Day 31-40/Day 33

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 — 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 – 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—that 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(uh.. after?) 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.