Recruitment Drive

After waiting for a few more hours for the sun to come up, I finally looked over to see Chifuyu, Rory, and roughly 80 to 90 dwarves followed by three elves and a goblin making their way towards us. The dew was heavy and the morning mist made it difficult to see at first, but the others all seemed to notice the approaching group.

"Are those the ones?" Kaijin asked while looking with his hands shading his eyes from the morning sun.

"Yeah, seems like it. There are quite a few dwarves, three elves, and a goblin too." I said waving them over.

"Goblin? AH!" Gram asked before noticing.

"That's Sentan (Chinese Alchemy)! He's was the top potion maker in all of Dwargon until his apprentice betrayed him for Vesta!" Kaijin said with shock.

'Hm? I don't remember him, plus he's a goblin despite having a name...' I thought to myself.

"Master. It is good to see you well. I have brought the recruited artisans." Chifuyu stated as she bowed before me.

"Master I've returned to you! Plus, I didn't get into any trouble!" Rory smiled smugly at me.

"Yes. Yes. Good job." I said patting her head while looking at Chifuyu. "Is everyone here? Once we leave we won't be coming back for a very long time."

"Indeed. I heard about your trial master..." Chifuyu said with a visible struggle to maintain her posture.

"Oh, Kaido told you?"

"Yes, master..." She said.

Rory was mumbling to herself while I kept patting her head but when she noticed Kaijin, she ran from under my hand and grabbed the dwarf's arm.

"Master Kaijin! Thank you for standing up to the king for our master. If there is anything I can do to make it up to you, please let me know!" Rory said and bowed to him. Chifuyu bowed as well, silently.

"Hahaha! Don't mention it! I just couldn't let a man such as our master be insulted!" He said with a shit-eating grin.

Rory looked up at him and blushed for a moment, not out of love or affection, but out of sheer happiness. "You understand! You understand the greatness of master!" She began, but I decided to cut them all off since it was cold and while we might not feel it due to our natural resistances and tolerance skills, the nearly 100 new recruits definitely did.

"All right!" I say, clapping my hands together. "It's time to go back home. I have already contacted Albedo and had her prepare rooms and storefronts for you all when we arrive." I say as I turn away.

"With all due respect, Lord Rimuru... how do you plan to have us travel there? There are nearly 100 of us and you don't seem to have any caravan or other way to transport us all. There are even a few children..." Henrietta asks.

It seems that Gazel's spy was among the group that has come with us, which I expected, but it seems odd she would draw attention to herself. I look at her for a moment before smugly smiling at her.

"My dear. Time and Distance mean nothing to me." I say as I open a {Gate} to the entrance of my town. As I see Henrietta tense herself and the others all gasp in awe, I walk through the {Gate} before waving them to follow me.

...

After getting everyone settled in, I send Chifuyu back to the Palace to await further orders. Rory cashes in Kaijin's favor immediately when he asks to inspect her ax Emroy as his smithing instincts kick in and he gets fired up to create weapons on par with or surpassing the Divine Class Item.

'If he proves he is able enough, then I won't mind him using the Soul Forge. Lisbeth could use a drinking buddy too.' I think to myself as I walk over to Ranga and his group.

They have just completed the task I had asked of them and brought me the dire wolf packs I saw throughout Jura. It is extremely easy for Shiroe and Ranga to travel since I taught Shiroe the {Gate} spell. They can just pop up in the territory, challenge and defeat the alphas, and then bring them all back. It really only took a few hours after all.

'*So You are the Alpha of all of these monsters?*' a female wolf leader asks as she steps towards me. She has distinctive white fur and red eyes, meaning she probably suffers from albinism since my analysis shows she is 100% a dire wolf. A strong dire wolf, but a dire wolf nonetheless.

'*Indeed. You must be the white-furred female that Ranga has been talking about*' I reply while Ranga panics in the background.

'*Yes. I and the current acting alpha of the Northern Dire Wolves. We number 140. Is it true that you shall name me and my pack the same as Ranga and the Tempest Wolves of Summer?*' She asks skeptically.

'*That's right. If you swear to serve me faithfully, I shall name all of your packs*' I say, looking at two other Dire Wolves who seemed to have appeared near her side.

'*Indeed. I can smell it on you. You have more than enough magicules to spare. My pack of 65 shall become your subordinates*' The one on her left speaks. He has deep black fur, along with the rest of his kin, but like the northern wolves, its probably genetic.

'*If you would accept us, then until my dying breath, my 45 wolves shall serve you, master*' The female on her right says as it bows its head.

"*Master*" the other two say as they bow as well.

"Very good then. You, the one on the right, your green eyes match the vibrant colors of rebirth seen in the forest that comes after winter. Your pack shall be the Verdant Wolves of Spring, and you shall take the name Fleur!

White-furred one. Your distinctive fur has entranced me like the virgin snow, so your pack shall be the Arctic Wolves of Winter, and your name shall be Fenrir!

Finally, leader of the wolves of the east, your dark black fur, reminiscent of a Church Grim. Your pack shall be the Ashen Wolves of Fall, and your name shall be Tenebris (darkness in Latin)."

I say as all 250 wolves begin glowing with golden light and the three, pack leaders begin to sparkle. I turn to Ranga. "Ranga, get them all settled in for their evolutionary slumber in the wolf dens in the residential district," I say.

The wolf dens are large structures in the Residential district originally created as stables but retrofitted to be boarding homes for the wolves. They seem to like to sleep together, so it works out fine for us, though it is probably awkward during mating season, which will be in a few weeks.

'Speaking of which. Why haven't we heard about the other packs in Jura in canon?' I thought to myself.

[Answer! They were all consumed by the Orc Disaster during his campaign, along with the Ogre villages and the last remaining Gnome and Drow settlements.]

'Wait! What!?! Why didn't you tell me about the Gnomes and Drow settlements! Now I have to go there along with the Ogre Village. WAIT! You said Ogre Villages!?! Is there more than one?' I mentally yell towards [Athena].

[Correct! The reason why the Orc invasion was so important despite the fact that they only attacked the Lizardmen and Ogres, was the fact that they had already destroyed the Gnomes, Drow, and nearly all of the Ogres. This is why the original Geld didn't want the original Rimuru to kill him since these genocides would fall to his brethren.]

'Why wasn't this mentioned during the peace summit then?'

[Monsters within the Jura Forest practice the rule of survival of the fittest. Since those races didn't survive, none of the monsters who remained cared enough to mention them. Since the Orcs were outside invaders to Jura, they wouldn't have known this.]

'Oh,' I think while walking to a crowd of goblins in the distance. 'I guess I have about a week until Shizu and them get here. Guess I'll be doing a recruitment drive then.'

...

...

...

Over the next few days, I continued traveling around Jura, collecting monsters and relocating them to more strategic points along with the planned Jura Highway system. Strangely, despite the fact that my town and infrastructure projects have caused quite a bit of environmental changes, the Dryads have yet to appear, granted, I specifically tried avoiding too much destruction of the environment, but still.

I came up with the theory that they can't see past the defensive barriers placed around by Demiurge, Da Vinci, and Scáthach, or it could be that they don't want to antagonize me. I had detected them constantly spying on me while on my travels in Jura, and I always made a point of looking directly at them when I do, which has caused them to begin deploying invisibility magic and barriers to spy better, but it never works.

Anyways, after meeting with the Gnomes, now High Gnomes, and the remaining Goblin villages in the forest, who are now Trolls and Gremlins, I had many of them relocate to Tempest City, while the rest were brought to fertile and strategically placed points where the roads will someday meet.

(A/N: Need a new name for the capital city stat!)

The Highway system is set up so that there is one settlement every half-day's journey along the main roads on foot. Most of these settlements are small farming and hunting villages, while the capital is reserved for more complex industries and the education sector. This way, future traders can stop in these villages as rest stops before heading into or out of the capital rather than camping in the dangerous forest at night.

Of course, since there are only dirt paths at the moment, I will have to wait until subduing the orcs and gaining them as a labor force before kicking things into high gear.

Anyways, back on topic, I'm currently making my way over to the Ogre's first village. I used [Athena] to ensure that this was Benimaru's village since I want them before anything else. I even put them in front of negotiating with the Drow.

As I walked in, I saw Gelmud angrily stomping out of the village and towards the forest. It seems he is too angry to notice me since he stomps right past me while not even looking at me. Gelmud has been an interesting character, to say the least. Demiurge and I have been playing a game with him. We would come up with strategies, magics, or other means to keep Gelmud, and ultimately Clayman, in the dark about the happenings in the forest. The only rules are that we can't kill Gelmud or use the same tactic twice. Its been quite entertaining.

'I want to see this guy's reaction when his plan falls apart. I also have to keep an eye on him to ensure everything goes according to canon until after the Orc Lord fight though.' I think while shaking my head. My two companions also sigh in exasperation.

"Who are you?" A tall and burly red-skinned Ogre asked me with slight hostility as I turn to enter the village.

"Me? My name is Rimuru Tempest, and I have come to your village with an offer." I say as I introduce myself to him.

"My name is Asuna, a pleasure to meet you," Asuna says from the side. Yup, Asuna is with me today, along with...

"I'm Yuuki Konno. Pleased to make your acquaintance!" She says in a slightly bubbly tone.

The ogre tenses slightly when he sees us. He clearly knows that we are well above Gelmud since he seems to be using magic sense on us. "I am the son of the Ogre leader. What is your purpose here Majin?"

"As I said before, I am here with an offer. May we enter?" I say politely while extending my arm forward in an open gesture.

He tenses for a second before sighing. He knows that if we wanted to, we could wipe them all out, so there is no point in fighting it. "Very well... come this way, the big house in the center is where my father lives. We shall discuss your proposal there." He says as we are lead through the village.

Despite there only being around 290 ogre adults and 10 children, it is rife with activity. It seems that some of the men are working on tearing down an old home. Others are processing bulldeer to be used for meat, and a few of the women are gossiping in the square while I see a particularly purple-haired purple-skinned woman holding a Morningstar looking at us fiercely.

'Ah looks like the future Shion is suspicious' I think before looking past the row of houses to a dirt field and see an old white ogre with white horns and a sword, training a young-looking ogre boy with white horns and hair. 'I didn't know future Hakuro had a son. Although maybe it is his nephew.'

The old ogre turns for a moment to stare at us as we pass, slightly tense.

"We've arrived," the red ogre says as we enter into the wooden hut. It seemed to have been heavily styled after an Edo-era Japanese mansion, which I found quite fitting.

"Father! I have returned home with guests!" He shouted.

"Onii-sama?" a cute pale-skinned pink-haired ogre with white horns said as we walked past. She was holding hands with a younger ogre with a similar color scheme, who was probably no older than eight or nine.

"Ah. Sisters. These Majin are unrelated to the previous one and said they have come with an offer we can't refuse." He said as he led us to the meeting room.

In the middle of the meeting room, being served tea by another cute pink-haired, pale-skinned ogre, is an old Kijin with blood-red hair, a bushy beard, and a mustache that hangs just past his neck.

"Son! I told you not to bring in any more Majin not two minutes ago! Are you incapable of such simple tasks that you can't even do that!?!" The old man yelled as he threw the teacup full of hot liquid towards his son.

I reach in front of my future subordinate and catch the teacup, using my reflexes to scoop some of the tea mid-air and begin to drink from it. This action shocked all the pink ogre women and stunned the young red ogre, but the old red ogre begins fuming with rage. This causes, what I can only assume to be his wife to flinch involuntarily and back away.

"You shouldn't waste good tea like that, especially when its poured by such a cutie." I say to him, winking at his wife and pretending to not notice [Poison Resistance] going off in the background.

'Seems like even your lover doesn't want you around any more old fart.'

"You! Who are you! You dare disrespect this father!" He screams as I nearly shit myself.

'Did a f*cking cultivator villain get reincarnated here or something!?!'

[Answer! Due to the immense amount of magicules in the individual in front of you, it is possible.]

'Really? Do a scan'

[Analysis Complete. Individual Jin Long (Golden Dragon) appears to be a reincarnated individual who possesses the Unique Skill [Cultivation]]

'Really?'

[No, he's just an ass]

'You really had me going there for a second...' I say as I smirk at the prideful old man.

"I came here to warn you lot about an incoming Orc attack by the Orc Lord, but it seems my presence is unwanted." I say loud enough for the host of noisy Ogres trying to listen in from outside the home to hear.

"W-what non-sense are you spewing!?! Even if what your saying is true and an Orc Lord is coming, we Ogres are strong enough to defeat him!" The old man says with so much arrogance that it drips from his tongue. No wait, that's just saliva. He's drooling all over himself.

'There is a reason Benimaru mentions losing his village and not losing his father, I suppose'

"Well then, it seems my offer is unwanted. I shall take my leave then" I say glancing at the young red ogre who looks shocked at this information before I leave the house.

Asuna and Yuuki are fuming, but I brought them along since I knew those two could hold their tongues better than some of the other NPCs. They turn to follow me, but not before sending a nasty look to the Ogre Village Chief first.

'*Rimuru-sama... was it wise to leave it at that just now? I will cut that man down if he displeases you.*' Yuuki thinks to me as we leave through the front door.

'*Non-sense. This is going better than I have hoped. The Orcs are merely an hour away as sundown is nearing. We shall let these Ogres face the attack head on but save them at the last moment. That way, there can be no doubt about their leader's incompetence and our own good will.*'

'*If you say so, Rimuru-sama*' Asuna says a bit warily. She probably believes me, but just doesn't want the innocents to get hurt. Her carma is +200 after all.

'*Believe in your master, Asuna. Everything is going according to plan...*'