Attendances… plz…)
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A dryad. The Protector of the Great Jura Forest.
Everyone knew who they were, but seeing one was another thing entirely. No one in the ogre clan had ever thought they would meet one. Benimaru stared, barely believing his eyes, and even the old white-haired ogre was speechless.
Though, to be honest, after the surprises of the last few days, Reinhard's strength, the evolution, seeing a dryad wasn't as shocking as it should have been.
The beautiful dryad, having made her dramatic entrance out of thin air, opened her mouth to speak to Reinhard. She was ready to state her request.
But before she could say a word, she stopped. Her green eyes widened slightly.
She noticed something was wrong immediately. It was happening to her body, and fast. Her form, which was purely a construct of magicules since she was a spirit, began to flicker. She was becoming transparent, fading in and out of view.
"What is happening?!" she asked, her composed demeanor cracking. She looked down at her hands as they started to dissolve into mist. She had only materialized a few seconds ago, and her body was already failing.
It wasn't that she was weak. It was that she was standing next to a literal anomaly. Reinhard was like a black hole for magicules, constantly sucking them into his own body.
And a dryad, whose entire existence was made of magicules, was standing right in front of him. Being so close, the energy that formed her body was being stripped away, pulled toward Reinhard like water down a drain.
"I apologize," Reinhard said immediately. He took a polite step back, putting some distance between himself and the spirit. "But you are standing just too close to me. It is my body that is sucking the magicules from yours."
He said it casually, like it was a minor inconvenience, but the reality was terrifying.
Treyni blinked, trying to hold her form together. Even though Reinhard had moved away, she was still struggling. It took real effort just to keep herself from vanishing, something that should have been effortless for a high-level spirit.
"Sucking the…?" she paused, processing the information. This human was absorbing magicules at a rate that could destabilize a spirit just by standing near them. That was terrifying. If she stayed too close, she could very well be sucked into him in an instant.
She took several steps back herself, putting a safe distance between them until she could finally breathe again without focusing solely on holding her shape. Even at this distance, it was hard. And he wasn't even doing anything. If he were to actively use magicules, she would be gone.
"I see," she said, clearing her throat to regain her composure. "That is… quite an unusual… body. But thank you for the warning." She didn't let fear show on her face. Instead, she nodded. "It seems my request for your aid was even more well-founded than I thought. A human capable of such things is exactly what the Jura Forest needs right now."
Reinhard was honestly a little surprised by this new detail about himself. He hadn't realized his passive absorption affected spirits directly.
"I hope it isn't rude to talk like this," Treyni asked from her safe distance. "But I can't come closer to you because of your body… I hope this won't affect the aid I'm requesting?"
Reinhard shook his head. "Not at all. Though I think I have an idea of what this aid is about… is it related to the Orc Lord, by any chance?"
Treyni nodded. "Exactly. The Orc Lord is a serious threat to the entire Jura Forest. And not just him, but his massive army. Their skill allows them to consume anything in their path. They need to be stopped."
Before she could say more, Rimuru and the other ogres joined them. A goblin had rushed to inform Rimuru of the situation, Reinhard naming the ogre chieftain, and then a dryad appearing out of nowhere.
"Hmm, Reinhard…" Rimuru said as he walked up, looking between the glowing Benimaru and the floating spirit. "What exactly is going on?"
Rimuru stared at the dryad, his eyes widening. He remembered dryads from games and anime, usually depicted wearing nothing but vines and leaves. But this one, despite her flickering form, was wearing proper clothes made of magicules. It was a small detail, but it stood out.
Treyni turned her gaze to him, a knowing smile on her face. "Hmm, you too are a very special individual in this forest… Rimuru Tempest."
Rimuru jumped. "What? Wait, you know me?!"
"Dryads know essentially everything that happens within the forest," Treyni explained calmly. "You could say nothing escapes our eyes here. So of course I know you."
Rimuru felt a sudden flush of embarrassment. If she had been watching him… did she see the times he practiced cool poses in the forest? The times he acted out scenes from manga when he thought he was alone?
Treyni's smile didn't waver, but there was a twinkle in her eye that made Rimuru want to crawl into a hole and die of shame. She knows, he thought frantically. She definitely knows. It's an invasion of privacy, damn it!
Reinhard turned back to Treyni, cutting through the awkward moment. "I was planning to deal with the Orc Lord after getting the ogres settled," he said. "But it seems it needs to be done sooner. I'll deal with them today."
Treyni looked surprised. "Today? Don't you want to form an alliance first? I do not doubt your abilities… but their numbers are in the tens of thousands, perhaps even more."
"It's one hundred and ninety thousand now," Reinhard corrected her. "I already dealt with the ten thousand that attacked the ogre village. Though I was too late to save everyone."
Rimuru nearly choked. "Wait, wait, wait," he stammered. "Did you just say one hundred and ninety thousand orcs? Like… in the hundreds of thousands?"
He shouted the last part. He had only heard about the ten thousand Reinhard killed and assumed that was most of the army. He thought maybe there were twenty or thirty thousand total. Not nearly two hundred thousand. That was an astronomical number.
Reinhard nodded. "That's what I gathered from the majin I encountered. Though he didn't give me much more than that."
Rimuru looked around. The ogres weren't reacting to the number; they already knew. "Wait, I know you're strong, Reinhard, but that number is… too big. Shouldn't we ask for help? Like the dryad said? Or the Adventurer's Guild?"
"That is a viable option," Treyni agreed.
"I could," Reinhard said. "But it would take time. Weeks, maybe months, to form an alliance. As for the guild, they wouldn't believe me outright. They'd send investigators to confirm the numbers, and even then, most adventurers wouldn't come. The guild couldn't gather that much manpower unless a country rolled out its entire military."
Rimuru and the others went silent. Reinhard was right. That was exactly how bureaucracies worked. By the time help arrived, the forest would be overrun.
"Me and my whole clan are in this," Benimaru said, stepping forward. "We are ready. You promised to take us with you."
"This may sound a little arrogant," Reinhard smiled a little as he said, looking at them.
"But I'm stronger… a little, or maybe a lot stronger than you think. I promised the ogre clan so they could come, so they can be my backup. But I promise I won't let it become a bigger problem. I will stop the Orc Lord before it does anything more."
…
After much discussion, it all came down to one plan. Reinhard would head out tomorrow to confront the Orc Lord. The ogre clan would go as his backup. And Rimuru, refusing to be left behind while his friends marched into danger, insisted on coming too. The goblin riders would stay behind to protect the village in his absence.
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A/N: huh… Are you guys ready to see the SLAUGHTER of pigs?!
Melatonin, spawn and many more on my discord … thanks for beta reading this fic and not to mention suggestions too.
Hoped you all liked the chapter and all.
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