As the light cleared from his vision, Faruth slowly opened his eyes and began to sit his upper body up. Now in a fully conscious state, he could see the two figures that surrounded him. Standing to attention at his side was Wulfarth with a shocked expression on his face.
Just next to the Beast Master, was his Spirit Animal, Alice, who had her front paws placed on the side of the stone slab whilst panting heavily.
The Gnoll standing at the end of the makeshift bed clearly tried to talk to his newly awakened Master, but the words didn't seem to flow. Instead, he continuously opened and closed his mouth, as if he was choking on his own breath.
Eventually, Wulfarth managed to compose himself and looked at the one laying on the slab of stone with a joyful expression on his face, before saying cheerfully.
["Master, I am so glad you are ok!"] {Wulfarth}
As if to agree with his statement, Alice whimpered excitedly and began to push her paws into his side, prompting the recently reborn Kobold to stroke her crimson fur.
But as he placed his hand on her head and was about to begin shifting it down her back, he noticed a large disparity. His hand had grown much larger than it was before, it now covered her entire head with room to spare!
In his mild confusion he pulled his sword from his inventory and looked at his face in the reflection. But what he saw was more shocking than the size difference of before. His appearance had been altered drastically, not only his size!
For one, his pitch black fur now had streaks of silver on his extremities, creating a visually stunning contrast. Even then, the most drastic change was ultimately his face.
Where he had looked fairly similar to Wulfarth in the past, he now looked more like a larger Alice, completely replacing his Hyena-like appearance with that of a wolf's. Even on his dark fur, various scars could be seen from wounds gained in battle with the now dead Hobgoblin. The most prominent being the scar extending from the crest of his head to the bottom lip.
Luckily, the eye that it went across was still usable, though Faruth thought that the image of a wolf with an eye patch would be incredibly cool, but he wasn't disappointed at still having vision.
After returning the conversation with Wulfarth for a while, he gained information on multiple happenings while he was unconscious.
For one, both Wulfarth and Alice had grown stronger, being at level 9 and 8 respectively, meaning that they weren't far behind advancing to the second Stage now. He learned that this increase in strength was brought on by Wulfarth and Alice completing the task that he had given them perfectly, killing the mysterious Goblin magician.
Even after this boost in levels, they had both gained important skills. Wulfarth had gained the skills: [Mana Control lvl.1] and [Magic Missile lvl.1], both fairly self explanatory.
Whereas Alice had gained the skills: [Bite lvl.1] and [Burning Claw lvl.1], testament to her ability as a powerful partner.
Reminding himself to check on his own Stats later, he concentrated fully as Wulfarth reached his last point. Amongst the virtually defenceless Goblin village that the two destroyed, two main things occurred.
The lesser of which being the item that dropped when Wulfarth destroyed the centre of the village. After using [Appraisal] on it, Faruth discovered that it was something known as a 'Totemic Shard', used solely for upgrading his own village's totem pole.
But the most critical point was something that Faruth desperately needed, Man-.... Gnollpower! Held captive in the Goblin village were Gnolls that had been captured before, presumably when the group destroyed villages of their own.
There was a total of 19 freed Gnolls, 8 men, 6 women, 2 children and 3 elders. Jumping from his temporary bed, he urged Wulfarth to come along with him to meet said new arrivals, not paying any attention to the apparent height difference of roughly 20 centimetres.
Faruth sped towards the edge of his own room to the centre of the cave, allowing him to lay his eyes upon the first of the new arrivals. Standing next to the smouldering campfire was a Gnoll of surprising stature. The still noticeably smaller than himself currently, he was considerably large for a Gnoll, overshadowing Wulfarth and himself of the past.
Upon noticing the arrival of the two, and the clumsy arrival of the third, the Gnoll immediately dropped onto one knee and shouted in a loud voice.
["This one greets the Lord!"] {???}
Faruth was slightly taken aback by the attitude of this Gnoll. Lord? They had only just met. Noticing that the kneeling Gnoll didn't speak following this, Faruth decided to take the initiative in continuing the conversation.
["Why do you address me as 'Lord', we have only just met?"] {Faruth}
Faruth's voice had a pressure to it that he didn't have when he was a Gnoll, it was much more gruff and held a tone of commanding authority in it. As if responding to this, the large Gnoll shivered before regaining his mind and speaking out in a similarly large voice.
["You have saved the life of my companions and I, we are forever in your debt, and you are the strongest, hence you are the Lord!"] {???}
This was the type that Faruth was bad with, muscle heads. Not using strategy in battle, simply brute-forcing everything in their path, exactly like Fulbash. He disliked his loud voice and boisterous tone, not realising that his own voice was much louder.
Without continuing the conversation immediately, Faruth used [Appraisal] on the Gnoll like usual.
__________________________________________________________
[[Name: Alneth]]
[[Age: 24]] [[Level: 8]]
[[Race: Gnoll]] [[Title: Honourable Gnoll]]
[[Job: Martial Artist]] [[Affiliation: Faruth]]
[[EXP: 698/5000]] [[Stage: 1]]
[[Status: Healthy]]
------------------------------
[[HP: 1152/1152]] [[MP: 30/30]]
[[Stamina: 1334/1334]]
------------------------------
[[Strength: 46]] [[Endurance: 32(+1)]]
[[Vitality: 36]] [[Agility: 29(+1)]]
[[Intelligence: 10]] [[Wisdom: 3]]
[[Charisma: 12]] [[Luck: 3]]
------------------------------
[[Skills:]]
[[Active:]]
[Strike lvl.4]
[Grapple lvl.3]
[Swift Strike lvl.2]
[Twisting Strike lvl.1]
------------------------------
[[Passive:]]
[Ancestral Training lvl.1]
[Buddhism lvl.2]
[Martial Strength lvl.1]
__________________________________________________________
Faruth was amazed. More so at himself than anything else. If Fulbash had even managed to capture someone like him, how did the much weaker Faruth manage to kill him?
While he was lost in his thoughts, the rest of the rescued Gnolls gathered at the loud voices of himself and Alneth. Amongst the ones that were gathered, most were unique and useful immediately, apart from the children.
2 of the female Gnolls and 1 male Gnoll knew crafting skills like [Basic Toolmaking], 2 of the male Gnolls were carpenters. And 2 of the female Gnolls along with 1 male Gnoll were hunter/gatherers.
The most important was the remaining six however. 2 of the elder Gnolls were magicians, whereas the most haggard looking of the elders was a shaman. The remainder of the men, apart from Alneth, were those fit to become soldiers, whilst the remaining female Gnolls were a spy and an alchemist respectively.
A very useful bunch of new arrivals.