Rimuru and Iruma's Adventures in the Netherworld

When The Nether Freezes Over

Rimuru POV

I entered the competition, just like the rest of the students here, although without much urgency. This thing doesn't mean a lot to me, so why should I bother scrambling inside like all these kids are?

It doesn't take long before everyone's left me in the dust.

Now... to implement my plan.

I may not care about points or winning or whatever, but I do have an objective here. The whole point of this Harvest Festival is to gather ingredients and turn them in at the end for a score, and I intend to at least follow the first step.

Points, schmoints; I'm more interested in the unique flavors around this place! Yeah, I might give them any extras that I don't need just to get a passable score, but nothing more.

I could rush around like a crazy person and scoop up as many different things as I can, but why just leave that responsibility to little old me and nobody else? I can just make a mess of clone bodies and send them out to do all the dirty work! Nobody would bat an eye at that either, at least the people that matter, since I've made it somewhat public that I can do stuff like that.

I release a cloud of smoke to conceal what I'm doing, then split into multiple copies of myself, the smoke clearing once I've done with me now visibly smaller.

"Here's the mission everybody, you choose an entry into that forest and gather as many tasty snacks as possible that are attached to monsters." One of the clones then looks at me quizzically "The monsters aren't food?"

"Well, some of them are, kind of, but we're focusing on what's considered edible to everyone."

A choir of "ooooooh"s fills the air.

"Just don't break the rules and get us all kicked out, alright? Or we'll have to cut this short." This is the main thing I'm worried about since it will ruin the whole plan if even one of these clones breaks the rules. I suspect that me and the rest of them would also be considered responsible.

"And last, don't get in Iruma's way and let him do his own thing. He doesn't want our help at all, remember?"

"What if I find him and wanna say hi?"

"That's fine, just don't hurt or help his chances in this unless it's an emergency. Now, GO!"

With a wave of my arm, the 14 tiny clones of me scatter in all directions before disappearing into the brush. Not from my senses, of course, just what would be normal vision.

I wasn't expecting to end up quite this small... I internally grumble to myself as I look at how puny my form currently is.

[[To stay consistent with the current portrayal of your abilities, Master, this was necessary.]]

I understand that well enough, but that doesn't mean I don't find it mildly annoying.

Having come to terms with the conditions of making this many clones in this world, I start leisurely walking into the forest myself, a few seconds after the last of the clones had sprinted in.

Wait, is this considered child labor? I ponder for a moment but quickly decide it's not. I mean, these clones are 'me', in a sense, so telling them to do work is the same as them doing it of their own free will. Plus, they seem eager enough to do the job anyway, so there's no harm in it.

...

Lazily, for a day or so, I've been searching the surrounding area for concentrations of magic, looking for some of the stronger and hopefully tastier targets in this forest.