Late at midnight,

As you’d expect, everyone was asleep. They were all comfortably tucked under their beds inside the goblin houses, which look more like huts than actual houses. It’s also made out of wood with the roof being built out of straw. Fancy.

One of the few exceptions was the goblin elder, who was silently enjoying a cup of herbal tea as he stared at the full moon.

Today had been quite a hectic one. Not a bad one, just hectic.

Ever since Diana first appeared in this world, he felt her presence. And he was terrified, much so.

He listened in on how she managed to survive many goblin encounters, slowly amassed power, and even killed several of them. It wasn’t a very good first impression.

And so, when she first appeared before him, he had made use of the current alliance the goblin villages had built, and gathered an army to battle…only, that while her comrades were ready to shed their blood, she wasn’t as sure.

In fact, once she realised that he could speak, and that each of the goblins in the army had their own suspicions and thoughts, it was almost as if she didn’t want to.

It was…an unusual sight. Time and time again, as a new [Slime Queen] is born, they rule over their slimes and send them out to battle, until someone finally managed to bring her down.

And that was how it went over and over again, until she came along.

For one, it was already surprising that the new slime queen looked so young. And moreover, she was fighting together with a spirit, a ghoul, and two humans.

Thinking about it, he smiled. For once, even though a goblin’s life was short, he was glad to have been born.

A goblin is born, raised, then dies. That is the law of life.

They were weak, simpleminded, selfish. Over time, that may change of course. It was already a miracle for a goblin to live for over 20 years.

So, while his life hasn’t been that long, and his death was surely coming closer, he was glad to have been born in this era, to see such a wonderful person be born, one that did not find solutions merely by battle and blood.

With that lingering thought, he slowly slid into his sleep.

……………….

Meanwhile,

Diana was sitting out in the cold night air, vacantly watching the stars twinkle and fly by. Unlike the goblin elder, she wasn’t sipping some nice herbal tea, but she made up for it with some leftover food from the dinner.

She wasn’t thinking anything really, just…enjoying the night scenery.

You know, once you leave your home, you begin to realise just how nice it’s been back there, when everything was nicer and simpler.

Yeah, sure. Her life back at home wasn’t a very good one. Her habits were bad for her health, and her relationship with her mother was rocky at best, but she wasn’t getting chased around by giant alien monstrosities back there, was she?

‘I wonder if dad’s still watching me…’

Anyways, she wasn’t here contemplating her life choices. Instead, she was waiting for someone-, well, something to arrive.

*Wush!*

“Ah! There you are!”

Suddenly, out from the forest, came another Diana. Well, more specifically, her clone that she made in secret to watch if any goblins decided to attack it.

Fusing with her, it seems…yes, several groups of goblins attacked the village from different sides, k…killed several men and stole 4 young women.

Even if she wasn’t there per se, just rehearsing the memory was…unpleasant.

Doing as it was told, her clone followed the goblins, from afar of course.

But then,

“What…?”

After the goblins made it quite far from the village, they suddenly…died. No, they were slaughtered. Their blood was shed as the severed heads rolled onto the dirt, their lifeless bodies sinking into the blood.

Thankfully, from what they look like anyways, they seem to be mix-blooded goblins, which meant that they were repeating the same damned act as their parents did. So, she was somewhat relieved that they were slain, but…it’s still unpleasant to witness.

And then, a large cloaked figure appeared, picked up the 4 young women before it ran off.

The clone gave pursuit, following the cloaked figure as it sped through the night, before the figure disappeared into a cave. Her clone stopped following it by that point.

Which means…

‘There’s a chance those women are still alive!’

She quickly finished off the remaining food she was holding before she sped through the woods to head towards that cave!

Quest [Save the Kidnapped Women] begins!

………………

And…After much running and jumping, here she was, standing before the large rocky cave entrance. It’s a bit…odd, with the damn entrance just standing there with nothing around it.

Anyways, steeling her will, she stepped into the cave and began walking down, being careful not to-, ah, she slipped.

And then she hit her head on a rock.

Which then woke some bats.

Said bats then proceeded to try and kill her.

After screaming like a little girl(which she is, literally), she slimed them all onto the ceiling and corroded them away. Some Exp was gained, but much dignity was lost.

Continuing on, since there was no lighting inside, she made sure to stand close to the walls, in case she trips again or something.

After some time walking around in the darkness, she finally started to use her brain again and created several dogoos as scouts! With her loyal slimy scouts sent out, she sat down against the rocky walls and relaxed a bit.

She’s not afraid of the dark, but the tense feeling of watching out for monsters while also looking for someone who was able to slay goblins in seconds was pushing down on her. She could almost sympathize with those JRPG characters who keep on getting ambushed every 30 seconds.

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Ah, Final Fantasy VI, how I hate getting ambushed by monsters every single time…

‘Ah! Found it!’

Nostalgia aside, one of her slimy dogoos found something interesting! Using her slime communication powers, she called all the remaining dogoos to gather at the meeting point.

And once they were all there,

“Woah…Is this a ruin or something?”

It seems her dogoos have found something quite interesting here!

Out from the dark cave sections, she was now standing inside a stone corridor, cleanly carved out. Definitely man-made. There were torches hung up by the walls, which was a nice change.

And on the clean stone walls, there seemed to be drawings and words written on it, but she couldn’t read nor understand anything about it. And at the end of this corridor, there stood two large stone door.

And if she had to guess, those women and their kidnapper were inside.

That aside though, this sure brings back memories! Last time there was a large stone door blocking the way, it was back at the Crystal Caves’ third challenge, and…man, that maze sure was puzzling.

She wasn’t that strong back then, so she had to discard her knife to get through, and inside, she went on without any food, water, and even nearly died from drinking some liquid that was dripping down the maze walls.

Which, looking back, wasn’t a very good idea, was it?

Anyways, time has changed, and this time, her strength attribute granted her enough power to push the doors open!

And inside-!

“Don’t move, intruder!”

“…Eh?”

A row of females, each holding a sharp weapon of their own, stood before her. They didn’t seem to be anyone special, and they weren’t going to deal any damage to her anytime soon, but…man, those eyes…They all look like predators…

And, well, they were dressed appropriately. They were mostly wearing rags and stuff, with one of them wearing a dirty dress.

Behind them, she could see more women sitting, standing, or eating, all staring right into her.

So, while they were harmless to her slimy self, this sure was one hell of an intimidating sight.

And what’s more,

“It’s alright girls, I’ll handle it.”

From behind her, a towering figure loomed over them all. His skin was deep black, his abs were clearly showing, his dirty white hair was fluttering, his crimson red eyes were piercing into her, a pair of horns extended from his head, and his groin was luckily covered by a loincloth.

He stood over them all. Heck, he’s probably 2 and a half meters or something! Whatever his precise height is, he’s huge!!

Her [Danger Perception] wasn’t ringing loudly, so it’s fine(probably), but, man, does this guy cut an imposing figure to any enemy that stands in his way!

“““Okay~!”””

They al lovingly said as they backed away and stood behind him. With the women away from them, he slowly made his way to her, his steps sending shockwaves through the stone as he walked.

It was f*cking terrifying!!

“So? What’s this young lady doing in my lair?”

“H-Huh? Oh, umm…c, can you return the women you took?”

He kneeled down and leaned his face close to hers, his eyes practically piercing daggers into her soul.

“Return? Return to where exactly? I merely found them being kidnapped by goblins.”

He said, intimidatingly, but also confused at what she meant. Which meant that…he, wasn’t affiliated with those goblins then?

“Uh…To, their village?”

“…And where exactly and how far is that?”

…Ah, now that he brought it up, it certainly is quite far away. She was pretty damn fast, so it took only an hour or so, but would they be able to do so? And recalling from her clone’s memories, they seem to be injured.

“A-Anyways, uh, what…are you planning to do, with them?”

And now, comes to big moment of truth. Time, to uncover what his true motives-

“I just want to keep them safe, is that too much?”

“……Huh?”

“There’s been a lot of kidnappings recently, so I go out every night to take them to safety. It’s been increasing lately though…”

Now, that was not what she was expecting, and he didn’t seem to be lying. Which makes sense since she could spot the 4 recently saved women lying down as other women patched up their wounds.

But, if he wasn’t kidnapping them, then who’s leading those goblins? From what the elder has told her at least, goblins are normally dumber than a goldfish, so them employing tactics to attack the village was…odd.

“Say, young girl, do you know anything about it?”

“That’s what I want to find out. Goblins are dumb, but I saw them attacking the village using tactics. Did they evolve or something…?”

It was a possibility, but he was unsure of it too.

“…Also, uh, what, are you?”

“Hmm? Me? I’m an ogre. A special one if you will.”

An ogre…huh. From what she’s learnt from Ilgua’s ramblings, an ogre was an evolution of Hobgoblins, and Hobgoblins are evolved from normal goblins.

She didn’t exactly understand how it really works, but seeing as she evolved from a human to a slime queen herself, she knew it was real at least.

That all aside though, it’s a relief that this ogre wasn’t someone malicious. Well, maybe not, but these women are at least safe in his keeping, and he doesn’t seem to want to use them simply to breed more of his kind.

If anything, it looks more like he’s going down the harem route.

“Anyways, young girl, is it just me, or…do you seem rather similar to me?”

“Huh? What-, now that I think about it…yeah, that’s kinda true. And you’re reminding me a bit too much about a certain black skinned ogre…”

“EH!? You know Re:Monsters too!?”

“EEHH!? You too?!”

Well, this was…interesting. Not only does he feel somewhat similar to her, he even knows a ‘somewhat’ popular light novel series!? That’s amazing! Who’s this guy!?

Wait-

“C-Could you also be…f-from E-Earth!?”

“Yep! That’s right, young lady! And I assume you too?”

“Un!”

The large ogre smiled widely, and she did too. After all, it’s not everyday that she could meet someone from Earth, and someone that possibly has similar tastes too! ‘Wait…does this mean-!?’ She leaned in closer to his ear and whispered.

“Are you…trying to build a harem?”

“Right on the spot!” He said rather enthusiastically, even pulling out a thumbs up just to confirm it! They shared a friendly fist bump with each other and smiled, not noticing the quite very envious and dangerous glares from the other women.

Anyways, now that she knew who he was, her job for now was done. And she should probably head back now. But…

Meh, why not talk with him more?

It’s not like anyone back at the goblin village was awake, and besides, she didn’t feel that sleepy yet. So, after they finally realised the intense stares coming from behind them and calmed them all down, they introduced each other!

“Yosh! First, my name’s Gaz. Or, that’s what I want my name to be at least. How about you, you?”

“I’m Diana! Nice to meet you!”

Yup. Gaz definitely doesn’t sound like a name a normal parent would give to their child in the modern era. Well, she didn’t mind that.

Well, introductions aside, they moved on to talk about casual stuff: Anime, favourite Waifu/Husbando, games, hentai, and for some reason ending with the two of them arguing over which of their waifus is best waifu.

And then, they transitioned to talking about their past lives. Diana, not really wanting to tell much of it, just told a vague telling of how her life sucked and that she was a stuck-in NEET. She also didn’t tell him that she was originally a guy.

Gaz on the other hand, had it much…worse.

First off, he was a guy in his late 20’s, before a car-crash caused him to lose his legs. While he was recovering, his girlfriend dumped him for another guy, his parents didn’t bother on him, and after he was sent out, unable to do anything, his debt quickly piled up.

He didn’t make it really clear, but the stress seemed to have caused him to break down, until he finally couldn’t take it anymore, and took his own life.

It was a tragic life.

But, death didn’t greet him.

Instead, he suddenly woke up as a baby goblin, being carried away as his goblin tribe was getting killed. Later, the person who carried him(who he still didn’t know who) hid him inside a forest and left him there.

Hours changed to days. And days changed to months.

In that time, he fought, trained, survived, and evolved. He grew, becoming a strong ogre. And now that he was strong enough he decided, ‘Why not make a harem!?’ After all, it’ll be fun, and the setting was an isekai novel, so it’ll be fine!

Hearing his story, it made her realise just how much better her life had been than she initially though. Yeah, sure, she was a jackass, her mother was a drunkard, her father…well, anyways, her life was quite bad.

But it paled in comparison to his, who literally lost everything.

……Anyways, serious stuff aside though, it is kinda infuriating that he, for some reason, has a skill called [Attract]! Like, what!?

As you can guess, this skill helps with attracting the opposite sex, hence why so many women are flocking to him. There is a catch though, where said women need to have some sort of interest in him for the skill to actually work.

But, still-! That’s just cheating!!

It doesn’t work on her though…well, slightly.

She herself has never been in love, and never thought about getting someone to share it with, so it’s a foreign feeling. But if this heat she keeps feeling and the weird longing to want to stay by his side was love, then…well, it’s not bad.

Thing is, it also seems to be affected by her [Mentality] stat. And since her stat on that was pretty high, it wasn’t making her fall head over heels for him.

But! According to one of her dogoos that she left back at the goblin village…the sun was already beginning to rise!?

“A-Ah! The sun’s already rising!?”

“Do you need to go back?”

“Y-Yeah, sorry. But I’ll visit again soon!”

“’Right then! See ya!”

“You too!”

And so, turning around and heading out the door, their first meeting had ended. *Cue dramatic lighting and ambient music in the background*