That Time I Got Isekai'd Again and Met a Slime Friend [Rewrite]

Chapter 3: Out of the Cave... Or Not!?

After eagerly consuming all of the monsters Rimuru regurgitated for me, I finally noticed Rimuru's gaze on me, their amorphous form periodically shifting. Either Rimuru wanted to say something, or my presence deeply disturbed them.

I still say we kill them. One of my nine parallel minds said, to which I promptly ignored! If it wasn't clear, based on my previous interactions with the parallel minds, they were problematic. Ever since they returned from Mother's soul, they've acted differently. Not to say they were disloyal, just... not me.

"Sooo... what now?" Rimuru asked, their voice pronounced with a slight shakiness. Why are you asking me? Don't you have that unique skill, [Great Sage]? Why don't you just ask that? I thought, remaining silent. I had used [Wisdom] on all of Rimuru's skills while I ate, so I knew that Rimuru had what effectively amounted to a supper advanced AI in their mind.

My gaze turned to meet Rimuru's blue slime body, which unconsciously shivered. An uncomfortable silence landed between us as Rimuru presumably waited for my response.

I noticed the tension in Rimuru's obloid body increase, his form becoming a more spherical spheroid. It became apparent to me, as dense as I am, that Rimuru probably didn't like me. Every time my gaze landed on him, he became all tensed up. Relax, dude. I'm not going to eat you...

We stared at each other, Rimuru's amorphous body occasionally shifting uncomfortably. We stood like that until Rimuru finally spoke again, their voice noticeably more reserved: "R-right... um... how about we get out of this cave?"

I immediately nodded in agreement. The awkwardness was starting to get to me, and frankly, I didn't really feel like standing around anymore.

"Great! Let's go!" They said hurriedly, their squeaky voice cracking. Rimuru quickly turned around and promptly hopped off, and I soon followed, my feet clicking across the ground.

...

It's been a few hours, and Rimuru hasn't said a thing. So I distracted myself using [Clearvoyent Evil Eye]s, as they come with X-ray vision (every pervert's dream) as well as [Wisdom]'s subskill, [Detection], to explore the cave. The cave was filled with weak monsters, like giant spiders, lizards, and stacks, which reminded me of those giant snakes in the Great Elroe Labyrinth.

That reminds me. I wonder what the EP number Araba would have... I paused as I did the calculations... at least 23,555 Ep. So Araba would probably be at the top of the food chain even here.

Rimuru eventually took me out of my daydreaming by asking, in a slightly more confident tone than before, "Hey, um, now that I think about it, what's your name?" Since I didn't respond, Rimuru added, "Oh, sorry, my name is Rimuru Tempest." How do I tell this idiot that I can't talk? I wondered how I would respond, my mandibles clicking in annoyance—eventually, shaking my head. "You don't have one?" He asked. I nodded and imagined that Rimuru was re-gathering his courage to speak to me throughout the following deafening silence.

Getting bored, I began researching this cave using [Wisdom]. This cave is home to the True Dragon named Veldora Tempest, one of the 4 True Dragons who were basically like this world's Gods, and I wondered if I could use [Wisdom] on him. It worked, but I won't bore you with the details. He has an EP of 16,836,735, which, compared to Ariel, who has an EP of 11,191,720, seems relatively low...

Something fishy is happening here. Like, I looked at the other true dragons, and Ariel currently has 5,396 more EP than another True Dragon named Velgrynd, who has an EP of 11,186,324; even the most powerful True Dragon still alive, Velzard, has an EP of 17,959,184. But before I could delve deeper and use [Wisdom] on the last True Dragon Veldenava, Rimuru asked, clearly reluctant, "Do... Do you want a new name?"