(OLD) The Saga of Slime and Devil

Chapter 3 - Mask

"Lord Falmuth, we believe we have found what is effectively a hole ripped to another world."

The bearded king was sitting on an elegant chair in a mostly empty throne room. The meeting was ordered to be secret, as the contents it was about could very well be highly vital state secrets. The only ones in the room right now was the King, a few advisors and nobles, as well as the mage speaking to him, one who specialized in summoning magic.

"You mean to the world of the otherworlders?"

"Perhaps, though this one seems slightly different."

"No matter, what do you mean by this?"

"Well in truth, my Lord, we believe some large 'bang' happened which has provided a brief period of time when the connection between this world and that one is far stronger. While this would normally mean nothing at all, for us it means that we can possibly summon a hero for far less of the cost."

"That sounds brilliant! How many do you think we can get?"

"I'm afraid the hole is gradually closing, and summoning a hero may accelerate its return to a stable state. Regardless we can at least get a single summon with only a fraction of the cost still."

"Alright then, do it, and do it quickly, do not let any time go to waste!"

"Yes, my lord."

The mage bowed before heading out of the throne room as the King sat and pondered in silence for a few moments.

('Yes, more otherworlders should be vital to the protection of Falmuth's interests. I thought we wouldn't have enough to do another hero summoning for at least another year or so, however if this is true... Well we can have another otherworlder by the end of the week... How brilliant, brilliant indeed...')

It had been easily a few weeks, perhaps months, since I had made my weapons and affirmed my skills. For a good while I made a good flow of money from flying Magic Ore from the caves back to Dwargon, however eventually Kaijin, who I had been primarily selling them to, was supposedly exiled at some point. After selling my ore to some other smith, I decided I had enough money and began to think about what to do next.

A stable life as an ore supplier could work, but in truth it's really unrewarding. I could make a whole business out of it, however I'm about the only one capable of traversing the forest, let alone with such speed, considering the monsters within it. The only other immediate option given my strength would be the adventurers guild, however I've been avoiding that since frankly, I don't want to just go back to being the equivalent of a mage from my last life, following the whims and orders of a High Command and risking my life in the process.

For the time being I've been gathering what information I can, at least as much as I can without sounding like an idiot who doesn't know what may or may not be common sense or knowledge in this world. From what I have gathered is that there's a few notable nations of interest in the immediate area. Those being the Kingdom of Falmuth, a highly rich nation for its powerful trade routes. Dwargon, the nation I've been going to the most, known for its strong mining and smithing economy. The Eastern Empire, a nation Dwargon almost went to war with, but managed to diffuse the situation down. I can't find out too much about them, however I just have an instinct not to trust them entirely, so I'll avoid them for now.

Beyond those nations, there's also the territories of other 'things.' The first of which is the (former) territory of Veldora, the Great Forest of Jura. Even without the Storm Dragon's presence, the high magicule density and the large monster count makes colonizing it, as I predicted, non-feasible for the next few years at least. The next territory is that of the Demon Lord Milim, who seems to be one of the strongest. On one hand, getting a strong ally again after the loss of Veldora would be good, on the other hand, Milim has been described... Well not positively. Lastly was Jistav which seemed to be the domain of a notably weaker Demon Lord Clayman.