The Conqueror of Flames

"Water control"

I brought back all the water I had thrown out and consumed it again. The only reason I was able to defeat them all so easily with the amount of magicules I had at the moment was because I had brought all the water with me. Had I created the water with magic I probably would have run out of magicules by the time I defeated only a quarter of them.

I saw the ogres approaching me in the distance. By the way they were walking towards me and their blank expressions I could tell they were in shock. They probably expected to lose their lives in a long drawn out fight to give their families enough time to escape.

Well, it is no use crying over spilled milk. I might as well eat the orcs to gain some skills and recover my magicules. Might even increase my current capacity.

Turning into a slime, I used predator on the fallen orcs. My body become longer to eat as many as I could at once. And even though not all of the orcs had special skills you are bound to get a few who do when you are eating 10,000 of them.

{You have obtained the skill Enhanced Strength. Increases your natural strength}

{You have obtained the skill Feral roar. Let out a Roar that can lower the selected targets morale}

{You have obtained the skill Rallying cry. Let out a cry that can increase the morale and strength of allies. Increases the targets natural teamwork for a short time}

{You have obtained the skill Libido. Bring out the lust in your body. Increases chance of impregnation. Lowers loss of magicules when a child has been made.}

{You have obtained the skill Horrible scent. Allows you to concentrate and create bad smelling scents.. Stun your enemies by attacking their olfactory system}

[Is that it?]

[Negative. Many other skills were obtained, however due to them being inferior versions of skills you previously owned and newly gained they were analyzed and turned into energy that was absorbed].

[Oh, I guess I can feel that my magicules increased by a fair bit.]

My thought process was interrupted by the ogres reaching my location.

"That... I did not expect that" said the village chief.

"That was amazing!!!" said the familiar purple haired ogre.

All of the ogres who had followed me had one or two congratulatory words. But I had a realization that I had no time to waste. I had to get back to the village as soon as possible. If the orc attack was bound to happen either today or tomorrow that meant that Shizue must be either in the village or about to enter it.

"I'm sorry but I have realized that I am a bit late for an appointment. I shall lead you towards where Ranga is but after that I gotta go on ahead to reach my village as fast as possible. It is a bit of an urgent matter. We can talk more once all of you arrive at the village. I should be done with it by then."

The ogres looked like they had some questions but looking at my determined face they shut their mouths and nodded.

After leading them towards where Ranga was I dropped them off with their group with Ranga to lead them and left as fast as I could. With the help of shadow step and the shadows made by the trees in the forest I was able to reach the village in half an hour.

Just as I was about to enter the village I saw a small group I recognized running away from some giant ants. And in that group was the person I was looking for.

Quickly stepping in I created some steel threads all around the ant colony and once they were all trapped I threw some water blades at their heads. The group, seeing what appeared to be a random elf in his early teens, pop out of nowhere and quickly deal with the ants that were causing them so much trouble were a bit shocked.

Kaval and his party were specially surprised that the one rescuing them was an elf due to their elvish background. And Shizue, wearing her mask, was hard to read.

"Hello there!" I said with a bright smile "Looked like you were having some trouble there. Wanna come to my village to take a rest? You all looked a bit roughed up from your travels. This forest can be quite hard to go through."

Kaval's party looked towards Shizue to see what she would say, and seeing the group asking for her guidance she stepped forward.

"We would appreciate a safe place to rest. My name is Shizu. And these three are Kaval, Ellen, and Gido."

"Alright, just a heads up we are a monster village but don't you worry we are friendly monsters. We don't bite."

"A village of monsters?" asked Ellen. "Wait, what do you mean by we?"

"Oh about that." I turned into a slime "I'm a slime. But I am not a bad slime, you know."

When those words left my mouth a stifled laughter was heard from Shizu. Though she pretended nothing happened when the party looked at her.

"I think we can trust him," she said. "Let's go to his village."

Trusting her adventuring knowledge Kaval's party followed me to my village. Which had changed since the time I had brought the dwarves.

Now it actually looked like a proper village. With some small houses made out of logs and the framework for a larger village starting to appear. Turns out when you have 500+ really motivated workers with brand new evolution muscles you get a lot done quickly.

The villagers seeing me came to greet me and I requested some of them organize a place for me and the companions to eat some food and to call for Garm and Kaijin to repair the adventurer's equipment.

Soon enough we were all seated in a small house and the party began telling me about their travels and their struggles. They were thankful to finally get a moment's rest in this forest. And after food had been eaten, Shizu picked me up as I was still in my slime form and asked if she could talk to me. I of course agreed.

…

Arriving on a small hill on the outskirts of the village we began to talk.

"So, tell me mister Rimuru. Are you also a transmigrator?"

"Yes, yes I am. Did my slime joke give it away? I noticed your laughter when I said it."

"Yes , I have a friend who really liked to play games before he came here. I think you too would get along well. HIs name is Yuuki Kagurazaka, he is the grandmaster of the free guild"

"*cough cough* ah yeah, I uh... think he sounds like a nice guy."

With a small laugh she asked. "Why are you suddenly acting all weird, don't tell me you have met him before?"

"No, no I haven't met him yet. It's just that some guy I used to know back on earth was named that way and well… He was certainly very ambitious. Had big dreams, you know. Probably would try to rule the world if he could…"

Smiling brightly she said " Is that so?" After a small pause for laughter she kept on talking. "My name is Shizue Izawa. Though I go by Shizu in this world. What is your real name?"

"That.. Well, if I am being honest I have left that name behind. I prefer to just be called Rimuru Tempest now. You know, the one and only storm dragon Veldora gave me that name."

"Oh, do you know what happened to him? He disappeared from this forest and that caused quite a commotion."

"That… we can talk about that later, but you don't have to worry about it, I promise he won't cause any trouble for a long time."

Looking at me for a few seconds she decided to give me a pass for now. " In that case, what can you tell me about the world before you came here? I have been in this world for a long time so it is not often that I get to hear news of my world."

Sharing with her through my thought communication I allowed her to get a picture of what the world was like before I left. To say she was shocked would be quite the understatement, but thanks to this she forgot about my slip of the tongue with Veldora. In the end it was quite a good time spent with both of us. But as I had said before, all good things come to an end.

"Shizue… I have a skill called Analyze. And, I can tell what is happening to you. The spirit inside you cannot be contained for too long. Soon enough he will break out."

My comment killed the mood, but it had to be said.

"So you can tell… I guess I knew this would happen but I thought I had more time. If I am going to submit to him and lose control of my body so soon I have a request for you. In the kingdom of Ingrassia(Englesia on the ln), in the freedom academy there is a group of kids. They are like us. But they will die soon if we don't help them. Their bodies are not ready to handle their magicules. I have been looking for a way to help them but"

Seeing the stressed out Shizu I interrupted her before she could stress herself out more

"I promise."

"Shizu… there might be a way. A way for me to heal you, remove the spirit inside of you"

"No, it's useless, I may not look it but I am quite old. The moment I lose Ifrit I will die of old age. My body will not be able to handle the strain of losing Ifrit."

"Even then, I can help you, I believe I have a way to bring you back to your youth." Creating a copy of Kaijin's sword I said " I could eat your body and using analyze on it I could, in theory, use your own body as materials to rebuild it. If I do this carefully I could bring your soul back to the newly created body. A younger version, without Ifrit in it if you wanted it. "

Shizu stared at the sunset for a few minutes. Considering my offer.

"You said you could eat my body. Will that bring you any benefits?"

"... " I wanted to be honest "Yes, I could gain your skills"

"In that case I want you to eat me. But, I don't want you to bring me back."

"Huh?"

"To tell you the truth I hold nothing but spite for this world. I can't bring myself to hate it, for I have had many good experiences in it. And I feel the same way about the man who summoned me to this world, Leon Cromwell. Nothing but spite. The only thing keeping me moving forward is the children I used to teach in the Freedom Academy. But I trust you Rimuru. I can tell you are a good man at heart. So if you can promise me you will try your best to help them I will be able to finally die. And I don't want to be taken into this world. So please, eat me. You may take my skills as a form of payment if you want to see it that way. But I want to die as myself."

I sighed, if that was her wish I could not deny it. I would respect her decision. Great sage could measure her body and had told me she had around 5 minutes before losing control.

"I promise"

Just before I ate her a figure jumped from behind a nearby tree.

Ellen screamed while running towards Shizu.

"Shizu! Why didn't you tell us?!?!? I am so sorry we forced you to use your skills, if we had been stronger maybe you would have more time but"

"It's ok Ellen." Shizu interrupted her. "Please let your party know that I will be ok, I enjoyed the time I got to spend with all of you, and I wish I had enough time to say goodbye but I can feel it. I don't. So please say goodbye for me"

With that she looked at me and nodded. I guess it was time.

[Activate predator on the target Shizue Izawa?

Yes

No]

[Yes]