ã€ŠRe:Monster {Wrath}ã€‹


 Re:Monster Day 1-10

    Forest of the Birth, Black Beast Saga

    It seems that I was killed after being stabbed by the stalker whom I had considered to be like a younger sister, and somehow I got reincarnated.

    Wow that was a mouthful, and no, I¡¯m not joking when I say that I¡¯ve been reincarnated. You could say that my current state of mind hasn¡¯t settled down from all of the confusion, so I¡¯d appreciate it if you would save the comments until after I finish my story, since it might sound a bit wild if you interrupt me. Ahem, so let me explain everything from the beginning¡­

    Well, first let¡¯s start with my name, I used to be called Tomokui Kanata. However since I was reincarnated, let¡¯s leave it as ¡°Nameless¡± for now.

    I have a bit of a lapse in memory here, but I remember that after a hard day of work, I was invited by some colleagues for a drink. I accepted their offer, and we went tavern hopping.

    Since the following day was a holiday, even those with a low alcohol tolerance ended up drinking throughout the night. I even had to end up carrying a colleague home home, since she was too drunk to make it by herself.

    She had fallen asleep, and I didn¡¯t want to wake her so I left her on the bed. My constitution and love of alcohol was much greater than hers, and at that time, I had an urge to drink while watching the full moon, or so I thought as I opened the fridge.

    I realized that the bottom shelf that should¡¯ve been stuffed with beer and chuhai and all sorts of drinks was empty.

    Yesterday I had finished all of my drinks and had planned to go restock it today¡ªwere it not for my colleague¡¯s invitation earlier.

    I had completely forgotten about it.

    That¡¯s right,¨CIt was the biggest failure in my life to have finished drinking the stocks yesterday.

    If only I had saved at least one.

    I¨Cno, no¡­ first let¡¯s hasten the conversation a bit.

    I, who had wanted to drink sake by all means, went to a nearby convenience store which was open twenty-four hours a day, bought five beers, and headed home.

    Summer was approaching yet the night was still chilly. The full moon that was suspended in the clear night sky was very beautiful.

    The clouds, which were slightly concealing the moon, were also pleasant. Indeed, drinking sake with the silver moon shining overhead would make it an even more delicious experience than usual.

    While thinking about the alcohol, I noticed that under a street-light was a pretty girl.

    It was a face that I had recognized. She¡¯s what the general public would have referred to as a ¡®Stalker¡¯.

    My stalker was Kirimine Aoi, an active female college student in the local area. She¡¯s 20 years old; 5 years younger than I was.

    Our relationship isn¡¯t exactly what you would call ¡®normal¡¯. You see, in my third year of high school, I saw a couple of delinquents harassing a girl¡ªthe person whom I would soon know as Aoi. She was 12-13 years old at the time. I found her, saved her, and that was how our destinies had become entwined.

    Well, while it wasn¡¯t wrong to say that I helped, I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s the correct thing to say.

    Compared to how I am now, I used to be a cowardly chicken. At the time, you could clearly see that there was a girl being harassed by a pair of delinquents. Though it was deplorable, the surrounding people turned a blind eye to it.

    As a person for whom ESP capability hadn¡¯t yet awoken, I could either have chosen to help her or quickly run away.

    However, either by fortune or bad luck, I had received a military stun nightstick as a birthday present from my uncle, a weapon¡¯s enthusiast. He worked for small to medium sized corporations that had military relations, so it was easy for him to get it for me. Those companies were under the influence of one major company, Avalon.

    Avalon, the company that had made my nightstick, had spread its name throughout the universe as a famous weapon corporation.

    At that time, I didn¡¯t have the courage to be in possession of such a dangerous object. It was worrisome to have such an unsafe weapon, so it was still adorned in my room without being used. (Check previous sentence)

    However, an ¡®Ota¡¯ friend of my uncle said he wanted to look at the nightstick. Soon after, an email had been sent telling me he that was on his way to see it.

    The message included a location where we could meet, so I decided to walk to it. I brought the nightstick with me so he could see it from the moment he arrived.

    Which brought me to my current situation.

    Although I was a coward, I used the military nightstick on the delinquents that were harassing the young lady. I can still remember feeling a kind of ¡®lightness¡¯ from defending a pretty girl from harm.

    After bashing the delinquents from behind, they got extremely mad at me. However, regardless of their anger, they couldn¡¯t stand up against such a weapon as the nightstick. After a few more hits they were sprawling on the floor¨Cfoaming and twitching violently. I quickly took the hand of the girl that was panicking, and escaped with her to someplace safe.

    I was really young in those days.

    Because of my curiosity and a whim, I had done a horrible experiment on those delinquents while managing to help Aoi at the same time.

    After that incident, her affection towards me slowly grew, it was only a matter of time, but Aoi had eventually become my stalker.

    It wasn¡¯t very severe stalking, however, until I had found a job at my current place of work, where she continued chasing me. She even followed me to other planets, where I would occasionally be sent on business trips.

    When dealing with stalkers, one should speak as naturally with them as one can, no matter how much they infringe upon one¡¯s private life.

    What I¡¯ve told you so far may not be understandable yet, but after I explain how I died, everything will become clear.

    Anyway, After buying the alcohol I met Aoi on my way home. It would¡¯ve been nice to say that it was a coincidence. Yet while looking down, under the light of the street-lamp, Aoi was emanating a black aura unlike her usual puppy-like self; so I could only respond by tilting my neck in confusion.

    Aoi, even as a stalker, was an existence akin to a younger sister for me; because of that I was able to notice the weird atmosphere at that time, so I called out to her.

    There was no reply. Aoi¡¯s face remained downcast.

    In that moment I felt a great uneasiness that couldn¡¯t be expressed. Yet even so, I still approached her so that I could learn of its cause. Before I knew it, I was being pierced in the abdomen by a sheath knife.

    Even though I had a strong body, and the degree of injury was curable with regenerative medical treatment, I could still feel the severe pain that came from the blade that was being rotated which aimed at gouging out my internal organs.

    It was within expectations that I would not die if the sheath knife used was made from a lump of ordinary metal, but what Aoi used, was the [Nenekaruri]; a B-rank ceremonial knife with an additional thunder property created by SAKUMA Heavy Industries, Ltd. Ironically, it was one of the goods sold by the company my uncle worked at. Simply put, it¡¯s a single molecular cutter with the abilities of a high voltage taser and other weapons. It¡¯s a kind of proximity equipment that increases in sharpness when the thousand tiny blades installed on its side start to spin like a chainsaw moving at very high speeds. Once activated, a high-voltage current pours through the victim who is stabbed. The victim¡¯s movement is then temporarily paralyzed. It¡¯s also equipment used by the military.

    I didn¡¯t even have time to think about why Aoi had such a thing. Nevertheless, I was pushed down, restrained, and was stabbed by the sheath knife repeatedly. The amount of blood my mouth vomited was unusual as my body was being pierced relentlessly. Every time the knife penetrated my skin, I could feel the meat and bones getting torn up while my blood splattered everywhere.

    Before I knew it, the slender frame of Aoi riding on my body, had been dyed red in blood.

    Although I had become a strengthened human after undergoing a reinforcement operation, and exceeded ordinary humans because of my occupation¨CI was disappointingly killed by Aoi who was a mere civilian. What does this mean? I know the performance of the sheath knife may be amazing, but was it strong enough to destroy the body of a strengthened human? Was she really capable of breaking down my stance with a surprise attack? Even if movement was impossible due to the high voltage current, was that really so?

    Why¨C Well, this situation is regrettable.

    At that time, Aoi¡¯s figure, that was stained red with my blood, was too impressive to remember in detail.

    Oh, well¡­

    Anyway, I was killed. I was killed by Aoi.

    A mortal wound can¡¯t be cured even after receiving regenerative medical treatment. The last thing I saw was the knife¡¯s point approaching my eyeball, which would mean it was approaching my brain; a uniquely unreproducible organ, was going to be completely destroyed. After my head was completely lacerated, my consciousness eventually melted into the darkness.

    However, the story doesn¡¯t just end there. The reincarnation hadn¡¯t started yet. My consciousness remained steadfast and didn¡¯t change in any way, until I finally noticed it. I memorized that last scene right before losing consciousness, but didn¡¯t I die? Was it just a dream or am I drunk? I rejected the idea momentarily. ?The answer was reflexive and indifferent.

    I was killed for sure. I could remember the pain caused by the electric current running through my veins, and the coldness of the blade that cut through my chest. This is absolutely not an illusion. Yet I¡¯m alive. As to why¨CI¡¯d like to know myself. As I was thinking that, my heavy eyelid opened.

    There I saw it, I was looking at something extremely ugly. It made me think that I¡¯d been reincarnated. It was this conclusive evidence that made me realize¡­ Oh¡­ Sorry I suddenly feel sleepy, but it doesn¡¯t end here¨CTomorrow I¡¯ll continue¡­ It wasn¡¯t the darkness of death but the result of being fatigued.

    * * *

    I woke up with a click. When I opened my eyes to gather information, I couldn¡¯t move my head for some reason. As a result, I wasn¡¯t able to grasp a lot of information. Still, I was able to understand one fact: Though it¡¯s regrettable, the story about reincarnating wasn¡¯t a dream, or a delusion which I had created while being drunk.

    With a little more effort, and with my limited vision, I could determine a few more things. It appears that I was in the middle of a cave. Signs of it being handmade weren¡¯t found so the possibility of it being natural was high. The feeling of the rags I used as a blanket were the worst. They felt stiff¡ªand they were clearly dirty. The soil on my back was uncomfortable, and a pebble was digging into my skin, so it hurt a little, though it didn¡¯t matter.

    More importantly.

    There were a lot of ugly children who had green skin and sharp ears. Although I was wearing cloth, they were asleep and stark naked. There were about 30 in visible range, with twenty of them being the size of a human baby. The others were the same size as a human child; adults I presume.

    ¡­Well, that was the conclusive evidence that I reincarnated though. Considering that if I move my hands, I can see baby skin identical to that of the surrounding Goblins, and in each finger, a sharp black nail was clearly visible. If I wasn¡¯t reincarnated, what else could it be?

    Though I wonder if this in itself is solid proof. My arms were exactly like that of the baby Goblin sleeping next to me.

    Apparently, the ESP ability I gained from strengthening surgery seemed to have decreased in rank due to the new body. I cried for a moment, seriously. The body that I have doesn¡¯t seem to move properly because I was a newborn. Today, like any other Goblin child, I spent the day sleeping.

    I wasn¡¯t escaping from reality at all.

    * * *

    I¡¯m determined to survive in my second life, yet after reincarnating, I decided to give up moving since it couldn¡¯t be helped.

    Through my previous job, I had learned that living dirty and having the capability to quickly change one¡¯s thinking, was an indispensable skill.

    Apparently, the growth of a Goblin is characteristically fast. Even though its only the third day since birth, my body has been growing rapidly.

    While my body used to be that of a baby before I went to sleep, its figure currently now is that of an elementary student¡¯s. Although its still weaker than before my reincarnation, compared to yesterday, my body¡¯s power had sky-rocketed. I was able to stand up, and even run at moderate speeds, so I felt indescribably happy. I frolicked instinctively, though it was childish, the stress of being unable to move as I liked had accumulated.

    Well, this is only natural. When compared to the civilization built by humans, who grew up without worry of being attacked by a foreign enemy, Goblins, since the moment of their birth, must deal with the fierce struggle for survival. The humans grew slower than the Goblins who lived in the natural world, where the law of the jungle forced their offspring to grow faster.

    Since my body could move now, I spent my time today learning this body¡¯s limits. I did exercises with my body until I was comfortable with it, and in the end collapsed from exhaustion.

    Still, this bed¡­ don¡¯t we have anything better?

    * * *

    After reincarnating into a Goblin, I went hunting for the first time. Or rather, those who do not work, do not eat. Newborn Goblins were restricted to eating chubby caterpillars for nourishment¨Cno, I¡¯m not saying I don¡¯t like them, they¡¯re unexpectedly delicious, but we didn¡¯t have an unlimited supply of them. Hunting was unavoidable since rationing was no longer available ¨Caccording to the Goblin manager.

    Only after the 4th day since birth does one need to hunt. It teaches one the strict laws of nature. As expected, it would be too hard to do alone. I made a buddy/sacrificial pawn, named Gobukichi, by using some lies and flattery while we walked in the forest.

    The Goblins in this world seemed to be simply idiots.

    Well, at least that made it easy to trick them.

    Oh, that¡¯s right. Goblin breeding can be done between the same race, however the conception rate seems to be low. To overcome that, they kidnap women and violate them until they¡¯re pregnant.

    You see, yesterday I found a rusty sword near the back of the cave. While picking up the sword, I stumbled across a room with several women. Many of them were stripped to rags even though their levels were higher than those of the Goblins.

    There was a beautiful child in an extremely cruel state. Her whole body was defiled by a cloudy liquid, and her vitality, which seemed to grow weaker with every breath, was ever more fleeting. She was surely on the verge of death¨Ca severe incident to be aware of.

    It was easy to guess where they were kidnapped from. At my current strength, I know too well the extent of what I can do, so I can only pray as I clasp my hands with a ¡°Namu Amida Butsu¡±. This was only a mere consolation though.

    Perhaps, someone there was my present mother, but that¡¯s too depressing to think about, so I¡¯ll leave it alone for now¡­

    Indeed, It was better for two to work together than to hunt alone, but it was regrettable that Gobukichi tried to eat the prey without my consent, so I hit him with a tree stick to teach him about hierarchies. Eventually, he rolled over so I switched to dismantling the spoils.

    The result of our first glorious hunt was a light, brown rabbit that had a 20 cm long horn growing out of its forehead, so I decided to call it a ¡°Horned Rabbit¡±. Though the horn was sharp, it was a bit small for a human to use, but because of that, it was the perfect size for a Goblin. It didn¡¯t cut like a blade, so piercing and thrusting it like an estoc would be a more suitable way to use it.

    Goburou obtained Small Animal Horn!!

    The moment I picked up the horn, an announcement resounded somewhere, but it was probably just my imagination.

    Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, but my current name is apparently Goburou. The Goblin Elder named me that when I opened my eyes for the first time.

    Even though its not exactly to my tastes, I tolerated it since I don¡¯t want to use the name I had before.

    Basically, I gave up.

    Even though I acquired the rabbit¡¯s horn as a lethal weapon, it was still troublesome to peel the skin off of its body. It was even more difficult to ignore the stares of Gobukichi while he drooled, which made his face even more ugly than usual. Wanting some peace, I decided to divide the rabbit in half, and gave one to him. I tried my best to peel the skin off of mine, but it grew too troublesome, so I ate and munched the meat together with the skin.

    I was able to procure a weapon and eat fresh meat, this was indeed a significant 1st day.

    The meat was delicious; while the mysterious insects weren¡¯t bad, but they just couldn¡¯t beat real meat.

    * * *

    We went hunting for food today too. Gobukichi was forced to clearly understand our hierarchy, with who¡¯s above and below whom, after going through my ¡®instructions¡¯. The experience yesterday helped us obtain prey immediately today. Although it was just another horned rabbit, it was at least twice the size of the one before. It might¡¯ve been even more dangerous though because Gobukichi was only using a wooden stick, while I still had the horn from yesterday. Its performance in combat was better than I expected.

    While Gobukichi caught the rabbit¡¯s attention, I smashed its spinal cord and gouged out its heart from behind.

    Though a small portion of the horn was damaged due to the rough handling, the battle was still a success because of the spoils we had received.

    Just like the rabbit that was killed yesterday, I broke off its horn.

    I unintentionally called the weapon ¡°The Most Legendary Horn¡±, but the announcement which came after corrected me.

    Goburou obtained Small Animal Horn!!

    I decided to ignore it since I don¡¯t understand it very well. While I was thinking that, I found Gobukichi staring at the game with hungry eyes.

    While munching the meat, crunching the bone, and slowly gulping it, I felt as though my entire body was brimming with life.

    This convinced me of a matter that I had thought of yesterday.

    It seems that even through reincarnation, I had retained the ESP ability [Absorption]

    This means that I¡¯m like in a New Game Plus mode since I inherited it.Though I wasn¡¯t very happy about it in the start.

    By the way, from the time mankind was able to advance into space and even several centuries before that, the probability to be born with an ESP ability was one out of a thousand. Some even say that the [Psychic] are an evolved version of the human race. Though some might say that, ESP abilities are a non-successive kind of gene.

    There is no such thing as a [Psychic] with a one-hundred percent chance of passing on their ESP capability to their child. The probability of inheriting abilities isn¡¯t absolute, so how they¡¯re developed is a mystery.

    ESP capability had become a natural part of everyday life. Even if somebody developed an ability through an unnatural way, like by coming into contact with aliens, because psychic powers were recognised as part of a person¡¯s individuality, nobody would look down on that person. The time when [Psychics] were persecuted for their abilities was over. Though if a user was still uncomfortable with their power, devices that were capable of suppressing it could be bought in the market.

    My [Absorption] ability was a major power, even rarer than the likes of [Psychometry], [Telekinesis] and [Teleportation], which were of the general class. It made it so, no matter how hard or poisonous something was, I would be able to eat it. My teeth could tear through the likes of iron and gold easily. While toxins would be restructured, rendered harmless and edible in my body. The characteristics of whatever I ate, whether it be an item or another living being, would be absorbed and assimilated into me, so that I could use them as well. This was an ability that could only be obtained at a fixed probability.

    I¡¯m not quite sure how it works though¡­ Oh well, I just wanted to inform you about what my ability was. To question the principles of supernatural powers would be nonsense.

    By the way, just because I¡¯ve eaten something that has an ability, doesn¡¯t guarantee that I¡¯ll absorb its powers. For example, if what I just ate was a living being, its freshness is an important factor as to whether I¡¯ll get an ability or not. After its death, I have twelve hours to eat it before the chance to absorb its abilities are gone.

    That said, there are certain parts that give abilities easier than others such as the heart and the brain, where most of the power is concentrated. Physical strengthening, and an improved recovery rate, can be obtained in addition to the ability absorbed. Furthermore, if the being that I consumed was stronger than me, there was a certainty of simultaneously acquiring multiple abilities. Moreover, its possible to strengthen an ability that¡¯s been acquired, by consuming the original ability owner multiple times. Although [Absorption] isn¡¯t strong on its own, the more I eat, the stronger I become. Naturally, there is a limit though.

    Before I reincarnated, I strengthened myself by devouring creatures of mass destruction, and evil-doing espers.

    Unfortunately, the abilities I had gotten from them seemed to have been reset. Since there were some useful powers there the reset had been regrettable, but I was fortunate enough to keep the [Absorption] ability which more than made up for it. Thus, food, like the horned rabbit and the mysterious insects, should be eaten without hesitation. It was mortifying, however, to know that it was the only ability that I retained after my reincarnation.

    Since it¡¯s necessary to eat for survival, common sense and ethics could be easily discarded. The ability I obtained this time was called [Escape]. ¡°When fleeing or running away, the probability of escaping and adapting to the environment increases.¡±

    I wonder why the rabbit didn¡¯t try to escape when we confronted it today¡­ Oh well. After that two more horned rabbits were successfully captured and eaten. Going to sleep with a full belly was a pleasant feeling. It seems that the amount that Gobukichi is relying on me is rapidly increasing. It¡¯s probably because the law of the jungle rules this world that contributed to him recognising me as the superior being.

    * * *

    Apparently, newborn Goblins are weak enough to be easily defeated by horned rabbits, and because of this, nuts were the staple food which most of them ate in order to survive, or so I¡¯m told by Gobumi-chan. You see, Gobumi-chan was another Goblin from our generation, and although she had ¡°beauty¡± in her name, it¡¯s a pity that she wasn¡¯t that beautiful. All the Goblins (the small fries) had the same ugly face, so there wasn¡¯t much of a difference. Me? I¡¯m no exception. I confirmed this while washing my body in a nearby river.

    Well, according to Gobumi-chan, the other Goblins couldn¡¯t compare to my good looks. I didn¡¯t rejoice when she told me I was handsome. To what degree what degree is a Goblin even considered handsome anyway?

    I stared into the distance for a moment.

    By the way, after asking Gobumi-chan for her opinion on Gobukichi, it turns out that he¡¯s normal¨Cthat¡¯s good.

    Going back to the story, Goblins are fundamentally weak by nature. Therefore individuals with wisdom and luck seem to survive. Only a selected few with that degree of capability can be considered a true companion in order to survive. Tough indeed.

    Well, I asked Gobumi-chan¨Cprecisely how many Goblins? May be non-existent¡ªmany has fallen prey from the horn of the horned rabbit.

    After hearing those words, I thought, ¡°Eh? Seriously?¡± though the words flowed out of my mouth. After all, average sized horned rabbits are only a bit bigger than the Japanese rabbit. Moreover, apart from its length, the horned rabbit makes efficient use of its two legs to execute an overhead attack to kill Goblins¡­.Oh, I agreed that it¡¯s possible.

    After all, intelligence was not found in those wooden stick wielding fellows.

    To strike and kick as assault was typical.

    Fighting bare-handed will certainly get you killed.

    The horn of the horned rabbit is a weapon. Only idiots will fight it upfront while being unarmed. Having a small body may also be a cause. The horn will pierce from below and towards the abdomen.

    However, recently Gobukichi-kun imitated me by equipping a wooden stick although I even see clever Goblin equipping it here and there.

    That day I made Gobumi-chan as the third person in hunting as a reward for the information.

    Horn rabbits are seriously delicious.

    It was raining today, so we were relaxing and working in the cave.

    Clonk-clonk sounds were reverberating while I was striking and grinding a mysterious obsidian-like rock I found yesterday by the riverside. I¡¯m trying to turn it into something knife-like.

    No, I wished to have fur clothes soon. I wanted to graduate from the worn out cloth but the horn was not suitable for cutting.

    Partly because I was making a terrible noise, partly because they were interested in what I was doing, the goblins born at the same time as me drew close, however by ignoring them them while continuing to work they later scattered. Good riddance.

    The older goblins for some reason were smiling while observing me. I don¡¯t know why.

    Oh well, since I was able to make three pseudo-knives until slightly past noon, I¡¯ll consider this good. Since both my hands were starting to hurt slightly, I decided to end it at that.

    But, the pseudo knife manufacturing halted since it is just something to do in my spare time. There are two persons, Gobumi-chan-chan and Gobukichi-kun-kun who were staring at my work without getting bored¨Cno, next time I will count not by person but by goblin ¨CI called for a strategy meeting concerning the formation of the next hunt.

    Various opinions were noisily being voiced¨Calthough it is a field where I am mostly unchallenged, Gobumi-chan-chan who is smarter than Gobukichi-kun-kun did offer her opinion once in a while. Gobukichi-kun-kun was constantly nodding, since he¡¯s an idiot. The remarkably wrinkled goblin approached us.

    This goblin is Gobujii. He is[Goblin Community]¡¯s oldest goblin, he possessed a social position close to an advisor, and above all, my name Goburou was given to me by this grandfather.

    The strategy meeting was postponed to listen to the various stories Gobujii-san told us. No, Gobujii-san has a uselessly long life but, he has very extensive knowledge, so I do not want to miss this opportunity.

    Well, because it would only take about 20 years and a little to be called an elderly goblin, this body will not be able to have a long life¡­Hahaha.

    I pulled myself together.

    Gobujii told us many things about this world such as, the rules for levels and Rank Up, Apparently such a thing exists, why in this cave except for us newly born goblins, there were only elderly goblins around, among other things.

    Let¡¯s leave this worlds levels, Rank Up and such for later, let¡¯s first talk about the goblins who live in this cave.

    Apparently the young goblins, maybe our goblin parents, are working away from home in the forest. Working away from home, in short pillaging right? I understand.

    Eh, are goblins so weak that they easily die from horned rabbits? No no, that is a newborn goblin right? Goblins are certainly weak as a race however, isn¡¯t this the reason for why the goblins who are born in this forest are able to move the day after, training to kill using a wooden stick and throwing stones in order to learn how to support themselves, literally learning cunning tactics and the skills needed for living by risking their lives.

    The weak die, the strong live, I understand this very simple yet severe law.

    Really, so merciless I¡¯d cry.

    Well, lately there are many individual who imitated us by pairing up when hunting horned rabbits. Because of that the surviving individuals numbered more than ever.

    While I was nodding and saying ¡°I see!¡±, I saw that somehow Gobujiis loincloth began to change shape. Apparently his long life hadn¡¯t dulled his desire to spawn progeny, or perhaps he sensed that his death was close.

    Ugh, after almost puking, I wanted to stop our talk as soon as possible and averted my gaze.

    As if I can gaze long at that thing.

    Since our talk had ended, his face showing how pleased he was with himself, Gobujii got a look of lust and went to the inner parts of the cave.

    A short while later, feeble feminine shrieks were heard.

    I put my hands together and prayed twice for the sake of the captured women.

    Doing anything more than this is for the moment impossible for me, someday I¡¯d like to set those women at peace.

    Still, even living under those conditions is for sure unfair, I think.

    Even I felt that much sympathy.

    Our trio consisting of me, Gobukichi-kun and Gobumi-chan went out hunting this day.

    At any rate, for the past few days we have managed to become quite fully equipped (although the equipment is so crude that I don¡¯t know if it should count).

    From several horns, I choose two comparatively large ones which I dual wielded.

    In case I was ever hit, I created a simple body armor full of gaps by binding the remaining horns together with ivy which I fastened around my body.

    The horns are surprisingly hard, but against thrusting attacks the armor has little effect, however against blunt damage it¡¯s quite effective.

    This should be plenty enough protection to ensure I don¡¯t get any serious injuries.

    Gobukichi-kun is covered by a wooden breastplate and is wielding a club.

    The club is so thick that he has to use both hands to hold it, and the handle was shaved using horns to make it thinner.

    Well, since he¡¯s both the physically strongest out of us and the most stupid, hitting stuff with his full strength is the style that he can use the most to his advantage.

    Together with the scraps from the horned rabbit pelts and a sturdy piece of ivy, I had constructed a simple staff sling, strengthening Gobumi-chan¡¯s ranged capabilities.

    She used stones lying around as ammunition, and was our rearguard who could deal with birds and so forth, specializing in ranged combat. She was currently not equipped with armor, but given the time I¡¯d like to construct some for her.

    By the way, the worn-out loincloth is still standard equipment. I want new clothes.

    However yeah, with increased numbers it gets easier as expected.

    With Gobukichi-kun as the vanguard, me as midrange, and Gobumi-chan covering the rear support, this formation was surprisingly effective, so the fruits of todays hunt was in addition to the horned rabbits also new prey.

    One was a poisonous snake with a length of 60 centimeters, a diameter of approximately 6 centimeters, covered with black scales with a speckled pattern. There were three of them and I named them ¡°Night Vipers¡± (temporary name).

    Another one looked like a bat, although I fear that it¡¯s probably something else, they couldn¡¯t help but stand out since their wings were shining in seven different colors. We found one of them and I named them ¡°Sevencolored Bats¡± (temporary name).

    The third one looked like what¡¯d you get if you added an armadillo and a racoon dog together, the back was covered with a hard shell. We found two of them and I named them ¡°Armored Tanuki¡± (temporary name).

    And this time we routinely caught two horned rabbits.

    This is a perfect result.

    However at any rate, Gobukichi-kun and Gobumi-chan seemed to be strongly insisting on something by staring at me with round and cute eyes while uncontrollably drooling.Well, it¡¯s not like I don¡¯t understand them.

    While the other goblins would have eaten the captured spoils on the spot where they caught them, because I wanted to appropriate the usable parts to make weapons of them, which compared with eating them took more time.

    I also wanted to disassemble everything at the same time, so we didn¡¯t get to eat in the middle of the hunt.

    That¡¯s why I understood why¡¯d they get hungry.

    But I ignored this, continuing the work. When they disappointedly hanged their heads I felt that was enough.

    Oh well, It can¡¯t be helped.

    After removing the horn from the horned rabbit, I threw the body towards Gobumi-chan and Gobukichi-kun.

    Originally I wanted the pelt too, but the drooling appearance of Gobumi-chan and Gobukichi-kun was too pitiful to look at.

    But Gobumi-chan and Gobukichi-kun were for some reason staring blankly at me after receiving the meat, slightly bending their heads to one side in puzzlement.

    Even though I told them not to eat I handed them food, so I think they were wondering what to do, so this time I told them: ¡°Because this is going to take a while, so eat this. ¡±

    After looking troubled for a while, Gobukichi-kun and Gobumi-chan greedily munched on the simple food.

    Both goblins had bloodstains around their mouths.

    After averting my eyes, I first decided to remove the shell of the Armored Tanukis.

    Since I couldn¡¯t break the shell with the horned rabbit horn, I had no objections to using it for the construction of armor.

    Here the (pseudo-)knife I made yesterday of a material that looks kind of like obsidian became handy.

    It¡¯s cutting edge wasn¡¯t really stellar, however compared to cutting with the horn it was leagues apart.

    I knew how to separate it however, however it seemed like the armored tanukis shell had stuck together to the skin, so it was easier to remove the skin with the shells attached.

    After a slightly close fight, I managed to tear off the entire skin together with the shells and a mysterious announcement was heard again.

    [Goburou has obtained Shell beasts skin furnished with shells!!]

    Like usual I thought, What¡¯s this?. However, I soon concluded that I should leave it alone.

    I decided to also gain some nourishment before I continued, so I tore the armored tanukis heart, brain and right leg to pieces and ate them.

    I gave the rest to Gobumi-chan and Gobukichi-kunGobukichi-kun. There was still meat left after all.

    Nevertheless, the meat of the armored tanuki tasted good! The texture when chewing it was seriously awesome.

    When chewing the flavors mixed together into a wonderful blend.

    Aah, I¡¯ll try to eat a bit of the shell to assess it.

    Ability [Shell Defense] learned.

    From just chewing it slightly, I learned the ability.

    It might have been because I ate the heart, brain, and right leg earlier.

    Incidentally [Shell Defense] is the ability to when using objects made from organic shells increase defensive power, increase chance to block damage and reduce the chance of being hit with fatal attacks.

    Yes, it¡¯s a fairly good ability.

    It¡¯s profit, profit.

    Feeling good, I finished skinning the other armored tanuki quicker this time, since I now knew how to do it.

    In my previous working place I got used to dissecting creatures, as long as you have the know-how it¡¯s easy to do.

    This time I ate half the meat and I threw the remainder to to Gobumi-chan and Gobukichi-kunGobukichi-kun, after which I ate some more shells in order to raise the level of [Shell Defense] slightly.

    Ah, calling it levels is just an expression of mine, to make it easier to understand I¡¯m just calling it levels and theres no specific meaning behind it. Understanding that the ability has gotten stronger than earlier is enough.

    Next I started to disassemble the seven-colored bat.

    I removed the entire pretty seven colored wing, and drew out the fangs who looked like they were for sucking blood.

    Then I split the meat and we all shared it.

    The flesh of the seven colored was compared to that of the armored tanuki very tender, yes, a very good taste.

    Or how should I put it, ever since turning into a goblin, all food I¡¯ve eaten has tasted good.

    Is this perhaps because I¡¯ve gotten the sense of taste of the race I was born as? Not that I really care anyway.

    I¡¯m afraid that I didn¡¯t learn any ability from eating the bat, however my physical ability seemed to be slightly increased, and after eating the meat my body felt a sense of fulfilment.

    My ESP ability [Absorption] didn¡¯t only give me abilities like [Shell Defense], but also could increase my physical strength, defensive strength and vitality and such, thus strengthening my body which I was very thankful for.

    ¡­Even so, I wonder if my ESP ability originated from my soul?

    I had the feeling I¡¯d heard about how a famous scholar from somewhere had written a thesis named [Getting infected by a special virus causes ability to appear in compatible persons] or maybe I haven¡¯t.

    While looking slightly puzzled, I realized that I had no means to ascertain the truth of this matter, and since the knowledge wouldn¡¯t be of any practical use anyway I decided to drop this line of thought.

    Finally I started disassembling todays main dish, the three night vipers.

    First I cut off the head of the snake with my obsidian knife, but since the snake skin was awfully hard the edge of one of the knives got chipped.

    When I hung it up and tried to cut it again it tore off, I thought I could make something of the snake skins so I tore it off.

    With their heads cut off and the snakeskin peeled off, each goblin received one snake each.

    We ate. It was quite delicious.

    Yeah, if this was splashed with sake and burnt, it would be the same as kabayaki (eel dipped and boiled in soy sauce), is how delicious I thought it was.

    Just from imagining it, I started salivating.

    The Horned Rabbit and the Armored Tanukis crispy and slightly hard meat is delicious, and the super tender meat of the seven colored bat is also delicious.

    However, the night viper slightly exceeded those in taste.

    This tastiness caused us to stop working, and all three goblins greedily wolfed down their share.

    Ability [Thermography] learned.Ability [Snake Venom Administration] learned.Ability [Poison Resistance] learned.Ability [Presence Sensor] learned.Ability [Snake¡¯s Evil Eye] learned.

    After eating it, I learned five abilities.

    Apparently the night viper was in a different league compared to the current me.

    When I eat something stronger than I am, the probability that I receive abilities from it significantly increases, this is one of the characteristics of my [Absorption] ability.

    But getting five abilities at once it truly a first.

    My guess is that this is because goblins are a weak species.

    Well, I am truly satisfied with the results of this days outcome.

    The remaining poisoned fang could probably be used as a tool, however if Gobukichi-kunGobukichi-kun and Gobumi-chan who don¡¯t have [Poison Resistance] were to even graze it, they would without doubt immediately be on the verge of death.

    Worst case scenario is that they¡¯d die instantly.

    Besides this time I also received the ability [Snake Venom Administration], which I can use to apply poison to the tip of the horn I¡¯m using currently.

    If I¡¯m not in direct contact this ability doesn¡¯t manifest itself, but compared to the poisoned fang it¡¯s a lot safer to use.

    That¡¯s why just in case something were to happen, I ate the three heads of the snakes myself.

    Because this way is a lot safer.

    Yeah, poison(which is completely harmless to me because of the two abilities [Poison Resistance] and [Absorption] working in concert) only made the food taste better to me by giving the food a slight sting.

    However, two goblins were directing envious gazes at me.

    Hey, if you ate this you¡¯d die, you know?

    It rained today. It was a downpour.

    Thus using the raw materials I acquired yesterday, I will work hard to manufacture new armor.

    The goblin elder earlier told us about the needle like ¡°steel grass¡± and the sturdy string like ¡°slender ivy¡± that grew in the vicinity, so yesterday on the way back we already made ourselves a supply to use when sewing with the armored tanuki skins furnished with shells and the night viper skins.

    The first thing I made was my torso armor. I wanted to use the the armored tanuki skin for the front and back, but the most important part was that the rear part was sturdy, and the rabbit horns that earlier were used to protect the rear were used to patch up the front. I mostly succeeded in closing any gaps.

    With this I have finally ranked up my garment from the worn-out loincloth.

    The previous armor before? No, those were only horns fastened with ivy therefore it cannot be called clothes. Moreover, the worn-out loincloth is equipped by default.

    Next I made a wooden square, I wanted to use the remaining shells to reinforce it.

    Though it is still quite shabby, with this a sturdy shield is completed. This is a present to Gobukichi-kun. No, I use the dual-wield style, and the shield is too oversized for me to use. So Gobukichi-kun who is the vanguard should use it.

    Besides, lately he had started to be able to use the cudgel one-handed, and not using one hand is wasteful.

    When I hand it over, he was very much delighted. Gobukichi-kun was equipped with his wooden cudgel which was the same size as his torso, the shield crafted from the tanuki¡¯s carapace and the wooden torso armor. Yes, he¡¯s starting to look quite good.

    Next is Gobumi-chan¡¯s body armor.

    Utilizing the remaining snake skin and seven prismatic colored bat wings, and a small amount of the remaining horns, I stitched those together and a body armor that reminded me of a national costume was made.

    Because it was made using the seven-colored bat¡¯s wings it was quite vibrant, however the batwings proved to be surprisingly robust and elastic.

    Since the horn was arranged for protecting the vitals, the minimum required level of defense is expected.

    After that I tried to make a necklace out of the seven-colored bats fangs. Well, I felt that I didn¡¯t really have many options for using them so it was more something like a bonus.

    The finished product was presented to Gobumi-chan. She was very delighted too.

    That¡¯s right, next time I craft something I¡¯ll try to make weapons for myself, armor for Gobukichi-kun, and a bow and quiver for Gobumi-chan might be good I think.

    Ah, today¡¯s meal was what I ate during my infancy period (although it was just few days ago), caterpillar like insects. These could be gathered in the cave.

    Because it¡¯s unexpectedly tasty, this bug should not be underestimated.

    Though I did not learn anything from eating it.

    I went out hunting.

    Today¡¯s spoils were Horned Rabbits, Night Vipers and Armored Tanukis.

    We were unable to capture a seven seven colored bat. I felt that I was close to learning something from eating it, but it can¡¯t be helped. Such things happen.

    Ah, by the way even though we encountered various creatures but they all seemed to be a lot stronger than us, so we avoided them and hunted what we were used to.

    Oh well, we¡¯re steadily raising our level, so we¡¯ll hunt them sooner of later.

    Ah, since hunting is finished for today, I will explain levels to you.

    Levels, to put it plainly, is partly a manifestation that makes different individuals strength easy to understand.

    Though I do not understand the working principle, when you squint a number will faintly appear floating in your field of vision.

    The maximum level that can be obtained is 100, and this number can¡¯t be exceeded. Incidentally, right now my level is 86 and, as a goblin, it is fairly high.

    I think it might have risen so much because I¡¯ve been killing and eating high rank stuff like night vipers without receiving a single injury.

    Also, although it might be inconsequential, Gobukichi-kun is 78 and Gobumi-chan is 55. We are getting stronger at a good pace.

    Although to say that as a goblin, even when comparing a level 100 to other races we are still treated as small fry, so right now level does not really matter.

    However, in this world there exist other interesting rules than levels.

    According to Gobujii, when reaching level 100, growth stops there.

    However those individual with potential to grow further do not stop there, but instead can grow stronger through ¡°Rank Up¡±.

    In short, the individual who have accomplishments can evolve into a stronger race, further increasing the individuals power.

    If you assume that today I will keep growing as well, then generally I¡¯d first evolve into a hobgoblin from a goblin, then into an ogre.

    That is the general route.

    Be that as it may, there exists other routes than to evolve into ogres. However, what race you evolve into will depend upon what actions you have performed.

    For example, those who had turned into ogres, drinking the blood of prey willingly, who must have a certain intelligence, strength, and above all a high pride, turn into vampires.

    Those who had turned into ogres, preferring to use heavyweight weapons like axes and large swords, such individuals endowed with unusual strength and resilience turn into minotaurs.

    Those who had turned into hobgoblins, continuing to eat rotten corpses¡¯ flesh and bodily fluids willingly, and finally starts to eat even souls, becomes a [Ghoul].

    Those who were hobgoblin until now, that excel in handling certain weapons such as the sword, katana and spears, certain people who have intelligence and skills closest to a human becomes another existence completely [Half-Blood Lord] it¡¯s divided into various classifications of the [Lord] race system.

    With things being as they are, following this system, by leveling up I¡¯d turn into something related to an ogre.

    This law of the evolution of species is to put it bluntly, very strange, however since it actually happens I can¡¯t deny it, and for me who¡¯s living in a world of survival of the fittest this helps me too.

    Well, Gobu-jii says that usually [Rank Up] doesn¡¯t happen early. Because I wanted to see how far I could go, I didn¡¯t have a problem with that and decided to treat it as a challenge.

    Nevertheless, for example even if I become an ogre, I wonder what sort of evolution I will have.

    I don¡¯t think I will turn into a [Vampire], because I don¡¯t really have very high pride.

    Probably not [Minotaur], since I prefer light thrusting class weapon more than heavier weapons.

    I really dont want to turn into a [Ghoul].

    Well, the ghoul class is an undead, the same as the vampire, and there exist several different undead you can evolve into, for example the spell slinging [Lich] or the headless horseman [Dullahan], according to Gobujii.

    If you want to become an undead type monster, it is easier to turn into a ghoul than a vampire, however losing the flesh of your body is a definite weakness.

    The evolution that seemed best to me from his explanation seemed to be the [Lord], who used various types of weapons.

    Oh well, I still have a long way to go and it is not happening anytime soon.

    Having tired out from listening to his speech, I slept since night had fallen.

 Re:Monster Day 11-20

    Day 11

    Although the results of today¡¯s hunting was only one kind of species, the Seven Colored Bat, we caught quite a few of them, numbering thirty.

    Today we entered one of the caves we discovered while exploring as we were curious if there was anything in it. The cave opened up into a large and gloomy room that had bats crowded together on its ceilings, when¡­

    ¡­Yeah, we were really saved by both of the ¡¾Sense Presence] and ¡¾Evil Eye] abilities that I had obtained from eating the Night Vipers.

    If I hadn¡¯t anticipated the movements of the Seven Colored Bats with ¡¾Sense Presence] and limited their mobility with ¡¾Evil Eye], I¡¯m certain that we would have died, as I wouldn¡¯t have had time to give instructions to Gobumi-chan or Gobukichi-kun.

    The unpleasant truth is that even though they were weaker than us, I was prepared for death because their numbers were at least ten times more than ours. This battle made me realize that numbers are important, after all.

    However, it looks like the three of us managed to survive without suffering any major injuries, such as losing a limb.

    Despite the numerous minor injuries that we had received, we survived because of the new armor that Gobumi-chan and I were wearing, as well as the solid shield which Gobukichi-kun was carrying.

    Well, I think that it¡¯s important that we upgrade our arms, after all.

    Putting the talk about such hardships aside, while the majority were able to run away, I dismantled the Seven Colored Bats that we were able to kill, and secured their wings and fangs. Once that was done, we ate the meat that was left over.

    The meat was delicious, and it seemed to melt in my mouth as I ate it.

    Each goblin received ten Seven Colored Bats, and the amount of meat caused our stomachs to swell as we ate them.

    Ability learned: ¡¾Echolocation]

    Ability learned: ¡¾Pump Up]

    Ability learned: ¡¾Vampirephilia]

    As a result, I was able to obtain three abilities. Well, I guess I would obtain something if I consumed so many of them.

    With this, I¡¯ve acquired all the abilities that I can get from the Seven Colored Bats. Since I can¡¯t reinforce my body and abilities anymore by eating them, it looks like they can only be used to help fill my stomach from now on.

    Given that the growth rate was bad because the Seven Colored Bats are weak, I figure that it¡¯s not necessary to force myself to hunt them in the future. That being said, I will eat them when I want to since they¡¯re delicious.

    Anyway, it¡¯s great that we discovered their nest at the level we¡¯re at. It looks like all of their abilities will be useful.

    ¡¾Echolocation] is a suitable ability for understanding the surrounding terrain and moving my body through it, in addition to using my sense of sight. It looks like it¡¯ll be a good way to prevent surprise attacks, as well.

    In nature, the struggle for survival is intense, so I expect that it will be a very useful ability.

    =============

    Day 12

    As usual, we went hunting in order to obtain food to eat.

    Today we hunted Night Vipers and Horn Rabbits, and we successfully hunted some Armored Tanuki as well. Afterwards, since the sun had started to set, we returned to the cave the same way that we always do.

    Unlike Humans, Goblins are born with ¡¾Night Vision], so the darkness itself isn¡¯t a threat.

    For that reason, I think if we could, we would continue to hunt since we can more or less see, even at night. However, there are many species that are stronger and more ferocious than Goblins that are active at night, so it¡¯s pretty dangerous.

    Well, Goblins are basically a weak species.

    These include the following:

    "Red Bear" which resembles a brown bear with red fur.

    "Triple Horned Horse" which is a monster that''s similar to a horse. Its entire body is covered in light brown scales and it has three horns lined up on its forehead.

    "Demon Spider" which is a spider that''s approximately sixty centimeters in size. It has a characteristic yellow line carved into its black carapace, which appears to be stronger than steel.

    "Green Slime" which is a small-fry monster like the Goblin, but it appears to possess a ¡¾Nullify Physical Attacks]-like ability for some reason.

    And so on...

    I don¡¯t have any motivation to kill them though, since the probability of them killing me is higher than usual.

    As it stands right now, I¡¯d probably be incapacitated in no time if I was hit with a high enough level poison.

    Well, that¡¯s why we return home and don¡¯t go out at night.

    Having said that, we returned to the cave, which appears to be in a safe location.

    After that, I was attacked in my sleep.

    However, I was able to avoid the attack at the last moment while laying in my bed, so I wasn¡¯t injured. This was due to my ¡¾Sense Presence] ability, which is always active.

    The main offenders were Goblins from my generation.

    There were six of them, and they had some intelligence, since they had recently copied my group and started using tree branches as weapons.

    There¡¯s a corner that I habitually sleep in, which I claim whenever I go to do so. Nature won¡¯t go easy on someone even if they¡¯re attacked by their own family with tree branches, though. While they were surprised that their surprise attack on me had failed, I didn¡¯t miss my chance to launch a counterattack.

    The outcome of this was that I turned the tables on them.

    I ended up killing one of the Goblins because I made a mistake in the creation and use of the venom that was dripping from my weapon thanks to my ¡¾Venom] ability, but that couldn¡¯t be helped. Since they were the cause of the situation, they couldn¡¯t do anything about it.

    For the rest of the attackers, I successfully created and applied a muscle relaxant poison and used it to simply stop their movements. Just like that time with Gobukichi-kun, I beat them from top to bottom with a tree branch, but I didn¡¯t kill them. In the end, they were rolling around the area.

    I¡¯ll hear the circumstances behind their attack tomorrow. Since they were injected with a non-fatal poison, they should be better by then, so I¡¯ll have to find out why they attacked me at that time.

    As for goblins, our self-healing abilities are high because we grew up in the wild.

    It¡¯s already too late for one of them, though. I¡¯ll say this again, but that couldn¡¯t be helped.

    However, because there was such a commotion, goblins that were sleeping soundly had started waking up. It¡¯s only natural that the entire cave started to get noisy as a result.

    I thought that they would say something, but Gobujii, the leader of the older Goblins, simply thought that it was survival of the fittest at work, so nothing in particular was said. They simply turned towards the body with a slightly pitiful look in their eyes.

    Since I thought that I would be punished for killing a member of the same species, I was thankful that they didn¡¯t blame me for the death.

    However, Gobumi-chan didn¡¯t understand the situation and was the scariest of them all.

    Even though I pacified her as I restrained her from behind, I couldn¡¯t laugh at the situation because I had the most trouble saving the Goblins that attacked me. At the same time, I was thinking things like ¡°No! A Goblin¡®s skeletal structure won¡¯t let their arm turn that way! It¡¯ll break!¡± and ¡°Their neck won¡¯t turn around anymore! You¡¯ll tear their head off!¡±

    Oh, by the way, Gobukichi-kun was sleeping soundly the entire time. Well, it¡¯s said that sleep helps a child grow. In fact, he¡¯s physically bigger than most of the other Goblins from our generation. Is he ten centimeters taller than I am?

    Because I can rely on him as our vanguard, I think I¡¯ll ignore the fact that he shamelessly continued to sleep during the commotion this time. On top of that, I wouldn¡¯t welcome it if the number of rampaging Goblins increased because he woke up.

    Anyway, in this way, I calmed down the agitated Gobumi-chan.

    I created and spread a weak sleeping poison which I released from my toes. After she lost consciousness, I carried her back to her bed.

    After that, I took the corpse outside since it was unpleasant to leave a corpse of the same species near my bedroom in a pool of its own blood¡­or maybe it was because it had started to smell.

    Thanks to my normal strength being twice what it should be at my current level as well as it being enhanced by the ¡¾Pump Up] ability that I obtained from the Seven Colored Bats yesterday, it was unexpectedly easy for me to finish moving a corpse that had almost the same physique that I have.

    Gobujii said to place the corpse in a slightly remote location so that other monsters would come and eat it, and then told me to run away right after I did so.

    However, once I had carried the corpse a certain distance, I hid myself and ate it. I did this because I was interested.

    My thoughts? Yeah¡­it wasn¡¯t delicious, but it didn¡¯t taste unpleasant either.

    This was the first time I didn¡¯t think something was delicious. I cocked my head to the side and thought about this for a moment. Since I thought that one arm was already enough, I left the rest as planned.

    Well, that being said, today wore me out, so I went to sleep.

    ======================

    Day 13

    We were exploring a mountain located a little deeper in the forest today when we discovered a pig-faced demihuman walking through the mountains with a pickaxe on its shoulder. The color of its skin was brown and its stomach was sticking out, but I could tell from its slightly muscular appearance that it had trained its body to some extent. In addition, the clothes it was wearing were just a little bit better than what a Goblin would wear. It wore this clothing on both the upper and lower portion of its body.

    I felt just a little bit irritated by this fact. The initial clothing that a Goblin has is just a loincloth, after all.

    The superb item that was hanging at its waist was too large, and I want to take the item which can be seen slightly protruding from its clothes by any means necessary.

    Yeah, I want to chop it up.

    It¡¯s likely that I¡¯ve discovered an ¡¾Orc], a monster whose fame is equal that of a Goblin.

    Unlike the Goblin, which has the physique of an early primary school child, its height is a hundred and seventy centimeters¡­ or maybe even more than that? Man, looking at it with my current body, that Orc is huge!

    If one¡¯s unlucky, there¡¯ll be approximately a forty to fifty centimeter difference in height.

    After observing it for awhile, I determined that the Orc we found is something we have a good chance of defeating, even if we launch a frontal attack and fight it alone. However, the problem is their numbers.

    Orcs appear to be a stronger species than Goblins, and there¡¯s a big difference in their physiques. As for my current self, aside from going one-on-one with it, I may not be able to protect Gobukichi-kun and Gobumi-chan if we¡¯re exposed to several attackers.

    If there¡¯s too much of a difference in our numbers, even I don¡¯t know what will happen. I can¡¯t get rid of the possibility that we won¡¯t be able to escape, either.

    Having said that, when we discovered it, it looked like it was a stray Orc.

    Just in case, I used ¡¾Thermography] to check our surroundings, but I have to be careful doing so because my eyes will become useless if I look at the sun. It¡¯s troublesome that it¡¯s so difficult to use during the day, so I used ¡¾Echolocation] to carefully search the area as well.

    As a result, I found that there were no other Orcs around, so we decided to launch a fierce attack on it.

    At first, we closed the distance with it as we remained hidden in the thick bush. Gobumi-chan then used her Staff Sling to fire a stone that was completely soaked in venom at the Orc¡®s eye. Her talent with it has recently blossomed and the stone hit its target with the poison successfully invading its body after crushing its eye.

    I was worried about her handling stones that had been coated in deadly poisons similar to instant death poisons. In the first place, it¡¯s impossible for the fight to end with this, since I can¡¯t refine the poison to the Orc¡®s ability level, yet. However, since it felt acute pain in addition to losing its eyesight, it couldn¡¯t keep its composure.

    Gobukichi-kun had then matched his timing with the attack by smashing his very thick club into the front of the Orc¡®s knee with all of his strength, causing a dull sound to resound as the knee twisted at an angle that shouldn¡¯t be possible.

    The Orc rolled around on the ground and screamed as its ugly pig face became even uglier.

    Because Gobukichi-kun has completely disregarded wisdom and intellect since we began hunting, he was probably able to crush the Orc¡®s body to this extent because his current body build stresses his offensive and defensive capabilities. This incident confirmed that it¡¯s possible for him to break bones as well.

    Gobukichi-kun. This guy, he¡¯s producing results beyond my expectations.

    However, he¡¯s an idiot (this is a compliment).

    Having said that, I enhanced my leg strength with ¡¾Pump Up] and stomped on the back of the Orc that was rolling around on the ground before pinning it down and keeping it from struggling. I then used the two horns I have to stab it in an area that I think would be near the kidneys if this was the back of a Human.

    The Orc inhaled a breath as it prepared to call for help.

    However, Gobukichi-kun swung his club down on its head before it could scream, and an unpleasant sound could be heard despite the fact that he hadn¡¯t crushed its skull. After that, the Orc¡®s blood soaked into the club as he repeatedly swung it down.

    In the end, it wasn¡¯t able to scream.

    As for me, after sloppily churning its internal organs with my horn and simultaneously releasing a muscle relaxant poison from the pointed end that I stabbed it with, I removed the horn and continued to stab the Orc with it until it died.

    In this way, we successfully hunted our first Orc.

    Of course, we ate it after that.

    Gobumi-chan had both arms and the left leg, Gobukichi-kun had everything else below the lower back, and I ate everything else that remained.

    As for the taste, it was like a pig after all. Rather, it was more like high quality pork.

    First off, Orcs are delicious. Pork is delicious!

    Ability learned: ¡¾Libido]

    Ability learned: ¡¾Orc Language]

    Ability learned: ¡¾Detect Analysis]

    These are the abilities that I was able to learn from it.

    It was good luck that I learned ¡¾Orc Language] and ¡¾Detect Analysis]. However, as for ¡¾Libido], although it would allow me to perform outstandingly if I used it, since I¡¯d have to choose a time and a partner in order to do so, I¡¯ll leave it alone for now.

    It looks like I¡¯ll be able to talk to Orcs from now on with ¡¾Orc Language]. Since there¡¯s this sort of ability, if I were to acquire one from this system for the Human language, then I would be able to deal with them.

    Now we come to ¡¾Detect Analysis], which appears to let me understand the abilities of an object I¡¯ve examined (restricted to goods), though this depends on the ability¡¯s level as well. When I used it on a nearby fruit, I was quite surprised that it even displayed whether or not something was poisonous.

    Yeah, it looks like I was able to obtain a very useful ability.

    Man, it was really good luck that I was able to eat an Orc here. However, why it possessed an ability as convenient as ¡¾Detect Analysis] is a mystery.

    Oh, that¡¯s right. I didn¡¯t mention it before, but I also collected the pickaxe that the Orc had. It¡¯s likely that we¡¯ll be able to use it for something.

    After that, we hunted more Night Vipers, Armored Tanuki, and Horn Rabbits as usual. Because the sun had started to set, we returned to the cave.

    We¡¯ve gotten so used to dismantling that I could do it with my eyes closed, and we were able to finish the preparations without putting too much time into it. The results of today¡¯s hunt wasn¡¯t just split between Gobukichi-kun, Gobumi-chan and myself. I also let the Goblins in the cave that couldn¡¯t move well because they¡¯ve been starving for a few days eat as well.

    It¡¯s unpleasant, but the reason for yesterday¡¯s attack appears to be mostly due to the food situation of the Goblins from my generation.

    Anyway, as for the attack¡¯s direct perpetrators, it looks like they wanted to help the Goblins from my generation that hadn¡¯t eaten anything decent in several days because they lacked the strength or wisdom to find food even if they moved around in search of it. There were more females than males among these members.

    However, the attackers were barely able to obtain enough food for themselves, so it wasn¡¯t possible for them to support the others.

    Therefore, since I was able to enjoy the most substantial meals, they wanted to beat me up and make me surrender. Then, they planned to have me gather food for the others. A number of them had gathered, and they thought that it might go well if it was me. It was simple, really.

    Although I was able to laugh and ignore such a thing, it would be troublesome if it happened again in the future. Since they were depending on us to eat, it couldn¡¯t hurt to sell favors for the time being.

    Man, I want to say that I don¡¯t care about those who can¡¯t obtain food on their own, but from what Gobujii told me afterwards, it appears that there are inept Goblins like them in every generation. It looks like most of them died, but as one would expect, they¡¯re too pathetic as the same species as myself.

    This will be the first and last act of compassion that I¡¯ll do.

    Having said that, they expressed their gratitude to me. They were crying as they said thank you.

    Because I don¡¯t need their thanks, I told them to pay me back by catching their own share of prey to eat.

    For now, I gave the pitiable guys a lecture on how to hunt Horned Rabbits.

    I had some of them form parties, and advised them to put all their weight on their foot and crush its backbone after they block its horn by deliberately thrusting it into a tree branch. It¡¯s simple, but I judged that it would be plenty.

    Anyway, this method will be tested in actual combat tomorrow. In exchange for this, I told them to bring their share of the food they ate from today¡¯s spoils to my place when they can.

    This was probably the first time they¡¯ve had meat for food since they were born.

    I taught them how to hunt as well, though it was just the basics.

    If I do this and they repay my kindness with ingratitude, then I won¡¯t hesitate to use them as sacrificial pawns. To be more specific, I can use them as decoys to lure something into a trap if it doesn¡¯t look like I can defeat it without being harmed. I¡¯ll wait for that moment without expecting too much from them.

    Also, the five Goblins that attacked me have already become my subordinates. Naturally, they¡¯re completely obedient to my orders, so I assigned them some daily responsibilities.

    The goods they presented to me for today¡¯s assignment was five Horned Rabbits, which I distributed to the starving goblins.

    As for the phrase ¡°survival of the fittest,¡± it¡¯s really good when you¡¯re one of the fittest, you know.

    I grew tired after I finished distributing the food, so I went and shut my eyes as I rolled into my bed, which had been improved a little with Seven Colored Bat wings.

    Sleepiness immediately came over me.

    ¡¾Your level has exceeded the minimum required value.

    Since special conditions ?Overrunning Lively Motion? and ?Unique Behavior? have been cleared, it¡¯s possible to ¡¾Rank Up] into a ¡¾Hobgoblin ¨C Variant].

    Would you like to ¡¾Rank Up]?

    ?£Ù£Å£Ó? ?£Î£Ï?]

    Although I had a feeling that this was being displayed in my mind, since I was very tired, I picked ?£Ù£Å£Ó? right away and went to sleep.

    ¡¾Goburou has obtained the¡¾Divine Protection] of the Great God governing ?Origin and Demise?].

    =====================

    When I woke up, my body had changed so much that it couldn¡¯t compare to how it was before I went to sleep.

    The changes to my body shocked me, I thought hard about what I heard yesterday before I went to bed. I see, so this is a Rank Up, huh. The mysteries of this world make me shudder.

    No, no, from my own experience I can understand however, the natural laws of this world are so amazing that it¡¯s beyond scary.

    After killing and eating the Orc yesterday, in one night I went from the physical body of a 7-9 year old, to the size of a medium-sized human. My physical strength, eyesight, and hearing had increased dramatically, even the abilities I had gained before yesterday had also become more powerful, you see?

    This is scary. Even though my body had grown a ridiculous amount, I didn¡¯t feel any sense of discomfort at all from my new form. Even though such a huge change should¡¯ve made me go insane, that didn¡¯t happen in the least.

    Even though my body had grown so much, I didn¡¯t feel any muscle pains from it at all, instead, I felt overflowing power that was incomparable to before, like a temporary feeling of omnipotence. Freaky, right? Seriously.

    Now, if I was an ordinary guy I would¡¯ve probably be so happy that I would do stupid things until the feeling passed, however, the reality is that I wasn¡¯t even close to being as powerful as I felt, and therein lies a trap.

    That¡¯s why the rules of this world are scary.Now, that aside.

    It was interesting to watch Gobukichi, who had grown bigger as well, just stand there with a confused look.

    It seems that he also passed over level 100 after the battle with the Orc yesterday, causing him to undergo a Rank Up. However unlike mine, his skin didn¡¯t turn black. In fact, I couldn¡¯t see any difference in his skin colour at all, he was still the same old green.

    Well, let¡¯s put that aside as well.

    What interested me the most was his face.

    He no longer looked like an ugly Goblin like he had used to be. His naive look, in some aspects held some attractiveness. His ears were still pointed, and his nose looked somewhat hooked. Nevertheless he looked a lot like a human. Having green skin might not be very human-like, nonetheless his looks were approaching to that of a one.

    Then, what about me? Wondering this, I checked the obsidian knife for my reflection.

    What I saw was, with black skin, my face from when I was young before I reincarnated.¡­Yeah, as one would expect I was completely stunned until it settled in.For now, I went to the wall close by our sleeping place, grabbed a caterpillar-like mystery bug, and started munching on it from the head.

    After I had calmed down, I grabbed Gobukichi and went to look for the Goblin Elder.

    That¡¯s because if I didn¡¯t make use of the Goblin Elder at times like this, his existence wouldn¡¯t have any point at all.

    Just in case, because it felt risky, I wouldn¡¯t mention the [End and Origin]-ruling [Divine protection of the Great God] that I also received.What I learnt was:

    Upon turning into a Hobgoblin, my body and appearance became closer to a human. The reason for this is unknown. It¡¯s one of the mysteries of the world. Apparently because of the hobgoblin¡¯s human-like appearance, they could even live in human towns. However, there is a long past of Goblin slavery, and most of those coexisting with humans are still slaves. Those with good looks have become sex slaves for human perverts.The difference between Gobukichi¡¯s and my skin color is because I am of a subspecies. Subspecies are generally stronger and have special abilities when compared to the standard one. Unless special conditions are cleared you can¡¯t become a subspecies, which is why they¡¯re rarely seen, so apparently I¡¯m kind of unusual.Furthermore, my skin color is black. Black is the symbolic color of the oldest god of the world, the one who controls the beginning and the end of something-something. Even among the subspecies mine is the absolute rarest while being the strongest, and with studying, they¡¯re capable of learning the strongest magic possible.

    Also, to the believers of this god, I¡¯m somewhat like a living idol, an object of worship. If that¡¯s not the case, then parts of my body are thought to be materials used in rituals to communicate with the god, so I have to be careful when it¡¯s late in towns and stuff. Religion is scary no matter what world you¡¯re in.

    How should I put it, becoming a Hobgoblin when not even a month had passed is supposedly very strange in the first place. The old man who¡¯s still a Goblin said so, so it¡¯s probably true. By the way, of the Goblins who left to work away from home, (apparently exactly 40 Goblins), only 3 had turned into Hobgoblins.Also, because Gobukichi and I had become Hobgoblins before we left the cave, we were allowed to freely use the human women in the cave as we¡¯d like. We also received the right to take things from the warehouse, and use them however we want.

    Oh-. Is that so-?

    ¡­Yes, because he was kind of long-winded, I ignored most of what he said by repeating those those words and pretending to listen. Particularly around point 3, and the reason for that is obvious. Like I said before, no matter what world one is in, religion is scary. Even more so now that I¡¯ve obtained the, and [Divine protection of the Great God] characteristics with my Rank Up. It makes me think that it¡¯ll probably turn into more trouble than it¡¯s worth. I thought that this was something I should hide it as long as possible.

    As expected, we didn¡¯t even consider going hunting today. I practiced martial arts together with Gobukichi in order for us to accustom ourselves to our new bodies, the sparring was especially intense. Gobukichi¡¯s power was too much for him to know how to utilize it, making him quite warlike.

    Though I, who has had an interest in many different forms of martial arts never lost, I could conclude that Gobukichi¡¯s power was at least somewhat stronger than how he was before. As expected, it seems like his abilities are specialized in being the vanguard.

    He wasn¡¯t very intelligent or quick, but his offensive and defensive power had increased tremendously, making him a powerful tank and damage dealer, a hybrid character.Once we concluded our martial arts practice, the afternoon was dedicated to replacing our now too small old armor.

    Since I¡¯ve grown, the horn and obsidian knife I¡¯ve been using have become too small for me to handle effectively. However I¡¯ll just have to bear with it today, my venom by itself is an adequate weapon, so I can overcome this handicap for now.

    That¡¯s why today the plan is to use the stockpiled materials from the Armored Tanukis, Night Vipers and various other monsters to create new armor.

    We used the armored shell from the Armored Tanukis, and the snakeskin from the Night Vipers, to create new equipment. I was satisfied with the results, the armor we created was light, flexible, and quite robust.

    To put it simply, it was an armor based off of leather. We didn¡¯t make cloaks, but since it looked like light brown leather clothes, with long sleeve arms and full-length pants it should be alright. The metal shells were placed in strategic locations, which further increased its defensive capabilities. We thought about our freedom of movement while creating it, so when we tried it out, it performed far better than expected. It barely obstructed us at all.

    We even finished crafting Gobumi-chan¡¯s armor that we couldn¡¯t complete earlier because of insufficient materials.

    Since it¡¯s mainly made out of 7-colored bats it looks a bit gaudy though. It somewhat gives the feeling of being a national costume from somewhere.

    By the way, the food tonight was prepared from horned rabbits caught by the other Goblins.

    It wasn¡¯t filling enough, it was still better than nothing. Since it tasted good I pardoned them.

    * * *

    Our first hunt since our Rank Up to Hobgoblins.

    Since we were displaying the might of our new bodies for the first time, I¡¯m a bit nervous.

    Today, the first prey we encountered was a humanoid with the head of a dog and fur all over its body. I don¡¯t know where it got them from but it was wearing rusted armor with a just as rusty longsword. I decided to name this monster, ¡°Kobold¡±. From observation, it seems the Kobolds are a higher rank than Goblins and about the same rank as Orcs.

    If we include the equipment, then compared to the Orc we ate, it¡¯s probably an even higher rank. In physical strength, the Orc would be more powerful, but the Kobold would be superior in terms of speed and agility.

    These two traits.are embodied in the Kobold.

    If it were the ¡®us¡¯ from before, we would¡¯ve retreated immediately, or more likely, used my abilities to avoid the fight altogether. Using Gobumi-chan¡¯s accurate, poison-covered stones as support, Gobukichi and I faced the Kobolds from the front.

    Excluding myself, who has evolved into a subspecies, Gobukichi¡¯s combat ability increased significantly thanks to his equipments. His cudgel was reinforced by wounding shells around it while his shield was made of shell. The Kobold only had its rusty armour while Goblin-kichi had various shell armours to help him. Gobukichi attacked the Kobold directly.

    Rank Up is scary isn¡¯t it?

    Someone who was weak only just yesterday turned into a great warrior in one day.

    Goblin Kichi got some minor wounds and had Gobumi-chan treat them using some of our medicinal herbs. The Goblin Elder taught us about medicinal herbs earlier.

    While they did that, I took the opportunity to strip the Kobold of its possessions. On his waist hung three stones. Using my [Appraisal] ability, I discovered that they were ¡°Fire Spirit Stones¡±. Apparently non-sentient low-level fire spirits dwell within the stones. I pocketed them and then started stripping off him of his armor. I hung the slightly rusty longsword together with two books I had on my waist.

    From the corpse, I took the brain, the heart and the right arm. Gobu Kichi and Gobumi-chan decided to split the rest evenly.

    They left an impression as they had a strange texture. Although the taste is subtle, they were still delicious.

    Ability [Kobold Language] learned.Ability [Predict] learned.

    As I thought, Kobolds are stronger than the average Hobgoblin. The reason Gobu Kichi could win was because of the huge difference in gear quality. On the other hand, I could win due to my numerous abilities and combat experience.

    Also, after eating the three Fire Spirit Stones,

    Ability [Pyrokinesis] learned.

    I gained the ability to produce fire. In the natural world, it¡¯s hard to overcome this difference. With this I can finally make yakiniku, I thought¡­

    And this was the outcome of the battle.

    After that, we hunted some horned rabbits, then returned.

    Today, the tribute my Goblin subordinates gave me was horned rabbits mixed with Armored Tanukis, which surprised me. ¡°These guys, they¡¯re finally growing up¡­¡± I lamented to myself.I think I¡¯ll give shell shields to the Goblins who are sent to fetch Armored Tanukis in the future.For the evening meal, I grilled the meat the others brought, and we had a yakiniku party.

    * * *

    Today, the other Goblins of our generation begged to me something like :¡±Please teach us the art of killing¡± while prostrating themselves. The Goblins inside the cave were in a row alongside each other prostrating themselves. It was quite the surreal scene to watch.

    You see, the Goblins that brought me food had managed to survive by killing horned rabbits, as expected.. However, they also had Night Vipers to fight as opponents Since we¡¯ve been able to kill them, the Goblins want us, or I should say I, to teach them how to survive against the Night Vipers.

    ¡°What do we gain from this?¡± We asked, and when we told them that they said that they¡¯d give us tribute for it.

    Well, it¡¯s no great loss for us, so before the sun had reached it¡¯s zenith, most of the surviving Goblins, together with Gobukchi and Gobumi-chan, had a combined practice session.

    It¡¯s a dog eat world, so, from the start, I¡¯m thoroughly going to drill into their bodies that I¡¯m superior to them. No matter if the trainee is male or female. Also, since dealing with insurrections is troublesome, I¡¯m going to make obeying me an instinct, by endless repetition if I have to.

    I aim to stop training at the last moment to ensure they don¡¯t have any spare energy, while preventing their bodies and minds from breaking.

    The result was that everyone, including Gobumi-chan and Gobukichi, didn¡¯t had the strength left to move.

    For the Goblins who trained and worked to the point of collapsing, I planned on using the tribute they¡¯ve gathered to make something for them.

    I had the motivation to do something, but its probably better if I didn¡¯t do anything absurd. It¡¯s the end once you die.

    ¡­Gobumi-chan lays exhausted and trembling among the other females, with extreme pride showcasing her armor and necklace, but let¡¯s pretend I didn¡¯t see that.In the afternoon, I went hunting alone for the first time since my reincarnation.

    I don¡¯t know how it was in the beginning, but now I can move around this forest like it¡¯s my home turf, and when I somehow managed to procure enough for the ones who couldn¡¯t move, I concluded that days hunting.

    That evening, I went into the inner parts of the cave, where the human women were held captive. Since I turned into a Hobgoblin, I¡¯ve become closer in appearance to a human, so I thought having a conversation might be possible.

    Well, the outcome was ¨C I couldn¡¯t have a conversation with them. They were completely broken. Their eyes were utterly dead, and they were drooling uncontrollably. There was a faint smell of corpses around them.

    [My version (Josh): Compared to how they were the last time I saw them, they were a lot worse this time. Also, since i last saw her, the youngest of the girls had gotten pregnant. It was an inevitable event, but still, I felt a lot of pity for her. I couldn¡¯t help but think that a girl this cute would have married into a nice family, and yet, she ended up, only to be repeatedly violated.]

    (Original): Compared to how they were last time I saw them, they were a lot worse this time, also in this short time the youngest of the girls had gotten pregnant. Though it was inevitable, I felt a lot of pity for her. I couldn¡¯t help but think that a girl this cute could¡¯ve married into a family, yet she ended up here only to be continuously violated.

    I didn¡¯t want this to continue, and so I asked,

    ¡°Do you want to die?¡±

    If it was the me from before, I¡¯d end up pressing my hands together to offer a prayer, but now that I¡¯ve ranked up into a Hobgoblin, I asked. The way I am now, I¡¯d be able to kill or help these girls if they asked me to. Since even if I was found out, my safety was guaranteed.

    However, my question was left unanswered. There was some movement; her small, weak lips moved slightly, and as if she just remembered how to, a tear fell from her eye. Having understood the women¡¯s intentions, I took from my pouch a small, liquid filled bottle that I had obtained from hunting the Kobolds, which I left behind. After I handed it to them, I walked back to the cave bedroom. I didn¡¯t look back.

    * * *

    I woke up early, and went to the interior of the cave. The captured women were all dead. They all laid still, as if they were asleep. From the look of things, the girls had drank poison and died in their sleep. Where they got that poison is, however, a mystery. Truly, a mystery.

    After taking the small empty bottle that was laid close to them and storing it inside the bag hanging from my waist, being the one who discovered them, I went to report to the Goblin elder.

    The Goblin elder hurriedly rushed over, and in front of the limp pseudo-Goblin that had spilled from the beautiful girls¡¯ womb, he cried bitterly whilst grieving however, I couldn¡¯t care less.

    For the girl¡¯s corpses, I took responsibility for their disposal, and because it was a pity to just let wild animals feed on them, I decided to cremate them. As payment for my labour, I took a heart, a stomach, a breast and a uterus.

    Since the [Pyrokinesis] ability I got the other day wasn¡¯t enough, I thought about what I usually do, so I collected a bunch of [Oily Grass] to make it burn well and a bunch of twigs were used to ensure the heat was enough.

    After using my [Pyrokinesis] to ignite the fire, I prayed for the girls happiness in the next world whilst looking at the pillar of blazing flame.

    Namu Amida Butsu. (Buddhist prayer)

    Among the girls, there seemed to be those with adventurer skills. Quite a lot of them of actually.

    This group of migrant workers, they were perhaps unexpectedly strong. They might only have looked weak because they were captured.

    Ability [Human Language] learned.Ability [Continental Letter Deciphering] learned.Ability [Mental Mapping] learned.Ability [Job-Magician] learned.Ability [Job-Light Swordsman] learned.Ability [Job-Druid] learned.Ability [Job-Craftsman] learned.

    It¡¯s unusual for me, but I didn¡¯t feel the slightest inclination to learn about my new abilities. After morning practice, I sent out Gobu Kichi and Gobumi-chan to go hunting since I wasn¡¯t in the mood, I tried making shell-based shield, armour and sword from the materials accumulated to this day.

    Lately, crafting has become somewhat of a hobby of mine¡­

    Ah, it seems my new skill [job craftsman] became immediately.

    The goods I crafted came out a lot better than before. The ability, like its name implied, corrected the mistakes.

    Speaking of which, the shield and armour came out successfully, the shell-based sword ended up in failure.

    As for my meal, Gobu Kichi and Gobumi-chan shared a part of what they hunted, together with the tribute that had increased since yesterday.

    Ah, this might be a bit late, but Gobumi-chan had also turned into a Hobgoblin today.

    She¡¯d became quite cute, it was intimidating.

    The difference from when she was a Goblin is remarkable.

    Because her old equipment is now too small for her, I lent her my spares.

    She made a subtle expression, happy while unsatisfied, so I decided to make her brand new equipment at a later date.

    Truth is, I would have happily made it today, but there was just not enough time.

    * * *

    After finishing morning practice the three of us gobs came upon some Kobolds while out hunting.

    This time there were three of them, two of which were equipped like the earlier ones with armor and long swords, however the last one had a short bow and a quiver.

    While thinking ¡°Is this the second day in a row to strengthen Gobumi?¡±, I checked the surroundings for additional enemies, in order to make a decision.

    With it being all clear, I chose to commence the assault.

    With the Kobold that could attack from range with the bow and arrows being a higher threat level compared to the others, a sneak attack with a poisoned stone from Gobumi¡¯s staff sling was the decisive action.

    With the poisoned stone hitting the Kobold right in the eye, we stole away the bow wielding Kobolds usual composure and vision.

    Without letting the time while the other Kobolds got in a panic get wasted, Gobukichi and I went to utterly defeat the two Kobolds who possessed long swords that looked slightly better than the ones we got earlier.

    My longsword might be worn-out, but for my current body it¡¯s just the right size, and I¡¯ve gotten used to my body now, so separating the Kobolds head from his body was easy.

    Right now, the horn I used earlier is more like a knife now, which might have made me feel the difference all the more.

    Gobukichi broke all his opponents bones violently, which was kinda gross to look at.

    Gobumi-chan, with the (pseudo-)knife I gave her earlier made of obsidian(-look alike), slit the bow wielding Kobolds throat and then gave it a finishing blow.

    Apparently, Gobumi-chan¡¯s evolution direction lay in brains and speed.

    To use weapons cleverly, intelligence was needed after all.

    After that, we worked hard at disassembling the body. We collected the armor, Gobumi-chan got the short bow and quiver, and I took the slightly better looking longsword for myself.

    Because there was no suitable loot for Gobukichi he will have to wait for the next time.

    While these Kobolds sadly didn¡¯t have any fire spirit stones, my collection of small bags increased by three.

    One I kept for my own use, and the other two I gave to the other Goblins for putting medicinal plants in. Now, if something were to happen, I¡¯m sure they will be of great use. And so, each Goblin got one body to eat.

    I didn¡¯t get any new abilities, and while I felt that with just a bit more I¡¯d gain something more, the ability I already got, [Predict], got slightly stronger. [Predict] lets me see my opponents attack trajectories as red threads, so in battle it can be incredibly convenient.

    After that we hunted whatever we came across, after which we returned to the cave in order to sleep.

    * * *

    After completing morning practice, I didn¡¯t go hunting, instead I went to look at the warehouse in the inner parts of the cave. Since some of the captured girls had adventurer-like abilities, it occurred to me that items relating to those abilities might have been captured together with the girls.

    From just looking at the stuff, even a genius like me couldn¡¯t decide what¡¯s trash and what¡¯s worth keeping, however thanks to the ability I got from the Orc, [Detect Analysis], I could see the items details.

    In addition, since analysing stuff gave the ability experience, even analysing duds wasn¡¯t a waste of time.

    With such a carefree mood, it seems I found a treasure trove. And a fairly large one at that.

    Goblin-rou has obtained [Weapon-Staff] Beginner Magician¡¯s stave.Goblin-rou has obtained [Weapon-Staff] Blessed Mistletoe stave.Goblin-rou has obtained [Weapon-Sword] Iron Estocs x3.Goblin-rou has obtained [Weapon-Dagger] Bowie Knife x4.Goblin-rou has obtained [Weapon-Axe] Iron Battle-Axe x2.Goblin-rou has obtained [Weapon-Ranged] Crossbow x2.Goblin-rou has obtained [Weapon-Consumable] Iron Tipped Arrow x50.Goblin-rou has obtained [Protection-Shield] Iron Round Shield x2.Goblin-rou has obtained [Protection-Armor] Damaged Breastplate.Goblin-rou has obtained [Protection-hand] Solid Iron-Wrought Gauntlet.Goblin-rou has obtained [Medicine] Health Potions that might have gone bad x6.Goblin-rou has obtained [Medicine] Mana Potions that might have gone bad x8.Goblin-rou has obtained [Medicine] Holy Water Bottles of the Enrique faith x3.Goblin-rou has obtained [Storage] Backpacks x2.Goblin-rou has obtained [Storage] Field Pack x3Goblin-rou has obtained [Book] First Volume of ¡°World Wandering Journal: From Imperial Capitals to Unexplored Regions¡±.Goblin-rou has obtained [Book] Second Volume (of three) of ¡°Introduction to magic ¨C Basic sorcery¡±.Goblin-rou has obtained [Book] ¡°Nature of God¡¯s Prayer: Scenario of Receiving¡±.Goblin-rou has obtained [Book] ¡°Recommended guide to Erietta Continent¡¯s Alphabet¡±.

    When going over it, I found treasure after treasure.

    At first glance it seems to be composed entirely of unusable scrap, however below the uppermost layer, lots of useful stuff laid sleeping.Yeah, it seems this place truly is a treasure trove.While there¡¯s no great difference between the estocs I found and the long sword I¡¯m carrying currently, however since they were in a better condition, I decided to swap.

    Comparing the obsidian knife I¡¯d been using till now with the bowie knives, their blades were longer and their edges sharper.The blade is single edged, and only at the tip is it double-edged, I suspect it¡¯s meant to be used as a hunting knife, so I took the knives as well.Four knives might be a lot, but since the production of pocket knives already has begun, there¡¯s really no problem.

    I looked forward to when at a later time I¡¯d disassemble the knives to learn how they were made.

    After that, except for the estoc I picked and the longsword I swapped for it, I ate the rest of the swords.

    Ability [Improved Slashing Power] learned.Ability [Improved Piercing Power] learned.

    I learned [Improved Slashing Power] from eating the longsword, and [Improved Piercing Power] from eating the estocs.

    In order for the reader to understand this, I¡¯ll tell you about my [Consumption absorption ability].

    I learn abilities from more than eating living beings. However, for items above a certain level, the power of the learned abilities depends on the the quality of the item, and for it to enter my mind I must have used the item a certain amount. If I haven¡¯t, then eating the item would be pointless, and in that way I have to keep wondering, ¡°I wonder if this will go well now¡±, I¡¯ve had to practice that perception quite a bit. Even if I make a mistake I¡¯ll recover, I told myself to give me the bravery to keep trying.

    Reaching the top feels really good.

    While I was doing that by myself, Gobukichi and Gobumi-chan came by. Apparently they thought it odd that they couldn¡¯t see me, so they went looking for me. They really came at a great time. I¡¯d taken the potions and other stuff that you could hang on the belt and put in the field pack, I crammed as much of the rest as I could into the backpack. That which I couldn¡¯t fit inside my bags, I asked Gobukichi and Gobumi-chan to carry for me.

    And then Gobukichi graduated from his shell-wrapped cudgel, to a rustic looking battle-axe and his wooden shield with pieces of carapace sewn on was switched for an iron round shield. Since there was a hole in the middle of the round shield, we didn¡¯t really have a choice and made an impromptu fix by attaching a piece of carapace there.

    Then I had him equip the breast plate instead of the shell reinforced leather armor I made for him two days ago. Together with the shell-helmet I made for him two days ago, Gobu Kichi¡¯s defense was the highest by far out of us three.

    He totally looked like heavy infantry.

    He kept the cudgel he had used till today strapped over his back as a spare.

    To Gobumi-chan, I gave the two crossbows and 50 arrows. In addition, I gave her the obsidian knife I had been using till now in addition to one of the bowie knives to use as insurance, but any more than this was, when looking at the weight of the stuff she was carrying, the limit.

    Nevertheless, out of us three, the one with the highest ranged offensive power was her and with her deft handling of the two knives, her offensive potential shouldn¡¯t be made light of.

    For how she looked, the impression she gave was of either a hunter or an archer.

    And at the end, myself. Two long swords were replaced by an estoc, with a small shield reinforced by shells similar to the one Gobukichi has. This shield was made so it could be fixed to the right arm, and still allow me to move my wrist without problems.

    To protect my left hand, I equipped the gauntlet wrought from solid iron. The gauntlet had less defensive power than the round shield, however if the aim was just to deflect attacks then it should be enough.

    This way I had reasonable defence, whilst not hurting my ease of movement too much.

    With the effects of the ability [Job Light Swordsman] added, I feel like it¡¯s risen by another level again.

    And also, since today the Goblins collected an earlier unthinkable amount of tribute for us, we returned to them. I couldn¡¯t eat it all; it was far too much.

    * * *

    The morning was spent with practice. Compared to when we started, the expressions of the Goblins had changed. Yeah, because Goblins mature quickly, startling changes can be seen even in a short time, if training is done in earnest.

    This might be because, if they don¡¯t quickly adapt to their surroundings, they¡¯ll simply die.

    In the afternoon, we hunted. We caught 10 Night Vipers, 14 Armored Tanukis and 5 Kobolds. This is probably mostly because our equipment had rapidly become a lot better. Or perhaps I should say, the deadly combination of Gobumi-chan¡¯s powerful and accurate shots with the crossbow together with the rapid firing of the short bow was brutal. Because Gobu Kichi and I acted as her shield, it became even more brutal. To bring the battle to an end, Gobu Kichi used his high defense and his battle axe to decapitate the remainders.

    Together with my abundant abilities that I used to continuously vary my attack pattern and the direction of the battle, opponents like Kobolds didn¡¯t pose the slightest threat for us. Perhaps with how things stood right now, even if the Kobolds turned up with twice our numbers we¡¯d probably not have any problems.

    Only, what I truly wanted to eat was Orcs. This was in order to strengthen the ability I got from the Orc earlier; after that one time, we hadn¡¯t seen even one Orc.

    I quickly wanted to find more Orcs; however, today I went back ahead of time to the cave in order to read books.

    Well, having the ability [Job Magician] is nice and all, and that my magic power was increased by my subspecies was also nice, but because I hadn¡¯t the foggiest idea what magic was, I couldn¡¯t actually use any magic. That¡¯s why, in this way I was reading ¡°Introduction to magic ¨C basic sorcery¡± until morning came up the day after.

    You might say I had surprising difficulty getting a grasp of it, which made it a rough trial. Or rather, I feel there¡¯s a limit to how much I can understand just from reading books. And what¡¯s more, I started from the second volume of three!

    If only, I could see someone use magic at least once!

    Time, without listening to my screams, steadily moved forward.

 Re:Monster Day 21-30

    The morning practice hasn¡¯t even been going on for a week, yet Goblins who¡¯ve turned out to be somewhat useful are popping up here and there.

    As I thought, because the realm of nature is a severe living environment, or perhaps because we belong to a precocious-type species, the Goblins who underwent the soldier training program had their strength grow considerably. The training program is something that I had composed from useful parts I gleaned from my company¡¯s servers before I died.

    Recently some of the underlings even managed to kill Night Vipers, and even the worst of them at least manages to kill Horned Rabbits by themselves.

    Those Goblins, who a few days ago couldn¡¯t even get their own food, can all manage by themselves now, and I, as their teacher, feel mightily proud about this fact.

    However, the Gobujii and his cronies found the results genuinely astonishing, and they treated me with stares both filled with affection and awe. I think the special treatment is kinda handy, still it¡¯s also slightly depressing. Well, it does me no real harm so I guess I can just ignore it.

    When the sun arrived at its summit, I personally began training with the Goblins; I spent the rest of the day doing such. That way, I can get a grasp on each individual¡¯s abilities. I can also catch any weaknesses or bad habits they¡¯ve developed and teach them the proper way. Also, being able to single out the best individuals is useful, and above all it also serves to strengthen me. In this strict world, there are no disadvantages to having a well trained body. That¡¯s why I thought 38 battles in a row was good practice.

    After the session, I once again came to the realization that Gobukichi-kun and Gobumi-chan are, amongst their generation, head and shoulders above the competition.

    Regarding the results for Gobukichi-kun from the recent training, it seems he has learnt how to limit the power of his attacks to not cause accidents. Creatures of this world seem to change in direct relation to how much they contribute when in a party. By killing enemies, they get experience that raises their levels and leads to the creation of surprisingly robust bodies by the mysterious laws of this world.

    At the present time, as long as I don¡¯t use my abilities he is a tough opponent, so if all Goblins except me and Gobumi-chan were lined up to challenge him in order, they still probably wouldn¡¯t be able to get even one win.

    Gobukichi-kun however, would not leave without incurring some damage.

    Gobumi-chan is slow when compared to me, however the other Goblins aren¡¯t even a match for her speed. Since she¡¯s a Hobgoblin, her strength is also better than the other Goblins; she¡¯s also grown her nails to be pointed and sharp, and I taught her how to use her nails skilfully. This is in order for her to fight well, even without a weapon. She¡¯s got speed, and if I didn¡¯t have my abilities she¡¯d make a formidable foe.

    However, you might say she¡¯s still a cute little thing. Speaking as an opponent, even when both are unarmed, Gobukichi-kun is still more dangerous in close quarters combat.

    When the practice sparring was over, we broke the group up in order to go hunting. Usually we would go with our standard members, however today we had an additional member in our party.

    This additional member was a female, Gobue-chan. In our generation, she was the next most influential person after us three, and when the Goblins were kneeling in front of us, she was the one in the front.

    Well you see, while the two backpacks and three field packs were a fabulous find, Gobukichi-kun is carrying a giant cudgel on his back, and I don¡¯t think Gobumi-chan can carry any more than she already is.

    Frankly speaking, with me carrying one of the backpacks, one was still left, and while Gobumi-chan and I were each carrying a field pack, one was still unused. That¡¯s why we required one carrier, and Gobue-chan was singled out. If it was her, she¡¯d also barely be able to keep up with our hunting as well. Also, increasing our members with one more strong companion isn¡¯t bad at all. Yes, and of course she¡¯d be carrying the backpack as well.

    When equipping her, we gave her the old leftover shield that Gobukichi-kun used before, together with Gobumi-chan¡¯s old staff sling. We also gave her the carapace reinforced ceremonial looking costume, the obsidian knife and a bowie knife. Compared to the horned-rabbit horn she¡¯d been using till now, the difference was like heaven and earth.

    Also, because she was going to carry our luggage, carrying any more than this is unnecessary. Or how should I put it, when we¡¯re hunting, our prey will become her luggage, so having her equipment be heavy would be a truly stupid thing. Just enough to protect herself from injury is sufficient.

    Following that reasoning, this time¡¯s hunting was a lot easier than usual. Because unlike before, when everyone had to share the burden of carrying the prey, now Gobue was doing most of the lugging; we finished the hunt without feeling fatigue.

    Carrying heavy luggage, Gobue-chan was tired, but compared to us who easily concluded our battles, there was not such a large difference. Also, since Gobue was also contributing by shooting stones with the sling, she also managed to raise her levels by gathering experience. Perhaps Gobue-chan¡¯s day of turning into a Hobgoblin like us was close.

    We didn¡¯t find any new types of prey, however our stomachs were filled.

    Meat is very tasty, isn¡¯t it?

    After returning to the cave, I read then went to sleep.

    * * *

    Today I crushed a Goblin who was growing a little impudent.

    Of course I didn¡¯t kill him, but recently he was becoming too overconfident in his new abilities, he¡¯ll die one day if I don¡¯t correct him like this. For that reason I steeled my heart and punished him.

    I think this is a reasonable thing to do in an environment where carelessness means death.

    Well, even if this Goblin does develop some rebellious sentiment against me I can just beat him up again, no problem.

    Today the four of us went out hunting again as usual.

    We searched for and found some Kobolds I could gain new abilities from.

    There are six of them, it¡¯s the largest group we¡¯ve come across up to now, but as we are now we can crush them without a problem. Although they have numbers on their side, we have superior individual abilities and equipment.

    We decided to give it a try. Gobumi-chan, armed with a crossbow and shortbow, aimed at a Kobold and prepared to pull the trigger, but then something strange came out from behind the rocks.

    A Kobold of small stature wearing on its head what looks like a triple horned horse skull by the three horns growing on its forehead, and a twisted and crooked wooden staff in its hand, it approached the group while muttering something.

    From its appearance, I think it¡¯s a Kobold Mage.

    I knew since I heard from Gobujii that Goblins and Orcs and other lower-class monsters like Kobolds are generally unable to use magic to interfere with the laws of the world, with the exception of subspecies.

    But exceptions do exist where ordinary Kobolds and Goblins can wield magic.

    These are called Kobold Mages and Goblin Mages. It is a highly prized and rare ability though not as rare as subspecies.

    Without a sense for handling magic I couldn¡¯t wield magic at my leisure yet, and this time I¡¯m facing a Kobold Mage accompanied by six Kobold followers, this could be difficult.

    Even so, this is a good chance.

    If the Mage used magic, perhaps by observing it I might be able to learn to wield it. If not, I can just take the ability anyway.

    Thinking that, we tailed the Kobold party and that somewhat troublesome mission was a success; we were able to see magic being used for the first time. The victim of the Kobold Mage¡¯s magic was a Green Slime.

    Even with the ability ¡°Invulnerable to physical damage¡±, the Slime¡¯s bodily fluids evaporated before the roaring blaze of fire, leaving behind a green stony core. It was quite the flashy scene.

    But having seen that I gained a general understanding of magic. If I go back to the cave and practice a bit I think I could do it without a problem.

    With that matter settled we went on the attack. The enemy were promptly annihilated.

    The Kobold Mage died instantly from a poisoned arrow to the back of the head by Gobumi-chan. The rest were silenced by me and Gobukichi-kun, with the help of Gobue-chan¡¯s poisoned stone and Gobumi-chan¡¯s rapid fire. No matter how strong, they¡¯re no problem if we crush them before they can show that strength.

    We stripped the ordinary Kobolds of equipment and put it in Gobue-chan¡¯s backpack, then I secured the Kobold Mage¡¯s staff. Moreover, we took eight ¡°Water Spirit Stones¡±¡ªstrange stones that give off water when tightly gripped¡ª, six ¡°Thunder Spirit Stones¡±¡ªstrange stones that discharge a strong electric shock¡ª, and ten ¡°Fire Spirit Stones¡± like the ones I ate before, all separated into three small sacks.

    I took the Kobold Mage and the six hearts for myself, the rest were eaten by the others, two for each Goblin.

    Incidentally, I also ate the Green Slime core.

    Ability [Physical Damage Reduction] learned.Ability [Internal Mana Control] learned.Ability [Magician Proficiency] learned.Ability [Intimidating Roar] learned.

    It seems the Green Slime did not have ¡°Invulnerability to Physical Damage¡± but the reduced version ¡°Physical Damage Reduction¡±, but that¡¯s remarkable enough as it is.

    This way we now know how to deal with green slimes the next time we should encounter one: Simply burn them down with ¡°Pyrokinesis¡±.

    Then, I ate the Kobold Mages¡¯ staff and the three kinds of ¡°spirit stones¡±.Doing this to gain abilities has become sort of a habit of mine.

    Ability [Hydro Hand] learned.Ability [Aqua Resistance] learned.Ability [Electromaster] learned.Ability [Lightning Resistance] learned.Ability [Flame Resistance] learned.Ability [External Mana Operation] learned.

    Yes, these are good abilities. By practicing these I can finally use magic.

    After that, we encountered Armored Tanuki and Night Vipers on the way back. They were killed mostly by Gobue-chan to gain experience then eaten.

    Ability [Endurance] learned.Ability [Evil Eye Resistance] learned.

    With this it looks like I have learnt all the abilities I can from Night Vipers and Armored Tanuki. Well, it was good food nonetheless.

    After that, night fell and I went practicing by myself.

    It was hard at first but after one hour I figured out the trick; although it needed a bit of activation time I was able to do it without much trouble.

    Incidentally a Green Slime decided to attack me under the cover of night, and seeing it as a good practice target, I decided to take care of it. I crafted a lance with magic and shot it at the Green Slime, killing it in one hit with fearsome power.

    I took the core that was rolling around and began to eat it.

    Ability [Self Body-Fluid Control] learned.

    And with that I gained this ability.

    Yeah, I¡¯m now able to turn my sweat into acid (make my sweat highly acidic?), which is useful and makes me satisfied.

    However, the fact that my equipment didn¡¯t corrode when I used it is another strange mystery of this world.

    * * *

    It was raining today. Because of that we could not go outside and instead held a festival inside the cave.

    I don¡¯t know when it started, but the Goblins in my generation had begun to operate as a group led by me, and this so-called festival is actually a round robin event that will decide the ranking within the group.

    The results are exactly what you would expect.

    At the top there was me, then Gobukichi-kun, followed by Gobumi-chan and Gobue-chan.

    After the event, with the ranking settled, we did a study group. Because the ones on top have the responsibility of teaching, the ones below had to strictly follow the orders of those above them. Then we promptly decided on a few more rules.

    With this orders can be relayed efficiently. While I¡¯m at it, it seems like I¡¯ll be using military ranks.

    At the top, there was me as Colonel, Goblin Kichi-kun was Lieutenant Colonel, Gobumi-chan was Major, and Gobue-chan was Captain, after that there was a huge gap to Sergeant to match the difference in power.

    Well, it was appropriate due to our still small numbers.

    * * *

    Today after morning practice, the four of us went hunting again.

    And the first thing we encountered was a 70 centimetre long, black spider with yellow lines. I decided to give it the temporary name ¡°Demon Spider¡±.

    Because it¡¯d made a nest, I burnt it to a crisp with my [Pyrokinesis] ability.

    I had some trouble preventing a forest fire, since the thread burned and the fire followed it over quite a few trees.

    If it had turned into a conflagration, we¡¯d also have died.

    Ability [Spider Thread Creation] learned.

    And thus, I learned how to secrete spider thread from my fingers¡ªno wait.

    Since I¡¯m a Goblin, it¡¯s Goblin thread? Anyway, at my will it was gushing forth from my fingers.

    Seeing thread come out from my fingertips vigorously with a ¡°buryuryuryuryuryu¡±-like sound felt quite surreal, however it¡¯s unquestionably an extremely useful ability.

    Unfortunately, as I am now I can¡¯t make delicate work. Skilfully manipulating the thread like a spider is impossible for now. The best I can do is to simply immobilize the target.

    If I make the slightest complex movement, I¡¯ll wind up tangled in the web myself, unable to move. Yes, compared to sewing, spinning webs is in a league of its own.

    Thus, in order to freely be able to control the thread, I decided to search for more Demon Spiders.

    After a little while, I discovered some, and this time I tried killing the spiders with electricity before eating them. Soon I had three corpses.

    Ability [Thread Wielding Arts] learned.

    With this I became able to delicately manipulate thread. The thread was very durable, so I thought about making clothes and such with it. Also, the Demon Spiders carapace seemed sturdy, so I decided to make use of it when I next construct armor.

    After that, while walking, we saw our first Orc in a long time.

    The place where we found them was close to where we found an Orc the last time.

    Because this place was quite far away from the cave we hadn¡¯t really explored the area, and I was berating myself over how we should have come here earlier.

    The Orcs we found were in a group of six, and different from the previous one who carried a pickaxe. These Orcs carried quite heavy and splendid looking weapons like halberds, staves, hunting-knives and long swords, while wearing breastplates or full plates.

    Moreover, I think that the halberd-wielding Orc, with the best physique, was the group commander¡ªthe Orc Leader.

    Still, we decided not to attack them. However, gathering intelligence is another matter so we followed the Orcs down the mountain for an hour until we discovered the location of the Orcs base, a mine.

    I saw dozens of Orcs with pickaxes, and the sounds of their efforts could be heard even from where we were watching them.

    For the present, I was satisfied with climbing down the mountain. If we try attacking this many opponents we¡¯ll die.

    True victory was if we four could sneakily escape with our knowledge and remain undiscovered.

    At least that¡¯s what I thought, but then I spotted three Orcs climbing down the mountain.

    Even if they raised the alarm, since the other Orcs were far away, it would take a considerable amount of time before they could bring reinforcements; so we decided to quickly attack them.

    Hiding in the thicket, we waited for them to reach our shooting range.

    Gobumi-chan and Gobue-chan killed one Orc each with their crossbows. The last one was stunned by my lightning, after which I calmly walked up to him and slit his throat.

    For transporting the corpses, Gobukichi-kun and I each carried one Orc, while Gobumi-chan and Gobue-chan helped each other, until we reached a place I deemed as safe, where we leisurely took our time to eat.

    Ability [Stench] learned.

    Yes, plainly an ability I don¡¯t need. [Stench], seriously? Well, Orcs certainly have a distinctive smell. But since their flesh is really tasty, it¡¯s something we¡¯ll have to live with.Moreover, if by any chance I were to discover a use for the ability, I¡¯ll consider it a profit.

    * * *

    It was currently the end of our morning sparring practice, and some individuals seemed to have a hard time. So far no one (Who has attended my practice) has died during a hunt; although some did get hurt. This being the case, I felt relieved knowing that my training hasn¡¯t been squandered.

    Afterwards we went hunting, and while hunting the likes of Night Vipers, Armored Tanukis and Demon Spiders, we found a new prey that undoubtedly possesses better individual abilities than the spiders.

    They were a pack of wolves, with black fur that almost looked as if it was made of metal. Without making it complicated, I decided to call them ¡°Black Wolves¡± temporarily, and for the time being I decided to quietly observe them.

    It seems that the pack consists of 16 Black Wolves, who currently seem to be engrossed in eating. Luckily, we are standing leeward, so they have yet to notice us, however were that to change we could end up like that Kobold the Black Wolves are currently eating.

    They were 4 times as many as us, but above all the Black Wolf Leader seemed incredibly dangerous. It was considerably larger than the other Black Wolves.

    If we went at them from the front, we¡¯d probably suffer a great deal of damage. Because they had greater numbers, the advantage was heavily stacked in their favour.But even though that¡¯s true, an advantage can be turned using a surprise attack.

    Gobumi-chan let loose an arrow from her crossbow, piercing the body of the wolf leader who was still in a daze from eating the Kobold meat. At the same time, an arrow from Gobue-chan went through the neck of a nearby wolf.

    The Black Wolf Leader wouldn¡¯t die instantly from an ordinary arrow through the body, but because the arrowhead had been coated with my venom, after several seconds the wolf staggered unsteadily and then collapsed, convulsing and foaming at the mouth.

    Even so the Black Wolf Leader didn¡¯t die immediately, it was barely hanging on, its life slowly slipping away. Without resistance against the fast-acting poison, the ordinary wolf that got shot through the neck died quickly.

    With this we were able to prevent the wolves¡¯ quick teamwork. Considerable time is needed to decide who is going to replace the top member in a pack. You could see the panic in the wolves¡¯ figures when it suddenly happened.

    Making full use of the mess we created, Gobukichi-kun and I moved closer and attacked.

    Though it was the first time since I was reincarnated that I fought a wolf-type monster, I was sure that I could easily deal with it so long as it didn¡¯t have any special abilities. On approach the wolf bared its sharp fangs at me so it could strike me with its most powerful move ¡°Bite¡±, in response, I thrust my estoc into his mouth; dripping with venom. With the force of the charge from both sides combined, I easily tore through flesh, punctured through the skull, and destroyed the wolf¡¯s brain.

    I caught a glimpse of a wolf trying to escape the confusion, so I charged a high pressure water blade with electricity and slashed at its feet.

    The battleaxe-wielding Gobukichi-kun couldn¡¯t hack through the thick-furred black wolves, but his attack forcibly broke its spine and ribs and using his running momentum forcibly broke the neck of the black wolf that collided head on with his shield.

    In the midst of all that, the enemy numbers are further reduced by Gobumi-chan and Gobue-chan¡¯s sniping.

    After a while, the pack of black wolves, who had lost the teamwork that was their greatest weapon and the effectiveness of their bites had been nullified. Not even one wolf was spared.

    Once finished, three of us went to work on cutting up the wolves¡¯ bodies. The wolves¡¯ fur, for later use, had to be kept in the most pristine of condition, both functionally and in beauty. Incidentally, Gobukichi-kun had to be excluded since he was incredibly clumsy and therefore couldn¡¯t be entrusted with such a task.

    Because of this, I placed Gobukichi-kun on lookout duty. Due to my ability [Presence Sensor], having Gobukichi-kun on lookout was unnecessary. However in this world where one is constantly engaged in a violent struggle, the experience of such a task is vital; especially to one¡¯s own existence.

    Gobumi-chan and Gobue-chan cut up this much without any trouble, they seem to have gained the ability [Dismantle]; so skillful their fingers seemed to vanish.

    After that, we gathered the fur and ate the meat, four to each Goblin.

    Ability [Pack Leadership] learned.Ability [Pack Hunting Proficiency] learned.Ability [Steel Hide] learned.

    As I expected, the Black Wolf Leader had superior abilities befitting its status.

    [Pack Leadership] and [Pack Hunting Proficiency] were a huge bonus for group operations.

    [Pack Leadership] allows me to quickly identify who can contribute the most aside from my being able to give them instruction, it enhances the ability of the group as a whole .

    [Pack Hunting Proficiency] all allies will move efficiently to obey my commands as if I were repeating them to each member individually.

    [Steel Hide] the ability increased the defense of fur and leather-based armor in addition to one¡¯s own skin and hair. It definitely doesn¡¯t hurt to have the ability to increase defense at will. I¡¯m certain it will come in handy in the future.

    I hunted some demon spiders and green slimes before returning, after having dinner, I went to bed.

    * * *

    When morning came, Gobue had turned into a Hobgoblin. To congratulate her, we gave her a gift. It was an accessory made from fangs that gave off the vibe of being from a tribal people.

    Usually when practice ends, the Goblins end up scattering for the days hunt.

    However, this time without scattering everyone underwent an arms inspection.

    The lowest and most numerous private weapons that Goblins use are Horned Rabbit Horns, Shell Reinforced Shields and their regular clothes. At the inspection place we only counted them, then after 30 minutes had passed, everyone left the caves together. This time our plan was to raise everyone¡¯s level and to increase my number of skills. So I decided to launch a surprise attack on the orc¡¯s mining base. We didn¡¯t have a particular grudge against the Orcs, we simply did what we needed to in order to survive.

    Therefore we attack. Attack and eat.

    And thus I shall announce the results. Our camp had only light injuries and we didn¡¯t have a single casualty. Of the Orcs in the mining base, they all died. This included the Orc Leader and his warriors. The main reason for this was the training we¡¯d been undergoing focusing on not only offence but also defence. This was also helped by how decisive, stern and relentless I was being during sparring. That¡¯s why their defensive power was so high. Although, a large part that caused their loss, was due to the Orc leader¡¯s fighting potential being impeded by my Goblin thread, and then prickled to death.

    What? Cowardly? I disagree, in the natural world such behaviour isn¡¯t to be underestimated. When you die it¡¯s over, so no matter how cowardly you act, the survivor is the winner.

    Only the winners gets to decide what was right and what was wrong.

    [T/N: This is not a direct translation, since I felt the original meaning became kind of strange in English.]

    In order to always be a winner, I must steel my heart from weakness.

    After the battle had ended, we pulverized the medicinal herbs [Healing Grass] we brought, soaked cloth wraps in the fluid, took those cloth wraps and applied them to the wounds. It is very simple medical care, but surprisingly effective.

    For patients who bore life threatening wounds, with my [Job ¨C Druid] I proceeded to use my blessed healing skills to cure their wounds.

    I thought my magical practice could be useful, so I tried various ways until it worked.

    Even if one of their arms had been chopped off, if my healing skills were used it takes some time but adhesion was possible, for a while you¡¯d have an uncomfortable feeling however, compared to losing an arm this is nothing. Moving the arm also seems possible after rehabilitation. I have no choice but to conclude that this healing skill is amazing.

    I am truly thankful for having this ability.

    Towards the woman who once was a [Druid], I truly harboured feelings of gratitude. This is because if I didn¡¯t have this ability, our numbers would have dwindled considerably. Once I wouldn¡¯t have blinked an eye no matter how many of them died, but after training with these guys for a while, I¡¯ve started to see them as my subordinates and disciples.

    Thus if they need help, I¡¯ve developed the desire to aid them.When I¡¯m reminded of those girls who died that day, I offer them a prayer.

    While I was administering medical treatments, Gobukichi-kun together with those uninjured ran around gathering Orcs and their equipment. When I finished the treatment I immediately changed to the next stage of the plan.

    It seems like the Orc Leader¡¯s Halberd was reinforced with magic materials, so it had an incredibly sharp edge. It was just the right size, so I decided to make it my new weapon. Swords are also nice, however, I¡¯m used to using longer weapons. There were lots of other weapons as well, and with this everyone received better weapons. The lowest rank Goblins went from using Horned Rabbit horns to using short swords, which is a significant difference.

    And above all, besides large quantities of Fire Spirit Stones and Lightning Spirit Stones, there were also Wind Spirit Stones and Earth Spirit Stones that I still haven¡¯t eaten yet. And within the mining base there seemed to still be stuff to discover.

    After we hurriedly stripped the Orcs of all their possessions, we all gathered to eat the delicious meat. To be more prudent we decided that the food division would be decided by the member¡¯s rank where higher rank meant more food. Orc Leaders and Orc Mages etc. main battle potential units were of course destined to end in my belly.

    Ability [Rallying Cry] learned.Ability [Improved Digestion] learned.Ability [Halberd Proficiency] learned.

    While also indulging in the Orc Barbecue, I alone ate Fire, Lightning and Water Spirit Stones together with the newly acquired Wind and Earth Spirit Stones as snacks.

    Ability [Aero Master] learned.Ability [Wind Resistance] learned.Ability [Earth Control] learned.Ability [Earth Resistance] learned.

    But more importantly, the pig barbecue party was really satisfying.

    Orc flesh has got this peculiar taste and texture, where it feels like extra special high quality pork, and what¡¯s more, there are large quantities of it. No matter how much we ate, there never seemed to be an end to it.

    Even so, I missed cooked rice and alcohol. I especially missed alcohol. I missed it so much I almost couldn¡¯t bear it. When I think back on it I haven¡¯t drunk a drop since I reincarnated. On the way home after buying alcohol I was stabbed by Aoi. I began to wonder what happened to that alcohol.

    And just like that I longed even more for it.

    After that, before it went dark, we went back to the cave to sleep.

    * * *

    The next day, we were training in the vacant lot outside the cave as usual, when an unfamiliar group of Goblins came.

    Although they looked unkempt, I saw three-fourths of them carrying a number of chipped short swords and battle axes that looked well-used hanging at their waists. They were also wearing black-stained¡ªbloodstains, I think¡ªleather armor on top of dirty chainmail shirts, there were even three Hobgoblins with them.

    Will a survival war break out for a second day in a row? We were a little excited but it seems to be the return of our parents¡¯ group who were away with work.

    Gobujii who was watching us practice stopped my attack stance for now, and separated us.

    Oh I see, so they weren¡¯t enemies. I realized that I must go greet them properly.

    ¡°I better go greet them then¡±.

    Although hidden in the shadows of the Goblins who, obviously being underlings, were carrying large backpacks¡ªin all likelihood the fruits of the raid this time¡ªwere the figures of five young women who had their hands and feet bound and their mouths gagged to prevent them from becoming violent, being carried by several similar underling-looking Goblins.

    Judging from their clothes four were ordinary people, and the last one who was wearing leather armor was probably something like an adventurer.

    Only the girl who looked like an adventurer had slight visible traces of having been hit on the face, and their clothes didn¡¯t seem to be in disorder so they had probably not yet been raped. Though this is only a question of time. We could no longer see the shapes of the Gobujii, who was covering his nether regions which were revoltingly swelling with a worn-out loin cloth, and the Hobgoblin who was talking to the Gobujii.

    Anybody could predict what they were talking about, even if they didn¡¯t want to.

    I don¡¯t have the slightest hesitations about killing and eating others, however forcing others is not a thing that I like. Of course I understand the instinct of living creatures to leave offspring, but to decide if its a good time or a bad time, such things are a whole different matter.

    I¡¯ve also, when going to dangerous places for work, had sex with female co-workers to relieve the stress, but in those situations we had mutual consent.

    Being forced like this makes me sick. The cute ones should be loved¡­ right?

    For weak Goblins who are in opposition to humans- numbers are necessary, and once in a while after a strenuous military campaign, the numbers have been reduced considerably and the ranks need to be filled.

    Still, like I care about that! As if I who just reincarnated, in this short amount of time am going to change the way I think.

    With things this way, I decided to help them.

    Is that hypocrisy? Yes, but it is no problem because it is even more hypocritical to do nothing.

    The closest Hobgoblin leader was talking to the Gobujii, when I asked him to release the women.

    I don¡¯t know why but when I said it, Gobujii looked at me with a weird face but I ignored it.

    The Hobgoblin Leader made a face as if saying ¡°what are you talking about!?¡±, but nevertheless I still repeated the request.

    It is important to discuss everything first. No matter how much you dislike the opposition, you should start by discussing your problems. Any hostility should be put aside for the moment. I tried to persuade him patiently but the Hobgoblin Leader wasn¡¯t willing to listen. That wasn¡¯t all, he started to become irritated at me who kept obstinately asking.

    I continued to attempt to persuade the leader, but soon realized that it was a waste and stopped before the other Goblin group began to feel irritated.

    The Hobgoblin Leader pulled out his short sword and waved it at my throat in ridicule. As I¡¯m about to pull out my sword, behind me Gobukichi-kun does the same as me, holding his weapon at the same level and waits.

    I¡¯m me, and because of that, persuasion is troublesome. Then, should I kill him?I parried the Hobgoblin Leader¡¯s short sword and at the same time pull out the estoc at my waist.

    At that moment, the atmosphere clearly changed.

    The Goblins of both sides took poses where they fully displayed their weapons, and if either I or the Hobgoblin Leader made the slightest move, this status quo would be disrupted. Of course, with everyone trying to kill the enemies in front of them. The reason no-one moved was because we held the executive decision making power, but also for no other reason than that instinct told us that if a fight started here, both sides would take huge damage regardless of who won.

    They numbered 28 while we numbered 39. In pure numbers we had the advantage, however in real fighting experience and experience of fighting together they were far above us.

    Honestly I had no idea of which side would win if fighting broke out, and to start the fight under such conditions would inevitably turn into huge damage for both sides, which is why I didn¡¯t move.

    Incidentally, a group of older Goblins were watching us, however they didn¡¯t do anything and seemed to prefer watching what would happen as neutral observers.

    For a short while we glared at each other, but since I thought such actions were more trouble than they are worth, I prepared myself to trigger the fight by adapting a forward-bent pose.

    With my estoc holding hand filled with power, I pointed the tip of the sword straight towards the Hobgoblin Leaders heart.

    My leg was bending in order to prepare myself for the dash where I pierced the Goblin when¡ª

    ¡ªjust at that moment, a voice suddenly reverberated. Everyone instinctively stopped moving, and turned towards the source of the voice.

    The owner of the voice was a Hobgoblin with 3 Goblins at it¡¯s side.

    It was the only Hobgoblin that could use magic, with the exception of me, judging from appearance it was a female and she was holding a staff. It was something like, ¡°Don¡¯t involve us in a personal war¡± ¡°The strong is the leader that decides the policy of the group¡± is what I heard. Because the Mage seems to have higher intelligence than the other individuals, she seems to have a calm judgement even in this situation.

    Aren¡¯t you, who can use magic, stronger than this guy?Hearing this, the leader backed away unwillingly.

    It was thus concluded that a fight to determine who reigns at the top of the ¡°Goblin community¡± was to be held.

    The rules were very simple: use of weapons were forbidden, and while killing was permitted, the fight ends when one party faints or gives up, it was that kind of barbaric rule.

    Gobujii would be acting as referee for the fight.It was an appropriate position for the sagely Gobujii who held a neutral opinion.

    Nevertheless, I was surprised to find that the Goblins on their side began to make bets in the middle of preparation. So they had a gambling mentality huh? Furthermore, I was informed that copper and silver coins were being exchanged.

    Well, this kind of thing is certainly well-suited as entertainment.

    Meanwhile, the Goblins on our side were sitting with impeccable manners. They were staying still to watch the fight that was about to take place. Yep, this is surreal.

    At any rate, the five women who were being offered up as the prize were self-conscious that they did something wrong. It was because we were pointlessly scaring them. Well, this is all for their sakes. Just bear with it already.

    Then after the preparation had finished, the fight to decide the leader began.

    On one side was a long-serving soldier full of scars who had drawn many companions to himself with his achievements.

    On the other was me, who had thoroughly trained those of my generation, and had currently ranked up and became a Hobgoblin subspecies.

    Apparently there were a lot of Goblins that placed their bets on their side, but because I had no intention of reading between the lines, I immediately went away.

    Well, I¡¯ll quickly state the result.Of course, I won.

    I stopped his movement like a frog glared at by a snake with [Evil Eye]

    The opponent cowered at my volume when I used [Threatening Roar]

    I confused the enemy by immediately using my abilities at the same time and then wrapped his body up with my thread. While doing this I was simultaneously closing the distance, without missing a beat, and then when I got close enough I hung him from a tree like a sandbag.

    Gobujii asked what the thread was, but this was definitely a part of my body. Going to extremes, it¡¯s kind of like saliva. Since it¡¯s spit, it can¡¯t be treated as a weapon. Therefore I don¡¯t have any problem. Since it isn¡¯t a weapon, I didn¡¯t violate the rules even if I use it. We¡¯ll look to decide. Yeah, it¡¯s safe.

    After turning him into a makeshift sandbag with my web, it was time for violence. I tried going easy so as to not kill him for the time being, but this guy belongs to the Hobgoblin race, who were tougher than Goblins, but because he was impertinently shouting things like ¡°I¡¯m the leader! How dare you, you impostor! Do you have no shame!?¡± that shows no comprehension on his own situation, I got a bit serious.

    Well, it can¡¯t be helped. It was an act of God. That was what I decided to call it.

    First of all, to prevent him from saying something boring like ¡°I give up¡± I stuffed a gag made out of thread on his mouth.

    After that, I beat him up silently for about three minutes, but he still had spirit, so I did that again for ten more minutes until he was just a bloody bag of soft moans. I didn¡¯t kill him though. By the way, even though I beat and kicked him for ten minutes incessantly I still have plenty of body strength left.

    This was the result regular training. When my enemy fainted, I stopped. Judging from touch it seemed his bones were just barely at the point of breaking, and his internal organs had not ruptured. If I left him like this he surely wouldn¡¯t die.

    Even then, I tried making, out of several grasses and herbs ¡°Healing Grass¡± and several kinds of insects mixed in with fresh water, just in case. I forcibly gave it to him to drink and the home-made healing potion-ish thing had an effect, even if just a little. I then cut the thread and let him roll to sleep.

    Not having any resilience whatsoever, for the time being I proved the feasibility of healing little cuts, and given that, his insides should be more or less better by tomorrow. Today I really don¡¯t want to stay awake any longer.

    Having finished the job, I became aware that the others had drawn away from me, who was basking in the feeling of having achieved something.

    While the Goblins on our side seemed to take it better than the others, but there is still a hint of terror in their eyes. Afterwards, they would casually try to run away whenever I approached, It hurt my feelings a little¡­

    Eh? What is it Gobumi-chan? They were completely unable to understand my thread, and that tragic scene that befell me before was because I was making a scary face? But isn¡¯t this kind of face just normal?

    Ah, so that only applies to me huh.

    But it really isn¡¯t that big a deal right Gobukichi-kun? Ah.. don¡¯t be like that.

    Even Gobue-chan¡­? Okay okay, if it¡¯s like that then fine, I have no friends here.

    After letting out a sigh, I asked if there were any more challengers. By making my position clear here I hoped to reduce the possibility of any trouble coming up later on.

    In the end, because there were no more challengers, I had officially become the leader reigning top of this ¡°Goblin community¡±.

    I then declared that it is strictly forbidden to touch the women and that there would be a more detailed set of rules given in the future before dismissing everyone.

    Afterwards, I removed the gags and untied the hemp ropes around the hands and feet of the five women and had them enter the deepest part of the cave where those pitiful women were kept, made to reproduce and died in despair, were thrown into once. This was done because it would be troublesome if they escaped.

    Well, the women escaping is fine, but five unarmed women running around in this dangerous forest could only lead to them being killed or eaten. And since I have gone through great troubles to save them, I couldn¡¯t allow this to happen.

    I decided to bring them to the inner cave to have a chat because my ability [Human Language] fulfilled the minimum requirements to speak with them

    It wasn¡¯t long before we finished moving. I took the torch I made beforehand and lit it to provide a light source.

    Goblins have [Night Vision] but it would be difficult for humans to see well in the darkness.

    After these preparations were finished, we began our conversation. I promised them that I will not take their lives and that I will ensure food and other necessities will be provided to them. I also told them that if they were assaulted, I would judge the individual and punish him/her and that it would take some time but I would return them to their home and such things.

    I think probably 5 or 6 hours passed. Either because of my insistent persuasion, or some other reason that I don¡¯t know, but the girls began to speak.

    The first one who regained their composure was the adventurer girl, with short flaming red hair, who possessed a vigorous beauty, and a cuteness that reminded me of small animals.

    From the conversation with Redhead, I concluded that the four women were hawkers in a Peddler group, the ¡°Stargods Mansion¡±.

    As for Redhead, she was a member of the adventurer association ¡°The Sword of the Weak¡± and had been hired on as a guard for the ¡°Stargods Mansion¡± for payment. The adventurer union ¡°The sword of the weak¡± seemed to consist of young adventurers. As I thought, such an occupation existed. It is a type of guild whose main policy is to nurture the strength of their individuals by mutual support, a typical clan, and Redhead as a holder of the [Job ¨C Warrior] as a greenhorn wanted to obtain power by serving as a member with them.

    And why did such things happen? They explained it to me briefly.The party of girls went through the highway towards the defense city ? Trent ?.¡ú They were ambushed by a Goblin raid with poisoned arrows (so by our parent generation)

    ¡ú The leader and his fellow members who had command were all killed by the first attack.

    ¡ú There were a number of experienced escort adventurers, none were novice adventurers. But the Goblins (parent generation) were skilled at methodical group work (particularly the 3 Hobgoblins) so they couldn¡¯t compete.

    ¡ú There was also the dangerous presence of the Hobgoblin Mage whose attacks are difficult to defend against.

    ¡ú When opposing magic-wielding mages, it is in doubt whether there are anyone who hold higher combat ability than those individuals who has the [Job ¨C Magician]. Otherwise, though the number of times it can be used is limited, but magic items like scrolls or wands that enable even children to use magic were going to be needed. However, there was no way a wandering adventurer can buy such a high-class item.

    ¡ú As a result, they were subjugated without much resistance, their weapons and goods plundered, the men were killed, the girls who survived were carried off, and we arrived at the present situation.

    I shouldn¡¯t be the one to say it, but it was a difficult story. Not to mention everyone was annihilated besides these girls.Well, there¡¯s no choice but to call it bad luck.

    After telling me that much, they couldn¡¯t bear it anymore and burst into tears.

    As expected, they could not even put their feelings about living together with Goblins who killed their friends in order, so I thought that any more than this would only be painful, and told them where I left the torch that I prepared along with some blankets, then I went back. Now I should just do them a favor and let them cry their feelings out.

    Well then, I suppose I should now start talking about [jobs]. For non-human beings like demihumans, beastmen, and other monsters, there is a law in this world called [Rank up (evolution)]. As you could probably guess from my phrasing, the law of [Rank up (evolution)] does not apply to humans.

    But in exchange for that, there are a large number of [jobs] they can take.

    Humans are fundamentally less powerful than monsters.

    So to strengthen themselves they carry many [blessings/improvements] in their bodies gained from the acquisition of a large number of [jobs]¡ªeach with their own requirements, and the requirements become more strict as the jobs become stronger¡ª, becoming a powerful enemy in the process.

    Moreover, anyone could easily raise their [Job] level by spending time, and if one has the prerequisites, it is possible to [Rank up (promotion)] to a higher position.

    Also, as for those who are called [Great Men] and [Heroes], the improvements from their [Job] are great.And don¡¯t laugh, because it looks like these people with [Job : Hero] really exist.

    To put it in really simple terms, a monster¡¯s [Rank up (evolution)] is influenced by its characteristics, and can dramatically increase its potential all at once, whereas a human¡¯s [Rank up (promotion)] grows more slowly than monsters, but anyone is able to gain power if they spend some time.

    It¡¯s like: either rise several levels in one leap, or slowly but surely rise one level at a time. Either that or a difference in quality and quantity.

    This was confirmed later by the Gobujii.

    * * *

    First weeping, getting tired, sleeping, and now having more or less recovered, or perhaps because her recovery was simply fast, but when I went to look at the state of the girls in the morning, Redhead cheerfully greeted me.

    The other four still seemed afraid of me, however that couldn¡¯t be helped. To have them come to an understanding, time was required. Among the stolen goods there was a cooking kit, using that I made a pseudo-stew for them.

    Well, having my first civilized meal in a while really made me happy. It might be self praise, but the pseudo-stew really tasted good.

    Eating is absolutely essential and as much as the food is delicious, that much of the soul is healed, it¡¯s that kind of cure. When eating, I saw that the girls calmed down and began to lower their guard. I began to hear about them in more detail. If there is something I can do, in order to know what that could be, such was my thinking when listening.

    By the way, I forgot to mention but, except for Redhead, the other four were holders of [Job ¨C Peddler].

    In the soft and comfortable atmosphere, I got to know that one of them was an [Appraiser], as well as a [Blacksmith], easily able to sharpen the blades of short swords and long swords. If I could arrange better facilities for her, she promised that she would forge equipments for me.

    Two girls who looked similiar turned out to be sisters, and they both held the jobs of [Tailor] and [Cook], so I arranged to have them be in charge of cooking and making clothes in the future. As expected, I cannot tell them to make clothes like Goblins who were their enemies, so I just told them to make clothes that they are used to making themselves.

    But regarding the matter of making food for everyone, I told them to just put up with it for now.

    One of the women that looked coldly intelligent was an [Alchemist] and because of that, I asked her to make potions. However, I should pick someone to supervise them in case food is served with poison, if that happens, it¡¯d be scary.

    Why.

    Redhead is capable of doing farm work, but speaking bluntly it¡¯s useless in this situation, so from here on out it was decided that she would participate in the training in order to become stronger. The women had to be able to protect themselves, particularly in situations like this one.

    After eating, we would have proceeded with training if we followed our usual schedule, however today was different. We were gathering all our belongings in preparation to move. If you were to ask why we needed to move, the answer would be that after the older generation returned, the cave had turned out to be too small to contain all of us.

    Until now, when Goblins were born most died quickly, that had changed. That¡¯s why we were moving to the Orc¡¯s former mining base. If we relocated there we would have no more problems with space, and most importantly, since it¡¯s a mine it had been reinforced to prevent collapses, so it was really sturdy. Also, I was also aiming at collecting as many spirit stones as possible.

    I sent out Gobukichi-kun to lead a group of ten Goblins to act as an advance party, and the rest completed their packing and left an hour later. There were a lot of workers and backpacks, so we were able to move immediately.

    Escorting the human women were Gobumi-chan, Gobue-chan and those few I could trust for this matter. The walk took over an hour but it seemed we¡¯d finally reached our destination.

    It seems like Orcs had once again came to settle in the mine, however Gobukichi-kun¡¯s group had already killed them. I recieved their hearts, and the rest of the Orcs were split between between the members of the advance party as a reward. After that we set out to bring order to the interior of the mining grounds.

    Although since we almost didn¡¯t have any decorations, the storing places of weapons and food were easily decided, and we put the sleeping places in order. Of course, we didn¡¯t forget about preparing toilets in either with dug holes.

    When we finished with the general stuff, I left the rest in the care of the Gobujii and started to prepare the living area of the human women. Luckily I had my [Earth Control] so the work was easy. I quickly finished the blacksmith¡¯s smithy, the sisters¡¯ kitchen, the alchemist¡¯s workshop, and lastly their sleeping location. For their bedroom, I made them a simple bed. By taking a wooden frame and using my thread I made a mattress. It¡¯s a somewhat bare structure, but fairly comfortable to sleep in.

    Excavated spirit stones were used for drinking water and light sources so these were no problem at all. With a little creative thinking we also managed to allow the smithy to produce simple things. Thus we spent the rest of the day cleaning up and doing routine tasks.

    The food was prepared by the sisters. As expected of those who possess the [Cook] profession, it tasted really good.

    * * *

    Finally we started the training for the older Goblins. To start with, as an example we had them observe simple things like standing in line and combat practice. The older Goblins were surprised by that display, but in actuality, I was more stumped that they were surprised about them taking orders from me.

    Because of that we began the real thing. First of all, we started from the basics, like forming a line quickly and endurance running. Those who fell behind were gifted with push-ups as punishment amidst jeers, as if coming from some demon sergeant.

    There was one really stubborn idiot that I had to hit, together with the punch to his face I also had to break his arm. After he screamed and spun around for a while, I straightened his arm again and we returned to the training.

    The training continued in that way for a few hours, until lastly where I practiced sparring with everyone. I got a strong sense of deja vu from the scene that resulted. At the end, no one could move.

    While Gobukichi-kun and his buddies were off watching from a distance, they were saying things like: ¡°Ah! As I thought!¡± ¡°Ah, I understand you, I understand you¡° ¡°Thats harsh!¡±

    As expected, the endurance of these Goblins were at this time higher than that of Gobukichi-kun and friends, so the recovery time was fast and after a time that I chose at my own discretion the training was resumed. This day we didn¡¯t go hunting, instead I spent the time deciding the ranking of the older Goblins, deciding rules and stuff like that.

    * * *

    It rained heavily today. Of course, I was having reservations against going outside.

    Because of that, it was the right time to hold another tournament to determine the ranking within the group. The method to determine the rough ranking quickly was somewhat convenient. Because there is a large difference in the basic abilities between Hobgoblins and Goblins, we will have two separate contests to decide the ranking.

    The results, well, that is if you can call it properly settled, are thus: The top was me like always, the runner-up was Gobukichi-kun, next was the previous Hobgoblin leader, and after him was Gobumi-chan. The three Goblins after her were generally at the same level of competency.

    The Hobgoblin Mage Hobusei-san might have come after me if magic use is permitted, but that is not the case this time so things were how they were.

    As the tournament ended, we split into three groups: Gobukichi-kun¡¯s group who were continuing with practice, Gobue-chan¡¯s group who carried picks to continue with mining, and the group who were studying things, like the rules that I had decided, the ranks, the Continental Alphabet, and so on, with Gobumi-chan as the teacher.

    Meanwhile, I had a chat about various things with Hobusei-san. I had an interest in what kinds of magic she can use. Based from what I had heard, the three kinds of magic Hobusei-san could use seemed to be [Fire], [Water], and [Void.I pretended that I understood, when in reality I had only read information from an incomplete source and in reality had no idea what she was talking about. After that, having exchanged all kinds of information, we each moved on to our own tasks. Hobusei-san went to Gobumi-chan¡¯s place to study, while I went to talk to the human girls.

    When I went to check up on the situation, having fire and water guaranteed by the fire and water spirit stones, the blacksmith¡¯s forge was in the middle of producing tools out of the spirit stones and iron ore that we got as the result of mining. She could do that without any problems thanks to several sets of tools which were among the things we looted.

    While I asked her if she had any complaints, I noticed that the smithy had been repaired recently so it was easy to use. Because she had become somewhat less frightened of me, I left satisfied.

    Next, I went to the station where the two human sisters were. Since the cooking utensils were looted goods, having the sisters use them did not incite any friction with the other Goblins. With that, things progressed smoothly. Though, after looking around the station, I realized that with just two people, preparing everyone¡¯s food would be an overwhelming task, and so I decided to sit down and help them.

    The sisters were still a bit afraid of me, and so I thought that if I were proactive and spoke to them more, they would begin to warm up to me. Once in a while I caught them smiling, which was great.The smile of a beautiful woman is always a good thing. While we were at it, I taught them all the recipes that I knew.

    After that I went to the Alchemist-san who spent all day making potions.

    The equipment had been assembled here like at the other places, so that was no problem.

    I inspected her completed goods with my [Appraisal], but so far it didn¡¯t seem like she had made anything poisonous. I was interested in the creating process, so I stayed to observe.

    The Alchemist-san gave of an air of indifference, making me think of a disdainful Ice Queen. She didn¡¯t talk at all while she was working, yet she was still a feast for my eyes so I had no issue with waiting. After she finished we had a short conversation then I went to my own workshop.

    While there I tried using the black wolf leather to make defensive equipment. I stitched the leather with my thread, and using my practiced ability the crafting process progressed quickly. Nevertheless, it was already late at night when I was done.

    Before I went to sleep, I did some practice swings with my halberd in order to become used to how it felt. Because I had been fervently moving around all day I¡¯d become tired, and I slept like a log.

 Re:Monster Day 31-40

    The heavy rain from yesterday continued, so we spent the day inside the cave.

    The day went as usual. After the morning practice was over, I equipped the black wolf armor that I made yesterday and the halberd, which I still haven¡¯t tried using in a real battle, before facing a fully equipped Gobukichi-kun in a somewhat serious practice battle.

    My new armor consisted of flexible black leather pants and a long black leather coat. On my left hand I was equipped with a solid iron-wrought gauntlet, and on my right hand I used the carapace reinforced, and in lots of different ways improved, round shield. I didn¡¯t have anything covering my head, and on my feet I had a pair of sturdy looking boots that the older goblins brought back from the adventurers.

    Since my skin was also black, this equipment made me almost invisible during the night.

    Gobukichi-kun¡¯s equipment was replaced with various items we got during the orc raid.

    His main weapon was a [Crescent Axe] that burned from having a [Flame Blade] made by embedding a battle axe, that I discovered, with fire spirit stones, his buckler was a black iron tower shield made from a carapace-reinforced round shield, which had high defensive strength because of how heavy it was, that was strengthened through magic.

    His armor was based on what the Orc Leader was using. Using my thread to bind it together, it was now reinforced by pieces of carapace and black wolf leather, which raised the defensive power and mobility.

    Looking almost like a moving fortress, his armor coupled with his body that was amplified by his vanguard specialization, resulted in combat ability that was not something to joke about.

    Truly, Gobukichi-kun had become strong.

    I can sense it during his normal training as well, but facing him fully armed truly makes me understand how much he has improved.

    Basically, I, who had strengthened myself by having a variety of abilities, confusing my opponents through the use of various techniques, and winning using methods of striking my opponents from behind, was bad in a situation like this where I had to fight head-to-head without an ability against a genuinely strong opponent like Gobukichi-kun.

    He¡¯s still an opponent I can win against with my abilities, but having my halberd with the force of my whole body behind it being almost perfectly blocked by his tower shield is, as expected, still kind of shocking. Each and every one of his blows is also extremely heavy, but above all his dexterous handling of his axe is worthy of admiration.

    It seems like he knew from experience how to swing an axe sharper, faster, and heavier.

    Well, the weapons he has used from the first hunt till now have always been similar, from cudgel ¡ú axe ¡ú axe which was probably the reason.

    In our goblin village the one who handles axes the best is without question Gobukichi-kun.

    Also, his burning [Crescent Axe] was more trouble than I thought it would be. I¡¯ve got the ability [Fire Resistance], so I didn¡¯t get injured by his [Crescent Axe]¡¯s [Flame Blades]. However, resistance is resistance and hot things are hot. Because of the blazing flame my vision was impaired and when the handle of my halberd got searingly hot from the long exposure to his flame, I excused myself.

    Continuing like this, we spent quite a long time staging mock battles.

    I spent some time manufacturing clothes, picked up the mined ¡°spirit stones¡±, ate the food the sisters prepared then went to sleep.

    And then when everyone had gone to sleep, that event happened.

    Eight bodies were moving towards the place where the five human women were sleeping, and my [Presence Sensor] ability caught that movement.

    When I looked at what woke me up, I saw the retreating figures of goblins who were exchanging words in whispers between one another, speaking enthusiastically about assaulting the women.

    The moment I saw that, I gripped the halberd that I kept near my bedside in one-hand and chased after them. I made sure to do this stealthily in order to get firm proof that they intended to assault the womens sleeping place. Conclusive proof that they couldn¡¯t refute was extremely important.

    After they have done it they can¡¯t excuse themselves by saying that I made an error.

    Once I was sure, I swung my halberd at the closest goblin and moved down his neck region.

    His head flew, charmed by gravity it fell to the ground and begun to tumble, which I then trampled over and crushed flat in one breath. After squashing the head, my boots became soiled, but at that moment, I didn¡¯t care.

    I made sure to cauterize the goblin¡¯s severed throat as I decapitated him; it helped save myself from the annoyance of cleaning up afterwards.

    The smell of burning flesh sparked my battle instincts.

    I dare say I was laughing while I was doing this.

    The sudden cold-blooded murder instantly caused the atmosphere to turn serious.

    Everyone¡¯s gaze that were locked to me were having this dumbfounded and confused state, ignoring their situation, I began to apprehend the rest of the goblins using my thread. Looking at the captured goblins, I realized they were all subordinates of the former hobgoblin leader.

    Then, I determined first of all that the former hobgoblin leader who attacked Redhead rolling in front of my eyes with a bulging crotch was first to bring it up.

    I tried hearing his story before deciding whether I¡¯d allow him his life, it seems like he was unable to suppress his sexual desires. When I asked why he didn¡¯t just let it out on a female of his own kind, it seems having known a human woman¡¯s body once, a female goblin¡¯s body can no longer satisfy him. The pleasure was different by an order of magnitude.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you understand that!?¡±, was his argument. I hit him once then stopped the discussion halfway because the girls who were assaulted had part of their clothes torn. I¡¯ve heard enough of what I wanted to hear.

    I handed over some fine cardigans crafted from the threads I made yesterday to the shivering girls who were hugging their own bodies.

    Because leaving them with torn clothes could make them a temptation for the other goblins.

    As I finished handing out the clothes, while rubbing her back I called out to and attempted to calm Redhead who was clinging to me and crying. I kept patiently calling out to her, who seems to be slowly calming down, although she was still bawling. Once Gobukichi-kun, Gobumi-chan, and Gobue-chan hurried over, I gave them the order to put the goblins I bound with thread in the practice hall near the entrance. Also to wake everyone who is still asleep.

    I left the corpse and splattered head on the floor.

    After making the order, Redhead seemed to have calmed down once I gave her some time; although, she still wouldn¡¯t let go of my clothes. Somehow, she would not open her hands regardless of my intention, which was confusing. She was still faintly trembling, so it was unreasonable to try to get an answer. Although I actually thought that I had better not be burdened with having to look after her mental health from now on; but it can¡¯t be helped so I took her with me. The other four girls, although trembling, either because they hated to be separated from me, who rescued them as I promised, or because they thought they wanted to see things with their own eyes, or possibly some other reason, followed along at a distance.

    Having made sure no one was asleep and that they had gathered in the hall next to the entrance, I pointed at the arrested goblins with the tip of my halberd. I explained that ¡°What the likes of these guys did was this and that~~, what I said was etc. etc.~~¡±, made them understand, then I began the torture.

    For starters, I cut off a bit of the tips of their fingers with a bowie knife. Cauterizing the wound with a flame so they didn¡¯t bleed to death and using a healing spell to restore both their vitality and body strength. I proceeded bit by bit, taking the utmost care that they wouldn¡¯t die.

    Their screams were noisy so I stuffed a gag of thread in their mouths. That was also to prevent them from biting their tongues. Well, you wouldn¡¯t die quickly even if you bit your tongue to begin with so doing it was probably pointless.

    Yep, I was putting everyone off.

    Physically and mentally, they were drawing away.

    Nevertheless, doing this to prove to the girls that the promise I made was not empty should be easily understandable. In the first place, there was clearly no need to say that there were a number of followers who do not abide by my, the current leader¡¯s, words but instead followed the orders of the previous one.

    Leaving behind things like this would certainly cause problems later on, so for the sake of the future I do this to nip potential trouble in the bud.

    If in the end it¡¯s ¡°because I did not do this I was stabbed in the back and died¡±, that would be silly.

    The six goblins were dealt with using various unique, colorful methods, and in the end, only one was left.

    The last goblin¡ªthe former hobgoblin leader begged for his life with his eyes, but even though I was so lovingly turning him into a sandbag this fool could not understand a thing, I could not see any value in his existence.

    Within the group he held a position that was commensurate with his strength, but as I thought, it can¡¯t be helped that fools will always be fools.

    I don¡¯t get those guys that could not even abide by the bare minimum number of rules that I established, so simple that even idiots could understand.

    The fact that things ended up this way was because of this guy¡¯s intentions, you reap what you sow.

    Still, even I wouldn¡¯t kill his followers just because I didn¡¯t like them. Not unless I have a pretext for killing my opponent, like this guy. From the start, cases where it is fine if there were two powers within an organization are exceedingly rare.

    Because of that, without hesitation, again and again I burned his arm, tormented him with water, trapped him under a heavy stone while whipping him, keeping him barely alive as I continuously tortured him.

    * * *

    The time when the former leader finally died was the moment sunlight reached the entrance of the cave.

    Clearly, I went kinda nuts and overdid it a bit.

    Because his vitality was stronger than a goblin¡¯s, he simply didn¡¯t die easily. I did, however, continue to heal him as well which contributed to his prolonged torture.

    When I returned to my senses, I looked at my surroundings. Everyone was terrified.

    Pleasantly smiling I laughed. ¡°Have I made myself clear enough?¡±, I asked the gathered goblins who all nodded their heads with astonishing vigour. Feeling satisfied with that answer, I disbanded the meeting and ordered everyone to sleep till noon. If everyone managed to sleep it would be nice, considering they¡¯d been forced to watch my torture all morning they must be tired, but somehow I doubted anyone would fall asleep today.

    So almost everyone except those who had fainted didn¡¯t go to sleep like me.

    Thus I ordered everyone to sleep. I also told them that today¡¯s training was cancelled.

    After creating a water ball with my abilities to wash away the blood from my hands and face,I had noticed that Redhead, who had watched me work more than anyone, was shivering uncontrollably with vacant eyes.

    In order to snap her back to her senses, I created another water ball and threw it at her.

    Then I picked her up and carried her like a child to their bedroom. I disregarded it when she began to shiver even more. When I safely dropped her off, I returned to the spacious area again, and because the other four still couldn¡¯t move themselves I repeated this four times.

    After confirming that the other goblins had returned to the bedroom, I also went to sleep.

    I woke up sometime in the middle of the afternoon.

    As a replacement for lunch I ate the hearts and stomachs of the goblins I killed, whereafter I buried the rest of their bodies with my [Earth Control] ability.

    Around this time the other goblins woke up, and because I had said we would skip practice today, I and the three other goblins went hunting.

    I left the Goblin Elders, together with five of the goblin minions, to protect the human girls. Earlier, I asked, ¡°You know what¡¯ll happen if they are assaulted, right?¡±. It was when they nodded vigorously that I decided the girls were probably safest with them.

    Well, the girls were within a walled off area I had made with my thread, and with the short-sword wielding Redhead there, at the very least, they should be able to buy some time if there was trouble.

    In addition, when we subjugated the orcs at the mining camp, we found an emergency horn. I gave them to the girls in case an incident were to occur. If they blow it, we should be able to quickly return and save them.

    With that taken care of, we four left with peace of mind. The first thing we encountered on our hunt was a Three-Horned Horse. At a glance it was covered with solid looking scales, and it was twice as large as a normal horse. It was such a big horse that with our current bodies we had to look up to see it. It was a creature that had evolved far above that of a hobgoblin. And there were two of them. They were probably a couple; perhaps one was pregnant.

    However, we don¡¯t know that for certain, and in order for us to survive we need food, so we performed our usual surprise attack.

    Our first attack went by the book. Gobumi-chan and Gobue-chan shot poisoned arrows with their crossbows. One of Gobumi-chan¡¯s arrow went right through one of the horses eyes, while Gobue-chan¡¯s arrow was slightly off and bounced off the other horse¡¯s stiff scales.

    ¡°Those scales are tough! Even though the power of the crossbows could easily pierce through a standard plate mail, it easily repelled it!!¡± I reflexively screamed out loud.

    Moreover, I had placed poison on the arrowheads, a wonderfully strong poison, and yet the Three-Horned Horse didn¡¯t instantly die, rather it began to act aggressively because of the intense pain. I had never seen such fierce vitality before!

    While we were busy being surprised, the horse that wasn¡¯t hit noticed us. It turned in our direction, pointing its three horns at us, and entrusting itself to its rage, it charged in an attempt to impale us. Well, with my thread and thunder combo I somehow managed to stop it, my thread was so thinly spread that the thought that it would just brush off the thread, annoyed, made my innards go cold.

    Just how much horsepower did that thing have?

    There was no question that its physical strength couldn¡¯t even be compared to that of a hobgoblin.

    While Gobumi-chan and Gobue-chan¡¯s sniping kept the riotous horse pinned, Gobukichi and I recklessly attacked it with my halberd and his burning axe. At first our attacks were simply repelled however after repeatedly attacking we found a way to chip off the scales. After that, the rest was quick.

    My halberd and his [Crescent Axe] made the scales fly; once our blades reached the thick flesh below it we were successful at severing the head from its body.

    The other one was weakened by my poison, and because we had already figured out how to kill it, this was an easier kill.

    It was quite heavy work, however, we didn¡¯t receive any major injuries; it was truly a significant hunt. We carried all the raw materials back, however since it was our first time hunting this prey, we decided to eat all of it ourselves.

    Since it¡¯s big, all the goblins, except Gobukichi-kun, were set to diligently remove the scales in order to get the meat. Gobukichi-kun was once again stationed to watch the surroundings. We needed the right goblin in the right place. And thus I ate six horns, two hearts and a fair share of the rest of the meat which was generously split four ways. After that I also ate the shells, since I thought I might get something from doing that.

    Ability [Scale Armour Charge] learned.Ability [Scaled Horse¡¯s Neigh] learned.Ability [Rapid Recovery] learned.Ability [Improved Leg Power] learned.

    Ability [Improved Charging Power] learned.Ability [Triple Stab] learned.

    After eating I had obtained six abilities. This was the proof that the three horned horse truly was strong. Because usually as a hobgoblin I had to eat four bodies to gain an ability.

    Also, this was the first time since I reincarnated that I obtained a physical attacking skill, which was big. I thought [Triple Stab] would stab three times in a row, when I tested invoking the skill against a tree holding my estoc, the result was that three holes were made in the tree. Yes, I actually only stabbed with my estoc once. Yet I made three holes. In addition to that they were arranged in straight line from top to bottom. After spending such a long time in this world the fact that I didn¡¯t get how it worked now didn¡¯t surprise me. However, I came to wonder if this from upper to lower attack ignored physical defense. I tried to think about it. However, the answer to this question will have to wait for another time.

    After that we walked around for a while, hunting the usual things, bringing them back and finally going to bed. After I fell asleep, Redhead snuck into my bed, so we slept together.

    I¡¯ll say it to make it clear, but we didn¡¯t do anything erotic.

    I reaffirmed that a person¡¯s warmth was still a good thing.

    * * *

    When I woke up, I tried to move but my body felt heavy and I felt trapped. I was lying with my arms spread wide, and for some reason I couldn¡¯t feel them. I decided to figure out what was happening, so I looked to the left and right. When I looked to my right, Gobumi-chan lay on one arm and when looking to my left, I found Redhead sleeping on the other.

    Yeah this is the so called ¡®arm-pillow¡¯. That dull sensation came from two heads disturbing the blood flow in each of my arms.

    Why did it turned out this way?

    Truthfully I wanted to move my arms that had numb quickly, but I couldn¡¯t bring myself to wake those two, who were sleeping soundly and happily. What I¡¯d like to ask is, when did Gobumi-chan enter my bed? When Redhead snuck into my bed I was half asleep, yet I remember her slipping into the bed so I can understand her being there.

    Could it be that she possessed such a powerful [Hiding] ability that my [Presence Sensor] ability could not sense her? No, there¡¯s no way.

    Most likely, if the one being detected has no bloodlust or hostility towards the wielder of [Presence Sensor], then the signal is weak, and because I was sleeping I missed that weak signal.

    I was thinking, ¡°For the time being I¡¯d like to do something about this situation¡­¡± when Hobusei-san happened to pass by. Hobusei-san was the name of the hobgoblin mage, okay? The mage¡¯s name. You probably understand, but I thought it important so its worth repeating.I pleaded for her help with my eyes. She held back a chuckle, picked up my favorite book from my toolbox, [Introduction to Magic ¡ª Basic Sorcery vol 2 of 3], and then went away gracefully.

    Crap. She¡¯d better return that.

    After that, Gobukichi-kun came over for morning practice carrying the [Crescent Axe].I pleaded with my eyes just like with Hobusei-san. He was troubled for a little while, but ended up pressing his hands together in prayer and left. I bitterly watched his cheerful smile as he did so.

    O~i, we¡¯re friends aren¡¯t we? Please help, will you?

    After Gobukichi-kun, a yawning Gobue-chan followed. Recently she¡¯d gotten into gathering beautiful gem-like ¡°Spirit Stones¡±. She seemed to have formed a spirit stone mining group together with other goblin girls. Considering her habits, it¡¯s probably the leisure time before morning practice right now.

    I imploringly pleaded with my eyes. Because she smiled wryly as if to say ¡°It can¡¯t be helped¡± I thought ¡°Is she going to go away too?¡±, but just then she saw something and broke into cold sweat. While I was thinking ¡°Huh?¡± she hastily went away.

    Help me¡­my arms are gradually¡­

    My plea for help didn¡¯t reach anyone, and I was left like that.

    There were some guys who sporadically came over to observe my predicament, but none of them offered me any help.

    Then approximately one hour after I woke up, the two finally opened their eyes. As one would expect it was starting to turn dangerous for my arms, so the reason they woke up was probably because I was trying to save my arms by doing some stealthy and very slight movements.

    Frankly speaking, having your arms used as as pillows the entire time you¡¯re sleeping is severe, especially when it¡¯s both of your arms. For some time, I couldn¡¯t even feel them.

    Once I ate the breakfast the sisters prepared for me, I began the morning training.

    Everyone worked to a degree that was scary.

    Eh? When I looked slightly doubtful, Gobukichi told me that since the higher posts suddenly got thinner with the death of the former leader, the goblins understood that the only way to grab it, is to, like me, become strong, and the only way to become strong is to earnestly overcome your own limits. Putting together what the training goblins said, that¡¯s what we ended up with.

    Yes, that¡¯s right. I didn¡¯t say it before, but since the goblins number had increased considerably, recently, I had begun to take the role as supervisor of the training program.

    Gobukichi took charge of those with high offensive and defensive strength.Their role was to engage the enemy from the front. This role, in turn, made him the commander of our main group of the armed corps. We called it ¡°Revolution¡±.

    I still haven¡¯t introduced the last hobgoblin, who is called Hobusato-san. She gathered the goblins who specialized in a high offensive ¡°hit and run¡± fighting style, and turned them into a lightly armed combat corps that specialized in mobility, which we called ¡°Red Surge¡±.

    Gobumi gathered the ones who were bad at close range combat, and became the commander of a fighting unit armed with short bows and crossbows, named ¡°Tirard¡±.

    Gobue collected those who I judged lacked the required combat ability to belong to any of the above groups, training them to have enough defensive power to defend themselves, having them focus on cooking and fixing broken equipment, and thus made a logistical corp which we called ¡°Patri¡±.

    Hobusei-san was the only one with the exception of me who could use magic, so there is no option but to have her do individual practice; and thus, she became the commander of the magic-wielding unit, ¡°Magician¡±.

    By the way, if the different squads are added together, they number 59 goblins.39 from our generation + 28 from the former ¨C 8 of which were killed during my torture.

    For some reason no one wanted to be my sparring partner, even though I would be using a wooden sword.

    Well, I can easily win even with a handicap anyway.

    But if I were fighting 1 on 1 against Gobukichi, Gobumi or Hobusei, it would be close. If I used my abilities I could win a fight alone against everyone together, but that would be in opposition to the original purpose of the practice, to increase the basic strength of the participants.

    After that it was time for the afternoon hunt. This time everyone had things to do so I went alone.Gobukichi-kun was asked by the goblins under his leadership to continue practice with him during the afternoon, Gobumi-chan was still teaching the goblins who couldn¡¯t remember things like ranks, the Continental Alphabet, and the simple rules I cooked up, and Gobue-chan was inside, accompanied by the members of her ¡°Spirit Stone¡± mining group.

    After departing, I first saw a Demon Spider.

    I killed it the usual way, and tore off its carapace. A Demon Spider¡¯s carapace is useful because you can increase its toughness using [Shell Defense] on top of being light and strong.I was actually using one right now.

    [Goburou got ¡°High-quality Carapace¡±!!]

    After putting the carapace in my backpack, I ate the spider¡¯s remains whole.Since Demon Spiders aren¡¯t edible spiders, the taste wasn¡¯t very good.

    Ability [Enlarged Field of Vision] learned.

    Because I felt good about acquiring a new ability, I turned a blind eye to the bad taste.

    Next, I found another triple horned horse. This time, unlike the last, there was only one.It was the perfect opponent to try my [End] magic on, so I started making the preparations to cast my magic.

    Regarding magic, typically there are three components that must be connected.

    The first is the chanting of the [Spell] to influence the workings of the world.

    Second, [Internal Mana Control] to refine a necessary amount of magical power inside the body.

    And then thirdly, [External Mana Operation] to control the formation of the magic itself using magical power outside the body¡ªthat is, magical power filling the air.

    Also, because the third part [External Mana Operation] is several times more difficult than the other two parts, It is typical to use casting aid devices such as magic staves during the preparation.

    I already had the abilities of a staff so having a staff makes no difference when handling magic for me.

    I prepared a black lance I created with magic, then I threw it.

    My aim with the black lance was true and the lance hit the triple horned horse right in its fat neck, where it cleanly gouged a hole 20 centimeters in diameter.

    The body that had its flesh torn off with a tearing sound stood still for a moment, until its strength left it and it suddenly collapsed on the spot. The impact from the scene was so powerful that I involuntarily shuddered. Yeah, this magic truly possesses a ridiculous amount of power.

    You see, since I became a subspecies the incantations for basic magic has become embedded in my memory, I think I already mentioned that; but until now I didn¡¯t know how powerful this lance was. Ever since I used magic on a green slime, I have been convinced of the effectiveness of magic; but the fact that you can kill an opponent in one hit, even a horned horse, shows just how terrifying it can be.

    I understood that the power of the magic was useable from trying it on green slimes among other things. But the fact that as long as I don¡¯t miss it¡¯s an instant death attack on three horned horse class monsters is kinda scary, isn¡¯t it?

    Still, [End] style magic is incredible, to put it mildly. And this is (probably) only entry level magic, at that. Well, the power in this magic is so high that it should probably only be used as a last resort, or I might end up hurting myself, I thought whilst dismantling the horse.

    I sliced off all of the horse¡¯s three horns; tore off the scales; bled it; and then ate. I did leave one leg for the others though.

    Ability [Scale Armour Formation] learned.Ability [Strong-Supple Frame] learned.

    The ability to grow scales on my body; It is extremely powerful, however, because I¡¯ll look kind of gross, I decided to refrain from using it. Well, as a test I used it once, and instantly black scales were growing closely packed on my arm¡­

    This isn¡¯t something you show others.

    For an instant I felt like I had turned into a lizardman. Although this could be good in it¡¯s own way. It¡¯s fine as long as you can get used to it, but as expected, the appearance of the arm I tried the skill on is slightly hard to swallow.

    I began to move around searching for a prey in order to fix my mood.

    This time I found a Green Slime. I fried it till it became crispy then popped it in my mouth.

    Ability [Metamorphosis] learned.

    I am able to turn my arms so they function as whips. You see, when you talk about green slimes it¡¯s just a lump made up of mucus. So I don¡¯t think bones really matter when changing their body shape, once you know this it¡¯s easy to understand.

    And then this ability. Even though I have bones I can, using this ability, move my body in the same way the slime does. I can even turn my body into a puddle-like form copying the shape of a slime, and to test this I enveloped a horned rabbit in my body, using [Self Body-Fluid Control] I changed my body fluids into acid, and the horned rabbit was in this way turned into nourishment.

    Besides, even if I lose a limb to an attack, if I turn it into slime form before receiving the attack, if I take the part that got blown away into my body, it seems I won¡¯t even recieve an injury. There might be some limits, although I think it¡¯s an extreme method to use. This ability is almost like cheating. It¡¯s not like I feel bad when I obtain a useful ability. But I should be careful of which people I show this ability to.

    The day was about to set, and I was satisfied with my spoils, and was about to return when I found, or should I say encountered, him.

    A huge looking rock covered with red hair, is what the Red Bear looked like with his large frame.

    From doing a quick estimation, it was more than 4 meters long. You could tell that the Red Bear is bad news with just a look from a distance, an existence not to be messed with, everyone could see that it was a born warrior.

    I doubt my halberd could easily slice through its red metal-like fur and even if I were to pierce it, it¡¯s a sure bet that the thick flesh below the fur would easily stop the rest of the strike¡¯s momentum.

    One normally flees. Running away from the first moment. The only sane choice when facing such a being.

    But before I realized it I already went into hiding while observing it, and started to devise a plan on how to kill the Red Bear.

    No, even though I haven¡¯t fought a dangerous opponent of this degree since my reincarnation, I have already fought and killed far more dangerous guys before it. And each time, I killed and ate them.

    This is probably the reason why I really wanted to fight this guy.

    I want to get its ability and devour it, one could say my instincts were whispering this to me.

    Well, with such feelings, I prepared to use everything I possessed to kill the Red Bear.

    And so, the fierce battle begins.

    * * *

    I fought so desperately with the Red Bear that when it was finally over, I noticed that the sun was already rising.

    My body was seriously injured from when Red Bear tore at me with his fangs and claws. Moving around and looking for a safe place to rest would be an impossible feat. Moreover, my left arm was cleanly cut off below my elbow.

    When I defended myself from one of the Red Bears sharp claws, it got cut off and was sent flying, the cut off arm was then eaten by the bear in the middle of the fight.

    Because my left arm was lost beyond hope of salvaging I could only make a temporary fix by stemming the bleeding with my thread. In order to heal the wound properly countless systematic Recovery Skills would be needed. Fortunately Sustainable Regeneration has already activated, so the possibility that I bleed to death is unlikely.

    There was a large amount of blood streaming from my body, why wasn¡¯t it fatal? You might think this, but the blood that came out was already replenished by my ability. Contrary to appearances, the blood remaining in my body was sufficient.

    Well, let¡¯s talk about that later.

    I can¡¯t help but say the damage to my equipment is greater. Both of my estocs broke to their handles and became useless, my bowie knife¡¯s edge crumbled into pieces, having a nicked edge, it was barely safe from breaking off the handle.

    My primary halberd also had a terribly chipped edge, the long handle was distorted greatly from warding off the Red Bear¡¯s constant attacks.

    It hasn¡¯t been destroyed, but it clearly needs repairing.

    The protective gear which should have still looked new before the battle looks like a shadow of itself, its state is now a jacket and tattered shorts.

    At first glance all you can see is a beaten dog. No, a defeated goblin.

    I was in a horrible state.

    But, I survived. I survived.

    I did well not dying, truly.

    [Rapid Recovery] and Recovery Skills, if there were no duplicate recovery abilities, I must have easily died more than 50 times in my current condition as a Hobgoblin.

    If there were no Enhanced Defense abilities [Shell Defense] [Physical Damage Reduction] [Steel Hide] [Scale Armour Charge] [Strong-Supple Frame] there were no Enhanced Defense abilities that were the same etcetera, it isn¡¯t likely to have ended to the degree of damage of only losing one arm and there¡¯d be lacerations to my entire body surely. Rather, even at my full strength, a graze from one of its strikes would send me flying. That¡¯s how much of a foul play the Red Bear¡¯s strike is.

    I mean, that was really a cheat.

    Even so, I still didn¡¯t lose.

    Starting from [Snake Venom Administration] [Electro Master] [Hydro Hand] [Spider Thread Creation] and various abilities, using simple combination attacks with various abilities as an effective way to whittle down its health.

    Actually I¡¯d rather use [End] type magic to quickly deal the killing blow; the problem is that right now my spellcasting is so slow that it¡¯s practically useless in the middle of close range combat. Because the opening I¡¯d give would be too big, I¡¯d instantly die if I tried.

    Moreover in the first place, when I tried to hit it with a sneak attack with a lance he dodged it, so chances are that if I even managed to get one off, it would just be a waste of time.

    The beasts instincts were fearsome. Well, because I lost my left arm in the initial surprise attack, it was probably satisfied with that attack.

    I was also lucky that my attacks with my halberd were extremely potent when buffed by my strengthening skills like [Improved Slashing Power], [Improved Piercing Power], [Improved Charging Power], [Improved Leg Power] and [Pump-Up] etc.

    By the way, after using [Triple Stab] I confirmed it. It really turns out physical defense was ignored. However, there seems to be a requirement where the attacks pierce to the same depth as the middle attack.

    Furthermore, the size of the hole naturally depends on the weapon used to make it: A hole left by a halberd is going to be larger than one left by an estoc due to the strength of the blow.

    The ability that helped me the most was surprisingly [Vampiric Exploitation] that I got from the Seven-Colored Bat.

    This blood sucking action can ignore the target¡¯s defensive strength only up to a certain extent, and the blood that was sucked can also be be used as my own blood immediately, but it is thanks to this ability that I could replace the blood lost by the bear¡¯s attack that went through my defenses, which had been raised as much as possible, from the bear itself.

    In short, I was able to replenish my own blood using the enemy¡¯s, and I deal an amount of damage proportional to the amount I took from it.

    Because I currently can change a part of my body just like a slime, if I turned my finger into something like a straw and pierced the Red Bear with it, by sucking the blood through it I needn¡¯t worry much about blood replenishment.

    Yep, if I had lacked any one of the abilities I have now, things may not have turned out the way it did.

    Ah, that¡¯s right, [Stench]. I guess I was helped by that, too. The very moment the Red Bear was about to bite my body I used [Stench] causing it to retreat, holding its nose in anguish. Well well, you truly never know what will turn out to be useful in the future.

    Looking back at the fierce fight, for a while after the twilight, I turned my eyes in the direction of what was once the Red Bear.

    In the middle of the trees flattened in the aftermath of a violent fight, was a great Red Bear that had ceased breathing. Its whole body was covered in injuries like me, but carved on its chest was a large mark as proof of my concentrated attacks.

    My scarred figure looking down on it can be seen reflected on its empty eyes that had lost their light, and a bowie knife stuck deeply between its eyebrows, this was for some reason making me feel sad. I¡¯ll say this over and over again, the Red Bear was truly strong.

    Using my [Predict] I could see its attack trajectory as a red line, but even so, the attack was so fast there were times that I couldn¡¯t dodge in time, its unique powers such as its explosion-like roar and its glare which was a technique that was inhibiting my movements were intermingled in the attack.

    Furthermore, this thing is a bear, and yet it blew fire like a flamethrower out of its mouth. ¡°Really, what kind of bear is this?¡±

    Since I had [Fire Resistance] and [Hydro Hand] I didn¡¯t receive much damage from the flames, but this and that are two different things.

    Seriously, it was strong. A large part of me winning was due to luck.

    But since I won, I have the responsibility to live on for the defeated.

    I picked up the Red Bear¡¯s hand that had rolled near its battered and whipped body, and I ate it in order to regain my strength.

    Ability [Peerless Heavy Strike] learned.Ability [Intimidation of the Strong] learned.

    When I finished eating the right arm, all my exhaustion suddenly caught up to me and I felt my consciousness begin to fade.

    During the fierce fighting I¡¯d lost a lot of stamina, the body decided that the best way to survive was to cut off my consciousness and preserve my physical strength. Even now my [Rapid Recovery] and Regeneration are still restoring my body, so I¡¯m confident that I wouldn¡¯t die even if I fall unconscious. It¡¯s my own body, so that much I can understand.

    However, it¡¯s obvious that I¡¯m too defenseless if I faint as I am now. There is a high chance of getting eaten by other monsters during the time I was unconscious, so to remain alive I mustered what¡¯s left of my strength and sent out my thread to make a wall around me and the Red Bear out of the trees that are scattered around as a result of being mowed down during our fight.

    It was an impromptu shelter.

    In addition to having the trees as camouflage, because I doused my thread in poison as I was sending it out, even if for example someone were to come and attack, surely the poison should do them in. If, for some reason, all this wasn¡¯t enough, then that would be the end of me after all, I thought with resignation.

    ¡ªAs I used up the last of my strength to build the defenses, my consciousness¡ª

    You have exceeded the minimum required level.Special requirements ?Kingslayer?, ?Tyrant¡¯s Swagger?, ?||God||? cleared, [Rank Up] to [Ogre:Rare Variant] now possible.Will you [Rank Up]??YES? ?NO?

    ¡ªWith the last of my willpower I chose ?YES? right before I lost consciousness.

    * * *

    I woke up due to a strange urge. The lighting was dim, but I didn¡¯t mind that very much.

    I was stirred by a strange hunger that was unlike any I¡¯d ever felt before, so I reached for the corpse of the nearby Red Bear. After removing the bowie knife that I had lodged deeply in the bear¡¯s forehead, I used raw strength to tear its head off. When I brutally ripped off the skin, flesh, and cervical vertebrae, the sound could be heard from afar.

    I hadn¡¯t fully regained consciousness yet, so I was munching on the Red Bear¡¯s head that was in my hand.

    Ability [Lord of the Mountain¡¯s Piercing Roar] learnedAbility [Intimidating Glare] learnedAbility [All Elemental Resistance] learned

    After I tore the hair off the head, crushed the cranium and slurped the brain for a few seconds, I judged that the bear¡¯s pelt was needed, so I took the bowie knife that had somehow seemed smaller and carefully peeled it off.

    I got the feeling that the Red Bear became smaller since I fainted, but my head wasn¡¯t working right, so I couldn¡¯t find a reason to why I felt that way.

    It just felt right peeling the skin off the bear, I did it for no other reason.

    Any other thoughts didn¡¯t enter my mind.

    My left hand from the elbow down was gone, however, this much could be fixed by my abilities so there was no problem.

    Using my [Metamorphosis] ability, I was able to make slender fingers for my arm, which was gone from the elbow down, and pick up the pelt.

    Though having difficulty using a small knife with my prosthetic fingers, I was able to finish flaying the pelt from the bear. After that, I started eating the flesh of the now naked bear.

    As if suffering from intense starvation, I single-mindedly devoured its flesh and blood until nothing remained.

    Ability [Lord of the Mountain¡¯s Stout Hide] learned.Ability [Lord of the Mountain¡¯s Strong, Supple muscle] learned.Ability [Consecutive Raging Strikes] learned.Ability [Tyranny of the Beast King] learned.

    Ability [Demigod of Fire¡¯s Divine Protection] learned.Ability [Complete Fire Resistance] learned.

    Even chewing and tearing brought out its flavor, truly the best meat I have ever had, I drank the thick blood that almost tasted like wine, I could feel the Red Bear¡¯s vitality as soon as I swallowed a mouthful of its innards, I devoured its crunchy bones and exhausted its bone marrow just like the minerals of a cave, at that point my mind has finally been cleared and started working.

    I then looked at my body.

    My body remained black, and although there were large quantities of blood covering it, I noticed some unfamiliar red lines that seemed to have some religious significance¡ª¨Cwonder if I should call it a tattoo?¡ª-all over my body. And the size of my body is a full human arm length taller than that of an adult male, my belly has also turned into a 6-pack abs, it¡¯s easy to realize that I am not a Hobgoblin anymore but a different species entirely.

    And my hair, I am sure it wasn¡¯t this long. Although my hair grew when I turned into a Hobgoblin, it couldn¡¯t even reach up to my shoulders, comparing it to now, it feels like my hair has already reached below my shoulder blades. Aside from growing longer, it has also turned gray.

    Lastly, two sharp horns had grown out from my forehead. When I touched them, they felt extremely hard. If I charged like a bull, I¡¯m sure there¡¯d be a ¡°buzuri¡± sound when I stab the target.While I was checking out my new body in various ways, I remembered the message I recieved before I lost consciousness.

    Yeah, it seems I have turned into a Great Ogre.

    Not a subspecies at that, oddly enough I evolved into a rare type.

    Well, if you kill this much then you¡¯ll get enough to rank up, it can¡¯t be helped if I turned into a rare species. I convinced myself that it wasn¡¯t a bad thing at all.

    In the same manner as when I became a Hobgoblin from a Goblin, when I turned into a rare Ogre, all of my abilities have been enhanced and my body is filled with a temporary feeling of omnipotence. However, I decided to leave the verifying of the enhancements for another time.I think it¡¯s about time for me to head back. The others are probably worried since I haven¡¯t returned yet.

    As I picked up the halberd that might be reusable if repaired, I noticed something when I was about to leave. My clothes were so tattered up to the point where it didn¡¯t cover the parts that need to be hidden. As a side effect of when my body grew, the clothes that I was wearing got torn to shreds.

    Basically, I am currently naked.

    My member was swinging and hanging out between my legs; it was so amazing I had to gaze at it for a while. When I got worried as to what I should do, I solved the problem by taking the Red Bear¡¯s pelt, which I had already skinned off, and strapped it around my waist to cover it.

    I see, that¡¯s why I skinned the Red Bear¡¯s pelt, because I had a premonition that such a situation would occur, I thought while using a wind-blade to cut the tree and threads that I¡¯d been using as a shield causing a ¡°zuban¡± sound to occur.

    Because my power had increased, even if I held back, it turned into a one-hit kill.

    Judging by the position of the Sun, I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s around two o¡¯clock now.I had slept for a pretty long time, I should hurry back to the base.

    On the way back I found my backpack and field bag lying around, after that I recovered as many Estocs and Bowie Knives as I could; at least those that can still be repaired.

    The Three-Horned Horse leg that I placed in my backpack was already stolen, it can¡¯t be helped if the materials that remained such as the shell of the demon spider are damaged, I gave up.

    The backpack is still useful even though it was already worn out.

    Because I¡¯d gotten bigger, and by abusing some of my abilities, I arrived at the mining base in the blink of an eye, where they were noticeably wary of me.

    And since I had a large body and, with the use of my abilities, I have invaded the mining base very quickly, they¡¯re all wary to an extent that I could only find admirable.Yeah, if an unknown ogre suddenly appeared, this is what¡¯d happen, I thought with a wry smile.

    Also they¡¯re more afraid of me than they used to be.

    Ah, since I¡¯d turned into an Ogre I probably have a face filled with evil, I¡¯m sure of it. I¡¯m confident that it would be something like this:

    Goblin ¡ú UglyHobgoblin ¡ú Human-likeOgre ¡ú Some kind of Berserker? My current state.

    Something like this, I¡¯m sure.

    By the way, there¡¯s no concrete proof, but I¡¯m probably around two meters tall right now.

    So in comparison to the shorter goblins that were surrounding me, there was a huge difference in perspective.

    I¡¯m completely looking down at them. ¡°They¡¯d be in my blind spot if they got too close; I¡¯d completely lose sight of them.¡±

    Soon after, Gobumi-chan came out from the back and realized that it was me. Just like that, the rest of the goblin¡¯s wariness vanished.Gobumi-chan who identified me in an instant, had her facial expression turned into that of anger. And with all her might, kicked me in the shin.

    It didn¡¯t hurt at all, though I acted like I was in pain. However the one who truly felt pain was Gobumi-chan, so I casually healed her with my healing skills to ease her discomfort.As soon as her pain subsided, Gobumi-chan made me do seiza.

    [T/N: Seiza means an upright kneeling position that is traditionally used in Japan in meditation and as part of the preparation in martial arts.]

    She was really worried, saying things like ¡°What were you doing?¡±, ¡°How did you turn into an Ogre?¡±. I was being nagged. Since I lost my left hand, I couldn¡¯t refute her nagging. Besides, I can¡¯t talk back when I could notice her tearing up a little. I was about to say sorry for making you worry, but then Gobukichi and Redhead arrived after hearing the commotion.

    Of course, they were surprised. So surprised they couldn¡¯t even stop their mouths from hanging open.

    Well, of course they would if they were worried because I didn¡¯t return the first day, and then came back as an Ogre the next.

    To offer a tentative explanation of the events, once the key members such as Gobue-chan, Hobusei-san, Hobusato-san, and Gobujii had been gathered, I started explaining.I chased the other goblins out saying that I will tell them later.

    Eh¡­, when I thought I should return soon after hunting I found a ¡®Red Bear¡¯. To test my strength, and partially because of instinct, I attacked it.

    After that, the fighting that started in the evening continued through the night, it only concluded when the sun came up yesterday morning.

    After that I couldn¡¯t move because I had taken heavy damage, so I erected a barrier using my thread and slept in an attempt to recover my strength.

    Then, a while ago when I opened my eyes I had become an ogre. A rare variant at that, too.My equipment had become worn out, but I had the Red Bear¡¯s pelt as a trophy, so it wasn¡¯t much of a loss.

    Well, I was just thankful to be alive.

    After telling them that much, I noticed Hobusei-san, Hobusato-san and also Gobujii show a stupid look with their jaws hanging as if dislocated.

    What is it Gobujii? Eh? Did I kill the Red Bear? I told you already didn¡¯t I, while saying that I patted the fur wrapped around my waist to draw their attention to it.

    Hmm? What is it Hobusei-san? Hm hm, so there¡¯s a considerably strong, almost peerless bear-type monster called ¡°Hind Bear¡± living in these forests, but it¡¯s generally grey in color and can go up to three meters long.

    Additionally, among those bears there are individuals that belong to a subspecies whose fur was red in color. That subspecies is unable to wield magic like a mage, but they have high intelligence and the ability to breathe fire, and they are also on a separate level compared to common Hind Bears in things like physical strength and sense of smell.

    So in short, because that thing was the strongest among Hind Bears, it was the strongest in the entire area.

    Therefore that Hind Bear subspecies was called the ¡°Lord of the Mountain¡±. It has enough strength to easily kill and eat an ogre, right?

    I see. Somehow I doubt such a monster would be spotted twice, given its rarity in this wide world.

    ¡°Ouch, Stop attacking my head Hobusato-san.¡± Though it really doesn¡¯t hurt. ¡°Eh? You want to take a better look at the fur? It can¡¯t be helped.¡± As I showed it to her, she said it was definitely the real thing.

    Well, I even turned into an ogre after fighting it, and of the abilities I got, there was even one named [Lord of the Mountain¡¯s Strong, Supple Muscle], so there¡¯s no doubt.

    Also, she said I who became an Ogre in such a short amount of time stopped being ¡®abnormal¡¯ and became an ¡®impossible existence¡¯. Although I retorted that this was unavoidable, she replied saying such a thing can¡¯t be said so easily without knowing.

    It¡¯s unreasonable.

    So we talked about various things for an hour before ending the meeting.

    No, as expected the current situation is not good since I¡¯m as exposed as a newborn. So I want to get some new clothes quickly. I feel ashamed; as expected, one can¡¯t remain calm in such an embarrassing state.

    Afterwards, I took sneak peeks around the place.

    I decided to go to my workshop, but soon realized Gobumi-chan and Redhead had followed me. ¡°What are you, my parents?¡±, I felt like telling them, but I refrained.I let them do as they please since there was no harm done, I went and greeted the rest of the women for now. I wanted to check if anything had happened since my absence.

    They were really afraid. They were all screaming at me from the sudden meeting. I got tired quickly since the other goblins started gathering to check the commotion and I had to drive them away.

    The girl¡¯s reaction made me want to cry, I told them what happened and even used my flames and threads, finally they realized who I am. I could still notice them shivering from fear, but I was glad that they finally each showed a relieved smile towards the end.I felt like saying ¡°Good job!¡± since they all looked so cute.

    ¡°Ouch!¡±. I felt a little bit of pain from both my arms as the two girls behind me pinched me. Though I refrained from hardening my skin, since I thought of it as a punishment game for making them worry about me, afterwards we talked about various things.

    I¡¯ve asked Blacksmith-san to do some maintenance on the halberd that was damaged badly. I got scolded again for a while, ¡°You¡¯ve really done well making it so tattered¡±.

    After the scolding, it seems like she¡¯s using a spirit stone on weapons like I did with my old knife, I was told to check it later. ¡°And if it¡¯s okay with you I would like to try and create a new weapon for you¡±, I nodded immediately as soon as she asked me this.

    I find it cute seeing her getting happy, albeit briefly, smiling with beet red cheeks.It made me involuntarily pat her head. So as not to hurt her I tried my best to control my strength.Still, I think it was nice seeing her look like a cute child getting tickled. As expected, a woman¡¯s smile is the best.

    For some reason the two pinched me even harder.Why?

    I got fired up when I was told they would be making bear stew, so I went Hind Bear hunting for the [Cook] sisters. ¡°If you want bear stew, you will need to get this and this and that.¡± And so I ordered the goblin minions to go and gather them.

    Lately I¡¯ve been working these guys so much, their level should be around 100, perhaps some of them could become hobgoblins soon.

    As expected, it¡¯s hard for the two to do all the work, I wanted to at least help them cut some of the ingredients, so I appointed three female goblins of my generation from the Patri group to assist the girls.

    Though I took the consideration that it¡¯s still dangerous for them to be with the males, these girls are incredibly tough.

    Anyone; friends, acquaintances, relatives or even lovers that are killed or kidnapped by the goblins will see them as enemies, yet you can see the difference when you look at these two, the mental strength and the adaptability they possessed are remarkable even though such a short time has passed since their kidnapping.

    Really, these two are amazing. Even if it is a miscalculation on my part, I¡¯m still glad.

    ¡°You girls would really make good wives. Will it be okay if I made you two my wives?¡± I told them this as a joke.

    As I was looking forward to tonight¡¯s dinner, I told them that I¡¯m not gonna stay any longer.

    When they faced me blushing, showing their blissful smile, I found it really cute .

    As soon as I left, I was struck in the back of the head by the two with wooden swords.

    Though it didn¡¯t hurt, it was still unreasonable.

    Alchemist-san was concocting a potion as usual, there¡¯s some kind of poisonous gas mixed inside. Though it¡¯s not the type of poison that could painfully kill you, it will quickly enter your body and paralyze you.

    I gave her a bitter smile and softly whispered to her the ways in which to use the poison.Whatever, this is for self-protection and the likes.

    Because she understood that just like how there are all kinds of humans, someone like me exists among the goblins that tried to assault them, she didn¡¯t feel anything like wanting to mix in poison into the food, however she still made them because it¡¯s scary to not be the least bit prepared, that¡¯s how it was.

    If asked ¡°Don¡¯t you hate them enough to want to kill them?¡±, then sure, there are goblins she hates to the point of wanting to kill, but she¡¯s become able to trust me ever since the matter that night. Besides, I think she managed to trust even the likes of Gobukichi-kun lately.

    At the same time, she told me I show too much strength as an ogre. I am of the impression that my body is beyond weird. My red tattoos were also a little frightening.

    ¡°I can¡¯t help it though¡±, I said as I extended both my hands and stretched out my prosthetic fingers toward her and jokingly picked her up, then I sensed icy glares coming from the two behind me.

    So strong were their glares, I thought, ¡°Oh crap, I¡¯m going to get killed¡±.

    That being the case, I did the same to the two to appease them. Then, I did the same thing to Blacksmith-san and the sisters too.

    My body aside, I felt emotionally tired because I had to be careful not to break everyone¡¯s fragile bodies.

    After that, I finally arrived at my workshop, my clothes feeling itchy.

    The Red Bear pelt that I considered making into new armor could not be processed yet, so I decided to leave it for now. In the meantime, I made shorts out of the Armored Tanuki hide that I had already tanned beforehand.

    I don¡¯t really feel cold being an ogre, and since I thought that making a pair of trousers in my size would use up too much hide, so to save on materials I made shorts instead.

    At the same time, I think that armor made out of Red Bear hide, like any other hide, will be enough protection. However, it¡¯s from the Red Bear and I endured great pains to obtain it after all. I think that rather than making hide armor, it is better to make hard leather armor that has higher defense.

    I nimbly finished making the shorts and put them on immediately.

    With this I can protect my dignity as a person. That was what I felt.

    After that, I went on to making the Red Bear hide harder by boiling it.

    Tomorrow I will work hard at making equipment to go hunting with, I thought. Although I have a different motive as well, since I¡¯m now too big for the weapons we have at the moment.

    * * *

    Out of the usual five goblin minions, three became hobgoblins.

    I gave them a congratulatory gift.

    Since they just turned into hobgoblins recently, I told them to go get used to their bodies.

    I called off morning practice today because my training partner almost died.

    Woah, that was close. Even if I held back my strength to the utmost minimum, a light punch would send a goblin to their death. More like, they would die unless treated immediately.

    Gobukichi-kun, armed to the teeth, was pretty much trashed. His armor couldn¡¯t stop the force as it creaked. Even his tower shield made of black iron had a fist-shaped dent.

    Therefore, I stopped the sparring session.

    I arranged the next session to be a one on one mock battle, where the winner of which could give one order as a penalty to the loser.

    In the afternoon, I continued crafting the armor that I started yesterday.

    I saw Gobukichi-kun, who was about to go out hunting with an extremely worried expression. I thought it would be dangerous for him to go out alone and thus paired up with him. This morning, the goblin minions became partners to the individual hobgoblins, and played more of a supporting role.

    Gobumi-chan and Hobusato-san are both females with similar fighting styles, and they started to get along with each other so they led four goblin subordinates and went out to hunt.

    Hobusei-san was sitting beside me while I was crafting my armor. I told her to return the book after she was finished but was ignored.Gobue-chan went mining spirit stones again today. As soon as she found a spot with a lot of spirit stones, she became very motivated. Her mining speed went up.

    Redhead started training with wooden swords together with the goblins that were left behind. Her seriousness in training roused the competitive attitude of the other goblins since they didn¡¯t want to lose, this brought the older goblins closer to the goblins of my generation.Really, she is such a tough girl.

    While taking a break from crafting my armor, I decided to visit the girls. I first went to Blacksmith-sans to check on the knives she crafted from spirit stones, I was happy at how interesting the abilities they had were. I also taught the sisters how to make some simple dishes. I then brainstormed together with Alchemist-san for new potions ideas.

    It¡¯s been so long since I¡¯ve taken it slow.

    * * *

    Two minions who were still goblins yesterday ranked up to Hobgoblins.

    While thinking ¡°It¡¯s the second day in a row, huh?¡±, I gave them a congratulatory gift.

    The morning training ended without a hitch, and I ate the lunch the sisters prepared for me, Gobue-chan, who should have been in the mines, came to me flustered.

    She was embracing something small and brown with a bright red jewel on its forehead, sharp cuts could be seen all over its body. It was covered in blood, just like me some time ago. I could tell from its erratic breathing that it would most likely die any moment.

    Calling it ¡°Carbuncle¡± (tentative name) for the time being, since Gobue-chan told me to help it with one of my Recovery Skills, and so I treated it with [Heal].

    It would have been beyond saving if I was ten minutes late, I felt relieved when I was somehow in time as I¡¯ve managed to heal the injury.

    However even healing doesn¡¯t return lost blood. Carbuncle fell asleep after I forcefully made it drink a potion Alchemist-san made, a ¡°Hematopoietic Potion¡± (Prototype) made from blending various herbs that helped with blood formation. Luckily for it I was sated after the meal so I didn¡¯t feel like eating it. Besides, Gobue-chan asked me to help it so that¡¯s what I did.

    [T/N: Hematopoietic means blood producing.]

    A few minutes later, the 30-cm tall Carbuncle opened its eyes and explained its situation.

    It thanked us.

    ¡°Thank you very much¡±, it said.

    According to the story it told us when I asked why it was covered in injuries, the Carbuncle¡¯s name was Returner, and the reason it was covered in wounds was because of some human adventurers.

    The red gem, splendidly mounted on its forehead, looked like a super high-class item, if sold, it would probably be worth a hundred million gold coins¡ªI think one gold coin is ten yen¡ª, that seemed to be the adventurers¡¯ objective.

    When I thought it had it hard, this time it went down on its knees and requested/begged us to do something against the humans.

    This is what I put together after hearing the story:

    It seems that ¡°Returner¡± is an artificial carbuncle created a long time ago by the legendary magician Velvet who was well-known throughout the continent. It is the manager of [Velvet¡¯s Hidden Treasury] ¡ª A structure recognized in this world as a dungeon ¡ª that Gobue-chan and the others broke through when they were digging for Spirit Stones.Though its superficial wounds that I healed seemed to have stabilized, but the fact was that its ¡°core¡±¡ªthough Returner was a non-living artificial Carbuncle without a set lifespan it seems that it would die if the core was broken ¡ª was deeply damaged when the humans attacked. The healing seemed to prolong the time until it disappears.Within the innermost part of the Treasury, there lay [Legendary] Class gems and elixirs that topped the list of magic items that Velvet had painstakingly collected over his lifetime. If the treasure chamber was savagely broken into by those greed-stricken nitwits and its treasures were taken away, there was no way Returner could tolerate all that.Returner wanted to solve this problem by its own, but its fighting strength was lacking and because its core was damaged, its time was limited.

    In the dungeon were magical creatures: the ¡°skeleton soldier¡±, the tougher ¡°skeleton warrior¡± and the advanced level skeleton, ¡°greater skeleton¡±, and against the party composition of the adventurers they were worse than useless.

    That¡¯s why it came to us who seemed slightly strong, to drive the adventurers out and on top of that, to bury the other entrances.

    If we could help eliminate the problem, it is willing to hand over the contents of the treasure chamber to us as thanks. Velvet hated humans, so it might as well hand over the treasure to us ogre and goblins.

    After thinking on it for a while, I couldn¡¯t think of any downsides.

    I called Gobukichi-kun, Gobumi-chan, Gobue-chan, and then both Hobusei-san and Hobusato-san to get properly armed. After that I asked Blacksmith-san to bring me the knife made from spirit stones. I thought having a weapon is much better than being unarmed.

    Because the Spirit Stone Knife was flashy in appearance, it seems like it would be useful as a deterrent.

    As I began instructing my goblin underlings; Blacksmith-san, Redhead, the two sisters, and Alchemist-san looked at me, their faces full of unease.

    That is because they heard the request to kill humans. They would feel some unease, even though they are strangers.

    However, because Returner asked for it we will drive them out of the dungeon through and through, we will strike first against the adventurers and win without killing.

    First we will try to persuade them, if that doesn¡¯t work, then and only then will we resort to the use of force. I said that since to protect ourselves we have to use deadly force, I¡¯m afraid it will end with us having to kill them.

    ¡°If it¡¯s for self-defense then it can¡¯t be helped, otherwise we¡¯ll get killed, right?¡± I said.

    When I told them that talking is important, and showed them my smile, they more or less gave me their consent.

    With the preparations complete, Gobue-chan lead us to the hole connecting to the dungeon that Returner managed.

    In the end, this is what happened.

    We killed all six adventurers, men and women, who had entered the dungeon and tried to kill Returner.

    Well, I did try persuasion first.

    Initially, to prevent them from being too anxious because of our superior numbers, I had Gobukichi-kun and the others hide and went to persuade them by myself. This was an act I did in good faith.

    But the moment they saw me they said something flag-like ¡°This dungeon not only has just Greater Skeletons, they also have Ogre subspecies here. This piece of shit has lots of weaknesses. Even though it¡¯s a troublesome opponent, he¡¯s no match for us. Let¡¯s just kill it quickly. If we let it go we¡¯re not gonna find anything like it ever again¡±, while beginning to attack me full of killing intent.

    I was not an Ogre subspecies, but a rare variant. In the first place, they didn¡¯t want to hear what I was saying, not even a little. That¡¯s robbers for you, I thought.

    Well, things like intruding on people¡¯s houses (dungeons), recklessly killing its inhabitants (monsters)¡ªalthough it wasn¡¯t me¡ªwhile recklessly abandoning and pillaging the treasure inside¡­This is, by no mistake, a murder-robbery case isn¡¯t it!! Moreover, they¡¯re not even aware of their crime; these people are beyond saving!!

    Meanwhile, upon using [Appraisal], it seems that the robbers¡¯ equipment were all high-class items endowed with magic or a craft similar to that, even by appearance the party exuded an aura of considerable strength.

    However, I felt nothing like the despair I felt when I went against the Red Bear, because by being an Ogre [Rare Variant] I had increased my base specs, and because repeated use of my abilities was now possible, I felt that defending against the robbers¡¯ attack was a simple matter.

    I mean, I could judge that just by looking at their first blow.

    Their attack was totally clumsy. Their aim is also relatively dull, not only were they unable to handle their weapons efficiently, there were hardly any unpredictable and complex feints to mislead the enemy mixed into their offense.

    Their slashing attacks were quick, and their weapons were of a superior quality, so if a usual ogre were to be hit he¡¯d be slaughtered leaving only pieces, however, in my opinion their combat techniques were not on par with their body¡¯s specification, the impression I had of their attack was that it was crude.

    Whether it¡¯s because of body strengthening from their levels, or buffs from their [Job], they are certainly strong, but conversely, it could possibly be inhibiting their efforts to raise their potential. Without thinking where they swing their swords in front of themselves, raising the levels of usable techniques and so on, never noticing that relying on those techniques they are probably obstructing themselves.

    So far they had probably been gaining levels by killing their opponents relying on brute force, thus they had naturally started to spend less effort when fighting.

    I don¡¯t mean to find faults in others affairs, but their current methods was excessively lethal for themselves.

    If they had spent more effort, they would probably have been able to fight me on equal ground.That¡¯s how high their base spec was, yet.

    Having neglected their training they were not real opponents for me.

    There was a margin of error allowed for me because they were weaker, and so all their attacks were easily defended against by my parrying. While this was happening I continued my attempt to persuade them.

    Usually when robbers are trying to murder you, you don¡¯t manage to convince them.

    As I was talking to them, while still being attacked, from the deep part of the dungeon a young looking [Magician] came out and cast a [Lightning]-based magic which was followed with a bam as soon as it struck.

    I didn¡¯t collapse, but all the same I stumbled a step or two forward from the shock. The resulting damage was only to the degree that I felt quite sore.

    Even though it looked like a small attack based on it¡¯s size, I would¡¯ve died from it if it weren¡¯t for All-Elemental Resistance and Lightning Resistance, the power of it was so strong your head would evaporate without a trace.

    Ah, as expected. Since you¡¯ve done this much, it can not be helped. My patience was already reaching its limits.

    I sent a signal to Gobukichi-kun and the others who were hiding to commence their attack.

    Apologizing to Returner in my mind, I cut off the retreat path of the adventurers by destroying a part of a mysterious opal corridor that made me want to remark ¡°What is this, a royal palace?¡±

    And in order to attract their attention, I attacked from the front.

    Yeah, although I originally thought the ability of the Spirit Stone Knife was only amusing, it actually turned out to be amazing.

    While the blade itself has absolutely no sharpness, since the materials used were Water Spirit Stones, water was being ejected from the blade with each slash. When I swung that thing a little seriously, the water coming out at high speed became a water blade, it cut the adventurer¡¯s armor in half along with its contents while making a loud sound.

    ¡°Awesome ! Awesome!¡± was what Gobumi-chan said following with a question about whether or not she could cut them in two with it, but I replied with a no because if there wasn¡¯t any force behind it the water didn¡¯t cut the opponent, it would only wet them.

    It seems like it was useless without suitable swinging speed, although it was still cool.

    After killing all of the adventurers, we stripped the bodies and ate them. I took the upper portion while Gobukichi-kun and the others got to share the lower bodies.

    Ability [Job-Assassin] learned.Ability [Job-Crusader] learned.Ability [Job-Guardian] learned.Ability [Job-High Wizard] learned.

    Ability [Job-Bishop] learned.Ability [Job-Enchanter] learned.Ability [Quick Thinking] learned.Ability [Parallel Thinking] learned.Ability [Horseriding] learned.Ability [Anti-magic] learned.

    Ability [Shortened Incantation] learned.Ability [Chivalry] learned.

    Ability [Intuition] learned.Ability [Conceal Presence] learned.

    Ability [Demigod of Mercy¡¯s Divine Protection] learned.Ability [Demigod of War¡¯s Divine Protection] learned.

    As expected even among humans being an adventurer means you need to be on a considerably high level.

    Since they had a lot of high-quality equipment, a fairly useful magic item was found. I ate it immediately of course.

    Ability [Conceal Self-Status] learned.Ability [Item Box] learned.

    What I ate were two different magic items; ¡°Hermit¡¯s Ring¡± and ¡°Backpack Storage (Large) x6¡±I stored the rest of the adventurers¡¯ gear in my item box¨Cwhen I tried to retrieve an item, a ponsound could be heard and the item appeared.

    The transfer item-like feature has given me a sense of nostalgia.

    The ability allows me to store up to 1200 different items and the same-named items can be stacked up to 99 times each which is just cheating. Then Returner guided us to the entrance of the dungeon.

    In the deepest part of the cave, we found a hidden entrance which we collapsed, now there¡¯s no other entrance here except the one Gobue-chan made. After we have collapsed that passage, there will be no way to enter this dungeon.

    Carbuncle guided us into the treasury, where we all saw it.

    There were various valuable treasures; the previous adventurer¡¯s equipment that we got our hands on looked dull compared to the vast number of powerful magic items here. Amidst this treasury crammed full of items, in the innermost part, was a mummy with a strange left arm shining in silver, enshrined in a throne.

    Returner called this mummy its master. This probably means that it was Velvet.

    Returner¡¯s time was about to run out and before that he wanted to tell us something.

    A wide variety of spirit stones could be gathered from the mines of our current home, it was the influence of this dungeon. Usually depending on the type of Spirit Stone it could found in a location that corresponds to their attribute ¡ª¡ª places with good ventilation have Wind Spirit Stones, Fire Spirit Stones are found near hot places like volcanoes, Spirit Stones of different attributes aren¡¯t usually found in one place.

    However, because this dungeon was a place built by Velvet who excelled at handling spirits, somehow spirits who do not belong can remain here even now, and it¡¯s possible to mine a wide variety of spirit stones because of the dungeon¡¯s influence.

    As soon as he finished talking, as if having reached its end Returner showed a faint smile as he faded.

    Clink, And only the jewel was left behind.

    After I picked it up I ate it .

    Ability [Golden Rule] learned.

    For now, we gave a silent prayer dedicated to Returner.

    And so I took all the riches in the treasury. Really, the item box skill is amazing.

    I could afford to cram everything from the treasury, and I still had surplus space left. Yeah, it¡¯s all thanks to the adventurer party from a while ago.

    Thinking that, only the mummified Velvet with the strange-looking left hand remained in the lonely temple and treasure chamber, as I thought, I couldn¡¯t bring myself to leave him as he is, so after recovering the gem-encrusted throne, I cremated the mummy.

    Raising my face, I clapped my hands in prayer and said ¡°namu¡±, and as the rumbling fire died out, only the strange-looking artificial hand, shining in silver, was left in its place.

    ¡°What is this?¡±, I thought as I used [Appraisal].

    NameSilver Artificial Arm ¨C Airgeatl¨¢mhClassificationArtifactRankLegendary ClassAbilitiy Effects

    ArmblastSpellblastSelf-EvolutionElemental EchoDetailsA divine artificial arm previously worn by Velvet found in the depths of a certain ancient dungeon. Those who lost an arm can obtain an arm that they can equip and with it perform any movement flawlessly.By taking in other kinds of metal, it is possible to change the shape according to the wearer¡¯s intent, this ability improves with each use. Destruction of this item is fundamentally impossible.

    It was.

    Hm, is Velvet saying ¡°I don¡¯t need this any more, so I¡¯m giving it to you¡± to me who had lost my left arm? I thought this as I picked it up at the elbow and brought it closer to my missing left arm. Somehow I was able to attach it.

    My impressions: It was incredibly painful.

    Well, somehow when I brought it close, the arm¡¯s armor expanded and its metallic tentacles extended from its center and covered my left arm up to the shoulder. Then the tentacles did something that felt like it was eating my flesh, the pain was so intense that I almost blacked out.

    Then after I had recovered from my screaming, my left arm had become Airgeatl¨¢mh up to the shoulder. The silver arm that was the size of a human¡¯s when I picked it up should have been far too small for me who was an ogre, but somehow it had transformed into the same size as my right arm in both length and girth; it suited me well.

    This might be the effects of [Self-Evolution].

    There was no discomfort even when clenching and opening all five fingers. It didn¡¯t feel weird at all.

    Moreover, I could tell when I touched things with it, and when I tried hitting a wall I felt no pain at all. Even though I could accept having no sense of pain because it was a prosthetic arm, I wondered how it was able to transmit the sense of touch.

    I was incapable of understanding it, and since I had no idea how abilities work in the first place, I wasn¡¯t going to think too deeply about it for now.

    Then, the movement limitations of the elbow joint seemed to have outrageously wide range of motion, and here and there were all sorts of gimmicks. The wrist and fingers could be rotated like a drill, and I could move the elbow and the shoulder at angles impossible for the skeletal structure of an Ogre.

    And then I confirmed that I could properly use my abilities through the silver arm. I was able to spin thread from the sharp pointed fingertips without a problem.

    Yep, I had obtained an awfully good thing.

    Even though I could somehow manage with the slime finger, but as expected, having a solid basis made dealing with problems easier.

    After that, we returned to base and had a party. Since it¡¯s the conclusion of a great battle, and among the things we got from the adventurer party ¡ªthis is important¡ªthere were bottles of booze. If we¡¯re not going to have one now then when are we going to have one?

    This is also for sending off the souls of Returner and Velvet.

    In Velvet¡¯s case, maybe it didn¡¯t matter because he died a long time ago, our worrying about it is because of the current atmosphere.

    I explained the details gently and thoroughly to Redhead, Blacksmith-san and the others trying to get their consent.

    Even though I persisted in trying to persuade them, towards the greedy humans it was useless.

    But, yeah, booze is delicious!!

    * * *

    After ending morning practice, I went to Blacksmith-san to have the items we obtained yesterday appraised, classified and sorted.

    As expected of the legendary magician, almost every inheritance of Velvet are outrageous.

    I was still unable to identify many things, On the other hand, Blacksmith-san, being a member of the travelling merchants and having dealt with various equipment as a profession of [Blacksmith], has a high [Appraisal] ability. She easily assessed more information than I ever could have and then explained to me her findings and their meaning.

    Although there seems to be many parts that still can¡¯t be identified, but, it was really helpful.

    I then spent the rest of the day sorting through all the items.

    * * *

    After concluding the morning practice, and after thinking about what to do with the large amount of items we¡¯ve obtained, but because I judged that to fully equip them would only lead to complacency, I decided to only give magical items to the ten hobgoblins¨Cweapon and armor, and also stuff like magical rings to be versatile¨Cand gave each goblin a max of two items.

    And the equipment those hobgoblins previously used were passed down to those of a lower rank. In the end, the worst equipped member was using shell reinforced shield, leather armour and a short sword.

    Since they have been practicing daily the group of goblins had reached an unfathomable high level, additionally both the quality and quantity of the equipment had increased, even if they don¡¯t do a surprise attack with poisoned arrows and attacked enemies from the front, fighting against mid-level adventurers would still have a high chance of winning against, according to Gobujii.

    Well, I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s because of their competition for strength, but if the slightly lower rank goblins attack in a swarm then the adventurers would probably lose.

    In my eyes, this group is without question currently the strongest army corps.

    In the afternoon I went out with all hobgoblins which numbered 10 in total, along with Redhead since she desperately wanted to join us, in order to hunt the previously mentioned Hind Bears.

    By the way, my current main weapon is something I found in Velvet¡¯s Treasure Room, a vermillion longspear named [Starving Impaler of A Thousand Thorn (Kazikli Bey)].

    [T/N: It¡¯s the same spear he is holding on the Alphapolis Banner. The one that looks something used by a Ritual Monk.Kazikli Bey is Vlad the Impaler¡¯s Turkish nickname, the Vampire Dracula was based on him.]

    My armor is a long coat-type hard leather armor made from the Red Bear¡¯s hide and the shells of Demon Spiders, and I am also wearing a pair of flexible red leather pants.

    Usually on my flesh and blood right arm I have a black metal bracelet however, I¡¯d quickly changed it to this sturdy hand protector that manifests its ability according to the intent of the wearer to increase physical strength ¨Camong other things¨C named [Fury of the Haughty King (Beowulf)].

    The spear and the bracelet and the silver arm; all three are [Legendary] Class [Artifact]s.

    Yes, it might be late to start now, but I¡¯ll briefly explain about [Artifact]s.

    [Artifact] is a word that inevitably appears when discussing items gotten from the few dungeons around the world termed [Ancient Dungeons] that are extremely dangerous yet unique places.

    From what I can tell from viewing the item data of [Artifact]s, there¡¯s an obvious difference in performance when compared to current magic items.

    Even for disposable potions, their effects can be more than two to three times as potent.

    An [Artifact] Class health potion heals 60 hit points, while the commonly made version of health potions restore 25 hit points.

    Something along those lines.

    Blacksmith-san told me that it¡¯s a system that distinguishes superior quality items based on criterions on what type of item class it is.

    Next I¡¯ll talk about [Legendary] class items among other things.

    This is something that shows an items rank.

    Items are categorized accordingly into 7 ranks, starting from the weakest it¡¯s [Inferior], [Normal], [Rare], [Unique], [Ancient], [Legendary] and [Phantasmal]

    For example, the long sword with a nick in its blade that I got from the kobold, and the shell encased gigantic club that Gobukichi used before, are both the lowest class of items, Inferior, whilst the magic staff that Kobold Mage used, using this system would be ranked as a [Normal] Class.

    The weapons that the adventurers we killed in Velvet¡¯s dungeon used were mostly [Unique] Class, with a few [Ancient] Class weapons mixed in.

    In short, even for a high level adventurer party, getting ancient, legendary or [Phantasmal] Class items is quite rare.

    If I say that a small country¡¯s treasury probably doesn¡¯t have items above [Unique] Class, does that make it easier to imagine how rare the higher class items are?

    Or perhaps I should say, to begin with, [Ancient] Class magic items are mostly all at least [Artifact] level.

    That¡¯s why people are so desperate to dive into these old ruins.

    I digress, but apparently when ancient dungeons are surrounded by castle walls, labyrinth towns can pop up around them, and so on. It sounds fun, so I might try diving into one of these sometime.

    The fact that my red spear, bracelet and silver arm are all [Legendary] Class items is proof of how powerful Velvet was when he was alive.

    Because the act of finding even one legendary item is enough to shake countries, I cannot help but think that he was truly someone worth respecting.

    As to obtaining the highest class of [Phantasmal] Class items, it¡¯s unimaginable so I let the matter drop.

    I have far too little information on that subject, so I don¡¯t really know.

    Getting back to the original topic, the Hind Bear hunt was completed without a hitch..

    The Hind Bears are certainly strong, however now that we were equipped with magic weapons and were capable of group tactics, so the Hind Bears are certainly formidable enemiesbut not something that will stop us.

    The bracelet, red spear and silver arms abilities were beyond cheating, without even having to use my abilities, to stand in the front exchanging blows and killing were mainly the reasons, but my presence this time is in the end supposed to be nothing more than support.

    That¡¯s why I equipped Gobukichi-kun, Gobumi-chan and the rest with high quality magical items, and to exercise the strength of the hobgoblins is the main reason for today¡¯s hunt.

    This time the main purpose of the hunt is to raise the level of the participants.

    Yeah, bear stew is incredibly tasty!

    By the way, because of the recent problems, I want to drink more booze so much that I can¡¯t stand it.

    Booze¡­I want some Booze¡­

    * * *

    It rained today.

    In order to determine everyone¡¯s new rank, we decided to hold a round-robin tournament.

    It¡¯s best to fill the holes left by the previous hobgoblin leader.

    While not many will rise in rank, I thought everyone¡¯s motivation would increase by doing this.

    But victory and defeat is obvious among hobgoblins and goblins, and it doesn¡¯t even need to be said for me who¡¯s an ogre, goblins decided their ranks amongst goblins, and hobgoblins who have decided their rank amongst hobgoblins didn¡¯t change.

    There were people who rose and fell in rank this time, it was a fluctuation between happiness and sadness.

    Yeah, the overall level has also risen, perhaps it¡¯d be good to embark to a city with Redhead soon. I¡¯ll think about it later.

    When going outside, it might also be interesting to form a mercenary group. In the area where we¡¯re active in now, since there aren¡¯t anymore monsters which can¡¯t be killed by me, my level doesn¡¯t rise very easily either.

    Once you¡¯ve killed the Lord of the Mountain, this is an inevitable outcome.

    Yeah, it seems I should go outside sooner or later.

    While thinking deeply on many things, I fell soundly asleep¡­

 Re:Monster Day 41-50

    As the early morning sun rose, I went out alone, searching for prey that I have never eaten before in places that I have not yet visited¡ªI was walking in the blank area of my mental map that I decided to call the Unexplored Zone.

    The opportunities to take charge of the morning training have been getting fewer, and it has reached the point where Gobukichi-kun can take over when I¡¯m not present.

    In other words, I now have free time in the mornings.

    Having no one to spar with, the amount of free time I have is fairly large.

    Though it would be problematic if something were to happen, like someone getting hurt for instance. For the time being, I had thought of a good alternative by spending time doing basic training, making sleeping bags or working on the unfinished clothes and armor. Unfortunately, both the clothes and armour as well as the sleeping bags made of shells have already been distributed, so my ingenious plan was now gone.

    Which led me to decide that, for now, finding new abilities would be a worthwhile endeavor.

    The first prey for today was a 2 meter-class ¡°Argiope (Tentative Name)¡± with a distinctive carapace which had an enchanting, golden color.

    Making a rustling sound when moving, the spider was capable of quick movement and the thread it shot out recklessly was both strong and abundant in volume. Its golden carapace was so much tougher that it couldn¡¯t be compared to that of the Demon Spider.

    I was struggling with those three threats, but I retaliated with threads of my own, burned it with my fire and finally succeeded in bringing it down by piercing through the Argiope¡¯s carapace with my silver arm.

    When the spider finally died, I stripped the expensive looking carapace since it could be used for trading and crafting then ate the rest.

    I found and ate eight of these guys in total.

    Ability [Golden Thread Creation] learned.Ability [Adamantine Spider¡¯s Carapace] learned.

    As a result, the abilities that I learned increased my personal defense and the strength of my threads.

    This ability makes extremely beautiful threads¡ªand the ability¡¯s name, does it refer to the golden colour or that the thread itself is real gold?

    It¡¯s quite flashy¡ªso I thought that I could give Gobumi-chan and Redhead a present using this.

    Still, I doubt that making golden clothes with this thread would be in good taste, so it¡¯s probably better if I make some ethnic accessories like the ones I made Gobumi-chan earlier.

    My next prey was a Four-Eyed, Four-Eared Red Deer (Tentative Name)sporting a pair of antlers that looked like they were made of Rose Quartz.

    It appears that the Red Deer had a wild temperament. The two sharp and beautiful antlers sat on its head, thrusting into the trees in its way, shredding them like a drill, but I pinned its head down using the indestructible silver arm and injected it with poison from my fingertips.

    The Red Deer began foaming at its mouth and died within four seconds.

    Apart from the antlers that looked like they would sell at a high price because of their beauty, the rest of its fine pelt, that showed no obvious damage, seemed like it would be useful, so I quickly skinned it and threw it together with the antlers into my Item Box, after that I ate its flesh.

    Unfortunately, I could not secure any abilities, but after eating two or three there was something of a reaction not unlike learning a new skill, because I was able to strengthen my body, so let¡¯s say it turned out ok.

    After that, I found a beautiful woman, ¡°Dryad (Tentative Name)¡±, who lived within the woods. However, I didn¡¯t kill the nearly-naked girl who had a Greek-like appearance and extraordinary proportions that appeared in front of me, so yeah, I had second thoughts about eating her.

    For now, let¡¯s just say that having experienced all sorts of things, my [Libido] finally flourished. As I am now, there might be no problem even if I didn¡¯t but it seems like Dryad-san had the racial characteristic ability Absorption, so I tried to counter it by using my tireless [Libido].

    It was a very sweet time.

    Moreover, she leaned onto me and sweetly whispered ¡°Come again~¡± near my ear, it was extremely sexy the way her coy expression was directed at me.

    Goburou obtain Dryad¡¯s Mistletoe of Love and Blessing!

    Well, it was like that.

    When I parted with Dryad-san and walked back up again, I found a medium sized river. When, for no particular reason, I followed the river upstream, I discovered a large waterfall. I then decided to wash off my body in the small lake underneath it; my body was drenched with sweat and emitting a unique odor from doing the deed.

    I took off my clothing to swim in the decent size lake, where I was surrounded by green scaled Lizardmen who approached while staying underwater.

    That I was too negligent was also a factor but, with my current level of [Presence Sensor], apparently if the enemy is in water the reaction will be slightly slower.

    Becoming aware of their presence now was pure luck.

    Because of this, I finally became aware that I was having an encounter with strong enemies that I couldn¡¯t face head-on. I was getting chills in my spine.

    Well, past events aside, I immediately refocused my thoughts. Based on their appearance, I decided to call the Lizardmen in front of me ¡°Green Lizards (Tentative Name)¡±.

    The Green Lizards each held a refurbished falchion¡ªa sword that had a curved edge and a straight back¡ªas a weapon. Also, they each had a buckler similar to a round shield that seemed usable even though they were obviously a little damaged.

    Unlike Orcs or Kobolds, they were not wearing any leather or metal armor, at best, they were only wearing light clothes made of thick cloth to cover their groins.

    The Green Lizards had no armor. But, the green scales packed together covering their entire bodies may be no different from armor, perhaps they are more effective than they seem, and I cannot make light of their attacks from my blind spot using their long and thick tails.

    I should consider the tail a third arm. And since the tails were underwater, they represent an additional danger since it¡¯s hard to spot them.

    There were eight Green Lizards, which is a lot, and they seemed to be used to hunting in groups.

    Moreover, they were pointlessly flashing their long tongues and falchions making incomprehensible noises like ¡°hyacchahecchizo~ go~gyakutterowigya~ janbettenbachurua~¡±, but I could read the atmosphere that was filled with killing intent.

    Because this hunt was a solo action to get used to my silver arm and confirm its abilities, I had no assistance from allies. They also had another advantage due to the fact that my lower body was restrained by being underwater. Perhaps they were thinking ¡°Even if it¡¯s an ogre, we can kill it.¡± ¡ªwhich reminds me, come to think of it, although it¡¯s a little late, Gobujii never mentioned about the existence of [Rare Variants]. I¡¯ll ask him when I have the chance¡ª, yeah, there¡¯s no question about it.

    With my overlapping abilities active, I made my move.

    With the bottom half of my body still in the water, I can propel myself easily by using [Hydro Hand], in the first place, my leg strength which was strengthened by overlapping my abilities had allowed me to move quickly in the water despite receiving heavy water resistance.

    I gained an explosive burst of speed by controlling the water and, along with the help of the current, I was able to stomp the enemy deeply in the chest in an instant. I made a fist with both arms and, with more force than usual, fed them to the Green Lizard.

    The Green Lizard reacted well, using its buckler to guard against the first strike of my silver arm at the last moment, but the buckler shattered uselessly in the blink of an eye and a life was crushed.

    The blow from my silver arm sent the Green Lizard¡¯s arm along with its buckler flying in pieces, without losing momentum I struck its body. The body fared no better than the arm, with scales crushed, flesh torn, and bones broken, all of which are results of the silver arm having penetrated through them in its path.

    Incidentally, my flesh and blood fist was stopped after crushing the scales, bruising the flesh and breaking the bones. It was a magnificent blow, but it was incomparably weaker than the silver arm.

    Well, I¡¯d say it¡¯s to be expected.

    Repeatedly striking and occasionally kicking, it didn¡¯t even take 30 seconds to kill the Green Lizards. I had caught the ones trying to escape with my thread and lightning earlier, so I didn¡¯t unexpectedly lose any weakened prey.

    After killing the Green Lizards, I put their armaments in the item box, and since their bodies are difficult to cut apart, I ate them whole.

    Ability [Aquatic] learned.Ability [Lizardman Language] learned.

    The Green Lizard¡¯s flesh and bone had an unusual taste and consistency, It was rather delicious.

    Wanting to eat some more, but unable to find any more Lizards nearby, I gave up for now.

    I walked toward the Unexplored Zone of my mental map that was automatically created by my [Mental Mapping] ability.

    After walking a little while I came out of the forest, from there I found a large expanse of grassland.

    It was the first time since my reincarnation that I saw something other than forests, mountains or rivers. The blowing wind was pleasant.

    As I was having such light thoughts, I found a cow charging towards me. I decided to name the human-faced cow with two sharp horns ¡°Bicorn¡±.

    ¡°For the straight on charging Bicorn, I¡¯d use nothing less than the Jolt Counter!!¡± while thinking that, I hit it head on with my silver arm, and it sank all the way to the elbow and left the Bicorn as a splattered corpse.

    [T/N: Jolt Counter reference to Hajime no Ippo.]

    Yeah, today I had enough confirmation of the silver arm¡¯s usefulness. No matter how many times I thank Velvet, who I got the silver arm from, it wouldn¡¯t be enough.

    ¡°Namu¡±. I offered a prayer for him again.

    There was only one Bicorn and although I ate it until I became round, I didn¡¯t gain any abilities, but I was satisfied with having yakiniku by myself on top of having my body strengthened. Furthermore, the Bicorn¡¯s entire body tasted delicious.

    I decided to hold a yakiniku party with everyone using the Bicorn I killed as soon as I got back.

    After that, since it was just the right time, I hunted some Night Vipers as a souvenir, came home, ate, and then slept.

    * * *

    Among my five Hobgoblin minions, I identified two who were suitable to become mages.

    I immediately transferred them from my direct command to Hobusei-san¡¯s ?Magician? corps in order to have them begin training.

    As I accompanied them out of curiousity, I discovered that Hobusei-san had scores of magic-related books in her bedroom. From what I heard, it seems that each of them had been laboriously collected from the plundered goods until now.

    Hearing her story, it seems that even Hobusei-san didn¡¯t start off knowing three systems of magic like she does now.

    Individuals with magical aptitude had the spell for the basic magic system best suited for themselves¡ªfor me it was [End], for Hobusei-san it seemed to be [Fire]¡ªinscribed in their head, like I was, and when their level increased, they gained additional spells, but only superior versions of the spells they had in the beginning; they cannot handle spells for other magical systems.

    It was to be expected, since they wouldn¡¯t have known the key spells.

    However, as a result of studying from the books she gathered, Hobusei-san had expanded the range of magical systems she can use. She was such a hard-worker.

    Then, it seemed that Hobusei-san was happy because this is the first time she had apprentices, so her mood was at an all time high to teach the two hobgoblins the fundamentals of magic, and I got myself some books and laid down to read so I didn¡¯t hinder their training.

    ¡°Hm hm, ooh, I see~¡±, I said as I studied ways of handling other magic systems, like [Fire] system magic, [Water] system magic, besides the [End] magic I had been using up to now for creating impressively destructive lances.

    Well, it appears that the [Origin] attribute that I possess is convenient since it allows me to immediately make use of other magic systems. Having bad affinity with a magic system and only being able to bring out half the power or not being able to use it at all etc, others will, without exception, have problems, but I can do it easily. It also seems to strengthen my memory, so yeah, it makes it easy for me.

    Well, putting minor details aside, since I can use it now I¡¯m not going to complain. [Pyrokinesis] and [Electro master] are probably better, because there is an advantage in being able to use them without signs unlike Magic, it may be pointless to remember the spells.

    Still, it was no problem since having a wide range of usable magic is not a bad thing.

    After about three hours had passed, I picked up a new book from Hobusei-san¡¯s collection and started reading it, I have finally found a use for my skill [Job-Enchanter].

    Well you see, [Job-Bishop] is slightly different from [Job-Druid] but there were many similar portions so I quickly became able to use it, but [Job-Enchanter] is completely different when compared to [Job-Magician] so I couldn¡¯t skillfully use it.

    That was why I had halfway neglected it until now.

    Oh, that¡¯s right.

    [Magician] is fundamentally a technique that releases something into the open, while [Enchanter] is an art that intervenes with materials.

    Yeah, that¡¯s how it is, while magicians can do things similar to enchanters like strengthening materials, leaving the issue of support aside, a magician¡¯s enchants are much weaker than an enchanters, in exchange, enchanters are completely useless in combat.

    Yeah, for now I think I¡¯d better treat it differently to magic.

    Leaving aside the hard part for a while, for now I can use the skill [Enchanter]. Since she had previous experience, I went to Blacksmith-san.

    As soon as she saw my face she pouted a little which made me slightly confused, then she let me practice using various things that she had made.

    I enchanted knives made from purified spirit stones and ones made from iron.

    As a result, the knives made from Fire Spirit Stones could shoot out stronger fire, the ones made from Water Spirit Stones could spout more water, while the Iron Knives¡¯ strength and sharpness increased drastically.

    Yeah, I was surprised at how easy [Enchanter] was to use. You can make powerful weapons comparatively easier, than making them the non-magical way.

    Well, behind the scenes there were numerous prototypes that were smashed up because of failed enchantments¡­

    The success rate is low if the enchanter isn¡¯t too familiar with enchanting.

    Then this and that happened, time passed, I went hunting, ate, and then slept.

    * * *

    Gobumi-chan looks moody lately. It started around two days ago, I first noticed it when I returned from solo-hunting.

    Why is it? I asked Gobukichi-kun about this and he just tilted his head saying he doesn¡¯t know, when I consulted with Gobue-chan about this she told me that I know what I did, and as I asked Hobusato-san and Hobusei-san they just said ¡°How nice to be young~¡± and such, in the end everyone evaded my question.

    When I went to Redhead since I really don¡¯t know why, she cutely puffed her cheeks and turned away. I was also told by Blacksmith-san that she was a little moody when I went to her place, ¡°I¡¯ve also been wondering about that since yesterday, Why?¡± as soon as I asked her this, she showed a shocked and slightly angry expression on her face and went somewhere.

    While feeling worried, I tried going to the sisters¡¯ place, they forcibly fed me something with a little poison mixed in saying, ¡°This is a prototype, please enjoy.¡± Without any emotion, when I tried eating it, it tasted delicious¡ªjust to remind you, poison won¡¯t work on me¡ªso I surprised them by telling them to make it again.

    I wonder why?

    Getting really stressed about it, I went to Alchemist-san and told her what I felt, she told me the reason while she was still looking shocked.

    So yeah, it seems like the cause of it was jealousy. Well, when I had the affair with Dryad-san, she left a hickey on my neck and when they noticed it, they got upset.

    Since it was harmless I didn¡¯t really mind it.

    So that¡¯s why, having solved the reason I nodded but Alchemist-san suddenly hugged me tightly and greedily gave me a deep kiss.

    Passionately, our tongues entwined¡ª wait what, we are exchanging saliva?! While I was thinking, after a while I was released.

    ¡°This is my thanks for saving me and my feelings for you.¡± was what she said, I replied ¡°Is that so?¡± nodding, she looks at me for a moment, with teary eyes and quivering lips, losing her balance I held her close, and thinking what if I also touched here, I got in the mood and the situation escalated.

    So as not to harm her, I lovingly embraced her body and as soon as we started flirting in a concealing manner, Gobumi-chan stormed in.

    I looked like a husband caught having an affair in the way I panicked, but surprisingly I got embraced instead.

    Then she said ¡°Do it with me too!¡±

    Compared to when she was a Goblin, as soon as she turned into a hobgoblin she became really cute so my feelings for her wouldn¡¯t be a problem, as soon as I was about to do this and that, intruders came in one after another!!

    Well, I don¡¯t want to explain what exactly happened next, truthfully I can¡¯t do that however; Blacksmith-san, Redhead and the sisters who intruded have decided to spend the night together in an orgy.

    Using [Metamorphosis] and [Self-Body Fluid Control] was a big success. Not even in my dreams did I imagine that I would use my own twisting tentacle-like things this way since my reincarnation.

    And I didn¡¯t think I would use it on so many individuals at once.

    After that, I didn¡¯t expect I could use [Self Body-Fluid control] to turn my body fluid into an aphrodisiac.

    By the way, I sealed off all the exits of the room with my threads in order to prevent the other goblins from peeping, and used [Aero Master] to possibly prevent the voices from leaking out of the room.

    My thoughts:

    Yep, it was a satisfying night that felt awfully good.

    It¡¯s just that, because of my overwhelming stamina, I did not feel any weaker no matter how many times I came, on top of that, it was so strong that if I hadn¡¯t used my [Metamorphosis] I would have broken them for sure.

    ¡°Nevertheless, it was very intense¡±, I thought.

    I now have important people to protect.

    Hmm.. I really didn¡¯t plan any of this.

    Well, it can¡¯t be helped. There¡¯s no doubt I am happy with this.

    * * *

    I felt something with my [Presence Sensor].

    Because the ability¡¯s level had increased recently, its species name¡ªthough it¡¯s only the Tentative name I gave them¡ªwill be displayed if I had met it once, if I knew their real name, then that name will be displayed. Furthermore, it will indicate whether it¡¯s an ally or an enemy. It was a handy ability.

    Based on that, it seems that the ones coming over are Gobukichi-kun and two of his subordinates, I started to get up wondering if something happened, then I became aware of the beings lying down cuddling me tightly.

    Because I couldn¡¯t bring myself to wake the girls who were sleeping soundly due to the fatigue from last night¡¯s intense orgy, I slipped through using [Metamorphosis] to prevent waking them up.

    Then I exited the room made from thread and had a talk with Gobukichi-kun. According to their story, it seems that three long-eared humanoids had come strutting into the cave¡¯s entrance.

    Whether to attack and kill them or invite them into the cave was an important decision that needed to be made by me who was the top. Because they couldn¡¯t make a decision yet, they had the strangers wait outside.

    This was a good idea, the result of their education bearing fruit. If it was before, they wouldn¡¯t have thought twice before attacking them.

    For now I took out a bottle (filled with water from the lake the other day) from my [Item Box], I quickly washed myself with the water inside to give myself the minimum presentable appearance and then went to meet them, they were ¡°Elves (Tentative Name)¡± consisting of one man and two armed women who looked like his escorts.

    The three had fairly good looks, both the man¡¯s ceremonial dress and the two women¡¯s light metal armor were superior quality products. Taste and other things aside, it was easy to guess their respective social status.

    Judging from their appearance, the rapiers hanging from the hips of the two women in the back were [Rare] class magic items, other than that they also had ring-type and bracelet-type magic items, all of them [Rare] class.

    Unless you have the appropriate social status, collecting equipment of this quality is impossible.

    Incidentally, although I thought ¡°The adventurers last time had some nice equipment huh?¡±, most of their high quality equipment are goods looted from dungeons, for that reason, it is inevitable that for high level adventurers, their equipment is also of high quality.

    But for those who don¡¯t venture inside dungeons, it¡¯s necessary to do so through financial power, that¡¯s how it is.

    Also, their fairly high-handed attitude is one of the main factors. Well, this was perhaps a racial trait.

    While suppressing violent remarks like ¡°For someone who came along without making any appointments, they sure act self-important, let¡¯s tear them apart and eat them.¡± in my heart, I asked for the reason for the visit, it seems that we fell under their jurisdiction blah blah blah.

    Putting in order what they said over the long chat, it seems that the main point was that they wanted me and my followers to become their subordinates¡ªwhich appears to mean their slaves, by the way they speak.

    Also, ¡°There is news in support of the fact that the inferior humans are preparing an attack soon aimed at getting the Elves¡¯ treasure, and to make some preparation, we wanted some strong pawns¡±.

    They concluded that I, who had killed the original Lord of the Mountain ¡°Red Bear¡±¡ªit seemed to have become a rumor lately. Well, a black Ogre wearing armor made of Red Bear fur would stand out¡ªwho had in turn preyed on the elven hunters, was the one most suitable.

    The reward they offered was a large amount of food to be shared among the goblins, and a [Unique] Class magic item or two elven beauties for me.

    This, is an exceptional reward for an ogre (or so it seems. According to Gobujii anyways).

    Buying a [Unique] class magic item, even the worst of them, would cost over 10 million gold. And of course, the price varies by a lot depending on its abilities. It seems some are items that are worth more than 30 million gold.

    The reward isn¡¯t an [Artifact] as was expected, but it is still very expensive.

    The two elven maiden I saw in front of me, they were very beautiful. It¡¯s bad of me to say this, but they were certainly more beautiful than the Redhead and co. Personal preference aside, beauty is merely in the eye of the beholder.

    I was somewhat surprised by their reward, but it isn¡¯t hard to see from the fact that they were willing to offer this much that they were at their wits¡¯ end. While on the surface they seem to show composure, perhaps they would lose greatly when it comes to fighting strength. Really, this is just another typical story.

    Afterwards, the elven royalty would be enslaved, this was no laughing matter.

    Violence is surely about numbers. Even with individuals with overwhelming power, there is too much precedent in stories where they would soon be crushed by the masses.

    I would¡¯ve gotten on board with this story if it was a few days ago, but because we had already inherited better quality and stronger magic items from Velvet, my heart wasn¡¯t moved.

    It¡¯s a shame about the two elven girls, but well, I¡¯m telling this now, I have no need for spies or traitors.

    While appearance is of course valuable, but for interaction in the long term, it¡¯s what¡¯s inside that¡¯s truly important.

    In the end, I clearly refused the Elves¡¯ offer.

    Leaving out the official reason, I concluded the matter by saying ¡°Why should I care about your situation.¡±

    The inferior humans blah blah blah were of no concern to me and I had different interests and ideas, so I¡¯m having no part of any conflict that breaks out. But regardless of the war¡¯s goodness or evilness, it¡¯s certainly convenient for me because it would be a good opportunity to obtain a lot of abilities, and the rewards weren¡¯t bad, either.

    They had lots of quality goods, there were only a few drawbacks.

    But being unilaterally ordered around with such an obvious condescending attitude, who wouldn¡¯t hate it? All the more if the job involves risking one¡¯s life. I wanted to shout out loud and clear ¡°Show us some sincerity!¡±

    ¡°At the least, you could humbly get out¡±, I warned internally, though without any particular meaning.

    A few seconds after, the elven male¡¯s face changed into a stupid expression. Apparently thinking he wouldn¡¯t be refused. Using metaphors to call us fools, thinking that I wouldn¡¯t notice ¡ª a common ogre has muscle for a brain, thinking I am the same. Maybe. ¡ªwith an unforgettable condescending look.

    Restarting ¡ªpassing what would be a fatal amount of time on the battlefield ¡ª from the beginning, putting into order what he¡¯d seen and heard to understand their meanings, the elven male turned red from anger, before he can say anything I glared at him silently.

    I overlapped the activation of [Snake¡¯s Evil Eye], [Intimidating Glare], and then [Intimidation of the Strong], they worked perfectly.

    Yep, it¡¯s unexpected that you wouldn¡¯t be able to breathe until I released [Intimidation of the Strong].

    Finally able to breathe at last, his face paled from the terror causing me to smirk, further scaring him.

    Because of an ogre¡¯s scary face. And other things.

    Making him this nervous gave me a feeling of satisfaction. I then grabbed the elven male by the neck with my silver arm and yanked him, quickly moving into the escorts¡¯ line of sight, I dragged the elf by ear into his hidden escorts¡¯ view and ordered them to lower their bows. An arrow flew toward my face at the same moment, which I stopped by grabbing it with my mouth.

    I made some crunching sounds as I ate the arrow, I gave them a gaze that told them that if they had anymore reaction I would shred his neck. Well, I merely flashed a grin and smiled.

    They called out to me with a somewhat weak voice, but I just ignored them saying ¡°Yeah, yeah, is that so¡±, while tightening my grip to send them a message. I smiled again at the male elf who was giving orders loudly while in a state of confusion, and confirmed that the escorts who concealed themselves and aimed their arrows at me did as ordered by overlapping my [Enlarged Field of Vision] and [Predict], then, without releasing him, I slowly warned the elf in his ear.

    ¡°I don¡¯t feel like taking part in your ¡®request¡¯ so I¡¯m rejecting it this time, but well, if it¡¯s about your home being invaded by humans, then I won¡¯t be reluctant to cooperate. Since we live in the same forest after all, I¡¯ll go deal with it accordingly. I¡¯ve decided to do this much.¡±

    ¡°But, if you¡¯re thinking of some kind of revenge for this and any of my subordinates or important people get injured, you¡¯re getting eaten. You and all your allies will be killed and eaten.¡±, using [Intimidation of the Strong] once again, I drilled this into their heads.

    And then to make it clear that I was capable of that much violence I took out [Kazikli Bey] from my Item Box, stabbed the ground with the red lance, and used the [Army of Blood-dyed Crimson Spears(Tepes)] ability contained within.

    [T/N : Tepes is the Romanian version of his Turkish nickname, it means ¡°impaler¡± or ¡°spike¡±.]

    By doing this, red lances suddenly appeared in front of the eyes of all the Elves that came today. Even the ones that should have been hidden.

    After displaying my abilities, the looks on the Elves¡¯ faces changed, while seeing them off scurrying back home, I looked at the red lance in my hand.

    I don¡¯t understand the theory, but I can make red spears appear on anything stabbed by this Kazikli Bey and everything within a radius of 100 meters from the point it was stabbed into. This is only the second time I¡¯ve used this ability, but having red spears come out of the ground and trees felt a bit surreal.

    Well, its sharpness and length are good, it¡¯s convenient for me who is an Ogre to use, there isn¡¯t any dissatisfaction because it¡¯s an optimal tactical weapon that specializes in ¡°piercing and stabbing¡±.

    However, there are many magical items that can be capable of this and more, this world is really difficult to understand.

    From the contents of my little chat with the Redhead and company, if I think of it as a fantasy world where I made an inkling of progress, it¡¯s obvious with the existence of such unreasonable bundles and overtechnology, this world is seriously twisted.

    Some say that [Artifacts] are relics of gods, but I still feel it¡¯s completely out of balance with the current civilizations.

    Setting that aside for now, by having done this much, I doubt they will even consider revenge. It is unlikely, but it¡¯s difficult to say there¡¯s zero percent probability. So let¡¯s just think about it when it happens.

    Oh, yeah.

    In addition, the elven male whom I threatened is one of the candidates for the next clan chief, it seems very fitting.

    The Village of Elves is deep inside the Unexplored Zone that has yet to be mapped. Now going to see it this time might be interesting.

    I was able to guess and infer their meaning to some extent with [Orc Language].

    It is a convenient ability to use with races whose way of speaking is greatly different from ours like Green Lizards, but there are races of humanoids who understand similar languages like ogres, goblins and humans, even if I didn¡¯t have it, it¡¯s still somehow possible to have a conversation with them.

    That was how I understood the Elves¡¯ speech. I still didn¡¯t have the language ability since I haven¡¯t eaten any elf yet, though I manage to communicate. But it would certainly be easier with it, yeah, the ability would help with understanding the peculiarity of their words ¡ª namely their meaning within their dialect.

    For example [Great] turns into ¡ú [tiring] and [Scary] turns into ¡ú [tiring]

    Well, that kind of feeling.

    After chasing the Elves away, I went hunting as usual, tonight will also be hot and intense.

    Early morning, today I wandered through the forest alone.

    Going to the Unexplored Zone of my mental map, I discovered a Gray Slime (Tentative Name) that looked like a superior subspecies of green slime. The reason why its tentative name is this way was because of its gray color, it¡¯s size is twice that of the first Green Slime I met, the overall speed of its movement and twisting tentacles is different, and so is the digestive power of its bodily liquids as they scatter.

    As soon as I fought it, I realized it was quite tough compared to Green slimes. More like, it is somewhat strange.

    Finally remembering that they are the same, I attacked it with a fire-based magic but the first strike wasn¡¯t very effective since it didn¡¯t die, ¡°Then how about [Pyrokinesis]?¡± when I tried it out while thinking of this, it died pretty easily.

    From this fact, it seems like the Gray Slimes are resistant to certain fire-based magic. I picked up the gray nucleus that was rolling and placed it in my item box, then I proceeded to search for more Gray Slimes. Wonder what kind characteristics they have, further investigation is needed was what I said to myself.

    After about an hour, I had roughly hunted 20 Gray Slimes.

    As things turn out, I can¡¯t use any of the magic systems against Gray Slimes effectively aside from [End].

    Based on that, not only fire-based magic but Gray Slimes are resistant to magic itself, unless it¡¯s at a certain level, anything below that would be neutralized. Also, if you add up its ability to nullify physical attacks it would work perfectly together.

    The basic slime ability [Physical Damage Reduction] that can significantly reduce or nullify direct physical attacks below certain levels, and slime species are supposed to be weak against magic but these guys gained a little resistance toward it. With its decent speed and high digestive power, a normal enemy became a formidable opponent.

    Though it¡¯s weird, I wonder why they die so quickly when I use [Pyrokinesis]¡¯ flames and [Electro Master]¡¯s lightning.

    Are they not considered magic? I¡¯m oblivious on that subject, I couldn¡¯t really understand the ¡°Essential facts/ Ways of killing¡±, so it doesn¡¯t really matter since I don¡¯t care.

    I took 20 pieces of the gray nucleus in the item box and ate them all at once. The candy-like nucleus is about 5cm in diameter. Though it is tasteless, it really feels like candy just by popping it into my mouth and rolling it around.

    Ability [Physical Damage Resistance] learned.Ability [Self-Replication] learned.Ability [Infused Liquid Restoration] learned.

    It seems like the ability I got from the Gray Slime wasn¡¯t [Physical Damage Reduction] but a superior version named [Physical Damage Resistance]. I was convinced, it looked strong.

    By the way, it seems like a slime would multiply by increasing its volume to some extent and it would divide itself into two. No, I was able to understand this as soon as I learned [Self-replication].

    I bit my finger and let the blood flow, soon after the blood began twisting and wriggling, I created a crimson colored mini version of me. And it seems like me and my little self are connected to each other to some degree since the ability name is [Self-Replication], I can share both my thoughts and vision with it.

    I shared vision with the mini-me who I can see in my field of vision, while the original me can be seen in mini-me¡¯s field of vision view, it was a bizarre situation.

    The feeling of the skin and sense of touch may be impossible to share as expected, but it¡¯s a good ability since it¡¯s so convenient, even I think it¡¯s foul play.

    It¡¯s not a kind of ability that could be demonstrated immediately, give it enough time to multiply and its usefulness would be shown. It can be used to gather intelligence or to determine the battle strength easily.

    The materials seems to be my blood, though it¡¯s easy to replenish it since I can suck blood from others.

    To end it on a good note, I went hunting and ate animals such as Demon Spider, Argiope and the Triple-Horned Horse.

    * * *

    Instead of hunting today, I planned to make presents for Gobumi-chan, Redhead, Alchemist-san, Blacksmith-san, and the Sisters.

    Not armor, but rather cute clothes for travelling would be good is what I thought, I will measure their sizes for the time being. Though I may have already seen every corner of their bodies, I could only roughly guess their size, I really don¡¯t know their exact sizes.

    It shouldn¡¯t be too flashy as to attract dirty looks from travelers when going into town, but I think the design shouldn¡¯t be too modest either. It needs to be able to provide protection in case something happens, so I knitted a beautiful cloth (with prior loot) with normal thread.

    And in addition in case something happens I would secretly make a small clone of myself with my blood and permeate it at the back, so that it would notify me in case of emergencies. If it comes to it, they could work as diversions before I arrive.

    I made some clothing with threads and replication which have higher defense compared to the inferior armours from before, feeling that they are a little lonely, I made some bracelets and accessories with the Red Deer¡¯s Rose Quartz antlers and Demon Spider¡¯s carapace as material. They aren¡¯t exactly regal, but they are beautiful nonetheless.

    They were delighted, seeing them made the effort spent well worth it.

    That night, everyone was a little intense.

    Afterwards Gobumi and Redhead wore the clothes everyday during hunting or training, though I think they should stop it. Since it may tear the clothes.

    Well, I think it would be alright.

    * * *

    When I woke up as usual, from that moment my [Intuition] sprung into action.

    It¡¯s whispering to me that I should stay in the cave hiding myself quietly, and that if I move I¡¯ll regret it.

    I activated [Hiding] that got boosted from [Job-Assassin] and [Hide Presence] at the same time as I headed toward the back of the cave where Blacksmith-san, the sisters, Alchemist-san and so forth were had made themselves at home.

    I relaxed, lately it has become my hobby to fill in the unexplored area in my mental map, yesterday I created a replicate of me out of my flesh and blood that stood to my waist ¡ª overall ability is halved, because it behaves in a certain way, it also has some free will ¡ª and sent it out.

    This replica had the ability [Infused Liquid Restoration] that I secured from the Grey Slime,which is an ability that makes it so that if it receives limb damage or gets pierced by something it can to a certain degree restore itself by absorbing the necessary amount of water, which is why I tried making it.

    Its current combat ability is rather low compared to (the original) me, but it is still strong to a reasonable degree, so it won¡¯t get killed. It can also run fast.

    Using [Metamorphosis], the replica changed its appearance to that of a large wolf and sprinted outside, after seeing it off, I went back inside as planned.

    I assigned some goblins of my generation from the logistical support group ?Patri? to assist Blacksmith-san because it would be inconvenient all by herself, having considered making new cookery for the sisters¡¯ place, and having analyzed the old medicine that for some reason hadn¡¯t degraded at all which we secured from Velvet¡¯s inheritance at Alchemist-san¡¯s place. After having done all these things, time passed.

    And then it happened.

    Basically, the place where Gobukichi-kun and the others were practicing is directly linked to the cave¡¯s entrance, it¡¯s a place called the Great Hall. It had the largest space within the dwelling, here Gobukichi-kun, Gobumi-chan, Redhead, and the others were hard at practice, wielding wooden swords.

    At that time my [Presence Sensor] detected some enemy contacts approaching the entrance. The species name on display was ¡°Elf¡±. Furthermore, the name of the Elf male I drove out the other day was mixed in among them. Even I didn¡¯t expect that they would turn up this early.

    Hurriedly I called the goblins inside and made preparations. Luckily, since they were already in the middle of training, they already had their equipment on, so they finished preparing in just a short time.

    After a simple inspection of the equipment, we hid oursElves in the trenches we made beforehand near the Great Hall, because of that, we simply waited in place where it¡¯s easy to spring a surprise attack against the invading Elves. I had Gobue-chan continue mining for the time being, the sound of her mining that can be heard throughout the cave will be used for cover.

    A short time later, the armed group of Elves entered the cave.

    Hobgoblins like Gobukichi-kun notwithstanding, for the Goblins as they were to win against the twenty five quiet and swift yet bloodlust Elves armed with specialized weapons, even when facing them three to one, these are hard to deal with enemies it seems.

    The mood was already full of hostile intent, but still, I first need to capture them and hear their story.

    Alone, I flew out from behind cover while using my [Intimidating Roar] and [Scaled Horse¡¯s Neigh] together loudly and made them flinch, furthermore I immediately activated [Intimidating Glare] and [Snake¡¯s Evil Eye] which gave me the chance to capture them with my threads.

    After lining up the captured Elves, I beat up the elf who was the next clan chief (and other titles of no concern)¡¯s face with my red spear while I had a small talk with them.

    Yeah, I seemed to have deeply injured his pride.

    Because two days had passed, his fear of me had faded a little bit, once he was able to think a little clearly, he decided that he had no choice but to kill the one who looked down on them thinking, ¡°Why does a noble Elf such as me blablabla¡­, if I¡¯m not afraid of the likes of the ogre this and that¡­¡±, so he took along elite level Elves from among his subordinates, allowed himself to be controlled by his emotions and attacked, and as a result, they arrived at the current predicament of having had the tables turned on them.

    I pity the Elves for working under such a boss. The two female Elves from the other day also hung their heads before my eyes. I was a little curious and tried to speak to them, but they refused to listen.

    The damage the subordinates had to bear for the sake of an incompetent boss struck a chord with me, so as expected, killing them as they were did not sit well with me, and I did the following more or less out of sympathy.

    Give up on the next clan chief candidate Elf, he¡¯s dead.Fight in a mock battle with Goblins and Hobgoblins other than me, without killing your opponent, make them faint or otherwise make them incapable of fighting. If you succeed at this you win.If you win the mock battle, you won¡¯t get killed, if you lose, you get killed and eaten.

    That was the gist of it.

    As I finished explaining, I untied the threads for all of them except for the next clan chief candidate Elf male.

    When I did that, one highly loyal Elf tried to kill me, but I broke his chin with a hook and gave him a concussion, I then grabbed the unsteadily moving Elf by his head and shoulders, and killed him by twisting his neck until it broke.

    I told Redhead, Blacksmith, and the others to stay inside until I come back, then devoured the fresh corpse, heart and all.

    Ability [Elf Language] learned.

    The Elves didn¡¯t stop trembling.

    Because their bodies were frozen in fear, I said ¡°The fight with the humans is close, and yet you¡¯re fine with dying unseemly deaths in this kind of place? Don¡¯t you want to live?¡±, to put some fighting spirit in them.

    Those were my own words, and yet they sounded shameless.

    But still, for now it had an effect, everyone became motivated.

    And then, the mock battle began.

    The final result, of the 23 people who participated in the mock battle, only 17 people survived.

    I had no choice but to say my condolences to the people who got Gobukichi-kun, Gobumi-chan, and Hobusato-san. Of the ordinary Elves and hobgoblins it¡¯d usually end up with Elves winning nine out of ten times, but the strength of Gobukichi-kun and the others who have continued to train already greatly surpassed that of an average hobgoblin.

    Though it¡¯s regrettable for the defeated who beg for their lives, there¡¯s no such thing as mercy for those who come to kill us, I killed them after saying that.

    It¡¯s a pity, but this is war. Besides, it was the other side that pulled the trigger first. There¡¯s no need for sympathy.

    The six who lost ¡ª ¡ª all were male. No, it became that way after I rigged the matches because intentionally killing a beautiful woman or girl is unpleasant¡ª¡ª were all delicious.

    Ability [Inhabitant of the Forest] learned.Ability [Elemental] learned.Ability [Archery Proficiency] learned.Ability [Tracking] learned.Ability [Hiding] learned.

    When I finished eating the losers, I turned around to the winning Elves who were staring blankly in a dazed state, after putting all their equipped magical items in one place, I tied them up with thread again.

    They screamed that they weren¡¯t released, but I declared that I didn¡¯t particularly say they¡¯d be ¡°released¡±.

    Only that you wouldn¡¯t be killed, I couldn¡¯t know if they misunderstood being released. Although I help those who are one-sidedly oppressed such as Redhead, I won¡¯t be a hypocrite and have an ounce of mercy for the ¡°Enemy¡± that has attacked.

    This mercy is ¡°Not killing¡±.

    That¡¯s how it is¡­ Breaking it down there are ten men and seven women, let¡¯s cooperate to increase the number. Oh, I said I hated doing it by force before, and I will never do it by force. It¡¯s true.

    But I administer the stimulant made from my body fluids to all of them, I had them thrown in jail and gave a strict order that they shall not be touched unless they wanted to be touched themselves.

    Because they may relieve each other in the same room, they were placed in their own separate prison cell.

    Though the male Elves can¡¯t bear any children, well, they could still be used for relieving one¡¯s libido. They look good anyway.

    But geez, I¡¯m rather grateful for their timing. The goblins of the same generation as me, and the older goblins could no longer be satisfied with just the female goblins, and a lot of stress has accumulated. Because of the harsh training we¡¯ve had until now, they¡¯ve somehow been distracted from this issue, but they¡¯ve gotten used to the training so their limit is fast approaching.

    That¡¯s why I am grateful for this.

    ¡­ Are you saying I¡¯m acting like a villain? Nope, it¡¯s troubling me that you¡¯ve gotten the wrong idea. In the first place, it was the other side who started it.

    They had lost as a result of trying to kill us, and yet you tell us, who were attacked, to release the prisoners peacefully? That¡¯s just not possible. We were unreasonably attacked, so if we strike them back there¡¯s no way that would count as being villains.

    We didn¡¯t even have rules regarding prisoners of war to begin with, so even doing things like this is no problem. What one does with them is a question for them based on their own feelings.

    Also, although it¡¯s me saying this about myself, let me say it first. I still believe I made the rules relatively fair, in which I did.

    At such a sight, the Elf ringleader began to say something, but I ignored him.

    After the 17 Elves had been taken to jail, the one Elf left behind became material for various things. Things like new torture methods and lectures on vital spots of humanoids.

    Of course, he ended up in my stomach in the end.

    Ability [Overcharge] learned.Ability [Discount] learned.

    [T/N: These are named after Ragnarok Online¡¯s Merchant Skill.]

    I ate a fair number, the individual ability of those I ate was high and on top of that they held duplicates of the useful skills so I got a lot of useful skills, yeah, I was so thankful that I could even pray for them.

    * * *

    I went out hunting in search of Kobolds, Demon Spiders, Hind Bears, Argiope and other creatures; it was a veritable monster buffet.

    It¡¯s been a while since I had such a peaceful and mundane day.

    Of course at night¡­

    * * *

    When I woke up Gobukichi-kun had experienced rank up and turned into an ogre.

    It was because he single-handedly killed a Hind Bear recently, I thought it¡¯d be soon and it was as I expected.

    He hadn¡¯t turned into a normal ogre either, but a subspecies.

    The color of his skin was ¡°Dark Metallic Red¡±.

    The body color was similar to that of the Red Bear. In most cases having red skin is proof that you have been blessed by the [Demigod of Fire¡¯s Divine Protection].

    When I asked if he could breathe fire, he blew fire as if he was a flamethrower.

    Him somehow turning into a subspecies was probably because of habitually using main arms with fire abilities like the fire spirit stone-studded burning Crescent Axe and later the huge double-edged battleaxe as tall as himself, a magic item from Velvet¡¯s inheritance named [Decapitating Axe of Demonic Heat].

    Also, his skin shines with metallic luster, this seems to be [Demigod of War¡¯s Divine Protection] in addition to [Demigod of Fire¡¯s Divine Protection], so says Gobujii. His arm responds with a metallic clang when lightly struck.

    ¡°Being supported by two divine protections is great isn¡¯t it?¡±, I asked Gobujii, ¡°If you call it unusual then sure, it is, although not as unusual as you.¡±, he remarked.

    Ah, talent is it?

    ¡°So Gobukichi-kun, how about a spar?¡±, I asked him with a smile that is somewhat charming despite being an ogre.The result is: Gobukichi-kun was way too strong.

    He was 2m 80cm in height, 30cm taller than me, with shakudou skin and muscular body, his base specs without abilities easily surpassed mine in physical strength and stamina.

    [T/N: Shakudou is a decorative alloy of gold and copper, reddish-yellow but can be treated to form an indigo patina.]

    I also had increased my body¡¯s abilities using [Absorption] and on top of that, I was a rare variant, so I didn¡¯t think I would lose to Gobukichi-kun who was a subspecies, but yeah, it seemed I lost because of build allocation.

    Putting it in simple terms, If I was an all-rounder type with my points divided equally between my physical strength, endurance, and intelligence, then Gobukichi-kun was an aggression specialist-type who concentrated his points on battle-related stats.

    It¡¯s also obvious if you look at his muscles.

    That said, I still surpass him in terms of hand to hand combat techniques. It was a close match, but Gobukichi-kun is unmistakably a worthy rival.

    Concluding the spar, we gave each other a firm handshake and had a face-to-face talk.

    Gobukichi-kun who I had initially roped in as a disposable pawn had grown this much, this is frankly speaking far beyond my expectations.

    Right now he had the monopoly of being my right hand and a close companion, he was someone I couldn¡¯t do without.

    To congratulate him for his rank-up, I put some equipment in order for Gobukichi-kun.

    His main weapon didn¡¯t change from the huge battleaxe-type magic item [Decapitating Axe of Demonic Heat], but compared to when he was a hobgoblin, where it was too heavy if he didn¡¯t hold it with both hands, by becoming an Ogre he could wield the [Decapitating Axe of Demonic Heat] that weighed several dozen kilograms with one hand, so I once again equipped him with a shield.

    The shield I gave him was an unrefined massive black iron wall-like tower shield known as the [Black Ogre¡¯s Chopping Board].

    One of the magic items from Velvet¡¯s inheritance like the battle axe, its rank is likewise [Ancient].

    Its abilities are [Weight Reduction], [Durable] and [Impact Reflection] and it¡¯s thus extremely sturdy. If Gobukichi-kun is equipped with these items, breaking through his defenses would be quite difficult even for me.

    His armor was made from my thread, the hind bears¡¯ furs and some other stuff that Gobukichi-kun had hunted himself, these are again replaced with a portion of [Unique]-class metal armor from Velvet¡¯s inheritance, customized to suit Gobukichi-kun.

    Yeah, he has a great strength. Actually, he has an absurd strength.

    Despite holding the huge double-edged two-handed battle axe lightly in one hand as if it were a tree branch, he still had the appearance of an experienced soldier handling it skillfully.

    It¡¯s easy to imagine a black, huge and sturdy tower shield that covers three quarters of a gigantic body blocking enemy attacks, with magical items as support, long coat that I made by combining the durable fur of a Hind Bear with the armor of magical items that doesn¡¯t lose to the Red Bear¡¯s, with an Ogre, yeah, he had become an existence I very much wouldn¡¯t want to fight nor encounter, if I were human.

    The intensity of the fully-armed Gobukichi-kun was unmistakably higher than me when I just became an Ogre. Equipment notwithstanding, it was something fierce. Well, there¡¯s also the fact that it¡¯s hard to compare to myself.

    But nevertheless, after examining him for an hour, it¡¯s as if he¡¯s a machine soldier from somewhere, hm. Even I had to look upwards to meet his gaze, so if it¡¯s a normal human, how are they supposed to do that. It¡¯s easy to guess.

    I spent the rest of the day inside doing various odd jobs.

    The Elves have not yet succumbed to the lust, so they¡¯re still in jail. It might be because of their sense of pride that¡¯s suppressing their desire, or perhaps it¡¯s their racial biology having a resistance to the desire itself, or maybe both?

    ¡°That¡¯s why Gobujii, stop coming here every hour¡­¡±

    * * *

    I had a dream.

    It was quite the strange dream.

    An old man that looks familiar was there saying something along these lines, ¡°Sorr¡ª my thanks¡ª¡± ¡°¡ªa favor¡± ¡°This is ¡ª¡ª Please¡±

    When I woke up it felt like I have forgotten something, I cannot help but think this is something very important. Isn¡¯t this something that usually happens on some flag-like scene?

    I tilted my head trying to remember what was that in full detail, but to no avail, I couldn¡¯t. It feels like my memories have been hazy.

    Since I couldn¡¯t recall it I decided to focus on other things. In the morning I had a spar with Gobukichi-kun, and in the afternoon I paired up with Gobumi-chan and we went out hunting for a couple of hours, flirting as soon as we got outside.

    After that I checked up on the goblins from the logistical support corps ?Patri? who were studying about things like smithing and cooking.

    That day I had fun with everyone and soundly went to sleep.

    Goburou obtain [¡ö ¡ö ¡ö of Kin]!

    Huh? It seemed like something popped up before I went to sleep¡­

    My consciousness faded as I went back to sleep.

 Re:Monster Day 51-60

    When I woke up, four goblins had turned into hobgoblins and the number of hobgoblins is now twelve.

    Moreover, there is a quality Mage from the four, and another of them has aptitude to work as a Cleric.

    The large wounds received until now have all been cured by me, so having another one with a healing ability is something I¡¯m grateful for.

    I also can¡¯t rule out the possibility that some of the wounded would die before I reached them if there are a lot of wounded patients at once.

    That¡¯s why, I have established a medical unit named ¡°Pri¨¨re¡± under the new Hobgoblin Cleric Gobuji-kun as its captain.

    [T/N : Pri¨¨re is ¡°prayer¡± in french.]

    Although he¡¯s currently the only member of his unit, I hope that other individuals with similar skills will soon be joining him.

    Incidentally, you might think that there should be more than twelve hobgoblins. I have not counted wrong however.

    Counting off, Gobumi-chan, Gobue-chan, Hobusato-san, and their 5 underling goblins, and four additional goblins that joined, which all total to 12 hobgoblins. It¡¯s simple addition.

    But Hobusei-san was not mentioned, because when she woke up she had undergone her next rank up already. According to her, it has been years since her first rank up.

    Hobusei-san ranked up and became a Lord base species called the Half Spell Lord.

    The reason Hobusei-san wasn¡¯t counted this time is because of that.

    Concerning Half Spell Lords; it seems that for hobgoblins who practice magic becoming Ogres is not a popular route, although the probability is lower, mage-type monsters are races that advance on routes that specialize in using magic.

    It¡¯s really like Hobusei-san who is good at using magic.

    Turning into a race that best leverages her strong points is a good thing, too.

    It¡¯s just that the specialization comes at the cost of lower physical abilities than other lord types, but magic is in the first place a technique to one-sidedly torment the enemy from a distance.

    Since it¡¯s mostly a close-combat averse race that specialize in using magic, it¡¯s not particularly a problem.

    A Half Spell Lord¡¯s appearance is like that of a human with two small horns. I haven¡¯t seen any besides Hobusei-san but there might be differences between individuals, from her appearance, one could guess that Hobusei-san who became a Half Spell Lord was in the latter half of her early twenties; rather than calling her cute, she was like Alchemist-san, an intellectual cool-type beauty who seems like she would look good in a suit.

    Bluish-white skin that radiates life, green, somewhat tsurime eyes that show intelligence, in the middle of her forehead a sapphire-looking round gem 3 cm in diameter between a pair of horns, long, ash grey hair that extends down to her waist, and black tattoos on her forearms with patterns similar to mine yet subtly different, these were her characteristics.

    [T/N : Tsurime ¨C Eyes that slant upwards, ending in a corner, usually seen on willful, proud, or intelligent characters in visual media.]

    Measured by eye, her height is 180 cm.

    Speaking of the person herself, the tattoos on her arms were something that had originally not been there, and apparently she herself doesn¡¯t know how they got there. It¡¯s just that she felt power gathering to the brim near them, so they didn¡¯t give off a bad feeling.

    When I asked whether she had something like Gobukichi-kun¡¯s [Demigod¡¯s Divine Protection], she denied it. Apparently she didn¡¯t hold such a blessing.

    Hrm, this is an enigma. Well, I expect that this will be explained in due time.

    Then Gobujii additionally told us that the ¡°Half¡± in front of the race¡¯s name was because it had inferior overall specs compared to the true species¡ªSpell Lord in this case.

    Well, I already thought that much from the beginning because it was ¡°Half¡±.

    People who don¡¯t quite understand what ¡°Half¡± means, it¡¯s okay to consider things like Ogres and Hobgoblins like that, I think. Knowing that much already means being one step ahead.

    It looks like the next time she ranks up she will officially become a Spell Lord, too.

    Afterwards, to confirm the extent of improvement to her abilities when she became a Half Spell Lord, we had a magic stage performance by the stream outside, yep, it was amazing. No, incredible.

    Among the magic that Hobusei-san could use, there was one that is classified as a second-grade fire-type magic called ¡°Firestorm of Disaster (Char¡¯dei Dirou)¡±.

    I think I was being cryptic by suddenly saying gibberish like ¡°second-grade¡±, so I¡¯ll add one thing.

    It seems [God] had defined all ten ranks of magic, from the lowest ranking ¡°first grade¡±, to the highest ranking ¡°tenth grade¡± according to difficulty of invocation, destructive power, spell release level limit, and so on.

    Like the way abilities are often something like [Demigod of Something], in this world, beings that stand one domain above us are real. The world is practically dotted with several places where one can meet Gods¡ªthe ¡°Holy Places¡±.

    Well, let¡¯s put aside Gods and such and get back to the story.

    After learning that it is only one step above the most basic spells, you might think it¡¯s weak, but you would be gravely mistaken.

    Even by being able to handle the lowest first-grade magic, it¡¯s easy to kill several people at the same time.

    Just by launching a single fireball of the first-grade fire system magic ¡°Flame Calamity (Char Rou)¡±, several people can easily be incinerated.

    By the way, the lightning system magic that hit me directly in the face before was a third-grade spell. If that¡¯s true it contains enough power to blow away an Ogre-class monster entirely.

    In my case I didn¡¯t become like that because the power was sharply lowered by my abilities, but it still hurt¡­

    If you can handle a fifth-grade magic, even burning an entire city block is probably possible.

    Going that far, you¡¯d certainly be a monster that can ¡°match a thousand¡±, Redhead even seemed to know of some people that could do the same or worse than that, although only through hearsay.

    ¡­I wonder what kind of ability I could get if I ate one.

    It¡¯s fun to imagine the possibilities, since the High Wizard that I previously killed and ate could only at his best use third-grade magic.

    Though there¡¯s no knowing when such an opportunity will occur, imagining the possibilities is fun.

    Going back from what I heard of ¡°Firestorm of Disaster (Char¡¯dei Dirou)¡±, Hobusei-san once upon a time used it and it produced fireballs with a diameter of ten centimeters, the magic then launched these fireballs five times in a row causing wide area destruction.

    It¡¯s just that for Hobusei-san to cast it, she needed considerable concentration and a long chant time, furthermore, for several days after she¡¯d used it she couldn¡¯t use magic, those were the risks inherent in using it.

    When thinking of the great risk inherent in using it, this destructive power could only be used as a last resort.

    Now that she had ranked up, it had changed into magic that could not be compared to that of the old days.

    The time needed to activate ¡°Firestorm of Disaster (Char¡¯dei Dirou)¡±, not only has it been reduced to one-fifth the cast time compared to before, but also the diameter of one fireball is now 35 cm, and the total number of shots fired have turned into twenty.

    Furthermore, she no longer even gets a feeling of fatigue after activating it, with her current supply of inner mana, it seems she won¡¯t receive any backlash even if she were to fire it twenty times in a row.

    Additionally, she could now use even more powerful spells than before.

    You could expect no less from a race-specific magician.

    By the way, every shot was aimed at the sky. This is because if she were to shoot at the ground, dealing with the damaged terrain would be a bother.

    Even so, since she is still only a Half Spell Lord, it got me wondering on how great the magic of a full Spell Lord would be.

    No matter how hard I try at gathering information about this world, the information I get is too incomplete, not knowing the limits of power is quite scary.

    To congratulate them for their rank up, I did the same as I always do and gave each of the four hobgoblins two magic items.

    Hobusei-san got an item from Velvet¡¯s inheritance, a robe made from silver and gold thread combined with a red holy shroud that showed several special effects like [Auto-Amplification] and [Physical Magic Damage Resistance] among others.

    Another present I gave her was a magic staff named ¡°Arannote¡¯s Staff¡±, made from ancient wood studded with a red magic gem that used to be in possession of the adventurer with the [Job-High Wizard] who was killed in Velvet¡¯s dungeon before.

    I also handed over a bracelet-type magic item that had the ability to store magic staves and gadgets that were usually in the way, just like the one I had given to Gobukichi-kun.

    Due to the weapons reshuffling this time, the equipment that Hobusei-san was using until now, a staff and a grey robe, were given to two of the mage disciples that were formerly under my command but had now been transferred to Hobusei-san¡¯s corps.

    Now then, I¡¯ve been grumbling nowadays since I found out the reason of their growth lately.

    Yeah, somehow the goblins from the same generation as me seem to generally have an unimaginably high growth rate¡ªor experience point absorption ability. That had been demonstrated by hobgoblins being born en masse before going out of the forest.

    I¡¯ve been told by Gobujii before, but normally, goblins needed years to become hobgoblins.

    The reason for things becoming like this was undoubtedly me.

    And so I tried thinking a bit, perhaps due to their living environment one month or so after birth, their growth rate was not going to change in the future.

    See, because Goblins as a species have a high growth rate, I speculate that the growth of their abilities are also higher than other species. I wonder if I could call it a growth period extension?

    In the month since they were born, these goblins have killed and eaten tons of creatures ordinary goblins would avoid like the plague, undergoing a harsh training regimen repeatedly, which has caused their growth rate to greatly change.

    Assuming that the growth rate of an ordinary goblin is 1, the goblins that continue to strictly train, kill and eat until their bellies are full is 10, this is what it feels like.

    Definitely there¡¯s no way to confirm it, however I suspected that there¡¯s a very high probability that it is so.

    I can¡¯t find any reason to deny this hypothesis either.

    Also, it is very likely that there was assistance from my [Pack Leadership].

    I already mentioned the effectiveness of this ability in raising my subordinates¡¯ abilities, but in order to fulfill the conditions for utilizing the ability, I had to come up with concepts for each corps, picking out individuals that I judge to be the most suitable considering their character and ability and assigning them there.

    What I¡¯m trying to say is that, shouldn¡¯t it become easier to get more and more powerful than normal because of the expectation from usually using the effects of [Pack Leadership] for that purpose?

    Well, having an increase in strong companions is something that should be welcomed, let¡¯s stop this talk here because I haven¡¯t gotten any clear proof that this is so yet.

    It is however vital that I thoroughly investigate the effects of say ranking up into an ogre in the future.Among other things I have to figure out an ogre¡¯s lifespan.

    If ogres are as short lived as say goblins, of course it would be depressing.

    Oh yeah, of the 17 elves we have in captivity, one woman from the seven and three men from the ten have yielded to their desires.

    Although I already had Gobumi-chan and the rest, I was curious about what Elven biology was like, so I put myself in charge as her first partner.

    For now I¡¯ll say that I intended to be as careful as I can to not hurt my partner. But I couldn¡¯t deny the feeling that I made her faint.

    Well, yeah, it was awesome. Though I¡¯m not saying anything. Not even that it¡¯s because beautiful girls are assertive.

    After that, it was the other goblins turn.

    This group mainly consisted of goblins from my own generation.

    Rather, I strongly ordered them.

    The orders were mostly for the sake of the older goblin males¡­ To have them make her feel good when she¡¯s their partner.

    But I won¡¯t allow many-to-one. It has to be one-to-one.

    I might have thought that she was reluctant because she was a haughty elf, but in reaction to enduring being stimulated with drugs, she was delightedly gasping.I thought ¡°If she seemed happy about it then it¡¯s okay, right?¡± Well since it can¡¯t be helped, I gave up.

    Because I gave them detailed instructions to treat the girls with care, and because the girls assigned rooms were better than the subordinate goblins, they shouldn¡¯t end up tattered and then die like what happened before.

    Having given that much warning, particularly to Gobujii who was a repeat offender, it should be fine because I took action first and thus had the initiative.

    After that, let¡¯s talk about the [¡ö ¡ö ¡ö of Kins] that I got when I woke up.

    Yeah, I really didn¡¯t understand how this could be used. In fact, it¡¯s not even clear right now what effects it had.

    I couldn¡¯t even make a conjecture because the first few letters were blocked.

    I wanted to say ¡°Somebody teach me!¡±

    Because it says ¡°Kin¡±, I thought that maybe something or other was messing with me, but¡­

    If it¡¯s an ability I learned by myself, usually I could understand the way to use it, but this ability is probably something that I earned because of the rules of this world, so yeah, I don¡¯t get it.

    I¡¯m giving up on trying to figure it out for now.

    * * *

    Since it had been a while, this evening I went hunting together with Gobukichi-kun in previously unmapped areas, where we found a group of twelve armed men.

    By their vigilance of their surroundings, and their speedy¡ªalthough slow compared to us¡ªadvance towards the area where I think the Village of the Elves is, I concluded that they were something like the human army¡¯s reconnaissance corps.

    Motivated by curiosity, we decided to follow them.

    An ogre taller than two and a half meters should be pretty conspicuous, in fact I usually can¡¯t help but stand out strikingly, however in this case this is not a problem.

    Since the fourth day after we were born, we were told to get our own food by hunting.

    From that day on we have followed my plan which is, rather than charging straight at our prey we stay hidden, reading its breath whereafter we strike its blind spot accurately as if we were assassins.

    Because of this, Gobukichi-kun and I have polished our skill at hiding ourselves until it couldn¡¯t be compared to the usual level of skill others have.

    The gigantic figure of an Ogre merged with the surroundings, it¡¯s an ability that makes the target unable to perceive you for over ten minutes.

    In addition to this, since I possessed the ability [Hiding] which further boosted my skill at hiding, I could easily support Gobukichi-kun too, so there shouldn¡¯t be any problems.

    And then after tailing them for a short while. It seems that we had reached the target point, where the humans began to assume a formation shaped like the letter ¡°U¡±.

    As they finished moving into formation, each of the humans took one of their two crossbows in hand, erased their presence and hid themselves.

    In case you didn¡¯t know of their presence in advance, they¡¯d be pretty difficult to spot even if you got very close to them.

    Their hiding skill is very advanced.

    Well, though it¡¯s at an inferior level compared to us who live in the wild.

    Having arranged their stance up to this point, there was a high chance of silencing their targets without being discovered using a surprise attack with their crossbows.

    Since they each had two crossbows, they could fire them in succession whereafter they would enter close combat.

    That¡¯s what I would¡¯ve done anyway.

    Wanting to know what they were doing there, I secretly extended a superfine thread that was almost invisible even if you were to look at it closely, and listened in on their hushed conversations.

    From that I learned their mission here was to kidnap the beloved daughter of the ¡°Elven Round Table Conference¡¯s Chairman¡±.

    Apparently the Elves had adopted an institution where the representatives of several clans meet together for decision-making.

    Naturally, they were preparing to kill the daughter¡¯s guards, or so I deduced from the conversation.

    From the conversation I also established that somehow the Elves had a traitor among them.

    Though I don¡¯t intend to do anything special with this information, I had no doubt that this was a very useful piece of intel.

    Well, the existence of those who think ¡°No one wants to be ruined, and betraying my companions to save my own~¡± isn¡¯t all that unusual.

    Many had left battered after getting influenced by personal interests, and I didn¡¯t have anything to do with it in the first place, so I couldn¡¯t care less.

    I¡¯ll squeeze as much profit from this as I possibly can if I get the chance.

    Afterwards, after about two hours of watching how things would work out, an armed group of nothing but pretty female and male elves came along. Gobukichi-kun got tired of waiting long ago, so I had him hunting close by. If anything were to occur I¡¯d notify him with my thread.

    The elf sitting on a sedan chair being carried by a number of elves was certainly the elven maiden-san who was going to be kidnapped.

    From her looks she seemed to be between her late teen to early twenties, and frankly speaking she was the most beautiful person I¡¯d ever seen.

    That is, what one would call an incomparably beautiful woman.

    While staring at her mesmerized for a while, I caught sight of a small change in the hidden humans.

    I thought something was going to happen, so I called Gobukichi-kun via thread. At the same time the twelve humans moved simultaneously and accurately killed an elf each with their crossbows.

    It didn¡¯t end there, they threw away the crossbows they just fired, took their other crossbows, and fired once more. The arrows that were fired once more caused twelve elves to die.

    In the confusion following the surprise attack, the eight remaining elves who took up their bows to retaliate were silenced by the drawn blades of the humans who had quickly rushed over.

    The whole thing was over in only ten seconds. They worked at lightning speed; I have to say that they are quite skilled.

    The elf-maiden was the only survivor and the men approached her afterwards.

    Despite her struggling, they forced a cloth against her mouth and she suddenly went limp.

    From what I could gather at this distance it appeared that she had lost consciousness.

    The humans who were able to finish their mission unhurt carried the listless Elven Maiden-san and ran back the way they came.

    They withdrew without hesitation.

    I decided to await them along the former path they used. This is of course if they use the same path as they used earlier.

    Their distance is getting close enough to me, I think the time is right, so I got up from the ground and shot threads from my fingertips.

    I activated [Earth Control] just in case, and I erected earthen walls to three sides other than the front to completely prevent the 12 humans from escaping.

    In the sudden turn of events, the expressions of the humans who went into a state of panic was funny.

    As a result, everyone was captured in one go.

    Using the flexibility of the thread created by the ability of the Argiope¡¯s [Golden Thread Creation] they remained in their place, since it was exhausting because the golden thread was heavier than it appeared, its vulnerability to fire which was the previous thread¡¯s weak point was also covered up, it¡¯s also impossible to cut quickly because of its resistances.

    They looked like bagworms as they wriggled around which was hilarious.

    But during this state everyone was determined to use the poison in the back of their teeth that they have prepared, to prevent them from confessing anything they might also bite off their tongue. As soon as it happened, I cured everyone to prevent them from dying and I gagged them with my thread since it was troublesome to apply medical treatment.

    In order for them not to undo their bindings I dislocated their joints, and when I had finished tying up their wrists and thumbs firmly, Gobukichi finally arrived.

    I gave the work of carrying all the 12 humans to Gobukichi-kun who arrived late.

    Though his burden looks quite heavy, Gobukichi-kun was carrying them like it was nothing.

    ¡­..And including the equipment, it¡¯s definitely more than 1 ton right? I wondered whilst tilting my head a little, but he looked completely unfazed so I didn¡¯t say anything.

    I held Elven Maiden-san who still slept in my arms, as we returned to the cave we dwell in.

    Elven Maiden-san¡¯s escorts just now were killed in action¨Cthe heads were hollowed out from the shot they received by a crossbow, the neck separated from the corpses.

    The assassins had good skills, so the elves vital points were accurately destroyed and there was nothing I could do since I don¡¯t have any resurrection skills, so I took all their equipment and their hearts, whereafter I properly buried them because it would be cruel if monsters were to eat and ravage their corpses.

    Ability [Luck] learned.Ability [Doom] learned.

    Guess I¡¯ll have to activate Luck (good luck) ability for now, gotta be cautious I don¡¯t accidentally activate the Doom (bad luck) ability.

    Lastly, I clapped my hands together ¡°Namu¡±.I offered a prayer to them.

    Hm? What will I do to the captured humans you say?

    Well, after interrogating them I¡¯d have them earn more experience by contributing to us.Afterwards, I used them as a lecturing material on how to torture. Since they¡¯re all males, they don¡¯t look good compared to the looks of the male elves.

    Yeah, tonight will be problematic.

    That was what I thought, but before that, an event happened. We encountered some goblins on the way home.

    These weren¡¯t unfamiliar faces. They were a group of the older goblins, six goblins who were once our superior members. Nowadays, even the goblin underlings who had carried Redhead and the others far outstrip them in true strength, these goblins had become known as those guys who couldn¡¯t keep up with training.

    I already mentioned before that the goblins of my generation were stronger than the older ones, but I¡¯ll add that because the underling servant goblins were comparatively younger, they had shown some likelihood of growing reasonably through training, though the fact that they had outstripped these guys was an inside story. Oh well, that¡¯s fine for now.

    I wanted to ask what they were doing in this kind of place, but since the older goblins seemed to be in some hurry I just observed them while staring at them in silence. It could have been resignation, but one of them raised his hand and talked.

    The reason: they could no longer follow me.

    Not being able to sleep with women against their will was hard enough, they could no longer stand the rigors of daily training. Even so, they endured, thinking that some opportunity would come up, but when the female Elf prisoners were taken, they could not take it any longer.

    In their situation, sleeping with the female Elves was impossible; even if they held out their hand, they were limited to the males. The males were pretty boys so they didn¡¯t feel bad, but of course they could not reach the females¡¯ first-rate bodies in a lifetime, the goblins were helplessly tantalized by this situation.

    Even to the extent of being half-dead. In an environment where they had some first-rate meals right in front of their eyes, but only those other than themselves can eat, what could they expect to do.

    So, they moved out.

    In other words, they seem to want to leave the group.

    After saying that much, they went silent and trembled.

    Maybe they thought that they would be killed.

    Ah so it has finally come to this, I told myself, although it was a talk that I didn¡¯t want to hear.

    Well, at the current stage, it is not really necessary to stop those who don¡¯t comply at this state, if they told me that they want to go out, ¡°I see¡± was the kind of thing I probably would¡¯ve said.

    If it were Gobukichi-kun I would stop him to the point of pulling, It¡¯s him after all. Something like that.

    I adhere to the rules, but I haven¡¯t considered what to do to guys who were like ¡°we don¡¯t like it, so we¡¯re leaving¡±, right now. Since they were not that many yet, leaving would be okay.

    Just that I have to make-up some kind of violation that would make them leave.

    Besides, my goal right now was not to increase our numbers, but rather to raise our individual abilities. Rather than increasing the number of burdens, I thought that in our state that is competent to an extent, it might be better to consider adding children from now on.

    So, it was not my intent to leave behind these already frustrated guys right now. Even if they had no talent, I wanted to extend my hand to those willing to work hard.

    Nonetheless, to prevent gossip from leaking out, I should apply a bit of tactics. No, I didn¡¯t think of killing them. Though I should add ¡°at least at this stage¡± at the end. I won¡¯t kill them.

    The weapons carried by these trembling older goblins who were looking at me with a tense expression were only [Normal] class items that I gathered and distributed, if you want to call it by rank, then it would be first-grade from the bottom.

    With them they had [Normal] class weapons and armor, and several [Rare] class weapons were thrown in with them were taken out, the armaments were then handed out without a word.

    They were certain, that they would be killed if they made a move.

    It was the right choice.

    Getting back to what I was saying, it is good that the goblins were armed, but the best weapons quickly dwindled in number, their chances to survive and thrive with their current abilities are uncertain with the quality of weapons they currently have .

    Oh well, I decided that I will show them my feelings of mercy with a parting gift. So, I presented them with six knives taken from my item box.

    This knife is one of the relics left from the Elf Guard-san who died earlier. Using my appraisal the blue knife appears to be made of the magic metal (Mithril), which is too precious for Goblins to have.

    The knife does not contain any special abilities, but its sharpness is beyond compare to the standard steel short sword that they are currently equipped with. Would you believe me if I told you that Mithril can easily cut the blade of a steel sword without getting a scratch on it?

    The Mithril Knife that only the elves have the ability to manufacture, is so (Rare) that a low level adventurer could not obtain one.

    Just to show the sharpness of the blade, I cut my fingertip and several drops of blood trickled out, I then handed the blade back to a goblin who sheathed it. The wound quickly vanished without leaving a trace because of [Rapid Recovery].

    The older goblins just stood there with a dumbfounded look. Then Gobukichi-kun and I, smiling wryly, left them there without looking back, and took our leave.

    Perhaps, destiny will allow us to meet again.

    Well, even with the Mithril knife they still have a high chance of being killed by a group of adventures or mercenaries before that. With the market value being so high, a treasure like that usually invites trouble.

    I wish them luck for the future ahead.

    Lastly, I simply said ¡°This important point is a place where I shed my blood¡±.

    * * *

    From the group of 12 people that were caught, I got the information that the full force will advance within 20 days. Because the forest is full of powerful monsters like Three-Horned Horses and Hind Bears, mobilization of large numbers of people on specific routes was deemed impossible.

    Naturally, I heard the routes as well.

    Normally one would think they wouldn¡¯t leak such important information since they are professionals, ha, broke their limbs and then stopped the bleeding, sliced their flesh and bone and then healed it, cut open their stomach and then healed it, eating them mercilessly in front of their comrades, I repeatedly listen to the ones that were telling everything.

    We are called villains, there¡¯s no mistake about it, but if you look at history you would find things like this happen many times, so I was not concerned, don¡¯t take me wrong but most of the techniques I was using were ones that were perfected by our predecessors in the first place.

    Oh, and I¡¯m an ogre now. I¡¯m not human, so this isn¡¯t a problem. That¡¯s how it is.

    After I heard all the things I needed to hear, I ate their extremely delicious meat. Oh and Ialso got magic items, armaments and a lot of experience points.

    Ability [Job-Secret Force] learned.Ability [Job-Monster Tamer] learned.Ability [Job-Vorpal Punisher] learned.Ability [Job-Hermit] learned.

    Ability [Read State] learned.Ability [Bribe] learned.Ability [Unlock] learned.Ability [Release Trap] learned.

    Ability [Sense Trap] learned.Ability [Sense Enemy] learned.Ability [Improved Assassination Rate] learned.Ability [Hidden Weapon Mastery] learned.

    Ability [Humanbane] learned.Ability [Vorpal Strike] learned.Ability [Aura Slash] learned.Ability [Back Attack] learned.

    Ability [Needleshot] learned.Ability [Throw] learned.Ability [Severe Pain Resistance] learned.Ability [Charm Resistance] learned.Ability [Assassination Resistance] learned.

    Oh the abilities.

    Yeah, only [Triple Stab] was a direct physical attack ability, I¡¯m thankful for the addition of [Vorpal Strike] and [Aura Slash].

    There¡¯s also [Unlock] and [Release Trap], I am satisfied with so many useful abilities.

    Elven Maiden-san slept soundly for a day thanks to the sleeping drug, she finally woke up in the afternoon.

    She jumped in surprise when she woke up since I was looking at her beautiful sleeping face, then made a bunch of noises like ¡°What have you done to my private escorts?!¡± ¡°What are you going to do to me?!¡± ¡°No way, my chastity¡­¡±, so I made some imitation tea¡ªwith the help of Alchemist-san¡ªout of medicinal grass, which settled her for now.

    The tea¡¯s sedative effect kicked in immediately.

    Afterwards, I told her what happened plainly.

    The escorts were all dead, I took their hearts and equipment as payment for giving them a respectable burial. I¡ªGobukichi-kun was excluded since he wasn¡¯t there at the time¡ªwas watching the situation from the preparation phase, I attacked the humans before killing and eating them, that¡¯s all.

    I told her everything without holding back.

    Oh by the way, I never said anything about the elven prisoners of war. Since it is unrelated. There might be a problem if I told her, but I didn¡¯t because it doesn¡¯t relate to her case.

    Well, speaking of Elven Maiden-san¡¯s reaction, was, naturally, it was that of rage.

    I was punched in the head and got hit a few more times, but to be honest, it was not a big deal. It was like getting hit by a small child. Repeated punches you say? That imagery is actually quite close.

    Though I thought ¡®Did Elf Maiden-san behave like that because there was a guy with reasonable position?¡¯, but it¡¯s not like I don¡¯t understand her feelings, so I let her freely hit me for a while, then I countered with a flick of my finger¡ªMy hits are no joke. Even though it¡¯s just a poke I had to go easy on her and hold back¡ªto her forehead.

    Her swelling head moved back so she won¡¯t die, but it still must have been painful, she held onto the spot and scornfully stared at me with teary eyes, I don¡¯t really know.

    ¡°The dispute between elves and humans doesn¡¯t matter to us, but I was going to help, so stop hating and complaining so much¡±, I declared. Then I incidentally told her that there seemed to be a traitor in their ranks.

    Then she became silent, after a while she erupted into tears while crying in earnest, I tried to comfort her. Gah, the sight of a beauty in tears is foul play.

    After that, I wanted to escort Elven Maiden-san to her village, but we continued talking more than expected, time passed so she needed somewhere to stay for the night.

    Tonight I made a hammock for her to sleep in.

    Well, tomorrow we will go to the Village of the Elves.Wonder how it will go.

    Oh, and Gobujii, weren¡¯t you looking at me with expectant eyes saying ¡°Did you catch Maiden-san?¡± What a bother.

    It¡¯s not like she¡¯s an enemy, for me to be hypocritical and spend two hours talking with her¡­¡­

    Oh, I began asking about the male and female elves I caught. But there was no interest because they were the ones who meddled first, it¡¯s an implicit rule of the elves, so I just went with it.

    The line of goblins was a surreal scene, it went on and on.

    For the time being, I¡¯m not going to say anything since they were following the rules.

    * * *

    Waking up as usual, I felt a presence overlooking me while sighing by my side. To ascertain who it was, I feigned sleep for a while.

    According to [Presence Sensor], apparently it was the Elven Maiden-san. For now, I want to say ¡°What are you doing?¡±

    Later, Gobumi-chan, Redhead, Blacksmith-san, Sisters-san, Alchemist-san all had me surrounded and were examining me closely as well, again I wondered what they were doing.

    Since it is impossible to play possum forever, perhaps because of the looks from Gobumi-chan and the others I felt an eerie feeling, and because I felt this chill down my spine I opened my eyes.

    Then Elven Maiden-san went into a panic, her movements were so funny that I laughed in spite of myself. I was hit by Elven Maiden-san.

    Why me?

    After that I finished my breakfast, then practiced against Gobukichi-kun for the same reason, since an Ogre could easily kill a Hobgoblin, because of this Gobukichi-kun and I did not participate in the mixed training much.

    The current training, I told the Hobgoblin in charge of training that we were going to go escort Elven Maiden-san to her village, and we then departed from the cave.

    After a while of hunting Argiope for suitable materials, and walking for about three hours we finally arrived.

    We were suddenly surrounded, the numbers that appeared in sight were 25, but according to [Presence Sensor] the true number was 48.

    Although they seem to be aiming at the vital parts of both me and Gobukichi-kun with bows, and arrows solely made of Mithril, this is not a big problem though.

    To the extent that I could kill all of them if I overlap my abilities, and to begin with, the bodies of me and Gobukichi-kun, complete with our armor if hit by an arrow even at a short distance we can endure it.

    The life force of an Ogre should not be underestimated.

    Frankly, receiving a direct hit to an unprotected head would be somewhat dangerous, but I am confident that it could be avoided even if it happened at point blank range.

    However, it is only troublesome to fight for one reason, Elven Maiden-san is here this time.

    By reflex Gobukichi-kun was about to slaughter the elves surrounding him, he was able to equip the axe and shield immediately without carrying them around because they are stored into the bracelet magic item. By the way the magic bracelet can hold 12 types of items and it is possible to stack 20 of the same type of item¨CI had to stop him with a hand signal, Elven Maiden-san was able to talk down the surrounding elves almost instantly.

    While surrounded by an escort of guards called Watchdogs that monitored us, we moved forward into the Village of the Elves.

    The Village of the Elves, how do I say it, they live among giant trees. I have an understanding of the structure.

    It is built around one enormous tree that you cannot see at the beginning, traffic is handled by the other trees having scaffolds complete with stairs, residences, and suspension bridges along it.

    The living area is primarily in the trees and not on the ground.

    It¡¯s unlikely that everyone are living in trees, since I can see things like stables on the ground.

    It felt strange to be looked down at or should I say curiosity, although we were being exposed to these looks we continued forward up some stairs and across a bridge to arrive at our destination at last.

    There were different mansion like residences of different sizes. Seemingly the house of Elven Maiden-san appears to be here.

    Going into a mansion, I met the father of Elven Maiden-san face-to-face.

    He had a splendid mustache, I should also say he looked like a Dandy- looking old man with a fine toned body for an elf. If I were a man of the same type I would be jealous.

    Since I tried to sit on a seat as I was offered, but since it creaked disagreeably, I had to politely decline. Tea was served to drink, and as it got time to refill we moved onto business talk.To summarize the contents of our agreement, since Elven Maiden-san received help I was to receive a reasonable compensation, he said.

    Even though this is not a charity, I do not exactly know how much Elven Maiden-san is worth as this is my first time doing this. So, I told him to give me a reward that is worth the life of Elven Maiden-san. Does it really matter if it comes out to a paltry amount of money? Actually, now that you mention it since he has the amount that we decided on. I implied I wanted more.

    He may hate me, but if it is really that cheap, then Father Elf should be calm about this,depending on what type of personality he has, this will indicate if it was cheap.

    His response with light feelings told me I was correct.

    To be honest the result was unexpected, but an [Ancient] Class [Artifact] ended up in my possession.

    The magic weapon was shaped like a bow, according to where it had been appraised it was named [Failnaught].

    I was told that it does not really require arrows, when the bow is fully drawn the arrow is half materialized by a mysterious power, therefore it will not run out of arrows.

    An arrow that is shot will be a [Certain Hit] at the point that was aimed at, unless the space was protected by a shield as the name ¡°Certain Hit¡± implies. Though it has other abilities, it¡¯s a pain to explain so I leave it at that.

    This bow, it seems to be a family heirloom considering Elven Maiden-san¡¯s reaction to it, should be impossible to exchange for a beloved daughter. He must really be a doting parent. Whoa! I¡¯m not saying anything.

    So I am glad for this, just to see that warm gaze.

    So we got a family heirloom as expected, I was about to say ¡°Okay, good bye¡± but I felt a little bit awkward about it, so I decided to present some information that I have.

    Also, I don¡¯t hate Father Elf¡¯s character.

    Oh, come to think of it of how far humans will go for things like this, is there a strategy in this too? I hear that when you leak out a little of the details on the target, that the rewards will keep coming.

    More awards were presented, 30 chain mail shirts made of Mithril, 30 Mithril short swords, 20 Mithril (Ingot), and a few magic items that will be convenient for living.

    Reluctantly, I was saved by one person who knows the importance of this information.

    While absentmindedly watching Father Elf who was writing down information and intelligence about traps that I knew, I took out ten each of the knives made from water, earth, and wind spirit stones by Blacksmith-san and put them on the desk.

    Also while I was at it, three shovel-type [Unique] class magic items with abilities suitable for Elves who excelled at handling spirits.

    It¡¯s not that I didn¡¯t expect to more or less sell favor for later, but I thought that it would make up for the shortage caused by the loss of the elite Elves.

    The business safely concluded, I exchanged a solid handshake with Father Elf while smiling amicably.

    Only, when I was asked ¡°Do you know the whereabouts of those elites?¡±, I had no choice but to smile and say ¡°I don¡¯t know¡±.

    As we headed home, Father Elf gave me a souvenir saying ¡°This is the Elf-made alcohol known as secret medicine. Please take it¡±. There were three casks of booze.

    Yep, this was thanks to Luck wasn¡¯t it?

    Booze was a great pleasure of mine.

    Father Elf just said ¡°If it¡¯s you then this is just cheap support.¡±, I¡¯ll pay him back.

    Night. Since we finally got our long-awaited booze, I drank with everyone.

    ¡°Elven alcohol tastes so good¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª!!¡± I screamed involuntarily.

    Yeah, I¡¯ll have you treat me again.

    * * *

    Informing everyone of the goblins that left the other day, I told the others that if there are those that want to leave, they can leave, so just tell me, I will give them a parting gift, this was my policy, but in the end there wasn¡¯t anyone.

    Well, fine then, today I quickly finished doing minor changes to the rankings caused by the goblins who left, then went out hunting.

    When I returned from the hunt, I worked on producing several items that I had previously thought to make.

    * * *

    In the morning, I continued tinkering with the communication equipment (Self-made) that I started working on yesterday and now it¡¯s finally completed.

    I don¡¯t think I know how it works, but a simple production summary is as follows.

    The Mithril ingot that I got from Father Elf as a reward for sharing the information was absorbed by my [Self-Evolution] ability, which is one of the abilities of Airgeatl¨¢mh.

    ¡ú A part from the taken material is pressed out from the tip of my finger creating a cuff.¡ú Several drops of blood are shed from my fingertip.¡ú The decoration created out of them resembles a jewel, I then fit it into the blue metal cuff.¡ú With that the communication equipment is complete.

    In short, it¡¯s a means of telepathic communication utilizing [Self Replication].

    From what Redhead has told us, this world doesn¡¯t widely employ the use of communication equipment, since this is the case I expect that the ability to quickly share information will be extremely effective.

    At any rate, however, it has taken more time than I thought to enchant the cuffs.

    I provided everyone with a cuff, the ones that I had gone through a multitude of struggles to make.

    The cuff is impossible to remove unless you cut the flesh around it, I have carefully designed it so that once the cuff is worn it fuses with the flesh, however I don¡¯t have to worry, as [Regeneration],[Lesser Strength],[Lesser Dexterity] and the like are activated if you try to remove it, as I explained.

    Since I had grown tired from all the adjustments to the hearing and trying to make it comfortable for each individual, I went to sleep.

    I awoke in the evening, and went for a good hunt before heading back to bed.

    I went without sleep, since Gobumi-chan and the others came in and I had another hot night.

    * * *

    I want a pet. Since I have the occupation [Job-Monster Tamer], I should put it to practical use.

    Thinking that way, the four of us gobs went out together, for the first time in a while, to capture some.

    My first target is a pack of Black Wolves. Because if it¡¯s a wolf, it¡¯s likely to make for a companion that is as good as a dog if I tame it, probably.

    Because the Black Wolf is a monster, despite its appearance, it has lots of power. If I train it properly, I can use it as a mount for long distance travel.

    But reality isn¡¯t that simple. I couldn¡¯t find a Black Wolf.

    I didn¡¯t have a problem with that since I captured five Three-Horned Horses and three Hind Bears today though.

    Not to mention Gobumi-chan, Gobue-chan¡¯s activeness today gave me a surprise.

    Though Gobukichi-kun and I tried hard, because we ended up killing a few by mistake due to how hard we hit, it was good that Gobumi-chan, who had been given [Failnaught], was able to shoot in between the gaps in the scales.

    This is certainly because of the ability held by this magic item. You can say, I had to admire the surging waves of shots that it could fire.

    But, Gobue-chan who used her pickaxe singlehandedly could overwhelm the Three-Horned Horses to this degree by herself, was above my expectations.The pickaxe was something that she got from Velvet¡¯s hoard, a [Rare] class item that simply held the ability of [Difficult to Destroy].

    Yeah, the mining technique that she had cultivated as her hobby would be demonstrated here.

    The superior speed and power of just one swing wasn¡¯t normal.

    The gigantic figure of the Triple-Horned Horse that took a direct hit to the head, smashing its horn at the root and causing the head to rotate a half-turn at its starting point and fall from its body, was truly unbelievable.

    She may be overshadowed by Gobumi-chan and Gobukichi-kun, but I truly felt that Gobue-chan belongs in the fourth place of the goblins of our generation.

    Levels are important in this world, but with this one concentrated swing, it made me realized the the importance of the techniques that utilize the entire body, hips and legs.

    I turned the three-horned horse that was trashed by Gobue-chan into a ¡°familiar¡± with [Monster Tamer], somehow it rewrites a part of the brain. At most I can set two owners, and apparently the owners can talk with their pet with telepathy. What¡¯s this, isn¡¯t this too convenient? I set the three-horned horse¡¯s owner to Gobue-chan and it turned into her personal mount.

    Still hobgoblins, Gobumi-chan and Hobusato-san received Three-Horned Horses like Gobue-chan, while Gobukichi-kun and I, followed by Hobusei-san, got one Hind Bear each as a ?Familiar?.

    There was one Three-Horned Horse left over, so I decided to leave it to the vice captain of Gobukichi-kun¡¯s troops, who was also a hobgoblin.

    The reins and saddle magic items possessed by the twelve members of the reconnaissance group could not be used on Hind Bears, but since those could be used on Triple-Horned Horses, I gave it to them in advance.

    And then in the evening, elves, three men and two women, had just fallen.

    And so the same deeds were repeated again.

    Yeah, it has been quite a significant day.

    * * *

    I went out to look for Black Wolves again for the second day in a row. However, today I¡¯m alone.

    Gobukichi-kun and the others are in the middle of training to learn how to ride the ?Familiars? from yesterday. I learned it easily because of the experience in my past life and also because of my ability [Horse Riding].

    Being able to communicate was a great help too.

    Gobukichi-kun and the others¡¯ problems in getting used to riding were reduced because of the reins and saddle I made out of thread and leather to make riding easier.

    But still, an armed Ogre riding on a Hind Bear is an awesome sight in many ways. I wonder what it would be like if the Hind Bear were also armed.

    Today I caught a sign of Black Wolves on my [Presence Sensor], in the end, I successfully caught 8 Black Wolves and 1 Black Wolf Leader.

    Although the Black Wolves¡¯ running speed, endurance, and body strength were excellent, they still couldn¡¯t measure up to Hind Bears. Even I didn¡¯t think that something with such a large body could run between the trees.

    Having judged that they couldn¡¯t get away, the wolves stopped running. Though initially they bared their fangs rebelliously, after I glared at them with my ability, they wagged their tails like friendly dogs, and so I healed them a bit.

    Afterwards, I toyed with the brains of the Black Wolves the same way as the former ?Familiars?, and then I returned to the den.

    This time I gave the eight Black Wolves to the goblins belonging to the light armored troops ?Red Surge? led by Hobusato-san.

    They struggled similarly to Gobukichi-kun and the others to learn how to ride, I¡¯ll do my best on finding a way for it not to happen in the future.

    As for myself, I did many things with the Hind Bear named Kumajirou to deepen our relationship.

    By the way, the Black Wolf Leader named Kurosaburou had become my beloved wolf.

    I was healed by their cuteness.

    Their previous ferocity could not be seen at all as they were being stroked comfortably by Redhead, Alchemist-san, and the others.

    Oh yeah, after this I should add some ?Familiars? to act as bodyguards for Blacksmith-san and the others.

    Then, the remaining two Elf females and two males gave in. The ones who had resisted to the end were the previous two Elf escorts.

    I tried to be gentle like I always did, but I might have gotten a little rough.

    * * *

    I rode on top of Kumajirou together with Redhead, to our side, walking along with us, was Kurosaburou. Together we made an unlikely party as we strolled through the uncharted parts of the forest.

    Lately Redhead has had improved her combat skills, however, to her regret she hasn¡¯t killed anything so she hasn¡¯t gotten any experience.

    Basically, her level hasn¡¯t changed.

    Although her physical abilities have indeed risen from the daily training, it¡¯s a trivial difference compared to the increase in ability from raising your level.

    Incidentally, Redhead¡¯s level is 18. Her level increased by ten during the hind bear hunt which is good, but frankly speaking she¡¯s still beyond useless.

    Her current physical ability is below that of any of the common goblins.

    Such being the case, Redhead could no longer win against the surrounding goblins who daily went out to hunt and by the mysterious power of the world had their levels rise.

    The reason we went out hunting this time was for her to improve.

    Redhead wasn¡¯t equipped with anything special. There¡¯s a high chance that an inexperienced person would mistake the performance of their equipment for their own ability, thus she wasn¡¯t equipped with any magical items.

    Her weapon of choice is a steel kukri knife and she kept three ring daggers for backup.For defense she has a Round Shield reinforced with shell, the same item provided to the general goblin infantry which are [Normal] class items.

    She was wearing her everyday wear made by the sisters out of hind bear fur and my thread, as well as a breastplate and a grey cloak.

    Her forearms were protected by steel gauntlets, her legs were protected by steel cuisses, steel kneepads, steel greaves and steel sabatons. All this equipment together looks very heavy, so I enchanted it to make it lightweight and the end result is that it¡¯s actually quite light.

    Thus Redhead¡¯s movements were still nimble.

    Her first prey was an Armored Tanuki.

    She was struggling a little bit against the defense of its back shell, but because of the [Job-Warrior]¡¯s ability to do battle corrections, or perhaps from the results of her training, or maybe both, in any case, Redhead succeeded in dismantling the Armored Tanuki.

    The meat was given to Kurosaburou to eat.

    The next prey were three night vipers. Even though she flinched from the piercing gaze, she calmly assessed their movements and was able to guard against their attack with her round shield, and she succeeded in decapitated them.

    Their meat was given to Kumajirou to eat.

    Three kobolds were next. I quickly captured two with thread, creating a situation where she¡¯ll be able to fight one-on-one. Perhaps they determined there¡¯d be no use in escaping and set their sights on Redhead, challenging her to a fight fair and square.

    The kobold was a monster that had superior physical strength, but the combat skills developed by training with goblins every day covered the difference in physical ability.

    Dodging the kobold¡¯s slashes, sometimes parrying their attacks, Redhead managed without having serious injuries and finally decapitated it.

    After a short break, I released one of the caught Kobolds after confirming Redhead¡¯s stamina recovered to some extent. Not to set him free, but to have it fight Redhead.

    Although she had a few injuries at the time, Redhead once again cut the kobold¡¯s body into pieces.

    From the last kobold, I asked for the location of the kobold village before I had them fight.

    As a result, I learned of its location.While thinking whether or not I¡¯ll go to the village if given the opportunity to, Redhead who had more or less naturally recovered her physical strength said ¡°Next Please¡± so I released the next opponent.

    Then the final kobold put up a better fight than the last two, but in the end Redhead sliced off its neck with the sharpest slash of the day and killed it.

    After curing Redhead¡¯s injuries and fatigue, I let Kumajirou and Kurosaburou each eat a kobold whole.

    As for the remaining kobold, when I was about to start munching on it Redhead told me that she¡¯d like to try eating it too, so I grilled it and ate together with her.

    But nevertheless, I was impressed by Redhead¡¯s adaptability. She ate monster meat without any hesitation.

    Well, I¡¯m not sure I could call the action she did ¡°eating¡±. I¡¯m sure no matter if it was raw or metal, almost anything would be gulped down.

    Yeah. Redhead is very courageous, it¡¯s a good thing because it¡¯s something you should be if you¡¯re coming with me in the future.

    Ability [Mountaineering] learned.

    As I was thinking ¡°Okay then, our next prey is¡­¡±, Redhead tugged on the edge of my coat.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± I asked as I looked down on her, those blue sapphire eyes were now a dull red.What¡¯s more the once circular black pupil was now a rectangular shape resembling that of a monster¡¯s.

    But they still seemed to differ somewhat from a monster¡¯s eyes.

    Rather than calling them ominous, those somewhat strange eyes gave off a chilling feel.

    Somehow, she obtained a new [Job]. Maybe because she ate the kobold, or maybe because she trained with the goblins.

    Well, putting that aside. I tried to listen to her story.

    Redhead obtained a [Job], called [Noire Soldier].

    After greatly increasing their affinity to monsters, those with the [Job-Warrior] had a constant chance of obtaining this rare job by clearing the condition of ¡°eating a monster they killed themselves¡±.

    As usual, I thought was I the main cause of this, huh? I really didn¡¯t feel anything like regret, so I thought nothing of it.

    Having gained a new [Job], Redhead¡¯s combat abilities rapidly rose.

    Although there is the outrageous risk that a [Noire Soldier]¡¯s body would rapidly deteriorate and would soon die if they don¡¯t consume monster meat or blood at fixed intervals, let¡¯s just say for now that they need a regular intake of monster parts, but the growth rate of their combat abilities is amazing.

    No matter how you look at it, she now had physical abilities equal to or better than that of a hobgoblin.

    Her combat power couldn¡¯t be compared to how she was earlier.

    Considering that earlier her ability was equal or worse than the usual goblin, she really has made rapid improvement.

    Redhead who kept saying ¡°Awesome, Awesome!¡± while she deflected the Red Deer¡¯s two horns, kicked its body so it flew up in the air and then cut its thick neck covered by strong muscles with the kukris blade, was somehow cute.

    The horns were collected, the meat was shared cordially.

    Ability [Wild Horn Dance] learned.Ability [Red Crystal¡¯s Tone] learned.

    After that we hunted various things.

    When evening came, I took a short stopover together with Redhead.

    I confirmed that Redhead¡¯s new job [Noire Soldier] increased her abilities in a big way when she took in a part of me.

    Since it was so, by taking in stronger monsters, she would become stronger herself.

    Anyway, as for what she took in, it was something private.

    During today¡¯s hunt, Redhead¡¯s level rose to 34 and it was rapidly rising.

    * * *

    I felt something with [Presence Sensor]. Even though it was 2 hours after midnight, I wanted to say, I was still too energetic.

    Recently, I¡¯ve been able to perceive a considerably wide area. I have it activated at all times prior to sleeping and because it awakens me times like this, it¡¯s very annoying.

    That¡¯s the reason why I¡¯d made it so only those picked up by [Sense Enemy] will trigger it. However, the number of picked up targets this time was excessively large even though it¡¯s in the middle of the night.

    For one moment I thought the humans had come to attack, but I soon concluded that that is highly unlikely.

    At night, the dark forest is monster territory.

    If the humans were to attack now, they would be facing too much disadvantage.

    Then, I immediately confirmed what it was.

    The species name that was displayed in the tactical intelligence I constructed using my two abilities [Mental Map] and [Presence Sensor] was Kobold. I thought it was revenge already, but¡­ that might be wrong.

    There were 53 Kobolds indicated by red dots on my Mental Map. There were also 38 blue dots that appeared to be chasing them. Then, from the furthest edge, there was a rather large gray dot. Since individuals of the same species were indicated by the same color, then that means there must be three species.

    What the blue and grey dots were was for now unknown. However, what I could tell was that when the red dots made contact with the blue dots, the reds were disappearing.

    Apparently the kobolds were under attack by something.

    Stuff like this happens all the time which is why I can ignore it.

    But the problem was that the kobolds who were losing in numbers where heading straight for this cave.

    I¡¯d rather not have anything to do with this troublesome thing. However, since they kept coming closer, I decided to wake up everyone in order to prepare for the intrusion.

    I could kill kobolds easily at any time. So, the threat I recognized was the blue and gray dots.

    After a short while, the greatly reduced group of kobolds dived with a frantic expression, they¡¯d been reduced to 36 members. Among the kobolds, there were not only males, but also females, elderly and children.

    At the end of the line of armed male kobolds were the blue dots. They were white bleached skeletons armed with swords, shields and armor. The kobolds were desperately trying to hinder the skeletons¡¯ advance.

    ¡°¡­.¡±

    I was at loss for words for a while.

    When I was inside Returners¡¯ dungeon, I didn¡¯t see a single skeleton. So this is the first time I¡¯ve seen the real thing. However, no matter how I look at it, aren¡¯t these skeletons the magical creatures guarding Velvet¡¯s Dungeon?

    Why are they here? ¡­Ah, one Kobold got killed. It seems that I have very little time to think.

    Thus, I sent down orders using the cuffs as a communication device and persistently attacked the skeleton group with bolts from the crossbows as a preemptive strike.

    To start with, even getting a hit in on them is incredibly difficult. But even if they got hit head on, the bolt would simply snap. That¡¯s how tough they were.

    In all likelihood, there was some kind of ability at play here.

    Judging that the crossbow attacks were ineffective, I stopped the attack from the long-range force. ?Tirard? had the logistical support corps, ?Patri? lead the escaping Kobolds to jail, and had Gobuji-kun in the middle of the Kobold group to administer simple medical treatments.

    If they stayed here, they will only be a hindrance. Also, I wanted them under watch.

    Having understood that long range attacks were ineffective, this time I ordered the main combat corps ?Revolution? and light armed corps ?Red Surge? to engage. The black wolves also helped.

    However, cutting through bone with a sword is hard. It was a tough fight in the beginning.

    But all that changed when Hobusato-san, with a wisdom born from experience, broke the bone with a scabbard. The skeletons were resistant to slashing attacks but are largely vulnerable to blunt force attacks.

    I immediately relayed that information. Then, as if the tough fight until now was just a bad dream, we brought down the skeletons in no time as if we awoke from it.

    But most importantly, now that we knew their weakness, the main problem was solved.

    Gobukichi-kun equipped with his huge battle axe and tower shield was almost like a moving wall.

    While bellowing resoundingly, the sight of that huge figure going through the skeletons and turning them into dust was refreshing.

    Gobue-chan was equipped with a pickaxe as usual. But it¡¯s not an exaggeration to say that she has already a certain kill swing; by swinging downwards from a higher elevation which resulted to crushing the skull in one hit all down the way to their sacrum without the momentum stopping. It was a terrible blow. The skeletons were simply being dug out.

    [T/N: Sacrum ¨C Triangular bone at the base of the spine, between the hip bones.]

    Gobumi-chan¡¯s [Certain Hit] skill with her arrow at the skull was not very effective as expected. But, she was able to ignore that; not only the amount of rapid-fired arrows were in numbers that hit their mark, but also the change of the arrowhead resulted in increase of penetrating power.

    The skeletons did not have a way to defend against her rapid-fire that was like a raging wave.

    Hobusei-san burned and scattered the skeletons around using her fire magic. Of course, she did not choose to use her wide-area destructive magic because there were allies at the vicinity. But due to her ranking up, her magic effectiveness had increased; her encounter with the skeletons wasn¡¯t much of a handicap.

    As for me, it goes without saying.

    Unlike the Kobolds, we had many ways to deal with the opposition. We did not expect just to lose against these skeletons.

    Also, because of the aggressive charge of Hind Bear and Three-Horned Horse from the ?Familiars?, we had too much war potential to be worried about losing.

    I thought that I might not get a turn this time. But it seemed that thing didn¡¯t go that way since the number of Skeletons were not decreasing.

    Despite the clattering Skeletons inside the cave were destroyed until they were nothing but a white heap of bones, more and more came from the cave entrance; there were no end to them.

    Thinking about their origins, I remembered what Returner told us.

    There were things superior to Skeletons called Greater Skeletons, which had the ability to produce Skeletons.

    In addition, by absorbing the mana that was surrounding the darkness, the number it could produce seems to be near infinite. As what you would expect from Velvet-sama. That was something to boast about.

    ¡°Ah, so that¡¯s how,¡± I came to an understanding, ¡°I should immediately go and crush it.¡±

    However, I was discouraged by the amount of EXP that could be gained by killing the skeletons here.

    ¡°This is a good time for a level up!¡± I thought.

    For that reason, I informed everyone about it. Though it was suddenly held past midnight, the festival for earning EXP begins!

    Because the gray dot would be the Greater Skeleton that spawned Skeletons was still outside and didn¡¯t move, I had little worries.

    At the beginning we were thinking, ¡°Did anyone get killed by a skeleton?¡± but after a short while, everyone seemed to have gotten used to fighting them so they got by with almost no injuries.

    There was a possibility that something unexpected could happen because of fatigue, so I fixed that by having them attack in shifts.

    The long-range and logistical support corps can also hit and break them with blunt objects relatively easily while my bear buddy made sure no skeletons got away.

    I munched on a pile of white bones while watching. Redhead came to take a break in the middle of fighting and also munched.

    Blacksmith-san, the Sisters, and Alchemist-san went up in an uproar. I wondered if the bones are some kind of material? So I consulted it to them.

    It can be used as an ingredient. Not only it is a high quality material but also pretty rare. That is I saved some of them and stored them in another location. You can also gain a good amount of gold from selling them. I have many expectations for the future if ever I can find someone to be a good source of funds.

    As what you would expect from a Peddler.

    When it comes to trade they are reliable.

    Ability [Slash Resistance] learned.Ability [Pierce Resistance] learned.Ability [Vulnerable to Sunlight] learned.

    Ability [Vulnerable to Blunt Strikes] learned.Ability [Null Critical Hit] learned.Ability [Tireless] learned.

    Ability [Synostosis] learned.Ability [Joint Magic] learned.Ability [Equipment Materialization] learned.

    Ability [Evil Miasma of Life] learned.Ability [Negative Energy] learned.Ability [Null Abnormal State] learned.

    Ability [Null Cold Damage] learned.Ability [Null Electric Damage] learned.Ability [Acid Damage Resistance] learned.

    Ability [Vulnerable to Light Damage] learned.Ability [Vulnerable to Holy Damage] learned.Ability [Vulnerable to Fire Damage learned.Ability [Anaerobic] learned.

    Since I ate a lot of them, I have secured quite a lot of abilities. Though there are many useless ones, it won¡¯t be a problem since I won¡¯t be activating them.

    It¡¯s probably been around 4 hours since we started gaining experience. It¡¯s about time dawn will break. And because everyone has already acquired a good amount of experience and leveled greatly, I guess it¡¯s time to end this festival.

    More like, I wanna sleep.

    Yeah I¡¯m convinced; I¡¯m definitely putting an end to this festival. I began charging towards the exit tearing the hordes of skeletons asunder with my silver arm and red spear, until I was finally outside.

    Right then a black long sword was swung towards my head. However, I saw it coming so I parried it by swinging the red spear and thrust my silver hand¡¯s fingers forward.

    The black long sword wielding skeleton¡ªa ¡°Greater Skeleton¡±¡ªwas twice as large as the others and wielded an imposingly grand sword. My silver arm smashed through its large chest bringing this festival to an end.

    The skull made a nasty grinding and rattling sound when I ate it. Of course, I shall still devour every last bone.

    As expected of a higher species, you can gain experience from breaking them. The taste wasn¡¯t bad when I tried eating the skeleton¡¯s bone.

    Also, it had obviously never occurred to me that bones could feel this appetizing.

    What is this, high-grade bone? It had a nice consistency. Yeah, tasty.

    Ability [Summon Lesser Undead] learned.Ability [Greater Equipment Materialization] learned.Ability [Mana Drain] learned.Ability [Lesser Damage Reduction] learned.Ability [Lesser Magic Damage Reduction] learned.

    Well, at first I thought, ¡°How dare these kobolds bring us trouble,¡± but now I see them as dogs that brought us good fortune.

    Anyway, while looking at the cleric Gobuji-kun who was frantically healing the seriously injured kobolds, I finished the treatments for the rest of the kobolds and gave them all some sleeping drugs afterwards.

    Since it would be troublesome if they went violent while we were asleep.

    As for us, we had become worn out because of the festival so we went down to sleep.

    And then evening came.

    I woke up the drugged kobolds who were sleeping and asked their so called leader¡ª¡±the foot soldier kobold equipped with a short spear¡±¡ªand some of his associates about their situation.

    As a result of that, I was able to establish the following:

    They were a clan of Kobolds who lived in a cave just like us (though a little airheaded. They didn¡¯t do any expanding).

    ¡ú They had been living by hunting in the forest and the mountain. But everything changed when they killed an orc and obtained an iron pick.

    ¡ú Recently, the female kobolds worked on expanding their home by digging holes while the males were out hunting for food.

    ¡ú Thus they were able to improve their living space. They were happy about it, and they were able to expand, too.

    ¡ú Then, the incident related to Velvet¡¯s Dungeon happened.

    ¡ú Not understanding what that space was at first. But since they decided that the male kobolds would investigate tomorrow morning, so for now they went to work filling up the hole, but it was already night, and a large mob of skeletons appeared.

    ¡ú And they were forced to flee without getting what they wanted.

    ¡ú Fatigue, a concept not known to a skeleton, soon overtook the kobolds and were mercilessly killed. Whether they were a warrior or not, old or young, male or female, none of them were spared.

    ¡ú So¡­ where do they all decided to go? Right. There was this cave owned by a renowned Ogre. One way or the other, it may work out if they all went there, right?

    ¡ú But they could still be killed.

    ¡ú So their leader declared ¡°Either way¡­ we¡¯ll all be finished at this rate¡­ So let¡¯s make a gamble¡±

    ¡ú You know the rest.

    ¡­.What the heck?

    Uhh, hmm¡­ nevermind¡­ as long as everything¡¯s okay in the end.

    Once their story had ended, I fiddled with my horn as I tried to sort the details in my head while the Warrior and Footman Kobolds, who fought the skeletons, made a single line kneeling before me.

    Footman Kobolds were the ones who ranked up first, the Kobold lifestyle is fundamentally that of a warrior or a Samurai. I, who have so far only killed and eaten several Kobolds, have finally understood this.

    ¡°Yeah, we even eat our own kind lots of times. The strong inevitably feed on the weak. Fuelled by the ambition of one day becoming ¡°Lord¡±, we killed and ate each other.¡±

    That¡¯s right, ¡°Lord¡±.

    I am usually called ¡°Chief¡± by normal Kobolds, but the Footmen Kobolds call me ¡°Lord¡±.

    A life saved is a life worth selling in return was what they seem to believe. That¡¯s all there is to it.

    But if someone betrayed me, their lord, his blade would be gladly ordered to execute them

    That was what he declared.

    Well, understandably nobody would buy his word just like that. But it feels like the earnestness in those eyes would eradicate any remaining doubt. Eyes that are earnest aren¡¯t to be taken lightly.

    And so, I decided to prepare something just in case.

    I opened my item box, picked the magic items before I ate all ten of it without leaving anything behind.

    Ability [Enslave] learned.

    The item I ate was called ¡°Collar of Slavery¡± which belonged to the adventurers that died in ¡°Velvet¡¯s Dungeon¡±

    It was so obvious to explain its function. Evidently, it was just something guards could put to good use.

    An incredibly useful ability which I¡¯m still wondering why I never stumbled onto it before.

    The reason was plain and simple: I tried eating one as an experiment before and it was because it was awful and unpalatable.

    I didn¡¯t feel any texture from it: The surface was sticky and its contents awfully hard, the more I chewed, the more I was overcome by a feeling of nausea.

    The taste was also bitter, sour and spicy, should I say the exquisite taste from that triple trouble was indescribable?

    It¡¯s been a long time since I¡¯ve eaten something this horrible. I usually keep these for convenience instead. But I actually came this far with that.

    That¡¯s what you call ¡°a moment of need¡±¡ªyou put up with what you eat because you need to.

    There you have it, the ability [Enslave]. An anti-treason ability, but this ability won¡¯t show any effect just by possessing it. To solve this, I should probably start manufacturing cuff-type communication devices.

    Eh? What about the Kobolds you ask? I¡¯ll think about it in the morning. But for now, they can use the cells to sleep in.

    The Kobolds are being surprisingly obedient. I feel like I shouldn¡¯t be too hard on them.

    What a dilemma¡­ Do I kill them or do I let them join our ranks?

 Re:Monster Day 61-70

    Since so many things happened today, it would be difficult to mention everything.

    Thus I think I¡¯ll do my best to avoid the useless stuff, and write about it from start to finish.

    First, the number of Hobgoblins increased by eight. Two of them became mages while one of them became a cleric.

    The one who had become a cleric was already close friends with Gobuji-kun; he might have been drawn into becoming a cleric because of this. The number of clerics increased as expected, and I found myself grinning wickedly.

    The next part concerned Gobumi-chan.

    When Gobumi-chan woke up today, she had become an entirely different race called a [Dhampir ¨C Variant ].

    The change in her appearance cannot be compared to the time when she ranked up from Goblin to Hobgoblin.

    Or perhaps I should say, it¡¯s unnecessary to compare them.

    These were her features: her height is no less than 180 cm, a clearly charming body with a narrow waist accentuated by her breasts whose size would overflow in your hands, a moon-like beautiful face more fleeting than an Elf¡¯s, her glittering silver hair that flowed down to her waist, fine skin, and finally, red eyes with golden pupils.

    Also it says that she acquired the ability [God of Ice¡¯s Divine Protection]; a wonderful ability that allows the user to generate and manipulate large amounts of ice with little risk towards the user. According to Gobujii, the blessing of a [God] is above that of a [Demi God], even when compared to the rare blessing that Gobukichi-kun possesses.

    Moreover, it¡¯s hard to imagine from looking at her delicate appearance that her strength and agility was remarkably different from before. I dare say that she would be evenly matched with Gobukichi-kun whose base stats were higher than me.

    Even with the [Blessing of God] in the daytime the undead body of a Vampire would carry a weakness to the sun. But because she is a [Dhampir-Subspecies], this weakness is not an issue.

    As always, she was able to go out without any limitations even in the day time.

    In other words, to get to the point, Gobumi-chan has become immensely beautiful.

    If you understood that much, then, there won¡¯t be a problem.

    But her appearance bothered me¡­ I felt like I have seen that face somewhere before¡­ like the adult face of a certain childhood friend.

    I¡¯ll keep this story for the time being as it does not concern today. Let us focus more on the changes.

    These changes are really hard for me to grasp in just one day.

    Now, about Gobue-chan¡­

    What Gobue-chan had turned into was a species of [Lord] called a [Half Earth-Lord]. Anyway, she was not *from a subspecies.

    She was at least 240 centimeter tall, approaching my height with a stout and solid muscular physique. She also had two large horns that extend 20 centimeters out and curve back on her forehead while having short yellow hair and garnet-like eyes. Her skin appeared to be firm but also included all the softness that came from being a woman, and her breasts were comparable to the size of watermelons but had better shape to them. Lastly, a yellow looking stone, around five centimeter in diameter, embedded in her abdomen as well as under both her elbows. They appeared to be the same type of stone that Hobusei-san¡¯s [Lord] species had. Those stones, called ¡°Ogre Orbs¡±, were always imbued in a [Lord]¡¯s body and contained the abilities and characteristics of their species

    Abilities of her species included manipulation of the earth. One of those was particularly related to mining; the ability [Complete Geological Comprehension] was able to see the brittle points of the bedrock¡¯s areas. This aided the mining for more types of ore while, at the same time, strengthened her body.

    As a trial, she attempted to dig through a wall with her bare hands acting similarly to a drill and the ground gave way. Barehanded, she dug more effectively than when she was equipped with a pickaxe as a hobgoblin.

    There was no point in complaining about this; we could mine more ore and spirit stones faster than ever before.

    Also, It seem that she can use lightning based magic, and it can occasionally be useful during mining to locate ores. She was able to obtain a variety of ores because of this.

    What can I say, Gobue-chan has leveled her mining skill well. It is amazing to see the things that happen when you push forward with your all towards a passion.

    In combat Gobue-chan is nothing to fool with either, she can easily break rocks with her bare hands. Imagine what would happen if a soft living thing was caught with one of those blows.

    A body is frailer than bedrock, it would become like meat paste.

    She sure is scary.

    Now, moving on to Hobusato-san.

    Because Hobusato-san has always been good with using the sword, she became a [Lord], specifically Hobusato-san turned into a [Half Bloody Lord]. Like Gobue-chan she is normal and not a subspecies.

    [T/N: the half of ¡®half bloody lord¡¯ means she¡¯s a ¡®half¡¯-¡®bloody lord¡¯, e.g. ¡®half¡¯-¡®lord¡¯]

    She is two meters tall, with clearly defined muscles; she has modest breasts, and in the center of her forehead a 15 centimeter ruby extended. She has carnelian coloured pupils, slightly red skin, and long red hair the color of blood, that was bound by string into a ponytail. A unique characteristic of hers was that she also had two bright red Ogre orbs about five centimeters in diameter embedded into her hands.

    [T/N: a carnelian is a brownish red gemstone]

    Although it was not likely that she would gain the ability to use magic, her physical capabilities had grown, compared with before her combat strength grew in leaps and bounds. It seems that the [Bloody Lord] species will excel in close quarters combat.

    As it is with a race that includes the ¡°Blood Sword¡± and blood in their name, they have the ability to manipulate the blood of themselves and others, although there are conditions to do so.

    Even if she cannot use magic, these abilities made her strong. If we are talking about only direct combat ability she would probably be fourth or third place after me and Gobukichi-kun, and she will certainly be in the top five.

    Although it seems that she falls behind Gobukichi-kun and Gobumi-chan in terms of physical power, in close quarters combat I expect that [Predict], [Precognition], and [Intuition] evens out the match.

    At any rate, mysteriously everyone developed a black tattoo similar to mine like Hobusei-san, but differed slightly in the design and placement.

    Hobusato-san had one on the back, Gobue-chan on the arm, and Gobumi-chan on the leg. The other Hobgoblins had them on the leg, arm or neck.

    I am not worried about them, because I feel that a power boils up from these.

    I expect that I will gain an understanding of these in the future.

    As a celebration for Ranking up I passed out two magic items to each Hobgoblin.

    Out of the magic items that had not been used yet, Gobumi-chan received a blue and white dress made with dark magic, and bound together with steel like thread, she also got glasses related to her new ability that is a trait of her race, the [Eyes of Bewitchment]. These glasses work to seal the effects of her eyes¡¯ ability, it is best not to look into her eyes for too long. As a present she got an enchanted claymore called the [Drop of Moonlight], the sword looks like a piece of artwork made with ice crystals.

    Gobue-chan got two new weapons, the [Earth Goddess War Pick] and an enormous [Earth Goddess Shovel] as a set that have the capability to accommodate her new, larger, size. Also, because of the change in her size due to changing species, she was given a new set of clothes consisting of surplus magical items, and I also gave her a new towel to wipe away the sweat from her hard work made of my thread.

    To Hobusato-san I gave a set of magic items consisting of full plate armor made with red iron, and a red cape which is a good match for physical and magical attacks.On top of this I gave Hobusato-san an enchanted long sword [Blood Princess] that has the ability to suck blood, even though this hardly seems necessary with her abilities.

    To the three people who became a race above and beyond that of a standard Hobgoblin, I supplied them with bracelets that have the storage ability, Gobukichi-kun and Hobusei-san already have these.

    But, yeah.

    Gobumi-chan has become like a noble¡¯s daughter, on her front side the zipper stops just short, liberating the rest of her top. Gobue-chan is dressed like a farm boss, she has the towel I made her wrapped around her body and tucked into her breasts, exposing the top of her chest and her navel. Hobusato-san has the composure of a knight with her whole body dyed in red.

    Nevertheless.

    Even though we had ranked up so much, we still call each other by our old names, like Goburou, Gobukichi-kun and such, and it was beginning to feel odd.

    Well, we are not Goblins anymore.

    I asked Gobujii, and it happened like this.

    Goburou ¡ú OgarouGobukichi-kun ¡ú Ogakichi-kunGobumi-chan ¡ú Dhammi-chanGobue-chan ¡ú Asue-chanHobusei-san ¡ú Supesei-sanHobusato-san ¡ú Burasato-sanGobuji-kun ¡ú Hobuji-kunGobufu-chan ¡ú Hobufu-chanetc.

    The individuals who had ranked up each received their new names.

    Though I did not expect Gobujii to have good naming sense, this was terrible.

    People just have to understand, since it is not like a person can decide his or her own name either, so I just let the matter go.

    In addition, since this will likely be asked, I will go ahead and say it here.

    If you take the average strength of the races and place them in order, it looks like this.

    Dhampir ¡Ý Half Spell Lord = Half Earth Lord = Half Bloody Lord ¡Ý Ogre ¡Ý Elf > Kobold Foot Soldier > Kobold = Hobgoblin = Human > Goblin.

    This is a list of only the races, it does not include skills and armaments.

    Although an Ogre can beat a Half-Lord race in terms of physical strength, but since, unfortunately, their intelligence is usually lower, their tactics are simpler, and for this reason they are weaker.

    There is not much of an opportunity for exceptional individuals.

    Now, to go on about the Elves and Kobolds.

    I decided to refrain from eating the kobolds since they decided to join us yesterday.

    Well, even if I did decide to eat them now the flesh won¡¯t be able to strengthen any of my abilities, and it appears that having them around won¡¯t hurt, since their loyalty seems genuine. I am anxious to see what a Kobold will turn into after it ranks up. But, it is reasonable to assume that it could turn into a variety of things, and anyway having minions that can move freely as scouts in the future will be a great asset.

    As for the war between the humans and the elves, I know that Father Elf-san will make a request of me again. But for now there is still time, and a messenger will be here soon without a doubt.

    Then, if he does make a request, I am going to accept it.

    A large-scale war will lead to me gaining new abilities, and it will be good for making myself stronger by itself, and I can also gain some knowledge about the military powers, tactics, and methods of battle in this world.

    It will also serve to strengthen ties with Father Elf-san, and that Elven wine will become easier to get a hold of.

    That sake is seriously delicious!

    For that reason, having a large number of minions to be used for putting the humans in a trap, or constructing military camps, or launching surprise attacks would expand the range of strategies I can use if it comes to participating in the war.

    That was the reason why I decided to not kill them but make them my followers, but of course, there¡¯s no way I¡¯d trust them just like that. Even within the group there are only a few that I can totally trust, so there¡¯s no way I could have confidence in Kobolds who appeared out of nowhere.

    So as insurance, I gave all the Kobolds new and improved cuffs that were enchanted with three abilities like the communication-device cuffs I distributed before, but further enhanced with a new ability [Enslave], and had them wear it.

    With this, the immediate problem of wondering if the Kobolds who lost would defy me is solved. Even if they lost their loyalty, they could be used without any problems.

    Then, the cuffs are also supplied to the elves, who were used for sex and breeding. However, these are superior objects, enhanced with [Conceal].

    The purpose is to have them submit body and soul with [Enslave], while avoiding any unnecessary trouble with the other elves with [Conceal].

    Somehow, it seems that the Elves had a culture or custom where cutting a hole in their ears for the attachment of ornaments is a serious taboo¡ªBy doing that, it seems their name will be struck from the clan forever, and they will be exiled as punishment; for that reason it seems that Elven slaves that circulate in the markets of this world had their characteristic long ears cut halfway¡ªhaving these ear-integrated cuffs installed was mostly to try to deny them their last bit of resistance.

    Other than that, it was fine to just install the cuffs, but in that case they could make up an excuse like ¡°It was done against my will, I couldn¡¯t help it¡± to hide their real intentions, so I did this to strip off their remaining pride.

    Well then.

    As for the males, I put Ogakichi-kun, who consulted me beforehand about his relationship with Asue-chan, in charge of them, saying ¡°Try doing it with them as practice before the real thing¡±¡ªof course, I gave him detailed instructions to go easy on them so as to not break them¡ª, and as a reward, left them to the goblins whose social standing were too low and had no chance. Despite being males, the Elves sure were pretty boys. They were satisfying enough. That goes without saying.

    I have to ask myself, If the higher ranked Hobgoblins just take charge of the women for hours on end.

    In the end I think it is better for them to live obediently.

    Therefore, the elves who had all been imprisoned until now to prevent any chance of escape were taken out of the cave.

    I then had allowed for them to participate in training with the Kobolds and the others. It could be said that to use an elite elf only for sex and breeding would be wasteful. It also seems that it is more difficult for Elves to get pregnant, so the numbers that will be bearing will strike a balance that is more ethically sound than what happened with the human women before.

    Now that I no longer have fear of rebellion because of the cuffs, the sex and breeding program in the future will be more efficient. It might be good if the enemies that are captured are human.

    The elves, being out of prison for the first time in ages, showed an expression of freedom in most cases. It seems that the change of scenery was a great success.

    However it is time to train now, the point is to be able to organize into ranks quickly, and to be able to run for a long amount of time. It is the type of basic training that Gobukichi-kun and the others were made to do up until this point as well. Anyway this would be good for the Kobolds, but the elves being made of elite warriors could have skipped over the basic training, but since this was a new beginning they performed the foundation work too.

    The ones who naturally knew how to do this had no problems, and the ones who had a thing or two to learn had some minor difficulties.

    The training continued until they couldn¡¯t stand anymore.

    After a break, there were apparently no Kobold out of them who could be chosen based on combat, strength, or character, therefore a Goblin supervisor was appointed to teach this new group the way to use logistics and how to be effective rear support in battle.

    Those that remained now, were the Kobold children and the elves, they were given additional combat lessons through sparring sessions.

    In sparring, the opponent was not Gobukichi-kun. The opponents were not Goblins or Hobgoblins, and they are not between the elves and the Kobolds either.

    This training serves the purpose of also being an experiment.

    The opponent for the Elves, Kobolds, and the others will be a skeleton produced by my [Lesser Summon Undead] skill.

    As I can generate them almost indefinitely, there is no risk involved, and I even gain experience if they are defeated. I gain experience for the ability every time I use it, and among the bones that remain after defeat there are a variety of materials that can be used for blacksmithing or alchemy, so this process kills three birds with one stone.

    The practice is held in a cave, it is a little gloomy in this large room, but it needs to be because the strength of an undead wanes in daylight.

    The undead appear from the ground forming from a black shadow. Like some sort of hallucination the bleached bones of a skeleton rise up from it.

    But this time something unexpected occurred.

    Unlike the common (Skeleton) that was normally formed, a black skeleton had been created instead, it stood at a height of two meters, and was equipped with a jet black mantle and (Full Plate Armor) that covered its entire body in brutally sharp looking metal.

    It was armed with a curved saber, and had a crimson (Kite Shield) for defense.

    This was not the same white skeleton as before, but instead was a (Black Skeleton Knight). I could clearly see that this was a higher rank compared to the past skeletons.

    It would be comparable or even superior to a Greater Skeleton. The skeleton system uses ¡°Soul Equipment¡± to arm the body according to the ability of the individual. This means that weapons and armor are expressed by the level of either [Greater Equipment Materialization] or [Equipment Materialization].

    These high quality weapons and armor cannot be wielded by another person after the skeleton is destroyed because the armaments disappear into a fog at the moment of defeat. Since the quality of the equipment has improved to the point where it envelops the entire skeleton, this skeleton without a doubt is the strongest I have seen up until this point.

    I examined it quickly.

    According to the examination the [Lesser Summon Undead] somehow created it, even though my abilities should be too low to do this. Normally the performance of an ability is generally strengthened when I eat, but this time it is different, and to me it reaffirms that it is best to practice with the abilities too.

    These reasons are why this black skeleton is to be fittingly called the Black Skeleton Knight .

    The Black Skeleton Knight faced off against Elves equipped with Mithril short swords and round shields, but the skeleton ended its fight the victor.

    I could tell at once by making it fight, this skeleton has the skill of a true knight, complete with the robust defense of the kite shield, and the furious waves and slashes let out by its saber, I can only say that it has brilliant movements.

    The Black Skeleton Knight was resistant to slashing abilities, and fatigue, because of this it is well suited for drawn out conflict.Even against the elves there was no major difference in skill, but in the end it lost to a difference in physical strength.

    Yeah, this guy isn¡¯t usable.

    Simply put, experience gain was a big factor, also trying to manage a number of Black Skeleton Knights, I let them be defeated by going easy. The normal experience gain was steadily decreasing in value once these were defeated. I¡¯m not sure of the reason, but It must be something that was done though.

    Later in the evening, the experiment with [Lesser Summon Undead] continued.

    Using [Create Lesser Undead], I once again endeavoured to raise everyone¡¯s levels yesterday.

    I could confirm that it¡¯s possible to alter the summoned monsters according to my will.

    I could make different kinds of black skeletons; axemen, lancers, archers, and mages were all possible, and if I wanted to go easy on the opponent I could even make simple white skeletons.

    It was even possible to summon moving, decomposing corpses called ¡°zombies¡±, frail clusters of souls called ¡°ghosts¡± and other undead types.

    I wanted to try eating the ghosts, but even I couldn¡¯t eat insubstantial creatures.

    It appears that there are certain conditions that have to be met to eat a ghost in this world, so I swore in my heart that if I met someone who could do this that I¡¯d eat his flesh.

    Returning to the original topic, for the purpose of earning experience points, I created mainly zombies and the ordinary white skeletons; then I let them get defeated by the troops.

    The Black Skeleton Knight is stronger than the others, and for this reason it was able to act as Gobokichi-kun¡¯s or Gobumi-chan¡¯s sparring partner, and was used as an instructor for the Kobolds and Elves respectively.

    It was not able to talk beyond making rattling noises. It could communicate using rough gestures though.

    Steadily strengthening this ability will make it terrifying.

    Nevertheless, that doesn¡¯t mean that there were no problems with the undead.

    Undead-type monsters have various restrictions like [Sunlight Vulnerability] and such.Dhammi-chan is an undead, too, specifically a dhampir, but since she possesses a [God¡¯s Divine Protection] and is thus a subspecies, it isn¡¯t a problem for her, unlike for other undead.

    Black skeleton class monsters could somehow last ten minutes, although they start emitting black smoke from all over their bodies, but their overall strength dropped so much that it couldn¡¯t even be compared to their usual power.

    They got so weak that even the kobolds could defeat them so it should be easy to imagine.

    That was what it was like for the Black Skeleton Knight Class of the Skeleton species, so weaker undead such as zombies or ghost and the like couldn¡¯t even last ten seconds before being purified.

    Though the zombies were exorcised in the sunlight, their rotting bodies remain, and can be used to spread disease in enemy territory, or as material to fill up holes, or recycled as meat for Hobufu-chan who liked to eat them, but ghosts who leave nothing behind can¡¯t be used at all once the sun comes up.

    Besides, it also hurts that they can be easily exorcised, specifically by using holy water or holy light.

    Thinking about the forces that can fight during the day, the calculations went a little crazy.

    Troubled over how we¡¯re supposed to overcome that, I stopped thinking about it for a moment. Today I was earnestly overseeing the training of the Elves and Kobolds.

    The elves were originally hand picked elites, thus they could improve their skills simply by fighting Black Skeleton Knights and Black Skeleton Axemen one on one, so training them was easy.

    For that reason, I concerned myself more with coaching the Kobolds .

    The Kobolds, as a species, were about equivalent in power with Hobgoblins, perhaps higher, but anyway, here¡¯s our current composition:

    Lord : 3 FemalesOgre: 2 MalesDhampir: 1 FemaleHobgoblin: 6 Males, 4 FemalesHobgoblin Mage: 3 Males, 2 FemalesHobgoblin Cleric: 1 Male, 1 FemaleGoblin: 14 Males, 16 FemalesElder Goblins: 4 Males, 4 FemalesElf: 10 Males, 7 FemalesHuman: 5 women.Kobold Foot Soldier: 1 MaleKobold: 18 Males, 10 Females, 4 children, and 3 elderly

    119 total.Including pets into this.Three-Horned Horse: 5Hind Bear: 3Black Wolf Leader: 1Black Wolf: 8

    So, it is a large group of 136 in total.

    Even with these large numbers, our residence was originally a huge mine, and in addition expansion work has been carried out so living space is no problem. However, with our current strength there¡¯s a large difference in our supplies of armament and food.

    Weaklings and those with weak positions within the units are made to be gophers, they¡ªThe game that was hunted is primarily used as food. There are plenty of wild fruit and vegetables as well, since the sisters are in charge of the goblins making delicious cuisine, the nutrition balance is not bad ¡ª receive less food than others.

    No, at the very least, they can eat.

    But, all living things want to fill their stomach after strenuous exercise, those in low positions will only get to partially fill their stomach. It is simply hard.

    The biggest problem is armaments.

    In a world where the strong eat the weak, powerful weapons are important to increase the chances for survival.

    You might be able to keep afloat by using fangs and teeth, yet, for the purposes of reach, the sharpness and durability ¨C among other factors ¨C of weapons used by humanoid races will give superior results.

    But the weak remain weak, they get inferior weapons compared to others. As such they get viewed as weak by others and the possibility of them being targeted increases. Even though they¡¯re already weaker under normal circumstances.

    Is it bad that I don¡¯t change this rule? Think about it, giving the weak good armaments would, to a certain degree, be a waste of treasure and most importantly the distribution will become unbalanced, leading to ruin.

    I am aware of the merits.

    In order to cultivate their abilities, from now on I will never change this rule.

    Train them until they vomit blood, make them feel like they¡¯re dead to increase their individual power.

    Well, amongst the kobold some are approaching level 100 and will rank up soon, biting into the higher positions and mixing it up.

    Besides, truthfully, I carry some expectations for the young kobold children, since they are in their growth periods.

    Their race already excels in nimbleness, so I put a policy in place to emphasize it in their training sessions.

    Today I am riding on Kumajirou, similarly Dhammi-chan and Redhead were mounted on their respective familiars, and walking behind us were the common foot soldier kobolds which comprise our 17 fighting members, to go to the cave of the kobolds.

    The purpose is to seal the hole that was connected to the Velvet dungeon at the interior part of the cave, as well as to retrieve the little loot that was stored by the kobolds.

    The kobolds¡¯ cave was a 40 minute walk away.

    After retrieving the luggage, I ordered Asue-chan to destroy the cave as she is best equipped to handle the task.

    With this the first purpose is finished.

    Afterwards, I allowed the kobolds to hunt.

    Armored Tanuki and et cetera were killed and brought home as food for the future. Lately the favorite target for hunting is the black wolf.

    Though I still needed more familiars, I wanted to accumulate lots of linked experience; that¡¯s why I risked clashing with black wolfs that I aggroed into one big group.

    While training is important, it is indeed necessary to pile up actual combat experience that places one¡¯s life on the line as quickly as possible.

    I had trained them in the basics of the basics for two days; the main thing now is to see whether or not they can leverage that. Well, I was aware that I was asking too much of them, but they had assistance from the cuffs, and if we didn¡¯t do this now nothing would happen.

    Let¡¯s work to exhaustion.

    Though I didn¡¯t really expect that much of them,the Kobolds tried their best.

    They moved as I ordered, and the group of 12 black wolves were driven into a trap laid out by another division.

    They were injured more or less severely since the unreasonable condition not to kill the black wolves was imposed on everyone, continued regeneration (Regen) was added on the cuffs so it was not a major problem because they easily recover from wounds of that level.

    I considered it this time, it might unexpectedly be a good find, the kobolds that is.

    The brains of the captured black wolves were tampered with quickly and turned into familiars.

    Afterwards, the next group of Black Wolves we found were successfully herded in the same way, thus the ?Familiars? we gained today were twelve Black Wolves. Only, neither of the heads of the two groups we captured today had the abilities of the ones called ¡°Leader¡±. Regretfully those individuals were just the same as the others.

    That said, we were able to get them in sufficient numbers, so for now I¡¯ll call it a success.

    As we were going back in high spirits, because of today achievements, we encountered a ¡°Stamp Boar (Temporary Name)¡± with its characteristic rocky snout pierced with an iron nosering.

    ¡°Just in time for a test of strength!¡±, said Asue-chan eagerly as she dismounted from her favourite Triple-Horned Horse to attack it from the front. Naturally, the opponent Stamp Boar, with its disposition to crush and eat anything that opposes it using its craggy snout, charged without any intent to run away.

    Then, as the [Earth Goddess¡¯ War Pick] that was swung from right to left hit the Boar, it smashed through the boar¡¯s body.

    The rock-like solid body of the Stamp Boar couldn¡¯t withstand one blow from Asue-chan, its front half was blown off.

    Though it appears that I wanted to adjust things, but well, things turned out this way¡ªit had a body that was hard as stone, so for Asue-chan who could break stones with her bare hands it would be a very easy enemy to kill¡ª, that was what I thought, so I said nothing in particular and washed off the blood from her face using a water ball.

    The carcass could become valuable food so I put it away into my Item Box, once I was back in the cave, we made it into hotpot and ate it.

    At night, I was approached by Blacksmith-san while working on various work, she wanted me to come to the smithy.

    I went with her, thinking what could she possibly want; what I saw there was the figure of a halberd, freshly repaired.

    Though I had overused the halberd at that time of life and death battle with the Red Bear previously and as a result lost its usefulness, do I remember requesting Blacksmith-san to fix it?

    In short, the repaired version of it has been completed.

    Furthermore, Blacksmith-san applied some revisions on several areas, the blacksmith master proudly boasted.

    First of all, the axe head is the feature of the halberd, it is made of an alloy produced by combining water spirit stone, wrought iron and mithril. Because a water spirit stone is mixed, water gushes out when it is shaken just like the spirit stone knife.

    However only by shaking it will the exaggerated water tricks occur. I have already proven that moving it at a constant velocity will turn the water into a blade. When used, it seems the range of the attack expands up to 3 meters.

    Since the sharpness has been improved from the time when the knife could almost have been called a blunt weapon, even if water does not go out it can be treated as an ordinary edged tool.

    Then, there is the spearhead, it was made out of an alloy of spirit stone, wrought iron, and mithril just like the axe head. The spirit stone that was used was a lightning spirit stone that gives off lightning. When thrust at high speed, it can fire a bolt of lightning from the tip, hitting distant enemies with an electric attack.

    I thought that perhaps by using [Triple Stab], lightning would also be fired from the invisible spearheads, firing three lightning bolts at the enemy all at once.

    What a convenient thing.

    The pick on the opposite side from the axe head was likewise made from a similar alloy, the spirit stone used was fire spirit stone. As a test I took out a log from the Item Box and stabbed it with the spear, and fire came roaring out from the place where the pick pierced the log.

    Inserted at the butt end on the other side from the blade part was a tetrahedral polished earth spirit stone, stabbing the enemy with it becomes easier with the help of my Earth Control system abilities.

    Above all, using the spirit stones in combination, the effects are greater than normal. It was probably equal to or greater than the knife I enchanted before, as I was thinking about why it was the case, Blacksmith-san told me this.

    Somehow, it seems that she got a new Job. Surprised, she didn¡¯t tell anyone and kept it a secret until she had finished making the halberd.

    Right now, the only one who knew this was me, I was a little bit happy.

    The name of the job was [Spirit Blacksmith], it seemed to be a rare job she got by clearing some troublesome conditions such as regularly handling various spirit stones and becoming proficient at handling it.

    This seems to be the main reason for the increase in the abilities of the spirit stones used for the halberd.

    I was so happy I hugged her. Recently, due to one thing or another I had been able to adjust my strength, even unconsciously.

    The smile that Blacksmith-san turned towards me in my arms was very cute.

    I got a bit fired up.

    The number of Hobgoblins increased by three Goblins today. I¡¯m a little disappointed that there weren¡¯t Mages or Clerics this time.

    Well, Mages are usually one or two Goblins per group, although the current situation¡¯s abnormal.

    As always I give them a congratulatory gift each.

    After today¡¯s training, I let the kobolds go into actual combat in buddy pairs and secure food. Only fighting skeletons is good for acquiring experience efficiently, but will get you in a rut, people who fight a wide variety of races can develop practical skills.

    I intend to come out of the forest one day, so looking at things to come, as expected we should gather experience facing various monsters while we¡¯re here so that we¡¯d be harder to kill.

    For that reason, with the spare time I had now, I made preparations for going out hunting alone.

    The savoury taste of a Stamp Boar was unforgettable. What¡¯s more, these places had a fine likelihood of rewarding new abilities. Its about time that we tread on new habitats and ate new monsters.

    I already searched for the habitat of the Stamp Boar, it¡¯ll be found immediately since I already knew the signs before this.

    As I tried to depart I was stopped by Ogakichi-kun.

    He wanted to talk somewhere private, so we went out the cave and walked for a while. We talked after I confirmed no one was around.

    According to him somehow, finally, at last, in the end, he decided to confess to Asue-chan. His feelings became stronger with his rank up,

    Only problem is, he doesn¡¯t know what to say. And wants my council.

    So he expects cheap consultancy service, is what I¡¯d like to think but Ogakichi-kun is my buddy.

    So I suppose coming to me for council would be¡­ obvious right?

    So much for today¡¯s plans to go Stamp Boar hunting, huh. We shall dedicate the time from noon to evening for strategy and tactics.

    And with that, Ogakichi-kun shall commence ¡°Operation Confession¡± tonight.

    The result of which we¡¯d know in the morning.

    It was a success. What was? Ogakichi-kun¡¯s confession, of course.

    Ogakichi-kun reported this to me, blushing, after I woke up today before the paired kata with him that had become my daily routine before morning practice.

    [T/N: kata ¡ª it¡¯s a Karate thing. Practicing the ¡®form¡¯]

    Well, I did expect it to be a success so I was not surprised. Perhaps Ogakichi-kun did not realize it, but Asue-chan had also fallen for him since some time ago.

    The news that Asue-chan had consulted Dhammi-chan about it had fallen into my hands, so the rumor was not a mistake.

    There really was no worry about him getting rejected; I even secretly shared all the details of yesterday¡¯s strategy meeting with Dhammi-chan using the cuff-type communication devices in order to buy time to orchestrate those two¡¯s relations.

    The fact that things turned out this way was all a matter of course.

    The only thing I was worried about is whether he got too excited last night and broke Asue-chan or not.

    [T/N: He¡¯s an ogre, but Asue-chan should be just as big.]

    Well, I already mentioned previously that I had put Ogakichi-kun in charge of the male elves as advance practice, but there was a precedent where he broke various things when he had his first time with a partner that had a 1 meter difference in physical size. He was assigned a 2 meter tall elf, the biggest of them, right now the elf is being healed by Hobuji-kun as practice and put to bed.

    Asue-chan is currently the top miner of spirit stones that pop up around the area, because of the influence of Velvet¡¯s Dungeon, and also of various rare metals, so it would put a dent in work efficiency if she couldn¡¯t move.

    See, the current Asue-chan is an excavator-like existence.

    I wonder if I should regulate various plans in response.

    That was what I thought, but as far as the reports I¡¯ve heard, everything seems to be fine.

    Because it wasn¡¯t Ogakichi-kun¡¯s first time, because Asue-chan is tough, and then because he honoured the promise I had him make last night at the strategy meeting, it seems he was able to do it in moderation.Which was a pleasant thing.

    At any rate, during today¡¯s kumite, Ogakichi-kun was so spirited he took several of my punches.

    [T/N: kumite is similar to kata in that it¡¯s one of the three main sections of karate training.]

    Even with trembling knees he was still smiling. His spiritedness was so annoying, I might have to allocate several black skeletons to let out my feelings on. I immediately put that into practice.

    The sparring finished at noon, and as I was going to go capture Hind Bears with Ogakichi-kun, Dhammi-chan and Asue-chan said that they want to come along.

    When I asked Asue-chan about how her mining operations were progressing, it seems that she had been steadfastly working all morning and had met her quota, so for the first time in a while the four of us went hunting.

    Unfortunately, we weren¡¯t able to encounter the Hind Bears we had hoped for, but we succeeded in hunting five Stamp Boars, six Poison Mantises (tentative name) with 1-meter bodies and sickles dripping with purple venom, four Rhinoceros Beetles (tentative name) with 1-meter long horns and lustrous black iron-like exoskeletons, five Argiope, four Demon Spiders, three grey-shelled sixty-centimeter long Messenger Locusts (tentative name), and eleven Yellow Monkeys (tentative name) with yellow fur and strangely-growing tails.

    As expected from an area that we haven¡¯t come to before, there were lots of monsters that I hadn¡¯t eaten before. Only unfortunately, I had to worry that shelled insect-types like the Poison Mantises and Rhinoceros Beetles would be poisonous if eaten by anyone but me, so the products of the land weren¡¯t so good.

    Unfortunately. Yeah, Unfortunately.

    As a result, as soon as I stripped the parts that seemed usable off them and tossed those in my item box, I crunchingly ate the remains. Feeling awkward that I was the only one eating, I had the other three eat two Yellow Monkeys each.

    Ability [Molt] learnedAbility [Generate Insect Wings] learnedAbility [End Edge] learned

    Ability [Silent Kill] learnedAbility [Horn Blow] learnedAbility [Dissonance] learned

    Ability [Parasitic] learnedAbility [Improved Jumping Power] learnedAbility [Tough Vitality] learned

    Ability [Exoskeleton] learnedAbility [Shell of Wrought Iron] learnedAbility [Limit Breaker] learnedAbility [Cold Vulnerability] learned

    I became a Henshin Hero.

    [T/N: ]

    Well, I ate the rhinoceros beetle to obtain [Exoskeleton] and then the personal armor I was wearing that was created from the red bear was immediately taken the instant I activated it. The carapace had a unique red luster to it and came from a humanoid stagbeetle no less than 2 metres 50 centimeters in height. I was in was completely covered in armor.

    I was second guessing myself about why it looks like a stag beetle when I ate a rhinoceros beetle? Surely my horns are to blame.

    When I turned my senses towards the slightly curved, sword-like, pair of horns, I could get them to move. As a test I held a tree in between them, and slash, I was able to cut it. Furthermore, I did not feel the slightest bit of resistance, so sharp were the horns.

    I could really get used to this

    I inspected the exoskeleton for a little while.

    Since I was doing that, I expected to understand the skeletal structure as well, which seemed to be awfully easy to move in yet extremely sturdy. I tested it by having Ogakichi-kun hit me and while the part that was hit was dented a little, I did not feel any pain. Somehow it seems that there was a mechanism incorporated into it that reduced damage by dispersing the impact throughout the exoskeleton.

    Moreover, wearing it felt like wearing the armor from when I was deployed at work before my reincarnation, a power suit made from biometal. Eventually I got used to it until there wasn¡¯t even a slight feeling of my movement being obstructed.

    Moreover, somehow the exoskeleton seemed to even have power assist, so I couldn¡¯t find any faults in it. Well, maybe being too conspicuous is one.

    Yeah, well, this was an extremely good ability.

    Only, after a brief investigation, I want you to excuse the fact that I become stark naked as soon as I dismissed the [Exoskeleton]. It¡¯s okay though, since I had the trousers I made before; I don¡¯t actually have a hobby of stripping.

    It did hurt that the sentimental protective gear, full of memories, from my fight with the Red Bear disappeared.

    Well, as I tuned my senses,

    Ability [Exoskeleton]Entry 1 [Red Bear Beast King¡¯s Prestige] registeredEntry 2 [ ] emptyEntry 3 [ ] emptyEntry 4 [ ] emptyEntry 5 [ ] empty

    4 more form entries remaining.

    Which entry number would you like to equip?

    Was displayed inside my head, so it didn¡¯t completely disappear. I was thankful for that.

    It looks like I was able to change forms depending on the course of battle. It was a handy ability for having such a good use.

    Also, it was good that I could produce wings that enable me to fly, but the flight controls were more difficult than I had thought.

    I should practice when I get home.

    Being extremely pleased with this outcome, I grabbed my spoils, returned home and ate them.

    Taste of Stamp Boar meat never disappointed.

    Ability [Reckless Charge] learnedAbility [Tail Attack] learned

    After that, I tried some flight practice, crafted a couple items and then dropped to sleep.

    Mhm, excellent day.

    Today was the first time it rained in quite a while, so I decided to go bother Redhead, Blacksmith-san, the Sisters and the Alchemist-san.

    Well, they¡¯re usually asleep together at nights and running errands during day and noon, this gave me very little time to pamper them.

    After having earned [Noire Soldier], Redhead¡¯s attacks were relentlessly brutal. Up until now, she was equal in terms of physical capabilities but fell short in terms of raw strength. She really is beginning to catch up.

    Lately, she¡¯s been coming to me saying ¡°Come train with me, I wanna spar¡± which I find adorable. Hard to explain it.

    You know that feeling when puppies come over to play showing their adorable faces? Oh and a miniature toy dog at that, with that tail wagging all over the place. Something like that I suppose.

    To most, she might resemble some kind of fierce doberman, I on the other hand see a little puppy running up to me.

    And that¡¯s how I spent the morning, playing with Redhead.

    I¡¯m gonna bother Blacksmith-san next.

    Lately the elves Kirue and Arue ? these were the ones guarding the fool, anyway I¡¯ll just refer to them as ¡°guard elves¡± for simplicity ? have been enthusiastic about crafting mithril alloys, the workshop was littered with knives and shortswords.

    Mithril crafting is something only the guard elves could do, so among those captured, these two were the only ones capable of it. Giving the task to them is what I¡¯d call having the right man for the right job.

    Those two really seem to be daughters from a good family with a splendid lineage.

    By the way, not all elves are familiar with Mithril crafting. Blacksmith families passed the technique down through the generations; that is why most elves aren¡¯t familiar with the process and can¡¯t craft. These two were elites who not only received training but also had crafting passed onto them by their lineage.

    Well, although there is a drawback about the quantity two people can make, it can¡¯t be helped since only the best is made.

    Since I requested for someone to make a repeating crossbow, Blacksmith-san and the guard elves are contributing opinions concerning the new production. I¡¯m wondering if the development was a success? Tell me when it is.

    The repeating crossbow loses out to the conventional bow in range but who cares, it rained havoc on the opposition.

    It seems Blacksmith-san¡¯s been doing great lately. Prototypes of many new weapons have been made and tested by trainee goblins.

    Results of which seem promising. We now had many new weapons in our arsenal.

    I requested for the mass production of the repeating crossbow. Taking the opportunity, the guard elves begun acquiring the made mithril, as it is extracted from my silver arm as an ingot. Though the composition of the mithril taken from my silver arm is close it¡¯s still a counterfeit, with this my personal products will be made as I request them.

    I understood, a blushing Blacksmith-san, with her chest puffed out in pride is too lovely. Without realising it, I couldn¡¯t close my mouth and it just hung open.

    After that, we exchanged various opinions.

    I went to the Sisters place in the evening.

    Recently they have been working hard at their new job [Chief Cook], being in charge of preparing food for the Goblin commanders.

    Since several of them ate frequently, if the Sisters didn¡¯t start cooking early there wouldn¡¯t be enough. Fortunately the utensils, since they were looted from Blacksmith-san¡¯s work, could be put to multiple uses; at any rate, the kitchen had become similar to a battlefield.

    Moreover, I had also joined in. I started chopping the food. Even if I look like this, I can still cook fairly well.

    While I was glad she was cooking, despite being able to study and exercise, among other things, Aoi was useless at it; that¡¯s why I had the pitiable experience of eating her food.

    That Aoi, I wonder what became of her after I was stabbed.

    After the rice preparation was finished I worked until evening came. Together with the two sisters, we had started our food research.

    The goal was the reproduction of food from my previous life. Right now, potato chips could be made among the other foods. Since the ingredients were completely different from my previous existence, I thought it was going to be a rough time, but when I consulted the two sisters, it looked like they finished it relatively quickly, so I did not worry.

    The food quest was interesting

    After the meal I went to Alchemist-san.

    Recently Alchemist-san had devoted herself to manufacturing an original magical item using skeleton bones; the result of which I had not yet learned.

    I thought I would find out about it now.. So, I went to check out the situation and ask her about it. She informed me, without hesitating, to conceal everything. It was anti-climatic.

    However, I had a surprise after that.

    She presented to me the whittled bones of a black skeleton she had made into rustic, black stakes. There were 10 of them, supposedly their ability was ¡°a person stabbed with this is unable to leave for a fixed amount of time¡±.

    ¡°Amazing, I¡¯m really impressed with these; I¡¯ll make sure to cherish as them memorabilia,¡± I said.

    It seems like Alchemist-san also gained a new [Job], although she seems to have kept silent about it.

    Nevertheless, I think that lovely way of speaking attached to the smiling face is foul play; an ordinarily cool girl that displays impish behavior.

    While flirting stealthily, just like before, the intruders started coming in one after another.

    After that I definitely won¡¯t say what happened afterwards.

    A little past noon, six messengers from Father Elf-san arrived. Though they came without having a appointment, I let them through for the sake of listening to their story, and because I understood they were not trying to be discourteous.

    The elite elves were participating in the training in the great hall when we entered and spread out immediately. However, the messenger and the others never said anything about this matter.

    Only for an instant did they turn their scornful glances towards them.

    Right now the elite elves, because of the [Conceal] added to their cuffs the elves possessed darkish bodies ¡ª since they look like that they should be referred to as dark elves. I think by only glimpsing the elf messengers you would not realise that they were from the same elf village.

    As for the scornful gaze the elf messenger turned towards the elves, in fantasy it is often the case when communicating that elves and dark elves relationship is bad. Considering this result I¡¯m sure I¡¯m right. This is a favourable situation.

    When the elite elves were practicing, it looked like some of the elf messengers wanted to say something, but in the end nothing was said. Now, afer such a long time, they could no longer return.

    Afterwards, the elf messenger and the others went through what was both my workshop and private room, the tea that I received from Father Elf-san before was served. Unfortunately, since there is no sofa they are going to have to sit on the single chair made from my thread.

    Although among the six, only one was sitting on the chair. This one probably had the role of war negotiations; the others seemed to be escorts.

    And then their side started the conversation.

    Although I already knew it from the beginning, the human army seemed to have arrived at last. In addition, arriving from the routes I taught them about before, it seemed that the military forces were of a splendid scale.

    Even with the magic items I offered, the Elves are still anxious about the fight with the human army. The hole left behind when I made the Elite Elves my subordinates was quite large now, they came to our place to request assistance for that reason.

    If the elite elves heard that, they showed no signs of knowing anything about it. They all went missing as a result of the idiot who mobilized the elite elves without stating the purpose.

    Their whereabouts are unknown even now. We were searching for any signs of them but because nothing has come up even after such a long time they were given up as dead.

    At any rate, I wonder if that carefree Father Elf-san is manipulating the information in some way, though I¡¯m honestly grateful for that.

    After exchanging light gossip, we started to talk about the job.

    So our mission in a nutshell is to either repel the Human army, or possibly destroy them? It would be good if it¡¯s within our capabilities to destroy them. However we can also strategically retreat, but won¡¯t allow running from the enemy. Although I don¡¯t think the meaning will change much.

    The reward was 40 sets of mithril short swords, round shields, and chain mail, 10 mithril ingots, 3000 mithril arrows, general magic items that produced light, etcetera.

    Based on my achievements, it seems they would give me even more among the other stuff. Any items we plundered we could keep for free.

    They asked whether I would accept it, of course I readily complied with their request.

    However, our conditions are that we are able to operate freely then we will let them include us. Instead of fighting from the front, guerilla tactics will definitely bring us victory. Fighting from the front is a last resort.

    For the sake of smoothly exchanging information, the bracelet with the communication feature installed into it was handed to the messenger elf; I am sending it to Father Elf-san.

    After seeing off the messenger elf who was returning, I dispatched a part of my body as a scout. Since confirming and collecting information on the war situation is a big deal.

    At any rate, the mercenary corps > had their first job.

    Three in the morning. We ran in the forest still shrouded in darkness.

    There are a few members because I put an emphasis on mobility; I sat on Kumajirou at the lead with only 36 people riding ?Familiars?. The others are waiting in the cave.

    The reason for moving now is simple, the scout that came from my body discovered the human army¡¯s garrison, for the sake of commencing a surprise attack.

    The scale of the force we were attacking was about 800 people; their numbers were much too different from us. With the <> included, I had 73. If we were to attack normally, the result would be our death.

    Even for me, attacking an enemy who not only is large in numbers but whose combat abilities I do not completely understand is just too rash.

    However, at night the situation belonged to us.

    If I continue summoning Black Skeletons and Zombies we¡¯re unlikely to lose because of their physical superiority. But since it wouldn¡¯t help the situation if I exhausted my magic creating undead, I¡¯m absorbing the magic accumulated in the darkness so I won¡¯t run out.

    If it became dangerous we could escape immediately. Our mobility will be assured since it would be difficult for humans, who don¡¯t have night vision like we do, to chase us.

    Therefore, we commenced the surprise attack; we didn¡¯t even need to run. It took around an hour to completely wipe them out.

    The operation went smoothly,

    Approaching secretly.

    ¡ú We had detected the lookouts from within the semi-transparent barrier around us.

    ¡ú We had scattered about in order to encircle their surroundings.

    ¡ú After confirming everyone was at their assigned placement, right after I destroyed the semi-transparent barrier with a javelin made from my Demise magic, Asue-chan surrounded them with a four meter high mud wall.

    ¡ú Signaling them, the magic of Dhammi-chan, Supesei-san, and the tops of the mage corps that the two were leading created explosions all over the enemy lines. In an instant, several hundred units of the humans were dead.

    ¡ú While I was generating approximately 10 undead every single second, I had changed my left arm into a ballista and was firing spears created by my Demise magic

    ¡ú After brutally killing small-fry in ten seconds a silver female knight accompanied by a white clergyman, a crimson swordswoman and a jet black magician, plus some others, conspicuously exited the large tent in the center, clearing a portion of the zombies and plain skeletons.

    ¡ú That group¡¯s concentrated attack kept the Black Skeletons at bay.

    ¡ú During the time the surroundings were being annihilated, the women were taken prisoner. Though this wouldn¡¯t apply to them if they were ugly.

    ¡ú I rode on Kumajirou with my halberd to the remaining elite forces. I was being accompanied by Kurosaburo, as well as the heavily armed Ogakichi-kun who was followed by a Hindbear and Supesei-san who sat atop one while chanting. Also following me was: Dhammi-chan wielding [Drop of Moonlight], her claymore of ice, in one hand while spreading [Eyes of Bewitchment], Asue-chan smiling with her gigantic War Pick, and Burasato-san who changed into a red knight , simultaneously releasing 30 blood swords into the surroundings.

    ¡ú An unrivalled stampede; a perfect subjugation.

    ¡ú The fight has ended.

    Even if I look back, it¡¯s just another cruel battle. No, this might have been a one-sided humiliation.

    Well, I¡¯ll put that aside.

    The undead shouldered all of the injuries; that is why we went without casualties. It looks like those women, besides for the exceptional ones, will be forced to die. I think it¡¯s likely that after the surprise defeat most of them will be gone. But just in case, I¡¯ll let the black skeletons scatter throughout the surroundings.

    They have until sunlight before they are purified, but even if they vanish, since they are merely an insurance for now, there won¡¯t be problems.

    The gains gained from this surprise attack are prisoners that will become necessary breeding persons; in addition there is a large amount of army provisions. I got a lot of things, especially women and magical items.

    Moreover, since a decrease in the degree of freshness decreases the chance of securing an ability, I selected the superior specimens and ate them then and there.

    Ability Braveheart learnedAbility Trip learnedAbility Army Leadership learnedAbility Job-Captain learnedAbility Job-Heavy Swordsman learnedAbility Job-Minstrel learnedAbility Speed Reading learnedAbility Job-Strategist learnedAbility Smithing learnedAbility Improved Evasion Rate learnedAbility Large Spin Slash learnedAbility Cross Slash learnedAbility Hard Qigong learnedAbility Soft Qigong learnedAbility Job-Spearman learnedAbility Job-Slave learnedAbility Job-Farmer learnedAbility Job-Monk learnedAbility Unilateral Sense of Justice learnedAbility Pure Faith learnedAbility Mindless Acceptance learnedAbility Chain-Soul learnedAbility Job-Heavy Warrior learnedAbility Job-Light Warrior learned

    This is gre~at.

    I¡¯m so glad I did this.

    Afterwards, the captives, who were put to sleep with toxins, and the loot were taken home. Stimulants similar to the ones the former elfs were administered were brought into the prison.

    However, as expected, the human males we had applied stimulants to were not as attractive as elf males. The plan is to have the men labour as slaves and information sources.

    Since men are different than women, they will be put in slave collars immediately.

    My compassion is to ¡°not kill them¡±. Should I have them work until they die?

    Well, I wonder how many days the women can endure despite the pleasure. A report by Father Elf-san detailed our gains from this battle.

    I was very surprised about the hourly report just before noon; if this inspection really is the case, then five barrels of Elven wine will be brought here directly by an escort and will arrive at approximately 3pm.

    ¡°I see, cheers.¡±

    After a light alcohol gathering, Father Elf-san had gone home.

    Well then, how are the prisoners? I think I¡¯ll go and see; my patience is at it¡¯s limits. I only reacted to the courageously fighting Female Knight-san that I had come into contact with; her haughty manner was amazing.

    Huh? a great nobleman¡¯s daughter? hee~, hmm. That¡¯s not a big deal for me right now.

    After all, I¡¯m not human, I¡¯m an Ogre now.

    The circumstances of a human are irrelevant to monsters. But, I¡¯ll allow it for now.

    Afterwards, I loaned the male prisoners to Goblin and Kobold females who requested them because the men¡¯s reactions were amusing.

    But Female Knight-san and the others¡¯ first partner naturally has to be me¡­

    While I was sleeping, I felt a slight pain in my chest.

    When I awoke, it seemed that my heart had been pierced by someone. The culprit was the one who hadn¡¯t been cuffed yet; the aforementioned Female Knight-san, who was clothed only in her birthday suit, was already wet in many places.

    Even though she was really perturbed yesterday, I thought that she would eventually regain her sanity. Fortunately, the stray wrought iron knife (Blacksmith-san¡¯s work) that she had picked up and used on me, was one only meant for chopping food.

    While leisurely thinking about that, I grabbed the handle of the knife embedded in my chest and pulled it out. You should not underestimate the survival power of someone from the Ogre race. I won¡¯t die from just a shallow wound to the heart made by a simple wrought iron knife. It only hurts some, merely stopping my movement when I heal my wounds.

    But, as I dislike pain, I used ?Fast Healing?. The wound closed right before my eyes.

    Then, as I looked up, I saw Dhammi-chan stark-naked. She was holding Female Knight-san down while grabbing a bunch of her hair with quiet, simmering anger.Unable to fight back against the inhuman physical strength, Female Knight-san looked up at me with a hateful look.

    Hmm, it looked like it wasn¡¯t enough yet. Therefore, I injected a drug into her that I created myself and punished her together with Dhammi-chan.

    [T/N: punish = sexual innuendo]

    I know I¡¯m exaggerating, but in the afternoon I personally cuffed Female Knight-san!

    We gathered the male slaves and made them spit out all of the information that they knew. As a result of [Enslave], they could not lie or withhold information from us. We will pass all of it on to Father Elf.

    Because increasing our feats seriously affects the Elven morale, yesterday we received 10 barrels of Elven Wine from Father Elf-san in exchange for information. It was a good deal.

    Also, as of today there are 4 four more Hobgoblins today. Mixed within them, was a Cleric.

    As usual, I will send them a celebratory gift.

    Today we set up various traps on the human army¡¯s invasion route to ambush them.

    The human army was planning to take advantage of their greater numbers to attack the Elven army from multiple directions. That¡¯s why we are lying in wait on separate routes to defeat them one by one.

    Because this is one of the many routes that are currently being watched, it seems likely that one of the units of the main force will pass by here.While I think I would be able to gain a lot of experience points from this fight, I devoted myself to dividing the hunting ground together with Asue-chan.

    The road that looked like a game trail was slightly lower than its surroundings, and as we moved forward we altered the terrain to make a little slope.

    We set pitfall traps at the base of the trees, which grew thick on both sides.Then we dug a trench to hide at the base of a certain tree that was a little farther from the road. To make it safer here, we installed a shield made out of wooden boards and placed fauner near the trench to make it inconspicuous. Blacksmith-san had worked hard to make enough repeating crossbows to equip the long distance attack troops, , who were stationed inside the trenches

    We also placed >, the light infantry, inside the trench as an insurance. So even if they jumped over the pitfalls and got close by slipping their way through the rain of arrows, it would be easy to buy ourselves some time¡­ or make killing them easy.

    However, they ought to have been dealt with by our kobolds that were hiding in the pitfalls before that.

    Soon after we finished the general preparations, the scouts from my squad reported that it would take our enemy approximately 30 minutes to arrive here with their current marching speed. So, all we could do was hold our breath and wait.

    Then, they came.

    The Rusty Iron Knight, who was equipped in a rust-iron colored full-body armor, advanced while astride his war-horse. He paid close attention to his surroundings as he led an orderly army that did not break ranks while it marched behind him. Certainly, each of them seemed to have relatively high fighting abilities, I guess there were about 700 of them.

    Amongst them were magic users? ¡®Magicians¡¯ is a general term to represent them, describing those whose job involves achieving miracles by using magic. There were Summoners, Arcana, Sorcerers and more? Probably about 100 of them.

    Considering the annihilation power of magic, even with only 700 of them, they had an tremendous fighting potential.

    But it didn¡¯t bother me, it made me feel they were a delicious opponent.

    Coordinating the troops through the cuffs, firstly we felled a tree and cut off the enemy¡¯s path for retreat. Despite the loud noise of the falling tree, it didn¡¯t crush a single person. However, it diverted the attention of our enemy and gave me the opportunity to shout out the next command.

    With their retreat cut off, it was time for our first assault.. We rolled over and pushed down multiple boulders that had been carved out, from the hill above our enemy on them. The recessed area that was the enemies¡¯ foothold, caved in on both sides and became a disaster to those who didn¡¯t get away in time. They were either crushed or they were trampled to death by their comrades who desperately tried to get away from the falling boulders.

    Within them, there were those that took up their weapons, others used their magic to try and pulverize the boulders. Unfortunately for them, I had placed an enchantment on the rocks so that they wouldn¡¯t break easily and maintained their momentum and rotational force when rolled down. Their resistance was in vain and they fell prey to the boulders.

    Of the 700 enemies once standing, more than 200-300 were crushed to death or were left unable to fight. Many others had suffered injuries from the aftermath as well, it would be difficult to immediately re-organize themselves again.

    Of course I had no intention of giving our enemy a break, so we barraged our enemy with our repeating crossbows, sending a rain of poisoned arrows at them.

    We had sealed off their escape by gruesomely crushing their comrades with a surprise attack of falling boulders which was followed up by a rain of arrows that came flying in. It was a nasty method that was fearsomely powerful, especially since we used numerous repeating crossbows.

    Moreover, because I smeared the arrowheads with a poison I made, even the slightest touch was deadly. Thus this attack instantly cut down the number of enemies.

    In an attempt to fight back, some of them tried storming the trenches but ended up falling into the pitfalls that were skillfully hidden. They were met with a wretched end as they got beaten to death by the hidden kobolds.

    Of course, this alone was not enough to kill them all. The commanding power of Rusty Iron Knight was not something to be taken lightly.

    He raked together the few that survived and arranged a formation using the bodies of their dead comrades to shield themselves from the poisoned arrows. We tried to bring them down with the boulders, but those were destroyed by rapid blasts of magic that were shot from between the crevices in the shell-like formation. With the poisoned arrows being blocked by their shield of dead bodies, we could no longer decrease their numbers.

    We plunged into a short stalemate.

    Just as I was thinking that he did well with barely 100 left, I felt a surge of interest in the Rusty Iron Knight.

    Because I wanted him as my pawn, I stopped their annihilation by magic attacks for now and had the heavy armed unit, led by Ogakichi-kun, charge at them from the top of the hill.

    To prevent shooting our own by mistake, we had to stop firing the poisoned arrows. So I just watched over Ogakichi-kun and his men as he readied his ¡®Tower Shield¡¯ and they advanced forward.

    Magic attacks spurted from the enemy line at Ogakichi-kun, but all of them were blocked by the magic item ¡®Tower Shield¡¯ and were dispersed to no purpose. Our enemy judged that it would be useless to aim for Ogakichi-kun and started targeting the others. However, most of them were protected by the Tower Shield.

    As both armies closed in on each other, the enemies desperately jumped out from the enclosure in a sink-or-swim resort, but were not able to break through the defense of the heavy armor unit, and were instead cooperatively slaughtered by the members of the heavy armor unit, one by one.

    Though Steel Crowback struggled against Ogakichi-kun, there was no real contest as Ogakichi-kun had improved his skills in a fight against the Black Skeletons recently. The reason why he was ¡®struggling¡¯ against them, was because he was simply playing around since I ordered him to bring Rusty Iron Knight back alive.

    Then after 30 minutes when Ogakichi-kun had enjoyed the fight to its fullest, Rusty Iron Knight was knocked out, captured and enslaved.

    And so the meat was distributed and were munched on, crunch, crunch.

    Ability Job-Sorcerer learnedAbility Job-Shielder learnedAbility Job-Sentinel learnedAbility Shield Bash learnedAbility Combat Technique Aptitude learnedAbility Sword Proficiency learnedAbility Guard Proficiency learnedAbility Job-Archer learnedAbility Job-Hunter learnedAbility Job-Item Creator learnedAbility Shield Wall learnedAbility Greater Tool Appraisal learned

    Our military achievements this time were quite outstanding.

    After we collected the useful-looking equipment, we transported the spoils of war, useful-looking prisoners and food just like last time.

    We drugged the captured women and put them in jail while the men will be put to work as slaves immediately.

    After that, I reported to Father Elf-san.

    If they could no longer restrain themselves and sought after the captured women, at that time I shall give them as a reward to individuals that had performed well.

    I replied when I was asked what will become of them. Father Elf-san said ¡®not to force them against their will¡¯, but to have your way without drugging them, what are you talking about?

    Since they are enemies, we should at least be allowed to drug them.

    Now, shall I going to ask various questions of Rusty Iron Knight? Just as I was thinking of doing that, Dhammi-chan embarrassedly tugged on the hem of my bottom with flushed cheeks.

    Huh? She wants a¡­ child?

    I got fired up in various ways.

 Re:Monster Day 71-80

    Day 71 ~ Day 80

    Day 71

    Today, eight goblins ranked up into hobgoblins. Three goblins became mages, one became a cleric, and for the first time a shaman goblin was born; the other three became regular hobgoblins.

    I was honestly happy at the significant increase in the number of our mage-types, due to the ambush the other day; the increase of Shamans who could lengthen the lifespan of undead units during the day was an extremely useful asset for us.

    In addition to that, today three kobolds ranked up to Ashigaru Kobolds.

    When they rank up into Ashigaru, kobolds are furnished with a weapon called ¡°Bio-Spear¡±¡ªorganic weapons which are made from the cells of the original body, so it seems that as the original body grows, the weapons grow with them¡ª, the ones who became Ashigaru reported to me this morning, holding their spears.

    Even though the three of them should be holding spears for the very first time in their lives, the Bio-Spears that came from their own bodies can be said to be an extension of themselves. Their spear handling was quite something.

    However, since they were a far cry from mastery, the three Ashigaru kobolds planned to focus on training the handling of the spear together with the kobold leader, who was the first to rank up into an Ashigaru.

    Even so, many ranked up because of the amount of experience points we gained in our battle against the human army. The increase of slaves in our labor and fighting forces is a boon for us.

    It seems we are about to clear our first goal. Because we got our hands on some females from our enemy that we can use to breed, we should try to increase our numbers. But if our group becomes too large, the amount of food we need and other difficulties will increase too, so we will have to coordinate the increase.

    We have yet to find out how long it will take for a child who surpasses the rank of a hobgoblin to be born.  As expected, even Gobujii doesn¡¯t know the answer. But it seems that when a human female is pregnant with a goblin child it takes about 20 days and if a goblin is pregnant it takes about 25 days. Then, if a human is pregnant with a hobgoblin child it takes about 40 days, while a hobgoblin is pregnant for about 50 days.

    Although the birthing period varies, I can¡¯t hide my surprise about the speed.  Now I understand why humans hunt down goblins regularly.

    Just in case, I checked if anyone of them acquired a subspecies that matches one of the magic items they¡¯ve used. However, apart from Ogakichi-kun, Dhammi-chan and myself, no one else has gained a subspecies; as expected, the others don¡¯t meet the requirements to obtain a [Divine Protection].

    I¡¯ll deal with this problem later.

    After today¡¯s morning training, I questioned Rusty Iron Knight and the others that looked like commanding officers about the human army¡¯s purpose, whom I put [slave] collars on and threw into prison. I did this so as to gain information from multiple sources to supplement what I obtained from Female Knight and the others.

    As a result, I understood the general idea behind this war.

    What sparked this war was the ¡®Strenbelt Kingdom¡¯¨Dbecause other countries haven¡¯t been mentioned yet, I¡¯ll call it ¡®Kingdom¡¯ for now until others appear¨Dit started when their princess caught a terrible disease.

    After infection, your internal organs would slowly rot away as the days passed by. More than 99% of the people who caught the disease would die within one year. There were a few cases where the patient survived for about 2 years, but as they also eventually died without being cured, there seem to be no survivors as of now.

    Luckily, the disease can¡¯t spread by air or water vapor. The fact that there are few cases seems to be the only salvation. However, the lack of cases also means there were few chances to find a cure.

    Naturally, the Kingdom was determined to try anything to heal the princess.

    She was ill, but still renowned as ¡°Masako¡±,  she was even engaged ¨CIt was for political reasons, but as the two appeared to love each other, it may as well be a love marriage¨C, so she needed to be cured all the more.

    By the king¡¯s command, all doctors and the medical experts in the Kingdom were frantically searching for a remedy.

    However, the results were not very rewarding.

    Although they found a way to slow down the advance of the illness a little, almost half of each of the princess¡¯ internal organs had already rotted away.

    They then decided to forcefully put her to sleep in order to release her from the constant pain that could drive her crazy, while using magic to regenerate the rotten inner organs to prolong her life.

    But as the organs were decaying faster than they could be regenerated, they could not cure her.

    For a long time they thought she would die without anyone ever finding a cure.

    However, a former citizen of the Kingdom; a certain woman, received a [Divine Revelation] from the [Demigod of Healing]. She had once worked for the one who held the [Job ¨C Female Saint], who prayed everyday.

    ¡°To cure the ¡°Chrysindo Disease¡±, you need the secret medicine of the elves that live under the protection of the ¡¾Demigod of Deep Green].¡±

    According to this¡¾Divine Revelation], the forests that we were born in fit the conditions, they had to buy the secret medicine of the elves that lived in the ¡°Big Kuudrun Forest¡±. The young emperor-to-be (who was 24 years old) of the ¡°Kilika Empire¡± ¡ªwhich will be called the ¡®Empire¡¯, for the same reason as the ¡®Kingdom¡¯¡ªto whom the princess was betrothed to, negotiated with the elves.

    But the elves didn¡¯t have much of the secret medicine left, and because of some ancient law ¨Cthe elves have many annoying and troublesome laws¨C they refused to give any of it to the ¡°humans¡±.

    He tried to negotiate over and over, but it was all in vain.

    The elves have always been a prideful race and looked down on humans. I personally think they would not have given it, even if that law didn¡¯t exist.

    Anyway, as a fact, they would not give the secret medicine to the Kingdom or the Empire.

    There was no doubt about it, the failed negotiations were the cause of the war.

    But, listening to this story, there seems to be more humane circumstances that are involved.

    Well, I could keep going on about the little details, but it would be too troublesome and just lead to this conclusion:

    ¡°Humans are Greedy¡±

    I think that says enough.

    But if I was to give four reasons why elves are better, it would be these:

    One, practically all elves are beautiful. They make ideal sex slaves.

    Two, elves are superior, as a race, to humans. They have excellent defense, as well as battle prowess.

    Three, their mithril; the forest, packed with raw materials and magic items, is extremely delicious from an economical point of view.

    ¡®Four, compared to other countries, they live in a place that¡¯s much more convenient in times of war. It makes an excellent relay point.¡¯

    Listening to the story, I thought those were awfully practical reasons.

    The original trigger was certainly the refusal to sell the secret medicine to cure the princess, but combined with the human¡¯s great greed and expectations, the original goal was twisted which, in the end, resulted in the current war.

    I cannot help but think that humans, as a race, would be a nuisance even in a parallel world.

    Because I am in a good position this time to just disappear if need be, it doesn¡¯t bother me that much.

    I also asked many other things. I was especially careful to ask about the formation of the Human Army; because, I may not be able to defeat my enemy this time, in my current condition.

    Because the Rusty Iron Knight belongs to the Empire, he didn¡¯t know much about the Kingdom¡¯s army¨Dthe Kingdom and Empire appear to have an Allied Force¨D, but the Female Knight who belongs to the Kingdom told me all about that, so it¡¯s not an issue.

    As expected, the huge Empire has a good amount of soldiers who are superior in quality. The demon squad attached to the ¡°Allied Magical Beast Chimeras¡± made up of ogres, dragonewts and numerous monsters seems to be very strong.

    As expected, the huge Empire has a good amount of soldiers which are also superior in quality. The army had ogres, a dragon-man species called dragonnewts, and the demon troops from the ¡°Allied Magical Beast Chimeras¡±, which was made by cross-breeding various monsters. It seems to be very strong.

    Most of the squad members appear to be slaves. It seems they are forced to fight with their lives on the line by their master. A troublesome and difficult story.

    But as troublesome as it is, it will be easy to bring them down if you do it right.

    Anyway, we picked up the human in charge of commanding the slaves.

    After I got the information I wanted, I had the male prisoners join the goblins and play a game to improve their commanding power.

    It was an actual warfare strategy game where the players with the title of captain had to keep their pawns, that were equally distributed amongst them, under their thumb and crush the pawns of the opponent by giving orders to their own.

    The pawns were equipped with wooden swords and shields, a bow, an axe, a spear or with just a shield by itself. The point was to give commands that suited the equipment of the grunts.

    Because I acted as umpire, I didn¡¯t join the game myself. Dhammi-chan and Supesei-san are both great commanders, so they won a lot. On the other hand, Ogakichi-kun and Burasato-san are good at taking the lead and opening up the front line, but they were too weak. Asue-chan is somewhere in between.

    This is the difference between brain and muscles. It¡¯s not hard to understand.

    Because we took a lot of provisions from the human army, we didn¡¯t go hunting today, we only did combat training in a cave. No, it wasn¡¯t really training, it was more like playing a game with everyone instead.

    Through training, we started to become friends to no small extent, so I wanted to strengthen that feeling.

    At first, the humans who were taken as slaves couldn¡¯t hide their surprise about our training; but, it was funny to see how their expressions gradually became serious as time went by.

    Because the human army barely moved today, we could focus on practicing. This is a good thing.

    Later that night, the human women delightedly flirted (with the men( I guess)).

    And at night, the female humans happily joined the merriness.

    Perhaps because they had greater lust than than the elves, or because they simply fell so quickly, they adapted fast.

    Only the Blacksmith-san and the others had expressions that showed their mixed feelings; however, compared to when they had just arrived, their ways of thinking changed quite a lot, so they didn¡¯t seem to have any real complaints.

    Or rather, because it is war, this kind of thing can not be helped.

    Besides, it is not like the situation will go haywire whenever it is pushed to the limit; because, it¡¯s something you¡¯re free to look for. Well, I suppose it¡¯s that; everyone has different things that make them happy.

    They were smart, nice women.

    They were almost too good for me.

    They seemed pretty happy.

    Once you snap an elf¡¯s pride, it¡¯s easy to get them to obey. Well, even so I don¡¯t intend to hit on them myself.

    I am pretty satisfied with the current situation; there¡¯s no need to create enemies for no reason.

    Day 72

    While training together with Ogakichi-kun in the morning as usual, Rusty Iron Knight, who was set to fight against the Black Skeleton knights¨D¨Deven though he wasn¡¯t wearing his iron-colored armor¨D¨Drequested a bout with me.

    Just like the other humans, his pride was smashed to smithereens and he was in denial¨D¨Das a lower nobility of the Empire, he seemed to think that goblins and ogres were on the same level as livestock. And yet, he was being treated like a slave by livestock; it seems to be breaking him.¨D¨Dyet, he was not hitting his head against the wall to kill himself, and silently did the training I imposed on him, even after becoming a slave> I liked that he looked at me straight in the eye, so I decided to agree to the bout.

    And so, I felt that Rusty Iron Knight was indeed strong.

    If it was just about combat techniques, I was definitely superior; but of all the humans I had fought until now, he possessed the most skill. In addition to this, he seemed to win in basic physical abilities.

    Although I wasn¡¯t using any abilities, surpassing an ogre  ¡¾rare species]in physical strength is frightening.

    The adventurer, whom I killed in Velvet¡¯s labyrinth some time ago, was about this strong as well; I had been wanting to fight someone of that level.

    While fighting, I asked about his abilities. It seems that Rusty Iron Knight held four combat jobs: level 100+ ¡¾Job-Warrior ], level 100+ ¡¾Job-Knight], level 62 ¡¾Job-Monk]and level 25 ¡¾Job-Templar]. These skills seemed to be the result of all his training thus far.

    Rusty Iron Knight¡¯s fists were fast and heavy, his body flexible, yet hard; and, without any waste in his movements, he aimed for my vitals.

    As well as freely throwing all sorts of skills at me with flashes of pale light¨D¨Dtechniques that can only be used by those weak humans, also called Combat Arts in this world¨D¨D, he was a difficult enemy.

    But, he was still not as strong as the wild, naked, Red Bear that attacked me.

    In the end, I won.

    Because the various kinds of Combat Arts rapidly fired at me were nothing more than abilities that gave various effects , they were relatively easy to counter.

    But since it was such a close win, similar to when I had fought Ogakichi-kun, it was offensive to let the opponent think that he might have won depending if he had just fought differently. That¡¯s why I¡¯ll confront him and use my abilities this time.

    But for that to happen, preparations are needed.

    Using ¡¾Job-Enchanter], I strengthened Rusty Iron Knight¡¯s physical defense, recuperative power and defense strengthening, as he was only wearing hempen short pants.

    Note: hemp = a material used for clothing, created from the fibre of the cannabis plant

    With a surprised face, Rusty Iron Knight looked at me, but I greatly improved my defensive power by using ¡¾Job-Guardian] and ¡¾Lord of the Mountain¡¯s Stout Hide]. Because I improved my offensive power with¡¾Job-Monk] and ¡¾Lord of the Mountain¡¯s Strong, Supple Muscle ], it wouldn¡¯t be a problem.

    Or rather, to use abilities of this level, at least this much preparation is necessary to make sure I don¡¯t have to fear them dying from my attacks. If I didn¡¯t suppress my abilities at least this much, I would pierce right through the enhancements I gave them. It really is a pain.

    Then, an account of the result. Rusty Iron Knight¡¯s ragged form was rolling on the floor.

    The guy¡¯s got guts, but i think he might have overdid it a little. Well, he passed out with a pretty satisfied look on his face, so I guess he¡¯ll be alright.

    As I was treating him, I noticed Ogakichi-kun staring at me.

    That gaze said he wanted to fight him too. I see, Ogakichi-kun wanted to fight Rusty Iron Knight barehanded.

    Surely, if Ogakichi-kun and Rusty Iron Knight go at each other barehanded, it would make for an even better fight than mine.

    When Ogakichi-kun fought him before, he completely overwhelmed Rusty Iron Knight; but then it wasn¡¯t just about abilities or the like, the usage of so many magical items greatly affected the outcome.

    The defensive power of his Tower Shield, ¡¾Black Ogre¡¯s Chopping Board], was out of the ordinary; the fact that he could repel all of Rusty Iron Knight¡¯s Arts like it was mere child¡¯s play was proof of that.

    That¡¯s why he wanted to fight bare handed, he probably wanted to win this time as well.

    He wanted to win with his own power, without depending on any tools.

    But, he had to wait just a little longer. While I said that, he was already waiting for time to pass.

    In the current situation, his handicap would be too big.

    After I had finished healing the now awakened Rusty Iron Knight, I had him fight Ogakichi-kun.

    It was a great battle after all. Ogakichi-kun, who has higher specs than me, was about on par with Rusty Iron Knight. But in the end, Ogakichi-kun somehow snatched the win with his inexhaustible stamina.

    It was a close fight, but they both looked like they enjoyed it; so, there¡¯s no problem.

    Or rather, Rusty Iron Knight did. What was with that seamless adaptability he had? I asked him about it while sharing some Elf-Sake during lunch time.

    He said he wanted to quit being a Knight of the Empire and join us.

    Listening to his story, I understood that many subspecies lived in the place where he grew up. That¡¯s why there was no racial discrimination like what you¡¯ll see from people of the Empire and Kingdom, so there was no aversion.

    In actual fact, because he didn¡¯t understand why the humans around him hated subspecies, he didn¡¯t mingle much with them.

    Moreover, in the place he grew up, fighting was a daily occurrence, perhaps because of that Rusty Iron Knight was taught that it was natural to serve those who were stronger than him.

    His servitude to the Empire was because he lost to the previous Knight-leader, so he never felt any loyalty in the first place.

    And, when the previous Knight-Leader died in battle, he was replaced by some noble named, Bonbon, who he¡¯d never even heard of.

    Even so, if Bonbon had the ability, he would have consented to it. But Bonbon lost to Rusty Iron Knight without him having to use his real power; rather, he wasn¡¯t even at a level to give a regular knight a good match.

    At least, if he had commanding ability, it still would have been acceptable. But, he didn¡¯t even have that. He only came to be a Knight Leader because of his connections.

    For that reason, Rusty Iron Knight felt no loyalty to the current leader whatsoever. Infact, it was the opposite, he hated him.

    But if that was all, it would have been alright. He could endure it.

    But when the previous leader died, the other knights, who ate rice from the same kettle and had become the only reason for Rusty Iron Knight to stay, had their affiliation changed so that the other nobles, whom the current leaders were close to, could join the same unit.

    As a result, for the new men to join as replacements, his comrades went to another knight unit.

    Rusty Iron Knight, who had become the sub-leader, was the only one left.

    The reason why he was left behind, was apparently for the sake of training the members.

    Because he had become an instructor now, he kept on training without scamping his work. This strong unit was the result.

    By the way, the current leader died of natural causes, being crushed by a rock. Come to think of it, I have this hunch that a normal soldier wearing splendid armor for no reason was there. But I¡¯m not sure.

    Returning to the subject.

    Rusty Iron Knight trained all the new recruits. But, because Rusty Iron Knight was a commoner who worked his way up, he was on a different wavelength and had a different mentality than the other members who had noble upbringing; he couldn¡¯t get along with them. He had also gained some real abilities recently, so the quarrels increased.

    Everything became annoying and he had no good reason to stay; so, just when he met us, he¡¯d already thought about quitting as a knight.

    ¡®This is fate¡¯, was my immediate reaction.

    It seems to be the reason behind everything that happened.

    I see, it¡¯s that simple and straightforward.

    I knew that it was the truth, without a doubt, because he gave me this information when I used  ¡¾Command] ¨C which I did, just in case, to ensure he couldn¡¯t lie. I had no complaints and accepted him, as Rusty Iron Knight looked useful. It¡¯s best to use people who can be used, just like the elves.

    Rusty Iron Knight¡¯s collar was released and the cuffs were inserted in his ears by his own will. After fastening the cuffs, I returned his full set of armor and his ¡®appearance¡¯ of the Rusty Iron Knight was back.

    With this, Rusty Iron Knight was no longer a slave, but a comrade. Because no one else but me accepted him yet, I was looking forward to what he would show us next.

    For now, he would be under my direct orders.

    In the afternoon, I had to go out to do the setup for our hunting-cum-ambush location.

    I had Rusty Iron Knight teach Redhead some Combat Arts in the meantime.

    At this moment, Redhead only knew 6 Combat Arts in total.

    ¡¾Slash], to increase her slashing power of a single swing.

    ¡¾Shield Bash], to hit the enemy with a shield to obstruct movements with a certain probability.

    ¡¾Stab], to gather energy and increase piercing power to strike at a single point.

    ¡¾Rush], to raise the power of continuous slashing attacks but has long delays.

    ¡¾Fall], to strengthen one¡¯s body akin to a monster¡¯s by amplifying magic internally

    ¡¾Versatile], to freely use the abilities of a monster for a period of time by eating its flesh and blood.

    If you are a ¡¾Job-warrior ], you can easily use the first 4 Arts aforementioned. The latter two are Arts that can only be used by someone who knows a specific ¡¾Job] like ¡¾Job-Noire Soldier].

    For a fledgling adventurer, knowing 6 Arts is quite a lot, but the number of Arts that Rusty Iron Knight can use is greater than 70. Because, it seems like you can use them as soon as you start practicing Arts with a ¡¾Job], I intend to have him teach me as well when I obtain the prerequisite ¡¾Jobs] to gain the matching abilities.

    A monster who can freely use the Arts that can only be used by humans.

    Hm, when I use Arts, I should consider limiting the eye-witnesses as much as possible.

    Day 73

    Asue-chan dug out a hot spring.

    Until now, to wash ourselves we either went to the river, or rubbed our bodies using towels which were soaked through by water generated from the water crystals and collected inside earthenware pots. But with this, I thought that we could relax by soaking inside the pseudo-bathtub; and strangely, I could feel that there were various mysteries about the location, geology and other things of this place.

    Well, it¡¯s fantasy. Things like that can exist, probably.

    That¡¯s why I collaborated with Asue-chan and co to pour our heart and soul in the project for the hot spring today. Fortunately, we had the manpower of some skeletons, and others, who did not need rest. Allowing us to come up with an otherwise unthinkable level of working efficiency.

    By using our abilities, and various feats of strength, we got all the work done before night came.

    We divided the baths into three, one mixed bath, one bath with a division in the middle where men and women were separated and one where only Ogakichi-kun and the other top brass were allowed to use. It turned into quite a big place.

    Despite some parts of the hot spring opening to the mountain¡¯s surface, it was hard to see from outside due to the obscuring boulders. Also, the steep cliff made it difficult for non-flying enemies to enter here.

    But, saying it was ¡®just in case¡¯, we heavily booby-trapped the place.

    Finishing our dinner, naturally the very first people who entered the completed hot springs were us.

    The others, who entered the hot spring for the first time in their lives, were healed by it

    Just in case, we drank the water and confirmed there¡¯s no harm in drinking it; so there¡¯s no chance for someone to die from poison.

    Rather, the hot water had the side effect of improving one¡¯s recovery just like one in a fantasy; so I will continue to use it from now on.

    Well well, it was a good find.

    DAY 74

    Because of the traps set by us and the Elven army, the humans lost a lot of their numbers, and it appears to have slowed down their advance.

    Father Elf taught us nasty twofold, threefold, and fourfold combination traps ¨C they seem to have been very effective.

    The humans realized that internal intelligence had leaked because their route for advancing had become a trap-laden forest. So, as a countermeasure the human army temporarily withdrew their front to revise their strategy.

    While one of my clones infiltrated to gather detailed information, we started to set up a surprise attack for the Supply Unit, which was scheduled to bring supplies to the humans stationed in the forest.

    Supplies are a matter of life and death during a campaign. This being a forest, food and water is easier to come by than, say, a desert; but due to the enemy¡¯s large numbers they would need more food than that, and they¡¯re also useful even if morale broke. Besides that, arms and armor are also subject to wear and tear.

    It¡¯ll be especially useful to reduce their expendables, like arrows, from here on. Also, as we can use the weapons we take, we¡¯ll be killing two birds with one stone.

    The Supply Unit came along from the plains.

    We can¡¯t attack them on the plains; because obviously, we were too few in number. Our numbers, including the 47 prisoners of war, did not even reach 200 people; the number of those who can fight is even less.

    In comparison, the Supply Unit consists of more than 600 people. Almost three times as much as us. Due to this difference in numbers, it would be stupid to attack on the open plains.

    Well, they¡¯re not an enemy we couldn¡¯t defeat if we played our cards right, but considering the damage our side would take, it might be wiser to stop.

    For that reason, we waited for the Supply Unit to arrive in the forest.

    According to the information I obtained from Female Knight and Rusty Iron Knight, the supply unit had reached the kill point.

    I looked at the slaves lurking behind me.

    Although some of the slaves¡¯ faces went pale because of it, I raised my clones¡¯ control power over them using [Parasite]; as a result, there are many among them that couldn¡¯t even move a finger out of their own free will.

    It would be better if they would fight for me out of their own volition, like Rusty Iron Knight does, but I realized I didn¡¯t have another choice. To me, they are nothing but disposable pawns anyway.

    Because it couldn¡¯t be helped if they¡¯d look gloomy after this, I intended to make good use of them.

    My next plan wasn¡¯t anything special.

    First of all, since Rusty Iron Knight was a friend now, there were only 17 male slaves left, I had ten simple Noble Knights, who didn¡¯t have any ¡¾Jobs] like ¡¾Magician] or ¡¾Enchanter], go ahead to the Supply Unit.

    Then, we pretended to pursue them.

    Human Knights running away, followed by screaming, armed Ogres, goblins and kobolds, high on murderous intent.

    Watching something like this, it should be enough for the enemy to identify their friends, and usually, one would try to protect those who look like friends without question.

    However, because their awareness would be be focused on their enemy, there was a chance they would not help. But, it was a great success.

    After it was confirmed they had successfully infiltrated, we hid in a trench that we built a little further away and used our mass-produced Repeating Crossbows to fire arrows that were smeared with poison at our enemy, being careful not to hit the slaves. Those who could use magic used it to weaken them, and the hobgoblin shaman had 6 ghosts use ¡¾Despondent]on our enemy to add to the weirdness of the situation.

    Because of the trees and bushes, the accuracy of our arrows and magic wasn¡¯t that high, but our enemy had the same problem. We just had to wait for the preparations to be complete, because all this was to gather them in one place, by stopping their advance, while we lessened their number.

    And after a while, the ten Noble Knights, who were mistaken as friends by our enemy, began their assault.

    They scattered the magic item ¡¾Burst Seed], which is an original creation made by Alchemist-san and me.

    It¡¯s made of materials you can find in the forest, like ¡¾Oil Grass- Yusa]and ¡¾Burst Fruit].

    Because it¡¯s quite powerful, even though it¡¯s easy to make, if you scattered it in a crowded place you could get about 50 victims injured or dead. Because it is so easy to mass produce, it¡¯s a very splendid magical weapon.

    TL Note: Oil Grass is what it is and Yusa is the name, hence the hyphen.

    There is a chance you will kill yourself if you¡¯re too close to the explosion, but as I had the slaves use them, that didn¡¯t matter; because they¡¯re disposable pawns.

    I gave the order to keep using the Burst Seeds. If they died, we¡¯d pick up the bones.

    The explosions of the 300 scattered Burst Seeds thundered through the forest for a moment.

    Despite the fact that the explosions had ended, our enemy was still confused. I instructed Asue-chan¡¯s party to make the ground under the feet of the Supply Unit collapse. Because we¡¯d done something like this before, she completed the task easily.

    They only dropped about two meters, but that was enough.

    Because of the sudden change in footing, they lost balance and were unable to run away. As before, we sent down a rain of poisoned arrows and a rain of magic from far away.

    And the Elves, whom I¡¯d told to climb the trees beforehand and stand by, sprinkled them with bottles of a venom that I had created myself.

    As the venom was a quick-acting anesthetic, the soldiers who got hit dropped to the ground immediately. They weren¡¯t dead yet, but they wouldn¡¯t be able to fight anymore.

    While I gave instructions, I also used ¡¾Job-Minstrel] and ¡¾Red Crystal¡¯s Tone]. The sound that emerged from my singing voice, combined with an instrument that resembles a guitar, strengthened my allies and weakened my foes.

    Because the Supply Unit didn¡¯t have any strong soldiers, it wasn¡¯t really necessary, but one cannot be too careful. It was possible enemy reinforcements would be attracted by the noise of the exploding Burst Seeds.

    That¡¯s why we couldn¡¯t scamp our work until the end, but we finished the plan without trouble.

    Three of the ten Knights who used the Burst Seeds were caught in the blast and died, five were injured by the fragments and the remaining two returned unharmed. Those were all the victims on our side.

    I thanked the three who died for their work. Because their bodies were dismembered by the explosion, we all had a bite while we collected the food and prisoners.

    By the way, Redhead didn¡¯t come with us. Even though she was no longer opposed to eating monsters, she had to abstain from eating any in front of humans.

    Some of the Supply Unit¡¯s members were seriously ill. As it was a pain in the ass to heal them, we killed them right there ¨C so they didn¡¯t have to suffer any longer. I ate all of their hearts and some of their bodies, and changed it into my own flesh and blood.

    We ate as many dead enemies as we could. Only those who eat until their death will live. That is an article of my creed.

    I also had the other goblins eat their share.

    We took those with light injuries as prisoners of war, but they numbered exactly one hundred; all of them males. There were a few women but they died due to the attack.

    Well, it couldn¡¯t be helped.

    The numbers were sufficient; there¡¯s not much need to capture more needlessly.

    As there was an insufficient number of cuffs and collars, I solved the problem by spilling some blood and cloning myself, then inserting ¡¾Parasite] into their bodies.

    Note: cuffs and collars ¨C from the previous days; used for enslaving them

    Fortunately, there were many miscellaneous raw materials, like blood, in large quantities.

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Continuous Thrust] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Helmet Splitter] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Stab] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Sneaking] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Armor Pierce] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Dance of Sword Storm] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Attack Force] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Job-Ranger] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Job-Supply Soldier] learned]

    Note: Supply Soldier = tentative name, they¡¯re a soldier in the Supply Unit

    I obtained various Combat (Arts) that I had heard about from Rusty Iron Knight.

    From ¡¾Continuous Thrust] to ¡¾Dance of Sword Storm], they were all Combat (Arts).

    In my case, I was pleasantly surprised when the experiment to activate my abilities and Combat (Arts) concurrently increased their power, compared to using them individually.

    The prisoners and loot were brought back.

    While we were on our way back, looking at the gloomy faces of our new prisoners, I suddenly thought of something.

    We still had some space left in the cave, but it¡¯s honestly complicated as the supply soldiers weren¡¯t that strong as pawns.

    For that reason, I decided to distribute half of them to the Elves.

    Just a way of paying my debt.

    We walked to the village of the Elves and had Father Elf buy them.

    Because I have many pawns at my disposal, I have a wider range of options available to me, making this a prompt decision.

    As payment I received some useful stuff like magic items.

    Incidentally, while we exchanged newly obtained information, I asked him about the secret medicine.

    Even though it¡¯s strong, there are no side effects to its use and also has many practical applications. Because the power of the ¡¾Demigod of Deep Green] is subtly mixed within, it¡¯s extremely rare and displays the effect of an all-purpose medicine¡­ This¡­ Wouldn¡¯t I acquire new abilities if I ate it?

    Deviating a little from my original thoughts, I came to a sudden realization; I only remembered then that I had already been given the Elf¡¯s secret medicine.

    Look, at the start of day 54 when I met Father Elf. He gave it to me as a present, together with some sake, but as I was too impressed with the Elf sake, it had been sitting unused in my item box.

    Remembering this, I wondered why he had given me a precious secret medicine like that? When I asked him, he answered that it was against the law to give it to ¡°humans¡±, but it wasn¡¯t against the law to give it to an ¡°Ogre¡± who saved his daughter.

    That¡¯s pretty twisted. So, if the Empire hadn¡¯t sent a human to get the secret medicine, they could have gotten it. I drank the medicine on the way back.

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Rapid Regeneration] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Blood Elixir] learned]

    My blood was turned into the secret medicine.

    To experiment, I made one of the slaves, whose wounds were not yet healed, drink my blood and saw an unbelievable sight.

    All his wounds were healed in an instant.

    What¡¯s this? Scary.

    If word got out about this, I might be targeted by humans for profit.

    To look at the bright side, I raised my healing ability greatly; however, I still had the feeling that the resulting risk wasn¡¯t worth it.

    Because humans are greedy, arrogant, fragile, obstinate, but great in number, I have to take care they don¡¯t find out.

    No, even if it was discovered, I just have to kill those who find out.

    While thinking about such things, we returned.

    DAY 75

    Today I didn¡¯t train in the cave, but instead went to the river with everyone.

    Well, because the ogres also had to fit, our bathtub is pretty deep; but due to that, many have drowned in it. Since many can¡¯t swim, it probably couldn¡¯t be helped.

    But it¡¯s really troublesome if any of them die just because they can¡¯t swim.

    So, I decided to have swimming practice today.

    Because I¡¯d been waiting so long for this opportunity, we went to the waterfall where the Green Lizards attacked us some time ago. Blacksmith-san doesn¡¯t go out very often, but she came along for a change.

    Because I had my clones scout the forest, I knew the Green Lizards still lived just above the waterfall and expected that they would attack us, but in the end they didn¡¯t show up.

    It¡¯s slightly disappointing, but since Blacksmith-san enjoyed the swimming, it¡¯s OK I suppose.

    DAY 76

    It appears we won¡¯t get any new hobgoblins until the children are born.

    At this moment we have 15 goblins. All of them stopped leveling up after they reached level 100.

    In short, these 15 goblins didn¡¯t have the ability to rank up. That¡¯s too bad.

    But, there¡¯s no need to grieve. If they can¡¯t become stronger quickly by ranking up, they¡¯ll just have to steadily train themselves to become strong.

    ¡°Training will never let you down. Even if you¡¯re a Goblin, if you can become an Elite Goblin, isn¡¯t that fine?¡±

    That¡¯s what I said to the depressed goblins to cheer them up.

    And, there¡¯s still room for growth amongst the kobolds on this side.

    When I woke up this morning, we had two more Ashigaru Kobolds and one extra Kobold that can be called a Genin.

    I put the Ashigaru into the scheduled training course then put my focus on the Genin Kobold.

    The Genin Kobold has a short sword named ¡°Bio-Sword¡±¨D¨Da Sword version of the Bio-Spear¨D¨Dand he has a thinner build than a normal kobold.

    His face still looks like that of a dog, but I can see a glimmer of intellect in his eyes, his physique is also closer to that of a human. Plus, he now seems to be able to use a kind of magic, sorcery¨D¨D¡®Ninpou¡¯.

    Because he¡¯s a ninja and it seems like he would shine in areas like information gathering, I instructed him to always keep his presence hidden from today onwards

    Doing so, his presence will become thin. I understand really well that his type excels in secrecy. In fact, hiding is natural for him.

    Because the human army didn¡¯t show any movements yet, we went to the river to for some more swimming practice.

    DAY 77

    Today I took a day off from training.

    Studying, making love, training, and even hunting, there is a reason for everything.

    In the morning I shed some sweat by going at Ogakichi-kun, Rusty Iron Knight, Redhead and Female Knight one-to-four in a martial arts match. Then I went and played with the pets.

    After that I went to see the Sisters, who were preparing lunch, and tried a bread dish from this world called Melzack, which looked like a sandwich. While snacking, on the way to Blacksmith-san who was as just as focused as usual on her research, I bumped into the guard elves and they a joined me as I proposed a new idea for a weapon.

    To mass produce the Burst Seed, I went to see Alchemist-san to devote myself to the production.

    In the evening I went outside and enjoyed myself with Dhammi on a journey through the skies. The night air was a bit chilly, but that wasn¡¯t a problem

    We soaked our cold bodies in the hot spring to warm up again.

    Then we went to bed together with everyone, Female knight included as of late. I sweated a lot, but I¡¯ll clean myself in the hot spring tomorrow, so it¡¯s no problem.

    I enjoyed the day off.

    DAY 78

    Hindbear Kumajiro and the Black Wolf Leader, Kurosaburo, ranked up.

    Kumajiro grew larger than a Red Bear with his grey fur becoming darker and a sharp horn 50 centimeters(20 inches) long made of obsidian sprouted from his forehead; it was no longer a Hindbear, but rather a ¡°Demon Bear(Oniguma)¡±.

    As Kurosaburo became as big as a warhorse, he could give me a ride now. Flames tinged with lightning leaked from his mouth with every breath and he has two heads with two separate minds, so it¡¯s no longer called a Black Wolf, instead it¡¯s a ¡°Double-Headed Wolf (Orthros)¡±.

    To find out the improved specs of the two of them, Ogakichi, the other Ogres, and me¨D¨Din short, those of us who¡¯d ranked up twice¨D¨Dus six along with our >, a total of only 13 fighters, attacked the Human Army.

    The reason we went with a select few was for the sake of leveling up.

    Recently, our main purpose had been to increase our level. It was hard to do so, since we needed more EXP and we received less EXP with more comrades around.

    That¡¯s why I wanted to kick some ass around here and level up.

    Just in case, I also left three of my clones behind, so it was useless to worry.

    Well, after all, the Human Army¡¯s aim is only the Elves.

    I don¡¯t think they would go out of their way to attack the home of another race that¡¯s staying somewhere else.

    Around 11 AM, I mounted Kumajiro and the others all mounted the rest of the Hindbears, then advanced into the forest.

    The proportion of¡¾Mages] at our destination was low, but the unit stationed there consisted mostly of those who had occupations which were stronger in close-combat like                         ¡¾Heavy Warriors] and ¡¾Knights].

    The unit was comprised of just under 600 people. There wasn¡¯t a single demi-human, only full-blooded humans. All of them appeared to be soldiers that had distinguished themselves in battle. Because another unit was stationed nearby, I intended to reduced their numbers as much as possible and then escape.

    We arrived at the garrison after running for about an hour.

    It¡¯s a shame that we couldn¡¯t deploy any undead to bolster our forces in the light of day, but as far as I could tell from what we could overlook from our position on the top of the hill, there was only one enemy we had to look out for. Equipped with a black iron short spear with countless small dark red bladed thorns protruding from it, was a white-haired venerable old knight donned with scale mail that emitted a divinely pale white light.

    As the venerable knight was equipped with quite peculiar armor I could identify him from the ¡°List of Formidable Opponents from the Kingdom and Empire¡± that I made using the information that Rusty Iron Knight, Female Knight and the others gave me.

    Note: thanks to Kemm for catching that Aizen should be Eisen.

    The white scale mail that he had equipped seems to be a magic item made from the materials he got from killing the white dragon that was protecting the ¡¾Barbs of Cursed Time].

    I absolutely wanted to taste the spear and armor, and its owner.

    So, I decided that this troublesome Eisen would be the first enemy to be killed. By launching a surprise attack and removing the enemy¡¯s greatest force right of the bat, our chance of winning would increase; plus it¡¯s safer.

    I took out the Vermillion Spear, which I had never used in large army battles previously, from my item box and then loaded it into my Silver Arm, which I transformed into a ballista.

    I raised my assassination success rate with ¡¾Job-Assassin],  and because I attacked with a ballista, the abilities of ¡¾Job-Archer] and ¡¾Job-Hunter]are activated. Moreover because I was using a ranged attack the effects of ¡¾Throw] and ¡¾Needleshot]overlay for a further increase in accuracy and power. I then aimed for Eisen¡¯s body and fired the Vermillion Spear.

    Eisen was standing close to the heart of the enemy¡¯s camp. Measuring with just my eyes, the distance between us was about 200 meters, but the Vermillion Spear came flying at him like a red comet and pierced his body, despite it being protected by the white dragon scale mail.

    By hiding our presence as much as possible, it appeared that even the great Eisen could not protect himself against such a powerful blow that came flying at him from outside his range of perception.

    His last expression was quite impressive, it seemed to say that he could not comprehend what happened.

    This was the start of the legend of surprise attacks

    Who cares about fighting fair and square.

    After all, in nature where survival of the fittest is law, these who remain are the winners.

    And so, my thoughts digressed from the situation.

    After thinking about it all, I went back to observing the enemy¡¯s situation.

    Because the Vermillion Spear that pierced Eisen didn¡¯t slow, it was stuck deep into the ground, leaving behind a pit matching its trajectory. Eisen¡¯s body now had a hole where his chest had been and around him I saw the figures of soldiers, just standing there, unable to quite grasp what had just happened.

    Even though they realized Eisen had died, it seems like nobody had imagined that death would ever come for him. Maybe that¡¯s why they looked like they were hallucinating.

    Perhaps they felt like it was all just a dream. But I didn¡¯t worry about that, I just waited for some people to gather around so I could use the power of the Vermillion Spear.

    The moment I activated it, without any warning, the Vermillion Spear sprang out from the ground.

    In an instant, countless Vermillion Spears appeared from their blind spot below their feet, killing more than a 100 soldiers and seriously injuring those within the 100 meters(328 feet) of the spear¡¯s range.

    It would have been great to eliminate all of the enemies at once, but I didn¡¯t want to decrease the amount of experience points everyone could obtain.

    Laughing at the commotion caused by the sudden attack, we charged the enemy.

    We took advantage of the confusion caused by the surprise attack to devour the whole enemy camp. In their situation, it must have been hard for them to communicate. Which means, our surprise attack was a success.

    It was very easy to feed on the confused rabble.

    The speed of the Demon Bear, Orthros, the Hindbears and the Triple Horned Horses cannot be compared to the humans¡¯ war horses. In the blink of an eye we covered the distance from the enemy, spread out, and swung our weapons at the confused soldiers nearby.

    After the enemy was sent flying like a doll by the tackle of Ogakichi-kun¡¯s > , he swung his flame enchanted battle axe at the group of ¡¾Heavy Warriors].

    Maybe it¡¯s their ingrained habit, because despite the confusion, they were still able to quickly prepare their multilayered shield formation and guard against the battle axe¡¯s slashing. Though, unable to protect from the flames that flew towards them, they were incinerated by the intense heat. Their shields were also bent all over from the extremely heavy attacks.

    Long story short, those defending ¡¾Heavy Warriors]were burned and thrown back with a dull sound like what you usually hear in a car accident or when you try to bend iron.

    Even their defence doesn¡¯t stand a chance against such powerful attacks.

    As usual, he had great destructive power. Ogakichi-kun¡¯s ¡¾Divine Protection]also increased the amount of heat he could use and the flames that raged around caused more damage than usual, creating a mass of charred bodies.

    He was an Ogre who possessed a problematic tower shield that can bend and blow over opponents¡¯ shields while spreading flames around him.

    Without a doubt, in the eyes of the enemy, he was definitely an object of fear.

    Beside that, Dhammi-chan also used ¡¾Eyes of Bewitchment]to control the enemies. Those who could not resist her were made to kill their allies.

    She intended to make many victims without dirtying her own hands.

    Of course it was impossible to brainwash everyone. She had to deal with the few enemies who used magic items, arts, or something else that was able to resist her ¡¾Eyes of Bewitchment] in person.

    For them, she pierced her targets with the ice powers granted by her ¡¾Divine Protection], or cut apart their bodies with the Claymore she got from me as a present.

    She looked like she enjoyed the blood of the murdered enemies pour over her like a shower; with a combined beauty and bewitching mystery, it made me aware of how frightening she is.

    While screaming her war cry, Asue-chan¡¯s War-Pick smashed the earth.

    The ground split open and swallowed the enemies that failed to escape, one after another. The risen earth wall also deprived the rest of the enemy of their escape route.

    Because most of her attacks left significant openings for our enemy, they coordinated their timing and began to attack; but their steel swords were not enough to cause even a scratch to Asue-chan, who¡¯s a Half-earth Lord with an unusually high defensive power.

    Normal attacks were pretty much useless against her.

    After seeing that, there were some enemies that tried to use arts; however, the slight gap before the arts were activated became a target. Unlike the big moves she used until now, she burst their bodies open with fast attacks, like rock-crushing fists, kicks, and tackles.

    Asue-chan¡¯s cheerful, hearty laughter reverberated throughout the air.

    The muddy stream that Supesei-san created with magic washed away the soldiers who were a little further away.

    Because it was an attack that seemed to dump humans into a washing machine filled with metal armor,  spears and swords, the fate of these soldiers was miserable.

    Masses of corpses were produced, and soon our faces showed wry smiles.

    Around 30 blood swords that were created by Burasato-san shredded the enemy while brushing past. They even grew bigger by absorbing the blood.

    The blades rotated at high speed and sliced the enemy within its range into small pieces. To make it worse, Burasato-san¡¯s red skin was died even redder by the blood she was drenched in. She looked like a Death God.

    This one sided mass slaughter was a result of continuous fierce daily training that granted the monsters higher specs than ordinary humans.

    While I thought about that, I cut down the enemy¡¯s numbers using my Halberd that Blacksmith-san had embedded with an elemental stone previously.

    About 20 minutes after the attack began, the battle had ended.

    The first hit of Vermillion Spear allowed us to surround the area easily, and I used ¡¾Conceal]on everyone so even if there are any survivors none of them saw our real appearance. Because we achieved our goal, well, you know how it is

    I scraped together what looked useful, pulled the Vermillion Spear from the ground, then ate the bloody meat of our dead enemy.

    Because there were so many, I raked them together with some thread and used ¡¾Improved Digestion], ¡¾Vampiric Exploitation] and ¡¾Metamorphosis]to efficiently devour them whole.

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Crosswind] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Wind Storm] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Regeneration Inhibition] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Recognition Interference] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Uppercut] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Heavy Slash] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Warrior¡¯s Pedigree] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Knight¡¯s Pedigree] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Job-Twinswordsman] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Job-Axeman] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Job-Spearman] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Survival Instinct] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Same Race Killing] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Improved Arm Strength] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Hawkeye] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Job-Berserker] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Chicken Heart (Ways of the Coward)] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Job-Grappler] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾All Martial Arts Proficiency] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Hish¨­zan (Flying Slash)] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Kogetsusen (Iai)] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Chiyari Hyakka (Hundred Petals of A Thousand Spear)] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Rush] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Heavy Axe Strike] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Create Trap] learned]

    Then I proceeded to eat today¡¯s main dish, Eisen.

    It would have been fine to leave the armor and spear, but this time I decided to eat those too.

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Grand Cross] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Job-Kensei (Sword Saint)] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Job-Dragonslayer] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Dragonscale Formation] learned]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Cursed Wounds] learned]

    Our hunting went satisfactorily, we returned home with pleased expressions on our faces.

    Day 79

    With a message on the communication device, I was invited by Father Elf.

    Because it happened just as I was training with Redhead and Female Knight, I took them along as bodyguards. The rest divided their time training, hunting or studying.

    Redhead and I  mounted Kumajiro, Female Knight mounted Kurosaburo and we rode towards the village of the elves.

    My plan to visit and I was bringing humans with me were already communicated in advance, particularly nothing problematic happened.

    I forced the elves who gave us rude looks, as if they were watching livestock, to turn their gazes away by using ¡¾Intimidating Glare]and taught them the difference in position.

    Arriving at Father Elf¡¯s mansion, I headed to the room I had been in before. Until Father Elf would arrive, I drank some of the tea that had been prepared for us. Redhead and Female Knight, on the other hand, were looking around curiously, as this was their first time coming here.

    Rather than criticizing them, I was collecting and processing the information sent by the clones in far away places.

    About 5 minutes later, Father Elf came into the room holding Elf Sake and cups in his hands.

    Behind Father Elf was the Elf Maiden-san, whom I saved holding something that looked like snacks for the sake.

    He apologized for being late, and offered me a cup for starters.

    The sake was poured by Elf Maiden-san.

    Of course I drank. I also ate the snacks. It was really delicious.

    My mood became very good.

    After feeling good for a while, having some chatter and exchanging information, we got down to business.

    The topic shifted to the details of next job by the requester Father Elf.

    He talked about assaulting the enemy¡¯s main force with an elite corps formed from our combined forces. It seems like he wants to deal with the enemy¡¯s top officers before having their village surrounded.

    Well, I guess neither the enemy nor the elves would want to have a drawn out war.

    Because there had always been a high tension between the enemy and some foreign countries, it seems they are in a situation where their enemies could take advantage of their war with the elves and invade them at any moment

    The elves, who are superior to humans by ability but inferior by far by numbers, already had quite a few casualties. I¡¯m sure they also wanted to have a safe haven where the wounded can recuperate in peace. Besides, the elves have almost nothing to gain from this war in the first place so they wanted to end it quickly.

    Well, after all we are mercenary soldiers. We could not ignore our employer¡¯s wishes.

    Besides, I was free to do this job how I wanted to, not just that, I would also be paid. Because I would gain a lot, well, this was an opportunity.

    I suppose, my greed will lead to my ruin one day.

    After we finished what¡¯s important, we returned home.

    On our way back, Female Knight asked if I could possibly send the medicine to cure the princess¡¯s illness.

    She said that although she already has pledged her allegiance to me, she still wants to deliver at least the drug as her last service as a noblewoman.

    Hm, I thought.

    Maybe it was a good idea to maintain some ties with the top of the country by indebting them.

    Having the country back us or not when something happens could change the situation significantly. Besides, it could also bring about a change in the information we could obtain and open up new possibilities for us.

    But the one bringing the medicine to cure the princess and negotiating would be me, a black ogre holding the Divine Protection of the Great Gods who rule >.

    I could think of troublesome situations just by quickly thinking over it. On one hand I had enslaved a few citizens of the Kingdom and Empire, but I was mainly worried about religion, religion and religion.

    TL Note : Yes it was mentioned thrice. ¨C rei_hunter

    The current Queen seemed to be a > believer, thus part of the world¡¯s largest religion, it smelled like trouble.

    It honestly is a troublesome matter. So, I rejected the idea of me being the person delivering the drug. But then I thought of a different plan.

    Carefully testing that plan, thinking of the risks and merits, I decided to put it into action, as the merits appeared to be worth it.

    Now, I have to prepare for tomorrow¡¯s battle.

    Day 80

    4 AM. We ran through the forest and arrived at the garrison where the main forces of the enemy, including the emperor¡¯s successor (currently 24 years old), were stationed. He had come personally to the battlefield in order to take command of the human army.

    The enemy was about 2000 strong. They had gathered their elite troops including the aforementioned slave corps. As expected of their headquarters, we saw many sentries stationed around their base. Their security was strong.

    Including Father Elf¡¯s military force of 500 elves, our force only consisted of about 650¨C this time around, no humans joined us. If all this ended in a confused fight, they could be killed¡ª so, under normal circumstances it would be best for us to avoid a fight.

    But it is because of this disadvantage that we decided to attack this early.

    In this time of day we have a number of big advantages. We can overthrow the difference in numbers by spawning Black Skeletons and since I can replenish the mana being used up from the surrounding darkness, I don¡¯t have to worry about being exhausted. And since their source of light right now only consists of bonfires and such, we who have night vision will have a greater advantage than when fighting in broad daylight once the bonfires are extinguished and darkness sets in.

    But that didn¡¯t mean we could just recklessly charge in.

    This is because they had the slave corps on their side, which consisted of demons that depending on their species had as strong or even stronger abilities than ours. If we don¡¯t deal with this somehow, it could be troublesome.

    That¡¯s why I sent a clone, a Black Skeleton Assassin and a low-ranking ninja kobold into the battlefield.

    This was to aim for the one who controlled the slave corps, as Rusty Iron Knight had informed us. The slave corps only followed orders because of their collars so once they are removed, they will be able to act freely.

    In that case, it would be enough to have the clones use ¡¾Parasite]on the slaver and make him remove the collars. Fortunately, he is a magician capable of enslaving the synthetic demon Chimera so if we kill him off once his job is done, they won¡¯t be able to control the Chimera anymore.

    And if I kill and eat that magician, I might be able to control the Chimera myself.

    These are the kind of thought I was having.

    What I was not expecting, was, that once I killed off the magician according to plan after having him remove all the collars, that the Chimera would sense the death of its captor and start randomly attacking the enemies around it.

    Furthermore, it was really troublesome that what the 6 meter tall Chimera, which looked like a cross of an elephant, a tiger, a snake and a crab, attacked first was the nearby former slaves, who were on the verge of escaping. Those who couldn¡¯t respond immediately were killed and the number of slaves I intended on using as a temporary army was drastically reduced.

    On top of that, our presence was exposed due to the commotion and our plan of quietly reducing the enemy¡¯s number bit by bit was disrupted.

    But I accepted this inevitable fact and launched our assault.

    Because, if you don¡¯t improvise at a battlefield, you¡¯re as good as dead.

    Before long, the sun was up.

    The movements of the Undead Black Skeletons became worse at once and the number of individuals who were destroyed increased.

    In addition, the human army raised a warcry to raise their morale but a countermeasure for the sunlight had already been established. I had only temporarily exposed the black skeletons to direct sunlight in order to raise their morale, only to drop it again.

    The enemy could not have known that. I silently laughed at them.

    In simple words, this sunlight countermeasure meant I would use my clones to coat the bodies of the Black Skeletons in order to intercept the sunlight. Fortunately, because there were plenty of blood sources lying around, it was simple to create many clones.

    The Black Skeletons who recovered their initial mobility cut down our enemies whom attempted to slash them.

    Since the clones could also attack using tentacles, a skeleton army with a insanely increased attack frequency and attack force was completed. Through abruptly strengthening the weakened skeletons I was able to sense the enemy morale drop very clearly.

    I would like you to imagine. An enemy you already have trouble dealing with grows multiple highly acidic tentacles and attacks you with one accord with strangely well-regulated movements.

    It can¡¯t be helped that their morale would drop.

    Watching it from the corner of my eye, I was hiding near the enemy¡¯s headquarter by myself.

    This is a drastic move that can only be accomplished by lowering the cognitive abilities of the enemies using ¡¾Job-Sorcerer]¡¯s status effect attack combined with the activation of skills such as ¡¾Job-Assassin],¡¾Hinder Recognition]and¡¾Hiding]. On top of that I equipped the magic item ¡¾Hermit¡¯s Gown]as an insurance.

    I did all this to approach the next emperor who was wearing an armor better than anyone¡¯s.

    But, I didn¡¯t plan to kill him even if I got close. If I killed him, the dignity of the empire wouldn¡¯t allow them to rest until they eradicated all elves. No matter how many injuries they sustained, they would kill us all.

    I had to avoid that. If the Empire got serious, the difference in numbers would mean our defeat.

    I wanted to stay on good terms with Father Elf from now on so I couldn¡¯t let the them kill him.

    Thinking about that, I successfully got behind the next emperor.

    There were people all around me, but none of them noticed my presence. However the next emperor was a different matter, since I started talking to him.

    I muttered into his ear to retreat and slipped a small vial with a red elixir that would cure the disease into his pocket while explaining how to use it. I also whispered a few other things.

    When I asked him if he understood, he nodded silently so I distanced myself from that place.

    Now that I finished my business, I asked Asue-chan to create an Earth wall that would cut off both armies. Because half of our enemies died already, that would be enough.

    Before they could destroy the Earth wall, we collected as many wounded, former slave troop survivors and corpses as we could, along with the dead body of the Chimera. Then we quickly retreated. To be honest, I also wanted to collect some excellent human flesh to eat, but as expected we didn¡¯t have time for that.

    Because I had been able to try many already in battle, I decided to give up for now. Besides, the Chimera would be a nice enough war trophy.

    Patience. Be patient.

    We retreated to a cave and healed our wounded.

    Because the healing squad of the Elves which I requested while we were retreating arrived, we could treat everyone at a faster rate. By selectively healing the heavily wounded, we could heal everyone in time and no one died.

    After that, with the exception of the cuffed group, all Elves returned home, but all of the former slaves that came along with us were left standing alone.

    TL Note : He¡¯s talking about the first elves he captured. ¨C reihunter

    Since it was part of my battle plan to free them, I obviously had no intentions of killing them. So I just told them that I will respect their wishes and that they can freely go wherever they liked.

    After telling them that I will let them stay the night for now and that they can should ask somebody for the rules of this place, I headed out.

    The first lives were lost in this war.

    The ones who died were 3 hobgoblins, 2 hobgoblin mages, 5 goblins, 6 kobolds and 4 Male Elves, a total of 20 members.

    It had been a confusing fight and our enemy was strong, maybe we should feel lucky that we only lost this many.

    Fortunately we were able to recover all of the corpses. After eating their hearts, we burnt the corpses like the girls from the other time.

    TL Note : Refer to Day 01 to 10 ¨C tom_foster

    There were other surrounding the area, many of whom were offering prayers and shedding tears.

    I didn¡¯t feel sad in particular. And I didn¡¯t cry either.

    I just wanted to greedily live the share of those who I ate

    As usual, that¡¯s all I thought.

    After I watched the corpses burn out, I inspected the weapons and armor that were worn down during the battle while I ate the Chimera¡¯s flesh. After all the trouble we went through to bring it along, it would be a waste if I didn¡¯t eat it before it went bad.

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Synthesis]learned!]

    Eating the Chimera, I acquired an interesting ability.

    It appears that I could use it to cross the abilities that I already had to create something new.

    But, because I was too tired, after preparing some sleeping spots for the former slaves, I took a bath in the hot spring and lay down on my hand-made bed in the bedroom.

    This time, if everything went well and the war ended, it would end my contract with Father Elf.

    At that time I decided in my heart that I would prepare in order to go outside, before I fell into a deep sleep.

 Re:Monster Day 81-90

    Day 081 ~ 090

    Day 081

    The quality and quantity of experience points earned from yesterday¡¯s battle was good, so many of us ranked up.

    The Hobgoblin Cleric Hobuji-kun¡¯s race has now changed to one called ¡¾Half Saint Lord].

    He now has a small build with a height of about 170 cm and his limbs, rather than being compact, were genuinely thin and lacking muscles. He was like a beansprout. Also, black tattoos were now prominently displayed on his awfully white skin and on the back of both of his hands, while his moderately grown shoulder-length hair was somewhat silver and the color of his pupils were golden. Just like Supesei-san, a white orb was embedded in the center of his forehead, and the two small horns that were roughly 5cm long were growing next to it were his characteristic.

    His physical specs seemed lower than other Lords, similar to Supesei-san, but in exchange, it appears his race excels in defensive and healing abilities.

    To try it out, I had him injure and then test his healing on one of the slaves, and the healing rate was definitely incomparable to what it was before.

    Then I had him activate one of his unique abilities, the Field ¡ª I want you to imagine a thin membrane of light¨C, and tried hitting it. It was able to withstand 20 punches from me when I had no abilities activated.

    It was a considerably solid defense. I was a bit vexed.

    We had him renamed from Hobuji-kun to Seiji-kun.

    Hobufu-chan, a Hobgoblin mage who liked rotten flesh, turned into a ¡¾Ghoul].

    Well, since she has been enjoying the rotten flesh of the zombies I spawn, I was half-expecting this to happen, so I wasn¡¯t too surprised.

    Ghoul bodies do not inherently decompose. Her hair was black and her lifeless pale skin had black tattoos, as expected, and at a glance she looked like an ordinary human girl. However, probably because she had eaten decaying flesh and has gained the ability to devour souls, somehow, an extremely dangerous aura hung around her.

    And lately, she has been alternately looking between Ogakichi-kun and I, or sometimes between me and Seiji-kun while showing an ecstatic look on her face, sometimes even while drooling. What could this possibly mean. It¡¯s really creepy, and I would like to have her stop, but I don¡¯t think talking to her will have any effect.

    She was renamed from Hobufu-chan to Gurufu-chan. By the way, the character for ¡°fu¡± changing isn¡¯t a typo.

    TL Note: The ¡°fu¡± in Hobufu is the kanji ¸¡, meaning ¡°float¡± and the ¡°fu¡± in Gurufu is the character ¸¯, meaning ¡°rotten¡±

    One of the hobgoblins, Hobume-chan, became a ¡¾Dodomeki], which possesses countless eyes all over their bodies.

    She now has black hair and a 160cm tall feminine figure, but, to be honest, because of the eyes covering her whole body, whether she is pretty or not will depend on personal tastes. She was clad in a white kimono-style garment from the beginning, so it didn¡¯t seem like she needed new clothes.

    By the way, the white kimono-style garment is the defensive version of ¡°bio-sword¡±¨C a variety of ¡°bio-armor¡±.

    Although she had turned into a species that could use black magic, because of her low physical abilities, her overall combat ability is low. But in exchange, her species seems to be highly skilled at gathering information.

    I see, I see. She seems to be extremely useful in information warfare, so I¡¯ll look forward to it.

    It was decided to change her name from Hobume-chan to Dodome-chan.

    And the 7 hobgoblins, including the 5 that were former slaves, became ogres as expected.

    Amongst the seven, two were female ogres, and their appearance was, how should I say this, terrific in various ways. I¡¯m not sure why, but they had a strange intensity. They were about as tall as me and had black tattoos engraved on the brown skin that wrapped their muscular bodies. The sight of them letting out lively, manly laughter brought the atmosphere of elder sisters on some battlefield to mind.

    At a glance, I could easily imagine them wearing camouflaged clothes, carrying large firearms and rushing through the battlefield while mass producing corpses.

    All of them were renamed.

    In addition, six of the kobolds became foot soldiers, and their leader, who was a foot soldier to begin with , turned into a ¡¾Samurai Kobold].

    As for his appearance, he was wearing a mostly black kimono along with vermillion armguards, he had the face of an oriental man in his late thirties with dog ears and a tail attached, and he carried a longsword in a black sheath affixed to his waist.

    His face and body clearly became more human-like than when he was a foot soldier, but it is terrible to see a shabby man in his late thirties with a dog tail and dog ears.

    However I looked at it, I couldn¡¯t help but see it as cosplay, so I think it can¡¯t be helped that I shift my gaze at the sight of him.

    And although there was something cute about him gallantly following my orders and calling me ¡°My liege, my liege¡± while he had a dog¡¯s head, now that he does it with the rough appearance of a cosplay samurai, it makes me groan in various ways.

    Well, let¡¯s leave the looks aside.

    Earlier I just called him Foot Soldier Leader, so I wanted to call him Samurai Leader, but it seemed that the world bestowed something called a ¡¾True name] to those who exceeded a certain degree of existence.

    According to this, it seemed that the Samurai Leader¡¯s ¡¾True name] was ¡¾Akikaze no Tsuji].

    By the way, under normal circumstances, only idiots would tell their ¡¾True name] to other people.

    TL note : Akikaze no Tsuji in english means Autumn Wind¡¯s Crossing. ¨C Byr

    The reason was that knowing or not knowing a true name has an effect on the efficacy and strength of curses, as well as the regulating force of various other techniques.

    Revealing his name seemed to be part of a simple ceremony, where he pledged to serve me for his entire life. I nodded in understanding. Then I ended up having to think of a name for everyday use. I can¡¯t just use his ¡¾True name] all the time, right?

    After some thinking, I decided that he would be called Akitaken. Well, his previous appearance was similar, so I may have chosen it unconsciously.

    TL Note: Akitaken is a breed of dog originating from Japan. super kawaii.

    Well, since he was happy with it, it wasn¡¯t a problem.

    I handed out everyone¡¯s congratulatory gifts.

    Now, let¡¯s talk about the former slave troops.

    More than half of them decided to return to their home towns, but they didn¡¯t have the travelling expenses to make the trip in their current situation.

    So I gave them small jobs, like felling trees to make an external training ground or leveling the ground of the cave. I¡¯ll use the food, cooking utensils and money we looted from the human army to pay them for the amount of work they do. By the way, although they were deserters, they already had their own weapons, so this was not included in their salary.

    None of them are incompetent humans, so I think they¡¯ll be able to save up enough money in five or six days. Since we want them to leave as soon as possible, their hourly wage is unusually high.

    For that reason, there isn¡¯t much to say about the group that decided to go home.

    There is more to say about those who decided to stay, in other words, the 50 who decided to join our mercenary troop ?Parabellum?. There were various reasons for joining; they didn¡¯t have a home to return to although they were freed, having been slaves their whole lives made them lose their purpose of living, they wanted to continue living in a blood boiling, flesh moving battlefield, or they simply wouldn¡¯t feel satisfied until they repaid the favor.

    Here¡¯s a rough classification and count of the species:

    Lords: 3.

    Half-lords: 5.

    Dragonewts: 4.

    Half-dragonewts: 6.

    Ogres: 10

    Trolls: 1.

    Lizardmen: 5

    Dwarfs: 5

    Dullahan: 1.

    Orrorin: 3.

    Dhampir: 1.

    Redcap: 3.

    Weretigers : 2.

    Centaurs: 1.

    To be honest, these were all species that are stronger than hobgoblins, the majority of our current members. The Lords, which we didn¡¯t have yet, and the equally strong Dragonewts were especially powerful.

    I personally didn¡¯t mind letting all of them join, but having this many join at once could have many adverse effects. Leaving me aside, I expect the rest will not approve.

    Fundamentally, for us, the strongest are always right.

    This is because I had set our tribe up so they learned to obey the strong.

    Leaving aside the fact that I, being of the same species, rose to the top, if a bunch of guys you didn¡¯t even know suddenly joined, snatched away your position, and stood above you, dissatisfaction would accumulate, no matter what.

    If it were me, I wouldn¡¯t be able to endure it.

    Most of the hobgoblins would probably be able to win against the red caps, lizardmen, centaurs and dwarves; but, aside from a select few, they likely wouldn¡¯t stand a chance against any of the rest. Hence, if I just let them join without a second thought it¡¯d completely change the upper chain of command.

    The chance of the worst case scenario of the group splitting internally would be very high. Or rather, it would be more or less a certainty.

    I already trained them for so long, so it would be somewhat wasteful. No, actually, if I were to have expectations in the future, maintaining the hobgoblins was essential.

    Although I had various methods to keep guys from defecting, as I said before, it¡¯s much easier for me if everyone moved according to their own free will.

    Therefore, these 50 with their lower priority will get a probationary period, where they will have the lowest rank and do odd jobs until they gain my trust. They will have a rank lower than the lowest ranked goblins, and they will be treated like trainees.

    Having decided on that, dissatisfaction now rose among the former slaves.

    Well, it was obvious that this would happen and since it¡¯s troublesome to have everyone speaking all at once, if I sum it up and skip to the conclusion, they started saying that ¡°they will take command¡±.

    Among those yelling were the two direct-combat type Lords and ten dragonewts, including the halfs. There was also one of the Orrorin ¡ª looking like a boss-type with his gorilla-like hairy, muscular body ¡ª and the Dhampir; a total of 14 names.

    I thought that the Weretigers with their tiger heads and the Dullahan, who was carrying his head under his arm, would also raise objections, but they said ¡°We can¡¯t repay the good we received with evil¡±. It seemed that they truly had the personalities of warriors.

    Since they were easy to deal with, I think I will treat them a bit favorably. Although it¡¯s just as second-class soldiers amongst the trainees.

    Now, about the 14 who blurted out ¡°We will take command¡±, for the time being I decided to teach them their place.

    First I fought with both Lords at the same time.

    Since they both had much higher specs than me, there was no unwillingness on their side. Just like with Rusty Iron Knight, I didn¡¯t give them any enchantments.

    As for the reason, leaving aside the fact that their abilities as a ¡¾Gale Lord]and a ¡¾Flame Lord] were extremely compatible, they were the cockiest amongst the 14.

    They had quite happily yelled that I was of a lower race of ogres than them, so I was feeling like crushing not only their pride but a few other things as well.

    I only heard this later, but I apparently had a pretty eerie smile on my face at the time.

    The result was along the lines of both of them barely surviving and rolling around.

    It took around five minutes. After two minutes had passed, they released the power of their orbs, and the Gale Lord equipped emerald-armored long boots wrapped in wind while the Flame Lord equipped a flamberge that spewed ruby flames.

    However, I also started using abilities such as my threads and poison, sealed their movements, and eventually used one of the silver arm¡¯s abilities ¡¾Arm Blast] to crush both of their armaments, so it finished without me receiving any significant damage.

    I was able to confirm through this fight that when you broke equipment that appeared through an orb¡¯s power, the orb on the real body would crack and you wouldn¡¯t be able to use its abilities for a while. Also, you wouldn¡¯t be able to move for a while due to the recoil. Since both of these effects would naturally disappear with time, I wasn¡¯t worried about it.

    For the time being I had Seiji-kun, who finally had work to do, heal them.

    The four Dragonewts were next.

    The Halfs, after watching how the two Lords, who were clearly stronger than them, were beaten to a pulp, had a change of mind. It was too easy. By the way, the easiest way to tell apart a Dragonewt from a Lizardman was to see if they looked more human or more reptile.

    Leaving that aside.

    All four of them appeared to be Thunder Dragonewts, to be exact.

    It wasn¡¯t that they could move at the speed of lightning when clad in thunder, but they could generate thunder, and, in addition to the incredible physical abilities of Dragonewts, they could use ¡¾Thunder Breath], a kind of ¡¾Breath] that could only be handled by dragon-types. There was no doubt that they were a plenty powerful species.

    But, as none of that was a problem for me, I took on all four of them at the same time.

    It was even easier than defeating the two Lords.

    The reason was that, because I had already obtained ¡¾Electric Damage Nullification], none of their attacks were able to hit me. No matter how many Lightning Breaths were launched or Lightning Spears were lobbed at me, I nullified them all. Before you could tell if the lightning hit me or not, it all dissipated.

    I nullified their greatest ability ¡¾Lightning]. Even so, that didn¡¯t mean their excellent physical abilities were gone. If they had decent combat abilities, there may have been a chance of them killing me, but they had probably never given any thought to the power they were born with.

    Their skills were generally poor so they were no match for me, with my many abilities lending me a body exceeding that of the dragonewts in physical strength.

    Let me add that, like the Orbs of the Lords, Dragonewts had something called a Sphere with similar abilities, but it was so frail that it wasn¡¯t that significant.

    I thought of having Seiji-kun heal again, but in order to give the other members of the medical squad some hands on experience as well, I passed this opportunity on to them.

    Then, let¡¯s talk about the Monkey Boss. After my fight with the Dragonewts, the moment I finished giving instructions to Seiji-kun and the others, he launched a surprise attack on my back, which would normally be a blind spot.

    I detected it with ¡¾Intuition], so I could have easily avoided it, but since this surprise attack was nearly perfect, I decided to receive the blow. His method of hiding his presence, the way he discerned the moment to attack, his footwork, and the efficient use of his body to hit me, just through the overall act, I could see through the extent of the Monkey Boss¡¯ power.

    By racial standards, he was weaker than the Lords, but based on the battle skills he had consequently obtained, the Monkey Boss could be proud of the pretty high level he had amongst the 50 applicants.

    A rock-smashing blow hit me in the side, and I was smashed against the rock wall. Seeing this, the Monkey Boss started beating his chest. For a moment, only that sound was resounding in the area. I could have just gotten up without problem, but as I had received a surprise attack, I, letting my mischievous side get the better of me, also decided to set up a surprise attack, so I watched the situation for a while.

    Just as the Monkey Boss started to yell ¡°From now on, I¡¯m the boss here!¡±, I casually stepped out of the stone wall. I then returned the exact same surprise attack from behind him.

    Since he probably couldn¡¯t detect my attack, my fist sank into his defenseless flank, and with the sound of bones crushing, the Monkey Boss was sent flying into the stone wall, just like me. When I checked on whether he had survived, he was just barely alive. Hm, he¡¯s unexpectedly sturdy.

    Since the time frame for healing the Monkey Boss was limited, I entrusted it to Seiji-kun

    As for the remaining Dhampir, I didn¡¯t go easy on him, since he was trying to seduce Dhammi-chan while he was waiting. The vitality of vampire-types are usually high so it should be fine as long as I didn¡¯t go too far. That¡¯s how it is.

    He activated ¡¾Eyes of Bewitchment] as soon as we started but the effect was cut in half since we were of the same gender and besides, a bewitchment of this guy¡¯s level wouldn¡¯t have effected me anyways.

    I finished the fight by pinning down his limbs with knives I created through ¡¾Equipment Materialization] and hit him until his internal organs were on the verge of rupturing.

    I heard that most of his injuries would heal if he drank blood, so I let him drink some of mine.

    Personally, I was only thinking about having one of my clones in his body, but it seems my blood is considerably tasty. From the moment he drank one drop of my blood, he showed an ecstatic expression and his red eyes blazed brightly.

    It probably had something to do with my ¡¾Secret Medicine Blood] ability

    He only drank one full sake cup¡¯s worth of blood, but when he was done he exclaimed: ¡± Ooh, my dear beloved~¡±  and tried to kiss my hand, so I seriously pulled away. I think that even reflexively knocking him off his feet would be a normal reaction. He seemed to be happy to have been hit, but I¡¯ll pretend that I imagined it. Since it would only make me feel disgusted, I decided not to get too deeply involved with him.

    Then, I attached the pre-made cuffs to the newcomers, who will be treated as underlings, and started with the usual training.

    All of them had a decent level, so I tried something a little harder than usual.

    And in the afternoon, I had the five Dwarves work with Blacksmith-san and others.

    If you look at forging abilities, Dwarves are a race that can compete for first or second place. They had great physical strength, so they would be even useful as soldiers in the front lines, but for me, it would be more convenient to have them concentrate on smithing.

    Since the forging skill of Blacksmith-san and the others were lower, I instructed them to learn from the dwarves and I appointed the most skilled Dwarf as the Head Blacksmith. Blacksmith-san the the others seemed a bit uneasy about dealing with the proud, stubborn, father-like presence of the Dwarves, but I¡¯m sure that time will solve this matter.

    I¡¯m already looking forward to seeing what kind of products the Dwarves can make out of Mithril.

    As for the the afternoon training, I had the complaining newbies do Ogakichi-kun¡¯s daily training.

    The training of our ¡°battle junkie¡± Ogakichi-kun started with taking on ten Black Skeletons at the same time. There were no breaks until you defeated them, and even if you cleared that level, the amount of Black Skeletons kept increasing by ten every time a group was cleared, so it was very harsh.

    For now, so that they don¡¯t die, I told them to keep going until they couldn¡¯t stand any longer.

    Since I had a little time to spare now, I decided to try and use ¡¾Synthesis].

    From the start, I had been scared of synthesizing abilities, so I decided to try and use ¡¾Synthesis] to combine the orbs and spheres, that I had my clones retrieve from the dead Lords and Dragonewts during the battle yesterday, with my own body.

    I could¡¯ve collected all of the orbs and spheres from the corpses if I had wanted to, but I only gathered ten.

    The reason was to minimize that damage dealt to the human army¡¯s side, even if only by a little bit. If they were to keep receiving casualties, there¡¯s a possibility that they will be driven to a situation where retreat would not be an option.

    Orbs and spheres can be exchanged for extremely high sums of money and they can be turned into strong magic items. If they have that many, I¡¯m sure they could reduce the sustained damage by some extent. It seems that they have been collecting them until now so this might be an old story, but it¡¯s logical that having them is better than nothing.

    Well, for the time being, I synthesized two emerald orbs with both of my knees.

    The outcome was a success.

    When I released the power of the Gale Lord¡¯s Orbs, a pair of splendid boots appeared, like a deluxe edition of the Long Boots I had seen before. There were no compatibility issues with my body. I can also use the ability without any problems.

    Taking this as a good sign, I devoted myself to different kinds of Synthesis.

    v2 Taking advantage of this fortunate outcome, I endeavored in different way of using ¡¾Synthesis]

    Day 082

    I will state what I ascertained through using synthesis yesterday.

    Synthesis was extremely exhausting. Not physically, but mentally.

    After synthesizing all ten orbs and spheres with my body, when I synthesized ¡¾Sunlight Vulnerability]and¡¾Light Damage Vulnerability], which I wouldn¡¯t have minded losing, I lost all motivation to continue synthesizing due to mental fatigue.

    As long as I wanted to, there was nothing I couldn¡¯t do, but in this state where I lacked concentration, I could make an irreparable mistake if i continued, so I stopped at my very limit. Therefore, I am still unsure about what would happen if I synthesized beyond my limits. Well, I think that somethings are better off remaining unknown, so I have no desire to find out.

    By the way, the ability I gained through this synthesis was ¡¾Extreme Sunlight Damage Vulnerability]. As a test, while this ability was activated, I exposed my fingertip to the sunlight, but I never expected it to catch on fire.

    Yeah, spontaneous body combustion is no joke. Sealing confirmed.

    Now, regarding the two abilities I had synthesized, they were still present. However, their effects were not manifested when I activated them. With this, I affirmed that synthesized abilities could not be re-acquired.

    It seems I¡¯ll need to be very careful when synthesizing from now on.

    Today, I decided to leave the training of our new recruits to Ogakichi-kun again.

    As for me, I put some hard work into making the hot springs, the training grounds, and the residential area more comfortable with Asue-chan and the others.

    In addition to the skeletons, which didn¡¯t need breaks, we had 62 male slaves and part-time workers, so it was possible to finish a lot of work at once.

    Today we were working on improving our residential area, creating simple beds, improving our clothes, leveling the land of the outside training ground, making a wooden wall to block enemies who might try to invade our home, and perfecting the hot spring establishment to haul in more money from the elves.

    Just like how we used to be, the elves had only experienced bathing in cold water, and judging from the reactions of the elves, I think the hot spring will be a hit.

    I¡¯ve been thinking of advertising this by inviting the father elf sometime in order to spread rumors

    Today¡¯s synthesis results.

    ¡¾Dragon Scale Formation] + ¡¾Scale Armor Formation] = ¡¾Dragon Scale Armor Formation]

    ¡¾Prediction] + ¡¾Enlarged Field Vision] = ¡¾Instantaneous Sight]

    ¡¾Pump-up] + ¡¾Lord of the Mountain¡¯s Tenacious Muscle] + ¡¾Arm Strength Reinforcement] + ¡¾Leg Power Reinforcement] + ¡¾Jumping Power Reinforcement] = ¡¾Black Ogre¡¯s Tenacious Body]

    ¡¾Intimidating Roar] + ¡¾Scaled Horse¡¯s Neigh] = ¡¾Black Ogre¡¯s Roar]

    ¡¾Snake¡¯s Evil Eye] + ¡¾Intimidating Glare] = ¡¾Black Ogre¡¯s Evil Eye]

    ¡¾Lesser Damage Reduction] + ¡¾Lesser Magic Damage Reduction] = ¡¾Lesser Physical and Magical Damage Reduction]

    ¡¾Hinder Regeneration] + ¡¾Cursed Wounds] = ¡¾Festering Cursed Wounds]

    Using synthesis is quite tiring, so this is all for today.

    Day 083

    Without delay, I decided to try using my synthesized abilities during the morning training.

    To confirm the results quickly, I went up against 23 of our new recruits at the same time. By the way, I chose these members because they could easily be replaced.

    The race and count of newcomers were as follows

    Lords: 2

    Half lords: 5

    Dragonewts: 4

    Half-dragonewts: 6

    Trolls: 1

    Dullahan: 1

    Orrorin: 1

    Dhampir: 1

    Weretiger: 2

    Maybe because they came from the same battlefield, the synergy of our newcomers was pretty decent. But even then, their lack of skill was still obvious. Their movements were fast, but monotonic and were too wasteful, so I could easily predict their next move. Even so, I did sustain some damage, but it was only an amount that I could heal immediately by using my recovery abilities.

    We continued sparring until lunch without a break. It was a pretty nice training.

    It¡¯s just that I discovered that it was a pain to handle ¡¾Black Ogre¡¯s Tenacious Body], which I created by synthesizing five abilities. It was simply too strong. It was way too dangerous to use this in practice.

    I didn¡¯t expect that even the troll, who had the strongest defensive strength, would be knocked down in just one hit.

    And in the afternoon, I worked on improving our residential area again.

    The preparations for the hot spring is progressing steadily. The war between the humans and the elves seems to be slowly nearing its end, so once it¡¯s done, I plan on switching to a strategy that would use the human slaves once it¡¯s over.

    Day 084

    In the morning I woke up reacting to someone¡¯s voice calling me.

    Getting up from the bed in my birthday suit and stepping out of the room everyone was sleeping in, I saw a single warhammer made out of an purified alloy which included mithril, elemental stones, and steel, and was elaborately decorated and yet, still could be used on a battlefield, carried by the Dwarves.

    The warhammer was handed to me by the head Dwarf.

    Eh, what¡¯s this. When I inquired with my head tilted to one side, I was told that dwarves apparently have a custom of gifting self-made warhammers as a sign of friendship and gratitude. And the better the quality of the war hammer was, the stronger were the feelings.

    Nodding in understanding and thinking that I usually only wield long weapons, since it looked so skilfully made, I decided to accept it gratefully.

    Nevertheless, even though we could hold a conversation, if it¡¯s with races like dwarves whose lingual abilities I don¡¯t yet possess, there are some dialects mixed in that I don¡¯t understand, making it troublesome.

    Today, after morning practice, I wandered around the forest alone.

    The forest no longer held any existence which could be regarded as my enemy, so I felt a little lonely.

    Although I had to always be careful of my surroundings when I had just been born, now I need to conceal my presence just so that the creatures in my surrounding won¡¯t all run away. It¡¯s not as if that many days have passed since then, but I felt nostalgic thinking back on those days filled with danger.

    After about ten minutes of walking, I arrived at Dryad-san¡¯s place, whom I had met earlier. I¡¯ve had many conversation with her through my clones since then, but I had a matter to attend to today, so I came in person.

    Dryad-san was still as beautiful as ever. I was immediately seduced by her charm, but we finished our business first, and after that we spent some time together.

    TL Note : Dryad-san R2 FIGHT!. ROU IS WINNER! or is he?

    After that, I returned while gathering many of the ingredients that Dryad-san had told me about, and the night was a hot night in many ways.

    Some of the female human¡¯s bellies were starting to swell, I wonder who will be giving birth first.

    I¡¯m looking forward to it.

    Day 085

    To increase our self-sustenance in food, I decided to cultivate a field.

    I used the seeds I had Dryad-san make for me with magic and some that I picked up in the forest. Although the seeds Dryad-san made seem to be more efficient than their natural counterparts in various ways, I decided to attempt on improving their growth strength, effects and flavors even further by using Elemental Stones.

    For that reason, I only did basic training today and worked with everyone on landscaping the residential area and such. I put Redhead and some others from the former supply unit who had agriculture related  ¡¾Jobs] in charge and I had everyone work according to their instructions.

    I worked up a good sweat today.

    There¡¯s nothing wrong with some healthy labor.

    Today¡¯s synthesis results:

    ¡¾Scale Armor Drive] + ¡¾Dragon Scale Armor Formation] = ¡¾Solid Dragon Scale Armor]

    ¡¾Slashing Power Reinforcement] + ¡¾Piercing Power Reinforcement]  = ¡¾Slashing and Piercing Reinforcement]

    ¡¾Quick Thinking] + ¡¾Parallel Thinking] = ¡¾Quick, Parallel Thinking]

    Day 086

    In the morning, some members of the going home group, who had saved up enough money since they didn¡¯t have to travel too far, went home.

    I had already taken counter-measures to prevent information from leaking, and I had forbidden them from talking of this place, so whether they would live in peace or not depended on their own sincerity.

    Then, after saying my farewells, I separated the 36 nobles from the male slaves and decided to return them to their families. However, I wasn¡¯t returning them out of goodwill. Since the human army, which had already retreated to the plains, seemed to be withdrawing completely, I took advantage of this opportunity and by attaching my clones and brainwashing them with Dhammi-chan¡¯s ¡¾Eye of Bewitchment], I turned them into ¡°weeds¡± for gathering information from within the Empire and the Kingdom; in other words, I will use them as spies.

    I didn¡¯t really have any intentions of being hostile towards either of the countries, but my knowledge of this world is meagre and my connections with others is limited. It would be safest if I took every measure that I possibly could in case my main plan, which I was already pursuing, failed.

    After this event finished, we started the morning training as usual.

    By noon, the human army had completely finished its withdrawal, and after I confirmed that the weeds had successfully joined them, I used the communication equipment to contact Father Elf.

    We finished our talk about the end of our contract, confirmed our final reward, and after chatting for a while, it was decided that I would participate in the ¡¾Soul Banquet] that was being held in the Elf village that night.

    The ¡¾Soul Banquet] was some kind of ceremony held by the Elf tribe, where everyone came together to send off the dead, so that they did not stay in the present world because of lingering feelings for their family, friends, or loved ones and turn into Ghosts or Undead.

    Then in the evening, leaving the newcomers and my clones behind, we headed towards the Elf village bearing gifts.

    This time, I took along the Elves, whose number had been reduced to 13. I didn¡¯t intend on being so harsh that I would prevent them from participating in mourning their acquaintances. Since I changed their outward appearance with ¡¾Concealment], I didn¡¯t have to worry so much about their true identities being exposed.

    By the time we arrived at the Elf Village, the banquet had already begun.

    Ignoring the stares filled with all sorts of emotions mixed together that I could feel even before I entered the venue, I presented the meat of several Bicorns to Father Elf, who came out to greet us.

    I took the opportunity to have him guarantee the safety of Redhead and the others, who were standing next to me and curiously looking around. I originally had my doubts about bringing humans, but since they wished for it so strongly, I brought them along.

    However, I had Rusty Iron Knight and Female Knight stay at home.

    After exchanging our greetings, I told everyone to go mingle with the Elves and had them spread out. Even then, only a few of them actually tried holding a conversation with the Elves, and most of them just gathered in a corner and sampled the food.

    I, on the other hand, had a great time because Daughter Elf-san was pouring elf sake for me.

    At the end of the banquet, a spectacle broke out, where countless white sphere-like things fluttered around the huge bonfire in the center of the venue and ascended to the sky.

    According to Father Elf, the lights were the souls of the departed who went back to heaven. The hobgoblin shaman said that the spirits were indeed gone, so I suppose it was true.

    Again, I offered a silent prayer for a while.

    Day 087

    About the mining operation that Asue-chan was leading; it met its end as we excavated two huge elemental stones.

    We had exhausted the elemental stones. Originally, the reason why we could harvest such a wide variety of elemental stones was because the dungeon of Velvet, whom the elemental spirits were (apparently) fond of, was located here. After Velvet¡¯s death, the spirits gathered because of the presence of Returner, the warden of the dungeon, and this resulted in all kinds of elemental stones being generated.

    However, Returner had already passed away.

    Consequently, the spirits lost their reason to stop by at the dungeon, and if we dug up all of the elemental stones that were already here, no new ones would generate, so this was obviously the end.

    However, we had already secured more than enough, so I should stop myself from being too greedy.

    We have benefitted a terrific amount because of Velvet¡¯s blessing, and so, with feelings of gratitude, I offered prayers to the two huge elemental stones.

    After that, I ate the elemental stones, of course. Because I had never eaten elemental stones like these before.

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Photon Ruler] Learning complete]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Photon Resistance] Learning complete]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Gravity Law] Learning complete]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Darkness Resistance] Learning complete]

    The two elemental stones I ate ¨CThe elemental stone of Light and the elemental stone of Darkness¨C were top quality stones that surpassed every elemental stone we had ever mined in purity, size and beauty. I was a bit puzzled by the fact that I had gained gravity manipulation from the elemental stone of Darkness, but if you thought of black holes and such, it wasn¡¯t necessarily wrong. Besides, it was much easier to handle if you thought of it as ¡¾Gravity], rather than some vague concept like ¡¾Darkness], so I had no complaints. The application would be more effective, too.

    After that, I decided to advance our preparations for venturing outside. I had made a promise to take Redhead and the others to the city, so leaving aside the matter of them staying by my side or not, we needed to secure a vehicle, like a carriage.

    We could theoretically use our pets, but it would be a waste to not use my tireless pawns. I might as well utilize them.

    First, I used ¡¾Lesser Undead Generation] to mass-produce Black Skeletons.

    ¡ú After gathering their bones, I started constructing a vehicle by connecting the bones with ¡¾Bone Binding].

    ¡ú As for the appearance of the finished product, it looked like a skeletal centipede that had a luggage rack on its back.

    ¡ú Using the huge amount of clones that I had created, I coated the whole thing.

    ¡ú Done!

    By the time I finished, it was already night.

    After I ate dinner, I called out Redhead, Blacksmith-san, the sisters and Alchemist-san to talk about our departure in three days.

    They asked me whether I was chasing them out, but I explained that this was just to keep the first promise I had made to them, and also because I wanted to advertize some jobs. I told them that they had until the last minute to decide if they wanted to come along or not.

    We talked until late into the night.

    Day 088

    We finished the hot spring for guests. The first stage of the interior decoration in the cave was completed.

    Also, the rest of the going home group departed today.

    Our number dropped in one go, but there was no problem if you just thought of it as everything returning to normal.

    I complete various tasks, such as training and preparing preserved food for when we ventured out.

    Hm, today was a pretty peaceful day without any big events.

    Day 089

    It had been decided that we would create five groups and move out tomorrow.

    There were various reasons, like accumulating experiences and gathering information. However, the biggest reason was that the efficiency of gaining experience in this forest had gotten worse.

    Of course, because some would stay behind, I didn¡¯t have to worry about some other race taking over our home.

    Each group had exactly 10 members, but without counting pets, so, depending on the number of pet owners, the number could vary slightly.

    The group members are as follows:

    The first group is me, Dhammi-chan, Redhead and the four girls, and the three Lords.

    The second group is Ogakichi-kun, Asue-chan, one Hobgoblin Cleric, three humans, and four foot soldier Kobolds.

    The third group is Burasato-san, Supesei-san, three Elves, one Human, three Hobgoblins, and one Hobgoblin Cleric.

    The fourth group is two Ogres, one Hobgoblin Mage, two Weretigers, two Dragonewts and three Humans.

    The fifth group is Dodome-chan, four Ogres, two Humans, one Ninja Kobold, and one Centaur.

    The reason why there were humans in every group was to avoid any pointless conflicts and to do chores. Also, I included a few of our recruits, but I had no specific reason for that. If pressed, I would say that I did it on a whim.

    However, the nominated recruits seemed to have misunderstood this as an official enrollment exam, but since it seemed like they would tackle this task earnestly, I purposefully didn¡¯t correct them.

    Since Seiji-kun, Gurufu-chan, Rusty Iron Knight and Female Knight were staying behind, I intended to quickly finish my work, so I could take them outside as well.

    Well, a new generation may have been born by then.

    Well then, leaving that aside. Today, on the day before our departure, I invited Father Elf and his party to join me in the hot spring. The hot spring for guests wasn¡¯t inside the cave, but was located at a slightly distant place. This was because, in addition to viewing this from a defensive standpoint, this way it was also easier to enter it from the outside.

    Father Elf¡¯s response was superb. Since it seemed like he enjoyed it quite a lot, I asked him to advertise it. Of course, I explained the rules and that there was a payment system, and I entertained him with some light food. Thanks to the Sisters, there were now Goblins who could be called Goblin Cooks, so I would say that the food was delicious.

    His group was laughing with satisfied looks on their faces, and since they brought a barrel of Elf sake, we transitioned into a party. Fortunately, we had had an external training ground, so we gathered around a campfire and danced to our heart¡¯s content ¨Cof course, I was in charge of the music¨C and let the mood rise.

    As the days passed, the recruits seemed to be growing comfortable little by little, and so I witnessed them blending in with the members and dancing together. This is a good development.

    While observing that scene, I exchanged drinks with Father Elf.

    Yeah, it sure is nice to have a drinking buddy.

    Day 090

    It was finally the day of our departure.

    The already produced Black Skeletons, combined with the stockpile, were numerous, so there was no problem from a self-defense aspect, and I planned on having the construction operation continued in my absence.

    I planned on deepening our relationship with the Elves while making a profit by using things like the hot springs. Well, the hot spring business was just to kill time, or rather, mainly just a hobby, but it should suffice.

    Let me leave aside trifling details about our home. All preparations were already complete.

    Today, for the first time, we left the forest for real.

    When we came out of the forest, the windy meadow welcomed us.

    My thoughts rushed towards the unknown outside world.

    For the time being, our goal was to reach the fortress city of ?Trient?.

    Chapter 1, Forest of Birth, Black Beast Saga, complete.

    After the small talk, the story continues in

    Chapter 2, Beautiful Banquet, Malicious Princess Saga.

    ¡¾List of our forces after the first chapter]

    Official and Unofficial members are indicated.

    ¡¾Demon-type] Official Members

    Half Lord related: ¡¾4]

    Ogre: ¡¾7]

    Ogre Mage: ¡¾2]

    Dhampir: ¡¾1]

    Ghoul: ¡¾1]

    Dodomeki: ¡¾1]

    Hobgoblin: ¡¾10]

    Hobgoblin Mage: ¡¾3]

    Hobgoblin cleric: ¡¾3]

    Hob Goblin Shaman: ¡¾1]

    Goblin: ¡¾10]

    Elderly: ¡¾8]

    ¡¾Demon-type] Former Slave Members

    Lords: ¡¾3] Unofficial

    Half lords: ¡¾5] Unofficial

    Dhampir: ¡¾1] Unofficial

    Ogre: ¡¾10] Unofficial

    Troll: ¡¾1] Unofficial

    Redcap: ¡¾3] Unofficial

    ¡¾Human]

    Human: Female ¡¾7], male [1] Official

    Prisoners: ¡¾90] Official

    ¡¾Kobold-type]

    Warrior Kobold: ¡¾1] Official

    Footsoldier Kobold: ¡¾11] Official

    Ninja Kobold: ¡¾1] Official

    Kobold: ¡¾14] Official

    Elderly kobold: ¡¾3] Official

    ¡¾Dragon-type]

    Dragonewts: ¡¾4] Unofficial

    Half-dragonewts: ¡¾6] Unofficial

    Lizardman: ¡¾5] Unofficial

    ¡¾Giant/Fairy-type]

    Dwarf: ¡¾5] Unofficial

    Elf: ¡¾13] Official

    ¡¾Undead-type]

    Dullahan:¡¾1] Unofficial

    ¡¾Giant/beast-type]

    Orrorin: ¡¾3] Unofficial

    Weretiger: ¡¾2] Unofficial

    Centaur: ¡¾1] Unofficial

    ¡¾Pets/Familiars]

    Triple horned horse: ¡¾5] Official

    Hind bear: ¡¾2] Official

    Demon bear: ¡¾1] Official

    Orthos: ¡¾1] Official

    Black Wolf: ¡¾28] Official

 Re:Monster Day 91-100

    Day 91 ~ 100

    Day 91

    We departed the forest yesterday at noon.

    Enough time had passed, that if we had let the skeleton centipede run, which can move without resting, ¨Csince it would have stood out too much if we had left it like that, I disguised it as some weird self-propelling covered wagon. It was still conspicuous, but it was better than a skeleton centipede¡­ I think?¨C at full speed, we would have already been able to cross the vast grassland that lies beyond the forest, traverse the hilly area, leave the mountain pass behind, and maybe even reach the highway leading to our destination, the fortified city of ?Trent?.

    However, since we had spent a night in a village in the plains, we were still in the grasslands.

    The village we stayed in was called ¡°Clueto¡± and had a population of about 300. They did some minimal farming as a fallback, but mainly went to our birth forest, which was called the ¡°Big Kuudrun Forest¡± by the humans, to collect high quality wood, ¨CHere also, probably because of the spirits gathered by Velvet¡¯s dungeon, apparently there were ancient trees with traces of the spirit¡¯s powers¨C which was used to craft unusual chairs, instruments, and other things, which were then sold for income in the city.

    I had them show me their products, and they were magnificent. The power of the spirits, though only slightly, dwelled within, and I could understand why the rich would buy one of these as a kind of a status symbol. I imagine that those with Jobs that use instruments like ¡¾Minstrel] would seek to buy one of these, as they had an abnormally high performance.

    I heard that originally, this place was empty like the surrounding grassland, but as craftsmen with confidence in their skills gathered, seeking the high quality wood you could get from the forest, a settlement was formed, and an increase in apprentices working under the craftsmen resulted in the creation of this so called artisan-village. In a few years, the size should increase even further.

    As there were some master artists among the craftsmen who specialized in trading with aristocrats, through the noble client¡¯s arrangements to guard the village, there were five manmade magical creatures, the ¡¾Guardians]¨CLong story short, they were golems made of iron. Their physical power was weaker than an Ogre¡¯s but stronger than a Hobgoblin¡¯s, so they were not especially strong, but because they were made of iron, their endurance was extremely high¨C that were stationed there. In addition, as precautions towards external threats, they installed watchtowers, moats and a wooden wall.

    According to Redhead and the others, this was one of the villages that were blessed with an environment that could be considered quite safe in this world.

    However, if that were the only thing about this village, I would have just casually stopped by ¨CThere was some trouble, as I was an ogre, but I will omit that part. Also, I changed my conspicuous black skin color with one of Velvet¡¯s legacy items, the ¡¾Shape-shift Ring], to brown, the same color as normal Ogres. I plan on eating the ring afterwards¨C and after saying my greetings around the neighborhood and handing out business cards, or rather, business metal plates containing one of my clones, which gave it a communication function, I would have left for the city.

    The reason we didn¡¯t do so was because a problem had recently broken out in this village and the villagers were troubled by it.

    The problem was as follows.

    Since around ten years before this village was founded, the people would safely gather high quality wood from the forest by offering a couple female slaves or a certain amount of food or weapons every half a year to the Orc tribe living in the forest. It seems that the Orcs protected them from the monsters in the forest.

    Apparently, that was the most convenient solution at the time the village was founded, and that had continued until today.

    Nevertheless, recently, the Orcs had not only broken their promise, but also started attacking as they were lumbering, and because of that, around three young female apprentices had been kidnapped. Not only that, they had even attacked the village several times.

    The ¡¾Guardians] were monsters that were strong enough to easily kill Orcs, but they weren¡¯t enough if they came in great numbers. Although the ¡¾Guardians] couldn¡¯t be destroyed, with just five of them, they couldn¡¯t cover the entire village. In order to protect the village, the baffled villagers took up arms and fought, and as a result, although there weren¡¯t any deaths, people got injured one after another, their fields were devastated, and they couldn¡¯t safely gather their material, the high quality wood, anymore.

    The villagers wondered why the Orcs, who had been friendly for the past ten years, would carry out such barbarous acts, and it seems that they concluded that Orcs were nothing but monsters in the end.

    They still had a surplus of wood, but if this situation were to continue, it would hinder their delivery period and, in a worst case scenario, they would lose their customers and the village would decline in prosperity. That would turn this place into a ghost town.

    Its history was shallow and most of the villagers weren¡¯t born and raised here, but if you lived somewhere, you were bound to grow fond of that place. Especially for the senior craftsmen who had been living here for ten years since the foundation. They were frustrated at the thought of the village being deserted and it was obvious that, as a human, you would try to avoid losing your job.

    They had even started talking about sending an Orc subjugation request to a Guild in the near future, rather than having something like that happen.

    In other words, um, we were the root cause for the critical situation in this village.

    Our current headquarters once belonged to the orcs. We then snatched it away by killing the Orcs. At that time, we annihilated their main force, or rather, their leader and the mages, which were the brains of the tribe, and ate them.

    As a result, only those who were not in the mine at that time, that is to say, the Orcs who were in the settlement, survived, and as a result of examining them with my clones, I confirmed that only Orcs who lacked intelligence were left. Although their number had diminished as they were killed by the ¡¾Guardians] and the villagers when they had attacked Clueto village, there were still around thirty survivors.

    The results may have been different if there had been some clever survivors, but in reality, the work and food distribution system set into place by the leader and the mages collapsed with their deaths and the Orcs acted on instinct, recklessly eating their food supply, which led to them being troubled by food shortages. It was an understandable flow of events.

    Orcs were strong, but they weren¡¯t very skilled at hiding their presence, so it was not hard to imagine that it would prove to be difficult for them to catch enough animals and monsters from the forest, which were sensitive to presences, to ensure that none of the Orcs starved.

    Recently, the Orcs had become thin. You could tell by their appearance that they had not eaten anything proper.

    The remaining Orcs, who had been driven into this corner, then resorted to looting the humans as a way to somehow stay alive. This was because humans were way easier to hunt than the beasts of the forest.

    Since they would also get crops from the fields, there was even more reason to do this.

    Then the Orcs attacked the village.

    So yeah, in that sense, the cause lay with us, especially me.

    Even I couldn¡¯t bring myself to just ignore the problem I had involved these strangers into. All the more if I was the origin. Besides, well, actually, this is my real motivation, but if the villagers sent out a request, the location of our base would probably get leaked. From the fact that the Orcs occasionally sold the elemental stones that they had dug up in this village, the cave would definitely be searched for and investigated.

    Elemental stones were valuable. If you sold them in the right place, you could earn vast amounts of money. There was also a demand for them as an ingredient for high quality magic items. I couldn¡¯t imagine that humans would overlook such a money tree. It seemed that they had not been investigating and had kept the information hidden because of the contract with the Orcs, but that was now all in the past.

    If you asked me, I would like to avoid having them search. The base was still in the middle of being fortified. I wanted to prevent as much information from leaking as possible. Keeping the base a secret was top priority.

    Therefore, I talked with the mayor of this village yesterday, and since we lost time agreeing on a contract for us to protect them while they felled the trees, we ended up staying a night.

    He thought that they would be betrayed like with the Orcs, but Redhead and the others were able to pursuade him. As I thought, in times like these, words from members of the same race could carry a lot of weight. Although, me healing their wounded without charge may also have been one of the main factors.

    Anyway, we reached an agreement with Clueto village. We settled on having a short-term contract along with several promises for now, and after seeing how it went, we could make an official long-term contract. We agreed that they would not look for elemental stones, so it should be fine for now. I also threatened the mayor by saying that we could not guarantee what would happen to this village if they breached the contract.

    Since we compromised a lot on the reward and such, this much was probably fine.

    With the problem solved, we received our breakfast and departed from the village.

    When we established our contract ¨Cin other words, around yesterday evening¨C I sent an order to the group back at the base, and within a few hours, the remaining Orcs had all been turned into roast pork, so the Orc problem was already solved.

    The reason why we killed them rather than enslaving them was that we didn¡¯t need slaves on the level of Orcs, and also because they tasted pretty good, so I had them eaten to boost the energy of those defending our base.

    As for the three kidnapped women, ¨CAs you could tell from their name, and from the ability I gained from them, Orcs were pretty much bottomless in that area, so they were dirtied quite a bit, but I¡¯m sure the villagers would do something about that¨C we saved them, so today at around noon, I plan on having ten Goblins led by a Hobgoblin Mage, a party of eleven, take them to the village when they visit them.

    It would be fine if we started building up their trust from now on.

    Also, we decided on taking in the several surviving female slaves that the Orcs had kept.

    I think their living environment will be better than before.

    You could say that that these were pretty good omens.

    While being rocked by the skeleton carriage, I consumed the bracelet.

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Shape-Shift] Learning Complete]

    For now, I¡¯ll only change my body color. The red tattoo is still visible, though.

    Day 92

    I gave up on the idea of getting to the city quickly. This was because I wanted to devote my energy to thoroughly investigating our surroundings and eating monsters.

    Our current location was the hilly area just beyond the grasslands, where, in addition to the Bicorn we had killed and eaten in the grasslands, we found many other species we hadn¡¯t encountered before. For example, the ¡°Boarfolle¡±, a mix of a rhinoceros, buffalo, and a boar,  the ¡°Turtle Snake¡±, a two meter long snake with a red 30 cm diameter turtle shell in the middle of its body, the ¡°Horn Rabbit¡±, which was probably a higher rank of the Horn Rabbit with a sharp 20 cm long blade growing from its head, and the ¡°Harpy¡±, which looked like a human that had switched its limbs with those of a bird.

    I was sure that I would gain abilities I had never gotten before if I ate them. I was looking forward to it.

    It¡¯s just that, there weren¡¯t many places to hide, unlike in the forest. Dhammi-chan and I could somehow manage, but it would be really hard for Redhead to approach the enemy by hiding in a blind spot and launching a surprise attack.

    Given our situation, we decided that Dhammi-chan and I would strike first with a magic attack, and while the enemy was knocked back, I would ride the Demon Bear Kumajirou with Redhead and approach the enemy.

    Dhammi-chan¡¯s ?Familiar?, the Triple Horn Horse, was left at our base for various reasons, so she was riding Kurosaburou, who was now a Orthrus.

    I could have finished everything by myself, but then Dhammi-chan, Redhead, Kumajiro and the others wouldn¡¯t receive any experience points, so this was the best strategy.

    However, I still wonder why Dhammi-chan was looking at Redhead so enviously.

    Our first target was a herd of Boarfolle. There were 10 of them. I decided that we would turn at least one of them into a ?Familiar? as a camouflage, to make it look like it was pulling the skeleton centipede.

    Well, since people were surprised at the skeletal wagon when we stopped at the village, I decided to make it look more proper. I could have used Kumajirou, who was lying around on the luggage rack, but since we planned to use him as a mount in emergency situations, I dropped that idea. And since Kurosaburou is skilled at raid attacks, it¡¯s much more efficient to have him move on his own, rather than riding him.

    Getting back to the story, we succeeded in hunting down Boarfolles.

    According to Redhead and the others, the horns of a Boarfolle can be sold at a high price as an ingredient for medicine, so I tore them off.

    It seemed that you could also sell the meat, but for now we ate around five of them for breakfast.

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Crushing Rhino Body] Learning Complete]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Desensitization] Learning Complete]

    The amount I ate was quite a bit, but since they were weaker than me, I only obtained two abilities. Well, I think that¡¯s about right. They both seem pretty useful, so it doesn¡¯t bother me and I have no complaints.

    Rather, the quality of the meat was so good that there was no way I would be dissatisfied. I cooked it like yakiniku and I couldn¡¯t stand the texture of how the meat melted when I put it into my mouth, and how the deliciousness spread around. Having this flavor despite its looks, you couldn¡¯t help but think that you were being tricked.

    TL Note : Yakiniku is thinly sliced meat (usually beef) roasted on a metal net over an open fire.

    In this case, I think it was natural to scream out that Boarfolle meat was delicious.

    I didn¡¯t miss the chance to have my blood clones run around and fill out the map in my head while eating. After the meal, I changed the shape of the skeletal centipede so that the Boarfolle, who was turned into a ?Familiar?, could pull it, and we set off towards the hilly area.

    After a while, we discovered a Blade Rabbit. Despite the Blade Rabbit being larger than a Horn Rabbit and having a sharp weapon, to me and Dhammi-chan, it was only small fry that could easily be trampled, so we let Redhead hunt it down.

    I decided to watch with Blacksmith-san and the others while drinking some black tea that we got from Father Elf.

    It looked like Blade Rabbits were unexpectedly nimble. Over short distances, it was moving even faster that the Red Deer that Redhead used to chase down and slaughter. Redhead was being toyed with by its speed and its strange movement pattern. The number of small wounds she sustained as they crossed each other kept growing and blood was spilling out.

    A small cry rose from the sisters each time, but Redhead kept her cool and continued observing the Blade Rabbit. Yes, she may be losing in speed, but she had only received scratches and had not yet sustained a fatal wound. This was likely the results of our daily training showing.

    After around a minute, Redhead, who had gotten used to the speed, swung down her kukri knife and precisely hit the neck of the Blade Rabbit, tearing through its flesh and neck bone.

    After picking up the head and the body that were rolling around on the ground, Redhead turned towards us. I nodded. Seeing that, she began devouring them. That is, raw. She ate the blade on the forehead as if it were a rice cracker.

    Since she hadn¡¯t drained the blood, the fresh blood splattered out and dyed Redhead¡¯s mouth and leather armor red.

    I could tell that even Alchemist-san, who usually kept her cool, had her breath taken away by the gory scene.

    Seeing that, I told them, ¡°That is a necessary measure to restrain the side effect of Redhead¡¯s ¡¾Noire Soldier], so there¡¯s no worry about her getting sick.¡±, but they replied disappointedly, ¡°No, that¡¯s not the problem¡­¡±.

    Then they chuckled, laughing at me.

    I wonder why.

    Well, whatever. Since I was set at ease by patting Redhead on her head, who was happily saying that eating the Blade Rabbit had raised her ability stats with a red stain around her mouth, I let that slide. By the way, I completely removed the huge amount of blood stuck to her leather armor with ¡¾Hydro Hand], so there wasn¡¯t even a trace left.

    At noon, I discovered a den of the Turtle Snakes. It seemed that Turtle Snakes made their nest underground by digging holes, just like ants. This was strange behaviour, but I found out that a lot of them were sleeping underground, thanks to ¡¾Echolocation], so I decided to attack them all at once.

    Using ¡¾Earth Control], I pushed out every single sleeping Turtle Snake. The momentum was so strong that they flew high into the sky, so Dhammi-chan, Redhead, the three Lords we brought along, and I split up and cut off their necks.

    The races of the Lords were a ¡¾Gale Lord], a ¡¾Flame Lord], and the last one was an ¡¾Illusion Lord].

    The fact that the ¡¾Illusion Lord], who wasn¡¯t a melee type, took time to chop off the heads while Redhead hunted down more, goes without saying.

    I heard that the shells of the Turtle Snake could be sold at a high price, so we were careful to not damage the shell. When we counted after finishing, there were 88 Turtle Snakes. I had killed 38 of them.

    Red was shocked, saying that I was too fast, but since Blacksmith-san and the others were praising me with excitement, saying how amazing I was, I was in a good mood.

    I stored the shells we collected in my item box, and we turned the snake meat into kabayaki and ate it.

    Tl Note : Kabayaki is a way of cooking eel in Japan where the eel is split down the belly, filleted, skewered, and then grilled.

    The kabayaki, which we weren¡¯t able to do with the Night Vipers, was very delicious. Its compatibility with Elf Sake was outstanding. I wanted to eat this again. Or rather, I chose in my heart to definitely eat this again.

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Hide in Shell] Learning Complete]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Dormant] Learning Complete]

    The taste was good, but the abilities I got were iffy. I¡¯ll definitely sell those shells at a high price.

    Actually, I wanted to try eating the Harpies flying in the sky, but leaving Dhammi-chan and Redhead aside, I thought it would be bad for the mental health of Blacksmith-san and the others, so I¡¯ll eat when they¡¯re not around. I¡¯ll hold myself back for now.

    At around three in the afternoon, we thought we had done enough, so we decided to set off towards the mountain path beyond the hilly area.

    As I had already completely mapped out the hilly area with my clones that ran around, I had no special regrets.

    Now, I wonder what kinds of monsters we will find on the mountain path.

    Day 93

    There seemed to be three mountain paths, namely a path which was the shortest, but ran along a perilous cliff, a basic, wide path which was average in both danger level and distance, and a path which had the lowest danger level, but followed a long river.

    This goes without saying, but I chose the route which was the shortest, but was along the perilous cliff.

    When it was said to be perilous, there was the fact that the road was rougher than the others, but above all, the strongest monsters, comparable with the Hind Bears, dwelled along this cliff, and there was even a boss-class monster like the Red Bear.

    Furthermore, it seemed that the strength of this boss-class monster living here surpassed that of even the Red Bear.

    The strongest species that inhabited the cliff  around these parts was said to be huge eagles with four wings and brown feathers, called the ¡°Falaise Eagle¡±. Their average body size was about two meters, and the sight of them flying as they spread out their four wings, which were more than twice as big as their body size, overwhelmed observers. Furthermore, it seemed that they had high flight speeds, were more maneuverable than their huge frames would indicate, and could secrete a paralysis poison from their talons to slowly weaken their prey, which was rather troublesome.

    TL Note : The Kanji for the Falaise Eagle literally means four winged large eagle. ¨C Cookie

    I also heard that the boss that led them ¨Ca ¡¾Falaise Eagle Subspecies] with jade colored feathers¨C was even bigger, and due to the abilities from the ¡¾Divine Protection] of one of the gods, it could attack its targets by generating small tornados from its mouth, or by transforming the wind born from the flapping of its wings into blades that chopped through the enemies. In addition, it had enough intelligence to command its subordinates.

    Ever since this guy started living here, it seemed that there were barely any people who used the path along the cliff.

    Indeed, it was a troublesome story. The Red Bear was strong, but in the end, it moved alone. However, this time, I should probably think of the enemy as a group.

    Blacksmith-san and the others explained all this to me very thoroughly before we entered the cliff route, but I said that it was OK and pushed on, so there wasn¡¯t anything special to worry about.

    Certainly, the flight speed of the Falaise Eagles was very fast. In addition to the speed, it was difficult dealing with them because they came flying out of the many blind spots along the cliff path. However, since I had ¡¾Detect Presence], it was a piece of cake for me to aim for the exact moment they would come out of the blind spot and capture them by using my thread.

    Once you knew about a surprise attack before it happened, it was really easy to counterattack. Just like that, after removing the parts that could be sold from the 18 Falaise Eagles we caught, we cooked the rest as Karaage or Yakitori and ate them.

    TL Note : Karaage is deep fried chicken and yakitori is grilled, skewered chicken, usually glazed with a teriyaki sauce. ¨C Cookie

    The meat had a refreshing flavor and tasted pretty good.

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Panic Voice] Learning Complete]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Feather Generation] Learning Complete]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Knowledge of High-Speed Flight] Learning Complete]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Wind Reading] Learning Complete]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Paralysis Talons] Learning Complete]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Paralysis Resistance] Learning Complete]

    As we were proceeding like that, at around two in the afternoon, we reached the widest part of the cliff path. There were all sorts of animal bones scattered across the ground, and rather than a path, it looked more like something¡¯s nest. Upon closer inspection, you could find the remains of several human bones and equipment. It was as if they were the remains of those who had come to subjugate the beast living on the path, but had the tables turned against them.

    As I was thinking that, from above, the loud flapping sound of wings rang through the air. A sudden gust blew violently against our skins.

    I wasn¡¯t surprised, as I had already felt their presence with ¡¾Detect Presence], and I looked up into the sky.

    There, I saw, in addition to five Falaise Eagles, a ¡¾Falaise Eagle Subspecies] with jade-colored feathers ¨Ca ¡°Jade Eagle (tentative name)¡±. The sight of its body, which was more than twice as big as a normal Falaise eagle, flying powerfully through the air, was overflowing with an overwhelming presence.

    It was even larger than a Red Bear, and the intimidation it was radiating was on a whole different level.

    Our eyes met. I felt an uncomfortable feeling around the nape of my neck. It had definitely come here to kill us.

    Its jade-colored feathers sparkled, reflecting the sunlight like blades, and its diamond-like beak and talons were constantly moving, as if they were aching to quickly tear apart the flesh of the prey. Talon scraped on talon and sparks flew.

    I could sense intelligence in its yellow eyes looking down on me. It had enough elegance to make me think that it would be a waste to kill it.

    Unfortunately, I try to eat enemies I see for the first time whenever possible, and this Jade Eagle was a subspecies. If I ate it, I would probably obtain ¡¾Divine Protection]-type abilities, just like with the Red Bear. For me, it was an enemy I had to eat.

    Entrusting the protection of Redhead and the others to Dhammi-chan and the three Lords, I used ¡¾Insect Wing Generation] to grow insect-like wings from my back, and flew towards the airborne enemy that was looking down on me.

    I had a Halberd grasped tightly in my hands.

    I think about an hour had passed.

    As expected, the sky was the Jade Eagle¡¯s territory.

    The flight speed and turning ability brought forth by the four wings were exactly like the wind. Thanks to the ¡¾Knowledge of High-Speed Flight] I had just obtained, I was able to better understand how amazing it was.

    I was toyed around with by the Jade eagle, who freely flew around the sky like the wind. My flight had faced difficulties as it was shaken by the turbulence created by the eagle¡¯s four wings, my wings were torn off again and again by the small tornado spears it shot from its mouth, and its huge paralyzing talons had gouged out flesh from several places all over my body.

    My whole body was stained in blood and I was continuously losing body fluids. Moreover, the jade feathers were sharp and hard, cutting my flesh with the slightest graze. This was extremely troublesome..

    Since I couldn¡¯t dodge all of its attacks, my right arm, which I had been using to shield myself, was cut off by its diamond talons, and my left leg was bitten off by its diamond beak. There was probably some anti-healing property to its saliva, because blood continued flowing out from my left leg without stopping, so I had to resort to forcing the blood to stop flowing by clenching my muscles.

    Fortunately, I had ¡¾Severe Pain Resistance] and ¡¾Desensitization], so even if I were this severely wounded, the pain didn¡¯t distract me. However, I was being slowly driven into a corner.

    As expected, while airborne, I had difficulty perfectly executing the many martial arts I had mastered. This was because, in the end, they were merely methods that were developed and passed down by humans. It was difficult to demonstrate their full effect while in the air.

    With that said, it didn¡¯t mean that it was a one-sided fight.

    I had already cut down all five Falaise Eagles that had tagged along.

    The right leg of the Jade Eagle had been cut off by my halberd, there were several holes in its four wings and there was a deep wound in its torso. The jade body feathers were dyed red here and there.

    It wasn¡¯t that I was losing in terms of individual power in any way.

    However, the sky was an unfamiliar battleground. The enemy¡¯s territory was weighing me down.

    I must have been an easy target for the Jade Eagle, since my mind was slightly disarrayed, due to being exposed to strong winds caused by its raging whirlwinds and having to fight and fly simultaneously, which I wasn¡¯t accustomed to, and because of this strong damage, my initial flight speed had declined significantly.

    The intensity of the attacks increased and at last, the halberd in my hand fell onto the cliff path. Luckily, the Halberd fell and stuck into the ground in the direction the skeleton centipede was travelling, and didn¡¯t fall down the cliff. Nevertheless, it was not in a place where I could pick it up immediately.

    The Jade Eagle, probably seeing me losing my weapon as a good opportunity, took a larger distance from me than ever before and came flying straight towards me, seemingly intending to pierce through me with its diamond-like beak.

    Along with that came storm-like winds.

    The Jade Eagle, riding the sudden gust it probably generated with its ¡¾Divine Protection] abilities, flew at a speed that couldn¡¯t be compared with anything until now. It seemed like it was flying towards me with its actual, full speed.

    It made me think that it did a good job, going so far with such a tattered body.

    A cry rose from Redhead and the others.

    Pierced by its beak, I would meet my end in the sky.

    I felt that the Jade Eagle, firmly believing in its victory, smiled a little.

    I clenched my teeth with a vexed look.

    I tried putting on such an act.

    No, to be exact, this was simply the result of me limiting the abilities I would use, and so it ended up this way.

    As expected, it seemed that this wasn¡¯t such an easy enemy that I could win in its territory without using any abilities. Well, they were stronger than Ogres as a race, so you could say that it was obvious.

    I stopped the fight that I was treating as training to raise my own strength and I decided to seriously go and kill it.

    After estimating the timing at which the Jade Eagle would fly into me, I activated numerous abilities, one after another, that I hadn¡¯t used in the fight until now.

    I ate my right arm, which had been cut off but I had secretly collected, and thereby fulfilled the activation conditions for ¡¾Infused Liquid Restoration], and by stacking ¡¾Rapid Regeneration] and ¡¾Rapid Recovery], I instantly healed all of the wounds on my body. Even my chopped off right arm and my torn up left leg regenerated immediately. In exchange, I used up a lot of energy and I got hungry, but there was food right in front of my eyes, so that wasn¡¯t a problem.

    Next I changed my appearance into something like a red stag beetly using ¡¾Exoskeleton Equip]. The exoskeleton not only had a defensive function, but also enhanced my physical strength, and by simultaneously activating ¡¾Black Ogre¡¯s Tenacious Body] and ¡¾Dragon Scale Armor Formation], I transformed into something like a stag beetle with dragon scales.

    I sprouted golden threads from my fingertips and entangled the Jade Eagle, who had been witnessing my instantaneous transformation, and additionally used ¡¾Gravity Law] to manipulate gravity to pull him in the opposite direction he was flying in, and forced him to lose momentum.

    Several of the golden threads were cut by the wind blades surrounding the body, but some of the threads remained, and since it was not able to go against the intangible gravitational pull, the amazing speed had already disappeared.

    I swung both my fists down onto the head of the enemy, who couldn¡¯t change its trajectory at such a late point.

    I didn¡¯t use an ability. I just simply swung down my arms at full strength. If I did this with my current enhanced physical strength, the results should be as clear as day.

    The Jade Eagle was thrown onto the ground at a high speed. It was an attack that resulted in a small crater where it hit the ground. It was on a level that normally would¡¯ve sent limbs flying and killed it instantly.

    However, maybe because of the especially tough vitality of this monster, it was still alive. Still, it was only to an extent where you could say that it just wasn¡¯t dead yet. Although, I thought it was impressive just by the fact that it didn¡¯t die.

    I recovered the halberd I had lost and put an end to our fight by beheading the Jade eagle.

    I collected the jewel-like eyeballs from the head that had fallen off and put them in a small bottle filled with a liquid before eating the skull with its meat. Delicious. It felt as if the Jade Eagle¡¯s life force was flowing into me.

    After being satisfied, I took apart the body as usual, by removing the skin while being careful that the blade-like jade feathers wouldn¡¯t fall out and by preparing the meat I chopped off. As I was cutting around the heart, I felt the sensation of my hunting knife hitting something hard. I knew that it wasn¡¯t bone from the feeling, and when I curiously investigated, I found something like a jade-colored, ten centimeter large cobblestone.

    Thinking to myself ¡°What is this?¡± I used ¡¾Appraisal] and found out that it was an item called the ¡¾Lord of Falaise Eagles¡¯ Spirit Stone].

    As I turned towards Blacksmith-san and the others, wanting to ask what this was, the four peddlers were immediately standing next to me, staring at the stone in my hands as if they were ready to devour it.

    They came so fast that I wanted to ask when they approached me. It really startled me.

    TL Note : What, you got startled by weak humans? ¨C rei_hunter

    Pulling myself together, I had them explain what it was, since they seemed to know something, and they said that ¡¾Spirit Stone]-type items were all ¡¾Legendary]-class.

    It seemed that the you can get ¡¾Spirit Stones] from one in a hundred boss-type monsters. The stronger the boss-type monster, the purer, the rarer, and the stronger the ¡¾Spirit Stone] you could get from it was.

    Even then, boss-type monsters weren¡¯t something you could hunt down easily.

    There was even a story that there was once a well-known boss-type monster who was recognized as having a ¡¾Spirit Stone], and a certain country¡¯s army was deployed to subjugate it, but was wiped out completely.

    The ¡¾Spirit Stone] was not an item you could simply get by aiming for it.

    Therefore, it seemed that when a ¡¾Spirit Stone]-type item was put on an auction, enough money was moved to buy a small country. However, most of the time it wasn¡¯t offered for sale, but was used to craft a magic item with unmatched power.

    It was interesting to hear and as I was wondering whether I should eat it or not, the four glared at me with looks that seemed to say ¡°There¡¯s no way you¡¯re going to eat that, right? If you¡¯re going to eat it, let¡¯s sell it.¡± So I decided to put it in my item box for now.

    I gave a wry smile to the four, who were merchants through and through.

    Since I was probably able to obtain this thanks to ¡¾Luck] and ¡¾Golden Rule], I felt gratitude towards them.

    After that I draped on the skin I had peeled off with its jade feathers and activated ¡¾Exoskeleton Equip].

    Just like the time when it took in the Red Bear leather armor to create the Red stag beetle-like exoskeleton, it took in the Jade eagle skin with its jade feathers and a second new exoskeleton was created and registered.

    It was a polished exoskeleton with a jade and black color scheme, and there were four wings on the back. There were sharp projections here and there, and diamond talons were attached to my arms and legs. It seemed I could retract them by will, so it should be useful. The new exoskeleton had an overall resemblance to birds.

    I flied to try it out, and I could fly faster than with my insect wings. It seemed that, when I  brought out my wings, they automatically generated a gust, which raised my flight speed.

    I also impulsively activated my insect wings, and it was a pleasant surprise to see that I could fly even faster.

    While thinking that they would play a big role in air battles, I decided to eat the meat next.

    I also thought this when I ate the head, but it was so delicious that it could fight for first or second place among what I had eaten until now.

    So good that I reflexively shouted out.

    ¡°Delicious!¡±

    ¡¾Ability¡¾Fletching]Learning Complete]

    ¡¾Ability¡¾Predator of the Sky]Learning Complete]

    ¡¾Ability¡¾Divine Protection of the Storm God]Learning Complete]

    ¡¾Ability¡¾Dust Storm Immunity ]Learning Complete]

    ¡¾Ability¡¾Indestructible Flash Talon]Learning Complete]

    ¡¾Ability¡¾Sonic Bird]Learning Complete]

    The result was satisfying. There were many abilities that seemed good, and I also gained a lot.

    Next, wondering if I could maybe gain something, I searched the corpses of the dead adventurers and I found five still usable storage backpacks. When I checked the contents, I found a lot of money, weapons, and armor, as well as medicine, so I took it gratefully. There were some other useful things, so I took those as well.

    As compensation, I gave the many corpses, who had been reduced to bones, a proper burial.

    I gathered all bones in one place and cremated them.

    Rest in peace.

    After offering a prayer, we continued on our way. The only thing that bothered me, though, was that the three Lords started pointing their gazes, filled with mixed feelings, at me.

    It felt as if they were looking at a monster, but also looking at someone they admired; it was that kind of look.

    Day 94

    Today, it rained heavily.

    Fortunately, we made it to the main road leading to the city yesterday, so we were able to take shelter from the wind and rain in a so-called ¡°resting place¡±, a simple, huge, one-story house with a width and length of 30 meters. The skeleton centipede was in the shelter for carriages.

    The group of peddlers and the gathered adventurers, who had entered before us, got scared or showed bloodthirst the moment they saw me enter, so for now, I took out two wine barrels that I had looted from the human army and distributed drinks to everyone there.

    I was able to win over the adventurers but not the peddlers, so I tried interacting with them by selling the turtle snake shells we got earlier, some materials we got in the woods, and the personal belongings of the adventurers we had cremated.

    They showed some fear at first, but because of the presence of Blacksmith-san and the others, we gradually opened up their hearts.

    The humans and demihumans that entered afterwards were surprised at my presence, but probably judging that there was no danger by reading the atmosphere, they didn¡¯t attack me, although they still kept an eye on me. I was thinking that I would eat anyone who attacked me, so I was a bit disappointed.

    Around noon, the sisters joined the other women and men with ¡¾Cook] jobs and made lunch, and after eating, I was invited the join a gambling game so I decided to give it a try.

    It was a card game that was similar to blackjack, and after receiving a simple explanation, I had a go, betting the money we got the day before.

    The result was that I won hands down!

    This was probably thanks to ¡¾Luck] and ¡¾Golden Rule]. I stripped away everything from the other participants until they were stark naked. There was even a gambling merchant amongst them who had his merchandise taken away.

    After letting out a triumphant laugh, I returned the clothes and also returned the merchandise, keeping what I wanted.

    It wasn¡¯t that I was returning all of the money and goods I had won, it just wasn¡¯t pleasant to look at naked filthy men, and I also felt guilty because I was cheating them a bit. Besides, it seemed that the guy who waged his merchandise was a member of a rather large trading company, so I thought I would make him owe me a favor.

    I handed out business plates to those I got along with and advertised our mercenary troop, so I would say it was a good accomplishment.

    The rain didn¡¯t stop today, so we decided to spend the day at the resting place.

    Our skeleton centipede had a roof installed, so we could have proceeded if we wanted to, but since we weren¡¯t in a hurry, I decided to wait for the rain to cease and to kill time by sparring with Dhammi-chan, Redhead and the three Lords at the training ground in the corner of the resting place.

    It seemed that Dhammi-chan and Redhead had recently discovered their own combat styles, so they just had to build on that from now on, but the attacks of the three Lords were monotonous, and it felt like they were forcibly pushing down opposition by using the natural abilities they were born with.

    For now, I tried teaching Savate to the ¡¾Gale Lord] Fuuki-san, who didn¡¯t have good footwork, Muay Thai to the ¡¾Flame Lord] Netsuki-kun, who liked hand-to-hand combat, and Jujitsu to the ¡¾Illusion Lord] Genki-kun, who didn¡¯t like fighting directly.

    Before my reincarnation, there was a special device which could be used to insert information on various martial arts directly into the brain, which I used to learn all of the techniques, many of which I had been using, so teaching them didn¡¯t pose much of a challenge.

    After sparring for a while, several adventurers, who had been spectating from a distance, started saying that they wanted to join, so we decided to have a few matches.

    Since there were more ¡¾Swordsmen] and ¡¾Warriors] than ¡¾Pugilists], I took out wooden swords and spears, which I had made beforehand, from my Item Box, while making it look like I was taking it out of a ¡°Storage Backpack¡±.

    I tried holding back a bit, but I had been fighting against multiple enemies at once recently, and there weren¡¯t many strong opponents, so there wasn¡¯t much competition.

    Even so, it was good exercise for me and I was able to grow quite close to them, so it was all good.

    Leaving that aside, several of my clones disappeared. I wonder why?

    I have no idea.

    Day 95

    The rain that poured throughout the whole day yesterday had stopped, and we were currently proceeding through the muddy main road. However, we now had more members than before.

    The deputy manager of the fortified city of ?Trent?¡¯s branch of the Fermier Trading Company, who I got friendly with at the resting place, and his party, as well as the group of adventurers escorting them, were now with us.

    Putting it simply, the deputy manager was a plump, bald, middle-aged man, and the person who had gambled away his merchandise to me yesterday. He was a gambler to the core and sometimes would even turn his wares into collateral for his loans.

    I had my doubts on whether someone like that could become the deputy manager, but he said that, besides his gambling problem, he was a perfect fit for this position. It seemed that he was even more capable than the current manager.

    Hey hey, don¡¯t exaggerate, I thought, but he didn¡¯t seem like a bad person and it had nothing to do with me, so I didn¡¯t really care.

    Unlike the skeleton centipede, they had a covered wagon with horses that needed to rest, so our travel speed was slower than before, but since I was able to ask about the state of affairs in this world, it was time well spent.

    During our conversation, it was mentioned that the princess was successfully cured by the secret medicine that the next emperor had brought back.

    This was the first ever case of the ¡°Creciendo Disease¡± being cured, and there were rumors that the Empire and the Kingdom were analysing the few remaining drops of the secret medicine.

    In reality, the unused secret medicine had already spontaneously exploded without leaving a single drop, but I decided to keep that to myself.

    Moreover, I understood that the Elves would no longer be attacked. The relationships between the countries had become unstable, and there were more and more people speculating a war in the near future.

    That meant that they had no time to get involved with the Elves.

    Besides the conversation, the day ended without anything special happening.

    Day 96

    We arrived at the fortified city of ?Trent? at around noon. The white wall that surrounded the city looked sturdy and had many mechanisms built into it, so it would probably be troublesome to break it down.

    As I was thinking such thoughts, there was a commotion in front of the gate because of the fact that I was an Ogre. Well, the Demon Bear, Orthrus, and Boarfolle may also have been one of the reasons.

    The situation started going in a critical direction, so it was possible that I would not be able to enter the city.

    However, the deputy manager took care of the situation. It seemed that the influence of the Fermier Trading Company was considerably strong in this city.

    I was thankful. Although, he made me agree to sell him Turtle Snake shells and such at a cheaper price in exchange.

    For now, I decided to wear a hooded coat that covered my entire body while in the city. It wasn¡¯t as if it could hide my huge frame, but I liked to think that it was better than nothing.

    There were many people in the city, but I also spotted some humanoid species and demihumans. I would say that the proportion was about four non-humans to every six humans. The city was very lively, and the main street was lined with shops, with shouts to come see their wares coming from all over.

    I thought it must also have its dark sides, but it¡¯s a city I thought I could enjoy.

    After entering the city, it was a pretty busy day, with all sorts of shopping and looking for an inn.

    I told Redhead and the others that we would stay here for four to five days, so they should decide by then whether they wanted to come with me or to stay in this city. Personally, I didn¡¯t want to let them go, but I needed to respect their wishes.

    Day 97

    Today, Redhead informed us of an institution called a ?Guild?, and so we headed there.

    The members that went were me, Dhammi-chan, and Redhead, while the ones who weren¡¯t with us, which were Blacksmith-san and the others, walked through the city with the three Lords as bodyguards. Or rather, they said that they were going to sell the knives and magical potions they had made in order to fund the shopping tomorrow. Just as one would expect from peddlers.

    The ?Guild? was a fairly big and imposing institution.

    Judging from its outer appearance, it looked like it had three stories and the ground floor that we stepped into was also being used as a bar. We saw a few people drinking alcohol there. I was wearing a coat, but it wasn¡¯t as if I could hide my huge body, and since it would have gotten in the way indoors, I had taken off my hood and entered, so there were some people who were surprised at me and drew their swords, but I ignored them and headed to the counter.

    When they saw this, a group of them attacked me with their swords, so I suppressed them out of self-defense. Since it would be bad for me to kill someone here, I stopped at knocking them unconscious. I felt some bones breaking, but that was inevitable.

    The color drained from the receptionist lady¡¯s face as I drew closer, but for now, I asked about what kind of quest requests they had at the moment. There were numerous papers pinned to a nearby board, but I thought it would be easier to understand if somebody explained it to me.

    However, I did not receive a reply. It seemed that she had fainted while sitting in her chair.

    It couldn¡¯t be helped so I asked the old man with a mysterious atmosphere who was seated next to her, and with a thud, he put a thick book onto the counter. It seemed that everything was explained in there, so I started reading. I had him explain the parts I didn¡¯t understand.

    From there, after choosing the quests that had the delivery condition fulfilled by our inventory, ¡ª like the delivery of Boarfolle horns¨C I had Redhead, who had been registered as an adventurer, accept the quests, and then I took out the goods and received the bounty. The reason we came here was because we could gather information and make money at the same time.

    There were things in the book that an adventurer of Redhead¡¯s level would not have been able to accept, but once we took out the goods and showed them to him, he made an exception and let us accept the quest. He was a very understanding old man.

    As a result, Redhead¡¯s rank went up a level, but since it now matched her actual strength, it shouldn¡¯t be a problem.

    After that, I asked the old man all sorts of things and we left the guild behind.

    I only found out afterwards, but the old man I was talking to was the manager of the guild ¡ª in other words, the guild master.

    I wonder why he was at such a place. It¡¯s a mystery. Well, it doesn¡¯t have anything to do with me.

    We then met up with Alchemist-san and the others, and I tagged along for the shopping. I really thought over this, but I wonder why it takes so long when women go shopping. This also held true in this alternate universe.

    I was pretty exhausted.

    Along the way, as there was a group of people following me, I decided to lure them into a back alley to repel them. Since I was counterattacked with a knife, I knocked them out cold, stripped them of their possessions, and left their nude bodies hanging somewhere around there.

    Really, what a bother, right after coming to town.

    We went back to the inn, did some light training and slept.

    Day 98

    Early in the morning, after doing some light training at a nearby empty lot, I decided to wander around the city on my own for the day.

    Since Dhammi-chan was saying that she would go look at clothes with Blacksmith-san and the others, I had Netsuki-kun and Genki-kun sacrifice themselves as pack mules. Fuuki-san is the only female Lord, so I was sure she would enjoy going shopping with Dhammi-chan and the others.

    I saluted the two for their noble sacrifice.

    Since I decided to wander on my own, I didn¡¯t go with the appearance of a hooded ogre, but decided to go after using ¡¾Shape-Shift] and ¡¾Metamorphosis] to change into a human body that looked like the body I had in the previous world.

    After all, when asked whether I stood out, this option was much less conspicuous.

    As I aimlessly wandered around, I gathered information from the city. As I expected, or should I say obviously, rumors about me had spread quite a bit.

    Generally, Ogres were known as ¡¾Monsters] that harmed all living creatures around them. On rare occasions, there were individual Ogre Mages that didn¡¯t harm humans, so I couldn¡¯t say this was true for everyone, but they were acknowledged as a dangerous species. The disturbance at the gate was also because of this.

    I had seen all sorts of reactions from people who didn¡¯t know about me. However, there was a strong tendency towards feeling terrified and scared. Well, I guess that was to be expected.

    I walked along the main road for around three hours before eating lunch at a random place, and after gathering enough information, I walked around in the back streets.

    The thought behind this action was to see whether I could maybe lure in some hoodlums if I put on some pretty decent equipment.

    As a result, I successfully baited them. Six thugs, carrying knives and weapons that looked like billhooks, appeared while letting out a stereotypical vulgar laugh.

    There weren¡¯t any people around, so I started flooring the thugs without wasting any breath. Only, I had forgotten that my human body at the moment was smaller than usual. My sense of distance was messed up and I ended up having my heart stabbed by the knife of the last guy, who had taken advantage of the openings that were created.

    Nonetheless, even with a human body, I was an Ogre. It hurt but the pain wasn¡¯t so bad, so I pulled out the knife and terrified the enemy. Well, whatever. After breaking everybody¡¯s necks, I decided to eat their corpses in the back alley. I knew that nobody was around thanks to ¡¾Detect Presence], but I ate quickly, since anybody could come at any moment.

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Job: Thief] Learning Complete]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Silent Stab] Learning Complete]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Escape Bomb] Learning Complete]

    It seems that these six were thieves. Since they all wore rings with the same pattern engraved on them, there was a high probability that they belonged to the same organization. Maybe they were even members of a really big organization.

    Well, not that it mattered.

    Before anybody came, I collected all valuable items, dissolved all the worthless stuff by changing my body fluid to an acid, and, after concealing all traces of the six dying, left the scene.

    As I was walking down the back alleys, hoping to catch some more thugs, I encountered a scene where five men were fiercely quarreling with a young boy.

    The five men had scary faces and I could tell from the smell of iron and their gestures that they had blades hidden in their bosoms. Most of them had cuts on their faces and it seemed like they belonged to a business you normally wanted to avoid contact with. Their average age seemed to be somewhere in the late twenties.

    The boy opposing them was probably around thirteen or fourteen years old. His blond hair shined even in the dim light of this back alley, and his noble face was so brilliant that you would think he was going to be a handsome man in the future. He was wearing silver light-armor and a red cape, and a sword was on his hips, so he might be a knight in training. Guessing from the quality of his equipment, he was probably from a pretty important family.

    From what I heard while staying hidden, it seemed that they were talking about kidnapping.

    It seemed that the young knight was trying to pry information from the five men with such a force that you would think he would draw his sword at any moment. I wasn¡¯t really interested, so I thought I would go back, but then I noticed that the fingers of the five men were carrying the same rings as the thieves I had just eaten.

    As I was thinking that I would look at how it ended for now, as expected, a fight started.

    The five men had the advantage of numbers, but the boy was stronger as an individual. He wasn¡¯t pushed back easily just by the difference in numbers. Even so, the difference in numbers was too big and eventually, the boy was pressed down by the mass and was captured.

    One of the men straddling the boy swung down the knife clasped in his hands in order to pierce the chest of the boy, who was pinned down, and that¡¯s where I stepped in. For the moment, I decided to knock the five men unconscious and took them over with my clones, in order to find out their base.

    Carrying the tattered boy, I left the scene. After all, it would be troublesome if he were to kill or capture the unconscious men

    After reaching a certain distance from the place, I healed the boy¡¯s wounds for a fee. The boy yelled at me for letting the men go, so I punched him for showing such an attitude to his lifesaver, and handing him a business plate, I told him to use it after a while without being noticed by anyone, to which he asked who the hell I was, so I told him I was just a mercenary and left.

    The boy had a nice figure, but he was male after all, so treating him like this should be plenty.

    TL Note : Maybe its a girl in disguise ¨C rei_hunter

    Day 99

    At 3 AM, I was moving through the city, which was still shrouded in darkness, not in my human, but in my ogre form. At my side was, in addition to Dhammi-chan and Genki-kun, the young knight I had saved the previous day.

    Returning to yesterday¡¯s story, shortly after returning to the inn, I was contacted from the business plate I had given to the boy.

    When I told him the inn we were lodging in, thinking that not even an hour had passed, he came and asked whether we were mercenaries, so I told him that we were. Then he told me he would like to make a request.

    The subject of the request was to rescue the tomboy princess who the boy was serving.

    Tl Note : Tomboy princess (Otenba-hime) is a phrase often used to describe princesses with boyish personalities/interests in Japanese culture (video games), first made popular through Dragon Quest IV.

    It seemed that the tomboy princess, who had travelled to ¡¶Trent¡· incognito, had aimed for a gap in the guard of the convoy and the young boy, who was her attendant, had escaped the inn, and was taken captive by a kidnapping organization, who thought she was a lady from some noble family.

    They were then asked for ransom money, and so the boy, as a representative of the convoy, went to the designated place with the money, but there, he only found six underlings. Those were the guys I beat up yesterday. The reason why there was one more guy more was because he had already taken off with the ransom.

    It seemed that the reason why they were arguing was because, unlike they had promised, they were now demanding even more money.

    It may have been a bad move to beat them up because of this, but the one who started it was the boy, and the clones were now controlling these guys, so there was no problem. I steered our conversation in the direction of having everything go according to plan.

    Now, under the cover of night, four of us had come to attack the abandoned noble¡¯s mansion, which was now the organization¡¯s hideout. Thanks to the clones, the internal information had been leaked.

    There were other guards besides the boy, but I didn¡¯t need any hinderances, so we had not told them anything. The boy was this time¡¯s employer and he said he wanted to come, so I couldn¡¯t help it.

    Redhead and the others were sleeping, and, although it might have been unnecessary, I left Fuuki-san and Netsuki-kun to guard them. Having the three of us, leaving the boy out, was more than enough, so it was no problem at all.

    After arriving at the organization¡¯s hideout, I secretly created Black Skeleton Assassins, so the boy didn¡¯t find out. I released ten into the base and moved them so that no enemies could slip through.

    We then invaded the enemy hideout.

    Skipping to the result, we had destroyed the organization before the sun rose. After assassinating the leader of the group of thieves, who was fast asleep from drinking alcohol, we killed off the many others, and so the battle was won. No one was overlooked. Since that was a condition of the request.

    We were able to successfully rescue the tomboy princess. Contrary to my expectations, she was a young girl who was so frail and delicate that you would think she would fall apart if you touched her. I would say that she was around ten to twelve years old. Her platinum colored hair was lovely, and judging from her face, she would most likely be a beautiful woman in the future.

    Iron restraints were attached to her arms and legs, and her mouth was gagged so she couldn¡¯t speak, but fortunately, she was only put to sleep by a drug, her clothes weren¡¯t damaged, and there were no traces of violence, so there shouldn¡¯t be any big problems. Now the convoy, including the boy, wouldn¡¯t have to have their heads chopped off.

    After crushing the organization, I collected all the hoarded treasure, and all sorts of documents related to the dark side of the Kingdom while we were at it, hiding it from the boy. I was able to obtain more information. Or rather, according to the documents, it seems that this abduction was planned, but I have no plans of getting involved in this just yet, so I will keep my eyes closed.

    If I approached this in a bad way, I might get burned.

    I didn¡¯t see anything.

    The boy doesn¡¯t know anything.

    The kidnapping never occurred.

    Let¡¯s keep it that way.

    I told the boy to report to the convoy that this was all a prank that the princess had planned, and that he reluctantly played along.

    It would be safer to cover up the event of the princess getting kidnapped. Rather than receiving the heavy punishment for not being able to protect her, it would be better to just say that it was a prank of the tomboy princess.

    From the heroic tales of the boy, the tomboy princess had done enough things to make this believable, so I thought that this would work out.

    After hearing this, the boy said that he should report everything to the Kingdom and wouldn¡¯t agree to my proposal, so I made him agree through Genki-kun¡¯s hypnosis. Being too honest could also be a problem. I didn¡¯t want him to do anything that would trouble me.

    I also told him to make sure that the tomboy princess would tell the same story while he was at it.

    While the boy¡¯s consciousness was momentarily still cloudy from the hypnosis, I tried eating the members of the organization.

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Spider Web] Learning Complete]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Poison Bomb] Learning Complete]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Eavesdrop] Learning Complete]

    ¡¾Ability ¡¾Kidnap] Learning Complete]

    The result was so-so. We evacuated from the hideout before the sun rose.

    Flames roared from the mansion. In order to destroy the evidence, I reduced the truth to ashes.

    Afterwards, I slept until noon, then the boy secretly brought the reward, and since I had promised the deputy manager that I would drop by, I went to the branch store of the Fermier Trading Company to greet him.

    Tomorrow, we will leave this city. The children of the next generation have been born, so I will return home for now.

    I was slightly nervous about what Blacksmith-san and the others would decide to do.

 Re:Monster Day 101-110

    Day 101

    We departed this morning as planned, though baby-sitting the Tomboy Princess has become troublesome in various ways. A large, gray chicken-type monster called the ¡°Big Cocco¡± has made its lair in the general vicinity of the highway. It¡¯s likely that it¡¯s not even able to harm the Skeleton horse that is pulling the carriage, let alone most of the party.

    The Princess has been causing some issues with the Sisters and Blacksmith-san recently. So far it has only been annoyances such as ¡°You should bow down to me¡± to either Blacksmith-san or myself though. Naturally, this would end up being the case for someone raised in a manner such as a member of royalty. The fact that she is our client, however, prevents me from punishing her outright.

    Getting back to the monster.

    The Big Cocco, better known as a Misutenddo, is a small-fry monster that newbie adventurers tend to hunt for early level experience. However, a monster is a monster. If a young unarmed girl were to encounter it, they would not be able to beat it and remain unharmed.

    I usually threatened the Princess by spreading one of the Misutenddo¡¯s wings in an attempt to rid myself of her constant attention, but I still find myself challenged by her tenacity.

    In the end, I started to contemplate throwing her into some form of training to distract her from her constant attempts to trouble me. If I use some of my invisible abilities, I can probably ensure that she remains without any injuries if it¡¯s only a Misutenddo. Though, it still isn¡¯t without risks, and her losing an eye would not be an impossibility, which again would be less than desired.

    I then thought of possibly putting her up against a Skeleton animal I could create; it¡¯s at a weak level, but with my current strength, there is always the risk that she would receive injuries. In the worst case scenario, she could die.

    Then, an incident where she tried to take on a Misutenddo with a kitchen knife occurred, where I had to intervene.

    The behavior of the Princess is troublesome, even if it doesn¡¯t truly affect me personally.

    But, it is the responsibility of an adult to scold children after they do something dangerous.

    She tried to use her status as a member of the Royal family to avoid being scolded. I quickly squashed that plan by stating that her status had no effect on me. After making that clear, I began lecturing her about how, since she is a member of Royalty, she should have a refined level of discipline.

    That said, bad behavior would be punished with a spanking for children, and good behavior rewarded with a pat on the head.

    The only other person I¡¯d possibly consider using this manner of treatment on would be Redhead, though the idea of a spanking for her might not be seen as a punishment¡­

    At any rate, the information that I have received from the Boy Knight in regards to the Princess is quite lacking. That said, I find it safe to assume that she probably has some form of mysterious power or an important secret.

    It is almost inconceivable, as one would never think that a royal family would have raised a child to have so little knowledge about this world. The Princess had a vague understanding of people, though her common sense was lacking. She was obviously not familiar with the risks involved with fighting monsters and would commonly approach them. It¡¯s similar to a child looking at a dog that they have only seen in books, thinking that it is safe to pet it because no one said it is dangerous.

    While debating the subject of whether or not to shelter her until we get to the castle, I decided that it would be best if she could enjoy the outside world to the fullest. It might be something that she would no longer be able to do in her future, due to her status as a princess.

    As the thought briefly passed through my mind, I immediately tossed away the more vile of my thoughts in an instant. Even if she would technically be far older than myself, she is something that is best not touched until she becomes a girl of age.

    Though when she smiles, it is almost as if she is commanding me to smile back, and often, I will humor her, endearing her further to me.

    Whenever she gets tired, she will come to my place, climb onto my back, and wait until I place her onto my shoulder. I¡¯ve given up, at least to this extent. My shoulder seems to have become the special seat for this princess. It¡¯s not something that I really mind, she just keeps quiet mostly, fiddling with my hair and trying to act cute. I¡¯ll, at the very least, admit that she can be a nice child when she isn¡¯t out to cause trouble.

    Now that I think about it, most of these outbursts are when I attempt to ignore her¡­

    Good grief, I have to be careful, little girls often imprint on strong men¡­ Dangerous¡­

    I¡¯ll allow her to ride on my shoulder for now though. This despite the image of us two is perhaps a bit too noticeable. Various adventurers and merchants of various tribes who pass by our convoy on the highway always stare at me, or rather us, with surprised looks. Since the Princess is quite young, the need to provide some entertainment such as singing a traveling song is necessary to prevent her from growing bored and wandering off on her own. Like it or not, the amount of trouble she can get into on my shoulder is far less than if she was by herself¡­

    Anyway. As for the location of the Boy Knight, Alchemist-san and Dhammi-chan have been teasing the poor boy with a multitude of various gestures. Given that neither of the girls are wearing their glasses, the poor boy has been their toy for more or less the entire day. They were having their fun with the innocent boy, not that I¡¯d become jealous over something trivial like that.

    Today we made camp off of the side of the highway.

    Day 102

    Well, trouble started early this morning.

    The Tomboy Princess and the Boy Knight attempted to participate in today¡¯s morning training. I wouldn¡¯t have much of an issue with just the Boy Knight attempting to participate, but the princess was also demanding to participate. What a pain. Their demands were such as ¡°We also want to learn how to fight¡± or ¡°Just try to fight us.¡± I did my best to ignore this, but there is a limit.

    Because there was no avoiding it, I had to think of something that the Princess could do without putting her, the client, in harms way. I mean, with a single finger I could cause her instant death, though I have no intention to do so.

    Like it or not, I had already predicted this might happen and had made a request to the sisters to make some female training clothing for the Tomboy Princess.

    I made sure to heavily imbue her clothing with heavy physical resistances. Even if I were to slap her lightly, there shouldn¡¯t be any injuries, even with her weak body. With that, I pitted the Boy Knight and the Tomboy Princess against each other. I already knew that the Boy Knight would hold himself back as much as possible for the Princess, so the risk against him is lower than anything else possible. Though the Princess may be getting the hang of using a wooden sword, she has a total lack of discipline. It really is a major issue that she probably isn¡¯t even aware of.

    After the sparing started, it may have taken a while, but the Boy Knight began to fight back slightly. After watching his moves, it¡¯s obvious that there is too much of a reliance on his [Job] corrections.

    Certainly, following a [Job]¡¯s path will increase your abilities. Increasing the level by killing monsters and growing stronger is commonplace. Even so, based on his movements, this boy is a vanguard type, capable of a multitude of different actions. He certainly has the capability to fight evenly with a normal Ogre, though none of those exist here. Finally, it comes down to one¡¯s ability to use the sword abilities that pertain to one¡¯s [Arts] and one¡¯s [Profession].

    Naturally, one could easily become selfish if you only think about becoming stronger through experience, and in that way, many people have. But this boy seems too young to be affected by it and seems to be mentoring the Tomboy Princess, as well as going easy on his swings to make them easily defendable.

    Even so, one could see that the Boy Knight was taking his job seriously. I was surprised at how hard he was drilling the Princess, she was covered with sweat and panting. It looked like she was enjoying it though, so I think it¡¯s probably a good thing in the long run.

    The thought had dawned on me that the reasoning for his efforts were to ensure the Princess¡¯s safety in the future.

    Well, the morning training is at an end. Dhammi-chan, Redhead, Wind Lord-chan and the Princess went to swim and wash off in a river nearby. For the moment, the men can simply wipe the sweat off until it¡¯s their turn, though the Princess seemed to want me to escort her to the river and keep watch. Sigh, can¡¯t be helped. At the very least, none of the other girls had an issue with my presence.

    The river was clear and reflected the sky as an image upon the water¡¯s surface. The scenery of the entire location was quite nice as well, though the roads and plains of the Sternbild Kingdom were far more dangerous than the Forest. Still, there haven¡¯t been any monsters that are stronger than Hind Bears during our entire trip, so there was no need to worry.

    We have already agreed that since the highway is the shortest route to take, it was obvious to travel down it to the Royal Capital.

    According to the detailed map that the Boy Knight possessed, our forest was rather small, the tags for it on the map were Shirisuka Forest ¡°Inhabited by a variety of monsters; it is famous for its large waterfall and hot springs¡±. The map details locations such as the location of the Fomor tribes, a species of Giants, details on the craftsmen village we passed through on our way to the Fortress City Trient, and multiple mountain clusters. A multitude of dungeons were also listed on the map. These dungeons also apparently caused a great deal of trouble for the surrounding areas, though it really isn¡¯t my problem unless someone wants to hire me, of course.

    I start categorizing the map¡¯s locations as we progressed. There were several Boruforu, though as there weren¡¯t enough for the whole group, I didn¡¯t bother and let the familiars eat their fill. While looking at the map, I realized that we had taken Route 13 to get to the Fortress City Trient and are currently on Route 7, the shortest path towards the Royal Capital Osvel.

    Ever since I accepted this mission, I had begun making plans for escaping the Royal Capital should anything go wrong. The worst case scenario would be that only myself and Ogakichi-kun would be able to survive. Dhammi and the Lord-classed members would have a chance, but with the full force of the [Royal Army], we might lose several key members in the escape. As such, I needed to keep vigilant and prepare for anything.

    But for now, we are the escort team hired by the Princess to escort her to the Royal Capital. As long as we hold this title, there should be no risk to further attacks from would-be adventurers. I¡¯m sure my imagination is going wild on the risks, but one can never be too cautious when approaching unknowns.

    At any rate, I attempted to speak with the Boy Knight for awhile, but he wasn¡¯t too keen on speaking with me. It probably had something to do with the Princess currently having climbed back onto my shoulder again.

    Anyway, we were making good progress towards our destination. Though the roads up ahead were pretty worn and showed signs of age. It really wasn¡¯t a problem in particular.

    ¡ª

    Day 103

    We arrived at the Shirisuka Forest this morning. In this place, there are animals that I haven¡¯t eaten yet. This prospect got me quite excited.

    There are several beast species and insect species around a huge lake and river system deep within the forest. From this, many of the species of this forest are amphibian.

    Of the species that I heard were within this forest, there were:

    Red Lizard that had red claws and scales that burned with a high heat.

    Guriforundo A cheetah-like creature that shoots red flames from both its tail and claws.

    Kelpie A slimy frog-like horse with light-blue scales that had both hind legs and a thick tail ¨C quite the interesting creature.

    Crystal Crocodile A creature about eight meters in length with skin and fangs made of quartz crystals.

    Ness Frog A yellow frog species with poisonous patterns that had shades of purple.

    Rock-turtle Frog A creature that possesses a head with a lightweight turtle shell similar to rock on it.

    Silent Mosquito A silent mosquito type that sucks blood, about ten centimeters in size.

    Shell Grasshopper A high speed insect that randomly attacks without much reason.

    This time, I plan to scour for them directly. I wanted this to be quick, so I released Kumajirou and Kurosaburou while sending several others out as well. While we progressed, there were several times where we captured the new creatures, though eating them did not give me any new abilities.

    Next were a Silent Mosquito and several Shell Grasshoppers, followed by a Ness Frog all in succession to attack us. It was a flock of several animal species, because of that, I was able to kill them all and eat them. I have to admit, I was slightly greedy and ate the entire body, not saving any materials.

    It may just be icing on the cake, but the most troublesome of all of the monsters was, surprisingly, the small Shell Grasshoppers.

    To clarify, the only real way to capture them was to receive them head on by reinforcing my body with several abilities, or to avoid them and allow individuals with keen eyes to catch them mid flight such as Dhammi-chan. There were several instances where these type of attacks grew near the non-combatants such as Blacksmith-san and the Tomboy Princess, though since the speed of the attack is nothing if I get serious, there have yet to be problems. Yet, even saying that, it is still quite troublesome.

    This time around, the Shell Grasshoppers were quite small in size and few in number. They also started attacking the Skeleton horses, though the hardness of these specific Skeletons is of a level that these Grasshoppers could not damage them. That said, even upon collision, the hardness of the Grasshoppers themselves to withstand the impact at such high speeds is quite something. I suppose one might even be able to use these creatures as some sort of ammunition.

    In fact, they are pretty useful things to use. If you were to have a large amount of these grasshoppers as ammunition, you could fire them at the walls, and in most instances, the walls would be destroyed. With the walls destroyed, the city could be ravaged and turned into a city of flames quite easily. Though for now, my interests lie with raising the new generation and gaining ties to the Royal Family of the Sternbild Kingdom.

    The monsters we caught made a delicious lunch. We also caught a Ness Frog, but since the level of poison was probably high, only I would be able to eat it. Though there is the possibility that Redhead could have a little due to [Job ¨C Noir Soldier].

    Though, it isn¡¯t impossible to detoxify the poison of the Ness Frog, so I let Redhead have a little.

    With that, I ate a large amount of materials that we had collected over the past few hours.

    Ability unlocked [Epidemic Scatter]

    Ability unlocked [Disease Carrier]

    Ability unlocked [Burning Claw]

    Ability unlocked [Refractory Mucus Secretion]

    Ability unlocked [Plague Infection]

    Ability unlocked [Hard-Head]

    Ability unlocked [Head-Butt]

    Ability unlocked [Silent Flight]

    Ability unlocked [Weak Intimidation]

    Ability unlocked [Variable Temperature Weakness]

    The Ness frog meat was so tender that it practically melted with softness in my mouth. Even the taste of the Shell Grasshopper¡¯s was unexpectedly delicious, and their crunchiness was enjoyable.

    Although human beings like Blacksmith-san claimed that it is pretty difficult to eat certain creatures, especially insects, Looking at me eating pretty much anything no matter the hardness was simply not something they could do. Thinking that, I had a little grin slip out, but that was all.

    Delicious things are delicious. Mixing some of these items with rice would have been amazing. The vitality of these creatures simply oozed from the meat, making it all the more enjoyable.

    The Kelpie meat was quite similar to horse meat, but there were subtle differences in taste. Though somewhat different, the subtle changes in taste weren¡¯t bad, simply delicious.

    During the meal, several topics had risen and fallen.

    In the middle of our discussions, suddenly a Crystal Crocodile shot out from the river behind me.

    It is no foolish animal and understands the danger of the prey, thus it was waiting for the moment where it believed we were most vulnerable. It is certainly the king of the water within this forest.

    The mouth boasts such enormity that not even an Ogre could compete with it. A Crystal Crocodile is ranked higher in strength than a normal Ogre, and there are several instances where a Crystal Crocodile has managed to kill several Ogres at once.

    However, this surprise attack failed since I was aware of its presence the entire time.

    Without even the slightest bit of panic, with [Sense Presence], I did not even have to look behind me to gauge my opponent. I grabbed my halberd. In an instant, it was thrust in to the mouth of the beast, and the ability [Triple Strike] was activated. Faster than lightning, as if I had used an invisible blade, the monster was drilled with holes and instantly killed. At that point, I set out to collect its materials and began to slowly smoke its meat; the smell of the meat was enough to water the mouth. With the meat already semi cooked from the lightning from my halberd, it was quick to finish cooking.

    Since the Crystal Crocodile¡¯s materials can sell for a fairly expensive price, I decided I would keep a large amount of it for sales later. Though, recently, I have let Dhammi-chan and Redhead manage it so that they could improve their dissembling skills. After I gathered some materials for myself, I left the rest to them. The meat I took was from the tail, as many reptile¡¯s most valuable meat is in the tail.

    Yeah, it was amazing. Gravy from the juicy meat filled my mouth, with that, my appetite grew several times greater, my body also feels amazing from the energy gained from such meat.

    Ability learned: [Crystal Crocodile¡¯s Armored Hide]

    Ability learned: [Crystal Crocodile¡¯s Sharp Fangs]

    Ability learned: [Predator of the Water]

    Body and abilities enhanced at once, this is something that I was most pleased about.

    I was satisfied and gave off a smile.

    In this state, the Princess stared at me with a perplexed face.

    It was something due to why I was so interested in hunting down so many different species, and why most of them target me specifically.

    My answer was simply because I wanted to kill them, they wanted to kill me. Or something like that.

    To kill and be killed, the stronger surviving and growing stronger. If there is a strong enemy, fight and kill that enemy to grow stronger. I eat them because I grow hungry, and that by eating them, I grow stronger. This is the law of nature, to which I comply with fully.

    I avoid mentioning the fact that I eat everything to gain new abilities. In a sense, it is my responsibility having killed them to take their abilities. It almost seems like a ritual of mine at this point, no one of the group pays it any mind by now. Though thinking about it, my eating of the shells of my prey does appear weird to a normal eye.

    After my explanations, the Princess became silent as if she was thinking about something; she even doned an amazed facial expression. I had mentioned that we all change as we grow stronger. It seemed that she was lost in thought around that point.

    Well, it¡¯s probably not something along the lines of her growing suspicious of me, because she still happily rides on my shoulder.

    For now, we kill any monsters that approach us and proceed through the forest.

    Today¡¯s synthesis results:

    [Dissonance] + [Panic Voice] = [Death Voice][Shell Defense] + [Shell Retreat] + [Adamantine Spider¡¯s Strong Carapace] = [Indestructible Castle Shell][Conceal Presence] + [Recognition Obstruction] + [Sneaking] = [Recognition Difficulty][Surging Combat Instinct] + [Survival Instinct] = [Berserker Mode]

    ¡ª

    Day 103 Sidestory: Kumajirou¡¯s POV

    Kumajirou.

    Kuma~ went food hunting with the master.

    Kuma~ was so excited. Like going to the forest for the first time.

    It¡¯s Kuma~¡¯s first time to catch so many preys.

    Kuma~ returned home carrying the red lizards on my back like a horse, and then master gave compliments to Kuma~.

    Kurosaburou and Kuma~ hunts more when we are together, Kurosaburou and Kuma~ got more compliments.

    Kurosaburou and Kuma~ did our best today.

    Master gave Kuma~ a lot compliments.

    Kuma~ is stuffed with delicious foods.

    Since Kuma~ became sleepy, Kuma~ sleep in the bone house.

    When I was sleeping, it became warm. Kuma~ felt hot.

    Kuma~

    [ Kumajirou level Increased ][ Kumajirou¡¯s collaboration with Kurosaburou became better ][ Kumajirou firmly grew larger and stronger ]

    ¡ª

    Day 104

    By the time the sun first broke over the horizon, we had already arrived at a Mason Village shortly after passing through the forest. Well, since I¡¯m an Ogre, there will normally be a large level of disgust and resentment because this village is mainly consists of humans. Though with the Tomboy Princess sitting on my shoulder, the caution subsided by quite a bit. They probably assumed I was a pet or something.

    The Princess has a magic ring with an engraved seal that she once told me is the symbol of the Royal Family. It is also impossible to be equipped by anyone outside of the Royal Family. It cannot be removed once equipped, and projects a powerful curse upon the wearer¡¯s enemies in the area should a Royal Family member be slain.

    Because of this ring, she is able to give orders to the villagers.

    To my surprise, it was a magnificent village that had many citizens and tourists. All of whom bowed their heads as we walked by in honor of the Princess.

    This tradition apparently goes back to a tradition similar to that of Samurai in respects to their masters.

    It was then that I found myself invited to the Village Chief¡¯s house within the village where I decided to spend the night. The Chief and his wife still had fearful expressions from my appearance, so I took out some fruits and mushrooms from > and offered them as gifts.

    I tried to talk with them casually as I played with Kumajirou and Kurosaburou.

    At any rate, it took some time, but I managed to ease the tension and began discussing minor matters of the village with him.

    Conversations like this are important for developing a public image, after all.

    After doing this for around two hours, they have finally relaxed to my presence. I was invited by the Chief to allow him to be my guide to the waterfall, which is the specialty of the village.

    To be honest, that was my original plan, so I was pleased to have him guide me there.

    Since I¡¯m in no rush to bathe in the hot spring, I¡¯ll first visit the waterfall.

    It was located down a small path not too far from the village. The waterfall itself is massive, as if the water was falling down from heaven. In front of this scene, we gazed at the sight unconsciously. The large waterfall that poured down from the top nearly two hundred meters above in the sky. The Chief informed us of the details. Though for the most part I took my time to enjoy this incredible view of natural beauty.

    Even so, with [Sense Presence] I detected several massive and mighty creatures lying dormant within the waterfall, but I was not sure of their nature.

    I decided it was best to ask the village Chief of what I had seen.

    It turns out that the creatures I had seen were some form of guardian, a boss species of the Big Coccos. It was generally friendly if you don¡¯t attack it. There also seems to be a dragon-class monster within there as well, but it is usually sleeping quietly.

    Although I find myself heavily tempted to fight these monsters, I restrain these feelings in the back of my mind. Furthermore, even if I utilize all of my current skills, it still seems highly likely that it is impossible to overcome these creatures at present.

    While still thinking of returning to fight these creatures one day, I decided to immerse myself in the famous hot spring.

    The party was booked under the name of the Royal Family.

    I requested that both Dhammi-chan and Kazeoni-san (Wind Lord-san) to escort the Princess to the hot spring. Therefore, even if assassins surrounded them, they would either eliminate the threat or hold out long enough for me to close the distance and come to their aid.

    With the safety of the Princess taken care of, I was able to enjoy the hot spring without reserve. The Mason village¡¯s hot spring, just like the ones we have at our settlement, has pleasantly hot water.

    Because I missed the hot springs of our settlement, I will absolutely return there once this mission is over.

    There are also various changes and improvements to the settlement that I want to make once I return. There are still tons of things that need to be done.

    I got out of the hot spring after an hour or so and returned to the Village Chief¡¯s house.

    While I was out, Kurosaburo and Kumajiro had gathered a large number of Kelpie, Boruforu, Blade Rabbits and Horn Rabbits. They busily worked to draw the blood from them so the villagers could cook them.

    I will certainly be complimenting them and playing with them for their efforts later. They will receive a large amount of meat as well.

    Since there was such a large quantity of meat, I told the Village Chief to share the meat to the whole village to eat. As a result, the whole village gathered at the banquet hall that night to have a feast. The darkness soon faded to the glow of bonfires set up everywhere throughout the village.

    Villagers sat and ate meat with travelers, sharing and drinking the local liquor without hesitation. Soon, everyone became excited and began to dance and sing.

    Redhead, Dhammi-chan and Blacksmith-san all decided to stir up the atmosphere by inviting a male villager to dance. I watched them dance with pleasure. I¡¯m not one to get jealous that easily though, but a little jealousy was fine for this. It didn¡¯t bother me too much since it was more of a form of greeting than anything else.

    Even now, at the age of 60, the Village Chief was still participating in a village drinking contest, stating that he refused to lose to any of the youngsters, especially when it came to the liquor of his own village. The Liquor was inferior to elf wine, but delicious none the less.

    I gave the Village Chief a small sample of Elf wine and he gasped with a sound of amazement. It simply cannot be helped; Elf wine is just that good. The Chief continued to compete with the younger villagers with a big smile, draining several barrels of liquor in the process.

    It was about two hours after the banquet had begun when one of the more drunken villager¡¯s who could no longer think straight went up to Dhammi-chan and grabbed her behind thoroughly. I only managed to barely make it in time before the furious Dhammi-chan could finish beating the man to death. I gave him some treatment to make sure he wouldn¡¯t die from his injuries, but left him to a certain extent as punishment. The injury to his abdomen was not great enough to burst his organs, but the force was quite intense.

    The next time an incident like this occurs, she might very well tear someone¡¯s head off, so I really need to calm her down. I gave her a hug to calm her down. After all, it¡¯s quite the embarrassment for Dhammi-chan to be so thoroughly touched on such a sensitive region by another man. Killing him would sate her anger quickly, but in the present situation, it is not wise to allow such.

    I whispered lightly in her ear that she must not kill the man. That said, if this incident happens again from the same man, I might make the request to string his organs out myself, but for now, the situation has been dissolved.

    Suddenly, I realized that the entire venue of villagers had been filled with silence. Redhead had a hand on her forhead and had since then dropped to her knees with a ¡°Fuee¡±.

    In order to change this tense atmosphere that has developed, I pulled out several barrels of liquor and challenged the villagers to a drinking contest. If anyone managed to defeat me I would give the winner four silver plates, roughly forty thousand gold coins if it were to be converted.

    All of the male villagers came forth with great confidence after hearing the news about the reward.

    The atmosphere of the village suddenly changed in its entirety, with the past incident fully forgotten.

    What can I say, when talking about forty thousand gold coins, it is quite the huge amount of wealth for a village of this level. To put it into perspective, for a village of this size, it could sustain the lives of every member of the village for just over two weeks.

    That¡¯s probably why their eyes changed. They probably thought I would be defeated through sheer force of numbers. They already had seen me drinking with the Village Chief, thinking that they could push me into becoming drunk.

    All the while, the Princess sat on my shoulder the entire time, silently and enjoying the festivities. Even with her there, I drank with not only villagers but the tourists and visitors. The Princess ordered everyone to have fun as well as for me not to lose to anyone. Well, even without that, I might have overdone it a bit.

    Let¡¯s only get to the result. I took on nearly every male and some females of the village and those visiting and never lost once. I may have grown¡­ Just a bit drunk, but I haven¡¯t blacked out since I¡¯m still an Ogre. I¡¯m quite the profiteering individual if I do say so myself, this level of excitement is always nice though.

    While snacking on some of the food I managed to pick up some new abilities,

    Ability unlocked [Water Battle Formation]

    Ability unlocked [Blade Bone Generation]

    Ability unlocked [Tough Skin]

    Ability unlocked [Sharp Horn Generation]

    After several more hours of the festivities, things started to die down a bit.

    I was able to sleep quite soundly tonight. I also found a great excuse to drink my fill of alcohol for the first time in quite a while.

    The girls also took part in the drinking contest, so all of us were buzzed before bed. I doubt anyone minded though¡­

    ¡ª

    Day 105

    We left the Mason Village in the morning.

    I wanted to proceed towards the den of the Fomor clan as soon as possible.

    The Fomors are a giant class monster.

    Nothing that special happened on our travels. We just traveled, and after some light training in the afternoon, we slept.

    We¡¯ll be setting foot on Fomor Mountain tomorrow morning.

    Hopefully¡­

    ¡ª

    Day 106

    This morning, the Sisters started to show the signs of their pregnancy.

    Unlike human children, children born with the blood of an Ogre have a much faster growth rate than humans. The chance of the baby being a human, however, is quite unlikely, but it has happened before.

    Both of their stomachs had suddenly swollen this morning. That much was clear.

    I contacted Gobujii directly at the settlement.

    When I asked what should be done, he said, ¡°When the mother with an Ogre child in her belly has her belly swell, it means that, in a short while, the baby will have grown big¡¯n ready for birth. In the case of an Ogre child, it¡¯s most likely born the same way a human child would be, but an Ogre child is twice the size of a human child. If the human body is too small, the child might force its way out through the belly¡±

    Hearing this, my face quickly turned pale. I quickly sent several Skeletons in a hurry to search for an ideal place for the Sisters to rest. Since this is an emergency. I refuse to be bothered about the Princess and left her with the Boy Knight. Though the Princess is young, she seemed to understand the gravity of the situation and was very quiet.

    Dhammi-chan, Redhead, Alchemist-san and Blacksmith-san were quite hard to encourage when they were seeing the Sisters suffering like this. During the move, the Sisters quickly became visibly skinny and frail from having their nutrients sucked by the children in the womb. I quickly gave them my Blood Elixir to drink and gave them parts of my flesh. While they were reluctant to eat my flesh, I forced them to eat it regardless. It had an outstanding effect and certainly bought us some time.

    After roughly thirty minutes, a Skeleton returned with the location we required. While providing emergency treatment, we followed the Skeleton into a cave within a Cluster of Mountains. We quickly rushed inside.

    In an instant, I vaporized the creatures of the cave, killing without a single thought on my mind.

    Due to the scent of fresh blood in the air, the Fire and Illusion Lords guarded the entrance while Wind Lord-chan investigated the cave to ensure nothing lurked beneath.

    Everyone was very quiet due to this situation. Not even Kumajiro or Kurosaburo made a single sound.

    I laid the Sisters, who were in great pain from their pregnancy, in a bed I built. I then focused on replenishing the energy that is being directly absorbed by the children in their abdomens.

    Redhead and the other girls could do nothing but watch. They were speechless.

    The two girls quickly began to grow very heavy due to the children growing within them.

    The pain is caused by the rapid changes in their bodies, their abdomens have grown to be so swollen that their skin seemed as if it would tear if it got any bigger.

    I try to cure them with every skill I have, I was fully committed to prevent their stomachs from exploding.

    The pain these two are feeling is suppressed to some extent by infusing my Elixir blood with an anesthesia, even though it can only do so much. The two are still in substantial pain.

    Since this is my first time dealing with a situation like this, especially since these are my own children, sweat beads on my forehead and flows endlessly.

    Time slows down all around me; I have no idea how much time could have passed. An hour? Ten hours or more might pass and I would not know. How long will their pregnancy last? I have no idea and all I want is to help them survive.

    I managed to finish developing the fetuses, soon, our children begin to struggle to be born and both of the Sisters are tormented beyond reason.

    Their screams become very loud, causing the rest of the girls to grow very pale.

    I subjected the Eldest Sister with an incredibly powerful anesthesia. I then cut her belly open with a scalpel covered with a bactericidal effect that was created with [Top Brace Embodied] and activated [Soul Fixture].

    Seeing what I was doing, they let out a very short scream ¡°Hiii-¡± but quickly covered their mouths to avoid distracting me.

    A Cesarean Section.

    I demanded Dhammi-chan come next to me and prepare to pull out the little girl covered in blood from the belly. As this process continues, I pour immense amounts of my blood into the sister while using healing abilities to repair all of the damage. A large pool of blood forms on the ground. Recovery skills being issued one after another, soon the wound was healed without leaving a single scar on the abdomen of the Eldest sister.

    My child¡­ Dhammi-chan handed her to me and I quickly bathed her. Cheerful cries echo through the cave. Just as I took my first sigh of relief, the Younger Sister began to suffer greatly. I repeat the same process again, and safely remove a boy from the Younger Sister.

    The echoing cries of a young boy and little girl rang throughout the cave, and my vision suddenly started to blur.

    Everyone was greatly relieved that both of the Sisters survived. Both my and Dhammi-chan¡¯s hands were shaking violently after such an experience.

    I barely had the physical strength left to hold my new born children in my arms. After a moment, I hand them both over to each of the sisters. After several minutes, the children already began to desire breast milk.

    I felt sky high. I, Ogarou, after living for one hundred and six days, have just become a father of two children. It was probably too early, given how young I am, even for a Ogre. Oh, I sometimes forget, 107 days ago I was twenty-five years old and a human. That actually puts me at a suitable age for a father.

    Although for children, both of them were half Ogre half Human, or [Ogre Mix-blood].

    If the human parent is genetically strong, there is the chance of a [High-Ogre] or a child born with human characteristics. They will be slightly weaker than an Ogre child and seem like a human, but the genes for the child are divided equally, and merely falls in favor of the human characteristics. They are quite powerful on their own, and have greater intelligence than most Ogres.

    However, there is the rare case of one in a million that a rare tribe is born. This race is called [Chaos species].

    For me, I inherited the Ogre strength and my human mind, so I¡¯m an Ogre, but not quite an Ogre, that is how I should probably think.

    To summarize the information from Gobujii and the others, this child can obtain both [Jobs] and [Rank-up] as I can. Meaning they have access to nearly all of my benefits. They will truly become powerful when they grow up.

    According to Gobujii, they also have access to [Evolution Rank Up], this is apparently a very powerful and rare occurrence that will give them access to extinct branches of the Goblin Rank up tree.

    It is a very powerful thing if you ever access it. Hearing this I grow quite excited myself.

    But, since they are not human and not quite Ogre, there is a great risk that they could be killed if they were to be discovered. According to Gobujii, in the past, whenever the birth of a Human-Ogre child was discovered, parties were raised to slay the creature before it could develop¡­

    Half breeds with monster races are taboo, it would seem.

    There is also the risk that the human part is consumed by the Ogre half, but that only happens in rare cases.

    In the worst case scenario and I were to be killed, these children could survive in human society due to them being half human. Once they are born and able to defend themselves, as well as proving to not be of the Chaos breed, there won¡¯t be high risk of being attacked.

    There have been kings and warlords in the past who, in human society, could easily have been half breeds. Powerful beings of the past that used their power to carve out realms of their own, and their pasts swept up by time. These kings could be the product of an Evolution-up.

    Something that very few could even hope to achieve in their entire lifetime.

    This gets my thoughts rolling as to the strength and power generated from such a rank-up.

    What wondrously frightening power.

    By the way, all of us had started out as Goblins and then became as we are through multiple Rank-ups. The idea that these children are as they are is quite abnormal.

    It was something that was beyond our common sense, so I inquired Gobujii about it.

    While returning to the conversation, it would appear that Gobujii is also not too sure as to why this is the reason, making the joke that we should kill them before disaster struck, or something of that nature. It would seem that his previous knowledge was from Goblins born from humans having such abilities, such a thing as a child being ranked up from birth was never seen before, at least during his time.

    There wasn¡¯t even a speck of thought within me that would consider killing my children. They are amazing creatures that have been born to me. I fully plan to raise them to the best of my abilities. I don¡¯t plan to coddle them a single bit though. They will be given full Spartan training beyond anything that I would even put Ogakichi-kun through once they grow up in a few days. They are my children, as such, they will be treated as such, with the harshest struggles for survival imaginable.

    In the future, I might even consider dividing the group into mix-blood groups that have special abilities. It might be useful later. Our mercenary group will, one day, be branching out into different fields, so preparation and thought are always necessary. Though, for now, I will put these thoughts in the recesses of my mind.

    I¡¯m a father. I simply stand there as my children sit with their mother¡¯s suckling.

    On their foreheads there were some blackish brown skin where a red tattoo in the exact same pattern as mine is engraved.

    On the back of my daughter¡¯s right hand is an [Ogre Orb] of gold while on the back of the left hand of my son was a [Ogre Orb] of Silver. As I¡¯m also an ogre of a mix of human and Ogre blood, I wonder if I will ever develop an orb.

    This topic, I¡¯ll examine later.

    My daughters will be lovely and beautiful, full of strength and majesty. My sons will be fearless, powerful and wise. I shall play the role of the mighty yet doting father. Ah, having children will certainly be interesting.

    I begin to take measurements of my children. My daughter is roughly seventy centimeters, while my son is clearly greater than eighty centimeters. With this size, the risk of them bursting out of the Sister¡¯s bellies was no joke.

    If I had not been here, the sisters would have died and been eaten by the children.

    Though, such talk is best avoided since they did not die and are still with us.

    The girls simply praise the exhausted Sisters while they come to terms with the latest events.

    While these children are said to be taboo children, I declared right there that these children will be allowed to grow and grow, to become powerful and follow their father in many adventures and battles for survival.

    With that, the Sisters let out a sigh of relief.

    Though there is still a little anxiety, the Sisters were still having complex thoughts about willingly having an Ogre¡¯s child after all. I make vows with each of them that I will continue to grow stronger and defend my children.

    Goodness, I sound like some sort of heroic figure¡­

    After the children finished feeding, I will embrace them again with all of my caring. Next in the holding order, is Dhammi-chan. Normally it is not wise to be hugging the children as soon as they are born, but these children are my own, and my blood flows through them.

    Their race is beyond that of just being human.

    There was no problem with them being hugged a little when they are first born.

    I wrapped them in blankets made out of my yarn and passed them to the girls.

    They cried while away from their mothers, but they quickly calmed down.

    The final one to hold the children was the Princess, who until now, had been quietly staring at the situation from the wall of the cave.

    After I looked over towards her, she came over and climbed onto my shoulder.

    The Princess was now holding one of the children with both of her hands. For the first time, the child jitters slowly falls asleep in the Princess¡¯ arms.

    It was small, but I certainly saw a smile for a moment.

    This whole episode might have been a good experience for the Princess.

    After all of the excitement, I think all of us could use the rest.

    Spending the children¡¯s first day sleeping in a cave is just how I spent my first day.

    As I thought that, it began to rain outside, so it might be good just to stay.

    Today I fell asleep between the Sisters, our children between us.

    For the time being, the daughter will be named Auro, and my son will be named Argento.

    The mix of their colors was quite interesting to say the least.

    I wonder what the cause of that would be.

    Just as I thought that, I drifted off to sleep.

    ¡ª

    Day 107

    Even after I woke up, the rain was still coming down hard.

    Since that was the case, we had no real choice but to spend the day in the cave.

    Fortunately for us, the cave was quite wide and spacious. After I spent some time expanding it to suit our needs, there weren¡¯t any problems at all.

    Since I also had enough food in my item box to feed the entire settlement for a week, food was not going to be an issue.

    The rain stopped around mid afternoon, but shortly thereafter, it began to snow. The wind was quite strong, and because of the previous rain, the roads were in poor condition so proceeding would be a bad idea.

    That said, it would be better for the sisters to take another day to recover and spend time with their children.

    Tomorrow, the weather should be better.

    Having made that decision, Blacksmith-san and I decided to kill our spare time in a variety of activities¡­

    Dhammi-chan started reading some of her novels to the Tomboy Princess.

    Redhead started to train with Fire Lord-kun and the Boy Knight. Every now and then, the Princess takes a break from her reading sessions to participate as well.

    Blacksmith-san took out her blacksmith¡¯s tools and started to work with some spirit stones. She passed off a wink over to me, which I thought was very cute.

    Alchemist-san took out her own tool set and began to develop some new drugs for use.

    The Sisters are with Auro and Argento, still fast asleep, which I wouldn¡¯t blame them for either.

    As for myself, I headed out of the cave, alone¡­

    I left the two male Lords in charge of watching the cave entrance with the female one to help Dhammi-chan tend to the Sisters if they need anything.

    I had decided to hunt, because I really had nothing better to do.

    The location I decided to hunt monsters in was the >

    Since this also doubled-up as scouting the area before we progressed, there wasn¡¯t any problem with doing so.

    I was progressing in the snow storm without much difficulty.

    I wore a rain poncho and trousers made from the Cuckoo¡¯s skin purchased from the Fortress City Trient that had a very high water resistance. I combined it with [Null Cold Damage], [Aqua Resistance] and [Complete Wind Resistance].

    The weather barely affected me at all. Combined with me being an Ogre, I¡¯d assume it wouldn¡¯t be much of an issue anyway.

    Normally, finding prey would be difficult in this sort of environment. However, using [Sense Presence], I can detect signs and tracks to track them down. I decided to track the animals that hid from me first.

    The first set of tracks I found were from the bear that I had destroyed earlier in the cave where everyone is staying at.

    The bear wasn¡¯t in much shape for eating, though that species wouldn¡¯t have any abilities I haven¡¯t gained already.

    After that, there was a pair of tracks leading to a cave nearby.

    In the cave was a pair of bears, one male and one female, the female was obviously pregnant.

    The male was bearing its tusks in my direction in an attempt to defend its mate and child. Usually I¡¯d have just killed all of them and eaten them, but since I just became a father myself, I hesitated to kill the pregnant female. The female wouldn¡¯t run away if I killed the male either.

    Because I really wasn¡¯t in the mood, I pretended not to see the cave. Since I can easily track these bears, it wouldn¡¯t be hard to find several more. Though I have to admit, I did try to incite the male bear to attack me. It wouldn¡¯t be my fault if the male decided to abandon its mate to try and take me. However, when it began to attack me I unconsciously used [Intimidation of the Strong].

    The male stopped and retreated to the cave.

    Sigh, I suppose you really do have to cherish the life you are given.

    After searching in the snow for a while, I found another bear ¨C only a male this time. There would be no mercy. I decided I wouldn¡¯t use my abilities and readied my Halberd.

    Although it is inferior to the Lord of the Forest, its four arms were quite bothersome and powerful, making it a fitting opponent.

    In the end, I cut the arms off one by one, then cut its head off and ate it whole.

    Ability unlocked [Bristle Guard]

    I wandered further in to the mountains, looking for my next prey. The next thing I encountered was something like a deer, a monster about five meters in stature.

    It was pure white with muscles quite developed like that of a leopard. While it looks like a deer, it is obviously a carnivore. It stands tall and gives off the aura of a champion.

    As for the rest of its characteristics, it was enormous, similar to that of a giant. It was covered in white hair that gave off a faint glow from the snow and the slight rays of sunlight beating down on it.

    It was as if the heavens itself were stating that this beast was divine.

    It was as if it was a painting of a majestic spirit.

    Without even having to see the front of the beast, I can easily tell this is the boss of the >. It¡¯s the giant of the giant race [Fomori], the living embodiment of the earth. It has been told to me that the Fomorians are an existence that is stronger than any normal boss monster of a forest or mountain range, and this one stands at the pinnacle of all of them.

    Discovering this great beast, I know that I must fight it no matter the cost. Now, I begin to pick from my near three hundred abilities.

    My senses and body are greatly enhanced, I clad myself in my [Red Bear Beast King¡¯s Prestige]. I wield my halberd and the Shuyari. With these prepared, I turned to face this great beast.

    This beast may be killed instantly, but in the case it isn¡¯t, I¡¯ll need to use everything I have just to survive. This is an opponent that I have almost no chance of winning against. Its sheer presence is of that level.

    I put my chances of winning at 30 percent. In other words, I put my chances of being killed at 70 percent.

    My chances of winning against the Lord of the Forest when I was a hobgoblin were more than twice the chances now. I¡¯m overflowing with cold sweat, the premonition of death sweeping over my entire body. But this is something that I must do.

    The white beast noticed me in the corner of its eye. Shaking it¡¯s head side to side, both of its antlers fell to the ground with a thud. The action puzzled me, and in that one moment, my focus had broken, a major mistake.

    Then, before I could even realize my mistake, the Great Beast suddenly pummeled the ground, causing the ground to ripple, and I myself fell to the ground. In an instant, the Great Beast was towering over me. My heart sank.

    It stares at me for several moments. Then, in an instant, it begins moving rapidly away.

    I could not understand why, but I was given a second chance, I need to strengthen my vigilance even more.

    I gathered it¡¯s antlers for later and began my pursuit.

    Proceeding after the White Stag, my senses were heightened to their maximum. I moved as fast as I could, but in a single leap, the earth would shake and the beast would be dozens of meters away.

    Such extraordinary speed. This chase continued for some time without an end in sight, but as if growing tired of my chase, the beast seemed to activate an ability.

    None of my trap-detection abilities except for my [Intuition] set off, warning me that I was about to die. In that moment, I had no choice.

    I fled.

    But my end never came, I turned back to see the Great Beast simply staring at me in the distance.

    Total defeat. I lost without throwing a single blow.

    At the very least, I will be able to return to my children. I also decided that I would give these antlers to them as gifts, since I did not earn them in a fight, I had no real right to eat them.

    With that, I start walking the mountain to find something else to target.

    While I was walking, I found a White Slime lurking in the snow.

    The slime was somewhat gray in appearance. The magic system it had seemed to increase its hardness and made it hard to hit. It also had a resistance to physical attacks.

    I wonder what sort of resistances this species has.

    Thinking that, I take another look.

    I didn¡¯t even try to kill it. I just bent down and sipped it like jelly.

    The only news to me was that it improved the effectiveness of my resistance. What a shame.

    It¡¯s time to go home.

    On my way back, I heard a faint noise mixed in the sound of the snowstorm. I could also detect minor vibrations in the ground. From the distance, these impacts are quite intense.

    After sharpening my senses, I decided to head in the direction of the sounds and vibrations.

    I¡¯m quite curious after all.

    After getting near the origin, the vibrations intensified, and I could distinctly make out the sounds of a battle. Apparently, someone is fighting with something. Taking a higher level of caution I decided to approach closer. I needed to take caution in case I needed to retreat. Since I don¡¯t know what form of battle this is, if it¡¯s a battlefield between two sides, I cannot get involved, or risk having several dozens of enemies surge upon me from both sides.

    With my curiosity building, I proceed down the mountain road. The snow seems to be intensifying, but I proceeded anyway.

    I traveled for several minutes. Suddenly, several objects entered my [Sense Presence], four small blue points and two yellow points. Near them is one massive red point, four large silver points and one point I could not clearly identify.

    It was jumbled and pretty hard to discern.

    As I approached the location, there were intense sounds of mortal combat in the air. The thunderous sounds were almost as if the world was constantly under an earthquake, shaking violently.

    I continued advancing until I reached a clearing on the edge of a cliff. There, the battle had been unfolding. As I had imagined, a fierce battle has been raging.

    As I approached, I saw a group of six, four humans and two demi-humans. On the field were also several giants, one substantially larger than the others and had the aura of a great leader.

    That said, the other beasts seemed to be normal Fomorians. Their head¡¯s are similar to that of a goat. They have fiery eyes and a stalwart upper body with a tail similar to that of a snake. Their lower body is that of a goat, wrapped in black fur. In each of their hands was a massive club-shaped rock fit for their size and use.

    The Fomorians made up the silver points. It appears that the Red point was the leader of the group. I decided to call him the Giant King.

    As I had said, the other party were four humans and two beast people. To briefly describe them, the first human was a blonde, blue-eyed swordsman who was quite youthful. There was a heavily armored shield warrior, a beautiful clergywoman with her hand on a Bible, and a beautiful magician chanting spells. There was also a stunning girl with an amazing bust holding a massive spear. For a moment, I was taken in by her looks. She had the ears of a cat and a long tail. The final individual of note was a beautiful girl, with two fuzzy ears and a tail, holding a massive bow.

    There were only two males and four women. For the men, their odds were good and well planned. While their battle composition was also good, their choice in team members was excellent, my opinion of them was quite high.

    The Swordsman and Spearwoman charge in as the vanguard while being guarded by defensive spells from the clergywoman and the Magician covers their flanks with magical aid and recovery magic while the Archer moves throughout the battlefield giving covering fire.

    The entire battle was stunning.

    These humans were fully engaged with several beasts, including a unique beast that had a powerful aura.

    Looking closer, the humans are forcing the giants back, though however slowly.

    Their formation is incredibly advanced and had a sophisticated pattern. These people were obviously elites.

    Honestly, it¡¯s not hard to admit that these individuals fight very well. On the battlefield, they hardly rely on their levels, [Arts] or their [Job], using their natural fighting abilities to fight. In particular, the movements of the Swordsman were remarkable. Among the party, his agility and bravery stood out as the leader.

    To try and put them in order, their leader stands far beyond the rest of the group. Behind him are the two beast people. The other three are quite good, but not nearly the same level of ability.

    Just then, the party managed to collapse one of the Fomorians and deal massive damage before support came from two other Fomorians. That Fomorian might not survive that sort of damage, but it will take some time before it dies. If both sides don¡¯t wear each other out, I¡¯ll just wait until a chance to slay the weakened Formorian and stash it into my item box to eat later.

    Just as it seemed that the humans were making progress, the Giant King stepped in and sent a shock-wave that knocked the human party off balance. In that instant, the humans lost quite a bit of ground, but with the swordsman¡¯s actions, they were able to recover. Though they were getting forced back now, the Giant King seemed to no longer have any patience for these humans and was trying to finish it.

    To share my feelings, if it were only Fomorians, these humans would have had a good chance, but in this situation with the Giant King present, it might very well be a suicide mission.

    Since this was the case, I decided to wait and observe the situation.

    The battle raged for quite some time. I¡¯d estimate the time I have spent observing the situation would be roughly two hours.

    The four main attackers showed obvious signs of exhaustion, though the casualties for the Fomorians were far more severe. The excellent teamwork from the human party had managed to cut down the regular Fomorians, with only the Giant King remaining.

    The Young Swordsman had personally defeated two of them, slicing their necks after some ranged support from the Magician and Archer. In another situation, the Spearwoman managed to pierce the skull of another Fomorian after cutting the tendons in its legs. Though in this situation, the Spearwoman was gravely injured in the process. The final Fomorian had been defeated after an extended skirmish. In the end the Magician and Archer had whittled away at it until the Fomorian collapsed.

    The ground was stained in a red sea of blood with the cliff overflowing from the large amount of blood from the corpses.

    Just then, a mist of poison started to form. The trees in the surrounding area began to wither rapidly. I rather like a strong poison.

    It seems that the mist was from the Cleric, so there is a high chance that it wasn¡¯t some normal form of poison.

    It is expected, given their level, but the human party is certainly not intact.

    The Shield Warrior was broken after receiving multiple attacks from the Fomorian¡¯s Rock Clubs. He was saved through the Spearwoman¡¯s interference, at the expense of her receiving heavy injuries as well. Due to the long engagement, both the Cleric and the Magician will be low on Mana by this point in time. The Magician has already been stunned from Mana exhaustion and had to be rescued by the Archer twice already.

    The Archer had to collect her arrows from the corpses around the battlefield to reuse them, due to the length of the engagement. Just then, the Archer was sent flying. Luckily she was caught by the Spearwoman, but her injuries were severe.

    With the severe injury of a second member, this had become an impossible battle.

    If not treated, at least three of them would probably die.

    As it is, both the Archer and Shield warrior are close to death.

    After some light fighting, the Spearwoman collapsed from her injuries, leaving the Swordsman the only remaining front-line fighter.

    The Cleric desperately tried to heal the injuries of the swordsman. She seemed to be using a massive amount of Mana as she did swift and surgical mends to the Swordsman¡¯s body. There were only three left.

    Honestly, these few people have fought quite well. Imagine the dwarf figure of a human fighting against a towering Fomorian that is several times larger than your own. The fact is that this entire fight was something out of mythology.

    The battle still raged for quite some time, the human Swordsman Youth continued to battle, showing a massive extent of discipline and a well trained body with multiple [Arts] and excellent equipment. However long he struggled, the Giant King resisted with ease, the battle without limits was beautiful in its own way.

    But near the end, both parties still stood. While the Giant King was injured to a certain point, the Swordsman Youth was covered with severe wounds that the Cleric could not keep up with.

    The winner was certain by this point.

    Just then, the air in the area changed.

    I could hear the Giant King begin the chanting of magic.

    Though the result of this high class magic was only a minor wound, the human¡¯s expressions were that of frustration and horror.

    The women all had facial expressions of despair as they looked at what they thought was their doom.

    The only one that still held determination in their expression was the Youthful Swordsman. When I saw that, I made my decision.

    I pull out one of my larger ranged weapons and quickly set to changing it into something that resembled a sniper rifle. An elongated barrel will allow for a much more accurate shot. In the end, the barrel is more than twice the size of my body. I decided to name this new item [Ginude]. I moved quickly, because I knew that the party had less than ten minutes before the Young Swordsmen would collapse and the party would be wiped out.

    I embedded several abilities into [Ginude] and then loaded a massive black arrow. This arrow has more than five times the destructive power of a normal bolt. It also has attributes of Origin magic that I added to further increase its power.

    Even if this shot was something that could destroy a castle wall, it probably might not be enough to kill the Giant King. This creature had dozens of years of experience and a defense far stronger than my own, I¡¯m not even sure whether or not this attack will be successful.

    With that in mind, I went ahead to further overlay my abilities.

    I wanted to increase my odds of a certain kill to the highest possible limit. Whether I kill it or not, if I fail, then this story might not be a funny story. It¡¯s been almost a minute since the Giant King had started to prepare for some form of attack. All I had to do was wait for the opening when he went in for the kill. At that moment I would strike with everything I had.

    And then it came. The Giant King let out a triumphant laughter and let forth a surge of destruction and magic that began destroying the entire landscape.

    I became the sniper on the hill, preparing to assassinate the target, and this was my chance.

    [Ginude] had been prepped and loaded with highly compressed hydrogen gas. The explosion fired the ammunition out with great speed. The result of combining my abilities with a firearm saw to the manifestation of a weapon that is greater than any siege weapon. This weapon is a rail-gun capable of firing a projectile so fast that the target will be hit before gravity even has the chance to affect the ammunition.

    The air is cut so quickly that the ripples and shock-wave of the bolt are clearly visible.

    The great Giant King was mere meters away from the human party when I fired the shot.

    The effect of the blow was deafening, the shock-wave launched a tsunami of blood and gore onto of the human party.

    The bolt pierced in to the cliff, causing a massive explosion which caused a great portion of the cliff to collapse. Several of the dead Fomorians fell down in the incident. The result of the first test of this weapon was a success.

    The Giant King¡¯s head had been gouged out and began to fall to the ground.

    The Giant King¡¯s body began to collapse, falling right on top of the Human party.

    I had already considered this situation, and at the very moment that the shot fired, I had already leaped with a burst of speed. Within the fraction of a fraction of a second that the bolt had fired, I had already closed the full distance and was prepared to follow up on my surprise attack to finish the assault. When the Giant King died, I used my speed to keep the humans from being crushed.

    Just then, the entire cliff began to collapse. As such, I ensured that the humans wouldn¡¯t end up getting crushed from to falling rocks. Since they provided me with an excellent show for such a long period of time, I¡¯ll consider that as payment.

    I¡¯m a pretty good guy after all.

    Though to add further reasoning, they weren¡¯t my quarry, so there wasn¡¯t a reason to allow substantially weakened humans from being flattened by falling rocks.

    Then, I brought my attention to the Giant King, his broken body and separated head had fallen with us. I took the time to crack a smile. Here the Giant King had been about to unleash a great wave of destruction, only to be destroyed himself. He was destroyed in an instant, unable to recognize that his life had been ended, puzzled as to why his own body came into vision as he died.

    While basking in triumph, I set out to recover the Giant King¡¯s corpse and the other Fomorians. I did not let a single part escape my collection, placing them all in to large spaces in my item box.

    I wasn¡¯t sure if something that massive would fit in my item box, but sure enough, it went in without a problem.

    After I finished that, I had to question whether or not I¡¯d also kill the party to collect their equipment and abilities. It was a difficult choice. The possibility of adding them to my mercenary group would probably be low.

    Gee. That was a good hunt, at the beginning, I was certain that I would kill everything here if both parties were worn down enough, though now I¡¯m questioning that decision.

    The Cleric wasn¡¯t able to understand the situation at all. She¡¯s frantic and panicking. Just when they were about to be slain by the Giant King, his neck bursts into a pool of blood, covering them. Then, they were swept away and saved before getting crushed by the falling rocks. This is certainly a situation that would make most people speechless.

    In this state, I could kill them all without problems since it¡¯s me.

    I approached them in a state where my abilities are active, my killing intent was spiking very high.

    Just then, the greatly wounded Shield warrior and Spearwoman position themselves in front of the Cleric, though their wounds are very heavy. Their equipment is mostly broken, their clothing is tattered, and they were all covered with blood. The two in front of me sport twisted and distorted bodies, they both have over a dozen broken bones due to their injuries.

    Their eyes burned with fire. Seeing that, I snapped out of my blood lust, something that seemed to be detected by the two. Though they didn¡¯t let down their guard, their staggered gasps did not get past me.

    Then I really started to think. I can¡¯t simply state the reason they were defeated by me was because they are weak. I had watched them fight and turn to this sorry state after a great battle against powerful opponents. Suddenly, I show up and interfere with their battle and collect all of the rewards. The thought of also killing them when they were in this state hit a sour note.

    Remonstervol3

    Then, I turned and faced the Young Swordsman. I walked right up to him and looked him in the eyes. His eyes were tired, but he had a fire in his spirit, something that I really liked. To kill this man who shows no fear to me would be a waste. To eat his flesh and blood when I had not been able to fight him yet would be a waste. To kill him would be a waste.

    I decided that I would capture them and bring them with me. I stated that I was not going to kill them, but on the condition that they came with me. Hearing this, the Young Swordsman looked in to my eyes for several minutes, then agreed.

    I was able to obtain several Fomorian bodies, as well as the Flesh of the Giant King today. Furthermore, I managed to gather several strong humans as well. A bonus was that there were several beauties mixed in with the group.

    After the Young Swordsman agreed to my request, he showed no signs of hostility, though the others were cautious. I proceeded to treat them one by one. First, I set out to work on the Shield warrior, as he could die at any moment. I gave him one of Alchemist-san¡¯s life potions to stabilize his condition while I also treated the two Beast people.

    The Cleric and Magician would be able to recover naturally, but even so, I forced them to drink mana recovery potions, courtesy of Alchemist-san¡¯s work.

    During the battle they drained their power greatly. In cases where it is drained too quickly, it can have negative effects on the body, something that I wanted to avoid.

    I could have used my [Blood Elixir] to treat them to full health, but I thought better of it. The risks of having that information come into circulation was too great of a risk. All of their wounds were stabilized and would heal naturally if left alone.

    They slowly began to lessen their caution around me as I continued healing them. They probably assumed that I was an Ogre Mage, entities known for their great power but almost never attacked humans.

    The fact that my killing intent was so powerful also further served to deter thoughts of attacking me.

    I was asked what happened to the corpses, and I simply fed them a lie that I had used a magic item to store them.

    In the circumstances, there was still a risk towards my own survival, even though the party is still weak, the fact remains that the Youthful Swordsman could still fight me evenly. I wasn¡¯t willing to become greedy for several items at the cost of my life, so the next best option was to win them over to my side. Some of them were still not fully convinced, but for the moment, they didn¡¯t make any moves on me. The tension slowly fell.

    I was also tempted to take the women for myself, but I quickly dismissed that thought due to the risks involved with capturing the beauties. It would certainly put me at odds with the Young Swordsman. After I finished healing them, I was asked why I went out of my way to help them. My response being that I was in the area and was interested in gathering the materials. Since they were about to be wiped out, I made my decision to stop waiting and took my chances.

    The group was pretty suspicious of my story, there were quite a few points that I¡¯d have suspicions with if I had been on the receiving end. Though everything I had said was more or less true, I did want the materials, and only acted once they were about to be destroyed. The only one of the party that could accept this was the Youthful Swordsman who bowed his head and gave me his thanks.

    The great build up of tension was broken with that sign of good will from the Youthful Swordsman. I hadn¡¯t gathered up all of the materials from the Fomorians, so I set out to take care of that as well.

    While I was doing that, I decided that since we were on a mission, it wouldn¡¯t be best to bring more hands with us, putting the risk on our group. So in the end, we went our separate ways, I passed up on several parts of the Fomorians and that was the end of it.

    I quickly made my way from the area since the time was running short on my ability to eat my prizes. My anxiety was still present because when I begin to eat, I would become open to attack and would risk losing my prize in a bad situation.

    I spent roughly ten minutes at full speed to find a safe place to begin eating my spoils.

    Although the head was gone, the body of the beast was quite large. It would take me far too long to ingest the entire thing, so I decided It would be time to test out one of my theories. With that I turned my body into that of a massive slime using [Metamorphosis]. I wrapped the entire body of the Giant King in a layer of my body to absorb the materials. The body was unreasonably large to begin with, and it would have taken hours to eat normally, but this way proved perfect for experimentation.

    In the end, there was no problem and I absorbed the corpses with ease:

    Ability Learned: [Deadly Evil Eye]

    Ability Learned: [Overkill]

    Ability Learned: [Giant King¡¯s Supreme Strike]

    Ability Learned: [Giant King¡¯s Dignity]

    Ability Learned: [Giant King¡¯s Wisdom]

    Ability Learned: [Giant King¡¯s Flesh and Blood]

    Ability Learned: [Giant King¡¯s Body]

    Ability Learned: [Vitality of the Mysterious Giant]

    Ability Learned: [Giant¡¯s Iron Hammer]

    Ability Learned: [Giant Killing]

    Ability Learned: [Aspect of the Giants]

    Ability Learned: [Left Arm of Penetrating Rain (Parjanya)]

    Ability Learned: [Right Arm of Roaring Thunder (Illatici)]

    Ability Learned: [Complete Aqua Resistance]

    Ability Learned: [Complete Lightning Resistance]

    Ability Learned: [Complete Evil Eye Resistance]

    Ability Learned: [Complete Earth Resistance]

    Ability Learned: [Region Ruler]

    Ability Learned: [Tyranny of the King]

    Ability Learned: [Lesser Summoning: Giant]

    Ability Learned: [Language of the Giants]

    Never before, have I gained so many abilities from a single species; over twenty abilities were gained in one go.

    I can¡¯t say that I could have hidden my surprise even if I wanted to.

    To imagine that these creatures were so powerful, but for now, I needed to calm myself and return.

    I want to spend some time with my children, so it is necessary to call my hunt to a close here.

    On my way, I decided to test several of my abilities as I walked. Once, there appeared a snow rabbit and I chose [Giant King¡¯s Iron Hammer] to use against it. In a flash, there was an illusion of something massive in my arms. When I swung, the rabbit formed a flower of red blood and disappeared. Quite the scary weapon, but it is quite usable.

    After that, nothing else interesting occurred, and I found myself back at the cave. I embraced my children involuntarily.

    Just then, I heard ¡°Papa.¡± Apparently, the Sisters had taught some words to the children while I was away. The one who had said this was my son Argento. Ah, it¡¯s too good, I want a camera to record this scene. I¡¯ll remember these memories for years to come.

    At any rate, I contacted the Dwarves and Elves back at the base to report the growth experienced by the children. It was just generally assumed that since I was so greatly abnormal, that my children would be similarly so.

    After I play with Auro and Argento for some time, I ground a part of the White Stag¡¯s antler into powder form and put it in to their breast milk from the Sisters. Both of Auro and Argento¡¯s bodies began to glow slightly and their Ogre orbs began to shine. It¡¯s quite possible that they might indeed have capabilities similar to my own, they will indeed become great warriors in the future.

    The White Stag must be powerful. With how large these antlers are, it will last for quite some time for supplementing my children¡¯s growth. It will suffice in small quantities. Given the power of the beast, doing this should surely increase their power potential as they grow up.

    After thinking for a short time, I pass a small piece to Redhead, who after only a small bite her eye¡¯s glowed a deep red and her entire body began to shake from the sheer raw power imbued within the antlers.

    Seeing this I grew far too tempted and took a small portion for myself:

    Ability unlocked [Protection of the ¡ö Beast]

    Ability unlocked [Beloved child of ¡ö¡ö¡ö]

    Seeing this, it was clear that I had misjudged this beast entirely. This beast could be on par with ancient gods. His power was so great, that I was conceited to think that I even had a percent of a chance to defeat this creature. In reality, there was a zero percent chance that I would have survived.

    The fact that I hadn¡¯t been killed was from the White Stag¡¯s mercy.

    I had been far too immature and hasty. From there, I swore to myself that I would grow more powerful than the White Stag.

    Well, if I ever encounter it again, I will exercise a great caution and respect its strength.

    The White Stag is probably so delicious, I would never be able to comprehend the taste.

    My mind then went back to my children, I wondered if they had gained some of my abilities, or rather if they had gained my ability to absorb abilities. Either would be quite useful in the long run.

    On that same thought, I was curious to discover whether or not there were other beings, other than myself, with the ability to absorb the abilities of their prey.

    By the way, Redhead got a new profession [Job-Sacred Beast Eater]. Seeing as a similar event happened to my children, they might have picked up the same profession, or they might have also gained the [Protection of the ¡ö Beast]

    Well, the children are still too young to grasp the situation. Besides, I¡¯m exhausted today.

    With that, I surrendered to sleep.

    [Level has surpassed the specified value][Special Conditions fulfilled ? Army Massacre ?? Pseudo Divinity ?? Landlord Killing ?? Giant King Killing ?? ¡ö¡ö Declaration? and has unlocked [Apostle Lord Extinct Species] for [Rank-Up] is now possible].

    [Do you wish to [Rank-Up]?][?YES? ?NO?]

    I selected ?YES? with the last shreds of my consciousness before I pass in to the darkness of sleep.

    [Ogarou had Ranked-up to the required rank][True name granted by ¡ù¡ù¡ù is now available][Ogarou has received True Name: {Yatendouji}][Yatendouji has been granted Unique Skills][Yatendouji¡¯s Unique Skills:][Ability granted {Leader of the Demon¡¯s Gathering} ][Ability granted {Acceptance of the Demon¡¯s Gathering} ][Yatendouji has received special conditions in favor of the Gods][Specific Conditions Required, as designated from ¡ù¡ù¡ù, Yatendouji will receive five special abilities granted from ¡ù¡ù¡ù ][An error has been detected][Among the special abilities to be granted, there are two release conditions that have not been met][Releasing abilities for which the conditions have been met][Yatendouji will Acquire the following abilities:][Wrath of Heaven][Fate Stealer][Destiny of a great Mythological Figure {Black Eclipse Demon} ][Special ability ¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö] remains locked {Conditions not met} ][Special ability ¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö] remains locked {Conditions not met} ]

    ¡ª

    Day 108

    Rou''s 3rd Rank up

    When I woke up, there was a variety of changes. I have to admit, I was a bit confused at first due to the sheer level of changes to my body and power, but I think I¡¯ll manage.

    First, my body.

    My Rank-Up turned my body into an Apostle Lord {Extinct Species}

    My first response was wondering what this species had been.

    More than likely they were a powerful race in the past, though very few in number, that eventually died out.

    I had originally been around two and a half meters in height, though now I stand at roughly only two meters. More or less, my body had become that of a tall man.

    To compare though, my muscles and hands might be smaller, but are more than a dozen times more dense than they had previously been. I¡¯d have to say that I¡¯m more than a dozen times more powerful than when I was an Ogre, at the very least. My body now makes the power I felt when I was an Ogre feel similar to the gap between when I was a Goblin to when I became an Ogre. The power difference was immense.

    It¡¯s either because of the Rank-up, or because my body and power had changed significantly, but now, the Silver Arm had changed its shape to fit my body perfectly.

    I¡¯m sure that if I manage to Rank-Up in the future, the arm will change with me further.

    My skin is still black, but my reddish tattoos have turned into a deep golden color. In addition, I grew an extra horn in the middle of my forehead. It points directly upwards in an arc. My horns are thicker and far sharper than they were previously. I tried head butting the wall to test it out, only to almost cause a cave-in due to my greatly enhanced strength.

    My hair had grown down to my waist.

    I was about to cut it, mostly because I don¡¯t fancy having long hair, when Alchemist-san interfered. It seems that she really liked my new appearance and didn¡¯t want me to change it. When she started to pout, that was the end of me trying to shorten my hair. I tied it up with some golden thread into a ponytail. I have a feeling that my hair will become Alchemist-san¡¯s toy for quite some time.

    My eyes had turned blood red, the same color as Dhammi-chan¡¯s. My vision had also become so crisp that I can read from a book from nearly fifteen meters away. It seems Dhammi-chan also has this level of vision and can use it to see great distances. I¡¯ll have to experiment with it later.

    On the matter of the Ogre Orbs that the Lord species receive, I have five of them. The first is buried in to my chest. Two more are in each elbow, and the other two are in both of my knees. The colors of these were a mix of black, red, and gold. I do not know what sort of powers these Orbs entail, but all I know is that I haven¡¯t released all of this body¡¯s powers yet. I¡¯ll need to take the opportunity to fully test out this body later.

    My current form as an Apostle Lord seems to have a sort of biological armor. It¡¯s similar to what Dodome-chan can create, a type of demonic energy field embedded in to my flesh. Oddly enough, my body had been equipped with underwear and pants.

    The pants were unique, and when I tested the pants out to see the resistance, they were resistant to cutting and everything else. It would seem that the pants are very unique, it appears that these pants have the highest resistance to blades. No matter how much pressure I put straight down my leg, the blade would never go through. I ended up breaking the blade before doing any damage to the fabric, mostly due to my excessive strength.

    It seems that because this equipment is armor, I won¡¯t be able to change out of it due to it being a part of my body. It can be removed of course, but I have an incompatibility with other clothing for the most part.

    The only real thing I¡¯m unhappy about having this biological armor is that it leaves me half naked, leaving me only in pants. My abs are totally exposed.

    Redhead found it interesting and had a thorough investigation of my new body¡­ I¡¯m not much for exhibition, though I¡¯m not cold either, nor am I ashamed that I¡¯m exposed.

    Since my figure isn¡¯t too intimidating, very few people will become frightened from my current form. I probably won¡¯t even need to don a cloak in town. Aside from that, those are all of my physical changes.

    Then, apparently both of the sisters gained a new profession after they woke today. They gained [Job-Demon Child¡¯s Holy Mother], which gives their bodies a slight change to identify them as the child¡¯s mother. It is gained by becoming the mother of a child of a demon lineage.

    While it has a negative connotation to become the mother of a demon child, it is the symbol of the bond between the two parents and their child. Hearing this, I couldn¡¯t help myself and hugged the four of them.

    Auro and Argento are wearing some children¡¯s clothing that the Sisters and I had made. By now the children are able to form basic sentences. When I heard ¡°Papa, Papa I love,¡± my heart melted just a bit. There truly isn¡¯t anything better than this.

    Back to the order of events for today. When I had first woke up, the first person to see me was the Princess, who was quite shocked and let out a scream. The Boy Knight quickly came to investigate, followed by everyone else. Though after a few seconds of fear, the fact that my body was the same color hinted to whom they were looking at. Given my hair was the same color, the Tomboy Princess was actually the first person to figure out who I was, climbing onto my shoulder. Her doing that brought everyone else to the realization of my identity.

    I can¡¯t say that I looked too different, but my getting smaller and having different tattoos, as well as my much more potent aura that my body gives off, I can¡¯t say I blame them from being cautious.

    Oh right. I forgot to mention; I had been previously hiding my color to prevent the Princess and other humans from discovering my blessings from a greater god. It would have been troublesome if I were to be attacked from this being revealed.

    Well, it doesn¡¯t really matter if only these two found out, it¡¯s not as if they are going to attack me because I have a Greater God¡¯s blessing.

    I started to attempt to revert my color, but it seems that the base color for this species was black skin to begin with, so I found no reason to change it.

    With the other girl¡¯s consent, I kept my new appearance as is.

    I¡¯m still curious as to why I have received such a powerful blessing from a Greater God, but such questions will be answered with time I¡¯m sure. For now, the Princess has stated that she¡¯ll keep the secret of my blessing.

    My body turned out to be quite hard to move around in. Since everything was smaller than it had been before, with far more power, not breaking everything and adjusting my grip had become quite the annoyance. I ended up spending an hour or so getting used to moving around in my new form.

    One last note would be that I am quite curious as to the last two skills that were locked. I¡¯m quite distressed as to what conditions I still need to complete.

    Well. After a while, we had breakfast. I was far more hungry than usual and ate nearly three times as much as I used to eat.

    After that, we set out. The Princess continued to ride on my shoulder, and we progressed through the mountains as far as we could today. The view was breathtaking.

    ¡ª

    Day 109

    Today, following the Sisters, both Blacksmith-san and Alchemist-san¡¯s stomachs began to swell.

    This time, I wasn¡¯t very panicked and went through the usual process. I supplied them with energy while looking for a location to rest.

    Since we left the mountains the other day, no reasonable caves could be located.

    After a short period of searching, we had no choice but to stop.

    I asked Fire Lord-kun and the Princess to get out of the carriage. I had no choice but to deliver my children inside the carriage.

    I accidentally let the Tomboy Princess see me cutting open Blacksmith-san and all of the blood that resulted from the process. At the very least, I used my healing skills right after, so the Princess shouldn¡¯t have been able to see the effects of my blood.

    Therefore, I decided that I wouldn¡¯t need to worry about that issue.

    Discussing this topic feels as if I would be stepping on a landmine.

    Back to the story. Blacksmith-san gave birth to a boy. He was quite bigger than Argento and Auro, and his species was [High Ogre]. Alchemist-san¡¯s daughter was a blue-eyed blonde human child with black tattoos on her body. She was born with several [Jobs] apparently. I¡¯d assume that she would also have my genes as well, so she should grow quickly like the rest.

    It was pretty rare for a child to be born as a human as it turns out. Though guessing from the tattoos she was born with, I¡¯m going to hope that she is strong like the rest. It doesn¡¯t change the fact that I care deeply for this cute little girl.

    Since I was far better prepared in comparison to last time, unlike the situation with both of the Sisters, Blacksmith-san and Alchemist-san suffered only mild pain.

    The exhaustion experienced by these two was not to the same terrible extent as last time either.

    Even so, all of these children were born in quick succession. I wonder if it was because of their stronger bodies.

    Another thought of why they were born within several days of each other also brought up questions about their conception, but that¡¯s for another day.

    Well, that aside.

    I named the boy Ogre Oniwaka after a historical warrior, and Alchemist-san¡¯s daughter Nicola.

    When I fed some of the [Antler Powder] from the White Stag to my two new precious children, their abilities seemed to improve greatly, like my other children.

    With the appreciation of the hardships from all four of these women becoming the mothers of my children, I loaded everyone back into the carriage. I placed my new children in to a special bed that had been prepared before we had departed in case the children would be born.

    Around mid-afternoon, we arrived at the Labyrinth City Purgatory.

    Unlike when I was an Ogre, I¡¯m now a Lord Species, and as such, things have gone far smoother during our travels.

    It was of little effort to gain entrance in to the city.

    This city was surrounded by a circular wall made out of some type of special metal material.

    There also seems to be a special rule that prohibits the removal of powerful magical items discovered in the Labyrinth outside the walls. This won¡¯t apply to me, since I can place whatever I might discover in my Item Box. Though I don¡¯t plan to challenge the Labyrinth in the first place.

    As if reading my mind, I was informed that I wouldn¡¯t be able to access my Item Box in the labyrinth in the first place.

    Since only necessities like food are allowed in, backpacks are extensively checked for a long period of time before entry is given.

    For now, we searched for a good place to rest.

    ¡ª

    Day 110

    This is indeed the Labyrinth City Purgatory; gold and silver treasures everywhere you look; adventurers and rogues seeking fame; there are few cities that have grown so quickly as this. Several parties formed of a majority of Yara Beastmen went back and forth around the town square.

    The struggles and riches gained from the Labyrinths within are a great temptation to almost anyone.

    It was still early in the morning. The sun had yet to rise. I walked past one of the Guild halls within the city Guild Branch.

    The training field there is open to all adventurers, free of charge. There, you can see a mass of different species present, a Yara Beastman with bushy hair equipped with full plate armor, an old woman with a cane wearing a robe, a young boy and cat girl warrior carrying swords, a female human thief practicing her knife throwing.

    I¡¯m always for studying different fighting styles. That said, in the Labyrinth city, there are many such combat enthusiasts.

    Even if you were to guess just at a glance, there had to be more than sixty people gathered in the training field.

    It seems that they all have come to accept a quest from the guild to challenge the Labyrinth. When I had spoken with one of the adventurers on the matter, I received an invitation to participate. Apparently, quite a few of the present adventurers had seen our training session the other day when we arrived in the city, and we received an official invitation to use the training ground.

    When thinking about it, I suppose that it would be possible.

    After all, seeing our party, since I¡¯m an Extinct species, I¡¯m being grouped in with the Lords. Regardless, the combat strength of our present group is quite high, even if I was simply an Ogre, that fact would remain such.

    Currently Dhammi-chan has strength, she has power similar to that of Redhead, and both are able to defend themselves properly. The issue lies within the lack of overall speed that Dhammi-chan currently has.

    Well, while I was doing some training in the Training Ground with the group, several adventurers stopped their own training to watch. After several minutes, some of them came over to offer to spar with us. After pondering this for a moment, I thought it would be a good idea to allow some of our members to practice against the adventurers, while building up our reputation as well. Since I¡¯m an Apostle Lord, an extinct species, most of them probably took me as a powerful lord class as even I received several challenges.

    After some quick thinking, I thought to make a game out of the unique atmosphere. Though I left Dhammi-chan out of it since there were no individuals willing to go against someone that beautiful, even the other women were intimidated.

    Well, I suppose it¡¯s fine for now, but Dhammi-chan won¡¯t be gaining any experience from this situation. I¡¯ll have to manage something later for her.

    Since being able to fight against a multitude of different opponents is a rare opportunity, it will be good to gain some experience for the future. I decided to make things more interesting and set up a reward system.

    If you managed to defeat Wind Lord-chan or Fire Lord-kun, you would receive a thousand gold coins. If you won against Illusion Lord-kun, you would win a Silver Plate, worth ten thousand gold coins.

    As soon as I said that, the gathering started to get lively. The eyes of the adventurers changed, and all of them are fully motivated by money.

    Although I do know how easy it is to manipulate some people with money, there is a time when it just feels too easy.

    I charged an admission fee for each bout.

    I also added a special reward that if someone would be able to defeat all three, they would receive a prize of one hundred thousand gold coins.

    Well, to make the long story short, even though the three that I had participate on our side had become exhausted, they never once lost a single bout. Our training methods paid off, no matter who the opponent was, each of them knew exactly how to deal with the attacker¡¯s movements and defeated them.

    After all of the minor fighting, some of the higher ranked adventurers thought that it would be amusing to challenge me. I charged triple the fee and let them all come at once. It was over in an instant.

    This was quite the profitable venture, not only did we get in our morning training, but also managed to earn quite a bit of money too. It¡¯s killing two birds with one stone.

    By the time training finished, it was close to noon.

    After the bouts, I received numerous invitations to various clans and organizations, but since I¡¯m the leader of a mercenary group, I rejected them all.

    For now, I decided to stop our advertisements since, for one, we are already on a mission, and two, none of the jobs have any real benefit to us. We went back to the inn and used the bath house there.

    After, I went through the several items and counted the money gained from the event earlier.

    After counting the money, I gave each of the Lords some spending money, should they head out for their good work.

    I wanted to see the town a little more and let everyone do their own thing for the day.

    Ah yes. incidentally, I went to go and check out the Labyrinth as well. Although I didn¡¯t actually head in, the building was a giant gray tower that towered into the heavens. It¡¯s pretty spectacular.

    Tourism is also a pretty big thing in this town.

    The back alleyways are pretty lawless, just to mention. There are some people that go missing and no one really seems to bother caring about it. Though while most people would avoid the back corners of the city after hearing something like that, I went in to try and lure some fools into attacking me. Since I¡¯m more human-like, there will be far more people who will try to attempt something.

    As if on cue, several thugs jumped me, their skills were meager and couldn¡¯t even damage my skin.

    I grabbed one of them and pulled his head off, leaving the others in a daze. Within seconds, the rest were also dead. I gathered up their items and ate the bodies while on alert.

    After that, I used some acidic body fluids to eliminate any evidence that anything happened.

    Some of the items that the thugs had were quite nice, but I didn¡¯t gain any abilities from the thugs. I obtained a magical ring, a magic potion, some velvet garbs, though the rest was memorabilia.

    On the bright side, they had a lot of money on them. Although they tasted bad, I decided to forgive them because of the amount of wealth they brought me. Being able to eat five people though did please me.

    After hunting for thugs in the dark depths of the city, I went looking around for some good shops. First, I went to a store that dealt with magic items that came from the Labyrinth.

    After that, came several purveyor shops for adventurers, and I purchased several decent items at an affordable price.

    While I was doing this, some shops had items that seemed to interfere with my Item Box, though I just needed to take several steps back before I could put things inside again.

    With the accessories taken care of, I went to several material shops to purchase magic medicine, materials, and metals.

    I managed to purchase several different magical metal ingots other than mithril as a souvenir for the Dwarves back at the settlement.

    Incidentally, I ended up gathering quite a large quantity of many different materials for Alchemist-san.

    I managed to clear out a good deal of the magical shop¡¯s wares, and he had to close for the time being to resupply. Well, once the shopping was done, I just returned to the inn.

    Auro and Argento have grown considerably during the time I¡¯ve been gone. They simply spent time playing around. I gave them a new toy to play around with, but since they¡¯re rough, it won¡¯t last long.

    After that, I went to test some of my abilities in private. I spent some time testing out abilities to see what I would be able to use, and how to secretly use my Item Box if I were to go in to the Labyrinth.

    Though, after several minutes, the Tomboy Princess stormed in, and I had to end my tests there.

    The evening went by rather fast. That night, it was quite intense, since Dhammi-chan and Redhead weren¡¯t pregnant yet, they were quite frustrated and were quite insistent on the matter. Though¡­ I won¡¯t say that I put up much resistance. Since I already have four children, I suppose two more won¡¯t hurt¡­

    Liked it? Take a second to support Novels on Patreon!

 Re:Monster Day 111-120

    Today, I heard that Blacksmith-san and Alchemist-san also obtained [Job-Demon Child¡¯s Holy Mother].

    Unlike the usual [Job] that is given once the conditions are met the, [Job-Demon Child¡¯s Holy Mother] seems to be a type of [Job] that requires a certain amount of time to pass before it becomes available.

    It seems that it is not that easy to obtain since giving birth to a demon child seems to be only be one of the conditions. In any case, it¡¯s also not really clear how much time it requires before the [Job] can be acquired.

    This is, however, for future consideration since I haven¡¯t really understood this world yet, let¡¯s leave it at that.

    After we finished the usual morning training, we returned to the inn for a large serving of meat-filled breakfast served by the landlady. She was already past her mid 50¡¯s, but she still maintained her beauty and shapely figure.

    Compared to the food that the Sisters made, there was a gap in years of experiences to be able to make it this delicious. Needless to say, right after the morning training, everyone vigorously and greedily stuffed themselves.

    Although I wanted to enjoy some more of the flavor, we needed to continue with the job of escorting the Tomboy Princess to the Royal Capital without any further delays. Therefore, it can¡¯t be helped, but I plan to return here the moment the opportunity presents itself. With a slight regret to part, we checked out.

    Due to our decision that we were to depart today, we spent some time gathering supplies until around noon.

    Afterwards, we grabbed food for lunch and made our way to the gate.

    According to the Boy Knight¡¯s information, the process of leaving the Labyrinth City Purgatory seems to be more troublesome than most other cities.

    I had been expecting such though. It was a lengthy procedure to determine if a specific magical item was your own or stolen.

    Luckily, the whole process only required roughly twenty minutes.

    To be honest, I just put all of our items into my Item Box that made it undetectable from the outside, so everything went naturally well.

    Oh right, we gave the Princess a disguise, so her obvious noble aura was roughly hidden. As of now, she still hasn¡¯t been exposed as a member of the royal family yet.

    It¡¯s quite clear that the aid from the Kingdom has great benefit on the Labyrinth City.

    The gatekeepers don¡¯t dare to involve themselves with foreign nobility, but the work that gets done is very efficient. They are pretty good, honest men, a bit serious though.

    Simple enough to say, but there are very few that have an interest in falling out of favor with those in power.

    The only problem that arose was when I jokingly suggested to the Princess that she should reward the gatekeeper by letting him kiss her hand. The Princess at first became very nervous, but quickly composed herself and declined.

    Well, I suppose I can understand the Princess¡¯s situation. But if you really think on it a little bit, she really is quite similar to an ordinary little girl. Due to this fact, I often find myself thinking of her as a daughter of my relative.

    We left the Labyrinth City around 10-11 in the morning.

    If we move as fast as we usually do, we would reach our destination roughly by tomorrow. But today, I decided to travel at a slower pace.

    The cause of this is because the Princess is with us, it makes learning new abilities rather worrisome. I used my clones to scout the surrounding areas, since today I have some other matters to take care of.

    Browsing the scenery, the carriage slowly rolled down the road. Some of my kids hopped up onto my lap, I embraced Auro and Argento, they were sparring with each other and seemed happy in my arms.

    On top of all that, the Princess climbed back onto my shoulder. After some of our more dangerous events, I started to allow this for security reasons. Other than that, the Princess just seemed to like it there.

    She usually wore a sarcastic smile and would grab my horns when she wanted something.

    Usually, these cases were ¡°do this¡± and ¡°do that¡±. When she pulled my horn this time I asked her what she wanted. ¡°Sing a song¡± was what she requested.

    Well, I have nothing else to do right now so I activated [Job-Bard]. As a result, whatever I sang came out in a beautiful voice that you wouldn¡¯t think could come from me based on my appearance.

    I chose a song from this world called ¡°Charm of Isherundo¡±. It¡¯s a song that Redhead and the Princess had spent some time teaching me earlier.

    With some light melodies and loud songs, we descended from the highlands.

    Due to the proximity of the Royal Capital, there were many individuals passing by us. Naturally, a group such as ours attracted some attention.

    There were several merchants who were even bold enough to offer goods for sale. With me present, there isn¡¯t any real danger in browsing their wares for a moment.

    A small fish-like monster appeared on the road, it seems that it¡¯s rare and worth quite a bit. It seems that it is harmless if you don¡¯t approach them.

    The Princess instructed me on how you would go about killing them without damaging the materials.

    It was nothing, absolutely not a dangerous creature, though the Princess showed obvious excitement. While I was fighting it, I heard several cocky and loud phrases from her.

    Oh well, as long as you don¡¯t get yourself into trouble, be my guest.

    Aside from that, there really hasn¡¯t been anything else that has happened today, so I suppose I¡¯ll briefly talk about what has happened to the other groups that we split off from earlier.

    Ogakichi-kun¡¯s and Asue-chan¡¯s group is currently conquering an underground dungeon called Dyushisu. Unlike the dungeon we just left in Purgatory, Dyushisu is located in the city Grifos.

    Ogakichi-kun said, ¡°We just started the conquest of Dyushisu, nothing to tell yet. I promise that by the next time we meet, I¡¯ll be sure to Rank-Up.¡±

    Ogakichi-kun¡¯s last few words had my ears buzzing.

    When thinking of that combat addict Ogakichi-kun, I wore an excited smile.

    My heart is truly thankful for straight-forward guys like him.

    The third group with Supesei-san and Burasato-san have gone into a great search for magical books called [[[Grimoire]]]¡¯s which cannot be read unless one has achieved the necessary level.

    Those who have the requirements are able to learn the magic spell from it.

    They are also seeking to purchase well known demonic swords.

    These purchases aren¡¯t cheap, but it seems they were able to solve this problem by raiding some bandits who were trying to kidnap Elven slaves.

    From the sound of it, they used live bait, which turned out to be quite effective.

    I hadn¡¯t been aware that Supesei-san had many times more magical power than myself in my Ogre form, that fact is now obvious.

    Even during our battles with the Kirika Empire, the attack power of Supesei-san¡¯s abilities easily exceeded that of nearly three hundred people.

    If ranking up will further increase the level of her magical power, her capacity will rise unimaginably¡­ Though, there seems to be some difficulties with her ability to locate these magical books.

    In this case, the bandits fought against Burasato-san who fought alone. The battle resulted in a literal massacre. They probably didn¡¯t even have time to regret their decision. In close combat, Burasato-san wields her dual [Blood Swords] like some Berserker.

    Large-scale destruction magic from Supesei-san combined with the Mages she trains will be quite effective later.

    Also, it seems that the Hobgoblins and elves have been training against small-time bandit groups who only attack weaker prey.

    The bodies were laid out and used for firewood. I can say that this particular group is quite brutal, though these bandits deserved the dog¡¯s death they received.

    The fourth group that consisted of the Tiger people and Drago-Newts did their best to keep their distance from me. They spoke to me informally and were quite unfriendly. The group was made of two Ogres, one Hobgoblin, two Tiger people, two Drago-Newts and three Humans. The whole group consisted of low-ranking individuals and were not really important overall.

    In the end, the Hobgoblin was chosen for his leadership skills rather than his physical skills, mostly because the rest of the group consisted of heavily physical fighters who only spoke with their fists.

    Simply put, the group put aside the concept of ¡°the strong rules over the weak¡±.

    It was a pretty good test to see if they could manage themselves. Putting them on a long journey together would force them to cooperate or they would not return. I don¡¯t expect them to be eating from the same bowl, but recognition of allies and being able to rely on one another is necessary.

    I won¡¯t intervene if the muscle brains decide to take over the party, but if they do so, they won¡¯t receive any kind words from me upon their return. In my mind, I¡¯m quite sick of their attitude.

    The fifth group included five Ogres, two Humans, the Kobold Samurai and a Centaur.

    This group was sent to investigate information on plant seeds and other agriculture techniques. Their group was placed under Dodome-chan. Her nature was very suited for information gathering, so I wasn¡¯t really worried about them.

    Immediately upon leaving the forest, the team was divided into several minor teams and has already collected some very important information.

    I wanted to tell them to not overwork themselves and stick to the rhythm. I plan to reward them well upon their return. This has shown that our settlement has one more capable leader amongst us.

    For the time being, apart from the fourth group, they all seem to be able to do reasonably well.

    The only problem is that fourth group. Although it was created to test its members, they still have yet to get used to each other and constantly end up bickering.

    Today we traveled quite slowly, but even after that we should arrive at the capital of the Kingdom tomorrow.

    Today we spent the night outside.

    Today¡¯s synthesis results:

    [Disease Carrier] + [Plague Infection] + [Epidemic Scatter] = [Pandemic Black Apostle][Paralysis Claw] + [Burning Claw] + [Adamantine Claw] = [Blazing Adamantine Paralysis Claw][Thermography] + [Echolocation] + [Sense Presence] + [Sense Trap] + [Sense Enemy] = [Phased Radar Array]

    ¡ª

    Day 111 Sidestory: The Hardships of The 4th group Leader Hobgoblin Rin¡¯s POV

    Enough. I can¡¯t anymore.

    What¡¯s this sheet?

    My group is all awkward. Why the hell did Brother (1) Ogarou make me the leader of this bunch!?

    Bullying! This is bullying!

    Couldn¡¯t he have at least made it a simpler combination?

    My group consists of a prematurily ranked-up couple of Ogres from the same generation, we got me a Hobgoblin Mage, a couple of Weretigers (Humanoid Tiger), two overly proud Thunder Dragonewts, and three good for nothing human slaves. These are the component of our no-good group.

    It¡¯s awkward. It¡¯s really awkward. Brother Ogarou¡¯s authoritative command made me leader but, yeah, I¡¯m like the weakest one of this bunch!

    Counting from the bottom is best. Because of the Leader, the Ogre sisters aside, we have the young Weretiger who

    respect the strong and the elder and the lady Thunder Dragonewts, their dissatisfaction is depressing.

    Why do they have to obey someone as weak as me? is the kind of atmosphere I feel. Even thought we¡¯ve been together for many days now, we can¡¯t get along.

    Ah so awkward, I feel a hole in my stomach.

    The humans are shutting up so that¡¯s fine, but I can feel their severely complaining gaze piercing me from behind. Can¡¯t they let me relax for just one hour?

    Aah, really, I can¡¯t anymore. Oh, right, I gotta do something about this.

    Enough. It¡¯s like I¡¯m gonna break in a lot of ways.

    ?Later?

    ¡­ See, they won¡¯t move quickly at all! Slow, the same that before.

    ¡­ This ¡ö ¡ö ¡ötard! You ¡ö ¡ö ¡öan¡¯¡ö ¡ö ¡öa ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö fallin¡ö ¡ö ¡öehind. ¡­¡­ ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡öso¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡öan¡¯¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ölike,¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡öbut isn¡¯t it!¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡öya know! ¡­¡­ ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ,¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ,¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ,¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ,¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö ¡ö.

    ? Hoburin¡¯s maximum stress tolerance limit has been exceeded, it made her (2) stop caring.

    ? Hoburin¡¯s group¡¯s disagreeing jeers, violence and influence [(Activated Ear Cuff Ability)] to force them to yield.

    ? Hoburin¡¯s [ Hardman Demon Sargent] nature has awaken.

    ? Hoburin trained her subordinates

    ? Training (animals) ability has greatly improved.

    ? Apart from Hoburin, all members Union Power has greatly increased.

    (1) Can also mean clan leader.

    (2) Not sure if male or female since the word used (uchi) can mean either but is used more frequently by females.

    ¡ª

    Around noon, we climbed a hill to see the Royal Capital in the distance.

    The ramparts appeared to be high milky colored walls. It was built on an elevated position for increased protection. The majority of the base was built on a large hill, making attacks nearly impossible. At the heart of the city stood a huge castle.

    Well, from this distance, you can only make out so much, so we continued our journey to the city. Once we started getting closer, large convoys going to and from the city passed us by. It also seems that there are no exceptions for entry without full examination. We quietly waited at the end of the inspection queue.

    Both the Boy Knight and the Tomboy Princess were quite impatient, but were convinced that this was good life experience and that they needed to learn patience. After that, they quieted down a little, but the Princess kept tugging at my horns.

    Although our actions were contrary to our appearance, we certainly stood out compared to all of the human groups around. There were only humans going in and out of the royal capital.

    This could be another problem. We continued to attract quite a lot of attention, especially the beautiful Dhammi-chan. One look at her, and it¡¯s almost impossible to look away.

    Well, I hadn¡¯t considered that we would stand out this much, but it¡¯s probably due to the fact that this is the Royal Capital of the Sternbild Kingdom that has a major human supremacy ideology. Thus, there were fewer monsters and beast races the closer you got to the royal capital, hence we attract much more unwanted attention due to us being who we are.

    We will probably suffer some extra difficulties getting in to the royal capital due to the fact that we don¡¯t belong to the human race, but if we proceed the quick way and bypass this line, cutting straight into the city, there will be rumors about us circulating at an alarming rate. Something I personally want to avoid at all costs.

    There¡¯s nothing to do since we cannot just change our race, so in the end, we will have to just bear with it and stand in line.

    To begin our plans, I want to avoid as much social contact as possible. We currently do not have nearly enough combat potential to compete with the Kingdom head on.

    In addition, this kingdom is very strict on their non-human policy. If we have any difficulties, we will have no choice but to rely on the Princess. Another thing I want to avoid doing at all costs.

    So in the end, waiting in line is the only option available. After waiting for quite some time, our turn finally came.

    There was apparently an extra fee and tax for the transportation of our goods, but since we had certain individuals with us, they quietly voided the charges.

    Finally, the benefits of this partnership bear fruit.

    During the inspection, I attached a small clone in the inspector¡¯s clothing to collect information on the guards and soldiers in the city.

    My clones are extremely useful for information gathering, and more often than not, serve to save my hide.

    To conclude, many things happened, but we managed to enter the capital without incident.

    To say the least, the royal capital lived up to my expectations. There are thousands of people buzzing within these walls. From outdoor shops to energetic voices, there was everything here.

    I had my eyes on over a dozen shops that carried a multitude of products that seemed interesting.

    Even compared to the Labyrinth City Purgatory, the energy of this place was in full swing.

    It was as if every day was a festival.

    Since it was their first time in the Royal Capital, Redhead and the girls were slightly nervous. We went down the main street where I suddenly noticed that, until recently, all of the buildings were made of wood, but every house here was made of bricks.

    In addition, the roads were all lined with stone and there were systems in place to provide running water.

    From what the Princess tells me, all of these things were established by a Royal Sage of the Royal Court nearly seventy years ago. The products and luxuries of this city are very rare in this world.

    I really wanted to learn more, especially about the dark side of this Kingdom, but since we still have our mission to accomplish, there is nothing to be done until later.

    I decided to immediately deliver the Princess to the castle.

    After that, I planned to visit all sorts of different places within the city.

    There will be few chances like this to gain crucial information regarding all manners of things about the workings of this world. An opportunity like this is something that I fully plan to take advantage of.

    Passing through the outer town, we headed straight for the Royal Palace.

    The farther in we went, the richer the houses and individuals became.

    There were often occurrences where some of the more influential individuals who passed us by would stare at us with that ¡°Who are you?¡± look on their faces.

    Though after a short while, we got used to that and continued to move onward. No one actually bothered to interfere with our progress and would go on with their own business after a few seconds.

    We arrived at the Royal Palace around 4 in the afternoon.

    It¡¯s finally time to say goodbye to the Princess.

    Hmm, I have to say, after these past few days, I¡¯ve grown quite attached to her, so this parting will be quite sad for me.

    Well¡­ So I thought. It would seem our separation will be slightly delayed.

    The Tomboy Princess requested to be taken to the location where only those with a [Royal Ring] could enter, the Amber Palace.

    Honestly, this proposal of hers could result in a lot of different problems, but I ended up being persuaded by all of the benefits that I could receive from this proposal.

    The place that we escorted the Princess and the Boy Knight to was in the center of the Amber Palace. The room was decorated in shades of amber and was called the [Sparkling Room].

    The only individuals here are nobles, servants and the Royal family.

    Because our group had appeared without prior notice, the servants here were very alarmed by our presence. Quite a few of them dropped what they were carrying when they noticed us.

    They were wary of us, but since the Princess was with us, we were the same as invited guests of the Royal family and were treated with respect and politeness.

    In all honestly, I would like to receive the reward that I was promised and leave as quickly as possible, but the Princess claimed that it would require some preparation.

    It was determined that we would need to stay here until at least tomorrow afternoon. Of course, we weren¡¯t going to be placed in the same location as the Princess in the Amber Palace. Instead, we were moved in to a wing intended for guests.

    Well, since we hadn¡¯t picked out a hotel yet, and since we were offered a world-class luxury, I¡­ decided that it was possible to try to remain here for the day.

    Dinner was amazing, the room was excellent and the bathroom was nice.

    Life¡­ Is¡­ Good.

    Today passed without problems, so I slept well.

    Today¡¯s synthesis results:

    [Hawk Eye] + [Wind Reading] + [Ephemeral Eye] = [Sense Area]

    ¡ª

    Ah¡­ I woke up this morning totally refreshed. It was a very relaxing holiday.

    I wonder if it was the fact that the bed was as soft as a cloud, the warm feeling of the sun in the morning, or the effect of the several magical items that are installed within the room.

    Whatever the cause, waking up this morning was the most enjoyable morning of my life thus far.

    After looking around for a moment, I noticed Dhammi-chan, Redhead, and the Sisters lying on the bed nude.

    They are quite sexy, only making this morning even more beautiful.

    I wonder, what shall I expect of today¡­

    Morning training was held in the Palace Courtyard after we received permission. Some of the soldiers started gathering to watch and study our fighting power.

    Ah right. Both Auro and Argento¡¯s growth have already passed over a meter tall. They simply continue to grow and are already able to do simple physical exercises.

    Kumajirou and Kurosaburou joined in the training of those two today. While tame, training against powerful monsters is always important battle experience. My two familiars will be holding back of course, or so I strictly informed them.

    The Boy Knight had already done this with us, so I decided it would be fine to let him join in.

    After the Boy Knight joined in, the guards that had been observing joined in as well.

    I pitted Redhead with her [Job ¨C Sacred Beast Eater] and the three Lords against various elite guards assigned to the defense of the Royal Family and the palace.

    With this, both sides increased in combat ability, but our end was far more beneficial, our side rarely suffered defeat and gained valuable experience.

    One on one, my subordinates never lost, though when it was two or more on one, there were times where they would be overtaken. It¡¯s a normal result, considering who these soldiers were. In general, this setup wasn¡¯t that bad.

    After that, we went back inside for breakfast.

    Using only the words I am able to use to describe this breakfast¡­ Delicious!

    Even tastier than the Sisters¡¯ cooking¡­

    What am I ever going to do after eating a meal that is the same level as that of Kings!?

    Whatever this meal is, Dhammi-chan and the rest fell into a stupor with silly smiles after eating some of the food. This, I can understand.

    If I¡¯d not known tastes similar to this from my past life, I too might have been standing there with my face like that.

    Though, while the quality is always important, the quantity is even more so!

    After a workout, the more you work, the more you want to eat. Normal Royal members usually can only eat this much, so there isn¡¯t anything you can do about that.

    Since this was the case, I made an additional order of a huge pile of meat and vegetables, no special preparations, just base items. With that our appetites were satisfied.

    Last night over dinner, the Princess had, as promised, presented me with a [Proof of Belonging to Royal Authority], and informed me of the terms of being able to use it.

    ¡°If you use it for evil deeds, it undermines the credibility of the Royal power, therefore you will be treated accordingly if discovered. You will be executed on the spot without trial should this be the case.¡±

    Quite a useful item. The terms were something similar to what I expected so there wasn¡¯t any surprise there.

    In this case, the item itself is far too useful, it really is better to own it than eat it.

    Well, it¡¯s not as if I plan on becoming a vassal of the Royal Family or anything, but I gladly accepted the [Proof of Belonging to Royal Authority], together with collecting the award for the mission to escort the Princess.

    There was even an additional third in gold past the agreed amount offered, so I needed to ask their reasoning.

    While we have been here, we¡¯ve gained a vast treasure trove of information, I kept it to myself, but just that would almost be worth this entire trip.

    Their reason was that we had trained the Boy Knight.

    Hmm? I wonder if this was a normal situation. I suppose this reward came from the employer. As such, I received their thanks and gratefully accepted.

    Ah, simply to note, while I do possess [Overcharge] and [Discount], these two were not activated during this time, so these gains are not actually associated with my abilities.

    To mention, I ended up thinking that the Princess was leading me by the nose, but she finally smiled at me with a smile that was completely pure and without ulterior motive.

    Sigh¡­ It really is as if she was one of my children or a relative. Seeing her smile immediately put a smile on my face.

    However, I could say this over one hundred times: Something is bothering me.

    Mmmm¡­ I¡¯ll leave this be for now, it¡¯s best not to worry about things when it isn¡¯t clear what they are. I¡¯ll just keep my guard up.

    Soon after, we left the palace.

    After leaving, we decided to head to some institutions that I had noticed yesterday.

    From what I¡¯ve seen so far, the Human to Non-human ratio is roughly five to one, with humans in majority.

    There really isn¡¯t anything you can do about it. Judging from what I¡¯ve heard from some conversations I¡¯ve had, the prices for non-humans are very high compared to humans. Because there are so few Non-humans, there are just that type of bad people that seek to make money off of them.

    In this case, I had no problem activating [Overcharge], [Discount], [Golden Rule], and [Luck] all at once. I wanted to see the effects on a trader, and as a result, I received a 40% discount from the human price without any issue.

    In this case, I¡¯ll have no issues trying it out on all of the merchants in this city for profits. Whenever I would look back, the traders and merchants would have their mouths wide open wondering what they had just done. I found this highly amusing and laughed several times.

    In this way, we proceeded through the Royal Capital. This time, no shady characters ended up tailing us or making contact, probably because of the Royal ties that we just established.

    I¡¯ll have to come back here after some time, but for now, we really should be looking to return to the base. I want to make further improvements, and get the general living conditions improved.

    But¡­ Before we even managed to leave the Royal Capital, I got the feeling that we were being watched.

    Not long after, we had already traveled to the hill from the day before. It was at this certain point that I found my scout clones waiting, and with their data, my brain now has a complete map of the area as well as information on the Royal Capital.

    I had also sent clones to scout the route we would take towards our settlement to check for risks or targets that would prove difficult for us to handle. For the time being, it didn¡¯t seem like that would be the case.

    The road ran through the forest. Since it was filled with monsters, I decided it was best to go through. As expected, the individuals who were most likely tailing us seemed to have given up.

    When I was convinced that there was no one else following us, I let Kumajirou and Kurosaburou in to the carriage and released several skeleton horses. With this, we can travel at maximum speed with very few breaks.

    Even with top speed and a direct route to the base, it will still take a few days. I have no problems with encountering new prey.

    As far as the information gathering in the Kingdom is concerned, I will leave it to my brainwashed spies that were captured during the Human Invasion of the forest to get information. I have to say though, most of them are ineffective due to low contacts. Only a few of them are high enough in status to actually be in the know.

    I also have spies within both the armies of the Kingdom and Empire for various reasons. We are not as powerful as the full combat force of either nation. Thus, we need to be prepared.

    The information I¡¯ve gathered thus far is that the most powerful individuals of the Kingdom are the [Four Symbolic Heroes] and their retinue. On top of them, there are the Royal Sages of the court who have large political power and, from the sounds of it, are also quite powerful in other regards as well.

    I really want to know the details of each of these figure¡¯s combat capabilities, the extent of their political power, their equipment, I want to know everything about them.

    Especially their weaknesses. If I could discover these, it would facilitate my life tremendously, and might even lead to a delicious meal and many new rare items. Though for now, that¡¯s off the table due to my improved relations with the Kingdom, but in the future, who can say what might happen.

    For the Empire, it seems that they too have a special group of fighters, though only roughly the same strength combined as the [Four Symbolic Heroes] of the Kingdom. This group is called the [Eight Great Knights], as well as a [Divine Priestess].

    I have only just begun my investigation, but the Kingdom comes first. I have left many clones within the Royal Capital, so I decided to slowly investigate the nation¡¯s underbelly for all of it¡¯s secrets.

    Don¡¯t get me wrong, I¡¯m not actually plotting anything against them. It¡¯s just an effective way to kill time while gathering useful information.

    Two birds with one stone.

    This also helps with gathering information in the future, figuring out how to gather information from the people of this world.

    Hmm, I wonder how these Four Symbolic Heroes taste.

    I was so caught up in the thought of it that I got caught in some cobwebs.

    I quickly killed the monster spider that attacked me by eating it in one bite.

    That evening, I heard a mysterious voice in my head.

    ¡°Character of the World of Legends [Dark Legends of Origin], Assistant of the Important Existence has reached a milestone. Servant Ogakichi has fulfilled requirement [Rank-Up]¡±

    ¡°Condition {1} [Rank-Up] has been satisfied.¡±

    ¡°The Demigod of Fire has granted additional rewards. The item [Great Gleaming Axe of the Fire Emperor] will be sent to him¡±

    As soon as I heard this, I used the wrist cuffs to connect with him to confirm this information.

    There, I saw Ogakichi-kun slaying me.

    MinoKichi Dueling with Rou ((3rd Rank Up))

    EHHH? What led to this happening?

    ¡ª

    Gossip: Great Emperor of the Destructive Axe¡¯s Awakening][? ? ? Perspective: Story between Days 90 and 113]

    A Large Demon (Ogre) is, a brown Large Demon with an axe and shield is, in the deepest part of the certain Labyrinth (Dungeon), a bloodbath of a fight happens.

    The enemy is a Demon. The same as the Large Demon, but this Large Demon (Ogre) had black skin and a silver left arm.

    On their battle, the Black Demon was superior. While being an imitation created by reading the mind of the Large Demon, the Black Demon reinforced by the Large Demon¡¯s imagination knocks down the Large Demon with it¡¯s overwhelming force.

    However, even if the Large Demon was being pressured, it didn¡¯t mean he was being one-sidedly defeated.

    The halberd in the Black Demon¡¯s hand. Lightning shoots out from the tip, a water blade flies from the axe-head, flames flutter from the pick, the butt end has the ability to manipulate the earth, this halberd was about to decapitate the Large Demon.

    The Large Demon succeeded in partially destroying it. Additionally, the Black Demon¡¯s body was cut by the sweep of the axe, it¡¯s bones crushed with the massive shield , with a rock-hard blow he shocked it¡¯s brain.

    But is nowhere near to make the Black Demon surrender. The Black Demon uses carefully forged martial arts to corner the Large Demon with a myriad of beyond human skills.

    Water bullets that flies trough the empty air gouge his meat. The raising ground becomes spears and wound his legs. Raging winds becomes blades tearing his flesh, cut off his horn.

    Suddenly a knife is thrown and his arm is pierced. The axe which is boasted of it¡¯s obliterating might is evaded and his supporting leg¡¯s knee is stomped on and bend over in a impossible angle.

    The Black Demon¡¯s attack certainly shave off the Large Demon¡¯s life, however the Large Demon¡¯s attacks are healed by the Black Demon¡¯s superior regeneration ability.

    Only the Large Demon continue exhausted, the Black Demon regenerate and doesn¡¯t show any fatigue as the battle continues.

    But the Large Demon doesn¡¯t give up, and so he received destructive thorough blows.

    His life was saved by his trustworthy shield¡¯s swing, parting from it and piercing it on the ground .

    Out of obstinacy he didn¡¯t part from his beloved axe, however the pain felt from the destruction of his flesh, bones and organs was reaching a limit.

    Blow after blow the Black Demon continue non-stop. At an almost imperceptible speed, fist as heavy as the Large Demon owns continue it¡¯s barrage.

    The Large Demon was blown away by the last blow, at the verge of death after putting a good fight.

    Just a little more, if he had been a little slower he would be dead. The comrades that were watching the Large Demon¡¯s fight, before they could do anything to help, the Large Demon was about to die.

    But, help was given.

    God¡¯s, the Blessing of a great one. Comrades, helping the Large Demon who the Black Demon was aiming at. And to the Large Demon clinging to the last of his life, a new power was given.

    There was thunders. Golden thunders.

    There was flames. White flames.

    Thunder and flames surround the Large Demon. The half-dead Large Demon on the floor start evolving.

    Bull-head Demon [Minotauros]. With a huge frame and bull¡¯s head, a rank higher than the Large Demon (Ogre) from the [Oni] monster evolution line.

    He slowly stands. The Black Demon is surprised by the Minotauros appearance, the Minotauros can¡¯t understand the current situation. But with a simple thought, the Minotautos with his beloved axe in his hand approach the fake Black Demon.

    The Black Demon was a formidable enemy until now, but it was nothing before the overwhelming speed and power of the Minotauros. The axe blow split the earth, golden thunder and white flames flaring from the destroyed surroundings.

    The fake Black Demon was exterminated without even leaving a body.

    Thus victory was obtained. The exhausted Minotaur falls once again, but to sleep rather than dead.

    Then in front of his comrades, the Minotauros is wrapped in deep peace.

    ¨C In the future together with the real Black Demon the world will know his name, this is the awakening of the [Great Emperor of the Destructive Axe].

    ¡ª

    Ah, I see¡­

    The enemy that Ogakichi-kun had killed yesterday wasn¡¯t actually me.

    It seems that Ogakichi-kun had been fighting a shape-shifting monster that had turned into me to try and throw him off. This, however, served to infuriate Ogakichi-kun, and led to its destruction. Ogakichi-kun seemed to have been struggling that day and even ended up nearly losing once, but in the end, he managed to [Rank Up] and destroy the enemy.

    Haaa¡­ I had really thought for a second there that his actions were because he hated me, but it seems that I¡¯m probably wrong.

    Well, that¡¯s a relief.

    In addition, he¡¯s gained a new rank and has also received a [True Name]. Though, since a [True Name] can cause no small level of trouble if certain sorcerers were aware of it, it seems best to avoid using these [True Names] as our public names.

    Therefore, I decided that we would continue with the same naming style.

    I¡¯m now an Apostle Lord and will be called Aporou, similar to the name Apollo. I liked the naming scheme, with a name similar to that of a god, I hold a bit more respect for myself.

    I informed the group that, from this day onward, that I would be called Aporou and not Ogarou.

    Next was Ogakichi-kun. Since he was a new breed of the [Minotaur] species, it would be best to come up with a new name for him as well. The two of us settled on Minokichi-kun.

    Minokichi-kun didn¡¯t seem to mind, and in fact, he actually thought the name was pretty good.

    Hmmm, Cow + Kichi = Katsudon?

    No, no, best to stop thinking about that.

    I really can¡¯t wait to see him with my own eyes though, because for the moment, the image of him that I had just created needs to be struck from my memory at once¡­

    So to conclude, I will refer to myself as Aporou and Ogakichi-kun will be referred to as Minokichi-kun.

    I have to say, the fact that both of us have Ranked-Up together had made me quite pleased.

    Minokichi-kun said that he would love to come back to fight with me, but they needed to increase Asue-chan¡¯s rank and have been entrenched on the top floor of the maze within Dyushisu.

    During this time, he planned on training with his new body.

    Hmm. Well, since Asue-chan doesn¡¯t seem to have much longer in order to increase her rank, we won¡¯t have to wait very long before we get to spar with each other.

    Once Asue-chan raises her rank, I informed Minokichi-kun that it would be a good idea to spar with each other as soon as possible. It wasn¡¯t necessarily to stay dominant, but because I really wanted to see how strong the two of us had become after our recent [Rank Up] and be able to enjoy going all out.

    Even since my previous life, my character has not changed very much. Well, I suppose it doesn¡¯t really matter that much anyway.

    With that concluded, we began the morning workout. During the morning workout, I decided it would be best to use some previously unused abilities of mine.

    I spent some good time using each of them in various ways to see if there are any special uses to them, you really need to know each ability to its fullest if you want to survive.

    Many of these abilities turned out to be quite useful to me. One of the most effective was [Lesser Summoning: Giant] which took nearly thirty seconds to use, all the while a large black mass began to form.

    After that, three different beings formed, the first was a two and a half meter Ogre, the second was a four meter Troll and the final was a thirteen meter Fomorian. The latter can¡¯t be compared to the Giant King though.

    All three species were significantly stronger than the usual Skeletons that I would create, though just as my Skeletons, their skin was black.

    I have to mention, in a great contrast to the Black Skeletons, these giants were, for a lack of kinder words, quite stupid.

    These things can only really be compared to dolls. If I don¡¯t give them orders, they do not move.

    They just carry dull expressions on their faces. Luckily, at least they respond to orders. If they hadn¡¯t, then this skill would have been worthless.

    Moving on, in order to celebrate Redhead¡¯s receiving of her new job [Job-Sacred Beast Eater], I gave her the standard [Rank Up] gift of three magical items.

    The first was [General¡¯s Cleaver] which was shaped somewhat like a square Chinese Kitchen Knife with a length of roughly 80 centimeters. It is white without any spots on it with the blade itself cutting through flesh like butter.

    The second was [General¡¯s Shield], a triangular kite Shield which, when not being used, shrunk down to fit into the palm of your hand.

    Finally, there was a suit of white and gold armor with a red cape. It¡¯s similar to that of the noble knights of the Kingdom or empire. The name of the armor is [Platinum General], and this set had probably been originally made for a high ranking general to wear.

    After arming Redhead, I asked her to cut off the Black Ogre¡¯s hand.

    As a result, in a flash, Redhead had severed the hand, with blood spurting out through the wound.

    Still, there was no reaction from the Ogre. He just continued to stand there with his silly smile without his hand, bleeding everywhere.

    Even with this, it would seem that these things will not move on their own.

    After I examined them in great detail, I determined that they would never move unless I ordered them to do so.

    In addition, apart from the basic commands such as ¡°Fight¡± or ¡°Flight¡± commands, using ¡°Fight with all your might¡± or ¡°Run until you¡¯re dead¡± seems to have a greater effect. It would appear that the more detailed the order, the stronger and more complex they become.

    With this, the experience gained is both higher and comes faster if I use more details. It also becomes safer, especially if I give orders such as ¡°Fight at full strength, but do not kill your opponent¡± when having them spar.

    Of course, the Fomorian is still far too much for everyone to fight alone, but the Ogre and Troll are both fine.

    Though, even though they are strong, there are still weaknesses to this ability.

    First, to call them instantly, it requires the same Mana equal to that of instantly creating 50 Skeletons. While at night, this isn¡¯t a problem. I can always just absorb new Mana with my ability so it¡¯s not a big deal. Though even then, that level of instant absorption of my Mana causes some wooziness.

    I need to keep in mind that in battle, if it¡¯s not dark, then I should avoid using it. That, or use it before a battle.

    Second, each of them are quite slow compared to the Black Skeletons, both in speed and cast time, but spending 30 seconds to create something as powerful as the Fomorian is not as great of a weakness as one would think.

    Third, the need to give them orders for everything.

    If I cannot give them orders, they become a hindrance on the battlefield. If you aren¡¯t able to avoid them, they might become an obstacle for our maneuvers.

    Though, them becoming expendable pawns to distract the enemy is quite useful. I have to add that the last one is also not that terrible of an issue.

    Using it in combination with [Lesser Summoning: Undead], there shouldn¡¯t be any major problems arising.

    As for Redhead, there are no complications with her life expectancy with her new abilities, so I¡¯m quite looking forward to seeing her in action.

    As for myself, I decided to test one of my abilities on a species around this area called [One-eyed Cyclops]. The ability I was using was [Deadly Evil Eye].

    I tried it on the beast, and, as the ability¡¯s name suggests, the Cyclops died just from my gaze.

    I can¡¯t tell what really happened, but at the same time, various animals in my gaze also began to drop dead. I quickly closed my eyes and disabled the ability before someone important is affected.

    There were no wounds on the bodies, they just fell over and died.

    I think I really need to hold back on this one. If, by chance, it hits my allies or if I see a mirror, it won¡¯t be a laughing matter.

    I¡¯ll just keep this as a secret weapon. Hopefully, it will be enough.

    Next on the list was [Giant¡¯s Iron Hammer] and [Overkill].

    [Giant¡¯s Iron Hammer] was a huge transparent weapon. For the sake of the experiment, I ordered the Black Fomorian to block. While the strike didn¡¯t kill the beast, both of its arms were nearly obliterated, dangling at the Fomorian¡¯s sides.

    Though it can¡¯t kill, it¡¯s enough to incapacitate something like a Fomorian, which is quite useful.

    Next, after I had repaired the Black Fomorian, I activated all of my abilities which increase my physical strength and attack power.

    [Overkill], [Giant King¡¯s Supreme Strike], [Black Ogre¡¯s Strong Body], as well as several others.

    In order to see if the Fomorian could take the full force of my punch, I gave it the order to ¡°Strengthen your body with all of your might.¡±

    I had moved far away from the camp, just in case.

    The result, the Black Fomorian just exploded into a plume of red.

    Even though I had moved so far away, the rain of blood had painted the surrounding area in red¡­

    After that, I sighed as I felt a chill down my spine.

    After returning to the camp, Dhammi-chan was beside herself. Being covered in blood, combined with her being a Dhampir, caused some serious side effects.

    I only managed to calm her down after coaxing her to bite and drink some of my blood. Even in her excited state, she was quite dangerous.

    Redhead and the rest of the company, even the Lords, were on the brink of defeat by the time I got back.

    At any rate, the [Giant¡¯s Iron Hammer] was quite a useful ability with many uses, though it has some shortcomings, such as you cannot use it on both hands at the same time.

    As such, I am satisfied with adding a large number of new abilities to my stockpile.

    Hence, my synthesis experiments will have far more efficiency to create superior abilities.

    For now though, I was busy with this and wandered into the woods. Though I caught some new monsters, as a result of my excessive force from my abilities, I gained nothing from the minute remains left behind.

    Today I found a calm place to relax in a comfortable cave. I released Kumajirou and Kurosaburou so they can hunt. After we gathered enough ingredients, I returned back to camp. Since the Tomboy Princess gave us a large amount of different spices, today¡¯s dinner tasted great.

    After the meal, we had a small round of training, then went to bed.

    Today¡¯s Synthesis results:

    [Improved Charging Power] + [Reckless Charge] = [Black Demon¡¯s Charge][Intimidation of the Strong] + [Giant King¡¯s Dignity] = [Black Demon¡¯s Dignity][Bone Blade Generation] + [Sharp Horn Generation] = [Sharp Bone Blade Generation][Crystal Crocodile¡¯s Armored Hide] + [Tough Skin] + [Steel Hide] = [Black Demon¡¯s Impervious Hardened Skin Armor]

    ¡ª

    Today, we chose the shortest path to reach our base as fast as possible.

    We visited Mason Village again while we were passing by.

    We also hunted in the woods and mountains in the surrounding areas for several monsters. One such monster was called Rostepelnogo a fungus-like creature with a green body that carries a giant wooden club with iron-like skin.

    Another beast we came across was called Molotoyascher, a creature with blue scales that carries a trident and has a tail that looks like a hammer.

    Though in the end, I didn¡¯t receive any abilities from them. Naturally, after my [Rank-Up] to [Apostle Lord], the chances of gaining new skills became quite small. From this point on, it¡¯s quality over quantity.

    Well, regardless, even if I don¡¯t get any abilities, I¡¯m not really in a hurry. If I like a certain race, I¡¯ll eat them even if I don¡¯t get any power from them.

    Aside from that, today was a peaceful day.

    ¡ª

    It was around noon when we came across a small village in an opening within the forest. It wasn¡¯t large, but how it was placed made it easily missed by untrained eyes.

    If you were to judge the number of residents, you would guess around two hundred people from the number of houses.

    It was then when I realized the smell of death in the air. Just then, my [Intuition] activated and warned me of the danger. I left everyone besides Dhammi-chan at the carriage to guard the Sisters, Blacksmith-san and Alchemist-san. I used [Phased Array Radar] to search the town. After the preliminary search, it seems that there was only a single human remaining within the town. Dhammi-chan confirmed this with her senses.

    I drew out my halberd. At the same time as an extra precaution, I activated an ability from my Silver right arm called [Beowulf¡¯s Fury] which heightens the defensive power of my arm.

    It¡¯s necessary to remain vigilant. Once we entered the village, the appearance only served to justify my precautions, the sight was worrisome.

    Pieces of meat were splattered on the ground and on walls as pools of dried and clotted blood covered the ground. The resting pieces of bodies, limbs and other parts of human bodies were scattered every which way. Even upon the roof tops, human remains were visible. When we got further in, we found several corpses closer together with what seemed to be makeshift weapons. Behind these corpses was a pile of bodies ripped to shreds, but not just any bodies¡­

    ¡°The children too, huh¡­¡± I said to myself. A chill went down my spine as I said this. Dhammi-chan also seemed to become anxious. We both continued on high alert.

    The wounds caused to each of the corpses were either puncture wounds, or slashes. This wasn¡¯t the work of some form of giant monster, so the true nature of this situation cannot be presumed, only serving to further increase the tension.

    After moving further in, we reached near the location of the ¡®survivor¡¯ that we had detected earlier.

    It was a youth, his body was covered with a murky liquid that seemed to be toxic and smelled terrible. He gazed at the sky with a blank look on its face, as if lamenting its deeds.

    This youth, it seems like it isn¡¯t some ordinary villager¡­ He wore a light silver steel armor that protects the body, though damaged, it still reflected the sun brightly. Around the waist were several decorations, it seems that the Kingdom¡¯s coat of arms was also present.

    When taking into account the quality of the equipment, as well as the type, it¡¯s likely that this thing is or was a member of the cavalry for the Kingdom.

    It¡¯s highly possible that he was a deserter of some kind. It¡¯s also possible that knights from the Sternbild Kingdom were responsible for the destruction of the village, not a monster. Perhaps the true cause had already left the scene and this youth was left in its place.

    When I considered this, I decided on gathering more information.

    When I got closer, I noticed that this young man was crying and holding something.

    A corpse¡­ The youth was holding the top half of a mangled corpse of what seemed to be a woman. He was embracing the woman while crying in a crestfallen manner. Most of the organs and blood from this corpse had already fallen out of the woman and were on the ground below.

    This woman was probably someone important to this youth.

    At this time, however, the eyes of the youth instantly shifted towards me, the wind suddenly began blowing. I felt the burning embers of hatred impacting my body, it seems that these feelings are a mix of sadness and rage.

    As I thought this, the young man abruptly laid down the corpse and began to moan in such a way as a beast.

    As this happened both [Phased Array Radar] and [Intuition] began to sound a violent alarm.

    When this happened, I thought ¡°Oh¡­ Dangerous¡±, changing my posture to a defensive stance while at the same time securing the safety of Dhammi-chan.

    The young man¡¯s gaze turned back to the female corpse on the ground, and drew the blade from his waist.

    His eyes remained vacant, as if all meaning had been struck from him. It is not the eyes of one who has lost his mind, but lost the will of life.

    RcT73BB

    That said, something abnormal had begun to take hold of this youth¡¯s mind.

    A dirty, thin black magic began to swell around the youth¡¯s body.

    When this magic was released, the speed of the youth increased greatly.

    I recognized one of the youth¡¯s jobs right then and there [Job-Berserker].

    I have this job too, so I might be able to defend well enough.

    The youth charged, running similar to that of a beast, his intentions obvious.

    He wanted to kill me.

    His blade comes near my neck and is guarded with my Gauntlet.

    Once this happens, something flowed into my mind:

    [Yatendouji has invoked (Heresy Nemesis)][Following hostile action against the [Heretic£¯One Who Has Awakened the Psalms] the start of [Eschatology: War of Conquest] has been declared][Until confrontation between two aware of the Truth of Their names, Yatendouji¡¯s abilities will be increased by 300%][Special skill [Heresy Nemesis] will last until the conclusion of the battle]

    These words abruptly appeared in my brain.

    As this occurs, another impact is felt on my gauntlet.

    It¡¯s too late to just dodge, I made my attack.

    The conflict was over in less than five seconds.

    [Conclusion has been reached][Special Ability [Heresy Nemesis] has been released][Yatendouji has obtained victory][Gods of which blessings pertain have granted a reward to the champion][The following item will be received by Yatendouji][ Sunlight¡¯s Soul Sword, Hisperiol has been granted]

    I wanted to say a few things about that announcement, especially the result, but the young man collapsed in front of us.

    His physical capacity is probably higher than normal. It¡¯s crazy how it had increased so dramatically, the amount of time the power could be maintained wasn¡¯t that great though.

    His attacks were strong, but they were simple and easily dealt with. Since this was the case, it was a simple matter to handle him without killing him.

    To begin with, the young man had already suffered considerable damage and was quite unstable.

    Even though the [Heresy Nemesis] had been activated with enhancements with several abilities and my Silver Arm¡¯s power, I couldn¡¯t hold back too much as a precaution. Too many variables leaves me with little room for that much mercy.

    Regardless, I wanted to avoid killing this youth.

    So, I reached out with my silver arm and struck him heavily in the abdomen. After the connection, the already injured youth didn¡¯t remain standing for long. In that berserk mode, he was ignoring all of his wounds. His body gave way quickly and he fell unconscious.

    I mended his more severe wounds, but decided to leave his limbs broken to avoid more conflict. It was decided between myself and Dhammi-chan to wait until he awoke.

    That said, we didn¡¯t have to stay put, both myself and Dhammi-chan set out to start processing the corpses and materials within the village.

    Since the bodies weren¡¯t fresh, we set out to make graves for the dead.

    In this world, those who die can become skeletons or zombies if their corpse is left in the open. Even in war, if a body isn¡¯t dealt with, it will become a zombie or skeleton.

    I did loot some meat as the cost for the service, the rest was buried. It only took roughly fifteen minutes to do this.

    I clasp my palms together and pray for them.

    On top of the meat, I also decided it would be best to recover any usable goods such as the tableware and such.

    This village was already seriously ruined. If it remains in this state, there is very little chance of it being used again.

    Fortunately, there was at least some daily products to be salvaged. I was somewhat pleased that we managed to replace our daily living products without cost; it¡¯s fairly important to maintain these.

    That said, after everything was collected and the corpses were buried, only another twenty minutes had passed.

    I was in the middle of cleaning myself off when the youth stirred. I¡¯ll admit that I was caught off guard and jumped in reaction. I was expecting some form of attack, but his body seemed to have slowed greatly and a great deal of his hostility was absent. It seems that I¡¯m being ignored as he rambles about not getting to say his last goodbye. He also seems to be ignoring the fact that he was embracing the upper half of that woman¡¯s corpse. All of a sudden, the young man was crying again. After he had settled down a bit, I managed to drag out the youth¡¯s story.

    To summarize the information I was given, the youth is a simple commoner that was born in this village. He was born with [Blessing of the God of Sunlight].

    News of his blessing eventually got out, and a messenger came to the village demanding the youth. They were given less than a month to send him. He was to be allowed to enroll in a school that trained knights and strategists of one of the princes of the Sternbild Kingdom.

    In this world, a particular strength that creates great warriors depends on their blessing. There are different levels from transcendence to mediocre.

    The youth told me of a scale of measurement of how powerful one¡¯s blessing could be. There seemed to be [Blessing Retention], which is a weak blessing that doesn¡¯t always grant abilities. The scale goes up to the levels of [Blessed Demigod], which gives many abilities to the extent of one being a prophet to their god. There are also cases of [Divine Blessings] that are much rarer than usual blessings. These grant the holder greater power, faster abilities, and much more force.

    I omitted the ¡®in¡¯ because they don¡¯t really matter to me personally. All of our members have the rarest class of Blessing anyway.

    This man had apparently claimed that he would return to this village and live with his childhood friend. That friend being the woman that he had clung to earlier.

    The youth kept in contact with the woman and had been trying to return for some time. According to him, they would have been getting married right now in a different situation.

    He was caught up in some political issues, but since he had gained his standing with a certain level of effort and held confidence within the army, it wasn¡¯t something easily dealt with. He wasn¡¯t able to get much free time.

    He still failed every now and then, but he was happy overall with his life.

    That is of course, before yesterday.

    It would seem that when he was getting close to the village, he could hear the sounds of a struggle of some sort. Rushing in, he found the bodies of many of the villagers. A scream let out for help, and before his eyes was his childhood friend. The attacker was an [Arutirumu], a centipede-like creature. Her lower body was cut into a thousand pieces and eaten in an instant.

    Of course, the woman was probably killed instantly from that.

    After that, he seems to not have a very clear memory. The villagers had apparently managed to inflict a certain level of damage to the Arutirumu during the attack. In his rage, he used his military training and used his [Blessing of the God of Sunlight] to use solar rays to startle the creature.

    It would seem that after it was startled, it was afraid of the youth. It¡¯s belly was swollen after eating many of the residents and turned out to be quite weak. It would seem that the creature must have managed to escape from him.

    After that happened, the youth had begun to embrace the corpse of his childhood friend who was growing colder as time went on. It was then that we had happened upon him, and from there is history.

    This can be said to be quite the common tragedy in many worlds. There isn¡¯t much that I can do in a situation like this really. Words of comfort are not easily created and I couldn¡¯t think of any that suited the situation properly.

    I asked whether or not he was aware of where that creature was, upon asking, I received some hateful eyes from the youth.

    It was an uncommon material and likely had a blessing, I definitely wanted to capture this creature. I used [Intuition] because I was curious as to whether or not I should attempt to take advantage of this youth.

    I talked to the youth and offered him the strength to destroy the Arutirumu if he was willing to serve me for the rest of his life.

    This deal seems quite like that of a devil¡¯s contract when you think about it. I like the idea of totally owning someone.

    The young man asked me what gave me my strength and whether or not I would be able to actually kill the Arutirumu.

    Since I never saw the creature, I cannot be sure, but as things are now, I took the time to nod.

    There was a period of silence, but suddenly the youth grabbed my hand.

    ¡°If you are able to give me the power, I will pay anything.¡±

    Hearing this, I held out one of the cuffs and placed it on his ear without hesitation.

    With this, the deal was struck.

    This youth, or rather, let¡¯s call him the Avenger. His target is the Arutirumu. In exchange for the power to kill it, he has given me a powerful subordinate that has dedicated his life to that of an Avenger and my subordinate.

    Not bad. There isn¡¯t really any loss here.

    From now on, things are more than likely to become more interesting.

    [ [Yatendouji]¡¯s [Fate Stealer] was invoked][Because the fate of [Psalm] of Avenger status (Sigurd Ace Sven) was placed under the control of the [Yatendouji] the [Psalm] will be included in [Yatendouji]¡¯s world of [Black Eclipse Demon History]][Because this was built on the desires of [Psalm]¡¯s current conflicting status as [Lead Hero of Light], the status was permanently deleted][Because of [Psalm]¡¯s change, the following abilities of [Psalm] are temporarily frozen][Illuminating Light of Revelation][Cavalry Patron][Usurper][Merciful Maiden][Witch of Mystic Flame][Current statuses of Merciful Maiden and Witch of Mystic Flame are already in the awakened state.][When the carrier¡¯s servitude was established to Yatendouji, it is now possible to release the frozen special abilities.][As [Cavalry Patron] and [Usurper] were not in the awakened state after the carrier was placed under the control of [Yatendouji], they are now under the control of the master, given that the conditions are met][Psalm [Lead Hero of Light] has now been released from control, is now left to the discretion of the night and is seized by [Yatendouji]][Further releases of locked abilities of the Avenger (Sigurd Ace Sven) is dependent on Yatendouji]

    Hearing that, I was immediately interested.

    Even if this Avenger from the announcement was the same individual I fought, it would seem that this guy was quite the important individual in fate. His fate was engaged in this mysterious world, and is something that I¡¯ve interfered with.

    Since the announcement declared it, I shouldn¡¯t have to worry about future complications.

    Well, this was quite unexpected. I¡¯ll admit I was surprised, quite surprised. Since there was quite a bit of information, I¡¯ll just summarize it.

    Apparently, the Avenger, my latest subordinate named Sigurd Ace Sven according to the announcement, was an important character to another god, and I removed him from that god¡¯s control.

    Hmm, the new abilities I was granted came to mind. While not given directly to me, I seem to have some ¡­ control over if the Avenger can gain them, or rather, regain them.

    I decided I wasn¡¯t going to release the Avenger for now though.

    It was good to get a little more information on the Avenger though.

    Still, it would seem that myself and the Avenger are perhaps special.

    He¡­ She¡­ eh doesn¡¯t matter. A strong opponent consumed is delicious meat.

    Well, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll attack the Avenger, though if the time comes, the meat should be delicious.

    The Avenger asked if I should be offered anything since the Avenger was now in my service.

    I simply replied not at all since I recovered various supplies from the village. I wasn¡¯t going to inform him about eating some of the meat though.

    After that, nothing much else happened.

    I did try to analyze the new sword I received, but I had some difficulty.

    ________________________________________________________________________________

    Object name ¨C [ Sunlight¡¯s Soul Sword, Hisperiol (Superior)]

    Category ¨C [Unknown, Sword]

    Grade ¨C [Unknown]

    Class abilities ¨C

    [Pagan Damnation (Heresy Nemesis)][Sunshine Convergence][Blessing of the Sun][Light¡¯s Hero][Capacity Expansion][Locked][Locked][Locked][Locked]

    Features ¨C Yatendouji achieved victory against historical figure in -(Conquest War)- Unknown-grade sword was obtained upon victory.

    Description ¨C Three forms of those known as gods exist within the world, > where this blade is one of the ¡ö¡ö . The blade is imbued with light and tempered in flames near that of a sun, it shines like sunlight.

    Yatendouji is the only one capable of viewing this information.

    Yatendouji is capable of touching this blade only due to obtaining the subjugation over the previous owner.

    Only Yatendouji and those he has given permission to touch this sword are able to do so. Any person who touches it without permission will have an unimaginable disaster befall them.

    There are some rare exceptions, but since it is ¡ö¡ö, destruction is fundamentally impossible.

    Additional information is possible, do you wish to attempt to view this information?

    __________________________________________________________________________

    The only thing I could think of was,

    ¡°Wow, this thing is amazing!¡±

    Due to this, I felt as if I had gotten all the closer to solving the mysteries of this world.

    But¡­

    There is one thing I was unhappy with¡­

    At this moment, I couldn¡¯t eat this thing at all¡­

    I couldn¡¯t believe it, but no matter how many times I bite it, the blade doesn¡¯t even chip¡­

    My pride was admittedly hurt a little bit.

    Especially with the fact that I couldn¡¯t read certain bits of the information.

    I wonder if I would become able to eat it if I unlock those other abilities within the blade.

    At any rate, I put it into the item box.

    I¡¯ll also admit that I was pretty anxious about the notion of these mysterious psalms of [Shutellbelt] as well.

    From all of the messages and notifications, I can only discern that the Heroic Psalms that were guiding the little hero here were deleted from the Divine Psalms [Shutellbelt].

    Does it mean that the Divine Psalms aren¡¯t complete anymore¡­? If they are deleted and cannot be restored, I¡¯m sure something bad will happen¡­

    Wait¡­

    Perhaps what I just did was something pretty disastrous¡­

    Well, I can¡¯t say I really understand any of it at this point, so no point thinking about it at all. If something happens, I¡¯ll just leave it at saving the Tomboy Princess and her little Boy Knight.

    Really¡­ If there¡¯s a disaster set upon the Sternbild Kingdom because of this, I don¡¯t really think that I¡¯d care.

    After that, Avenger poured oil around the village and burnt it. Something like a mass funeral for the villagers and the whole village.

    Along with Avenger, I offered a prayer with Dhammi-chan .

    After that was complete, I introduced him to Redhead and the rest of the group.

    They were quite surprised at the village suddenly erupting into flames, but had been preparing lunch because I had contacted them stating I was on my way back to continue on our way to the base.

    Avenger had quite the serious look to him, but because he was originally a commoner and not a noble, he didn¡¯t put on any airs.

    He turned out quite easy to talk to so everyone enjoyed his company for awhile.

    I thought it would be a good opportunity for Auro and Argento¡¯s education, but I¡¯ll hold off on that for later.

    Today we camped upon the peak of the mountain. Because of that, the night was cold and not that great for sleeping outside.

    Though, it wasn¡¯t that big of a deal for us.

    The Skeletons can change their bones to create a space where everyone can sleep in. It blocks the wind so everything is fine.

    On top of that, I grabbed some warm blankets, and with Kumajirou and Kurosaburou with us, there isn¡¯t any way for us to be cold.

    Surrounded by a blanket and between these two cuddly creatures, I was just about to drift off¡­

    [World¡¯s Psalm [Legend of the Black Eclipse Demon] part 5 [Kingdom Revolution] advances][One more of the conditions has been cleared][Clearing Chapter one [Obscure reality], Chapter two [Omen of a Sun], Chapter three [Beacon¡¯s Song], and Chapter four [Fang of the Destructive Eater] has unlocked chapter five][World¡¯s Psalm [Legend of the Black Eclipse Demon] chapter 5 [Kingdom Revolution] can be started. Will you begin chapter 5?]

    Eh¡­? Well, I¡¯ll go with for now¡­

    [ has been selected for early selection][The next occurrence will be during the automatic activation of Chapter 5 when the natural conditions are cleared][Current success chance is at 38%]

    Oh, ya, I think I¡¯ll just sleep for now¡­

    Starting whatever that is early is bound to cause trouble.

    ¡ª

    Day 116/Sidestory Avenger¡¯s POV

    Finally, finally! This day has finally come!

    When I think back, before the day our fate changed when I gained [Blessing of the Sun God], I spent every day striving to make her, Aina, my wife. Precisely because we weren¡¯t able to freely marry, I used that fact as my heart¡¯s support.

    Even at the school,which raises strong soldiers in the Royal Capital, when I was oppressed, despised and envied by many of the nobility.

    Even when noble daughters approached me with ulterior motives, sticking to me, making me feel terrible.

    In order to increase the veterans even just a little bit, even when I had to drench my whole body of the enemy¡¯s blood on the battlefield.

    Even that time when I cut off the head of a young soldier, crying while running away.

    I was able to overcome everything because Aina was there¡­ I was able to fight because I knew Aina was living in this world. I couldn¡¯t lose.

    The Nobles that were overcome with jealousy, were granted my forgiveness. For the Noble daughters with ulterior motives, I addressed them with a calm, firm look and words that were not lies.

    When I would become paralyzed on the battlefield, I would only concentrate on killing the enemy. Even if they begged for their life in front of me, I was able to kill without a second thought.

    Aina was the pillar of my existence.

    My heart had been protected by Aina¡¯s presence.

    That¡¯s right, on those days there were many things I was afraid of. Born as only a farmer, the I of that time¡­ I was living too comfortably at the center of the country.

    Things that you couldn¡¯t even think of in the village, were common in the royal capital. The bad oppressive atmosphere, hardened by lies replied with more lies, was definitely at the royal capital.

    Therefore, in order to get Aina, whom I could trust from the very bottom of my heart. To bring Aina as a lover to the royal capital, I had continued to fight.

    And finally, my efforts rewarded, the king allowed us to marry.

    I have obtained the right to make Aina my wife. That said, we¡¯re not going to marry immediately, since such procedures and preparation take time, that¡¯s why I¡¯m going to pick her up today.

    So I hurried, even just a little more, and can¡¯t keep my feelings suppressed. I¡¯m currently just over the field, riding my horse as fast as I can.

    On my way, I encountered a flame-wielding ¡°Fokkurufu¡±, and a bear that had the head of a boar, a ¡°Rough Raccon Boar ¡± I decapitated the heads in one go, and left the corpses behind.

    I think even the bones of the corpses wouldn¡¯t be left by monsters, and even if they become undead, they would hardly be a threat if they¡¯re missing their limbs and heads.

    By eliminating the threat of ¡°Tachifusagaru¡± and other such monsters, I hurry in order to arrive early even by the smallest amount of time in the village where I was born.

    And at the verge of reaching the village, there was an unpleasant smell.

    It was a smell of blood that I was so accustomed to.

    While I was thinking, ¡°Why the smell of blood?¡±, I had a bad feeling.

    My premonitions had hit the mark.

    When I entered the village, I saw a sight I had grown so accustomed to, and the trembling in the deepest part of my heart spread.

    Only half of a head was on the ground, it was Ajiru, a hunter. He is a middle-aged man who had a bright personality, and often lifted the atmosphere.

    Now he had an expression of anguish while sinking in a sea of ??blood and organs. His eyes were widely opened, they held a deep grudge, and were overflowing with tears of blood.

    Embracing only half their bodies, a elderly couple is dead, D¡¯occi and Buhr. They were two people that fought a lot on a daily basis, but if you look at the corpses, they were really in love. Their facial expressions were peaceful, which soothed my grief.

    A girl that just turned 10 years old, Ayla, has a hardened face with expressions of pain and despair, the only thing remaining reletivly intact is her right arm, it is the only part not cut thousands of times, barely connected by the skin and trapezius muscle.

    And in the small hand of Ayla¡¯s is clasped the hand of a smaller child than herself, she might have been running up until the point when both she and her younger brother, Egeru, died. Only the held arm, up to the elbow, remained, so I could only guess if it belonged to Egeru or not.

    On the roof of the only pharmacy, there is a woman who has her intestines spread out, everything gone below the lower pelvis, her name was Sharei.

    She had just married with one of my three younger brothers, Mujia last year, even though there were reports that she loved only herself, she¡¯s died while smiling with feelings of hatred. Meat chunks, similar to human beings at the bottom of the corpse, may be two children of her.

    ~Tsu !!

    I have called her name with a loud roar in the village.

    I had issued a letter in advance and told her that I will pick her up, and my letter got replied, so Aina definitely ought to be here.

    If Aina dies, I would die, too. Organs with this hand, that can only be Aina. The eyeball lying at the feet,that can only be Aina. The body soaked with blood, that can only be Aina. So my mind became mad and I could no longer consider anything.(Once organs with this hand is that it is mono Aina. Once the eyeball lying at the feet and it¡¯s mono Aina. Once the blood to wet the body and it¡¯s mono Aina.

    Given so, my mind became mad likely. Nothing I will no longer be considered.)

    ¨C Aina, where are you! ~Tsu !!

    Expression of Aina that fill¡¯s my mind, her gentle voice, her casual gestures, her sweet smell, her soft skin, ¡®you can rest assured¡¯ relieved warmth, a number of years and stacked memories.

    We left in a location that is open and is the center of the village shouting, and looked around.

    Small sound. If you look there, Aina that is smaller in the shadows was there. Or body trembling little by little from fear, blood makeup is decorated in blue shark face. It must have been beautiful clothes stained red with blood, but are some places damaged, cares if the Aina is alive.

    But Aina is a smile of relief that saw me, it was remember the impatience to to come running up to me under.

    I saw it before coming here, large hole of the ground in the village.

    It monster that struck the village is a thing of the proof is the type to move underground, its kind to capture the target on the ground by vibration.

    Even had raised a loud voice from earlier, it was order to I still target If you¡¯re here.

    Yet Aina comes doing running. Aina is a possibility that is targeted increases.

    I was told to stop the course Aina, or from fear, Aina just not stop to come towards me. And brought Aina quickly even a little if that happens, the only choice was not going to far.

    Luckily distance is not so far. I also start running. Immediately buried to go the distance.

    And stretched fingers and fingers, slightly touched. I signed a natural and smile to each other from the relief.

    ¨C The next moment, something that jumped out of the ground.

    In front of the eye, the lower body of Aina is lost along with the fresh blood. Upper body flying come as repelled towards me. Dakitomeru. The missing face of animation that stare at here from the arm. Eyes lost light. Red spewing from the upper body of the cross section. Weight and warmth of organs spread in the hands. Lost and go heat.

    What happened, I did not know.

    Aina¡¯ll be in my arms. In the state of eliminating the lower body. Even looking at the face of Aina, even hug, and does not react with flutters.

    What happened, I did not know.

    ¨C ~O~o~o~o~o~o, ? ? ~O Oh Ooooo Aaaaa ©a A©aa©aa©aa©a !!

    Although I did not feel only as somewhere far away events, when the heavy cry went up distorted strange from my vocal cords, critical part of my spirit is felt as bankrupt.

    In the red stained field of view, Aina is felt that the I saw seeking help.

    Of course, such things illusion. Aina is in my arms, never to move again.

    It is painful not unbearable, and sad, the MaÏx of centipede type in front of the eye, was absolutely Nikuka~tsu. Want exhausted kill, to much I think from the bottom of my heart.

    And lay the Aina on the ground, I was raised a roar like beast Unplug the sword.

    This guy is the enemy of Aina, and Korosutameni.

    ¡¤ Sigurd lost those who love.

    ¡¤ Sigurd spirit has been contaminated with negative feelings.

    ¡¤ Sigurd became the avenger.

    ¡¤ I was successful in defeating centipede type MaÏx.

    ¡¤ Avenger have runaway with sadness.

    ¡¤ Avenger was attacked in Oga Akira you¡¯ve been doing.

    ¡¤ Runaway state of avenger was conquered immediately by Oga wax.

    -Avenger is Beloved ( Ina ) In order to avenge the enemy, joined the Oga under wax that whispered to be empowering.

    ¡¤ Avenger of Psalms has been incorporated into the Psalms of Oga wax.

    ¡ª

    Today I woke up still thinking about what had happened the other night.

    It was seriously tedious and there wasn¡¯t nearly enough information. For now I¡¯ll just have to ignore that fact, but sooner or later it¡¯ll be somewhat important to say the least.

    Right, well moving on with what happened today.

    We started off by heading down from the mountains, crossing the steppes filled with very tall grass. According to the map of this area I had imprinted in my mind, this area was known as the Great Kasudado Steppes.

    If we continued to follow the most direct route, we would find ourselves going to the Kuuderun Great Forest by passing through the outer Shirisuka Forest. After that, we would need to spend the day in the Fortress city of Trient then pass the home territory of the Falaise Eagle again. Once there, we pass through the foothills of the region and spend the day in the village Clute. The following morning we would return to our settlement in the Forest.

    Traveling there on our Skeletal Carriage (the [100 Bones]) drawn by Skeleton Horses that lack the need to rest is efficient. Using this, we should be able to return in only a few days time.

    After the plans were made we started out the day with the morning workout.

    Today I decided to train with Avenger. To say the least of him, his fighting abilities are very high. That said, his reliance on [Art]¡¯s and [Job]¡¯s are a bit excessive and leave much potential untapped so it is still necessary to teach him how to fight properly. If he learns from this training properly, he could surpass the one individual that I had previously encountered in the Fomorian¡¯s territory.

    Understanding that this man before me is likely also a [Historical Main Character], I¡¯ll have to keep in mind that there must be some [Auxiliary Characters] that were intended to follow him.

    Hmm, It might be necessary to provoke him a bit further, if the situation occurs where he comes across an opponent that would normally become his subordinate Avenger might have an instinctual need to stop me from killing them. Even so, it is still necessary to train him properly so that he can build upon his potential.

    After sparring with him it would seem that his abilities lie on par with Rusty Iron Knight. Though saying that, he still remains slightly less than Dhammi-chan. He is certainly strong, but there are still questions regarding his condition and potential abilities. Hmm, other than that, Avenger is quite useful, to that end there is no doubt.

    Today, we passed through Great Kasudado Steppes and entered Shirisuka Forest.

    ¡ª

    In the morning we set out from the mountains.

    It was roughly mid-afternoon when we had more or less just entered Shirisuka Forest that I was contacted by Father Elf.

    It would seem that they had finally managed to identify and capture the traitors within the Elven Village.

    Mistakes of this magnitude are unacceptable, so he said that he had personally overseen the entire process. He decided to inform me of this since I was the one who originally brought up that there was a high chance of Elven traitors during the Human¡¯s invasion.

    Well, it wasn¡¯t much of a concern for us at the moment. The spies were captured, so when I finished speaking with him of the situation I decided to ask him of his impression of our hot spring.

    I had already gained a rough idea through the communication cuffs and my clones, so I knew that they were popular but I wanted this information directly from the source.

    The opinion I received from Father Elf was that it was ¡°Like being in Heaven.¡±

    Sigh¡­

    Listening to him talk about it made me seriously want to take a dip in the hot spring while drinking some Elven wine. Drinking Elven wine in an open air bath would be especially delicious.

    I promised Father Elf that we should share a drink when we returned. With that, we finished our conversation.

    Sigh¡­ I really want to get back soon so with that, I greatly increased the speed of our carriage. The forest was quite lush, filled with trees and other obstructions for the carriage. In my rush, I¡¯ll admit that I used my [Earth Control] to smash a path straight through the forest. I¡¯ll be there soon¡­ wait for me my precious hotsprings and wine!

    ¡ª

    Day 119

    This morning we had passed the Fortress City Trient, though we didn¡¯t stop because my target for this morning¡¯s activities was the Falaise Eagle¡¯s habitat.

    I¡¯ve been thinking of creating a new Air-borne reconnaissance corps using those eagles since I first saw them.

    By putting a goblin on top of them, gathering new intelligence would be a cinch.

    So, for a good portion of the morning I went ahead and gathered some familiars.

    It was around the time I successfully captured roughly 20 Falaise Eagles or so I heard a glowingly¡­ familiar voice.

    [World¡¯s Psalm updated][The Black Ogre¡¯s Saga]¡¯s subordinate Asue-chan has ranked up][Condition one [Rank-Up] satisfied][Reward of [Earth¡¯s-Crust Thunder Maul] will be awarded]

    Hmm, I wanted to check up on her, but it would seem that she was asleep.

    From the sound of the situation, she had been engaged in a great battle against the dungeon¡¯s boss for most of the night.

    It can¡¯t be helped if that¡¯s the case. I can wait a few hours before making contact for the sake of hearing the full story.

    After several hours I tried to make contact again. It would seem that Asue had ranked up by defeating quite an imposing boss creature that had lived within the lowest level of the dungeon she was in.

    She gained the rank of Earth Lord subspecies.

    There are conditions that can be met to [Rank-Up] into a subspecies which will provide a [Divine Blessing]. When I asked her what God she had received a blessing from, she answered that it was the [God of Earthquakes].

    Her physical appearance has apparently not changed that drastically. She now stands at roughly four meters in height and I¡¯m not really able to request other features of her appearance directly from her.

    However, now that she holds a blessing from a God¡¯s divine protection, her strength has grown immensely. She¡¯s also gained several new abilities from her report.

    Regarding her height, she¡¯s once more¡­ physically compatible with the now five-meter tall Minokichi-kun.

    In regards to that, Minokichi happily informed me that their¡­ night¡¯s business has resumed. He¡¯s surely saying that with one of his silly little smiles that he has regarding similar situations. Honestly¡­ Minokichi can be quite the cheerful guy when it comes down to it.

    Well, I think that it¡¯s all well and good. Though¡­ I won¡¯t be passing on that information to others¡­

    By the way, Asue now also holds a true name Terra. It would seem that Minokichi received the title [Great Emperor of the Destructive Axe] she received the title [Earth Crust Thunderous Hammer].

    ¡­Did I receive a title? I don¡¯t think I have one. There was a lot of Skill and Abilities though.

    Those two are a little enviable.

    Ah well¡­

    From the same boss hunting group Hobusui-san just like Hobuji-kun [Ranked-Up] to a [Half-Saint Lord] and Shibainu a [Kobold Footman], [Ranked-Up] to a [Kobolf Samurai].

    Shiba-Inu the Kobold Samurai, just like Asue-chan, also received a true name.

    Shiunosuke (He who goes through smoke screens). It seems like he¡¯s one that won¡¯t be hesitant to speak his mind. But I¡¯m pretty confident that it¡¯s good to have subordinates like that.

    After that, I informed everyone about the [Rank Up]. One by one everyone besides Dhammi-chan and Avenger offered their own congratulations through the communications cuff.

    It¡¯s understandable that Avenger doesn¡¯t find the need to offer congratulations since he hasn¡¯t even met them before. Dhammi-chan, however, is probably just frustrated, understandably so. Among the original party of 4, Dhammi-chan is the only one that has yet to have her 3rd [Rank-Up].

    A shadow is overcasting her beauty.

    I can understand her feelings and truly want to help her with it so I asked her ¡°What¡¯s your current level?¡±

    She said 89. Since one needs Level 100 to experience a rank up, given the current location, I think I can help facilitate this situation.

    Well, first things first was the subduing of more Falaise Eagles to create more familiars.

    After getting the number up to around 30 I called it there.

    Afterwards, the two of us moved off of the mountain trail.

    I generated numerous [Black Ogres], [Black Trolls], and [Black Fomorians] for Dhammi-chan to kill.

    The two of us had moved away so that no harm would befall the non-combatant women traveling with us.

    As for the combatants, Redhead, Avenger, and the 3 Lords, I also allowed them to participate in the Exp-cheating session I arranged for Dhammi-chan.

    As for Auro and Argento, it may be because they are half-human and half-ogre, but it would seem that they have grown enough to begin lesser training themselves.

    I carefully made sure that the training they underwent was not too intense so that it doesn¡¯t obstruct their further growth.

    I did my best to make the training as challenging as possible to give them some good experience though. So here we are, these little children training for fun so that in the future they may become further accustomed to it and be able to involuntarily begin training themselves in the future.

    Thinking about lancing between making it fun and making the opponent strong is unexpectedly tiring. I suppose that¡¯s what it¡¯s supposed to feel like when you are a parent.

    As for Oniwaka, maybe because he¡¯s the least human among the four being a [High Ogre] he has already grown far bigger than the rest. I think that he should be able to start serious training from now on, just not at this moment.

    For Nicola, who comparatively to that of her siblings, her growth is much slower. She¡¯s still so small that the thought of training her must be put on hold for quite some time. It might take several years in fact. But the idea of raising a little child of her cute nature is great, so I don¡¯t mind at all!

    We did combat training from noon until the middle of the evening. We trained to our heart¡¯s content at our utmost ability so that we can become even stronger. It¡¯s a pity that all of those giants that I generated were killed, but it¡¯s a necessary sacrifice.

    Besides, we can eat their remains in order to feel less wasteful about it.

    I had generated 100 giants today and I seriously wanted to eat them all, but it was not to be since I could only at best manage 40 of them.

    Thinking about the serious mass I¡¯ve eaten, the rest are probably wondering where it all went.

    The giants are seriously big, whereas my body is just around two meters tall so to tell the truth, I don¡¯t have any real idea what part of my body all of the food goes into.

    I¡¯ve always been puzzled about that really.

    Ability learned: [Heightened Stamina]

    Ability learned: [Ultra Recovery]

    Ability learned: [Demon Slaying]

    Ability learned: [Physical Attack Enhancement]

    Ability learned: [Wild Dance of Heavy Blows]

    Ability learned: [Big Game Slaying]

    Ability learned: [Armor Collapse]

    Ability learned: [Luck Reduction]

    Even after eating all 40 of those giant bodies, I only gained eight abilities.

    I suppose compared to the [Black Ogre] the [Apostle-Lord Extinct Variant] will be very slow in acquiring new abilities.

    If I¡¯m honest, this irritates me slightly.

    By nightfall we¡¯re all fatigued.

    Sweat is flowing and we¡¯re covered from head to toe, our legs so weakened that they might give out from almost anything.

    Thankfully, none of us are injured beyond several scratches. Nothing life-threatening.

    Curiously, I felt the same level of tiredness as everyone else. It¡¯s possible that it¡¯s because my recovery abilities cannot do anything about fatigue.

    About Auro, Argento and Oniwaka, they moved quite a bit during the last four hours of training. But since they moved so much they were exhausted and had passed out. Blacksmith-san had rounded them up. When they recovered they spent the rest of the evening just talking, thankfully none of them really suffered that much from fatigue.

    After several minutes I got this swing of moodiness. I supposed that it was just caused from using too much magic. The invigorating feeling that rose from the depths of my being now felt quite dry and I was seriously exhausted.

    Perhaps this is a symptom of [Magic Deficiency Illness]. But I¡¯m perfectly confident in my body, I¡¯m still a step before fully falling into the illness.

    My body was quite sluggish and drowsiness is attacking me greatly.

    I¡¯m just taking them as a sign before full fledged magic deficiency illness. Now, however, I can relate to the feeling that the female magician that was a part of the fight against the Giant Fomorian King back in the mountains.

    I suspect that the best way to treat this is to just drink a [Mana Potion] so I pulled one out and drank it.

    This is actually the first time that I¡¯ve drunk this potion.

    To summarize the taste, it¡¯s seriously bitter.

    It has the taste that makes you think ¡°I do not want to drink too much of this.¡± But as I drank it, my overall condition improved greatly. This confirms my magic limit, something that I¡¯ve actually never hit before.

    The giant¡¯s bodies that I created was exactly one hundred.

    The magic required to make one was equal to roughly fifty black skeletons.

    This means that I can roughly create 5,000 black skeletons before I hit my limit, and I¡¯ll be honest when I say that this number surprises me.

    However, this is just the number that can be created when the sun is in the sky. At night, I can continuously recover my magic. I¡¯d say I could generate enough skeletons to wipe out an entire country.

    Well, during the night at least.

    Today I learned quite a bit about my self and felt exhausted. I put on a blanket and my consciousness quickly faded.

    [World¡¯s Psalm] added [Black Ogre¡¯s Saga] is now [Black Demon¡¯s Saga][Update subject] Dhammi has achieved [Rank-Up][Condition [Rank Up] is satisfied, Dhammi is now awarded the item [Frozen World Empress]][Condition [Rank Up] is satisfied, the title [Formal Wife of ¡ö¡ö] is now available]

    Yatendouji¡¯s condition [Lord] is satisfied, seal for the title [Formal Wife of ¡ö¡ö]is now partially released][Title [Formal wife of ¡ö¡ö] is consequently changed to [Formal Wife of Demon ¡ö¡ö]][Title [Formal wife of Demon ¡ö¡ö] is now hereby granted to Dhammi][Title [Formal wife of Demon ¡ö¡ö] is invoked, title [Consort of Demon ¡ö¡ö] is now available][Select person to be awarded the title [Consort of Demon ¡ö¡ö]][Selection process complete][Title [Consort of Demon ¡ö¡ö] is awarded to Ruberia Walline (Redhead)][Title [Consort of Demon ¡ö¡ö] is awarded to Emery Furado (Blacksmith-san)][Title [Consort of Demon ¡ö¡ö] is awarded to Felicia Timiano (Older Sister)][Title [Consort of Demon ¡ö¡ö] is awarded to Alma Timiano (Younger Sister)][Title [Consort of Demon ¡ö¡ö] is awarded to Spinel Fean (Alchemist-san)][Title [Consort of Demon ¡ö¡ö] is awarded to Therese East Eckermann (Female Knight)][Title [Consort of Demon ¡ö¡ö] is awarded to Doriane Dubou¨¦ (Dryad-san)][Hereafter, the title [Consort of Demon ¡ö¡ö] will be automatically awarded to women who satisfy the conditions]

    ¡ª

    Day 120

    Seven girls in total, well, that is Redhead and the other girls, including Dryad-san, who had not been present, were given a new title.

    Also, Dhammi-chan has gotten her long awaited [Rank Up].

    Well, If you killed five [Black Fomorians], ten [Black Trolls] and Twenty [Black Ogres] by yourself, I¡¯d say that would allow almost anyone to [Rank Up].

    With the blessing from her God, she can bring out icicles. With them, she can freeze the Fomorians in place, or cut them open as if they were blades, or even crush the beast¡¯s head as if they were arrows.

    The sight of Dhammi-chan butchering these giants, whilst bathed totally in blood as it continues to gush everywhere was seriously a sight to behold.

    She was laughing like mad as she continued to get drenched with blood. She had gone into a serious vampiric blood rage¡­

    Now back to what happened today.

    Apparently, Dhammi-chan had [Rank Up] into a Noble Vampire, a subspecies of a Vampire. This particular subspecies, as I learned, is far more powerful than most other types of Vampire. I liked the sound of this greatly.

    What I liked more, however, was that she had [Rank Up] into a very powerful entity that had been beyond my expectations.

    Regarding her appearance, it was just as Asue-chan as she looked generally the same.

    If anything, her tattoo had grown to cover slightly more of her skin. It¡¯s also a darker color.

    Contrary to her outer appearance, her inner power has greatly changed. Her existing abilities are almost all enhanced, both in scale and power. When I witnessed it, I was left with the greatest impression of elegance and perfection.

    Her newly gained ability, [Bloodsucking Control], allowed her to dominate her weaker opponents by sucking their blood.

    There is also one of her more powerful abilities, [Intermediate Summoning: Guardian Beast], which allows her to magically call up twelve familiars.

    Oh yes, by the way, [Intermediate Summoning: Undead] is an improved version of my own summoning ability [Lesser Summoning: Undead].

    This ability comes from the blessing of [The God of the Underworld], a blessing Dhammi-chan has, the ability itself seemed quite useful.

    With this, I think it¡¯s possible to generate monsters I¡¯ve already devoured. Given the nature of such an ability I fully plan on eating any monsters we can find before we reach our base.

    Also, with her [Rank Up], Dhammi-chan has acquired her true name [[[Hekaterina]]](Goddess who pales even the moon). The name itself is quite suited to her, especially if one sees her illuminated in moonlight.

    However, unlike Asue-chan who I still call by the same name, I decided to give Dhammi-chan a new name. As such, I proceeded in thinking up a suitable name for her.

    I came up with several names, Vammi, Paimmi, Iammi, and Bloommi as possible candidates, but they all sounded off. It¡¯s tough to consider them as endearing names. But then I came up with Kanami by taking letters out of her true name:he(ka)teri(na).

    This time, the name is very easy to pronounce and is quite pleasing to the ear. I think it¡¯s a good name, Well done me!

    Henceforth I called Dhammi-chan with her new name, Kanami. Incidentally, when I told her that the other girls had also gained a title, Kanami-chan expressed that she had no comment on such an occurrence¡­

    I couldn¡¯t tell if she was mad or not¡­

    We chose to leave our hilly camping ground, which had since yesterday, become dyed red with blood.

    We took a detour to visit >, the village I had left the protection of to several of my subordinates during the beginning of my travels.

    After concluding our business there, we rushed with great speed to return to the forest of our birth.

    Although we had been rushing at the beginning, roughly through the middle we had slowed our pace slightly to collect new materials to produce magical items.

    As a consequence, we arrived at the settlement roughly when the sun was setting.

    Suddenly, I noticed that Kanami-chan, Redhead, and the rest of the girls had gone speechless.

    While not as drastic, I noticed that Avenger was also surprised.

    ¡°What? What¡¯s the matter? Why do all of you have such astonished expressio-!¡±

    Well¡­ If you¡¯d seen what I¡¯m about to tell you, you would also be awed by it.

    Our little mine had turned into a fortress!

    Oh! This is amazing!

    We¡¯d love to inspect it to see what improvements have been built into our little old mine to transform it into such a respectable structure. Because today, we are throwing a banquet!

    As a celebration of our returning home, I¡¯ve brought out various meats and Elven liquor to be enjoyed by everyone.

    People who have recently joined our settlement also take part in the merriment.

    Booze was poured everywhere!

    The banquet had long since turned into a party.

    I enjoyed the party greatly, but really, nothing could top the feeling of savoring Elven liquor in the Hot Springs.

    This is the best!

 Re:Monster Day 121-130

    Day 121

    Well, after we had arrived back to the settlement, we were quite amazed to see the changes made to the settlement. The Mine had become a Fortress. When we moved closer to investigate, we saw the numerous changes that had been made to the old base.

    I personally decided to make changes to the prison after we returned, but I also wanted to analyze the current situation and make changes to other areas as needed.

    First, I suppose I¡¯ll describe the changes in personnel that have occurred as of late.

    Before our departure, the members of Parabellum, referring to those members, which had joined willingly and had either evolved or participated in some form.

    Those who evolved constituted at least a [Rank-up] such as myself and Minokichi-kun. That also includes our pets, such as Kumajirou and Kurosaburou.

    The members of the community from back then included:

    Lords:

    Half-Lords:

    Minotaur:

    Vampire Noble:

    Ogres:

    Ogre Mages:

    Ghoul:

    Dodomeki:

    Hobgoblins:

    Hobgoblin Mages:

    Hobgoblin Clerics:

    Hobgoblin Shaman:

    Goblins:

    Old Goblins:

    Elves:

    Humans: [98]

    Kobold Samurai:

    Kobold Footmen:

    Kobold Ninja:

    Kobolds:

    Elder Kobolds:

    Triple Horned Horses:

    Crimson Horned Horse:

    Hind Bear:

    Oniguma:

    Orthrus:

    Black Wolves: [25]

    It was more or less around 229 individuals by my last count. There was the case of Fire Lord-kun and the Dragonewts that desired to return home after they had been freed from the human slave army, so they haven¡¯t joined us officially yet. I¡¯ll count them as part of the pending set.

    Pending set:

    Lords:

    Half-Lords:

    Dhampir:

    Ogres:

    Troll:

    Redcaps (Gnomes):

    Dragonewts:

    Half-Dragonewt:

    Lizardmen:

    Dwarves:

    Dullahan:

    Apemen:

    Tigermen:

    Centaur:

    The total is roughly 50 people, for a total of 279 people before we had left the base.

    There was the situation with Fire Lord-kun and some of the others, though I¡¯ve decided to not remove them from the formal number just yet. Therefore, although there are some serious changes to the overall order of the community, the issues can be dealt with in time.

    The strong are obviously what makes up our hierarchy, it¡¯s a perfect set up because if the lower ranks hold an issue to how I do things, I can put them back in their place.

    It¡¯s also useful to just have a system to determine the ranks and status of anyone and everyone at any given time.

    With the large amount of people present at the fortress though, we might need to rearrange the ranks again.

    The main issue is that the official count of membership is not actually 279 due to the children being born, evolved, or arrived after we had left.

    Those are:

    Ogre-Mixblood:

    Humans:

    High Ogre:

    Ogres:

    Goblins:

    Hobgoblins:

    Hobgoblin Mages:

    Hobgoblin Clerics:

    Hobgoblin Shamans:

    Hobgoblin Riders:

    Kobold Footmen:

    Kobolds:

    Dragotaur:

    Apemen:

    Dwarves:

    Leprechauns:

    Battle Insectoids:

    Stickbug Insectoids:

    Mika Atamaon¡¯na:

    Porevikus:

    Plant Men:

    Cat Fairies: [23]

    Nail Cats:

    Werewolves:

    Black Skeleton Commanders:

    Black Undead Knight:

    Boruforu:

    Falaise Eagles: [30]

    Stamp Boars:

    Triple Horned Horses:

    Hind Bear:

    The added members totaled at 167 which brought up the original population to an amazing number of 446 members.

    Though given that not all of them are combat-ready assets, this number fairly equals a force of one or two complete infantry units, if not more.

    I suppose I¡¯ll need to explain step by step how and why the number of members has increased besides those already mentioned.

    The increase in births is mostly coming from the human women. Aside from the girls that I saved back at the Orc¡¯s mine, we now also have the humans, Avenger, Nicola, as well as six other human children as well. That makes for quite a few humans. Some of them have even given birth twice now!

    Among those that gave birth to a child, all of them apparently received [Job ¨C Demon Child¡¯s Holy Mother].

    I would expect that in the future the number of women who bear this [Job] will undoubtedly increase. Their children will be blessed with powerful abilities, strength and other qualities because of it as well.

    However, if the current birth rate continues as it is, the future generations will face various complications. The most possible would be food shortages, insufficient tools and living space are also possible. These are just a few of the most prominent that I can think of, however, there will probably be more facing us if countermeasures are not put in place.

    On the other hand, there hasn¡¯t been a single birth from the elves yet. This really does show that the elvish pregnancy rate is very low.

    I think that this is a special characteristic that they¡¯re born with that contributes to preventing a major population boom when they hold such long life spans.

    With this at least, I can have some peace of mind. After all, the elves are quite popular with the masses in certain regards.

    Now, I suppose I¡¯ll move onto the Dragotaurs and the Insectoids.

    These are people who were among the previous human slave army. Once they were freed, they had left to return to their own tribes. This, however, was not to be, because they had discovered that their homes had already been destroyed or had been moved to another location that they are unaware of.

    Due to this, they returned here because they had no where else to go.

    Losing their homes is the main reason why many people have come to join us, but there are other reasons as well.

    In particular, there is the case with the Cat Fairy tribe. They still actually have their own home somewhere in the mountains.

    Their reasoning, however, is that the humans still view them as simple animals, something cute, and are in danger of being captured and being made into slaves for some noble¡¯s daughter. Since the risk is very high, they choose to bring their tribes here to seek protection.

    In actuality, only the two Nail Cats had belonged to the Human slave army, just a small portion compared to the Cat Fairy tribe that had arrived here. For that reason, I¡¯m not certain about their combat potential.

    > is a mercenary troop anyway, so I decided to draft and train all 25 of them to find out more about their combat potential for war.

    As it would turn out, the base rank of the Cat Fairy is roughly the same as a Goblin, while the Nail Cat is roughly equal to a hobgoblin.

    Because of that, they are not able to join our main combat forces.

    After some more observation, I discovered that they are quite good with their hands. Especially when they are doing their chores around the settlement.

    As such, I designated them as the caretakers of our base. Their tasks generally including cleaning, organization, light labor and so on.

    Then there is a beautiful flower headed woman (Dorian), she¡¯s actually ¡®that¡¯ Dryad.

    When I had left the base, I had left behind one of my clones to keep her company and keep her safe while I was out.

    It turns out that she kept on absorbing his life energy and the clone had become mummified. But, because of that, she had ranked up.

    She now belongs to the [Dorian] race, which unlike the tree-bound [Dryad], she is able to move freely. The appearance of the Dorian race is similar to what the name implies; the Dorians look different than the Dryads as they have flowers growing on their heads.

    The Dorian¡¯s flower is similar to that of a hibiscus with pink petals.

    As she was no longer tree-bound, she came to seek me out after my clone had perished. When she appeared at the base, I gave permission for her to remain there. Rather, I had to take responsibility and take her with us. With her gaining the title of [Consort of Demon ¡ö¡ö], it was rather that she had come to stay with me.

    Since it cannot be helped, I¡¯ll accept her decision.

    Next is explaining why the Black Skeleton Commander and the Black Undead Knight were mentioned in the current population.

    These are the results of my little experiment into the history and potency of the Black Skeletons using the [Kodoku] method. Basically it¡¯s an ancient practice of necromancers since ancient times wherein I¡¯m allowing the Black Skeletons to [Rank-Up].

    Creating them is actually quite simple.

    First, I dig several big holes in the ground, then I put in several Black Skeleton Knights and Black Skeleton Axemen that I¡¯ve been creating since long before I left the base.

    For each hole, I put in a total of twenty or so Black Skeletons of any type I feel like and lastly throw in a Black Skeleton Summoner.

    The last part is actually quite troublesome to generate.

    Then, I put a lid on the hole so they don¡¯t escape and I order them to destroy one another.

    The total number of Black Skeletons sealed in each hole is a total of twenty one. To arise as the victor, not only does the Skeleton need to defeat the other twenty Black Skeletons, but also the [Grey Skeletons] that the Black Skeleton Summoner can create.

    In actuality, the Grey Skeletons are quite weaker than any version of the Black Skeletons, but since they are continuously spewing forth, there will be quite a few of them and as such they produce quite a fair deal of experience for any of the Black Skeletons that manage to destroy them.

    Well, this scheme won¡¯t work as well in the case that the Summoner is destroyed early on, so I ordered that the summoner cannot be killed until there are no other Black Skeletons remaining at the very end of the fight.

    The efficiency of this scheme is actually pretty good. As an added bonus, the remains of the Grey Skeletons that are being destroyed en masse are quite delicious to me.

    Through this method, Black Skeleton Commanders and Black Undead Knights emerged.

    To briefly describe their capacity, the Black Skeleton Commanders are able to use the ability [Summon Lesser Skeleton] which grants them the ability to call forth Black Skeleton Elites as their own servants. This allows them to create Black Skeletons for use in their own group tactics without my assistance.

    The Black Skeleton Commander is quite valuable in that sense. Even if you strip away the ability to summon, they still have the combat potential equal to that of at least three average Black Skeletons. This makes me wonder if, by any chance, the Black Skeleton Commander is actually a combination of the Black Skeleton Knight and the Black Skeleton Summoner.

    Unlike the Commander version, the Black Undead Knight doesn¡¯t have any summoning type ability. But on their own, they display quite the astounding combat capability. The Black Undead Knight stands taller than any common Ogre at about three meters tall. It has eight arms. The usual pair at the shoulders and then another set below them. The other two sets are behind the previous two sets. Its eye sockets are empty with the usual luminous orbs in the place of its eyes, colored a deep red similar to blood. From its joints emanates a black sinister aura that wraps around its entire body.

    Summoned Skeletons are basically just bones. They have gaps between their bones to allow facilitated movements, but unlike the normal joints of the living, their joints are just empty gaps. They are moved magically, this structure is responsible for their inhuman defensive capabilities. Since their bones are rigid and lack flesh, the Skeletons are quite resistant to slashing and piercing attacks, but they are quite brittle. If they are hit by something with plenty of force, especially when directed towards their joints, they can be made to crumble.

    This, however, is no longer the case with the Black Undead Knight. Each of them have something like skin that fills in the gaps of its joints. Moreover, it has muscles and its bones are quite thick, making it far more resistant to smashing. As if its corporeal cushion is not enough, there is still another layer of defense in the form of a dark aura that is shrouded over its entire body.

    This aura also serves as its specific defense against the sunlight. Common Skeletons and Undead are especially vulnerable against the sunlight and often weaken and perish when exposed to sunlight or attacks of the same attribute. But, with the dark aura, the Black Undead Knight is no longer destroyed by the sunlight alone. Of course it is still weakened by the sunlight, but it won¡¯t ever perish from it.

    In the category of strength, the Black Undead Knight can take on five of my created Ogres at the same time. If it¡¯s pitted against the average Black Skeletons, even a dozen of them don¡¯t seem to be able to match its might.

    This is mostly due to a special feature of its body. The Black Undead Knight has two well-supported skulls that provides it with a very wide field of view, negating most of the usual blind spots.

    Furthermore, its skillful handling of its own biological weaponry makes it even more deadly. In seven of its eight hands, the Black Undead Knight wields various weaponry.

    These include:

    [Fishbone Greatsword][Executioner Greataxe][Crusher Morningstar][Right Tower Shield][Left Tower Shield][Scorpion Pike][Composite Longbow]

    All in all, the Black Undead Knights are powerful entities in both offensive and defensive capabilities. It¡­ really makes me want to eat it.

    If I was still in my old Ogre body, I¡¯m certain that I would have secured one or two abilities just by eating one of them. That¡¯s how powerful it is.

    Though, since the [Rank-Up], securing new abilities is quite difficult. I would need to eat quite a few of them before I gain even one ability.

    On the other hand, I can create it even more easily given my current body¡¯s capacity. That pretty much means that I only need to wait a little bit, so I plan on doing just that.

    Ah right, by the way, because the Black Undead Knight is basically an elite Black Skeleton Knight, they lack the training to serve in an officer¡¯s role. Their usability is rather good because the intelligence that they have is slowly increased the longer they are active. With two skulls instead of just one, the level of combat awareness is quite high. These Black Undead Knights are certainly what Minokichi-kun will be training with when I¡¯m not present.

    Those with higher intelligence are given marks on their skulls and are given the nickname [Scarface].

    It¡¯s always great when you gain a powerful and obedient new pawn.

    In the end it¡¯s greatly useful to be able to produce these new Skeletons.

    The last group to mention is the new Hobgoblin Riders that seem to have gained the ability to successfully tame a monster and turn it into their pet.

    Now, for the base there are several things worth mentioning.

    The current base, in addition to the > which has since become a residential area, there are 6 new facilities:

    >

    >

    >

    >

    >

    >

    Each of these has been expanded and put to use in their own ways. I¡¯ll briefly go over their purposes.

    >

    Due to the vast increase in the number of members, I had already generated a vast space for the purpose of large-scale combat drills and other purposes. I had created nearly a [200 x 200 x 300] space for the purpose, though while we were gone it has been equipped far more efficiently. The rest of the room had been flattened, and rough terrain had been placed in certain areas. The reason I had created this room had been previously for the sake of bad weather, but now more intricate training scenarios can be implemented.

    >

    The lands around the settlement had been cleared for the purpose of growing vegetables. This is Mika¡¯s preferred residence. As a Dorian, she is quite well suited for farming and working with nature. As a matter of fact, plenty of other races, such as the Plant Men, and many humans with [Job ¨C Farmer] have set themselves up working the farmland. With them working as they have, they aid in supporting the current food supply for the rest of the settlement. At the same time agriculture techniques have been developing quite nicely to work in line with Mika¡¯s nature abilities. Some of these are creating fine, mineral rich soil where various crops can be planted and grown in a very short period of time.

    Not only that, but it has also been found that through the use of several abilities, the growth potential can be greatly changed. There is a growth factor for vegetables of this world, though there are some similar to my world, such as potatoes that are planted in the >. The Spirit Stones that aren¡¯t of much use to the dwarves and blacksmiths can be used as domestic water now in the form of the Water Stones. In various ways, it has made life far easier. I think this many times, but I seriously cannot help but feel inspired when thinking of what an amazing individual Velvet must have been for his Dungeon to create such a diversity of Spirit Stones. I cannot even begin to be grateful.

    With that, I offered a silent prayer.

    Though, with the number of people that require food increasing, it would be a little cumbersome if there weren¡¯t any spirit stones.At least for me, Spirit Stones have become a universal elite dinner.

    >

    With the growing number of familiars and pets we required a place to allow them to stay outside of the living quarters. Since it was already meant for storage of the combat animals, it seems that it wasn¡¯t that much more effort to expand it slightly for the sake of free-ranging edible monsters that are captured. Since hunting requires substantial quantities of time as well as the possibility of thinning populations, this is undoubtedly a necessary source of food in the future.

    Ah yes, Kumajirou and Kurosaburou, my personal pets, quite enjoy running around here.

    >

    This is the result of the constant expansion of the Dwarves and Leprechauns who have significant work focus. Since the Leprechauns are quite adept at making things such as superior armor and clothing made of leather, they have created an entire area for the sole purpose of the task. The other side of the > is where the great noise of the Dwarves in the smithy can be heard. Here the Dwarves have already installed great dwarven furnaces where ore and other materials are refined. The Dwarves have already taken safety precautions beforehand and properly installed the furnaces, so there shouldn¡¯t be any future complications from it, though the size is a bit excessive.

    By the way, the furnaces use a large amount of Fire Spirit Stones to function. The Dwarves seem to have a way of maintaining the Spirits by creating a natural dwelling place of nature for the Fire Spirits. It¡¯s quite unexpected, but convenient in itself.

    >

    Injuries are a constant through our rigorous training sessions and illness is an always constant threat to any settlement. As such the medical unit ?Pri¨¨re? decided to centralize its workings. ?Pri¨¨re?, led by Seiji-kun, is a necessary existence for the future of this settlement and > as a whole.

    Since there is a tendency for differences to arise between the different divisions, each division has its own dedicated rooms for their personal use. The labor requirements for the task was quite large, but there wasn¡¯t anyone lamenting over the great level of labor generated to expand the base. It helped with dealing with management and organization anyway.

    >

    Finally, there are the Hot Springs.

    This is more or less a major money generator from the elves. I mean, it¡¯s more or less an inn for the enjoyment of personnel and tourists.

    There have been great improvements to it using the funds generated from the elves. There are now sources of entertainment and all manners of luxury.

    When I visited the hot springs, I found myself bathed in luxury and relaxation. I have to mention that, when I arrived there, I found a host of elves going to and from the hot springs.

    The sheer success of the hot springs is certainly higher than expected. There is probably a possibility to expand the advertisement to other races, but for the moment there are no other targets besides the elves in this forest.

    The great Oaks served as building materials for all of the projects. There was surely no shortage in this regard.

    Oh yes, quite a few major changes have presented themselves to us on returning indeed.

    Today I went around inspecting the new facility with Kanami-chan. It was around noon when I observed the training bouts of the members for the first time in quite some time.

    I watched over the new recruits and gave instructions when necessary, though a good portion of my time was invested in watching over Redhead¡¯s bout with the Rusty Iron Knight, who was serving as an instructor.

    I had several bouts with the new members, then tested old veterans of the group who had shown good growth since I had left.

    I listened in on several good stories and spilled out a little smile at the overall changes I¡¯ve observed.

    After the training was over and I had inspected several other things, I went over to the location of the > where the personal workshops of Blacksmith-san and Alchemist-san were located. There were children playing who had been allowed to participate in the training, with a certain little baby earning a hug, a certain Nicola.

    The Kitchen had increased greatly in both scale and human resources with the Sisters serving as the ones standing at the helm.

    After eating dinner, I observed the extensive makeover that had been done to my personal quarters.

    I took several items out of my item box to decorate and personalize slightly, but overall the work done was impressive.

    Well, you can certainly say that it was a meaningful day indeed.

    Before going to bed, I wanted to enjoy the pure night sky overshadowing the settlement. For this purpose I went on a date with Kanami-chan and enjoyed many things¡­

    Today¡¯s Synthesis results:

    [Wrought Iron Shell Armor] + [Indestructible Castle Shell] = [Indestructible Armored Castle Shell][Rapid Recovery] + [High Speed Regeneration] + [Strong Vitality] + [Vitality of the Mysterious Giant] = [Hyper Speed Regeneration][Familicide] + [Demon Slaying] = [Tyrant of the Demon Slaying Demon Army][Lord of the Mountain¡¯s Piercing Roar] + [Black Ogre¡¯s Roar] = [Black Demon¡¯s Roar][Bristle Guard] + [Strong Body] + [Lord of the Mountain¡¯s Stout Hide] + [Giant King¡¯s Flesh and Blood] + [Giant King¡¯s Body] + [Black Ogre¡¯s Strong Body] = [Illogical Adamantine Strength]

    ¡ª

    Day 122

    It was another cold morning.

    I equipped the exoskeleton [Jade Eagle King¡¯s Flight] version, made of the same material the Jade Eagle was made of.

    Alone, I set off into the sky heading towards the current position of our second group led by Minokichi-kun.

    As it would seem, Minokichi-kun had finished his boss hunting in the deepest parts of the dungeon he was in. According to him, he was heading out towards the exit of the dungeon, but ended up running into the ¡®Boss¡¯ of another party of adventurers.

    It would seem that a Minotaur was not particularly common in that dungeon and it ended up resulting in Minokichi-kun being mistaken for a Boss. Given his size and status as a subspecies of the species Minotaur, I can¡¯t say I blame the adventurers that much. Needless to say, Minokichi-kun had caused something not so easily considered as ¡®just¡¯ an uproar. It would also seem that I was inadvertently forgotten initially during this situation.

    This would seem to be due to Asue-chan believing that there wouldn¡¯t be an issue, but it seemed to be that the adventurers, especially the Adventurers of Nigeashi, were far more persistent in the complex structure than expected.

    Given the situation, they had to flee before much could be described. As it would turn out, they did end up passing quite a few other groups on their way out, though nearly all of them fled the moment they saw his figure. For the moment there aren¡¯t any groups giving chase, but it¡¯s unknown whether or not a greater situation will arise as the story reaches the numerous adventurers on the outside.

    It certainly is a dangerous situation in the current state, so they decided to contact me before attempting anything else. Minokichi-kun was certainly not helpless in this situation and planned to simply use force to solve the issue and leave the city.

    Of course I ordered a drastically different behavior for the group through the cuffs by ordering the group to wait. It was decided that I would be necessary to solve the problem without causing a diplomatic incident.

    While this was going on, Asue-chan had already left to explain the current situation to the guild and other adventurer parties that she came across. It¡¯s highly unlikely that it will solve the situation, however, and I¡¯m convinced that there is an even lower chance of anyone believing the story.

    Since I¡¯m currently carrying the [Proof of Belonging to Royal Authority] that was received from the Tomboy Princess, I¡¯m hoping this problem can be solved without further complication. Nevertheless, whether the [Proof of Belonging to Royal Authority] can be useful in this city remains to be determined.

    As it stands, the Labyrinth city is not in an area I¡¯m too familiar with. If it were closer to the Royal Capital, I¡¯d be more certain, but the Sternbild Kingdom¡¯s borders do have limits.

    If the situation goes sour, I should just be prepared to destroy the entire city with one of my most devastating methods, [Pandemonic of the Black Apostle].

    In all honesty, it¡¯s surprisingly not that bad of an idea¡­

    There are a great many adventurers who would be decent for eating because it¡¯s a Labyrinth city. It¡¯s also even a possible base that is surrounded by high walls that could become a training area.

    Though, I¡¯m preferring the idea of keeping that to a last resort for the time being.

    Since Minokichi-kun wants to be out of the city by noon today, it¡¯s best to clarify things before that point. There are limits to a berserker¡¯s patience, something I¡¯m keeping in mind as I increase my current speed.

    After only a short period of time, I arrive at the Labyrinth city where Minokichi-kun¡¯s team is present.

    I managed to arrive there within an hour due to the sheer speed I was traveling at. Since it would probably cause trouble if I flew in over the walls, I knew that I would simply have to enter officially through the front.

    After I showed the middle-aged gatekeeper the [Proof of Belonging to Royal Authority] the gate was raised without wasting a second.

    Once I entered the Labyrinth city, the figures of the rest of the individuals within Minokichi¡¯s party who were split off of Minokichi-kun¡¯s main party. These were the ones that were ordered to wait at the entrance of this particular Labyrinth city the moment they arrived to wait for me.

    It¡¯s still morning, so given that it¡¯s a vibrant-ish Labyrinth city, there is quite the dark atmosphere drifting around currently. When I used [Wiretapping] to catch the topic of the situation, it was none other than Minokichi-kun.

    Hearing this, my speed increased considerably.

    After a few short minutes, the three hotels of the > came into view. Currently, there was a turmoil of people hurriedly taking measures and scurrying to and from the building.

    Well, now that we¡¯ve arrived at the building, I enter through the front door and trigger [Black Demon¡¯s Dignity], in only a moment, only the sound of flies could be heard.

    The galvanized clashing of iron armor disappeared.

    Taking a short look around, a great number of people had collapsed and fainted, the few still conscious had pointed their full attention on me. I chose to just ignore the staring eyes of the few remaining and call for the guild¡¯s employees.

    The one who approached was a cat-eared middle-aged man who trembled with a blue face. I asked him to call the guild master, the highest authority of the >.

    Even though the man before me was middle-aged, he ran with lightning speed through a door and I chose a chair to sit down and chat with the other members of Minokichi-kun¡¯s party. After a short while, the man returned and I was asked to follow him into a back room.

    The room was quite luxurious, decorated with items most likely brought back from the labyrinth. It was quite the expensive looking room.

    As I waited, I was presented and drank a coffee-like beverage as a tiny man with a jolly belly entered the room.

    He was younger than I expected, only around forty years of age. With him came a woman with glasses that looked to be his secretary.

    The plump little man sat down on the sofa across from me with the secretary women standing silently behind him.

    After a brief self-introduction, it would seem that this plumb man is the Guild Master. The previous guild I had met with, [Purgatory Guild Branch], the Guild Master had been an old man. It was because of that I had created the assumption that most Guild Masters are old men.

    Since this was the case, I was a bit surprised, but what really matters is a person¡¯s ability and wisdom.

    In the conversation with the Guild Master, I explained to him the matter which had brought me to the city.

    I explained that the Minotaur that had created quite the disturbance was in fact, my companion and that there was no need to be so vigilant.

    At first, they had doubted the story a bit, but they soon began to understand.

    Though, I seem to have been slightly late in my arrival¡­

    Eighteen people from three of the more highly skilled adventurer parties within the city had banded together and formed a [Raid Party] in order to subdue the inbound Minokichi-kun and his team.

    The misunderstanding that had arisen about Minokichi-kun¡¯s team had been more or less half settled with the Guild Master¨C the other half has to be proven¨C but things will become troublesome if the Raid Party ends up murdered by Minokichi-kun and his team.

    Basically, inside the labyrinth, killing non-monsters is a pretty major taboo. If the homicide is discovered, an appropriate punishment is dealt.

    All in all, this is a pretty delicate situation, especially with the Raid Party seeing them as monsters.

    In any case, if Minokichi-kun and his team kill the Raid Party, a penalty will be demanded.

    The penalty for those who are found guilty are generally such things as the collection of materials within dangerous locations, through various means, and of course without any payment for a predetermined period of service.

    Even though this was not set into law, it was commonly agreed upon by all publicly.

    On the other hand, this penalty would not occur for the Raid Party, even if they manage to kill Minokichi-kun and his team.

    It¡¯s downright unreasonable, but according to the Guild Master, the problem more or less rests with recognizing Minokichi-kun.

    Naturally, I seriously wanted to complain, but there is no helping it due to how unreasonable the world itself is.

    I would like to kill the adventurers and take their equipment, but given the circumstances and the impossibility to avoid blame, I contacted Minokichi-kun and the others to inform them to not kill the Raid Party.

    He was stunned to hear he wasn¡¯t allowed to kill them and that he had to surrender a portion of the equipment.

    Because the whole situation was an accident, some of the equipment could be taken and there was no helping it. Regardless I set up precautions.

    I killed some time doing some minor business with the Guild Master, the material that we produce in the forest sells for quite the high price, something that I did not expect. Then, after completing various procedures and documentation, I contacted Minokichi-kun again and told him that they will be able to depart at noon as planned. Because we were waiting at the entrance of the Labyrinth, we managed to meet Minokichi-kun and his team as they came out.

    With me there to confirm the story was the plump little Guild Master, the secretary woman, the Raid party, and more than thirty guards that were under the employ of the Guild.

    It could probably be said that the number of people that came to confront the present Minokichi-kun was far too low in both number and skill.

    As soon as they saw him come out of the Labyrinth, all of them took a step back unconsciously.

    I can more or less understand it, before such an imposing figure standing before them, even the tough-looking and robust men took such an action.

    By the way, the townspeople looked at Minokichi-kun from a distance as he left the Labyrinth. There¡¯s a bit of confusion amongst the people as expected, but there was no panic breaking out within the Labyrinth city.

    Even though I knew, it was really quite something to actually see Minokichi-kun in person.

    He. Is. HUGE!!

    As of now, Minokichi-kun is more than twice my current size. He stands five meters in height and I need to look up just to see his face. The massive figure that I¡¯m seeing is intimidating just by itself. It¡¯s not just the size, but each part of his body is pretty flashy. Each time he takes a breath, thunder and flames come out of his big mouth. His lower body is completely covered in a golden fur that emits a crackling sound similar to thunder. The color of the upper masculine body was brown and didn¡¯t really change too much from before. His tattoos resembled mine and were both black and gold in color. He had a new [Divine Protection] which drew quite a bit of attention, but it¡¯s not something that can be helped. On his shoulders were the Raid Party members, groaning in pain.

    Yeah¡­ it¡¯s a pretty surreal sight to behold. Next to him stood Asue-chan who also played as another factor to this unique atmosphere.

    It¡¯s such a great feeling.

    All of the Raid Party members were injured. Most of them were heavily injured, though a few were gravely injured and one only had some minor burns. Some of them had complex fractures or missing limbs, but none of them had died nor were they in danger of such.

    As such, no penalty followed the situation.

    I even decided to heal them. As I was healing them, some of the party members looked as if they wanted to say something, but I cast them a serious look and they shut up real quick.

    There weren¡¯t any further problems due to the intermediation of the Guild Master himself, but if the Raid party intends to attempt a night raid on us, I will gladly partake in devouring them.

    Since there was no further business to be taken care of, I informed Minokichi-kun to return to the base as soon as he saw fit. Afterwards, I departed quickly after collecting almost all of the items that Minokichi-kun had gained.

    Even though I had the [Proof of Belonging to Royal Authority], it was quite the troublesome and time consuming process to get them out of the city. Minokichi-kun even acquired a [[[Spirit Stones|Spirit Stone]]]. Ah, he is such a good guy. Hmm¡­ Still, I wonder how to best use this [Spirit Stone]¡­

    It¡¯s a real problem, would it be best to synthesize it with my silver arm or just eat it? Is it good to use it as material for a magical item?

    Ahh, I don¡¯t understand them well enough so I decided to keep it in my Item Box until I collect some more information about them.

    Today¡¯s Synthesis results:

    [Left Arm of Penetrating Rain (Parjanya)] + [Right Arm of Roaring Thunder (Illatici)] = [Echoing Arms of the Thunderstorm (Nuhualpilli)][Peerless Heavy Strike] + [Consecutive Raging Strikes] + [Wild Dance of Heavy Blows] = [Surging Destructive Fists of Flesh Crushing][Grand Cross] + [Cross Slash] = [Grand Cross Smash][Silent Stab] + [Stab] + [Armor Pierce] = [Silent Pierce][Storm Wind] + [Slicing Wind] = [Heavy Storm Wind][Aura Slash] + [Heavy Slash] = [Heavy Aura Slash]

    ¡ª

    Day 122 Sidestory Guild Master¡¯s POV

    Oh, Good morning Ririchia-san! There¡¯s something tight under my waist today. It sure does look funny with my belly sticking out.

    What? Sexual harrrassment? You don¡¯t hate it though. This is just skinship between a superior and his subordinate. It¡¯s just a simple physical contact. Nothing malicious about it.

    How about you resheathe the knife you got there. Dont you have a duty to protect me? What a shame, you¡¯re just nice to look at. Is that knife coated with poison? Please don¡¯t come close to me with that. Since I¡¯m low level, a small cut will kill me instantly.

    Ah there we go thank you for putting that away. Ok, so it might have been slight sexual harrassment, but you frowning is such a shame. I like it better if you smile. You¡¯re a lot cuter when you smile. You really should laugh more as well; you¡¯re beautiful when you smile.

    Oh, are you blushing? Or are you just tired? If you think you¡¯re going to catch a cold, try and rest today. After all, the situation with the Minotaur has been a stressful and unsual circumstance for you Ririchia-san. Rest well okay. In order to slay the Minotaur, I sent a Raid party in the morning, if I sent them in the afternoon, people would just make more unnecessary commotion.

    What? You¡¯re not tired? Well, okay then, I guess we need to finish our work. I sure hope I survive you forcing me to work. So what do we have to do today? What? Accumulated paperwork? This sure is hard work.

    Someone wants to see me? Well, I need to show that I¡¯m a good Guildmaster. My intuition has served me well over the years of being a Guildmaster, and I¡¯ve never felt anything like this before. As I greeted this demonic creature before me, I tried apprasing him and could not even begin to comprehend such a creature. He seems like a very high level creature, I don¡¯t know if he¡¯s concealing his strength, but there are a lot of factors to this.

    Well, this situation just became a lot more complicated. Hearing the details about this Minotaur who¡¯s not a Dungeon boss, but a creature who leveled up to a minotaur. If this Aporou is telling the truth, then this has really become a hassle. To be truthful about it, I did not even consider the possibiity that it was a Rank Up (Evolution) rather than a dungeon boss. I forgot that it was even possible since such an occurence was so rare. This blunder will land the blame on me.

    I don¡¯t know how he found out about this incident so quickly, according to my information network, Aporou did not stay in this city yesterday. He just got here. But now there is someone who cares about this minotaur. This information saying that it did not come from the dungeon but from outside the city is an apparent problem I have to deal with. It seems that he is telling the truth about the matter.

    The real problem is what happened to the Raid party sent to subdue the minotaur. Maybe some of them survived, though I doubt it. Processing the deaths will be a hassle.

    By noontime, everyone was waiting around the exit of the Labyrinth. This is because not a lot of people have ever seen a minotaur before. I have heard that these things were huge. And according to the report, this creature was bigger than expected. Expecting this creature to be a product of a rank-up does not fit the normal common sense. This is not considered to be standard. This is very intimidating. I hope we won¡¯t have to fight this creature with the escort squad we¡¯ve gathered here. Even the strongest Richia-san wouldn¡¯t be a match. Everyone was surprised. The Raid party was composed of 16 skilled adventurers. The way they lost was incredibly discouraging. It was really surprising that no one died. Though they all had some very serious injuries. This has been a rather exciting day. Well, regarding me and Aporou, we seem to have built a friendly relationship. I feel that it¡¯s in our best interest to keep this relationship¡­friendly.

    ~VformynameisCarl

    ¡ª

    Day 123

    After morning training, I had asked for an increase in the production of Ghouls generated by Kanami-chan, but the process has been quite slow.

    The production through the ability [Intermediate Summoning: Undead] produces higher quality products compared to [Lesser Summoning: Undead].

    Although there are some control issues with Ghouls, with Kanami-chan, absolute obedience is displayed to the extent they would commit suicide if ordered.

    I decided to invest some time into working with reinforcing the production of Black Skeletons. I ended up working without any rest for roughly seven hours and ended up generating nearly three thousand Black Skeletons. The result produced thirteen Black Skeleton Commanders, four Black Undead Knights, and a new creation of six Black Skeleton Horse Soldiers that represented something similar to a Skeleton Centaur.

    Though, the process was only really to produce the thirteen Black Skeleton Commanders and the Black Undead Knights. Out of the Black Skeleton Horse Soldiers, I decided to eat four of them.

    Ability unlocked [Soul Eater (Ghost Bite)]

    Ability unlocked [Stench Tolerance]

    Ability unlocked [Black Undead Knight¡¯s Cloth]

    Ability unlocked [Black Bone Army Commander]

    Ability unlocked [Undead Knight¡¯s Lineage]

    The [Soul Eater] seemed like a useful ability that i¡¯ll need to test out later.

    Then after I had eaten them, I tried to modify two of the Black Undead Knights that were [Scarfaces] and the remaining Black Skeleton Horse Soldiers using [Synthesis] and [Bone Union].

    I changed the upper body that was like that of a human being of the Black Skeleton Horse Soldier into a form that imitated a dragon-head type gargoyle.

    There were a few gaps in the black bone that was like the splendid horse.

    With the Scarface, I removed the lower half of the body and performed further remodeling of the splendid horse using the black bones of the lower body though there weren¡¯t enough to finish the product so I had to scrap a few things for the parts. I then began connecting the splendid horse and the Scarface together.

    The natural weapons such as the spear types began to develop from the four pairs of arms coming from the body. The Black aura armor began to cover the body and it began to grow a bit stiff.

    Currently, the Scarface gives off the feel of being something like a [Black Undead Dragoon Knight].

    The upper body is that of the Black Undead Knight and the lower body is that of the splendid horse-like centaur. It¡¯s pretty intense, and above all else, it¡¯s huge.

    It¡¯s height is at least four meters, maybe more and it also has excellent mobility with the lower body of the splendid horse. The eight-armed upper body and the lower body of a horse offered a large variety of attack possibilities.

    The [Scarface] seemed to be far stronger.

    Hmm, this might be beneficial in the long run. Since the remodeling of the Black Skeletons was more enjoyable than I thought, I think I¡¯ll give working with the Giants a try. Come to think of it, [Lesser Summoning: Undead] and [Lesser Summoning: Giant] are both summoning type abilities, I wonder if I might be able to combine them. I wonder if I might be able to create Giant Skeletons.

    I¡¯m anxious, but I decided to go to bed because I was pretty sleepy today.

    ¡ª

    Day 124

    After the morning training and lunch, Minokichi and his group returned home.

    Immediately upon his return, Minokichi-kun requested to spar and since I was highly interested in Minokichi-kun¡¯s growth, I simply couldn¡¯t reject it.

    I quickly set up a special arena and we¡¯ll be able to have our first match in a long time.

    _______________________________________________________________________________

    Sternbild Kingdom has the Four Symbolic Heroes, and the Kirika Empire has the Eight Great Knights. This forest existed on the edge of the border between these two nations.

    1200 years ago, the godly existence Noboru Rank Up into a Demigod of Deep Green where he met the Fairy King Gufusuto.

    Genaha was born within the temple where he lived and died.

    After 1200 years had passed since the godly existence of Noburu had Rank Up, the emission of the [Divine Power] of the event was still present within the Kuuderun Great Forest.

    The Elves who had their bodies far more in tune with nature than humans understood that the forest was far different compared to others and lived within it peacefully.

    Because of certain circumstances of the allied forces of the Empire and the Kingdom, they invaded the forest of the Elves. But these forces were repelled by the help of the mighty and wise Ogres living deep within the Mysterious forest and peace was regained once more.

    But the scars of war remained deeply carved unto several places of Kuuderun Great Forest.

    Due to the presence of the Demigod of Deep Green¡¯s remnant [Divine Power], the growth of the trees and forest material was far faster than normal. The scars of war would be healed within several months.

    In one part of this mysterious forest, the ironclad stronghold of the Mercenary Company Parabellum existed.

    When the sun reached the highest point, the construction of a flat External Training Field had been formed. With walls nearly twenty meters in height and a cylindrical hole within the ground with a diameter of nearly 130 meters, the zone looked quite similar to that of the Colosseum of the Ancient Roman Empire.

    It was here that two great beasts would face each other.

    One of these two demons was holding the red spear [Starving Impaler of a Thousand Thorns] upon his shoulder.

    There, Aporou stood with his mighty silver arm, three horns upon his head, a deep black aura exuding from his presence, true to his name as Yatendouji.

    Before him stood a creature of ghastly vigor and strength. In one hand was the mightly spirit axe [Scorching Acquittal Axe] and the spirit forged tower shield [Minotaur¡¯s Thunder Flame Shield].

    Before Aporou stood the mighty Minokichi-kun who stood as a new species of the Minotaur. Lightning crackled from his breath as he stood towering over his opponant, true to his name as the [Lightning Bull Emperor Keraunos].

    Both of them were letting out an obvious feeling of anxiety and excitement, betraying their excitement were two awfully belligerent smiles.

    ¡°It¡¯s been quite some time since we last fought, hasn¡¯t it, Minokichi-kun? However, it seems just as always, you have once again become very strong.¡±

    ¡°That is right, I fight alone in the bottom of the labyrinth for increasing power and skill. In comparison, I see before me someone stronger. All I am in order to become equal to you, Aporou, and to beat you.¡±

    ¡°Oh? Equal to me?¡±

    ¡°That is so. That I become equal to Aporou, my true lifelong friend. Therefore, need much power.¡±

    They exchanged words.

    There were no lies from Minokichi-kun¡¯s words, they were powerful words that let those people who heard them understand his true intentions.

    Because of those good willed feelings, Aporou became embarrassed of the situation and changed his expression. Scratching his cheek with his silver arm¡¯s finger that made a crunching sound as he did so.

    ¡°Is that right? Hmmm¡­ Well, I¡¯m fully motivated at this point, so let¡¯s stop our reminiscence here and begin.¡±

    Aporou fixed his breathing and reinforced his will, pointing his red spear towards the direction of Minokichi-kun¡¯s heart.

    On the other hand, Minokichi-kun¡¯s axe and shield were set into motion, as the response to Aporou¡¯s question.

    ¡°Nevertheless, as always, an admirable posture¡­ But¡­¡±

    ¡°But?¡±

    ¡°This time, it shall be my victory!!¡±

    ¡°Ha ha! How very interesting. Then, I shall use my full power from the very start, prepare yourself!¡±

    The two mutually reliant friends exchanged a grand and warm smile.

    Then, as if the tension itself had been severed, the fight began with a great roar from Minokichi.

    ¡°The¡­¡­¡­!?¡±

    It was an aggressive roar like that of an explosion.

    It held an extraordinarily powerful roar that caused ripples within the very earth surrounding the two. This caused weaker earth and stones to rumble and life from the ground from the tremors. The sheer intensity of the roar caused those of weaker minds to faint from just the impact of the roar, even Aporou¡¯s movements had been dulled for the briefest of seconds.

    One could have perhaps even died from fear if the difference between the two had been too great, that was the effect of the roar of such a level.

    It was just then that Aporou selected the very same type of roar as the necessary counterattack.

    From the various abilities that he had obtained, dozens were floating around in his brain, and the one that was selected was [Black Demon¡¯s Roar].

    ¡°¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¨Cda!!¡±

    Normally, Minokichi-kun, who was basically a Minotaur, should have won in the roar confrontation easily.

    As there is a limit to the volume in which Aporou¡¯s body is capable of producing as a member of the Ogre race, the [Roar] which was treated as an attack should not have been able to defeat a Minotaur¡¯s.

    However, as it is an ability known to Aporou as [Black Demon¡¯s Roar], such common sense is shattered, and the volume that would originally have never been possible for Aporou was attained.

    His roar was such that as Thunder itself.

    The roars of both sides collide, negating each other and the energy escaping from both Aporou and Minokichi-kun created earth shattering crevices forming exactly at the halfway point between the two.

    [Paralyze] and [Fear] are two abilities that have an abnormal invisible attack that gives a person who encounters it a bad status condition that violates the mind and body.

    For the members who were watching the battle between Aporou and Minokichi-kun from a great distance, the percentage of those who fainted due to the after effects were 50%, with another 40% no longer capable of movement and were frozen on the spot.

    But, a simple judgement from Minokichi-kun and Aporou suggested that such a roar was merely a greeting for them.

    Aporou and Minokichi-kun did not experience any bad statuses due to both attacks having counterbalanced each other.

    ¡°Buumooooooo¡­¡­ooooo¡­¡­oooooooooooo!¡±

    The two roars stop, and Minokichi-kun was once again the one who made his move.

    While achieving a courageous shout of war and spirit, Minokichi-kun drove himself forward, placing his momentum upon his shield that dawned the head of a golden cow. His axe raised above his shoulder, he rushed full tilt towards Aporou.

    The attack Minokichi-kun used, however, was an attack that Aporou was highly familiar with. The path of the attack was clear and the skill was all too well known.

    The attack that Minokichi-kun was using was a simple, yet strong attack. It was a technique that Aporou taught Minokichi-kun who often chose to use it.

    It was a technique that was used to rush in to close the distance between oneself and the opponent, preventing enemy attacks with a massive shield and driving one¡¯s own body into the enemy¡¯s space to break their stance and disrupt their posture. In the final moment, the axe is lowered and a devastating strike with all of one¡¯s strength is delivered.

    It¡¯s a basic attack that anyone who uses a shield and axe would train to use commonly.

    Therefore, Aporou was well informed of the actions required to defeat the attack presented to him.

    Though, the speed of the attack was different to what Aporou had known Minokichi-kun commonly used. The weight was different, the power output was off and the scale was changed.

    There were various incidents that occurred before Aporou.

    Out of the Golden wool-like lower part of Minokichi-kun came a crackling sound and a golden thunderbolt with each step that crushes the ground.

    Hoof by hoof, he pressed his massive figure forward, the situation that developed was just like a bombardment.

    From the head of the axe that was still perched upon his shoulder, white flames began to surge forth and his advance drastically increased in speed.

    Quite similar to that of a booster, Minokichi¡¯s speed accelerated explosively.

    The atmosphere was torn up by Minokichi-kun, a shockwave occurred. It stood the proof that his speed had exceeded the very speed of sound. A destructive storm scattered the surroundings, a shaking tail of light that was ever expanding, the trace of golden thunder and white flames erupting from the center.

    Minokichi-kun¡¯s speed had long since exceeded the speed of sound, after that point, only the sound is left as it approached Aporou.

    Because he had become a Minotaur and gained great power and the divine protection of several gods. Minokichi-kun¡¯s attack reached the point where it was no longer visible.

    ¡°That is certainly fast!¡±

    Currently, Aporou as an Apostle Lord has excellent perceptual abilities and with his ability [Speed Parallel Thinking] combined with Aporou¡¯s perception and experience, the movements of the causal world was as if everything was moving in slow motion.

    In Aporou¡¯s world, if a bullet were fired out of a high powered rifle, to him, it would be the same as if it had stopped the moment Aporou got serious.

    Even then, Minokichi-kun moved at an abnormal speed.

    The twenty meters of space that stood between the two of them would be closed in only several steps, the massive figure ever closing the gap.

    The axe was swung, lowered vigorously with a great roar. Everything would be felled before the mighty strike, anything touched would be annihilated instantly.

    It was like a massive rock feel down.

    Aporou used his red spear [Starving Impaler of a Thousand Thorns] to receive it while deflecting the momentum of the strike. The result succeeded in blocking the approaching overhead blow.

    The axe collided with the red spear and a harsh, abnormal sound was heard, sparks scattered all across the battlefield and the glorious white flames raged out of the head as it crashed into the red spear.

    Aporou¡¯s head was instantly covered with a torrent of white flames, though this was only for an instant. While Aporou had parried the axe from where it would have normally hit the body, his head was burned from the white flames. His flesh and blood creaked from the shock of the axe creating an impact.

    Though the pressure of the strike in no way managed to cut him, the hit still sunk him roughly ankle deep into the soil.

    If Aporou was not equipped with the red spear but instead of the halberd created by Blacksmith-san, he would not have been able to block the strike and would have been cut.

    But, since it was the red spear, the power was able to be diverted to the side without being broken.

    Regardless, it was an attack far superior compared to before. Aporou was both astonished and excited about it.

    ¡°Ha ha! Excellent Minokichi-kun, as expected, you certainly are the best!¡±

    The axe that was blocked from it¡¯s initial target met the ground with a crash.

    It crushed the ground and the surrounding shock sent rocks at the speed of bullets.

    The rocks collided with his skin, but didn¡¯t do anything in particular, Aporou simply didn¡¯t feel any pain.

    Aporou, who didn¡¯t suffer any damage, turned to counter attack immediately, but the white flames and the golden thunder that erupted from the head of the axe burned the surroundings and the range of destruction greatly expanded.

    Aporou¡¯s movements had dulled slightly from the surprise of this instant.

    Minokichi-kun now had three [Divine Protections]: [Divine Protection of the Demigod of Fire], [Divine Protection of the Demigod of War], and [Divine Protection of the God of TLightning], these were the golden thunder and white flames from the Demigod of Fire and God of Lightning which granted Minokichi-kun their power.

    But because Aporou ate the Red Bear, he also received the [Divine Protection of the Demigod of Fire], though even with this, receiving such a strong flame with a [Divine Protection] alone would be difficult, even with his overlapping abilities would have caused trouble.

    Of course there was a reason why Minokichi-kun was able to use such strong thunderous flames.

    When he became the new variant of the Minotaur species, he obtained a factor that greatly raised the power of his axe strikes.

    It was an ability unique to him and the effect was great, it was called [One who becomes an Axe] and another ability he had gained was called [Thunder Flames of the God of Murder] that greatly increases the power of his thunder flame attacks.

    Minokichi-kun loves to use his [Scorching Acquittal Axe] which holds a unique ability [Fire that Burns the Sinful].

    Though, the factor that aided him the most would certainly be his high affinity with the fire attribute.

    The power that Minokichi-kun has obtained was something that could even equal Aporou¡¯s strength. It was something clearly visible from that situation.

    Normally, with just a single blow the battle would have been settled.

    Even if one were to be able to avoid the strong swing, the combined powers of the great white flames and the golden thunder released after the mighty blow would have been enough to slay any normal enemy.

    In the first place, just the strike from the great axe would have been enough to make just about any opponent pass out.

    To be able to either block, or even dodge the attacks from the current Minokichi-kun, there could be no member in all of Parabellum besides Aporou himself capable of such a feat.

    Even if one were to prevent being hit by the axe itself, what awaits you afterwards are the brutal white flames and golden thunder.

    However, because Aporou had [Null Electric Damage] his body was not burned by the golden thunder that surged upon him. No matter how strong the golden thunder was, the [Thunder and Lightning] strike could not and would not affect the great Aporou.

    But that was not to say that he was invincible. Even with the [Divine Protection of the Demigod of Fire] and [Complete Fire Resistance] the damage of the white flames of an unnaturally super-high temperature was not nullified completely.

    It¡¯s only natural since Aporou lacked any ability to fully nullify it, thus even by reducing the damage, he would still take some damage.

    Aporou¡¯s hair was burnt by the strong white flames as well as part of his cheek and forehead were severely burnt. There was the smell of burning and the sound of his left eyeball splitting from being completely burnt was heard.

    Aporou¡¯s face was in a great deal of pain from having his left eye crushed and so instinctively used [Hyper Speed Regeneration]. The skin which had festered and burnt away had been cured as if time itself were reversed.

    The burnt skin and eyeball regenerated in the blink of an eye and any damage that had been dealt was negated.

    But in this briefest of instances, not only did Aporou prevent the attack, but also went on the counterattack.

    ¡°Don¡¯t just focus down on the opponent, consider the entire battlefield.¡±

    While giving advice was his everyday habit, Aporou had started to form both water and earth spears behind Minokichi-kun.

    At the same time, his silver hand collides with Minokichi-kun¡¯s shield. The dull sound that occurred as the shield intercepted the approaching strike.

    Both combatants felt the shock throughout their entire body.

    Just at that moment, Aporou executes the water and earth attacks with the spears.

    While considering that Minokichi-kun would be focusing on the front, Aporou¡¯s standard attacking method was to attack at the same time with both attacks from the front, back and blind-spots to break his opponent¡¯s posture.

    It is very difficult to prevent or fight effectivily against this form of attack as it is near impossible for Minokichi-kun to see behind himself, especially considering his opponent at his front.

    If it had been the former Minokichi-kun, his posture would have been quite easily broken, however, Minokichi-kun had become far stronger than he had been before.

    The sheer increase of power and skill had even slighly escaped Aporou¡¯s expectations, if even only a small margin.

    Therefore¡­

    ¡°¡­The!?¡± (Aporou)

    ¡°BUUUUMOOOOOOOOO¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª-¡±

    Golden thunder and white flames blew up from Minokichi-kun¡¯s entire body.

    From behind, the white flames and golden thunder burnt and evaporated the water and earth spears. The pieces blown into the air and at the same time that the silver arm was touching the shield the head of the golden bull had began to shine.

    Aporou jumped back instantly to gain some distance, but Minokichi-kun¡¯s advance was even faster than Aporou could retreat. He was caught as he could not generate the necessary distance as an illusion-like figure of the golden cow¡¯s head was made to as if it was jumping out of the shield.

    The illusion of the golden cow pierced, with it¡¯s sharp horns, into Aporou¡¯s flesh.

    The damage was so fierce that it would gouge out one¡¯s guts, and because Aporou, who had jumped and was now in the air, could not easily evade it to either the left or the right.

    Evading would be very difficult and the hands Aporou had put out to meet the attack was quite limited in their defence.

    Even so, Aporou chose to grab it, the illusion, with his silver arm.

    As his flesh arm was holding to the red spear, he could not yield such a weapon during this battle.

    Although one might say to just simply grab it, that would not be so easy as the sheer speed of Minokichi-kun was exceeding the very speed of sound. The distance between the two only being mere 5 meters, total point blank range.

    It would be quite normal to say that one would be killed instantly getting run over by such an attack, even if you were to catch it. The power from it hitting your body would pierce it easily.

    However, Aporou had managed in catching it, if only because of his previous experiences with the mighty Minokichi-kun, and the fact that the silver arm which he had used to catch it didn¡¯t even move a millimeter from the spot.

    With this, Aporou had managed to barely prevent the attack.

    But, because it is difficult to keep one¡¯s overall balance onto a single point, Aporou pushed the lower end of the right spear into the shield. The silver arm and the red spear, which are on two different points, prevent the horns of the golden cow from reaching Aporou.

    However, Aporou is still floating in mid-air and Minokichi-kun was not stopping there.

    ¡°OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¨C!!!¡±

    Minokichi-kun advances with the very same speed as before, kicking the earth beneath him.

    With white flames blowing out from the head of the axe, and the golden thunder surging from his golden hair, his remarkable speed was displayed.

    The sound of the burst was heard, the sensation and explosion sound of the sound wall being broken, Aporou¡¯s [Sense Area] made the massive wall approaching from behind visible.

    As it seemed Minokichi-kun wanted to throw Aporou into the wall.

    Aporou is thrown into the wall, and not only that, but the shield itself crushes into the wall as well.

    Aporou¡¯s body was nearly crushed by the illusion, but was narrowly stopped with the silver hand.

    The damage even was passed through Aporou into the wall.

    So fast and strong were the muscles of Minokichi-kun.

    There seemed to be no chance for Aporou to win with only defense.

    It was then that a small smile floated on Aporou¡¯s face.

    ¡°There¡¯s no longer any need to go easy on you anymore.¡±

    Aporou used one of his best abilities, one that he didn¡¯t think he would have to use, [Great Power of the Black Demon].

    Because he recognized Minokichi¡¯s strength, and also because his own fighting instincts told him to, Aporou took position.

    The air instantly began to fill with a dreadful intimidating air.

    Even being only a single ability, one should not approach it.

    It gives off the sense that you should not, nay, must not fight against it as it is simply too much for you.

    Naturally, Minokichi-kun also notices the drastic change in Aporou. The moment that he noticed the change in the air, a cold sweat began to pour down from him, and in that moment of realization, Minokichi-kun chose to pay it no mind and strike to rush Aporou.

    He can¡¯t stop now, he surely won¡¯t be able to achieve victory if he gives even a moment of hesitation. As Aporou¡¯s body isn¡¯t in mid-air anymore and one of his hands is occupied holding the horn, he thought it would be difficult to defend with his current body posture.

    However, Aporou used [Gravity Law] allowing the tip of his foot to touch the ground. His posture was something close to tiptoeing, but it was enough for Aporou.

    ¡°Here it comes¡± (Aporou)

    [Great Power of the Black Demon] is an ability that gave him the strength to even stop Minokichi-kun¡¯s movements. Aporou¡¯s body sinks, yet even so, the silver arm that was holding onto the illusion didn¡¯t change it¡¯s position from the start.

    As a result.

    ¡°Counter!?¡± (Minokichi-kun)

    With the flow of power changing with a sudden, yet terrific force, Minokichi-kun¡¯s gigantic body was easily sent flying back into the air.

    A voice full with feelings of surprise was clearly heard.

    Minokichi-kun¡¯s body was turning, over and over again in a straight vertical direction. Minokichi-kun was not able to recognize the difference between heaven and Earth as he was unable to regain his posture in air, with the most likely ending resulting in him crashing back down to Earth.

    The energy required to move such a heavy object is enormous, but all that energy will disappear the moment that it hits the ground. In other words, Minokichi-kun will stop when he crashes into the ground.

    The chance for a counterattack that had previously been impossible had now appeared, and it was not something that Aporou would miss.

    ¡°¡­Shaaaa¡±

    Aporou began to unleash one ability after another.

    [Aero Master] to create thirty lumps out of wind, [Gravity Law] allowed him to perform high-speed attacks using the gravity.

    In an instant, all of the lumps formed of wind smashed into Minokichi-kun just as he came hit the ground, proceeding to prevent Minokichi-kun from regaining his composure. The continuous dull sound similar to a huge hammer hitting a bad chunk of meat rang out throughout the arena.

    ¡°Buuumooo!!!¡±

    A voice full of pain began to leak out.

    One of the main characteristics of the Minotaur species is their incredibly tough body wherein Minokichi-kun has a remarkably tough one.

    As for the attack, it was one that was meant to be able to pierce metal armor with a single blow.

    The power of each impact was heavily reduced because Minokichi-kun¡¯s entire body was covered with a strong muscular armor so the attack itself couldn¡¯t cause massive damage.

    The heavy battering on the mighty Minokichi-kun had, however, proved just effective enough to keep him in one place.

    Since Minokichi-kun couldn¡¯t move, Aporou closed the distance and made a strike with the red spear.

    With the tip of the spear, he cut the atmosphere and the sound of impact rang true.

    The blow from the red spear that was aimed towards Minokichi-kun¡¯s left shoulder was just barely blocked with the massive shield. The sparks rang out in a massive array, but Aporou¡¯s attacks didn¡¯t stop.

    The spear was drawn once more, and repeatedly thrust at the target.

    A red light began to emit from the tip of the red spear as the speed of the spear increased well over a hundred times.

    [Aporou battle technique [Arts] [100 Blossoms 1000 Spears] was activated][With the battle technique [Arts] [100 Blossoms 1000 Spears] spear effectivity is increased]

    Following this, Aporou activated both [Job ¨C Master Spearman] and [Spear King].

    Both are high level [Arts] which can only be utilized at the higher levels of an individual¡¯s [Job] wherein the spear is the main combat weapon.

    This originally gave humans the possibility to exceed their physical strength and speed limitations at the cost of the user¡¯s stamina.

    If it were to be used in a state where the user was near death, there would be a high chance that the user would die as a result of the backlash.

    Because the technique that Aporou had used, [100 Blossoms 1000 Spears] is exceptionally strong, it goes to an even higher class of [Arts] than compared to most others.

    But, due to the fact that Aporou¡¯s body is substantially stronger than that of a human being, while using [100 Blossoms 1000 Spears] his stamina is only slightly reduced. In addition, after cutting off the technique, he only requires several seconds before he can recover to his original state with no long-standing side-effects.

    The heavy red spear was thus greatly strengthened through Aporou¡¯s [Arts] and collided with Minokichi-kun¡¯s shield. At the moment of impact, an abnormal sound erupted with a flash of light.

    This nigh impossible scene between two monsters of battle was unraveling before all of the members of Parabellum. Everyone, excluding Aporou¡¯s children, were at a complete and utter loss for words at the spectacle before them.

    The red flashes from Aporou¡¯s red spear attacks held such enormous power that each blow would be fatal simply by itself. If it were not for Minokichi-kun¡¯s extremely high durability, he would never have been able to endure such an onslaught.

    This scene was also the very first time Aporou had ever been forced into a situation where he showed his hidden strength, his combat [Arts] and special abilities to everyone.

    There was a law within this world that ¡°Only a human can have a [Job] as one¡¯s [Ability]¡±.

    [Arts] allow humankind to match the great and mighty existences of the giants and dragons, it was granted upon them by the [Gods] and their greatest [Blessing].

    Therefore, no other species are able to gain a [Job] or access the combat [Arts].

    But now, right before the eyes of everyone in the battle arena, Aporou had just overthrown the Laws of the world that they had all known.

    Such a scene was shown before them. The surprise of the scene for Rusty Iron Knight and the Female Knight was something so unimaginable they were at a total loss for words.

    ¡°¡±¡±How is that possible¡­¡±¡±¡± ¨C Many began to mutter.

    Those fragile voices quickly began to fade as their full attention began to seep back within the spectacle before them. The crash of sound created from Aporou¡¯s combat [Arts] [100 Blossoms of 1000 Spears] slammed into Minokichi-kun¡¯s shield.

    ¡°Look now Minokichi-kun, I¡¯ll stop holding back now if only a little, prepare yourself!¡±

    From the sheer weight of each blow, Aporou gradually began to push through Minokichi-kun¡¯s defences through the use of the combat [Arts] [100 Blossoms 1000 Spears] combined through the synergetic bonuses of several other abilities.

    As a result, the simple calculation of the situation corresponds to an approximate multitude of twice as many hits.

    A red afterimage from the spear grew darker and the impacts began to start damaging the surface of the spear, because of the sheer magnitude of these strikes, Minokichi-kun¡¯s arm holding the shield had to bear a serious load.

    If it wasn¡¯t for Minokichi-kun¡¯s strong body, a hole would have been created within several seconds.

    With too much strength invested into the attacks, the red spear could also have been damaged. This attack, however, was quickly approaching it¡¯s end as Aporou¡¯s endurance was approaching it¡¯s climax. Within combat [Arts] there is a fixed limit within each technique wherein afterwards there is the slightest of openings.

    Even for Aporou, who can use the combat [Arts] that none other than humans should have access to, could not change this fact.

    With the end of the combat [Arts] there is a small chance to counterattack, which even the greatly weakened Minokichi-kun would never overlook.

    However,

    ¡°¡­SSSsssssaaaaaaaaah¡± (Aporou)

    Aporou began to use another ability [Continuation Thrust]

    A constant assault through piercing attacks was created by the use of [Continuation Thrust] and [100 Blossoms 1000 Spears] which left no real opening nor chance to counterattack.

    The display of attacks shown was only something possible by Aporou, who is capable of using multiple [Abilities] to create original combat [Arts].

    ¡°Buuumoooooooooooo!??¡­¡­¡­¡± (Minokichi-kun)

    The sheer number of piercing attacks could no longer be perceived anymore, it had become a muddy stream. While enduring the attack nothing could be said, as the brutality continued, even the mighty Minokichi-kun could only release a groan.

    Praising the enemy while piercing into the frame, the muddy stream of brutal piercing attacks scatters the meat into pieces. While the shield managed to block most of the attacks, some of the meat exposed around the shield was severely chipped away from Minokichi-kun¡¯s limbs. Minokichi-kun¡¯s leg was also greatly damaged.

    Beforehand, at Aporou¡¯s feet there was a lump of rock that had been generated. Through the use of [Gravity Law] it was broken off, the wreckage began to rise quickly into the air.

    In an instant, more than 100 rock lumps had risen from the surroundings into the air. As for the rock lumps¡¯ sizes, there were small ones and large ones of all sizes from a few centimeters to some of nearly five meters. Some could see it differently, but in reality, one could even compare it to a small gathering of space debris.

    ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­!!?¡±

    In this space in time, Aporou¡¯s preparations had been completed and a roar similar to when Minokichi-kun had first collided with the ground was released. At the same time, white flames and golden thunder once more blew out from his entire body.

    The thunder flames wrapped around Aporou¡¯s entire body since he was near him, but there was little to no real effect this time around. Even with this, the continuous attack from the [100 Blossoms 1000 Spears] and [Continuation Thrust] had not stopped even for a moment.

    The appearance of Minokichi-kun¡¯s body had momentarily disappeared from Aporou¡¯s view due to the thunder flames, they had more or less become a slight barrier from the piercing onslaught.

    For only that instant, a small gap could be seen between attacks, and Minokichi-kun using all of his might, forced himself from his back. It was an action only possible because Aporou¡¯s attacks had, for just that moment, lightened.

    As the red spear missed the target it met with the ground and was quickly removed.

    The meat from the limbs that had already been gouged from the target, remained where the red spear hit the ground.

    Minokichi-kun glanced back for a mere moment to see Aporou instantaneously activating another one of red spear¡¯s abilities.

    [Unique ability [Bloody Armor of the Shuyari Tepes] triggered].

    By executing the ability, dozens of red spear attacks occurred from below Minokichi-kun aiming for his legs.

    It was an attack aimed for the sole purpose to, if only temporarily, reduce the great speed of Minokichi-kun that broke the speed of the sound barrier. It is considerably difficult to prevent an ability that attacks from below into a critical blind spot. Without even knowing when one would attack, it was certainly a killing move.

    However, from the small glance Minokichi-kun had gained, he seemed to be able to read it as Minokichi-kun¡¯s reaction was lightning fast.

    Just as the red spear came from the ground, Minokichi-kun¡¯s massive body had jumped nearly twenty meters into the sky. What the red spear had struck was only Minokichi-kun¡¯s shadow.

    As Aporou looked into the sky, there was Minokichi-kun who had raised his axe. It was not difficult to imagine the power that the blow could deliver. Even for Aporou, to receive such a blow directly would be extremely dangerous. Though, Aporou had no intention to be hit by it at all.

    With a motion from his hand,

    ¡°Go¡­¡± (Aporou)

    The rocks that had been floating in air were sent flying aimed at Minokichi-kun. The attack was similar to a flying charge, one only needed to change the gravitational pull to send the attack wherever one wanted to. There was yet another purpose for the floating rock lumps, but that is for later.

    ¡°Buuumoooooo¡­¡±

    As the blaze of the rock lumps approached from all sides, Minokichi-kun angled his shield with the hoof of his leg. by changing the angle the rock lumps were intercepted by the shield on, it was as if he was surfing on a wave. The rock lumps were colliding with dull sounds, but were not able to damage the shield because the momentum of the blows were being redirected to lessen the impact.

    Minokichi-kun was very dexterous to the nigh impossible point to even make Aporou astonished.

    ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­ooooooooooooooooooooooooo¡±

    The pattern of the golden cow once more began to shine and the illusion of the cow¡¯s head appeared.

    The remaining rock lumps that were aimed at Minokichi-kun were all crushed and at the same time an attack was launched at Aporou.

    Because he had such terrific power, the pebbles that were thrown at him became a rain of rocks. Aporou intertwined with his golden thread gushing from his fingertips were able to prevent the pebbles as they fell by rotating the centrifugal force and once more launching a counterattack to the falling Minokichi-kun.

    In order to deal a great blow to Minokichi-kun, the golden lump of rocks and thread followed an orbit that could not be blocked with the shield. Though there was a brief disappointment as the burning axe cut it open, preventing the pebbles within from delivering a strike. With that, a great deal of the damage aimed at Minokichi-kun was avoided.

    ¡°Buuumooooo!!!¡±

    From the frustration, a strong shout filled with anger was released from Minokichi-kun.

    As the massive figure of anger reached the ground, the impact felt like the release of all of the built up feelings all at once as the axe was swung down. The energy that was gained while falling, and the weight of all of his equipment that figured out to well over 1 ton, combined with the supernatural muscular strength that came from him being a Minotaur, created a grand explosion as it fell. There might be other various reasons, but at the end, the extensive destruction was created by Minokichi-lun.

    As Minokichi-kun landed, the ground shook as if a meteor had landed. The shield that had been used like a surfboard sunk deeply into the ground and an abnormal dust cloud was raised.

    Aporou had almost lost his footing due to the shaking ground, but quickly recovered.

    It was certain that most living beings would have been killed should they have received such an impact, however, the problem was not the heavy shield crushing down upon the earth, but the attack from the axe that had buried itself halfway into the ground.

    Golden white thunderous flames from the head of the axe demonstrated the full power of destruction as they blew up from the underground, creasing fissures as if several huge snakes had been summoned forth.

    It might have still been alright if it had been just that.

    However, from his anger, Minokichi-kun swung his axe back downward with the thunderous flames.

    Even the ground being casually destroyed left Minokichi-kun seeming unsatisfied and the thunderous flames were launched forth into the heavens for further destruction.

    As the cracks on the ground began to shine a golden white, they erupted. A pillar of thunderous flames blew up from the sky and ground, meeting together and exploding in a fantastic spectacle.

    The range had taken up the entire arena, leaving Aporou no space for escape.

    The remaining lumps of rock that had still floated within the sky were shattered by the thunderous flames and disappeared while being burned away.

    Even while his body was being engulfed with the thunderous flames, Aporou manipulated the current of the air such that the thunderous flames did not inflict harm upon the nearby members.

    Minokichi-kun¡¯s thunderous flames were blown together in the center of the arena.

    At any rate, Minokichi-kun¡¯s attack was not only focused at Aporou, in his anger, it had been so powerful that it would have extended great damage to a majority of the crowd.

    -If I had done nothing, nearly 70% of those watching would have failed to get out of range in time, if I wasn¡¯t lucky, it could have been a severe death toll¡­

    It was a grand scale, high level wide-range attack with an unbelievable attack power.

    After several seconds, the pillars of thunderous flames finally disappeared.

    Cough* *Cough* ¡°¡­ Oh, Minokichi-kun, have you cooled your head yet?¡±

    Even after all of that, Aporou hadn¡¯t gotten close to death. The golden thunder had no affect to Aporou, however, he was somewhat damaged by the white flames.

    However, because of [Hyper Speed Regeneration] he had recovered immediately, so he wasn¡¯t in any danger.

    ¡°Although it hurts slightly, i¡¯ll endure it for now.¡± (Aporou)

    Aporou, who had just endured Minokichi-kun¡¯s attack, was at the limit of his patience.

    As it was a fight between Aporou and Minokichi-kun, being attacked was not the problem at all. It was a rather natural thing, so one should generally not get angry. The anger, however, had not come from that.

    The reason for Aporou¡¯s anger was due to Minokichi-kun, without any thought at all, had used an attack of such a grand scale that it would have involved the other members.

    Minokichi-kun, who is a commander and is in a position to lead subordinates, drew out, without thinking, an attack that could have killed his subordinates.

    ¡°Grrrrrr¡­¡­ Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa¡­¡­¡± (Aporou)

    In the distance, Minokichi-kun had come to and muttered ¡°What¡­ have I done¡­¡±, at the same time Aporou, at the end of his patience, triggered [Black Ogre¡¯s Evil Eye] and [Black Demon¡¯s Dignity]. As a result, Minokichi-kun¡¯s movements dulled remarkably.

    More than half of Minokichi-kun¡¯s large axe remained buried underground, with his massive shield completely buried at his feet.

    Though, normally one might have just easily pulled them out, but because of Aporou, Minokichi-kun¡¯s movements were exceptionally slow.

    While storing his spear into the item box, Aporou dashed towards Minokichi-kun at full speed. Even after the body had jumped with [Great Power of the Black Demon], it accelerated even further. Combined with [Black Demon¡¯s Charge] his speed fully surpassed Minokichi-kun¡¯s. Aporou arrived at Minokichi¡¯s position past the speed of sound, the distance instantly being covered.

    [Giant¡¯s Iron Hammer] appeared in Aporou¡¯s arms and [Destructive Fists of Flesh Crushing Rage] was put into action.

    In addition to two or more abilities that were used to strengthen Aporou¡¯s fists, they vanished from Minokichi-kun¡¯s view. Such a speed is simply impossible for mere eyes to comprehend.

    He didn¡¯t have enough time to gather his shield, and as he determined that, Minokichi-kun forcibly pulled his axe from the ground with both hands to harden his defense. It was in that moment that Aporou¡¯s attack exploded.

    The huge fist passed through Minokichi-kun¡¯s right flank, bypassing his defenses. A ridiculous power that smashed through Minokichi-kun¡¯s hide and broke the ribs easily.

    The left arm crashed into Minokichi-kun¡¯s chest. It was only due to Minokichi-kun¡¯s defense that he survived, if it had been a regular human being, the broken ribs would have pierced into the lungs and other internal organs due to the sheer force of the blow.

    The right shoulder defended by his axe was then hit, and even though it was largely defended by the axe, the humerus was still broken to the point of piercing outside of the skin from the sheer force.

    The left side of his head that had become defenseless was hit, the brain was shaken and a crack ran along the skull from the strike.

    Finally, a direct hit to the upper part of the jaw was released, one of Minokichi-kun¡¯s fangs was crushed and scattered to the surroundings. The massive body of Minokichi-kun was whirled up off of his feet.

    The massive body of Minokichi-kun flew into the sky for a few seconds, after which, it landed outside the arena and fell to the ground with an awfully dull plopping sound.

    The place where he landed changed color. At the place where he landed, several bones were protruding from Minokichi-kun¡¯s body and a large quantity of blood was flowing out.

    Due to the serious injuries, as anyone could determine, he should not be able to continue fighting because of the serious damage that had been done.

    However, Minokichi-kun stood up as if it were nothing. All of the members who had been observing the scene from outside of the arena, especially the human members, were astonished as to what had just happened. Thunderous flames started to blow out of Minokichi-kun¡¯s wounds and the serious injuries were healed within seconds.

    The fang that had been broken fell out and a new fang grew in it¡¯s place. The bones that protruded from the skin crackled as they re-entered Minokichi-kun¡¯s body and the ribs that should be piercing his internal organs crackled as they went back into place.

    Even with the Minotaur race¡¯s proud and mighty vitality, Minokichi-kun¡¯s recovery power was simply unbelievable. It was proof that Minokichi-kun¡¯s regeneration power was near, if not equal to that of Aporou¡¯s.

    The Minokichi-kun that had recovered, never had let go of his axe as he was beaten. He re-entered the arena and after setting his posture, he dashed onwards again.

    Minokichi-kun collected his shield on the way. From Aporou¡¯s view, it seemed as if a massive figure began pushing out his shield before him. There was still some way to go before they collided, but Minokichi-kun¡¯s smile could be easily seen from the shadow behind his shield.

    It¡¯s only natural, looking at the shield before him, Aporou saw Minokichi-kun and received him with a smile.

    The red spear was taken back out, the axe swung down, the red spear intercepted it, a clash, a flash of light and a shockwave flashed forth.

    The aftermath of the scattered and indiscriminate destruction, the ground was torn to pieces, gravel being shot like arrows, the atmosphere screaming with tension.

    Both monsters clashing just as before. As the axe and spear clashed, sparks flew out and the roaring sound of the battle swept through the entire forest.

    After Minokichi-kun returned, we continued to spar all day.

    As the battle with Minokichi-kun reached the end, the stars and moon had already reached the top of the night¡¯s sky.

    I was extremely tired. Because of the great amount of fatigue, both Minokichi and myself spent that night in the External Training Field.

    Ahh, the starlit sky was beautiful.

    I got slightly nostalgic for a battle in outer space¡­

    ¡ª

    Day 124 Sidestory Female Mantis Humanoid¡¯s POV

    This version still needs to be looked over and edited. ~Rok

    Day 124/Sidestory: Female Mantis Humanoid¡¯s POV

    In front of my eyes the Leader and the Vice-Leader are fighting. The fight that is unfolding in the circular fighting arena build in the External Training Field, is so terrific that it is difficult to understand it at all.

    Even for me who has superior movement vision because of my compound eyes, the exchange of attacks is too fast to be visible. The Leader who did not show his serious punches during training, is now piling them in succession and a red hollow trace is visible in mid-air.

    The massive battleaxe of the Vice-Leader swung down, and with the thunder flames crushed in to the ground, blasting the surroundings. Running at an unbelievable speed for such a massive figure, making everyone looking think that the Vice-Leader moved in an instant, he clashed at the Leader with that speed, however unknowing as to what happened the charging Vice-Leader was blown away. He rotated many times and crashed into the ground. And the Leader who pursued with an attack, however I was not able to understand what was going on.

    The fight as it continued even after that, was dominated by the Leader¡¯s flow from beginning to the end. But because it was dangerous, only a small portion of the executives were able to watch it till the last minute, it was regrettable.

    I too wanted to see it till the last minute, but as it turned out that way, it was impossible. We who were only watching were left half-dead because of the aftermath of the attack, speaking of the terribleness of fight that spread a little.

    What did I feel as I saw the fight, after only the Leader could be seen at the bottom?

    The Leader is a monster in Arts. Enough of a monster to incapacitate me barehanded even as I am wrapped in a solid exoskeleton. What would happen if such an existence used a weapon? I can easily imagine it.

    Moreover the Leader has racial abilities as [Divine Protection] that I cannot possibly explain, as he used powers that I cannot understand, even the one that opposes him is not permitted to compete. It is only possible to human beings to ever use [Arts], yet he used them, this was outside of my comprehension.

    But as I am seeing it, my abdomen became hot, and only then it could be said that it was clear.

    Wanting to leave a strong descendant, was my instinct. The Mantis began voluntary training. The Mantis is in heat. After having sex, the Mantis kills her male mate by eating him. The Mantis is not mistress material.

    ¡ª

    Day 125

    Early this morning, while sleeping in the arena, I was awoken by a voice from the communication cuff.

    It was Supesei-san and Burasato-san with a message:

    ¡°We have gained a great deal of treasure and information.¡±

    Admittedly, still half asleep due to my exhaustion from the day before I asked,

    ¡°What¡¯s this all of a sudden?¡±

    It appears that they had killed some human thieves and had taken their treasures. However, it seems they had ¡®invested¡¯ it all on excellent weapons and grimoires without giving any thought to the consequences.

    While swearing to never entrust the fund management of the settlement to these two, I decided to share a bit of information with them.

    You remember the goblins that couldn¡¯t accept my leadership and had previously left the group?

    They were the ones that were given mythril knives as a parting gifts. At the time, I had demonstrated the blade¡¯s sharpness by cutting my finger and using the blood that was spilled, attached a small clone to it.

    While those guys were moving, I was able to fill in more and more of my mental map of this area.

    At any rate, it seems that several days ago, they were finally attacked by some humans and slaughtered.

    It¡¯s unfortunate that they were not able to win, even though they were equipped with the mythril knives. They were killed by a group of fairly competent thieves, all of their treasures were taken.

    I decided to feed the information about the group of thieves to the two.

    Even if the information on other groups such as thieves is good, since they killed several of my acquaintances, I can¡¯t say I hold any warm feelings for these thieves.

    After I finished my explanation, I decided to go back to sleep.

    The next time I awoke, Minokichi-kun approached me and requested to spar again. Because of that, I continued to spar with him throughout the morning. Despite being incredibly heavy, he¡¯s quite fast. This, combined with the special flame and lightning attacks he continuously unleashes makes Minokichi-kun quite the formidable opponent. In addition to that, it seems that as I took more of his attacks, it became more and more difficult for my [Resistances] to defend against his onslaught.

    In the afternoon, I went to Blacksmith-san and the dwarves¡¯ place so I could start production of various items. I wanted to try to make a gun that uses gunpowder, however,due to various reasons, I decided to abandon this idea.

    I¡¯ll have to come up with something else.

    Perhaps I could use spirit stones and magic to solve this problem by creating a Spirit Stone Gun or a Magic Gun, however, it would be quite troublesome if these or the mere idea of such weapons to fall into the wrong hands.

    Perhaps I could install a failsafe into these items, something like ¡°Cannot be used unless you are a member of the group.¡±

    While I was contemplating that, I took a break at the Leprechaun¡¯s place in order to create a special coat of arms for the settlement to use.

    Well¡­ given that I don¡¯t really have any artistic ability¡­ I had a women with [Job ¨C Painter] take care of the design.

    The design instructions for the work was simply to create a deformed black ogre with three horns baring it¡¯s fangs.

    Since we didn¡¯t have the proper materials for everything we needed, I decided to send out one of the humans that displayed one of the highest levels of obedience to town on a Falaise Eagle to go shopping for supplies.

    A Falaise Eagle can carry up to 2 humans or roughly 3 small Goblins.

    To note, the ride is not a comfortable one through and it takes a good deal of practice to manage.

    Despite that fact, I¡¯m heavily considering capturing even more of them.

    After my evening meal, Burasato-san contacted me again to inform me that their hunt on the human thieves was safely completed.

    The group of bandits were completely destroyed and they had obtained quite a few precious gems.

    Before ending the conversation with her, I told them to come back soon. I had already told the other groups this as well, so everyone should be returning home soon.

    The fourth group, which had been having problems with cooperation seems to have finally been able to work together more or less. So that¡¯s one problem solved.

    As expected, sharing meals with each other and overcoming diversity through life and death situations together are helpful tools to forge strong bonds between one another.

    ¡ª

    Day 126

    Recently it has started to feel like the weather¡¯s becoming a bit more chilly.

    It seems that a season similar to either fall or winter has finally come.

    According to Gobujii¡¯s stories, it doesn¡¯t seem like this region is likely to experience snow. However, because there are plenty of children and newborns around, I passed off instructions to the leprechauns and their human helpers to start manufacturing some clothing for the cold weather.

    In the morning, myself and Minokichi-kun shed plenty of sweat and blood in the [External Training Grounds].

    Then in the afternoon I decided to give Auro, Argento and Oniwaka some training.

    My eldest daughter Auro and eldest son Argento seem to have inherited both the blood of a human and that of an ogre, making them [Half-Ogres].

    They were given names based on the gold and silver orbs they have.

    Under normal circumstances, it would be unusual for them to have Ogre orbs, however, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s that strange considering that they¡¯re MY children.

    When Auro, uses her orb, a golden longbow appears that uses halberds, of the same color, as projectiles.

    When Argento uses his orb, a silver longbow appears that uses partisan pole-arms, of the same color, as projectiles.

    It seems that they are both naturally talented with long-distance weaponry such as bows.

    With a little training and good effort, they should be able to easily hit their marks.

    Their arrows aren¡¯t even ordinary arrows either, I don¡¯t really understand how they work, but both the halberds and partisans flew like normal arrows.

    So, regardless of whether or not they were actually arrows, I decided to just refer to them as such.

    Their power output was rather high as well.

    It seems they create these arrows as they draw their bows, and since this is the case, they aren¡¯t likely to run out of ammunition.

    Given this fact, I could probably take them out into battle pretty soon.

    Taking this into account, I decided to teach them plenty of close combat skills for the purpose of defending themselves, even if they were ranged fighters. It is sometimes necessary for an archer to defend themselves should their opponent close the distance on them.

    Of course, the halberds and partisan pole-arms could also be used as normal weapons should the need arise.

    As for Oniwaka who is a [High Ogre], he¡¯s already cleared over 180 centimeters tall.

    On top of that, his muscles seem to have developed to such a degree that he¡¯s already gained the muscular strength of an adult [Ogre].

    Because of that, I decided to teach him close combat techniques along with the other two.

    I also called in Minokichi-kun to aid in their training.

    Oniwaka¡¯s weapon of choice is a Kanabo, a large club with spikes of pure mithril alloy.

    A lot of his equipment resembles Minokichi¡¯s initial equipment.

    It would seem that he also greatly respects Minokichi-kun which made me feel a bit lonely as his father.

    I have to say, it¡¯s a really satisfying feeling to see your children grow stronger as the days pass.

    In the evening, the remaining groups that had gone out finally began returning.

    Aside from a male human I had stay out to spy, the rest of Parabellum had finally assembled once again.

    ¡ª

    Day 127

    This morning I decided to host another fighting tournament to decide the current standing of our hierarchy.

    However, this time, there was a distinction between official members and provisional members. Also, because these battles were between combat personnel, not every one of our members was required to participate. That being said, because it was a great source of entertainment that our settlement generally lacked, there wasn¡¯t a single soul that overlooked the tournament. This created far more activity around than there had been seen up until this point.

    The results:

    1st Place: Aporou

    2nd Place: Minokichi

    3rd Place: Kanami

    4th Place: Avenger

    5th Place: Asue

    6th Place: Burasato

    7th Place: Supesei

    8th Place: Fire Lord-kun

    9th Place: Wind Lord-chan

    10th Place: Scarface *One of the Black Undead Knights from Day 121, he had greater intelligence*

    11th Place: Rusty Iron Knight

    12th Place: Suputo (One of the Thunder Dragonnewts)

    13th Place: Gurufu-chan

    14th Place: The Boss Monkey

    15th Place: Redhead

    16th Place: Illusion Lord-kun

    ¡­etc.

    It was a pretty emotional spectacle.

    From fighting affinity you had towards your opponent, as well as the changes between battlefields and the changes of various factors that could have affected the outcome of the battles, it drummed up quite a bit of excitement from the members.

    That said, it ended up like this this time.

    It¡¯s important to note that the commanding officer of Pri¨¨re didn¡¯t make it into the higher rankings.

    Seiji-kun¡¯s race and orientation isn¡¯t combat oriented, so it can¡¯t be helped that he wasn¡¯t able to rank higher.

    However, it¡¯s a given that the remaining commanding officers were all able to score within the top 10 of the rankings. The rest of the influential members scored themselves within the top twenty.

    Although there were various options for assessing people, I omitted them this time, more or less because it¡¯s just plain troublesome.

    That night after the tournament was over, there was a grand banquet. The meat for the banquet came from several Black Fomorians that I generated.

    Yeah, festivals are great after all. The Black Fomorian meat was delicious as well¡­ They were seriously delicious!

    ¡ª

    Day 128

    Today, a request came from the Tomboy Princess .

    When we had parted ways with the Princess, I had secretly given her a communication cuff to use whenever she had the need of me, regardless of the time of day. As a result, we¡¯ve had plenty of conversations, taking place during the morning, afternoon and even at night. However, this is only the second time that she¡¯s making a request.

    That being said, when the Princess said ¡°I wish to make a request,¡± I sensed some trouble looming.

    Is it just me¡­ Or does trouble always come whenever the Princess makes a request of me¡­ No¡­ no that can¡¯t be right¡­

    Well, to summarize, it seems that the request this time is just to help train the royal guards of the Amber Palace.

    Well, we did become acquainted with the palace guards last time when they had joined in the training I was having with Fire Lord-kun and the Boy Knight .

    They seemed like decent individuals and they were even able to overcome the human racial barrier to ask to join in on the training of a ¡®lesser race¡¯.

    That said, it¡¯s not really a job i¡¯m really looking forward to do.

    However, that doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s impossible, nor will I be refusing.

    The reason is just that i¡¯ve heard that the First Queen is a deeply zealous individual and I may end up having to take meals with her as well as being held in audience with her at several points.

    It¡¯s because of this I felt there might be an ulterior motive behind this request.

    Moreover, according to my clones, it seems that there may be some big plan involving the Princess that might be about to go down.

    I¡¯m guessing she¡¯s intending to get me involved in that.

    Although I don¡¯t have the specifics yet, this is probably the case in this situation.

    That¡¯s more or less why i¡¯m worried about whether it¡¯s alright for me to take this request.

    Our numbers are now past a total of 400, but a majority of them still need more training and to acquire better equipment.

    If a troublesome situation occurs and I have to mobilize the entire group, I¡¯m concerned about whether or not we will be able to overcome the crisis. It¡¯s still unclear and that¡¯s what has me worried.

    The reward, however, is not going to be an issue. The reward is a rather extensively large sum after all. Given that it¡¯s royalty, that¡¯s a given.

    The reward this time will be less than what we had received from the escort job, however, it¡¯s still considerably higher than the market price for the service requested.

    The Princess is certainly our best paying customer to date.

    It¡¯s not all that surprising though since we haven¡¯t had many other clients.

    I think i¡¯ll wait a little before I decide whether or not to take the request or not.

    I ended up spending the rest of the day having another sparring match with Minokichi-kun .

    In the evening, since we both had free time, Father Elf and I decided to drink some Elven wine and Labyrinth liquor while soaking in the hot springs.

    Although I said we¡¯d drink upon our return, a week had already passed.

    Since we both had our own business to take care of, it really couldn¡¯t be helped much.

    That being said, since the promise seems to have been fulfilled, there shouldn¡¯t be any problems.

    However, i¡¯ll stick with it when I say that Elven wine is the best.

    It really is after all¡­

    That said, you can¡¯t take Labyrinth liquor lightly though.

    It¡¯s a bit unfortunate that it costs quite a bit since it¡¯s quite hard to get.

    For that reason, i¡¯m sorry to say that Elven wine will remain my favorite.

    Hmmm¡­¡­ It might be a good idea to challenge the labyrinth sometime in search of some seriously high quality liquor. While considering this, I merrily continued drinking with Father Elf.

    After some time had passed, Minokichi-kun and Rusty Iron Knight had joined us. The situation had turned into a rather unique drinking party for the higher ranking men. Since the drinking party with the men continued well into the night, Father Elf decided to stay over rather than traverse the forest during the night after drinking a large amount of alcohol.

    ¡ª

    Day 129

    This morning after seeing Father Elf off, I decided it was finally time to get back with the Tomboy Princess.

    In the end, I ended up deciding to accept her request.

    Currently the financial situation with Parabellum is in a rather delicate state, it¡¯s neither good nor bad. Certainly, there¡¯s money from the escort job for the Princess that we had done, the selling of monster materials as well as the money we receive on a regular basis from protecting Clute Village and it¡¯s residents when they go out to harvest lumber from the forest.

    In addition to that, Burasato-san and Supesei-san had returned with quite a bit of treasure that had included quite a bit of money they had appropriated from the group of thieves.

    There was certainly enough money here to support our current personnel.

    Since we are self-sufficient for the moment, earning more money isn¡¯t a necessity, however, we should earn it when we can since you will never know when you can get work in the future.

    On top of that, it also seems wasteful to miss out on the large reward from this request. If some sort of commotion happens, I may end up losing out on my commission, but it could still be turned into a profitable situation given the right actions.

    It will also give me a chance to lightly probe around the Princess which might allow me to pick up some important information that might otherwise escape me. There are more advantages than disadvantages in this situation.

    Assessing the information I collected with [Intuition] I ended up deciding to accept the request. However, if we¡¯re going to end up taking the carriages to the Royal Capital, it will take some time to prepare them for the journey. Although we could also just travel there by air now, we certainly don¡¯t have enough Falaise Eagles for everyone. The Royal Capital is also too far away from where we are currently located.

    If I were to think about it, heading out with enough carriages would end up being more convenient anyway.

    I also have to consider what members I should bring with me. Of course I will be bringing Kanami-chan with me as well as Auro and my other children.

    While they are still in their growth period, they will still be a great help in any given situation. Hmmm, given the current task, I think I¡¯ll bring around twenty people in the case something happens. Those that stay behind can continue training their bodies. It might also be a good idea to let them head out into the forest to gain some rather needed experience on the hunt.

    I spent a good amount of time today selecting the members that I would bring along with me to the Royal Capital.

    ¡ª

    Day 130

    In the end, I decided on having several groups head out again. For that reason, I produced ten carriages and strengthened them using various abilities.

    My group consists of 24 people and will be taking 4 carriages.

    Minokichi-kun and Asue-chan¡¯s group consisting of 20 people with 3 carriages and will head for the Labyrinth City Purgatory in order to train and gather more materials.

    The final group consisted of 22 people and were put on guard detail using three skeleton centipedes. Although the carriages can carry more members if I alter their size, this number is just fine for the time being.

    Since we¡¯re departing tomorrow, I instructed each person to get their luggage together.

    Blacksmith-san and the sisters are going to stay home this time around. There are four people staying since they seem to have things to do.

    Sigh¡­ Well, nothing more than to get ready and prepare for the best and the worst. Though I¡¯m looking forward to the trip, I won¡¯t lie when I say I also feel a bit uneasy. The feeling is only subtle though.

    ¡ª

    Day 130 Sidestory Gobujii¡¯s POV

    [Gobujii¡¯s aspect: The 130th day ]

    Recently, the body movements, became completely bad. The eyes became hazy, the joints are aching, and the sexual desire faded away too.

    Steadily, I will possibly also go (die).

    Give me a little bit more, as I look at me burning away, to everywhere I can see (look).

    I would like to soak in the hot springs, soak in them again and work hard.

    Gobujii¡¯s life span = ¡ö¡ö Day

    Gobujii is Flagged