I wish I could say I felt some sort of excitement that canon seems to be continuing smoothly despite my lack of a timeline, but at the same time, who would be excited to be surrounded by a group of short, ugly goblins? Even though they looked a bit better than some of the ones from, say, Goblin Slayer, they still weren't exactly the cute anime-style goblins a lot of fanfics like to portray them as. Despite that, they don't share their cousins' forceful reproductive habits, though, so hopefully once they evolve they will take on a more... pleasant appearance.
Right now, their village leader is bowing before us, Rimuru in particular, and asking for his help, offering their loyalty in exchange. I could tell already that Rimuru was going to help, even if they didn't offer their loyalty, because he is a good guy. Canon knowledge has nothing to do with it. These last few weeks talking with him have taught me that the Japanese part of him still dominates his mind and soul, so someone genuinely asking for help and prostrating themselves before us in the dogza position affected him particularly hard.
Of course, even if Rimuru wouldn't have for some reason, I was going to help them too. They were, technically, my worshipers, and I'd be a pretty bad object of worship if I let my worshipers all die to a completely preventable problem that I technically caused by taking on my human form and suppressing my aura; however, I allowed Rimuru to hear them out completely before I said anything.
Rimuru looked up at me.
'*Well, Veldora. Are we going to help them?*' He asked me.
'*Obviously. Even if I didn't care, I know you probably would have.*' I replied.
Rimuru chuckled awkwardly at my accusation, not refuting it, which was essentially a confirmation in its own right.
"Very well! We shall aid you!" Rimuru declared.
"""Ooohhhhh!!!""" The goblins all called out in relief and wonder as their worries vanished.
"Now, take me to your sick and wounded!" Rimuru declared and was led away by the Goblins, leaving only myself and the Goblin Elder who would later be known as Rigurd, behind.
I looked over to him. "You aren't going with them?" I asked.
"The others may not have noticed your presence, my lord, but I have. I was able to tell that you wish to keep your identity hidden, so I did not speak, but to leave our God completely unattended would be the highest form of heresy." He explained.
I raised my eyebrow at him. "I will not lie to you, Goblin. I am very impressed that you noticed." I stated.
He seemed happy for the praise. "Thank you, my lord!" He bowed to me.
There was a pause.
"What will you have your loyal servants do?" He finally asked.
I closed my eyes. "This forest's state is due to my decision to suppress my aura, but it is still my territory. I'll begin by cleaning things up for a while, starting with you all. Rimuru is a good friend of mine, and I know he will be a good ruler. I was never one for managing things like kingdoms, so I'll leave that to him. He is a good friend of mine and will make for a fine ruler, if a bit naive. Support him with all your might. When this crisis has passed, we shall name you all." I declare.
Future Rigurd almost sheds tears as he presses his face to the floor in an even deeper bow. "Yes, my God!" He states.
I smile as I stand up and walk outside, having sensed that Rimuru has already finished with his healing work and was about to command the building of a fence, but I stop him. "I'll build the defenses and provide weapons," I stated as I used my control over magic to recreate the [Material Creation] Skill's ability to create objects, to create a few items, namely high-quality spears, bows, and swords.
Rimuru sees what I am getting at and jumps up, consuming them, and replicating the exact same weapons using the materials in his stomach so that everyone can have one.
The Goblins, who were once only looking on in awe, now had a determined face and began sorting through the equipment. Nodding at this, I wave my hand, using a simple earth magic to create a large stone wall around the village, though I leave a gate in the center for easier access. Next, I create a large moat which Rimuru fills with water from his [Stomach].
I know that we will eventually move locations so that the city of Tempest is somewhere else, so my construction will only last a few weeks at most, but hey, if I'm going to do something, might as well do it right. Now that I think about it, when we finally create Tempest, I think I'll have them anchor the city up against the cliff-face or even do an underground city inside the cave I was sealed in. Not for any strategic reason or anything like that, just because I like the vibes of underground cities.
Thoughts for later.
I walk over to the edge of the village, to a tree inside of the walls, and plop down. I fold my hands behind my head as I lean back and relax, sighing as I am satisfied that my work is done until the actual battle. The goblins seem to know this, too, as they leave me be, though some still stare at me as they go by.
After a few minutes, I suddenly spoke up again. "So, Dryad, what is the situation in the forest?" I ask.
A moment later in the shade of the tree, a Dryad, Treyni, I think, appears and bows to me. "Lord Veldora, the forest is in disarray. Many of the species have become agitated, and there are a number of powers who have begun infringing upon your domain." She speaks.
"Any I should know about in particular?" I ask.
Treyni nods. "A large group of Orcs has entered the forest. They are led by an Orc Lord." She states.
Not opening my eyes, I nod. "I see. Keep me updated. If they wish to move in and do not cause too much trouble, I don't mind, but if it is dominion they seek, well..." I leave the last part up to her imagination.
"Of course, my lord!" Treyni bows again before disappearing.
A few seconds later, Rimuru hops on over. "Veldora... was there someone over here just now?" He asked.
"You're imagining things, Rimuru. Who would be over here?" I ask, lying through my teeth.
Rimuru looks at me a second longer, clearly not believing me fully, before deciding his current objective against the wolves was more important. "I see, well then I will be off-" He turns to hop away, but I stop him.
"Hey, Rimuru. Make sure you kill their leader, but spare the pack itself. They can serve under us as good partners for the goblins after their evolution." I state.
"Evolution?" Rimuru asks.
"Yeah, once this is done, we'll grant the Goblins names. In this world, naming a creature uses a portion of the namers' magicules. In exchange, the named monster will grow more powerful and take on some of the traits of the namer. In most cases, the named will also become the subordinate of the named. Because we are so much stronger than the goblins, when we name them, they will evolve, becoming more powerful. They will also probably become smarter and more human-like, since we both prefer humans to monsters in terms of phenotype." I explain.
Rimuru nods. "Got it! We'll name them then. Gosh, it was becoming hard to talk to them too without names, and just saying 'hey you!' all the time." Rimuru chuckles as a small tendril of slime appears in the form of his arm and scratches the back of his head in the nervous way that Japanese anime protagonists do.
I rolled my eyes before deciding to take a nap as Rimuru left to continue planning the defence.
...
I'm sitting on the edge of the stone wall with my legs hanging, swinging them from the overhanging crenellations as the wolves make their way over the hill and towards our position. I had to hand it to them; they were confident. I wouldn't want to assault our obviously fortified position. The moat and wall mean they'd have to be capable of jumping over 20 meters in length and 5 meters high to get past us, all without being impaled by our spears or shot by our arrows. The only other way they were going to get in was through the front, which was obviously trapped. This was the pack of Dire Wolves before Rimuru's naming, so they were little better than actual wolves from the real world, just bigger and with slightly better 'base stats', though still susceptible to things like the swords, spears, and arrows that the unevolved goblins were wielding.
Regardless, they kept coming. I raised my arm for a moment, as the goblin archers pulled their bows tight, held it there for a moment, and then brought my arm down forward, giving them permission to fire.
The volley of arrows landed all around the wolves, piercing the hides of some while only grazing the bodies of the others. This slowed the wolve's advance, but did not stop it. Next came the pit trap Rimuru dug with his [Predator] Skill, in which a few of the wolves fell into a large pit full of [Sticky Thread] and became trapped. The advance slowed further as the wolves became cautious again, only to be hit by a second barrage of arrows, dropping even more of the pack. Now only a handful remained.
Overcome with rage over the defeat of so many of his underlings, the wolf's boss howled in rage and charged through the gate, only to be devoured whole by Rimuru, who had stretched himself over the entrance, acting almost like a glass door covering the entryway. It being so dark out, even the Dire Wolves with their enhanced senses weren't able to distinguish Rimuru's stretched out form.
All of the Dire Wolves who remained unharmed instantly froze as their boss's body dissolved into nothingness in moments.
The battle, if it could even be called that, was over.
Rimuru then revealed himself in his normal form, shrinking back down to his adorable size, though unleashing an aura that was not adorable at all.
"Submit!" He commanded.
Even I was a bit taken aback by how cold Rimuru sounded in that moment, even though I could tell his mind was probably saying something along the lines of 'please actually submit! I don't want to know what will happen if you don't!' as he was still rather meek at this point in the story as a generic Japanese isekai mc.
At that, the battle was over in a rather anti-climactic way; however, there was always only one way this was going to end, and it did so just as I knew it would, so there wasn't much excitement to be had here.
Under Rimuru, the injured wolves were brought into the settlement and healed to full, and everyone else was allowed to rest. The goblins didn't celebrate just yet, as they were still wary of their wolven neighbours, but at my announcement that tomorrow we'd be giving out names to everyone, they began to cheer, and the mood lightened considerably.
My eye meets the future Rigurd, and I nod at him, to which he bows back at me in thanks before I call over a random wolf and use it as a pillow as I nap again. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day, with all the naming, rules, and decisions I was going to have to make.
Yes, decisions, like whether or not to save the Ogre tribe or just let them die out.