Re:Monster Day 11-20 (1/2)

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 【Sense Presence] and 【Evil Eye] abilities that I had obtained from eating the Night Vipers.

If I hadn’t anticipated the movements of the Seven Colored Bats with 【Sense Presence] and limited their mobility with 【Evil 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: 【Echolocation]

Ability learned: 【Pump Up]

Ability learned: 【Vampirephilia]

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.

【Echolocation] 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.

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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 【Night 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 【Nullify 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 【Sense 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 【Venom] 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 【Pump 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 【Orc], 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 【Thermography] 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 【Echolocation] 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 【Pump 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: 【Libido]

Ability learned: 【Orc Language]

Ability learned: 【Detect Analysis]

These are the abilities that I was able to learn from it.

It was good luck that I learned 【Orc Language] and 【Detect Analysis]. However, as for 【Libido], 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 【Orc 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 【Detect 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 【Detect 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.

【Your level has exceeded the minimum required value.

Since special conditions ≪Overrunning Lively Motion≫ and ≪Unique Behavior≫ have been cleared, it’s possible to 【Rank Up] into a 【Hobgoblin – Variant].

Would you like to 【Rank Up]?

≪ＹＥＳ≫ ≪ＮＯ≫]

Although I had a feeling that this was being displayed in my mind, since I was very tired, I picked ≪ＹＥＳ≫ right away and went to sleep.

【Goburou has obtained the【Divine 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.