Day 81-90/Day 81

The sheer quantity and quality of the experience gained in yesterday's battle was a great deal, so there were alot of rank-ups today.

Hobuji-kun, a Hobgoblin Cleric became a Half-Saint lord

He now stands almost 170cm tall. His limbs are a bit thin, but he is actually quite muscular over all. His skin is a pale white with black tatoos visible on the backs of his hands. He has Silvery colored hair reaching past his sholders with Golden eyes.

Just like Supesei-san, he has an orb embedded in the middle of his forhead with two 5cm horns growing next to is.

As for his status, it seems that, like Supesei-san, he is a lower sect of the "Lords" category. His race seems to excell in protection and healing. As a test, we had him try healing a slave's wounds. The healing rate was leaps and bounds beyond what it had been before the Rank-up.

He also now had a new innate ability that covers him in a field of light. I tried hitting this field with my regular strength without any added abilities. He managed to hold up well against 20 of my regular strikes. Not bad.

Hmm, its quite a sturdy defense so i have to admit it was a little frustrating.

At any rate it was decided that now he would be called Seiji-kun instead of Hobuji-kun.

The next rank up was Hobusa-chan who was a Hobgoblin mage. She became a "Lord Ghoul"

I have to admit that i had a taste of the rotten flesh that she was generating, it was actually delicious. I have to say that it surprised me a bit.

Despite the fact that the Ghoul's body is rotten for the most part, there is still a black tattoo on the pale skin on her face and she had black hair. Her face appeared human at a single glance which i did not expect given that she is a Ghoul. Regardless, she gave off a strong atmosphere of danger around her.

Recently both Ogakichi-kun and myself were pleased with the rapid Rank-ups of the troops. Though this time seeing the latest developments, somehow a light chill ran down my spine  but other than that there isn't much else to say on that matter.

For Hobusa-chan it was decided that her name would change to Gurukusa-chan. By the way, she can control her rotting flesh to a certain degree, so she won't turn into a pile of flesh, so thats one worry out of the way.

Hobume-chan became a "Dodomeki" with a series of tattoos throughout her body.

She stand at about 160cm tall with a feminine body. She has long black hair down just above her waist, and she was quite a pleasant  experience for my eyes if I'm entirely honest. I provided her with new cloths, because the old ones didn't seem to... well.. suit her anymore. I decided on a white kimono style clothing set.

Oh, just to mention, her white kimono-style clothing had two enchantments, [Bio-Sword] and [Bio-Armor]

Apparently her race handles a wide variety of whichcraft with the trade off of very low physical capabilties across the board. But as to what her race is fully capable of will have to be gained through experimentation and training.

This isn't all too bad, a wide variety of different classes with me dominating the front and tactics of warfare isn't too bad of a deal.

As for her name, i decided on changing Hobume-chan to Dodome-chan.

At the same time, five Goblins, including one that was apart of the previous slave unit we liberated, Ranked-up into Hobgoblins.

As for the rest of the Hobgolins, seven others also ranked up, most of them arn't really worth mentioning, but two of them turned into Ogre Mage. They stood tall and appeared very strong. They had large muscular bodies, with black tattoos, standing roughly the same height as myself. They gave off a hearty laugh and appeared to be perfectly suited to the battlefield.

They were each given a set of large firearms and camouflage clothing. If you were to look at them at a glance, you would be hard-pressed to see them.

They were renamed respectively.

As for the Kobolds, six of the common Kobolds became Kobold Footmen, the leader who had been the first Kobold footmen had become a Kobold Samurai.

He was equiped with a kimono and vermilion colored gloves that have tones of black. His appearance was that of a man in his late thirties. He had a sword around his waist, with dog ears and a tail.

It would seem the further that the Kobolds Rank-up, the more human they become. Sigh, the Kobold leader looks like some old uncle from an anime, this is terrible!

Well... Appearances aside.

His name would simply be the Samurai Leader to me anyways. It seems that he is able to draw from the [Mana] of this world to some extent, and his presence is far deeper than it had been before.

The Samurai Leader's [Mana], according to him, was used for the technique [Noriyuki Tsuji Akikazenotsuji].

By the way, if I were to inquire about [Mana] from the others, I'd be generally looked at like a fool.

In general, from what I can gather, [Mana] is an energy form that is gathered within the body or magical weapons to perform certain abilities and or attacks.

This fact troubled me slightly, but I suppose I've just been doing it unconsiously so I didn't bother worrying about it too much.

After dealing with my main force's Rank-ups, I sent everyone off to celebrate with the spoils of war.

As for me, I feel its time to have a word with the surviving members of the slave unit. More than half of them had decided to return to their respective towns, but none of them had requested such things as travel expenses. I saw them off with some food and that was that.

After seeing them off, I went around completing various tasks such as clearing more space in the cave for living quarters and expanding the training grounds. I helped oversee the food getting passed out and provided the cooking team with the cooking utensils that were looted from the human army during our various raids. Currently, no one is receiving a salary, but I suppose if we grow large enough, some members may require it in the future.

After some thought, I decided that providing some wages might serve well to convince some of the slave army to stay and participate in my mercenary group <>. For some of them, there was not much of a home to go to, and the others were born into slavery so joining seemed to be their best options to begin with. While hourly wages would surely be expensive, I'm sure some manner of compensation can be arranged, such as payments and shares in the spoils of war during Missions. This way would be far less harmful to the over all funds I have access to. I wont deny my greed in this regard.

Roughly fifty people decided to join:

3 "Lords"

5 "Half-Lords"

4 "Drago-newts"

6 "Half Drago-newts"

10 "Ogres"

1 "Troll"

5 "Lizardmen"

5 "Dwarves"

1 "Dullahan" / "No neck Knight"

3 "Ape-men"

1 "Dhampir"

3 "Redcaps(Murderous Gnomes)"

2 "Tigerman"

1 "Centaur"

Even with the new additions, I still consider the strongest race present within the group to be the Hobgoblin group for stability concerns. Not to say that some of our newest additions lose out in firepower. The Lords and Drago-newts certainly are of a similar degree of power.

It's not a problem since they all joined in separetly with no attachments to one another. But the fact remains that alone, I would be hard pressed to quash a mutiny should it arise. More or less, the reason I am in charge is because i am the strongest member of the group. For now, that remains the case, but in the future, I will need to make sure that I remain as such or risk losing control of the group all together.

In practice bouts, the Redcaps, Lizardmen, Centaur, Dwarves and the Lords managed to win out against the lower ranked Hobgoblins, but it becomes an even fight against some of the higher level members. The purpose of this was to develop a better sense of unity with the new members, the worse case scenario would be that internal divisions begin to form. Thus, I want to take as many precautions as possible to avoid such a development.

I took some time to do some training with some of the new members. Though in my opinion, the time spent could have been used more effectively elsewhere. I still need to ensure that the Hobgoblins play an essential role in the group's future, but for now the top priority is getting the new group of fighters aclimated. In the heirarchy of our force, Goblins currently remain the lowest status of fighers, who are treated as training soldiers until they manage to Rank-up.

Next, was dealing with the complaints of the former slaves group. Of course I granted them my time, but it turned out to be a cumbersome process. It turned into a scene of "I want to lead" and "I want a higher position." This was mostly coming from the Lords and Dragonewts, but the Half-Lords and Half Dragonewts also piped up after some time. All in all, the number of the new  members from the former slave unit wanting higher positions numbered fourteen. After some minor bouts and diplomacy, the clamor for change and number of upstarts was dealt with.

As for the Tiger People and the Dullahan, they shared a similar feeling that "To not return the kindness of giving us freedom would be dishonorable." It would seem that these people hold the mentality of warriors. I like this kind of attitude more, it's far easier to deal with a professional soldier than it is with lone-wolf types. After coming from the other group where each one of them wanted more power for themselves, this was a welcomed change. Training these people will be far easier than the other group.

I decided to hold some bouts with my upper group of leaders to demonstrate the strength required to become a leader of <>. First, up I pitted a Lord with two other people up against the Rusty Iron Knight. The reason I pitted the Rusty Iron Knight up against the Lord was because the Rusty Iron Knight already proved he was very resiliant to flame damage.

The reasoning is because Lords possess [Shippuoni Gail] and [Burning Demon Inferno] which both deal out a large level of high-heat flames. A good compatibility for the Rusty Iron Knight. I was almost tempted to pit all fourteen of the group that clamoured for better possitions against the Rusty Iron Knight all at once, but I thought better of it. Just these three should be enough.

The fight was enjoyable, but in the end the Rusty Iron Knight came out victorious. That, more or less, put an end to the newcomer's complaints and demands for now. I hear talk now and then from one or two of them, but there shouldn't be much of an issue.

Just then, I suddenly took a full [Shippuoni Gail] combined with two [Burning Demon Infernos] from the Lords. Well, I can't say that I killed any of them this time, but as punishment, each of them was beaten within an inch of their lives several times thanks to my healing abilities. By the end of it, their rebelious nature was more or less gone.

"Good," I thought to myself. Nipping out as much rebelious tendencies with as few casualties as possible is what I prefer.

Right after I had finished dealing with the Lords and Half-Lords, I was struck with an ability from behind. I didn't worry about it too, much given my healing abilities. Turning around, I say that it was the Dragonewts this time. In an instant, they set upon me with [Thunder Dragon Strike]. Moving at lightning speeds and dressed in a veil of thunder, they each struck me with their attacks with an immediate follow up with [Breath of Lightning and Thunder]. I can say this, they certainly could pack a punch. But enough aside in that instant, I had already activated my numerous resistances and was prepared to take on any elemental strike they had. After taking their most powerful attacks, they seemed a little fatigued but overall still prepared to fight. I began my counter attack, and in a fraction of the time it took them to assail me, I brought them all to the floor. Guts and blood were splattered everywhere with each of them unconcious.

While I was treating them to ensure they wouldn't die on me, I felt a painful sensation from my neck. It apears the female Dhampir was firmly attatched to me and was attempting to drain my essence. Using my [Metamorphosis], I prevented her from causing me any damage. With a single swing using [Great Strike] and [Great Swing], I sent her flying in to a wall. That strike was an instinctual response, it probably could have killed more than half of our members and could have probably put even the Rusty Iron Knight down a peg or two. When I turned, she had left a crator in the wall and was imbeded in it as well. Her arms looked like putty, and there was blood splatered everywhere. Pulling her out, I mended her broken bones, to which from her spine to her skull were completely shattered. Luckily, as a Dhampir, her vitality is unreal. After that, I bit her neck and using my own vampiric abilities, shared a small quantity of my blood with her. Given that my blood is a powerful elixir, she almost instantly recovered to full health. She looked up to me almost like a lost puppy, without thinking about it I put my hand on her head, and her face turned bright red. With that, she ran off in a hurry.

Once again, I felt a stabbing sensation in my back; the cause was the final Dragonewt who had been waiting for a chance and had stabbed me in the neck. With my defense abilities all active, it barely broke the surface. I bent my arm around in an instant and grabbed him by his neck. Begging for his life he pointed over to the Ape Man claiming that he convinced everyone else to attack me to subjugate me. Without a second to process this information, I found myself sent flying. The cause was the Ape man, who had rushed towards me with great speeds and had tackled me. I flew for half a second and collided into a stone wall nearly 50 meters away. While I was getting back up, the Ape Man was drumbing his chest like an idiot. I closed the distance in .1 seconds and presented my knee to his abdomin. The vitality drained from his eyes and he fell to the floor. Using a drop of my blood i prevented him from dying, but for this one, I'll let him suffer for awhile.

Needless to say, for now, i've put slave cuffs on the newcomers that had attacked me. Other than that, training went as usual, with everyone at decent levels, the difficulty of the training has been increased for the higher level fighters.

In the afternoon, I escorted the five Dwarves to the smithe to become blacksmiths for us. While each of them would prove to be great soldiers on the front line, having Dwarven blacksmiths is simply too great to ignore. I put them under Blacksmith-san and put them to work right away. The Dwarves were a bit stuborn and their initial work was a bit weak. It will probably take some time before they get used to the environment. In the future they may even begin to produce mithral and magical weapons with Dwarven runes, so it's fine for now .

I took the time to watch over the afternoon training session with Ogakichi-kun. Apparently, the newcomers are still complaining at times. Training under a battle junkie like Ogakichi-kun, each of the lower level newcomers fought in pairs against my Black Skeleton Knights.

After the initial fighting, I called a break and changed the lower teams into groups of ten against one of my Black Skeleton Knights. There were some severe injuries, so to avoid any further accidents, I put them in greater numbers to learn about coordination at the very least.

Since all was dealt with, I decided to use something that I've been meaning to try out. Its an ability called [Synthesis]. I've been meaning to try this out for a while, but I just haven't had the time. I took out and orb and a sphere that I had confiscated from the Lords and Dragonewts earlier after I had put them in their places.

Both of these items are rare items that hold a substantial amount of worth. I got down onto my knees and used the ability [Synthesis]

The result was a success,

I had managed to infuse the orb with the [Shippuoni Gail] ability. I used this ability on some of my equipment and other items. For now this is not a big deal, but who knows, there may be benefits to experimentation.

For now, I'll leave it at this.