When I woke up, I discovered that 4 goblins had[Rank Up]into hobgoblins. There are 12 hobgoblins now. Moreover, there was a Mage among the 4 and another one had the aptitude of a[Cleric]. The large wounds received until now have all been healed by me, so having another one with a healing ability is something I'm grateful for.
I can't rule out the possibility that some of the wounded might die before I reach them if there are a lot of wounded patients at the same time. That's why I have established a medical unit named[Prière]with the new hobgoblin cleric Gobuji-kun as its captain.
Prière is "prayer" in French
Although he's currently the only member of his unit, I hope that other individuals who have a close relationship with him might get influenced by him and become Clerics too. Incidentally, you might think that there should be more than 12 hobgoblins, but I didn't miscount. Gobumi-chan, Gobue-chan, Hobusato-san, my 5 former servants and 4 additional goblins that evolved today, which totals 12 hobgoblins.
Hobusei-san was not mentioned because when she woke up she had undergone her next[Rank Up]. According to her, it has been years since her first[Rank Up]. Hobusei-san became a[Lord]-based species called a[Half-Spell Lord].
Concerning Half-Spell Lords, it seems like hobgoblins who exercise magic becoming ogres is not a common route. Although the probability is low, Mage-types have a chance of advancing in routes that specialize in using magic. It's really like Hobusei-san who is good at using magic.
Turning into a species that best leverages her strong points is a good thing. The specialization comes at the cost of lower physical abilities than other Lord types, but magic is a technique to one-sidedly torment the enemy from a distance, so it isn't a major drawback. Since it's mostly a close-combat averse species that specialize in using magic, it's not really a problem.
A Half-Spell Lord's appearance is like that of a human with two small horns. I haven't seen any besides Hobusei-san so there might be major differences in appearance between individuals. From her appearance, one could guess that Hobusei-san is in the her early twenties, rather than calling her cute, she was like Alchemist-san, an intellectual cool-type beauty who seems like she would look good in a suit.
She has bluish-white skin that radiates life, green somewhat tsurime eyes that show intelligence, a sapphire-looking round gem 3 cm in diameter between a pair of horns in the middle of her forehead, long grey hair that extends down to her waist and black tattoos on her forearms with patterns similar to mine yet slightly different. Measured by eye, her height is around 180 cm.
According to her, the tattoos on her arms were something that originally weren't there and apparently she doesn't know how she got them. However, she felt power flowing in them and they didn't give off any bad feeling.
When I asked whether she received any[Divine Protection]s like Gobukichi-kun, she said no. Apparently she didn't get any. Hmmm, this is an enigma. Well, I expect that I'll be able to explain it in due time. Gobujii told us that the "Half" in front of the species name means that it have inferior overall specs compared to the true species,[Spell Lord] in this case.
Well, I have already deduced that much because it was a "Half"-Spell Lord. For those who don't quite understand what "Half" means, it's similar to the power relationship between ogres and hobgoblins. It looks like the next time she[Rank Up]she will become a Spell Lord.
Afterwards, to confirm the extent of improvement to her abilities when she became a Half-Spell Lord we set up a magic performance outside. It was amazing, no, incredible. Among the spells that Hobusei-san can use, there is one classified as a[Second-Tier]spell from the[Fire]magic system called[Firestorm of Disaster]. I think I was being cryptic suddenly saying stuff like "second-Tier", so I'll expound on that.
It seems like the[Gods]had defined all 10 ranks of magic, from the lowest ranking[First-Tier]to the highest ranking[Tenth-Tier]according to difficulty of invocation, destructive power, the minimum Level to be able to learn the spell, and so on.
They are the ones who give blessings often, they are often called something like[God of Something]their names appear even in my blessings abilities, in this world beings that stand one domain above us are real. There are several places where one can meet gods in the world — the[Holy Lands].
Well, let's put aside the issue of the[Gods]and such for now and get back to the story. After learning that it is only one step above the most basic spells you might think that it's weak, but you would be gravely mistaken. Even by only being able to handle the lowest[First-Tier]magic, it's easy to kill several people at the same time.
Just by launching a single fireball from the[First-Tier]of the[Fire]magic system through the use of the spell[Flame Calamity]several people can easily be incinerated. By the way, the[Lightning]system spell that hit me directly in the face before was a[Third-Tier]spell. Even the body of an ogre-class will get blown to smithereens after getting hit by such a spell.
In my case I didn't become like that because the power was sharply lowered by my abilities, but it still hurt a little. In addition, if you can handle a[Fifth-Tier]spell, even burning an entire city is possible. Such an existence is fit for the title "Match of A Thousand". I heard from Redhead that she knows of some people that can do this or even better, though only through hearsay.
…I wonder what kind of ability I could get after eating one. It's interesting to imagine the possibilities, since the High Wizard that I ate could only at his best use a[Third-Tier]spell. There's no telling when such an opportunity will occur though, however, it's okay to think about it.
I digress, from what I heard about[Firestorm of Disaster], when Hobusei-san used it in the past it produced a total of five fireballs with a diameter of 10 cm and launched them rapidly causing wide area destruction. For Hobusei-san to cast it as a hobgoblin, she needed considerable concentration and a long chanting time, furthermore, for several days after she used it she couldn't use magic very well, those were the risks inherent in using it.
When thinking of the great risk inherent in using it, this destructive power could only be used as a last resort. Now that she had[Rank Up], it had changed into a spell that could not be compared to that of the old days. Not only the time needed to invoke [Firestorm of Disaster]has been reduced to one-fifth the cast time compared to before, but also the diameter of each fireball is now 35 cm and the total number of fireballs increased to 20.
Furthermore, she no longer even gets even a feeling of fatigue after using it once, with her current supply of inner mana, it seems she won't receive any backlash even if she were to fire it 20 times in a row. Additionally, she can use even more powerful spells than it now. You wouldn't expect any less from a species specialized magician. By the way, every shot was aimed at the sky. If she were to shoot at the ground dealing with the damaged terrain would be a bother.
Even so, since she is still only a Half-Spell Lord, it got me wondering how great the magic of a Spell Lord would be. No matter how hard I try to gather information about this world, the information I have is too scarce, not knowing the limits of power is quite scary.
To congratulate them for their[Rank Up], I did the same as I always do and gave each of the 4 hobgoblins 2 magic items.
Hobusei-san got an item from Velvet's inheritance, an[Artifact]-ranked robe made from silver and gold threads and a red sacred fabric, it had the unique abilities[Auto-Amplification]and[Physical/Magic Damage Resistance]among others.
Another present I gave her was a magic staff named[Arannote's Staff], made from ancient wood studded with a red magic gem that used to be in possession of the adventurer with the[Job-High Wizard]who I killed in Velvet's dungeon.
Just like the one gave to Gobukichi-kun, I also gave her a bracelet-type magic item that had the ability to store items and equipment which usually stand in the way. Due to the weapons reshuffling this time, the equipment that Hobusei-san was using until now, a staff and a grey robe were given to 2 of the mage disciples who used to be under my command but had been transferred to Hobusei-san's corps.
Well then, now I'll talk about something that I found out lately. Hmm, for some reason the goblins from the same generation as me seem to generally have an unimaginably high growth rate —[Experience Points]absorption ability - in general. This is demonstrated by the appearance of large of individuals who[Rank Up]to hobgoblins even before we left the forest.
I've been told by Gobujii before that goblins normally need years to become hobgoblins. The reason for things becoming like this is undoubtedly me. After I thought about it for a bit, I hypothesized that goblins future growth rate depends on their living environment one month or so after birth.
Well, because goblins as a species have a fast short growth period, I speculated that the growth of their abilities in this period is also higher than other species which would affect their future growth rate. I wonder if I can call it a rapid growth and development period?
In the first month after their birth these goblins have done things normal goblins normally can't like killing and eating many creatures as strong or even stronger than them and undergoing a harsh training regimen daily etc. which caused their growth rate to greatly change.
Assuming that the growth rate of an ordinary goblin is 1, then the growth rate of these goblins who continue to strictly train, kill and eat until their bellies are full would be 10. There's no way to confirm it, however, I suspect that there's a very high probability that this is true. I can't find any reason to deny this hypothesis. Also, it's very likely that there was assistance from my[Pack Leadership].
I have already mentioned the effectiveness of this ability in raising my subordinates' abilities, but in order to fulfill the conditions for utilizing the ability, I had to come up with concepts for each corps, picking out individuals that I judge to be the most suitable considering their character and ability and assigning them there.
What I'm trying to say is that because I activate[Pack Leadership]at all time it must have become easier for them to get more and more powerful than normal. Well, having an increase in strong subordinates is something good. Let's stop talking about this for now because I don't have any clear proof to prove my hypothesis.
Ah, something I want look up is the outcomes of[Rank Up]into an ogre. Among the many things that I want to know is an ogre's lifespan. If ogres are as short lived as goblins, it would be depressing. Oh yeah, out of the 17 elves we have in captivity, 1 woman and 3 men yielded to their desires.
Although I already have Gobumi-chan and the other girls, I was curious what elven biology is like, so I made myself her first partner. I will say that I intended to be as careful as I could to not hurt my partner, but I can't deny the fact that I made her faint.
Well, yeah, it felt good. Though I'm not saying anything. Not even that it's because a beauty was assertive. After that, it was the goblins' turn. This group mainly consisting of goblins from my generation. I assigned the older goblins mainly to the men..... I mean their partners.
I passed down some regulatory rules for the night activities. The orders were mostly there for the sake of the older goblins. One of them is to consider the feelings of their partners. Also many-to-one is forbidden. It has to be one-to-one. I thought that they would hate it since they're proud elves, probably because they were stimulated with drugs, but they were delightedly gasping.
I thought "If they're happy about it then it's okay, right?". Because I gave the goblins detailed instructions to treat them with care, and because the living quarters they were assigned to were better than the low-ranked goblins', they shouldn't end up tattered and then die like what happened with the human girls before.
I warned the goblins sternly particularly Gobujii who is a previous offender, so it should be okay. Lastly, let's talk about the[Kin of ■ ■ ■]that I have already received when I woke up. Yeah, I don't understand how to use it at all. In fact, I don't even know what effects it has.
I couldn't even make a conjecture because the first few letters were blocked. I wanted to say "Somebody teach me!" Because it says "Kin" I think that maybe someone is interfering with me.
If it's an ability I learned by myself I would have understood how to use the moment I gained it, but this ability is probably something that I got because of the laws of this world, that's why I don't understand anything about it. For the time being, I'll stop trying to analyze it because I don't have enough information.