The dugout was quiet, shadows stretching across the rough walls. Al lay sprawled on the floor, still in a deep sleep. But unlike Rimuru, who could function endlessly on absorbed magicules, Al's strange body demanded more. Without sunlight to sustain his photosynthetic core, the hunger gnawed at him stronger than usual.
At last, his eyes flickered open. He yawned wide, rubbing the back of his head as he sat up.
"Maaaaaaan, I am hungry…" he muttered, clutching his stomach. "Guess the cave hunts really drained me. Days without the sun, and only chewing on crushed meat… no wonder I feel like crap."
He pushed himself to his feet and shuffled outside. Night had already swallowed the forest, the canopy above glowing faintly under starlight. Al blinked against the dark, then glanced back into the dugout. Empty.
"...So he's not here." He sighed, his expression softening. "Rimuru, huh? Can't really expect fate to give me a break, can I?"
With that, he headed toward their stash, gathering some food and chewing through it in silence. He had barely finished when a long, echoing howl split the night.
Al froze mid-bite. His eyes flicked toward the forest.
"…Of course. Figures." He looked down at the scraps of food still in his hands and let out another sigh. "If this were just about me, I'd finish dinner and call it a night. But Rimuru? If he gets caught in some butterfly effect just because I stayed put… nah. I can't let him die to some random roll of the dice."
Al straightened, his body shimmering as his form shifted. Lightning crackled across his frame as feathers burst outward, but not the sharp, jagged wings of the Kantonian Zapdos. Instead, his silhouette stretched lean and powerful, wings gone, legs muscular, talons like iron. His plumage burned orange and black—the Galarian Zapdos.
'Better safe than sorry,' Al thought.
Energy flared around him, blue light wrapping over gold until his entire body glowed. Then, with a sharp cry, he launched himself forward, cloaked in the devastating aura of Brave Bird, tearing through the night air faster than a thunderbolt.
---
The village was alive with noise and firelight, goblins celebrating their survival. Rimuru sat at the center of it all, surrounded by cheering goblins and the wolves who now knelt before him in submission.
But then, the air shifted.
Every goblin froze as a new pressure rolled over the village—a chaotic magical energy, jagged and unstable. It wasn't as overwhelming as the dragon's presence they'd all heard rumors of, yet it was worse in a different way.
It felt like an army of monsters crashing forward at once. Wild. Unpredictable. Terrifying.
The wolves immediately circled Rimuru, hackles raised, teeth bared. Goblins stumbled back in fear, clutching their crude weapons.
From the forest shadows, something stirred. A silhouette flickered between the trees, here one second, gone the next.
Then—silence. The oppressive energy still lingered, but the figure had vanished.
One wolf snarled and slammed its paws against the ground, trying to sense the intruder. But before it could react, the signature reappeared—right beneath Rimuru.
The earth cracked.
A small, spiky creature burst up from the soil like a living drill, its body bristling with quills of brown and gold. The goblins shrieked, the wolves leapt forward—
—and in an instant, the hedgehog-like being stretched, shimmered, and shifted. The spikes folded back, the body expanding upward until it reshaped into a familiar form.
Al stood there, brushing dirt off his shoulders. On top of his head sat Rimuru, looking perfectly comfortable.
"Yo," Al said casually, stretching his arms. "So this is what you've been doing all day, huh? …Well, fair's fair. Thanks for that blanket."
The wolves growled, goblins quivered.
"Ah—no, no, no need to panic!" Rimuru shouted quickly, bouncing on Al's head. "He's my friend!"
---
In the morning, while Rimuru was on a tree stump and the other goblins and wolves were watching him.
But beside him was the elder goblin and Al.
"So, I'm going to have you all pair up and live together,"
"Pair... up?"
"Pairing means putting you in groups of two."
Al explained, and the goblins in the crowd looked at one another, unsure.
"Yesterday's enemy is today's friend," he continued, grinning. "You're all going to work together and get along. Got it?"
The goblins and wolves quickly affirmed, nodding far more eagerly than Rimuru expected.
"Good. Help each other out, make it work," Rimuru said with a sigh. His new responsibilities were already piling up.
He straightened and addressed the gathering again.
"So, uh… what's going to matter now is food, shelter, and clothing. We'll need teams for hunting, building, and strengthening defenses. If we want to survive, we need to move as one."
The goblins looked to him with nervous hope. That was when Al smirked, stepping forward.
"You know, Ruru… why don't you give them names?"
Rimuru blinked. "Names?"
Al turned, gesturing toward the goblins. "I've heard most monsters don't have them. Isn't that right, Head Goblin-san?"
Then Al, scratching his chin. "Well… yes. But it would be more convenient to have names."
Rimuru pondered the idea. Al stepped aside with a knowing grin.
"In that case… is it okay if I name you all?" Rimuru asked.
After a murmur of excitement and some hurried agreement, the goblins formed a line. One by one, Rimuru began naming them, magicules flaring each time.
Meanwhile, Al had set up a hammock between two posts, lazily rocking as Rimuru worked. He watched the naming ritual with amusement.
---
Hello Ozzy here, and this is my first time speaking with you, so I'll introduce my writing style.
I write my chapter with Grammarly at first, and I cut it with the three dashes that you may see, then in every phase, I use GPT to smooth the flow. Then have it read, then again use Grammarly to make the grammar better.
So yeah, I use two AI for the Fics.
And why I say fics because I have been stuck with an idea, but I don't know which world I should do it in.
The power of the MC in that fic is like the reverse of Al. In that fic, he will have the powers of the Ben 10 Aliens, but instead of transforming into them, he summons them, then he has to fight them and win to tame them.
Like the 10 shadows technique, and he just summons them, he can't become them, but I think I am considering giving him the Alien abilities for a power-up.
So, can you suggest a world where this could work?
And this is an early update, and also I only update two times a week... should probably write that down.