(Rimuru POV)
After Gazel left, things around Tempest began picking up quickly. Partially because he came back two days later, having snuck out of his castle. Real freewheeling king. I kinda wondered if Dwargon was okay with that, but it wasn't my problem, I suppose.
Anyways, he brought a sack with a dude in it. Specifically, Vester. The jerk who'd been responsible for us getting kicked out of Dwargon on trumped up charges. Apparently, that had been the straw that broke the camel's back for Gazel, as far as Vester was concerned, so Vester'd been on house arrest, just rotting away ever since the incident.
Gazel figured that, if Vester couldn't work in Dwargon anymore because of his punishment, then he could work in Tempest. Since we had Kaijin, who had once been Dwargon's head researcher, most of their secret technology had been leaked to us anyways, and we had a technology trade agreement either way.
So, I had Vester's lab set up in the Sealed Cave. Gabil and his crew would be fine bodyguards, keeping him safe from all of the monsters that lived in there.
But as Risa and I showed him around his new laboratory, Vester asked an interesting question.
"Lord Rimuru, I have a question… Your clothes? Are they normal Hellmoth silk, because they seem finer than that?"
"Yeah-" I began, but Risa interrupted me.
"Umm…" Yeah, that was clear guilt. You know, Shuna, Soei, and Risa had been together a lot lately. I'd never really wondered about it, but…
"Risaaa?" I pressed.
"Umm, technically, Big Bro and I are wearing clothes made of Hellmoth Queen silk right now." I felt a headache coming on, as I learned what Risa had been up to.
I'd noticed that my two or three sets of casual clothing were of a far higher quality than the rest of my clothes, but I hadn't thought much of it until now. But there was an actual reason for it.
Apparently, Risa, Soei, Shuna, and even Geld had been going behind my back for quite a while now on a secret project, headed by Risa.
Risa called it the 'Tamed Monsters Initiative.' Basically, she'd gone a few kilometers outside of Tempest, and dug a giant cavern. Like, several kilometers in every direction, bigger than the actual city of Rimuru. Then, she, Geld, and a select group of 2,000 High Orcs, the old Orc Disaster's elite guard, had reinforced the entire thing with magisteel over the course of several weeks, turning it into an impenetrable fortress to rival Dwargon.
Once it was built, that was where Soei came in. He tracked monsters down, and Risa brought them in, placing them in an environment that she completely controlled until they were fully submissive to her incredible power. Once that happened, she named them.
In other words, my three favorite sets of clothes? Made from the cocoon of the Hellmoth Queen, who Risa had named Elise. Risa also had a set of clothes made from Elise's silk, and it was all Unique in grade.
My breakfast every morning? Scrambled eggs from Ralph, the 40 foot tall, fire breathing Gigant Terrachicken. The milk for it? From the udders of Yoshi the Bullstag, a D-plus evolved version of a cattledeer.
She also had dozens of other evolved, named monsters that she'd gathered and tamed under her 'Named Monsters Initiative.' Such as: Hanako, the Sunflower Sprite (E-ranked), Rose, the Rose Sprite (E-ranked), Maya, the Unicorn (A-ranked), Ira the Black Spider (A-ranked), Victor the Giga Bat (A-ranked), Kion the Giant Hawk (A-ranked), Pipo the Segmented Slime (E-ranked), Charles, the Evil Segmentipede (A-minus ranked), Sadie, the Blade Tiger (A-ranked) and several dozen other A-minus, or even solid A-ranked monsters that she'd gathered, along with around a hundred weaker monsters, of varying types, including a few cattledeer, a few Giant Chickens, and a few normal Hellmoths.
In other words, just a few kilometers from Tempest, there was a den of monsters, all strong enough to fight evenly with Rigur, and smash Gobta into the ground without a care. With their starwolf partners, both goblins would destroy most of Risa's pets, but still…
…
After Vester got situated in his lab, he and Risa began talking.
"There's a type of magical tool that can teleport someone!?"
…
"A vacuum, you say?"
…
Three days later, Risa would exit the Sealed Cave with a brand new teleportation Art and severe trauma.
In the meantime, I spent my time getting up to date on everything that Risa had done lately, as well as going over all of the growth that Tempest had gone through recently.
The first person I talked to was Rigur.
You see, after the Orc Lord battle, I made a comment to Risa. "You know, you've really been favoriting Gobta, giving him all that gear."
"I think it's fun to watch what he does with it." She'd replied, "He's weird and funny, but strong."
"You know, Rigur's pretty strong, too. You should give him a weird, strong weapon and see what he does with it."
"Ooh! Good idea!"
So she did. She went to the treants' village and asked for a branch. Then, she used Curiosity's Test Sub-Skill to turn it into a stupid powerful Unique-grade sword. She even imbued the Sage skill into it.
So, that was how Rigur ended up with a powerful Unique-grade sword, Plantmaster Shortblade that allowed its wielders the skills 'Sage' and 'Plant Control.'
But that wasn't the end of the story. The next day, Rigur went to Kurobe to return the sword he'd used before, a Special-grade longsword. Explaining everything apparently got Kurobe all worked up, and he promised Rigur that he'd make him an even better sword than Risa had with all of his skills.
So, four days of backbreaking labor later, Rigur ended up being gifted the Plant Dominion Longblade. Basically, it increased Rigur's strength in proportion to the foliage around him. So, now he was a dual wielder with a specialty in forest combat. After all, even if it required a change in style, who in their right mind would refuse to use one of the most powerful swords in Tempest?
…
But Risa wasn't the only one who'd added to Tempest's population or hidden things, admittedly.
The major merchants that dealt in the forest, with all of the lesser races especially, were kobolds. They were nomadic by nature, but they'd decided to settle in Tempest and use us as a base to expand.
I'd also made connections with the mermaids who lived in a nearby lake. They'd joined Tempest in exchange for names and protection from the monsters who were beginning to infest the lake.
I'd also found a beetle and a wasp in the forest. They'd been injured in a battle against a B-ranked Blade Tiger. The beetle, especially, had been so badly injured that I'd needed to use some of my own cells to patch him up before using a potion to finish healing him.
Now, Zeigon and Apito collected honey for me, while protecting the treant village on my stead. Apparently, Apito's honey was an incredibly strong panacea, but I cared more about the fact that it tasted amazing.
My honey!