Day 51-60/Day 52

Since it had been a while, this evening I went hunting together with Gobukichi-kun in previously unmapped areas, where we found a group of twelve armed men.

By their vigilance of their surroundings, and their speedy—although slow compared to us—advance towards the area where I think the Village of the Elves is, I concluded that they were something like the human army's reconnaissance corps.

Motivated by curiosity, we decided to follow them.

An ogre taller than two and a half meters should be pretty conspicuous, in fact I usually can’t help but stand out strikingly, however in this case this is not a problem.

Since the fourth day after we were born, we were told to get our own food by hunting.

From that day on we have followed my plan which is, rather than charging straight at our prey we stay hidden, reading its breath whereafter we strike its blind spot accurately as if we were assassins.

Because of this, Gobukichi-kun and I have polished our skill at hiding ourselves until it couldn't be compared to the usual level of skill others have.

The gigantic figure of an Ogre merged with the surroundings, it’s an ability that makes the target unable to perceive you for over ten minutes.

In addition to this, since I possessed the ability [Hiding] which further boosted my skill at hiding, I could easily support Gobukichi-kun too, so there shouldn’t be any problems.

And then after tailing them for a short while. It seems that we had reached the target point, where the humans began to assume a formation shaped like the letter "U".

As they finished moving into formation, each of the humans took one of their two crossbows in hand, erased their presence and hid themselves.

In case you didn’t know of their presence in advance, they’d be pretty difficult to spot even if you got very close to them.

Their hiding skill is very advanced.

Well, though it’s at an inferior level compared to us who live in the wild.

Having arranged their stance up to this point, there was a high chance of silencing their targets without being discovered using a surprise attack with their crossbows.

Since they each had two crossbows, they could fire them in succession whereafter they would enter close combat.

That's what I would've done anyway.

Wanting to know what they were doing there, I secretly extended a superfine thread that was almost invisible even if you were to look at it closely, and listened in on their hushed conversations.

From that I learned their mission here was to kidnap the beloved daughter of the “Elven Round Table Conference’s Chairman”.

Apparently the Elves had adopted an institution where the representatives of several clans meet together for decision-making.

Naturally, they were preparing to kill the daughter's guards, or so I deduced from the conversation.

From the conversation I also established that somehow the Elves had a traitor among them.

Though I don’t intend to do anything special with this information, I had no doubt that this was a very useful piece of intel.

Well, the existence of those who think "No one wants to be ruined, and betraying my companions to save my own~" isn't all that unusual.

Many had left battered after getting influenced by personal interests, and I didn't have anything to do with it in the first place, so I couldn't care less.

I’ll squeeze as much profit from this as I possibly can if I get the chance.

Afterwards, after about two hours of watching how things would work out, an armed group of nothing but pretty female and male elves came along. Gobukichi-kun got tired of waiting long ago, so I had him hunting close by. If anything were to occur I’d notify him with my thread.

The elf sitting on a sedan chair being carried by a number of elves was certainly the elven maiden-san who was going to be kidnapped.

From her looks she seemed to be between her late teen to early twenties, and frankly speaking she was the most beautiful person I’d ever seen.

That is, what one would call an incomparably beautiful woman.

While staring at her mesmerized for a while, I caught sight of a small change in the hidden humans.

I thought something was going to happen, so I called Gobukichi-kun via thread. At the same time the twelve humans moved simultaneously and accurately killed an elf each with their crossbows.

It didn't end there, they threw away the crossbows they just fired, took their other crossbows, and fired once more. The arrows that were fired once more caused twelve elves to die.

In the confusion following the surprise attack, the eight remaining elves who took up their bows to retaliate were silenced by the drawn blades of the humans who had quickly rushed over.

The whole thing was over in only ten seconds. They worked at lightning speed; I have to say that they are quite skilled.

The elf-maiden was the only survivor and the men approached her afterwards.

Despite her struggling, they forced a cloth against her mouth and she suddenly went limp.

From what I could gather at this distance it appeared that she had lost consciousness.

The humans who were able to finish their mission unhurt carried the listless Elven Maiden-san and ran back the way they came.

They withdrew without hesitation.

I decided to await them along the former path they used. This is of course if they use the same path as they used earlier.

Their distance is getting close enough to me, I think the time is right, so I got up from the ground and shot threads from my fingertips.

I activated [Earth Control] just in case, and I erected earthen walls to three sides other than the front to completely prevent the 12 humans from escaping.

In the sudden turn of events, the expressions of the humans who went into a state of panic was funny.

As a result, everyone was captured in one go.

Using the flexibility of the thread created by the ability of the Argiope’s [Golden Thread Creation] they remained in their place, since it was exhausting because the golden thread was heavier than it appeared, its vulnerability to fire which was the previous thread’s weak point was also covered up, it’s also impossible to cut quickly because of its resistances.

They looked like bagworms as they wriggled around which was hilarious.

But during this state everyone was determined to use the poison in the back of their teeth that they have prepared, to prevent them from confessing anything they might also bite off their tongue. As soon as it happened, I cured everyone to prevent them from dying and I gagged them with my thread since it was troublesome to apply medical treatment.

In order for them not to undo their bindings I dislocated their joints, and when I had finished tying up their wrists and thumbs firmly, Gobukichi finally arrived.

I gave the work of carrying all the 12 humans to Gobukichi-kun who arrived late.

Though his burden looks quite heavy, Gobukichi-kun was carrying them like it was nothing.

…..And including the equipment, it’s definitely more than 1 ton right? I wondered whilst tilting my head a little, but he looked completely unfazed so I didn’t say anything.

I held Elven Maiden-san who still slept in my arms, as we returned to the cave we dwell in.

TL Note : Thanks to whoever got this scan. Would be nice if the rest of the images get posted somewhere we can grab.{C}

Elven Maiden-san’s escorts just now were killed in action--the heads were hollowed out from the shot they received by a crossbow, the neck separated from the corpses.

The assassins had good skills, so the elves vital points were accurately destroyed and there was nothing I could do since I don’t have any resurrection skills, so I took all their equipment and their hearts, whereafter I properly buried them because it would be cruel if monsters were to eat and ravage their corpses.

TL Notes :

so says the ogre who ripped out their hearts to eat… '?'_'?' -larvyde

Yeah, cause that’s how he gets the skills, it can’t be helped really. Also he properly buried them and offered a prayer so he respected them at least that much. Rou is technically Chaotic good based on alignment. -kouta

More like chaotic natural no? -yan

More like Lawful Neutral, he’s always looking out for number one, but he still play by the rules. - FB

Ability [Luck] learned

Ability [Doom] learned

Guess I’ll have to activate Luck (good luck) ability for now, gotta be cautious I don’t accidentally activate the Doom (bad luck) ability.

Lastly, I clapped my hands together “Namu”.

I offered a prayer to them.

Hm? What will I do to the captured humans you say?

Well, after interrogating them I’d have them earn more experience by contributing to us. Afterwards, I used them as a lecturing material on how to torture. Since they’re all males, they don’t look good compared to the looks of the male elves.

Yeah, tonight will be problematic.

That was what I thought, but before that, an event happened. We encountered some goblins on the way home.

These weren't unfamiliar faces. They were a group of the older goblins, six goblins who were once our superior members. Nowadays, even the goblin underlings who had carried Redhead and the others far outstrip them in true strength, these goblins had become known as those guys who couldn't keep up with training.

I already mentioned before that the goblins of my generation were stronger than the older ones, but I'll add that because the underling servant goblins were comparatively younger, they had shown some likelihood of growing reasonably through training, though the fact that they had outstripped these guys was an inside story. Oh well, that's fine for now.

I wanted to ask what they were doing in this kind of place, but since the older goblins seemed to be in some hurry I just observed them while staring at them in silence. It could have been resignation, but one of them raised his hand and talked.

The reason: they could no longer follow me.

Not being able to sleep with women against their will was hard enough, they could no longer stand the rigors of daily training. Even so, they endured, thinking that some opportunity would come up, but when the female Elf prisoners were taken, they could not take it any longer.

In their situation, sleeping with the female Elves was impossible; even if they held out their hand, they were limited to the males. The males were pretty boys so they didn't feel bad, but of course they could not reach the females' first-rate bodies in a lifetime, the goblins were helplessly tantalized by this situation.

Even to the extent of being half-dead. In an environment where they had some first-rate meals right in front of their eyes, but only those other than themselves can eat, what could they expect to do.

So, they moved out.

In other words, they seem to want to leave the group.

After saying that much, they went silent and trembled.

Maybe they thought that they would be killed.

Ah so it has finally come to this, I told myself, although it was a talk that I didn’t want to hear.

Well, at the current stage, it is not really necessary to stop those who don’t comply at this state, if they told me that they want to go out, “I see” was the kind of thing I probably would’ve said.

If it were Gobukichi-kun I would stop him to the point of pulling, It's him after all. Something like that.

I adhere to the rules, but I haven't considered what to do to guys who were like "we don't like it, so we're leaving", right now. Since they were not that many yet, leaving would be okay.

Just that I have to make-up some kind of violation that would make them leave.

Besides, my goal right now was not to increase our numbers, but rather to raise our individual abilities. Rather than increasing the number of burdens, I thought that in our state that is competent to an extent, it might be better to consider adding children from now on.

So, it was not my intent to leave behind these already frustrated guys right now. Even if they had no talent, I wanted to extend my hand to those willing to work hard.

Nonetheless, to prevent gossip from leaking out, I should apply a bit of tactics. No, I didn't think of killing them. Though I should add "at least at this stage" at the end. I won't kill them.

The weapons carried by these trembling older goblins who were looking at me with a tense expression were only [Normal] class items that I gathered and distributed, if you want to call it by rank, then it would be first-grade from the bottom.

With them they had [Normal] class weapons and armor, and several [Rare] class weapons were thrown in with them were taken out, the armaments were then handed out without a word.

They were certain, that they would be killed if they made a move.

It was the right choice.

Getting back to what I was saying, it is good that the goblins were armed, but the best weapons quickly dwindled in number, their chances to survive and thrive with their current abilities are uncertain with the quality of weapons they currently have.

Oh well, I decided that I will show them my feelings of mercy with a parting gift. So, I presented them with six knives taken from my item box.

This knife is one of the relics left from the Elf Guard-san who died earlier. Using my appraisal the blue knife appears to be made of the magic metal (Mithril), which is too precious for Goblins to have.

The knife does not contain any special abilities, but its sharpness is beyond compare to the standard steel short sword that they are currently equipped with. Would you believe me if I told you that Mithril can easily cut the blade of a steel sword without getting a scratch on it?

The Mithril Knife that only the elves have the ability to manufacture, is so (Rare) that a low level adventurer could not obtain one.

Just to show the sharpness of the blade, I cut my fingertip and several drops of blood trickled out, I then handed the blade back to a goblin who sheathed it. The wound quickly vanished without leaving a trace because of [Rapid Recovery].

The older goblins just stood there with a dumbfounded look. Then Gobukichi-kun and I, smiling wryly, left them there without looking back, and took our leave.

Perhaps, destiny will allow us to meet again.

Well, even with the Mithril knife they still have a high chance of being killed by a group of adventures or mercenaries before that. With the market value being so high, a treasure like that usually invites trouble.

I wish them luck for the future ahead.

Lastly, I simply said "This important point is a place where I shed my blood".

TL note: This is likely a reference to the phrase, “lose a finger to save an arm”. He’s cutting his losses. He’s losing some forces, but it’s necessary for his plans. TL Note @ Trina : Major thanks for TXT Raws~. - Sarah