Trials (2/2)

AN: Sorry for the delay everybody. I've been working weekends a lot lately and I'm even moving to a new place next week. It's smaller, but it's closer to work (like within walking distance) and almost $700 cheaper which is great since I'm starting to save for buying a house.

Hell, maybe I'll eventually get a girlfriend but probably not if one of my hobbies is reading and writing harem fanfics, lol. Cause that's not a red flag at 27.

Anyways, this chapter was originally going to be another one of the chapters where I gave a huge part of it from the perspective of the people taking the test, however, I realized that it wouldn't be relevant to the rest of the story and yall would probably prefer more information about the main characters than side characters who will only receive passing mentions in the future of the story, right?

At least that's how I am. I was ready a fanfic the other day which was focusing on the side characters too much and complaining about it, only to almost do the same thing again, so I'm going to try NOT to be a hypocrite. Sorry for anyone who really wanted to know more about the Elf Warrior or Mezu boy and Gozu girl. They will still receive screen time (I'm not killing them off or anything) they just won't get the exposition the Redcap Goblin Girl did.

Anyway, enough padding for time. Thanks for reading!

.~.~.~.

(Veldora POV)

After recovering from all of the shock of my daughter's insult of my cookie's taste, I turned to the entrance of the trial chamber once again and waited for the remaining Majin to come out. It took a few minutes, but eventually everyone left the chamber, with Rimuru and the Orc Lord, Geld was his name, coming out last.

I waited silently as they all gathered in front of me again. It was clear which people passed their trials and which had failed. You could tell who passed and who failed at a moment's glance. Only Rimuru and Geld have passed, the others looked almost ashamed of themselves as they stood before me, though I could tell Gelmud was more annoyed than ashamed.

"What the hell was that!?!" He demanded finally.

I smirked. "I gave you all the trials." I stated, matter of factly.

"You said we wouldn't be tried on our Spirit today!" He yelled.

I shook my head. "I said you'd be given the Trial of the Body tomorrow and the Trial of the Mind Today. I never specified when the Trial of the Spirit would be given." I stated calmly.

"But you said you'd do it last!" He yelled back.

"I mentioned it last in the list of trials, I never said it would BE the last trial... also, who cares? These are MY trials and 'I' get to choose how and when to administer them." I stated, unleashing a small amount of my [Dragon Spirit Haki] to suppress him and get him to calm down. "

And who are YOU to question ME?" I demanded

Gelmud fell to his knees, shaking in fear. "I-I apologize, Great Lord Veldora!" He bowed his head until it touched the floor.

I sighed, releasing the skill and turning to the others. No one said a word after my display. I nodded. "Now then... since only two of you remain, do you wish to recover from the trial of the Spirit and Mind and wait until tomorrow for the Trial of the Body, or shall we just get it out of the way now?" I asked.

"Now," Geld explained.

Rimuru looked slightly uneasy but nodded. "I think its better if we get it over with."

I nodded. "Good."

*Clap*

I used a bit of spatial magic to expand the area, creating a proper area for them to battle it out. I wasn't heartless though, I allowed the two of them to talk with their teams one last time before the fight. Rimuru chatted alongside Shizu and Akaoni while the Redcap, Mezu, Gozu, Scylla, and Elf Warrior stood beside me. Gabil, Gelmud, Mjurran, and the Ninehead all stood together too.

I was curious about what they were talking about, so I activated a bit of communications magic to listen into their conversations and played it for both our groups to hear.

Rimuru Group:

"How are you feeling Rimuru?" Shizu asked.

"To be honest, I'm a bit nervous. That Orc Lord seems like a tough opponent," he exclaimed.

"Indeed. I would not want to fight against him one-on-one," Akaoni replied, eyeing the competition.

Rimuru laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head. "I guess we don't have a choice though... I can't let someone else be the leader of the Forest and I know Veldora probably wouldn't set me up in a fight I'd obviously lose." He explained.

Shizu nodded. "Lord Veldora is many things, but he is not someone who'd throw his friends under the bus."

Rimuru nodded then paused. "Hey, wait a minute... Shizu, how did you fail the trial? You're as strong as me and much..." Rimuru didn't speak as Shizu gave him a glare.

"What were you going to say? Were you going to say older? Hmmm?" Shizu asked with a dark look on her face that promised punishment if she was correct.

Rimuru melted back into his slime form and shook his whole body. "No, not at all! I as just going to say, more experienced!"

"Hmm?" Shizu hummed letting him sweat for a moment before dropping it and answering. "Well if you must know, I couldn't do what was required of me in the trial."

"What was that?" Rimuru asked

Shizu smiled. "I couldn't give up on some kids I know, even if that meant leaving the forest unattended for a while."

Rimuru nodded but was asked by Akaoni "Lord Rimuru, what was your trial?"

Rimuru froze before exhaling. "I had to kill humans and come to terms with how... naive I was being." /1\

Shizu nodded, though Akaoni looked slightly confused as to why killing humans was seen as a bad thing, though he didn't press.

I decided that that was enough of their conversation and swapped to the other team's convo.

Geld's Group:

"Damn that shitty dragon!" Gelmud was fuming.

"Gelmud, we need to focus! If we don't, Lord Geld will lose." Mjurran tried calming him down.

"Damn it, Damn it, Damn it! Geld can't win against that Slime! Do you feel how powerful he is! Only Ninehead has more energy!" Gelmud protested.

Mjurran and Ninehead shared a look.

"Lord Gelmud, perhaps I can be of assistance somehow?" Gabil interjected.

Gelmud paused, looking at Gabil, then to Mjurran and Ninehead. Though he was wearing a mask, I could tell a wicked smile had plastered itself across his face.

"An excellent idea, Gabil! I know just how you can help! How you ALL can help!" He stated.

the team looked nervous as Gelmud turned toward Geld. "Eat them all."

Geld nodded, raised his cleaver, and then struck down Gelmud and Gabil in one motion. Mjurrn and Ninehead were on alert and able to jump out of the way of the attack in time to avoid it.

Needless to say, everyone in the chamber was in shock. Gelmud was killed instantly while Gabil had managed to mostly avoid instant death thanks to the Vortext Spear he had managed to raise in front of him to block, even if he was still fatally wounded by the blow.

No one said a word as Geld knelt down and began to devour Delmud's body as Gabil tried crawling away, bleeding out heavily and leaving a trail of guts spilling out onto the cave floor as he did so. His face was a mix of pure panic and shock at the sudden betrayal. It only took a moment for Geld to fully consume his appetizer as his body began to radiate a dark aura and grow larger and stronger. Suddenly, his body was surrounded by a cloud of black mist and magicules that began to rapidly rotate around him as his body crossed the invisible threshold required for evolution.

"Hoh? He evolved?" Luminous, who had previously disappeared, now reappeared, leaning on my shoulder and watching the scene unfold.

I nodded. "Yeah, into an Orc Disaster apparently," I added.

Luminous frowned. "We have enough weak Demon Lords on the Council already, I don't think we need another," she stated.

I chuckled lightly at that. Luminous herself could be considered one of the 'middle-tier' Demon Lords herself. There was no possible way she could have won against Dagruel, Milim, or Guy. I didn't know a lot about Leon, but from what I skimmed using [Faust], he was about at her level, same with Dino, so she could really only say she was stronger than some of the Unawakened Demon Lords due to the fact they were... unawakened. If not, she'd be in for a rough time. Thankfully, thanks to me, she at least had an Ultimate Skill now, so she had more than just physical stats that she could flaunt. If she at least had more energy, I'd be more comfortable in calling her among the ranks of the 'strong', but she had less than 10% of my own power.

I looked down at Luminous who looked back up at me in confusion. "When this is over, let's get your magicule count up, yeah?" I stated.

Luminous gained a tick mark on her head and kicked the back of my knee, forcing me to kneel for a second before she caught me and gave me a kiss, stealing quite a bit of my magicules using [Asmodeus].

After a moment, she broke free and smiled. "Happy?"

I smirked back at her. "This is the first time you've kissed me as a man, so yeah." I sarcastically responded.

Luminous rolled her eyes. We both knew that she could steal energy like this with Asmodeus, but that the gain she'd receive was temporary. Sure she could consume my entire supplyif she wanted to and I allowed it, but she couldn't digest it all and add it to her own pool of energy to permanently expand it. At least, not yet. I had a theory on how to do something similar, but it would have to wait for another time, as Rimuru just jumped into action against Geld, and as the host, I can't be distracted during this cage match, I mean, trial.

Gabil was reaching towards us, the light in his eyes fading fast as Geld loomed over him. A massive arm, bigger than Gabil's torso reached down slowly to pick up his next morsel of food when,.

*Swing* *Slash* *Boom!*

The arm went flying through the air when Rimuru charged in, cutting off Geld's arm and igniting the wound with [Black Flame] to prevent it from healing. Gabil, who had once been on death's door, now lay on the ground fully healed and slightly wet.

As it turned out, as Rimuru dove toward Geld, he'd purposefully dropped a Full Potion onto Gabil to heal him up at the same time. Something he could probably only due thanks to the help of the Unique Skill of his [Great Sage].

Geld took a step back, shocked but not feeling any pain. He quickly grabbed is arm above where the fire burned, ripped it off, and regenerated a new one. He then reached down, grabbed his old arm, and began to consume it, restoring some of his lost magicules.

While this was going on..."Go!" Rimuru commanded Gabil.

"Y-you saved me? Why?" Gabil asked genuine confusion on his face.

Rimuru shook his head. "Do I need a reason?" He asked, but I could tell he was trying to sound cool.

I rolled my eyes, noticing Shizu doing the same. The two of us shared a look and smiled knowingly. Luminous, noticing this, hugged me a bit harder in jealousy, which earned her a peck on the forehead from me for being cute.

Rimuru and Geld charged at one another, Geld unleashing his Skill [Starved] and infusing the skill with his aura in an art he called {|Chaos Eater|} as several mouths made of his aura attempted to chow down on Rimuru. To my surprise, Rimuru applied a similar philosophy to one of his own abilities instantly to counter it. He used [Predator] infused into his [Multilayer Barrier] to consume and absorb the incoming attacks as he closed the distance between himself and Geld.

I noted that, while an almost perfect defensive measure, this {|Consumption Barrier|} he created seems to use more magicules than he took in with it, so it seems the technique is either not complete, or only something that should be used to end fights quickly.

Rimuru, having closed the distance enough to be within striking rang, then unleashed a powerful [Black Lightning] strike against Geld's large pot belly, roasting the Orc Disaster instantly. Geld fell backward, seemingly unconscious before Rimuru expanded his body and began to consume him with [Predator].

I had to admit. From the outside perspective, this battle looked hilariously one-sided. Rimuru showed up, cut off Geld's arm, healed Geld, charged Geld all while seemingly ignoring Geld's attack, roasted him alive in one-shot, and then ate him all in the span of a few seconds. I glanced at Akaoni who rightfully had a confused expression plastered all over his face. It was clear he was thinking something along the lines of 'if you were that strong, why were you nervous?'.

I chuckled to myself when I saw that, however, the battle wasn't completely over. Rimuru had expanded his body to be massive, the size of a small house, and while he was busy dissolving the Orc Disaster, I could also tell that Geld was fitting back hard. Rimuru was constantly being forced to regenerate his body as he and Geld attempted to consume one another with their Unique Skills.

"This is an... odd battle," Luminous muttered.

I nodded. "Yeah, it's a first for me to see two enemies eating each other to death," I muttered.

Luminous nodded. "Even I couldn't come out completely unharmed by Rimuru's attacks... if they hit me and I didn't defend against them that is, however, that Predation is something else entirely." She explained.

"So you noticed it too?" I asked.

Luminous nodded. "It's not just consuming matter,m but information as well." She stated.

I nodded. Rimuru's 'Stomach' subskill of [Predator] was unique. Something told me that if that Skill evolved into an Ultimate Skill, then it would one day become the Ultimate Offensive and Defensive Skill that no attack can bypass. It didn't rely on perfect calculations like the barriers that the beings at the highest levels of combat do, i.e. Guy, myself, Velzard, and Velgrynd use. Instead, it's closer to a 'fuck everything in that general direction' type of ability.

"Truly a terrifying Skill," I confirmed with Luminous.

It took quite a while for both Rimuru and Geld to wear each other down, but eventually, Rimuru came out on top. His towering form of slime melted away into magicules to be absorbed by his own mass as he slowly descended from the sky like some sort of messianic figure. He muttered something but I didn't catch it, as it didn't seem to be a message meant for me.

I smiled widely. "Congratulations, Rimuru! You are the one who has passed all of my trials and become Administrator of the Forest!" I declared.

Rimuru looked at me with an exasperated face, his eye twitching as he did so, but I ignored him. "So... for your first reward-"

"Wait!" Rimuru stopped me.

I looked at him in confusion. "What?"

"Can we do this... later? I have a problem to deal with right now." He explained.

I was taken aback. "A problem?"

Rimuru nodded. "I promised Geld to take care of the Orcs in his stead and I need to inform him about their deaths."

I smiled. "Thats the reason you're a good administrator, already working huh? Very well. We shall have the reward ceremony later!" I stated as I turned to the other participants. "Return to us in a week's time and I shall grant you all your rewards at the same time!" I commanded.

""Yes, Lord Veldora!"" They all stated as they dispersed.

I nodded, ready to put this whole saga behind me. It was kind of fun, but not as much as I was expecting it to be. I should have just done a martial arts-style tournament!

.~.~.~.

/1\: Rimuru was shown a much worse version of the Falmuth attack, though with stronger human enemies and no specific country. Veldora isn't from our earth and doesn't know the story of Tensura, so he created a scenario where an unnamed human nation attacked Rimuru's country and his monsters didn't defend themselves due to his love of humans, leading to a lot of deaths that only he could stop by killing the human army.