Visitors to Monster Town

Learning of bizarre tastes at the expense of the ruler no less, that was also their first time...meeting a Demon Lord in the form of a junior high schooler around Nagi's age, Milim Nava.

She came from the sky like a rocket and made a hole in the ground big enough for a jacuzzi pool.

She had heard of the outing somehow, and complained she wasn't invited by her 'bestie' and Rimuru reasoned, 'How can I when your schedule in managing a country is different?' and placated her as much as he could.

'...that's a Demon Lord?' Gokudera squeaked to Hakurou.

'Let not her looks deceive you.' Hakurou tut-tutted. 'She is the second oldest at around ten thousand years...'

'What?!'

'While she's...like that, offending her guarantees certain death, so kindly don't.' Hakurou warned. 'If we are all A+ Classes, she's an SS. We're mere foot soldiers compared to that. Rimuru-sama and the girls mastered dealing with Milim-sama so its best to leave her to them.'

They did just that. They're not stupid.

Soon, Autumn came...

xxx

Kaijin's Workshop...

'So we're here to get weapons made?' Ryohei marveled as they got in the workshop.

'Yes. We're halfway into school year done.' said Touka. 'Time to have your weapons made. We use Magisteel Metal here.'

Magisteel Metal is a highly-valuable metal according to class. To think they'll have something out of video games?! This is already fantastic!

'Kaijin, Kurobee, you got new customers!' Touka called out.

'Ohh, it's those kids, aye?' Kaijin greeted. 'Come inside, kids!' so they did. 'So what it'll be youngsters?'

'The boys can have any pick they want, but Nagi and Lambo need a Mage's Glove.' said Touka, using her left hand to pat Nagi's shoulder, and popping a single wing, transformed into an arm just to reach Lambo. 'These guys are Summoned Otherworlders who ditched Falmuth because they left them for dead just for coming to our world with no Skills. The older boys got justifiably angry and left that country.' she said. 'Please make a magic glove for them.'

'I see, the only way to save the girl and the child is by becoming a mage.' Kaijin tut-tutted. 'That was a problem for centuries, but we can do nothing about that. The power of Greed is not to be underestimated.' he told them. 'I'll design gloves for Nagi and Lambo now that I saw them in person and the size of their hands. Boys, all our wares here are Unique-Class, so go have fun!'

'Don't mind if we do~' Yamamoto beamed as the boys looked around the workshop.

Hibari quickly has a complaint when he glanced the whole shop.

'You don't have a Tonfa?'

'What's that? Some other world weapon?'

'This.' Hibari showed Kaijin what a Tonfa is. And requested a few gizmos.

'Oho! That can be done lad! I never heard of a weapon like this before, people usually prefer anything sharp and pointy if not a mage.' said Kaijin thoughtfully, stroking his beardy chin with his fingers. 'Hardly anyone buys blunt weapons. I used to make maces and stuff but hardly anyone buys them...'

'Incase of armored enemies, a blunt weapon is best. You can still crush their skulls.' said Hibari flatly. 'Blades cannot do that.'

'That's an interesting way of thinking.' Kaijin sweatdropped, but cannot fault the kid for his logic. Blades cannot pierce armor stronger than it. And that happens a lot, if a fighter faces a better-equipped opponent. It makes the difference regardless of fighting ability.

'Hoooh?' Mukuro has his eyes on Tridents.

'You like Tridents? You'll be best buddies with the Dragonewts then, they prefer those, too!'

'The swords here are veeeery familiar...' There's many types of swords in various sizes, but there are even katanas too, no doubt Rimuru's influence. Yamamoto picked a katana for himself and a pair of large kunai. 'Kaijin, I want these three!'

'Of course, youngster!'

'No boxing gloves...' Ryohei pouted sadly as he obviously didn't see any in his shop.

'You know you can simply get gauntlets, right?' Gokudera snorted. 'Gauntlets are metal boxing gloves!' he pointed out in annoyance as Ryohei lit up at the notion.

'Oh yeah...'

Gokudera shook his head as he roamed around for what he'd want. No bombs in this world.

'Touka-san, what are good projectile weapons other than the obvious? I specialize in bombs and dynamites back in Earth but...'

'Well, I'll have to teach you a skill to be much better then bombs then. That's a weapon Rimuru-sama won't let humans here have.' Touka reassured him. 'For now, get at least ten kunai, and ask Rimuru-sama to get Souei to tutor you in Kunai usage. Once you master the kunai, I'll teach you a technique.' Gokudera beamed at the incoming promise.

'Thank you so much, Touka!' Gokudera lit up. Touka would have been a great boss since she cares for other people and ensures they grow well in skill and ability, Vongola are really numbskulls! 'By the way...don't mages usually use staves? Why gloves?'

'It's not armor, but gloves befitting a mage.' Touka conjured an illusion of a magisteel glove that was a triangle piece covering the back of the hand only with a wrist wrap. There's a ring for the middle finger, so the 'triangle' will stay in place.

Touka suggested these, based on Rayearth.

'Staves for Mages are a security risk for us monsters. What if Nagi gets disarmed and her staff stolen from her? So these Magic Gloves are the answer so a mage will never get disarmed. We export this product to our allied nation of Dwargo and its met with great success among their mages there, but his majesty King Gazel sees the value of fooling enemies with our gloves so his mages still carry staves as a joke these days...he instantly saw what Rimuru-sama and I had in mind when we showed this product. But its only sold to his most trusted so enemy nations won't catch on.'

'Erps...'

'Well, Rimuru-sama and I are anime otaku, we got the idea from there.'

Gokudera and Nagi sweatdropped.

xxx

After coming back from getting and commissioning weapons, the group returned to their hotel with great spirits.

Weapons aside, they also acquired armor of their choice.

Suddenly, Touka was summoned to the Office through telepathy. 'Oh, I gotta go! There are guests and my job is Bullshit Detectooor!' and Touka ran off.

'...bullshit detector?' Ryohei blinked.

'Weird name for a job.' Yamamoto sweatdropped.

'Hyper Intuition, her skill.' said Mukuro. 'She can see through, its impossible to lie to her and can even discern intentions just by reading a person's feel. Combine that with her Assimilation and Harmony, she can gain information on anyone and anything, even things you don't know about yourself. That's her most important job whenever Slime-Boss has foreign guests. This is to deter double-crossers and deliver a heavy dose of karma for thinking to double-cross this town or swindle sensei.'

Hyper Intuition is a skill exclusive only to Vongola Famiglia, Mukuro thought. No other Sky has this unique ability.

xxx

Rimuru's Office...

A bunch of humans came. Adventurers from Blumund and a bunch of Survey Corps from Falmuth that got the monsters inwardly wary.

Touka, warn the kids NOT to leave their hotel, pronto! Rimuru contacted Touka.

Yes!

xxx

The Hotel's amenities area, the gaming room...

They all felt a psychic presence in their heads.

Urgent announcement: DO NOT leave the hotel! they heard Touka's urgent, alarmed outburst. A Survey Corps from Falmuth came to our town regarding Orc Disaster Incident! DO NOT be seen!

That, was to their horror.

'Holy crap, they got into town under business?!' Gokudera hissed, his hackles rising while Hibari doesn't look pleased.

'W-we should be glad only VIPs are allowed in here...' Nagi whimpered, dismayed that Falmuth Agents are here.

'Try anything, we'll kill them.' Mukuro growled as he had enough of being a weapon for someone, thank you very much.

'Don't worry, we'll make sure nothing happens!' Ryohei swore.

'Keep up with updates, Touka! We gotta make sure they're not after us!' Yamamoto cried anxiously.

Understood.

xxx

Fuze and the trio Rimuru recognized, these bunch are apparently, from a Correctional Facility as expendable men.

This was because they were vigilantes, attacking corrupt officials and soldiers for bullying and harassing their town. Especially women.

Alas, mistreat your citizens enough, they're prone to turn their back on you. Thus the so-called Survey Team is safe and upon mind-reading inspection, hates Falmuth's guts.

Well, the monarchy and nobility has the hate of their citizens and some people tried to leave Falmuth but can't due to Border Guards in the nobility's pockets.

After all, if the people leave, who would make them money?

So according to Youm and Rommel, they were here to do an Orc Disaster Survey...with really cheap equipment by the way and they're lucky so far but they know death is around the corner so they were careful, until they bumped into Fuze's group and Gobta's Hunting Team...and brought home the Knight Spider for dinner.

The reason for their situation was because Count Maigam's territory bordered the forest. Which means occasional monster attacks.

The budget he was given when he filed for help regarding monster attacks was meant to strengthen the Borders by gathering specialists and equipment, but alas, its embezzled for himself. He didn't want to let that money go, so...he made use of these inmates as Border Patrol.

They're active Vigilantes, stirring up dissent against the nobles after all. And while useful as slave miners, their sentence ended up angering the people more. Such as rotten fruit and garbage thrown at the authorities. Even their offices are vandalized, houses broken into, etc. The annoyed 'authorities' complained to Count Maigam.

End result of their thoughtless expressions of fury, their actions ultimately got their heroes in such a snit.

1/100, they'll be lucky to come here. 99/100, they would die in the forest.

xxx

'So Rimuru-sama welcomed them since they're made to die anyway, they can fake their deaths and take refuge here.' Touka explained to her peers.

'Heee...so those people from Falmuth are safe then.' said Yamamoto in relief.

'That doesn't come free though.' said Touka. 'Rimuru-sama wants to build better human relations, so he asked Youm to pretend to be the Hero that killed the Orc Disaster who got aid from the Town of Monsters. We ahem, provided equipment and supplies to aspiring Heroes is the tale, so those guys are on his payroll...but Youm's group is to be under strict training from Hakurou-sensei to make it realistic.'

'Hooo? I can see where that's going.' Mukuro remarked. 'So you'll make lies a reality.'

'Yes. He got Fuze to agree with him on it and only select few will know of the project among Rimuru-sama's allies. Again for realism, we will provide state-of-the-art gear and training so I will be supplying the smiths Magisteel soon. I'll be in Dwargon to amass the goods starting next week.' Touka told them. 'But at any rate, keep training your skills hard OK? I'll train Nagi-chan and Lambo in magic hard. That way, Skills can be gained.'

'What?!'

'We can...gain skills?' Nagi asked her in hope. She and Lambo looked at Touka in hope. This was because by coming to this world skill-less, the power meant to manifest Unique Skills has nowhere to go and it threatens their lives.

'Yes. That's after hard training though. I mean, Gobta developed Poison Resistance after eating Shion's Cooking due to his understandably strong desire to live after swallowing that thing by accident once. Benimaru also developed it after being her Taste Tester as punishment for not telling Rimuru how Shion sucked.' the humans paled in horror at her words. Benimaru...has it hard!

'Well, as mages, the first skill I'll pound into you until the Voice of the World acknowledges your growth is a very important staple typically ignored by medievals...the thing called Chant Annulment.' Touka grinned.

'Speaking, do people here use long-winded chants here and mumbo jumbo?' Gokudera asked Touka in dread.

'Yup, like Chuuni do you'd cringe.' Touka snorted. 'When I stole Magic Books in Ingrassia and saw the chants for spells, I about DIED from cringeyness I tried my hardest to pound Chant Annulment in my fellow orphans...it took three months for them.'

'Three months?!' Lambo piped up in delight.

'Yes, that's with very hard work I went Demon Lord on them in strictness.' Touka admitted cheerfully that made them feel dread at her words. 'As an otaku, I want to stomp hard on as cringey many fiction tropes as possible...'

'...not that we blame you for that...' Gokudera sweatdropped. 'But how does it work?'

'Well, putting in enough effort till you get acknowledged by the World itself is how its done.' said Touka. 'You have no idea of knowing when until the world says so. It will then etch into your soul the skill you worked hard on to obtain.' she told them. 'For world travelers like us, being Reincarnators, Summoneds or Strays, Unique Skills come to us based on the wishes of our hearts. The world listens and manifests Unique Skills as a reflection of your hearts or your inborn talent itself.' she told them. 'So while hard at work, focus on your wishes to manifest them when you level up. But leveling up here happens during combat, training, or maturity as a person...to something as nuts as surviving Shion's cooking. So it depends on you on how fast you obtain your skills as long as those conditions are met.'

That got them all thinking.

xxx

'W-whaaaat?!' Rimuru gaped at the kids in horror.

They made a horrifying request out of him seconds ago.

'We had a talk about it last night.' said Mukuro grimly. 'To survive, we need some of Shion-san's culinary skills.'

"OR LACK THEREOF!" Rimuru howled in his mind in terror as Shion lit up. While annoyed that they're using her cooking as poison-training, the fact remains that there are kids willing to eat her food! 'A-are you sure?' he squeaked, pale-faced and sweating nervously. 'And where's Hayato?'

'He already has it so it's just us.' said Hibari with a twitch and looked like death warmed over.

xxx

'Heee, so you have Poison Resistance due to your past huh?' Touka mused as Gokudera escaped Poison Training by having it with him upon crossing.

'Yeah, lucky me! Wahahahaha!' Gokudera laughed cheerfully.

Gokudera's Unique Skills are Hidden Space, and Disintegration. Hidden Space is that he can create pocket spaces inside his clothes. He cannot make spaces outside his clothes. He can store items inside his clothes of absurd sizes and quantities, even stuff bigger than him as long as he touches it with the intent of putting it in his space under his clothes. He can even yank them out from even inside his sleeves.

Disintegration was he can disintegrate anything he touches. Like Hibari's Propagation, it can work on ANYTHING, even a Skill! However, one thing common between all of them, except for Lambo as he was a child and Nagi was a year underage that she was considered 'a child' in this world, is that all of them have the Extra Skill Flame Magic. Though the color of their fire reflects their abilities had they been in Earth and gotten Flame Training from the mafia. In Ryohei's case, his flames looks like there's sparkles on his flames. Flame Magic can act as fire that burns, or as a medium for long-distance casting of their Flame Trait.

His Resistances are Poison Resistance, Pain Resistance and Flame Resistance. That, was due to years of eating Bianchi's cooking, and getting singed from his own bombs till he got better that he no longer gets burns.

And he has Arts. Instant Move and Formhide, manifested from his fighting-style back in Earth. Instant Move where he can have bursts of speed for a short amount of time and Formhide from his days of sneaking around as a bomber and saboteur.

However, he determined through Mukuro that Touka was their destined Sky thus got Isekai'd here and their Unique Skills are based on the flame attributes they have, other than their inborn talents. She was their Sky whom they were meant to Harmonize with, hence they got isekai'd to where she is as they cannot 'be whole' without her and she is 'empty' without them. Like a puzzle picture with pieces missing yet to be filled by the right pieces.

They had to keep it a secret from the others, given their personalities, and the ties they had from their world. They might blame Touka who had no fault in their situation. Bad enough that she committed suicide due to how awful her life was before.

Project Champion also began too.

For about six weeks, from Chumps, to Champs they went.

Physical Training. Combat Training. Swordsmanship Training. Combat Evasion Training. Speed and Agility Training. In Rommel's case in place of Swordsmanship, it's Staff Training and Magic Training. Staff, he learned from Gabiru as Staves and Spear Combat are only different, in the fact that spears can stab and cut you. Staves on the other hand, are blunt weapons.

Not only that, they also have certain lessons from Vesta as well. Champions must have the 'graces' of one as well, other than grooming and hygiene issues.

He also joined Nagi and Lambo's 'arduous training' to gain Chant Annulment skill and Touka wasn't kidding with how strict she was.

Soon, from a rabble of thugs, to a respectable party worthy of champions.

They also had to deal with Milim around as it was SHE who heads Evasion Training with Rimuru. Miss and you DIE that he needs to quickly throw a Full Potion before death sets in.

And because she's a Demon Lord who specializes in punches and kicks, she was also Hibari's trainer. Though she had to really, REALLY hold back or else...

However, Hibari grows well under her that she claims, 'He can qualify to be a priest at home!'

What she meant by that is that her territory, is full of battle crazies worshipping Milim that 'daily prayers' to her, are sparring matches or sanctioned duels. Hibari would be the best hand-to-hand specialist in Tempest.

Cabal, Gido and Ellen stuck around as well because Fuze wants a vacation before they head home, helping out with hunting monsters for food.

'Even if you have a chicken farm, you guys still eat monsters?' Ryohei croaked out as the food they ate so far are normal by standards...

'Yeah. They're tasty despite how they look.' Touka would tell them. 'The older and stronger the more delicious as just like wine, they get better with age!' she chimed. 'So we only hunt the strongest aggressors around as it's luxury gourmet food for us! If you tasted very tasty meat in your hotel food, that's because of monster meat in it!'

Seven jaws dropped. So aside from mutant chickens, they were eating monster without knowing it?!