Re:Monster Day 101-110 (1/2)

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.

—

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 – 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 – 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]

—

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 ]

—

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…

—

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…

—

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.

—

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 – only a male this time. There would be no mercy. I decided I wouldn’t use my abilities and readied my Halberd.