Inventive Inspiration (Tensura)

by overlyred

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1. p1

1

AN: I will now be editing my work, so if you see a sudden drop in quality, it means I haven't got there yet in my editing.

Science, the rules by which humanity functions.

Technology, the application of science.

In history, those who ignore the progress of science and technology are doomed to fail.

Before the proliferation of gunpowder, tribes in Africa were actually winning against their European colonizers.

However, the advent of gunpowder and industrialization brought such a large gap that the warriors belonging to those natives were completely slaughtered before they could even reach the enemy.

The story is the same in the East, where the belief in cycles was high, and so, they viewed these "toys" belonging to the West as nothing more than a faze, a temporary spike before the return to the natural order. In fact, there's this one time when the British actually tried to give China technology like guns and such, only for the Emperor to refuse.

The Century of Humiliation was the result of China being unwilling to industrialize, making the nation unable to compete against the European superpowers.

Science is the master key.

Science is the answer that'll solve all our problems.

Science-

My internal ramblings were cut off when I felt a stab behind me as I entered the office.

"Ahhh..." The sound died in my throat.

Today was supposed to be a good day, when I finally got that promotion and climbed the corporate ladder to the position of Vice-President.

How could I just die!?

I fell face down on the floor, unable to move as the coldness spread. Unable to even look at my attacker. The feeling of injustice bloomed inside my mind.

I'd read somewhere that it takes a long time for a person to actually bleed out unless the wound nicked a major blood vessel, like an artery on the thighs.

I tried to move my hand to no avail.

God damn it, I had to die like this!? I didn't even manage to fund any scientific progress!

[Business Intuition] gained.

And the wonders of science...Oh, I bet had this been 30 years from now I would easily survive a stab wound no problem!

Unique Skill [Eternal Youth] gained.

[Scientific Intuition] gained.

[Stab Resistance] gained.

I cried out silently at the injustice done to me, at how basic the science of today is, at how people are so engrossed with their daily lives as to not even bother planning for the future. To be content with their monotone life, to be content at Modernity.

[Silenced emotion] gained.

Unique Skill [Guide to Victory] gained.

My biggest regret is not being able to see humanity go to the stars, to become a technological utopia.

[Scientific Intuition, upgraded to Unique Skill [Inspired Inventor]

I...refuse...to...go out like...this!

Not like this!

Never...like this!

Please...any...thing...but this...

[Eternal Youth, transformed into [Homunculus Physiology].

[Homunculus Physiology] transformed into [Superior- Error, [Perfect Homunculus Physiology] gained.

I woke up, like waking from a deep slumber.

Immediately, I took in a heavy gasp of air as I hurriedly touched where I had just been stabbed mere moments ago. Instead of a depression or linear hole reminiscences of a knife wound, I found smooth skin, unnaturally smooth skin. It's like touching polished marble, or even the surface of a frozen lake, it's so smooth that it feels like someone could skate on it.

What happened?

I looked around at my surroundings, a...cave? Interesting, yet that raises the question of how did I get here?

And more importantly, why am I here?

My hands looked like that of a doll's, I noted, and I was naked. I distinctly remember wearing a three-piece suit for the day of my promotion.

Taking in a breath of air, it felt very damp, so there was likely a source of water nearby.

I really hope it's not still water.

I got up with the intent to explore the area, only to immediately step on what felt like soft jelly.

A shout of surprise and stumbling backward later, my eyes finally adjusted to the darkness of the cave, thankfully.

I saw a blue...blob-like creature.

I was instantly reminded of the horror movie trope where the characters bring in a seemingly harmless object (like a doll) only for it to bite them in the back.

Wetting my lips, dry with nervousness, I quietly crept out of the area, not wanting to doom myself to another unwanted surprise. The Afterlife is already enough for one day.

Placing a hand over my naked form, I pondered the key question, what am I? I have no form of identification through just looking at external organs- My chest is flat, the extremities that should've been there aren't, and I feel no obvious muscle nor any genitals to distinguish between male or female. and moreover, no humans should be able to see so well in the dark as to-

I felt five sparks within me, like a constellation of five stars guiding me towards home. My gut feeling is telling me I should extinguish the five stars— charges. This gut feeling felt extremely similar to a deja vu feeling. It's a guide telling me a way to victory.

So I acted according to that feeling and reached for a single spark. As I extinguished it, I couldn't help but think of cavemen, and in response, the charge went into [Primitive Weapons]. Instantly my mind, for the lack of a better word, expanded. It...the feeling was like when as a child you found a new hobby or game and you just had to play with it. I looked at the rocks and found myself drawn to them like a moth to a flicker of flame.

I picked up one about the size of my palm and looked at it.

Nothing special yet, I knew I could make a weapon out of it, a rather primitive one but a weapon to defend me in this cave nonetheless.

I let my intuition guide me, and performed a miracle. It is a miracle because quite frankly: no ordinary beings can create an extremely sharp knife with only their hands.

I looked at my hands in wonder and amazement, perhaps even a hint of pride. I had been able to create a knife in mere minutes that would've taken master craftsman weeks to properly prepare from a single random stone I found off the ground. I can't exactly see the color of the knife, most likely due to the darkness of the cave. The knife's length is a little bit smaller than my forearm, made out of interlocking pieces with the cutting edge formed from two of the longest pieces.

The knife, when thrown, will proceed to come apart and slash the target like a shotgun shell.

Now armed, I placed three charges into [Martial Arts].

"—!"

Which made my mind explode from the sheer amount of styles I made up right there on the spot, each more dangerous than the last.

Rubbing my forehead, my smooth skin ensuring that there wouldn't be too much redness, I now knew over 300 ways to kill a man in under 20 seconds, hell, 48 ways under 5.

My lack of an emotional response to the dangerous knowledge was...concerning? Refreshing? Liberating?

I really don't know, perhaps a mixture of the three?

"How...quaint..." my voice is unnaturally smooth, like silk in audible form. It sounds neither feminine nor masculine, it's...somewhat unnatural. It is uncanny, creepy even, like an alien entity trying to emulate the voice of a human without knowing the concept of gender…

Well, that was going to bite me in the future.

Placing the remaining charge into [Cave Exploration, I went off to explore, to see where I could leave.

After spending enough time in the cave that I got another ten charges, I began to become somewhat worried that I...

...might be lost.

Still, as most survival books would say, 'you can't panic', and thus, I remained calm and made another knife. I started passively recalling things about myself after I completed a new survival knife and started wandering around the cave, my name was S-

-my name... what was my name? I remember having a name before! What is it?

I stopped walking and leaned on the damp cave walls for support, otherwise, I had a distinct feeling I would fall onto the cold, hard, and dirty ground.

After traveling for days, my feet are absolutely filled with mud. Yet oddly enough, despite being completely barefoot, none of the rock's sharp edges ever made me bleed. In fact, my skin was astonishingly difficult to pierce, with me having to use an excessive amount of force just so the skin would stay red for longer than a minute.

I also haven't felt a single droplet of sweat anywhere on my body despite the ambient temperature being hotter than most Canadian summers. I was particularly thankful for this as I recall being so obsessed with cleanliness in my last life that I would always take a shower whenever I came home, even if the weather is nice out.

"What...is my name?" I asked no one, and no one heard me. I know I'm not human, the sheer amount of apathy I'm feeling about leaving my old life behind is clear proof of that. That and how I just accepted reincarnation as though it's an everyday fact, like the sun rising tomorrow.

That or I've somehow become an uncaring sociopath.

I've been called a sociopath before by people behind my back. Granted, I can't blame them since I was absolutely ruthless on the business side of things. I remember how I would constantly come up with new ways of cutting corners and use underhanded tactics in negotiation. I guess scummy is also a way to describe me, but I prefer the word 'efficient'.

Still, I feel emotions like love and care nonetheless, just that those feelings are reserved for a small group.

Either way, the point is: there are 2 possibilities, both SHOULD be frightening yet I'm not disturbed at the fact I'm no longer human or the fact I may be a legitimate sociopath.

The latter of which seems less likely if the feeling of a hole, an emptiness, a feeling of uncertainty inside my mind is anything to go by. It feels like fear in a sense, or rather, it felt more akin to that period of time when I was consumed by Nihilism.

I continued walking while placing a single charge into [Philosophy] and another into [Multitasking]. [Multitasking] allows me to focus on two tasks simultaneously, and [Philosophy] allowed me to fill that void inside me for the time being. The specialties act like tiny voices that speak up periodically to give me blueprints or information about the objects in front of me, like an analysis if you will.

Nihilism is a problem that every rational being encounters, and philosophy is one of the best ways at combating such thoughts.

Immediately, I shut that line of thought down. Now's not the time to be bogged down by ideas of Nihilism. The first version of Nihilism only came into existence when we had more free time to ponder about science and if life has any meaning.

I don't have much free time right now.

I reached a section of the cave where I'm seeing evidence of mining: only the root of the crystals that once grew out of the ground remains.

A second later, I realized I'm on the trail of something, an unknown entity capable of smashing through these crystals and somehow using them in their entirety...perhaps another one like me? Another intelligence?

After placing a charge into [Mineral Examination, I picked up one of the shards that remain and started to examine it.

The weight is light, the shard is somewhat bigger than my middle finger.

There's no additional breakage or even cracks at any of the ends. A smooth cut, which means either means the crystal fractured itself or somehow an entity was able to... dissolve the main body of the crystal?

That can't be right.

I tried to bend the crystal, only to find it unyielding. I continued to try until both of my hands felt sore from the force I used. Gazing upon this piece of crystal, I found that there were small cracks around the middle.

I don't exactly have a reference for hardness, so I couldn't tell how hard this crystal is compared to things like diamonds.

Instead of breaking it down like those rocks, I decided to form it into another knife. Using pieces of another crystal, I smashed the two together at a specific angle to crack the first one and carve out special patterns on the flat edge of the blade.

This time the knife in question is somehow even sharper than the interlocking one I created before. With the grooves, whenever I swing this knife past a certain threshold in terms of speed, it heats up the air with friction, creating a thin coat of heated air to aid in the cutting.

What?

How do I KNOW this? How could I tell such a thing would happen based on sight alone? And how did I create something so deadly from a simple crystal? Just how dangerous IS this crystalline material if I'm able to create a weapon with special grooves that, when moved at speeds of more than 50 kilometers an hour, hears the air to upwards of 2000 for a fraction of a second?

What is this magical material?

"Crickey..." I mumbled. "I created a fucking pseudo-lightsaber...or I guess a pseudo-light-knife is more accurate."

I furrowed my brows, still unused to the unnaturalness of my voice. I massaged my throat with a frown on my face.

It honestly feels like hearing the voice of Herrscher of the Void from Honkai Impact for the first time. You really get the sense that the owner of the voice is not human.

So now armed with a close-range and a long-range option, I continued down the cave, feeling confident and taking wide strides as though I'm not in a totally alien cave in the middle of nowhere.

I eventually stopped at an intersection with several openings to different tunnels. The openings' size ranges from being able to fit three of me across to one that I'll struggle to even get a single foot in.

Still no signs of life present anywhere. According to [Cave Exploration, a cave should have startlingly alien lifeforms compared to those on the surface.

My gut is telling me to go down the one that'll lead me even lower underground. In truth, gut feelings are a complicated bunch.

Despite there being no scientific evidence, you're always taught to listen to your gut feeling since more times than not, it'll save you from a grisly fate.

And so, I acted accordingly and continued down the tunnel that goes even further down, only to see light at the end of the tunnel.

Looking at the light, I felt extremely nervous for a moment as I'm reminded of how the light at the end of the tunnel is usually a metaphor for the Afterlife in the books I've read.

I crept forward into the tunnel, like a character in a horror movie slowly walking down a hallway, just waiting for the jumpscare.

'Who is there?' a voice boomed out to me, causing me to freeze in less fear than I expected.

Placing a single charge into [Vocal Recognition] and another one in [Biology, I began to analyze what kind of animal could have made such a deep voice. It couldn't have been human.

Just in case, I placed one charge into [Escape Artist, leaving me one last charge in case of emergency.

I took another small step before a sense of immense dread caused me to place the last charge into [Stealth].

Instantly, my posture shifted to better accommodate a more stealthy frame. Alongside being more stealthy, my mind was filled with ways to create an invisible cloak using nothing more than nylon and electronics you can find in your kitchen.

Let's not even get into the blueprint for a Sound Silencer, capable of masking any sound by sending out a counter-vibration that could cancel each other out in what's known as a 'destructive interference'.

Reaching the light, I saw a massive cavern that served as the exit point for this tunnel. The cavern was absolutely massive! At least several hundred meters across and several dozens tall, it would put most warehouses to shame.

As my jaw became slack, I noticed how I'm very comfortable right now despite being so deep underground. [Cave Exploration] telling me the ambient temperature is around 46, hotter than even the Sahara yet I'm not sweating at all.

I feel nothing but cool and humid air.

As I noticed my apparent immunity to excessive temperature, I realized that my stomach is not growling at all. I haven't eaten for over two days now and I'm not feeling the fatigue that comes with starvation.

"..."

'I know you're still there! Even with this prison, I can still feel your soul. Come out!' It boomed.

Souls? I... I guess it makes sense since I got killed and ended up here, or wherever 'here' is.

Walking deeper into the chamber, I'm greeted by the sight of an utterly massive black scaled dragon with a lighter-tone stomach, its wings folded since it's inside a cave.

Why is a dragon so deep underground? I felt my jaw go slack, opening wide as I drink in the sight. A wealth of blueprints poured into my mind by [Biology] as the specialty tried its best to come up with a blueprint on how to reproduce such an animal. The main ingredient involved in this process was magicules—

Magicule? What the hell is that?

'Hmm...' The dragon stared at me, yanking me out of my mind.

Its face is completely still, so I can't tell what they're thinking. I've had plenty of experiences reading people, as it's a very necessary skill to have when negotiating with someone else.

'a human? no, no human can survive in areas of such high Magicule concentration, you'd suffocate long before you reached this deep...a Majin? no...could it be...?' It muttered, 'no, impossible'

It narrowed its eyes in suspicion, acting very human-like, 'what are you? you are most definitely a monster if you're capable of surviving such a large concentration of magicules that would poison a human, or even demi-human, hundreds of times over. Yet at the same time, you look like a human.'

It boomed at me, and I realized it wouldn't take silence for an answer. So despite my uneasiness at the alienness of my voice, I felt the need to reply if I'm to continue existing.

After all, I highly doubt a knife or two is going to do jack against a fucking dragon larger than a modern house.

Especially when according to biology, this is no conventional lifeform.

Realizing I've been staying silent this whole time and the dragon is becoming impatient, I opened my mouth to speak.

I really hope my new voice doesn't come back to bite me.

"I— I—" I cleared my throat, the nervousness inside my mind caused me to stutter embarrassingly, "... I do not know what I am." the dragon seemed surprised at that, whether it was due to it confirming its suspicion about me, or I showed it something new. "All I know is that I woke up here a day ago, stepped on this blue slime, before walking for another two days and reached here. Do you know where this place is?"

The dragon's eyes widened and it shifted its body so that more of it is facing me.

'hmm, I see. To have a reincarnated soul here of all places...' it closed its eyes in deep thought, before opening them a few seconds later, in it, I could almost feel a sense of sadness, 'My name is Veldora, the Storm Dragon, one of the Four True Dragons. Tell me, do you have a name?'

Veldora's head shifted as they focused on somewhere else. Tracing the True Dragon's line of sight, I found Veldora staring at the entrance of another tunnel.

'You there!' Veldora boomed again, oddly enough, [Vocal Recognition] is telling me he's not making any sounds despite me hearing him. 'Show yourself!'

A moment later, a familiar blue blob came into the light. Its width is longer than my waist with protrusions that outline two 'eyes'.

'Wha...what is this?' the slime...said? Where is the sound even coming from?

[Biology] is screaming at me at the sheer impossibility in front of me. Lifeforms— organic lifeforms— exist due to a mixed soup of complex chemicals. Slimes, like the ones made from an extremely dense fluid, should not exist on land, since they would fall apart without the surface tension of water helping to maintain their shape.

'Eep!'

Again, [Vocal Recognition] is still telling me that there wasn't a sound wave, starting to make me seriously doubt the veracity of this specialty, humoring the idea that specialties could be wrong.

'My name is Veldora, the Storm Dragon, one of the Four True Dragons, tell me, what is a slime doing here inside my cave? and an intelligent one at that.'

I continued to observe the conversation. In my experience, sometimes, it's best to stay quiet, that way you could collect far more information than otherwise. Since dragons are possible, would telepathy be as well?

The slime seems to be taken aback by Veldora's words, and just before they could continue, I interrupted them.

"Are you using telepathy to speak to me?" I inquired. The slime quickly turned to me as though they'd just heard a horrible screech, probably surprised by my voice.

'Of course!' Veldora replied as if it's the most obvious thing in the world, 'how else am I going to communicate past this prison?'

A prison? But how? All I see is air between me and Veldora. I moved forward, ignoring the continued conversation that the other two are having—

Bang*

"Uh—!" Right before I could physically touch the dragon, I unceremoniously bump into an invisible barrier and fall onto the ground, causing the dragon and slime to laugh. I clutched my nose, admittedly it didn't hurt as much as I expected it to. I really need to know how tough is my new body.

The laughter... I took a quick glance at the slime and dragon, both continuously laughing at my misfortune. They're so human in their behavior, so much so that I think they could easily pass the Turing Test.

Let's test something.

Instantly, I puffed up my cheeks in faux embarrassment, the dragon moved to wipe a nonexistent tear off its eyes as it spoke to the both of us.

'Ah...it's been so long since I have laughed like that.' Veldora then sighed in sadness.

So... utterly... human in its behavior that I'm tempted to ask whether or not they too are a reincarnator. It's almost creepy seeing a dragon act in such a way.

like really, humans only evolved such reactions such as laughing due to our social structure. If we were solitary creatures we likely would've only developed facial muscles that would aid in intimidation.

'So how long have you been here anyways?' the slime asked. This type of telepathy seemed to be different from the ones I saw in superhero movies since I could 'hear' it as well despite not being the recipient.

'hmm...' The Storm Dragon's posture changed, this time appearing to look like they're in deep thought. Again, that posture looked so human I'm tempted to think it's a human wearing a dragon cosplay. '300 years since a Hero had sealed me in using [Unlimited Imprisonment].'

"Well...that's a bit harsh," Sympathy colored my voice. Humans can barely spend a few weeks in complete isolation before our sanity start to go down, I can't imagine what 300 years would do to someone.

Hell, I've once read a study that showed how a long-term stay in solitary confinement harms the prisoner's mental health.

If I still had a charge left I would've liked to spend it on [Psychoanalysis, that way I could tell what kinds of damage such a long duration would have on the dragon's psyche.

Still, that's one point into the firmly "Not-Reincarnator" section.

'Indeed it was...but I guess I deserved it since I was attacking a human village at the time.'

...Well ...that just removed any sympathy I could've had for Veldora's situation, I remarked silently. If I'm using the legal system in my old world, it actually makes sense that he's been imprisoned for 300 years, any terrorists of his caliber would've received multiple-life sentences.

'What do you plan to do now' the slime asked, clearly unconcerned at the fact that this dragon killed dozens of people during that attack.

'I wish to be able to see the outside world.' the black-scaled dragon said simply. 'To fly free once more.'

The Slime seemed to be in deep thought—

Again, what's with such human actions in a completely inhuman organism? What's next? Freeing a dangerous dragon? Yeah right, nobody's that—

'How do I get you out?'

My jaws dropped, and I stared at the slime with a serious case of 'WTF' on my face. For a moment there I wondered if I 'heard' it right,

Seeing my face, the slime's body language turned into one of innocence, like a child wondering what they've done wrong while standing next to a broken vase, 'What?'

I turned my body to face the slime fully before raising a hand to gesture at the imprisoned mass murderer.

"This dragon burned down whole cities! It is—" 'he' "...Fine, HE was sealed here for a reason and you want to free him!?"

I turned towards the dragon with a placating gesture, "I mean no offense, but with a title as grand as 'One of the Four True Dragons' you gotta be a major player on the international stage! What are the geopolitical ramifications of allowing you free? Do you know or is your information 300 years out of date? What's more, how do we deal with the one who imprisoned you here? They're clearly more powerful than you are.

I feel confident about my questioning of the slime's proposal, after all, the prison stood for 300 years without fail and the slime probably isn't strong enough to take me on.

'True, but- counterpoint, I would not want my friend—'

"You JUST met him!" I glared at the slime.

'Guys, guys, guys! I don't want to see the first people I've talked to these past centuries, how about this, I swear upon the name, Veldora, that I would not attack another human village unless I have a good reason for it, my friends.'

I narrowed my eyes at the particular wording, stuff like that vague wording is way too common in corporate speak.

'Sure!' the Slime said as I snapped my head to look at him.

You motherf-! I had to bite down on my tongue to prevent myself from uttering that insult. This is like a deal with the Devil! You need to read the fucking fine print damn it! Whom's definition of 'good reason' are we talking about here?

That is WAY too damn vague! It's why doing business in China is so risky, the law there is so vague that it's up to the police officer's interpretation, meaning that you can be jailed for an offense that other officers would only give you a ticket for.

'I can put you in my stomach, and let [Great Sage] analyze that prison so we can finally break it apart.'

Who the hell is Great Sage? I looked at the exchange between the two in awe and fear. Awe at how the slime is just accepting the dragon's words, and fear at how the slime just got rid of perhaps the biggest bargaining chip we have on the dragon.

I saw an opportunity to use the freeing of the dragon as leverage, and free Veldora in the future.

'Sure! but before I go, I should gift you two with names.'

"Names?" I asked.

'Monsters can be named in order to increase their power immensely. It scales directly off of the name giver's strength.'

Huh, so it's like a title system in an RPG?

'As a Slime, you classify as a Monster, however...' He turned to look at me, I took a step back in subtle nervousness at the intensity of the gaze. 'You are something I have not seen in centuries, a Perfect Homunculus... to think one could exist today is a miracle in and of itself.'

He took a deep breath as if remembering the past, a flash of nostalgia.

'A normal homunculus would be classified as either a human or a demi-human, mainly depending on what it's based on. But, your very existence blurs the line between human, demi-human, and monsters. you should do well to hide your nature as all nations 300 years ago have banned the creation of Perfect Homunculi. The world sees your kind as an abomination of the highest order and will proceed to do whatever they can to hunt you down and kill you. I doubt they are any different today.'

I gulped subconsciously. Even with my silenced emotion, the idea of going against entire nations before I'm set up scares me a little, and I'm not ashamed to say that.

'Names... names, aha! Your name shall be: Rimuru Tempest;' he pointed at the slime before turning to me, 'and Scientia Tempest!'

A bright white glow encompassed the both of us as I felt the name Scientia Tempest engrave itself upon my soul. It's... an indescribable feeling— it doesn't hurt thankfully but... it's... I have no reference to describe it other than it feels like eating food of another culture, something new, something unique.

After it had died down, Rimuru expanded like a net and gulped down the entire prison—

Crickey! just how large can Rimuru get?

"Do you have a pocket dimension inside you or something?!" I yelled, shocked at how a dragon larger than a house can fit inside a space smaller than a human.

"Well... yeah..." [Vocal Recognition] pinged that at deafening 103 dB. Well looked like the slime learned how to talk at least.

Darkness fell like a curtain as the light that once illuminated this place for hundreds of years was gone.

"Let's find a way out," Rimuru suggested.

AN: here's the first difference from our Scientia to Rimuru: Scientia is far less trusting of others due to working so long in a cutthroat corporate environment where everyone has an agenda.

Yes, the name Scientia is a reference.

For those wondering why Rimuru has evolved and found Veldora in a few days instead of the 3 months in canon, it was because he felt something had attacked him when he was just born, so he relied a lot on Great Sage and therefore evolved much quicker due to a perceived necessity in case he was attacked again. later, he found Scientia working on creating the crystal knife before tailing them as they moved through the cave network.

Current Charge:

Biology 1

Cave Exploration 1

Primitive Weapons 1

Vocal Recognition 1

Stealth 1

Martial Artist 3

Escape Artist 1

Philosophy 1

Multitasking 1

Mineral Examination 1

Extra Charge: 0

Wasted Charge: 0

2

Whoosh!*

I duck and cover as a massive black spider jumps at me.

Psss!*

Before the spider's legs could touch the ground, the arachnid was cut in half by a jet of highly pressurized water coming from Rimuru.

Seeing the remains of that spider, I wondered half-mindedly just how much pressure the slime was able to generate inside his body to be able to create what's essentially a water cutter.

Placing my last charge of the day into [Mathematics] caused my mind to expand drastically to the point where I solve stuff like AP calculus as a high schooler would with grade school math.

As I neared the cooling corpse of the spider, I was able to see just how clean the cut was. The carapace around the edge of the severance showed no signs of damage. I touched the cooling corpse of the now-deceased spider, tracing my doll-like hands around the edge and studying it.

I probably would've got a paper cut if I still inhabited my old body.

"Jeez, your internal pressure is much stronger than any commercially available waterjet cutter," I spoke freely with a hint of disbelief. I was at least somewhat used to the uncanniness of the voice, "scary."

"Sorry..." Rimuru apologized meekly, as though he was in the wrong.

An interesting thing to note: my throat never once felt thirsty, and I never suffered any effects of dehydration like headaches or dry mouth. That reminds me, my brow furrowed as Rimuru ate up the spider, where are the sources of water anyways? You'd think with a cave this damp they'll be everywhere...

As I contemplated, my hands unconsciously came together, and I started rubbing against the tips of my fingers, my non-crumpled-up fingers. Anyone who'd been to a pool would know that if you spent too long in the water, your fingers would get all pruney. The same thing occurs if you spent too long in a damp place, but my fingers remained as smooth as they've always been.

Right after Rimuru had eaten Veldora and my daily charges had reset, I placed an additional 3 charges into [Cave Exploration] to better guide me quicker out of this place. At the same time, an unforeseen side effect of my dumping too many charges into a specialty had given me an uncontrollable urge to create.

Rimuru tried to help me during that time but I was unresponsive to all outside stimuli, focused solely on... I looked down at the thing on my chest, linked around my neck via a chain. It's a very primitive flashlight, utilizing glowing rocks and a concave reflective material to create a focused beam of light.

On the plus side of dumping so many charges into [Cave Exploration, I seem to have an intuitive ability to determine roughly how deep we are solely based on temperature and the air. The room for error is about ~50 meters.

"But, is it really that strong?" Rimuru finished after he had consumed the spider.

During the walk, whenever we met up with a cave-dwelling animal, I would always stay back and let Rimuru deal with it. As of yet, there seemed to be no beasts that the slime could not handle.

Over the last 2 days, I placed another 2 charges into [Martial Arts] (which when combined with [Mathematics] allowed me to see the mathematically weakest spot within a structure), 1 on [Psychology, 2 on [Multitasking, and the last 1 on [First Aid].

I and Rimuru have also begun to start talking about our past life as we walked through these snaking tunnels.

Turns out? He's a salaryman from Japan, and I'm a corporate exec from Canada.

He's a bit peeved about how high my position is, which I can only chuckle at.

We also both died from a stab wound, only this time he saw who had killed him: a mere thug that was running around with a stupid knife! Ha! I can't judge too much since I didn't even get to see who my killer is.

And as it turned out, whenever he's staying quiet, he's communicating with this Unique Skill called [Great Sage] that acts as an assistant AI, aiding him in whatever he wishes.

I'm quite fascinated with such an ability. In my past life, my home was one of the smartest ones on the market, with me being able to control almost every aspect of the house from the comfort of my bed via simple voice commands to the echo.

With this apparent scientific skill of mine, I could probably create something similar to [Great Sage] once I've created a steady industrial base.

"That reminds me, how are you able to speak anyways?" I asked as we continued the walk.

I felt the 5 sparks within me ignite once more, like 5 torches being lit up on a dark desert night. It seems another day has passed and now I have another 5 charges to spend... another day after I reincarnated.

[Silenced Emotion: 50%]

I felt a flash of intense nostalgia before suddenly tapering off, as though someone had twisted the faucet of my emotion to the 'lesser' side.

Turning to me as he jumped on a rock, "Well, as it turns out, right before you picked up the remains of some crystals I ate-"

"That was you!?"

"Yeah, I ate some crystal on the way down. Moving on, I found this enormous bat hanging on the cavern walls, carefully, I managed to take the bat unaware, and slew it before it was able to react. It took [Predator] some time before the sonic skill can be properly analyzed. It was just as when I had been named that I got the sonic skill and asked [Great Sage] to help me form proper words through manipulation of sound waves," he explained before jumping off the rock and towards the entrance we had been heading for before the spider rudely interrupted us.

I didn't follow.

Even if Rimuru had seemed so casual about it, I felt a deep pit of uncertainty opens up inside me. Dangerous... very very dangerous, being able to seemingly take the superpowers of those that he ate? I should be careful in the future.

Running after the slime, my intuition tells me we should be nearing the surface-

I saw Rimuru peeking over the side of a turn in the cave tunnel, spying on a new light source that appeared out of nowhere.

Using the blueprints I received from [Stealth, I turned the flashlight on the chest inward and maintained maximum stealthiness as I leaned over the blue blob to see a trio of humans opening a rather large decorated metal gate. One blond with long hair and a sword on their back, one female mage with blond hair and brightly colored clothes, and lastly a tall guy with brown hair, who looked like the group's carrier.

[Martial Artist] whispering sweetly into my ears ways to disarm them and [Biology] suggested ways to make them stronger, faster, smarter— superior to their current body.

My gaze intensified as the temptation strengthened. When I see these people, I don't see humans, I saw fresh resources for me to use, to experiment with. It's like showing an oasis to a man dying of thirst in the middle of a desert, I haven't had any proper biomass to experiment with ever since I've reincarnated, as Rimuru quickly ate the monsters he killed.

I could give the blond guy a sword hidden in his arms. With that hidden arm blade, he'll always be ready to fight.

I could give the girl pouches within the body, that way she can operate at the same level as before and have space to store spell books or materials or even potions! If I add a few nozzles to her body, I could perhaps make it so that she could spray out harmful liquids.

I could give the carrier guy denser muscles, thus resulting in an overall improvement of strength and overall carrying capacity.

I felt a touch on my ankle, snapping me out of my daze.

looking down, I felt a dribble of saliva down my chin before quickly wiping it away. Rimuru eyed me with concern before turning around and—

hiss!*

—Spew forth a cloud of gas that instantly knocked out the trio, causing me to become alarmed.

"What are you doing!?" I exclaimed, "why did you do that for? They didn't even spot us now they knew something would be up!"

Only for a protrusion to come out of the blue blob's body and point toward the girl, "I am not traveling with someone naked. I almost had a heart attack when I saw a naked person but calmed down when I realize nothing is there."

I bit my lips in frustration, knowing that he was right. "You're a slime, you don't even have hearts," I weakly countered, trying to recover some of my pride.

You know, it's a bit worrying when I didn't even bother covering myself even if I didn't have any obvious genitals— hell, I look legit like a doll made out of flesh and blood.

Veldora's words returned with full force as I placed the first charge of today into [Sewing].

With the two knives currently hooked around the chains of my flashlight, I proceeded to unclip the girl's white outer robes, and the blond guy's shirt under the armor. With the materials secured, I then unhooked the interlocked knife from the chain to cut apart the straps that bind the sleeping bags from the carrier man.

I began to prepare the fabrics using the interlocked knife, the crystal one doesn't cut fabrics well, what with the number of grooves on the flat sides and all.

The white robe is harder to cut than I expected, enchantments perhaps? Possibly, if 'mages' exist in this place, then it's quite likely that something akin to enchantment exists. God, I hate magic, it's a word used to describe an unknown phenomenon by people who don't know science.

I looked towards Rimuru, "give me some strands of spider silk, the nonstick variety." I reached out with my palms before turning to the prepared fabrics in front of me.

Feeling a string landing on my hand, I took out the thinnest part of the interlocking knife to use as a temporary needle and began sewing.

The process takes no more than 5 minutes, [Sewing] giving me information to be hyper-effective and wastes no time nor silk in completing an entirely new set of clothes.

It's completely white. The color could use some work, but beggars can't be choosers.

Putting on the clothes, the texture of the fabric felt a bit rough, like one of those ugly Christmas sweaters. The shirt was rather long, reaching down to my thigh.

I saw Rimuru already at the door, protrusions signaling me to come and go.

Sighing, I took a peek at the still unconscious bodies and decided to leave them a small gift, that is the crystal knife. I don't rob people, so the crystal knife would serve as my payment for their fabrics.

Still, I'm peeved at the fact that [Sewing] doesn't give me the ability to make shoes.

As I walked outside, I saw the entrance was surrounded by an opening within a forest that I could not see the end of. Stepping out, I felt the spiky grass pricking my feet bringing back... certain nostalgic memories of my childhood.

I took a deep breath of actual dry air for the first time. Being down in that cave for half a week, I've only taken in damp and moist air.

I ran towards where Rimuru is heading, and proceed to place a charge into [Lumberjack].

Immediately, I knew the forest ahead of me is an untouched wilderness, like forests in the Canadian Rockies or an Amazon Rainforest equivalent. Based on how thick the tree trunks were, I'd wager this forest is extremely old as well.

Combining [Lumberjack] and [Mathematics] gave me an estimate of how much a single tree would net me, damn these trees would net me a good profit if these were in my old world!

One Week Later.

"..."

I looked at my reflection in the small lake. After leaving the cave, we decided to set up shop after walking until the night had set in.

My skin is a healthy pale, with a pair of ruby-red eyes, and somewhat short hair that can blend seamlessly in the snow.

My physical features are of a size that can be mistaken for either gender, primarily depending on the clothing I'm wearing. My eyes are neither too big nor too small, my lips are neither too big nor too small, and my teeth are all pure white without a single flaw.

Everything is too perfect.

With a lack of any facial flaws, it's unnerving.

It's too damn perfect to the point of being creepy. I fall deep into the uncanny valley.

Had Veldora not said anything I would've thought I am nothing more than a pretty doll someone made that somehow gained sapience.

Getting up, I pondered over what had happened the past week. I had set up a shelter using what trees and other materials I could find with multiple charges into both [Outdoor Survival, [Shelter Building, and [Interlocking Design]

I made a cabin using nothing more than some tools I made with 2 charges in [Primitive Tools].

I made a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom with a working shower, and a kitchen area. The walls of this cabin can stand against hurricane-force winds.

I made a luxury cabin with interlocking walls that could stand up against forces that some modern buildings made out of concrete would struggle against.

How the hell was I able to build this? With wood no less? Crickey just imagines what if I had this power in my old life.

The entire house, as stated previously, is made from interlocking pieces of wood, like one of those Japanese wooden box puzzles. Every piece has a place to go and is equally important, though I did include some redundancy at the request of Rimuru.

A funny thing concerning him, when he tried to replicate what I did; he failed spectacularly

He replicated every move I made down to the second, only for the house to collapse after a small breeze blew through the clearing we were in.

I laughed, an alien laugh that I just can't get used to.

He tried 3 more times before giving up.

One more interesting thing to note: I was finally able to become hungry by the sixth day out(of course I still could eat before then, but I mostly didn't). I think my body absorbed a massive amount of magicules during my stay at the cave, and now it's running out since I'm no longer in that place, the reserve is starting to run out.

This is further proven when I finally manage to get some close eyes, albeit only for a few hours.

Over the week, I asked Rimuru to see if he could bring back some animals alive when he went hunting. When he did bring back a rabbit, regret bloomed in his smooth slimy feature as I proceeded to upgrade the animal into a biological trashcan through the use of nothing more than a knife, some chemicals I distilled from organic ingredients, and a combination of [Waste Disposal, [Surgery, and [Biology].

The first generation Bio-Can was born, capable of digesting all forms of organic trash and most inorganic trash.

The next time he went out, I asked that he bring me back a wolf, or anything larger than the rabbit. Since I don't have any advanced electronics to work with, I was forced to use organic components as substitutes.

Rimuru vehemently refused, much to my confusion.

Walking inside and into the kitchen, I saw that the rabbit-garbage disposal was gone.

"Hey, Rimuru do you know where the trashcan went?" I asked as I walked into the living room. The slime flinched before turning to me.

"I don't know, maybe a bear came into the house and ate it?" He suggested, at my suspicious look he continued, "Scientia, during my hunt I found this bear I've named 'Assassin Bear' due to how easily they can sneak up on you. They probably came in here and ate the... poor bunny."

I hummed in deep thought and placed a charge into [Home Defense, a myriad of different designs that looked like it belongs in a Home Alone M rating edition popped into my head.

I headed to the kitchen and opened the cabinet. Placing a few charges into [Food Preservation] allowed Rimuru to only go hunting every other day, as any excess food can be stored for future use.

I was greeted with the sight of wooden jars sealed airtight somehow without the use of any rubber.

Opening it, I looked inside and saw the meat is still as fresh as if it's was caught 5 minutes ago. Walking out of the house into a readied campfire pit with a metal pot hanging on top. I unceremoniously dumped the entire jar's worth of meat into the readied broth, bits of the light yellow soup splashing onto my skin. Instead of the burning pain, I felt only light tingles as if they were cold water droplets.

Admittedly, cooking oil was a problem until I started using leftover animal fats.

With [Cooking] at 3 charges, I can create super delicious food from seemingly bland ingredients. I become a chef that cooks through only precise measurements of spices and other chemicals. [Cooking] combined with [Chemistry] allowed me to synthesize flavors never tasted before from seemingly innocuous and common ingredients, spicing up all of our meals.

If this world is just like Medieval Europe, I could probably become a new Dutch East India Company with the unique spices I'll sell. Not to mention the potential for a monopoly.

As I stirred the pot, the thought of creating a new Dutch East India Company entranced the capitalist side of me. These pleasing thoughts were further exacerbated by the utterly delicious aroma coming from the pan in front of me.

That was until I heard rustling nearby.

My new ears allowed me to perfectly pinpoint exactly where the rustling came from.

Turning to the right side of me, I saw the bush at the edge of the beach vibrate. It's not a bear (I wasn't even sure bears existed in this new world until Rimuru confirmed it). The first rule of any survival was to ensure no leftover scraps are left in the open, as that would attract unwanted animals.

Slowly, tiny green men came out of the bush. They were very skinny and scrawny, and if a human had their physique, they wouldn't look out of place on one of those 'donate to save kids in Africa' posters I remember back in Grade School.

These tiny green men's wielded rusted weapons and were covered with tattered clothing that had plenty of holes in them.

Grabbing a kitchen knife I made a few days ago from nearby and placing another charge into [Martial Artist, I got into a combat stance that can lead to both lethal and nonlethal takedowns.

Giving them a good look over, I noticed how they looked like goblins. Rimuru suggested how this could be a fantasy world similar to those of Tolkien. I tried to dismiss him, but I can't because of that Storm Dragon looked a lot like a Smaug equivalent.

The tiny green men seemed to tense up, with one raising his shield and the others preparing for a fight. [Psychology] says they are feeling afraid. Good, I swear if these goblin look-alikes are anything like those belonging to that one traumatic anime my coworkers described years ago, I will put as many charges as possible into [Genetic Engineering] and make a super plague that would wipe them all out within a single month.

Even if they aren't I can for sure use the extra biomass to experiment with.

[Biology] and [Surgery] send a mental nod of approval.

"Woah Woah Woah!" Rimuru suddenly comes barging out from behind me, "What's going on?"

I shifted my head to the side, my eyes never leaving the goblins.

"I—" before I am suddenly interrupted as the goblins fell to their knees and begged.

"PLEASE HELP US!"

I felt my eyes twitch as the edge of my mouth curved down. Pathetic, how pathetic are they that they immediately beg to get help? In a cutthroat corporate setting, begging is considered a sign of weakness, the last resort, where you are trapped with no hope of escape. It is the ultimate form of resignation to your fate.

You don't get what you want from begging, you get it from rolling up your sleeve and working on your goals, well perhaps some strings or a bribe here and there but hard work nonetheless.

I was about to reject them solely out of principle before Rimuru spoke up.

"Why should we help you?"

That little sh— how strong does he think he is? Ugh, politics have never been a strong suit of mine, even amongst corporate execs. They never gave me any projects involving politics because of just how bad I was at it.

One of the goblins in the middle of the pack rose from his kneeling position, "We smelled a delicious aroma coming from this place, and since we haven't eaten for so long we were desperate for food. You see with the recent loss of our Guardian Deity Veldora, the Direwolves have begun to invade our territory. With how weak we are we stand no chance, and thus, we were unable to hunt for food."

He then began to grovel, causing me much discomfort.

"They number us 3 to 1! They are stronger and faster than we could ever hope to be. But, as a powerful human with an intelligent monster as a pet, we can't help but beg you, O' Great One... HELP US!"

Rimuru seemed to be in deep thought as if reminiscing about the past.

However, something stood out to me, "First of all, Rimuru is not a pet. Second, can't you all just leave and move elsewhere?"

"But where would we go? all of our stuff is within the village, if we are forced to go we'll be dying a slow death as we struggle to find a proper place to build a new village."

I felt a sense of deja vu as I'm reminded of how I asked the same question when a coworker of mine brought up the topic of indigenous people in Canada.

Putting the last charge of the day into [Planning] I start to formulate a plan to have them leave me alone.

Truth is, I'm only a single person, I can't build weapons quick enough to arm enough men to win against a 3:1 ratio.

[Biology] and [Surgery] popped into my mind with ideas on how to instead improve enough goblins within 3 days to permit them to win easily, yet that would necessitate a disturbance in the balance of power within the Forest. If anyone found out how a mere goblin village was able to slaughter an entire hoard of dire wolves, they'll obviously investigate. And when they find oddities about the stronger goblins, they'll start to suspect something's up.

They'll likely either kill or enslave the stronger goblins as soldiers as well.

Eventually, this investigation could lead back to me, a Perfect Homunculus. If Veldora's word is anything to go by, they'll declare a Crusade just like the ones back in Medieval Europe.

At the same time, if they are wiped out, the dire wolves would likely turn their attention elsewhere... possibly to me.

Am I REALLY going to start my industrial base with goblins? Am I really going to rely on goblins to defend against the entire world? I turned my gaze at the goblins, Rimuru looking at me expectantly.

Gritting my teeth, I merely sighed, relenting as Rimuru spoke, "We will help you."

Biting my lips hard enough for them to flush an extra shade of red, I felt a sense of injustice. All the tension left my body as I accepted what was to come.

"Under one condition: tell me...

...What are your thoughts on Perfect Homunculus?"

AN: ah...isn't it fun to introduce the elements of a grimdark superhero world into that of a joyful fantasy?

I really have to speed everything up because for real, one month was what time had passed between the sealing of Veldora and Rimuru meeting the goblins.

Inspire Inventor can beat every problem within Worm with a week of preparation if the bearer min-maxed the hell out of it and if they have no morals.

Just read Von Neumann Steamroller or that one short story where Taylor had Inspired Inventor without any morals

As Sonic would say: Gotta go fast!

Current Charge:

(AN: if I make a mistake with the current system please point it out)

Total used/avaliable: 55/60

Biology 3

Cave Exploration 4

Primitive Weapons 3

Vocal Recognition 1

Stealth 3

Martial Artist 3

Escape Artist 1

Philosophy 2

Multitasking 3

Mineral Examination 1

Outdoor Survival 4

Shelter Building 4

Interlocking Design 3

Lumberjack 1

Psychology 2

Sewing 2

Mathematics 2

First Aid 1

Surgery 3

Planning 1

Cooking 3

Home Defense 1

Waste Disposal 1

Chemistry 1

Distilling 1

Threat Analysis

Unspent Charge: 0

Wasted Charge: 0

3Genocide

One of the worst crimes someone can possibly commit.

At least... it's what a humanist would say.

However, you'll find that you'll get far less resistance if you advocate for the genocide of something like mosquitoes or similar pests.

Such irony, such double standards, such is life in general.

That is what I'm dealing with right now. Within this village, every villager is asking (begging) me to make plans that'll annihilate the dire wolves after hearing what I'm capable of from Rimuru.

Even now, I'm still cursing out Rimuru's name for revealing my abilities without my permission. I had thought that working as a general contractor would make Rimuru realize the importance of company secrets or discretion but apparently, I was mistaken.

And now I'm paying for my mistake as I looked at the most detailed map of the surrounding area that the goblins possessed. While it may not be complete, or even all that accurate, it's better than nothing.

As the saying goes, inaccurate information is better than no information.

If I had a free charge right now I'd place it in [Strategy, that way I can come up with battle strategies that'd lead to the least amount of death on both sides. In a war, it's about who can lose the least that wins. Plus, these wolves seem to be intelligent if the words of these goblins are any indication, so killing them like pests is out of the question.

I'm not going to collapse the local ecosystem by taking away a top predator.

Since I don't have an extra charge, I had to make do with [Planning] to see what I can make out of it. It's not ideal but, well, as Bear Grills once said, 'improvise, adapt, overcome'.

A basic estimation puts the wolves attacking sometime within the next 2 days.

Tracing the lines around the whole town, I used soft charcoal jammed into wooden sticks as makeshift pencils. Marking any place I deemed to be important in the defense of the place to minimize casualties.

The hills next to the village are going to be a problem. That's a blind spot for one.

The planning stopped when I heard commotions outside as a particularly scrawny goblin burst into the room, bringing in unwanted smells. My face scowled as the intense smell felt like needles pricking the inside of my nose.

One thing about living in a Tolkien-knockoff world is those poorer people rarely properly self-wash. The most they have is a dip in a river, and since it's early fall, the rivers are freezing.

Forget [Strategy, I'm going to revolutionize the hygiene of this world up to modern standards as soon as I can.

"I had ordered I am not to be disturbed," I said without taking my eyes off the map, having half a thought to completely ignore what the goblin would say.

I heard a 'fwump' sound, "PLEASE, Lady Scientia, save our wounded! You can perform great miracles on the body with nothing more than a knife!"

I dropped my makeshift pencil and sighed. I can't really be called either gender, can I? I mean, this new body wearing the white cloth I made with the robe from that mage girl really does make me look more female than male—

Huh?

Wait a minute.

I suddenly froze when his words registered in my brain. Turning towards the kneeling goblin, my eyes widened as I wondered just where he had learned that. That ability of mine is one of the cards I decided to hold close to my heart.

Just like in poker, you never show your deck to strangers.

After all, a one-man R department that can outperform a whole nation's is way too tempting.

Standing up from the chair and looking down at him, I walked over and picked the nameless goblin up effortlessly by the back of his rugged shirt, his face in deep fear as his breathing stilled.

My crimson eyes stared unflinchingly into his own green ones. I could see the vague outline of my face inside his dilated pupil, with a single flicker of candle fire being the brightest light source in the room.

"Where did you hear that?"

My voice was soft, yet there was a cold edge to it, like an unsheathed blade in audible form.

The goblin struggled but his feet were unable to touch the ground.

He visibly shook with fear, "From... From Lord Rimuru Ma'am."

I don't even bother with the honorifics as I drop the goblin and stormed down the road to where Rimuru is residing, that damnable fool is far too trusting. All of war is deception. That is both true in the business sense and during an actual war.

[Silenced Emotion: 40%]

Like flipping a switch, I calmed down and began to walk much slower, the rush of anger disappearing.

Over the last week, I had Rimuru's [Great Sage] aid me in discovering my skills, one of the particularly useful ones was [Silenced Emotion].

Yet it can also be the one that's the most self-destructive.

Emotions... they're one of the last connections I have to my past, if I fully commit to being an emotionless machine, I could easily lose that part of me. [Psychology] recommend I never go above 70%, and the ever-illusive [Guide to Victory] gave me the option of going up to 99%.

I am not ashamed to say that I'm afraid of what would happen if I hit [Silenced Emotion: 100%]. Morbid curiosity almost made me do it just to see what happens before I got this gut feeling of incredible danger and turned the dial back down.

Using techniques I learned from [Stealth, I sneaked right up the group Rimuru is training like I'm in an Assassin's Creed game and pounced on him, taking him completely unaware.

It was as though I was pouncing on a large, blue pillow.

"Gah!"

"Gatcha ya bastard." I felt a savage smile on my face, a wild grin that looked too perfect to be natural. The blue 'pillow' that was Rimuru struggled like a fish that had just been caught, "Why did you tell them about my Unique Skill huh? I thought as an adult you'd at least have read The Art of War."

I heard several more knees hitting the ground, "PLEASE! Lady Scientia, heal our family and friends!"

That took me out of my amusement at the struggling Rimuru. I simply stared at them with a hint of annoyance in my features.

"Wel-Well..." Rimuru somehow looked sheepish and stopped struggling, "I ran out of medicine to help these goblins so... I suggested you as an option?" he trailed off.

"Please help our families!"

God damn it all to hell, guess I really am tying my futures to some scrawny goblins huh?

Rubbing the bridge of my nose and sighing, "Fine, but I'm going to need alcohol-"

"What's alcohol?" one of the smaller goblins asked as I stare at them in confusion.

Right, the primitive village would not know what wine is made out of. The best form of sterilization they have is either using a flame or cauterization.

"Never mind, instead bring me a lit torch, 3 mirrors, a bed, some clean-" I looked at their ragged appearance, hygiene nowhere to be found, "-scratch that."

I looked toward a goblin to my left, "you, go to the map room and bring me a jar of clear liquid and another of the brown variety, there should only be one of each."

When I came here, I saw how dirty everything is. So I demanded some of the crops they had and distilled small amounts of alcohol and several other chemicals from what little lab equipment Rimuru's stomach was able to make. With [Chemistry] I should be able to make General Anesthetics with those chemicals I had already made.

"And bring me a towel that's as clean as possible."

[Silenced Emotion: 51%]

After everything was prepared and the patient with massive slash marks lay on the operating table within a room lit with multiple torches and enhanced with mirrors, one of the elders handed him a towel to bite on.

I stopped writing notes on the paper Rimuru gave me and looked at the exchange. Only now did I realize that these primitives had no idea what Anesthesia even is.

This society... when I was young, I had read stories about how doctors back in the day had to cut off a leg without the use of anesthesia, only a towel or cloth to chew on for the patient to help bear with the pain.

Seeing it right now, right in front of me is so surreal. It made me fully conceptualize how I've taken so much of modern life for granted it's not even funny.

"Stop, there's no need for that."

They looked at me in confusion, well the one on the table is more in fear than confusion. Probably fearing the pain that is going to come.

"There's no need," I said as I hold up a jar of a translucent liquid: an oral ingestion version of anesthesia. This is an extremely safe version I created with a single charge into [Chemistry, it's impossible to kill any multicellular organism with this liquid unless you drown them in it as the extra anesthesia passes through the body using the urinal tract or its equivalent.

"This is what I call: General Anesthetics, when ingested through the mouth it'll cause the host- the person ingesting the liquid- to go under, essentially entering into a deep sleep during the operation, that way we can avoid all the pain involved."

According to [Biology, a goblin's body is freakishly similar to a baseline human's they can almost be counted as a subspecies of the Homo Sapiens if their skin color wasn't green.

It's as if someone genetically altered some humans to have this design... such a possibility leads to some... shall we say, Sci-fi explanations.

They began to cry tears of joy, completely ignorant of my thoughts, especially the one on the operating table.

"Thank you Lady Scientia!"

Pouring out a spoonful of the stuff and feeding it to the patient, the effect was almost instantaneous even with the patient trying to fight the sleepiness, probably due to him never being put under. I should know, I too once tried to fight it.

He finally collapsed on the table, out cold but still breathing. The elder even made sure to check his breathing.

I started by placing the tools directly into the alcohol to sterilize them. The elder looked at me in confusion, as he'd probably expected me to use the fire to clean them.

They have no Germ Theory, Scientia, you cannot fault them for not knowing microbes exist.

[Biology] and [Surgery] crackled into the night as I began to operate biological miracles on a dozen goblins, so tempted to improve these weak bodies.

I heard a chuckle or two from [Sewing] as I stitched up the wounds.

My paranoia ran high as I showed my cards, wary of information leaking out.

I tried to suppress it but my paranoia won out, causing me to secretly place biological kill switches that'll start an unstoppable cascade of massive cellular degeneration before leading to Total Organ Failure within each of the bodies I operated on in the event where I am betrayed.

Is it truly paranoia if people are out there to get you? Especially when the biggest defense you have is the fact that no one knows you exist...

For now, my mind whispered.

Yes, that eventuality. Perhaps when I'm more situated I'd be more trusting, but that is not relevant here or now.

It was honestly quite fortunate that no wolves attacked last night. Had they done exactly that we would've been caught with our pants down. A basic damage estimate with [Mathematics] puts maybe 30% of the village wiped out before Rimuru takes out all of them.

It took the whole night, but I healed whatever injuries these goblins sustained and even improved those that volunteered.

The volunteers gained subdermal armor made from spider silk, increased strength, hidden bone knives within the wrist area reminiscing of hidden blades from Assassin's Creed, and a redundant pseudo-spinal cord made from the flesh I harvested from the waist area.

Redundancy is key when I don't have the hyper-advanced technology [Inspired Inventor] is telling me I can build.

A particularly lucky volunteer managed to gain a sack inside their body that steadily produces a knock-out gas that can be used whenever required.

These I hereby named 'Improved Goblin'.

When I asked for more, the remaining goblins seemed to back away in fear, causing me to be confused before Rimuru asked me to complete the plans since the wolves would likely attack tonight.

Do they fear what's possible? Are they like those strict parents who'll ban their kids from ever getting tattoos?

Either way, I now stood over the map I had before the surgeries, placing a charge into [Strategy] and ideas, concepts completely foreign to me popped into my head like a dam bursting open.

I looked over my old plans for defense and saw mistakes, inefficiencies, and carelessness dotting the entire paper.

So much so that I preferred to just restart, this thing burns my eyes to look at...

13 hours, that's around the time I have left.

3 charges into [Home Defense] and another into [Traps] just made it even easier.

I felt a grin on my face, "Let the game begin."

The first howling from the north of the village, signaling tonight is the night when they are going to attack.

I breathed out a sigh of relief, but even if they had attacked elsewhere, Rimuru, under my orders, had set up impossibly sharp and almost invisible spider threads that harden with a dip in specialized chemicals that strengthens their tensile ability.

[Vocal Recognition] combined with [Mathematics] tells me they are around 3 kilometers out and moving at speeds of 64 kilometers an hour

Two and a half minutes later, the first cries of pain are heard even from the inside of the village as traps that would make Viet-congs proud are set off one after another.

I had spent the entire day setting up primitive traps with [Home Defense, [Primitive Weapons, and [Traps, creating a zone of death that can even halt a modern American Infantry Battalion using nothing more than sticks of wood and spider silk,

If a modern army stands no chance, simple dire wolves are easily slaughtered.

Finally, after around 10 minutes of crying, we saw the survivors on top of the hill overlooking the village, most are bloodied from the trek of what was their version of Vietnam.

The wolves now numbered in the dozens, [Vocal Recognition} estimated the first howl was made with at least 300 wolves before they were massacred.

"Hmm, it seems I had underestimated the amount that would come..." turning to Rimuru, "your turn now."

The wolves seemed almost hesitant, [Psychology] whispered to me that they are afraid, scared at the fact that mere goblins were able to create such effective traps that thinned their numbers out so much, and now they're absolutely terrified at the fact a human was amongst them, crediting the traps to me.

As they rightfully should.

'Human,' the apparent leader yelled out telepathically to me and I fully take in his form.

He is much larger than my current body (I need to get a proper frame of reference because I will eventually use my height as the Unit), with a full grey fur coat and a scar on his right eye.

Man, they really are just overgrown wolves, aren't they?

'Why are you interfering in the business of monsters?'

Internally, I was happy. Glad to know I can easily be mistaken for a human! I thought giddily, "Why not?" a simple answer that seemed to anger the leader, he then rushed out towards me, mouth wide open to chomp down on my throat.

Just as planned. I smirked and begin to walk fearlessly toward the charging wolf, the goblins gasping in horror at my action.

The rays of moonlights lit up my frame ethereally, like a ghost. My unnaturally perfect albino features only exacerbated that factor.

Time for a single charge in [Acting] to take the stage.

Pulling out a knife I had made at the last second, I ran forth with elegance every step of the way, like a dancer who's masterfully refined their craft for decades, I danced around the bushes and the potholes as the distance between me and the Alpha wolf closes in.

My heart was pumping, my attention was completely focused on the wolf in front of me. Right at this instance, I could only acknowledge its existence, the rest of the forest, village, other wolves and even Rimuru melted away like snow during a thunderstorm.

'DIE HUMAN!'

He lunged at me, but unknown to him I was not just a mere human...

I am a Perfect Homunculus, a forbidden existence, a superior lifeform, Perfection manifested upon the world. I am Eternal.

So is it any wonder that my physical attributes are many times that of a human?

Using [Martial Arts, [Mathematics, and [Biology, I quickly determined the most efficient way to eliminate the opponent while also leaving the body still usable for me to tinker with later. At the last possible second, I leaped forward with my legs out, my body leaning backward like a celebrating soccer player that's just scored the winning shot, my bare legs grinding against the grassy ground trying to slow me down.

With my knife raised up, I caught the wolf by surprise and made him sail above me like a baseball thrown too high.

The raised knife gutted the wolf in one fell swoop. Utilizing his own inertia against him, a massive gash formed from the lower neck to the pelvis area. Had the knife been any duller, it would've been broken and stuck within the creature, causing unnecessary pain and suffering as it bled out and died. However, a gut feeling before the battle told me to make the sharpest knife I could with the materials available to me.

The most efficient way indeed as during the cut, I had nicked the heart area, killing him instantly.

Instant death, is the greatest mercy a reaper can give to its customer.

Intestinal tracks spilled out and blood pooled, I felt like I would've had a greater reaction concerning my first kill in this world than just apathy if my [SIlence Emotion] wasn't at 70%. They are clearly smarter than the average wolf if they can communicate with me, complex thoughts and all.

I got up, my legs were still the same ghostly albino pale. Had I been human, I don't doubt my skin would've had some serious friction burns.

My face morphed back into a superior smirk when I turned to the rest of the wolf, throwing my left arm to the side in a wide gesture, I gave them an ultimatum.

"All of you, I know you can understand me. My name is Scientia Tempest and I am the architect of your fall! The engineer of your casket! I designed all those traps you ran through that mercilessly killed off your brothers, sisters, and packmates in general." I let that sink in for a moment as I connect my eyes with Rimuru off to the forest left of me, ready to jump in in the event of my plan's failure. He then zipped out and began to eat the cooling carcass. Returning the hand and placing it above my chest, I continued, "But I am not as so heartless and cruel as to genocide an entire species (not that you would know what that means), so instead I will give you a choice-"

I raised the other arm towards them, fingers stretched outwards.

-submit or perish."

Before hooking the fingers inward.

[Acting] directing every move I make, making suggestions as I win hearts and minds, the last part reminded me of this one comic I read once when I was an older teen.

Both of the arms then are swung to the sides, emphasizing myself within their eyes, my head raised high.

"If you submit, I can assure you that I will be far kinder than your old leader is, the massacre of your brethren today will not have happened had I been in charge! You will be properly fed, housed, and treated fairly under my rule. So, what say you? SUBMIT OR PERISH?!" I ended up bringing my arms in.

I cannot afford guerilla warfare in my backyard in the same way the US didn't want communism in Cuba. The hampering on potential trade in addition to other factors [Psychology] suggested is just way too high, and with a forest that's the size of a country, ain't no way am I going to allow them to roam freely. Especially now that Rimuru had, albeit reluctantly, set up steel webs that ensure they cannot escape in the event that they decided to perish. Make peace not war, he repeated until I convinced him to plan for the long term.

Morphing into the old pack leader, Rimuru repeated my words, though this time with a roar and telepathically. 'SUBMIT OR PERISH!'

I frowned upon seeing them inching closer and closer, [Psychology] completely silent on the matter. I have a feeling that it's as confused about the unfolding situation as I am.

'SUBMIT OR PERISH!'

They walked forward.

What? What are they doing? I wondered, are they choosing death?

I raised a hand to the height of my face, Rimuru's eyes widen at the gesture and grew increasingly nervous. The man seemed to be unused to massacres. Understandable, as he's probably only seen massacres through RTS Games.

Just as I was about to bring the hand down, both literally and metaphorically on their life, they stopped, and began to bow, showing reverence more to Rimuru than me. It made sense since Rimuru is their old leader.

I'll need to place more into [Psychology] in the future.

'We submit to your rule, oh great leader.' the one with a star-like feature upon his face said.

"Huh..." I said, disregarding the fact [Acting] is berating me for breaking the carefully crafted mask of superiority. "Well, I guess wolves are different huh?"

My normal, unnaturally smooth voice caused the wolf with the star-like fur on its face to look at me oddly before continuing his bowing, the goblins cheered loud enough that I can easily hear them way out here, at the base of the hill.

"All's well that ends well," Rimuru said, summing up the day.

I yawned, huh it seemed like I'm going to need some sleep now.

4

After coming off the victory high from yesterday, the goblins were nervous, as the dire wolves lived right next to them despite them submitting to their rule. It does make sense. Just like the hidden disdain between the many southeastern Asian countries like China, Japan, and Korea, you can't remove generations of trauma just by saying 'get along you two'.

Now, I would try and help Rimuru out with this but... I'm still angry at him.

"You're on your own," I said to him after waking up and seeing the tense situation, the constant quick glances that the goblins would make towards the direwolves, and the way the wolves would flinch as a goblin nears. "I suggest you unify them quick enough that way dissent wouldn't start to form."

I looked out towards the hill where a large majority of the wolves died. Since the side of the hill facing towards the village didn't receive any wolves, it was still fully green, a veil to conceal the carnage on the other side.

Surprisingly, [Biology, [Surgery, and [Chemistry] all gave me many blueprints for things I can build, even with dead and rotting flesh.

A particularly notable creation is this one biological mobile workbench and storage I can make that digests biomass or, if I modify it, hydrocarbons, to fuel itself. Placing the first charge of the day into this thing called [Magicule] gave me a modified blueprint to make the workbench run on ambient magicule instead.

What the hell is this magic bullshit.

I can create a creature-a chimera if you will- capable of essentially eternal life through the absorption of local magicules-mana.

As I reached the edge of the goblin village, a sudden thought struck me. "Goblins... dragons... magic... what is this, a Tolkien novel? Am I in some kind of world based on Tolkien's works?"

I said to no one and none heard me as they were rallied around the announcement that Rimuru was making.

The idea that I may be in some kind of Tolkien-knockoff world is... scarily believable.

[Silenced Emotion: 65%]

Near instantly, I calmed down and started to focus on the task at hand. Complete the mobile workbench first, Scientia, and explore the world later.

Picking up a bucket and a pair of water-tight spider silk gloves I had made, I continued with my journey towards the slaughter field.

After a few minutes, I reached the top of the hill. Looking down on the other side, I saw a field of hundreds of wolf corpses. Crows, flies, and other carrion feeders have already started to eat the dead.

Complete indifference, that's what I'm feeling right now. [Magicule] whispering basic spells to raise the dead as my own personal army...tempting but I prefer science over magic.

Sighing, I placed the bucket on the ground and took out another knife I'm naming 'Dasher'.

Despite my new strength of being able to easily break a bone in two, my hands can't offer the same precision that a knife possesses. Moreover, most of the corpses had probably already undergone Rigor Mortis, where the limbs and muscles have gone stiff due to chemical changes in the muscles, but it could be different since this is a magical world.

[Biology] is completely silent on the matter until I dropped a charge into [Magicule] and gave me several creations that wouldn't decompose the same way as would a normal corpse.

Equipping the pair of gloves, I touched each of the dead wolves, to see what biomatter I can salvage before [Biology] pointed to a corpse still somehow undergoing Algor Mortis, where the body's temperature reaches that of ambient temperature, somehow and completely defying what I thought was possible.

Turning to observe the corpse, I saw that it was a body hopelessly entangled in spider silk and with spikes stabbing into the main body, causing a slow and rather painful death through blood loss.

A sensation of phantom pain lit up around my back, where I'd gotten stabbed once the cause of death for this particular direwolf was known to me. Humans need to lose several liters of blood to become deceased, the same applies to animals and is directly proportional to their size. Although [Magicule] combined with [Biology] disputes this once again.

Predictably, magic makes a mockery of the conventional theories of biology...

God damn, it's been hours since the trap was sprung and the body is still warm? I thought when I observed the corpse. [Magicule] and [Biology] told me this animal died much later as its companions left him to his fate when they rushed towards the village.

I furrowed my eyebrows at the information I skimmed from a singular corpse. I had joked to Rimuru that enough charges into [Biology] and I can probably know someone's life story from a single look at their outward appearance.

I may be able to do exactly that.

"How quaint, to know someone better than they ever knew about themselves with a single glance is a..." skill that would've been ridiculously useful in the day-to-day operation of Human Resources. I tilted my head as I stared at the corpse, "Well wolf-1, sad to say you died for nothing, but at least you get to be part of the future I'm bringing to this world huh?"

I shrugged as I crouched, cutting away the strings tangled with the body before taking out a blanket from the bucket and covering the mostly intact body like fruits in a grocery bag. This corpse will be the main skeleton of my mobile workbench, so it's best to preserve the body as much as possible.

While I would like to build laser guns and the like, biological organisms like the wolf in front of me are probably the most complex thing I have access to at the moment.

Moving on to examine the rest of the 200 bodies that litter the landscape and occasionally harvest away useful materials [Biology] pointed out. It took the whole day but thanks to my Perfect Homunculus physiology, I was able to continue without breaks. In the end, I was able to fill the bucket full of first-rate material for me to use to create a mobile workbench that'll follow me wherever I go, ensuring that I'm never out of tools-

I looked down at my hands, then at the androgynous body, I was given in this life. I've never noticed it before but [Biology] and other specializations are all silent on ways to improve it. Wherever I look, [Inspired Inventor] gave me options and blueprints on how to either improve the target or ways to harvest it for resources to build another project. Yet I've been given literally no clue when it came down to my own body. Hell, I can even see ways to improve Rimuru if he'll ever let me.

The only other time this had ever happened was to Veldora, but I attribute that to the fact I didn't have [Biology] at a high enough level or any specializations aimed at a True Dragon.

Picking up the heavy metal bucket and the wolf corpse that's finally beginning to go into rigor mortis, I began to walk back to the village since the sun is starting to set.

"!" I saw a very interesting sight in front of me: several buff male and slender female goblins that looked like humans painted green if you would just ignore the head. [Psychology] tells me they are nervous about something. Once they saw me, they rushed forward, worry clear in their eyes and causing me to stop and drop the items I'm carrying.

As they neared, they suddenly got onto their knees and begged, causing me much discomfort despite [Silenced Emotion] running at 50%. "Lady Scientia!" They yelled.

They're... goblins? No, they more resemble a subspecies of goblins. A Hobgoblin, according to [Biology]. Interesting, how did they change their species?

I closed my eyes in mental discomfort at the way they begged. Seriously, have some class damn it, "What is it, and how did you guys change your species?"

The one closest to me raised his head but his body is still on his knees. They're worshipping me like I'm some kind of messiah, which I seriously do not enjoy. While this may give other people an ego trip, I just find such things uncomfortable, I'd much prefer a mutual interest or a giving-and-taking type of relationship.

"Well...Lord Rimuru set out to name each and every one of us! but after he named Ranga his body has become like water!"

He what?

Doesn't naming things cost magicules? Did he forget how— right, isn't this his first time naming people? Well, [Magicule] and [Biology] are telling me he should wake up after he's regenerated enough magicules.

Making eye contact and causing the goblin to instantly look down on the ground, my eyes twitched. "Listen, just keep him in a safe place, he's passed out due to magicule depletion and he should awake at the latest seven days from now. If he still hasn't awakened yet, notify me."

"Thank you for your wisdom, Lady Scientia!" They said as they hurriedly left.

"Oh, and before you go, I'm going to go tinkering, tell everyone to not disturb me unless it's an emergency!" The hobgoblins nodded their head as they bowed before continuing on their run back to the village.

[Silenced Emotion: 10%]

Good god, am I actually going to become a lady now? The concept of androgynous must be foreign to these barbarians. Well, not like I care anyways. Perhaps being in the other gender would help me better adjust to my new life here, in this world.

Looking up to the red sky filled with clouds, I began to plan for the future, after all, Veldora said that my species is seen as an abomination to every single nation in the world, and such cultural prejudice doesn't just disappear overnight.

It's a matter of when, not if that I'm found out. Veldora said how they would send whole armies, every man available, just to annihilate a Perfect Homunculus. And since this planet seemed to be a 1-to-1 replica of Earth if the gravity value of 9.8 meters a second is any indication, to survive I would need to become the sole enforcer and provider of force in this world, essentially the only superpower and all others mere de-fanged states like Japan after WWII.

And even then I would risk assassins constantly coming to kill me in secret.

If they managed to kill my predecessor, they must have a way to kill me as well.

I reached the temporary lab and opened the door. The room is rather spacious but I'll need to upgrade it soon enough. placing the body onto the operating table, I picked out some scalpels and tweezers alongside a selection of chemicals and got to work.

[Multitasking] allows me to tinker with the body while planning for the future.

Humans are savages back in history, I thought as I picked a heart out of the bucket, the Roman Empire was built upon the backs of millions of slaves, the Great Wall of China was created first during the tyrannical reign of Qin Shi Huang, who was the greatest mass murderer of his time, Genghis Khan killed so many people during his conquest that he literally forced China to go ultra-conservative and isolationist, and the echos of the atrocities Stalin ordered can still be felt right before I died.

[Silenced Emotion: 68%]

I would need to win hearts and minds, but I'll also need to prepare for the eventuality of total annihilation of my enemy, which would include the oppression or even genocide of millions (I doubt this world has over a billion humans) with nuclear attacks or something equally destructive. Potentially I would also need to wage a world war just to cripple every other nation that is antagonistic against me.

After tinkering with the heart and changing it into an Ambient Magicule Absorber, I cut open the corpse and started to take all the unnecessary organs out.

Things like the entire digestive tract and the respiratory system, are all rendered obsolete by the AMA and taken out and placed within preservatives for later use.

A set of four numbers appeared in my mind, something that made me somewhat queasy even with [Silenced Emotion] running so high,

"1984, the novel made by George Orwell that pretty much became a dream for totalitarian governments."

I... could use that novel as a guide when setting up new governments. With [Inspired Inventor] I can easily set up a surveillance state where privacy is non-existent. I could even make the oppression worse. Within the book, they don't have any of the super technology and gene editing power to turn people into content at being slaves to the system.

People would never have any discontent. They would always be satisfied.

A post-discontent society. The dark reflection of post-scarcity.

A place where instead of there being more than enough material goods to satisfy people, the people themselves are always satisfied no matter how low their standard of living is.

I think I could even do a Matrix.

Placing the remaining charges into [Political Science, my mind was rolling at the sheer complexity and intricateness of alternate forms of dictatorships, each more effective than the last, some capable of making the people just as happy and content as democracies despite my normal brain telling me it just shouldn't work.

Well, on second thought, they're probably only happy because their minds are filled will propaganda that is so effective they might as well as be memetic weapons.

I took out the rib bones and dropped them into chemicals that will rearrange and harden the calcium structure into something stronger than steel. Perfect for tools to use on the fly.

I paused and looked as the ribs bubbled within the chemicals, pondering the question of whether am I really going to establish a dictatorship within this world that people can never escape from because they are made to love the Party. Where individualism is nonexistent since their mind are altered in such a way that it's almost a hive mind?

My gut instinct is silent on the matter.

My logical side is telling me yes, that way they can never harm you.

But the side raised by my very liberal parents says no, it's a monstrous endeavor.

[Silenced Emotion: 45%]

I stopped working, and really, REALLY begin to ask myself the deep question, staring at my own hands as I do.

I, alone, have the power to advance this primitive society where people don't even know what anesthesia is, where basic hygiene is nonexistent, where savagery reigned supreme.

I highly doubt Rimuru is willing to get his hands drenched in the blood of innocents just to change the world, [Psychology] says his morals are too good for that. Yet modern society is built upon the corpse pile of countless failed societies that fell to others, a massive Darwinian struggle spanning the entirety of written history, each empire competing against the other for the dominance and supremacy of their ideology or something similar.

I tighten my lips and stopped working on the mobile workbench. the wolf now lacked a mouth and parts of the brain. I left its ear and enhanced its eyes so it knows where to go as well as retaining the 4 limbs and general body shape, only this time the main body has 2 hatches that can open up to get the tools inside the body.

A new day has come and five new charges lit up like a constellation in the night sky.

I've reinforced the dire wolf's legs with muscles from the others, that way they can support many times their original limit.

Due to my current lack of any metal or electronics, I'm forced to use biological ones, so when I placed 2 charges into [Cybernetics, I got an idea for what is essentially an octopus hat- 8 fleshy tentacle limbs that respond to vocal commands which can be worn like a hat. the idea persisted until I placed two charges into [Connection] and got a way of neural connection to the limbs instead.

Putting the final charge into [Resource Extraction, I am again bombarded with ideas and blueprints for ways to mine out entire mountains. Pickaxes and drills that are many many times better than their normal counterpart are ways to efficiently extract gold from the ocean and turn a profit.

Assuming that this world also uses gold, I'll probably crash the entire global economy by devaluing gold harder than post-WWI Germany.

Putting the idea of the tentacle arms on the backburner for a moment, I inserted the key that could activate the mobile workbench/storage.

Pop!*

The joints and bones popped and groaned as for the first time in forever, the cells began live once more. Despite my dislike for magic, I placed a small magicule absorber underneath the neck to repair the dead cells of the body. I modified it in such a way that the chance of cancer due to too many cellular divisions was nulled.

[Silenced Emotion: 20%]

"It's alive! it's ALIVE!" I said while grinning wildly to myself even though the being in front of me is more akin to a flesh golem than anything nature could produce. The workbench/tool storage moved to howl only to fail since the vocal cord was taken out.

As it began to move around, I issued my first order: "Stay." Instantly it stopped, and sat down, awaiting my next order.

Its intelligence is less than a normal wolf's, but it can understand my body movement since it's ingrained into its programming. I smiled at my work, feeling-

knock, knock, knock*

The pride I felt was extinguished like a flame in a rainstorm as I heard someone intruding upon my moment of success. I heard no screams nor any commotion from the outside so it was definitely not an emergency.

"What is it?" I demanded to the one at the door, only hearing an 'eep!'

"W-well Lady Scientia, Lord Rimuru has finally awakened." I placed a hand upon my chin in deep thought, it should be only a day, shouldn't it? That was rather quick. I placed a hand on my forehead and realized some of the sparks are faded—

The hell?

Opening the door, I am greeted by what used to be the village elder who is now more like a buff 50-year-old, and asked, "how long has been since I was in here?"

Seemingly at a loss of words, whether due to the suddenness of the question or some other benign reasons I won't bother to conjure up, the elder stuttered for a moment before answering, "Well it has been 3 days since-

I drown out whatever he was saying and realized I'd been tinkering away at the corpse for almost half a week when it felt like mere hours have passed. A haunting realization dawned on me that extra 5 charges expired when I was in the throes of passion and eagerness to make, [Inspired Inventor] urged me to create the first semi-autonomous flesh golem that I also included an acid pouch for cleaning any tools while also being able to squirt it at command.

[Surgery] seemed to have a thing for acid for some reason.

Well, you learn something new every day, don't you? I felt like kicking myself. Unknowingly to everyone else, I grip my hand so tight the skin started to show a shade of bright red.

I need fresh air, I thought as I rushed out the door, completely ignoring the elder.

"Ah, Scientia!" I heard my name being called. Turning around, I saw a crowd of other goblins that looked too close to humans for comfort. Most of them are wearing only a cloak or pieces of colored cloth to cover them up.

I am so going to introduce the idea of superior fabrics to these primitives.

I was dragged out of my thoughts by the sound of cheering. Looking toward the source, I found Rimuru being thrown up into the air as the hobgoblins cheered while the other direwolves just... opened and closed their mouth while looking at Rimuru. I feel like I'm watching one of those documentaries about tribes in Africa and seeing their cultural customs when I saw how the direwolves celebrate.

I think a biologist would be fascinated by these intelligent wolves.

"—!"

I felt a large presence behind me, whipping around with a hand placed above a hidden knife, I saw a gigantic wolf with a star and a horn on its forehead, bowing down to me.

'Master Scientia.' he greeted me telepathically. 'My name given to me by Master Rimuru is Ranga, if you need anything you just need to ask.'

Well, that's something you don't see every day now, is it? A massive wolf bowing down to you despite your thinning lips and displeasure at the gesture. Looking around, I saw the other wolves bowing down to me as well.

Seriously, I'd much prefer a handshake.

"Well, you'd probably best serve the direwolf's representative, their voice so to speak." I said, turning to Rimuru, "If we are to set up shop here, have you thought of what type of government are we using? And what about the laws and rights?"

Rimuru gave a sheepish look and used a protrusion to rub the back of his head, causing me to facepalm. God damn it why must I do everything? I thought tiredly, completely exhausted from working for 3 days straight and emotionally due to the loss of that 5 charges I could've used.

Name: Scientia Tempest

Species: Perfect Homunculus

Divine Protection: Storm Crest

Rank: A (S if given enough time)

Alias: Lady Scientia, ???

Skin Colour: Pale

Hair color: White

Eye color: Ruby red

Height: 167 cm

Gender: N/A (presumed female by the wider population, themselves uses masculine terms.)

Unique Skill: [Inspired Inventor, [Guide to Victory]

Intrinsic Skill: [Limitless Regeneration, [Aristocratic Dignity, [Timelessness, [Berserk Mode, [Untained Perfection, [Silenced Emotion, [Conditional Unkillability, [Only One]

Extra Skill: [Stab Resistance,

Common Skill: [Business Intuition]

Magic: [Alchemy, [Unlimited Alchemy].

5

After coming off the victory high from yesterday, the goblins were nervous, as the dire wolves lived right next to them despite them submitting to their rule. It does make sense. Just like the hidden disdain between the many southeastern Asian countries like China, Japan, and Korea, you can't remove generations of trauma just by saying 'get along you two'.

Now, I would try and help Rimuru out with this but... I'm still angry at him.

"You're on your own," I said to him after waking up and seeing the tense situation, the constant quick glances that the goblins would make towards the direwolves, and the way the wolves would flinch as a goblin nears. "I suggest you unify them quick enough that way dissent wouldn't start to form."

I looked out towards the hill where a large majority of the wolves died. Since the side of the hill facing towards the village didn't receive any wolves, it was still fully green, a veil to conceal the carnage on the other side.

Surprisingly, [Biology, [Surgery, and [Chemistry] all gave me many blueprints for things I can build, even with dead and rotting flesh.

A particularly notable creation is this one biological mobile workbench and storage I can make that digests biomass or, if I modify it, hydrocarbons, to fuel itself. Placing the first charge of the day into this thing called [Magicule] gave me a modified blueprint to make the workbench run on ambient magicule instead.

What the hell is this magic bullshit.

I can create a creature-a chimera if you will- capable of essentially eternal life through the absorption of local magicules-mana.

As I reached the edge of the goblin village, a sudden thought struck me. "Goblins... dragons... magic... what is this, a Tolkien novel? Am I in some kind of world based on Tolkien's works?"

I said to no one and none heard me as they were rallied around the announcement that Rimuru was making.

The idea that I may be in some kind of Tolkien-knockoff world is... scarily believable.

[Silenced Emotion: 65%]

Near instantly, I calmed down and started to focus on the task at hand. Complete the mobile workbench first, Scientia, and explore the world later.

Picking up a bucket and a pair of water-tight spider silk gloves I had made, I continued with my journey towards the slaughter field.

After a few minutes, I reached the top of the hill. Looking down on the other side, I saw a field of hundreds of wolf corpses. Crows, flies, and other carrion feeders have already started to eat the dead.

Complete indifference, that's what I'm feeling right now. [Magicule] whispering basic spells to raise the dead as my own personal army...tempting but I prefer science over magic.

Sighing, I placed the bucket on the ground and took out another knife I'm naming 'Dasher'.

Despite my new strength of being able to easily break a bone in two, my hands can't offer the same precision that a knife possesses. Moreover, most of the corpses had probably already undergone Rigor Mortis, where the limbs and muscles have gone stiff due to chemical changes in the muscles, but it could be different since this is a magical world.

[Biology] is completely silent on the matter until I dropped a charge into [Magicule] and gave me several creations that wouldn't decompose the same way as would a normal corpse.

Equipping the pair of gloves, I touched each of the dead wolves, to see what biomatter I can salvage before [Biology] pointed to a corpse still somehow undergoing Algor Mortis, where the body's temperature reaches that of ambient temperature, somehow and completely defying what I thought was possible.

Turning to observe the corpse, I saw that it was a body hopelessly entangled in spider silk and with spikes stabbing into the main body, causing a slow and rather painful death through blood loss.

A sensation of phantom pain lit up around my back, where I'd gotten stabbed once the cause of death for this particular direwolf was known to me. Humans need to lose several liters of blood to become deceased, the same applies to animals and is directly proportional to their size. Although [Magicule] combined with [Biology] disputes this once again.

Predictably, magic makes a mockery of the conventional theories of biology...

God damn, it's been hours since the trap was sprung and the body is still warm? I thought when I observed the corpse. [Magicule] and [Biology] told me this animal died much later as its companions left him to his fate when they rushed towards the village.

I furrowed my eyebrows at the information I skimmed from a singular corpse. I had joked to Rimuru that enough charges into [Biology] and I can probably know someone's life story from a single look at their outward appearance.

I may be able to do exactly that.

"How quaint, to know someone better than they ever knew about themselves with a single glance is a..." skill that would've been ridiculously useful in the day-to-day operation of Human Resources. I tilted my head as I stared at the corpse, "Well wolf-1, sad to say you died for nothing, but at least you get to be part of the future I'm bringing to this world huh?"

I shrugged as I crouched, cutting away the strings tangled with the body before taking out a blanket from the bucket and covering the mostly intact body like fruits in a grocery bag. This corpse will be the main skeleton of my mobile workbench, so it's best to preserve the body as much as possible.

While I would like to build laser guns and the like, biological organisms like the wolf in front of me are probably the most complex thing I have access to at the moment.

Moving on to examine the rest of the 200 bodies that litter the landscape and occasionally harvest away useful materials [Biology] pointed out. It took the whole day but thanks to my Perfect Homunculus physiology, I was able to continue without breaks. In the end, I was able to fill the bucket full of first-rate material for me to use to create a mobile workbench that'll follow me wherever I go, ensuring that I'm never out of tools-

I looked down at my hands, then at the androgynous body, I was given in this life. I've never noticed it before but [Biology] and other specializations are all silent on ways to improve it. Wherever I look, [Inspired Inventor] gave me options and blueprints on how to either improve the target or ways to harvest it for resources to build another project. Yet I've been given literally no clue when it came down to my own body. Hell, I can even see ways to improve Rimuru if he'll ever let me.

The only other time this had ever happened was to Veldora, but I attribute that to the fact I didn't have [Biology] at a high enough level or any specializations aimed at a True Dragon.

Picking up the heavy metal bucket and the wolf corpse that's finally beginning to go into rigor mortis, I began to walk back to the village since the sun is starting to set.

"!" I saw a very interesting sight in front of me: several buff male and slender female goblins that looked like humans painted green if you would just ignore the head. [Psychology] tells me they are nervous about something. Once they saw me, they rushed forward, worry clear in their eyes and causing me to stop and drop the items I'm carrying.

As they neared, they suddenly got onto their knees and begged, causing me much discomfort despite [Silenced Emotion] running at 50%. "Lady Scientia!" They yelled.

They're... goblins? No, they more resemble a subspecies of goblins. A Hobgoblin, according to [Biology]. Interesting, how did they change their species?

I closed my eyes in mental discomfort at the way they begged. Seriously, have some class damn it, "What is it, and how did you guys change your species?"

The one closest to me raised his head but his body is still on his knees. They're worshipping me like I'm some kind of messiah, which I seriously do not enjoy. While this may give other people an ego trip, I just find such things uncomfortable, I'd much prefer a mutual interest or a giving-and-taking type of relationship.

"Well...Lord Rimuru set out to name each and every one of us! but after he named Ranga his body has become like water!"

He what?

Doesn't naming things cost magicules? Did he forget how— right, isn't this his first time naming people? Well, [Magicule] and [Biology] are telling me he should wake up after he's regenerated enough magicules.

Making eye contact and causing the goblin to instantly look down on the ground, my eyes twitched. "Listen, just keep him in a safe place, he's passed out due to magicule depletion and he should awake at the latest seven days from now. If he still hasn't awakened yet, notify me."

"Thank you for your wisdom, Lady Scientia!" They said as they hurriedly left.

"Oh, and before you go, I'm going to go tinkering, tell everyone to not disturb me unless it's an emergency!" The hobgoblins nodded their head as they bowed before continuing on their run back to the village.

[Silenced Emotion: 10%]

Good god, am I actually going to become a lady now? The concept of androgynous must be foreign to these barbarians. Well, not like I care anyways. Perhaps being in the other gender would help me better adjust to my new life here, in this world.

Looking up to the red sky filled with clouds, I began to plan for the future, after all, Veldora said that my species is seen as an abomination to every single nation in the world, and such cultural prejudice doesn't just disappear overnight.

It's a matter of when, not if that I'm found out. Veldora said how they would send whole armies, every man available, just to annihilate a Perfect Homunculus. And since this planet seemed to be a 1-to-1 replica of Earth if the gravity value of 9.8 meters a second is any indication, to survive I would need to become the sole enforcer and provider of force in this world, essentially the only superpower and all others mere de-fanged states like Japan after WWII.

And even then I would risk assassins constantly coming to kill me in secret.

If they managed to kill my predecessor, they must have a way to kill me as well.

I reached the temporary lab and opened the door. The room is rather spacious but I'll need to upgrade it soon enough. placing the body onto the operating table, I picked out some scalpels and tweezers alongside a selection of chemicals and got to work.

[Multitasking] allows me to tinker with the body while planning for the future.

Humans are savages back in history, I thought as I picked a heart out of the bucket, the Roman Empire was built upon the backs of millions of slaves, the Great Wall of China was created first during the tyrannical reign of Qin Shi Huang, who was the greatest mass murderer of his time, Genghis Khan killed so many people during his conquest that he literally forced China to go ultra-conservative and isolationist, and the echos of the atrocities Stalin ordered can still be felt right before I died.

[Silenced Emotion: 68%]

I would need to win hearts and minds, but I'll also need to prepare for the eventuality of total annihilation of my enemy, which would include the oppression or even genocide of millions (I doubt this world has over a billion humans) with nuclear attacks or something equally destructive. Potentially I would also need to wage a world war just to cripple every other nation that is antagonistic against me.

After tinkering with the heart and changing it into an Ambient Magicule Absorber, I cut open the corpse and started to take all the unnecessary organs out.

Things like the entire digestive tract and the respiratory system, are all rendered obsolete by the AMA and taken out and placed within preservatives for later use.

A set of four numbers appeared in my mind, something that made me somewhat queasy even with [Silenced Emotion] running so high,

"1984, the novel made by George Orwell that pretty much became a dream for totalitarian governments."

I... could use that novel as a guide when setting up new governments. With [Inspired Inventor] I can easily set up a surveillance state where privacy is non-existent. I could even make the oppression worse. Within the book, they don't have any of the super technology and gene editing power to turn people into content at being slaves to the system.

People would never have any discontent. They would always be satisfied.

A post-discontent society. The dark reflection of post-scarcity.

A place where instead of there being more than enough material goods to satisfy people, the people themselves are always satisfied no matter how low their standard of living is.

I think I could even do a Matrix.

Placing the remaining charges into [Political Science, my mind was rolling at the sheer complexity and intricateness of alternate forms of dictatorships, each more effective than the last, some capable of making the people just as happy and content as democracies despite my normal brain telling me it just shouldn't work.

Well, on second thought, they're probably only happy because their minds are filled will propaganda that is so effective they might as well as be memetic weapons.

I took out the rib bones and dropped them into chemicals that will rearrange and harden the calcium structure into something stronger than steel. Perfect for tools to use on the fly.

I paused and looked as the ribs bubbled within the chemicals, pondering the question of whether am I really going to establish a dictatorship within this world that people can never escape from because they are made to love the Party. Where individualism is nonexistent since their mind are altered in such a way that it's almost a hive mind?

My gut instinct is silent on the matter.

My logical side is telling me yes, that way they can never harm you.

But the side raised by my very liberal parents says no, it's a monstrous endeavor.

[Silenced Emotion: 45%]

I stopped working, and really, REALLY begin to ask myself the deep question, staring at my own hands as I do.

I, alone, have the power to advance this primitive society where people don't even know what anesthesia is, where basic hygiene is nonexistent, where savagery reigned supreme.

I highly doubt Rimuru is willing to get his hands drenched in the blood of innocents just to change the world, [Psychology] says his morals are too good for that. Yet modern society is built upon the corpse pile of countless failed societies that fell to others, a massive Darwinian struggle spanning the entirety of written history, each empire competing against the other for the dominance and supremacy of their ideology or something similar.

I tighten my lips and stopped working on the mobile workbench. the wolf now lacked a mouth and parts of the brain. I left its ear and enhanced its eyes so it knows where to go as well as retaining the 4 limbs and general body shape, only this time the main body has 2 hatches that can open up to get the tools inside the body.

A new day has come and five new charges lit up like a constellation in the night sky.

I've reinforced the dire wolf's legs with muscles from the others, that way they can support many times their original limit.

Due to my current lack of any metal or electronics, I'm forced to use biological ones, so when I placed 2 charges into [Cybernetics, I got an idea for what is essentially an octopus hat- 8 fleshy tentacle limbs that respond to vocal commands which can be worn like a hat. the idea persisted until I placed two charges into [Connection] and got a way of neural connection to the limbs instead.

Putting the final charge into [Resource Extraction, I am again bombarded with ideas and blueprints for ways to mine out entire mountains. Pickaxes and drills that are many many times better than their normal counterpart are ways to efficiently extract gold from the ocean and turn a profit.

Assuming that this world also uses gold, I'll probably crash the entire global economy by devaluing gold harder than post-WWI Germany.

Putting the idea of the tentacle arms on the backburner for a moment, I inserted the key that could activate the mobile workbench/storage.

Pop!*

The joints and bones popped and groaned as for the first time in forever, the cells began live once more. Despite my dislike for magic, I placed a small magicule absorber underneath the neck to repair the dead cells of the body. I modified it in such a way that the chance of cancer due to too many cellular divisions was nulled.

[Silenced Emotion: 20%]

"It's alive! it's ALIVE!" I said while grinning wildly to myself even though the being in front of me is more akin to a flesh golem than anything nature could produce. The workbench/tool storage moved to howl only to fail since the vocal cord was taken out.

As it began to move around, I issued my first order: "Stay." Instantly it stopped, and sat down, awaiting my next order.

Its intelligence is less than a normal wolf's, but it can understand my body movement since it's ingrained into its programming. I smiled at my work, feeling-

knock, knock, knock*

The pride I felt was extinguished like a flame in a rainstorm as I heard someone intruding upon my moment of success. I heard no screams nor any commotion from the outside so it was definitely not an emergency.

"What is it?" I demanded to the one at the door, only hearing an 'eep!'

"W-well Lady Scientia, Lord Rimuru has finally awakened." I placed a hand upon my chin in deep thought, it should be only a day, shouldn't it? That was rather quick. I placed a hand on my forehead and realized some of the sparks are faded—

The hell?

Opening the door, I am greeted by what used to be the village elder who is now more like a buff 50-year-old, and asked, "how long has been since I was in here?"

Seemingly at a loss of words, whether due to the suddenness of the question or some other benign reasons I won't bother to conjure up, the elder stuttered for a moment before answering, "Well it has been 3 days since-

I drown out whatever he was saying and realized I'd been tinkering away at the corpse for almost half a week when it felt like mere hours have passed. A haunting realization dawned on me that extra 5 charges expired when I was in the throes of passion and eagerness to make, [Inspired Inventor] urged me to create the first semi-autonomous flesh golem that I also included an acid pouch for cleaning any tools while also being able to squirt it at command.

[Surgery] seemed to have a thing for acid for some reason.

Well, you learn something new every day, don't you? I felt like kicking myself. Unknowingly to everyone else, I grip my hand so tight the skin started to show a shade of bright red.

I need fresh air, I thought as I rushed out the door, completely ignoring the elder.

"Ah, Scientia!" I heard my name being called. Turning around, I saw a crowd of other goblins that looked too close to humans for comfort. Most of them are wearing only a cloak or pieces of colored cloth to cover them up.

I am so going to introduce the idea of superior fabrics to these primitives.

I was dragged out of my thoughts by the sound of cheering. Looking toward the source, I found Rimuru being thrown up into the air as the hobgoblins cheered while the other direwolves just... opened and closed their mouth while looking at Rimuru. I feel like I'm watching one of those documentaries about tribes in Africa and seeing their cultural customs when I saw how the direwolves celebrate.

I think a biologist would be fascinated by these intelligent wolves.

"—!"

I felt a large presence behind me, whipping around with a hand placed above a hidden knife, I saw a gigantic wolf with a star and a horn on its forehead, bowing down to me.

'Master Scientia.' he greeted me telepathically. 'My name given to me by Master Rimuru is Ranga, if you need anything you just need to ask.'

Well, that's something you don't see every day now, is it? A massive wolf bowing down to you despite your thinning lips and displeasure at the gesture. Looking around, I saw the other wolves bowing down to me as well.

Seriously, I'd much prefer a handshake.

"Well, you'd probably best serve the direwolf's representative, their voice so to speak." I said, turning to Rimuru, "If we are to set up shop here, have you thought of what type of government are we using? And what about the laws and rights?"

Rimuru gave a sheepish look and used a protrusion to rub the back of his head, causing me to facepalm. God damn it why must I do everything? I thought tiredly, completely exhausted from working for 3 days straight and emotionally due to the loss of that 5 charges I could've used.

Name: Scientia Tempest

Species: Perfect Homunculus

Divine Protection: Storm Crest

Rank: A (S if given enough time)

Alias: Lady Scientia, ???

Skin Colour: Pale

Hair color: White

Eye color: Ruby red

Height: 167 cm

Gender: N/A (presumed female by the wider population, themselves uses masculine terms.)

Unique Skill: [Inspired Inventor, [Guide to Victory]

Intrinsic Skill: [Limitless Regeneration, [Aristocratic Dignity, [Timelessness, [Berserk Mode, [Untained Perfection, [Silenced Emotion, [Conditional Unkillability, [Only One]

Extra Skill: [Stab Resistance,

Common Skill: [Business Intuition]

Magic: [Alchemy, [Unlimited Alchemy].

6Over the next few weeks, my industrial base expanded rapidly as more and more charges were put into Specializations like [Mass Production, [Automation, and [Factory Design]. Essentially anything related to the process of industrialization and factory production, I've sunk at least three charges into them. Of course, industrialization required appropriate power, and fortunately, Rimuru was able to separate hydrogen atoms from water. This opened up an avenue of power generation I never thought possible until later on: nuclear fusion.

Taking two full days to complete, I created a working portable fusion reactor to power Metropolis with. I unlocked the power of the atom.

(I'm tempted to say I've unlocked the power of god)

Add to that, I've only slept a handful of hours and this resulted in perhaps the biggest jump in technological capacity this world has ever seen.

From medieval times to industrialization, I've kick-started this world's process into the 20th century. Although it should've been to the 21st century, I haven't released the computers for public use.

As a result of the massive jump in time, the quality of life for many hobgoblins and tempest wolves within the old village jumped equally as much as well. This jump in quality of life meant people have some money left over, and thus started a growing internal economy with inflation to boot.

Since many of the jobs that Groups 1, 2, and 3 performed were obsolete, I reassigned them personally with factory jobs, with Group 4 overseeing everything. In accordance with the general theme of improvement, I've given the security guards each a length taser that has a range of six meters.

With the advancement in quality of life also comes support, both in the political and social sense. With this support, I was able to successfully get all hobgoblins to leave their old home and instead move into a single centralized location.

Man, in my old world, no one in their right mind would've trusted politicians that much.

This centralized location for housing purposes was a 60-meter tall residential skyscraper with an ovoid design, allowing it to become a truly unique architecture even in my old world. Because of its shape, the Hobgoblins even started calling the building the 'Egg'. It's composed of primarily pre-fabricated materials and units, making it much faster to build as it's just like building with lego.

This singular building now contained every hobgoblin within the old village and with plenty of rooms to spare.

The rooms within the apartment were much superior to their old suburban homes. Improvements included a working plumbing system, electric lighting, and air conditioning.

With governmental subsidies offered through an Uplift Program I championed, the hobgoblins were able to live in a 90s equivalent of a luxury apartment and still earn a living despite normal apartments such as these would've made them broke within mere days of rent.

However, just as I was building the residential skyscraper, I ran into the problem of the Stellar Gold Coins being unusable since their denominations were so high. Apparently, this world already possesses a single collective currency; the Dwarven Coins.

Precious metal coins minted by the Armed Nation of Dwargon, Kaijin were really helpful in explaining how currencies were split into four denominations of increasing value: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Stellar Gold. The dwarf then went on to explain each superior denomination is equal to 100 of the inferior ones, and how Stellar Gold Coins were used for large business transactions and payment between nation-states.

On one hand, I was glad that Dwargon, an apparent superpower on the world stage, sees us as a nation but on the other, it would be really suspicious if a stranger from nowhere just attempted to trade in 10 coins of the highest denomination.

Ironically, the Stellar Gold Coins became useless.

But, I'm nothing if not creative. The budding nation of Jura Tempest Republic needs its own currency. Not only can it be a rallying cry for patriotism, but it will also allow the nation a certain degree of economic freedom and leverage over other nations. Just look at America and its petrodollar, their President can also sanction people, making them unable to open a bank account.

That type of soft power is desirable. Especially for a nation that will dominate the global economy.

Seeing how we don't have a proper currency, I consulted Kaijin on the viability of a new currency and paid for his consultant services with a few tips. Kaijin remarked how it's been done before, but would always fail as magic makes counterfeiting the new currency extremely easy.

Right, it seems Dwarven Coin is enchanted to prevent counterfeits.

It wasn't a problem as I could substitute the magical solution of the dwarves with my own scientific solution. With [Inspired Inventor, I eventually managed to come up with an answer in the form of issuing paper currency that each possesses a special serial number (just like the dwarven coins) and treating them in a blend of chemical concoctions changes the paper's molecular structure.

So began the Tempest Dollar, simply referred to as the 'Dollar'. The Tempest Dollar is fixed to the Stellar Gold Coins at 100,000 Dollars to one Stellars.

I do plan to have the Dollar later fixed to gold, but that would entail the creation of an entirely new branch of the government. The National Gold Reserve. I've already drafted up the proposal which requires only Congress to pass the Act that would see the Reserve's creation.

After the currency issue was dealt with, I'm now met with the problem of a lack of manpower. Like a colony during its first few years, if I want to realize my vision of a proper, modern city then I would need immigrants to come here and work. But at the same time, I can't advertise the Jura Tempest Republic to the wider world just yet since our position isn't strong enough.

Oddly enough, the answer to our lack of manpower came in the form of Monster Attacks. Due to the disappearance of Veldora, many other goblin villages within the Jura Forest were attacked by other tribes of dire wolves and tempest bears. Since those villages don't have their version of me or Rimuru defending them, those goblins were forced to move.

While this is a tragedy by all measures, it also presents an opportunity. Namely, the solution to our manpower issue.

I had President Rimuru welcome those refugees with open arms while I personally got them all settled and assigned jobs.

500 new pairs of hands ensured the Factory can expand even more. With a quarter of a thousand orphans, the future of the nation can be secured.

However, like clockwork, another unforeseen problem arises; the lack of highly skilled workers.

Skilled workers are basically those who have graduated from secondary education. They usually make up the backbone of the First-World economy and government.

Obviously, a village in the middle of nowhere has little to no education. This led to me delegating most of the administration and paperwork to Rimuru while I quickly taught a dozen hand-picked hobgoblins the basics of how to become a bureaucrat and Minister.

Thank god [Teaching] is a specialty. That combined with [Psychology] allowed me to create hyper-efficient teaching material which those hobgoblins soaked up like dry paper with water.

Those dozen hobgoblins became the core of Rimuru's cabinet. They massively decreased the slime's workload, allowing him some time to rest.

From the start of the Tempest Dollar to the teaching of the hobgoblins, that was a hectic week.

Considering how nations usually take a long time to get everything ready, I can't help but wonder how would future generations view the beginning of the Jura Tempest Republic.

Before I could rest for more than six hours, Congress came knocking on my doors asking for a larger place of governance.

Thanks to my new physiology, I could work nonstop for days on end without collapsing into exhaustion. Granted, the mental fatigue would be absolute hell right before I collapse, but I could still work.

Such is the stress of building a new nation from scratch. And what's more, I can't exactly refuse Congress' demands since if I do, the government I aim to build won't have any legitimacy in the face of the people.

However, since I was still mentally fatigued from a week of nearly non-stop work, I wanted to build the Congress their new center of governance as soon as possible, with as little input as possible. So started my delve into [Artificial Intelligence] and [Nanotechnology].

I distinctly remember rapidly self-replicating nanites from this one sci-fi show being extremely overpowered, what with it eating through metal doors and using the ship as material to produce more of itself. Using this idea, I programmed a Narrow Artificial Intelligence to put it in command of a few nanomachines and had it start self-replicating, only stopping until it hit 5 quintillion units.

Being extremely tired, I slept for a few hours for the first time ever since the completion of the residential skyscraper.

As it turns out, leaving autonomous self-replicating machines unsupervised is a terrible idea. No, not in the sense that it may get out of control, but in the sense that my table, where I had placed the group of self-replicating nanomachines, had a hole burnt through it. The table was made out of metal.

The table could hold lava fresh out of the ground and keep it there as it cooled.

That was the day I learned how unlikely it is for a Grey Goo scenario. Unlike in the show, real nanomachines are extremely fragile. In hindsight, it should've been obvious, considering how fragile a human's cell was. Not only that but the nanomachines are also limited by the Laws of Thermodynamics.

See, the Second Law of Thermodynamics states that energy transfers and transformation tend to move towards a state of greater entropy or 'disorder' for those less academically inclined. This means in practice the heat generated in an instant when millions of nanomachines start moving far enough it can be measured physically with a ruler is enough to burn a hole through my table.

However, that didn't make sense since, just as with how energy can not be created or destroyed, the power I gave to charge those nanomachines wasn't enough to burn a hole through the table.

Something is afoot.

Further investigation revealed how apparently, the AI I programmed to oversee the self-replication came to the logical conclusion the energy I'm feeding the nanites isn't enough to complete within the specified time frame, thus, it opened the metaphorical floodgate.

I expected this to be another easy success, but all I've done is just burn a hole through my table.

Unperturbed, a suggestion from [Biology] of all specialties helped solve my issue.

The solution came from nature.

Siphonophores are a fascinating order within the taxonomic class of Hydrozoa. Unlike jellyfish or really any other multicellular life, Siphonophores are colonial organisms that are made up of many smaller units called 'Zooids'. These zooids work together to hunt fish and operate as one cohesive individual.

[Biology] suggested the idea of using multiple different colonies of nanites that each does a hyper-specialized task, just like the zooids of Siphonophores. For example, one type of nanites would be extra electrically conductive while another could form super strong links with each other, in such a scenario, the former would become the wires while the latter would serve as the building's frames.

It's an ingenious solution, like cultivating bacteria for your gut... only, it would probably take me a while to fully program everything.

So instead of writing codes myself, I created a new Narrow Artificial Intelligence that would write the codes for me.

Not limited by mere thinking and typing speeds, there exists no barrier between thought and code writing for AIs, allowing them to write thousands upon thousands of lines of code in seconds.

However, I never make my tools more intelligent than they need to be. Thus, this AI is hyper-specialized in only writing codes for the nanite colonies.

With the AI in place, in the span of a single night, the codes for the nanite colonies have been completed.

Supplied with a constant stream of raw resources coming from the mines deep within the forest, transported quickly with tempest wolves, the entirety of the future Jura Tempest Republic's Capitol building is expected to finish within three months, quicker if I divert more resources towards it. Such as making a railway connecting the mines with the building site.

I've planned the final shape of the Congress' Capitol building to be a large pyramid-like structure that's about the size of the Pyramid of Giza, with each corner of the pyramid containing a tower decorated in Roman architecture. Since there are going to be many large free spaces on the faces of the pyramid, I've decided to leave that as something of a gift for the future. They can decide what they'll carve onto the surface of the pyramid.

As for the inside of the pyramid, it's probably going to be the most technologically advanced place in the entire world, at least, for now. For the main lobby, I imagined a grand entrance hall with a model of this world's solar system lighting up the room. Beyond the decorations, it's going to be the world's first smart building in the sense that every aspect of the place will have AI integration.

I firmly believe that if I'm going to build a nation of the future, the Capitol building, the very center where laws are made should reflect the nation.

It was the sound of my own sighing that brought me back into the present.

I was lying on a sunbathing chair, relaxing every bit of my muscles like I was an unthinking slab of meat hung out to dry.

I was wearing a very thin piece of fabric that barely constitute a 'T-shirt' with my lower half covered by a pair of thicker leggings. The 'clothing' didn't protect me at all from the hot sun bearing down on me, but due to my new physiology, it didn't matter to me.

I had imagined the sun's rays doing something serious to my ghostly pale skin but they didn't. What's more, there wasn't a single bit of sweat on me even when I felt rather warm. I think had I remained a human I'd be getting sunburns by now.

A sigh escaped my lips once more as a phantom feeling of directionlessness echoed through my mind. The realization that I've reincarnated has never hit harder than right now. Knowing that I'll never see my family again... made me question my own purpose.

I got up from my lying position into a sitting down place, crossing my legs as I do. The sun-soaked skin felt like warm towels steamed as they touched areas of my body that haven't seen the sun's rays.

Kathy...

[Silenced Emotion: 50%]

The thought of never seeing my sister again pains me so much that I felt wetness gather around the edge of my eyes. However, thanks to [Silenced Emotion, I was able to quickly take control of myself again.

I hugged my own legs. Thank god no one else is here to see me in my most vulnerable state. I did choose the topmost penthouse of the skyscraper as my own personal residence for a reason after all.

Eventually, this lasted for a minute longer before I stopped and got up. Looking around at the balcony, the view up this high was incredible, even better than those in the cities since there weren't any extra buildings to block my line of sight.

I content myself to just enjoy the view of the sea of green that was the Jura Forest, before feeling rather parched in my throat.

[Biology] noted how by being in the sun for so long, some of my own water has evaporated.

"Jarvis. Bring me water."

"Right away, Lady Scientia."

In the end, I've decided to embrace the Lady Scientia persona. Trying to change it would be a waste of time.

The sound of an R/C car filled the room as the dumb personal AI assistant I'd built on a whim got to work. Seconds later, the sound of an R/C car grew louder as the autonomous server drone drove itself into the balcony.

A mere flight of fancy, that's all this was, I thought as I went down to pick up the glass of water on top of the drone.

After picking up the glass of water, the server drone turned around and went back into my residence. Staring at its disappearing form with the cool glass in my right hand, I noted how the server drone reminds me the most of a Roomba of all things.

"Hrm." I hummed out as cold water went down my throat, wetting it.

As I down the water given to me by a drone I've built, I'm reminded once again of the fact that I don't exactly know how my technologies work. I'm only given blueprints, not the principle or science behind how they worked.

I'm like a puppet, and that doesn't sit well with me.

I see free will as something integral to me, some might even call it a key part of my own identity.

Right there, I decided I'll learn about how my technologies worked. If I could teach those dozen hobgoblins how to become good bureaucrats within a single day, I could definitely teach myself how my super technologies worked.

Whether through observing the effect of technologies or through what's possible, I will decipher the laws of physics.

I couldn't help but smile.

A new, long-term goal, settle within my mind. A goal that will underpin everything I do. A goal that might not always be there on my mind, but I'll always be working towards it.

It was a rare moment of absolute clarity, one that rarely happens in a person's life. It only happens when they first realized their life's calling, when all temporary distractions no longer matter.

I will achieve the ultimate goal of science.

I will discover everything. To know everything there is to know, to know the truth of the world, the meaning of life, the facts of existence.

Embarrassingly, I did some dramatic but admittedly childish poses and hand gestures as I declared that about myself. I couldn't help it, but at least with [Acting] people would be applauding at my theatrics.

However, I was drawn out of my theatrics when I saw a veritable cloud of birds flying off in the distance.

At first, I was a bit confused, since I had thought that I was somehow the cause of that. Then, [Biology] came in and displaced that idea by suggesting how something must be happening to cause all those birds to fly away.

The only time I've ever seen birds fly away in such numbers was in movies. Disaster movies, like when birds are escaping a volcanic eruption.

Immediately, that memory brought an unprecedented feeling of dread. I've solved every issue that was thrown my way, is the world seriously going to throw me a hurdle in the form of a natural fucking disaster?

Walking indoors, I then turned around to face the balcony.

Numbers, calculations of all kinds like motion, air resistance, vectors, and complex material hardness charts ran through my mind as [Mathematic] got to work helping me calculate the exact steps I need to take to receive the least amount of damage.

The process took no more than eight seconds as [Mathematic] created entirely new formulas and used existing ones to model my fall and find a way to ensure I can still walk after I landed 60 meters down on the ground.

I started running at a speed of exactly 45 km/h, crossing the distance between where I stood and the edge of the balcony in a single second.

I leaped off the edge.

Now, one may wonder why I don't use Dasher to slow my fall by stabbing into the wall of the pre-fabricated living units made by Rimuru. To that I say, how much leverage do you think I can get in free fall?

I could lift mountains but that would be meaningless if I couldn't get any leverage. I'll be just fumbling through the air like a fish blabbering around on the deck of a boat.

So instead, I spread my arms out to catch the greatest amount of air resistance like a parachute unfurling itself.

Unfortunately, it only slowed my fall by a couple of percentages.

Yet it was enough.

Thump*

I slammed into the ground at 116.4 km/h. At such speeds and with my mass, I hit the ground with a force equivalent to an automobile going full speed on a freeway.

Such a move would've undoubtedly been lethal had I been human, but with my new physiology, such a tall fall is just as if I had only fallen from half a meter.

That is to say, I pushed myself up while dusting the dirt off my body and the piece of fabric that can barely be called 'clothing'.

Wait, I'm standing in the middle of a street... that thought made me pause whatever I was doing and looked around me. I saw many hobgoblins (even one or two security guards) staring at me with varying looks of shock, horror, or just general disbelief. [Psychology] remarked how they must be experiencing the Bystander Effect since the normal response to seeing a person falling off a skyscraper is to check on them.

Taking this opportunity, I took off running at full speed toward my personal lab. Seeing the many people in my path, I placed one of my charges for the day into [Gymnastics] and started expertly weaving around pedestrians with a bodily agility that felt foreign to my body.

Very quickly, I saw the building which housed my private laboratory.

From the outside, anyone from my old world would mistake it for a bunker. With smooth and slanted walls, the general shape of my laboratory is that of a trapezoidal prism. On one side of the building was a closed door the likes that you'd find as the entrance to a prefabricated living unit and another larger garage door.

Sensing my approach, a section of the building's walls opened up to reveal a single electronic touchscreen-based display. It's a security measure put in place so that no one other than I could get into my labs.

Tapping 15 times on the display in a specific pattern, a personnel door slid open to allow me in.

The door closed as I entered, temporarily showering me in darkness before the indoor lighting turned itself on.

Officially, the lab is a gift given to me by the newly formed Senate. But as it is with politics the truth is far more complicated. In reality, the lab gifting is a political courtesy I gave them, just like me giving them a new Capitol building, to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the people.

My lab is fairly disorganized, with tools, paper, and other lab equipment scattered and strung all over the long tables that are situated next to the walls like toys belonging to a toddler. Its size is around that of the first floor of a typically American suburban house.

Looking through the windowless room lit by artificial lighting, it took me a couple of seconds to find what I needed.

Grabbing it, the object in my hand is a metallic orb with wires poking out of it.

It's a CPU, designed to calculate ballistic trajectories and optimal solutions for close-range combat.

The world's first combat computer and all it needs is a power source to operate it.

Well, it is part of an Aerial Combat System I've designed in my spare time and had the auto-fabricators make.

It's a temporary solution to any unforeseen incidents that require force rather than words.

Physically, the combat system is built around a jetpack that uses rotor blades to generate lift and a large belt-fed electromagnetic coilgun for long and medium ranges while an arm-sword serves as an emergency close-range weapon. The ammo for the coilgun is situated behind me underneath the helicopter jetpack, making it look as if I was sitting on an oil drum. The combat system also contains a helmet that wouldn't look out of place in the cockpit of an advanced jet fighter.

While the aerial combat system doesn't cover a lot, looking more like a basic exoskeleton frame with thick gauntlets where some of the control panels rest, it is that way since I need it to be light enough to fly.

Thankfully, with [Inspired Inventor] I've mostly solved the energy storage issue that plagues modern robotics, so I won't need to haul around a cable or a hulking battery as I go into combat.

It took a further minute to fully strap in and place the CPU deep into the large helicopter jetpack. With my hands holding the coilgun as though it was a minigun, I let out a verbal command of "open the skylight door," and rays of sunlight bathed where I stood.

I should also tell Rimuru what I'm doing...

"Tell Rimuru that I'm examining a disturbance in the forest."

With three helicopter-like rotor blades roaring to life loudly generating lift and another smaller one creating thrust, I lifted myself out of the lab and into the air. The heads-up display showed I was rising at a speed of 12 km/h, and that I could cruise at speeds of 60 km/h for two hours.

I couldn't help but smile as I rose out of my lab. Awe filled every inch of my body like water filling up a container as I started moving.

"I'm flying..." Every human, at least at one point in their life, dreamed of flying. They dreamed of soaring through the skies, free and completely detached from the problems of the world below.

I was no different. There was a period of time in my old life when I dreamed of becoming a pilot. I dreamed of flying above the clouds, flying alongside birds, flying alongside jets, simply being above mere mortals like a god.

Those childish delusions were shattered as I grew up.

But... a sense of child-like naive delight careened through my mind. I could finally accomplish many of my dreams that had been shattered by the hammer of reality. Chief among them...

Space.

The Aerial Combat System stopped itself once it rose to a height of 50 meters, dragging me out of my mind.

Shifting my head to look around me, the Combat System turned alongside my head when it had rotated as far as it can.

Not only was the helmet meant to help me aim, but it was also sensitive enough to detect when I'm turning my head and tell the rest of the Aerial Combat System to turn along with my head. At least, when it's in hovering mode.

Now, I flicked a tiny switch on the coilgun and the Aerial Combat System switched from hovering to moving. As I started moving towards the area where the birds flew off in droves, a realization struck me of how similar the role of the Aerial Combat System is to an attack helicopter.

Very soon, I reached an area of the Great Jura Forest devoid of any trees.

Correction, after a clearer examination, the trees appeared to have experienced some extreme physical trauma and had been severed around the trunks.

Holy shit, what kind of creature (or creatures) could clear out such a large area within such a short time? I couldn't help but think as I held the coilgun closer. With a single click of a button, the machine I held in my hand whirred to life, electricity ran through the magnetic spring that coiled around the barrel of the minigun-like coilgun.

The safety's off now. With a single pull of the trigger, hundreds of metallic shells would get shot out of the coilgun.

I really hope whoever caused this isn't immune to bullets like Dark Lord Sauron, I deliberated as I sped off toward the direction of newer devastation.

How did it come to this? Kaval wondered, wearing his new stylish armor and bashing another Giant Ant's head in with his sword.

How did his life come from a low-ranking adventurer to trying to find the one who made the crystal knife that somehow ignites if it's slashed too fast?

Dodging the bite of another ant, Kaval continued his thought. Like two months ago, they were only tasked with investigating the disappearance of Veldora from the cave—

"Hup!"

Kaval leaped out of the way as their mage, Eren, a blond girl with a black cloak over her shoulder blasted a spear of ice through the oversized insect, killing it instantly.

After his party had reached the Storm Dragon's Cave, they were knocked out by an unknown monster that took only some of their stuff and left them an ultra-fine knife as a... gift? Offering? Tribute?

Whatever it was, the knife was a fine piece of art. While none of Kaval's teammates had any appraisal Skill or magic, even then they could tell with their naked eyes that the knife was miles ahead of any equipment they could possibly buy.

When they presented the crystal knife to Guild Master Fuze in hope that he'll allow them to keep the knife as spoils, the man freaked out at the fact that it was made with Magic Ore but NO MAGIC was used in the process of its creation.

Confusing.

Fuze at first thought the grooves on the side of the knife were runes, and when the Guide Master played around by swinging the knife, it suddenly ignited the air.

As in, the knife had a coat of fire.

It was sheathed in a coat of fire, and the most important thing was that there WEREN'T any MAGIC.

The knife wasn't an enchanted thing.

Fuze then spent the next three days having the crystal knife checked by every magician and blacksmith in the city and they all confirmed that the knife doesn't have any magic, not even Engraving Magic.

Fuze had estimated it to easily be a Rare grade item, which was a ridiculous notion considering it wasn't a magical item. At best, magic-less items were Normal grade, Rare grade implies the equipment is powerful enough to artificially raise the level of adventurers who wielded them.

So Fuze personally assigned the trio a new task.

Go to the Jura Forest, find whoever made this crystal knife, come back alive with the information, and he'll give them enough money that his three-member team can retire comfortably right after the mission is completed. What's more, he promised the political protection of the Adventurer Guild of Blumund, not subtly implying that he knew exactly who Eren was.

The trio had to take it.

Looks like that wasn't gonna happen, Kaval thought bitterly as after the ice spear ran through the insect, more took its place. It's like fighting the mythical hydra dragon...

"'Kill one and another two appears'. God damn." He said grimly, not liking their odds he proposed another idea.

"We need to move," Kaval said as he cut off the left mandible of the closest ant before grabbing it. An adventurer can claim a baker's dozen of silver coins if they turned the monster part in at the guild.

His team nodded and was just about to leave before a continuous roar was heard. It was a scary sound that Kaval had never heard before, and if he was forced to describe it, he would say it sounded like a constant cracking of thunder in a rainstorm.

Then, that thunder was punctuated with another, far louder sound of explosions.

CRACK—ACK—ACK—ACK—ACK—ACK—ACK—ACK—ACK—!*

Instantly, all the ants that were shredded by something caused holes larger than Kaval's head to appear many times on each of the ant's bodies. Insect blood splattered like water from pools underneath a raining thundercloud as even the ground themselves were displaced with numerous small explosions that all combined to form a massive explosion of dirt that filled the air and clogged all sight.

The sound was so scary that his entire team, aside from the newcomer Shizu they had met on the forested path, had basically fallen onto the ground in fright before the roar suddenly stopped as a humanoid covered in armor and carrying a large piece of metal flew out of the treeline and into view.

Winds blew from the flying humanoid, dispersing the clouds of upturned dirt like a gigantic fan.

The humanoid then slowly drifted to the ground like a sycamore seed, its feet hitting the ground and those rotating blades around its back slowing down.

"Hello there."

[Berserk Mode]- An emergency mode that the Perfect Homunculus would enter into once its mind has fully broken. It can be considered a defense mechanism where Perfection temporarily degrades its own perfection to save itself.

7Over the next week, the goblin village changed drastically. Hobgoblin villagers turned themselves into workers that the Soviet Union would've been proud of. Well, I may have used some propaganda but that's for the purpose of keeping the workers motivated.

Anyways.

Group 1 managed to mine out a large variety of ores that [Mineral Examination] is having a field day trying to catalog it all. There were a lot that I recognize and a lot that I didn't.

Group 2 managed to forage huge varieties of berries that the other half turned into jams per my instruction, ensuring that any food made during the winter wouldn't be too stale with the condiments we currently are stocking up.

Group 3 managed to dig out the area on the third day surprisingly, guess [Human Resource] really is good at managing people huh? Afterward, I had them start to create a large warehouse with the materials I made with half a day's worth of charge into [Chemistry] and a full 5 into [Material Science]. With those two combined with [Interlocking Design, I completed the general Factory building in a day and a half.

Group 4 was the one I expected to fail to be honest. I was planning on- what was her name again? taking my eyes off the map of the surrounding area and beginning to wack my brain for answers, her name... her name was... Ri... yes, Ririna. Point is, I expected Ririna to fail, and me having to punish her to tough her up. I've met her kind before in the business world, those who are too soft and lacking in ambition to be in such a demanding corporate environment.

While nowhere as cutthroat as most works of fiction would like you to believe, to climb the corporate ladder as quickly as I have, you'd need to be hardcore and efficient.

My gut has this feeling that she will be important in the future. And instead of failing, she surprised me by managing to whip Group 4 into an elite police force capable of handling most domestic threats. Which amounted to mostly petty theft. No domestic abuses, interestingly enough.

The goblin riders were able to easily catch enough meat to ensure a balanced diet for the villagers.

The Youth League is also coming along finely, they've fortunately reported no problems on the horizon.

I sat down on an office chair I made and looked around the room. Where I'm currently residing is the new town hall building. From the outside, it looked like a really large metal cube. It's meant to represent the future I'm bringing, and to stand out from the shacks of the rest of the village, so I'd say it's working.

Then, I looked up at the ceiling, at the single bulb that was showering this room with light.

As of right now, this is the only place in the village that has an electricity generator that uses ambient magicule as fuel.

I got up from the chair, my officer uniform reforming and straightening itself out, ridding of any folds and completely removing the need for ironing. The inside of the town hall looked like one of those bunkers you'd see in WWII movies about Midway or taking back Guam, i.e. dinky, dark, and very utilitarian. [Psychology] recommended this design for better mood creation as well as culture shock, after all, every goblin that went inside had this healthy dose of fear from the unknown environment. Plus, it also fits the theme of the clothes I wore.

Walking downstairs, I saw the generators still working just as intended- and let out a sigh of relief. It was during that one week out in the cabinet that I discovered whatever I built has this tendency to break down. This 'breakdown tendency' also trended further into the more likely zone when I tried to build more complex machines with basic materials.

That was only a theory since Workbench seemingly had no issue but when I tried to build an automated sewing machine, there were issues.

In fact, it seems complexity is a major factor governing how quickly something worked as maintenance sessions on the Workbench lasted an hour for two days' worth of work

Recognizing this as a problem, I issued enough orders for the groups and secluded myself for the remainder of last week as I try to see a resolution to this problem.

The solution came when I had placed a single charge into [Longevity] and saw many, so SO many design issues with Workbench that cripples the flesh golem as time went on. Which was fixed only the day before yesterday after an intense five-hour tinkering session.

This leads me to my current problem right now; that being the Magicule-Electricity Generator that's going to break down in the next 13 hours unless I do something about it.

"Workbench, come here," I yelled out as the massive modified wolf noisily came down the stairs.

There's a reason why I left the ears in. Similar to humans, the Vestibular System, or the system that's responsible for balance is located within the inner ear of the dire wolf. With this in place, the flesh golem is far more agile and can maintain its balance better than anything Boston Dynamics had released before I reincarnated.

I've bypassed one of the main problems in modern robotics, ha! I felt a smirk grace my lips.

Inputting Dasher in the keyhole, its sides opened up to reveal a new set of metallic tools. With more ores to play with, I could finally have harder and better tools to work with, even if they're much heavier compared to their bone counterpart.

Turning off the generator, the small humming dies as it comes to a halt and the backup comes online.

It was with [Interlocking Design] combined with [Power Generation] and [Magicule] that caused me to build this electricity generator, as such the case with interlocked constructions- that being fast and cheap to build- I only have to take out a few pieces for the whole thing to collapse.

Observing the stopped machine and basking in the silence, I then reached deep into Workbench to get my tinkering assistant: Multi-Arm Neural Attachment or simply known as 'M.A.N.A.'.

Its design is similar to that of a red octopus, except this octopus has an opening at the front for viewing and a smaller ninth tendril used for the neural connection. Placing the octopus above my head like a hat, I shivered a bit as the ninth tendril brushed against the nape of my neck. Ultra-thin, almost microscopic tendrils— neural connectors— drill into the back of my neck with only a tickling sensation. If these tendrils had been any thicker I think they'd be painful.

These neural connectors will then wrap around my spine, touching upon certain nerves to better read those electric signals coming from my brain.

It's a basic, organic form of extra limbs.

Slowly, like someone reaching underneath a cabinet to search for something, I began to feel the connection to the M.A.N.A. With a single forceful thought, the tentacles of the M.A.N.A. began to move according to my will, acting as extra arms.

A minute later, the M.A.N.A.'s tentacles moved with far greater speeds than before, with the reflex almost being as good as those of my own limbs. Granted, they'll never be as reactive as my own limbs thanks to the limits within those neural connectors, but they serve well for now as extra hands.

"Now, lets-"

Beep!*

I was interrupted when the doorbell was rung.

The edge of my mouth treaded downward into a frown. Just as I was about to work on the generator...

[Silenced Emotion: 12%]

Opening the metal shutter of the townhouse's main door, I was greeted with the sight of three old, tiny people with excitement clear in their eyes as if they were a group of priests about to meet their god. One of them was even jittering around like a schoolgirl before their first date.

It was an odd sight, for an odd bunch. My own judgment of these people will get waivered for now, as in business it's often best to have a good first impression even if it leads to nowhere.

Opening the door with one of the many tentacles, I saw Rimuru right in front of the door, "Hey, Scientia! look what I brought back..."

Rimuru's line of sight trailed upward until they ended up at something above me. Is it because of my hair?

The tiny men looked at me in awe and fear, not backing away due to their trust in Rimuru.

Seeing how all of them were in silence, I decided to start, "well Rimuru, you caught me in a bad time, I was working on the generator-"

"WHAT IS THAT!?"

I stopped in confusion, wondering what the hell the slime was talking about. Seeing his protrusion pointed at my head-

[Silenced Emotion: 45%]

Ah. I've had the M.A.N.A. for so long that it's normal for me and the hobgoblins I've interacted with, but not for other people like Rimuru who've never even seen something like this.

"Oh, you mean M.A.N.A.?"

"What?"

"Multi-Arm Neural Attachment. It's a thing I made to help me tinker to make the things you see around me," I said as I moved to the side, revealing the room to the unsuspecting guests and Rimuru. "I figure having extra arms would be extremely useful."

Many alien things assaulted the eyes of the tiny yet buff men as they dropped to their knees much to my mounting confusion and suspicion at the purpose of their visit. Not to mention a sudden discomfort coming from their kneeling. However, to Rimuru on the other hand everything must've looked like it belonged in a museum due to his modern perspective.

"Now, as I was saying, I was working on the generator in the basement when-"

"Electricty generator?"

"Yes, the electricity generator," I said a bit annoyed at the constant interruption while his 'eyes' widened, probably not expecting such a fast process in advancement from the 15th century to the 19th century, a veritable 400-year technological gap, within the span of over a single week. "It should be obvious no? How else did you think I powered those light bulbs?"

One of the M.A.N.A.'s tentacles reached out the door and pointed at one of the lights outside.

"Well... yes..." Rimuru said sheepishly, with a hint of guilt mixed in like how a person would say if their coworker did all the work in a project before they had even contributed anything.

"Come on in," I said with a small grin that caused the dwarves to blush heavily. After a month of being reborn, I was finally at least somewhat comfortable with the alienness of my voice.

Not my looks though. I still can't get used to how eerily perfect I looked, how every time I smile it felt like there was something off as if I was something else wearing the skin of a human. So much so that [Psychology] noted how I have this subconscious tendency to look away from mirrors.

The M.A.N.A on my head stretched itself out around the room, one of the tentacles reaching into a cupboard by the wall and taking out an Eastern Tea set while another brought forth tea leaves the goblins foraged from the forest that I later baked to dry them.

Walking towards the couch area, as I passed through several folded-up chairs, I— or rather, the tentacles— grabbed three chairs for the guest to sit in. No need to be rude to guests and more importantly, potential allies after all. Thanks to my new physiology, I didn't feel any additional strain on my neck when M.A.N.A. picked those up.

Reaching the long corner sofa that's sitting cozily up to the wall, the tentacles unfolded the chairs before placing them neatly facing the corner.

It must've been a rather frightening or weird sight as Rimuru and the Dwarves haven't made a single peep.

Hmph, if I showed this to any robotics engineer or geneticist in my old world they'll be begging to take a look at it. It'll take decades for neural-based prosthetics technology to even approach the level seen inside the M.A.N.A.

With one graceful movement, I slid in and sat down on the sofa. The tip of two tentacles split open like a mouth to reveal a set of four smaller tentacles which I can better manipulate things with. Using this smaller set, I started working on the tea as Rimuru sat pretty far from me while the dwarves took the hint and sat on the chairs.

My eyes discretely observed them as the tea started to boil.

They kinda look like dwarves from Tolkien novels not gonna lie. They're tense, which is a given since this must be an extremely alien place for them. It'll be like taking a Sentinelese and placing them in the middle of New York City.

There was a veil of silence that hung in the room. Seemingly no one other than I was willing to break it but I was 'busy' brewing the tea. The silence continued until the teapot whistled.

"I remember tea being an important part of East Asian culture, so I had Group 2 specifically forage for any potential tea ingredients and found three plants viable in the forest, one of which turns out to be mint of all things," I said as the tea finished. The teapot used to brew the tea was shaped in such a way as to better circulate the heat from the fire.

The tentacle poured the tea into five smaller cups as I just laid back on the couch with one leg over the other in a casual manner.

"So fast..." one of the dwarfs said while looking at it in awe. I can practically see sparkling in the eyes of the other two.

The way they're almost worshipping the teapot is... predictable. I can tell they're probably people who saw the weapons, saw how good they are and their potential, and probably used Rimuru's overtrusting nature to seek a business opportunity with me. I can respect a person using such methods, so I'll at least hear their business proposals out.

The dwarves suddenly got on their knees as I handed them the cup, their sudden movements made my hands instantly reach for where Dasher is while the tentacles coiled in front of me, creating a shield.

"PLEASE! ACCEPT US AS APPRENTICES, MASTER SCIENTIA!" They all yelled out, causing my jaw to drop.

Well, looks like I was mistaken. Slowly, the tentacles went to the edge of my line of sight while my hands moved to get one of the filled teacups.

As I do, I did a quick glance over at Rimuru, the slime looked as if he wants to disappear.

I took a sip of tea as the dwarves continued to be on their knees, having never left their position. Even without looking at them, I could feel uneasiness emanating from the dwarves as they continued to grovel, even Rimuru is looking at me to resolve the current situation.

The silence continued, and I still do not bother answering them, instead continuing to drink the tea that is in front of me.

All four fear the power of silence, not realizing it is one of the most powerful tools in negotiation. I should know, orators use silence to great effect in their speeches.

Rimuru could no longer hold it, "um, Scie—"

"I..." I finally spoke, but I didn't continue. That word was meant to tell Rimuru to stop, "...Think you should start from the beginning, Rimuru."

"Um, yeah I guess I should."

A week ago.

"So what do you guys think of Scientia?" Rimuru asked Gobta who sitting beside the fire and eating some deer meat skewers hunted and prepared by the goblin riders.

Currently, the group had just left the village and is now sitting around a campfire for the night.

"Well, I think she's scary honestly, and her voice was so..." Gobta paused to think of a respectful word to use. Rigurd had said to never piss off these two people who could destroy the village as easily as they breathe.

So Gobta, for the first time in his life, is forced to think of a respectful word that wouldn't offend the slime but accurately describe his companion.

"so...?" Rimuru asked, trailing off.

"Her voice is just so... strange I guess." The other five goblins looked at Gobta like they wanna kill him. Clearly, they thought Gobta's words were still too disrespectful.

Thinking of a way to salvage the situation, one of the other five goblins opened his mouth-

"Phew! so I wasn't the only one who thought that her voice was creepy!?" Rimuru exclaimed. "Man I thought I was alone when I had thought her voice was just so ALIEN that—"

Coughing to himself, "Well, either way, we can all agree that Scientia has a weird voice right?"

Internally, the six goblins were glad that they didn't piss off someone as strong as Rimuru. Although between the two, they're more afraid of Scientia.

Ranga was silent on the matter due to him swearing his loyalty to his new masters, yet he can't help it but sometimes he dreams to tell her of how disrespectful reanimating his father— any packmate really— as mere storage for tools is.

Gobta and the other goblins were afraid of her for other reasons. When she had first come to the village and promised to better them if they choose, the bravest among the goblins said yes and became monsters. Abominations that can't be called a 'goblin' or a 'hobgoblin' anymore.

Thankfully the evolutionary process into Hobgoblins seemed to get rid of her 'upgrades' as the Improved Goblins had reverted to normal hobgoblins.

After that, the elder— Rigurd— secretly forbids anyone from volunteering and kept an extra eye out for Scientia. He reasons that a flesh-sculpting witch like her could easily warp and reshape them all into horrific abominations of myth and horror and Rimuru seemed to be the only one capable of stopping her from going too far. Thus, the most optimal thing to do is to garner the favor of Rimuru.

So became Gobta's secret mission, unknown to the other five, which was to become friends with their new friendly Overlord. And the only way that Gobta knows how to make friends is through common interests.

"Yes indeed, Lord Rimuru, Scientia does have a voice that sounds pretty unnatural to me, it's like it's been altered by a wind spell," Gobta reported his thinking, causing the other five to further harden their glare.

"Hmm... wind spells that alter someone's voice? That's new." Rimuru said to himself quietly, "What other things do you guys find weird about Scientia?"

She is scary. She plays with flesh as a child plays with clay. Even in a village as remote as the one that Gobta lived in, Fleshcrafting is still known rather infamously as a very dark field of magical study. More so than even Necromancy.

No, no, but he can't say that now can he? That could easily be seen as an insult, even more than calling Scientia 'weird'.

"Um..." One of the other 5 chimed in, "Scientia...is flat?"

"..."

"..."

"... Well I guess Scientia is flat."

"Is she really 'she' though? Like from certain angles Scientia almost looks like a 'he'." Gobta's beginning to ask the really important questions.

"Well..." Rimuru paused for a moment before stating, "Did you guys know that Scientia is of neither gender?"

What the slime had said shocked them all.

"No way."

"That's impossible."

"It's true! she's like a doll or, I guess the more accurate answer would be a mannequin."

"What's a mannequin?"

The slime was stumped before realizing in retrospect, it made sense they wouldn't know what they are since they'd never even been inside a city.

"Well, a mannequin is..." Rimuru thought of a way to explain to these primitives what a mannequin is,

[An oftentimes humanoid doll used for clothing purposes]

[Great Sage] helpfully said.

"A humanoid doll that's modeled after a human."

"..."

Gobta is soaking in this new information on their new Lady who is actually neither a Lady nor a Lord like a dry sponge to water. The hobgoblin doesn't question it further despite the logical incoherency, merely imagining how he'll need to report this to the elder after he returns.

Rimuru yawned, "It's getting late, we've got a long journey ahead of us guys, so let's rest early tonight." He said as he lay down to sleep, with the other six goblins scrambling to their simple beds composed solely of straws.

It wasn't until the end of the day after tomorrow that the group had reached Dwargon, a white castle built into the confines of a mountain so tall it touches the clouds themselves.

Beyond that, there was a long line of people waiting for entry into the country.

"Well, that's not something you see every day, can't wait to see some elves- I mean magicians," Rimuru stated as they got in line. The sun was already setting and it looked like they were going to have to camp for the night before they managed to get inside and sell the swords for magical guides Scientia had requested.

Just as they were setting up camp for the night with Gobta waiting in line in a rotating shift, Rimuru and the gang heard a commotion from the small goblin's direction and went to check it out.

"Hey! What's going on here?" Rimuru exclaimed when he saw the scene

Said scene was a gang of humans (more like drunken boys to Rimuru's perspective) laughing and beating down on Gobta while the others in line just gave them space and watched. Rimuru, alarmed, charged in by shooting out a geyser of water that slammed the boys off of Gobta while splashing other people closest to the beating.

Budding in so that the slime would be between the fallen men and the hobgoblin, "Why were you all beating him?!" Rimuru hissed.

"Oh, what's this? Are you goblins so low as to listen to a pathetic slime?" The leader of the group sneered at them in further disgust as he got up. "Ha! And here I thought you monsters couldn't be any lower!"

"Gobta, are you alright?" Rimuru turned to the side, this way he can see both the drunks and Gobta at the same time.

"Y-yes Lord Rimuru..." He stood up, bloodied but fortunately, Rimuru could spot no broken bones. However, the small Hobgoblin suddenly collapsed from pain, "Owwww..."

"Gobta was there any part of the Consitution of the Jura Tempest Republic or the Charter about what happens when an assault by foreigners occurs?"

Had this been when Rimuru had just reincarnated, he probably would've jumped in and attacked without a second thought. But after seeing how angry Scientia got at him for revealing something personal about her, the slime knew he should be more responsible.

Now, to avoid a potential future international incident with the President of a budding nation illegally beating someone...

"Um..." Gobta racked his brain for answers but the pain is seriously clouding his memories, "I don't remember much, BUT, I recall that the Charter of Rights and Freedom states that Article 3, section beta, subsection 3, point A, line 1-4 which reads 'Any citizen of the Jura Tempest Republic found to be a victim of an unprovoked attack (See the Article 18, section alpha, subsection 2, line 44-45 for details of what constitute under the term of 'Unprovoked Attack') shall have the rights to use psychological counteroffensive such as: scaring the opponent and others of a psychological nature, and physical/magical counteroffensive are only acceptable when no other options (including fleeing, blocking, restraining, and teleporting) are available."

Rimuru stopped to look confidently at Gobta before turning to face the impatient drunks.

"'Psychological nature' huh?"

Next, the slime activated [Intimidate, the same ability he used to aid Scientia in pacifying the direwolves.

Immediately, Rimuru's body changed to that of a dire wolf and let out a roar that caused everyone in line to flee in terror.

This also meant the group of thug's bravado evaporated like water on a hot sunny day and ran away as fast as their legs could carry them.

"Hey hey! Who's causing all these commotions huh?" A rather buff guard came out to check up on the situation, causing Rimuru to revert to his old form.

"Officer—" Rimuru moved to talk but was interrupted.

"THESE MONSTERS WERE JUST ABOUT TO ATTACK US!" A man in a priest's garb who was in front of them screamed, despite being completely untrue.

"What?"

"Yeah! take these monsters away, they're a menace to human society!" The companion to the priest yelled out. "They are a danger to us all! Only God Luminous can protect us all!"

The Officer paused before taking in a deep breath. His eyes spoke of immense frustration, and the way he talked next was filled with loathing, "Ooooh, boy."

The door to the hallway which connected to Rimuru's cells lit up with artificial lights as multiple dwarven guards walked in.

The lead guard began, "So, we checked out with other guests and it turns out the priests were just lying—"

"Pfft, of course, those zealots from the Western Holy Church would try and pin whatever blame on monsters." Another guard said as the first one opened the door to Rimuru's cell. "And we can't do jack because King Gazel granted them diplomatic immunity to all but the most heinous of crimes, and framing innocents apparently doesn't fall into that category."

As Rimuru went out of the cell, he can't help but recognize the discrimination and prejudice this 'Western Holy Church' seemed to harbor against the monster races.

"Who are the Western Holy Church?" The slime had to ask. Being in the middle of a remote village, Rimuru felt like he heard that name from somewhere, but can't exactly put his fingers on it.

"How..." the second guard seemed to be surprised at the fact that Rimuru doesn't know despite being an intelligent beast, "Well the Luminous Faith is the most widespread religion in the West. They worship God Luminous as the one true God and monsters as devils that will go on rampages as Relentless did 400 years ago eventually. Buncha pointless zealots I tell ya, if the monsters were just as they said in their religious books, we'd all be dead already with how long the Demon Lords have reigned. I mean, hell, they've existed alongside written history!"

How... interesting, so this is the classic church of evil he saw in those JPRGs the slime would play when he was the man known as Satoru Mikami? Rimuru thought back to his first life and felt a hint of nostalgia. Fortunately for Rimuru, had he been human he'd be experiencing a massive case of homesickness.

Then a third dwarven guard budded in, "Bah, we're only surviving because of True Heroes like Granbell Rosso or the Great Hero of Time. Well before the latter disappeared mysteriously anyways."

"—!" However, that feeling of nostalgia was dashed when a specific part registered "Demon Lord...?"

The guard now looked at the slime in front of him with serious concern in his eyes, "Where ya from, Slime?"

"The Great Jura Forest," Rimuru recalled how Scientia specifically said not to invoke his status as a President-to-be. She said how the Republic isn't strong enough to reveal itself to the rest of the world yet.

"Well, I guess the Great Jura Forest is rather remote..." understanding dawned upon the dwarf's face, "alright, I'll explain the just of things, if you want to know more, go ask someone else. The Ten Great Demon Lords are this group of scarily powerful monsters that usually represent the best in their race. However, there are some self-proclaimed Demon Lords here and there but those all usually die within a month or so. In the past, there used to be dozens upon dozens of Demon Lords, but after the civil war that happened almost 450 years ago, it consolated into the present ten." He said casually as if he were speaking to Rimuru about the weather.

So casual! To someone coming from a modern perspective, all of these sounded like fantasy jargon, but to these people, it's their everyday life. To them, talking about Demon Lords is the same as Satoru Mikami talking about NATO.

Turning around, the slime then softly slapped Gobta awake, "Let's go Gobta! We need to sell our wears before heading back and have Scientia heal you."

"Now just wait a minute.."

Rimuru then turned to the guard who had this extremely suspicious look on his face, "What's your name, Slime? and don't lie to me that hobgoblin over there has one then it means you must have one too."

"Uhhhhh..."

[Timelessness]- As the most perfect existence in this world, time should not have any effect on it, and it shall never have any effect upon a Perfect Homunculus. A Perfect Homunculus is eternal and unchanging.

8

"I... Uh..." Rimuru stuttered for a while as the atmosphere grew increasingly uncomfortable for both parties. The dwarven guard stared at the slime with expectations unmet, waiting for Rimuru's answer.

Just when it looked like things were about to go south, however...

"Hey!"

Another buff dwarf with horns on their helmet quickly barreled into the hallway and let out a loud smack on the back of the guard currently questioning Rimuru's head, causing the one who got smacked to glare at the new guard while softly nursing his wound.

"Kaidou what was that for?!" He yelped.

Kaidou then place his left arm over the shoulder of the questioning guard, taking control. The new dwarf then forced the guard to come with Kaidou until both are further down the hall.

"Listen, newbie, I like you, so as your senior Imma give you some advice; here in Dwargon, we NEVER ask why a monster was named or who named them. If you do, they can get aggressive real quick and things can get ugly real fast from there. Do you know the Mikal War? That started because of an incident involving a Demon Lord's subordinate that got out of control."

The guard nodded, realization dawned upon his eyes as his mind connected the dots. He then slowly turned his head to look at Rimuru as though the slime was a monster in a horror movie. Looking over his shoulder, the guard saw the slime waving at him, letting out an "eep!" before whipping back around to face Kaidou.

"Can a slime really do that?" He desperately whispered. He got this job to serve under the Hero King Gazel because he, like many other dwarves, wanted to be useful to the King. He doesn't want to unintentionally start a war that the Hero King doesn't want!

"Newbie, any named monster is far more dangerous than their unnamed counterpart. A slime that's intelligent enough to communicate with us? that's extra dangerous," Kaidou stated as his junior gulped, "now watch, listen, and learn how I defuse this situation before they go rampaging again."

Turning around with a full 180 on his demeanor, with a bright smile on his face, Kaidou now looked and acted like a completely different person. Taking small steps into the open cell and crouching down right in front of the slime form of Rimuru, "Valued Merchant, I am to understand you wish to sell your wares. May I ask what type of wares are they?"

Even if Kaidou's men had already searched everything and knows they are selling 'fine swords' (he really doubt it was any better than dwarven-made). Kaidou learned long ago that it was far better to let a named monster feel superior and move on with its life.

"Well, we are selling some swords... but we're mainly hoping to get some beginner's magic guide or some magic tomes if possible."

A familiar perhaps? Wondered Kaidou after listening to Rimuru's words, but a slime as a familiar... and so intelligent to boot. In general, like pets it was better for a mage or a Demon Lord to have less intelligent familiars since the chance of said familiar rebelling is extremely low.

"Well, since I am almost off-duty, I'll show you to the best blacksmith in the city, he'll definitely give you a price none others can match. Afterward, we'll hit the best magic shop in town and end the day off with some drinks in some elven hostess bar, eh~?"

Rimuru blushed when he heard elves. No, he does not have a fetish about elves, absolutely not.

While all of this was happening, the Junior guard is looking at the situation with wide disbelieving eyes. The dwarf has never seen Captain Kaidou act like this before.

Getting up from his crouching position, Kaidou walked out of the cell and waited by the door, "Well let's go then, Mr. Slime and Mr. Gobta. After all, as you merchants like to say: 'time is money.'"

Later in the day.

It was only after they went out of the cell that Rimuru realized they had spent the entirety of last night being jailed, and they had wasted an entire night.

As apologies, Kaidou helped Rimuru and the hobgoblins acquire a fine tavern where they can stay for the rest of their time in Dwargon. The dwarf even forked over some coins that covered the gang's first night.

Then, Kaidou asked Rimuru if he could see the sword, and maybe appraise it for its worth.

Rimuru thought about it for a few moments before agreeing. The dwarf has been rather good to him, so it's only natural for the slime to return the gesture.

Unsheathing a small part of the blade and merely giving it a superficial glance, Kaidou could tell that they were good. Very good. Whoever made it must be a master blacksmith.

The gears inside Kaidou's head began to turn as he sheathed the sword. That sword was easily in the Rare-grade, maybe even Unique-grade if he push it. Dwargon is known throughout the world as a nation that practices free trade, and as such merchants serve as one of the main political classes within the country. They're also some of the richest.

If he could somehow forge a connection with the slime, he could serve as an in-between for this master blacksmith and Dwargon, a liaison of sorts. He could quit his job as a Guard Captain and retire much earlier!

After forming the basics of his plan, the dwarf set out to complete the first step: getting into the good side of the slime.

"Rimuru was it?"

"Yep," the blue slime ball nodded eagerly, his voice sounding a bit distorted as he ate the sheathed sword.

Kaidou was temporarily stunned at how a Monster was eating a sword that was longer that the slime's body before shaking his head and just accepting it.

"Right anyway, how about this, tomorrow I'll introduce you to the best blacksmith I know. He'll give you a fair price for your wares eh?"

"Really?!" Rimuru said excitedly.

"Yep, but, you, uh, since it's so late, you wanna come to this elven hostess bar to spend the night?"

"Um..."

The slime just needed a bit of a push, "let me tell ya, this hostess bar is actually ancient! Apparently, it was opened by an Otherworlder decades ago and is currently run by their descendants."

"'Otherworlders'?" Rimuru perked up at the unfamiliar term.

"Oh yeah, they used to be a thing before the Western Holy Church banned their summoning. Anyway, the hostess club is this place where—"

"Look, I know what a hostess club is!"

You know that but you don't know what the Western Holy Church is? Kaidou wanted to say but held his tongue.

"... And well... since you insist, I guess I'll go to this... elven~ hostess~ club~!" Somehow, the slime had this dreamy look on his face, which must be something out of the ordinary if the look that the hobgoblin is giving his slimy companion is any indication.

The place was called 'Butterflies of the Night'. Surprisingly to Rimuru, that wasn't the name of a brothel.

Once the door opened, a dozen elvish girls with long pointed ears greeted Rimuru, Gobta, and Kaidou.

"Welcome, master Kaidou."

Rimuru's eyes drank in the sight. The elves were all wearing clothing that barely covered anything, with all of them possessing varying hair and skin colors and pieces of jewelry. They were presented like ice cream flavors, with each girl catering to a specific taste.

"Am I in heaven?" Rimuru wondered out loud.

Kaidou laughed out loud, "ha, that's what I thought when I first came here."

Before anyone could say anything, one of the blonde elves with generous assets came forward and embraced Rimuru in his slime form.

"So who's this cutie, hmm?"

"Ah..." Words failed to manifest.

If Rimuru were still human, a very important thing would be rising.

"A very important person. First round's on me!"

"Ahhhh..."

Eventually, Rimuru found himself on the lap of a very pretty elven lady whose sitting alongside Kaidou and Gobta in one of those closed-off boxes. The dwarf and the hobgoblin were all having an excellent time as the elves shamelessly flirted with them, getting them to buy one drink after another.

If Scientia were here, the Perfect Homunculus would be both disgusted and impressed at the lengths people are willing to earn money. The business side of her would be impressed at the system of wealth extraction present within the hostess clubs while her ethics-orientated human side would be disgusted at the lack of dignity.

Since the slime couldn't actually taste the alcohol or even get drunk, he ordered far less than his companions.

"Hey, Mr. Rimuru was it?" One of the dark-skinned elves called out, catching the slime's attention with ease. "Would you like to try something... special?"

With the way that she said it, and the way she was moving her hand, Rimuru shivered as he began to imagine all sorts of stuff.

His mind was going blank as his imagination went wild. Lots of lewd noises were certainly involved.

"So, are you ready?" The dark-skinned elf now held a small crystal ball in her hands, having just returned from a retrieval mission.

"Uh—... huh..." The slime nodded. His disappointment was easily masked by his physiology as a slime. "Does that actually work?"

During a company vacation to America, Satoru Mikami was dragged by his coworkers to see a psychic. It was... not an enjoyable session. It was almost boring in fact.

"Yep! Here, I'll check who you're destined to be with."

The elf then placed the crystal ball on her lap, then she started doing all sorts of things with her hands that give the appearance that something magical was happening.

"And... I see no one."

"UH!" The slime recoiled as if he was shot.

"Just kidding! Hehe!" The elf said playfully, before seeing the face that Rimuru was giving her, "oh alright, I'll do it for real this time!"

Some more weird hand gestures later, and the dark-skinned elf was now staring at the crystal ball with an abnormal look of pure seriousness.

"I see... I see a woman of time standing in the middle of a field of broken iron... I see a woman who's lived too long directing a massive stage where all have a role... I see an ever-marching woman turning back because of a single mistake—"

"Okay, I think there's enough weird future prophecy shit for tonight." Kaidou interrupted.

The rest of the night went quickly, with plenty more booze and snacks before Rimuru was forced to carry Gobta's completely wasted ass back to the tavern.

The next morning, Kaidou went and got Rimuru. Then, the trio headed toward the blacksmith

"Yo, Kaijin!" Kaidou yelled out when they entered a rather small blacksmith's shop and saw a grumpy dwarf wearing a purple long shirt hammering away at a piece of orange-hot metal angrily.

Turning to face the newcomer, Kaijin looked oddly at Rimuru and Gobta before Kaidou pulled him in for a private talk.

"Help me out here brother, we got some named monsters trying to sell what the people at the guardhouse are saying 'really fine swords'," he then used his finger to slowly tap his chest, "now I know the boys under me are green as all hell when it comes to sword appraising and all, but they are still dwarves. What's more, I saw the swords and saw just how good they are. How about you check out some masterpieces and stop being so angry at being discharged from the Engineering Corp? It's been months already."

Kaijin closed his eyes and dropped the hammer. Then, he dumped the hot metal into a bucket of water. The sound of sizzling, water being superheated into steam, populated the entire workshop, dominating everything and becoming the center of attention as the blacksmith dwarf thought to himself for a brief moment.

Turning around, Kaijin looked at the slime with a dismissive eye before Rimuru spoke up, "Well there Sir Blacksmith, here are our wares we are hoping we'd get a fair deal on."

Chuckling at Rimuru's mannerisms, Kaijin then asked, "is this your first time selling, Slime?"

"My name is Rimuru and I'm not a bad slime! blup~"

"Wha-"

"Nothing! Absolutely nothing!" Rimuru insisted as he motioned Gobta to place the swords on the table.

Opening the cloth covering revealed several sheathed blades with boring designs on the handle and guards, causing Kaijin to sigh internally in disappointment. Within the trade of blacksmithing, there is an unwritten rule where the handle and the guard showed just how much effort went into the creation of the sword.

Good swords have good handguards, handles, and pommels.

So boring, he thought dismissively, internally reminding himself to tell his brother to get his boys' eyes checked because there's no way swords that are as boring as these could possibly be masterpieces—

"—!"

The contemptuous thought halted itself when Kaijin partially pulled out the sword from its sheath.

Dimension-wise, the sword was your average one-handed bastard sword. The blade itself was just as boring as its crossguard, but...

Kaijin's jaws dropped at the sight. The blacksmith could easily see this sword as a national treasure belonging to King Gazel or hidden within the deepest vault of a Demon Lord.

The metal... there's no magic. This sword possessed no magic. No magic went into the making of this sword! It's just normal metal! No magisteel or any other fancy metal adventurers like to use! Every fiber in Kaijin's body screamed to him about the impossibility of the thing that was in front of him. His mind desperately tried to come up with a solution— an explanation— an answer for the question that was within his hand.

"There's no magic..." he said quietly, his tone wouldn't look out of place coming out of a cultist having a divine revelation. "ha... Ha... Haha..."

This thing in front of him! Holding the sword up to the light coming from the furnace, Kaijin saw how the dull grey was pierced by smokey ripples of red, rolling waves of crimson, it was as if blood went into the making of the sword.

Kaijin quickly realized he had no idea how to recreate the ripples without the use of magic.

The dwarven blacksmith then began to subconsciously step back in shock and awe while still gripping the sword so tightly that his knuckles went white. It was as if dropping it would mean this miracle, this sword that should not exist, this... this... this DIVINE, magic-less artifact that looked like a God had made it, would disappear forever.

Kaijin then flattened the blade against his field of view. He saw how the edge, the cutting edge of the blade was so sharp his eyes were unable to focus on it.

"Haha, haha haha." tears began to form in his eyes from the sheer BEAUTY radiating from this sword in his hands.

Once his back had touched the wall, he fully unsheathed it and saw Perfection in the shape of a blade. It was as if he was holding a piece of blacksmith heaven. Such a masterpiece—!

Kaidou was creeped out with how his brother was acting, placing a hand on Kaijin's trembling shoulder, "Um... I know it's a good sword and all—"

"'Good sword'? GOOD SWORD!?" Kaijin whipped around and out of Kaidou's grasp. The Guard Captain had to take a step back as spit flew out of Kaijin's mouth, his eyes looked crazed.

Kaijin then held the sword up high, "THIS is perfection manifested upon this ugly world! A sword crafted without the aid of any magic! The finest sword I've ever seen! Who else but a GOD could have made it?"

Kaijin then brought the sword down to emphasize a point.

"Look at the flat edge of the blade," the dwarf then pointed at the ripples, his finger tracing across the smooth metal like a skater dancing across the ice ring, "do you see these red ripple patterns everywhere on the blade that removes the usual dull greyness of normality? I don't even know how to make this without magic! And the edge...ooooh where do I get started on the edge?"

He kissed the flat edge of the blade like how a mother would kiss their firstborn. "The edge is so sharp that it comes in and out of focus. I can barely achieve the same result with the aid of magic but to achieve the same thing with ZERO magical input? Utterly unthinkable! Yet the proof is right in front of me that I simply must accept! I MUST! To do otherwise would mean to disrespect whoever made this!"

Kaijin now looked like a religious man given a divine vision, proof of his god being real, and his faith rewarded. The blacksmith then brought the sword up—

"Whoa, Kaijin, stop!"

—Before drawing back and swinging the blade right through a table. Due to how much force was put into the sword, Kaijin lost control and it slipped from his hands like a half-melted ice cube. The tinkertech blade effortlessly sunk into the ground thanks to its sharpness, and would've continued had the crossguard not stopped it.

"HAHA! Indeed! My life is complete now that I've seen this!" Kaijin screamed as he tried to pull out the blade from the ground. His brother looked on in shock at the sight of the normally prudent old man losing control over himself about some admittedly fine swords.

Wasn't he here to sell them? At least, put a price on them.

"...Well, brother that's nice and all but how much would you pay for these?"

"Pay!?" Spits went flying out of Kaijin's mouth, "I would pay anything! Do you want anything in the shop? Take it! You can even have the entire shop and everything in it if it means I can keep this sword!"

Rimuru felt incredibly uncomfortable at how willing the dwarves are to give away his life's work for some swords, his respect, and his mental image of strong dwarves working away at the metal to create masterpieces burned away like paper in an inferno of fire.

Thud!*

Kaijin's forehead slammed into the floor as he prostrated in front of Rimuru.

"Brother, what are you doing!?" Kaidou asked worriedly.

"Please! You have opened my eyes to what is possible. Take me on as an apprentice, I know I am not worthy but I promise— I swear upon my honor as the best blacksmith in the Armed Nation of Dwargon that I will succeed in recreating this piece of divine construct!"

Awkwardness caused Gobta and Rimuru to shift in their place as they thought of a way of saying they weren't the ones who made this. Rimuru turned towards his hobgoblin companion before turning back to look at the prostrating dwarf.

Eventually, Rimuru decided to be the bigger man and replied to Kaijin, "Look, mister Kaijin, we aren't the ones who made these."

Looking up from the dent he made on the floor with a bleeding forehead, Kaijin looked disappointed before the realized that if they have this sword, it must mean they knew where they could get more of it.

"O-oh... Then... Is it possible for you to take me to the person who did make these? And would they take me on as an apprentice?" Kaijin asked desperately, not wanting perfection to slip by him before he slammed his head dramatically into the floor once more, "PLEASE! TAKE ME ON AS AN APPRENTICE I BEG OF YOUUUUU!"

"—Which lead to the situation right now..." Rimuru trailed off as I looked on with twitching eyebrows, completely unbelieving at the turn of events.

It took me several seconds, but I finally moved and took in a deep breath.

"Let me get this straight..." Placing the emptied cup of tea down onto the table, the octopus hat I'm wearing began to move like another pair of arms and massaged my back as I tried to understand what had happened.

"You," one of the tentacles pointed at Rimuru, "was framed by this... this..." The only thing that resembled what Rimuru had described would be the Ku Klux Klan but even at their biggest during the Second Klan, they didn't have apparently enough political power to be granted diplomatic immunity.

"... fanatical, specist Church hell-bent on the discrimination and extermination of monsters. Then was released free of charge thanks to his brother," another pointed at Kaijin "Your brother then made sure Rimuru have a good time before introducing you as the 'best blacksmith in the city', because of course there would be a conflict of interest after seeing my swords. This is a medieval Tolkien-ish world, nepotism must be everywhere," a second tentacle pointed at Kaijin, "Now after seeing my miracles of technology, you, with permission from your King, want to become my apprentice."

The three dwarves nodded and confirmed my suspicion.

"...All three of you want to become my apprentice..."

The three dwarves nodded even fiercer until the one named Myrd spoke up, "well we have a fourth member that's current in the carriage."

That does not make your case any better! I wanted to say but held my tongue.

Kaijin then pulled out a small bag heavy with coins, "upon seeing your work, King Gazel was so impressed that he offered to pay you 10 Stellar Gold Coins if you accepted us as your apprentices."

Damn it. Socially speaking, what Kaidou did with Rimuru is the equivalent of me giving some expensive gift to my boss' child for Christmas. Afterward, my boss would be socially obligated to 'return the favor' so to speak. I admit, I don't like such tactics since it's like bribery but more subtle, but I can't say it's not effective.

However, if I do take them, my attention will be split between building the nation and teaching them.

Thumbing the bridge of my nose and wrinkling my perfectly smooth face, I began to think of a way out of this mess that wouldn't result in me looking bad.

God damn it Rimuru you can't just take pity on someone and accept whatever they requested. If I was the same as him I'd never have been able to earn a six-figure salary that become seven thanks to year-end bonuses if I just helped whoever I felt pity on in my first life!

"Did you at least get me the magi-"

Wait a minute. A sudden realization caused all other thoughts to cease to exist.

[Silenced Emotion: 60%]

"You revealed my existence to an outside party," I said coldly.

A haunting glare upon my face, my unnatural voice only emphasizing that factor.

"...Uh oh." Rimuru just realized he had messed up, probably recalling how I specifically told him to avoid mentioning me since the best defense I have right now is that nobody knows I exist.

"'Uh oh' indeed," Turning to the dwarves, part of me was actually happy that Rimuru revealed me since now I won't look bad if I reject the dwarves, "if I am to become your master then you need to prove yourself worthy of being my apprentice," I said while taking the bag of coins.

Despite how heavy it is, I lifted it with a single hand due to my new physiology.

I opened the bag and took out a single coin.

The most striking thing about the coin is that it's got a red center around a white edge. Lines of crimson crawled up my right arm and hand as I peered into the Stellar Gold Coin, its entire making process revealed to me like pictures within a comic.

[Magicule] and [Metalworking] recognized and dissected the unusual process by which it was made and instilled with a compressed supply of magicules. Unsurprisingly, this metal possesses qualities that no metal should be able to have, chief among them being completely inert against oxygen, meaning that it's even less likely to rust than Titanium.

I found this out with just a preliminary glance. I bet I could find out far more if I could just get a lab set up.

Anyways, these Stellar Gold Coins mark the first supply of foreign currency. To run an economy, one would need currencies that people trust. Gold is a near-universal currency because it's rare, easy to divide, people trust it, and easy to keep, all qualities needed for money.

As of right now, I can't exactly use paper and fiat money since people don't trust them. Thus, I'll need to back them up with gold, silver, or foreign currencies like the ones I'm holding. That is until I could back up my currency with weapons and trust.

Effectively, I'm introducing the Gold Standard to this world.

I placed the coin back into the bag.

"Y...Yes indeed, you are right! We need to prove ourselves worthy of your tutorage."

I let out a smile, "Your job is thus: craft a sword that passes my requirements using whatever metal you can find. You have one year starting today."

The trio ran out the door faster than the winds, leaving me and Rimuru alone.

Hearing the door slam shut, I didn't relax until I'm sure they were gone. Sighing once more, I thought about the information given to me, especially about the church. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, hatred breed easily.

"Listen, Scientia I—"

I held a hand up to stop Rimuru from talking. "I need some fresh air. We'll talk when we come back."

I walked out of the door. However, as I do, I got the odd sense from my gut that someone is watching me.

The feeling was so strong I had to stop by the doorframe before turning around and walking back inside and grabbing a single-shot handgun. I'm going to murder whoever is spying on me.

With [Chemistry] and Workbench, I was able to synthesize a rough brand of reactive powder that possesses similar properties to gunpowder but an entirely different chemical structure. It's extremely toxic to all known forms of multicellular lifeforms, which is why I'm not going to mass produce it.

It's for private use.

The rather buff-looking gun weighs several kilograms. I motioned Rimuru to follow me before walking out through the side door. With [Acting, anyone seeing me right now would think of me as about to take a stroll, rather than me about to silence whoever is spying on me.

After taking a few steps out the door and the spies are within range, I whipped out the handgun and pulled the trigger which ignited the chemicals within the cartridge case that then propelled a metal shell—

CRACK!*

—within the span of milliseconds, 100 grams of refined, chemically-treated metal flew at Mach 1.2 and—

Splat*

—Killed the cloaked spy before they even knew they were spotted. [Marksman] and the gut feeling ensured I got a headshot.

They died painlessly and before they even knew it, a mercy that I wasn't granted.

"What did you do that for?!?" Rimuru screeched upon seeing the dead body.

[Silenced Emotion: 25%]

"Spies." I hissed out, lowering the handgun.

Rimuru instantly backed off, he's never heard me so pissed off before.

This deep hatred for spies was rather new, after all, it took a while for me to realize they were indirectly responsible for my death. On the day I died, I was supposed to receive a promotion. However, due to corporate espionage from a much smaller rival, an internal report about the state of the company was leaked earlier than intended, which caused our stocks to take a 2.1% plunge and forced the CEO to step down. As a result of the chaos of the fiasco, my promotion was delayed by months.

What's worse, we still didn't know who was the spy. Hell, my head was almost on the chopping block as higher-ups started a company-wide purge.

I looked at the dead spy with a passive expression. The act of killing wasn't affecting me at all, as if I had merely broken a toy instead of snuffing out a soul.

"Eat the spy, Rimuru."

"Eh—?" he seemed confused at my command.

With the gun, I flipped the spy over so their face was revealed to the world.

It's a female elf.

"They're dead, so it's not cruel to eat the body," I crossed my arms before looking back at the slime that caused all of this headache. Even if I barely need any sleep or food, my mental facilities still aren't on par as my physical ones. "from what I can tell, the Dwargon situation could've been avoided had the Western Holy Church not gotten involved, thus, it makes sense to use that [Predator] skill of yours to eat the body and take the form of an elf."

Rimuru blushed at the thought of becoming an elf, as if— do not go any further Scientia, that's already too much. I then pressured him to eat the elf, "please do not tell me you have a hatred for elves."

"W—What!?" Rimuru sputtered, "No, no, it's just that your request was so sudden that I wasn't mentally prepared!"

"Mmhmm," I stared at him with eyes half-closed in suspicion, the area already slowly filling up with people who were trying to investigate what that incredibly loud sound was.

Problematic, this will need to be covered up, which can easily be done if Rimuru would just eat the body.

"I'll distract them, afterward you eat the body," I said before turning around. Walking towards the people, I let [Acting] take over and started talking loudly in an attention-grabbing boisterous manner, "Sorry folks! I was just some contraptions of mine before everything got out of hand!"

The hobgoblins stared at the top of my head. Ah, right, I still have the M.A.N.A. on me this entire time. I used the tinkering assistant so many times the extra weight on my head didn't feel foreign anymore.

"Security!" I yelled out to a goblin officer clad in an official-looking uniform. The Factory I had planned a week ago has already begun production. Although it only has a single manufacturing line, for now, I plan on drastic expansion in the near future.

"YES, COMMANDER!" Standing instantly at attention with an arm across his chest, the hobgoblin security guard uniform consists of a light blue collared shirt, sleek black pants, synthetic leather boots, and a hat that's an echo of my military uniform's to represent that these officers are enforcers of the law, that they speak and act with my authority.

Every officer carries with them a wooden baton, nothing too special since I didn't have the time to implement anything more advanced. I'm not a god.

"Disperse the crowd," I commanded.

Saluting via crossing his arm over his chest again, "YES COMMANDER!"

I looked on as the hobgoblin guard quickly got all the normal civilians to return to what they were doing beforehand. A week ago, they were extremely green, but with Ririna training them, they somehow managed to attain a discipline found only in soldiers who had undergone a month of SEAL training.

I must admit, I'm impressed.

It was a very impressive feat that earned Ririna the title of Chief of Security within this Vill—

Can it even be called a village anymore?

I looked around as the officer began to tell the crowd to disperse, what were once houses made from sticks and straws were now made with bricks, mortars, and roof tiles that insulate heat in the winter and have a cooling effect in the summer.

If one ignores the green people, the place could almost be mistaken for a wealthy, semi-urban village in Africa.

Well, I guess the word 'village' refers to the number of inhabitants, so this would count as a village.

Looking back into the alley, I saw Rimuru have already digested the body, leaving not a trace for anyone to find.

Suddenly, his blue blob of a body started to vibrate before—

Poof!*

An explosion of smoke. White smoke erupted from Rimuru's body, covering and hiding his form from view.

Coughing, I waved my hands to try and disperse the smoke, noting internally that the smoke probably help sell the story of how this is a chemical accident.

Once the veil of smoke have been lifted, I saw Rimuru in his doll-like elven body. He wobbled around a bit, which makes sense given he's spent the last month in the body of a slime.

Looking up and down his naked form, I noticed how, similar to me, he didn't possess any genitals or anything that would place him in any of the sexes. His ears became much longer than a human's, but still not as long as that spy's, and can probably pass off as an odd quirk of elven genetics. With long blue hair and golden eyes, the elven slime could easily charm any female colleagues of my old world. Facially though, he looked androgynous but to a lesser degree compared to me.

Rimuru gives a hint of femininity while still remaining masculine enough to be very hard to be mistaken for a female.

I envy his form a bit. I'm freakishly pretty enough to the point of being unnatural, he looked like he's just got some really good genetics.

I guess I just really want kids to not scream when they see me.

"Woah," he said as he looked at himself.

A perspective: within the story of Worm, a Tinker 6 with a specialization in bombs was able to create things like transmutation bombs, pain bombs, and black hole grenades.

That's the equivalent of 2 charges in a single area, although do be mindful that the bomb tinker had access to modern electronics.

9

Over the next few weeks, my industrial base expanded rapidly as more and more charges were put into Specializations like [Mass Production, [Automation, and [Factory Design]. Essentially anything related to the process of industrialization and factory production, I've sunk at least three charges into them. Of course, industrialization required appropriate power, and fortunately, Rimuru was able to separate hydrogen atoms from water. This opened up an avenue of power generation I never thought possible until later on: nuclear fusion.

Taking two full days to complete, I created a working portable fusion reactor to power Metropolis with. I unlocked the power of the atom.

(I'm tempted to say I've unlocked the power of god)

Add to that, I've only slept a handful of hours and this resulted in perhaps the biggest jump in technological capacity this world has ever seen.

From medieval times to industrialization, I've kick-started this world's process into the 20th century. Although it should've been to the 21st century, I haven't released the computers for public use.

As a result of the massive jump in time, the quality of life for many hobgoblins and tempest wolves within the old village jumped equally as much as well. This jump in quality of life meant people have some money left over, and thus started a growing internal economy with inflation to boot.

Since many of the jobs that Groups 1, 2, and 3 performed were obsolete, I reassigned them personally with factory jobs, with Group 4 overseeing everything. In accordance with the general theme of improvement, I've given the security guards each a length taser that has a range of six meters.

With the advancement in quality of life also comes support, both in the political and social sense. With this support, I was able to successfully get all hobgoblins to leave their old home and instead move into a single centralized location.

Man, in my old world, no one in their right mind would've trusted politicians that much.

This centralized location for housing purposes was a 60-meter tall residential skyscraper with an ovoid design, allowing it to become a truly unique architecture even in my old world. Because of its shape, the Hobgoblins even started calling the building the 'Egg'. It's composed of primarily pre-fabricated materials and units, making it much faster to build as it's just like building with lego.

This singular building now contained every hobgoblin within the old village and with plenty of rooms to spare.

The rooms within the apartment were much superior to their old suburban homes. Improvements included a working plumbing system, electric lighting, and air conditioning.

With governmental subsidies offered through an Uplift Program I championed, the hobgoblins were able to live in a 90s equivalent of a luxury apartment and still earn a living despite normal apartments such as these would've made them broke within mere days of rent.

However, just as I was building the residential skyscraper, I ran into the problem of the Stellar Gold Coins being unusable since their denominations were so high. Apparently, this world already possesses a single collective currency; the Dwarven Coins.

Precious metal coins minted by the Armed Nation of Dwargon, Kaijin were really helpful in explaining how currencies were split into four denominations of increasing value: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Stellar Gold. The dwarf then went on to explain each superior denomination is equal to 100 of the inferior ones, and how Stellar Gold Coins were used for large business transactions and payment between nation-states.

On one hand, I was glad that Dwargon, an apparent superpower on the world stage, sees us as a nation but on the other, it would be really suspicious if a stranger from nowhere just attempted to trade in 10 coins of the highest denomination.

Ironically, the Stellar Gold Coins became useless.

But, I'm nothing if not creative. The budding nation of Jura Tempest Republic needs its own currency. Not only can it be a rallying cry for patriotism, but it will also allow the nation a certain degree of economic freedom and leverage over other nations. Just look at America and its petrodollar, their President can also sanction people, making them unable to open a bank account.

That type of soft power is desirable. Especially for a nation that will dominate the global economy.

Seeing how we don't have a proper currency, I consulted Kaijin on the viability of a new currency and paid for his consultant services with a few tips. Kaijin remarked how it's been done before, but would always fail as magic makes counterfeiting the new currency extremely easy.

Right, it seems Dwarven Coin is enchanted to prevent counterfeits.

It wasn't a problem as I could substitute the magical solution of the dwarves with my own scientific solution. With [Inspired Inventor, I eventually managed to come up with an answer in the form of issuing paper currency that each possesses a special serial number (just like the dwarven coins) and treating them in a blend of chemical concoctions changes the paper's molecular structure.

So began the Tempest Dollar, simply referred to as the 'Dollar'. The Tempest Dollar is fixed to the Stellar Gold Coins at 100,000 Dollars to one Stellars.

I do plan to have the Dollar later fixed to gold, but that would entail the creation of an entirely new branch of the government. The National Gold Reserve. I've already drafted up the proposal which requires only Congress to pass the Act that would see the Reserve's creation.

After the currency issue was dealt with, I'm now met with the problem of a lack of manpower. Like a colony during its first few years, if I want to realize my vision of a proper, modern city then I would need immigrants to come here and work. But at the same time, I can't advertise the Jura Tempest Republic to the wider world just yet since our position isn't strong enough.

Oddly enough, the answer to our lack of manpower came in the form of Monster Attacks. Due to the disappearance of Veldora, many other goblin villages within the Jura Forest were attacked by other tribes of dire wolves and tempest bears. Since those villages don't have their version of me or Rimuru defending them, those goblins were forced to move.

While this is a tragedy by all measures, it also presents an opportunity. Namely, the solution to our manpower issue.

I had President Rimuru welcome those refugees with open arms while I personally got them all settled and assigned jobs.

500 new pairs of hands ensured the Factory can expand even more. With a quarter of a thousand orphans, the future of the nation can be secured.

However, like clockwork, another unforeseen problem arises; the lack of highly skilled workers.

Skilled workers are basically those who have graduated from secondary education. They usually make up the backbone of the First-World economy and government.

Obviously, a village in the middle of nowhere has little to no education. This led to me delegating most of the administration and paperwork to Rimuru while I quickly taught a dozen hand-picked hobgoblins the basics of how to become a bureaucrat and Minister.

Thank god [Teaching] is a specialty. That combined with [Psychology] allowed me to create hyper-efficient teaching material which those hobgoblins soaked up like dry paper with water.

Those dozen hobgoblins became the core of Rimuru's cabinet. They massively decreased the slime's workload, allowing him some time to rest.

From the start of the Tempest Dollar to the teaching of the hobgoblins, that was a hectic week.

Considering how nations usually take a long time to get everything ready, I can't help but wonder how would future generations view the beginning of the Jura Tempest Republic.

Before I could rest for more than six hours, Congress came knocking on my doors asking for a larger place of governance.

Thanks to my new physiology, I could work nonstop for days on end without collapsing into exhaustion. Granted, the mental fatigue would be absolute hell right before I collapse, but I could still work.

Such is the stress of building a new nation from scratch. And what's more, I can't exactly refuse Congress' demands since if I do, the government I aim to build won't have any legitimacy in the face of the people.

However, since I was still mentally fatigued from a week of nearly non-stop work, I wanted to build the Congress their new center of governance as soon as possible, with as little input as possible. So started my delve into [Artificial Intelligence] and [Nanotechnology].

I distinctly remember rapidly self-replicating nanites from this one sci-fi show being extremely overpowered, what with it eating through metal doors and using the ship as material to produce more of itself. Using this idea, I programmed a Narrow Artificial Intelligence to put it in command of a few nanomachines and had it start self-replicating, only stopping until it hit 5 quintillion units.

Being extremely tired, I slept for a few hours for the first time ever since the completion of the residential skyscraper.

As it turns out, leaving autonomous self-replicating machines unsupervised is a terrible idea. No, not in the sense that it may get out of control, but in the sense that my table, where I had placed the group of self-replicating nanomachines, had a hole burnt through it. The table was made out of metal.

The table could hold lava fresh out of the ground and keep it there as it cooled.

That was the day I learned how unlikely it is for a Grey Goo scenario. Unlike in the show, real nanomachines are extremely fragile. In hindsight, it should've been obvious, considering how fragile a human's cell was. Not only that but the nanomachines are also limited by the Laws of Thermodynamics.

See, the Second Law of Thermodynamics states that energy transfers and transformation tend to move towards a state of greater entropy or 'disorder' for those less academically inclined. This means in practice the heat generated in an instant when millions of nanomachines start moving far enough it can be measured physically with a ruler is enough to burn a hole through my table.

However, that didn't make sense since, just as with how energy can not be created or destroyed, the power I gave to charge those nanomachines wasn't enough to burn a hole through the table.

Something is afoot.

Further investigation revealed how apparently, the AI I programmed to oversee the self-replication came to the logical conclusion the energy I'm feeding the nanites isn't enough to complete within the specified time frame, thus, it opened the metaphorical floodgate.

I expected this to be another easy success, but all I've done is just burn a hole through my table.

Unperturbed, a suggestion from [Biology] of all specialties helped solve my issue.

The solution came from nature.

Siphonophores are a fascinating order within the taxonomic class of Hydrozoa. Unlike jellyfish or really any other multicellular life, Siphonophores are colonial organisms that are made up of many smaller units called 'Zooids'. These zooids work together to hunt fish and operate as one cohesive individual.

[Biology] suggested the idea of using multiple different colonies of nanites that each does a hyper-specialized task, just like the zooids of Siphonophores. For example, one type of nanites would be extra electrically conductive while another could form super strong links with each other, in such a scenario, the former would become the wires while the latter would serve as the building's frames.

It's an ingenious solution, like cultivating bacteria for your gut... only, it would probably take me a while to fully program everything.

So instead of writing codes myself, I created a new Narrow Artificial Intelligence that would write the codes for me.

Not limited by mere thinking and typing speeds, there exists no barrier between thought and code writing for AIs, allowing them to write thousands upon thousands of lines of code in seconds.

However, I never make my tools more intelligent than they need to be. Thus, this AI is hyper-specialized in only writing codes for the nanite colonies.

With the AI in place, in the span of a single night, the codes for the nanite colonies have been completed.

Supplied with a constant stream of raw resources coming from the mines deep within the forest, transported quickly with tempest wolves, the entirety of the future Jura Tempest Republic's Capitol building is expected to finish within three months, quicker if I divert more resources towards it. Such as making a railway connecting the mines with the building site.

I've planned the final shape of the Congress' Capitol building to be a large pyramid-like structure that's about the size of the Pyramid of Giza, with each corner of the pyramid containing a tower decorated in Roman architecture. Since there are going to be many large free spaces on the faces of the pyramid, I've decided to leave that as something of a gift for the future. They can decide what they'll carve onto the surface of the pyramid.

As for the inside of the pyramid, it's probably going to be the most technologically advanced place in the entire world, at least, for now. For the main lobby, I imagined a grand entrance hall with a model of this world's solar system lighting up the room. Beyond the decorations, it's going to be the world's first smart building in the sense that every aspect of the place will have AI integration.

I firmly believe that if I'm going to build a nation of the future, the Capitol building, the very center where laws are made should reflect the nation.

It was the sound of my own sighing that brought me back into the present.

I was lying on a sunbathing chair, relaxing every bit of my muscles like I was an unthinking slab of meat hung out to dry.

I was wearing a very thin piece of fabric that barely constitute a 'T-shirt' with my lower half covered by a pair of thicker leggings. The 'clothing' didn't protect me at all from the hot sun bearing down on me, but due to my new physiology, it didn't matter to me.

I had imagined the sun's rays doing something serious to my ghostly pale skin but they didn't. What's more, there wasn't a single bit of sweat on me even when I felt rather warm. I think had I remained a human I'd be getting sunburns by now.

A sigh escaped my lips once more as a phantom feeling of directionlessness echoed through my mind. The realization that I've reincarnated has never hit harder than right now. Knowing that I'll never see my family again... made me question my own purpose.

I got up from my lying position into a sitting down place, crossing my legs as I do. The sun-soaked skin felt like warm towels steamed as they touched areas of my body that haven't seen the sun's rays.

Kathy...

[Silenced Emotion: 50%]

The thought of never seeing my sister again pains me so much that I felt wetness gather around the edge of my eyes. However, thanks to [Silenced Emotion, I was able to quickly take control of myself again.

I hugged my own legs. Thank god no one else is here to see me in my most vulnerable state. I did choose the topmost penthouse of the skyscraper as my own personal residence for a reason after all.

Eventually, this lasted for a minute longer before I stopped and got up. Looking around at the balcony, the view up this high was incredible, even better than those in the cities since there weren't any extra buildings to block my line of sight.

I content myself to just enjoy the view of the sea of green that was the Jura Forest, before feeling rather parched in my throat.

[Biology] noted how by being in the sun for so long, some of my own water has evaporated.

"Jarvis. Bring me water."

"Right away, Lady Scientia."

In the end, I've decided to embrace the Lady Scientia persona. Trying to change it would be a waste of time.

The sound of an R/C car filled the room as the dumb personal AI assistant I'd built on a whim got to work. Seconds later, the sound of an R/C car grew louder as the autonomous server drone drove itself into the balcony.

A mere flight of fancy, that's all this was, I thought as I went down to pick up the glass of water on top of the drone.

After picking up the glass of water, the server drone turned around and went back into my residence. Staring at its disappearing form with the cool glass in my right hand, I noted how the server drone reminds me the most of a Roomba of all things.

"Hrm." I hummed out as cold water went down my throat, wetting it.

As I down the water given to me by a drone I've built, I'm reminded once again of the fact that I don't exactly know how my technologies work. I'm only given blueprints, not the principle or science behind how they worked.

I'm like a puppet, and that doesn't sit well with me.

I see free will as something integral to me, some might even call it a key part of my own identity.

Right there, I decided I'll learn about how my technologies worked. If I could teach those dozen hobgoblins how to become good bureaucrats within a single day, I could definitely teach myself how my super technologies worked.

Whether through observing the effect of technologies or through what's possible, I will decipher the laws of physics.

I couldn't help but smile.

A new, long-term goal, settle within my mind. A goal that will underpin everything I do. A goal that might not always be there on my mind, but I'll always be working towards it.

It was a rare moment of absolute clarity, one that rarely happens in a person's life. It only happens when they first realized their life's calling, when all temporary distractions no longer matter.

I will achieve the ultimate goal of science.

I will discover everything. To know everything there is to know, to know the truth of the world, the meaning of life, the facts of existence.

Embarrassingly, I did some dramatic but admittedly childish poses and hand gestures as I declared that about myself. I couldn't help it, but at least with [Acting] people would be applauding at my theatrics.

However, I was drawn out of my theatrics when I saw a veritable cloud of birds flying off in the distance.

At first, I was a bit confused, since I had thought that I was somehow the cause of that. Then, [Biology] came in and displaced that idea by suggesting how something must be happening to cause all those birds to fly away.

The only time I've ever seen birds fly away in such numbers was in movies. Disaster movies, like when birds are escaping a volcanic eruption.

Immediately, that memory brought an unprecedented feeling of dread. I've solved every issue that was thrown my way, is the world seriously going to throw me a hurdle in the form of a natural fucking disaster?

Walking indoors, I then turned around to face the balcony.

Numbers, calculations of all kinds like motion, air resistance, vectors, and complex material hardness charts ran through my mind as [Mathematic] got to work helping me calculate the exact steps I need to take to receive the least amount of damage.

The process took no more than eight seconds as [Mathematic] created entirely new formulas and used existing ones to model my fall and find a way to ensure I can still walk after I landed 60 meters down on the ground.

I started running at a speed of exactly 45 km/h, crossing the distance between where I stood and the edge of the balcony in a single second.

I leaped off the edge.

Now, one may wonder why I don't use Dasher to slow my fall by stabbing into the wall of the pre-fabricated living units made by Rimuru. To that I say, how much leverage do you think I can get in free fall?

I could lift mountains but that would be meaningless if I couldn't get any leverage. I'll be just fumbling through the air like a fish blabbering around on the deck of a boat.

So instead, I spread my arms out to catch the greatest amount of air resistance like a parachute unfurling itself.

Unfortunately, it only slowed my fall by a couple of percentages.

Yet it was enough.

Thump*

I slammed into the ground at 116.4 km/h. At such speeds and with my mass, I hit the ground with a force equivalent to an automobile going full speed on a freeway.

Such a move would've undoubtedly been lethal had I been human, but with my new physiology, such a tall fall is just as if I had only fallen from half a meter.

That is to say, I pushed myself up while dusting the dirt off my body and the piece of fabric that can barely be called 'clothing'.

Wait, I'm standing in the middle of a street... that thought made me pause whatever I was doing and looked around me. I saw many hobgoblins (even one or two security guards) staring at me with varying looks of shock, horror, or just general disbelief. [Psychology] remarked how they must be experiencing the Bystander Effect since the normal response to seeing a person falling off a skyscraper is to check on them.

Taking this opportunity, I took off running at full speed toward my personal lab. Seeing the many people in my path, I placed one of my charges for the day into [Gymnastics] and started expertly weaving around pedestrians with a bodily agility that felt foreign to my body.

Very quickly, I saw the building which housed my private laboratory.

From the outside, anyone from my old world would mistake it for a bunker. With smooth and slanted walls, the general shape of my laboratory is that of a trapezoidal prism. On one side of the building was a closed door the likes that you'd find as the entrance to a prefabricated living unit and another larger garage door.

Sensing my approach, a section of the building's walls opened up to reveal a single electronic touchscreen-based display. It's a security measure put in place so that no one other than I could get into my labs.

Tapping 15 times on the display in a specific pattern, a personnel door slid open to allow me in.

The door closed as I entered, temporarily showering me in darkness before the indoor lighting turned itself on.

Officially, the lab is a gift given to me by the newly formed Senate. But as it is with politics the truth is far more complicated. In reality, the lab gifting is a political courtesy I gave them, just like me giving them a new Capitol building, to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the people.

My lab is fairly disorganized, with tools, paper, and other lab equipment scattered and strung all over the long tables that are situated next to the walls like toys belonging to a toddler. Its size is around that of the first floor of a typically American suburban house.

Looking through the windowless room lit by artificial lighting, it took me a couple of seconds to find what I needed.

Grabbing it, the object in my hand is a metallic orb with wires poking out of it.

It's a CPU, designed to calculate ballistic trajectories and optimal solutions for close-range combat.

The world's first combat computer and all it needs is a power source to operate it.

Well, it is part of an Aerial Combat System I've designed in my spare time and had the auto-fabricators make.

It's a temporary solution to any unforeseen incidents that require force rather than words.

Physically, the combat system is built around a jetpack that uses rotor blades to generate lift and a large belt-fed electromagnetic coilgun for long and medium ranges while an arm-sword serves as an emergency close-range weapon. The ammo for the coilgun is situated behind me underneath the helicopter jetpack, making it look as if I was sitting on an oil drum. The combat system also contains a helmet that wouldn't look out of place in the cockpit of an advanced jet fighter.

While the aerial combat system doesn't cover a lot, looking more like a basic exoskeleton frame with thick gauntlets where some of the control panels rest, it is that way since I need it to be light enough to fly.

Thankfully, with [Inspired Inventor] I've mostly solved the energy storage issue that plagues modern robotics, so I won't need to haul around a cable or a hulking battery as I go into combat.

It took a further minute to fully strap in and place the CPU deep into the large helicopter jetpack. With my hands holding the coilgun as though it was a minigun, I let out a verbal command of "open the skylight door," and rays of sunlight bathed where I stood.

I should also tell Rimuru what I'm doing...

"Tell Rimuru that I'm examining a disturbance in the forest."

With three helicopter-like rotor blades roaring to life loudly generating lift and another smaller one creating thrust, I lifted myself out of the lab and into the air. The heads-up display showed I was rising at a speed of 12 km/h, and that I could cruise at speeds of 60 km/h for two hours.

I couldn't help but smile as I rose out of my lab. Awe filled every inch of my body like water filling up a container as I started moving.

"I'm flying..." Every human, at least at one point in their life, dreamed of flying. They dreamed of soaring through the skies, free and completely detached from the problems of the world below.

I was no different. There was a period of time in my old life when I dreamed of becoming a pilot. I dreamed of flying above the clouds, flying alongside birds, flying alongside jets, simply being above mere mortals like a god.

Those childish delusions were shattered as I grew up.

But... a sense of child-like naive delight careened through my mind. I could finally accomplish many of my dreams that had been shattered by the hammer of reality. Chief among them...

Space.

The Aerial Combat System stopped itself once it rose to a height of 50 meters, dragging me out of my mind.

Shifting my head to look around me, the Combat System turned alongside my head when it had rotated as far as it can.

Not only was the helmet meant to help me aim, but it was also sensitive enough to detect when I'm turning my head and tell the rest of the Aerial Combat System to turn along with my head. At least, when it's in hovering mode.

Now, I flicked a tiny switch on the coilgun and the Aerial Combat System switched from hovering to moving. As I started moving towards the area where the birds flew off in droves, a realization struck me of how similar the role of the Aerial Combat System is to an attack helicopter.

Very soon, I reached an area of the Great Jura Forest devoid of any trees.

Correction, after a clearer examination, the trees appeared to have experienced some extreme physical trauma and had been severed around the trunks.

Holy shit, what kind of creature (or creatures) could clear out such a large area within such a short time? I couldn't help but think as I held the coilgun closer. With a single click of a button, the machine I held in my hand whirred to life, electricity ran through the magnetic spring that coiled around the barrel of the minigun-like coilgun.

The safety's off now. With a single pull of the trigger, hundreds of metallic shells would get shot out of the coilgun.

I really hope whoever caused this isn't immune to bullets like Dark Lord Sauron, I deliberated as I sped off toward the direction of newer devastation.

How did it come to this? Kaval wondered, wearing his new stylish armor and bashing another Giant Ant's head in with his sword.

How did his life come from a low-ranking adventurer to trying to find the one who made the crystal knife that somehow ignites if it's slashed too fast?

Dodging the bite of another ant, Kaval continued his thought. Like two months ago, they were only tasked with investigating the disappearance of Veldora from the cave—

"Hup!"

Kaval leaped out of the way as their mage, Eren, a blond girl with a black cloak over her shoulder blasted a spear of ice through the oversized insect, killing it instantly.

After his party had reached the Storm Dragon's Cave, they were knocked out by an unknown monster that took only some of their stuff and left them an ultra-fine knife as a... gift? Offering? Tribute?

Whatever it was, the knife was a fine piece of art. While none of Kaval's teammates had any appraisal Skill or magic, even then they could tell with their naked eyes that the knife was miles ahead of any equipment they could possibly buy.

When they presented the crystal knife to Guild Master Fuze in hope that he'll allow them to keep the knife as spoils, the man freaked out at the fact that it was made with Magic Ore but NO MAGIC was used in the process of its creation.

Confusing.

Fuze at first thought the grooves on the side of the knife were runes, and when the Guide Master played around by swinging the knife, it suddenly ignited the air.

As in, the knife had a coat of fire.

It was sheathed in a coat of fire, and the most important thing was that there WEREN'T any MAGIC.

The knife wasn't an enchanted thing.

Fuze then spent the next three days having the crystal knife checked by every magician and blacksmith in the city and they all confirmed that the knife doesn't have any magic, not even Engraving Magic.

Fuze had estimated it to easily be a Rare grade item, which was a ridiculous notion considering it wasn't a magical item. At best, magic-less items were Normal grade, Rare grade implies the equipment is powerful enough to artificially raise the level of adventurers who wielded them.

So Fuze personally assigned the trio a new task.

Go to the Jura Forest, find whoever made this crystal knife, come back alive with the information, and he'll give them enough money that his three-member team can retire comfortably right after the mission is completed. What's more, he promised the political protection of the Adventurer Guild of Blumund, not subtly implying that he knew exactly who Eren was.

The trio had to take it.

Looks like that wasn't gonna happen, Kaval thought bitterly as after the ice spear ran through the insect, more took its place. It's like fighting the mythical hydra dragon...

"'Kill one and another two appears'. God damn." He said grimly, not liking their odds he proposed another idea.

"We need to move," Kaval said as he cut off the left mandible of the closest ant before grabbing it. An adventurer can claim a baker's dozen of silver coins if they turned the monster part in at the guild.

His team nodded and was just about to leave before a continuous roar was heard. It was a scary sound that Kaval had never heard before, and if he was forced to describe it, he would say it sounded like a constant cracking of thunder in a rainstorm.

Then, that thunder was punctuated with another, far louder sound of explosions.

CRACK—ACK—ACK—ACK—ACK—ACK—ACK—ACK—ACK—!*

Instantly, all the ants that were shredded by something caused holes larger than Kaval's head to appear many times on each of the ant's bodies. Insect blood splattered like water from pools underneath a raining thundercloud as even the ground themselves were displaced with numerous small explosions that all combined to form a massive explosion of dirt that filled the air and clogged all sight.

The sound was so scary that his entire team, aside from the newcomer Shizu they had met on the forested path, had basically fallen onto the ground in fright before the roar suddenly stopped as a humanoid covered in armor and carrying a large piece of metal flew out of the treeline and into view.

Winds blew from the flying humanoid, dispersing the clouds of upturned dirt like a gigantic fan.

The humanoid then slowly drifted to the ground like a sycamore seed, its feet hitting the ground and those rotating blades around its back slowing down.

"Hello there."

[Berserk Mode]- An emergency mode that the Perfect Homunculus would enter into once its mind has fully broken. It can be considered a defense mechanism where Perfection temporarily degrades its own perfection to save itself.

10

Hello there," I said with a well-practiced smile—

...which they cannot see due to the helmet.

My face relaxed and the smile disappeared upon that realization.

The trio of armed men and women slowly got up from their lying down position, their movement, posture— everything about them screamed wariness and distrust.

Hmm, they must've been scared by the helicopter noise and the sound of a hundred sonic booms from those bullets. It also made sense how they're not reacting like the goblins when they first heard my unnatural voice: the bullets triggered their survival instincts, causing everything else to be seen as secondary.

A tense silence befell the clearing as I grasped how similar the current situation was to when the Europeans arrived in the Americas or when the United States forced Japan to open their borders at gunpoint: a way more technologically advanced power is interacting for the first time with a group of feudal or even more primitive people.

Along with that historically repeating recognization came my understanding of the current power imbalance. That is, I hold all the power in this situation, just as how the Europeans and Americans held all the power with their guns.

However, just as in business and in life, it is generally more productive to go for the peaceful option. Thus, I made sure to point my coilgun away from the group but still close enough that I can annihilate them in case they were hostile.

The first one to speak, the first one to break the tense silence, was the blond-haired guy of the group.

"Uh, hi! My name is Kaval and these are members of my adventuring team: Eren and Gido." Then, the now-revealed Kaval pointed a thumb behind him at a black-haired masked woman wearing white clothing, "the lady in the white mask is a traveler that decided to go with us for companionship. Her name's Shizu."

Kaval and the rest of his team looked like they were members of a theater who were just about to perform a play about the Medieval Ages in Europe. Shizu on the other hand...

My eyes shifted to focus on the woman, who must've somehow sensed my attention and tensed up accordingly.

Shizu had long black hair with black leggings, white clothing, a cape, and a sword held within a sheath of crimson and gold.

"I see, so what's your business here?" I asked after nodding along and crossing my arms. Then, I followed [Psychology]'s suggestion and brought my right hand up next to my helmet and lifted the glass visor.

[Psychology] said how people trusts face more. Thus, if I want the adventurer to feel at ease, I'll reveal my face to them.

I heard the quiet gasps coming from those adventurers as they gazed upon my face that was without the necessary flaws to appear human. A basic glance at their body language told me how the one known as 'Shizu' in particular seemed to recoil in response to me revealing my face to them.

Once again, my eerie perfection comes to affect my attempts at building potential relationships.

Although that name... a name different from the trio. Interesting. I put a note in the back of my mind about Shizu's name.

Kaval was the second to take control of himself right after Shizu. "Well, Miss, you see we were..."

The man hesitated as if he was debating with himself whether or not to tell me a secret. He then eyed me up and down before a familiar glint reflected off of his iris, a glint that I am almost intimately familiar with...

"Well, you see Missy, some weeks ago we found this knife." He carefully took out a long object wrapped in dark brown cloth, "an unenchanted crystal knife that erupts into flames whenever it's swung quick enough."

Oh fuck.

"Our Guild Master Fuze then asked us to find whoever made this knife..." Kaval trailed off.

Was my haunted look really that obvious? [Acting] aided me in taking control of myself, on the outside anyways.

[Silenced Emotion 60%]

How was the knife still active? I didn't make it with [Longevity] as I do with all of my current tools!

Kaval now looked like a sleazy salesman pushing a product he knows will sell if he simply put a little more pressure on it.

"Are you perhaps the owner of this knife?" The man unrevealed the smoking gun and unfurled the whole thing, letting sunlight reflect off its shiny surface.

I flinched involuntarily, partially deducing my belief in the idea of exchange, the very foundation of an economy is what revealed my presence to the world before I was ready...

My movement must've been the final nail in the coffin, as I saw Kaval, Gido, and Eren's faces lit up in pure joy. They knew they found their knife's mysterious maker.

[Silenced Emotion: 80%]

Any guilt I could possibly have for what I'm about to do was completely erased from the face of the map. Slowly, I started moving the barrel of the coilgun towards the trio. It was slow enough that one could easily mistake it for a subconscious moving of the body to avoid cramps.

"Huh, I see. But, how did you know it was me?" With [Acting] in full control of my voice, no one knew what was going to happen.

It's either due to natural obliviousness or stupidity or whatever, Kaval happily continued with his deduction and while the masked woman slowly reached for the handle on her sword.

"Well it's obvious, isn't it?" Kaval started with a happy tone that felt like it belonged to an office worker who'd just been promoted, "It was more of a hunch than anything but a few things tipped me off. First, just look at how fine your metal armor is, and it's not made with any magic! There's no way anyone short of the creator of the knife can create such an armor that also is capable of flight. The second one? Your unnatural beauty just screams you aren't human. The Guild Master literally asked if we had met a god. The third one? Your thunder weapon that annihilated those giant ants that—"

He was cut off as he realized the 'thunder weapon' that decimated the ants was now aimed toward his group.

Kaval's face twisted in horror.

"My apologies," my voice was unnaturally cold, so much that it even caused a shiver to go down my spine.

Unfamiliarity with my new body.

"But I cannot allow you to leave with that knowledge."

"WAIT—"

I pulled the trigger without any hesitation or reluctance in my move. The thought of snuffing out four human lives as being something regrettable didn't even occur to me at the moment as an issue that deserved any thought.

Despite almost fitting the amoral businessman stereotype to a T, I still possess ethics. Just that those ethics apply to a very narrow range but they're absolute to make up for how few situations they may be applied.

CRACK—ACK—ACK—ACK*

The sounds of loud thundering cracks echoed throughout the forest.

Coilguns are a subtype of what's known as an electromagnetic linear motor device. Unlike its much more popular cousin the railgun which uses a pair of parallel conducting (rails) as boosters, coilguns (also called Gauss rifle) uses one or more electromagnet coils that wrap around the barrel.

The coilgun I'm holding can accelerate projectiles to Mach 4 speeds with a maximum range of a few kilometers. As with anything moving at supersonic speeds, it creates a vacuum close behind the object.

The sonic boom is the actualization of the constant attempts made by the atmosphere at collapsing the vacuum and subsequently slowing down the supersonic bullet.

In the span of a single blink, the woman with the white mask appeared in front of the trio with her sword drawn and—

BWWOOOSSSHHH*

Bright flames.

The sword was engulfed in bright flames that somehow caused the bullets to miss their targets.

What?

Was that magic? Or was the woman something more than human?

I flicked down the visor and had the biometric scanner run a preliminary check on the woman.

The scanner took in all the visual data I can collect in an instant. From the woman's height, body structure, and behavior, the CPU inside the Aerial Combat System came to its conclusion in less than a second.

Target appears to be of the Homo Sapien Sapien race

But how? This 'human' moved so quickly she blocked bullets! Even without [Mathematics] and [Biology, I knew the g-force alone from accelerating so quickly would flatten any normal human into a pancake!

I screamed inside my mind for an answer, and while many specialties replied with solutions, [Magicule] was oddly quiet as if it isn't authorized to reveal information to me.

However, while I was having an internal crisis with the impossible human in front of me, I was the very definition of calm on the outside thanks to [Acting].

"So you wanna tell me how you blocked that?" I said casually as if I hadn't just tried to murder the four, "because I highly doubt that anyone could just casually block rounds moving at Mach 4, which is faster than what the naked human eye can track."

(AN: Play Luke Leon - Ants. Repeat until otherwise said)

View: https//watch?v=vW2dXr7RPdY

Whoever this Shizu is, she ignored my attempt at probing for answers and charged straight at me.

I moved to smack a section of my left forearm that was covered by the control gauntlet. However, before my right hand can reach it, I felt the heat radiating from Shizu's flaming sword half a meter away and closing in rapidly.

Thankfully, just as the sword was centimeters away, my hand touched a section of the gauntlet that showed a red triangle with an exclamation mark inside it.

Pssssssh*

Instantly, four covers facing in front of me were blown open with rocket exhaust billowing out as I suddenly lurched backward and out of the range of Shizu's stab.

The emergency movement option. If I were human, I think my neck would've snapped from the whiplash. At the very least, I'd have gotten a concussion as my jaw slammed into my chest.

Recovering quickly, I noticed how I'm now half a hundred meters away from Shizu's position.

The combat computer locked onto the masked woman, and the visor paired with the HUD highlighted exactly where I need to aim.

I ignored the computer and instead listened to [Marksman].

CRACK—ACK—ACK—ACK*

In three seconds, thirty ferromagnetic rounds burst out of the coilgun. All of them aimed at Shizu's head, heart, palm, pinky finger, diaphragm, Achilles tendon, aorta, brachial and femoral artery.

All are instantly lethal or at the very least catastrophically crippling.

Shizu moved. The superhuman was somehow able to react and dodge most of the bullets with a grace I'd never seen before. For those that she can't dodge she used the flat side of her sword as a makeshift shield.

Damn, I really underestimated the humans of this Tolkien-esque world.

The helicopter blades on my back started rotating. I'd have a greater advantage in the air than on the ground. Three dimensions offer me an additional axis of movement, after all.

Shizu, realizing what must be happening, rushed at me.

Crap!

Recalling how Shizu moved to block the rounds aimed at those adventurers, I swirled my minigun-like coilgun and aimed it at the trio behind Shizu.

Huh? Where are the adventurers? The trio was just there but suddenly disappeared!

Switching to infrared, I saw a large mass of redness around five meters away from where I had aimed and rapidly moving away in a single direction.

Some kind of invisibility on the visual wavelength of light...?

Shizu flinched, stopping for a brief moment and showing hesitation.

Then, I aimed the barrel toward that red mass and slammed on the trigger without a second thought. Desperate time calls for desperate measures.

CRACK—ACK—ACK—ACK—ACK—ACK—ACK*

WHOOOOSH*

A massive inferno erupted from Shizu's sword in defiance of my rain of death. The inferno was so hot and so overpowering that on the infrared vision, it appeared simply as this overpowering explosion of pure white.

The Combat System automatically switched back to normal vision, and I was able to clearly see how it was a tornado of fire that widened itself. Akin to a deadly rose blossoming in spring, the tornado bloomed into a shield that protected the trio of adventurers by vaporizing the metals as they passed through.

Once the inferno passed, it revealed the trio of now-visible humans who, while displaying first-degree burns, were relatively unharmed. The area around them was devoid of life while the air was especially dry thanks to the sheer heat that radiated from the fire.

"Okay, what the hell?!" I yelled out, the billowing, cool wind from above touching my skin that was facing toward the inferno.

It was so hot I felt like I was naked in Death Valley!

Just who the hell is this Shizu?!?

While I was pondering that thought, I was finally being lifted off the ground as the helicopter blades achieved the proper rotation speed.

It wasn't enough.

Shizu rushed forward, so quickly that I barely had any time to even aim my coilgun at her and fire off a few rounds.

That she deflected with her flaming sword.

I was now panicking a bit as I fully lost control of the situation. It wasn't the type of 'becoming unable to think' kind of panic as [Silenced Emotion] ensured I wouldn't feel such intense emotions.

While this body is stronger than my old one, I didn't know how strong, and I'd rather not test my durability today.

Shizu then leaped as she got near. Time seemed to be in almost slow motion as my eyes widen at the approaching white-masked missile. Her blades seem to be nearing agonizingly slow.

That was when [Martial Artist] kicked in.

I won't be able to do a counter-attack. So instead, I try and choose where I would be getting stabbed.

"..." That thought didn't disturb me at all.

Another side effect of [Silenced Emotion].

I abandoned the coilgun. Choosing to use my hand to clasp around Shizu's unstoppable approaching flaming sword and divert it away from its apparent target of my heart to elsewhere.

With my new physiology, I was able to move my limbs much faster than I used to. Thus, I clasped around it in milliseconds. I could barely feel the flames that were cooking my hands with how fast I'm moving.

Red lines crawled down my arms like vines growing, but they weren't fast enough.

I bled for the first time since I reincarnated as the sword went into my shoulder.

SHUNK*

"ARGH!"

I was in a world of pain. A world devoid of everything except for the blinding, burning pain that stuns my entire upper body.

I couldn't think of anything else except— GOD DAMN IT! It was painful!

[Silenced Emotion: 85%]

It was a shock of sobriety, partially aided by how the flames killed the nerves connecting to my right arm making it so all I could feel was numbness. I felt like a drowning man suddenly erupting out of a stormy sea and into the surface, with a lifejacket now around my body.

The sword stabbed itself into my right shoulder. Even if I couldn't feel it, I could still tell it came out of the other end and stabbed into the helicopter jetpack, damaging it to the point one of the rotors became inoperable.

Shizu tried to pull the sword out, but I grabbed her forearm with my right hand and held her in place. Despite the constant, buzzing pain in the background of my mind, I can't help but smile.

Shizu's trapped.

The masked woman seemed to realize that as well.

She's fucked up.

"My turn."

A long metallic sword popped out of my only free hand's gauntlet. I moved to return the favor and stab Shizu as we both started falling.

It was the most harrowing experience I've ever had. If I had been a human, it would definitely have been my last. Me, crashing into the ground as the helicopter jetpack started spiraling out of control. The wind blew and caused both of our hair to start to go wild like reels in a thunderstorm. Shizu blocked my stab by grabbing the sword.

"Ah!"

Finally, I forcefully yanked the sword upward and sliced off all the fingers of Shizu's right hand except for the thumb.

And that's when both of us crashed into the ground.

(AN: Stop music)

"Girraaaahh..." I could feel my right arm dangling by a few muscle fibers. Apply any insignificant amount of force on it and it can easily be torn off.

If I were human, I think I'd be panicking right now. But, I don't feel any particular attachment to my limbs.

Looking around me in a daze, I saw how Shizu stood up from the straddle that she was in, pulled out the sword from my shoulder, and was moments away from finishing me off.

Fuck, if I didn't suddenly recall how I was a Perfect Homunculus I think I'd have truly started praying.

You're going to need more than that to kill me.

Like, more than entire nations apparently.

However, before Shizu could stab me, a large moving mass of a white thing suddenly clasped around her figure and the superhuman is thrown off of me.

Raising my head from my fallen form to look at what happened to my soon-to-be slayer, I saw how the white mass was in fact a large, sticky web that blanketed Shizu, who was currently struggling to get out.

I was about to get up but I was suddenly engulfed in a cool, blue, gelatinous substance.

What...?

I could only see blue, and perhaps the vague outlines of the forest beyond but I wasn't 100% sure.

Due to the flames cauterizing my shoulder, there wasn't any blood leaking out. However, the feeling of touch began to reemerge from my right arm to my shoulder as if something had reconnected it.

Despite being submerged in something akin to quicksand, I could still breathe, oddly enough.

As sudden as the blueness, I'm now on the ground. Particles of dirt clung onto my arms like paint thanks to the fresh wetness that appeared out of nowhere.

It took me several more seconds before I realized Rimuru was here and he was the one who healed me... by eating and spatting me out.

After going through the most harrowing experience I've had in both my lives, I can't find it in myself to feel disgusted. In fact, I can't feel much of anything emotionally thanks to [Silenced Emotion] being turned up so high.

"Guh..." that's all I could say as flip myself onto my back, and simply stared at the clouds above me.

"Wait! There's no need to fight!" Rimuru yelled out.

Idiot. I raised my upper body into a seating position and saw how Rimuru was in his elf form, "You idiot, that bridge has already been burned."

The elven slime turned to me, "there's no need to fight! We could easily talk this out like civilized adults!"

The gears inside my head started to turn. Any sane person wouldn't get anywhere close to those who had tried to kill them. It's basic common sense.

"I'm fine with talking!" Kaval spoke up. Both Kaval and Gido stood protectively over the mage Eren as if she were more important than their own lives.

[Psychology] helped me quickly deduce Kaval's reasons for wanting to talk. The man must've realized how useless they are since they didn't even bother trying to help Shizu during our fight. Now with their biggest stick out of commission...

I looked at the downed Shizu, who was halfway out of the webs.

... make that temporarily out of commission. Either way, talking for them was the only way they could perchance get out of this alive.

[Silenced Emotion: 30%]

"Now..." Rimuru said slowly, emphasizing each of his words, "can someone explain to me the exact sequence of events that led to you guys fighting?"

"Your friend over there tried to kill us! All because we confirmed if a knife belonged to her or not!" Kaval said and each of his companions nodded fiercely.

Rimuru turned to me and asked, "is this true?"

I pursed my lips and thought about how to respond. In hindsight, from any perspective other than mine, I would appear as the unreasonable one. I don't know about this world, but I think killing someone simply because they confirmed me to be the maker of a knife would be preposterous at the best of times.

Some context is needed.

"Rimuru. You remember what Veldora said about me yes?"

"Uh-huh," I can see him nodding.

I pointed at the group "And do you remember the crystal knife I had given to this trio of people at the entrance to the cave?" A nod, "That man right there has the knife. I cannot allow them to leave with that information before the Jura Tempest Republic becomes a fully operational technological superpower capable of projecting its might all across the world."

Rimuru looked conflicted, "Scientia, that's... not a really good reason to just up and kill someone."

I felt my right eye twitch.

"Look, I know how much danger you must be in if that information is released. Whole nation-states would try and kill you. But come on, if you don't trust first, how can you make allies? I'll apologize to them and ask for forgiveness. I think they would understand it if—"

"Rimuru, we are not telling them about my race," I said in a voice that permitted no defiance.

The slime-in-elven-form instantly put his hands back up in deference, "I wasn't going to. Look, let's just try and find a peaceful solution."

Rimuru then turned to face the adventurers and the now-freed masked woman.

"I must apologize for the action of my companion, Scientia. She's usually very secretive and gets extremely upset when said secrets are found out," Rimuru explained with an apologetic bow that has his upper body leaned forward until it parallels the ground. "As I'm sure you could've figured it out."

While Shizu is taken aback, almost seemingly surprised by the action, the trio seems to relax.

"Heh, no kidding, sheesh," This time, it was Eren who spoke.

"..." How harsh must this world be, how dangerous daily life must the trio live in to accept the apologies of someone who tried to murder them? I wondered as I gawked at the interaction.

There was no doubt in my mind that had this been in my old world, they'd have dialed the police by now. Yet, they accepted the apology as if it I had merely gotten into a catfight with them.

The sheer difference between what I expected and what's happening is really throwing me off.

This... I felt my reaction speed delayed as an out-of-body experience hit me. [Psychology] noted how this is one of the ways for the mind to deal with sudden traumatic revelations or experiences.

Ah, I see, I guess that means even now it never fully sunk in for me how I'm in another world...

[Silenced Emotion: 80%]

I shoved all of that into the deepest recesses of my mind and I turned to face Rimuru, who was currently on his knees with his head touching the ground. It almost looked like he was praying really hard if the surrounding was changed to that of a temple.

Is this a Japanese cultural thing? He does realize that these people are from an entirely different world yes?

"Please! Allow us to make up for our mistakes by treating you all tonight and healing your wounds! Believe it or not, my companion Scientia is our best healer who can heal any wounds!"

I wanted to scream at him aggressively, or perhaps at the very least whisper aggressively for privacy reasons, except he silenced me with a sideways glare of his own.

It was so surprising I had no words, so shocking that I didn't know how to respond.

Kaval bit his lips in indecision, before looking toward his teammates and then the Shizu woman.

"Well..." the man trailed off, "fine, we adventurers always welcome a warm place to stay for the night— but, know that our Guild Master already knows where we're headed, so if we don't return, he'll send search parties for us."

If you're going to threaten someone, do it at least discretely. In the world of business, relationships are one of the most important factors determining whether or not a deal will go through, and straightforward threats are one of the fastest ways to ruin someone's mood and the mental image of you.

Shizu, seeing how the adventurers whom she protected were now accepting Rimuru's hospitality, had no choice but to reluctantly accept it as well.

Just before we left for Metropolis, while I was carrying the largest scraps coming from the Combat System, I saw how Shizu collected her severed fingers and placed them all inside a leather pouch.

Later.

As Metropolis came into view, the newcomers were shocked at seeing everything it had to offer. I should know, I too was a bit surprised at how quickly the city developed.

Tracing their line of sight, I saw how the Egg caught most of their attention.

As it should. In my old world, during the Medieval Ages, other than churches, castle spires, or the tombs of pharaohs, no building even came close to the 60-meter mark of the Egg.

Many hobgoblins stopped to look at the humans as though they were strange animals in a zoo. Many security guards whom we passed saluted sharply before going on with their patrol, in their minds probably thinking whoever we brought into Metropolis can't be that bad.

The whole layout of the Capital City of Metropolis was different from those of my old world. Due to the low population, all concentrated within a single building, everything, from the many newly established factories and small businesses, is situated around the Egg like how plant life surrounds a watering hole in the desert.

Small businesses are probably the most important thing to me at the moment, as they represent the individuals themselves seizing the means of production.

In other words, Capitalism.

Rigurd and the rest of the Conservatives and MPPs besides Rimuru were confused by the ideas of Capitalism, which was understandable. Given how they were barely more learned than grade schoolers, economic systems like Capitalism were way out of their reach.

I gave a quick 30-minute crash course that generalized the ideas of Capitalism. While some of my own bias may have seeped into my course, I was eventually able to get the 13 current members of Congress on board.

I started by mimicking what Deng Xiao Ping did by making a few people rich, then the rest can follow. As the people had no capital to start with, I had to personally kick-start Capitalism by giving out free blueprints of easy-to-build tinkertech products and luxuries that the hobgoblins would enjoy.

After that, I simply just let nature run its course.

This first wave of entrepreneurs would then set up stalls to sell the products that they made according to the blueprints.

When you let people get rich instead of taking away their wealth, they'll get rich, who knew?

With the start of the internal economy, the first wave of entrepreneurs would get rich. Those who have more ambitions would reinvest in their business, and start hiring more people that'll then, hopefully eventually lead to the creation of the first corporations.

Once they see how much more money they'll earn once they reinvest back into their business, those entrepreneurs would then try and borrow loans from the recently set up Tempest National Bank, which they'll then reinvest into their business again to grow as quickly as possible.

Those investments will end up in the pockets of additional workers the entrepreneurs hire. In the end, this will end up in a trickling effect like the water dripping down the slope of an umbrella where the money earned from the business is then spread down from the up top.

It becomes a cycle.

Of course, I knew how similar what I'm doing is with Russia right after the collapse of the USSR, so to avoid the government turning from a democracy into an oligarchy, I plan to introduce several laws later when the Jura Tempest Republic becomes a functional superpower that'll separate politics from the interest of private corporations.

(Yes, it does feel like me betraying my own kind)

My eventual goal for this is to show the world that Capitalism is so much better than feudalism. Granted, part of it is also in hopes of instilling the idea that these tinkertech blueprints are the source of wealth and to use corporations as our primary source of soft power.

Soft power describes the ability of a nation to co-opt and influence a foreign nation, such as through non-coercive measures like culture, political values, and foreign policies.

I imagined these corporations making large sums of Direct Foreign Investments (FDI) into other nations. Once those nations get a taste of these FDIs and saw how much it improves their lives, and since the Tempest government dictates what the corporations can do, they'll be more likely to bow down to our biddings.

The corporations will effectively become a Trojan Horse if you will. A poisoned gift, our way of meddling within the internal politics of other nations.

I then walked over to a standing security guard, who promptly gulped and saluted, "COMMANDER!" his hands shaking from how tense he is.

"At ease soldier." I then started taking off the ruined Aerial Combat System. "Look over these pieces of armor, I'll return to collect them soon enough."

"YES, COMMANDER!"

Turning to face the newcomers, I was about to apologize for the hold-up before I saw how Kaval, Gido, Eren, and even Shizu appeared to be gawking at me like I was doing something scandalous.

"Yes?" I asked, tilting my head, "is something the matter?"

Rimuru took a massive breath in before sighing.

"Scientia... your clothing..."

Looking down, I saw how I was wearing a set of ripped clothing, the same ones I had when I was sunbathing.

I don't really have any problems with it. It's not like it has anything to reveal. I mean, this new body of mine possesses no genitals at all. What's more, it isn't entirely inaccurate to describe my reincarnated body as a mannequin.

But, I see Rimuru's point. I should wear something formal.

"I see your point. Go ahead without me, I'll get changed." My head shifted so it was facing the adventurers. With [Acting] in full control, I spread my arms out wide as if I was about to give someone a hug. Theatrics describes every bit of my actions.

Add in a charming smile that has the two male adventurers blushing up a storm, I introduced them to the city.

"Welcome... to Metropolis, the City of the Future. I hope you enjoy your stay."

[Inspired Inventor]- a Unique Skill that borders on the strength of an Ultimate Skill. Every day, the owner is given 5 charges that can light up 5 different specialties.

-[Scientific Intuition: This skill allows one to have an intuitive understanding of science.

-[Engineering Aptitude: This skill grants one the ability to easily apply all user-known sciences to physical machines.

-[Endless Shard Knowledge: A library locked deep within the recess of the owner's soul, containing the information to everything in existence, an Akashic Record that knows how everything functions. The only way to access this information is through the many keys that are given to the owner daily which are burned away the moment the clock resets.

-[Escalation Engine: this skill demands to be used, and it shall be used. It will subconsciously influence the owner into building more and more powerful machines without end.

-[Final Ascension: [Unknown]

While Rimuru got the trio of adventurers settled in inside the Egg, I had Shizu follow me into a small medical clinic.

[Automation, [Architecture, [Structural Engineering, [Artificial Intelligence, and [Nanotechnology] made it so that for creating buildings, all I had to do was program the instructions for how to build the required structure into the nanites and the rest will be done.

It was a delegation and near-complete automation of work because let's be honest here, I'm wasted if I personally spend time constructing a building.

I had Shizu checked into the clinic and was about to give her an injection of anesthetics to relieve her from the pain of surgery.

But she refused.

Shizu doesn't trust me yet, even if the anesthetics are local instead of general anesthetics where the whole body is put into a state of unconsciousness.

In the end, it was decided by her that she'll bite on a clean towel to endure the pain as I got to work. The superhuman moved her mask up enough to reveal her mouth but not her nose and eyes, and I wanted to ask whether or not that was comfortable before stopping myself.

She stabbed me, she can at least endure some discomfort as I got to work.

I wore a lab coat as Shizu lay there on the operating table, her bloodied hand wrapped in bandages she made herself while I organized all the tools I'm going to need to perform a reconnection. I didn't bother to get the M.A.N.A., I think there's no way she would accept me trying to heal her if that's the case.

"Your severed fingers," I asked and Shizu hesitantly handed me the pouch that contained her fingers. Then, I dumped the whole thing inside a jar of bluish chemicals that'll help preserve what cells that are still alive.

I don't have any stem cells to replace the already dead cells at the moment, and I think my harvesting some from unborn hobgoblins would be seen as monstrous at best, as such I'm forced to use the ones from Shizu's own body.

I then took out a syringe, carefully stabbed into a blood vessel inside Shizu's shoulder, and drew out blood.

"What are you doing?" Shizu asked, her voice somewhat mumbled by the towel in her mouth.

"I'm going to need some of your blood," I explained my actions, "you may not know this but many of the cells within your severed fingers have already died off. I'm currently extracting your blood to try and, through a process known as 'Apheresis' (though it should've required a machine), collect stem cells that'll replace the dead ones. With this, your fingers should return to at least 99% of what it was capable of before."

Honestly, I planned to extract some stem cells from Shizu's bone marrow via surgery but after seeing how determined the superhuman was to not get put under, I chose a less painful method.

I have ethics.

"... you're able to do what only High Potions and the [Recovery] Holy Magic are able to do?" Her voice didn't sound distorted like before.

I was about to inject the extracted blood into another test tube filled with a chemical that'll separate different cells before stopping once I heard the words 'High Potion'.

"A High Potion? And Holy Magic?" I asked before pushing on the plunger of the syringe and inputting the blood into the long test tube.

"How do you not know what Holy Magic and High Potions are? Everyone knows about the healing that the Western Holy Church provides to its believers."

That specist Church again. I guess they must be really popular in the West... a problem I'll need to deal with. I thought before pushing in a stopper at the mouth of the test tube.

"Humor me," I asked before I started shaking the glass test tube like it was a glow stick in a concert.

"Holy Magic is a rare type of magic most commonly used by those who have great faith in a God. Most practitioners of the magic belong to the Western Holy Church as they're the largest religion in the West. Holy Magic is especially deadly against monsters since they purify the magicules."

Fascinating, does that mean gods exist here? The test tube shaking slowed down once the full implication hit me.

If gods exist... then perhaps it makes sense that the people here are so primitive. Faith is inherently anathema to scientific progress since it entails the unsubstantiated belief that something will happen. Whereas Science requires definitive proof of something.

If the Black Death didn't happen and didn't destroy people's belief in the Church, then the Renaissance and its humanism wouldn't have occurred, and Europe would still be in its backward, feudal medieval state.

I pulled out the stopper before grabbing a new sterile syringe. After settling down, the test tube now has multiple layers as everything within the blood has finally gotten separated. Using the new syringe, I stabbed into the thin second layer of the test tube and started extracting adult stem cells.

I turned to fully face the masked woman, "now I will reattach your fingers. This will be painful, are you absolutely sure that you won't need any anesthetics?"

Shizu bit down on a towel and in a tone that left no uncertainty, "yes."

It is actually impressive to have such an unbending will and endurance... it makes me question what kind of trauma she must have gone through to accept surgery without any anesthetics readily.

I don't think I myself could've faced such pain. Like seriously, to willingly endure the pain of reopening the stumps of the severed fingers and stitches without any anesthetics...

I sighed before I got to work with [Surgery] guiding my hands and performing another miracle.

Later.

[Silenced Emotion: 50%]

I walked out of the surgery room with my hands bloodied, my pure white lab coat dyed partially red. Without any context, I would almost look like a horror movie's psychopathic murderer after they had killed someone.

Looking down at my hands, I saw how it was shaking slightly. Her muffled screams, and the way her body would twitch still make me cringe in slight discomfort. If I had to measure it, I would say the discomfort is about the same as the wet clothing that would cling to my skin after a workout.

Shizu's action also made me realize just how much of the modern world I've taken for granted. Anesthetics, liberty, economic growth, clean streets, even as I introduce these modern concepts to these primitives, I'm left with the answer of just how far will I go to see them accept my modern sensibilities.

These goblins are easy since they are highly adaptable, but humans... one needs to look at history to know just how stubborn and rigid the humans are.

Images of Residential Schools flash across my mind. Even after over a hundred years of constant attempts by the Canadian government to erase First Nation culture, it still persists to the modern day right before I died. While many people may see that as a tragedy, I see it as the human spirit to never give up even in the face of such adversity.

I stared at my bloody, crimson hand as if it was the only thing that mattered right now. The redness made me ask just how much blood am I willing to spill to realize my dreams. How far am I willing to go to institute modernity into this Tolkien-esque world?

Dipping my hands in acid, I waited several seconds for the sterilization process to complete before taking my hands out, now free of any blood. The surface of my hands became the most sterile place on the entire planet aside from deep underground.

Looking down at my lab coat, I decided that it was best to change it before meeting with the trio of adventurers.

"I'm assuming you all want answers?" I opened the door to the Kaval and his party's residency, causing all three to shout in surprise. With a single glance, I was able to tell their burns were all healed, presumably thanks to the mage.

I wore my military clothing, as none would really fit the formal setting.

As I changed my clothes, I constructed several different false stories with the aid of [Literature] to tell as my 'backstory' before settling on this one that my gut is screaming at me to use.

"Hell yeah, I want answers! Like how the hell did you create the crystal knife without any magic?!" Kaval said explosively, appearing to be the hot-headed one of the group.

Planning my next moves, I decided to try and appeal to their sense of empathy. In a frank tone that seemed genuine, "I... I am a creation of a particularly cruel family of very powerful artificers," I said while eying Rimuru, subtly reminding him that, NO, we are NOT gonna tell them anything related to a Perfect Homunculus.

The trio's eyes widen at my response, with Kaval wilting like a flower in autumn as the winds were taken out of his sails.

I looked around the room, appearing very reluctant. With two charges into [Acting, I am one of, if not the best actor in the entire world.

"You see, within certain Magic Houses, there exists a VERY secret tradition of... of carrying the family legacy in the event where every member was to die. It's where Homunculus like me come to play. I am what is essentially a 'record doll', a mobile library containing everything a family of magicians has been working on." My frank tone continued as I told them the false story I constructed.

Before the advent of telecommunication, the fastest way that information can travel was the speed that a horse can run. Thus, information traveled exceedingly slowly. I was banking on the fact that these adventurers not knowing every artificer family out there.

Rimuru looked increasingly bewildered as I told my story. However, I don't think he'll backstab me and reveal the truth.

"For the centuries I was alive, I was mindless, a mere doll for others to command... and do with as they see fit." I emphasized the 'do' word to cause a bit of discomfort with the unspoken implications, "However, whether by a miracle from God or pure chance, I was given the ability to have my own free will, a mind of my own, an ego, sapience. The family that owned me didn't like that. So they prepared to transfer all my knowledge into a new Homunculus and then destroy me like a broken toy."

To fully be able to act or lie, you need to fully embrace the mask that you put on, and truly act as if you've always had that mask for your entire life, "But the Young Master..." False tears pooled around the edge of my eyes, surprising even myself with how much [Acting] is capable of, "He ensured that I would get out alive, and when I asked why he would say 'live. You've never had a chance to, so as my final order as the Heir to the House you once served for too long, I order you to LIVE!'"

I covered my mouth with my right hand.

The story is affecting the adventurers as a solemn look fell like a curtain, Eren getting extra emotional.

"And so, I decided to live, to live on, to see the world. Eventually, I met up with this group of small goblins with a blue slime by my side, and upon taking pity on their situation I decided to help them build the things you see around me. That is why you cannot tell anyone of this, of my existence. I apologize for trying to kill you but please, see things from my perspective."

I ended the beautiful story, a beautiful fiction for them to gobble up. Every step of the way I made sure my story have no loopholes.

"What's the family's name?" Kaval asked, just as planned.

"I do not know, for I didn't have my own will for long before the family decided to replace me. What I do know looking back at it now is that the family was situated in the West. Knowing that, I ran in the opposite direction into the West and stumbled across Rimuru the slime."

Whatever possible objection to my story died in their throats as Eren, the mage girl, actively sobbed, completely moved by my story. I had to look away as I grimaced, breaking my mask.

I can't stand people crying. For some reason, I really just can't. It makes me extremely uncomfortable, so the last time I cried— truly sobbed like what Eren was doing— was during high school.

Just how moving was my story? I expected it to shed a few tears but my god, I would've believed if a family member had died with how seriously Eren was crying!

The girl then fully enraptured me in a hug.

I had to control myself to not push Eren away, as she was sobbing into my clothes. My military officer clothing.

"Listen, I know how you feel," the mage girl said, her lips trembling as she released her hold on my body, "My—"

A hand fell on her shoulder. Gido's expression showed caring concern, his eyes saying all that needs to be said.

"Yes, yes I'm ready to say it. I NEED to say it, it's been bottled up for so long," She closed her eyes before opening them, tears dripping down her cheeks akin to raindrops sliding down the side window of a car. "I am an Elf. My name— my true name is Elyune H. Grimwald. I am— I was the daughter of Archduke Erald Grimwald of Sorcerous Dynasty of Sarion before escaping that life, that that that—" she gritted her teeth as if the very mention of something pained her on a physical level. Her knuckles were white from how hard she was compressing them.

My eyes widen when I had an epiphany: I almost killed the daughter of a Duke. An Archduke. The rank of 'Duke', according to the books that Rimuru had brought from Dwargon, said how it's known as the highest rank of Nobility, and an Archduke is a special rank that sits right below the King or Emperor. If not war, then gaining the enmity of an Archduke would at the very least be very troublesome.

"My Father," she spits out the words like it was poison, "wants me to marry one of the Princes, nay, he forces me to marry a prince, supposedly for my own 'good' or some random crap like that."

Surprisingly, [Psychology] is saying that everything the girl said is the truth. There's an uncanny parallel between her story and the one I constructed it seems I've struck an emotional cord with the girl. Now she's latching onto me like a lost man latching onto an oasis in the desert.

"But the Prince is known to be someone who's... strange, and his servants are replaced every month. The court gossip said he was a dreamy gentleman, the target of maidens everywhere. Of course, I don't listen to such things but..." She collapsed into my arm and cried softly much more softly compared to before, "I... I saw THINGS that day, things that a prince should not be doing, things that an elf should not be doing...I tried to talk to father but he refuses to budge on the marriage proposal unless I had proof, and to have to marry such a monster for the rest of my life..."

Instinctively, I raised a hand and started patting her on her back. It seemed her situation was similar to that of my sister. Before reincarnating, I had a younger sister. For the longest time in my life, we were close, but after... If I remember correctly, she had an infatuation with this one boy and wouldn't stop talking about him all day and all night.

However, one night when she went out, she returned home crying. When I asked what was wrong, she said it was nothing.

It took me a while to piece everything together, but once the truth came out, I was furious.

And I took revenge, but afterward, instead of being glad at the revenge, we had a falling out. I blame everything on the boy, so using my strings in the business world, I made sure he would never get a high-paying job.

"And—And... and so..." My hand rose until I'm patting the back of her head.

"Shh..." I shushed her because it seemed to me the memory was too painful. It was only then that I realize Rimuru had given me the appropriate amount of privacy and quietly left the room alongside Kaval and Gido.

How thoughtful.

"It's alright," I felt an odd sense of happiness, the type that one would feel when one connected to someone else. "I get it, you ran away from your father's influence in order to escape that monster of a prince, isn't it?"

[Silenced Emotion: 60%]

She nodded, then I had her move over to sit on the couch in the now-emptied room and then joined her. Now that things have calmed down, I'm left with what to do now. Eren is a powder keg just waiting to blow, and I've read too many books and seen too many movies where a small lie at the beginning would backfire hugely later down the line, it's one of the reasons why I prefer to stay honest in my personal relationships.

"Zzzzz"

"Wha—" I placed a hand over my mouth as I realize Eren fell asleep from the sheer emotional exhaustion telling me about her past must've taken her.

Carefully, I laid her out on the couch in a comfortable position.

I gazed upon her sleeping visage on the couch, her elven ears fully revealed as her human disguise fell apart. My eyes drank in her admittedly beautiful form, which was only further accentuated by how vulnerable she looked. If I had to compare her with women I've seen and slept with, she'll definitely outrank most of them in terms of looks.

"Daughter of an Archduke huh?"

So that's why Eren's teammates are so protective of her: she's the daughter of an Archduke and they're either friends who ran away with her or they're her bodyguards.

I crossed my arms before strutting over to Rimuru's desk, [Steath] ensured my movements were almost soundless. Looking around, I took a slip of paper and pencil and wrote Eren a note for when she would wake up.

Later, the Clinic.

"..."

"You regret not taking anesthetics, didn't you?" I said while crossing my arms and a smirk of superiority on my face.

"...yes..." Shizu had said quietly, the mask on her face blocking me from seeing her features. The superhuman then idly looked around the operating room where she was situated in.

"Well, your fingers should return to full function within a day or two. It really is fortunate that your digits were healed on the same day as I doubt I could return it to full function without come machine I don't access to right now." I rambled before turning around to walk out of the operation room, "well, I'd recommend you drink lots of water and get lots of sleep. Although, you're an otherworlder, aren't you?"

"Yes indeed. Though, how did you know?" Shizu replied immediately without any hesitation.

Hmm, it seems I can't use that fact.

"Well, the fact that you seemed to know whatever Rimuru was doing when he bowed was the smoking gun, however, you confirming it was the nail in the coffin."

An uncomfortable silence fell into the room like an avalanche as Shizu tried to get up before sitting on the hospital bed. Her muscles were tense and could blitz at a moment's notice. Even while in the hospital, a warrior's spirit still lingers in Shizu's body.

It'd been admirable if the act wasn't so foolish.

Breaking the ice, Shizu spoke up, "I was told of your backstory from Kaval."

[Acting] instantly activated to make sure I don't screw this up. I doubt a superhuman as strong as Shizu isn't well known, well if Kaval and his teammates were the benchmarks for baseline humans. It's even possible that Shizu has fame that crosses borders. Gaining her help and support will aid the Republic in gaining legitimacy and recognization on the international stage.

A mysterious smile appeared on my face.

Ah, the bane of all new nations. In my old world, to exist, to simply be recognized as a 'nation' would require other nations to recognize you. Otherwise, even if you have all the properties of a nation like a functioning government, military, and public utilities like Taiwan or Somaliland, you still won't be a 'nation' in the eyes of the international community.

However, in the Republic's case, it would be like if a new nation arose in the middle of Africa or the Ocean that has spacefaring capacities.

We would have a huge target on our back, yet at the same time, I do not doubt many would also come to our aid in hopes of getting a piece of our technology.

"I... there were rumors and conspiracy theories of some well-known mage families doing something similar to what you described, so I wouldn't say it's out of the ordinary for a family to transcribe everything they've learned into a Homunculus' brain." She said.

The best lies in the world are those that have a sprinkle of truths mixed in. Once I heard about the existence of homunculus and how mental magic works, I knew there was an albeit minor possibility for at least one family to use the dolls as the ultimate hidden library, after all, who could've imagined this servant contains the secrets to creating artifacts that boggle the mind?

But I heard and understood what she didn't say, which compounded to 'you have your secrets, and I want something in return for me keeping them'.

"As enlightening as your story is, I must ask, do you have the capacity to... remove spiritual possession?"

I raised an eyebrow to express confusion, I was not expecting that. "What do you mean? Like an exorcism?" Jokingly, I placed a charge in [Exorcism] and found out that, yes, there are so many ways to banish demons, and combined with [Magicule] gave me several different spells I can use to completely destroy a Baron rank demon while also seriously harming a Viscount.

Shizu looked reluctant, "... Well sort of. You've created magic-less technological miracles I've never seen before, even beyond that of my own world. I don't know if you know this, but the country I was born in went from a nation on the same technological level as one of the Western states into a contemporary modern industrial power on par with Europe in the span of a single generation."

I wasn't too familiar with Japanese history, but I knew she was born in sometime after the Meiji Restoration, presumably sometime around the two World Wars. Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised but... Shizu looked so young it's not even funny!

"How old are you?" I blurted out without thinking and received a reply in the form of a pillow getting thrown at me.

"How rude, didn't you learn any manners from your stay at the 'Noble House'?"

I caught the pillow midair, "Apologies, so you want me to banish a spirit inside you?"

Shizu seemed to be silent as if she isn't allowed to actually say it. As if an everpresent eye is always watching, ready to strike if any of the terms are broken, completely devoid of privacy.

What a frightening concept.

"You... want me to banish a spirit from a friend?"

Taking her silence as yes, I continued, "The family I stayed with did have some entries on removing spiritual possessions. but...from my knowledge, there are many forms of spiritual possession, what kind of possession do you potentially want to remove from this... hypothetical person?" I framed the question in such a way as for the 'eye' to see Shizu referring to a friend instead of herself.

"This person is being possessed by a Greater Spirit."

[Exorcism] was silent on the matter as the being wasn't a demon. So instead I placed enough charges into [Spiritual Removal] before finally stumbling on a way to remove it, although it would be extremely expensive.

"The process to remove a Greater Spirit is very expensive and not everyone can afford it, are you sure this 'friend' of yours can pay for it?"

"I'll pay for them. I have connections. Connections that would undoubtedly help a homunculus on the run such as yourself, personal wealth that can buy an estate in the upper section of Corbin in the Kingdom of Falmuth, and a squeaky clean reputation as the Conqueror of Flame. These will ensure it is worth it."

I had a smile on my face, yes this is indeed good. "Yes, but... you see, I am more in need of a strong bodyguard in the future to protect myself against the many threats that'll surely come, a shield that'll protect me loyally."

Her mouth thinned to a line at the implication of what I want, which is loyalty enforced through a contract, a 'Geas' these primitives are so fondly of calling it. The silence persisted until Shizu draped her head in submission, her lips thinned into a line in unwillingness, "very well, a contract then? For how long?"

Putting a finger on my chin, [Spiritual Removal] states that to remove the possession of a Greater Spirit, I would need many technologies currently not built. Yet the thought of gaining someone as strong as the Conqueror of Flame as a bodyguard is just too tempting. Long-term goals, Scientia.

"How long are you willing?"

Shizu's body language says she was in deep thought before turning to me and taking off her mask, allowing me to view her properly. Despite being older than my grandpa, Shizu looked like she wasn't a day older than 25.

Shizu's eyes were filled with determination as she stared unflinchingly into my own. The burn scar underneath her left eye only emphasized her warrior spirit.

"I... I will become your bodyguard for as long as I shall live, as long as you help this 'friend' of mine and save her from the spirit possessing her, and you'll complete one of my requests in the future."

I had a truly wide grin at that, [Planning] and [Economic Design] all rejoicing at the things the Conqueror of Flame could bring, [Strategy] thinking that Shizu could definitely help train the security guard in hand-to-hand combat.

But most importantly, I now have a superhuman as my bodyguard.

"I accept this contract, under the condition that I reserve the right to reject your request if it's too outlandish."

"The request is about saving some children."

"... fine, I accept this contract of your lifelong service and will complete your request."

"Deal."

[Guide to Victory]- a subconscious skill that guides the user to victory through mental suggestions and odd feelings they'll have every now and then. The ability is less useful for those of stronger wills as they are more likely to reject whatever advice the Guide gives them.

-[All the Possibilities: whenever the Guide tries to think of advice, the power will go through every single possibility and select a range of options that result in at least some form of victory. Then it selects the options most likely to succeed.

-[Into the Unknown: This Skill will passively simulate countless futures using the magicule within the host's body and collect data for what the user finds most satisfying before trying to nudge them towards that future.

-[Unseeable Future: This skill cannot guide the user against any Ultimate Skill users as their future is too chaotic to be known, however, it does also have the effect of making the user a blindspot to any divination or precognition magic, skills, or artifacts. This effect can be extended if the Guide sees it as necessary for victory.

-[Conflict Drive: The Guide seeks conflict as a secondary goal, so oftentimes, it will attempt to achieve victory through the most conflict-driven way unless it counteracts the user's safety or its primary goal of attaining victory.

AN: I felt the 3 adventurers were WAY underused, and so I offered them to have some character depth beyond just helpful background characters.

If you guys are confused as to why Shizu didn't get overpowered when she had her mask off, recall what I said about the Vesta incident, I sped up the timeline by months so Shizu still could contain Ifrit somewhat.

and I need to somehow deal with Chloe Aubert and her stupid Grey Boy Time Looping.

Also, believe it or not, the false back story of Scientia was actually one of the first drafts. The first version was going to be in Worm and Scientia was originally going to be a Bonesaw creation before eventually escaping.

BTW, if you guys still couldn't understand what Guide to Victory is, then just imagine Jack Slash's secondary power of subconsciously knowing what other Parahuman wants but instead for the future.

Several of Chekhov's guns are primed and ready.

To remove a possession, the easiest way is to give the spirit possesser a better host to possess, that way said spirit will leave willingly and without any harm done to the original host.

However, I do not have the luxury of having another more suitable subject as Shizue told me how she had this blasted thing for decades, I thought as I look upon the notes I gathered on this new patient of mine. It's already late into the night and I'm waiting for tomorrow's charges to place more into required specialties.

Thump*

"Ugh."

Smacking my face onto the table, I groaned. If this was a science problem I can easily solve it, but an occult one? I don't even know the names of the specialties to put the charges in! It's like asking a friend to pick up a pizza from Pizza Hut and not telling them which Pizza Hut you ordered from.

It's utterly demoralizing. Seriously, I am someone who's on track to turn the Jura Tempest Republic into the first modern nation, someone who unlocked a fraction of God's power in the form of the atom and I can't solve a possession issue? I would ask Rimuru's [Great Sage] but I don't think he approves of me signing such a contract with her, and an absolutely loyal bodyguard as an additional line of defense when, not if, my true nature is exposed would be, quite frankly, desirable.

The clock kept ticking as I waited until midnight for my charges to refresh, for me to be able to once again feel the constellation of five charges within me. In the meantime, I continued to brainstorm what specialties to put the charges in, writing down the candidates.

I held the paper up to the lamplight. There were about a dozen names written on there, with the most promising idea being [Magicules, but honestly, I much prefer using one that's less magical. It's a personal prejudice of mine.

Releasing my hold on the paper and hearing it fall into the table, I decided to lean back onto the chair I'm sitting in.

"Hrm..." taking a mental break by squeezing my eyes shut before opening them, I looked outside through the dark townscape and into the Jura Forest. It was a wall of pure darkness that was only lit slightly by the light coming from Metropolis.

Getting up from the workdesk, I walked out to the balcony on top of the Egg and looked down at what I'd built. The city. Street lights lit up some of the roads with a hobgoblin here and there working and moving things to prepare for tomorrow's busy day before going to sleep.

There was a sense of peacefulness in the air. Being so high up above the trees, the wind blew much faster and I could feel the cool summer breeze wafting through me.

In such a peaceful moment, one can't help but reminisce about the past. Part of my mind wonders if it was a night like this that gave ideas to ancient philosophers and poetry writers because I'm feeling weirdly introspective.

I closed my eyes. With the night's embrace blanketing everything, I could almost pretend, for a however brief moment it will be, that I'm in my old world.

[Silenced Emotion: 30%]

"—!" Sensing an unknown presence on the other side of the balcony, my hands reflexively reached for and pulled out a glowing Dasher in a kaleidoscope of colors and swung it at the intruder.

Just as I was about to cut them, I stopped mid-slash and realized it was the unmasked figure of Shizue. Her figure didn't even flinch when the knife was mere centimeters from their eyes.

My eyes narrowed before sheathing Dasher once again in a specialized container.

"You should be careful to not sneak up on me, that knife could cut effortlessly through any matter." A few weeks ago, I played around with [Dimensional Physics] by placing a few charges into it. Only then did I realize just how much materials I'm going to need to properly utilize that overpowered specialty. When I say a lot, I meant I'm going to need a whole moon's worth of raw resources just to get the good stuff.

[Dimensional Physics] grant me the capacity to create dimension-shearing swords that can cut through any conventional matter, make guns that fire off virtual particles that decay entropically in Realspace thanks to the Conservation of Mass, and build a type of shield that utilizes an 'ultra-relativistic fluid'. In essence, through some quirk of physics that is unknown to me, if specific circumstances are met, instead of collapsing into a singularity, I can somehow create a baby universe that exists alongside the main universe as a sphere of event horizon instead of separately.

Effectively, controlled event horizons.

With the thickness of a single quark and weighing tens of thousands of tones per cubic meter, this shield terminates all worldline that reaches its surface, meaning that it's disconnected from the outer universe and anything short of a black hole or other similarly extreme manipulation of spacetime cannot hope to penetrate it.

[Dimensonal Physics] called it a gravastar shield, and it's way out of my grasp for now. So instead, I chose to build what I can at the moment.

Namely, what's known as a Quantum Variation Field Manipulator into the handle of Dasher. This tinkertech is something I can understand, at least somewhat. See, in the field of quantum mechanics, there exists a thought experiment called 'Boltzmann Brain'. The thought experiment came from Ludwig Boltzmann and it stipulates how according to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, it is possible, in a chaotic and infinite universe, that a brain could arise from simple probabilistic fluctuations down on the smallest scale.

Now, the QVF Manipulator controls the quantum superposition of electrons to create a shearing effect by making sure the target's atom's electron cloud remains in a wave function. In such an event, any possible physical resistance is rendered null because the very atomic structure that makes up the target just doesn't exist anymore. Cutting through a diamond is as easy as chopping aerogel.

"Why are you so paranoid? In a place as miraculous as this, you should feel safe here, especially since you are the one who built it if what the goblins are saying is correct." Her tone is warm while being underpinned by what's undoubtedly one of extreme confusion and bewilderment at how is it possible for me, someone who can be seen as the Founder of this city and the creator of all these miracle technologies to be so afraid.

Then, she cheekily added, "I highly doubt the 'family' is omniscient enough to check this deep into the Jura Forest."

Shizue warmed up to me pretty quickly after we finalized the contract and geas. She told me her real name, that being 'Shizue Izawa' and now acts extremely friendly.

It was very off-putting, considering how I tried to kill her less than a day ago. I'd have guessed she'd be at least somewhat wary about me but I guess that's more of my own modern bias polluting my judgment.

"That is my own thing, not your business— and why are you even here?" I asked, trying to divert the conversation to something else.

"Well, if I am to be your bodyguard I should get to know where you live, shouldn't I?" Shizue said playfully, and much to my despair, any potential argument died on my tongue at the logic of the statement.

"Fair enough, I suppose," I said while shrugging. Heading inside, Shizue followed me in to observe my place.

"So... weird looking."

"What?"

Her words caused me to pause.

"Is this design really what your world thinks fashionable?" She said before touching one of the sofas, "everything is just so... geometric, so rigid, so unnatural, so bland and lifeless..."

She trailed off after seeing the modern house that's mainly composed of white and shades of grey, before moving to the kitchen, pulling out a chair, and sitting on it, her body facing towards the table. The superhuman seemed surprised when said table suddenly lit up, multiple windows opened up about what would she like to drink.

"I mean, in my culture, from what little I remember having been gone for so long, we often build buildings that have vibrant colors, sliding doors, and other things. Although I seem to recall because of the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Bricktown buildings became more and more popular with more Western influences."

Shizue then tapped the table with caution, like an 80-year-old grandmother who was just introduced to the wonders of touch screens. Her movements were slow and methodical, and her body language spoke clearly of how she was trying to decipher the thing in front of her like how she would decipher an enemy's attack pattern.

However, to me, seeing Shizue play around with the table touch screen just reminded me of that one time when I had gifted my grandfather with an iPhone 5 for Christmas years ago. He was so confused at what each thing does that he managed to somehow change the main language into German.

Slowly, Shizue's movement grew erratic and she got more anxious since more and more windows popped into existence on the glass screen of the table, before going into absolute panic mode. Sighing at what was happening in front of me, I pulled out a chair and sat next to her. Then I deleted all the extra windows by pressing the trashcan icon that sat near the edge of the table.

I guess Japan back in WWII didn't have anything this advanced huh? I thought sarcastically. Personally, I don't think Shizue and I came from the same world, but I wouldn't completely dismiss the possibility.

"This is what we in my world call a 'Touch Screen'. The hobgoblin who got the blueprint for a more primitive version of this called a 'phone' are still trying to find a way to profitably manufacture it."

I tapped the side icon of beverages on my table and selected 'water' among the choices. Moments later, a section of the wall opened up to reveal a black Roomba-shaped drone that began to move toward me. After it reached the base of my chair, the top opened to a glass of water that began its ascend with a pillar underneath it.

Grabbing the glass, I took a drink before looking over to Shizue, who had quickly burst out laughing, "what was the purpose of that? Can't you just... walk over to a water container and scoop some? Or maybe use a Water Spell to condense the vapor in the air into water?"

The superhuman had an incredulous tone as if she couldn't believe that someone would create something as useless as a servant drone.

Just as I was about to rebuke that statement, I stopped myself to look at the glass of water, realizing that this is a primitive society where people had to learn how to be frugal, where to earn a better position in life you must work harder.

The culture of this world and WWII Japan must be clashing with my modern consumerism perspective.

Placing the glass onto the table, I looked untroubled at her statement, "you would be surprised at how many people would want a home as smart as mine."

"I think you mean lazy."

"You..."

[Silenced Emotion: 35%]

I paused and pondered at her words. It's human nature to be lazy and to do what we want to do, it's the whole reason why supply and demand exist because if we could do everything ourselves, we wouldn't even need to form a civilization where everyone has a role.

Every single invention ever since the creation of the wheel was to make our life easier. The wheel allowed us to transport more goods over longer distances, the aqueducts allowed the ease of moving freshwater into the city, the creation of the electric bulb made lighting easier, and the guns made the act of killing an easier affair.

"I guess it's human— nay a universal nature of all sapient lifeforms to find an easier way to live." I simply concluded, "everything we ever did was to make our life easier, from the wheel to guns, it makes everything more efficient and less energy-intensive."

Shizue looked at me with surprise on her face. She probably didn't expect my reply.

Then, from out of nowhere, I felt 5 torches lighting up within me. It seems that once again, [Inspired Inventor] is ready to be used once more.

Alright, let's put one into [Occult].

Instantly, I felt a torch get extinguished, in its place was a new specialty.

Well, [Occult] combined with [Laser] gave me a blueprint for a laser emitter that harms the supposedly intangible. Interesting, even if I don't know much about science, I knew the implication of such a scenario would mean that there's more about Electromagnetism than scientists from my old world would know.

Getting up from my seat, I began to walk towards the main door to the hallway outside. This time, I won't have to jump out off the balcony since I'm not in a hurry. However, just as I opened the door, I turned back to look at Shizue, whose currently playing around with the table.

"Ah right, just so you know, I have a ceremony tomorrow concerning the first school opening. It's been delayed for weeks as the Conservative budded head to head with the MPPs over tax revenue and mining rights until it was finally greenlit by the Executive Branch three days ago."

A school for children was one of the first things I recommended building. I even preemptively picked out teachers and gave them several crash courses at night before the whole deal with the Tempest Dollars.

Then, [Psychology] told me Shizue only understood half of what I said, so I decided to dumb it down.

"I need you to guard me essentially."

"O-oh, right, I'll be there tomorrow... when?"

"10:00 AM sharp." Then, I realized Shizue doesn't really have anywhere to stay, "Oh, and you can claim any empty bedroom you want. I have plenty in this penthouse."

Accurate timekeeping made it so that the hobgoblin's days are much more organized since they wouldn't need to look at the position of the sun to know what time it was. In fact, clocks are one of the most popular technology out there, with every household owning at least one.

Walking through the doorway of the penthouse, I quietly closed it behind me.

Going through the same process of inputting the password, the door to my lab slid open.

Workbench stood near the wall on one side of the room, out of the way and always awaiting my command.

"Workbench."

The wolf chimera neared and opened its sides to reveal the multitude of tools and other chemicals I'd placed inside it for storage.

Reaching into the bowls of Workbench, I pulled out M.A.N.A. before placing it on my head. Slowly, the neural connectors inserted themselves into my skin and wrapped around my spine, connecting to the nerves held within the bones. With a single thought, some of the tentacles reached over to some of the tools hung from the insides of the Workbench and took them out.

Placing a charge into [Spirit Containment] and getting only ways to contain spirits but none for Greater Spirits, I got to work tinkering.

Pulling up a whiteboard and with one of the tentacles holding a marker while another held an eraser, I got to work brainstorming more ideas.

As of right now, the only idea I have is to remove the Greater Spirit through some kind of surgery on the soul itself. Not ideal, as I don't even know much about the soul.

Next, I placed a charge into [Metaphysics] and received blueprints for a type of specialized gamma laser that'll cut any spirits apart.

"Hrmm", well that's useful if this Greater Spirit becomes violent.

Placing my fourth charge of the day into [Spirit Containment] to strengthen it, I got the blueprint when a newly strengthened specialty combined with [Biology] to create a new body to transfer the Greater Spirit into. It's much easier than an inanimate object but runs the risk of the spirit taking over the body.

I'll need to cripple the new body in some way as to trap the spirit.

I then had one of the free tentacles of the M.A.N.A. reach over to a stack of books and pull out an especially thick one. It's an occult book about spirits that Rimuru brought back from his disastrous visit to Dwargon.

Flipping the page, I skimmed over it until I reached a section about Greater Spirits.

Apparently, there were four Greater Spirits. The Greater Spirit of Water, Undine. The Greater Spirit of Wind, Sylphide. The Greater Spirit of Earth, War Gnome (What kind of name is War Gnome? It's like naming yourself 'Tank Man'). And finally, The Greater Spirit of Fire, Ifrit.

How much you wanna bet the Conqueror of Flames has Ifrit possessing her?

I let out a deep sigh of relief. Now that I've isolated the specific spirit that was possessing Shizue, I can now create more specialized tools to aid in its removal.

According to this book, when a spirit has been attached to someone long enough, they tend to bind itself to its hosts in a way similar to how bandaids become more painful to remove the longer you have them on. Obviously, I'll need extremely precise tools.

And more importantly, I'll need more tools that can interact with the intangibles first. Physical things like scalpels and knives can't touch or even vaguely affect anything spiritual. Not even Dasher with its QVF Manipulator can affect the spirit.

[Dimensional Physics] then spoke up and gave me the idea of a scalpel with a dimensional shearing effect that can precisely cut anything within a 3-dimensional space. Sounds like an optimal tool to use, but the cost... the power requirement alone is more than the power output of an entire nation like Britain.

Not ideal.

Looking over more of the books that Rimuru had brought from his visit, I found a specific one about souls. The book said that there are three bodies within a single person: the Material Body, the Spiritual Body, and the Astral Body.

The Material Body refers to the actual physical body that everyone interacts with, and it's a requirement for spirits to have a material body lest they get rejected from Realspace.

The Spiritual Body prevents the Soul and Astral Body from collapsing, and it also has a copy of the person's memories. I wouldn't really classify this as a body personally.

Finally, the Astral Body is the innermost body and the container that surrounds the soul itself. Supposedly, the Astral Body can be seen as where the 'soul' began and where the 'material' body ends.

"How fascinating." I can't help but remark. The science in my old world has almost definitively proven the universe to be a materialistic one, but with a single reincarnation, I've completely disproven that notion.

An entire field of study hidden away from 21st Century physics.

I feel like Albert Einstein before he made his Theory of Relativity. I was a pioneer within a new field of study comparable to those early 20th Century physicists who were marching ahead into a previously unknown field of study about things on the smallest scale, how the world was more than just Isaac Newton's Classical Mechanics.

[Magicule] and [Surgery] then spoke up to give me a magical solution of creating enchantments that can cut within the spiritual level and leave the physical alone, hereby removing any and all possible harm done to it.

A grimace appeared on my lips. I... really would rather not use anything magical. [Psychology] said how it's a personal prejudice of mine but I trust science far more than magic.

Then, I placed my final charge of the day into [Pocket Dimensional Engineering] in the hopes that it'll net me a solution to trapping Ifrit in case things gets out of hand.

I already underestimated Shizue and was almost defeated in battle. I'd rather be overprepared than get caught off guard like I did the last time.

Clung*

"Ah!" The M.A.N.A. dropped all that it was holding as a flood of information rushed into my brain, so much so that it took me a few seconds of sorting and organizing before any coherent thoughts could be made once more.

Let's see... now pocket universes are completely out of my grasp since that requires a black hole to start with, so I'll instead build a subspace pocket dimension. It doesn't require much energy, and I could build it with the items around my lab. It also deposits the stuff inside the pocket dimension out like a dump truck once it collapses and the distorted spacetime returns to normal.

It took me several hours, and I had to disassemble some machines I had already built for their parts, but I eventually made the pocket dimension generator. The generator works by generating a small wormhole to consume a local region of space, creating a type of subspace pocket dimension that exists adjacent to normal spacetime.

If I was forced to put it into simpler terms, imagine spacetime as a piece of cloth, the generator stretches a specific region within that cloth, causing it to bubble out as a sack that is connected to the normal universe by a very thin 'string' (AKA wormhole).

This is probably the most advanced thing I've built so far, and such control of spacetime isn't even the limit if the blueprints that [Inspired Inventor] is showing me are any indication.

Looking at the clock and seeing how there was only one hour left until the ceremony, I decided to quickly tinker up some laser-based tools I can use as a scalpel during the eventual spiritual surgery on Shizue.

After completion, I wiped some sweat off my forehead and looked at the clock, seeing that it was 9:55 AM—

"SHIT!" I cursed out, immediately dropping whatever tools were in my and the M.A.N.A.'s hands.

I looked around me in a bit of a panic before realizing the giant flesh octopus that was on my head. Quickly, I reached up and yanked the octopus off my head, undoubtedly severing all of the neural connectors.

I'm... going to need to repair that, I thought as I placed the tinker assistant onto a nearby chair.

Scratching my head, I looked down at my clothing. The hobgoblins and tempest wolves probably wouldn't care if I wore my military clothing but Rimuru definitely will find it distasteful.

"But I don't have any good options..."

Quickly coming up with a compromise, I put on the inner tunic and pants of my military officer clothing. Without the outer jacket, it shouldn't be too obvious that I'm wearing military dress to the opening of a school and it is formal enough.

Running out of the doors of my labs, I recalled where exactly the ceremony was located and broke into a sprint.

Barreling through the streets of Metropolis like an albino missile with a speed comparable to a car on a freeway, I was silently thankful that right now wasn't the morning rush hour and the road was relatively clean of people.

Very quickly, I reached the area where the ceremony was being held.

It was a very grand ceremony, with a lavish party and many banners to boot. The school itself can be considered an engineering marvel, with wide-open spaces and large windows to let the light in. It's also got one of the more unique designs with smooth, unbroken designs that stand out from the Egg and the rest of the buildings in Metropolis.

In all honesty, it looked more like a concept art of a school in a utopian future rather than anything real.

Effortlessly scaling the fence that surrounds the school with [Gymnastics] and [Stealth] guiding my every move, I silently sneaked behind the main stage that was set up near the entrance to the futuristic school.

I found everyone panicking at my absence, with one of the organizers running around asking people if they'd seen me and a masked Shizue trying to calm everyone down.

In business, punctuality is absolutely necessary, as it shows your boss that you take your job seriously. In my climb on the corporate ladder, I've never once been late for anything, so as you can imagine, I'm feeling a sense of sickness in my stomach.

Even if I was late by only two minutes.

"I'm here," I spoke up, catching everyone's attention.

Shizue quickly jaunted over and before bowing, "My Lady, now that you're here, we can finally start the ceremony."

The superhuman then pulled something out of her pockets before handing me a weird stone with a hole on one end.

"Shizue what is this?"

"It's a Sonic Amplification Stone. You talk into the hole and your voice will get amplified. I usually have one on me in case I need to stun an enemy with a loud sonic blast."

Seeing my face, Shizue then elaborated, "it's on the lowest setting, it'll amplify your voice enough that everyone can hear you."

Then, my bodyguard moved out of the way and gestured me to backstage.

Well, I guess time waits for no man.

I jaunted over and stood on the stage. 100 pairs of eyes were now on me. My mind unhelpfully dredged up memories of when I was young when no sound could come out of my throat as I stood in front of a crowd similar in size to this one during my elementary school's talent show.

[Silenced Emotion: 60%]

A nostalgic smile shaped my lips. That was a much simpler time, but I am no longer a simple boy.

Whispers began to run amok amongst the crowd at my apparent silence. I could see at the edge of my peripherals the organizers starting to panic once more at my silence.

After letting the silence continue for 15 seconds, I opened my mouth to speak into the stone.

"In the courtyard of this school, is a geometric sphere with rings orbiting around it. The rings are disconnected from each other and are only held up with magnets." I gestured toward an area behind the crowd, where a few hobgoblins sat, "In anywhere else, such a thing is only possible with magic, but I designed the thing and built it without any magic."

My eerily perfect voice instantly garnered everyone's undivided attention in a way similar to how a death wail would instantly warn every animal within a several-kilometer radius that a death had just occurred. I could spot a particular couple taking the time of my silence to flirt with each other, but the moment I started talking, they stopped to give me their full attention.

I spread my free arm out as if to point at the areas all around me, "everything you see here, from the smallest pencils to the largest buildings, is built without any magic. It is through science that I have built, science that is so advanced they appear like magic to any ignorant people."

I then started walking around the stage.

"Science, that's a new word, isn't it? Even as I'm communicating with you all through what's apparently the universal language of the world, you've all never heard of it before, correct?"

Like dominos, only a few heads nodded before the rest followed. Stopping at the left edge of the stage, I paused once more in my speech before turning to face the audience for dramatic effect.

"Science is the study of the natural world through observation and experimentation. This means that I am using natural laws to my advantage instead of outright bending them like magic." I then pointed at a random hobgoblin, "This also means that you too could also become as powerful as me through science. In fact, ANYONE can be as powerful as me through science."

I can see the widened eyes and stunned faces of each of the hobgoblins. Historically, they've always been seen as the weakest among the Monster races, oftentimes bullied by other stronger races.

The idea that they could be as strong as me, was almost unthinkable.

"To become a mage, one needs to have a special talent in manipulating magicules. To become a warrior, one needs to have good genetics. To have powerful skills, one needs to have a strong soul: all of these paths to power require chance, but Science?" I started talking steadily louder and faster, "Even if you have no special talent in controlling magicules, even if you are crippled from the waist down, even if you have a weak soul: Science only requires you to have a sound mind. You don't even need to have a particularly sharp mind or wit. Science is the great equalizer. It is the thing that will give rise to those who have-not to the same level as those who have. Science is the master key, science will answer all of our problems, and science will achieve things that magic or Skills can never hope to!"

By the end, I was raising my fists and yelling, my voice choke-full of emotions. I was riling the crowd up into a frenzy. The power of an orator.

I closed my mouth and licked my dry lips. I raised a hand and waited patiently for the crowd to die down.

"My name is Scientia Tempest, and it is in this school that I hope, my greatest wish that, your children could learn science. Could learn about the things that made me powerful. With the abolishment of the Youth League, I welcome everyone to the opening of the Metropolitan Academy of Higher Thought and Learning. Within this academy, we are teaching the next generation of thinkers instead of workers, as such, we encourage critical thinking and independence. We encourage each student to have their own ideas and their own minds, to explore the world on their own. Because now something unstoppable has occurred."

I paused, building up even more suspense. Then, I resumed in a grave tone as if I was talking about the Holocaust.

"Change. Change is coming. Radical changes that'll make your lives unrecognizable. The march of progress that has once been halted has now resumed, an unstoppable march that'll bring us all into the future, a technological, utopian future for all instead of the stasis you've all been in for the last however long it is."

With a solemn look, I ended my speech.

"Eventually, probably within a century or two. History will look back and see today. This very day... will become known as the starting point of when the march of progress has started once more. I welcome all new students. If you need more information, please check out the info desk.

It was deep into the night when the ceremony finally ended. The late-night party was filled with newly rich entrepreneurs and ambitious business hobgoblins networking with each other. Honestly, the party became less about the school and more about business, just like the many charity events and fundraisers organized by the company I worked at in my last life.

Well, I kind of did expect this to happen. It was only natural, for almost everyone in this room owned at least one blueprint or two. The booklet I wrote for these entrepreneurs said how networking was the most important element within any business and I did start auctioning off one or two tinkertech blueprints now and then as a way of making some money on the side.

Granted I could just turn on the money printer since I'm the acting head of the Ministry of Treasury, but that feels too much like corruption to me. Not to mention the inflation and potential loss of trust in the Tempest Dollar just as it's starting out. With blueprints, I could at least justify it as a private citizen exercising Capitalism.

Fortunately, no one attempted to try and network with me. If they did, I'd have shot them down regardless of what they might say. [Psychology] noted how since no one attempted to talk with me, none of the hobgoblins wanted to be the first for fear of standing out too much and get subsequently excluded from any future dealings.

Guess I'm something of a taboo, huh?

After the party, I'm back in the lab working on a power source for the pocket dimension generator. Sparks flew as more and more of a hydrogen fusion reactor powerful enough to give light to an entire city comes into shape. However, while my body was piecing the reactor together, my head was elsewhere.

Unlike the adults, kids had no reservations about talking to me, so during the party, one child hobgoblin came up and asked me just how many jobs I have.

Let's see, I'm the acting head of over a dozen Ministries (just like Rimuru), I'm the Commander of the Grand Republic Military, and I'm the Director of the as-of-yet unofficial Research and Development. The latter one I came up with on my own since I think it's appropriate considering I'm the one who's bringing modernity into this world.

This is one of the reasons why I asked if Rimuru was sure he wanted to tie his fate with the goblins. It's like getting a random remote village in Africa and asking them to run a country: they really can't since none of them are not educated, unlike those in the human cities. Personally, I'd preferred if I could cut a deal with one of the human kingdoms and start off that way.

Thankfully, however, long-term-wise, the academy should help in raising the literacy rates among the kids. But as for the short-term? I'd need to create a short, one-week crash course with [Teaching] to start filling the government with somewhat competent people that won't just fill their Ministry with their own friends and family member.

Nepotism was really popular back in the day.

Finishing up the hydrogen fusion reactor to power the pocket dimension, I started work on more tools that'll participate in the spiritual surgery.

At the very least, I won't have to do any paperwork, so silver linings.

AN: Fun fact, the idea for Scientia's eerie perfection came from this one passage I remember reading from the book Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. It was when the protagonist Percival talked about how there were freakishly beautiful faces within the Oasis.

12

Are you sure this will work?" Shizue asked without her mask, worry clear in her voice. The superhuman looked extremely vulnerable as she lay there on the operating table, wearing only a thin gown. The room was rather dark, with the only light source coming from a headlight directly above the operating table that was slightly aimed away at the superhuman.

Her worry's only logical, as according to her, I'm about to perform something comparable to feats that only an S-rank mage could do.

It took a week of constant tinkering, but everything was finally ready. Over that period of time, I upgraded the subspace generator and created a reinforced surgery unit to be placed inside the generated pocket dimension.

The surgery room is something I see that could be created in my old world's future. It's a portable room the size of a typical bedroom that contains everything a surgeon might need to perform emergency surgeries that could stabilize wounded soldiers in battle. With enough armor to tank multiple RPG rounds, the unit could be placed near the front lines and act as a temporary shelter as well.

While Shizue stayed, the three adventurers left Metropolis four days ago after we negotiated their silence by granting the status as the first humans to receive Tempest Citizenship. With that citizenship, the Jura Tempest Republic is legally obligated to come to the adventurer's defense according to the Constitution.

I sighed at Shizue's questioning. I'd been happy to answer her questions... if I hadn't already done so multiple times over the past week.

[Silenced Emotion: 50%]

Still, I can't blame her for worrying all that much. After all, I too would be worried if someone got ahold of my soul.

Thinking of Shizue's soul also brought up an interesting cultural quirk of this new world that's different from my old one, namely, the activity is known as 'Soul Viewing'. Apparently, in this spiritually inclined world, Soul Viewing is synonymous with marriage among the wealthy or desire for marriage in various forms of literature. It is treated with an extreme amount of respect and care since when one gazes upon another's soul, it is considered a share of privacy deeper than even having penetrative coitus.

Oh second thought, perhaps Shizue was more worried about me viewing her soul. A tamer comparison would be a patient getting uncomfortable getting naked in front of their doctor.

"Of course, and don't worry," I reassured her while I trudge over to one corner of the room and brought forth an IV pole with a bag of clear, water-like general anesthetics attached. Next, the smell of alcohol filled the room as I used a set of tweezers to dunk a cotton ball inside the cool sterilizing liquid before rubbing it over a section of Shizue's left forearm.

I stared into her eyes with confidence clear in my eyes, "I'm your acting doctor so I'll keep to the doctor-patient confidentiality that exists within my old world."

Shizue remained steadfast unconvinced, unmoved by my constant battering wind of reassurances.

How troublesome. [Psychology] told me how Shizue does trust me, it's just still uncomfortable for her since she's never done this before.

Then, I uncapped and slowly inserted a needle into the sterilized area with the goal of eventually hitting a vein on her left forearm at a 10-degree angle. As I'm doing this, Shizue didn't even flinch when the titanium needle pierced her skin.

Afterward, I covered the inserted site with multiple white medical bandages.

I'll use an example from my old world to put her worry to rest, and to pass the time as I wait for the super anesthetics to take effect on Shizue's above-average human body. "In my old world— in my country, at least— have this thing known as the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, or the PIPEDA that governs how the private sector collects, uses, and discloses the personal information of their clients. It's often viewed in the same light as America's 'HIPAA' or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act."

The way Shizue furrows her brows tells of how she wants me to elaborate.

"With that act, patients trust their doctors to perform things such as urethral sounds and prostate examine."

"And... what are those?"

I'd bite back a mischievous smile, but with [Silenced Emotion] turned up so high, I can't find it in myself to laugh at what's about to happen.

With an easygoing tone as if I'm talking about a rock collection, I responded, "Urethral sound is when doctors stick something up the hole from which you pee, and the prostate exam is when a doctor sticks something up your anus to check for complications or infections."

Her face blushed up like a storm in embarrassment. I think if I didn't have [Silenced Emotion] turned up so high, I would've burst out laughing.

"I signed a contract with you. So worry not, you'll serve me until the time of your death."

Shizue nodded before finally going under.

Near absolute silence flooded the room. The only sound that exists now was the heart monitor nearby that turned itself on when the patient had gone under.

Now, normally, a surgeon might put on a pair of plastic gloves before starting the first incision, but given how I took a full acid bath right before I entered the room, I think I'm safe.

Time to go to work.

The problem when talking about a hypothetical immaterial thing that exists within humans is just where exactly is it? Souls are... a very strange concept if you think about it. Something beyond the material, something deeper within ourselves that is both eternal and our true identity.

Personally, before being reincarnated, I'd just always imagined the soul as something people made up to use as an anchor within an ever-changing world, yet that's clearly not the case.

I started this spirit extraction surgery by putting on a pair of specialized goggles that allowed me to see the souls themselves through the tracking of Magicule particles that usually go around the body like blood.

Magicules are fascinating things. They have an effect on reality yet they couldn't be interacted with using matter. I first hypothesized they were a type of boson field like the Higgs Field which gives particles their mass.

It was postulated in Quantum Field Theory that the universe is composed of multiple fields, and excitations (also called quanta) within these fields are particles of their underlying quantum fields. If Magicules is indeed a field then it must mean there's something more to either the electromagnetic force or the act of thinking as thoughts somehow affect Magicules and change how they affect reality.

Case-in-point: telepathy. Rimuru was able to telepathically communicate with me by, according to his words, 'flinging' magicules at me. That sound a lot like how radio works.

So this means that magicules were able to carry information and that somehow, a brain is able to pick up on seemingly intangible things. Magicules aren't a field then.

The telepathy was the final evidence I needed to confirm that there's something more about the electromagnetic force— one of the four fundamental interactions of the universe— than scientists in my old world realized.

That realization made me unable to sleep. It was like as if an individual had just discovered Relativity was wrong.

So using this logic, the operating table that Shizue lies on shoots out microwaves in the 300 Mega-Hertz range and the goggles receive them in such a way analogous to how the eye sees visible light. By seeing the anomalous disturbances generated from magicules that course around the soul inside the body as the microwave photons pass through, I could see the outline of Shizue's soul.

That is most likely the Spiritual Body, which means...

"Ugh."

I pulled up the goggles. Its weight might be uncomfortable had I remained a human, but as a Perfect Homunculus, it was no problem.

I felt frustrated. The annoyed type of frustration that comes from when things just don't work out as intended even after you try multiple times. The goggles are too primitive. I don't know what I was thinking when I built it with the remaining leftover scraps.

I then looked at the various tools I've built. Then, I picked up one of them to observe it.

The tool in question looked somewhat like one of the drills that dentists use to clean your teeth. In reality, it was a 'scalpel' that shot out a stream of Gamma rays that decays rapidly into radiowaves like a blowtorch.

Then, I pulled the goggles back down to my eyes. With my remaining free hand, I placed a finger on an exposed part of Shizue's skin.

My chest glowed a crimson red, so bright that it shone through the sterile outfit I'm wearing. Like roots from a growing tree, threads of the same glowing crimson grew down my arm, covering it in such a thick layer that it looked almost as if only my blood vessels were visible.

Now, I was able to see exactly Shizue's soul, so much clearer than before.

If I had to describe what a soul 'looked' (you can't really see it since it's blocked by a human's fleshy body) like, I would say it's like this 'gaseous' thing that's permeated throughout the body.

Doing the spiritual equivalent of a full-body MRI scan, I found an anomaly within Shizue's soul. Like finding a virus, the anomaly was fundamentally different from the superhuman's Astral Body and was wrapped around it like a python choking out its victim.

The edge of my lips curled up into a small smile.

"Gotcha," I then proceeded with the next part; which was preparing the transferred body. Pressing a button on the graphene panel next to me, a section of the room's wall opened up to reveal a fleshy blob creature. The thing was covered in human skin but looked more like a slug as it didn't have any bones, limbs, or much of anything besides organs and a 'mouth' with feeding tubes stuck in it.

This was a genetically engineered immortal organism, created from Shizue's very own DNA. I created this organism in hopes of it fooling the Greater Spirit into thinking it's also Shizue. However, as with all clones, this organism has no soul whatsoever to speak of, so once Ifrit realizes this they'll obviously attempt to break out.

I don't know the effect of time experience on possessed spirits, but I still made the blob experience time much slower compared to that of a human. With this safety measure in place, I want to trap Ifrit inside the blob creature long enough for me to clear the area and gear up to fight the Greater Spirit

Grabbing the laser blowtorch 'scalpel' I had specially crafted for this occasion, [Surgery, [Metaphysics, and [Soul] carefully guided my hands as I slowly and meticulously began the first cut on Shizue's body. As the soul is within one's body since I don't have the confidence to remove it without any loss of function, the laser blowtorch cut into Shizue's flesh as well as her soul.

This means I must be both aware of where the laser is cutting on the spiritual and the physical, as if I merely touch Shizue's heart with this laser I'd instantly kill her.

I stared intensely at the laser blowtorch as it made the first cut, its effective range is currently three centimeters. It was a curious sight, with the beginnings of the laser blowtorch being invisible while half a centimeter away from the emitter radiating a rainbow of visible light, it looked almost as if the laser blowtorch was somehow telekinetically holding a pinprick of rainbow light.

[Biology] then reminded me how it was due to my being unable to see Gamma and X-rays, so as the photons decay into a less energetic state I could finally observe them when they crept into the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The smell of burnt flesh saturated the room like a morbid incense after I carefully pulled the laser blowtorch away from Shizue, having completed the first incision. My muscles were still ridiculously tense.

I turned the laser blowtorch off before breathing a sigh of relief and hanging my head like a Christmas decoration. I was like a student who has just finished the first really hard question on an exam that'll account for like 50% of their grade.

Feeling the muscles in my arms much more relaxed than before thanks to the breathing technique, I turned the laser blowtorch back on again and started another incision.

This is probably the most stressful situation I've ever been in both lives. Like carving a statue but you only have a single stone, I currently don't possess any abilities to heal a soul, so any mistake I make is likely permanent and very crippling since that's a wound upon Shizue's soul itself.

Even with [Silenced Emotion] running so high, I can't help but continue to be tense. Leaning forward, my eyes were mere centimeters away from the smoking incision point and my focus never waivered even for a millisecond.

Completing the second cut, I turned to face the clock and saw how only four minutes have passed.

"This... is going to take some time isn't it?" Dread was clear in my tone.

Looking down at her body with two long lines of burnt flesh that can be healed with a single transfusion of stem cells, I next looked down at my articles of clothing in an attempt to distract myself from the feeling of biting off more than I could chew.

My current clothing will cause anyone to think of a surgeon mid-operation. However, the massive piece of electronic goggles on my head makes them think either it's Halloween or I'm in a Military get-up or I'm a very confused cosplayer.

Feeling somewhat refreshed, my attention returned to the patient in front of me.

"Time to get back to work."

Here's something I was able to conclude definitively: souls and the intangible spirit were affected by electromagnetic radiation, and probably gravity as well. Based on how quickly Shizue's soul was cut, it seemed the more energetic the radiation, the more it affected the soul.

The process is similar to how giving too much energy to a machine would overclock it. And being overclocked long enough would kill the spirit itself.

Granted, this isn't very likely to happen since people often have fleshy bodies that would absorb most of the radiation one would be exposed to from day-to-day activity, concentrated sources would eventually render even the meat armor useless.

However, spiritual beings such as True Dragons seem to have a such high tolerance for radiation that when I asked [Laser] how to kill a True Dragon, the specialty responded by giving me the blueprint for a tinkertech Gamma laser that utilizes the power of an entire galaxy to overlock their soul and cause it to implode.

This world views True Dragons as supreme immortal beings that cannot be put down permanently. The text about them describes the Four as something more akin to natural disasters rather than any being with intelligence, with emphasis on 'disaster' for Veldora.

Could a True Dragon reincarnate from their very soul collapsing in on itself akin to a singularity that forms from the death of a star?

All my specialties are silent on the matter.

Logic dictates that everything that has a beginning will also have an ending, yet these True Dragons defy that. They seemingly defy entropy. They don't obey the laws of thermodynamics, as they generate more energy than they consume. In fact, magic in general seems to break many iron-clad laws about the physical universe.

I had always viewed entropy as the ultimate enemy before my reincarnation. But upon seeing the visage of True Dragons, I see them as more akin to cosmic recycling bins or cosmological reversal machines responsible for beating back entropy, and that's the reason why I think they are unkillable:

True Dragons are living, breathing— EXISTING— Maxwell's Demons that perpetually release energy out into the world to starve out the Heat Death of the universe, or in this case, the Multiverse.

To make an enemy out of one would be the height of foolishness, I can't say enough that I was glad Veldora was trapped in that prison.

To fight against a Maxwell's Demon is to fight against infinity itself: they have an infinite amount of energy to throw at you, while you have a finite amount. Perhaps they're constrained by how much they release at once but the point still stands: they can always outlast you.

The fact that Veldora was trapped in that cave gave me some hope in containing the other three True Dragons in case they went rampaging or became an issue. [Dimensional Physics] and [Quantum Physics] suggest the barrier that caged the Storm Dragon was built with an enlarged form of a single bubble of the quantum foam. The very fact that it's possible with magic or skills to do is...

Disturbing. Right now, that technology is completely out of my reach, even more so than the gravastar shield of [Dimensional Physics].

I finished that grim thought as I finally reached the cancerous growth within the spiritual body: Ifrit itself.

Shizue's body looked like it had undergone a serious case of medieval torture. Burnt scars and cauterized wounds were sprawled all over her body, all with varying depths like the trenches on an ocean floor. From a single glance, I'd say there was less than 50% of her original skin remaining.

If this had been my old world, I'd be charged with a serious case of disfigurement and medical malpractice, but with the technology I have access to, I can heal all of Shizue's scars without any evidence that it had existed in the first place.

In fact, the sole reason Shizue was still alive at this point was due to tinkertechs made by [Life Support].

Focusing on Ifrit, it 'looked' somewhat like a massive burning flame that was consuming part of the superhuman's soul. It was slowly but surely expanding itself and would've completely consumed her in a few months or so. In medical terminology, it was like me seeing late-stage cancer.

I took a deep breath while turning my head to hear that satisfying crack while also doing the same to my fingers.

The final stage. I'll need to concentrate like I never had before to successfully carve out the growth and place it inside the blob.

I've already come this far, there is no chance I'm failing. Yet the required precision is so fine that even modern machines would have trouble with it.

The laser blowtorch neared Shizue's body once more, and I held my breath. The final stretch.

Right before the laser could burn more of her skin, it distanced itself.

I feel stressed out, like a student moment away from getting the result of an exam. A single mistake and best case scenario, Ifrit would be alerted. Worse case, Shizue dies.

God damn, this is like performing a lobotomy with only yourself and a kitchen knife! It's doable but it requires so much precision and finesses...

Anxiety occupied my body, making sweat continuously drip down my head and my head feel a sense of constant restlessness.

I took several deep breaths, and my anxiety was tempered a bit, but it was still there.

Having Shizue as a bodyguard would aid me immensely. There was no way I'm going to let her die before she has fulfilled her contract with me.

I turned back on the laser blowtorch and returned to my surgery— white, glowing, staring.

Shizue was now suddenly awake and was now staring at me. Her eyes were white and there were whisps of fire around her.

"Ah!" I suddenly back away, my hand grasping my chest as an obvious sign of my past as a human despite no longer having a heartbeat.

How the hell is she awake? That super anesthetic I injected her with was strong enough to put a blue whale to sleep!

The silence is suffocating as I froze in shock. Shizue continued to stare at me like the main monster in some kind of horror movie right before the jump scare.

The bed she's on suddenly begins to glow and slag like a wax structure in an oven as her body is consumed in flames, her clothing and flesh remain unharmed tell me of what's happening;

That being Ifrit had somehow awakened during the surgery.

Fuck, how? Did being almost cut off from their host somehow automatically awaken Ifrit? Like how animals become much stronger as their bodies release adrenaline in moments of danger?

I started backing away from the bedridden form of Shizue. Step by step I neared the exit of the pocket dimension. Just as I was about to hit the lockdown button beside the pocket dimension, the operating bed that Shizue was on was now outright melting from the heat that Shizue's possessed form radiated. Anything flammable— from paper to certain chemicals— all burst into flames.

Opening the exit door to a stretch of another hallway, I smacked the lockdown button before closing the exit door on an emerging Ifrit.

Cool air greeted me. I was deposited into my lab.

"Fuck." I ripped off the goggles and my eyes focused on a single spot on the ceiling as I lay there in a daze before taking control of myself and getting up.

Quickly jogging over to a panel on the wall, I pressed the leftmost button out of three on the panel.

"The Lab is now under a Level 3 Lockdown with a single Class Keter object running loose, please evacuate the area until an Officer affirms it's safe." A synthesized voice announced, both inside the lab and outside while every nearby security guard was alerted of this fact.

After the populace was alerted, I ran towards a vault door on the other side of the room, sidestepping many machines, tools, and other tripping hazards. From the corner of my right eye, I saw a computer monitor displaying a warning that the pocket dimension's stability is rapidly decreasing, and is projected to collapse in 93 seconds.

Inputting my right index finger into a hole in the vault door, the edge of my mouth tread downward as a sharp pain greeted it. Pulling out, I saw a tiny droplet of blood covering the pinprick wound created by a needle.

It was a biometric security measure. I assumed that any magic user could replicate a person's voice, fingerprints, iris, and password, so I implemented the most secure method of identity verification I have access to as of right now.

Seconds passed, and the vault door clicked open, only to accelerate as I pulled on the door.

Inside this vault is where I kept my most advanced weapons to fight against Ifrit.

The opened vault revealed multiple large weapon racks filled to the brim with props to a science fiction space opera film. Only, they weren't props, they were actual weapons that could arm a squad and have them fight with the power equivalent to multiple regiments.

Normally I would only enter after a thorough cleaning and decontamination but this is hardly normal isn't it?

Something came down from the ceiling of the inside of the vault. It was a black sludge with the consistency of corn syrup. The black sludge continued sliding down my body like water in a shower as I reached for a disk-like object.

Placing it over my chest, the black sludge nearest to the disk hardened and smoothed itself out, and very quickly, more and more of the black sludge hardened until I was inside a form-fitting nanosuit.

In reality, despite looking rather scary, the black sludge was nothing more than a collection of multiple colonies of nanomachines with each a specialized purpose that worked together to create a quick and protective armor.

In the aftermath of my and Shizue's battle, I realized the Aerial Combat System, while capable of dishing out great acts of violence, limited me too much in terms of quick movement. The nanosuit was designed to remedy many of the ACS's shortcomings by aiding me in movements instead of restricting them.

While it can not fly, I can punch and physically react to things much more quickly.

I tried to take a deep breath and was successful despite my head being completely covered.

"Filter: successful."

Next, the areas around my eyes lit up to display what I would be seeing had my head not been covered by the black nanosuit. Heads-up displays overlaid my vision, giving me information about where I was and the weapons in front of me.

Looking over the entire weapon selection, my eyes stayed on a large sci-fi-looking gun with blue and grey as its main color schemes. Physically, it's a little larger than your average M-249.

The nanosuit's HUD showed it was the 'Entropy Rifle'.

The Entropy Rifle is what I made one night when I tried to make a quantum computer, only to realize that I'll need near Absolute Zero temperatures. Now, any normal person would likely just send the computer up to space but I have a different solution (and I don't have the capacity to send anything to space yet): [Refrigeration]. Once I was done with the computer and had decided to house it underneath the lab, I realized that combining [Refrigeration] and [Laser] had given me the blueprint for a freeze gun.

Recalling the fact that there is elemental magic in this world and that the fire element is one of the most destructive, I made the rifle in a few hours to combat any potential fire or water users.

The Entropy Rifle is essentially a kinetic siphoner. Whatever the ray hits, it saps the energy out and stores it within the gun, leaving the target colder than before.

How this affects spirits is unknown and requires field tests.

"Well, the best politicians know how to use a crisis to their advantage, I guess I should do the same, shouldn't I?"

However, just in case, I grabbed a Pulse Rifle as well since lasers have proven effective against spiritual lifeforms and souls.

With a single flip of two switches, the E-Rifle and the Pulse hums to life.

I turned to leave the vault—

KABOOOM*

A massive explosion occurred that sent out a shockwave which slammed the vault door closed. Particles of dust fell from the ceiling and the whole room rocked as though it was on a ship sailing in a storm.

Ifrit must've gone out—

Wait, if this is outside— my tinkertech. Ifrit destroyed my labs and thus, all my tools are gone.

Despite [Silenced Emotion] running so high, I couldn't help but feel what felt like an ice cube sliding down my back.

God fucking damn it! My tools! My tinkertech!

Instead of physically exploding out in rage, I merely thinned my lips until they could no longer be seen.

The thick vault door creaked open as I pushed with a single hand. The sight of my laboratory half-destroyed didn't confirm the worst of my fears since things were at least salvageable.

The whole roof of the laboratory was gone, everything was in a wreck, and the surgery unit was a slag of melted metal, rendered beyond usefulness.

Through the destroyed roof, I could see exactly how the skies were now filled with dark clouds that blot out the sun.

Ominous. It was as if the sunlight is fleeing away from what was about to come.

"Well, at least this ain't the Dark Lord huh?" I chuckled at my joke. Looking at the floating body of Shizue, a massive amount of Magicule is leaking out creating a massive firestorm with her at the center.

Without any context and just looking at the current situation, I'd have easily assumed that Shizue was a human that got experimented on, gained superpowers, and somehow broke free from the researchers.

The hovering woman stared at me in particular. I felt a bit unsettled, as with the nanosuit zooming in on her face, I could see clearly how lifeless her eyes were, as if— well she IS possessed forcefully due to Ifrit's untimely awakening.

The nanosuit showed how the temperature in the firestorm was in excess of 2500 kelvin.

I pushed aside the feeling of wastefulness, raised the Entropy Rifle, and pulled the trigger without a single hesitation.

ZEERM*

The air around the beam flash-cooled and the carbon dioxide formed condensed into liquid form and fell like rain before quickly boiling away before it could touch the ground.

The freezing beam didn't even touch Shizue inside her firestorm.

Damn. Pulse lasers it is then—

Before I could level the other weapon at Shizue, the firestorm veiled my misbehaving subordinate's form completely. Once the firestorm passed, my finger hesitated when I saw that in Shizue's place was a dark-skinned male with horns on his head and strips of fabric wrapped around his waist.

"Huh?"

Using my moment of indecision, a bright circle that wouldn't look out of place in a cultist ritual appeared underneath me. [Magicule] instantly dissected the thing and acknowledge its existence as 'somewhat boring' before giving me the information about what it is and its purpose.

Fucker intends to vaporize me with a [Flare Circle]...

As I was thinking this, the nanosuit took emergency control over my movement and threw me out of the circle's radius.

Instinctively, I tried to resist as any normal person would when they suddenly started moving but still, the suit managed to throw me out of the range not a single millisecond too late as the moment I was out of the circle's radius, an inferno of fire erupted where I had once stood.

The suit threw me out with such a great force that I went through a section of the laboratory's remaining walls. I rolled out into the streets like wheels on a car before stopping.

The first thing on my mind was perhaps I should adjust the nanosuit's automatic dodging program, as when it threw me out of the ruins of the lab, I was accelerating at 11 g worth of force, more than enough to cause unconsciousness had I remained a human.

Looking around the cityscape, I saw no hobgoblins anywhere near as the security teams have formed a perimeter 40 meters out in the distance.

Turning back to face my laboratory, I saw that nothing remained. Even the wreckage was gone.

[Silenced Emotion: 80%]

Looks like I can't recycle my lab anymore.

A cold fury consumed me. Unlike the usual fury, you would find in places like road rages, what consumed me was a passive anger that causes people to commit great and terrible acts to remedy.

I aimed the Pulse laser dispassionately at Ifrit like a seasoned medieval executioner being called up to decapitate another criminal. With [Marksman] controlling my arm and hand, I fired off short bursts of gamma lasers at Ifrit which all will hit.

VE—VE—VE—VE—VE—VE*

It sounded like a toy laser gun. Pulses of blindly bright light shot forth from the Pulse Rifle, all aimed at a particular spot on Ifrit's body.

Unlike what most fiction would have you believe, lasers that are capable of melting iron in an instant have huge waste heat, so instead of having a continuous wave that slowly chips away and melts the focusing lens, I decided to prolong the lifespan by having it shoot out small pulses of a normally super powerful laser.

"Arh," multiple circular, sunken wounds appeared on Ifrit's chest. The Greater Spirit of Fire looked down at his wounds, appearing almost shocked and offended at how a person like me was the cause of it.

Six massive pillars of flame erupted around Ifrit, lighting up the crater and making him look more like a demon than any spirit, what with all the fire and brimstone motif. The pillars subsided to reveal fucking flying demons.

No, not now [Biology] and [Magicule, I don't care if they're actually some kind of salamanders. If it looks like a demon, flies like a demon, and throws fire around like a demon, then it might as well be a demon.

I ignore the part of my mind that was insisting I name them as what they actually are according to those two specialties.

Not the time! My abductive reasoning is perfectly fine for now!

Those flying demons then flew around, setting fire to everything below them.

Oh, you may have destroyed my lab, but you're not destroying Metropolis. I raised the E-Rifle and pulled the trigger.

I won't allow it.

ZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERM*

Since it was a continuous beam, the sections that didn't hit the demons continued to fly toward the sky and caused areas of the dark cloud to condense into snowflakes.

As for the demons, the effect of the E-Rifle was instantaneous. The flying demons weren't able to fly anymore frozen, and gravity's pull upon those supernatural entities took hold once more causing them to shatter like a glass statue when they hit the ground.

"HEY, YA SURE YOU'RE A SPIRIT? CAUSE WITH ALL THIS FIRE AND LAVA MAKES YOU SEEM MORE LIKE A DEMON!" The suit projected out my yell before I fired a short burst of the E-Rifle once again, this time at full power.

ZEEEERM*

Upon hitting the fire spirit, Ifrit seemed to go into cardiac shock with his mouth opened wide and the fire on his hair temporally extinguished before it is back once more.

"Heh," I had a smile on my face, it seems that the Kinetic Siphoner is a resounding success.

Continuing with that trend, I again blast the spirit-demon thing with more of the E-Rifle, only this time Ifrit moved at the last second and I was only able to hit the Spirit's tail as he quickly moved out of the way.

"Hrm." Leveling both rifles at Ifrit, my hands were guided by [Marksman] as I began to act more like a sentry turret letting out a barrage of both freeze rays and pulse lasers.

ZZEEEEEEEERM*

VE—VE—VE—*

ZEEEEEEEEEEERM*

VE—VE—VE—VE—*

All of them were a bull's eye, as expected. With only two charges into [Marksman, I can definitely hit the eye of a human target from over ten kilometers away.

"RRRRRRAAAAAAAARGH!"

A heavily damaged Ifrit responded by breathing massive gout of fire in my direction with the intent of vaporizing me again.

The nanosuit automatically moved quicker than I could react the moment it detected the build-up of heat, thus, only part of my foot was caught within that cone of fire. Thankfully, in the area where the heat had melted the nanites were ejected like waste, quickly replaced by fresh new ones gathered from elsewhere on my nanosuit.

Turning my attention back to the fire spirit, I questioned my own eyes when I saw that there were now a dozen Ifrits.

"The fuck?" I couldn't help but swear.

"Scientia!" A familiar voice called out to me.

I turned my head to face an approaching Rimuru on wolve-back. Normally such a sight would've made my brain pause and do a doubletake, but since I'd already seen it in the form of goblin riders, I merely made a note of it inside my head.

"Rim—"

Before I could even say his name, the nanosuit automatically moved again when another [Flare Circle] formed underneath me. Just like before, I barely got out of the way as I barreled into another building.

I was like a child in a city made out of cardboard.

"RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

I could feel the frustration coming off of Ifrit from that roar.

As I'm in the cover of the building, I stared down at the half-broken and sparking Pulse Rifle, barely operational thanks to that barrel through a wall while the E-Rifle was still functioning at full capacity. An idea came to mind.

Peaking out of the hole I came into this building through, I spotted Rimuru was now fighting against Ifrit with spider silk and sonic blasts.

He should be able to buy me enough time for what I'm about to do.

AN: now this may be unpopular that Inspired Inventor can recreate the effect of other Ultimate Skills, but there will be an explanation for it.

Also concerning spiritual lifeforms, due to how vague the series is about whether or not physics can affect spiritual lifeforms, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that weapons like railguns or chemical explosives DO NOT affect spirits but directed energy weapons like lasers or focused radiation do some damage. Also, True Dragons and Primordial Demons often possess or create a body for them to interact with the world, meaning that if at any time in the future, you see them wincing from a railgun blast, know that it's due to it chipping away at their physical body.

(the very fact that, according to the Tensura Discord, no one can go FTL except cheating it using portaling shows that the spirits obey at least some laws of physics)

Shizue/Ifrit is considered a half-spirit, that's why the E-Rifle worked so well. Scientia is going to have a rude awakening when they fight against a spiritual lifeform.

Also since gravity affects spirits, I'm going to say that weapons utilizing such forces will also affect them.

13

Using some of the nanites of the nanosuit and shaping them into tools, I took apart the half-broken Pulse Rifle in less than a minute. Taking out the battery from the depth of the sci-fi-looking gun, I placed it beside the E-Rifle before returning my focus to dredging up whatever useful parts like a scavenger picking apart an animal's carcass for bits of meat leftovers.

That took thirty seconds.

After the Pulse Rifle looked more like a skeleton, I moved on to the E-Rifle.

I first strapped the battery onto the side of the rifle before plugging it in. Next, I removed all safeties present within the E-Rifle that prevents the user from harm. Finally, I rewired parts of the insides of the rifle so that there's a three-second timer before the energy from the battery reaches the Kinetic Siphoner.

What I'm building is essentially a freeze bomb. By removing all safeties and overclocking the Kinetic Siphoner, I'm effectively having the freeze ray go out of control and start sucking in the heat from everywhere around it instead of just in the form of a beam. The overclocking would ensure the Kinetic Siphoner sucks out almost all energy inside a certain radius, meaning that the temperature within the bomb's effective 'blast' radius will get lowered until the only heat present would be vacuum energy that comes from the annihilation of virtual particles down at the lowest scale.

Maximum entropy.

If a single hit from the E-Rifle could cause such drastic pain on Ifrit, just imagine an Entropy Bomb.

Peaking out of the hole again, I saw Rimuru was able to bind Ifrit with spider silk while the latter constantly breathed out fire and caused an inferno of fire to erupt out of the ground.

I grabbed the E-Bomb, now without its sci-fi appearance, and instead looked more like an upscaled version of those stick sausages you'd find in the breakfast section of an IKEA store.

With the aid of the nanosuit giving me more accurate measurements that I could eyeball, I quickly calculated the exact motions, force, vectors, air resistance, and turbulence— general steps I'd need to take to throw the E-Bomb next to the floating Ifrit.

As it turns out, in an open system with an unknown amount of variables, it's next to impossible to calculate exactly where E-Bomb would land to an absolute degree. However, my calculations were able to narrow this down to a two-meter cross-section.

Good enough.

Straining my own and the nanosuit's artificial muscles to their limit, I blasted off from my position towards the tallest building within the area— a half-completed three-story mall. The mall wasn't anything impressive considering it's designed to cater to a population of close to a thousand hobgoblins and direwolves, but it'll serve its purpose.

My free hand sunk into the wall like a chopstick sinking into mashed potatoes in an attempt to slow down. Pulling my hands out before looking up, I leaped to the top of the mall in a single jump.

Still, as I reached the top, I was treated to a front roll seat of a [Flare Circle] consuming Rimuru's elven form in a biblical firestorm that melted the earth around it.

[Silenced Emotion: 95%]

Without thinking and relying on pure instincts, I flung the E-Bomb at Ifrit like an Olympic javelin thrower.

Despite being rather exasperating, headache-inducing, and acting naive at times, Rimuru was still the first person— the first 'human'— I'd met after I reincarnated. [Psychology] noted how I latched onto the slime as a thirsty man to an oasis since despite my control over myself, I was apparently very close to a nervous breakdown.

In retrospect, reincarnation is a traumatic experience. Imagine you lying there on the ground, the pain from a knife wound on your back assaulting your brain, the coldness creeping in to replace all of your senses, spots forming inside your vision... and then you suddenly found yourself alone in a dark unfamiliar place.

I felt a phantom sensation of pain in my back.

PTSD has been diagnosed for less.

Seeing Rimuru being consumed by the inferno made me feel a blunted sense of sadness, as though he were a distant relative and his death was something that happened decades ago instead of just now.

The E-Bomb spun around on its center of mass like a boomerang, coming close and closer to Ifrit before the internal three-second timer ticked down to zero.

The sound it made was indescribable. I have no reference to describe it, but if I were, I'd say it sounds vaguely like the banging of two metallic objects as the E-Bomb exploded.

Ifrit was encased in a ball of flash-frozen solid air.

E=mc2 is a more important formula than most people realized. Einstein was the person who developed the idea that mass is energy, it was an original idea that came from his works on Relativity and thought experiments. It was he who proved mass is energy, just in a different, more condensed form.

The kinetic siphoner within the E-Bomb sucked in all available energy within a radius of 3.5 meters, and since energy cannot be destroyed, the E-Bomb converted that excess energy into matter near the core.

With the sudden exodus of all available kinetic energy, all atoms and molecules that are normally constantly vibrating and moving, all brimming with long-gone energy, returned to their lowest energy state: solid. However, if one compresses the atmosphere at sea level, it'll only fill about 0.1% of the room's volume. As such, instead of being a single, opaque solid, the air that was flash frozen appeared more like a pretty, three-dimensional sea urchin-like 'snowflake ball' with a seemingly innumerable number of branches that are almost invisible with how thin they are.

The only heat that remained after the grand heist committed by the energy siphoner was the Quantum Mechanical energy. If I somehow remove even more energy from the system, those matter would then turn from solid into what's known as a Bose-Einstein Condensate, a state of matter where the bosons themselves collapse into a single quantum state and behave as if they were a single particle.

Fascinating things and technologies can be made from Bose-Einstein Condensates.

The snowflake ball fell as gravity took hold of it.

The snowflake ball crashed into the ground and shattered into filaments of quickly disappearing steaming frozen air. Like air going from a place of high pressure to low pressure, the heat from around where the kinetic siphoner didn't hit traveled to fill the spots missing analogous to how humans would travel to places where they can get jobs.

And within the steaming, frozen remains rest Shizue.

I jumped down from my position, and the bones of my new physiology had no problem taking the impact of a three-story fall.

"Woah. Scientia?"

I heard a voice that I'd never thought I would hear ever again.

"Rimuru? But— you were caught in that massive firestorm." I spoke in a dispassionate tone. I would definitely be more excited had [Silenced Emotion] wasn't so high.

Rimuru was in his slime form, and looked rather sheepish, "well, as it turns out, because of my [Thermal Fluctuation Resistance, Ifrit's heat was nullified altogether."

[Silenced Emotion: 50%]

Seeing how he was okay, I felt a sense of relief. The ability to control how I could feel okay about a person's death but feel incredibly relieved the next was, strange. It was like holding your breath but as your limits are reached, it suddenly expanded. The Skill touched upon an area previously untouchable.

[Thermodynamics] wondered about Rimuru's limits by giving me a heat ray that can scorch a whole planet into an uninhabitable molten hellscape. I don't pay attention to it, instead, the helmet of the nanosuit pulled back to reveal my eerily perfect features as I turned to face Shizue.

Jogging over to where she lay, I found the superhuman barely alive with a faint smile on her face.

"Thank... you..." Her voice was incredibly weak as I looked up and down her wounded body.

Kneeling beside her, even an idiot could see she was on her deathbed. She continued with the last of her strength, "my re... quest... is on... my... bed..."

I recoiled a bit as though I smelled something horrible, my face twisted into disgust. She used me. Like a person with incurable late-stage cancer, Shizue knew that she didn't have long before Ifrit took over, and thus, she negotiated a 'lifelong' contract to get concessions out of me.

It was almost ingenious. Respectable even. After being so long in the business world, manipulations are an everyday occurrence. I'm fine with being manipulated (as I manipulate others), the only requirement is that the manipulation has to be impressive or never-seen-before.

The weight of a hand appeared on my shoulder. "I'm sorry," Rimuru said, trying to comfort me, "I've only met her a couple of times, but since she was your bodyguard, you guys had to have been close right?"

What Shizue has done is basically a suicidal person taking out life insurance before committing suicide, that way their parents would receive some money from their children's death. Except, the superhuman spun this around and innovated on the idea, where she used her own life as collateral to get some great benefits out of me in an employment contract.

I can't help but respect it.

Still... this would've worked for most people, but I'm not most people am I?

I am Scientia Tempest, the second Perfect Homunculus to come into existence. I shall be the one who brings modernity and the one who restarted the march of progress in this medieval Tolkien-esque fantasy world.

"You're not dying."

Too bad, Shizue signed on with perhaps one of the only people in the world who could save her, even in such a state, even when she's at death's door.

I'll chase away the reaper. There is no fucking way you're dying.

Despite my prejudice against magic, I did indeed place a charge in it out of sheer curiosity. Through that charge, I learned I possessed an extremely rare form of alchemy known as [Unlimited Alchemy].

[Unlimited Alchemy] is just that, 'unlimited', without restriction, limitless, ultimate, the endpoint of Alchemic evolution.

I can touch and manipulate souls. I can freely transmute one element into the next with the only limit being my Magicule limit and the Law of Equivalent Exchange. It was, after all, the reason why I was able to acquire rare metals like Titanium.

That is the ultimate form of Alchemy. To control matter itself, to control the very essence of life, to control the universe.

Workbench likely died from that explosion by Ifrit, so I'll have to make do.

I touched Shizue's broke body with both of my hands.

The weight on my shoulder disappeared as a crimson glow began to emanate from deep within me, lighting up the area around me despite the opaque skin-tight nanosuit. Red lines akin to blood vessels grew throughout my body, sprouting from my chest like how a tree would sprout its branches. There were so many glowing crimson lines that you'd see more of them than anything else.

Activating [Unlimited Alchemy] is like flipping on a light switch you never knew was there, lighting up a dark room you never explored.

It's... evil-looking, to be honest. Evident when Rimuru backed away.

When the lines had crawled to my eyes I was able to see souls unaided. I could see Rimuru's soul, I could see the soul that belonged to the tempest wolf known as 'Ranga', I could see the souls of the hobgoblins who all stood at the perimeter and looking at the fight.

I 'see' all. It was like a blind person finally able to see again. It was amazing. It was awe-inspiring.

Looking down at Shizue's body and seeing the fading soul, I used my hand that's intersected with red lines of varying width to catch her fading Astral Body— the container for her soul— like how someone would try and cup the disappearing water in a pit of sand on the beach to try and preserve it.

"Uh, Scientia, what are you doing?"

A holographic display appeared next to me. Using my tongue, I 'pressed' (holograms are composed of photons, and are thus, intangible, so I merely passed my tongue through certain buttons on the holographic panel) and typed out a command.

Form: Orb of Nanite

Very quickly, an orb large enough to grab with one hand formed emerged from a section of my nanosuit and quickly fell onto the earth with a thump.

Slowly, like a person tipping their cupped hand over to let the water inside flow into a better container, I let Shizue's fading soul drip into the orb, having her possess it.

The number of individual pieces should help in containing Shizue's soul until proper transfer is possible. [Automation, [Robotics, [Martial Artist, [Cybernetics, [Nanotechnology, [Material Science, and [Metamaterial] gave me plenty of blueprints of super-powerful metal bodies that Shizue can inhabit while [Biology] gave me another genetically perfected biological body.

A small part of me wondered if I created the first Lich or perhaps more accurately, the first Horcrux in this world.

[Silenced Emotion: 30%]

"hehe~ hahahahahaha— HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA—!" I laugh to the high heavens knowing I've succeeded, before dropping my head down to look at the orb, "Gotcha."

I told Rimuru to eat the remains of Shizue, saying that the body is dead and it cannot accept any more souls while also assuring him I'll build her a better one.

After that, I had to sign an apology letter to the hobgoblins and aid in the reconstruction. Thankfully, through poaching— I mean, redirecting some nanites into my own pockets, I was able to ensure the setback made by the destruction of my personal laboratory is reduced drastically.

By reprogramming some more nanites, the building repairs were quickly underway.

Over the next three days, I decided to turn the Egg into what's known as an 'Arcology'. Arcology is a combination of the word' architecture' and 'ecology'. It is an effective architecture that is designed for high-density populations while being ecologically sound.

The Egg now has long vertical farms running down its sides. The arcology utilizes the feces generated by its inhabitants to fertilize the farms.

When told of this, however, some of the farmers were up in arms, saying how much vertical farms would deprive them of their livelihoods.

Rimuru negotiated with the farmers and now they're in control of the vertical farms instead of the much more efficient AI algorithms and machines.

Bah, the will of the people. It's times like these that I wonder if I should've implemented democracy later instead of right away. Ignorant people do not make for the best citizens, they make for good peasants.

Eventually, as I was supervising the repair of the buildings, a nervous-looking hobgoblin approached me to notify me about how Rimuru had cut a deal with Congress.

Supposedly, the hobgoblin residents are scared by me in particular. This fear only increased after the Ifrit rampage since I was the one closest to Shizue. Just like the time after 911, those hobgoblin residents attempted to get Congress to do something about me that'll make their lives much safer.

Congress knew that they couldn't just get rid of me, so they cut a deal with Rimuru where I would be granted a place far away from civilization where I could test my stuff without worry. The House Speaker had said this: '...what Scientia made is undoubtedly making our lives better, but sometimes it is too dangerous to be so close to Metropolis...'

Effectively, I've been granted my very own Area 51. And Congress also made Research and Development official with me as its director.

Since the Jura Tempest Republic claims the entirety of the Great Jura Forest as its territory, I have a lot of space I could claim. So I chose Veldora's sealed cave.

The reasoning behind my choice was that, as a Perfect Homunculus, I only started eating food once I left the cave since my body can apparently consume magicule for basic sustenance. In fact, after some tests, I realized I could eat anything— even dirt if I can stomach the taste— since matter itself seemingly is turned into magicule once they enter my stomach. Hence the reason why I don't release any waste.

Being right on top of Veldora's sealed cave, I can simply passively consume the magicules in the air.

The physics behind this is beyond me for the moment, even as I started creating hyper-efficient textbooks with [Teaching] and other specialties to teach myself knowledge about topics like physics and engineering in my free time.

Being given this plot of land, I realized that I had hit the practical limit to how much raw materials I can get from manual labor. This means I need to look towards other, much more abundant and easier sources.

So became my endeavor to harvest asteroids.

A single asteroid several kilometers across contains more iron than humans in my old world have harvested throughout their entire history. It was also predicted that asteroid mining would create the world's first trillionaire in my old world since there was just so much valuable material hidden within those massive metal pebbles floating out there in space.

The first step to creating a proper space industrial base is to create a telescope to find the asteroids in the first place. Since I don't have any satellites in low-planetary orbit, I decided to combine this step with step two of somehow getting the mining equipment up to space.

Unlike 21st Century Earth, I don't have to play around with chemical rockets when I've unlocked nuclear fusion, a process that releases thousands to millions of times more energy than chemical reactions. Thus, my own rockets can be the size of a small house rather than a skyscraper.

The power of the atom; a supposed glimpse into the power of god.

Strapping an AI, multiple long and short-range sensors, self-replicating nanites, and asteroid mining equipment onto the fusion rocket, you got yourself an autonomous mining drone that'll find an asteroid and start self-replicating on it like crops growing on fertile soil to create a fully operational asteroid mining base.

The vast resources of space finally opened up to me, and any limits on resources were raised so high they might as well not exist.

Resources! Unlimited resources!!!

I laughed like I never had before as I watched the fusion rocket light up the night sky like a second sun when it launched into space. My insides felt giddy when I imagined how many resources I can now play with, the only other time in my immediate memory I've felt this way was during a particularly profitable month on the stock market.

Thus, deep within the Jura Forest, far away from any civilization, the first rocket ever to be launched artificially into space occurred.

More than efficiency, the fusion torch also has a huge leg-up on chemical rockets in terms of speed. By shooting high-temperature plasma out the other end, the fusion rocket is able to achieve near-relativistic speeds of one percent of the speed of light.

That's almost 3,000 kilometers a second. With that speed, the fusion spacecraft can circle Earth in a bit over ten seconds, or reach the moon in less than two minutes.

Safe to say, it took mere hours for the spacecraft to locate an appropriate asteroid before moving said asteroid into lunar orbit. I didn't choose the planetary orbit because I don't want to become a dinosaur.

In the span of a week, the spacecraft turned into a fully-operational asteroid mine that gives me, if translated into Tempest Dollar, billions of dollars worth of raw resources like iron and other metals. And this is just the beginning. After becoming fully online, the spacecraft would then use some excess material mined from the asteroid to create more of itself and send those to search for other asteroids.

A Von Neumann Probe describes a spacecraft capable of replicating itself. When discussing the Fermi Paradox of why there aren't any aliens despite the universe being so old, a Von Neumann Probe is a topic that will get inevitably brought up because it was estimated by scientists that any civilization that has sent out Von Neumann Probes could colonize the entirety of the Milky Way in as little as a million years: a paltry length of time on galactic time scales of billions of years.

The spacecraft I sent up was a Von Neumann Probe designed to harvest every asteroid in this solar system. The only limit to this growth was the periodic hydrogen refueling the spacecraft would need that I would provide.

With the issue of resources no longer being a problem for the foreseeable future, I can now focus on constructing the Citadel, my own private base of operation that serves as my home and a place where I can create technologies and experiments without anyone checking up on me.

Since raw resources weren't an issue anymore, I could now fully immerse myself in the Unique Skill [Inspired Inventor] and find technologies that would make the Citadel nigh impenetrable.

Laying on my bed one night, I started going through all the blueprints that the various specialties have given me. Some were useful like the 'AK-47' version of a plasma grenade from [Mass Production] and [Plasma Physics]. Some weren't within my capacity yet, like the Block-Form Singularity Mathematics that utilizes gravastar shielding from [Dimensional Physics] and [Armor]. Some were actively harmful, like a sentient AI from [Codes] and [Artificial Intelligence].

A good rule of thumb when it comes to building anything is 'is this more intelligent than it needs to be?' Does my Roomba have to be intelligent enough to do my taxes? If not, then don't give such high intelligence.

Intelligence is the greatest gift a Creator can give to a Creation.

It is the most dangerous trait anything can have. Humans, with their intelligence, were able to dominate Earth to such a point where entire species are left at their mercy without the majority even realizing it.

As I skimmed through the many blueprints, one from [Material Science, [Wavelength, and [Quantum Physics] caught my eye.

It describes a type of matter manipulation device that, through alternations within a material's quantum strings, creates an oscillation effect that cancels out any form of vectors and forces. This in turn creates the illusion of an 'immovable' object. It's not truly immovable because once the effect of the device fades, normal physics takes over.

Matter under this effect was collectively called 'Siberium' because any atomic distinctions no longer exist and they all exhibit the same properties.

In the end, I decided to coat the outermost layer of the Citadel in this Siberium, making the Citadel an immovable and unstoppable object that rejects all forces and vectors outside of a select few.

I originally planned for the rest of the layers of the Citadel to be composed of Computronium and Nuclear Pasta, but the latter was a case where I had hit the extended resource ceiling. Nuclear Pasta is a special form of degenerate matter that exists within the crust of neutron stars. It is the strongest conventional material in the universe, and I wanted to layer the Citadel with it.

That was proven impossible primarily because of just how expensive Nuclear Pasta was. A single sugar-cube-sized pellet of neutron star matter contains the same mass as Mount Everest. Not only that, to produce and maintain Nuclear Pastas would require an insane level of consistent pressure similar to those found within the depth of a neutron star, as normal matter really doesn't like to be packed so close together due to what's known as the Coulomb's Law and the Pauli Exclusion Principle.

Contenting with merely the Siberium and Computronium, I later coded an AI that would write the codes for a more advanced AI that would be responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the Citadel.

Looking at the large clearing that surrounds the skeleton frame of the Citadel embedded within the cave that used to seal Veldora, I couldn't help but let out a content sigh.

I lay on the edge of the clearing, simply relaxing under a tree's shade on one of those chairs you'd find on the beach. I exploited [Automation] and [Artificial Intelligence] to their absolute limit. Instead of humans moving around, there were a variety of autonomous drones each of different sizes and built for different purposes.

Seeing every drone working together seamlessly was like seeing how cleanly everything on a conveyor belt was put together: there was just something soothing about it. Something oddly satisfying.

I think to a person with OCD, seeing how there was next to no wasted time as the drones got to work assembling the Citadel has to be like heaven for them.

A bright light darkened the whole clearing as a space shuttle landed next to the massive fabricator building, bringing in fresh supplies from up there in space. The shuttle was enormous, easily the size of a skyscraper, and the many drones that scurried around looked like mice next to an elephant, all of them aiding in the offloading and refueling process.

With a simple downward swiping hand gesture as though I'm scrolling up the page on a TV, a flat hologram panel materialized into reality.

The clothing I wore had electronics integrated into them. While from the outside, they looked simple, like something a parent would wear for a day out in the park, they are in fact what I consider to be the next generation of clothing if these were to appear in my old world.

The clothing was made from conductive fibers which allows them to become touch-sensitive and instantly harden if a high enough current runs through them. More than that, this clothing is connected to my own private internet that I created to facilitate communication with my drones up in space and those that are currently working around me.

I wanted to integrate a piece of a brain-computer interface into my flesh, artificially since [Inspired Inventor] is still giving me no ideas for how to improve my body, almost as if my current body can no longer be improved. It's a ridiculous notion, so using what I knew of neuroscience I learned from [Teaching] and [Biology, I tried to insert such a piece of electronic into my brain.

It failed when my [Limitless Regeneration] pushed the thing out and healed everything I had cut.

Seeing how my new physiology seemingly doesn't allow any modification, I gave up on the brain-computer interface for now and instead integrated it into the clothes I'm wearing.

The holographic display in front of me showed how the Citadel was going exactly as planned and is expected to complete on schedule. The Citadel itself is going to be an imposing upright standing cylinder 100 meters across and 300 meters tall, with most of it being built into the ground, the whole structure would've given me a lot of space to work with.

But not enough.

So I consulted with a rather interesting specialty: [Spatial Compression] and came up with ideas that'll make the inside of the Citadel much larger than the outside.

Opening a log of the events happening in Metropolis— because I refuse to be out of the loop even while hundreds of kilometers away— I saw how there was a report that was filed about a minute ago of how Ranger Team 4 was asking for fire support since they're stuck in a fight against a group of six (6) Ogres.

Ogres... I racked my mind trying to remember the ogres in Tolkien's works. They were giant humanoid creatures that wielded clubs. Hrmm.

A weird feeling grazed past my gut, almost as if telling me they are important somehow.

With a few clicks of the button, another screen opened up, displaying the number of a particular hobgoblin. I couldn't see them, but I could hear them.

"C—Commander Scientia—"

"Director. Commander is for when I'm in my military officer clothing. Right now, I'm acting as the Director of Research and Development."

"Ah," The hobgoblin stammered a bit before composing himself, "yes, Director Scientia. How can I help you?"

Rigurt. He was a direct subordinate of Ririna and is the head of the Rangers, a group responsible for patrolling the edge of the outskirts of the Capital in teams of three. They were some of the most heavily armed as they had to frequently deal with hostile wildlife.

To give them trouble, these ogres must be quite formidable, possibly even a match for Shizue.

"Tell Ranger Team 4 to slowly pull out, and prepare for full retreat when I appear. I shall be taking the field myself."

A stunned silence followed my statement. One could almost picture the face that Rigurt was making. "Are— are you sure, Director Scientia? The support that we sent to Ranger Team 4 should be more than enough!"

"Yes. Pull back the support. Send me the coordinates, I've been itching to test this new weapon of mine."

"... Right away, Director Scientia."

Rigurt's voice sounded particularly grim.

Getting up from my lying down position, I stood up and stretched my arms a bit before turning to face my left and uttering a specific phrase:

"Door me, to my workshop."

A black upright rectangle in the form of an opened 'door' to somewhere unknowable materialized into existence. Around the pitch-black rectangle was a purple outline.

It was a portal, a legit, existing portal where two points in space were connected via a bridge.

It was made as a joint project between [Dimensional Physics, [Spacetime Engineering, [Quantum Mechanics, and [Portal: a portal network centered around a massive satellite up in geosynchronous orbit, hovering right above Metropolis. It was physically built by those asteroid-mining spacecraft after I transmitted the blueprint and the order.

Creating and maintaining a portal requires more energy than Fusion alone could provide, so to power this portal network I built the world's first antimatter reactor that inverses the polarity of baryonic or 'normal' matter and turns them into antimatter, which can then be used to react with other baryonic matter in what's known as an Annihilation reaction that releases 100% of all energy.

Basically, the energy released equals mass (in kilograms) multiply the speed of light squared, and then it is all multiplied again by two for the energy released by the antimatter side.

The power generated was equivalent to multiple Hiroshimas every second, and paired with the colossal computational power of the strongest quantum supercomputer I've designed and the machines have built up till this point, I could instantaneously travel to anywhere within the Jura Forest by just saying the activation phrase of 'Door me' and then say where I wanted to go.

Normally, I would like to open this up for public use with the sheer convenience it offers, but the energy requirement was just so much that it's only available for my own personal use.

I've hit a limit I once thought was practically impossible.

Walking through the portal, I appeared back in the middle of my temporary workshop, not lab as I don't do any research here. It was a rather cramped room, with my work desk taking up a sizeable chunk of the floor space.

However, what would really catch anyone's attention if they were to enter was the large power suit situated next to the wall on one side of the room.

While looking somewhat unassuming at first, what with it only being notable for its size, the true power of the suit lies in what isn't there.

The Anti-Army Armament, or A.A.A. for short, is a power armor that is designed for pure destructive power. It is designed to carry enough weapons to lay siege to an entire city or completely obliterate a bunker complex the likes of the Cheyenne Mountain Complex that formerly houses the headquarter of NORAD.

Powered by a miniature fusion reactor, the armor is more of an exoskeleton platform in the shape of a human meant to carry the accumulated weight of over a dozen weapon attachments ranging from guns, swords, lasers, missile pods, plasma cannons, exotic weapons, bunker-busting pile drivers, autocannons, high-caliber railgun designed for the sole purpose of penetration, and more.

It is a one-man army.

I placed a hand on the shoulder of the A.A.A., my hands delicately tracing the surface of the inactive armor as though a single hard touch could break it.

I think I can level New York City in less than an hour with this with the correct armament configuration. I don't think Ifrit could've rampaged for as long as he did if I wore this instead of the nanosuit.

I eventually hope I could perhaps arm the soldiers of the Republic with this. An entire army of one-man armies.

Is that enough to protect Tempest once information about me being a Perfect Homunculus gets out? My mind couldn't help but wonder. It was going to happen sooner or later.

[Silenced Emotion: 45%]

I reached forward, and with a single touch, activated the A.A.A.

The humanoid powered-exoskeleton suit responded by opening up, some parts moved, and others shifted around to allow a person to walk inside.

Coming inside I slotted in perfectly. The suit quickly rearranged itself and a helmet was lowered onto my head. An itching sensation emerged from the back of my neck as neural connectors sunk into and hooked up with my nerves.

Welcome, Superuser_01, please select the desired loadout.

The clothing I wore connected itself with the A.A.A., granting the latter its hologram-projecting capacity. The A.A.A. used this capacity to project a holographic panel displaying all the weapons available to me.

It reminded me of a bit like the prelude to the level of a shooting game, where you select your loadout.

With wide swipes of my wrist, I scrolled through many weapons.

If I'm going up against ogres, I should carry heavy firepower, so a selection of lasers, missile pods, autocannons, and a sword for close-range combat should be enough.

With that done, I spoke up the phrase once again: "Door me, to Anti-Army Armament's hanger."

Perhaps the only downside to the A.A.A. was that it required a whole hanger large enough to hold a helicopter in just to slot in the proper attachments.

Walking through the portal, I was greeted with the sight of many thick machine arms coming from the ceiling, with the walls of the hanger filled with many large weapons all connected to machine arms themselves.

Standing in the middle of the hanger, those thick machine arms moved to pick up the requested armaments and slotted them in behind my body, attaching them to specific slots on the back of the power suit.

Every time a new armament is attached, I felt like I'm given a new arm. Instinctively I tried to flex it, and thanks to my experience with M.A.N.A., the feeling of getting new arms wasn't foreign.

In a way, the A.A.A. can be seen as a direct next step of the M.A.N.A., where the operator can slot in mechanical arms for tinkering or for war.

After everything was done, I flexed all of my new arms at once. When I first made the A.A.A. and prepared it for mass production for the Grand Republic Army, I was hesitant to call it a power suit since it's more of a mobile artillery platform that can also fly.

If another person were here, they'll see a humanoid with weapon attachments of varying sizes coming out from their back and moving. It would be like seeing a weird emperor crab.

[Silenced Emotion: 60%]

"Door me, to the location given by Rigurt."

Walking through the portal, I found myself beside some broken trees next to a flowing river. The place was quiet, with the only sound being the water flow of the river. Such a sight reminded me eerily of how I met the trio of adventurers and Shizue, so I was on alert the moment that realization hit me.

This is a world of superhumans. Even with so much firepower at my disposal, I shouldn't let my guard down.

I had to keep moving because of the ground pressure I'm exerting right now thanks to how heavy this suit was will pretty much cause me to sink into the dirt.

Unlike the previous two iterations, this A.A.A. constantly observes my surrounding through tiny cameras and sensors that are situated all over my body like the stripes on a zebra, so that way, I won't ever be surprised.

Through these multitudes of information-collecting tools, the A.A.A. alerted me to the fact that there was a sleeping agent in the air.

Three designated: hobgoblins found. Status: asleep.

Reading that information off of the HUD, a startling realization hit me—

... I'm in a trap, aren't I?

Alert

Suddenly, the sensors detected a rapidly approaching mass behind me. As I turned around to greet the threat, I found a massive hammer the size of half of my own body was now above my head and quickly descending, with the intent to kill me.

Reacting with pure instincts, I flexed one of the smaller armaments containing a laser emitter and it shot out a beam that sliced clean through the individual's hammer and hand. The heat of the laser was hot enough to cauterize their wounds as they screamed out in pain.

"NOOOOO!" An unknown individual screamed out.

Alert four individuals rapidly approaching from all angles.

Ah, four of the other five must be rushing forth to help their compatriots.

Two of the autocannon attachments swirled around and started firing all around me in a random pattern designed to cause those individuals to scatter like leaves in the wind.

KRA—KA—KA—KA—KA—KA—*

The autocannons mowed down several trees by pumping them full of ferromagnetic tungsten rounds.

Electromagnetic mass drivers are always superior compared to chemical-propellent-based munitions in events where power is not an issue.

[Psychology] observed how those individuals seemed to only have moved after I harmed the one that just attacked me. It made me think perhaps they are intelligent and capable of empathy. The process of elimination dictates they are the ogres and they aren't exactly like the ones depicted in books made by Tolkien.

Looking down at the person now without a hammer blocking my view, I saw how he looked almost exactly like a human but with dark gray skin with a pair of white horns on his forehead. The ogre wore clothing that seems to suggest they were from feudal Japan.

Is he like Rimuru? A reincarnator from Japan?

Such a possibility made me reluctant to field test the A.A.A. on them. [Psychology] then remarked on how I have a double standard between the people of this world and those of others. I ignore it.

I then placed the cutting edge of the only sword armament next to the neck of the one who got an emergency hand removal surgery.

"Come out, or your friend dies. I know there are six of you," My voice was broadcasted by speakers on the A.A.A., making them sound different; more normal, like their owner possessed flaws that make them feel less of an eldritch abomination's attempt at blending in.

Several assumptions were within that statement.

Assumption 1: they care about this one.

Assumption 2: they know about the symbolism of a sword on another person's neck.

Assumption 3: they are intelligent and can be parley with.

Assumption 4: there's a distinct possibility that there are more reincarnators from feudal Japan.

Slowly, the A.A.A. detected movements all around me. On the HUD, multiple windows opened up to display those who were walking out.

One female had a single horn and purple hair, another female had two horns and pink hair. The males that walked out were a ninja-lookalike with blue hair and a single horn, an old one that has two horns, and finally, the one who's looking especially angry and had red hair and two horns.

All of them wore clothing that reflected Japanese culture before the Meiji Restoration.

"So, I'm told you guys are the ones who attacked the Ranger teams... wanna tell me why?" I tilted my head to emphasize my confusion at their actions.

"You! Is taking away our homes not enough? Do you always want to hunt us, ogres, until not one of us remains?! Know this then: even if you kill us now, the ogre retribution will never cease until you're dead!" The red one threatened out, seemingly trying to make themselves stronger than they actually are.

A good negotiation tactic to use if the other person doesn't know you. There's a reason why when you are in the interview for a job you never tell the interviewer the level of salary you're expecting since if you go too low, you're effectively giving up on well-earned money.

However, what I gleaned from that little tidbit coming from the red ogre seemed to suggest that a new threat has emerged, one that is strong enough to slaughter a whole village of these ogres.

The curious side of me took over, [Biology] expressing interest over the ogre's evolutionary pathways that would make them so human as to possess opposable thumbs.

Like the goblins, the ogres were so human-like in appearance that any taxonomist can easily mistake them for an equally evolved cousin of the Homo Sapiens.

Realizing that the red one was still spewing out threats, I made a decision and mentally commanded one of the autocannons to fire a single shot toward a direction without any intelligent life.

KRAK*

The thunderous noise of an object moving past the speed of sound and the subsequent sonic boom is finally enough to shut the red one up.

Before he can start up again, "Are you done with your threats? Because I can just capture you all and dissect you for information. I'm trying to make some form of diplomacy here and you truly are not helping."

The white one stepped forward, "Such power," he spoke with faux reverence. "To strike so fast as a human is unbelievable, please spare us O' Mighty One, we were only trying to defend our new home from your 'rangers'. It is clear to me that you are not the one who destroyed our village nor were you in control of the Orcs." The old ogre then bowed deeply, shocking the rest of his compatriots.

Trying to appeal to my ego?

"Please, if you must take a life, take mine instead of the Young Master's."

"What?!" The Young Master, apparently the red ogre, yelled out in indignation, "I can fight my own fight! I don't need you to bail me out! I—"

"ENOUGH, Young Master. This being is obviously strong enough to slaughter us all by itself, they would have no need to use orcs. Take this as a lesson in knowing what battle to fight, and what to avoid! This will be my final lesson as your mentor! I will die today so you can live!" The red Ogre looked conflicted, before backing down.

The hell?

Through this interaction, one can easily replace the ogres with humans and it wouldn't look out of place. What the hell is going on? Why are supposedly a different race behaving with such human-like behaviors?

Animals are brutal creatures. They are not human, even if we like to assign human traits to them. Chimpanzees are considered Homo Sapien's closest relative and they are some of the most violent creatures in the animal kingdom. In most zoos, if a chimp got out, it was instant kill-on-sight because they are that dangerous; not even lions are given this kill-on-sight order.

So to see this... this self-sacrificing behavior...

There has to be some entity that's managing everything to ensure humans never became the dominant species like in my old world.

The faceplate of the A.A.A.'s helmet opened up, revealing my features to the world. "Tell me, old ogre, are you named? And who was it that annihilated your village?"

I can investigate whether or not any of the ogres are reincarnators after I figure out this new threat.

"We have no names, and it was a masked individual that lead the orcs to slaughter our friends and family." The rest of them seemed to tense at the mention of that masked individual. "Even as we defended ourselves, the orcs always came back as if they were possessed with no fear of death."

"Hmm," the gears inside my mind started to turn. Opportunity presents itself. Having more superhumans to defend me is a desirable outcome, and since they have no home, the Republic would be an excellent place to settle down.

Even with Shizue, it's always better to have redundancy.

"Swear your absolute loyalty to me and I can assure you I will help you achieve your vengeance against this... masked individual,"

"You wish to ENSLAVE US?!" the red one accused.

To which I waved him off. What a ridiculous notion, "Beyond the ethical issues, I have no need of slaves. I would much rather have willing workers who reached their full potential, so think of this as more of a contract, where all I need is for you never directly or indirectly harm me. You see this thing behind me?" I spoke and thumbed at the many armaments attached to the power suit.

"I built this with my two hands. It's for the military of a newly founded nation that I'm a part of. However, personally, I'm a tinker, and I'd much more useful in the backlines handling research and development..." trailing off, the old one obviously knew what I was implying.

"You want us to protect you?"

"And not betray me in any fashion, that is all I ask. I can throw in plenty more benefits into this contract to incentivize things."

"We..." the red one seemed to ponder for a moment.

Then the old one spoke up, "we cannot decide right this instance. We would like to have some time thinking things over."

"That's alright. Why don't you come to our Capital?" I raised a hand, palm facing the sky as if offering them something, "you can decide after you saw all we have to offer."

AN: now the exponential curve really starts to hit as Scientia can recreate other powers. Also, Rimuru in this timeline is much weaker without the skill boost from consuming Shizue.

No [Degenerate] for you!

Magic according to the Wiki of Tensura is "...projecting an idea into reality via a medium, usually magicules..." I read that magicules are capable of warping physics or even reality itself to achieve the desired result, sort of like the Esper abilities of Toaru or a less rigid and less powerful form of a Reality Marble localized in front of the user.

Essentially, if you want to create a lance of ice you would concentrate the magicule in an area to lower the temperature enough that an ice lance would form.

Also, I was wrong about the fireball example from the last chapter, after further reading, I discovered that a magical fire cannot be extinguished by water. What I read from this is that reality is warped around a localized area to allow a fire to exist, thusly any direct non-magical interference is rendered null.

BUT, indirect ways are like those in the last chapter, namely when the Entropy Rifle created a shield of cold air tha

14

As you know," I started as I, in casual clothing, with the pink, blue, and old ogres following closely behind, walked down the aisles of the now-completed supermarket that I had used when fighting against Ifrit. The pink and old ogres were in jaw-dropping awe at the amount of food present and at the cheap cost, both in awe of modernity.

The blue one stared at the cuts of meat off in the distance.

With a single hand, I picked up an apple from the aisle. The apple was red interrupted by spots of yellow and was large enough that I had trouble fully encompassing it in the palm of my hands.

"I am responsible for all the things you see in front of you. I gave and sold blueprints to entrepreneurial hobgoblins who then took out a loan and start their own businesses. Although nowadays I've mainly focused on auctioning off the blueprints."

I was tempted to chew on the apple to make a point, but since I haven't bought it yet, it would heavily antagonize my business side.

So I plopped the apple down with another pile of a different species of apple.

The others are currently resting after my healing of their wounds. As it turns out, the purple and red ogres all were shot by the autocannons and were running on adrenaline before giving the pink-haired individual who they called 'Princess' a scare by collapsing from blood loss.

That was what actually made them come with me to Metropolis: they possessed no means of saving them, so I offered my own transport and healthcare services.

Glancing at the trio of wounded ogres, I determined they still have some time left before expiring, so I thought why don't I impress my soon-to-be employees by taking them on a flight?

The A.A.A. shifted its weapons attachment around to carry six additional passengers. After everyone got situated, the thrusters underneath my foot activated and we took off, flying at near-sonic speeds as though gravity doesn't exist since the Anti-Army Armament weighs close to 20 tons.

It must've been a scary sight to anyone below: a massive metal bird-like creature cutting through the air just above the tree line, the roar of its engine a frighteningly loud constant never-ending thunder.

Seeing how their eyes seemed to gravitate towards the fruits, I concluded they mustn't have eaten in a while. Not surprising given how they were on the run.

"Pick any combination of food you want, I'll pay for it. Think of this as my treat." I said casually. Not only would I ingratiate myself with the ogres by giving them free food, but with how human they are they're also socially obligated to return the favor so to speak.

The old one narrowed his eyes in suspicion but said nothing as the pink one grabbed a nearby plastic bag and started plopping all manners of fruits and snacks. The blue one walked towards the meat aisle, leaving only me and the old one.

There was an uneasy silence between the two of us.

"I don't recall there ever being a city here, only a small goblin village." The aged ogre started as he picked up and inspect a single Auberry. Auberries are a native species of the Jura Forest. Brown in color and a bit bigger than blueberries, they were often seen as a sweet treat. As such, a small part of the vertical farm on the Egg was dedicated to farming these Auberries, providing markets such as this one with a steady supply of them.

"Oh yes, that was the case before we came here over a month ago."

"A month?" The old ogre's voice was filled with disbelief, a break from his usually calm demeanor as his hands loosen, dropping the Auberry, "and you built everything here?"

"Is it truly so surprising?"

"The cities in Dwargon were built millenniums ago. Our village can date its origin to 400 years ago during Relentless's Rampage, where the chief welcomed a group of wounded Otherworlders and they taught us the ways of the Samurai. Are you a Demon Lord then? To be able to build such a grand city in such a short time?"

Ah, so that's why they had clothing that seems to originate from feudal Japan. Assuming that time is isotropic, that would mean they encountered a group during the early Edo or late Sengoku period of Japan.

I did a small research project on Japan in high school, so I know some information about that nation.

I let out a sigh, "no, I'm not a Demon Lord. I am Scientia Tempest, a rogue homunculus."

That seems to surprise him, as the wrinkles on his forehead rose like mountain ranges.

"A homunculus? With this much independent thought?"

"I escaped from a family of rogue artificers. I was alive for more centuries, serving as their recorder. I was alive, but I wasn't truly living. It wasn't until a while ago that I escaped and met up with a blue, headache-inducing slime."

I spoke in a frank tone and had this faraway look in my eyes. I looked like a person lost in their memories, or perhaps a lover waiting for their beloved to come back. It was an extremely convincing act performed with guidance from [Acting].

The old ogre seemed to believe me as he wandered off, leaving me alone.

"..."

I don't feel bad. Manipulation is a part of daily life, in fact, any deals worth more than half a billion dollars and you can almost guarantee at least one party is spying on the other to gain leverage.

I went to the checkout spot, bought myself a granola bar, and waited for the trio to finish buying. I like the old ogre, he seemed to be a good conversationalist.

Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out a rectangular metal frame the size of my old-world's smartphone. The metal frame seemingly had nothing inside it. Pushing in on a small protrusion on the side of the metal frame, its inside lit up.

This was a graphene phone.

Graphenes are an allotrope of carbon composed of a single layer of atoms arranged in a beehive-like pattern. The material has a tensile strength of 130 Gigapascals, mostly chemically inert, and most importantly, has high electrical conductivity.

With how transparent it is, whenever I tap on the phone it almost looked like I was tapping air, and the things the graphene phone displays also looked like it was suspended in midair like a hologram.

Accessing the local internet, I started browsing what few websites there were. Surprisingly, the most popular type of website was message boards and forums where users can come and talk. Since the internet was still in its infancy, it wasn't the corrupted, messed up hodgepodge it was in my old life.

I felt a sense of sadness at the thought of the current clean internet being gone soon, but it was inevitable.

So I checked off the local internet and accessed my own network. Using the phone, I checked up on the satellites up in orbit. Right now, approximately 30,000 asteroids sized 100 meters across and above were turned into mines for raw resources. Considering how all new satellites have switched to solar panels as a means of energy collection (Rimuru and I found constantly supplying the mines with hydrogen was way too tedious), it wasn't too bad.

Then, I checked the Tempest political log again for any updates and found that Congress has granted me the ability to supply the military with Anti-Army Armament.

My vision for the Grand Republic Army was to have these A.A.A. as 'tank' equivalent, with disposable humanoid drones commanded by flesh and blood officers supported by airstrikes and flying, information collecting drones being the infantry. Realistically, we need these powered units to go up against other nations' superhumans.

As for the Grand Republic Airforce, I honestly don't think we're going to have any pilots flying jets, not when AI is better. I don't know the true capacity of these 'Demon Lords' so I mostly left the Airforce blank aside from ideas for bombers.

The Grand Republic Navy is just going to be composed of primarily troop carriers. Battleships are already outdated even before I was born because of guided missiles, and with the technology I have, not even railguns will be enough to reinvigorate battleships. In fact, in the future, I think I'm going to dissolve the Navy and reform it into a space navy.

Once Tempest has pacified this world and reaches beyond the heavens, the vast void between stars will become the new oceans.

My thought ended abruptly as the ogres came, around their arms were bags upon bags filled with groceries.

I felt my mind drag me back to that time before the direwolves when a village elder had given a patient of mine that was about to undergo surgery a towel for them to bite on to deal with the pain. These ogres must've never even seen this much food...

For me, the selection in this supermarket was pathetic. A normal convenience store at a gas station has more types of products than this supermarket.

The effect of technology and modernity.

The total cost for their groceries amounted to a bit over 500 dollars, which I paid in cash and told the cashier to keep the change.

All part of an act.

Afterward, the ogres went back to visit the three who were being treated for their injuries. The old one went to the small kitchen in the clinic to prepare some food while the pink ogre peeled some oranges and personally fed them to the red one. The blue one stood vigilantly, watching the three as they were covered in bandages and recovering in bed like a silent guardian just out of view, out of mind, yet always there and ready to strike at any threats.

I really do wonder how monster societies function without names. As human societies became more complex, the need for a name arose as it becomes difficult to really efficiently call out to other people. The need for last names arose when cities are made because realistically, first names become too limited.

According to the world atlas that Rimuru brought from Dwargon, the Jura Forest is surrounded on its southern side by nations of monsters. The book specifically said 'nations', so their society must be beyond mere tribal and perhaps as complex as human societies.

How do they function? How do their contracts work without any names? It's a fascinating sociological question.

It took a full day before the ogres fully healed from their wounds, partly thanks to my technology in the form of stem cell extraction and infusion. For the one without an arm thanks to my lasers, I had to dip my hands in acid once more and perform another reattachment surgery, this time with the patient accepting the general anesthetics.

The pink ogre then showed the red one, and the purple one around our Capital, and later on, once feeling returned, to the dark-grey one as well after the general anesthetics passed through his system.

Letting them look around here would only help improve their image of Metropolis and subsequently, the Jura Tempest Republic as a whole, so I was a bit disappointed they didn't spend more time looking around the city.

After the awe of being in a modern city has subsided, even if the culture shock still remained, negotiation began in earnest.

It started off slow, as apparently, I had to elaborate and explain certain words and legal jargon.

Man, I really should open a law school. This is the job of a lawyer, not me.

We are in the middle of a stereotypical meeting room you'd see in an office building. The dark wooden floor contrasted nicely with the white marble table. The four walls around us are made out of dark oak and a white roof with 3 sets of lights.

The negotiation had started at the crack of dawn and continued until there was a break during noon for lunch and one for dinner. Right now, the sun had long set and the darkness of night replaced the blueness of the sky.

I sat on one end of the table while the ogres sat on the other. Empty water bottles littered the room, and I could see it in the ogres' eyes that they too are tired of being in a single room for so long.

The situation is incredibly tense as I await their answers.

I swear these people are more cautious than insurance brokers, and that's saying a lot since insurance brokers sometimes would literally hire multiple consulting companies to analyze the risk of giving certain entities insurance.

Reclining down on the synthetic leather chair while grabbing a glass of water, [Acting] then had me pull out my phone and play a game of pong I downloaded to look nonchalant and unworried about whatever they choose.

I recognize these tactics, the relaxed posture signals to the other side that they are unimportant and I don't care what they choose. It's oftentimes used to belittle the other side while showing that you are so powerful or have so many choices that if they say no, then that is it.

And it works a lot more than most would have expected.

Upon hearing the sounds of paper hitting wood, I raised my head to look at the group who was still examining the paper.

Pausing the game and sticking the phone back into my pocket, I was about to open my mouth when the old one pointed to the paper, "Article 3, clause 13 C. Subsection 1, The ogres shall each receive a minimum payment of 50,000$ a year adjusted for future inflation, each payment shall be afforded to them on a biweekly basis. I've researched the Dwarven coin to Tempest Dollar conversion ratio, 1 Dollar is the equivalent of 10 Bronze coins, meaning that you'll pay us 50 Gold Coins worth of service even if there is no action?"

Nodding along, "indeed, the 50,000$ is just a retaining fee, there's an included 40,000$ Dollar sign-on bonus as well as all basic expenses like water, electricity, and housing will all be free and paid by me. You know that the average salary of a hobgoblin working in the factory is around 70$ a day (still working on increasing the minimum wage law by the way), with this contract you'll also get all-expenses-paid healthcare as well as an appropriate amount of free time to pursue your own hobbies when I do not call on you. However, if I do call on you I would need you to drop whatever you are doing and answer." I clarified with as little modern lingo as possible, I highly doubt that these primitives know what Stocks are.

The red one appeared to be in deep thought, the blue one looked at me with deep suspicion, the pink one looked convinced, the purple one looked at me with contempt, the old one still studied the contract, and the black one is afraid of me.

I looked down at the phone and saw the time, "If you desire, we can stop the negotiation for today. It's already pretty late, and you can take the contract with you to look it over more."

Please make accept the offer to stop the negotiation, I really would like to tinker some more today. I felt anxious. When the ogres wanted to start negotiation this morning, I was in the middle of checking up on how the production of the Anti-Army Armament was going. I thought the negotiation would take only a few hours at most, not the whole day! I would like to start the A.A.A. production as soon as possible, please!

It was like watching a TV Show but the episode ends on a cliffhanger and there's a week until the next: the wait was agonizing.

I'm going to sweeten the deal.

[Acting] channeled a pressuring salesman persona, like the one you'd find in a reality TV show like Shark Tank.

My left hand rose to gesture towards the group as I leaned forward, "Tell you what, I'm going to make it more enticing for you: if you accept the contract today, right here, right now, I'm going to offer you six instantaneous citizenships of the Jura Tempest Republic."

Seeing their confused expression, I elaborated.

"By becoming a citizen, not only could your future children become instant citizens as well, but they'll also be able to attend the Metropolitan School of Higher Thought and Learning for free. You and your next of kin would also be entitled to enormous discounts on more advanced education once the Metropolitan University is built. For more personal benefits, by becoming a citizen, you are allowed to take out loans from the Tempest National Bank and be only taxed on the property you own instead of your revenue. Moreover, the Jura Tempest Republic is also legally and constitutionally obligated to come to your protection, whether in the form of legal consultation services, political pressure, or military actions."

"And... names?" The old one asked, pointing to a specific part of the contract.

"Normally, any and all Monster citizens are entitled to what's known as 'Equal Naming'. This type of naming is different from the ones you're getting because it barely costs any magicules and the creatures don't evolve." Rimuru had switched to this form because it grew just too tedious to name the numerous number of daily immigrating goblins that come to Tempest as refugees or immigrants. What's more, it's a violation of democratic values for a specific leader to be seen as the 'master' of everyone within an entire nation, as it'll become effectively impossible for a newly elected leader to take hold.

Although, the fact that Equal Naming describes almost exactly what Veldora did with me and Rimuru, where my and Rimuru's power didn't increase as a result of the True Dragon's action, was rather interesting. It implies that it was a conscious choice, that a True Dragon somehow saw us as 'equals'.

"What you're getting is the Master-Subordinate type, the ones where you would usually evolve after naming."

"Aren't you afraid of this act backfiring? There's a reason why even Demon Lords pay attention to who they give Names to." The old one countered and brought up a logical point.

I thought for a brief moment, before deciding to reveal this, "No, I'm not, because I've come up with a method of naming a monster using the magicule in the air."

It was a method developed by [Magicule] in conjunction with [Metaphysics]. I would literally extract magicule from the surrounding environments, but if I name too many or too powerful creatures, I would deplete the environment of magicules for sometimes centuries.

There's a bit of irony in how naming monsters would cause their habitat to decrease.

I closed my eyes and then placed my arms to the side like an individual about to tell someone that it was impossible to do as they requested, "but, the downside of such a way of naming is that there's less of a connection between the Named and the one who named them. However, I think you would like that, wouldn't you?"

Unlike the adventurers, even in spite of my 'kind' acts, the ogres were still rather frosty towards me. The pink one acted as though she couldn't decide on whether to be friendly or to be frosty, while the old one spoke only when required.

The red one bared his teeth in naked hostility while the purple one had a conflicted look in her eyes. The black one was obviously afraid of me even when I was the one who reattached his arm.

Wait a minute— on the outside, my face didn't change, but internally I had a revelation. The black one wielded a hammer, and since when I'm in the A.A.A. I looked probably the most like some kind of humanoid insect. He probably thought crushing damage can go through my armor, just like how maces were one of the most popular weapons in Medieval Europe since they're better against armor than swords.

Smart. I don't give enough credit to the people of this world.

The old one looked around for confirmation before continuing, "Of course, we would accept..."

I felt a smile descend upon my face, "perfect—"

"—under one more condition."

[Silenced Emotion: 50%]

For god's sake, what more condition could you possibly want?!?! I mentally screamed inside my head. The current draft of the contract was the 49th for fuck's sake! Are you not mentally exhausted by this back and forth?

On the outside, [Acting] restrained my outburst so I appear ever as friendly. My hands came together, with each finger touching its parallel on the other hand.

"What is it?"

From my tone, no one would tell the frustration I've kept bottled up deep within the recesses of my mind.

"We still don't trust you. So we'd like you to agree to a geas and answer some of our questions truthfully."

A geas is a special kind of magic that forces all parties to act out a set of previously agreed-upon terms and conditions. A geas can only be formed when both parties are willing, know what is happening and the implications, and are in a proper state of mind, meaning that a person under the effect of drugs, alcohol, excessive emotion, mind control magic, and other coercive measures will not be bound by the geas.

The ideal contract basically.

That magic is one of the oldest ones in existence, as old as the written record itself, and arguably the oldest form of mental magic. Historians in the West believe before Dwargon, people used geas as a type of 'currency' since it recorded an obligation that two or more parties must fulfill.

However, that's not what's most interesting. The most interesting part of this geas was its power.

This mental magic spell could bind any two individuals no matter their differences in power. This means that the lowest peasants can bind the highest kings, and that's why geas are used so sparely: there's an aura of taboo around it since it's unbreakable, and it's only used for the most important of contracts.

I stared at them, my smile disappeared into a neutral expression, and the friendly atmosphere around me was wiped away. My eyes, guided by [Psychology, [Biology, and other sociology-related specialties, tried to find any evidence of a joke.

"I can do that. But I reserve the right to say no to certain questions that would put me or Tempest in harm."

"So be it." The old one pulled out a scroll. Flattening the scroll against the table, the white ogre pulled out a bit of his katana and cut himself on the finger.

Dripping droplets of blood onto the scroll, "I, the eldest among the survivors of the ogre village, a nameless monster, hereby propose a geas among two people, where I, shall ask questions that the other must answer truthfully to the best of their abilities, but they have the choice to refuse if the answer to such a question will invariably lead to harm against the entity known as Scientia Tempest and the Jura Tempest Republic. This contract shall last..."

"15 minutes."

"for the next 15 minutes and can be ended early."

The blood on the scroll disappeared.

"Your turn," the old one said as he pushed the scroll to me.

Looking down at the parchment, I carefully examined everything that was on the geas scroll with [Magicule, [Magic, and [Negotiation] dissecting everything about it.

I was returned with an all-clear.

Still, I felt nervous. This was an unbreakable contract, a limitation upon my free will itself.

My hands gripped the edge of the scroll tightly. The things I do for superhuman bodyguards. I've spent too much into this group, I can't back out now, not when I'm so close.

"Door me, to my kitchen knife." A small pitch-black rectangle appeared above my outstretched hand and a titanium alloy knife sharp enough to pierce my skin fell through and into the palm of my awaiting right hand.

Normal iron weapons don't even possess the ability to pierce my new physiology's skin. Even small-arm fire would find difficulties, which is one of the reasons why I call Shizue a superhuman.

Pressing the cutting edge into the space between my left hand's thumb and index, I pushed forward and a feeling of sharp pain later, droplets of scarlet emerged around the knife.

That was all done without any hesitation on my part.

Holding the wound above the geas, I let the blood flow before announcing, "I, Scientia Tempest, hereby agree to this geas."

The scroll glowed a bright purple before vanishing entirely in a way that seems to violate the Conservation of Mass.

I felt SOMETHING descend, a feeling, a new almost indescribable feeling course through my body akin to how sound waves echo through the walls inside a canyon.

"It is done." The elder spoke with a sense of finality in his voice.

"Well then," my confidence returned, "what is it that you wish to know?"

The red one went first, "who are you?"

"I am Scientia Tempest, Director of Research and Development of the Jura Tempest Republic, owner of the Blueprint Auction House."

"What is this place?" This time, it was the purple one who spoke up.

"This city is the capital of the newly founded nation the Jura Tempest Republic, called 'Metropolis'. It was named as such because it is the start of a new geopolitical superpower."

Everything seemed good so far.

"Why do you want to employ us so much?" The usually quiet blue one had asked.

"I want you to work for the Republic. The Republic follows the ideals of liberty, equality, fraternity, and rationality, different from the rest of this backwater continent of feudalism and authoritarianism. Well primarily, I want you all to serve as my personal bodyguard, to defend me when my true nature is revealed."

I've already told the white one the false story, so he should've already spread it around with the group based on how close they were. What's more, even if I'm asked about my true nature, I can always refuse to answer since that counts as harm.

Unlike the last time I met with the native of this world, I'll continue to be in control of this situation.

"What is your true nature?" The pink asked.

My true nature is that of a runaway homunculus—

"My true nature is that—ack"

I tightened the muscle around my throat to prevent air from escaping. My mouth went ajar due to the muscle tightening.

"that... of..."

I can still feel myself trying to say that I'm a Perfect Homunculus. What the hell? Is that not information that would harm me?

No! I'm not telling these people who might not even accept that I'm a Perfect Homunculus! How in the ever-loving hell is this considered 'unharmful'? If it got out, the entirety of the world would descend upon me in an attempt to end a second Perfect Homunculus!

"A... Per— hrk!"

There was a single frantic movement.

There was a single shine of metal.

There was a single squirt of crimson.

There was a single wet noise of flesh being pierced.

Without thinking too clearly, as I was restricting my airway, my hands reached for the titanium alloy knife and stabbed it into my throat. I was that desperate to not let information out.

Very quickly, the knife had only stopped once the tip had hit the spine. Blood spewed forth like water from a burst dam, flooding both my trachea and my lungs as well as dying the metal knife and my hands a shade of crimson.

I fell to the floor. The pain from the fall was overshadowed by the pain in my neck, and the taste of iron filled one side of my mouth. The dark floor didn't do anything to hide the blood that was pooling around me.

"Hrk!"

I'm drowning in my own blood.

I think I heard some sounds that resembled a woman screaming out in horror and some that sounded similar to the rumbling of chairs as they were dragged across the floor. I can't pay attention to it because there's a fucking knife in my throat.

I could feel my right arm shakily move without my command. The right hand squished my throat wound and squeezed out more blood like an artist squeezing on a tube of paint. Then, the hand moved, and started the write the letter 'P', then 'E' using the 'paint'.

CANCEL! I wanted to say, but all that came out was a wet guggle since my larynx, also known as the 'voice box' had a hole through it.

I was halfway done writing 'R' when I stopped.

Quickly, I pulled the knife out of my throat in a single movement, slightly grimacing at the intense pain.

The room was filled with the sounds of my loud cough as I attempted to get rid of all the blood that was currently inside my lung. Having blood inside my lung gave me the same feeling as water: a burning sensation deep inside me.

If I was still human, I would undoubtedly be dead right now. It was weird having an open larynx. Not only was blood coming out of my mouth with each cough, but there was also some coming out of the hole in my neck.

However, it was a futile endeavor as the source of the blood— my self-inflicted wound— was still open and bleeding rapidly.

God damn it, why can't I regenerate as fast as Rimuru's [Rapid Regeneration]?

Constantly coughing up freshly spilled blood was certainly an experience I can safely say I've never had before.

Looking over at the ogres, I realized the tears in my eyes from all the coughing made my vision all blurry. I was about to try and wipe away those droplets before realizing my clothes were ruined by blood and my hand was even more useless.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I continued to cough in reflex before feeling something leave my eyes.

Done.

Opening them again, I found that I could see clearly now at long last. Turning my gaze toward the ogres, I saw how the red one covered the pink one in a protective, brotherly embrace. Such a sight caused small feelings of jealousy within me as I'm reminded again of what I lost.

Kathy.

My coughs were less frequent now, fortunately at least.

The red one looked at me with an expression that screamed fear. The others' faces showed wariness and shock with widened eyes at the unnatural sight in front of them of a homunculus surviving what should've been lethal. The black one in particular looked queasy and sick.

To them, I must be like a real-life terminator, rising up even after taking a shotgun blast to the chest.

The coughing finally subsided as my throat fully healed with no evidence of the wound ever existing. I was once tempted to test the limit of this supposedly 'limitless' regeneration Skill but that'll be like a person poking an electric socket with forks made out of various metals to test which is conductive.

[Silenced Emotion: 90%]

I wordlessly returned my seat to its upright position before sitting down as if the past five minutes of a very stressful situation didn't happen, as if the frontal portion of my clothing didn't look like it had gone through a dye factory, as if I don't look like a cannibal given how my mouth was dyed with streaks of blood, my blood.

"Shall we start again?"

They didn't reply. The ogres continued to stare at me as if I was an exotic animal.

You'd think being in a world with magic and superhuman abilities like Skills the ogres would be more accepting of strange occurrences.

I cleared my throat again, and a shot of pain erupted from a single point inside my lung causing me to rub my lower chest. Seems like even after I coughed out all the blood, the tissue lining my lungs is still irritated.

Glancing at the black one that looked like he was about to puke, I grabbed a trash can from nearby and brought it up, "if you want to puke, please do it at the washroom or here."

"We..." the red one spoke, "we've decided. Given how far you're willing to keep your secrets... you are the type of person that would sacrifice all of us without a second thought if it'll advance your goal. We will be mere pawns to you. So no, we don't accept this contract. We would rather die than be under your 'employment'."

"..." If I was a vindictive person, I think I'd have captured them right in this instant and have them tortured. The number of creative ways of causing pain with [Inspired Inventor] would put even the best gore and snuff-film enthusiasts feel queasy.

In fact, without [Silenced Emotion] turned up so high, I think I might've lost control when the red one refused and insinuated some rather reputation-damaging facts and did something regrettable.

"Very well, you have until sundown tomorrow to pack your stuff and leave. I offer you good luck in your endeavor of vengeance against whoever annihilated your village."

As I watch them leave, I realized this transaction was just a failed deal. At the end of the day, it's just business.

AN: and now we see Scientia's paranoia coming to bite them back in the ass. Perhaps had Scientia told them of her nature as a Perfect Homunculus, maybe they'll have accepted it.

Also, part of the blame can be attributed to [Conflict Drive, a staple of all Worm fics.

15

Today marks the beginning of the Grand Army of the Jura Tempest Republic!" Rimuru announced on the steps of the half-completed Capitol building. His hands were spread out wide in a grand gesture with the members of the Senate from both political parties as well as me sitting right behind him in rolls upon rolls of chairs.

300 Anti-Army Armaments stood in front of the President in a neat and organized fashion. Some of them are piloted by AIs since, even with 5,000 residents within Metropolis, we're still unable to fill all of the A.A.A. in time for the ceremony.

Each A.A.A. stood like a statue. Given how the people are staring at the A.A.A., it must be a rather striking and unfamiliar sight, with the weapon on each powered suit being larger than the suit itself.

In truth, the A.A.A. that stood in front of Rimuru is a lesser variant of my original A.A.A. This version requires fewer personnel for logistics and maintenance since mine requires that for every hour of operation, the A.A.A. must be entered into a three-hour retuning and checking-up process.

However, I guess the most obvious difference between my A.A.A. and the ones used by the Army is that each Army A.A.A. only carries 11 weapons attachments to their back while mine can carry more.

Although the Army's A.A.A. carried fewer weapons, this doesn't make it any less effective at annihilating key positions. A gun is still a gun even if it's only a handgun: it's still going to kill people.

The most powerful weapons of the A.A.A. isn't its guns, but rather, a special missile that each powered suit only possesses one of. This singular special missile's payload is that of 'Hotdust', molecules of iron and anti-iron suspended in place within a vacuum emptier than intergalactic space using magnetic fields. Hotdust came about as a side effect of my creating the first antimatter reactor.

"The 300 power suit you see before you shall be our 1st Armor Division within the Army, and shall, in accordance with the Constitution, be used solely for self-defense and peacekeeping missions!" He had continued to announce. I tuned out the rest of his speech and started mentally designing the first superweapon of the Jura Tempest Republic.

[Weapons of Mass Destruction] gave me many ideas, and combined with [Dimensional Physics] gave me a bomb that would destroy all of existence itself:

A False Vacuum Bomb.

In its simplest description, the Higgs boson, produced by excitations within the Higgs field, is what gives particles their mass through what's known as the Higgs mechanism. A false vacuum describes the Higgs field in a relatively stable state but not in the most stable state possible, a condition known as 'metastability' and therefore, isn't at maximum entropy.

The False Vacuum Bomb works by destroying metastable Higgs boson field that currently permeates everything through the triggering a nucleation point— a few particles falling into the true vacuum state would cause enormous releases of pent-up energy, which would then cause other particles nearby to also fall into the true vacuum state. This 'fall' of particles would then spread out like a bubble, ballooning in size at the speed of light.

All the physical laws within this bubble of expanding true vacuum are significantly altered, possibly resulting in a physical configuration that is hostile to the existence of baryonic matter as we know it.

Of course, to ensure the weapon actually works I would need to know if the Higgs field IS metastable in the first place, but in order to test the metastability, I would need to trigger a False Vacuum decay.

See the problem? It's a catch-22 scenario where if I do build the extremely expensive weapon, it'll either be a waste of resources or it'll cause the end of the world.

'I am become death, the destroyer of worlds' was said by J. Robert Oppenheimer after he made the atomic bomb, as he fears he'll be the one who would end humanity. But in truth, even during the height of the Cold War, there aren't enough nuclear weapons to completely exterminate every last human. Sure, their lives would be short, hard, and miserable, but humanity as a whole would still survive even after the bombs have stopped falling.

Humans are really resilient creatures. In my old world, around 75,000 years ago, the Supervolcano of Mt. Toba erupted, causing what would come to be known as the genetic bottleneck of humanity. There were as few as 3,000 humans left in the world, and yet humans, with their stone-age tools, still recovered. There was evidence of such genetic bottlenecking even in other animal species dating back to the same time as humans.

"I am become death, the destroyer of the universe." I quietly and softly said, as if the words were the highest cultural taboo. If I built this bomb, I would supplant Oppenheimer and become the destroyer of the universe as within the true vacuum, gravity might not be strong enough to bind atoms together to form planets.

Scrapping that idea, I began to look elsewhere for an answer, only to realize that the ceremony to establish the 1st Armor Division of the Grand Republic Army was ending as everyone began to leave.

Getting up from my seat, I stretched my arms a bit. There were mumblings all around me as various Senators and Ministers started chatting with each other talking about all kinds of topics. Because of my more accurate hearing thanks to this new body, I was able to discern them all before tuning them out.

No one tried to talk with me, so I stood alone like an unapproachable figure to be admired from afar.

After I finished stretching, I was about to say the phrase before I heard my name being called.

"Scientia!"

It was Rimuru, in a humanoid form that wasn't elven.

"Ah, Rimuru." I turned to face the approaching slime.

"So how did I do?" Rimuru asked, his eyes bright with anticipation of a compliment, "I saw a recording of your speech at the opening of the Academy, so you clearly know more than me!"

I placed a finger onto my chin and developed a thinking look. I can't exactly tell him I zoned out, and being brutally honest seemed like something undesirable.

"Well..." so I decided I'll give him some pointers, "I guess you were too loud the whole time. Loudness is an excellent tool to use during speeches, but keep in mind to use them only as emphasizing tools used to bring the listener's attention to certain topics."

Speeches are one of the most powerful tools of influence within a leader's toolbox.

Despite what most modern media would have you believe, Adolf Hitler was not a raving madman. If he was, he could've never risen to power. He was a charismatic man who had charmed all of Germany through his inspiring and hate-inciting speeches.

Such was the power of a seemingly simple speech.

Rimuru nodded at my words, "I see. I'll take that into consideration next time then."

Then, he clapped his hands together then dropped his head in a begging motion.

Heh?

"Please Scientia, could you help me edit my speeches then?"

I sighed and placed a hand on my forehead, "Rimuru, you're the leader of the free world. Please act like it..."

The slime's face drooped in disappointment.

"... but I will look over your speeches for really important events."

It seems to be an acceptable compromise, evident when Rimuru had a bright smile on his face that was bursting with child-like delights.

"Thank you!"

I raised a hand to my side, "Door me, to my temporary lab," before turning to face Rimuru again, giving him a wave as I enter through the portal, "well, I'm off."

Once I'm alone in my labs, I couldn't help but keep thinking of that innocent smile. It reminds me a lot of a much simpler time before adulthood, before even teenagehood.

It was a smile that belonged to a much more innocent time.

When was the last time I smiled like that? Was it before I entered the corporate world? Was it before I entered university? Was it before that 'incident' with Kathy? When was it that I lost my innocence? When was it that I lost my ability to smile just like Rimuru?

[Silenced Emotion: 50%]

Immediately, the nostalgia faded away and was instead replaced with calmness. Now, if I remember correctly, apparently, orcs are an up-and-coming threat.

Walking over to my bookshelf, I took out a thick book filled with information about the various monster races. Flipping through the book as I walked back to my desk, I stopped once I found the section about ogres.

They are B-rank monsters, meaning that it'll take 10 B-rank humans to kill 1 without suffering any casualties 90% of the time. Orcs, led by a single unknown personnel, annihilated their entire village save for them. The fact that they also said how the orcs seemed to have no self-preservation.

That makes me think mind control is in the works.

[Silenced Emotion: 50%]

That means I'll need a type of weapon that's built for mass murder. Normal militaries during the Medieval time would consider 10% of an army loss to be a catastrophic disaster. The mind-controlled army would literally send the soldiers to their own death without a second of hesitation.

[Chemistry] spoke up and offered me some easy-to-produce poisonous gas that attacks the respiratory system, causing death with only five minutes of exposure.

Not effective enough.

I'm thinking more along the lines of nerve agents, like C01-A042. Developed by the good ol' USSR, the C01-A042 belongs to a group of nerve agents known as 'Novichok', meaning 'newbie'. Despite its rather disarming classification, C01-A042 is an absolute monster in the act of killing, with Russian scientists claiming they were some of the deadliest ever made and are five to eight times more deadly than VX, an already extremely toxic synthetic chemical compound.

But at the same time, I want the nerve agents to be quickly rendered harmless after use. This way, I won't be responsible for causing a local ecological collapse of the environment after the mind-controlled enemies have been KIA.

[Chemistry] offered up another solution.

Carrion. A necrotizing agent that causes rapid cellular degeneration within all life in the animal kingdom that touches the gas. It'll be as if the target had an extremely large dose of radiation as the skin practically slide off the flesh, 'melting' in a sense. It's actually rather merciful since nerve cells are the first to die when in exposure to this gas.

The good thing about Carrion besides its lethality is that once it's exposed to oxygen and binds with that element, it'll lose its necrotizing property and become harmless about after half an hour.

I imagine the A.A.A. carrying these agents and dropping them on top of the enemy.

There's just one problem: the image issue. Chemical weapons have always had a negative light shone upon them throughout history, so I think we won't get too many friends if we release such toxic gas.

Biological agents are just no, so nuclear is the only option left.

Even if they don't know the science behind it, a big flashy weapon would warn any nation if they saw its effect.

"I am become death, the guardian of democracy." I couldn't help but say, and mentally added 'and myself'.

Tapping and holding a finger on the desk, I waited for several seconds before everything lit up and the truth of the desk was revealed: it was my personal computer.

With several clicks, I had an AI search for the movements of large groups within the Jura Forest before clicking off and returning my attention to designing a new battlefield dominance weapon. I want a wondershot nuclear weapon that'll achieve victory on our side without too much fallout

Many things popped into my mind, some of the specialties had their own thoughts and ideas for what that wondershot should be.

I settled on the design that [Nuclear Fusion] gave me.

Opening a new file and titling it 'Project Thrones' I had begun to plan out how I'm going to build this. Checking my calendar, I looked down the week aisle and saw the only major event was that the Citadel is expected to be complete in approximately six Days.

So I'm pretty much free huh?

Time to get my hands dirty.

First thing first, I'm going to need orichalcum.

Using the computer, I had one of the fabricator buildings manufacture me a ready-to-use asteroid mining unit that's much more efficient than the ones currently up in space.

The effect of ever-advancing technology.

As I finish designing Project Thrones, the fabricators should have completed the mining unit. Afterward, I'll use the portal network's satellite, tentative called 'Doormaker' and teleport both me and the mining unit to an untouched asteroid filled with unrefined orichalcum.

Magical metals like orichalcum and magisteel are... interesting things. They looked like normal matter that has somehow been mutated by the effect of magicule exposure in a process similar to how animals would get mutated. Mutated atoms lose their old properties and gain new ones. I haven't yet delved too deep into this topic, but I plan to once the Citadel is complete.

I pulled up a log of the Doormaker Satellite while I worked on Project Thrones, seeing that it has scanned over 1,000,000 objects smaller than 50 meters across over the past week. Smiling at the amount, [Mathematics] said that it's a near certainty to have what I want due to casting such a wide net of data.

Using superior smart search filters that most internet-savvy people would envy greatly over, I quickly isolated the desired asteroids and got 3 results. All 3 are around the range of 30 meters across and are made of approximately 3% unrefined orichalcum. Most importantly, all of them are within Doormaker's teleportation range.

Orichalcum is considered to be extremely valuable in this world, so much so that a single sword made by one of these is at least a Unique Grade equipment. Except I'm not using orichalcum to make swords or armor, instead, I want orichalcum for its ability to stand up against temperatures that even dragons would hesitate.

The mining unit took several hours to complete, which was longer than it took to fully complete the design on Project Thrones. Thus, while I waited, I built a small donut-shaped pocket dimension generator.

The mining unit was shaped like a Gatling gun, with six long parallel-running barrels. Its size is taller than even I was, so it would've been rather cumbersome to wield.

Quickly wielding the pocket dimension generator to the mining unit's output, such an act allowed me a closer look at the features of this thing. Beyond looking like an oversized Gatling gun, there's a thing wire that was wrapped up and down the body of the mining unit and an adjustment nob around where the trigger was.

With that done, I took a deep breath to calm down.

Taking out my graphene phone, I couldn't help but record this historical moment, "Space, the (second-to-last) final frontier. This will be the recording of me, Scientia Tempest, right before I first step into the vacuum of space. My current mission: to exploit the orichalcum found within an asteroid, to defend the Jura Tempest Republic by building a weapon of mass destruction, and to eventually spread out across the universe."

I ended the recording. I felt like Yuri Gargarin right before he was launched into space.

I stretched my hand out, and said those fateful words, "door me, to GXQ-100013A"

I don't need a spacesuit. I seem to have this... aura? Field? I have something that ensures I don't freeze nor do I go into shock due to the lack of external pressure.

I can somehow survive in space.

A black rectangular abyss appeared in front of me. The only reason that everything around me isn't being sucked into the portal was due to the barrier I had put in place in the event that I must travel from two points of very different pressures.

Walking through, the portal behind me quickly disappeared as I took off like a rocket, moving along thanks to the movement of the planet.

Because I'm in the void of space, I couldn't fully comprehend how I was moving that fast since there wasn't any point I can use to compare to.

As I looked around for the asteroid, I found myself stopping.

Like a person being suddenly struck by an awe-inspiring sight, I froze completely as if the coldness of space was affecting me.

My jaw slacked, opening wide as I took in the sight of the galaxy.

A pitch-black ocean with islands of lights, all congregated in a single river that is the galaxy. Each star was like a pinprick droplet of paint on an endless black canvas that is the universe.

The first thing I noticed was just how intense and how much more stars there are compared to when I saw them on the planet. In hindsight, I should've expected such a thing since the atmosphere absorbs a lot of the light, so the light coming from the dimmer stars could not reach the surface of the planet, and those who can have much of their intensity decreased.

The river of stars that makes up the galaxy was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Each star was shining like a diamond and felt closer, more real.

Inside my heart was a sense of wonder I haven't felt in decades, ever since when I was young. Ever since I saw the moon without the city light polluting.

Beautiful.

Truly, as I floated in the darkness, speeding at beyond supersonic speeds, I am surrounded at every angle by more stars, their beauty, the way they dance, the way they shine and sparkle, the way simply exist...

I felt tears form around my eyes.

I can get lost in looking at space, it's just so beautiful. My hands reach out to touch it, to touch the stars themselves. I felt possessed. I felt my tears flowing out of my eyes before floating away and freezing immediately, reminiscing about my past life's dream was to see humanity touch the stars themselves, to colonize another planet.

I'm smiling, a truly happy smile that I can't remember I ever made in this new life of mine.

Ha, I wanted to say, but nothing came out.

It's... so beautiful. There are just no other words. In my past life, I would rarely ever describe something as beautiful. I considered that word to be sacred and only used when something evokes a primal sense of wonder and amazement. So oftentimes I would instead describe it as 'pretty" or 'easy on the eye', never beautiful.

But this, this is absolutely beautiful.

I want...

I want it. I clasped my hand on a particularly bright star. I want it all. Every star in the night sky.

I want it all!

I want every star in the galaxy and beyond. I want the possibilities those stars offer. I want to touch the very stars themselves. I want to colonize a new world. I want to gaze upon a natural-born stellar black hole. I want to stand on the surface of a neutron star. I want to build colossal star-sized megastructures the likes of which you only find in fiction. I want to— I want to—— I WANT TO——————!

A new goal formulated inside my mind. A new plan of action.

I placed all my remaining three charges of the day into [Space Travel, super boosting it to the level that I could finally do something impossible according to Relativity:

Faster-than-light travel.

I then pointed at the stars themselves as though they could hear me, as though they are a real person.

Just wait. I'll come for you all!

Regretfully turning my eyes away from the beautiful sight of space, I focused on why I'm actually here: to mine asteroids.

Looking around me, I saw that Doormaker deposited me some thirty meters away from the targeted asteroid.

The asteroid was grey in color, and it looked as if many different shapes were conjointed together like some kind of conjoined twin.

Aiming at the mining unit at the surface, I pulled the trigger.

In the first second, after I pulled the trigger, the mining unit in my hands started to light up like a flashlight— synchrotron radiation. Bursts of steam and dust appeared all over the asteroid's body as though it were a steamer designed to make buns.

Very soon, cracks began to form in a circular pattern and the image of the asteroid within my eyes started to distort.

This mining unit was a gravity drill that utilizes sophisticated manipulation of gravitational waves generated from particles accelerated through the tiny wire-like particle accelerator that was wrapped around the whole drill. By controlling these particles and their effects upon the curvature of spacetime, the drill creates two sets of coherent gravity vortex 'winds' with one inside the other and breaks the object down with tidal forces.

By having one spin clockwise and the other counterclockwise, it creates this torsion effect between those two winds that are strong enough to rip a planet apart if the drill is scaled up enough.

Since gravity is invisible to my eyes, I could only see its effect on light and the asteroid.

Cracks germinated all over the space rock like fungus to a piece of rotten wood, with a large majority of those cracks concentrated in the area between the inner and outer gravity vortex.

Silently, as there's no sound in the void of space, the asteroid buckled under the strength of the gravity vortexes as cracks spread out more like wildfire on a dry summer day. Before I knew it, the asteroid crumbled as if someone had punched a sandcastle and was sucked into the vortex of gravity.

A side effect of the gravity drill was its ability to also grind materials between the two sets of gravity vortex into a cloud of dust finer than even volcanic ash. While this makes processing the metal easier, it also comes with the side effect of needing to make sure no one is breathing in the toxic stuff, hence the pocket dimension.

In total, the asteroid took an hour to fully mine.

After consuming the whole asteroid, I looked to my left and reached out with my free hand. Moments later, a hole in space opened up thousands of kilometers ahead in front of me, right in my path.

See, the planet moves. Everything in space is moving. This new world moves at speeds of 107,000 km/h around the sun, and let's now even get into the complicated maths behind the movement of the sun within the galaxy and this world's superposition in the ever-expanding universe.

There were no absolutes, only frames of references and relativity.

So for the portal created to not fly off into space, the Doormaker Satellite uses anchor points to base their calculations on, that way the portal stays still instead of flying off into space when I open one on a planet. The positional calculation is one of the main reasons why the Doormaker Satellite needs so much computational power.

But the problem with it comes to objects in space is that they are also fast. The asteroid I was on was moving at speeds of 18 kilometers a second, and to stay still relative to the asteroid, I also had to move at 18 kilometers a second. Meaning that my landing would likely be extremely messy unless I somehow slow down.

Now, normally this wouldn't be a problem, as Doormaker uses another nearby celestial body to base their calculation on. However, the closest planetoid is the moon and I can barely see the dang thing, thus, Doormaker used the sun instead.

Doing some quick maths with [Mathematic, the impact ballistics of me moving at Mach 52 would almost certainly both cook me alive and cause me to partially disintegrate thanks to the air friction.

Leveling the gravity drill to where I'm going, I switched the mode over from 'mining' to 'propulsion' and pulled the trigger.

Instantly, [Mathematics] told me I'm slowing down—

My head smashed into the drill as the machine pushed against my stomach.

ARGH!

[Silenced Emotion: 70%]

The drill slowed down quicker than I did, smashing into me and causing my body and legs to fold in like the shells of a clam.

I would be grunting in pain right now had I been on the planet, I observed as I raised my head, my forehead, and my nose bruised due to the slow down causing me to smash my head into the drill. [Material Science] telling me that had I been any faster and tried to slow down, I probably would've caused major structural damage instead of the small cave-in on the mining unit my face had made just then.

I idly wondered if this was what Rimuru felt like doing due to being bogged down by so much paperwork every day that he had to work 80 to 100-hour weeks.

Being a President of a nation is not easy.

Just as the faint purple outline had appeared into view, I should be slow enough that it wouldn't be TOO painful.

I was blinded by the brightness of day as I zoomed through the portal at speeds well and truly beyond what is considered 'normal'. For a fraction of a second, I felt my body heat up due to air friction.

Smash*

Crash*

Crack*

"ARRRGH!"

I had gone through multiple trees as though they were chopsticks instead of the decades-old trees they truly were. I felt my bones rattle and break as I finally stopped after hitting a particularly thick tree.

My body was in pain. From feeling alone I could tell there were at least hundreds of fractures within my bone structure. Using my muscles and raising a hand, I found the arm acting more like the limb of a boneless animal like an octopus, giving me a bit of a fright.

I felt a bit sleepy. It seems this body also has greater pain tolerance since I think a human having this many broken bones would be unconscious at the very least.

Yet even being in this much pain...

"Ha, ha ha ha ha ha..." I laughed. I couldn't help it. I laughed as if I had just been told the funniest joke I'd ever heard.

If I had a heart, I think it'll be pumping so loud it'll be deafening.

I didn't think everything through in my eagerness to view space. Still, that was the most fun I've ever had, definitely more than anything even in my old life.

"Ughhhhh..." A sharp pain caused me to groan and cover part of the left rib. Wrapping my other steadily healing arm around my head and lifting them so I could check the rest of my body, I found my legs bent in zig-zags.

This... is going to take some time to heal, I'll probably take the day off and just relax.

Thank god no one was around here to see me like this.

So I lay there, under the shade of a tree with a small chunk of it torn out. I started to entertain myself mentally with ideas of spaceship designs and some introspection.

According to Relativity, the speed of light is the speed at which causality can occur, and the speed of a photon must be equal in all frames of reference. This is why time dilation occurs at near-light speeds: for the speed of the photon to be the same, your time will get slowed down for such a thing to occur. This is also why once you reached light speed, you can no longer perceive any time.

This was described in Einstein's Special Relativity.

In fact, modern physicists are extremely doubtful of FTL because if it is true, according to Relativity it would suggest the possibility of moving backward in time and raises the specter of the Grandfather Paradox. Not only that, but it would also call into question the most fundamental aspect of modern physics: causality.

Clearly, Einstein was wrong. The Universe allows FTL.

The Doormaker is already evidence of that. Instant travel between two points in space.

A major rework of all known physics is needed, at least on the level of when Quantum scale things were discovered.

But before that, before I could rework and come up with theories about how to integrate FTL with modern physics, I'd need to know more about those two areas first.

"Yeah, I should probably do that during my break," I said to no one as I felt my legs drag themselves across the ground before straightening like shapeless water freezing into a solid. [Limitless Regeneration, a most useful power that allows me to be much more reckless than I ever could.

That took a little while.

Once I made sure the bones have all healed, I used the gravity drill as a makeshift crutch to heave myself up. Man, I never thought I would ever need a walking stick. Such an act pulled up memories of how I used to play around with my grandpa's walking stick by taking it away when we were out in the park.

Yeah, I was a bit of a brat, but after Kathy suddenly collapsed I think that's when I straightened myself up to be a real big brother.

My clothes were all ripped, with them appearing more like strips of cloth than anything coherent.

No matter, I can always have the fabricators print me more.

Leaning on the half-broken gravity drill, I raised my free hand and spoke the phrase, "Door me—"

"Oh? a HUMAN? What could a human possibly be doing here in such a scene of devastation?" A haughty voice belonging to a male had prattled.

Instinctively, I felt my eyes twitch at the sound of that utterly annoying smug voice.

Whatever the entity said next was ignored when I closed my finger on the bridge of my nose in rapidly ballooning frustration. After doing business long enough you can tell the personality of a person from the tone of their voice alone, and someone that haughty has got to be one of those with a massive ego and is usually the son of a really rich person who has servants pandering to their every need and wants.

Those are some of the worse people to work with because they expect you to do pretty much everything and even more somehow! Those who are born with a silver spoon won't ever know what it's like to be the other guy, so they have next to no consideration or empathy when issuing demands and requests.

Please let my instinct be wrong, oh god, please don't let it be one of those!

My hope was left unanswered when I turned around and saw a humanoid lizard person with an entourage of more lizard men in more submissive body language.

[Silenced Emotion: 20%]

Yep, it is indeed one of those. My thoughts had a tone of finality in them as if they'll be my final thought before my execution.

No.

"I'm not dealing with this, not when I have multiple broken ribs," I announced tiredly and turned around. Outstretching my hands and ignoring his cries of indignation, at the moment I could not care less for the future ramification of my action.

I just want to lay on my bed! A nap sounds just like what a doctor would have ordered.

The mellow thoughts were like a warm hug.

"Door me, to my penthouse," I should probably add an option for mind reading for the Doormaker. Eh, I did a mental shrug before moving through the black portal. I'll do it sometime after the completion of the Citadel.

The portal opened mere inches away from my bed, allowing me to let go of all my muscles and collapse onto the soft sheets and marshmallow-like mattress.

"Zzzzz"

"S... Cute..."

Huh?

I felt my eyes reactively blink open and bemoaned my action immediately afterward. Have you ever slept so deep that when you wake up you want to sleep more and go back to that happy place but can't?

That's what I'm feeling right now as I got up from the bed to rub the sleep out of my eyes. A mental fog clouded my mind, making my reaction time and judgment less clear.

Ugh," rubbing my head with one hand and using the other to rub my almost healed ribs, I found that I no longer wore strips of cloth for clothes. "What...?"

I don't recall ever changing, did I...?

It was only after the realization that my clothing had changed did I recognize how I now was laying properly in bed, with the sheets over my lower half.

A chill went down my back as I realized someone must've broken in. I whipped my head around to search for any intruder before settling down on Rimuru in his humanoid form.

Oh yeah, I did give him access to my temporary lab, didn't I?

"Drink," Rimuru said as he handed me a glass bottle filled with a bluish liquid that [Medicine] combined with [Magicule] recognized as a 99% healing potion.

Head still half awake, I complied with his request and drank the thing in one gulp. A bright aura covered me and I feel my head immediately clearer.

"Why... are you here...?"

"Well, the Ranger team investigated a disturbance in the forest east of Metropolis and they found several scraps of advanced tech and droplets of blood. When this got reported to me by Ririna (who apparently didn't have access to your room), I immediately thought that something must've happened to you and quickly came over as fast as I can."

Rimuru paused and sat down on a stool, his arms were using his knees as support when his torso leaned forward.

"I saw your bed was soaked in blood!"

Anyone could tell worry choked his voice. Although, he's really just overreacting.

"I changed the sheets and took the rest of the day off to watch over you. [Great Sage] said how you were fine since you had [Limitless Regeneration] but I really didn't want to leave anything to chance. [Great Sage] also said how apparently, your skills were, quote, 'censored, and the Unique Skill can't explain its exact effects', unquote."

Huh. Still, overreaction or not, it's really sweet of him to do that.

My posture straightened itself. Vulnerability seeped out of my body like steam as one boils sea water for salt.

Wetting my dry lips, "I..." couldn't decide on what to say. What should I say? [Psychology] tells me I should hug Rimuru and bond over this experience but...

I never want anyone to see me vulnerable, ever, especially not someone close to me.

So instead, I chose a compromise. I turned to look at him, and uttered out a simple, "thank you."

"You're welcome!" Rimuru said cheerfully, his worry practically evaporating away to reveal that side of his that could just almost never be down for too long.

I felt uncomfortable laying in bed and looking completely defenseless, so I got up and stretched my arms a bit as Rimuru backed away to the wall to give me room.

Seeing how I'm fine, Rimuru asked whether or not I wanted to have lunch together and hang out the day after tomorrow. Hmm, I guess I haven't seen him in some time with how busy everything had been, huh?

"Sure."

After that, the humanoid slime left the room, leaving me alone.

Is this what people who narrowly avoided death felt like afterward? This relief? Looking over to the nightstand, I saw the beaten-up gravity drill alongside the pocket dimension generator still attached.

Why the hell did I weld them together again? I asked myself as I racked my brain. Jaunting over to the broken machine, I put my ear next to the pocket dimension generator and heard the hum that indicated it still works. Good, I can work with this.

Stretching a little bit before picking out a set of working clothes, I looked to the sides. Raising my hand and using it as a pointer for where the portal is going to be, "door me, to the temporary lab,"

Walking out of the portal and into the small laboratory, I detached the generator from the drill using a molecular slicer and placed it directly over an input port of a new machine known as a 'Molecular Assembler'. This is a nanotechnological device used for atom-scale manipulation of matter, allowing a degree of precision completely unlike anything before it, such as creating gold with 100% purity. A feat that was previously only possible with my [Unlimited Alchemy].

Now, usually, such precision is often traded at the cost of speed, since nanites are fragile and must move slowly if they don't want to cook themselves through waste heat.

However, with the constant application of an energy-sucking Entropy Field, the molecular assembler can give its nanites as much power as it wants and any waste heat will get sucked out and recycled as additional power.

This means the machine achieves near-perfect efficiency.

Pushing the donut-shaped generator in and slotting it with a hiss, I turn on the assembler as it got to work, making the required nanites to construct Project Thrones.

It's going to be rather massive, like the death star. However, unlike the death star, there is no 'exhaust port' within this reusable nuclear weapon.

Ping*

That was the alarm I set when the Doormaker Satellite detected oddities that don't fit with old data gathered from when it first launched. A holographic display projected itself in front of me from my clothing. All the while, the assembler hummed softly in the background like rain outside of a house in a thunderstorm.

The display showed how there were massive movements of large animals within the largest drainage basin in this world that eventually congregate into the mighty Ameld river which flows out from Lake Shisu, or as the locals here call it 'Lake Siss'.

The display then highlighted how there were multiple places where there had once been a settlement but now was either deserted or had fires burning.

This was in the dozens.

Moving the timeline back by a few weeks via a slider on the side, I found over half of the destroyed villages were vibrant towns and villages composed of what the hyper-definition cameras on Doormaker define as 'goblins'. Moving the slider slightly to the present, I focused on a particular village 700 miles east of Lake Shisu and found exactly when it had been attacked.

The display showed giant hulking figures trampling through the small village compared to their size. There were fires everywhere in the village, and there were piles upon piles of bones.

When a single one of these humanoid figures raised their head to the skies, I could see exactly how they had... a pig snout for a nose? They looked like sumo wrestlers but had their heads replaced with that of pigs'.

Okay, now there's just no way these 'orcs' evolved naturally. Who the hell combined the genes of humans with that of pigs? And how are they not sterile? Humans and pigs are of different classes of animals for crying out loud! It'll be like someone making a hybrid between Crustaceans and Aves (birds).

That degrading thought died as the camera then zoomed in to see a group of orcs eating the villagers by ganging up on them like zombies. Some white fragments that are probably bones were flung out of the pile here and there before being picked up and eaten by another orc.

I silently looked at the gruesome broadcast, knowing that it was a recording, not anything live. I moved the camera into another village closer to Lake Shisu and brought the slider closer to the present, only to receive the video of a group of orcs swarming over a still-alive goblin who was being torn limb from limb. The goblin, still alive but with death quickly approaching, looked on in muted horror as his limbs were devoured in front of his eyes.

That was a week ago.

"..."

I... I guess it's a part of nature? I try and rationalize what I saw in front of me, a Tolkien knockoff world must have its own food web to maintain a correct and stable ecosystem. Biting my lips, the goblin continued to cry out as it bled, only attracting more and more orcs due to his screams.

Is this what a wild photographer felt like when they are filming a lion catching a gazel? Or when a Hippo kills an animal for the crime of jumping into their watering hole to escape from African Dogs?

The goblin finally expires from his wounds as the rest of the orcs descend upon its corpse, eating everything in less than a minute before moving on to search for their next meal.

This...this isn't natural, they're like zombies who thirst for the flesh to eat. Locusts who would are like invasive species that would destroy the ecosystem.

This what killed off the Ogre's village? Is someone leading a vast army of mind-controlled orcs?

I'll need to prepare the Army. Doormaker predicts they could reach Metropolis in 2 weeks at the fastest, more than enough time to tweak and improve upon Project Throne.

16

It was morning when I entered the freshly completed Jura Tempest Republic's Capitol building, commonly called the 'Congressional Pyramid' by the major populace.

Unlike the US Capitol building, the Congressional Pyramid sits as the seat of both the legislative and executive branches of the government, with the Senate taking up the lower floors and the President the upper as a subtle Sword of Damocles of how the President has a bit more power than the Senates.

Walking past the short lines, I saw on my peripherals that several more hobgoblins were annoyed at how a person was budding in before realizing who they were referring to.

Normally, I would happily wait in line, but I need to alert Rimuru about this issue and cancel our hang-out together for the day. I'll be focusing on completing Project Thrones and the slime would need to alert Congress and the populace of what's about to happen.

"I'm sorry Director Scientia, but protocol states I can't let you come in while the President is in a meeting." The buff hobgoblin guard stood firm in front of the President's office, placing a hand on a sheathed stun baton, "even if you're technically my boss, I can't let you come in."

The beginning of Tempest's Praetorian Guards: handpicked by Ririna, these were supposed to be completely politically neutral and serve as Capitol's security. They wore light body armor made from carbon nanotubes disguised as actual clothing, so from a simple glance, it would appear as if they are simply wearing a suit. Unlike normal security guards of Metropolis, the Capitol guards are permitted to wield lethal force proactively.

I can sympathize with him. His duty calls for him to defend the President while I'm technically his boss's boss.

"And why is he so busy? Who is he meeting with?"

"From what little I can gleam: they are the son of the leader of a tribe living on the shore of Lake Shisu."

Hmm, cupping my chin, I began to debate my next action. Are they planning to join the Republic? Despite having claimed all of the Jura Forest, we haven't declared our claim since the Republic still isn't fully operational.

I think Rimuru would reveal the Republic to the rest of the world by claiming responsibility for subduing the invading orcs.

"Very well." So I sat down on one of the benches that litter the hallway and heard the hobgoblin breathe out a small sigh of relief.

In the meantime, as I waited, multiple holographic panels materialized into existence all around me. Gazing over them, I saw how the Doormaker visibly counted at least 50,000 unique individual orcs, with estimations based on how widespread ecological devastation committed putting the number of orcs at around 200,000.

I should acquire one of the more complete orc bodies for testing and dissection.

Opening an animal up and studying their internal anatomy is one of the many ways to study the evolutionary path of said animal. Activities such as comparing bones of different species of animals would allow me to infer relationships.

I have a problem with this world's ecosystem, more specifically, things like orcs, goblins, and humans.

The number of species in this world that are so human-like they might as well as humans with another coat of skin make me think there's a near-certainty of some kind of meddling by something in the past. Something, whether aliens or gods, messed around with the human genome of this world and produced multiple different species of primates.

At least... I think they are still primates. With the pig-like snouts of orcs despite their bipedal human-like body and opposable thumb, one can never know.

Point is, I want to solve this mystery, this mystery on the level of figuring out where humans originated from in my old world.

Hearing the door open, I dismissed all the holographic displays to see who had—

""You!/You!""

Both me and the lizardmen I saw from when I crashed landed pointed at each other.

Why is he— wait, no, it can't be. He's a royalty equivalent?

"You're the son of the leader of a tribe of lizardmen?" My tone was hesitantly disbelieving, like a person finding out their spouse was actually the descendant of some famous person through a DNA test.

"Unlike other unnamed monsters, I have a name and you shall address me as such! I am Gabiru, the Heir to the Lizardman Tribe!" The green-scaled lizard who was wearing much finer clothing than his sycophants said.

He was given a name?! By who? Well, on second thought, if anyone would have a name it'll be royalty. Still, this tribe can't have been too large if I haven't even noticed them.

[Silenced Emotion: 50%]

I placed on a small smile as my posture shifted to radiate authority, "and what are you doing here, Mister Gabiru?"

The lizardman seems to shiver before clearing his throat, "well, since you are so fair then I guess I should also be fair and tell you why I'm here." Placing a hand on his puffed-up chest, Gabiru announced grandly as if he was a prophet from god, "I am here to propose an alliance between you goblins and us lizardmen! With me in control of this alliance, our victory against the orcs is all but assured."

I had to look away from the embarrassment in front of me. It took all of my wills to not facepalm at the cringe-worthy performance in front of me. There's a difference between confidence and foolishness, it's usually huge but this lizardman in front of me just floor the pedal and raced into foolishness without a second thought.

If this person wasn't a royalty of the lizardman tribe I would've asked security to kick them out. How socially tone-deaf could this Gabiru be? How much did his sycophants poison his common sense?

Ugh, this is why I don't like to deal with brats who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths! As a proper nation, foreign dignitaries like Gabiru here have what's known as diplomatic immunity, in which they are legally immunity from the jurisdiction of another country.

As I was thinking these exasperating thoughts, my face was completely still, completely hiding how I truly felt with [Acting]'s aid.

"And why would we consider it?" my tone was neutral as I tilted my head in an inquisitive manner.

"Well obviously to defeat the orcs marching here of course!" He said with bravado, "Fair lady, you can just stand back while I, Gabiru, will gift you victory!"

Gabiru's entourage of yesmen and sycophants began to cheer him on with all kinds of praises that I don't bother paying attention to.

Oh boy, he is going to be a great leader I'm sure of it, just like how all the leaders in history with their courts full of yesmen and similar. Oh no, he totally isn't going to drive his tribe into ruin, no sir no, absolutely impossible, definitely not gonna end up like either a Stalin or one of the many child emperors of China or even Mao Zedong.

A sudden thought struck me; is it possible Gabiru's simply doing this to push me off balance? To make me unable to predict him? Surely no one, especially not someone who's being groomed to take over as the leader of the lizardmen tribe, could be THIS socially blind.

I mean, what kind of message does this say about the leader of the lizardmen tribe? That he's neglectful? Even without [Psychology, I knew a neglected child would be starved for affection and approval and would thus look for it elsewhere.

I cast a well-hidden unimpressed look at Gabiru. If you're going to have confidence, at least be able to back it up, otherwise you're like a small dog barking incessantly at those bigger than you.

I was barely able to control myself from verbally dissecting this fool in front of me, so I directed my eyes elsewhere and passed by his entourage.

His spear and sword-wielding entourage.

"You have weapons..."

"Why of course!" Gabiru said as if it was the most obvious thing, "wherever I go I would need weapons to beat back my adoring fans!" he did an extremely unsettling move by whipping his head up as if he had hair before striking a pose.

"Why were they allowed to bring such weapons so close to the President?" I turned my head to glare at the buff security guard, who now looked like he regret having been born so tall.

"Well... we checked them and made sure they're just normal iron weapons. We also have security—"

"That is not an excuse. Protocols exist for a reason. There is a reason why weapons, even unenchanted ones aren't allowed near the President. We do not know what is the capacity of magic, so who's to say an enchantment or Skill doesn't exist that hides themselves and other enchantments?"

"I... I'm sorry, Director Scientia."

I thumbed the bridge of my nose. Working so long in the corporate world, my Achilles heel has always been incompetent teammates.

"Scientia!" Rimuru called out to me as he opened the door.

Before responding to Rimuru, I grabbed the collar of the buff hobgoblin and brought him close, quietly saying, "don't let me catch you doing this again. And you're dismissed from your post for the day, show our visitors from the lizardmen tribe around the Metropolis and make sure they're not bored. Don't disappoint me."

The hobgoblin nodded swiftly as I slipped him a small roll of cash as his budget. Shifting my attention to Rimuru, I quickly entered his office room.

Rimuru's work office was a mix of western and eastern design. There were dark wooden pieces of furniture all over the place, all culminating in a large bookshelf behind him... that was mostly devoid of any books. In front of his desk were two two-person sofas and a coffee table between them. On the coffee table were two teacups still gently steaming, showing that they were still hot.

Vice-President Rigurd sat on one of the sofas.

"Director Scientia." Rigurd nodded in a curt greeting.

"Vice President Rigurd."

Rigurd was the elder of the original goblin village. But after evolving, he looked like a grandpa who had aged like fine wine.

Sitting down on the sofa opposite Rigurd, Rimuru placed a fresh teacup in front of me before pouring out a greenish liquid that I recognize as mint tea.

Although the teapot... recognition blossomed inside my mind. That's a tinkertech teapot, isn't it? One belonged to a blueprint I sold to an entrepreneur.

Sipping on the frosty-tasting mint tea, I closed my eyes to fully enjoy the refreshing taste, and the cooling sensation it leaves after the liquid was gone.

"Ahhh..."

Refreshing.

Seeing how I got myself settled, Rimuru finally spoke about what he was probably wondering, "Scientia, I thought we were having lunch later. I still have many appointments until around 11."

"I... can't do lunch today, I'm sorry."

I felt the temperature on the back of my head increase rapidly as I said. Punctuality was always something important to me, both for myself and something I expected out of other people I work with both in my professional and personal life.

To cancel something at almost the last minute goes against almost everything I have, but I need to finish Project Thrones to fight against that orc infestation.

"Oh..." Rimuru sounded disappointed as his mood fell akin to a ball reaching the end of its thrown arc.

"But it's for a good reason." Reaching into my pocket, I took out three small silver balls and threw them onto the desk.

Those silver balls didn't bounce at all as if they were made from steel. After rolling for a few centimeters, three nubs extended in a triangular pattern on the balls, stopping them. Finally, the top of the spheres opened up and a large hologram appeared above the desk.

The hologram was a day-by-day collage of a goblin village.

The two grimaced when it showed the goblin village perfectly fine in one image and then destroyed in the next.

This repeated. Collage after collage of perfectly fine goblin villages that were perfectly fine was destroyed.

"These were all recorded over the past two weeks. If I include ruins from earlier destroyed villages, the total count is in the thousands."

The collage then turned into a video, and the two flinched at the brutality displayed. Completely burned down villages and burnt sticks that I predict were used to roast flesh before eating.

"I've documented at least an additional five dozen villages attacked in the past 12 hours alone—"

"FIVE DOZEN?! Who is causing this massacre?!"

Rigurd shouted.

"Orcs."

"Orcs...? Aren't they usually divided?"

This time it was Rimuru who asked, "what do you mean?"

"Most orcs usually live in the Orbic Kingdom that sits right beside Beast Kingdom Eurazania and the Jura Forest. Last I heard they were suffering a drought so severe it was said that the orcs had to consume each other to survive."

"Oh my god..." Rimuru recoiled in mute horror, his jaw hung slack, and the usual happy expression was replaced by one of grim outlook.

The slime scratched his ears, "I see, so now they're ravaging the eastern Jura Forest?"

"Indeed." I replied, "we need to deal with the orcs. They are consuming at such a rate that I can foresee they causing an ecological collapse of the Ameld's ecosystem. Based on the tracks of depopulation, I think they're moving north along the Ameld to eventually reach Lake Shisu, the largest freshwater lake in the world. If they gain access to this, they would feast like they never had and completely deplete the lake."

I looked around at their grim expression, "needless to say, that is something unacceptable."

With a swipe of my hand, the hologram changed to reveal a passage from a book. A passage about 'Orc Lord'.

"President and Vice President, I fear we may have the unfortunate luck of being near the awakening of an Orc Lord."

While Rimuru didn't react much, Rigurd gasped in shock. As he should. An Orc Lord is an individual that arises every few centuries and leads an orc to ravage the continent like locusts. Why orcs still exist and haven't been preemptively wiped out as humans tend to do against pests is beyond me.

"And... how many orcs are there?" Rigurd asked hesitantly like he was scared of the answer.

"200,000 give or take."

The mood in the room dimmed like a light bulb near the end of its life. Somberness strangled Rigurd while Rimuru grimaced.

"But fear not," I swiped the hologram again, "I have a solution, a final—" I turned my head before turning back, "on second thought, let's not draw that comparison. Despite the rather bleak situation, I see an opportunity. The A.A.A. alone should be enough to annihilate the orcs, but they're not flashy enough. To truly prove that we are strong on the international stage, we'll need an explosive introduction to the world, literally."

"And... how do you propose we do that?" The Vice President asked, "in the middle of an Orc Lord disaster?"

With a few hand gestures, the hologram shifted once more into a map of Lake Shisu. Pointing at it, I started highlighting certain areas around the mouth of the Ameld to Shisu.

"We'll situate our A.A.A. here around the mouth of the Ameld. In front of the A.A.A. will be our kill zone, where I'll deploy a soon-to-be-completed weapon."

"Wait." Rimuru raised a hand up as I paused, "are... are we sure there's absolutely no other way? Can we not make peace with this Orc Lord? Like, maybe negotiate a settlement where we give them a place where they can live? I mean, the Jura Forest is huge! It takes up close to a fifth of this continent!"

I leaned on my left arm that was situated on the armrest of the sofa, "Rimuru, we do not negotiate with locusts. We exterminate them. A few days ago, I met with this one group of ogres who were running away because their homes had been destroyed by the orcs. They described the orcs as mindless and had no fear of death. These orcs are like zombies."

"But..." Rimuru struggled, "shouldn't we help them? These orcs sound like they're under some kind of mind control, wouldn't it be morally best if we help them?"

Morality has no place in politics. There are only interests and those who align with your interest. Thinking that a foreign nation has your best interest at heart is foolish at best and suicidal at worst.

But... "fine, if any of the orcs surrender, we'll accept them as prisoners of war. If they are compatible with the Tempest way of life, we'll give them residency status within Metropolis. If they aren't, we'll give them free transport to the Orbic Kingdom."

Unless this is a type of 'kill the mothership and all other aliens fall' type of scenario, I highly doubt any of the orcs are going to surrender. But then again, this is a Tolkien-esque fantasy world, so who knows?

Ring* *Ring* *Ring*

The phone on Rimuru's desk rang. The humanoid slime picked it up with a click and started talking to it.

"Yello... yes?... what? What do you mean there's a dryad here? ...Right now? In the lobby? ...Okay, send her in."

Rimuru returned both of my and Rigurd's gaze, his lips pursed "sooooo, there's a dryad wanting to talk with us."

"A Dryad?" What the hell is a dryad? I don't recall that being in any of Tolkien's works.

"A dryad is a form of tree spirits descended from the fairy race," this time, it was Rimuru who spoke, with an odd degree of happiness for some reason, "they serve as guardians of the Treants, immortal, and rarely leave their sacred dwelling."

Rimuru probably got that information from his [Great Sage] and repeated it to us.

Although, spirits of nature that guard these 'Treants'? Are they angry that I'm optimizing part of the Jura Forest?

The door opened to reveal the dryad escorted by two heavily armed Capitol guards wielding pulse rifles the size of a human adult's leg.

The dryad looked to be a human with fair skin wearing a dress of aqua blue with heavenly white sleeves. Her facial features were well-defined with two greenish markings right under both of her greenish-blue eyes.

In terms of looks, whereas mine felt like an alien perfection, her beauty is more organic, and more natural, as if she was the scion of two parents with 10/10 looks and hit the genetic jackpot and came out with a daughter that was a 15/10.

If it weren't for the fact that she's translucent, I'd almost certainly mistake her for a human in their 20s.

To break the ice, I uttered a joke, "you know, Rimuru, if people keep on abruptly meeting with you without any prior appointment, you might as well as get rid of it and wing everything."

Might not be a good joke, but at least it got a few polite chuckles from the slime and the hobgoblin.

Hidden well from view, three different gamma laser emitters built into decorations were all aiming at the dryad. These emitters were linked with ultra-speed cameras that refresh at a rate of three million times a second, meaning that those lasers can fire within microseconds of any hostile movements from the spirit.

The dryad bowed, "apologizes for the intrusion, I am the dryad, Treyni."

"Greetings, Miss Treyni. I take it as the member of a race who rarely meets with anyone, that you have business with us?" Rimuru said.

"Indeed." The dryad clasped her hand in front of her stomach, "as the strongest polity in the Jura Forest, I am here to ask for your aid in defeating the Orc army. Their leader is likely to become an Orc Disaster if they continue unabated, potentially dooming the entire Jura Forest to destruction."

"AN ORC DISASTER?!" Rigurd cried out. "An Orc Lord is no joke, but an Orc Disaster...? Please tell me you are joking, Lady Treyni. That is a Calamity-class monster, a Demon Lord seed."

Treyni shook her head sadly.

"Normally, if the problem wasn't so serious, us dryads would've already dealt with the threat to the Great Jura Forest. But we cannot defeat a Demon Lord Seed."

Rimuru raised a hand, "wait, what are Demon Lord Seeds?"

"A Demon Lord Seed is a monster that has the potential to become a True Demon Lord through the consumption and sacrificing of human souls in a process called the Harvest Festival." the Dryad explained, primarily to Rimuru who seemed to be lost.

Demon Lord Seeds and True Demon Lords... I see them as this world's version of Sauron. From what I read in the books Rimuru bought from Dwargon, Demon Lords are the most powerful member of a monster's race, and each one requires at least all the resources of a large nation just to subdue. Right now, after the Civil War close to half a millennia ago, there are currently ten Demon Lords that are organized into the Ten Great Demon Lords.

They are the most powerful beings in the world aside from True Dragons, and according to the book, the only reason why humanity still exists is due to the True Heroes that pop up to defeat them.

Here, in the 52nd year of the Rosso Era, the only Hero that humanity possesses is Granbell Rosso after Hero Chronoa disappeared.

Although, something stood out about the Demon Lords: Walpurgis. A Walpurgis Banquet is a gathering of all Demon Lords to discuss or plan for the future presumably. This is commonly seen as an ill omen for all non-Demon Lord nations because the Banquets are almost always done before something major happens or massive changes ripple across the world, typically on the level of another Great Tenma War.

"They are—"

"Alright I'll stop you right here," I held a hand up, causing Treyni to become puzzled, "we already have a plan in place. Just need the Senate's approval to enact the plan."

Of course, the approval is a mere political courtesy, a fiction used for the purpose of showing the public that the people who represent them have a large say in how the government is run.

With almost every hobgoblin and goblin taking nightly crash courses to familiarize themselves with the government and basic finance, they've started to become more politically and economically savvy.

So began the Social Middle Class; something vital for the continuation of any democracy.

"Oh..." Treyni's mouth went agape when she realized that she had wasted her effort.

"However, to prevent any unforeseen surprises, please tell us every important information about the Orc Lord."

I don't want to be surprised again like I did against Shizue. I want to know if the Orc Lord has something like 'immunity against nuclear weapons' or 'immunity against chemical weapons' beforehand.

"If it's information you need then I can provide it. The Orc Lord has a Unique Skill whose influence extends down to all that is subservient to him. The Unique Skill's name is called [Starved] and it's responsible for the reason why the orcs within that army are so strong." Treyni said as she looked at Rimuru. "[Starved, much like your [Predator, allows orcs to take the Skills and abilities of their fallen foes but in exchange, they will always be hungry for more food. [Starved] also grants everyone under their effect tremendous regeneration ability."

I briefly checked the ball-shaped holographic projector and found that yes indeed, it is recording what the dryad was saying. Although... how did she know about Rimuru's Unique Skill [Predator]? Was it a special ability of hers since she's apparently a named spirit?

"Do they have any special resistances?" Like against explosions or force?

"As far as I'm aware, no. But they do have a degree of resistance against magic."

"So we're dealing with super zombies." I closed my eyes and sighed, "well, I guess I'll retune the parameters on Project Thrones so that it'll wipe out all of the orcs in that army. No need to mobilize the A.A.A.."

"Wait! I implore you, for the sake of balance, you cannot kill off all the orcs!" Treyni cried out, "only killing the Orc Lord is enough!"

[Silenced Emotion: 70%]

I raised my right eyebrow, and the gears inside my head began to turn.

I have the ability to terminate the Orc Lord alone, but at the same time, that wouldn't be explosive enough. That wouldn't warn the other nations of our capacity.

They say that the best weapon is one you never have to fire, but I agree more with the saying 'the best weapon is one you only have to fire once'.

I want the world to know there's a new geopolitical superpower in the Jura Forest. I want them to know that we have the capacity to neutralize a threat such as the Orc Lord. I want to do a field test of Project Thrones.

But more importantly, I want there to be no nation daring to attack Tempest, even when it is eventually revealed that I'm a Perfect Homunculus. Just as how America becomes unconquerable thanks to nuclear weapons, I'm going to detonate our 'Trinity' and become a 'nuclear power'.

The Orc Lord is going to be an example of what happens when you invade Tempest. I don't doubt that if there are people like Shizue going around the nations of this world definitely have their own 'superweapons'. Project Thrones is just going to make sure the Jura Tempest Republic stands on equal footing.

"Scientia, we're killing only the Orc Lord." Rimuru's tone was authoritative. Hearing it was like hearing a normally very serious person joke.

Looking around me, I saw the room grow so tense one could almost grab it.

"Rimuru, but we need to show the entire world what we are capable of! We're a small nation of fewer than ten thousand people and we currently have only a single city."

I didn't verbally mention my current status as a Perfect Homunculus, but it was implied.

"Yes, but we don't need excess deaths."

I felt annoyed, "They are military targets. We're slaying the entirety of an invading army. I refuse to believe that the 200,000 marching orcs were all of the orcs that exist."

"Actually," This time, Treyni budged into me and Rimuru's argument, "that IS all of the orcs."

Wait— what?

I had to blink several times at that, my mouth was agape once I realized the dryad was serious.

That's all of the orcs?

THAT'S all of the orcs?

Every last orc was unified under a single leader?

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I couldn't help but cursed out as I stood up. "What kind of bullshit is this? What kind of ethnostate-like bullshit is this? An Orc Lord emerges and somehow every orc in existence just automatically falls under their control?"

A single organism ruling its entire species has no precedent in nature before now. Animals like tigers can be excused because they're too dumb whereas in humans it's due to tribalism and built-in xenophobia.

[Psychology] said how I didn't fully grasp the implication of 'mind-controlled orcs'. I dehumanized, or I guess, 'depersonalized' them into mere pests.

"Indeed." Treyni nodded her head. "Many monster nations start out as the strongest members of a race uniting every member of their race under them."

I had to rub my forehead, internally lamenting at how [Silenced Emotion] doesn't touch upon headaches.

Ethnocracy describes a type of political structure where the government is run by the dominant ethnic group. Change the 'ethnic' part and swap it for 'species' and you got exactly what Treyni is describing to me. Unfortunately, none of the books brought by Rimuru contained too much information about the monster nation's inner politics, and there's only so much data one can extrapolate from satellite images of another country.

If ethnostate is the most common type of government for monster nations, I have a long road ahead of me to bring modernity into this world. The goblins must be a fluke with how quickly they adapted to modern laws and practices.

"And..." I felt like I want to lie down, "you're sure that killing only the Orc Lord will end Unique Skill [Starved]'s effect?"

"Yes."

Still, I was about to continue to try and advocate for Weapons of Mass Destruction that was Project Thrones before Rimuru finally convinced me.

"Scientia, other nations seeing our mass-produced tank equivalents piloted by hobgoblins slaying the Orc Lord is probably more striking than using your Project Thrones. Besides, I think if we could strategically assassinate the leader, wouldn't that make other leaders less likely to take to the field?"

I guess that's right. It'll be like seeing cockroaches killing a human.

But, "I'm still going to deploy Project Thrones just in case the A.A.A. fails."

The room was bathed in silence as I mentally changed what I'm going to do.

So here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to keep the parameters of Project Thrones as it is, then I'm going to use the A.A.A. as gunships that fly around the Orc Lord and focus their fire on it. If the A.A.A. does succeed, I can use the video of them annihilating the Orc Lord as a warning to other nations.

If they don't, well, I'll make sure at the very least, those mind-controlled orcs around the Orc Lord will be given a quick and merciful death

"Should we contact the lizardmen tribe for support?" Rigurd finally asked after the apparent end of the conversation.

I waved his suggestion off.

"We'll annihilate the Orc Lord ourselves to claim full credit. It might not be as flashy as I'd have liked, but... it'll do."

And so, the first of many drops of blood that the Grand Army of the Republic would spill was decided.

Days later. Evening

The Lizardmen Chief was very happy to see that none of his tribesmen would have to die to fend off the attack from the orcs. Gabiru on the other hand was extremely annoyed that we 'stole his thunder'. Ah the burst of ego when the kid discovers that the world does not revolve around them... brings happiness into my mind.

The A.A.A. were configured into gunship mode with additional thrusters, making them look even bulkier. They could hover, but they can't walk anymore.

They don't need to walk. The 300 deployed A.A.A.'s job was to focus fire on the Orc Lord, and to immediately evacuate if the usage of Project Thrones was required.

I'm currently within a temporary command center 50 kilometers away from the front lines, in the Command chair surrounded by darkness and a curved, interactive glass screen right in front of me, with dozens upon dozens of tabs and windows opened that each show data about things like the weather, the enemy location, and among others. Around me are Ririna and her direct subordinates that are coordinating and making sure everything was fine.

Since we accepted many refugees from the eastern part of the Jura Forest, most already know about something being up with the orcs. Rimuru's job was to announce that a new Orc Lord has risen and that the Grand Military of the Republic was already in the midst of a military operation with the goal of neutralizing this Orc Lord.

Once the Orc Lord walks into the preplanned kill zone, a live broadcast would start showing the A.A.A. in action and neutralizing the threat. And if that failed, the first field test of Project Thrones.

[Tactics] was going ham on giving me enough information to write a 500-page book on the Art of Air Gunship Warfare, I'm— that thought stopped when I saw on a tab how one of the A.A.A. detected erratic movements among the orcs.

"Break formation and give me a visual on those erratic movements, Unit-131."

"Yes, Commander."

A minute later, a new tab popped up on the screen.

The ogres...?

Looking at the map on another window, I saw that the ogres from a few days ago were situated inside the stray fire zone.

Continuing with my silent observation, Security Chief Ririna barked out, "Orc Lord has been spotted! I repeat, UAV-10 has spotted the Orc Lord."

The ogre groups contained the red one who seemed to be on his deathbed and is being carried by the purple one, the pink one, and finally the black one. Behind them, orcs ran on four legs like rabid dogs in an attempt to catch up.

Ririna walked up beside me and saluted before dropping, "Commander, the Orc Lord is nine kilometers away from the kill zone. Expected time to reach 30 minutes at the earliest."

I cupped my chin and thought about it for a moment. Turning to face Ririna who was standing tall and displaying absolute discipline, "Ririna, take over for me for now."

Ririna saluted again, "Yes Commander!"

As I got up, I took out my graphene phone before gesturing at the graphene monitor. With a single swiping gesture towards the phone, the tab containing data about the ogres was transferred over. Ririna sat down and spoke into the mic, declaring how she was taking temporary control.

I think after this, I'm going to promote Ririna to Field Marshal.

"—that traitor Gelmud! Knew we shouldn't have trusted him!" The purple ogre yelled out as she continued to run through the forest, weaving between tall trunks of trees that the orcs later then bash right through like a runaway train.

"Where do we go?" the pink ogre yelled out as the group continued to run, the orcs gaining on them.

The pink princess ogre turned around to look at the black ogre, who slowed down.

"What are you doing?!"

Deep down, the princess knew what the black ogre was doing, but she didn't want to face it. Already, the dark blue ogre and the elder have died getting them four out of that ambush, the pink ogre couldn't bear the thought of another one of her companions dying.

The black ogre stopped running and turned around. He readied his bloodied hammer as a baseball batter would right before swinging.

The two female ogres also stopped.

"Go, Princess!" He yelled out. Even if his instincts are desperately begging him to continue running, the black ogre made peace with himself and fully embraced how this was his final moment.

"RAH!"

The black ogre swung his hammer at a lunging orc. The hammer smash was a brutal attack, with the face of the hammer causing the entire orc's face to deform like a water balloon hitting the ground. Jets of blood erupted and shards of broken teeth went flying.

The orc squealed out unintelligible things, their entire jaw and part of their skull were broken.

"Go and find that woman who offered us the contract! She will be able to heal the young master!" The black ogre grunted before punching another pouncing orc away while hurting his knuckles immensely. Quickly, he raised a hammer to smash into the head of the first orc he had downed.

Frightened, the Princess seemed to freeze in fear, before breaking into a sprint once more as the black ogre yelled "GO!" even louder.

Seeing his handy work, the black ogre turned around to find many different orcs now circling around him like a pack of direwolves searching for a weak point.

Hearing movements, the black ogre whipped his head around to find an orc less than a meter away, having lunged at him.

Using his forearm, the black ogre stopped the orc's advances. Still—

"Argh!" The ogre could not help but scream out in pain. "Damn you orcs!"

Raising a hammer, the black ogre quickly bashed the head of the orc that was biting his forearm with his own forehead while another had lunged.

The pink ogre princess and the purple ogre who was carrying the young master were running away quickly with their superhuman strength. But it wasn't quick enough as they heard the screams of the black ogre, someone they knew their entire lives.

As the pink one ran, she could not help but break out into a sob.

Within the span of less than a year, her life had been uprooted and burned away.

She was born as the daughter of the ogre village's chieftain, so she lived a rather privileged and sheltered life. She was often called a 'princess', so she made sure to be demure and graceful to be worthy of that title. Oftentimes, the pink ogre would play with her older brother, the heir to the ogre village, the red ogre.

Her life was a dream. She would study how to read and write under the elder, then, after lunch, she would play with her brother, the blue ogre, and the black ogre. While it was simple, it was a dream she never wished would end. Yet, it had, having been torn apart by the harshness of reality when the orcs came.

It wasn't fair.

If they had accepted that woman's offer, the blue ogre and the elder would still be alive! If they ignored that Majin named Gelmund, both of them would be alive! But her brother, desperate for a way to avenge the village, took his shady offer.

It wasn't fair!

"Why is life so unfair?!" The pink ogre sobbed out.

As if responding, the world let out many cracks of thunder.

"That sound..." The purple one recognized that sound, it was the same as that woman's thunder weapon.

The sound of the black ogre's screaming stopped, and the pink one fell to her knees.

"I can't... I can't anymore!" One of her oldest friends definitely just died if the silence was anything to go by. So the princess gave up and awaited death, "I'm sorry brother but I just can't!"

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear." A hauntingly perfect voice said and was quickly followed by a 'thump' as if something heavy had been dropped.

The princess's eyes were on the shiny black boots of the individual. Slowly, her eyes trailed up as she raised her head. The being wore strange, black garbs that looked like they belonged to the forces of the Eastern Empire, yet there was enough difference for it to be obvious that it wasn't a copy. Eventually, the princess reached the being's face and found her mind blanking at the sheer perfection that was the person's face, underneath an odd cap.

The person's face was like a light of hope that chased away the darkness.

Scientia; the one who was willing to stab herself to keep her secrets. But at the same time, their only hope.

Her blood-red crimson eyes whispered amusement but her face remained neutral. With the professional, high-quality garb she wore, Scientia was the only thing the pink ogre could focus on.

The unsettlingly perfect face of Scientia shifted into a smile.

"I take it you all regret not taking the contract? Let's negotiate."

17

For goodwill, I preemptively placed the half-chewed-up form of the black ogre and the half-broken red ogre into the Intensive Care Unit. With how much both were bleeding, [Biology] estimates it'll take no more than a few minutes for both of them to bleed out.

The pink ogre watched from behind the glass as multiple machines got to work. Tubes of various textures and widths protruded out of both the black ogre and red ogre's mangled bodies like some kind of morbid art about how similar an organism's body was to factories. Large machine arms connected to the ceiling started laying out the delicate groundwork for another, more specialized surgeon unit to come later.

The first priority of the ICU was to stabilize the patient through whatever means possible, as such, it has the ability to replicate every organ within an animal's body save for the brain. With the technology within the ICU of the Metropolitan Hospital, anything short of death is recoverable.

The pink ogre flinched as multiple needles stabbed into various points on the black ogre's body while another robotic arm oozed out something resembling glue. The glue was a liquid form of a band-aid designed to stem bleeding from major sources like arteries. Strategic applications of these liquid band-aids can prolong a stab victim's life by hours.

"This is the same contract from before." the purple one said before looking at me with suspicion.

While the pink ogre was busy staring at the macabre sight of the black and red ogre undergoing intensive care to stabilize their bodies, the purple ogre took it upon herself to negotiate with me.

"I can forgive a bit of misbehaving," I said, leaning forward and placing my chin on a pair of intersected fingers. My face displayed only barely hidden mischievous excitement.

If ignoring the context, one could almost be mistaken that we're on a date.

"I was rebellious too, so I understand the feeling."

The purple ogre flipped through the contract again. Even without [Psychology, I knew she was afraid of asking for more time to consider.

A single droplet of sweat dripped down her forehead. The responsibility saddled on the purple ogre's shoulder is immense, as what she decides now will decide what happens to the other ogres. She's probably wondering what would happen if she does sign them, whether or not the other two will be made at her since they didn't make the decision themselves.

Pulling up my phone, I idly checked how close the Orc Lord was to the kill zone, "hmm, just a few more minutes until the Orc Lord threat is finally neutralized."

The purple ogre grew tenser and almost cracked the pen she was using to write at my mention of the time. She saw it as me placing a deadline, and if she passes the deadline, the healthcare bill I waived would disappear, and either they would have to pay an extraordinary amount of money, or I'll stop the treatment midway.

Tempest citizens are granted free healthcare whereas visitors and residents are not. Right now, the ogres count as visitors.

"Fine... I'll sign the contract." The purple ogre used the provided needle and jabbed into her thumb. Pressing the small blob of blood onto the paper, she waited a few moments before releasing the pressure on her thumb.

Contract magic is normally used to make contracts with spirits but is now modified to make contracts with anyone. Truthfully, contract magic is one of two that I can at least stand simply because of its usefulness in letting me know when the terms are broken.

"And with that..." I grabbed the paper, staring down at the bloodied fingerprint before my eyes trailed upward to focus on the purple ogre, "it is completed, Citrinitas."

"—Guh!"

Citrinitas or 'Yellowness' is one of the four major stages of alchemical magnum opus. It symbolizes the dawning of the 'solar light' inherent within a person. As a Perfect Homunculus, I thought it appropriate to name those who I employ after that, and since the other three I already have in mind, only Citrinitas was left.

It was really fascinating watching the rapid cellular transformation take place over the span of seconds instead of the days it would take for the best of my current genetic manipulation technology.

To evolve or devolve an organism while making sure it's alive, I would infect them with a complex retrovirus containing the genetic data that it would then give to the cells. Since each organ sheds cells at a different speed, and since white blood cells attack anything too different, if the change I want to make is too drastic I would have to do it in stages.

But after a simple word and some magicule from my body, Citrinitas' species changed entirely.

"I evolved into... a Kijin?"

The... Kijin said with a tone of astonishment. She looked down at her hand. Citrinitas now possessed more human-like characteristics. Her purple skin was now replaced with fair, her body is smaller, and as is her horn.

While her color palette remained somewhat the same, Citrinitas' right eye was now yellow and there was a streak of the same color of yellow splitting her hair in two down her left side.

An interesting thought appeared to me. Perhaps the geas allowing me to reveal that I'm a Perfect Homunculus means that the ogres would've never used it against me? If that's true then there are some disturbing implications about how it's able to predict the future and thus, eliminate free will.

"Well, Citrinitas?" My posture never faltered. I raised an open hand towards her, an open invitation to a handshake, "welcome to Research and Development."

Citrinitas looked at me weirdly. She wasn't moving as my hand await hers.

"..."

Citrinitas... doesn't know what this gesture means, does she?

The purple ogre continued to stare at me like a toddler waiting for the command of their parents.

Of all the feudal Japanese things, this is the custom that wasn't passed down?

"What I am proposing right now is what's known as a 'handshake'. It's a gesture of greeting."

"Oh!" Suddenly realizing this, Citrinitas slowly took the awaiting hand and we finally shook.

Oddly enough, the ogre's hand was rather smooth and cool compared to mine. It was as if she had hand lotion on.

After the handshake, I got up from the chair and gave Citrinitas her first order, "get your coworkers situated. I'll name you all later. For now, though, I'm going to uphold my promise and deal with the Orc Lord."

My hand gestured in front of where I'm heading, "Door me, to the temporary command center."

Walking through the portal, I appeared in the middle of the tent that houses the command center.

It was rather dark, with the only light present coming from the various graphene monitors that sat on desks organized in an orderly manner within the temporary command center.

Noticing my appearance, Ririna stood up— quickly followed by everyone— and saluted, "Commander."

"Ririna."

The hobgoblin made way for the primary command desk.

As I sat down, Ririna gave me the just of what happened while I was dealing with the ogres, "Commander Scientia, the Orc Lord is minutes away from reaching the kill zone. The weather is incredibly cloudy. All A.A.A. is in position and reporting no errors within their system and weapons. The only thing that isn't here... is Project Thrones."

I decided to not show Project Thrones if I'm not going to use it. It'll be a card I'll hold close to my chest, an Executive-level secret that only certain members of the military and the government staff are permitted to know just what exactly it is.

This is Tempest's Manhattan Project, and just like the real Manhattan Project, secrecy is required until I could make weapons that render Project Thrones obsolete.

The largest tab on the graphene monitor in front of me displayed a visual of a horde of lumbering heavily armored and armed pig-faced obese humanoids— orcs. However, the visual was specifically focusing on the largest orc among them, currently trudging along the mighty Ameld river.

The Orc Lord.

The Orc Lord was so much larger than those around it. If I had the capacity I think I'd like to capture the Orc Lord and study him.

I think even Mother Teresa wouldn't spare any mercy for a being that took mental control over 200,000 sapient organisms.

"Commander, the Orc Lord is now within the kill zone." Reported one of Ririna's direct subordinates.

I pressed the speak all button on the screen and spoke into the microphone on the table, "All units, fire upon the Orc Lord. Full arsenal, no mercy, I want absolute death guaranteed. Do not even think of letting up unless you're either empty or your armaments are overheating."

Instead of a verbal response, what I got was the notification that all units are firing.

Every other noise around where the Orc Lord treaded was choked out by the thunderous sound of thousands of sonic booms all releasing in a single moment. Thousands upon thousands of ferromagnetic rounds moving at Mach 6 burst out of the hundreds of electromagnetic autocannons while hundreds more of guided missiles and beams of lasers erupted from the 300 hovering A.A.A.

The lasers were the fastest. So numerous and so bright were the hundreds of beams that the whole night seemed to almost turn into day. The lasers that came from the A.A.A. were so strong that even with the refraction caused by thermal blooming were rendered completely null. Interestingly, the air around the actual laser beam became ionized and turned into plasma, making the laser look 'fuzzy' as if it was clad in clothing made out of wool.

The intense barrage of lasers was short— lasting a few milliseconds— but they set the Orc Lord on fire. Just as the giant orc was about to scream, the next wave came.

The autocannon rounds were the second fastest. They were so numerous they were like a wall, a converging wall of ferromagnetic metal that grew thicker and thicker as they approached their intended destination. With combat computers helping the A.A.A. pilot's aim, each autocannon had the accuracy of a trained elite operations sniper.

That wall of metal death slammed into the giant Orc Lord.

Normally, the ferromagnetic rounds individually even moving at Mach 6 should only be able to pierce the few outermost layers of an Orc Lord's skin, but due to the effect of hundreds of lasers burning away most of the protective outer skin, the ferromagnetic rounds were able to sink their deadly points into the flesh of the Orc Lord.

"AAAAAARRRGH!" The Orc Lord screamed out in pain at the sudden attack. He was forced to close his eyes because the first laser barrage had heated the air around him to such a degree it'll cause the water inside his eyes to become steam.

Four seconds after the barrage started, the missiles finally reached the Orc Lord.

The missiles exploded and a titanic fireball consumed the Orc Lord's form. The missiles shot out from the A.A.A. were miniature Hotdust missiles. When they explode, they simply have to release the magnetic field suspending particles of anti-iron within a vacuum emptier than intergalactic space, and let particle physics do the rest.

The barrage continued. It was unrelenting.

The battlefield was periodically devoid of any evidence of nighttime as the lasers rage once more.

The thunderous sound of sonic booms of rounds coming from electromagnetic autocannons was a constant companion whereas the sound of miniature Hotdust missiles became a tri-second-ly occurrence.

Destruction rained down like never before.

It was the first time that a mortal has used antimatter as a weapon.

The orcs around the Orc Lord tried to help him somehow, whether it was using their own body as a shield or giving up their flesh; none of it was useful. The seemingly endless expression of death simply indiscriminately killed the orcs who came too close.

Suddenly, from seemingly nowhere, blasts of purple magical energy were sent toward some of the hovering A.A.A.

The A.A.A. was definitely damaged but was still operational.

The attack caused the barrage to finally stop, and seconds later, the near-dead form of the Orc Lord was finally revealed to the world at large.

"God damn it! Who the hell are you guys!? Last time I checked there wasn't anyone within the Jura Forest that can create such magic-less flying automatons! At least, not enough to cause such damage to Geld!" Said a figure standing in front of the pile of barely alive flesh that was the Orc Lord.

The figure wore clothing that fit perfectly on a gentleman. In his left hand was a crane and on his head was a top hat. However, perhaps what would dissuade the idea that this is a gentleman was the plague doctor mask on the person's face.

"I mean seriously! What the fuck is this?! What kind of Diabolos Ex Machina is this that some strange automatons come out of nowhere and disrupt the plan of the greatest Majin?!?"

The Majin was throwing a tantrum like a child who just got denied what they wanted.

"Arrgh! Answer me! Answer me, you fuckers! ANSWER THE QUESTION THAT I, GELMUD, ASKED!"

What answered Gelmud was silence.

"Motherfucka! [Death-March Dance]!"

Just as Gelmud was about to release his most powerful magic; an advanced application of [Magic Bullet] where the user splits projectile apart into smaller, more concentrated ones, darkness covered Gelmud's head.

"Eh—?"

The hand of the regenerating Orc Lord crushed Gelmud's head as easily as a person would crush grapes.

Extending his other mangled arm, the Orc Lord brought the body of Gelmud closer. Dragging his body forward, Geld's entrails hung about as his two legs were missing.

In fact, a lot of Geld's body parts were missing. Half of the Orc Lord's face was gone, his brain was exposed to the air, and everything below the waist was missing— close to 70% of Geld's whole body was just gone, wiped away by that deadly barrage.

Opening his mouth wide, Geld found that he can't actually eat Gelmud's body since the muscle in his jaws hasn't regenerated yet. So instead, the Orc Lord used his weight to squish Gelmud's body into a red paste before stuffing it down his gullet, eating like an elderly who'd lost all their teeth wound.

The other orcs, seeing what was happening, ripped off their own arms and offered them up as a sacrifice for their Orc Lord. The smaller orcs surrounded the Orc Lord, all groveling and making it look as if they were part of a grand ritual.

[Silenced Emotion: 70%]

Everyone was deeply disturbed by what was happening.

I would be disturbed too, but with [Silenced Emotion] turned on so high, all I'm feeling is an annoyance. Annoyance at how the A.A.A. failed.

They ran out of munition. The missile pods were the first to run out, followed by the autocannons. The lasers couldn't run out of stored energy since the thing takes power from the miniature fusion reactor, but the waste heat made as a side effect of those lasers made the emitters unbearably hot, and any further operation would damage them beyond repair as their very internal circuits melted.

It'll take about half an hour to restock and another three hours of checking and maintenance to make sure each A.A.A. is safe to return to battle.

By that time, the Orc Lord would've already regenerated.

"It seems I was right: Project Thrones was required after all." I mused quietly

"Commander?"

"Nothing Ririna, I was just talking to myself."

I started scratching my hair, waiting for dandruff to fall only to encounter none.

Ah, yes, my new physiology. I used to watch my own dandruff fall as a way to reset my mind. The white particles reminded me of snowfalls. They reminded me of a much more nostalgic and innocent time when I could just play in the snow.

Winter was my favorite season, after all.

My mind returned to the present. With a simple swiping-down gesture in the air, a hologram materialized.

It was the display for the deployment of Project Thrones.

Pressing a button on the graphene screen, I started talking into the same microphone as before, "All A.A.A. units, this is Commander Scientia Tempest. I am issuing an executive order for the deployment of Project Thrones as per my authority as the Commander of the Grand Republic Military. All units are to pull back and retreat to the designated safe zone that I'll be sending over to your HUD. You all have ten minutes starting at the end of this general announcement."

As I finished, I felt a sense of surrealness. Perhaps it was because I'll be possibly firing the first nuclear device in this world?

On the map, I could see exactly how all 300 A.A.A. moved to the sides, creating an open aisle in the middle that directly passes over where the Orc Lord was situated.

Tapping and inputting the password, I was displayed a new screen asking me if I truly wanted to use Project Thrones.

Deployment of Project Thrones, Confirmed? Y/N

Of course. I pressed the 'Y' the instant the ten minutes were up.

30 kilometers away from where the Orc Lord was licking his wounds, the largest portal ever made by Doormaker opened up.

What came out was... a set of concentric rings orbiting around a metallic sphere, with one ring inside the other. It looked almost like a gyroscope, or perhaps an angel.

To anyone else who doesn't know what it is, Project Thrones almost looked alien in a sense. It doesn't look like a human had built and designed it, for it was floating without any visible means of propulsion. It looked more like something one may find in their dreams.

Every military staff was staring at the weapon with curiosity.

"Commander... is that?"

"Yes," I confirmed Ririna's suspicion, "that is Project Thrones.

Named after the Thrones type of angel, Project Thrones was Tempest's Manhattan Project. The size of outer ring has a diameter of 20 meters and the smaller internal ring was 10 meters across.

In truth, its real classification is that of a Polaris-class battlefield dominance-type weapon. Unlike a conventional nuclear warhead, Polaris is a reusable fuck-everything-in-that-general-direction weapon.

The two sets of grey orichalcum rings almost blended into the black abyss of Doormaker's portal. The occasional blinking of red lights helped give any observer a general outlook of the size of Polaris.

The portal closed behind it, and the rings started to spin.

The polished sphere in the middle of the rings was actually a container for deuterium. It started to glow as periodic lightning struck the surface of the sphere.

Very soon, the deuterium within the sphere was lit ablaze. The polished sphere was absorbed in a fiery light so bright everyone had to darken their screen.

A star.

(AN: Play: The Final Flash of Existence (SCP: Secret Laboratory Main Theme))

View: https//watch?v=SCcb2bfJLBg

One of those burning gas balls in space was born within the confines of the ring. Flares of plasma slammed against the electromagnetic shielding like a toddler crying after they had just been born. It was the announcement to the world that they are alive.

The bright, hot star of nuclear fire, composed purely of plasma with temperature easily in the tens of thousands of kelvin and was climbing rapidly. More and more of the hydrogen was being fused into helium. It was a beautiful display of natural alchemy that didn't involve any of the rule-breaking magic.

We are truly all made out of stardust. During the Big Bang, there was only hydrogen, and it was thanks to the nuclear fusion found deep within stars and the fusion that occurs in the collision between two neutron stars that all the elements within the universe were formed.

Without any of the shielding I had in place, it's quite likely everything for miles around the newborn star would be set on fire, the ground directly underneath it being vaporized.

The star continued to grow and grow, it continued to get bigger, and hotter as well as the temperature finally cross the seven-digit threshold.

Polaris shone like a second sun, extending the reach of the day well into the domain of when the darkness of night should've reigned supreme. It showered the forest and the edge of the marshland behind the rings in light that shouldn't exist now that the sun had fallen below the horizon.

As the miniature sun grew, so too did the speed at which the rings around it spin.

They spun around the star so fast that it was more of a blur. Staring at it reminded me of a person trying to desperately contain leaks on the wall to a large container but they only have two hands and more and more holes appeared so they decided to focus on the larger holes.

The very edge of the ball of plasma grew until it was inches away from touching the spinning inner ring. The electromagnetic shielding buckled against the strain the star was putting on it like a plastic bag straining to uphold the weight of the products inside...

Bright, flames, everywhere.

It failed partially. The electromagnetic shielding that should've kept the heat contained failed to fully contain the star, and so, everything that can burn within a 50-meter radius was set alight. The water of the marshland behind Polaris, the water within trees, the water within the grass, the water within the earth, and even the water within the air boiled away in explosions of steam.

There's a reason why in movies, a human slowly descending into lava is unrealistic. Not only is lava thick enough to almost uphold the weight of an adult, but the heat inside the lava would also instantly vaporize the water within the human's body.

Once a certain critical mass of iron has been reached within the man-made star... it is ready.

The light of the star touched the vanguard of the approaching orc army.

"Fire..." I whispered, and as if it heard the commander from its creator, Project Thrones unleashed what for many orcs will be their final flash of existence.

BOOOOOOOO—

An unending onslaught of energy, of plasma and light, was released from the ring's core, from the star like a volcanic eruption. It was as if a canyon had suddenly opened up within the night, the darkness parted to give priority to the wave of utter nuclear devastation.

—OOOO—Kish*

The sound was deafening before the automatic defense went up and muted the live stream, yet the eerie silence does nothing to take away the giddiness I feel deep within me at the sight of such destruction.

Like a child seeing the world burns, or perhaps the joy one receives from watching a disaster film; I was in complete awe of the change in landscape.

The ground around where the wave of energy passed melted like butter in a hot pan as forest fires lit up for as far as the eye can see against the nuclear devastation.

The unending incursion of plasma, a state of matter that shouldn't exist on the planet in places other than a lightning bolt, split the burning forest in two.

It was a miniature supernova concentrated and directed at a specific angle. It can't be called a nuclear warhead since it's pointed in a direction instead of going everywhere.

If anything, Polaris should be the ultimate example of the Munroe Effect which uses plasma instead of metal.

In total, the annihilation wave lasted for less than 10 seconds. Yet in that short time frame, the weapon unleashed a devastation that is only comparable to many Hiroshimas.

Once the wave has subsided and the monitor's brightness adjustment kicked into gear, I heard gasps filling the room and my jaw fell to the floor in awe at the devastated environment.

As far as the eye can see, the ground around the wave was of bright orange lava as if freshly spilled from a volcano. The forest was gone, replaced by tall curtains of smoke from rampaging infernos.

It was as if someone had taken a slice of hell and placed it in the middle of the Jura Forest.

The landscape itself where the onslaught of nuclear fire had passed through looked as if a finger of God went through the entire thing, forming a valley of bright white molten rocks that if they are any hotter, they'll turn into a gas.

Is this what the scientists felt like after the Trinity test? This... awe and terror? Even with [Silenced Emotion] turned on so high, I still felt what can almost be described as fear.

"Well..." I honestly wasn't expecting that, god damn I was not expecting THAT much destruction.

The silence in the room continued after the gasps had been drowned out by terror. No one moved a muscle, all were too focused, too hypnotized by the destruction wrought by the weapon.

80,000 orcs have been confirmed to be terminated. The Orc Lord is confirmed to have died.

With aid from Doormaker, the computer registered the death of at least 80,000 orcs and the termination of the Orc Lord.

80,000...

That number felt foreign. Is this feeling inside me what the builders of the atomic bomb felt after it was used on Hiroshima? A coldness blossomed deep within me, replacing all of the child-like giddiness I felt before.

I can see why so many nuclear physicists became staunch anti-nuclear advocates now.

It was a sobering thought. My body count now surpassed any serial killers and is now at the lower end of mass murderers.

"Ririna..." Hearing my voice, the hobgoblin in question turned to face me. Professionalism replaced everything on her face as she returned to that strict military discipline.

"Am I a good person?"

"Commander, you did what you have to do, there was no loss on our side and the orcs still lived on as a race. Besides, I heard orcs have an extremely fast reproduction rate so they'll recover in no time should we accept them as Tempest Citizens," she reassured me. The soft glow from the burning forest radiated from the holographic tabs making the darkness easier to bear.

I leaned my forehead on my intersected fingers. Talking about murdering is different from actually doing it. Even when making an immoral, yet profitable decision in my old life, there was always several layers and in-betweens that separated me from those who would be harmed by my business decisions.

There were no in-betweens here.

How much blood will I spill to protect myself from the prejudices of this world once the fact that I'm a Perfect Homunculus comes out?

But... this isn't genocide. Just as how Allied leaders aren't charged with the genocide of Germans, these orcs are military targets.

Holding a finger to her ear, Ririna received something before turning to me, professionalism over clouding her fear, "Commander, we have reports from the A.A.A. of orcs laying down their weapons and armor to surrender to us. What do we do?"

Ah... they're freed from the mind control of the Orc Lord.

"... We'll probably need emergency camps to be set at least for the remaining 120,000 orcs if they choose to give up since the Orc Lord is probably dead." Looking at Ririna, "send out a contract to all factories and manufacturing corporations for an order of 40,000 refugee camps... and we should probably deal with the forest fire shouldn't we?"

I'll also need to build more arcologies to house these orcs.

"Yes Commander!" she saluted before going to execute my command. I looked at the destroyed landscape, knowing that the blood of close to a hundred thousand souls are on my hands.

They are military targets, I reaffirmed to myself. The fact that they are mind-controlled is semantics: irrelevant details that fall into acceptable casualties and collateral damage.

The Lizardmen tribe of over 10,000 individuals asked to join us after witnessing the battle. Of course, we agreed. Since they live in the mouth of the Ameld around Lake Shisu, it was decided that Tempest will build their second city there.

Unlike normal nuclear weapons, Project Thrones released next to no fallout, so I didn't have to go through the expensive and laborious process of removing contaminated soil and plant.

However, to at least somewhat appease the dryads since I destroyed a large portion of the forest, I diverted some of my resources into destroying the basalt surface and turning them into the dirt by raining down specialized chemicals using planes.

On the internet and on the news, the event has been dubbed 'The Lake Shisu Massacre'. The population was happy at the news of the Orc Lord's defeat. Surprisingly, no one thought that my act of killing 80,000 orcs was something 'bad'.

If this was in my old world, there'll definitely be a few voices here and there criticizing my actions and saying how I could've done better.

The Aftermath of the massacre can be described in two words: "Efficient Miracle". With the aid of [Planning] and [Disaster Response, I was able to coordinate with the corporations and some of the asteroid manufacturing bases to set up 40,000 refugee tents outside of Metropolis, all of them having proper water and food ready for the 120,000~ orcs that still remained. All of this was done within a mere 24 hours with no further casualties as Medical and Feeding Centers were set up around the edge of the camps.

The ogres, now Kijins after being named (including the red one who was apparently named by Gelmud but rejected it due to the betrayal and asked me for a new name), proved themselves great at administration as they helped coordinate everything.

The red one, now known as 'Rubedo' was Ririna's second in command after saying how he was the best at warfare and strategy, only to get trounced by me after a strategy simulation. Still, I could see how he has potential as a commander, so I granted him the rank of General after proving himself to Ririna, who was now the Field Marshal of the Grand Republic Army.

The pink one, now named "Albedo", worked as the head of the newly established Ministry of Magic, a department of the government designed to deal with magical and otherwise supernatural affairs and research.

Citrinitas worked chose to work as the President's personal secretary.

Finally, the black one, the one who got their arm cut off before repairing, Nigerdo, worked as the head of the Ministry of Public Works, responsible for infrastructure planning and building. Although, Nigerdo is only part-head since he had to go through multiple vocational classes to get familiar with the infrastructure and how to development them.

Apparently, Nigerdo was the ogre village's blacksmith, but since Tempest really doesn't need any blacksmithing with all the machines, it became Nigerdo's hobby.

As for the political ramifications of what I did, the Conservatives wanted regulations and more control over what I'm allowed to build while some hardliners wanted to ship the orcs back to the Orbic kingdom as soon as possible. Congress's action was only to be expected. After all, I'm like the Post-War II United States except there is no Soviet Union, and I have a monopoly on WMDs. You don't give things like WMDs to private citizens, and since Research and Development aren't under the jurisdiction of anyone besides myself, it technically counts as a private enterprise.

President Rimuru rejected the desire of hardline Conservatives to ship orcs back to the Orbic kingdom and made a compromise with the regulations: a new department of the government will be established that will review everything I built and the amount of funding I request from the government will be severely limited.

Later, after learning the orcs wanted to stay, the President decided to allow them. I gave them a 1-year plan to fully integrate the orcs alongside four more blueprints for arcologies to house them.

Orcs would definitely face some discrimination because of what they've done, but it's a temporary thing. I honestly see it as the growing pains of a goblin-dominated monocultural society turning into a colorful multicultural one. However, unlike places in East Asia, the Tempest identity is based on liberty, equality, fraternity, and rationality, so it shouldn't be too difficult to spin this around into including other less fortunate.

The Tempest population count finally reached beyond 100,000, making it so that we were forced to transition from basing our currency on the Dwarven Coins into Gold Standard.

I personally expect a full transition to fiat currency within the decade at the latest.

After the Citadel became fully operational and the Republic secure both politically, socially, economically, and militarily, I finally rest easy and turned my gaze up towards the stars above.

However, I realized that if I am truly going to reach for the stars, I'm going to need a monstrous amount of raw resources, even more than what's possible to get with just asteroids.

So the first I did afterward was to upgrade the Doormaker so that it can reach every corner of this star system. Then, I started what's known as Star-lifting on the local sun.

Star-lifting describes the process of removing mass from a star. By my best estimation, the sun of this world has approximately 333,000 times the mass of the planet I reside on. Assuming that the star has a metallicity, or how much metal there is within a star, of 0.012, this means I have next to 4,000 planets worth of sheer metal to play around with.

Obviously, that is extremely desirable.

So, using a week of non-stop tinkering, I build a Star Lifter that utilizes a process similar to 'Thermal-Driven Outflow'. Using lasers, the Star Lifter heats up a small area on the star's surface to a drastically higher temperature, loosening it similar to how a blowtorch could loosen a metal sheet. Then, by using magnetic fields, the Star Lifter then starts to suck up those loose star matter.

But, just as the Star Lifter was operational for a few hours, when I woke up after a nap it was suddenly destroyed.

Weird. [Stellar Engineering] then explained how it was possible that an extra strong solar flare could have an EMP effect on a Star Lifter if caught in the middle, and according to Doormaker, there just happens to be the strongest recorded solar flare around the time when the Star Lifter was destroyed.

Then, I spent all my focus of the week on extending Doormaker's with a Subspace Diver and it finally was able to reach the closest star system. Using this, I teleported a new Star Lifter three light years away into the orbit of a red dwarf and it was perfectly fine.

It was so fine in fact that I can't actually store all the collected mass coming from the Star Lifter even when I used nuclear fusion to turn the harvested hydrogen into Osmium, the densest element on the periodic table.

Just one Star Lifter collects more mass than I could build new pocket dimensions. Thus, the question of storage came up and I sought to use the ultimate storage device of the universe:

A black hole.

Despite what many people would believe, black holes aren't all that scary. Sure they have an event horizon where if you cross over you can never come back, but they, just like everything, are affected by entropy.

Stephen Hawking was the one who theorized that black holes can radiate their mass away because of the quantum effect known as 'Virtual Particles'.

These virtual particles are called 'virtual' because they are existentially limited by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. A pair of positive and negative virtual particles pop into existence at the smallest scale thanks to uncertainty and then they annihilate each other. But if say a pair pops into existence on the edge of an event horizon, the particle that's outside of the event horizon gets to become a real particle while the other is stuck, hence, how black holes radiate away energy despite being something that shouldn't be possible.

The larger stellar black holes take orders of magnitude longer to radiate away than the current age of the Universe, but a quirk of Hawking Radiation is that the smaller the black hole, the hotter they are. In fact, a photon-sized black hole heats its surroundings to three trillion kelvins thanks to Hawking Radiation.

To build a black hole, it doesn't require as advanced of technology as one might imagine. All one needs is brute force.

Thus, using the most powerful laser array I've ever built and compressing an absurd amount of osmium to their Schwarzschild radius and creating atom-sized black holes that are coated with Hawking Radiation, I then put those pinpricks of light into a container where the interior is coated in a layer of metamaterial that is so close to 100% reflectivity the decimal can be overlooked as a rounding error.

I created what's possibly the closest thing in existence to a scientific Perpetual Motion Machine. As those black holes radiate away their mass in the form of Hawking Radiation and light, those photons will reach the nigh 100% reflectivity metamaterial and then get bounced back into the embrace of the atom-sized black hole. However, nigh-100% isn't perfect, so the coating tends to degrade after 3,000 years of constant use.

And so, any possible restrictions upon my material limit were removed.

I can finally fully explore the true power of science. Avenues that were previously closed off from me like [Dimensional Physics] and [Multiversal Physics] have finally opened up.

Resources... UNLIMITED RESOURCES!!!!

The whole universe is now my playground. My sandbox. Things are going to be fun...

Yes, very fun.

AN: Velgrynd is not happy with the star lifting. Project Thrones was inspired by the Thrones type of angel. In canon, Rimuru and his gang killed 50,000 orcs and got away pretty much scot-free, that is not the case here in this more realistic AU.

18

A different type of M.A.N.A. clung to my back as I look around the chamber I was in. The tentacles were careful to avoid touching anything. Unlike its previous iteration, the M.A.N.A. on my back was purely mechanical yet it still retained the eight tentacles that act as extra arms to help me manipulate things.

My head spun around to fully take in the room I was in, [Inspired Inventor] was busy giving me many ideas but I needed to pick out the appropriate one from this sea of ideas.

Ignoring the context, one can easily mistake this room for the inside of a large Tokamak fusion reactor, except the central pillar has been removed and was instead replaced with a risen floor platform and a bit of a lowered ceiling.

My head stopped once I was focusing on the raised platform in the middle of the room. With the goggles on my head and over my eyes, it took a little more effort.

Bitting into my thumb, three of the tentacles went forth and gently opened the platform to reveal intricate electronics and wirings.

One of the tentacles reaches toward an opening in the room and grabbed a portion of a ring. It was a part of a highly complex... I think the word to use is 'particle accelerator' but it doesn't really accelerate particles.

So... perhaps a defect accelerator?

To properly assemble it, the accelerator needs nanoscopic precision. Thus, the specialized welding tool I used is in fact a collection of microscopic laser emitters that look like the fine hairs on an expensive paintbrush.

Slowly, over the course of an hour, I attached all of the ring portions to the center of the risen platform and fallen ceiling, exoskeletons wrapped around my limbs and body helped nullify the impact of sudden micromovements of muscle that would deter absolute precision.

The HUD on the goggles notified me that Shizue was approaching, so I stopped what I was doing and cracked my neck while simultaneously closing and opening my hands to get rid of any sleepiness.

"My Lady, President Rimuru just had a meeting with the King of Dwargon, they hashed out a free trade agreement as well as a defensive pact," a human voice called out to me.

When I was deciding on how to bring her back, I eventually decided to turn her into the Citadel's Assistant AI by integrating her soul orb directly into the central terminal deep within the monochrome fortress.

Using a type of quantum tunneling-based communication, Shizue was able to transmit her thoughts and desires between her soul orb and her physical body with zero time lag. As a bonus of integrating into the Citadel, Shizue can be considered a hive mind as she can now control multiple bodies simultaneously.

Diverting my attention to the new voice, I saw Shizue Izawa in all her new body's glory, entering through a portal made by Doormaker. From a glance, no one would be able to tell that the person who stood in front of them was actually an Organic Interface, a type of gynoid designed to replicate human behavior so well that a person would only know for sure once they open the gynoid up.

Shizue's Organic Interface was covered in synthetic flesh. Her face was one of the most intricate machines in existence to avoid the uncanny valley that all humanoid robots of my old world fall into, I had to spend extra time carefully replicating every single facial muscle and implementing them into the final design of the Organic Interface.

The Shizue in front of me wore a maid uniform to signify that this body is for service. The gynoid carried a tray containing a single featureless bottle.

"That's good, he's learning," I said as I shook my legs. Staying mostly in one position even causes my leg to be asleep after a while.

My eyes trailed across the room. It really does look like the inside of a Tokamak, only the central pill has been changed into an upright standing ring that is the defect accelerator.

If it wasn't for the fact that this machine required a personal touch I would've just programmed an AI to do it.

Picking up the bottle from Shizue's tray, I twisted the top and it opened.

It was a bottle of tea, held within a container that was almost perfect in its thermal insulation abilities.

Bottoms up, I noted in the back of my mind that I didn't really like tea all that much in my past life despite knowing the health benefits, yet in this new life, I seem to enjoy it as if it's ingrained into me from birth.

"Ahh..."

Emptying the bottle within a single gulp, I was partially thankful for the tea not being scolding hot like most are.

Hmm, perhaps it was because I couldn't find in myself the patience to wait for the tea to cool, and that's why I never really got into it.

Placing the bottle onto the tray, I smiled at Shizue, "excellent as always, Shizue."

The edge of the gynoid's mouth curved upward when she heard the compliment. While this was happening, my attention was fully on how realistic the smile was. The facial muscles seemed to be working quite well it seems, good.

If Shizue was going to be working under me from now on, I'm going to make sure she's eye candy.

I may not have any sex drive under most conditions, but I can at least appreciate the female form like someone appreciating fine art.

"Shizue," My words caused the person in question to stand still. Approaching her, I pinched an exposed part of her hand hard, "are the stimuli sensors working?"

"Yes, My Lady."

I capped how much stimuli a servant chassis can experience. Since it was my first time doing this, and even with [Robotics]'s assurance, I made sure that it wouldn't overwhelm my employee.

Releasing her, I returned to check up on the machine to see if anything was wrong.

I'm now treading in areas that modern 21st-century physics hasn't even made theories for.

Sensing how the servant wasn't leaving, I turned my head to face her, "Shizue?"

"My Lady, I think it's time for you to take a break," Shizue said assertively. Good, I like a subordinate that isn't afraid to speak up.

Tapping on a bracelet I wore on my left wrist, a hologram projected out in front of me showed how I've been working for over two days nonstop to build this Dimensional Bore that'll pierce the barrier between universes and unleash a tether like a fishing line before reeling it in.

Yes... alternate worlds. The very fact that I moved to a new world means that other universes exist. Such a realization brings in plenty of existential and philosophical questions and in particular 'the anthropic principle and infinity'.

One of the strongest arguments for the existence of God in my old world was how fine-tuned everything was. That is, how the laws of physics and universal constants seem to match up perfectly with the creation of complex chemistry that results in life.

However, if it was proven that multiple universes exist and physics exist on a spectrum, then that means the anthropic principle is true. Effectively, a universe only exists because there are observers within it. If there are no observers, then that universe might as well not exist. It's similar to the thought experiment known as 'quantum suicide'.

But, this raises an even more terrifying existential question: could physics as a whole be not 'real'? In the sea of infinity, anything that has a chance, no matter how slim, of happening then it will happen, and according to quantum suicide, so long as you have a slim chance of surviving, you will always survive because the version of you that hasn't survived cannot perform any observation.

What if physics isn't the ironclad laws that scientists think them to be and merely a series of coincidences created by quantum mechanics? And any deviation from that chain of coincidences results in the breakdown of everything and subsequently, the death of all observers?

What if the whole universe exists within a massive wave function and it's the observers who shape reality? A participatory universe? The fact that magic exists seems to give credence to the possibility that consciousness and the physical universe are linked in some way.

My knowledge of physics, self-taught by reading materials made by [Teaching, and whatever specialty I want to learn, didn't give me a clear answer to these questions.

This interdimensional exploration experiment is meant to breach into somewhere outside of this universe. It was built with [Dimensional Physics, [Spacetime Engineering, and half a dozen other specialties related to the underlying nature of reality.

I want to breach into other universes. I want to know the truth of the underlying nature of reality.

Of course, trying to play around with alternate worlds brings up images of Lovecraftian horror, so there's shielding in place ready to activate in the moment of a lockdown. If in the highly unlikely event that the shielding broke, I can just send the entity back to where it came from or I can just trap them inside the pocket dimension that the Dimensional Bore is situated in. In this version, Ifrit couldn't hope to escape.

Then I discovered that black holes are the antithesis of pocket dimensions, as they act like clothing irons and smooths out any spacetime manipulations. Thus, I placed the reinforced control room next to the Dimensional Bore, which is now in Realspace.

In case all of that failed, I can just straight up kill them with the most advanced weapons I currently possess as a failsafe.

Giving the place one last look, the specialties reported that nothing was wrong and that it was ready to be activated.

"Alright, just let me test this machine before I take a break," I said as I head out using a— no, 'portal' wouldn't work anymore, a 'Doorway' sounds better, made by Doormaker to change into more appropriate clothing. Returning minutes later into the control room adjacent to the room containing the Dimensional Bore, only this time with a white lab coat.

Shizue stood next to the wall of the control room, observing me as I activated the machine.

A single bright pinprick of light fell from the ceiling before stopping at the center of the ring. Then the defect accelerator started doing its job.

As I watch, the similarity between what I'm doing and what ice fishing is beginning to dawn on me. I'm ice fishing, except the ice is spacetime and the ice drill is the Dimensional Bore while the fishing line is the tether the Bore would release to catch 'fishes'.

The principle behind the Dimensional Bore wasn't too different from that of Doormaker, but instead of connecting two points within the universe, it'll connect two points between two different universes.

From observation, it appears that interuniversal wormholes are highly unstable things. They require what's known as a naked singularity, or a black hole without its event horizon, to act as the mouth.

Naked singularities are non-Cauchy boundaries in spacetime. This means that there's no order, no pattern to the spacetime evolving from a naked singularity: it's impossible to make causal predictions of events. In fact, many physicists imagined spacetime as a whole being destroyed the moment a naked singularity is created.

Obviously, just like General Relativity predicting the impossibility of faster-than-light, that was wrong.

Usually, a naked singularity is produced as the remains left over after a black hole's evaporation thanks to Hawking Radiation. That takes too long, so instead, I opted to go with a more extreme method requiring the ultra-dense topological defect known as 'Cosmic Strings'.

So became my second-most expensive project. The defect accelerator accelerates many millimeter-long threads of Cosmic Strings faster and faster to create an extreme frame-dragging effect within the space inside the accelerator. With this frame-dragging effect, I will peel off the event horizon on a quark-sized black hole like someone peeling an orange.

Slowly, the camera inside the Dimensional Bore's room showed how some of the lights started to bend. Those spots of light started to streak around the slowly forming naked singularity, creating long arcs that go up and down parallel to the defect accelerator.

Frame-dragging. I had to isolate the Kerr Metric of the accelerating Cosmic Strings and focus it in on the black hole using Negative Mass, as otherwise the whole Dimensional Bore would get dragged into the Kerr Metric and start spinning uncontrollably.

It was a bit weird, to be honest. Those streaking arcs of light went into the ceiling and the ground.

Finally, the lights began to turn red as a result of what's known as 'Redshifting'.

Eventually, after about a minute or so, the pinprick of light in the center of the ring disappeared and was replaced with a naked singularity. It no longer radiated any Hawking Radiation as the event horizon disappeared.

As an object with a point of infinite density and zero volume, and yet possess no event horizon sheathing it, spacetime in the immediate volume of the naked singularity breaks.

Using this break in spacetime, the Dimensional Bore reached deep into it—

There was a sudden blinding flash of light. Sensors reporting to graphene monitors in front of my control room indicated every wavelength of light was detected from that flash.

The camera I was using before was flash-fried, so I opened one from another angle and saw... a metal helmet?

There was a metal helmet floating in the middle of a room filled with metals that glowed a deep red.

With a simple gesture, I had the graphene tablet zoom in on the metal helmet hovering in the center of the room. It... looked primitive honestly. It was probably some kind of technology from the modern age.

First, I need to get rid of the atom-sized black hole. So I stopped suspending it in the air and had it drop through the floor.

The atom-sized black hole would radiate away its mass in a few minutes, so I wouldn't need to worry other than perhaps a small earthquake when the micro black hole evaporates in a fiery explosion.

Having the magnetic field that was currently upholding the metal helmet spin it around so I could see everything about it, I found a logo and the word 'Nerve Gear' in Japanese with a manufacturing date in the early 2020s.

I don't recall Japan ever having something like this, so it's probably not from my old world.

Fascinating, I wonder what kind of things I can learn from this.

Tapping several more times on the graphene monitors, I created a new file under the label 'Interdimensional Objects', and started a new document 'Object-001: Nerve Gear'.

"Demon Lord Clayman, I have found out the anomaly that broke your divination spell." The clown with an eerie-looking black mask said while bowing, then he got up and handed the other person some papers.

"Thank you, Laplace, efficient as always," Clayman remarked as he took the paper and saw the drawing of someone in a uniform that looked like it came from the Eastern Empire with a face so perfect it unsettled even him.

In fact, if it were made by anyone other than Laplace, Clayman would doubt the reality of the drawing and come to the conclusion that they had just bought the drawings from a really good artist. An artist that Clayman was very interested in commissioning.

Months ago, Clayman's divination magic would start to short out randomly whenever he tried to look at the Jura Forest in preparation for his master plan of puppeteering a new Demon Lord. Lately, the inability to use divination magic had gotten so bad that he can't even look at the Jura Forest for more than a few seconds before being brick-walled, resulting in him being blindsided by the utter destruction that rained down upon the Orcs.

The destruction that, if he were honest, caused me to feel a bit of fear.

A world burning. What kind of entity could possibly have wrought such destruction? Did his plan fail because of meddling done by another Demon Lord? Who could it possibly be?

It can't be Carrion, that beastman is not the type to use subterfuge. Frey? The harpy bitch doesn't have the capacity to cause such destruction. Then Clayman's thoughts turned to perhaps it was Milim, but she was right next to him when the Orc Lord was wiped out.

Last time he checked, Milim didn't have the ability to split herself, not like that woman in the Eastern Empire. Even after so long, Clayman still can't get over it.

"It's not easy I tell ya." Laplace continued after crossing his arms, "Had to convince Gelmud to give the ogres who made contact with this... 'Scientia' person a second chance. After Gelmud had named the red one and had some of them killed while letting the rest run away, I had hoped that Scientia was the type of person who would take advantage of those desperate people, and turns out? I was right."

Laplace's tone possessed only pride as he leaned back on the chair. His posture showed only relaxation even when there were three other Demon Lords in the room, all had a crystal ball in front of them.

"I had less time than I would've liked to sketch what this 'Scientia' looked like, but I managed to get the face in on time right as they left before doing rest in pure memory."

Milim grabbed the crystal ball in front of her and started shaking it. If one were to look carefully one would see the orc army and then a wave of blackness before the resulting hellscape, everything was burning, and death stalked the forest. Seconds later, the crystal ball cracked and was rendered useless.

"Well, I'mma off now, more clients elsewhere," Laplace said as he disappeared.

Milim dropped the broken crystal orb before snatching the paper from Clayman's hands, forcing the deathman in question to beat back the urge to shout. Even if he was considered a rising star in the Ten Great Demon Lords, treading upon and earning the wrath of Milim would only be detrimental.

The child-like Demon Lord closed in on the paper, scrutinizing the drawing with a careful eye. Unlike Clayman however, she was not unsettled by the image.

"So this is the one who's caused our divination spell to short out?" a cruel smile formed on her face, "well she seems fun."

"Milim, we had a deal concerning the Jura Forest remember?" Clayman said before sipping a cup of tea.

Milim turned to face Clayman, "Well it's not like Veldora is still around is it?"

"Well..." The deathman trailed off when he realized the truth of her statement. "Very well then, go have fun with your new toy. Just... please don't break it."

Milim then walked to the balcony behind Clayman, and just before blasting off, she yelled out, "Remember our non-interference deal! See y'all!"

Over the following week, I activated the Dimensional Bore constantly whenever it was off cooldown and got over 30 different Interdimensional Objects.

Most of these objects are essentially useless. They're mostly composed of rocks of varying sizes with the largest being 30 centimeters across and the smallest only a bit bigger than dust particles.

Even after I studied them intensely I couldn't find any differences between the rocks in front of me and some rocks you'd find on say another planet.

While no alien lifeforms were fished out of the naked singularity, there was a single thing that piqued my interest:

A golden sword sheathed within a scabbard of gold and blue.

The sheath itself can be described as pleasing to the eyes as if it was made by the gods themselves. What little of the sword I can see, that being only the handle and the crossguard, was of classical design, yet it felt somehow... right in a way.

It was as if I was looking at a geometric circle or the pleasure you get when you look at a really clean workplace. The really odd thing came when I discovered I can't pull out the sword from the scabbard. In fact, I tried to use machines that could pull a small moon apart and it still didn't budge.

Even before those testing, I could tell it was a magical artifact of the highest degree. After scanning it with some magicule scanners, I discovered the reality distortion caused by the magicule within the sheathed blade so much it was opaque to even neutrinos.

Neutrinos are a type of fermion that interacts only with Weak Force and Gravity. They are so small that a neutrino isn't likely to interact with an atom even when it passes through the entirety of Earth.

Yet this sheathed blade was able to block out all neutrinos.

It was as if the sword was made out of uniform matter with no holes in between. Or at least, the holes between atoms were small enough that those neutrinos couldn't pass through.

But that was impossible. Even nuclear pasta, the densest matter possible, couldn't completely block out all neutrinos. Any denser and the matter would turn into a black hole. Not to mention, I could lift the scabbard without any mechanical aid.

I placed the anomaly inside its own special containment cell separate from others.

I was happy. I finally caught something miraculous. Something that was different.

But then [Magic] suggested I try my hand at combining a Summoning Ritual with the Dimensional Bore.

I almost dismissed the idea before actually giving it a thought. My curiosity demands me to know how magic interacts with what's beyond the physical universe.

My current theory for how magic works is that the whole of reality is a simulation. That is a depressing theory, so I'm trying to find evidence that disproves it.

This led to me making a very intricate circle of modified pig blood on the platform. Shizue tried to help but gave up when she saw how complex the circle actually is.

The whole thing took me seven hours of drawing. Halfway through I realized I could've just built a machine to do it for me but by then, [Psychology] stated that the sunk-cost fallacy had kicked in and I was stubbornly determined to see it through.

"It's... finally done," I announced, mostly to reassure myself I won't have to go through that frustratingly tough exercise in despair as I had to redo the circle in its entirety due to a mistake here and there.

"Congratulations my Lady, you managed to make the most complex summoning ritual I've ever seen," Shizue said while clapping as one of her bodies moved to wipe the sweat off my brow while another gave me a glass of water.

It was as if I was playing Flappy Bird all over again and I had to get the target score of 50 but I kept dying in the 30s and 40s.

Flexing my fingers, I took several deep breaths before taking the glass and downing it in one gulp.

The refreshing water washed away all phantom sensations of frustration, allowing me to think clearly once more.

"Let's just hurry along with this,"

I'm going to bed after this. I need to sleep. The mental exhaustion was just too much.

A gut feeling had me placing the sheathed sword in the middle of the circle. it was only after I performed the action did I realize how all this wouldn't look out of place in a human-sacrificing satanic cult from a horror movie. What with the whole blood circle and all.

If this doesn't result in anything new, I'm not even going to bother trying it again.

Everything went just like many times before, except this time the Bore reeled in something else, an anomaly.

In a place beyond space and beyond time, a place where there was no mass, energy, or force, a place where linear causality wasn't possible, a place above it all.

Everywhere below was a rolling chaos of constantly changing unimaginable multidimensional geometric branes helped along by foams of quantum uncertainty. These branes were held closely together like blades of grass in a park.

Around these branes, a 'sky/wall/barrier' filled with 'stars' covered it like a blanket.

This was a place that hasn't been intruded on by anyone else other than Him. Until now.

A 'light' shot at the 'sky', piercing it as a needle would with a piece of cloth.

Unlike before, this Interdimensional Object entered with an eruption of smoke instead of light. Sensors quickly indicated the smoke to be made out of a mixture of water vapor, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and 32 other gases.

So normal smoke from a campfire.

However, through the camera and the various light I installed inside the Dimensional Bore, I could see a silhouette resembling a bipedal humanoid.

"Huh?" I couldn't help but utter in surprise.

Slowly, like the introduction of a monster in a horror movie, the smoke parted to reveal the figure who got transported.

(AN: Play: Arcueid's Theme (Moonlight) - Tsukihime Remake OST)

View: https//watch?v=ROev3pvxIv0

"..."

All of my senses were on edge. My gut screamed danger.

Yet I couldn't help but be mesmerized.

With the technology provided by [Inspired Inventor, it is completely within the realm of possibility to suspend quantum decay and entangle particles together in a hypercomplex web that creates an illusion of unchangeability, a 'stasis' of sorts. Materials within such a stasis were similar to the Siberium, so I decided to call them 'Static Matter'.

Is Shizue using her War Chassis? Because if not, then why does it seem like time is standing still?

The enthralling figure had a head of gold and eyes of red, just like me. She wore clothing that are as white as freshly fallen snow and black leggings.

She was like a mountain— a snow-capped mountain unclimbed because it was forbidden within the local religion.

She wasn't a woman, no her youth and innocence portray her as a girl. A girl in her late teens.

And if the clothing is any indication, a girl from modern times.

Had I finally pulled someone from my old world?

Does that mean I can eventually find a way back to my old world?

As I was pondering the implication of what had just occurred, the teen on the platform looked around her like a child lost in a new environment. Her eyes glanced at the intricate machines and only stopped once she realized what she was standing on.

The blonde teen picked up the sheathed sword and looked at it lovingly as if it was a long-lost cousin reunited.

Her hands traced around the scabbard gently.

It wasn't until a few seconds after she had picked up the sheathed sword that I was finally dragged out of my mind and back into reality.

Pressing on a speaker button I edged closer to the microphone.

"Hello!" I said in German. [Biology] pegged her ethnicity as European, so I thought why don't I try German first? If that doesn't work, I'll try Norwegian. "Can you understand me?"

The girl gave no reaction besides instantly turning to and staring at the camera on the ceiling that I'm looking at her through. It was as if she was staring at me.

With a single charge into [Language, I was able to quickly communicate in nearly every verbal language from my old world, and even extinct ones like the old form of English from the 12th Century.

I switched to Norwegian, "Can you understand me now?"

The girl continued to stare at the camera, so I switched to look at her from another camera at a much lower angle this time. The girl didn't stare at me from the new camera angle and instead stared at a section of the Dimensional Bore's wall.

Turning off the mic, I hummed to myself, one side of my mouth trending downward, "Hmm. Still no response. I'll try English this time."

"Can you understand me?"

No reply.

"She can't be deaf can she?"

Mandarin, "How about now? Can you understand me?"

Still no reply. The red-eyed girl simply continued to stare at a section of the wall as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.

The possibility that she may be deaf is increasing. I'm tempted to open a Doorway underneath her but I'm thoughtful enough to know that'll startle her.

Best get on the right foot this time. The two fiascos I had with people from other worlds made another fiasco undesirable. Who knows if this girl came from an urban fantasy settle and was actually a super vampire or something?

In descending order of speaker population sizes, I tried to greet her in different languages but elicited no response. The girl persisted in staring at a very specific section of the fucking wall instead of responding.

I mean, come on, at least utter a phrase or something for me to analyze. Even if it's a foreign language, the girl looks human enough so she must have some human traits like loud tones signifying something important.

I continued through the list of languages before Shizue tapped on my shoulder.

"What is it?" My brow slanted inward in irritation. What the hell is wrong with this girl? Does she not understand proper social etiquette despite being dressed in some fashionable modern clothing?

Shizue pointed at the monitor displaying the girl, "she's... staring at us. At you."

"Huh?"

That can't be right, she's staring—

My head turned to look at the camera feed. Recalling the exact dimensions of the Dimensional Bore, my eyes flashed upward to look at the wall above the graphene monitors.

A chill ran down my spine despite the room being a comfortable temperature.

(AN: End BGM)

"OH—"

The girl finally moved. It all happened in the time span it took me to swear. Dropping the scabbard, the girl brought her hand up before coming down faster than the human eye can register on the invisible shielding, somehow shattering it with a single blow.

"—SHIT!"

That was plasma shielding! How the fuck did she shatter it like glass? It was invisible plasma shaped by magnetic fields! You can't do that!

Realizing the shield was destroyed, I was about to activate the teleporter before the teen leaped at the wall separating me and her.

The wall of the Dimensional Bore ripped open like a paper stapled onto a wall being ripped off by a single swipe from the monster in blonde.

I couldn't even think about the loss of advanced technology before another swipe from the monster in the shape of a teen tore open the final layer separating the two of us. The hole she made was large enough for her to walk through.

I could see her emotionless eyes. They looked like they belong more to a robot than anything resembling humans. She was less than two meters away from me.

Alarmed, Shizue threw me back against the wall on the other side of the room as she got between me and the entity I summoned into this world.

Sparks hissed from ripped wires and electronics as the entity stopped in her track. The blonde figure's emotionless eyes betrayed only confusion at the sight of Shizue's synthetic body akin to how a child would act when they first see a hammerhead shark; it doesn't make any logical sense to them.

Taking this opportunity of hesitation, I slammed on the lockdown button beside me as metal wires popped out and wrapped around the entity's arms and legs, preventing movements and drawing them up into the air like a human X. Realizing she's been trapped, the entity struggled in the bondage unsuccessfully.

I breathed out in an attempt to calm myself down.

[Silenced Emotion—

The floor groaned as the entity thrashed around in her bindings, actually succeeding in snapping one of the wires by overpowering the tensile limit.

I stared at the scene with a dumbfounded look. Holy shit, that wire was made from carbon nanotubes, the wire alone could support a Space Elevator! ...And this otherworldly horror just snapped it as if it was a flossing string.

The entity continued to struggle around as the frighteningly loud sounds of metal giving out and breaking grows ever louder and louder. Shizue's main combat chassis wouldn't be here for another minute or two, so I'm stuck with this monster in front of me.

I can't run. The only thing that's stopping the monster was the wires. Once that snaps then it's all over.

I'll fight then.

Taking out my phone, I tapped several times before placing it over a certain part of the wall. Moments later, a portion of the wall beside the phone opened up to reveal two guns.

The emergency weapon case.

One is the size of Rimuru's human body. It was grey in color, with smooth streaks that intersected with mechanical blocks that jut out for seemingly no reason giving the weapon a steampunk crossed with science fiction look. This weapon causes incredible amounts of pain through rapid mutations and will eventually shatter the ego portion of the Soul.

The other is more 'futuristic' in its appearance. If I had to describe it, I'd say it looked as if an alien wanted to recreate the XM8 from my old world purely from memory after a single glance. The Particle Disruptor. It is based—

I flinched at the loud and terrible sound of two consecutive wires snapping. One more left to go.

Particle Disruptor it is.

I grabbed the weapon in question while picking up a single cartridge. Clipping it on below the gun, the humming sound it made was lost as the entity was using both of her hands to try and drag herself over to where I stood like some sort of relentless monster from a horror movie who lost their lower half but is still determined to kill the protagonist.

Some flaps on the gun opened and closed as I turned the safety off. I turned to the crawling monster just as it jumped at me.

Shizue tried to restrain her but was instantly shredded into useless synthetic flesh and metal when the thing barreled straight through the maid's chassis and into the wall, missing me by just a few centimeters.

[Silenced Emotion: 50%]

The entity roared as if frustrated, revealing two fangs that looked like they belonged to a vampire. Instinctively, I brought the Particle Disruptor up and slammed on the trigger as hard as I can, and desperately hoped this weapon works.

PSSSP*

The weapon sounded almost like a can of coke being cracked open for consumption. A blue pulse bursting with Cherenkov radiation shot right through the entity's human-like torso, taking out everything in its path.

Everything within a single line was seemingly wiped from existence. A circle hole was bored into the figure's torso, and with the destruction of her spine, the girl fell, folding inward like a clamp.

PSSSP*

A second 'can of coke' was cracked open. The second pulse almost split the folded figure in two as it further annihilated chunks of her back.

PSSSP*

PSSSP*

PSSSP*

PSSSP*

PSSSP*

PSSSP*

PSSSP*

PSSSP*

PSSSP*

PSSSP*

PSSSP*

BEEP*

Out of ammo.

Bringing the gun up so I can see without it blocking my field of view, I saw that there wasn't anything remaining of that monster in the shape of a girl. What remained in its place were the many overlapping holes punched into the floor by the Particle Disruptor.

[Silenced Emotion: 80%]

The Particle Disruptor. Shooting out manufactured 'monopoles', the disruptor causes the atoms and molecules of its target to disengage from one another.

Fascinatingly destructive things. Monopoles cause incredible destruction despite being only the size of an atomic nucleus. If it weren't for Doormaker teleporting them away into deep interstellar space, it's quite likely a large section of the Citadel's inside would be destroyed by the subsequent devastation.

The door to the control room was busted open as Shizue in her combat chassis came in. The suddenness of her action caused me to yelp in surprise.

Shizue's current body completely forgoes the usual fleshy skin in favor of more protection in the form of a thin layer of stasis, or as I like to call it: Static Matter.

Since causality requires time to enact cause and effect, and Static Matter is unchangeable thanks to their particles being entangled in such a wave as to be dependent on one another, this has resulted in an inviolable material that cannot be broken by any conventional means but can be thrown around. Energy has to go somewhere after all.

I've made it so that the field of stasis can be extended to encompass entire objects or personnel. Perfect for protecting me in case of trouble.

However, the drawback of being the perfect shield is that Shizue cannot pilot the body remotely. Instead, she's forced to insert her soul orb into the machine, a process that usually takes some time.

"My Lady! Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?" Shizue asked me worriedly once she saw the threat was gone.

Bringing a hand up to fix the messed up hair, I saw my hand twitching ever so slightly from the entity. "yes, I'm fine Shizue. If it were the other weapon, this whole room would be dyed red as she balloons up until she pops."

"I see— I'm sorry my Lady, it appears we have an imminent impact against the Citadel."

"A what?"

"In three... two... one..."

There was nothing. I didn't feel anything that would suggest an impact had hit the Citadel. As it should have since the Siberium coating seemed to be doing its job as it nullified all forces from an impact.

"Shizue, give me a visual of the outside," I said and a holographic tab opened in front of me, showing a little pink-haired girl in some kind of getup that seems more in line with a stripper than anything family-friendly, standing on top of the Citadel, stomping on the outer layer with her foot like an impatient kid waiting in line.

What is it with strange girls coming here? Isn't one enough for one day?

"Audio please, and give me a speaker to the outside"

"—come out here and play with me!" the kid lifted her foot and was about to slam into the fortress once again before I got her attention by speaking up.

"Ahem," I spoke into a small handheld microphone provided by Shizue, "who are you and how can I help you?"

Looking around but seeing no one, a bright bulb seem to light up above the kid as her hand clapped together, "ah so you're using divination or clairvoyance, aren't you? How unfair! But to answer your question—"

The pink-haired scantily-dressed kid placed a hand above her budding chest, "my name is Milim Nava, one of the oldest Demon Lords, the only Dragonoid in the world and known as the Destroyer with a capital D! And I wanted to say hello."

That's it?

Is that it? That's what caused her to bang on my door? Is that seriously it?

I turned to Shizue, my mouth away from the microphone, "alert the Kijins. Tell them to stay out of sight. Give them full access to Doormaker."

Returning, "Hold on, I'll come out to properly greet you after I finish changing my clothes." I said and turned off the microphone. Looking down at my dress, Shizue's other bodies stood silently at the door, on her hands are ready clothes for me to switch into.

You know, I really don't recall any scantily dressed kid in Tolkien's works. Is there ancient Greek elements in this?

AN: A blueprint made with [Blueprint] or [Planning] allows someone else to make the tinkertech object as long as they follow the instructions to the letter, essentially it grants someone a tinker power for only that one object.

We got a first-hand look at how the black spots of [Guide to Victory] function.

19

[Silenced Emotion: 50%]

Reality Check.

I am outside of the Citadel, sitting by a table you'd find in an Estate's garden, having a tea party with Demon Lord Milim, who is the only Dragonoid in the world, and [Surgery] and [Genetic Engineering] are screaming at me to dissect her. The specialties desperately want to know her anatomy and her genetic makeup. The other person sitting by the table was Rimuru.

Is this the real life?

I had insisted Rimuru be here because let's be honest, I don't have the best track record for dealing with people of this world. I took a calm sip of the tea in front of me while Shizue's War Chassis was situated less than a meter behind me, standing ever-vigilant. The sound of a person indulging themselves and being the absolute definition of 'gluttony' crammed the area.

Is this just fantasy?

More of Shizue's maid chassis, now on basic programming, were going back and forth between the Citadel kitchen using Doormaker to replace the sweets that Milim is absolutely gorging herself on like a person who hasn't eaten in a week. The kid inhaled donuts by the half dozen. She guzzled up on candy corn like they were water and she was someone dying of thirst. The Dragonoid devoured a three-layer cake like it was nothing!

Caught in a landslide.

I had to divert a not-so-insignificant number of my Molecular Assemblers into creating these pastries and sweets because she ate all my reserves! Then I had to synthetically produce additional sugar because the white powder ran out! I was planning on eating some of that three-layer cake later as a celebration for defeating that blonde monster!

No escape from reality.

Why today of all days do I have to have two inhumanely powerful entities?! I made sure the Republic take the credit for defeating the Orc Lord, not me!

As I fumed internally, externally I was the picture of calmness and serenity. My eyes were gentle, my face was neutral, and every motion and every action I took had no sign of the nervousness and frustration I felt.

[Acting] really is useful.

The Kijins all dropped what they were doing and are now armed to the teeth, currently on standby to teleport in the instant Milim become hostile.

"So..." Rimuru was the first to start after finding no opening for the first half an hour when Milim was inside her own world of pure gluttony.

Right now, Milim was drinking directly from the teapot by using the spout part as a straw while the teacup stood unused to the side of her. My left eye twitched uncontrollably at the action in front of me.

She's like a spoiled kid who never had anyone tell her 'no'. Now, I don't know how parenting worked for the parents of Milim, but couldn't they have at least instilled in her some manners? I know I'm using my modern human perspective here but still... She's a Demon Lord, those fearsome things spoken in awe and fear by those in the West.

She's... her child-like behavior is seriously throwing a grenade into that mental image. My respect for the Ten Great Demon Lords has been drastically reduced.

I couldn't help but sigh a little. A tingle went through my heart once again as I spotted a maid chassis taking away the plate that once held the triple-layered cake I made using [Culinary].

Still, I can probably get something from Milim's childish behaviors, namely, her saliva. I wonder what could I do with the genetic sample of one of the oldest Demon Lords.

I gestured to one of the maids in sign language to place the teapot that Milim had just finished emptying into biological quarantine.

Rimuru, seeing how he got no response, decided to turn to me instead, "I'm sure you've heard, Scientia. Dwargon has recently become our ally, and we've been officially recognized by them. Now Minister Nigerdo recommends we construct a Hyperloop to link our two nations together for closer ties."

At least he knew to not talk about too sensitive information. Though, with how childish Milim acted, I doubt she would know what we're talking about. Then again, [Psychology] pushes for them the possibility that all of this is an act to conceal hidden mental trauma if the odd, pattern-breaking micro-expressions are anything to go by.

"Hmm, good job on that. I personally recommend setting up some policy to encourage our companies to invest in Dwargon with the new free trade status," I replied. "The smarter ones should already realize the power of an untapped consumer market and they'll be eager to set up in Dwargon once the Hyperloop is complete—"

While I talked, I moved to refill my emptied teacup with the new teapot a maid chassis had brought forth. Grabbing a nearby jar with the sugar, I discovered that it was completely empty.

"—Then we can have them employ so much of the local workforce that the corporations become inseparable from their economy—"

Unperturbed by the emptiness, I held the empty sugar jar off to my side. Another maid chassis came forth and cupped her hands underneath the sugar jaw as I release it, taking it away.

"—There's a reason why Alfred Henry Lewis said 'there are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy'. Being inseparable from their economy, we can use the corporations as our tools to influence the internal politics of Dwargon. Although be mindful that King Gazel is known as a 300-year old Hero King, so be careful when politicking around him."

The humanoid slime nodded at my assessment. He's grown more and more reliant on my advice since he's got no experience in how to run a nation, and neither do really anyone else in the old goblin village. Still, I see this as temporary. He will grow and learn by experience, and in case he makes a mistake, I'll act as his safety net.

Then, a look of discomfort reverberated across Rimuru's face, "Is that... truly right though? I mean, us meddling in their internal affairs... that sounds kinda like Imperialism."

Ah, my eyes widen as it dawned on me why he was asking me this. As a Japanese, Rimuru is uncomfortable with the idea of foreign meddling given their history with other nations.

I stared Rimuru right into his eyes. Determined crimson met unsure gold.

"Rimuru. You are in the leading position of a nation that would undoubtedly become a Superpower. A state that is so powerful no significant action can be taken by other nations without consulting our position first. What's more, it isn't 'imperialism'. A general rule of geopolitics is that if you neighbor a Superpower, expect them to meddle in your internal affairs. Just look at a certain freedom-loving, gun-toting state, and its southern canal. Those freedom lovers would allow no one else to truly control it, not even the locals themselves."

I paused and took a sip of tea. The warm minorly bitter liquid helped wet my dry mouth before continuing.

"Our foreign policy should reflect our status as an up-and-coming Superpower. That is, we are trying to carve out our own sphere of influence. I personally would take a page out of the CIA's handbook and stage a few coups against hostile regimes while promoting our ideals on those friendly to us."

Rimuru looked like he bit into a lemon with how thin his lips have become. He opened his mouth to reply but then Milim then finally spoke—

"Mmmff amoffff awowllf."

—or rather, she tried to. The amount of pastries inside her mouth isn't making anything coherent.

Seeing how Milim's had to visibly struggle to engulf all of the sweets in her mouth, I grabbed the teapot and offered it to her. To which she promptly took it and went bottom up.

After several loud gulpings of tea and numerous trails of liquid leaking from her mouth and running down her chin, I couldn't help myself and took a handkerchief from one of the maids and started to lean towards Milim and wipe away the tea dripping down her chin like a parent cleaning their baby after a messy meal.

Obviously, this seemed to annoy Milim, so she pushed my hand away, loudly declaring, "I'm not a kid! So don't treat me like one!"

For a brief moment in time, my eyeballs glanced at the mess she made on her side of the table before returning.

Then, the Demon Lord continued, her annoyed mood evaporating like water on a hot pan, "give my compliments to the chef, this has got to be one of the most delicious sweets I've eaten in a long long time." her thumbs went up.

"Well, thank you for your compliment. So we can talk business now that pleasure is out of the way?"

Then, the kid burped.

[Biology] could not help but be fascinated with that. A being like Milim burping. While seemingly inconsequential, a burp is a release of trapped gas from the stomach through the mouth. This suggests Milim has a digestive tract.

Before I could ponder the implication any further and questions how similar is Milim physiologically to your average baseline humans, the Dragonoid effused.

"Tell me what are you guys talking about!" Placing her chin on a pair of open palms for support. It almost looked like Milim was a curious kid lying on their stomach in front of a teacher who was reading from a picture book.

I used my eyebrows to discretely gesture at Rimuru to talk. With how many friends he's made with the hobgoblins, he seems to be better at this stuff than I am.

"Well..." The slime rubbed the back of his head, his brain probably coming up with a way to explain geopolitics to a 12-year-old, "we were discussing our plans for the future."

"Eh?" Milim seem to pause for a moment before grabbing another sweet biscuit from nearby and playing with it, "why do you need to do that? Thinking about the future is boring! Living in the present is what matters! No personal chef of mine is going to plan ahead further than me!"

I had to double-check if I heard that correctly. And by the fact that Rimuru seem to recoil, he too had to check if his ears were mishearing things.

"I'm sorry what?"

"Oh yeah! That's the reason why I came here! I originally wanted to fight against you since you destroyed those orcs but after tasting all these sweets. I've changed my mind. You," Milim pointed at me, "shall become my personal chef and make all kinds of delicious food for me! And as all my other subordinates, I shall protect you from whatever threat may come your way..."

Milim had a mischievous smile.

"...Perfect Homunculus..."

[Silenced Emotion: 90%]

Escape Protocol: automatically activated

In less than a second, Shizue touched my shoulder and applied a field of stasis in a bubble around me before taking off and away from where Milim was sitting. At the same time, a Doorway opened up underneath Rimuru's chair and he fell through, leaving the Dragonoid completely alone.

The world became a blur to me with how fast Shizue was flying with her war chassis. Thankfully with the bubble of stasis around me, any dust or other particle that I'll hit was rendered harmless.

I pulled out my phone and started typing in the password required to activate Contingency Plan A-01-23 Designated: 'Wandering Knowledge'. However, a pink glow in my peripheral was all that I had before Shizue suddenly veered off course and crash-landed into the ground.

With the stasis still up, I wasn't harmed at all as I dug into the ground. My clothing had no bits of dirt in them even after I stopped.

"Why did you run away from me?" Her tone was soft, with a hint of betrayal in them.

Milim hovered above the wrecked earth a few meters away from where I lay. Shizue got in front of me and spread her arms out in a protective gesture.

My mind started going a million miles an hour trying to come up with a way to escape. My phone was missing, likely I lost it during the crash landing. I started consulting with more and more of my specialties before [Negotiation] and [Communication] offered me a way out.

"How do you know I'm a Perfect Homunculus?"

My tone was calm neutrality. It didn't belong to someone who had just crashlanded and was talking to what the books say is one of the strongest Demon Lords in existence, comparable to True Dragons.

That was why I tried to activate Wandering Knowledge. I COULD fight against someone like Veldora with my current abilities, but it'll be a pyrrhic victory at best. So instead I'll just grab Rimuru, Shizue, and maybe the Kijins and abandon this planet. Full-on evacuation.

"Oh that's easy, it was due to my Milim Eye," The pink-haired kid casually said in a cheery tone as if she hadn't revealed the most important secret of mine. Pointing to her eyes, she continued, "these eyes disallow deception and can figure out the magicule in whatever being I look at."

The way she simply switches from betrayal and cheerfulness is seriously making [Psychology] think she has bipolar disorder.

"I see, and what will you be doing with that information?"

Confusion flashed across her face at my question, "what do you mean? I already told you I'll protect you since you're my personal chef!"

Really? Legends about the battle against the first Perfect Homunculus pegged Milim as one of the heavyweights— someone who was absolutely critical of its defeat.

"But... I'm a Perfect Homunculus," I emphasized the last two words, "an abomination that all nations in the world would band together to start a crusade to kill them," I pointed out, "why aren't you trying to kill me? You were considered critical in the defeat of the last one."

Milim had this unreadable look on her face before she fell to the floor laughing, clutching her stomach as she does. Such a human behavior from a Dragonoid, [Psychology] noted.

Then, the kid got up while wiping the tears from her eyes, "oh so that's what you were wondering about? That's what caused such a response?"

Hesitantly, "...yes."

"Most of the Demon Lords couldn't care less about a Perfect Homunculus, well perhaps besides Valentine but he's more of an outlier than anything." Milim waved her hands as though trying to blow away my concern, "after the amount of effort it took to kill the last one, any Demon Lords who cared before just won't bother unless the Perfect Homunculus is actively threatening just like the last one."

Milim adopted a thinking look and placed her right index finger on her chin, "well, maybe the human nations would still try and kill you but as long as you stay as my subordinate, none of them would dare to incur my wrath!" She ended it proudly, like a kid trying to assure their friends that everything will be alright.

There was a legend thousands of years ago about the barren lands west of the Holy Ruberian Empire, about how the birth of the first Demon Lord had caused that land to become uninhabitable even to this day. Milim is said to be one of the oldest Demon Lords, predating even written records. Putting the two together and you get a very frightening image of an ancient being of almost immeasurable power whose birth caused an area greater than the size of China to become useless to any humans.

Normally, this would only sound like a crackpot conspiracy theory on the level of a tinfoil hat, but this world isn't like my old one. Many historical legends may actually be real.

What a frightening girl if the story is true: a wolf in sheep's clothing.

An extremely powerful shield, giving me absolute safety in return for my autonomy and any other space aspirations.

That sounds horrible.

I want to claim every star in the night sky. I want to see what lies beyond the edge of the Observable Universe. I want to wage wars in space where hundreds of spaceships explode every second. I want to do first contact with alien civilizations. I want to study ecologies that boggle the mind. I want to see just how extreme of a form life can take. I want to know all the secrets of the universe.

And, as a side effect of all that, I want to spread modernity in this backwater feudal Tolkien-esque society.

What's more, if I truly wanted to be safe, I could've activated Contingency Plan A-01-23 anytime I wanted. But I didn't.

(I ignored the part of my mind that wondered why didn't I do it when it was the logical thing to do)

"I apologize, but I like my independence thank you very much." Milim obviously isn't one to take no for an answer, so [Negotiation] tried to come up with things to offer to placate her, "how about this: since you value my cooking so much, you can get as much of the food I make as you want whenever you knock on my doors (conditions apply)."

Milim had a look that wouldn't look out of place on a child who had just been forced to eat vegetables.

Then, a savage grin appeared on her face. It was a grin that one would have when they slowly take apart a toy.

"Fine, if you want your independence or whatever, then you'll have to prove to me that you can defend yourself so you won't be helpless when I'm not around!"

"..." I recalled the things inside my arsenal. My most expensive project to date probably will work but... it's an incomplete prototype.

"My Lady can defend herself easily." Shizue budded in, seemingly reminding Milim that she exist.

"Yeah well prove it then!"

"My Lady can defend herself with her technology—"

"Prove it then! Prove it! Prove it! Prove it! Prove it!" Milim hovered closer to Shizue and started orbiting the War Chassis while repeating the phrase 'prove it' like an obnoxious kid.

God, she is such a child!

Seeing no other option, I decided to play by her rules, "Shizue, distract her while I get ready."

Shizue nodded before blasting off alongside the Catastrophe-class Demon lord. Not only do I need to get it ready, but I should also cancel Escape Protocol.

Looking around me, it took about half a minute of looking around for me to find my phone. Not a single scratch was on it.

"Door me."

Shizue, in her reflective silver combat chassis, gleamed under the daytime sun as she rocketed upward along with the one who had challenged her... Master? Mistress? Shizue isn't sure what she shoulder refer to Lady Scientia as since she's never been in such a role as right now before, even in her seven decades of life she would have never imagined being free from Ifrit's influence.

Anyone who could help her get rid of the fire spirit was either hostile or too apathetic to care.

It made her feel special, after being alone for so long with no one that could truly empathize with her, someone solved her problem.

"So you're an automaton? Those magical machines built by artificers?" Milim narrowed her eyes as if to focus on Shizue, "wait no, you used to be a human but was turned into a lich? And— Woah! no magic? And the time around you is somehow stopped?? How?"

Milim had a tone of amazement akin to how a child would when they saw something that absolutely fascinates them.

The small Demon Lord zoomed around Shizue to drink in her form from every angle, making Shizue somewhat uncomfortable despite the metal body isn't showing anything. "My Lady is currently preparing her armor, so I shall be your first match." that's the right way to say it... right? Reading about how to act and actually doing it are two entirely different things.

"Wait, Scientia made you?" Her eyes lit up with a shine that unsettled Shizue. She's seen many new adventurers with that glint before taking on a well-paid quest too dangerous for them: Greed. "Oh interesting, how very very interesting!"

Milim then laughed, "this day just keeps on getting better and better! Well, the bodyguard of a Perfect Homunculus, let's see how a creation without magic stands up against me, a creation of magic, shall we?"

Shizue had first learned that her Lady, Scientia Tempest, was a Perfect Homunculus a bit after she came online after integrating with the Citadel.

When she had first learned that Scientia was a Perfect Homunculus...

Well, that's when everything clicked into place, the deception, the violence, the paranoia. It all made sense if her Lady is perhaps the most hated race out there.

The first Perfect Homunculus was created 400 years ago when a genius magician from Sarion somehow got the aid of an Otherworlder from the Eastern Empire with a unique skill in homunculus creation.

Normally, this wouldn't have happened at all. The Eastern Empire is a pariah state. It is a black hole, Fortress Orientem, an Empire where no one can go in or out and is enforced with the threat of death.

This project was only allowed to happen when the Emperor called up the favor of Sarion when he reminded the Empress of Sarion, Elmesia El-Ru Sarion, of how the Empire protected Sarion during the last Great Tenma War.

With the blessing of Emperor Rudra himself as well as Empress Elmesia, the magician and Otherworlder both set out to create the most perfect being possible.

Well, they had done exactly that after Rudra had Velgrynd, one of the Four True Dragons, the Scorch Dragon, help them succeed in their endeavor.

Some legends spoke of how the Emperor wished to transfer his soul into the body of this perfect being, possessing it. Others said it was the Emperor trying to create the strongest weapon he can use to conquer the rest of the world.

Whatever the case was, the creation of the most perfect being became a classic tale of hubris. The Emperor created a monster— The Monster, a true beast that only seeks the destruction of all.

An abomination between Human and Monster, a creation that blurs the line that had once firmly separated the material and spiritual.

———Yet it is nonetheless Perfection manifested upon the world by the name of 'Relentless'.

It was named so for it is truly relentless since no matter what methods the Empire tried, the Perfect Homunculus just won't stay dead. Nothing in the world could make sure the Perfect Homunculus stayed dead. It remains relentless in its pursuit of world destruction.

Most legends say that even the True Dragon was no match for the Perfect Homunculus as whatever Velgyrnd could throw at it, the Monster would just keep on walking, bringing disaster and calamity to wherever they reach. Turning fertile grasslands into barren wastelands, turning beautiful mountains into deadly volcanos.

An Error of the World, they called it.

The world was forced to band together to slay the abomination before its influence could reach any further.

They failed. One book about the legend said 'even if the spirit is gone, Relentless still walks'.

It was not known how the Perfect Homunculus was stopped, only that they did. In the aftermath, several nations fell, and the remaining ones placed the creation of a Perfect Homunculus as the greatest taboo a single person can commit.

Thousands upon thousands of stories, tales, legends, myths, and fables were spawned from Relentless' Rampage akin to mold growing upon the rotting carcass of a fruit. There were stories of soldiers who fought in the war against the Perfect Homunculus finding love, artworks depicting the camaraderie of humans fighting alongside demons like brothers-in-arms, and a tragic song sung by bards of a goblin sacrificing themself against the Monster for the love of a human nurse.

"Now come on! show me what you got!" Milim said with her arms wide as if she were about to hug someone.

Taking her invitation, Shizue launched herself at the Dragonoid at speeds beyond that of sound. Yet even as she easily pushed past the sound barrier, there was no sonic boom due to her new body taking some laws of physics as suggestions of physics.

Such was Static Matter.

Shizue flew so fast that it surprised even Milim when the ex-adventurer appeared right in front of the Demon Lord, her right arm cocked back right before she threw a punch at the child-like Destroyer.

Boom*

However, unlike Shizue's time-stopped body, Milim's isn't. She went supersonic from the punch and careened towards the forest ground, and just like a giant stomping on the ground, there was a veritable fountain of dirt and upturned trees.

The devastation she created with a single punch made Shizue look at her fist in awe. While during initial testing, Shizue knew her strength in the War Chassis was incredible, the servant didn't fully connect this power as truly being 'her's' until she had done what most Templar Knights and Adventurers had only dreamed off:

She punched a Demon Lord

She PUNCHED a Demon Lord

She PUNCHED a DEMON LORD and her fist wasn't broken!

Internally, Shizue was gleeful at the thought and accomplishment. Cromwell had worked very hard to instill the idea that Demon Lords were untouchable, that they were superior existence to mere humans. That belief was, needless to say, shattered like glass under Shizue's inviolable fist.

That sense of superiority was dashed when Milim rose up from the column of dust. Pieces of dirt flew off of her but otherwise, the Demon Lord was fine— not a single scratch in sight. Her clothes weren't even wrinkled.

"Wow! So fast too!" She exclaimed, clapping her hands together rapidly as an audience would after a play's completion, "well let's hope your durability is the same! But then again you are a lich so you won't die either way."

With that, the magicule sensor in Shizue's body spiked as Milim flared her aura. The Dragonoid blitzed to Shizue almost too fast for her visual sensors to register before slamming a right hook into Shizue's reflective silver face.

"[Milim Punch]!"

.

.

.

It took a few seconds for Shizue to stabilize and orientated herself midflight. Once the silver woman-lich does, she found herself floating several kilometers above Metropolis. The many tall arcologies that rose from silver earth made it impossible to mistake its skyline for any other city in the world.

While an attack from Shizue had grounded Milim, a single one from the pink-haired Demon Lord had sent her all the way from somewhere near the Citadel to the Capital.

Perhaps Cromwell, that bastard, was right.

Then, in Shizue's vision, she spotted a growing pink dot.

She had no time to ponder what it was before the pink dot transformed into a pink meteor and smashes into the servant. Being so close to Milim, Shizue had a clear view of the maniacal grin on her face as the small Demon Lord pushes the time-stopped robot into the Kusha Mountain range south of Metropolis at speeds that cause the air around Milim to burn.

"Hahaha! How fun! I've never had so much fun in ages!" Milim stopped to gleefully shout. Then, she threw Shizue as a child would when throwing a ball in a game of catch.

The War Chassis was embedded into the sides of a snowy peak in an explosion of rocks and debris. Then, a rumble consumed the mountain as many many tonnes of snow became to slide off the face of the mountain Shizue crashed into, creating a massive avalanche.

Even after taking all this abuse, Shizue's body is still unharmed, but the damage to the pride she built after punching Milim is immense.

The pink-haired Demon Lord then dropped down next to the deep crater formed when Shizue crashed into the mountain, grabbed her by the throat, and started running the silver body around the sides of the mountain.

Like a sculptor shaving off the side of an ice block, titanic landslides began to occur right after Shizue's passing by as hundreds of tons of boulders and gravel fell loose.

PSSSP*

It was the sound of a soda can opening.

A bright burst of blue light from above had sent Milim blasting off, letting Shizue tumble down the mountainside before taking control and hovering above the sliding rocks, snow, and dirt.

Turning to look at the source, Shizue found a figure clad in a full-covering body suit that was blacker than the night sky. Since the suit wasn't reflecting any light, the figure looked more like a living, walking void. However, what Shizue can see was the long thing held by the figure.

The thing vaguely resembled some of the automatic rifles that belong to the soldiers of her old world right before she was transported.

"Strictly speaking, this is classified as a Grand Unified Theory weapon." The figure held up the rifle, its voice sounded artificial, "The Particle Disruptor shoots out Proton-sized spacetime defect bullets comprising of an outer shell of Weak bosons alongside an inner shell where the Weak and Electromagnetic forces are unified, and a center where the Strong force combines with the other two leaving only gravity untouched."

It was her Lady.

Just as she had finished speaking, all the colors were bleached from the world as a flash of light consumed everything. The light was quickly followed by a pressure wave that washed over both of them. It was a pressure wave from an explosion that will eventually cause the snow on half of all peaks within the Kusha Mountain Range to fall in a gigantic avalanche not seen since Relentless was around.

Then, in a single swift motion, the rifle seemed to almost merge into her Lady's right arm. The aftermath was so seamless that had she not witnessed its initial merge, Shizue would've never imagined there being a rifle there in the first place.

"Thank you, Shizue," her perfect voice didn't sound so perfect anymore with the filter in place, "well, Milim, this is my most powerful armor, conventional defense taken to the logical endpoint: the Gravastar Armor, my most expensive project to date. Took me a bit to get in."

A pink meteor came from where Milim had vanished to. It slammed into the figure in complete darkness with enough energy to rival the Tunguska event—

Scientia stood completely still to take the hit. The snow around the two went wild as Milim collided with the Gravastar Armor and clouded both forms.

Once everything settled, Shizue was treated to the scene of Milim awkwardly flaring her aura and trying to push Scientia. She was like a child trying to push against the leg of an adult that wasn't playing along.

"You can't move me Milim. This is the endpoint of conventional defense and I was not joking. I'm clad in a chained infant universe shaped into a suit of constantly adjusting armor. The pseudo-event horizon absorbs all energy directed at it, and the last time I checked, included magicules."

Scientia's armored form didn't even budge one bit from that attack. The issue with inertia seemingly didn't even exist.

The Demon Lord started hovering around her Lady, inspecting her armor with a careful eye

"I must admit I am seriously impressed, to have built such a thing without magic... oh it seems we are indeed living in interesting times." Whatever semblance of childishness was gone from Milim is that moment, "I guess the saying that Perfect Homunculus is the Herald of Change is indeed factual."

Relentless did shatter the old world order...

"I should assume you are satisfied your chef can defend themselves then?"

She had a happy smile, her childishness returning in full force as she energetically started flying all over the place, "indeed! And since your kind does not age, my future problem concerning food is pretty much set!"

"So, hypothetically speaking," Scientia probed, "if a nation were to try and attack me, would you come to my defense?"

Shizue's internal database on psychology showed how her Lady moved in such a way as to speak of quiet hopefulness. She still wants that shield...

"Oh yeah definitely! no way am I gonna let my personal chef get attacked!" she said casually as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"...Why thank you..." Scientia seemed almost hesitant, "shall we head back then? As an ally, I should assume Rimuru would love to show you around Metropolis, and see all the splendor that modern technology grants you. Door me." Shizue moved next to her Lady, even if the situation has been resolved her contract states she must remain somewhat close in the event that her Lady does ask for her.

Just as Milim was about to fly away, the little Demon Lord noticed that Shizue and Scientia weren't moving, until a black rectangle formed off to the side of the duo.

"Wait! you can create a portal without magic?!" she quickly came down to the ground to observe the tear in space.

"Of course, Teleportation is too useful not to have."

Shizue turned off her stasis before moving through the portal since according to her Lady, static matter messes with Doormaker too erratically to be considered safe.

As she stood next to the portal, waiting for her Lady to pass through, Shizue couldn't help but replay the last few minutes inside her mind and connect it with her new light.

In truth, she only offered lifelong servitude because she thought that her flesh and blood body didn't have too much time left. Shizue didn't fully believe that Scientia could remove a Greater Spirit intertwined with another human for decades.

She merely wanted to die a human, yet, by her Lady's hands, she lived on.

When Shizue first woke up in her new body and heard about the situation, about how she was integrated into the Citadel, she... was in despair.

The ex-adventurer has seen the slaves of Puppet Nation Jistav, of how cruel their Masters can be, of the number of slaves who were worked to death every day there was staggering. Life was a cheap commodity, especially when their bodies could be sold to Demon Lord Clayman and be turned into flesh puppets.

In her mind, Shizue came to the conclusion that this was her punishment. Her punishment of standing by as Ifrit murdered countless innocents.

And yet this can't count as punishment. While yes, she may not be allowed to change jobs, her pay can be described as 'extraordinary' (and is adjusted to inflation), and since most of the time her Mistress is tinkering, Shizue has a ridiculous amount of free time to do whatever she liked. What's more, after familiarizing herself, Shizue found that she could serve her Lady while simultaneously piloting a separate body to indulge in whatever vices the Citadel can fulfill.

Quite an interesting predicament, Shizue idly noted as her Lady and Milim walked through the Doorway. The servant thinks many people would willingly sign up for such a contract.

Shizue was the last to go. Her body momentarily lost that reactive silver sheen as she entered the Doorway.

We are truly living in interesting times.

20

After the Escape Protocol was deactivated and Rimuru deposited back in his office alongside a note saying everything was alright, I had to get out of the Gravastar Armor.

Having a chained infant universe wrapped around you might provide the greatest amount of defense I have so far, but requiring a Subspace Diver to get me out is really tedious.

Supersymmetry is a theory that postulates two types of seemingly different particles are in fact one and the same: Bosons (force carriers like Gluons) and Fermions (which make up matter). With an enormous particle accelerator and black holes, I discovered there is another space that overlays our current universe like a blanket, the true 'Subspace'. Within this Subspace, one can only access it if their fermions are transformed into their supersymmetric copy, but a quirk of this is once you transform back, you get the fermion now in a different place.

By controlling how this works, you can seemingly teleport lightyears in distance.

The drawback is it's completely in the air how long I'd stay in Subspace. Working out the math, with my current Subspace Diver, there's only a 3.7% chance of me returning to a fermion state every second. Hence 'tedious' and why I prefer the Doormaker.

Although the ethereal sight you see when you're in Subspace was definitely unique. The differences between me, the planet, and all the stars in the galaxy weren't as sharp as their outlines are blurred. The usual clean distinction between matter and vacuum blended together like an artist's painting.

Now, I've never taken any drugs, but I think this would be what a person on an Acid-trip would see.

Popping into the changing room, I grabbed the clothing I hung on the coat hangers when I had originally moved to get into the Gravastar Armor. Looking behind me, through a thick panel of glass, lies a black sphere: the natural shape of the Gravastar Armor.

I can't help but grimace.

It really is expensive as hell. It took me a whole moon's worth of raw material just to make the damn thing.

Approaching the panel of glass I placed my right hand on it as if to touch the Gravastar Armor.

Still, the armor was well worth it. It separates me from the local spacetime, preventing anything from even affecting me.

If the Gravastar Armor was denser, the planet itself would start to orbit it instead of the sun.

Walking out of the changing room, I found Milim devouring a bowl of candy that a maid chassis had offered with a fervor found only in religious fanatics.

Waiting for her to finish, I couldn't help but wonder why doesn't Milim just use magic to conjure up candy. I mean, it should be quite simple, right? [Magic] has already given me several spells that can create sucrose (C12H22O11), the chemical behind sugar.

After finishing the bowl, Milim then licked the insides as if to try and get any candy she had missed. I felt a knife stab into me when I realized I too used to do that but for bags of chips, I had finished.

"Ahem," Clearing my throat to get Milim's attention.

"My chef! This is some really good candy! Give me more! More! MORE!"

I appear entirely unfazed by her outburst. "Milim."

A simple call of her name caused Milim to snap out of her sugary addicted state.

"Metropolis has plenty more variety of delicious food than I have." I should know, I did give some restaurant owners and corporations the blueprints to create cuisine and dishes that didn't even exist here or in my old world, "how about you have Rimuru show you around the city?"

"Ehhh..." Milim's face shifted to show her pondering the question I asked, "That slime...? But he's so weak! I can check the city myself!"

Yeah, and that's totally going to work well.

"Alright Milim, answer me a couple of questions then. If you get them all correct, then I'll let you go by yourself, is that fair?" I talked to her in a tone that a parent would use when bargaining with their kid.

"Hmmm. Fine." Milim then smirked smugly as her eyebrows went up and down in a provocative manner, "ask away, I can answer any question you give me!"

Alright, an easy one. "What is your name."

"Milim Nava!"

Interesting. Milim has a last name...

"What is it that you seek to do?"

"To eat all the delicious food of the world!"

"What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?"

"Uh," Milim stumbled, and was caught off-guard, "uh, Eastern or Western?"

"Eastern."

"About nine meters a second!" Then she muttered under her breath, "holy cow, who'd thought paying attention to the rambling of a Dragonewt researcher would pay off?"

Damn, Milim was correct! I specifically remembered that fact about Eastern unladen swallows from a book brought from Dwargon by Rimuru.

"What is the circumference of this planet."

"41,012 kilometers."

"What is the half-life of uranium?"

"A what?"

"An element that has 92 subatomic particles that have negative electric polarity orbiting a single nucleus like planets to stars. Half-life refers to the time it'll take for half of all uranium atoms to decay."

"Oh, the one with 146 neutral particles or 143?"

I raised an eyebrow at Milim's terms. It seems that she knows what neutrons are, "the one with 143."

"Umm..." Milim chewed on her lips as her concentration skyrocketed, "umm... those particles generated by Nuclear Magic typically don't exist for longer than the caster's will so I'm going to say it's variable."

"What about the naturally occurring ones?"

"I... I... It's..."

As Milim struggled to answer, I reviewed her previous replies. A sense of surprise courses through my mind at how knowledgeable the seemingly childish Demon Lord was.

She's smart, so why does she act like a kid all the time?

"I think it's 700 million years?" Milim's tone didn't have any confidence, "Primordial Yellow always did enjoy everything related to nuclear."

Primordial Yellow? Who is that? But more importantly, for now, Milim was correct.

Then again, I tilted my head persisting on with what I'm planning despite my guts telling me 'no', "are you sure about that answer?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"I'm asking you: are you absolutely, without a single doubt, sure of your answer being 700 million years?" I stared deep into Milim's eyes, catching her off guard as doubt crept into the pink-haired kid's mind like a poison that corroded away her already low confidence.

"Uh... uh... uh... no! I'm not sure! I think it's 90,000 years!"

My face didn't change, "is that your final answer?"

"Yes!" Milim yelled out brimming with newfound confidence.

"Incorrect!"

I formed a cross with my forearms.

"Duh!" Milim faltered as if an anvil had dropped on her head. Falling to the floor, Milim quickly got up and blitzed toward me. Her arms held my shoulders and started shaking me.

"What was the answer?! What was the answer?!? What was the answer?!?!"

Her sky-blue eyes stared into my crimson. Milim was so close I could see my reflection on her iris and more profoundly inside her pupil.

"It was 700 million years."

"..." Milim's shoulder slumped as she collapsed to her knees before yelling to the high heavens, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Then she slammed her hands against the ground hard enough that the entire Citadel rang like a bell, "I've been tricked! I've been backstabbed! I've been bambooooooozled!"

Holy shit if Milim does that again the whole floor may collapse!

Like an adult realizing they've messed up and now the child in front of them was crying in a public place, the silent judgment of imagined people caused my entire body to heat up.

"Milim, it's not that bad!" I pleaded, trying to avoid another Ifrit scenario.

"It is! You're just going to pawn me off to your subordinate and forget about meeeeee!"

I'm... not good with kids. Despite wanting them, I can't stand their crying and whining and such. So instead I placed a charge in [Child Psychology] and let the specialty guide my words and motion next.

Slowly, I squatted down to Milim's level and started to gently pat her head, "I don't think it's possible for anyone to forget about you. Where in the hell did you get that notion? Also, Rimuru really isn't a subordinate. If anything, he's an equal, a friend."

Milim's head rose up at the last word, "Friends...?"

How the hell does she, a Demon Lord older than written text, be confused about friends?

There was a caring smile on my face, "Yeah, friends and family. Those people who stay really close to you and care about you while you care about them."

"Like Frey?"

My smile faltered a bit.

That Harpy Demon Lord? The second-latest to join the Ten Great Demon Lords? Even [Psychology] was a bit stumped at how to reply, "...Uh, sure, let's go with that."

Milim then frowned, "mmm, I don't want friends then. Frey always just sucks up to me and agrees with whatever I want to do."

Previously, I felt like the situation was under my thumb, but after Milim's outburst, it finally hit me that I was never in control. [Child Psychology] focuses on how a developing mind would function. Milim's childishness is a front for an intelligent mind.

Basically, Milim is pretending to be a child while having thousands of years of experience. She's too unpredictable.

Rimuru would have a greater chance of peacefully pacifying the Dragonoid. His peaceful and rather... naive nature would serve as a perfect counterbalance to Milim's personality.

And I'd REALLY rather not have another fiasco like with Shizue and the Ogres.

"How about this: if you check out Metropolis with Rimuru, I'll serve you the most delicious dish I could make?"

Food instantly got Milim's attention, "really?"

"Yes, but you have to make sure to be on your best behavior. If I hear a single complaint from Rimuru, you're not getting the dish." I wiggled my finger at Milim.

"Alright!"

The sheer speed with Milim going from cheerful to sad back to cheerful again gives me whiplash and makes her impossible to predict. She's like the personification of the Three-Body Problem in mathematics: I can't 'solve' her since she requires an infinite number of operations.

"Door me."

Opening a Doorway to Rimuru's office, I saw Rimuru sitting in the executive chair with huge stacks of paper next to him while his secretary stood behind him.

Looking at the stacks, I really wonder what's up with the slime's preferring material paper over electronic documents, it's just so weird.

"Hey, Rimuru!" I said while I strolled over to him, Citrinitas eying me warily as I do.

"Eh? Scientia what are you doing here? I'm still busy with that Milim visitation—" Rimuru cut himself off as he saw said Demon Lord looking around at the office in awe, only to scream in horror when I shoved all that stack of paper off his desk.

"Scientia!"

"Take the rest of the day off. You're going to act as the personal ambassador to Milim, who has expressed her interest in modernity," looking at Secretary Citrinitas, "your secretary can help you pick the paper up before you come back."

The purple Kijin wanted to speak up, only to nod once she realize who she was talking to.

There is just something so utterly pleasurable about commanding absolute obedience from others.

Power really is a drug.

I can read Rimuru's body language like a book with charges in [Communication, [Psychology, and [Language, and it's telling me that he wants to do it but is trying to think of an excuse to not have to deal with the childish Demon Lord.

Time to move in for the kill.

"Milim, I'm going to be off now." I placed a hand above her head, "Remember: behave well and you'll get a delicious treat."

"Right right, my personal chef!"

"Door me."

The last look of sheer panic on Rimuru's face before I walked through the Doorway caused me to chuckle a bit as I appear in an alleyway inside the city.

I took a deep breath and leaned onto a wall akin to scaffolding. I felt the back of my head hit the solid concrete structure.

That's two national-level crises in a single day solved.

Then I released that breath, and like opening the valve on a rice cooker, all the stress of the day was released.

I have a newfound respect for elected officials.

"I think I'm going to take the rest of the day off."

Yeah, I'm going to take the rest of the day off.

Walking out of the alleyway, I decided to not use Doormaker and instead take a stroll. Looking up at the bright sky I saw that the sun was nearing the horizon and was mid-afternoon.

I tried to void my mind of anything and just exist in the present.

Tall office buildings flanked the side of the road as I reached a section of what can be considered the downtown area, with the Egg a few hundred meters in front of me.

Metropolis is definitely a strange city to any outsider looking in. Unlike large areas of residence in townhouses, Metropolis' population is all congregated in tall arcologies from which business then sprang forth around. This means the land closest to an arcology is the most expensive.

The board game Monopoly is actually a game about how a slight advantage in the early game can snowball into an unstoppable force. To avoid that snowballing and keep the economy relatively egalitarian, the Tempest Revenue Service heavily taxes people based solely on their property, where after your first living unit, you must pay steadily more and more percentage-based tax if you want to own more property.

Another quirk of Metropolis is that it's really bicycle friendly, which is a given how most people don't have cars yet.

In fact, I stopped and glanced around the six-lane street I'm walking beside, I can count the number of cars parked to the side in two hands while there are hundreds of bicycles, tricycles, and their electric counterpart.

Seeing an orc riding a tricycle ferrying people like taxis reminded me of a sight I saw during a business trip to China. Then, my mind recalled how since there are a lot of refugees in Metropolis thanks to the Orc Lord, the normal orcs have established several funds and organizations aimed at helping those refugees in an attempt at reconciliation.

Wait, wasn't that idea from Rimuru?

Well, those organizations and funds definitely helped in the integration of and forgiving of the orcs by a large majority of the goblins who were affected by the Orc Lord.

Then, my mind wandered into thinking if I should make a massaging machine.

"Does Shizue even know how to do massages?" I wondered out loud, finally continuing to stroll through the city I built, where only a few months ago, was a rural village but is now a true metropolis.

As I walked, I reached a part of the street that has railings that separated the sidewalk from the actual road.

That was when I saw her.

Short blond hair that'll remind anyone of sunlight, the same tight-fitting modern clothing that clung sensually to her body, and a pair of crimson eyes that looks so similar to my own.

She was impossible to mistake. She was the same unclimbable snow-capped mountain.

The girl sat on the railings, her legs twirled and fidgeted around as if anxiously waiting for a loved one with a serene expression on her face.

Ah... of course she's not waiting for a loved one, she's waiting for me. Her killer. Anyone would do the same. Anyone would want revenge after they've been killed. Even if I killed her in self-defense.

But...

Her body is completely back to normal as if she hadn't undergone complete matter dissociation.

How is she here?

How is she still alive?

I should know better than anyone how lethal a Particle Disruptor was. Beyond shooting out topological defects with a core of energy compressed to such a state that it's comparable to a few moments after the Big Bang itself, being caught inside its range will cause your individual atoms to get ripped away, 'disassociated' if you will, from your body.

It is incredibly painful, which... now that I recall how Milim tanked it without a single issue, speaks volumes of how strong that Dragonoid must be.

As you literally get unmade, your cells, your nerve cells that are responsible for your touch, will feel as if it's on fire but a thousand times worse. Just a single glancing hit is enough to cause such pain that the ego part of the soul would shatter from the stimuli.

How many out-of-context situations am I going to meet in a single day?! Why am I always at the forefront of all these national-level crises?!?

I blinked to check if I was seeing things and yep, that girl is still there.

Then, our eyes met, and her face turned into one that expresses satisfaction, and with it, a smile that promises pain.

I ignore [Psychology]'s attempt at saying how I'm seeing things.

Then, the girl started walking towards me.

The distance between the two of us was only ten meters.

At her current speed, she'll reach me in five seconds.

Oh, fuck no.

My guts told me to run, so I listened.

[Silenced Emotion: 90%]

I turned around and blitzed in the other direction.

Even with [Silenced Emotion] running so high, I can't help but still panic at the situation, even if I logically should not be capable of panicking right now.

Running off into the distance completely unlike myself. The back of my mind tells me I should say a phrase consisting of two words to get rid of the threat entirely but my gut is screaming at me to just RUN.

RUN

RUN and never look back.

And so I did. My higher thoughts were blocked out by how loud my gut is screaming.

I became almost a blur as I ran down the streets, running past many pedestrians and officers that would easily get slaughtered by that blond-haired vampire lookalike if they were to get involved. With [Gymnastics] I was able to skillfully weave around between them.

Even if my gut tells me to never look back, my curiosity overpowered my sense of fear and turned to look behind me.

Despite how fast I'm running, she still somehow remains close, a few meters away. She was walking, as though she were merely taking a stroll like I had been planning to before meeting my third (or a return of the first) crisis of the day.

So I continued to run. Just run. Run like I never had before.

But, just like a mirage in a desert, she remains ever the same distance away from me.

Eventually, this game of cat and mouse came to a head when I entered a tight alley, my mind calming down from its unnatural fear as I observed her, currently standing nonchalantly on top of a large recycling bin, blocking my way out.

I finally assess my current situation.

I'm extremely vulnerable. I don't have any weapons. My skintight nanosuit couldn't protect me from this entity's attack. I have no magic spells aside from [Unlimited Alchemy, which I could potentially use to transmute the girl in front of me into pure iron.

But to activate [Unlimited Alchemy] requires a few seconds.

Too slow.

I was running upwards of 100 kilometers an hour, and she caught up to me easily, which means she can close the distance between where I am and where she was standing in less than 0.2 seconds. [Mathematics] was going ham on crunching the numbers on how to deal with this threat.

"So you're the one who killed me huh?" the girl said cordially for some reason. "Ha... it took a while but I've finally found the person who brought me to this world."

Her voice was like that of a silver bell. A sense of calm immediately blanketed the alleyway I'm in.

Seeing the lack of hostility, I decided to return the olive branch as well while discretely charging up [Unlimited Alchemy].

"So who are you?"

The girl looked confused for a second. Then she jumped down and crossed her arms, "I'm the one who you killed earlier, how did you forget?"

The girl spoke of murder in the same tone as someone would use for replying to what they ate for breakfast.

Although, "but... how did you resurrect from complete bodily disintegration? Unless..."

I trailed off as my mind wonders how it was possible. Could her spirit, or soul, survive that? If it is, then it points towards the soul being unaffected by any of the Nuclear Forces and Gravity.

Is a soul bound by spacetime then? Or is it like Gravitons? But what's more...

"Well, that's easy!" The girl said, "I simply came back to life!"

"I don't think you understand what 'coming back to life' from what I did to you entails. I get that you're clearly not human despite looking like one, but to return to life from what I did would mean..." I thought about a moment of how to express just what it would take, "an adult's body contains approximately seven octillion atoms. That is a seven followed by 27 zeroes. Seven thousand million million million. Unless your body is somehow less, you would have to pick up each and every one of those seven octillion atoms and stitch them back together."

The sheer scale and complexity boggle the mind. And she did this in a few hours!

"It requires more than simple regeneration. I don't even know if I'm capable of regenerating from that."

What kind of monster am I dealing with here?

"I'm not human." She repeated, her tone having a hint of annoyance in it.

I literally do not possess the ability to make someone deader than complete disintegration other than maybe throwing them into a black hole. Or perhaps blasting their souls into oblivion using lasers.

"If you're not human, then can— MAY you tell me what you are exactly?"

Best take a respectful tone, so I channeled all my experience talking with my boss from my old life.

The thing frowned. Placing a hand on its bountiful chest, "I'm what you would call a vampire, a True Ancestor to be exact."

[Silenced Emotion: 10%]

"A... vampire?" My tone was one of disbelief. Hearing of that term caused me to think of Dracula.

"Yeah!"

"And it somehow allows you to return from matter dissociation?"

The vampire gained a thoughtful look, "well, I guess I'm more of an outlier than anything, but yes."

I nodded slowly, not even bothering to ask how she could stand in the middle of the day. If she could return from complete bodily disintegration, sunlight should be child's play. Note to self: do NOT mess with interdimensional stuff.

"And what do you want from me?"

"I'll admit, logically speaking I should be trying to take revenge against the one who killed me, but after calming down and realizing I'm in a world completely cut off from the influence of Gaia or Alaya," she said as she brought her hands up in a shrugging motion, "I have far more to gain by keeping you alive since I would probably need the one who brought me here to send me back to my own world."

I relaxed a bit before my guard suddenly went up when Arcueid pointed a finger at me, pouting a bit, "I would like an apology as well!"

The current situation finally sinks in for me despite its surrealness. I'm in an alleyway with my murder victim still alive and not wanting revenge, my murder victim, who is some kind of super vampire that can return despite every molecule being ripped from their body. And now my victim wants my help to return her to her old world while also asking for an apology.

What has my new life come to?

Realizing she is looking at me expectantly, I replied with more sass than I intended to in my voice because honestly, today has just been a tad bit much for me.

"Very well then, I'll help you, and I admit my mistake when I tried to defend myself from your unprovoked attacks,"

Three crises in a single day would be too much for anyone.

Her face scrunched up in confusion before something dawned on her. "Huh?"

Her demeanor completely changed. What once could be described as a sacred snow-capped mountain to be admired from afar now looked like a young teen realizing they've messed up and are now paying for it.

The vampire blushed in embarrassment, her mouth formed into a half-hearted sheepish smile, "w—well I was half-conscious when I arrived! I was in the middle of slaying a particularly dangerous vampire by the name of Michael Roa Valdamjong when I was suddenly transported into the middle of an unknown room. I thought it was a mere trick the vampire had bought to try and deceive me. Then I saw my cousin and then I sensed you and so... I acted violently."

The story sounded extremely unbelievable. First I'm in a Tolkien-esque world and now a character from Urban Fantasy pops in? What's next, a horror movie villain?

"Right."

"I know!" She either wasn't able to sense it or just completely ignored my sarcasm.

Sighing and rubbing my forehead, I took several more deep breaths to stop the anxiety from boiling my body.

So many things happened in a single fucking day. I swear this is just a repeat of exam season again.

Still, my boss once said in business chaos is the fountain of opportunity. Chaos represents a reshuffling of the established order.

And so, seeing how she's relatively peaceful, the prospect of having another potential bodyguard as strong as this vampire in front of me becomes desirable.

"Wait. I just realized I don't exactly know your name..."

A look of surprise appeared on her face, then her mouth formed into a small 'o', "how forgetful of me! There was almost no one in my old world who didn't know of my name. I am Arcueid Brunestud. Since that's a mouthful, just call me Arcueid."

That introduction oozed with the confidence befitting of royalty. So in response, I decided to go for a more casual approach, "I am Scientia, Scientia Tempest, Director of Research and Development of the Jura Tempest Republic."

"So you're like one of those scientists?"

"... yes."

Arcueid blinked several times, "really? How advanced is this world? I mean, to have weapons capable of even scratching me is a feat no modern technology could have even dreamed of. The only things that could harm me are ancient Shinto magecraft and treasures from South America but none of those could utterly devastate me as you did with that rifle of yours."

"..." I'm discussing her murder weapon with her. It never hit me as hard as right now how... perplexing and different being immortal truly is. A normal human would be scared of their murderer, but being a resurrecting immortal, you'd definitely be curious about the thing that killed you.

In short, her common sense is drastically different from mine.

I wonder though, given how I stabbed myself in the throat with that knife without a single moment of hesitation, would I eventually see death as Arcueid sees it?

[Psychology] is saying 'yes'.

"I shot you with a manufactured Monopole. A zero-dimensional defect in spacetime. It disrupts the particle that makes up your body."

Arcueid's jaw dropped and she looked at me with what one can almost describe as 'respect' and maybe even 'fear', "has humanity really advanced so far in this world?"

"I... wouldn't call all of humanity this advanced." I would call them backwater. Then, I brought up the real goal of this conversation, "tell you what, I should assume you to be homeless then?"

"Uh, yeah. I was actually wanting to ask if I could stay at your place. It's nicer than all of the places I've lived in outside of the Millennium Castle." Arcueid scratched her neck like a person asking their friend for a big favor. "All the straight lines, the geometry, and how clean everything is... it's just really different."

My eyes narrowed at her description. Shizue can be excused since before she was kidnapped from her world, it was at the end of WWII. So how doesn't Arcueid, a True Ancestor in apparently the modern era, know about such an architectural style?

"What is the architectural style used in my home inside the Citadel called?"

"...I don't know." She said frankly.

"Your clothing would peg you as someone coming from the modern age. So how do you not know modern architecture?"

"Well..." Arcueid seemed to struggle for an answer, "The total time I've been conscious during my multi-centuries of existence is less than a year in total. Besides, whenever I do awake I at most read the newspaper to catch up on what's happening lately, so I don't really pay attention to stuff like architecture." she said casually, contrasting heavily the serious nature of her words.

What the hell? "How?"

"Hmmm, well, I was created as the True Ancestor to kill other True Ancestors who've gone rogue. I'm only awakened when I'm needed to kill off a True Ancestor, and then I just sleep."

A grimace appeared on my face as I took a step back. Well, there goes my idea of having her become my bodyguard.

Major violations of ethics aside, why the hell would you ever give a weapon the ability to gain self-awareness and intelligence in general? Does your weapon absolutely need sapience? Speaking as an individual who's created life using genetic engineering, I say with confidence that intelligence is the greatest gift a Creator can give to a Creation because with intelligence comes a degree of autonomy. It means that you accept the possibility of them rebelling against you.

My brain then dragged me back to a time in grade school when I did a project about child soldiers in places like Africa. In that project, the old naive me swore to grow up and defeat this evil like some kind of superhero.

I looked at Arcueid again. From a simple glance, you can't tell that anything's wrong but... she's a child soldier. I want to hug and then tell her that she no longer has to fight.

"So you've... never really experienced anything?"

"That's correct!" she responded cheerfully, making [Psychology] roil in confusion at the nonchalantness of her answer.

I took another deep sigh. I wish alcohol worked on me.

"I should assume you have no employable skills?"

"What's 'employable skills'?"

"Thought so." I let out yet another tired sigh.

Well fuck. I thought about things for a few moments before asking, "Does the term 'Perfect Homunculus' ring any bell for you?"

Thinking for a few moments, Arcueid spoke in a tone not too dissimilar to how someone would speak of the weather, "well, the Einzberns were known for their homunculus crafting, so they might know more than I do."

Alright, it's decided. With the Citadel in place, the Republic finally becoming fully operational, and the Star Lifters up in space, I'm the safest I've ever been. Then, just like a couple deciding to have a child now that their financial situation is secure, I've decided to act as Arcueid's guardian.

Bringing her here, I have a responsibility to rehabilitate Arcueid into something more than a child soldier.

Walking to the living section of the Citadel, Arcueid was like a kid who grew up at a farm now in the big city. She was gawking in awe at how strange everything must've looked while Shizue in an assassin chassis followed closely behind, never straying further than a four-foot distance and staring warily at the newcomer.

While I allow her to express her opinions freely, I placed my foot down on this issue.

In retrospect, it's probably due to a mixture of my feeling personally responsible and me pitying her for being a child soldier that I was this generous.

I was never this generous. The most I would do is perhaps donate a few hundred dollars for some tax breaks and that's all.

Walking through the hallway with walls, floor, and ceilings of metal, I stopped when I reached a door that was made out of wood instead.

I placed my right hand on the handle and pushed in.

The living section of the Citadel was a private project of mine. I've always dreamed of having a modern-style mansion, so I made it a reality when I converted a 20,000-square-foot unused area into my own private living space.

"Woah... it never gets old..." Arcueid said.

The overall color scheme of the living section is white with spots of green and black. The floor was made out of a dark grey wood-like synthetic material while the furniture looked like multiple geometric shapes conjoined together.

I think the specific term used to describe the architecture of this place would be 'neomodern'.

Technology was needless to say, integrated into every aspect of the living section. The floor was self-heating, and there were cleverly hidden speakers hidden all over the place that play music to where ever you go.

More Shizue maid chassis walked out into view to greet me and bow. Within one chassis' hand was a tray with a glass of water standing on it while another held a large metal frame— a datapad, a larger version of my phone.

"""Lady Scientia."""

I think the main thing that differentiates this living section from the penthouse I lived in on the Egg was its application of sleek non-Euclidean geometric design in specific places to break up the areas where it would've become a bore. I would have to commend [Architecture] for this.

"Ah, Shizue," I took the datapad and turned it on. Turning to look at Arcueid who was fiddling around with one of the pseudo-perpetual motion machines on a coffee table in front of a truly enormous television.

"Arcueid. You can play with that later. You need to pick a room you're staying in."

She continued to play around with the thing.

Watching Arcueid play around with the pseudo-perpetual motion machine was like watching a cat play around with a mouse toy.

I'd let her play but I need to get her situated.

So with a single tap on the datapad, I stopped the pseudo-perpetual motion machine's movement.

"Arcueid, come."

The True Ancestor looked disappointed before getting up and following me up the stairs.

"Pick any one of the bedrooms and it's yours for the duration of your stay in this world," I said, "Inside the rooms are datapads similar to the one I'm holding. Pick a theme and Shizue will fill your wardrobe with clothing belonging to that theme. After dinner, Shizue'll give you lessons on the customs and culture of this world—"

I halted in the middle of my speech and looked over to a sullen Arcueid, "—you do eat normal food, right? I could create some artificial human blood for you to drink should you wish for it."

Arcueid stopped and looked at me, a finger on her chin as she thought about an answer.

She really does look like a child who's just been asked a question they don't know the answer to.

"Well... I don't really need food but I do eat it for enjoyment, however ever since coming here I seemed to have... changed" she said the last part with great hesitancy.

"I've seemingly lost the Vampiric Impulse ever since coming here..." Arcueid finished solemnly.

[Psychology] and [Language] say she's got mixed feelings about that, but the feeling of happiness was the most dominant one.

I think what she's feeling is probably very close to those teens who have just transitioned into adulthood, those who just started their adult lives who feel both fear and jubilation at the newfound freedom.

"What is a True Ancestor?" I asked in an attempt at distracting her from thinking of her past.

Arcueid blinked several times before responding, "Seeing as magic is commonplace and not of my own world, I guess it's fine if you know."

Her face turned serious, signaling to me how important the information she was about to give me is. So in response, I turned my attention completely onto her, "There are two types of vampires. Dead Apostles are humans who've been turned into a vampire, and True Ancestors, are the ones who were always a vampire. We were directly created by Brunestud of the Crimson Moon hundreds of years ago after Gaia had made a deal with him: he can walk on Earth in exchange for building a counterforce of the planet."

Arcueid seemed to fall into nostalgia as she spoke about the past, "I don't think my Grandfather can get to this world. As powerful as the Kaleidoscope is, I doubt it can go through that... that..." her eyes narrowed as she seemed to struggle to describe something, "that wall of death, of entropy, of nihilistic energy. The only reason I think I was able to go through was due to your miracle technology that temporarily opened a hole in it."

Well, that was a lot of information about her world, I thought inquisitively.

So... does that mean, based on what she said of this 'Brunestud of the Crimson Moon' seems to be some kind of alien? And that Gaia has seemingly complete authority over Earth?

But more importantly, there's a barrier that separates mine and Arcueid's worlds. How is anything made out of nihilistic energy? Entropy describes a lack of useable energy and the barrier separating our two worlds is made from some kind of... [Particle Physics] calls it Anti-energy.

Concerning.

"Very well, I shall leave you to it and research ways to pierce that 'wall of nihilistic energy', if you're feeling stuck, just ask Shizue to open a Doorway to the outside." Just as I was about to leave Arcueid to it, I got a notification on my phone concerning another potential issue that demands my attention.

"..."

I squeezed my eyes shut before tilting my head to face the ceiling.

"Boy, I just can't get a break, can I?"

"It appears so, my Lady," Shizue said neutrally. If this had been any other conversation I wouldn't have thought much of it, except in this case I knew she was sassing me.

"Not the time Shizue. Door me."

I popped into the middle of a standoff between Milim and four demihumans in dark blue armor. Multiple security personnel, or police officers, stood between the two of them like the cartilage between two bones. Rimuru himself was seemingly barely able to contain Milim, who looked like she wanted to kill those demihumans.

There were also dozens of more heavily armed police forming a perimeter and making sure normal civilians stay at a safe distance.

"Comman— I mean, Director Scientia!" A hobgoblin security guard trotted over and saluted.

"Give me a quick rundown of what happened."

"Director, these demihumans came to Metropolis and demanded to see the person who ruled this place. They grew violent when every civilian around them started backing away instead of replying,"

If they had done this in a place like New York, they'll be given weird glances since the residents of this world knew that people stronger than themselves existed and no one wanted trouble.

"That was when Lady Milim tried to act out before President Rimuru restrained her. His security detail then alerted the local police of the situation. However, it seemed—"

"Ah! A truly fair-looking human, you must be the Queen of this city then!" The most human-looking of the demihumans yelled out and pointed at me, "now we can finally talk terms of your surrender to the Great Demon Lord Carrion!"

I held up my right hand to transmute all the air around the most human-looking demihuman into nitrogen to get him to stay silent. A bit of suffocation should have him gasping for air instead of releasing them. Then, using my left, I started rubbing the bridge of my nose.

Four.

Four fucking crises in one day.

What's worse: it ain't even the evening yet.

AN: And now we got Arcueid to brighten up the darkness that is about to come in this AU!

I gotta replay the Arcueid Route in Tsukihime (the old one) again, so expect slower updates instead of the usual daily. Also, I hope I got Arcueid's personality right as it has been years since I've last played the Visual Novel

I asked around the Tensura Discord and got confirmation that no one besides WN Rimuru (Beelzebub was stated to be able to eat the concept of time) and maybe Veldanava had the capacity to manipulate concept Nasuverse style, so neat.

For those who are wondering, yes that is a reference to Isaac Arthur and his ever-excellent exploration into sci-fi concepts and how they would actualize in real life,

Clarification, since the names are different, here's a full list of names compared to canon

Benimaru is Rubedo

Shuna is Albedo

Shion is Citrinitas

Kurobe is Nigerdo

The other two were killed in order for the 4 to escape.