After the fight, Mikaeru got to work on something he thought was necessary to get fully down before things began to heat up. Getting used to combat in the body he had now found himself in. Back in the cave, the two had entered some combative scenarios with the occasional monster attack here and there. However, none of the fights ever really amounted to much. They were mostly just instant kills with one attack.
As an A-rank monster, Mikaeru knew he was by no means weak at this point. However, he also knew there were no real downsides in at the very least preparing.
As he twisted through the air, Mikaeru stopped to think about something. There were monsters that Rimuru never got the skills of in the original story. He knew that for a fact. On top of that, there were probably hundreds of monster types that Rimuru never even encountered. An expedition to look for monsters.
Mikaeru thought about that. It wouldn't be too bad assuming he didn't wander into the village of a powerful monster type. Ogres were by no means the strongest beings in the forest, even in the original story. Not to mention, getting a good idea of the forest's layout definitely couldn't hurt, even if a lot of it would be torn down to make room for Tempest's, Rimuru City.
He decided to keep that thought on the back burner, at least for the moment. There were things that he would need to deal with first, before he got a chance to freely look around for monsters to take skills from.
A few hours after he began to train, one of the goblins from the village came to speak to him. "Lord Mikaeru! Lord Rimuru asked us to inform you that he's gathering everyone at the village center! He's waiting for you at the central hut!" Mikaeru stopped.
Lord, eh? They had taken to calling them by that title immediately after the wolf incident. He couldn't say he didn't like it a little. "Thank you. Tell him I'll be going as soon as I can." He watched as the goblin left.
He already knew what this was. Making his way over, he bounced into the hut Rimuru was waiting at and bounced in. "Huh, you enjoying the throne?"
Rimuru was laying on top of a makeshift throne adorned with the best, still pretty pathetic, adornments the villagers could cook up in less than a day. Rimuru jerked a bit in embarrassment, "Don't make fun of me."
"Perish the thought, oh lord!" He laughed, "So, why'd you call? I assume it involves the village, right?"
"Oh, yes." Rimuru explained, "So, I wanted to have a formal talk about the long term with the wolves. We're kind of stuck with them, but it's not going to be easy to get the goblins to accept them." He sighed.
Fair enough. With the wolves being their former attackers, there was always going to be friction between them and the goblins. The only thing really holding them back from all out conflict was the orders of their shared lords. Ranga's father, who decided to spend his time brooding just outside the village walls, didn't make things any better either. None of the goblins dared get close to that guy and his bad mood.
"You have a plan to fix it, don't you?" He asked.
"Yup!" Rimuru declared. Mikaeru sighed. He would probably give the plan a dumb name. "I call it the 'Let the goblins and wolves handle it themselves' plan!" Same one as the original. Got it, he thought.
"Not the most creative naming sense, eh?"
Rimuru flinched, "Eh? Shut up!" He was like putty under the teasing of Mikaeru. It was funny.
"Can you tell me what you're suggesting?"
"I'm planning to group up the wolves and goblins. Counting the number of goblins and wolves the ratio is roughly about 1:7 if we don't include the children, the alpha and his son. If we group them up into groups of 8, it should force them to interact more. Maybe that way they can learn to get along better over time."
Mikaeru nodded along. Originally, the goblin village by the time Rimuru had arrived had declined not just from the attacks, but from goblins leaving to survive. Roughly 400 goblins returned to the village after Rimuru took over and a little over 100 were left. It was morbid to think about, but 200 goblins that should have died in battle were now inhabiting the village. This forced Rimuru to change it from pairs to groups. 7 goblins for every wolf. A roughly equal distribution of power between wolf and goblin all things considered.
Mikaeru added, "That might work to get them to work together more, but just grouping them up isn't enough. We're going to need clearly defined laws to help guide them on what they can and can't do." The wolves and goblins were different monsters. What each side thought was right and wrong was different. For example, the wolves were much more warrior-like than the goblins, who were more similar to humans.
To prevent fights spawned from misunderstandings, guidelines would have to be set up in advance.
Rimuru nodded. "Don't worry. I already have that covered! But, can you help me with a speech?"
"Uh, probably not." He told him directly.
"Eh?" Rimuru looked shocked. "Why not!?"
"Long term, it would be best to have one of us be the one that handles most of the outspoken tasks of leading the village. Between us, the answer is clear. You are the one best fit for that task." He explained, "I'm much more grounded and realistic than you, which is good when it comes to dealing with the facts, but it's not ideal for leading a group. You naturally inspire more hope and confidence than I do, so it would be best to have you deal with the interpersonal stuff." In a kinder tone, he continued, "I'm still going to be by your side. You won't deal with this alone, but this is our opening to establish expectations for the future. The people we're leading need to get an idea of how that will work in future."
Rimuru sighed, "You really have this figured out, don't you?" He asked, "Do you think I'll really be able to handle something like that? I was just an average salaryman back on earth. Nothing more."
Yeah, but here, you're the successor to Veldanava. The original protagonist.
"Yes, Rimuru. You can definitely handle it."
"Fine." Rimuru gave up. "I'll give the speech. Just…make sure you're there to help in case I say something wrong. I don't want to fail up there."
"Got it." Mikaeru stopped, "Oh, by the way. About the leadership, it would be best to get to work on creating a chain of command beneath us to handle the small stuff if you don't want to get swamped with work. A good start would probably be to appoint the chief and the alpha as our direct subordinates above the rest."
"That's smart." Rimuru said. "That way they'll be the ones that have to deal with the people!"
"Yeah." Mikaeru bounced out of the hut. He hadn't asked, but he already knew something else was going to happen in that speech. He would announce that everyone in the village was going to get a name.
Later that day, Mikaeru sat next to Rimuru as he sat on a stump in front of everyone. The crowd was much larger than in the original story, stretching deep into the rest of the village, yet there was no sound. Mikaeru looked up at a tall rock sticking up from part of the village. There sat Ranga's father, watching silently in interest. He wouldn't miss it, but he had ultimately chosen not to be amongst the crowd itself.
The tension was palpable as everyone waited for one of the slimes to speak. Then finally Rimuru in a loud booming voice yelled out, "So, what we are going to do is group up! I will have all of you group up into groups of 8. One wolf for every seven goblins!"
The crowd immediately went up in an uproar as the goblins and wolves spoke amongst themselves.
Rimuru yelled out, "You heard me! 7 goblins, 1 wolf! Everyone group up! Group up! Go, go, go!"
As everyone began to move around, Mikaeru went up to Unnamed Rigurd and Ranga's father. "You two are to come with me. We'll need you separate from the rest." Following Mikaeru, they were brought behind the stump as the pairing began to settle down.
After about 15 minutes, everything fully settled down, leaving everyone in a strange situation of awkwardly looking at each other in nervousness. There were a few goblins left without a pair, which Rimuru quickly sorted by making a few groups of 9.
Rimuru happily declared, "Yesterday's enemy is today's friend! Wait, do you all have names!?" There you go. Mikaeru was waiting for that realization.
Just the mention of them being nameless monsters made them feel uneasy. Of course they were nameless. What could Lord Rimuru be planning, they thought.
Just like the aura release, Mikaeru had made sure not to tell Rimuru how important names were. If he did, he wouldn't have been as open about naming. He still would have, of course, after asking [Great Sage] if it was possible. But it wouldn't have been as enthusiastic. Acting as if naming was a simple matter was something Mikaeru wanted to ensure Rimuru did. To monsters, being as nonchalant about it as possible was a power move showcasing how powerful Rimuru was.
He watched as Rimuru bounced over to the unnamed Rigurd and asked if they did. The old man apologetically explained to him that they did not have a single named monster in the village. Rimuru thought to himself for a bit. "I see." He jumped back to the stump. "Alright, line up! I'm going to name all of you!"
Everyone went up in a massive uproar. Even Ranga's father, whose eyes widened to a point Mikaeru hadn't seen before. The Unnamed Rigurd ran up as best he could, "R-really!? Would you really bestow upon us such an honor!?" He waved to Rimuru that is was okay if he didn't, "You don't have to do this for us, Lord Rimuru! We are fine remaining nameless!"
"No, it's fine! Really!" He declared, "I'm going to give all of you names so line up and get ready!"
Over 800 names. Mikaeru had actually wondered about this. It was nearly 8 times the amount of names as the original. It was a monumental task yet the fix was something Mikaeru hadn't expected. Him.
Or rather more specifically, [Soul Link]. [Soul Link] allowed for the ability to share magicule pools. It wasn't as direct as Rimuru with the true dragon ultimate skills but it was present. Split between the two of them while keeping a link to Veldora active at full strength, [Great Sage] had confirmed that it was theoretically possible. Although by the end, both of them would collapse and Veldora would be feeling intense pain for the entire duration. He thought about Night Rose and the untold cities and towns before. He probably deserved it.
Mikaeru felt as if some of the monsters turned their heads to him. "Yup, you're all getting names!" He yelled out in support. He jumped over to Rimuru, "We're going to split the duty. I'll name half of them, okay?"
Before beginning, the two turned to the chief and alpha. Mikaeru told them, "First, we'll start with you two." First, Rimuru gave the chief a name. Rigurd. Meanwhile, Mikaeru turned to the alpha, "You'll be Ransei from now on. Don't take it for granted."
From there, the rest followed. Looking at the line in front of him, Yo, [Great Sage]? I need you to generate names for all the randoms. Use my memory of how Rimuru chose names to generate them. He would name the ones he recognized the names they originally got, but the rest were to be decided randomly.
{Notice- Generating goblin names…complete}
The next 30 minutes were filled with naming, while, to his shock, Rimuru proceeded to name every important person he was tasked with their canon names. Was this a self correction in the timeline? The wolves came next, which originally didn't get any unique names due to Rimuru passing out. This time though, they all got names. During this process, Mikaeru spotted one very interesting specimen. Hello there. "You'll be named Ranryo," he said as he put in a larger number of magicules to fuel it. The wolf immediately started getting noticeably bigger.
He would talk to that wolf later. By the time the naming was complete, nearly an hour had passed. Rimuru and Mikaeru dropped down. Relief set in for only a few moments, before everything got blurry for the two. Then, everything went completely black.
As if no time passed, the two shot up 3 days later to the sight of something new. There he was. Above them stood Rigurd, now named and fully evolved, along with his two sons, Rigur and Rigurt. Mikaeru slapped Rimuru on the back of the head. "W-what was that for!?"
"I finally got the answer to a question." Rimuru jerked around in confusion and rage. It turned out that he could punch Rimuru for that. Just not until after he committed the sin. He jumped down, leaving Rimuru behind. As he left, he watched as Ranga ran in, most likely having been sent by his father to meet with Rimuru on his behalf. Neither knew at that point but Mikaeru could already tell that would be the meeting that would tie Rimuru to Ranga forever.
Sensing around with [Magic Sense], he located one wolf. Ranryo, now evolved into a tempest wolf, sat silently as he looked on at the hobgoblin group he had been assigned to. He sighed. Of the group, only one particular one named Gobzi ended up living to his standards. Thus making that goblin the only one Ranryo had found himself interacting with at all.
"You're looking a bit lonely there, Ranryo."
The wolf's ears perked up as Mikaeru appeared behind him. "Lord Mikaeru!" He said.
The hobgoblins under Ranryo's watch shot their gazes at him. Mikaeru gave them a once over. They all seemed unimpressive aside from the one he remembered naming Gobzi. He had gone the Rigurd route with his evolution being noticeably larger and better built than the rest of the troupe. "You can carry on with what you were doing. I'm here to speak to Ranryo here." He turned back to the wolf in question.
Mikaeru got a good look at the canine. Despite still being part of the pack, the wolf had grown to be equal in size to Ranga. Impressive seeing as Ranga was actually taller than his father. That put Ranryo at tied for the physically strongest wolf of the entire pack.
With a bit of excitement towards the wolf's development, Mikaeru said, "While you'll still be grouped up with them, I want to give you this chance. Would you like to become my direct subordinate?"
Ranryo immediately straightened, "What?"
"The offer is simple. You'll be ranked directly under me as my own subordinate. On the hierarchy, this would put you right under Ransei, your leader, but above the rest of your pack. At the price of placing you under the call of my own orders of course." Mikaeru added more details as he explained. Ranryo seemed shocked at the sudden news but played along well. Listening as Mikaeru explained his exceptional strength above all but the pack leader and his son.
"I see." Ranryo said. "I would like to accept."
Mikaeru nodded along. The two worked out how it would work. Ranryo would still have to deal with his original grouping and pack, but he would spend most of his time under Mikaeru, working for him. It was a very clear cut thing. Then, just as they worked it out, Mikaeru heard something. A goblina's cries. "What the?"
He ran over and asked what's wrong. She had apparently lost track of her daughter and couldn't find her in the village. "Well, that's not good." He sensed around. "Oh, well now that's interesting." He ran out of the village and over to Ransei's brooding spot.
"I said leave, child! Do you not see that I wish to be alone right now!" He yelled out in fury.
The newborn Kokobu laughed as she held on to Ransei's fur. He was trying to shake her off. So she's Kokobu's mother? Damn. He was pretty sure Kokobu's parents were dead in the original story.
Mikaeru held back the urge to laugh as the goblina rushed over. "S-sir Ransei! C-can you calm yourself?"
"Hah!?" Ransei howled. The goblina cried out in fear. He stared at her for a second. "Oh, so this is yours?" He leaned over, letting her take the baby goblina.
The mother hugged Kokobu tightly and ran. Mikaeru could already see where this was going. The wide, innocent eyes of that child were the cutest in the village. There was no way Ransei would hold out for long. Eventually he would begin to care about her. He looked at him. He was just barely smaller than Ranga and Ranryo with the same white fur and single horn possessed by the wolf pack's strongest members. Lower ranks hadn't gone all the way with the horn. He wondered how strong the wolf leader would get.
He froze. "Huh?" He looked into the forest. He had felt something. He looked deep into the forest as he activated [Magic Sense]. Nothing. Had he imagined it? If he still found interest in this village, Gelmud wouldn't start to move for at least another week or more. It couldn't have been him. What had he felt?