(Hey, this is actually the first time I've publicly posted a story. I don't really know much about writing, so you might feel that the story's pacing is very jarring at times. The reason is because I'm trying not to rush things. Though, I seem to always end up speeding up the plot. Most likely because I myself prefer fast paced stories. I'm trying not to rush things while also trying not to add any more than necessary)

"Hey, teach. Are we lost?"

Rimuru and Jack were currently walking in a gigantic canyon. If he were to compare it, then it would be just like the Grand Canyon he'd heard about from Earth. They saw orange rocks all around, and Jack felt the heat of the sun on his skin.

"Being lost would imply that we have somewhere to go, so no, I don't think so," he replied nonchalantly.

He heard the boy sigh.

"Alright, teach. Have it your way," the boy said before flipping over to his feet. He had been hand walking for the last ten minutes.

After more than a month training and travelling with him, the boy had grown a fair bit of muscle and acquired a healthy tan. It looked a little ridiculous on an eleven year old, though.

After another hour or so walking/training, they found themselves on top of a steep cliff.

"Do you think I'll ever be able to survive a fall from here?" Jack asked him.

"Of course. It's only a matter of time before you'll be able to do so," he confirmed as he waved him off.

They were currently looking at a big monster below the cliff. Rimuru didn't know its species, but it looked like a buffalo about thrice its normal size.

"Say, why don't you try hunting this one?"

Jack looked concerned and asked, "Are you sure I'm ready, teach?"

"If I wasn't sure, then I wouldn't have asked," the retiree replied with a little snark.

Rimuru then jumped off the cliff and landed after doing a somersault.

"Damn, that's so cool," he whispered to himself before also joining his teacher.

Rimuru jumped and caught him before he was harmed. This wasn't the first time they did this, and the boy's gotten very trustful of him. Though, the boy pissed his pants the first time. He burst into a chuckle.

"You're thinking about that time again, ain'tcha?" Glared his student.

He ignored the boy and threw him to the ground. To which the boy righted himself in a similar fashion.

"Alright. He's all yours," said the boy's teacher before he disappeared.

"You really need to tell me how you do that one of these days," the swordsman in training said as he walked towards the beast, his bokken resting on his shoulder.

Meanwhile Rimuru sat behind a big boulder and thought, "What movie do you want to watch next, Ciel?"

{Around the World in 80 Days (2004) starring Jackie Chan.}

"Ooo, haven't rewatched that since the fall of star sector 80," Rimuru said as he reminisced about the time he went space travelling. He knew he shouldn't have trusted Milim to take care of it.

He shook himself out of his thoughts and said, "Okay, please start the movie."

{Commencing Movie in 3... 2... 1...}

The movie screen appeared in his eyes as he leaned back for comfort.

"Oh, and warn me when the kid gets into something he can't handle."

{Affirmative. Now, shh. The movie's starting.}

Rimuru rolled his eyes. Ever since Ciel found access to Earth's internet, she had practically been begging for him to watch movies together. He didn't know why she showed a sudden interest once again.

Still, though. After five hundred years of sleeping, he was hard pressed to deny her of any request.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Jack was having trouble dealing with the giant buffalo.

"OooOoOOOoaaaaAAAaaa..." He exclaimed as he was grabbing on to the beast's back. It seemed it didn't take so kindly to having someone sit on its back.

He had never battled a monster this big before. So far, the ones his insane teacher allowed him to fight were small game, wild animals, and at most human sized monsters. This was a new experience for him.

The beast, determining that rodeo wouldn't work, decided to run off in hopes the little pest would latch off.

"W-wait! Stoooo..."

...

Urdan, his twin sister Poedan, and the village's shaman apprentice Ledwen were tasked by their village's elders to travel to the Clawed Canyons to retrieve "something important." Whatever that something was, not even the elders knew. They said that the spirits had deemed the matter very urgent. When asked why, they were very evasive with their answers.

The only clue the spirits gave was:

"Find the shadow, and the tempest shall approach; lure the boy, and danger shall follow; capture the nobody, and the void shall devour. One spells doom, two spell goal, three spell chaos."

He didn't like that clue. Not one bit. All he could tell from it was that everything spelled "DANGEROUS" and "DEATH" to him.

"Do you sense anything yet, Led?" He asked impatiently in elvish tongue, the common language in his elven village.

"For the last time, Urdan. No, I haven't," combed her hair and answered.

"Be patient, brother," his sister reminded.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I just don't like it. Why do we have to do this again?"

The shaman apprentice frowned and answered, "Because the spirits said so. Or do you have anything against them?"

"Whoah, calm down. I never said that."

When the terrible demon put the curse on the world, it left the elves without their precious magic. As a magic proficient race that lost all their magic, the elves' numbers dwindled day by day until the fateful day the spirits appeared and approached them. They taught the elves new magic, allowing them to survive in the changed world, and with eternal gratitude the elves presented themselves as the subjects of the spirits.

"Hold on. I sense something," Poedan put her hand on the ground. As a hunter and scout, her job was to notice the environment. She had felt the ground shake a little. As time went on, the shaking became more noticable and all three were able to hear giant footsteps.

"Kiloffalo!" From around the corner appeared a giant buffalo, a kiloffalo, rushing at the path they were taking.

Being the experienced explorers they were, each moved out their own way.

Urdan ran towards the beast and jumped through a narrow opening between its legs.

Poedan ran up to one of the cliff walls and clung to it with her tools.

Ledwen chanted her magic before she floated over the thing.

"Aaah! Make it stop! Teaaaa--"

The three heard someone speak in common human tongue and instantly became wary. Humans were part of the reason why many elves lost their lives after the Day of Cursing. Without getting into too many details, it was the humans' terrible vices that made them act against the elves. It was the reason the remaining elves secluded themselves from the other races.

Ledwen was the first to notice someone sticking onto the big quadruped.

"A boy?" She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes.

As the path they took was a widening one, the kiloffalo found itself stuck after trying to charge through.

"Oh, thank fuck!" The boy shouted before he slipped off and fell from the monster.

"Ah, shiii--" The boy cursed as he neared the ground.

But what happened next alerted all three elves. The boy suddenly vanished into his own shadow.

Boy. Shadow.

It seemed they'd found their first step for the clue.

...

"Man, I didn't even realize that guy was Arnold Schwarzenegger," Rimuru commented when they reached the harem king scene.

{Indeed. The long hair most probably fooled you.}

Rimuru nodded as he crossed his arms behind his head.

(Tell me how you feel about this chapter. Does it feel rushed to you?)