Rimuru And Iruma's Adventures In The Netherworld

by Mu1622

A bored Rimuru Tempest accompanies Diablo when he goes to meet with an old friend in the Netherworld. What will happen when he meets an out-of-place human boy who piques his interest? (Releases every other week on Saturdays!) (I also made a discord for discussion and questions. The link is in my profile's description.)

102. Arrow Near The Knee

Arrow Near The Knee

Iruma POV

A long time passes without me making any progress, only staring at the feather in my hand, the light in the room growing orange as the sun starts to set.

I groan loudly and fall back onto the mat on the ground. I hadn't been able to figure it out, and that's getting to me. "What is wrong with me?" I pause and look out onto the horizon, taking a moment to think about all the time I'd spent in Tempest training. "If I can figure out my skills, I can figure this out… I just need to try a little harder."

It's just a spell, right? I just need to form a clear picture in my mind of what I want and say the spell's name, but forming that clear picture is the hard part since I have to pick the right one. It has to fit me as a person and what I want; that's what Master Bachiko said.

I think back on what Hinata had last told me too. "If you can't do something, you can always think about a different way to do it." I recite it out loud.

But, the problem is that I'm not sure there's a different way to do this.

My skills work just fine with imagining what I want to happen and then pouring in the right amount of magic, and Rimuru said before that skills are based on spells… So they have to work pretty much the same way, right?

{{No, no, no! You are thinking about it all wrong, Iruma-boy!}}

"Ali!?"

My eyes dart to my ring, but Alikred is nowhere to be seen.

"Did you just speak to me in my mind!?"

{{I have always used telepathy to speak with you, I just didn't bother showing my beautiful face this time! Did you seriously just notice?}}

"U-uh… yeah, it always seemed like you talked normally to me."

{{I have no mouth to speak with, so I have no clue how you came to that conclusion.}}

"So… can you tell me what you meant when you said I was thinking about this wrong?"

{{You're fixating too much on the magic itself when you should be focusing on the feelings you're putting into the spell! You're too stubborn, too uncreative! I seriously don't know what I'm going to do with you!}}

"But I don't know what feelings to use for it. That's my problem." I look around the room. "I mean, no one else is even here… We aren't in any danger. What am I supposed to feel? It's just a calm summery day!"

{{You do realize you can get a different tutor, right? You don't need to become an archer, you can instead do something more within the scope of your talents. Forcing yourself won't help you whatsoever, so why not give up instead of banging your head against a wall?}}

"I can't give up that easily!" I feel a bit of anger boil up.

{{Well, you'll need to consid-}}

Suddenly a puff of smoke emerges from my ring and Ali materializes in front of me. "I get it, I get it! I am sorry, Lady Ciel!" He shivers in fear as he bows in front of my ring.

I almost don't want to ask what happened since Ali looks terrified right now. I'm guessing he did something to make Ciel mad again.

"Ignore most of what I just said! I was wrong! Very wrong!"

"Sure…"

"But, my point about you using that spell wrong still stands. You need to dig deep, Iruma-boy, find all those embarrassing feelings you have hidden, and bring them to the surface. Only then can you create a bow that suits you to your mentor's standards, since you are so intent on impressing her."

"I don't just want to impress Master Bachiko… I w-want… I want her to compliment me! I don't want her to call me a moron ever again!"

"Yes, yes, I'm aware of how hopeless you are." Ali palms his face. "Okay, ignore the pigtailed witch for a moment. Tell me what you really want in this world! Tell me your deepest desires. What you want this world to be! What you want to be!"

"I… I… even though I'm human, I want to stay with everyone here, so… um…"

"Stop muttering and speak up!"

I stay silent while staring at the creature from the ring in front of me, thoughts of my friends, Rimuru, Opera, Grandpa… All these people I've wanted to help and wanted to enjoy my time with.

I know one thing though, this world isn't a place for me, a human. It never has been.

But I can change that.

"I want to stay here in the Netherworld with my friends! Even if I have to struggle to get strong enough to defend it, and even if I need to step up and change how things are here, I want to stay here with my friends and live a happy life!"

Ali stares at me blankly for a few moments, shifting around the expression in his single eye. He seems to be trying to make me break.

I stare back, steeling myself for it. I won't be giving up that easily; not after he had already told me to give up earlier.

"Someone who can do that, that's the kind of hero I want to be! That's what I want!"

"Fine. If that's what you want, then say the words! Cast the spell with that thought clear in your mind!"

"Quartz, Quartz!"

Holding out the final feather; my final chance, I pour magic into the object, saying aloud the spell's name, making sure to keep my intent firm. The flash of light is blinding, but I keep letting the magic flow out of me anyway, not concerned if I wear myself out doing this. I need to put my all into this or I'll fail; I know that.

Rimuru POV

I stare down the thug in front of me, while thinking through my next actions carefully.

I'm in fact around three hundred feet in the air, though. So 'in front of me' was a bit of an exaggeration.

I open up my wings and reposition myself in the air to come down with a dropkick on that asshole. Tempering my speed and strength carefully, I start bulleting down toward my target. I don't want to kill him, after all, just incapacitate him.

Ugh… what's this taste in my mouth? It's almost like when you throw up a little, but I know that's not the reason here. It came out of nowhere, too.

It kinda reminds me of the taste of an Enlightened human's magicules, but not exactly, and I know it's been ages since I've eaten one of those.

My heel made contact with the thug… leaving nothing but a spray of red behind.

Whoops.

My focus on the taste distracted me enough to interfere with my self-control, it seems.

Ciel, being the ever-reliable partner she is, immediately sped up my thoughts enough to practically stop time, knowing that I'd made a mistake.

[[Master, do you want to revive this individual?]]

Yeah, definitely. It'd be too much trouble if I didn't. I don't want to explain my 'sudden increase of strength' to him.

It doesn't take me and Ciel much effort to recreate the thug's body, grab his soul that tried to run off after his body was destroyed, and shove it into the newly-constructed one. When it comes to reviving people, this isn't my first rodeo.

After the job is done, I return to perceiving the world in normal time. My opponent, none the wiser to what just transpired, wakes up and stumbles to his feet, seeming a bit disoriented but perfectly healthy.

He probably thinks I briefly knocked him out, which is perfectly fine by me.

Ack. That stupid taste is still there…

I pull a soda out of my stomach and down it in one gulp to wash it away before resuming the sparring match, this time vowing to be a bit more careful not to 'mistify' them again.

Iruma POV

The light fades and I open my eyes, I find myself holding a bow almost as big as me that is a deep indigo color and has taken on a thorny shape similar to stuff I have become used to seeing in the Netherworld.

With this… I'll protect the dream I have! I'll be the hero I need to be.

A voice cuts through my thoughts, but I don't need to look, I know who it is.

"I'm back~! Now, let's see what you came up with while I was gone. You better not have-" Bachiko cuts herself off and stares at me with a gaping mouth.

After a few seconds, she coughs and composes herself.

"I see you finally put some real thought into your bow. I have to say, I'm impressed." she compliments me with a smirk, "But why are your wings out? Put those things away, we're indoors!"

Wings?

I look over my shoulder and see a set of demon wings, attached to me sorta like a harness with stuff that matches the bow in my hand. I'm stunned speechless for a moment, but quickly shove my feelings down. It seems like when I created my bow, I made these wings as well.

I guess I won't be needing those ones Rimuru had made for me.

Still, I'm having a strong drive to try these out, but I know it's not the time for that. It's also not the time for me to be showing how crazy thrilled I am about these wings either. No real demon would get excited about their wings when they would've had them their entire life.

I'm sure that when I tell Rimuru, she can give me another flying lesson to give this pair a test drive.

Bachiko is still staring at me with her arms crossed, waiting for me to put my new magically-created wings away. But, the problem with that is I have no clue how to do it!

But, it ends up being much easier than I thought because as soon as I had the thought that I wanted the wings to disappear, they did, turning into pure magic that sucked back into the harness.

"Sorry… but, Master! Look what I made! Isn't it cool? Did I do a good job?!"

"Didn't I say that already?" she asks gruffly, "You finally did a proper job. Now we can truly get started with the main phase of your training."

"So you're going to teach me how to shoot things with this?"

"Not yet. First, you need to get used to summoning your bow at will. Dispel it."

"Uh… sure…"

I picture my bow disappearing, just like I did with the wings, and it broke down and sucked back into my ring.

"Okay, now summon it," Bachiko commanded.

"How do I do that…?"

"Ugh… just think about the bow and how you want it to appear in your hand while focusing your mana. It's super simple."

I follow her instructions, imagining the image of my new bow being held in my hand, and my desire to have it come back to me. Then, the same blinding light from when I first made it shines from my rings, forcing me to squint my eyes.

"Ah! Sheesh, control your mana better than that! I just said to summon it, not power up an attack!" Bachiko scolds me.

The light only lasts a few seconds, and once it's gone, I see that I successfully summoned my bow.

"And why are your wings out again?"

"Sorry, Master!" I glance over my shoulder, seeing that I again created wings, and quickly do the same thing to hide them again.

"Alright, do it again. Don't whip your wings out and try not to let your mana run wild again. You'll give yourself away in combat if you shine like a beacon every time you take your weapon out."

I try a second time.

No wings, no wings, no wings… I don't want to make the same mistakes again. I also made sure to use less mana this time since I think the light came from me overdoing it before.

This time, the light is still bad enough that it hurts my eyes, but I don't think it was as bad. No wings came out this time, though, so I call that a success!

"Better, but not good enough. Again."

Again.

And again.

And again.

No matter how many times I do the summon, Master Bachiko keeps saying that it's not good enough.

I'm too slow and too wasteful with my mana, she says. But I keep trying my best anyway. At least she isn't calling me a moron anymore.

"Do you still think I'm a moron?"

"Yeah, you're still a moron, but also my student. My moronic little student."

But now Bachiko is smiling instead of scowling at me as she says it, so I don't think she means it as much of an insult anymore. Slowly, but surely, I'm earning her approval, I think.

For hours, I summon my bow over and over at my Master's instruction. It's dark outside now and I'm completely exhausted. I overused my magic for sure and now I can hardly even stay on my feet.

"Go home and rest. We'll pick this up tomorrow, understand? Don't be late."

"Y-yes, Master Bachiko!"

I stumble over to the door, end up bumping into the frame and nearly falling to the floor, my vision spinning.

"You aren't planning on flying home like that, are you?"

"No, I'm gonna walk."

"Not like that, you aren't!"

"I'll be fine…"

"Gimme your phone. I'm callin' your sister to pick you up. She can carry you home since I'm sure not gonna do that. No way."

I hand her my hell-phone and she starts aggressively scrolling through it.

"I don't even see her in your contacts!" Bachiko grumbles.

"You should look for 'RealRiRi'. Just make sure you don't call the 'fake' one."

"What?"

"Rimuru has a second phone as a joke."

"Both of you are weird."

The 'joke' contact, 'FakeRiRi', is actually a phone that the version of Rimuru that's in Tempest has. Rimuru thought it would be fun to send me pictures of Aoki and stuff through texts with it.

"Hey, brat! Come pick up your moron brother so he can get some rest… who is this?... His tutor, who else?!... yeah, I trained him so well that he's about to pass out… why do I have his phone? Because he gave it to me! Just show up." Bachiko says before abruptly hanging up on Rimuru.

I hope that didn't make Rimuru too mad at her… they don't exactly get along with each other.

I sit down on the floor since standing is too hard for me right now. I expect Rimuru should be here any minute now, knowing how quick she normally is. Rimuru can teleport and stuff, so there's no reason she shouldn't show up right away.

But, after a few minutes passed, I was starting to doubt that.

I wonder what's taking Rimuru so long? It's not like her to keep me waiting when I tell her I need her. Does this have to do with the way Bachiko talked to her on the phone? No, Rimuru wouldn't hold that against me.

Maybe I should just take a nap on the floor.

I flop back onto the floor, not caring anymore about staying awake.

"Hey! None of that! If you sleep on the floor, it might impact your training tomorrow!"

"But I'm sleepy… and Rimuru is taking a looooong time…"

"Are ya kiddin' me? It's only been five minutes!"

"Rimuru is very fast, Master."

Then the door to the room flies open with a bang.

"What the-... hey!" Bachiko exclaims, surprised by it.

Rimuru walks in and looms over me, not paying any attention to Bachiko.

"Alright, get up Iruma." Rimuru sternly says to me with crossed arms.

Lying down on the floor was a bad idea because now my arms and legs don't even wanna move! The tingly soreness in my muscles that comes with me overusing magic is making me feel like I'm made of jello.

I wonder what that feels like for real… maybe I should ask Rimuru later.

I make a weak move to try to get up, but end up just limply flopping onto the floor again.

Sighing, Rimuru grabs me by the collar of my shirt and yanks me to my feet, triggering a wave of nausea, but I manage to not throw up.

"Get ahold of yourself, I'm having you walk."

"Whyyyyyyy…?" I whine weakly.

"Think of it as part of your training."

"I called you so he wouldn't walk home. Don't try to overstep me!" Master Bachiko interjects.

"And I'm taking things from here, so you have no say. You can have him back tomorrow, as planned."

"Seeya tomorrow… Master…" I weakly wave goodbye to her as I follow Rimuru out of the room.

"Do I really have to walk…? Can you please just make a portal or something?"

Normally I wouldn't beg like this, but I'm not feeling well at all and I know something like that would be easy for Rimuru.

"Nope. Not tonight." Rimuru curtly answers me.

"Rimuruuuuu…"

"Aren't you set on getting stronger? This is part of that. Push yourself, just like before."

"Okay…"

"So what were you doing that wiped you out this badly?" Rimuru asks me once we're outside again.

"Summoning a magic bow… over and over and over…"

"That explains the magicule poisoning."

"I can make wings now too… with magic."

"Whoa, really?! I guess I'll need to cancel that project for a revised version of those wings you gave a test run. Are the ones you made functional?"

"Dunno… didn't try anything with them…"

"We can do another flying lesson when you're not… like this. If you tried any magic right now, I bet you'd collapse."

My foot suddenly catches on a bump and I start falling forward. But, something grabs the back of my shirt, preventing me from faceplanting onto the stone path home.

Rimuru caught me, of course.

"Even if you fall, I'm not carrying you."

"I know… I can do this…"

"Good," Rimuru says, smiling at me.

We keep walking and I keep stumbling, unable to properly stay on my feet since I'm pushing myself through total exhaustion. But eventually, we both get home.

**A Little Earlier**

Opera POV

"Why isn't he home yet? Your poor grandpa is getting worried!" Lord Sullivan whines to Rimuru as they enjoy some evening tea together.

"I'm sure Iruma's just training. He will be home soon."

"Should I head back to the school? Perhaps I need to check on him! Yes, I will go right away!"

"No, no, no! You don't need to do that!" Rimuru jumps up to stop him, grabbing Lord Sullivan's sleeve. "Just relax. I get how much you care about him, but if you go to pick him up right now, it might ruin his training. Iruma is trying very hard to do this on his own."

"Yes, I agree, Lord Sullivan," I add as I take the opportunity to fill their teacups.

"Phuuuu… I miss him so much…" Lord Sullivan sulks and Rimuru gives him a comforting pat on the shoulder.

"I know. You don't need to repeat yourself, I understand."

Lord Sullivan has been a fidgety nervous mess ever since Iruma began his training for the Harvest Festival. Rimuru is trying her best to keep him calm, but this has been a nightly occurrence lately. I've been also attempting to help during the day when Rimuru is not at the mansion, but I can only do so much.

After a little bit longer, Rimuru downs her cup of tea and stands up, "I'm heading upstairs." She eyes me briefly, signaling that it's my turn to watch Lord Sullivan who is still quite sad despite Rimuru's efforts. I nod lightly and she walks away.

"Sir, would you like some more tea?"

"Tea won't help me, Opera. Only seeing my grandson's smiling face will. Have you noticed he hasn't been smiling as much lately? It is worrying me greatly."

"I prepared some of his favorite snacks for when he arrives home tonight. I am sure that will make him smile."

"Thank you, Opera."

After a few minutes of sitting in somber silence, I hear what sounds like Rimuru shouting from upstairs, or at least talking loudly.

What is that about?

I stand up and make my way toward the noise, leaving Lord Sullivan behind without any protest from him. Quietly, I walk upstairs and peek into the hallway outside of Rimuru's room. There's no more yelling happening, but I do spot something else strange.

Walking over to the window, Rimuru opens it and jumps out, flying off into the night. I jog over to the window and see that she is flying in the direction of Babyls.

I wonder what she is doing… But I quickly shake off the thought, knowing that what Rimuru does is none of my business. This is not the first time I've seen her sneak off in the middle of the night, returning by morning before anyone else notices.

I return to Lord Sullivan downstairs, opting to not mention Rimuru's nighttime escape through the window so as to not worry him further.

Eventually, Rimuru walks through the front doors, along with Iruma who looks incredibly drained.

"Hi, Opera…" Iruma mutters, giving me a little wave while supported by Rimuru.

"Welcome home. I have prepared some snacks for you if you wish to eat something."

"Nope. No snacks for him right now. Iruma's going right to bed."

"But, Rimuru… snacks…"

Rimuru then throws him over her shoulder and starts walking inside.

"Let Grandpa Sullivan know Iruma's home safe and sound for me, will ya? Thanks."

"I… yes, of course."

Rimuru walks off toward the stairway with Iruma squirming to try to get away, "Shush, you little glutton. I'll leave some for you to eat in the morning, I promise."

Sighing deeply, I go to let Lord Sullivan know that his grandson is home, but that he shouldn't bother the boy since he needs rest.

Iruma POV

A few days pass with me doing the same training, just summoning my bow over and over for hours on end, but I don't mind. I'm improving little by little and that's all that matters.

But, when I show up for training today.

"We're going to try something different today. But first, I need to ask you something important."

"Sure. Ask away."

"What's your bloodline ability? It might be something useful to archery, so I need to know."

"It's a little complicated. I can kinda sense things around me and also move objects a little without touching them. Because of it, I'm really good at avoiding dangers and stuff once they get close to me."

"Wait, you can move stuff at a range without complicated spells?"

"Yeah, but not very well. They also have to be close to me or it doesn't work."

"How close?"

"I'm not sure… the whole 'moving objects thing' is new to me, actually. I guess my magic is still developing or something since I'm just a high schooler."

"Ah, I suppose that makes sense. It took me a long time to be able to shoot as many targets as I want with perfect accuracy." Bachiko nods, "But that means you have room to grow, so we'll be incorporating that into your training. When I'm done with ya, I bet you'll be able to control your arrows at will, even switching targets after shooting!"

"But I haven't even shot a single arrow yet…"

"That doesn't matter! I said you would win, so you will win! This could be the ticket to that, don't you realize?"

"I'll try my best!"

"You better!"

…

"Was that really your best?!"

"It is! I'm sorry!"

"How did you almost shoot yourself with your own arrow!? How is that even possible!?"

"I don't know! You're the expert, Master, not me!"

Bachiko sighs loudly. "Well. Considering you've never used your bloodline ability on things other than yourself seriously, I think you are just pushing everything you grab in the same direction. So when I threw that rock at you, and you tried to dodge it while guiding the arrow. You, being the moron you are, just dragged yourself back and the arrow along with you, causing it to fly at you."

"Um, may I ask why you threw a rock at me?"

"To keep you aware of your surroundings and to test out that ability to see if you could focus on that and shooting at the same time. I see we need to work on that still, though, after what just happened."

"Want me to try again?"

"Of course. Just avoid repeating the whole 'shooting yourself' thing this time."

I pull a new demon-bird feather out of the small pouch of them Bachiko provided me. These are for me to make arrows; I still need something to use for the core of those. These feathers are not nearly as special as the one I used to make my bow, but they are good enough for me to make my ammo.

As I pull back the string to my bow, the feather changes into a light blue arrow of mana. I take aim at the target I still haven't been able to hit even once after a dozen or so tries. It's not like my shots went catastrophically like my last one, but they still missed their mark by a lot.

Master Bachiko suggested before that I use my magic to help guide my arrows since it's nearly impossible for me to get as accurate as she is in this little amount of time she has to train me. So, I focus my magic field skill's control on my arrow, intending on sending it toward my target, and release the string from my fingers.

At first, it shoots straight, moving just like I wanted it, but once it gets too far away, the arrow veers abruptly to the side and misses by a decent margin.

"Dangit…"

But, I don't let myself get too frustrated and create another arrow.

Similar result.

Another.

Again, I missed it, but I got a little bit closer to the target this time!

Maybe it has something to do with how I used my skill?

I didn't try as hard to control the arrow, gently releasing it at the right time, just like when I learned how to properly throw a ball. Instead of trying to keep a tight hold on it all the way, I let it go when I was sure of its trajectory since my range is so limited. Maybe I'm onto something here…

I shoot another arrow, deciding to give my changed strategy a try.

*Thunk*

"Wow. You finally hit your first target. Congratulations!" Bachiko says, actually seeming a bit proud of me. It feels nice.

"I did, didn't I?!"

My arrow isn't in the center of the target, but also not at the very edge. I'm just happy I hit it at all.

"Now, do the same thing you just did. You need to practice until you can hit a target consistently."

"Yes!"

I take aim with a new arrow and a smile on my face.

The string slips through my fingers, but I get that same sense to move out of the way that I always get when something comes at me.

I lurch back and to the side, falling back and no longer paying attention to my arrow. I think Bachiko just tried to punch me.

No! I can't lose my focus!

I look back at my arrow… and see it's flying right at my face!

"Stop!" I snap my eyes shut and hold out my hands on instinct, bracing myself for the impact.

I feel a sharp sting on the side of my right thigh and open my eyes and see the arrow embedded in the ground through my pant leg.

Stunned, I stare at the light blue magic arrow for a few seconds before Bachiko stomps over and yanks it out aggressively, snapping it in half in her hands.

"No more of that. You need better control over your bloodline ability before I'm gonna let you practice it with a weapon."

"I understand… I'm sorry…"

I take a closer look at my leg. It got scraped and my pants are torn, but I'm not really hurt. That was too close of a call, though. I need to be more careful.

Good thing I'm not bleeding or Master Bachiko might smell it. I really don't want her to find out I'm human.

"There's no point trying to control an arrow if when someone attacks you, you end up shooting yourself." she continues lecturing me. "Hmmm… how to fix this. I don't have your same ability as you, so I'm not exactly knowledgeable about this, but I'm up for the challenge. Let's start with having you move two objects at the same time."

She sets down two small rocks in front of me.

"I've never moved two things at the same time before."

"You just did that a few minutes ago. Both yourself and the arrow; that makes two."

"Oh… yeah…"

I focus and try to move both rocks up a few inches above the ground and didn't have much trouble. It's a little harder than moving just one thing, but with how small the pebbles are, it's not a problem for me to move two at a time.

"Okay, now try to move them in opposite directions. One to the right and one to the left."

Still holding the two rocks, I try to make them move apart from each other, but both just jitter as they hover in the air, moving nowhere.

Realizing I'm getting nowhere with this, I let go of the rocks and they fall.

"Have you ever casted two spells at once before?"

"No. Why?"

"It's obvious you're just applying all your magic to both rocks at once; that's not gonna work. The same goes for when you try to cast two spells at the same time. You need to split your mana and desire in two, one portion for each spell or application of your magic."

I nod in understanding and try to focus on splitting my field of magic in two. I can feel it warp and wiggle a little before dividing just like I wanted, after a bit of effort.

Then, I try applying each half to one of the rocks and try moving them in different directions before, making sure to focus the directions into only one side of the magic field each.

They don't move far and they don't move fast, but they do move in two different directions.

"Huh. You figured that out surprisingly quickly."

Even though I succeeded, now my head hurts from how hard I had to focus to pull it off.

"Keep practicin'. We aren't moving past this today." she plops down in the chair she had me haul out here before my training started. "I'll just supervise for now."

…

An entirely different type of exhaustion came from my using that skill over and over. I hurt all over, but in a very strange, even way, unlike when I overuse normal magic or wear myself out physically.

"Can you carry me this time?" I ask Rimuru, who came to pick me up again from training.

"Why? You're trying to push yourself, aren't you?"

"I wanna save my energy a little… there's something I want your help with once we get home."

"Alright, fine, fine… I will carry you, on one condition." Rimuru places her hands on her hips.

"What's that?" I lean over to catch my breath.

"I want to know what you want help with first." Rimuru skips along a bit, getting ahead of me. Rimuru is unusually chipper.

"Okay, I think I can do that, but for that." I reached down to my ring and changed it to be set on Thought Communication. {{Can you hear me, Rimuru?}}

{{Yea, why'd you wanna talk with this?}}

{{Well I- Rimuru is probably gonna be annoyed helping me more- Can you help- Should I really be asking this?- I want you to help me practice using- This is a waste of her time- Magic Field?}} I struggle quite hard to keep my thoughts focused, while using Thought Communication.

{{Ah, your skills. Sure. Why though?}}

I quickly turn off Thought Communication as it is enough to code the rest of the conversation. "Well, Master wants me to use my bloodline ability while we practice, so I can learn to use my abilities to their fullest. The issue is, I'm not very good at splitting up my control by object… So I almost shot myself a few times."

"YOU ALMOST WHAAAAT?!" Rimuru goes silent for a moment.

"I'm fine! I just got scraped." I quickly assure Rimuru while waving my arms around in the air. "I just can't like… Dodge without also pulling whatever I am controlling in the air with me… You know? So I kinda just, shove myself into the ground, and whatever I have ahold of, just goes careening at me like a stray bullet." It's a little funny when I think about it; cause my arrows are probably more deadly than a bullet.

"Well, first of all, with how strong you are now, your arrows are probably gonna cause a lot more damage than bullets, though probably not the kind I'm used to." Rimuru whistles for a few moments while looking around, tapping the side of her head softly. "Ah! I got it."

"What do you got-" I am cut off.

As Rimuru immediately grabs me by the waist and throws me atop her shoulder to run home. "I got a perfect idea for helpin' you, and I'm pretty excited to show ya too! I don't get many chances to do this!"

…

Rimuru slams the door to the mansion open and runs straight up the stairs with me to her room before setting me on the bed. "So, to do this you'll need to go inside my stom- Imaginary Space. Inside there I am like a god, I can use Reality Domination to its fullest! I can even make my own universes there with their own physics, so I can make one perfectly tailored for trainin' this skill."

"Rimuru, were you about to say 'Stomach?'" I immediately get a little worried, as the demons do make constant references to eating humans. I mean, I hear it every time I walk to school with all their singing.

"No no, it isn't that anymore at all. Just an old habit." Rimuru waves her hands in front of her face dismissively. "Just a misnomer."

"Not anymore?" That worries me even more.

"Shouldn't have said that." Rimuru sighs. "I should not have said that." She then opens a swirling black portal in the air, grabs my arm, and pulls me through it alongside her.

I scream at the sudden invocation of a skill I remember being called Azathoth, but am immediately surprised to see that instead of greeting oblivion, I greet open space with a lot of large meteors and asteroids floating around us.

There are also little ones floating around them, however slowly each of them comes to a complete stop.

I don't know much about space, but something doesn't seem right about that.

However, right now I have bigger concerns! I quickly hold my breath and try not to lose any more of my air to the vacuum around me.

"What are you holding your breath for?" Rimuru side-eyes me.

I feel a small gust of air splash across my face as Rimuru waves her hand around. "See? Perfectly safe. Did you think I'd forget to put air in here? I SAID I WAS MAKING A UNIVERSE! It's really cool, huh?"

"I was more focused on being afraid you might try to eat me, to be honest." I stare kinda blankly, still feeling a bit of the residual fear.

"Ah… Yeah, that's my fault; should've been more accurate. I may be able to eat things as long as they are in Imaginary Space, however, it is less accurate to say 'stomach' than it is to say it's like my own personal universe." Rimuru quickly explains.

[[It in fact consists of a sixth dimensional space, as such it exists beyond simple four-dimensional cosmoi such as universes.]] Ciel interjects, but I don't really understand any of what she just said.

"That's too much for the boy to understand, Ciel! It's better to just say, it's my universe. Simple and easy." Rimuru adds her own explanation quickly.

[[It is still highly inaccurate.]] It almost seems like Ciel is grumbling.

"Okay, well, to say it another way… Everything I 'eat' ends up here, and anything I create starts here." Rimuru smiles broadly.

"Oh… Does that mean if we went too far out that we'd find that Beluran guy?" I don't like the idea of running into some of the things Rimuru has eaten in the past, they sound like they'd all be super dangerous.

"Oh? No, this space is separate from where I sent him, plus I'm pretty sure he has been broken down. His soul might still be floatin' around somewhere though. Never did ask Ciel what she did with it. Wouldn't wanna know either though." Rimuru's smile fades a little bit, before coming back in full swing as Rimuru flies to the top of a large asteroid.

"So what are we gonna do here, Rimuru?" I flail my arms around trying to move.

"I was just about to get to that! See, in this universe, physics work a little bit differently. Momentum is not sustained, as the space will resist it, being all stretchy as it is, like me! Plus I don't want you flinging yourself off into the void. I'd know where you went, but it'd still be annoying." Rimuru pauses for a moment to let me think it all over, I guess. "Next, gravity doesn't work either. So only the three other fundamental forces will do anything, I wanted to minimize your ability to cheat, without having everything reduce itself to buzzing quarks immediately."

"How would gravity and momentum be cheating?" I keep trying to flail my arms around but quickly conclude it won't work. So instead I try to move myself around a tiny bit with Magic Field and find it kinda draining.

"Well, I was just getting to that, boy! It is very simple, you could use them to move things around for you. However here, all that movement has to come from you." Rimuru stands atop the asteroid, before sitting down and making a teacup materialize in her hand. "Now get up here already, or you won't get any snacks."

Rimuru is annoying me a little bit at this point, not only talking to me in a way I don't like but also taunting me with food. I think Rimuru is doing it on purpose, and it's working.

I really wanna get up there and snatch those biscuits from her! ...if she is okay with that, of course…

So, I set my magic field to be as powerful as I can, even if it is a bit hard after training with my bow and skills for so long today. It gives that itchy sensation of magicule poisoning again, little hotspots of pain all across my body.

After that, I use all my mental effort to forcefully move myself up to the side of the asteroid. I grab one of the crevices of the rock and begin dragging myself up it. I have to use Body Boost as well, because moving in this place is really hard.

Eventually though, after a lot of effort, I managed to get to the top with Rimuru. I grab softly onto the surface and lay down in the dirt.

"So, do you think you are ready for step two? You seem to have done a pretty good job getting here. So next… I would like for you to hold yourself down here with Magic Field, and if you push yourself off of the surface, pull yourself back down." Rimuru points to the asteroid we are sitting on.

"Sure… but can you give me one of the biscuits first?" I groan in pain. That's not stopping me from wanting one of those delicious-looking cookies Rimuru has, though.

"Yea sure, it should have some good healing magic for this kinda thing. They're meant to help alleviate magicule poisoning by disabling the ones that are actin' up." Rimuru hands me one of the biscuits.

I immediately eat it, and a few minutes later I feel good enough to sit back up. "What's even in these?"

"Huh? Oh, just some lesser spirits, otherwise it's a normal biscuit." Rimuru waves it off quickly and begins speaking again. "Now, next, I just want you to grab a bunch of those tiny meteors, and make them orbit around this one. Do it at different angles or it doesn't count. We'll stop when you reach your limit."

I stare at Rimuru for a moment, while thinking it over. "I struggled with two, and it will probably be harder here… I guess I could try that though. How hard could it be?"

…

Conclusion; VERY HARD! I get too exhausted to keep going the moment I finally get a stable orbit on the fourth tiny meteor, and then immediately face plant into the asteroid by letting go of all the others and forcing myself down with a lot more oomph than I originally intended.

At least I finally managed to figure out this whole mana partitioning thing that Rimuru keeps talking to me about as I do this. Rimuru keeps saying how it's important when using multiple skills, spells, or even just using mana to move around as a monster.

"I think that is good enough, you technically got eight partitions by doing that, even if you had two for each rock." Rimuru peels me off the asteroid and takes us back through one of those swirling black portals.

We are once again in her room.

I let my magic field fade away and start to feel the burn as my magicule poisoning today is now almost as serious as it was when training with Hinata.

"I think you'll need a few more hours of rest than normal. So." After speaking, Rimuru picks me up and carries me to my room, before tucking me into bed.

I find myself immediately drifting off into sleep.