Chapter 2

Meeting The Goblins

Veldora's Cave

Ash had really taken everything quite quickly. He would have never thought that he would be telling his tale to a dragon and a slime in a dark cave. But here he was, about to finish his story and explain to them what happened when he got to this world.

"And that's when I found you guys." Ash said.

"That is quite a story, These sorts of things are not unheard of but it is quite rare to meet individuals that have experienced this." Veldora said.

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around how there's another world out there like that." The slime said. Ash still didn't know how to feel about being in another world.

"I don't know how to feel about this at the moment. Apart from you two, I haven't seen any intelligent life since I been here." Ash said.

"You have only explored a small part of this world. There is intelligent life in this world. You just need to find them. I could show you where to find them." Veldora said. This perked Ash up.

"Really? That's great." Ash said.

"But I can't." Veldora said. Ash deadpan fell to the floor. "I am prisoned here. I have been trapped in this cave for a long time. So I can't leave, even if I wanted to."

"That's terrible." The slime said.

"Yeah, is there anything that can break the spell?" Ash asked.

"There maybe a way." The slime said. This caught everyones attention.

"How?" Ash asked.

"I can analyse the barrier from the outside but I don't think I can study the inside though." The Slime said.

"That is not a problem, I am able to do that part myself." Veldora said. But there was another problem.

"But there is a risk though. For this to work, I would need to devour you." The slime said. What did he say?

"Devour? You're going to eat Veldora?" Ash asked. The Slime turns round to Ash.

"It's the only way I can study the prison. I can't do it of I don't use it." The Slime said. Veldora had no worries about it.

"It will be fine, this barrier will be strong enough to keep me safe." Veldora said. If he was okay with it, there's no reason to wait around now.

"Ok, I'll go ahead and devour now." The Slime said.

"Not yet." Veldora said. "I would like to gift you with a name." This surprised The Slime and Ash.

"You want to give me a know?" The Slime asked.

"I would like to give both of you names. By naming you, it will increase our bond and grow even more stronger than you are now." Veldora said.

"Just by giving us names?" Ash asked. Ash then remembered how the bonds he had with his Pokemon back in his world did make a difference when it counted. "Ok, I accept your offer."

"Yeah, I'll let you name me too." The Slime said.

"Wise choice." Veldora said. Veldora first looked at Ash. "If you would like to keep your previous name from your old world, that would be acceptable." Ash was happy to hear this.

"Thank you, it would be a bit weird if I was being called something else." Ash said.

"So, what will you name be?" Veldora asked.

"Ash Ketchum." Ash said.

"It is nice to meet you, Ash Ketchum." Veldora said. As soon as Veldora said his name, Ash felt power surging within his body.

"What was that I just felt?" Ash asked.

"We are now connected Ash Ketchum." Veldora said. He then looked at the slime. "Now to give you a name."

"Just don't give me a silly name like gooey." The Slime said. Veldora took a moment to think about the name. Then a name popped into his head.

"I know, your name will be Rimuru." Veldora said. Rimuru then felt a surge of energy flowing through his body and felt himself getting stronger.

"That felt amazing." Rimuru said.

"Now, I will let you choose our surname." Veldora said to Rimuru.

"Why me?" Rimuru asked.

"I already know Ash is a competent individual that can make good decisions." Veldora said. "Just giving someone a name can tell a lot about the individual." At this point, Rimuru took a few moments to think of the perfect name.

"I got the perfect name for all of us." Rimuru said. He looked at Ash. "You will be Ash Ketchum Tempest." He then looked at Veldora. "You will be Veldora Tempest, and I will be Rimuru Tempest." After Rimuru finished, all three of them felt a much more powerful energy surged through them, like the energy of the world were being transferred into them. The energy flow stopped.

"That was something else." Ash said.

"You are right Ash Ketchum Tempest. This is the most powerful I have ever been." Veldora said. "Now shall we proceed?"

"As long as you are okay with it, I'm ready to go." Rimuru said.

"Let's do it." Veldora said. Rimuru readied himself.

"Ok. Activate Predator." Rimuru said. Rimuru's body expanded and started covering Veldora's prison with Veldora still in it. Rimuru completely covered the prison and started shrinking down until Rimuru was back to normal size. Ash watched the whole experience and was shocked at what happened.

"What happened? Where's Veldora?" Ash asked.

"He's in my stomach." Rimuru said.

"You killed him? Are you going to kill me too? Ash asked, scared of the possible answer.

"Of course not, weren't you listening at all?" Rimuru asked. "I'm helping Veldora break out of his prison but the only way I can do that is with the prison inside my stomach. Veldora was sure that he would be safe in that prison."

"Do you know if he is ok?" Ash asked.

"Let's find out. Hey Veldora." Rimuru said. No response. "Veldora? OK, it seems I can't talk to him right now but I positive that he is safe."

"If you say so." Ash said. "What should our next move be now?"

"Probably getting out of this cave would be a good idea. Do you think we can get out the way you came here?" Rimuru asked. Ash looked behind him and saw the entrance way he came through from. Due to the explosion, it was closed off.

"I don't think that's an option right now." Ash said.

"We better find another way out of here then." Rimuru said. "Heads up." Rimuru jumped up and Ash caught him.

"Why did you do that for?"Ash asked.

"It will be a lot more faster for you to carry me then me jumping up and down." Rimuru said. Ash didn't think too much of that logic and thought it was more important to find a way out of the cave. It took a few days for Ash and Rimuru to try to find a exit, but it seemed that they were going in circles.

"How have we not found a single way out yet?" Ash asked.

"I know what you mean. We have been in this cave for days now. We've been going down many paths and it's only led to more monsters and dead ends." Rimuru said.

"But at least you've gained new abilities and I've got a better understanding of how to use more transformation powers." Ash said. At that point, Rimuru remembered about an incident that happened.

"Yeah, sorry for laughing when you turned into that pink dancing thing. You got to admit, you turned into that at the wrong time." Rimuru said.

"First of all, that was Mr. Mime Jr. And secondly, I was still getting used to transforming." Ash said.

"I said I was sorry." Rimuru said.

"Yeah, well if it..." Ash stopped when he heard sounds from the other side of the wall. "We best take cover in case it's more monsters." Ash quickly grabbed Rimuru and ducked behind a massive boulder. A part of the wall moved and three figures was standing in front of the entrance.

"See, I told you it was here." The first shadow said.

"I wish we weren't doing this in the first place." The second shadow said.

"Come on, we've been tasked to locate Veldora. The sooner we find it, the sooner we can head back." The last shadow said as they started making their way into the cave. Ash and Rimuru saw the figures go by them.

"Ok, we better leave now." Rimuru said. Ash nodded in agreement and made a dash for the opening. Ash and Rimuru left the area but one of the adventurers caught sight of Ash's foot.

"I must be seeing things." The female adventurer said. It took Ash and Rimuru a few more hours before they were outside.

"Oh man, I never thought I was going to see the sunlight again." Ash said.

"The rays feels great on my slime." Rimuru said. "Now that we are out, where should we head to?" Ash looked around to see any possible directions.

"Well, there's three paths that I can see. I'd say we go for the path that's right in front of us." Ash said.

"Getting no complaints here. Lets go." Rimuru said. Ash started following the path and they walked deeper in the forest. They traveled for an hour and Rimuru decided to kick up a conversation. "So if you don't mind me asking, how did you die in your old life?"

"You wouldn't believe it if I told you." Ash said. This got Rimuru interested.

"Try me." Rimuru said.

"I died while I was proposing to my fiancé." Ash said. Did Rimuru hear that right.

"You died by proposing?" Rimuru asked.

"In a way yes." Ash said.

"Right, now I have to know. How did it lead to that?" Rimuru asked. Ash thought about where to start and it wouldn't hurt to start right at the beginning.

"Her name's Misty. She was the first friend I made when I started my travels." Ash said.

"And is that where your relationship started?" Rimuru asked.

"No, we were 10 back then. We travelled together for 2 years before she had to go back home." Ash said.

"Why was that?" Rimuru asked.

"Her sisters won a holiday and were going to be away for a year at least. Misty had to go back to run the family Pokemon gym." Ash said.

"What did you do then?" Rimuru asked.

"I continued to travel. Winning many battles and meeting many people." Ash said. "But it was when I turned 17 that I started noticing girls and I started thinking about Misty a lot." Ash said.

"So is that when you asked her out?" Rimuru asked.

"I was going to but she beat me to it." Ash said.

Flashback/Cerulean City

Ash was walking along with Pikachu on his shoulder. Ash had been thinking a lot about Misty and started developing news feelings that he wasn't sure. Ash was planning to see Misty the next day, but he was tired since he was walking the whole day and it was almost nightfall. Ash was going to go to the Pokémon center. He was going to rest at the center and see Misty first thing the next day. Ash walked through the doors of the center and nothing had changed on the inside since he was there last time. Ash saw the reception with Nurse Joy behind the desk and she was talking to... MISTY!!!??? Ash quickly took cover behind one of the sofas and listened in on the conversation.

"So is that everything you need Misty?" Nurse Job asked.

"Yeah, thank you. That should be enough for my trip." Misty said. Trip? Is Misty going somewhere.

"So why are you going to pallet town anyway? It's just a small village with nothing interesting there." Nurse Joy said. Misty's going to Pallet Town? Why.

"There's someone I used to travel with there. I haven't seen him for a while and it's his 17th birthday so I wanted to surprise him." Misty said. Was she talking about Ash.

"They must be someone special." Nurse Joy said.

"Well, I tried to give him hints while I was travelling with him but he had his mind on other things. So now, I'm going to see him tomorrow and tell him straight to his face how I feel about him." Misty said.

"I hope it's something good." Nurse Joy said. Misty nodded and went to leave but Nurse Joy grabbed Misty's arm and whispered in her ear. "Before you go, you might want to check behind that sofa." Misty looked at the sofa that Nurse Joy pointed at. Misty walked over and saw Ash hiding behind it.

"Ash?" Misty asked. Ash looked up and saw Misty looking at him. Ash jumped up and tried to compose himself.

"Hey Misty, I didn't see you there." Ash said, trying to sound normal.

"What are you doing here Ash? I thought you were going straight to Pallet Town." Misty said.

"Yeah that was the original plan but something came up and it sort of involved you." Ash said, getting all nervous out of nowhere.

"Me? What exactly did you need me for?" Misty asked. How was Ash going to word this right.

"Well, I, I was thing, thinking that maybe yo...oyu, you and me mi..mi..migh..." Ash was trying so hard to get the sentence out. Nurse Joy came over at this point and gave a nod to Misty, indicating what was going on. Misty smiled at this confirmation and decided to help Ash out.

"Ash." Misty said. Ash stopped and looked at her. "I haven't eaten any dinner yet. Did you want to join me and keep me company?" Misty asked.

"Yes, that would be nice." Ash said. Misty walked over and intertwined her fingers with Ash's.

Present Day/Forest

"And after that night we didn't need to say anything to each other. We knew what it was and made everything official." Ash said.

"Wow, she sounds like something special. I can see why you wanted to marry her." Rimuru said.

"There was a reason I asked her to marry me at that point." Ash said. He was about to continue but stopped speaking and stopped walking when he saw something in front of him. "Do you see that?"

"Yeah, I see them." Rimuru said. In front of them was a group of goblins. But they didn't look frightening, they looked fragile and weak. "I wonder what they want?"

Goblin Village

The village Ash and Rimuru were led to were beaten and run down. Each goblin that they walked by looked more fragile than the last. Ash and Rimuru were led to the biggest tent in the centre of the village. The goblins were quick to get straight to the point.

"So you see, that's how why we came to find you. Our village is being threatened by creatures known as Dire wolves. We sent our strongest warriors to try to ward off the wolves. But they never stood a chance, even my own son was lost to us." The elder goblin said.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Ash said.

"Yeah, but why come to us?" Rimuru asked.

"Yeah, there must be others out that could help you." Ash said.

"Yes, there probably are. But none of them would have your mana levels." The elder goblin said. Ash and Rimuru were confused by what he said.

"Mana levels?" Ash asked.

"What's that?" Rimuru asked.

"It's the magic that flows throughout your body. The bigger the mana aura, the stronger you are. You can possibly see your mana if you focus hard enough." The elder said.

"Ok let's give it a try." Rimuru said. He focused and after a minute. "Woah!!! Look at the energy flowing around." Rimuru was able to see his own energy and saw it was radiating out of his body. "Ok let's try to contain this." Rimuru then started to seep the mana back into his body. After he was done, he looked over at Ash and saw he had the same sort of mana level as him. "How are you not seeing that dude?" Ash was confused.

"See what?" Ash asked.

"Most humans are not able to see mana and at the same time, they don't possess it either. Are you actually a human?" The elder goblin asked.

"Of course I..." Ash then remembered what happened in the cave. "Actually, I'm not sure what I am." The elder goblin then wanted to get back to the point and the conversation.

"Human or not, we need your help. What do you say? Can you help us?" The elder asked.

"Well, I do..."

"We'll do it." Ash answered. The goblins cheered for the positive outcome while Rimuru was looking at Ash like he was crazy.

"Ash, are you being serious? We could get seriously hurt." Rimuru voiced his concern. After hearing the stories of the attacks, Rimuru was nervous about even encountering these Dire Wolves.

"It will be fine." Ash said.

"And how do you know that?" Rimuru asked.

"Because I already have a plan. And you have a big role to play in it." Ash said.

"Oh yeah, what's that?" Rimuru asked.

"You're the bait." Ash said.

"WHAT!!!!!???????"

That ends Chapter 2. Sorry the first two chapters were short as they were meant to be introductions into the story and give a little background of what might get mentioned later on.

I'll be working on Justice For Ash then My New Life Academia before coming back to this.

Next Time, the fight against the Dire Wolves is on 'Battle at the Goblin Village'