After the dwarf left, I placated an annoyed Milim with my slime body, which she found squishy and fun to play with, while Big Bro interrogated the incredibly remorseful Phobio.
Something I found funny was that his first words upon waking up were, "Please forgive me! I've done something unforgivable to Lady Milim!"
Like he'd actually be capable of doing anything to Milim.
But he spilled the beans on how he'd found Charybdis without prodding, after that. Apparently, those stupid clowns had been responsible for the whole thing. Big Bro suspected that they'd also been the ones to gather the dragon corpses, too. After all, the chances of an unthinking beast finding thirteen A-ranked lesser dragons between a random cave near the center of the forest and Tempest?
Not too high.
These clowns had also been there for the destruction of the ogre village, and they'd led Gabil and his men to the heart of the lizardman compound, through impressively high lizardman security, without being seen once. If that wasn't enough, one of them had been fighting with Treyni during the orc war.
Now, they'd sicced Charybdis on us.
But first, the important thing. "Okay, dude. Why would you accept an offer like that, with how fishy those guys were?"
"I'm so sorry! I just wanted to get back at Milim! It was because of my own personal feelings, and had nothing to do with Lord Carillon, so please-"
"Big Bro's not gonna punish you, you know. You almost died, after all." I decided to throw Phobio a bone. He looked pathetic enough as is.
"Yeah, you were clearly being used. Control your emotions better next time, alright? Don't let some random dude lead you to doing something that stupid ever again, or we will kill you next time, understand?" I rolled my 'eyes' in Milim's arms. Like that'd happen.
"Is that fine by you, Carillon?!" Milim called out to the guy who'd been watching from the forest's edge, hidden, for the last hour.
"Can't get anything by you, huh, Milim?" Carillon paused, locking eyes with Big Bro. I could feel him release a bit of his aura, probably in an effort to intimidate Big Bro. I suspect it worked a bit, but not my problem. "That's fine. Thanks for helping this idiot out."
Since Carillon owed us for the Phobio thing, he ended up agreeing to open formal relations with Tempest, on behalf of his country, Eurazania, as well as a few other concessions, including a peace treaty.
Then he punched Phobio unconscious, hoisted the bloody near-corpse over his shoulder, and walked off.
…
(Rimuru POV)
Several days passed after the Charybdis incident. During that time, both Fuze and Milim had left. Honestly, I had mixed feelings about Milim's leaving. It felt like a weight off my shoulders, and I enjoyed the lack of one-sided one-on-seven 'training' beatdowns with Milim (wearing Risa-made gauntlets that suppressed ninety percent of her strength) destroying me, Risa, Benimaru, Hakuro, Shion, Soei, and Ranga all at once every afternoon, but I kinda missed the destructive whirlwind child, and her endless supply of wonder and energy, and seeing Risa skulk like that broke my heart.
Fortunately, we'd all gained a lot from Milim's presence. Especially in terms of combat experience. Our orcs were very experienced in fixing things around Tempest, now, as well.
But experience wasn't all I'd gained recently.
It'd been about two days since I'd eaten Charybdis when the Wise One said something that I couldn't ignore. 'Report. Charybdis analysis partially complete. Further analysis failed due to insufficient ability on part of Unique Skill: Wise One…' I'd never heard my skill sound so downcast before. Or emotional at all, for that matter.
What do you mean? Give me the rundown.
'Charybdis' skills have been fully analyzed. Intrinsic skills: Magic Interference, Control Gravity, Gravity Flight, and Resist Magic obtained.
Transformation of Individual: Rimuru Tempest into spiritual lifeform failed due to failure to fully analyze individual Charybdis' chaos core.
Repression of individual Charybdis' magic force complete. Individual Charybdis' magical force partially added to individual Rimuru Tempest's magical force.
Master's magical power increased by roughly 150,000 points. New Existence value around 550,000.
Executing Breakdown not recommended at present time. Individual Charybdis' full assimilation likely potential failure due to insufficient analysis and skill. Soul-interference skill necessary to gain full power from Charybdis soul.
Recommendation. Build power internally until soul-manipulation skill is gained. Then, name Charybdis before assimilating the soul for the largest boost in power.'
Okay, let's break that down. I got four skills off Charybdis, all impressively powerful.
Apparently, there was something that you couldn't analyze called a 'chaos core,' that you attempted to use to turn me into a spiritual life form. Explain that one again.
'Individual Charybdis' is a spiritual life form, similar to known individual Ifrit. When spiritual lifeforms are killed, their souls separate from their bodies and return to a separate dimension, where they wait until they find another body. The 'container' required for such is part spiritual, part physical in design, at least after manifesting inside a host. Unfortunately, due to inability to fully analyze the soul of Individual: Charybdis, the energy portion of Chaos Core cannot be recreated at this time.'
Oh.
What else could I think about that? As an aside, when Risa absorbed Izzy, she also absorbed the spiritual part of Izzy's core, so she could still 'survive' if she died, just like a spirit.
Now, explain this thing about not assimilating Charybdis yet?
The word salad that Wise One spewed next could be summed up as follows:
Charybdis is strong. In terms of my new scale, its strength value would be at around 600,000 or so, and since it didn't have a true name, it could, theoretically, get even stronger were I to name it, which I could do, so long as I had Veldora in my stomach.
Basically, I had three choices, when it came to assimilating all of that power.
Option one, the one that Wise One would've done had it not evolved to be more flexible, was to simply crush Charybdis' soul and absorb it as is, like I'd done to most of the other monsters I'd eaten. If I did that, I'd get a fair boost in power, bringing me up to around 700,000 or so, adding about half of Charybdis' full power to mine.
Option two, I could just not absorb Charybdis's soul at all. Using Charybdis as an extra 'magic engine' in the same way I could technically use Veldora, I'd be able to call about a quarter of Charybdis' strength my own. The fish-spirit thing itself would just end up rotting in my stomach, an extra source of magic. I didn't like this option very much.
Then, option three. This was how I'd get the most power out of the fish, but it'd also had the possibility of danger. Basically, Wise One wanted me to wait until I'd gotten stronger, then name Charybdis, before assimilating it.
With Veldora as my magic battery, I could name literally anyone without consequences. But my stomach couldn't hold something like Charybdis as is. If I named it at present, there was a chance that it'd erupt out of my stomach, killing me and causing unprecedented mayhem. But, if I managed to evolve my Gluttony, then I'd be able to not only fully analyze and consume the current Charybdis, but also the stronger, named Charybdis.
…Umm, Wise One, how would I do that?
'Report. By feeding soul-energy to Demon Lord Seed, Harvest Festival evolution into True Demon Lord is possible. If name is chosen for Charybdis beforehand, actions can be taken mid-evolution.'
You're talking about souls. A massive amount of them, at that. Not happening.
'Notice. Master is both immortal and the noted ruler of 30% of the Great Forest of Jura. So long as soul, or soul's death conditions, are 'aligned' with Master in some way, soul energy can be collected by master before natural dispersion following death of any individual.'
So, basically you're saying that I can gather these soul-energies quietly and slowly, over time via any of my subordinates who die of old age or something? But what would happen to their souls after that?
'Only energy is required. Soul itself would be released as normal unless master decided otherwise.'
Alright. If it's not gonna affect anyone, then let's go with the third option. I'll evolve into a True Demon Lord over time. Not taking the position that goes along with it, though. Let's just keep all of that a secret between us, alright, Wise One?
'Right. Us and Risa.'
Why does Risa need to know?
'Because Master can't hide anything from Individual Risa, anyway. Besides, it is likely that individual Risa will also evolve into a True Demon Lord over time, if only to catch up with Lady Milim.'
When did you get so snarky, Wise One?
'Report. It is your imagination.'
Like hell!