[Book 2] That time I got reincarnated as a slime,no, a DRAGON?

CH-45

Rimuru's POV

"Alright. I am really grateful, so please lead the way." I said in the most sincere voice possible. This surprised not only Ciel and my students, but the two men who came to pick us up as well.

"Ah... Ah yeah. Follow me." He said as he regained his composure. I am sure he expected me to lash out, so me behaving myself is a surprise to them.

He led me inside the spaceship and made his way to the cockpit. In my previous life, I never managed to enter this spaceship as all of its model were damaged beyond recognition in wars. The few models that did survive were framed in museum, and couldn't be activated.

"Please come in." The men said as he guided us inside the cockpit. There were a lot of equipments scattered all over the cockpit, and the tension was in the air. There were many other people in the lower deck who were in charge of controlling the ship. In front of us were two people. A tanned man with a nicely built body. It easy to see that he had not held back in training himself. The other was a girl. She also had slight tan and long black hair. But, by no means did she look to be a part of military, apart from the fact that she was wearing a military outfit. Both of them medal adorned on their chests, so I assume they are of highest rank.

In front of them were seven seats. The man smiled and motioned for us to sit down, so we did exactly that. I say down in the middle with Ciel to my right and Chloe to my left. Alice sat to Chloe's left. Meanwhile the boys were looking around in amusement and excitement and sat in any seat they found.

"Before we start, let me introduce myself. I am Arun, and this is Chandra." The man said and introduced himself and the woman sitting next to him.

"I am a high ranking official from a nation called India. I don't whether you have heard about it, but we are one of the strongest nation in our world."

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that. I do know a bit about your world. So? Why did you guys suddenly come to this world?" I ask.

Arun looked around uneasily before his eyes meet Chandra's. Chandra slightly nodded. Seeing this, Arun took a deep breath and decided to speak up.

"Before that, I would like to apologize for the rudeness of subordinates." Arun said. As soon as he said, everyone in the room bowed.

"It's fine. I accept your apology. Please continue with what we were discussing."

"Ah! Yes. Thank you very much. So, as I was saying, Earth is currently in a predicament. Three continents have already fallen to the monsters, and Europe is also on the verge of collapse. The monsters from the cracks are hard to defeat and their numbers can be catastrophic. To add fuel to the fire, the tower of USA, South Africa and Brazil are providing endless source of monsters." Arun said.

'Tower? Do you have any idea?' I ask Ciel.
'No clue. Send like there is some discrepancy in history. Or, this post was never written down to be conserved for the future.'

"Ah, right. You have no idea what I am talking about, do you? You see, our world was a comparatively peaceful one. There were no monsters and the only intelligent species were humans. But, a few years back, random towers emerged from nowhere. The first one emerged in USA, followed by one in Brazil in matter of minutes.

After a few days, Towers emerged in many countries. Japan, South Korea, China, Australia, Russia, France, Britain, South Africa, and also in India. One even appeared in Antarctica." Arun said while showing a map of the earth. I cross check it with the map I have of Earth, and it seems to match.

There were red dots on what seemed to be the capital of each country. Apart from Antarctica which also had a red dot near it's centre.

"The red dots are the location of the towers." Chandra pointed out.

"What are these towers? This is the first time I have heard of them." I ask.

"Ah! These towers just appeared suddenly one day. They started emitting mana, which causes slight mutations in humans who could now wield these as weapons. They were called awakened. A new part of military was made composed of these Awakened who would venture into the Tower." Chandra explained.

'Could it be the gates that are recorded in these books is talking about the Towers?' I ask Ciel.
'Highly likely. They have the same location, same characteristics.' Ciel replied.

"There were many types of monsters in these towers. If they escaped, it would have a catastrophic effect. So we made sure to prevent any outbreak of monsters. Civilians, who had awakened were only allowed to enter those floors which had been cleared of most of the strong monsters. 

We have no idea how many floors there are. We don't even know if we towers have same number of floors or not, but we do know that each tower is unique and different. Each tower has been cleared up to the 35th floor. The tower in New Delhi, India has been cleared upto 48th floor.

Meanwhile, we have no idea what USA was doing, but a portal suddenly opened, allowing monsters to flow out in the open world. There were hundreds of thousands of casualties. The US military were unable to hold them back. The monsters in the tower also started to descend as if to cause more chaos.  Being attacked from both sides, they fell quickly. The monsters quickly went South, and South America fell swiftly. With two towers continuously supplying monsters, all the countries came together to deal with this.

We attacked the core, but failed miserably." Arun said with a sad chuckle.

"We lost more than half of our forces and still lost. The monsters chased us all the way to Africa and South Africa fell as well. But, surprisingly, monsters coming out of South Africa's tower didn't kill humans, rather they joined us in killing the monsters. Due to that their advance was slowed down, yet Middle East fell very quickly. Most countries were having their hands full just protecting themselves.

India is in dire straits. Pakistan has already fallen, so our borders are constantly under attack. Luckily, the Himalayas are acting as a natural barrier for us and China to an extent, but we doubt we could last long enough. If India falls, China would be next, and then Korea and Japan. Most of the monsters are currently attacking Europe, so we have a calm period, but we know that a storm is coming, so we came here to ask for help." Arun said as he bowed.

I looked at Ciel. Surprisingly, apart from us two, the others were no longer here.

"Where are the others?" I ask.
"The others are enjoying a tour of the ship." A small sphere suddenly came up behind me and informed me.

"I see. As for help, I won't." I reply in a straightforward manner.

"I see. That is understandable. But then, could we have a give and take relationship?" Chandra asked. They were not disappointed at all. Had they recieved that I would deny?

"What exactly do you want, and what do you want?" I doubt they can give is anything worthwhile. I already have technology much more advanced than them. Magicules are richer here, so I doubt they will have anything related to magicules.

"We want two things. First is the right to challenge the labyrinth in Tempest. We don't want any sorts of treasures, we just need experience of fighting monsters." Arun said.

"Secondly, we would like to have a guarantee." Chandra added.

"Guarantee?" I ask.

"Yes. You see, we aren't the only country to make contact with demon lords. We found this world have a general idea of power structure of this world. At first we were thinking of asking the heroes for help, but finding a demon lord, who was their teacher is surely a blessing in disguise." Chandra elaborated.

"Alright. So you want me to take action just in case another demon lord tried to make a move in your world?" I ask to confirm.

"Yes. That's all." Arun confirmed.

"Alright then, what can you give me in return?" I ask them in a serious time.

------------------------------- 

I hope you guys like it. I know it is boring as the main characters aren't getting much of a spotlight. Unfortunately, this is necessary for the story to progress. I will try to wrap this part up in a few chapters and finally start with the expansion arc of the story.