong. But the sword I have right now isn't my best work. I made it when I had way less information on how the Magic system truly worked and due to that it has a couple imperfections. It's time to make a new one. This is earlier than I expected when it comes to making this sword however. I originally thought I would make it after I became a Demon Lord. Why is that? It's simple. Fighting Hinata was the last requirement and I originally wasn't going to go back with Rimuru, even if Hinata hadn't intercepted me on my wails back from adventuring in fear of affecting the timeline because Hinata fighting both of us at once would have been to risky a bet for Yuuki to take.
That means originally I was planning to make this sword, after Hinata came back to Tempest with the Paladins a few months after my Demon Lord transformation. Yuuki, I appreciate you for making my plan so much easier to execute. Now I'll have my sword before the Walpurgis. I appreciate it. An evil ear to ear grin appears on my face.
I pull out all needed materials to create my masterpiece and lay them on a wooden table I also happened to have in my [Stomach]. Using my Slimy properties I also make a whole forge on the spot to help in the process. Now to make the sword.
First, what will the sword be made of. It'll mostly be made of 100% pure Magisteel with Gold and Titanium thrown into the mixture. When you mix Gold with Magisteel you get Orichalcum. An interesting combination but by adding Titanium, the mixture becomes even stronger. Quite the discovery. I'll name it Afthatite or indestructible metal considering it's superior to Mithril, Orichalcum, and Adamantite. Of course, it is a bit of an exaggeration considering Dragotite is comparable to it and Hihiirokane is strictly superior but if we're talking, non-enchantment enhanced metals, Afthatite is the strongest I've discovered.
With the material decided it's time to forge. I'll just start off easy. I absorb the metal and change it into my desired shape. In the process I also fuse quite a few magic stones with the sword. Some are stones I randomly found, however, most of them are artificial. Powerful artificial magic stones I created during my research process. Turning back into my Slime form, I spit it out and look at it. Not too bad for now.
Time to start actually forging the sword. The process takes about an hour but by the time it's complete, the sword's shape is complete. An interesting little tid-bit I would like to say is the end is literally a molecule thick. That's how sharp my sword is. Of course, it can always be sharper.
{Sigh...}
Hey! I heard that! I knew it! It was you!
Hehe, finally you're starting to show some emotion, too bad your first emotional reaction to me ended up being that. To think my own skill would do that to me.
Ignoring that I will move on to the final part of this process. Magically enhancing the sword. Now, my sword can't just be any old sword. It has to be better and to do that I'll enhance it with magic. The reason why I needed to make this sword after fighting Hinata is to do what Rimuru did with Shion's sword. He analyzed the Dead End Rainbow's 7 hit, soul destroying abilities and perfected it then put it in Shion's sword. That's what gives her sword the ability to insta-kill Clayman's puppets during the Walpurgis. I want that on my sword as well so I needed to wait to fight Hinata either way. I eat the sword again and enhance it inside my [Stomach] which I've discovered is very useful for a lot of stuff. After I finish I spit it back out and look at the finished product.
The handle is brown and oval shaped. At the end of it lies a gemstone. While this gemstone may seem like decoration at first it actually serves a purpose. It's actually a magic stone used for the benefit of the sword itself. Quite the valuable decoration. The cross-guard is designed to look like a gemstone, being made of refined unsharpened Afthatite. Shining like a bright blue Diamond. In the center of the actual cross-guard lies another gemstone. Much bigger than the one in the end of the handle serving as the centerpiece of the sword as well as another visible magic stone. Directly above it, the blade starts. My sword isn't exactly the longest sword being a mid-size double edged sword with two small protrusions on the top which serve a purpose I am yet to show. It's pretty tiny compared to Hercule's Edge I'll tell you that.
The sword itself emanates dense Magicules outwards. Dense enough to give weaker people Magicule Poisoning if they aren't careful. But there is more to a sword than the appearance. You need to know what it can do and this sword has quite a few special abilities. Those being:
Sharpening-
Sharpens the sword further by ten times.
Self-Sharpening-
Sharpens the sword in the event of it being damaged.
Self-Repair-
In the event the sword is seriously damaged, putting the two broken pieces together will cause the sword to weld the two pieces back together and heal.
Heating-
Heats up the sword by up to millions of degrees.
(Added to solder cuts to avoid blood splattering and to enhance pain upon contact.)
Chosen Master-
Gives the sword the ability to choose its master.
Mental Disruption-
Gives people not designated its master confusion upon holding it until they let go.
Purification-
Purifies the target's Magicules upon contact.
Absorption-
Absorbs the target's Magicules upon contact and uses them to further enhance the swords cutting power.
Indestructibility-
Hardens the sword by up to millions of times.
Magic Disruption-
Disrupts nearby Magicules.
(Added to help cut through barriers easier.)
Magicule Dampening-
Cut targets will see a massive reduction in the strength of their own Magicules.
Spirit Destruction-
Destroys the target's spirit upon contact.
Reality Anchor-
Makes the sword immune to damage from all magic, including all skills and spells.
Wielder's Call-
Allows the master to call back the sword to their hands upon losing it.
Wielder's Control-
Grants the user the ability to turn on and off individual properties of the sword.
Power Modifier-
Gives the user the ability to adjust the strength of individual properties of the sword.
Ability Channeling-
Gives the user the ability to channel their own skills and spells through the sword.
Really long list but the point is, this is a really strong sword. That's pretty much all you need to know. I'll name it the Adamant Blade because if I decide it's time to kill you there's nothing you can do to convince me otherwise.
Making the scabbard doesn't take too long, making it out of Afthatite and monster pelts. I put the new sword in a holster I use for all my swords and remove the old one. Not wanting good materials going to waste I eat the sword and reduce it to a simple chunk of Magisteel with [Dissolve].
With that over I just have to wait for the day to come in a few hours. Ranryo sees that I'm not doing much and jumps out of my shadow and licks me. "Ack, what the hell Ranryo!" I look to see that he's wagging his tail. "Alright, I guess there's nothing better to do." Playing with my oversized dog until day time I get ready for the Gard hunt again.
This time however, it doesn't take too long. Finding him pretty early in the morning. Well, looks like my work here is almost done. Landing in an alleyway I create a business card using [Predator] and walk into the street. Passing him a card as I walk by I realize he's probably done this before given how he takes it and nonchalantly slips it into his pocket and keeps walking. Pretty shady if you ask me but he has said he only does business with people he trusts. In the card I wrote who I was, why I contacted him and where to meet up. I know I can trust him, he isn't really much of a loyal guy, he just goes where the money goes and I gotta respect that.
Choosing a small bar to meet up, I create myself a cloak to wear to avoid any chances of being seen by Yuuki spies. You never know what that guy's up to. To even further blend in I also change my appearance. To what you may ask? To my previous life appearance. This is the perfect chance to try out my old body again, I can't pass it up. Sitting down and ordering myself a glass of wine, beer isn't as popular in this world thanks to a lack of refrigeration and waiting for Myourmile. I would lower my resistance but I need to stay alert.
As he walks in I wave him over.
He silently asks, "So you're one of the leaders of that monster nation. What business have you called me for?"
I explain, "Tempest is bound to become a trading center in the future. We both know that. So I've decided to call you over for help with that. You're based in Blumund correct?"
"That would be correct."
"That's a good starting point for me. With Blumund's blooming relationship with Tempest and its location serving as a great point to travel to other nations through, setting up relations with someone based in Blumund would be a good help in the future. For now I don't really have much more than an offer. You see, I would like you to come visit Tempest in about a month to help start mutual relations. There I plan on revealing some of my future plans for the future of Tempest's trade. With your help we could set up better plans and as for what you would be getting from this deal, you probably already know."
"Guahahaha! I see. With what you said this may not be a bad investment. I'll think about it. But why choose me?"
"Of course I don't plan on ending with you, but you're a start. I've heard good things about you and happened to be around the area which is why I chose to contact you first. But I will set up bigger relations in the future as well."
"I see. Very well. I'll think about it. Just give me a date and time and I'll tell you if I'm going."
"Alright then. How about 30 days from now at around noon. That should be plenty of time to prepare right?"
He thinks about it then turns to me, "It's a deal."
Good. That gives me three and a half weeks to sort out this whole Tempest invasion thing. Should be enough, after all I could always just auto-win with a Magicule Bomb.
We continue talking to get a better idea on each other's plans. This'll make the meeting in the future with him much easier. By the end of the meetup we pretty much have the foundation of our future meetup completed.
As the conversation finishes I do say one thing. I tell him to not tell anyone that he saw me here. Seeing me and understanding the basics as to why he nods and leaves. Good, if that was anyone other than Myourmile then I might not have been as reassured with a nod.
With that out of the way I finally get to focus on my research for the final few days. Can't let even a single day go to waste.. I'm on a time limit here.