Day 51-60/Day 60

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 - 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—a “Greater Skeleton”—was 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—”the foot soldier kobold equipped with a short spear”—and 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).

? 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.

? Recently, the female kobolds worked on expanding their home by digging holes while the males were out hunting for food.

? Thus they were able to improve their living space. They were happy about it, and they were able to expand, too.

? Then, the incident related to Velvet’s Dungeon happened.

? 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.

? And they were forced to flee without getting what they wanted.

? 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.

? 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?

? But they could still be killed.

? So their leader declared “Either way… we’ll all be finished at this rate… So let’s make a gamble”

? 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”—you 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?