Lord Rimuru's Little Scheme; Everyone Wants to Earn Merit

The first batch of Demon Country executives named by Rimuru, the Immortal Assembly founded by Ari, the Great Underground Labyrinth's "Ten Great Labyrinth Masters," and newcomers such as Testarossa.

All of them were qualified to awaken.

That was why Rimuru had the personnel on the battlefield collect the souls of Imperial soldiers.

What Rimuru did not know was that there was actually no need to collect so many souls.

After all, certain special individuals could awaken directly on their own.

For a direct awakening, one did not need a hundred thousand souls. "Ten thousand" was enough!

Rimuru herself had only used a little over ten thousand human souls.

The reason Mo Li had needed a hundred thousand was merely because he had been slightly deceived by Gui Zhong. Otherwise, the number of human souls Mo Li needed for awakening would not have been much greater than Rimuru's.

And at present, the Demon Country Federation had individuals who could awaken independently even without Rimuru's help—and there was more than one of them.

Because of "awakening," those who awakened would enter a period known as evolution, or rather, slumber. During this stage, they could be said to be at their weakest.

Since they were currently at war, Rimuru did not intend to let these awakeners awaken just yet.

Besides, Rimuru had a tiny little scheme of her own.

She had yet to tell Ari about this ability of hers. She wanted to wait for the right moment, secretly awaken Benimaru and the others, then give Ari a huge shock.

After all... Mo Li always looked calm and composed, as though everything was under his control. While Ari was very charming like that, Rimuru still wanted to see a different expression on his face.

With that thought, Rimuru stared at Mo Li's face