The Preparation for Englassia

Rimuru leaned back in his chair, a rare moment of lightness crossing his face as he joked to Sage.

"Ain't no rest for the wicked." Rimuru joked to Sage as he sat on his desk back in Tempest. 

The irony wasn't lost on him. His recent visit to Fulbrosia felt like a vacation compared to the countless tasks now demanding his attention. But he viewed this busy period as laying the groundwork for his next adventure: a trip to Englassia with Shizue to save the children.

His first priority was establishing a reliable means of instant communication and transport so that he could return at any moment. He had traded for the knowledge of how to create Teleportation Circles with Gazel in exchange for a bundle of Full Potions. Though the information probably would have taken months to decipher and recreate, Sage had understood it in just a few seconds.

He moved from place to place in Tempest, creating the Teleportation Circles in the secret tunnels that had been crafted by Antoinette's workers for his citizens to escape in case of emergency. 

They were placed in a way that would be practically inaccessible to intruders, with members of Souei's team stationed at each circle to make sure it wasn't used by anyone else. Even if somehow they were able to get past them, they would then have to deal with the countless Soldier Ants guarding the tunnels.

Fulbrosia was not forgotten by Rimuru, as he had secretly set up a way for Frey to easily visit Tempest and vice versa. He also made sure there were emergency routes for her citizens to use if needed. Since their marriage, their kingdoms were essentially united, so Rimuru took it upon himself to help Fulbrosia flourish and progress.

As she wandered through the palace, Frey couldn't contain her laughter at the sight of countless "For Dummies" books lining the shelves. But she had to admit, they were actually quite helpful, breaking down complex concepts into easy-to-understand terms.

To strengthen Fulbrosia's infrastructure, Orcs and Worker Ants were sent to assist Frey in rebuilding and upgrading her kingdom, as well as fully utilizing the available resources.

The mountains in her kingdom were a treasure trove, containing more than just gold but also various metals and materials. Although non-winged citizens helped with mining, they could not reach the level of productivity that Tempest could achieve.

For her part, Frey also hadn't been slacking off. She had been working tirelessly to gather as much information as she could and provide as many supplies to Tempest as possible. Practically all of the minerals and gems that were mined were being sent to Tempest to be refined and used.

In addition, she had also sent almost half of her entire supply of Hippogriffs to be raised in Tempest so that they would become loyal and have time to bond properly with the new riders. 

From this collaboration, a new group of warriors emerged called the Sky Riders. Made up of Hobgoblins who were unable to pair with a Tempest Wolf, they trained alongside dragonewts in preparation for any future attacks from flying monsters.

During one of her visits between the flurry of activity, Frey stopped by to speak to him. She had a warm smile as she explained everything that was going on in her kingdom. She wanted to set up a celebration to properly show their marriage to her country and to celebrate having defeated Charybdis. 

However, for now, the newly united countries need time to stabilize before such a large event can take place.

It was also during that visit that Frey met Shuna for the first time, and though Rimuru didn't know what had happened in their interaction, Frey had left it with newfound respect for the pink-haired Kijin. 

Even though Frey was drastically stronger than Shuna at the moment, she didn't look down at her for a moment after their first meeting. 

Rimuru had asked Shuna what had happened, but she simply let out her signature chuckle. A story for another day, perhaps.

Meanwhile, Tempest's army continued their intense training. They had realized during their battle with Charybdis that they relied heavily on Rimuru's power and didn't want to be a burden to him. So they pushed themselves even harder, hoping to become stronger and more independent.

Ironically enough, in their training, they were suffering from success. Their flames had grown too strong, making it difficult for them to control and inflict non-lethal damage. Even with Shizue's guidance, they couldn't fully tame their flames. Benimaru was the only exception to this rule as he became more and more adept at controlling the temperature of his flames.

Still, the problem with the Crimson Knights was big enough for Rimuru to step in with Sage. It had all but given up on releasing Veldora from his imprisonment until after his Demon Lord Awakening, focusing only on the data gathering part so they had devoted all of their remaining processing power to the random assortment of tasks Rimuru had given them.

Now, one of Sage's greatest works was about to be revealed.

Initially, Great Sage should have been unable to recreate, copy, or improve Arts. It was something only a skill like Usurper from Hinata should be able to do. However, a possibility had appeared on Sage's mind before heading to the Ogre village. 

Sage would create a 3D recreation of the world inside of its own mind using Magic Sense as a base, and in that recreation, Sage would be able to copy their moves. The idea was inspired by motion capture from his previous world, and it had all but guaranteed that Sage would be able to recreate his moves using the 3D environment created.

It was how Sage had created Shunpo, and it was now how it was recreating the breathing techniques from Demon Slayer. A way to focus the fire into one graceful dance. From wild, destructive flames into refined and concentrated flames. 

One of the benefits of the Art was that even people with low magicules could use the Art since it worked by breathing magicules from the air to power their attacks. However, this would only help you on the lower levels since there was only so much the air could give you. 

Majin like the Crimson Knights could use their own magicules to supercharge the Sun Breathing to destructive levels. However, using magicules from the air was useful whenever you didn't want to deal lethal damage.

Implementing a flowing dance into combat was not something the Kijin had ever done, so the newly created Sun breathing drew the attention of all of his army, which immediately began to theorize and try to learn it. However, Sun Breathing was not a perfect match for all of them, depending on their affinities. So Rimuru would pass on the different Breathing Styles and techniques as soon as Sage finished recreating them.

As the armies of Tempest and Fulbrosia trained in Rimuru's new fighting styles, he turned his attention to a branch of his kingdom that he never expected to delve into: genetic engineering of plants. 

One of his researchers, Emiya, had awakened a skill similar to Rimuru's Degenerate ability, allowing him to splice traits from different plants together. Through his research, Emiya created variants of fruits and vegetables that grew faster and contained even more nutrients.

This breakthrough surprised both Rimuru and Great Sage, opening up a whole new realm of possibilities. 

Rimuru wasted no time in applying this discovery to every fruit and vegetable in their kingdom, utilizing Degenerate to separate beneficial traits from one plant and merge them with another. Creating gigantic hybrid plants that produced the most nutritious and delicious fruits and vegetables this world had ever seen.

It wasn't perfect, and it took a lot of work to create plants that could actually survive and sprout, but Sage had effectively laid the groundwork for a farming revolution in Tempest. They had promoted Emiya as the leader of the research division, and he had begun to work non-stop to create the most impressive plants he could along with his brother Doofenshmirtz.

His suggestion also sprouted a new idea for Rimuru, to synthesize different metals to create stronger resources. 

By synthesizing Gold and Magisteel, they were able to create Orichalcum, which possessed the enduring properties of gold as well as the magical properties of magisteel. This resulted in a general performance that surpassed that of ordinary magisteel.

By synthesizing Silver and Magisteel, they were able to create Mithril, which combined the holy properties of silver with the toughness and flexibility of steel. This made it exceptionally compatible with Holy power and granted it natural anti-toxic properties.

Different metals were also being worked on in the background. However, the combinations were not as stable or useful, so Sage, who was a bit of a perfectionist, often discarded them. Sage had even created a few metals that were far too unstable to be used in creating weapons which she had placed into the stomach of Gluttony to research whenever possible.

One of the experiments that Rimuru was focusing on now that he had recreated the metals was the creation of suitable bodies for not only Beretta but Noir and the rest of the demons he might summon in the future.

He didn't yet know how to summon demons to try the new bodies out, but he would make sure to learn how on his way to Englassia. 

He wanted to create bodies with as much potential as possible, so he experimented with fusing parts of his own body into the Orichalchum and Mithril skeletons. Similar to how he had infused part of his own body into Zegion and Apito, his favorite bugs that liked to follow him around.

The results varied in quality, but he was able to create three different bodies, each of them absolute masterpieces. The shell had a soft, silvery-blue sheen because of having been fused with parts of his own body which only made it more appealing.

'I wonder what Noir will think of them?' He mused as he looked at his creations.

[Notice. It is believed that the subject Noir will not be able to contain his joy and-] Sage's voice echoed in his mind, providing an analysis.

'Honestly, I don't wanna know how that ends.' Rimuru thought with a chuckle, stopping Sage mid-sentence.

He had to admit that experimenting and creating things was pretty fun, so he would have to set some time in his schedule for him to work with Sage. Even though Sage was a genius supercomputer, it often overlooked some of the simpler stuff because it looked for the most optimal paths and the most efficient ways of doing things, so he served as a good buffer for it.

Just as he was about to get lost on his next project, he heard soft steps behind him before being embraced.

"Are you having fun?" Shuna's soft voice asked as she drew him closer for a hug.

"I am." Rimuru said as he felt her give him a kiss on his head.

"Souei and his team are back from their first mission. They were able to set some spies in Falmuth, so we now have eyes on them. Also, Gazel wants us to go to Dwargon to give a speech." Shuna reported as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the hug.

"Ah, that's right… he wanted to do another meeting… We already had a whole dinner with him and his people when we went to get the Teleportation Circle. I kind of wish he had made us go through the whole speech thing back then." 

Shuna giggled slightly as she heard him.

"Do you want me to deal with it? Gazel might not be too happy about you skipping the meeting, but I am sure he won't take it personally. If you leave it to me, I will make sure everything goes perfectly."

Turning around to look her in the eyes, he saw her soft smile.

"Have I ever told you how great you are?" He asked, drawing another chuckle from her.

"Do you also want me to take care of Blumund? We've dealt with Fuse together, so he knows me well enough to know that I can speak for Tempest." She offered

"No, I should probably show up personally for that one. I can skip Gazel because of how often I see him, but I've never met Drum Blumund. It would probably be bad if I just ignored him. However, I wouldn't mind it if my lovely wife came with me."

"Hehe, always." She said with a smile.

With a stretch and a yawn, Rimuru rose from his seat and made his way to meet Souei with Shuna next to him. It was a habit he had developed, even though he no longer had physical muscles to stretch.

In his office, Rimuru saw Souei and ten other members of the spy division standing at attention. With a wave of his hand, he asked them to sit down.

"We have been keeping our eyes on Falmuth." Souei began placing a stack of reports on Rimuru's desk. "There haven't been any signs of an attack on Tempest yet. Our sources suggest that we likely won't see them act until after our roads are completed. This would be when they noticed the lower revenue from their trading routes. We should expect to see movement in about two months."

Rimuru picked up the reports and looked them over using Sage, chuckling softly as he finished.

"Looks like nobles never change."

Despite being unable to gather information directly from the royal castle due to Razen's watchful eye, the spies had managed to gather plenty of blackmail material on the actions of various nobles of Falmuth.

"Indeed," Souei nodded. He motioned for his spies to step forward and deliver their individual reports.

They had been strategically placed in Blumund, Falmuth, Jistav, Eurazania, and the various Western Nations. Though they were still in the early stages of their mission, the spies had already surpassed expectations with their impressive skills in gathering information without being detected.

Their current focus was on the lesser nobles, such as barons and the like, as well as everyday citizens, as their abilities were not yet advanced enough to infiltrate high-ranking officials undetected. However, despite these limitations, they showcased their proficiency in espionage.

"I know it isn't much, but we are currently planting our roots in the various kingdoms. Give us enough time, and there will not be a place we cannot infiltrate." Souei said confidently, causing him to chuckle slightly.

"No, all of you are doing great. You all have already accomplished more than I expected. Make sure you don't push yourselves too hard. I would rather none of you miss anything important or are caught off guard because you are overworking yourselves."

Soeui let a small smile appear on his face as he gave a bow.

"Understood, Lord Rimuru. We appreciate your kindness."

"Go enjoy the hot springs or something, take a day off, and then return to work once you are ready. You are all dismissed."

— — —

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