Day 31-40/Day 32

The time when the former leader finally died was the moment sunlight reached the entrance of the cave.

Clearly, I went kinda nuts and overdid it a bit.

Because his vitality was stronger than a goblin’s, he simply didn’t die easily. I did, however, continue to heal him as well which contributed to his prolonged torture.

When I returned to my senses, I looked at my surroundings. Everyone was terrified.

Pleasantly smiling I laughed. “Have I made myself clear enough?”, I asked the gathered goblins who all nodded their heads with astonishing vigour. Feeling satisfied with that answer, I disbanded the meeting and ordered everyone to sleep till noon. If everyone managed to sleep it would be nice, considering they’d been forced to watch my torture all morning they must be tired, but somehow I doubted anyone would fall asleep today.

So almost everyone except those who had fainted didn’t go to sleep like me.

Thus I ordered everyone to sleep. I also told them that today’s training was cancelled.

After creating a water ball with my abilities to wash away the blood from my hands and face, I had noticed that Redhead, who had watched me work more than anyone, was shivering uncontrollably with vacant eyes.

In order to snap her back to her senses, I created another water ball and threw it at her.

Then I picked her up and carried her like a child to their bedroom. I disregarded it when she began to shiver even more. When I safely dropped her off, I returned to the spacious area again, and because the other four still couldn’t move themselves I repeated this four times.

After confirming that the other goblins had returned to the bedroom, I also went to sleep.

I woke up sometime in the middle of the afternoon.

As a replacement for lunch I ate the hearts and stomachs of the goblins I killed, whereafter I buried the rest of their bodies with my [Earth Control] ability.

Around this time the other goblins woke up, and because I had said we would skip practice today, I and the three other goblins went hunting.

I left the Goblin Elders, together with five of the goblin minions, to protect the human girls. Earlier, I asked, “You know what’ll happen if they are assaulted, right?”. It was when they nodded vigorously that I decided the girls were probably safest with them.

Well, the girls were within a walled off area I had made with my thread, and with the short-sword wielding Redhead there, at the very least, they should be able to buy some time if there was trouble.

In addition, when we subjugated the orcs at the mining camp, we found an emergency horn. I gave them to the girls in case an incident were to occur. If they blow it, we should be able to quickly return and save them.

With that taken care of, we four left with peace of mind. The first thing we encountered on our hunt was a Three-Horned Horse. At a glance it was covered with solid looking scales, and it was twice as large as a normal horse. It was such a big horse that with our current bodies we had to look up to see it. It was a creature that had evolved far above that of a hobgoblin. And there were two of them. They were probably a couple; perhaps one was pregnant.

However, we don’t know that for certain, and in order for us to survive we need food, so we performed our usual surprise attack.

Our first attack went by the book. Gobumi-chan and Gobue-chan shot poisoned arrows with their crossbows. One of Gobumi-chan’s arrow went right through one of the horses eyes, while Gobue-chan’s arrow was slightly off and bounced off the other horse’s stiff scales.

“Those scales are tough! Even though the power of the crossbows could easily pierce through a standard plate mail, it easily repelled it!!” I reflexively screamed out loud.

Moreover, I had placed poison on the arrowheads, a wonderfully strong poison, and yet the Three-Horned Horse didn’t instantly die, rather it began to act aggressively because of the intense pain. I had never seen such fierce vitality before!

While we were busy being surprised, the horse that wasn’t hit noticed us. It turned in our direction, pointing its three horns at us, and entrusting itself to its rage, it charged in an attempt to impale us. Well, with my thread and thunder combo I somehow managed to stop it, my thread was so thinly spread that the thought that it would just brush off the thread, annoyed, made my innards go cold.

Just how much horsepower did that thing have?

There was no question that its physical strength couldn’t even be compared to that of a hobgoblin.

While Gobumi-chan and Gobue-chan’s sniping kept the riotous horse pinned, Gobukichi and I recklessly attacked it with my halberd and his burning axe. At first our attacks were simply repelled however after repeatedly attacking we found a way to chip off the scales. After that, the rest was quick.

My halberd and his [Crescent Axe] made the scales fly; once our blades reached the thick flesh below it we were successful at severing the head from its body.

The other one was weakened by my poison, and because we had already figured out how to kill it, this was an easier kill.

It was quite heavy work, however, we didn’t receive any major injuries; it was truly a significant hunt. We carried all the raw materials back, however since it was our first time hunting this prey, we decided to eat all of it ourselves.

Since it’s big, all the goblins, except Gobukichi-kun, were set to diligently remove the scales in order to get the meat. Gobukichi-kun was once again stationed to watch the surroundings. We needed the right goblin in the right place. And thus I ate six horns, two hearts and a fair share of the rest of the meat which was generously split four ways. After that I also ate the shells, since I thought I might get something from doing that.

Ability [Scale Armour Charge] learned. Ability [Scaled Horse's Neigh] learned.

Ability [Rapid Recovery] learned. Ability [Improved Leg Power] learned.

Ability [Improved Charging Power] learned. Ability [Triple Stab] learned.

After eating I had obtained six abilities. This was the proof that the three horned horse truly was strong. Because usually as a hobgoblin I had to eat four bodies to gain an ability.

Also, this was the first time since I reincarnated that I obtained a physical attacking skill, which was big. I thought [Triple Stab] would stab three times in a row, when I tested invoking the skill against a tree holding my estoc, the result was that three holes were made in the tree. Yes, I actually only stabbed with my estoc once. Yet I made three holes. In addition to that they were arranged in straight line from top to bottom. After spending such a long time in this world the fact that I didn’t get how it worked now didn’t surprise me. However, I came to wonder if this from upper to lower attack ignored physical defense. I tried to think about it. However, the answer to this question will have to wait for another time.

After that we walked around for a while, hunting the usual things, bringing them back and finally going to bed. After I fell asleep, Redhead snuck into my bed, so we slept together.

I’ll say it to make it clear, but we didn’t do anything erotic. I reaffirmed that a person’s warmth was still a good thing.