First Encounter with Goblins

The next day, at dawn, Mo Li prepared to wake Rimuru from her sleep.

"Rimuru, wake up. Rimuru, wake up. Stop sleeping."

Mo Li held Rimuru in his arms and gave her a couple of shakes.

"Ari, is something wrong?"

Rimuru opened her large eyes, formed from Slime secretion.

"It's daylight. Time to set out."

Mo Li looked at Rimuru and spoke softly.

"Oh, got it."

Rimuru replied lazily.

"First, we need to find somewhere to live. After all, staying in the forest forever isn't a solution. But since we're monsters, we can't go to human towns. So first, we'll find a safer place in this great forest, use the trees to build a small house, and make further plans afterward."

As Mo Li explained things to Rimuru, he laid out his plans. In the original story, Rimuru encountered a group of Goblins as soon as she left the cave, but the exact location had never been explained in detail. After all, this wasn't a novel or anime, so Mo Li couldn't force it. He could only find a place to live first and search slowly.

After all, Rimuru's chief steward and many of her elite subordinates were among this weak group of Goblins.

Before Mo Li could finish speaking, he heard snoring. Turning around, he found that Rimuru had somehow fallen asleep again.

Seeing Rimuru like this, Mo Li could only smile helplessly. What else could he do? His own girl could only be spoiled by him—and she was his future powerhouse, too!

Mo Li could only hold Rimuru in his arms and begin the day's journey.

Before they had walked very far, Mo Li heard the sounds of fighting.

Following the sounds, Mo Li made his way over and stopped behind a patch of grass.

Mo Li slowly parted the grass and saw a small group of monsters being hunted by several humans.

The monsters being hunted had green skin and pointed ears. They were clearly one of the most common kinds of monsters in another world.

"Goblins."

"Found them."

Mo Li's eyes lit up. Weren't these Rimuru's first group of monsters in the Cute King storyline? They were also Tempest's first residents. It could be said that it was the existence of this group of Goblins that gave Rimuru the idea of creating the Demon Country Federation.

To be honest, creatures like Goblins were quite unpopular in many anime series.

The Goblins in many anime had dark green skin. They were short, ugly little red-eyed creatures—greedy, despicable, evil by nature, cunning and adept at deception. They also possessed one particularly disgusting ability: there was no reproductive isolation between them and other species. For example, Goblin Slayer.

Yet in the Cute King world setting, Goblins had been portrayed as creatures people could grow fond of.

Among these Goblins, the ones who had left the deepest impression on Mo Li were undoubtedly Rigurd, known as the chief steward, and Gobta, who had survived two punches from Milim.

"Ari, what happened?"

At that moment, Rimuru woke up in Mo Li's arms.

"There, look."

Mo Li pointed toward the scene ahead.

Following Mo Li's dragon claw, Rimuru saw several humans who were clearly adventurers hunting Goblins.

Seeing this, Rimuru was confused. Wasn't it perfectly normal for humans to hunt Goblins?

"Ari, is there a problem?"

Seeing the confused look on Rimuru's face, Mo Li finally understood. It really was different now. The current Rimuru was not the Cute King from Mo Li's memories. She was neither the King of Tempest, the Demon Country Federation, nor the leader of the Jura Great Forest, much less an Eight-Star Demon Lord. She was merely a reincarnator affected by the butterfly effect, someone whose previous life had even become female. Although she had now crossed over and become a Slime, her way of thinking still remained human. Naturally, she saw humans hunting Goblins as something entirely reasonable. Otherwise, that tragedy would not have happened later in the story.

"Rimuru, I'm going to save these Goblins."

Mo Li spoke to Rimuru.

"Why?"

After all, in Rimuru's eyes, humans hunting monsters was the most normal thing in the world.

"Rimuru, don't forget that we aren't humans now. We're monsters too."

Mo Li lectured Rimuru. To be honest, although he was there to lay the groundwork, Mo Li still hoped Rimuru could change her way of thinking as soon as possible, so that her kindness would not harm herself. The tragedy of the Demon Country Federation had come about because Rimuru had always held goodwill toward humans. Mo Li did not want Rimuru to regret it only after things had happened. Although there were ways to remedy it, why let something bad happen when it could be resolved at the root?

"First, we're monsters now, so we should stand with monsters. Second, we aren't familiar with this forest, so we can save these Goblins and have them lead us. Third, we don't have anywhere to live, so we can stay with them for the night. Understand?"

"Got it, Ari."

Listening to Mo Li's words, Rimuru answered as though she half understood.

"Then what should we do?"

Rimuru raised her question. To be honest, asking the current Rimuru to attack humans was indeed a little difficult for her.

Seeing the troubled look on her face, Mo Li smiled.

"Don't worry. You won't need to fight the humans. We just need to release our magic power and make those humans think a powerful monster has arrived."

Hearing Mo Li's words, Rimuru smiled.

"Ari, you're great."

"Alright, stop fooling around. Don't you have that Mimic skill? Use it to imitate the aura of a monster you've swallowed before."

Mo Li offered Rimuru a suggestion.

"Alright."

Rimuru hurriedly used her Mimic skill, imitating the aura of a B-rank creature, a Black Spider.

One of the burly human leaders hunting the Goblins seemed to sense something.

"Everyone, run! There's a powerful monster's aura here. It's at least B-rank!"

After saying that, he ignored the Goblins and turned to flee.

"What? B-rank? How could a creature like that be in the outskirts?"

"What are you standing around for? Run!"

"What about our mission?"

"Run already! If we lose our lives, what good is the mission?"

"Exactly! You idiot, which is more important, your life or the mission?"

In the blink of an eye, the seven or eight people had vanished without a trace.

The rescued Goblin tribe collapsed to the ground, exhausted.

"Chief, we should run too! A powerful monster is coming!"

At that moment, a visibly sturdier Goblin spoke anxiously.

"Run where? How can we escape a B-rank monster?"

An old Goblin spoke in despair.