Chapter 18: Screwing up the Plot
It was the early morning of the next day when the meeting which would later be known as the White Pact took place. I had called representatives of each of the sentient races of the forests.
Treyni represented the Dryads and Treants.
Shizue Izawa represented humans.
Gabiru's father represented the Lizardmen.
Volga Skyblood represented the Drow.
Rigurd represented the Goblins.
Geld's son represented the Orcs.
Benimaru represented the Kijin.
The Elder Tegu represented the Tengu.
Kaijin represented the Dwarves.
Henrietta represented the Elves.
Asterion represented the former Gozu; now Minotaurs, and Hakutaku.
Ipotane represented the former Mezu; now the Centaurs.
Kayla represented the Gremlins.
Tetsu represented the Trolls.
Amber Cooper represented the Gnomes.
and I represented my own faction as well as the future races who would soon be under my control.
(A/N: The Gnomes are basically a race of beautiful lolis and shotas while the Gremlins and Hakutaku are similar to the Monster Girl Encyclopedia versions. Female Gozu became Hakutaku while males became Minotaurs. Drow are fantasy elves with either black, blue, purple, or grey skin. They also like to live underground, though they don't have to.)
We spent hours hammering out the nitty-gritty and finer details, but eventually, we all came to the conclusion of creating a Kingdom with myself at the top and a Senate who is elected by the people to represent them. The Senate basically had no power except to oversee my laws and decrees to make sure they didn't violate the Bill of Rights we had established. I could also kick some of the lower-level paperwork to them when it came to minor laws.
I had insisted on the creation of a Bill of Rights, which established thins such as freedom of speech, religion, privacy, education, universal suffrage, etc. It may be just my 'Merican soul shining through, but I could tell that the representatives were all deeply moved by my gesture of limiting my own powers to make sure they led safe and free lives.
We came up with a proper punishment for the Orcs, which was 5 years of servitude as a labor force before they were allowed to choose other jobs. This was fine by them since the servitude basically meant they acted as the construction crew for the Jura Tempest Kingdom. They were paid in food and housing for their first five years before they would receive salaries.
I'm sure they were even more excited when they figured out I would be substituting the majority of the actually backbreaking labor with Golems and that they were mostly just there as supervisors or for the more detailed handiwork. This will lead to many Orcs in the future becoming architects, engineers, sculptors, masons, and other artisans.
...
After hours of tedious talks, we finally broke for the naming ceremony. I created 25 body doubles and had all of the Orcs and Lizardmen par up into various groups. There were 4 groups of 50,000 Orcs and 5 Groups of 20,000 Lizardmen each.
'[Athena]. I'm going to be giving you quite the work-out today. Make sure to prepare a lot of random names.' I thought while I looked over the first group of orcs.
"From this day forward. These orcs shall be Red Orks" I said as I began naming them. Orks were a unique race I had created with [Rule Breaker] and [Evolver]. There were 3 different types. Red Orks, Brown Orks, and Green Orks, each having a skin tone that suited their names. The only difference between High Orcs and Orks was that Orks looked more similar to their appearance in WoW or Skyrim with humanoid faces and muscular bodies, while the High Orcs remained pig-like.
In this way, I had created distinct groups within the Orc/Ork populations that made naming that much easier. Now even if two monsters are named the same, if one is a Red Ork, and one is a High Orc, then there won't be any confusion and I can avoid using OG Rimuru's method of naming the Orcs with serial numbers like he did.
I also may have accidentally forced Geld (the original Geld's son) to make his own small harem of one orc for each type, since none of the Orks, wanted a hierarchy to form within their society. Well, its not like Harems are illegal, and some races require them. I heard that the Lamia of the Draconic Mountains are all female and have a high birthrate, so they need to have harems or they would die out.
...
After that, I met with Treyni and hashed out a deal to feed the orcs/orks after I had named them all. I then had Da Vinci strategically spread them out into the settlements on the Highway System.
The Highways officially began construction the day after the High Orcs and Orks all moved in and the idea was loved by all of the races. The idea of not having to trudge through the thicket of the forest for hours a day just to go a few miles was extremely appealing. We set up the system so the whole array was centered around Altair with Highways going towards Dwargon, Falmuth, Each of the Demon Lord's domains, The Eastern Empire, and Estonia. Furthermore, major junctions on the Highway system would converge around the new settlements we were building for the Lizardmen, Tengu, Drow, and Gnomes to allow for increased trade and wealth.
The Kijin, Trolls, Dwarves, Hobgoblins, and Gremlins all decided to live in Altair officially, while large numbers of each race also moved there, effectively filling the city up overnight.
The Dryads would use their magic to help keep the savage monsters away from the roads to make them safer while also being the environmental advisors to all future projects. Needless to say, all the future cities and towns in the kingdom would have a lot of nature parks.
Altair would be the center of power, obviously, with my Palace being there and all, but it also became the meeting place for most trade going from north of the continent to the south. With this, I had my work cut out for me. If Altair wasn't the most beautiful and revolutionary city of all time, it would bring shame to my name, so I ended up summoning Nero.
That may have been a mistake, since her ego was through the roof, though her talent at least lived up to her pride, so all I could do was grit my teeth in frustration as I left my [Body Doubles] to handle the busy work in Tempest while I rode Ranga up north towards the Northern City-States Alliance.
...
While all of these revolutionary changes were ongoing on in Tempest, my main body was nearing the town of Horaud which was home to the Great Orcus Labyrinth. I had left my Body Doubles back home while I journeyed off. It really was a surreal experience, being able to control multiple bodies at once while having all five senses in perfect sync and experiencing everything in real-time. It was a sensation I couldn't possibly describe or feel as a human. It also felt as natural to me to control five body doubles as it did to control five fingers. Except each of those fingers had five senses and their own individual bodies.
'I guess I can't be described as a human anymore, so no need to think too hard about it,' I thought as I walked over to the entrance of the town. I had created a mask similar to Shizue's using [Hephstus] to hide my aura and presence, making me seem like no more than a B- Ranked adventurer. Ranga hid in my shadow so he wouldn't be detected.
At the gate, a lot of people were giving me weird looks. Even if being ranked as a B- wasn't that special, since everyone in Tempest is at least this rank if I named them, that was still incredibly strong for the human world. It was stronger than most knights and strong enough to fight most knight captains, though not quite strong enough to defeat them. It was also in a sweet spot where it wasn't enough to be widely known outside of the person's own individual country, but strong enough that no one would want to mess with you. All in all, I was strong enough to not be bothered by riff-raff, but not strong enough to be questioned on why I showed up here.
It's not like strong adventurers who wanted to test their luck in the dungeon was anything new, so the guard at the gate simply tipped his hat towards me and just waved me along without a second thought.
'[Athena], how much time until Hajime's Class gets here?'
[Notice! They will arrive in a few hours. It is likely that they will halt all dungeon entering within a few minutes to reserve the dungeon for adventurers. It is recommended that you enter as soon as possible.]
'Well all right then, I say as I disappear from my spot with [Spacial Movement] and reappear near the dungeon's entrance. I definitely shocked a few of the people eyeing me, since I heard their gasps from here.
I once again walked through the line to enter the dungeon and was waved in by the nice lady there who was very persistent about selling me a map, but when I told her I had a skill to help me, she changed her toon and reminded me that selling maps of the dungeon was strictly illegal.
I never got her name, but she reminded me a lot of Eina Tulle, Bell's dungeon advisor in Danmachi, due to her dark brown hair, green eyes, and serious but sincere personality but she was a human and not an elf, so I knew it wasn't a reference and just a coincidence.
After entering the first floor, I came across my first monster. It was a small goblin, though different from the goblins from Jura. This goblin looked more like something that came out of Goblin Slayer than the more cutesy and humanoid goblins from the outside world.
'[Athena] what am I looking at?'
[A goblin]
'I see that but why does it look so different from other goblins?'
[Monsters created in Labyrinths are soul-less husks and due to the multiple forced reincarnations of the same soul-less being, it creates mutations like the one you are witnessing right now]
'So if I were to try to create living beings rather than corpses with [Hephestus] they would take this appearance? Is this thing what it would look like if I created a Goblin?'
[No. It was the creation abilities of the Great Fairies and their Intrinsic Skill [Labyrinth Creation] forcing normal-looking creatures to reincarnate which caused the appearance to deteriorate. Now the husk simply works on instinct while being robbed of any higher thinking.]
'I see...' I thought as the Goblin spotted me and charged.
I parried the strike with one of my fingers while poking it in its head, instantly killing it.
'Finger Gun' I thought while thinking of a certain group from a certain pirate anime.
...
A few hours after I had arrived in the dungeon, I had made it to the bridge where the Behemoth would spawn. Just as I was about to walk into the room to trigger the fight, a bright blue glow illuminated the area and a group of very confused high school cosplayers appeared before me.
'Oh shit that's Hajime's class!' I thought to myself after facepalming. 'They're not cosplayers!'
"Whats going on?"
"Where are we?"
"Idiot! I told you not to touch that! It was a trap!"
"SHUT UP! You guys are annoying!" I yelled as the whole room turned silent.
"Who are you?" the knight captain asked as he looked at me suspiciously.
"I'm just an Adventurer who thought of clearing this Dungeon. Who are you all? I was getting ready to fight the Behemoth, but you lot got in my way." I say as I walk up to them.
Suddenly, a huge row of Skeletons appeared behind us while the Behemot's summoning circle activated.
"Enough talk! Sir Adventurer! I beg you to help these young Heroes escape. They are the only hope our country has of countering Veldora if he returns!" Meld begged while he took out his sword and pointed it towards the Behemoth.
"[Hell Flare]" I said as I threw my pitch-black fireball towards the skeleton army and a dome of black fire engulfed the Skeletons, destroying them down to their last atom.
"Amazing. Shizuku Yaegashi said as she looked over towards me. I then turned towards the Behemoth to see Hajime already holding it in place. He was using what [Athena] had told me was his Unique Skill [Transmute] but he seemed to be using it in the wrong way. Oh yeah, he was also using way too many magicules for what could be accomplished with simple tier magic.
"Alright boy! The path is clear! Run for it!" Meld yelled as the mages of the knights and the students all teamed up to fire magic at the monster.
"Now to completely ruin the plot, I say as I discretely start using [Sticky-Steel Thread] to wrap around Hajime for when he falls.
*BOOOOMMMMMM!!!!*
All but one of the spells hit the creature and blow away the bridge where it was standing. Hajime narrowly dodges a magic bullet and is blown off the side with the Behemoth.
"Nagumo-kun!" Kaori yelled as she nearly dove after him but was held back by her friends.
"Ahhhhhh... hu?" Hajime began to yell but realized he wasn't falling after a few seconds.
I could see the confusion on all of the people's faces, so I decided to tell them a little lie.
"Don't worry, everyone. I saved him using my Unique Skill [Weaver]." I said while showing them the [Sticky-Steel String].
I ignored one of the students clicking his tongue in annoyance while dragging the useless bastard back onto the remaining platform, where he was embraced by a crying Kaori.
"Nagumo-kun! I was so worried!"
"Ow! Not so tight, Kaori-san," he said as he was hugged extremely tightly.
"Thank you for the rescue, sir adventurer. If you weren't here, we would have died," Meld said as he walked up to me and shook my hand.
"It was no problem. I like helping people out when I can," I said shaking his hand. From what I remembered, this guy was a pretty decent dude who didn't discriminate against Hajime, so it wouldn't hurt to be friendly towards him.
"Thanks for saving that guy, he may be useless but he is somehow important to my friend." the fake hero Kouki said while pointing with his thumb at Hajime.
"Well yeah, she loves him, so I guess you could say he's important to her," I say matter-of-factly.
"""HU!?!""" Everyone screams.
Hajime is looking at Kaori like he just had an epiphany while Kaori is looking downwards while beaming so brightly in red that she is almost glowing. Shizuku is facepalming while shaking her head.
...
After an hour or so of talking to the Hero party, we all made our way back to the surface, or at least, they all thought we made our way back to the surface. They were actually being escorted by one of my body doubles.
On the way, I explained to Hajime that his Unique Skill was much more powerful than just moving earth and metals and that it essentially made him into a living philosopher's stone. He could turn any non-living item into any other non-living item so long as it didn't violate the law of conservation of mass and he used enough magicules.
He felt both extremely dumb for confusing it with the [Blacksmith] common skill and extremely happy since his ability basically put him on the same playing field as Kouki with his Unique Skill [Limit Breaker] which allowed him to vastly increase his physical and magical capabilities and grow stronger at a much faster rate.
Hajime and Kaori were an official couple by the time we started to leave and I even made a speech to their classmates about how Kaori wasn't an object who existed to fit their ideals of her, so they needed to grow up and accept that she can love however she wants without them having any right to interfere in the matter. This got most of them to apologize for their actions and accept the relationship reluctantly but the one that surprised me the most was Kouki.
He was actually a genuinely nice guy. I thought he was in love with Kaori, but he was just afraid of losing her as a friend but harbored no romantic feelings for her. He accepted it openly when I told him he wouldn't lose his childhood friend just because she had a boyfriend and that they could always still be friends and blah blah blah. I really felt like some sort of Shonen protagonist by talking with him about friendship over and over, but now at least Hajime wouldn't get bullied and would be protected by Kouki now.
After a few hours of walking, we finally made it to the entrance. I hung back while they all stepped outside into the morning sun and celebrated their survival. None of them noticed initially when I used [Shadow Movement] to merge into the darkness of the dungeon and continue spying on them.
I decided to prank them by creating a unique magic called {Inject False Information} to manipulate the thoughts and minds of Meld. I injected a myth about an adventurer who died a brutal death in the Labyrinth and whose spirit saves others from peril within the dungeon and leads them to the surface while giving life-changing advice but disappears before exiting.
When Meld looked back for me, he grew pale and explained what he saw to the students. They all then realized that they had never asked for my name and I even saw a few of the girls pass out.
It was glorious.
I didn't know it at the time, but this myth actually became real and other adventurers who got lucky breaks or saves in the dungeon from now on would think that the 'White Adventurer' watching over them.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Golden_Slime
Golden_Slime A bit of an awkward chapter this time, but I had spent the last two days writing and rewriting it, so I just decided to bite the bullet and releasing it as is.
I'll be writing the following chapter immediately following this one, so it should be out in an hour or two.
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