Chapter 393

Shortly after Rimuru acquired the Rock Armor skill, a thin layer of stone armor appeared across Geld’s body.

"Huh? What’s this?"

Rimuru immediately noticed the change.

"Geld, did you get a new skill too?"

Hearing his name, Geld finally recovered from the overwhelming deliciousness of the Dongpo Pork.

He examined the changes taking place within his body, and an expression of delight appeared on his face.

"Lord Rimuru, I have indeed acquired the Rock Armor skill!"

That settled it.

Everyone present was now thoroughly convinced that eating Haruto’s cooking could actually grant them new skills.

Rimuru nodded thoughtfully before picking up another piece of Dongpo Pork with his chopsticks.

The tender pork skin practically melted in his mouth, while the rich sauce spread across his tongue with a perfect balance of sweetness and saltiness.

"Mmm! Delicious! This is seriously amazing!"

Rimuru practically wriggled with satisfaction.

"Haruto, your cooking is incredible! You really do deserve to be called a Super Chef!"

Even as he spoke, he reached for another piece.

By the time Rimuru finally finished his Dongpo Pork, he suddenly remembered something.

"Oh! Right!"

He clapped his hands and turned toward Haruto with renewed curiosity.

"Haruto, which country are you originally from? When did you come to this world?"

"And how did you get here? Were you summoned?"

Meeting someone from his original world wasn’t exactly an everyday occurrence, and Rimuru had plenty of questions he wanted to ask.

Haruto set down his chopsticks, wiped his mouth, and gave him a selective explanation of his circumstances.

Naturally, he didn’t reveal every detail about his abilities or his travels between different worlds.

However, he did explain that he possessed a means of returning to other worlds, including the one he’d originally come from.

When Rimuru learned that Haruto could actually return home, he couldn’t help feeling envious.

After all, Rimuru had died before reincarnating here. As far as he’d known, returning to his previous life had been completely impossible.

Interestingly enough, Haruto had already located Rimuru’s original world during his previous travels.

If Rimuru truly wanted to go back, Haruto could arrange it.

However, after considering the possibility, Rimuru showed little interest in returning.

In his previous life, he’d been little more than an ordinary office worker, spending his days working and dealing with the pressures of modern society.

There wasn’t much there that he particularly missed.

His life in this world was certainly far more eventful, but he had friends, companions, and a growing community that depended on him.

There was no compelling reason to abandon everything he’d built here.

...

Over the following days, Haruto decided to use Rimuru’s village as a temporary base of operations.

His reasoning was simple.

The settlement stood in the central region of the Great Forest of Jura, where both the density and strength of the surrounding monsters were relatively high.

For Haruto, that made it an excellent location for gathering ingredients.

There were plenty of unusual creatures nearby, and many of them contained substantial amounts of magicules.

He could venture into the forest whenever he wanted and return to the village afterward.

Rimuru naturally welcomed the arrangement.

He could tell that Haruto possessed considerable strength, and the young chef’s cooking was extraordinary.

More importantly, Haruto wasn’t particularly troublesome.

He didn’t interfere with the village’s administration or demand any special treatment.

As far as Rimuru was concerned, there was no reason to refuse him.

Of course, Haruto wasn’t planning to stay there without contributing anything.

Whenever he returned from his ingredient-gathering expeditions, he would occasionally prepare dishes and share them with the villagers.

Thanks to the effects of his Unique Skill Gourmet, Rimuru and his companions managed to acquire quite a few additional skills from those meals.

That alone was enough to make Haruto an exceptionally welcome guest.

However, life in Rimuru’s settlement wasn’t always peaceful.

One day, while Haruto was exploring the Great Forest of Jura with Kagura, Kanna, and Gardevoir, Kagura suddenly stopped walking.

She raised her head and looked toward the sky.

The wind had carried something unusual to her senses.

"Haruto, something’s coming. There are several creatures approaching through the air."

Haruto immediately looked up as well.

A short while later, a formation of pegasi flew across the sky.

The sight was enough for him to recognize the visitors.

’So King Gazel has arrived.’

The group belonged to Gazel Dwargo, the ruler of the neighboring Armed Nation of Dwargon.

As the king of the dwarves, Gazel had personally traveled to the Great Forest of Jura accompanied by a contingent of guards.

Clearly, he had noticed the extraordinary changes taking place in the forest’s central region and decided to investigate for himself.

Haruto had no intention of returning to the village just to meet him.

Political negotiations were Rimuru’s responsibility, not his.

He was a chef, after all, and matters involving alliances, diplomacy, and national interests didn’t particularly appeal to him.

Besides, he was confident that Rimuru could handle the situation without his assistance.

As events turned out, his judgment was correct.

After a brief confrontation, Gazel witnessed Rimuru’s strength firsthand and observed the remarkable order maintained among the monsters living in the settlement.

Having confirmed that Rimuru was someone worth dealing with, the dwarven king eventually proposed an alliance.

To formalize the agreement, Rimuru hastily gave his emerging nation an official name.

The Jura Tempest Federation.

With that, the diplomatic negotiations came to a successful conclusion.

Not long afterward, another group arrived at the village.

This time, it was Gabil and his younger sister, Souka, accompanied by a considerable number of lizardmen.

They had decided to pledge their loyalty to Rimuru and join his growing community.

Naturally, Rimuru welcomed them without hesitation.

He even went so far as to bestow names upon the lizardmen individually.

Haruto could only marvel at how casually Rimuru handled the process.

’Must be nice having a Storm Dragon inside you supplying magicules.’

Normally, bestowing a name consumed a substantial amount of the giver’s own energy.

Haruto had experienced that firsthand when naming Kagura, Kanna, and his Pokémon.

Naming powerful creatures could require an especially large expenditure.

Yet Rimuru went about the process as casually as someone pouring themselves a glass of water.

With Veldora’s enormous magical reserves available to him, the slime could afford to be remarkably generous.

After receiving their names, the lizardmen evolved into Dragonewts.

Their appearances underwent various changes, and their overall strength increased considerably.

Haruto didn’t have any particularly strong feelings about their arrival.

After all, they weren’t ingredients he could use for cooking.

As long as they weren’t interfering with his ingredient gathering, their presence was of little concern to him.

...

On another day, Haruto and his companions were exploring a region of the forest some distance from Rimuru’s village.

They had been searching for suitable monsters when something caused all four of them to stop almost simultaneously.

Haruto raised his head, his expression turning serious.

An enormous concentration of magical energy was approaching from somewhere in the distance.

And it was moving at an astonishing speed.

The sheer quantity of that energy was staggering, vast as an ocean and accompanied by an almost indescribable sense of pressure.

Haruto instinctively began circulating the energy within his own body.

His muscles tightened as he prepared himself for a possible confrontation.

The magnitude of the approaching presence exceeded anything he had encountered before.

Even Rimuru, if the magical energy belonging to Veldora within him was excluded, fell considerably short of this newcomer.

’Here it comes!’

Haruto’s pupils contracted slightly.

High above the forest, a pink streak was descending through the sky at an extraordinary speed.

It resembled a falling meteor.

And its trajectory was taking it directly toward their location.

BOOOOOOM!

A tremendous explosion shook the ground.

The pink figure struck the earth with such force that soil, stones, and shattered debris erupted into the air.

A powerful shockwave swept through the surrounding forest, bending trees and sending loose branches flying.

The impact left an enormous crater in the ground.

Haruto narrowed his eyes as the dust gradually began to settle.

Standing at the center of the crater was a petite girl who appeared to be in her early teens.

She had long pink hair tied into twin tails.

Despite having just slammed into the ground like a meteor, she seemed completely unharmed.

The girl casually brushed some dust from her clothes before raising her head and looking toward Haruto.

He recognized her immediately.

Milim Nava.

One of the oldest Demon Lords in existence, known as the Destroyer, or the Tyrant of Destruction.

She possessed overwhelming strength, placing her among the most dangerous beings in the world.

Although her personality was often innocent and playful, almost like that of a child, she was also capable of considerable cunning and calculation.

Underestimating her would be an exceptionally foolish mistake.

Haruto’s expression remained serious.

What confused him, however, wasn’t Milim’s identity.

It was her presence here.

’Why did she come all the way out here?’

According to what he remembered, Milim should have been looking for Rimuru.

So why had she suddenly landed right in front of him?

Meanwhile, Milim was examining Haruto with obvious curiosity.

She looked him over, then glanced at Kagura, Kanna, and Gardevoir standing behind him.

Her expression quickly turned disappointed.

"Hmm? Nope, that’s not right!"

She tilted her head, apparently thinking something over.

A moment later, her eyes brightened.

"Oh! Then it must be over there!"

Before Haruto could even react, Milim suddenly leaped into the air.

Her figure shot away at tremendous speed, disappearing toward the distant forest.

And the direction she had chosen was unmistakable.

She was heading straight for Rimuru’s village.

"Uh..."

Haruto stared after her, the corner of his mouth twitching.

He was beginning to understand what had happened.

Milim had probably sensed the enormous amount of energy contained within his body.

Assuming that the source belonged to Rimuru, she’d flown over to investigate.

Only after seeing Haruto in person had she realized he wasn’t the person she was looking for.

And since he wasn’t Rimuru, she’d immediately lost interest and moved on.

’Seriously? She came crashing down like that just to check whether I was Rimuru?’

Haruto shook his head helplessly.

The tension gradually drained from his body as he relaxed.

"Lord Haruto, who was that...?"

Kagura approached him, still looking somewhat shaken.

Kanna and Gardevoir weren’t in much better condition.

The oppressive presence Milim had brought with her had been extraordinary.

Even after she’d left, the memory of that overwhelming magical pressure remained fresh in their minds.

"That was Demon Lord Milim," Haruto explained solemnly.

"A Demon Lord?!"

Kagura looked thoughtful.

She had heard a little about the Demon Lords during their time in this world.

From what she understood, they were among the most powerful beings in existence.

No wonder that girl had possessed such a terrifying aura.

Still, Kagura couldn’t understand why a Demon Lord would suddenly appear in this part of the forest.

"Don’t worry about it."

Haruto waved a hand dismissively.

"She isn’t interested in us."

After considering the situation briefly, he decided there was no reason to change their plans.

Milim’s arrival didn’t pose any particular danger to Rimuru and his companions.

At least, not if events continued following the course Haruto remembered.

According to the original story, Rimuru would eventually win Milim over with honey, of all things.

After that, the two would become close friends.

It was a rather ridiculous development when Haruto thought about it, but Rimuru had always been surprisingly good at dealing with unusual people.

’He’ll manage.’

Satisfied with that conclusion, Haruto turned toward his companions.

"Come on. Let’s keep looking for ingredients."

Kagura, Kanna, and Gardevoir were still somewhat uneasy, but seeing how calmly Haruto was handling the situation gradually reassured them.

The three nodded and followed him deeper into the forest.

...

Meanwhile, back at the village, Rimuru was leisurely strolling through the streets.

He was enjoying a rare moment of peace when he suddenly sensed an enormous concentration of magical energy approaching at high speed.

"Huh? What’s with that magicule signature...?"

Rimuru immediately became alert.

Even more concerning was the fact that the approaching presence seemed to be heading directly toward him.

Realizing that remaining in the middle of the village might put the residents in danger, Rimuru quickly bounced his way outside the settlement.

He had barely reached the open ground when something descended from the sky.

A pink figure came crashing down directly in front of him.

BOOOOOOM!

The impact shook the surrounding area, blasting dirt and stones into the air and leaving an enormous crater in the ground.

Milim Nava had arrived.

---------